#of different people telling Lauriam first

[chronicbackstabbingdisorder]

PLEASE INFODUMP TO ME ABOUT KH 👀 I love when people share the crazy lore about this series because I cannot keep track of it myself. Pick your favorite topic and go off my liege 👑

Oh it would be my pleasure. So let me tell you about why the stupid fucking mobile game is crucial to understanding the events of Kingdom Hearts 3.

So first off, there's a mobile gacha game called Kingdom Hearts Union X (technically set after the events of a Japan only browser game called Kingdom Hearts X, but it's easier to think of it all as one thing to save yourself the headache) that covers the events that led up to and surrounding the Keyblade War, an event that is referenced in Birth By Sleep, mainly by the game's final stage being the battlefield of said war, The Keyblade Graveyard.

Thing is, of course, the Keyblade War happened so far in the past compared to the rest of the series that a game covering it, while certainly interesting backstory and lore to the setting, didn't ever seem like it would super relevant to the events of future games, especially not when it was portrayed in a mobile game of all things.

And then KH3 came out and it was fucking littered with tie ins to the phone game. The big important connection we have would be Maleficent and her quest for a 'black box' the entire game, the box in question had up until then only been mentioned in KHX. The box was entrusted by a character known as The Master Of Masters to another character named Luxu, along with The Master's keyblade, which contains one of his own eyes and allows him to see whatever the keyblade sees, neither of their faces have ever been shown, but they wear the same iconic coats as Organization XIII. The Master instructed Luxu to keep the box hidden and never open it, as well as to observe the events of the future so that The Master could also witness them through his keyblade and write a book detailing the future. Luxu did just that right until the end of KH3. An extra scene at the end shows a hooded figure in the Keyblade Graveyard holding The Master's keyblade and standing next to the black box and the figure mentions that the keyblade is 'back where it belongs', and of course that keyblade is one we as an audience have seen before, it's the keyblade that our main antagonist, Master Xehanort, wields. Four other characters then appear, the union leaders from KHX, essentially The Master's other disciples and leaders of the different factions the player can choose from. They address the hooded figure as Luxu, though mention that he looks different, when Luxu reveals his face, it's actually Xigbar, the number two of Organization XIII. The way Luxu decided to go about watching over the events of the future was to pass the Keyblade along to someone else, then cast away his original body and instead hop from body to body and observe from the sidelines. The keyblade eventually made it's way to Xehanort and Xigbar was quick to present himself as an ally so he could continue to keep watch. Bascially the entire plot of the entire series trace back to The Master of Masters and his convoluted game of 4D chess.

And like, that's just the Big Thing, there's lots of other things that tie back to KHX. I won'tgo into all of them because we'd be here all day, but my personal favorite is that Marluxia and Larxene's original identies before losing their hearts, Lauriam and Elrena, are shown in KHX, both were keyblade warriors involved in the events surrounding the Keyblade War.

[kh-marriage-material]

why are some of the characters on there twice? that doesn't seem fair at all.

Just a heads up, some of this explanation may spoil bits of KH3 and previous games! tl;dr is that even the characters who look alike are different characters, and the similar characters both being in it were not meant to stack odds (with the proof that none of them are the person i'm rooting for)

I'm sorry for the confusion! I'm assuming you're talking about how like, Lea and Axel are both in this, along with some of the other Nobodies along with their counterparts.

Everyone in this tournament except for Scrooge McDuck was submitted by at least one person who wasn't me. The Nobody/Somebody counterparts that are both in this are all in it because different people submitted both of the characters for separate reasons.

I view Nobodies and their Somebodies as separate entities. Yes, you could make an argument that they're the same person, and that is very understandable! However, a) I didn't think of that and b) I do believe that they're different people. Like, if Roxas and Sora were in the same competition, then it's a no brainer that they're separate. Roxas may be Sora's Nobody, but Roxas became his own person. He has his own heart. It's easier to tell them apart than it is for the like 11 members of the Organization that didn't change appearances between their Somebody and Nobody forms(for the most part), but that still holds true. The fact that Isa and Saix, for example, look very similar does not stop the fact that Saix isn't the same as Isa. The fact that Isa and Saix share a body doesn't make them the same person, in the same way the Terranort, Xemnas, and Terra are all separate characters.

Another important note is that a lot of them act at least a little different or have different motivations once they gain their heart. It can get a little fuzzy in some cases because many grew hearts and acted on what their heart told them before leaving the organization or rejoined the organization after regaining their heart with the intention of making up for past mistakes done while they were Nobodies the first time, all while still using their Nobody persona. However, I still hold that they're different.

Vexen wasn't included because he wasn't submitted at all, neither were Lauriam or Elrena. I just double checked because I was worried I accidentally missed them and they weren't there. It's no hate against any of them, it isn't me trying to stack the odds in favor of any of the Nobody/Somebody pairs. While I won't be upset at the results unless it's like a joke character who wins(i stg im going to cry if it ends up being like Aqua vs Scrooge at one point and Scrooge wins. do not do this to me. I will veto it.) I also have my own person I'm rooting for and it isn't one of the ones where a Nobody and their direct counterpart are both included.

I hope this is a satisfactory explanation and I'm sorry for the delay in answering! I wanted to make sure to explain it properly and not dismiss the question.

[bearpillowmonster]

BBS ReVisited (Ventus)

I originally talked about how the BBS trio might not have as much relevance after KH3 but I disagree now, Ventus especially, yeah he has KHUX but the beginning of this game sets it all up.

Ven's story revolves around a dream and in a way, Terra is just projecting his dream onto him, Ven is extremely impressionable because he lost his personality, a blank slate. I think Vens future will be finding his own identity, whether it's recovering his old one or building an entirely new one, whether it's with or without the keyblade. In fact every time someone asks him what he's doing, he says "I'm just tryna make some friends." Which makes sense. He has friends he wants to look for but doesn't remember them so he just makes all the friends he can, simple goals for him.

I'd like a scene where we see exactly what happened when Lauriam, Elrena and Ven were intercepted, how did their arrivals differ and when exactly did Lauriam and Elrena arrive in contrast? Did they immediately lose their memories like Ven too or did Xehanort MAKE them forget? It makes me wonder if Ven tried attacking him, this kid he's been dreaming about for years suddenly turning on him, he'd use him as his first experiment to "fix him". To take away the pain of the Keyblade war and rapture and to see if he contained one of the true darkness. This could later connect to why he and Ansem conducted experiments on others later on. Subject X supposedly meaning 10.

With the new context of the added games I only just figured out that Ven was talking to Sora at the beginning because Xehanort brought him to Destiny Islands to die. It's just a bit weirder now because he lends his full heart to Sora by the end so in a way he failed that 'second chance'.

Evan said they are destined to cross paths again but they don't...at least not really, unless you count inside Sora's heart or a nod towards Roxas.

Ven would be really annoying if you didn't know KHUX. I could see why people complained back when BBS came out. I get Nomura wanted an innocence with him though, I think they tried to spell everything out and define it from that fight at the end of KH2, like maybe they didn't know who exactly these characters were yet and it was just a concept. It's also a bit of a play on Sora's "Get away from home" thing because all anyone ever tells Ventus is to go home and he refuses.

Ven carries his toy key around to the other worlds which leads me to believe that it's stored in the keyblade index? But then Terra also wields it so did Terra have to bestow or bequeath it to him? It's also a shame we never actually get to wield it ourselves.

I like the relativity of this game too and how the characters can relate. Like with Stitch, he's viewed as a dangerous powerful monster that can do nothing but hurt people and Ven is viewed that way when Eraqus figures out he's needed to forge the X-Blade. (How Eraqus figured this out, is left unanswered as far as I can tell.) Pinocchio would've been a good one if his story wasn't already closed because he wants to be a real boy and Xehanort sort of makes Ventus feel like he's no more than a tool. A weapon. An X-Blade. Him learning he can be a real boy and not have to worry about this war would be effective.

[floriswrite]

“How is Even doing?” Lea asked around a bite of sandwich.

“Swallow before speaking.” Isa sighed at his side. 

Roxas merely shook his head. 

“Odd for you to ask.” Lauriam responded and blinked over at him. 

“Hey, don’t be like that. Xion told me.” 

“Told you-?” Lauriam’s head tilted. 

Lea frowned at him. Weird. “About Even’s cancer.” 

“What?” Lauriam’s expression fell slowly. “I- excuse me.” He swallowed as he pushed his chair back. 

Ven reached a hand carefully out for him. “Lauriam?” 

Lauriam shook his head a little. “You know my opinions. Speak for me if needed.” 

Ven settled his hand back on his lap. Just like back then. “Okay.” 

Lauriam gave him a shaky smile before he hurried off. 

“Did he not know?” Roxas whispered. “Why would Even not tell him?” 

“I... overheard him tell Ienzo.” Xion sighed. “Figured it was safe to talk about. Man my dad is stupid.” 

“Our dad is indeed.” Ienzo stated as he stared at his Gummiphone. “I know Aeleus and Dilan know. Should I warn Even?” 

“Lauriam’s...” Ventus trailed and stared at the table. “I don’t know if the adult Lauriam would do anything. Is- Is Even going to /die/?” 

“It is not that serious.” Ienzo tried to keep his voice calming as he messaged Even. “How much did you hear, Xion?” 

“Uhh, really just you saying ‘You have cancer’. Figured he could wait on the ingredients he asked me to pick up...” 

“He has lung cancer. Another side effect of Vexen’s death, he worries, which is probably why he put off telling Lauriam.” 

“...Oh.” Lea let out a small broken laugh. “Well shit.” 

“Mmhm.” Ienzo hummed at him. “I still cannot understand why Vexen helped you and Saix.” 

“Curiosity, mostly. Once he understood the severity of the situation he was willing to do anything.” Isa explained. “But more than that, that death did make him Even, once more.” 

“True.” Ienzo sighed. “There is nothing to worry about, Ven. Even is more sturdy than he looks.” 

“Promise?” Ven sounded younger than usual right then. Too open. Too bare. 

“I promise.” Ienzo gave him a small smile. “Your concern for my father is appreciated.” 

Ven shook his head a little. “It’s for Lauriam. I don’t think his heart would be able to handle Even dying.” 

“Ahh. He would not be alone, Ven. Even is an important part of many of our hearts. But that fear is understandable; I would not like to see Marluxia again.” 

“Would he become a Nobody again?” Aqua questioned. 

“I think he would just stop.” Ven shook his head. “I’d have to keep him away from the students. That kind of dark influence could be disastrous.” 

“Would he still be able to wield his Keyblade?” 

“Perhaps not the one you are used to, but yes.” Ven frowned to himself. “Should I check on him?” 

“No, let Even fix his own mess.” Ienzo shook his head and put his phone away. “If he can.” 

“I’m taking dad in the divorce.” Xion teased openly. 

“As if Lauriam would take you.” Ienzo teased back. “There’s nothing to worry about. Lauriam cannot stay angry at Even for long. Even will get treated, and everything will go back to normal.” 

Xion stuck her tongue out at him. 

“If- if he did become a Nobody again would he really /be/ Marluxia? Xemnas gave us those names. Would he really take it back up?” Roxas questioned the room. 

“Fair point, we reclaimed those ‘X’s, can’t imagine him doing the same.” Lea mumbled. “Look at you thinking this hypothetical through.” 

Roxas rubbed the back of his head. “It was just a thought.” 

“We shouldn’t keep talking about this.” Aqua ended the conversation. “If Lauriam falls down a dark path we will deal with it then.” 

“Yeah.”

[last-flight-of-fancy]

okay here we go, Vanitas theory time because I can’t stop thinking about it. As with any theory I am fully aware and prepared for this to be completely debunked, but hey, theorizing is fun and I think it’s a neat idea.

Which I’m gonna put under a cut bc I like to talk about my son and his potential a lot.

Before I jump headfirst into it I do want to say that this entire theory rests entirely on the assumption that the heart hotel isn’t quite empty yet, and that Vanitas is still quietly hiding out in Sora’s heart.

Personally, I am pretty confident in this assumption, but as it is not yet explicitely confirmed I do feel it necessary to put the disclaimer. It’s KH, there’s no telling what wild twists will throw everything we know into entirely new contexts.

In the interest of clarity I’ll do a brief overview of this idea for those who may not know. We see in KH that when a person dies goes sparkly glitter into another persons arms they tend to take up residence in that persons heart, like a safety net. We’ve seen this a bunch of times over the course of the series; Xion to Roxas, Eraqus to Terra, Kairi to Sora.

There’s even instances of it happening without any physical contact to speak of; Ven to Sora, Repliku to Riku... and i hesitate to add this one but honestly I suspect this happened with Strelitzia to Lauriam too. No confirmation on that tho, just a suspicion.

And then there’s of course the outliers, with Roxas to Sora not really fitting either category due to DiZ meddling, and the most curious one to me personally- Sora to Kairi, which should have happened but... didn’t.

(as with any hypothesis, it is important to consider points against your theory too, and this instance drives me nuts every time i think about it. WHY.)

The last we see of Vanitas in BBS is him vanishing into the glowing lights and into Ven’s heart station.

(listen I could talk about this scene all fucking day okay. Even Repliku vanished with dark whisps, but Vanitas glows just like all the other light aligned characters. when he hits the bottom the station lights up and reveals itself to be Ven’s. I have thoughts about this too but that is not this essay.)

Okay so bviously that’s all pretty straightforward, but surely he would have left with Ven too, right? When Ven was returned to his body?

Not necessarily.

The closest example to this I think would be Roxas and Xion; Xion was released first, despite being in theory two layers deep in Sora’s heart (as she was in Roxas’ heart when Roxas joined with Sora). Roxas was freed shortly thereafter, but I do think this does point to a heart within a heart within a heart is less a babushka doll of hearts and more... maybe an incomplete web, where the hearts may connect to each other, but they are far more connected to the center point (which here is Sora).

I also think it’s important that the narrative (specifically Remind) went out of it’s way to make it clear that the Vanitas in KH3 is from the past, drawn forward through time like several other members. I’ve seen people be angry about this as it’s also brought up at one point that Monsters Inc had enough negative energy to reform Vanitas all on it’s own, and well. Doesn’t that just seem sort of pointless?

So. Why point out there was an easier way to do what they did? I don’t think they would unless there was a reason they couldn’t. If current Vanitas is still hiding within Sora, he’s essentially unavailable to Xehanort. As a result he has to turn to other means by pulling a past version instead.

(there is also vaguely tangential evidence in things like Rage Form. Though I think this is equally likely to be only reflective of Sora’s declining mental state and repression, I’m noting it here anyway)

All that said I’m sure you’re wondering how this relates to my theory. It’s crucial honestly, for a couple different reasons.

Now, when it comes to KH there’s no real way to predict specifics. It is a series that adores twists and turns and red herrings, each one throwing previous revelations into whole new lights. It’s one of the reasons I love the series, so I’m going to try and keep my strokes here as broad as possible to avoid hinging everything on what could be an unfounded assumption.

