#KH1 SURE WAS A TRIP

[dreamsy990]

so, re:chain of memories, huh?

warning! its been a little while since i played through recom, so the game isnt as fresh in my mind as some others. sorry for any innacuracies!

spoiler alert, this is my second favorite kingdom hearts game. at least of the ones i've played so far. i get that this isn't like. a POPULAR opinion but fuck you i have almost nothing but positives to say about it.

let's start with the easy stuff first. recom introduced a new card-based combat system. i cant compare it to the gba version, since i didn't play that, but i can say that for what its worth i DID enjoy the combat. recom is by far the hardest game so far (at least for me) and almost every boss took multiple days for me to beat, even with my hp maxed out. it took me a while to get the combat system, but id honestly love to replay the game now that i have a better understanding of how it works. the card system requires a lot of quick thinking and i get that it isnt everyones taste but its CERTAINLY mine. every fight is difficult and feels genuinely rewarding when you win. the movement, like kh1, can use a lot of work, but i wouldnt call it terrible. just kinda sluggish. i think my favorite boss fight was larxene. shes a pain in the ass but i love her.

i think riku's side dropping the deck building mechanic isnt terrible, but i wish i could reorder his deck at the very least. and the lack of healing cards is. not fun. basically any damage you take is permanent unless you HAPPEN to get mickey and its simply Not a fun time. im not very good at games okay.

i have a lot less to say about the worlds than the combat. they're definitely the worst aspect of the game, though. the idea of making worlds with cards is fine! it just leads to kind of repetitive world design. the stories are forgettable, so forgettable that i literally forgot them. and i could make a point about how thats the idea its a game all about forgetting things!! but honestly that just making excuses for it. the worlds couldve kept the idea of forgetting things without literally making them forgettable. i say this about every world, except for one. because DESTINY ISLANDS

destiny islands is just. so fucking good in recom. its the climax of both sora and rikus stories and i think theyre both amazing. id have to say i prefer rikus, soley because of the visual storytelling you get from his side of it, and thats not to say soras is bad at all. but something about zexion telling riku that its his fault his home was destroyed, as riku sees a version of himself turning into a literal monster? thats just good okay. its really good.

i ADORE the characters in this game too. everything we get from them is sooo good. it's the introduction to the organization and all of them (except lexaeus who did literally nothing) are a treat. axels my favorite ofc, but larxene is such a fun villain, you love to hate her. shes really the star of the org cast in this game. sure, axels may have said its his show now, but larxene stole the spotlight.

its namines introduction, too, and i love her. on one hand, shes just really kind. she wants a friend, she wants someone to talk to, she wants to meet sora. on the other, shes just a little bit fucked up actually. sure, shes honest with sora, but shes the tiniest little bit guilt trippy and i LOVE THAT. her response to sora saying he wants to get back his own memories and forget her is "oh okay. you want to remember your REAL friends, huh? theyre the ones who REALLY matter to you? yeah anyone would want that. no friends for namine i guess." like shes just a bit salty and we love that for her. i want slightly guilt tripping and salty namine back nomura.

but ofc one of my favorite new characters in this game HAS to be repliku. god i ADORE repliku. his hatred for riku is sooo fun and the way he fights with sora is great too. like in soras side i thought he was a neat villain but rikus side? hes amazing omfg. one of the only villains i liked in rikus story (sorry lexaeus, you werent good until days)

over all, this game certainly isnt everyones cup of tea, but its DEFINITELY mine. it's the game im most excited to replay at some point, mostly because of the amazing boss fights. 9/10. its got issues, but the story and characters are so good that i genuinely could not care less about like. most of them.

[catboygirljoker]

What were your thoughts about KHearts before you got into it vs Now having been into it? Also late welcome to the community hope you've had fun!

thankyou :D!! i have had fun, sitting in my little crevice and exporting my xigbar images and xigbar posts. im happy that people have connected with it in some way :]

thoughts about KH before i got into it:

for some reason i was under the impression that the games were about a boy who has dreams about disney worlds. and he has regular size feet in the real world and only has big feet in the dream world. i also think he traveled with mickey and not donald or goofy

also for some reason i was under the impression that ventus was sora's dad. it was not until i actually watched the cutscenes in birth by sleep and saw lea and isa that i realized OH. this is NOT as far back on the timeline as i thought it was

images of a spiky red boy and a spiky blond boy and a black haired depressed girl eating ice cream together with lots&lots of people sobbing in the replies. (REALLY emphasized the slow creeping emotional dread of that game for me. like golly i sure hope i dont get emotionally destroyed like all those other people! and then i , was)

when i was in middle/high school i had friends who were super into it, but i was never able to play it because my parents had a policy of No Consoles. we were allowed to have handhelds, though, because my family took frequent road trips, so when i found out that there was a KH game for DS i said to a friend "oh, cool! dyou think id be able to play it without playing the other games?" and she looked at me, and looked at her copy of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and said "........no"

only ~15 years later do i realize how funny of a question that was

thoughts about KH as i was getting into it:

too numerous to count. i shall attempt to keep it moderately brief

last year my husband listened to a podcast called "lore dump" where people explain the lore of different media to each other, and they did an episode/series on kingdom hearts, and i heard some pretty WaCkY sTuFf (i specifically remember them explaining what the recusant's sigil is, in the context of xigbar explaining that they'd been tracking sora and riku through the story of DDD)

found a vod of one of my favorite streamers streaming 1 and 2 to benefit abortion rights in texas, and i was like, well, here's my chance, heh, im gonna understand all of the WaCkY LoRe

i start up the stream. within the first 15 minutes i Get it. like it feels very dated in a lot of ways but i instantly understood what made people connect so strongly with this series. even as someone who didn't grow up with any attachment to it, and was a little put off of it even by how into it my friends were, to me kh1 is just pure high octane nostalgia. the tone is so specific and warm and bittersweet. i cried multiple times during the ending. it just really got to me! i was hooked!

when i fixate on a media property i like to have a hot person to chew on. i really. really thought it was gonna be axel. he is exactly the kind of character i would've fixated on when i was younger, when i had friends who were into KH. older mentor figure character who takes younger characters under his wing. associated with fire. projects brash confidence. k,ills people. he's a really good character! i love him a lot! every time he appears on screen i get on all fours and start barking! and there's all this fanart and merch and...then i got distracted......

hey blake in early 2023. it's me, blake in late 2024. have you heard of kingdom hearts. yeah. yeah youre gonna get really into it. yeah youre gonna have the longest running blorbo since you mega-fixated on the tenth doctor when you were 14. yeah. yeah um. you know the clip where the guy says "me? i'm already half xehanort!" and sora says "that's..nuts!"? yeah that guy? yeah. yeah. that guy. the half xehanort guy. yeah youre gonna make a fool of yourself online for that guy.

[edenfelled]

While I'm going through the Kingdom Hearts series again (and crying at reCOM because fuck I hate the card system), I am diametrically opposed to the way the game(s) frame Kairi as a McGuffin at best and a hopeless damsel at worst. You mean to tell me that a tomboy growing up on an island where her friends play-fought with balls, jump-rope and wooden swords, who was fully ready to sail the seas with her best friends, doesn't know how to fight? A girl that, if given the opportunity, would have absolutely made Yuffie/Leon (or both!) teach her applicable battle skills to defend against the heartless? I can completely understand from a gameplay perspective why she wasn't included—even if I don't agree with it given the companions you get in each world—and from a story perspective why Sora asked her to stay behind given the weeks/months he had to fight and improve while she slumbered... but to frame her as 'getting in the way' does a disservice to the both of them when I fully believe Kairi can and would kick both his and Riku's butt if push came to shove, she just didn't need to prove it to them in that way, and she has too much self-determination to just stay behind in Traverse Town while Leon and the others left.

As far as my canon for her goes, I Kairi went back to Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden when Aerith, Yuffie and Leon did because it's still a home to her (even if it's not her true home anymore) to continue to assist the princesses in any way she knows how, clear out heartless and train to try and become as strong as the others. Like, I can even see the dialog the game would have her say; something like, 'Of course I came with them! Silly billy, did you even read the note Aerith wrote for you?' / 'Leon and the others are helping me train while we keep the library safe. Soon I'll be kicking your butt again—just you wait!' / 'It's strange to be back here. In my heart, our Island is home. But I still want to protect it. I really hope you find Riku soon.'

Obviously this is cut short with the conclusion of KH1 and Kairi goes home, but she would have trained up until the events of Castle Oblivion/her friends sinking back into day-to-day activities, school, etc. Once she does remember, she goes right back into it.

I don't mind the idea that she's not as well versed as the others because of her slumber/memory loss/etc, but I just... do not like the game's insistence she's hopeless and I want to rectify it in my canon. Does Kairi occasionally get tripped up in a real battle verses training? Of course, that's being human, and I do think that is taken advantage of. Is she so hopeless that Sora and co. turn around and she's passed out? No. I think she'd go down fighting (ha) in any scenario she's put against, and I feel like their enemies weaponize that in her and the boys innate need to protect her.

In the words of my partner and I, "Girls like Kairi are the first in, last out, clever as a whip, elbow them where it hurts." She's absolutely bit someone. To be honest, I reckon that part of her possessed Naminé  and she bit Ansem!Riku (to his mortification). Literally a case of "If I wasn't sure which Somebody you belonged to, I sure do now! Thanks Kairi!"

[recusant-s-sigil]

Wow! Excellent job to the 39.5% of you who voted for number 5.

I understand that… quite a few people were tripped up by the wording on some of these. And that’s okay! It was meant to be as vague as possible to make sure people were actually thinking about it. So I wanted to explain my reasoning for each. It’s gonna get a bit lengthy, so it’ll all be under the cut. Spoilers for the series, too.

Yes, Maleficent does indeed time travel. After Riku-Ansem releases her heart with the Keyblade of heart in KH1, she uses the knowledge of time travel she learned from Xehanort to attempt to travel back to Enchanted Dominion in the Age of Fairytales. However, since the Master of Masters saw this eventuality, he didn’t project Enchanted Dominion in the past to prevent Maleficent from messing anything up. Instead, she was intercepted and trapped in Data-Enchanted Dominion until she went to that Daybreak Town and activated the ark to travel back to the real world, then her own time, which is how she was able to return in KH2.

Yes, the original Org. XIII exists, but this is specifically about the Real Organization. Yeah, I know Demyx and Vexen were reserves, but there are 13 people who are actually in it, so I didn’t count them when writing that option.

For those saying Quadratum is Unreality, it’s only Unreality to the Kh characters who were originally from the World of Kingdom Hearts. Plus it’s based on Shibuya (albeit a fictionalized version due to the inclusion of the 104 building) so I consider that our reality. Plus people literally doxxed Sora at one point and found the exact apartment he’s staying in, so…

In the ending of Union Cross, we learn that the Chirithys of the wielders who fell in the Keyblade War are keeping their hearts safe by consuming them and transforming into the Dream Eaters. Our player character elects to be reincarnated instead, which leads nicely into…

The fake answer. Contrary to popular belief, Xehanort is not Sora, nor the player character from Union Cross. In the ending of Dark Road, we learn that, because of his high empathy, he’s been basically reading the memories of his mentor (who is actually the player character), which causes him to remember things he likely wouldn’t have been able to otherwise. There is a time traveling Young Xehanort who inducts several members of the Real Org., though! And I love him oh so much

Yeah, the namesake of the series is indeed a big heart-shaped moon. Though I guess it was on the cover of the first game so that one shouldn’t have been to hard to figure out.

I saw several people say that there are other Replicas, and I knew that! Most of the Nort Court and various other members of the Real Org. had to be in order for them to even be in the present. However, I was talking about Chain of Memories Riku Replica specifically, and I did use the grammatical article ‘an’. I worded this very intentionally to say ‘exact’ Replica because, while Xion does talk about death, she’s not an exact Replica.

I’m grateful to say to the 12.2% of you who voted for this option that you do, in fact, get to beat up Peter Pan. Play Terra’s campaign in Birth by Sleep to do so.

Let’s see, there’s Sora, Roxas, Xion (who is a Replica of Sora’s memories of Kairi), Data-Sora, and Naminé (while she’s technically Kairi’s Nobody, she was created from Sora when he released their hearts from himself in KH1). I guess you can count Dream Sora, I don’t so that’s why I said 5 and not 6. I am also aware of the “Sora is the third reincarnation of the Player” theory, but until that’s confirmed or denied, it won’t be a seventh Sora (though that would be very poetic considering what Xehanort did and everything).

Saw this for other fandoms and wasn’t sure if there was a Kingdom Hearts one so…

Good luck!

[valorxdrive]

.Past Haunts

Even positivity comes at a price.

Blindingly bright highs are complimented by those devastating lows.

