#let Vanitas have the Blades

[iwoulddieforienzo]

I just think the idea of Ventus having control of like. 5 keyblades at once is lit. I just think, with how often hes been broken, he should be allowed to be a little extra powerful. as a treat.

[blissfullyapillow]

♡‧₊˚┆ She’s got a halo 'round her finger, around you  ๋࣭ ⭑

₊˚⊹♡ Sampo Koski x fem reader

₊˚⊹♡ wc: 2,674~

₊˚⊹♡ warnings: fluff, one suggestive part but nothing explicit, reader stressed because of university & Sampo is there to comfort her (totally not projecting.. haha), the reader is scared of loud thunder (again, totally not projecting.. lol)

₊˚⊹♡ Summary: Different scenarios of Sampo being smitten & head over heels for you, so he consistently tries to woo you.. Even though he really doesn’t need to. ((Your smitten with him too (*ฅ́ ˘ฅ̀*)♡ ))

₊˚⊹♡ Pillow Talks: The title is inspired by a line from Alejandro, by Lady Gaga. Istg I get inspo from the most random things LOL. I’ll be honest I have such questionable taste in characters, like it’ll range from the greenest of flags like Gepard Landau, Nanami Kento, Lifeweaver, or uhh Sasuke Sarutobi from Ikemen Sengoku, and then there’s fucking Blade, Sampo Koski, Gojo Satoru, or Vanitas. Lol. Anyway, hope you enjoy~ I had fun writing this ٩(ˊᗜˋ*)و ♡

₊˚⊹♡ Masterlist

“How about-“

“No.”

“Half price? Common, that’s an offer I don’t give to just anybody.” “Half off !?? Sampo, you told me it costs a million credits. Half off is still an insane amount of money!” You scoff and opt to ignore Sampo for the remainder of this interaction. 

But Sampo is very persistent…. annoyingly so.

"How about this? I'll give you 20% off and throw in another one for free!" The glare you send his way is answer enough. Sampo gives a sheepish smile as you brush past him.

"Sampo Koski, was it?" You ask. You don't have to turn around to know he's following you.

When you hear his confirmation, you proceed. "Listen, I appreciate what you're trying to do but I really don't need... what was it again?" You murmur the last part under your breath, but Sampo's ears pick it up. "A machine that can generate all the academic papers you could possibly need! Not only will you spend less time on boring old school work, buuuut-" 

"No." Your answer is curt and final.

Sampo’s dramatic sigh elicits a very sarcastic eye roll from you.

"Okay, well, I tried." Now, he easily matches your strides.

...

This is the third time this week.

One unfortunate afternoon you happened upon a salesman, by whom you now know as Sampo Koski, and he's been persistently trying to sell you things since.

Your refusal seems to fuel his determination and ever since he'll always try to sell you something before he sticks by your side for the rest of the day.

You've tried to shake him, you really have, but you quickly learned how futile it is. For whatever reason this salesman has taken a liking to you, and you're stuck with him.

...

Although, if we're being honest here, you could've shaken him off long ago if you really tried. Yet despite your better judgment, you've allowed this shady salesman into your life. He's spent a few afternoons at your place, and he even has your phone number.

Yet you find yourself behaving as if this wasn't a mutual exchange.

Your busy thoughts are brought to a halt when Sampo's sing-song voice interrupts them. "So, what's on the list today sweetheart?" He chuckles at the exasperation on your face.

"I'm heading home, Sampo. I'm not buying your machine, and I have a paper that won't write itself." Sampo nods in acknowledgement, cheerfully humming beside you.

You pass people young and old as they walk the streets of Belobog on your journey home. You're walking slower than usual, Sampo notes to himself.

He may or may not be completely smitten with you, and him selling you products you may need is just an excuse to start conversations with you, but you have yet to catch on to that little detail.

Sampo thinks it's cute.

"What's wrong?" Sampo speaks up when your house comes into view, yet your pace slows even more. His question is devoid of its usual humor, and that puts you on edge even more.

"It's nothing...." You trail off, clearly stressed about something but keeping it to yourself.

Sampo lets it slide for the sake of reaching your home, where he'll invite himself inside and pester you until you tell him what's bothering you.

He doesn't get that far.

Once you reach your door you suddenly stop, posture tense, and a deep frown paints a beautiful expression on your face.

You suddenly unlock your door all too quickly, and barge inside.

Sampo is really concerned now.

Usually you'd scold him and shoo him away, insisting he leave, but this time you left your door wide open for him to come in.

He's been here a few times before, so he enters your abode and shuts the door behind him.

His brows draw closer in concern when he spots your figure, hunched in on itself, in a corner of the room.

He wastes no time in coming up behind you, but he hesitates to place a comforting hand on your back.

"Name?" His voice is soft, caring. It soothes you.

You lift your head slowly until you are face to face with Sampo. You'd make fun of how concerned he looks if you weren't feeling so crappy.

"Look at me. Focus on my eyes. Good job. Now, just keep on focusing on me, angel. Everything is going to be okay." Sampo's heart squeezes when a few tears slide down your cheeks, but he brushes aside his own concern.

You sniffle before you practically launch yourself at him. He catches you effortlessly, and soon soothing fingers trace random shapes on your back as you cry into his shoulder.

✧˖°.☾ ⚠︎︎ ❤︎ ˚ 🃁 ♡ ⋆｡˚

You feel so embarrassed.

You make sure to survey your room before you slip out of the bathroom, changing quickly.

Sampo ushered you into the bathroom to 'freshen up' after you spent an hour crying.

You felt horrible when you noticed his tear stained shoulder, but he hushed you and insisted he didn't mind.

Now, you shuffle awkwardly out of your room to see what he's been up to.

In your living room, Sampo seems to have made himself more than comfortable; it's almost as if the room has been transformed.

Adorable fairy lights line the ceiling to create a magical glow within the room. Your couch has a ton of blankets and pillows scattered about on it, and two warm mugs of what looks like hot chocolate patiently awaits you on the coffee table.

Warmth floods your body as you make your way over to Sampo. At the sound of your steps he swivels around. You catch the concern in his eyes that he quickly masks when he sees you've changed into something more comfortable.

"Ah, there you are! Come join me in the blanket! I'll keep you warm & safe from the loud thunder, babe!" Your eyes widen slightly when he mentions thunder. "Thunder? But-" Suddenly, a terrifying crack is heard, and at lightning speed you're under the blankets and snuggling with Sampo.

His lips curl into a knowing smirk as he gently pats your head.

"I know you don't like loud thunder, and well you're clearly not feeling your best, so the great Sampo Koski created an atmosphere you can relax in." Sampo brags, yet he leans down to place a sweet kiss against the tip of your nose.

Your eyes sparkle with joy.

…

That look in your eyes...

Not only does it warm his heart, but it puts his mind at ease.

"If it's too much, just squeeze my hand as hard as you can. Understand sweetheart?" You give a bashful nod, your hand seeking out his before they intertwine.

Soon you're both laughing at a cheesy comedy Sampo put on for the two of you to enjoy. The hot chocolate Sampo made for you is  absolutely delicious.

Once the show ends a comfortable silence ensues. You lift your head to look at Sampo, since you're currently curled against him, and your eyes meet his.

They're full of mirth, and something else that steals your breath away. "What is it angel?" Sampo hums. "I.. Thank you. I'm sorry, school has just been a lot and-" “Shhhhhhh.." Sampo hushes you, placing a finger to your lips.

You watch as Sampo leans in, placing a hand on your neck before he rests his forehead on your own. You close your eyes and relish the close contact.

It's silent for a while, but you don't mind. Albeit his next words send you into a frenzy.

"I can't love anyone else but you." The words are uttered so quietly you wouldn't have heard if the room weren't so silent.

Yet they still hold the same weight as if they were shouted from the highest peak of Belobog, and soon you're leaning back to stare at Sampo in bewilderment.

His eyes are wide, almost as if he hadn't meant to say the words out loud.

"S-Sampo-"

He covers your mouth with his hand, clearly panicking. "Ah- ahaha! That was a joke, clearly! No- wait it wasn't! I mean..." Your lips curl into a smile under his hand; you've never seen Sampo lose his cool like this.

You carefully pry his hand away, he's too occupied with his own thoughts to notice, before you shut him up in the most effective way you know how.

The press of your lips against his stops his frantic thoughts. You feel his body relax. His arms wrap around you, and a sweet giggle leaves the both of you when he kisses you back.

✧˖°.☾ ⚠︎︎ ❤︎ ˚ 🃁 ♡ ⋆｡˚

Following that eventful night, you're now in a relationship with Sampo Koski.

You know it may not be the wisest decision you've ever made, but it's one that's brought the both of you immense happiness thus far. That's all that really matters to you.

You just have this charm about you. There’s just something about you that draws him in.

Of course, you'll often say similar things about him, but with you..

Oh, how he’d forsake the world for you and you alone. You have him completely wrapped around your finger and you don't even know it.

You're currently trying on lipstick he bought for you as a gift... bought being a very general term here.

Ahem-

Anyway,

You've finished evenly coating your lips, and the color compliments your reflection perfectly, yet your eyes show hints of worry in them.

“Hey, Sampo? What do you think? I think it looks good but.. I don’t know..” Sampo was too busy admiring your reflection in the mirror to answer you.