Probably will still happen but hey, I’m gonna give it my best shot ;P

So my theory is this: Assuming the above is all true, Vanitas is perfectly positioned to be a critical part of how Sora and Riku get back home from Quadratum.

(and yes, I know FGM quips that if Riku runs into trouble he should come straight back home, but to me it felt like a light hearted joke, kinda as if to say ‘I know we can’t come with, but we’ve still got your back’. After the sheer amount of hoops they have to jump through to get Riku there, it would feel a little strange if he could now just jump back and forth at will. However, like with many things this is an assumption. We won’t know for sure until the next game, so for now I’m rolling with what I can see and interpret)

Kairi’s Memories, NS’s connection to the other world, Riku’s Dreams. All needed to make the jump.

Vanitas has the memories of Daybreak, even if a bit muddled and confused, he has the connection to Ven... Honestly that just leaves the dreams. (His only goal has been to feel whole, pain free. Could that be attained in the other reality? oops I’m slipping into blatant speculation again BUT STILL)

On a purely plot related level his connection to Ven, while antagonistic at best, could certainly serve the same function that the Nameless Star did in being the connection Riku needed to enter Quadratum. Whether they like it or not and even though they almost definitely can’t merge back into one person anymore, that connection remains.

But I have more than just plot reasons for this theory- Kingdom Hearts is a series that runs on emotion after all. It’s greatest strength is in it’s characters, their internal struggles, and how real those emotions feel and are felt. Even when (and perhaps especially when) those emotions are repeatedly denied by either the textual narrative or other characters.

Which is why I want to talk about how this could possibly go if indeed Vanitas is there with Sora, between their characters and what that could mean for them.

Obviously like I said earlier I can’t make any hard assumptions, and there’s no telling how exactly Vanitas will be reintroduced; an internal voice to Sora like Ven was in most of KH3? Something Sora can see and feel? Are they both within Yozora’s heart (as is the current theory) the whole time or do they transition elsewhere at some point? Something else entirely?

Regardless of the specifics it IS the perfect time for us to get that Vanitas Redemption Arc we’ve been begging for and that he’s deserved for so long.

(if you are somehow not on the Vanitas; Future Good Boy train and made it this far, I encourage you to read all the Vanitas centered excerpts from the novels and also check out the Hero’s and Heroine’s Medley from the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra, composed by the series musical genius Yoko Shimomura (who frequently places musical nods and hints in the soundtrack), which at the very tail end features Vanitas’ theme. The former highlights how Vanitas is a victim shaped by pain, circumstance, and lies, the latter hinting quite strongly at his potentional to be a force for good as far as I’m concerned)

https://remember-kingdom-hearts.tumblr.com/post/28798364782/bonus-translation-of-the-novel-chapter-dark no seriously if this bit of the novel doesn’t make you feel for Vanitas I dont know what will.

https://keijitranslates.tumblr.com/post/186619714655/vanitas-monologue-kh3-novel Vanitas’ kh3 monologue, which imo highlights how even he doesn’t really know what’s going on with him. His knowledge is both more than everyone else while also at the same time warped by manipulation and lies, making it confused and uncertain at best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9VZ6XPFTlA The medley. Also it’s KH music and thus amazing. You all know this.

Not only that but he’s also in a perfect position to challenge Sora as well, assuming they get to talk to each other. If you know Violet Howler’s essays on KH and the Heroine’s journey (which I ADORE please watch them or read the doc if you have the time, they’re phenomenal), you may now be thinking about how he’s pointed out that Yozora is likely in the position of psychopomp to Sora’s descent. And I’m not disagreeing with this! We don’t really know yet what exactly Yozora’s deal is, but I do think Vanitas could serve as auxillery to this, forcing Sora to confront both his own Darkness and Darkness as not being wholly evil in general.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h5l2II-JvkNE5en3B7emErk5O8QKB5p-LVDlmZFS_qw/ Violet Howler’s essay doc on the Heroine’s Journey

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPOVJTNgLjMz9Y0NBfFkSZQ The ongoing Video Essay’s on the same subject

(and if you would like some pure fantasy speculation here, I like to imagine this being done through poking at Sora’s own natural empathy. “You still hate the darkness. You can say you don’t but I’m not stupid. You reject the dark, you shrink away from your own shadows. You say I can be more than just bad, but I am always going to be made of darkness, so which is it, Sora? Because it can’t be both.”)

(also also, and i’m sorry for all these asides, but given all this I kind of think Yozora is going to be integral to making Sora realise his big fat gay Riku Feelings, while Vanitas is going to be more about making him realise that he still holds a number of unacknowledged biases)

Okay, so this is about as far as I got on my first brainstorm session on this theory, but when I came back to it later I realised there’s another part to this that I hadn’t considered yet, which handily solved the one thing I felt was missing from all this.

The past.

And it really did bug me until I figured out what it was, bc if you’re not considering all the pieces then you’ve probably missed something. Sure we (probably) get those delicious character arcs, but it left a lot of history sort of dangling in the wind, unresolved and unacknowledged. Stuff like Ven/Vani’s history in Daybreak, as Union leaders, their lost friends and just fucktons of trauma. Especially when it is implied in the novels that unlike Ven, Vanitas does remember at least a little bit of those Union days, it doesn’t feel right to never get any resolution on that.

And then I remembered that we’ve got a couple of other plots I’d forgotten about; namely with MoM in Qaudratum and the Foretellers in the regular verse. Both with their own ties to Daybreak, even if not directly to Ven, and both possibly heralding long awaited answers and resolutions to the khux storyline.

How exactly? Who knows, but the ties are certainly there and available. I fully expect either a series of cutscene’s or (hey I can dream) a whole game centered around the foreteller business, which I can only assume will involve Ven and the other former khux kids eventually. Something similar could happen with MoM and Vanitas. Granted this is drifting into speculation again, but hey, I see what I see.

All of this and then when all is said and done, the day is won and Sora and Riku have finally talked properly and done a big kiss of true love, Nameless Star is returned to her proper place... There’s our boys still trapped in Quadratum. I kind of expect this to be a sort of... bigger version of the Dark Margin scene at the end of KH2 honestly. The sentiment that they’ll be okay as long as they’re together, and happy at least for that, even if it means not being able to go home.

Am I saying Vanitas could be that letter in a bottle that bumped into their feet on the sands of the dark shore after an undisclosed amount of time? Yes, yes I am. Him and Ven both, with the full possibility that Kairi herself may end up involved as well, considering she has her own yet unexplored mysteries and is now apprenticing under Aqua, thus in close proximity to Ven for the foreseeable future.

But as always with KH, we’ll see how it goes. It’s always possible it will do something else entirely and I’ll be just as satisfied. I just needed to show you all my brain worms XD

[bluerosesburnblue]

Can I complain about the use of Laurium and Elrena in KH3/KHUX being blatant "these are good people, we swear, and we shall prove it by making them keyblade wielders long ago" and just... ignoring the whole bit on how they went on to torture Sora, Namine, Repliku, and many others? And how the two personalities are vastly different? Also as they don't remember any of this KHUX stuff AT ALL then it doesn't forgive/excuse anything they did in the present day? I feel like that bit in KH3 was thrown in for shock value. And like, I love Larxene. She's awesome and evil. But characters have been brought back who's story was over, other characters who's story was long over were brought back only to die for no reason (cough) Repliku denying he was a person was horrible (cough) and KHUX being the most "listen to my tone and not my words" that KH has done in quite some time. (And thank you 30 Rock for giving me that wonderful way of explaining it) Just ugh.

God, just... that's also what it feels like they're trying to do with Xehanort with "the reveal?" I'm not against the idea of giving a villain a sympathetic backstory, but the point of that is to give them traits that the audience will look at and see reflected in themselves and go "oh shit" and realize that they could go bad if they leave those traits unchecked. It's not supposed to be used as an excuse to gloss over all of the villainous things they did to make them a good person in hindsight. You can't buff out a game everyone's already played and known about for years

I feel like that bit in KH3 was thrown in for shock value.

Unfortunately, Lauriam and Elrena were in KHUx before KH3 came out so this whole thing was probably planned concurrently between them. Lauriam was here for a long time. There was no shock in the KH3 reveal

Thing is, Lauriam's descent into Marluxia is actually passable? There's a somewhat believable progression of "slightly conceited but still loving older brother" to "little sister goes missing, panic" to "find out little sister was as far as anyone can tell killed, start looking for revenge" to "become so obsessed with revenge that he almost kills a kid who was heavily manipulated and not actually at fault." The issue is that they tried to have him resolve that by the end of KHUx by having him realize that his acting out was wrong, leading to this weird bump where Lauriam seems to have completed a full character arc within KHUx, but for the franchise as a whole the next time we see him, he's back to the overly-aggressive-almost-killed-a-kid side. We don't get a nice, continuous progression with him, but the steps on paper kind of work?

It's just that the end of KH3 tries to backpedal him into the "realize that his acting out was wrong" stage without any of the inciting events to make that happen, so he's forced to emptily repeat the last two steps of his arc again with no motivation due to amnesia

Elrena's the one they really screwed up on by making her this, like, sweet and demure young girl (who felt bad for taking a pod!) with absolutely no lead-in to being a full-on sadistic witch. And the worst part is that they could totally have made it work and just... didn't?

It wouldn't have even been that hard. If, at the start of KHUx, we'd had flashback scenes to Strelitzia and Elrena's party where they're friends, Elrena has the KHUx personality that they actually gave her, and everyone is happy, but then relations in the party start breaking down and Elrena starts growing more and more bitter at her teammates, then you'd have something to work with. Maybe a teammate betrays them and joins a new party because they're not "earning enough Lux" or something. Elrena is only able to keep a hold on herself due to her good friend, Strelitzia, enough that she's recruited into the Dandelions (hell, maybe she's the first person that Strelitzia recruits). But then, from her perspective, her only good friend in her party goes "missing," and none of the rest of their teammates seem to care and the bitterness and anger returns full-force as she goes to look for Strelitzia by herself

Then we could have her bump into Lauriam and have her start showing signs of being her future, rude self before learning that Lauriam is also looking for Strelitzia. The two recognize each other from things Strelitzia has told them and form a partnership on their hunt for her whereabouts

If they really wanted to go dark, they could have Elrena eavesdrop on the Union Leaders (instead of just showing up to just add in the idea of Data selves existing and then snag a lifeboat) and realize that they've been suppressing people's memories and start to distrust them. Then, in the end, Lauriam would have to win her trust back enough to convince her to take a pod to try and save her (to protect his sister's dear friend), but she still ends up with the major trust issues mentioned in her character file

And then all they'd have to do is frame the KH3 scenes and accompanying deaths a little more sincerely, giving each of them a "what have I done?" moment somewhere in the middle of the story, maybe even brought on by flickers of memories of Strelitzia coming back to each of them, and then regretting things come their final boss battles. Even a "tell Namine I'm sorry" or a bitter "I've remembered someone... who would've LOVED to meet Namine... But.. I..." from one or both of them would be enough

So, not a terrible idea, even if I think making them ancient Keyblade wielders is stretching the suspension of disbelief just a bit much, but mediocre execution on Marluxia and abysmal execution on Larxene

[perfectharmonyloveschaos]

Sora Is the Master of Masters All Evidence

Part 1:

Kingdom Hearts 2.8 Backcover is the first instance that we meet the Master of Masters ourselves without anyone else’s perspective of events and see him as an individual character. From the get-go, the Master of Masters (or MoM as I will be addressing him throughout this theory for simplicity sake) is immediately addressed with heavy respect from his title alone. But, Chirithy also makes sure to mention his “mischievous” nature that we see a lot of throughout all of his appearances from here on. Due to the Master of Masters only being included and planned from Backcover onwards, it definitely seems more than coincidental that all of his similarities to Sora take place in the games technically made after Backcover which I will discuss; Backcover itself, KHX and KHUX, 0.2, KH3 and ReMind.

Both Sora and MoM are introduced as joker, light-hearted characters who use humour to lighten dark situations and comfort people. They hold themselves lightly and make fun of themselves to make others laugh or to lighten the dark of a situation. Sora did this when he comforted Riku by pulling a funny face (“how am I going to face everyone?!”/“like this?”) in KH2 while MoM pretended to question if Invi cared about him when she was overthinking things and getting worried about the events to come (“do you… want me to go?!”)

Both characters share several of the same gestures and body movements, with Sora copying a lot of MoM’s gestures especially in KH3 and ReMind. Both hold their arms behind their heads, tilt their heads or even bodies sideways playfully and poke things to name a few shows off their playful, animated gestures. Both use their right hands when using the Keyblade with Sora holding his in his right hand and MoM summons No Name with his right hand to give it to Luxu.

Along with these personality and movement similarities, we also have the infamous Gazing Eye' glitch found in KH ReMind that 'definitely calls this theory into question. Why does a glitch like this only happen with Young Xehanort, whom we know MoM interacted and met with? Why does it only happen when Young Xehanort uses his time alteration powers if this was simply a glitch in the texture of Sora and the Gazing Eye's eye? Would that not mean that this could be triggered at any other time? And why is it so cleanly done if not to be intentional? This 'glitch' appears perfectly on Sora's eye and doesn't affect any other texture on Sora. If Sora was in fact MoM, would it not make sense for his possibly clairvoyant/prediction abilities to be affected by Young Xehanort affecting time? This would be too difficult go be a simple visual glitch or error of the engine given how the texture of the Gazing Eye appears in both of Sora's eyes perfectly, as well as appearing bloodshot since there would be no reason for Sora's eyes to use the bloodshot texture AND the Gazing eye texture together.

Speaking of Sora’s eyes, this also brings me back to the pre-KH3 release conspiracy theory about Sora’s eye colour changing to green throughout the trailers which people passed off as being the reflections of the environment. This happened several times throughout the game and seemingly meant nothing, but when you consider who Sora was interacting his eye colour changed, him possibly being the MoM explains this. The first time we see this is in Mount Olympus, when Sora meets with Xigbar for the first time since DDD and we see Sora’s eyes have strong green tint compared to Hercules, who also has bright blue eyes that don’t seem to be affected by the lighting. Maybe only the KH original models are affected for some reason? Xigbar’s eyes are also not affected, while yellow, which would definitely show given how intense Sora’s are. Xigbar, is Luxu, so one could assume that anyone connected to MoM would make Sora’s eyes react, yes? Again, we see Sora’s eye go green with others as well. In Kingdom Of Corona, Sora’s eyes are once again green and while it it way greener here than Olympus, Marluxia’s—or Lauriam, who MoM choose as a Dandelion leader and survivor of the war—eyes once again are not affected, nor are any other characters’ like Rapunzel, Flynn, or Mother Gothel. Only Sora. We see this again with Ven when Vanitas is going to kill Aqua in the land of Departure and Sora wakes Ventus up from inside him, Sora’s eyes go green while no one else’s, including Ven and Aqua both of whom have blue eyes, have their eyes affected. And the final past character that is directly tied to the MoM through the dandelions and Sora whose presence affects Sora’s eyes is Ephemer in the Keyblade Graveyard. Ephemer has no reason to come to Sora here, compared to Ventus who he knew in canon and had every reason to help but let die in the previous ending, given that they do not know one another beyond Ventus. And as the camera zooms into Sora, Sora’s eyes gain a slight green tint to his eyes before the centre of his eyes change to a light, greenish blue that is very similar to another Name’s Gazing eye and focuses on his eye not only here, but once Sora snaps back to reality and focuses on the reflection of all the dead keyblades helping them. Here, Sora’s eyes are green again the exact same way that his eyes were green interacting with Xigbar/Luxu and Marluxia/Lauriam, both of whom were tied to the MoM. The green tint and highlight of the colour around his iris is identical to that of the Gazing Eye in No Name, with the environments and how others reacting to them in each of these worlds showing that these events and only these affect solely Sora’s eyes, proving that this is not just a simple light reflection but something done intentionally to Sora’s eyes.

