#saying this while knowing nomura would never have strelitzia be ''bad''

[mxdotpng]

i cant wait for kh4 so i can watch yozora and strelitzia trick sora into believing theyre his childhood friends. u know how it is with the toxic friendship u got going on in the afterlife with 2 people who are using you to find the important people in their lives.

[echoheart0324]

*deep sigh* So...uh...about the November story update...*deep breath*. Damnitallholyshitwhatthefuckisallofthisinformation. I’ll provide my insight into this topic, along with the traitor talk once more (featuring ‘Darkness’ and their bullshit). I’ve been putting this off for so long, so...RIP I suppose.

Warning: Heavy KHUX spoilers will be discussed, featuring my thoughts and speculation. You have been warned. (Also there’s a lot of stretches and lousy evidence, but I wanted to bring this into light...)

Here’s my general opinion right now:

*yells loudly* I don’t think Lauriam’s on our suspect list!!!

Before y’all get a pitchfork and stab me to death until I bleed out or something (I dunno either), hear me out.

I’ll lend you what I got gathered here. It’s a mess, but it’s something, better than nothing.

()()()

For the KHUX story update that occurred during October, a mysterious figure approached the scenes, going by the name ‘Darkness’ (which is stupid. Who thought that name would be a great addition to the game???).

Although I have no experience with the Japanese language, a few Twitter accounts who I was able to stumble across by, were able to provide valuable information. I won’t be providing names, just in case the info’s false.

Anyways, ’Darkness’ has a specific speech pattern that is apparent, exclusively to the JP version. The figure uses the pronoun of ‘ore’, which Marluxia/Lauriam don’t seem to use, where instead they use ‘boku’? Though I think the other guys use ‘ore’. (So in all honesty, I had Lauriam crossed off my list for a while now, but today let it rest to bed.)

Even though I probably look like a Blaine stan (...I never thought I’d say that out loud...I’m never going to say that again...), I’m going to point the finger of blame, as the traitor and murderer of Strelitzia, at...*looks at smudged hand*...Brain. (Wow, what sort of timeline is this where I use his ‘official name’...oh well one step a time to sever bonds I suppose to spare myself the pain) It’s odd, I know, but hear me out.

()()()

*lifts up glasses* So, this is where I get into the nitty gritty, what-the-fuck are you on Echo, speculation things. This is more of a personal-level thing and I know Nomura’s going to do something to catch us off guard with the element of surprise. That’s why we’re going to think like him for a minute.

In all honesty, it could be Ven as the traitor right? I know a lot of people jumped onto this, as soon as Lauriam brought up the whole ‘sister’ thing (with the translations being all iffy. Maybe in a year we’ll find out, who knows). I can definitely see this happening, but I find it quite odd...

I’m aware of the fact that Ven didn’t seem to know what ‘Shift Pride’ was (and his reaction to it was kinda...unnerving). I’ve also already brought this up in the past, but:

(The Union Leaders all come in order, except for Brain and Ven.)

I don’t understand why they’d have everyone else in order, but huh. Something's off.

However, Ven does bring up meeting Master Ava (and I really hope it isn't him) and he was against 'Shift Pride', so I trust him.

()()()

Next up on our list, we have Lauriam. Since the story update for November introduced Elrena/Erlena (oh gosh it’s the Blaine/Brain situation all over again. I dunno what the official team’s gonna go for, but I have a bad habit of sticking with the ‘l’ names, so fuck y’all), we have...quite a batch here. Since the script was being vague and everything, we don’t know exactly who Strelitzia’s older sibling is.

I mean...if it was his own sibling, then Lauriam has to go to the time-out corner for murdering your own family member (if he did do it). If it was Elrena’s relation to Strelitzia, then that’s a different story.

Based off the subtle interactions we got, Lauriam seems to have some sort of relationship to Strelitzia, going to the extent of interacting with another fellow Keyblade wielder for the sake of it. I know it’s probably a far too gap to reach for, but I want to believe that these two are partners working behind the scenes to crack down who the traitor/murderer is.

()()()

This is where I bring up the official art (y’know, like an idiot who analyzes everything).

