This is a really, really good rundown of why Data Sora is so great c: He starts out as kind of a shallower version of real Sora and I guess kind of still is in the end, but there’s more emotional depth than initial meets the eye. Coded might be the most inconsequential of the games in terms of “how lost will you be if you totally skip it,” but there’s more than just good combat for those who take the time to play it or watch the movie version.
Also, not to be all “now let’s talk about an entirely different character,” but I feel like Coded does a similar/connected thing with its use of Data Roxas. There’s a starting difference in that D!Roxas seems more cognizant than his counterpart that they are all data in a computer, and what that means — he certainly knows he has a specific purpose in D!Sora’s journey.
But he also always read to me like D!Roxas is who Roxas would be if he stewed more in his anger. The explosion of emotion in the KH2 Roxas vs. Sora fight is A++++ but overall, the amount of time Roxas gets to spend righteously furious is low compared to the time he spends confused as shit (Days) and kinda sad but also accepting of his situation (basically end of KH2 onward.)
But D!Roxas is both a huge dick and obviously, bitterly angry, but it doesn’t even seem to me like he’s angry at D!Sora in particular, even if he’s directing it at him. Like, I read these lines....
"Friends? You don't say? So then what were their names again? Tell me. [...] The fact that you can't remember them just means they weren't very important to you to begin with. Isn't that right?"
"They're only there until they're not. Do you see where I'm going with this? Nothing's real. You can break the little hearts they don't have, and then forget about it. No hurt feelings, no baggage. It's that simple. You don't have a heart. It's 100 percent guilt-free."
"The sadness of knowing you forgot someone who matters to you, something like that'll gnaw at you forever."
"Why should you keep the hurt inside? Just tell yourself you need to forget about the people you met in this place. You'll have no one to miss. No cause for loneliness. No hurt to keep eating away at your heart."
"I would ask if you enjoyed your little trip...but we both know that you've forgotten it. Bet you're feeling pretty empty."
And I’m like My Dude This Is Clearly Not About Sora, this seems a lot more related to what you went through, forgetting your old best friends and then being forgotten by the new ones because he and they were just fake data constructions. All of the D!Roxas sections give me the feeling of someone prodding at a half-scabbed over wound to see if it still hurts.
And then of course he goes apeshit when Sora seems to accept all the hurt, basically accepts all the pain that Roxas suffered like it’s not a big deal — and this is part of the test, yes, but he’s also not faking his own emotional response.
But Sora can take it, and on the other side of the fight, he validates D!Roxas’ pain, and offers connection and support. And in doing so he passes his own test but seems to have helped D!Roxas process his own pain and trauma. The emotional support and openness that D!Sora has experienced thus far gets passed on to others — it has a ripple effect. And even in a simulated, closed environment with no greater effect on Series Lore and which came from a freakin’ cell phone game, there’s something really nice in that.
tl;dr Coded is also basically Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Therapy.
