#and also keyblade kairi
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My Little Kingdom? Friendship is Power??
Destiny Trio edition!!
#noeart#kingdom hearts#my little pony#khmlp au#sora#Riku#kairi#small design notes: Riku is part bat pony! so he’s got silly ears#kairis mark is based on the Remind lotus shape her heart fragments make! she’s also a natural born alicorn#sora is a blank flank :) his wings have been changed to have a light undertone to match Kairi just like their one heart attack#all of them have beachy tone hooves!#rikus cutie mark has colors from his side of the combined keyblade. he also has Soras yellow colors
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Bruh soriku got the floral arch, the dearly beloved wedding march, and the paopu fruit 💀
#they got the rings too if the halves of the keyblade count#an official jewelry maker seemed to think so#kingdom hearts#soriku#thinking about that door in recoded forever. like whatbthefuck#none of the other doors look like this just the one data riku makes for data sora#to leave his heart/system/whatever#the stained glass is obviously connected to heart stations#and the purple is similar to riku’s heart station#but data riku is not just riku. he has sora’s memories. which explains the red and pink#probably#but like why does this door look like this. what was the reason nomura#how much more marriage symbolism can you give them#also it’s funny of him to debate whether or not to have sora and kairi share paopu#bc he didn’t want to portray their feelings as too intense#after he gave sora and riku’s combined hearts a paopu fruit#like. okay
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i'm sure this au has been done before, but i wanted to draw smth relating to the concept as well
#original.txt#fanart#kairi#sora#au#kingdom hearts#kh#''why does kairi have the keyblade if its kh1 stuff?'' well u see. convenience#also riku said smth abt it going to the next available person when the ''true wielder'' is unavailable when he takes it from sora in HB#so working with that logic. kairi's turn#also for once i actually did Some Shading Stuff#it's mild cel shading but i like it
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KHIII Chapter 35 (Eng): https://www.mediafire.com/file/x9bwpgt8ucsswr3/KH3_Ch35.zip/file Chapter List
I think this is the first time where Gangan Online and I made the same decision about what's the most iconic moment from the chapter XD.
#kingdom hearts 3#kingdom hearts manga#kh manga#keyblade graveyard#sora#kairi#lea#axel#xion#roxas#saix#xemnas#sound effects for days#358/2 days to be exact#the manga sure doesn't seem to dwell much#for the record I always try to edit out the sound effects completely but I'll still try to put the English replacements in the same places#semi transparent sound effects are both easy and difficult#'cause they show what's behind them so I know what to put there#but they also mess with the edges of shapes & lines and make tones and especially gradients difficult to match#it's very satisfying to put the English sounds back in afterwards though 'cause it shows off the most of my edit work#I'm very sad the “DN”s on page six were opaque 'cause the edit job I did was pretty good for how big the “ド”s were
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Sora, who has murdered people and then laughed about it (maleficent, shan yu, floatsom and jetsum, sinking several ships of actual humans in the Caribbean though to be fair this one IS kh3) when grabbed by two people lightly on the shoulders: this is so unfriendly!
#listen i know that dream drop fed us sorikus a literal snow white narrative complete with a paopu fruit bearing rainbow keyblade#but was it worth it? was it worth it?#i think we could have kept thriving with just ''its riku! i looked everywhere for you!'' on his knees sobbing while he awkwardly dodges hug#from literally everyone else#we were doing fine without the gayblade#and i blame 3D for the lack of sora's love of murder in kh3#and for other lines which have sora come across as dumb instead of just distractable#cough i dont computer cough#sora you fly a fucking space ship regularly#what the fuck do you mean you dont computer#if you didnt computer then you donald and goofy would be fucking dead by now#sora#bad quotes bracket#regularpat#also before anyone comes in here saying that was Roxas's anger 1) sora is called angry several times in the kh1 manga and in recom itself#2) its both Roxas and Sora's anger combining. Don't forget the mental state sora is in in kh2. He doesnt know if RIku is alive; ppl keep#calling him Roxas; he just woke up and his memories are a fucking mess still; and then Kairi gets kidnapped#sora's infamous kh2 murder spree is mostly him for the non org members#then roxas' anger helps out once he starts taking out nobodies
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Welcome back to the vague keyblade theory zone, i have ideas Mainly about the princesses of heart and what their keyblades might look like
Ok so keybaldes, of the types we know of we have Special Keyblades- The Kingdom Key and Kingdom Key D (the keyblades of the realm of light and dark respectively), The χ-blade (the keyblade of kingdom hearts), The Keyblade of Heart (the keyblade made of the princesses of heart's hearts), Ultima Weapon World Keyblades- keyblades that are manifestation of the heart of a world and generally look like that world Connection Keyblades- keyblades that are a representation of a connection between people (Sora's bond of flame or oathkeeper) Heart Keyblades- keyblades that represent the heart of the person summoning it, generally thought to be that persons 'default' keyblade (Ventus' wayward wind)
I think the princesses of heart are in some way very connected to the world they live in (don't get me started on princess of heart theorys i could go on) and as such a heart keyblade manifested from their heart would look like half heart keyblade and half world keyblade, my example is dun dun dun dun Kairi! my favorite little lore exception to theorize about
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Destiny's Embrace, a fitting name for how she exists in the story, is her keyblade, and it looks like a mix of Radiant Garden and Destiny Island
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the teeth and end looks like it could be a Radiant Garden keyblade, and the handle fades up to a sandy look and the hand itself literally fades into a transparent water effect, with the paopu keychain as well, its both her homes mashed together as a keyblade with a thread of gold tying them together, very much what you would expect from the Princess of Radiant Garden
But also the silhouette is familiar
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(While this is it incomplete) it has the same heart cutout teeth section that the Keyblade of Heart has, so me thinks for potential design ideas (that i'm totally not thinking about shush, i would never) that the princesses of heart's keyblades would be a mix of their world, themselves and the silhouette of the Keyblade of Heart From my cursory glances the only keyblades that do have the heart cut out in the teeth are the kh1, 2 and 3 (and kind of dream drop but not really) versions of Ultima Weapon, which are all the versions that Sora wields and kind of Divewing which has half of a heart silhouette as the teeth, there are a few keyblades that have a heart there but not a cutout of it (ven's lost memories mostly, its an incomplete heart but still a heart)
I have no real point to this theorizing beyond thinking too damn hard about keyblades and their designs
#also something about star shaped keychains?#the start shape of the paopu fruit seems important but i have nothing beyond that#interestingly the keyblade of heart is the only* keyblade that doesnt have a keychain#*i am too lazy to check#also something about how destinys embrace is used as a connection keyblade between baby kairi and aqua#after she saves her#that might be something?#like maybe they cant make connection keyblades like others and when given it always manifests as just a copy of their heart keyblade?#i mean oathkeeper exists#but also isnt a connection keyblade between sora and kairi#its a representation of soras promise too her#he manifested it not her#idk#keyblades#princesses of heart#kingdom hearts#kh#jellyfish's thoughts#jellyheart rambles
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since finals are officially done i want to start posting my kingdom hearts oc content more! here's princess elise's ref + their sword & keyblade! (any pronouns btw!)
