#AND NOT ONLY THAT. BUT THEY DID A KH1 PARALLEL???????

[imminent-danger-came]

I'm really normal about dark road

[gulava]

The Sun in the Final World represents Riku (like the Moon in the Dark World represents Sora)

In the Prologue of KH3, people have noted that it directly parallels the original opening of KH1. But did you notice this time Riku guides Sora to the Final World instead of the Realm of Light?

Sora has been to the Final World several times during his visits to the Station of Waking. The symbolism of Riku guiding him there and back is...right in our faces, literally. Sora (even unconscious in the KH1 OP and the light tunnel) follows Riku's light and then he wakes up to it.

From the Final World (sleep/death) to the Realm of Light (waking/life).

All of this reads like Riku is the guide between realms for Sora which brings us to his name also meaning "the shore".

Sora made the difference in saving Aqua. But it was Riku that guided Sora to the Dark World. Sora was only able to finally use the Power of Waking once Riku was in danger for his life. And, like ATW said, Riku brings Sora and Aqua together through just that.

Sora is a soft, gentle moon to bring hope to those lost in the darkness of night and the stars there are allowed to shine.

(For more Sora=DW!Moon, check out this portion of a meta I wrote)

Riku is the relentless and blinding sun that gives the world all of its light which causes the stars that have arrived to be more difficult to see with your eyes, appearing translucent in the daylight.

Extra Note: Since Sora saves Aqua because Riku needing help guides him to her, this lines up that Riku will be the one to save Nameless Star because Sora needing help has guided him to her.

[nebuvoid]

Hello fellow starving KH fans 💗I recently finished playing Chrono Cross and couldn't help noticing how Mr Nomura most certainly was inspired by parts of it. Since we got nothing else going right now I figured I might as well show you guys.

And that's just the opening sequence. Nomura did not work on C.Cross (though he was field graphic artist for C.Trigger), but it's pretty clear he took inspiration from it.

More under the cut, but that's spoiler territory (including endgame!!). If I managed to make you curious I suggest you play Chrono Cross yourself - the remastered version is easily accessible and even has some cheats you can use if you just want to focus on the story.

There is Big Scene at Big Event Place featuring Girl On The Floor, Stabbing and Body Snatching. Of course the context is different but I'm not trying to make an argument that Nomura replicated the story, just that he took some building blocks from it and made his own with it.

There's Becoming The Very Thing You Were Fighting.

There's falling through the floor sky. And of course the whole different dimensions/worlds deal.

Moving onto CoM/2, there's many parallels between Kid/Schala and Namine/Kairi. (Might even draw parallels between Xion and Harle. Doomed from the start. Only an indirect copy.) Also the use of a sort of a poem letter as well as being separated by being in different worlds, and losing your memories of an important journey.

Oh yeah, also there's children's drawings.

There's more but this is the most substantial stuff.

And unlike Kairi who is forced to wait and wait, never truly given full agency, Kid is granted the privilege of searching for Serge on her own. Man. Really couldn't be inspired by that part huh.

In the credits, a live action Kid is shown searching for Serge in various real locations.

Including Shibuya Cross - hey wait a minute 😳 hm.

Well whether this ^ is coincidence or not, we will see in the future I guess. But post-credits white dress Kid does have the same vibes as post-credits KH1 secret ending Kairi, that I'm sure of. Who I can't put here because I hit the image limit. Whoops.

[dyushas]

I return two months later with another people standing image but this time it's Younger Character Designs for the Wayfinder Trio, because I don't think they should look exactly the same for four years straight of their adolescence. So this is how I imagine them when Ven had only just arrived in the Land of Departure

Thought-process notes under the cut (mild spoilers ig):

Terra:

-I think Terra is a creature of habit and has been dressing mostly the same since at least puberty, especially since his style is the most like Eraqus' (in my opinion) and I think most people would copy their parents less as they get closer to adulthood instead of more, but what do I know? Idk what I'm even talking about half the time. It's ultimately vibes, I just think that's his brand of autism. But I had to do it at least a little differently to justify the drawing

-Obviously he is like four years younger or something here so he's not as good at things yet or he would've just taken the Mark of Mastery then, so he's got a wrist brace to show he has fucked up his wrist. To show he's still not good at things. I am very intelligent

-I didn't want to draw the full arm piece but I pretend it's because he hasn't worked his way up to handling that much extra weight on one side yet

-I think the red shirt and the patterns look nice so I also did that

-Aqua cut his hair and she isn't that good at it

-I think he's meant to have brown eyes

Aqua:

-She's got so many flowy bits in her canon outfit and I think it probably took her awhile to achieve the kind of control needed for those to not just be a hazard, so at this point she's a younger teen and she isn't there yet, but she can still afford to add a bit of flair

-I was looking at ballet warm-up clothes like those trash bag shorts cause she's got this dancer thing going on

-She and Terra have the same style of shirt because I thought it would be cute and emphasize their closeness as well as the fact that Ven is somewhat of an outsider here at this point

-She has a knee thing. She hurt her knee. She probably fell trying to figure out that fuckass twirl she does sometimes or something

-She cut her own hair but had Terra help with the back. Mistakes were made

-Terra's nails are painted, too, I just drew him with the wrong hand position to show it. The two of them have been the only other kids around for a good while so they hang out when they're supposed to be asleep sometimes to study their keyblade stuff and then get distracted with something silly and joke back and forth, and they paint each other's nails and share clothes sometimes, although this is getting harder cause they're less and less the same size. And then the next day, Eraqus has to tell them off because Aqua is mad Terra's hogging the bathroom and now they're at each other's throats. Just the way it is

Ventus:

-I can write off everyone looking the same in the flashbacks in BBS cause it was a PSP game and they'd already made a lot of new character models so like. I can think "it was just a practicality thing, they probably didn't actually look the same back then" but Ventus also has the same outfit in UX and I pretend I do not see it. There's no way. He needs something else, his skin is sticking to his clothes. It's just not right, it's not ethical, he's only a boy

-I let him keep the waistcoat though cause it feels SO UX era, everyone in that damn game has a little waistcoat and then no one (?) in the console games does. So my thought process is that this one thing is for SURE from tha past and he just keeps wearing it. He's a little vintage

-He has shorts because ummm :P

-Sora had shorts both as a little baby in BBS and a larger baby in KH1, and then as he's been depicted as less kiddish and more teenaged they have him in those cropped pants now. So it's a Sora parallel. Shorts are just the little boys garment

-"But what if his legs get cold?" Well clearly I thought of that

-He has no armor bits because at this point in time he's just been through a lot of trauma and has only just woken up from a mild coma (for him), so he's all kinds of unwell and I don't think he's really doing any proper training yet. Eraqus already kind of babied him in the main story, so he was probably truly swaddled back then. He's dressed for COMFORT

-This meant he also needed different shoes so I drew some. They're not very remarkable

-I gave him a little jacket because I tried drawing him just without one and I didn't like it, he didn't look enough like he spends his days skulking around and looking sad and not getting to hit things with his keyblade, so I gave him something haori-adjacent like it's maybe something Eraqus had lying around and let him wear like how my mom starts putting her jackets on me when she thinks I'm acting sick. But it has black and white checks on the sleeves because I had to put them SOMEWHERE or else it wouldn't be right and every other option I could think of sounded ugly

-I CAN'T EXPLAIN THE LEGWARMERS, I just wanted him to have a unique silhouette that makes him look like he's been sitting the fuck around

-He just has the same hair as he had in UX, which is his original hair but shorter

That's it unless I forgot something in which case you can ask and I may or may not have an answer.

I might also draw Vanitas in this time period even though I'd just give him the same outfit he always has since it's a magic outfit or whatever, but like for the sake of imagining him Small. Vote now on your phones if I should or not so I can disregard it and do whatever I feel like anyway

[mythicalartistx]

Updating KH ship lists

Again I don't care if those disagree or like another better as long as no one calling each other delusional

Anyways here are my 11 KH ships + a few honorable mentions

#1 Soriku

This is probably my favorite ever, there's so much to say I don't even know where to start. I shipped them as friends but who also should date. Besides they're just really cute and silly to me.

The dark realm scene in kh2 is so good, they have an understanding of the other and are happy to be there together with the other person.

