#kingdom hearts re:mind spoilers

[thefreshprinceofjunes]

i know ive already posted multiple times about this parallel, but i realized these scenes use almost the exact same wording

auroras dreams led her to prince phillip. fairy godmother believes rikus dreams will lead him to sora.

like. its so one-to-one that if this isnt intentional, WOW. thats a hell of a coincidence!

(hint: its not a coincidence)

[firedragon1321]

This is what Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind is like.

Playing it years after beating the base game and forgetting everything is the best way because the main campaign is just the Keyblade Graveyard boss gauntlet, a few bells and whistles with Scala ad Caelum, a handful of new cutscenes (mostly old) and an alternative/parallel defeat for Xehanort. It's really just the boss gauntlet plus, though it does clear up stuff like how Roxas was able to return.

There is a segment with an exhausted Mickey that's like the best gameplay-story integration I have ever seen. The way buttons are pressed, the slow movement that doesn't seem like you're making progress- it's just amazing imo.

(I know the DLC is old but I was scared of Yozora. Luckily it's fragmented in a way that he's easily avoidable. I don't want to fight a boss who can steal Kupo Coins and my Keyblade. Fuck that noise.)

[kitkat-the-muffin]

After running an entire experiment for over a year and a half

I have finally perfected the best order to play the Kingdom Hearts series in

The aforementioned best order has been completely play-tested by an outsider new to KH in order to verify its effectiveness, and it goes as follows:

Kingdom Hearts 1

Kingdom Hearts X [chi] and Kingdom Hearts Union X [cross]

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep • (start with Ventus, then Terra, and end with Aqua. Include Final Ending. Exclude Secret Ending)

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain Of Memories

Kingdom Hearts 2 • (followed by Kingdom Hearts BBS’s Secret Ending)

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days • (read Roxas’s diary alongside the cutscene movie if not playing the original release. Then read the secret reports after finishing the game)

Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded • (you may also play Coded if so desired)

Kingdom Hearts Dark Road

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage

Kingdom Hearts 3

Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind

Kingdom Hearts Missing Link

Kingdom Hearts Melody Of Memory

Kingdom Hearts 4

Extra notes:

DON’T FORGET THE SECRET BOSSES! All the cutscenes that precede and follow every secret boss fight is important, so I recommend looking them up on YouTube if you can’t beat them

ALWAYS READ THE SECRET REPORTS!!!! All of them. For every game

Look up BBS’s Secret Ending on YouTube, unless you feel like beating all three routes on Proud Mode (including the Mysterious Figure boss… I think. Idk, look it up)

As of writing this post, Missing Link and 4 have not been released yet, so they may be skipped for now. However, based on their trailer vibes alone, I’d still recommend this order whenever they do release

The mobile app for KHUX and KHDR has been discontinued, so the only source we currently have for them are cutscene movies on YouTube and Damo’s fandubs

The Dark Road fandub is not out yet as of posting this video, but hopefully I can update this post whenever it does release (same with Missing Link cutscenes)

If you have any questions please reply to this post because I have answers!

Here are some obvious ones tho:

Days is AFTER 2 to preserve the Riku plot twist

Dark Road is BEFORE DDD to increase player attachment to Xehanort before he takes full control over the narrative

Ventus is played FIRST in BBS because it helps the narrative make more sense (sorry Nomura, Xehanort being evil is not a plot twist)

Any spoilers for future games revealed in the prequels are intentional (like Maleficent thinking about Master Xehanort in Union X, or Terra seeing a vision of KH2 Riku in BBS) and are meant to serve as foreshadowing

If anyone feels like streaming the games in this order please let me know. I skewed the results of my experiment a little by being present for the Test Subject’s playthrough, so it’d genuinely benefit from another account played entirely in a vacuum

But also we kind of sped through the games rather than relishing them. There’s so much to do in all the games but to get to the rest of the story we didn’t really play them to their fullest. I hope future players can enjoy all there is and take their time with it :3

Anyway, please reblog this post if you found it interesting! I want to share this order with the world because I genuinely think it’s the best way to play the games! And again, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Thank you to @goldensunset @8golden-harvest8 @share-the-skye for acknowledging my experiment’s existence a couple times, y’all are real ones 💕💕💕

[royalberryriku]

Kingdom Hearts: Character Analysis — Kairi and Fear

Okay. I think I need to get this off my chest; I actually really deeply love Kairi's entire character and think her lack of strength and action is essential to the themes she embodies (and starting to literally break out of).

