I’ve seen a lot of people criticizing Axel as a character or alternatively criticizing fans for liking him.
Based on the criticisms I’ve seen it is clear that many people do not understand Axel’s story or the nature of this character (which to be fair, Kingdom Hearts is confusing).
Some fans dislike Axel because they dislike the dynamic of the Sea Salt Trio including the apparent age gap (which is weird – retconning Axel’s age to 25 so that Lea and Ven could meet at the same age in BBS creates a really awkward age difference – However, Nomura has also stated that Nobody’s do not age – which means Axel is around 16/17).
Other KH fans who dislike Axel take issue with fans who dolike Axel and claim “Axel did nothing wrong and Lea doesn’t deserve punishment”.
Both fans who think Axel did nothing wrong (if there really are fans of this character who think that) and fans who think Axel is awful and Lea deserves punishment/shouldn’t be treated like a good guy have missed the point of Axel’s character arc.
To understand this character you must understand 3 things:
1) Axel is a villain
2) Axel is not Lea
3) Buffy The Vampire Slayer was a really awesome show and if you watch at least the first two seasons you won’t be disappointed
Ok – the third thing is optional – but the vampires on Buffy make a good point of comparison to Kingdom Heart’s Nobodies. In Buffy, when a person becomes a vampire they lose their soul and a demon takes over their body “and it walks, and it talks, and it remembers your life, but it’s not you.” Without a soul vampires feel no guilt or remorse or compassion. “When you become a vampire, the demon takes your body. But it doesn’t get your soul. That’s gone. No conscience, no remorse… it’s an easy way to live.”
Much like Buffy’s vampires, in Kingdom Hearts Nobodies lose the thing that allows them to be human and to care, in this case: A Heart. No conscience, no remorse, no feelings whatsoever. Only the drive to exist and to become human again – to feel again.
Nobody’s base their personalities on Memory. Axel allies himself with Saix because he remembers that when they were human they cared about each other. As Nobody’s they don’t feel anything for each other but value the relationship because it’s something they remember from their human life and thus ties them to their lost identity as humans. In order to exist as nothing, no feelings, just memories, the Nobody must go through the motions based what they remember or they’d lose themselves entirely.
Axel and Saix cling to the memory of being friends. Axel takes Roxas to get ice cream after their first mission because getting ice cream together is what he remembers doing with friends. This is imitation human behavior.
Now that we’ve established what Axel is let’s get to our points.
I forgot about this until now but I saw a comment regarding Marluxia in the new trailer and why his eyes weren’t yellow and that if he’s connected to the new Organization, why would he work with a group he sought to overthrow originally.
My theory is that it isn’t Marluxia we’re seeing here, it’s Lauriam and he’s not directly involved with Xehanort’s plans the same way Xigbar and Saix are, he’s more of a wild card (a wild flower card if you will) and is involving himself with the new Organization simply because their motivations align, it’s sort of like what Axel did in CoM and KH2 only this time, we know he’s a villain. He will play as many sides as he chooses as long as it gets him the desired result.
I mean if both CoM and Chi are anything to go by, he will kill and deceive if it’ll help him get something and odds are, if Sora hadn’t appeared when he did in CoM (or if Marluxia had the foresight to not involve Sora in his plans until a bit later), he might have succeeded in a few more things before eventually falling.
Besides, Marluxia has always had too much of a dominant personality to allow himself to be taken over by another force so there’s no way he’d be on board with the idea of Xehanort implant his soul into him. Something tells me that if he survives to the end of the game, we’ll have a scene where Marluxia attempts to stage a coup against Xehanort and is either taken down by him or by us, either way.
1) XIgbar/Braig knows a lot more than they let on.
2) He worked with Master Xehanort who wants knowledge of the Keyblade War
3) Marluxia AKA Lauriam was involved – somehow – in the keyblade war
4) Xigbar recruited Marluxia into the Organization
5) Marluxia tried to overthrow the Organization because it’s “Stated Goal” was not it’s true goal was.
5a) He was correct on this, but he never says how he knows.
Unknown: 1) Did Xigbar find Marluxia/Lauriam deliberately, or did he actually stumble across one of the only people still around from the Keyblade war.
2) HOW IN THE WORLDS IS HE STILL ALIVE NOW?
3) HOW IS VEN STILL ALIVE?
4) DID MX FIND VEN DELIBERATELY, THAT FAILED, THEN SET XIGBAR OUT TO FIND LAURIAM?
5) HOW DOES MX KNOW THIS? OR IS THIS PURE LUCK?
Which, again, leads to…
Did Xigbar deliberately pick Laruiam/Marluxia as 11, and then set him to die? And how much was Xemnas and Saix in on this? They are all hypothetically the same person, but who knows how much Xemnas knows about Xigbar, and if Marluxia wants Kingdom Hearts too, why not string him along for longer? And why did Saix tell Axel, not Xigbar?
