#Vanitas and Repliku side game WHEN?

[happybunnykat]

YES! It makes sense following Riku and Repliku's characters that Repliku would feel like his story should end there, much like how Riku felt like he should just fade into Darkness in Kingdom Hearts 2, but not with how the story has been going, seeing as there are still people who care about Repliku for himself (Naminé, Sora even though he might not remember it, and Riku himself) and not just being Riku 2. Plus, some of his last words to Riku being "The world already has you" shows that he hasn't truly seen that he is a different person from Riku, even though the audience can pick apart how they have definitely become two separate people, symbolized by how Riku and Repliku have very different appearances now.

And for Vanitas, he and Ventus have way to many similarities to Sora and Roxas for him to stay dead or just in Ventus's heart imo. Vanitas rejected the idea of being just a small part of Ventus, even though they did end up becoming a part of his heart again, just like Roxas did. Even though Vanitas has chosen Darkness rather then light as his lifes path, it doesn't mean he is any less of a person. Even if he never gets a redemption arc, Vanitas should not be less deserving of person hood just because he isn't a good person. He should be able to make his own choices, whether they are the right or wrong ones.

GOD if Repliku and Vanitas don't get better endings in the future I WILL start biting people

[nobodies-png]

👋👋 this is my first time asking for something Im curious on how yandere repliku would react to his S/O being a guardian of light and would he kidnap them before the war?

ooo, welcome to the blog then! I’m just noticing that there’s quite the backlog for yandere stuff, hohohohoho 

general warning for usual yandere topics!

First, some context for the guy as a yandere! Repliku strikes me as one of the most common types - jealous, overprotective, possessive and aggressive, but oddly enough, it’s extremely easy to calm him down? Any affectionate gesture from his darling is enough to distract him from all of his anguish, even if all you do is meet his gaze and smile or pat his back. While he's starved for your attention, he knows better than to be greedy and force you to indulge him - it's way easier to keep everyone else at bay, after all. You have permanent scary dog privileges whenever you’re with him! It’s almost like having a cat that is mean to everyone except you for a pet.

But it’s very, very different if you’re actually dating him. The only thing that kept you relatively safe all this time is that fine line Repliku would never dare to cross - you are not his, so he understands that he has no right to demand your time nor attention, even if he still pouts and tries his best to drive your friends and loved ones away. But once it’s established that you are his partner, it’s fucking over for you, bestie </3.

Repliku is now your self-appointed and permanent knight in not-so-shiny armor. It gets worse the longer you date, because he stops from holding back and acts on every impulse to keep you by his side, feeling justified by your own choice to date him. You chose this. You did this. You wanted him, so clearly you’ll be okay with every measure he takes to keep you safe and happy. It’s also harder to please him now, he’s so clingy. Repliku feels entitled to every breath you take, every second you spend awake. And while his mind games have nothing on Vanitas’ guilt tripping and manipulation, Repliku still retains Riku’s keen eye - he can read you like an open book and say the right things to make you doubt yourself, make you feel like you need to depend on him.

It’s almost a miracle you wound up as a guardian of light with him orbiting around you, pulling you back every time you go somewhere he can’t follow. Repliku loves that spark within you that dares to oppose him, all so you can follow whatever bullshit you believe in about justice, light or the kindness of people’s hearts - he adores that side of you. And he’s fine if you want to be on the losing team (he’ll be there to take you back where you belong once you’re done playing around), he’s fine if you face him in battle (he’ll graciously accept every attack and scar you leave on him, marking you with his own as well). But the one thing he can’t stand is seeing people like Sora, especially Sora, breathing in the same direction as you.

That’s when it all comes crashing down for Repliku. If he sees you have a single positive interaction with Sora, he’ll lose it. It doesn’t matter if all you did was say good morning to him, or wish him luck in his adventures or just mention his name in passing conversation. Your name in Sora’s mouth is blasphemy, but for you to look so genuinely happy when talking to him? When he’s already eeryone’s favorite starchild? That’s unbearable, it’s enough to remind him that he’s not even the original copy, so there’s no way he can even compare to someone like Sora. 

What does he have that sets him apart from Riku? What does he have that makes him better than Sora? Is there anything in his made-believe life worth clinging to? Why yes, yes there is. It’s you. He has you. You and your love for him, the two things that define his entire existence. Repliku, so incredibly delusional and desperate, would absolutely steal you away way before the final encounter against Xehanort - hell, the guy would gladly leave the real Organization hanging way earlier if it meant having you locked up. He’d lure you with whatever is most efficient, maybe you respond better to threats, maybe you’ll fall for his act of begging for redemption.

Once he has you in his grasp, he’s not going to let go. He’ll provide food, shelter, entertainment and all you have to do is keep him company - hell, you can literally say anything you want or escape and fight him to your heart’s content, Repliku won’t mind. He still adores that spark in you and he’ll be there until that fire is snuffed out and all you can think of is him. Everything else is temporary - at some point, you’ll come to understand that it’s your turn to be a supportive partner. He let you play the role of hero, after all! It’s your turn to indulge him. Sure, he might lash out during particularly bad days, but never directly at you - he redirects that fury to the outside world. Sometimes, you wish it were you instead of all your loved ones.

[embraceyourdestiny]

I have a hypothesis that, if given the opportunity Vanitas and Roxas would be very good friends.

(This is a bit of a mess but bear with me)

Vanitas and Roxas could actually be very good friends. Let’s start with their similarities. Vanitas and Roxas have a similar past and origin; Vanitas was born with the looks of someone else as wel as the other half of another, Roxas was born with the looks of someone else as well will one as the half of another. Though with Vanitas and Ventus it was much more literal, Roxas was also a being of darkness who was ripped from a being more aligned with light. And yet despite this, despite being a piece of something whole, he was able to become his own person. His foundations weren’t his own but what he created with them after the fact was.

Vanitas did the same thing, only instead of rebellion as Roxas did, he did it for self preservation and out of fear of losing himself. The part of Vanitas that still clings so heavily to Ventus and wants to put the two of them back together is Ventus, it’s the piece of Vanitas that originally belongs to Ventus, but the darkness hated that, saw it as weak, and that feeling became so strong that he was able to turn from “Ventus’ darkness” (or the literal manifestations of Ventus’ greatest fears and insecurities and the matter) into his own entire being.

And yet that piece of him that still thinks of itself as Ventus calls to be rejoined with its whole. If Vanitas gets a character arc, it will have to be of him working to let go of his tie to Ventus and embrace himself as his own person because though he “hates” to be compared to Ventus and swears up and down they’re nothing alike, he is the one who compares himself to Ventus and the one who wants himself and Ventus to be the same the most. (Repliku[s] could have a similar arc as well)

Anyway, off topic Vanitas rant but it relates. Because Vanitas has all this inner turmoil about personality and identity, I think this is why he’d respect Roxas and eventually be his friend. Roxas did all of that discover of personal identity and all the pain that came with it, and yet he came out mostly fine. He came out as his own person and he didn’t let anyone stop him from getting to that point. It’s an echo of Sora’s self confidence when it comes to following his heart while Vanitas is an echo of Ventus’ low self esteem (though Sora has his own self esteem issues, when it comes to listening to his heart he never hesitates, wavers, or doubts himself in that regard.) Vanitas doesn’t think he’s able to be his own person and be satisfied with that because he both does and doesn’t want to be his own person; his light wants to return to Ventus and his dark, which is reinforced by the light, wants to be as far away from him as possible. The concept of Nobodies is interesting but especially when applying it to characters who are supposed to be so happy and carefree, though Vanitas and Roxas are their own people, they have to accept that they also did originally come from someone else before being their own person, and because they come from someone else they’re echos of the deepest parts of Ventus’ and Sora’s inner thoughts and darkness. Sora and Ventus literally genetically passed on their trauma and mental health problems to Vanitas and Roxas and Vani and Roxy are simply their “product” with all their issues lmao.

But yes, because Vanitas has such low self esteem and because Roxas is confident, I think Vanitas would end up being Roxas’ friend and respecting him.

