#am i done yelling about kh3? no. am i done being mad about kairi? also no

[koukoupepia]

i posted this on twitter but i might as well post this here too, somewhat aimless rambling about the destiny trio in kh3 and how it did them dirty under the cut. beware, its kind of long. kh3 spoilers, obviously

this isn't my thoughts on kh3 as a whole, its more of a kairi/destiny trio rant. this isnt entirely coherent either. god ok im sorry for all the kh3 talk but i dont know how long its going to take me to stop being pissed about what happened with kairi when for a long time they were building her up to be a character who Does Stuff now. she gets her keyblade in kh2! it was revealed she's be joining the 7 guardians in the ddd secret ending! she's talking to yen sid with riku at the end of 0.2! and when we were let down i saw people saying "well, what did you expect? it's square." like its not common knowledge kh doesnt have the best writing but i dont thing its unrealistic to have expected better than THAT. a cardboard cutout who got fridged for manpain. like kairi wasnt always the best character, certainly wasnt very well treated, but i cant believe that fucking kh2 treated her better than kh3 did.

anyway i keep thinking about how it makes me sad that the destiny trio is really not a trio, but also that their relationship progression... doesnt make a lot of sense. when info came out about kh3 having a theme of relationships changing, i wondered if they were actually going to be leaning away from the romance angle (still too much to ask for, but god.) i wondered if sora and kairi were going to realize they weren't as close as they used to be, since they have spent SO much time apart with no contact. and sora and riku continue to be very tight, because every game since kh2 has woven them together like the tightest knit sweater. i like the idea that sora & kairi have puppy crushes on each other in the early games - -in kh1 theyre very sweet. i wouldve been happy with canon sokai if their friendship continued to be as sweet as that. it's kind of interesting how in kh2, when sora sees sally and jack dancing, he imagines himself and kairi dancing together, but it's his current self and a younger kairi, because it's how he last remembers her. at that point he still feels closest to kairi and his relationship with riku is strained.

kh2 changes the dynamic when sora and riku finally reunite and they make up in a very healthy way (catch me crying about the scene on the dark margin, ive never seen two characters mend their relationship in a way that made me cry that much.) sora leaves the islands again, but the scene where kairi regifts the charm she made him after he gives it back is important because it shows that they both have faith that they'll continue to be friends no matter how far apart they are, and they'll find each other again. by Days you see the utter dedication that riku has to sora, he basically treats living a waking nightmare with the single goal to make sure sora wakes up safely as atonement. sora doesnt know the extent of this but you, the audience, do. the series REALLY emphasizes their relationship and their closeness and their dedication to each other, how they support each other in the ways they need. re:coded has the journal decide that riku was the best form to take to protect information about sora's journey. ddd shows riku as the only one fit to dive into sora's heart to wake him up. (and as of kh3 we know that dives to the heart exist in a place where the line between sleep and death is very thin -- aka, riku really risked his whole ass life AGAIN for a CHANCE to wake sora up.) when riku is told he passed the mark of mastery, sora is too busy being happy for him to feel sad for himself.

the relationship between riku and kairi.... is very minimal. but i think it's interesting that in kh1 when maleficent manipulates riku's feelings of jealousy to draw him further into the darkness, he thinks "oh god i have to get kairi. sora can't abandon her, too." i like that in kh2, kairi is able to tell that it's him immediately and she refuses to let him walk away without reuniting him without sora. in kh3 they dont interact at all, its weird as hell. it's like they dont know each other and kairi is sora's friend only.

i was disappointed at the minimal interaction between riku and sora in kh3, and i know that it's partially because this is the first game where their individual goals and motivations dont revolve around each other somehow (sora's goals in this game are all over the place in a bad way but that's a different post) but i was really hoping for a good chat and/or heartfelt moment between them like almost every other game has, since their relationship is probably the backbone of the series. one of the things that irked me about how they treated kairi is that sora actually thinks about riku on multiple occasions throughout the game and wants to talk to him, and the part where he thinks about how riku thought he had to push him away to protect him re: elsa was an "oh shit they really did go there" moment for me. on the other hand sora did not think of or mention kairi even once before their first conversation -- they didnt even have him wonder how she was doing, or wish he could call her, or have anything remind him of her. between the end of kh2 and ddd he and kairi dont interact or contact each other once, because nomura only cares to stick kairi where she can be a romantic prize for sora and doesnt treat her like theyre actually friends.

then the actual first scene they have together is so damn jarring. this was 24 hours into my playthrough of a game that took me ~30 hours to complete. theyre on their usual spot on the paopu tree, kairi points out that riku is by himself, which is not ooc for riku, but when they have her use that moment to pull out a paopu fruit and go "heysoraiwannabetogetherforeversoletssharethese" my reaction was "where did this come from suddenly and why is it happening so fast." theres NO buildup to this scene whatsoever. and then sora's attitude completely changes after that in a really weird way, like kairi is suddenly the Thing That Matters Most when he's never ever acted like one friend meant more to him than another. nomura if you revisited your damn games you'd know sora loves everyone intensely and indiscriminately. when everyone fucking "dies" in front of sora and he's following a light that he calls riku's name to and it turns out to be! surprise! it's kairi for some reason! when i think about it, it hurts a little but i don't know why. i like that she did actually find a way to protect him, but i dont like that it had to be this weird deus ex machina that has no explanation (is this part of kairi's unexplained powers? is this just a plot device?? who knows.)

