#riku being melodramatic

[h-worksrambles]

I recently watched Absolutely Everything About’s video on the end of the Xehanort saga and having stewed on it, I do genuinely think that 0.2 is the best Kingdom Hearts side game, and I agree with their sentiment that it’s the model I really wish Kingdom Hearts spin offs would follow.

A short, lower budget, asset-reusing side game that maintains the core gameplay of the mainline but puts you in control of a different playable character, which allows both for new opportunities to develop them, as well as how to experiment with new gameplay styles. It gave some really appreciated character work for Aqua that she probably wouldn’t have gotten otherwise. That effectively solves the biggest problem I’ve had with KH’s approach to side games, that being how much they vary in both gameplay styles and quality.

The frustrating thing about prior spin offs is how much they can feel like homework to any one playing on the collections, either re-experiencing the series, or going through it for the first time. Titles like Chain of Memories and Birth By Sleep made sense somewhat as experimental stop gap releases on handhelds. But when you play them on console now, directly packaged next to the numbed games, some of the best action RPGs ever made, boy do they feel like a chore you have to sit through to understand the numbered games. I remember once watching a friend get into the series. He had a great time with KH1 and was excited to play more, but Re:COM’s tedium pretty much killed his momentum to keep going. And as a result, he’s still never got round to 2. But 0.2 carries over the gameplay you’re already familiar with, and so it doesn’t have this problem.

It’s also a good solution to Kingdom Hearts’ massive cast, which I do feel it’s had a harder and harder time juggling, particularly in 3. Nomura has stated that he wants the numbered games to remain focused on Sora and that’s fine. But the scope of the series has expanded in such a way that keeping the focus on Sora and doing those characters justice at the same time is a tough balancing act. Give those characters their own episodes though as short interim titles? Boom. Problem solved. Ample opportunity to provide further character work for fan favourites, especially when at this point in the series they’re all off looking for Sora separately.

Give me Episode Riku, where he wanders bizarre new dream worlds following his connection on to Sora. Episode Kairi where she sets out to find the remaining New Seven Hearts. Episode Roxas where we see his own efforts in the search for Sora, while seeing him adjust to finally being a complete purpose. A Wayfinder trio episode where they work through their baggage as they return to the Realm of Darkness and Ventus gets his memories back.

Now this may be sounding a bit too much like Final Fantasy XV’s much maligned DLC practises, but I think this would be a better fit for Kingdom Hearts. XV felt like an expansive vision for a big JRPG that was broken up piecemeal over a rocky development, or at times dived into damage control retcons. Kingdom Hearts thrives on its melodramatic soap-opera story structure, checking in regularly with these characters to see what new crazy twist will happen next. Much as I think the spin offs in the 2000s and early 2010s often weren’t great, they did maintain a momentum that gave it such a strong following with kids in the 2000s. I can’t think of another big game series that maintained that kind of release structure and momentum besides maybe Trails.

Kingdom Hearts IV has been quiet for a while now, and I’m really glad they seem to be taking their time with it. And usually, I’m not one to demand constant content. I’ve criticised Pokemon in the past for that very practise. But KH clearly wants to maintain a release schedule because they’ve been diving into mobile games. And I gotta admit, I feel nothing at the prospect of Missing Link, but I’d be chomping at the bit to play a short new game in 3’s engine as a different character.

It’s probably too late to ponder on this. If Square-Enix were gonna make more games in 3’s engine, they’d have done it by now. But I can still ponder what would have been.

[synergysilhouette]

Remaking the trios (character-wise; sadly I can't draw)

Just thought I'd try me hand at tweaking the characters a bit!

Destiny Island Trio

Sora--I'd probably make him the "happy on the outside, sad on the inside" protagonist. Riku was his first and only friend, and while Kairi helped to open him up, Sora was always worried about being abandoned, giving him a juxtaposition of having a goofy and light-hearted demeanor but a cautious and self-conscious personality; it's why he wanted to save Riku, but couldn't bring himself to be enveloped in darkness.

Kairi--SUPER protective, though not in a big sister way like Aqua; she's just a great friend. As a result, she inspires Sora to open his heart and make connections as well as preventing Riku from permanently submerging into darkness. She isn't pushy, but she stands her ground.

Riku--Essentially the complete opposite of (this) Sora: confident and adventurous. He has a bad habit of being reckless (albeit not annoyingly so), and is known for being fickle and occasionally moody, sometimes changing him from "cool" to "brash avenger". Essentially Sasuke Uchiha, but redeemed WAY earlier.

Wayfinder Trio

Aqua--A bit less melodramatic, and a lot more sly, known for pushing her feelings aside and secretly helping others. She's super discreet and a great actor when she needs to be.

Terra--A lot more resigned to his fate, frequently shutting out Ventus and having serious talks with Aqua and Eraqus about controlling his darkness and making them promise to kill him if it gets out of hand. He's super protective of Ventus, though, and sees Vanitas as his personal enemy.