#elisey draws#kingdom hearts#kh oc#self insert#i dont wanna add a bunch of tags cuz im like. wlel they're just kh adjacent#but if people dont like seeing them they can just scroll#their whole backstory is on the page i linked + they belong to a whole original world i made myself! with other characters :3c#there is also oc x canon. romantic but also a bunch of platonic stuff too#i ship her with lea/axel#but she's very close to sora! her little brother#when they get their keyblade they train with kairi (and aqua by proxy)
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The fact that the stations of awakening are like special situational things kinda blows, everyone should get one because they are cool ..... gonna mug nomura in an alleyway for kairi's station of awakening
#the fact that she doesnt have one yet is honestly silly#all the other members of the main trios have one except axel#and like i get not giving one to him at least before giving him a keyblade and kairi only started using hers at the same time as him#BUT LIIIIKE if we had gotten hers even before she had a keyblade i feel like it would feel fine. shes a princess of heart shes allowed it#btw hc that if we do ever get a dive for her then its not gonna b platforms floating in the darkness#but like. a blinding light everywhere but the platforms and reflecting off the glass#i know that didnt happen for ven and he also didnt have any darkness. however: skill issue
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we could have had it all
#kairi in kh2: im done waiting#kairi in mom: im fine waiting#she has so much potential just let her live#we listened to kh music driving into and out of montreal thats like 11 hours#also why does she hold her keyblade Like That in kh3. this is a direct response to how she holds her keyblade in kh3
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Every time I think about how people refuse to believe that Xehanort put the sigil in Kairi's name to track her to the islands, I'm sitting here like how do y'all think the org found Roxas so fast?
#kingdom hearts#kh#and that's without mentioning the x on a shirt#we literally have 2 (prob more) examples of the sigil being used as a tracking device and yet the sigil being in kairi's name is a reach???#why do y'all think xehanort specified that it was also pronounced 'kye'?#if xehanort thought kairi would lead him to the keyblade wielder why WOULDN'T he find some way to track her???#like do y'all think he shot her into space and hoped for the best???#also once again if you really think about it it took no time for the org to find roxas#like they pretty much found him the same day he got dropped in data twilight town#i'm just saying if they used the sigil to track sora and roxas why wouldn't the same apply to kairi?
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clutching my head doubled over that the things im into are always games that are dozens of hours long to long jrpg length because im going mental thinking abt my funny guys. and the last time i tried to let out my kh meta thoughts i got sucked into a like. fucking real world particle dimension spirituality talk so i just have to sit here
#i JUST FINALLY internalized today the difference between emblem and pureblood heartless#im feeling NORMAL about the unique attacks of characters#and im dangerously close to fusing my aus finally and it feels like a cataclysm#not even getting into raincode#ive been feeling normal about the chinese character radical research i did today too#xion namine and kairi... wa#also been kind of obsessed with uhh#aqua's heavy association with rain ice and weather compared to the clear ocean theming of the girls#something about the more european/japanese nobility and soldier insp for the keyblade bitches?#idk thats an area i need wayyyyy more research on on all vectors#but like the obvious thing is Destiny Islands and the moon. as always
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tag post #2 ( character tags ) !
#the keyblade's chosen hero of light ; a precious friend that leads me home. / sora.#more than just a princess of heart ; a shining light that guides me home. / kairi.#a keyblade master of light and dark ; with strength to protect what matters. / riku.#a thief of body but not of mind ; my heart you cannot conquer. / ansem.#i'm me and you're you ; the same in body but different in heart and mind. / replica.#striving hard to become his own person ; in body heart mind and soul. / roxas.#more than the puppet they think you to be ; you are your own person. / xion.#a bright fire of burning protection ; not to be underestimated. / axel / lea.#more than the chains that bind you ; more than the memories you've made. / naminé.#an oath sworn and a promise made ; the strength to protect what matters. / terra.#kind and gentle like the ocean waves ; but also terrifying like its depths. / aqua.#a joyous youth who shines so bright ; as gentle and swift as the wind. / ventus.#the very embodiment of darkness ; a form given all new meaning. / vanitas.#a guiding hand during darkest times ; thank you for helping with my struggles. / mickey.#the darling queen of a kind mouse king ; a ruler of power and Light. / minnie.#disney castle's court magician ; with magical power unrivalled. / donald.#the captain of the royal knights ; with a shield ever-protecting. / goofy.#the protector of sora's documented 'ventures ; but also so much more. / data riku.#a digital copy of sora from his 'ventures ; but with heart beyond the data. / data sora.