Beyond physical and personality similarities, both Sora and MoM share another quality with only one other individual in the entirety of the KH cast; they are the only ones aside from Xehanort to have held and been the apparent wielder of the X-Blade. While we never see him with it, Nomura confirmed that MoM had had the X-Blade at one point and studied it to create the Keyblade that everyone in KHX used. He used the X-Blade as an example and managed to figure out, through studying it, how to extract the light/power from people’s hearts and shaped their Keyblades which he then trained the Foretellers with. As well as the X-Blade, MoM also had a sort of authority over Kingdom Hearts as well as Ira mentioned that he had given them Keyblades to protect Kingdom Hearts and Ava tried to warn Gula away from summoning Kingdom Hearts since MoM had said it was “forbidden”. Gula decided to try and summon Kingdom Hearts in order to force the MoM to return to set them straight, showing that he held a sense of cautious as well towards it and decided to not use it and lock it away instead. Given that the MoM’s word was seen as gospel, this was more than likely a serious warning and order. And what do we see by the end of Kingdom Hearts 3? Sora, earning the X-Blade and telling Xehanort that using it is wrong and that no one should use its power to change destiny, before closing it to keep the worlds safe. Both characters—with only Xehanort as the other wielder of the X-Blade and exception of this mindset—had this power and chose to not use it but instead locked it away from using it for their own gains.

Both of these characters also shared the same philosophy of destiny despite the power they hold; Sora, who has challenged and even changed his friends’ doomed fates claims that a true leader knows that destiny “beyond his control” and “accepts that”, something that makes no sense with how much he has changed his own destiny and the events written in the Book Of Prophecy. However, the Master of Masters shares these ideals and believes not in changing what is meant to happen, but rather in preparing for what happens after that in order to secure the best aftermath. Why would Sora believe in this given his past, if not to draw similarities between himself and MoM?

The Book Of Prophecies, as depicted in Backcover, also shares connections to what we assume to be the timeline of events surrounding not the the events of Backcover and the Keyblade war, but rather the events of the entire game series timeline. We see MoM looking at the Book of Prophecies through the Cases of the different Foretellers and Luxu, as well as Ira later on in the movie which we can use to create a basic ‘timeline’ of events based on imagery depicted.

We see the MoM look through throughout Backcover, with the ‘Case of Gula’ showing what seems to be the earliest part of the book we see with an illustration of a darkside heartless and a keyblade which would either be the Kingdom Key or Kingdom Key D, placing the beginning of the book at the first Kingdom Hearts game. The reason I think this takes place during KH1 rather than 0.2 is the Sora’s crown emblem being on the page previous to a Darkside heartless, seeming to signify Sora and then his first battle against the darkness either on his Station of Awakening or Destiny Islands, as well as these pages appearing to be nearing the middle of the book which would make sense given that Sora only entered the canon timeline after the whole Fairytale Saga, BBS and 0.2 took place. Then, we see the next page with an image of a shadow heartless, both which Sora fights on Destiny Islands after getting the keyblade and then in Traverse Town where he learns about the darkness or could simply represent all heartless as the most recognisable heartless. The page after this shows another Keyblade which looks like the Kingdom Key again, while the next page is the infamous ‘traitor’ that the MoM rips out and gives to Gula and the page after holding another illustration of Sora’s crown emblem. Given the pacing of events based on the concept of this book depicting the events of Sora’s experiences in KH1, the page detailing the ‘traitor’ may in fact be talking about Riku and his betrayal of Sora by accepting Maleficent's help. The MoM’s wording seems to support this, by telling Gula to “find the traitor hidden among you and stop them before it’s too late”, through Sora eventually learning of Riku’s fall to darkness and possession by Ansem before stopping Riku-Ansem and saving the worlds.

This causes us to question exactly how would the MoM know of Sora's first adventure given that his eye, at this point, hasn't even seen Sora yet? The only logical answer? Because he lived it.

During the ‘Case of Aced’; when Aced, who acts a lot like Sora in KH1, is angry at Ira being chosen to be the new leader and was constantly in Ira's shadow, much like how Sora was undermined by Riku who was seen as the better of the two and originally chosen first by the keyblade. These corresponding at the same time suggests a connection to KH1, Sora, and Aced. Even their whole discussion over why Aced shouldn't be leader seems to, much like his discussion with Invi over keeping up "otherwise you'll be left behind, all alone" seems to cause an unconscious reaction from the MoM. "I know you want it, but that just isn't enough. Any chump can say, 'You! Here's a huge promotion. Good job!' and make you head honcho, but enthusiasm alone doesn't make a great leader." The way this is worded, especially with "great" and not just "good" suggests he has a basis for it, similar to how Sora saw Riku as being better than him. His following line "Ira needs someone like you to give him a push in the right direction" is spoken with anger or bitterness, as if the MoM understood Aced's annoyance at being considered second and feeling similarly in the past, as if he had to act supportive and push someone who was considered better than him in the 'right direction' before. But, his "you need to support Ira'' line is spoken sternly, acting as though he knows from experience that someone like Ira would need the more emotional support of someone like Aced, who uses his heart to decide things rather than "always just thinking and thinking and thinking behind that Unicorn mask of his" as Ira does. Everything said in this scene definitely parallels Sora and his emotions in the first KH game up until Sora decided that his friends were his power and that he didn’t need the keyblade to be strong, something that the MoM understands and acts sympathetic towards Aced about while trying to push him towards the same idea; "you might not be entirely happy with your role, but just know that it's the most important one." There is also a sense of symbolism in this scene with the MoM using his hand to cover the Kingdom Key when telling Aced that he will be Ira’s right hand man, possibly paralleling back to Sora’s own sense of being overshadowed by Riku.

Other connections these two share include the emphasis of their bond with Dream eaters and the Wreck-It Ralph summon from KH3. Both of these two characters show a stronger connection to Dream Eaters than any other characters, with MoM being the ‘creator’ of the Chirithy dream eaters which hold a deep connection to their owners’ hearts and are affected by their owners’ state given that these dreams eaters, like when Sora fell into darkness, fall into darkness with their masters and become nightmares. And what is Sora’s nightmare in DDD? A figure in a dark coat with purple and pink colours and a dark dream eater symbol on their back, much like the MoM and his black coat and the Chirithy nightmare we see in Backcover and KHUX.

[kessielrg]

[Kingdom Hearts] Shutter to Stutter

Summary: By far, Ven’s got the most boring job at the flower shop; the cashier. Sitting day in and day out for someone to browse along the rows of flowers and gardening tools, then probably walk right out again. Sometimes an interesting thing would happen- but they were few and far between. [flower shop AU focused on UX kids][Part 8 in a series of oneshots][VenxOC][EphemerxOC/F!Player] 

Rating: K+ (mild cursing)

Word Count: 2,062 words

If you liked this story, please reblog!

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Ven couldn’t remember the last time the flower shop had this much activity to it. At least, in terms of what they did for their billboard ads. Most of the time it was some seasonal flower with witty text advertising the store. Apparently this time, someone had requested something a bit more ‘personal.’ Which meant that they needed models this time around. Sabrina was a shoo-in; her face more than once gracing the billboard on I-02. But this time Luca was also being brought in. The two were to pose as if Luca was giving Sabrina a sunflower, and at the moment, the toddler wanted to do anything but.

It probably would have helped if the space wasn’t so overwhelming. Literally everyone was here. Lauriam had gotten a full camera set up- two large lights, a tripod, and his DSLR he usually used for some horticulture club he was in. Brain was his assistant, of a sorts, helping with adjusting the lights every now and again. Strelitzia -and surprisingly, Elrena- was there to do Sabrina’s make up for her. (Luca had been lucky to have Anora’s darker skintone, leading him to not be as washed out as the paler Sabrina.) Since their child was being exploited, of course both Ephemer and Anora were there to coax him to cooperate. And then there was Skuld- pretty much directing everyone, and likely not helping in Luca’s resistance.

No one had really asked Ven to help with this project, so he sat behind his counter to continue being invisible. Although he did wonder- was he still getting paid for this even though he wasn’t directly helping? This was still his normal shift, after all.

“Luca, look here.” Ephemer coaxed his child from behind Sabrina. “Look over here!”

Luca refused to acknowledge his parent. Instead he made do with picking off the petals on the sunflower with rather impressive pinches. It was less impressive when a strand of the toddler’s hair got into his face, and he used his whole hand to wipe it away. He didn’t even bother to look up when Anora started to shake what Ven could only assume was Luca’s favorite toy. The poor thing rattled not far from Sabrina’s face. No envy was lost as Sabrina’s face grew incredibly dark at the annoyance of having Ephemer verbally calling his son, while Anora rattled a toy on the other side. At this point, even if they could get Luca to remotely look Sabrina’s way, it was going to take another five minutes for her to look close to pleased again.

Brain knew his sister was pushing her limit because he gently pushed his way over to Skuld just to suggest, “Maybe we should try something different?”

Skuld looked at him like he gained another head.

“No.” she said to him with a shake of her head.

“So you want Wabi-Sabi to go Hulk when Ephemer calls for Luca again?”

“She’ll be fine.” Skuld snapped. To further prove a point, Skuld shouted at Sabrina, “Sabrina! You’re doing fine with Ephemer and Anora behind you, aren't you?”

Sabrina gave Skuld a glare so dark, it sent a chill up everyone’s (or, at least the people who happened to be looking at her at the time) spine. Skuld didn’t seem phased.

“Hey Sabrina,” Lauriam then spoke up from behind his camera. “Can you look over here for a moment? Cross your legs a bit too?”

Hate turning into an expression of mild confusion, Sabrina turned her body a bit to better face Lauriam. She crossed her legs and sat a bit straighter. Lauriam checked his camera’s viewfinder for a moment before several shutter snaps could be heard.

“Perfect.” Lauriam nodded. “Thank you.”

“Lauriam, stop taking boudoir photographs of my sister.” Brain teased as he went back over.

Lauriam actually looked rather offended at the idea. “I'm pretty sure these photos are taking themselves, Brain.” he informed his coworker. “My finger's not even on the trigger.”

“You have a remote.” Brain nonchalantly pointed out.

“Do I?” Lauriam looked down at his hand. Sure enough, there was a remote there. He looked up at Sabrina who was trying to scoot Luca back so they could maintain the agreed distance. Lauriam didn’t look away as he took another photograph, using the remote to trigger the shutter. He once more looked down at his hand in wonder before saying, “So I do.”

The duo shared a hearty laugh. The sound irking Sabrina’s nerves again as she also gave them a death glare. She was perfectly ignored for the time being. Every now and again, Lauriam still pressed the shutter button on the remote, even if nothing of substantial use was going on. He was going to end up with a lot of junk photos later, but he had always preferred to overshoot for that reason. If none of them had the particular vision Skuld was looking for, then surely there would be something that could suffice. There had to be.

Meanwhile, sitting by the main counter where Ventus was trying not to be seen, was Strelitzia and Elrena. Strelitzia was humming a little tune to herself as she watched over the main chaos.

“I wonder why Luca isn’t paying that much attention to Ephemer or Anora.” she casually wondered, placing a hand against her cheek. “He’s usually so attentive when they’re around.”

“Humph.” Elrena grumbled. “You know what they say, just like with dogs and cats; babies can sense evil.”

“Explains why he won't go near you.” Ventus hissed under his breath.

Both girls immediately looked at Ven- Strelitzia looked partially amused, while Elrena’s face could almost rival how irate Sabrina was. Elrena immediately slammed her hand down on the counter.

“Listen here, Roxas,” Elrena said, emphasizing the wrong name because she knew he didn’t like it, “I don’t know what’s gotten into you recently, but I’m not liking this bold streak you think you have going on. It’s not impressing anyone.”

“You wanna bet?”

Ventus, Elrena, and Strelitzia all turned their attention to Sabrina. She was sitting up straight and giving Elrena a particularly hard glare. Every other sound in the flower shop came to a grinding stop. (Spare for a few camera clicks, but at this point it was out of habit.) Seeing Sabrina defend Ventus made Elrena laugh.

“And what are you going to do?” Elrena challenged.

“Elrena.” Lauriam warned. She just as easily ignored him.

“‘Oh, look at me, Miss Independent.’” Elrena taunted. “‘I don’t care about anyone until I suddenly do. Oh, woe is me, being a cold hearted bi- I mean, witch, there’s a child present, I suppose- is just exhausting. It’s everyone else’s fault but mine. Oh woe!’”

Sabrina got up from her spot so quick, Brain nearly tripped over Lauriam’s tripod just to make sure his sister didn’t go straight for Elrena’s face. But she didn’t have thoughts of smashing the electric blonde’s face in just yet. Strelitzia had moved just as fast to take hold of Elrena’s elbow. Her grip was tight- a nonverbal warning that her friend needed to dial it back soon. But the shots had been fired, and neither one of them were going to let it go unattended.

“Brain, let go of my arm.” Sabrina hissed to her brother, not letting her gaze waver from Elrena. “You guys can keep going with the photoshoot, but there’s something I need to tell her a bit more privately.”

“You’re not leaving the shop to do it.” Brain told her.

“Of course not.” she spat- perfectly paired with a roll of her eyes.

“Luca will probably sit still for the camera better with her gone too.” Skuld spoke up, as if she wanted to remind everyone on why they were here today. “Lauriam, can you make it happen?”

“Of course.” he agreed. He took a look at his sister, giving her a stern glare meant to communicate that she needed to leave with Elrena soon. Strelitzia’s face paled a bit, but she gave a nod to show she understood.

With that, Brain let go of Sabrina’s arm. She very carefully walked around the photography junk to stand right in front of Elrena. Ventus could feel the air on the back of his neck stand up. There was a fury in Sabrina’s eye that he couldn’t tell if he admired or feared. He would have left to further give the girls time alone, but something kept him rooted in his spot. Everyone else returned to trying to take a good picture of Luca holding up a flower.

“You know, Elrena,” Sabrina started to say, “We’re a lot alike- you and I.”

Hearing this, Elrena stood a bit straighter. Ven tried to hold back the urge to shout that they weren’t. Sabrina gave them enough time to consider the idea before she continued.