Ventus--A guy who just likes to have fun. He's not as self-conscious about rivaling Aqua and Terra, and he appreciates the training Eraqus gives him. It's because of his personality that Vanitas feels as though he's been forgotten.

Organization XIII Trio

Roxas--Still a "broken doll," quickly integrating the idea that he has no true emotions or will, though he's fascinated by people he meets in other worlds.

Xion--More "rage against the dying light," a bit of a hothead who frequently challenges and battles Roxas to get him to feel something. Definitely anime rival vibes.

Axel--A chill guy who pretends to be an airhead. He uses it to gather information for Saix as well as to train Xion and Roxas. He's not often seen fighting, but he's pretty powerful. Though even beneath the subterfuge, he's just a chill guy.

[valorxdrive]

❝ i’m not above breaking a few fingers. ❞

There was a genuine firmness that offered no room for complaint. Truthfully speaking, Sora was in no mood to try dissuading the very idea at this moment. Before their eyes was a figure who found themselves a touch too overzealous with their depravity. A thriving, serrated pride that comes with the idea of wasted time being the open grounds for further suffering.

Knowing that the power of their knowledge serves as a border that allows next to no pain to befall them. They were simply in a position too precious due to being in a high court.

It's clear that a history of indulging in this rank has made them painfully lax even against mightier powers. "You're not the first, and you certainly wouldn't be the last, brat. The mere fact I'm even allowing my time to be eaten up by your melodramatic sentiment for saving the non-consequential should be an honor enough. In fact.. With powers like yours, shouldn't my wing be an honor for you to bef--!" His voice finds itself entirely drowned out in what follows.

A presence upon the air..? An attack? The laughable caliber of his martial skill wouldn't be able to perceive the sudden strike that lashes from Sora's hand. There was no drawing of the blade, no means of utilizing magic, it was a modest culmination of raw physical strength that effortlessly gouged a hole clear through the steel throne made for this court councilman. Those same knuckles would remain in the space between them, raised and steaming as a cold look is brandished within this hero's eyes. The official failed to even contemplate exactly what happened, and just how close they nestled against oblivion.

They didn't have time for insecure platitudes.

Riku's suggestion was quickly leaning into a realm of approval. "If life is that little of an issue to you.."

"We'll respect yours with that equal extent. Riku, he hasn't been using those hands for a long time.." For any measure of goodwill that is. All the same, the man settled within that seat began to grow pale, that lightning swift movement going well behind the typical boundary of physical tension. It dug deeper, planted itself as a conscious tremor against their heart acidically doused in gluttonous intent. It slid the red carpet underneath that lofty pride. Horror found itself seamlessly written in their expression.

"And he's going to tell us everything while you give them this test."

@litoredeem

[system-of-a-feather]

[Content Warning: /hj /lh Im being melodramatic in OCD/OCPD because the content is genuine but I also know that its extremely excessive]

There is a unique pain in being someone who copes with their C-PTSD and shit by chronically living in the future and having scaffolded webbed-plans reaching decades into thr future and a new stage is being approached which is COOL but the new stage has yet to have key variables defined by the nature of them which is NOT COOL because I have to ACCEPT that I cant escape into my future planning if I DON'T KNOW WHAT I'LL SPECIFICALLY BE DOING IN A MONTH AND HALF.

*slams face on desk* ITS BEEN TWO WEEKS USVHSKSOA

Can someone just tell me where the job I get will be located so I can start looking into my housing and start building medium "long term" goals for this 2-3 year break ;;=;;

I know this is healthy because I can somewhat still cope and XIV has like 0 issue with this so hes helpful but ;;;=;;; I don't know what to do with myself if I dont have a heavily detailed 2 year plan, a detailed 5 year plan and a good 10-30 year plan ;;;=;;;

Like I know Ill get to my 5-30 year plan regardless but the specifics of my 2 year plan ;;=;; What am I supposed to do if I don't know the intense details of my 2 year plan ;;=;; What am I supposed to be working on and enthusiastically building ;;=;; Where am I supposed to harvest my passion in life if I have no immediate goals ;;=;;

*dies*

I am lost in life because I dont know a detailed ideal play by play of the next two years of my life. I only have goals stretching out until Im 40-50. What will I do with myself having so little ability to plan ahead? What is the MEANING of this all?

Whyvdo we exist, just to SUFFER?!?!!?

*melodramatically dies again*

Melodrama aside though, I realllllyyyy hate waiting. Im whining mainly cause its 100% me being impatient and uncomfortable that I don't have my main distractions and sense of control / security and it has me UNCOMFORTABLE because I WANT TO MAKE PLANS but I CANT because I don't have set knowledge of the intentionally planned variable aspects by the very nature of being in a transitory phase and IM GONNA STRANGLE SOMEONE UNTIL THEY TELL ME WHAT EXACT JOB AND CITY ILL LIVE IN I SWEAR TO GOD HURRY UP SO I CAN GET BACK TO MY WAY OF LIFE I AM LITERALLY PULLING OUT MY HAIR AND XIVS GONNA KILL ME CAUSE ITS HIS BEARD /hj

Ughhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I hate my OCD/OCPD. Tame the rage. Tame the impatience. You can live without everything stringently planned out and you can survive waiting a totally reasonable amount of time to get replies. You are a big kid and if XIV is doing fine you can too now go touch grass and enjoy the moment smh.

