Hmm, I'd probably choose Xigbar, Axel and Demyx. I'm not sure the other Org members from CoM are even in this game to choose. If they were, I'd switch up with Larxene and Zexion too.
Both of these bosses are unlikely to happen as Sora doesn't even encounter Roxas till late in KH2 or you can say they 'met' when Roxas first rejoined him. Xemnas 'could' be a possibility but I doubt he'd be the final boss unless Roxas was really out of line for some reason because he's clearly a member in the Organization at the start of KH2. It could be he got a beat down and stuff from an Org member, but it just seems odd it would be Xemnas unless it was really necessary.
I'm not sure. I haven't heard word on there being multi-player potential though the PSP could handle it. I think BBS is meant to have a lot more plot and story to it and be a single player game to use the graphics etc more while 358/2 Days probably wont' have a super long story to it so the multi-player fills out the game more. It would be nice though if it did have multi-player ability after playing the game through.
I don't know if I agree with that. That child is being brainwashed, disassociated from society and not allowed to seek knowledge. That is a form of abuse and since it's happening in this country, I do believe it to be our concern. DCFS constantly picks on poor families to keep kids out of gangs etc...so why isn't this also a form of something done wrong? Both are brainwashing, filling a kid's heart with hate and fear, hurt the child in years to come and make the kid seem stupid and well, we know how successful most of these people will be who don't just do work for the church and spread the 'good word' to others. I do agree that going to religious camps 'usually' wasn't something bad. I had been to a couple myself growing up and we really didn't have much Christianity forced down our throats. They just told us things about the regular stuff they give to kids like Noah, David and Goliath, Jesus stories etc...but there was nothing like what was done here. We had a good time singing songs, doing games and some crafts etc and it was fun. This is clearly the Evangelical Protestant Christian movement which I really do find is fascist and is forcing kids to become brainwashed, as well as teenagers. I have seen -nothing- good come out of the evangelical protestant movement and these are always the people telling others to go to hell, bashing on gays, calling everything a sin and they are the sorts that smile when they say God is punishing people for sins and saying for soldiers in Iraq to die and that Hurricane Katrina was God's message. Some people that belong to the religion are fine because they are laymen believers but the leaders, the activists and the people forcing their kids to lives like this...which is what -this- Jesus Camp is, it's rotten. These people also paint the religion so gloriously and are into the 'Born Again' philosophy. Bush is also one of them and who listened to major advisers in the Evangelical Protestant movement and look where that's got us. I winced every time he said that we were righteous and God was on our side blah blah. They denounce evolution entirely and encourage people to listen to Christian music all the time and ignore the music of other genres...books they should read are controlled etc. It to me seems very appalling and I think more people ought to know the truth. When Haggard made this movie it was to show how it worked to conform kids...those kids were -crying- and wailing to be forgiven for sins and promising to not do anymore. That is just wrong. The movement is fascist and seeping into politics to the point where we have to know what president they are going to be backing this time. Why should we care? Because they are allied together and can draw crowds of more people than any rock star could. They -tell- people who to vote for and like sheep, most of them will. The movement is growing and these leaders are so determined that so many things are sins that we won't have a voice left if they continue to gain power, nor will our children learn anything as groups of them try to chase out science teachers from schools out west and in the south. Books like Harry Potter are always threatened. Mind you, I don't hate Christians and think most are pretty decent people and also they regard me as such. I'm surely not going to just judge people based on their religious choice though it may curb what we talk about because there are other things to chat on than that and we are more than just religious beliefs. I just -know- this group is leading people down a nasty road and no one is doing a thing about it but just laughing at them on the news when they appear and saying they 'aren't Christian' or 'what a stupid Christian', depending if you are religious or not. I definitely don't want a kid to be brainwashed as much by Evangelical Protestants just as much as I don't prefer them to be talking to the Bloods down the street and joining. This group entirely gives Christians a bad name and I wish more groups would do something about it.
