#and its made very clear that this is done BECAUSE SORA CARES ABOUT HER

[keywieldsarc]

ok ok let’s see if i can decently condense the soriku thoughts that make me go Absolutely Feral every fucking time....

bc it’s quite honestly about the way they endlessly chase each other.  every time sora disappears, riku goes after him.  when riku wanted to hide from him, sora was hellbent on finding him.  it’s about the way sora will Never want to be anywhere without riku, it’s the way sora can’t feel at home or complete without riku.  it’s about the way riku is the only constant in his life, riku is the One Thing that has never been taken away from him or used against him, the way he feels towards riku has never been weaponized or used to manipulate him.

does sora know Exactly what he feels for riku ??  no, he doesn’t, but it doesn’t matter to him because riku is his home, riku is his best friend, and of course he cares about kairi too, but that’s like a drop compared to the very massive depths of what he feels for riku.  because sora has had every opportunity to go home and leave riku, has had every chance to say he’s done, but he can’t be done, because he refuses to live anywhere or anyway that doesn’t have riku by his side.

it’s about the fact that riku is the one thing sora cannot stand to lose and it’s about the way riku has given up so much to keep him safe and sora knows that, knows he owes riku a debt he can’t ever repay and it’s about the way he wants to protect him, fight for him, be strong enough to ensure riku never has to give up anything for him again.

it’s about the way that sora loves riku so unabashedly, so purely and so deeply that there’s nothing he wouldn’t do for riku to see him happy and safe

[thebrownssociety]

Chip And Dale Rescue Rangers Spoilers/Thoughts

As the title suggests, this contains major spoilers for the movie. Only proceed if you’ve either seen it or don’t care about being spoiled.

1. So the voices didn’t actually bother me. It helped, I think, that they started talking in the alternate voices pretty much straight away. Which I think helped separate it from ‘filming’. 

2. CGI surgery? Must admit, that’s an interesting point. Also makes sense with evolution. I’d assume there must just be CGI toons as well, created more recently.

3. Ugly Sonic!? I thought he was cool and I liked that they made him relevant to the plot instead of a one-off gag.

4. The muppet toons were done really well. You’re never shown their legs, makes it more real.

5. The whole stinky cheese thing...wow. Answers the question of if there’s drugs or not in Toon universe. The way Chip initially tried to charm his way in...yeah, he may have lost some of his acting skills doing that insurance gig.

6. The throw away line about the Nicktoons. ‘The toons fought back’. People have pointed out this is against character for the toons, but I think it makes sense, albeit it in a dark way. The rugrats at least must be in their 30′s by now. [Aired in early 90′s] Its surely not unreasonable to assume they must have changed their personalities, and we don’t know what  happened. Maybe they only ‘fought back’ with pies. As for the Paw patrol dogs, my theory is that either it’s an exaggeration. [Which I don’t think would be unlikely if it happened last year and he was signed off work afterwards] or that it did happen and due to the fact they’re toon dogs they can’t be put down. Either that or the Police department were so mortified about the fact they messed up so completely they let all charges drop.

7. Toons on the wall that I noticed/knew, Jiminy Cricket, Flounder, Gus [Cinderella], The Tweedles, Sneezy, Garfield [There’s also a sign above Garfield that says foghorn. I’m assuming this is a reference to the Looney Tunes character?] 

8. Toon body parts on the other side of the walls that I noticed. Jimmy Neutron’s hair, Cheshire Cats smile, Pink Panther mouth, a white glove that could belong to anyone [brings to mind Mickey Mouse, but I’m fairly sure it can’t be him], a smurfs hat, Sora’s hair + Mad Hatters hat. 

9. Ellie...I’m going to be honest she seems quite a bland character. Not much is given to her. [This might be because apparently test audiences reacted negatively to her. Considering they also apparently reacted negatively to the original idea of Pluto being the villain, which led to them choosing the below instead [presumably] I’m not sure they were right.]

Also I think credit needs to be given to the actress for the fight scene she was in. She must have been working with thin air, which must be very difficult.

10.Toons I saw at the end [and recognised] Abu, Fred Flintstone, Patrick Star, Woody Woodpecker, Phineas Flynn, Dipper, Jiminy Cricket, Flounder, Cheshire Cat [Crossed with the tiger from Aladdin], Johnny Test, Kai [Jungle Book], a toon that looks like Obelix from ‘Asterix’ [Same pattern pants and same hair, but black], Gus [with a parrots beak], Gumball? [Amazing world of], Bambi, Sneezy, Woody [same clothes, green instead], Frog Tiana, One that looks like a care bear, but with a tail? [Purple], 

11. Sweet Pete...now, I do know about Bobby Driscoll, but I must admit if I didn’t know the story [which I didn’t until it started making the rounds on Tumblr] I’d just think it was very clever. It’s clear toons do grow up mentally [and they must in some sort of chronological order as well seeing as the chipmunks start in 3rd grade] and as I’ve previously mentioned in another posts I think there’s other ways they could have gone with it if they were determined to have Peter Pan as the villain. 

His voice works as well, seeing as Chip and Dale have completely different voices. I’d assume that Disney made the EPIC FAIL conclusion that no one would know/care about what happened to Bobby Driscoll. It’s the only thing that makes sense. 

The bootlegged idea is interesting as well. It’s shame there wasn’t a team up between Chip and Dale and other family members of the other toons. [Sneezy, for instance, was bootlegged, so it would have been interesting to see the other dwarfs helping out.] The very least we see is that it’s a big story in the news. 

I also like the way Peter gets his henchmen to do EVERYTHING. Even when he’s about two centimetres away from Chip and Dale himself, he still tells Jimmy to grab them when he could have just reached out himself. 

He must have started the business before having his CGI operation, though, because in the parody ‘Flying Bedroom Boy’ you can see he has the stubble round his mouth. [Another good detail]

He’s also ‘The chessmaster’ I think. Look at his expression when Putty’s telling his story. He knows he’s lying but he’s just waiting for Ellie to realise that. 

If the whole thing didn’t parallel Bobby Driscoll so much it would have been a really clever take.

12. Finally, on a lighter note...we want Darkwing, we want Darkwing! Loved it, so in-character. 

[o-w-quinlan]

Digimon Adventure: (2020) Final Thoughts

Considering I stopped reviewing this series episode by episode months ago, they’re more positive thoughts than you’d expect, though still not all that positive.

To summarize, this is an entertaining series with plenty of individual good aspects and great episodes that nevertheless leaves me cold as a whole. Much as I enjoyed following it week to week, I can’t say I recommend this series to anyone but hardcore Digimon fans, or hardcore fans of the wider “monster” genre.

Action

It felt appropriate to start with this, considering a focus on action was what the initial interviews promised, and they delivered in spades. It wasn’t perfect or too consistent, there were several times when the Digimon not evolving when they could just broke any tension the fights had, but this series had some of the best fights in any Digimon anime. Anything in the first 3 episodes, Greymon/MetalGreymon vs MetalTyranomon, SkullKnightmon vs Greymon and Garurumon, Mugendramon vs DoneDevimon, Mugendramon vs WarGreymon, Millenniumon vs the dragons, Omegamon vs Abbadomon Core… all of them among the best things the franchise has to offer in terms of action scenes, which after so many series where fights were solved by having a protagonist Digimon evolve and one-shotting the enemy, comes as a breath of fresh air (to be fair, this series also had a lot of that, but it had actual great fights to compensate).

Worldbuilding

Another thing promised in interviews was the use of Digimon from all over the franchise, and not only did they deliver, but they also included plenty of references to the “null canon” to enrich the experience for the most hardcore fans. The series made sure to constantly emphasize the savage nature of the Digital World, bringing back the Tamers worldbuilding of Digimon consuming weaker Digimon in hopes of achieving evolution. Along the way we saw a lot of allies fighting back against this status-quo, from things as overt as Leomon organizing a resistance or Petaldramon protecting weaker Digimon from the all-consuming Entmon, to less dramatic stuff like weak Digimon settling down to live together, or the mere presence of a restaurant where everyone can rest for a while of the hardships of their world.

The biggest flaw here was in how the series handled its antagonists. With very few exceptions, every single enemy Digimon in the series lacked dialog, whereas nearly every single ally Digimon could speak normally, and this disparity cheapened the whole thing, because instead of coming across as “this mentality is normal for this world”, it came across as just your normal “everyone lived together in harmony until the villains attacked”, which is very much not what the series was telling us.

Characterization

That brings us to the next point: the lack of personality for most villains. I joked elsewhere that Minotaurmon from episode 19 was the most compelling villain of the series, and that’s not completely a joke. Almost every single villain of the week was flat, plenty of the “main” villains were lacking in dialog (Algomon in the first few episodes, Nidhoggmon, Millenniumon) or turned mindless halfway through (Devimon, DarkKnightmon). Negamon/Abbadomon in the final episodes managed to benefit from this by being the embodiment of an “instinct”, but in general this meant a mook-of-the-week like Minotaurmon managed to be a highlight among the villains simply by having dialog and non-trivial desires.

But what of the protagonists? The popular opinion is that everyone is far blander than they were in the original series, and I agree. But rather than comparing it with the first series, let’s look at what it had to offer to us. Where in other Digimon series, the backstories and issues of the protagonists and their reactions to what’s going on around them make for most of the drama, in this series the drama comes from the villains trying to destroy everything, and for the most part that means the protagonists only need to be distinct and charming on their own, no necessity to create conflict between them. There is an overall character arc for all of them, though: accepting and interiorizing their new duties towards the world they had ended up stranded on, getting to know and love the Digital World. Was this well done? Not really.

Taichi and Takeru, for example, were so much the embodiment of the stock shonen hero that accepting their place in this new world didn’t really reveal anything about them we hadn’t already seen from their first few appearances.

Jou got stuck as an unfunny punchline 90% of the time, to the point of damaging his few “serious” moments in some of his focus episodes. His development of becoming assertive was compelling in theory, but it got muddled with so many unfunny and uncomfortable hotsprings jokes that the impact was lost.

Hikari started as an even more blatant plot-device “mysterious character” than she was in the original series, before unconvincingly changing to cheerful little girl afterwards (the whiplash between her in episode 33 and her in episode 34 was something else), and only really managing to settle into a compelling character in her last focus episode (58, defending the Digitamas from the Bakemon and SkullBaluchimon, which to be fair is a great episode and probably the best showcase for Hikari as a character in any product or continuity).

Koushiro was mostly fine, although we all remember the several times the series seemed to promise it might do something with him (his uneasiness when his family was mentioned, or that line about having to “face the darkness of his past” in the HerakleKabuterimon episode) that ended up being nothing.

Mimi is the fan-favorite, being charming in nearly all her appearances and having some of the best focus episodes, and it’s mostly deserved. If there’s anything I criticize from her, it’s that her focus episodes don’t really add up to anything.

Yamato was fine, started out as a stock shonen rival before becoming the single most chill “lone wolf” in any Digimon series, probably because of what I said before of the conflict between the protagonists no longer being the source of drama. He gets a slow development of caring only for his brother to starting to care for other Digimon for the sake of Sora and Gabumon to caring about the Digital World just as much as everyone else.

Sora was made fun of by a certain section of the fandom for having the worst focus episodes early on, and I agreed, but having finished the series I can’t get rid of the impression that her focus episodes, while perhaps not that good on their own, when taken as a whole explore her character the best of any other. Yeah, this mostly means exploring her compassion (these are not very multi-dimensional characters), but they deepen and deepen both her impact on the Digimon she saves and how she is impacted in turn by them, moving her away from saving others through her combat prowess to saving others by empathizing with the grief of another caring soul, and by the end I honestly ended up considering her my favorite character (despite none of her episodes making it to my list of favorites).

As for the Digimon… it’s following in the footsteps of other Digimon Adventure products by not really having much of interest for the Digimon themselves except for Tailmon.

Overall, for the most part the main characters were decent, but besides Mimi and ultimately also Sora, I don’t think they’re very memorable. All of them start out promising, but never really improved from that promising start (again, except for Sora).

Pacing

And now we get to the biggest problem of the series: Pacing. I’ve seen it stated elsewhere that this series was more episodic than most (any?) other Digimon series before it, and part of the backlash it got was from not being as serialized as fans expected it to be. This isn’t exactly true. From episode 16 (Eyesmon) to episode 24 (DoneDevimon), this series was as serialized as any other Digimon series has ever been, with nonstop escalation that demanded you keep watching it week after week. Then, from 25 to 35 (Angewomon) or 36 (BlitzGreymon), it pulled slightly back from that never-ending escalation, but was still pretty serialized. It was only afterwards that it became heavily episodic, and by that point it wasn’t expectations set up by previous series that hurt it in the eyes of the fandom, it was expectations set by this series itself in its first half.

Not that the episodes themselves were bad. Honestly, I found myself significantly more entertained by the episodic later half of the series than the serialized first half. Maybe it was because they didn’t feel the need to convince me they were the most exciting, tense thing I had ever seen when they were clearly not (hello, Mamemon episode), or maybe it was that there were more than just endless fights to them, but I normally ended up those episodes entertained and satisfied, whereas with a lot of episodes from Eyesmon to BlitzGreymon, I mostly just felt frustrated after watching them. I agree with the criticism that, when seen as a whole, breaking momentum so hard for so long after months of never-ending escalation wasn’t the right choice, but when seen week after week, I can’t see this change of approach as that bad of a thing.

Conclusion

I think that sums up the series for me. On a weekly basis, it’s pretty entertaining. It’s when seen as a whole that the problems really become clear. There’s been some speculation in the past few weeks of how much the current situation in the world might have impacted the series, but ultimately, I have to judge what actually happened, and I can’t help the impression that this series ultimately left me with nothing of substance after it was all said and done. Like, I enjoyed this more than, say, Appli Monsters, but Appli Monsters have things that stick with you after it’s over. Not so much here, unless you’re a hardcore fan that loves the Omegamon lore this added (which I am, btw; love that Omegamon lore). I don’t think I can recommend this series to anyone who isn’t a hardcore Digimon fan, or at least a hardcore fan of the wider “monster” genre.

One thing I’m grateful to this series for, though, it’s the commercial boost it has given the rest of the franchise. I’m not going to credit it for all the successes it currently has, after all the Card Game would have fell off by now if it wasn’t genuinely well-done and the Vital Bracelet happened because of years of the virtual pet division progressively building up its audience after it had nearly died off, but it’s undeniable they wouldn’t have sold as well without this anime advertising the franchise week after week. Next week, we’ll have the first episode of Digimon Ghost Game, the first time since 2001 that we have a Digimon series being immediately succeeded by another. If that isn’t a sign of how well the franchise is doing right now, I don’t know what is.

Favorite Episodes: 1 (Tokyo Digital Crisis), 6 (The Targeted Kingdom), 12 (Lilimon Blooms), 20 (The Seventh One Awakens), 32 (Soaring Hope), 42 (King of Inventors, Gerbemon), 49 (The God of Evil Descends, Millenniummon), 56 (The Gold Wolf of the Crescent Moon), 58 (Hikari, New Life)

[minijenn]

In honor of it being Sora’s birthday, I figured I might as well repost my favorite portion of Chapter 22 of Keys to the Kingdom since I wrote it roughly a year ago and it is, fittingly enough, focused on our dear boy’s in-fic birthday as well (and its also one of my favorite bits of Keys in general its very emotionally raw and it hits me in the honey nut feelios every time I reread it. Sooooo enjoy!

***

A few days after the first night they’d spent together, Kairi happens to remember a certain special occasion coming up very soon. And as soon as she does, she immediately begins planning, spreading the word to everyone but Sora as she devises a scheme meant solely for him. It comes just in time too as he’d recently regained the ability to sit up on his own again, his upper body now mostly mobile even if his legs still surge with pain any time he so much as tries to walk. Still, it’s enough to satisfy Kairi that her plan will work as she puts it into motion as soon as she wakes up on the intended morning, knowing that this is something neither of them will want to miss.

“Hey, good morning,” she greets brightly almost as soon as she opens her eyes, only to find that he’s already wide awake beside her. Ever since he’d asked to have his bed moved closer to the window, it’s become something of a pastime for him to casually watch the hustle and bustle of the busy streets of Radiant Garden down below, a pastime that she often joins him on in the early hours of the morning they spend together.

“Morning,” he says, turning to her with a smile.

“I have a surprise for you,” she grins as she sits up.

“A surprise? What is it?”

“Well, it wouldn’t be a surprise if I just told you what it was,” she chuckles while getting up out of bed.

“Aw, c’mon, Kairi…” he groans in faux exasperation. “Can’t I at least have a hint?”

“Just be patient!” she scolds, smirking. “I have to go get something for it first. Be right back.” So Kairi hurries off, leaving Sora in complete suspense for whatever she intends on giving him or showing him. She returns about an hour later, fully dressed and ready for the day as she rolls in perhaps the last thing he’d been expecting.

“It’s… a wheelchair…” he frowns, somewhat disappointed by the chair itself as well as what it implies. Namely, the idea that he’s still far more invalid than he wants to be.

“Hey, it wasn’t easy getting this wheelchair, you know,” Kairi protests, hands on her hips. “I’ve been pestering Cid to trade in some old computer parts for it for days . Besides, this isn’t the surprise. It’s just what’s going to get you to the surprise.”

“Wait…” Sora’s formerly dubious tone shifts to anticipation at this. “You mean…?”

“Yep,” Kairi nods as she summons her Keyblade. She points its tip toward the far side of the room as light surrounds it, and from her focus she forms a bright portal to some unknown location. “We’re finally getting you out of this room.”

Sora breaks into a huge smile at this, unable to hide how elated he is by the mere thought of getting out and seeing something other than the same four walls he’s gotten far too used to by now. Yet even so, he does have at least one reservation about the plan. “Uh… can I ask where we’re going?”

“No,” Kairi answers simply as she pushes the wheelchair closer to the bed. “You’ll see when we get there. Now come on; as excited as I am about this whole thing, I bet there’s no one more eager to see you get up and out then, well… you.”

“You can say that again,” Sora readily agrees, doing what little he can to get ready for the trip. It takes some doing between both him and Kairi, and though some significant pain does come along with the transition, he eventually manages to slip out of bed and into the chair. And as soon as she’s sure he’s properly seated and comfortable, Kairi wastes no time in wheeling him into the portal she made, hoping that her surprise, for as simple as it is, will satisfy him all the same.

When the light from the portal clears, the pair arrives in a picturesque place, to say the least; a deep, dense forest of lush, towering trees, drenched in the fresh, bright colors of a springtime morning. Between the gentle breeze swaying the leaves, birds chirp their cheery melodies from unknown perches, creating an air of captivating peace and promise that Sora can’t help but appreciate as he takes in a deep breath of the warm, crisp, clean air. “Whoa... “ he says, absolutely fascinated as he looks around. “Where are we?”

“We’re in a special world Merlin made just for me and Axel to train in,” Kairi explains, smiling as she pushes his chair down a makeshift path through the woods. “But since we haven’t really been training since he’s been gone, so I thought it might as well be put to use somehow. I also thought that some fresh air might be just what you needed.”

“You thought right,” Sora sighs contentedly as he hangs his arms behind his head. “This place is amazing.”

“It gets better,” Kairi stops short just shy of arriving at the edge of the forest. “But… you have to close your eyes for this next part.” Sora raises a curious eyebrow at this, but he ultimately complies when she insists. She says nothing as she wheels him forward a bit more, eventually bringing his chair to a stop in the right spot before scrambling to get the finishing touches ready.

“Will I get to open my eyes sometime today?” Sora asks teasingly, though he still keeps them closed as she had advised.

“Well, if you’re gonna be that impatient, you can open them… now,” Kairi says, watching his reaction with growing excitement as he gets his first glimpse of the stunning view before them.

Indeed, it astonishes him more than even the forest itself had; a vast, wide valley stretches out far before them, just as rich and radiant as the rest of the woods. And yet, what catches his attention almost as much as the view itself is what Kairi has set up beside him. “What’s all this?” he asks with a curious smile as he looks over the picnic lunch she’s prepared. It isn’t anything extravagant, just a few sandwiches and snacks, all of which she’s plated quite nicely. But what’s most interesting about the entire set up is a single elegantly-decorated cupcake topped with a brightly burning candle at the center of it all.