For Sora that experience at Hollow Bastion similar to the day his Islands fell left scars both visible and hidden.

It was on this day that marked where he experienced loss, sacrifice and the test of bonds twisted in spiked thorns. Throughout these halls painted by a history of grim experimentation and layered with dust and dried blood, the lightest of his trials would be to lose the power that directed his purpose. Strength is never what mattered, it only helped him cross those bridges to make a difference.

It was coming to lose everyone that mattered one way or another.

He saw the fragile hold his connections held with the lost of the keyblade, depsite how short lived that instance was, seeing Donald and Goofy break their camaraderie in the name of duty broke him through the surface of reality, allowed to be aware small he could really be.

Yet in the hope, that dim, flickering strand of hope that he could dive into those abyss of self-destructive proportions that he could make everything right, he risks it all, despite how easy it’d be for any of those abominations to tear him apart.

He hopes.

Reality once again crashes him to reveal how despair aims to tear one down.

Kairi, Riku and himself, this marked the day where he comes to learn beyond that childish need just how important these two were within his life. He learns of the extents he’d truly go for their sake, even to facing death itself with terrified yet determined eyes. To smile at it’s scythe when the choice is laid before him, to go on himself or to let her burn bright and free. That choice within his eyes after the culmination of learning his determination became a clear as day decision. One oh so foolish but filled with care. In a twisted way he can come to look back on that day silently, privately, with pride, he wants to do whatever is within his power to let his loved ones prosper.

Which is why the parallel, his experience with Riku is something that will never stop haunting him until this day.

Within that one moment he believed he killed his best friend. Their past, the culmination, the incredibly stupid fight over this damn key, so many rhymes and reasons blended into his canyon wide desperation and hope that fighting would be the solution, that it would somehow make things right, that odds would be reached. It marked a moment for Sora where he sees that if pushed to the absolute brink, he’d drive a blade through his best friend. It mattered so damn little if it was to prolong his own life.

That blood isn’t so easily rid of, possession or not. Their fighting up to that point still bled of the same feeling all the way up to this point, a connection gone rancid, desperate for their own ends of acceptance and survival. Just as he managed to gain a fierce protective streak over Kairi, the same is no different for Riku, a need to protect him as the reality of that terrified, haunted gaze of life being pulled away left him with flashes in his mind to the, the door to his absolute terror of his nightmares.

Whether it was considered a kindness was up to question, but forgetting Castle Oblivion tore away the repeated horror that was instilled with the Riku Replica, of having to repeat that same process. While his memories danced to create the worlds around them, his heart remembered it all, those very real, very raw feelings that were cleaving into a open wound way too soon.

[deafblindshorty]

I was watching A Goofy Movie.....

and once again thinking about Max being in Kingdom Hearts. If Max does exist in KH, it does seem a little strange that Goofy would jet off on those adventures, leaving his son behind.

But he could be fighting for Max's future. And he is the King's captain of the royal knights. It's kind of his duty to do that. I'm sure Goofy thinks about him every day, looks at his picture before going to sleep, checks on him after visiting Disney Castle...

And it's not like he's gone continuously. BBS only takes place in the space of less than a week, then ten years later there's KH1, then a year later is KH2 (He would check on Max during their visit to Disney Castle), then there's a few days/weeks/month between KH2, Coded, and DDD, then after KH3, Goofy could have reunited with Max again, but then spend a year looking for Sora, then comes KH4.

So let's say Max is 8 in BBS (probably in school) and 18-20 during the Dark Seeker Saga, and 21 in KH4.

Now I know Max is incredibly frustrated by his dad and spent two movies trying to get away from him, but...well, be careful what you wish for, right? XD He could be mad at Sora for "taking his father away from him". Kind of like Tony Stark's resentment of Captain America. Sora is Goofy's bestie and kind of a "replacement goldfish" son-figure for him.

I imagine Max meeting Sora, and saying something like "So, you're the guy my dad would not shut up about?"

Then Max calling Goofy out, saying he has become a deadbeat (exaggerating, by the way). "Let's recap, shall we? First you drag me on a road trip I did not want to go on because you didn't want to lose me, and you wanted to be a part of my life. Fast-forward four years and you get so depressed when I left for college, you enroll in my college to be closer to me, then after you graduate, you rush off on some sort of adventure for King Mickey and I don't see you for a year. After I haven't seen or heard from you in a year, you bust into my room, greet me, then warn me that Maleficent is back, then rush off again like nothing happened. Then you come back a few weeks later and all you would talk about is Sora this and Sora that. Then you go on two more adventures, then spend a year doing nothing but look for Sora. It's like all of a sudden you've replaced me with Sora!"

Of course Goofy would feel guilty and try to resign from his position, but Max just says "No, you know what? Just forget it. Do whatever you want, I don't care. Just...stay out of my life like you usually do." Or something like that.

It'd be a bit dramatic, but, well...

Anyway, that was long. But what do you guys think?

[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

[aquafolia]

Sokai Day Fic 2: Guardian, Angel

Okay! One more for today :)

This fic was inspired by phoenix-downer’s fic Lifeline. I’m also a huge Percabeth fan so I decided to remix another one of their famous moments, too. 

As I said, I only just found KH: I beat KH1 a few weeks ago and I’m about to beat KH2 for the first time! This one is for @phoenix-downer, whose amazing fics and insightful translations/analyses are a huge part of why I adore Sokai as much as I do. Their love and enthusiasm for the ship really is infectious! As I’m playing I appreciate the Sokai moments so much more because of phoenix-’s posts. Cheers :)

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Guardian, Angel

‘Looks like you’ve hit a dead end, Sora!’ Vanitas called out menacingly, his manic laughter echoing through the narrow canyon. Hemmed in on three sides by steep stone walls– and with Vanitas blocking the only exit route– Sora realized he had nowhere to run. He turned to face his pursuer, his back to the canyon wall.

‘For someone with a giant key for a weapon,’ the black-haired boy sneered, ‘you sure are hard to find. But it looks like it’s the end of the road for you at last, Sora. You will kneel before me in defeat,’ Vanitas continued, raising his palms skyward. ‘You will beg me for mercy, and I’ll watch the hope drain from your eyes when– are you listening to me?!’

Vanitas’s words weren’t having their intended effect: For someone being threatened by one of his greatest enemies, Sora’s demeanor was annoyingly calm and composed, relaxed even: He stood upright, not in his usual battle stance– he didn’t even have his Keyblade summoned. Instead, Sora was extremely preoccupied with patting down his many pockets, rooting around in each one.

‘Which one did I put it in?’ Sora muttered to himself.

‘What are you doing, you dolt?’ Vanitas asked icily.

‘No, no, go ahead,’ Sora said, his eyes looking up in concentration as he continued to rifle through his seemingly endless number of pants pockets. ‘Watching the hope drain from my eyes and all that.’

Vanitas’s eyes narrowed in irritation. He found his light-filled double vexing on a good day– but this was strange, even for Sora. ‘Um… Right.’ Vanitas said. Clearing his throat, he regained his villanly composure. ‘I’ve been your shadow for too long, Sora. I’ll snuff out your pathetic little light, brother, right here, right now– in the showdown that was always meant to be! And then nothing will stand between this world and the glorious reign of dark–’

‘Found it!’

‘–ness.’

Sora had retrieved Kairi’s good luck charm, and was holding it in his hand. He gazed down at it fondly, seeming to find it much more compelling than his arch enemy.

‘Hah! Is this some kind of a joke?’ Vanitas laughed. ‘Does the Keyblade’s Chosen Hero like to accessorize? You think a toy like that is going to help you now? Draw your Keyblade, fool, and let’s finish this!’

As Vanitas taunted him, Sora closed his eyes and brought the charm to his lips. After planting a soft kiss, he shot Vanitas a smug grin. Without breaking eye contact, Sora casually tossed the charm aside. The small star spun as it sailed through the air, shining with a faint golden light as it careened toward the cliff wall beside Sora. At the moment it should have hit the stone and shattered, it passed right through the rock face in a cloud of sparks.

‘Why did– what did you just do?’ Vanitas asked. After what he hoped was another intimidating laugh, he shot back, ‘Was that supposed to scare me?’

Sora lifted his arms up, cupping his hands behind his head, looking quite pleased with himself. ‘Oh, no reason. It’s nothing, really.’

Vanitas was growing impatient. ‘I don’t care what trick you’re trying to pull, Sora! You’re trapped here! There’s nowhere for you to run,’ he gloated. ‘It’s too bad “your friends are your power”,’ he said in a mockery of Sora’s mantra, ‘because you’re going to die here– alone.’

Even at Vanitas’s death threat, Sora remained totally unfazed. He just kept staring at Vanitas, that stupid grin still on his face. What was this kid’s deal? Deciding he’d had enough, Vanitas summoned his Keyblade and charged. Still Sora stayed exactly as he was, not even bothering to draw his own weapon. But Vanitas had stopped caring about his enemy’s strange behavior– running at full speed, with a gleeful laugh, he shouted, ‘Goodbye, So–’

The ground shook violently as a giant crack in the canyon floor opened up between Sora and Vanitas, the sound of the rending so loud, it seemed like the world was breaking. From the fissure, a column of golden light burst forth that sent Vanitas flying backward. Then, what looked like a spinning wheel of whirling colors came rocketing out of the light– some sort of object revolving at such an incredible speed, it looked like a solid glowing disk of golds, blues, pinks, and oranges. As it hurtled toward Vanitas, it left a tail of golden light like a comet crossing the night sky, and shed a flurry of white feathers. 

Vanitas, slowly attempting to stand up, was too dazed from his crash-landing to see it coming: just as he regained his footing, the projectile struck him square in the chest, slicing into him over and over again as the strange disk turned, a sickening sound echoing through the narrow canyon with each rapid-fire blow. The final slash sent Vanitas flying once more, and he face-planted into the stone wall of the ravine. His Keyblade clattered to the ground and disappeared in a puff of black smoke, a clear sign that he had been soundly defeated.

The column of light dissipated to reveal Kairi floating down to the ground, white feathers falling gently around her like snowflakes. Her Keyblade reappeared in her hand, returning from its trip to Vanitas’s face. After studying her enemy’s crumpled form with a satisfied smirk, she turned to Sora. She was holding his good luck charm in her hand.

‘You dropped this,’ she said with a sweet smile.

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[keykidpilipili]

Would like to hear your kingdom hearts x fate ideas! It sounds so interesting!! 🙏😄

There's mostly the Destiny Trio+Ansem sod as servants for now but I hope you'll find it interesting to read. For general worldbuilding a reminder of fate stuff. The magus world and especially holy grail wars are pretty harsh: inhuman experiments, the necessary murders to preserve the concept of Mystery thus magic and reach the grail. I developped on how their characters could develop in such environments.

Starting with Sora, since as kh3 he canonically died and he touched the hearts of many people, the throne of heroes has no problems summoning a version of him. His starting class is berserker due to his overwhelming kindness and willingness to help others that is nearly impossible to hinder if you're his master. Heartless manifest in any wars he participates thanks to the Keyblade’s existence. Because of his disney and Square acquaintances remembering him as often searching for his friends, his reason for taking part in the Grail war is to find them. However since in life he never really described those friends in depth to others he met, his memory of them grows fuzzier with each summoning.

Without a solid support system, the countless betrayals and endless hurt he is exposed to and is powerless to stop drain him considerably. As a result his wish starts to drift towards being erased from the throne or the destruction of the latter entirely. Down the line he eventually meets a kind master who convinces him to let go of the utopia and memories he cannot reach(the real sora returned and he has no place to return to in the first place). Protecting the glimmers of hope and kindness he comes across, even if it's ephemeral happiness, he found it valuable to be able to go on. For his alts, there is 

Ruler Sora who appears for great emergencies like the universe being threatened and can wield the X-blade(by virtue of kh3) proper. That said he is not the most competent arbiter and will intervene if fighters might involve innocents. 

Alter Ego Sora Alter came out because in a very unfortunate war he got in contact with corrupted grail mud. Unsurprisingly the mad teen decided to shelter All of the World’s Evil(Angra Mainya) inside him since the servant wanted to manifest into the world. Naturally this didn’t end well and his sanity took a Deep Dive with him becoming obsessed with removing the Hurt despite spawning curses and darkness like no tomorrow. This version of Sora has a really high chance of accidentally starting a heartless apocalypse if summoned in a holy grail war. He takes longer to heal from wounds since he is some kind of anti/rage form at all times.

