#it’s gonna be heartbreaking knowing what happened to sora in kh3

[wingblade1357]

The KH3 novel Vol 1 Re:start is on sale on March 28...

March.... 28th

MARCH 28TH

SORA’S BIRTHDAY

NOMURAAAAAAAA

[phoenix-downer]

Scarred

Kairi didn’t really wear anything that showed her back anymore.

Sora first noticed it happening at the beach. Before she’d worn two-piece swimsuits all the time, but now she just wore one-piece swimsuits instead. Still looked as good as ever, but he couldn’t help but notice the change.

And any time they dressed up for a nice occasion or she wore something cute for one of their dates, her dresses covered her back completely. The way she dressed in general was a lot more reserved than it used to be. Muted colors and lots of whites and blacks and... pastels, was it called? Something like that. All he knew was that she didn’t wear the bright colors she’d worn when they were younger.

Still, he didn’t think about it all that much. Kairi looked great no matter what she wore. It didn’t really come up again until the day they went shopping together for clothes to wear to Terra and Aqua’s wedding.

“This one would look great on you,” Sora said as he pulled a blue dress off the rack to show her. It was sleeveless with one of those skirts that was shorter in the front and longer in the back, and he really wanted to see her try it on.

She examined the dress carefully. “It is really cute, but the back’s a little low cut for my taste,” she said at last.

“Awwww, c’mon, you could pull it off easily.” She could pull off anything, really, but this dress in particular would look great on her, Sora just knew it would.

“I don’t think so. That kind of style just doesn’t really suit me.”

Sora frowned and returned the dress to the rack. “If you say so. I don’t know, it almost feels like you don’t want to wear anything that shows your back.”

“And? I’m not a child anymore. I want to look the part.”

“What’s childish about this dress?” he said, giving it a quizzical look. If anything, the dress was classy. Sexy.

“Well, it’s Aqua’s big day. I don’t want to wear anything that might take away from that.”

“Look, this dress is hardly going to take away from Aqua’s special moment. It’s not even white. That’s a rule, right? You’re not supposed to wear white to a wedding.”

She found his hand and gave it a quick squeeze. “You’re learning.”

Sora grinned at that, their earlier disagreement already fading away.

The wedding was awesome, Aqua looked beautiful, and Terra got really emotional which made Sora get emotional. These two had been through a lot to reach this point, and Sora was glad they were finally getting their happily ever after.

It was late when they got back to Destiny Islands. They said goodnight to Riku, and then Sora walked Kairi home as he often did.

But unlike most times, when he said goodnight with a quick kiss, Kairi didn’t stop kissing him. She kept kissing him, in fact. For a long time. Maybe it was something about seeing Terra and Aqua tie the knot, but she was a lot bolder than she usually was.

When he finally broke away for air, her face was flushed and her lips were pink, and her chest heaved as she gazed up into his eyes.

“My parents – aren’t home tonight,” she said, her fingers fiddling with his tie as they both tried to catch their breath.

Um. Um. Did she mean what he thought she meant?

Yes, yes she did. A few minutes later, and they were in her room and on her bed, right where they had left off. His jacket soon ended up on the ground, followed by his vest, and then his shirt. She paused to kiss the scar resting over his heart, the scar from where he’d stabbed himself with the Keyblade of Heart to save her. The scar that was a sign of how much she meant to him, of the lengths he would go to save her.

“Thank you,” she said softly, and he knew she wasn’t just thanking him for this scar but for the other, deeper scar that left no visible mark but had taken his life. Stolen him away from her and their friends until he’d fought his way back to her side.

“Anything for you, Kairi.”

He kissed her again, hoping to show her what words alone couldn’t really say. Her soft hands ran up and down his back, and he found the zipper on her dress and started to unzip it. She stiffened, and he stopped what he was doing and leaned back to look at her.

“What’s wrong?” he asked, bringing his hand to her face and stroking her cheek. “If I’m going too fast, we can slow down, or stop—”

Her eyes flickered downwards. “Sora, before we continue… there’s something I should show you,” she said at last. “You deserve to know. I don’t want it to come as a surprise.”

She turned away from him and lifted her hair out of the way. “Go ahead,” she said softly.

His hands found their way to her zipper again, and he continued where he had left off. As the dress revealed more and more of her body, a lump built in his throat.

Running down almost her entire back was a painful looking scar. It started a few inches below the nape of her neck and went all the way to the small of her back, and he knew exactly what it was from.

