Film Review #119: Inside Out

Of all the studios to get into a rut, the very last studio I expected to fall into this kind of a slump was Pixar.  I've come to expect this from Disney once in a while and Dreamworks has yet to get on a real role with their films.  There are obviously more animation studios besides those three, but they've also never hit the same levels of success as these three.  But Pixar's slump (at least in my eyes) began with one of the most anticipated films of all time: Toy Story 3.  After this film was released, a string of iffy to poor animated films followed, resulting in an unexpected off year for Pixar.  In 2015, however, Pixar was back in full force and released their next new film.  

Much like how WALL-E and Up captured the imaginations of children with original ideas and unique and lovable characters, Inside Out manages to capture the hearts and minds of both children and adults and showed signs that even with "Sequel Syndrome" plaguing them (Thanks Disney), they can still come up with something charming and original.  

Plot: A bunch of emotions live inside the mind of a girl named Riley from Minnesota.  These emotions include Joy, Sadness, Fear, Disgust, and Anger.  All of the emotions try to work together to keep Riley afloat, but often dismiss Sadness because they do not know her true purpose.  What complicates matters though is Riley's family's departure to San Francisco, where she has to start her life all over again and the emotions try their hardest to keep her happy in this difficult time in her life.  But Sadness's sorrow begins to cause irreparable damage to Riley's memories, prompting Joy to try everything in her power to keep the happiness from fading, but an accident knocks them both out of Riley's mind and into the far off reaches of the girl's memory.  To make matters worse, the others try to keep Riley in good spirits and fail miserably, only to inadvertently cause Riley to run away back to Minnesota.  Needing to set things right, Joy and Sadness must hurry back to Headquarters before Riley's memories collapse into misery and depression.  

What's Wrong?: There are a few issues with the film, but the issues are not very major.  One thing I noticed early on was how many emotions the film neglected to show us.  I mean, surely there are more emotions than the five shown on screen, right?  Like jealousy, love, common sense, etc.  They obviously couldn't overinflate the film with characters, but still, it would have been nice to have some extra ones instead of others covering more vague levels.  

What's Good?: This is one of those rare films that does not need a major sinister villain to get the plot rolling.  More often than not, most films feel the need to rely on an antagonist like a Jafar or a Ratigan to act as a foil to the main character and drive the plot.  But not in this film.  The film allows circumstance and stereotypes to foil the good guys drives to keep things in order, which is a fresh idea over the lackluster villains we've been getting from Marvel and Disney recently.

The animation is also incredible once again.  Showing signs that Pixar is indeed still a top dog in this animation race (though Disney seems eager to claim it with their recent animated films Zootopia and Moana).  Even though many say they reached their peak in human animation in The Incredibles, I like to think of their animation as ever evolving.  The humans in The Incredibles look very little like the humans in Up, and the humans in Brave look nothing like in this film.  To put it bluntly, Pixar would need to make another movie about inanimate objects to really disappoint me on a larger scale.

One thing I would also like to cover is the colors of the world inside Riley's head.  They look brilliant, alongside such sweeping films as Aladdin and Pocahontas.  I love how colorful the designs of the emotions are and how they can range from all sorts of those colors.  Like how Anger goes from crimson to maroon in some scenes.  It's just beautiful to look at.

Overall: Inside Out proved to me that Pixar still has some magic up their sleeves.  So long as they stay away from sequels, prequels, spinoffs, and otherwise stupid ideas, they should have no worries about falling into Disney's shadow once again.  And Pixar would have to try pretty damn hard to shatter these expectations.  Could they?  Um...