Regarding Riku, in base kh his character arc relied heavily on his being scammed by Ansem and tossing people aside for his ambitions. Apart from a single scene in chain of memories, we don't see him interact with Maleficent after that game and thus we remember mostly Ansem being his antagonist. As a result the two are stuck sharing a spirit origin in the same manner as Sakamoto Ryouma and Oryou. Although Riku could try winning a war to wish for him to be his own heroic spirit with the heartless, he doesn't want to risk the latter reaching Kingdom Hearts if left alone. He would probably have great compatibility with young magi who are in dire need of some life orientation and could use his experience as young teen who got scammed(holy grail wars are too scams as a concept). 

As for his team mate Ansem has no issue cooperating during wars, dying is painful, he is in no hurry to repeat that experience thank you. Plus he’d rather see Riku win than one of those terrible researchers who suck at 4d chess planning and are not subtle about wanting to backstab you. Impressed he was not when the keyblade wielder asked him if he had put his heart into such hapless magi. Sure he’ll try to get his own wish should he and Riku win however temporary truce is key. Together they have way better chances of survival as their different mindsets cover each other’s weaknesses. Being stuck together with your nemesis is terrible but at least you aren’t alone. As of their class I’m inserting them into Foreigner since the base concept of their relationship in kh1 was Riku being influenced by a being from another plane.

Now here comes Kairi! Seeing as post kh3 and melody of memory, she is training however Kingdom Hearts gotta lend some poh power to the throne. The redhead becomes a temporary servant by doing entire wars in her dreams and comes back to her body whenever they end. Info on Sora’s whereabouts are scarce and if she can get anything from a part time job alongside training with Aqua then all the better. Spoiler alert it didn’t go well. Skills were certainly learnt and her light grew strong, even wielding multiple copies of keyblades inspired by her fellow poh. And yet the sight of all these lives sacrificed for some power trips and science infuriated her. The magi in their basements bragging about their experiments to reach the root as the scent of death permanates the very air don’t brag for very long. The more she saw of the magic world, the more she wondered if that humanity would not be better rid of it all together. More than anyone Kairi knows she was lucky to have a happy childhood after losing her home. Even with Xehanort gone and the memory of him defeated, his essence, the stubborn ambition to reach a greater power no matter the cost, remains. For all those lives sacrificed like chess pieces, all those artificial beings treated as mana batteries, this avenger will destroy magic.  Story-wise her heroic spirit form would become its own person after the real Kairi put an end to her tempory contract(which she couldn’t have done if it had been directly with the Counter Force). Gameplay wise aside from her keyblade and regular light magic she can also go into Light/Watcher form which is similar to Antiform but light based. That form is more powerfull but excerbates the light in the hearts around her spawning more watchers, able to aid her but if left alone would attack any life form with stronger darkness than light without caring for the reasons why. It’s also toxic to the environment, the very ground in a wasteland of blank white dust.

[mytwitterisdogtoast1]

Kingdom Hearts 3 broke my heart.

I am a fan of Kingdom Hearts. i've been here through the first game and even though I grew up without the money to play every game I stuck with the series as best I could. In fact I've bought multiple copies of games on multiple systems and beat a couple of the games not just once but 3 or more times. Here is a list of the things I've done involving this series.

1: I bought KH1/2/COM on more than one system such as ps2,3, and 4. 2: I've played and beaten on the hardest difficulty on each main installment (except critical mode of 3) 3: I have 100% KH1 which might not seem like a big deal but it is the only game I have 100% ever. Got all the trophies and so on. 4: I stuck with the story and even recently before 3 came out played and beat most of the games. (except DDD since it wasn't my kind of deal since I don't like the flowmotion part of the combat.)

You could say I'm a fan of the games and have done what I can to in general keep up with the series as well as have enjoyed the series.

But then 3 came out and I was just not happy with it. After waiting for so long and playing the game and screaming and ranting about certain plot points that just don't make sense to me (KH is notoriously hard to keep up with plot wise and I am just not the brightest person in the world when it comes to shit. Like I really need some things explained outright for me and to some degree do not mind spoilers for some things) I swore off KH the entirety from now on cause it was just that bad of a game for me. It wasn't a horrible game but the direction they started taking it in was just so far removed from what the original 2 games in the numerical series were that this was just NOT Kingdom Hearts at all. Sure you can say it is a love letter to the biggest of fans but I can say that a letter to regular fans was something it needed to do more than cater to such a rabid fanbase compared to a regular fanbase. I thought this was unfair and then bought Memory of Melody. That is now the worst game in the series to me. So I dived into what people thought and looked at a ton of youtubers who played the game and saw what they thought. I looked at reviews of non youtubers and read what they thought and the game has made the fanbase more divided than anything I'd ever seen from a fanbase. So I replayed the game with the intent to write down all I felt on the game to give it a fair review. Like I said I'm a filthy casual and I can give stuff a large break when it comes to media and have a large understanding of what that thing is meant to be. Sometimes a product is meant to be a certain way and we have to enjoy it for what it is and I can try and do that. I mean I love the WWE and Yugioh and anyone who is a part of those fanbases knows in their hearts (kek hearts) how bad those things can be at times. So I played the game and wrote down all the thoughts I had on it and Some might be easy to explain while others are in general probably at least fair on how I feel about it.

Kingdom Hearts is a series not meant for the new comer. It knows what it wants to be and does that thing. It isn't here to make everyone happy and that is just absolutely fine in general. I've been a fan and it makes me happy that the game is one long story that I can appreciate and make call backs to in stuff. I remember being so rewarded when I looked at my then best friend who skipped over chain of memories (I had to emulate it but I think it was fair of me to do so since I bought the game 3 times since now that I have the money to do so) and said he knew what happened because he saw the cutscene of Sora reaching the top and Namine betraying him by putting him into a pod. I laughed at him cause he was a fool who knew nothing of how the story went cause he foolishly just thought he didn't NEED to play the game. This made me more invested into the series than he was. I stuck with the series reading up articles and even watching videos on the series for stuff I missed out on since again i couldn't afford everything. They were building a story over a decade long and at the end it just didn't do it for me. It's not that the story wasn't the end of the series in general. Heck gotta make dat' money Y'all but in general this was the end of a saga for Xehanort and it just didn't cut it. But maybe I'm not starting at the right spot to give my feelings on it. Maybe I'm coming fresh off a game play and feeling a rant building for multiple reasons. So let me start with the positives before I bury the list under a pile of problems for me.

So I'll be putting things in order of good, mixed, bad. They will be somewhat fair and if they have an answer you have my sincerest apologies but remember I'm slightly the "dumb" and would in general like to just get simple straight answers. Something simple and clean if you would. On that note

1: The starting song is a god damned banger - Face my fears is up there with sanctuary which is better than Simple and clean. To be fair though simple and clean was made in like a flight and pretty much is nonsensical to the game in general. However it is a good song. How could it not be with one of japans best pop artists? Have you heard sakura drops? Colors? Traveling? Apples and cinnamon? Fuck man this song is just really good. 2: The game looks great - Sure the game might not look like ps2 graphics anymore but this isn't a bad thing it just is a different thing. The only time I thought it looked bad was during the pirates area where they had to make real people. Sometimes it is better to have a different art theme and even if something is just ok at best during it it can still be over all great. Everyone looked good during it. It just in general looked like a new version of KH entirely. 3: You can power up keyblades - One of the best parts of the game is powering up keyblades. Now sure mickey saying "we should have powered up our keyblades" is a stupid line in general when they are magic items and not fully meant to break form normal stuff but i think the ability to latch onto a key and make that sucker your main key is a great idea. Finally I can power up keys like sweet memories or the kingdom key and go through the cutscenes with the keyblade never changing and it look like it's meant to be there. 4: The whole getting treasure for sinking ships - Even if in general people might not like the ship combat the idea of being a pirate and stealing treasure from a ship when you sink one of the large ones is one of the best thematical ideas in the game. You can just sail the ocean and just pirate ship for loot if you wanted to and since you get xp during it and get your ship to be better it just is a great idea in its entirety. 5: Rikus keyblade - That is one of the better keyblades. I'm not gonna lie but the final fantasy cloud based keyblades where they are more realistic have been one of my favorite designs and I am sad i can't throw it on sora. I like the idea of an actual blade instead of a blunt weapon in the game since it just feels cooler sometimes. Riku getting a keyblade that not only looks more like a sword but is also still a key for a more modern car is one of the cooler things they have ever put in. 6: The call back to union cross players - This was a little lover note to people who played the game. They grabbed a ton of names and threw them in as you threw hundreds of keyblades at the giant heartless storm mob thing. I think it is great and even if I didn't play one of the names that pops up is my actual name so I find that pretty cool whenever I see it.

And that is it. Those are the best parts of KH3 to me. Everything else is either a mixed bag or just not good. I'm sure you can tell which one has more in it. As for the stuff that is in the middle of both good and bad let me make it clear that some stuff that is bad will probably be talked about in the bad section because it needs its own commentary.

1: All the party members - I always was a little sad having to remove one of the characters in my party to add the one new person they wanted to add in and was always sad at that limitation but with 3 you can now have ALL THE MEMBERS. This is great because now I have access to all of my forms with donal...... Oh right, they're not in the game anymore. 2: Nice to one and done an area - Back in the day when I first played the original first game I never went back cause I beat the level and thought it was extra stuff. When I got older and playued through 2 I was a little impatient and just didn't want to keep going back. Now as I am older and wiser and more patient I just do the thing cause it's a part of the game and deal. Thankfully it is all in one trip which is good CAUSE I DON'T WANNA FUCKING PLAY THESE LEVELS EVER AGAIN. 3: I'm gonna say it and people are gonna question me (probably not I'm not a large content creator thus people probably don't care about my opinion so strange of you to be here reading this) but I fucking hate winnie the pooh. I don't like him as a person and I'm just not a fan of his entire world. I only like Eeyore and not cause "gosh that's how I feel" Eeyore is the fucking man. He never lets his bad mood get him down and he powers through even when life is shit. Good for him man. Love that guy. Such a trooper. I just don't like pooh but the levels. God Kingdom Hearts mini games are just mostly not fun in general so not having to play so many mini games in poohs level is fantastic. EXCEPT EVERY WORLD HAS A DAMNED MINI GAME IN IT. 4: Speaking of mini games the ship combat is fine. - It's just, fine. 5: I had so much money - I don't remember playing any other game having so much money. I remember caring and investing and even trying to get money to spend on stuff in some points and in here it just.... I never spent it until i got bored and started using food. I didn't use food until the last world and beyond cause I wanted to finish the game faster. I mean the change of pace having money is nice but there was nothing really to do with it. Maybe I should have bought Hayner, Pence and Olette a ton of pretzels with it. 6: Playing as any other keyblade wielder - Man this was one of those great moments that I was excited to do. Having played as many other characters during other games was always nice and refreshing and being able to do so here was great. It got me excited to play as Mickey again since I got to use him a few times in KH2 or to be able to use Ventus or Aqua again cause they were gonna be saved and be able to fight in the upcoming battle. That is you know. If they are used in the game more than one time each. 7: Giant heartless battle - One of the best moments in the game was the "goofy just died" moment. Not because The goof man "died" but because you got to solo fight a crowd of enemies and in this game it was so cool to have that call back. The shit icing on that beautiful cake was having to use the train to win. Like it just felt like I was making no progress and I can't on my own fight the enemies and no matter how hard you try you can never stop the enemies ever. 8: The what if scenario - The group dying was pretty cool and was a great what if but would have been better if they didn't come back to the past and have Ventus run up and think it was Terra again. It was cool for the lingering will to step in and help but even then the whole situation was so stupid that it could have been written better. What if instead of doing the whole scenario it was a mind fuckery to sora to put him down mentally like they had been trying to entire game. What if it showed him losing and that it was possible? Instead we got this long winded scenario where people didn't learn from their first mistake and tried to go run up to Terra when in that moment Aqua when Ven tried going should have grabbed his shoulder and said "you know it's not him so let's just get ready to fight"

Those are the mixed bag moments I was commenting on. Some things are fine and aren't really an issue except the are a part of a bigger problem in itself which makes them a mixed bag. The last part's I'll be writing about are pretty much a giant rant or asking questions to things. There are problematic points I'll be making as well. So now let's look at the bad stuff in KH3. However, before I get into it, I want to also write down the not as bad stuff as well as some of the really big stuff so I'll make sure to point out when it is a gripe that isn't the worst thing in the world compared to it actually being not good.

1: Nitpick/The social media is dumb - Look I'm not much of a social media person and I know todays kids and teens are all about that jazz and such but man this part of the game is pretty dumb. I am in no way too old to "get hip with it grandpa" and think social media is a bad thing. Times and things change but WHY IS THIS A THING? Sora and friends are out saving the world and probably do not know about current phones since they are so busy. They would be like really old people trying to catch up with todays world and just in general should not have time enough to do it. Sure giving a phone is fine which whatever they can just add in ways to contact which again makes the phone fine but social media is dumb. What platform are they on? Who is following them? What world is this being sent to in general? Does anyone really care?