The blow that had killed her. The blow that had torn her heart apart as well as his. The reason he’d had to die in the first place. A mocking reminder of all the pain of her death and his, of how she’d been torn from him and then he’d been cut off from her.

The more he stared at it, the more it just seemed like one giant blur. It was carved into her skin, one final screw you from Xehanort, one last act of cruelty to haunt them from beyond the grave.

“It looks awful, I know,” came her voice. “It’s why I never wear anything that shows my back anymore. I don’t want… I don’t want people to see me as a victim.”

Sora’s heart broke a little further at that, and the pieces of it welled up and spilled out of his eyes and got choked up in his throat.

She turned her head to glance back at him. “Sora?”

“I’m sorry,” he said as he wiped his eyes, and he meant it with all his heart.

She zipped the dress back up and turned around to face him again. “Don’t be,” she said, her hair brushing against her cheeks as she shook her head. “It’s not your fault. I just wish it wasn’t there. It’s not beautiful like your scar. All it is is a sign of how weak I was. I saved you the first time, but I was too powerless to keep myself from dying.”

It was his turn to shake his head. “You’re wrong about that. You’re a survivor, Kairi, not a victim. Dead people don’t form scars. Only the living can. This scar… the reason you have it may hurt us both, but it’s also a reminder that you’re alive. Xehanort didn’t win. Death didn’t even win. In the end, something a lot stronger did.”

“When you put it that way, I can’t help but think… maybe it’s not so bad.”

“No, it is bad. But it doesn’t have to stay that way. We can make it good.”

He moved behind her and unzipped her dress one last time. As it slid down her body and gathered around her hips, the lump in his throat just got bigger and bigger. All the memories from that day were coming back in an awful rush, and he had to do something about it.

So he did. He leaned forward and kissed the scar like she’d kissed his scar all those years ago. The skin of it was raised and bumpy, like the scar over his chest, not at all smooth like the rest of her skin was. His tears slid down his cheeks and smeared onto her back as he kissed his way down, his fingers joining in to caress the scar as he committed every inch of it to memory. Because if she was going to live the rest of her life scarred like this, scarred because of his failure, then he was going to kiss that scar every day they were together from here on out.

His tears washed over it, and he willed them to wash the pain away. Both his and hers. He couldn’t be there for her as she’d died. Not the way she’d been there for him, anyway. He couldn’t change the past, either. Several years later, and his own grief was the only comfort he could offer. But maybe it would be enough. Maybe he would be enough.

When he was done, he just wrapped his arms around her and held her. The scar on his chest touched part of her scar, and with each beat of his heart he willed life and healing from his wounded heart into her body and soul.

“See?” he said, his voice shaking as he caressed her skin. “We can make it good.”

She tilted her head so she could kiss his cheek. “Yes. Even this.”

“Especially this.”

A soft smiled danced across her lips at that. “Thank you, Sora.”

“Anything for you, Kairi.”

And he meant it. He really, truly meant it. They might both be scarred now, but they weren’t alone. And that was what made all the difference.

Together, they’d find healing. Together, they’d find hope. And together, they would make even the bad things good. The scars would remain, but so would the reminders of their hard-earned victories. Of everything they’d been through so they could be together now.

And because of that, holding her in his arms was that much better than it would have been otherwise. That much better because of what it had cost him. That much better because of what he had sacrificed.

And knowing she felt the same way? Knowing she could see past the scars and the heartbreak and find a way to make things good again?

It was worth it. It was worth every tear and heartbreak, if it meant they could finally be together.

And it was absolutely worth every scar.

@kingdommad300​ first suggested this idea to me a few weeks ago and wrote a fic of it themselves called Reminders. Then @gotmilk5101520​ brought it up in a headcanon post, and I knew I had to write the thing. Especially since @mzelle-lazuli​ and @angel-with-a-pipette​ were both like... please write some fluff now. But joke’s on them, even my fluff is angsty nowadays! The lasting legacy of KH3, everyone.

Anyway, this is a followup of sorts to my fic called Scar that I wrote... almost a year ago now. My how time flies. Probably gonna post it over on AO3 and FFN here soon as well, if that’s your preferred way of reading.

As always, thank you for reading!

[the-blue-sandglass]

A SophBot’s Thoughts: Kingdom Hearts III

SPOILERS UP AHEAD! DON’T READ IF YOU HAVEN’T FINISHED THE GAME-

Here’s me summing up best I can my thoughts on a ten-hour game I’ve been pumped about for several years!

Two characters in particular will get their own post(s), as I have...things to say.

I love this game to death. The gameplay is smooth, there’s so much potential in battle, the graphics and soundtrack are beautiful, and beating the snot out of creepy hooded people has never been so much fun, at least in my eyes.