Final Grade: 95 or A

Bon Bon the Birthday Clown: A Star Among Planets

I don't usually comment on something that comes out directly (with exception given to The Force Awakens, Frozen, Captain America: Civil War, and Zootopia), mostly because I do not want to be viewed as a critic of any kind who only goes after something while it's still a hot commodity.  However, as is the case with Zootopia, I will comment on something if it hits me home on an emotional level.  Along with other stellar episodes of my favorite shows, like "Almost Got 'Im" and "Heart of Ice" for Batman: The Animated Series, "Aftershock" and "Things Change" for Teen Titans, or pretty much 80% of the episodes of Avatar: The Last Airbender, one particular episode of a quickly blossoming show caught my attention in ways I never thought possible of a Disney Show not named Gravity Falls.  In terms of the epic flowing narrative, Star vs The Forces of Evil is not up to par with the three previously listed shows, nor can it be judged alongside contemporaries like Steven Universe or Gravity Falls and expect to come out on top.  However, it does possess a charm about it that MANY other cartoons lack and it has definitely won me over with a few solid episodes.  And the Winter Finale of the show, "Bon Bon the Birthday Clown", completely shocked me in more ways than one and has officially brought this show into serious consideration as the top dog in cartoons.  It had comedy, action, romance, and tragedy that few shows can balance so well without falling into cliches or common destinations.  To put it bluntly, I have watched this episode no less than 15 times since it premiered on November 21st and have even downloaded a version of one of the most tender and endearing songs I've heard in an animated show in recent memory.

WARNING: The remainder of this post will be going into detail over SEVERAL key aspects of the show, along with revealing spoilers for other similarly themed episodes of Danny Phantom, Kim Possible, and a few other shows of it's ilk.  Reader's discretion is advised.  

Before I go in depth about this episode, let me first talk a little bit about the show:

Star vs The Forces of Evil is a fantasy/comedy animated show that follows the bizarre adventures of Star Butterfly, the magical princess of the kingdom of Mewni, who is sent away to our world (or at least as close to our world as it can be) in order to avoid entanglements with various monsters that plague Mewni.  While on Earth, she lives with and befriends the members of the Diaz family, chiefly their son Marco, with whom Star becomes fast friends with.  While adjusting to the new customs of her new home proves challenging sometimes, Star does eventually make more friends, including the skater girl Jackie Lynn-Thomas, an "oddball" named Janna, and the object of one of her first crushes, a "rocker" named Oscar.  But evil manages to find it's way into Earth, as many villains and fiends attempt to steal Star's powerful wand and use it for evil purposes, including the maniacal Ludo, the mysterious Toffee, her hotheaded ex-boyfriend Tom, and the headmistress of S. Olga's School for Wayward Princesses, who tries her hardest to have Star (and even Marco) committed for their wild ways.

Season 2 started over the summer and has continued to get more and more complicated.  Due to events in the Season 1 finale, Star's Wand has been "cleaved" and now has many strange oddities about it.  Only adding fuel to the fire has been the discovery of a hole in the Mewni Monster Shield, Ludo's acquisition of half of Star's Wand, and a potential romance blossoming between Marco and Jackie and the unforeseen consequences that may follow because of it.

Now, for the episode at hand:

Plot: Despite beginning with a flashback to the titular character's unfortunate demise, very little about this episode has to do with the actual spirit of the dead clown.  Instead, I will say the episode begins with Star and Janna talking about performing the seance to resurrect the spirit of Bon Bon, as he warned that he would return to the realm of the living that very night.  Star is conflicted though, because she would have to cancel her plans to attend a school dance with Marco.  These thoughts are initially alleviated because Jackie asks Marco to go with her instead, which a lovestruck Marco happily agrees to.

That evening, as Star and Janna prepare for their seance, Jackie arrives at Marco's house in a beautiful dress that Star remarks as "You Look like the Ocean".  However, the spotlight shifts to Marco, who we discover cleans up exceptionally well for a boy who was once too afraid to even speak to Jackie.  Star is stunned by her friend's handsomeness, but soon remembers that he was dressed that well only for Jackie.  After taking a picture of them, Star watches them leave the house with mixed emotions, holding onto those mixed emotions even at the graveyard as she, Janna, and her book of spell's keeper, Glossaryk, try to resurrect Bon Bon's spirit.

At the dance, Marco and Jackie remark with disappointment with the festivities and decide to leave to go off on their own, as Jackie tells Marco she should have just asked him out on a date instead of to go to the dance.  Despite Marco messing up with Jackie on their date, she explains that she always liked Marco because of how he always got up and tried again even with his numerous failures (which she hilariously reminds Marco of).  When Marco confesses that he never rode a skateboard before, Jackie coerces him into riding with her.  The two balance on the board together (with similarities to the scene in Titanic where Jack holds Rose near the bow of the boat).