Ugh.

I hate how this transitory period is grating SO hard against my OCD/OCPD tendencies. It makes me want to sign forms to have XIV handle it until I get more material to plan with but he is 10/10 not wanting to be primary host again and Im like ughhhhhhhhhh

end my suffering

*dies*

-Riku

[greatrunner]

[12/28/2020]

Okay, so episodes 9 and 10 of Sweet Home feel like they got struck with a bad case of “chopping the horror character tree” in a really bad way (think the deaths towards the end of 2004′s Dawn of Dead, barring Michael’s and C.J.’s). A lot of characters (from hereon out) die for the sake of the melodrama, and thus none of the relationships are allowed to grow because they’re stopped short.

I think the character that got the worst death was definitely Yu-Ri (the asthmatic nurse), who gets shot in the back and that’s all she wrote. I get the feeling the writers didn’t know what to do with her, so they just threw her away in the most melodramatic way possible. She’s the one death I’m legitimately pissed about where the others just frustrated me.

The last episodes veer into schlocky shonen jump anime territory when Dark side Riku (Ui-Myeong)shows up and starts babbling about “I AM THE CHOSEN!”, Us vs. Them, and proceeds to gun everyone down to legitimize him as a threat in the plot that didn’t need him at all.

To add insult to injury, the plot slaps ​Hyun-Su (the suicidal protagonist) with a bad case of amnesia that does little to service the idea of ​ Hyun-Su learning to live for himself vs. others.

What was an inconvenience of a curse that people either succumbed or tried to fight basically became a super-special power ah-la X-Men where some mutants look like the Marlocks and others look like Jubilation Lee (pre-vampire). High school cliques but with monsters.

With everything mounting around the characters internally (their shaky relationships, never knowing when they’d turn, people straight up dying or sacrificing themselves), and externally (the impending presence of monsters, roaming murderers, or the military), a second Special Infected character (insert Left 4 Dead joke here) that falls on the “comically insane” trope was ultimately unnecessary and weakened what made the show strong.

(This was a webtoon, so maybe I shouldn’t be too surprised there.)

Yi-Kyung (the Firefighter), whose arc should logically conclude in death for betraying the out-of-pocket military force in control of the city, is rewarded with what looked like a promotion to grunt?

I get the sense that it’s meant to be a shock when we see her walk up in G.I. Joe fatigues, but it’s just one of those moments where I’m like, “make this make sense because it doesn’t.”

On the other hand, her actions ultimately underline what Gil-Seob (the terminally ill old man) told her before he died. “You can’t trust the military in these situations.” And I guess that extends to anyone who spent any amount of time within that power structure and has any sense of loyalty to it. After Hyun-Su, Yi-Kyung’s enemy #1 as far as I’m concerned.

(The final moments of the show see Sang-Wook is alive-ish, and without nary a hint of his burn scars. It might be Dark Side Riku puppeting his body, or he survived, ‘monsterized’, and is really pissed that one his friends facilitated the death of their group by being a dumb teenager.)

So, yeah, barring my girl Ji-Su (the guitarist), a lot of my favorite characters died, and some of them came to really bad story ends.

Overall, Sweet Home was a solid horror series that had a strong start, middle, and kinda fizzled out towards the end because they kept raising the stakes without any real thought to the story or characters. Whether that’s the fault of the show’s writing staff or the source material, I dunno.

[minijenn]

What kind of tips do you have for writing a “corrupted hero” subplot, like how you write Sora's Norting in Keys or like what Maleficent did to him in Depths of Despair? I want to do a corruption subplot in a fic, but I'm afraid of being too melodramatic or going over the top with angst.

So corrupted hero plots are one of my FAVORITE kind of plots to write, so I have a lot to say about them since I’ve done a lot of different takes on it before, with not just Keys, but also back in my old Zelda fics. There are plenty of routes you can take with it: either the hero is forcibly, unwillingly corrupted from the inside out by a villainous force (what’s happening to Sora in Keys or what basically happens in my old Zelda fic Blood and Spirit), the hero willingly choses to be corrupted as it grants them more power that can be used to save the people they love at the expense of their own life and freedom (happened in my Zelda fic Wisdom and Courage), or the hero again choses corruption but this time its to seek revenge against people who may have wronged them and that corruption essentially turns them into a willing antagonist in the process (happened in my Zelda fic Light and Shadow). 