Ah yes the Dandelions new images. Though Nomura left a message about their positions so I’ve taken upon myself to figure it out, please bare with me.
1. Lauriam. First of the way he is positioned is right behind Ephemer and co. This could be since he is working behind the scenes, either as the traitor or as the one who watches over the Dandelion. This makes sense since he is holding the Dandelion, which are the keyblade wielder who survived/escaped the war. Could he be holding the Book of Prophecies? Probably. But along this theory, he is holding us, our lives, in his hand. Almost admiring it’s beauty even. Also, his position is seemingly higher than Ephemer, the leader and 4. It’s very suspicious and makes one think that he probably knows more than what is presented, perhaps everything and what will happen.
2/3. Skuld and Blaine. Their position is on either side of Ephemer, almost like a pair of bodyguards. This could be symbolism in that they are loyal to Ephemer and will protect him. It also signifies how they hold an almost equal status, with Ephemer being a little bit above them, it makes sense as he is the leader. Something else I noticed is that Blaine is looking to the right, where 4′s direction is, just as Skuld is faced in Lauriam’s direction, left. I can’t think of what this spells currently,
4. Mysterious figure that could or could not be Strelitzia’s nobody. They are holding the Bleeding Heart Vine… The white one which signifies a tragic death of a beautiful lady. They are also behind the scenes as nobody is aware of their presence, except Lauriam maybe. Not much can be said.
5. Ven is in front of Ephemer surprisingly, which could be like a guard who may take a hit or attack for Ephemer. His status is also a lot lower than everybody except Chirithy. It adds in that he believes he doesn’t know why he is selected. It could also mean that he is right under surveillance, not enough to be noticed. He looks down as opposed to everybody looking forward and up. Perhaps it’s his lack of goal that is the reason. Ven’s position is stationary and aloof. A thought is that he won’t act much in the new plot or he will stay “mentally” the same.
6. Chirithy. Or more specifically, the symbolism that the player is right there with the group. Not much can be said except that they (or us) are looking earnestly in the future. Our position is the lowest because obviously we do not hold that status… but we are still important and looking forwards.
7. Ephemer is at the center of it all. He is the heart of it all. And most importantly he is looking towards the future, his expression serious since he is in charge of being the one who leads everyone. Everyone is circled around him because they are connected to him. He is the leader and arguably, the main character in this new story we’re heading in.
Last thoughts! The number shows 7… I’m sure what most of us are thinking. There is also something to note with the fact that all the new union leaders share a color scheme. Black, Red, and White.
If there are any thoughts or theories, please tell me. I love to hear them! Also tell me if you agree or disagree!
Feather inspection revealed that not only Riku but main protagonist himself has undoubtedly learned the art of the eyeliner, our theory is that boys were taught by none other than The Flurry of Dancing Flames himself (aka Axel (aka Lea)). The ending of KH:DDD serves as a proof, since it has shown that subject not only came back to life but joined the gang, and even shown his ability to summon keyblade which automaticly makes him the part of the fam:/
wow you guys, the time has come for my very first written-by-me Hamilton post.
Disclaimer for the Hamilton fans who tend to start ship wars: take a breath, I am not attacking you—believe it or not, my life doesn’t revolve around spite for people I disagree with.
With that out of the way, here’s a dose of Hamilton analysis ft. Hamburr from your local overthinker.
It’s safe to say that a good chunk of the characters in this musical are referred to by most people by their last names: Hamilton, Burr, Lafayette, Laurens, Washington, Jefferson, Madison, etc., because that was the norm back then. We really only see exceptions with close relationships/family relationships.
Let’s focus on Hamilton for the time being. He’s generally addressed with his last name, or occasionally his full name, with the exceptions who refer to him as Alexander being: his dear friends, Laurens, Lafayette, and Hercules, the two women who fell in love with him, Angelica and Eliza, and…Burr?
Burr is lumped in with the small contingent of people who are close enough to Hamilton to call him by his first name, or are on a first name basis, if you will.
Burr tends to refer to Hamilton as just that, Hamilton, when he’s providing the narration/storytelling, when he’s talking about him (i.e. in Wait For It: “Hamilton faces an endless uphill climb”, in A Winter’s Ball: “Washington hires Hamilton right on sight”, in Your Obedient Servant: “how does Hamilton”, etc.).
But when Burr is speaking to him, he calls him Alexander (i.e. in Farmer Refuted: “Alexander, please”, in The Story of Tonight Reprise: “congrats again, Alexander, smile more”, in their back and forth conversation in songs such as Ten Duel Commandments and Non-Stop, in We Know: “Alexander, rumors only grow”, etc.)
The only exception to this is the beginning of Non-Stop; “co-counsel, Hamilton, sit down”, (which was in a professional courtroom setting), and vice versa, in The World Was Wide Enough; “when Alexander aimed at the sky” (and I know for a fact there’s some kind lf meaning behind that, I just cannot for the life of me figure it out—expect a post when I do, folks).