2: Nitpick/Why 7 VS 13? - I think the number is just really off. Ok look the original organization 13 was fine. Having 14 members in it wasn't a big deal and sure fighting them seperately and not all in one game made me a little sad until final mix came out but at least i got to fight Marluxia in all his pretty boy glory. The point I make is they just seem to have stuck with the 13 which is fine I guess? It just seemed like it was more or less there for no real reason. Sure we would have to fight every single Xehanort around such as Ansem, Xemnas, Terranort, Xigbar who works with old man Xehanort, Young Xehanort, Old man Xehanort. If you also in general wanted him to have each good guy fight a bad guy we would need one for each single keyblade wielder to come out. So let's say Kairi and Axel were just gonna join in so we can have for whatever reason Xion and Roxas just pop out to fight people. We would have need for a total of 7 enemies to fight. Let's just use these guys here as people for people to fight. We can have terranort fight someone before he comes back as lingering will to fight and get his body back. We can have Kairi fight Xion until she defects in general and fights another person with her. We can have axel fight Xemnas so he can get revenge and then have him lose and Roxas can come out. So on and so forth until we have just enough for each person to be matched with another person. You wouldn't need to stretch and find whatever you can and just fill the numbers. You could have at that point just filled it with villains you knew you wanted on your team. Not just bring back generic dudes who don't even need to be here. I'll get more into that in a moment but the numbers just seem off and could have been anything not 7 v 13 but like I said. Nitpick.

3: The plot of Sora flying around this time is a little weak. - So Sora lost his powers and needs to get them back. So he fucks off for a bit until he can regain the powers. Wouldn't it be better if he also trained with Kairi and Axel? What about just going into the realm of darkness to help the others get Aqua? What if instead of just going back and forth to each Disney world like he normally did he in general just.....trained. See the point of the other games was "close the keyholes of the world so heartless stop getting in. Stop those nobodies from opening Kindom Hearts." Kind like saving the world is a great motivation to have compared to "fuck off until you are good or something". It's one of the biggest issues in general. Now if he was told something more substantial than "you need the power of waking" than it would have made the grind through much better. Add in a new plot element for him to need to travel to lands in general so he can earn the power of waking. Send him to places to get that shit instead of "get stronger". You think I can't just do that shit with story? Shit's boring man lemme do stuff.

4: You cannot turn off attractions - That is without playing critical mode. Man Attractions are in general one of the worst parts of the game. Sure I find it hilarious when I'm fighting an important boss (such as Xemnas) and I last hit him with a merry go round but in general they just suck. They aren't fun and they slow the games combat down with a cinematic. Sure they can be "avoided" and I "don't have to use them" but they exist in the game. They are the creators vision and he wants you to use them. If they didn't want it to be a huge part of the games combat system they wouldn't add it in and the fact that it shows up so often just kinda proves they want you to use the thing. Combat in here is very floaty if you haven't noticed and a more grounded approach is sometimes best. This is what the attractions do since they still try and attack you thus getting closer to the attraction in the first place. It's really a jarring object. Telling me not to use it while having the chance to actually accidentally press the button is frustrating. It's the smaller version of telling someone don't be mad when they are mad or try not to be depressed. It's hard to avoid and the answer isn't just "don't do it." Especially when the game puts in abilities to make them more prominent such as extending the time on them. Another point on this is that if the developer wanted them to be optional they wouldn't sometimes be mandatory or even show up during boss fights. Either this was an added on horse shit thing where Disney was like "add attractions or we're done" or Nomura just was like "i recently went to disney land and you gotta put this in it's dope". Joke aside it is one of the worst parts of the game since I can't turn them off and it is hard to get around them. Let me turn them off fully or let them be used as an ability where you can add them in if you want it. Customization should be more of a thing than a gimmick you keep getting. Also they show up so often and I believe in every enemy spawn group. Multiple times even if you miss it the first time. Having so much prominence placed onto this one mechanic just shows they went in hard on it and sure if it was just the rock titan or just the horde of heartless at the end or maybe even rare I wouldn't find it much of a problem but it is EVERY FREAKING COMBAT. I hit that button on accident more times than I wanted to that in general I was trying to use a spell but I missed it by seconds or something and the carnival ride started up and I just said "god dammit" and had to end it dealing a burst of damage since you can't just stop it, it has to go full swing. Also only in critical mode is kind of bullshit. Add it to every mode in the game and it'll be less of an issue.

5: Nitpick/Sora is an idiot - Look I don't mean the whole "he's so stupid now he just is always happy or has dumb dialogue" I mean the idiot tried to touch fire and instead of water magic which he now has and I spammed on the fire balls he walked up to a freaking inferno of flames and just tried to see if it was hot by touching it with his bare hands. Shit Sora you dumb fuck Goofy had a better idea than the mage and the main character and he's not always the brightest. Fuck you.

6: There is too much stuff in this game - Way too many mechanics and most of them are on forever. You have so much you can do such as the shotlock, Flowmotion, Carnival rides, Extra forms, Summoning the fat cat dream pokemon, so many mini games,  just so much shit and I'm sure I forgot something. Now look I can let go of the whole "cat" thing because it is a summon and those are normal but in general it just feels like the entire game was overloaded with everything from every other game EXCEPT for cards and if we don't have cards for character upgrades or something it feels like a waste. (that's a joke) The point is that there is too much stuff and it's all filler and fluff and we can just have a nice game without 10,000 things to learn in the first section of the game.

7: Nitpick/ I think the selfies are just dumb - I've taken a total of maybe 5 selfies. All of which are to show a single person in that specific moment. Selfies don't really do much in the world we play in for KH3 and I just think it is in general a dumb game mechanic. However it is not required to do so it's not a big deal to have in. Just another nitpick.

8: Food and cooking - Look, this is not monster hunter. This is not another game where food is an important detail and sure I don't mind the addition of it if you really wanna put it in but it does make the game easier when used. In that direction fine making a game easier isn't a bad thing, however, constantly telling me now is a good time to find ingredients for little chef is annoying every time. I could figure it out if I really wanted it but in general since it is an optional mechanic to which I can just buy the parts for it and even the food at a kupo shop than what is the point in adding in the game play mechanics for it? The mini games are dumb and take too long to do for such a small mini game. Crack and egg get soup. Nothing else but crack an egg. So than the game is too short for a mechanic I'm supposed to do often? Why not add in a larger game so that I can help him create the object one time to see if he likes it and then when he adds it on I can order the object from him. Don't add it into the kupo store if I you want me to make it and don't make me make it be so tedious if you want me to make it. Also why is sora cooking at all? It's Remys passion not mine. He's even shown to run a packed restaurant all on his own at the end of the game in the credits scene.

9: More customization please - Here's a major issue I have with the game. There is less customization compared to other games. This is strange as in general it seems to be the same. The problem is this. I have to use flowmotion in the game. It is not an option because in certain levels it is a legitimate requirement to use for moving elsas castle. It is required in a couple other places as well but the point still stands. I need to have them equipped in order to make progress. The fact that in KH2 I could turn off big moves from team members but cannot now takes the agency away from me from making my fighting style more what I want to do. This means in order for me to really enjoy the game I have to really accept mechanics I was not a fan of in DDD. Maybe having an option for character customization such as turning off forms, and what special attacks you wanna do would be nice instead of giving everything under the sun. Do I want to be a fast mobile fighter? Than make that a character level abiliy choice instead of just making me have it from the start and also making it mandatory for levels. Allow me to remove the big moves with my team and stop making them always on since I never liked them. Sure I can ignore them but it comes down to the same thing as the attractions. Sometimes you cannot avoid hitting the wrong thing. This also goes into the whole magic sucking ass in this game. Every spell is offensive and thus it just feels like it is the same. Wanna do a little small thing with some damage? Wanna do massive damage comparatively? It just feels like they wanted to simplify the whole having a summon, having a spell, having 2 items on or something along those lines. This stops you from having more options on your character and just stream lines you in to a generic build. I didn't use ice once past the first time finding out its pretty much a fire ball. I used cure, fire, water, thunder. Thunder for crowds, fire for damage, water for crowds also because I just stopped caring and cura cause I heal all my damage cause DONALD NEVER HEALS YOU. WE'RE 4000 GAMES IN MAKE DONALD HEAL BETTER. This again comes back to the limits. Let me turn them off since I do not like them. If they worked as magic they would be better cause the magic sucks ass in the game. I mostly after a while stopped doing any real care in magic and just used healing. This also comes back to the original abilities in second form that you can unlock via smacking them with your keyblade. They would be nice since the magic in the game again sucks ass so having something to use magic bar that is not cure would be a nice touch.

10: For a guy who lost his powers I sure have a ton of abilities right away - Remember when in the beginning of each game you lost all your powers and had to slowly unlock everything and it would come to you not just willy nilly? Man those were the days. Could earn powers for reasons. I'm not helpless in the game if I can run up mountains or sky scrapers. If I can glide with the shotlock from one spot to another. I'm too strong if anything at the start and it just makes you feel like the game is padding time before the small amount of story at the end that matters. This could have literally been with the final chapter prologue and it would have worked fine. But no, we didn't get that. That leads into us just spending time until something happens. The story has its own issues (which I will touch up on near the end) and it has some really bad pacing issues. There is bad pacing, and then there is bad writing because of bad pacing. Why not put some shit in the middle. Show I'm getting better instead of just having me just do everything all at once.  That's not really an issue if they space parts of it in or let me play as the other characters while sora is fucking off for power. Imagine if they added in more parts with Riku while Sora quests for strength. Imagine us going through the land of darkness instead of just Disney world after Disney world. Imagine what we could have had had it not just been all the Disney stuff then the finale all at once. It wasn't bad pacing for the end to pick up, it was bad pacing for there to be nothing in the middle. This is where the final fantasy characters could have been nice. Adding in the end of the Cloud and Sephiroth stuff so we can fight for more power there. Having us talk with Leon and the gang while they battle with some heartless just in the area and needing help. This would have made better pacing since it would have cut the monotony of the Disney grind. There are times when you just sit there waiting for stuff to happen as you run through world after world waiting for plot in general to just move forward. This does not mean it is bad pacing, this just means there is nothing important going on and leads to the story just falling short of being gripping and engaging. I again bring up the final fantasy characters because let's face it, if they did exist it would give something in general more time to flesh out. There is nothing to do but repeated disney movies that either play out like normal or that you play no real part in since it is after the story in the whole movie. Sure it was great to see what happened with boo and the monsters but Randall just is there and I'm sure he was gone at the end of the first movie. In fact after using my Disney plus account (#notsponsored) to just hit the end of the movie it shows him in a trailer getting beat with a shovel. He probably got back but still.

11: The combat is too "floaty" - I'm in the sky like fucking constantly man. Like all the time. Which is a bad thing since the fucking god damned level creation is now just a tall hallway. See I say tallway (patent pending) beause the level of the game is still pretty small but now it just also goes up a long way. I know this because there are so many flashing walls that there should be seizure warnings in the beginning of the game. It doesn't stop either since in general you have to climb high and doing so brings you ledges and if you have to hit people flying then you are gonna fall. Sure we can use magic but magic runs out and is complete ass. Now look this isn't just me saying it can happen since it does right in the hercules area. The first area where they could have been testing thing and probably did which means someone dealt with this shit and said it was fine enough to pass. That's just bad game mechanics right there. If you want me to be floaty in combat that do not put ledges I can fall down in your game. I do not want to climb all the way back to the top just to get into more fights I might fall down because of. Maybe make the parts I'm on bigger platforms. It just seems they want us to use the attractions because you can't fall off the safe attractions. Another thing is that it isn't just combat that is "floaty" but your movement is also a little too fast. Making larger areas and then making us speed up into a sprint is fine but having me stop right next to a save spot inches too short of touching it only for me to Vroom Vroom right over it because of how fast and far I move is god damned infuriating. It also continues combat wise as an issue in that once you get the ability to knock people up you start going into air combat and smacking them away and you can do that so much since in general the areas you fight in are so large that you can knock a single heartless out of the spawning area enough that you have to run back to fight it.