Your lips are a different shade from what they normally are, yet they look as enticing as always. Honestly he'd love to test out just how durable that lipstick of yours is...

Wait, what did you ask him? Oh, does it look good? He has a pretty simple answer to that.

“C’mere pretty girl..” He adores the way your expression shifts the brief moment before his lips gently caress yours.

He releases a deep sigh against your lips as his arms pull you against him. He leans his tall frame against you as his tongue languidly runs along your bottom lip. He smirks when your lips part for him.

He’s tempted, very tempted, to accept your offering but he pulls back instead.

Now, your lips are back to their usual color.

“I don’t know. I didn’t get a good look. Please put some more back on, and I promise to take a good, long look this time angel.” Your eyes are dazed now, glassy as they barely register the words Sampo tells you.

He loves it.

✧˖°.☾ ⚠︎︎ ❤︎ ˚ 🃁 ♡ ⋆｡˚

“Why do you love me?”

The question comes out of nowhere.

You turn to eye Sampo, a bit perplexed by this question. His facial expression consists of his usual smug grin, but a deep rooted emotion lingers in the depth of his irises.

“Why do you question my love?” A smirk of your own lifts your lips when his expression shifts; his eyes widen as his Adam’s apple bops.

“I.. I'm a scammer, you know? You deserve-“ “So? Consider this as one of those ‘Scammer gets scammed’ videos or something. M’kay?” Your statement is silly in nature, yet it warms his cheeks and makes his heart flutter.

“Ah.. okay..” He has a stupid grin on his face as he rubs the back of his head.

You roll your eyes before you lean in, wrapping your arms around him in a tight hug. “Don’t you get it? I only want you. .. My heart only wants you.” Your words are filled with emotion; unbridled love and affection overflow from every syllable.

He emits a sound akin to a squeal before he’s hugging you back with tenfold of your strength.

“Sampo!! You’re going to.. crush… me…” You manage to squeak. It feels like your organs are being crushed !!

“Aww, my sweet adorable Name wants me to hug tighter?” Sampo giggles as you internally panic. “SAMPO-“ You take a much needed gasp of air when he suddenly releases you, leaning you against him so you don’t fall to the ground.

You glare at him as you take greedy gasps of air.

He sticks his tongue out, making a silly expression.

Well, at least he feels better.

✧˖°.☾ ⚠︎︎ ❤︎ ˚ 🃁 ♡ ⋆｡˚

“Are you insane!? You’re soaking wet!” “I don’t care, I had to come see you!”

A soaked Sampo is at your doorstep, holding a bouquet of red roses, a box of chocolate, and if you’re making things out correctly, a letter tucked safely into the chocolate box, the corner peeking out of the partially opened lid. 

You usher Sampo inside as the storm rages on, slamming your door shut.

Before Sampo can even open his mouth you delicately remove the items from his hand to place it safely on a free surface. Immediately after, you instruct him to strip and go wash up.

He wiggles his eyebrows, opening his mouth to say, “I know you want me sweet cheeks, but can’t you wait until I’ve…” He trails off at the stern look on your face.

“Aye aye..” He sulks, placing a purposefully sloppy kiss on your cheek before he walks past you, removing his clothes as he makes his way to your bathroom.

You sigh, rubbing his excess saliva off your cheek.

A small smile presents itself on your face that you quickly mask behind your hand.

✧˖°.☾ ⚠︎︎ ❤︎ ˚ 🃁 ♡ ⋆｡˚

Once Sampo is in a change of clothes, yes he has spare clothes at your place, he properly presents his gift to you.

“Ta-da! Your amazing boyfriend has procured all the necessary items to woo his girlfriend on this special day!” He kneels down on one knee, happily opening the box of chocolate.

You cautiously step back, used to something else being in that little heart shaped box, but your eyes are graced with the cutest little balls of chocolate.

You slowly remove the letter from the box before taking a bite of the chocolate. Your eyes shine in delight. “Sampo, you made these?” You gush. He’s bashful, looking down at your feet as he replies.

“Hehe, maybe..” You happily bend down and place a slobbery kiss on his cheek. As he complains you take the time to open the letter he wrote you.

He starts to protest but you ignore him.

“I didn’t expect someone like you to write a letter Sampo…” You coo at the impressive script on the paper. If you were to look up right now, you’d see Sampo burning up.

Literally.

His face is even redder than the shiny apple you ate earlier.

Your eyes eagerly devour the words on the page. By the time you finish Sampo is fidgeting anxiously, hopeful yet scared of hearing your reply.

“I love you too, Sampo.” You get on one knee yourself, leaning in to rub your nose against his.

He groans, playfully pushing you away. “Alright alright, enough with the sappy stuff..” “How can you say that when you made the effort to show up to my place today, even after I told you we can reschedule for tomorrow because the storm is so bad- mmph!” He cuts you off with a well timed kiss.

This time you’re the one who feels like they’re on fire. Sampo adores the look on your face, giggling to himself as he pulls away.

“So, want to play this game with me?” Sampo fishes something out of his pocket, a deck of cards.

You laugh.

“You want to play cards on the night of our anniversary?” He nods quickly, his eyes big and pleading like a puppy.

You burst into a fit of giggles as you pepper his face with grateful kisses. “I’d love to, as long as I’m spending time with you…” Your response makes Sampo the happiest man in Belobog.

“No cheating though, okay?”

“Aw man…”

✉ ⋆ ˚｡ ⁠♡ ‧₊˚ ┊ ⟡˚

[rosie-kairi]

Hey want to hear my super sad Ven and Lauriam au? Good cause I wasn't actually asking >:)

So what if when everyone was deciding who goes into the lifeboats Lauriam decided that Ven was small enough that they could share a lifeboat and leave an extra so not as many would be left behind (how that changes things probably not much sadly. They all still get separated across time never to see each other again except Ven and Lauriam).

But then they both end up in the keyblade graveyard. Ven gets complete amnesia and while Lauriam is pretty woosy and doesn't remember everything of their trip to the future he does remember he needs to find Strelitzia, that he has more friends he needs to find and above all else protect Ven. Unfortunately Xehanort finds them (thanks magic mirror -_-) and recognizes them with as the friends from his dreams. Xehanort initially promises to help Lauriam in anyway he can and offers to train him to be stronger. Lauriam doesn't have a lot of options especially with a weakened amnesiac Ven so he initially agrees.

He comes to regret that when the training is essentially xehanort trying to force them into roles of light and dark to create the x-blade which of course fails. Ven doesn't remember much but he does remember Lauriam as one of his friends and the two boys refuse to fight each other. So they often get absolutely thrashed by xehanort. Since ven is still inexperienced he's not able to win on his own and Lauriam focuses more on protecting Ven so he gets beaten due to lack of focus. Days will go by where xehanort leaves them in a wounded injuries state on the ground before healing. And usually he just heals Ven since he's still not strong enough to be a threat.

Lauriam has tried to make some escape attempts to get them to away safety but xehanort is too strong to take on alone especially if lauriam is purposely left in a half healed state.

Eventually xehanort starts to focus more on Ven since he knows he has a powerful darkness trapped inside. Ways of trying to draw it out have included Lauriam being ganged up on by too many enemies and Ven failing to fend off enough to effectively protect him. Ven being forced to fight wave after wave of enemies to get to a tied up Lauriam and getting overwhelmed. Xehanort hopes by pushing him to the brink of death darkness will break free but doesn't.

Eventually his patience grows thin, he thinks an all out assault on Ven's life will finally do it. A critically injured laruaim is off to the side as neo shadow heartless circle around Ven. Lauriam is desperately trying to summon the strength to get to his little brother but can't. Ven is begging for mercy but is ignored and is then nearly torn apart by said heartless as lauriam watches on in horror.

We then get the actual scene of xehanort tearing Ven in two pulling Darkness and Ven's natural born darkness out creating Vanitas. Lauriam struggles to Ven and desperately pulls him away and panics when he sees the light both literally and figuratively leaving Ven's eyes and heart and realizes he's dying. Desperate Lauriam gets up to attack but is knocked down by Vanitas. However the blast creates a portal and Lauriam gets sucked away leaving a dying Ven alone with xehanort.

Lauriam ends up somewhere else (maybe dwarven woodlands) it takes a while for him to gain enough strength let alone energy to heal but he has to find Ven.

Years go by and he's been chasing rumors about a girl with orange pigtails and a boy with spiky blond hair and a key shaped sword. Hope that they're both alive and within in reach. He makes his way to Radiant Garden only to run into Braig/Xigbar/Luxu who recognizes him. Seeing potential in Lauriam Luxu challenges Lauriam and beats him then takes him to the research basement where the other future org members are disappearing. Luxu makes vague references to Ven catching Lauriams attention and demands to know where he is.

Only for Luxu to give him the suggest cruelest grin and be told Ven is dead. They captured him and tortured him for information on the keyblade war and foretellers but he didn't give them anything. No longer useful they decided to get rid of him but before they did he told then they'd all be sorry when Lauriam comes to save him and he'd make them pay. Luxu delivers the crushing blow that Ven died calling and begging for his brother to save him.

This does the job and Lauriam succumbs to darkness and willingly gives up his heart. The crushing weight of failure, grief, and regret too much to bear. He failed his siblings. He didn't protect them and now they're both gone he has nothing left so becoming a Nobody is a welcome respite from the agony he feels.