“We’re both rather harsh to people we don’t like. Quite frankly, I don’t think we have ever liked each other. Sometimes, it’s very gratifying in just watching the world burn. You know what I mean?”

“Pssht. Yeah.” Elrena snorted. “Some people just deserve it.”

“And that’s where we differ.” Sabrina mused, taking another step toward Elrena. “You keep hiding. You keep hiding every little thing until you’re desperate. It’s not even a matter of holding your cards close- you literally can not let anyone in. People always ask who hurt me, but do they ask the same about you? I know where I fucked up in life, but do you? At least I’m able to admit that I like the person standing two feet away from me. By way, Ven? Last week? That was my first kiss. Great job.”

Ven immediately looked down, his face flushing a deep red. The black haired, brown eyed bitch smirked at the reaction. It became malicious when she looked back at Elrena.

“Have you kissed the person standing two feet next to you yet, sweetie?” She turned to look Strelitzia dead in the eye before asking, “Has she?”

For a moment, Strelitzia didn’t know how to respond. “Elrena doesn’t…” she tried to say, but she wandered in looking at Elrena’s face. The electric blonde’s face was a shade of red that it rivaled the ripest of apples.

“You- you just can’t say that!” Elrena spat. “You don’t know-”

“I may hate people, but I know them. But if I’m wrong, then kiss her.”

Elrena looked like she wanted to throw up.

“S-Strelitzia,” she then stammered. “We need to go now. You’re my ride home.”

“Yeah…” Strelitzia slowly nodded. “Let’s go.”

Strelitzia started toward the front door without a second thought. She paused at Lauriam to tell him something, (something he did not look pleased about at all) before leaving the building altogether. Elrena remained in a deadlock with Sabrina.

“You’re a bitch.” she told the dark haired girl.

“Have to be,” the reply came, almost as pure and simple as day. “How else will the person I like know I actually do like them?”

Elrena pursed her lips together. She tried to storm out, but the attempt still seemed rather half hearted at best. Sabrina casually watched her leave as she leaned against the counter. She refused to look at Lauriam. She knew he was giving her a heated glare.

Ven leaned forward on the counter just to whisper at her, “You’re insane.”

Sabrina moved enough to give him an over the shoulder stare.

“And yet, you’re the one that kissed me.” she mused, rather triumphantly. “Guess that makes you just as bad.”

“It was one kiss.” Ven tried to say in his defense. “Didn’t have to mean anything.”

“No, no it didn’t.” Sabrina quietly mumbled. She got off the counter and took her spot back in front of the camera equipment. Her expression was hard as she told her brother that things were fine. She even told Lauriam that she didn’t mean to put Strelitzia on the spot. But then she went back to modeling like nothing had ever happened. Right down to being slightly annoyed at the parents on either side of her trying to get their kid’s attention.

Ventus hummed as he rested an elbow on the counter, then cupped his face into his hand. Only one thought entered his head as he watched the photoshoot, and it was one that sent butterflies to his stomach.

She is amazing.

[violethowler]

Hi, i've been following you for a while now and i would like to ask you your thoughts on the recent updates involving khux and what you think on how it will apply to later installments involving our group and their destiny?

I've read a good chunk of your essay analysis on sora and his heroine's journey and i found it very compelling and enlightening to the overall structure of the series and that it provides a bit more stable clarity into the direction.

First of all, I’m so glad you enjoyed my essays on Sora and the Heroine’s Journey. It was extremely satisfying to write about all the different ways that Kingdom Hearts ties back to this narrative template, and it's just as satisfying to know people are getting something out of it.

I’m assuming when you say “our group”, you’re referring to Sora and company in the present day and what they’re all up to, rather than the Dandelions and the Union X leaders. Because as far as the latter go, I’m still trying to make sense of what happened with Brain and Ephemer and all that there, and I don't have anything solid for Ven, Skuld, Lauriam, and Elrena beyond "The VLE trio get their memories back and reunite" and "Skuld is Subject X".

But as far as the main present day cast is concerned, I do have a few ideas as far as how the final UX updates will apply to later games.

First, I think that the introduction of Darkness and how it decided to kill Strelitzia because of Ven’s desire to be stronger has a lot of interesting potential for Kairi’s character development (which I briefly touched on a few months ago in another meta). The introduction of the “New Seven Hearts” in Kingdom Hearts III presents the idea that a Princess of Heart can pass on their powers, meaning that if someone like Kairi were to pass on that power, it would leave her vulnerable to darkness in a way that she never was before. Given the parallels between her and Ventus, Darkness the entity jumping from Ven’s heart to Kairi’s after she passes on her Princess of Heart status and trying to use her desire to get stronger to achieve destructive results would go tremendously with the series’ themes of balance between light and darkness. While Riku has overcome his struggle with the darkness in his own heart and Sora’s is just about to truly begin, Kairi has not had to wrestle with darkness and her negative emotions the way that the other two have/will. So with Sora being set up to undergo that struggle in the next stage of the series, it would make sense for Kairi to be forced to have that same conflict herself before the series is over.

Second, the Master of Master’s conversation with Luxu in the khux finale about how his goal is to destroy Darkness forever and his demonstrated willingness to set his apprentices up as sacrifices to achieve that goal ties into some of my other essays regarding Kingdom Hearts and the Heroine’s Journey. As Nomura said in an interview for DDD about why the game had Sora and Riku as dual characters, balance between light and darkness is a major theme for the series. Ever since Chain of Memories, we’ve been presented with the idea that darkness and light are fundamental forces in the universe that cannot exist without each other. Xehanort has always been focused on how light has been dominant over dark and uses darkness to correct that imbalance. With the Master of Masters, we now have an antagonist who wants to outright destroy darkness altogether. And his willingness to use his own apprentices and set them up as hosts to contain and destroy the Darkness entities solidly buts him as the ultimate example of “Light is Not Good” in this series. Given that the next phase of the Heroine’s Journey is set up to involve Sora confronting and accepting the darkness in his own heart, the latest khux updates are setting up our heroes to have to fight to protect darkness from light instead of the other way around.

That scene between Luxu and the Master also adds a lot of evidence towards a theory I’ve had about Kingdom Hearts 3 since I finished the game that I’d almost forgotten about. With the reveal that Luxu as Xigbar had been steering the course of Xehanort’s plans all along, I speculated that the whole “shatter Kairi to motivate Sora” was Xigbar’s idea, that he knew what Sora would do to save her and the consequences it would have. Based on a few other theories, I speculated that the Master of Masters wanted Riku for some as yet unclear reason and used the link between him and Sora to get to him. With the reveal that the Master intends himself and his Foretellers to serve as vessels for the Dark entities, I think I have a clearer idea.

MoM tells Luxu he needs the Foretellers to have such strong hearts that Darkness cannot control them, specifically talking about Darkness being locked inside the hearts of himself, Luxu, the Foretellers, and the five Dandelion Leaders. In DDD, Young Xehanort specifically says that Riku has found a way to trap darkness inside his heart in a way that YMX cannot understand. In other words, Riku’s mastery over his own darkness makes him exactly the kind of person that MoM is looking for to use as a host for Darkness.

[casualtheoriesandthoughts]

The role of memories in Kingdom Hearts

I recently replayed KH Re:CoM and I have to say it’s one of the more brutal entries in the series, with very little light-hearted letup on the action of the main story. Marluxia and Larxene, more so than nearly any other antagonist (even more than Xemnas imo) in KH, are incredibly cruel. Ansem SoD is literally a ghost haunting Riku and taunting him with his grief (and honestly made me think this is why a lot of fans came to support Riku in the first place). 

The scene where Larxene flings Riku Replica to the side? Positively gut-wrenching. Sora being uncharacteristically angry? It honestly made me slightly uncomfortable. Naminé accepting her fate to be forgotten by Sora (despite him promising to meet her again) was super tragic.

But more than anything else, I feel like Re:CoM is a somewhat overlooked entry in the series for its influence on the meta-universe of KH (even if it is a bit of a ridiculous game with the card system). Especially since Melody of Memory has been released (spoilers ahead!), I felt the need to revisit Re:CoM for its lore on the role of memories in KH. Memories are an intriguing dimension of what I’m going to start calling the metaphysics of the KH universe. In this post, I’m going to cover things that memories do in Kingdom Hearts, and the implications it has for Melody of Memory and the ending of Re:Mind (last warning: SPOILERS AHEAD). 

Re:CoM - Memories and connected feelings shape the heart

As Sora enters Castle Oblivion, we are told that the deterioration of his memories has already begun. Naminé is actively altering the links in his memory to insert her presence therein (all at the behest of Marluxia, who is manipulating her desire to meet Sora and her loneliness). Despite the creation of false memories in Riku Replica and Sora, however, they still induce people to experience very real feelings. Before his final battle with Marluxia, Sora still feels a responsibility and desire to protect Naminé in spite of the fact he has no personal relationship with her in reality and that she manipulated his memories. He also goes out of his way to tell Riku Replica that his own feelings are real, and that even if the memories are false, his experiences are his own and even possesses his own heart. For Sora and Riku Replica, all feelings are genuine even if they arise from false memories.

It’s worth noting the way memories are referred to in Re: CoM, starting with the title: Chain of Memories. A chain can be either shackling or connecting, as Marluxia and Naminé allude to when speaking about Sora’s memories. Marluxia orders Naminé to control Sora by way of his memories, in order for the latter to do his bidding (help him to take over the Organization, that is). Naminé, on the other hand, refers to Sora’s memories as that which tie him to his friends and loved ones, especially Riku and Kairi. His feelings of friendship and love towards others never fade in spite of his memories being changed, and is even willing to allow Naminé to destroy his heart by erasing his memories.

But that’s where it gets complicated. It is highly implied that memories have the ability to shape a heart, but only at this point is it suggested that the erasure of memories can actually destroy a heart. Marluxia states that if Naminé were to erase Sora’s memories, he would become an empty shell incapable of feeling (which coincidentally describes a Nobody). That said, she doesn’t actually do it, and when she destroys Riku Replica’s false memories, his heart does not disappear. This is why Riku Replica is able to return right before Sora fights Marluxia, his heart intact. This seems to indicate that Marluxia was either speaking in hyperbole, or simply did not know the true relationship of memories to hearts. 

It may then be more accurate to say that the destruction of memories traumatizes and numbs a heart rather than destroys it. Larxene comments during Reverse/Rebirth that Naminé’s magic almost remade Riku Replica’s heart by changing his memories, but not quite. In the KH universe, memories seem to be inscribed on a heart rather than fundamentally altering it. Yet, memories also bind hearts to the world by giving them meaning. 

Remember that as Sora journeyed through Castle Oblivion, people outside apparently forgot about him and remembered him spontaneously when awoke from his pod in Twilight Town. It’s not just the individual memories that make up a person, but the shared memories and experiences which connect hearts together in a “chain” of memories. In the presence of others, characters acquire purpose and senses of self. In Reverse/Rebirth, Riku rediscovers himself after falling to darkness and battles against his insecurities by rekindling his connections to people like Sora, Kairi and Mickey. This is how he maintains the light within, by dwelling on his memories of his bonds to his friends.

In that context, we might see how memories play an important role in giving rise to new hearts later on. 

358/2 Days - The case of Xion

Xion is one of the most curious and earliest cases of a heart being generated seemingly out of nowhere in KH (I’d say possibly even before Riku Replica). Just like Riku Replica, Xion in 358/2 Days is derived from the memories of her original persona (in her case, Sora). She is not a true Nobody, though Vexen muses that his replicas are a special kind of Nobody in the Day 23 Report of 358/2 Days’ Secret Reports. In addition Xion, unlike Riku Replica, actively embodies many of Sora’s qualities while being distinctly aware that she is not truly Sora. It is this crisis of identity which eventually leads her to believe that she must return to Sora, and forces Roxas to defeat her. 

After that, people cease to remember Xion after she returns to Sora, a fact about which I’ve always wondered. Consider that Riku Replica, upon returning to Riku (or at least residing in his heart), does not fade from Riku’s memory or anyone else’s. Axel repeatedly doesn’t remember Xion even when hints of her come up (such as the fact that Roxas wields two Keyblades, his knowledge of the Replica Program and his many interactions with Kairi, even during KH3). Yet he clearly remembers Riku Replica as evidenced in the Day 194 Secret Reports from the 358/2 Days. This is well after the events of Re: CoM for both Sora and Riku’s stories, as Xion had already met Riku in his Organization XIII coat. 

In theory, one might assume that Axel shouldn’t remember either Xion or Riku Replica because they have both returned to their original forms. Yet objects that belong to them or are about them remain in existence (ex. Vexen’s reports about the Replica Program). Even Xion’s personal memories and those attached to her are sealed inside Roxas’ heart. Presumably because Sora never actually met her or Roxas (a crucial difference from Riku and his replica), and Roxas lost his own memories in his fight with Riku, memories of her became doubly compromised when he returned to Sora. So this begs an important question: what do memories do when it comes to having a heart? 

I would say that memories, especially independent ones, allow for the arising of new hearts. Riku Replica may have acquired a heart (and therefore a distinct existence) when he decided to defend Naminé and claim his memories of her, even though they’re not real. In contrast, it is not clear whether Xion has a heart at the end of 358/2 Days, and it is implied that she has one by KH3, and essentially confirmed in Re:Mind.

From where, one can only vaguely guess. Let’s look at other KH beings: darkness is the source of Heartless; nothingness of Nobodies; negative emotions (or rather Vanitas) of Unversed; dreams of Nightmares ,Dream Eaters and Spirits. It would seem that hearts arise from light, or perhaps Kingdom Hearts itself (seeing as it appears to be the bedrock of reality). It makes sense since Kingdom Hearts is composed of all hearts that exist. But crucially, it is memories which give hearts their forms. Xion returns to existence when Sora liberates her memories/essence from within Roxas’ heart during Re:Mind. 

Memories clearly play some role in generating an existential niche for hearts. They also may very well be the reason that people can be re-completed: Axel recalls his memories as a kid as he spends time with Roxas and Xion (Day 118 Secret Report). He even says that he feels like he has a heart in the presence of Roxas, Xion and Sora (and very critically, is unsure if he in fact doesn’t have one in a conversation with Roxas). Marluxia seems to recall his memories as Lauriam from KH Union Cross, right as he is defeated in KH3. Terra’s memories occasionally surface in Xemnas, and his feelings of loneliness come up as he dies in KH3. 

Sora states in KH Re:CoM that he was able to return to being whole after becoming a Heartless by holding on to his memories of Kairi, and her own ability to free him from the darkness. Roxas, Xion and Riku Replica all develop hearts distinct from their original personas as they experience the world and forge new memories. Xion is primarily able to return to the world because people’s memories of her are restored. Her true consciousness becomes freed through Sora’s actions, not unlike the way Sora’s friends and allies suddenly remember him at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 2.