dont FUCKING get me started on xemnas kidnapping kairi in front of sora and xehanort killing her in front of him in a scene that reduced my enjoyment of the game by a solid 25% because it's BULLSHIT and FRIDGING WOMEN FOR MANPAIN IS SO ORIGINAL AND NOT CHOCK-FULL O' MISOGYNY.

sora saying kairi's the reason for his whole journey is blatantly not true (ATTENTION NOMURA REVISIT YOUR FUCKING WRITING) so he should go look for her alone while riku is standing right fucking there and riku just. lets him go??? like kairi's not his friend too??? what the fuck??? the last scene where it pans up the paopu tree to kairi and sora holding hands and sora fades away while everyone else, including riku, is just having a good time???? what the fuck???? you know sora /would/ drop everything to go save a friend but i dont like that suddenly he acts like kairi outweighs every other person in his life simply because theres some romantic interest there. with someone he was never written to have an actual relationship with. in a game about friendship. and like, shipping aside, sora and riku have one of the most SOLID friendships ive seen in any media and riku just gets ejected out of his own damn trio because of a hamfisted romance AAAAA

in conclusion: Not My Destiny Trio

[riku7se]

2.8 Impressions (spoilers below cut)

Right so I’m trying to keep my main twitter as spoiler-free as possible but I just wanted to write abt what I liked/what I thought bc I’m going stircrazy not having anyone to talk to about this (HURRY UP GLOBAL LAUNCH!!) so I have come to Tumblr.

So: I liked 0.2/BC a lot.  I rly enjoyed the gameplay in 0.2, and loved being able to choose different situation commands in the chance I had activated more than one. The larger spells (ie, Thundagun/Firagun/Blizzagun) were so fucking great.  The scenery was also super beautiful, and I really don’t have any misgivings about the models anymore, I feel like they did a great job.  I’ve seen some people complain about certain story aspects/answers/reveals, but tbh I’m pretty satisfied (more below the cut.)

EVEN BEGINNER WAS KIND OF A BIT DIFFICULT FOR ME TBH LIKE unless you actively speedrun or do crit lv1 run for fun or something pls make your first play on Beginner lmao.

For BC, I’ve been attached to KHx’s story since it launched way back in 2013, so I was ALL OVER hearing more about the foretellers.  And while there are still some odd scene transitions, I am overall super SUPER pleased with it.  It’s worth noting, though, that the initial scene for BC is actually a snapshot replay of THE ENTIRE BROWSER STORY UP UNTIL THE VERY END, so there are spoilers for that.

I’m in the middle of going through 3D rn, and I had to fuckin....slow down the camera bc it was Too Fast For Me.  Otherwise, it’s very interesting to see how they adapted things like Reality Shifts and Link Portals to only use one screen (look at this. Look At This)

Okay, now for more concrete stuff, in largely worded bullet points, pretty much entirely about 0.2 and BC.

0.2

Hearing that Yen Sid forbade Mickey from talking about Aqua because he figured Sora and Riku would drop everything to go after her actually REALLY satisfied me as an explanation, especially after seeing Riku get his panties in a knot after figuring out she had saved him way back in KH1--he was SO READY to go after her.

On a related note, Mickey told Aqua about Sora and RIku helping him when they found the ruined Destiny Islands.  Which puts BbS’s secret ending in a new light, I suppose--kinda like she was glad to hear that whatever Mickey had planned had succeeded.  That she still remembered their names when Mickey asked who she had met on the island warmed my heart a lil.

WHAT IN THE SHIT WAS KKD DOING BEHIND THE DOOR IN THE SECRET PLACE?? iirc Mickey said something about how, seeing as Sora acquired the Keyblade here, then the Keyblade of the Realm of Darkness should be in DI while it, too, is in the RoD...which only brings up questions. 1) Does every Keyblade have a dark counterpart?, or 2) Is Sora’s keyblade actually more special than, say, Aqua’s or Riku’s or Kairi’s?  They do resemble the parts of the x-blade, after all.

The scene with Terra is The Real Terra, but it’s only his heart.  I don’t think he can actually see anything around him so much as feel it??  He can’t see Ven, either, so even Terra proposed that these are illusions that Aqua is conjuring, especially since she is seeing Terra as she once knew him, rather than who he is now.  Speaking of, Xehanort was super using him to get Aqua to reveal where Ven was hiding...I wonder if it was through the armor? This scene also connects to the concert-only sketch with Namine and Terra...hoo boy, though, Terra. It was Terra.  His RAGE AWAKENED chains showed up and I screamed nbd.

THE MUSIC!!! Enchanted Dominion and Dwarf Woodlands had rearrangements of their world theme with the general Dark World theme, and Aqua’s new 0.2 theme (vs Mirror Aqua) sounds like something out of a survival horror game good god. Here’s a playlist.

