#kingdom hearts analysis

[lucemferto]

It is finally time! After entirely way too long, I am proud to release the full analysis-playthrough of KINGDOM HEARTS RE:CHAIN OF MEMORIES - this time as one 4 hour video.

As always Xeph @considermygenderminecrafted @thatreallyminecraftsmygender does an excellent job taking in the Kingdom Hearts story for the first time while also analysing it! I am also there.

Special thanks to my friends Fletch @lazyliars for our floating heads, Dogin @dogin8 for providing the voice of Goofy and helping out with the thumbnail and an especially big thank you to Days @days358 for the incredible end screen art which you can find below the cut!

I hope you will all enjoy this video and are looking forward to our playthrough of Kingdom Hearts II - which is already completed and currently in the edit!

See you soon!

[megaderping]

For years, the Kingdom Hearts fandom has argued that Terra is the dumbest character in Birth by Sleep. That he’s too trusting, too gullible, and that Aqua has to clean up after his messes. Both he and Aqua tend to get boiled down to flat archetypes without regard for their actions in the story or the complexities to their characters.

In this video, I hope to challenge that perspective by really digging into Terra as a character, his actions in the story, and the context behind those actions. Through it all, I also wish to emphasize the tragedy of Birth by Sleep on a more personal level than the broad, macro plot elements.

This video has been a long time coming, so it’d be super awesome if you could reblog it to help it reach a wider audience!

[holleighgram]

So, this is Sleeping Realm Theory related, but you know about the speculation regarding the Logo for KHIII and the lack of gradient on the on the third "I" ?

What if doesn't represent Kairi, but Sora's memories of Riku beginning to fade?

[cecil2311413]

Speaking of kh missing link new character called Remus, I just want to tell you something you should keep in mind:

When Aeneas ran away from Troy with his father and his son, he arrived nearby the river Tiber in Italy, where later on his son founded the city of Alba Longa. Generations passed, and Numitore was the king of Alba Longa until his brother, Amulio, took the throne from the brother and forced Rea Silvia, daughter of Numitore, to stay virgin so that no one would have took the throne from him. However, the god Mars got her pregnant, and she gave birth to two twins, Romolus and Remus, and the king ordered to kill them. But his soldiers didn’t kill the two boys, they throw them in the river Tiber and managed to survive thanks to a she wolf. They grew up and took revenge on Amulio. They decided to found a new city, so they worked together, but they didn’t get along well, they started fighting and Romolus killed Remus, becoming the first of the 7 kings of the city that Romolus called Rome.

Ahhh sometimes I’m just glad to be Italian.

[mythicalartistx]

Endless possibilities for Kairi

Nomura once said the keyblade Riku gives to Kairi and where he gets it will be answered in a future installment.

As he does when he doesn't want to answer something because it will be no point in ever showing it if he just tells people.

He did it when people asked about Demyx's backstory and where he came from. He didn't say anything and he most likely will be in Missing Link and probably 4?

But so much about Kairi is a mystery and at first I thought oh they're not going to do much with her, I don't think in KH4 we'll see much but then I was looking at MOM scenes and KH2 the games where people genuinely think she shines the most.

(personally her in mom doesn't do it for me because she ends up using Sora's form)

Mom is just giving people bread crumbs and it's kinda overpraised. Like you control her for a bit until Sora takes over and then you eventually control Riku. I'll admit the backstory parts were nice. It helped confirm more about the Ansem reports. But it's not really much.

Her entire backstory is so mysterious.

She— a child of Radiant Garden who happens to be one of the princesses with a pure heart was seen by Xehanort and studied on through experiments until she was sent to Destiny Islands through one of the time capsules used in Union x.

Because of Xehanort and the others apprentices were doing unsupervised experiments (not sure if this was before or after they became nobodies), sending her there caused the meteor shower— the same one that happens on destiny islands where Riku makes a promise to Sora to protect him and probably have his signature necklace to him. (Though this is necklace theory it is implied this happens through various scenes in KH and the novels, and manga)

Through this revelation, they can discover and discuss where she came from and how she got to Destiny Islands, by discovering the time capsules they can figure out Union X events. The Wayfinder Trio + Kairi can figure out this information together.