“Surprise!” Kairi cheers, holding the cupcake up to him. For his part, however, Sora simply looks between it and her, absolutely bemused until he shakes his head in confusion.

“Ok, I give up,” he says with a puzzled grin. “I have no idea what any of this is for.”

“...Sora... “ Kairi’s smile swiftly disappears at this. “Do you… not know what today is?”

“Um… I could be wrong, but… I’m pretty sure it’s a Thursday?”

“Well, yeah. But this Thursday also happens to be your birthday.”

Sora starts at this, somehow even more bewildered by this news as he shakes his head slowly. “N-no, it's… it can’t be, it’s not even…” he stops short, his eyes widening as the realization finally strikes him. “Oh my gosh, it is my birthday….”

“Honestly, Sora, how did you manage to forget your own birthday?” Kairi can’t help but chuckle at just how dumbfounded he is. “Especially since you never have any problems remembering mine or Riku’s.”

“Hey, can you really blame me?” Sora protests defensively. “After all, I don’t really remember celebrating my last birthday either…”

Kairi’s otherwise playful expression turns solemn at this as she realizes exactly why he lacks that memory, if what Riku had told her is anything to go off of. “W-well, do you at least know how old you’re turning today?”

“Of course I do,” he scoffs, though his confidence quickly drops off. “I’m… uh… mm…”

“16?”

“Yeah, that’s right, 16,” he nods before being caught off guard once again. “Wait, really ?!”

Kairi lets out an exasperated sigh, placing the cupcake in his lap before taking a seat on a tree stump across from him. “You’re absolutely hopeless,” she smirks, though her tone soon turns wistful as she looks out at the expansive view before them. “You know, if we were back home, then I’m sure everyone would be throwing you a huge party right now. Especially since 16 is such an important milestone.”

“Ugh, don’t remind me,” Sora crosses his arms, though he still smiles all the while. “My mom always used to tell me that when I turned 16, I’d become a ‘man’, whatever that’s supposed to mean.”

“It means you’re all grown up, silly,” Kairi laughs, amused. “And that’s a pretty special occasion. Which is why I wish I could have done more to help make it even more special for you, but… I hope this is at least close to good enough.”

“Are you kidding? This is great!” Sora readily assures her. His bright smile quickly fades however as he looks back down to the treat she’d given him. “Honestly, you might have even done too much. I mean, it’s not like it’s anything actually worth celebrating…”

“...What do you mean?”

He hesitates for a moment, but in the end he simply shakes his head and glances away instead. “I-it… it’s nothing…”

“It’s not nothing to me,” she leans forward, catching his gaze once more. “Sora, if something’s bothering you, then I want to hear about it. I told you before: I’ll do whatever I can to help you. But I can’t help if I don’t know what’s wrong.”

He pauses, clearly anxious about divulging something so personal, but ultimately he folds, knowing that if there’s anyone he can trust with what he’s about to say, then it’s her. “I… I don’t think I deserve this…” he begins carefully, yet honestly. “ Any of this. Everyone’s been so great about helping me ever since all this started, but I don’t get why . It’s like… you all just dropped everything just for me, even though you could be doing so many other important things! Heck, you and Axel even stopped your Keyblade training because of me.”

“Of course we did,” Kairi says earnestly. “Because we care about you, Sora. We all do. If any one of us were in your place, wouldn’t you do the same for us?”

“Of course I would!” Sora exclaims without a moment’s hesitation.

“And that’s why we’re doing all this for you,” she offers him a bittersweet smile. “Sora, you do so much for other people. You care so much about nearly everyone you meet. So… maybe it’s time for you to start caring a little more about yourself too…”

“W-well, maybe that would be easier for me to do if I stopped making so many mistakes all the time!” he snaps, largely without thinking.

“Mistakes?” she places a hand against the side of his chair as she looks at him, concerned. “L-like what?”

“Well, like falling for a dumb trap and failing my Mark of Mastery exam for starters,” he says, going down the lengthy list he’s been keeping mental tabs on for quite some time now. “Then I just lost one of the thirteen Keys to Kingdom Hearts of all things, to a member of the Organization that wants to take it over and destroy everything ! Then I agreed to let myself be captured and chained up and poisoned and the entire time the Organization could just be out there getting even more of those Keys and I can’t even do anything to stop them! And that’s all on top of losing my strength not just once but twice in a row, only now it’s even worse because not only can I not even fight, I can’t even walk ! A-and…” A small, harsh sob escapes him, the weight of his multiple mistakes weighing heavy on his heart, especially the worst of those mistakes, one that he can’t even bear to voice aloud. “And I just keep on making all these stupid mistakes over and over again when everyone’s counting on me! I-I feel like I’m failing everyone who needs me… A-and that’s exactly why I don’t deserve this... “

Tears brim in his eyes as he shakily holds the cupcake out to her, silently begging her to take it away from him. And not just that, but the kindness and compassion that she and all the others have shown him right along with it, all in the belief that he’s done nothing to earn it. That he should be cast out and hated instead of being cared for and comforted. And at that moment, Kairi has never wanted to prove him wrong more than she does now.

“No…” she gently pushes the cupcake back to him. “It’s exactly why you do deserve it … ” He stills, looking to her in genuine disbelief even as she continues. “Sora… I wish you would see yourself the way everyone else does… Because if you did, then you wouldn’t see any of those mistakes. You’d see all of the good you’ve done, all of the worlds you’ve saved, and all of the people you’ve helped. And I should know; after all… I am one of those people…”

“B-but I put you in so much danger!” Sora protests tightly. “All of you! You should have never gone to rescue me! You should have just-”

“Should have what ? Left you there with Maleficent?” Kairi asks, tensing up at the very thought. “I don’t think so. I can’t speak for the others, Sora, but for me? Finding out that you’d been captured, that you were being tortured … It was one of the worst things I’ve ever had to go through.”

“A-and you shouldn’t have had to go through that!” Sora counters, still immensely distraught. “You shouldn’t have to worry about me because I should be stronger than this! I need to be stronger than this, b-because if I’m not then… what good am I to anyone…?”

His last statement is so quiet she barely hears it, but it still nearly breaks her heart all the same. Because it’s at that moment that she finally realizes exactly what his problem is: he has so much love in his heart to give to others, he always has. But he never bothers to spare any of that love for himself. Which was why, in place of what his own heart can’t give him, she decides to give him some of hers instead.

“You’re enough…” she whispers to him, kneeling down in front of his chair and taking his hands in her own. “You’ve always been enough…” She can feel the warmth of tears starting to build up in her own eyes now but still she doesn’t stop; she can’t stop. Because he needs this, more than he really knows. “C-can I tell you something? W-when I first started my training, I felt like it was...  a lot to take in. Everyone expected so much out of me when I-I’d barely even used my Keyblade before. It’s been getting easier but, still, there’s sometimes where I worry… What if I’m good enough? I mean, stacked up against you and Riku and even Axel, I… I can’t help but feel like I’m the weakest link of the bunch, you know?”

“K-Kairi, what are you talking about?” Sora asks, immediately placing all of his worries with her and essentially forgetting about himself in the process. “You’re not a weak link at all! Once your training’s done, I know you’ll do great!”

“See?” she can’t help but smile softly as she squeezes his hands a bit. “There you go again. You always know how to help everyone else feel better, but… all this time, you’ve just been… miserable on the inside, haven’t you?” He says nothing, instead looking away from her morosely as she goes on. “But now I think I finally understand why. I thought I was under a lot of pressure, but you, Sora? You literally have the weight of hundreds of worlds resting on your shoulders! And it’s not fair that you have to carry that weight all on your own. Especially since… you don’t have to…”

“Yes, I do…” he sighs, closing his eyes solemnly. “Because if I don’t, then who will?”

“ I will,” she answers immediately. “Riku will. Donald and Goofy will. Leon, Aerith, Yuffie, and Cid will. Axel will, the king will, Master Merlin and Master Yen Sid will. So many people will and can help you, Sora. We all want to help you carry that weight. All you need to do is ask.”

He takes in a deep, unsteady breath at this as he stares past her toward the rich blue sky above. “I-I… I’m not good at asking…”

“I know. That’s why I’ve already made up my mind that I’m going to help you anyway, even if you don’t ask. And you know...” She smiles, slipping her hands out of his as she places the cupcake back into them. “Even if you are technically a ‘man’ now, I still don’t see any reason for you to waste a perfectly good birthday cake, now do you?”

A small, yet genuine laugh escapes him at this as he accepts the fork she offered him. And with it, the help that she’s so ready to freely give him in both this moment and beyond it. “I can’t say that I do,” he says just as he blows the cupcake’s nearly burnt-down candle out.

“Did you wish for anything?” she asks him curiously.

“Yeah…” he says happily, his gaze resting solely on her as he wipes the last of his tears away. “It already came true.”

***

The sun is just starting to set over the forest by the time they leave it. As the day slowly, peacefully passes by, the rest of their conversation flows much more lighthearted than how it had started out (though the cupcake they end up splitting does raise their spirits quite a bit). And yet, they’re soon met with an even more festive mood when they return to Merlin’s house, only to arrive to find everyone eagerly waiting for them with a surprise of their own in mind.

“Happy birthday, Sora!” everyone exclaims in bright unison the moment they spot the pair emerging from the portal Kairi had made.

For his part, Sora is even more caught off guard by this surprise than he had been with Kairi’s, especially when he notices the extent of it. They’ve decorated the entire house with countless colorful streamers and balloons, and have even gone as far as to collaborate on a sizable cake, one that is, sure enough, topped with 16 candles exactly. “Whoa! You guys did all this for me?” he asks, genuinely touched by their impressive efforts. “How’d you even know it was my birthday in the first place?”

“Kairi told us,” Aerith informs with a warm smile.

“Oh, really…?” Sora glances back at her with a knowing smirk.

“W-well, someone had to,” Kairi huffs, pushing his chair forward a bit. “It’s not like you would have seeing as how you didn’t even remember what today was to begin with.”

“You forgot your birthday, Sora?” Goofy asks with a small chuckle.

“Why isn’t that not surprising?” Donald adds, crossing his arms.

“H-hey! I didn’t forget it!” Sora counters, flustered. “I just-”

“Like I said, you just didn’t remember it,” Kairi cuts in with a wry smile. “Which is exactly the same thing as forgetting it, but don’t worry. None of us will fault you for it.”

“Yeah, especially not when cake’s on the line!” Yuffie quips with a spirited wink.

“Yeah, cake you didn’t even help the rest of us make,” Axel points out, raising a critical eyebrow at her.

“Aw, cut me some slack; cooking is not my strong suit.”

“ Clearly .”

“Would you two cut that out?” Cid scowls, annoyed as he comes to stand between them. “I’m sure the last thing the poor kid wants to hear on his special day is you two runnin’ your traps at each other!”

“I know I don’t,” Leon agrees dryly.

This elicits a small chuckle out of Aerith, one that both Sora and Kairi quickly join in on until soon enough, the entire room erupts into bright, genuine laughter. Once that laughter dies down, the party fully kicks off. While it isn’t a particularly large get-together, it’s certainly an enjoyable one, filled with talking, laughter, and of course, cake. They keep it going late on into the night, until all of them are tired yet content with the time they’ve spent together as they all fondly part ways to head to bed. As she usually does, Kairi stays with Sora, though as she climbs into bed alongside him, she can’t help but notice the almost glowing smile he falls asleep with. It doesn’t take much thought to figure out where that smile is coming from either. After all, he’d told her as much earlier that very evening and when he did, she could tell just how much he had really been needing something like this to begin with.

Because for the first time in a very long time, he’d been given a chance to feel less like the savior of the worlds he’s expected to be, and more like the normal, now-16 year old he really is. And for the first time in a long time, he’d been given a chance to let the weight of the worlds he’s forced himself to carry just wait, if only for a little while.

[nadziejastar]

Is there any evidence, or even hints, that Lea and Isa’s relationship is more than platonic?

Xaldin: Precisely. That is no ordinary rose. The room is in tatters save for one corner—because to him, at least, it is more precious than all the castle’s riches. Our work here is done, Roxas. The beast's weakness is clear.

Roxas: It is?

Xaldin: To hold something dear is to let it hold you. His heart is in thrall to it, don't you see? And that, Roxas, is ample weakness.

Roxas: I'm not sure I follow.

Xaldin: Nor should you. You have no heart to love with. Come. We return.

Yes, there was definitely a lot of hints and evidence that their relationship was more than platonic. Especially in the novels. 

Roxas: Well, you were right. He does have something he wants to protect. Something he cares about.

Xion: Really?

Roxas: Yeah, but Xaldin says that's a weakness.

Xion: Why would caring about something be a weakness?

Roxas: I dunno. I didn't get it either.

Xion: I hope Axel comes home soon.

The best evidence, though, is in 358/2 Days. The whole subplot of the Beast��s Castle hinted at Axel having romantic feelings for Isa.

Day 150: Too Precious to Lose

Axel and I talked for a while about the things we can't bear to lose. Axel thinks that for Nobodies, it's our pasts, because that's all we have to remember the pain of losing something.

If Axel’s memories of his past are what’s most precious to him, then what was most precious to Lea as a human? Axel says that his memories are all he has to remember the pain of losing something.

Talking to Roxas and Xion always brings back memories of my human life, back when I was a kid. It's a weird sensation. I ought to be able to share all this with Saïx, but I just don't feel like it anymore. It's strange, but I'm content with just missing what's gone. I'm not the one who changed. You did.

And his memories of his past are all about Isa. And Axel has a lot of pain over missing what’s gone between him and Saïx. The story STRONGLY hints that Isa was so precious to Lea, he couldn’t bear to lose him. There was something very special between them that isn’t there anymore.

Roxas: Love is a power?

Xaldin: None you or I will ever grasp. Nor will they, for long. The love between them will wither and die. Love never lasts.

Roxas: But you don't have a heart. How would you know?

Xaldin: I have eyes, and a brain. We have no further business here. Try not to dawdle.

Roxas: That still doesn't explain what love is... Is love fighting to protect what's most important to you? Where does its power come from?

The main theme of Beast’s Castle is “love”. Having something you can’t bear to lose is what love is. And love is a weakness that the organization exploits. Axel has a tragic backstory that is hinted at constantly. The story hints that his fear of losing Isa was used against him at some point.

Roxas: I found out about love on today's mission--that it's something powerful.

Axel: That's true. It is. But I'll never get to experience it.

Roxas: Nobodies can't love?

Axel: You need a heart, man.

Roxas: Right...

Axel: Love is what happens if there's something really special between two people.

Roxas: You mean, like, if they're best friends? Inseparable?

Axel: Well, you can care about your friends, I guess, but that's not what I'm talking about.

Just look at the way Axel talks about love. He longs for love. Love is even compared to being best friends. But Axel is very specific that it’s a different feeling. He’s always speaking from experience, like when he talked about best friends, summer vacation, etc. He’s speaking from experience here, too. He’s been in love before. That is what is being hinted at. Now, this isn’t the same as Nomura coming out and saying “yes, they’re gay”. But there’s no way they wrote the story like this on accident.

Beast: It's no use.  She's so beautiful, and I'm so...well, look at me!

Mrs. Potts: Oh, you must help her to see past all that.

All of this talk of love takes place in the world of Beauty and the Beast. That movie is all about the power of love allowing you to see past the exterior. That’s what the story of 358/2 Days is all about, too. Roxas can see Xion as Kairi because he has a heart. Axel can see her as Kairi after Castle Oblivion, and he grew a heart while he was there.

Riku: The process of putting his memory back together has gone nowhere... They have what's most precious to Sora...his memories of Kairi.

Xion is just a robot, though, and not really Kairi. She doesn’t even have a concrete appearance. It’s Sora’s memories that make it look like Kairi.

Xion’s memories were really Sora’s. But the form she had taken was reminiscent of Kairi. And that was because of Sora’s memories inside Roxas—the memories that knew Kairi as someone precious to him. Like Xion had become someone precious to Roxas.

She was created out of Sora’s most precious memories, which were of Kairi, who he LOVED. Xion is just a reflection of Sora’s LOVE for Kairi. Those most precious memories were the whole basis of the plot of CoM. They were the weakness used to manipulate Sora.

My precious existence is surrounded by memories that have been burned into my heart, as well as important memories that guide me. The more precious the memory is, the further it regresses into your heart, making it hard to remember, you know?

“Why do you always go around picking up stray puppies left and right?”

“I want to leave an impression with a lot of different people. I can live forever if I remain in their memories.”

Isa then laughed at me bitterly.

“Well, at the very least I’m sure you’ll always be in my memories, whether I want you to or not.”

During that time, we had no idea that memories could be erased. Memories are not always clear, and they can even be replaced with something else.

I haven’t seen Ventus since.

The sunset today is burning red again. We finished our training and watched the sunset from the top of the hill near the Secret Forest.

Axel’s journey in Castle Oblivion was all about HIS most precious memories, too. He said he and Sora had a lot in common, which is why he decided to help him. Axel’s memories of Isa were the equivalent of Sora’s memories of Kairi. It’s never explicitly stated, but Sora LOVES Kairi. Axel LOVED Isa. Once Axel started to remember his most precious memories, which were of Isa, he started to grow a heart.

“Do you know why the sunset is so red? Light is comprised of a variety of different colors, and within that spectrum, the red color permeates the furthest!”

“And how come you’re so versed in this all of a sudden?”

I remember speaking with Roxas about this on the 255th day when we sat on top of the clocktower. Although I know I should have had more precious memories of that time, I couldn’t remember them. I know there’s something that I was supposed to remember, but for some reason I just could not remember it.

You know how Day 255 is such an important day, it was even featured in the opening? It’s never explained why that day was so important. Axel tells Roxas about the red sunset. And just by the way he said it, you could tell that he was recalling a very precious memory from his past. Axel’s Character File story even confirmed it. The red sunset was not a random bit of trivia thrown in for no reason. It was a very precious memory from Axel’s past.

Someone had once told him why sunsets were red… Who was that?

The novel hints that Isa was the one who told Lea about the red sunset. But Axel had forgotten this by the time of 358/2 Days.

“Yeah. Have to hang on to something, right? It’s not like I have memories from before the Organization. Don’t you remember? I acted like a zombie.”

Axel stared at him as if trying to figure something out and then grinned.

Axel was trying to remember a specific precious memory from his past. It was bothering him. And it came back to him on Day 255 when he was talking to Roxas. It’s why he sounded so nostalgic. And it’s why that day was so significant.

Why did Axel remember that precious memory on Day 255? It was called “The Longest Day”. The longest day of the year is called “midsummer”. The entire story was most likely inspired by Shakespeare’s “A Midsummer Night’s Dream”. The most famous quote from that play is about how love makes you blind to someone’s flaws. Roxas’s love for Xion blinded him to the fact that she was just a Replica being used to absorb his power and destroy him. Xion was his weakness.

Things base and vile, holding no quantity, Love can transpose to form and dignity. Love looks not with the eyes but with the mind. And therefore is winged Cupid painted blind.

― William Shakespeare, A Midsummer Night's Dream

Day 255 was the day Saix was revealed to be “blind”. He wasn’t seeing what everyone else saw when he looked at Xion. He was like the Beast. He had no love in his heart. He couldn’t see past appearances. 

Axel: The Organization made her to duplicate your powers. She's a puppet.

Roxas: Have you gone nuts? Xion's a person, not a puppet.

Axel: She's smoke and mirrors, Roxas.

Xion was a reflection of Sora’s love for Kairi. Smoke and mirrors. An illusion made of precious memories.

Xemnas: About Axel? The poor fool. How long will he keep chasing the illusion of friendship, when he himself lacks emotion? Trying so hard to retrieve what he has lost, when it may never have existed in the first place. He deserves nothing more than our pity.

