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andrewwtca · 2 years ago

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a Soriku Endgame, Actually essay on Light and Darkness

Also available to read on Archive of our Own.

Kingdom Hearts, with Sora and Riku in particular, has been on my mind as of late. It’s always been on my mind, to be honest, ever since I first got into the series. It’s grabbed my hand and hasn’t let go, especially with all the new lore. And yet, I’ve been struggling to make peace with myself.

On one hand, I don't want to get my hopes up, thinking that Sora and Riku would ever become something 'more' or that what I’m seeing is anything other than in-depth speculation. I've had my heart broken before and this series means too much to me for me to foolishly dive in like this.

On the other hand, I can't ignore what the story is telling me, as a literary analysis enthusiast and as a diehard fan. There have been parallels established, setups finally going through, and Nomura has said before that “this series is not intended to be child-focused, and so the complexity of the story is purposely made prominent.” I can’t keep turning a blind eye, knowing everything I know, thinking everything I think. If I did, I feel like I would be doing a disservice to both my experiences with the series and my experiences as a person.

So yeah—Soriku Endgame, Actually. Today, I’m arguing its canonicality because of the balance of Light and Darkness (or lack thereof) throughout the series. Please enjoy my messy and impassioned essay!

a sky of falling stars

The Children of Destiny is a new concept introduced to us in the finale of Dark Road. To summarize, they are people with the ability to feel what others feel, connect, and become one with them—empaths with Light.

It appears that the Children of Destiny are all descendants of Ephemer, characterized by silvery hair. There's Ephemer, there's Baldr, there's Xehanort—and, oh yeah, there's Riku.

Upon the release of the finale, a lot of people—myself included—quickly jumped to the conclusion that Sora is a Child of Destiny, which isn't all that wrong. If we're going by what the games have given us, Sora is very special. What other character has housed five different hearts inside his own? What other character had an entire arc in Birth by Sleep talking about how he felt the pain in someone else’s heart?

But Nomura has insisted since the beginning that Sora is an ordinary boy, that he wasn't born with anything special, explaining that he “had the premise that a heart like Sora’s exists within all the players. Sora is ‘ordinary’, therefore everyone is ‘ordinary.” (Before anyone argues Nomura is just going through a retcon, I doubt he would go through with one to this extent, given how he has had the ending to the Dark Seeker Saga in mind for years.)

Riku, on the other hand, has not been given this kind of treatment at all. He's always been painted as a golden child, better than Sora at everything, being the original bearer of the Keyblade. For crying out loud, he had a light in Birth By Sleep that was seen from space, not Sora. If you factor in bloodlines, it wouldn't be too far off to theorize that Riku is a descendent of Ephemer's line. Riku isn't who most look at first, but all signs lead to him being a Child of Destiny.

But that doesn't explain Sora at all. He may not have been born special like Riku, but he's special somehow. After all, Nomura did finish his ‘Sora isn't special’ line with, “I figure even if you’re ‘ordinary’, for something important, everyone can exhibit a special power just like Sora.” Aqua even calls out that Sora is the one who can set things right, the boy who can touch others’ hearts.

And that is where the necklace theory comes in.

Sora has always been associated with royalty, sitting on a throne in box art or having crowns plastered around him—or on him. From his debut, Sora has had a crown necklace that has never been explained. Despite wearing it in every outfit, it's never been addressed how it came to be.

It’s after Aqua and Terra came, judging by the BBS cutscenes of him and Riku. But it’s before KH1, as that's when his journey began. That’s a huge timeframe, from being a kid to deciding to leave the islands, but it's easy to pinpoint a time when considering something the games still never fully fleshed out: the meteor shower.

In Chain of Memories, Sora and Riku fight over this memory they supposedly both had of Namine one night during a meteor shower. One of them promised they would keep her safe, and it's all cute until we remember that Namine wasn't actually in these memories. And Namine can't make any new memories—she can only rearrange old ones.

Sora and Riku both share this memory. And the way they fought over this memory gave it the utmost importance. It becomes obvious at this point that the both of them witnessed a meteor shower, and given what we know about their dynamic (and that's a lot), it would make sense to assume it was Riku promising Sora to keep him safe—almost like a charm.

The necklace theory has been around for years, but it’s only after the Dark Road finale that it was expanded upon (or perhaps it’s just me and maybe three others who think this, but I don’t mind one bit.) It isn't just Riku promising to keep Sora safe. In giving Sora a necklace, a crown, Riku has metaphorically crowned Sora. He has brought Sora up to his status as a Child of Destiny, putting all his love into a charm that he hopes can keep Sora safe.

There’s a flaw in my logic though, trust me, I know. I just said that this meteor shower didn’t happen until after BBS, and yet it’s during the game that Sora feels the pain of others, it’s during the game that Aqua says that Sora is going to be the one to set things right. But I still stand firm in my belief. Riku has always been painted as the golden child, the Child of Destiny, but his love for Sora runs deeper than his love for anything else.

Riku’s light is the one that brought Terra and Aqua to Destiny Island but Riku’s light shines for Sora; sort of like step one to Sora’s crowning. Riku’s light rubbed off on Sora, ever since they were kids—after all, a Child of Destiny’s power is to connect hearts. Why not connect his own with another? Why not share his light?

Further, in BBS, Sora can feel Ven’s pain and take care of his heart, but he isn’t fully aware of this nor is he able to really do anything about this. It isn’t until KH1 that Sora ever exhibits a power of truly connecting to another’s heart when Sora entered the darkness swallowing Riku and touched Riku’s heart’s light to obtain his Keyblade, explained by Nomura himself. And it isn’t until KH3 that Sora finds the power to wake up Ven’s heart.

Regardless of whether or not I’m right about this, it means Nomura isn't technically wrong about Sora being normal. Sora, no matter what, doesn’t have some divine birthright, but he still has the makings of someone who can bring peace to the world—all thanks to Riku.

This helps set the tone of their relationship, of the depth of Sora and Riku’s bond. It also moves the storyline forward to how they will be the ones to instigate change—but I’m getting ahead of myself. Let’s first talk about who once were and who they could’ve been.

in another life

Kingdom Hearts is pretty on the nose on parallels between Xehanort/Eraqus and Riku/Sora. Besides personality, Xehanort and Riku are both Childs of Destiny who give in to the darkness and Eraqus and Sora are endless sources of light. But the parallels don't exist to make us empathize with Xehanort/Eraqus: they're to tell us a cautionary tale of what our protagonists could've been.

So it begs the question, what actually separated Sora and Riku from becoming like Eraqus and Xehanort? Let’s start with Riku.

To recap, Xehanort was a student in Scala ad Caelum alongside Eraqus, who watched all his classmates die. He learned from Baldr about their roles as Children of Destiny and in his grief, became obsessed with wiping the world clean. He wanted a Keyblade War to create a fresh start, void of Light and Darkness, so that the world could try again.

Riku seemed to have been walking the same road as Xehanort. He stopped fearing Darkness and started dancing on the line between it and Light. Riku was angry at the world and angry at his friends, and perhaps in another life, he may too have wanted to wipe the world clean.

But every time I compare him and Xehanort, I can't help but think that a cautionary tale isn't what Xehanort/Eraqus is. Because I can't help but think that it just could never have happened to Riku, and it's for two main reasons:

1) Hope.

Riku has hope in the world. When we look at all the other Children of Light, they all had a Darkness that took them down (although in Ephemer's case, it was a literal Darkness that killed him). Baldr lost himself in grief. Xehanort lost himself in rage. But not Riku.

When Xehanort saw that the world couldn't be fixed (to how he believed it should be), Riku did not even see a world that needed fixing. Riku saw the world in all of its complicated glory. For instance, Riku is one of the first characters to acknowledge the feelings of Nobodies; their pain, and their love. He doesn't see them as an extension of Darkness or Light. They simply are.

Riku believes in redemption. It's been his entire character arc, after all, to redeem himself and walk the Road to Dawn, a term coined way back in CoM. Ever since then, Riku has been closely associated with the sunrise—night turning into day. Darkness becomes Light. Redemption. This symbolism is shown in box art, said in interviews, even his Keyblade is called the Way to Dawn.