Why the Wayfinders? Because Ven was from the era and it could help get his memories back. Kairi is also going to be training with Aqua after MOM.

But by looking into that stuff they can find out more about her and then come across what happened to experiment X and if she really is Skuld or not (a lot of people think she is Skuld).

And Lea/Axel and Isa/Saïx come in for that part.

But she has so much potential. Like KH is obviously about Sora and Riku's friendship and I think the reason why we seen so little of her is probably because Nomura might just be waiting for a good moment or game to put some backstory for Kairi.

We only got crumbs through the reports, a dialogue here and there, and then the scene in mom. And maybe just maybe we'll get an installment that tells us something extraordinary as KH does.

This is like the fourth analysis post I've done about her. She can be so interesting and so much potential and I'm thinking about another one relating to her. It's involving how the English version of KH makes her worse of a character... You'll see why soon

Post note: before anyone mentions kh3 I discussed in previous posts I didn't like her in that one because she was just training a lot and not really doing much. Then during the battle she eventually dies, well that's the shortened version

[audioandart]

ok I've been wanting to do this for a while so this will be a smaller, more basic introductory post but it's time. I'm starting the series.

Kingdom Hearts Music Analysis! By a former band kid and musical student! I took many many classes on this stuff so while I cannot really remember terms, I remember everything else and I will be applying those to the Kingdom Hearts Soundtracks. (Also I regrettably did not get to go above grade school classes in this regard, though that may change one day.) Yes, the soundtracks. We don't talk enough about the genius of those things, and I mean the subtle story impacts and instrument choices in them. Cause obviously we talk about how good it is, I'm hoping to go more in depth with it. And mayhaps the Utada Hikaru music as well, though that is already a pretty heavily discussed thing, so I may not. I can and will take requests, you can send me any song from an official Kingdom Hearts soundtrack and I will do my best to analyze it. Some songs will have far more than others, while some songs will have a very short analysis. Send in requests! I'm going to post some that I choose too.

[dreamsy990]

you know i used to think it was weird how sora and roxas have such different personalities for supposedly being 'the same person' but after playing a few games i sort of realized that they do have similar personalities, because roxas acts how sora does when he's under extreme stress.

compare roxas to sora in, say, kh1. that's where a lot of peoples idea of sora's personality comes from. sora is generally very upbeat and optimistic in that game. not very similar to roxas, right?

but let's switch the game and talk about a game where sora is ABSOLUTELY GOING THROUGH IT. chain of memories.

sora's resting state is melancholy in com. he only ever cheers up in short bursts, usually when he's joking around with friends. just like roxas.

he's quick to anger, and tends to lash out at the organization members. best example of this is when larxene makes him 'remember' namine, and he swings at her repeatedly, even after she's gone. he only stops when jiminy is able to snap him out of it.

you know what scene that resembles?

sora, while a bit more on the angry side and less sad, continues to act like this in kh2 when he's in stressful situations. (he also has a tendancy to insult people which, while it's not very related to the point, is very funny and sora saying 'gonna cry?' to xigbar is great.) i cant comment any further than that about kh2 off the top of my head.

so, roxas acts like sora does when he's stressed, right? but why is roxas always acting like that? to which i say, he isnt!

he only ever acts like that when he's also in fucked up and stressful situations, which happens to be a CONSTANT in his life. but when he's hanging out with axel and xion, a decidedly NOT stressful situation, he's a lot more like sora. he's teasing his friends and insulting his coworkers and joking around and acting like a normal kid. not really important, but unless i misremembered some sora lines which is VERY possible, both roxas and sora respond to friendly insults with "oh thanks!" a lot. just a funny little detail that felt relevant.

the biggest differences between roxas and sora boil down to environment and... i dont know how to put it besides volume? roxas is very quiet and tends to keep most of his thoughts to himself, while sora is very loud and expressive in comparison.

there is one other huge difference i noticed, which is less character based and more story. sora wanted to get off destiny islands and explore with his friends, but roxas just wanted routine. sora wants adventure, and roxas wants things to stay the same, for days where he gets off work and eats ice cream with his friends to last forever, to keep having conversations about nothing and watching the sunset. roxas wants normalcy, sora wants excitement. it's just interesting seeing their contrast.

not sure if this is very well said or anything i just wanted to talk about my boys

[matenr0u]

While deep sea diving in the web archive I stumbled upon some neat bits of Kingdom Hearts fandom history, like this— what may be the first ever “Riku is Gay” essay (in English).