I can agree with it that women get 'more' of that treatment but I also think males in many games do too. The males and females in video games are often 'better than life' and both attract their fanboys/fangirls. Also, with the way some of the Japanese games in particular make men seem more feminine in appearance than they would be in real life, that can be disturbing too. So, yes, I think women get it more and there are more games that obviously do paint women with the extra boobage and also the scanty clothes, but some of the women characters I've seen really aren't that bad anymore as they were. Old games like Tomb Raider were pretty bad with that. I think more girls hopping in to play video games and also admitting they do is changing the way people portray women, though of course the romanticized versions of men and women in video games are going to keep happening regardless. Just now, we can see that 'ugly' men aren't really so thrilling either so their appearances had to be improved. I suppose a good thing about the graphics improving though and that men and women now freely admit to playing the games etc, is that the artwork seems to in some ways be improving and both males and females look at least more 'realistic'. If they don't in some games, both males and females in the games are done up 'sexy' to appeal to the genders out there. A good game as an example is the Devil May Cry series. I do think some games like Soulcaliber...where I keep watching the girls get less and less clothes and bigger bosoms... makes it clear though that those makers of the game are catering to men nearly entirely.
And again, that happens now any way. So what are other solutions since the Drug War has failed? We can't just keep on denying the problem is worsening instead of getting better because of the way drugs are so easy to get and adults are using teenagers etc to sell them and there are streets that just everyone knows aren't safe. Drugs are in all classes, rich, middle class and poor. They have their nasty effects on people of all sorts regardless of backgrounds, ethnicity, religions, whatever. So, if you are against them, how do you make the problem die down so that less people are interested in them as just taking them away does nothing but throw people in jail, keep drugs out there, has people making them and trying new drugs, inventing new things that are worse than the old, etc? Do you want the problem to die down or not? It's fine to have the opinion that legalizing drugs is bad but really none of you who say that doing so would be worse are coming up with any other solutions. At least with legalizing them, we'd put money to better use in education, the truth on drugs, rehabilitation and psychology to help deal with co-dependence and also have a way of lessening the violence on the streets and jail times for minor possession charges. Whether you like it or not, that -is- action of some sort.
Sora rubbed his temples. He looked over at Demyx and then at Riku. He was at odds with himself over what just occurred. Demyx wasn't really that 'bad' to Sora. He had been a member of the Organization but he wasn't so rotten a person in the end...like Axel...this was going to be hard as he didn't know if he really liked the way this was moving. Though no one was really getting the horrible punishments they could have gotten under another judge, it was still starting to feel weird. Of course when the defense came up they'd do the exact opposite and make it like Demyx was totally innocent. So what was he supposed to do? It was either let Demyx have a ton of charges...or let him have none...and well, both felt wrong to Sora. He looked at Riku rather imploringly for some answer since he was always so smart. Riku looked back at Sora, catching his gaze of confusion. He wished he could help him but just pointed to his heart and mouthed the words "Go with your Heart", hoping it would be enough. Sora gave a nod and put his hands down before him on the door of the witness stand box and exhaled slowly before responding. "I guess we miscalculated where we were going to be and ended up there. There's not really another explanation for it. We met Meg right after we arrived and found the right way to go and she was attacked by Heartless so we helped her. She said that Hercules had been fighting nonstop in the arena and was worn out, ready to drop, so she was going to go see Hades and ask for him to give Hercules a breather...so we said we'd go for her and had to keep the conversation under wraps. Things didn't go so well trying to talk to Hades...he was rather mad at us for being us, and helping Auron who he was really beating up bad...so we left there since there were Heartless all around and he was up to do worse. We ran with Auron out of there and unlocked the door since he sealed us in and went to go see Hercules.. We told Hercules we couldn't do much there since we were weaker, and he said that the stone would help and that gods used it whenever they had to go down there because the place