However, while I did enjoy the story overall, several things bring it down and can put quite a damper on the experience of the Dark Seekers’ finale. But first, I’ll start off with what I enjoyed story-wise.

Sora

Ah, Sora. Our good boi. One of the best bois.

Sora is arguably the character who’s written the best in the game - perhaps it’s a matter of screen time and being playable, but he ended up doing the most out of everyone (a problem on its own, but we’ll get to that when we get to it) - all while veering on the edge of despair.

Maybe I’m rather biased, as he’s always been one of my favourite characters in these games, but seeing him get up and fight again after that crap he went through at the end of DDD, and not only get back the strength he had initially lost but prove victorious was more than a prideful moment for me. His interactions with Donald and Goofy (for the most part, we’ll get to that bit when we get to it) were great and felt pretty natural and friendly, you feel the connection there. The idea that this lad’s also just barely holding on puts things into an interesting perspective...and makes that goddamn moment (you know the one) all the more heartbreaking.

You did wonderful, my good boi. You’ll be back. But that’s a matter that proves...problematic.

Worlds

Admittedly, the lack of Final Fantasy was disappointing. But the way most of the worlds were handled in the overall plot has a clear improvement that makes the story of each one a lot more investing. Holy hot damn, the villains have an actual reason to be there-

THE DAY IS G O L D-

Also...seeing these dramatic, edgy villains get torn to shreds by Disney characters is bloody glorious.

Never would one expect ‘Woody roasts Xehanort’ to be such a goddamn awesome search-

Skididdle, skadoodle, Xehanort. You are loved less than a noodle-

The Whole Rest

Since I don’t want this to be overtly long, here’s a list of other scenes I thought were-

-The reunion between the Wayfinder Trio (top notch, lads, tears all around)

-Most of the Roxas story (a bit more attention would have been nice, but still pretty good as far as I could tell)

-YEETUS VANITAS

-Luxord Overboard

-San Fransokyo in general (yes, I cried at BH6)

-Corona in general (those interactions! The dance in the middle of the square, YESSS-)

-CHOO CHOO, MOTHERF-

-Most of the Org XIII’s death scenes were handled well

-WHERE’S THE LAMB SAUCE, SORA- 

-I’M ON A BOAT-

-THAT BIT IN THE KEYBLADE GRAVEYARD WITH EPHEMER AND THE KEYS OF THE FALLEN

-Eraqus and the Wayfinder Trio (brief as it was)

-Those bits with Kid!Xehanort (where did you go wrong, kid-) and Kid!Eraqus

-Most bits of the credits (the final cutscene will be discussed separately) were goddamn adorable

-That cliffhanger could lead us to...interesting places.

-And that shot when Sora’s saying how Xehanort’s caught up in the shadows, as it won’t save for some reason and I feel it’s underappreciated-

And then it alllll went WRONG.

Okay, maybe I'm pushing it a bit. But the story’s hardly perfect. Where to start...oh yeah, the beginning and problems that peek their heads out.

No bulli Sora!

I’ve mentioned before my...distaste for Yen Sid’s actions in passing, but let’s get into the start of things, and this doesn’t apply just to him in particular. But it starts with him - and arguably ends with him too, but it’s one of the things I'm gonna talk about in the next post.

I won’t discuss it too much but - wow, there’s a startling lack of tact for this traumatic event Sora went through, how long ago? I doubt it’s been long enough for the boy to be completely over it, as he’s clearly still hurt and affected by the lack of strength he has; even Pete pointing it out clearly stings!

Yet, literally everyone treats it as a joke. Which, I wouldn’t be so bothered by if Sora’s chill with it (like maybe a ‘Hey!’ and then a laugh)...but he’s not.

He’s almost always folding his arms or frowning and not saying anything while everyone just laughs at what’s basically him being stuck with a crappy position. For most of the game, Donald and Goofy are pretty good - but when this pops up, it puts a damper on it, at least for me.

Which leads me into...

DDD’s climax? What’s that?

Did everyone besides Sora, Donald, Goofy, Yen Sid and Young Xehanort forget about DDD’s ending? The fact that Sora nearly got turned into a bloody vessel?

Well, apparently! 

