Favorites:

Sora. Roxas. Kairi. Sora/Kairi/Roxas or Sora/Kairi or Sora/Roxas or Kairi/Roxas. Roxas/Axel most of all, though (Axel is a delicious uke and one of these days I hope more people realize that; I'm tired of seeing Axel/Roxas because if you think Roxas would ever let anyone dominate him, you're insane). Larxene/Marluxia. I'm convinced that Marluxia is Larxene's lesbian lover - and he's badass besides. Demyx, but not paired with anyone. Maleficent, the mistress of all evil - again, not paired with anyone. Almost everyone else is tolerable, but not worth notice. (I hold Ansem the Wise and Riku in utter contempt. I have no idea how anyone could be a Riku fangirl. For Pete's sake, he's not even good-looking! Naminé is only mildly better. That is why I detest any Riku pairing except Namiku; they deserve each other. Too bad he's paired up with Sora so much. It would be nice to see more Sora/Kairi in Roxas/Axel stories. So far I've only found two authors who 'ship both of those. But I can handle Naminé with Kairi, because the good balances out the bad.)

Thoughts on characters:

Sora is my absolute favorite. He's a darling, and he's the best fighter in the entire game. But he doesn't flaunt it or rub it in people's faces. He genuinely cares about people and even though he killed off the Organization, that is not a reason to hate him. He did it because he was told they weren't human; they were dangerous dark beings, like Heartless. He did it because he trusted people who were out for revenge. I fell in love with Sora when I first played Kingdom Hearts I, and I suspect he'll always be my favorite.

Roxas is my second favorite. And it's not because he's Sora's Nobody. It's because he is his own person, despite being Sora's Nobody. They're so different. Where Sora would let himself be swayed by the people he trusts, Roxas would never. Where Sora fights because he cares, Roxas fights because he wants to. Roxas is probably one of the strongest members of the Organization...he's definitely stronger than Axel (even when DiZ raped his personality and made a mockery of the Key of Destiny, he still kicked Axel's ass), and Sora was told that no one else could have made it that far - he was being addressed as Roxas. That kind of implies that he's the only one tough enough to take everybody down. And Riku...well, Riku only beat him because he caught him off guard with the whole DARKNESS! thing he had going on. Riku was a lameass and cheated. Roxas has a strong will and - as an author I admire has stated - he left Axel behind because essentially, Axel betrayed him. He kept secrets and talked down to him ("you don't need to know") and who wants to stay with someone like that? Roxas is not a doormat. And I love that about him.

Kairi is a Princess of Heart. I don't know how anyone could portray her as a whiny bitch; have they even played the games before? The reason she was 'useless' in the first game was because she was comatose. But no one's saying Sora was useless during that year asleep, are they? I believe Sora and Kairi are meant to be. And even if she's not with Sora, it's too bad so many people bash her because they want her out of the way of their favorite yaoi couple. That disgusts me.

Axel is not one of my favorite characters, but he's not one I hate. Since he's part of my favorite pairing, though (Roxas/Axel), I thought I should spend a little time on him. My pet peeve of this fandom is Axel's characterization - OOC Roxas or Sora is something I just refuse to tolerate - and it's super hard to find anything that characterizes him well. Axel is not, and will never be: masculine, badass, a rapist, a deranged serial killer, or stronger than Roxas. If we examine his interactions with Roxas, or with others concerning Roxas, we find that he's almost obsessively devoted. He'll do anything for Roxas. And Roxas...doesn't really care. It's cold, but I think Roxas is justified; in the Organization, where there's no such thing as empathy, he wouldn't have learned anything about being nice. Rather, he learned that if someone messes with you, that gives you a right to throw it down. Axel hurt Roxas. Roxas hurt him back. NOW. Axel is one of the hardest to read, because in CoM he's cold and uncaring. I attribute that to his ability to fool people and his utmost loathing of everyone he had to work with. (Remember, Roxas is the only one he liked.) An author I admire says that if Axel was really capable of beating Roxas, he would have; "You're coming with me, conscious or not." Obviously he wasn't good enough, even when Roxas was a blank slate and DiZ's puppet, because he wanted Roxas to come with him. He wouldn't throw a match he wanted to win. He doesn't 'let' Roxas win. And he's physically weaker than Roxas, a theory which is supported by his skinny arms. That doesn't mean he's pathetic; it just means he can't win against Roxas. And now onto the masculinity issue. Other than his voice, he reminds me of a girl. He's very curvy, he has a girly face, and even though he's not strong he's fast and graceful. They don't call him the Flurry of Dancing Flames for nothing. He's more open with what he believes to be his feelings; "He made me feel like I had a heart." In fact, when I first played KHII, I was stunned that he was a guy. (I hadn't played CoM yet, because I didn't have a GBA. But I borrowed it from someone and when Re:CoM came out, I played that too.) AND badass? Hardly. Sure, he uses fire, but when it comes down to it, he's a pretty weak fighter. Go play CoM and tell me how long it took you to beat him. It took me about the same amount of time it takes me to put mascara on. Rapist/serial killer? Really? Roxas could take him down in five seconds flat. And he's devoted to Roxas. He cares. Raping isn't caring, it's assaulting. I'm not even going to comment on the serial killer thing, as it's ridiculous.

(I know, I know - why did I spend the most time on Axel if my favorite character is Sora? It's because he isn't one of my favorite characters, so I can be more objective about him. I also can't stand most of the stories with him in them because he's characterized so terribly. Honestly if I see another 'Axel rapes Roxas and Roxas falls in love with him' fic, I may just have to eat my own eyeballs. It's sad because Roxas/Axel is my 'OTP.')

I'm pretty much only here to read, because I don't write fanfiction - I write my own stuff. (Also OOC in my favorite characters bothers me, except in very rare cases - like A Study in Jade by Zheyne, which is only a tiny bit OOC anyway - and I'm afraid I'll turn out to be a hypocrite and botch the characterization.)

THIS ACCOUNT WAS MADE SOLELY BECAUSE I FEEL BAD FOR ONLY BEING ABLE TO REVIEW ANONYMOUSLY. My favorites will not be littered with stories I thought were 'okay;' they'll be what I think are the very best. As I'm very picky when it comes to reading - even fanfiction - it's a high compliment to be on my favorites. If something is written wonderfully but I'm not sure I can stomach it, I'll give it exactly two more chapters. Then, if I'm still not sure, I'll abandon it. It's not you - it's me.

Ana, out.