Saix was ALSO smoke and mirrors. Axel’s relationship with him wasn’t real and never existed in the first place. It was just a reflection of Lea’s most precious memories and his love for Isa. Axel desperately wanted to retrieve what he lost. His love for Isa made him “blind”. His burgeoning replacement heart gave him the power to look past the exterior of Saix to see the person he loved. It blinded him to the fact that Saix was a Nort and no longer the same person anymore. Saix was being used by Xemnas to manipulate Axel. Isa was Lea’s weakness.

Everyone is free to interpret the story as they wish. I know that Axel/Roxas is the more popular Axel ship. But I do believe Lea/Isa was what the writers intended and is the “correct” way to view the story. If you view the story with this idea in mind, Axel’s character arc makes SO much more sense. 

[shidoukanae]

YGO! Questionnaire

Tagged by @cipher-wise​

Favorite series:

My favorite series based on what I watched and enjoyed would have to be Arc-V!!! It's honestly the series that got me to adore YGO when previously I'd seen YGO as, and I chilidishly quote, "uncool". Everything about Arc-V is pretty much wonderful: Yuya's presence as a "everyone MUST be happy" kind of character in a plot that discusses themes of war, revenge, and despair is absolutely refreshing (especially when Yuya's ideals of happiness are stripped from him and made a mockery of by, *coughs* one of my favorite characters in the franchise *coughs*). 

I love how the four Yuu boys are a wonderful combination of "protagonists" (/anatagonists) and how they each play off of each other's weaknesses and strengths, often acting as mirrors to each other in their individual dimensions while having amazing interactions (Yugo and Yuri, anyone? Yuri and Yuya?).

I admire how the endgame plot is a perversion of Yuya's ideals: he gets what he wants, showering happiness upon all, but that "happiness" is corrupted into the notion of entertainment. While Yuya seeks to provide people with smiles and laughter, to give them hope to work together through tough times and to stay strong in the face of adversity, his "counterparts" in the endgame are really good at acting as Yuya's mirror: showing that his style of performing can also be used to appease the bloodthirst of one's own self and that happiness can be corrupted into self-deserving power.

...Hard to put that into exact words without spoiling a lot of things but, gosh, let's just say that Yuri and ____ are the perfect mirrors to Yuya in terms of what his entertainment dueling style is meant to be.

The plot over all is pretty good! I won't lie and say it stands strong all the way throughout the story but the first half is amazing and there are some pretty strong episodes in the second half (Yugo and Rin, the parasite episodes in general, Yuri Yuri YURI). I can definitely say that the humor is there, the characters are amazing (if nothing else, watch for the Yuu Boys, the Bracelet Gals, and Shun versus Sora!!) and having come into the show around episode 104, I was pleasantly surprised by the trip Arc-V brought me and how it played with its protagonist, giving him hope, kicking him down, and toying with his mind - just like the way a warzone might to any idealistic individual.

In terms of other series, I like VRAINS but only up to like episode 19 (or the end of the Data Bank arc). It had potential and I kept hoping it would get better but the plot was constantly floundering, there are plot holes abundant (sewer monsters, ugh), character development is inconsistent not to mention very shallow, VRAINS has some of the best side characters but they're kicked to the curb by a bland protagonist and a villain that could've been so much cooler but they made him a sympathetic mess.

...I have a lot of gripes with VRAINS but, if it were to ever be rewritten with clear goalposts and plot twists in mind (not to mention development on ideas like Charisma Duelists because at the end of the show I still have not a fucking clue what a Charisma Duelists is or was) I would say it has potential to become my favorite series but Arc-V clearly beats it for me in every category lmao.

Zexal’s also really good too!!! I don’t get all the hate behind it because it’s actually really interesting and engaging (also IV’s definition of fanservice is literally the only type of fanservice I will ever accept) and I think I’ve even cried a couple of times during the course of the plot which is like,,, shocking considering it’s not a show I thought I’d cry over (I cried in Arc-V too but goddamn does tiny Yuya just want to make you tear up lmao). This show is really good emotionally and it’s literally so stupid how Kaito carries a lot of the early and middle game of the show yet most of the meat of the plot doesn’t begin to unravel until the second season.

Also, if you ever want to watch a show of 100+ episodes that is so masterfully written that there is foreshadowing for stuff in like episode 130+ on EPISODE ONE, please watch this. Literally there are so many hints of what is going to happen in the future in the early episodes and you won’t really be able to tell what those hints are until you’ve finished the show but goddamn when you go back and rewatch things it does indeed feel amazing how much foreshadowing they threaded into the show without you ever knowing...(please don’t search for spoilers if you intend to watch this. I went into the show knowing some spoilers tho not all and, while I was still pleased by what I watched, I honestly can agree the show is A Lot Better without knowing ANYTHING)

Favorite Protagonist: Yuya. For sure, out of all the series, Yuya. 

He’s a refreshing protagonist, especially considering he shines in a world of war and despair. He’s also someone who you empathize with right at the start and want to hope in, especially since he is the “happiness” in a word of “madness” and “sorrow”. He’s not someone out to save the world (not really, anyways), but his actions touch on the lives of others anyways, giving people in a hope in a world that is otherwise cruel and heartless. Also, it really helps that he’s able to pull you into his world of “egaos”, making you believe in him and root for him despite how cheesy his ideals may or may not sound.

Also love how, despite being the centerpiece of “happiness”, Yuya isn’t allowed to always be happy :> Not spoiling plot related things but if you like protagonists going off the rails insane at times, Yuya’s definitely a fun protagonist for that!!!

Favorite Rival:

Kaito Tenjou!!! Literally the best rival in the series that I’ve seen. Everything about him is literally perfect ngl. From the way he’s chillingly introduced, with the spine-tingling whistles and cruel, almost merciless nature, to the way he slowly becomes sympathetic while also remaining a terrifying presence whenever he appears...I love him????

Favorite BFF:

Does Shoichi count? Because like...he’s Yusaku’s closest friend and ally in the series and I generally don’t pay attention to the other BFF’s in the other series (or at least, the ones I can recall bc I know in Zexal that Yuma has a whole group of friends lmao).

But I like Shoichi!! He cares about Yusaku a lot, is pretty damn cool as a sidekick hacker, his sideplot with his brother was actually honestly endearing and I loved the mystery about him. His early-game jokes w/ Ai to tease Yusaku were also a good laugh.

Favorite GFF: 

Not a girl friend forever for the main protagonist (although she like...lowkey confessed to him...though that plot really never went anywhere so I still don’t know what the fuck THAT was about) but,,, Ema Bessho,,

If y’all knew me back in my peak YGO days when VRAINS was airing,,, this gal was and STILL is my favorite girl of the YGO series. Even though she was pretty much done dirty imo I still love her (even despite considering she’s been made a damsel-in-distress at least three times, she’s only ever won one duel on-screen despite being supposedly good at dueling, ngl they could’ve done so much more with her but tbh she’s mostly just an asset to solve problems at whim and barely gets character development/does nothing but watch and spectate stuff late-game).

Even though she’s like...the unfortunate side character who’s probably meant to be more fanservice than interesting, in the first 19 episodes (and even the Revolver vs. her fight as well as the one time she meets Aoi IRL early-game) made her out to be a lot cooler and complex than she ended up being. I mean,,, a hacker gal who’s self-serving, cynical, and cold-hearted taking on the tasks of her (potentially ex) boyfriend while being really nice to his sister to the point she baffles even herself,,, we could’ve had a really unique and cool character to play around with here but instead we got...cool-ass character with potential to be something more reduced to a spectator with nothing better to do than idolize the main protagonist and have a plot with her brother that honestly detracted from her character more than it added to it imo.

Also Ema could’ve been a female Yuri but,,, nope,,, they decided she was better as a background piece instead TwT

Favorite Villain: Yuri.

Literally Yuri.

I could choose the leather jacket w/ fluff boi in a certain series because hot damn was that guy convincing AF that he wasn’t an evil psychopath (and even while knowing that he was, I still got fooled into thinking he was a good guy somehow omg) however,,, I’ve always held a love for Yuri and the way he’s been portrayed.

Despite ALWAYS being the bad guy, the show has always made this purple fucker into the most entertaining character on-screen. He even beats Yuya sometimes in terms of how entertaining he is - that’s literally how good he is,,

Also his facial expressions are amazing, he’s a VERY VALID threat to the main cast (and his creeper levels are not only off the charts but literally called out by the main female protagonist herself lmao), and he acts as the perfect foil to Yuya, battling not to entertain others but to entertain himself.

Also, he likes killing people.

No this is not a joke.

He literally likes killing people. And is pretty sadistic about it, too.

(^^^^ for those who don’t get the joke, “Fusion” is pronounced “Yuugo” which sounds similar to “Yugo” which is what,,, Yuri is making fun of,,, more context is needed of course but this is a Great Running Gag)

Favorite card:

I don’t know if it actually exists as an actual card but...that crystal dragon from the YGO movie with the glass pyramid. Blue-Eyes Shining Dragon...it’s really pretty...I love it...

Favorite Episode:

I’m...too lazy to search for names of these episodes but I can give brief summaries of them,,, because I can’t choose,,,

Arc-V: Shun vs. Sora (ALL episodes). Hot damn if you have never watched YGO but want to try and see for yourself why people like it: WATCH THESE EPISODES. I can’t explain how amazing these episodes are and, while I admit jumping straight into them might have you missing out on some important context (such as who Shun is or why Sora’s battle tactics lead to revelation) it’s honestly an amazing fight regardless. The battle starts off plain enough - there’s obvious tension, it seems like a typical fight of a battle royale, etc. - my god does the battle ramp up in emotional tension and promptly kick you in the gut with not only how blindsided you’ve been, but it also showcases just how cruel these “entertainment duels” can really get.

Any episode with Yuri. Literally any episode he’s in. 

I think this is like...episode 8 of VRAINS...but whenever it is that Akira hires Ema to find the reason why Aoi just...straight up got knocked into a coma. Literally this is my favorite episode when it comes to Ema. The way she makes fun of Akira even while aware of his situation,,, her cruel selfishness and desire for money bubbling to the surface, the way she confesses how she can’t be trusted willingly and still asks Akira why he’s hiring her,,, god I love this episode in terms of what Ema could’ve always been.

Episode 13 (/14?) of Zexal!!! This is the episode Kaito appears and when the show REALLY picks up. Kaito is a fun bastard of a rival and tbh I don’t think I’ll ever stop getting chills of him walking in, debris frozen in time all around him, as he approaches his victim, whistling an eerie children’s tune as he gets ready to close in for the kill,,,,

Favorite Deck to Use:

I don’t...really play the game itself but...I have used a couple of decks and I guess you can say I really love Raid Raptors??? First of all, those warbirds make really fun sounds I love ‘em in the anime but they’re also just fun to use in general (even tho I used a,,, very basic deck for them,,, I love them still).

Fusion, Ritual, Synchro, XYZ, Pendulum or Link:

XYZ bc it’s really the only summoning method I’m used to lol :P. Also XYZ loyalist I guess???? 

Years in fandom: roughly five to six years iirc? I mean, I was a fan of the early day YGO and watched it as a kid but not active enough to be in the fandom for it lmao. Also not in the fandom atm because Sevens lost my attention (it’s a good show!!! I’m just unfortunately more a fan of things with serious plots and darker themes and it’s hard for me to stomach slice-of-life shows that don’t focus on a mature and engaging plot). However, Arc-V and Zexal holds a special place in my heart (as does VRAINS, begrudgingly) and so I occasionally find myself wandering back to these shows like right now,,, 

[mimiplaysgames]

A Powerful Enough Dream (Ch. 8)

Pairing: Terra/Aqua Rating: T Word Count: 4,177

Summary: Aqua traces Terra’s steps to what only seems like a nightmare, wedged into a dream for the future.

Read on AO3

A/N: I will be taking another break from this fic in order to work on my other WIPs, which are each incredibly time consuming, so I apologize! I hope everyone has been staying safe.

~*~*~*~*~

Stones, pt. 2

Seventh Heaven is a mosh pit of uneven stone, its renovated extensions made steady of wood, draped with drabby awnings of well-worn linen. It’s hard to tell if it always stood here and was damaged when Radiant Garden fell, or if it was built after the fact. Either way, it could tip over from one gust of wind. 

The front door whines as Aqua steps inside. Wooden chairs are flipped on top of wooden tables, and the booths are empty except for salt shakers. It’s part-restaurant, part-bar, with a space free of clutter for dancing.

“Is anyone here?” Aqua calls out. 

Footsteps hurry from the back, and a pretty woman in dark, long hair appears behind the bar. 

“We’re not open quite yet,” she says. “Come back in a couple of hours.”

“Oh, I’m sorry.” Aqua holds her hand to her chest. “I’m not a customer.”

The woman cocks her head. Her smile is pleasant, but her red eyes narrow. “Then, can I help you?” 

Aqua clears her throat. “I heard Terra stayed here with someone named Tifa.”

“I am Tifa.” She steps out from behind the bar, her stride confident and gracefully brisk. Her biceps are toned, and her fingers flex with the familiarity of someone who knows how to fight. “And who’s asking?”

Aqua braces herself - she’s not sure if she’s preparing for a punch to the face but it wouldn’t hurt to foresee it. Such protectiveness over Terra from someone he should barely know and yet is close to (and someone this curvy), sends a spike to her chest. 

“Aqua,” she says with a tremble to her voice. “I’m Aqua.”

Tifa gasps, her stride slamming into thin air. “He found you,” she whispers. Closing the gap between them, she takes Aqua into a firm embrace - not tight, not suffocating, but motherly: a gentle reassurance that everything in the world will be okay. Aqua can’t help but to be moved to tears. Hugs are something people do. She just forgot.

“Where are these things supposed to go, Teef?” a man’s voice calls out from the back. In his hands is a box of metal spouts with curved ridges meant for pouring liquor. His spiked hair is jet-black, and he has the most familiar bright blue eyes; he’s just taller now, more imposing, less scrawny, but he wears that same goofy smile. 

“Zack?”

He looks up and drops the box, steel clamoring and popping in sharp echoes. “Aqua?”

At first, silence thrums between them. 

“You haven’t aged a day, either,” he says, mostly to himself. “Something weird’s going on.” He scratches his head, arguing something over in his mind before shrugging it off and coming at her with that indestructible grin. “Whatever. It’s hugging time.”

He yanks her in. Aqua grunts; his hug is like being shoved into a brick wall. It’s his shoulder plates, his muscles, his childish fever of gripping his favorite toy that crushes her ribcage. Terra is just as hard and strong, if not moreso, but he never feels like this. He’s warm, too careful of what he’s holding. Terra is the unseizable fort that promises a quiet night away from the danger. Zack is the tank that rolls over the threat, whooping all the way. 

Aqua laughs. “It’s good to see you, too.”

Zack pokes her forehead. “Why did I have to wait twelve years before things got interesting again? I deserve good stories and better drinks.” He looks behind her, toward the entrance. “Where is the ol’ champ?”

Tifa nods. “A celebration is in order. I’ll make him the best steak he’s ever had.”

They’re so expectant, so ready to shower Terra with congrats, that Aqua can’t bring herself to give them the white lie of, He’ll be here soon.

“He’s…” she starts, not looking into their eyes, but in the spaces in between. 

The way her voice wavers is truth enough. Zack’s immortal smile dies, and Tifa stares at a lopsided picture on her wall. 

Aqua tells them what she can without confusing them: that he’s succumbed to shadow in rescuing her, in a parallel world where only the dark exists. So far, he’s still there. 

She tells them that the only reason why she was in that lonely world to begin with was because she lost a terrible fight that warped the fabric of existence. She leaves out any mention of Xehanort or Unversed. In a world of Heartless, these people don’t need to be scared of anything more. 

When they ask how quickly they can free him, Aqua says that it’s only a matter of time - it’s just difficult and very dangerous. But if he can do it, so can she. 

Zack has helped himself to a booth, leaning back on the tabletop. Tifa stays standing, her eyes hard as gems and her arms tightly crossed like she’s using them as a crutch. 

Tifa scoffs when Aqua finishes. “How many child soldiers have to sacrifice themselves before the worlds set themselves straight?” She heads back to the bar. 

“Tifa,” Zack calls.

“Terra is too young to suffer that much,” Tifa shoots back. “So is Aqua. So are all of them - you see how young these Keyblade wielders start. Would the same happen to Sora or Riku?” She picks up the box he dropped earlier, twisting spouts onto glass bottles and slamming them back in their place with a loud clunk.

Zack sighs, rubbing his neck. 

Aqua has never considered herself a soldier. A knight, certainly, someone gallant and faithful to a calling - not an ant that follows orders. But if she frames her calling as something akin to a general, or a king, then she could see what Tifa is getting at. 

“Terra would have done the same whether he was a soldier, a Keyblade wielder, or an ice cream server,” Zack says softly, tossing a weak smile to Aqua. 

Aqua sits across from him. She only nods in response.

Zack leans over, elbows on his knees. “I told Terra he looked like a hero. At the time, I couldn’t articulate why. He just seemed like the type.

“After hearing about this, I can say that’s the reason why. It’s not his seriousness or his determination… he just has balls. Even when he’s afraid - and I’m sure he must have been, saving you - he goes for it. No second thoughts. Staring the demon in the face even when he’s getting dragged all the way down.”

It’s not the most eloquent explanation, but Aqua smirks. 

“I wanted to be like him one day.” Zack stands up, squats once, and stretches his arms, heading on his way to join Tifa. “I’m going to have to up my game.”

Aqua follows. “You’re a hero now?”

Zack snaps on a huge grin from ear to ear, fists triumphantly on his hips. “Finished work in progress, I’m kicking Heartless to the curb and helping the Radiant Garden cause.” He sits at the bar, not minding how Tifa has ducked under the counter to connect a tube to a spout. “That reminds me.” He brings his hand to his chin, measuring Aqua with his eyes.

Oh. She had hoped he forgot. 

“How old are you?” he asks.

Thirty? Aqua sits alongside him. “Eighteen.”

“Then it’s fine.” He waves an arm dismissively. “Now that I’m bona fide… You remember our deal, yeah?”

Aqua tries her hardest not to laugh or blush. She’s relying on using Ven as an excuse this time. “Maybe?”

“One date for hero-hood.” He holds a finger up.

Tifa slams two glasses on the surface of the bar, studying Zack incredulously. “I’m not sure You-Know-Who, and,” she glances at Aqua, “You-Know-Who-Else would like that very much.” 

Thank goodness, she’s saved.

“Aerith would love to join us.” Zack shrugs. “I’m not sure on the Who-Else, though.”

Tifa smirks and rolls her eyes. “There’s still packages to be brought here, Hot Stuff.” She gives him keys. “You can try strutting your swag when she’s actually interested.”

“Heroes doing chores,” he protests, dangling the keys in his hand.

“You should have asked Cloud for more munny before he left,” Tifa reminds him. 

Zack groans, rolling his shoulders. Before leaving, he places a hand on Aqua’s shoulder. “I meant what I said. About Terra.” He’s serious, and it’s reassuring. “He’ll get through it. He’s made of the best stuff.” 

Aqua dams the tears. Coming from someone they’ve all known from a previous lifetime, it matters. “Thank you,” she whispers.

Tifa offers Aqua a warm smile when they’re alone. “That was a close one. You’re too prim for most people I know.”

“E-excuse me?” 

“You carry yourself a certain way.” She chuckles, nodding over to the way Aqua fumbles with her hands, properly layered over the other. “You know, Terra had dropped off something here.”

Aqua’s heart skips a beat. “My Keyblade?”

“Mmm, no.” Tifa eyes her curiously. “For you and Ventus. Some fruit from another world. I have it frozen in the back.”

“Oh.” She takes a moment to let the disappointment roll off, and focuses on the thoughtful gesture. “I’ll wait to have it - at least until Ven is with me.”

“Fair enough.” But as Tifa grabs a rag to start cleaning, she doesn’t follow through. Instead, she hangs her head and sniffs. “I only finished it yesterday.”

“Come again?”

“I had Terra on a rare potion to help him sleep. It kept him sane and in control.” She brings her head back up, wiping her eyes with her glove. “I didn’t have a second batch finished the last time he was here, so I told him to ration what he had left. I only finished it yesterday…”

“Did you know what was going on with him?”