While I 100% agree there are some parts of her character that play off of the outdated archetype of "damsel in distress", I genuinely don't think it was the intention for Kairi to embody only this trope, but to embody the opposite of Riku as a character; specifically, his curiosity and lack of fear towards the unknown. To elaborate further, I believe Riku and Kairi are the two extremes that are supposed to contrast to Sora; Kairi's extreme desire for safety and Riku's extreme plunge into danger.

//Note: this will contain spoilers for the entire series, including Melody of Memory, Re:Mind, and every other game that came before it.

The Main Trio

Our initial introduction to Kairi is on dry land, safe from the wave that swallowed Riku and Sora. Sora himself arrives on shore after escaping, while Riku stays within the waves, beyond reach. While this is excellent foreshadowing, I also believe this is symbolic of each character's thematic role when compared to one another. Kairi (meaning ocean) is safely on land, meanwhile Riku (meaning land) is in the waves of the ocean, standing within danger unflinchingly. Sora is tied between the two; between the safety of land (home) and danger (exploration).

In Kingdom Hearts, land is portrayed as "worlds"; the homes of those who live within them, while "ocean" is used to describe the connections between them. From the start, the premise is to build a raft to explore. But the cast all show they have different feelings about this. Namely, Riku and Kairi. Riku is excited, unfazed and unafraid to explore. He's curious, adventurous and confident that they can handle whatever's out there. He believes the ocean beyond and between the undiscovered lands he wishes to explore to have no dangers. Kairi, on the other hand, is his polar opposite; she's unsure if they even should go at all (note: I'm not saying she's against it at all, she wants to go, but she's unsure). Her "laziness" in building the raft, her anxious laugh when Riku says it's because of her he wants to explore what's out there, her telling Sora "I was a little afraid at first, but now I'm ready!" and, most telling of all, one of her first bits of dialogue in the series: "Well, I'm happy here." While she wants to know where she came from, to see it, she has clear reservations about leaving her home behind; the safe place that holds no danger. She's shown being afraid far more than either Sora or Riku.

Sora is in the middle of the two. He wants to go and doesn't understand Kairi's hesitation, but he's also much more relaxed than Riku. Sora follows the two of them and shows both excitement and nervousness to a degree, but never enough to really sway him in the adventure he wants to have with his friends.

"Sora, don't ever change", when compared to "Riku's changed", really puts even more perspective into why she's a scared. Later, we discover Kairi's past may have led to her understanding of the world's dangers, unlike Sora and Riku who didn't have such experiences to go off. That being said, I think another aspect of this fear (perhaps a subconscious fear born from those experiences) is her desire for things to stay the same.

Strength in Change

Kairi isn't going on this journey to go on a life changing adventure, she's just a little curious and wants to stay with he friends. Of what we see of our interactions with her, as the audience, is that she wants the safety and for things to stay the same. The thing is though, as we see with Riku and Sora, change makes people stronger; it challenges our flaws and makes us face our own thoughts and feelings. Change is needed to grow and Kairi is terrified of the thing needed for that. It's not until Kingdom Hearts 2 that she realises that this way of doing things just isn't helping her or keeping anyone (including herself) safe. She's actually harming herself by trying so hard to not allow change to happen. "This world is too small", but Kairi herself wants it to stay small; discovered, known, safe.

While Kairi isn't weak of a person by any means, in fact she's very strong, she is held back. Not by others, but by her own fears and desire for simplicity. She may be strong to start with, but she's unable to become stronger. She is stuck, left behind, as Riku and Sora embrace change and move forward without her as she stays waiting for simplicity and safety to return.

