#i have finished all* of the kh games and this is my conclusion

[valorxdrive]

Gotta speak my truth.

A reason why the passion has dwindled on this blog, why I've sought other avenues. It hasn't really been the drought of content as much as the issue in what's already here. In short, it's the new angle of SQ's direction with the KH series that leaves me uncertain.

It all begins with a game called KH3, moreso, how it really feels like it was a title that didn't care about itself in terms of a grand finale or the fans who wanted a solid conclusion before a new chapter.

I genuinely dislike it with a whole lot of my heart.

I'll dip into why down below! Stick around for the ride if ya like.

I've sat here across the years genuinely contemplating it. Seeing people heavily defend it (myself too at one point), though who abhorred it for seeing things sooner (or just took it too far.) Had discussion with friends and it truly clicked to me what bothered me so much with the KH3 title.

It genuinely does not give a fuck. In a bizarre way, this is the first time I've seen a video game, even with it's complicated history that's just so utterly prepared to be finished with itself.

What struck me the most about this is how done it was with dealing with Xehanort as an antagonist. Bringing no connection with him to the worlds, or to the main cast, how he was simply relegated to the hurdle that had to be surpassed. This in kind extends to the heroes dealing with him too, that remains connected. So that brings the question, what did warrant all of their attention?

Verum Rex and Union X. Two aspects which are vividly 'new'-, the more exciting, new grounds to no longer have to bring concerns with the current epic that was being made.

The way these things were shoo'd in at the expense of the characters and the wonder of the KH world really miffs me. So much of the actual effort was made in turning KH3 into a springboard FOR these concepts, the new beginning and it allows for the keyblade war to be entrenched in a piss poor execution.

Another aspect I'd love to really dive on, being a Sora blog, is Sora's particular journey. This holds a firm eye towards the Disney worlds and mixing it with the cast of characters in there, and the KH originals. You can entirely omit the Disney journey and have literally nothing change. From the moment you hop from Yen Sid's tower, to the moment you go and save Aqua, this part of the game from the story perspective is entirely pointless. To those who care about the story. To those who CARE about disney 1 for 1's (like singing Let it go in new graphics fml), who are more concerned about the shiny new Verum Rex (vs XIII reboot) or the perspective of the Union X things, it'd be a fine enough meal.

I want to actually dig into why however. It's a simple angle, they don't care about his current goals in lieu of bringing shiny new worlds in akin to jingling car keys. The goal of finding a means to bring Roxas back, and in order to draw back the Power of Waking that found itself lost in DDD.

Both of these don't require external adventures. It needs insight, it needs the retracting of old grounds, and I'm damn sure that the perspective of Disney was not going to allow for that. So on this front unless a heavy push was warranted, I genuinely wouldn't of seen it changing. How are you going to find clues for Roxas in Arendelle for example?

Unless Sora has more Heart related ventures after each world, what in the fuck was this roaming going to do to unlock the power of waking again? A journey to find something important in KH is usually coupled by heavy character development, a way they come to re-look at how they see the surrounding world, their situation and themselves. The fact that a completely unrelated situation from Sora, despite his caring nature was the trigger to unlocking this.

For Ventus's disembodied heart to say it was always there was a pitchfork through the heart of this.

The fact that they've always said that recovering this power was essential for saving Aqua, when you literally can hop in and kick her butt, prompt no connection of ripping corruption away or anything via the Power of Waking says more than enough. You genuinely see that by the end of a lot of main cast characters being nods to the audience, or bots made for exposition, they've outright abandoned these concepts before your eyes.

I genuinely could continue on but this has become bloated.

For the journey for the current cast, the premise of KH3 is perfect as an adventure and inevitable showdown, but the execution is atrocious (the raw lack of opposing parties facing each other, showcasing the threat of Xehanort set to end all reality), and would genuinely require an entire game overhaul. Again, the execution. This extends to so much of the story decisions, to a LOT of the gameplay (whole dif can of worms) on top of that. I've really needed to recognize this and really have my genuinely lens set on it, no other opinions diluting my opinion on the matter.

I can understand why people who KH3 has the laughing stock/joke of the series.

Recognizing this has felt refreshing to me. It gives me a more distinct image that down the line, I really don't mind taking a canon divergent perspective at all. The mythos of KH and so much it has built is a fever dream of the best proportions, I however, genuinely want to carry on that I tenderly love which has always been the try and true flame of this series. I won't let nostalgia blind me, nor the ~future excitement~ either.

My nostalgia and my value as a fan is worth something to me. Nomura and co genuinely have to begin cooking again for me to gamble in that corner again.

[faeiapalette]

Just wanna drop some personal opinions. I. I swear to god i have heard people complaining for a thousand times about how Ayato’s LE route was “horrible” and all of them has the same reasoning being “it’s unfair”, so i came to share my point of view:

His route wasn't even that bad? 😅 Yall r pissed bc he got treated like shit in his route (yeah, bc he hurted his brothers. He blinded Laito and broke Kanato’s leg. Accidentally or whatever.) What everyone has already known is the S boys' relationship is trash from the begining, ofc they'll act like that? Kanato the one who will scream at your face and treat you with the "idc what tf your reason is i want YOU to take responsibility" and Laito who has grudges with Ayato all the way at the begining? Then comes Reiji who tried so hard for years to become the leader/ leader's right hand man just to serve a person he view as narrow and incompetent (bruh idk about Kanato but everyone else' has something that makes others respect them for. In the Sakamaki family. Shu's smart and know how to act like a big bro when needed, Reiji's a strategist and has been studying to be the heir for years, Laito's intelligent af, and Subaru is the purest among vampires, it’s will be pretty hard to explain this now but all i can say is “it’s smth related to politics in the DL world”), with the last straw being that one hurting his own people? And Ruki who longs for the king's title, who's as dedicated to Karl as Reiji, and is able to seethrough the same Ayato who's unfit to rule all along? 💀 girl. If you people's going to play blame game, blame everyone including Ayato then. He DID made a big mistake. Even it isn't his intention to do so. Try to walk in other people's shoes (in term of mindset and feelings cuz you're oh so capable to do so when it comes to Ayato in other people's route ^^.)

This IS the route suitable for smo with the title "main hero". Because it's different from every other routes. S boys have to deal with both personal problems and their leader position. Now, what kind of personal problem does Ayato have? ^^ Egomaniac, solved. Hatred for Cordi, done in DF. Hating his father? There are some, but not as much as Laito, cuz Laito’s a big personal grudge that can make him going from borderline suicidal to try everything in everyway to khs because he has to receive smth from Karl (No takesy backsy~ Your supplier Karl’s ded). Ayato doesn't. The writers tried their best to make a big ass personal problem for him ya know ^^. 5 other routes r pretty much… peas in the same pot, but Ayato got the element of surprise 👍 Wouldn't that make his route stand out from his brothers', like what a "main hero's route" will be? ^^ Talking about surprises,

Rejet's marketing strategy. Do you know what do Ayato's Daylight aka the most “well-liked daylight cd” and Ayato's LE route have in common? They doesn't follow the stream every other routes does. They stand out. Yes. Because what people like, isn't just sweet moments and fanservices. They long for new things. Creativity. Ayato's route has both of these. Decent amount of sweet moments with Yui, a tear he never shed. So not too much Overall, balance 👍.

II. “The M boys are so narrow-minded when they be like “Aristocrats this aristocrats that” to the S boys, S boys went through traumas too”

THEY-WON’T-KNOW?????? If the S boys don’t share????? Where do you think they’d get that information from? Karl casually telling his surbonates “I traumatized my sons”? The players, aka us, know about their pasts because Rejet puts them in every opening of the prolouge/ epilogues, so we can read their thoughts, sympathize with them, whatever, but can the M boys/ any other boys see them too? You finish the puzzle.

(Trivial matter, if my memories is correct M boys, (for example Kou) have been showing sympathy everytime S boys told them something about their past (in that drama cd where 2/3 of the triplet doing recalls about Cordi’s cooking)).

In conclusion, the “narrow-minded” one is the one saying the similar statement above. ^^

III. There’s no “main character” in otome games.

I don’t think i have to explain the reason, since someone has already said that out loud (“If there’s one “main character”, what are the other 12 for?”, i recall) And i thought everyone knows this already. Because there’s has already been a term for that in the otoge community, being “posterboy”. Yes. The one appearing in almost every posters, the one having the most screentime if the project has an anime adaption, whose cd is the 1st ever to be released. Ect. So. Let’s talk about Young Blood. I see a lot of people thinks that “Oh the story revolves around Ayato and Karl in this manga favors Ayato more than any other sons of his. He must be the main character. If otherwise, why didn’t they make 5 more mangas?” Have you ever thought about how making 5 more manga, with the same plot would spill the budget and no company is dumb enough to not realize that so they just do one that revolves around their representative aka the posterboy and let their audiences do the math that if we change to other boys’ perspective the story would go on the same way (with some tiny events/ details being changed?)

I hope people grow some perspective.

IV. Nothing much. I’m just a little disappointed on how most people i’ve seen here have nothing to say about but how “nice and helpful” the boys is (judging characters based on their moral. I mean there’s more to talk about than just that?)

V. Ruki along with Reiji, Kanato and Laito (idk about other boys) are the most misunderstood character in this fandom (Ruki alone, all because people doesn’t understand his action and try to rationalize them in their own one-way, tunnel-liked, logically wrong way of reasoning, causing the action to look totally stupid and meaningless. Even some resources of him are translated wrong causing even more misunderstandings. (By the way, Reiji fans, Kanato fans, please tag me in posts solving misconceives about your oshi please. I would love to read them. 😔) P/s: Oh and something about Ruki, ofc him killing that cat is wrong, no question asked 👍 Though “=> He should not be entrusted with a pet of all kind bc he’ll kill them” + “=> he hates cats” is also wrong (yall be paying too much attention to the cat and forgot about the bird scene. Those birds he refused to feed. Did he lay a hand on them may i ask?)

[ms-scarletwings]

Exclusion Zone Makes My Eyes Sweat

KHS, it seems, possesses such an uncanny talent for writing the most underrated and downright raw narratives in general, but there's just something so specifically emotionally wrenching about what you could probably call the "climax" of Exclusion Zone- aka, my second favorite of the twisted tales within Haunted Cities, vol 4.

And therein Exclusion Zone lies an event that makes it stand out so far from the rest. There is a moment very, very far from the scariest experience I had in Haunted Cities, and yet this is still the one that haunts me most of all, and maybe that was the way it was meant. You simply enter the ruins of a long abandoned tower, and you recover a note written by a deceased researcher.

It's not a moment that puts the player inside the jaws of a hungry house. It's not a scene where dark angels are coming to gnaw off your skin, you aren't swallowed by any ravenous gardens, and if anything, the music in that tower makes it almost a calming moment. The atmosphere is serene and comforting, like a temple, or any sacred ground should be. You are, true enough, being bombarded with lethal amounts of radiation, seemingly to no immediate consequence, though.

And like that, it happens, and then you leave the site once you finish your exploration. You show up, do your job, and head back. Yet here I am still trying to put together what exactly about this game's conclusion makes me so deeply... sad and disturbed, in a way games have rarely managed to do, and I have my best guess:

“She was wronged."

As extreme and surreal as the story unfolded is, the feelings it immerses you in are something so grounded and relatable, to me- The sympathy and sheer powerlessness of being an observer in the aftermath of a great tragedy.

To stand there in the epicenter of so much death and sorrow, which happened all and only because everyone was trying the best that they ever could, and it just… wasn't enough. And no matter how much you can mourn for their fate, or wish you could even just say how sorry you are, maybe for them, or maybe for how cruel of a world it is at all, but there's nothing you can do yourself but just.. feel that empathy for them. So you do.

And the revelation itself is a jarring, shocking thing, especially if you save the tower for the last to visit on your run. These gentle, final words pouring with so much humanity in a setting that’s so lifeless and cold. I already had an idea of what was coming, I got the games purely because of the Jacob Geller review, and I don’t think my enjoyment was any bit lessened by the spoilers.

There’s no villain to blame for the tragedy of the fallen goddess and those people who built the tower, save those nameless sisters some unfathomable, untouchable worlds away. There’s no implication to some fruitful lesson or honoring of the disaster’s victims. If anything, your closure is only in the assumption that the pitiful girl will be demonized and remembered in infamy for her suffering. What became of her, whether a final peace or an eternity left to her pain, no one can even know. Your discovery of the truth? As ultimately meaningless as that of the corpse left behind in that cursed ruin. What could you be left to do?