The fact that Riku was even able to think of the Road to Dawn proves that he's nothing like Xehanort. Xehanort believes that there is no redemption because the world needs to be wiped clean. But Riku believes that there is a road he can walk, a road he can take to salvation because the world is not good or bad, but made for people to live and learn. But how? How was he able to walk that road? He has hope, but how was he able to use it? And that's the second reason.

2) Sora. Riku has Sora.

It may feel a bit obvious to say, but it's true: the fact that Riku is Riku; Sora is Sora; and their relationship is the way it is, is the key to why they would never have fallen to the same fate. We don't know the full extent of Xehanort and Eraqus's relationship, but it's safe to assume it wasn't as kind or loving as Riku and Sora's ever were. The two would play as kids, promise to keep each other safe, tell secrets—the two became princes of destiny together, destined to fight their way home.

I can't see Xehanort and Eraqus as anything more than students in a fucked up situation. Because when things got bad for Xehanort, he didn't think of Eraqus as his guiding light. He only thought of what he lost. There’s even a line in Dark Road of Xehanort hearing Eraqus crying in the other room, yet he never comforts him, never approaches him. They suffered alone, too afraid or perhaps too blind to reach for one another.

When things got bad for Riku, he saw Sora. He saw how Sora loved Kairi and sacrificed himself for her, and he saw that Sora was forgiving towards him. The reason why Riku and Sora didn't end up like Xehanort and Eraqus is that they simply aren't them. Their bond is deeper and their love is stronger, and Riku’s hope is simply stronger than Xehanort’s ever was.

It’s important to emphasize that this truly is a feat that only Riku (and Sora, one day) could’ve accomplished. It's natural to us that Riku, one of the series' protagonists, was able to do this. It's easy to shrug off the balance he managed to strike between his Light and Darkness, but for so many actually in the series, it's an incomprehensible thought. Mickey even stated in CoM, that Riku introduced Light and Darkness in a way nobody has ever seen before. To understand how this affects Sora and Riku’s relationship, it’s important to understand the way things currently are.

the light we pass down

Light and Darkness are the very core of this series. Light represents the connections you make with others, while Darkness represents the lack thereof—those with Darkness in their hearts are those who walk alone, while those with Light are those with many friends around them. Darkness is selfishness, and Light is selflessness.

Darkness is usually framed as an inherently evil source in many stories, but it's something that cannot be extinguished. Light needs to be there to balance it.

But Kingdom Hearts seems to be going down the path less taken—yes, Darkness isn't 'good', and it isn't desirable to isolate yourself from the rest of the world. But the series is asking the question many like to ignore: when does Light become Darkness?

In nearly every game, you can trace one character fed into the illusion that Light is good, everything else is bad, and the needs of the many outweigh the needs of the few. MoM to his pupils in Union X; Odin to Baldr in Dark Road; Eraqus to his children in BBS; Yen Sid to Mickey in forbidding him to speak of Aqua; Donald and Goofy to Sora in telling him that their ship runs on happy smiles. It is generational trauma.

A cycle of hypocrisy has been forced on not only the 'defenders of Light' but 'agents of Darkness.' Xehanort doesn't care who he hurts as long as he can get his own idea of balance in the world, believing his judgment to be supreme to others—despite his initial thoughts in Dark Road, that unless someone's heart is pure Light, how can one know for sure what is right and wrong? To which Eraqus responded that they as Keyblade Wielders held the supreme judgment towards morality.

Again and again, this cycle of defending what they believe is good and Light repeats, hurting themselves and hurting others, and even Sora is not free of this hypocrisy. While he doesn't go out of his way to hurt others the way Xehanort has, he is capable of hurting others: Riku was hurt by Sora in KH1 when he was silent when Kairi suggested leaving him behind or when he shrugged off Riku going missing in Traverse Town. In CoM, when the idea of him ‘abandoning’ people was presented, he acted out harshly and completely rejected the idea (this is all another parallel to Eraqus!)

He even denies the idea that Riku has hurt others. Despite Riku acting out of his own free will, the reason he feels the need to atone and walk the path to redemption, Sora believes that the Darkness was forced on Riku by others.

Sora has been carved into the same mindset as so many others, the idea heavily tackled in Dark Road, that Darkness is only brought upon by others, and that it needs to be expunged. Sora is a firm believer that the Darkness is something to be eradicated, such as with his encounter with Vanitas in KH3. When Vanitas states that he is simply Darkness, Ven is quick to understand and even accept. Sora, on the other hand, rejects this and insists that it isn’t okay.

Even our series’ protagonist is unable to shake himself from this self-righteous, black-or-white thinking. Riku is the only character in the series who has formed an actual balance in himself, with all other characters having to pick one side. Lea, Xion, and Roxas leave the Darkness of Organization XIII and become Keyblade Wielders. Terra embraces his Light, Aqua leaves the Realm of Darkness, and Ven is literally separated into a being of Light and Darkness (although not out of his own volition).

The series is not framing any of these things as negative—there’s nothing wrong with embracing Light. However, these characters are falling into the same cycle that the generations before have; they will once again be faced with a Darkness too deep to defeat and ignore. It must be talked to, reckoned with, and faced with open arms. Riku has been the only one able to return the hug and walk away.

We’ve explored what makes Riku’s character arc so significant and what Sora’s flaws are, and it’s time to dive into the murky waters of the future.

when does the sun become the night?

Sora. Oh, Sora. I love you, Sora. Now let me tear you and your smile apart.

The parallels between Xehanort and Riku are very on the nose and easy to distinguish; meanwhile, Eraqus and Sora are a bit more challenging.

In BBS, Eraqus is the Master of Aqua, Terra, and Ventus. He forms a bond between them, as one would expect, mentoring and looking out for their well-being. The Light in his heart is strong due to his connections with them, alongside being a Keyblade wielder. Although not perfect (feeding into Terra's insecurities about his Darkness, cough), he does care for them. But when the world falls to Darkness, Eraqus doesn't hesitate to be selfless, to give up his connections, the Light in his heart, to kill them to save a greater good. As long as someone somewhere can benefit from his actions, he isn't harming.

But is that selfless? Is sacrificing for a 'greater good' truly selfless? Is there a line between the needs of the many and the needs of the few? Or is there a certain ‘darkness’ that comes with these acts? Disregarding yourself, disregarding others, selfless yet selfish; it's not the right thing to do, and the series doesn't hesitate to frame it as that. What Eraqus did was wrong. He hurt others, even if he refused to acknowledge it.

And yet, no one seems to make any noise toward Sora.

Sora is a Guardian of Light. He is the cheerful protagonist who makes everyone smile and feel better. Ever since the first game, when Donald and Goofy (although not with ill intent) told him that the Gummi Ship runs on happy faces, he's been under the precedent that his emotions do not matter in the greater scheme of things. In the long run, what matters is that others are safe, the people he cares about.

Once again, like how Xehanort and Riku deviated in terms of having hope, this is where Eraqus and Sora begin to deviate from their parallels. While both are selfless to the point of ‘darkness,’ they show it in dramatically different ways. Eraqus is willing to hurt the people he cares about (and by extension, himself) to serve this 'greater good', but Sora is only willing to actively hurt himself.

I feel the need to remind everyone that this is a teenager we're talking about. If we weren't in a franchise partially owned by Disney, I feel like more people would be willing to call this what it is: suicidal. This is not Light.

We've already seen ways that this harms Sora outside the narrative and the whole getting sent to Quadratum thing in his Rage form. Sora transforms into a drive form that’s oddly reminiscent of his time as a Heartless and can unleash powerful attacks that lower his HP (hmm). Furthermore, this form only appears when his HP is low (double hmm) and stated by Nomura, “based on him going into a rampage state, controlled by feelings of anger (triple hmm).”