Interestingly, Ephemera (if you flip the image, he’s leaning to their direction and his eyes are focused over to their direction so shhh it counts), Skuld, Ven, and Lauriam are all looking the same way to the left! Meanwhile, Brain and the hooded figure (which I assume is Elrena) are facing the opposite direction. (I dunno how Chirithy fits in this honestly...so uh...)

This is the stretch of the century (and I’m 99.99% sure I’m wrong), but notice how the hooded figure is slightly looking downwards, their chin down. We can’t see what their eyes are focusing on too well (and I might as well be blind), but it’s possible that Elrena is looking down upon Brain (damn it. Or onto the flower...eh...). Maybe she knows that Brain has something to do with her/Lauriam’s sister’s ‘disappearance’.

To add onto the above further, it’s possible that the others do learn of a traitor in their midst. However, they’re all blinded by their own doubts and beliefs, making them face the wrong culprit. Meanwhile Brain faces the other direction and smiles widely (...I just noticed he's the only one with his mouth open), knowing they’ll assume it’s someone other than himself. (And then Elrena kicks his ass. I dunno.)

()()()

And just for fun, the other day (sometime back in filler hell) I scrambled up Brain’s name and got ‘Binar’. I was curious so I looked it up to see if it meant anything or if there was anything at least related. Well, *slides in* it’s possible that it could also mean ‘binary’ (just remove the ‘y’, just like Ephemer with the word ‘ephemeral’). ‘What the fuck does binary have to do with anything???’ you may ask. Heh...so it was recently confirmed that the Keykids are all linked to the data world, and y’all know what codes for data? Binary numbers...binary code to be more precise! (Maybe he has some sort of extra knowledge of the data in the worlds??? Or he could just be in complete control???)

I really dunno what else to add here, since it’s odd, but it may as well be a coincidence that I picked up on by mistake. Maybe we’ll bring this up again another day, once we have more information at our disposal.

()()()

Read up on this.

If you already read my little mess of speculation on nobility at the bottom of that post, then we’re good!

Anyways, if we follow the idea that Brain is the traitor, then what were his motives in the first place? For crying out loud, he really doesn't seem like he gives a shit about the meetings (as seen below).

Books, huh? Based off of this phrase alone, it's possible that he's looking for something, something related to information and possibly exclusive to the chambers. He's also seen being impatient and hurries to leave once he believes the case is settled, only to be stopped. (Or he just wants to read and avoid social interaction...mood.)

Maybe he wants something more than that. So what is 'nobility'? By definition it's: "the quality of being noble in character, mind, birth, or rank."

I already went over this in the previous post and I brought up that he could be of noble blood, but something most likely went wrong, horribly. Adding to the fact, that his name also means 'son of the judge' and/or 'high/noble'. So why would he have killed Strelitzia off? What could he have gained from that???

*tips hat* I...I'm not too sure either. There's countless possibilities (and we're dealing with Nomura for crying out loud). Besides information, I really don't see what else he can gain.

So how does 'Darkness' fit into this? I'm also not sure either, since we know barely anything of them in the first place. Maybe some undercover...

(I'm too tired and I keep forgetting where I'm trying to go with this...it's driving me nuts.)

()()()

Feel free to add anything, I was kinda in a rush while writing this, so I'm all over the place!

[aliasaqua]

My thoughts on Kingdom Hearts 3 that nobody probably cares about.

Because I wanted to. And I was kinda tired of seeing reviews online that were giving it crap just for the sake of giving it crap. (Of course not every review.) And I wanted to look at it with a more positive note. I did mean to do this a while back but I kinda... forgot? I did beat the game during the first three days of it’s release.

Tldr version: Is it a perfect game? No, it does have it’s flaws. Did I still enjoy myself playing it? Heck yes.

The rest is under the cut for spoilers. I’ll try to be brief on every subject so this wouldn’t be super long.

So I am a big kh fan, as you might guess. I grew up with it and because of the game series I’ve had the chance to meet people who have become very important to me. So this game, it does mean a lot to me.

First of all: Game mechanics.