12: Proud mode is a fucking joke - I think I died a total of one time in proud mode which is probably more than others. See the difficulty has been said to be really easy on this games play through and I'm inclined to believe them. Here is the thing. I know critical mode now exists. I just don't like it. See critical mode was doable in 2 since it was just again harder stuff but in this it is no longer you playing KH3. It is you playing Dark Souls which if I wanted to play that kind of game I'd pop in my copy of bloodborne or turn on my copy of dakr souls 2 which in general I'm not a huge fan of so I stopped playing those games. Difficulty in a game is fine but there is going from hard to fuck why am I playing dark souls? No I'm not the kind of guy who says anything hard is dark souls because I grew up in the era of gaming where games had one difficulty and you had to learn to "get gud" or deal with never winning. Even if I was never good at games I didn't shy away from things being difficult. There is however an exception that the game changes so drastically that there is no happy medium between pants shittingly hard or baby mode. The other thing is that in general DLC should not dictate if a game is good on its own. DLC is meant to enhance the fucking experience and should not make me want to have to buy something (this was free) to get a god damned happy experience out of something that cost me top dollar to begin with. If I need your DLC to have fun or enjoy the story than you clearly missed the damned mark. DLC is extra boss battles. It is final mix of the game when it comes out. It turns your vanilla play through into more than what it once was. It adds aesthetics to the game not makes the game difficult and if it does it doesn't make the game different to such a degree that I'd rather fucking play a game that was created to be that difficult because their combat system is hand crafted for said difficulty. Secondly on that list of being too easy who the fuck thought kupo coins was a good idea. I literally just stopped giving a shit since I could use my now always full magic bar since magic is ass to heal when I needed it and to just run away with my big fucking area during battles and not take damage until I could go in and do slappies for a while before running away and gauging if I need to heal and then if I died come back to life. With all the power moves and free attractions each combat I could have beaten proud mode without gimping myself by trying to not use attractions. The forms didn't help with that either because I would just second form and have a brand new powerful thing to do since it was right there. Not only that but rage form is a full heal and why am I heartless sora again? Either way rage form into run away fast because I run like I'm form kenya with all the movement abilities and then with kupo coin and magic makes the difficulty in here easier than "just don't use it". Mostly because it is implemented in the game and they want you to use it. Telling someone not to use the thing is again stupid because if they didn't want me to use it they would remove the feature. This is no longer a kids game. I'm over 10 years older than I once was and I'm a big boy and want to not be treated like a child. Sure they could be putting it in for kids but why not just have it in easy mode since kids will either do easy mode or know they want that extra challenge.

13: Many of the fights and heartless are just not that good compared to earlier games - So firstly the giant horde of heartless was cool one time. Each time you fight it it gets more and more boring and feels like a cop out on trying to make a good battle and a "oh man this is such a cool idea lets use it alot more than we need to". For a game that was in development for 6 years you think they would have more varied enemies and fights and by that I mean more better heartless. Also some of the heartless are just kinda eh in general. Not only that but the places we visit feel like the heartless are kinda thrown in there and they just made way less enemies than normal. Maybe that is me forgetting if other games did the same thing but I can remember many places having more unique enemies that made more sense. Like why is the monkey heartless here? This is not the time to return to monke or some shit like that and it makes 0 sense when I have to fight it in more than one area. How about the lady heartless with the umbrella. Doesn't fit in every single place it shows up and just feels like it is there. Sometimes they do a nice job putting in certain heartless such as the reindeer which I thought was a nice touch but i don't remember them interacting at all with the reindeer from frozen. I also in general remember each heartless having a newer form such as the fat heartless eventually turned into fire breathers and then eventually into shield dudes. They do not make a reappearance but the fat ones show up all over the place and it would be nice to fight things that are great for the area. Some just also have eh designs and the game just feels poorly made because of it. Some bosses are just boring as well. In fact off the top of my head I can't really remember one I like but I sure as shit can remember the one I hated most which happens to be the airship section where you board a machine gun heartless to fight that sky bird thing in the pirates section. I even found the robots in general tedious because they were hard to beat without the use of the robot suits and felt like another tacked on gimmick to use to make combat more easy. Had they been a single section and not everywhere in the store it would have been cooler but instead we had many fights to do with robots who almost always wrecked my shit. In fact it ruined combat a little for me in general and made the section of toy story a little less good. See most of these issues I have with the places are the grand scale of things and having to go back and forth with them with having really unmemorable heartless for the most part and just not finding the game to be that great with some of the more important parts. Enemies help to flesh the game out to be cooler and as much as I love the generic heartless the worlds make the heartless cooler by making them change to be better suited for the world they are in. Having extra enemies like nobodies and unversed without having much of a reason to have them there other than "you remember this right?" seems like a waste of design chances. Some just either were frustrating tank sponges and the others were just not good. The other issue is some bosses appeared numerous times and just didn't feel impressive when fighting them since they just keep coming back. The giant heartless who I saw in hercules mode coming back on the bridge where you first meet Baymax makes the scene not great since it is a simple color swap at most and it is the same thing again. A lot of the bosses in general just feel ok at best too design wise. I can look back at many of the designs and just name really enjoyable ones who are better than the ones we got here. Honestly the designs are just so much of a let down I don't even wanna revisit the stages which is good because the game just isnt that much fun. One of the more unfun parts of enemies is also the shield stuff they have sometimes which is just more ways to give them extra health. Why not just in general just give them more health since it is just a way to beef them up? Not only are they now mostly damage sponges but the fact that some turn into shielded damage sponges just makes me less happy to fight things. The worst version of unfun boss happens to be the lich at the end when you need to rescue everyone from it. The thing is that it not only takes forever and makes you have to fight it numerous times but it also has the ability to make you unlock from it and in such large areas that becomes tedious to deal with lengthening the entire fight from the already long fight it is.

14: Quick speed round of things I don't like that are just not as good as earlier games - Magic sucks in this game. It's all relatively the same since it is all offensive. Aero was in general the same as thunder since it is aoe with a secondary effect. Water, Fire, Ice are all the same as they shoot a ball of the element that homing devices onto an enemy and when not in general locked on fucks off wherever. I miss the older spells and how they worked and felt more unique in 2 while also having more than just offense. Maybe introduce more spells to the next main entry based on the spells of every other game? I'm just not a fan of some of these worlds as they are all new. I haven't had a chance to catch most of the new movies (even thought I have disney plus which is great you should totally buy it #stillnotsponsored) I just don't like some of the places and the mini games in the don't help. Slight inconvenience but making me have to press x as I load new levels is kinda dumb. Maximus should be a party member. Give me him instead of eugene. Why do I need the flowmotion to progress? Hooray WATER LEVELS MY FAVORITE. Crabs. Watch me beat davy jones in a 4 on 1 battle.Darkubes are dumb. Jesus christ Jiminy shut up I'm trying to grind in the best place for the end game. Oh look it's an organization member maybe I can figh....nah they gone now. THERE ARE SO MANY CUTSCENES.

15: 2 final things before the story issues - Playing as other characters, keyblade forms. One of the biggest gripes I had in this was each time I used a new keyblade i wanted to fight with it and not transform into a new form because I do not like the new forms. They do nothing for me and since they kind of all are ok at best that it just kinda feels meh to me to use them. I pretty much used the kingdom key because second form was fine and stayed a keyblade. If anything I would rather have a new style of fighting like second form in general like the original forms are in KH2. I like valor and wisdom form and as cool of a call back as it was for the 2 first keyblades to be given to you I don't like the final ability to be used which makes me less inclined to find a weapon I do like. Which leads into my second final gripe. I was really excited to play as multiple keyblade wielders. Playing as mickey in 2 was super fucking cool and I miss that. Playing as Aqua and Riku in this made me hope for eventual fights at the end where it was each person fought someone else and you would get an ability to play through a final area for extra boss fights as any character for extra gameplay. I was excited to see what Axel and Kairi could do since in general they finally had moments to shine. You could make them fight and even if they did win just have them lose via cutscene and bring back Roxas and have Xion turn to your side. So many issues I have with that because it goes into another issue of.......

16: Everyone but Sora is fucking worthless - I have seen Dragonball GT and the main main main main main issue I have with that show is no one matters except Goku. See in other series characters could fight and kill or do something against the not main villain and be worth a damn but when GT happened everyone kinda just. Became worthless. No one could win a fight except Goku especially near the end when they had him fight 7 dragons. Sora does the same here when he has to be involved the final boss rush in the game. I'd have liked to see other characters stand out but even then he is the only one who can fight Xehanort when Mickey failed to do anything. It was all sora. Even waking Aqua was all sora. The only time someone did something was when Aqua fought Vanitas and still got her shit kicked in at the end during the cinematic and at that point he just didn't wanna fight 3 people. This is a shame because as I already said it would have been cooler to have those characters fight people and it matter. Let's break down the people who would be on our side Riku Kairi Axel Roxas Terra Ven Aqua Xion Sora Mickey Thats a total of 10 different people to play as. That would have made the final boss fights unique and super cool. You say that would have taken so much time and I say "Cool" but it would have been cooler to fight as these different characters. If they put in 2 extra just do them all. It is the most let down of let downs in gameplay mechanics. Who could they have fought in the game? Let's look at the villains Xigbar Marluxia Terranort Young Xehanort Xemnas Ansem Larxene Luxord Older Xehanort Evil Clone Riku Vanitas Saix Xion There are 12 total people to fight that are not the original Xehanort and each one could be fought with someone totally different. If Xion fights twice but wasn't really trying the first time she can be fine for the second battle. Let's give everyone a person to fight. Let's get the easy ones out of the way. Remember the ones who we fight first don't matter as much because each person not Older Xehanort do not matter even if they are him in other forms. Terra as the lingering will is gonna fight Terranort and get his body back. Riku can fight Ansem who tries to use his darkness and their past against him. Kairi can fight Xion who is noticed to not even be trying and then kairi can be captured to still do the ending they planned for. Xion who now defects can join and fight Larxene Axel can fight Xemnas and lose leaving him almost die while Roxas can jump out and fight him instead Ventus can finally defeat Vanitas Aqua can fight and defeat Xigbar who she has some history with Sora can fight and defeat Luxord so he can give him the card he was going to give. This fight can be more simple than the others and Sora can have to fight against the other Riku Mickey can fight Marluxia Before losing his fight with Xemnas Axel can fight and beat Saix We get to the final battle and while Sora who ran off to find Kairi he has to get through Younger Xehanort to get to the older one.

Look at that clean battle line up. Throw them in the correct order and you can have fights with so many people and even do the stuff needed for it to make the story go smoothly. Everyone gets to be unique and have their day in the sun. The final fight would be sora and gang fighting Xehanort and since the end game would be choose who fights who you can literally have over 120 different fights total if you leave out Donald and Goofy from the sora versions of fights. Heck allow us to fight the final boss final main form and we can in general have even more as we fight him with each character.

17: What is the difference between a heart and a soul? - This is a simple question because they keep saying we don't need the bodies cause we still have their hearts and I'm just having troubles figuring out if the story writers know the damn difference between a heart which is a physical thing or a concept of the soul which is the metaphysical thing. You know like what makes you you.

18: Why doesn't Axel have 2 keyblades? - Like I like that he holds it the way he does, it's very him very unique and all that but if Roxas can have 2 and he gets one from Xion who is no longer a part of him because she is right there than why can't Axel who is specifically a dual wielder of weapons get 2 of them? I mean give the main a sword that is like a Chinese Dao sword combo. It literally is a blade that turns into 2 blades. Like don't even tell me that shit is unable to happen cause Ventus fucking gets that strange keyblade because it is unique to his style so if that is how it works and they all have based on their personality he should have two. Especially since it would be a great call back to my favorite Axel line in the entire series. "Two!?"

19: Clone Riku should not be a boss - Remember when we beat the shit out of Riku as Sora and then Riku clone and then Riku beat Riku clones ass? He's not a challenge. "He was given more darkness powers" Nice, cool cop out there. Fuck you.

20: Why kill everyone just to set up a story line when you could just do it better - So this one is a little subjective. Need sora to meet Chirithy or whatever its name is and maybe set up remind dlc or whatever but in the end you could have just broke his spirit from his body and put him in the other world by making Xehanort who tried taking him over show him everyone dying and it causing Sora to blank out and travel there as a spirit or some shit. It could have worked just as fine allowing the rest of everyone else to go fight the enemies at the end giving sora time to eventually wake up and join in while Donald and Goofy protect him. Then when he wakes up Luxord who could have said "I'll handle the boy when he wakes up could have just did what he wanted to do with the card then. It's just a dumb moment and we could have instead of dumb gameplay where we have to put ourselves back together and have to save everyone and re watch a stupid ass cutscene just watched a cutscene and went back while everyone handled what they needed to.

So before I get into the final 4 parts to get into I hope that you know I was trying to be really fair with a bunch of these and not just looking for things to gripe about. When I didn't understand things I made myself look up to make sure I understood and didn't just bitch about it for the sake of bitching. These last 4 things are kind of in general I beleive super fair.