I think the end of Kingdom Hearts starts to push this realisation a little as well. Whether Kairi likes it or not, change has happened already. She can't go back and undo what's been done, she can only accept it or ignore it. The problem is, she's still used to the habits she herself created; wait, don't rush in, run away, hide. She's used to allowing her fears to lead her back into safety, into light and warmth, while not allowing herself to grow as a person. She's clinging desperately to this desire to stay where it feels happy, safe and warm all the time. But the thing is, that's unrealistic. Bad things happen. Sometimes, you encounter things that challenge you and change your, for better or worse. Kairi's weakness itself stems from her resistance to any change that may actually be good for her because she's so afraid of the bad.

She doesn't want to grow, to be an adult, or acknowledge the scary parts of life that are a part of growing up. It's even more telling how she ends up in Neverland of all places when she's thrown off Destiny Islands. She is the most childish of the three, not because of how she acts, but because of her fear of aging into an adult. She wants things to stay simple and pleasent.

It isn't until Kingdom Hearts 3 that she really realises just how impossible it is to cling to not changing. She realises that she needs to face her own fears of change to grow; to become stronger and catch up to Sora and Riku who embraced what she couldn't until now.

Princesses of Heart

There is also another matter I need to bring up; what is a Princess of Heart? It is consistently noted that these are the purest of hearts, but it isn't really stated that this requires them to have absolutely no darkness in their heart whatsoever. I think it's easy to forget this since Maleficent said "Her heart is filled with light—not the slightest touch of darkness." But considering the implications from the rest of the series and the reinforced notion that light cannot exist without a tiny bit of darkness, I believe this was more of a mistake on Maleficent's part, perhaps born of envy for Aurora? It could also easily be a mistranslation, although I do not know Japanese well enough to know whether or not this is a translation issue. Regardless, it's important to remember that "there is darkness within every heart" is a constant theme pushed in this series. There is no person capable of not having any flaws or fears, not even a princess of a heart.

This also goes for Kairi, who we see has clear fears and flaws. Many of which have directly led to her being unable to obtain the strength she sees Sora and Riku having due to them not being held back by the idea that change is inherently a scary and dangerous thing. It's also another interesting opposite to Riku who represents the light within darkness, while Kairi is a heart of light with a lot of darkness deep down.

The Three Questions

At the beginning of the first Kingdom Hearts game, Sora is asked a question from 3 people within the starting dream, each having 3 answers. While it is true that gameplay wise it's there to effect stats based on what answers you give, I think there's a possibility of some foreshadowing as well. Though that's more just speculation on my part. Here are the questions and answers for those who don't remember what they were exactly:

Tidus: "What are you so afraid of?"

"Getting old."

"Being different."

"Being indecisive."

Wakka: "What do you want outta life?"

"To see rare sights."

"To broaden my horizons."

"To be strong."

Selphie: "What's most important to you?"

"Being number one."

"Friendship."

"My prized possessions."

"Getting old", "to be strong" and "my prized possessions" all remind me of Kairi. Her fear of change, her desire to not be helpless and gain strength and, finally, her using objects to project said fears and self doubts onto.

Memories and Objects

As noted in the above, Kairi often uses objects to cope with her fears. Primarily, her good luck charm made of thalassa shells. Although she does also use other items as well; her necklace (memento of her past in Radiant Garden), poetry, letters, etc. These are all great ways to connect and to keep memories close to her using a physical object for this, but they also could be a sign she's also afraid of losing what she has and feels more at ease making physical reminders of the people, places and things she loves.

It's also possible this stems from forgetting her memories of Reading Garden and, as a result, she may fear forgetting those she loves. This could also explain her development in Kingdom Hearts 2, perhaps "remembering" Sora pushed her past her fears upon realising that staying in her safe place (the Islands) and holding onto reminders didn't protect the memories she wanted to cling to.

The first thing she says after things calm down and she's able to talk to Sora is "this is real". It could be that she was afraid that her own memories weren't real enough and she needed that physical reassurance. It's also why she needed to hug him, to understand that it isn't false and it hadn't been taken away. Despite everything, she hadn't forgotten those important to her again.

Interestingly enough, Ventus also shares the exact same coping mechanism, which makes sense given his similarities to Kairi and his own amnesia. This likely lead to him subconsciously seeking reassurance in the same ways Kairi does. This will likely be a huge part of the two's development, or at least, I very much suspect it will be. Ventus was able to grow past it due to his journey and curiousity, but Kairi is still growing and only recently realised that change is okay. Their friendship will likely be what pushes Kairi to become the strongest version of herself and mature into herself.