They both just love each other and do everything for the other (Riku's sacrifices for Sora in days kh2 kh3 and trying to save him in ddd) Sora is always trying to find him because he wants to be with him; and he just misses him. Riku's jealousy and feelings showed his insecurities to bring the island to darkness when he feared Sora's and Kairi's relationship and leaving him/ Sora befriending others with the belief he was being left behind.

The novel also has some added cute scenes where Sora is just bashful around Riku or just happy to be with him. They hug and hold hands more. Also there's a scene in the kh2 manga where Riku gives Shang a papou fruit to give to Sora. And Sora instantly know who gave it to him because "only Riku would do something like that".

The papou scene in kh1 manga Riku gets so close to his face and then Sora is blushing later, thinking about it. In DDD, it's about Riku's feelings for Sora and the darkness right? Some of those things are seemingly parallels.

Finally in kh3 Riku scarifies life for him because he doesn't want him to be sad and with the parallel to Hercules sacrificing someone because all he knew was that he loved someone and didn't think. Sora is just always thinking about Riku and wants to be with him especially with the failing to be a keyblade master.

Also there are no orders to these

#2 RepliNami

Honestly this is the only Riku that I like with her at all and also people end up confusing which Riku did what— they're different people, Sora said so himself. Repliku still has his feelings for Sora but now he decides to keep a promise for Naminé even if it didn't happen because he wants to do something himself.

Not something with memories that belong to Riku. And Naminé also does care for him. There's mainly KH CoM and Kh3 to go by. In COM he fights for Naminé against Sora thinking it was him (though all these things end up fake) but still he choses to embrace these memories for the sake of Naminé.

In kh3 he admits that everyone moved on except for him who was in darkness. When Riku notices his presences they work together and Repliku admits that he has one more thing to do and wants to save Naminé.

Then in his death he finally leaves the world and gives up the chance to have a body all for the sake of her having one so he asks the original Riku to dl him one last favor and making sure she's okay.

#3 Rizoriku / Yozoriku

Rizoriku because lack of RIZZ and it sounds so silly

I recently got into this and yeah I'm probably like one of the few people who are even into this.

They haven't EVEN INTERACTED. Riku felt Yozora in his dream/ secret ending but they never really seen each other. Yozora probably had in the secret ending/ dream. He was looking at him at that matters.

But imagine the possibilities, they are both tied together by Sora. Riku is searching for him and Yozora potentially hurt him, he hates that. They cannot stand the other. They fight the other so much. They're both looking for "Sora" to save. They look similar and Yozora has been stealing other's forms (It's toxic but eventually turn cute.)

Now they have to work together to find Sora / Nameless Star and then they start being cute and caring. I thought there might be at least more of this but no it's so rare I only seen like 4 fanart pictures of this and it's all from the same person

I got so happy when I saw some

#4 AkuSai / LeaIsa

It's so toxic. They've broken up too many times to count. They're divorced. And there's a whole ton of tension. It also have parallels to soriku.

Lea and Isa worked together to save X but she was gone and decided to become apprentices to save her. Then Saïx had to work his way to the top to find out what happened while Axel went off making friends and spent less time with Saïx which caused jealousy.

Their arguments and tension is so thick in 358/2 days, and in kh3 during that clocktower scene. You can tell there is something there. Also during DDD when he faced Saïx when saving Sora.

Then they finally have an understanding and Saïx apologies and admits he was jealous. Lea holds him in his arms, then after Saïx gets recompleted I think they finally will calm down and get back together, let's see how long it lasts.

#5 Kailette

I'm not super into this one because lack of content but I feel like this has potential to be super interesting and fun. Olette being one of the first real people she meets outside of the world and besides from Sora and Riku who kept unintentionally leaving her behind.

They befriend each other and Olette likes listening to the stories Kairi tells her.

I think they're really cute and have potential to go places or even Kairi becoming part of the sea salt + twilight town gangs. I see more fun fan content for this that makes me love it and hopefully we'll see more in the future.

#6 Zemyx

They're so silly together. I honestly love this. I ended up loving this because of fan content. It was just so great to me.

Like Demyx is kinda silly and dumb and Zexion is smart and intelligent they can't help be attracted to the other.

That one manga panel of them played twister though.

Also when they finally meet in kh3 and he realizes is that you? Also props to the manga version of the scene where he calls security on his bf until he realizes he's on their side.

#7 Xehaqus

They're actually so cute. I'm not joking. The fanart is so good and honestly dark road just shows their relationship and how it fell apart.

Eraqus is so silly and just enjoys his time with Xehanort but also believes to do what is right for fear of everyone losing to the darkness (which is why he did what he did in BBS).

I love that they often worked together and whispered just between themselves that the others would often say what are you whispering about?

They're post kh2 Soriku in dark road and then it turns into kh1 Soriku. Eraqus was blinded by love and didn't want to separate from him which is why he kept him around during BBS after he disappeared.

They're chess buddies and there's a deep relationship there and finally at the end of 3 they can be together at last

#8 NamiXi / Namishi

I don't think about this pairing as often but I also like it. Like I see the vision and I'm definitely for it. Naminé is definitely a lesbian + whatever thing she has going on with Repliku. Again I'm a multishipper so 🤷

Naminé helped Xion see who she is and actually honest with her. They're definitely friends too, but then will date. What they have at the end of kh3 is really cute to me where they collect seashells together

Also with them both being aspects of someone else can relate to seeing memories that aren't theirs/ wishing to be another person.

(no picture of them interacting 😢💔)

#9 RepliVani / VaniPliku /NamiVanpliku

I originally liked them as the duo first being friends who are just silly and fight. But now I'm really into them as also a couple. Naminé is definitely there breaking the tension.

I wish they did interact since they're similar both being created from someone else. Vanitas being part of Ventus and Repliku being part of Riku.

As a fan of lost trio I also think the concept of them fighting over Naminé could also be interesting like who better friend/ Vanitas thinks he is going to be left out and pretends he doesn't care. But their interactions I need

#10 MarLar

I don't think about them that much but again I really like them. This is probably my only one that's part of Union x in a way.

Marluxia is the only one Larxene really tolerates and they both have plans to be overthrow the organization together.

They are closer than any of the others and keep finding their ways to each other.

In Union x they were also close and befriended each other and ever since then they stuck together even if they had memories or not.

#11 Roxner

This could also be with the HC of transfem Marluxia

I'm still new to this ship but I recently thought you know I actually like this. Roxas and Hayner's relationship is honestly likable friends that could honestly be something more. Especially in kh2 beginning with how they interact with the other.

I also want to point out kh3 desire for him To want to find Roxas too.

Also in days when Roxas spends the day hanging out with him and the rest of them.

Fandom makes this honestly nice and cute couple through fanart and comics.

Conclusion

Anyway that's the ones I like in no specific order except Soriku is number 1.

Those that aren't here means I am either indifferent/ neutral towards to ship, dislike it, or I think it's weird as in an adult that's 26 being with 14 yo would be.

And most I don't even dislike if seen my other posts about this subject 99% I'm neutral towards except og Riku and any female ship.

However honorable mentions towards Brain and Marluxia I think they have potential to be interesting but not a lot about them, this goes for Brain and Ephemer too.

Cinderella and Aqua, it's honestly the only Disney + original character pairing most people agree one is good.

I like seeing the art about it but that's about it.

Larxene and Aqua as well as Terra and Marluxia as honorable mentions, I've seen some fanart that makes me think otherwise.

[hollowwhisperings]

Heart Stations (KH spec)

after realising how much Foreshadowing and Sneaky Plot Points were lurking about in KH3's "demo" section, i finally remembered that a LOT of KH3 is done in parallel with KH1: which means that ITS "demo" is ALSO subtly plotty!

The first thing I remembered about Sora's heart station in KH1 is it being able to connect DIRECTLY to the heart stations of Princesses.

despite Sora never having met these princesses before.

except... VENTUS has!

the heart stations that Sora visits in the first Heart Dive belong to Snow White, Cinderella & Aurora: the order of their stations is in the same order as Ven's meeting them in BBS. Ventus befriended Cinderella personally, becoming friendly enough with Snow White & Aurora to have [link] attacks based on them (mostly through his friendship to the dwarves & Aurora's non-evil fairy godmothers).