(Also side note but I think that Roxas would probably have the best self esteem among the sortas besides Xion because they fought to have an identity, while the others instead fought to cling to a previous identity they had and were terrified to lose hold of it and become it meant they would lose their old self and become something new and none of them were ready for that, Sora included. Ranking wise from highest to lowest of self esteem is probably Xion, Roxas, Ventus-Sora could go either way, Vanitas, and Naminé but that’s another conversation for another day)

And I think it would be reciprocated on Roxas’ side too. Roxas, having come from Sora, has had experience with friends who don’t have high self esteem as well. I don’t know how aware Sora was of this as a kid, but his body would remember and recognize the signs and that could pass on to Roxas. It’s why he was so startled and confused over Axel and Xion doing things they know they are bad, because it reminds Roxas of Riku and the Sora part of him panicked and wanted anything to stop one of the worst things that ever happened to trio trio to happen again, but Roxas gets put through the wringer and something like it happens anyway. Only instead of sadness, he’s angry over what happened and feels like it was an injustice and wants to find someone to blame. (With Sora, I think he was just sad because he knows Riku was to some extent at fault and doesn’t want to blame his friend for doing something so awful because it’s hard to think about but who knows)

So, thinking about this, I think Roxas would see remnants (pun intended) of displays of behavior that he recognized before in others, and even in himself, in Vanitas and not pity him but empathize with him and want to help him, because Roxas was fortunate to have a friend when he needed it and that’s what helped him become his own person. Without Xion and Axel, he would’ve been just another puppet for Xehanort’s game. He needed to become his own person and he could only do that with friends, which effectively reiterates the message of Kingdom Hearts that “connections of the heart are extremely important” and “your friends are you power (i. e. strength)

So yes, I think Vanitas and Roxas are who emo boys who would understand each other in some twisted up way and get along well.

Also, obviously above all else Sora would choose Roxas between all his heart mates because he is the closest to Sora because he much more than the other effectively is Sora and Sora feels that kinship with him, but I would also like to propose that if he had to choose between Ventus or Vanitas Sora would choose Vanitas because he actually identifies with darkness much more strongly than light and would find Vanitas more relatable than Ventus because even if he doesn’t act on his darkness, Sora has a lot of darkness sitting in the depths of his heart and thinks very poorly of himself (either because of the darkness or he accidentally gives it to himself because he has low self esteem). It’s why he gradually floats towards characters aligned with darkness (Roxas, Riku, Axel) and seems much more comfortable in places/with people closely tied to darkness than to light, because he unconsciously aligns himself with it while also thinking he’s not good enough to be light. I think Sora to some extent feels like a fraud and that he is not actually as pure light as everyone thinks he is or wants him to be and that scares him but because he is a people pleaser he keeps it to himself and that only makes the situation worse and rinse and repeat.

So yes. Vanitas and Roxas would be friends and they would also be friends with Sora, please give me Sora Vanitas Roxas friendship the potential is great and they would have such a compelling story and dynamic if it saw fruition so please let it happen nomura thank you

[alangdorf]

My Favorite Obscure Kingdom Hearts Facts!

I always forget about these but they’re absolutely wild and the IMPLICATIONS...... H M M M M M........ (these are in no particular order)

1) In the chess game in kh3, there’s a second Vanitas piece that Eraqus has captured for the entire time

https://youtu.be/DmqVVClhVeo

2) Vanitas is the boss you fight the most throughout the whole series, but in BBS, he is vulnerable to sleep and zero gravity (unlike most of the other bosses) and also the status effects stun, freeze, ignite, and poison, which are slightly more common (though he loses some of his vulnerabilities in his last fight with Ventus)

3) The very first line of BBS is spoken by Young Xehanort. Neither of them are credited, but this line is voiced by David Gallagher in English and Mamoru Miyano in Japanese, both of whom voice Riku in their respective languages

4) In San Fransokyo, Maleficent states that the Riku there is one she knows. This makes sense when we think it’s kh1-era Riku, but it’s later revealed that the Riku in the new organization is Replica Riku, who Maleficent has never met before. However, she was in re:coded and met/kidnapped Data Riku (though I think Pete was also present for that incident)

5) In the Birth By Sleep secret ending of kh2, Ventus is left-handed and the teeth of Wayward wind are on the outside rather than the inside. This was later changed for unknown reasons (and the capes were removed because they caused too much lag in multiplayer)

However, Missing Ache, Ventus’ keyblade in ux, is held in the same hand he wears his wristband on, which is his left!! (ux sprites are only drawn from one side and then mirrored so it’s his left) This keyblade also has four reverse medal (antagonist characters) slots and is only available in proud mode, and originated in days as the first non-kingdom key keyblade you could use as Roxas

6) As of back cover and kh3, all of the black coats have an Unversed symbol on their zipper pull

7) Kairi’s hair is always based on Utada Hikaru’s current hairstyle

8) So apparently Sora completely forgot about this because he was still surprised when Vanitas’ mask came off and it’s really funny to me

9) As of limit cut, the new organization all have numbered ranks! They are: 1) Xehanort; 2) Ansem; 3) Xemnas; 4) Xigbar; 5) Luxord; 6) Larxene; 7) Marluxia; 8) Saïx; 9) Terranort; 10) Repliku; 11) Vanitas; 12) Young Xehanort; 13) Xion

10) In Japanese, Repliku’s last line was the same as Riku’s last line from kh1, “Take care of her.” :’)

Might think of more later, but I’ve hit the “10 images per post” limit so here ya go!

[bluerosesburnblue]

I have this dumb little idea that won't leave my mind and it involves characters like Vanitas, Roxas, Namine, Xion, and Repliku, needing birth certificates and having to come up with birthdates that they find fitting for themselves. The fact that they lack birth certificates because they were never born as babies is probably not the sort of thing the games would address (and at least one of those characters is effectively dead) but it is something I find interesting.

On the topic of birth certificates, I've been thinking about character surnames. Particularly how Sora thought Neku Sakuraba's name was a mouthful, even though it doesn't seem especially long by Japanese standards. It makes me wonder if characters from Destiny Islands have short surnames, if any at all, and whether or not Destiny Islands is meant to be similar in culture to Japan.

You know I was wondering when Roxas's birthday would be. Since the end of Day 7 in KH2 was the end of his summer vacation, and this was supposed to be 365 days or a full year after his creation, I figured he was "born" at the end of summer, like you suggested. So I picked August 31st as a random late summer date. Then I decided to do a bit of research and it turns out summer vacation often ends on August 31st in Japan. What a coincidence!

Honestly, the whole “what do we do about the Nobodies and Replicas while trying to integrate them into society��� thing is something I think about a LOT

The birth certificates thing is especially complicated because of how the worlds function in KH. Some of the old, more medieval ones probably don’t have that kind of system at all so if they needed to, they could theoretically just go live in Dwarf Woodlands or something and be totally fine. The issue arises from the fact that the majority of the cast live on either Destiny Islands or Twilight Town, both of which would probably be developed enough to have some sort of birth registry system. And it’s not like you could use “being an immigrant” as an excuse, because the worlds are basically separated from each other. There might not be anywhere you could immigrate to or from depending on how big the worlds actually are, which hasn’t really been established

Now I’m just imagining the Twilight Town crew like... convincing Naminé to forge them all legal documentation and then breaking into a government office to file it. Also, like... what about Lea and Isa? Are they staying in Twilight Town despite being from Radiant Garden? How does that work? Would they need legal documents forged, too, or could they hypothetically take any Radiant Garden certifications and use them?

And last names are a very interesting question. Sora’s line does seem to imply that they may not even have last names, especially since Destiny Islands is supposed to be a pretty small community so they really might not need them and it would add to the rustic feel of the world. But that explanation doesn’t necessarily hold true for places like Radiant Garden or Twilight Town, both of which you would assume use last names. Do the Final Fantasy cast keep their last names? Given that Leon is canonically a nickname and his first name is Squall, I think his name may actually just be Squall Leonhart in the KH-verse, too

So, like... that would mean that all of the Radiant Garden and Twilight Town characters have last names that we don’t know about unless they originated from a Final Fantasy game, in which case we do know their last names. So Lea, Isa, Hayner, Pence, Olette, etc. should all have them and we just don’t know them (I wonder if Apprentice Xehanort had to come up with a last name at all considering that if Destiny Islands doesn’t have last names, Xehanort wouldn’t either. Maybe he just used Ansem’s)

This may or may not be supported by the fact that 2/3 of the Destiny Islands Final Fantasy characters come from a game that also doesn’t have last names. Either the KH version of Selphie Tilmitt doesn’t have a last name, or she does. Which could also be part of a larger headcanon where only very prominent families in Destiny Islands use last names and Selphie may belong to one of them

And the math totally checks out for Roxas! Actually, I flop around with him a little because Twilight Town seems a little more Western-inspired than Japanese, but then they also say that summer vacation is “a whole month off” in Days when Western summer vacations are usually about 3-4 months. I used to put his birthday around September 7th so that it still lined up with the end of summer vacation/beginning of the school year timeframe... and also had the number 7 in it because that’s significant in KH, but there’s honestly a good range of dates you could put his “true” birthdate as around the end of August/beginning of September that could theoretically check out. He’s a Virgo no matter how you slice it, and I think the Virgo dates are a pretty decent range to put him in, maybe shaving a week off of either side to make it August 30th - September 15th depending on when you personally feel Twilight Town’s school year starts up

[kayura-sanada]

If you could rewrite the ending to kingdom hearts 3, how would you do it?

