#I must be the only person who loves both Ven and Xehanort as favorite characters haha | Explore Tumblr posts and blogs

nadziejastar · 6 years ago

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I was SO MAD when Nomura said he didn't know how Saix got his scar! The answer is obvious when you put the pieces together, but he refuses to do so

There are several Organisation members whose original names are still unknown. Will we have a chance to learn them someday, or to find out about the scar on Isa’s face?

Nomura: If there is a sequel, then that chance may come. But in my heart right now my desire is a blank page.

Ugh, I felt the same way. I was SO mad. After 10 years of looking forward to the resolution of this subplot… that is the only explanation we are going to get apparently. I couldn’t help but laugh and roll my eyes, though. Because, like you said, it’s so obvious what Saix’s deal was, if you put the pieces together. I was just thinking, “Gee, I wonder why you have no interest in explaining Isa’s scar, Nomura? Maybe because you gave Isa’s backstory to Skuld?”

Even if Nomura does give us another explanation for the scar in a hypothetical sequel, I still won’t care because it won’t feel authentic. I’ll know deep down it’s not the real reason. Plus, with the precedents set already, it’ll most likely be something stupid. Like, “Isa gave himself the scar to never forget Subject X”. Ugh, better not jinx it.

Terra: Strength for what?

Riku: To protect the things that matter. You know, like my friends.

Going into KH3, there were many things I was excited about. But there were three things I was looking forward to the most. One of them was seeing Terra, Aqua, and Ven get saved. This was a given. There was no way it was NOT going to happen. I was disappointed in how it happened.

I would have preferred to see the characters actually use the power of waking instead of just talking about it. These segments actually could have provided much-needed closure to the characters’ emotional journeys. I would have preferred to see Ventus dive into Terra’s heart to wake him up, instead of Sora just nonchalantly freeing him with a flick of his Keyblade. But, at least they got saved…I guess.

Another one had to do with Riku and Terra. I haven’t had the chance to talk much about this, but I guess now is as good a time as any. This was also was a HUGE disappointment for me. I LOVE Riku and Terra. This actually ties into my disappointment with Lea and Isa’s story. I was looking forward to Riku and Terra’s subplot for years. I was just…speechless when I learned that it would all amount to nothing.

In “KHI”, the robed man, Ansem the Wise’s apprentice Xehanort’s Heartless (the body of Xehanort’s Heartless before he inhabited Riku’s body), appeared on the Destiny Islands. Is this because it was Master Xehanort’s homeworld?Nomura: That may be one reason, but if he somehow had some of Terra’s memories, we can consider that it might be because he had laid eyes on Riku previously. In terms of the elements of Terra and Master Xehanort, I think the questions of how their power is related and divided, as well as who has whose memories and heart, will become a key to the story after this one.

Riku’s period of absence was something that Nomura wanted to cover in BBS Volume 2. We see KH1 Riku in the Blank Points secret ending. It looks like that would have been the game where we would see a LOT more from his perspective over the course of the entire series, filling that “blank” period.

Is that to say that there’s a possibility that within Xehanort’s Heartless, the darkness that sleeps in Riku’s heart, there might remain something of Terra…?Nomura: That’s also a riddle connected to the next story, so everyone please use your imagination.

This connection between Riku’s darkness and Terra was supposed to be followed up in the “next story”. Of course, that is the game that got cancelled. During Blank Points, we also saw Riku watching Roxas and Xion. This was the time period where he struggled with the darkness inside of him. I was SO looking forward to learning about this.

Lingering Sentiment: “Aqua…Ven… A Keyblade? Who are you? I know you. We’ve met before, way back when. No, that wasn’t you. You’re not the one I chose. Where is he? Xe…ha…nort… Is that you? Xeha…nort… Xehanort!”

To Terra, Riku was his last chance for help. He was the boy he’d chosen to carry on his legacy. Riku gave him hope when he thought his friendships were beyond repair. He inspired him to listen to his heart. During his time in the darkness, Terra must have been thinking, “Riku will save me.” As the Lingering Sentiment, he clearly had Riku on his mind.

When each world is completely debugged, a scene is shown that was not seen in Kingdom Hearts I. Did those scenes occur at the same point in time as Kingdom Hearts I?

Nomura: Yes, they were memories deep in the data of the worlds recorded in Jiminy’s Journal, however as a result of Data Riku searching after the worlds were debugged, they were tangible to the King and company.

