#kh darkling

[hunlutarudce]

I love how the darkling one turned out, though I do wish I did a heart instead of the swirl eye but I didn't think about that til I was scanning it. Oh well.

On the last one I felt like the color fit Ava and Darkness so up you who you think it is.

[scar-eyejolteon14]

What the difference between darklings and heartless to be honest?

I know darklings are fallen keyblade wielders

Yet sora became a heartless unless that what anti and rage forms really are but what really are the contrast and comparison as a keyblade wielder?

[nicolefirekitty]

[pixiepalettes]

[mizmageheart]

Little Darkling girl Ana wants to play on your phone.

[remiconarts]

Whenever I think of drawing something for kingdom hearts, it always comes back to darklings...

[thequibblingking13]

Darkness through the streets of Daybreak Town.

[cq-studios]

I was bored and did a little doodle, pretty happy with how it looks so I thought I’d share

Button version because if I ever decide to sell my art that’s the most likely medium lol

[madasthyhatter]

Kingdom Hearts x Steven Universe Crossover Repost Pt. 4! Pt. 1 | Pt. 2 | Pt. 3 | Pt. 4

Inprnt | Twitter | DeviantArt

[alphascorpiixx]

extremely important fanfic question: would estinien use the word "zigzag"

[incyrayinc]

It's been a wild week

Earthquake, solar eclipse, feeling emotionally overwhelmed...

Something something, Darkness...

(remember not to stare at an eclipse without legit eclipse glasses! Don't recreate this artwork lmao)

[applejuicehq]

happy hallowed ween from my lil guy Tei :]

and Dia :3

[paopupushpop]

man what is your DEAL

[snoozaga]

All the union cross heartless are overdesigned, terrible abominations that shouldn't be allowed to exist except for this guy

Boot

[aro-sora]

Heartless

This month's Carnival of Aros theme is "Humanity and the Non-Human" and these prompts were particularly resonant with me:

It’s been a fairly well-documented phenomenon that many aromantics tend to feel some sort of connection to some sort of fictional non-human species, whether as specific examples, or as a whole. If you relate, what are your thoughts on these characters and concepts as an aro(-spec)? Do you have any experiences in any subcultures related to non-humanity, such as Voidpunk?

So I thought I'd write something about my personal experiences.

It will come as no surprise to people who follow this blog that I am a heartless aromantic and I'm also a huge Kingdom Hearts fan. (To anyone who isn't familiar with KH, in the games there are beings of darkness called Heartless. There's a lot of designs and some are cooler than others so here are a few of my favorites:)

[ID: Various Heartless from Kingdom Heartles, in order, a Shadow, a Neoshadow, a Soldier, and a Darkling. End ID]

These beings are both literally and very much not literally (it's complicated) heartless. They are manifestations of the darkness in people's hearts and seek to steal more hearts to transform into Heartless.

(something something beings that are recognizably human but also . . . not and yet still have the instinctual desire to reclaim what was taken)

A common stereotype about aromantic people is that we are heartless and unfeeling because we don't experience romantic love. Aromanticism may influence a person's emotions and definitely impacts views on romance, but to say that all aros are cold and emotionless is hurtful and arophobic. But I also genuinely identify with the term "heartless." Not feeling romantic attractions makes me feel alienated from amatonormative society, and "heartless aro" is the best way for me to describe that feeling.

My love of Kingdom Hearts is also a huge influence on that. When I say KH rewired my brain, it's only a half joke. I was 5-6 years old when I first discovered these games and this bizarre Disney/Final Fantasy crossover was a very formative experience. "Heartless" is not just a way to describe my aromanticism, its a defining aspect.

What is it, to be Heartless? To be human, once, but now something . . . other: a being born of darkness. Darkness is a force that is often used for evil, but still KH makes a point of not making it inherently evil. Darkness exists in every heart. It can overwhelm, but it can also be accepted and mastered, like in Riku's case. To choose to become Heartless, in Sora's case, is a defining moment of humanity.

My blog url might be aro-sora (because let's be honest, he's super arospec) but the title, "My Heart Belongs to Me," is quote from Roxas, one of the best examples in KH of someone being denied humanity for supposedly not having a heart, yet being one of the most caring and emotional characters in the series. He's not an actual capital-H Heartless (that's Sora, briefly) but his story and his struggles just . . . resonate with me. "I am me! Nobody else!" I want for people to stop thinking of me as something I am not, as desiring relationships I don't want, or even being a gender I am not.

I don't have much experience with voidpunk culture (but now I want to look into it), but recently I discovered the term otherhearted: "Identifying strongly with something nonhuman and/or fictional, without literally identifying as that thing." (I'm a bit on the fence between being otherhearted and otherkin, but otherheart literally has the word "heart" in it and the KH influence is strong.) It's a very queer experience to want to change your identity and be something other than what people see you as. Sometimes I imagine that for myself—claws of darkness, eyes of burning gold. Darkness cannot exist without light, but neither can light exist without darkness. Nothing can destroy me, because I am the shadow at the very heart of the world.

I guess that would make me Heartless-hearted. An ironic term, I know, but similarly to my personal heartless aro identity I find it absolutely hilarious. So many parts of my identity are "contradictions": being bigender, being human and heartless. It fits with the lore of the Heartless themselves: some technically do possess hearts and some don't. (it's complicated)

I call myself heartless the same way I call myself queer. Bigots will use them as insults and an attempt to make me lesser and other and nonhuman, but to me these are my words. They are mine and I give them power, no one else. Someone thinks I'm "heartless" for not experiencing a certain feeling? Fuck them, I AM heartless. And I am still human because I choose to be, not because humanity is something to be given or taken away. I don't have to prove anything about myself to anyone. I define my own heart, NO ONE ELSE.

And if they still think that being heartless—being aromantic—is something "wrong" or "unnatural" or not human? I only have a warning for them:

Beware the darkness in your heart. The Heartless prey upon it.

[mizmageheart]

Happy Easter! Little Darkling girl Ana pops out of a flower to give you an easter egg!

pretend it's still Easter.