So the other day I took a trip back in time to deviantART, where I spent many a day last summer trying (and failing) to gain recognition as an artist/fanfiction writer. 
 God, I'm pathetic. 
 I used to be all over DA, back in the Church of Nomura days. The Kingdom Hearts franchise was the main focus of my fangirling back then, and lemme tell you, there's plenty more where that came from. DeviantART is absolutely full of KH zealots and preachers. 
 So I went back, and just for the fuck of it, I typed, "Xion" into the search box. Now, who remembers the whole Xion war? I do. Vividly. I was on the front lines of the Hate Squad. 
 The thing about Xion was that she was simply a Kairi recolour, and everyone knew it, but couldn't hack it. They tried to deny it, tried to invent reasons to protect Nomura from flames, but they failed. You see, Xion is exactly what happens when an evil corporation runs out of ideas. But pretty much everyone in that neck of the dA woods thinks Nomura is God, and to expose the fact that he is not, and that he has failed on numerous occasions to create a decent game, is considered the highest form of blasphemy. I am not shitting you. 
 So, who is this Xion person? Well, anyone who ever played Kingdom Hearts will know exactly who she is. She's that little dark-haired chick who looks exactly like Kairi, and of course she comes from Grand High Gary-Stu Sora, because everyone does. She was a shameless tack-on Organization XIII "member" inserted into one of the recent games which was just a cloy for fangirl money anyway. I mean, the main characters were AXEL and ROXAS. She's made from his chromosomes memories and as such, she wanders around moaning and complaining about how terrible her life is, even though every single one of the good guys adores her and is willing to sacrifice his life for her. She has these powers that suddenly burst out of nowhere at the most opportune time, and everyone who hates her dies in a really horrible way (mostly by being beaten to death by Sora). Axel and Riku, in particular, betray any kind of canon behavior for her because she's such a speshul snowflake and must be protected at all da timez. She also commits romanticized suicide and turns into SPARKLY ICE as she dies, telling Roxas to ZOMG avenge her. Yes; she's not just a Mary-Sue. She's also unbearably cheesy. 
 Basically: she ruined everything. She was the reason I left the KH fandom. I almost stayed for Aqua, because right there is an exemplary female character: she values her friends, gets shit done, is responsible and kind without being flowery and silly. I also adored Larxene, and anyone who knows anything about her will know why. But I just couldn't stomach Xion and everything she represented. She is a shoddy, thrown-together, half-baked marketing ploy to rake in cash for Squeenix, and basically, she proves how tired KH has become. Frankly, the series should have gone like this: Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts 2, Birth By Sleep. There is no point in 358/2 Days (I'm not even going to dignify it with italics) or Coded or any of that add-on bullshit designed to line the pockets of Nomura and his recolour team. She is a trick to rake in money and sell more games, and a huge portion of the fanbase fell for it. Hell, Nintendo fell for it. 
 Yet...Xion still has a fanbase. How can this be? Now, I'm going to throw it out that KH has one of the worst fanbases ever. It's full of petty, bitchy, angry little fangirls who can't spell. No shit. They create stamps accusing people who have brains Anti-Xioners of being sexist (because there are only a few female characters in KH, they use this to demonize haters, when none of them ever said that they didn't like Xion because of her tits. They hate her because she's a noob fool, and it's nothing to do with her being a female. This argument is so moot, and pro-Xioners pulled it out of thin air just to piss people off. Additionally, Xion isn't even a girl, anyway. Not really. She's genderless) or only hating on her because she "breaks up the AkuRoku" (a couple of haters used this as their argument, but just because one pro-Xioner saw a motivational poster for it, they now think everyone shares this stupid idea). I've been accused of this before, just as I was minding my own business and talking to a friend. To be honest, I fucking despise AkuRoku, because I fucking despise both characters. Their popularity makes them incredibly boring, and everything you draw/write/whatever about them has been done before. A million times over. They're just...no. Can't be bothered with them. 
 They also wail that haters don't know what a Mary-Sue is, because they accuse Xion of being one. Sorry, but were we playing the same game? She's absolutely DIRE, and an incredibly cheap, stupid character who reeks of Mary-Sue. Read that paragraph above! I did not make any of that up. That is actually what happens to Xion throughout the game. She is insufferable. 
 The thing about the fangirls who hate the Xarmy-Sue theory is that they'll cling to their precious Xion (because hooray, Nomura's brainwashing worked again!) but then rant and rave on every Twilight-based message board they can find that Bella is a Mary-Sue. Frankly, Xion and Bella could be long-lost twins. They're both absolutely brain-dead, and incredibly anti-feminist characters. Sure, everyone thinks that because Bella has her cake and eats it too and because Xion can swing around an oversized key that they're both kick-ass women, but the truth is that both of them are, in the end, just fragile, useless little females who must at all times be protected and herded along by da menz. 
 Bella, however, does at least have a purpose. Yeah, it's kind of a dumb one, but unlike Xion, she does more than just fill up space. Twilight wouldn't be Twilight without her. Xion could be omitted from Kingdom Hearts right now and it wouldn't make the blindest bit of difference. 
 I hate to compare Kingdom Hearts with Twilight, but the marketing and psych-outs are pretty much the same. Meyer tricked us with the first installment, creating something heinously addictive so that even if we detested it, we'd have to read on. Nomura, at first, WAS God; up until Kingdom Hearts 2, the series was fun, fresh and pretty awesome. It was great as a fandom, and everyone got along just fine. As it went on, his creative failures began to poke through those huge the plotholes *cough*Namine*cough* and by the time we reach the development of Kingdom Hearts 3, no one really wants to play any more. There are so many fights and too much divide. Anti-Xion and pro-Xion is like Team Edward and Team Jacob. People actually fall out over it. I'm not shitting you. Look, at this point, it's not even about Xion any more. Kingdom Hearts had to run out of steam, collapse and die at some point. Granted, no one thought it would be the huge, screaming fandom that would implode, but it was. People like me, who just liked the game and wanted to enjoy it were stung after being prodded for cash and then disappointed, and then there are those who have literally lost friends over character arguments, and have realized that no, Nomura is not God. He just played you like a harp, and you fell for it. 
 It's no longer about Xion, or about Bella. It isn't about Edward, or Jacob, or Axel, or Roxas. It's about fandoms eating each other when finally, finally, the cracks in their Holy Grail start to spill blood.