So... Confession time, I get why Kairi wasn’t playable in Dream Drop Distance. Even if we removed the Drop Meter, the Drop System can only really work with the explanation it has with two people, and there’s really no in universe reason for her to take part of the Mark of Mastery. Riku has two years of experience under his belt, Sora’s saved the universe twice, and Kairi killed two Shadows. Then just stood there waiting for Sora to come to her rescue. Having her take part in the Mark of Mastery would make more sense. What I disagree with is having the “meanwhile, in the real world” plot revolve around Lea. That is where we should’ve put Kairi’s subplot, with Yen Sid having Merlin train her at the start of the game as opposed to summoning her at the end, then having Lea get involved and both of them come to Sora’s rescue in the ending. Sadly though, this version of Kairi would have no reason to be present in Yen Sid’s study for the opening and closing of 0.2. So it would literally just be Mickey getting Riku up to speed about Aqua before Sora returns. Unless any of you can think of a reason for Kairi to be there in 0.2, in which case I’m all ears.
