What characters do you think are overrated/underrated in the series?

[Hedginka]

Overrated: Isa. It makes me sad that any fan of this series forgave him, let alone the sea salt trio.

Underrated: Ansem’s The Wise. Because unlike the previously mentioned character, his faults make him interesting and he isn’t beyond redemption.

 

[the red monster]

Overrated - riku. i think it's mostly because i find him boring. only interested in him when he interacts with ansem.
Underrated - terra. his story is one of the more interesting ones in the series.

 

[SweetYetSalty]

It depends on where you go for characters are overrated and underrated. I'll just do the main cast for now.

Honorable mentions
Aqua~I don't think she's overrated. She's just overexposed and over promoted. She's a good enough character with a nice story. She's earned her popularity, I just wish it wasn't so in your face. I hope she doesn't get backlash in the future. Because then she'll become underrated.

Underrated

Kairi~ Top of the list. Does not get enough credit for the parts she plays in the story. Has a very loud hatedom. The biggest underdog of the KH.

Xion~She's not as hated as she was during the 2009-2017 era, but still gets criticized for existing in the series. The hypocrisy arguments against her that she's unnecessary could apply to so many other characters, but she's the easiest to target because of her self contained story.

Ventus~To clarify I think BBS Ventus is underrated. Now he's most talked about for the Union X stuff, but his BBS half feels slept on, pardon the pun. Ventus isn't in my top favorite character tier list, but I think when they don't shove mobile gaming lore on him, he's alright. It wasn't until I joined forums I learned how mixed he seems to be.

Terra~It's really popular to pick on him. Leave Terra alone. Yeah he made some mistakes, but how can you hate this lovable strong guy? He has some really iconic moments in BBS and KH3. A true unsung hero of the series.

Overrated

Lea~Being a fan favorite character ruined him. DDD and KH3 were true low points for how much he had fallen. Why did he get a Keyblade again? RIP Axel.

Namine~"She's the only one to respect Roxas's agency" I hear this statement so many places and I respectfully disagree on it every time. I'll keep it short, She's not bad, but I think there is a lot of double standards with Namine and she gets away with and praised for things that Kairi, Riku, Xion, Axel, and DiZ all get criticized for. It's funny because I think she's perfect in the novels.

 

[kaseykockroach]

Overrated/underrated by Nomura, or by the fandom?
If the former, Kairi in the underrated category.
If the latter, I have no idea what the fans generally like in a collective sense.

 

[Dark Rot]

I don't feel like going into overrated right now... I hate on characters enough, lol.

Underrated, as others have said, Terra, Xaldin and Ansem the Wise.

I find Terra compelling, and don't hold his bizarre decision-making against him because everyone in BBS was acting a fool. His situation with Xehanort is the most interesting dynamic in the game, and I wish it was explored more. I like him. Now that I think about it, I wish Keyblade Academy had a few more students than just the three. Some bigger personalities would have helped highlight his sensitive side, or brought out a more passionate side. Terra and Aqua actually have kind of similar dispositions. I feel like... Terra would have a different type of "best friend" than Ven or Aqua, no offense to them. I think the idea for his character is great, as well as his design, and I would like to see more of him, as I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Xehanort eventually.

Xaldin is just epic. I liked his storyline in Beast's Castle, because it gave me the feeling that he was basically projecting his own issues on Beast. He made that world's revisit one of the most memorable, easy. His design is cool, too. Purple eyes, rare sideburn-chops, devilman eyebrows, elf ears with earrings, dreadlocks AND arched anime razor bangs. It's a shame they relegated him to being, just a guard? Who guards. I think a tragic romantic tale fits him better.
Shout out to Beast too, he's a KH legend. Beast's Castle should've been in KH3!! Since we didn't get to explore the castles in either of the worlds that had castles. And of course Xaldin should have been back in the new Organization if they were just gonna fill the ranks with the same old.

Ansem the Wise is my favorite of the foolish old men. He owns up to his errors, and has has a few genuinely Wise things to say. DiZ was a fun disguise, and I really wish he was a boss!!

I think Maleficent is a little underrated. Even if they've got her running in circles, I'm glad she's hanging in there. She adds theatricality. And I wish she had a bossfight in KH2, even though I now like her redemptive storyline in that game. So weird how Sora and the gang immediately took offense to her appearance in KH3, after she'd saved his ass twice. I think the writers forgot, so Sora did too.

