#khiii spoilers

[oveliagirlhaditright]

This talk of Clerith's happened to remind me of another Square Enix couple:

[lucemferto]

The dichotomy between redemption and damnation is … really stupid and has poisoned fandom discourse for so long. Like, I am still so salty and frankly confused, that someone can look at the last few cutscenes of Kingdom Hearts III - Xehanort defeated, his ideals and plans crushed, forced to realise that the "dull, ordinary boy" is more worthy of the χ-Blade than he is; HIM BEING ALONE IN THE SHADOWS WHILE ERAQUS IS EMBRACED BY HIS CRYING PUPILS IN THE LIGHT C'MON YOU GUYS THIS SHIT IS NOT SUBTLE - and think:

Yep, he got redeemed, the narrative says: "Well done, Xehanort, your ways were slightly off but you made a good effort."

Like … in what world, you guys?

[vampishdyke]

you ever just look at your homie in shellshocked amazement while he single handedly lays down his life for you against millions of shadow creatures? yeah. me neither. fucking fags

[demispark]

I Swear Mickey Did Not Abandon a Woman in Hell For Over A Decade (In Defense of Kingdom Heart's Mickey Mouse)

Excellent question! @notbrucewayne48 and @mintchocolatemagic , Mickey Mouse did not do anything wrong, and I will explain why.

Firstly, please leave you The Walt Disney Company-based opinions of Mickey by the door. If you have negative opinions of Mickey as a result of him being the mascot of an evil all-consuming corporation, those don't really apply here. Mickey Mouse, in Kingdom Hearts, is the king of Disney Castle and a talented Keyblade Wielder.

People seem to have a lot of animosity towards Mickey Mouse in Kingdom Hearts. Maybe its because his reputation has been ruined by the corporation he represents, I can't say for sure. It's fine if you don't like the guy or think he's annoying, but it personally grates on my nerves when people let that color his depiction and actions in the Kingdom Hearts franchise.

This post ended up pretty long, so if this is way too long of a post, I recommend reading the first two paragraphs, watching the video, and reading the last paragraph. Maybe not as good as a TL;DR, but it should give you enough context and understanding without taking up too much of your time.

Beyond this point, SPOILERS for basically the entire Kingdom Hearts series up to KHIII, excluding the mobile games.

To begin with, what am I even on about? That title is a pretty extreme and ridiculous statement, after all. So, here's the plan: I'm going to show you the clip, and then we'll go through the relevant points on the timeline to examine the truth of this claim.

Here is the claim, made by the supposed victim herself: Keyblade Master Aqua.

Aqua claims that Mickey abandoned her in the Realm of Darkness, knowing full well what a decade trapped there would do to her. However, her statements contradict reality at multiple points, likely due to the effects that sustaining an attack filled with darkness and being submerged in the waters of The Dark Margin, as well as the mental toll of being stuck in the Realm of Darkness for over a decade.

To figure out where everything went wrong, let's turn back the clock by about 11 years, to see where this all started.

At the end of Birth By Sleep, a prequel taking place a decade prior to KH1, Aqua is with Mickey in the tower of the wizard Yen Sid. Following the final battle at the Keyblade Graveyard against Master Xehanort and Vanitas (we'll get to them later, don't worry), Aqua and her friends are in bad shape. Aqua was really the only survivor, with Terra going missing and Ventus' heart being shattered, leading it to sleep elsewhere until it could recover (we'll get to them as well). Mickey, Aqua, and Ven were blown away after defeating Vanitas and destroying Xehanort's attempt to forge the X-Blade (Pronounced the same as Keyblade, and good lord we will get to that later), and Mickey brought Aqua and Ven to Yen Sid.

Leaving alone, and not really having told anyone at the tower where she was going, Aqua returns to her old home, the Land of Departure. There, she drops off Ven's sleeping body, and uses the Keyblade of her now-deceased Master to transform the land into a confounding castle that we'll come to know as Castle Oblivion. Following this, she senses Terra's voice and goes to a world called Radiant Garden. It is here that Aqua discovers the truth of Terra's disappearance. Terra had been manipulated throughout his journey to be consumed by darkness, which Xehanort took advantage of. Using his own Keyblade, he removed his heart and sent it into Terra's body, possessing it.

