Birth by Sleep Aqua: a completely superfluous character

So, I just finished playing BBSFM, and it was a nice refresher for the story. It had been a while since I played BBS, and so I had forgotten what it was like to play through the story. Now, obviously I didn't forget the story, but I had a very different experience playing through this time, compared to the experience that I had last time. I'm not saying that my opinion of the game changed, it's still too soon to say, but after playing I couldn't help but wonder why Aqua is there for any reason other than to fill out the obligatory protagonist triad that KH seems to be so fond of.

Now, I'm not saying that I don't like Aqua, I like the character just fine, but she contributes nothing to the overall plot of BBS.

Let's go down the list and see what each is about.


Terra's Story:

• His internal struggle with darkness
• Terra trying to prove that he is worthy of being a master
• Chasing Xehanort and the 'masked boy'
• Extinguishing the Unversed threat
• Showing us how Terra-Xehanort came to be, and the whole situation behind that guy

Ven's Story:

• Chasing Terra
• Trying to prove to the others that he can take care of himself
• Discovering who or what he is and the significance of this
• Showing us his connection with Sora, and how this has affected Sora and all of those around him

Aqua's Story:

• Trying to save her friends

As you can see, the other two have stories that are actually about something.
In my opinion, Terra's is by far the most interesting. Ven's is somewhat interesting, but in the end it becomes so convoluted that it takes away from the enjoyment somewhat. Aqua's is just there to fill the game out, she doesn't do anything worthwhile, and by the time you finish her story it's apparent that all it's about is wrapping up what happened to the other two.

So yeah, I just wanted to share my thoughts on this.

 

Well yeah she wraps up what happened. It took me a while when I first got to thinking about it, but there is one major thing in Aqua's story: Sora, Riku, and Kairi. She was the reason things are really the way they are between them, Sora Tried to save riku from his "Dark path" and Kairi came to the islands in the first place because of Aqua's spell. Granted, It's not much but it's still important in my eyes.

 

...

 

...

 

I think it is inevitable when you play with 3 different points of view to find at least one the lame one, she not having darkness duality , makes her really less cool, Darkness is cool, If it wasn't there wouldn't be so many people droping their keyblades (that are pretty cool) just to gain MORE DARKNESS, and people making rock music, and even girls thinking that that guy is a "lonly/broken soul who needs melding" everybody likes the darkness at some point!
But I don't agree with you:

Aqua was trying to help her friends first Terra, than Ven (that should't be off departure land anyway).
Aqua didn't understand darkness, so she couldn't reach for Terra, so she tried so hard to understand him and some side characters try to teach her, Like the Fairy Goodmother that teaches her that "You can't win from darkness using light, as Light creates darkness, Cinderella's beauty is something you could call 'light', thus only good things should come from it, and yet her sisters hate 'dark' are alive because of it"
She sees what Terra have done, and sees when he goes astray (even though most time she is misled to belive it, in the end he lost to the dark)
She saves Kairi , she teaches Sora.
And at the end she sacrifice herself to save Ven and Terra from darkness, and becomes a BADASS killing pure blood heartless for 10 years or more?
She teaches Mickey to have the streght to save their friends "I'll save Sora and Riku, as my old friend Master Aqua tryied to"
And at the end she finaly conects all the story by metting with Ansem, and learning about Sora, regaining Hope.

 

I agree, during the events of BBS itself, it doesn't really seem like Aqua moved the plot that much.

But this is Nomura we're talking about. Its pretty much a given she probably knocked a leaf off of a tree at some point in the game that will have major effects on the plot eventually. AND it'll blow our minds yet again.

 

Okay, first of all, no.
Terra is not the more interesting character because of his relationship with darkness. Darkness does not automatically make someone a "cool character." I find Riku to be generally uninteresting, and have never cared for him since the series started.


Second, this isn't a matter of opinion. I gave factual information for why Aqua's story in BBS is not nearly as significant as the others. That statement is made from a critically objective standpoint, and summarizing her story is not sufficient for explaining your reasons for why you see differently. If you want to convince me that she is more important in BBS than she actually is, I will need more evidence. But since it's apparent that BBS isn't really about her, there's not really anything to say that I'm aware of.