In the kind of plot that I’m doing in Keys in particular though, there are several things I’m making sure to keep in mind: 1. There are multiple layers of what’s happening to the hero caused by both internal and external circumstances, and those layers all come toggether to make the situation more complex and daunting and serious; for Sora in Keys, there’s the norting which is the most direct and constant threat he’s under and all of the problems that come along with it; rage form is basically hand in hand with that and Maleficent doing what she did has only made it worse moving forward, then there’s the matter of Sora himself, trying to free Roxas, Ven, and Xion who are basically his only real line of defense against what Xehanort is trying to do to him so he’’s basicaly willling to harm himself in the long run in order to help him and he knows that. Not to mention his anxiety about really letting anyone in on the fact that this is happening which brings me to 2. A concrete piece of advice is that if the protagonist has a compelling reason to keep their corruption hidden from their circle of support (friends, family, ect), then that is a good source of drama right there, especially if they manage to keep it secret for a really long time; it leads to an inevitable reveal that will prove to be a high point of emotion both for your hero and for your supporting cast; and really, its why one of the moments I’m looking forward to most in Keys is when Riku and Kairi especially inevitably find out what’s beenn happening to Sora and their very different reactions to it; 3. Corruption can lead to a sense of dread, weakness, and hopelessness in a hero, especially at the moment they’ve realized they’ve exhausted all of their options to forestall or stop it from happening; its a bit of an existential crisis the hero faces at that point because they know by that point that they’re going to die/be corrupted into a monster or a villain and that’s when they just have to... accept that knowledge and find a way to cope with it lest it crush them completely. That kind of moment is where a lot of angst can come in, but its also where you can give the protagonist a heroic second wind, where they look to their friends and say something like “well, i don’t know what’s going to happen and i dont know if i can save myself from this but i’m going to do my best to try anyway.” and when and if your hero does free themselves from that corruption it makes the fact that they had that smallest bit of hope in the face of absolute adversity all the more cathartic when they realize that it came true after all

Anyway all that was a LOT, I’m sure, and I hope it made sense. Like I said, the corrupted hero kind of story is one of my favorites, it leads to so many different options for drama and plotlines and different directions you can go with it that all lead to such drastically unique outcomes so hopefully you’ll find one that works best for you! ^_^ 

[spiderish-is-in-town]

Spiderish Verse Characters

Aunt May

She was married to Spiderish's dad's brother, who she divorced after finding out she actually wasn't interested in him or men in general. They're still on good terms, though. When it's her turn to take care of Spiderish and her siblings, May tries to be the best caretaker she can be. She wants to be supportive in their every choice(minus the ones that can potentially hurt them). Thus, why she's clueless about Buni being Spiderish. She used to be a Luchador fighter, but left for personal reasons. For that reason, May is a experienced fighter and even taught Spiderish some stuff for self defense

Norman Osborn

An apathetic but tired business man more focused about his corporation than his own family. He does care about his son, but it's buried under the pressure of owning easily the biggest company in England, an already gigantic island. His company is very successful, their products reaching to the United States and some parts of Asia. Surprisingly not involved with Green Goblin.

Harry Osborn

The exchange student from England. He was initially all the rage when he first arrived. A lot of the female students were interested in him. Harry is the 'perfect' kid at the school. Despite that, he's not very social or friendly for that matter. Harry was not warped, in other words he wasn't affected by the war's radiation. Many of the male students don't like him, and increasingly the female students are too. Harry also has asthma.

Do-Yun 'Flash' Cheong

The self proclaimed fastest motorcycle rider in Tokyo. He's a bit of a douche to others, and even has his own gang. He does have his set of morals he strictly follows and expects his gang members to follow too (don't hurt kids, pregnant folk, or the elderly and such). They even have jackets.

J. Jonah Jameson

He's about the same. He works for an independent radio show. Jonah just doesn't like the fact there's a masked kid running around much like the villains in Tokyo. He feels like it sets a bad example to kids her age, specifically his own. In his eyes, Spiderish is a potential menace and a bad influence. He treats his employees and kid just fine, though.

Noodle

Currently Spiderish's companion. He's the type to shoot one liners and wisecrack, and is a sucker for tuna and ear scratches. He's a bit bitter and cynical, but does care about her and her family. He refuses to watch another one go.

Pariwish

One of Spiderish's friends. When she reached puberty, she finally started showing signs of being warped. Before the bullying and harassment about it got too far, her parents quickly moved away to a place that was more plentiful in warped people, Tokyo. Pariwish is a happy-go-lucky gal, if a little forceful. She's very concerned about things being equal, and takes pride in being polite and her knowledge of trivial things("Did you know most toilets flush in E flat?". She's really into drawing and art.

Tokuda Haya

Haya is the smartest and most popular girl in her school. She's often romantically sought out by her classmates, but denies them every time. She wants to keep the reputation of discipline and respectability her family has worked so hard to achieve. But in doing this, she often comes across as cold and even rude. She's often followed by two female followers, Akane and Yui, trying to learn from her example. She also isn't warped, which is something prized and attractive in her family. Haya and Buni don't get along, and despises Spiderish.