You silently grieve, probably just because no one else will. Probably because of a strongly felt connection for the wrongs you've faced yourself, whatever times you wished someone had been there with the same message, as little as it would have changed. It's a very unique and specific thing to invoke in an audience and I guess I'm appreciative and impressed such a game did so in such a short and potent fashion. It's part of what makes Exclusion Zone one of my favorites of the collection. It vaguely reminds me of Looming, too, which is another indie game built around a similar theme of retelling a story through archeology. I just really found that neatly powerful, and powerfully neat, and I hope I'm not the only one that did.

“I'm sorry, sister. You deserved better. This was not your fault."

[derekscorner]

I mean, I know many fans won't want to hear and just as many fans in the anti-mura crowd will praise it but the sad truth is that KH isn't relevant anymore. It hasn't been for years.

KH3 got a lot of buzz for reasons you already mentioned. It had been a sequel that many waited for since 2006. Many forgot KH existed until KH3 because they didn't follow after KH2 and it's hard to blame them.

If we're being technical the first misstep of "side games" was Chain of Memories. So many back in the day started Kh2 not knowing who Namine or Axel was. That issue just got worse when they continued the story with three games on three separate systems.

Then Nomura has this unhealthy obsession with KH Chi. Missing Link has a lot on its shoulders solely because KHUX did and KHUX bloated what was a decent self contained story in Chi for many.

Sure, you have remixes and ports now but the damage to the series is kinda done. Even if it's true that playing the games is all you need to do to follow the story that reputation for the opposite exists.

Hell, it's only exasperated by people who still dig into Nomura's quotes or the game reports through theory crafting. It's a sad truth that there is a lot of bloat behind the seams of the base story.

Then, when everything was finally in one spot, prepping for KH3 to release they put a huge chunk of story into UX and Dark Road. Yes, they're free, but how many average people will sit through hours of text box scenes just to understand why Xigbar is calling himself Luxu?

Some stuff just feels like bad decisions as well. Such as making Days a movie or trying to make Coded relevant with it's movie. Time travel. Sure, I am a dork and could grasp it fine but many people will groan or give up at the introduction of it. Many see time travel as lazy.

Then there was KH3 itself. I was so done with KH's BS by then that I spent most of the game indifferent only to be somehow disappointed with it's finale anyway.

Most of the game goes nowhere then the last 4 to 6 hours just goes nonstop. Xehanort's conclusion was just that disappointing for a lot of people and for others they see it as a good point to stop because they either don't care or played 3 just to see how Xehanort loses.

They don't have the patience or attachment to care about 4. Hell, I haven't even covered how UX seemingly highjacks 3's plot at points for no reason. 4 itself is predicated on the mobile game as well.

It's a mess, the series has a reputation for being convoluted, and it's story was spread out for so long that it's only natural its relevance would die.

3 got a lot of attention because it was Xehanort's finale, it had been asked about and waited for since fans finished their run of KH2 in the early 2000s.

It's sad to be sure but I honestly find it a miracle at all people talk about it now and then. I'm also kept somewhat up to date by what I see on here or twitter but I have no intention to bother with 4 myself.

There's just nothing there worth my attention. It's not relevant to me.

This lack of new Kingdom Hearts content or talk (like showing trailers or what have you) is honestly a mistake on Square Enix's part, I think.

A friend of mine, who's a casual KH fan (probably even more than a casual. He's played most of the games and kind of stays up to date with it through me) told me the other day that he missed when KH was relevant: obviously meaning that he doesn't think it is anymore. And can anyone really argue with that?

I know a lot of the super fans, who would be a part of the fandom rain or shine--whether there was content or not--are the least into it right now than they ever have been before, since there's literally nothing to keep us going.

And I'm aware that the plan has been for Missing Link to come out, and to tide us over with that (but things, sadly, keep getting in the way of that), but I still think putting so much on the shoulders of one single mobile game is questionable at best.

I also feel like they're counting on the momentum of KHIII to carry them forward, since it sold so well. But that was partly because some people were like, "Oh my gosh! That game that's allegedly been in development for thirteen years finally exists?! I'm going to check it out! Especially since I may or may not have played I and II when I was a kid." They're not going to have that same reaction with IV. A lot of people also really didn't like III (and thus might not give IV a chance for that reason), for some reason. And some who were big fans decided to quit after III, as it was the end of the Dark Seekers Chronicles and thus a good stopping point.

I feel like decisions they're making now are going to come back and hurt KHIV. But we'll see, I guess.

[krismatic]

coming back from the dead for one minute to let y'all know riku is bi and trans

[violethowler]

The Heroine’s Journey of Sora

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks writing out my thoughts on Kingdom Hearts and the way the series follows the framework of the Heroine’s Journey. Rather than a bunch of drabbles or a single long-winded post, I’ve decided to break up my explanations of the Heroine’s Journey and the way Kingdom Hearts fits into it as a series of ten essays posted weekly. I will put up a masterpost once all of them are finished, and in the meantime I will have all of them on my blog under the tag ‘Kingdom Hearts and the Heroine’s Journey.’

Due to the length of this essay, I will be putting the full thing under a cut. 

What many Kingdom Hearts fans do not realize is that while Tetsuya Nomura does sometimes make up the details as he goes when it comes to the writing of Kingdom Hearts, he does do things with a plan. 

In the KH3 Ultimania [1], he talked about how he’d had the conclusion of the Dark Seeker Saga outlined by the end of Kingdom Hearts II’s development. In an April 2012 interview [2] with Nintendo President Satoru Iwata, he indicated that he’d had a general framework up to Kingdom Hearts II planned out when the original game was first announced. And in a 2004 interview after the original Chain of Memories was released on GameBoy Advance, he mentioned that he’d already come up with the “last scene” that would serve as the definitive ending of the entire series[3]. 

So while some details may be hard to predict because Nomura comes up with lore and backstory details as he goes, he does have a plan in mind where the overall story is going. And the central arc of the series is entirely predictable once you understand the framework that the story fits into. 

Since the late 1800s, scholars have been studying the common patterns that repeat in stories, legends, and myths across different cultures around the world. One of the most well known templates developed from such research is the Hero’s Journey. In his 1949 book The Hero with a Thousand Faces, literature professor Joseph Campbell published a 17 step formula of storytelling. Campbell held up this framework as the monomyth, an ultimate narrative archetype from which all other stories are derived, and in discussion of his work expressed his view of The Hero’s Journey as a universal framework that showed how people grow from youth into adulthood.

However in the 1980s, Maureen Murdock began work on her own narrative framework. Believing that Campbell’s view on the universality of the Hero’s Journey did not encompass the experiences of every identity like he claimed, Murdock developed what she called The Heroine’s Journey as a critique and response to Campbell’s monomyth. Other authors have shared their own variations of the Heroine’s Journey, but for the purposes of this analysis, I will be focusing on Murdock’s model. Hers is both the oldest one I know of, and the one that I personally have the most familiarity with. Though originally conceived as a therapy tool, the core concepts of Murdock’s template have resulted in its use in storytelling for narratives about protagonists overcoming the ingrained biases and preconceptions of society. 

Some notable examples of stories that follow the Heroine’s Journey template, albeit most with different formulas, include 

Beauty and the Beast

The Hunger Games trilogy

The Princess and the Frog

Tangled

Howl’s Moving Castle

Labyrinth 

Star Wars Sequel Trilogy*

Voltron: Legendary Defender*

*Note: Voltron: Legendary Defender and the Star Wars Sequel Trilogy are examples of 3-act narratives that followed the Heroine’s Journey framework in the first 2 acts only for behind-the-scenes conflicts to result in the formula being abandoned in the final act. 

Despite the name, it is possible in theory to have a male protagonist follow the Heroine’s Journey, much like how you can have a female protagonist in a Hero’s Journey.  While nearly every story I know that follows the Heroine’s Journey template has a female protagonist in the lead role, Kingdom Hearts is the first example that I’ve discovered of a male protagonist following this formula. Sora’s arc across the series follows Murdock’s framework so precisely that I was able to correctly predict the broad strokes of how Re:Mind would go three months before the DLC was released. 

Part I: The Beginning

While the Heroine’s Journey mimics the Hero’s Journey in its early stages, it ultimately goes in its own direction. I plan to go into further detail about the differences between the two in a later essay, but for now I will say that while Campbell’s monomyth describes physical plot points and the themes they represent, the Heroine’s Journey formula focuses on the emotional conflict of the narrative and the psychological development of its main characters. The pattern of the Hero’s Journey is fluid and doesn’t have a fixed central theme, while the core element of the Heroine’s Journey is a protagonist coming of age in a society that consciously or not regards them as lesser because they do not fit in with the expectations of the dominant social group. 

I know that some people who decide to read further will be put off by the fact that the names and descriptions of the Heroine’s Journey feature gendered language and focus on discussions of masculinity and femininity, so allow me to explain. The reason for this is that in a Heroine’s Journey, the protagonist is attempting to conform to a set of traits that the audience’s culture values. In pursuing this external validation, the main character has to suppress a vital part of who they are, cutting themselves off from achieving their full potential. The traits they are suppressing are the ones which are often regarded as feminine, while the ones they are trying to conform to are typically associated with masculinity. We see this pattern frequently in movies where the female lead tries to succeed in a male-dominated career field, only to feel lonely and unfulfilled when she finally gets what she wants because she sacrificed the parts of herself that made her who she is along the way. 

Now that I’ve given you a relatively brief summary of the Heroine’s Journey, I can get down to business and walk people through the steps to this template and how it fits with the story of Kingdom Hearts. Note that this is only a basic rundown of the steps of the Heroine’s Journey and how it relates to these games, and I will be posting additional essays shortly which go into greater detail on the themes, character archetypes, and other different layers of the framework that are present in the series. 

Murdock’s version of the Heroine’s Journey begins with the “Separation from the Feminine”. This is the stage where, as mentioned, the protagonist suppresses a core part of themselves in pursuit of external validation. It often takes the form of the protagonist sacrificing their emotional strengths and focuses exclusively on proving themselves in the physical sphere. Sora has demonstrated again and again that his greatest strength is his empathy and his willingness to make connections with others. It makes him a strong unifying force because of how well it complements the people around him. But because this isn’t something tangible in the same way that physical strength is, he doesn’t see the value of it, believing that without the strength of his friends he’s nothing. 

From the way the other kids on Destiny Islands talk about their competitions, Sora’s focus is on trying to prove that he’s just as strong and capable as Riku is. But he’s so focused on proving himself in physical challenges that he doesn’t notice the signs of Riku’s jealousy that lead his friend into the arms of Maleficent. And we see through Anti Form and Rage Form that Sora is still repressing his own negative emotions in Kingdom Hearts III. His narrow focus on external skills has cut him off from achieving the full potential of his internal ones. 

When Sora awakens in Traverse Town after the destruction of Destiny Islands, we come to the second stage of the Heroine’s Journey, “Identification with the Masculine and Gathering of Allies”. This is where the main character chooses to align with the traits and roles that the dominant social group sees as desirable in order to achieve their goal, and where they acquire the allies who will help them in their quest. With the adults around him focusing on his ability to destroy the Heartless, Sora latches onto the Chosen One status that implicitly comes with having a Keyblade. His interactions with Phil and his disappointment with the status of Junior Hero in subsequent games paint Sora as being focused on heroism in the sense of overcoming obstacles with force. Even Donald and Goofy, in the beginning, are focused on Sora’s value as a Keyblade Wielder in terms of how their fight against the Heartless can lead them to King Mickey’s location.

By setting off with Donald, and Goofy, Sora embarks on the “Road of Trials” stage of the Heroine’s Journey. This is one of the few points of similarity between the Heroine’s Journey and the Hero’s, corresponding to Campbell’s “Tests, Allies, and Enemies” stage. This is where the main character faces the initial obstacles and challenges of their quest. In the first few Kingdom Hearts games we have Sora face off against Maleficent, Ansem, and the Organization, before reuniting with Riku and Kairi in The World That Never Was. The final stages of Kingdom Hearts II correspond to the “Finding the Boon of Success” stage of both the Hero and Heroine’s Journeys. 

Part II: Interlude

In a Hero’s Journey, the Boon of Success is the end of the story. They slay the dragon, save the princess, and go home to live happily ever after. I suspect this is one reason why a lot of gamers in the KH fanbase tend to think of Kingdom Hearts 2 as the best game of the series - because in their minds Sora’s quest had been completed now that he had found Riku and Kairi like he set out to do in the first game. His journey, as far as they were concerned, was done. 