Back inside the narrative, the climax of KH3 was Sora believing that he's worthless without his friends, genuinely worthless, and unable to fight at all. This is the very definition of a Light gone too far when remembering that Light is the connections you form with others. With too much Light, Sora lost himself. He couldn't find himself past who he was for others.

In the section prior that broke down generational trauma as it appears in Kingdom Hearts, I mentioned that Sora does not only end up hurting himself but passively hurting others around him, most notably Riku. Sora is unable to understand that Darkness is not the absence of all good but rather the shadow that simply follows you around. Sora cannot understand that Darkness is not something to be shunned, to never talk about. (This could also be tied back to his Rage form—while he does not actively channel his anger to hurt, that is what happens; only to never be acknowledged by him.)

(Off-topic, but I find it funny that Sora, who is so keen on the idea that Darkness is Not Good, was only ever to have a proper conversation with Riku in the Realm of Darkness. It’s very telling to their characters.)

Kingdom Hearts is setting up a narrative that Light and Darkness cannot exist in excess. That Light doesn't exist to balance out the Darkness, to stop it from becoming too strong—you need Darkness to exist as well.

Sora has gotten this far along the story and still hasn't managed to learn this, because it’s just not something you can learn (or unlearn, rather) on your own. Because this kind of thinking isn’t undone with hours of contemplation; in a fitting Kingdom Hearts fashion, it’s connections that lead to the revelation.

the roads we walk

Xehanort and Eraqus fall out with each other. They stop talking and sever the connection with each other. That was a core reason things got as out of hand as they did for each other; they weren't keeping each other in check. Xehanort's Darkness left him blind and unable to see that there was Light after all, and Eraqus's Light blinded him and left him stumbling with a Keyblade for a 'greater purpose.' Their hearts fell too far to one end of the balance, leaving the scales unbalanced.

Riku and Sora do not have that. They have a connection like nothing seen in this series before—Riku had literally raised Sora to become a Child of Destiny alongside him. The Light of their hearts is just so awe-strikingly bright.

Sora, however, has lost himself in all his light. He is stuck in the same bright room that Eraqus was, stumbling around with his Keyblade. But where Eraqus was forever lost, Sora can be found: because where Riku had Sora to guide him to the Light, Sora will have Riku to guide him through the Darkness.

Riku spends the majority of his character simply proving that he is capable of redemption. It takes him the ending of a game to realize the errors in his ways and another game to figure out the solution he must fight for, and these weren't revelations he finds on his own—he found the first with Sora and the second (in CoM) with Mickey and Namine.

For Sora to even have the revelation that he cannot keep shutting out the Darkness in him unless he wants more pain for himself and others, he needs someone to help show him that is an option. And who else but Riku, who is living proof that existence isn’t just black-or-white, Light or Darkness?

Riku is Sora's foil. A foil is a character who either has pronounced differences between themselves and the protagonist or is so alike that a contrast appears. Riku is the ladder, similar enough to Sora that one can begin to make assumptions about where the story is heading. Their similarities aren't hard to find: they both hail from Destiny Islands, they both have a love for adventure, they both were assumed to walk a path of Light for the rest of their lives, and they both care deeply for each other. The contrast begins in KH1 when Riku begins his fall to Darkness while Sora remains firm in his standing.

Riku’s arc ended with acceptance; he needed to accept the Darkness and the Light inside him to find peace. It’s only natural that his foil, struggling with the same imbalance, would go through a similar arc but still different enough to be his own.

It isn't just the story telling us this. Riku has always been associated with imagery of dawn, the breaking of Darkness into Light, and Kairi is always associated with imagery of dusk, the breaking of Light into Darkness (which is a conversation all on its own). Sora, on the other hand, is associated with a large blue sky (his name, after all, does mean sky.) It's not hinting towards a journey of any kind—not a redemption like for Riku.

He is the daylight. He is the Light in everyone's lives. But ‘Sora’ doesn't mean the day sky. It simply means sky. Sky, at day or night—and I don't mind if you call me reaching at this point, but it feels like it's calling out to the fact that Sora needs to accept that he is both Light and Darkness, the way the sky is both day and night.

Nomura has even stated in an interview before when asked about the two different versions of the Dream Drop Distance illustrations that he “wanted its composition and look to remind [the player] of the title’s catch copy, ‘Darkness becomes light, light falls into darkness.’” The parallel structure of the tagline serves to mirror the parallel structure of Sora and Riku’s paths, Sora’s road to night and Riku’s road to dawn.

But I digress. Exhaustively, it’s very apparent that Sora is heading toward a climax, a Darkness he cannot ignore. His breakdown in KH3 was left unspoken, unresolved, and his disappearance only contributes to the fact that he’s heading toward another breaking point, where the cheerful protagonist can no longer remain cheerful. But like in KH3, something is going to be the same: Riku.

At his lowest point, it was Riku who was next to him, telling Sora that he believed in him. It was Riku who carried on when Sora couldn’t. Riku is going to be key in Sora's journey to night. Riku was able to find his Road to Dawn by remembering Sora. He was able to walk by remembering his love, his passion, his everything, and it was because of Sora that Riku found balance. He found the Light within himself, and he learned to accept that the Darkness would always be a part of him, the way it is for others.

Sora's arc will be spun into motion because of Riku. The next installments of Kingdom Hearts are setting up that Riku's dreams are the key to finding Sora, implying perhaps that it may be Sora and Riku all alone in a world. Whatever the case, Riku is going to be by Sora's side, as that is where they are at their best, to face Sora’s worst.

And it's fitting. Riku had to go from Darkness, defined as a lack of connections, to a balance with Light, having connections. He went from his isolation, wearing a blindfold and not being able to face anyone, to being the charming Riku we all love, fighting alongside the Keyblade wielders. His journey would have him open up, so he would be joined by memories, ghosts, not by people until he began to embrace others.

Sora will be going from Light to a balance with Darkness. He'd be going from connections to a lack (though not in the same extremes that Riku did), in a sense. Understandably, he can’t do it alone, make such a drastic change; he'd need someone.

This change, this balance, this emphasis on connections, it’s guiding us to what the narrative has been trying to tell us all along.

we can be the darkness, and the light, and the sunsets and sunrises too

When asked about the theme of KH3 and the entire series, Nomura answered, “It’s in the title: hearts. The consistent theme across the whole series is ‘What is a heart?’”

Kingdom Hearts is going to be doing something unprecedented in not only a lot of media but in its world itself. While the idea of Light and Darkness existing within characters is not new, the characters aren't exactly behind that idea. Most of the Keyblade Wielders and Guardians of Light cherish the Light above all else—while all the primary villains worship the Darkness. They fight for a balance but don't fully grasp that within (nearly) all of them lies both entities.

Riku seems to be more accepted in the world, as he did join the Light in the end. But what Sora would do is... just absolutely bonkers. He will be embracing a Darkness in him, the same kind that Terra and so many others were taught to push out. Sora will be... well, a teenager. Happy and angsty and all the things teens are.

This is where Kingdom Hearts has the chance to seal the deal, to fully welcome this balance of Light and Darkness: a relationship between Riku and Sora.

For all Guardians of Light, there is a generational trauma hanging over their heads and haunting them, and Sora will need to accept his Darkness to combat it, but the story can't end there. The games have been building up the idea that Sora will be the one to bring change to the world, that Sora will be the one to end this cycle. He won’t just accept his Darkness but lead a new age. He will be the one to show that there's a different way (or really, only one other way) to move forward:

Love.

Unconditional love. Not love depending on whether they fit the wielders' definitions of Light and Darkness, not love depending on the amount of Light in someone's heart, not love clouded by hypocrisy. Just pure love, forever forgiving and growing.

So who better for Sora’s love than Riku?

Let’s get all the arguments for Kairi out of the way first. Some may say that Kairi could still fulfill this role of spreading love in the next games, but that’s only if her role in the story is completely revamped. She represents friends growing apart as they grow older yet remaining close. While Sora and Riku represent a balance between Light and Darkness, Kairi represents holding a Light close to your heart, even when it's so far away; fitting for her story of being ripped apart from her home.