And that strange unexplained cutscene in Re:coded appeared to show that Terra was indeed searching for Riku. And Riku showed signs that he recognized Terra. Something about that darkness was familiar somehow. He smiled at the robed figure, like it was an old friend he hadn’t seen in a long time.

Then the darkness immediately engulfs him. In DDD, the bad guys are able to travel to the sleeping Destiny Islands because a version of Xehanort physically existed there. So it is safe to say that Riku was already possessed even at the very beginning of KH1.

I always thought Riku’s personality in KH1 was strange. In BBS, he’s a really pure-hearted kid who wants nothing more than to protect his friends. His powerful light is what drew Terra to Destiny Islands to begin with. In all the later games, he’s a very devoted friend who is wiling to do anything to protect the people that matter.

How could he have become Maleficent’s pawn and agree to turn on Sora so easily? It made total sense that Riku’s openness to Xehanort’s Heartless was more about his connection to Terra than some innate disposition to he had to darkness.

Riku: I’ve got something you need to see.

Sora: Oh yeah?

Riku: A hidden truth that isn’t part of your memories. I want you to see it. And, I want you to feel it.

Sora: Well, okay. I know you wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.

Riku: Thanks, Sora. Close your eyes.

In Re:coded, we also saw a new scene of Riku in Neverland, reaching out to the moon. Data Riku felt it was very important to show Sora. In that scene, Riku was behaving more like Xehanort than himself. The way he reaches for the moon is so similar to how Xemnas reaches for Kingdom Hearts.

Riku: Darkness had taken ahold of my heart, and Kairi had lost hers completely. But at the end of your journey, Sora, you would have saved us. Now, what did me and Kairi have in common? When you watched–what did you feel?

Sora: Umm…

Riku: It was “hurt.” We had both lost ourselves, and we were hurting. So what would you have done?

I think this is because Riku already had a piece of Xehanort’s heart implanted inside of him, and he was gradually being swallowed by it. Riku’s possessiveness toward Kairi and his decision to turn on Sora was really Ansem Seeker of Darkness and his desire to find the last princess, manifesting through Riku. He was Xehanort’s vessel in KH1. Just like with Lea and Isa, I don’t think Riku got to truly heal his “hurt”, either.

“Stop it, Sora!” he shouted desperately, managing to block the Keyblade. “Don’t you recognize me?!”

“Yeah, I do. I can see exactly what you’ve become!”

“Augh!” Another blow from the Keyblade knocked Riku down. He couldn’t see that giant shadow anymore—did that mean it really was himself?

“How can the light hurt you? Have you really become a creature of the dark? You’re not Riku anymore—just a pawn of the darkness.” Full of regret, Sora kept the Keyblade pointed at him. “It’s time for you to face the light!”

This is a scene from the Chain of Memories novel. It’s when Zexion is trying to mess with Riku’s mind. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the series. Riku constantly refers to himself as a “creature of the dark” in the novels. He feels so ashamed of himself. His biggest fear is that Sora will realize what he “really” is, and destroy him.

A fierce glow radiated from Sora. Just like a shock wave of darkness, it had a terrible power that bowled Riku over and pressed in on him.

“I’m fading… Fading away…into the light…?”

If he was a creature of darkness—if he couldn’t fight the darkness with his own strength—then there was no other way but for Sora to destroy him, Riku thought hazily.

And if someone had to destroy him…he would much rather that Sora do it than anyone else.

Riku accepts this fate as something he deserves.

Young Xehanort: It was yours first, wasn’t it? But you succumbed to the darkness you could not control, and your prize–the Keyblade–passed onto Sora instead. Your mistakes always end up being other people’s problems.

Young Xehanort uses the same tactic Zexion did. He tries to manipulate Riku, using his guilt. They want him to fall to darkness so that he can become a vessel yet again. It doesn’t work. But even in KH3D, Riku still blames himself for the problems that Xehanort caused.

“That was my… my dark side. I gave into the darkness once, and ever since, it’s chased be around in one form or another. The seeker of darkness who stole my body, a puppet replica of the shadows in my heart, and now, I’m facing me.”

This subplot explaining Riku’s darkness most likely would have explained why he saw a dark version of himself in Monstro in KH3D. This other Riku is trying to kidnap Pinocchio, but he’s wearing an Organization cloak, which KH1 Riku was not. It seems like Riku saw a past version of himself from an alternate timeline—one who won’t get saved by Sora.

