- M A R L U X I A ’ S P L A N A N D O T H E R S T U F F -
Oh yes, today we are going to talk about this pretty boy a bit.
So let’s talk about how this guy is probably one of the most manipulative members of Organization XIII.
When Marluxia was sent to Castle Oblivion, he had the unique chance to betray the Organization by twisting the task a little bit so that by the time they realised what was happening, it would be too late. And it all would have gone as planned if it wasn’t for that meddling Axel and that stupid replica!
Let’s talk about the central pieces of the plan and everything else.
Naminé was a central piece of the plan and for that I’d assume Marluxia and Larxene took turns on torturing her, both mentaly and phisically so she would get to the point where she would be extremely submissive to them but not enough to not function. The type of submissive that despite probably disliking her actions, still had enough fear of them to do what they told without questioning. In the game, whenever they are shown in the same room together, you can see Naminé looking down and extremely quiet, as if trying not to be noticed all the time.
In fact when we do see Marluxia talking to her, when he touched her shoulder, you can see her tensing up, almost as if expecting a negative action towards her.
When Marluxia summon’s Naminé as a ‘shield’, she looks terrified not only because of the situation, but also because of the fact that she seems to know that Marluxia WILL let her get hurt if that proves to be advantageous to him.
If we stop to think about it, if Axel hadn’t let Naminé escape, Marluxia would probably had suceeded with his plan, since things only started to fall apart once Naminé actively started to rebel and go against his wishes.
I also would like to point out how Marluxia made himself a very intimidating villain from the start. Even when we couldn’t see his face, he made himself inviting and seemingly trustworthy to Sora. He invited him to Castle Oblivion and proceeded to tempt him with possibilities of finding his friend, going so far as to teach him how to navigate the place and overcome the dificulties. Putting him as the one teaching Sora the tutorial is a brillhant move since even if we the player know better, Sora doesn’t so that eases him into falling right where Marluxia wants it.
And that speaks miles on how our Graceful Assassin chooses to work and do things. He is soft spoken and uses his own charm and aluring looks to bait others into doing what he wants. Of course that doesn’t mean he won’t threat someone phisicaly, but he prefers to do with so with words.
We only see Marluxia summon his weapon once at the begining/mid of the game, to threaten Vexen once he started to question his autorithy and it doesn’t stay out in the open for long since Vexen is pretty quick to back down from the conflict. What also leave us to believe that Marluxia is not only cunning but also a strong fighter, but we will get to this a bit later. Marluxia is so manipulative that he baits Vexen into falling into his own demise by quickly identifying and playing right into his pride, that is his biggest weakness.
Even in Kingdom Hearts 3, you can see that manipulative side of his more in the spotlight durings his scenes. He manipulates Mother Gothel into her part of the movie, while playing the role that was supposed to be the Stabbinton Brothers, sacrificing his image to make her appeal more compeling to Rapunzel, to reach his goal to keep her light safe and on the shelf for the Organization. Even his interactions with Sora are not in an antagonising perspective as he, again, appears trying to seem more likeable despite being the enemy.
Anyway, back into ReCoM.
Another thing that is present is how strong as a fighter he is. It would be so easy to have him as someone who is only clever and manipulative, with poor fighting skill (like Zexion for example, don’t @ me he is centered around illusions and does not have phisical attacks) but instead he was made into also a strong fighter, enough to intimidate others and to hold his own pretty well against Axel, only resulting into bringing Naminé as a shield to try to reclaim the grasp he had over Sora.
So in resume, we have a manipulative villain that not only exels in twisting others to bend to his will, but is also a genuine threat to fight (if you don’t believe me, do take a look on his Data Fights, they are trully something), achieving the role of a memorable villain in the Kingdom Hearts Franchise that is now being expanded on thanks to Union Cross.
Thanks for coming to my Ted Talk.