And as he walks the hallowed halls of Castle Oblivion Marluxia gets the strangest feeling of dejavu as if something important is here but he can't quite put his finger on it but if it really were that important well he would've remembered it right?

Meanwhile deep in the chamber of waking Ven sleeps safe but imprisoned and even though he's waiting for a different friend to come save him his dreams show that he longs for someone else to open his eyes and promise him everything will be alright.

TL;DR what if Lauriam and Ven escaped together become Xehanorts victims, Lauriam couldn't stop Ven from being ripped in two they get separated again, he refuses to believe Ven is gone and that's the only thing that keeps him going for years, only to be lied and told that the only person he had left is gone and he failed miserably to save them and their last moments were begging to be saved, so losing his heart was all Lauriam could do to escape his pain.

^ my honest reaction to this

oughghhhhhh.... anon how could you...... the goddamn heartbreak. turmoil. i'm gonna kill old man xehanort with my own two hands

[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.

[neversetyoufree]

in the last ep of the anime, i noticed that it cut out to the ending directly before vanitas could actually take noes hand, and i wondered if that was referencing what noe said about vanitas at the beginning.

Oh that's such a good catch! You're absolutely right anon, and I think we can take your idea even further than that.

I've talked about this in a previous post, but VnC's running refrain of Noé reaching for Vanitas's hand is really symbolic. Noé has saved Vanitas from literally falling multiple times, but their entire relationship is also one big metaphorical outstretched hand. Vanitas is "falling" down toward his inevitable doom as he self destructs via his revenge, and Noé is grasping out desperately as he tries to catch him and save him from that fate.

"That day when I didn't grab your hand" (which I assume, along with killing him, is what you mean by "what Noé said about Vanitas") might refer to a future event in which Noé will literally fail to catch Vanitas. But more importantly, it's a reference to the larger truth. By Noé's definition of salvation—in terms of preventing his death, Noé is going to fail to save Vanitas. No amount of reaching out can prevent his ultimate fall.

Within this metaphor, then, the scene on the rooftop after the amusement park can be summed up simply. It's the scene where Vanitas finally lets himself reach for Noé's offered hand.

I mean this in three ways.

The first way is the literal way. The scene ends with Vanitas reaching up to take Noé's hand and be helped to his feet. And despite the sheer frequency of Noé reaching out for or trying to catch Vanitas, this is only the second time we see Vanitas actually reach up and take Noé's hand to be helped of his own accord. The only other time is in the catacombs, right before he decides to tell Noé about Doctor Moreau for the first time.

In the catacombs, Vanitas taking Noé's hand works as a symbolic gesture of trust and an acceptance of Noé's help with the Moreau case. Noé has been forcing his help on Vanitas up until this point, staying up late by the door just to follow him out, but taking his hand is the moment that Vani starts to willingly bring him into the fold. The literal is never just literal with these guys.

The second way comes when Vanitas tells Noé that he's "given up on making him do what he wants." As I said, Noé has spent the entire manga reaching out and trying to save Vanitas from his "fall." One major facet of that is his recurring refusal to let Vanitas isolate himself. He makes a willful declaration of staying by his side when Vanitas tries to dismiss him in the bell tower, and when Vanitas tries to cut Noé out of his life by the blade of a knife, Noé comes back with "I will never set you free." Vanitas wants, or at least claims he wants, Noé to leave him the hell alone, but Noé says no every time.

"Giving up on making Noé do what he wants," then, means that Vanitas has finally let himself accept that he wants Noé by his side. There's no more pretending he doesn't want his help or his presence. No more trying to shove Noé away every time he's upset. At least in this moment (though we'll have to see if he holds himself to it), Vanitas has admitted that he wants Noé and Noé's supportiveness in his life.

Mochijun even uses a flashback panel to be sure we know exactly what Vanitas means here. It's that important.

Giving up on trying to push Noé away is one very significant way in which Vanitas has accepted the metaphorical outstretched hand. He's admitting he wants Noé, and Noé's presence means the presence of love and help. It means the end of self-isolation as a maladaptive coping technique. Of course he's going to reach up and accept Noé's literal offer to help him to his feet in the same scene that he finally tells Noé he'll stop trying to get rid of him.

The third way is, of course, when Vanitas says that he wants Noé to be the one to kill him.

Now, this is not how Noé wanted Vanitas to interpret his outstretched hand. Unlike his loved ones, Noé does not see killing and being killed as a way to show love or to save someone. His offer of salvation is meant to be an offer to save Vanitas from his self-destruction. But Vanitas does not want to be saved that way. And given that the manga begins with the statement that Noé will kill him someday, we know that Vanitas cannot be saved by Noé's definition.

However, Vanitas does not share Noé's definition of salvation. I don't know if Vanitas himself could even put words to his personal idea of salvation. But we know from multiple examples that it can sometimes include the gift of a kind death to prevent a worse life. That's the kind of salvation he offers when he returns a curse bearer's True Name despite knowing that it will kill them.

I have a lot of thoughts about the kind of salvation Vanitas could find in Noé, but for the purposes of this scene, this idea of a preferable death is a big one. Vanitas would rather die than lose his humanity, and this is an extremely vulnerable thing for him. Saying that he wants Noé to kill him is, in his own way, accepting Noé's unspoken offer of salvation. He's saying "I want you to be the one to save me in the one way that I can accept."

Vanitas cannot envision a life for himself, and thanks to the way Luna's Mark is rewriting him, it's likely that a long life as his human self would be impossible even if he weren't suicidal. But though it's still not healthy behavior, his request for death is, in his own terms, taking up the hand that Noé has extended. It's a grasp for salvation by a man that cannot admit that he wants to be saved.

And that brings me back to your original point, anon. Because Vanitas reaches up for Noé's hand, and that is incredibly important, but in both the anime and the manga, we do not get to see him take it. The meaning of this depends on what definition of salvation you analyze the scene through.

By Noé's definition, we know that Vanitas cannot and will not be saved. As he says in the beginning, Noé is going to kill him someday. There will be a day when he will fail to grab his hand, and Vanitas will finally fall to the gravity of his doom. So in that way, it makes sense that even in the most optimistic of scenes, we have to cut away before Vanitas can actually take Noé's hand. He might be letting himself reach for it now, and that's a good thing, but Noé is never actually going to be able to pull him up. To show us otherwise in a scene so full of symbolism and foreshadowing would be a lie.

However, as I keep saying, Noé's definition of salvation isn't the only one at play. As much as Vanitas's death will not be prevented, the fact remains that he is still finally letting himself reach for salvation in some form. So perhaps we can cut away as soon as he starts to reach not because he'll never be saved, but because the thing that matters in this scene is the reaching itself. Noé has become a supportive constant in Vanitas's life. He's just reaffirmed that he won't change, that he'll continue to support Vanitas from beside him.

We don't need to see Noé take Vanitas's hand once he starts reaching because that is a foregone conclusion. It's Vanitas's decision to reach that needs the emphasis of being the final shot, because that's the heart of the moment.

In the manga, Vanitas reaches up, and we cut to the sunlit sky. This whole scene, in addition to the running thread of reaching hands and salvation, has an overarching symbol in the end of the rain. Vanitas and Noé's horrible fight was in the storm, the rain patters to its end as they make up, and the sun breaks through the clouds as they reaffirm their pledges to one another and Noé re-offers Vanitas his hand. It's simple but effective pathetic fallacy.

So to that end, Vanitas reaches up to take Noé's offer to help him stand (reaches up to take some version of his promise of salvation), and we cut to the sunlit sky. Noé has brought the sunlight back as he offers his hand to Vanitas. Joy and light and hope return as Noé's love for and desire to save Vanitas are reestablished. Then Vanitas reaches toward that light, and we cut to the sunbeams to make sure you know just what he's reaching toward.

This works well for the end of a story arc! The weather symbol has been a constant throughout the whole amusement park arc, so of course the chapter that marks its end has to be capped off with an image of the clouds breaking. It's a closing note that pulls together Vanitas's reaching for salvation, the weather symbolism, and 55.5's general tone of relief.

Meanwhile, the anime switches things so that we see the sunbeams first, and then Vanitas reaching for Noé's hand is the final shot of the whole entire show. And for once, I actually really like this little change! The manga's order of images works well as a resolution for its chapter and its story arc, but the anime's version works really well as a possible end for the story overall.

The VnC anime may or may not ever get another season, so for the foreseeable future, Vanitas reaching for Noé's hand is the end of the show. This gives that shot a lot of emphasis. In fact, it kind of makes it the meaning of the whole thing.

Noé spends the whole anime reaching out and trying to offer a hand of salvation to Vanitas, and the final shot of the whole thing is Vanitas letting himself reach up to take it. We don't end on the shot of their clasping hands, but the shot of the reaching, because Vanitas's decision to accept some form of salvation is the thing the whole show has been building towards. It's the decision to reach up that makes the whole story.

So though they go about it in very slightly different ways, the manga and the anime are still both making meaning out of the simple act of Vanitas reaching. That's the core of the whole thing.

And overall, though I've framed "we cut away because Noé won't actually be able to stop his fall/grab his hand" and "we cut away because the decision to reach is the important part" as two opposing interpretations, I actually think their co-existence is key. Vnc's whole story is a conflict between Noé and Vanitas's definitions of salvation. The tension of their relationship isn't "will Noé find a way to save Vanitas from death?" (He won't). The tension is "will Noé find some other way to save Vanitas before his death?" and "will he be able to recognize that alternate salvation as salvation if/once Vanitas claims it?"