/caught doing nearly this exact thing/ Uh, /clears throat/ who knows??

While I am notoriously bad at using outlines, I can assure you of a few things I would do:

Have Aqua apologize to both Ven and Terra and ask forgiveness.

Erase the whole Final World thing, because no.

Have Roxas return sooner, because why would he not have been able to arrive sooner other than ‘bullshit’? Have him take Kairi’s place on the battlefield and, for grief’s sake, let Kairi use her Princess of Heart abilities instead of pretending she needs a keyblade to be relevant.

No, seriously. Heartless in the Keyblade Graveyard? Not anymore, because it’s been canonically shown that Princesses of Heart can mitigate the amount of darkness in an area. Doing so could even weaken all of Xehanort’s clones. Have Yen Sid protect her.

Xion should never have been on the dark side. I don’t care what BS Nomura has planned to handwave this; it’s ridiculous. Same with Repliku/Younger Riku. Neither one being there makes sense. In fact, I fully believe every encounter here needs an overhaul.

No hostages. Seriously. No hostages. Let’s not have our heroes make this last-second decision to not do what Xehanort wants, only to suddenly be forced to for the sake of a single hostage, when they’ve been willingly doing what he wants since the start of the game. Don’t pretend they have common sense now.

That entire thing with Kingdom Hearts and Scala ad Caelum. No. Stop trying to make us care about Kingdom Hearts χ. I have been playing that for two years now, and you just cannot make me care.The storyline is slow and wonky, the padding worse than usual, and the characters barely defined and ludicrously preserved for Sora’s timeline. Don’t care.

No mazes.

How about the characters who deserve redemption moments get redemption moments and those who don’t don’t? Vanitas and Repliku deserved much better, and Xehanort and Ansem deserved much worse.

Happy endings are not anathema? People will still wait excitedly for the next installment without cliffhangers or missing pieces? Kingdom Hearts 2 gave us a happy ending, and yet that little teaser moment with the letter kept us all on the edges of our seats. Shockingly, you don’t need to nearly kill off the main character to have us wondering what’s going to happen next.

These are just a few of my many, many gripes, but we can start there.

[butterfly--empress]

Fix it Headcanons...

After sitting here writing a really tldr post to get things off my chest, I felt like it just wasn’t worth the post because a lot of you are already saying things that I totally agree with and yeah...it’s not worth it so I’m just going to move on and conjure up headcanons because I need to cope with that ending. 

So instead, I will in tumblr traditon make a reaction gif post on my feelings with some commentary about the characters. 

The New Organization XIII

I wish a bit more was done with you guys??? I’m half and half on their role in this game, *shrugs* Also I am assuming Nomura pretty much confirms that Demyx is also from the past and now I’m wondering if we will get a story update for him in KHUX. 

Actually, I wouldn’t be surprised if all the story content we need before KH4 is going to be handled through the mobile game...eh...great..........just...fucking swell.

Can we petition for the Kingdom Hearts manga to continue? I think I rather have a physical boxset collection of the Kingdom Hearts manga, because at LEAST in the manga, characters actually get some goddamn growth......I’m not going to rant about Kairi just yet...

Disney Worlds and Characters

Nothing like Nostalgia and good old fashion pandering with a dash of Disney films having a consistent foreshadowing theme of love, hope, loss, pain and SACRIFICE TO GET THE BLOOD PUMPING!

What do you mean I’m bitter, I told you, I’m not! 

Wayfinder Trio

I have nothing awful to say about these three to be perfectly honest. I saw nothing wrong with Aqua and Ven getting bodied like some were because as much as I love Aqua and know she’s OP my girl was doing nothing but fighting in the realm of darkness and really had no time to recover, and then girlfriend fights my delightful little shit of a son,  and then girlfriend is STILL FIGHTING! I’ll let her being one-shotted by Terranort slide...

I will also let her running in front of Ven to shield Vanitas’ blast from hurting him go, because, honestly one could argue she probably was still exhausted and didn’t have time to react to put up another shield??? 

Ehh, this argument can go either way, really but I didn’t have a problem with any of it. 

I just really loved everything about these three, they acted like friends/family who missed each other for YEARS...they hugged and cried together and then despite the fuckery of their Master/Father figure, I think they forgave him for his apology and I just started bawling my eyes out....AGAIN. 

I really am not exaggerating and I wish I was but from the Aqua/Ventus reunion to the secret ending, I cried so hard. 

I didn’t cry for him or his bald boyfriend...*twitches eye* I cried because those three children didn’t deserve any of this! None of these children deserved any of this! TT_TT That reunion was all I wanted.

Vanitas

My poor fledging child, I knew your ultimate demise was nigh so I tried not to be too sad about it. Not gonna lie, Sully dragging your ass through that door and then multiple doors and then shredding that door was hella funny! 

It can be confirmed tomorrow that you dead and I would resurrect you and all your glorious edginess and tsundere tendencies in my fanfics because if you don’t come back to be your own person, a sass master and the anti-hero that likes to stir trouble cause he can, to help get Sora back, while gloating about it in the same breath, than I don’t know what even is the fucking point of another game. 

I do wish a bit more something meaningful was done with your supposed ‘redemption arc’??? I guess I’m suppose to assume that was a redemption arc...but it was handled so choppy I don’t know what to really make of it tbh...

Eraqus and Xehanort

People think ya’ll going to heaven...nahh bruh you two fucked up! And I refuse to believe anything else. Yeah you two was real cute in the past before I’m assuming things went to complete shit but you two FUCKED UP! 

I don’t know what the fuck Xehanort did to make Eraqus so jaded but because Eraqus felt jaded he indirectly dismisses Terra because ‘darkness’....BOI! 

We already know Xehanort’s rep sheet we don’t even have to review it. 

I don’t have any sadness for you two. Eraqus gives me mixed feelings I don’t like how he was the cause of Terra being norted, Aqua being lost in the realm of darkness and Ventus falling into a ten year magic coma but at least he didn’t rip a child’s soul in half to create some damn keyblade and control Kingdom Hearts so i guess he gets kudos???

I don’t care about Xehanort, NOT ONE CARE! 

I’m glad that motherfucker is gone! Buh bye!

The Sea Salt Trio

Axel/Xion/Roxas...you three did NOTHING WRONG! 

That’s it, I sobbed and they reunited and they hugged and then they hugged Saix and then Saix is good again, they cried and shared Ice Cream with the Twilight Town Trio and it was great. It was all I asked for.

Namine

You’re a precious delight, i wished we had more screen time of you in the game but c’est la vie. At least your character wasn’t ruined like someone’s I know. 

The obvious Riku/Namine ship still surprises me but I totally dig it...still side-eyeing my green-eyed white haired son for some of his fuckery...but we about to get into that in a bit...

The Destiny Trio...BOI I am about to lose my fucking shit because really WTF WAS THAT?! You did everyone else right...except for these three?! the same three you started this glorious shitshow with?!

THESE THREE!?

Sora: I have no issues with my baby here, if Nomura got one thing right, it was Sora. I still don’t like what you did to him and Kairi but as for as the writing for his character, that shit was on point so you get kudos Nomura...you get the fucking kudos!

Riku: ....What the fuck happened to the very close friendship between he and Kairi??? Like WTF?! I’m confused how we went from KH1 Riku giving into the darkness because he thought it would save Kairi to KH2 Riku looking out for Kairi and encouraging her to fight by giving her destiny’s embrace and crying when she recognized it was him, despite he looked like Ansem, to KH2.8 Riku having playful banter with her before he left off on his mission with Mickey to KH3 Riku who, outside of anyone not Sora, Mickey, Namine (because suddenly Nomura wants that to be canon obviously...) and to an extent, Aqua being this distant stoic character...

