kingdom hearts fandom isnt ready to accept that saix is a victim even if he hurt people and i fear they never WILL be ready.
no, we're talking about this now. i will never not be pissed at how saix/isa is constantly boiled down to "he was abusive towards kids and everyone else around him" and nothing else. like people are constantly missing the point with his character. i see so many takes where he should never have been redeemed or given forgiveness for what he did.
no one brings up the fact that he, alongside all the other members of organization xiii, are a part of a cult. it's a cult. the whole fucking deal of the org is that it's a cult. xemnas poisoned all of their minds (arguably even his own) with the idea that they're all emotionless when all signs point to that just being wrong. xemnas effectively groomed -- yes, groomed; everyone seems to have forgotten that "grooming" doesn't always mean something sexual -- everyone into being his perfect little pawns for his grand scheme. saix is, very clearly, the favorite. the favorite will often have more focus on them, and not all of the things that come from that focus will be good.
isa, and by extension lea, have been wrapped up in this bullshit since they were kids. you can't expect someone growing up in an insanely fucked environment like the organization to turn out very well. especially when that someone seemingly lost their only friend at the time due to the growing distance between them. i mean fuck man if i found out that same friend that ditched me wound up becoming buddies with a couple of kids that barely even know what the hell is going on and prioritized them over everything else i would be livid too. i'm a huge axel/lea glazer but even i can recognize that some of the shit he pulled was really awful. nobody here is perfect. but why should LEA get a pass and be forgiven and isa doesn't. like are you hearing yourselves.
victims of abuse will continue to perpetuate the cycle of abuse in a lot of cases, even if they don't necessarily mean to. speaking from experience, it's very hard to pry yourself away from the mindsets and actions and words you've been fed for years and not end up repeating them because it's all your brain knows. in my case it's that deep need to make people understand what exactly i've gone through. i've recognized this and am working on it. my point is that things can get better for victims, but that only really works if they have a good support system.
isa deserves a second chance to heal. he deserves to make an attempt at rebuilding the life and friendships he effectively lost. once again, if lea gets to do that, so does isa. he's already made a huge effort to set things right throughout the events of kh3, but it seems that this fandom is completely blind to that. saix was the one operating behind the backs of the organization in order to thwart their plans. he was the one to send demyx and vexen on their secret operation to let the opposing side gain the upper hand. he was the one that tried to make xion remember who axel was. i'd even argue that lea hasn't even made as much effort to gain forgiveness as isa has. everyone for the most part kind of just... accepted him into their ranks. i want to say that's one of my biggest gripes with that whole part of the story. it just happens and we, the players, just go "oh okay" and move on. but when ISA comes back and seemingly is forgiven by the cast as well and accepted back as a friend, suddenly all the fans are pissed that he doesn't deserve it.
the double standards of this fandom never cease to amaze me. sometimes i wonder if some of you would treat a victim of abuse the same way if you ever met one in real life. and no, before anyone starts pointing fingers at me, i am by no means an apologist for saix. i acknowledge that what he did is terrible. but i will vouch for and defend him if he's called evil for it when there's clearly deeper meaning behind it all.
and, yes, i am the kind of person that also gets wildly uncomfortable when people go "awww but he's an innocent cute little wuppy dog 🥺🥺🥺" like no. that's a grown ass man with trauma. if someone said that shit to my face about me i'd deck them. come on. i'm not saying it's bad to call characters cute or whatever but there is a limit to that shit. at some point it starts treading the line of endearing and just straight up insensitive. "but canid he's fictional it doesn't matter" okay does it look like i care
anyways that's all i wanted to say. sorry about the rant i've just been thinking about this for a very long time and i finally had to say something about it