VnC is a story about a doomed man who might in some way be saved. Chapter 55.5 cuts away before we see Vanitas actually take Noé's hand because he is doomed to fall someday and not reach that hand when it matters most, but also because the thing that matters in this scene is that he decides to reach up at all. Vanitas is going to die, so any hope and optimism in his story must make peace with the doom of him. His healing from his trauma and accepting love and help happens while he is hurtling rapidly toward his ending. That's the beauty and the tension of Vanoé's relationship (and the beauty and tension of VnC as a whole).

So to answer your question anon, yes. We cut away before Vanitas reaches Noé's hand because, as we're told in the beginning, he will not ultimately reach Noé's salvation. But at the same time, the whole point of the rooftop scene is that Vanitas does want to accept some kind of salvation, and he just might manage do it. It all depends on how he can be saved.

[badass-queer-couples-battle]

Sword gays showdown, round 1 of bracket one

Propaganda:

For Richard:

Context : Swordspoint was published in 1987. Several characters are explicitely gay/bisexual, including... the main character (well, Ellen Kushner is part of the community. I met her once at a signing and I was so awkward and she and her wife (who cowrote the third volume of the series) were so nice. She's also on tumblr. What a wonderful world)

So, let's go back to Richard, who lived in the country with his mother and learnt his trade for a weird guy who eventually died. Richard is a sword prodigy (he also started quite young and trains constantly - natural talent is a thing, hard training is another)

He lives in the "poor" part of the city, where prostitutes, thieves, innkeepers and seamstresses prolifer

Richard does learn the blade and eventually goes into the city. Where he becomes a swordman for hire. Famous, respected and feared, Richard isn't exactly the chatty signing-autographs type. People with good sense leave him alone because the ones stupid enough to challenge him didn't live to tell the tale

But one day... Alec happens. Alec's a penniless ex scholar with a feud with the University, a sharp tongue and absolutely not the means to defend it in ill famed places, which is the ones he prefers since he's always looking for trouble dur to his self-destructive tendencies. The first time they met, Alec tries to get on Richaed's ndrves so the other man would kill him. However, Richard finds this man unafraid of him quite amusing. Word's eventually gegs around ghat the gwo are lovers and people din't get on Alec's bad side if they can prevent it (not easy, Alec has Issues. Capital I.) to avoid having todeal with Richard's protectiveness. I mean, I wouldn't want to anger a professional swordman either

Alec teaches Richard how to read because he never knew how to m. He's the perfect damsel in distress until he isn't because his help is needed [mod note: end of propaganda- part one . Didn't leave it as a wall of text since it'd be harder to read]

The archetypal gay (bi) swordsman: he was one of the few queer characters in fantasy fiction back in the 70s when the first book was published, yet he's in an explicitly romantic and sexual relationship with a man, and he is The terrifying swordsman, infamous, terrifying, and frequently hired for his skills. Also the plot of the book revolves around him using his sword skills to rescue his lover and getting rescued back. So. Y'know.

For Dominique:

This traumatized mess of a vampire is So. She's SO. She's bi and fights with a sword and has a dead twin and a fwb relationship with her childhood friend and a badass girlfriend and a "bonding over their mutual feelings for her childhood friend" thing going on with another guy. 

she's gay she's a vampire she has a sword and I love her 

[corishadowfang]

What do you think the other Union leaders would look like as dragons? What abilities would they have?

Haha, I actually DO have some doodles of them:

(Scanned from my sketchbook, so hopefully they look okay, haha.)

Skuld was actually the one that came quickest, I think? (Shocking, I'm sure.) Very traditional dragon-esque, but I liked the idea of her having small scales on her wings that glittered like stars, Wings of Fire-style. Ended up putting her earrings as like...horn ornaments instead of actual earrings, haha.

Ephemer was very lion-inspired! Partially because of the whole 'ruler of Scala ad Caelum' thing, partially because then his mane could be a stand-in for his scarf, and partially because I was trying to keep him from look exactly like Baldr. (They both...needed to be fluffy...)

Lauriam...is a flamingo. I mean, not really, haha, but my first thought was "pink feathers," so... (He also has some spikes as like...'thorns,' kind of? That was the idea, anyways.)

UX!Ven is interesting because like...okay, since he's named based on the wind, I thought it'd make sense for him to have big wings that he has to grow into? (Which...they don't look big here, but that's fine.) But then sometime between here and BbS (fight with Darkness? when Vanitas gets taken out?) they kind of get...torn off. And then he ends up with Wing Blade-style prosthetics. Which...hang on, I kiiind of have a sketch of that?

(It was mostly just based on the Keyblade armor, but you can kiiind of see the wings?)

As for abilities! Ven's the one I have the clearest idea for, haha. He naturally has a lot of light powers (that line along his side glows!), but I think when he's young he has a lot of trouble controlling it. His breath weapon is...basically a laser beam, haha, but he's terrified of hurting people with it, so he never uses it. (You can hear Brain yelling at him in the background.)

Speaking of Brain--he just has, like. All sorts of magic, haha. He doesn't usually use the traditional breath weapon thing a lot; he creates stuff using spells, mostly. He has a lot of control over things--probably more than most! (On that note, when he does use his breath weapon, I think it'd be more like...for the intimidation/cool factor, since I think it's not that strong. It's just normal fire, but he can change its color using magic.)

Lauriam, naturally, is very good with plants! He can make things grow very quickly if he wants, but he normally prefers to like...let it be more subtle, haha. He does not have a lot of precise control over things, so like Ven, he's a little warier of letting lose. I like the idea of him breathing acid, but...Maleficent-esque fire would also be cool, haha.

Skuld has gravity-based magic, but hers is naturally a bit more subdued. She can make things float/make things heavier, but only to a certain degree. Breath weapon's standard fire.

Ephemer...I honestly have no idea? My thought is that he's actually the most normal one of the bunch, magic-ability-wise, but he makes up for it with charisma and leadership ability, haha.

Uh, that got long, but...haha, hopefully it was entertaining?

[1ntercosmos]

WARM EMBRACE — VANITAS X NOÉ

a/n: my first fic (woop woop) hope you all enjoy. i'm working on making my fics more detailed but here it is!

wc: 602

the window crept open as vanitas swiftly pulled himself through and made his way inside the room. he closed it behind him and drew his curtains closed. a content sigh left his mouth as his shoulders fell slack. today’s mission was particularly labor intensive, his body was tired and sore from the strenuous activities he had to endure. 

he slipped off his outer coat and let it fall slack against the floor, along with all his other extra garments. he’d tidy it up in the morning. not long after he took his shirt off, his vision was blocked briefly. a squeal left his mouth as he whipped around trying to figure out what happened. standing behind him was the vampire he swore on his life he couldn’t stand. noé gave him a warm smile.

“hey vanitas, you’re back earlier than usual?” he stated softly as he fixed the pajama shirt he slid over the human’s head, smoothing out the fabric.

still startled, vanitas swatted noé’s hands off of him, like an angry cat, “i- why are you back so early?”

“domi and i cut our meeting short because she had some business to attend to,”

the shorter sighed again as his whole body now went slack. they both knew he wasn’t really. he was just so utterly frustrated from today’s mission and it was blatantly evident in his features. noé’s never seen anyone get so tense. a faint smile snuck onto the vampire’s face and he embraced the other gently in his arms.

“come, let’s lay down. you look like you need to calm down and destress.” noé grabbed vanitas’ by his wrist and led him to his bed, and didn’t argue at all. he slowly wrapped his arms around noé’s neck and laid his head on his shoulder.

the vampire sat down and leaned back a bit with vanitas still in his lap. usually at this point, he would’ve crawled to his own spot on the bed, but he just sank deeper into noé. he smiled to himself as vanitas mumbled,

“‘dont feel like moving right now…and you’re really warm..”

“that’s fine, you can lay here for as long as you need..” noé cooed

the older snaked his hands under vanitas’ pajama shirt, further spreading his warmth through his body. he pulled his impossibly closer as he slowly stroked his back & under his shoulder blades, applying pressure occasionally. vibrations spread through noé as vanitas softly hummed into his neck, visibly relaxing under the other’s touches. the massages slowly transitioned into slow, soothing back rubs. a mumbled ‘thank you’ left the younger’s lips in that pillowy voice that noé didn’t hear all that often. he responded by patting his back.

it was almost an hour later when noé figured the latter would want to lay in his bed by himself, and started getting up.

“okay, im gonna get up now so you can rest, okay?”

he awaited a response but the room was deafeningly silent, except for the hushed breathing of the man on him. he was curled into his lap, a look of relaxation painting his face that was only brought out when he slept, which he didn’t do often. noé didn’t have it in his heart to wake him up. the thought of having to see him rub his eyes and sit up after being woken up made him want to cry. he hoped deep down vanitas wouldn’t mind if noé stayed in the bed with him, considering he was knocked out cold on his lap. he carefully slid down onto the bed and pulled the covers over them both.