The games keep pushing the friends' growing apart narrative rather than pulling from it, having Kairi remain with Aqua to train while Riku goes after Sora. There is little space for Kairi to suddenly walk a road to dusk that leads to romance. Especially because it’s Sora and Riku who are the Children of Destiny, they are the ones who will connect to other hearts and bring change, not Kairi. Her lesson would be for herself, not for the world to see.

A relationship between Kairi and Sora would just be backtracking on this message. Sora needs to accept his Darkness, but joining forces with a Princess of Light does not challenge any norms, it does not provide a new answer. It makes sense because the core of Kingdom Hearts isn’t a Prince and Princess of Light—it’s two boys who saw the night sky fall one day, two boys who grew up together, two boys destined for something greater who write their own paths anyway. It’s Sora and Riku. Nomura himself has stated that “Sora and Riku represent the theme of the Kingdom Hearts series, which is the ‘light and dark sides of the heart,’” the essence of this essay.

Carrying on, some may stop me here and say that their love doesn't need to be romantic for a point to be made. But I argue that there is no other way.

Romantic love in stories often serves as the culmination of the story’s themes. In Leigh Bardugo's books, her romances serve to show the importance of love and healing. In the Shadow & Bone trilogy, Alina has the options between the Darkling, representing power, Nikolai, representing nationalism, and Mal, representing love. Just love. Not one befitting of a Saint, someone to change the world, but that’s not who Alina wanted to be; she just wanted a happy ending. Shockingly, she picks Mal. In Six of Crows, Kaz and Inej's romance, both traumatized teenagers, serves to show that you can heal and you can love. They're both scared of people, scared of intimacy and yet they still love with all their scars on display.

In Revolutionary Girl Utena, the romance between Utena and Anthy reaches its climax at the end of the show, displaying the vulnerability of both girls and the rawness of their feelings. But most importantly, it drives home the message: that the power to bring revolution is not the power of a prince or a witch. The power to change the world is love. The only way to change the world to be suitable to live in is through love. The power, a revolution, brought by love.

Romance is a revolution. It’s often saved for the last act of stories because of how it acts as a thread between all of the themes. In Kingdom Hearts, the theme needing weaving is balance: balance between yourself and others, balance between selflessness and selfishness, balance between Light and Darkness. Sora and Riku getting together would be Yin and Yang—a boy who had to accept his Darkness and a boy who had to fight for his Light. They complement each other and fill where the other lacks.

Likewise, a relationship between them stresses the importance of connections. Tai Yasue, co-director of the series, has stated that “the theme of the KH series is ‘connections of the heart,’” and the narrative will take advantage of any opportunity to let that theme shine. Previously, many defenders of Light would sacrifice their connections with others for a greater good. But Sora and Riku choosing to love each other, choosing to love the Light and Darkness in each other instead of trying to chase away their Darkness, is showing that love is their other option.

Sora getting with Kairi challenges nothing. It tells the others that Light must be with Light, that good must be with good. Even their grand attack in Re:Mind is two giant angel wings where they proclaim, “Light!” Sora and Riku, however, show that Light does not mean good. It shows that people can do bad things, and it doesn't make them bad, because people are not black and white. Like two kingdoms forever at war with each other, finally coming together and realizing that the other side is human and that you can't simply demonize them.

Sora and Kairi say there is nothing wrong with the world. To carry on. Sora and Riku say that there isn’t anything wrong with the world; it’s the people looking the wrong way. There is nothing wrong with what’s around us. Nothing wrong, nothing right. “Nothing is whole, and nothing is broken.” It’s simply being: being Darkness, being Light, being both, being neither.

It has to be Sora and Riku. It's always had to be them. Riku brought Sora up to the status of a Child of Destiny, and their journeys were led by each other, their character development taught by one another, and their acceptance will come from (an eventual) conversation between the two about their pain and hurt and Darkness, it’s all always been leading here. To this moment in time where they show the world all the hurt they hold and how they carry on with.

All of that, and loving each other?

They are crossing the line, as Hikaru Utada sings in Don't Think Twice. They are going to be crossing every line established in Kingdom Hearts, and this is their power. Their revolution. Their predetermined yet self-made destiny. The payoff for years and years of searching and yearning and pining and chasing is a love that brings revolution, and oh...isn't that just romantic?

That is the answer to “What is a heart?” The heart is the love you have, despite it all. The heart is the connections you make, despite it all. The heart is your Darkness and your Light and your experiences and your fights, despite it all. The heart is Sora and Riku, despite it all.

grant us the power to bring the world revolution

A lot of this analysis really depends on whether or not you believe Sora and Riku are in love with one another, I realize. You may agree with me that it seems fitting that their coming together as a pair would catalyze all the themes in Kingdom Hearts, but you disagree that it means they'd ever be a pairing. Which, I'd like to thank you for at least hearing me out.

The queerness of their relationship means there will always be naysayers to them getting together, there will always be people claiming that I'm reaching. I do not care if you see them as brothers or ‘just’ really good friends. I see a love story. I see a love story and a love story saying to love, above all else. Do not judge others for you don't know what is wrong or right, for you are biased, for you are flawed, for you are human. Love others for that is the heart's will. Love.

I see that their getting together would be a testament to that love. To that forgiveness, to those flaws we have. It would be an acceptance of Riku's pain and Darkness that he mysteriously doesn't want to acknowledge, it would be an acceptance of Sora's pain that he's been bottling up ever since the beginning of his journey, and it would be an acceptance to the Light they both share. It would be the balance that so many generations have looked for and couldn't find because they did not practice acceptance, only judgment.

Sora and Riku getting together is acceptance and it's proof that love is the answer to a generational trauma that has been around ever since the beginning of time. So yeah: Soriku Endgame, Actually.

Thank you so much for reading! I’m a really big fan of stories about light and darkness and the balance between them, stories about love, and just Kingdom Hearts in general. I didn’t want to keep these thoughts in the back of my head and I’m glad I wrote them all out, even if it’s messy (and a shocking 6k words long...) Kingdom Hearts is a bit messy, after all.

If you're interested in more about Sora and Riku's relationship or just literary analysis of KH in general, please check out Constructing Kingdoms on YouTube, as it helped give me the words to write a lot of this essay. Further, if you're in total denial that there is any queer text in Kingdom Hearts, please check out this amazing video essay on Riku being gay.

That's all I have. Please feel free to share if you have any disagreements or if any parts really spoke to you, or if you have anything to add, or anything really. These two live rent-free in my mind, and I don't mind talking about them or about how they're just so perfect to change the world.

Thank you. Spread love (and the Soriku agenda.)

#kingdom hearts #sora #riku #sora and riku #soriku #soriku endgame actually #media analysis #literary analysis is my special interest #andrew's essays #meta essay #kh meta

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aotopmha · 6 months ago

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Spoilers for the entire Dawntrail MSQ!

Here's my post on the side characters.

Wuk Lamat's character isn't as bad to me as some people seem to think it is, but I think I did end up "liking" a lot of the side characters better.

This is actually also an opinion I have about Stormblood's story – eventhough I don't dislike Lyse, either, I take Gosetsu, Yugiri and the Azim Steppe cast above her (except Hien, I think he's really boring).

I just think a lot of the DT side cast is extremely effective in terms of screentime.

Koana's arc about being his honest self comes together when he gives up his position as a Dawnservant candidate to help Wuk, but the campfire scene with him and Thancred and Urianger is still one of my favourites in the expansion because it also ties together with their character arcs.

Aside from acting beyond his mask, he also gains nuance in terms of his absolute perspective regarding the value of technology.

It's a downright layered arc and I enjoy it very much.

I think people are really finger-waggy at Bakool Ja Ja's story because "it solves a bad system in 10 minutes", but I read it as more of a first step, especially in tandem with an aether current quest in the area, which had someone's whole world essentially crumble.

But I liked it for being an honest, earnest exchange between him and Wuk. He's the kind of minor villain trope that isn't the most graceful "redemption arc" because it is too close to a switch flip, but I also see him as pretty strongly in the side character bracket that doesn't really try to be a hyper-complex character.