This Riku meets Young Xehanort and gets a black robe. Eventually, his heart will get totally swallowed by Xehanort. He will become a full-fledged vessel, and join and the Real Organization XIII. Then they will transport his whole body through time, like they did with all the other versions of Xehanort, including Terranort. I don’t believe that Riku Replica had anything to do with this subplot originally. They didn’t NEED replicas. They had time travel. That’s what Young Xehanort’s Keybalde was for. That’s why they left Vexen and only took Isa with them.

Riku: After allowing darkness into my heart, am I still fit to wield the Keyblade? Even after locking you away, here you are, haunting me again. So I get it now. There’s no point in trying to hold the darkness back.

Ansem: At last, you see clearly.

Riku: You know…when I look at you…there’s this memory that flashes back. A secret I said I’d keep when I was little. The main reason I kept dreaming about seeing the outside world…was ‘cause of him.

Riku could clearly recognize Terra yet again during the ending. The darkness that hounded him constantly was not a manifestation of Riku’s true nature. It was actually a friend in need reaching out for help.But Riku never learns this. How can he truly forgive himself if he never learns that he was not to blame for succumbing to “his” darkness?

That it wasn’t his fault that the Destiny Islands fell to darkness, simply for wanting to see the outside world? That he is worthy to wield the Keyblade? That he’s not and never was a “creature of the dark”? Xehanort is the source of all the bad things that happened. Not him. He was being used as a vessel, like Terra. He was a victim.

When do Riku and Terra meet again?

Nomura: In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Terra made a promise to Riku, “anyway, when you reach me, let’s teach the world the power to protect the ones we love, and the truly spacious world we live in”, in case he should ever succeed him. It appears Riku has remembered this promise, but when will the two ever meet again?

Terra and Riku don’t even speak in KH3. I. Was. So. Mad. LOL.

Then of course, there was Lea and Isa’s story. The one other thing I was really excited to see the resolution to.

So not only the members up to number VI were living in Radiant Garden, but Lea and Isa as well?

Nomura: Yes that’s right. But at this time they were just two innocent boys who liked to play with a frisbee.

Yes, exactly. That’s what I found so interesting about them in BBS. They were just a couple of nice, normal kids who weren’t harming anyone. What’s the point of going out of your way to show how innocent they are, unless you plan on showing what made them change? This all seemed like it was foreshadowing a very dramatic revelation.

By the way, Braig’s dealings with Master Xehanort in Birth by Sleep make sense, he was to become a vessel.

Nomura: There is a certain reason for Braig to proudly exclaim, “As for me, I’m already half Xehanort.” Isa (Saix) is included too. I think you’ll understand the details about their circumstances eventually.

To me, it was so obvious, I never even questioned it. Two innocent kids are trying to sneak into a castle while shady human experiments are going on. They wind up in Organization XIII. Axel absolutely delights in assassinating its members, and he has a plan to overthrow Xemnas. And Saix is on on it, too.

Saix is pathetically miserable. He desperately longs for a heart, more than anyone. He has a big-ass scar of death on his face, orange eyes, pointy ears, and his personality did a total 180 after the events of BBS. He changed from someone who Lea loved spending time with…to someone exactly like Xehanort.

What else could they possibly have been trying to imply with all of this context? And I thought the idea of them being research specimens was fascinating. It totally explained Axel’s complex personality, and it also added an additional layer of tragedy to his whole story. Axel was NOT in the Organization by choice. He was a victim. And Isa was basically Terra 2.0. Though unlike with Terra, Isa’s closest friend doesn’t even know he’s a vessel.

That he is also suffering. Axel just thinks Isa’s forgotten about him. I really wanted to see them heal each other’s “hurt”. I wanted to see Isa get saved just as much as Terra, Aqua, and Ven. He was a victim. Riku, Lea, and Isa were all victims whose pain never got acknowledged by the story. So they never get to confront it and heal. Even though healing pain was the main theme of KH3.

Even though Axel had been eliminated in Kingdom Hearts II, since that time, had you considered having him appear again in his human form Lea?

Nomura: I thought a lot about that. Should I leave him as he was or should I bring him back again? However, when I considered the people that Lea wants to bring back, his existence plays a big role. I think Lea has successively become a key character.

Yes, Lea is a key character. According to Nomura, his pain was special. He’s the only one who doesn’t say Sora’s name out loud in the Blank Points ending. Because he’s planning to fix his own pain. He doesn’t have to sit around and wait for Sora to do it. That’s why he sought out Mickey and Yen Sid in the first place.

