#but ven and terra very much dont. and riku DOES

[apricotopera]

so interesting to me that kairi aqua and riku are the only ones that use full barriers and not just blocking....everyone else catch up Now.

[nyxfaei]

ACTUALLY HERES THE AU SO FAR-

it’s mostly focusing on the ORG XIII characters and it’s just sort of a very rough idea right now. I’ll definitely be expanding more in the future

-partially Centers on luxord, a reporter with a gambling addiction, who is investigating a small town in probably the pacific northwest that is down for a long string of children going missing dating back for years- and also recently children showing up

-luxord is staying at a lodge run by ansem the old- lexaeus, xaldin, and zexion work different jobs there. Vexen is using the facilities for his various environmental research there.. Which he is very private about.

-Xaldin eventually begrudgingly offers luxord a place at his home because he has an extra room and staying so many days in the lodge is starting to add up and the company he works for wasn’t counting on this taking so long

-Marley runs a florist place- Something that luxord is investigating is missing people’s which involves strelitzia. Marly has been torn up about this and has been looking for answers for years now

-xion similarly appeared under mysterious circumstances as a kid. Nobody knows where she came from and even she cant remember. She was found by xigbar in the middle of the woods and she currently lives with him.

-xigbar is also an anomaly. He just rode into town one day out of the blue and settled into a cabin on the outskirts of it. Noone really knows what he does for a living and noone knows how he lost his eye. He’ll just make up a new story every time if you ask him.

-xigbar will regularly sit outside his house at night with a radio, a cold one, and a gun. He wont tell anyone why. Whenever xion asks he just ruffles her hair and goes “dont worry about it poppet”

- zexion also showed up much in the same way as xion years before. He was adopted by vexen and has grown quite adjusted

- Namine is Ansem the olds kid but no one really knows who her mom is and she’s always been a bit strange. She’s super friendly though but just odd. She seems to be able to draw pictures that predict things. Her and xion get along instantly

-Demyx is a local musician that does a lot of folk music but also isn’t afraid to branch out but he’s also just sort of weird. He showed up in town a few years ago as a traveling musician but just stuck around

-larxene is the town mechanic because I think that would be very hot of her. Marluxias bestie and her shop is right next to his. She was also a friend of strelitzia and is also looking for answers

-OMX is mayor. Eraqus is his husband and runs the welcome center which is also a cafe- Aqua and terra and ven work at it

-Baldr was an ex classmate of theirs back in the day. He’s blamed for the disappearance of many of their classmates since he seemed to get more violent after his sister died. Idk if he’s locked up, dead or if he disappeared

But the disappearance of the missing classmates is seen as a huge mark on the towns past

-Xemnas and Ansem SOD are OMX's kids and they’re also rikuss uncles. riku lives with ansem SOD since his mother passed away. YMX is his older brother who lives alone

-Saix works as the town reporter and is often accompanying luxord on his investigations- somewhat to his annoyance because he prefers working alone.

-xemnas runs the town newspaper

-axel also works for the paper but unlike saix he stays in the building and works as an editor… though he will sometimes come with saix

-saix and axel live together along with roxas. Roxas is axels little brother and also good friends with namine and xion.

-roxas is cousins with ven jdhkjfhkhf

-ven and vanitas are twins

-Ansem SOD works as a teacher at the local school

-Yen Sid is the principal

-the KH kids sort of hang out together in a big friendgroup since theyre very weary about someone going missing

-I wanna say the main FF7 characters (zack, cloud, tifa, aerith, etc) work at a bar and lounge lmao. I’m not gonna do too much placement of the FF characters because I don’t know too much about them but they DO live there

-idk who the sherif and cops are… i love the kingdom hearts characters too much for that. Its probably some disney or FF characters. Maybe one can be sephiroth LMAO

-Cid is an electrician in town

-The town also has some Disney characters but they don’t play too much of a role. Like the evil stepmother and her girls are like the rich family in town. Merlin and the fairy godmother are the sweet old couple in town and Cinderella is their daughter, etc

-dusks and heartless are local legends. A lot of people say they see them around at nightfall. Theres a lot of discussion on if theyre real or not

-eraqus is a huge believer in the paranormal. Hes convinced that theres a prevalent evil/darkness in the woods

-there is something very off about Xigbar and the mountain that they live on

-The town is called twilight town and is located on a mountain known as Mount Hearts

[fisherrprince]

do you have more thoughts on keyblade fighting that you need to put somewhere, because i have two hands ready to catch Should The Need Arise

anon: hey I heard you mention you’d analysed the combat styles in KH and what you said in the tags was already alluding to really neat stuff, but I for one would love to hear more of what you came up with!! so if you ever wanted to share any of your analysis then the floor is yours

aHAH, MY EXCUSE!!

Okay, so first some words on “standardized wielding styles”. These are styles shared by Terra, Aqua, Vanitas, Riku, and Xehanort and every other scala and daybreak kid. I will make the argument that the red style is the fanciest standard style, while the purple is seen often to make it easier on the little chibi sprites. BUT, I cannot discredit Eraqus, who uses the purple variant in bbs, nor can I discredit half of the Foretellers (Gula and Ava, at least, use this. Invi and Aced use the first type). So, two standard styles. For simplicity, let’s say one for primary offense, one for primary defense. The standard offensive style really wasn’t popular before Scala-era society.

check this difference out, specifically between ava invi and gula:

then between eraqus, hermod, and xehanort, and eraqus and terra.

These two were likely popularized and standardized for education in Scala ad Caelum for their predominant lack of obvious weak spots.

After this, we have unique styles. Those include Sora Kairi and Xion’s (similar to standard defense, but more mobile at the expense of form — Kairi takes after Sora but less confident, she hasn’t been hit that heavily yet), Ven’s (backhand, heavy range and mobility), Roxas’ (modified for two keyblades, but takes after Sora), and Axel’s (taught himself, comfortable with chakrams).

So! Let’s go.

.

Standard (offensive)

All styles have sub-variations, of a sense. Different wielders can choose where their keyblade points, and how they hold it exactly, based on what makes them most comfortable. Terra and Aqua point theirs downward, while Vanitas and Riku hold theirs above their head. What is recognizeable to this style is a hand for the sword, and a hand for guarding/blocking/items/magic.

It’s incredibly efficient. With only one hand on the weapon, you not only free up a hand for other things, but increase your range of movement with said weapon. Test it out yourself! The keyblade hand is always your dominant hand, held behind you for increased power when attacking (since you lose a significant amount of it by choosing not to grip with both hands). This style also decreases the speed of the defense you have, but with that increased mobility and swing power, along with a hand free to brace against the keyblade (defense strength up!), it makes up for it. Many people who use this also have strong barrier spells — both a testament to their preference for coverage and an acknowledgement that any directional block will take a little longer and be weaker if they try it with one hand.

The pointy end, though. What difference does it actually make, the height it’s at?

I think it’s half a matter of attack style preference and half intention. Riku, Vanitas, and Xehanort stab quite a bit. Aqua and Terra slice more. Not that they don’t do both, but it’s the first instinct. Aqua and Terra are also likely taught to hold their keyblade neutrally, in a safe position, until someone starts attacking. It’s polite! Eraqus also holds his one-handed, neutrally, until he gets into position. Riku and Vanitas learned to fight assuming everyone was out to fight them. Invi and Aced may like this style because of range (i hc she’s blind and strikes very very quickly, and he’s already very powerful with just the one arm and wants better motion).

and on character specifics: Terra often switches to two-handed, to copy his dad and add extra power to his hits without always sacrificing the empty hand. Vanitas likely was forced to relearn how to fight, as instead of solely being trained to be better at withstanding, he was constantly being made to better his own attacks. The moves Xehanort uses would best be replicated in the same style. Vanitas is wild for holding the massive spiky x-blade like that.

Now, what‘s good on this style does not correlate to what’s bad in the other. The two standard styles simply have different ways of dealing with each con they create or taking advantage of each pro.

(Here’s an interesting side note — Gula uses standard defensive, but in this instance, swaps. One hand… likely to display confidence! Wrong move, but hey. He got cocky. He’s also doing it wrong, and swaps back to two-handed to take Aced’s attack.)

.

Standard (defensive)

The main detriment of this style is the lack of ease of long range movement. Hold a wrapping paper tube out in front of you with both hands, then run. It goes to the side, or tucks in to your stomach, right? Dodge. Your legs will get in the way unless you know where to move that sword. It requires, interestingly, a little more discipline. You’d think Aqua would like that, but no, she wants movement and practicality, and she loves magic, and remember that you must take a hand off this style to grab a potion. You’d think young Eraqus wouldn’t, but remember that he’s a fancy royal lad.

The main draw, though, is tankiness, readiness, and power. You don’t need to move as much if nothing dares hit you! Ava and Gula might be attracted to this style because they’re not as physically strong, but want protection in close-quarters fighting. Using this style when your muscles aren’t as big but you still want to Hit Things Good, or when you want to be a boy you can’t knock over with a pail of water (horse stance rules), is probably solid advice.

Traditionally, this is a lot less like fencing, and a lot more like a samurai sword or kendo. Your blade is held in front of you, giving you very easy access to blocks and frontal attack/defense. In losing some twirly spinniness, you gain power and minimize your opponent’s ability to parry and block.

you gotta dodge master Eraqus so mcuh

All styles will swap between one and two hands for different moves. Eraqus, notably, swaps to a stance very similar to Xehanort when channeling a metric ton of magic.

Both of these styles require a degree of upper body/core strength, as does all swordfighting. I would be interested to see someone whose keyblade style relies on leg strength.

.

Sora, Xion, and Kairi

please look at the difference between the foretellers’ or eraqus’ two-handed grip and Sora’s. Do this with your shoulders and a top-heavy object.

They’re both in a hard stance, but hon. What are you, a gremlin? Anyways, a traditionally taught master would have… better form, even if it’s harder to learn at first. It’s habitual. Sora nearly crouches, and holds his keyblade back-pointed with two hands, which makes it easier for him to dodge roll, push off his feet quickly, and pull off those spinning combos he loves. It‘s really gonna hurt his muscles, in the future, though, since he’s doing a squat for like…. hours. Pulling on those shoulderblades and neck. Xion, too. Replicas had better have correct muscle dynamics. Kairi is brand new, so… maybe Aqua can teach her how to hold a sword so it doesnt hurt you.

Okay, now look at the grip itself. Held in front versus held to the side-back. They’re really attempting to combine both standard styles subconsciously, giving themselves more attack power while really wanting to keep that hard defensive parry, wanting to prevent all attacks to the front while also wanting mobility. It’s working for them really well, they fight like an anime character, and manage to get the best of both, with a minor sacrifice of length range that they don’t care about. We’re flexible and full of magic, baby! Holding the blade like this makes it pretty easy to let go with one hand without sacrificing that crouched defense position.

Now, Sora, specifically, is very adaptive. He’s had two keyblades, claws, guns, yo-yos, and a giant shield, to name a couple. He retains a bit of that alert crouch no matter where he goes, but Sora knows how he wants to attack and how to balance that with the most effective way to use his current weapon. He’s a smart kid! Sora has the most ridiculous shotlocks, which are also probably due to not always wanting to go standard for it. He also prefers to keep his focus on the enemy, which is evident in his reprisals and lack of very many effective “escape” moves.

Xion is very similar to Sora, but she does have some moves that are all movement. She switches to one handed for strikes a lot — using two for defending, one for smacking. In her data battle I’d swear some of those heavy hits are claymore-like. But anyways, since we’re magic, Xion cares not for the laws of exhaustion, and will ping about as a ball of light everywhere. Short range? Up in your business. Mid-range? In your business with one hand. Long range? Throws a boomerang. Hit her? No you dont. Ball of light. She’s above you and wants to bash your head in. (Vanitas also does this! A lot. It’s an easy way to catch someone off-guard. I’ll argue that the soras are very tough and strong, but not tanky. they want to avoid being hit a lot)

Another interesting note about Kairi. I say “unconfident” not because she doesn’t hit hard, but because her stance is also often tilted back, ready to dodge. It’s two handed, but almost all her moves are one. She does love spinning and throwing the thing! It looks like she’s been taking notes from the wielders she knows. It would be easy to teach her a standard style, I think. See here, she lets go on the strike, and by trying to do both, actually ends up with an advantage (being confusing) and disadvantage (losing both the power of two handed and versatility of one handed).

A counter to Sora and Xion is difficult to pin down. Time? Probably. Lack of heating pads. Something that takes all their attention is about the only way to get a sneak attack in, and then you have to hit hard. A counter to Kairi would be anyone who can knock her off balance. She needs a sturdier stance. .

Roxas

Roxas is interesting. He takes after Sora for the one blade. Wielding two, however, nets him a totally different way of fighting. Roxas’ clavicle muscles n… deltoids and stuff must be Ironclad. Also, two handed means you are very fast and sharp all the time. He has the advantage of standard defense (horse stance), and the advantage of offense (range of one sword, but twice).

Roxas generally attacks in two ways — simultaneous hits, and follow-up hits. Either he hits with both at once, or hits hard with the first one, and adds the second one as a bonus smack. He can attack by hitting in opposite directions with the two, like a drum, but that will be a little awkward and leave him prone to being tangled. That established, the follow-up hit method means he spins a bunch. As do we all.

Roxas gets a little complicated because we are not in the real world. We have magic and turning into light and physics that let you become a circular saw. So, typically, disadvantages would include: being unable to let go of a weapon to grab something or use an item, having just a very big silhouette to attack on, having difficulty with close-range attacks because Oathkeeper and Oblivion are kinda long, and convenience. Roxas gets to dodge #1 (keyblades can be unsummoned) and #4 (keyblades can be unsummoned). Speaking of dodging, he also gets to skirt the difficulty of dodging and rolling with two swords because he turns into a beam of light. But he can’t dodge how difficult it is to use two swords effectively — he needs to concentrate on fighting, and nothing else, or he risks messing up. He has to be very, very coordinated, and undistracted. Luckily he’s pretty good at making his opponents shut up, most of the time. Blocking is another thing — theoretically his blocks could be strong, but Roxas has no real brace: crossing your blades and taking a hefty stab might smack one of them back into your face. He mostly uses reversals and dodges, because of this.

The takeaway to this is Roxas is built for speed and power, and he is very strong. He’s a mid- to far- range fighter who if you’re not careful can snap you in half if you’re too close (be SO careful of that cross blade scissor).