He got a dark story, but to me it never felt like they wanted for you to cry super hard for him. Be shocked for sure, it is the first tone shift, but not really weeping your eyes out.

It reminds me a lot of the one-off Monster of the Week villain that might eventually become part of the main cast.

I ended up finding him super entertaining after he started supporting everyone in his own way, so I think he's actually not a misinformed redemption arc because he never goes back to being the same asshole, it's just not very gradual or "nuanced".

Next, I really liked Krile's journey.

The lalafell lore was neat.

But her getting to reunite with her parents was the highlight regarding her character and made me cry a bunch because it was both expected and unexpected; I was wondering where the story was going with her character the entire way through and it made so much sense to lean into her origin as an orphan.

On an emotional level, it was closure you would never expect.

I also really like the initial Echo cutscene with no dialog that first revealed her to be from another reflection. I love that kind of "show, don't tell" storytelling.

Otis is another favourite of mine. I love the contrast between his design and personality and just find his knightly behaviour super fun.

I know Zoraal Ja's child is another divisive character, but it's his relationship with Otis that sold his character to me. The campfire scene with them is super sweet. And doing the play with him was good closure. Not quite as tearful to me, but sweet nontheless.

Finally, there is Erenville. He was in a similar situation as Krile to me. The entire way through, I was wondering what they were going to do with him.

And it turns out, pain.

We learn about his mom early on and the entire way through Heritage Found and Solution 9, there is this feeling of unease when we meet her as "a robot".

In fact, I knew there is probably tragedy waiting in regards to her.

She's an absolutely wonderful character. Adore her teasing and "embarrassing mom" energy.

And Erenville is simply another example of how people face loss. And well, he simply couldn't face it.

Who could properly face everything he went through in the short time it is revealed in?

He went home the first time in years and was met with a completely different place he left with the person he probably cares about the most in the most morally horrendous situation you can think of.

His entire role in this expansion was suffering.

So when he finally honestly talked to her at the end, it was another really impactful scene to me.

I mentioned it in another post, but I know there is another pretty prominent complaint about some characters getting too little time in this expansion, but so many of them have just these really strong and meaningful scenes to me.

I'd rather take a character with 3 really meaningful scenes than 10 "simple" ones.

And I really, REALLY hope they don't walk back any of the deaths. Because this time around it really is intrinsic to making the story's point.

And these stories also left a lot of room for exploration for these characters.

Erenville has a newfound motivation for exploration I wholly believe.

Krile has an entire new civilisation to look into.

And I think Koana's interest and perspective on technology could still be explored.

And I actually think they really could do more with Bakool Ja Ja and Gulool Ja, too.

I'm a little worried about there not yet being setup for new true big picture 10-year stuff because all of this could be resolved in the patches, but I get the feeling that key might lead us to it.

I think a lot in the big picture perspective with this story and in that sense, I enjoy that DT left us with so many possible leads.

#Final Fantasy XIV #Final Fantasy 14 #FFXIV #FF14 #FF #Final Fantasy #DT #Dawntrail

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oldxenomorph · 8 days ago

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i finished act 3 last night and phhhwoah. oh my god. oh my god.

but first, thoughts about the end of act 2.

finally met lord inquisitor xavier calcazar.

being questioned by him was legit a terrifying experience. the most nervous i'd ever been playing a game. stop asking me questions, man. in fact, leave me alone.

(which is what the inquisition should feel like. sometimes i think it's hard to get across just how terrifying the inquisition is and this game does a really good job at that. heinrix's presence is already unsettling, but you can still influence him and even he is subject to being surveilled by his boss. me, my retinue, and everyone on my ship is being watched by the lord inquisitor.)

i don't trust this fool. not one bit.

act 3 happened so fast, i completed it in around two days and i don't think i'm ever getting over just how good/horrifying this experience was.

I WAS NOT AWARE THAT THE ENTIRETY OF ACT 3 TAKES PLACE IN COMMORAGH.

aesthetically, commoragh was made especially for me in a government lab.

the team i took: kibella, yrliet, abelard, pasqal, and argenta.

getting worm shoved into in my brain that made me violently sick and hallucinate being on trial by the inquisition? owlcat have you been looking into my brain?

there really was a point where the moment i was alone, without weapons, without armor, sick as all hell, i was like "oh my god i'm never getting out here. i and my retinue really are going to die here."

i was literally so close to actually crying listening to kibella in the anatomical opera and then talking to her again when we were safe in the shrieker's pit. my love was so traumatized and there was nothing i could do. last time i felt this helpless and distraught was during priority: thessia in me3.

(hearing her stumble over her prayers really made me put down my controller and put my head in my hands.)

however, i did chose the taint/distortion option when talking to her. i really want that heretic romance ending for her. please, she is the love of my life, i need her at my side forever.

tervanitas as also made for me in a government lab. traps him under a highball glass and studies him.

this was probably the most heretical i've been all game. i did the quest where you side with the chaos gods to sabotage commoragh. (which, the cutscene where you unleash chaos into the arena and throughout commoragh was so satisfying. every daemon from every one of the ruinous powers just floods the screen.)

which, i also summoned again to vaporize tervanitas and the haemonucli as a sacrifice. sorry, man. i still think you're neat and will find some use for you.

i recruited marazhai. i'm afraid he is growing on me.

especially since our first real interaction you can grab him by the throat and remind him of his place and he enjoys every second it. maybe i will enjoy having him in my retinue.

both argenta's reveal about theodora and achilleas's off-screen fate were. hm. i'll have to think about some more, but i don't necessarily like the writing for these two instances.

i'm glad ulfar and i also do not trust the lord inquisitor. (also, very cool to actually see a wh40k property do something interesting with omophagea.)

i know it's technically more lore accurate to not forgive yrliet because the majority of humans in wh40k have been indoctrinated into the imperial cult and thus believe that all xenos are bad. but i have mass effect brain and am trying to see things from yrliet's perspective. in the end, i forgave yrliet because her desperation to find out what happened to crudarach was also used against her. (also the reveal of crudarach's fate? insanely fucked up and horrifying. it only made me want to help her more.)

also, love that we got an actual harlequin and that they talk in poetry/riddles. oh nocturne of oblivion we’re really in it now. and thanks for helping me escape.

and then i started act 4 but stopped just after everyone talked to me.

my love kibellah is so strong for enduring commoragh with me, i immediately kissed her when we got back.

also, did not expect jae actually being a former guardsman. genuinely surprised to get some guardsman lore. (i really appreciate this game's take on the imperium, i think having it set on the fringes of the imperium allows for it to explore all these topics and issues.)

#local xenomorph is typing #oldxenomorph plays rogue trader #got dragged through hell and back in act 3 oh my god #hoping to try and get as much done today and the weekend before class starts again #but right now it’s nap time 😴

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basil-does-arttt · 5 months ago

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DMC Questions Anon here!

As we all know today is the 23rd anniversary of the first Devil May Cry game, and the series as a whole. So I want to hear you talk about DMC 1, what you love about it, headcanons you have about it, alternate scenarios you want to share, anything DMC 1 you want to talk about.

Hello again! This is gonna be a long post i have a lot to say lol

DMC 1 was my introduction to the series way back when as a little kid, when i watched an older cousin play it and eventually tried it out myself. This was also the PS2 version, and i was gifted the disc + console as well at some point.

The Alastor cutscene stuck in my head for literal years after i first saw it as a kid, that and DMC 3's mission 20 arena. Every so often it'd pop into my head as a memory, untill recently when i decided to get back into DMC fully rather than just occasionally remembering it.

DMC 1 holds a very special place in my heart because of that, its a huge nostalgia thing for me and is my favourite game in the series.

I love the setting and tone of the game, its so unique compared to the others, of course all in thanks to DMC 1 starting out as RE4. That whole gothic castle, almost horror vibe is something you dont really expect from hack&slash games these days, and even though it made for some real clunky and annoying moments in game (cough cough Nelo 2 and Griffon 2 cough cough...) to me, the good far outweighs the bad.