“No,” Tifa says exasperatedly. “But I didn’t need an explanation. I saw it in his eyes. He was haunted by something very powerful.” She rests her head on the counter. “And I know someone who goes through the same. I wanted to help.”

Aqua traces at the grooves on the wood with her finger. “You kept him going. You helped him find me.” She doesn’t know if it’s true, but it’s a beautiful story for a person needing a prayer answered. 

Tifa inhales like she’s meditating, her tears silent and sparse. She wills a smile on her face, and Aqua has to admire that tenacity - she can’t do the same so smoothly. Leaning her elbows, Tifa studies Aqua, from the crown of her head to her chin. She’s looking for something beyond just her face, and while Aqua normally doesn’t feel discomfort in staring anyone down, she finds the emptiness of the bar stealing her glances. 

“I still have it,” Tifa says, “if you think it might be helpful.”

Does ‘Crazy Insomniac’ read well on the face? Aqua thinks grimly. “That won’t be necessary, but thank you.” 

Tifa nods, but she’s not approving. “Well, I’ll keep it safe just in case.” She settles her attention to a bar that needs to be wiped. “Terra stayed upstairs. It’s not the fanciest, but I try to make it comfortable. You’re welcome to stay as long as you need to.” 

She points to the back, beyond the kitchen, where a rickety staircase bends over the corner, just as narrow as it is steep. The railing wiggles as she leans on them, and the steps moan with every climb. The top is a dense wooden hallway only populated by two doors. The one closest to her to the right is a washroom, its tub cracked and tiny. 

The door farther from her is the bedroom, where every floorboard creaks. A small window twice the size of her head opens outward, looking over rooftops and watching dusk blend into night. The only table shelves three books, all with the titles worn out of their covers. Skimming through them, Aqua learns they’re romance novels. She lights the lantern by their side, burning it bright enough to ward away the shadows. 

The bed is short, even for Aqua - Terra’s legs would have dangled off of them, but knowing him, he wouldn’t have complained or even noticed. 

He had slept here. She only missed him by several days. 

Aqua breathes in the pillow, looking for him. It’s freshly cleaned and air-dried. 

“You’re not here,” she says out loud. She knows better than to expect different, but the words burn through her eyelids. 

She pulls both blue and orange Wayfinders out. 

Rolling Terra’s Wayfinder in her fingers, she layers it with hers, perfectly shaped and identical, except for the colors. Making them was supposed to tie a tether between them, a psychic link that lets him stay close. She focuses on that magic, praying for the sensation that he’s watching her, or a whiff of his scent, sandalwood and yeast, entering the room.

“Terra,” she calls. No one answers. She really failed with it.

Having bonds is supposed to brim a Keybearer’s heart with power. What if Xehanort’s beliefs are right? Aqua still has that bond to Terra, and all it’s doing right now is pinching her heart until it swells with an infection, crumbling it so that she has to scatter to keep it together. 

If bonds really do make the heart weaker rather than stronger, then Aqua doesn’t have a proper defense for her Master’s teachings. 

So Aqua stares at these Wayfinders until the busy noise of a crowd fills the room. Music plays downstairs. Some conversations are giddy and drunk, others are aggressive and drunk, but they blend into a chorus that performs without ever knowing she’s sitting a floor above them, thinking about all the existential magic that doesn’t make a difference in their lives. 

So Aqua watches the stars twinkle through the window, a gentle breeze coming in but not threatening enough to blow the lantern out. People dance - it reverberates on the walls. She considers going downstairs and joining the fun. She decides against it. With all the ruckus, Aqua can’t really say she’s alone.

And Aqua rejects Tifa when she knocks, offering a hot plate of food. Tifa leaves her with a small bowl of strawberries just in case, letting her know that Sora is looking for her. 

“I need rest,” Aqua says. “He’ll understand.”

Two hours after that, the night starts to quiet, its inhabitants straggling off for adventures. 

But there’s always a few left, chattering. Everyone needs someone to talk to.

“Terra,” she calls again. No answer. 

Maybe if she plays his music box, he’ll find a way to her. 

On his bed, she stares at the ceiling, the music box playing the song of the missing and the missed, the chatter downstairs peaceful, the lantern burning strong. 

Dozing off is like blinking, the hours nonexistent and the rest groggy and unfulfilled. 

It’s silent. The candle in the lantern is halfway through its life, the music box needs rewinding, and there’s not a voice or movement downstairs. Tifa doesn’t stay overnight, so Aqua is truly alone this time.

She rolls over, and contemplates reaching over for the music box. Both Wayfinders sit idly on the table, side by side.

Aqua inhales. She smells smoke.

The flame on the candle flickers black, suffocating all the light in the room. Aqua whimpers. 

Something grabs her from under, pulling her into the mattress as though a hole beneath her body is feeding.

“No!”

But there’s no one to hear her ripping the bedsheets or scratching the surface of the table as she fails to grip it. Eventually, her defiant cries are muffled by pillows and fabric, until she sinks, much like she’s done for years.

Aqua knows that to swim back up to the bed is futile. The Realm of Darkness must have waited for the right opportunity to bring her back to where she truly belongs... Or it was clever this entire time and really got her where it hurt the most. Being in the Realm of Light was too good to be true; it had to have been a dream, right? A Keyblade Master should have known better, should have anticipated the enemy’s movements.

She lands on nothingness. Her only choice is to choose a direction, but in a sea of black, it never matters.

No, something is different this time.

She whirls. Behind her is that girl in white, her blonde hair wrapped around her shoulder, smiling. Nothing smiles in the Realm of Darkness.

“Hello,” Aqua says. 

The girl nods in return, her glow intensifying. Then she disintegrates into a cluster of white, holy butterflies, fluttering away. 

“Wait!”

Through the nothing, Aqua chases the butterflies, and for a moment they’re too fast for her - if she loses sight of them, she’ll be stuck here forever again. She urges her legs to pick up speed no matter how it feels like she’s slogging through molasses; she’ll thank them for their service later with a real bath, as soon as she sees the Realm of Light again.

In the distance, the butterflies settle, illuminating a silhouette of a figure on the ground, one arm draped over one knee. 

Terra. He’s admiring the tiny wings across his arms and shoulders. There’s one nestled in his hair, but he doesn’t notice. Aqua’s footsteps don’t make noise, yet he looks up when she approaches.

His eyes are blue: A gorgeous, deep blue that Aqua used to say was like the river before she saw the ocean for the first time. She’s told him to try wearing the color. It would bring his eyes out more, but he’d scoff at her. 

“What are you doing here?” he asks. He stays still, not disturbing the butterflies. “Please tell me you’ve escaped.”

“Depends on where I am,” she says, sitting on her knees and giving him a smile. It widens without her permission, with every glance at his jawline, his brows, his nose, as though the darkness around them can’t hurt her anymore.

“This is…” He shrugs with his head. “My existence.”

This was his prison for twelve years? The Realm of Darkness at least gave her something to do. “There’s nothing here.”

“I suppose it suits me.”

She doesn’t like how defeated he sounds. “I did escape, Terra. Don’t worry.”

He smiles in the way a person does when they find their bed after a long, hard day. He doesn’t have breath: this vision of him is compensating with a sigh in the only way it could. “I’m glad,” he says, as though the relief is heavy on his shoulders. 

“And you? Are you safe?”

“As long as I sit here and do as I’m told, then sure. For the most part.” He has the gall to smirk. “He’s knocked out right now, actually.”

Aqua gapes. She never considered that Xehanort could sleep, or would even want to.

She should ask more pressing questions: something about Keyblade business, about the fate of the world, about Xehanort and Mickey, about Ven… But it’s the simple moments that she misses, that she wants to take back for a few seconds, to indulge in this dream before she has to play the Master. And it’s Terra, who always undoes her to a layer that no one else can see. He’s the only one who can. 

“Does he snore?” she whispers, the words slipping out naturally.

Terra lifts a brow. “The man who will destroy everything and everyone in the next Keyblade War does, in fact, snore.”

It’s like a usual night, when they’ve snuck together into a dark library past curfew. “That’s because it’s your body. You’re the one who snores.”

“Just a little.”

“Just enough.”

He smiles. The look of it punches Aqua in the gut, dragging her beating heart down along with it. It’s meant for her. It’s meant for his best friend, and dare she wish that it could mean something stronger and closer and more. She steals one precious, little moment to study the way it never stretches to his ears. Most who don’t know him would assume it’s because he’s shy, or too polite. But Terra’s just the type that prefers his smile to ignite his eyes. She’s daydreamed about it for many nights, but this is a tiny detail she’s forgotten, and the sight of it sends another crashing bolt.

He’s really here.

“Terra,” she croaks, “I’m so sorry.”

He falters. “What for?”

What for? She’s replayed all the words she threw at him in her mind, especially the last ones. Of course he’d take them to heart and never direct the blame back at her. Sweet Terra.

“For not believing you when you said you were going after the darkness. For accusing you of doing terrible things in other worlds.”

“Aqua.” He shakes his head, and the butterfly that dug itself into his hair flounces before it measures if it’s safe enough to land in the same spot. “I know what it’s like to be forced to choose between your best friend and your Master.”

“Still, I shouldn’t have told you - I shouldn’t have even insinuated that you would keep going astray and keep doing stupid things. It was cruel of me. It was senseless. Please forgive me.” 

He shakes his head again, and the butterfly opts to hover next to his ear this time. “I bet you counted on lecturing me all the way back home before we could go on as normal,” he says, brushing off any sign of hurt. “And I did do some stupid things. We couldn’t have known it would end that way, Aqua. There’s nothing to forgive. Everyone that’s important to me is now safe. I’ve made my peace.”

What is that supposed to mean? There’s no solace to be had if he’s not part of it. 

In a flash, Aqua reaches for him. He reciprocates with the same desperate attempt, all the butterflies now in an uproar, enveloping them. Their hands pass through each other, through air.

Aqua gasps. The only thing she’s grabbed is one solitary butterfly, fluttering its wings.

Terra stares at his hand in disbelief, a wave of self-willed reassurance passing over his face. “It’s okay.”

It’s not.

She’s about to say so when he whips his head to the left as though he’s hearing movement. She looks over: there’s nothing but empty, inky space.

“He’s waking up.” Terra scowls, his voice laced with the disgust of someone robbed, and the disappointment of someone faithless. “He’s very paranoid. He doesn’t like it if I talk or move too much.”

“Terra-”

“I don’t have much time.”

There’s a finality in his statement that Aqua chooses to ignore. “But Ven-”

He catches her gaze, his eyes urgent and commanding. “Ven is with Sora.”

Aqua snaps her eyes wide open at the wooden ceiling above her. The morning sun beams through the window. The lantern has been entirely spent. 

He never was here.

She jolts up, searching each corner for signs of him (though she knows better. She always knows better, and still she denies it). “No, Terra, please. I need my Keyblade.”

Silence. Tifa hasn’t arrived to start the day. Aqua’s Wayfinder sits alone at the table; Terra’s is on the floor. She must have knocked it over while she slept.

Throwing herself on her knees, Aqua holds his Wayfinder to her chest. She tries using it to feel for him, but even her heart won’t answer. “Come on, Terra, I still need to get to Ven.”

She won’t give in to despair. She won’t think about how she’ll never see him again; it’s just a reaction to the circumstances. She will continue to hold her chin high, continue to teach herself not to cry, continue to look forward. She knows better. Only when she’s sure she won’t fall apart does she relax, letting her head hang.

Something shines from the sunlight through the floorboards she’s sitting on. Aqua peers closer - it shines blue.

It’s desecration but she doesn’t care. Aqua nudges her fingers through the cracks, and it shifts. These floorboards aren’t well bolted, so it takes little effort to pull one out with a giant shriek. Then another. Then a third. Good thing she’s alone for now.

“Stormfall,” she gasps. Along with her armor, all kept together.

Her Keyblade is as familiar as an old friend who has waited for a visit for years, yet as alienating as clothes that no one believes used to fit. It’s much lighter than the Master’s Defender, much sleeker that it feels almost delicate, even though Aqua knows better. It’s sturdy, but groggy, as though it’s waking up from a decade-long slumber. It burns at the touch of her hand, slowly but surely recognizing who is holding it this time. It answers back; it’s home, and glad she’s returned.

She runs her hands down the blade, and traces the shapes of the key ridges at its end. At last, she hugs her Keyblade, and her heart remembers how beautifully the water glistens in the sunshine.

Within the hour, after she’s taken enough time for herself, Aqua will take one step forward onto solid ground.

[sarahwatchesthings]

Children of the Sea movie: bits of thoughts

I watched the Children of the Sea anime a couple of nights ago and wanted to let it sit about in my head for a while before setting down any thoughts. Ideally I’d read the manga again first, but let’s face it: It’s a long damn manga and I won’t be getting through it for a bit, and thoughts will only stay in my head for so long. So I’ll leave it up to external judgments whether or not I’m being fair here. 

First and primary thought: What the star-banging f**k was up with that ending? 

Okay, I remember the ending of the manga being pretty wild, but two points: (1) I don’t remember it being that wild and (2) the manga at least had the time, space, and content to earn a wild ending. This movie did not. 

Secondary thought: It was evident the movie was made to be “safe” for younger kids to watch. This was not a good idea. 

On principle, I’m perfectly okay with taking a story aimed at older kids or even adults and turning it into a story for younger kids, if either (1) it can be done without subverting the spirit of the original or (2) the intent to subvert the spirit of the original is clear (e.g. you wouldn’t expect a Disney adaptation of Tess of the D’urbervilles to be true to the original). But in this case I think the filmmakers really thought they could get away with the transition without losing much, and it didn’t help a bit, especially considering they were already trying to do the impossible in taking 5 thick vols. of manga and turning it into a two-hour movie. 

(And I’d say, maybe they thought the original story was meant for younger kids, what with it prominently featuring kids acting under their own agency [because who but kids could appreciate that?], but given all the grotesque and spooky stuff in the original, and the nudity, and the sex, there’s no way they read the manga and thought, “Ah yes, a story for elementary school kids.”)

Stuff they lost: Any hope whatever of conveying what the story was trying to do while maintaining any sort of subtlety about it. Hence, I think, the over-the-top ending (which incidentally didn’t really help anyway). 

Emphasis on the female: The change in treatment of Ruka’s mom does the story no good. In the manga she had a lengthy backstory, and not the one hinted at in the movie; in the manga it was she and Deirdre, the intensely spooky old lady (incidentally, also a mother) who went looking for Ruka on the sea. Ruka’s dad did not come. Only her mother felt enough of a link with her child to embark on a hopeless search. 

But in a movie for young kids you can’t be having that; you have to show that both of her parents care, or the kids might start worrying that their dads don’t love them as much as their mothers do... 

(I mean, yes, this is another instance of a male writer turning motherhood into some kind of powerful mystic thing, but in fairness, the importance of the “role of mother” is significant in Taoism, and I believe that’s what the story was pointing to, and undercutting that really wounds its already troubled coherency.)

Anglade’s backstory: This is another sad loss. The movie does not convey the significance of Anglade’s character at all. This isn’t so much to protect kids, I think, as to protect the movie’s runtime, but still, a shame. The reason why Anglade has a rapport with Umi and Sora relates to the reason why Ruka does, and the filmmakers’ failure to grasp that, convey that, or both is reflected in Ruka’s own confusion at the end about why they “chose” her. The filmmakers don’t seem to know either.

The manga knows, guys. 

The loss of this connection ties into another layer of meaning I feel the filmmakers ultimately didn’t get: the limits of verbal communication. Or, by extension, the limits of direct communication, or telling and not showing. I think that ending is evidence enough that they missed that point. Subtlety is the key—another big Taoist idea. “The Tao that can be spoken is not the eternal Tao.”

And of course they lost all the other backstories, and side stories, and mythologies, that made the manga rich and also conveyed meaning without the need to slam the viewer over the back of the head with a baseball bat about it. 

And the punchline is that the movie still leaves viewers of all ages confused. 

But all that said, there probably never was a good way to turn Children of the Sea into a movie. It was a bit like digging up an ancient elm with a backhoe and trying to plant it in a coffee can. 

It was very pretty though. 

[iamoncewas]

My thoughts on the KH3 tutorial Dive to the Heart. This is kind of crazy, but I don’t think it happened during Sora's death at all.

Sora's Dive to the Heart in KH1 was a dream, he was asleep on the beach, and the KH1 intro is the start of the dream. It begins with Sora falling into water, into darkness, away from a light, symbolic of him growing more distant from Riku as he gets closer to Kairi. It ended with Sora waking up after being swallowed in darkness.

When Riku dove into his heart in DDD, after defeating the Armored Ventus Nightmare, Sora was consumed in his heart's darkness much the same way. Ansem the Wise told Riku that defeating the Nightmare is what freed him.

I believe Sora would have woken up after he sank into the darkness. And Riku did not have to go deeper into his heart, answer the 3 questions, and have this lengthy conversation with AtW, which is what gave Sora, Donald, and Goofy enough time to have a tea party. By the time Riku got back, Sora had been awake for a while.

So then, why did AtW tell Riku that answering the questions was what woke him up? Because it did, it just "woke him up" a different way.

When Riku dives into Sora's heart in DDD, he sees the blue coloured station we see in KH3, and in Roxas's Dive in KH2, part of the Station of Calling, where it was connected to a red and green station. I believe these are symbolic of Aqua, Terra, and Ventus, the hearts connected to Sora's, and also to Roxas, who helped shape their destiny. The blue one then, represents Aqua. Riku also sees memories, of him and Sora, and various floating Sora's he must touch (XD) on the way down. All kinds of Sora's, KH1, KH2, DDD, Anti (who attempt to stop Riku by attacking him with X's. The sigil). The KH2 model, Sora's current self, becomes more prevalent the deeper Riku goes. This is called "Sora's Soul World" (ソラの精神世界 Sora no Seishin Sekai). So in KH3, Sora must be in his Soul World as well.

After Riku dives through the ring, he awakens on the station, which is already covered in darkness. After defeating the Nightmare, we see Sora’s station is now coloured differently than when Riku was diving. It was coloured like this in BBS when he contacted Ventus, his very first DttH, called "Sora's Mind". I guess this means, Riku dove into Sora's Soul World, and then entered Sora's Mind.

Sora then sinks deeper into his heart's darkness. Riku unlocks the keyhole in Sora's heart, there's a bright flash of white, and Sora's station was not shown again after that in DDD. Riku then opens his eyes on Destiny Islands, deep within Sora’s heart, and this is when Sora’s KH3 dive starts.

In KH3, Sora lands on his own station, not on those of the 7 Princesses (so Kairi), like in KH1. He then hears "There are 7 hearts to save." There are so many hearts connected to Sora's that this could mean almost anyone, and I do think it's supposed to have more than one meaning. However, here I take it to mean the hearts of the 7 Princesses, just like it would have meant in KH1 (and funny enough that was the impression I got first playthrough). The 7 Pure Lights were made from Riku, their light is his light, and if he died, their light would have been extinguished.

Sora sees the mirror, which signifies him taking a clear look at himself, self reflection, seeing one's truth. After passing through and becoming his current self, he is surrounded by walls of memories and most of these memories are clearly Sora's. However, I believe they are also Riku's, for one of them shows Sora unconscious in Where Nothing Gathers, and another shows Kairi receiving Destiny's Embrace from Riku. It also however, shows the aftermath of when I'm suggesting this is happening. When Riku is named a Master. Sora wouldn't have seen that yet. But he would have, in the original timeline, and the memory would remain in his heart. I believe that's what this sequence signifies, Sora getting closer to the memory of what happened originally. Riku also saw memories as he was diving into Sora's heart, and saw the same station Sora is standing on. Which represents his connection to Aqua, the one who gave him his role: to stay with Riku, and keep him safe. And if it's the Master speaking to Sora in this dive, Sora himself, this is exactly what he would want him to remember. [This could also be Riku's voice, since Sora tells him "I was watching what was going on in my dream, and I could hear your voice the whole time."]

