#zexion analysis

[lucemferto]

It is finally time! After entirely way too long, I am proud to release the full analysis-playthrough of KINGDOM HEARTS RE:CHAIN OF MEMORIES - this time as one 4 hour video.

As always Xeph @considermygenderminecrafted @thatreallyminecraftsmygender does an excellent job taking in the Kingdom Hearts story for the first time while also analysing it! I am also there.

Special thanks to my friends Fletch @lazyliars for our floating heads, Dogin @dogin8 for providing the voice of Goofy and helping out with the thumbnail and an especially big thank you to Days @days358 for the incredible end screen art which you can find below the cut!

I hope you will all enjoy this video and are looking forward to our playthrough of Kingdom Hearts II - which is already completed and currently in the edit!

See you soon!

[firestorm09890]

looked at Ienzo’s character file again and screaming + crying over the implications of these two statements together

1. Are you saying you’re from somewhere other than Radiant Garden

2. Do you seriously consider your childhood to have been over by the time you got your apprenticeship. you were like. 8 at most. maybe “childhood” to him means the time when his parents were around

3. Losing memories shouldn’t work like that. Sure, you forget things from your youth as you get older, but this looks like a sharp cutoff between “extremely hazy” and “clear and vivid”. what the fuck

[halfmaskshadow]

God isn’t ready for my new Video Game Conspiracy™ (and neither is my friend group, unfortunately) but maybe y’all are

(btw this is like a full essay so I’m adding a break)

Okay so Kingdom Hearts characters are often based on established Final Fantasy characters, right?

This is really obvious is some cases, like with Wakka, Tidus, and Selphie basically being directly ripped from their respective games and given island kid reskins

Or with Leon/Squall, Yuffie, Aerith, Cid, Cloud, and Sephiroth all being given reworked backstories and put in

But sometimes the inspiration is more subtle

Like with Larxene/Elrena being inspired by Elena

(Note the tie on Elrena and the EXTREMELY similar names)

Or with Axel presumably being based off of Reno, even being given a similar personality

And how they’re all part of shady organizations with a set uniform, vaguely spy inspired tactics, and unique weapons

(Also the orgs while “finding hearts and changing names because they feel like they changed too much kind of ties into some of ff7’s overall themes of identity and the way your allies/friends/family change the way you perceive yourself but that isn’t super important to this discussion)

What is important is this:

Look at Grimoire. Note Grimoire’s center part, long-ish hair, and the way his chin juts out a little. Puzzle over the fact that he’s a scientist adjacent. Let it stew in your brain for a bit

Now look at young Vincent. Look at the way his hair lays on his face. Look at his silhouette

These two remind you of anyone?

BOOM

Now any viewer hearing this might say “man they’re reaching. The evidence seems pretty superficial,” too which I say…. You know what that is totally fair. But rationally only stops me a quarter of the time and this is not that

Now we all know KH is Nomura’s baby, so he presumably did most of not all of the character designs. He’s also well known for doing the big character designs in Final Fantasy 7, so it doesn’t seem implausible for him to have taken some inspirations

Additionally, Re:Chain of Memories came out around a year after Dirge of Cerberus

(Original CoM came out like 2 years before, but it was in pixel art, and it isn’t crazy to claim they were in development/early concept at the same time. And who know, maybe Grimoire was based in Vexen/Even and not the other way around)

(The rest of this post is just extra info so you can skip it if you want)

I omitted adult Ienzo because he’s only in Unreal, and the switch had some pretty big facial structure changes for the org, as exemplified by Luxord

Also it might just be that older men were just Modeled Like That™ but it doesn’t really apply to the other org members so who knows

Anyway here’s a gallery of images that were omitted because they are either in totally different engines or just not relevant bcuz of time period

Anyway all this is to say there’s a decent chance Ienzo will look like THIS

in a future game

Thank you for coming to my TED talk

[mirror-to-the-past]

Finished playing 358/2 Days! Needless to say, I now understand Xion's deal. The only thing that I raise an eyebrow at in terms of confusion was what Xion was to Sora and the nature of her design. I'll touch on the latter first, as the former is moreso story analysis from me and becomes more rambling.

How was it exactly that Xion was able to slowly sap memories of Sora's? In my understanding of Replica Riku's functioning, he was injected with Sora's (Edit: Riku's memories, I recall, albeit still tampered by Naminé) memories as per Naminé's influence. However, it seems Naminé had no power over Xion, leading me to wonder how the memories were given to her in the first place. Was it purely because of her being around Roxas, who has Sora's memories, that she was unknowingly able to do so? I could believe that she was created with an inclination towards such a function that then kicked into gear upon exposure.