EXCUSE ME...but where was Riku’s usual anger and sadness when Kairi was taken by Xemnas and just outright killed?! IN FRONT OF HIM?!!

Say what you want about SoKai becoming canon, a close friend is still a close friend! 

There was no reason to make Riku distant at all, like I don’t mind the SoKai sharing the paopu fruit scene but I still feel like that scene should have included all three of them. That should have been a call back to them having a bit of reprieve together like the ending of KH2. It would not have taken any time to have Riku have a moment with Repliku and have Kairi call him over after Sora asked ‘why he’s over there?’

I mean, damn! Even Sora was like, our group dynamic is off by -1???

Kairi: First of all, I am going to put it out there that, Kairi did not need to be overly super strong. Not for a girl that just started training to fight in the final battle and for what we did get, it was more than I had expected at all. I mean for a novice, girl did pretty damn decent with keeping up with berserker!Xion.

No, my annoyance is not at the lack of Kairi fighting, it’s being used as an unfortunate plot device and feeling like nobody except Sora cared enough about her. At times it did feel like my girl was treated as a burden that nobody wanted there because she was such an easy target to distract Sora....

And boi! When she got taken and then obliterated in front of Sora and the others I was both angry and sad, at this point I was already sobbing because Sora was sobbing and I felt that and my hate for Xemnas went from 100 to 1000 real fucking quick. 

But like I already said, I started to get frustrated because Riku continued to seem like he was suddenly emotionally stunted when it came to Kairi, like my dude! YOUR FRIEND JUST DIED?! WHY AM I MORE ANGRIER THAN YOU?!? DO SOMETHING!! GO WITH SORA TO BRING HER BACK THAT’S YOUR FRIEND..YOU’RE NOT THE RIKU I REMEMBER WTF!?

Just jadlkfjflkajdjakdjk! *inhales than slowly exhales* Nomura, Nomura my dude, my pal, my senpai! There were a lot of ways you could have made SoKai canon that did not include sacrificing the deep, close 12yr bond that was Kairi’s and Riku’s friendship. The wasted potential...

You mean to tell me i waited for a DECADE, a freaking DECADE hoping that to have some real friendship bonding between Riku and Kairi and see nothing done with it!?

And speaking of SoKai...I know some people find it lackluster because unfortunately, Nomura never gave Kairi satisfying character growth that didn’t make it seem like she satellites around Sora and nothing else. But I more or less was never really bothered by how it developed, yea it could have used more work but I’m on very neutral ground. My only complaint is that I don’t like how at times it can seem a bit forced or rushed in 3 and I don’t like that Nomura thought it was a cool idea to make it seem like Kairi and Riku were never friends or that Riku never cared about Kairi. 

I...I guess Nomura wants to fuel the ridiculous SoKai vs Soriku shipwars??? Because that is what your doing and those dumbass wars don’t need unfortunate implications from the actual game for people who didn’t get their ship canon to further hate Kairi because you decided that Riku needed to be ‘distant’...with HER, poor girl can’t catch a break because you promised character growth but you take one step forward, two steps back and she can’t break the damsel in distress trope. My poor baby. 

I knew once I went to the Tangled world I knew KH was dealing with the consistent theme of Love, Pain, Hope, Loss and Sacrifice. This became more apparent when you get to PotC and I knew deep down that Kairi and Sora were bound to end up doing something to sacrifice their own lives for one another and yet, they have done this before and it turned out alright. 

I hoped it would have been akin to KH1 but fuck me, how goddamn naive was I, amirite?! Nomura goes and does EXACTLY what I was wishing he wouldn’t do and he did it anyway, and I was no more good after that.

And then, AND THEN TO HAVE THE BALLS to make it look like Sora was there after all at the very end only to have him fade away. A part of my heart still aches from that and I’m surprised I didn’t wake up my household at 8am because I was sobbing that loud!

Yes I know Sora is alive but again, my heart and mind are in conflict. My mind wants to let go and update and reboot the phone but my heart is still stuck on a refresh/poor battery loop...

...............................................If Kairi is not out there with Riku to go find and save Sora in KH4 someone is going to feel my motherfucking wrath!

No, I’m serious! No more of this shafting Kairi bullshit! This is the perfect setup for a full on Kairi character growth arc. If I have to play that shit on a handheld or mobile well fucker bring it on! 

Nomura, you have the story, Kairi could start out feeling loss and regret and guilt, blaming herself and thinking the other’s blame her for Sora not being there with them. And then she goes on a journey, hell she and Riku go on a journey together to reconnect and Riku, being a Keyblade Master could mentor Kairi in her training and she has some self discovery as she’s getting stronger and confident again in herself and it would be great because she’s finally getting to save Sora like she’s always wanted too!

You know what? YOU KNOW WHAT??!

FUCK IT! 

Because Nomura will never give me this and I will not hope for anything concerning Kairi’s character growth. 

So I guess I have to fanfiction that shit my damn self...I think I will...

At least the gameplay for fucking fantastic and Yoko-san delievered with the music, when is that KH3 OST dropping again? 

I need to eargasm to Anti-Aqua battle theme and the other promise/vector to the heavens one million times. 

Also I’m legit done ranting, I got this off my chest so I can move on. 

[echodrops]

I know you've said you're a Kingdom Hearts fan, so in honor of Kingdom Hearts 3 coming out at the end of the month, what are your hopes/expectations for the game?

Ooh, good ask. Gonna answer this one before some of the others because it’s a bit time-sensitive. (I can’t believe the release date is finally upon us…)

Hmm…

Fears:

1) One of the good characters dies. At this point, I just really, really don’t need to see any of the good characters get a bad end. They’ve literally all suffered enough–they’ve all HAD a bad end already–that I really hope that Nomura doesn’t try to go for the drama points and kill someone off or make someone a sacrifice. Everyone needs to come home in one piece at the end of the day, and I mean everyone–Roxas, Axel, Xion, Namine, Terra, Aqua, Ven, Riku, Sora, Kairi… I guess, GUESS I could deal with the data kids or Repliku maybe not making it (because I was surprised by them coming back in the first place), but if any of the main good guy cast doesn’t see the happy ending they have more than earned at this point, I will feel very disappointed. Honestly, if everyone survives and manages to become their own person by the end of KH3, I don’t care what other bullshit plot twists happen. Bring your weirdest, Nomura.

2) Zero mention or connection to Strelitzia. If they’re going to feed way more into KHUX’s plot than they claimed, they might as well do something with Strelitzia too.

3) People bitching about how the game isn’t as good as they wanted it to be. I actually got a chance to play the demo at an event and I found it fun and beautiful but not earth-shattering in newness. It really felt like KH2 with flashier graphics. And I’m totally okay with that. It just needs to be a fun game to play, not the best, most perfect game ever created. Tuning out the inevitable haters is going to be exhausting.

4) Forced Roxas/Xion pairing. Look, for all Nomura’s talk about friendship focus, we know Sora/Kairi is coming. I like Kairi, by which I mean she deserves to have a more fully realized character and a more active role in the plot than “object for Sora and Riku to save.” I want to see her grow. I’m not going to begrudge the series its Sora/Kairi endgame. But… (and absolutely no offense meant to anyone who loves this ship, you do you!) I actually hate Roxas/Xion. Again, it’s nothing against Xion herself–358/2 had some truly garbage writing but Xion was as much a victim of that as anyone else. (She’s probably one of the better written KH female characters, actually…) I’m just still confused about the addition of another Kairi-esque potential love interest for Roxas when Namine was right there. Furthermore, the confusion over whether Xion being a clone of Sora means she’s equivalent to a sibling of Roxas (since apparently KH3 is treating Roxas and Sora like [metaphorical] brothers re: Big Hero 6 trailer) just makes this pairing really odd and somewhat discomforting to me. There’s been so much hyping up of the Kairi-Xion connection via Axel that I almost feel like Namine has been pushed to the side quite a bit; I’d rather see her return to focus, personally.