(This may also have an affect on how some fans reacted to Kingdom Hearts III, expecting it to be a grand epic finale that wrapped everything up with a bow and left a completely blank slate for the future of the series)

But in a Heroine’s Journey, the Boon of Success is not the end of the main character’s story. They have achieved their external goal, but they have not addressed their internal motivations for seeking that goal in the first place. And as their story continues, they find themselves facing challenges that their attitude thus far has failed to prepare them for. Finding The Boon of Success typically occurs early during the second act of the story. Usually it is achieved in the second half of Act II, but can sometimes happen as early as the end of the first act. For Sora, this was of course finding Riku and Kairi so that they could all go home to the Destiny Islands together.

But because the protagonist of a Heroine’s Journey has not addressed the underlying insecurities which set them on their current path, they “Awaken to Feelings of Spiritual Aridity”. 

They begin to learn that the conflict they find themselves involved in is not as clear cut as they previously believed, and the challenges that come with this new knowledge are ones that their current way of doing things has failed to prepare them for. They may have found their boon of success, but things quickly begin to go wrong until they are ultimately forced to sacrifice their reward. 

The first game already showed through Riku and Mickey that Sora was not the only person able to wield a Keyblade, but because of his heroic deeds the story still framed him as the Keyblade Master and treated him as having a more significant role to play in important events than anyone else. It’s only after he hears from Mickey of the Keyblade Wielders who came before him that it begins to sink in for him that being a Keyblade Master is not a special Chosen One status. He thinks that because of all that he’s accomplished, he doesn’t need the recognition that comes with the official title, and because of that he’s careless and almost gets himself Norted at the end of DDD. 

His failure in the exam is a blow to his self confidence and shows that despite what he had said at the start of the test, deep down he really does want that kind of external validation. His insecurities and doubts continue to eat at him over the course of KH3, culminating in his breakdown at the Keyblade Graveyard. Outside of battle, we see him bottle up his doubts and other negative emotions because his friends (Except for Riku. More on him later) brush his concerns and problems aside. It is very much like Joy from Inside Out doing everything to keep Rylee happy and refusing to let Sadness take the controls. 

When their current way of doing things ultimately costs them their boon, the protagonist tries to go back to the way things used to be. To return to a simpler time and avoid the pain of the present. When literally going back to where their journey began isn’t possible, a Heroine’s Journey story will use this stage symbolically. The main character will cling to a person, object, or relationship that they associate with a simpler time. But as comfortable as the sense of familiarity they get from that is, it ultimately cannot truly address their inner pain in the long run.

This is reflected in the Re:Mind DLC, where Sora goes back in time in order to find the pieces of Kairi’s heart and bring her back. One of Kairi’s most consistent character traits is her fear of change and desire for things to remain the way they were. 

At the end of the DLC, Sora compares his connection with Kairi to the bond between Ventus and Chirithy, a friendship explicitly strained by distance, time, and Ven’s amnesia. In an interview at E3 2018 [4], Nomura commented about Kingdom Hearts III tying into a theme of childhood friendships changing as one gets older, a plotline that Merlin calls attention to after Sora’s visit to the 100 Acre Wood. And in a 2006 book titled Character’s Report Vol. 1, Nomura specifically calls attention to Kairi’s anxiety about growing apart from Sora and Riku as they get older. [5] All of these details combined frame Sora’s quest to save Kairi as an attempt to symbolically recover the innocence he lost when he began his journey.

But while he is able to find a way to renew his connection to Kairi, it can never be the same as it was before, and attempting to go back to how things used to be is ultimately doomed to failure. By the time he brings her to The Final World at the end of Re:Mind, Sora has realized that he and Kairi cannot stay on the same plan of existence anymore as a consequence of his actions. So he takes her on a tour of the worlds to re-establish their connection before fading away at the end of KH3. Thus, we come to the final act of the Kingdom Hearts narrative. 

Part III: The Future Story 

It is at this point that the protagonist of a Heroine’s Journey begins the “Initiation and Descent to the Goddess” stage. Having failed to achieve meaningful success through their old way of doing things, they must look inward and examine the cause of their insecurities and accept that in order to move forward they need to heal themselves. In this step, the main character travels to either a dream world or a physical location that is closed off and forbidden to them, like the West Wing of Beast’s Castle in Beauty and the Beast. In Jungian psychology, this metaphorical dark cave represents the main character’s subconscious, and entering it triggers a dark night of the soul for our protagonist as they are forced to confront the parts of themselves they’ve been keeping locked away.

While Sora knows in his head that darkness is not inherently bad, he continues to rely entirely exclusively on light, on his connections to others, and has not properly accepted it in his heart. In order to truly finish his coming of age narrative, Sora must learn to balance his inner light and darkness the same way that Riku has. And to do that, he needs to look inside himself and figure out why he feels so badly that he needs his connections to others in order to be strong. And in order to achieve that level of understanding of himself, he needs to understand his Animus. 

Derived from the psychological theories of Carl Jung, the Animus in a Heroine’s Journey is an external representation of the protagonist’s masculine-coded traits in physical form. While not every Heroine’s Journey features an Animus, many of the stories I’ve seen that follow the formula do. Usually the Animus appears in the form of a deuteragonist who often functions as the protagonist’s Shadow, an archetypal character that embodies the aspects of the main character’s personality that due to their immaturity they either aren’t aware or don’t want to acknowledge that they have. 

In order to complete their character arc, the protagonist must symbolically integrate with their Shadow by learning to embrace the parts of their psyche that the Shadow represents. In many stories the protagonist has more than one Shadow figure, all of whom challenge the protagonist by forcing them to become faster or smarter to stay one step ahead, giving their interactions with the main character a push-and-pull dynamic as they drive the main character to grow. Shadow figures who fill the role of the Animus also challenge the protagonist to look inside themselves and examine their own emotional needs. With an Animus, the push to grow runs in both directions, with the main character motivating their Animus’ growth just as much as the other way around. 

In these types of stories, every aspect of the character is tailored to make the Animus and the protagonist fit together like Yin and Yang. In visual stories such as film, television, and video games, the Animus’ entire look is designed to complement the main character and they are framed in the narrative as the protagonist’s equal physically, intellectually, and spiritually. This serves to emphasize that despite their surface differences, much of the conflict between the protagonist and their Animus comes from the ways in which they are fundamentally similar. While their circumstances may have led them to drastically different lives, the characters are ultimately two sides of the same coin, and their character development is driven by learning to balance their contrasting traits.

And within the structure of the Kingdom Hearts series, there is only one character who fulfills all of these qualities in relation to Sora’s journey. 

The same character who Testuya Nomura said in the KH1 Ultimania was designed to balance Sora; [6]

Who series producer Shinji Hasimoto said was part of the core of the series alongside Sora [7], as has been repeatedly emphasized by the number of games where he is given a major focus and is a playable character alongside Sora. 

[Image Description: Riku walking towards a door to light in the opening of Kingdom Hearts III. End Description]

While Sora and Riku have addressed some of the latter’s behavior in the first game during their conversation on the dark beach at the end of Kingdom Hearts II, they have yet to truly dig deep into why Riku felt the way he did in the first game. Riku has not told Sora about how he felt like he was being left behind and forgotten. And since that conversation, Riku has gone to the opposite extreme, dealing with his emotional problems on his own instead of lashing out at others like he had done at the start. Likewise while Sora has accepted that darkness is not inherently evil he has yet to apply this to his own negative emotions, as seen in Kingdom Hearts III. Neither character has truly achieved an ideal balance yet, and they cannot until Sora completes his journey. 

After the protagonist returns from their spiritual journey, they experience an “Urgent Yearning to Reconnect with the Feminine.” As the main character recovers from their period of soul searching, they embrace the parts of themselves that they had neglected in their pursuit of outside approval. Their Descent allowed them to recognize their value as a person and an individual outside of their ability to fulfill the role that they were expected to fill. Following this realization, they go about “Healing the Mother/Daughter split”. Reclaiming the aspects of their personality they’ve been repressing gives the protagonist the clarity necessary to gain a different perspective on their old way of thinking. This new understanding is what will allow them to find the inner balance needed to truly complete their journey. 

The Japanese version of the “My friends are my power” mantra often repeated across the series is “Connected hearts are my power.” For Sora, who has long relied on his connections to others as a source of strength, he should come to realize that these connections go both ways: that his friends draw strength from him just as much as he draws strength from them. This should help him come to accept that he is still strong and worthy all by himself. Ven’s version of the mantra from the English version of BBS summarizes it best: “My friends are my power. And I am theirs.” After he accepts this, Sora will finally be able to use the full extent of his emotional abilities.

After achieving that new perspective, the protagonist’s next step is “Healing the Wounded Masculine Within”. This is the stage of the Heroine’s Journey where the main character, having come to understand themselves, reconciles with their Animus, thereby symbolically integrating the aspects of their psyche that the Animus represents and permanently healing the rift between the two characters. This will be where Sora and Riku need to have a longer, more in-depth conversation than the one they had on the Dark Magin at the end of KH2. Where they talk about why Riku acted the way he did and finally address the underlying reason for why he was so jealous of Sora in the original game. 

The final stage of the Heroine’s Journey is the “Integration of Masculine and Feminine”. This is the point at which the main character and their Animus finally achieve a perfect balance between them. They are united both internally and externally. There are no more secrets between them, and they are now free to move forward and overcome the main antagonist together. 

Part IV: Conclusion: 

While there’s too many different possibilities to completely predict every twist and turn of the series’ lore in future games, once you understand how Kingdom Hearts fits into the framework of the Heroine’s Journey, the broad strokes of how the story will go in terms of Sora’s growth and character development are entirely predictable. When Re:Mind first released and the rest of the fandom was reacting on Twitter, I was sitting back with a smug smile on my face thinking:

[Image Description: Emperor Palpatine in Star Wars: Episode VI: Return of the Jedi sitting aboard the Death Star II with the caption ‘Good, Good. Everything is going according to plan.’ End Description.]

While I didn’t expect the precise mechanics of how Sora went about saving Kairi, Re:Mind was exactly what I expected it to be in terms of themes and its place in the Heroine’s Journey framework, and then the Secret Episode came along to reinforce that the next game is going to be Sora’s Descent.

While there isn’t a complete guarantee that the series will continue to follow the formula, I find it extremely unlikely that it won’t. Kingdom Hearts follows the stages of this framework too precisely for me to ever believe it happened by accident. So as long as there is no corporate interference from Disney like what happened to Voltron, I’m confident that Nomura’s plan for the finale of the series will be exactly what the Heroine’s Journey predicts it should be, no matter how unexpected future additions to the lore may be.

Special thanks to @dragonofyang and the rest of Team Purple Lion for everything I know about the Heroine’s Journey. I wouldn’t be as enthusiastic about analyzing the story of Kingdom Hearts if they hadn’t taught me the vocabulary to realize the kind of story that Nomura has been telling right under my nose for the last 18 years.

Sources:

[1] “Kingdom Hearts III Ultimania interview with Tetsuya Nomura”; March 12, 2019

https://www.khinsider.com/news/Kingdom-Hearts-3-Ultimania-Main-Nomura-Interview-Translated-14763

[2] “Iwata Asks: Nintendo 3DS: Third Party Game Developers, Volume 12: Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], Part 3: Square’s Intentions”; April 2012.

https://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/creators/11/2

[3] “2004 GMR Nomura Interview 2004!”; Translation by Kingdom Hearts Insider posted May 5, 2012. 

https://www.khinsider.com/news/GMR-Nomura-Interview-2004-2563

[4] “E3 2018: Tetsuya Nomura on If Kingdom Hearts 3 Is the End of Sora's Story”; June 14, 2018.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/06/14/e3-2018-tetsuya-nomura-on-if-kingdom-hearts-3-is-the-end-of-soras-story

[5] “Character’s Report Vol. 1 Translations”; Jul 16, 2014

https://www.khinsider.com/forums/index.php?threads/characters-report-vol-1-translations.195560/\

[6] “A Look Back: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania Gallery Comments Part 1″; August 30, 2019;

https://www.khinsider.com/news/A-Look-Back-KINGDOM-HEARTS-Ultimania-Gallery-Comments-Part-1-15519

[7] “How Kingdom Hearts III Will Grow Up With Its Players.” September 24, 2013

https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/25/how-kingdom-hearts-iii-will-grow-up-with-its-players

[X] “The Heroine with a Thousand Faces”; June 13, 2019;

https://www.teampurplelion.com/heroine-with-a-thousand-faces/

[X] Murdock, Maureen. The Heroine’s Journey. 1990.

