WHO IS AQUA?

aqua is a protagonist of the fantasy video game series, kingdom hearts. she debuted in 2010 with the prequel game kingdom hearts: birth by sleep, in the role of the "misguided master", so called because her fatal flaw of moral rigidity led her down the wrong path, in spite of her noble intentions.

a strong, stoic graduate master of the keyblade, aqua specializes in spellweaving and graceful maneuvering through the battlefield. what she lacks in natural friendliness and charisma among strangers, she makes up for in fierce devotion to and faith in her loved ones, to a fault. cold social awkwardness aside, aqua is staunch in her duty as a knight and helps those she comes across who are in need, even when it's irrelevant to her cause.

her heroic nature turned to self sacrifice when the events of KH:BBS came to a head, making a decision to stay trapped in the realm of darkness for many years. she sank into deep despair and madness during this time, constantly tormented by her memories and own distorted self perception to the point of succumbing to the dark. but in return, two of her lost loved ones had a chance of returning to their normal lives, so it was a price she paid without a second thought.


WHY DO I LOVE AQUA?

where to even start......she is my ultimate blorbo. my poorest meow meow. she is gender. she is my hot wife. she is the blueprint. she is a role model and anti-role model.

ok but seriously though, the deal with me and aqua is that it started as instant attachment, given that she is a female character in a game with so few female characters, and even fewer written well and consistently. and i won't say that aqua is completely exempt from the poor writing treatment (shaking my head, nomura), but in terms of her debut game, she is perfect. and perfectly imperfect. because the imperfections are part of the narrative, and not a mistake.

as mentioned in the previous section, she has a fatal flaw in her moral rigidity, which stands in conflict with her inherent kindness toward others, creating some internal dissonance and confusion for her. but the moral rigidity also makes perfect sense for her to have, given the way she was raised by eraqus as a keyblade wielder. eraqus died as a direct consequence of being unable or unwilling to see past the black and white of his moral paradigm. it was up to aqua to learn from that tragedy and accept that being a hero means accepting right/wrong, good/evil, light/darkness, aren't binaries.

and don't even get me started on the whole Trapped In Hell For Ten Years thing......i have a whole lens i view the realm of darkness (and succumbing to darkness in general) as allegorical for mental illness, especially depression. NOT that i think that was something the writers intended. this is not a Game Theory(tm) and i'm not looking for proof. it's just my interpretation / personal projection. all this to say, aqua's lonesome journey through the dark, fighting her own reflection (actually intentional metaphor for her regret and self-doubt, maybe even self-hatred), speaks to me on a deep level.

i'm only scratching the surface here for all the reasons why i love aqua. i'll likely add onto this section as i find the words to articulate deeper, but for now this gives you an idea ^___^

FURTHER ANALYSIS

lifted from tumblr posts i've made in the past

[post from OCT/12/22]

actually i'm not done talking about aqua

the cinderella level in general is so fascinating bc before the whole civilians blowing up thing she was legit about to storm into the tremaine manor to wreck shop and had to be stopped by the fairy godmother, who told her she can't fight darkness with light, bc the brighter the light, the darker the shadow – which is a good metaphor for why lawful good morality isn't exactly a logical praxis to live by. her coming in and raining justice down on the tremaines would only further polarize their position by making them feel victimized, which would only aggravate further violence. instead the fairy godmother told her to work with forces that were already in motion to set things right

the only problem is that even when aqua did as she was told, the tremaines still gave in to the darkness and sought (lethal?!) violence against cinderella. so was aqua right, in this instance???? maybe the point is that life is complicated and no single moral praxis is gonna fit every situation. maybe aqua really should've struck first here, but that obviously isn't the answer to every problem, which is why aqua needs to expand her worldview a bit to allow for nuances outside of good and evil, and always assuming she's the good one

(the moral of these stories (bbs and the star wars prequels) is to keep an eye on your himbos and their mental health)

[post from OCT/12/22]

aqua is such a unique blorbo bc she's undeniably on the side of good but she'll also just sit back and watch civilians die and not bat an eyelash (notoriously saying that it was good that they died in one instance). she loves and protects kids and her found family but also she has some weird ideas about morality and what people deserve. i love her imperfections and fallacies. we need more lawful good female characters that are visibly wrong in their convictions but for understandable reasons. she didn't end up that way for no reason. i hope she has a character arc at some point tho, otherwise she'll just end up being another eraqus

(also playing on critical mode is interesting bc fights last for so long and she just comes off looking BLOODTHIRSTY. she gracefully bounds and twirls across the battlefield ripping apart her enemies in swathes. i'm so weak ♡)

PLAYLISTS

always an active work in progress!