Journey of Agency

Kairi's hesitation to take control of her own situation and return to the safety of what she knows has unquestionably left her hindered in her desire to stay by the side of Riku and Sora. However, since her memory of Sora being lost and returned, her realisation in Kingdom Hearts 2 and then at the end of Dream Drop Distance and in Kingdom Hearts 3 with her introduction into the same dangers and change she's actively avoided, Kairi has grown. She's realised that waiting and allowing herself to just be led around because it's what been safe before now doesn't mean it'll work when she's being left behind and others are getting hurt trying to protect that self imposed safety. She has to run into danger herself and learn what it means to be independent if she wants to stand by the side of those she loves.

And finally, at the end of her journey in Melody of Memory and reclaiming her lost memories of Radiant Garden, she finally faces exactly that which scares her most; her memories of "Ansem" or Apprentice Xehanort who used her, forced he to lose everything once before and most importantly caused the fear that began everything for her. She's no longer just taking steps now, she's facing what caused it directly. This is probably the most powerful of any development for Kairi, it's what may define if she is able to break free of that fear or become defined by it.

It's also a stark reminder that she's still not where she wants to be, she's still defined by the weakness of being left behind due to her own fears. That's why, at the very end when she chooses to start training with Aqua, it's shown that Kairi finally chooses to change. She finally wants to become more than what she's limited herself to; she's finally ready to face her own weaknesses and grow.

Kairi's development could very well lead her to being the one to really push the narrative with the coming arc. While Sora and Riku are struggling with their own flaws (which I'll explain in a different post), Kairi will start to move forward. That being said, I think it's only because of the slow development of learning that what she was doing was harming her and ultimately leaving her behind and alone. I think this will also be a vital theme in the current arc where the main villains goal is to destroy darkness; Kairi's realisation that her own pain and fear were part of her growth may very well be the key in stopping him. Though that's just my own suspicions, not what canon has presented us with at this stage.

Conclusion.

Regardless, I for one am excited to see where Kairi's development goes. Her self discovery is fascinating and her arc is very different to the character arcs I've seen. Her entire story is compelling and I think Kairi's depth is something easily overlooked because of its starting atypical themes and structure (running from change and thus being weaker, rather than growing in strength after adversities). I think her journey of how to even start growing stronger when you're stuck frozen in fear is an important and powerful message, it's also just extremely interesting. I love Kairi so much and I hope this helps people look more closely at her characterisation.

[teganberry]

“Come on. Everyone’s waiting.”

I’m still not over Re:Mind. I’m not going to be over it for a long while.

[bluerosesburnblue]

It’s been months and I’m still trying to grapple with the concept of what the entity of Darkness is and what the actual shit Vanitas was talking about in Re:Mind, because that still makes almost no sense at face value

Before the fight

Ventus: “We’re not brothers. We’re the same.” Vanitas: “You believe that? Then you really are naive. This may shock you, but we’re not the same like you think. I was just hidden deep inside of you for a really long time. All Xehanort did... was tear me right out of you.”

Literally five minutes later

Vanitas: “I’m the piece of Ventus that was taken away. ...you define me, Sora, the same way that Ventus does. We are brothers who, together, make a greater whole.”

So he claims that he’s both a separate entity that was inside Ventus, and yet at the same time he’s still part of Ventus’s being. I presume he has to be related to Darkness at this point. The Vanitas speaking those lines was a time traveler from the past and an entity calling themself “Darkness” exists in Ventus’s present-day heart, after he re-merged with Vanitas in BBS, so there’s a chance that they could be the same character, though it’s possible that Vanitas’s existence is more complicated than just being a form of Darkness. He consistently regards himself as a separate existence from Ventus, and yet, a piece of him

And all of the TWEWY news got me started thinking about cordyceps, which freak me the hell out but might have gotten me onto something that makes sense (what does the horrifying cordyceps fungus have to do with TWEWY? For some unholy reason, it’s one of Josh’s more liked foods and I have never managed to get that fact out of my head)

Cordyceps is a parasitic fungus; the most famous species of it infects insects, getting into the brain and forcing them into positions prime for the fungus’s growth, then slowly consuming the insides until its taken its hosts essentially zombified body as a vessel