So as Riku was answering his three questions, Sora was answering his three questions.

Sora is then led to the Final World, by Riku's ocean scene from KH1 (his KH1 DttH), by a light, and is the contrast to Sora falling away from the light at the beginning of the KH1 intro. Sora would then be seeing this right after Riku answers his three questions. The water washes over his station completely, and usually water means darkness, but in dives to the heart darkness is shown as such, as darkness. So the fact that it's water, still means darkness, but accepted as merely that, not as something "evil."

In KH3, his station isn't supported by a column. This is strange because, even when Ventus was dying, his station broken and crumbling, it was still supported by a column. Later when Sora wakes Ventus, its not really clear, but it also doesn't appear to be supported by a column (that I can see).

So, in KH3, when Sora's heart has no foundation, I believe this is what is meant by an "unchained heart". A heart that is free, literally floating. Riku did this when he unlocked the Final Keyhole in Sora's heart, and I believe it affected all of his selves through all of his lifetimes. This is the significance of the repeated imagery of multiple Sora's we saw in DDD. I believe this never happened in the original timeline, even if everything else happened the same way. Riku would have defeated the Nightmare, and Sora would have woken up. That's it. This is how the Master of Masters achieved his goals, through dreams, through death, through darkness, through the heart, things that "cannot be measured in time and space". His power could be said to be the mastery of the nature of the heart itself. A fitting power for Sora. But only Riku has the power to unchain his heart, which was apparently vital to everything, and the MoM's Riku must not have done so before he died. He used the Mark of Mastery exam, the dream, as the moment he could affect (and also, the moment Sora died) Dal segno al Coda, "from the sign" of Coda. Or, "from the sigil".

Sora then sees the light above the water and surfaces, and this is Sora moving on from the Station of Awakening to the Final World, even deeper into his heart, deeper into the dive. This is what Chirithy was talking about when she told Sora he'd been there before.

He then looks up at a cloudy sky, showing us there is no sun, no light source there that caused that light above the water. Where'd you go light?

After that Shadows appear. I believe this is proof that Sora is not dead or dying here, it's still a part of his Dive. We saw no Heartless in the Final World after dying in the Keyblade Graveyard. Hearts that are dead can't be corrupted by darkness. They’re dead.

The Darkside surfaces to bring us back to Sora’s KH1 DttH once more, but again, it is made of water, not darkness. It represents Sora's confusion about his feelings for Kairi, which are, again, not something evil or bad, but something painful. “Hurting is a part of caring.” He loves her as well, as much as he loves Riku (his heart is literally connected to both of them). But his very soul is shared with Riku and that is something that can't be changed, even if Sora wanted it to be. They’re soul mates. It's fate. I believe that's what the Lost Page refers to.

"Unable to permit disharmony, you will be disappointed by fate, and lose sight of true strength..." Sora felt his deep connection with Riku, but ignored it, and focused his attention on Kairi once she came into their lives (I assume, because Riku was a boy). He's just been hiding these feelings, pushing them down. Convincing himself they are something else. He then lost sight of the source of his strength. Which is his love for Riku. "Misreading the truth, you will venture forth in secrecy..." His heart is also connected to Kairi’s, so he feels love for her too. So he misread the truth, and figured he must be meant to be with her. (Again, most likely because she’s a girl) He has kept any romantic feelings for Riku he’s had a secret. Plus, he is aware of Kairi's romantic love for him, which would have made it all the easier to push any feelings for Riku aside.

The last passage specifically refers to Riku's death, the result of these actions. Sora's betrayal, since he's the traitor, a traitor to his own heart, and subsequently to both Riku and Kairi. And all those connected to him.

After Sora defeats the Darkside, it cuts to Yen Sid's tower, a scene we know didn’t start there. After defeating the Darkside in KH1, Sora was consumed in darkness and then woke up. To Kairi. Right before that, Sora, like Riku, was also asked three questions on Destiny Islands in his dive. The same questions Riku was asked, just worded slightly differently. No matter what response Sora gave they all responded basically the same, "Is _____ really that important?" But Riku’s correct answers all had to do with his love for Sora.

Sora also woke up after defeating this Darkside, and realized the truth. [There’s probably more to this scene after the fight, but this is already super long] I also think this is why Sora reacted so affectionately when Riku got back, and hugged him not once, but twice. Because Riku freed his heart from it’s bonds, for all of their lifetimes, and Sora could feel it.

"I've never been better... Thanks, Riku."

[ravenaveira]

Ok, time for my review of Kh3 Re:Mind Dlc

This is gonna be long, so be prepared, and yes there will be many spoilers so if you dont want spoilers of the game then you probably shouldnt read this, but if you dont care then stick around.

I will start off with my unbiased and critical opinion.

From the title menu alone you already know what this game is gonna be about. Kairi is gonna be center focus, or should say specifically Sokai, and Riku will be virtually non existent.

Now I know what your thinking, well duh its all about saving Kairi of course Riku wont have that big a role and she’ll be the main focus, and to that I say no shit sherlock I already knew that. My issue isnt that it was Kairi focused because I already knew that and still pre-ordered the DLC, but my issue is what this title screen represents and my fears were proven correct.

Let me elaborate

Riku is just as much of a friend to Sora as Kairi is, from the beginning of the series its always been Sora, Riku, and Kairi, thats the way its ALWASY been. But from this title screen I could tell Riku’s bond with them wasnt gonna be present at all and I was right.

I’ll elaborate further

I know Im jumping way ahead here but bare with me, at the end of the game after Sora rescues Kairi they travel the worlds together, Sora notices he is fading away which is why he goes to the many different worlds he has visited but now with Kairi, spending his final moments with her before he finally disapears.

See the problem? Sora doesnt involve Riku at all in his final moments being alive, he is just completely absent during his entire remaining life. Sora only spends time with Kairi during his final moments, Riku wasnt shown with them once.

I know some people say well we dont know how long Sora was alive before vanishing and he was probably the one who organized the party, but did we see that though? did we see any signs that Sora was alive for more than a day or two? did we see Sora talking to anyone like he was setting anything up? NO, it was all about Kairi and Riku was completely forgotten.

I can understand if Sora wasnt dying then it wouldnt matter how much time he spends with Kairi alone, but Sora was fading away ANY SECOND and he didnt spend any of his remaining time with Riku at all, even at the beach party who is Sora sitting next to alone with before he finally vanishes? Kairi. That is inexcusable and a huge insult to Riku and his bond with Sora, hes just completely excluded, that is unforgivable.

These new added scenes to the ending actually made it worse than the original version of it, before we didnt even know Sora was around for more than a day and just assumed they all had a beach party afterwards to celebrate getting everyone back and saving the world, but now we know Sora was actually around for an extended period of time and made no effort to spend time with anyone other than Kairi, not even his best friend Riku did he spend time with for his final hours, that is despicable.

Another major issue is how Sora keeps saying his journey started with losing Kairi in this game, as if Riku wasnt ALSO lost that day, as if Riku wasnt the reason Sora kept on his journey even after saving Kairi and sending her back to Destiny Islands, as if he didnt fall to his knees and bawl his eyes out finally reuniting with him, as if he wasnt content with spending the rest of his life trapped in the Realm of Darkness with Riku, as if for the entirety of the base game of kh3 Sora wasnt constantly and only thinking about Riku and how many things he wished he could show him.

Apparently in Remind none of that happened, none of that mattered, it was Kairi that was his main motivation, it was Kairi that started his journey, Riku wasnt involved in it at all.

That is a huge issue with this DLC, it treats Riku like a side character and of little importance to Sora, in the base game they handled them fine minus that on instance in the Keyblade Graveyard where Sora says ‘Alone, Im worthless’ even though Riku’s right there but other than that their relationship and bond was handled very well but in Remind? practically non existent.

Now onto the story aspect, if your not into time travel and have trouble understanding the many variations of it then your gonna have a bad time because it gets VERY confusing to follow, which is why you should never introduce time travel because it becomes way too complicated to keep track of and not only that you also have to worry about things like paradoxes, ripples in time, alternate timelines etc. Its a complete clusterfuck to keep up with and manage so time travel really shouldnt have been introduced in this series.

Chirithy tells Sora that no matter what he cant change the past again, yet there are times where Sora does just that so exactly what cant he change? for example, when Roxas appears he asks Sora to do him a favor which is essentially getting the X back from Xemnas in their names. Sora does several things to make this happen and even Kairi gets a couple swings at Xemnas this time but then the two of them are basically caught and restrained inside shadow balls [pause]

See the prob? this is a huge change to that fight, Kairi never took a single swing at Xemnas, she just stood there and got snatched up, Roxas never asked Sora for help getting the X’s back from Xemnas, and Sora and Kairi never got restrained by Xemnas and knocked out.

Chirithy explicitly said Sora cant change what happened and no matter what he has to accept it for what it is, yet here he is, changing what happened. Maybe you could argue well this is an alternate timeline, even if it is that makes all of this irrelevant and means it never happened because the true ending is the one where it didnt happen, making this semi useful Kairi moment really pointless because at the end of the day its not canon, her being useless is the true outcome, none of this matters.

That is extremely disappointing, so even if you alter the past for the better it doesnt matter because its an alternate timeline and that timeline isnt the real one making this whole redo pointless and time consuming for a short DLC that was an extra 30$ to play.

So the time travel is very confusing and even if you follow it, it ends up being very disappointing when you realize none of it matters.

Moving on to some of the tied loose ends, Im glad they explained why Aqua froze up after saying ‘We stand together’ and I like how we get to see how Young Xehanort came to have the beliefs that lead to what he did and also MOMs subtle influence on him succumbing to darkness.

He told Xehanort that he would outgrow the robe and no longer need it because if he was truly powerful then he’d be the one controling the darkness, this leads to Xehanort later begining to travel without the robe and being corrupted. So we know now that MOM also influenced that as well and is very sketchy, even more now than he was before since this action greatly influenced what Xehanort eventually does and all the pain he caused, all of which would have probably never happened if it wasnt for him.

But thats just my theory and what I got from it.

I liked that we got to see Namine for a brief moment where Sora basically brushes her off and completely forgets about thanking her, this is a plotline Im pretty sure at this point is just never going to get resolved. He just tells her to go to the Final World and walks off, which makes no sense because Sora was surprised to see her in the original playthrough.

Another change was Lingering Will dying to protect Sora, again this never happened because Sora was busy fighting alongside everyone in the maze while Lingering Will and Terranort were fighting away from them. After Lingering Will died for him then Sora is pretty much squeezed to death by Terranorts Stand, or atleast knocked unconscious.

So much about these are just so confusing as to how they are happening when Chirithy said the events couldnt be changed I just stopped questioning it.

But atleast this time its made clear that Namine is the one who sent Lingering Will to help everyone and how she did it, so now people can stop saying Kairi is the reason everyone survived because it wasnt, without Lingering Will they would have all died a second time.

Basically the first half of the DLC is just recap with some minor changes and additions to the cutscenes, you get to play as other characters like Riku [optional] Aqua [not optional] and Roxas [optional] but other than that its basically the same thing all over again for the first 3-4 hours of the DLC, that is ridiculous.

The new content finally starts when Kairi is shattered, funny how the game gets good after Kairi dies xD I’ll stop.

Anyway once Kairi dies is when we finally get explorable Scala, but not without having to endure an insane fight with tons of heartless and nobodies and yes its more complicated than you think. It doesnt matter how many heartless or nobodies you kill, they will keep coming until you kill this one red heartless with way more health than your average heartless has.

After that you can pretty much wander around Scala as you wish and this is the only time where you can buy items or food so make sure to do that if your low on items. If your low on money there are minor enemies there that you can kill to get some so take advantage of this opportunity because your not getting another one.

Your goal in Scala is to basically run around, solve a couple puzzles, and get 5 of Kairi’s heart shards, revealed to having to be 7 later on. Sound fun? besides being able to see more of Scala’s layout, not really. But its a good place to take a breather before getting back into the big battles ahead.

Unfortunately your actually forced to fight the armored organization again but thankfully you dont have to do the ENTIRE final battle over, just that one section which I appreciate but wish we didnt have to do any of it at all.

So after we’re done Scala we get in MY opinion the two best parts of the entire DLC. We get to see what was going on with the rest of the keyblade wielders back home and it was INSANE and extremely well done, everybody had a chance to shine.

When everyone was swept away and Mickey was down and out, it was amazing seeing Mickey push himself back up and slowly with what little strength he had take on all the armor organization BY HIMSELF severely weakened, yet still powerful enough to hold them off and stand his ground. He really showed us WHY he is the King, so THAT I really enjoyed. It was extremely well done and one of the most memorable parts of the DLC.

The next part was even more insane and well done, which is us getting to fight as all the keyblade wielders against the armored organization and even get some cool dialog and team attacks in between, it was just amazingly well done seeing everyone work together and switching between characters was just so epic and enjoyable.

Honestly I could play those two parts over and over again and enjoy it everytime, their just that good and the most memorable in the entire DLC.

Coming back with Kairi and killing Xehanort together with all the keyblade wielders including Kairi this time was satisfying to see but it excludes Xehanorts and Eraquses final words, I mean yea seeing Xehanort have a semi happy ending put off alot of people but at the same time, seeing Xehanort come to the realization that he was wrong about everything and giving the Wayfinder trio closure by seeing their master one last time and hearing his apology to them just held more weight to me.

Im not saying I think Xehanort should be redeemed as easily as he was, but I feel like excluding Eraqus and their final words made the ending feel hollow, just ok we beat the bad guy, happily ever after now. Thats pretty lackluster and unsatisfying In my opinion.

Finally the ending....

Heres where Im gonna be biased and give my personal thoughts. Warning if your a fan of Kairi skip to the very end of the review where I give my overall rating

I hate the ending, for the reasons I listed in the beginning but also many others. I get the main focus was gonna be Kairi since the DLC was about saving her, Im not mad about the obvious, Im mad about the execution.

The Sokai agenda was so forced and apparent its not even funny, they shove it in your face so hard yet when Sora is talking with Chirithy he still refers to Kairi as a friend, really? your shoving this pairing down our throats just to have Sora still friendzone her? Im not mad because I dont want them together anyway but I hate the games being played here, you either want them together or you dont, pick a friggin side Nomura.

And while we’re on the subject, I hate, HATE, how this game is so heavily romance focused when Kingdom Hearts was NEVER about romance to begin with, it was always about friendship and bonds. Not in this DLC though, no now its all about Kairi and being with her forever, traveling the world together, holding hands, all this lovey dovey nonsense nobody invested in the plot could give a rats behind about.

Sure people who are into Kingdom Hearts for the romance of course they dont mind, but Im pretty sure MOST people invested in this series are in it for the story, not some stupid pairing, and I HATE how much they shove it down your throat because it is just so forced and obvious what they were doing.

This was all damage control for Kairi, who has been a useless damsel in distress and dues ex machina in every single game shes been a part of. I repeat, EVERY SINGLE GAME SHES A PART OF.

Kh1 - Kidnapped, unconscious, Sora needs to die to save her.

Kh2 - Kidnapped, held hostage, Sora needs to find and save her.

Kh3 - Kidnapped, unconscious, is killed twice, Sora needs to die to save her.

Do you see what I fricken mean? Every fuckin game its the same danm thing over and over and quite frankly Im sick of it. You might as well say this is a Mario game because Kairi is princess Peach always gettin snatched up and Sora is Mario always going through insanely deadly trials to get her back, and then it happens all over again.

This DLC was damage control for that, instead of immediately getting snatched up by Xemnas she actually gets a few good swipes at him to no avail of course, and then she fights together with Sora against armored Xehanort, all of which is just damage control for her not doing anything in the entire franchise and pandering to her fanbase that are constantly screeching for playable Kairi and for her to do something.

It was also damage control for how non existent their relationship was and what a joke its been since Kh1. They arent fooling anybody because thats exactly what this was, otherwise why you have to try so hard to CONVINCE us how important she was to Sora? why did Riku have to get sidelined so much just to boost Kairi up? why’d Sora completely disregard Riku as a part of his journey? why did Sora not spend ANY time with ANYONE for his final moments alive? its so obvious why. The only way to convince anyone shes actually important and relevant is to play down everyone else or exclude them entirely.

Congratulations, you got your wish, good for you fandom, but at what cost?

The time they spent forcing so much Sokai could have been used to tie up way more loose ends than there were but nope, gotta squeeze in that Sokai, thats what yall really here for right? fuck off.

The two best moments of the game was so short lived its not even funny, this DLC was full of so much padding in the first half, forced romance and pandering for damage control they forgot to actually make this a decent DLC.

Since I recorded my gameplay from start to finish I can actually tell you the amount of old content vs the new

3-4 hours of mostly what we already seen with a few changes, I only died twice

1-2 hours of new content, probably less because I got lost and died alot

That is unacceptable, 30$ for only 10% new content? that is a robbery.

Not only that but the worst part is the Limitcut episode, databattles have always been optional for competative players who like the challenge. Now you are FORCED to fight these INSANELY hard bosses, all 13 in order to get the final bits of the aftermath of the story.

WE PAID FOR THIS, this wasnt free we PAID for it and yet we’re basically told ‘Hey if your a casual player and want the rest of the story? well you gotta fight 13 of these insanely hard databattles that used to be optional but now their madatory for you to get the rest of your moneys worth. Too difficult? cant do it? well too danm bad, get good or go home we got your money already so screw you guess you’ll never know’

That is a fucking robbery and a huge slap in the face to people who are invested in the story, not proving their the best by fighting insanely difficult battles no matter what difficulty your on. It wouldnt be an issue if this was always the case, but these battles were always OPTIONAL for competetive players to do if they WANTED to, but now its mandatory and if you cant do it then oh well middle finger to you.

I couldnt even beat Vanitas, I fought him first and then Luxord and I couldnt beat either of them so I just said fuck it and went on youtube to see what I paid to see for free. 30$ wasted on a game I cant even finish, your out of your fucking mind if you think thats fair and excusable.

Thats why at the end of the day I give it a 5/10, its not good but its not bad either, its just decent. But if you asked me if it is worth the time and money? fuck no, my advice? watch other youtubers play it and keep your 30$

If you want it just to play as some of the characters, experience the new content for yourself, and play the databattles then by all means get it.

But if you think thats not enough for you to spend 30$ for then dont get it.

Overall Re:mind gets a 5/10, useless padding for majority of the first half of things we’ve already seen and cant skip because theres new scenes mixed in, forced romance that nobody but shippers care to see, severely lacking new content, and unfair extremely hard mandatory databattles just to see the final aftermath of the story which is kind of important setup for the next game.

Fuck this DLC, this was my fist time EVER buying a DLC for ANYTHING and thanks to this its probably my last. So thank you Re:Mind, for ReMinding me why I never bought DLCs in the first place.

Ps - Im so glad playable Kairi was optional, thats one of the only things this DLC did right.

[phoenix-downer]

Paopu Sharing Scene - Japanese and English Comparison

This will be the first in a series of posts analyzing Sora and Kairi’s moments together during KH3. The Japanese version has so many lovely callbacks to previous Sora/Kairi moments and nicely evolves the themes present in them, so I wanted to take a closer look.

Here’s a general key for the kind of analysis I like to do:

JP: Official Japanese Dialogue

EN: Official English Dialogue

TR: My Translation

Notes: things I found interesting, grammatical points, extra thoughts, etc.

One last note before we begin: no media exists in a vacuum. Every work of art must be viewed through the cultural lens of the people who made it. Kingdom Hearts, for all its ties to Disney, is still very much a Japanese game, so it should be analyzed in light of that.

With that in mind, let’s begin.

The interactions between Sora and Kairi start with Sora wondering why R*ku is chilling on the beach (seemingly) all by himself instead of with his friends (starring R*ku’s name from here on out to keep this post out of his tag).

JP リ*ク一人で何してるのかな？

EN  Hey, why’s R*ku all alone?

TR What’s R*ku doing all by himself?

Notes: Sora uses the speculative form kana to wonder what R*ku’s doing alone. In previous moments throughout the series, the Dest*ny Tr*o all sat together on the paopu tree, but things are changing. This time, it’s just Sora and Kairi, representing the shift that is about to happen in their relationship. R*ku is still there, he’s still their friend, they still care about him; but there is something Sora and Kairi share that’s unique and special.