The first snapshot of the page is from 26th November 2002, just after the international release of KH. Soriku really been out here since day 1…

The purple prose dates it a lot but I didn’t notice any blatant Kairi bashing, which is impressive. It’s interesting that Riku’s complicated feelings for Sora have been documented even as early as 2002, pointing to the same subtext fans discuss even 20 years later.

Here’s a link to the essay: Dissertation on Riku x Sora by Ruaki

“In the end, Riku fell into the 'as long as he's happy' mentality. A much needed noble gesture on his part, but who can say what the future holds for him?“

[lucemferto]

In the today's episode, we get to A LOT of iconic Kingdom Hearts moments, and Xeph and I have A LOT to say! It was so fun recording this, I hope it's just as much fun watching it as well!

Big thanks to:

Xeph @considermygenderminecrafted @thatreallyminecraftsmygender Dogin @dogin8 Fletch @lazyliars

As always subs, likes, reblogs and comments are so very, very much appreciated!

[megaderping]

Yen Sid’s depiction in the Kingdom Hearts series is divisive, to say the least. While on one hand, he’s a creative throwback to Disney’s Fantasia, but on the other hand, is often criticized for doing little beyond infodumping and sitting in his chair. I have my share of thoughts and critiques with the character, and in this video I give a thorough analysis of Yen Sid, his pros, his cons, and how emblematic he is of problems when writing a wise old mentor archetype.

Kingdom Hearts content on my channel is still only a secondary form of content, so every reblog would be SUPER appreciated to ensure it can get a wider reach!

[twistmusings]

Character Analysis of the Twisted Wonderland Dorm Rooms - Octavinelle

Dorm Room Character Analysis Series

Heartslabyul | Savanaclaw | Octavinelle | Scarabia | Pomefiore | Ignihyde | Diasomnia

Azul Ashengrotto

Azul actually has a lot of little touches in his room that are very cute. For one thing, his general decor lends itself to the idea that Azul likes the finer things in life. Truthfully, all of the dorm rooms are have shown a lot of attention to the character's actual stylistic preferences in the Guest room and Azul is no exception.

Rather than having a bedside table, Azul has a second safe in his room in addition to the large one he has in his office. This is interesting because, well, that means that there's things that are likely more important to him than the contracts he kept in his vault in his office. I'm certainly curious about what sort of thing Azul would choose to keep in a personal vault - are they especially important contracts to him? Money? Or, perhaps, just other things that are especially special to him. I know the kneejerk reaction for a lot of folks is to be that it's where he stores his coin collection, however...

Azul actually displays his coin collection in a frame! He has them mounted in velvet.

Several of the other characters have featured a feather pen and ink bottles in their room, however a cute touch is that Azul's pen is actually fish bones. This is a cute little insight into what they may use for pens underneath the Coral Sea. Or, perhaps, Azul just has a flare for the dramatic.

Azul has a trunk and several potion bottles on top of his wardrobe. The fact that Azul has these out in the open on top of the trunk likely means that all of the items in the trunk were potion bottles, and then because they were stored up so high, he placed the ones he commonly uses on top, rather than storing them back inside the trunk. Azul is otherwise very organized, so it would make logical sense that if he's not putting these away, they're likely out because he knows he's going to reach for them again.

This is honestly probably my favorite detail in Azul's room because these are terrariums. Azul never mentions having any interest in Terrariums, but Jade does, meaning that these are likely terrariums that Jade made for Azul and gave him as gifts. This is actually really cute, because though the Leech twins joke about leaving Azul as soon as he becomes boring in canon, this shows that Jade at the very least thinks of Azul in his free time when he's not at work or around Azul by obligation, enough to have given him gifts. it's also worth noting that Azul has these displayed, which means that they aren't a gift that's rotting away in a drawer or stowed away somewhere. It's also worth mentioning that the ones that have plants in them are alive, which requires at least some level of attention to them in order to maintain the environment inside. Little things like this show how much the characters actually care about each other.

