Roxas, the Fight for Identity - Kingdom Hearts

roxas the 13th member of the organization roxas a boy who was simply on his summer vacation roxas the nobody of sora born into the world without memories at home or even a name roxas had no identity of its own it was in twilight town that zimnis the leader of organization 13 found him and gave him his name and a place among them a blank site to be used for their needs as a tool as a vessel the first few days of life he was simply a shell of a human unable to understand his origins his purpose and the world around him there were constant eyes on roxas yet barely any of them would bring him closer to the answers he wanted if anything the answers they gave would only raise more questions they wanted to achieve kingdom hearts a goal he never resonated with or particularly desired as it was put on him manipulatively after all he already had a heart himself but one person would bridge that gap between roxas and those around him axel whether it be because of his lost past connections or the kindness of his character or both he was the only one that saw roxas for who he was a person a friend taking him under his wings through his connection with axel ruxis is able to take his first step forward learning of other emotions outside of feeling loss such as the joy's comfort and worries that is found in friendship and it's here where we start to see a difference in goals if the organization fought to reclaim the most important part their identity a heart then ruxis did not live to reclaim but to find an identity of his own and he shares this journey with a girl named shion who similarly to him had no memory of the past but by building new connections between the three sharing seesaw ice cream on the clock tower together as the sun sets around they could start anew finding individuality and a real place in the world not just as numbered members of the organization but as friends if anything threatened the trio they had each other to lean on if only it was so easy while both roxas and jion similarly questioned their origins and purpose at the start roxas as the heart of the trio was content and had ultimately found a meaningful purpose to be with his friends and start over xi'an on the other hand who came to cherish their friendship just as much would eventually however come into multiple conflicts with her origins and place in the organization both of which threatened her place in the trio experiencing the memories of somebody else far more frequently than roxas she became more and more suspicious of her nature reaching out breaking point when she'd come into contact with riku the first person from her or more accurately saw his past and as the story continued she came closer to the truth that she was a fake a puppet a replica her denial would represent the pride of her identity that she rightfully had and that she was far more than the dehumanizing titles that others gave her but when realizing that her very existence robbed somebody else of theirs with friends just like she ons and would eventually rub roxas of his she was driven to act giving up her identity the pain of losing those around her who helped give her that identity in the first place was far greater than losing herself axel on the other hand while wanted the best for his friends often compromised their friendship for his duties with the organization he who saw his friends for who they truly were not just his tools of the organization still kept them at arm's length withholding the truth from them though he did it with the intent to protect roxas and cheon out of fear of losing what was important like he had in the past ironically his secrets to contain and protect ended up pushing them further away and doing the most damage he'd better not all telling himself that he was a nobody indicative of his choice to choose to protect the body of the heart but in true they all had hearts he was just deceived to believe otherwise as promises are broken and fights happen the days of eating sea salt ice cream and watching the sun set seemed so long ago roxas who was closed off from his friend's burdens and secrets the most found himself caught between the crossfire and when he tried to find answers and a solution they would burden their problems alone and push him away so much so that before he could understand much of anything and help shion she was gone resulted in her life in a death match so roxas could strike her down and live continuously left out of his friend's burden lacking understanding of the full picture and most of all shion's death would finally make him snap the once so gentle hopeful interesting boy was now desperate and vengeful while he once saw to understand seeing where that led shion and lacking the answers from the person he trusted he now believed in action and force to get what he wanted believing that setting kingdom hearts free would fix everything his narrow mindedness naivety and lack of understanding led him down a dangerous path that shio never intended him to wall but given how he was treated who could blame him his friendship was everything to the identity we've watched him build so now is time to stand for it standing in his way however was riku the fight at close battle with parallel ambitions to revive someone they cherished but as riku misjudged and disregarded his opponent's character as simply saw as nobody frogs gained the upper hand proving that he was his own person however as the fight continued riku's perspective and racing to fight both changed and amplified hearing the pleas of xi'an while they both briefly fight for the same connection in that very moment riku listened to what xiao and truly wanted reaching a great understanding that roxas lacked in both respecting and understanding his connection with her he was able to use her as a strength to surpass his limits while rexus was blindly desperate to get his life back unable to hear her voice and so riku won and xi'an was forgotten now that he had fought frux's first hand he finally acknowledged his character beyond diss's words and pondered if things could have been different if he had