Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days/YMMV


Roxas: "It's sweet, but also kinda salty."

Axel: "That's exactly what you said the last time."

Axel: "Uh, Roxas...there's this thing about chests. They have stuff in them."
Roxas: "So I should open the chest?"
Axel: "Yes, that is generally what we do."

Saïx: Teach [Roxas] well, Axel.
Axel: Oh I'll make sure he makes the grade.

Roxas: You did great. In fact, you need a little something extra.
Xion: Something extra?
Roxas: Yeah, the icing on the cake.

    • There was also a conversation between Axel and Roxas about how Axel spends too much time in bed...
    • If you replace "ice cream" with a certain word, Roxas' diary reads like a pornographic novel.

Roxas: I've been having ice cream by myself lately, but it's just not the same. All I taste is the salt and my hands get sticky.

Roxas: Me and Axel went to Agrabah. He seems different now that he's back from C.O. Ice cream was just the two of us today. I wonder when me and Axel and Xion will all get to have ice cream together.

Roxas: I was partnered up with No. XIV for today's mission. Xion wore a hood the whole time and wouldn't say a word to me. Come to think of it, I didn't have a whole lot to say, either. Afterwards I went and had ice cream by myself."

Roxas: "I went up to the clock tower to have ice cream, but nobody else showed up."

Roxas: "After I finished my mission I wanted all three of us to have Ice cream, but I couldn't find Xion."

Roxas: "My job today was to help Axel find Xion. It turns out she had gone missing, but we managed to find her. We finally got to all have ice cream together, which was nice."

Roxas: The other members have been teaching me more about how to fight and stuff. It's going, I guess. Every day after work, I've been meeting Axel at the clock tower to have ice cream. It really is salty! But still sweet, too. How come it tastes so familiar?

Roxas: Axel and I went to Twilight Town today. He taught me a lot. Before we RTC'd (Returned To the Castle) we swung by the clock tower and had ice cream. Axel called it the "icing on the cake" after a successful mission. Well, except there was no cake—just the ice cream. I don't know what to write in this thing!

Roxas: Me and Axel went on a mission to Twilight Town. Afterwards, we went and had ice cream again up on the clock tower. He said friends do stuff like that. Or they laugh together. So does that mean me and him are friends?

Roxas: Today was my third day with Xion. I've gotten to know a little more about her. That's right—she's a girl, with black hair, and she can use the Keyblade just like me! I took her out for ice cream afterwards, but I'm saving the WINNER stick. Axel deserves a reward when he gets back. Xion wants to have ice cream with us from now on. Maybe we'll be friends.

  • Alas, Poor Villain and/or Alas, Poor Scrappy: Xion.
  • Alternate Character Interpretation:
  • Angst Dissonance: Roxas is probably one of the biggest victims of this trope.
  • Author's Saving Throw: The Ho Yay between Axel and Roxas was dripping after Kingdom Hearts II, and it helped that unlike Sora and Riku, neither of them has a "canon" love interest. The introduction of Xion and the very heavyhanded Ship Tease with her and Roxas could thus be considered this.
  • Base Breaker / Broken Base: The "Sue" status of Xion has been a source of great debate amongst fandom. It's generally divided into two camps: one sees her as a sympathetic deconstruction of a sue who experiences a short, painful, and traumatic life before finding out she's expected to kill her best friend and possible Love Interest, and the other sees her as a retcon-added Black Hole Sue who motivates the actions of the main characters more than she should have, in a forceful or contrived way that wasn't needed when there were other means available. Or so it stands. It's controversial enough that you'll get differing opinions on a lot of things.
  • Complete Monster: Xemnas reinforces his status as this yet again. This game dispels all doubt that basically ALL of the other Organization members were tools to him, and that he wanted all of them either dead or under his complete control by the time he got what he desired so he could reign over all the worlds unrivaled.
  • Contested Gaiden Game: Arguably the most divisive game of the series.
  • Crowning Music of Awesome: After the game had been out for about five minutes, the community came to the consensus that "Musique pour la tristesse de Xion" is the series' best Leitmotif so far.
    • "The Other Promise", which puts an ungodly beautiful and heartwrenching spin on Roxas's already depressing theme.
  • Fan Dumb / Hate Dumb: Xion fans and Xion haters have been known to be equally vicious as they go at one another's throats.
  • Fan Nickname: Not so much 'fan' nickname as one given by detractors. Her haters have dubbed Xion "Xarmy".
  • Freud Was Right: The Cave of Wonders doors have rather unfortunate designs on them. Inevitably, a demotivator was created in response.
  • Game Breaker: Saïx in the eyes of some, due to his critical hit ratio and critical bonus being at max.
    • Lexaeus as well, because of his extremely high power in his attacks, doing more damage per combo than Saix.
  • Ho Yay: There's a bit of Axel/Saïx bait, if you can believe a Tsundere and a Kuudere, neither with any dere.
  • Magnificent Bastard: Xemnas again. Saïx attempts to be this too.
  • Mary Sue: Many haters (and some fans) believe Xion to be one. Whether she is or isn't is up to heavy debate. See Base Breaker for details.
  • Moral Event Horizon: Xemnas's manipulation of Xion and his utter lack of compassion for the rest of the group. <ref>For those wondering about the Potholes: Xenmas plans for all of the other members of the Organization to be dead by the time he fully awakens Kingdom Hearts, so that he alone receives godlike power. This is kind of a Player Punch for those who played through KHII; Sora nearly played right into Xenmas's hands, with Xenmas only losing because Sora wiped him out too!
    • Saix attempting to trick Roxas and Xion into a fight to the death.
  • Narm / Narm Charm:

Roxas: No! Xion... Who else will I have ice cream with?

    • This nearly ruined the biggest Tear Jerker in the game. Although for some it was the line itself, and for others the line was fine but it was the delivery.
    • Now, in the defense of that line, no one seems to know or care that it's pretty obviously metaphorical. In this case, ice cream stands in for their friendship, which is meant to be rather pathetic and sad, as eating ice cream is pretty much all they ever did. The narm seems to stem from the immediate context (but, y'know, ignoring the overall plot) combined with Memetic Mutation.
    • The final fight with Xion is meant to be a tragic fight between two friends. It's a little bit hard to feel moved while Xion is constantly yelling generic taunts.
      • This is a little less narmy if you have a bit of Alternate Character Interpretation. Xion wants to die so Roxas can live and take down Xemnas... so in order to get him to fight harder, she attempts to anger him by taunting him, in addition to attacking him and forcing him to fight in self-defense.
  • Player Punch: If you got attached to Xion at all, you WILL need tissues by the end of this game.
    • The Castle Oblivion team sans Axel could count as well. Or even all of Organization XIII, if you consider Kingdom Hearts II.
  • Rescued from the Scrappy Heap: A lot of people hated Xion on principle before the game even came out, but her final scene changed their minds. Of course, not everyone; Xion is still a Base Breaker.
  • Ron the Death Eater: Some people think Roxas is a Jerkass because of the way he treated his Poisonous Friend Axel toward the end of the game.
  • Scrappy Level: There are many missions that are just plain frustrating to go through.
  • That One Boss: The Leechgrave. If you can beat the mission when you have to fight this without dying ONCE, then you have skills.
  • Tear Jerker: Xion's Death. Wait! Roxas's capture. Screw it! The entirety of the ending.
  • Tier-Induced Scrappy: Xigbar. Despite being funny, having a cool weapon (and a cool scar), being quite possibly the best partner in story mode, and having some of the best lines in the game, he's not very good for soloing in Mission Mode, and is usually only picked by people who think he's cool. But he's alright in a group when you have someone else tanking.
  • Uncanny Valley: While it won't mean that much to someone new to the games, it is invoked when Xion removes her hood and reveals herself to have Sora's face and is speaking with her voice, it really feels unsettling.
  • The Woobie: Roxas and Xion.
  • Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Xion becomes this by the end of the game.
  • Woolseyism: Near the end of the game, when Roxas looks at Xion and sees Sora's face, Xion uses Japanese Pronouns to indicate that she still thinks of herself as female. The line was restructured into the third person ("This puppet will have to play her part") to get the same point across in translation.
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