Azul's hidden Mickey is next to his shelf of terrariums.

Jade Leech

Jade is an interesting case because he, like Ruggie and Trey, doesn't actually have much displayed in his room in terms of decoration. That being said, what he does have displayed are his terrariums. Jade being the sole member of the Mountain Lover's club, it seems like he probably spends a lot of his free time out and tending to either his plants in the greenhouse or actually hiking.

This isn't likely directly because of Jade, however it seems like Octavinelle as a whole have coat hangers and hat racks that are themed around octopi, which is possibly the cutest thing I've ever seen.

Jade is notably organized - he has his shoes on his shoe rack, his hat and scarf hung up, and his bed made. This will become more important when you see Floyd's half of the room.

There is also this object. While I'm not certain and it doesn't seem to be mentioned in any of Jade's vignettes outright, I suspect this may be a jewelry box. It's a little hard to tell in comparison to a lot of the items in the student rooms, though, so if anyone has any additional input, please let me know! Neither of the other two from Octavinelle have an object like this one in their rooms.

Jade's Hidden Mickey is on one of his terrariums.

Fun fact, Jade AND Floyd both have errors in their Night 2 versions of their backgrounds, as they are both missing the hidden Mickey.

Floyd Leech

Oh, Floyd, sweetheart, you live like this?

Jokes aside, Floyd actually has some things of note! While his side of his and Jade's room (canonically they share a room) is messy, he's messy in a different fashion than someone like Leona. Where Leona doesn't hang his clothes - Floyd does. Or at the very least, it seems like someone does it for him. (Given the haphazard hanging of his jacket, though, I would guess that he probably does it himself.) What does that tell us? Well, more than likely, Floyd gets small bursts of motivation to clean certain aspects of his room, and then grows bored and gives them up. To be quite honest, for those who know of or experience it, Floyd's organization style reminds me a lot of how ADHD folks tend to struggle with forming sustainable cleaning habits, as it's often easier to put something down rather than to put it away.

Snacks, literally everywhere. Floyd has snacks on his desk as well as on the shelf above his bed. It would seem that Floyd has a serious sweet-tooth, given the amount of sweets that we see in his room.

For the life of me, I could not tell you if this is a trash bin or not, but if it is, it looks like whatever Floyd put in there has teeth marks on it.

Another thing of note about Floyd's room, while there's a lot of things that are strewn around, there's not actually all that much trash around. He has a single empty container on his desk, but otherwise his floors are clean, and it seems like things that need to end up disposed are. Again, whether or not that's Jade intervening because they share a room, it's hard to say.

Floyd's hidden Mickey is on his pillow.

As was mentioned in Jade's section, both Floyd and Jade's Night 2 versions of their backgrounds are missing the hidden Mickey. Floyd's background has an additional error however!

Floyd's box of cookies is actually missing the box in his Night 2 artwork. If I had to guess, since I have experience with digital art, more than likely, the layer containing these details was accidentally deleted when making the edits for the Night 2 cards, resulting in these things disappearing when the background were published. It's a minor error, all things considered, and gave me a little giggle because now it just looks like Floyd has haunted cookies floating in his room.

Addendum

Excellent catch by @twistedminutia that Azul's fish bone pen is likely in reference to the pen Ariel signs her contract with in the original movie! (To be quite honest, and I know this is ironic given that this blog has such a heavy octavinelle theming, but the little mermaid was my least favorite Disney movie growing up, so I never would have caught this myself!)

[holleighgram]

You mean to tell me, that they took the time to redesign the Heart Station for Dream Drop Distance for no REAL significant reason, but they couldn't be bothered to change any of the stations for ReMind to have them make sense????

They JUST used old promotion material. That is the real tragedy here. The miss opportunity to give subtle character insight for each of those 6.