Principal Yamamoto Riku

Growing up warped from an unusually pun age, Yamamoto knows what it's like to be warped and its challenges. He's very accepting of the choices the students make so long as they and others don't get hurt. Riku will bend the rules every now again, too. He's bit of a pushover and usually goes the peaceful route in every situation(even if it really requires a bit of brute force). But no matter what, he wants the best for his students and the school.

Mrs. Yanson Ami and Mrs. Yanson Lucia

The lovely ladies that own the Yanson Shoppe. Their business is small, but surprisingly thriving. Lucia and Ami has been married for five years and still going. Ami is very kind and a little rebellious, and Lucia is more ice cold and firm. They're familiar with May and Spiderish/Buni. Spiderish comes to them in and out of character for sweets from their shop. They both love to play around with Noodle, Lucia more than Ami. They also have a little boy in kindergarten, Yanson Alba.

Diane Worthy

One of the news reporters for Tokyo Daily News. She's relatively small in comparison to other the reporters. This is mostly because she doesn't take advantage of every single travesty (especially warped-centric ones) to talk about like it's some sort of fictional drama. She thinks that a lot of the reporters are just selling themselves out and forgot the meaning of ethic. When she does take charge of a topic it's usually the ones that forces her to go out and take charge of the situation. She's kinda melodramatic, and really like theatre (often shown in how she speaks).

Bill

Diane's cameraman. He's quiet and laidback, and deaf, so he communicates via signs. He doesn't take fondly to being touched(but he's fine with Diane).

[yasuda-yoshiya]

I haven't delved much into KH lore, but I think there's something wrong when the main character is shoehorned into a plot that's essentially the same from the previous arcs repetitively along with a character that seems to be the love interest, while several others you never got to play as (or very temporarily playable), gets much further characterization and their new resolutions. The only ones that are interesting in Sora's party is Donald and Goofy btw. Anything about Riku and Mickey though?

Hmm, well, strictly from a storytelling perspective, I think I basically agree with you! Pretty much all the really interesting plot developments and character moments in KH3 are completely divorced from the person whose PoV you’re stuck inhabiting for most of the game, and Sora pretty much spends the whole game doing absolutely nothing of any importance while all the actual plot progression happens away from him. And in terms of what makes a good story, yeah, that’s basically terrible, but I honestly feel like I can basically understand why they did it because frankly, Kingdom Hearts as a series is in a very weird position at this point. The main appeal of the series to the vast majority of the casual audience is its supposed “Disney magic” and getting to explore the worlds from various Disney movies, but the actual main plot of the series at this point is an absolutely impenetrable and convoluted mess of original characters and plot threads that’s about as far away from any kind of “Disney magic” as you could possibly get.

With that in mind, it pretty much makes sense to me that they’d want to just shove the main plot out of the way entirely for most of the game and just focus on Sora’s random adventures in Disney worlds, because it’s honestly gotten to the point where the presence of the main plot actively detracts from the supposed central appeal of the game for most people. It allows KH3 to be enjoyable as a stand-alone experience to the average person who doesn’t give a crap about the overarching mess of the Kingdom Hearts plot and just wants to enjoy some Disney fanservice (and let’s be real, this probably describes at least 80% of the people who actually bought the game). Games like KH1, Days and BBS could manage to do a passable job of integrating some characterisation and plot development into the Disney stuff without being too jarring to the casual audience, because those games told basically self-contained stories. You don’t need to be a KH Lore Maniac to follow, say, Ven’s character arc through BBS. But KH3? KH3′s plot is all about tying up loose ends and resolving the stories of various characters from other games. Nothing about KH3′s plot makes any sense or has any real impact as a standalone, and it would probably be a fool’s errand to even try to make it work as one, because it just has way too much baggage from the ongoing series-wide plot that it has to resolve. So rather than trying to give Sora a quest that actually ties into the main plot in some way, they just decided to put the plot to one side and lean into unapologetic filler instead. I can sort of respect that.

The way I see it is… well, let’s put it this way. As a Kingdom Hearts fan, I could totally draw up an alternative outline for KH3 that has Sora making more of a meaningful journey and progress throughout the game, and integrates the main plot into the Disney stuff better. The focus of KH3 is about Sora saving the hearts and healing the pain of the people connected to him, the people whose pain was forgotten until now. So why not make the plots of the Disney worlds focus more on having him come to understand these people better, to get more of a focus on why it’s so important to bring them back? Let’s have the Olympus Coliseum chapter involve a subplot where, say, Sora finds out from Phil about the time Roxas spent training there in Days, and Phil talks about how much potential he showed and how he really misses the kid. Let’s spend more time explicitly drawing a connection between the toys having hearts in Toy Story and the way Xion developed her own heart despite being an artificially created puppet. Let’s parallel Rapunzel’s situation in Tangled with Namine’s in CoM, and make the plot of that world about Sora regaining the memories he lost from CoM (heck, Marluxia’s even right there and briefly brings this up in the actual game already!), reminding him of just how much Namine suffered and how much she deserves to be saved. And so on, and so on.

