My Favorite Scene in Kingdom Hearts 2

An odd choice, isn't it? Well, it's super silly but I like this scene even if it bears no real weight to the entire game.

It's a beautiful afternoon on the hill, the kids are waiting for a fabled train and in comes Seifer -- their supposed rival and one of my favorite character in gaming-- to seemingly just pester then. And pester he does, enough for Roxas to stand up and face him, to which Seifer responds:

"Why does looking at you always piss me off?"

"I dunno, maybe it's destiny," Roxas replies. And while the response is semi-sarcastic, it seems that it hits a bit with Seifer.

And something about this is really rather... sweet.

It's a good reference on how Seifer doesn't like destiny dictating what he should do (a relevant topic for his game of origin, Final Fantasy 8). But also, it really goes to show that the two posses really are just... pettily competing, but they're very capable of cooperating with one another. Like, Seifer and posse fight the wibble wobbles (the dusks) with Roxas, putting aside their "rivalry" for a second, and had Roxas story in Twilight Town continued maybe we would've seen more layers to the whole thing. After all, in this very scene Olette calls out to Seifer to which he responds:

"I know. Tomorrow."

It's not clear what he means, and that part always confused me before, but now I kinda think it's that he and his posse were going to help Heyner and the others do something before vacation was over. Or that there were other plans. It's subtle, but it really feels like he respects them and doesn't overlook something he promised to do for them. It's curious, but it feels very much like a real group of teens being each other's rivals. It's a depth I didn't expect. It's just so interesting to me, for that scene has no real purpose but it exists.

it exists and it's important to me, in a silly way. A moment of banter that feels like I'm in the group of teens talking as the sun is setting behind the mountains. A moment that recontextualizes the "rivalry" of both of the groups, a promise of 'Tomorrow' that, if i'm not mistaken, doesn't come for Roxas. It's a moment that really captures an essence that's long gone for me, too, but i can always come back and feel it all over again. A moment of comfort in a fictional world, within a fictional world.

How silly, right?

Anyways, that's all I want to say.