From this, we can deduce that memories are critical for three things: 

existing as a unique, complete individual

returning from states of incompleteness (such as being a Heartless or Nobody) 

verifying that someone actually still exists in a reachable place

The last one is the kicker with Xion, and bears on a working theory of mine about Melody of Memory and Re:Mind’s endings (which I’ll put in another post for clarity). Hope this interests some people, and inspires some discussion about the possible connections between Re:CoM and Melody of Memory!

[masterfuldoodler]

I made an au for Union X where everyone is British. I had a lot of fun picking all the different accents for everybody. I call it my Union Jack au. Did it make it just so I could make that terrible joke? Yeah kinda.

If any of you Brits think I might have messed up on something here please tell me so I can fix it. I wanted to make it as realistic as possible.

Ephemer has a light South London accent. Very pleasant to hear and easily understandable.

Catch him wearing an ivy cap in the rain.

Doesn't bring a coat, or an umbrella. When the rain hits he gets wet.

He doesn't make tea, no one trusts him with boiling water. He however does drink tea, he's just left to the mercy of whoever steeped it for him. He drinks it with a load of cream, and a lump of sugar.

Skuld has a Yorkshire accent. She talks very fast, and has a thick accent.

Most people can't understand her upon their first conversation. She, however, does not notice, or offend her.

She loves to bake, even though she's not good at it.

Wears a jacket with a hood. Gets rained on and freaks out until she finds cover. The hood doesn't help her.

Making tea, is an art. You must steep it only 2 minutes, and add just the right amount of cream and sugar. Just enough to accent it. (I'm looking at you, Ephemer.)

Ventus has a South London accent, and sometimes speaks Cockney.

Rain? What rain? Oh it's bothering you? A little water never hurt anyone.

Straight black tea over steeped and full of tannins. Skuld has no idea how he drinks it like that, it's so strong and bitter.

Bring your forgotten over steeped tea to him, he'll drink it.

Blaine has an RP accent (Received Pronunciation) Although, if he's hanging out with just Ven he'll slip into a South London accent and pick up some Cockney.

Has a hat. Has a coat. Hates the rain. Avoids it like the plague. If caught in it will loudly grumble.

Makes tea, forgets he did. Comes back a half hour later and heats it up and drinks it. Also drinks it after a minute of steeping. He never knows how long it's steeped. It doesn't bother him.

He also had to fight the rest of the team for the right to boil water on his own without burning himself. It was possibly an uphill battle.

Lauriam has a Lancaster accent. Very pleasant to listen to.

If he's planning on being out when it might rain he brings an umbrella. If he gets caught in it he calmly finds a way out.

Likes a specific blend of tea. Cream; no sugar. Gets teased for the blend having rose petals in it.

Has a union jack design on the edge of his vest. It's old though, so the colors have faded and it's hard to see.

Ira has a Southside Dublin accent.

Yes I know it's Irish and it's not in the UK but the accent just fit him so well? I had to keep it. He's just the weirdo.

Doesn't get caught in the rain because he's always reading.

But when he does. It's a nightmare. Do you have any idea how long it takes for all that hair on his mask to dry?? Or any attention and care it takes to get it back to the state it was before it got wet??

In short, don't be responsible for it getting wet or he'll cause such a fuss you'll regret it.

He drinks cold tea. Iced and sweet. Then again everyone who drinks it says they can't taste any sugar so it's probably just him.

Invi has an Edinburgh accent.

Rain really doesn't matter. If you get wet, you get wet. It's just a difficulty to deal with. It mustn't get in the way of your task.

In reality gets kinda grumpy if her scarf gets wet. Last time Gula pointed out her inconsistency of having nothing against the rain, and then being unhappy about her scarf getting wet she told him he wouldn't understand because he never  liked  his  clothes.

She makes everyone's tea. Everyone. Only sometimes does she do it just like they want.

She's not especially good at it, so if Gula tells you your tea tastes like Invi's, it's not exactly a compliment.

Everyone else says her tea is great.

Aced has a Bristol accent. Thick and comfortable.

Rain is irritating, but only because it's hard to dry out all those robes. Avoids being rained on if he can. Doesn't use umbrellas, and no jackets.

He only likes a small cup of tea. Lot of cream.

People tease him for being a farmer and he doesn't like it...it hurts his feelings...

Like, he doesn't even know what a cow is?? Why do you think I'm a farmer?? I'm a bear man pls pay more attention. No it's not a hobby, it's a full time job 24/7.

Gula has a RP accent. (I'd love to give him a funner one, but couldn't find one that was fun and fit him. And the RP just fit him.)

Don't you dare put him in the rain. He'll hate you. He says it's because his thick robes get soggy and smell like mold but really it's his inner catness.

Also wanders in the rain and mopes like a broody depressed kid. No one knows why.

Is not allowed to make tea. Does drinks whatever kind of tea Invi makes and dislikes it. One day he'll rebel and make some while no one can see.

Probably already did that.

Ava has a East Midlands accent. And does a Highly RP when she's being "Lady Ava".

Rain is a lovely little blessing to the earth. It brings life to the growing things around her. If she weren't a Foreteller and Master she'd go puddle jumping.

She goes puddle jumping with keykids. She knows she shouldn't but... She also takes walk in the rain. She tried to get Gula to join her since she once saw him wandering in the rain, but he said he wanted to be alone.

She loves a cup of warm tea, creamed to the color of Aced's robe, and sweetened with a rounded spoonful. But Invi's tea is good too.

Once got away with making tea by herself.

Luxu has a Manchester accent.

Rain, what are you talking about? It smells so nice, and the temperature drops, and it sounds so pretty. Only down side is getting wet! And that's why I wear leather! Keeps me dry!

Nobody really sees him drink tea, and when he does he kind of just sips at it.

Although once he did show up and eat all of Invi's cucumber sandwiches. But he was gone by the time they realized he did.

Master of Masters has a- ....he has every accent. No not all at once, he takes turns. He does a different one for each day of the week, but the weekly pattern changes every week, mid week even. And he has different accents for each of his apprentices. Why? Well duh because he can.

His original accent is Belfast Irish though.

Yep another accent that's not from the UK but 1) pls picture him with it?? 2) he is The Master of Master's he can have whatever accent he wants. British or not.

Then again he might originally be a type of American.... Who knows.

...

The weather cannot effect him. He doesn't bring anything for a shower, and down pour, a flood, a hurricane?? Nothing scares that man and rain can't touch him.

His tea...is over steeped. It's bitter, with a lot of tannins. You could choke on it. Even Ventus would have trouble drinking it. It's probably the worst tea imaginable.

And I think that's everything! This was a load of fun, I got a little stuck on Ira and Invi, but I think I finally found the right one. ^^ Having never been to the UK I kinda just guessed at some things that might be present in a Brit's life, but if any of you think of a good one tell me and I can add it!

[revengerevisited]

@noneofthismakessensetome KHUX is really hard to explain, and I don’t really understand it myself despite watching every update, but the most that I can glean from it is that it’s set in the past in a place called Daybreak Town, right before the Keyblade War. (How far in the past is unknown, not helped by the fact that time travels differently in each World, but it was definitely before Xehanort was born).

There was this guy named the Master of Masters, and he’s supposedly been fighting a war against darkness for a very long time. (No idea if that’s the elemental concept of darkness, or Darkness the character). He’s the person who invented Keyblades (or one of the people. KHUX is extremely vague and likes to throw little doubts in just to make you question everything), and he gathered six apprentices (all named after one of the Seven Deadly Sins). Luxu, aka Xigbar, is one of the six. The only other relevant one is Ava. 

Five of these apprentices (not Luxu) become the Foretellers, leaders of these different Unions of ‘Keykids’ (which I don’t think is an official term, but that’s what the fandom calls them so I will too) who wield Keyblades against the Heartless to collect Lux (which is some sort of light energy). Each of them is also given a Chirithy Spirit created by the Master of Masters. 

The Master of Masters, aka MoM, can see into the future, because he put his ‘eye’ into the Keyblade No Name (Master Xehanort’s Keyblade), as well as other Keyblades like Riku’s Way to the Dawn and Vanitas’s Void Gear (if that is the name of Vanitas’s Keyblade...). Because these ‘eyes’ exist in the future, the MoM is able to ‘see’ into the future, and writes all future events down in the Book of Prophecies. He then gives copies of the Book of Prophecies to the Foretellers (not Luxu), but leaves out a certain page. He then sows distrust through the five by telling them one of them is a traitor.

The Foretellers all mistrust each other, and through a chain of events this leads to the Keyblade War, where all the ‘Keykids’ kill each other and the World is rift apart. The only ones who survive are the Dandelions, a special group of ‘Keykids’ the MoM told Ava to form, who hide in a Data version of Daybreak Town. The Dandelions have their minds wiped of the Keyblade War by the Chirithies and believe they are in the real Daybreak Town, except for the five Union Leaders, who were chosen by the MoM and given Books of Prophecy by Ava (more on that in a second...). 

In the latest KHUX update, the MoM says that it will take multiple lifetimes to defeat darkness (or Darkness), and this is probably why Luxu (Xigbar) has been hopping from body to body for all these years (centuries?). The MoM gave Luxu the Black Box (without telling him what’s inside) and No Name (to be passed down through the generations of Keyblade Wielders and eventually wind up with Xehanort before going back to Luxu). By having No Name be passed down into the future, the MoM can see through its ‘eye’ and write down future events.

So about the Union Leaders of the Dandelions, the ones the MoM told Ava to pick were Ephemer, Skuld, Brain, Lauriam (Marluxia), and Strelitzia. However, (as we saw with the most recent update) a shadowy being named Darkness killed Strelitzia and gave Ventus her copy of the Book of Prophecies instead. Ventus was in some kind of trance or had his memory wiped, and didn’t remember Strelitzia’s death until now. 

Darkness has also been helping Maleficent, because for some reason after her defeat in KH1 she wound up in the past in Data Daybreak Town, and Darkness wants to help her get back to the future (KH2) with a time machine. (The time machine, called the Ark or the Lifeboat in different translations, is the same machine used by Terra-Xehanort to send five-year-old Kairi to Destiny Islands, although in that case she was transported through space, not time). It seems that Darkness wants some of the ‘Keykids’ (Ventus, Lauriam (Marluxia), Elrena (Larxene), and Skuld (who is probably Subject X)) to be transported to the future, and somehow Maleficent will serve as their Waypoint. (I don’t understand how time-travel in KH works, nor why Darkness wants to send the ‘Keykids’ to the future, but that’s the best explanation I can give).

Anyway, the whole murder mystery about ‘who killed Strelitzia?’ has been the biggest fandom mystery in KH for a long time (I’m talking like, three years). And unfortunately, it’s still not solved because it’s still not clear just who/what Darkness is. Some believe that Darkness is Ava, who is actually the ‘traitor’ trying to stop the MoM’s plan, because she believes his plan will end in the destruction of the World (which it kinda did). This is because Darkness takes the form of Ava to speak to Ventus after killing Strelitzia, and tells him that he’s a Union Leader (when really he’s the ‘imposter’). Ava is known to have the power of illusion, which is why some fans think she may have taken the form of Darkness to disguise herself. (Just a note on all this, I can’t remember exactly what all the fan-theories about Ava are, and I may have gotten something wrong here. But the basic gist is that some fans believe Ava is Darkness).

Then there’s the second theory, which unfortunately in my opinion is the more likely of the two. We know from Re:Mind that a being calling itself Darkness is hiding within Ven’s heart, and in KHUX Brain says that Darkness (or darkness) can hide inside people. Combine this with Vanitas’s speech to Ventus in Re:Mind, about how he and Ven ‘aren’t the same like he thinks’ and how he was just ‘hidden inside Ven until Xehanort tore him out’, it seems to imply that Vanitas is actually Darkness (or a piece of Darkness) who was hidden inside of Ven, and not the dark half of Ven’s heart like we’ve believed for the past decade. Basically, if this theory is true, it completely re-writes Vanitas’s entire character, motivations, and origins, while also retroactively making him a child-murderer, and I’m sure you all already know how I feel about that.

Now, literally nothing outside of Re:Mind implies that Vanitas is Darkness, and in fact the scene in the Keyblade Graveyard with Vanitas, Ventus, and Sora right after the scene in Re:Mind seems to contradict this theory, as well as every piece of material on Vanitas released both before and after Re:Mind including his character file, so this all may be just one big misunderstanding, but that doesn’t dissuade the fact that there is literally an entity calling itself Darkness inside Ven’s heart. I can’t even begin to imagine how it got there, unless 1. It’s Vanitas after returning to Ven’s heart after his defeat in BBS or 2. Darkness somehow got into Ven’s heart while he was sleeping in Castle Oblivion. 

This is all pure fan-theory, but since the Vanitas in KH3 is a time traveling version of Vanitas from the past, it could be that the ‘real’ Vanitas is still living inside Ven’s heart (like how Roxas was still inside Sora’s heart), and if the ‘real’ Vanitas is now calling himself Darkness, then it’s possible that Vanitas was either lying about being half of Ventus this entire time or is only now just remembering his memories of being Darkness. Either way, if Vanitas really does turn out to be Darkness, then I can only imagine his entire personality will be overwritten by Darkness’s and Vanitas will basically cease to exist as a character. As in, he won’t just be dead, he’ll have never truly existed in the first place. 

And that, my friends, is why I’ve been in a constant state of anxiety, stress, and depression for the past year, and the reason I haven’t updated A Heart and a Half, because I’m having trouble reconciling the Vanitas from the BBS Novel (an abused, neglected child manipulated from birth to be a weapon) with what is potentially his true identity as Darkness (an ancient, child-murdering demonic entity). Once again, it’s still just a fan-theory... But a very plausible fan-theory.

Anyway, the third theory is that Darkness isn’t secretly some other character, but instead is exactly what it says it is— a sapient amalgamation of the elemental force of darkness. Darkness tells Maleficent that she should think of it as an ‘old friend’, leading some to believe it’s someone Maleficent knows from the future. However, it could be that Darkness ‘knows’ Maleficent because it itself is the embodiment of elemental darkness, and Maleficent is a darkness-user. In that case, it could be said Darkness is a ‘friend’ to all people who use darkness. 

Unfortunately, before anyone says this line of dialogue proves that Vanitas can’t be Darkness because Vanitas never met Maleficent, Vanitas did meet Maleficent... in the BBS Novel. In the BBS Novel, Maleficent asks Vanitas if he’s a ‘friend’ of Xehanort’s. Vanitas hesitantly says yes (because his abuser isn’t exactly a friend to him), simply because he and Xehanort are allies. He then asks Maleficent if she’s ‘friends’ with Xehanort, and she says yes (in the sense that they are allies). In this roundabout way, it could be construed that if Vanitas is Xehanort’s friend, and Maleficent is Xehanort’s friend, then that makes Vanitas Maleficent’s friend, which still fits in with the theory that Vanitas is Darkness if Darkness is Maleficent’s friend.