And some hopes:

1) Vanitas redemption arc. I get that not every bad guy deserves a redemption arc, and you definitely won’t see me lobbying for Xehanort to get one, but even if you discount the novels, Vanitas is an extremely interesting character who–despite being yet ANOTHER Sora-clone-esque design–still manages to feel unique and is just plain fun to watch on screen. His ability to create Unversed is cool, his attitude is refreshing, and he has a lot of potential to flip things on their heads if he were to change sides. I think his presence would be a great chance to finally live up to the “Darkness isn’t evil in-and-of-itself” idea they mention a few times and then completely ignore plot-wise… Hell, if not a full-blown redemption arc, I wouldn’t mind Vanitas just flipping Xehanort off and going to do his own thing. So long as my edgy son gets to live through the end of the story… T_T

2) Axel and Kairi friendship! Please just let Kairi adopt Axel as her sarcastic big brother and have them team up to roast everyone else’s bad decision-making… They deserve this, if nothing else.

3) No DLC. Please. Tiny cosmetic stuff would be fine, but please no episodic content. Nomura said he wouldn’t but we all know that man sits on a throne of lies…

4) The playable Riku sections are short. Riku is fine, don’t get me wrong, but in a mainstream KH game, I feel like Sora should be the central figure as much as possible.

5) Roxas isn’t norted. Roxas isn’t norted. Roxas isn’t norted and he gets to unleash a serious ass whooping before the end of the game. If anyone deserves to just kick some bad guy ass, it’s Roxas.

That’s really about it. Honestly, I’m keeping my expectations for the game low because after 13 years, I’m just glad to have a KH3. I’m going to enjoy it for what it is and let contrary opinions and ideas roll off my back.

[strangertoparadise]

The level design of the Keyblade Graveyard is the worst part

Seeing a lot of people complain about Kingdom Hearts 3 and the horrible writing of the endgame gets its fair share of criticism, but I haven’t seen anyone commenting how the level design of the Keyblade Graveyard is the most stupid decision ever and it incredibly hurt the pacing of the game. I think the beginning of the Keyblade Graveyard is fine for the most part, while some characters could have at least shown some reaction (Aqua, Ventus and of course, Kairi), at least the Final World segment and the Demon Tide battle are quite interesting and fun. The main problem for me comes after that. You see... Who was the idiot that thought we should have to play as Sora to fight the entire organization? It makes no sense that Sora has to be in all those battles, specially considering how draining those fights seem to be. This is a decision that makes everyone look bad. Characters who should have been in the spotlight are sidelined, plot threads that have been hanging over the years are not dealt with accordingly and are rushed through and Sora has to do almost everything himself. Its just terrible. Specially when you just fight this incredible fight and you realize that your choice to go to one side didn’t change anything on the other boss room, even though you could already see people fighting. And I don’t really think it would be hard to make this segment better. In the beginning, have Riku join with Aqua and Ventus to fight Dark Repliku, Xigbar and Ansem, in this battle, you control Riku. After the end of the fight, Riku goes after Ansem and gets separated from Aqua and Ventus who keep going ahead. In the room next to that, have Sora and Mickey fight Luxord, Larxene, Marluxia and Xemnas. After the fight, Mickey goes after Xemnas and Sora keeps going ahead. Aqua and Ventus then fight Terranort and Vanitas. Player controls Aqua during the fight and together, they manage to help Terra get his body back from Terranort. They rest a bit before going ahead. Sora gets to Kairi and Axel who are fighting the hooded Xion and Saix. Have Xemnas ambush them and almost finish Axel, Roxas awakens from inside Sora’s heart and defends his friends. Xemnas then turns the odds against them and manages to isolate Sora with a trap, Kairi hurries to Sora’s side to help him before it is too late. This part would be the most complicated, because they would have to make Roxas a playable character like Riku and Aqua, but at the same, they have the basis to do that, since he was a playable character in KH2. So player would control Roxas during a boss fight with Axel as a partner against hooded Xion and Saix. This time, Axel is the one to remember Xion’s name and call her to their side (as it was foreshadowed throughout the entire game and never happened) and then, they would finish the confrontation with Saix and finally the Days trio would have their emotional reunion. Meanwhile, Sora and Kairi are cornered, Xemnas was joined by Ansem and Young Xehanort. You control Sora with Kairi as a partner in a battle against the three. They fight bravely in this hard situation, but the odds are against them (considerably so, these are three last bosses from previous games after all) and when one of the enemies was almost able to deal the fatal blow to Sora, Kairi defends him, but ends up being defeated and taken by Young Xehanort to somewhere else. Riku and Mickey arrive in time to see this, but a little bit too late to act. Fights goes on against Xemnas and Ansem with Riku and Mickey as Sora’s partners. When one of the bosses is defeated, Young Xehanort comes back to fight them as well and to taunts them about Kairi’s fate and Sora’s demise. When the fight ends, Xehanort reveals himself and proceeds to kill Kairi, forcing the inevitable conflict between light and dark. Imagine they didn’t change anything but this part. Sure enough, the ending wouldn’t be perfect, but it would make things SO much better. Everyone would have their own time to shine and solve their issues and there would be much better interactions between the characters without the game forcing Sora around. Riku and Aqua would be the badasses they always were, Ventus wouldn’t be completely useless and would have his final confrontation against Vanitas, Axel would have a proper role in the awakening of Xion, Roxas would be a badass. Mickey would stil be the badass he is. And of course, Kairi would also have had a proper role, defending Sora as warrior and not simply being kidnapped and asking for help. She would have made an heroic sacrifice for Sora (which was also foreshadowed). PS: Not that I think Kairi’s role in the game was as superficial as some people think. The execution of her role during the fights is the main problem here and I think these changes would address that. Doesn’t change the fact that without fighting, Kairi basically saved Sora and everyone after they all died fighting the Demon Tide and that is incredible in and of itself. Her character might be the one who suffers the most because she doesn’t even react, but generally I think the Keyblade Graveyard makes everyone look bad. Aqua and Ventus practically don’t do anything. Sora jobs to Saix of all people. Roxas, Xion, Axel and Sora can’t keep up with Xemnas, even though he had to go through them to get to Kairi. Etc, etc. Just a lot of scenes badly executed that could have been much better and I think what made this happen was the level design and their decision to have Sora fight in every battle.

[khdiscussions]

Everything We Know About KH3 So Far (E3 2018)

Is infodumping a valid way to gush about everything so that way you can stop fixating because all I want to do is talk KH3.

All this post will cover is the information revealed up to the Square Enix Presents on June 14th in which they showed a shortened version of the KH3 demo from the premiere event.

Kingdom Hearts III will release January 25th, 2019 in Japan. It releases everywhere else in the world January 29th, 2019. 

Click here for a video with all the trailers including the most recent ones.

The rest is under a read more. Click at your own peril.

Price Info:

The game itself is $59.99. 

There is a deluxe edition with an artbook, Disney pintraders pin, and steel case for $79.99. 

An All-in-one digital download is available with all the HD Remixes plus the game is available for $99.99

A Deluxe Edition with Bring Arts Kai figures for Sora, Donald, and Goofy in Toy Story form is available for $229.99.

There is a limited edition KH3 PS4 Pro. No further information is available at this time for pricing but it comes with the All in one digital download.

Developmental Side:

The final world to be selected was Big Hero 6. This means no Disney or Pixar movies that came out after August 16th, 2015 are going to be in KH3. The world is in a playable form, however no cutscenes are ready yet which is why we haven’t seen it.

As of earlier this year most of the early worlds (Olympus, Toy Story, Monsters Inc) were near complete. The middle worlds were about half way done, but judging by the trailers now are mostly done. The final worlds are in progress.

Disney, Pixar, and Square Enix have been working very closely together when it comes to crafting the stories of the Disney worlds.

KH3 will likely have less (Disney) worlds than KH2, but more expansive worlds. 

There will be no Star Wars or Marvel in KH3.

Nomura has confirmed that Sora will not be the only playable character. The interview implied there would only be one other playable character.

Major Plot Points:

Sora, Donald, and Goofy are working to discover the Key to Return Hearts. In addition he is also working on a way to revive Roxas, and in turn likely Xion and Namine as well.

Riku and Mickey are traveling together through the Realm of Darkness to rescue Aqua so they can find and wake up Ven.

Kairi and Lea are training somewhere. Nothing else is known about their arc at this time.

The Organization and Maleficent are both trying to find Luxu’s box. 