And that would probably make for a much more solid and cohesive game, and give the overall plot a lot more weight… but could you actually realistically present that kind of plot in a way that wasn’t totally alienating to the casual audience? Are you really going to be able to give enough emotional context for the average uninitiated player to grasp and care about all these different plotlines just through flashbacks and exposition? Are there really that many people who actually want to see the plot of Tangled used as a vehicle to revisit the plot of a 2004 GBA game, or are people just going to be frustrated at these hugely popular Disney movies being taken over by weird anime OCs they don’t care about? Professional reviewers are quite understandably panning the game already just for the very minimal intrusions of the convoluted main plot into the Disney stuff “breaking the magic” as it is, so it’s hard for me to imagine that any more of that would really be well-received by and large, however much the story might technically benefit from it. This is the sort of problem we run into when a game has to try and simultaneously appease two distinct audiences with entirely different priorities. Giving the main plot a very minimal presence for most of the game and then shoving the entire resolution into the last few hours is an imperfect solution, but I’m also not really sure what else they could realistically have done, given the setup KH3 had to work with.

In the end, I’m basically content with the compromise. I think they did a decent job of making a game that stays mostly enjoyable and accessible as a wacky Disney adventure for the casual audience, while still tying up most of the big overall plot threads that needed to be tied up in a reasonably satisfying way (a few very questionable writing choices aside… but it’s Kingdom Hearts, what else is new). It would have been nice to have had more build-up and substance to these characters’ resolutions, and to actively focus more of the game on them, as you suggest - but the more time the game spends pandering to overall series fans, the more time it also spends alienating everyone else. I think in the end we just have to accept that the build-up and context for their resolutions was in the previous games, that the people who really care about the series’ story will have played those games already, and for the people who haven’t, it just probably wasn’t worth devoting too much effort to trying to make them care within KH3 itself. That’s my take on it, at least.

On Riku and Mickey... hm, well, aside from them obviously being OTP material as always, neither of them really got to do much in this game? So I don’t really have much to say about them in particular. I thought the idea of Riku feeling a personal connection to Aqua’s plight as someone trapped in the darkness was sweet, but then they didn’t really do anything with that or let them actually interact at all in the end, so it felt like wasted potential. The BBS characters in this game were just a big disappointment in general, really! They could easily have done much more with them than they did, without even changing the structure of the story much... but, uh, I’m talking about Riku, sorry. I feel like Riku’s never really done much for me as a character, beyond like, KH1 and maybe CoM. I can see the outline of his arc on paper, and it seems fine and potentially interesting, but the execution has always felt pretty by-the-book and lacking in nuance to me. They talk very generally about him “falling to darkness” and such, but they don’t ever get beyond that into actually having him wrestle with his guilt over specific things, like his time working with DiZ or kidnapping the princesses or contributing to Roxas and Xion’s sacrifices, so it all feels a bit too broad to particularly connect with - and it’s sort of hard for me to really give weight to things like “I wore a blindfold for a whole year because I couldn’t stand looking at myself”, when that’s juxtaposed with him flipping right back to being a perfectly functional and confident hero without much apparent struggle or lasting difficulty after just a few platitudes from Sora. It’s sort of like they flip between being broadly melodramatic about his issues and shrugging them off completely? So he’s never really clicked with me, personally.

Meanwhile, Mickey is kind of hard for me to take all that seriously as a character beyond the memes, since... I mean, he’s Mickey Mouse, so there’s a big mental block there, lol. But even if I put that aside and look at his writing in KH in isolation, he never really felt like a particularly deep or interesting character or anything, I think? His relationship with Riku is very sweet, though!

[m-steraquasgf-restinpeace]

i’m thinking about the fact that every time you run into riku in the second act of kh1 he’s clearly at different stages of his Descent Into Darkness(TM), that when sora meets him in traverse town it’s early on and riku is evidently happy and relieved to see sora and it’s only when he notices the keyblade and sora’s new friends that he starts to believe that what maleficent told him, and then in monstro riku feigns detachment but even maleficent calls him out on still caring about sora enough to feel hurt by the perceived betrayal and even after insisting he no longer cares riku still makes one last effort to bring sora over to his side and is noticeably hurt when sora (understandably) rejects him

idk where i’m going with this exactly except to reiterate that riku is melodramatic and gay and so many problems could have been solved if he’d stopped being melodramatic and gay long enough to sit down and talk to his crush for five minutes

[thesilverdreamer]