As far as I remember, the only time the event’s really discussed as it is (not just ‘Sora lost his strength’) is near the start when Yen Sid’s reminding him of it even though Sora is literally the last person who should have to be reminded about it, LITERALLY OLD MAN HE WAS THE VICTIM OF IT-

Anyway, there’s that bit, and that one scene I joked about in Toy Box-

Well, no shit he remembers you. You only stalked him and tried to possess him. And then after that, it’s never really mentioned again? There’s not even a line like, ‘You’re no longer of use to us’ of any kind which makes the climax of DDD feel...well, empty. Hell, it kinda makes those parts where something bad happens to Sora (like when the asshat above yeets him into Verum Rex just to troll or when Marluxia uses ‘Sleep’ and never uses it again) feel like they’re cheap tactics to make the player go ‘Oh no!’. But yeah, story-wise, how does that impact the rest of III aside from Sora losing his strength?

Wow, as if it was just an excuse to have Sora be at LVL 1 at the start of the game!

OH WAIT.

THERE’S SO MANY GOOD CHARACTERS, USE THEM-

One that’s not as big to me anyway, but still worth noting. A lot of characters in KH3 don’t really get the screentime they should. They just sorta show up, and do what they have to. It works fine...! It just...feels kinda underwhelming not to see more of them.

Looking at the way Terra was handled, as I leave you with a question; after he gets brought back into his own body...what is he allowed to do?

Granted, I won’t complain that characters from Twilight Town and the Disney worlds get more to them - it makes you believe that Sora and his squad are friends with them now, but it would still have been nice to have seen more of characters like Aqua, Ven, TERRA, Roxas and Xion...though those last two might be helped in the new DLC.

I hope.

But, I doubt the DLC could help the next two cases out much...oh yes, I refer to Kairi and Yen Sid. And surprise - Xehanort will be getting his own in regards to his actions and how...our heroes respond.

Down the rabbit hole we go!

(sorry if this was structured a bit weirdly, my first time doing a post of this type-)

[ambris]

MAJOR KH3 SPOILERS BELOW

Now that I beat the game I wanna give my biggest thoughts on it. But fair warning, it’s a rather negative review.

Sorry ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Honest to god I’m a bit disappointed. What I’m not sure of is, was this how KH always was, and I’m just more cynical? Maybe. I’d have to replay at least KH2 to be sure--but I really don’t think that’s the case.

My experience with KH3 went from excitement and optimism, to general acceptance, to sheer disappointment over the course of the game.

KH3 had the veneer of the epic sprawling non-sense that I love about the series, but none of the sincerity behind it. The finale involved a rapid-fire series of resolutions for every hanging plot point, and a generally instant reversal of events that were heartbreaking and tragic in previous games--without the hardship and narrative buildup to EARN that payoff.

In a word, it was cheap.

Xion’s tragic sacrifice? Eh, she’s back now--that was easy. Terra’s loss to corruption, nah he got better. Oh yeah, whatever happened to Namine? She doesn’t even get the 3 minute COMPLETE RESOLUTION that the others get--just a short clip in credits sequence.

Aqua’s rescue arguably had the best build up, but for the sheer amount of drama the trailer created about her being corrupted, in the actual game saving her was just a simple bossfight.

I expected KH3 to be at least as epic as KH2--that’s all I really wanted. But ironically, KH2, with relatively smaller scope and stakes still felt like a bigger richer experience and a climax that moved me.

KH3 feels like Tetsuya Nomura decided that he was done with the series, and just wanted to wrap everything up in one go, dramatic pacing be damned. Considering the teasers at the end of KH3, that may not be true, but it sure felt like it.

The visual direction and the voice acting are flawless in convey the high emotion I expect from this series, but in the writing there’s nothing to build it up. I know what you might be thinking: “Lol, criticizing Kingdom’s writing”, but KH3 isn’t even following it’s own pattern. Yes, I know the series has non-sense logic and wild mystic babble--but I don’t care. It’s lack of consistency is internally consistent. But what really drives KH’s story is the melodrama. None of the characters are deep or complex, but man they sure do feel big feels. And that’s always been the case. Seeing these characters act out their big feelings and literally changing the world around them by FEELING SO MUCH was always the most emotionally moving part of KH.

But KH3 seems to have forgotten that, and merely goes through the same paces without understanding it’s own method that’s worked in the past. You can’t have ultimate tragic finale wherein characters sacrifice themselves to set right the world (like Xion and Roxas) only for them to conveniently be okay, with pretty much zero effort on the characters.

All the drama associated with these characters in previous games, whole climaxes dedicated to them--just to have all the adverse affects resolved in about 30 minutes of KH3 (and they have to share). It’s narrative equivalent of slow-cooking a quality roast for a day, only to put it on white bread with mayo and ketchup.

And it’s damn disappointing.

