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Especially in KH, where all you need to do to come back from the dead is wake up.Yeah, but it did work out in terms of... well, terms. I mean, life is indeed a cycle, or a circle. Either or.
Braig seemed to take his few interactions with Ven to heart. I'm not sure why. Even in BBS, he seemed particularly interested in Ven during his short meeting with him in the Keyblade Graveyard, taunting him and singling out his circumstances. He basically ignored Aqua even though she was his opponent. It's likely nothing, but perhaps there's a history there that we don't know about.
As a character? Certainly. He finally put his friends before himself. That was his greatest conflict, in many ways; his inability to commit to sacrifice left him incapable of coping with situations that demanded compromise, so he generally ended up hurting everyone in order to manifest his own desired outcome. Axel liked being the wild card because it meant he never had to lose, but it also meant he could never really be a part of anything beyond himself; before Days, he likely didn't care, but as he observed the willingness with which Roxas involved himself with others he was moved considerably. Axel's thematic arc was his transition from a policy of self-isolationism in a vain effort to manipulate fate and circumstance to a fuller human character who was willing to be guided and to be hopeless-- ultimately, to give everything and receive nothing. His story is karmic in nature. Although, considering Axel is carrying on as Lea in DDD, I think his story's total closure is still to come.
I don't in any way believe that people should disregard Xion's impact in the game, I just think it's useless to evaluate it independent of how it informs Roxas's and Axel's behaviors and characters. Xion is in every way a dependent character; dependent upon a story that has already been told, upon characters who have already been established and upon an arc that is borrowed from the line of storytelling which had already been formulated. That's why I think she's sort of ingenious as a plot device-- she has no purpose other than to be there, yet her existence is self-correcting.
One could certainly make fine arguments in that vein, as you have. Literally, Xion and Roxas were a part of each other; although technically Xion became a part of Roxas again at the end of the game and he was restored to his original state, more or less, it doesn't make the impact any less visceral or relative. The worst part is, Roxas was never given the freedom to form a decision in any of this, and as we're constantly reminded throughout the series, his motif is portrayed as a lack of any right to decide. DiZ tells Roxas he "doesn't have a right to know" what his purpose is, because he doesn't even have a right to exist. Xemnas uses Roxas without remorse, and even Xion ultimately tells Roxas what she is doing for him, without his informed consent. Roxas's entire existence is determined by everyone around him (and as I've mentioned before, how he and Xion react to this similar function in different manners is one of the more interesting points in the series), so his redemption can ultimately only come in finally making a choice to do what is right for his own reasons.
The thing about your argument is that so much of what we learn within the series at any given point is anecdotal; unless Nomura specifically speaks on the matter, it's hard to ever truly know what the reality of the situation is based on any character's personal exposition, as every character in KH is liable to lie or be mistaken or manipulated. However, it was clear beginning with KH2 that Roxas was not a normal Nobody, and numerous characters stated throughout the game that Namine isn't even properly a Nobody to begin with. I don't remember Nomura ever stating differently; from what I understand, when he talks about Nobodies in general, he is almost always referring to Nobodies who follow the conventional laws of their existence. Neither Roxas nor Namine, nor Sora's and Kairi's connections to them, have ever been considered conventional within the story, by anyone.
Xion wasn't totally gone at that point. Roxas still remembered her, as did Riku; she was fading, but she still held onto some shred of existence within Roxas (remember, when she "died" she was absorbed into Roxas; it's not like she just disappeared).
She wasn't talking to them from the grave because she wasn't dead because she was never alive (even by KH standards, she didn't have a Heart, so she would be considered symbolically nonexistent). She became a part of Roxas. And she never told Roxas to storm into the Organization's stronghold by his lonesome in order to wipe out Xemnas (whom he was nowhere near strong enough to face and she knew it). She didn't want Roxas to be destroyed, because she knew that would mean all hope was lost. Xion forced Roxas to absorb her because she wanted to become a part of Sora again; that was clearly specified as her intention. What she wanted Roxas to do was join with Sora, however, for Roxas, it wasn't as easy a decision as it was for Xion. I've talked about this with Mirby; Xion submitted to her fate because she built her identity upon her surroundings. Roxas couldn't bring himself to do that because he had constructed a powerful sense of Self which was grounded in his own beliefs and goals-- whereas Xion already had come to consider herself a part of everything and therefore was able to accept that she should disappear for the sake of the existence of everything, Roxas felt distinctly separate from the world and those around him. Throughout Days, he was constantly seeking affirmation of his spiritual and cognitive relationship to others; instead, all he discovered was how irrelevant he was truly thought to be by them. Roxas did the exact opposite of what Xion wanted him to do, because he was functioning from an opposing mindset. So, Xion appealed to Riku to see that Roxas did what was necessary, and once again, Roxas was denied affirmation of his individual significance. Brilliant thematic characterization tied directly into the plot in a clean way that makes sense and, far from detracting from it, actually adds a great deal of depth to that established story moment.
It had no motivation before. Why did Roxas toss the key to Riku? Why did Riku turn so readily on Roxas? What was their common relationship? Before, it was a battle; Roxas tossed the key to Riku in order to fight Heartless, Riku turned on Roxas in order to force him to join with Sora, they didn't have a relationship except in their opposing interests. Days gives that scene so much-- everything from before remains true, yet it has become more than just a battle. It becomes a thematic crossroads; Roxas tosses the key to Riku in order to enact his own final tragedy at the behest of his closest ally, Riku turns on Roxas in order to ensure that Xion's sacrifice is not in vain, they are both effectively linked by the fading memory of a mutual friend and as such, they are not fixed enemies so much as they are manifestations of will. Simultaneously, there's an underlying inequity in Riku's victory; Roxas is fighting as much for Xion as Riku is for Sora. There isn't any justice in Riku's defeat of Roxas, which only compounds the tragic nature of the drama; where Riku finds his best friend, Roxas loses his.
"I belong with Sora. And now, I am going back to be with him."
She tells Riku to stop him because he's not strong enough, because she didn't ask for him to take on the Organization by himself, and because she knows that if Roxas is destroyed, Sora will never be complete again.
You might be right about that. I always interpreted it as Xion's influence, because when Riku grasps the Keyblade he gets visions of her, and then she speaks to him. I thought she was trying to get a message across.
I meant he started fighting Roxas immediately after they were both fighting the Heartless together.
Defeating the Organization and Xemnas in particular was congruous to freeing the hearts that had been captured. You're splitting hairs; what I'm saying is that Xion did not want Roxas to free the hearts himself, she wanted him to return to Sora so that he could do it.
The first quote only indicates that Riku lost in a fight to Roxas, which he did. I've heard speculation that the second quote is a translation error or just awkward phrasing. Technically, "the next time we met" is vague enough that it could mean the immediate, subsequent battle that took place between the two of them after Roxas had gained the upper hand. Regardless, either there were never two fights or the first was retconned out of Days, so that still doesn't serve as an explanation within the story's presently established continuity. At any rate, all of those questions I posed were essentially rhetorical. Days gave the answer; Riku wanted to stop Roxas on behalf of Xion, and he knew that Roxas needed to become one with Sora again.