Nomura emphasized in a recent interview that KH3 would reflect how relationships change as we get older, and I think it’s safe to say this is what he was referring to.

The full quote, for reference, from this IGN article: 

“For example, I'm sure you had friends when you were young, a good group of friends, but as you grow older things change and it doesn't always stay the same.”

JP でも一人にさせてほしいって言ってからー

EN He said he needed time to himself.  

TR But he said he wanted to be left aloneー

Notes: Kairi makes it clear that R*ku asked her earlier if he could be left alone. They’ve discussed this; she isn’t leaving R*ku out; she and Sora aren’t ignoring him; and this is what he wants, and, in fact, requested.

JP そっとしてあげよう

EN Let’s let him be.

TR So let’s give him some space

Notes: Kairi says something along the lines of, “let’s leave [R*ku] alone as a favor to him (since he requested it and this is what he wants).” Hard to capture the exact nuance in the English version, but R*ku requested the time to himself, and Kairi uses the -teageru construction to show that she wants to fulfill his request and give him what he wants - space. Kairi’s voice is also gentle and rises in pitch here in the Japanese version - almost like she’s seeking Sora’s confirmation - whereas in the English version her tone is falling.

JP うんー

EN Missing in the English version

TR Yeahー

Notes: Sora gives his agreement but seems a little unsure. In the English version he doesn’t say anything, but in the Japanese version he tentatively agrees.

JP はい！

EN Here.

TR Here!

Notes: Kairi offers the paopu fruit, casual as can be. Moments earlier you can hear her plucking it off the tree. The Japanese version really indicates her enthusiasm with an exclamation mark, and Sora is shocked by this turn of events, as indicated by his body language. I love how forward she is; we all speculated who would make the first move, and to whoever guessed Kairi, well, congratulations, because canon just proved you right :)

JP えっ？

EN Huh?

TR Huh?

Notes: Sora is still trying to get over his shock, as indicated by how he says, “Huh?”

Treasured Memories also begins to play here, a song previously associated with Sora and Kairi throughout the series. It plays during Sora’s flashbacks of Kairi in KH2, for example, and during the Kingdom Hearts World Tour, the accompanying video featured quite a few moments with them together. It was also when Kairi’s Japanese voice actress, Risa Uchida, read Kairi’s letter out loud.

No dialogue for the following moments, but the body language is still very telling, so let’s go through it piece by piece:

Sora’s eyes flicker from Kairi to the paopu fruit, like he can’t believe this is really happening.

The camera shifts to being from his POV so we can see where he’s looking - at the paopu fruit in Kairi’s hand. Note how Kairi has plucked two pieces of it, emulating the cave drawing exactly.

The camera pans to Kairi’s face...

...and she gives him a teasing, playful smile, then tilts her head to the right to indicate that yes, she’s perfectly serious about this. A confirmation nod, if you will. She makes a cute little noise, too, kind of like an “mm-hmm.” She’s seen the paopu drawing, she knows Sora feels the same, and she’s ready to address it.

Earlier, Sora was in a state of shock, but look at the change come over his face as he realizes the full implications of what’s going on. His lips part and he lets out a soft gasp. 

His eyes flicker downwards and to the right. Interesting to note is that people look down and to the right like this when they’re thinking about their feelings.

Clearly, Kairi’s words have had an emotional impact on him, and he’s taking a moment to process everything.

He looks up at her, and his eyebrows are knotted together and the look in his eyes just says it all. He knows, and what he knows is moving him deeply. So much so that he’s at a loss for words.

JP これからの戦いは今までと違う

EN Tomorrow’s fight will be our toughest yet.

TR The battle ahead (of us) is different from (all the ones we’ve fought) until now 

Notes: This begins Kairi’s lines that were featured in... I think it was the Memoria video, perhaps, or the pamphlet? In any event, these lines were in the promotional material for KH3, so whoever predicted Kairi would be the one to say them - you would be correct!

Anyway, the phrasing is slightly different in the English and Japanese versions, but it gets the same idea across. The Japanese version does not have “tomorrow” though, instead leaving the time between when this happens and the final battle more open.

Interesting to note that Kairi is aware that something is different about the final clash with Xehanort than the battles that have come before. It’s what has driven her to address the cave drawing. Her lucky charm isn’t enough anymore; she wants to draw on more powerful magic to protect Sora and keep the two of them from being separated. Her eyes are soft and serious as she says this, and Sora is completely silent as he listens to every word. 

She lifts the paopu a little higher to reiterate her point, then says the following line:

JP もう離ればなれにならないように　おまじない

EN I want to be a part of your life no matter what. That’s all.

TR This charm will make sure we won’t be separated (again) 

Notes: This is where we start getting bigger differences between the Japanese and English versions, likely due to cultural concepts being difficult to translate. 

The word for charm Kairi uses, omajinai, is different from the one used for the good luck charm she gave Sora in KH1 - omamori. An omajinai can, among other things, be used as a prayer to ward off disaster or misfortune and to bring about good luck.

In other words, Kairi is serious about this. She knows what’s at stake and she knows how important it is that she takes whatever steps necessary to keep Sora safe.

It’s also a nice evolution of a similar scene back in KH1:

JP カイリ　離れても僕らはもうひとりじゃない

EN Kairi, even if we’re apart, we’re not alone anymore.

TR Kairi, even if we’re separated, we’re not alone

Kairi uses the same verb, hanareru, to indicate separation that Sora does here in this scene. Before, it was good enough for the two of them to be together in spirit. But here, Kairi is saying that’s not enough anymore. She wants to make sure they won’t be separated again.

And again, Kairi’s words move Sora deeply. Perhaps he’s thinking back to what he told her in KH1. Perhaps he’s wishing he hadn’t had to leave her behind all those times. In any event, you can see how seriously he’s taking this. He is normally one who is not at a loss for words, but he continues to be speechless. 

He makes another soft noise here as he gazes at her...

...then looks back at the paopu fruit.

The camera shifts to be from his POV again, and he takes the paopu fruit from Kairi’s hand, his mind made up...

...and Kairi withdraws her hand.

JP うん　でもカイリは俺が守る

EN  Kairi, I’ll keep you safe

TR Okay. But Kairi, I’m going to keep you safe (lit. Kairi, I’ll protect)

Notes: There it is, the famous Declaration of Protection ever-present in Japanese media! Used most often by male protagonists to indicate their determination to keep their love interest safe, and often as a sign of how much they care and as an expression of their true feelings. Sora and Kairi have always had a knight and princess sort of vibe with their relationship, and this ties in nicely with all those associated tropes. 

And in this moment, while Sora is accepting Kairi’s protection offered by the magic of the paopu fruit, he’s also vowing to protect her in return. To my knowledge this is the first time he’s done so. Of course he always wanted to keep her safe before, but this is the first time he’s expressed himself so openly. It indicates a clear change in their relationship as well.

This is the vow that the lyrics of Chikai refers to. It’s not a promise anymore; it’s an oath. Kairi’s lucky charm, literally promise charm or 約束の守り yakusokunomamori in Japanese, is nowhere to be found in this scene because they’re drawing upon stronger magic to seal their vow now, the magic of the paopu fruit.

Notice how Sora looks up at Kairi and smiles, too, for the first time in this scene:

The camera angle is intentional here; a moment later we see a shot of the cave drawing with Sora’s face in the same position and facing the same direction:

But Kairi is as much a part of this vow as Sora is. Refusing to just stand by while he protects her, she closes her eyes and shakes her head. Her next lines turn the whole Declaration of Protection on its head. She’s no longer content to let Sora protect her; no, this time, she’s going to be the one protecting him.

JP ううん　私がソラを守るよ

EN Let me keep you safe.

TR No. I’ll keep you safe (lit. I’ll protect Sora)

Notes: Kairi uses the emphatic particle yo here to indicate her determination to keep Sora safe. It indicates certainty on the speaker’s part, a confidence and knowledge that she’s imparting to Sora. Long gone are the days where she would let him tell her to stay behind. She’s not asking permission here; she’s telling him what’s going to happen. She’ll protect him this time.

The camera switches to the cave drawing. She is in the same position and at the same angle as the drawing, much like how Sora is at the same angle as the drawing of him. Note how her short hair in KH3 is reminiscent of how she looks in the cave drawing as well.

Sora’s part of the drawing appears, indicating he is fulfilling his part of the vow by offering her his paopu fruit:

And then Kairi’s part of the drawing appears, indicating she is fulfilling her part of the vow:

The camera does not show the actual eating of the paopu fruit, giving the two of them some much-needed space and privacy, as this moment is intimate and meant to be shared between just the two of them.

But there is a slight crunching noise indicating they have both taken a bite as the camera returns to them...

...and the corners of their paopu fruits are bitten off, indicating they did indeed both take a bite. Their hands are in the same position as the cave drawing; they have fulfilled their vow. Their destinies are intertwined, their body language like that of a married couple sharing a toast, their arms crossed to show that their fates are bound together now, too.

There are no more words in this scene because there is no need for them. They simply gaze into each other’s eyes as they let their hands lower to their sides. Nothing else around them matters anymore; they’re completely focused on each other.

Notice Sora’s slight smile here, his confidence when before he was hesitant, the way he can’t take his eyes off her:

He blinks and lets out a little contented noise as he continues to gaze at her. This, my friends, is the face of a man in love:

And this is how you know she loves him, too. Seriously, look at the way she looks at him:

She likewise makes a little contented noise and tilts her head, leaning closer:

And the scene ends with a shot of their silhouettes against the sunset, paralleling one of their first scenes together in KH1: 

Only this time, they’re sitting side by side together, truly united and looking at each other, when before Kairi was standing and Sora was sitting and they were both looking out to sea. Speaking of which, note how the sky (sora) meets the sea (umi/kai) in the background as well. 

The two of them have finally made their destinies as one, and they’re ready to face whatever lies ahead so long as it’s together. 

Edit to add: the next analysis about the light in the darkness scene can be found here.

[lyssala]

Dance

Pairing: Terra/Aqua, Kingdom Hearts

Rating: K

Setting: Post Kingdom Hearts 3

Notes:  Okay so I had the Ed Sheeran song "Perfect" in my head the whole time I wrote this. My brother and sister-in-law danced to that song as their first dance and kay my heart melted SO here's some super sap lmao And I thought of Terra and Aqua the first time I heard it then too so I guess I'm the super sap hahaha

AO3

Destiny Island, Ven loved Destiny Island. The first time he ever stepped foot on the sandy beaches he was ready to toss off his clothes and dive right into the water; which he didn’t because he didn’t bring a swimsuit but he would’ve.

He did the very next time he went back to visit in the least.

It was warm and sunny and it always smelled like fresh fruit and sunshine. He loved the way the sand felt between his toes, how clear the water was that he could see all the fish swimming around, he loved jumping off the old bridges to catch the frisbee Axel intentionally threw too far, Ven loved it all. He’d move here if Terra and Aqua would let him. The lake back home was okay, but it couldn’t hold a candle to the beach.

“It’s a vacation spot,” Aqua would say with that amused look in her eyes as she’d rub some dirt off his cheek. “Even the people who live here don’t live on the island.”

Yeah, well, he’d make a house, like in the trees or something. Whatever, it was nice enough to just visit regardless. The waves tickled his feet as he laid flat on his back, the moon shining high above him, stars reflecting over the dark water. He sort of got dressed before collapsing on the semi wet sand to watch the stars rise, but he didn’t care too much if he got wet, the water was still so warm.

The fire was crackling somewhere behind him, music playing softly over the radio that Kairi brought with her today. He arched his head back to look at who was still around the campfire. It wasn’t too surprising that Axel was passed out off to the side, some jacket tucked under his head; he was probably snoring but the music was playing loud enough that it drowned him out. Roxas was fiddling on his phone with his back leaning up against Axel’s stomach, that would probably be a pillow before too long. Isa was still there too, his eyes watching the fire while he kicked Axel to get him to shut up. Xion was kneeling behind Isa, her mouth moving as she chatted about something, fingers moving in his hair where she was probably braiding it.

Ven had to arch his back into a weird position to see the rest of the fire pit but there was Kairi and Naminé sitting together on a log, exchanging pictures on their phones as well as flipping through her sketchbook. Sora and Riku where nowhere to be found; probably hunting through the caves together considering the only other people where Terra and Aqua, sitting on a shorter log off to the side. He had his legs kicked out closer to the fire and she was curled into facing him, listing attentively to what he was saying. They were close enough that their legs were touching but far enough that nothing else was.

Figures, Ven snorted as he let himself flop back down on the sand. A year. A year went by since that nightmare, and for the most part everyone was well adjusted and happy in their new roles and new lives. Except Ven’s stupid best friends.

Okay, almost a lie. They were well adjusted and happy, just not in the way Ven thought they should be. It was silly really, you love someone you tell them. Done deal. Oh, no, those two did just about everything you could possibly do to imply it but until one of them actually said it Ven was pretty sure they’d never know. Even when Terra literally would carry Aqua to bed when she stayed up late in library and fell asleep. Even when Aqua could predict a shifting mood in Terra so she could be there with a warm hand on his face to remind him he was alive. Even when he intentionally went to bed last every single night so he could shut off the lanterns while Aqua was tucked safe in bed, usually his if you wanted a double whammy. Even when neither of them looked at anyone the way they looked at each other.

Ven didn’t even really knew what it was like to be in love, how it felt, what it entailed and even he knew. Alright, it was a rough time back, hard adjustments even he felt that but things were good now, things were normal. The Land of Departure was going to be a school again, a safe haven for keybearers. Peace was returned, this was the prime time for love and all that crap. Ven couldn’t fathom why they still pretended like everything was the same, why they couldn’t say simple words that expressed how they felt.

In fact the more he thought about it the more frustrated he got. Even laying on the beach with the relaxing waves and soothing breeze he wanted to hit them both upside the head. If anyone in this world deserved to be happy it was them two and for some reason they refused to see that. Well, you know what, maybe Ven would make them see it.

He didn’t even know he had jumped to his feet until he heard Terra call his name.

“Everything alright, kiddo?”

“Yeah, yeah,” Ven said, jogging to head back over to the fire. “Saw a jellyfish or something.”

“Its dark out, how did you see a jellyfish,” Roxas asked though judging by how he didn’t look up from his phone it was probably more along the lines of “you absolutely didn’t see a jellyfish”.

“The moonlight,” Ven said, waving his hand generally towards the sky. “Stars, you know. I saw one, okay.”

Xion giggled from her spot behind Isa.

Roxas did look up that time. “Are there even any jellyfish around this island? I’ve never seen one.”

“Don’t antagonize, Roxas,” Isa said but he cracked a small smile when Kairi looked up to mouth “no” while trying not to laugh.

“Okay, okay,” Ven snorted. He should’ve known better they’d call his bluff, they always did. Some friends. He went to go sit by Aqua, trying to form some plan to get them to do something but it turned out he didn’t need to; her feet were tapping in the sand the to the beat of the music, head bobbing absent mindedly.

Oh, oh. Aqua loved music and she loved dancing. Kairi brought along the radio just because she thought it would be nice to have something to sing or dance along to. So far everyone had just listened along but he bet he could get some dancing going which could work out in his favor.

“Hey, Aqua,” he said, holding his hands out to her. “Dance with me.”

“On the beach?” she asked though she was already standing up to meet him. “I’m not sure how well my form will be on uneven ground.”

“Please, you’re good at everything.”

Aqua gave him a swat to his arm but she was already placing one hand on his shoulder and taking Ven’s in her hand. He placed his other on her waist which might’ve been weird because she was like his sister but he did it a million times before. Even when Ven started to move in the first dance steps that came to his memory, which she was right it was hard to keep a pattern when your feet kept slipping in the sand. Aqua looked more shocked than anything.

“What?” he asked. “Surprised I remembered?”

“No.” Her face melted into a smile. “You’ve just gotten so tall. You used to be a lot smaller when we did this.”

He felt his ears get hot at the sudden attention on himself; he knew Aqua was sentimental but that wasn’t quite what Ven was going for tonight. He spun her around pretty sloppily because of the sand but it made her laugh well enough before he pulled her back to him.

Terra was still sitting, watching them with an amused grin.

“Jealous I’m still a better dancer than you?” Ven said, sticking out his tongue as he moved to dance Aqua in a small circle.

“If you call that better dancing you can have it,” Terra snorted. He didn’t seem to mind one bit to not be the one dancing. Granted Ven also knew it’s not like Terra had any reason to be jealous of Ven or anyone here.

“He’s right, VenVen,” Roxas said.

There was a teasing glint in Isa’s eyes that used to be hard to see but he was getting better at it. “You can’t do better, I wouldn’t talk. Unless you’d like to prove me wrong.”

“Nope, I’m good.”

“Don’t talk the talk then,” Xion said, fingers grabbing some more of Isa’s thick hair.

That did give Ven an idea though. Looking over Aqua’s shoulder he managed to catch Naminé’s eyes. She was already watching them as Kairi was looking questionably at her phone; probably trying to figure out where the boys went off to.

Ven gestured his head to Terra, but Naminé only blinked in response. Ven moved Aqua around in a circle again, trying to mouth to Naminé while frantically nodding towards Terra. Her eyes blinked in recognition this time, her mouth forming a little “o”.

At one point she might’ve been too shy but now she easily stood up, walking over to where Terra was still sitting. “Terra?” she asked in that soft voice of hers. “Would you maybe dance with me?”

Ven was already celebrating his victory; like Terra would ever say no to that.

Sure enough he didn’t. He was already pushing himself up to his feet. “Of course, I’d be my pleasure.”

Ven tried to watch them more to make sure he could give Naminé more instructions but Aqua’s face cut back into his view, a grin on her lips as she spun him around this time. She was far better at it than he was, pulling him out and right back in with so much ease even the slippery sand didn’t make him feel like he was going to fall.

Aqua pulled him in closer that time, leaning so her face was near his ear. “What are you up to?”

“Me? Aqua, honestly, how could you ever think that?”

She laughed and it made Ven feel happier even than he was in that moment. He wanted her to always be happy, like this, carefree dancing on the beach in the middle of the night. There was really only one person who could do that for her every day, and it wasn’t himself.

Ven leaned back around when Aqua straightened up some. Naminé looked even smaller when she was standing in front of Terra. He still led her with surprisingly good form even though Terra hated dance class way back when. Naminé was giggling but Ven knew she was watching him out of the corner of her eyes. He couldn’t really tell her what he wanted to do so he had to hope she was intuitive enough to pick up on it; he was almost positive she was, even more so than most.

He mouthed, “now” and hoped she got the message. Ven quickly spun Aqua around but let her go, ducking under her arms to move out of the way. Naminé had done the same to Terra, spinning off to where Ven was standing and leaving Aqua and Terra facing each other, their arms still slightly extended where their partners once where.

“Your turn,” Ven said, Naminé reaching up to cover her laugh behind her hand.

Aqua pursed her lips, her cheeks puffing out slightly from the trick Ven pulled over them.

He shrugged in response. “Sorry, you gotta, thems the rules.”

“What rules?” Roxas snorted.

“The dance rules,” Kairi nodded even though there were absolutely no rules for this.

“Suppose you should get on with it then,” Isa said, and Ven didn’t miss the small wink Isa gave Xion, making her giggle too.

“Okay,” Aqua sighed, though she was grinning she wasn’t upset. “I suppose it’s the rules.”

Terra rolled his eyes, but was already reaching out for Aqua’s waist, taking one of her hands in his. “I don’t remember that rule.”

“You did it anyways,” Ven snickered, moving to sit on the now empty log. Naminé followed taking a seat between him and Kairi.

Terra ignored Ven at that point; in fact he was pretty sure Terra ignored everyone at that point. It didn’t really matter because the sight in front of Ven was exactly what he wanted.

Terra and Aqua fit together much better than Ven did with Aqua. Terra was still taller than her but she was the right height to match his movements easily. She looked like she was trying not to laugh, probably because they were sliding in the sand as they tried to mimic a ballroom dance. He did too, big grin on his lips; one Ven thought at one point he might never see again even after they came back home.