Long story short, Aqua won the fight but failed to free Terra, and he began to sink into the darkness. Aqua dove in after him, using her Keyblade Armor to protect herself and her glider to attempt to get herself and Terra out of the darkness. Realizing that herself and Terra were too heavy and wouldn't make it out in time, Aqua sent Terra ahead with her Keyblade and armor, launching him out of the darkness as she sank into it.

This will be very important later, so remember it, I won't be getting into it in this post, but it will come back later.

This is where she spent the next decade, wandering through the Dark World and the remnants of worlds that had fallen into the darkness, plagued by hallucinations, phantoms, wave after wave of Heartless, and even a dark reflection of herself that pointed out all of her mistakes and gave a voice to all of her intrusive thoughts.

Mickey didn't know where Aqua went, and it isn't easy to just enter the Dark World, so he was not able to find her. Between being the King of a world and training to become a Keyblade Master, he likely didn't have time to look for her forever, either.

Do we see Aqua sitting around waiting for help to come, as she claims? Nope.

... 0.2 - A Fragmentary Passage is an interesting game.

Anyway, silly new accessories aside, we see Aqua traveling though the Realm of Darkness, enduring the previously mentioned hardships. Here, she encounters Mickey, who slipped in via a world that was in the process of falling to darkness. He explains that the worlds are in trouble, and that he is searching for a Keyblade of the darkness, a counterpart to Sora's that will allow them to seal the Door to Darkness.

This coincides with the ending of Kingdom Hearts 1. After battling through more powerful Heartless, Aqua and Mickey see Riku running towards the Door to Darkness, and are beset by a Demon Tide, a powerful storm of basic Heartless known as Shadows. Aqua attempts to hold them off, which allows Mickey and Riku to assist Sora, Donald, and Goofy in sealing the Door from their side. Aqua tells Mickey to go on without her, before losing control of the Demon Tide and getting swept away. Her ending monologue is resolute, however, prepared to face the darkness and act as a guiding light for whomever finds themself trapped in the Realm of Darkness next.

Not only was this Aqua's choice, her sacrifice, but she stood by it. So what happened, and why didn't Mickey return for her immediately? The simple answer is that Mickey had a lot of more urgent things to worry about than assuming a Keyblade Master couldn't take care of themself.

Immediately after this, Mickey needs to look after Riku and get them out of the Realm of Darkness. This leads into Re:Chain of Memories.

Sora and Co. could help, except that they had their memories tampered with, and will spend the next year asleep while false memories are removed and their forgotten memories are put back in place.

Riku has been struggling with the darkness throughout KH1 and Re:CoM, so he isn't in the best place to be thrust back into the darkness.

Over this next year, the threat of creatures called Nobodies and the sinister Organization XII rears its head, and Riku doesn't exactly get better with his darkness.

Forced to rely on the darkness, Riku transforms into the spitting image of the man who used his darkness and possessed him - Ansem, Seeker of Darkness - and this isn't exactly great for his mental state, either.

Sora was weakened by his journey through Castle Oblivion in Re:CoM, and with the threat of the Organization looming, the hero had his work cut out for him before Mickey would even dare asking him for help.

Sora and Riku, who has finally gotten his darkness under control, end up at the Dark Margin by the end of KHII, but do not encounter Aqua there. Since Aqua was not there, the attack that overwhelmed her with darkness and sent her flying into the water that was mentioned earlier must have happened between the final world of KHII and this scene. They manage to escape, and return to the Realm of Light.

Sora and Riku rest back at their home, the Destiny Islands, during the events of Re:Coded, and eventually receive a message from Mickey calling them to Yen Sid's tower. These boys need to get better, hopefully becoming Keyblade Masters, in order to rescue the fallen Keyblade Wielders from their fates and prepare for the upcoming final battle. Dream Drop Distance comes and goes, and Riku is named a Keyblade Master.

Prior to the events of Kingdom Hearts 3, Mickey relays his experience in the Realm of Darkness with Aqua, to which Riku angrily questions why Mickey never told him or attempted a rescue.

