so i’m talkin to roan abt roxas and xemnas and i wanted to talk about how roxas is selfish, and that he and his attitude can be shaped very differently based on outside factors. if xem was a primary influencer during roxas’s development rather than a vacant outlier overseeing the entire ordeal as it happens, i can’t help but feel as though roxas would be more uh. morally grey? so to speak. or even kind of antagonistic. as he relies on axel in game to feed him information, he takes on values of friendship and interpersonal relationships and how to engage in them based on axel’s personal and previously positive relationship with isa.
in other words, if xemnas were his guardian and the one supplementing him with cues and tidbits of info, roxas would most likely be aligned based on xem’s overall intention rather than from axel’s experience with friendship. this isn’t to say that roxas would be fully ‘evil’ or something like that, as he probably would still question things and be a little ??? about some stuff based on what others would say to him, but he definitely would lean on the more dark side of the spectrum, as his ideology would be shaped by what xemnas tells him is good/what would be ideal, and would put his perspective of the ‘bigger picture’ along with the idea they’re doing this to be whole. xemnas, if he manipulated roxas acceptably, would answer any questions roxas has and push him in the direction he wants to ensure victory. roxas, being given answers rather than being ignored, would most likely become reliant, and would seek his leader out (and defend him, by extension) as he depends on answers, since xemnas would be his primary giver of what he wants.
roxas is purely shaped by what happens to him, and he does have a heart to feel. if he became reliant on xemnas, not only would he probably be more compliant but he probably wouldn’t have felt so confused and angry, and may have willingly become a vessel for xehanort further down the line. roxas taking things with a grain of salt at the beginning of his journey could yield disastrous results based on the person he’s looking to for discovery. it’s an interesting angle to look at, especially when sora’s very life is on the line.