And this got me wondering if perhaps Darkness function the same way in a heart, the core of a character’s “self” in Kingdom Hearts. It worms its way into an unsuspecting host’s heart, possibly influencing their behavior (i.e., Ventus’s possibly killing of Strelitzia), and “consumes” the natural darkness in their hearts, using it to anchor itself in there. In that way, it could incorporate a part of a normal person into its being, becoming something that is both parasite and host, which would resolve the seemingly contradictory statements from Vanitas where he claims that he both is part of Ventus and yet something else entirely

This could, perhaps, also tie into the Master of Master’s cryptic statements about the form the darkness took in the past:

Luxu: “And the darkness? Were there monsters like there are now?” ... MoM: “To answer your question, if I had to call them something, “monsters” would be pretty accurate. But they looked like us.” Luxu: “Oh, so they were human?” MoM: “I didn’t say that.” ... MoM: “Darkness is constantly changing shape. It can even hide among humans. That’s the reason the war was never able to end.”

Now, maybe I’m reading into this too much and the Master’s just talking about how entities that once appeared human devolved into the Heartless we know as the series goes, but the way that the Master describes darkness as “changing shape” and that it can “hide among humans” sounds far more like what we’ve heard of the entity know as Darkness instead of the elemental concept of darkness that we’ve been familiar with (and I haven’t written off the idea that it could be doublespeak; referring to both “Darkness” and darkness at once). I think it’s very likely that Darkness took the form of Ava to trick Ven into becoming a Union Leader (”changing shape”) and then booked a ride inside his heart into the future (”hide among humans”)

And what was the tagline from Verum Rex again?

“Reclaim your heart” with a line below referring to “the ‘KARMA’ that sleeps in humans will accelerate further.”

Could the KARMA be, in actuality, seeds of the parasite that is “Darkness,” sleeping in the hearts of humans, getting ready to awaken again and start parasitizing their hearts, that they would then need to “reclaim” from its grasp? But that might be taking it a little far. It could tie into theories about Verum Rex actually being the distant past and Luxord being the driver from the Limit Cut ending, which would make Verum Rex part of the “ancient Keyblade legacy” that Xemnas mentioned and resolve the disparities between Luxord and Demyx not once showing up during KHUx despite it being in its “final chapter” and there not being enough Arks/Lifeboats for them and yet still being included in that legacy... buuuuuuut that’s a little too much compounded speculation for me and isn’t necessary for the crux of this musing, which is on how everything we know about Darkness fits together

[cosmosredshift7]

If store bought relationships don't work for you, homemade is fine 😂

(I spent the last half hour trying out the controls and then posing them...sorikai stuff coming soon...)

[luxmoogle]

I have never woken up as fast as this mornings to all the Re:Mind news, adrenaline pumping I’m beyond sHOok 

[thefinalkey16]

Spoilers for Re:Mind!

Something I noticed

Yozora is obviously a parallel to Riku.

Just as NeoStella is to Sora

So that means, as Fairy Godmother has said:

Magia is Kairi

And Aegis is Ventus

It seems like we have a two new trios forming, all with the same goal:

To Save Sora.

[quantumvaudeville]

Rating: Gen

Wordcount: 3841

Chapters: 1/??

Characters: Kairi, Riku, Ienzo, Aerith, Seymour, Ansem the Wise

Tags: Implied Sora/Riku/Kairi, Courtroom Drama, Political Intrigue, Succession Crisis, Re:Mind Spoilers, Mostly Canon Compliant, original moogle characters, The Restoration Committee, Ienzo catches up on ten years of stress, Examining Ansem the Wise's redemption arc, AU where Kairi is awake            

[bloodyrabbit6]

SHE. IS. HERE.

playable kairi

PLAYABLE kairi

PLAYable KAIRI

P L A Y A B L E. K A I R I.