A perfect counter to Roxas would be a tank that can grapple, and also be very distracting. If you can take hits, be talkative, and get close enough to stop his blades, you have a chance.

.

Ventus

This is a bizarre choice, my guy, but I get it.

Backhanded weapons are very impractical for a lot of... attacking, mainly in mid-range combat, and Ven likes to either fight very close or throw the keyblade like a boomerang (and hey, backhand gives it a good whip for throwing). His attacks aren’t meant to one hit KO, but they do come with a bit of power to them, especially on the backslash. Like holding a knife for gouging. It’s for very close defense — pretty good when Wayward Wind and Missing Ache have hooks.

Backhand also, while retaining that empty hand for potions and guarding, gives you an extreme coverage boost. By which I mean Ven’s sword hand now has a nearly 270 degree sweep of “I see you, don’t touch me”, very quickly, based on just flicking his wrist. It sacrifices a ton of strength/sturdiness, but you don’t need that if you’re dodging. You also don’t really need to block, which is slower, but relatively sturdy when Ven does it, as he blocks with mostly the chunky hilt between crossed arms. He sacrifices (again) a bit of strength for coverage — an attack would hurt his arms, not his chest, if he were hit head-on.

His attacks often have him flip the blade around in his hand, too. Quick swaps between standard moves and backhand ones. Basically, Ventus is built for moving, protecting himself, and quick attacks that wear down the enemy, not outclass it. Likely because he’s good at fighting, but everyone he’s fought hits harder than he can! It doesn’t matter how he holds it, getting hit will hurt. So he just. Doesn’t. He’s not a buff little guy — but he is a persistent one. Ven very likely made this up on his own, in Daybreak, and it was too hard to fix his whole style, but it was enough to correct most of his form so he doesn’t hurt himself too much. He is going to have to really stretch that shoulder and wrist (maybe get a brace), though. At least his neck is ok. … not sure about his knees tho dang boy that crouch

A perfect counter to Ven would be someone big and fast, who hits hard mid-range. He’s already been sparring with Terra, though, so when in doubt, try scruffing him?

.

Axel

Theres not a ton to say about him — he‘s not a swordfighter. He uses his keyblade like it’s a frisbee. Because that’s what he’s used to! His neutral is behind his back on his shoulder, which is terrible for readiness, but okay for chucking the thing. It’s good it has a sort of… ripstik like… boomerang quality.

Axel’s fighting style is completely made up, like most of the self-taught wielders’. His strengths lie in some of the benefits of standard offensive style (one-handed), and some of the same coverage stuff as Ven, having a cocked wrist most of the time so no one can sneak up around him without risking getting whacked very quickly, and having an interesting range due to the pointy end being basically on a spinny swivel wherever his hand moves. He’s not going to be good at close-range and he knows it — his attacks are mostly distance. And the guy has ZERO defense, combined with zero coverage when idle, so it’s for the better.

Distance-wise, though, he rocks. Treating the blade like it’s a flaming throwing weapon means his idle is actually great for sudden flick-tossing and attention-guiding for sneakier attacks, and his stance itself (…nonexistent) serves a different purpose: bait. Basically a big "come hit me". Fun, when you have a lot of fire magic and two friends who are beasts and love to take advantage of a distracted enemy — distance on the blade, proximity on the burning.

A perfect counter to Axel would be someone pinging around very close <—> very far and circling him incessantly. Like, data Xion could wreck him, as he has to wait for the boomerang to come back -- he no longer has two spinny wheels. Also someone with water magic.

.

SO! In conclusion! Having a teacher who teaches you correct sword usage rather than instinct may detract from overspecific styles that benefit you most but leave weak spots, but your muscles and your oversights will thank you. Everyone is glad we have the power of the Mouse and anime on our side.

Keep in mind again that I have done cursory research, and have had minimal actual sword instruction, I am not an expert and this is all for fun anyways :]

[ajdrawshq]

For the niche ask game: Terra, Repliku, and Namine

FUCK YEAH THANK U OK

I'm gonna skip the smell question bc I literally do not know what to say abt that for anyone

Terra my beloved

• Song that reminds me of them: the only song I've ever associated with him is.. apparently Apocalypse by Sleeperstar according to my spotify playlist for him

• An otp: tbh,, I dont actually ship Terra with anyone

• A notp: anything w the minors and also,,, lowkey Terraqua,,, just bc I dont see them like that but since there's So Much of it its just. Yknow. I'm v sorry Terraqua enjoyers u do u

• Favorite platonic/familial relationships: I enjoy his relationships w Aqua and Ven so much....... AND WITH RIKU their interactions are so good

• Popular headcanon I disagree with: HES NOT THAT DUMB. PLEASE I know its just a fandom joke but I could go on and on abt how the way he was raised and how the total lack of proper guidance fucked him over so so bad but also there was no fucking way for Terra to figure out the stuff happening behind the scenes. Not once does he actually assist the villains without rightfully believing hes doing the right thing, the closest exception I can think of being when he helps Hook bc yeah that dude is pretty shady but he was asked to protect the chest, and only attacked in defense of it - something that is a defining trait of Terra, and his whole job is to protect the light which is vague as fuck so can u really blame him for thinking some of it was in a chest for some reason, plus Peter Pan is kind of a bitch so u can't really fault him for that fight anyway. And don't talk to me abt the sleeping beauty incident bc that wasn't his fault (although I admit its kind of funny that he just,, left) AND the entire Xehanort arc. Dont even get me started if Eraqus just let Terra know that Xehanort is up to shit instead of telling Aqua to spy on him and TELLING TERRA TO FIND XEHANORT WITHOUT ANY CONTEXT WHATSOEVER ALLOWING XEHANORT TO MANIPULATE HIM WITHOUT ANY TRUE HINTS ABOUT HIS MOTIVES we could've avoided like at least half the shit that went down in this game I swear I would've killed this old man with my bare hands. Anyway what was the question

• The position they sleep in: he takes up like 3/4s of any bed without trying i just know it.. and he seems like he'd be very warm. Sleeping next to him is absolute hell in the summer

• A crossover I'd love to see them in: does kingdom hearts itself count as a crossover considering all the d*sney and ff characters.. I just wanna see more Terra

• My favorite outfit theyve worn: how DARE u make me choose between his glorious flowy pants that I desperately want for myself and one of the best armor sets in all of kh.. but I'm going with his keyblade armor purely bc of that one shot thats just like. Terrass. Yknow the one

Repliku

• Song that reminds me of them: oh god I feel so strongly about this. I have a whole (very self indulgent and incomprehensible) playlist for them but I'm gonna say specifically Last Of Me by CircusP

• An otp: ok I wanna say Replinami. But. I've grown so attached to the idea of Repliku n Roxas being together its ridiculous

• A notp: w any adults obviously, and Riku and Replitwo. They're Siblings

• Favorite platonic/familial relationships: on that note I'm very very soft for their sibling relationships w those two. Whenever I think abt the kh3 Riku n Repli scenes I cry. Also love the idea of them being friends w Xion and Vanitas. And Sora..

• Popular headcanon I disagree with: are there,,, really any popular headcanons abt Repliku? I can barely find any for them to begin with lmao but I CAN say they're not cishet. Bi transfem Repliku my beloved

• The position they sleep in: considering how their life has been plus how touch starved they are, they usually curl up into a ball and/or hold something close to them

• A crossover I'd love to see them in: does my idea of showing them Pokemon The First Movie: Mewtwo Strikes Back as a form of therapy and/or enlightenment count. Ok but i actually wanna see them interact with Mewtwo for better or worse i think it'd be fun

• My favorite outfit theyve worn: I've talked enough abt the darksuit for this one to be obvious I think

Naminé

• Song that reminds me of them: ooooh this is a hard one...... I'm gonna say Worlds Apart by Seven Lions

• An otp: Namixi and Replinami are both very very good

• A notp: any adults, n im not rly a fan of her being w any of the destiny trio or Roxas

• Favorite platonic/familial relationships: on that note again i Do enjoy her general relationships with the above four.. and I like her dynamic with Axel/Lea tbh. And the idea of her and Terra being friends is vv neat. And I think she'd have a funky friendship w Vani. She has so many friends!! good for her, good for her

• Popular headcanon I disagree with: I cant think of anything in particular I disagree with I just think she should be allowed to kill people (read: Ansem TW)

• The position they sleep in: similar to Repliku, but she prefers being surrounded by something (whether it be pillows, weighted blanket, etc)

• A crossover I'd love to see them in: I think Naminé, Lunafreya from ffxv and Lillie from pkmn should meet.. they're sisters now

• My favorite outfit theyve worn: theres uh. Not a lot of options here (but all the fan made outfits ppl make for her are so epic and cool i love em)

[ravenaveira]

Just wanna clarify a few things after my long review/rant at the end for KH3 Re:Mind

My comments about the Sokai stuff I stand by, but I wanna be clear because I see Sokai shippers claiming antis complained about the lack of Sokai for it to be a believable relationship and now that Sokai has more moments we’re complaining about them shoving Sokai down our throats.

I cant speak for all antis on this, so I’ll be strictly speaking for myself on this issue and anyone else who feels similar to me. Warning it gets long again so be ready.

Yes Im one of those antis who complained about the lack of Sokai which made it underdeveloped and unbelievable, and yes I am also complaining about them now shoving Sokai down our throats.

Why? because Kingdom hearts is not a romance, and throughout every single game so far romance has taken a severe back seat and handled very subtely. For example Sora’s drawing in the cave of him giving Kairi the Paopu fruit, Riku teasing him about wanting to give one to Kairi, Sora saying hes always with her and promising to come back for her, Roxas calling Kairi ‘the girl he likes’ etc

All these moments were very short, subtle, and to the point. It was not a primary focus nor was it blatantly shoved in your face like

I mean in almost EVERY shot they were together Sora was holding her hand, which isnt something he usually does? keep in mind Sora and Kairi’s feelings have been known to eachother since KH2 and Sora still didnt behave the way he is now. He was always very awkward and uncomfortable/shy when it came to romance.

In KH2 Sora didnt hug Kairi, nor did he hold her hand, it was KAIRI who initiated the hug out of relief and happiness to see Sora again and that hes ok. Sora did not show the same sentiment and treated her like he always has, just casually walking up to her and just nonchalantly saying ‘You are different Kairi, but Im just glad your here’ as if she wasnt kidnapped and being held hostage this entire time. He should have showed the same concern for her as he did for Riku and Kairi for him but he did not, he just said that and then turned away and apologized.

But in KH3 Sora/Nomura pull a complete 180, Sora hugs Kairi to shield her from Terranort with his body instead of pulling out his keyblade and blocking his attack. Him hugging Kairi there was not only stupid, but it doesnt even defend her, Terranort will just kill Kairi AND him now. That was just a forced out of place Sokai moment for the sake of shoving a Sokai moment that was completely unnessecary and could of easily had the same impact by having Sora do the common sense thing and BLOCK with his keyblade like he did for Riku when they were in THE EXACT SAME SITUATION.

See the difference? good, then I need say no more.

This is only one of many situations where they would shoehorn in a Sokai moment that was completely out of place, didnt make any sense, or just forced in trying way too hard to convince you how much Sora cares for Kairi and how much they love and want to be together forever etc etc

Another example being when everybody ‘dies’ in the keyblade graveyard being swept away by heartless. Sora only loses his mind and breaks down emotionally after Kairi is the last one swept away, he then says the most inconsiderate line he could have ever said.

He says this while RIKU IS RIGHT THERE BESIDE HIM, even if you were arguing he was just speaking figuratively thats still no excuse, he was NOT alone but at that moment he just completely disregarded Riku as if his presence there was the same as being alone.

Not only that but seconds later he does one of the most out of character things for him.

Sora just WATCHES Riku risk his life holding back the heartless to protect him and Sora just WATCHES him fighting off this huge horde of heartless BY HIMSELF and not ONCE does Sora make ANY attempt to get up and help Riku despite knowing his life is at risk trying to hold them back alone.

Even if you wanna argue Sora was in shock, when has that ever stopped him before!? when have you EVER known Sora to just sit back and watch his friends put their lives in danger and NOT help them?

What makes this worse is thats not even the first time he does it, he sits back and watches AGAIN as Axel gets bodied right infront of him just to have him exhausted next to Kairi because you know, Sora’s never fought strong opponents and gotten right back up to protect his friends before.

Remember Terranort? Sora was overpowered by him and still made the effort to run over and hug Kairi to shield her from his attack, but Axel and Riku? nah just gonna chill and watch. This is BEYOND out of character for Sora.

When Axel told Sora to hurry and save Kairi, who was being held hostage by the organization and was in danger, Sora refused to leave him and stayed behind to help him fight. Sora chose helping Axel over Kairi, he put saving his enemy before his own friend/love interest.

When Neku betrayed him, Sora still helped and protected him when he was in danger

When Riku stole his keyblade and Donald and Goofy followed him and left Sora behind, yes Sora was discouraged but when he saw Beasts determination to save Belle no matter what, it encouraged Sora to do the same for the people he cared about

I could go on but you get my point, Sora saw Riku risking his life, literally dying and he did NOTHING, try to justify that all you want but that was incredibly out of character and was obviously put there to show how losing Kairi broke him.

I know your probably gonna argue it wasnt just Kairi it was everybody, and to that I say this, if it wasnt just about Kairi why didnt Sora snap when Ven and Axel got bodied? he froze for a few seconds but then snapped out of it thanks to Riku. After that everybody gets swept away, but the game made sure to put EXTRA emphasis, slow motion and all, to Kairi and Sora reaching out to eachother and then Kairi being swept away by the tide.

THATS when he snaps, if it truly werent just about Kairi they wouldnt have made sure to put emphasis on her being swept away, EVERYONE would have gotten the same treatment if it were truly their deaths also that made Sora fall apart. Im not saying he wasnt upset or heartbroken over them, Im pointing out how they made sure to single out Kairi as the most DEVASTATING loss out of all of them.

Yet again, he has Riku one of his closest bonds if not the closest right beside him yet he doesnt even acknowledge him? he says hes alone even though Rikus right there? you cannot justify that as anything other than downplaying Riku to boost Kairi up.