The seance preparations go off the rails when Star constantly brings up petty things to say about Marco and Jackie and when both Glossaryck and Janna fall asleep.  Left alone with her thoughts, Star attempts to call Marco, but cannot get through to him.  Desperate to know what's going on, Star goes through her spell book to find a "Spying Spell" that Glossaryck warns is delving into Dark Magic.  Using the spell, Star sees Marco and Jackie close together on the skateboard, their arms wrapped around each other.  Filled with jealousy, Star uses her powers to cause the skateboard to trip.  Stunned by her actions, Star is unable to sense the coming ambush of Ludo and his henchmen.

Recovering from their fall, Jackie and Marco find themselves holding hands.  After remarking about their date, the two share their first kiss, which is interrupted when Marco sees the Blood Moon in the sky (see below for more information).  Sensing Star was in trouble, Marco and Jackie rush to the graveyard to find her, which causes Star to lose focus on the fight with Ludo and instead create a dark vortex that began sucking her in.  As Marco rushes to Star's rescue, Ludo steals Star's spell book with Glossaryck still inside.  Despite being rescued, Star is devastated, both by her loss of the book and Glossaryck, but also the thought of losing Marco to Jackie as well.

The Non-perfect Emotion: 

The ultimate reason for this being one of my favorite episodes of any show may not be one you are thinking of.  Throughout the history of animation, virtually the entire gambit of emotions has been felt by at least one character.  However, while most of the emotions have been captured perfectly at least once, one of the few I noticed was never truly captured was heartbreak.  Many animated shows and movies attempt to show heartbreak, but they always fall into two stereotypes with regards to the emotions:

1. One and Done: No, this does not mean that they feel it for a minute and then feel better.  No, this means that the heartbreak is only felt in one way.  Heartbreak is not a simple to define emotion.  In many cases, it is almost impossible to define.  It runs through many of the emotions at once, from jealousy, regret, sorrow, and depression.  But in quite a few cases, heartbreak only covers one of these emotions.  Many Disney films that deal with heartbreak fall into this trap.  Beauty and the Beast, for instance, falls into the trap of just depressing the Beast when Belle leaves to help her father.  The whole gambit of heartbreak is not felt by the Beast when his true love abandons him.  The same can be said for The Hunchback of Notre Dame or Tangled, both of which only react sorrowfully and then immediately get reminded of a bigger plot importance (the plight of the Gypsies for Quasimodo and Rapunzel's royal heritage).  It goes past Disney films, though.  In Adventure Time, Finn goes into a deep state of depression after Princess Bubblegum rejects him, never going through the other stages involved with it.  Actually, as disgusting as this sounds as I write it, Padme's "heartbreak" in Revenge of the Sith is the closest I can think of that goes through at least two or three of the stages.  She goes through denial and sorrow over how Anakin has changed.

2. Comedic Overselling: This is one of the most infuriating ones to cover.  These are the heartbreaking moments in shows that get overly weepy, overly angry, or overly depressing.  Shows that ranged from overly childish like Total Drama and The Fairly Odd Parents, to more adult shows like Family Guy or The Simpsons have all had moments like this, where a character goes to great lengths to make their heartbreak comedic and it is either quickly forgotten by a character or just ignored for the duration of the episode.  In fact, this current season of South Park is a major culprit of this crime, with the boys and girls getting into Battle of the Sexes that has them all at each other's throats over a matter as mindless as trolling on the internet.  This one infuriates me to no end, chiefly because it usually tries to take something very serious like heartbreak and tries to make it something worth exploiting for a cheesy story line or a punchline.


This episode of Star vs The Forces of Evil took a much different tone with the development of Star's character.  While many of the shows fans have "shipped" them together for sometime, it did not become abundantly clear to the bulk of fans that there was something brewing between Star and Marco until the Season 1 episode called "The Blood Moon Ball".  In the episode, Tom tries to convince Star that he's changed, only to trick her into dancing with him during the Blood Moon, which is said to forever bind those that are beneath it's gaze for eternity.  Through a misunderstanding, Marco and Star are together underneath the moon and dance together.  Then, in the Season 2 premiere, Marco and the audience almost discover Star's "Thoughts on Marco" which Star is incredibly worried Marco would discover.  But by far the biggest hint at things to come came in the episode "The Sleepover", when a box that demands the truth of all that take part in it's questions goes haywire when someone lies about who they have a crush on.  At the end of the episode, when Star shouts at Marco for not going with her to get breakfast burritos, the box responds by saying that she indeed did have a crush on Marco.

