Also me: based on the alternative cutscene if you completed Deep Jungle before Wonderland where Snow White instead of Alice was just been captured by Riku/Maleficent, we may have a timeline of when Lauriam turned into a heartless. Given that he still doesn't remember how to use a keyblade inside the org, he was less likely to have travelled to another world before it sank into the RoD.
marluxia makes me insaaaaane bc in his original game he is like . lowkey he is boring. he has a crazy cool aesthetic that hard carries him but kind of a nothingburger of a personality or motives and he barely even gets screentime. he doesn’t have any sort of personal antagonistic relationship with sora he’s kind of just a placeholder final boss because the true conflict is about naminé. as proof of this i submit the fact that sora doesn’t even have anything to say about him after defeating him it’s just like yeah good riddance ok anyway
But . like. khux RETROACTIVELY makes him one of the best antagonists. he gets a clear (negative) character arc that very few other characters in the series as a whole have gotten. because now there’s lauriam. a fine polite young man who loves his sister and his friends and then is put through the dread and agony of a worst fear which is ultimately confirmed. and like. he legit just gets screwed over constantly. he tries so hard to have agency in the story but all his moves are in vain. a narrative ragdoll but not for lack of trying. argh.
contrast is a cheap and easy narrative tool to make both characters shine way brighter instantly. finally give marluxia his somebody and make that somebody a fantastic character with such unique depth and humanity to him and now suddenly you look at marluxia and your heart just aches no matter what he does or doesn’t do. that dullness, emptiness, and seemingly senseless cruelty is no longer boring but now agonizing. because lauriam used to be, in my humble opinion, one of the most emotionally expressive characters in the entire franchise. we see his joy, his anxiety, his wrath, his sorrow… and then marluxia is just hollow.
imo better than any other somebody-nobody pair we’ve seen so far, lauriam-marluxia is the best textbook example of just how tragic losing your heart really is. because he’s the most clearly different. (other than ienzo-zexion but it’s different for him bc it happened when he was just so young). but also it’s kinda proof how you can’t really blame everything on nobodyfication- the events that happened in your human life are gonna play into it too. bc he suffered worse before being a nobody than most ppl he ended up worse as one. it’s more like he had the greatest potential to become a wretch and a villain and that potential ended up being realized. based on the kinda thing larxene said in her character file it’s probably kind of liberating to let go of the pain of feeling guilt and remorse and just let yourself slip into being unashamedly evil
argh. you know how it is. com is a great story in its own right but it has been recontextualized several times with each new game after it and it just keeps aging like fine wine. pink man good 👍
Those aren’t chakrams. Do you know what a chakram looks like. They also aren’t wind and fire wheels but those are Way Closer. They’re roughly the right size, for starters. If his Japanese title is the Wind-and-Fire Dancer that’s just… probably what they /are?/
the size isn’t. Actually the main thing. The main thing is that chakrams are sort of just circles. Sharpened metal rings, no handles, only the rings. Wind-and-fire wheels are… larger, spiked rings with handles? The arrangement of the handles in Axel’s weapons is very different, but the basic concept is much closer.
Those aren’t chakrams. Do you know what a chakram looks like. They also aren’t wind and fire wheels but those are Way Closer. They’re roughly the right size, for starters. If his Japanese title is the Wind-and-Fire Dancer that’s just… probably what they /are?/
the size isn’t. Actually the main thing. The main thing is that chakrams are sort of just circles. Sharpened metal rings, no handles, only the rings. Wind-and-fire wheels are… larger, spiked rings with handles? The arrangement of the handles in Axel’s weapons is very different, but the basic concept is much closer.
Those aren’t chakrams. Do you know what a chakram looks like. They also aren’t wind and fire wheels but those are Way Closer. They’re roughly the right size, for starters. If his Japanese title is the Wind-and-Fire Dancer that’s just… probably what they /are?/
"I thought a lot about that. Should I leave him as he was or should I bring him back again? However, when I considered the people that Lea wants to bring back, his existence plays a big role. I think Lea has successively become a key character."
(Tetsuya Nomura)
Nomura said that he debated whether to bring Axel back to life, or to leave him as he was. The fact that he wasn't sure meant that his KH2 character arc must have felt complete somehow. So, I'd like to take a look back at Axel's original storyline in KH2 and why I liked it so much. I thought his death worked very well as a beautiful and satisfying (albeit more bittersweet) ending to his story. In many ways, I found it to be much more poignant than his storyline in KH3.
