#dark road spoilers

[invidiatechdemo]

did you forget?

that your sister is a human being?

that she's capable of being mad? mad at You, even?

[lightandfellowship]

[Image description: Fanart of Eraqus, Vor, and Vidar from KHDR. Eraqus and Vor are trapped inside an hourglass; Eraqus at the top, Vor at the bottom. Vor’s side has been smashed open, the sand spilling out. Vidar, with his Keyblade in his right hand, takes Vor’s hand with his left, pulling her out of her prison. Within the negative space of the shattered glass behind Vor is the shape of a heart. Eraqus looks on from above, his side of the hourglass still intact. End image description.]

“The longer I stay in this bubble, the harder it’ll be for me to leave.”

[kitkat-the-muffin]

If you asked me to explain my Baldr brainrot I would have no answers for you

It's probably something to do with him being named after a deity of pure light and goodness but he himself is incredibly flawed and susceptible to darkness

He's an empath who can see the good in others that he cannot see in himself and that comparison drove him to feelings of inferiority, especially when compared to his sister who's heart shown with great light

He saw himself in Xehanort, a being filled with both light and darkness, one he could relate to as they both tried to understand the ways of the keyblade

But then his sister was taken from him, and he felt the light vanish from his heart in an instant. He took three lives before being admitted into the school's hospital

Or more like psych ward as that place was filled with zero enrichment, the perfect place for Darkness to get comfortable and worm its way into his heart permanently

And once he released himself, he went after them all. His friends, his classmates, his sister's closest allies... he killed them all one by one. Why did he do it? Because to him a world without his sister is a world not worth living in... also to summon Kingdom Hearts obviously, the Darkness inside him was trying to start another keyblade war

Of course then Xehanort approached him and Baldr had a "we're not so different you and I" villain speech and then Hoder's ghost pops out of Xehanort's heart to try and calm her brother down

And it works... for a moment. He was reaching for her hand, she was offering him forgiveness, mercy, salvation... and then she took out her weapon, and aimed for his neck. His quick reaction speed saved him as he did the same, and suddenly they were in this stalemate of betrayal

Hoder believed darkness has no place in the world and she was willing to purge her brother's life for that cause... while Baldr was willing to purge all life for her in the name of justice for an unjust world...

They were buried in the same grave

Mmm... brainrot

[lushuuya]

i did some research this morning regarding a KH theory i've had for a while..... the twitter thread was absolute incoherent insanity because it was me livetweeting as i read, so i summarized it when talking about it on discord.

i guess it's no surprise that the guy with mythology autism and nordic heritage (me,) is The Dark Road Guy, but it's a very funny surprise that a tagging mishap led to remembering a specific line from a post made by a blog i first found out about through a dark road meme about another post from the same blog. so basically, you can all thank tom hiddleston being ugly and being loki for these thoughts.

(the source of most of the mythology knowledge in summary comes from this wonderful page, which reiterates details in short form often, which helps me get it memorized! thanks to whoever runs it :p)

[infinitelilith]

The clock on Young Xehanort's keyblade has struck midnight which means it's now officially the 26th of August where I live, so HAPPY ANNIVERSARY TO THE DARK ROAD FINALE!!!!!!

Although I was skeptical about this game when it started, it eventually turned itself into an interesting foundation for the Lost Masters Arc as well as a thought-provoking recontextualisation of Xehanort's journey through light and darkness. Xehanort was already one of my favourite fictional characters of all time, and the fact that this game made him EVEN BETTER is incredible. The true accomplishment of Dark Road, however, is what it does for Eraqus: For a while he was one of my least favourite characters in the series, but this game almost singlehandedly turned him into one of the most tragic and complex characters in KH. I fucking love that guy. I'm also even more of a Xehaqus truther now, so that's another reason to love this game.

I love the way it uses its Disney worlds, I'm still processing everything about Baldr, I like almost all of the Scala students (which makes their fates even more shocking) and the Bragi and Ephemer reveals literally made me scream out loud; Thanks, Dark Road. A lot of people are going to overlook this one, but it's their loss if they miss out on all of the special things this story has to offer

:)

NOW WHERE THE FUCK IS MISSING LINK

I NEED MISSING LINK RIGHT NOW

PLEASE I'VE BEEN SOSOSOSO PATIENT

[freyja-official]

KHDR Spoilers!