Oh and the soundtrack! Its so good, every theme works so well in the scene it's used for, even the abient tracks. I will say however, the bg music got real messed up on the HD remaster which is very dissapointing. (it sounds flat and doesn't have any echoing anymore, specicially the divinity statue room and Phantom's church arena in the start of mission 3). It may not be noticable to some who have only played the HD release, but i noticed it immediately coming from the PS2 version oof. I guess i have to be greatful that a HD release exists in the first place though, and it is a very old game. Still.

The combat also, (and this might not be an opinion shared by everyone which is fine) i feel is the smoothest out of any Dante in any game. All the attacks are so responsive, and although you're limited, you can still style on enemies pretty easily.

Finally the bosses. Arguably the best lineup of any DMC game, every boss is fun in it's own way and brings something new to the table in terms of mechanics. Phantom is a lot of timing correctly, Nelo pushes your fighting style to be more agressive and direct, Griffon challenges your dodging skills, Nightmare is a puzzle solving boss, and Mundus is all three. The designs are also amazing, and most of the arenas are perfect. Griffon 2 and nelo 2 aren't so great arenas but their 3rd arenas more than make up for it.

Okay enough of me gushing about how much i love the mechanics, some HCs i have for it!!

1/ That motorcycle Trish bust the door down with (and then throws at Dante) wasn't hers, right? We see it in the into cutscene before it cuts to Dante at his desk. Well, its my HC that was Lady's bike (she was not happy).

2/ (aside from gameplay mechanic reasons) The reason Dante cant use DT at the start of the game, despite having awakened it in DMC 3, is because Dante wants to push away from embracing his demonic side even more so now after his brother has been "killed". He always disliked being part demon and preferred not to tap into his demonic abilities because of that, demons are evil creatures after all and Dante is far from that, but that hate is even further exemplified after Vergil fell into hell.

3/ When Trish split off to fly solo as a devil hunter, she kept the name "Devil Never Cry" for her business. People do often confuse her for Dante's "Devil May Cry" especially when the names are abbreviated. Dante finds it mildly annoying, Trish finds it hilarious. (Sometimes she'll direct clients to Dante out of pity too when they call her number asking for Devil May Cry rather than Devil Never Cry, instead of convincing them she's the right person. Dante however always sends them over to Trish if they've called the wrong number.)

4/ Dante probably knew Trish was trying to lure him to his death on Mallet island, but he went anyways to avenge his family's death. We know he'd been searching for Mundus ever since DMC 3 (it says so in DMC 5's "history of DMC" cutscene), and he knows that finding and killing Mundus wouldn't be nearly as easy as Trish made it seem. Wether he came back or not, he was going to kill Mundus, or at least try.

As for alternate scenarios, i dont have much in mind. Maybe it would be interesting to see a scenario where Trish never betrayed Dante, and instead she tried to help him during the nightmare fight. It still would've ended the same way for her, but maybe also Dante wouldn't have gotten so angry with her when he saved her.

Ugh i just love DMC 1 so much, like i said before it holds a special place in my heart. I hope that answers everything :> <3

#devil may cry #dmc #dante devil may cry #dmc 1 #devil may cry 1

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lulu2992 · 1 month ago

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Deleted dialog from Far Cry 3’s main story

I went through the Far Cry 3 oasisstrings file, which contains all the subtitles (among other in-game text), in search of unreleased lines of dialog from the main story.

I looked at what was available in the sound files, organized all of them in separate folders, checked several gameplay videos to refresh my memory on which lines were in the game, and ended up with a list of all the dialog that, for whatever reason, didn’t make it to the final version of Far Cry 3.

In this series of posts, I��m sharing all the unreleased content I found (minus a few duplicates), even when it wasn’t very interesting, so we have a comprehensive list of the lines that were cut in each story mission.

On a side note, the oasisstrings file never says which character is speaking, so every time you see names, it’s either because the corresponding audio files were available and I know who the speaker is, or because the context made it easy to guess their identity.

Part 1: Make a Break for It

The game opens with a video of Jason and his friends having fun on vacation, but it seems this scene was originally longer. A few of the lines below are still in the game, others were cut but are still available as audio files (and can be listened to here), and the rest is completely gone.

Here’s the dialog from the long version of the “parachute” sequence from the opening cutscene:

Woohoo! Yeah!

Yup.

Locked and loaded, bro.

ETA thirty seconds.

Time to bail.

Daisy, Daisy, check your rig.

I'm going commando.

Yeah, that's my girl. Go baby!

Go baby!

I could do that in my sleep!

Hey, good idea!

You ready to go?

Yeah!

Let's do this!

Hey bro!

Film this!

Awesome!

Hey Jason, try this!

Great! Now rock this!

Hey. Watch it!

[Joyful yell]Riley! I'm coming!

Liza!

You're it!

What?!

I'm catching you!

I'm right behind you!

Sorry![laughs]

Time to bail.

Pull up!

Why, you scared?

You win!

What're you doing?

Having fun! Wooo!

Deploy your chute!

You're crazy, J!

I learned from the best.

[yells] Nothing can stop us!

Nothing!

Woohoo! Yeah!

Awesome! [laughs]

Yeah!

Nice!

Yeah!

Go, Jason!

[cheers] Woo hoo, yeah baby! Let's go! Woo hoo, yeah!

Dude!

Awesome!

Jason! [Cheer]

Yeah!

Awesome!

Nice!

Hey Daisy, watch this! Whoo! Awesome!

Jason! Watch this!

Yeah baby!

This is awesome! Yeah, baby!

Yeah baby!

Woohoo! Yeah!

Daisy, check this out!

Holy shit! Oh my God!

J check this out!

Oh this is awesome! Holy shit!

Hi!

You can also find an early version of this cinematic (without most of the dialog) here.

After the scene with Vaas and Grant getting himself and Jason out of the cage, the two brothers try to snealiky escape the camp. There could have been more dialog between them:

Wait wait.

Slow down.

Jason, we need to get past this guy. Toss a rock over there.

These guys need to go down. I'll take one, you take the other. Follow my lead.

Shh, they're sleeping inside.

Fuck.

Wait here. We need that map.

Come on, J. Pick them up.

Through here, it's all clear.

Oh god.

We're gonna get out of here, okay.

J. Check that door out over there. I'll get this one.

Lunatic.

Got it. [Psst] Over here.

C'mon.

Yeah? [As in, it had to be done]

Shh. Keep low.

Oh shit! Shit! Left, left, Left! C'mon!

Come on, come on, come on, come on!

Climb down after.

Quick, Jason. Hand me the map.

Yeah, yeah. I'm okay.

This is insane.

Shut up! Shhh!

Oh my...

What are you doing? What are you doing? I'm coming, I'm coming.

Oh God. Oh God.

Okay, okay. I'm coming. Shh!

Oh shit! Grant!

You're such a badass, dude.

Okay.

Yeah, okay.

Oh fuck, stop it.

Oh shit!

What the fuck? Stop it, shh!

When they think they’re finally safe, Grant gets shot. There used to be a short exchange between Jason (whose line can be found here) and Vaas immediately after the gunshot:

Vaas: Oh God.[Laugh] This is so dramatic. Jason: You killed my brother, you fuck! Vaas: You killed my brother you motherfucker [Laugh]. Vaas is so mean, huh? Really. No no, Vaas is a meanie hoo hoo.

By the way, one of Vaas’ lines (“I'm gonna give you 30 seconds and if this jungle doesn't eat you up alive, I will.[whistle] Go, go”) always gets cut in the game, but you can listen to the full version here.

Finally, Jason runs away through the forest with Vaas’ pirates after him. There originally was going to be more dialog during this sequence too, mostly from Jason, it seems:

Fuck!

No, no, no! No, no!

Stay away from me.

What's that?

Stay back!

Grant. I'm sorry.

Gotta keep moving.

He went through that cave!

You're dead!

No...no...

Oh God.

Come on. Come on.

I gotta get to the other side. Fast.

Shit!