In all fairness to Donald, while I have no doubt that he makes up the vast majority of those party member knockouts, at least a few dozen are from Goofy and the guest party members. So, finished the game on Proud Mode. Got the secret movie Another Side Another Story [Deep Dive], and it was by far the most melodramatic thing I've seen in a Kingdom Hearts game. Completed all synthesis, all tournaments and time trials. Defeated both Heartless secret bosses, Kurt Zisa and the Phantom, as well as the Ice Titan, Sephiroth, and the Mysterious Figure. What a good game. I enjoyed it even more than I did when I was a kid, and I loved it when I was a kid. It's difficult, absolutely, it is genuinely a hard game, but the struggle to take down minor enemies early on makes it all the sweeter when by endgame you're able to destroy most minor Heartless with one swing, and bosses you fought earlier in the game that make a return are a cakewalk. It's so much fun. The battles early on in particular are difficult without being aggravating, and with so few options available it's all you can do to keep your distance and time it right. The music is amazing, as we have come to expect of Yoko Shimomura, and the writing is genuinely good. Maybe it's a lot of nostalgia, but the game is really funny without taking away from the serious moments, and the serious moments are heart-wrenching. I absolutely cried, first at Riku saying, "Take care of her." Then at Sora and Kairi's last exchange, "I'll come back to you! I promise!" "I know you will!" I don't think I ever realized that Riku did not expect to survive. What a good game. Next time, on Jen plays Kingdom Hearts, stumbling and cursing my way through Re:Chain of Memories, coming soon to a twitch stream near you, maybe.

[droogettegal]

So much for live blogging lmao. But all the commentary I had was pretty much par for the course:

-Sure Donald was a bit of a prick, but am I the ONLY ONE who thinks that Riku overreacted just a bit? Are Maleficent’s manipulations thst powerful? Or is he just a salty jerk because his friend/rival has a special key and not him

-And the whole “Well he thought Sora wasn’t interested in looking for Kairi” excuse doesn’t cut it either. Jumping ahead a bit here, both when Sora met up with Riku in Traverse Town and in Monstro, his first priority was always, “Where’s Kairi? Have you found her yet? Something is wrong with Kairi? What happened?”

-Aw screw it, I’m probably over thinking again. This stuff can be handwaved by saying that “the darkness was corrupting his mind or whatever”

-Nothing much to say for Agrabah, except that Jasmine asking “Who’s there” when Sora, Donald, and Goofy walked in the alley way was really dumb. Jasmine is that was Jafar and his goons you would have been FUCKED.

-God, the models for Sora and Riku as children were CREEPY. They look downright dead eyed.

- I wish that fact that Kairi was taken in by the mayor of Destiny Island was expanded on more. Unless you payed close attention to that one line in the flashback, you would NEVER know. That goes for her arriving the night of a meteor shower too. Though maybe no exposition is for the best (looks at Dream Drop Distance and Birth by Sleep)

-Even though Riku comes across as melodramatic to me, I love how the world functions as his fall from morality. He’s become so corrupted in his mission to save Kairi that he’s willing to kidnap a child (okay he’s a puppet child but you get the idea)

-Atlantica…What’s there to say about it? The problematic controls, not being able to use Guard or Dodge Roll, how unnecessarily difficult Ursula is (especially in her giant form)? It’s already been said. Granted it’s optional, but I’m THAT person and want 100% completion

-NOW MY SECOND FAVORITE WORLD! Halloween Town! 🎶This is Halloween, this is Halloween, HALLOWEEN, HALLOWEEN, HALLOWEEN…🎶

-Oogie Boogie is tied with Jafar for being probably the easiest bosses ever. Including their manor form and genie forms respectively

-I see a lot of parallels between Sora and Riku and Naruto and Sasuke here…

-It really blows. We get arguably the best summon (Tinkerbell) and the best shared ability (Gliding) but only in the third to last world of the game. Also, the ability to fly is ironically really wasted in Neverland. Most of the time you’re on a pirate ship with limited mobility unless you’re out on the deck. It only really utilized once you gain access to Big Ben

-I’m getting prepared for A LOT of frustration. Farming for synthesis materials is a lot more complicated in Kingdom Hearts Final Mix. Only certain enemies have a certain material, and these enemies have a gimmick that makes it hard to beat them let alone earn a synthesis item. For example: a GIANT shadow heartless that will disappear if he hits Sora even ONCE

And that’s all I really have to say. Now I’m going to go read The Stand while suffering from a head cold 😷

[snowflake-of-destruction]

Excerpt from a silly KH Pride Month Fic of Sora’s fellow Guardians of Light  needing to explain the meaning of the holiday like a Christmas Special I may or may not finish:

The picture was cute; the usual fodder from Sora's trips to Corona, but still cute every time nonetheless. A selfie of Sora and Rapunzel, faces side by side, wearing matching beaming smiles and covered in seemingly random splotches of paint. The caption was a bit odd though. Rainbow Parade Day in Corona! #rainbows #parade.

Rapunzel had told Kairi at length about Corona's festivals, and Kairi didn't remember any Rainbow Parade Day. Though Kairi had to admit she sometimes lost track when her fellow Princess of Heart really got wound up on a subject she was excited about--not purposefully blocking her out, but...well, the older brunette talked so quickly and went off on so many tangents, sometimes it was just better to smile and nod along, trying to lose yourself in the excited twinkle in Rapunzel's eyes and the flowing, enthusiastic gestures of her psuedo-signing hands (and the twist of her lips and tiny flashes of tongue Kairi sometimes couldn't help tracking)rather than follow every word.

