#I don't actually believe this will happen in KHML

[shibee-inu]

*twirls my hair* so there's this crack theory I have...

[goldensunset]

ok ok khml beta spoilers (part one of whatever this is going to be idk i'm just gonna ramble about my thoughts and observations)

waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh wah awa wahhhhhh i want this game now i won't lie to you this looks really cool i can't believe it's real. or a mobile game for that matter. imagine this as a full console game. imagine khux and khdr as this. insane

remus... nice!!! can we like. see him in full lighting though so i could get a good sense of his color scheme. ok i like this guy already i like his casual/rude vibes and the way he talks

i hope he has a brother named romulus and i hope romulus kills him it needs to happen sorry. idc whether it's shock value or something very narratively heavy i need fratricide in this game idc

so they're doing the good old 'every other character in the cutscene is gonna be voiced except the protagonist whose dialogue just shows up silently but their mouth still moves' thing huh. can't wait to see how this plays out. looks like player is still gonna have limited dialogue overall so that works. but like man i kinda wish they'd just give player a canon voice or two or three. imagine that being something you could choose

i'm gonna read too deeply into player's amnesia including their name but not including their fighting ability. like they could've had you type in a name during the character creation screen and had player respond to the question later but nope we specifically establish that they don't remember and have to make one up on the spot. you know what they do remember though? combat. weapons. carrying out their missions as a keyblade wielder, all they were ever meant to do. gonna be normal about this for sure

the scala world card... DUDE...

so after multiple joke posts we finally have a real freya... i don't know why i'm surprised. dunno if i vibe with her full outfit yet (i think the red jacket uniform is kinda overbearing and might get old fast if both she and remus and probably at least 20 other characters will have it but in a cleaner or more stylized render i'd love it probably) but like dude the cat ear accessories... were those there last time? did i not notice them last time? those are perfect

literally ALL of this music is so cheerful... the dearly beloved is super upbeat, the new field theme for scala and the astral plane and combat and the tutorial menus etc etc... it's so strange. i KNOW they're hiding the absolute tragedy from us. goth aesthetic combined with whimsical peaceful tunes. what's happening here

the. the pit... that's their portal?? when you wanna go to the astral plane you jump in The Machinery Hell Pit? absolutely not you would never convince me to do that

so begins the gacha/microtransaction hell. i sure hope it's easy enough to get whatever ingame currency there is through other means

i'm actually loving the amount of customization options dude that's so cool

[lightandfellowship]

There’s so much time between the main stories of Dark Road and Birth by Sleep—I’d love to hear any theories or headcanons you might have about what happened between the two! (I’m especially curious what you think of Xehanort and Eraqus’ first fight, since we only saw a little piece of that scene)

I think it makes sense to assume that Xehanort lost that first fight with Eraqus, which I think is the consensus amongst most KH fans? When Xehanort brings up the subject of Kingdom Hearts a second time when he and Eraqus are older, the idea behind Eraqus attacking him in order to stop him seems to be that it worked the first time. "If words won't dissuade you, only one thing will." Fighting it out must've made Xehanort stand down/change his mind (for whatever reason). Maybe he decided that he wasn't yet ready to lose his friendship with Eraqus, so he relented after being defeated. Which also explains why Eraqus is so shocked when it doesn't work a second time and Xehanort actually seriously injures him instead of just...angrily sparring with him, I guess.

I think that first fight is interesting in how it slightly recontextualizes the second fight. Because it reveals to us that Xehanort has tried to get Eraqus to agree with him about Kingdom Hearts multiple times. Does he desire Eraqus' blessing, or does he want Eraqus to actively help him on his mission? Either way, it shows that Xehanort cares enough about Eraqus/Eraqus' opinion to be persistent about it even 60-ish years later, all while knowing that Eraqus probably won't change his mind. That suggests a level of desperate hope to me; he risks having his plan ruined by telling Eraqus about it (who could then go on to stop him) but he'll take the risk if it means potentially getting Eraqus to finally validate him. Even though the likelihood of that happening is like, really small, and he probably knows that. Though of course during that second fight Xehanort seemingly gives up on Eraqus and scars him as a warning not to mess with him anymore (notably doesn't kill him though!)