There is also, in KH1's tutorial, a heart station depicting the three "free" princesses: Alice, Jasmine & Kairi. I had forgotten about this one. It's... interesting that, despite SORA being best friends with Kairi, Sora's heart instead connects to the "idea" of these three princesses altogether rather than individually (if only in the background, given the lack of need for a player to have 7 stages in a tutorial rather than 5). Sora knows Kairi personally but only Ventus could have known Alice or Jasmine, even THEN, his meeting them would have been during KHUX (a time he does not remember in BBS but treasures enough to enable his reunion with Chirithy in KH3).

The last heart station Sora visits in KH1's tutorial heart dive is Belle's: Belle is the princess who Sora ultimately ends up reasonating with most, in his heart at least, and she notably takes on the role of "Riku" to Beast's "Sora" in CoM.

it is EXTREMELY odd that Sora, well before Riku's heart gave him Kingdom Key, was able to directly walk from his heart station to those of the Princesses of Heart: Ventus did not have this ability nor any personal connection with Kairi. There are two plausible explanations as to why Sora's heart was ALREADY connected to that of the Princesses, prior to personally meeting them: Ventus might have joined their hearts by his being an 'artificial' Princess of Light courtesy of Xehanort & Vanitas; RIKU was connected to the princesses and, when Riku gave his crown necklace to Sora, Sora inherited that connection.

Ventus: Artificial Princess of Heart?

this theory is technically canon, working with the definition of princesses as "beings whose hearts are made entirely of light". it seems unlikely that this technicality would result in a metaphysical stairway between Sora's heart station and those of the Prinxesses': if it was THAT easy, Xehanort would have noticed the connection while he had Ven all comatose. Ven's heart being sheltered in Sora's MIGHT, however, explain why the heart stations of Snow White & Cinderella & Aurora were so much closer than the other stations (though the Sleeper/Dreaming connection is a stronger factor shared by Sora & these three).

Riku as Kingmaker?

Sora's first keyblade, Kingdom Key, gets him specifically scouted as Special by Donald & Goofy: Kingdom Key has narrative significance to it, tying it to Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Key was also, originally, an existence dormant in RIKU'S heart: when Riku['s heart] was consumed by darkness in KH1, Sora was able to reach the light within Riku and receive its protection.

the ease with which Sora inherited Riku's keyblade betrays A Lot about Riku's Heart but it ALSO hints that this is not the ONLY example of Riku's Heart being considered interchangeable with Sora's. in later games, Riku and Sora are able to wield each other's keyblades without hesitation and are even capable of merging: other than SoRiku & Sora's Heart Roommates, Aqua is the only instance of someone summoning & wielding another's keyblade.

The keyblade of a deceased Eraqus came to Aqua in her time of need: this makes sense, the keyblade of a teacher coming to protect its student. Eraqus taught Aqua how to call and use a keyblade; Eraqus [knighted] Aqua with this keyblade; Eraqus died with this keyblade, died realising that he had failed his students and that original duty of protecting them.

Sora, meanwhile, began wielding a keyblade because Riku's Heart knew Sora could use it when Riku could not.

So what makes Riku so special, to keyblades and Princesses of Heart specifically?

It seems increasingly likely that Riku is the "Child of Destiny" that Xehanort believed himself to be: Riku's resemblance to Ephemer makes it likely that, just like Xehanort, Riku is his descendant; additionally, the light of Riku's heart was strong enough to catch the attention of both Terra AND Aqua in BBS. Both Terra & Aqua had, by then, met three Princesses of Heart AND lived alongside the artificially-light Ventus: nevertheless, Terra and Aqua only note that Riku's light is "strong" but not in the same way as any heart they'd encountered before.

Riku also, just "incidentally", happens to have had a Crown since infancy (if we quote Sora in CoM but correctly attribute to Riku what he says of Naminé's charm)... that Riku GAVE to SORA, who now wears it as a necklace. A crown necklace that Sora subconsciously gestures to when speaking from "the heart". *insert Necklace Theory here*

so, even before receiving Kingdom Key, Sora had been given a kind of "kingdom's key" through Riku, in symbol & oath.

this leads me to conclude that the CROWN must have connected Sora's heart (which, in DDD, appears a hop skip & a jump away from Riku's) to the Seven Princesses of Heart, the Seven Lights.

which, in turn, leads me to believe that Riku's gift & oath to Sora was significant enough to be recognised as a form of "Coronation": Riku CROWNED Sora, even without knowing it, and did so while meaning it with "all his heart". Riku's Heart recognising & accepting Sora as its "[king?]" (partner? equivalent?) seems to have continued from that Fateful Meteor Shower, throughout Riku's Entire Villain Arc & Redemption, continuing past Sora's failing to exist: Riku has pulled at LEAST two True Love's Sacrifices for Sora, not counting repeats across timelines, just within DDD & KH3. Riku's sacrificing himself has never lasted long enough to learn any repurcussions beyond Sora.exe going offline. SORA'S nonexistence has not significantly affected the integrity of his universe at large, beyond Riku.exe presumably shortcircuiting, which leads me to believe that so long as ONE of the two has a heart where it should be, the potentially disaatrous ramifications of "oh, btw, this one kid's heart has direct access to our universe's suns? should we be worried about that" has been prevented.

(Riku launching himself OUT of said universe to follow Sora? UH. let's just hope Kairi's still in touch with the other Original 7 and can lead the New Lights when it potentially/inevitably becomes necessary?)

Speaking of Kairi...

interestingly, Kairi never really indicates feeling "connected" to Riku.

Kairi feels connected to SORA and HIS heart, something many characters share in common (often very literally). Another product of Riku (& thus Destiny) sharing his role with Sora, when not designating him [his] King absolutely?

Speaking of Kings...

Riku ends up manifesting ANOTHER keyblade, just casually, despite Sora's having Kingdom Key being a Big Deal.

we could dismiss Riku's having Soul Eater in KH1 as "that's Xehanort/Terra/Ansem SoD's heart at work"... but we can't dismiss Riku's STILL having a keyblade post-KH2, Sora wielding the original Kingdom Key while Riku so happens to summon a second keyblade from his heart without any fuss at all??

it is... interesting, that Donald & Goofy never ended up explaining [to the audience] why Kingdom Key SPECIFICALLY was something King Mickey was looking for in the first place.

if it was due to Mickey's searching for the Wayfinder Trio, Donald & Goofy would have been searching for multiple "keyblade WIELDERS" instead of one "KEYBLADE": we can only assume that Xehanort's repeated efforts at starting another ragnarok have sufficiently distracted everyone from Kingdom Key's origins.

I personally find it very heartwarming/plot-foreshadow-y that Kingdom Key has STAYED with Sora, even upon reuniting with a Riku whose heart is at peace again: consciously or otherwise, Riku's heart continues to choose "Sora".

(which, given how likely it is that Riku is the foretold Child of Destiny... means that RIKU'S choosing Sora makes DESTINY choose Sora... for better of for worse, right? plz just let them be married already, Disney: Nomura & Utada have Riku's vows all written and everything)

[jabberwockprince]

since we're all having fun talking about theories and headcanons before the game drops. one thing that i do want for missing link, that is mostly wishful thinking on my part, is a reveal for kairi being a descendant of the player

this is based on their parallels of being shooting stars later found washed up on a beach from the new missing link trailer, plus that one moment from KH1 where kairi's grandma tells her about the age of the fairytales and nothing else lmfao

and i want that so badly because. it would be so fucking ironic and poetic to have kairi be a direct descendant of the one person that raised and cared so much for xehanort. the player, whose memories of ephemer and skuld and chirithy and everyone else influenced xehanort into starting his whole ass spiral and descent into darkness

only for her (and sora) to be the ones to get xehanort to stop in the end. ending a cycle of sorts. for her to be haunted by the memory of xehanort, the same way xehanort was "haunted" by the memory of the player's past life

PLUS. i want it to SPECIFICALLY recontextualize kairi's inheritance of the keyblade from BBS. because kairi's reason to wield a keyblade being nothing more than an "accident" feels like such a disservice to her AND aqua??

if they could recontextualize xehanort into whole new depths in dark road, i dont see why they couldn't reframe that moment as kairi reclaiming a dormant power, her own heritage that her bloodline forgot for centuries, since knowledge about keyblades and wielders began to fade out over time to the point where people who KNEW about them thought they were evil. makes sense that as the age of fairytales is left FORGOTTEN, no one can remember how to summon a keyblade, let alone the knowledge to create one from someone's heart. but having a strong heart (one of the requisites for bequeathing ceremonies) and being in direct contact with a keyblade, could just. help jog the memory a bit

and show that yeah. kairi deserves to wield a keyblade because she has a strong heart, and because this was her heritage that was taken away from her when the worlds began to drift away from each other and so on. not because of an accident

everytime chance, fate and destiny are brought up in the saga to explain why something. happened the way it did. it carries so much weight and so many events that led to That Point. but kairi's inheritance as of right now was just. yeah, an accident. no ceremony at all AND I JUST THINK SHE DESERVES RLLY COOL THINGS OKAY

[ultraericthered]

Sometimes, ignorance is not always bliss. These people prove that.

