This scene caused my jaw to drop when I realized what it was asking me to do as a player. Immediately following the video scene, you go around to each item—and each one tells you what about its usage can make you heroic, and what makes you a villain. Essentially, the sword is a noble weapon, and tyrannical; the staff is wondrous, and leaves ruin everywhere; the shield is protective, but shuts everything out (my apologies for not being able to scrounge up the exact text at the moment).
Functionally, the game is giving you customizable character options: you specialize in one, and give up another, which impacts how your Strength, HP, MP, Defense, and other stats shape up over the course of the game. However, what the game is actually asking you to do is not only choose your heroic qualities, but your villainous ones as well. Immediately after, you’re sucked into darkness, to fight your first Heartless—you enter the shadows to fight the shadows. The moral ambiguity abounds.
This scene is pivotal in setting up the basic deconstruction of the game’s primary symbols: Light does not equal Good, and Darkness does not equal Evil. Just because you have a mystical sword or staff or shield does not make you a hero; just because you go into the shadows does not make you a monster.
The light/dark and good/evil contrasts of the scene blow my mind. Down the road, I find myself wondering: did the villains of the game, who seem to be lost inside the Darkness the exert control over, undergo the same Awakening (as per the title of the scene) that Sora did? If so, how are any of the main characters, good or evil, any different? Are they?
2 years ago • Notes