In addition to this, the Organization is also attempting to do something with new maidens of pure light. Beyond one of these being Elsa/Anna, we do not know who they are at this time, or if they will take the place of our seven Princesses of Heart. Edit: These seven hearts do appear to be substitute Princesses of Heart.

Xehanort is trying to gather thirteen seekers of darkness to go up against seven guardians of light.

Known Worlds (Playable):

Olympus Coliseum (Hercules)

Twilight Town

Toy Box (Toy Story)

Monstropolis (Monsters Inc)

Kingdom of Corona (Tangled)

Arendelle (Frozen)

The Caribbean (Pirates of the Caribbean: At Worlds End by the looks of it.)

Big Hero 6 (Likely called San Fransokyo)

At this point Nomura has confirmed there will only be a few more Disney worlds. The rest will be original.

Known World Plot Points:

Olympus Coliseum: Maleficent is looking for the box. Hercules is there. There are titans. Xigbar is there.

Twilight Town: Virtual Twilight Town is important to saving Roxas.

Toy Box: Many of the toys and Andy have gone missing, and it’s up to Buzz and Woody to rescue them from Xehanort in the Galaxy Toy Store. In the toy store, Xehanort reveals that the Toy Story world is split. Fans theorize whether or not Sora/Buzz/Woody and the rest are in the real world or the fake world created by Xehanort but that has not yet been revealed. 

Monstropolis: Boo is there, so this likely takes place during the movie. Vanitas appears to use the Unversed to harness the power of the screams, and also taunts Sora.

Kingdom of Corona: It looks like the world itself follows Tangled’s plot very closely. Marluxia is also there, and reminds Sora a bit about CoM.

Arendelle: It appears to at least loosely follow the Frozen plot. Anna or Elsa appear to be considered for a new Princess of Heart slot by Larxene (likely Anna). Executives have confirmed that it’s at the very least considered a new adventure.

The Carribean: The world is based around Pirates of the Carribean: At Worlds End. Luxord asks if anybody has seen the box.

Big Hero 6: All we know about this world is that the original Baymax body has been infected with darkness, and Sora and Hiro will go against Dark Baymax. Nothing else is known at this time, as only a singular piece of concept art has been shown.

Seekers of Darkness: (For the sake of ease, everything shown in trailers is being taken at face value.)

Ansem Seeker of Darkness

Xemnas

Young Master Xehanort

Xehanort

Vanitas

Xigbar

Saix

Luxord

Marluxia

Larxene

Aqua

???

??? (Not Yet Collected)

Guardians of Light (Ven will not be taken as a given due to Aqua being norted):

Riku

Kairi

Lea

Mickey

Sora (?)

??? 

???

Links:

Ariel

Wreck-it-Ralph

Simba

Meow Wow (And other Dream Eaters)

Attraction Flow:

Big Thunder Mountain Railroad

Mad Tea Party

Pirate Ship

Astroblaster/Space Ranger Spin

River Rapids (Kali River Rapids?)

King Arthur’s/Cinderella/s Carousel

Other Information:

The theme of Kingdom Hearts III will be closure. For who or what this means is unknown at this time.

Riku has left his Keyblade in the sand for Repliku. Nobody knows what Repliku is doing but we’ve seen him.

Ienzo is currently attempting to help Sora with reviving Roxas, or at least doing something with the 

Remy has a minigame with Sora in which he helps Sora cook.

There’s a minigame in the Tangled world in which Sora dances with Rapunzel.

A little game system known as Classic Kingdom exists. This game system allows players to play short Game and Watch style games on what appears to be a device like a smartphone. Hayner, Pence, and Olette appear to give it to Sora.

Hayner/Pence/Olette seem to be helping Sora revive Roxas.

Some fans think Aqua isn’t norted and that the Aquanort seen is a Phantom Aqua. Do what you will with that information. This has been proven false. Nomura has confirmed that Aqua falling to darkness was supposed to be an obvious twist, meaning this is Aqua. Whether she has fallen into darkness or is an actual Aquanort is up for debate.

Information on Roxas is currently under lock and key at this point. It is the highest tier spoilers according to Nomura.

Drive forms will return, as will the Gummi Ship. 

Final Fantasy characters will have less presence than normal, as the game doesn’t need them as much and can stand on its own, but there will still be some cameos.

There will be a summary video released later this month which will serve as a summary of everything that has happened in KH thus far. It may be several hours long. It will also be included in KH3 to help players who have not played the series get up to speed.

This should be very common knowledge at this point but just in case it isn’t: This is the final game in the Xehanort saga.

[squirrelbro]

Things you need to know before KH3 if you’ve only played 1 and 2:

1) The big bad is Master Xehanort, a very old and powerful Keyblade Master who actually came from Sora’s home world, the Destiny Islands, and you’ve been fighting “This isn’t even my final form” versions of him during the entire franchise. Ansem, Xemnas, Real Ansem’s Apprentice Xehanort, yeah, all him. There’s a teenage version of him running around now, too.

2) Master Xehanort’s big plan is make a thing called a X-Blade (still just pronounced Keyblade), and to do that he needs 13 Bad Guys to fight 7 Good Guys. To get the 13 Bad Guys for him on his side, he’s been making time travel duplicates of himself and brainwashing others (like Xigbar and Saix from Organization XIII) into thinking they are him. He wanted Sora to be one but that plan failed.

3) Currently, the good side only has about 5 or 6 capable fighters on their side, so they gotta find the last one or two. The candidates for that, who also need help themselves because they’re all suffering in one way or another, is Roxas, Namine, Xion, Terra, Aqua, and Ventus.

4) Yeah, Ventus is the guy who looks like Roxas. That’s because Ventus’s heart is shattered and is being unknowingly sheltered by Sora’s heart. So that connection made Roxas look like Ventus. Oh, and Ventus’s body is sleeping in Castle Oblivion, the same place where Sora put in his sleeping pod between KH1 and KH2.

5) There’s also another guy called Vanitas, who is essentially Ventus’ evil twin. It’s more complicated than that but lets go with that. Also, because of that same Sora/Ventus connection, Vanitas looks like Sora.

6) Ventus is also why Sora and Roxas could dual wield Keylades. Cause Sora was never a chosen Keyblade wielder, Riku was. Sora was just borrowing Ventus’ Keyblade until that “MY FRIENDS ARE MY POWER” moment when his own Keyblade actually chose him. So that made Sora have two. The second one was just locked away without training.

7) Terra and Aqua were Ventus’ best friends. For ten years, Aqua has been trapped in the Realm of Darkness and Terra was possessed by Master Xehanort. Aqua is currently seen as the best hope for the good guys if they can get to her, cause she was a certified Keyblade Master. (The trailers say that Xehanort might have gotten to her first tho)

8) When a person who got turned into a Heartless and a Nobody has both of those things destroyed, they come back as the person they originally were. That’s why Master Xehanort is coming back (cause Ansem and Xemnas got their asses kicked) and also why Axel is a good guy named Lea now. It also presents hope for Terra because he might come back now in his OG form too, since he was being possessed by Xehanort.

9) Who the heck is Xion, you ask? Good question. So a mad scientist made a Sora puppet that came to life and started sapping Sora’s energy and personality. She had to be destroyed by Roxas before KH2 but she’s apparently still somewhere out there in some fashion.

10) Oh, and you may have heard of Replica Riku, or Repliku, yeah, similar thing but Xion was more powerful. Repliku was defeated by Real Riku but apparently he still exists somewhere out there too.

11) Yeah, you remember correctly that Roxas and Namine went back to living in Sora and Kairi’s hearts, respectively, at the end of KH2. But they also still have their own consciousnesses in some way.

12) Sora and Riku took a test to become True Keyblade Masters. Sora failed. Riku passed.

13) Yes, Maleficent and Pete did survive their fight against the Heartless at the end of KH2, and they’ve been assholes in a few side games. Right now, their main goals are to a) get into a Simulated Computer Universe because it’s powerful and untouched, and b) find a really old Prophecy Book that Xehanort may or may not have.

[atsushishelteredinmoonlitjasmine]

Kingdom Hearts 3 Theories

So I’m writing this on the same day that the D23 Expo’s trailers for Kingdom Hearts 3 have been uploaded. If any new information comes out after I’m done writing this, I’ll update this to include the new stuff. The stuff I’ll be covering in this post are the story bits that were revealed in both trailers. There are three main sections that plot was the focus of so I’ll be talking about those.