KH1 and Chain of Memories both manage to have disney worlds that either directly interact with the original and Final Fantasy character plots, or build on the themes the game is tossing around in explorative ways.

The only Disney world that directly interacted with a "Final Fantasy character plot" in both of those games was Olympus Coliseum. The other FF characters were regulated to KH original worlds that were also inhabited by some Disney characters.

Alice's manipulation of the Red Queen, who has lost her memory

The Red Queen is not a character in KH. You mean the Queen of Hearts, don't you? (And yeah, I know, common mistake to make!)

including his quest to destroy all the disney villains on his way.

What quest? He was just "fighting his darkness" whenever said darkness took the form of bosses, which turned out to achieve no purpose anyway because that's not the right way to fight darkness!

Land of Dragons is just a handful of moments from Mulan, but SDG are there. Atlantica is just a handful of moments from The Little Mermaid, but SDG are there (though the bad rhythm game is funny so I don't mind as much). Halloween Town's plot is mostly an excuse to check out Christmas Town, ft. "He's back because we needed him to be" moment for Oogie Boogie.

A central running theme in KH2 was reunions with friends you'd not seen in a while, as it was all building to the reunion between Sora, Kairi, and Riku. Mushu knows SDG, they reunite with him. Ariel and the rest know SDG, they reunite with them. Jack and Sally know SDG, they reunite with them. It also holds true for Beast and Belle, Hercules and Phil, the cast of Agrabah, and Simba. Very few of KH2's Disney worlds really stand on their own without some connection to what the previous game(s) set up, and they aren't meant to: this is fully taking advantage of this being a sequel, a Kingdom Hearts II.

Port Royal similarly leans heavily on preexisting plot from PotC.

Port Royal's plot did the same "thematic connection in this world story to the overarching narrative" that you praised CoM for doing. Jack's old crew and the Aztec Treasure's curse parallels Ansem's apprentice research team and the similar "curse" Nobodies are burdened with.

Olympus Coliseum plot is the same thing as KH1's in a different color with a new FF guy (and doesn't even bother linking Auron to Wakka and Tidus).

Selphie was never linked to Squall/Leon in KH1, and they're both never linked to Seifer, Rai, and Fuu in this game. What sense would there be to link Auron with the kid versions of Tidus and Wakka? Believe it or not, KH versions of FF characters can sometimes exist independently of other KHified FF characters from their same title.

I'll give points to Beast's Castle, Timeless River, and Space Paranoids, for having an Org member actually well-integrated in the story, fun time travel shenanigans / one of two only well-done uses of Maleficent & Pete in the game (the other being Maleficent @ battle of 1000 heartless), and connections to the Hollow Bastion & Ansem the Wise plot, respectively.

True that those were the three key Disney worlds that held the most significance and carryovers to the main story, though I think you undersell Olympus Coliseum (that fully resolved a story arc that KH1 began) and Port Royal (with its thematic connection and the stuff that goes down in the second visit like the character work for Sora).

KH2's main plot is also just extremely underwhelming because very little of note actually happens. As I noted, Roxas' prologue is a highlight for the game, but his inclusion throughout the rest of the plot was bland references to his existence by bland Org members & an admittedly great moment with Axel later. His showdown with Sora wasn't even added until the Final Mix, almost 12 years later in the US.

KH2's main plot is as follows:

Prologue with Roxas in virtual Twilight Town - Beginning with SDG in real Twilight Town, Mysterious Tower, and Hollow Bastion - Plot occurances at Beast's Castle and Olympus Coliseum - the Disney Castle/Timeless River event - setup for later Plot in Port Royal and Kairi going to Twilight Town - SDG return to Twilight Town - Middle at Hollow Bastion with Space Paranoids, King Mickey's return, and the war sequence - Plot payoffs at Beast's Castle, Olympus Coliseum, and Port Royal - Space Paraoids 2/Hollow Bastion becomes Radiant Garden again - SDG return to Twilight Town and get into virtual town copy to find Betwixt & Between - climactic battle with Roxas and the grand finale stretch in The World That Never Was - Ending.

Yeah, doesn't really scream "little of note actually happens" to me. Quite the opposite, KH2 is a big enough game with so much content in it that it seldom feels like stuff isn't happening and that moving parts aren't steadily but surely moving - that's far more KH3's thing.

SDG goes to meet Yen Sid, who basically goes "Actually the heartless weren't the big deal we thought they were, there's Nobodies now ! You should go stop... whatever they're doing."

Not accurate. Yen Sid said that the Heartless were a big deal back when Ansem and Maleficent were using them to invade many worlds and devour hearts, threatening to plunge the universe into darkness. But thanks to Sora sealing off the Door to Darkness, the Heartless and those who'd look to exploit them are handicapped and cannot threaten the worlds the same way again. He explains the Nobodies because they're inherently linked to the Heartless and are the greatest remaining enemy out to threaten the worlds in a new way. Figuring out exactly what they're scheming and what their end goal is would naturally be part of fighting them and stopping them.

Sora keeps insisting he's still on his quest to find Kairi and Riku, but this basically amounts to him doing the same aimless wandering he was going to do anyways.

That happened in regards to wanting to find Riku, Kairi, and King Mickey in KH1, and with just Riku and Mickey at the start of CoM. Why is it suddenly now a problem when KH2 sticks to it?

Org members & hooded Riku show up briefly, just to spout a few lines of dialogue, have an underwhelming boss fight, and leave.

-- Xaldin was operating in Beast's Castle specifically to get Beast's heart consumed by darkness so that he could become a Heartless for Sora to slay, and create a Nobody who could be put in charge of the Org's lesser Nobody forces. He was working this scheme for both visits, left the Absence Silhouette of Marluxia there in FM, and was the only member to have a full boss fight in the Disney world where he's even killed by Sora and his party. -- Demyx was in the Underworld to investigate Hades, why the Underworld had Heartless swarming it, and if dead souls were truly untethered from living hearts. In FM, he also left the Abscence Silhouette of Zexion there. SDG bumping into him was incidental.

-- Hooded Riku was in the Land of Dragons the second go-round because Xigbar had gone there and made that dragon Heartless, which he was using to create more Heartless and harvest hearts, so Riku was out to do damage control and help Sora along the way. -- Luxord was doing recon in Port Royal at first and simply studying up on the Aztec Treasure curse, and while we didn't see him the first go-round, FM lets us know he was there with the presence of the Larxene Abscence Silhouette. In the second visit, he capitalized off of the cursed treasure and used it to create the Grim Reaper to harvest more hearts, pitting Sora and co. against it as a win-win gambit.

-- Practically every apperance by Saix and Xemnas was crucial, as they were always present for a plot or character-specific reason.

So no, none of what you say is correct. Again, it's KH3 you might be thinking of when you describe the Organization in such terms.

That would be cool & all, except the game immediately presses pause on this concept to force Sora to go back to Disney worlds and kill way more heartless with plots even emptier than the first visits. For a series that frequently makes direct ties between its gameplay and plot presentation, it's disappointing that they drop the ball on the big third act reveal like this.

This is one area where the execution of KH2's story is indefensible, and it's less because Sora has to revisit worlds and kill enemies, more because there is no in-game explanation as to why SDG cannot just immediately follow up on the clues Riku left them. Square Enix clearly realized this late in development and threw in the "looking for Organization XIII's stronghold" excuse with those Chip and Dale scenes even though they still don't connect with the plot that goes on to play out on-screen after the Space Paranoids revisit.