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sneak peek :3
would i be burned at thr stake for making a kingdom hearts in stars and time au.... lol......
#design notes! no eyepatch bc thats siffrin ONLY to me. emo bangs instead because square enix designs facilitate it very well#u cant see it but also he has the crown necklace instead of the pins#im also going to redesign the dagger to have some similar traits to the kingdom key bc it doesnt feel right to have the keyblade ?#hes also still got the fuck ass big shoes. its a key sora character trait .#i also have isabeau riku and mirabelle kairi done which fit so perfectly it makes me so joyous esp mira kairi♡♡♡ the BOW!!!!#im gonna colour them all n like do little action doodles and then post it all together#I ALSO NEED HELP. WOULD IT BE WEIRD TO HAVE VENTUS AS BONNIE AND THEN ALSO HAVE ROXAS AS LOOP BECAUSE THE APPEARANCE THING#ROXAS IS STILL GONNA HAVE A STAR HEAD (I HAVE A VERY FUN IDEA!!!) BUT STILL IS IT WEIRS#aqua is the only one that fit as odile but im not 100% on it though ? idk. thoughts? i didnt want michael mouse to be odile. Okay. sigh.#words
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"But be safe. No reckless stunts."
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On Sora and Riku's respective recklessness as showcased in the series, and what it means for their relationship
Under readmore because i am going to talk a lot
As an aside: Im going to be pulling from the Japanese text, though I am not a native speaker or really any kind of speaker, so take what I say with a decent amount of scrutiny. I'm more than willing to be corrected on these conclusions!
One line that has stood out to me in kingdom hearts is the repetition of "no reckless stunts!" and similar phrases. If you examine the original text, three slightly different words have been used to mean "reckless", which I'll include below (pulled definitions from Jisho, mostly)
無謀 (mubou): reckless, foolhardy, rash, ill-advised, mad (scheme)
無茶 (mucha): reckless, absurd, unreasonable, ridiculous
無理 (muri): impossible, unreasonable, unjustifiable
Importantly for what i want to talk about is how "muri" is used in situations where a character wants to express that something is impossible (think of a character giving up all hope due to an insermountable obstacle in front of them, they may mutter something like "muri da...") keep a pin in this, it will matter toward the end.
Also note that each of these words starts with "無" (mu), which usually means nothingness or absence of something. The definition of this kanji isnt super important, it's more important that its presence ties these three phrases together in a really unique way as i hope to demonstrate.
what i propose is that both Sora and Riku are depicted as reckless characters, albeit in different ways. The established pattern I've noticed is that Sora: "mucha" & Riku: "muri". I will tentatively refer to "mucha" as "rash" and "muri" as "impossible" (despite that it does also mean other things in some cases! bare with me it'll make sense)
Dialing back a bit, we have seen countless moments of Sora acting rashly. It is one of his key character traits and it tends to get him in trouble. He has a big heart, and is quick to anger.
Sora's response to loved ones and helpless innocents that have been put in harm's way is to repetitively bash things with his keyblade (and ask questions later).
It's Sora's rashness that allows Org 13 to use him to complete kingdom hearts. The extreme end of his rashness is showcased when he stabs himself to release Kairi from his heart.
Tldr. I think it's pretty well established and easy to argue that Sora is one to leap before he looks.
Now, Riku might be a little harder to sell as reckless, because of how well he tends to hide it. He carries himself as a role model for Sora, and tries to be the responsible friend. But if we look at his patterns of behavior, despite how he carries himself, he is quite reckless!
Without thinking of the consequences, he rushes the open door when destiny islands falls to darkness, eventually succumbing to it himself. He lashes out several times at Sora, particularly dangerously when he fires off a dark firaga in Hollow Bastion. He closes the door to darkness with Sora without knowing what would happen to him if he was trapped in the realm of darkness. When Sora is asleep, he sacrifices his form to defeat Roxas, without any assurance that he would ever be able to get his old form back.
We see Riku's recklessness too in the fight against Xemnas. He recklessly throws himself in front of Xemnas twice, hurling Sora away from danger and taking a very nasty blow to the hip. I'd count his dive to save Sora in DDD among these, mostly due to his risk taking behavior when it comes to saving Sora. Finally of course we see it in KH3, with his ultimate sacrifice. (but i think importantly, this scene isn't just recklessness, but I'll explain in a bit)
So tldr. Despite Riku's mask of level headedness and resolve, he has been shown over and over to take massive risks without caring for the consequences. Which is pretty reckless, in my opinion!
Sora and Riku's recklessness, mind you, is also called into question by Yen Sid, who tells Riku the reason he kept Aqua's fate a secret was to keep Riku and Sora from staging a "half-baked attempt at rescue"
He says similar in Japanese, but i want to just note the word he uses when he describes the rescue attempt as reckless (highlighted for ur convenience):
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(the highlighted word here is "mubou", it will come back later in an Important way, so keep it in mind)
he's *basically* saying that if Riku, or worse, Sora, knew about Aqua, they would have recklessly marched into the realm of darkness to rescue her. Because he knows they are both ... Like that.
