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3ce

Talked about this on Twitter a few days ago, but it really has me interested that whenever antagonists have told Sora that he’s weak on his own, Sora has never actually disagreed with them.

He always launches into his speech about his friends being his power- and they are. Sora’s bonds are his greatest strength. But in KH3 I think they are making a really smart move by possibly having this also become his greatest weakness. (This is one of the reasons I think Riku’s arc is so great- because they also had his greatest strength- the desire to protect what matters to him- be a fundamental part of his fall to darkness.) By the time DDD rolls around, Sora has completely internalized the idea that he is useless without his friends, and that none of his power comes from himself. This is a very dangerous belief, yet it’s also one that we see reinforced even by Sora’s friends.

Donald/Goofy KH3 quote: “Sora’s useless without us.”

Though they don’t mean any harm by it, nonetheless having the same type of sentiment expressed by both villains and friends (and friends turned villain) alike is good cause for Sora to have come to lack a belief in his own power.

In KH3, Xehanort seems to have realized that Sora is unstoppable as long as he has his friends, so what better way to break Sora than to remove the source of his strength? In the Final Battle trailer, Sora witnesses all his friends being taken from him, and in the end it seems he is left completely alone. This is where we see Sora’s greatest strength become his greatest weakness.

“I was only able to fight because everyone was by my side! I can’t do this alone.”

Sora has so much faith in the strength of his friends, yet so little faith in himself when he is left isolated. This is where I’m hoping we will see Riku helping Sora to grow and believe in his own strength- and we got a glimpse of it in the final trailer:

Riku saw firsthand Sora’s internal strength in KH1 when Sora was abandoned by his friends, fought his way into Hollow Bastion with nothing but a wooden sword, and the strength of his heart won the keyblade back from Riku. Much like Sora helped teach Riku to not isolate himself so much and accept the help of others, Riku might help teach Sora that even when alone he still has immense inner strength. Sora and Riku have represented both sides of the extremes- complete reliance on oneself (Riku) and complete reliance on others (Sora) - and show only a balance between the two is strongest.