( @tharkflark1 there is also a deeper analysis I could do about light being in the hearts of children, and losing sight of that light as they grow up. If, going forward, Sora struggles with the darkness of growing up, his memories of his childhood best friend might be the light he needs to hold onto. Also plays into the Kairi= light of childhood fading and desperatly clinging to it.

Riku= growing up, accepting adulthood, but following the light to let it guide your heart.

Hello. It's me with more Soriku BrainRot ™️

When Riku dives into Sora's heart at the end of DDD, here are all of the platforms he passes while diving.

MOST of them include Riku, and at first I attributed this to "following the connection," however... there are a few memories that don't include Riku at all: Sora facing Darkside, Sora meeting Donald and Goofy, Sora with Hanger, Pants, and Omlette, Sora hold Kairis Lucky Charm, Sora fighting and merging with Roxas, etc.

Kairi isn't shown at all unless Riku is also there.

Oh... and I do have to mention the cardiac arrest inducing poetry that is the first platform being the two of them on the beach staring at the sky as kids, and the last one being them doing the same on the Dark Margin.

[mythicalartistx]

Strelitzia is actually Experiment X and it's not hard to see why

Since Skuld being Experiment X is almost disproved because of the time stamps relating to Missing Link... I have another theory

Who X truly is that nobody else have ever thought of—

It's Strelitzia

But first I'm going to discuss why Skuld theory no longer works

Spoilers for Melody of Memory, Union X, and Luxu's identity

There is a theory that Skuld is X, the person that was founded by Ansem and experimented on. X is also what drove Isa (Saïx) and Lea (Axel) to do what they did. They often talked to her and planned to help her escape but before they could she was moved. they planned to infiltrate the organization to save her, however they soon lost sight of what their goal was.

In Missing Link it is noted it is place full of Ephemer's descendants. However, in Dark Road, Xehanort has a "dream" vision when talking to (Player) of the adventures Player had and refers that a girl with dark hair (Skuld) looking like his mom.

It is noted that X had amnesia and it seems many people after going through the time travel pods loose memories. Kairi who was experimented and forced to travel to destiny Islands forgot her memories as well. Ven forgot his memories (though it could be from abuse from Xehanort and being separated from Vanitas). But Player also loses their memories in KHML

Which is why it makes the most sense that Strelitzia is X.

It's probably implied they get together. Now his mother is implied to be Skuld meaning they had kids and then she has Xehanort awhile afterwards. This means after their time something happens for her and the others to come back. It wouldn't make sense for her to be X and then go back to Ephemer.

But what if he also took her to Ansem and he did experiments on her. After all, Luxu helped showed where Terra—Xehanort was so how come he couldn't do the same for Experiment X. Ansem then did experiments on her. After that Luxu eventually took her and brought her to Quadratum where she stays.

Strelitzia dies but after the dandelions go off, many of the characters see Strelitzia. It is even shown that Luxu or maybe even MOM might have taken Strelitzia somewhere else such as the Quadratum... Where we do end up seeing her in the KH4 trailer

It adds up the most and there's little reason why it can't work.

[azurajae]

I find it really interesting that as the games go on, Riku becomes more confident and secure with himself while Sora gets more insecure and depressesed.

Riku kinda started at a low point in the beginning by giving into the darkness. He was ridden with guilt and depression over the pain he caused by his mistakes and spent CoM, Days, and KH2 trying to make up for it all. He finally manages to get some closure in KH3D and manages to find a healthy way to move on from his guilt and sadness. While the scars might still be there and might creep up sometimes, Riku has grown into someone strong and dependable. There are always new ways for Riku to grow as a person, but I can't say enough about how proud I am of him of the progress he's made so far.

Meanwhile, on a surface level, Sora has remained stagnant personality-wise for most of the series. He is happy-go-lucky, kind, and selfless, someone you'd appreciate as a friend. However, in small moments throughout the games, he shows shades of his anger, sadness, and darkness, which seem to intensify each game. He has been told 'no frowning, no sad faces' and to 'never change', so while he seems the 'same', Sora's actually repressing himself. He's thoughtful and introspective, smarter than he looks, but acts foolish and silly because that's how he believes his friends expect of him. KH3 was really prevelent with him hiding his true feelings behind humor, both his friends and enemies belittling him, and the stress/pressure causing him to snap in the final battle. When Xehanort strips all his light away in the final battle, what's underneath? Rage.