He falls into the river, and the adventure truly begins.

#new series here we go!#far cry 3 #jason brody #grant brody #riley brody #liza snow #daisy lee #oliver carswell #keith ramsey #vaas montenegro #far cry 3 spoilers

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baeshijima · 2 months ago

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so i finally finished kinichs tribal/story quest (its long overdue ik... i still need to finish clorindes and start mualanis, siegewinnes, and emilies sqs... and also chascas now too...) and?? sobbing... the ending made me cry... ESP THAT CUTSCENE WITH THE MOUNTAIN KING FINDING SIMILARITIES OF BURKINA IN KINICH BC OF THE ANCIENT NAME AND THEN ACCEPTING THE BURDENS HE IS TO CARRY AND CONTINUING TO LIVE LIKE HELLO WHAT WHO LET OUT THE WATERWORKS???

anywho...

ENJOU *HEART EYES* the silly ever i hope he becomes a romanceable 🙏🙏

and also kinich too bc um.

kinich. what are we. this is not what friends say to each other. we are lovers now haha.

also literally sobbed at this part bc???

enjou bringing nanna back to huni.... oh my heart....

anyway yeah. banger quest. it had enjou.

#just genshin <3 #LET HIM BE ROMANCEABLE I WILL CHANGE THE GENRE FOR HIM IDC IDC #HE GAVE US FLOWERS ON WHITE DAY WHAT ARE WE ENJOU TELL ME WHAT ARE WE

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3gremlins · 2 months ago

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ahhhh i finished it last saturday night (11/9) (this will post from the q so after other q'd things)! it was really enjoyable tbh, i really liked it. it was good (if we don't get another da game, i am fairly satisfied) not perfect but few things are. def stick with it if you're not sure, there's a LOT at the end

spoilers for the end of veilguard- initial notes after the cut, not particularly organized

not me figuring out the varric reveal like 5 minutes before it was actually revealed tho XD tbh i was expecting him to die from the trailers and then he didn't and i was like "oh perhaps they're doing something else with him?" so they got me with the bait and switch and i was properly horrified. good job, you got me bioware. (as an aside, i still don't think varric was a strong enough choice as solas' friend for the intro section, like you never get the impression they are friends in dai at all. varric was stronger friends with anders than he was with solas, despite weird dai retcon about it. I wish they'd centered the narrative around someone else there- cole would have been a good choice? or cole and varric even since that's the most interesting interaction varric has with solas in dai) i'll def have to watch the cutscenes with him in subsequent pts. I kinda wish they'd done a follow up with him somewhere, maybe like the endings in that one fade book you find in trespasser (like at that fade bar with alistair/the warden/hawke/etc, would have been nice). got some solavellan conclusions, more than i expected and it was pretty good all things considered (i would have loved more, but also this was much more than we've gotten from other cameos of previous protagonists).

(is this the most awkward screenshot ever? possibly XD look she loves him so much, she'll even kiss his blight-y mouth and go live with him in the fade) i do wish they'd figured out a way to keep cole in (esp since spirit cole has that sad line about needing to help solas at the end of trespasser) somewhere. it was still pretty good honestly, i cried (this whole game made me cry at various points tho). I do think it could have resolved with them both living outside the fade and just his life being tied to it but i also get them wanting to literally tie up loose ends with this particular narrative.

it feels very mass effect 2ish (esp the end game section), i think most people will like it but i did find the end game section kinda stressful (where you have to pick the right person for things). Also for a dragon age game, usually by the end you have your team so having to break up the team so they live is not necessarily what i want in a DA game (i can appreciate it narratively while disliking it in practice lol) The format is also very mass effect-y in how it doles out companion stuff (esp romance stuff)- it's paced around the plot which is for the most part a good thing (but it also made it hard to tell where you were with things). I definitely like how they utilized the factions better than DAI or DAO tho- even tho only their rank mattered, having the characters in cut scenes and as npcs you can chat with at the end was really nice. I don't know if it's just lucanis' romance or all of them, but i kept thinking i'd missed something b/c of how long they make you wait for private time alone with your partner (the parts we get are really good, don't get me wrong, it just made me wait FOREVER to smooch him or get more than burning looks lol). 100% worth it tho. will romance many more times probably

(aside: getting to have a rook who's got a body like mine and a flat chest and have another character look at them desirously was just gender euphoria really. like okay actually their chest is nicer than mine -i have to do more pushups- but STILL. THANK YOU BIOWARE FOR INCLUDING NON BINARY PEOPLE SO MUCH IN THIS NARRATIVE and integrating us so deeply in all the bits, not just pronouns and basic shit) Like it wasn't even before the first "final" mission but before teh for realskies final mission ish (and i got more dialogue towards the end too). Real Return of the King BUT WAIT there's more vibes with the end (past the point of no return warning). I wish there was a little bit more romance partner time in act 2 even if it was just vibing? I did get a lot of good companion banter about it which i love (i live for banter and the banter in this was so good) i think my biggest note is i didn't feel the music helped it that much? idk i wish they'd just gone with one of their previous composers so it felt more dragon age-y (the zimmer score felt a little generic except when it did reprises of previous dragon age themes). Sometimes it felt too bombastic and sometimes there was not enough, idk, it just didn't have quite the same feel. i did like that they reused the bard music from DAI in the cities, made me smile hearing the sera song esp. i also wish the approval/tone system was a little more like dragon age 2 where you got unique dialogue choices based on which you chose more. Also sometimes the "sassy" answer wasn't that sassy or felt mean, there felt like a little bit of a disconnect between what i would have expected from the choice and what was said. The approval system was a bit weird too - like there were no approvals early on and then suddenly people reacted to things (but it didn't seem to impact their bonds). It felt like that could have used more tweaking or been more obvious anyway. It also felt like it required your character to code switch when talking to different companions since some of them responded to the different tones differently- which felt really weird and a little clunky. I def wished for more of the DA2 style where your companions just accept that you are a fun or kind or straightforward and you can rp that for the whole game.

i really liked the art direction (tho i did sort of miss the persistent splatter gore) and loved all the companions! the story was overall pretty good tho it suffered from a few pacing issues early on (you could sort of tell it had been reworked a little bit and bits were still a bit weird- but tbh all the games suffer from this a bit).

the combat was fun! i wish the targeting was a little better (as i've mentioned) and toward the end of the game, i got some stuttering when a lot of things were hitting rook at once (so it wouldn't register my dodges correctly). I played as rogue rook and it was super fun, glad i went with my actual fave class on my first pt (i always think i should be a mage and then want to be a rogue so im glad i can finally be like no no, i love knives and arrows!) The optional bosses were the most fun/challenging. Finished the game with the poison squad ofc but most of the companions felt reasonably balanced when I had to use certain parties (i'd say the warriors felt the weakest in their skills, have to see how player warrior feels, rogue rook was awesome). i loved that you could refund your skill tree at any point for no cost and also that it explained the bits of the tree (bursty, control, etc) so you could work out your own build for it. I wish the super special rune you get for beating the optional questline wasn't presented as your last ditch effort thing- i got confused by this dialogue and was a little afraid to use it at first (i thought i'd have to use it at a particular time in a fight, but nah it was just a really good rune with a normal cd) Obviously there's still more questions (the "secret" post credits scene) and i kinda wanted a post credit party scene? Maybe if we're lucky we'll get one like we did for bg3 i'm pretty satisfied, already started some more rooks and ready to make some fan art! [im also pretty sure my first pt had the most bugs since i started it on release date and didn't get the starter quest achievements until my 2nd rook, so we'll see how it plays with war rook and mage rook)

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smuglilsomethin · 1 year ago

Text

The Maybe Man by AJR is so Furina coded

Soooo I was listening to the new AJR album (I have Steve's Going to London stuck on loop in my head). And then I played through 4.2 over the weekend. And now I really want to make it into an animatic so I have a whole lyric chart thingy set up and everything.