I think Sora is a little underappreciated in a way. He has more depth than he's given credit for. I think he is a really good main character.

 

[Vulpes XIII]

Overrated/underrated by Nomura, or by the fandom?
If the former, Kairi in the underrated category.
If the latter, I have no idea what the fans generally like in a collective sense.

I was just asking everyone personal opinion on who they thought was a overrated/ underrated character.

Although characters overrated/ underrated by Nomura is certainly a interesting question in my opinion that I haven’t really thought about before but I agree Kairi is underrated by Nomura and I also think Nomura doesn’t seem to care too much about Namine. Although it seems like Aqua,Axel/Lea and Sora are overrated by Nomura due to their popularity but Nomura probably doesn’t see them as overrated since popular characters can help to sell games and other KH merchandise.

 

[kaseykockroach]

Aqua, loved by Nomura? All she does in KH3 is get obliterated within seconds of every opponent she takes on. I don’t know what the heck we needed the power of waking for, Sora Donald and Goofy did all the work by the end.

 

[Sign]

Nomura hasn't been too upfront about how he feels towards each character. All we know is that he pretty much has a different favorite in every game, has a complicated father/son relationship with Sora, and thought Riku was underrated after seeing the results of the 15th anniversary survey in Famitsu.

 

[Vulpes XIII]

Aqua, loved by Nomura? All she does in KH3 is get obliterated within seconds of every opponent she takes on. I don’t know what the heck we needed the power of waking for, Sora Donald and Goofy did all the work by the end.

When I mentioned that Aqua was overrated by Nomura I wasn’t trying to imply Aqua is loved by Nomura ( i don’t know what his opinions on the characters are) I was talking about how he is aware of the characters popularity and when you feature a popular character in something it’s going to get people interested and looking forward to the finished product and I think Nomura is aware of this which is why he made the Frozen trailer the way he did with the Aqua reveal at the end as he most likely knew how the fan base would react plus when they were making a game (which I view as more of a demo) that would show of the idea of the kind of mechanics we could expect in KH3 they made it about Aqua. So when I mentioned overrated I wasn’t talking about how she’s treated in the game. After all overrated doesnt have to mean something or someone is loved, it can simply mean better or more important than they actually are.

Honestly Nomura kind of made it look like Aqua was going to be a bit more important than she actually was slightly before Kingdom Hearts 3 with the release of Birth by Sleep a fragmentary passage and the Frozen trailer which could of been shortened and just featured Aqua considering it seemed like it was the only part of the trailer people seemed to be interested in given the reactions I saw online.

Despite everything I wrote I know that there is a lot more important things that interested people in the demo and KH3 but for some people finding out what happened to Aqua or getting to play as her might of played a small part in why some people bought the game.

 

[RonaldPoe]

As a fairly hardcore KH fan, I have some opinions on this but some of you might not like them. I think Aqua, Riku, Sora, and Master Xehanort are great characters and get the right amount of hype. Here's what I think.

Overrated.
Namine: I feel people are too easy on her (in universe and out). We're told she's kind-hearted and she acts shy. However everyone forgets that she did as much damage to Sora (screwing up his memory to the point of a 1 year coma) as Xehanort and his Dark Seekers put together. There's also her mistreatment of Riku Replica (she treated him at least as bad as the first Organization 13 did Xion). Everyone forgives her because she apolegizes and eventually fixes Sora's memories. Larxene put it too lightly. She's pathetic but has a pretty theme.

Saix/Isa: Despite not having his own boss theme, I think his boss fights are always cool. His characterization however falls pretty flat. As Isa, he's just Lea's edgy childhood friend. As Saix, he's basically Xemnas' lapdog. It's interesting that he contrasts his cold demeanor with a bereserker fighting style but overall he's lacking in depth. Doesn't help that his redemption and revival as a Somebody were rather forced. \

Lea: Axel was a beloved antihero. I feel Lea, his Somebody, doesn't live up to the orignal. Everything about him, from his wisecracks to his powers, seems very watered down. Despite wielding a keyblade, he also feels a lot weaker than he was as Axel.