[X] “Maureen Murdock’s Heroine’s Journey Arc”. The Heroine Journeys Project. https://heroinejourneys.com/heroines-journey/

[rutilation]

In honor of the wailing and gnashing of teeth that has occurred in the last few days for fear of potential incoming Joshua discourse, I have decided to get ahead of the curve and start discoursing about him before the anime even airs!

(--because he’s an interesting character who I didn’t really understand until several years after finishing the game.)

So, I got into the game around 2010, and while I comprehended the broad strokes of Joshua’s character, he seemed more like an inscrutable trickster than a person with relatable emotions, and his reasons for setting the plot into motion were as opaque to me as his reasons for backing off at the last second.

In particular, a big sticking point for me was his assessment of Neku.  He considered him “the worst person in Shibuya” and chose him as a proxy because of that.  And for years I thought that was the most ludicrous aspect of the game.  If the very worst person you can find in your bustling metropolis is a grumpy teenager who only has the potential to commit murder when under duress, then how could you possibly think that it’s beyond salvation, you utterly incoherent moron!  But, several years afterwards, I realized why he saw Shibuya as unsalvageable, and why he held Neku in such contempt, and the disparate elements of the character started to click into place for me.  

For as much as Joshua likes to put on airs, his motivations aren’t rational in the slightest.  When Joshua says that Shibuya has grown shallow and static, he’s really talking about himself, and is projecting all the things he hates about himself onto the surrounding environment.  He singles out Neku not because this run-of-the-mill moody teen is objectively the worst person in Shibuya, but because he sees Neku as a younger, more naive version of himself, and in a classic example of the narcissistic element of self-hatred, being like him is the most irredeemable sin Joshua can conceive of.

Then, I started thinking about what he actually intended to accomplish with his whole plan, and specifically, the duel at the end.  I don’t think Joshua had any intention of presiding over a remade Shibuya.  I think he was banking on Neku killing him and taking his place, and all that stuff about hijacking Shibuya from the composer during week two was for the sole purpose of planting that idea in Neku’s head.  In life, Joshua was friendless, miserable, and myopic.  He had hoped that by entering the world of the reapers’ game, he might find a sense of fulfillment.  But in the end, this mere change of scenery didn’t do anything to address his underlying malaise, and life felt just as empty as it did before.   Thus, he sets his plan in motion, intending to pass on his awful torch to a fellow awful person.  

What he didn’t count on was Neku growing as a person and gaining hope instead of losing it.  Joshua wanted to end his own world, but the outcome of all his scheming was that it opened up instead.  Instead of validating his grand act of self-destruction as planned, Neku refutes Joshua's worldview in a way he can't ignore or dismiss.

When I first saw the secret ending, my reaction was something along the lines of: “Aww, I guess he’s not totally heartless after all.”  But looking back on it, I can’t really see it as anything other than tragic.  Joshua can’t lie to himself anymore, can’t continue to protect himself with a shield of apathy and cynicism, but because of the permanence of his past choices, he can’t actually free himself from this isolated and claustrophobic world he’s created either, and that prison is made all the more painful now that he realizes how much he’s missing out on.  All he can do in the secret ending is watch forlornly as that younger version of himself grows up, makes connections, and moves on, while he’s still stuck at a dead-end.

(There’s a moment during the credits of KH:3D in which Joshua is perched above the rest of the cast on a giant letter, parodying his fondness for sitting on buildings.  The others soon take notice of him, and hassle him into coming down and joining them.  When I noticed it, it warmed my heart a bit, and made me hopeful about the trajectory of his character, regardless of whether or not a sequel would actually materialize.)

But all that being said, what I just wrote isn’t what the fine folk in the TWEWY fandom mean when they refer to Joshua discourse.  As far as I can tell, the true discursive quandary is thus:  “Is Joshua, in fact, Komaeda?”  Well I have bad news for you guys because, in my humble opinion, he kind of is?  

Now, I realize that knowing enough to write several paragraphs about such a cursed character can be seen as me telling on myself, but in my defense, your honor, I didn’t get into danganronpa until a few years after its popularity peaked.  Whatever discourse wars were waged over Komaeda and his zipper-shoes back in 2013, I was not a part of them.  With that out of the way...

You know those posts that get passed around here every so often about how the concept of gifted children sucks?  How it puts too much pressure on them?  How it encourages them to see themselves as instrumentally rather than inherently valuable?  How it leaves them anxious, depressed, and bereft of ways to cope?  Well, that’s the underlying allegory of SDR2, and underneath all the wacky shenanigans that comprise your average danganronpa title, that’s what the cast is contending with.  This is true of it’s protagonist, and especially true of his rival.

in much the same way that Joshua is the worst parts of Neku exaggerated and taken to their logical conclusion, Komaeda plays precisely that role for Hinata.  Both characters serve as a cautionary tale for the respective toxic mindsets that these games are denouncing.

Now that I think about it, Komaeda almost seems like an evolution of the concept, because he intuits from a fairly early point in the story that the protagonist’s very essence is a refutation of his worldview.  He insists on viewing Hinata as being far above him, but in actuality he realizes Hinata is in a similar situation--see his comment in one of the FTEs that Hinata feels like a miserable outsider like himself.  And if someone even a little bit like him is capable of experiencing happiness and connecting with others, what then?  The gap between how Komaeda wants to feel and how he actually feels is a subtle but reoccurring thread throughout the story.  This, I think, is why he seems to regard Hinata with both attraction and revulsion, treating him as simultaneously an avatar of his repressed will (hence why he attempts to bolster him in the class trials,) and an object of scorn (hence the smattering of passive aggressive jabs before chapter four, and the outright antagonism from that point forward.)  While Joshua fools himself until the the end of the game, Komaeda, master of doublethink that he is, seems at times self-aware of the fact that he is a foil in the literary sense, and that awareness partly informs his neurosis.  His take on the character type feels a little more post-modern, I suppose? 

Anyway, it wouldn’t surprise me if Joshua were an inspiration for Komaeda’s character and role in the story.  But even then, I suspect that the question is less, “Is Joshua, in fact, the same sort of character as Komaeda?” and more “Is Joshua, in fact, going to become a contemptible meme like Komeada?”  To which I say, probably not.  *knock on wood*

For one thing, while TWEWY will certainly experience an uptick in popularity once the anime starts airing, that doesn’t necessarily mean it will capture the nerd zeitgeist enough to turn one of its characters into a meme that transcends the story from whence it came.  Furthermore, there’s more to being a tumblr sexy meme man than merely belonging to an archetype.  Komaeda’s spiritual successor in DRV3 is kind of popular, but isn’t an inter-fandom joke in the same way he is, and neither are Kaworu from Eva or Ryo from Devilman, for that matter, and those are the grandfathers of the archetype in question.  In addition, the other infamous tumblr sexymen that come to mind, Sans and Onceler, aren’t a part of the white-haired-anime-rival-boy archetype, and Sans isn’t even a conventionally attractive twink.  I posit that the alchemy determining which characters and media tumblr loses its shit over is more varied and complicated than it appears at first glance.  (Not that I actually want to devote much brainpower to that particular field of study, lol.)

Uhhhhh... in conclusion, thank you for reading my words and also the DR3 anime is trash.

[revengerevisited]

Maddie rambles about Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road

Let’s just get this outta the way: Xehanort is my least favorite character in Kingdom Hearts. Now there are certainly more boring and underdeveloped characters but as far as evil deeds go, it doesn’t matter how ‘cute’ or ‘relatable’ Nomura tries to make Xehanort. I will never forget that he tore Ven’s heart in half, tortured Vanitas for four years, killed his own best friend, possessed Terra’s body for a decade, possessed Riku’s body as Ansem, unleashed Heartless on the worlds resulting in countless deaths, manipulated Organization XIII for years, and experimented on Kairi as a child and eventually murdered her in front of her best friends. Any attempt to make me sympathize with him just ain’t gonna work.

Also, I’m not taking any of these ‘Character X is secretly Character Y’ theories too seriously until they actually happen. Yes, it can be fun to speculate that Bragi or Odin is secretly Luxu or the Master of Masters, or that Brain is Eraqus’s ancestor, or that Demyx is the MoM, or that Ava or Vor is Kairi’s grandma, or whatever other theories are out there. But until there’s conclusive evidence that’s all they are, speculations and theories.

On that note, I don’t know why Xehanort is having dreams about the KHUX Player’s adventures but I don’t think it’s because Xehanort is the Player’s Nobody or a reincarnation of the Player. Reincarnation has never been a concept present in the KH series, and honestly it just sounds like bad fanfiction. Plus, if Xehanort does turn out to be the Player, then I feel bad for everyone who spent a lot of time creating their own unique character only to have it be replaced by the generic default Player in KHDR’s opening cutscene and then re-replaced by Xehanort of all people. Perhaps Xehanort simply has a unique, unexplained power to see into the past like Namine’s memory manipulation or Terra’s precognition.

Either way, this past-sight just makes it harder and harder for me to believe that Xehanort wanted to learn about the Keyblade War in BBS, since it seems he already knew all he needs to know. Xemnas knows that Luxord, Marluxia, Demyx, and Larxene are from the past, young Xehanort lives in Scala ad Caelum which was built over the ruins of Daybreak Town complete with a huge machine explaining Daybreak Town’s demise, Eraqus talks about the Book of Prophecies like it’s common knowledge, the list goes on. Also, I don’t like the implication that Xehanort chose Ventus as his vessel and later as material for the X-Blade only because he knows him from the Player’s dreams. Then again, if his dreams of the Keyblade War end before the Player meets Ven and Lauriam, then Xehanort wouldn’t know about them and would instead be more familiar with Skuld and Ephemer.

I will say that one thing I do like is Xehanort comparing himself to a starfish laying on the beach, both for the humorous imagery and also just a bit of that islander backstory flavor. Xehanort being the outsider of his friends group and not telling the whole truth of how he ended up in Scala is also an interesting Kairi parallel, although him being found unconscious in the middle of a city is kinda overused. I do like that the surrounding cities around Scala are all uninhabited, since trying to wrap my mind around these huge mountain-sized cities with potentially millions of people in them was a little too much for my brain to handle.

I do however find it quite bizarre that it’s taken some worlds so long to recover from the Keyblade War. Not only that, but apparently people just appear out of thin air once their world is restored. Like, how? It just feels weird and uncomfortable, almost like these people only exist for the protagonist and audience’s amusement rather than being independent living beings in their own right. I dunno, there’s just something deeply unsettling about those implications. It also makes me wonder how long ago the Keyblade War was, if places like Agrabah still aren’t finished only 75-ish years before KH1. The characters refer to it as a legend, so it must’ve happened a long time ago, right? Some fans think it’s only been 100 years since the Keyblade War, but that would be like the equivalent of calling World War 1 a legend.

The worlds all being on different timescales is also extremely headache-inducing, both as analyst and a fanfic writer trying to keep track of the plot. Couple that with time travel and the whole thing just falls apart. Of course, if each world runs at a different time, then perhaps this is why Xehanort looks so much older than Eraqus, or rather why Eraqus looks so relatively young when he’s supposed to be 80-ish years old. And if that’s the case, then do any of the characters’ ages really matter? I’ve already proven that their ages have been retconned before. Also, this renders timecodes such as ‘75 years later’ and ‘one year later’ from Re:Mind and other parts of the series completely meaningless. The timeline is broken.

Anyway, I’m not sure how much Norse Mythology will play into the story, but all the new characters have Norse names with two that stand out the most. The first is Master Odin, named after a Norse god who sacrificed one of his own eyes for knowledge, which is an interesting parallel to the MoM. The second is Baldr, the as of yet unseen seventh student who has a missing sister, because evidently Nomura likes recycling his previous plots before they’ve even finished. In Norse Mythology, Baldr is the god of light whose death kickstarts the events of Ragnarok. How this’ll be relevant in KHDR remains to be seen, but after seeing those four gravestones in the timeskip/flashforward, I can’t imagine this ending well for anyone not named Eraqus or Xehanort. 