I would be remiss to not mention that Sora's impulsivity and recklessness is something Riku admires! After Yen Sid tells riku not to be rash, and Riku excitedly tells Mickey he's ready to help save Aqua, Kairi observes that Riku has changed, and he's more like Sora. Riku asks if that's a compliment, but I think it's clear that he feels it is. He says it's more Fun to just follow his heart, which is sora-esque. (;_;) This is also something he brings up to Sora when they're on the dark margin together, that he's jealous of how Sora can just follow his heart. It's clear Riku has started to embrace his more impulsive side, to follow his heart like sora does. This is important later!
So now that I have my premise Mostly set up, I'd like to highlight a handful of scenes that I thought were really telling about how Sora and Riku relate to the terms "mucha" and "muri", respectively.
Let's start with Sora and "mucha".
The first instance i have found "mucha" used is in Olympus Colliseum.
lets recall How Herc initially loses his power in KH2, and compare it to the movie.
In KH2, Herc is tricked into leaving the colliseum unguarded by capturing Meg and hiding her in the underworld so that Herc and Sora must go to her rescue. Hades sends a hydra in to destroy the colliseum while Sora and Herc are busy fighting heartless and Pete and rescuing Meg.
Upon seeing the destruction in the colliseum, Herc falls to his knees, and you can visibly see his colors fade to a more ashen complexion, similar to his appearance without his powers in the movie. He calls himself a piece of shit basically and Meg helps him up to limp to safety, leaving Sora to defeat the Hydra (ahem sora helping riku walk in twtnw after xemnas fight anyone)
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(Herc even has a second journal entry for his Desaturared form.)
You leave the world after defeating the hydra and jumping up on its back a few times, and after sora d & g are named true heros. Yay. But Herc doesn't have his power back yet, which will later be addressed in the second episode.
Herc's loss of power is much different from the movie. In the movie, he agrees to let Hades take his strength for a day in order to keep Meg from harm, and release her from the contract she had entered with Hades (iirc). This was all so Herc wouldn't get the chance to save Olympus from the titans that Hades revives in order to take Zeus' throne for himself.
Herc still tries to wonderboy his way into rescuing the town, and fights a giant cyclops. While he lacks physical strength and gets pretty much Pummeled, he ends up beating the cyclops with his wit - but in doing so, a pillar is knocked over. It is about to crush Herc, but Meg pushes him out of the way, and is crushed to death.
She gives her life to save him, which in turn returns strength to Herc, because the contract was only good if Meg remained unharmed.
What I'm mostly trying to say here on this tangent is Herc's loss of power in KH2 specifically is very reminiscent of Sora losing his keyblade in Hollow Bastion, which is later echoed in the keyblade graveyard when he feels he loses his strength to fight after losing his friends. I bring up the movie to show how bizarrely different it is from the Kh2 plot, perhaps precisely to make the parallel between Sora and Herc stronger (and the parallel between Herc and Riku, by the way - Herc falling to his knees, losing his power, and giving up, only for Meg to walk him to safety, is a parallel to Riku losing his will to fight and press on after the battle with Xemnas - Sora refuses to let him and in the same Exact way he helps Riku walk on)
So Hercules, when faced with the impossible wavers, and loses his strength and will to fight. This is important so keep it in mind. Impossible/Muri isn't stated here as far as i know, but it's important that he is feeling utterly defeated and unable to win.
The second visit to the world is when we first see the term "mucha"/reckless used as far as I was able to find. Hades casts Meg into the Soul Hole and Herc dives in to save her without hesitating (mechanically to write Herc out of the boss fight, but)
We later see Herc emerge with Meg, his godly aura restored (he is Radiant!) something that *should* have killed him. and should have been impossible. But his desire to save her was so great, he recklessly dives in, without knowing that he will succeed. Luckily, all he had to do to prove he was worthy of godhood and power in both the game and the movie was to use the strength of his Heart rather than his fists, as a true hero does:
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Sora scolds him and tells him not to do anymore crazy stunts after this reckless dive to save Meg (screenshot makes it look like herc is saying it sorry lol) and that is where we can see the term "mucha" being used in Japanese:
instead of crazy stunts, Sora moreso says "but don't be reckless (mucha)":
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to which herc responds:
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"people always do stupid things when they're in love" (note he doesn't repeat reckless, he says "baka" lol)
so here we have a direct link between herc's sacrifice when he dove in to save Meg, the restoration of his power/Godhood, and acting recklessly (mucha), without Fear or Doubt, to save someone he is In Love With. put a pin in this because it's all connected.
Now moving onto KH2.9 and KH3. From the start of the game we are told Sora has lost the Power of Waking, and his Entire goal in the game is to regain it, wake Ventus, and prepare for the battle in the KBG with Xehanort.
The Power of Waking is already a very vague, disney-esque power, essentially the power to free sleeping hearts from slumber (and first introduced to us in DDD, particularly in terms of Riku waking Sora up in a sleeping beauty retelling but I'm getting ahead of myself)
Yen Sid suggests that Sora go to Olympus for clues to regain his power, as Just Like Sora, Hercules also lost his power, but was able to regain it.
It's pretty straightforward, but in the interest of not making this post a fucking novel ill try to keep it short. Herc tells Sora he's not sure just *how* he got his powers back, just that he wanted to save Meg with all his heart when he (recklessly) dove in to save her. The game is trying to tell Sora that it's the Power of Love that brought back Herc's strength, and that Love will be key in bringing Sora's PoW back, too.
Specifically, I think that Herc's story and the other worlds Sora visits are saying that it's True Love that will bring Sora's powers back. Acts of true love in KH3 are framed as courageous, selfless, and performed unconditionally.
Despite the visit to see Hercules, Sora still doesn't gain the PoW. He has an idea of what he needs to regain it, but he has to visit multiple Disney worlds to learn more about the power of true love and sacrifice (well also separation but thats not as important to this post) before he's ready to test it out for himself.