(though I personally find Roxas & Naminé's fates here ridiculous, and wish Maleficent got more spotlight).

Roxas and Namine's fates were perfectly fitting with the story's core themes, and Maleficent didn't get much spotlight because, again, she was a late addition. They started working on the story with Pete as the only major Disney villain using Heartless, which explains why all of his cutscenes in different worlds make no reference of the fact that he's working for someone else, and also the strangeness of Maleficent's role in the first Halloween Town/Christmas Town visit and how it makes up most of her screentime in this game.

KH1 constantly has SDG talking about what's going on and what to do next

Did it? I don't remember them doing this all that much.

Regarding Heartless and the Seeker of Darkness, the game goes out of its way to put the antagonists of KH1 down as a way to make Sora & the Org look stronger by comparison. Yen Sid explicitly says that the Nobodies are more powerful, the stronger Heartless from previous games are absent, Heartless are referenced moreso as a tool that Maleficent / the Org could use than a real force (i.e. turning Beast / Santa into heartless to control them), the game sets Ansem SoD as somehow inherently less threatening than Xemnas (without any real reason given for that), and strips the KH1 secret reports lore of him, giving it to DiZ / Ansem TW instead, a character that is pretty chronically underutilized.

So it's an escelation of the enemy threat level and the stakes of what should happen were they to get their way, and uses groundwork laid in the previous entry to build some bold and grand new direction.

AKA: what a sequel is fucking supposed to do.

It feels weird to devalue the series' most iconic set of creatures to set up another faction mostly relevant just to KH2 and Days.

But they're not "devalued" in any way. In fact, Days and KH2 were the last time in the series' ongoing narrative where the Heartless held any major plot relevance. The entire point is that "destroy the Heartless", which was a mission statement in KH1 and seen as a good thing whenever Sora did it was made by the machinations of this new enemy into an asset to the enemy towards the completion of their plan, turning Sora and the player's drive and achievements on their heads. The very nature of the Heartless, how Nobodies are born only after someone's become a Heartless, and how only when slain by the Keyblade do Heartless release captive hearts, are intrinsic to the story of KH2. All plots afterwards turn them into generic Mooks that play no part in any deeper story and you can just kill willy-nilly.

If you can play through KH and get all the messages about the nature of hearts, how they can be created, how they connect, how memories work, etc. and come to the conclusion that Data-Sora was intended to be completely unrelated to Meat-Sora, I don't really know what to tell you. They may not be the same entity, but Data-Sora still impacts our understanding of Sora as a whole. If you can understand the connection between Xehanort, Terranort, Ansem SoD, and Xemnas, it's not too hard to understand that D-Sora and D-Riku are further character reflection on their physical counterparts. KH2 even draws immediate connection between Data Hayner, Pence, and Olette, and the ones in physical Twilight Town.

What D-Riku was is Jiminy's Journal! Your arguments are invalid. :P

As for Sora, he doesn't really make any decisions at all. The entire game, he follows what Yen Sid or some other guiding hand tells him to do.

He only spoke to Yen Sid once. And he did, in fact, make his own decisions about how he wanted to carry on in the fight against the Heartless and Nobodies, which is what Xemnas was counting on. There's an entire scene between him and Saix in FM where he details the reverse psychology and emotional and mental warfare they're waging on Sora so that he acts in the way they'd like him to.

He finds Kairi and Riku by complete happenstance, not because he actually did anything to reach them.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey, with Hayner, Pence, and Olette's help, literally found their way into a digital Twilight Town and to a portal to the in-between that led to the Organization's world where Sora knew Kairi was being held. That counts as "doing something to reach them". Namine comes along to bail Kairi out of the dungeon, but not only has Sora already entered the world by the time she does so, so has Riku. Kairi reunites with Riku, then Sora reunites with Kairi, Kairi gets Riku and Sora reunited. They all found each other.

His goals and methodology never change. You start the game wandering from place to place to hopefully stop the Organization, and you end it the same way.

A gross oversimplification given what I just detailed. Riku (with Pluto) helped Kairi get to Twilight Town. Kairi's presence in Twilight Town and interaction with Hayner, Pence, and Olette end up mattering to further motivate Sora. Sora pressing on, determined to not give up on the hope of reunion with his friends and returning home, inspires Riku to finally stop moping around in darkness and give SDG some indirect aid. King Mickey's actions also heavily play into all this. People whose hearts are connected to one another were inspiring and helping one another even from across great distances, and it all lead each of them to the same destination. Which is sort of building on the theme KH1 left us with about the connections of hearts.

None of the information Sora gets along the way affects his decision making. Even when he finds out that the villain's plan relies on him doing exactly what he was doing before, he goes right back to doing it until he ends up waltzing into TWTNW, taking out some bad guys he still knows practically nothing about, and finally taking down Xemnas. Because it's what he was supposed to do.

He was stuck at that point. He knew he shouldn't kill more Heartless with the Keyblade because it helps the Organization's plans, but he couldn't NOT kill Heartless because then all the worlds and people he cares about are screwed, left at the mercy of the enemy should he just do nothing. Again, FM addresses it in an Organization council meeting scene. These aren't "plot holes" or "bad character writing", these are just story and character decisions you personally disliked.

Even afterwards, when he and Riku are in the Realm of Darkness, the Door to Light just randomly opens because, uh, we didn't feel like having to write Sora & Riku finding a way out of there.

And here you show you fundamentally do not get not only KH2, but the storyline that ran through the first three games on the whole. There was no way for "Sora & Riku to find a way out of there". They'd hit the end of the road, no amount of shonen anime heroics and flashy fight moves could bail them out of that. The writers didn't "not feel like having to write them find a way out", they knew they couldn't write them finding a way out. They knew exactly the corner they'd just written the characters into, as they needed us to think that all hope for a happy ending was lost. The Door to Light "randomly opened" because Sora recieved and read Kairi's note which had the poem seen in KH1, which created a stirring in his heart that energized the light inside it (and remember, Kairi "being Sora's light" was set up heavy-handedly back in CoM), and that light, that love, is what made the Door to Light appear like a miracle. Sora's heart, his "mightiest weapon of all", enabled him to be the one to open the Door to Light, exactly what was foretold to us in KH1.

Three games of build-up was designed towards this thematically perfect payoff, and if you failed to appreciate this and even wrote it off as bad writing, then for all you say that "KH1 and CoM ruled", you never really loved and understood them at all, much to the secondhand embarrassment of those who do.

tl;dr: I'm not gonna play KH2 again because there's not too much left there to engage with. And the magic system sucks 💙

Just had to throw that out there to reinforce what little taste you have compared to the vast majority of gamers and KH fans out there, huh?

tl:dr: KH2 is a flawed masterpiece, you're just illiterate.

How do you even possibly vote KH2 here. How is it in second place. The only good parts of KH2 are the prologue and Sora meeting Riku again. Everything else is genuinely bad. Especially in Disney worlds. KH1, CoM, and BBS beat it by lightyears because they have actual stories going on. KH2 only exists as an excuse to make reaction commands happen

[mxdotpng]

now i'm not saying euden is going to end up pulling a kh1 sora but euden is going to end up pulling a kh1 sora. there is absolutely no reason for dragalia lost to make alberius' sword a relative plot point if they weren't going to bring it back

[blowingoffsteam2]

am i the only one that got a bit of ??? upon seeing hoder and baldr bc they both look like they could be related to riku

There was quite a bit of talk about their similarities on Twitter back when Baldr was revealed. While I don’t think they are necessarily related by blood (unless they are all distantly related to Ephemer I suppose, which is possible) I do think the visual similarities were probably intentional. Not to mention Baldr’s fall to darkness can easily be seen as a parallel to Riku’s in kh1 (and I mean, Baldr directly calls out how he and Xehanort are “the same”, and Xehanort being an obvious parallel of Riku...well you get the idea). I would like to talk about their parallels more actually, once I get a chance to gather screenshots. It’s yet another reason to believe Riku has those super-empath powers like Baldr and Xehanort did, and like the Child of Destiny is meant to have...

But one other thing is Baldr’s name. Baldr was a god of light in Norse mythology. Who else do we know who has been associated with a god of light.....hmmmm

[gulava]

Sora may have opened the door in KH1

This isn’t to say Riku didn’t do wrong in KH1. He did. But, as far as the door and Destiny Islands is concerned, I think we’ve been getting hints for 20 years that it was Sora and Riku just got blamed for it on top of what he DID do.