Now, as funny as I find it that the new characters have all been killed off this quickly, I’m not entirely convinced that those are Urd, Hermod, Bragi, and Vor’s graves. They could actually be the graves of the missing upperclassmen, if some of them turn up dead. Speaking of the upperclassmen, I would hope that Yen Sid is one of them, but I have a feeling he won’t be allowed to show up simply because of Disney’s stranglehold on its own IP. It’s pretty sad and ironic seeing as this series used to be all about Disney, but I assume that’s why Nomura is straying further and further from the brand.

About the four new student characters, I don’t have any particular attachment to any of them, beyond Vor’s name being hilariously unfortunate. I find it a bit eye-rolling that fans continuously snub Kairi but will instantly latch onto any new characters like Yozora and these four despite barely knowing anything about them. It doesn’t help that, and please correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that any of the four who you choose to be in your trio will have the exact same dialogue in cutscenes no matter who you pick, meaning that these new characters don’t even get much of a chance to develop their own personalities because all of their dialogue has to be generic and bland enough to fit all four of them.

Young Eraqus is probably the best character so far, simply because he’s the only one with any personality. Granted his supposed cowardice has yet to be seen, but it’s mentioned so often that I assume it’s gonna be an important plot point later. However, I’m finding it hard to relate young Eraqus with his adult counterpart seeing as their personalities are just so different. I’m aware there’s a 65-ish year gap between this Eraqus and older Eraqus, but there better be some major character development to explain this, especially since even standing in front of his presumed classmate’s graves he still seems fairly chipper.

On that note, as humorous as ‘Tardy Fleetfoot’ is, just like with Xehanort, don’t think I’ve forgotten that this guy caused Terra’s insecurity and self-doubt with his overzealous anti-darkness stance, probably heavily influenced Aqua’s black-and-white anti-darkness keyblade-first-ask-questions-later thinking, was also probably the one who told her to lie to Ventus about always living with them, and attempted to straight up kill Ven and Terra. Eraqus’s actions aren’t as bad as Xehanort’s, but they certainly aren’t acceptable in any capacity.

Something odd I noticed is that Eraqus knows what the Heartless are called, and even the difference between Pureblood and Emblem Heartless-- well, part of the difference; I’m assuming he doesn’t know that future Xehanort created them. But anyway, my point is that Aqua doesn’t know what the Heartless are called until Mickey tells her in BBS 0.2. Before that she simply calls them ‘dwellers of darkness’, and even mistakes one for an Unversed. Does this mean Eraqus never taught his students about the Heartless? Why? Perhaps after his classmates died, he decided to shelter his own students from the worlds, hence why their Mark of Mastery was so simple? I’m just guessing at this point. Of course, there’s still no real explanation as for why the Emblem Heartless are here in the past. My best theory is that someone used the Book of Prophecies to summon them... somehow. It really just seems like an excuse to gloss over the corner Nomura wrote himself into with the whole ‘Emblem Heartless were made by Ansem’ thing, but we’ll see.

Honestly this whole series is just one big endless death-spiral of constant retcons and nonsensical plot twists and at this point I’m just exhausted. My view on KH has become one of mild and morbid curiosity, rather than expecting anything truly great. Is that cynical? Yes, but I’ve watched other once-great series (Star Wars, Voltron) worsen over time to the point that they just fizzle out and die, and I’m afraid it’s the same deal with Kingdom Hearts. I don’t think I’ve truly enjoyed a KH game since BBS, and if the series just continues down the path of introducing bland new characters every time Nomura gets bored rather than developing the already established ones, I don’t know how long I can stay interested. The Dark Seeker Saga is over and he really needs to let Xehanort go.

To end this on a positive note, I am tentatively hopeful about Melody of Memory. The gameplay looks cute and fun and the story looks like it will have more development for Kairi and her backstory, which is something I’ve been wanting for a while now. Focusing on the original cast is definitely a step in the right direction, and I hope this series can keep moving forwards rather than backwards.

[nadziejastar]

Thoughts on Project Xehanort?

Well, I have mixed feelings about this new game, but I will say that I am interested in it. Most likely, I’ll play it. I’m very interested in Xehanort’s character. 

First reservation is about the platform. I actually think that smaller KH games can be better in many ways. Days had so much character development because it didn’t have to follow the console KH formula. It could do something different and offer a “slice of life” feel that wouldn’t be possible in a regular KH game. The characters benefited tremendously from this. Especially Axel. It’s why he’s my favorite.

In many ways, KH3 was a victim of its enormous budget and its need to appeal to everyone, even the most casual of KH fans who don’t care about the intricacies of the story and characters. So, a smaller release like Project Xehanort may have more creative freedom. It might be just the game Xehanort needs to flesh out his character. But like with Union X, tying so much essential backstory to a mobile game can be a problem in the future. And then there’s the focus on micro transactions, which sets mobile games apart from PSP or DS games.

Presently there are 4 main untold stories to consider: “the period of the King’s absence”, “the period of Riku’s absence”, “Roxas’s time in Organization XIII” and “Xehanort’s past”. In this case, the story of “the period of the King’s absence” is set in the realm of darkness. I am examining a way to tell these 4 stories so I might be able to find a way to tell them soon.

At the same time, I have to look at this game for what it is. Xehanort’s past was one of the blank periods Nomura wanted to cover. No doubt, this was going to be covered in BBSV2.

—In KH BbS, Master Xehanort’s goal behind opening Kingdom Hearts was to “create a new world.” But in this game, he says it is to “reset the world.” Why the difference?

What was revealed in this game was another piece of the truth: his goal was “this world is no longer any good, and we have to recreate it from scratch.”

—We are interested in why Xehanort would come to such a conclusion.

At first, I did want to use a next game to dig down into how Xehanort went from that simple boy playing the chess-like game to an admirer of the darkness. But, if I do that, then the Dark Seeker Chronicle wouldn’t have ended with KH3 after all (laughs.) Some ideas had solidified to a degree, but it’s shelved for now.

After that was canceled, Nomura didn’t think he’d get the chance to cover Xehanort’s past at all, because the Dark Seeker Saga was supposed to be over. IMO, we’re lucky to even get this game. And it shows just how badly Nomura wanted to show Xehanort’s past.

So, I am interested in this game and unless it’s just absolutely terrible, I will play it. But at the same time, since it’s coming out in 2020 instead of 2011, I don’t think it’s going to be the same backstory we were originally supposed to get for Xehnaort. Like KH3 itself, ten years ago, this game would have been a lot different.

I mean, Look at Lea and Isa. I am 99.9% sure that their original backstory was that they were test subjects in the experiments on the darkness of the heart. They were so obviously set up for that role. Around 2010/2011 BBSV2 gets cancelled. The leftover plot threads get repurposed to fit a new story arc. Suddenly Lea and Isa are no longer former test subjects. Oh, no. They were just friends with a girl who was a human test subject. In other words, their backstory was repurposed to fit the change in direction. If KH3 came out in 2014/2015, there’s not a doubt in my mind that Lea and Isa would have still been test subjects (I wish they were getting the Xehanort Project treatment, too).

And that is no doubt going to be the same situation with Xehanort’s backstory. I’m sure there will be many elements that are going to be the same, and that is the main reason I’m excited for this game. It’s a rare opportunity to get some cancelled scraps from the ill-fated Xehanort Saga and KH0.5. I’m very excited to see Xehanort and Eraqus’s past together, if that gets shown in detail. But is it going to be the exact same backstory as it was originally conceived before the story got butchered? No. It’s too late for that, unfortunately.

This game is going most likely to be half-Xehanort Saga and half-New Arc. IMO, we should have already learned more about those black things from Scala ad Caelum before the end of KH3. These are the Dark Seekers. These dudes are the true nature of “Replicas,” including Xion. The Xehanort Saga was obviously NOT READY TO BE FINISHED when KH3 released, since we never even leaned what the fuck those guys were.

“Pitiful Heartless, mindlessly collecting hearts. And yet they know not the true power of what they hold. The rage of the Keyblade releases those hearts. They gather in darkness, masterless and free…until they weave together to form Kingdom Hearts. And when that time comes at last, we can truly exist.”

He almost sounded as though he were reciting an incantation.

From what I can gather of the original story, Xehanort—or the entity possessing him, No Heart–needed 13 empty vessels so that each one of those black replica clone guys could have a body as a host. Those beings wanted to truly, finally exist, and that’s why they wanted KH to be completed so badly. Xehanort himself was just a pawn to them and was not entirely human by the time the story began. Saix was also NOT HUMAN. He was Isa’s empty vessel inhabited with one of those horned replica guys. That’s why he was so fucking creepy and it sounded like he was reciting an incantation when he said the above quote. They were going somewhere with all of this.

Portals from the corridors rippled and opened atop the chairs of the Round Room, like candles lighting in negative, and a few members of the Organization appeared in their black cloaks. Numbers 1 through 7 took their seats—Xemnas, Xigbar, Xaldin, Vexen, Lexaeus, Zexion, and Saïx.

“Why are we allowing a novice to attend?” Vexen complained.

The aforementioned “novice”—Saïx, the lowest ranked of those present—didn’t even glance up from the dais.

The whole goal of Organization XIII was to bring those black horned dudes into the Realm of Light. That’s why the organization felt like a satanic cult with the black robes and “candles”. They all gathered around the Nobody symbol in a circle. The Demon Tide was a harbinger of something bad happening. Honestly, I just want that story to be finished. KH morphed into something unrecognizable over the long wait for KH3. It’ll never really be the same as it used to.

[mishmishbean]

Kingdom Hearts review

Riku is precious.

The End

[Major spoilers for this game] I kid! This game is honestly better than I remember it. I never grew up with the original KH or had any other system outside of Nintendo systems until my PS3. And I liked it, but not as much as I do now. Not because of nostalgia, but rather just the game itself. 

Starting off with the main story, I really enjoy how simplistic the plot is. You fight the Heartless with a Keyblade, eliminating darkness that’s corroding the worlds. Each world is a different Disney world, from Alice in Wonderland, Aladdin, to even Tarzan. All of them have their own stories, mostly following the plot of the movie. The stories are short and sweet, after the Keyhole is sealed there’s no going back to the world except for maybe items or drops (which I’ll get to later). Some of them are better than others for sure. Halloween Town or Agrabah are my favorites, with Tarzan’s world being the least favorite. Deep Jungle beats the infamous Atlantis for me mostly because at least there’s more going on in Atlantis storywise. Deep Jungle follows the exact same plot but more dull and text heavy. Not complaining about reading, I love to read but like it was just boring to me personally. All of them tie together in the end as the main villain, Ansem, takes over the worlds. It’s not super complex or anything like the other games that will build on this foundation. One thing I’d improve upon here would be the Disney world stories, some were good or great, while others can fall a little bit flat. Outside of a word from Goofy, there’s no point to go back to the Disney worlds. 

Speaking of characters, they’re fun to watch experiencing the story. Sora’s naiveness and optimism is charming to watch, especially with the voice of a young Haley Joel Osment. At times he sounds a bit too young since he’s supposed to be 14, but that could be said for also Riku and Kairi. Sora’s relationship between all of the characters are well done, I kinda wish there’s more to the Final Fantasy characters. Granted they were cameos but it would’ve been nice to have more depth to them. Disney characters are good, Maleficent being the queen of badass villains of this game. She’s such a ham that I like her better here a bit than the OG movie XD Plus her fight was really difficult as a dragon. It’s kind of funny going back to this game, cause at first I was meh with Riku. He was fine, until I replayed it for this completion and I fell in love with his character arc. I swear he gets the most development out of all games XD I guess I relate to him more as I get better mentally, knowing the struggle of wanting to be stronger but in the end hurting yourself. Kairi’s adorable, sounds younger than she appears but I ship her and Sora. Especially that ending uuuuuughhhh XD

I’m not a fan of admiring over graphics or gameplay. Nothing against those who do love that stuff, as long as I can play it and the story’s good I’ll play it. However, watching the opening and closing cinematics, it’s so freaking gorgeous. It just looks pretty, plus I’m happy to finally see that kind of look in KH3. As for the gameplay... it’s kind of the reason why I couldn’t stop playing until now. There’s so much to play with, the abilities, the spells, weapons, all of it changes the gameplay just enough to where you can pull off different moves, gain more Munny/HP/MP balls, different stats, or have better luck having enemies drop things. I loved just fighting the enemies after being level 70, it was a breeze but still had some challenges. I still wish that Sora’s face was still more animated in voiced cutscenes. While Devil May Cry is a different game and all, it still had more animated faces than Sora could have, especially in 3.