drains people of power so we thought it might be a good idea to find out what Hades was really up to since it seemed he was out to get Hercules and there were a lot of Heartless. Lastly we wanted it because Hades showed up and said he had taken Meg who had wandered into the Underworld, which didn't make sense because we were doing that so we were sure he kidnapped her." "He said that he was trying to chase the guy to talk because he wanted another hero to take Hercules' place because he was so tired. The man turned on him and all I remember was that he said the guy turned on him and he was seeing stars. We helped him up because he was on the ground dizzy. He also said that Demyx had ran to the Underworld and had buddies which we knew were Nobodies. He probably had control of them since it would not make much sense otherwise." *Sora shrugged. All the Nobodies had lesser Nobodies to help them for various things. He was on the ground in the sand and seemed roughed up some, like he had been nearly knocked out, but he wasn't really hurt badly and he seemed that he'd be ok. He was at the Underworld entrance on the ground." "Well we found Demyx and at first he was like 'Oh, you!' and like accusing sort of voice..then his personality changed..and he said 'Wait a second..Roxas? ..so I said 'excuse me' because I was confused. So he says 'Roxas' again..then goes that 'it's no use' and seemed disappointed. I asked him what he was talking about because it was even more weird now...and he pulls out a card from his cloak pocket and goes 'let's see here'...and reads it." "It said 'if the subject fails to respond, use aggression to liberate his true disposition.' He then said 'Riiight' like he did not feel so secure with doing it. He then said 'did they ever pick the wrong guy for this one'.. I said 'you're bizarre' because well, he was. He then pulled out the Stone and Goofy said he had to be the thief and Demyx said 'that's just plain rude!' and held it above him and used it to give him power there. He took out his Sitar and that's when we pulled our weapons because we had to fight. The sitar..he uses it to play music and the water creatures come out. I didn't pressure him into any fight there. I did later but here I tried to be nice and understand him but he was so confusing and then he read the letter, used the stone and was doing his thing. We had no choice but to attack and we did and then after he dark portaled out saying 'Roxas, come back to us'. He seemed upset but I didn't get why at the time." "I don't know what he would have done if he defeated me. I can only go by pretty much what the note said which was to beat me up to make Roxas come out. However, later on when I understood who Roxas really was...I didn't get the orders on the card to Demyx because really they don't make sense since the only way to get Roxas back would have been to well...make me a Heartless and I'm pretty sure Demyx didn't have that planned. Demyx didn't seem to really know what to do without his cue cards." "Donald and Goofy were with me and helped me out. No one else was there." He looked over at Zack as he spoke and gave a nod. Roxas more than likely should not count since at the time he was a part of himself even if Sora never knew. "King Mickey said that Ansem the Wise was not the same Ansem we had fought before and that he was someone we had to find because he'd know more on what the Organization was doing. He said that the other guy was an imposter and that the Nobody of Xehanort's Heartless was the leader of the Organization. That's about it in a nutshell, which meant that we had to learn more about this other guy." "I didn't see Demyx there and there were Dusks and Dancer Nobodies fighting against the Heartless. " "Yeah, the Dancers are Demyx's and it seemed any of the higher Nobodies had control of the Dusks. But when we fought the Nobodies with the Heartless because they all came after us, we were just fighting Dusks and the Heartless Maleficent left there. So, I don't know if Demyx did it or if they were under the control of Saix who was the other there." "I don't have any idea what the Nobodies would have done to the world. I just knew they were attacking me so I had to fight them. The Organization really was confusing and I just don't have answers there about what they were fully up to because they were attacking Heartless and seemed to want to draw Maleficent out but at the same time they were attacking me and my friends too. After we finished with that group, we ran into Dancers that fought against us which were Demyx's so I just couldn't say what was going on entirely if they were helping or just stirring up the Heartless to come out so I would kill them but also attacking us too...I just don't know." "So the org sent him. Did you draw your weapon, or threaten him at any point? If so, why?" "When he first appeared he said 'you guys are looking lively' and no, we didn't have our weapons drawn yet and I asked him if he was the one who did the stuff in the Underworld. Donald told him to scram and I said 'how'd a wimp like you get into the Organization XIII?'