Too Precious to Lose

Axel and I talked for a while about the things we can’t bear to lose. Axel thinks that for Nobodies, it’s our pasts, because that’s all we have to remember the pain of losing something.—Roxas

Axel’s whole relationship with Saix was to demonstrate that Lea has something important that he’s lost. Something that he wishes to recover. And he has the power to do this now. His Keyblade is called Flame Liberator. The Phoenix represents, “the freeing of the spirit from the bounds of the physical.” It represents the point when a person recognizes their true nature and is liberated from suffering. It’s the bird of resurrection and immortality. He finally has the strength to “protect what matters”.

Roxas: What is it that you’re so afraid of?

Riku: Huh? Hmm… Losing something that’s important.

Riku learned that you need to acknowledge the pain of losing someone you care about. That is the key to awaken someone who’s lost in the Realm of Sleep. Because it shows how much you love them. This love gives the other person the strength to face their own pain, and return to reality again. Unconditional love is even more important than having the strength to protect what matters. That’s what Riku learned. That’s what Lea and Isa needed, too.

Yet in KH3, all of these lovely themes get tossed aside. Now I’m supposed to just accept that Lea doesn’t really need to save Isa. He’s not really a victim. He’s not really suffering. The mind control experiments and Isa’s scar weren’t really that important to the plot. I. Was. So. Mad.

As bad as the long wait was, I could handle waiting a very long time to get proper closure. I am pretty patient when I have to be. But with these things, I’ll never get closure. The story will forever remain unresolved. And that just sucks. Two of the things I wanted to see the most. Things Nomura explicitly told us we’d learn more about…just thrown in the trash. It was a total slap in the face as a fan.

And yet, I truly believe Nomura is deeply unhappy with KH3′s story, as well.

Hmm if I had to choose a favorite character, I would say Sora, and Noctis. Why them? Of course Sora, I’ve been together with him for more than ten years now, this is the first time I’ve been with a character for such a long time, so he’s very very special for me and he’s been adopted by Disney also, so he’s a very very good boy. More like a good son actually. —Jul 2013

Around late 2013-2014, he was taken off of the FFXV project and it was drastically changed from his original vision. And Birth By Sleep Volume 2 was also cancelled around this same time. This interview was done before either of those things happened. Back then, he clearly had a lot of respect for what Sora’s character represented, and he was a lot more positive in his interviews overall.

“If I had to pick, I am a person more on the dark side like Xehanort and co. I harness the burning anger in my heart into what I create. Kingdom Hearts III’s current development explodes very much in this sense. Each time, it’s a battle with Sora and co. who are the exact opposite of myself, it’s been over 10 years and yet we haven’t reached a conclusion.” —Oct 2014

Something drastically changed his outlook over that year. He said he was filled with “burning anger,” and started to distance himself from Sora’s character.

“I actually don’t sympathize or empathize with Sora at all,” Nomura says. Instead, he relates to the game’s mysterious villains, Xehanort or likely Ansem, anyone who’s fallen prey to their dark natures. “I think I’m closer to those characters, so Sora is like my enemy,” he says. “How I always think of him is I would unleash my attacks on him, and then I draw him in a way that I think he will be able to make a comeback at me. In that sense, I really think that Sora is just like an opposite personality character to who I am.”—June 2018

By the end of KH3′s development, he seemed to actively dislike Sora.

“The Kingdom Hearts series has become a huge title nowadays and back then it was more like I was making it secretively in the corner, but now that a lot more people are involved I do feel that it’s not my title anymore, it’s everyone’s title. And just talking about all this … It actually kind of makes me really sad.”—June 2018

This…deeply saddened me, too. Because it explained so much about KH3′s story. To me, it didn’t feel like Nomura’s true vision. It just didn’t feel like the same Kingdom Hearts I grew up with. The story was massively watered-down and the character arcs weren’t resolved in a satisfying manner. At all.

It felt like the higher-ups wouldn’t give Nomura full creative control because they needed to make the game as mainstream as possible. And that doesn’t work with a story that has a decade’s worth of side stories to resolve. So they canceled BBS Volume 2 and pushed for KH3′s story to be greatly simplified. And KH3′s entire story line got butchered in the process. And I think that’s the real reason why Nomura wants to distance himself from the Xehanort arc, and also why he doesn’t want to explain Isa’s scar. He’s very depressed with how everything turned out and he wants to start over with a blank slate.

#kh #kh meta #kh riku #kh terra #kh lea #kh isa #kh axel #kh saix #kh xehanort #anti-kh3 #kingdom hearts meta

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zdbztumble · 6 years ago

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But What About Kairi, Or: Today’s KH Ramble, Part II (KH III Spoilers)

Meanwhile...