The fun extra stuff is where the real fun comes in. From battling the great Sephiroth, to synthesizing the Ultima Keyblade, it gets addicting after a while. I mostly went after the trophies since it gives me a fun goal to work towards, plus gives a sense of accomplishment. The boss fights were difficult, but worth the reward. Although I was pretty high leveled for Sephiroth, I still got my butt whipped by him several times. Meanwhile I yeeted ??? out of existence in one fell swoop XD. The drops in the game... are the worst aspect of this game. You have to hope that the RNG is in your favor for some of these things, even with all three Lucky Strikes and Encounter Plus. Pink Agricus mushrooms were my biggest struggle until it finally gave in after a while (even at 70 hits it gave me nothing at times). Thankfully, I didn’t need to worry about Donald or Goofy accidentally hitting it unlike the PS3 version. While I didn’t have trouble getting Defender and Wizard’s Relic this time, which I thank the Lord for that, it’s still ridiculous that it’s such a small window opening to get it. At least I didn’t need to pick up all of the Gummi Blueprints... that would’ve been a nightmare. In some way I was kind of tempted but then I remembered I could do other things like the Hades cup. 

I finished the speedster trophy plus a few others on Easy mode, which wasn’t too hard to do. Came close to doing it in a day but I’ve been staying up too late and needed to go to bed. It was a good challenge, sometimes after skipping the cutscene it was a whiplash of “what am I supposed to do now?” XD As for Proud mode, I think I’m going to save for later. I did start it, twice actually since I tried to speed through that by keeping Staff and giving up Sword. That was a mistake. I know it’s possible and all but as someone who always gave up Staff, I died a lot on the tutorial boss. So after restarting that file with giving up Shield, I got to the same place which was the Opposite Armor boss. I dunno how I keep dying outside of just low health and it’s Proud mode but somehow I do. I’m thinking of just doing a Proud mode run after everything or something, I dunno I don’t wanna do it now XD.

In conclusion, it was great to look back on a game that held up over the years. Although there was some things that could be improved upon, it doesn’t hurt the overall enjoyment of the game. I highly recommend it to anyone who likes old Disney movies, hack and slash games, or just enjoys a good story.

9/10 for me or something XD

Next game will be Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, something I never actually finished but watched NicoB play (great lets player if you don’t or can’t get the game yourself). It won’t happen right away since I’m probs going to take a break with either Xenosaga or something. Maybe just finish Avatar the Last Airbender for once XD

[darkzeruda1214]

The Destiny Trio as Pokemon Trainers??

Oh… whoa,

Sorry. That was one of the most random questions I’ve ever gotten. But at the same time really interesting. I do like Pokemon, I grew up watching the show when I was younger. And still a fan of the show and games today.

Now I won’t deny that your question left me thinking. What kind of Pokemon would the Kingdom Hearts characters would have. I’m not 100 percent sure what Pokemon team the characters would have. But I’ll give it my best shot

Now I will have to modify your question and might split it into three parts (for the three trios) if I ever get back to going on it. Not sure if I’d be able to write it for organization XIII (Or the Disney characters... I’m sorry, but Disney and FF characters will have to strictly stay out of this one). 

I don’t think all the KH character would all get a full team, but I’ll try to think more into it.

However, I do believe that they would all get at least 3 Pokemon with them. (But again I do have a hypothetical team for all the trios) But for now I will only focus on the Destiny Trio and a brief explanation as to why I gave these Pokemon to them alone.

I did make a couple of ground rules before I started, one being, that neither of the characters would share the same Pokemon, regardless if one is evolved and the other is still in the first stage or so.

So let’s say I gave Sora a Gardevoir and Riku a Gallade. Since they are both from the same Pokemon line, regardless of different evolutions and are of different genders, they would counteract with each other (and while it would make sense, make the challenge way too easy). So I would cancel that.  

Also, like I said I gave myself a challenge, so there are no starters. And absolutely. No. Legendaries.

*But since region starters are a primary Pokemon that every trainer has to get at first, I decided to add a “hypothetical case” if I were to give them a starter. (And as an added bonus, each starter has to be a different type, so if I give character B a fire type, character A and C must be EITHER water or grass). Just an extra challenge for me.

Also, one Eeveelution since Eevee has the ability to change it’s type when it evolves. And I think everyone has a special type of personality that would fit them well with a certain element.

Also I’m strictly sticking with Gens 1-7, since Pokemon Sword and Shield hasn’t been released when I wrote this.

With that said were we go with the Destiny!

...

Sora

Starting with the one and only protagonist in the majority of the titles, I think it’s only natural I only start with our little cinnamon bun. His type of Pokemon team was a little tricky to come up with considering his easy going personality. But I think I managed to get a stable kind of team. I don’t think realistically he would be very balanced out in types, but since I based the type of Pokemon they get from personality his a little balanced here.

So the main three Pokemon he could possibly have would be:

Eevee

Klefki

Litleo

Okay. Okay. I know I said Eevee was a hypothetical case for everyone, but I’m gonna have the bend the rule slightly once because of the reason behind it. Now as far as why I gave him these three is simple. As for Eevee’s case, since the beginning of the game Sora has been rather classified as this “normal boy.” As stated by Xehanort, mentioned in KH1 and even by Nomura himself. He was just a normal boy so people would be able to relate to him.

So Naturally Eevee stuck with me (not because his hair and Eevee look pretty similar in a sense) but also because Eevee is known as the evolution Pokemon. And as you all know, Eevee can evolve into any Pokemon type (currently only 9 types at the moment when I wrote this analysis). And Sora has shown time and time again to shape his own destiny by his own hand and choices. Despite being that “dull, ordinary boy.” So to me Eevee was the best option.

Again, I know I wasn’t going to add Eevee other than a Hypothetical Pokemon, but I think Sora earned the spot to be the exception because of what kind of character he’s portrayed as.

Now as for Klefki, the answer is obvious. Sora’s the first character to show that he has a Keyblade when the games first came to existence. And while Klefki isn’t exactly one of the most strongest Pokemon it is a good support Pokemon. And to me that really “speaks Sora” because of “his friends are his power” and how much he supports his own friends.

So maybe not a powerhouse, it still speak reflects Sora’s character.

Litleo has a few reasons why he’s on Sora’s team, and namely because of a certain Pride Lands exploration. But also just in general because I’ve always seen Sora having fire as favorite magic spell. So naturally fire would be a good Pokemon type for him. (Also it doesn’t help that in monster’s inc he’s a cat-based monster and the Simba summon is fire based, so...)

Now as for the rest of his team in this hypothetical case scenario:

Lucario (He’s a fighting steal type, which also reflects on Sora’s character and Keyblade)

Pidgeot (His name means sky in Japanese, it would be criminal for not for me to give him a flying type. But also I think Sora would like to have a Pokemon to fly once in a while and I think Pidgeot fit’s the glove)

Lapras (A certain Atlantica incident inspired this one. But also Lapras is shown to be large enough to carry it’s trainer across water. And in a sense that would also be Sora since he doesn’t have trouble to carry extra weight to help his friends) Also Lapras is adorable and so is Sora.

(The starter I think he would more likely get would be Charizard) (And he already has normal Eevee, so…)  

…

Riku

This one was a bit of challenge for me to figure out, but in the end I managed to get something in. I’m not 100 percent happy with this team, so if you might think that there are other Pokemon who fits him better, I understand why, but this is what I got.

The main three he would call upon the most would be:  

Zoroark

Lycanroc (dusk form)

Aegislash

These three Pokemon spoke a small little story to me when I put them in that specific order.

Zoroark was the first Pokemon that came to mind when I thought about Riku’s team. The majority of the time we see Riku’s he’s struggling or is using darkness to help him win his fights or get an advantage. So there’s no way I wouldn’t give him a dark type I think Zoroark made the most sense. Not because it’s solely a dark type, but also because it’s an illusion fox.

And while not cannon to the game (at least to my knowledge) the anime has shown that Zoroark has the ability to transform into people. And to other Pokemon. And that’s what happened to Riku, whether he wanted to or not, when he used the powers of darkness Riku turned into Ansem seeker of Darkness. And to me that spoke a nice Pokemon for Riku to have on his team.  

Now as for Lycanroc (more specifically dusk form), Riku also came off to me as this “lone wolf” kind of character. And yeah sure there is Mightyena, and let’s not forget Lycanroc’s midnight form. I felt that while Riku did have darkness, it’s not too much to the point his entire team would be all dark types. And so we get to dusk form, for one the reason I gave him Lycanroc is because it’s a rock type which coincides with his name. Because Riku means land.

And while I do like the midday form, since it looks more a like a wolf, the Midnight form suited his style more. But at the same time, I didn’t want his team to solely reliant at the night. And so we have his dusk form. And Dusk Lycanroc speaks a lot of Riku’s transition from the darkness to the light. Because he chose neither light nor dark. But the road to dawn. Which to me felt like a mixture of both. (Heck his Keyblade is called “Way to Dawn” which has a combination of both light and darkness) And closest we got to in between was Dusk form. So I think it worked the best.

(Also Riku spent a good amount of time in Twilight Town, so…)

When it came to Aegislash, I will admit that it could be either one of the evolutions. But knowing Riku he would want to max out his entire team to reflect his strength. So the conclusion why I came to Aegislash is to continue the story, when he first started out as darkness, he soon came to the light but was still influenced by his past. So when he finally overcame that he started to fight against it and for what is right. And to me, I think the best way to demonstrate that was Aegislash because it’s a sword. And normally when I think of a fighter of good, I normally (stereotypically) think of a knight in shining armor. And the Pokemon that fit the category the best was Aegislash. And to me it finishes the story of Riku’s arc in Kingdom Hearts (or in this case, in the AU Pokemon)  

For the rest of his team, well might not be the best choice I figured it could be like this:

Gyarados (Gyarados is a Pokemon of both intimidation and hard work, in order to get Gyarados, either you have to beat it, or struggle to evolve a Magikarp. And Riku fit’s that bill pretty good IMO. Also Riku can be intimating if he wanted to).

Garchomp (This is mostly because I feel like Riku would have a dragon type, I know Salamence might be a choice. But I think Garchomp eased into the role mostly because of it’s design as well as being a ground type, again fitting to Riku’s name)

Sawk (Okay… I’m not going to lie, I’m not 100 percent sure about Sawk. There are other Pokemon that fit’s the fighter type better. And since Riku is a fighter, I wanted to give Riku a fighting type. In the end I just chose Sawk because of it’s color design, because Riku wear predominantly blue in KH3)

(The starter I think he would most likely get is Greninja) (Eevee would no doubt be Umbreon)

…

Kairi

Kairi was sorta like Riku, a little difficult to decide, as many of the Pokemon I thought would be nice also seemed… too redundant. I tried to limit the amount of Fairy types since that’s the closest we’ll get to a light type in Pokemon. But since Kairi is a princess of Heart naturally she would have more light compared to others.  (I wouldn’t be surprised if she had an all out Fairy team, but again I needed to give her something a little more realistic).  

So in the end I thought her main three would be:

Floette

Milotic

Meowstic  

The reason I didn’t go for Florges is mainly because I think Kairi would care little to evolve her Pokemon for power. I can see her be a bit of a strategist and Floette could provide a good amount of advantages. Also biggest reason I gave Floette, because one: Fairy type. And two, it’s a flower which goes pretty well with her Keyblade.

Milotic was sorta an easy pick because of Kairi’s name meaning ocean. And Milotic is a really pretty Pokemon. I can easily imagine Kairi wanting to join showcases or Pokemon Contests. And just in general it could also represent Kairi and the sign of strength. Despite not looking much, she can grow into something much more than just something simple and dull. (Though… it’s debatable after what happened in kh3... But that’s not the point right now!)    

As for Meowstic, it doesn’t really matter what gender Kairi would get, because I sincerely doubt she would care about that. But I think the female version would be more likely on her team, knowing how it’s typically girls with girls sort of deal. But beyond that, the reason I gave her Meowsitc has to be because it’s a psychic type. For as much as I can tell Kairi has been surrounded in and has magic, and the closest we’ll get to a magic type is psychic type. And while I know there are other Psychics that fill the role. I think Meowstic isn’t too much of a bad choice. That and it’s a cat, and there is a theory that Kairi is a chirithy just like Riku is a dream eater for Sora. So, I use that to help choose her Pokemon.