You do not see the other trios treated this way, every trio has equal focus for ALL of them and even the romantic hints for some of them [Roxas/Xion, Terra/Aqua, technically Namine/Repliku] have all been treated equally and did not feel forced or out of place but very natural and they still made sure to focus on the friendship bond between them overall.

Axel doesnt get played down in importance to Roxas just to boost Xion up, their friendship and bond with eachother are equally important to one another despite whatever ‘romance’ there might be. Same applies to Terra and Aqua, Ven is not played down in importance to them. As for Namine and Repliku they arent a trio but their romance was still handled well and it didnt overshadow their platonic bond or attempt to play down the real Riku or vice versa to boost the other, Namine was equally important to both of them.

So balancing romance and friendship CAN be done in their trio, but for some reason Nomura insists on pitting one against the other and playing down one over the other, in Sokai’s case thats Riku, which is an insult to his and Sora’s bond. The same way Sokai shippers felt the over-focus on Sorikus bond was a disservice to Sora and Kairi’s bond, its the same issue.

But lets get back to Re:mind because besides a few bad moments, overall KH3 was atleast passable with the Sokai nonsense. Then comes Re:Mind and oh boy...the damage control was strong in this one.

Again as I said earlier the Sokai moments in this game were very forced and out of place and in many ways out of character for Sora.

For starters the excessive hand holding, why? to convince us their a thing? but Sora suggests otherwise

Even after all the excessive hand holding, the hugs, the forced moments etc, in the end Sora still calls Kairi a friend. After aaaaall the forced Sokai bs they shoved down our throats Sora still friendzones her, which is it Nomura? you either want them together or you dont, stop playing games and pick a side already.

Dont get me wrong Im glad he hasnt made it official yet but after all this its like enough is enough, either follow through or cut this shit out and go back to being subtle like before.

Another huge insult was Sora constantly saying how his journey started with Kairi, since when? I remember Sora losing Kairi AND Riku that day not just her. I recall Sora not going back to Destiny Islands with Kairi BECAUSE he wanted to continue his journey to find Riku, but apparently in Re:mind it was just all about Kairi, nothing about his journey involved Riku no it was only Kairi that was his main motivation, gtf outta here man.

You can say something over and over but that doesnt make it true, Sora’s journey started with BOTH of them, lets stop playing down Riku’s importance to once again boost Kairi up.

That hug when Sora finally reunited with Kairi after restoring her was so obviously trying to make up for all the years of people complaining about Sora’s lack of reaction to Kairi in KH2 in comparison to Riku, so having him hold her for several seconds floating in the sky should rectify that right? you believe he cares about her now right? fuck off man. If your gonna do damage control than atleast dont make it so obvious that thats what your doing because then it comes off disingenuous, forced, and fake.

But my biggest issue is the ending where they really shoehorned Sokai where it didnt belong, literally stalking everyone else with the exception of returning Namines heart and Sora helping to reunite Chirithy with Ventus. But in Twilight town, why were Sora and Kairi there? they werent with Roxas but just sitting above them

Why were they at Mickeys castle? again their just in the background sight seeing.

These scenes were completely unnessecary and completely out of place and made the ending WORSE rather than better. Why? because these are Sora’s final hours ALIVE whether you argue only for a day or a couple days, in all of these ending scenes only one thing matters to Sora and thats Kairi.

Before we assumed everything that was shown all happened the same exact day and we didnt see Sora with any of them. But now we have confirmation Sora WAS there yet he only spent his last remaining time with Kairi in the background while quietly stalking everyone else? even if he didnt spend time with anyone else, he should have spent his last remaining time with Kairi AND Riku, after all hes his best friend and would like to spend what little time he may have with Sora too but we dont see any of that. Hell this contradicts Soras own danm words to Chirithy prior to this.

Instead of just shoehorning a bunch of Sokai in the background why not show the three of them FINALLY all together again like the old days? this is wtf Im talking about. We saw ALL the other trios together but the Destiny trio? hell naw fuck Riku lets have Sora spend all his remaining time with Kairi, thats the only one who REALLY matters here. After being separated from eachother constantly, now they finally have the chance to be together again and spend time together as friends and they DONT.

Instead Sora decides to take Kairi around the worlds hes visited, something he said he wanted to do with Riku as well, and just spend all his remaining time with her, even though in the base game before the final battle Sora was concerned why Riku was all alone and not spending time with them together. But here? nah fuck Riku. I remembered how important it is to share moments with friends only applied to Kairi.

So personally idc that theres more Sokai moments, my problem is the execution. It doesnt feel genuine, it feels forced and awkward and just doing damage control to pander to the rabid fanbase thats been screaming for this type of content for years, well congrats, you got it.

My problem is Kingdom Hearts was never about romance, it was always subtle and not shoved in your face, it felt natural and not forced and like there was atleast SOME heart behind it, but this? just felt hollow and forced.

Just stop, Im glad in the end Kairi just sleeps for a whole year and probably still will be sleeping when the next game comes out and the focus will shift to Riku and his search for Sora along with the other keyblade wielders doing their part as well.

So Im thankful it seems like we’re done with this crap and getting back to what ACTUALLY matters and what people really wanna see from this series.

Notice how nothing in either of my posts had to do with Soriku as a couple but about their bond as friends, enough said.

So dont try to twist this into just being about pairings because its not, its about what this series has always been about being forgotten for the sake of a fucking trash ship that nobody cares about besides rabid shippers and Sora’s bonds with his other friends being completely thrown out the fucking window to shorehorn in a bunch of unnessecary Sokai moments as a desperate attempt to convince people that these two love eachother which at this point if you have to try so hard to CONVINCE people of your pairing its obvious your doing a very shitty job at it.

Im done, this is my last long post about this for a while but I really needed to get that all out there since nobody else seems to be calling it out for what it is. My anger and frustration is still very fresh and it shows so I really need to stop talking about it because at this point? Re:Mind just ReMinded me why the Destiny trio is the worst out of them all, it is the most unbalanced and quite frankly feels more like Riku is a third wheel at this point and not even a part of the trio anymore. Before Kairi, it was always Sora and RIku yet hes the one whos being pushed aside and forgotten about in all this. That pisses me off.

So Im done with this topic, I need to cool off for the next couple of years till the next game comes out where hopefully Kairi stays asleep the entire time and NOT ruin another game.

[crispyapplepies]

Copy pasta improvised terra-slept-with-joshua-and-ven-is-upset-about-it fic i wrote in a discord chat for any terravens willing to overlook the present tense sketch writing, i hope you enjoy the angsty comedy drama --

so by chance, vens assigned gym partner for the day is joshua~ sora is stuck with roxas in the bg which is also amusing if you wanna know the background noise to this xD ven is an utter sweetie and has no personal problem with joshua so hes happy to pick up his slack on their activities today since he understands some people just dont care for athletics, especially when they have pretty looks to preserve for rehearsal tonight^^ at the end of class joshua offers his coy appreciation to ven who was such a cute gentleman today in getting him through that~ and then he makes some remark about how he never wouldve guessed ven even was that physically inclined given what he thought terras taste in men was~ ven lowers an eyebrow and asks "huh? what does that mean? =o=" and joshua chuckles "oh it was a long time ago, nothing to wonder about now~ i will say this though, you my friend? are one very very lucky bottom ;) keep a close eye on him." and then he saunters off to his next class. ven squints =.= hes a lil grumpy now x)

come lunch time, terra and aqua have already sat down at their usual table, seniors come in first, and theyre settled in with aqua going over some extra terms with terra for their history exam. sophomores finally file in and ven marches over with the tray of food he didnt even look at when he was at the counter. terra turns with a smile to see him and plants his usual kiss hello on his cheek as ven sits down with a slight fwomp, not responding to it. terra asks "everything okay? :o" and aqua looks over to check if hes feeling alright, not spotting any signs of sickness. ven responds almost gritting his teeth "i've been better. =_ =" terra tells aqua he'll help her study in a minute, cuz obviously upset boyfriend takes priority<3 he sinks his fingers into vens hair and asks him if he wants to talk about it. and ven takes a deep breath, trying to resume his usual Good Boi Angel attitude, gently swats terras hand away and says "Maybe later, you and aqua can go ahead and study! 8) I'll even help you if you like~" terra recognizes that this is certainly not over but hes not gonna force ven to talk or anything so he kinda nervously says okay.. and then tells aqua "Wanna quiz me?" and aqua says sure, and starts reading off the list of vocab words only for ven to suddenly smack the table and turn sharply to terra and ask "WHEN WERE YOU GONNA TELL ME YOU SLEPT WITH JOSHUA????" and terra just- O//__//O oops.. and aqua looks at terra all disappointed and grossed out and groans "Oh, terra, you didn't... >~<" and terra is so embarrassed and tries to explain to ven's scowl "i-it was a long time ago! really it meant nothing! :'D... a-and besides it was even before I met you! so.. thats- alright?" and he glances over at aqua hoping for some kind of validation but she just goes "ughh..." in the most smh big sister voice xDDD

ven exhales, trying to cool off and be rational, but his usual sweet happy face just cant help being all =_ = at terra, and he says "I guess its- fine, but- gosh, really? joshua? you didnt have feelings for him, did you? er was this just a fling? how long ago was this?" and terra stumbles to answer saying "i-it was- um... back when i first came out! people were telling me i couldnt say i was bi if i'd never had sex with a guy too, so i- had to prove it! thats all, really, it was nothing meaningful to me, honest<3 :'3 I'm not like that." as he cups vens cheeks playfully, but where theres usually a smile between puffed out cheeks theres still just a >:T ven folds his arms and tries again to collect himself and says "i guess i get it.. i guess xT thats really all it was? no more secrets?" and terra swears with his hand up and his eyes closed "I swear thats all it was v_v." aqua shakes her head and tells terra "Youre gonna owe ven preeetty big after this blows over :/" but before ven can even respond terra has already jumped in to tell her "I'll do anything to make ven happy! theres absolutely nothing to worry about~ :')" and ven is still kinda pissed but he finally says "okay. i'll let it go. here aqua, i can read off the list and quiz both of you" and aqua slides ven the paper to read off while she glares at terra who glares back at her as if to say 'drop it =.='

so thats the end of it for the day, and the next day too, but then the next day is gym again, and whatever sora and roxas are struggling with in the bg is still going on xD and ven and joshua are partners again. ven is still not comfortable with the idea of his terra sleeping with joshua, the twink incubus of the school fdkjgh but hes a nice boy so hes going to continue being nice and get joshua through this "drag of an hour, and not even the fun kind" pff joshua can kinda tell ven is pretty tense today though, unusual for him since ven is always the nicest kid in the whole school next to maybe sora. so finally near the end he asks if something's on his mind and ven realizes ack, what am i doing? there is no reason for me to be such a jerk. so he tells joshua "im really sorry, I mean it, I have no business acting like this;; i just- when i found out you slept with terra i was kinda.. uncomfortable about it to say the least, but i have no reason to be, youre perfectly nice :) besides, it was before he even met me so it doubly doesnt matter~^^" but thats where joshua raises an eyebrow. "oh? i think youre a little mixed up there cutie pie~ terra and i had sex together last year. some time after you transferred. I was amazed at the offer, really, i honestly thought that once he met you, none of us other cuties had a chance. but it looks like he landed you in the end, so it is of no matter. but i do certainly hope that you and he are happy, terra is quite the catch and we'll all be quite jealous of you til the end~ catch you around ;)" and thats the end of that conversation. ven. is. livid. 8)

so ven actually skipped lunch with his friends 8) terra looks around curiously, he still isnt showing up and hes not texting him back either. aqua asks him "doesnt ven have gym today?" and terra answers like its a dumb question pff "yeah? its thursday, everybody has gym today. its gym day." and she shakes her head at him and says "I think you should give him some space. im pretty sure i know where he is. :/" terra looks uneasy tho. "do you think hes okay?" and aqua says "oh... im sure he will be." terra grips his arms and tries not to think about it 8)

senior gym class is last period and they start filing in as the juniors file out. terra fist bumps riku on his way in xD terra is practically exempt from whatever is on the activities list cuz hes.. terra and gym class is honestly childs play pff he finishes everything in 2 seconds anyway. so usually the coach just lets him bench press for a while. highschools are bullshit xD aqua has that privilege too but she considers it a warm up before her practice later and does them anyway. terra takes his time prepping the bench, saving himself the trouble of dealing with the crowd in the locker room, and once they all run out he yoinks his gym bag up to his shoulder just to be extra pff and marches on in there to change. weird that everyone is snickering at him on their way out though... he walks inside, humming mindlessly to himself cuz gym class is his chance to relax after school before his practice. and then he half screams in surprise as his gym bag falls to the floor. ven is sitting right there in front of the lockers with the angriest look on his face terra didnt even know he /could/ make jhdfgl ven "sings" out "hello, terra. >8(" and terra just- run kdjfhglhdfsg

terra runs back to the bench as if he can just- run away from reality kdjsfhgljkdfs xDDD and start bench pressing cuz he doesnt know what else to do sdklfjhglsdj im having too much fun with this i love dumb ass jocks and soft cuties xDDD ven launches himself on top of terra pushing down on the weights terra was about to pump up and yells "YOU SLEPT WITH JOSHUA WHILE YOU WERE COURTING ME?!?!?!?!!!!"