It's also pretty interesting that Riku and Sora both precieve(d) themselves as worthless. In Riku's case it's stemming from the guilt of his mistakes and feeling he should isolate himself as punishment, while Sora is so incredibly selfless and blessed/cursed with the 'friends are my power' motto, he believes that he is nothing without his friends.

Makes me wonder what's going to be happening with Sora now that we are in Stage 2 of KH and the tonal shift with the realistic graphics. He is all alone in a totally different reality with a (possibly) dwindling hope of ever returning home. He doesn't even have anymore people in his heart apartment, it's empty now. How will this new enviroment and situation affect him? And how much will he change by the time Riku meets up with him (if/when he does)? It feels like Sora's character arc is finally beginning.

"The closer you get to light, the greater your shadow becomes."

We seem to be calling back to some early quotes from the series. Makes me wonder if this statement is now foreshadowing.

[goldensunset]

noooo don’t advocate to get rid of one of the main character’s two best friends who narratively and symbolically has always represented home safety and stability in contrast to the one associated with change and risk that ultimately form a nice narrative balance between the things that change and the things that don’t because both are important in life when growing up she’s so cute ahahaha

[kitkat-the-muffin]

Tis a niche of its own

Sorry there is only two female characters, I kinda pulled these off the top of my head and probably missed a ton of other candidates. Reblog with an addition if you have one!

Edit: I forgot to make this poll a week long! Once this poll ends I'll remake it with new additions depending on the results (the characters with the fewest results will be replaced with suggested characters from the notes so be sure to suggest some!) in the meantime tho plz reblog to increase sample size

This follows my own definition of what "Comic Relief" means: A character that is used as a conduit for comedy in a piece of media

Through character studies I have determined that there are 5 types of comic relief: the Character Relief, the Audience Relief, the Tone Shifter, the Butt of the Joke, and the Slapstick. Characters that identify as "Comic Relief" usually fall into one or more of these categories

Further explanation under the cut

The Character Relief refers to a character who actively makes jokes to be funny in-universe through conscious humor. Examples from this poll would be Sans and Rayla, who go out of their way to make their friends laugh

The Audience Relief refers to a character who makes the audience laugh regardless of their impact on the story. Examples from this poll would be Lapis and Gus, who are often involved in comedic bits meant for audience entertainment that aren't acknowledged by the narrative as anything unprecedented

The Tone Shifter refers to a character who makes jokes to relieve tension and shift the tone of a scene, either consciously or unconsciously. Examples from this poll would be Jay and Leo, as they both consciously make jokes about grim situations to help their friends or family feel better. Additionally, Jay would do this unconsciously before his trauma made him start doing it on purpose

The Butt of the Joke refers to a character who is made fun of by other characters in-universe, whether endearingly or not. Examples from this poll would be Dewey and Lance, who are often met with insults whenever they do something wrong or silly. The insults are usually meant to be endearing and comedic, but they can still feed into the character's possible inferiority complex. This also applies whenever a villain hits them with a sick burn*

The Slapstick refers to a character who is made fun of by the narrative and the audience like a punching bag. Examples from this poll would be Sokka and Yusuke, who are sometimes put in troubling and awkward situations as a gag for the audience's entertainment alone. These gags are not fun for the characters yet delightful to watch

Most comic relief characters can be characterized as multiples of these. For example, Jar-Jar from Star Wars is both Slapstick and Audience Relief, and even if you don't find his jokes funny that doesn't change the fact that they were written with your entertainment in mind

If you're curious how a "The Narrative's Favorite (derogatory)" character would fit into this chart, they're likely both a Butt of the Joke and a Slapstick character, making their life absolute hell. To be honest, MK from Monkie Kid is an example of a character who fits all 5 categories, but he isn't blue so he isn't in this poll

*Ok if you've ever seen Phineas and Ferb Mission Marvel let me just say MODOK is a total Butt of the Joke and my favorite line in that special is when a TV announcer calls him a "Giant Chicken Egg with a Face" and I just had to mention that omg