P. L. A Y. A. B. L. E.  K. A. I. R. I.

Playable Kairi is here to reign light down from the heavens

This is my childhood dream

[thefreshprinceofjunes]

reading about kh3 gameplay mechanics on the khwiki (cuz i didnt do shit fuck with 99% of them when i played it) and like

the shotlock for oblivion is called ‘dawn eclipse’ in japanese, while oathkeepers is ‘sunset bright’

and i realized

kairi is associated with sunsets, which in kh (and in real life) are symbolic of endings

while riku is associated with dawn/sunrises, which are symbolic of new beginnings

also, dawn eclipse? like the dawn being eclipsed by something?

and sunset meaning the loss of (day)light, while sunrise means the return?

[potato-chan-nana]

“Prince Noctis / Commander! Impressive, is it not?”

[scatterpatter]

Kingdom Hearts is the greatest series, you can’t change my mind.

[bloodyrabbit6]

Sora: You are pretty

[bluerosesburnblue]

Alright, finished up the Re:Mind scenario and started Limit Cut (but been spoiled on the secret boss stuff, so there’s, like, no plot things I don’t know about now), so just... some assorted thoughts

Okay, seriously, I’m glad we’re getting a Xehanort side game because what the absolute FUCK is his timeline? Like, actually what the fuck is happening there? When Xehanort meets the Master of Masters, he has silver eyes. Which implies that this is pre-YMX time-travel Nort because Baby Nort in Scala also had silver eyes and YMX has gold. So you’d assume that this scene is between those points. But then Xehanort goes on about his memories and doing things that feel “familiar” and like he has to do them, which would make this post-YMX time-travel shenanigans. So what’s the deal? Were the gold eyes because YMX held a piece of Old Nort’s heart? But if that’s the case, when did Old Nort get gold eyes and why was Xehanort retconned into having naturally silver eyes? Why does he keep flipping eye colors???

I can see why the Luxord and Xigbar scene got cut because oh boy would that have been way too obvious to any KHUx player/Back Cover watcher what they were getting at

I’m so glad that they let Christopher Lloyd ham it up as Xehanort. No idea if Rutger Hauer’s performance was based on his own understanding of the character or a director’s decision, but it just wasn’t Xehanort. I’m sure he gave it his best, I really do, but he embodied a very different tone than every other Xehanort incarnation. Whatever the reason, I think Christopher Lloyd could be very good if Xehanort ever came back, though he was a bit soft for me. Add a little more force to his delivery and I think he’s set

Also on the voice acting, I’m SO GLAD that Haley fixed Vanitas. Holy shit. Not to knock anyone who liked KH3 vanilla’s Vanitas voice, but he sounded like... well, exactly that. A voice. I couldn’t take him seriously because he sounded like someone doing a very distracting, obviously fake voice. The new lines in Re:Mind are a perfect blend of the BBS Vanitas with just a tiny, tiny bit of gruffness and it’s the best he’s sounded yet. So much so that it was jarring when the original scene came in after the fight, but hey. Glad old Vani is back

The two points above lead me to believe that there was a voice direction issue in KH3 and either Re:Mind had a new director or they took feedback, which I appreciate

Did Lingering Will always have those dirt smears on him and I never noticed? I like them. Also liked the effect on the armor shattering. It was just cool to see

I picked the new playable characters every time they were offered just to try them out and... uh... wow it’s a trip to flip between a Level 99 Sora wielding the Ultima Weapon and literally everyone else. And also having different shortcuts. I only died as Kairi and I have no idea if that’s because Xehanort was just a tough fight or I’m very bad as her. She has a great playstyle though! I like how she closes distance, though her dodges are pretty stilted

I’ve seen people saying that Darkness being in Ven confirms the “Ven is Strelitzia’s killer” thing. It doesn’t. It could be a hint, but it’s not confirmation. Especially since Darkness is wandering free outside of Ven as of KHUx’s current updates. Nothing disproving that they’ve been swapping hosts and went from Strelitzia’s killer to wandering around helping Maleficent and then into Ven in what would be a future KHUx update

(I still think the fact that Brain wanted to bring up the Union Leader thing with Ephemer, specifically, seems to point to Skuld since she and Ephemer have a history that Brain knows about and if you found out that a friend’s friend was possibly a traitor, you’d warn them first. Not to mention that Player should not have been with the Dandelions and yet Skuld was the first person on site to save them, which possibly was a point of divergence in the “planned” timeline)