Let’s go over the two plot sections from the trailer that confirmed the Monsters Inc world. The first is when Sora, Donald, and Goofy meet with Marluxia (Or Lauriam, whichever you prefer) and they’re talking about the new Organization. The second is when Vanitas confronts Sora about Ventus and finds out where Ven went to after their fight in Birth by Sleep.

For the first story section, we can’t tell if we’re seeing Marluxia or Lauriam. Sure, he refers to himself as Marluxia but Marluxia, as we know, died at the end of Sora’s journey in Chain of Memories. It could be possible that it is Lauriam, since Marluxia was his Nobody and we can only assume his Heartless died as well, but why wouldn’t he refer to himself as such? I can only think of two reasons why “Marluxia” is here. Either Lauriam lost his heart again to darkness or (What I believe to be the more plausible) Xehanort has a hold on Marluxia the same way he does with Xigbar and Saix. I can’t think why Marluxia doesn’t look as Norty as the others, other than this may have been a recent seize of dominance unlike with Xigbar and Saix, where it took years for them to look Norty.

Secondly, it seems as if Marluxia has not forgotten what transpired in Castle Oblivion. Course, we know why Sora doesn’t remember what happened in COM (Namine’s memory manipulation) but I doubt that’ll stop Sora from defeating Marluxia again. To be honest, Marluxia’s really calm in that scene, considering he’s face to face with his ‘murderer’ and the guy who ruined his plans but he is the type of person to not lose his cool easily.

Now, for the second story section, Vanitas is somehow alive again and Ventus has appeared, if only for one line. So here’s where I’m going to present my theory as to why that is and even I’m not sure if it’s even plausible. As we all know, at the end of Ventus’ storyline of BBS, Vanitas disappears and Ventus’ heart goes on to live in Sora’s heart. Then towards the end of DDD, after Sora’s heart becomes damaged, Ventus shields it with his Keyblade Armor. When Riku goes into Sora’s heart to save Sora, he has to fight the armor that had become possessed by a Nightmare. One of the twists for DDD was that Riku was a Spirit Dream Eater in Sora’s dreams, fighting off the Nightmare Dream Eaters. The possessed Keyblade Armor had the emblem of the Nightmare Dream Eaters. Is it possible that Riku was still acting as a Spirit Dream Eater (Knowingly or not) and that Vanitas was the Nightmare Dream Eater possessing the armor? Then after Riku beat the possessed armor, Vanitas was released into the world? I’m only suggesting this because it’d make sense as to why Vanitas is out and about and, with Riku triggering something in Sora’s heart (And by extension, Ventus’ heart), triggered the movement in Ven’s body at the end of DDD. Not to mention that I guess the feeling of seeing Vanitas again after he was sure he vanquished him shocked Ventus enough to temporarily come out of Sora (Essentially pulling a Roxas). I could be completely wrong about this but this is something I thought to throw out there.

 Next up is the story section from the Utada Hikaru trailer. We see Riku and Mickey in the Realm of Darkness, presumably to save Aqua, and Riku sticks “Way to the Dawn” (His Keyblade) into the ground. He says something along the lines of “I won’t be needing this anymore. I’ll leave it here in case the other me needs it”.

What in the fuck could that mean? Lots of people are speculating that it could be hinting at the return of Repliku (Or Riku Replica) from COM but I have my doubts. First, Repliku died towards the end of Reverse/Rebirth so it’d be kinda hard to bring the same Repliku back. Second, I can’t think of an in-universe reason for bringing Repliku back. Riku and Mickey probably don’t need its help, considering they’re both Keyblade masters, it wouldn’t make sense for Lea and Even to bring Repliku back since I believe they’re on the side of Sora, Namine’s inside of Kairi so she has no use for him, and what would the new Organization do with a Replica that has failed plans before? I’m not trying to shit on people’s expectations here but I literally don’t see any reason to bring back a character that was created and died in their only game. At least Xion, Namine, and Terra have more reason to come back than Repliku.

Anyway, my interpretation of Riku’s “other me” was that Riku was gonna pull a Xehanort and somehow travel back through time to his younger self to do… something. I was initially thinking ‘save Aqua’ but how would that be possible? Riku was only in the Realm of Darkness from the end of KH1 to about partway through Sora’s journey in COM. Aqua didn’t exactly sit still while in the Realm of Darkness so it’s highly doubtful that, even with his older self’s help, Riku and Aqua would have met in the RoD. Granted, Mickey was stuck in the RoD as well but it’s still two people looking for one person in a giant realm of Heartless and darkness. Unfortunately, I can’t think as to why Riku would want to time travel outside of erasing past mistakes but character development would render that stupid so… I was also thinking that that was how Riku got Soul Eater in COM but then I remembered he had it in KH1 so I sorta disregarded that.

I also don’t know how Riku would time travel. I can’t be bothered looking back on the cutscene Xehanort talked about this and even then it didn’t make much sense to me on how he did it. I doubt they’ll pull the time travel card out again since it wasn’t well-received in DDD so…

 So these are mainly my theories on what the story bits from the trailers are. There’s probably a lot of information I got wrong on here but I’m hoping at least some of it was right.This is something I’m highly wanting the fandom to share thoughts on and maybe share their own theories on what the story in KH3 could be! I can’t wait for this game to come out and I really hope it answers a lot of questions that have gone long unanswered!

[masteraqua]

I have a mighty need for self inflicted pain. Will you please share some of your favorite posts that relate to Data Roxas, data Sora, and Repliku?

hoo boy let’s see what we’ve got in the archives

repliku

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/87296879960/kichizone-title-1-cryinganimeboypng-title-2

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/77338219989/seifers-anonymous-asked-repliku-or-vanitas

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/73688032782/hey-hey-remember-in-co-when-repliku-randomly

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/120104234735/fire-in-rain-friendly-reminder-that-one-of

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/88795423010/todaymakestwohundredandfiftyfive-ah-yes-how

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/126609869320/kingdomheartsnyctophiliac-t-h-e-%CA%9F-%E1%B4%8F-s-%E1%B4%9B-t-r

data roxas

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/150212586190/cataclysmint-a-data-roxas-because-glitch

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/147145518075/ultimakey-a-couple-of-data-roxas-doodles-i-did

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/143967699405/yoo-data-roxas-in-308-please

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/143221662260/datakairi-side-game-appreciation-week-recoded

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/110344217975/rakatakat-data-roxas-should-not-be-legal

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/99794313100/zexpire-just-sum-winged-roxas-doodles-the

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/99284160165/booflega-put-data-roxas-down-on-the-list-of

data sora

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/141095101400/spicyvanitas-im-crying-because-i-just-noticed

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/140671028580/fromzeroesandones-fromzeroesandones-data

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/114113961785/xxcastingshadows-data-soriku-week

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/113940873735/dakt37-i-am-so-here-for-data-soriku

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/108288590945/perpetualxlight-after-fighting-with-these

(bonus) data riku

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/134644617188/j0sephu-data-riku-is-a-dork-pass-it-on

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/122450956120/stargazerlily7210-so-data-sora-and-data-riku

http://masteraqua.tumblr.com/post/122210618360/data-riku-is-really-just-computer-hacker-au-riku

[kaluawoo]

(Kh3 Spoilers) Is it just me, or was KH3 rather rushed at the end? As a writer, if you could add more scenes to KH3's last chapter, what would they be?

Truth be told, most of the time I was too busy crying my eyes out to pay attention to the pacing… Plus, when I’m in “enjoy-mode”, I pay less attention as well, I’m focused on enjoying. There’s so much stuff I love that people hate because of this reason or that reason I often don’t even notice.

But… Hm, personally, it didn’t feel that rushed to me, though it depends where you start considering it as “ending”. I figured you meant starting at the keyblade graveyard, the Organization XIII fights, and the ending movie, so that’s what the rest of the text is about.I know that it did feel rushed to many people, though. Thing is, it was kind of a tense situation; I’d have loved, for example, scenes with Roxas and Ventus in them, but there was kinda more important stuff to focus on than “WAIT WHY DO WE LOOK THE SAME?!”. Only thing that comes to mind is that I’d have loved to have Lea as my team mate for longer, I’ve waited the whole game for those few moments I got to fight side by side with him. Other than that, I, personally, would’ve probably wondered when they’d finally focus on the Bad Guy standing right there.