1: The battles stop as you talk with each person - Nothing kills a fight sequence like starting it, defeating a single enemy in it, talking with a full blown conversation to them, then as they die restart with another fight scene to do it with every single person in the fight. WHY WOULD MARLUXIA AND LARXENE ALLOW LUXORD TO GIVE HIM A CARD? Why would they stop fighting? Why would Ansem, Xemnas, and Young Xehanort watch as one of the others fell and talked? Why would any sane fucking person do that? It makes 0 sense and ruins that boss rush.

2: I know you need to set up another game but fuck you - You literally made the happiest of endings where everything is the best for everyone ever and I MEAN EVERYONE except for Sora and Kairi. Fucking fuck you man. I'm not even mad that that was the ending but when everyone comes up fucking peaches and cream I tend to question the product even if they need to set up story. They can do it better, do what you did at the end of 2 and send a message in a bottle and say "there are still other worlds out there that need us, just not in this universe" or some shit like that. Shit if in general they can have emotions in games than have sora have to jump into the game. You already said my microwave can feel love so than if he can be in that rex universe than he can just go in after he has a nice break with all of his friends.

3: No - Xehanort was not a good guy the entire time. He literally murdered people and stole a childs body and ripped the emotions out of another child and made them not whole. He got a child so angry he murdered his new sorta dad. He pretty much was the whole reason anything bad happened and he was "misguided and wanted to good but did bad to do so". Then in the end he's forgiven and everything is fucking fine? Then he turns into a good guy and goes into the big heart in the sky. This is the kind of writing that literally kills off stories for at least me. Not everyone needs a second chance and sometimes people are just evil. We need stories that have people die at the end sometimes. I know it is fantasy and it can be all rainbows and butterflies but dear god Steven Universe was literally "no you" and that was the end of the entire fucking series. This is the same thing. It might not be "no you" but fuck this ending. This was a story that was supposed to end a 17 year long story and the end of this single part literally spits in the face of people who played it by saying "hey guys, he wasn't bad, he is sorry now". That is complete and utter horse shit. I don't mind that this is not the end of the series. I don't care because if I stuck around this long I would do the same if the story had a satisfying ending. Fuck man in the new game he's even evil then unless that is just how Kairi remembers him but let's face it. The gang would have told her what happened and this is just horse shit in general. This is a fucking stupid story and I literally am fine with alternate realities since time travel and other dumb stuff has been the main name of the game the entire fucking time but let's face it. This is one of the worst ideas for an ending for a villain. The buold up is fucking massive and the payout is just sad.

4: NO - Fucking xigbar. I don't even know how to put this into words how much of a let down it is for Xigbar, Fucking XIGBAR to be the next main enemy. (or at least it looks that way). Fucking we could have had Luxord. We could have had Marluxia. We could have had Demyx. We could have had fucking I don't know Vexen. We could have had fucking anyone but we get Xigbar. You could have slapped any other character onto his scenes and gotten the same amount of out of nowhere shit to explain him being next but it is fucking xigbar. Fucking unreal.

So yeah. That's my massive wrap up on KH3 and I personally do not know where I stand from here. Maybe if the next game doesn't play like shit in 400 years when Nomura gets off his ass and lets us have kingdom hearts 3.76 tie in to 4 which is oddly enough a main title and not a second part of 3 I'll see how it plays. Until then I think I'm gonna sit hereand never touch 3 again and never finish Melody of Memory.

[jcmorrigan]

Hey, wanna watch me cry? I found my old “KHIII wishlist” and let’s tick off how many things I got and how many things make me cry

·      Mozenrath as the secret boss - Yeah, I always knew this one was a long shot, but a girl’s gotta have a dream, you know?

·      Kairi being a complete and total badass - *LOUD SOBBING*

·      Guest stars from Square Enix properties besides FF and TWEWY (Ringabel would be really cool in the Restoration Committee) - I mean I guess there was a Gummi boss from another older game? Truth be told I think I just wanted Ringabel. I haven’t even played BD. I just like him because a friend likes him. Anyway, Squenix might be able to win back my heart again if Orpheus from BD2 ends up a boss but I don’t see that happening

·      Bring back Strike Raid and give it the EXACT same mechanic as KH1 - YOU HAD ONE JOB but I can’t be too mad because Attraction Flows are pretty

·      Terra gets his confidence restored - Hey, this one happened!

·      Eraqus gets called out on his bullshit - *SOBBING INCREASES IN VOLUME*

·      Ventus is just awesome - This one made it!

·      The return of Xion - YEAH BOIIIIII

·      And Roxas and Naminé but Xion takes priority - Hmmmmm. Okay, so we did get this, but Naminé was such an afterthought and didn’t get to play a plot role. Does it really count?

·      The ability to make a Gummi ship that looks like the Condor from Storm Hawks - Given the blueprints that exist, I’m SURE this is possible. I’m just never actually patient enough with the Gummi system to play around with it. But maybe one day I will, for shits and giggles, try to RECREATE CONDOR

·      Even actually being evil and continuing to be a snarky little shit - HE HAD US IN THE FIRST HALF. THEN *BREAKS DOWN CRYING*

·      Ienzo reforming and having an awkward friend dynamic with Kairi as he goes through his redemption arc - I mean, we were missing the Kairi dynamic, but I got this much!

·      Baymax as a Summon - Party member, not Summon, but we did get to team up with Baymax and I’m cool with that.

·      Actual brunette Rapunzel post-haircut at some point - Got her!

·      Hans and Demyx appearing in the same game - I CANNOT BELIEVE OF ALL THE THINGS ON THIS WISHLIST, THIS IS ONE OF THE ONES THAT CAME TRUE. I CAN’T BE TOO MAD

·      Return trips to Agrabah and Halloween Town (I don’t care that we’ve already been there 500 times; I never get tired of Al and Jack) - CRUSH MY DREAMS WHY DON’T’CHA

·      MORE DISNEY VILLAIN BOSS FIGHTS! - There were. Decidedly fewer Disney villain boss fights. But they did finally let me beat up the goddamn Kraken so I’ll take it

·      I know this one’s a long shot but a Monsters Inc. world SOLELY for the purpose of a Randall Boggs boss fight where he can turn invisible and shake your lock-on ability and you just have to guess where he is before he punches out half your HP - WHAT DO YOU KNOW. WE GOT THIS WORLD BUT NOT THE FIGHT. BUT RANDALL WAS STILL GREAT AND GOT TO DO THE DEATH TRAP GAUNTLET AND IT WAS LEGITIMATELY THE BEST PART OF THE ENTIRE GAME (well, okay, maybe not BEST, just...my favorite)

·      Also a Dr. Facilier boss fight needs to be singled out - Oh Facilier where art thou

·      Make the adorable Dream Eaters relevant somewhere - This was on me; all I said was “somewhere.” They put in the minimal effort to check this box and I should’ve specified I wanted them to be MORE THAN AN OPTIONAL SUMMON

·      Yen Sid with an actual Keyblade - I retract this because the Yen Sid moment we got instead was SO MUCH COOLER

·      Actually being able to travel to the Destiny Islands to do stuff instead of it being an intro or cutscene-only world - Let us access the forbidden islands Squenix

·      Expanded Twilight Town map (the spinoffs gave us expanded maps for Radiant Garden and Traverse Town) - HAHAHAHAHA. HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAAAAAA HAHAHAHAHAHA

·      If Arendelle is a world and Elsa isn’t your party member, I want Anna to be hitting things with Kristoff’s guitar and that to be listed as her default weapon - Well, apparently we got frickin Marshmallow instead

·      Callaghan - No, I guess it was more important to fight DARKUBES

·      The return of every single leitmotif - BUT THIS ONE, WE GOT! Maybe missing a couple of the lesser ones, but almost EVERY piece Shimomura knocked out of the park came back and got badass new remixes! KHIII is altogether a mixed bag but its soundtrack is just aces.

·      Cruella de Vil - Fortunately she would get an antihero!AU origin story movie two years later that would kick all kinds of ass. As for KH, no, she’s still not there

·      The Emperor’s New Groove - They legitimately don’t want us to have anything nice

·      Mad Madam Mim, preferably to be introduced in Radiant Garden to oppose the Restoration Committee and Merlin just being fed up through the roof with this and Cid accusing Merlin of leading her here because SHE’S YOUR GODDAMN RIVAL - THEY DON’T WANT US TO HAVE. ANYTHING NICE

[snowflake-of-destruction]

This isn’t something I normally participate in, but, since I didn’t write much in June and shared hardly anything(something I plan to change in July if I can), I thought I should give some proof of (creative) life if anyone wants it.

Under the cut, a series of tiny excerpts, most more than six sentences, of different Kingdom Hearts pieces to be rescued from the limbo of “half finished chunk of something in a google doc.” Some of them belong to WIPs and some are from various other things started and then interrupted or....we’ll say set to a back burner.

All excerpts headed by a bolded header in the style of 

Title of Piece This Belongs To (Brief description of what kind of fic that is in between parenthesis)

Advantage Rule (Isalea Modern AU. First Chapter Up On AO3. More Info There.)

"You lost or are you the new caulk?" The speaker didn't fit the typical profile of a tech professional, especially one that worked behind the scenes with the coders. Mid-fifties judging by the lines on his face with thinning blond hair so light you could hardly tell where some parts had gone silver combed to stick up as a compensation for where it threatened to recede and leather skin that said he'd worked outside in some decade past, paired with a southern accent that seemed stronger than it was with the effect added by the toothpick precariously balanced in the corner of his mouth. He'd rejected business attire in favor of cargo pants and a dark blue flight jacket that looked like they'd been bought in the last century, and the look in his eye was so fierce without prompting that Axel had to wonder if he was a failsafe for the air conditioning breaking down.

"Am I the what?"

"Caulk." The toothpick switched sides of the man's mouth with a roll of his bottom lip. "Fixing the leaks? The cybersecurity specialist? Axel Lea?" His impatience mounted by the moment. Working on the fourth floor would certainly be interesting.

"Yes, sir. That would be me." Axel tried to smooth the way with deference and the easy smile that rarely steered him wrong. "Does that make you...?"

"Cid Highwind. I'll be showing you the ropes. Now that you've seen fit to grace us with your presence." Cid continued to stare him down and Axel wasn't sure if he was supposed to apologize or bare his teeth and smack his chest like a gorilla to challenge the alpha.

Without False Hope ( First Chapter Up On AO3. More Info There. Akuroku KH/FFX crossover)

Axel was waiting for them, or  it seemed that way at least and Roxas didn’t think himself vain for thinking so, when Roxas spotted the lanky redhead not jogging himself but leaning against a pole until he saw the Crusaders approaching and then falling in next to Roxas just behind Xion as she bellowed, "Young Crusaders gather 'round,"  the beginning of a call and response chant that the rest of them would answer with a promise to knock enemies back and stand their ground or an alternate about beating Sin beneath the ground if they were feeling

Axel finished the line a beat before the Crusaders would have, substituting his own words. "...Eager for Sin to put you in the ground." Roxas's heart, which had soared for a moment when Axel had come up beside him and dared to hope that Axel's first words would be a version of sorry or an invitation out somewhere without other people, took a sharp plummet to his toes then returned to his chest angry at being mocked.

Assorted grumbles and shouts showed many others felt the same way, but Xion seemed to take it in stride, sing-songing her own improvised lines that continued the cadence of the original chant without missing a beat, "Young civilian come to heckle and stare. What would you do if a fiend attacked and we weren't there?"

Axel near stumbled but recovered and let out a short bark that might have been a laugh he wasn't sure he was allowed without inviting training Crusaders to make him pay for it, afterward rumbling in an impressed tone, "You, I like,."

"You should. " Xion shot back and her casual tone alone was enough that everyone else in the formation knew Axel was an acceptable stranger even if he was rude, and that they should ignore the intrusion. "I'm not sure I like you back. Roxas has been mooning and it makes him impossible."

Guardian Force (Akuroku. Axel and Roxas in the next life, living as NPCs in the world of/during the story of FFVIII. Part of my eventual plan to show Axel and Roxas living out every Final Fantasy game. Unpublished/First chapter never completed because I decided on Without False Hope/a FFX crossover instead)

"You often talk to yourself?" an insolent lazy drawl came from somewhere to Axel's left and he turned, eyes narrowing to see a boy in a rumpled Balamb cadet uniform lying across the second highest step, book in hand, vibrant blue eyes, ice eyes like he'd junctioned Shiva right to his vision, trained on him over the spine.

"To my Guardian Force," Axel explained, though that seemed worse. Over six foot of height and lean muscle and the SeeD uniform Axel wore at least enough parts of for it to be vaguely recognizable that he belonged to the elite unit, all usually worked together enough that there was usually no reason to be embarrassed by anything he let slip out.  Nobody would laugh even if Axel welcomed it.

"Thought you didn't like using Guardian Forces," the lounging student's voice was just as nonchalant as it was before, but his gaze was sharp, interested, and he spoke as if he knew Axel.