All in all, what I’m trying to say here is, Burr obviously considers himself close enough to refer to Hamilton as Alexander, and is included in a group of people (Lafayette, Hercules, Laurens, Angelica, and Eliza) who do the same—a group where at least two (or three, depending on if you count Laurens or not) of the people within were very much in love with Hamilton.
This guy just found out his once-best friend murdered him for fame, and the next minute gets his former friend’s grandson dropped in front of him with no witnesses. A more vindictive person could’ve had a lot of fun getting their own back just about any way they wanted.
What does Héctor Rivera do? He hugs the kid.
He obviously wasn’t expecting the scared-child cannonball-hug prior to this, but he’s not blaming Miguel for Ernesto’s crimes. (He wasn’t even mean to “Ernesto’s grandson” really the entire evening, despite him already knowing that Ernesto stole and profited from his songs. Once Poco Loco came around he was even happy. Getting upset over finding out Miguel’s family was looking for him was pretty mild, all things considered. This person is a very kind man.)
The look on his face right before this hug. The moments of disbelief that Miguel is even here, followed by the stunned, worried stare: Ernesto has this sweet, wonderful, talented grandson who adored him without ever even meeting him, and he threw him away.
This is… Héctor can hardly even process this. Just…why?
Callous. Wasteful. Cruel. Ernesto has tossed this amazing child into a pit and left him to die and someone like Héctor can hardly understand how anyone would do such a thing.
“It’s okay. It’s okay.” (you didn’t deserve this. it’s not your fault.)
Of course he will hug and comfort the distraught and abandoned child. It’s who he is. If Ernesto doesn’t want this blessing he’s been handed so freely, then Héctor will take care of it. He found the Chamaco first, anyway.
-Hollow Bastion fell when they were just kids, that means Axel lost his heart when he was just a kid and was probably just lost in the darkness for years until he became a nobody
-He does all the dirty work so that Saix could get to the top of the Organization
-He and Saix drifted apart while in the Organization, getting into multiple arguments (a lot of these involving Xion)
-Axel lost Ven, even though they met once they still became friends and the fact that Lea never knew what happened to him.
-Axel found Roxas, whom he probably thought was Ven when they first met no doubt.
-And then Axel lost Roxas, one of the only people he actually cared about in the Organization (besides Saix)
-Axel lost Xion, someone he knew was just a replica yet he cared for her dearly and did so much to try and help and protect her
-Immediately after losing Roxas, Axel has to go find Xion even though she refuses to come back again and he’s just so upset with everything that it results to Axel breaking down in front her and ending in a fight.
-Axel’s last “memory” of Xion is of them fighting. Axel passed out after their fight and didn’t wake up until after Xion was gone, so he lost all his memory of her already. Their last moments together were in pain.
-The Organization tasked Axel to destroy Roxas. They were forcing him to go and kill his best friend.
-He tried so hard to get Roxas to remember him, and Roxas didn’t until it was too late and he had to return to Sora.
-Axel was on the run from the Organization all through KH2, he had nowhere to go.
-Even after Roxas was gone, Axel still searched for him tirelessly, even resorting to kidnapping Kairi just to get Sora to come to him to have a chance of seeing Roxas.
-Axel comes back TWICE to try and free Kairi, getting severely injured each time.
-He was basically killed by his friend (Saix)
-After Axel is stabbed by Saix, he wanders through the dark portals, pushing himself to keep going because the only thing he wants is to see Roxas again.
-Axel knew that he was going to fade, so he put his entire “existence” into his attack to save Sora and the others
-When Lea wakes up in Hollow Bastion, the first thing he’s thinking about is Roxas; even after he faded he was in a dream with Roxas and had to finally say goodbye, crying none the less
-Lea lost Isa. He was searching for Isa throughout KH3D and only to find that he had been taken by Xehanort and now a vessel.
TL;DR Throughout Kingdom Hearts Axel/Lea has been in constant pain and losing those he cares about.
Yada yada, time paradox, yada yada, killed an innocent child, pbbt. Done, in the past. Nothing to care about.
Theories floating all over Tumblr for the past 2 weeks consisting of mostly insane time traveler Marluxia exfuckflower have definitely caught my attention. Don’t worry, people in my ask box. I’ve been crafting this theory for a while. And it’s fucking pissing me off where I ended up. ‘Cause no, it’s not satisfying. And yes, IT MAKES SENSE. I’m so mad where I ended up after pouring so much time into this. I was expecting something incredible and… to be honest, touching? But, no. Tetsuya Nomura stomped on my heart. Again.
I’d recommend cranking up some tunes ‘cause this is gonna be a doozy. Might I recommend this? Personal favourite 😉
Let me introduce you with a question… Can just one essay make you feel respect for character development and feel righteous anger with an overwhelming need for justice? Hopefully by the end of this, your answer will be yes.
Stop talking and start doing: My Fallout Shelter for my Tumblr blog 