(everyone in the gym is cackling quietly to themselves at the display sdfkjgh this AMAZING xD) terra looks up at ven in fear and stutters "I-I didnt think i had a chance with you! you didnt seem interested D:!" ven yells "OF COURSE I WAS INTERESTED YOURE JUST SHIT AT FLIRTING!!!!!!!" terra tries to calm him down "youre gonna break the bench press, ven! D:" the coach comes over at all the yelling and yells at them "HEY, break it up--" only to be shut right up when ven glares at him and growls and terra looks at him utterly terrified dfkjhg and motions for him to leave them alone. the coach is both very scared of ven xD and also doesnt wanna lose his quarterback so he smiles and holds his hands up in surrender and says "hey, you know what? why dont you two work it out amongst yourselves?^^;;; maybe somewhere that isnt my expensive bench press though?" ven yells "FINE." and grabs terra by the wrist and drags him back to the locker rooms using a scary strength terra didnt know he had dkfjglh O_O;; aqua pauses her stretches and shakes her head and mumbles "it was nice knowing you, terra. :/" and then resumes her work out xD

well ven flings terra into the locker room and shuts the door with a slam and chews him out. "DO YOU HAVE ANY IDEA HOW HUMILIATING THIS FEELS?!!! YOU SLEPT WITH THAT LITTLE HORNDOG AFTER I CAME HERE AND THEN YOU LIED TO ME ABOUT IT SO I HAD TO FIND OUT FROM THE HORNDOG HIMSELF?!!! GIMME YOUR BEST EXPLANATION FOR THAT, TERRA, JUST TRY ME!!!! >8UUUUUU" terra reaches out his trembling hands bravely to try and calm ven down, before he pulls his hair out and he cries out "I'm SORRY, i'm sorry i'm sorry i'm sorry, okay, I didn't do it to hurt you!!!! It was just a small thing-" "AHAHAH IS THAT WHAT IT IS THEN??? WELL IF IT WAS SUCH A SMALL "tHinG" THEN WHY WOULD YOU LIE TO ME ABOUT IT, WHAT OTHER SECRETS HAVE YOU BEEN KEEPING?!!! DID YOU SLEEP WITH RIKU TOO? ANYMORE CHEERLEADERS I DONT KNOW ABOUT??? OR MAYBE JOSHUA AGAIN AT SOME POINT????!!! >8'DDDD"   ven is about to lose his mind sdjfhg terra is starting to feel upset too ;~; "No, I don't have anymore secrets, after we started dating I havent even so much as THOUGHT of anyone else! I mean that! :'U" he pleas, finally managing to place loving hands on vens shoulders as he prays for forgiveness dkfjhg ven finally just cries it out letting himself sob into his palms and terra steps in closer, hating to see ven cry, and this is much worse knowing hes the cause of it ;-;

ven glances up again, terras scent hitting him and that warm chest right in front of him that he loves and he just buries his face in it not knowing what else to do dkfgh terra holds him, stroking his back, mulling over in his head how many ways he could apologize for this but then ven pushes himself away again, hes still so upset >~< and he sniffles "why. did you lie to me about it." terras face goes red and he fishes for his words "because i- i care what you think ven." ven scoffs, but his frown hardens and he wipes his eyes "you care what i think, and so you LIED to me? what am i supposed to think?" terra replies quickly "i dont know :'u i guess i just didnt want you to think..." ven holds himself and turns away. terra supposes he has to just- be honest then, its worth a try if  it keeps him from losing the love of his life. "Look, I- I lied because the way you look at me matters to much. I care what you think of me more than anyone else, ven." ven sniffles, his back still turned to terra "oh yeah?" and terra glides over to turn him around and look at him, taking vens hands in his. "yes! ven youre the nicest, kindest, most pure hearted person i've ever met. i cant even imagine there being a darkness in your heart. who even says "slept with" and "courted" anymore besides a sweetheart like you? youre like an angel to me, but i- dont have the best reputation anymore. and the number of partners ive had seemed to disgust you. it broke my heart the way you looked at me the other day knowing that id slept with joshua. like you thought i was- i dunno.. im sorry i did it, i really am. i never wouldve done it if i'd known you really did want me too." ven reaches up and places a hand to terras cheek promising "Terra, I think the world of you. i wouldnt be with you if i didnt think you were a great person. the best even! you know how much i admire you. i just- was I just a fling? how do i know im not the next joshua or shiki you sl- have sex with and drop?"

and terra leans down to kiss his forehead and chuckles "because you're you, silly." that gets ven smiling again, the cornier the better with him<3 he presses his nose to terras chest and slides his arms up over his back for a tight hug and terra is so relieved they got through that dkfgjhdjl f ven tells him "I'm sorry for making you feel judged. i was way too rash about that whole thing." terra tells him its alright, imeanididlietoyouafterallahem.. ven goes = _= for just a second, cuz yeah that sure wasnt cool dfkjgh but he removes it cuz mostly hes back to smiling and he pulls himself away to look up at terra again, admitting with a blush "i guess i'm still in disbelief that youre really mine. maybe in 5 years or something i'll believe it" ven chuckles at his joke, but terra smiles down at him very sincerely and says "then i'm counting the years with you til then~" and that just tickles him and he jumps up to give terra make up smooches for a while<3 eventually they emerge from the locker room, ven clearly looking like hed been crying but smiling away again, even feeling okay enough to go to class now, cuz hes a good boy who wouldnt just ditch at that point like i would xD terra looks relieved too. aqua breaks formation when she sees them come out and runs up to ven to ask if hes okay and hug him if he needs, but ven says "everythings fine :) thanks aqua~" and aqua looks up at terra to double check that and terra nods affirmatively that yes, everything is fine. ven nudges aqua "see you at practice today~" and waves at terra too, knowing he prefers not to smooch in front of the other seniors;; but terra tells him to hang on and he runs over to give him a smooch goodbye and all is well after that<3 and axel snarks "tchh- drama queens :/"

[p-artsypants]

Rage Awakened (5)

Ten years ago, Terra, Aqua, and Ventus lost their fellow apprentice, Sora, in Deep Jungle. Now, they are to return with two new students, Riku and Kairi, to lock the heart of the world. All the while, something watches from the trees. Feral!Sora AU

@chachacharlieco @violetstar-writes

Ao3 | FF.net

—

As they had every day, the group woke up in the morning and descended from the treehouse, creating their plan for the day.

“Alright,” began Terra. “Since we have to wait for Tarzan before we can go to the waterfall, our next step is looking for Sora, I guess. Ven and I will try over by the lagoon, Riku and Kairi try to treetops, and Aqua will stay behind at camp in case Tarzan comes for us.”

“Why does Aqua get to stay behind?” Asked Riku, sensibly.

“Because Ventus is still in his exam, and you would just sleep the whole time.”

“Fair.”

“Everyone got a radio?”

They all held up their appropriate walkie-talkies.

“Good, then let’s—“

“EEP!”

One minute, Kairi was there, and the next she was gone, with only a yelp to signify her disappearance.

“Kairi?!” Riku cried out.

“What the hell was that?!” Terra shouted, after seeing a blur sweep her off her feet.

The radios blared to life. “I found him! Er—he found me! I’ll try to—“ static.

“That’s horrifying.” Said Ven.

“Okay, new plan,” declared Terra. “Ven and I will check the lagoon, Riku will check the treetops, and Aqua stays here.”

“That’s the same exact plan as before, but without Kairi.”

“Ah but this time, we’re looking for Sora and her.”

Riku scoffed and began walking off on his own.

“Remember! If you see a strange heartless, call for backup!!”

“Aye aye, Captain.” He waved back.

—

Kairi had been listening, like the good student that she was. She knew she’d be paired up with Riku again, since that’s just the way it always was.

Had she been standing a foot closer to anyone else, it may not have happened, but one second she was looking at Terra, and then she was up in the trees. An arm wrapped around her waist and pulled her tightly to a bare chest as her feet left the ground and her stomach dropped into her shoes. She didn’t even scream, just let out a yelp. It’s like she had left her voice behind.

When she gathered herself, she raised the radio.

“I found him! Er—he found me! I’ll try to get him to bring me back to camp!”

The arm around her tightened and she felt her weight shift down. Instinctively, she hugged him around the neck and then hooked her legs with his.

Looking down, she saw that he had taken her high up to the treetops, a dizzying height from the ground. She clenched her eyes shut.

Finally, they stopped, but he did not loosen the hold on her.

She finally opened her eyes, seeing that they had come to rest on a huge branch. She pulled back slightly to look at him, and likewise, he looked at her.

His eyes were blue. She had seen them before in the moonlight, but now, she could see them properly. Large, brilliant, and so so blue. His glance was tender, yet piercing, and froze her to the spot.

“Hello again...” she found was all she could say.

He didn’t respond with words, only the toothy grin that fit so well on his charming face. He leaned in, his nose touching hers in greeting.

She smiled back, shyly and unwound herself from him, only then did he finally let her go. “You know, it’s not polite to pick up a girl without her permission.” She scolded.

He frowned, but then became happy again when he realized she wasn’t mad at him.

“I really need to go back. The other’s will worry about me.”

He frowned again, his brows furrowing. “Danger.”

“Danger? Then I really need to go! They need my help!”

He grunted and stomped his foot. “Danger!”

“I know! I understand! But we need to help them! Please!”

He grabbed her arm, and shook, not enough to hurt, but just enough to get his point across.

Being a princess, Kairi was used to being benched and ‘staying safe’. But ever since she became a Keyblade wielder, she was determined to save herself. And she emphasized this by summoning her keyblade. “I can protect myself.”

He stared at it in shock.

“It’s a keyblade,” She explained. “You have one too, don’t you?”

He hesitated, but held out his hand, his blade synthesizing.

Now, Kairi had only been studying under Eraqus for about a year, and there were plenty of things she didn’t know about keyblades. But there were a few key things she had learned early on.

She knew all keyblades, save for one, were made in the realm of light. The one exception was the king’s blade, the Kingdom Key. Rather simple in design, a blade of gold with a silver hilt, with a relief of a crown at the end, it was the only keyblade of the realm of darkness. It was fabled to have a partner, the Kingdom Key of light. Though Eraqus was never able to answer when asked where it was.

As she looked at the keyblade in his hand, several thoughts passed through her head. But the most prominent, was that something was wrong. It almost looked like the King’s key, except for a silver blade and a gold hilt. But it looked sick, she surmised. Like the keyblade itself was ill, and even dying. Long, fleshy tendrils of darkness wrapped around the blade, and ended in what looked like claws. The hilt was broken and jagged, and parts even looked dissolved. The crown was struck out with an X.

Kairi touched the blade, fearful to find it colder than any keyblade she had ever touched.

“You...really are Sora, aren’t you?”

His eyes widened. “Know Sora?”

“Well, I know of you, Terra and Aqua told me about you.”

He gruffly shuffled away from her, “Danger.”

“Wait...are you saying that Terra and Aqua...are the Danger?”

“Mmm.” He hummed in confirmation.

“Oh Sora...they love you and miss you! Come on, let’s go back.”

He grunted, and if to solidify his decision, he parked it on the branch. He was acting just like a child.

It was almost adorable.

Kairi found the radio again, and called to her team. “I’m still okay, but our friend is being a little more stubborn than expected, so I don’t know when I’ll be back.”

Nothing came from the other line. She glanced at the radio, only to see no lights on it.

Dead.

“Great...They gave me the bad one.” She sighed. “Well, I guess I’m stuck with you.” She plopped down on the branch next to him.

He seemed to be in a better mood now that she had resigned, and scooted over closer to her, straddling the tree branch.

She was startled, but only for a moment, since she was being to get used to him invading her space.

He rested his hand on her heart. “Kairi,” then he mimicked the action in himself. “Sora.”

“Very good!” She praised with a little clap.

Encouraged by her praise, he leaned forward and pressed his ear to her chest.

“Are you...listening to my heart beat?”

“…heart…” He said, his voice soft and reverent. Then he sat up and gestured for her to do the same to him.

She couldn’t help but laugh. “Alright, you got me.” She braced herself on his chest and leaned in to listen.

His heartbeat was strong and steady. Much more calm than she was feeling at the moment.

Despite the condition of his keyblade, listening to his heart was soothing, and warm.

Finally, she pulled away from him. “Very nice,” she said awkwardly.

He smiled widely.

Then, without warning, he grabbed her around the waist again and leapt from the branch. This time, she had a second to latch on before she could slip.

“Look!” He demanded, as he moved through the trees.

She didn’t really want to, afraid of how high they were, but she peeled her eyes open.

They were so high up! If he missed a vine, they would be toast.

But this didn’t seem to bother Sora at all. He laughed and hooted as he swung, calling greeting to other animals as they travelled.

Then, she noticed something out of place among the trees.

She pointed, “That’s Riku! Let’s go say hi!”

If Sora was untrusting to Terra, Aqua, and Ventus, then perhaps he’d be more welcoming to Riku. He perched them on a branch a few feet above him.

“Riku?” Sora asked.

“Yeah, he’s my friend. Our friend.”

“Friend?”

“Yes, Sora friend, Kairi friend, Riku friend!”

“Oh friend!” Sora sang, seemingly understanding.

It seemed that Riku hadn’t noticed them, as he almost fell off the branch he was resting on when they landed next to him.

“Riku!” Kairi sang.

“Oh Kairi!” He breathed in relief. “I’m so glad I found you...or you found me, I guess.”

Sora sat between them, glancing back and forth as they talked.

“Riku, this is Sora.” She introduced, placing a hand on his shoulder.

“Nice to finally meet you, we’ve been looking everywhere for you.” He held his hand out.

Sora grabbed his wrist, yanking the hand closer to him to study it. When he deemed there was nothing in it, he frowned at Riku.

“You shake it,” he explained, grabbing his hand. “Like this,” he moved it up and down.

Sora watched the gesture, and then enthusiastically shook his hand, damn near dislocating Riku’s shoulder. “Okay okay! Not that hard!”

Sora let go with satisfied giggle. “Like Riku! Like Sora?”

“Yeah, I like you Sora.” Riku confirmed.

“Like Kairi! Like Sora?”

“Yes, I like you too, Sora.” She smiled at him.

“Sora key, Kairi key, Riku key?”

“Keyblade,” he corrected, summoning the Road to Dawn.

Sora smiled toothily. “Sora key...keyblade!” And he showed his.

Riku stared at it in shock. “That’s...” he looked at Kairi, “Do you know what keyblade this is...or was?”

“It looks like King Mickey’s keyblade. The one from the realm of darkness.”

“This is its partner, I’m sure of it. But...”

Both of them looked at Sora, who just curiously looked back, not knowing what they were talking about.

“Something’s wrong with his heart.” Riku deliberated. “I think that’s what’s causing this.” He touched the black coiling bits, shivering in response. “They’re made of darkness alright.”

This worried Kairi even more. Riku had told her about his fall into darkness, and what it had done to his heart. There was no telling what this meant for poor Sora, who probably didn’t even realize the danger he was in.

“We should catch up with the others,” said Riku. “They’re probably worried sick.”

“I don’t blame them. But...there’s a small problem. He’s not really...keen on them.”

“On who? Terra and Aqua?”

Sora hissed loudly at the mention of their names, confirming Kairi’s statement.

“Hey hey,” She soothed. “It’s okay.”

Riku scratched the back of his neck. “Well, it makes sense. If he thinks they left him here on purpose or forgot about him. I’d be pretty salty too.”