My play-through of KH III has taken me through the last of the Disney worlds, Big Hero 6. Besides reminding me of why I’m not the biggest fan of that movie, its day/night options make for a fun mechanic, and the layout of San Fransokyo is great. Baymax has some cute battle dialogue, and Donald’s reaction to “Keyblade Hero 3” was a good laugh. Of all the non-Pixar worlds, it’s also probably the best-integrated into the main plot. The reappearance of the Replica Riku, and the revelation of yet another plot, this time a burgeoning rebellion inside the real Organization XIII, nearly made my head explode, but on balance, it’s a solid level. The unorthodox beginning to the last Gummi zone was a pleasant surprise too, though I’d say that the Gummi ship sequences were at their best in KH II.

But then we come to the Badlands of the Keyblade Graveyard, and...ooh boy.

The battle that opens this level is fun, and a worthy successor to the battle with a thousand Heartless in KH II. I may have been a bit over-leveled for it, but it was still a good time. The cutscenes that followed, on the other hand, had me sputtering in disbelief. To begin with, the fact that all of that was a cutscene is baffling. All seven Keyblade Wielders facing down Terranort doesn’t sound like a good boss battle to anyone? Or hell, just Terra and Aqua? They’ve got the real stake in that fight. And Donald’s surprise spell, which I gather was a big Final Fantasy Easter egg, made for a cool moment that would have been much cooler as something that appeared in the course of battle. But that cutscene was also baffling on a story level. The Demon Tower becoming a Demon Tornado certainly made it bigger, but all the characters reacting to it with such despair was hard to follow when the distinction between the two isn’t all that great. Sora’s total collapse was especially out-of-character. The staging of this cutscene, it’s choice of camera angles, action, and pacing, all failed to sell the supposed magnitude of this threat. Coming off of a single battle, massive though it was, didn’t help.

And then...there’s Kairi.

I’m struggling to think of another series where a character supposedly of the main cast has been so consistently mishandled the way Kairi has since the end of KH II. The writing for her has been absolutely abysmal. And it’s in abysmal in a way that, rather than souring me on the character (which has happened in other series), I’m increasingly sympathetic towards her in a critical sense looking at Kingdom Hearts as a story.

That sympathy doesn’t come from Kairi being a favorite of mine. I don’t see how Kairi could be considered a favorite character, because I don’t consider her a complete character. The best way to describe Kairi IMO is as a potential character. She has tremendous potential to do great things in this series. Her wholesome, “girl next door” personality gives her a charming if rather conventional starting point, and the fact that she’s a freakin’ princess - one of the Princesses of Light, no less - who can’t recall her past offers a wonderful hook into stories. I said before that I’d revisit the idea of a KH prequel game, and IMO, the best choice for a prequel story is to explore Kairi’s past. Imagine that; a BbS, or equivalent game, that explored her life as a princess in Radiant Garden, how she came to lose her memories and end up on Destiny Islands, and why she could wield a Keyblade at the end of KH II. Was her personality still the same before she lost her memories? Could the confederation of Disney villains been aware of her and the other Princesses even then? If the prequel must expand on the Xehanort saga, then could Kairi have had anything to do with Ansem the Wise’s research, and could that explain her amnesia?

KH III has, so far, suggested that’s going to deal with at least some of this. Eventually. Maybe. If it gets around to it. But the point still stands that fleshing out one of the main characters of the series instead of inventing three new ones and pulling a third twist with the villain seems like the much more sound storytelling choice to me. A prequel game that focused on Kairi could also contain a hook that, combined with Maleficent’s unresolved fate at the end of KH II, would’ve provided a much more organic segue into a KH III story than pulling all sorts of stunts to re-open the Xehanort saga.

But that didn’t happen, and we’re left with the reality that Kairi’s backstory has barely been touched upon since the first game. Kairi herself is barely present for Coded, BbS, or DDD. In the latter case, that being a game primarily focused on the Destiny Islands gang sans Disney battle partners, Kairi’s absence seems a terrible wasted opportunity. That could be made up for if the revelation that she was training as a Keyblade Wielder had a payoff, but so far, KH III has yet to provide. She’s had two cutscenes with Axel, neither of which actually show any training, and then what little you see of her in the Badlands (more on that later.)

