#bless the seasalt trio reunion destine for kh3 but i think this trios reunion/meeting will be the most emotional

[kitsoa]

Just thinking about the Roxas Prologue...

I know the KH2 prologue has been complimented to death, but they way they portray Roxas's sense of isolation in the midst of a mundane and happy youth setting is so perfect. Namely, the train scene with the crystals.

 Like... a kid feeling left out because he’s not able to join in this contrived little moment with his friends is extremely basic and simple. Everyone’s had that happen. Super relatable, and it stirs up a petty kind of schoolyard pity for the boy. The kind of, ‘oh that’s sad but it will pass, it’s not that big a deal’ kind of thing that we’d tell our kids to pick themselves up from.

But for Roxas it’s piled up into this longer standing narrative of isolation from his friends. He loses the crystal because it’s stolen by some guy his friends can’t even see. Before that there’s a misunderstanding and a broken promise because strange interlopers hold him up. Roxas falls from the clock tower and no one seems to remember. His reality is falling apart and he feels completely alone. 

There is zero dialogue in this scene. And had Roxas had his crystal and partook in this childish display, it would have been an endearing testament to their unspoken bonds to each other. Instead we have a mundane scene corrupted by the supernatural. A boy feeling left out in a simple way, to represent a greater chasm. 

This is echoed later in the day with the 6th Wonder of Twilight Town.

In this case Roxas is participating in the enjoyable mundane activity while his friends are the ones left out. What’s striking personally for me is how energized and enthused by the wonder Roxas is. He animatedly explains what he thinks everyone else is seeing and starts questioning the wonder, engaging with his friends as he so wants and as he assumes they would. Almost like he’s compensating for not being able to join in before. He even bounds ahead, determined to investigate until... he almost falls onto the tracks.

This is one of the most unsettling parts of the prologue... because from his friend’s perspective Roxas is displaying some extremely concerning behavior. I mean, we know they probably don’t think he’s lying after the whole hanging with Seifer deal so these wild claims are all the more troubling. And then, clearly hallucinating, his friend straight up walks onto the tracks. The fall would have hurt him of course, but it’s the arrival of the real train that kind of seals the moment for me. Roxas could have been killed. 

Hayner says “You’ll get hurt.” and I love the delivery of the line because there’s this trepidation in it. Like Hayner and by extension the rest of the ensemble are grappling with an extremely heavy subject that they are positively clueless how to handle. Roxas then has his most overtly ‘crazy’ moment, insisting and trying to pull the validation and corroboration from his friends who are unable to give him what he wants. I like how this frustrates Hayner, shown in how he forces the situation to move on and angrily dismisses Roxas’s further curiosity. It’s such a reasonable reaction and I can sympathize with the levels of maddening concern Hayner then wants to be free of. 

And while Roxas was engrossed in the mystery of the abnormalities happening to him, he still allowed himself to feel the sadness of getting left out. Drifting behind the group, not paying attention to their conversations or remembering its even summer vacation. Even so, I don’t think it registered to him how troubling this final day was to his friends. He probably had time to reflect after the simulation ended but, data hearts or real, he put his friends through emotional strife and that guilt must make him feel horrible. 

#kingdom hearts #someone help i am feeling so many things from this prologue and ive seen it far too many times #bless the seasalt trio reunion destine for kh3 but i think this trios reunion/meeting will be the most emotional