You should know the answer to that by now.

Mickey explains that he respected Aqua's wishes, just as he did for Riku in the past, stubbornly refusing to tell Sora anything about his missing friend during KHII, as Riku was dealing with the whole Ansem and darkness thing and made Mickey promise not to tell Sora.

Yen Sid also chimes in, pointing out that if Sora and Riku had found out, they would've recklessly tried to find a way into the Realm of Darkness to stage an ill-fated rescue mission.

Now, however, the time has finally come. Since Mickey's Kingdom Key D is a Keyblade from the Dark Realm, he could use it to enter the Realm of Darkness without having to use the incredibly unreliable and dangerous method of waiting for a world to fall into darkness.

Mickey and Riku suit up in some new darkness-resistant threads made by Yen Sid and the Three Good Fairies (of Sleeping Beauty fame), and set out for the Dark Realm.

This doesn't go well, to say the least, leading to Mickey and Riku's Keyblades being damaged. Mickey's is recovered and used to create the Star Cluster (which Aqua can be seen picking up in the video shown at the beginning of this post), while Riku leaves the pieces of his behind and recieves a brand-new Keyblade.

Second time's the charm, and now we are all caught up to the aforementioned clip from KHIII.

Anti-Aqua happens, Sora shows up via the power of friendship and following his heart (oversimplification, you know KH isn't that simple), and Aqua is finally rescued from this dark hell.

So, to wrap it all up, Mickey very much did not abandon Aqua. Aqua disappeared off the face of the worlds - literally all of them - for ten years, sacrificed herself to protect Mickey, Riku, and the worlds when Mickey finally did find her, and then Mickey simply did not have the time or resources to stage a rescue mission that actually would've worked in the year or two following his original trip in the Realm of Darkness.

Thank you for joining me on this rather long-winded case. I feel like my writing ended up being a little stiff due to all of the recapping I was doing, so if you have any critiques I would love to hear them!

Until next time, may your heart be your guiding key.

[mythicalartistx]

Wayfinder & SeaSalt Trio Reunion in KHiii

I used to not like KHiii as much but overtime I learned to appreciate it and it does have some really good moments.

Like the whole Keyblade Graveyard battle scene with all the groups reconnecting with their lost friends is so bittersweet and amazing.

Spoilers I guess but most my discussions have spoilers and the game has been out for 4 years 🤷

I mean the Terra breaking the chains scene is amazing. The music is great and that help shows how dramatica it is.

That scene is impactful and no wonder some people cry at it.

One day... I... will... set... this... right...

One day... I will...set.. this Right

I will return to this land..

And protect... My friends!

- Terra KH3

I was smiling to myself the whole time.

The scene is absolutely beautiful. A part of it is because of the fate of the three of them in BBS was so heartbreaking and sad.

And it's so bittersweet.

Now the reunion of the Sea Salt Trio...

Axel goes against Xemnas and Saïx is such a good scene. His poor bf being used.

Xion then tries stopping Xemnas from hurting them is everything especially when it shows Sora remembers them and their name from Roxas.

And I love when Axel regains his memory of Xion by holding his head and probably having a rush of memories before calling the name, Xion.

But it gets better when Roxas arrives and basically tells Xemnas I can do the same thing you can do and you don't know people's hearts as well as he might have thought.

It seems you're not as good as winning over people's hearts as you think

- Roxas KH3

Those scenes are so great

[psychicdragoncoffee]

For context, I've been doing polls regarding least favorite worlds in the Kingdom Hearts series. In all three polls so far I didn't include certain worlds for one reason or another. Either disregarding a place used for a tutorial or straight up forgetting it existed while making the polls.

So we'll do a poll for the disregarded and forgotten. [Some worlds I won't include still are only because those worlds only involve cutscenes in a game they appeared in. For example Disney Castle in KHI, Destiny Island in KHII, or Radiant Garden in KHIII. [Note: I've never played Re: Mind so I don't know if they added something to where you could go there or not and I'd like no spoilers]

Would you kindly reblog for better results?