“So what do we do?”

“Well, he likes you. Why don’t you just...don’t know, hang out with him? Know his world.”

“Me?”

“Sure. He damn near kidnapped you to see you again. Though I don’t really like the idea of you gallivanting around the Jungle with a strange boy…”

Kairi couldn’t help but giggle, “what are you? My dad?”

Sora decidedly had enough of them talking and took Kairi’s hand and tugged.

“Okay, we can go. I’ll meet up with you when I can.”

Riku nodded once, and gestured them on.

Kairi placed her arms around Sora’s neck.

He excitedly hugged her back and then jumped off the tree.

Riku watched them disappear, and then said to himself, “Aqua’s going to murder me.”

—

Back at the Land of Departure, Eraqus was setting up for a guest. It had grown lonely in the castle these last few days, since he was so accustomed to having the kids around, at least one at a time.

“My, I haven’t seen the castle this empty in ages,” spoke the visitor.

Eraqus smiled at him. “At least 15 years, my how time flies.”

“What brought you to call on me, if not to bear witness to your new master?”

“Is loneliness not a a worthy enough excuse?”

“What some call loneliness, others would call peace and quiet.”

“You always did prefer silence, didn’t you Xehanort?”

The older man chuckled, taking a seat at their chess table. “It helps me think.” He made the first move and the game began. “It’s been a while since we’ve had a game, hasn’t it?”

“Yes, If you forgive me, I never thought it was appropriate to call on you while the darkness was such a threat.”

Xehanort raised an eyebrow. “And it’s not anymore?”

“Almost. As we speak, my students are sealing one last world. The darkness will have no foothold after that.”

“I see. Though the darkness won’t be able to swallow any more worlds, the heartless will not retreat, you know.”

“I know...but in due time, they will fade.”

“If that’s what you believe, who am I to contradict you?” He moved his knight to block a pawn. “What is this last world to be sealed?”

Eraqus sighed. “Well, it’s Deep Jungle.”

If Eraqus noticed how Xehanort’s eye twitched, he didn’t say anything about it.

“Deep Jungle? I’m surprised you would send them there after what happened. If it were me, I would let that world go. There is nothing there.”

“You sound like Terra,” Eraqus smiled slightly. “He wanted to let it go. But a world’s worth is not up to us to decide. Especially if it can be saved.”

“Are they fairing well?”

“Fairly.” He used his bishop to take out Xehanort’s Knight. “They met some people there, researchers to study the gorillas. And they have an idea where the keyhole is. And...” he hesitated, swallowing hard.

“Eraqus?”

“They found him. They found Sora.”

“Alive?”

He nodded. “He’s been alive all this time. He’s...been surviving in the forest. He’s feral now, though I don’t doubt it.”

Xehanort frowned. “Eraqus, I know the knowledge of his survival comes as a joy, but I must advise you against bringing him back here.”

“What? Why?”

“I told you before, when you first took him in as a student. That boy has incredible darkness in his heart, and he is dangerous. If indeed he’s been all alone all this time, there’s no telling how human he is anymore. Can he still tell the difference between right and wrong? Can use critical thinking?”

“Well, what are we supposed to do? He’s not just a human, he’s a keyblade wielder. We need him.”

“Do as you please. But I have given you my advice.”

All this talking had distracted Eraqus and put his Queen in jeopardy, and Xehanort was quick to take her with his bishop. “Check, old friend.”

Eraqus frowned, moving his king. “I’m going to prove you wrong. Sora is important to us. He’s coming home.”

[lunaslumiere]

Guys I just thought of a crazy kingdom hearts Modern AU that's a hint Modern Family/ the fosters/ life unexpected. that's a kh x ff crossover as well.

Where Ventus is Sora and Roxas' older brother and Sora & Roxas are twins. A terrible hurricane lost them their home and parents, separating the brothers. Ventus was horribly injured on the head, taking him time to heal and all his memories. Unable to identify his family he goes into foster care. Aqua and Terra are his foster parents and love him very much however they have a fall out and break up but stay friends for ven's sake. This does make the adoption process harder but they make it work and there's still unresolved feelings so there maybe hope for them yet.

During vens' recovery, his baby brothers have been rescued, and adopted by different families. Sora is immediately adopted by Vanille and Fang while Roxas is adopted by Lea and Isa some time later. The boys grow up not knowing they are brothers but end up in the same kindergarten class. Everyone finds it curious that the boys look the same even with different hair colors. Sora is excited about it but Roxas hates it and wants nothing to do with sora. Because everyone keeps comparing him to Sora since he's more lively and they known him since pre school while Roxas is new; having just moved into the neighborhood. However as soon as the families get involved a lot of shenanigans begins.

•Isa and Aqua are brother and sister (both have blue hair duh) Having different goals and responsibilities the siblings haven't visited or talked in a while so when they finally meet up and Roxas is old enough to strike a resemblance to Ven, questions start arising. Ven and Roxas are awkward at first but grow fond of each other quickly. Roxas even starts styling his hair to look like ventus'.

• Vanille and Fang are Sora's loving and cool moms. When Sora gets sent to the principal's office for being in a fight that roxas instigated b/c people were comparing him to sora again. Both kids and parents are called in and finally having a good look at each other's kid and info, realizations are made. The parents started on the wrong foot but are civil. Sora instantly accepts Roxas as his brother but it takes time for Roxas after everything everyone else did even thou he doesn't hate Sora cause he never went along with the comparisons.

• Xion is Roxas' best friend and is namines' twin sister. Namine is shy but gets along well with the other kids. Noctis and Luna are their loving biological parents.

• Riku is Lightning and ( maybe older hope, still thinking) biological son. His mom is an ex soldier and model. She and Fang served together and stayed friends after their discharge and introduce the boys when Fang and her wife Vanille adopt Sora. The boys grow up to be best of friends and later bring kairi into their group.

Ventus is reunited with his brothers and they end up with the most unexpected, irrational family ever but are very loving and supportive.

** I honestly don't know what to do with this AU. It's cute, its angsty, it's funny, but dont know what to do. Also I need to figure out kairi since surprisingly there really aren't any redheaded ff characters! Just one! Like what? really!**

Maybe a fic or ask blog or something. IDK. Maybe with more headcanons I'll think of something. To be continued.

[queen-ofsunflowers]

Queen Plays KH3 Pt. 4

FINAL TIME: 32 hrs. 32 minutes. 33 sec.

FINAL LEVEL: 40

DEATH COUNTER: 69

WORLDS COMPLETED:

Olympus

Twilight Town

Toy Box

Kingdom of Corona

Monstropolis

100 Acre Wood

Arendelle

The Caribbean

San Fransokyo

The Final World

The Keyblade Graveyard

Scala Ad Caelum

The rest is under the cut to avoid spoilers. And oh my gosh... just... read at your own risk while I go and speculate what just happened.

AND NOW THE ENDS REALLY BEGINS.

should it really be a surprise that I go to help Riku first?

RIP XIGBAR. Literally this time. Like... damn. It was just.... sad to watch that.

AND REPLIKU (I had to look up who it was) IS DOWN FOR THE COUNT. And they confirmed it was the replica just now. Okay. I got very confused at the beginning.

And now we have a body. That makes two. One for Roxas, and one for Naminé apparently?

FUCK LUXORD. Hate his card game. Glad I got him. And he gave me a card? Okay? Is this gonna be useful later on? Love how Sora's nice to him though as he's dying.

AND THERE GOES LARXENE. AND STOP MAKING ME FEEL SAD FOR YOU. DAMMIT. Stop making me feel sad! SHE LOOKS OVER AT MARLUXIA WHEN ASKED WHY SHE HELPED THE ORGANIZATION. Lord... I need to play some Union X.

AND THERE GOES MARLUXIA. DON'T MAKE ME CRY. HE REMEMBERS. HE REMEMBERS WHO HE USED TO BE BEFORE BECOMING A NOBODY. I CAN'T--

Gonna go save redhead squad.

HE'S JUST... ISA. AXEL DONT DIE.

OH YMG GOD OH MY GOD. IS THAT. IS THAT?! OH MY GOD XION!!!! MY SWEET GIRL!!!

Who... wha...

OH MY GOD. ROXAS!!!!!!!

LET HER GO. NO.

Isa's death scene was too emotional for my liking. And I loved it. THE SEA SALT TRIO IS BACK TOGETHER. NOW FOR THE WAYFINDERS.

And there goes Vanitas. I feel kinda bad for him.

Just... "ow" as I finish off Terranort. Nothing special just... “ow”.

TERRA. SAVE HIM.

NO. DID THE GUSRDIAN JUST?! YES. IS THAT TERRA? IS THAT-- IS THAT TERRA!? ITS TERRA BBY. THE EMOTION I CAN'T

NOW FOR THE XEHANORTS.

YOUNG XEHANORT IS DOWN. ... is Sora gonna die? Please don't let him die.

DIE SOB.

Then there went Xemnas. ALL THESE DEATHS ARE MAKING ME SO SAD.

NOW ONE REMAINS.

NO KAIRI. AHHHH. MY GOD... NO!!!

DONALD! GOOFY! We gonna kick ass and take names. LET'S GO KICK THAT OLD MAN'S ASS.

MY FRIENDS. Love how Ven noticed the resemblance between him and Roxas like that while no one else did.

Roxas clapping his blades together.

TAKE HIM DOWN. FUCK YOU XEHANORT. YOU HAD THIS COMING. YOU ONLY HAD YOURSELF TO BLAME.

Now NOW we take him down. Or at least... start to.

Holy crap this world is BEAUTIFUL. But what is going on???

Oh, this can't be good.

A long battle with many deaths. Seems like this is right.

World name drop. “Scala Ad Caelum” Wonder what it means. (A quick Google Translate later, and I discovered it means “Ladder to Heaven”. Kind of pretty, isn’t it? And a bit cryptic? Or foreshadowy?)

WHATBIS GOING ON!??

Xehanort is a dirty cheater.

GET WRECKED.

NOW I'M GONNA GET WRECKED.

Jokes on him. I've perfected the Rage Form.

YES. FUCK YOU OLD wait what's happening

OH MY GOD. GO SORA GO. MY BOY. HE'S DOING IT. HES DOING IT!!! AND SQUAD COMES FOR THE FINALE. YAS.

I forgot Eraqus's heart was in Terra.

"Checkmate". Just that one scene with the chessboard... you know what's going to happen to them and it hurts. So much.

I love how Xehanort knows that he's beaten, and doesn't try to fight it. He goes down with decorum. Nicely done. He put up a fair fight, and killed me about 30 or 40 times, but it was a fair fight. Its interesting. I didn't expect it to turn about this way.

THEY'RE ALL HUGGING ERAQUS. AHHH MY GOD. It hurts!!!!

WHY ARE THESE DEATH SCENES SO EMOTIONAL?!

And with that, Kingdom Hearts is sealed. Hopefully for good this time... it's kinda beautiful.

Huh? ...such a brave boy...!!!

AND SIMPLE AND CLEAN IS PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND IM CRYING.

EVERYONE IS SAFE AND SOUND. EVERYONE IS BACK TOGETHER. THEY’RE ALL HAPPY. THIS IS EVERYTHING THAT I’VE WANTED OUT OF THIS GAME. JUST... YOU GOTTA SEE IT FOR YOURSELF MAN. I CAN’T DESCRIBE IT... not right now, at least. I mean... I have a fanfic that I’ve been working on for about two years now that I need to finish up. I’ll post it here at a later date.

Um... what was that? WHY DID SORA JUST... WHERE DID SORA GO?!

After credit movie time, and I’m still trying to figure out what happened.

Huh? That voice... WAIT. DOES THAT MEAN. HOLY CRAP. ooooOOOH MY GOSH?

Is that... the white piece... is it... Sora... my heart hopes it is.

Okay, I know there's a secret ending. I didn't get it, but I'm gonna look it up because I wanna watch it.

...Sora? SORA?! WHERE IS HE?! RIKU?!! WHERE ARE THEY?!?!?!

...??? Who are these guys???

Even though the game might be over, the story isn't. Not by a long shot. And I can't wait to see what happens next. There were a lot of question left unanswered, such as with the card that Sora got from Luxord... what happened with that one cutscene between Even and Demyx... WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO SORA. And how Kairi got back. And the secret ending only brings up more questions about what’s going on. But either way...

I can only hope that our boy returns home.