. He did this weird dance like he was supposed to be afraid...and I said 'I bet you can't even fight'. Donald said 'but we can' and Demyx's personality changed to a more serious tone and he said I shouldn't judge anyone by appearance'. It was then we pulled out our weapons because he did this last time and then went to attack us." "He then turned like he was going to run and hunched over saying that he told them they had sent the wrong guy, acting afraid again. So I said 'who is this kook?' Goofy said to remember that the Organization is made up of Nobodies and I said ..right, no hearts. We were trying to understand what his deal was. He then turned and said 'aww, we do too have hearts, don't be mad' like um..wanting us to understand maybe. Donald pointed and said 'you can't trick us' so Demyx again turned around. He then turned and pointed at me saying 'Silence Traitor' all serious and I was taken aback. He then pulled out his weapon and we fought." "We pulled out our weapons when I mentioned it because he did this weird changing of personality to us before and then attacked us when we were still trying to even understand him. We didn't want to be caught off guard again. He could have ran off at any time but we were kind of mean to him and confused. I wouldn't have stopped him had he run off. What happened is like I said. And he did use powers and such and we knew after he said 'Silence traitor' he was going to fight because of that. We fought and well no one really attacked first..we all just went at each other." (player is saying this because at that point in the game, it depends who does get off the first hit and it was a duel sort of thing.) "I'm pretty sure he 'died' or went back to his Somebody or something. He disappeared in Darkness and also a water gush. When we went to the Castle, we saw his tombstone was like the others that were defeated so we figured he was gone." Sora was glad the questions were over for a bit. "Really, all things considered...as quirky as he was, he wasn't the threat or anything that other Organization members were. I feel like I may have overreacted because I didn't get what he was doing and it was confusing and he wouldn't explain. I didn't see him as the problem though that some others were. If he hadn't been in the Organization he probably would have been pretty decent and even fun to hang out with. I just want this to be fair because ...it just seems like you are going for more than he deserves and the guys over there are going to say he did nothing wrong...and just ...I think that...I just want this to be fair. I'm sorry if I am speaking out of line or whatever...but guys, just be fair to Demyx. I don't dislike him and do think if circumstances weren't as they were, if he was telling the truth and needed cue cards to direct his actions...I mean..he's not really a threat I'd fear to have living next door to me...which was used as an issue before about Marluxia or Larxene." Sora hoped it would make a difference, but he had a feeling nothing he said was going to on either side. In the end, Sora pondered what to do for sure if no one did listen and it was just going to be a circus over the member of the Org who had really done the least wrong. Riku nodded, confirming that it was the best that could be done. The extra charges seemed extreme for someone who seemed to really most of the time not even know what the heck he was doing. Maybe Demyx's somebody had partied too much in life and it made Demyx just a strange fellow. Harvey sipped some coffee and looked through notes preparing to question Demyx. Harvey would need to deal with the defense and also had to examine the personality of this person to get an understanding and press on the issues Demyx was guilty of. His taking the stand was going to be quite soon and after the Defense was done with him, it would be up to Harvey to make sure the counts would stick. He did not really get why Sora was being so sympathetic at this point but maybe the trials were having an effect on any of the younger people who actually did have hearts to care. Knowing whether or not having hearts in this case was a good thing or it was just getting in the way was going to have to be determined. After all, having sympathy for someone or having hostile aggression towards someone for crimes that were over the top were why judgments lay in the hands of other people so that they could be more impartial. He studied Demyx a bit and stuck his pencil in the air which Avenger chewed on, somehow making it sharper, and then began to write.
It so sucks he's gone. But well, if there was any way he'd want to go it would be while he was living life and it would just happen rather than him retiring and growing old etc being bored. :(
I'd say KH2 Kairi though I wish she'd have been wearing the skort from KH1 instead of that lame dress. She did get prettier and had a bit more personality though she can still use some improvements...and no more swan dives.