Star's emotional free fall in this episode is what truly made this episode for me.  Personally, I have gone through an event in my life similar to hers, where I took a friend that I liked for granted and then lost just when I realized how special she was to me.  It isn't overdone for laughs nor is it glossed over as just some fans overthinking something.  Star's character took a surprisingly dark turn in this episode, as she finds herself willing to even touch dark magic in order to get what she wants.  She always expected Marco to remain by her side, never truly understanding what he wanted and what his heart needed.  Her heartbreak covers several stages in this episode, from curiosity and confusion, to jealousy and despair.  If there was a moment that cemented this for me, it would be at the end, when despite him coming to her rescue, Marco seemed more concerned with Jackie's well-being than hers and the face she makes was truly painful to see.  It was a combination of all of the above emotions all wrapped into one character who seemed finally ready to break under the pressure of all that had happened.  You usually don't see someone break down like this in a cartoon like this, so that was very refreshing.

The Love Triangle

The Love Triangle has always been one of the most difficult things to pull off in any medium.  From soap operas and romantic comedies, to big musicals and animated films, there have been numerous attempts at a love triangle that have never truly taken off.  This can be attributed to a few reasons, most commonly being that one of the parties is an unlikable character that should be out of the relationship all together but is either engaged to another party or has leverage over both parties to get what they want.  In some cases, the love triangle can sprout between friends and family and tear friendships and family apart because of them.

And then there are the rare cases like this one, where all three parties just happen to be likable characters.  Jackie does not turn out to be a shallow and vain girl like Paulina in Danny Phantom, nor does she turn out to be a pawn of or even an incarnate of evil like Eric in Kim Possible.  Jackie was once a background character to both Star and Marco, but she has gotten more and more screen time as the series has progressed and has become a truly likable character.  She sees the good side of Marco through all of his many understandable and even quirky faults and cares about him because of this.  She was oblivious to Marco's crush on her until the events of "The Sleepover", where Marco makes an impassioned speech about how he believes she deserves someone who wants to know her for who she really is and expresses his desire to be that guy.  Marco, conversely, has been in love with Jackie since preschool, but never had the courage to speak to her or often messed up his opportunities to talk to her.  However, thanks to his adventures with Star and his perseverance against foes like Tom, he has grown more confident in himself to come to terms with his flaws and even confesses to her a laundry list of his own personal flaws when afflicted with a spell meant for him should he try to ask Star out instead.

And then there's Star Butterfly.  She always viewed Marco as a friend, but through many events in the series, from the Blood Moon Ball, to his encouragement of her riding a bike for the first time, and from his desire to repay her for all she has introduced to him of Mewni by showing her some of Earth's wonders, to his proclamation that the best thing he could ever ask for was her friendship, she developed feelings for Marco.  And yet, prior to the second half of the episode, she held no animosity towards Jackie and even encouraged Marco to take bigger steps in talking to her and becoming a better person in her eyes.  As with many close friendships, there can come that time when one develops feelings for the other that are not reciprocated (at least as far as we know from Marco).  Star's confusion with regards to her feelings for Marco do lead her to do bad things, particularly using the spell her ancestor, the Queen of Darkness used to rule over Mewni with an iron fist.

As with all Love Triangles, I see no way out for one of this triangle's three participants.  In other words, this is going to end badly for either Jackie or Star and I can literally see it going either way.  From a dramatic standpoint, I see it going badly for Star more likely than Jackie, otherwise there wouldn't have been much of a point to introducing her as a more developed character at all.  But from a personal standpoint, it literally crushed me to see some of Star's reactions in this episode and as I explained earlier, do not want to see Star go through what I went through with my friend.  So, from that standpoint, I am torn over how I want the series to progress (which is ALWAYS a good thing).

Moving Forward: Growing up is coming fast for me.  Though I am well out of High School, there are still many things I take part in that would not be considered age appropriate.  But things about my life are changing.  Integral parts of my childhood and life in general are changing and if I don't adjust as well, I could be left behind.  My sister is engaged, Ash Ketchum got his first kiss from someone that was neither a Pokemon in disguise or a non-canonical adventure, Harry Potter, the Hunger Games, and many other series from my youth are wrapping up, Kingdom Hearts III is right around the corner, and Disney seems back to making animated films as good as when I was born in the 90's.  So, like Star, I have to pick up the shattered pieces of myself and recreate the puzzle so that I am satisfied with where I am and where I can go.  Also, like Marco, I have to venture off into areas I am unfamiliar with and take on dangers head-on so I will be ready should the day come when I can no longer look to my parents for support.  And like Jackie, I have to be able to see the goodness in people and be willing to take chances on both myself and others.  When a cartoon about a magical princess can affect me as much as something as powerful as all the other things in my life have, what more can I ask for?