Freyja tweening with his actual art?? Wow... I miss Dark Road :(

[moonknightproductions]

Ref sheet for Re:Formed Vanitas (feat. a tiny Ven). Came about from the idea of "what if Van lost his memories and, to help get them back and maybe show him that life isn't so bad and that even if he's darkness (or Darkness with a capital D) he doesn't have to be antagonistic or evil, the Wayfinder Trio befriend him and train him?" Alternate under the cut with no jacket or weird half-cape thing (idk what to call it)

[fangirlynjunk]

Man the tragic irony I should have seen coming but didn't with Baldur is so good.

Baldur is the golden child, brought down low by Loki and a mistletoe spear. his one weakness, in the hands of Hoder, blind to the one item that could hurt Baldur being in his hands.

Baldur is a child of destiny, brought down by his own darkness, his one weakness, and Hoder being too blind to her brothers struggles wasn't able to help him as the one person who might have been able to.

Granted Odin didn't see any of this shit coming either time so I guess the All Father and the Headmaster are blind as hell out of their one good eye

[raegae23]

Am I the only one who saw Player’s speech to Xehanort as sad? Like, Player didn’t seem happy that Xehanort was the Child of Destiny. Like they knew what kind of horrors Xehanort would have to go through if they were the CoD. And that no child should ever have to go through what they had to, what all the keykids and dandelions had to.

Idk I have a lot of thoughts about children and the way they’re used and treated in this series and having an adult who lived through these horrors and wanted things to be Better For Those Who Walk After makes me feel Emotions.

[janestvalentine]

#to xehanort's credits he wasn't trying to erase darkness like vidar was, #he understands that darkness cannot be erased and that's the reason he grows to resent eraqus later in life because he refuses that idea, #xehanort felt that there was no balance, #that people's obsession with light is what was destroying them and he's literally right lmao, #he wanted to summon kingdom hearts to create a perfectly balanced world but he was messing with a force much bigger than him, (x)

“no emotion is more potent than animosity” GODDDD baldr hitting it on the head with how darkness cannot be defeated because the hatred that allows for battle is in itself darkness. there is NO way to defeat darkness with anger and violence even if it is directed AT darkness bcuz it’s fighting fire with flames.

riku is the only one who ever “defeats” darkness because he stops fighting it. he only overcomes it by accepting it as part of himself and no longer directing animosity toward it. and thus, it stops growing. he stops feeding it by hating it. all the dark road kids see it as an outside force, a parasite: eraqus says hearts are free of darkness until it burrows its way in.

hatred of darkness begets more darkness and acceptance of it allows it to remain in tranquility so it can NEVER be removed and so many characters ruin themselves in a wholly pointless endeavour.

hell, dark road even tells us directly why xehanort’s plan to rebuild the world with kingdom hearts is pointless; vidar tried the exact same thing, and came to realize that “the world will be reborn in darkness,” as baldr says. it has existed before the world and it will exist before every new one.

[invidiatechdemo]

there's something deadly in the way that you move

there's something sickly in the words that you told

[lightandfellowship]

Lyrics from "Running Up That Hill (A Deal With God)" by Kate Bush.

Image descriptions in ALT.

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 3 - Scala ad Caelum

[pretty-weird-ideas]

Kingdom Hearts Dark Road explained all of Xehanort and Eraqus' significant motifs and thought processes succinctly despite the situation is very important. It's very important to ME.

hrrnrrgh.

[lunarcrown]

OLLD drawing I can share now of Timmy after recovery and care from staying on double life and being looked after by the box boys~

He’s healthier, happier, his hair and wings have grown back out and have a pretty blue-black sheen to them (that he never knew he had bc in hels his diet and environment only let them be dull) and he just heard the sound of a portal opening for someone to come visit~!

[cayala-xiii]

What a polite looking guy, I'm sure nothing has gone wrong with him ever :D