You're grasping at straws with your assessment of her story. She never tried to understand him, in fact, she tried to turn him away from the darkness. The aid of the other characters only provided her hope that he was still safe on his journey, nothing more. Also, she doesn't exactly "teach" Sora anything. She gives him some words of wisdom and then leaves, that's hardly teaching him anything. Where exactly are you pulling this quote of Mickey referencing Aqua? Either I completely forgot that, or you are seriously romanticizing BBS to the extreme. And even if that did happen, she didn't teach him anything. He was acting to save his friends long before he met her. And finally, her meeting Ansem doesn't "connect" the entire story like you say, that's simply her meeting a character who tells her about how Sora had been protecting the light. How is that, in any way, connecting the story?

 

...

 

Nomura offered his ideal order of playing the characters, if I remember correctly it was Ven, Terra, then Aqua--Ven and Terra might have been switch around but I know Aqua was last. Aqua's story, as you said, has probably the least meat to it, until the Keyblade Graveyard/endgame. She is pretty much just cruising around, trying to stop Terra from falling to darkness and to take Ven home. She gets mixed up in some stuff--the conflicts of Disney worlds, mostly, and fights Vanitas once or twice--but on the whole, her general role is her responsibility to Ven and Terra. This is kind of the same problem I have with KHII's story--Sora is pretty much just going around trying to find Riku. But I digress. Her position in this ordering is because her story kind of ties up loose ends without adding much to the plot.

Thematically, as you said, Aqua plays the KH protagonist role. Faithful to her friends to the last, but I think she has an interesting conflict--does she trust Terra when he says he is fighting the darkness, even if it takes him down an unfamiliar path? Or does she follow the word of Eraqus, her Master, and buy into the strict light vs. dark, good vs. evil, black and white dichotomy? In Ven's case, her conflict is similar--learning to let go and let people grow, even if it is apart from you.

Others have adequately covered her role in the larger plot of Kingdom Hearts, and I would say she is underutilized for 90% of Birth by Sleep, but I wouldn't call her a superfluous character by any means. She had potential that may not have been properly harvested, but she is such a pivotal character in the series. I absolutely adore her, haha--so this is biased. but yeah.

 

Without adding anything to what others have already said, I'll add a small list of what Aqua does in the games as people have already mentioned.

Trying to save her friends
Becoming the first Keyblade Master of her generation
Fighting Terra-Xehanort, creating his amnesia and halting his plan
Saving Ven's body and creating Castle Oblivion

I personally think, as I've argued with Misty a couple of months ago, she's effectively the lap dog of Eraqus who follows his orders, even when it goes against her friends trust and at times. And she's never really properly conflicted about it, which is why I didn't list it, but that's more a fault of the story progress than hers.

But she does enough n the games for her to be pertinent in my mind.

 

I don't think Menos Grande said that line was from BbS. That user is from Brazil, so I think it's a translation of the Dream Drop Distance line "Follow their hearts, and you'll find the way. That's something master Aqua taught me once."
Just thought I should point that out.

 

I actually agree to this, but not entirely. I agree that Aqua didn't really do much in BBS aside from jumping from world to world, and adding to the storyline of those worlds, but not the storyline of BBS as a whole. In the end, she did end up doing some things that helped, like keep Ven safe, and sort of save Terranort from the realm of darkness (wait, was that considered help?), but aside from that she didn't really do much.

 

Aqua didn't do much in BBS, she was likely meant to add more to the overall story instead of just BBS. She's a real Keyblade Master, and one of the 3(?) surviving ones, not counting Xehanort. Ven and Terra aren't Masters, and they'll be harder to find than Aqua will. I only say this because Ven's heart is in Sora, and Terra's fused with Xehanort. I don't see how they'll fission them right now, so yeah, Aqua has more importance in KH Overall, lol.

 

Thanks flood!
As for Mickey can see it here:

(at 2:21)
Notice that this isn't the only moment Mickey says this about Aqua, in Re:Codded he started to say this when data-Sora learns about the keyblade trio, so in a way Aqua is essential to construct Mickey as a character that is one of the most important characters in KH's plot. Due to this Mickey could rescue Riku in Reverse/Rebirth, and even change his mind about Darkness (thus steping foward what Aqua has done). And she is resposible for Ven's and Terra's Current state and any delay on Xehanort plan's, beside she is a living proof of what the trio have done, and most likely will get a leading role in the upcoming titles, as her mission isn't over, she still has to rescue Ven and Terra, and Sora will enable her to do it.

In a way just inverting the "rescue the princess/mainden" to make the woman save her friends paradigm is enough to make it counts I guess.