I think Kairi would definitely have the least amount of Pokemon compared to everyone else. But hypothetically for a full team, I thought this would work:

Ninetales (Alola version) (during my gameplay I noticed that Kairi used a lot of ice spells, so I figured that might be her favorite element in magic. That and Ninetales is really pretty in design and I figured it would be a nice addition on Kairi’s team).

Emolga (The biggest reason? Emolga is freaken adorable, and I know Kairi would have other cute Pokemon, that and it doesn’t evolve, which… sorta fit’s Kairi… but also I think Kairi would be interesting to see Kairi have an electric type that isn‘t Pikachu) that and I think someone else would more likely have Pikachu on their team 

Arcanine (I’m sorry, but no one can tell me otherwise that Kairi would not have a fire type. Despite her nature she has shown to be feisty and can get riled up. And honestly I wanted to give Kairi a Pokemon that does look pretty strong since the rest of her team has an appearance of fragility ~even though the Pokemon themselves aren’t~ I wanted to give her something that would show her fighting spirit too)

(The starter I think she would most likely get is Chikorita, unlike the others I don‘t think she would evolves hers. At least not beyond Bayleef, I feel like Chikorita would be comfortable being in it‘s first stage).

*The other starter that I feel would suit her as well is Fennekin. But her Keyblade is mostly flowers so I felt the grass type held a little more influence in what starter she would get

(I’d be an idiot to not give her a Sylveon)

...

And that’s pretty much it, I actually had a lot of fun writing this, and honestly I think I might do the others to. Also, please consider that this was done for fun and not meant to be taken seriously. I understand that others will have different views and opinions. And that’s totally fine, I see no harm in it at all. In fact I’m really curious,

What Pokemon teams do you think these character would have? I’d love to see what you all have in mind

That’s all for now, thanks for reading

[romy350-romyakari]

So a quick question I have for you. (May not have a short answer) But what do you think Gula's personality to be like? What kind of strengths and weaknesses does he have? Beyond the obvious he's logical and reserved and clever, more in-depth traits that make his character fuller and more like a real person. I'd like to hear some of your deep analysation if you don't mind.

This has take long enough and I want to post it now. [Will edit this maybe later bur now I finish the visuals lets get down to this]

Oh boy

You call it

Everybody prepare bc this may have take me awhile but be ready for my analysis at some level of him.

Warning: this is kind of my personal view of all and may sound weird at some level but I am trying to make sense to all of them (Foretellers in general). I elaborate this in my way to plan some fanfics and to do so i kind of take my time on try to analyse what I had.

You may want to go straight to Conclusions but I point out too circular thoughts at the beginning just for the sake of think of this a bit more

Analysis of Gula:

Cold headed and one of the most clever and quick to catch up stuff that may be happening. He is between the Master of Masters apprentices one of the youngest and has a special friendship develop with Ava, the youngest between all as it seems.

This is the basic we know and I want to put as a base for what I will dive at some point and ramificate to them all in a light way just to reference a bit.

Observations:

Out of my obserbations between one of the strongest things the Master’s apprentices share is their faith that the Master is right.

Back on the scene where Ira confronts them and they acknowledge a nightmare roaming the scene cuts to a flashback which different from the present it has a warm and familiar vive. The Master hold them together, they would laugh and be somehow unite, but the present just will reveal how little they may actually know each other, most of them.

The fact that Ira doubts who to point as most of the other and the rest of the movie with the exception of the bond between Gula and Ava.

Why I point this? This is something special, Gula doesn’t seem to be close to anyone except Ava. He trusts her almost to a degree as his faith for the Master but on a friend to friend way, enough to reveal her and talk about his role completely and openly on his weakest moment .

+ He can care under his masks

Gula didn’t really like his role tha much I think. He didn’t even want the Master to disappear the way he did. But let me add my point on how he came to the conclusion he just wanted things to be the way they were before by summoning KH.

He seems to be usually quick to find a solution or reasoning with whatever he has in front of him but as time passes and he hasn’t been able to succeed as any other task he may have been previously assigned. Even with his best he may have feel the stress of all falling down as I guess, every passing day and thing going worse is clear sing that he hasn’t fuli hir role as his own expectatives. He only show his weak side on the moment he feels can’t deal with it alone after months.

+ Stress if you allow me to say.

It may be me but his minimum expressions show that he didn’t like the whole “Trust no one but yourself”. He may have let it pass about Invi, Ira and Aced but the fact it include Ava may throw him off been one of the closes person he had aside the Master. He wanted to trust her and he did, even if he constantly try to remind himself his Master words.

When he got lost and no more choices left for him to take on his mind there was the last plan: Summon Kingdom Hearts may lure the Master back, right? He would not let them fall intro such foolish actions, right? or so I think may be what pass through his mind or some nature of that. To everything fall since he in no able to fulfill his role.

+ Pressure which equals at rushed actions.

He may be one of the most precise and calculative between the 6 but, he at the end even if he is the genius one he does make mistakes. Like maybe talk a bit too much into the detail sometimes, he is young so understandable he rushes a bit too much sometimes, some few times really. When he slip the fact that Invi talk him into leaving Aced’s alliance he cover any mistake fluently and so naturally that I think he may know how to handle when he wants to clear stuff is he kind of messes up at this point but he could also play the facts though if you pay attention you can tell when he say something he didn’t need to on the moment. He sure knows how to keep an act if is need.

+ Effectiveness though minor struggles on the way

Gula is a boy who keep closed to others if people don’t try much to reach to him as I guess. Ava and the master seem the type to like to know the others but I think Ira, Invi, and Aced been young adults dealing with whatever is their duty they may have let pass the young one if he wanted to approach them or not, they would not mind. My faint guess is that he doesn’t show much of his true self to other and keep the cold headed manner since is what he may feel is expect to him and may be easier than show vulnerability of his own thinking and feeling at personal level, he may show it sometimes to the Master but I guess not that much since he may want to be probe at the others level been one of the youngest.

While I feel Ava been the most reachable one may have reach to him and with time build this friendship bond they have. The only scene I saw Gula drop his ‘mask’ was when He sincere to Ava and how he feel, how pointless his role seem or how much of almost a failure he got to be in a subtle way, he could no more and share with her what has been burdening him. But she could not help him because it go against her moral, he respect that and tae his mask up and wish for her the only thing the others didn’t say to him.

+ A mask over other mask

A/N: personally at this point I am sobbing a bit inside ; ;

But even after all, even if she turn him down, she is still his friend.

So i will touch the mobile game since I doubt their last conversation was that but his will be a bit more lighter so we can reach my conclusion. I can just assume a bit here and arrange facts but maybe is me trying to understand him.

After that on Back Cover I believe that wasn’t their final talk and may had another talk before the war but at this point I assume a pre-stress state creeping on them.

Gula may have go off with his plan but I don’t think he remember he badly even after that. He keep his believes strong towards his plans which I personally feel may be his attempt of ‘desperate try’ to get the Master to come back to all of them.

He may feel he can’t do anything about the end at this point.

In this moment on the timeline I assume pretty much each foreteller has fall in osme hole of pre-stress with the Keyblade War already on their heads. Which I assume took the drastic change I perceive on the story previously and at the war. Al is ending and I am not an expert but is the only thing I could think. Kids weren’t acting as kids too at this point in some cases because they were as well exposed to this opriment part of their story, fights between wielder became frequently and so all fall apart till it reach its end.

And the reborn.

He did try to wear his mask till the end and he did.

But it wasn’t over there as you know from the Epilogue on the Dark Seeker Saga. So let me one last time before reach the conclusions, there is so few left from me repeating stuff like crazy and to the best resume I can give and is more simple but I want to point this out before dive into it.

He got back to life, but even so you all hear him ask Luxu a reason why would he not include Ava. The bond of this two is a special thing I think the Master didn’t mind but will always be something to the matter, because they care about each other and if Ava’s out I have high expectation for him to want to know what become of her.

Hear me right here, the Master may still be important to them but Gula was expecting the Master to appear, maybe a childish thing that he would save them all because he was always hold in high regard by all of them but I think his faith may be starting to shake on a slightly not solid ground. Ava didn’t help him bug did give her an answer and even so is still his friend as so he to her.

Friendship has proved to be a factor that can get you to change views or who you choose to ally so I suppose he may play along but may not let this down, still this is a faint though with all going and and I first write most of the important remarks for this before this semi rambling part, sorry about that.

Conclusions:

Gula is a teenager that has got big responsibilities, may wear a mask ver the real one with his cool headed demeanor. tuns down companionship but if you get to actually know him you may notice this is just one side of his personality.

Weighted with the responsibility to stop an inevitable betrayal, and torn between his master’s orders and the believe one of the few he trusted till he could not longer wanted to do it all alone. shows weakness and vulnerability only with the ones he trusts and can keep appreciating said trusted people even if they are not up to help him on the moment. Loyal to some degrees.

Slips and messes up but tries to keep the control of the situation even so, flexible as the situation calls. but will always to be reasonable unless he is really into do a thing on his way, so kind of stubborn I will say.

Sassy when it calls and also probably honest s needed, a mechanism to comebacks or protection maybe but mostly used to handle situations.

May have his reasons to be so close and reserved. Life is not always fair you may guess.

At the end he is just a kid would may have been happy with the few he had before all this mess start to fall down and deserve a better guidance on social skills. He means no bad but truly would be more understood if there could have been time to work with his reserved ways and mistrust to the world in general out of his closed circle of people he trusted.

He is clever but still just a kid handed down a responsibility of something bigger than him.

He as the other may have get this to work if they have know at some good portion each other and had a light weight of trust. But that wasn’t the case this time.

He is a piece on this game after all where he still may remain for a while while, or who knows?.

Okey so I finally end this mess, I did some doodles but most of all I wanted to go around this thing I may overthinking and so. i truly love gula for the many ways you can read though him slowly and maybe I can help but wish happiness for him or so I hope, because he as the others deserve a chance to learn many thing out of dutty and be more than just a piece of something that was set to be.

I don’t think he means bad but I wish he could have learn more, maybe if he were to connect with others he would have archive some progress with his way to be, I believe it may had to do with past experience but out of all, I wish i could know more on what he think out of all of been back. If he goes full change of banc I am going to cheer for him and even the other as sobbing, is just maybe that I see him and the other as humans as possible gets me soft but I wish each of them could work on their own issues with the time flow on them and encounters in the future

Geez I suck at this and just may go in circles but I think it maybe was good to remak.

Thanks for getting this far if you read all!

[blade-of-light]

Honestly this game has become so underwhelming and I can’t figure out why.

Like, I don’t think it’s any one one big thing. Like, I enjoyed little things like Corona was amazing and I loved it, the Carribean was gorgeous and I actually had fun exploring once I got into it. I had fun with the cool new spells and gameplay and you bet your ass that I loved the summons and shotlocks and aaaaaaall the different keyblades.

But like... I’ve finally rescued Aqua and gone through the reunion for all the characters, and honestly the second I got to the the final star system my initial reaction was “that’s it”?

Like

I was hoping for more worlds to explore. Not because I didn’t enjoy the other ones, but because I wanted something new. I wanted to be surprised by something unexpected. When we saw the trailers for Olympus, it was kind of like a joke in the sense of “oh, of COURSE Hercules is gonna be in there, why wouldn’t it be?” Seeing Rapunzel in there was something hopeful and exciting. The little shows of Toy Story and Monsters Inc I knew was just them showing off the graphics and how far their animation has come in the new engine.

But then it just... didn’t stop?

They showed us, literally, every world that was gonna be there. And like, for me half the fun was being surprised and exploring and seeing for myself. None of the other games had NEARLY the same amount of promotions and spoilers.

People keep saying “oh no, believe me those weren’t spoilers” but like... for me it is??? Like, almost every world I went to I could predict the over all story because of the tiny bits we got, just because that’s how my brain works. But I don’t WANT it to be like that, I want to be surprised and enjoy discovering things for myself. I spent MONTHS avoiding my fandom and blocking every fucking kingdom hearts tag I could because goddamnit I’ve waited 13 years for this fucking game, and I don’t want THIS one of all of them to SPOILED for me.

But at this point I’m wondering if it even matters because I find out I’m almost done with the game and I’m afraid it’s just going to be a big let down.