met sora but the damage had already been done and so roxas's summer vacation began here we have three friends whose actions conflicted with each other individually one that desired to simply stay together one that wanted truth then just and the other that wanted to protect everyone however as we see at the end of the dark circle saga all three desires were possible and harmonious and while it might have been difficult to find a solution at this point in the story the ending proved that it was possible and they sadly had access to the right connections though it may have taken time convincing anthem and riku to see the heart in roxas and his friends and finding evan to make the replicas together their goals were certainly possible with far less turmoil but here they failed utterly because they'd approached their methods of sacrificially and alone not together completely ripping the trio apart they may have fought for their connections but what was left to connect if one severed or gave up their place in that very connection and who's to say that these sacrifices to protect wouldn't do as much or even more damage to those who care if everyone mutually sacrifices themselves who is there left to attack void of his old memories roxas would once again start anew enjoying the friendship he had so yearned for albeit with different people that were the digital worlds as a means of surveillance but the bond they shared was real to him regardless as the days went on however history seemingly began to repeat itself with strange occurrences from the past cbn denying roxas of the life he wanted even an assimilation as much as he tried to hold on to his identity the world seemed to keep rejecting his existence to his frustration and this fake reality was the perfect representation of that connected in circumstances a special nobody a tool and as someone whose existence took from others namine was the only one who could understand roxas reaching out to him but her goals would have been better served by using him discreetly as she had in the past the organization dis no one paid mind to roxas's heart because to them he had none but knowing the pain of never manny to exist she wanted to befriend roxas not as someone who was ordered to manipulate him but as someone who saw roxas as a reflection of herself and had grown from her past with sora and through guiding ruxis where she could she helped him understand his situation and accept it more than anyone rather than forcing ruxis into his fate unknowingly she wanted roxas to take that step for himself telling him that he wasn't alone in his fate but with her vormia shot live yet very close connection just as sora had believed that she'd always be in his heart forgotten but not lost she believed that roxas wouldn't disappear when returning to sora that they'd still be together but as different people fighting to get roxas back axel meets him in the digital world multiple times but he'd realized that his secrets that pushed foxes away would do more than just leaving the organization he had completely forgotten axel the young man whose entire character would strike to live in the memories of those important to him and burdened so much for roxas's safety and while he was ultimately safe in failing to protect the heart and by compromising their friendship he realized that his efforts were pointless betrayed by his efforts and unable to see the rocks as he once knew in him for the first time axel makes no compromises siding completely with the organization at this point it was impossible to turn back so therefore roxus who once fought to reunite his friends would ironically be the one to strike both of them down while he was victorious in truth he had lost heartbreakingly the last memories the trio would have of each other would be of them fighting unable to express their genuine desires and believing that this was the fate of nobody's the only thing left to do was to confront sora waiting at the pod room was diz the epitome of ignorance denial and discrimination that played roxas throughout his entire journey never referring to him as a person and rage he makes his last stand for his identity but to no avail it is if he harbored emotions of justified anger it was simply denial if he thought his strikes were hollow if he felt they were simply memories of someone else's emotions all that was left was the boy in front of him who he had never met before but indirectly caused him so much hardship never able to escape the constant demanding comparisons between the two for the world to see him for who he was call it defeat or caller acceptance in a tragically beautiful sequence he manages to find it in himself to concede its identity in an act of resignation and so his summer vacation was over [Music] when first experiencing the scene the story roxas's journey can be seen as finding grace and peace in accepting one's fate mortality and place in the world given the next life through sora as axel says which is ironic given how things turned out however as the story has evolved and roxas as a character has given more context and perspective we'd come to understand that the heart of his story was all about self-discovery and fighting for his identity while the world rejected him to the bitter end he was a tool his memories were fake he was the nobody of sora yet after experiencing his story we'd come to understand that none of this was true his connection to axon chion a so-called nobody and puppet were real the memories that he shared with hannah pence and all that in the digital world were real his experiences and identity were real riku's eventual defiance of this the subconscious connection haena had with roxas through zoro lee preferring himself to be called axel valuing his time as a nobody more anthem's change of heart and dada sora's story were all proof of this but despite fighting so earnestly and being right he still failed to prove not accomplished his goal in his life as he fought by himself so the world was unable to acknowledge his existence that came with his connections while namine and roxas were so similar in circumstance how they viewed