bait and switch

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bait and switch
flowers are blooming among someone else’s big love
re:com sora/namine reunion & kh2 sora/riku reunion parallels make me benafflecksmoking.png (gifs)
Roxas and Naminé team up to give Sora so many smooches!!!
Honestly even with my hopes of canon endgame Soriku, I feel like an important part of Sora's romantic narrative process should involve him revisiting the feelings he had for Namine.
He's gonna have to remember CoM at some point, it'd be bizarre and unsatisfying storytelling if he didn't, and a very big part of that game was that he was In Love With Namine. It was really important to him! And it'd probably be really confusing to remember that time, and not know if he feels the same way anymore!
It was so important to the themes of the game that his feelings were real even if his memories of her weren't, but were those feelings meant for her? If they were spun from his feelings for Riku and Kairi, what's he supposed to make of that? How DOES he feel about Namine now, exactly?
I just think it'd be really nice for Sora to acknowledge the place Namine had in his heart, and for that to still be valuable to him, even though he's changed and feels differently now. And maybe it'd even be kinda hard, y'know? To have to part with those feelings for her, after suddenly remembering the impact they had on him? I mean, Sora gets distressed at even the thought of his friendship with Pooh weakening over time, I think just about everything with Namine would throw him for quite a loop.
(Also, not required for this scenario, but imagine with me: it's already being kinda implied that Sora's forgetting things about Riku, right? Most notably, his sacrifice in KH3, and any potential romance-related revelations Sora might have had as a result of it? What if he remembered CoM before getting those Riku memories back. and he clings to them suuuper tightly, because the fact he was able to swoop in and heroically save his true love from the bad guys is really comforting in the face of all the "Riku died protecting me out of love while I couldn't do anything to stop it" that he's repressing. Redirecting all those complicated feelings towards the simple love he has (had) for Namine instead. CoM 2, if you will)
NGL I think the writers cooked so hard with the Sonami dynamic in Chain of Memories that they're scared to revisit and let them interact ever again (for more than a minute) lest everyone realize how superior this ship is. Like...
"I know these feelings and memories aren't real but they FEEL real anyway so I want to honor them. That means honoring you. I love you. Maybe how I feel is meant for someone else, but you're special too. I want to see you again in the future, I KNOW I'll still care about you. For real this time."
"I have been desperately lonely since the moment I was born, and all I really want is a genuine connection with someone. I have been used by people who care not for me, but maybe I went along with it because at least that meant finally getting a friend even if it's not real. After everything I've done I can't possibly deserve your warmth and kindness, but it means the world to me. I know this can't last. But I WANT this to last. I don't deserve for you to pick me, and it's stupid to even hope you would. I'll cherish the little time we had together forever. And you'll forget me entirely."
~~~
...
...
A post I've honestly wanted to make for a while--that maybe Kairi has the power to call out to people's hearts and perhaps her Nobody, Naminé, also got it from her.
But I also don't think so (or that it's just a Kairi and/or Princess of Heart [heart of pure light] thing), because we see Terra being able to do the same thing towards Aqua in Birth by Sleep's epilogue.
And doesn't Mickey say to Riku in Kingdom Hearts' ending (the added Final Mix scene), something about, "Can't you hear their hearts (Sora and Kairi's) calling out to you?" That one might have been more metaphorical, though.
So... -shrugs-