Kairi's Grandmother: She appeared to spout exposition (that didn't make sense for a long time) in one scene in KH1. For some reason, fans still speculate about her and await her return. There's even a theory that she's a grown up version of Vor (Dark Roads). I doubt she's ever coming back nor will amount to anything other than vague exposition
Sora's Mom: Another character from KH1 who appeared in 1 scene but fans won't forget. She had a single line of dialogue and wasn't even on screen. I don't think there's a mystery to solve here, she just means that Sora has a mother.

Underrated.
Terra: Like a lot of people have pointed out, Terra gets way too much flake from fans. His story in BBS is very good (even if he's a little too trusting of some of the villains) and his gameplay was fun. He also does a great job serving as the muscle of the KH heroes. His character themes are badass. Also Terranort is a cool villain.

Xion: Like Terra, she gets a lot of unnecessary criticism from fans. I feel she's a very tragic character (perhaps more so than Aqua, Ventus, and even Roxas). I know a lot of people didn't care for 358/2 Days but I enjoyed that game for what it was. It helps that both her character theme and boss theme are simply gorgeous. However I feel she shouldn't have been the 13th Darkness (they could've used the empty replica to revive her)

Pete: I feel he's a very effective comic relief villain and a versatile Disney Villain (also the first one). His antics are amusing and his fight in the Timeless River was fun. For all its faults, Re:Coded did prove that he can be a threat on occasion. He also had a moment of competence when he summoned the Illuminator to help Barbossa. Finally I really think his Captain Dark costume was great and should return.

Vexen: He's an interesting character who I feel is very underutilized. I like his ice powers, cloning technology, and his role as a mad scientist. I consider it a mistake that he got benched from the Real Organization 13. In fact, I made a Dark Ambient tribute to him.

I know I may have made a couple people upset but these are just my opinions. Here's my Vexen Tribute.

 

[May-Jor]

Underrated: Larxene
I see a lot of people hate her because she's an asshole, but love all the [hot] male assholes to bits. I always appreciate a fun evil character.

Overrated: Sora
I know he's the protagonist but it would be nice if he didn't steal everyone else's thunder (and competence) whenever he's around. Riku is a close second when it comes to this. I'd like to see others shine more.

 

[Keyblade Knight 1st Class]

Underrated: Larxene
I see a lot of people hate her because she's an asshole, but love all the [hot] male assholes to bits. I always appreciate a fun evil character

I agree. In my opinion Larxene is one of the most evil members of the Organization, and that makes her very effective as a villian.

 

[RonaldPoe]

Speaking of Larxene, I don't care for her somebody, Elrena. Larxene is an electric ninja somewhat defined by her sadism and sarcasm. She's also a pretty blond and is rather stylish (making her a femme fatale). This makes her an effective villain but doesn't translate well in a non-villainous role. I honestly don't think she's hated beyond her actions but somewhat overshadowed by some of the main villains. Besides she has more fanboys than a few of the other girls.

Now that I think about it, Ienzo/Zexion is kinda underrated as well. As an Organization member he was a skilled strategist with a very unique fighting style. As a Somebody, he's Vexen's apprentice and eventually Sora's technology expert. He's one of the only somebodies from Radiant Garden who can stack up to his Nobody because he's not just a diet version.

 

[Vulpes XIII]

Speaking of Larxene, I don't care for her somebody, Elrena. Larxene is an electric ninja somewhat defined by her sadism and sarcasm. She's also a pretty blond and is rather stylish (making her a femme fatale). This makes her an effective villain but doesn't translate well in a non-villainous role. I honestly don't think she's hated beyond her actions but somewhat overshadowed by some of the main villains. Besides she has more fanboys than a few of the other girls.

Now that I think about it, Ienzo/Zexion is kinda underrated as well. As an Organization member he was a skilled strategist with a very unique fighting style. As a Somebody, he's Vexen's apprentice and eventually Sora's technology expert. He's one of the only somebodies from Radiant Garden who can stack up to his Nobody because he's not just a diet version.

