#The End of KH3

[currantlee]

KH3 could have been a perfect ending to a beloved series...

It’s hard to tell when a series jumps the shark, but I feel like Kingdom Hearts — or at least Sora’s story — has missed a big opportunity to go out with a bang. The ending of KH3 is a diamond in the rough, and by that I mean, there are only a few things that I would change about it (but I would keep the basic structure). But even if you didn't change anything, it would still be a really great ending to me.

Imagine that. The entire game, Sora has been giving people second chances. Perhaps it was Naminé, Roxas and Xion who inspired him to do so. Perhaps he's just that good of a person. KH3 really shows off Sora's personality to a degree we've never seen before, and it really lets you, the player, bond with him as a character. This could have been even better IMO if we got to take other characters such as Riku to the Disney worlds as party members. It would have fleshed out his relationships with the others even more.

One of these characters is Kairi. Whether you agree with the assessment that she is Sora's love interest or not, the game doesn't necessarily do the greatest job at conveying why you should care about her (and many people don't as a result). This is probably the biggest change I'd make tbh. Like, you don't know what to do with Kairi? Fine, maybe she doesn't know what to do with herself either, that could be her defining character trait. But make me care about her. Show me why Sora cares about her. And... Make her arc a tragic one, one where she dies before she gets the chance to do whatever she figures out she wants to do. Maybe she tells Sora what she wants to do. He smiles at her, tells her he thinks it's a great idea and gives her a thumbsup. Do they still share the Paopu Fruit in this version? Well, does it matter? Let's keep it in because I feel like in this scenario, it really doesn't take anything away, although it may not add much either.

Everybody still goes into limbo, but Sora brings them back, just like Roxas, Xion and Naminé did for him back in KH2. I feel like their stories would be more impactful if they didn't return in KH3 tbh, also because that would make Sora understanding the consequences of his actions even more real. So yes, I would probably not bring the three of them back.

Kairi still dies. Specifically, she dies before she can accomplish what she figured out she wanted to do. Hopefully you care about her in this alternate version, because it might make her death more impactful, and hopefully you understand why Sora cares about her so much because if would make his reaction more relatable.

But just like you may think it's unfair, why her — Sora may think so too. He's pretty much done anything he ever wanted at this point, except for returning home. Maybe his life is already running out. He did save all the others after all. And then you have Kairi, who... Didn't get to have a fulfilled life. Sora cares about her, clearly. So he makes one final choice. He chooses to give her a second chance too, just like he gave pretty much the entire cast, except Roxas, Xion and Naminé, and that's because he was literally unable to. But he would have if he could.

The time that remains for him, he decides to make the best of it, as he always does. So he decides to spend it in the best way possible: by going home alongside his friends, and having a blast with them for one last time. Yes, I would make it less shippy. The whole date thing and why only Kairi is with him when he fades away never made sense for his character IMO. In the words of someone else, Sora is not that horny. So let him fade away in the middle of his friends instead of alone with Kairi sitting in a tree. The sun sets just as he's gone, but a new day is sure to come again... Soon. After a long, dark night. But eventually, the sun will rise again, and until then, you know they're going to make it.

...

Hold on, I'm not done yet. There's still a secret ending, which I would make even harder to see (remember the days when games had secrets? Like, actually? Yeah, that level of hard to see. Maybe you'd even need multiple playthroughs 😛). You see two feet in motion, walking an unfamiliar street in an unfamiliar place. Maybe heaven, maybe the (far) future, or maybe Quadratum somewhere entirely else. We're not told. The camera pans back, and we see what we might have already been able to deduce: it's Sora, carrying a bag of groceries. He's smiling, and the message is clear: whereever he is, he is well.

The End.

... buuut of course, that didn't happen. Because of course, someone couldn't let it end there and had to extend Sora's story, potentially past it's prime 😒

(I say that with love. I love Sora as a character. But sometimes, to love means to let go. I'm open to get my mind changed by KH4, but I'm not excited for it, lol)

[luxmoogle]

°⋆༻⋆。 °⛧Darkness.. is eternal..⛧°。 ⋆༺ ⋆。

[kinglets]

sora in quadratum to match my riku in quadratum art from 2022

[k1tty5tar]

sora would never

[foxgloveinspace]

*slaps a battered old cookie tin you'd think has sewing stuff in it*

And here's all my ships where one or both of them are dead!

[kwoojii]

kairi's resilience 🌺

[dotted-clouds]

I hope they become friends later 😭

[blowingoffsteam2]

I just need everyone to understand that this scene is Riku standing in for Repliku on his behalf (as Nomura explained in the Ultimania) and it’s supposed to be Repliku/Namine paralleling Riku/Sora because Namine put herself in Sora’s place in Repliku/Riku’s memories. Namine is to Repliku what Sora is to Riku.

Symbolically the gesture has been completed for Repliku and Namine, yet for Sora and Riku…Sora has yet to reach Riku’s hand.

[thrandilf]

dying and dead on the floor. eating bricks. hello

[holleighgram]

“Sometimes, you care so much for somebody that other feelings disappear, and then there’s no room for fear or doubt”

[etrosgate]

everyone knows the ideal way to play kingdom hearts is just in release order. i agree with this, with one exception:

i think people should watch dark road before playing kh3.

as a narrative, khdr doesn't depend on any reveals from kh3*, and in fact feels like crucial lead-up to the game, doing a fantastic job setting up for that game in a thematic sense, successfully bridging khux's fairly disconnected narrative to the main xehanort saga, and Most importantly: setting up xehanort's conclusion in kh3 (which feels extremely anti-climactic and out of nowhere w/out dark road's context. source: me in 2019)

*there's like ONE moment from khdr that references a big spoiler from kh3's ending, but when viewed in khdr->kh3 order, that reference just changes from a reveal to good foreshadowing, so i don't think it ruins either moment.

less importantly, the two games have some shared scenes (im talking identical), so when viewed in this order, the ones in kh3 become something exciting like "omg i get to see this scene in proper hd cutscene format with voice acting!!!" instead of the second viewing just being a presentation downgrade.

also it feels weird that the xehanort saga was supposed to end w/kh3, but you have to watch a follow-up prequel that explains his motivations in retrospect lol

tldr: dark road fits better into the overall narrative flow when viewed before kh3, its context actively improves your kh3 experience, and basically nothing is lost by viewing it in this order. literally win/win scenario

[luxmoogle]

Perhaps Vanitas in some drip??

Got a little scuffled up in a fight..

[mythicalartistx]

Soriku Week 2024: Day 3

Melodies of Life

[azurajae]

Just thinking about how apparently when you share a Paopu Fruit with someone, your destinies are entertwined. For Sora and Kairi, it might foreshadow that they will one day reunite, but honestly, it's already been proven that they shared the same destiny.

Both Kairi and Sora died at the end of KH3 💀

[kwoojii]

i started one piece

[yume127]

I really like that there are some subtle differences between Roxas and Ventus. I was rewatching some scenes from KH3 and I noticed Roxas squints his eyes when he smiles, while Ven doesn't (his eyes even look a little wider when he smiles sometimes).