Kingdom Hearts III: My Five BIGGEST Questions

Considering this is a film review site, I'm sure you're wondering why quite a few of my posts (including a fanfic) have been about a video game series, Kingdom Hearts?  In case you haven't seen my Let's Play of Kingdom Hearts I on YouTube, all I'll say is that if there was a video game series that meant more to me on a personal level far more than even some of my favorite films have, it'd be Kingdom Hearts.  And, having spent the last 14 years of my life playing, dreaming, thinking, watching and living this series, the first arc is coming to an end in 2018, when Kingdom Hearts III finally comes out.

The game is going to have to answer many questions the fans have had over the years, while still moving the story along to a place it deserves to rest.  Despite my eternal love for this series (which unlike some of it's contemporaries like Mario, Halo, Call of Duty, Guitar Hero, among others has not yet become stale, although it's probably because it's been three years since the last major title in the series), I might call it quits after this game.  This is the movie fan in me, who would like to end a story with a satisfying conclusion.  This is why films like The Fellowship of the Ring and The Empire Strikes Back don't bug me as much as they do others, because I knew that there would always be the next chapter to answer these questions for me.  And considering Tetsuya Nomura has announced that this will be the finale to what he calls the "Xehanort Saga", I think this game will have a very satisfying conclusion to it (and not suffer from Return of the Jedi Syndrome).

But as time passes, I still have some questions, some that I would like to have answered when the games come out.  You might have your own questions should you be a fan of the series, and hopefully yours and mine are both answered.  In this blurb, I will be speculating on the five most gut wrenching questions I have that I hope get answered in this game:

WARNING: The following speculation contains spoilers for ALL Kingdom Hearts games made to this point, including Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Birth By Sleep, II, and Dream Drop Distance, which I am currently Let's Playing and plan to Let's Play.  If you do not want to learn the story ahead of time, please look away now.

1. Who is the Narrator?  

Considering this series extreme attention to detail, be it the obsession with Sea Salt Ice Cream, or the connections between Kairi's good luck charm and the Wayfinders, or even something as simple as why certain characters are where they are.  But this is one question that I don't see many people asking, and ever since I first played Kingdom Hearts I, I've been wondering.  At first, I thought it was King Mickey, but the voice doesn't always speak the way Mickey Mouse does in the series, so it couldn't be him.  I do have several theories behind them, but no matter where they go, they all lead to failure in one way or another.  This isn't one of the most pressing questions I have to ask, but it is one I would like answered regardless.  Especially considering how much effort was put into this game by all parties involved...

2. Who are the Thirteen Seekers and the Seven Guardians?  

According to Master Xehanort, the X-blade cannot be forged until Seven Guardians of Light and Thirteen Seekers of Darkness have merged and clashed with one another.  In Dream Drop Distance, we discover a handful of Xehanort's Seekers, including himself, his Heartless, Xemnas, Xigbar, Isa, and his younger self, but the rest are left in shadows.  We also speculate that Riku, King Mickey, Sora, Aqua, among others are viable candidates to be one of the Seven Guardians of Light.  However, the light seems to have an abundance of potential guardians, which could also include Terra, Ventus, Kairi, Lea, and any of the warriors seen in Kingdom Hearts Unchained.  This could mean that some of the heroes listed above won't be considered real guardians and some might not appear at all, or could perhaps be trapped as one of Xehanort's puppets.  The events of DDD also say that Xehanort sought Sora to be the Thirteenth Seeker, but failed when Lea intervened.  Could this be a harbinger of things to come, or could it be that once again, Xehanort knows more than he is letting on?  Either way, however this plays out will be interesting.

3. What became of Xion?  

While definitely not their flashiest or most unique of titles, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days is arguably the best in terms of character development.  It's crowning achievement is, of course, in the character of Xion, the puppet Organization XIII made to copy Roxas's powers and drain Sora of his strength and memories.  But what they didn't count on was how powerful her connection to Roxas and Axel would be.  However, at the end of Days, Roxas is forced to destroy her and set things right by wiping out the Organization, setting in motion the events of Kingdom Hearts II.  Her death is still one of the most painful to experience in my game playing career.  However, in DDD, we learn that she is one of the many hearts connected to Sora's that he has to save.  We are not told why she's there or what her ultimate purpose will be to either good or evil, All we know is that she, along with Roxas and Axel, all need him.  This will definitely be one of the questions I would like answered, as she did develop as a strong character by the end of the game.