From Vanitas’s new lines, he may be Darkness. And yet, his old lines still indicate that he’s Ven’s darkness. Which got me thinking something wild. No real evidence for this yet, but for some reason I find myself wondering if these “monsters” of Darkness that the Master of Masters mentioned could be a hive mind of sorts. And perhaps they reproduce by planting seeds of Darkness in the hearts of others that “feed off” of the darkness that’s already in there. That would reconcile how Vanitas could be Ven’s “brother” crafted of his darkness, and yet also a separate consciousness

The Sea Salt Trio “reclaiming the Recuscant’s Sigil” was... really dumb. Really, Roxas? Being brought back to life wasn’t good enough? You need to take a magic X, too? You may have been bound to the Organization, but the symbol of your friendship was always the ice cream

Roxas having Reversal was a cute touch. Loved that

The fucking Daybreak Town history mural in Scala ad Caelum reached out and slapped me across the face as someone who’s played KHUx since release day. The way the “BREAK” lingers in the slides was like... ouch. Now make the final Keyblade War missions PLAYABLE so we can see the break!

I think it says something about me that my first thought when looking at the empty fountain was “cast Waterga” instead of “hit giant conspicuous objects surrounding fountain that you can lock onto”

There was so much good Riku+Mickey and Riku+Terra content and I’m just so glad that they remembered the other people Riku loves. The way he gets protective over the Replica body because it has “important memories” in it, which I can only imagine were Repliku’s memories of Namine... boy...

Repliku should’ve just taken the goddamn replica. I’m sorry, but the fact that he doesn’t is silly. They have Even! Even, who made them in the first place. You’re telling me that he couldn’t just make another? Or that no other Organization member dropped a replica body when they were defeated??? No less than six members had replica bodies. Obviously Xion kept hers, but that still leaves five that should’ve been there. None of them could be used for Namine? And if Repliku had taken the body that was already pre-programmed to house his heart, they could’ve had an extra fighter for the side of light. Like there’s just no good reason for Repliku to ditch the replica body for Namine unless they really needed to kill him off for RikuNami content

Riku deserved to have a new little brother as much as Sora and Kairi deserved their new siblings. At the very least, Repliku deserved to survive if they were going to bring him back into the plot for KH3

Bless the Guardians all fighting together, even if I would’ve liked Mickey, Aqua, and Xion to contribute a bit more than Reflect. Still, Lea and Aqua team attack with banter? Xion/Ven/Roxas team attack??? Terra/Riku team attack! Very good, this is exactly what the whole ending sequence should’ve been. All of the heroes engaging in weird team-ups with banter

I swear I felt like I was doing something wrong the entire Mickey sequence. He felt like he was making no progress! Why that mouse gotta be so slow!?

The detail of Sora and Kairi’s memories making up the feathers of their team attack! An attack called One Heart! That hug where they cradle each others’ heads! The fact that Sora was so on the ball healing me as Kairi because I sucked! Their hearts intertwining and them coming into being in each others’ arms in the Final World! That’s deep love, baby. Ain’t no drifting apart there

When Chirithy cries I cry. I’d die for that little guy. Even if that’s Ven’s Chirithy and my character from KHUx’s that I’m actually attached to is probably dead

We really got nothing extra about those KHUx ties, which is wild but also I guess understandable since the game’s still updating and we need to keep people playing it. More people would play it if the gameplay system was overhauled and I have a list of ways they could do it, but we all know that’s not gonna happen

Limit Cut definitely feels like it’s just an explanation for the Data Fights + Sequel Bait. So far I’ve beaten Repliku and tested out Luxord, which feels beatable once I get the pattern down enough to do it quickly and also don’t use Ultima Weapon because it just hits cards it isn’t supposed to. I... don’t think my strategy of “spam Rage Form and Ultimate Form to abuse i-frames until the magic bar recharges to heal” was the intended way to do that, but it worked

Also Invi’s robes are normal-colored in the Journal entry so I dunno WHAT’S up with the magenta color in the Secret Video! I also found it funny that the Journal describes all four of the Foretellers it lists as “wearing white robes” even though literally only Ira’s robe is white, Invi’s and Aced’s only have whitish-sections but are predominantly another color, and Gula’s has zero white at all. Goooooood job