Honestly I’m actually really looking forward to seeing what Elrena character will be like going forward since she seems to actually be a nice and polite person In Union X which is the complete opposite to Larxene‘s personality in the other games so I’m curious what she is actually going to be like now that she has her memories back. As I think her time as Larxene probably is going to drastically change her personality so I can’t see her ever going back to having the personality of Elrena from Union X .When watching the scene where she’s defeated in KH3 It kind of felt like she didn’t want to go back to being Elrena and was trying to stay as Larxene to the very end however her very last line of “my secret” didn’t feel like Larxene‘s personality which she had for the majority of that conversation with Sora instead it seemed like it was Elrena personality showing at the end, well that how I viewed the scene at least. I think she has a lot of potential as a character going forward and I hope the character will become less underrated as she’s one of my favourites.

When it comes to Zexion/ Ienzo, I agree that Zexion is underrated but I actually don’t think Ienzo is underrated. As Zexion was a really interesting character in Chain of Memories, but after he got recompleted I think he lost all the things that made Zexion a good character considering Ienzo is kind of boring in my opinion. Although we havent seen much of Ienzo so hopefully they will make his character good again as Zexion used to be one of my favourites.

 

[2 quid is good]

I was talking about how he is aware of the characters popularity and when you feature a popular character in something it’s going to get people interested and looking forward to the finished product and I think Nomura is aware of this which is why he made the Frozen trailer the way he did with the Aqua reveal at the end as he most likely knew how the fan base would react plus when they were making a game

I would agree with this if there wasn't interviews showing Nomura didn't expect the Aqua reveal to have the level of attention it did, he thought we'd go crazy over frozen but everyone knew frozen would be in KH3 pretty much as soon as the film came out. Ah well

 

[disney233]

Now that I think about it, Ienzo/Zexion is kinda underrated as well. As an Organization member he was a skilled strategist with a very unique fighting style. As a Somebody, he's Vexen's apprentice and eventually Sora's technology expert. He's one of the only somebodies from Radiant Garden who can stack up to his Nobody because he's not just a diet version.

Underrated: Larxene
I see a lot of people hate her because she's an asshole, but love all the [hot] male assholes to bits. I always appreciate a fun evil character.

OK, IF WE'RE REALLY GOING TO TALK ABOUT UNDERRATED ORG MEMBERS, IF ANY ORG MEMBER HAS THE RIGHT TO BE DEEMED UNDERRATED, THEN EXHIBIT FUCKING A.

 

[BufferAqua]

I think Sora is fairly underrated.

Something I've noticed is that Roxas is usually in favor compared to him, primarily because he is a more tragic character. Sora was always in a happy-go-lucky and had rather more "simple" emotions as opposed to the complex struggles with identity Roxas did. This is all I've analyzed as to why people prefer Roxas.

But I think Sora had his fair share of struggles too. He lost Kairi and Riku; he was stranded all alone and given a random weapon to fight evil monsters with out of nowhere. Sure he had Donald and Goofy, but he was kind of struggling in the beginning.

In CoM, he was mentally unhinged from having his mental memories erased, redone, and fabricated. His entire time in Castle Oblivion and consistent false memories led him to getting agitated, even snapping at Donald and Goofy quite a bit. I'm probably looking too deep into it, but Sora seemed depressed.

And during KH2, he was devastated that Kairi was taken captive by weird evil dudes to the point where he desperately kneeled for her back (I know that scene is considered to be sort of cringy, but you could still tell how helpless Sora felt). He also didn't even know whether or not Riku, his best friend, was even alive. This is how I interpreted his reaction to Riku's presence compared to Kairi: he felt like he failed Kairi, but knew she was alive. But Riku? He had no idea where he was because the last time he ever saw him was behind some ominous magical door a year ago. Correct me if I'm wrong, it's been a while since I've played KH1/CoM/KH2.

Whether or not Sora's suffering was depicted well during these scenes is to be debated, of course. I just feel like he's gone through quite a lot and it made me feel sorry for him.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

I don't feel like going into overrated right now... I hate on characters enough, lol.

Underrated, as others have said, Terra, Xaldin and Ansem the Wise.

I find Terra compelling, and don't hold his bizarre decision-making against him because everyone in BBS was acting a fool. His situation with Xehanort is the most interesting dynamic in the game, and I wish it was explored more. I like him. Now that I think about it, I wish Keyblade Academy had a few more students than just the three. Some bigger personalities would have helped highlight his sensitive side, or brought out a more passionate side. Terra and Aqua actually have kind of similar dispositions. I feel like... Terra would have a different type of "best friend" than Ven or Aqua, no offense to them. I think the idea for his character is great, as well as his design, and I would like to see more of him, as I'm sure we'll be seeing more of Xehanort eventually.

