#this is.. sort of depicting aqua *as* she's becoming dark aqua/anti-aqua. so i might actually put it in both sets of tags

[flowering-darkness]

"All that's left in my heart is misery and despair.. and I want you to feel it. Even if I really am falling to the darkness.. at least I know I'm not alone. Not if you're here with me, right?"

(comments/reblogs are appreciated but never required. bonus context is under the readmore!)

Okay, now for a bit of context! I was talking to a friend of mine earlier today about it being the anniversary of Kingdom Hearts 0.2, and that led on to her tracking down some of the earliest tweets made by the official account after Anti-Aqua was first revealed in a KH3 trailer. In those, I noticed that one of the quotes used is written slightly differently to how it ended up appearing in the final game.

"All that's left in my heart is misery and despair, and I want you to feel it!" (in the final game, the second part is instead "..and now, you can share it!")

In the game's context, an angry and vehement line from Aqua reflecting the negativity and darkness her heart has been corrupted by. "I want you [Mickey and Sora and so on] to feel as pained as your actions have made me feel from you abandoning me in the dark".

But the selfsame words, I realised, could actually be said in a much more.. vulnerable tone, for lack of a better word for it. "I want you [Aria] to feel how conflicted and troubled I am right now, because I feel able to open up and be vulnerable to you about this thing that I really do not want happening; this is all I have left and I want to admit that to you".

There is no situation in which Aqua would want to fall to darkness. Even after she comes to accept that Aria wields it - is it, really - for decent purposes, she still doesn't want to end up that same way, because it goes against everything she'd ever been taught by her late master. So, in a situation where it does nevertheless end up happening, from the toll that being trapped in the realm of darkness has on her.. she's going to feel like she's failed to fight back against it, but Aria is there to help reassure her that whatever she's feeling is allowed and okay, and she doesn't have to bottle up her negative emotions in the hope that'll make them go away. And she(?)'s there to support her no matter what, whether it's in trying to keep her light safe or in simply making sure that, if she does have to fall to darkness, it's as gently and safely as she(?) can possibly make the process.

I just thought it was a neat bit of imagery, and it inspired me to make my first new selfship render of the year, so here we are ^-^

thank you to anyone who has taken the time to read all of this~