After Arendelle (i think) we get to another important cutscene where Riku, Sora, donald, goofy, & mickey meet up with Yen Sid to discuss the progress they've made on their respective journeys. Sora wants to go to the Realm of Darkness with Riku & Mickey because he's worried, but they Won't let him because he doesn't have the PoW. Riku does the fondest laugh known to man, eliciting a bit of anger from Sora, but explains it's because of what Yen Sid had told him earlier - that had Sora or Riku known about Aqua being trapped in the RoD, they would have recklessly gone in to save her.
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he's pretty much directly quoting yen sid here, just like he does in English (saying half-baked instead of reckless too). So basically saying here Sora would have marched into (the dark world) recklessly (had he known where Aqua was) - again using "mubou" like master yen sid.
Interestingly, when we get to Sora telling Riku to not be reckless in the dark world to Riku, he's not repeating the same word for Reckless that Riku is using (Now this might be just a flow of the conversation thing, which i certainly cant confirm as a non-native speaker but i think it's still notable)
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Sora says something similar to what is said in English; with a few distinctions. A rough translation would be "but don't overdo it, call me if anything happens" (need I gripe one more time that english localization cuts out sora telling Riku to call him; which is why he spends the rest of the time apart from Riku wanting a call, and why its so unhinged that Riku triangles for sora and basically summons him. I DIGRESS)
This line is translated as "but be safe, no reckless stunts" in English, which serves as a callback to what Sora tells to Hercules in KH2, (further solidifying a herc/riku parallel) but IMPORTANTLY, Sora is NOT even saying the same thing he said to Hercules in the Japanese script. He's saying something else - 無理しないで (muri shinai de), which is usually translated as don't overdo it - but literally means "don't do the impossible". This will be important later when I talk more about Riku so keep this in mind.
We immediately get Donald saying "Sora's the reckless (muri) one" (abbreviating for simplicity) but Jiminy disagrees. In English he says "He's not reckless, he just doesn't think!" but in Japanese he says this:
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Which i know im going to butcher any translation I do, but Jiminy is basically saying "[Sora's] not muri he's mucha". That distinction is important enough for Jiminy to make a joke about it. That Riku might actually be the one who is overdoing it/trying to do the impossible (muri), while Sora is the one who runs headfirst into danger recklessly (mucha). Which, i think, is quite fitting, given the actions theyve done through the series.
Importantly we get one more instance of "mucha" which I think really ties Sora's trait "recklessness" together nicely, and puts into perspective what the repetition of these phrases is doing from a story telling perspective.
After Sora finishes up the remaining Disney world visits, S, D, & G find out that Chip & Dale have lost contact with Riku & Mickey. Sora is very upset at this, and is Determined to save them (Riku) (with all his heart). Sora has NOT GAINED THE POW at this point, and they don't know how to even get into the RoD, so Sora opts to "let his heart be his guiding key" to find his way to Riku and the RoD. (Recklessly I might add, he hasn't called or talked to Yen Sid or consulted anyone about it lol)
He arrives at Destiny Islands and mysteriously finds Master's Defender which happens to be the key to getting him into the RoD. Right? Well. We know from the glossary that the established method of reaching the RoD is with a keyblade of darkness, through dark corridors, or with the Power of Waking.
Others have argued this (see SRT) but it's heavily implied that Sora regained the PoW on his way to rescue Riku. That he used it explicitly to get into the RoD is where people tend to be a little caught up in the details, because it *does* seem like Master's Defender plays a role, which begs the questions - is it a keyblade of darkness? What the fuck was it doing there? etc. (literally saw on a kh wiki that sora got into the RoD because Masters defender was a keyblade of darkness, which is unconfirmed currently lol) It's also not traditionally what the PoW looks like. There's a huge door that appears, Sora isn't using the kingdom key, he doesn't burst out of Riku's chest. Etc.
HOWEVER. I think with the context of the narrative arc Sora is going through, the foreshadowing present in the game, and The Reckless Rescue angle can at least prove that he DID regain his power here, regardless of whether or not he explicitly used it to get into the RoD. I'll try to briefly summarize the points I've seen made before I add my own.
After the visit to Olympus, Sora explains to Yen sid that he didn't regain his power but he still learned a lot. Yen sid stresses again that sora needs the PoW, Sora gets pouty, and Goofy cheers him up by saying "maybe something will trigger it real soon". Shortly after a bit of banter, there is a knock at the door, and Riku and Mickey walk in. The camera kmakes a point to show Mickey off to the side, then pan up to Riku as he walks in to close the door, who is centered in the view (almost as if we are watching from Sora's POV, who is anticipating Riku's appearance in the door).
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Putting this side by side is a little unfair, since it's not an immediate jump from Goofy saying this to Riku's entrance, but it's pretty in your face about just what (or who) might be key to reawakening sora's PoW.
We also get some heavy handed foreshadowing in the next visit to Yen Sid's tower, right before Sora tells Riku to not overdo it:
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Yeah. and he does, importantly, get the power of waking, not BEFORE he comes to the rescue, but BECAUSE he comes to the rescue.
Now for my contribution since I stole the last two/three points from other posts. Just before Sora enters the RoD, he tells D & G to stay behind and that he has to go alone. (Sigh, yes, this scene is a parallel to Riku using the PoW to save Sora in DDD - it *has* to be him, and him alone) D& G protest, but eventually relent. But Donald doesn't let Sora go without saying this:
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(In English, Donald says "you promise to be good?" inexplicably) but in Japanese he tells sora (basically) "Don't be reckless" - aka. No Reckless Stunts, complete with the use of "mucha" (recall Donald in the previous scene was the one to call Sora "muri" before being corrected by Jiminy). This is similar to what Sora tells to herc, so we are pretty much full circle on this scene being a callback to Herc rescuing Meg in KH2.