Xaldin is just epic. I liked his storyline in Beast's Castle, because it gave me the feeling that he was basically projecting his own issues on Beast. He made that world's revisit one of the most memorable, easy. His design is cool, too. Purple eyes, rare sideburn-chops, devilman eyebrows, elf ears with earrings, dreadlocks AND arched anime razor bangs. It's a shame they relegated him to being, just a guard? Who guards. I think a tragic romantic tale fits him better.
Shout out to Beast too, he's a KH legend. Beast's Castle should've been in KH3!! Since we didn't get to explore the castles in either of the worlds that had castles. And of course Xaldin should have been back in the new Organization if they were just gonna fill the ranks with the same old.

Ansem the Wise is my favorite of the foolish old men. He owns up to his errors, and has has a few genuinely Wise things to say. DiZ was a fun disguise, and I really wish he was a boss!!

I think Maleficent is a little underrated. Even if they've got her running in circles, I'm glad she's hanging in there. She adds theatricality. And I wish she had a bossfight in KH2, even though I now like her redemptive storyline in that game. So weird how Sora and the gang immediately took offense to her appearance in KH3, after she'd saved his ass twice. I think the writers forgot, so Sora did too.

I think Sora is a little underappreciated in a way. He has more depth than he's given credit for. I think he is a really good main character.

There's a special kind of quality to this response. Not only do I agree with absolutely everything here but it would be a severely missed opportunity if none of this gets addressed for the future of Kingdom Hearts.

 

[Vulpes XIII]

OK, IF WE'RE REALLY GOING TO TALK ABOUT UNDERRATED ORG MEMBERS, IF ANY ORG MEMBER HAS THE RIGHT TO BE DEEMED UNDERRATED, THEN EXHIBIT FUCKING A.
View attachment 13677

Yeah he‘s underrated along with Xaldin, Honestly I forget that Lexaeus character was actually apart of the games sometimes he’s that underrated. Although I am kind of curious why Lexaeus and Xaldin are the only original KH characters that didn’t have a voice, I wonder if because of the fact that they would of had such small roles that Nomura didn’t think there was a point having the characters being voiced or I wonder if perhaps Nomura might of thought the characters didn’t have much of a fanbase and weren’t plot important so didn’t bother, if that’s the case it must be kind of disappointing for fans of both Lexaeus and Xaldin after all no matter how underrated a character is they still have fans and in my opinion I thought one of the main selling points of Kingdom Hearts 3 would be the fact that everyone would get to see their favourite characters returning for the conclusion of the saga. Although can you even count it as your favourite characters returning if they were barely on screen and didn’t say or do anything?

Honestly I’m just curious and kind of want to know why they were the only two original KH characters that didn’t have a voice after all considering they did appear in the game surely it wouldn’t of been too hard to write a few lines for the characters in order to make fans of the characters happy?

 

[Idreamaboutcats]

Adding more.

Overrated
Riku - the popularity poll was eons ago. His popularity already came back in spades especially with DDD. Why on earth is he still important that Nomura basically pushed him into Quadratum when his role should've ended in the first saga? Now he's just being shoved down our throats.

Roxas - Emo was cool. WAS. We're all grown up. That doesn't fly anymore with an adult audience. Let his story end with the first saga and never come back. He's gonna come back though, because Lea and Isa still have that Subject X thing going on.

Xion - 'nuff said.

Underrated
The Princesses - and not just Kairi for obvious reasons. They have this unspeakable power that could forever change the world, and we barely see them using it outside of standing around in Hollow Bastion to hold back the darkness, upgrading Sora's fire magic, and D-links. The new princesses have cool powers like magic hair and freezing hands (I still find it weird Elsa's probably one but if canon says so, eh...), but they don't really use it outside their worlds.

Magic-users - Yen Sid, Merlin, King Triton, etc. Great powers, vast knowledge, used only for exposition.

Final Fantasy cameos - oh don't get me started on this. We even still don't know what Tifa is, or what happened to the rest of them outside the Restoration Committee! It never got resolved.