After the battle, in the ending video etc, I’d have loved some scenes with the other former organization members, though. Where are Lauriam and Elrena? The Somebodies of Luxord and Demyx? But then again, it’s been said there’s a reason we don’t know where Demyx is, and I’d guess the others will also have a role to play in the next games and that’s why we didn’t get to see any of them. I’d also love Repliku and Vanitas back but oh well.

I was a bit confused/surprised that Riku just… Let Sora go on his own though. If one of my best friends went on a dangerous trip to save my other best friend, they’d have to knock me unconscious and tie me to a bed or else I’d come along.

So, TL;DR: It’s definitely not just you who felt this way, but I, personally, didn’t and don’t really have much to add the ending.

If we’re talking about the game in general, though, I’d probably have brought the team together a bit sooner, or at least let Lea and Kairi finish their training earlier (Since Terra’s timing kinda makes sense), would’ve been nice to see more of their interactions with the others instead of pretty much just that one scene. Or maybe I just want some more Lea in general. But oh well, I’ll just hope for the next game, and until then, there’s fanfic :D

[memoryxtoxdreams]

I’ll be going through the trios first

Wayfinder Trio

Aqua: Holy shit I had a feeling this would happen. Okay so, the whole fight with Ansem SoD and Guardian. That felt confusing as hell like I’m with SoD on this where was Eraqus’ keyblade and why didn’t she have it on her? Then after that whole Anti fight, Aqua really should’ve had rested before going to CO/LoD to wake Ven with the Trinity Trio, but she didn’t because Mom mood kicked in. Her battle with Vani made sense considering she didn’t rest, but the fact she was still kicking ass is amazing and Vani saw that. So he went ahead and used her protective nature as he needed Ven awake as well, so that’s my view on her fights before the Badlands battles.

Terra: THIS MAN IS SURPRISING NO MATTER WHAT! Alright this dude was in a suit of armor and IN FUCKING GUARDIAN! So when Ansem SoD went after Ansem the Wise, he witnessed that shit! He saw everything went through in KH1 and 358/2 through Riku, ya know that moment, so when Terranort was pulling that shit with Aqua and Ven, he went ahead through Guardian and said fuck you this is it. The whole time he had me screaming holy shit and I wanna cry sometimes man- 

Ven: Breaking news- Sleeping Union Leader finally woke up after 10+ years! The whole thing with Ven seemed right, one thing I’m pouty about is that he still doesn’t remember what happened to him and his Chirithy knows this. I was hoping he would get some memory of his past back after waking up, maybe Chirithy will help him remember after THAT ENDING

Sea Salt Trio/Quartet??

Lea: I’m still calling him Lea, no way am I calling him Axel again, you can’t tug at my heartstrings more then you did game. Lea’s scenes were cute and 4th wall breaking but also way, way wrong. Like, yeah have him befriend the girl he kidnapped to remember the friend he’s trying to remember but also have him try to talk to her as they were both used by Ansem the Wise and Xehanort, along side Isa, to help Kairi remember her time in Radiant Garden. Both him and Kairi really shouldn’t have been involved in the Badlands battle because they were still freshly trained Keyblade wielders, that was a bad call on frankly Yen Sid and Merlin’s part, the crap with Kairi proved it, they weren’t ready, maybe have him use his twin chakrams as a secondary weapon like in DDD?

Isa: HE FINALLY ADMITS IT! Honestly I’m mixed at this dude, but he at least brought up the plans he and Lea had when they were in the first organization. I was so confused as to who this mystery girl he keeps mentioning, I thought it was Kairi but nah, both of those dorks would’ve recognized Kairi from the whole thing from my point with Lea. The ending with him and the sea salt trio on the other hand it’s like his fresh start and first step with gaining at least Xi and Roxas’ trust.

Xion: SPEAKING OF! Okay I dreaded it, but the fact that she was the one pointing kingdom key hurt, but I noticed she wasn’t herself. When Sora called out her name, she was holding her head in pain like she was brainwashed once again. Frankly that made sense, Xemnas pointed it out when she grabbed that damn blade in this hand, he didn’t want her to turn on them again, but she did. She finally fights Saix which is a big Yes, she took her place in the Guardians of Light, because Kairi got snatched by Xemnas this time, she also reassured Sora that Kairi is going to be okay which is adorable. AND HER OUTFIT JUST BLESS! My only wish is that she just visits the others at Twilight Town and not live there because why would you want to live in the place you first kicked at?

Roxas: THE BOY CAME HOME! Instantly goes into the first replica that Ienzo gets, then drops from the sky to point Oblivion at Xemnas for his bullshit moves at both Lea and Xi, possibly more towards Xi considering the girl was down and Xemnas got his Ethereal Blade pointing at her while Lea’s on the ground, gets into Round 2 with Saix along side Sora and Xi! I loved the reunion but I wish we saw his reaction to Ven instead of Lea’s fourth wall break line as the damn moon is shooting darkness meteors over a graveyard.

Destiny Trio

Riku: This man is the older brother to his replica no one tell me I’m wrong. Playing as Riku again really felt great but oh so bittersweet, considering he fought a Demon Tower and Anti Aqua. His reaction to Mickey saying Aqua is like Sora had me dying he looked so afraid that he was going to deal with a woman who acts like his best friend. His interactions with the others was cute especially with Repliku as he was worried when he saw that he was actually fighting his replica again but a second version of him. But can I just mention the secret ending, like we see him in Yozora’s world hopefully and possibly looking for Sora, how about that table turn from KH 1 and 2 huh?

Kairi: Jesus christ this girl won’t get a break. From getting turned into a lab rat at young age, tossed into the other sky after that, dumped into Destiny islands with no memories, at 14 goes into a coma state without her heart, loses her memory of the boy she drew of sharing a destiny binding fruit with, a year goes by and she gets kidnapped not once but twice by the same group to use her as bait, gets a small reunion and it doesn’t last. Finally gets sick of it, goes into training with her former kidnapper, comes out battle ready and her first actually fight is with her second kidnapper and her actual twin, only to get kidnapped and turned into another No Name! If that wasn’t horrible enough, after everything she goes through, after her cute moment with Sora on the beach at a sunset. She can’t get her happy ending with him because he pulled a ‘Mr.Stark I don’t feel so good’! I hope she goes out to find Sora with Riku because she deserves that at least! 

Sora: Oh you dear sweet lamb you’ve been through hell. Need I say more with this saint? He didn’t deserve that mess, he honest to god didn’t deserve that mess. Witnessing all that, going into fight after fight, putting up with both Donald and Goofy’s bullshit, finding out that he had not only Ven’s heart he finds out he had both Roxas and Xi’s heart in him after finally getting told since DDD by two chipmunks instead of the man that put data in him! And the icing on this cake? After everything’s said and done, he ends up getting his own Thanos moment! I’m glad he’s shown in TWEWY but not like that holy shit I’m in tears! I’m still in denial over here!

Lost Trio

Vanitas: Where’s his redemption at? Everyone in the true organization either went AWOL or said fuck it lets see what happens. Boy got thrown by Sully, funniest shit ever, pulls a very smart move to help wake up Ven, even if it was for his own goals, only to end up saying ‘Nah I’m going to be a neutral child in your shit I’m gone’ Dude- DUDE- I hope this boy is in TWEWY too he needs a second chance to walk on his own at least! The whole ‘brother’ thing was weird though I’m not gonna lie, but at least he explains it even if it was kinda his last words

Namine: CHILD SHOWS UP AT LAST MINUTE! Look- cover wasn’t enough, flash backs weren’t enough, name drops weren’t enough! Showing her at the end that was cold. But at the very least, Nomura knew he couldn’t find a place to fit Nami in the battles so he had to place her showing up at the end, this is still a sour thought to take in but it’s better to show her instead of not doing it at all. I honestly hope she had a hand in pointing Terra/Lingering Will to the others at least because that First Breath Concert was a wow still!

Repliku: The Knight that Never Was. Dude, this boy deserves so much. I honest to god was surprised to see that his heart manged to make it’s way to Riku when he and Mickey went to the Realm of Darkness. Then he shows up to help his other not once but twice with Aqua and himself, frankly when he removed his body from possession it got me shaking my head in shock, like- the replicas really are just store mannequins! That shit is fucking creepy- My only wish is that instead of saying good luck he’d ask Riku to look after Namine, as a call back to when Riku told Sora to take care of Kairi in Kh 1