https://www.tumblr.com/confession-of-the-heart-fm/824429152604225536/yeah-okay-can-we-talk-about-the-upside-down
Ooh, I know this one! Buckle up, this gets a bit long.
As with plenty of other things, the answer to βwhatβs up with Axelβs tear marks, anyway?β got a bit lost in translation. Itβs made much more explicit exactly what the upside-down tears are, and where they came from, in the Japanese script of KH3. In English, the line SaΓ―x gives Lea is βAlways told you theyβd stop you from crying, those upside-down tearsβ. In Japanese, itβs spelled out a lot more directly: SaΓ―x says to Axel that he βtaught your crybaby self that spell which stops you from cryingβthose upside-down tear marksβ.
(Yes, he does just flat-out call Lea a βcrybabyβ in Japanese. Itβs cute. If it werenβt for KH being E10+, Iβd have said itβs more like SaΓ―x says that he βtaught your crybaby ass that spellβ because thatβs really more of the energy he says it with.)
Before anyone jumps to saying the English version is mistranslated, I wouldnβt go that farβI get the sense that the English dialogue was written to sound more like a natural conversation between old friends and less like exposition for the audience, so it relies more on inference between the characters on information they would both already know. Its meaning still largely captures the same idea in English, it just leaves out the nuance that SaΓ―x is the one who βtaughtβ the marks to him.
Anyhow, when SaΓ―x says itβs a βspellβ, in Japanese, I want to be very clear that what he means is the upside-down tear marks were a type of magic protection cast on Axelβthe same type of βlucky charmβ that is cast when two people feed one another paopu fruit. The reason this is so clear is because the Japanese word SaΓ―x uses to describe the tears has no other nuance than βspell, charm, enchantmentβ, etc. The way the paopu fruit sharing and the tear marks are referred to in Japanese is unique among the βlucky charmsβ of the series, as they are the only two things that are referred to as βmagic spellsβ (as opposed to simply being items that you carry around with you for luck).
Since SaΓ―x attributes it to himself, the spell was likely either directly cast upon Lea/Axel by Isa/SaΓ―x, or he taught him how to cast it upon himself. And, because we know from this remark the marks are a spell that had to have been cast by a specific person, this means that itβs highly unlikely they simply appeared on Axelβs face when he became a Nobody.
So if it was a spell, what did it actually do? Well, it did exactly what SaΓ―x says it did: it βstops you from cryingβ. The Character Files book supports this, as it reiterates multiple times that the reason Lea is so sensitive and tearful all the time post-recompletion is because the marks are gone:
Lately, Iβd been just a bit of a crybaby. Could it be because the upside-down tears had disappeared from my face?β
βYou used to be a crybaby. Before I knew it, the marks under your eyes that stopped you from crying disappeared, and you began to make friends other than me and laughed with them.β
βIn the end, youβre still a crybaby, but you donβt need those upside-down tear marks anymore. Just like you donβt need me anymore.β
This suggests that the magical function of the upside-down tear marks was to make Axel unable to cry.
Because of this, we can infer the reason the tears vanished when he recompleted as a human is that at the end of his life, Axel finally did cry. (During the scene where he says goodbye to Roxas.) This was a sign that the tears were no longer needed to protect him, and thus the spell was broken. Thatβs why SaΓ―x makes that comment teasing Lea about looking like he needs the tears again when he seems sad, and how Lea himself talks about the tears as though heβs βoutgrownβ them and doesnβt need them anymore. (You can make your own guesses as to why a spell that prevents crying was something Lea/Axel needed in the past to protect him in the first place.)
The scene in DDD where Lea wakes up in the lab can be somewhat misleading for this reason. He concluded he was human again because he connected the dots and realized that the spell was broken as a consequence of his return to humanity. So, although their vanishing was symbolic of thatβof his emotions finally returning to him in fullβitβs actually not the case that the tears were necessarily some kind of physical mark he gained upon becoming a Nobody. They have a separate origin!
All this to say: Axelβs tears vanishing actually donβt suggest that physical markings (such as scars) gained as a Nobody vanish when they recomplete! The tears are their own thing. Go crazy with your Nobody scar headcanons, canon supports it! SaΓ―x for example could easily have been scarred after he lost his heart, and retains the scar after recompleting either way.
I think itβs probable that these things will be spelled out further whenever the next entries expand on Lea and Isaβs backstory, since Nomura has indicated before that he intends to go into that at some point.
-- SaΓ―xβs defense attorney (currently working other cases)