[dualdeixis]

[Image description: A ten-page digital comic featuring Ventus and Vanitas. There are full descriptions of all of the pages under the cut. End image description.]

persecutor

[Image description: First page. The palette is mostly limited to very dark blue and wine-purple; the golden speech bubbles are styled after canon, complete with mini Kingdom Keys hanging from the ends of certain bubbles. Additionally, Vanitas’s speech is aligned to the left, while Ventus’s is aligned to the right. The two of them are sitting on one of the Land of Departure’s cliffs, looking out into the starry night sky. Vanitas wears a sleeveless, shortened yukata which has tassels at the ends and is ripped on the right side. It is fastened by a black obi with a charm shaped like the Unversed symbol as the obidome. He also wears a black, high-collared undershirt with attached fingerless gloves; bandages wrapped around his legs; and black knee-high combat boots. Ventus wears his usual armor with a cropped jacket that has only the right sleeve; a gi fastened by the crossed straps and Land of Departure emblem over his chest; the same black undershirt but with only the left sleeve; his checkered wristband; and cargo pants. He says, “…Why could you feel what I felt, and not the other way around? Was it because something was stopping me? The light? Sora? My training?” Vanitas: “Oh, please, it’s not that complicated. Of course a shadow knows everything about the person that cast it. I’m always right behind you—what else can I look at? You just never turned around to notice me.” Ventus: “Well... I have now. I’m looking at you, too. …I’m sorry that it took so long.” Vanitas: “Pff. Don’t apologize, idiot. You should be glad that it did.” Ventus: “…No, I should be apologizing for a lot of things.”

Second page. Ventus turns to look at Vanitas with a hard expression and says, “I mean, I killed you. Do you not want me to be sorry for that?” Vanitas doesn’t meet Ventus’s gaze, continuing to stare blankly ahead. His thoughts are stylized as a blue dialogue choice box with three options: “You’d better be. Traitor. / I wish it had stuck. / All you did was kill yourself.” Instead of choosing any of them, he turns his face away from Ventus and says, “…Quit it. What’s the point? It’s been years, and you failed. I’m still alive. You wouldn’t have done it if I hadn’t tried to kill you first, anyways. So shouldn’t I be the sorry one?”

Third page. Ventus looks down, keeping his hard expression; instead of a panel border, he is surrounded by the silhouette of No Name. He says, “That’s because you were—” Vanitas interrupts, “But I’m not sorry.” No Name’s Gazing Eye takes the place of the circular lamp beside Vanitas, who turns back towards Ventus with a face darkened completely by shadow; his eyes glow starkly yellow. Casually leaning back on his hands and crossing one leg over the other, he continues: “And neither are you.”

Fourth page. The χ-blade appears in the same bright yellow, and Ventus and Vanitas are drawn over it in their battle gear, positioned as if they’re being impaled by it. Vanitas says, “How could we be? We both have our roles as Keyblade wielders—and we’ll never let anyone stop us from playing them. No matter the cost.” Ventus stares silently at Vanitas with a slightly unsettled expression, turns away as his horror grows, and brings his hands up to his sweating face. He is contrasted with panels that show shards of glass floating in a void. He says, “I want to be sorry... I want to, I swear I do... Why is this so hard...?”

Fifth page. Vanitas smiles and says, “Because you’re an idiot.” Ventus hunches over and says tensely, “Don’t call me that.” Vanitas: “Idiot.” Ventus: “Stop.” Vanitas: “Idiot.” Ventus presses his fists into his temples and snaps, “SHUT UP! Why are you doing this?! I was trying to apologize to you and now you’re—!” Vanitas laughs, “Ha, it’s only natural, isn’t it? We were created to fight each other, not be friends! After all… the only reason we could forge the χ-blade was because you hated me just as much as I hated you. So don’t get all self-righteous with me, guardian of light.” Ventus glares silently and intensely at him.

Sixth page. Ventus says bitterly, “Yeah, I hated you.” Drawn in a full-page closeup, he pulls his hands away from his head with a less intense but still conflicted expression. He is framed by a bright yellow panel.

Seventh page. The page is divided by two borders which cross in an X-shape. Vanitas is drawn from the shoulder up in the top-center of the composition, his helmet reflecting a hazy silhouette of Ventus. The top segment of the X has the background as Destiny Islands, while the left and right segments show the Keyblade Graveyard. The bottom segment shows Vanitas and Ventus in the midst of their final battle: Vanitas wields the χ-blade, Ventus wields Lost Memory, and the shattered pieces of their shared Station of Awakening float around them. Ventus says, “Even when I found out who you were—that you were really me… I still hated you so much. I get what you mean, actually. It felt natural to hate you. Because it was just another way to hate myself.” The next dialogue bubbles are arranged in an incomplete circle: “Being beaten into the ground, beating myself into the ground, it felt like something clicked into place: ‘This is exactly what I deserve.’”

Eighth page. Ventus and Vanitas are drawn in separate panels, facing away from each other with their expressions cut off. Ventus says, “So in the middle of the hatred, I was… happy, I guess. Relieved. Because it was right. You felt that too, didn’t you?” Then, over an image of the softly glowing shards of glass as they try to reform into a Station, Ventus says, “…But I don’t… want to hate you anymore.”

Ninth page. Two panels show Xehanort’s gloved hands reaching out with tendrils of darkness surrounding them. Another panel shows Terra possessed by Xehanort, and the last shows Vanitas as he is currently, with a darkened face but an affected expression. Ventus says, “It doesn’t mean that what you did to us never happened. But I know you only did it because of him. If you’re my brother, then I’m hating my brother because he got tricked by a horrible, evil man. I couldn’t do that back then. I can’t do it now. And if you’re me, then I’m hating myself. I don’t want to do that anymore. I’m so tired of us blaming ourselves and each other. It’s not fair. When we fight, we’re just doing what he wanted us to do.” He bursts out, “It wasn’t our fault! We didn’t deserve any of it!”

Tenth page. The panels are drawn unevenly, with borders that don’t quite interlock properly. With a trembling voice, Ventus says, “It’s not fair… It’s not fair to hate each other instead of him… So even if I can’t give a real apology, even if you can’t accept it from me… Let’s just stop it, please…” He puts his face in his hands. Vanitas stares at him with an aghast expression, sweating, and then exclaims, “O-okay, okay, I’ll stop! D...” He reaches out a hand as Ventus wipes at his face, but pulls away before they can actually touch. Now wiping at his own face, Vanitas says in a similarly trembling voice, “Don’t cry...” End image description.]

[alphascorpiixx]

KH Characters with FF jobs

I'm mostly basing these from FF3, FF4, and FF14 jobs since those are the ones I know the best but I did research other games' jobs for some. This is mostly going off of characters' personality and fighting styles rather than weapons or stats.

Sora: Onion Knight Riku: Dark Knight/Paladin Kairi: White Mage

Sora could be any jack-of-all-trades job but I picked Onion Knight out of a FF3 bias and also he would look cute in that hat. Riku is basically Cecil Harvey from FF4 so he gets two jobs. Kairi being a princess of heart makes her a White Mage and what is her shotlock if not a flashier version of holy?

Roxas: Samurai Xion: Blue Mage Axel: Assassin

Roxas and Axel get their jobs from their lesser Nobodies, and Axel will stay as an Assassin until Square releases a game with "arsonist" as a job. His FF14 disciple of the hand job would be "ice cream maker." Xion's copy abilities make her an Blue Mage and I wish KH would take more advantage of that ability because then she'd be op.

Aqua: Dancer Terra: Knight Ventus: Red Mage

In an effort to not make Terra the same as Riku he gets to be a Knight but I could also see him as a Dark Knight or Warrior. Aqua's spellweaver ability is basically magic dancing so Dancer. I was struggling for Ven and ended up with Red Mage because 1) its my favorite and I'm not above being biased, 2) all Keyblade wielders could arguably be Red Mages because of the use of both white and black magic along with fighting with a sword, and 3) he also deserves a cool hat.

Vanitas: Ninja Naminé: Summoner Repliku: Dark Knight

Naminé technically never participates in combat but summoning other entities to fight for her is pretty much what she already does just without the memory manipulation. Repliku sacrifices originality for "well his weapon is called Soul Eater anyway". Vanitas was the hardest of these three because he's yet another possible Dark Knight. I gave him Ninja for his warp downslash ability. Alternatively, he could be a Black Mage and Ven a White Mage, but I wanted to go beyond making every darkness character a Black Mage or similar.

Ansem: Black Mage

My joke job for Ansem is the pugilist/monk because he's the only character to fight barehanded (not counting his KH1 final boss where he had a double-bladed version of Soul Eater). He could also arguably be a Summoner and call other Heartless to fight.

Xemnas: Sorcerer Xigbar: Gunbreaker (Sniper) Xaldin: Dragoon Lexaeus: Warrior Vexen: Puppetmaster Zexion: Illusionist Saïx: Berserker Demyx: Bard (Dancer) Luxord: Gambler Marluxia: Reaper Larxene: Ninja

Most Organization members' jobs are just their lesser Nobody types, though for Demyx it would make more sense for him to be a Bard. (But that water does dance after all.) I chose Gunbreaker as an alt job for Xigbar because what's better than two guns? Two sword guns! (Imagine a KH4 bossfight with No Name formchanged as two gunblades.)

Lexaeus, Vexen, and Zexion are the only Org members who don't have lesser Nobodies so I chose them myself. Lexaeus is a Warrior (fights with a giant axe), Zexion an Illusionist (self-explanatory), and Vexen a Puppetmaster (replicas).