Even if we ignore the (technically non-canon) BBS Novel scenes of Xehanort kicking twelve-year-old Vanitas in the face and beating him with his Keyblade until he cried and leaving him isolated in a wasteland for weeks on end, and just go off of the games’ canon, the story of Ventus and Vanitas can still be seen as both literal and metaphorical child abuse, with Ven being the part of the victim who represses the trauma and Vanitas being the part of the victim who lashes out. Of course, if Vanitas does turn out to be Darkness, then he will be retconned from a victim into a scheming child-murderer just as evil as his abuser and the demon/abomination/empty creature that Xehanort always said he was! (Maybe that’s why Vanitas had such a mental breakdown in Re:Mind... he realized every horrible thing Xehanort ever told him about himself was true...). Which is why, as you can imagine, this theory causes me a lot of stress! 

Anyway, that’s the story of KHUX and the reason why I turn into a big ball of anxiety every time a new update occurs. I literally wouldn’t care about KHUX at all if Ven wasn’t in it, but he is, and everything that happens to Ven in the past is something that will effect him and Vanitas in the future, whether Vanitas is confirmed to be Darkness or not. We now know that Ven has had even more trauma forced upon him than he’d had with Xehanort, and I now have a suspicion that the reason Ven refused to create the X-Blade by using the darkness in his heart in the BBS flashback scenes was because he remembered what darkness and/or Darkness did to Strelitzia.

I really can’t imagine why Ven is in KHUX other than to connect him to this Darkness character in some way. Some fans still claim that Ven is the one who killed Strelitzia because they think he was ‘possessed’ by Darkness, but it seems pretty clear that Darkness was the culprit while Ven just stood there in a trance. Even so, I suspect that Ven blames himself for what happened anyway, even though it wasn’t his fault. I don’t know how this will play out with the future/current Ven. Is he suddenly going to remember his past and think he killed Strelitzia? Why? For the angst? Is he going to realize that Vanitas is (or is a part of) Darkness and therefore the murderer of some random girl Ven barely knows? Is Darkness just going to pop out of Ven when he’s in the Realm of Darkness with Aqua and Terra and... I don’t even know. Fight him? Gloat? Enact his evil scheme of destroying the World because you see, Vanitas never really wanted his light back, he never really wanted friends (page 378 of the BBS Novel), he was lying the entire time! Yes, he’s totally this evil monster who just wants to kill people because he’s evil~!

...Alright, I’ll stop. But seriously, I don’t know where this story is headed, guys. This update basically had the MoM tell us to stop trying to figure things out or theorize and that we shouldn’t want to know everything that’s going to happen, so who knows. Next update might throw us a curveball and reveal Darkness was secretly... idk Pete the entire time. He’s Maleficent’s friend! Or maybe it’s just Xehanort again, who knows. I just feel... really tired of KH, and I don’t really know where I’m going to go from here. Hopefully this is the last time I rant about this subject, though, because I really feel like I’ve already said all there is to say.

I want to finish A Heart and a Half, but I also feel hampered by everything that might happen with Vanitas. I also feel like managing my Tumblr blogs is causing me too much stress and distracting me from doing other things (including writing my fanfics), so I’ve been thinking of putting them both on a more ‘permanent’ hiatus after their queues run out sometime later this month. I dunno how everyone would feel about that, though, nor how long that hiatus would be. I’d certainly miss talking to everyone, and you guys make me smile whenever I get a comment or a question from you all! But I also feel like I need to focus on my health (both physical and mental) and work on things that don’t involve social media. I guess I just need a little more time to think about it.

[daybreak-academy-fanfic]

Daybreak Academy: Chapter 98

The Place I Come From

Summary: In which Anora and Brain head back to Daybreak Academy. Word Count: 1,825 First | Previous | Next ☆ ⚬ ☆ ⚬ ☆ ⚬ ☆ ⚬ ☆ ⚬ ☆ ⚬ ☆ ⚬ ☆ ⚬ ☆

There was probably another reason why students from Daybreak Academy were usually pulled from Departure County. Saying good bye to family that couldn't easily visit hurt. Anora was wondering about this the morning she and Brain were set to leave. It didn't help that Aunt Dawn had kept her at arm's length almost all morning.

“I can't believe you're leaving us already.” Dawn sniffled as she hugged Anora good bye. “It seems just yesterday we were welcoming you back home.”

“I'll be back soon.” Anora promised, breaking away from her aunt's embrace.

Kieran, bringing the last of the bags out of the house and into the taxi, casually bumped into his mother before saying, “Don't be a stranger next time, you hear?”

“I won't.” Anora grinned.

“I was talking to Brain.” Kieran shot back with a teasing smirk. Anora looked confused for a moment, turning her head in Brain's direction. Turned out, he was just as surprised to have been the target of Kieran's comments. He gave a humble tilt of his fedora in response.

After the two were in a taxi heading to the airport, the rest of the ride was spend in a silent anxiety. Brain didn't like traveling- at least not over long distances. He watched their luggage like a hawk until it disappeared behind the counter. Anora remained close to him just because of how many people were at the airport. It wasn't as much as there could have been if they left right after New Years, but it was still a lot. Neither of them truly relaxed until the airplane was in the air. Even then, it was a moment's reprieve.

“Back to Daybreak in a few hours.” Brain said to himself. “And then the madness begins anew.”

At that, Brain let out a contented sigh as he relaxed against the seat. His hand happened to brush against Anora's as he reclined. He took a gentle hold of it, and he grinned without being aware of it. Anora stared at his hand in hers for a moment. Then she looked over at him and a part of her heart tugged in regret. Lost in thought, Anora absently reached over and tried to move a strand of hair away from his face. Caught slightly off guard by the gentle touch, Brain opened his eyes again to look at her.

“What's wrong?” he asked. For this, Anora shrunk a little.

“When we get back to Daybreak...” she softly said, “Can we… Can I…?”

Brain studied her, and in seeing her conflict, he frowned. “You still love him.” It was a statement, not a question. It was a truth they both knew long before winter break started.

Anora flinched, then gave a small bob of her head. “I'm sorry.” she genuinely apologized. “Especially after we...”

But Brain cut her off before she could finish. “You don't have to apologize, Razz.” he told her. He held her hand a bit tighter before adding, “I knew I was the rebound, remember? A relationship like that never works out in the long run.”

This did not stop Anora from shrinking further into her seat. Brain looked back at her with a gentle sigh. She'd grown quite a bit since he'd known her. But there was more she could do to help that growth, with or without someone there beside her. Unfortunately, he only knew of one thing that may help. The rest would have to be of her own doing.

“You know,” he casually offered- gently placing his other hand on top of hers. “There's only one skate rink in all of Departure County. I hear that if you have a membership, you're eligible to be entered in some competitions.”

A slight tinge of pink crossed Anora's cheeks. “Brain, I can't.” she told him, but it was a weak excuse. They both knew it was. Brain held her hand even tighter.

“Grow, Anora.” he encouraged, “You are your own person. Personally, I'd enjoy it if you didn't go back to Ephemer right away. I've got a theory that he's not all ready for a serious relationship yet either.”

“I can't.” Anora repeated. This time it was much quieter- less sure of itself.

Brain tilted his head at her for a moment. He then carefully brought her hand up so he could gently kiss her knuckles. “May your heart be your guiding key.” he murmured in a soft voice.

. . .

Brain had neglected to tell her that he had called in a welcoming committee. Okay, so it was only Lauriam and Strelitzia, but it was far more than what Anora had been expecting. A lump formed in Anora's throat when she could clearly see Strelitzia eagerly wave to the taxi. It was Lauriam who opened the taxi door before her.

“Welcome back.” he greeted with a smile.

That was when Anora started crying. Lauriam's smile did not waver as he helped her out of the taxi. Instead, he gently guided her to Strelitzia where the older girl was quick to wrap Anora into a tight hug. The boys then worked to get the luggage while the girls reconnected.

“I missed you so much.” Strelitzia told Anora, her own voice cracking. She peeled the two apart so she could look at Anora better. She didn't mean to, but Strelitzia let out a soft sigh of admiration. “And here I thought I was the sensitive one.” she joked as she used her thumbs to brush away Anora's tears. “I guess we're both disasters, huh?”

Anora let out a small laugh through hiccups before pulling Strelitzia close to her again. Was it a bit odd? Maybe. They'd never actually hugged before now. Strelitzia wondered for a moment if winter break really had been that stressful for Anora. It was better than assuming campus itself was the stressor.

Whatever the reason, the familiarity of campus was enough for Anora to follow everyone back to the dorms. The boy couldn't enter the girls' dorms for obvious reasons, so Strelitzia had helped her put everything back into her room. Anora almost started crying again in realizing that this room was just as familiar and foreign to her as her room back at the farmhouse had been. If she didn't want to worry Strelitzia, she definitely would have.

After everything had been placed in the proper rooms, the four of them met back up again in the cafeteria. Apparently, a lot of students had yet to come back to campus; the cafeteria was completely empty for the first time in Anora's memory. The group of four found a spot that was a bit out of the way before they started to talk about their vacations. Lauriam had gone more into detail about the chalet, Strelitzia gave Anora her belated Christmas gift, Brain went into a tangent on how far away Anora lived, and Anora herself simply listened and took in the company around her.

Daybreak Academy was another home for her, she could see it now. And she'd missed it. She missed it just as much as she missed being in her hometown.

“How are you two personally doing?” Lauriam had asked at one point. “It feels as if you've gotten quite close since break started.”

“Funny thing about that,” Brain mused, “I think it's time we call it off.”

Everyone looked over at him in surprise. Anora looked the most surprised of all. What was he doing?

“Oh?” Lauriam then wondered. “Do you mind if I ask why? No offense, Anora- but it is more satisfying to see you two together than with Ephemer dragging you everywhere against your will.”

Brain gave a sagely nod before saying, “I agree. However, it's also time for us to learn more about ourselves. This year will be the year of personal growth.” He looked directly at Anora with a fond smile crossing his lips. “Besides, if we truly love something, we let them go.”

Almost immediately, Anora bashfully looked away.

“And if it comes back, it's yours.” Lauriam agreed. “I understand completely.”

“I'm sorry.” Anora quietly piped up. All the attention focused on to her with Strelitzia and Lauriam at first assuming she was talking to the latter. Only Brain knew who she meant at first.

“Don't be.” he insisted. “You weren't my shortest engagement, nor will you be my last. This was the first time I got to meet the girl's family though, so thank you for that. Think I'm going to keep talking to Kieran though- if only to find out more embarrassing things about you.”

“Kieran?” Strelitzia asked- almost in a slight attempt to change the subject.

“Anora's cousin!” Brain grinned. “He's practically my brother now.”

“I see.” came the little snort from Lauriam. After that, the conversation went to talk about Anora's family. Not that she really minded. With Brain calling out the end of their relationship, it led her thoughts back to how she was going to find a certain someone. She had almost a complete plan when the small group departed for the night. Brain had offered to take her to her dorm, but Anora had to refuse.

Instead of going straight to her dorm, Anora instead went to the Leopardus dorms instead. She debated, for only a moment, on which one she was going to visit before taking the left to the girls' dorms. If memory served, the one she needed to find was on the seventh floor. Assuming they didn't change rooms over summer break. Anora doubted it though- they would have said something about it if they had.

That didn't stop her from having a momentary freak out when she knocked on their door. What if it wasn't the right one?

It was a silly thought, because the person she was looking for answered immediately.

“Anora?” Skuld asked when she realized who was on the other end of her door. “I didn't know you were back on campus already.”

“Just got back.” the younger of the two smiled. Skuld wasn't surprised at the three word sentence she got, it was Anora's tone that had caught her attention. It had almost been assertive- completely sure of itself and what it wanted. For a moment, Skuld blinked just to make sure that it was truly Anora standing there.

“There's something about you that feels different.” Skuld noted. She looked Anora over before looking back up. She gave a light chuckle before admitting, “I think I like it.”

Hearing this made Anora recoil slightly. But she quickly shook her head. She had a mission, and Skuld was her only confidante for it.

“Skuld, I need your help.”

Skuld quirked an eyebrow at this. She casually leaned against her door frame with her arms crossed in thought. “With what?”

The expression on Anora's face hardened. Skuld was almost surprised to see her look so serious. In a tone that meant business, Anora informed her, “I need to find Ephemer.”

[khhcfi]

KH: Melody of Memory [In-Depth Review]

Here’s the Tumblr version of my website post at Weebly, where I give an in-n-depth review of my thoughts and ideas for Melody of Memory.

You can also view this at my website:

https://dreamywrites.weebly.com/

Warning; very long post

News Update Review The past couple of days have been busy with updates on the new installments in the Kingdom Hearts series. We first have Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road confirmed to be released on June 22, 2020 as a mobile game. We will finally know what happened in the past to have Xehanort become a Keyblade Master of Darkness, not light. With five new characters confirmed to be present in the game in addition to Eqarues and Xehanort, we're super excited for the story.

The second news has everyone on the edge with Kingdom Hearts: Melody of Memory, especially as it's confirmed to be a rhythm game. Before the confirmation on June 16, a lot of people and myself included were curious yet dreading if it was going to a rhythm game using the same or similar mechanics like in Atlantica (KH2) and/or the Melody Catcher Reality Shift in Symphony of Sorcery (KH: DDD). I looked on the brighter side of things and thought of how the game would work involving interacting with music. The use of Unreal Engines for the graphics, Yoko Shimomura compositions as either classics or varied renditions of the classics, including the Kingdom Hearts: Orchestra Concert music, and the story revolving (mostly) around Kairi on her journey to find Sora. The 2020 Trailer showcased what Melody of Memory will look like and how it will function, better - maybe beyond better- than I and other fans initially theorized.

[Source: Google Images]

When I first read the word "melody" in the title, I thought it had relations to music; thus a rhythm game. It reminds me the Fantasia (1940) world called "Symphony of Sorcery" in Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance. The concept of "Sound Idea" to "dispel the darkness" (Mickey, KH:DDD) from the tainted musical score inspired another idea that I will explain later in the post. ​[Idea 4]

The mechanics are vastly different than the previous games, which makes it more exciting! The story of the game remained unknown until the trailer released today. Fans theorized Kairi would finally get her own game where she traverses inside her Heart to find any clue on how and where to find Sora. That seems to be the case as she has more screen time in the trailer.

Flashbacks This brings up the next and most important news. After confirming Melody of Memory as a rhythm game, it transitions into a static disruption that leads to cinematic cutscenes of what to expect and flashbacks. Fans already guessed the flashbacks belong to Kairi because her memories of Radiant Garden in Birth by Sleep were hazy.

[Screenshot Source: YouTube SQUARE ENIX]

The following 4 screenshots are most talked about because it visualizes what both the Kingdom Hearts Light Novel and Ansem Report 11 talked about.

In the Light Novel, there's a few pages where Apprentice Xehanort (really Terranort) asked where "the girl" was. Aeleus, one of the Apprentices of Ansem the Wise and a Palace Guard, told him she's sleeping in the "pod".