I really liked the combat system. It felt really natural and had a good flow in general. I loved the keyblade transformations. The attractions were really pretty,  although I didn’t use them often. But I admit there were some that I really hated. The water one and the blaster one. But as soon as I realised that I could skip them out of the way of a keyblade transformation they were all good with me. I mainly just used them on enemies that were really annoying to me. *cough Gigas cough.* I did enjoy most of the minigames as well, even if the some of the flans were the bane of my existance.

The difficulty of the game was a bit odd. It was.. rather easy. Granted, I did play it on standard mode because a: I wanted to have a more relaxing experience for the first go and b: to get through the game as quick as possible to avoid spoilers. But now that critical mode is here, oh boy. On standard I never saw the death screen. But on critical, I saw it three times during the first 5 minutes.

2. The worlds

The worlds were absolutely beautiful. If I would have to say what my favourite one was and which was my least favourite, favourite would be Corona. It was just so beautiful and while it did follow the movie, it was still very sweet to see them interact with one another. Least favourite was probably Monsters INC. It’s just my personal preference, but I wasn’t that fond of the whole world just being one big factory. (That I may have gotten lost in multiple times.) But, what saved that world was Vanitas getting owned by Sulley and Mike. And the fact that it was set after the movie.

For the plots of the other worlds, BH6 sorta happened really fast for me. Though I did love how Sora interacted with the group and how the got inspiration from him to become stronger. Caribbean plot just sorta... happened while I wasn’t there? But it made up for it by the setting and Jack defeating Luxord with a breath. And seeing Sora starting to beat up Davy Jones when Will was dying broke my heart. Olympos was really sweet for me to see the interactions between Hercules and the gang. I just loved their friendship. Even if the glorious Phil never got to say a word. Toy Box was good, even if I hated Gigas. But the pain from them was mended by Woody basically saying what sounded like “Well I guess you were never loved as a child!” to Xehanort. Arendelle was plotwise a bit... meh. I didn’t dislike it but... I just climbed up the same mountain like three times.  There’s not much to say about Twilight Town other than the fact that it was really pretty and I loved that it was so full of life. I Although I do hope that it would have been bigger. I was a bit sad that Radiant Garden wasn’t a world that we could visit.

Keyblade Graveyard doesn’t really count as a world as much, it’s just more of a battlegorund. Bonus favourite world: Scala Ad Caelum. I loved the look of that place so much, and the music was breathtaking. I just wish that they will do more with it in the future. Like a multiplayer dlc where you get to do missions in the whole city. Please Nomura. Please. Another bonus favourite world: The Final World. I loved the whole aesthetic of it, being absolutely beautiful. Plotwise I was at first a bit confused about the whole thing that happened there but I think I do now understand what was going on. (And the whole scenario that happened aroud it. And the whole going back in time.) I loved the individual stories they had given to each star. Plus the Lich was an interesting concept.

3. The Plot

So. The plot. I would be lying if I said I had no problems with it. It did make me cry out of happiness a lot of times and I generally loved it. But there were some problems. I suppose it would be the best to say perhaps the biggest annoyance I had with it.

Kairi. Not Kairi the character herself, but more of what happened to her. It did annoy me a lot more before, but as time has passed I have accepted it more. I was dissapointed at how she basically became a plot conveniance for Sora to do certain things. Now that I think about it I am more okay with it. Kairi was never really a fighter. Her strenght comes more about guiding people into the light as she did in kh1 with heartless Sora, in kh2 her meeting with Roxas (although debatable in that one) and now in kh3 she was the one who kept Sora from fully fading away. Even with all that, I don’t think it’s wrong of me to say that I wished for more. I hope that in the future they would be able to use her more than just as a plot device.

The other thing that annoyed me in the plot was the points which were clearly there just to set up the next game. But I think I can forgive those as long as kh4 doesn’t take as long to make as kh3 did. There were some points that just opened up more questions than answers but I’d still say I do have a pretty good understanding of the whole KH plot.

The thing that I didn’t expect to happen was for me to like the villains as much as I did. For example, I never really thought much about Luxord before, but he really grew on me on this game. The same goes for the rest of the organisation as well. Those who I didn’t care for before or didn’t like that much, their final moments or their atonement really made me see them differently. And knowing about Marluxia’s past through khux and his connection to Strelitzia, I really did feel bad for him. Talking about Strelitzia, I do believe that star was her. Although her voice was a lot older sounding than I thought it would be.