OOC: I'll fix this up the way it should be because he'd have said it in order. We went to Olympus Coliseum, saw Demyx run by yelling 'Run Away' and he ran into a portal. We had a run in with Hades, met Auron and all, then returned to see Hercules. He told us about the Olympus Stone and said he'd go get it for us to borrow. We then went to see Phil while we waited. Hercules returned and said the Olympus Stone was stolen. He said that it was stolen by a guy in a black cloak who had some assistance with beings of white, which we assumed were Nobodies. Phil took off and we encountered him. He said he went to chase the man in the black cloak and the man turned on him and he had attacked him..leaving him 'seeing stars'. All Phil had wanted to do was talk to him to see if he'd be a replacement hero because he didn't know about the guy stealing the Olympus Stone. We left to the Underworld to find the person who stole the Olympus Stone and met up with Demyx. He called me Roxas. Goofy who said he must be the thief and after, Demyx said it was rude and then read a card saying to 'use aggression to liberate his true disposition' He used the stone and then we fought, or well he brought out a bunch of water creatures to attack us." I had to defeat them with my friends in time or else I would be defeated. We did it and he left saying 'Roxas come back to us'. We acquired the Olympus Stone and used it and continued on. Later at Hollow Bastion. We found out from King Mickey about Xehanort and Xemnas and Ansem the Wise. We ran out because of an explosion...and Maleficent was commanding Heartless to attack the Nobodies and the Nobodies seemed to be winning any way. We met up with Maleficent who disappeared and had the Heartless attack us instead of the Nobodies. The Nobodies also went to attack us so we defeated both groups. We went to go help Leon soon after and to stop the Heartless. Dancer Nobodies appeared out of nowhere and began attacking us and we defeated them. We went on to help against the Heartless. King Mickey wanted us to leave but we couldn't just abandon the world to the Heartless or the Nobodies. We met Demyx again and Donald told him to scram. He was acting weird and I asked him how a wimp like him could get in the Organization. He told me to not judge anyone by appearance. I said I bet you can't fight and Donald said, but we can. He then said that 'they sent the wrong guy' I guess talking about the Org. I was reminded that the Org were Nobodies by Goofy so they had no Hearts so pretty much Demyx's weird actions of being afraid then not afraid and all were acts. Demyx said they did have hearts and Donald said you can't trick us...and then Demyx turned and faced me and pointed and said 'silence traitor'. He then brought out his weapon and smiled and well...we fought. He wasn't such a wimp after all. We defeated him though. Demyx was defeated and disappeared
I would -hope- that Kairi just doesn't appear in KH3 as a fighting goddess that just automatically knows how to do everything. Sora actually learned to fight from Riku and developed his own fighting style. Kairi should probably learn from the two boys and it be shown she had some trouble doing so. It'd be nice to see that she trained. I did find that stupid jump off the balcony ledge to be so lame it hurt. First off, the way she jumped and wearing that dress...she should have either had her undies showing ridiculously or hit her head from the awesome swan dive she did. The ledge wasn't that far down she could have fixed it and landed on her feet with bent knees. However, I didn't really care about the hair flip. I'm just curious how the heck she learned to jump off things like that when in KH she couldn't even keep up with the two boys in running at all and they were 'jogging'. It doesn't make much sense. Also, I agree with Zandyne. I've never seen anything that Nomura has stated that suggests he did not have rights to do with Kairi whatever he wanted. She could have been stronger like Mulan, or even the princess in 'Enchanted' who picked up a sword. She could have been more feeling and scholarly like Belle or ran like Aurora or been adventurous and active like Ariel...or fought and had a tude like Jasmine. Disney does do more with their princesses now especially and anyone who's seen the Aladdin cartoon could say that Jasmine does some pretty active things in it but she's definitely still considered a princess and fits the role. I believe the design is all on Nomura, as it fits more with his stereotypical females that are white mages with powers of supernatural beyond that giggle, run about and need the lead male to save them constantly. I still don't hate her, but it's just hard to feel much for her but pity because she's been so poorly developed. And I do find her prettier than Namine. Pale blond girls that look all ethereal I guess just don't get it for me. However, looks alone won't help her if in KH3 Nomura doesn't do something with her 2d personality.