[rxcusant]

Lol explain Kingdom hearts to me. Like all of it. Cause I'm confused as fk. Not KH3 tho cause I'm still going through it.

buckle up lads

so theres a buncha keyblade masters called foretellers and theyre all runnin round like headless chickens cause their master disappeared and nobodys telling each other anything so they all start fightin (except this one guy luxu voiced by max mittleman, he grabbed a box and high tailed it outta there) and then it sparks a keyblade war for all the light in kingdom hearts i think ??? and then i legit forget what happens from here because i hate ux with every fiber of my being but it made this cool place called a keyblade graveyard, its pretty dope.

fast forward 1000 years and we got the cool wayfinder trio all living in land of departure about to take their mark of mastery except terra doesnt pass because Mark Hamil Said Darkness Sucks. also we meet this old guy Xehanort he kinda sucks a lot. theres these enemies called unversed rolling around and mark hamil tells aqua and terra to go stop them but ventus said HEY IM COMING TO and ran after terra so aquas left to be the mom to bring them both home idk and its revealed ventus is made of pure light and xehanort literally split the darkness form his heart and it made vanitas-- hes responsible for all the unversed, he sucks, we dont like him but we love him-- in an effort to forge this thing called the X-Blade (PRONOUNCED LIKE KEY BLADE I HATE THIS SERIES) that will open the door to kingdom hearts, and the x-blade can only be made when pure light and darkness clash, and like... restart the keyblade war and bring about balance?? idk. And xehanort wants to live long enough to see this happen so he literally possesses terras body. Cool! Just what the poor guy needed. Ven and vanitas fight and ven sacrifices himself so he goes to take a Very Long Nap and vanitas just dies like the bitch he is. But ven’s heart finds his way to baby 5yo sora who decides HEY ILL HOARD YOU IN MY HEART FOR THE NEXT 11 YEARS and thats why roxas looks like ventus. Aqua yeets him in the land of departure and then like..locks the world up and it turns into castle oblivion.  meanwhile terra and aqua punch each other and terras about to fall into a darkness pit but aqua sacrifces heself to get him out and so she ends up trapped there for 11 years and terra??is now terranort and has amnesia and this old dude Ansem The Wise finds him and adopts him and an apprentice. yeah. bet he wont regret that decision ; )

10 years later kh1 happens and sora and riku and kairi are chilling on destiny islands until it explodes and riku fucks off to the darkness and kairi fucks off to soras hearts -- i hope she said hi to ventus in there-- and sora ends up in traverse town where he meets donald and goofy. YOU SEE king mickey of disney castle also fucked off because worlds are disappearing to darkness and he left donald and goofy a note to go find The Key cause thatll help. so they do and they journey around with sora and become good buddies i love the trinity trio so much. eventually they meet riku at hollow bastion again and hes been posssessed by this dude Ansem whos not Ansem the Wise but is actually Xehanort’s Heartless (i hate this fucking series) and they find kairis comatose body chillin in the corner and they have a fight scene thats engraved in the memory of Everyone whos ever played PS2 KH1 KAIRI! KAIRI! OPEN YOUR EYES! ITS NO USE. THAT GIRL HAS LOST HER HEART. SHE CANNOT WAKE UP. oh my god why didnt they add a skip scene button. anyway they punch the possession outta riku and sora stabs himself with the keyblade to release kairis heart BUT it also releases his own heart which created his nobody, Roxas, who got vens heart???who thats why he looks like ven?? and it created namine who is kairis nobody because??i honestly forget i hate this goddamn series. anyway soras a heartless for a few minutes but kairi got her heart and life back and wanted to get some sweet sweet screentime and so she saved sora and restored him Thank you kairi. so sora dumps kairi off at traverse town and goes to give Ansem / Xehanort’s Heartless a good ol ass whopping ad they win and restore the worlds but kairi and sora are separated again I’LL COME BACK TO YOU, I PROMISE! I KNOW YOU WILL! WHEN YOU WALK AWAY YOU DONT HEAR ME SAY PLEAAAAAAASE OH BABYYY DONT GO oh also riku and king mickey and sora closed the door to kingdom hearts and trapped riku and mickey in the realm of darkness, that was a thing.

and then chain of memories happened. theyre in castle oblivion!!! whoa!! we meet the organization for the first time! whoa!!! we meet namine!! whoa!!! so like namine has sora-memory powers and can tinker with his memories and the memories of everyone hes connected to (AND HOLY FUCK IS THAT BOY CONNECTED TO A LOTTA PEOPLE NAMINE IS VERY POWERFUL) and the organization is making namine rewrite soras memories as he progresses throuhg castle oblivion to turn him into marluxias pawn so he cna use sora to like..overhtrow the organization, i think?? i hate this seriees. but it all works out in the end except soras memories are so scrambled he decides to sleep for a year to get all the right ones back. MEANWHILE RIKUS IN THE BASEMENT OF CASTLE OBLIVION and hes fighting his own demons i mean darkness i mean ansem i mean xehanorts heartless and he meet up with mickey a few times and then he meets DiZ and he also meets a replica of himself--yeah by the way the organization is making replicas, That Sure Wont Ever Be Referenced Again : )-- and its this game that rikus like YEAH I CAN USE THE DARKNESS AS POWER AND STRENGTH and HES GONNA WALK THE ROAD TO DAWN and then every riku rper put dawn in their url and i got confused trying to keep them all straight lord please help me im a little ol sammi

then we have 358/2 days for the DS which i never replayed cause it was tedious af which is all about the organization and roxas’s time in the organization and meeting his best buds axel and xion and saix standing in the corner being a jealous little binch PLEASE SAIX JUST BE NICE THEYLL GIVE YOU ICE CREAM TOO IF YOU ASK POLITELY Xion is another replica except shes a replica of sora but something got messed up and she got his memories of kairi which is why she looks like her but with black hair for whatever reason, i think nomura just wanted a cool goth girl to add to the series and we all thank him for it, and she and roxas become so close they kinda start influencing that weird memory shit going on and xion keeps trying to leave the organization to set things right but axel always gets stuck with the icky jobs and we got the iconic GO ON YOU JUST KEEP RUNNIN BUT ILL ALWAYS BE THERE TO BRING YOU BACK and i think around this time roxas is also super fed up with the organization and decides FUCK YALL IM DONE and punches saix and leaves. but xion finds him and they have a cool boss battle sequence got i love you xion you are a POWERHOUSE but roxas defeats her and she dies and its the saddest thing in the world AND NOBODY REMEMBERS HER WHAT THE FUCK IS THAT ABOUT!!!! anyway roxas decides hes gonna punch kingdom hearts next cause it was xions last wish but riku, who is sporting a cool blindfold for edge, is like HEY WE NEED YOU TO WAKE UP SORA and roxas is all SORA THIS SORA THAT I DONT GIVE A FUCK and tey fight! and riku loses cause roxas has two keybladees! OBLIVION IS THE BEST KEYBLADE IT LOOKS SUPER COOL I LOVE IT SO MUCH WOW but riku rips off his blindfold and summons the darkness and he takes on ansems, xehanorts heartless, appearance and he squeezes roxas until he passes out and then they yeeted roxas into a data twilight town for a few days.

so enter kh2 with the 6 hours roxas tutorial in the data twilight town until he goes to find sora and returns to him. SO FINALLY AFTER AN ENTIRE YEAR sora wakes up with all his proper memories and so does donald and goofy and theyre like COOL LETS GO FIND RIKU AND KING MICKEY and they go journeying around the worlds again to stop the organization. meanwhile axels gettin desperate to see his best friend for life roxas again and kidnaps kairi but shes like HEY I AINT HAVING THAT and runs off and ends up in twilight town but axel finds her and kidnaps her anyway but then saix kidnaps her to the world that never was. and so soras like WE GOTTA GO SAVE KAIRI AND RIKU NOW cause by the way earlier like midpoint of the game maybe Mickey was like SAY FELLAS DID SOMEONE MENTION THE DOOR TO DARKNESS and its one of my favorite quotes in this hell franchise, so like THYE KNOW KING MICKEY IS OK that just leaves kairi and riku and stopping the organization. so they find kairi and they find riku and sora cries a bit and im just happy the destiny trio is together again. And DiZ showed up again, hes actually ansem the wise, and he talks about computers and hearts and research and xemnas, the organizations leader, is likeI WAS YOUR APPRENTICE! BUT YOU DIDNT LET ME DO ILLEGAL HUMAN EXPERIMENT SON HEARTS SO I KICKED YOU OUT AND RREMOVED MY OWN HEART AND THATS WHY THERES A HEARTLESS AND A NOBODY OF XEHANORT and ansem the wise is like YEAH BITCH and he explodes and riku turns back to normal but he also really needs a haircut. so they go punch xemnas in his zebra coat and riku and sora chill in the realm of darkness for about ten minute son the beach, i guess aqua was hanging out somewhere else, and they get a message form kairi in a bottle and the door to light opens and they go home and it was literally!!!!! a better fucking ending!!!! than kh3!!!!!!!!! thats my tea!!!!!!

so then we have KH3D, dream drop distance, which begins telling us ‘hey when you kill a heartless and a nobody that person is gonna be recompleted so uhhhhh xehanorts coming back Thats Not Good, make sora and riku do their mark of mastery test in the realm of sleep to get the power of waking’ and thats the whole game but its great because flowmotion! dream eaters!  TWEWY TWEWY TWEWY T W E W Y!!!!!! playable riku!!! fun worlds!!! soriku!!! except KH3D’s fatal flaw is THEY INTRODUCED TIME TRAVEL INTO THIS FUCKING COMPLEX HELL HOLE I WILL NEVER FORGIVE THEM FOR THAT. anyway rikus been doing a great hecking job!!!! except sora ended up in twtnw and kept chasing the dreams into the deepest pit of slumber and the organization broke his heart so they use him as one of xehanorts vessels [gesutres to my blog with will smith arms] yeeah babey. and riku is understandably like HEY GIVE ME MY FRIEND BACK and xehanort is like FUCK OFF TWINK and mickey and donald and goofy and axel, whos been recompleted as lea, arrive and steal comatose sora back form xehanort and xehanort monologues about the X-Blade split into 20 pieces- 7 of light, 13 of darkness- and so hes gonna make 13 vessels of darkness with his heart inside them and the guardians of light gotta gather 7 lights to clash and bringg about the keyblade war or bring about kingdom hearts, i-- i literally hate this series so much Why do you think i went on a year long hiatus??? i needed to calm the fuck down-- either way xehanort yeets off with his darknesses and soras STILL comatose and rikus like I WILL DIVE INTO HIS SLEEP AND SAVE HIM BECAUSE DEARLY BELOVED IS PLAYING AND if i continue this joke someones bound to get mad at me for ‘’’pushign a soriku agenda’’’ BUT YKNOW WHAT, RIKUS A REAL MVP AND PUNCHES A NIGHTMARE VEN AND SAVES SORA AND SORA HUGS HIM AND ITS GREAT AND I LOVE MY SONS SO MUCH and the kh3d ends with them saying ‘hey look kairis gonna do something!’ but Little Did We Know.

and thats your summary of what the fuck happened in kingdom hearts. i hate this game so much.

[last-flight-of-fancy]

fatedeniedhope replied to your post “* sees people confused over various kh plot points * * is not people i...”

I would like yo know a bit. Only play kh 1 and chain of memories and half way to kh 2

oh boy there is a *lot* to cover here then!

I don’t mean that to sound intimidating, kh just has a tendency for long, sprawling interconnected plots (many of which are still unresolved even now)

i am also doing this entirely by memory, so if i’ve skimmed something i shouldn’t have its because my brain has stopped registering it as important; feel free to ask for clarification, i wrote this in one sitting because i was avoiding doing laundry XD

putting a cut because i am overviewing a Lot of game here and tbh there’s still a lot of stuff i am skimming or skipping entirely. I’m just trying to hit the highlights.

i don’t know where you stopped in 2, so i’m just gonna give a brief overview

-there is a boy named roxas

-he’s being hunted by these strangers called nobody’s

-things get weird

-turns out he’s sora’s nobody, as nobody’s are created when a person is turned into a heartless (which sora did during kh1)

-roxas returns to sora (”looks like my summer vacation is.. over...” whoops there goes my heart) and normal sora gameplay resumes.

-DIDNEY WORLDS

-turns out everyone forgot sora for a year bc of what happened in chain of memories (and also 358/2. dont worry about that yet we’ll get there). kairi sends out a bottle to “the boy she can’t remember” trying to call him home. (yes this is important)

-organization 13 (all what? eight of them left?) pops up, xemnas is cryptic, and they say their goal is to recreate kingdom hearts via sora killing heartless, since apparently only killing heartless with a keyblade sends the trapped hearts to Kingdom Hearts

      -this version of the tale persists through 358 as well. it’s.. half right.

-bla bla bla, shenanigans. there’s ansem (the boss from kh1) and a guy named diz. That isn’t who either of them actually are. It’s actually Riku (who tapped too far into the darkness trying to capture roxas for the whole twilight town scenario at the beginning of the game, thus altering his appearance to look like the guy who posessed him for a bit) and THE ACTUAL ANSEM (ie, the ruler(?) of radient garden before it fell, and the guy heartless ansem stole his name from.

-anyways

-sora goes off searching for riku, bc as far as he knows, he’s still lost out in the darkness.

-he’s not, he’s fine, but he’s super embarrassed about the whole ‘looking like the enemy’ thing and won’t let sora find him.

-sora casually murders most of the remaining organization members (only most of whom shot first)

-this continues on until axel attempts to kidnap kairi, who ends up in twilight town for a bit hanging out with the hayner/pence/ollete trio, before being slightly more successfully kidnapped a second time.

-and then she gets kidnapped again by saix. Axel apologises to sora over this. in his defence, he’s pretty desperate at this point (he just wants his friend(s) back)

-sora storms The World That Never Was, kairi is rescued by Namine.

-the trio finally meets up (namine disapeared at some point? yknow, i actually dont recall what happened to her in between these scenes), sora and kairi share a slightly awkward but sweet hug, and after a moments trepidation over ‘Ansem’, kairi tells/shows him its riku, at which point sora bursts into tears.

-i ship a lot of ot3′s, but sorikai is the OG ot3

-anyways

-namine and roxas have a very symbolic moment refusing with their Other’s, Namine opens a portal back to destiny islands so they can go home.

-everyone except sora and riku make it through, and thus commences several final fantasy style boss fights

-they win, of course, riku’s injured in the line of battle, and they limp out, having traversed several realms during the course of this battle, they’re now trapped on a beach in the realm of darkness. it’s the same beach everyone else seems to end up on in this place. There is only one beach in the RoD apparently

-they stay there a while, and then they pick up a message in a bottle; it’s from kairi, “to the boy she can’t remember”

-Feelings make a door to the light open, and sora and riku fall like actual comets from the sky and everybody’s reunited and happy. huzzah!

-.... well for a while anyways.

-should i get into the whole xemnas/xehanort/ansem thing here?

-eh

-okay so

-lets swing back into Birth By Sleep for a bit

-(im sorry if kh can’t hit any of its plot points in order i think its fair neither do i)

-BBS takes place roughly nine years prior to kh1, with the exception of bbs’s prologue, which i would estimate as being an additional four years prior to that

-during said prologue, we meet Master Xehanort, an incredibly old dude with brown skin, gold eyes, and a white beard. even newcomers to the series will probably recognise that only one type of person gets those colours in these games.

-we also meet baby Ventus, Xehanorts apprentice. He looks exactly like Roxas.

-shenanigans happen, Xehanort splits Ven’s heart in two, creating Vanitas, who is Ventus’s darkness.

-Vanitas’ whole shtick is he wants to be reunited with Ventus, ostensibly to create the X-blade (yes it’s pronounced exactly the same as ‘keyblade’ and yes, every single kh fan ive ever talked to has found this annoying af)

-unfortunately being split in two like that puts ven in a coma, and xehanort takes the unresponiseve body to destiny islands to dump it like unwanted ravioli

-luckily for ven, “a brand new hear” hears his hurt and reaches out to help, filling out the gaps left in his and allowing him to start recovering

-the heart is sora

-actual, literal baby sora reaching out to help people before he can even walk yet. 