They were dance partners before Ven ever came along, they were partners in pretty much everything before and after Ven. He never took it personally; he knew they shared something different with each other then they shared with him. It just took him a while to understand the different ways you could love someone. It showed the most in situations like these where their partnership and their bond really shined. They were perfectly at ease following the simple steps in each other’s arms. Even when Aqua slide a little too far in the sand, nearly loosing her balance with a laugh Terra grabbed onto her waist holding her back up.

For a moment, Ven was pretty sure they forgot they were on a beach surrounded by their friends.

Aqua reached her arms up around Terra’s neck, the distance between them closing just a little more, their feet reduced more to small steps and sways and less like actual dancing.

Roxas breathed in like he was going to say something but a hand clasped down on his mouth before he could. Axel had his eyes open; maybe he was never really asleep to begin with. Roxas glared over but it was harmless.

Isa brought his finger to his lips. “Let them be.”

Ven would’ve rolled his eyes at the fact everyone knew but clearly the two in question but when he looked back to them, it wasn’t…It wasn’t like that.

Aqua had leaned her head down on Terra’s shoulder, her eyes shut with a sort of easy smile on her face. They had drifted a little bit away from the fire, partly hidden by the shadows from the palm trees nearby. Terra’s hands were pressed to her lower back keeping her close. He had his head tilted towards her as he said something that Ven supposed wasn’t for anyone else’s ears.

They knew. They absolutely knew. They knew how important they were to one another, they knew the comfort, they knew the peace, and they probably knew the love. It was never clearer than in that moment that they were each other’s worlds, all wrapped up in light sweaters from the chill of the beach at night, barefoot in the sand under a bright moon. They may not have done anything about it, that Ven knew of, but it wasn’t that they were oblivious or ignoring it. They embraced it even if they weren’t ready to say it.

Terra leaned her head against hers and her smile got wider, though her eyes never opened. They really were the only people they saw here right now.

Ven felt a soft hand on his shoulder. He looked over to Naminé; she was watching at the sky.

“They’ll be just fine.”

Where once he would’ve question that, because could they take any longer, they had already lost so much time why lose more? This time he felt a little more at peace. He glanced back over to them still dancing slowly together before watching the sparkling stars. The very ones he wished upon so many times both with his friends and alone. It was hard not close his eyes fondly at the memories and at the long life he had in front of him to spend it how he pleased; with the people he loved, his friends and his family.

He blinked his eyes open when he heard footsteps on the sand. Kairi stood up to wave when Riku was in view, Sora sitting up on Riku’s shoulders and waving so frantically it nearly knocked Riku over. Roxas had leaned over to show Axel something on the phone, something they were both snickering over. Xion was holding up some of the braids to Isa to make sure he liked the style she was testing on him; he always liked it. Terra and Aqua were still dancing, feet barely moving in the sand as the water lapped up from the beach.

Ven smiled, a sigh falling from his lips. Yeah, those two, they’d be just fine.

[khtrinityftw]

Part 10: Rage Against the Patriarchy

Let’s face it: the Kingdom Hearts series has always had something of a woman problem. 

A number of strong Disney heroines like Jasmine and Megara were wimpified, Aqua in BBS was a powerful fighter but a weak character without the kind of arc her male friends got, and I already covered the issues that plagued Namine and Xion.  And by Kingdom Hearts III, things had only gotten worse, as more Disney heroines all the way up to fucking Elsa weren't given their due, Aqua was finally given an arc only to have it rendered meaningless all while her powerful fighter status got compromised repeatedly, and even Organization XIII's resident badass bitch Larxene was revealed to be motivated by feelings for a man.

But when talking about how the series failed its female characters, there's one female character that stands in a class of her own, and that's the original female lead of the KH Trinity herself: Kairi.

Kairi was the emotional heart of the KH Trinity. She is introduced very early into the original game and through several interactions we get to know her and how behind her bubbly front she has deep anxiety over her life changing and the possibility of losing her home and friends, an anxiety stemming from a traumatic past that she might remember a little more of than she lets on. 

After she disappears during Destiny Islands' destruction, she occasionally appears to Sora to provide insights or advice. That's because her heart took refuge inside of his, and she is consciously sharing his journey with him. Riku and many stupid, sexist players identify her body as her, claiming that she's "in a coma" for most of the game and needs to be woken up. But the point of the story that Keiko Nobumoto finalized is to challenge you to look past this kind of objectification and consider the spiritual reality that Sora learns: hearts are who people are in the KH universe. Sora doesn't need to save Kairi because he already did from the start, just by being such a close friend to her and connecting his heart to her's. 

And after the "Kairi's inside me" (heh) revelation is made, Kairi actually saves Sora three times in a row! She stops him from getting his head smashed in by Ansem, she refuses to believe he's gone after he disappears which allows him to hold on to his feelings as a Heartless, and then she shields him from the attacking Heartless with her own body, an act which allows him to regain his human form. That's no mere damsel in distress!

Really, the only quibble I have with Kairi in the first game is that she isn't allowed to go back to Hollow Bastion for no good reason during the big Oathkeeper scene. That was stupid and awkward, that scene really should have taken place at Hollow Bastion before going to End of the World. But otherwise, Kairi was a fully-realized, three-dimensional character with her own emotional growth. The entire ending FMV even focuses on her and how she's learned to cope with a changing life and separation from her friends thanks to the lessons she's learned about the unbreakable connections of hearts from her journey inside of Sora.

But it was all downhill from there.

Kairi is still good in COM and KH2, but not to the same extent. The idea of Kairi is a powerful one in COM and drives the entire story, but Kairi herself never makes an appearance until the end credits of the 3D remake, and I wouldn't mind so much except that Riku gets his own playable story mode in the game which sets a bad precedent going forward.  

In KH2, Kazushige Nojima's writing caused Kairi's personality to be flattened mainly to just 'love interest'; she's like a two-dimensional shadow of Final Fantasy VIII's Rinoa Heartilly. The pacing for her appearances is also sporadic and mainly confined to the last stretch of the game, and she's needlessly kidnapped by the Organization after going to Twilight Town when she could have stayed around longer and developed her character more.  Also, would it have killed them to give her a combat AI? Or explain where her new Keyblade even came from!?

But with that said, she's still a likable character who is spirited and brave, she makes a lot of new friendships like with Pluto, the Twilight Town kids and her own Nobody Namine, she effectively shows her maturity since the first game and even has some small development about learning to stop waiting after a certain point and actually take action to make what you want happen.  Most importantly, she still plays a major role in the story that justifies her existence. Sora still cares deeply for her and is just as motivated to find her as he is to find Riku once he learns she's been kidnapped. And she's the linchpin for the entire finale, as both Sora and Riku's reunion and their return home to Destiny Islands would not have happened without Kairi facilitating them. It really helps establish their friendship trio as just that: a trio, where all three are needed to make it work. Sora and Riku would not have survived the game without her.

Also, she served as the springboard for the manga adaptation's rendition, which fixes all the problems and gives us the definitive version of the character. Gotta appreciate that!

Unfortunately, you might remember that I mentioned Sora and Riku were shipped together by the massively vocal yaoi fangirl community, and they despised Kairi with a passion. This hatred spread to many fanboys too, who called her "useless" for not being an in-game fighter (hey guys, literally all of the playable characters of the KH Trinity wouldn't be around to play as without Kairi! I think that counts as a use!)  And because Nomura is both a sexist pig and a shameless fan panderer, it was clear to him what to do with Kairi.

Nothing.  Absolutely nothing.

She isn't actually in Days, not even in Mission Mode as a playable character despite even fucking Donald and Goofy being so, and Xion's connection to her is a red herring to make her connection to Sora more shocking.  She's only in BBS briefly - one scene as a child and then at the very end of "Blank Points' - and not given the same amount of importance as Sora and Riku. A data version of her does not exist in Coded, even though data versions of Sora and Riku and even Namine do. As I mentioned before, she doesn't show up in 3D until the last shot of the secret ending. And in 0.2 BBS, she doesn't say anything until toward the end, and is promptly shut up and told to go train alongside her former kidnapper! What the fuck!? I honestly think the most justice done to Kairi past KH2 would be the powerful medals with her image on them in the UX mobile phone game!

This is 6 games over the course of a whole decade, and there is barely any Kairi in them at all, let alone as a playable character despite her being the series' original heroine. Worse still is that when Kairi is there, her character has been rewritten by Nomura and Oka into the weak, boring nice girl that her detractors saw her as: the fire and the passionate desire to act freely whenever she had the chance is totally gone. She just lets Sora and Riku leave her behind on the islands again after specifically saying in KH2 that she won't let that happen anymore, and despite being able to wield a Keyblade she only joins the cause when some old white dude summons her to do so! Hayden Panettiere being replaced by Alyson Stoner as her voice only adds to the effect, she just doesn't have the same spunky quality to her. 

And when Kairi isn't around? She is pretty much never talked about, or even thought about, by her supposed friends Sora and Riku. Per the sexist cliches of shonen writing and the desire to pander to the fans, the Destiny Trio became a Destiny Duo, with Sora and Riku managing just fine on their own without needing Kairi, their bromance was emphasized as the most important thing in each other's lives ad nauseam. This misogynistic brand of queer-baiting worked all too well, with fans continuing to support Sora and Riku as boyfriends while condemning Kairi as a boring, useless character who oughta just die already.

Well, Nomura sure did continue to listen to these fans...

[bluerosesburnblue]

Hi blue! ❤️ I've been in a lot of discords where alot of the KH fandom confirms their belief in the SRT. I have a pretty decent understanding of lore so far. I got into some nice debates where fans defended the SRT soley off an existence of a different wordline. I'd ask "So if Sora was able to pull all the guardians into a different worldline... Xehanort could've just targeted the princesses of heart - why would he follow them.. if this theory was Canon??" And I'd just watch then hit silence.

To add context to my previous, I don’t understand how Riku being Sora’s light has any reason to even be included in this theory. To me, this theory should’ve had the focal point only on the idea of multiple world-lines, but having looked at all your blogging in that regard, the clear and excessive inconsistencies in their theory shows that the sleeping realm wasn’t the focal point. I follow some of the writers of the theory… And after sharing the doc they only celebrated Riku and nothing else             

Honestly, thank you for your effort in breaking it down. I knew I wasn’t crazy when I thought that something didn’t really seem right with the theory. I watch a lot of KH theory videos on YouTube from small creators with no shipping bias and they’re honestly very creative and genuine with their work. I understand how they feel about their ship, I love Kairi so much and would cry if she got her own game. I just think they should’ve left the Riku thing on its own and kept it away from this theory.             

Hey there! And thank you! I’m gonna talk a lot so to keep this from clogging up everyone’s dashboard, it’s going under the cut

I think I may have touched on it a little bit when I was explaining why even if the writers say this isn’t an “it’s all a dream” theory, I still feel like it has enough similarities to be considered one and… you’re absolutely correct. There is no reason for Xehanort to follow the Guardians into a new worldline. We don’t even know if he’s capable of it. We also don’t know if his planned universal reset just works in the worldline he’s in, or if it would erase all of them. We don’t know anything about worldlines other than that it’s a term Luxu used, like, twice

If Sora and Co. hopped worldlines, Xehanort would just grab the Princesses and win. If Sora and Co. hopped into the Sleeping Worlds… then Xehanort would also just grab the Princesses because the heroes still aren’t around to stop him if they’re in the Sleeping Worlds. It might take a little extra time, especially if we go on their assumption that Kairi is dead since now he’s gotta go find Princess #7 again. Because let’s not forget that this theory also claims that Kairi did not hop worldlines and that the Kairi we see is a Chirithy she’s piloting from the other world. That she died in

(Personally, I think there’s a fundamental misunderstanding of Xehanort’s character throughout the whole theory. He’s not a master planner. If he was, none of his plans would have ever failed, and he makes very clear in DDD that the plan to use TAV was intended to succeed. He is a master opportunist who’s excellent at making sure he has just enough irons in the fire that if one plan fails, another’s already going. The issue is most prevalent in the part of the theory where they try to claim that he planned the paopu scene. And uhh… any part where they make it sound like Xehanort has big plans involving Sora. He doesn’t.

His plan in DDD was opportunistic. He never planned for Sora. Sora was this thorn in his side who was constantly messing up his plans. If you know that no matter what you do this boy is going to mess you up, then how do you remove that threat? Either kill him, which is unlikely as Sora also makes for a decent Light if need be, or bring that power onto your side. He also didn’t like… give YMX time travel powers just to get Sora. That was another opportunistic iron to add to the fire. Like, if I knew that I was going to do something that would give me time travel powers and that I could pass that on to other versions of myself, why the hell wouldn’t I go back to the earliest version of me that could make use of that? That way I have the power… literally from a very young age and continue to have it my entire life. It’s a paradox, sure, but a damn effective one. He would’ve had Ansem go back to give YMX the power regardless. Knowing where Sora was at the time was just a byproduct, and one that he later found a use for

But after the plan to force Sora to join the Darknesses fails… Xehanort doesn’t really have to do anything. He knows that Sora’s a meddler who will fight for the light and is easy to goad into emotional actions. That’s one less Light that you have to worry about getting to the battlefield, because the kid will do it himself. There’s no need to have Kairi involved at all in terms of the paopu fruit thing? There’s no need to plan literally since flinging child Kairi into the abyss out of curiosity for her to make Sora fall in love with her. Like, again... he doesn’t really have a grand plan that he’s been implementing from the start so much as he has several plans that all require roughly the same or similar pieces. Xehanort only makes extra effort for himself if he feels like it could serve multiple purposes. He doesn’t see Sora as worthy, so he’s going to expend the most minimal effort on him. That’s one of the things that I think this theory fails to understand most; Xehanort doesn’t really care about or have grand plans for Sora. So long as the boy fights for one side or another, Xehanort’s already got what he wants

So with Xehanort being such an opportunist with so many contingencies... why would he pass up the chance to do things the easy, if more time-consuming, way by just... staying in the world without the heroes and succeeding with Plan B while knowing that there’s no one around to stop you?)

But, rambling about Xehanort’s characterization aside, you bring up something that I was planning to talk about once I finished going through the theory. My plan at the end was to go over what I felt that it did right or wrong writing-wise. And one of the things it does wrong is that it’s actually several mini-theories very loosely tied together that don’t prove each other

Making a theory about what you think a worldline is is its own thing. Making a theory on KH3′s connection to the Sleeping World lore is its own thing. Making a theory that Riku is really Sora’s light is its own thing. Making a theory that Kairi’s been controlled by Xehanort this whole time is its own thing. None of them correlate

The only reason to include all of them together, and this is going to sound really jaded, is if you intend to trick people into believing that your interpretation of Riku’s and Kairi’s contributions is canon. Because if they’re presented together, then it comes with the implication that if you accept that part of their theory is true (the definition of worldlines, the connection to Sleeping Worlds), then you have to accept that all of it is (Riku is the one whose act of true love saved Sora, Kairi’s contributions were all planned by someone else and therefore less legitimate than Riku’s, etc.).

And I don’t think I’m wrong to read that intent into it. From what I’ve read of the theory so far, they’ve made their shipping bias outright clear (calling the video files soriku_sleuthers as though they’re looking for evidence supporting their ship, spending an entire section on proving that Riku’s “most important person” is Sora and that the feelings are romantic...). Spending about .2 seconds on any of the creators’ Twitter accounts also makes the fact that really all they care about KH-wise is Riku’s part in the SoRiku ship (not even Riku as a character, because they get his character so totally wrong in the theory, but just what Riku contributes to the ship)

I don’t know if it was intentionally done by them or not. It’s possible that the natural ship bias clouded how they interpreted events in the game, too, to the point where they legitimately think that their interpretation is just obviously correct because the content that they interact with most and longest leads to that idea. I’ve already talked about how confirmation bias clouds the entire theory so thickly that they unintentionally discredited everything in it by that alone. But the point remains that the only reason that I can see for having an entire section on how perfect Riku is and how pure his love for Sora is, and another on how Kairi is Xehanort’s pawn trapped in another worldline, is because the easiest way to legitimize those as “canon” is to attach them to something that you think you can prove is canon

Except there’s so many holes, so much misinterpretation, and so much... I almost want to say forged evidence because that’s the only way I can describe what they did to Xigbar’s speech on Olympus, that there’s a mountain of things that can be logically and soundly proved to be incorrect and absolutely no decisive evidence so far proving that any part of what they’re saying is true

I’ll give them some credit, though. The SoRiku stuff doesn’t take up the bulk of the theory and is apparently subtle enough that even quite a few SoRiku shippers don’t think it’s even really a part of the theory. But that ignores the fact that while they have a ton of “evidence” unrelated to the ship, the inciting incident that the whole theory revolves around is the idea that Riku’s act of true love in sacrificing himself to save Sora (attributing Kairi’s sole salvation of Sora to both Riku and all of the other Princesses of Heart) allowed Sora to transfer everyone (except Kairi) over to a new worldline and also the Sleeping Worlds. It may not harp on it, but the theory absolutely pushes SoRiku as the canon ship if you want to believe that the theory is canon because they wrote it so that the events they’re describing cannot happen if it isn’t

It’s why they couldn’t keep the Riku stuff out of this theory even if they wanted to. Even if it would’ve made for a more believable theory. He’s the only part of this damn thing that they really care about

Again, I’m going to go into everything I think this theory does wrong at some point. And I’m sorry that this got so long and ranty! Seeing old followers go in and reblog the debunk stuff right now, which is attracting new followers like you is actually really fun and heartening to watch and I’m so glad that you liked the content enough to tell me! I wish the theory hadn’t become what it is. I wish this debunk wasn’t something that was even necessary. But I am grateful that it’s given me the opportunity to chat with a lot of people, yourself included, about this fandom! Up until I started this project I was relatively unknown in the KH fandom. I really hope that the upcoming debunk stuff meets everyone’s expectations!

[vannahfanfics]

Much Ado About Love

Category: Mild Romantic Fluff

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts

Characters: Sora, Anna

Requested By: cornholio4 (FanFiction)

With a small sigh of exertion, Sora paused a moment to plop down on his behind and sit back against the brick wall of one of the many buildings lining the circular fountain courtyard where Arendelle’s princesses and citizens were now celebrating the return of the country’s usual warm climate. Compared to the bitter, biting freeze of the winter that had been borne of Elsa’s tumultuous emotional experience, the summery warm air only stifled by the occasional light breeze wrapped around Sora like a welcoming embrace, and he enjoyed it so much more. The bricks were already soaking up the sunlight to pulse with a light heat that spread across the surface of his back, and he closed his eyes in contentment to simply enjoy the fuzzy feeling it spread through his tired muscles. Sora was by no means out of shape (as a Hero of Light, he simply could not be) but climbing a mountain not once but three times then kicking the crap out of a big, giant Heartless was liable to give anyone leg cramps. With a small sigh, he rubbed at his calves in the hopes that it would dissipate the cull ache in his lower leg muscles. He looked up when a shadow fell over him, expecting it to be one of his companions insisting he get a move on to the next world, only to find Anna’s charming smile and glittering blue eyes greeting him instead of Donald’s impatient scowl or Goofy’s nonchalant grin.

“Taking a breather?”

“Yeah. Heroes get tired too, believe it or not,” he chuckled up at her. Anna giggled lightly, holding a hand to her prim little mouth. Sora smiled slightly as he absently thought that she looked very cute when she laughed, the way her eyes scrunched up at the corners and her cheeks took on a rosy tint. Continuing to smile at him, she leaned up against the wall beside him and then slipped down to where she was primly sitting with her legs crossed at the ankles in front of her and her hands resting on her lap.

“So do princesses!” she laughed. Sora grinned and began laughing with her, and they chuckled for a good minute over it before their giggles died down. Sora looked at her watching her sister revel with all the townsfolk. It was amazing to watch, considering the picture that had been painted for him earlier implied that the townspeople were ready to chase Elsa down with pitchforks. It was amazing what truth, and forgiveness, could really do. As he thought about the dramatic showdown with Hans on the frozen bay, he suddenly recalled something he had been meaning to tell the princess sitting beside him.