Obvi this is going to contain spoilers for Fontaine 4.2 (not her story quest tho, I haven't played it... will probably rb this with updates if I decide to make any changes to the lyric analysis)

This made me think of how Focalors and the Oceanids wanted to be human. They saw how the humans did goofy human things (having emotions, being happy, being sad, etc... hence the "made up and smiled") and went "Yes I want to do that". So they "don't want to be stone, [they] changed their mind". They didn't want to be oceanids anymore, they wanted to become human.

Wish I was a stone, so I couldn't feel

You'd yell in my face, it'd be no big deal

But I'd miss the way we make up and smile

Don't want to be stone I changed my mind.

This one's a bit on-the-nose. It made me think of Furina's accession speech and how at first she was earnest, probably thinking a lot about what Focalors said to her (the "places [she's] been" being the mirror scene when Focalors first told her to pretend to be the hydro archon), but then she heard the Fontainians judging her and questioning her legitimacy as an archon ("talking shit"). In animatic form this would just be where it shows why she started acting all-knowing and all-powerful. Also I wonder if she actually thought of the Fontainians as her "friends"/equals when she initially began her speech.

I wish I had eyes in the back of my head

Then I could see the places I've been

But then I would know that you're talkin' shit

I don't want to know what my friends think.

I've yet to see Furina interact with a dog so my first thought was that scene where she was playing with the cats in the courtyard on the night Arlecchino attacked her. Not that scene specifically, but just the idea that she normally plays with stray animals in Fontaine's city. The "I wouldn't live long" immediately made me think of her lifespan being unnaturally extended via her curse, meaning humans don't live long to her (not just dogs/cats, though it's the same way pets don't live long in comparison to humans).

Wish I were my dog, out on the lawn,

I'd be so glad when I hear you come home

But if I were my dog, I wouldn't live long

I'm sure gonna miss her when she's gone.

I wish I could act in a show on TV

'Cause then I could practice not bein' me

I'll practice my cry, put it into my reel

But you won't believe when I cry for real.

This one I thought fit Furina really well. Furina de Fontaine acts in plays as well as fakes being an archon. Bro is acting 24/7, always practicing "not being [her]". Because she never is her actual self.

In an animatic I could see that for the "I'll practice my cry, put it into my reel" it could show her crying, like full on breaking down, but then on the "you won't believe me when I cry for real" it zooms out to show that it's a stage with an applauding crowd to show that the Fontainians think it's just a part of the show she's starring in.

She wants to be as wise as a real archon. Whether it be her finally being able to come up with a way to stop the prophecy, or a way to always win in a trial (every "fight", or as she would put it, every "duel"). Except if she was always all-knowing, she would constantly be thinking about the prophecy or other super heavy archon-related things, and being a human, humans aren't meant to constantly be under that strain. Because (as I interpreted the cutscene, at least) even though she had the prophecy and archon role weighing her down, she seemed to at least have some moments where she was having genuine fun (i think??? or maybe she's just that good of an actor and fooled me ig)

I wish that my brain would triple in size

I'd nail every joke, I'd win every fight

But I'd get too deep with that kind of mind

I don't wanna know the point of life.

In some other life I would be rich

I'd travel in style, I'd cover the bill

But couldn't complain 'bout anything small

Nobody'd feel bad for me at all.

She's living someone else's life as the hydro archon. She already lives luxuriously so I think in the animatic it would just be showing her day-to-day life, doing fake archon things. But she can't confide in anyone the truth. She can't "complain about anything small", or break the image that she's this perfect being. And because of that, "Nobody would feel bad for [her] at all".

If I was cocaine or a bottle of Jack

I'd get invited to every frat

But when you get old and your good days have passed

You'll only want me when you're sad.

This made me think of her trailer where she was surrounded by all the Fontaine characters in a choreographed fight. Except instead, this part of the animatic would be her surrounded by Fontainians dancing. Naturally, as an archon, she gets invited to every party.

But when she gets old, and her good days have passed--when the flood dissolves everyone and she's all alone in the sea--she'll only have the memories of those plays and dances that she had with the humans when they were still there. (This never happened but it's what she expected to happen since the beginning. It lowkey reminds me of Briar Rose from Ever After High? Like she wants to party and have fun with everyone while she still can before everyone gets dissolved and she's all alone.)

The first two lines kind of go with the previous paragraph with the music and dancing. But the second two lines made me think of the scenes where she would have Fontainians having appointments to meet with her and being all excited. Except "two or three minutes, then I'm gone". I interpreted this as every human's lifespan feeling extremely short to Furina, especially with that one part of the cutscene where one of the humans was talking about one of their ancestors being the first in their bloodline to meet her--a human that we saw her "talking to" only a few moments ago in the same cutscene.

Wish I was a song, your favorite one

You'd follow the dance to me at your prom

I would be there when your baby is born

For two or three minutes, then I'm gone.

I wish I was big, as big as my house

I'd sleep on the trees, I'd skip every crowd

But I wouldn't fit on my therapist's couch

God, I could really use him now.

Now's when the meat of the song comes in.

She wishes that she was as "big", or as powerful, as a real archon. She'd do all the things a real archon could do ("sleep on the trees", "skip every crowd"... not sure how these would be depicted but you get the point).

But then, she wouldn't need Neuvillette anymore, which I see as her main support (even though she never tells him anything, she wanted him to go to Arlecchino's meeting with her to feel safe so I feel like she places some confidence in him / reliance on him at least). But she doesn't want to not need Neuvillette anymore. She wants him around.

I wish I was God, I'd never trip up

And if I did, well, so fuckin' what?

I could be cruel and break all your stuff

Yeah, I'd be loved no matter what...

THIS STANZA LKSDJFSDLKJFDSLKJ

Again, she wants to be a real archon (or maybe she doesn't--my favorite part of this song is how it's constantly contradicting itself and going back on its statements because maybe you would want to be all-knowing. Maybe you would want to be all-powerful. Maybe you would want to be God. It's indecisive and constantly changing, just like the human condition etc etc). She wouldn't have to be so scared of messing up. She wouldn't have to be afraid of the humans questioning her legitimacy. She could do whatever she wanted and get away with it. The Fontainians would love her no matter what.

But if I was God, it'd get kinda weird

'Cause you would only say what I wanna hear.

And then you would die. You'd love me to death.

I'd never know who the hell I am.

...Except, if she were an actual archon, she'd still feel weird about how the humans worshipped her. When her act is convincing enough, the humans listen to what she says without question. Especially that one part of the cutscene where she's meeting with one of the citizens and literally starts crying in the middle of it. She makes up an excuse about her being the hydro archon, thus having excess hydro in her system... and the human just. Buys it. She starts fangirling as Furina is crying.

And then they would die. They'd love her to death.

This could fit with that part with the talk of bloodlines and the first ancestor who met her, but I'd like to think that it meant the prophecy's flood.

The prophecy would swallow Fontaine whole. All the Fontainians would dissolve.

But they'd still love her to death. They would still worship her without question.

And she'd never know who she was for real.

I wish I was me, whoever that is

I could just be and not give a shit

Hey, I'll be whatever makes you a fan

'Cause I don't know who the hell I am.

I can see her saying this during her internal monologue stage as her play's final scene.

She wants to be herself, but she doesn't know how. She's been Focalors since day one, so she has no idea who Furina is.

One, two, pandemonium!

Here I go again

One, two, pandemonium!

Here I go again

One, two, pandemonium!

One, two—

Here I go again.

---------------------------------------------------------------

This part of the song oml. "Pandemonium" describes Fontaine's archon quest pretty well, and combined with the instrument spaghetti in the song finale it conveys the feeling of the storyline precisely.

When the instruments start playing and the crowd starts cheering, I could see that being the magic box opening revealing that Furina is going on trial.

Here she goes again, about to put on another performance.

I was thinking of making this into a series? Like I have a lot of songs that line up with characters (not just Genshin, like I currently have one for Danganronpa that's been cooking for like a year) and I want to put it in some kind of lyric analysis / animatic planning format like I did with this one. I'm putting this post (along with the Lyney as Envy Baby drawing) under [ #smug's playlist ] so look out for that I guess?

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