My only real gameplay complaint was that it sometimes felt like magic took a while to be cast, or that the button presses were unresponsive. I guess it’s kinda like...if you button smash, you can’t interrupt the commands you’ve put in already to case magic??? You gotta let it go through.  Otherwise it controlled really well, and I actually can’t think of a time the camera got in my way.

The game doesn’t tell you that you have to actively jump over the Darkside’s blasts when you’re Flowmotion-ing down the vine, but I actually liked that, you don’t always need a notice for things like that.

They totally remodeled some key scenes (Mickey appearing at the DtD, Aqua walking up to the Dark Margin) and I Got Emo.

THE EFFECTS IN THIS GAME ARE SO NICE you kick up sand clouds when u run on/near DI.....so amaze....fuck this game is beautiful.

There are some light platforming elements back, too! And some really interesting puzzles! Like, one of the challenges in the Castle Town is to get to the highest point there, while Dwarf Woodlands has a puzzle that involves you switching certain set pieces between the “real” and “mirror” worlds, and materializing them from the mirror to where you are in the correct location (using the “reflection” in the mirror) so you can get on them to get to the next area.  For that one, it looks like they can materialize literally ANYWHERE around the mirror, and I’d def do so since you can get to some hidden chests that way.

The red spiky vines in Enchanted Dominion HURT, kill them with fire (literally. don’t physically attack them you risk damage).

THE FINAL BOSS WAS RIDICULOUS, at about 75%-ish health depleted the damn thing goes into the ground, dying it black (and the sky red!!) and it pops back up like some kind of angry cyclone from hell, and the music changes...it was just all really well done and I may have actually vocalized a small “what the FUCK”.

The scenes with Sora were all so good I was grinning like an idiot the entire time...I figured that Sora falling to darkness/nearly being Norted would be KH3′s excuse for pushing him back to level 1, but I never would have expected that a Disney world (Olympus) would actually play a part in Sora getting some of his power back.

Someone translated a pre-release interview saying that we’d see Riku’s new outfit in 0.2 and after looking at the original JP I knew they were wrong....and I was right, that was not what that interview said originally lmao. I’ve already seen people mad about Nomura “lying”, but that was bc the translation was off.

0.2 DEFINITELY infringes a bit on KH3′s territory, which Nomura just said in a recent interview, but I”m glad bc LOOK AT THE BOY.

BC

THE FORETELLERS ARE ALL GOOD KIDS!!! They’re spurned on by uncertainty and fear and all of them, literally all of them, are good children.  Even Aced, who I was prepared not to like, but he just wants to do what’s right and his heart never wavered.

THEY LOVE THEIR MASTER SO MUCH I’M CRY??? A scene with Gula and Ava near the end rly got to me because Gula is just so confused about what he’s meant to do and how he’s meant to do it and he just wants MoM to come back and is willing to summon KH if it means he will.

MoM is a fucking meme lord I love this and I’m sad Nomura said he wouldn’t be showing up in KH3 because WOW is he a meme lord.

I was surprised to hear that MoM was the one that gave Ava the duty to form the Dandelions, since some of the other Foretellers were surprised about it in the game...but that’s because he told them individually, and some of them (Ava’s probably, definitely Gula’s) were meant to be kept on the down low.

Gula’s mission was about the Lost Page, about finding the traitor, who “bears the recusant’s sigil”, and I’m going to punch a MoM because I still don’t know what this means.

The whole traitor thing is wild though, because at this point it’s almost like ALL of them are traitors of some kind by the end, since they all broke apart and were willing to go after each other. But it might also be Gula himself, after going out to collect Lux to summon KH, with Ira and Aced following suit just to try and keep a balance between the unions and then Invi and Ava joining in just to postpone the inevitable.

THE DEARLY BELOVED THEME FOR BC JUST STARTED PLAYING IT’S SO GOOD?? AND SAD, FUCK.

They brought up the strength bangle and the black Chirithy (Thinks about KHx. Dies.) but “Guilt” is called “Strength Bonus” in KHUx global, good job guys.

I cannot believe Luxu is voiced by CV: Tsuda Ken.  What. What.

We still don’t know what’s in that box. In exchange, we now know the eye on “No Name” is, in fact, MoM’s future-seeing eye (and may be...his actual eYE???? DID HE ACTUALLY USE HIS EYE??? I CAN’T TELL WITH MOM HE’S A MEME LORD), which relates to why the Keyblade itself is physically passed down: MoM is using it to see everything that’s happened, which means Luxu was successful in his mission (surviving the war and finding a disciple).  But THE BOX.....MoM just says it can never be opened and when he whispers to Luxu what’s inside Luxu freaks out and asks why.  And Meme Lord Extraordinaire just replies SURPRIIISE.

WHAT WAS LUXU (PROBABLY) DOING AT THE START OF 0.2. WHY R U THERE.

I’M SURE I HAVE SO MANY MORE THOUGHTS but I had so much fun with both 0.2 and BC...I can’t wait until the global release so I can yell abt this with people...