"Have we met?" Axel knocked the sole of his left boot against the side of his right as if scraping mud off the bottom. It wasn't odd for him to shift constantly even when mostly still, unless he was specifically called to stand at attention. There was an air of discomfort about the present action though, when taken with how jade eyes known for constant analysis on and off the battlefield, seemed attracted to the handrail of the steps rather than searching the face of the boy that had just spoken to him with familiarity.  Axel's normally iron stomach soured immediately at the idea they had met and he'd forgotten, to the point he couldn't even bring himself to try and jog his recollection. All he could do was force out his least favorite question next to 'when did that happen?'

Lollipop (Soriku and Akuroku. College AU/Modern AU. Unpublished. Sora and Roxas in an acapella group because that was the only way I could work out how to get them to sing and do choreo for songs that get stuck in Shaky’s head, which was the Goal of the Day one day before I got distracted)

When Sora said he had a new idea for a piece for the CrescenDudes' next performance, Roxas had been more than happy to volunteer to work on the arrangement with him. Sora was great for ideas, large picture and little flourishes that made a song a show, and he was, hands down, who you wanted doing choreography, even if he tended to get carried away and not realize there weren't many others with the dance and movement background he had in their group, but he wasn't suited for the musical side of sculpting a piece. He'd sing what he was given and he'd stay on pitch doing it, but he had no idea to weave songs together to form a mashup that sounded natural and created the right feeling in a crowd,  and he'd forget to accommodate  for everyone's voices or go the opposite direction and try to highlight everyone and have twenty solos. So it was up to Roxas to take his vision from neat idea to reality, and he jumped at the chance. He'd do anything at this point to distract Sora from dragging him into wedding planning for a few days when that should be Riku’s job as the other groom.  

Hourglass (Unpublished. Self-indulgent BBS Era--at least for this excerpt-- story about KH Squall/Leon and Seifer growing up in Radiant Garden and explaining how they got to be on separate planets and separate ages by the time KH1 rolls around. May be competed and posted to AO3 or just used as a base/record of headcanon for sprinkling backstory references in other pieces.)

Seifer challenged Lea and Isa to break back into the castle and come back with proof this time. He would have just called Lea a liar, but that would lead to Lea trying to fight him, which would lead to Isa trying to fight him, which would lead to Squall getting in the way, thinking Seifer couldn't handle a two on one fight with some chicken wusses. Then Squall would still try to sneak into the castle himself to see Ellone anyway--and she wasn’t in the castle in the first place...probably. Seifer would have to drag Squall’s ass out of there, and, if they got caught by the Royal Guard, then they’d be the next rumored prisoners in the basement.  It was safer to make it be Lea and Isa's challenge.

Lea took the bait. Isa, surprisingly, added they were planning a return trip anyway. Squall shot Seifer a questioning look, which he ignored in favor of taunting Lea and sealing the deal, "I can't wait to see you two hobble in tomorrow after getting your asses beat by the Guard. Try not to hit your thick skulls on the flagstones when you get thrown out."

Drowning (Unfinished/unpublished. Placeholder name. Sorikai. Supposed to be for the Sorikai Summer Event. Prompt: Drowning. Long one shot about eight times one of the Destiny Trio has nearly drowned and then been saved by the others)

Their first prototype of a raft had fallen apart underneath them in open water, the ties that lashed the planks together having not been as securely tied as they could have been--the book on sailor's knots Sora had provided was a lot more obtuse than it had seemed at first, descriptions dense and picture demonstrations too sparse. Kairi and Sora each fared well, each grabbing onto a floating plank to drift a minute and orient themselves after being plunged into the water. Riku was less successful, being fixated on saving as many of the supplies Kairi and Sora had gathered (coconuts, mushrooms, and bottles of water mostly, though there had been a tackle box that Riku's father would kill him for losing if he had to go back and face him, and that was what Riku was primarily focused on) and exhausting his breath on too many dives in a row without recovery in between until he was lightheaded from not taking in enough air in his hasty gulps when he broke the surface and increasingly imprecise in where he chose to come out of the water until he hit his head on the bottom of the plank he was loading the recovered supplies onto and went down without resurfacing.

No Set Recipe (Unfinished/unpublished.  Sorikai. Supposed to be for the Sorikai Summer Event. Prompt: Ice Cream. Kidfic. Sora’s mom is left with the job of explaining polyamory while making homemade ice cream with a group of five and six year olds.)

It was all Selphie's fault to start with, though if she was going to be ascribed the blame for the hurt feelings, she would have to be given credit for all that happened after, which Riku and Sora both agreed she did not deserve, even if Kairi was more magnanimous, so it became habit just to talk of the ice cream and the impact it had on their future. Still, the most accurate account begins with: one day when they were all young-- too young to even be allowed to swim in the water surrounding play island without an adult in the surf with them, if that gives perspective--Selphie, to everyone's surprise, scored the winning goal in the game of land-blitzball the group of them were playing in order to decide what game they would really spend the day playing, and chose, to absolutely nobody's surprise, house.

Everyone accepted their fate and divided into family units with minimal grumbling, phrasing which means that Wakka threw the blitzball into the sea and lost it forever when Jecht--the parent chaperone on play island that day who was five minutes away from falling asleep on the sand and typically didn't care what they did, unlike most parents who at least had restrictions about not hitting each other in the head with wooden swords or throwing sand, and was the favorite of the children for that attitude of freedom to make mistakes being a better teacher than rules--refused to go into the water after it.

Selphie, however, found a problem with Sora, Riku, and Kairi's family. Specifically, she didn't like that the family was Riku, Kairi, and Sora all together parenting a yellow coconut Kairi was trying to rock to sleep while Riku built him a bed out of sand and palm fronds and Sora cooked dinner for the household--a savoury stew of sticks, sand, and mushroom. She stood with pursed lips and hands on hips, and declared that their proud coconut son, Rekka, couldn't have all three of them for parents because that wasn't how things worked.

"Why not?" Sora asked with all the curiosity and innocence of a child.

Riku tried a more practical, solution based approach with, "Can we change the rules?"

Kairi was more direct and firm, her, "It does if I say so," leaving very little room to argue.

[drazavonia]

Sora & Yozora Role Reversal Pt II

In the KH3 Remind true secret ending, Sora defeats Yozora and he begins to fade away into a blue beam of light. In the bad secret ending where Sora is defeated he undergoes crystal stasis, but when Yozora touches his crystal to transport himself to the Final World (Day) the same blue beam of light shoots heavenward. I'm not entirely sure what the significance of that is but I remembered that the Shibuya 104 building they were fighting on was Sora's Station of Awakening transformed from the Final World (Night).

This reminded me of something:

When Sora used the Power of Waking to leave the Final World he used that world's Sleeping Keyhole which act as portals. That's the only time a world's sleeping keyhole emerged from the ground up. Sora walks into the golden light and is transported out of the Final World.

Shared Heart

SORA REACHED THE FINAL WORLD (Day) IN HIS DREAMS

In the beginning of KH1, the tutorial is Sora's dive to the heart which after we complete, Sora is revealed to have been sleeping and everything was a dream. In KH3, Chirithy reveals to Sora that he had already visited the Final World on his previous trips to the Station of Awakening. We know this is possible because the final world is where the realms of death and sleep touch.

YOZORA REACHED THE FINAL WORLD (Night) IN HIS DREAMS

In both KH3 Remind Secret endings, Yozora wakes up in the car (although in the bad ending there's a better transition). This tells us that everything that transpired from Sora meeting Yozora to him arriving in the final world/disappearing after losing, all happened within his dreams just like Sora in KH1.

Sora and Yozora dived to their heart to reach the final world in their sleep while dreaming. The reason Sora ended up in the Final World (Night) after disappearing was probably because he was banished from his world so he wasn't allowed to access his Final World (Day).

Bookend

Going back to the beginning of this post, when Yozora touches Sora's crystallized body the blue beam of light shoots heavenward and all of sudden Yozora instantly arrives in the Final World.

In the Fabula Nova Crystallis trilogy, when a L'Cie enters Crystal Stasis they're basically stuck in between a state of both sleep and death. But, it's because of this L'Cie can still dream and after DDD we know that dreams can act as portals to sleeping worlds. So, Yozora used Sora's dreams as a portal to reach Sora's Final World (Day).

But one discrepancy would be that when Yozora loses he vanishes from the Station of Awakening/Digitized Shibuya, but when Sora loses he enters crystal stasis.

My guess is that the reason Sora and Yozora meet in the Final World (Night) is because being two different/parallel versions of each other, they share the same Heart/Station of Awakening. Yozora was able to trigger/awaken/activate Sora's Station of Awakening and transported him and Sora to Shibuya. This reminds me of how Riku used the POW to awaken Sora's Sleeping Keyhole to use as a portal to reach his dream version of Destiny Island and Sora used the POW on Xehanort's heart to reach his dream version of Scala ad Caelum. Shibuya could be where Yozora's heart leads (a dream version anyway) because it had a significant impact on his life given the trials he had to undergo.

Sora was banished from his world meaning he had nowhere to go back to, so when he loses he becomes a portal for his other self (being Yozora) to traverse between the two Final Worlds/universes. However, Yozora wasn't banished from his world which is why even after crossing over to the Final World (Day) when he wakes up his heart can return to his body that's sleeping in the car.

I believe that because Sora and Yozora share the same heart, but exist in different universes one shouldn't replace the other because that creates an imbalance of sorts. That's why the true ending is Sora emerging victorious so he and Yozora can trade places. This way Sora lives out his life in Yozora's body and Yozora in Sora's body gets transported to Shibuya because Yozora has been to Shibuya before and maybe this is how he completes his final trial to "Save Sora", by taking his place in his body.

Random thoughts:

Not to mention if this theory is true, from what we've seen they keep the same voices.

This could also explain why Sora's newest KH3 Remind render had him looking so edgy, not only to represent how serious Sora/the player had to be to defeat Yozora in that situation, but maybe that's Yozora in Sora's body (with the realistic clothing of course) bein' all edgy.

Also, these shots are really similar considering the first one is Sora (Yozora) watching the other shoot of from the 104 building and in the next one he's staring right at the 104 building.

[noblechaton]

sorry for this but i need 2 ramble a lil

ok so like first off health-wise i’ve been able to eat again for about a month now which has been nice but i’ve been really timid and slow about it and only go for things that i’ve been able to keep down bc i don’t wanna risk it (i eat a hot dog like every day at this point tho most of what i’ve tried has stayed down without much issue at this point but i spit certain things out on instinct like shrimp. i can still taste certain stuff hours after eating it too but it seems hard to figure out what foods and stuff cause it. it seems like certain flavors?? spices maybe?? also i started drinking alkaline water bc i heard it might help and idk if it did/does but i drink it all the time. maybe it’s related to the rest of this?? idk)

i’m not totally out of those woods yet tho i don’t think bc my neck/throat has been super uncomfortable and even in pain almost 24/7 the entire time i’ve been able to eat again and idk what that’s about. i kinda think it might be like not scabbed over but like it’s recovering from me losing ~40 pounds out the mouth for a month or two lol but i’m also really easily scared that it’s something more serious and do everything i can not to think about it (chewing gum has helped tbh)

and i still have tons of what i think is indigestion (as in a lot of burping lol. also it feels like food might still come up if i don’t make a conscious effort to keep it down whenever i burp too much or w/e) and i’m also still pretty uhhhhhh (gross word incoming) constipated and i think it’s making my stomach/sides hurt as a result (tho it could be due to my lack of eating or what I do eat not being great for that?? idk tho like i demolish rails of crackers and i think those are good for that?? maybe??)

and idk what to really do about all that at this point bc like. i’ve run every test i can really think of?? all of them came back good somehow meaning i supposedly don’t have the bad stuff i thought i did but like ik something isn’t right or else my throat wouldn’t feel weird?? since i got approved for legal weed i got a lil dropper thing but i’ve been really nervous about using it bc i’ve never done anything like that before and i don’t wanna fuck anything up since at least i can eat rn y’know?? (which is also why i haven’t been taking any medicine, especially my prescriptions which legit seem like they made things worse which isn’t surprising since some of them legit conflicted with each other but i also kinda wanna try pepto or tums again or something but again i’m nervous about ruining what lil peace i have)

i kinda wanna go back to a doctor but since they’ve been.........annoying to work with at best and bc i’ve gone so much this year i don’t really wanna go again and waste time/money if they’re not gonna be able to diagnose me y’know?? the only tests i can think to do at this point are another endoscopy, the one that goes up the other end and/or a (gross word incoming) stool test which idk like after a full year of my issues seemingly evading the doctors intentionally it’s hard to convince myself it’d be worth it but also i wanna be better now like 100% better and im tired of not knowing why i’ve been like this

beyond that tho i’ve been sleeping like pure shit and not going to bed before like 6am at best most days and waking up around 10am-1pm every day meaning i don’t get a lot of sleep anyway hhhh and my fam’s getting real testy lol which means this big trip we have planned for august might be real fun (if i don’t stay home with the cats anyway) and plus i really miss the cat bugs which is making things worse bc i don’t have anything to hyperfocus on rn (other than halo and kh1 lol)

all this health stuff has really like changed me and i’d like to think it’s mostly for the better but i need to get thru it to know for sure. like i wanna eat healthier again like i was and i wanna feel like working out and shit and not be as afraid as i’ve been (which has been so bad that i’m typically afraid to sleep but that’s been the case all year tbh). writing the lil bit i’ve written seems to have helped but i also feel like i’m kinda stumped up with that again which bites. plus i kinda haven’t had anyone to talk to about any of this since april where a few of my friends went radio silent on me (which was v cool) and so it’s all kinda been stuck in my head and gradually building and making things worse im sure 

idk. i just wanna be thru this and start really being myself again. it also sucks bc i keep feeling myself crushing/loving on two ppl who i do wanna confess to but i don’t wanna do that till i know i’m gonna be okay for sure but to do that i gotta go to a doctor again but there’s no guarantee they’ll actually figure it out since they’ve been as clueless as me but kinda rude sometimes too and hhhhhhhhhhh

[vibranch]

The Diamond Dust - Kingdom Hearts Fan Fiction

Probably going to get buried underneath all the KH ReMind news. But I thought I’d share this SoKai excerpt in anticipation for the upcoming SoKai that will hopefully be coming up in the DLC and for anybody else looking forward to some SoKai too.