She scrolled down to the next picture. There was always a next picture. Sora never posted just one, especially when it came to celebrations or friends he had in common with his other Guardians of Light. Everything his eyes saw he wanted to share with his friends. It was one of his most beautiful qualities in Kairi’s eyes, and today it was going to be useful. The next post showed village square of the capital of Corona, strings of tiny rainbow flags flying between every tall post, and more flags stuck in or hanging off of everything from fruit stands to flower pots to in between slats of random barrels. The next several pictures in fact were different angles of the same thing, though it only took one for Kairi to realize she actually knew exactly what rainbow parade day was, though she would have never guessed it was celebrated in the Kingdom of Corona.

She flicked back up to the first photo. Sora and Rapunzel's messy polka dots both came in yellow, pink, and blue trios. The new context only made the picture even more heartwarming, and Kairi felt the small, fond smile that had settled on her face when she first started looking at Sora's Kingstagram grow even as a voice in her head told her that something wasn't quite right--though it seemed to be part born out of the wounded pride that she hadn't known about Rapunzel when she thought she had a pretty much perfect track record intuiting that type of thing about her friends, many times before they even admitted it to themselves much less publicly.

Rainbow Parade Day. Sweet. Kairi  buried a flash of disappointment Sora hadn't invited her, though maybe the timing of the visit was just a coincidence. She hoped there was no deeper meaning than that. She and Sora were still in a slightly odd place. It would smooth itself out in time, and in the meantime it wasn't that awkward, but still, they had been apart for so long that not a moment should be lost now to hesitation and worry about how they were supposed to interact. There would always be love there, even if it had evolved and changed.

Speaking of love being love...She resumed scanning Sora’s Kingstagram until a comment from Donald on a shot of Rapunzel holding up a large wreath made of paper flowers of every shade and pouting at Maximus who looked about as affronted as a horse could made her pause. Sora's caption had been. "Someone tell Max that just this once being a cart horse is a noble job #RainbowParade #you should see our float." Donald's comment was "World order!!!" So, reading between the lines, Sora had brought "Rainbow Parade Day" as a new tradition for Corona, and, in true Sora fashion, he had told Donald his intentions before he went. Kairi wondered idly why, if the festival was Sora's idea brought from another world, he hadn't used the name Pride. She was trying to figure out how to phrase the question and work in a multi-layered wordplay about how she had always thought if anything Sora had a problem with too much Pride, not a lack of Pride...when she read past the first line or two of Sora's continuation of the thread and it shorted out every other thought in her head. "I'm not going to compromise world order.Rapunzel and I acted like Rainbow Parade Day was our idea. I'm not running around telling everyone I've seen them on other planets. Duh. Every world should celebrate colors. Rainbows are cool. #rainbows #color palettes #artists celebrating color"

Sora thought Pride was a celebration of rainbows and color palettes.

Trying to fathom what experience he could have had with Pride to leave him with that impression required Kairi setting her gummiphone down and staring at the wall of her living room for several minutes.

"Riku," Kairi yelled into the next room, voice echoing back perhaps a bit more melodramatically shaken than she had meant. "We have a situation." 

[system-of-a-feather]

Me: Man ;w; I miss XIV, he was the best brother and co-host I could ask for ;w;

XIV: was? bro im right here

Me: its been so long i wonder if he has forgotten me. i remember the good old days where he would just roast e

XIV: BITCH IVE BEEN HERE I JUST DIDN'T TAKE THE FRONT TODAY GET HELP

Me: alas I am alone

[system-of-a-feather]

I’m narrowing my eyes at the spiteful gods that continuously curse my life for I know they heard me think to myself “Wow you know, my rule and habit of making sure I go out at least for 30 minutes each day and make sure I walk for at least 30 minutes each day was a good idea because I really don’t do well when I’m forced to stay in my cage.” and responded with possibly historically record breaking rain for the area I live in.

I’m not particularly spiritual, nor do I actually believe in any form of a god, but times like these I narrow my eyes to the heavens and glare.

I am being mocked.

-Riku (Host)

[system-of-a-feather]

If there is anything I'm excited to get out of school for is hopefully the lack of a need for me to be an actual part and so I can fucking fuse cause its clearly not happening until we don't have as much of a chronic demand for high stakes "checkpoints"

Cause honestly, and I'm not saying this to be melodramatic, but my inherent existence is just literally kind of to be chronically stressed and miserable - that to the point I am happy and excited to be able to do things most people would find stressful as hell solely because I'm so chronically and regularly just that stressed.

Like my function as a part is just such a survival based one and I don't "hate my life", but I'd very much rather let this go and be in an environment where having me as a role independently from the rest of the system is not needed and that Riku or whoever I'd fuse with could handle and process this themselves.

But honestly, I don't even care that much about the things I do, I just enjoy doing them because it makes me ever so slightly less stressed and put my brain timer for being stressed off a week or two and I can have 2 seconds of piece before I have to do another thing or be miserable.

-Data