Let me know if you have other ideas for alternate jobs. Also I might do a part two with the KHUXDR characters is anyone is interested.

[themattress]

The story of Xehanort in the Kingdom Hearts series.

Convoluted and stupidly written, but honestly not that terrible when taken on its own.

....But it's not on its own, is it?

Let's go red line by red line, shall we?

1 - From Xehanort's Report in BBS: Upon reflection, my life underwent the most considerable sea-change when I arrived at that place. Yes, it began when I found a Master, and another I would later call my brother—when I found a new home. And then later, to dispel any notion that he is talking about Scala ad Caelum, this is what he writes when mentioning bringing Ventus to the Land of Departure: I had not visited this second home of mine for some time, and discovered Eraqus had already found two pupils of his own. BBS established that the Land of Departure, not Scala ad Caelum, is where he received his training and met Eraqus.

2 - Let's look at Xehanort's Report again: I believe a balance of light and darkness is what sustains our World, but too much of the darkness has been stamped out, disrupting that balance. Someone must tear down this tyranny of light and reorganize the World around the darkness which then creeps back in. That's literally the opposite of saying an endless pollution of darkness is a problem. It's saying that an endless flow of darkness is good!

3 - First off, it's never explained how in blazes Young Xehanort can extract hearts when he's just a disembodied heart himself. More importantly, note that Xemnas, Xigbar, Saix, Luxord, Marluxia and Larxene are on that list, plus as we later learn Vexen and Demyx were brought in as reserves. If Nomura hadn't decided to pander and bring Xion back, Xaldin would have been there too! And yet in DDD, Xemnas says "most of the original members we had chosen for the Organization were inadequate" for the "true" Organization XIII!

4 - Why is Master Xehanort the one recompleted when it was Terra-Xehanort who actually split into a Heartless and a Nobody? Master Xehanort's original body was not in any way a part of Xemnas, so why does he get it back after Xemnas' death?

5 - How and why is the Master of Masters even here? Why does he need to give Xehanort his black coat when he should have already gotten it for his time traveling venture earlier? Why does Xehanort need to tour the worlds and come to this conclusion when he basically already did in Dark Road? How many excuses to become evil does this asshole need?

6 - See Point 1 again.

7 - What Xehanort spoke and wrote about, and was even shown attempting to do in BBS, was to forge the X-Blade to destroy the worlds' barriers and start another Keyblade War among the masses of the universe so that the darkness in their hearts engulfs the universe and then from there he can create a new one. So why, by KH3, is his plan suddenly to have a small-scale Keyblade War to forge the X-Blade and then just use the X-Blade's power to engulf the universe in darkness all by himself?

8 - Except that it's later said that Vanitas did NOT actually come from the darkness of Ven's heart and was a dark entity hiding inside his heart. Dark Road then shows that Xehanort became aware of this fact! So why even still call him Vanitas, and why do Xehanort and Vanitas himself still act as though he's a part of Ven?

9 - Calling himself Ansem might have made sense had he never recovered his original memories and went back to pursuing his original goal. But as this then goes on to say, he did! So why even pretend to be Ansem at all? What does he gain by that?

10 - So then why did he specifically write in a report that he was discarding his body in order to communicate with the Heartless and fully utilize the powers of darkness? Why did he say he'd "come to see the door" to Destiny Islands' heart if he was actually just on Destiny Islands the whole time? Why did he have such a dismissive attitude toward Sora as though he were insignificant if he knew he was important enough to mark with a Recusant's Sigil? And if his goal was the Seven Princesses themselves, why did he tell Kairi "The Keyhole is now complete. You have served your purpose, but now it's over"? And yeah, why enter the Final Keyhole at all? Again, whatever he did as Ansem's apprentice shouldn't really matter anymore if he fully remembers that he's Master Xehanort!

11 - For that matter, how did he not know that Kingdom Hearts was light!? It being light is a fundamental part of both the Keyblade War legend and Master Xehanort's grand objective!

12 - All right, let's go back to Xehanort's report in BBS: It is only forged when two hearts of equal power intersect—one heart of pure darkness, one heart of pure light. Why write this as an absolute fact if it's not, in fact, the proper way to forge the X-Blade and you're supposed to have 7 hearts of light and 13 hearts of darkness?

13 - Xemnas himself writes in a secret report in Days: We embarked upon the Replica Program to ensure our new power stays ours. So the Replica Program was only started after Roxas was found as a means to copy the power of the Keyblade, not to have extra vessels for Xehanort. There is no reason for Xemnas to lie about that in his own private writing.

14 - See Point 10 again.

15 - See Point 4 again.

16 - See Point 7 again.

17 - So after all of this, depicting a villain so omnipotent that he transcended space and time, built flawless contingencies for failure, predicted his enemies' every move, amassed a veritable army of dark pawns and followers including multiple versions of himself, and was perceptive enough to notice things like Vanitas not being what he presented himself to be....you're really saying someone like that never noticed that Xigbar was playing an angle far beyond just obtaining his Keyblade? Or that the weird guy he met that one time as a teenager might be more than he let on and manipulating him for something that differed from his own objectives? Or, heck, that such a person who went through such lengths would just easily give up because the best friend he murdered and thought nothing of it told him to!?

Worst-written video game villain EVER. It's hilarious that this series' blind stans will say "oh, the story isn't really that confusing, you just need to really pay attention to all the games" when this one character proves that paying attention to all the games is part of what makes the story so confusing due to all the damn contradictions, inconsistencies and retcons!

[justmeinabigolworld]

Last night, I had a dream about some sort of KH AU. In the AU, the Wayfinder Trio actually managed to defeat Xehanort at the Keyblade Graveyard, but Vanitas still fused with Ventus, leading Ventus to destroy the χ-blade and shatter his own heart. However, Vanitas somehow survived completely intact (the dream didn’t show how). He tracked Ventus’s heart down to Destiny Islands and found Sora there.

At first, Vanitas tried to rip Ventus’s heart out of Sora, but that didn’t work, so he decided to just take Sora back with him and figure something else out. Riku tried to protect Sora, but he wound up being taken along as well (I don’t remember why; probably because Terra had bequeathed to him).

And then, for a reason I still can’t remember, Vanitas kept both boys with him in the Keyblade Graveyard and trained them in the ways of the Keyblade and DARKNESS and stuff. So then, by the time things started moving again (don’t know what happened, since Xehanort was really and truly dead), Sora and Riku were part of the antagonistic force alongside Vanitas, and they had different Keyblades as well.

Weird dream, huh?

This sounds like it would be a cool fanfic idea, but I have no idea how it would work. Like, why would Vanitas suddenly decide to train Sora and Riku to be his Evil Minions™? How would the plots of the other games happen? What about the Heartless — would they still become such a big threat without Xehanort? What would happen with AtW’s apprentices? Also, how would Luxu respond to all of this? I doubt he and the MoM would just let their plans involving Xehanort go so easily…

So yeah, I don’t know how it would work, but I’ve come up with some ideas anyway. Might talk about this more later, idk

[fictionaladoptionpolls]

I've gone through all the submissions!

Submissions: 105 (a few of which submitted multiple characters)

Re-submissions to add more detail: 2

Characters submitted: 92

Characters nobody submitted who are being included because I think they should be included (mostly because I would have submitted them if someone else was running the bracket): ...um...18

Most-submitted character: Eri, My Hero Academia (4)

Most-submitted character I had not previously heard of: Naru Kotoishi, Barakamon

Franchise with the most entries: Pretty Cure (9)

Individual anime with the most entries: The Case Study of Vanitas (4)

Characters named "Maria": 2

Dragons: 4.5 (not all from Fire Emblem)

Still a lot of stuff to do before I start posting polls, not the least of which being how to efficiently run a double-elimination bracket with 110 members. (I guess I could track down 18 anime kids to make it an even power of 2, but then I'd be running a poll that's ~¼ characters chosen entirely by me, which feels kinda ridiculous.) But I figured I should let people know how things are going.

Full list of characters in the bracket below the cut.

The following list is in alphabetical order. For characters with both personal and family names, I alphabetized by family names. (Except when I mistook which name was which, because the internet cannot decide whether to use Japanese name order or European name order, which isn't a problem except when it makes people like me worry about whether they're naming characters wrong.)

Homura Akemi (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)

Mamoru Amami (GaoGaiGar)

Mafuyu Asahina (Project Sekai)

Astro Boy (Astro Boy)

Rei Ayanami (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

Toph Beifong (ATLA)

Biyoo (Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint)

Maria Campbell (My Next Life as a Villainess)

Alice Carroll (ARIA)

Chito (Girls Last Tour)

Cola (Scissor Seven)

Cosette (Les Misérables: Shōjo Cosette)

Damian Desmond (Spy×Family)

Denji Chainsawman (Chainsaw Man)

Diona (Genshin Impact)

Elda (Tropical-Rouge! Pretty Cure) (not Edomae Elf)

Alphonse Elric (Full Metal Alchemist)

Eri (My Hero Academia)

Emma (The Promised Neverland)

Fae (Fire Emblem: The Binding Blade)

Filo (Rising of the Shield Hero)

Anya Forger (Spy×Family)

Lee Gilyoung (Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint)

Gon (Hunter×Hunter)

Akechi Goro (Persona 5)

Hitori Gotoh (Bocchi the Rock!)