Set during KH1 after Sora receives the Diamond Dusts keychain (from the optional Ice Titan fight).

Word Count: 1,554 AO3 Link to the full thing

                                               The Diamond Dust

Sora made his way back to the Gummi ship after a particularly grueling battle against a colossal being called the Ice Titan. As the name suggested, it was made of living ice and commanded said element in all manners of ice based attacks.

Despite mostly throwing solid ice at him, the Ice Titan occasionally breathed out a frosty breath that coated the ground beneath it with snow and froze what lay under as ice. Sora was amazed by it, his thoughts raced back to when he was first learning the Blizzard spell and could only produce small amounts of slush. It was the most snow Sora had ever seen. In fact, even now Sora still felt a chill cling to him as he walked along with Donald and Goofy.

“Say, Sora. You’ve got a little somethin’ stuck to ya there.” Goofy said, noticing a perfectly preserved snowflake on Sora’s hoodie. Goofy made special care not to accidentally crush it in his grip as he plucked it from Sora’s shoulder,

“Huh?” Sora turned to see what Goofy was pinching between his fingers. “What is it?”

“Looks like a snowflake.” Goofy said, in the comically serious way only he seemed to be able to do. He studied the small frozen water crystal as if it were a rare synthesis ingredient.

Donald looked up at the object in Goofy’s hand before turning to address Sora. “Must be a leftover from your exhibition against the Ice Titan.”

“Really…” Sora grinned, pulling his arms over his head and thought back to the battle he’d won singlehandedly. He tried to recall when the snowflake might’ve gotten attached to him, but he was dodging so much snow and ice being hurled at him it was impossible to figure out when it had stuck to him. “I’m surprised it hasn’t melted yet.”

“Gwarsh, good point.” Goofy said, finally looking away from the ice crystal. “Wonder how much longer it’ll last.”

“Well, let’s take it with us and find out.” Donald said as he moved on ahead from the rest of the group. “C’mon, you guys! We gotta get back to Traverse Town! Sora, you told Kairi you’d visit her as soon as you were done here, remember?” he called back at the two stragglers.

“Oh, right!” Sora shouted in return as he ran to catch up with Donald.

“Hey fellers, wait for me!” Goofy hollered after them.

 Sora scurried down the streets of Traverse Town alone. He held the snowflake in his hand, careful not to drop it. Curiously, it hadn’t melted during the trip back to Traverse Town.

Sora bounded through the alley that eventually lead into the waterway. Sora figured Kairi would be intrigued by the miraculous snowflake that wouldn’t melt, and secretly he was excited to be the one to show her it.

“Kairi!” Sora shouted, once she was in sight.

Kairi jumped at Sora’s sudden and unexpectedly loud volume. For a moment, she worried something might be wrong.

But Sora ran right up to her and outstretched his hand holding the snowflake. “You’ll never guess what I found! He chuckled proudly.

Kairi looked at the tiny object, and then back at Sora. That was it? Kairi thought. She half expected Sora to be running in to tell her about some sort of emergency from how loudly he’d shouted to her, and here he was with a snowflake of all things!

“Sora, why do you have a snowflake?” she asked. Sora’s grin widened and she suddenly understood exactly why Sora had been so noisy. He get’s excited so easily. She thought.

“It’s not just any snowflake, Kairi. It’s a snowflake that refuses to melt.”

“It… Refuses?” Kairi repeated. “What do you mean?”

“I mean, I’ve had it for a couple hours now and it still hasn’t melted.” Sora extended his arm again, offering Kairi the chance to hold the small ice crystal.

Cautiously, Kairi took it from Sora, half worried that she might accidentally crush it if she wasn’t careful. She held the snowflake between her fingers and slowly turned it over in her hand as she examined it. “Why won’t it melt?”

“I don’t know.” Sora shrugged. “Donald said it might be magical or something… I mean it did come from a giant ice monster, that might be why it won’t melt.”

“An Ice Monster?”

“Well, I think its actual called an Ice Titan, but it wasn’t really much for conversation. So we didn’t get the chance to exchange names.” Sora admitted.

Kairi giggled at the thought of Sora sitting down to talk with a giant ice monster. If anyone could, Sora could, she figured.

After spending some more time examining it, Kairi at last spoke up again. “You know, this snowflake kind of reminds me of home…”

Sora’s smile changed into an expression of curiosity. “Really?” he hadn’t expected her to talk about that. She’d never talked about where she’d come from for as long as he’d known her. “How come? I thought you couldn’t remember anything from your home?”

“It used to snow on my World.” Kairi said, as she stared deeply into the snowflake’s patterns. “It’s weird, I still can’t remember much, but I can remember trying to catch the falling snowflakes in my hand to look at them when I was little. But they usually melted before I got a good look.” She looked back at Sora and gave him a grin that matched the one he had when he first arrived. “It’s nice to finally have a good long look at one”

Sora’s smile returned, he was glad that he had this chance to make her smile. But there was a pang of jealousy inside him that caused his smile to only stay temporarily. “You know, despite all the Worlds I’ve traveled to while looking for you and Riku, none of them had snow…”

Kairi thought back to all the events she could remember while being a passenger in Sora’s Heart. “Well, that might be a good thing.” She teased. “You’re kind of used to the beach. The snow might look kind of similar to sand, but it’s much colder.”

“Hey c’mon, I know that much!” Sora laughed. “I fought the ice thing!”

Kairi laughed in return. “I thought you said it was called an Ice Titan!”

“Whatever it was, it was made of ice!” Their laughter echoed through the cave. After a while silence slowly settled in again. “Anyway, once this is all over, we’ll be going back home. Back to the Islands.”

“Yeah,” Kairi said.

“I’m kinda disappointed that I won’t get to see any actual snow for myself. It’s not like it ever snows on the Islands.”

“Oh,” Kairi didn’t expect Sora to sound so down about it. “I’m sorry, Sora.”

“No, it’s fine. It’s not your fault I never got to see it.” Sora suddenly had a thought. He paused for a moment in nervous apprehension as he considered sharing it. “Hey Kairi?”

“Yeah?”

“Could you tell me what snow is like? Actual snow, not the small stuff Donald can spray from his staff.”

Kairi was a little surprised. She wasn’t sure she could do it. It had been nearly nine years, at best, since she’d last seen the snow, but she didn’t want to deny Sora his request. “Sure, Sora. Anything you want to know in particular?”

“No,” Sora shook his head. “Just tell me what it’s like for it to snow where you live.”

“Well, sometimes it’s really wet and slushy, and other times it’s more compact. You could almost walk on it, but I mean, I was only four at the time. So maybe I just didn’t weigh enough to fall through it.”

“Really?”

“Yeah, it was pretty magical. Sometimes I’d go to bed and there wouldn’t be any. Then when I would wake up, the whole place would be covered in the stuff!”

“Wow…” Sora said, trying to imagine what that must have been like.

“We even had a name for it back on my world, when we woke up in the morning and the landscape was covered in snow.”

“What did you guys call it?”

“Diamond dust. Because of the way the rising sun gleamed off it.”

“Diamond Dust, huh?” Sora brought his hand to his chin and tried to picture that as well. “That sounds really pretty.”

“It was.” Kairi said wistfully as more thoughts of a home she’d thought long forgotten flooded back to her.

She turned back to Sora. “But try not to feel too disappointed, okay?” She paused to gently place the small snowflake back into Sora’s hand. “After all. you’ve got a little piece of Diamond Dust for yourself.”

Sora looked at the snowflake, another small smile slowly grew on his face. “Yeah, I guess so!”

Another thought crossed Sora’s mind, if the snowflake really wouldn’t ever melt, maybe he could make a keychain out of it. It could serve as a reminder of this moment with Kairi.

“Do you still want to talk about snow?” Kairi asked, her voice cutting through his thoughts.

“Nah, I’ve got a better idea. Check this out,” Sora said, pointing his Keyblade away from Kairi. He could make a keychain out of the snowflake later. Right now, he wanted to see some real snow with Kairi. “Deep Freeze!” He shouted.

[kairibee]

Go on then, Sokai.

😍

who hogs the duvet sora, no question!!

who texts/rings to check how their day is going kairi is usually the one to text/ring first but that’s only because sora forgets easily and can barely use his phone

who’s the most creative when it comes to gifts oooh i think they both have the potential to give creative gifts!! kairi is creative in the way of crafting special charms for him with thalassa shells and other craft items (and she would get aqua’s help to imbue them with special magic/enchantments too)! and sora is creative in the way of planning fun trips and surprises for her :) he would want to take her to see the lanterns at the kingdom of corona, and finally fly together with her in neverland!

who gets up first in the morning kairi. sora sleeps in until at least noon.

who suggests new things in bed lmao so awkward because they’re kiddies :( they’re too pure to answer this.

who cries at movies lol both, they’re both saps.

who gives unprompted massages awww, sora!!

who fusses over the other when they’re sick have you seen them? they’re both protective af of each other. both.

who gets jealous easiest i feel like neither of them would get super jealous… maybe kairi would get a bit jealous because sora hangs out with a lot of other princesses.

who has the most embarrassing taste in music kairi is definitely into sappy music so her.

who collects something unusual i feel like sora would be the type to collect something weird from each world he travels to. like a weird-shaped rock or something lmao.

who takes the longest to get ready kairi because sora just throws on whatever clothes are lying around and he’s good to go.

who is the most tidy and organised lol kairi - have you seen sora’s room?

who gets most excited about the holidays both - these pure angels love christmas and halloween the most.

who is the big spoon/little spoon kairi loves being the little spoon.

who gets most competitive when playing games and/or sports sora, especially with riku.

who starts the most arguments i can’t really imagine them arguing a lot but i feel like sora would probably do stupid things unintentionally sometimes and kairi would eventually get annoyed with him. ooh and she would also get really annoyed with his self-sacrificial tendencies. she wants him to look after himself!!

who suggests that they buy a pet kairi’s an unofficial disney princess and she wants a pet. give her one!!

what couple traditions they have we see in kh1 that they already have a tradition of watching the sunset together. they continue this tradition. it means a lot more to them now because they hardly get the chance to spend time together. they always watch it together back on the islands, on the paopu tree because that’s the special place where their relationship together started.they also make it a tradition to visit radiant garden every once in a while and visit the places kairi remembers from her childhood. 

what tv shows they watch together oooh, they would definitely watch cartoons together! fantasy shows or shows about superheroes and pirates. 

what other couple they hang out with roxas and xion for sure. i don’t really ship them but they would definitely hang around riku and namine as well.

how they spend time together as a couple napping and being lazy!! i headcanon that once everything is over, these two spend their days together back on destiny islands just napping and being as lazy as they want to. later on, i could see them finally travelling the worlds together with riku! sora would also teach her how to drive the gummi ship.

who made the first move well technically sora did by initiating the paopu fruit drawing! 

who brings flowers home sora would do this because he’s a big sap and he knows kairi loves flowers.

who is the best cook before kh3, i would say kairi but sora’s grown some skills after working with remy. sora would surprise her in the kitchen for sure.