-the game never spells this out explicitly, which makes it an easy plot point to miss if you aren’t paying attention

-ven doesn’t recover immidietly though, and xehanort sends him to live with his old friend Master Eraqus and his two teenage apprentices, Aqua and Terra

-here’s where we time skip, ventus is fully recovered, terra and aqua are young adults and about to take their Mark Of Mastery exams for becoming keyblade masters.

-Terra fails because he has darkness in his heart and also xehanort rigged it against him

-aqua passes and becomes a master. I love her very much.

-terra journey’s out to try and figure out where the darkness comes from

-vanitas taunts ven saying terra’s leaving him bc ven’s stupid or something and ven panics and chases after him (he’s like 14 and has a bit of a hero worship thing, stupid decisions are par for the course)

-eraqus sends aqua out to both spy on terra (he words it nicer but thats the gist of it), which aqua doesn’t particularly like but trusts her masters judgement and does it, and bring ventus home, which she is more on board with

-the biggest tragedy in bbs is that no one talks to each other

-stuff happens, they learn some stuff, aqua’s route has So Many Lesbian Feels with every single princess she runs into it brings me great delight

-Ventus learns the whole ‘fight your darkness to become the X-blade’ plot, eraqus learns this too and tries to kill ven. Terra busts in at the last moment and saves ven, at this point using his dark powers fully.

-#terrawasright

-eraqus dies, which i don’t think terra fully intended to do (he just wanted to save ven) and if you recall the scene in kh1 where kairi catches a falling sora only for him to burst into a bunch of floating glitter? imagine that but with two grown men

-aqua’s just trying to figure out whats going on. she gets to meet kairi (saves her from some heartless and then puts a charm on her necklace to keep her safe) and then meets Mickey, who will be our future duex ex machina

-they all meet for the final battle.

-ven asks his friends to murder him

-no one does that

-what the fuck ven

-they fight, and a lot of stuff sorta happens at the same time

-1: terra fights xehanort, who has essentially been spending the whole game prepping terra to be his next host. xehanort is a body snatcher confirmed. xehanort wins, terra becomes the fanon-named terranort.

-2: ventus fights vanitas. vanitas reveals his face, and he looks exactly like a colour swapped version of sora. (also voiced by the same voice actor! it’s actually surprsingly difficult to notice this if you don’t have some kind of clue already because haley joel osment does and *amazing* job). ventus wins, the X-blade is not forged, but as a lot of this battle takes place in his heart, the effects are bad and ven falls into a coma (he reaches out once more, and another hearts answers. “you can stay here a while, I don’t mind” says the other heart. yes its fucking sora again. too good, too pure)

-3: aqua gets knocked out to start with, but then she fights vanitas controlling ventus’ body, which eventually gets sorted out. terra’s dissapeared at this point, and she takes a comatose ven and hides him in the land of departure, which she uses a secret mechanism to turn into Castle Oblivion (and thus, impossible to navigate  without her key)

-aqua goes to hunt down terra(nort), and finds him in radiant garden. they fight, aqua wins, but when he begins to sink into the darkness she sacrifices herself to save him (which is how he ends up as one of ansem’s apprentices and mostly without any memories)

-aqua will spend the next ten years in the realm of darkness

-bbs is such a goddam tragedy

-OKAY

-time to fast forward

-so sora and ven are connected, which is why vanitas and roxas look the way they do, which brings us to

-the case of xion

-and 358/2

-the worst game to play but my absolute favourite in terms of slow-burn pacing and emotionally investing you in the characters

-this game pretty much just deals with the year sora spent asleep, and the kids time in the organization.

-roxas wakes up with no memories, is inducted into the org, and told “kill heartless with your keyblade”. He’s more or less a zombie at first, and accepts this without question.

-a week later, a new member is introduced, named Xion, who also has a keyblade, and is also a zombie with no memories at first

-Axel, the org’s assassin, is basically told to babysit them both

-he’s not really into it at first, but those natural Big Brother instincts kick in Hard about five minutes later and from that point on he’s mostly just trying to keep them both alive.

-oh, also Lea, Axel’s somebody, met Ventus in bbs, so that was probably a little weird for him.

-as the game goes on and these kids essentially learn how to human and try to figure out what makes them different, the Big Plots stew in the background. Axel and Saix have some kind of plan that Axel apparently isn’t sticking to, and Axel questions his loyalties more as the game goes on and circumstances force him to choose between two kids Who Did Nothing Wrong, and his oldest friend.

-Xion learns they are a replica, a la Repliku, created as a backup to roxas if he could not fulfil his duty in creating kingdom hearts. their connection with roxas, and through him sora, has the unintended side effect of flitering memories and feelings into and through Xion.

-this is why putting sora back together takes so long

-Xion, between the pressure of being an org member in general, and the mental load from being caught between three+ people in a very literal sense, has a breakdown. Riku finds them, and despite a pretty rocky start between them, helps them through it.

-Xion leaves at two different points, the first time, Axel brings them back. “please don’t hold back, Axel. Promise.” “Everyone always thinks they’re right”

-excuse me i have to lay down again after thinking about how emotionally wrought this scene is.

-(the alternative is he has to kill them. he does everything he can to avoid that, but it’s clearly approaching an unsustainable situation; the org is running out of patience for dealing with the ‘clearly defective replica’, xion doesnt feel this situation is right, and axel just wants to keep everyone alive.

-yes typing ‘clearly defective replica’ physically hurt me. xion is a perfect bab and xemnas can fite me

-Xion leaves again

-Roxas, learning pieces of this but not all, runs away from the org. cue titular “no one would me” “that’s not true!” scene from 2

-(this leads to what is a hilariously depressing scene of roxas on the clocktower looking at his life and going “where could i even run to? I havent got anywhere to go” because he’s never known anything other than the organization and whoops i made myself sad again)

-namine explains to xion that sora can never wake up so long as they have his memories. The only way for them to release the memories is to die. It’s a hard decision.

-Xion meets roxas on the clocktower, feigns insanity, and goads him into fighting them (”do you see my face, roxas? is it a boys face? don’t you see. I have to make you a part of me too.”)

-cue more ff style boss fights

-xion dies

-look i can’t go into detail on this one i’ll start crying again, xion dies, everyone forgets they ever existed, and roxas gets to watch them shatter into dust in his arms.

-in the brief period where the memories are quickly vanishing but Not Quite Gone Yet roxas goes into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and storms the World That Never Was

-this is where Riku catches up to him, and from there its a pretty straight shot into the beginning of kh2

-which im sure if you played these in chronological order would be *some kind of mood whiplash* i bet

-okay what have i missed

-recoded happened. the only important part here is that malificent and pete find out about the black box and malificent being malificent of course she Has To Have It

-”but whats the black box??” you ask

-good question

-we still dont know

-its  origin point is in KHUx though, 

-which is the multiplayer mobile game set during the Keyblade War of ages past. each weilder also has a companion dream eater named chirithy

-there are five unions, each headed by a leader and represented by an animal (unicorn, bear, snake, fox, and leopard)

-#anguisforlife

-these five (plus one more, named luxu) are each given roles by their master (the Master of Masters, or also known as MoM). He also tells them there is a traitor amongst the warriors of light. it’s unclear at this point how much of this he is directly steering. He also doesnt specifiy Which warriors of light, probably on purpose so everything happens as it should.

-so figure, trying to figure out who the traitor is is a pretty direct cause to no one trusting each other and eventually going for each others throats

-there is a page from the book of prophecies he gives only to luxu, who he tells that his role is to see the future with this Special Keyblade (and specifically the Eye in it). You might recognise it as xehanorts keyblade (and then you’ll start to see the Eye in a whole bunch of other ones too, notably in soul edge, way to dawn, and void gear)

-luxu fucks off, and everyone else goes about their business

-the first half of khux details how these unions came to  be rivals, and then how they fell into war with each other and destroyed the light. the second half detailed how Ava, leader of the fox union, created a fifth group known as the dandelions, specifically picked to survive the fall of the light and rebuild.

-ventus and lauriam are two of these leaders. No, we still don’t know how they got from one point to the other.

-one of the replacement leaders, strelitzia, got murdered and replaced by someone else. i think this plot point has been resolved in japan but i havent checked yet

-strelitzia is lauriam’s sister. she also knows elrena.

-and if you’re bad at anagraming like i am, lauriam=marluxua, and elrena=larxene

-so yeah figure that one out for me

-also i love strelitzia she has like two scenes total and i was already ludicrously attached help

-(Yes i screamed very hard during that One Scene in 3. we dont even see her face but it’s heerrrrrrrr)

-anyways

-right the black box

-luxu is seen carrying it off in the Back Cover movie as he wanders into exile. we still dont know whats in it. and that’s basically that.

-which leaves just Dream Drop Distance

-sora and riku take a Highly Modified mark of master exam under yen sid.

-things go wrong almost immidietly

-sora gets trapped by the xehanorts in a deep sleep, where they plan to use him as one of their 13 vessels of darkness

-there has to be 13 for some reason

-13 darknesses, and 7 lights, and when they clash it’ll make the X-blade

-because reasons

-it’s fate or something

-riku rescues him

-there is time travel involved now

-because at this point the 13 darkness now include; heartless ansem, master xehanort, xemnas, young xehanort, xigbar, and saix.

-more time travel will be involved later, but to keep this in mind the rules of time travel here are

     -you cannot take your body with you

     -you lose any future knowledge you gain if and when you return

-things are obviously wibbly here because it’s half in the dreamscape, but just. keep those rules in mind when you play 3.

....... im sure im missing a bunch but i just spent two hours writing the most casual pre-kh3 synopsis ever i hope you can forgive me XD

[dreamdripdistance]

heres a very quick lineup of the main three trios :3

gonna put my Justifications for their gem types and other things under the cut beware its a Ramble™

sora: watermelon tourmaline - in this au sora is similar to ghost quartz in the original canon where ven basically resides within sora from birth/creation. im messing with the kh canon timeline here bc roxas and xion have parts of sora from when he was shattered to extract ven (hes reformed later dw)

mohs hardness of 7, patrol/fighting job with riku as his partner

riku: iolite - in this i gave him kh3 hair but in the au he basically cuts his hair to fill in damage from failing and then succeeding to protect sora from the lunarians. hes iolite bc its rather grey and dark in some lights but a transparent purple/blue in others bc Darkness

mohs hardness of 7.5, patrol/fighting job with sora as his partner, is also partly in charge of coordinating the other gems

kairi: spinel - i changed her gem type to spinel because of namine (more later), shes a stronger type gem than most, however has a small piece of her body missing bc of the loss of memories of her childhood when she was damaged when very very young

mohs hardness of 8.0, works as a strategist and is a backup for patrols but mostly just chills bc everyone (ie riku and sora) is overprotective bc of her missing pieces

axel: ruby - i forgot to draw it lol but hes shattered internally and was taken to the moon to be part of org xii, still a gem though unlike the 'norts

mohs hardness of 9.0, back on earth he did patrolling, however on the moon he works as a mercenary, like in kh canon

roxas: golden tourmaline - is mostly synthetic lunarian made tourmaline however contains pieces of a shattered sora with him giving him consciousness and part of his memories

mohs hardness of 7.0, does guard duty around the moon with xion but mostly exists to be 'norts experiment

xion: tourmalinated quartz: same as sora but is mostly synthetic quartz instead, that mismatch of gem types also gives her a similar ability to phos where she can adapt found gemstone parts to her body but at this point she doesnt know/use it

mohs hardness of 7.0, essentially the same as roxas

aqua: aquamarine - after being brought back from the moon after she was shattered by xehanort after he manipulated gems to visit, shes one of the oldest gems on the earth currently living so shes pretty much top dog, along with terra.

mohs hardness of 8.0, does patrolling/fighting with terra and ven but is a brilliant craftsworker and predominately works in that. she actually figured out how to use unusable pieces of gem material in jewelry. its kinda morbid but she does it anyways

ventus: verdelite - ill make him his own post bc of i put it all here ill write a fucking novel. in short tho, hes older than most gems he was shattered n scattered across the beach for the gems to find as if he was a new gem being created, hung out with terra and aqua, got irreparably damaged and had pieces stolen and then was fused with sora when sora was created, then was forcibly removed by 'nort causing sora to shatter and create roxas and xion. and dont get me started on vanitas.

mohs hardness of 7.0, patrolled and fought with terra and aqua but was babied alot so they never brought him along for many patrols

terra: topaz - was with aqua when 'nort tricked them, however instead of just being shattered, terras gem body was disregarded and he was revived as a lunarian (like antarc in the manga) and straight up just was a nort for a while while his broken gem body was just hanging around on the moon

mohs hardness of 8.0 - did fighting/patrolling with aqua and ven, but after being norted he started to organise attacks on the gems with the lunarians

ill talk about namine later in her own post or reblog idk but shes taaffeite (mistaken for spinel at discovery, is often found irl with tourmaline)

i kinda wanna draw a kingdom hearts land of the lustrous au...

[gamingofkenna]

KH3 Day 6

Almost a week in!! That’s eighteen bucks to Redbox baby!

I’m doing some grinding before jumping into San Fransokyo - apparently the treasure sphere I started with was literally the hardest of the first 6 you see? Literally all of them were easier. So I finally have the materials I need to upgrade my spaceship and lookie here, I can navigate space safely again waddaknow

Also finished letting the Hidden Mickeys in Twilight Town. I love how ‘make Sora take some selfies’ is literally not even technically a part of this sidequest, and yet any mickey he can’t selfie with (because of the angle or whatever) is a huuuuge disappointment.

Sora getting to San Fransokyo and immediately going to text his brother about how cool it is is so good, so pure.

Hiro meets these strange kids and immediately reveals his true identity like that’s not how you superhero kid???

So far my favorite things about San Fransokyo: this takes place after the movie, so there’s no chance of this world making me rewatch a poorer-done version of a movie I love; everyone’s leveling up and getting new powers.

I really wanna just... run around San Fransokyo without monsters showing up. This city feels so big and there’s so much to look at. I’m taking pictures of random everythings. I’ve only found two lucky emblems so far there’s probably soooo many hidden everywhere.

And the mysterious disguised black coat is.... Riku? Or really just some other person using one of Riku’s bodies or... something. Identity is weird in this game. 