Hime Gotoh (no relation) (Kakushigoto)

Astolfo Granatum (The Case Study of Vanitas)

Hau (Pokemon Sun & Moon)

Arisugawa Himari/Cure Custard (KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode)

Shirayuki Hime/Cure Princess (HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!)

Koichi Hirose (Jojo's Bizarre Adventure: Diamond Is Forever)

Itona Horibe (Assassination Classroom)

Lily Hoshikawa (Zombieland Saga)

Hop (Pokemon Sword & Shield)

Anthy Himemiya (Revolutionary Girl Utena)

Miyuki Hoshizora/Cure Happy (Smile Pretty Cure!)

Saki Hyuuga/Cure Bloom (Futari wa Pretty Cure Splash★Star)

Ib (Ib)

Shinji Ikari (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

Ines (Mad Father)

Yamabuki Inori/Cure Pine (Fresh Pretty Cure!)

Tsumugi Inuzuka (Sweetness and Lightning)

Ira (DokiDoki! Pretty Cure)

Kyouya Izumi (Bungou Stray Dogs)

Jean (Fire Emblem Engage)

Julio/Rio Kuroki/Pikario (KiraKira★Pretty Cure à la Mode)

Nadeshiko Kagamihara (Yuru Camp)

Shigeo Kageyama/Mob (Mob Psycho 100)

Mokuba Kaiba (Yu-Gi-Oh!)

Madoka Kaname (Puella Magi Madoka Magica)

Kanna (Miss Kobayashi's Dragon Maid)

Sophia Keren (So I’m A Spider, So What?)

Rayfa Padma Khura'in (Ace Attorney: Spirit of Justice)

Sakura Kinomoto (Cardcaptor Sakura)

Komekko (Konosuba)

Naru Kotoishi (Barakamon)

Kabane Kusaka (Kemono Jihen)

Kevin E. Levin (Ben 10) (very specifically NOT the 2016 reboot)

Yotsuba Koiwai (Yotsuba&!)

Kirby (Kirby)

Kukrushka (Gnosia)

Lillie (Pokemon Sword & Shield)

Link (Wind Waker)

Lucas (Mother 3)

March (To Your Eternity)

Megumin (Konosuba)

Memempu (Sakugan)

Retasu Midorikawa/Mew Lettuce (Tokyo Mew Mew)

Mikhail (The Case Study of Vanitas)

Asa Mitaka (Chainsaw Man)

Mashiro Mitsumine (Engaged to the Unidentified)

Renge Miyauchi (Non Non Biyori)

Myrrh (Fire Emblem: The Sacred Stones)

Nah (Fire Emblem: Awakening)

Naruto (Naruto: Naruto)

Nowi (Fire Emblem: Awakening)

Yugo Ohda (Yu-Gi-Oh! Sevens)

Last Order (A Certain Magical Index)

Luca Oriflamme (The Case Study of Vanitas)

Platelets (Cells At Work!)

Riko (Made in Abyss)

Miharu Rokujo (Nabari no Ou)

Roy (Pokemon Horizons)

Ryuu (Snow White with the Red Hair)

Sabi (Pokemon Legends Arceus)

Louis de Sade (The Case Study of Vanitas)

Ericht Samaya (Mobile Suit Gundam: The Witch from Mercury)

Sagara Seiji (HappinessCharge Pretty Cure!)

Simon (Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann)

Somali (Somali and the Forest Spirit)

Asuka Soryu (Neon Genesis Evangelion)

Suika (Dr. Stone)

Utena Tenjou (Revolutionary Girl Utena)

Hanazawa Teruki (Mob Psycho 100)

"That kid" (Erased)

Minamoto Tiara (Toilet-Bound Hanako-kun)

Yuuta Tomonaga (Brave Police J-Decker)

Nina Tucker (Full Metal Alchemist)

Maria Ushiromiya (Umineko: When They Cry)

Miri Unasaka (Buddy Daddies)

Yoite (Nabari no Ou)

Shin Yoosung (Omniscient Reader’s Viewpoint)

Ayumi Yoshida (Detective Conan)

Yukine (Noragami)

Yun (Yona of the Dawn)

Yunyun (Konosuba)

Yuuri (Girls Last Tour)

Alluka Zoldyck (Hunter×Hunter)

Killua Zoldyck (Hunter×Hunter)

Please let me know if you notice some kind of mistake in this list. Like a name I spelled wrong or an alias I associated with the wrong character or if one of the characters I didn't recognize is a dragon or something.

[wh3r3sth3l0ve]

Sora x Tifa

The ending no. 1 (official)

Part 31 below

- Stay out of this. - Sora said to Tifa.

- I can help, you know that!

- Please, you have no idea how strong he is. We got this.

But her mind was made up. Sora and Riku rushed towards their enemy and Tifa followed them in a two-step distance.

Riku was slightly faster. He attacked Vanitas and after three blocked blows, Sora joined him, trying to hit from the other side. Vanitas blocked all of their strikes and dodged under their keyblades, attacking Tifa so hard that she was thrown away a long distance, rolled over a few times and laid motionless in the dirt.

- Tifa!

Vanitas looked at Sora and smiled like the devil himself.

- She’s dear to you. You already lost.

He attacked Sora with the power and speed he wasn’t ready for. He was mixing kicks and hits and eventually broke Sora’s defense and threw him into the ground. Riku tried to help but Vanitas just casted a barrier that made Riku bounce off it and half a second later he was also laying down in pain after a really hard hit.

- And now, let’s see if I can make a Heartless out of her.

Vanitas smirked and slowly approached Tifa, who was on one knee, struggling to get up.

Sora leaned on his Keyblade, trying to stand up as well. As he saw what’s going to happen, he gathered all his strength to run towards them but he was too slow.

Tifa looked up and saw the face that she knew so well, yet so different. She turned her eyes to her partner and reached her hand in his direction.

- Sora…

Vanitas plunged his blade right into her heart and picked her up with it. Tifa’s body hung lifeless.

- So in this world you don’t extract hearts, you just kill people. - Vanitas was surprised but also satisfied.

Seeing this Sora fell on his knees, unable to believe what happened. He watched his enemy throw Tifa off his Keyblade to the side. The sudden pain and sadness came to him with the realization of the loss. He had nothing to lose, the whole meaning of his life was destroyed in a single second. He rushed on Vanitas and struck him so fast, the armored man wasn’t even able to react. Sora threw him to the ground and was hitting him again and again until he wasn’t able to raise his weapon again. For the whole time Vanitas was laughing to the moment he was dead. Feeling completely worn out, Sora slowly approached Tifa’s body and kneeled next to it. With a shaking hand he touched her face, feeling tears streaming down his cheeks. He placed his hands on the wound in her chest and casted a healing spell a few times but there was no use. He felt a hand touching his shoulder.

- She’s gone. You can’t help her. - Riku whispered.

Sora took Tifa’s lifeless body in his arms and hugged it, crying. Riku kneeled next to him, and put his arm around him.

After half an hour, which felt like eternity, Riku said it’s time to go and helped his friend get up. Sora decided to carry Tifa back to 7th Heaven. The people they passed during the road walked after them as they realized what happened.

Cloud was passing by the bar when he saw the whole crowd walking in his direction with Sora on the lead, carrying Tifa in his arms. He helped Sora and Riku get inside and the moment he understood the situation he looked at Sora.

- Why?! What happened?!

Riku told him the whole story, Sora wasn’t able to speak, still crying and holding his beloved one tightly in his arms, sitting on the floor..

Cloud was absolutely infuriated.

- It’s your fault! You did this! I should’ve killed you right now! Leave, leave and never go back!

Sora finally laid Tifa’s body on the floor. He leaned towards her face, kissed her cheek and whispered in her ear:

- I love you, darling.

Cloud pushed him away hard. Riku helped Sora get up and led him out of the bar, through the crowd and out of town to his ship.

Half a day later they were on Destiny Island. Sora couldn’t believe that after what happened, the sun was still shining and everything looked normal. As he was walking down the beach with Riku, Kairi noticed them and ran to them as quickly as she could. She threw herself on Sora’s neck, happy to see him after all those years but a second later she realized that something was wrong. She looked at his face and got hit with the sight Sora gave her. There were no emotions in his eyes. He took her arms away and walked by her without saying a single word, heading towards the palm tree they were always hanging out on.

- Leave him be. - Riku said to her and told her everything he knew.

- He needs time. - he ended the story.

Kairi’s eyes were full of tears as she nodded with agreement and sat on the sand watching Sora from the distance.

Five days later Sora’s state didn’t change a bit. He wasn’t sleeping, he wasn’t eating, he wasn’t talking to anyone. The only place he felt safe was the secret place behind the waterfall. The mysterious doors were still there and that day Sora noticed darkness coming out of it. Without second thoughts he approached them and for the first time opened them. It was the darkest and most depressing sight he saw but it felt like a good place to be.

He looked around to find a sharp rock on the ground. He took it and scraped out the word “farewell” on the wall under the drawing of his and Kairi’s faces.

Then he passed through the door which shut tightly after him, not letting him go back.

[angelthefandomobsessed]

Where Kingdom Hearts III Went 'Wrong'

I should probably open this by saying that I love Kingdom Hearts III. I love KH for what it is, and the usual "Omg it's so weird, the plot doesn't make sense, eVeRyOnE iS sOrA" thing doesn't strike me as the best form of criticism for the series.