Personal Note: I thought the "pod" was referred to the Memory Pods in The Old Mansion in Twilight Town. The same pods that Sora. Donald, and Goofy slept for a year for Namine to completely restore the damage she caused in their memories in Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories. Sora's pod was bigger, resembling a white flower that when open, it's a blossomed flower. Since Terranort was examining her, I thought they used a pod like Sora's. Donald and Goofy pods are simpler and smaller. That would make sense for them to use since she was a child at the time of these experiments.

[Source: Google Images]

In the Report: “I have chosen one special girl. I do not know if she possesses a power like that of the Princesses. But, there is a chance, and this is an experiment. She may lead me to the place where the one holding the key is… I shall send her off to the ocean of other worlds.” ​ [source: Kingdom Hearts Wiki - Ansem Reports] Kairi was a child, 4 years old in Birth by Sleep. One year later after Terranort was given refuge in Radiant Garden under the Answem the Wise's apprenticeship, Darkness took over the world. Kairi, 5 years old, was sent to Destiny Islands. There was a meteor shower happening and Kairi fell from the sky onto the shores, where she was discovered by Sora [depicted in Kingdom Hearts Manga]. When she awoke, she had amnesia. With only her name remember, she didn't know where she came from, how she arrived on the Islands, what happened to her home and family. Five years worth of memory were "gone". In the KH universe, the memories are hidden than forgotten. Kairi claims to not know about her past in the original Kingdom Hearts game, but later states those memories are hazy for her when Aqua brought up their meeting in the Radiant Garden. My personal thought is that Kairi did have amnesia for awhile with the exception of her name. It's likely that over time she has flashbacks or visions or dreams so muddled and hazy that she can't find the truth. Another personal thought revolves around the ability of her Nobody, Namine, aka "The Witch". She's a unique Nobody born from both Sora and Kairi's Hearts after the events of the original Kingdom Hearts game. She has the ability to alter, destroy, and restore memories of Sora and those around him. Considering her abilities, I suspect she could uncover hidden memories buried deep within one's Heart. In Re:Mind, Riku states she's currently with the Twilight Gang - Lea, Isa, Roxas, Xion, Hayner, Pence, and Olette - looking for clues in Roxas's and Xion's memories. If given a chance, perhaps she can work with Kairi to fully unlock her hidden memories even though the latter is experiencing some flashbacks.

The Ark ​ Speaking of flashbacks, the picture below is also the talk in the fandom

[Sceenshot taken from YouTube SQUARE ENIX] It's machine that has made its appearance before.

[Image found on Google Images] This is the machine Sora and gang finds in a room in Hollow Bastion. At the time, we couldn't interact with it. We just entered this room and see this machine, fight enemies that appeared, and get a chest.

[Image found on Google Images] Later in Kingdom Hearts Union X (KHUx), we see Malificent in a room where the machine is. The name of machine is called The Ark. Next, we see Lauriam, who is the original person of Marluxio (Nobody), enter and tells her to leave. When she refused, he summons his keyblade and proceeds to attack her. In a different cutscene, Lauriam wakes up in a now damaged room, including the machine. Injured, he proceeds to exit the room with a limp. Given The Ark was damaged and later made its appearance in Kingdom Hearts and in the Trailer, I wonder if they're exactly the same machine? If so, that means that Radiant Garden is a section of the once Daybreak Town. Scala ad Caelum was built on top of Daybreak Town, as seen when Sora and the gang fought Armored Xehanort underwater. Or were two machines made - 1 in Daybreak Town (KHUx) and 1 in Radiant Garden (KH, Trailer)? Could it have been the Master of Masters who built them? Who knows?

Stars and Ideas

[Screenshots taken from YouTube SQUARE ENIX]

The following photos bring up other ideas I have.

Here we see Kairi and Riku in The Final World.

Idea 1: What if this portion is at the start of Melody of Memory like in KH3 as the opening cinematic cutscenes?

Tetsuya Nomura told the public the Final World and Dive to the Heart takes place at the end of the game's plot. So what if these screenshot are actually scenes that happen at the end or towards the end of the game, but are brought to the start of the game as an opening?

Idea 2: What if Kairi and Riku go to The Final World in the middle of the game because it's the hardest place to reach? Chirithy explained in KH3 that in order for someone to reach this place, they would have to either enter a very deep sleep that's near Death or actually die. Since Kairi has been sleeping for a year an Riku has been having strange dreams, they both enter the world by going under a very deep slumber that it takes there. Sora has done it countless times before, but he didn't realize it until Chirithy explained it to him.

Idea 3: After the duo arrives, they're encountered by a group of Stars

I have two options for this idea:

Option 1: The Stars gathered because they were drawn towards Kairi, a Princess of Heart.

Option 2: The Stars were waiting for them because Sora told about them. In the Secret Ending, Sora defeated Yozora (Good Ending) and was brought back to The Final World with him looking up at the sky then walking away. A year has passed, which leads to the events in Re:Mind, so Sora has been there all that time. I'm sure the Stars were there to unintentionally give him company and a sense of comfort inspite of the situation. He'd tell them about himself, friends, and journey to pass the time as well as training. Maybe some of the Stars made a promise to keep an eye for his friends should they arrive. Sora went off somewhere in the World.

Idea 4: This supports my “Personal Note” from earlier. Remembering this is a confirmed rhythm game and I mentioned the concept of "Sound Idea" being used, what if the Stars are gathered as a guide to help the duo through Kairi's Heart Memories that resided in Sora's Heart during the events of the original Kingdom Hearts game?

Remembering the gameplay screenshots and action in the Trailer, we play as Sora. If this is a Kairi game, or a Kairi-focused game, why are we playing as Sora with his original appearance from KH? I suspect it's because when Kairi's Heart resided in Sora's during the first game, her Heart contains Memories that Sora endured in his original clothing.

If that's the case, then it makes why we're playing as Sora accompanied with other characters to assist him. I'm sure we'll play as Kairi and the other characters soon after, but it's an interesting observation.

Similar to how Riku basically contolled Data Sora to fight against Data Organization  XIII in Re:Mind, I theorized it's similar for Kairi. The rhythm "game" could serve as a memory guidance for Kairi and the others. Bringing in the KHDDD Sound Idea from Symphony of Sorcery, what if they need to collect multiple Sound Ideas like from each world the rhythm has to offer to find Sora? If that's the case, then I wonder what song will be played if they harmonized all of the Sound Ideas together?

What if the clues she looking for is somewhere in the worlds Sora visited while she was inside his heart? I know Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are searching every world Sora's visited in reality but what if the clues are only something that can be seen or uncovered through the Heart...like through Princess of Heart?

@phoenixmiko: "The sound idea combined could form the Dearly Beloved for KHMoM or KH3's version."

A very good plausible! I can imagine Yoko Shimomura and her team playing a new rendition of the song!

Mentioned in: 

https://khhcfi.tumblr.com/post/621112208886284288

https://khhcfi.tumblr.com/post/621112566752690176

Kairi's Heart Fragments

Mentioned in my earlier tumblr posts: 

https://khhcfi.tumblr.com/post/621128405097775104/kairis-heart-fragments-in-kh3-remind-sora-had

[Screenshot Source: YouTube SQUARE ENIX]

One thing I’d like to add is that you can see Sora’s smile as he’s holding one of Kairi’s Pink Lights. I suppose he’s nostalgic of his brief quest to find all 7 Fragments and/or he’s comforted by the familiar presence.

 Other Observations

Something struck me when I looked back at The Secret Reports in Kingdom Hearts 3.

KH3 secret report 3:

Experiments of the Heart Notes on Subject X, Excerpt 1--

Subject was found in the central square shortly after dawn. Female, approximately fifteen years old. After seven days' observation, she spoke her first words, but could not provide a name. Subject exhibits signs of profound amnesia, and displays concern about which world this is. Her words suggest that she departed her home world with others, though she cannot recall the names of her erstwhile companions. All efforts to explore those memories have met with a rejection response.

After his initial experiments on me, Ansem the Wise ceased his research into the heart, his hand stayed by some fear I cannot fathom. Yet this new subject is like me: devoid of memories. She is the perfect sample upon which to continue my master's work. She, too, could benefit from it: by traversing the heart, we have a direct path into memory. I myself have begun to reclaim my lost past thanks to these very experiments.

Who is she? Whence has she come? These are questions no scientist could ignore. And the words she muttered, "May your heart be your guiding key"...

—Xehanort

[Source: Kingdom Hearts Wiki - The Secret Reports (KH3)]

Yes, I'm very aware that Xehanort is referring to Subject X - Skuld.

However, the bold section of the report really struck me odd in an interesting way.

"devoid of memories" = Subject X had amnesia upon arriving this world. The same thing that happened to Terra- Xehanort hybrid (Terranort) after Aqua saved him from falling into the Realm of Darkness. The same thing happened to Kairi upon arriving to Destiny Islands.

I don't know what Xehanort meant by "my master's work" specifically, though it may have to do with studying the Hearts, Light and Darkness, and unlocking The Door (Radiant Garden's Door)

"traversing the heart, we have a direct path into memory" = this is the most interesting aspect because we've seen this before. Recall the events of Re:CoM, Namine's first display of memory alteration to Sora and Riku by interfering with the chains in their Hearts. In KH2, Namine is restoring Sora's memories by correcting the chain links that greatly affect the others connected to him.

Xehanort reclaimed his "lost past thanks to these very experiments". As to which lost past he's referring to is most likely Master Xehanort's. Terra's memories may be (relatively) from his body-roommate after they merged.

Kairi is asleep for a year with Ansem the Wise and his Apprentices overseeing the process while using their knowledge about the Heart.

She believes her Heart holds clues to finding Sora. In doing so, it appears the memories hidden from her are resurfacing as flashbacks, bit-by-bit.

She's traversing her Heart to not only have a direct path to Sora, but also a path to her hidden memories.

She's traversing the memories stored in her Heart during her time spent in Sora's Heart.

Perhaps a reason why Terranort didn't recall much after waking up except for Xehanort's name is because the amount of memories the old master had was overwhelming Terra's mind. Paired with the strong powerful Darkness that amplified his own, it overpowered him to have amnesia for a while.

[floriswrite]

Kissing prompt, 26 MarVex/Blarium?

Jealous kiss - Okay so this is LauriamEven but whatever.

“Ven said I would find you here,” Even spoke as he briskly walked up to Lauriam.

Lauriam made a non committal sound in response and continued to stare at the painting.

“He was their old master, correct?” Even attempted as he stood beside him.

“Correct. I wish I could have met him. Ven tells me about him but their time together was short lived. And Aqua and Terra have biases.” Lauriam responded.

“Is Yen Sid’s advice not enough?” Even questioned.

“It is not that. I wanted to know /him/. About his home. His family. Maybe than I could find better closure.” Lauriam explained.

“Closure?” Even whispered.

“Would you still love me if I was a woman?” Lauriam’s voice was hardly audible.

Even stepped back “W-what?”

“I think about it sometimes. Maybe than I could have stayed behind with him. Been his queen.” Lauriam’s head was tilted downwards. “Known Eraqus.”

“What in the Worlds are you saying?”

“Master Eraqus carried the blood of my former lover.” Lauriam finally looked at him. “I come here to think. Just like Marluxia would sit in Vexen’s lab for hours I would sit with him. But our fates never were lined up. I was foolish to believe they were.”

“That sounds detrimental to your mental health.” Even stated before he sighed deeply. “I like you for who you are, Lauriam. If I would be physically attracted to you if you were a woman is a different story.” 

“Can you forget your first love?” Lauriam questioned. “No matter how much they hurt you, you still loved them. Is it not normal to think on ways you could have stayed together?” 

“You know the answer, why ask?” Even stepped closer to him and curled his fingers around his wrists. “How long have you been here?” 

“Because I want you to admit it.” Lauriam stared at him. “Unsure. I spoke to Terra for a little when I first arrived and then I came here.” 

“Admit what?” Even snapped. “I’ve betrayed or been betrayed by everyone I’ve loved.” 

“Exactly.” Lauriam smiled softly at him. “What are you truly mad about? You know my loyalty to you is flawless. For a little while I allowed myself to think on my past. I know you do the same.”  

Even frowned and bent down to claim his lips gently. “You wanted a family with this man.” 

“No, I wanted him to only look at me. I knew his promises were empty but it was nice to dream. Back then I was too naive to see the truth. The full truth.” Lauriam pulled on his arms slightly. “I won’t run.” 

Even slowly let go of his wrists. “And now?” 

“I would have liked to know what he became after me. About his loveless but fruitful life. About the World he made. Both people that may have been able to answer my questions are gone.” 

“Both?” 

“By the time I remembered it was too late to ask Master Xehanort.” 

“I see, you think about all of your past while here.” Even looked to the portrait. “In the grand scheme of betrayal you were lower.” 

“I’m not sure that is a compliment. You threw Ansem away and lied to a /child/. And Braig, Master Xigbar, is…” he trailed and placed a hand on Even’s arm. “I’m sorry.” 

“Sometimes I think my whole life is a lie.” Even gave a broken laugh. “I couldn’t save anyone back then so Vexen dedicated his life to making clones. And now, now I have everything I wanted, but you are right, it is normal to think about the past.” He ran a hand down his face. “I’m jealous of a dead man. A dead man you knew as a /teenager/.” 

“Took you long enough to admit it.” Lauriam teased and leaned up to peck his lips. “If it makes you feel better, you are a better kisser.” 

“I would hope so.” Even scuffed and curled an arm around his back to pull him closer. “You should come here less.” 

“Even, you missed out on the time I spent three days here.” Lauriam whispered. “A couple hours is nothing.” 

“What?” Even cupped the back of his head. 

“When I was first reformed I sought out Ventus and found this World. He couldn’t get me to leave here for more than ten minutes.” Lauriam explained. 

“Why didn’t I know this?” 

“You didn’t need to know.” Lauriam brought up a hand to tap his thumb against Even’s lips. “You can’t change the past. I know that. So give me a reason to come here less.” 

“You can’t distract me.” 

“You know I can.” Lauriam laughed softly. “You want to kiss me. You’ve wanted to this whole time. Kiss me and take me home. And then tell me why you were trying to find me in the first place.” 

“I… wanted to have dinner together.” Even admitted. “If you want to.” He deflated. It was pointless to be angry or jealous. Brain was never coming back. 

“I would like that.” Lauriam smiled. “I’m not sure I had lunch…” 

Even made a noise and finally pulled Lauriam into a kiss. “For someone so obsessed with making sure others eat you are terrible at doing it yourself.” 

Lauriam looped his arms around Even’s neck. “Mmhm.” 

[bluerosesburnblue]

I hope you don't mind this ask, but... Any theories / speculations about the most recent story update for KHUX?