I’m done with Kingdom Hearts. I’ve outgrown games and my interests have shifted to writing and creating, not playing or watching. I already knew this was going to be my last game and I wanted an epic conclusion to my childhood saga. But so far all the LITTLE things have kept bugging me, and I think that’s what’s been building up to this feeling I’ve gotten. The animation, as gorgeous as it is, keeps artifacting on the hair, and its distracting. The writing feels rushed or contrived, except for like three worlds. The English voice actors are struggling to bring these characters to life because, again, they were rushed, and of course Square made KH WAY TOO ANIME this time and made them react in much more cliched “anime-esque” ways, especially with the constant gasping. Haley Joel’s new deliverance of Sora just bothers me, and honestly having Donald and Goofy still sound the same is the only thing that’s saved my sanity.

At this point, I’m seriously tempted to just start the whole game from the beginning, in Japanese, just so I can try experiencing it “new” again. Because I don’t WANT to end this game feeling bad. I want to thoroughly enjoy it and I’m praying right now that hearing it in the original language, even if I can’t understand everything this time, will help alleviate this internal cringe I have every time I watch a cutscene. 

I knew I had outgrown this game, but I didn’t realize it would be this bad.

I dunno, I just... need to figure out how I want to finish this.

[seduceme-lovestruck-thearcana]

I finished KH and I’m so happy and that ending made me cry but I have a few questions and thoughts

Whenever Roxas and Axel were on the ledge of the tower and Isa, XION, and the other people’s name I can’t remember jOINED. I CRIED. THATS SO PURE. ESPECIALLY ISA JOINING LIKE oh my gosh.

ALso, I was rlly sad tho bc Sora left everyone. I wanted to see some sweet Riku and Sora moments before he left but nO. And I hate how Kairi has to suffer like that like wOW.

Also, Sora was with Kairi at the ending on the tree but he faded and she didn’t. DID HE DIE?? Is she actually there?? That’s my main question.

Also, Xigbar came in the ending and said something and summoned these people inanimal masks and then tHE BLACK BOX APPEARED. AND MALEFICENT WAS THERE. AND Un

Another KH??? Or is it the end?? And we don’t get answeres

I’m lost I’m sorry

But in conclusion, that game was amazing. It was so sweet and it had an amazing ending and let’s just say I almost cried. Literally tears were forming and it ended so they disappeared. It’s combat was good the skills and the places were amazing. And just the graphics itself was amazing. Very realistic. Their mouths moved correctly with the words (past games their mouths just moved up and down and side to side and didn’t rlly form the words they were saying), the relationships were amazing, the loyalty, tHE LOVE, it was just all amazing. I may be lost on the story because KH is confusing as fuck, but I still love the series and games with all my heart and happy it came to this

But those 4 people with masks appeared and Sora left so maybe a continuation?? Idk. I just want some Soriku fluff so give me blogs for it

That is all. Have a good day unless I decide to post some more things.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I was reading this https://www.polygon.com/22533951/final-fantasy-7-remake-intergrade-intermission-yuffie-cloud article about the FFVII Remake DLC. And it’s talking about how Yuffie is sort of an anti-Cloud in it. 

And Nomura has this to say about Yuffie: “At the time of the original and even now, my perspective of her has not changed very significantly. Yuffie is an energetic and straightforward character. That being said, as this episode is centered around her, I believe we were also able to depict her sensitive side.” I think he also had this to say about her: “Yuffie cares deeply and openly about what other people think of her.”

The article talks about how Yuffie is an anti-Cloud (who is traumatized from all of the thing he’s seen, even if he doesn’t know the full weight of it himself yet), because she’s open to people (opposite of the more reclusive Cloud) and energetic (Cloud’s definitely more stoic). And in combat, she’s going as far as to do Sailor Moon type of introductions and whatnot. And that’s because she honestly hasn’t seen shit yet. But by the end of the DLC, she has. And that will definitely change her some. That’s surely why she’s going to (at first) become the materia hunter from the original game, just out for herself, looking to screw Cloud and the crew over.

But, anyway. I was thinking about it... And Nomura might be doing a similar story arc with Kairi. And, yes. Kairi has had character arcs. People like to think that she hasn’t, but she has. In Kingdom Hearts 1, it was all about her learning to accept change. She was afraid of change, after Xehanort kidnapped her and threw her into space when she was five. But by the end of the game, she has no choice but to accept it, when she has to return to a world without Sora and Riku: the people she’d wanted to be together every day with.

And then in Kingdom Hearts 2, her arc is about her realizing she’s tired of waiting on the sidelines and that she wants to do more. Though Kairi wanted to go with Sora to find Riku at the end of KH1, she was swayed away from that idea pretty easily when Sora told her it would be a bad idea. But in Kingdom Hearts 2, she’s decided that “waiting isn’t good enough” and that she wants to fight, too. And she actively tries... even if the plot somewhat derails her from this... And then Dream Drop Distance still happens without her because of bad writing, but the intent was there!

And Kingdom Hearts 3 is her finally getting her chance to do her part like she wants... but she has to come to the sad conclusion that she actually wasn’t ready for it at all, and the consequences of that are dire.

And that’s a lot like how in Yuffie’s DLC, she thought it was all fun and games at first. But then someone dies on her watch, and she sort of has to accept the reality of war.

We somewhat already know how this is going to affect Yuffie.

But we’ve seen a little bit of how it’s affected Kairi thus far... Even though I actually sort of hate this arc for her, and it isn’t what I would have chosen, but at least it’s an arc for her. In Melody of Memory, she wants to go with Riku to save Sora. But she understands the weight of things now. At this point, she knows she’ll just be a liability. So she’s going to finish her training with Aqua, so she can truly kick butt then.

Other similarities between Kairi and Yuffie, of course, being that they’re energetic and hyper girls (initially light-hearted). And they’re around the same age. And KH1 Kairi even sort of looks like Yuffie, which is even a joke in KH1.

And... this just makes me want Yuffie and Kairi to meet again in the KH verse, and have a proper interaction. Because they do know each other (Yuffie and her crew also, of course, knows of Kairi from all the times Sora mentioned her to them). Kairi was staying with Leon, Yuffie, Aerith, and Cid(?) in the five seconds before the first three left for Hollow Bastion. But we need more. More!

At least Aerith mentioned Kairi and was concerned about her in the Limit Cut episode. That was nice. But still give me more.

[breezy-cheezy]

Ok so just a heads up, I just finished Kingdom Hearts 3. It was about 4 ish hours of yelling, screaming, tears (happy and sad, and really really mixed) annnnnd confusion. Like woah, what a ride. I will be posting/reblogging spoilers too...it’ll be under “KH3 spoilers”, for those who want to block it. Because heck there are some THINGS I wanna draw. Those of you who are still playing through, good luck! It’s a treat!! As for me, some general thoughts, questions and semi theories under the cut 

(almost all contain spoilers below this point so, beware):

- Ok FIRST of all....wow. Gotta say the music is PHENOMINAL. Yoko Shimomura just reaaaally outdid herself here!! As one who’s listened to the soundtrack of kingdom hearts over and over, I recognized so many theme songs and key songs interwoven into the story to complete it to such a wonderful level. Not to mention, I got chills over just some reorchestrations, like wowwwwww...

- Donald is over powered as FREAK, gosh O.o;;;; Also, might I mention he’s ALOT better at healing in this game X’’’’D

- GRAPHICS. REALLY GOOD GRAPHICS. I wish I had a screenshot feature on the tv...I’ll have to look up scenes later, because wow this game is so pretty.

- Every part with Sora using the power of waking is so cool. I’m still super duper confused on the....mechanics of it (especially regarding Sora’s fate) but regardless, getting to save your friends through all the worlds was REALLY fun. I wish they could like. Join you as you rescue them. Stampede the enemy. With friendship. 

- Sora’s scream of emotional anguish on it’s own made me wanna cry. Same for Xion. Goodness the voice acting, y’all are killing me...

_ Riiiiiikuuuuu...I love him so much. He’s a good friend, and having to fight his younger self/replica, it’s so clear how far he’s come!! I pointed out that’s what he was like in the first game to my sister, and she’s like “?????? really????” I love this disaster child. I’m sure it’s embarrassing seeing your past self, but also harsh having your past mistakes thrown in your face...anyway, love Riku. Always. He’s a good egg.

- Kairi..........deserved better DX I was REALLY hoping I could play her at least for a little...! But nooooo...at least Aqua was briefly playable?? That was really cool. I just wish...more was done with Kairi. That she had more of a presence through the whole game, like RIku did. Not just the damsel in distress at the end...she did help Sora alot in her own ways I’m just...MAN I feel this could’ve been done better...

- I LOVED getting some closure on a majority of the “villains” of the game. I liked them all. I do wish I knew what actually happened to Vanitas...? Where’d he go?? WHat the...also Repliku’s sacrifice ;;A;; that was really cool. But can’t they just make another replica for him?? Also was Larxene referencing Marly???????? Xemnas’s ending was probably one of my favorites. 

- TERRA COMING BACK WAS FREAKING COOL AAAAAAA--- the wayfinder trio was so terribly tragic, I’m so glad they can be happy again...

- ALSO SCREAMING ALOT FOR SEASALT TRIO, GOODNESS FINALLY FINALLYYYYYYYYYYY *sobs* 

- Axel actually having a reason for his weird face tattoos was really cool. Because this poor man is DEFINATELY CRYING NOW aaaaaaaa, I’m so glad for Isa, I cryyyyy...also who the heck was the girl they were talking about?????? I thought it was Xion but I was obviously wrong......I’m so confused, Square. Nomura. Answer me. Who is she. Anyway happy platonic AkuSaiRokuShi does me so much joy, my skin is clear, 10 years added to my life, blesssss

- ALSO “The final World” was really freaking cool and trippy but pretty. Also I know barely anything about KHX...who is the cat with a purse again and why is he in KH purgatory??? X’’’D him reuniting with Ven was really cute...ANYWAY. I collected way more Sora’s than I should, it kicked me out when I gathered 333. X’’’D but hey I got more maximum health! Which saved my butt constantly in the final battles O.o  finding Namine there was really sweet...but who were the other stars?? Who was the other voice? Was that Marly’s sister or...???? Probably has something to do with KHX again and I got lost, but I was so interested...who WERE these hearts???? 

- I wish I got to explore that last kingdomy place I forgot the name of more...it was SO pretty before Xehanort blew the whole dang thing up. Also I’m STILL very confused on his motives?? Why do you want to like...darkness everything up to make a new light world??? What???? Master Eraqus popping up again made me cry...especially his apologies to his kids apprentices. Also helping his friend pass on. Gosh dang. R I P, both of you. 

- The epilogue was wonderful! Just domestic stuff showing everyone is back and well!! I ADORE Xion’s new outfit, I need to gather references...Isa too. ANd Axel.....

-Well...almost everyone made it back. Sora just...didn’t make it then?? What??? Poor Kairi...I had a FEELING he’d “die” in some way. It’s open ended so he COULD come back but I’m just confused where did he gooo????;;A;; bring my Sonshine back....

- NAMINE IS BACK YESSSSS she’s so pretty!! ALSO RIKU/NAMI GETTING SOME SORT OF CONTENT AAAA YES *THROWS SELF INTO THE SUN* platonic or romantic i don’t care that was a cute scene!!!!!! 

- Overall it all tied together really well, but also it’s...very obvious there will be more. Like...Xigbar as Luxu? ...Who is Luxu???? More KHX stuff??? ALSO WHAT’S IN THE BLACK BOX Y’ALL ARE KILLING ME SQUARE I’M SO LOST

- Also, does Yazora actually have a role to play then?? Why was he in the secret movie? Where is Sora? I thought he was in the world that never was but it also MIGHT be TWEWY’s Shibuya???? Whaaaat? And Riku’s...somewhere...too?? That tidbit gave me way more questions than answers what the heck Nomura?? X’D I mean I wouldn’t mind, he is very pretty?? But I thought it was just a toy story joke?? What in the hap is heckening...

- OH ALSO EPHEMERA POPPING UP AND HELPING WITH ALL THE PAST KEYBLADE WIELDERS WAS RAD I KNOW THOSE TINY BITS ABOUT KHX SO THAT WAS REALLY DANG COOL

- In the end I really really loved this game. My favorite worlds are probably Corona, Toy Box, and SanFranSokyo, man, those were so good. I’ll probably research KHX a bit, because alot of the ending made little sense to me...but for the characters really important to me, they have concluded so that’s good. Well I mean except for Sora. But I’m pretty sure he’ll come back...somehow...

A++++ game Square, exceeded my expectations in many ways, some minor complaints (pacing, Frozen world in general...) and major confusion, but overall I am happy. I loved this adventure, and I’m satisfied with the conclusion ;v;