Like Herc, Sora does the reckless thing. Like Herc, he heroically dives into the abyss to rescue his loved one with all his heart.
Like Herc, Sora regains his power the moment he resolves to rescue Riku, even if it is not made explicitly clear to Sora OR the audience (perhaps the fact that he regained the PoW is why he is able to save aqua, too)
I could probably go on about this and what it means for Sora for a long time, but I think it's high time I actually wrote about "muri" and Riku's recklessness, so let's rewind a little.
I've already brought up how Riku relates to Herc in terms of his recklessness and heroics, but theres a few more things to add. of course. I'll recap with pictures of one of the parallels i've already discussed:
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So here i think at least metaphorically, we can argue that Riku has lost a bit of his "power"- or rather, his drive. After everything is over, he just collapses, ready to die or be left behind. Sora WONT let that happen. So Riku asks Sora to lead. He confesses to some of the jealousy and superiority he'd been feeling over Sora for the past few years, and seems to be trying to find a new direction in his life, having now repented Quite a bit for the sins he committed in KH1.
Riku's entire purpose for fighting after KH CoM and KH2 was to wake Sora up, keep him safe while he does his keyblade weilder duties, reunite him with Kairi, and send him on his merry way. Sora refuses to let him leave, and demands that he comes home with him. So he does. but without his jealousy over his feelings toward Sora, or without his feelings of guilt and feeling he needs to make it up to Sora, what is left to drive him to keep fighting?
DDD gives him a pretty strong answer - it's where he both rediscovers his sense of purpose and gains the Power of Waking in the process. And his dream eater powers too. btw
Riku's journey in DDD is, simply put, not really about passing the mark of mastery exam and becoming a keyblade master. it's about remembering What he lives for. remembering his promise to Terra, and how those feelings have evolved - from wanting strength to protect the Stuff that matters as a child, to, in DDD, discovering that the "stuff that matters, like his friends" was Sora the Whole time, and that Sora is actually a "precious best friend" that he wants to protect. It's About recovering his strength, like Herc needs to do in KH2.
So how does Riku regain his "strength"? By Sora-style taking a reckless dive into the deep abyss of Sora's heart to wake him using the PoW.
(Not once was I able to find any mention of "recklessness" here, or any particular language that ties this moment together cleanly with what happens in Olympus Colliseum in KH2, but the repetition of diving down into an abyss to rescue someone (with all your heart. etc) is Enough of a parallel to make the connection between this scene and Herc's dive to save Meg)
It is within the deepest depth of Sora's heart where Riku is interrogated by three pieces of Sora's heart about what he's afraid of, what he cares about more than anything else, and what he wishes - All canon answers involve the mention of "precious" - "taisetsu" (sorry im not explaining this one im going to just assume you know what im talking about if you are a soriku that reads meta you should know.) - to lose something precious, my precious best friend (fuck da english localization for this one), to recover something precious that I lost. It is here that we see Riku's simple "protecting important stuff" become "protecting something precious/my precious best friend" (note that this hasn't quite become "taisetsu na hito"/precious person but hes getting there)
Ansem the wise is there i guess and he tells Riku that his 3 answers are what were the key to waking sora up, and I think, importantly, are what give Riku his "strength" back. He has rediscovered his purpose, which is, to him, protecting Sora (with all his heart)
Continuing into KH2.9 we have another couple scenes that will both complete Riku's development from protecting stuff that matters to protecting a precious person and also continue to make a strong connection between him and Hercules.
It's been pretty well established that these two scenes are deceptively mistranslated, but i'll go over it again
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Herc here is saying "taisetsu na hito" which is translated to "person I love most"
The EXACT phrase Mickey uses to tell Riku why he's feeling more powerful and fearless in the RoD, in the literal next scene in 2.9. They were supposed to be VERY CLEAR hit you over the head parallels but, well. SENA said fuck gay people i guess.
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Riku repeats what Mickey says into his hand ("strength to protect my precious person") and recalls his promise to Terra, to protect the things that matter. (again it's implied it's always been about protecting sora, he just didn't have the language or understanding of himself yet to know how to say it)
There is absolutely no room for nuance here. This is explicitly framing Riku's feelings for Sora on par with Herc's feelings for Meg eg. explicitly romantic. And that it's his ROMANTIC LOVE for Sora that is what gives him his strength - not just to protect Sora, but also to do THE IMPOSSIBLE
phase ??? of my argument will now commence hang on to your butts. (i wrote this all in one night im tired)
Now that ive Exhaustively set that up. lets actually get back into discussing what I initially set up - riku doing the impossible "muri" thing.
As a reminder, Sora tells Riku to not "attempt the impossible/overdo it" in the RoD. And to call him if he needs him.
So Riku, instead of attempting the impossible in the RoD by facing the demon tide, does call Sora, which ends up being what saves the day! Yay!
I have bad news though! Riku is terrible at listening to advice when Sora is in trouble.
Now recall what I mentioned earlier about the fall of the guardians in the KBG and Sora's subsequent breakdown being a parallel to Herc losing his power in KH2. Sora *fails* everyone here, and he explicitly states he is worthless, without strength, when he loses them. It's very in line with Herc losing his powers in KH2.
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(just putting these in here to hurt you and myself)
So, we get the Herc parallel, but it stops here for Sora. He doesn't do some grand self sacrifice for Riku to prove his heroism and regain his "power", but i think theres a reason for that beyond it just being Riku's time for the spotlight but I am getting there.