“Is that how to treat a best friend on coming back from completing a long mission!”
“I don’t recall becoming your best friend.”
(Another Report: Roxas—Somewhere in Time)
Roxas was closer to Axel than any of the other Organization members. But he obviously yearned to have best friends his own age. That is why he was best friends with Hayner in his dream world, even though he didn't know them in real life. And he didn't even remember Axel. In other words, Roxas and Axel were not really best friends. In the short story that was included with the Japanese version of KH2FM+, Axel was the one who was insistent on using that label.
Hayner: Well, I doubt we can be together forever. But isn't that what growing up's all about? What's important isn't how often we see each other, but how often we think about each other. Right?
The whole concept behind Nobodies was that they had no hearts, but they still had their memories from the time when they did. So, the writers undoubtedly had some idea of what each member's backstory was like. In the original KH2, the writers chose not to explicitly tell us anything about Axel's past. But based on his behavior, we would be able to ascertain that he probably had a best friend when he was still a human. However, he was already a grown up. His summer vacation must've ended a long time ago. He could no longer be with his best friend, and he needed Roxas to fill that void.
Roxas: Organization XIII… they're a bad group.
Naminé: Bad or good, I don't know. They're a group of incomplete people who wish to be whole. To that end, they're desperately searching for something.
One of the biggest themes in KH2 is that of duality. In Hinduism, the universe is said to be made up of two complementary opposite forces called Shiva and Shakti. Shiva is the masculine force and is known as the destroyer or transformer. He is associated with chaos, darkness, and the element of fire, which symbolizes purification. Shakti represents light, order, and the feminine nurturing aspects of the universe, giving birth to new life. She is associated the element of wind, which symbolizes life energy and creation.
The symbol Axel fought Roxas on was a mandala. Carl Jung was deeply influenced by mandalas. He saw them as representations of the Self—the center and totality of the psyche.
Creating or contemplating mandalas can be a therapeutic practice, helping individuals find balance, wholeness, and integration of conscious and unconscious aspects of the mind.
Axel's moniker is "おどる火の風". It translates to "Wind of the Dancing Fire" or "Dancing Fire's Wind". This is my theory of what the deeper meaning was. One of the most famous depictions of Shiva is that of him dancing in a ring of fire. This version of him is known as known as Nataraja. The rhythmic movements of the dance are said to cause storms and destruction. And there's a backstory to the dance.
In Hindu mythology, Sati immolated herself out of intense devotion to her husband Shiva when her father insulted him. When Shiva learned of Sati's death, he was overcome with grief, sorrow, and uncontrollable rage. Shiva carried Sati's lifeless body on his shoulders and began to perform the cosmic dance of destruction.
In KH1, the reports mentioned how Ansem amplified darkness in the hearts of the subjects of his experiments on the darkness of the heart. I suspect that the original idea in KH2 was that Axel's best friend was killed during an experiment. And this event caused Axel's heart fall to darkness, turning him into a Nobody. It's probably the reason why Axel was so delighted to assassinate Vexen by setting him on fire.
Axel: Let's meet again in the next life.
Roxas: Yeah. I'll be waiting.
Axel: Silly. Just because you have a next life…
The imagery of Shiva dancing within a circle of flames represents the eternal cycle of birth, death, and rebirth. Shiva performs the dance and destroys the universe, but this destruction is eventually followed by rebirth. His lover Sati was reborn as the goddess Parvati and reunited with Shiva as his other half. Their combined form represents unity in duality and cosmic balance. In KH2, Axel did not think he was going to be reborn. And that was the basis of his storyline.
Naminé: We may not have homes. But there is someplace I want to go… And someone I want to see…
Axel: Same here.
Nobodies had a strong thematic association with death and the afterlife. In KH2, Naminé was the ghost girl living in the haunted mansion. In KH3, she was an incorporeal star in the Final World, the metaphysical place where people go when they have strong attachments and cannot pass on to the other side.
A Nobody was the spirit that went on even as its body faded from existence. They were very similar to the Unsent from FFX, which was another game written by Kazushige Nojima. Axel was created because his human-self had strong sentiments. He desperately wanted to be with his best friend forever. And this unfulfilled dream, ironically, kept his body and soul tethered to the realm of light.
Kairi: Maybe…waiting isn't good enough.
Axel: My thoughts exactly! If you have a dream, don't wait. Act. One of life's little rules. Got it memorized?