As for the timeline between KHDR and BBS, I don't really have many headcanons since the games give us so little to go off of. There might be a novel blurb I haven't read or a secret report I'm forgetting about that gives us some small insight that I'm not privy to (I still need to read the novels and Character Files short stories. Also replay BBS). I imagine KHML might actually give us some answers there because of the Land of Departure still needing some explaining--it sounds like Eraqus only moved there as an old man? (From what I remember old man Xehanort says something like "I see you've settled in."). Which suggests that Scala may have been persevering for a while after the events of KHDR and before dying out completely (?).

I think the only thing I have that might count as a concrete headcanon: I believe Xehanort and Eraqus met Yen Sid after becoming Masters; I don't think their relationship has been retconned. Yen Sid says it himself that they walked the path of Keyblade Master together, and obviously he doesn't make an appearance in KHDR. I assume Yen Sid was trained by a lone Keyblade wielder out in the world, probably a mage type. Would be kinda fun if it was a Keyblade wielder from Steampunk Scala who left the world for one reason or another and settled somewhere else, maybe because they were unhappy with the direction the city was going in and jumped ship early. I imagine Xehanort and Eraqus meet Yen Sid on their travels and become fast friends once they realize that they're all Keyblade Masters (Keyblade wielding is a dying art so they have to stick together).

[renatogpadilla]

Kingdom Hearts' Keblade Wielders are just Jedi:

OK, so we can all agree that Keyblade Wielders are just Jedi, right?

That's not me projecting on an AU or anything.

They're just JEDI. Like, the parallel is obvious! Mark Hamill is even there!

Except they're allowed attachment (which, granted, 9 out of 10 times is what causes the problems) and everyone is a Padawan because the ONLY 3 LIVING MASTERS are crackpots!

Xehanort is The Evil One, Eraqus is the Qui-Gon Jinn/Obi-Wan Kenobi parallel that's too BLIND to see how to stop the Anakin (Terra) betrayal from happening and Yen Sid is Yoda BECAUSE HE NEVER DOES ANYTHING UNTIL IT'S TOO LATE except sit there ominously and help out in the final fight of the trilogy.

Still don't believe it? How about the "rule of two's"? How there can only be ONE Sith Lord and ONE Sith Apprentice?

As there are only 2 active evil Keyblade Wielders at a time! If we take BBS to be the Prequels, then Vanitas is 1000% Maul, and then there's Xehanort, who is STILL EVERY OTHER VILLAIN who weilds a Keyblade, with the sole exception of Xion (who forms part of the Sora Heart Hotel) and Luxu (who doesn't count because he doesn't wield his Keyblade during the entire Trilogy)!

The Whole KHUX plot is essentially Order 66, with the Foretellers (a fooled Council/Senate) turning Keyblade Wielders against each other for their Master's plan (unknowingly).

And finally, this new KHML connection with the "Secret Society of Keyblade Wielders" being a parallel of the Jedi as used during the Clone Wars: As a police force that takes your children rather than Peacekeepers.

I KNOW for a fact SOMEBODY has done this AU before, and I can't help but feel like the parallels got pretty obvious the longer Keyblade Wielder Lore expanded...

Like, you could even argue that Mickey plays the part of Obi-Wan... Though considering the rivalry with the Maul stand-in, maybe "Ven" Kenobi would be more accurate...

I'm just saying, if what you want is to predict anything, the Parallels are THERE.

Edit: IT JUST HIT ME. ROXAS IS STARKILLER.

Canonically the hardest hitter? Worked for and betrayed the bad guys? Dual Wielder? In love with his also-previously-evil mission-partner? Everyone's favorite character?

"THE FORCE UNLEASHED" IS LITERALLY A XION LIVES AU.

Edit 2: Actually, Ven is Luke. It's actually pretty spot-on...

Edit 3: Aqua isn't just Ahsoka. She's a bit of Padme as well, now that I think about it...