OOC: Watching the video again... http://www.kh-vids.net/index.php?page=kh2cutv3 go to the first Olympus visit. ...watching...watching...wish I could just move the bar faster. lol....watching... I found something else I needed to amend which was seeing Demyx when they first arrived. I'll pop that in real quick...watching some more...blah blah... okay you are right. let me fix a couple things here. "Well, I just remembered it was Goofy who said he must be the thief and after, Demyx said it was rude and then read the card saying to 'use aggression to liberate his true disposition' He used the stone and then we fought, or well he brought out a bunch of water creatures to attack us." Also...we saw Demyx first when we arrived at the Olympus Coliseum but well, down a set of stairs which was the entrance to Hades' realm and he ran by us and through a portal yelling 'run away'."
OOC: Guys, I took this whole thing from the script. It is absolutely accurate. Not sure why it's being questioned like it's fake. Heck, I even put in that Sora goaded him to fight. :/ Aso, doing those bulletin things is darn hard. I try but I don't like having to keep going back to the scripts either and watch the kh-videos over and over again either so...I try to just get stuff in there so I don't forget. Sorry if it's not the 'exact' formula you want. I tried *sniffle*. Also, I can't see Sora 'lying' about it so not sure what Kairi is saying. "It's what I remember from my side of things." Sora gave a nod confirming so.
You can see quite a few of his stand up performances on Youtube if you just do a George Carlin search. I've found quite a few of them there for those who aren't familiar with him beyond his acting roles.
This should be interesting. lol
Harvey nodded to Pika Power and then took a seat, going through papers. Sora went up and took a seat once again after swearing in. "I sure have to swear a lot here." ..."I mean swear in a lot." >.< He then would give his testimony. We went to Olympus Coliseum and had a run in with Hades, met Auron and all, then returned to see Hercules. He told us about the Olympus Stone and said he'd go get it for us to borrow. We then went to see Phil while we waited. Hercules returned and said the Olympus Stone was stolen. He said that it was stolen by a guy in a black cloak who had some assistance with beings of white, which we assumed were Nobodies. Phil took off and we encountered him. He said he went to chase the man in the black cloak and the man turned on him and he had attacked him..leaving him 'seeing stars'. All Phil had wanted to do was talk to him to see if he'd be a replacement hero because he didn't know about the guy stealing the Olympus Stone. We left to the Underworld to find the person who stole the Olympus Stone and met up with Demyx. He called me Roxas. I thought he was bizarre..and he took out the Olympus Stone. I said he must be the thief. He said I was plain rude and took out some card that had orders on it to basically beat me up to get my 'true disposition' and summoned these water creatures to attack me. I had to defeat them with my friends in time or else I would be defeated. We did it and he left saying 'Roxas come back to us'. We acquired the Olympus Stone and used it and continued on. Later at Hollow Bastion. We found out from King Mickey about Xehanort and Xemnas and Ansem the Wise. We ran out because of an explosion...and Maleficent was commanding Heartless to attack the Nobodies and the Nobodies seemed to be winning any way. We met up with Maleficent who disappeared and had the Heartless attack us instead of the Nobodies. The Nobodies also went to attack us so we defeated both groups. We went to go help Leon soon after and to stop the Heartless. Dancer Nobodies appeared out of nowhere and began attacking us and we defeated them. We went on to help against the Heartless. King Mickey wanted us to leave but we couldn't just abandon the world to the Heartless or the Nobodies. We met Demyx again and Donald told him to scram. He was acting weird and I asked him how a wimp like him could get in the Organization. He told me to not judge anyone by appearance. I said I bet you can't fight and Donald said, but we can. He then said that 'they sent the wrong guy' I guess talking about the Org. I was reminded that the Org were Nobodies by Goofy so they had no Hearts so pretty much Demyx's weird actions of being afraid then not afraid and all were acts. Demyx said they did have hearts and Donald said you can't trick us...and then Demyx turned and faced me and pointed and said 'silence traitor'. He then brought out his weapon and smiled and well...we fought. He wasn't such a wimp after all. Demyx was defeated and disappeared."
George Carlin was one of the few people I can say I really admired and hoped to someday meet in person. He was so inventive, wrote all his own material and was a very peaceful man, despite how sometimes he'd get ornery on the stage. He had important messages even while some of it was offensive to some people and he's just going to be missed. Witty, obnoxious, stomping on political correctness, defender of cuss words, bashing personal beliefs and the government...he was an awesome man. One of my heroes died. :( RIP George Carlin.