[omamervt]

Final Fantasy 16 includes not only a man who is more powerful than Donald Duck, but a pair of brothers capable of blocking his strongest attack.

Man they're pulling out all the anime bullshit stops to one-up the titan fight lmao

[blindwielder]

Hello there. This is an AU-focused blog for Riku from the Kingdom Hearts series, specifically set after KHIII. Spoilers will be abound even in the very nature of the AU.

After being killed in the Keyblade Graveyard, Riku's heart was reborn in a world without his friends and without the keyblade. Memories can never be truly destroyed however, and the links of these memories still exist deep in his heart.

ABOUT/RULES | RIKU | AU INFORMATION | HEADCANONS

[another-clayres]

ripples

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Well, then.

An article I definitely didn't expect to see pop up today... or maybe ever. LOL. I actually didn't think that they'd put zettaflare in Final Fantasy after Donald used it in Kingdom Hearts III.

[lucemferto]

Sometimes I just look at people's opinions and I am just amazed by how ludicrously wrong I find them to be.

Case in point: The assertion that the Kingdom Hearts series is moving away from Disney. I mean ... have we played the same series?

Kingdom Hearts III is such a love letter to the Disney properties it represents - in fact, I'd argue that KHIII represents the series moving closer to Disney compared to KHII. The Disney worlds are realised with a stunning attention to detail, the cutscenes are lavish and extravagant and - most of all - the worlds are MASSIVE.

They easily make up 90% of the game and are written with an energy - with the exception of maybe Arendelle - that is completely missing in whatever meagre scraps the original content gets.

I mean, think about it: Kingdom Hearts I had four original worlds, which includes the massive Hollow Bastion as well two decently sized worlds in Traverse Town and The End of the World.

Meanwhile, Kingdom Hearts III has two relatively small original worlds in Twilight Town and the amalgamation of the Keybalde Graveyard, the Final World and Scala Ad Caelum. As well as an in-cutscenes only Hub World where exposition is relayed to us as flatly as possible, while Arendelle gets a whole Let It Go number.

[ultraericthered]

Eraqus and Xehanort are F. R. I. E. N. D. S. to the very literal end!

The idea was done before, but I felt it needed to be taken one step better.

Credit to @sidetailedvixen

[crinkler]

So while I was playing kh3 I noticed that the ultima weapon has three main shafts? and i knew that khi’s is just a sword, so i wanted to check and.. yup, the ultima weapons for khi, khii, and khiii have the roman numerals as the body of the weapon. 

I also noticed a few things about the ultima weapons:

1. they all have sora’s crown as the teeth, except for bbs which has a wayfinder

2. they all have a heart in the teeth. ddd’s heart is a dreameater symbol

3. I don’t know the significance of it, but kh3′s has a LOT of this shape

3.5. khii’s has a sort of similar fleur but only twice. 

4. khii has a lot of crowns

5. The charms are all this same heart!? aaa

6. they’ve all got a heart above the handle, but aside from that they’re really different

7. Most of them have some sort of wings-esque shape on the handguard, ddd has a lot of angel wings everywhere, and kh3′s has what look bat wings on the handguard instead

8. they all have regular chains except for khii’s which has three crowns and kh3′s which has the weird shape

9. bbs’ doesn’t have much to talk about but i love the swirl into the teeth

10. See? angel wings. everywhere. hey this is the game with joshua who randomly sprouts wings and flies away to confuse everyone isnt it

11. khi’s is very simple and clean just some hearts and swirls. It also has a fan at the base of the blade, which ddd has as well. The half circle at the bottom of the heart on the teeth is interesting. The amount of yellow/gold half circles on this one gives me a sunrise feel? is that a thing?

I also realized that the mirage split combined blade is really similar to the ultima weapon:

except it has a mickey on it lol. Also the charm is a paopu fruit?!?!?!?!? but only when it’s combined look

[accidentaldab]

Goofy dabbed in Kingdom Hearts 3

[kevinkevinson]

roxas @ lea after saving his ass

lea @ roxas after years of Having No Feelings

xion @ her dumb boys

[ephemerle]

Four friends, and a key...that is the sum total of my memory. I could not even recall my name. I was simply called "X" there. — Unknown