How did Riku leave the islands? He disappeared into darkness and woke up at Hollow Bastion. You’ll recall Alice Lidell did the same. A disappearing act, so to speak. Data Riku and Xehanort leave through a dark corridor as well.

In the film, Alice cried tears and floated into Wonderland. Water plus sadness equals DARKNESS, my friends. She never opened the door.

Whether KH2 First Visit Belle is a Riku or Sora parallel in this particular scene is in the eye of the beholder. She’s a Disney character in a relationship so she’s one of the characters that it switches depending on the circumstance to create a balance in the relationship that is Sora and Riku but...

The 3D scene in the dream had me very...curious as to what was going on because we didn’t see Ansem SOD in the original version and sleep holds our memories they say which is why Roxas was able to access Xion’s memories and tell Axel something only Xion would know. That he’d always be there to bring them back. I don’t want to imply Ansem SOD possessed Sora in this moment but it’s plausible since...they met earlier. It always came off as odd to me that Ansem SOD would even speak to Sora if he wasn’t about to use him.

YMX says that Ansem SOD possessed Riku and saw his experiences in real time which...okay, then why wasn’t he with Riku here...? He doesn’t follow Riku when he runs to the inlet. He doesn’t follow him in the dark corridor either. We don’t even see Ansem SOD again until Hollow Bastion way later on when we KNOW he actually does possess Riku. Riku doesn’t know him in the COM Novel when he meets him on the islands during Departure. HE DOESN’T KNOW HIM. Sora does. Isn’t that...suspicious? All Ansem SOD says is that the door will open soon and Riku goes off to find Sora. He doesn’t open a door!

He doesn’t remember Ansem SOD being there.

But he was following him.

Right before this scene, Data Riku states something very interesting after Data Sora accuses him of causing the bugs (the cause being Sora’s shadow). He says: “This world has been connected. Memory and reality now stand tied. It’s time for you to learn the truth.” Ansem the Wise states that data is a clue. The Datascape is shown again in Re:Mind to “remind” us that the future is already written and to go back and revisit the game known as Coded. But I recommend ALL the games on top of that so you can put the pieces together like I have. This is what Remy from Ratatouille was trying to tell Sora and co. about the fruit that he was gathering. (Essentially Nomura trying to hint to the audience that the answers are all THERE if you do enough digging.) He was trying to take the pieces and make it into a dish. In each game, therein lies another hint. Another piece of the puzzle. This is how I work out my theories. I treat each game as apart of each other without the assumption that nothing was planned. This is how Riku laughing like Namine did in COM WORKS even if it’s only finally shown in 3D and KH3. Writing evolves over time and so do characters.

“On the road ahead, more than one truth will come to light.”

What strikes me as even odd is that what they use to put Sora in a deeper sleep in 3D is things that happened back when the Islands fell but one of them wasn’t Riku holding out his hand or Kairi being swept away from darkness. It was something we never saw. It’s Ansem SOD coming up close to Sora while he’s either sitting or lying down. Perhaps...before he took a nap at the start of the game even. Hopefully, you’ve read my meta on how Replica Riku has some of Sora’s memories. Horrifying really as he’s used to play on Sora’s guilt as a way to get him further into the castle. But there’s one line in particular that bothered me to no end in the COM novel.

Ventus didn’t remember what happened to Strelitzia nor taking the book for himself. Baldr didn’t initially remember what happened to Hoder. It’s not that hard to grasp Sora might...not correctly remember a good chunk of things. Especially with how vaguely he describes his KH1 hurt in KH3. I imagine a person whose eyes cannot lie like Master of Masters...might educate him on the truth and it will probably be very ugly. My understanding is Sora’s true darkness will involve remembering. Yes, forgetting can hurt but knowing the truth will hurt you even more. I think remembering everything will be what breaks Sora. It certainly didn’t have a good reaction on Ventus or Baldr, now did it?

A very small bonus. Yuffie, a memorable “thief”, opens a door and hurts Donald in the process in the world right after the door opens and the darkness carries Kairi away so...there’s that. Sora is shown running through it also.

TLDR; check out the rest of this scene from KHUX below.

Alice is on trial for opening the door to Wonderland and she didn’t do it but is found guilty despite the lack of evidence against her. Hm...but how did Player get into Wonderland, I wonder? Ever consider that?

*glances at Sora*

[violethowler]

Considering the fact that not once in 21 years has the moment Riku allegedly opened the door in the secret place and plunged the world into darkness ever been shown on screen despite its significance to the story in general and to Riku’s character arc in particular, there is abso-bloodydamn-lutely more to the fall of Destiny Islands than we know. For all parties involved.

Like I talked about in my new video, the game establishes that Riku has a habit of eavesdropping on Sora, carrying the implication that he heard both Kairi’s “let’s take the raft and go” comment as well Sora’s lack of an explicit refusal or condemnation.

When Sora goes back to the play island during the storm and sees Riku and Kairi’s boats already there, the game never specifies whether Riku and Kairi went home at all between sunset and the beginning of the storm.

During the fall of the islands, Kairi was found in the secret place, where Riku would’ve had to go in order to open the door.

And the beta trailer for KH1 contains a shot of Kairi sitting alone on that dock at sunset before turning to see Riku stepping towards her.

And Nomura did say in the KH1 Ultimania that Riku’s actions re: Kairi later in the game were driven by guilt over what happened to her.

All of which taken together implies that Riku’s decision to open the door wasn’t something he just decided to do out of the blue, but a decision he made on impluse in the middle of a heated argument with Kairi over her perceived eagerness to take Sora away from him.

Especially when you factor in the parallels between Riku being manipulated by Ansem+Maleficent and Ariel being manipulated by Ursula. Because Ariel ended up in a position where Ursula could get to her because Triton violated her sanctuary and destroyed the crystal trident she’d found with Sora out of concern for the dangers her desire to explore could put them in.

Sort of like how Kairi’s desire for her and Sora to take the raft and leave without Riku came after she commented on how he’d changed.....

And because of those parallels in Atlantica I’d actually argue that Sora’s guilt was actually introduced in Kingdom Hearts 1.

Because the entire message of this chapter of the game was about being mindful of the consequences of your actions, even if those consequences are unintended.

Ariel helps take down Ursula to make amends for letting the sea witch into the palace so she could steal the trident and hurt her father, when all Ariel wanted was to see other worlds.

Triton recognizes at the end of Sora’s visit that Ariel wouldn’t have been in a position for Ursula to take advantage of her if he hadn’t been so restrictive and overprotective, even though all he wanted was to keep her safe.

Triton lectures Sora about the whole “no meddling in other worlds” policy that Keyblade Wielders are supposed to follow. And considering how Traverse Town and Wonderland both had giant Heartless show up as soon as their Keyholes were revealed, Triton’s concern about what could happen if Sora found his world’s keyhole doesn’t seem unwarranted. So from his perspective, even if Sora has good intentions, he doesn’t seem all that concerned about the potential ways his, Donald, and Goofy’s flying around looking for Keyholes could cause harm to the inhabitants of the worlds they visit.

And as far as battle level/theater mode goes, this world officially comes right after Monstro, where Sora had officially declared himself and Riku to be on opposite sides. And when they get to Ariel’s grotto and she talks about her desire to explore other worlds, Sora responds that he “used to feel the same way,” and only says that he still does when she questions his wording.

Which on one level, could just be handwaved as Sora trying to cover the fact that he’s from another world. But the camera rather notably doesn’t show Sora’s face during this exchange. And the fact that this came after Sora calling out Riku’s actions in Monstro raises the implication that Sora’s enthusiasm for adventure is fading, especially without the person he most wanted to travel with in the first place.

in Days when Xion is somehow experiencing/siphoning Riku’s CoM memories and Ienzo says “it was YOU who destroyed your home!” and instead of turning into Riku like you’d expect, her eyes snap open and she’s Sora. What is Nomura saying

[whyarewecalledtheshipname]

so if kh3 is the kh1 parallel people say it is—we had sora and kairi separated at the end, and sora and riku were separated too. only the roles are reversed now. this time it’s riku who’s gone to look for sora

when sora went looking for riku in CoM, he did not meet the real riku in castle oblivion, but a clone of riku. while the real riku was underground in the basement floors of castle oblivion, dealing with his darkness, his actions, and his feelings.

so—who will riku meet, if not a clone yozora? and what will sora be doing, i wonder 👀👀👀

[embraceyourdestiny]

Found more of my observations so part two. Again, it’s rambley so it might not make sense. Also the beginning (1-5ish) is mostly the same as the first post.