It’s the main bad guy....’s heart piece, the one that used to be in Riku, in a spare body (like the one Sora wants to find for Roxas). Also they talk about time travel a lot in this conversation, so it’s like.... he split his heart up and sent the pieces into different times? To gather the right vessels. Sounds like this guy really just wants to live forever.

NEGA-BAYMAX.

Nega-Riku literally just pulled the spare Baymax out of the alt dimension, confirming the crack dark world theory (I’m going to say) and reconceptualizing Hiro’s trauma all over again, damn.

THERES TWO BAYMAXES IN CANON THIS IS THE BEST THING EVER also lol at Hiro literally noping out of X-man’s ‘this evil data chip is literally all that exists of this robots heart if you kill him you kill the robot mwahaha’ gosh I love Big Hero 6.

RIP me, I always forget to look around for the chest with the map in it, and this city is so confusing, I was literally running around for twenty minutes just trying to find the map before I eventually thought to look up a video.

I found all the hidden mickeys in San Fransokyo before even trying to leave. It was weird, the cutscene didn’t immediately pop me out of the world like it usually does. Not that I’m complaining.

Riku and Mickey are stuck in the dark world - big surprise. Maybe you shouldn’t have let them run off and do their very important quest while you dicked around trying to figure out what hearts are??

Sora summons another gate to... another island somewhere? And finds some mysterious keyblade... which opens ANOTHER gate. Cool cool cool.

‘You can’t make a whole pint without us’ I know this is an ongoing joke but y’ALL this is a KIDS GAME, NO DRINKING ALLOWED IN THE AMERICAN LOCALIZATION

OK I’m very curious as to why Sora has to wander around with this heavily-accented duck and talking bipedal dog, and Riku gets to chill with the King of Disneyland.

Aqua is back, I adore her to pieces, she’s all angry and grimdark now from being left here for over a decade (part of me is like, Riku was here just a few hours ago? But now I’m wondering if she ended up here back in like KH2 and this is another meta joke), we’re just gonna hug it out tho.

OH WAIT NO WE GET TO PLAY RIKU AGAIN. Did this dude just visualize accepting his own faults and weaknesses and move on and grow like a mofo? I bet he got ALL the angsty character stuff in the prequel games you white-haired anime boy. BRB gotta go save my gf now.

Special move: activate Sora cutscene. They get a DOUBLE keyblade now!! All night-and-day themed that’s gotta be one hassle to try to use!!

For a hot minute there I thought they were really gonna leave her behind again WE FINALLY SAVED AQUA YAY!!!! Before she realizes she’s back she thinks she sees Terra and someone named Ven - one of whom is the kid who looks like Roxas (who in turn looks like Sora). And the islands are called the Destiny Islands, and I’m suspecting all the Keyblade Kids got stranded on various islands for timeperiods unstuck from the timestream?

AND NOW WE GET TO PLAY AS AQUA KICKING SOME BORING DUDES BUTT this is the greatest day of my life. Sora’s literally like ‘but youre still recovering Aqua let me fight!1!’ and she’s literally just ‘no I’m not your girl Friday I’mma stomp this fool’ I a d o r e her.

Aqua loses because of a script which is stupid, but then Sora figures out how to wake up not-Roxas, who I guess has never met Sora before, based on the way he reacts? And he has a flash to nega-Sora, which I assume is something about when X-man was trying to use Sora as an evil heart piece vessel. Anyway blah blah, everything worked out good!! Everyone who isn’t literally stuck in someone’s body is safe!!!

I adore the way Aqua talks, she speaks a little slowly and solemnly but with such calm emotion GOSH I love her so much, why did it take you all so long to find her.

Axel is all ‘ahem cool cool but why am I also in this room with everyone and also why does Ven look just like Roxas? Everyone already knows everyone and this is a lot to memorize!!’ This just in Axel is back on my good list

Jimminy: ‘it’s ok I gave you cheat sheets on your cellphones!’ Look dude I’m not reading your ‘the story so far’ summary. I’m following everything well enough (*cue audience laughter*)

OK so Nega-Riku is actually like legit hanging out with Riku, not a memory or anything, and he’s not a bad dude? Unless there’s two nega-Rikus but I dont think this series would go THAT far (*cue audience laughter*). Anyway and then Sora and Kairi have a cute moment and everyone’s kinda just chillin’ before.... whatever they’re supposed to be doing next, and I’m officially 31 hours into this game and I’m gonna call it a night. 

[behind-xemnas]

Of course, Xemnas/Terra,... And, add a bonus bottle of water (Aqua) for the optional treat :D

I’ll just put them all together to make things easier, I guess

Why I like them - Xemnas: I started to like him from the very beginning. I’m totally fond of these quit and mysterios guys and I always thought there is more to him. I just thought he was interesting and that it’s were Terra comes in. Terra: At first I was very suspicios of him. I thought he will kinda be like Riku and to be honest I don’t like Riku very much (please don’t hate me for this XD) But even though he has the same role I think he is a lot different from Riku and more insecure and didn’t seem that arrogant as Riku did in KH1, so I just liked him for the time being and then the end of BBS happened and I realized he is somehow connected to Xemnas and that’s were I fell in love with him XD. Aqua: She is just so sweet and nice and carring. She is, in my opinion, a character you can hardly dislike.

Why I don’t - Xemnas: Well, he can be a asshead sometimes I guess. But there is nothing that I really dislike about him. The same goes for Terra: One thing that’s probably a bit annoying about him is, that the can be quite naiv but consider the fact that he was raised by someone like Eraqus I see were it’s coming from (I mean he trustet Xehanort even though he KNEW what he was trying to accomlish.) Aqua: Sometimes she can probably a bit harsh I guess but apart from that…

Favorite episode (scene if movie) - Xemnas: That’s easy… the Aquas armor scene and the ‘Unfortunately… I don’t’ moment. Terra: That moment were he protects Ven against Eraqus. I thought that really developed his character. It was so important to him, that Eraqus is proud of him and stuff but in that moment he was like ‘Don’t you dare to hurt my friend, sucker!’ and that scene with him in 0.2, won’t say much because of spoilers and I don’t know how many of you already have played the game. Aqua: *jumping into a pit of darkness to save Terra*

Favorite season/movie - Well since it’s a game it doesn’t have seasons or something like that. But for favorite game it would be BBS

Favorite line - Xemnas: “Unfortunately… I don’t.” Terra: “Darkness always finds a way into a wounded heart. You have to be strong. Strength of heart will carry you through the hardest of trials.” (I actually have a shirt with that on it.) Aqua: “The three of us will always be one.”

Favorite outfit - Well they only have one so… but I guess their armors are cool too

OTP - Xemnas: I don’t really ship him with anyone. Back then after KH2 was just released I kinda shipped him with Saix but well, after Days and BBS came out… that pairing was not shippable for me anymore. Terra and Aqua: TerraxAqua xD

Brotp - Xemnas: Does he even have friends? Like, real friends? Would be Xemnas/Aquas Armor a good Brotp? No, just kidding… Terra and Aqua: Wayfinder Trio for ever I guess

Head Canon - Xemnas: He can be quite a romantic quy, but the most of times he doesn’t show it because why would he? Terra: When he was younger he tripped over his pants a lot, like on a daily basis. Aqua: She likes to sing in the shower xD

Unpopular opinion - Xemnas: Terra is still somewhere in there (is this unpopular though? I’m not sure but from time to time I see people who think they don’t share any connection…) Terra: He is not dumb! Naiv, maybe, but not dumb. Aqua: I don’t know… I can’t thing of any… sorry Dx

A wish - Xemnas: Getting his full memories of Terras life back or if you want to put it that way… if Terra comes back he should be remember that he was Xemnas for some time. Terra and Aqua: Ending up as a couple, PLEASE!

An oh-god-please-dont-ever-happen - DYING! If one of them dies I will cry!

5 words to best describe them - Oh gosh, I’m bad at this… Xemnas: reserved, pragmatic, melancholic, theatric, boss! Terra: walking anxiety, protectiv, cute, serious, naiv. Aqua: caring, mom, assertive, gorgeous, lovely

My nickname for them - Xemnas: Xemi~ Terra: Teddy bear xD Aqua: Blueberrymom

[ravenaveira]

Who’s most likely on the chopping block SPOILERS AHEAD

Ok in the latest trailer we see literally everybody's getting bodied and it looks like pretty much everyone's gonna die or at least a majority of them will but realistically speaking I dont think KH3 is gonna be THAT dark

HOWEVER I do believe there will be SOME deaths as KH3 is supposed to be the darkest kh game I dont see Nomura letting this be a and they all lived happily ever after ending, but I believe its going to be a more bittersweet ending where the good side wins but at a great cost

So the next question is, whos actually gonna die? well I have some theories on whos the most likely to die and whos most likely gonna survive

For starters Mickey Donald and Goofy are pretty much set in stone they’ll be fine, its not TOTALLY impossible but I highly doubt Nomura or Disney would kill off those iconic characters so lets just mark them off right now to the SAFE list

Aqua, Terra, Ventus and Lea are more unknown, they could die or they could not but I’ll explain why its so up in the air

Aqua can and will be saved so it doesnt make much sense for her to die after we go through all this to save her, that being said she could die trying to protect everyone just like she did in the past but I still think to bring her back only to kill her off is highly unlikely so IMO Aqua is safe

Terra is a gamble, hes been on thin ice since BBS and I always assumed he would eventually die anyway I just didnt know when but I always figured he would eventually muster up the strength to free himself and die to protect his friends, I felt like Terra would possibly end himself to prevent Xehanort from using him to hurt any more people, in this case, I see Terra possibly doing that in this situation and I feel like Terra’s ‘death’ is long overdue since at least to me its been hinted thats where his arc was heading since the end of BBS, so IMO Terra is marked for death

Ventus is also a high possibility, if it wasnt Xehanort it was Vanitas trying to kill Ven although in Vanitas case his reasoning is alot more complicated but the fact remains they have both tried to ‘kill’ him in some way shape or form and have been searching for him for years and now that they’ve finally FOUND him the chances are pretty high that Ven is gonna die, he is in a VERY vulnerable position and unable to fight or defend himself and thanks to Aqua nobody knows where he is or how to save him so Ven is definitely in the danger zone and thats why IMO Ventus is hanging by a thread

Lea is a gamble too, he’s already ‘died’ once, became Axel, died again and became Lea again, to have him die a 3rd time seems excessive but it would be heart-wrenching if he is killed by one of his former friends Saix, Xion or Roxas which although having Lea die AGAIN as I said would be excessive this would DEFINITELY be a dark and tragic ending for Lea and the impact would be much bigger than it was the previous times and it’ll hold that much more weight to it seeing him suffer from the loss of Isa and then keep remembering Xion and Roxas as well only to have one of them be the one to take him down for good is just beyond sad, so even though it may be excessive the impact would be massive which is why IMO Lea is marked for death 

Now to move on to the main two, Riku and Kairi

For starters even with my personal bias against Kairi Im not stupid enough to think shes gonna die infact I think its the opposite, Kairi is HIGHLY unlikely to die and here’s why

She’s part of the main trio that we’ve followed from the start, she’s Sora’s love interest, she’s technically the main female, she’s a princess of heart, she’s a keyblade wielder, in other words she’s too tightly woven into the story that for Nomura to take her out would not only be bold af but also extremely unexpected, its not often that you see a member of the main cast killed off but if they are its almost never the love interest which is why I believe Kairi is safe

Their also hyping up the romance way too much for them to just kill her off, unless this whole ‘oath’ and ‘dont think twice’ is just one big red herring and they pull a 180 not only would that be risky af but also pretty danm genius cuz nobody would see that coming but I will not be mad at it and infact would appreciate Nomura even more for takin such a huge risk that not many others would take, although I already know majority of the fandom wouldnt agree with me on that and I think Nomura is aware of the shitstorm he would get if he did that aswell so yea Kairi is definitely safe

Riku not so much, unlike Kairi, Riku is not a love interest or atleast not the one Nomura intended, true Riku is also a part of the main trio but the rival/best friend always has the higher chance of dying to protect the MC than the main female/love interest does

You also have to look at Riku’s character arc, his growth from giving into the darkness and doing horrible things to his journey of redemption, I believe his final atonement would be giving his life to protect Sora who in the past he had hurt so much, this and it leaves Sora still alive to save the world and defeat Xehanort since in the scene we see Sora doesnt have his keyblade and hes on his knees about to be attacked by a swarm of heartless and Riku being the last man standing protects him and if not for Riku, Sora would have died there, but Riku despite all odds against him, gives his all in protecting Sora

Someone made an interesting comparison of when Axel was fading away after ‘putting his whole being into an attack’ from the looks of the trailer Riku is DEFINITELY giving his all in this attack, Riku is ready and willing to die for Sora which is why Riku IMO is marked for death

But I also dont think Riku is gone for good, I think he might become a nobody and he IS the only one in the main trio who hasnt had a nobody, granted because he’s never been in a situation TO have one but now is the perfect time with the perfect setup for this to happen and come into play

How exactly this will play out in the future? I have no idea and until we play the game I cant think of any theories BUT I dont think Riku’s gonna be gone for good, I think he’ll have a Lea situation where he becomes a nobody, ‘dies’ then returns to being his somebody again, or in other words is revived/reborn

Anyway thats all for my theories on who’s most likely to die on the heroes side but what about the villains?

Saix is definitely marked for death, same for most of the seekers of darkness, Vanitas and Ventus MIGHT actually make peace and accept one another and reunite so in a way you could say Vanitas ‘dies’ or he could go tragically and be killed being separated from Ven forever once again

And of course Xehanort is definitely gonna die, he’s the only one I am atleast 98% sure is going to die because at this point he has to unless they go the Iron Blooded Orphans route where literally almost all of the good guys DIE and the bad guys actually WIN with our heroes just having to live in hiding defeated Xehanort is almost gauranteed to die so IMO Xehanort is dead

Now to explain my ranking before I end this post so some of you who may be confused understand what I mean

Marked for death - means they have a target on their back and are within the enemies crosshairs and are highly likely to die unless they are saved by some deus ex machina and a miracle happens

Hanging by a thread - means that they are close to death but not quite sure if they’ll actually die hence why their hanging by a thread, maybe it’ll snap maybe it wont just gotta wait and see how things play out

Safe is self explanatory and the same applies for Dead

Thats everything, let me know if you agree or disagree or you think someone else will die that I didnt mention and why