I was so happy saving all the trios and I was teary eyed a lot. And the ending just made me so happy. Until the point that Sora disappeared. I was annoyed at why did that happen a bit, but the (I think) relatively recent statement from Nomura which referenced Sora’s abuse of the power of waking and it’s consequenses has helped me understand it more. As long as I don’t have to wait like ten years to save my cinnamon child I’m good. And I do admit, the Xigbar reveal did catch me off guard and does make me exited for the continuation of khux and the following games. Although I do wonder how confused the people who have never played khux were about it

A quick note about the music: The soundtrack was beautiful. As expected of Shimomura Yoko. I did hope for a few more new original tracks for the final bosses, but to be fair it was also very satisfying to hear new renditions of the characters themes from the previous games to fully give closure to those characters and their arcs.

Overall, kh3 wasn’t a perfect game and I did have my problems with it, but I really did have a good time playing it.

[oveliagirlhaditright]

A comment I just left on ProdigyXD’s awesome video about Kairi needing her own game:

Thank you so much for this video, Prodigy. To be honest, I didn't watch your other KHIII Kairi video... After KHIII, and all of the hate that Kairi got from fans there... as someone who loves Kairi, I've been very selective of the videos I watch. I just- I've been with this series from the beginning. I went through the horrible Kairi hate years of 2005-2006, and while I dealt with it all there... I just don't want to go through it again at this point in my life. I'm not saying that some of the criticisms people have aren't valid, of course. God, no! I'll be the first knocking down Nomura's door, telling him he honestly hasn't treated Kairi the best and begging him to get better with her. But I just don't want to see art of Sora and Riku murdering Kairi anymore. I don't. I'm not saying it's gotten that bad again (I actually don't know if it has or not. God, I hope not). And I'm not saying that that's what I thought your first video was... but do you maybe get with all of this why I was reluctant to watch your first one, not for sure knowing what kind of video it would be? But, ANYWAY. Seeing the title/screenshot of this video "Why Kairi Needs Her Own Game", I went "Cool. I've wanted that for years. I'll check this out". And I'm so glad I did! What a wonderful thing this is, that really hammers out all the fine points and is fair to both sides. And you going and counting all her hours of screentime in the main games is you going above and beyond the call of duty. Major kudos. Kairi is probably my favorite character of all time, because KH is my favorite series of all time... And that's weird, I know. Since Kairi isn't utilized as well as she could be, you'd think I'd prefer someone else. But I think I was always destined to side with Sora, Riku, or Kairi, since those are the main three we start out with. And I'm someone who always has their heart with the firsts. And Sora (who-from a writing standpoint in I and III-is probably my favorite, but shh) just always seemed... too perfect to me. I don't mean that in a way to slight him or his writing. But that I wanted a character I could somewhat relate to, you know? And I just never thought I could reach the standard of Sora. And Riku... Well, I hated him in the first game so he was out. LOL (I was a nine-year-old who saw the first game in black and white, and despised him for trying to hurt my Disney characters.). And while I've grown to love him now, of course-and think his arc in the series is probably the best-the rule of firsts for me made me prefer Kairi over him (that, and because I just genuinely like more upbeat protagonists). But it isn't just through process of elimination that made Kairi my favorite. Not at all. I've always really loved and respected Kairi for who she is... the things she's done, and her potential. Kairi was actually a role model for me, growing up. Because many forget (or just don't know, if they came into the series later), that Kairi was created when the Disney princesses at the time... weren't the greatest. And in a lot of ways, I saw Kairi as better than them: Just her take charge attitude with the boys as they built the raft... the fact that she wanted to go on this adventure to see other worlds WITH them (in a lot of media back then, the girl would have been left out of that dream)... and how Kairi-even while unable to defend herself, sure-was still selfless and wasn't content to just be saved, but would then want to try and help rescue Sora and Riku... was some powerful stuff back then. And her sass. That might be my FAVORITE Kairi trait (which is why I'm sad it's a bit watered down in KHIII. It's still there, it is, but not nearly as much as it was in KHI and KHII): In a time, where a lot of the Disney princesses could be best described as "nice". Having a character who did things like slapping Sora upside the head and calling him a "lazy