“Oh, Anna… I’m sorry that things turned out the way they did with Hans. I know you really liked him.” Just thinking about it burned him up inside. How dare he pretend to be a good guy and lead Anna along just to attempt to steal Elsa’s throne? Not to mention that he was perfectly willing to leave Anna to die in a painful and agonizing way and kill Elsa in cold blood. Evil people were enough, but evil people who were conniving and put up a false, innocent persona? Those bothered Sora more than anything, because people like Anna always got their hearts broken in betrayal that way. He curled his gloved hands into fists as rage pumped adrenaline into his veins. “Man, if I ever got my hands on that guy…” he grumbled under his breath.

“Thanks, Sora. You’re sweet.” Her caring voice instantly dissolved any sort of ill will in his body and he looked at her with wide eyes. She sighed slightly and looked out at the fountain, where sparkling water was streaming up to catch the sunlight spilling down from the clear blue sky. “I thought I was in love with Hans. I realize now that Elsa was right… I think I was just lonely and desperately looking for someone who would notice me and give me attention,” she admitted with an uncomfortable look. “Love is a much, much stronger emotion than just simple attraction.” The smile returned to her face as her eyes drifted from the arcing water to her sister, who was merrily dancing with Olaf while an amused Donald and Goofy watched. Kristoff was too busy trying to prevent Sven from stealing a vegetable cart vendor’s carrots. “I know that now.”

“Yeah, that sounds about right. To be honest, I don’t know much about the ‘love’ thing,” Sora frowned while scratching at the side of his face with his index finger. Sure, he knew plenty about platonic love- he cared a whole lot about his friends, that was for sure, and he cared about all the people he had met on his great journey through so many worlds, and he even cared about those he had never met but where connected to his heart all the same. Still, even seeing the many displays of romantic love throughout his quest to quell the darkness and save the people who had been lost because of Xehanort- well, he really hadn’t the faintest clue about it.

“Really?” Anna mused. The look she gave him just them unsettled him in a frightful yet oddly stimulating way; she looked almost daring with the way her eyes were shining, and something on the border of triumph danced in her curling smirk. “I would’ve thought a hero like you would have someone in mind.” Sora’s mind instantly flew to Kairi. Sure, he loved her, but he wasn’t sure it was in that sense. He loved Riku just as much. He never really thought about holding her hand or just being alone without Riku there or, holy crap, kissing her. Nope, it weirded him out just thinking about it. Kairi was just… Kairi to him, plain and simple.

“Yeah, nope. Nothing of the kind,” he frowned and plucked at his spiky strands of chestnut hair. Suddenly he couldn’t bear to look at her; even though he wasn’t, he could feel her eyes searching his face, those wintery blue eyes like clear ice boring into him as if it were stripping him down to his very essence… “Wh-what about you?” he stammered suddenly, trying to derail the conversation. “You and Kristoff seem… chummy.”

“Me and Kristoff?” Anna snickered and a hand flew to her chest. Sora’s eyes followed the motion and he noticed that her nails were nicely manicured. Probably par for the course for a princess. “Kristoff will forever have a special place in my heart for helping me the way he did. Next to Elsa, he’s definitely my best friend- but that’s where it ends.”

“Oh.” He was beginning to grow confused, because for some reason he was glad about that. Surely he couldn’t be harboring some kind of fledgling feelings for the princess, right? Sure, she was beautiful, as were many of the princesses he had met, with a warm, welcoming smile and brilliant eyes like crystalline ice formations and luscious auburn-brown hair that kind of called to him to reach out and run his fingers through… And the idea of her being with anyone else, Kristoff or otherwise, kind of made him sad. He had already made up his mind that he would definitely be back to visit Arendelle after settling the business with Xehanort so he could explore the kingdom with her while it wasn’t buried under a blanket of snow and ice… Walking around alone, their bodies close so that their arms just barely brushed together… He would sneakily reach out and touch her fingers and then she would grab his hand, bashfully smiling at him… Wait a minute. His face grew hotter as the blush spread back to the tops of his ears. That was certainly a fantasy he had never had before. He had never experienced love before, but he wasn’t completely stupid; that was pretty dang close, he had to reckon.

Every muscle in his body stiffened as Anna scooted a little closer to him; like he had envisioned, her shoulder brushed against the muscle of his upper arm, and even though there was the barrier of sleeves, his nerves still sung in a high-pitched squeal, sending shockwaves down to the tips of his fingers and up his neck.

“You’re blushing, Sora.” The teasing in her voice just made him flush even further.

“N-no I’m not! It’s just hot! I got so used to it being cold that now I’m hot!” he cried in a futile attempt to dissuade her from the frankly obvious. Pursing his lips in a pout, he turned his head opposite her, chin upturned in a dully childish display of being caught red-handed. Really, he had just met her, and now he had a schoolboy crush. Wasn’t that the exact opposite of what they had been talking about? As if drawn by a magnet, his eyes rolled in his sockets to peer at her out of the corners; she had her head tilted at a downward angle as those crystal-blue eyes stared knowingly at him from beneath the shade of her thick black lashes, and that same sweet yet challenging smile was gracing her lips. Sora’s nose twitched as his heart clenched in his chest. She really was positively adorable and pretty…

Yep. Crush confirmed.

“Anna,” he started, but then stopped, because he really wasn’t sure what he wanted to say. Guess he also wasn’t the smoothest person in the worlds when it came to love.

“Hey. You’ll come back and see me, right?” she interrupted when it was clear his words where going nowhere. Shocked, his head snapped around to look at her fully. The smile had fallen from her face as it took on a solemn, serious expression. “I know that you have important things you have to do that’ll take you far from here… But whenever that’s done, I would really like it if I can show you Arendelle properly.” Sora gulped and tugged at the neck of his shirt as his body temperature amped up a couple notches. “Heroes have free time, too, right?” she said as that smile appeared on her face once more. It was infectious, because it wormed its way onto his features, too.

“Of course. It’s a promise,” he assured her with an emphatic nod. Anna grinned brightly and straightened up, clearly pleased. He fully expected her to jump up and rejoin the festivities (and let his crush stay buried, hopefully) but she instead did something he never would’ve been expecting in a thousand years- she leaned forward to peck a little kiss onto his cheek. Sora instantly blazed the crimson red of Lea’s hair and heated up to the point Little Chef could’ve fried an egg on his head, no problem. Leaving him to short-circuit like a toaster in a bathtub, Anna then hopped up with a giggled see you soon! to join the others, who were none the wiser of the very blatantly flirtatious thing that had just occurred. Head following her skipping run as she left, he raised a hand to the cheek where the ghost of her lips still danced. A wan smirk appeared on his mouth.

Heh… Maybe I know a little about love after all. Surely he must; that’s what the sing-song beating of his heart and the fluttering butterflies in his stomach were telling him, anyway.

Sora was already looking forward to the return visit…

Enjoy this oneshot? Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!

Tag List: @searchfortheonepiece

[nadziejastar]

If both Lea and Isa went through mind control programming how did Axel turn out so well adjusted?

Axel Is A Fucked Up Guy

Ansem the Wise: Xehanort. Foolish apprentice of a foolish man. You have surpassed nothing—only proved how little we both know. We may profess to know the heart, but its essence is beyond our reach.

If you’re asking how a person could be subjected to mind control and still be a good person, and not a total psychopath…well…that’s kind of the mystery of the human condition, no? Polish psychologist Kazimierz Dąbrowski was caught in World War II and endured harsh incarceration in German prison system and later, he and his wife were imprisoned again in Stalin-controlled Poland. He said he could find no theory of psychology that could adequately explain both the lowest and most depraved behavior he saw, as well as the most heroic and highest acts he had witnessed in the war. He dedicated his life to the study of personality development.

Axel: We are just Nobodies who have no one to be, yet we still “are.” But now you can be nothing instead of just being a Nobody. You’re off the hook.

Vexen: No… Please don’t! I don’t want to—

Axel: Goodbye.

But I would actually argue that Axel was NOT well-adjusted, even though a lot of people might have interpreted him to be that way. Not at all. To me, KH3 is the only game that tried to make him seem well-adjusted and “normal”. A cool ice cream bro who breaks the fourth wall. Which I hated. And even then, there’s still plenty of signs that he’s not really recovered from his past.

It seems like a lot of people took Roxas and Xion’s understanding of Axel—a happy-go-lucky big brother—at face value. But it was clear that they didn’t know him at all. He had a very tragic life. He used to be a normal, happy kid and became a lonely, cynical, bitter assassin. He absolutely despised the organization. You could tell that he took great pleasure when he eliminated Vexen. It had nothing to do with some phantom girl he wasn’t sure existed. He said he had “no one to be”.It was very personal. 

Sora: None of that matters! Just put Riku back!

Vexen: Just put him back? The Riku you speak of…has but one fate, to sink into the darkness—and you will share that fate, Sora! If you continue to seek the girl, Naminé, the shackles will tighten, you’ll lose your heart…and end up becoming Marluxia’s pawn!

Personally, I think Axel especially enjoyed killing Vexen when Sora began pleading with him to change Riku back. That would hit really close to home, and must have been a HUGE trigger for him. Whether he was planning to already or not, that was when Vexen needed to die. I also think it’s why he took such a liking to Sora. 

It was Sora’s devotion to Riku that stood out the most to Axel in Castle Oblivion. Even more than his connection to Roxas.Right after Sora and Riku had a fight, Axel has a scene with Naminé.

Axel: Heh heh… I know exactly how you feel. Don’t get your hopes up. Nobodies can’t be somebodies. But think, Naminé. I’m sure there’s SOMETHING you could do…

This is Axel’s quote from the original Chain of Memories.

Axel: Does it hurt, Naminé? Watching your two childhood friends fight all because of you? You have my sympathies. From the heart. But don’t waste your time. We Nobodies can never hope to be somebodies.

And this is his quote from Re:Chain of Memories. He’s a LOT colder to her. And I don’t think it was because he had no heart. I think he was so cold to her because he had begun to develop a heart. Naminé’s the wedge that’s driving two close childhood friends apart. It hit WAY too close to home for Axel. And he truly hated her for it. He was dead serious when he said he had absolutely NO sympathy for her.

Riku: Hmph. Too bad, Sora. You can fight me all you want, but I still won’t remember a thing.

Sora: C'mon, Riku… Let’s quit fighting—let’s go help Naminé.

Riku: Together—right. So like you… …Sora—you’re always trying to worm your way into my heart!

Sora: Hold on! When did I ever do that?

Riku: Hmph, you forgot that, too? You never cared. It never mattered to you!

Sora: You won’t push me away.

He knew how the Riku Replica felt, thinking his friend didn’t care about him. And he knows only too well how Sora felt, trying to “worm his way” into his friend’s heart, only to be coldly rejected. And everything about it disgusted him. Sora is a lot like Lea. It made him remember what it was like to have such a strong bond, and how traumatized he was when he lost it. But Sora refused to take no for an answer. Just like him. But of course, that wasn’t really Riku anyways. Axel knew that. Sora’s friendship will be okay. But Axel’s won’t.

Axel: Is that your shield? Won’t do you any good, I’m afraid.

Axel wanted to save Sora. But he couldn’t have cared less if he killed Naminé. He wouldn’t have batted an eyelash. If anything, he would have been more than happy to do it. He knew she was an innocent young girl who was just an unwilling pawn of the Organization. He didn’t care. It’s so messed up if you think about it. He’d murder a terrified little girl—and he’d do it with a smile on his face. That’s how much he hated anyone who would cause a rift between childhood friends. That’s how devastated he was after the loss of Isa. He has extreme, deep-seated hatred inside of him.

Axel didn’t waste a second grabbing his chakrams. But his body was reluctant somehow.

I don’t want to disappear… But still, it wouldn’t be so bad if I did. Not here.

Axel let out a deep breath and leaped into the air as flames erupted around them.

“…Pathetic!” The Claymore moved to block Axel’s strike, while Saïx himself didn’t even twitch.

This is a pretty overwhelming disadvantage, Axel thought. Well, I knew that before we started fighting. I can’t win against Saïx with my own strength.

Still, he refused to hesitate. He had to force this path open. He wanted…to find hope—the hope that Sora and Riku had.

Saïx gave him a cruel grin. “You will lose everything!” And then the Claymore pierced Axel’s chest.

In my opinion, Axel changed because of Sora and Riku. When he came back from Castle Oblivion, his relationship with Saïx became very strained. Those two reminded him of what he used to have, and it’s unbearable to him that he no longer has it. At the end of KH2, while fighting Saïx, he said that he wanted the hope that Sora and Riku had. He wished that Saïx was just a fake replica the whole time, and that none of the awful things he said were true. The real version had actually gone away to protect him, but he’d show up later, and they could go back to being friends. Hmmm.

Sora: What are you— What ARE you people?!

Axel: Hm… Don’t know. I wonder about that myself.

When Axel saw the way Sora reacted when he killed Vexen, it made him feel ashamed. He realized that “normal” people are horrified by his actions, even when he is acting on their behalf. Sora was furious with Vexen, but even he was appalled by what Axel did.

Sora: After I finish you, he’s next!

Axel: Hmph. Now, Sora. We’ve got more in common than you might think. I’d really rather not fight you… But I can’t dishonor the Organization, now, can I?

Axel: You’re better than I thought you’d be. It was worth saving you after all.

Axel identifies with Sora, but Sora sees him as a monster. Maybe he was relatively well-adjusted compared to some of his fellow Organization members, at least in the morality department. But his “happy-go-lucky big brother” persona was mostly just a facade to cover up a very dysfunctional and wounded person. That was the mask he was comfortable showing outwardly. But it was not his true self.

Day 74: Xion’s Face

Honestly, I never got why Roxas was so crazy about Xion. I know they both joined up around the same time, and they’re both rookies, but how do you get so close to somebody who hides their face all the time? Well, I saw it today. All of a sudden, No. XIV up and takes off…her hood. Xion is a girl, and she looks just like Naminé.

It’s why he acted so strangely when he saw Xion’s face for the first time. He’s looking into the face of the little girl he was willing to murder, who is now asking to be his friend. It freaked him the fuck out. And it made him feel like total shit.

Roxas: When I saw her lying there… I couldn’t stop thinking that she’ll never wake up.

Axel: She will.

Roxas: Saïx called her “broken.”

Axel: Hmm… Well, if it cheers you up, I’m probably a lot more broken than her.

Underneath the mask, was a really fucked up guy who had a LOT of issues. And he KNEW it.

Axel stretched his neck and munched on his ice cream. “You know, I don’t mind disappearing.”

Naminé’s breath caught.

Riku stared at him.

“Roxas is gone. When we bring Kairi here, Naminé will be gone, too. So, same for me,” he said, as if he were discussing the weather, and then punctuated his comment with another bite of sea-salt ice cream.

“We don’t disappear… We’re only reborn,” Naminé murmured, perhaps to herself.

“I’m not like you and Roxas,” Axel said flatly. His hand holding the ice pop stick paused in midair.

“But—but you…” She looked down, clenching her fists.

“It’s because I don’t have a heart,” Axel went on. “I don’t want to disappear, but I’m not upset or sad about it.”

Why was he so convinced that he’s not like Roxas and Naminé? Because he’s not innocent anymore. He’s not going to get a next life because he doesn’t think he deserves one. In his mind, he’s not a good person. He’s done bad things. And he’s poisoned by hatred. I think that’s exactly why he clung to Roxas and Xion so much in the first place, aside from sheer loneliness.

They made him remember who he was before he became so fucked up. But he’d never, EVER tell them some of the things he’s done, or what he’s truly capable of. They’d be horrified and he knows it. He’s always eating ice cream during stressful moments in the novel. Even when he’s literally dying. The shittier he feels, the more he eats. The ice cream is comforting to him because it’s something he used to do in the past with Isa. It reminds him of better days. It’s almost like an addiction. Sea-salt ice cream is viewed as this cute, happy thing. But the reason it is so significant to Axel is because he’s in unbearable pain.

Kairi: So, you gonna try yours on?

Lea: Uh…I dunno. Maybe later.

Kairi: But you always wear the same thing.

Lea: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. This is how you pick me out of a crowd. I make myself easy to remember.

Even in KH3, he won’t take off his old clothes and always stares off into the distance. In my opinion, this has nothing to do with Roxas or Xion. It’s because he’s got baggage. Serious unresolved baggage, connected to his time in the Organization XIII cult. I cannot describe how much I despise the way KH3 downplayed this, and made it seem like his only problem in life was not having Roxas around to hang out with. It felt SO out-of-character to me. Of course he’d want to see Roxas again (who is actually Ventus, IMO). But his entire life doesn’t and shouldn’t revolve around that. He had a life before Roxas and that deserved attention. Isa was the root cause of Lea’s pain.

Axel’s title in the series translates into English as “Flurry of Dancing Flames,” but this doesn’t quite capture the meaning of the original Japanese. The English title implies that Axel himself is fire, but the literal parsing of the Japanese phrase is more like “dancing fire’s wind.”

I think that Axel’s title is about Isa. “Tandava” or dance of destruction, is a divine dance performed by the Hindu god Shiva, where he is infamously depicted surrounded by a circle of flames. It symbolizes the cycles of creation and destruction. Sati grew up devoted to Shiva and spurned the advances of rich kings to the point where she left for a forest to escape the constant proposals. Eventually Shiva consented to make her his bride, and, elated, Sati went to share the news with her father.

Axel: Nothing lasts forever, man. Least of all for a bunch of Nobodies. But you know, we’ll still have each other…even if things change and we can’t do this anymore.

Roxas: Yeah?

Axel: As long as we remember each other, we’ll never be apart. Got it memorized?

Roxas: Ha ha, wow, Axel. That sounded ridiculous.

Axel: What? I thought it was pretty deep.

However, upon her father’s expression of his disapproval of her marriage, she immolated herself, praying to one day be reborn as a daughter to a father she could respect. Angered and grief-stricken after learning of Sati’s death, Shiva performed a terrible Tandava. The more Shiva danced, the more destruction arose. Out of grief and sorrow, Shiva carried Sati’s body and roamed around the universe with it, reminiscing of their moments as a couple. It sounds a lot like Axel to me. His relationship with Saïx is akin to carrying a corpse around. Isa’s even got the giant scar on his forehead which literally means “death”.

Eventually, Sati was reborn as Parvati. This time, she was born the daughter of a father whom she could respect; a father who appreciated Shiva ardently. Naturally, she grew up to be a beautiful woman and over time, she grew to love Shiva with her whole heart. Eventually, they married. The two are literally inseparable, as they have a form where they are fused together as one. Their fused form is another symbol of duality. It’s basically the Hindu version of the Red King and White Queen of alchemy.

Another reason I think Axel’s title was about Isa? Well, because that’s what his Mystery Gear weapon was about, too. The Jade Emperor wanted to test the virtue of the hare and his friends. They all gave him food. But the hare had no food except the grass growing in the forest. So he told the Jade Emperor to build a fire, and when the fire was burning, he said “I have nothing to give you to eat but myself!” Then, the hare threw himself into the fire.

Of course, the Jade Emperor caused the fire to go instantly cold so that the hare was not burned, and then revealed his true form. And then he painted the hare’s likeness on the face of the moon for all to see, so that his virtue would be remembered throughout the ages. The rabbit was unharmed and lived happily ever after. In some versions, he actually is taken to the moon and becomes immortal. But the rabbit hasn’t gotten to the moon yet. He doesn’t know that the Isa he remembers is still alive.

Xemnas: There hangs the heart of all hearts–Kingdom Hearts–shining down on us at last. See the countless hearts that have gathered? Hearts full of rage…hate…sadness…and bliss. There, in the sky, hangs the promise of a new world.

In addition to his own abuse, Axel is fucked up because of Isa. He’s angry at what they did to him, and he’s devastated over losing him. He was an emotional wreck, filled with rage, hate, and sadness. His entire arc was building up suspense for the “bliss” part…and then they did a bait-and-switch.