Oh, I don’t mind at all! I’m glad you asked, actually, because I’ve had some thoughts, though not many new theories of my own, unfortunately. That being said, I can definitely go over how some of my old theories and some of the fandom’s hold up and my thoughts on a few of the new theories I’ve seen floating around

One thing that I’m consistently proud of is how my old guesses about Darkness’s true nature just keep ending up almost right barring some slight details. I made the claim back when Re:Mind first came out that Darkness could be a hive mind of entities that plant bits of themselves in others, and then refined that back in July of 2020 by likening it to a parasite that worms its way into people’s hearts and incorporates itself into them to control them. This past update confirmed that the Darkness we’re fighting is one part of the hive mind that wormed its way into Ven to force him to act out, and that by doing so it detached itself from that hive mind and became incorporated into Ven’s being (which Ven can then shape). So I gotta say I’m pretty pleased about that part

All that’s left to be seen from the July post is if Darkness has a connection to Verum Rex/Quadratum, but I doubt that that will be touched on by the KHUx finale. Though I will say that it’s pretty interesting that the Master of Masters tells Darkness about “a world [he] can’t even conceive,” which seems like it could easily be referring to Quadratum, which also means that Darkness knows about it

That’s pretty much all I have to say on the Ventus/Darkness/Vanitas connection, but there’s still more to cover in this update

One thing that I’ve been trying to figure out is who the cloaked figure right at the start of the update is, Luxu or the MoM. Measuring the sizes and my old guess based on the KH3 Secret Reports both say Luxu, but this brings into question “when,” exactly, the True Dandelion scene takes place as it doesn’t have the dark haze around the edges that they give flashbacks, but is clearly the real-world set of pods as they’re not destroyed AND it’s missing the pod that Maleficent already used. The True Dandelion scene has a lot to unpack, but this scene at the start does make me wonder if Luxu and/or the Master have a way in and out of the datascape that doesn’t involve the pods, otherwise the numbers don’t add up

Also related to the post of mine I just linked is the idea that the Black Box is the datascape. I believe that this might still hold true. It’s interesting to note that they show the scene from Back Cover where Luxu is given the box in the first place just prior to the reveal that using the lifeboats to escape starts the process to seal it off and have the real Daybreak Town fall to darkness, and the Master’s “hint” to Luxu involves this very process. Why would Luxu be forbidden to open the box? Quite possibly because it contains the infected datascape meant to seal off the vast majority of the Darkness hive mind. And several Dandelions. It is both the “hope” mentioned in KH3 through those Dandelions, as well as a trap to keep Darkness out of being able to interfere for quite a long time

Now, the questions that I’m sure are on everyone’s minds are “who is the True Dandelion,” and “who are the ones who use the lifeboats?” Let’s start with the True Dandelion, as there’s far less moving pieces involved in that one

I won’t take credit for coming up with any of these options, I’m just going to discuss the logistics of them. So the candidates for the True Dandelion in, what is in my opinion, the least likely option to the most likely option, are:

Kairi: I’ve seen this one floating around and... honestly don’t believe it at all due to the sheer amount of logical contortions that you have to do to make it work. To wit:

Where the hell would she even come from if it was Kairi? As can be clearly seen with Ven, is stated to be true with Subject X, and is implied to be true of Lauriam/Elrena, those who travel to the future using the pods will regenerate their bodies at the age they were when they used the pods. Which would make Kairi at the oldest a four-year-old. Four years prior to KHUx was when Brain was told that he was a Union Leader. So she either would have been just born immediately prior to the war and was just... stolen or something? And we never saw? Or just after the war, where she would probably have to be the child of a Dandelion that got teen pregnant because they’re supposed to be both kids and the only survivors? Or Luxu and Ava’s kid somehow? Like, what? The timeline is just insane with that

If she was born before the war... you would assume that the True Dandelion would be, you know, a Dandelion. Which would mean that Ava handed a Keyblade to and recruited a literal toddler. This would also retcon Aqua being the one to accidentally pass the ability to wield a Keyblade down to Kairi and I refuse to make theories predicated on “the author will retcon this.” You just open up a huge can of worms doing that

The body wrapped in white looked a hell of a lot bigger than a four-year-old to me

I am sick to death of “this character was secretly from the Age of Fairytales~” being employed by the narrative. It’s happened at least three times already (four if you count Luxu). Enough already

Ventus: Ven has some hints, though some notable contradictions to it being him

On the one had, the sheet that the True Dandelion is wrapped in is extremely similar to the one that Xehanort wrapped him in when planning to leave him on Destiny Islands in BBS and there’s a possibility that Xehanort may have found him in that very sheet if he regenerated wearing it

On the other hand: Ventus might not have even been a Dandelion in the first place (he definitely wasn’t a Union Leader, but I don’t know if it was ever said whether he was selected as a regular Dandelion or not), and there’s the timing of the scene that I mentioned above. It’s definitely after Maleficent used her lifeboat but before anyone else used theirs (when you would expect Ven to remain with his friends) and, since the scene doesn’t have the flashback effect, it’s implied to be happening concurrently with everything else, so Ven should still be fighting Darkness in the datascape while it’s happening and eliminating him from being this particular person

Strelitzia: Oh, boy, have we got some nice old hints to Strelitzia, but still a few logical contortions, just like Ven

The white sheet is coming back up again. Namely, the fact that we still have an unexplained scene where Strelitzia appears to Lauriam in a dream wrapped in a white cloak, though it’s of a different style than the one that the True Dandelion is in. That scene also featured flower petals being blown into the wind, much like a dandelion seed (though, notably, the petals that are blown aren’t Dandelion seeds)

The question is, yet again, one of timing. How would Luxu get her body? While she was only introduced in KHUx, her scenes are all flashbacks to before the war, so we know that she was struck down in the real world, not the datascape. We see her body dissolve into light and her heart be released. Now, technically you only need a heart to time travel (actually, a heart is the only thing that can time travel), but Luxu is clearly seen putting a body into the machine. A machine that only allows for time travel because it destroys the body. If he had her heart, he wouldn’t need to use the lifeboat because she’s already in a state to time-travel on her own and this eliminates the possibility of him putting her Nobody into the machine, because without a heart it would just evaporate her body leaving... absolutely no heart to go to the future with

Now, Luxu theoretically could have grabbed her heart. We know that he was hanging around Daybreak Town at the time while observing thanks to his fight with Ava, but Strelitzia is struck down just after the fight with Ava starts so it’s very likely that Luxu was too preoccupied to retrieve her heart before it was gone. Speaking of Luxu’s fight with Ava...

Ava is my current top pick for the True Dandelion candidate due to the sheer number of questions it answers and how few it raises

Ever since KH3 came out, the question of “where the heck is Ava?” has been buzzing around as a major mystery. Her last chronological point of appearance is the same as the other Foretellers: the Keyblade War itself, where she’s shown leading her Union to battle. Notably, she seems resigned to her part in this, and this is the first and only time we see her after her battle with Luxu where he reveals to her the Master’s true plans. Melody of Memory seems to imply that the other Foretellers managed to skip to the future by going to another world, Quadratum (or at least this is the most likely explanation as there’s not enough pods to send all four of the other Foretellers AND the characters that we know end up in the future to their destination). However, Ava isn’t with them and Luxu knows what happened to her

It would be easy to write this off as them trying to drop Ava from the narrative or her not being important, but her chess piece is included in the “Eraqus and Xehanort foreshadow the next saga” chess game on the far right of the board and Nomura confirms that they represent the Master’s six apprentices, i.e. the five Foretellers + Luxu. So, Ava is necessary in the upcoming saga and yet, she didn’t get to the future the same way as any of the Master’s other apprentices leaving her open to get there via a lifeboat

Ava is the very founder of the Dandelions, who all of the others look up to and defer to and was spoken of heavily in the scene just prior to the True Dandelion reveal. That’s grounds for being called the True Dandelion if I’ve ever seen one

Luxu would very easily be able to ensure that Ava would be able to make it to the future. Just like with the Master of Masters, he already has the memories necessary for her to use to regenerate a body, and either her Keyblade or her mask would make for effective mediums that wouldn’t be too difficult for Luxu to take. If he put her in the white cloth, he probably took her mask off already

Ava hasn’t been around for the events of KHUx, so there’s no timeline discrepancies if it’s her

So, now that we have an idea of who the True Dandelion could be, let’s talk about the rest of the lifeboats and how they might fit together. For the purposes of this discussion, let’s assume that the True Dandelion can’t be one of the Union Leaders and that their battle with Darkness is taking place at the same time as Luxu is sending off the True Dandelion. I’ll be referencing an old theory of mine, while making additions now that it’s clear that there’s two sets of lifeboats: the Data Set and the Real Set

Right now, there’s an equal number of Real Pods and Data Pods: 5 each. For the Data Pods, of the seven that we started with, one was used by Maleficent and one was damaged in the battle between Maleficent and Lauriam. As for the Real Pods, one has been used by Maleficent, and one has been used by the True Dandelion. This leaves us with five each.

We can narrow this down further by eliminating people that we know end up in the future. These are:

Ventus

Subject X, who is most likely Skuld based on her description

Lauriam

Elrena* (of note with Elrena is that we actually have no idea where the hell she is at the moment or how she’s going to get into the pods. Furthermore, while every other lifeboat user sans Maleficent has been shown to have amnesia upon waking and Lauriam/Marluxia directly indicates as such applies to him, too, in KH3, Elrena/Larxene’s KH3 scene and character file short story both indicate that she recalls Lauriam and possibly Strelitzia, though she also seems surprised at the idea that she’s part of an ancient Keyblade legacy. I won’t deny that there’s a possibility that she doesn’t use a lifeboat and ends up in the future by other means based on the discrepancies)

So with three confirmed cases, we’re left with one ambiguous case in Elrena and three more possible candidates: Ephemer, Brain, and Player. Four people, and two pods

I want to make it clear that despite what I brought up against Elrena, I do think that she’ll be using one of the lifeboats if only so that KHUx has narrative consistency. They introduced Elrena, they made her part of the investigation on Strelitzia’s whereabouts, so it only makes sense that they need to show us where she ended up for a satisfying conclusion. So let’s slot Elrena in for one of the lifeboats. That leaves one between Player, Ephemer, and Brain

My best guess is that Player won’t be using a lifeboat at all. Not only are they a create-a-character that would be a HUGE pain to try and incorporate into future entries in the series without making a “canon” version and thus ruining their appeal as an avatar, but we haven’t seen or heard mention of them at all in the games set in the present-day. There’s zero indication that they made it, which makes them the most easily eliminated as a lifeboat user

That leaves Ephemer and Brain, and I still believe that Ephemer will be the final lifeboat user, and for the same reasons as stated in the theory I linked at the start of this section. Not only does Brain have the same facial sprite as Eraqus, but he wields the Master’s Defender which will be later passed down to Eraqus and I believe that this eliminates him as a time traveler, despite the fandom’s popular opinion that it confirms it

Because I don’t believe that Brain is Eraqus’s grandfather, but rather his distant ancestor who inherited the No Name and passed down both Keyblades through the ages

So let’s resolve some plot threads taking everything I’ve stated and linked to above into account

My Big Guess for the KHUx Finale

Ventus will use the fact that Darkness is tied to his heart now to give it a physical, but still mostly amorphous form that he, the Union Leaders, and Player can finally take down. Darkness will be sealed inside Ven’s heart, where it will lie dormant until he reaches the future. Eventually, Xehanort will extract it in the form of Vanitas and it will follow Vanitas’s life cycle, ending in him being reabsorbed into Ven at the end of BBS. Darkness, now back in Ven’s heart, will make brief contact with Sora during the events of Re:Mind

Lauriam, upon learning that the world will be sealed with the use of the lifeboats, will attempt to rescue his partner, Elrena. Both will take lifeboats out of the datascape and into the future, whereupon they will be recruited into Organization XIII by Luxu’s current incarnation, Xigbar, likely to keep an eye on them. I believe there might be a squabble among Ephemer, Skuld, Brain, and Player among who will use the final lifeboats (each person nominating others besides themselves), but ultimately they will settle on Ephemer and Skuld

Skuld will wind up amnesiac in the future Radiant Garden and is discovered by Ansem the Wise and his apprentices and dubbed Subject X. She becomes Xehanort’s favorite test subject due to the similarities in their amnesia and possibly some lingering memories that he has that don’t quite belong to him (KHDR Xehanort certainly seems to want to meet his “old friends” very badly)

Ephemer’s heart will wind up in the Keyblade Graveyard as I mentioned in an old theory, unable to manifest a body due to the lack of a medium present. Through this state of being just a heart (and possibly related to those old talks about him being “unchained”), he will be able to enact the Light of the Past moment from KH3, and may very well be revived for future events in the series

This leaves Brain and Player behind in the datascape. However, you may remember one detail that I brought up, but neglected to fully expand on until now. There is a difference between the Data Pods and the Real Pods. While all of the Real Pods have been used up at the time of my proposed sequence of events, the Data Pods have not been. One was never used, only damaged. This leaves open the possibility that it can also be repaired (Also, I’m just gonna say it. Player’s met someone recently who has a magic hammer that can repair anything... might not come back but also totally could). Brain and Player could then repair the final pod and, in a callback to when Player was sent to Game Central Station, have them both agree once again that Player is the more expendable person in the scenario. Brain will take the repaired pod, leaving no way out of the datascape for anyone else, while Player stays behind to be sealed away for the time being (this could also be a callback to the original KHx, where Player also stayed behind to take part in the war instead of fleeing with the Dandelions, as they refused to leave their party behind)

When Brain escapes, however, he will be met with a Daybreak Town with no Real Pods left, as Luxu used one on the True Dandelion. Now that the seven pods have all been used up and the real Daybreak Town is falling to darkness, Luxu will take a corridor out as the Master instructed, but bring the newly appeared Brain along with him (either that or Brain emerges after Daybreak Town falls, either is possible) and bequeaths the No Name onto him. Brain, stranded in the past while all of his friends have been sent to the future, will be Luxu’s new apprentice and rebuild the fallen Daybreak Town as Scala ad Caelum, then pass down both of his Keyblades: Master’s Defender to his biological descendants, and No Name to his apprentices

As for the Master of Masters? I think he’s already taken an eighth lifeboat (you’ll note that there’s space right in the center of the cluster where one more could theoretically fit) and had done so before the start of the original KHx. He’ll be revived at some point in Xehanort’s young adult life to goad him into his insane plans as seen in Re:Mind, then duck into Quadratum to hang out until the next arc in the franchise, as hinted at with his appearance in the KH3 Secret Movie

(He is most definitely not Sora. He’s clearly bound to the same rules of time travel as everyone else which means that Sora couldn’t go back in time to become him as that would be long before the point in time where Sora was born and that breaks KH time travel rules. Not to mention that the Master talks about Quadratum in this update like he’s never seen it before until it came up in the No Name’s range of vision. Sora is literally in Quadratum right now, he’d definitely know what it was already if he was the Master)

And I do believe that should cover everyone’s whereabouts by the end of the game and into the next arc of Kingdom Hearts with minimal plot holes

This is just my best guess, putting together details that I’ve been accumulating for the past year and a half or so into what sounds like a coherent sequence of events that bridge the gap between KHUx and KH3 and beyond. There may be some details I get wrong, obviously. Nomura has been known to be... unpredictable. But I think, based on the evidence we have at hand, that this is the most logical series of events to end the game on and I’m really interested to see how close this gets to the actual finale we see