In the english localization, Sora says "we've lost, it's over". It's a subtle change from the Japanese, where instead of "it's over", Sora simply utters "muri da--" ("its impossible") (in the wettest saddest voice you can imagine)
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It's at this moment where I do truly think we're meant to make the connection between Sora saying "its impossible" and Sora telling Riku to not attempt the impossible. It fits in nicely with Sora telling Herc to not do reckless stunts, with the slight change in language from "reckless" to "impossible", and with the impending self sacrifice. Riku knows that beating back the demon tide is impossible. But he does it anyway (compare to how, when faced with a much smaller demon tide, and he was losing, he listened to Sora's advice and called Sora for help instead of attempting the impossible)
So we have Riku's ultimate true love sacrifice for Sora, which both takes his life and grants him a spot upon an alter in Olympus, perhaps symbolically giving him some sort of ascension for his heroic deed. And again tying his sacrifice intimately to Herc's.
Because Sora and Riku are both "herc" and "meg" here I am going to make a little bit of a reach. Recall that I went through the effort of recapping the climax of the hercules movie. for no reason. There is a connection though even if it's loose, and i would kick myself for not including it.
In the movie, Meg, like Riku, protects a powerless Hercules from impending danger in her own act of true loves sacrifice. Her death gives Hercules his strength back (partly due to contract BS but it's still a romantic moment). And her death is what drives Hercules to dive into the Soul Hole to rescue her soul at a potentially great cost, which is what ultimately restores his godhood (showing his strength of heart). Riku sacrificing himself for Sora can be seen to be more like the events of the Hercules movie, Riku standing in for Meg - Sora does have to restore Riku's heart after it's been taken by the Lich, after all, much like Hercules brings Meg's soul out from the Hole. And Riku's sacrifice is what gives Sora the resolve to keep fighting. (not arguing with anyone who thinks it was only kairi because it wasnt lol)
So Riku attempts the impossible here, and ultimately he is rewarded. An interesting nuance is that the phrase "attempting the impossible" isn't meant to be taken as a challenge. From what ive read from native speakers, the phrase Sora uses really is better translated as "don't overdo it" as it is less about proving yourself to be able to overcome crazy obstacles and more about keeping your expectations in check. But Riku is reckless, and following his heart, which he learned from Sora.
I hope I've properly illustrated how Sora and Riku are both painted as reckless in different ways, and how the language used in KH3 is making direct references to Herc's reckless heroics in KH2 and in the actual Disney movie. And how these reckless acts are showcasing how much these two love each other, because I still have one more point to make. Namely, how this ties into Cinderella, and ultimately KH4.
In Terra's route of Birth By Sleep, he happens upon a distraught Cinderella, who has had her dress torn up by her step sisters. She was planning to go to the ball, but cannot, because it is "impossible" (muri)
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Terra tries to console her. It's all very reminiscent of the scenes of Herc's, Sora's, and Riku's defeats.
After Terra fights off the unversed summoned by Cinderella's negativity (toxic much..), Out of the blue, the fairy godmother appears and makes everything better. She fixes up Cinderella with a dress and a ride to the ball, and sends her on her merry way.
She explains to Terra that she appeared to Cinderella to show her that her dreams *can* come true and that she typically appears only to people that have a strong belief in their dreams. Terra says he believes in dreams but you have to work for them, to which FGM responds that simply believing in dreams is already a difficult thing on its own. (Ventus also compares Terra to Cinderella. btw. because of his strong dreams)
Now. Sigh. Im not the only person that has pointed this out. The FGM quite literally appears to Riku, but only after a year has passed and they have no leads on Sora, and after it's implied that Riku is starting to lose hope.
In the limit cut, you can see Riku's sad wet puppy dog face as he talks about how hard everyone is working, and how they haven't found anything at all. He says "if Sora is really out there, don't you think we would have found something by now?" - Again, he's losing faith in his dreams of Sora's return. This is important.
I do not have the strength to go through and find all the times Riku told everyone to believe in Sora in KH3. It's a lot. And the last thing we hear him say Near Sora, is to let him go on his suicide mission to save Kairi - to BELIEVE in Sora (#wish).
So one, we know the dream Riku believes in is Sora, and two, we know he is starting to lose his belief in his dreams, like Cinderella before the ball, when he dress is destroyed.
Right after it's clear their is no lead through the data from Org 13, FGM appears, just like she did for Cinderella. And she tells Riku that His Dreams Are Literally A Key To Find Sora (that hes quite literally been #dream drop distancing into sora's dreams while hes in unreality is already so much without the FGM being there to explain this to him but KH is crazy!)
One last thing to really drive this home. The FGM brings Riku and Kairi to the nameless star to bring the three keys together.
And what does she tell Riku, before he leaves?
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"Be careful. Do not attempt to do the impossible."
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if you read this whole thing... well... im proud of you. I know i definitely missed stuff, because it would be so hard to go through all the games and really dig for the use of this term especially when I dont speak japanese at all. and because i wrote this all in one night. But dont hesitate to comment or reblog if you have anything to add. I freaking love kingdom hearts
#soriku#kh meta#kingdom hearts meta#long post#it was not going to be this long 🥰#i might make an abbreviated versuon#i could not be assed to read this for errors so sorry if i make mistakes i wrote this in chunks thru the night#barely scratched the surface on how this all ties in with believing and shit#i thoguht about including the hollow bastion kh1 riku and sora reunion and the beast resolving to keep going#for belle#and how he ended up there by believing#against the impossible odds#but theres already so much here#I will probably come back and edit this post later but i just want to post it now
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I know you made shorts for Sora, Riku, and Kairi, but do you have any other thoughts about Kingdom Hearts?