When Axel asked Kairi if she wanted to "see" Sora, he was referring to her meeting him in the afterlife because he was planning to kill them both. A similar form of wordplay was also used in the Japanese dialogue. His intentions were made apparent by his outstretched hand. He wanted Sora to become a Heartless again. So, he probably planned to accomplish that the same way he became a Heartless.
(Japanese Translation)
Axel: We're quite similar, aren't we? Both of us want to meet our important friends. Don't you think we're like comrades?
In the KH universe, when a person dies, their heart returns to the light of Kingdom Hearts. Since Axel didn't think he had a heart, he thought there would be nothing left of him to live on after his empty vessel was destroyed. Even if he wanted to die and be reborn to meet his best friend, he couldn't. He was driven by intense loneliness.
Some Kingdom Hearts fans think there's something romantic between Axel and Roxas and that Disney stopped that from being made explicit. Is that true? Have there been things Disney have stopped you from doing?
Nomura: In terms of the relationship between Axel and Roxas, we never intended anything like this and this is actually the first time I ever heard of it! We don't want to openly negate how the fans have come to enjoy the characters, but it was not something the creative team intended. Axel and Roxas are the best of friends and that's their primary relationship.
Axel's intense yearning to see Roxas once more made fans question his orientation even back in 2005. Akuroku was quite a popular ship back in the day and many players saw romantic subtext on Axel's part. I do agree that Axel is easily read as queer. But the creative team was not trying to imply that he was in love with Roxas. I think it was his human best friend that he was really in love with, and Roxas just reminded Axel of him. When he was with Roxas, he felt like he was with his best friend. And that's why he wanted to die by his side.
(Japanese Translation)
Axel: When I was with him, it felt like I had a heart too. That kind of feeling... I feel it with you too... The same...
When Axel said, "the same", he was referring to how Sora reminded him of Roxas. But I believe that we were invited to read between the lines and wonder if he was also referring to a human best friend that had already passed on. Ultimately, Axel's original KH2 arc was not about being together with Roxas forever. Roxas merged with his other half and became whole. He would live on within Sora.
In some Hindu traditions, "Sati" also refers to the act of a widow willingly participating in a self-immolation ritual on her deceased husband's funeral pyre. It was seen as an expression of devotion and loyalty and also an act of peerless piety which was said to purge her of all her sins. The widow would achieve spiritual liberation (moksha) not only for herself but also for her deceased husband. This meant that both would be freed from the cycle of death and rebirth (samsara). The widow was thought to be reunited with her husband in the afterlife, enjoying an eternal spiritual existence with him.
To help Sora reunite with Kairi, Axel self-immolated. After he died, Nojima probably envisioned that he would meet his dead best friend again, who was waiting for him on the other side. He had attained moksha, which represents the final goal of human existence in Hinduism, where the soul is liberated from the cycle of samsara. And that's probably why Nomura wasn't sure whether it was better to bring him back to life or to just leave him as he was.
"I never thought he would grow as much as he has. We originally planned to have him exit upon being defeated by Roxas during the opening of KHII, but all the staff, myself included, were strongly inclined to have him keep playing an active role after that. It's possible he will have things to do in the future, too. I tried to put that into his 'see you' line in KH2 FM+."
(Tetsuya Nomura)
When KH2 was written, the writers probably had not envisioned a preexisting relationship between Saïx and Axel. But after its success, they decided to expand on the Organization's backstories, and came up with that idea. Isa was based on the original concept that was implied in KH2. Axel did have a human best friend, and that loss had a profound influence on his relationship with Roxas.
If Axel's human best friend was supposed to be literally dead in KH2, then him only being Norted is a major retcon, yes. But it was a retcon that would allow for the eventual reunion of Axel with his best friend in the physical life. Like the Phoenix rising from the ashes, he could resurrect him from the dead. And that was the underlying idea of making Lea a Keyblade wielder in the first place.
Lea and Isa's backstory is one of the missing links of the KH series. By all means, it should have been depicted many years ago, in the defunct Birth by Sleep Volume II. This is a shame because it left their relationship extremely underdeveloped, and their reunion was largely glossed over in KH3 as a result. Because of this, I thought Axel's storyline in KH3 fell flat, and I thought that his ending in KH2 was more impactful. But I may change my mind if we finally get to see more of Axel's long overdue backstory in KH4 (fingers crossed).
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