Once again, this feels a wasted opportunity, because this series has a precedent that would allow for Kairi to have more of a role early on in the game. Remember the Roxas segment at the beginning of KH II that served as an extended tutorial? Why not have Kairi’s training be the tutorial of KH III? It would make sense story-wise for her to be the player character as you learn or review basic controls, there would have been opportunities for cutscenes to flesh out her character (and Axel’s, much as I hate to admit it), and a clever bit of writing could’ve passed the torch on to Sora right on time for the story to begin in earnest. And why not turn the swarm of enemies battle that opens the Badlands into a multi-party affair? Start off playing as Sora with Donald and Goofy, switch after a certain stage to playing as Riku with Mickey, then to Ven with Aqua, and then to Kairi with Axel. You could go back to Sora for the finale, but this way, everyone gets included, and the character in most need of material gets to shine for a moment.

Instead, Kairi is probably the least-featured member of the party in all those cutscenes. In the moment when Aqua directs her, Mickey, and Goofy to get the wounded to safety, Kairi isn’t even in the shot. Pretty much the only time she’s in frame in that cutscene is when she’s either being saved or reaching out to Sora.

And here’s where we come to a tricky part of the issue, because I’ve seen some rather strange commentary on Sora and Kairi’s relationship. One school of thought seems to hold that Kairi becoming Sora’s love interest is what costs her any opportunity to stand as a character unto herself. I can’t follow this line of thought, for several reasons. The first being that Kairi can’t exactly “become” a love interest when it’s clear from the start of the first game that Sora has a thing for her. Being a love interest and a solid character in your own right aren’t mutually exclusive either. But I also don’t understand this argument because Sora and Kairi’s relationship has been neglected just as Kairi herself has, and that’s a real problem given its importance to the series.

In KH I, Kairi serves as the stakes and as the prime motive for both Sora and Riku. While she herself doesn’t have much to do, she is pivotal to the story, and her bond with Sora being so strong that her heart takes refuge in his, that she can restore him from a Heartless, and that they somehow find a way to promise to see each other again even as they’re separated in the finale, is the reason why. Kairi indirectly serves as the prime motive in CoM too, with Sora’s memories reworked to replace Kairi with Namine. And while she shares the role of motivation with Riku in KH II, Sora is still mindful of her throughout the game, even slipping into romantic thoughts at least twice.

Now, lest you think I have nothing but praise for the early games in the series: in those games as in the later ones, Kairi is still underdeveloped as a character. She is basically there as the love interest and little more. Being a lifelong huge sucker for first love/young love subplots in fiction, I’ve been taken by Sora and Kairi’s relationship since my first playthrough, but it works as well as it does almost entirely because of Sora. Sora is developed as a character throughout the games, as well as being the protagonist and the player character. Because he is such a charming and likable character, and because he cares so much about Kairi, that carries over to the audience, or at least this member of it. It would be a stronger relationship if Kairi were more developed as a character, which is all the more reason to do so.

But even if you accept their relationship remaining on the level of “hero and love interest,” there’s been a terrible case of neglect since KH II. It wouldn’t be a factor in BbS, naturally, but by leaving Kairi out of nearly all of Coded and DDD, the relationship drops out of the story. Cut to KH III, which does want to present that relationship as being as important as it’s ever been, and the long dry spell is felt. It doesn’t help that KH III is so densely packed with other material, much of it devoted to Organization XIII either taunting Sora or sniping at each other. Several of the Disney films selected offer parallels to Sora and Kairi’s relationship that aren’t noted, even as previous games did so and this one draws parallels in other relationships.

Which brings us back to the cutscene in the Badlands. Sora’s desperation to save Kairi is evident, and an earlier cutscene where they finally share paopu fruits was adorable, but neither has the same impact as they would have had if Kairi had remained prominent as a character, and if her relationship with Sora had remained relevant in previous games. It speaks to how well that relationship was presented in the first three games that it can still exert some sway over the heartstrings despite that, but there has been real damage done to one of the central bonds of the series by the neglect, and nowhere is that damage more apparent than when the story stresses Kairi more than anyone else when the Demon Tornado swallows up the party.

Now, I left off just as Sora emerged in Olympus after literally putting himself together, so perhaps some of this will be addressed by the end of the game. I’m keeping my fingers crossed. And in the meantime...that whole Final World sequence was trippy as all hell and those Soras damn hard to catch, but I loved it. Absolutely no idea what that cat thing is supposed to be though.

#critique #commentary #kingdom hearts #kairi #kingdom hearts 3 #disney #sokai #z's crits

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