Instead, I wanted to highlight why things got so convoluted (in my opinion, anyway, it's not like I was in the writer's room or anything). I think the direction KH has gone (and is going) serves as a good lesson for any aspiring writers out there - we can learn from these shortcomings and love a series. Wild, right?

So... where did KH3 go 'wrong'?

The writers wrote themselves into a corner in DDD. That's it. It doesn't seem like a lack of planning that came back to bite them, but rather, that they went about planning in an inefficient way.

Let's look at the conflict of KH3.

(Warning: There will be a few spoilers for KH3 ahead!)

Xehanort has put together the 'real organisation' so that he can do a keyblade war reenactment, forge the χ-blade and summon Kingdom Hearts. His main goal (as I understand it, which might be very, very incorrect) is to create a new world where darkness and light can be equal, quashing the imbalance of power that is skewed towards light.

It's not a bad conflict to have. KH has very strong motifs of 'light vs dark', and having a villain fight the inequality between these sides is interesting.

The big problem is the setup behind it. The complicated, hard-to-grasp, tedious setup.

Thirteen darknesses have to fight seven lights. Cool, okay, we can see the imbalance between the sides, we have slots for our characters to fill, roles for them to play... Except, there's not enough room in the plot for them all. By sectioning off each side with neat, numerical values, the bloatedness of the cast becomes obvious.

There are seven lights:

Sora has to be one of them. He's the main character, not to mention the poster child for the light.

Riku's been there since the start, plus he's had the most fleshed-out arc by far, having overcome his own darkness. He's a worthy guardian of light and a true keyblade master.

Kairi is a princess of heart and has been there from the start. This ties a bow on our three main-est characters.

Mickey Mouse. He kind of has to be there, it's a Disney game, right?

Axel/Lea. Roxas and Xion are out of the picture, and he's a fan favourite, so sure, why not?

Aqua. A keyblade master who's suffered for ten years, torn apart from her best friends... Sure, maybe a war isn't great for her right now, but she's a lost master, so she should be.

Ventus. Pure cinnamon roll Ven, newly awakened and ready to beat up some Xehanorts.

Okay, but... what about Donald and Goofy? Oh, okay, they can just... hang out with the seven lights. As moral support, I guess? At that point, why not make it nine lights?

Double but - what about Terra? He's going to be saved at some point, so he can just... join the herd. And Roxas? And Xion? Eh, they can act as sub-ins in case anyone accidentally dies.

Oh, what's that? Kairi's dead? Wow, sucks for her, call in the reserves. Wait... If the 'Guardians of Light' can be swapped out, then what's the point in having a set number of them?

It's almost like it's entirely arbitrary.

Right. So our seven lights are more like ten-ish lights + friends. It happens, maths is hard! How do our darknesses fare?

The thirteen darknesses are (in no particular order):

Xehanort

Xemnas

Ansem

Young Xehanort

Terra Xehanort

Riku Replica

Saix

Vanitas

Marluxia

Larxene

Luxord

Xigbar

Xion

Somewhat hilariously, the dark side also has a team of reserves.

Demyx

Vexen

The wiki lists 'Replica Xehanorts' as reserves, but I'm not about to unpack that one

Imagine being Vexen, the guy responsible for dealing with replicas, the invention sustaining this organisation, and being benched in favour of teenage angst incarnate Replica Riku. Ouch.

By this point, you might be wondering how this use of arbitrary numbers actually impacted the storytelling. Organisation XIII only had thirteen members for like, a week, so clearly counting isn't a strong suit of Xehanort's.

It all falls apart when the writers say (in DDD):

"KH3 will be about this, where this happens, with this many people, at this specific place, so get your popcorn and buckle in!"

On its own, that's not a problem. But when there's a giant pile of other plot points to worry about (Aqua's in Disney hell, Ventus is napping, Terra is somehow, kinda sorta, three different people whilst also being trapped in heartless thingy (whilst also being a suit of armour, but not quite), Roxas is stuck in Sora's heart, Xion has been wiped off the face of the earth via memory nuke, Naminé is in Kairi's heart, Sora needs to discover the mystical (and vague) 'power of waking' to deal with half these problems, Lea and Kairi need to train, and Riku needs to go to the 'Heartless Barbershop in Disney Hell' (the most relevant plot point of all)).

What we get is a tangle of 'this can happen when this happens, but first we need to do this one thing, and to do that we need this other thing' (i.e. "To find Ven we need to find Aqua, who is evil and needs to be good again, and Sora needs the power of waking to deal with this... probably, let's put a pin in it and hang out with Buzz Lightyear").

The plot is murky. The plot is confusing.

This entire plot raises the question of 'Why don't Sora and co. just... not go?' That's a good question, which should have a simple answer (if they don't, the org will do baaaaad things, wooOOOoooOOO), but instead what we get is "If they don't, Xehanort will use the new seven hearts (because there are new ones now for some reason, but Kairi's still one of them, dw about it) instead, guaranteeing bad things... probably?"

Xehanort's a bad guy who needs to be stopped. That's it, that's all we needed. But that avenue was closed off once they said 'nah, it's more complex because of prophecies, I guess'.

So, what's the moral of this long, drawn-out post?

Sometimes, it might seem like a super cool idea to have a group of characters band together to defeat evil. Sometimes mashing them into a prophecy can seem appealing (the five great owls will do the unholy hoot, defeating the nine-and-a-half orange rats at sundown in Mississippi). But sometimes, this kind of self-restriction won't work for you.

KH3 could have just had 'the bad guys' and 'the good guys', and nobody would have to worry about the arbitrary parameters set by the writers.

Keep your options open and don't overcomplicate things just for the sake of it! It'll only give you and your consumer a headache.

.

.

.

All that being said, KH3 really delivered on the emotional payoffs so like, forget the randomly numbered groups, let's appreciate the joy that (most of) these characters are allowed to feel now.

[untitledducklett]

[Cael trots, quite literally, out onto the stage followed by Berior and Lucretia. Cael and Berior are sporting face and body paints respectively. The script on Berior's sides and face are glowing softly pulsating in time with his heartbeat. Both he and Lucretia have been polished to a mirror sheen. In the middle of Cael's forehead a strange, dainty, white flower has been painstakingly painted the leaves of which go over his eyes which stand out as bright amber against the green. He takes a deep breath before taking a deep bow, as he comes up the bracelet that @xxfrosted-heartxx made for him can be seen against his glinting armor. Around his feet is a thick carpet of multiple types of flowers: Zinnia (thoughts of absent friends), Daffodil (unrequited love), Anemone (forsaken), Marigold (grief and cruelty), Snowbell (The Dawn Queen), Cylcamen (goodbye).

"Hello Sootopolis!" he calls the same grin he wore while busking now taking over his features. "My name is Cael Adair, the Vanitian Absol to my left is Berior, and the Vanitian Leavanny to my right is Lucretia. Today we'll be putting on a little ballet based on traditional Vanitian training exercises."

Cael nods towards someone off stage and music begins to play, the song is in a similar language to Téir Abhaile Riú. Not the same exact language but a definite third cousin. The petals around his feet begin to kick up as he and Berior take position across from each other. Berior begins a swords dance as Cael charges forward reaching into the 'blades'. As if manifested by the move itself Cael pulls out two collapsable blades bound together by a strand of teal ribbon, there is a pattern on it but it's difficult to see due to the positioning of the camera. He touches the tip of one of the blades to the ground and draws a circle the petals underneath it kicking up as he does. He lunges for Berior who throws up a King's Shield embossed with two mechanical looking pig pokemon rearing up, back to back. Cael's blades tap off of the shield. He backflips away his feet kicking up trails of petals as he does. Berior gallops forward with an iron headbutt which Cael dodges with an expert duck. This continues until the first verse ends. Out of a thick shroud of darkness shining gold silk erupts wrapping itself around Cael's arm disarming him.

As the fog dissipates Lucretia is seen standing on the thread attached to Cael's arm. She charges down the thread at Cael scraping her arms together in a hone claws. Berior intercepts cutting the thread with his horn. Lucretia does a backflip and as soon as she lands she summons a petal storm. The petals on the ground quickly coalesce into a bright, shining, tornado of petals. Cael and Berior get back to their feet staring down the variant Leavanny. She sweeps her arms sending out a flurry of gold and silver leaves like throwing stars. Attached to each is a thin thread. Cael crouches behind Berior as he throws up another King's Shield to block the leaves, she retracts them giving a chance for Cael to retaliate. He jumps onto the shield and, using it as a springboard, leaps towards Lucretia, swords drawn. Lucretia hooks the ribbon between his swords and severs it sending Cael back towards the ground.

Cael slowly falls to the ground as if he were suspended by wires to cushion the landing. He lies still. Berior then lets out a howl of rage, he uses sacred sword grabbing it by the hilt in his teeth as he charged forward with Iron Headbutt. The tornado of petals picks up speed as Berior dashes forwards concealing the two pokemon. When the petals finally drop Berior is standing over a still Lucretia.

The crowd erupts in cheering that seems to revive both Cael and Lucretia. The trio line up single file and bow to the audience.

"Thank you everyone! May this small piece of Vanitas stay in your memories!"

The video closes with Cael recalling Lucretia before hopping onto Berior and riding out.]

[OOC: art of the Athelas plant by Bonnie Klein, Berior's paints were done by me, the lineart was a mega absol coloring page that was edited]