it was entirely different when namine had little freedom to live a life and was driven by her guilt to restore sora gladly accepting her fate to fix the life she had wronged roxas had the opportunity to live his and had no guilt or a particularly meaningful connection to sora but when the entire world seemed to be against his existence and realizing that he had nothing to go back to he gave in the end of his journey was frustratingly sad and unfair and what makes his final moments of acceptance so tragic wasn't necessarily because he accepted his place in the world or his destiny as nobody though it may have initially seemed like it but in his first step of realizing that he had ultimately lost his place in the world after so long of fighting alone willfully giving it up and accepting that he may have to live with the consequences of his failures forever although this temporarily changes when he realizes that axo is alive reinvigorating his hope however in the end axel couldn't bring himself to make any more sacrifices and chooses to help and put his life on sora someone that reminded him of his old friend anger roxas forces surrender to dive to the heart confused as to why axel had chosen sora over him but after clashing relentlessly he for the first time understands sora's character and realizes where he failed with sora hadden while they'd both fight for the connections he fought alone while sora fought with them with regan resolved roxas loses finally accepting his defeat wholeheartedly both in battle and character but there is a silver lining to all of this as for the first time he begins to put his faith and trust in someone else to mend the damage no longer carrying the burden alone or self-sacrificially in fact all three of the sea sultry would put their faith in sora further exemplified in blank points where all his connections looked to sora as the symbol of hope but of course the damage had already been done and to a boy that was oblivious to roxas and many others like we were in kingdom hearts 2 this would take time the mark of mastery to surah was all about understanding how naive he was believing he could save everyone from their suffering with the strength of his past experiences alone further accentuated in his rather gullible character he'd also come to understand the true weight of the connections he was unaware of sacrifices that were made to aid him in those past trials that made him so successful and confident in the first place one of them of course being roxas before this point sir is unable to understand him beyond the fact that he was his nobody simply a piece of himself believing that he had a happy ending while roxas was unable to convey how much he was hurting to others but in realizing his individual shortcoming he shares his story and sora experiences his grief his memories that were as real as anyone's and could no longer deny roxas's identity that he rightfully had a sense of identity so powerful that his emotions and memories would seep into sora's life many times just as it once did with roxas's the dreams of one would be the precious five memories of another while it was the natural desire and fate of nobody's to return to their somebody where did that leave those like namine shion and roxas and they were able to coexist briefly at one point so who's to say they couldn't do it again because just like the themes of darkness and nothingness that sora himself has reinforced time and time again the origins of one aren't indicative of where they truly belong sora would spend much of his time in kingdom hearts 3 searching for a way to bring roxas back while chasing loose connections would give him hints towards the answers he was looking for it was only when facing his closest connection empathetically and together that all the conditions of roxas's return without compromise of either existence was possible once more roxas would reach out to soro for help and he was finally able to line the pieces up between the two of them in their rightful places as yours and mine just as he vowed all those years ago the return of roxas and the reunion of the season trio was a triumphant and cathartic one after all these years but it wasn't enough for them to simply regain their lives that was sora's role that he was entrusted with it was now up to the three of them together to find unity and take care of unfinished business with zemnes the man that have viewed the three of them is nothing but tools the puppeteer of their tragedies but together they will prove that they were more than just pawns with wonderful synergy and choreographed combos and their attacks striking them down together they were able to reclaim the final piece of their identities for themselves represented by the requested sigil in their names while it would once represent their place in organization 13 as xemnas's pawns which were forced onto them they'd redefine its meaning as their identity and the connection they shared with each other for themselves after all it was the very thing that linked these friends together in the first place at last the three of them found harmony with each other and a genuine home in the world an emotional payoff of few words just a quiet moment of healing relief and serenity between three friends in the end they were finally able to have seesaw ice cream on the clock tower twilight town like old times and make it to the beach fulfilling their promise with both axel and cheon and haena pets and all that you

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Keywords: kingdom hearts roxas analysis, roxas, kingdom hearts, kingdom hearts 3, Roxas, the Fight for Identity - Kingdom Hearts, xion, axel, kh roxas, analysis, video essay, khiii, twilight town, seasalt trio, sora, the story of roxas, nobody, nobodies, organization 13, keyblade, キングダム ハーツ, ロクサス, roxas analysis, Kingdom Hearts roxas analysis, kh roxas analysis, 358/2 days, roxas 358/2 days, Kingdom Hearts days, kh days, kh 358/2 days, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 days, roxas character analysis

Id: pUz0l8kSU5U

Length: 16min 59sec (1019 seconds)

Published: Sat May 22 2021