Part one

me noticing things and speculating while watching all of roxas’ cutscenes bc i love my boy

1). Sora and Roxas’ “Where am I? Who’s there? Who are you?” I literally never realized that was the two of them having a conversation inside Roxas’ heart and from what I can recall I think that’s the only time “heart talks” canonically happen? I know it’s a really big thing in the fandom but I can’t remember a single other time that two people in one heart/body actually talked to each other and not one of them inside calling out. Although, you can probably count all the times Kairi made comments in KH1, like in Merlin’s house and such

2). The parallels between Roxas, Roxas’ life in the Org, and Ven’s time at the Land of Departure via people telling them the things they are experiencing weren’t happening. It’s probably done so intentionally with Roxas and his Org life but it still makes you draw an immediate connection between Ventus. Both of them were experiencing strange things and yet those around them told them they weren’t, either intentionally or because they didn’t think it was true, and in the end it lead them down the path those manipulating them wanted to go down and resulted in their demise.

2.5). Side note since this was specially about when Roxas tripped, the fact that Riku jacked Roxas for on the surface no reason at all is still hilarious. Like yeah you could say it was to cause turmoil and doubt within Roxas or to stop him from leaving the data world via train (if that was even possible) or even because DiZ just couldn’t make a whole beach area with everything that was going on, especially if that beach was Destiny Islands because remembering what happened to Xion when she went, it definitely would’ve messed things up, but it’s a lot funnier to think that Riku wanted to talk to him and also was like “you know what, fuck this kid I’m taking his money” lmaoo

3). Why do the twilight gang eat sea salt ice cream?? Obviously it’s because of Roxas, but with his precious memories missing I don’t think he would’ve noticed if they didn’t without being prompted. Sure, deep down it would’ve probably felt wrong to him to not do “the things friends do” with his friends, but since he had no recollection of it, I don’t think it would’ve mattered. Did DiZ intentionally program this? He had to of, which at first seems uncharacteristically kind of him, but I came to the conclusion that it was probably just a way to mess with Roxas even more and get him to do his bidding. Like I said, without prompting Roxas probably never would’ve noticed, but with prompting, suddenly the things he supposedly did all the time feel wrong. And if that’s wrong, why would he not question the rest of what’s happening, leading him to the end result of finding out the truth and returning to Sora? I could totally be BSing right now but DiZ is insidious, so I think it makes sense lol.

4). Roxas had an airplane in his room while Sora had a pirate ship. Besides obvious parallels between Sora and Roxas and sky and sea, is it possibly because Ven had his glider and could fly around and since Roxas had a part of him in his heart, that passed on to him? It makes me wonder how much of his room was his genuine interests/subconscious thought and how much of it was DiZ’s programming because there’s no way he could’ve known about that right?

5). Roxas sitting a considerable distance between him and the gang, not only showing his disconnect from his “life” in twilight town but his disconnect from his actual life in general, and possibly even from Sora. Visual symbolism is so powerful!!

6). I have to wonder how much of this “data” twilight town is actually data and how much of it is real. “Data” is honestly quite vague in KH but there’s no way DiZ was able to make all of this from scratch right? Why would he even, considering how much work that is? He had to have some how been able to use part of the source and I feel like this is backed by the relationships between the characters. DiZ is... an unsociable personal, to say the least. I do not trust his ability to portray genuine, realistic relationships between people and be as convincing as it is to Roxas and the player and a good example is the shopping scene with Pence and Olette. When Pence says “he’s stalling...” it sounds as if Roxas has done this before. And when Olette responds with a teasing voice that she’ll see him later, it sounds genuine and knowing, like this is just same old Roxas. It could just be good voice acting lol, and we know that “same old Roxas” isn’t possible since it isn’t real, but what if it was? What if there was a piece of their hearts in the data and their hearts had been able to bond in that miniscule amount of time and play out as it would if they were actually friends? There’s no way DiZ could’ve gotten the dynamics down so well like that, not with Seipher’s gang and the twilight gang, and not with Hayner, Roxas, Pence, and Olette themselves. And it’s even more obvious when you remember that the Org was meddling, sending in Dusks to find Roxas. There’s no way DiZ was able to make up the whole stolen pictures thing because he didn’t want the Org to mess with it. Sure, he knew they’d come and he planted data to get them off the trail, but between all that chaos I really can’t see him bothering making tensions between Seipher and the gang and making the town suspect them, it seems too natural to be made up data. He had to have some how take either their hearts or the entire town and everything in it’s essence and put it into data. How, I have no clue, but it doesn’t make sense otherwise. So, if their hearts of essence was sampled, even a little bit, of course they felt a connection to Roxas (and Sora) even though none of it was real. The heart is a powerful and mysterious thing and I don’t think that would’ve been possible if all of it was pixels and codes.

(On top of this, we know worlds are in some way sentient and can influence things on their own, so with even the smallest piece of the actual twilight town, the data twilight town could still function as normal. Everything would most likely be minute compared to the real thing, but it would still be there none the less. Time still seems to function, if it wasn’t real there wouldn’t be tournaments and the end of summer and such. DiZ was far too busy to be attentive to each and every person in Twilight Town, keep up with the in town events and flow of time, and repair Sora while stalling the Org. There’s proof of this because we can presume that KH3 twilight town is how twilight town usually is and from what I remember even when you go to the real TLTW in KH2 there are things like smoking chimneys and stuff showing it’s lived it, meaning he only sampled a small piece of it but it was still able to exist as a world even with that tiny piece. He effectively made an entire, functional world in data like the evil genius he is. This might not be that big of a revelation considering Tron, but Tron really is pixels and codes, that’s the difference. Tron is an AI who was able to grow a heart of his own, and also to some extent the CPU or whatever must’ve had one too to have that much awareness, but there’s no nature in Space Paranoids, no townspeople and school happening, so it isn’t the same. Twilight Town is a real world, even if it’s “data” and that’s just interesting because imagine what you could do with that information, in-universe or storytelling wise.

I guess this is technically touched on upon in UX because of all the data worlds but I don’t know if the fact that they were still real worlds is stressed anymore than it is in KH2, which is to say not. And data being real is definitely talked about in Recoded with Data Riku and Sora from what I remember. I haven’t seen much of UX though so I could be wrong but I feel like if it was talked about I would’ve heard about it lol.)

7). ROXAS DID VANITAS’ CARTWHEEL?? I literally never noticed this before omg so there really is a connection between them to some extent!! Of the male heart mates, Rox and Vani seem to have the least amount of attention put on them both in canon and canon which seems off to me since they’re both the “darkness” or anger particularly in Roxas’ case of their lighter halves, so I kinda doubted if there really was one but there is omg!! Now all the boys can (probably?) breakdance lol when will Xion!!!

8). It’s pretty funny that the Dusks just. Stand there and while while Roxas does his station of waking stuff. They’re like yeah we being controlled by someone else who wants to end him but we also respect him and wanna give him a fair chance lol, as evidence by them calling him their “liege” which I still don’t understand but now I’m imagining being Roxas’ pets and cuddling up to him and everyone is looking at him like O.O lol

9). Obviously I knew Roxas’ SoW heavily referenced Sora’s but I didn’t realize it also had a scene foreshadowing when they met later AND it parallels Sora’s even more by showing the “dark” side of Roxas aka his real self before he turns into the giant nobody, just like Sora’s shadow turning into Darkside, only Roxas’ happens in less than a second so it’s really fast and hard to tell

9.5). Omg I never noticed that they show us that Roxas is a nobody during this! It shows his hand, then it shows the twilight thorn. Same thing when it shows his foot than its foot that’s so cool!

10). More on “how true is this data” based on relationships!! There’s literally nothing that can convince me that DiZ would care about Roxas’ friends having drama, he’d even probably call it “drivel,” so I really can’t see him making Hayner upset that Roxas was with Seipher. They’re!! Real!!!