A major separate but related criticism is just the sheer neglect Kairi’s character gets. She spends all of KH1 in the fridge, and the rest of the franchise sitting on a beach doing nothing but soulfully thinking of Sora (meanwhile he’s off having adventure and only sometimes thinking about her). Kinda typical sexist dynamic, but whatever, the early 2000s was a different time.

KH2 ends with us knowing that Kairi can summon keyblade now and COOL. SHE’S GONNA BE RELEVANT NOW. Then she spends the entirety of KH3 training, none of which we actually get to see, so she’s effectively fridged again; all we see her do is sit on a rock and soulfully think of Sora--or be emotional support to another male character, Lea.

The whole hyperbolic time-chamber training for her is silly, but I’m willing to accept it if it allows her to get in the conflicts and be relevant. But when the time comes SHE DOES NOTHING but get captured and once again be someone Sora has to rescue.

The process of teasing her to be relevant, only to go right back to the same dynamic is worse than if they had just committed to keeping her a goal post.

I have so much more to say, but this has gone on long enough and I figure this review will negatively received by most anyway, so I’ll just leave it at that.

However, I feel utterly dissatisfied by KH3. It had so much potential, and it flubbed it all.

[phoenix-downer]

Hiya! Thanks for doing the analysis on the Sora finding Kairi in the darkness scene, very interesting to see the different lines! (and my sokai heart sang). haha but also it reminded me about that moment he was like 'i can't do anything without them' and I bet Riku was like 'true but also okay thanks dude, not like im still here or anything' lol (feels like the kind of thing that would be commented on if kh3 had a Shiro Amano manga)

Of course! Glad you enjoyed it!

And lol yes, poor Riku in that scene. 

I’m gonna take a moment to brag on him though because LOOK AT HIM GO OUT IN A BLAZE OF GLORY, DAMN RIKU WHAT A WAY TO GO

And that’s when Sora realizes he really is alone…

“Sorry, Riku, you were my strength, too! Come back, please!”

My horrible jokes aside to help me deal with the trauma, I still can’t watch this scene without getting emotional, and even just looking back at my screenshots of it… a;asghlkdagjsalsfdk. But I want to do a translation post about this scene too, ESPECIALLY SINCE IT BOOKENDS THE SCENE WITH SORA AND RIKU IN HOLLOW BASTION WHERE RIKU LEAVES HIM ALONE AND DESPAIRING BUT IN KH3 RUSHES TO COMFORT AND PROTECT HIM EVEN IF HE’S AN AWKWARD TURTLE ABOUT IT, so I will have to force my heart through Sora’s despair again (Miyu and Haley both kill it, by the way, and both of them will break your heart with Sora’s heartbreak).

Seriously, though, I’m sure Riku knows Sora doesn’t really mean it… he knows Sora isn’t speaking logically in that moment, he’s speaking from his grief and anguish and despair. Sora seems to have a closer than normal connection to people, too, so I wonder if he could actually feel his friends dying? Feel their heartbreak and pain as they were separated from their loved ones, from him?

We have evidence of this being the case from earlier in the game, when Sora reacts to Anna’s heart getting hurt:

This continues the pattern we saw in DDD when he was able to feel Roxas’s pain… though that was because Roxas willingly shared it with him. 

Here, it isn’t a voluntary thing. It just happens. He seems to have become so empathetic that he can feel when his friends’ hearts are hurting and share their pain while they are still feeling it. And not to throw Anna under the bus or anything, but Sora just met her, and while he did form a connection with her and would consider her his friend, he hasn’t known her nearly as long as his other friends.

How much more deeply would he hurt, then, over the pain of someone he’s really close to?

Well, the scene at the Keyblade Graveyard potentially gives us our answer.

Look at the way he reacts to losing all of his friends (except Riku), culminating in Kairi being torn away from him as he reaches out to her:

That anguished scream he lets out makes a chilling amount of sense, because it’s possible he wasn’t just feeling his own pain in that moment, but Kairi’s pain, too, on top of everyone else’s.

So yeah, I’d say his anguish and despair is justified in this scene. Riku, the one who usually tells him to pull it together, is at a loss for words, even:

“How am I supposed to comfort my despairing friend who’s normally the one cheering me up? Uh…”

“Nope, still got nothing.”

But then he does a very Riku thing in that he tells Sora exactly what he needs to hear and goes out in a blaze of glory.

Yep, this scene’s definitely getting a closer look later on. It deserves it.

And a Shiro Amano take on KH3 would be lovely! Who knows, maybe he’ll decide to return to the series someday.