I agree with the above poster. I do think parents owe it to a child to protect him/her but also to let them experience the world. Smothering or having the child shielded from the world only makes them foolish when they grow up and they make a lot of childish mistakes most get over with in their early years or teen years in their 20s or 30s. That's just not cool. However, the point is it's the parent's job to communicate with the child and if a bad word is heard, explain that it is not appropriate to use in certain audiences and if they do decide to do it any way, discipline the kids. They need to learn some order in their lives so that later on in their teen years they aren't so lost and struggling or aren't just spoiled to death and have no real experiences with what life means at all. I do agree that some kids getting cell phones and ipods etc when they are too young. I'd probably though give an ipod before I would a cell phone to a kid because it is just a device that holds music and well, I didn't go nuts owning a walkman or whatever. There are exceptions and no, it's not just because I think it would spoil a kid. Usually when parents give things like that to kids it's a distraction so that parents can do other things while the kid occupies his/her time with the gadget. I also think it can encourage kids to not have speaking time with parents and also proper interaction with other kids which can cause some to become spoiled and mean, valuing items and not talking to others who aren't like them...or it can make a child too introverted and shy, having trouble relating to others and being able to speak out because social time was taken by a device. Of course, this isn't 'always' true, but it just is something to think about. I just cannot blame the media etc for the fault of parents not raising kids by actually paying attention to them and helping give them a structured life where they learn the 'facts' of life as well.
You bring up some interesting points here and this is very well thought out. Very intuitive post. Early on, video games really had no stories; same as computer games. They were just silly games like 'golf' or 'duck hunt' or Pac Man. There was no need for a story and they were just things to do for coordination, some competition and to pass the time. Obviously later, with RPG popularity, games expanded where stories, even in most of the shoot out games, have a requirement to be there. The story, as much as the action, propels players to continue on, interact and be a part of events. Another thing that was often considered to not be a real 'art form' or recognized for intelligence etc is comic books. Early comics were just comic strips that ran in papers and were really not that great. Then they'd move up to actual comic books and today we have graphic novels with such well detailed plots written out that some great (or bad) movies have come from them and they hardly seem to be just children's books anymore. Video games get scrutinized by some because what started out for kids or G entertainment, same as comics, ended up moving to games for teens, adults and anyone could play. These games were no longer just cute but were graphical with very serious plots and some have adult themes. Even if you take the game Kingdom Hearts, some themes in the background are pretty mature, though the Disney certainly covers up death, despair and corruption very nicely. The rating system for games should be enough, just as it is for comics, but unfortunately, there are people who are insistent it is ruining people's lives. There are some people who quite naturally have a disorder of obsession and addiction. They can get addicted to -anything- and it is in a way fortunate some get addicted to gaming instead of drugs, alcohol, or some other stupid thing like having 100 cats in their homes. It's sad because these people need help. There are also debates about whether video games make people 'more aggressive' because while playing video games that are tense, of course the adrenaline gets pumping as you have to get that darn character through some battle or tricky scene and a few deaths of the character can really get annoying...however...don't most people feel overjoyed and just yell 'YEAH!" or whatever and are great after they succeed? Adrenaline is not just used for aggression and it would be nice if these religious fanatics so against video games would bother to consider that in their studies...but alas, they will not. In the end, video games are just a form of entertainment that gets so much attention because just like comics, or music, or language...they have evolved and some old people don't want to keep up or some people have their 'bad experiences' or whatever. They now are an elevated form of a book, a movie, a role-playing game, and some are even quite educational. They are very versatile and much to the dismay of those who protest against them, video games probably are going to keep growing and expanding in potential for many years to come and that's just the way it is.
I suggest you watch the scene again. Riku Replica hoisted him off the ground and his hand was emanating Darkness. He absorbed Zexion's life force and Zexion dispersed because of it. No, he didn't strangle him, as you said but it was strongly implied that Zexion was finished off by Riku Replica. The guy did cry out in excruciating pain or fear by instinctive reaction, to say the least before the scene ended.