4. Will Sora and Kairi ever end up together?  

What was once Sora's greatest motivator has been thrown to the side and really should be addressed in this game.  It was abundantly clear that Sora had at least a crush on Kairi and she reciprocated the feelings.  But with Kairi taking a backseat to other characters, her romance with Sora has been shelved for quite a few games, only being brought up by characters like King Mickey and Riku and usually in a expository dialogue.  Hopefully, Kairi will get a much larger role in this final game and I also hope that she and Sora finally end up together.  This is something I have waited to see since 2002 and I will not be satisfied until I see it happen.  Granted, the final question I have might just make this question null and void, but I still would like to see some kind of development of their emotions, as it seems Kairi will always be more of a motivator instead of a character that needs motivation...

5. Will a Good Guy Die?

Answering this question would obviously need more of a story input than anything else.  But, given our only evidence is the previous games, we have quite a bit to speculate on.  Firstly, since the games have progressed, they have become much darker and have even killed off a few side characters and in Xion's case, a main character.  But Kingdom Hearts III's main storyline will involve the infamous Keyblade War, and in wars, not everybody generally makes it out okay.  While most stories that involve war will only kill off side characters or lesser ones, the most personal and the ones that hurt the most are the ones that do not hesitate to kill off a main character.  Secondly, to kill off one of the central characters, aside from Xehanort or Maleficent of course, we would have to take a look at several factors, the most important being both character arc and character importance.

An arc is the emotional journey a character takes, which will often lead to a dynamic change in their physical or emotional presence.  In terms of this factor, not too many have completed their arcs, and the ones that have are already gone.  Of the two character that remain that have completed theirs, Riku and Aqua, we can look and analyze which is likeliest to bite the big one in this final showdown.  Aqua's entire goal in life is to reunite with Terra and Ventus, though both are currently unable to see her due to Ventus's hearts resting within Sora's and Terra being a puppet of Xehanort.  If she were to die beforehand, this would keep her from completing a personal journey, and I don't think that's where Aqua was meant to go, if she is at all.  Riku, conversely, has been around for many games and has completed the journey from curious child, to rebellious adolescent, to living shadow, to determined and powerful Keyblade Master.  However, aside from his attachments to Sora and Kairi, his role in the story is a very hazy one moving forward.  With his main arc completed, are we going to see a repeat of Aqua's arc, or are we going to see a repeat of Axel's?  Is it possible to create a new arc for one who has completed a large one already?  Personally, I doubt it.  Riku's death would definitely make the series much darker and more adult moving forward, and could perhaps be a rallying point for the heroes.

Importance involves the relevance to the overall plot.  In this case, the most important character is Sora and will likely continue to be so, as long as Disney and Square intend on continuing the series past III.  With this information, Sora is arguably the least likely to die, along with Donald, Goofy and Mickey (who wouldn't die in a Disney game).  This does add concern for Kairi, however, as her role as a Princess of Heart and a potential Guardian of Light could make her a ripe target to be slain.  This would emotionally destroy Sora, I believe, and like in Riku's death, could propel him and the series to newer territories.


But if I was a betting man, the two heroes most likely to perish would be Lea or Terra.  Terra in particular, has undergone a similar character arc to that of Anakin Skywalker, even becoming the very evil he desperately tried to destroy.  So, it stands to reason that Terra would overcome the shackles Xehanort has over his heart and banish the fiend from within it, even destroying himself if he has to.  He cares about Aqua and Ventus too much to be willing to lose them again.

Lea, on the other hand, could be an easy choice to kill off because of how little we really know about him.  He is no longer his Nobody, Axel.  Could he retain memories of Xion and Roxas?  What about his previous friendship with Isa/Saix?  Could this be a motivator for him in the game?  Or is he just destined to follow the path of fallen lesser heroes?  Only time will tell...


These were my Five Biggest Questions.  Maybe, when the game comes out, I will get a satisfying answer to these.  What are your questions?  Leave them in the comments so we could perhaps discuss...