11). Olette saying they didn’t go to the beach because it wouldn’t be the same without Roxas hurts so bad, esp bc later when they’re talking about knowing him and stuff <//3

12). I am in so much pain over this one. I never made the connection between Roxas fighting his best friend twice, once Xion and once Hayner. No wonder he looked so uncomfortable, they made him relive one of the most horrible things that’s ever happened to him and that he’s ever had to do what the fuck 💔💔💔

13). I like the effort made to show that Roxas is friends with the whole twilight gang. It’s easy to assume he’s only really good friends with Hayner but him talking with Olette and checking out the seven wonders with Pence feels really nice and genuine

14). It makes me so sad they keep making Roxas look like a bad friend especially because he’s a GOOD friend and it’s not his fault. The pictures, losing the money, accidentally getting caught up with Seifer, losing the blue marble, none of it is his fault and thankfully the twilight gang are nice enough to not hold it over him but it still sucks like hasnt Roxas been through enough :(

15). It’s really sad we’ll never see Roxas as that somewhat happy go lucky, or at least carefree, kid he was in kh2 prologue because he never WAS that kid. He’s been through so much and his life has been so hard it’s really unfair. I hope post kh3 he can find at least some kind of peace, but he’ll probably never be that carefree again :(

16). Oh my god wait wait when Sora corrected himself form saying “the five of us— I mean, the six of us” WAS HE TALKING ABOUT ROXAS??? IM GONNA CRY 😭😭😭 I once saw someone say he meant Jiminy but as much as it sucks Jiminy isn’t that important to be included in the “gang that’s gonna save the world” and Sora seemed to say it on reflex, like he miscounted and corrected himself. He could’ve included Roxas but forgot himself, since he only just awoke when his heart was with Roxas not that long before. Omg I’m so sad and happy at the same time about this

17). Okay now I’m just watching someone play KH2 bc I wanted to see someone’s reaction to the prologue bc it’s so good but now they’re with the fairies and oh my god I never realized the mirrors in that room depict the different drive forms but specially that one explicitly mentions Sora being overcome by darkness aka Anti form?? That’s so chilling and a cool but subtle way to reveal all the drive form powers right off the back but you wouldn’t notice it til later

18). So. Roxas can double wield because he has both Sora and Ven’s hearts in him and Sora is able to double wield because when Roxas returned to him he either a). passed all his skills including double wielding to him, or b). Roxas legitimately was chosen to wield a keyblade and since we know he had a heart, when he returned to Sora Sora then also technically had two other hearts in him, granting him a second keyblade. Interesting.

19). Hmmm never realized that the samurai nobodies, which belong to Roxas, don’t appear until he goes back to Sora, almost as if they’re trying to follow their leader but then Sora keeps getting rid of them

20). Sora keeps bumping his chest with his fist just like Hayner does T^T I don’t know if that’s because Roxas actually did it or Roxas just picked up the habit from Hayner but I’m soft

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I just went through the whole Kaiora tag, in trying to find this one amv I love for the ship (if you're wondering how I did that, it's because there aren't that many posts in the tag since people tend to call the Sora/Kairi ship "SoKai" as opposed to "Kaiora"), but I did run into a lot of my own posts about the two. The parallel ones in particular. You know what? I never say nice things about my own work, but those WERE pretty good, weren't they? I should try and think of more of them and post them.

Also, I did start another SoKai story: one that's supposed to be a multi-chapter, but it will probably only be seven chapters at most. Though it's Kairi, Sora, and Riku before their adventure started (when Sora and Kairi were thirteen and Riku was fourteen). And it's Kairi-centric more than anything. Though it is before their journey, there will be some advwnture-esque things for Kairi, because Keyblade wielders from other worlds show up, interested in the Destiny Islands and these children (not characters from the first saga or second saga's plot, because I don't want to mess with the timeline. OCs. Since as far back as KH1, Nomura said in an interview there were probably Keyblade wielders in other parts of the universe. And yes, he probably developed that idea into people like Eraqus, but I'm taking the idea differently and this is my take on it).

I'm pretty excited about this story, I think, and hopefully it'll see the light of day. The only problem is I plotted all of it when I was half-asleep, trying to sleep and now I've forgotten a lot. So now I have to brainstorm again before seriously writing this, but I can do it:)

[rayne-the-neutrois-nerd]

23 minutes in and oh boy.

1) He said the charm put on Kairi by Aqua is what made her inherit the Keyblade. No. The charm was to ensure her safety. The guy said that the charm was also vague. Aqua made it blatantly clear saying "this will keep you safe." And it did. It ensured that Kairi went to Destiny Islands when Radiant Garden exploded. (Or at least thats what was believed until this weird Xehanort pod stuff came into the picture, but I don't think he had a specific destination when sending her out.) The charm could have also kept her heart safe inside Sora when Destiny Islands was destoryed.

2) Okay, the whole Keyblade Master thing is dumb and I think basically every KH fan will agree that it's stupid. The test varies from Master to Master and is totally arbituary and Terra got dealt a shitty hand, I can agree with that. As why Ventus can't take it, I assume it's because he's too young or haven't been training as long as Terra and Aqua, since they've been in training a lot longer than him.

3) As for the Keyblade War being a new concept, it's more this is the first time it's given a name. In KH1, Kairi's Grandmother tells her a story about a fight for the light that split the worlds apart.

4) Yen Sid retiring from being a Keyblade Master is odd, and why he never uses the Keyblade again is weird, I'll give you that. Maybe he passed down his own Keyblade to Mickey? As Mickey himself isn't a Keyblade Master yet at the time of BBS?

5) Riku didn't let Kairi "borrow" a Keyblade, that Keyblade is HERS, or else it would have disappeared after the game, as every Keyblade that's handed over to someone else does in the series. (Jack holds it for like 3 seconds before it says nah and hops back over to Sora, even though Sora was totally cool with letting Jack hold it). Now, why Riku has it in the first place??? I... have no clue...

6) He gives a scenario about how to fix the Keyblade War and X-Blade that actually sort of does line up with canon. The X-Blade is the first Keyblade, and the Master of Masters studies it, and creates the other Keyblades, based off the X-Blade. Only those with worthy hearts can weild them, and since this was an age where mostly everyone's hearts was filled with Light, a lot of people qualified. Then eventually shit went sideways and the Keyblade War happened when they wanted possession over Kingdom Hearts, which caused the X-Blade to shatter.

7) You can not like Ventus's design despite the in-universe resason why he looks like that. That's okay. It is a bit confusing, especially for 90% of the game where you don't get said reason. But you can't just throw away said reason just because you think it's dumb. That's not how this works.

8) Speaking of designs, love how he only likes Aquas design because shes hot. Literally says every other good thing about her design is "a distant second" He gives genuinely good compliments to her design, about how it looks feminine and flowy but practical, the armor blends in well, etc. But then he sandwiches it between "she's fuckable."

9) Okay, the voice acting in this game is rough, especially for Aqua and Terra, I'll give you that. They do get better, and the people themselves aren't bad voice actors, but it might have just been bad direction.

10) Acknowleding the parallels between BBS and the Star Wars Prequels is interesting but not exactly a reason to say BBS is bad. Also saying the Prequels did things better than BBS isn't a reason that BBS is bad. It's just a comparison. This has nothing to do with your overall point.

11) Terra is a bit naive, but he's also been manipulated by Xehanort this whole time. Xehanort has given him 0 reason not to trust him over his storyline. Of course Terra would listen to him and immediately go to help his friend who he believes to be in danger (and he WAS in danger). Of course he's not going to listen to reason when his former pupil is trying to kill his best friend! Terra is a fucking victim who realizes too late that he is one.

12) How the fuck can you say that Aqua deserved everything bad that happened to her just because she tried to SAVE HER FRIEND!? She sent Terranort back to the realm of light because she believed it would save him, and sacrificed herself. She had no fucking clue that Terranort would then eventually lead to creating the emblem Heartless and all the shitty stuff he does once he remembers who he is. There has been no clue to even hint to her that this is what's going to happen. She's not a fucking psychic. She did what she thought was best to save her fucking friend what the FUCK

How DARE youtube reccommend me a video saying Birth By Sleep is the worst Kingdom Hearts game

1st of all, you're wrong

2nd of all, Coded is right there