bum", saying Sora was "completely hopeless" without her and Riku, insisting that Axel wasn't "being very friendly" when he tries to kidnap her (after he just said he thought he and Kairi were friends already) meant a lot to me (this is also how friends behave with each other, and why I bought the Destiny Trio's friendship more than the Wayfinder Trio's). I also think it shows Kairi isn't perfect, and why I see the arguments that she has no personality or is a Mary-Sue as unfounded. Plus... just the fact that the girl with a heart of pure light is one of the most snarky characters in the series is an amazing dichotomy to me, that a lot could be done with. And don't even get me STARTED on this girl's potential, and all the plot threads that have for some reason been left untied with her (I'm also irritated that it seems like, for example, KHIV is going to deal with experiments done on Skuld in the basement of Radiant Garden's castle. Instead of first doing it with the main girl, Kairi-and filling that story in-when the novels say Apprentice Xehanort experimented on her before throwing her into space. Why can't we see this crap? Why?). I might make another comment with all of her potential and whatnot (because I've had YEARS to think about all of this. Especially when the cast was small, so I then thought more would be done with Kairi). And just the fact that Nomura has yet to really do anything with it... just saddens me to no end. I have my own suspicions about that: I think he has trouble with writing female characters in general, and is even somewhat afraid to. But most of all... I don't think he knows how to write someone who's supposed to have a heart of pure light (not even Ven counts, since he has half a heart). Especially a girl one. So I think he leaves her out for that reason, instead of risk botching her... And I wish he'd just realize that I think he already answered his own question long ago, and to just go on ahead wit it: That just because she has a heart of pure light, doesn't mean she can't feel emotions that can be associated with darkness in this series... but rather, that it just-for whatever reason-won't turn to darkness for her like it would with anyone else. Because we've for sure already seen her and the other Princesses experience despair, anger, ambition, or what have you. But, yeah: It's really sad what's happened with Kairi (just think about the fact that the only worlds Kairi has been to are Destiny Islands, Hollow Bastion, Traverse Town, the End of the World, Twilight Town, The World That Never Was, The Mysterious Tower, Merlin's Time Chamber, an The Keyblade Graveyard, when she started this series wanting to go on a grand world tour, too. Why does only SHE get just the traumatizing worlds, and none really with Disney and Disney fun?). And I hope and pray that Nomura fixes it with IV (or whatever game), by having Kairi feel guilty about everything that's happened with Sora, get stronger, and save Sora (or at least be a key part to it), because as much as I hate to say it... If he doesn't, there may never be any going back for this character:( I don't know why he did what he did to her in III: if it was to subvert expectations (we all thought Kairi's warrior story would finally have its pay-off, so he decided to go against that idea to surprise us? Nomura has said he tries to surprise himself. And I don think one of his faults as a writer, is that he bends over backwards to try and make these crazy twists happen when he should just write the story and have them come naturally), to do a tragic romance (which surely it is. But still... there were other ways. And I don't know if the way this has now damaged Kairi was worth it. Maybe this is why Nomura's been quoted saying he doesn't think he writes romance well...), or what. ...I also will say that Nomura has a problem with fridging female characters that is pretty worrying, and should maybe be addressed: Aerith in FFVII was HIS idea, Luna in Final Fantasy XV was probably him (since she's essentially rewritten Stella. And Stella was his. And oh, how I worry for Verum Rex girl now, for these reasons), Strelitzia, and now Kairi. So, I REALLY hope Nomura didn't just think undermining everything Kairi was worth it to just give Sora man-pain... but I'm worried it was. -sigh- Like I said above... I do hope Nomura has some master plan with this and that it's all going somewhere. And that at the end of the day, this will be the start of a good payoff for Kairi: And in a few years, her KHIII performance won't even be a blip on the radar. We've fallen down so low, we can only go up at this point (and since Kairi has now been killed to be used against Sora, it can never happen again. So that's a plus). But at the same time... I do think it's best that us as a community-kindly, of course-let our voices be heard about this, so hopefully it will get back to Square Enix... and they'll realize we want a Kairi game (or whatever), and will give the fans what they want and make it, and fix some of these issues. And I thank you for, perhaps, starting some of that here:)