Ik this is kinda vauge and you get these kind of asks all the goddamn time, but I hyperfixated on those games for most of elementary and middle school and its always cool to see your favorite Youtuber talk about stuff you really like. Not to guilt trip you into answering this one or anything, just. . . I'm very tired and it would be very cool lol.
Again, saving my character design thoughts for some more shorts, but I adore Kingdom Hearts. Like, the first game really ISN'T much more than a cross-promotional branding exercise for Disney and Square, same as any of a dozen other similar crossover centric franchises; it's a Saturday morning cartoon show that wants to get you invested (or keep you invested) in a bunch of fancy IPs to buy toys of, but it's a really good one of those.
And it's a game that understands that the central thing that's going to hook people IN to that kind of thing is characters that are willing to believe in what they've got going on with one thousand percent sincerity. Which I think is the thing they nailed more than anything. Sora cares SO MUCH, and he wants to find his friend and his love interest (Kairi and Riku, respectively) SO BADLY, you can't help but root for the poor kid and want to believe in it.
Then, with the first game successfully managing to hook a solid fanbase, the creative team went "hey what if we had even MORE extremely earnest cool anime people getting deep in their feelings?" and now we're off to the races with Organizations and Oblivion Castles and fractions of 358 days.
And the thing that makes all the hyper-convoluted wheels-within-wheels plot machination nonsense WORK is that down, deep down, right at the core of what the franchise is always trying to say, is that love will save us. Yeah yeah hearts and darkness and unversed and nobodies and keyblades and blah blah blah (to be clear: I adore all that nonsense), but all of it is top-to-bottom in service of that singular central thematic clarion call.
Love will save us.
What holds Ventus together after Xehanort tears his heart apart? The love of Sora. What keeps Roxas the nobody from fading into Sora? The love of Xion and Axel, and Hayner, Pence and Olette. What brings Xion back? The love of Axel and Roxas. Hearts ring together and resonate and bind themselves to each other and there is no darkness so deep, no tragedy so absolute, no villain so foul that the cry of a loving heart cannot defeat it.
Roxas is a nobody doomed to darkness? Fuck you, Kingdom Hearts is love, no he isn't. Xion is a mere replica puppet, a failed experiment that nobody will remember? >>EXTREMELY LOUD INCORRECT BUZZER<< get seasalt icecream'd on top of a clock tower at sunset, IDIOT.
Over and over again characters sink into despair and loneliness, they fear that their connections are fake or fading, they fear being forgotten or left behind (Riku in the first game, the breaking of Ventus, Aqua and Terra, Roxas thinking nobody would miss him, Aqua in the Realm of Darkness), and over and over again they are proven beautifully wrong. There is always a hand reaching out, there is always someone who will miss you. Love will save us.
And this absolutely gets hokey, of course it does, it's a saturday morning children's cartoon. It's a bit simplistic, maybe a bit naïve, but honestly in a world where you can't walk two steps without bleak-minded doomer cynicism forcing the assumption that nothing truly good is possible and that the worst will always happen, Kingdom Hearts is a story so absolutely drenched in hope, sincerely held, that it feels like a fucking balm.
Also, LITERALLY where the fuck else are you going to get Woody from Toy Story reading an edgy anime villain for absolute filth? Nowhere, that's where. ONLY Kingdom Hearts.
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None of this is to suggest I don't have criticisms of the franchise or that it's faultless. I could talk for several hours unbroken about all my gripes and problems, chief among which is LET KAIRI DO THINGS OH MY FUCKING GOD the franchise is low key misogynistic towards its female characters sometimes but I am talking about the things I love here let me just be happy for a second.
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Times Squall and Cloud have parented a little to close to the sun and convinced the people of Radient gardens that Sora is their kid (age be damned):
That time Sora emergency landed the gummy ship in Radient square and all Squall did was shout at people to get back while he picked Sora out of the ship and took him to get medical attention.
The time Cloud delivered Sora and Squall a pack lunch while they were helping on the construction site and informed Sora that he had indeed removed the crusts from his sandwich. Sora was pleased.
The very public “hurt him and I kill you” speech Squall gave Riku. Complete with chest poking and the words “have I made myself understood?”
The time Sora fell asleep with his head in Clouds lap at an outdoor music performance for the radient day festival and all Cloud did was tug the picnic blanket over him and smooth his hair back.
The time Squall took the keyblade kids to the grand opening of Radient gardens botanical house and gave them all instructions on when to meet him back at the cafe so he could make sure they all ate.
As part of this, Cloud yelling “don’t go too far”, when Sora bolted up the spiral stairs with Kairi to see the view from the top.
Very public displays of Checking Sora has all of his gear and spare munny before he goes on an adventure.
The fact that Squall can track his gummi phone and specifically threa- asked Chip and Dale to install a tracking feature so he knew Sora was safe.
Cloud occasionally using this feature for turning up in worlds unannounced to make sure Sora has eaten and/or slept. He has found Sora sleep deprived more times than is strictly healthy.
Squall disapprovingly telling Yuffie not to wind Sora up.
Cloud reflexively resting a hand on Sora’s shoulder when they stand together. Never a strong grip but always supportive.
Squall staring down the magic items vendor who was rude to Sora about his ability to use magic.
Cloud deciding to do some heartless clear ups if he’s told that Sora is coming in advance, so that the kid doesn’t have to work while he’s there.
The fact that they refer to him as “my kid” to strangers in anecdotes, and to people who threaten Sora. The words “get the hell away from my kid” has been uttered a few times.
Has Sora tried to remind them that he is not, in fact, their son? Yes. Has he also pointed out that they are not old enough to have a son his age? Also yes. Does he quite like having a pair of guardian figures that look out for him while he travels? ….yes, but don’t tell them or they will get worse.
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