As for "what Xion was to Sora," Riku says to Mickey that she has Sora's memories of Kairi (which, I'd like to mention, Riku believes were those "most precious" to him. I found that telling, especially considering how avoidant he was of Sora in the following game chronologically, KH2. I don't believe he considered himself important to Sora following his actions in the previous games, poor guy. Roxas' dream/memory of Sora being left behind by Riku and co. in Hollow Bastion where he cried upon waking says otherwise, regarding how much Riku's opinion means to Sora. I digress.) Naminé adds onto that by telling Xion that he views her (through Roxas, I assume) as he remembered Kairi. This is further demonstrated by Xion, in her imaginary sequence with Roxas, her, and Axel in Destiny Islands' Paopu tree sitting in the places of Sora, Kairi, and Riku accordingly. However, there's much more to Xion than JUST Kairi. If she just had Sora's memories of Kairi, there would be no reason for Roxas having his entirety sapped by her, first of all. Xion was taking much more than things regarding Kairi, from anything like Sora/Roxas' battle techniques, to memories of happenings in other worlds, things like keyholes and whatnot. That's not even to mention that SOMEHOW, Xion, and I would then assume also Sora by proxy, had memories of Riku's confrontation with Zexion in his portion of CoM! Double that with the fact that although her hairstyle was similar to Kairi's, she has Sora's eyes, and a grayscale (since it's black) hair coloring like Riku, and she's more like a combination of the trio of Islanders. Which would make more sense and be less reductive than just: "Xion is everything Kairi to Sora," because just that would write out a lot of other stuff Xion took, too.

Anyway...

That fever dream sequence was so interesting?? The fact that that scene from CoM was re-highlighted by the 358/2 Days story as important has me boggling my mind. Why is it that Xion widened her eyes in surprise and shapeshifted to Sora at the part where Zexion said: "You were the one that destroyed your home!" Even though it was established in that original scene that Riku was the one who did that by opening the Door to Darkness? The intrigue? Aaaa? What could this mean?? Going insane! CoM continues to be the most important game, with the Replicas now being revisited in Days, it being the birthplace of repressed memories of Sora's and sort of kick-starting the whole thing with how memories continue to exist within the heart as feelings regardless of conscious awareness of them, the memory of Sora's that Naminé messed with regarding the meteor shower (the event and imagery that keeps getting brought up across games- it feels important) (As of writing this I have now started Birth By Sleep and once again have raised an eyebrow at the meteor shower in the opening movie and tutorial sequence), man, CoM!

So, that's pretty much everything cohesive from the top of my head. Now comes the part of this post where I generally scream about things that I can recall from the story and general sentiments:

Xigbar is establishing a theme that for every game he's in, he says something extremely intriguing at the end and then nopes out. KH2 he hinted at other Keyblade wielders and then died. This game he sees in Xion who I now know as Ventus (I yelled: "That can't be Roxas, he's wearing different clothes" upon seeing that part and surprisingly I was right, lol) and then doesn't elaborate. So curious about this eye-patched man and all the things he knows.

I WAS RIGHT ABOUT AXEL'S NAME BEING LEA! 🎊 I have no idea what Saïx was like before he became a Nobody, but this guy is a complete jackass as of now, so I don't know why he'd think he's hot enough shit to pull the "you're prioritizing your new, fake friendships over the *real* ones from before, Lea," card, because dude. Axel deserves better than your blue-haired ass. I called him so many names this game, sorry to any Saïx enjoyers. Actually, not sorry. He's mean.

When Roxas flaked out in his and Axel's expedition to Castle Oblivion, and then emerged to consciousness with a yell of "RIKU!" I laughed so much. Like... of course Sora's subconscious gut response of even slightly engaging with a Riku-based stimuli would hit so hard that even his Nobody would then emulate a teaspoon of Sora's oncoming KH2 behavior. Roxas was just like *screwed up expression* 'Where the hell did that come from.' Hah.

Speaking of sad boy Wiku who I now hold in my hands so gently, his entire interaction with Xion post fever dream was one of my favorite parts of the game. He was so immediately kind towards the Nobodies/Replicas, once again, in a way that no one else has been, not least themselves. Of course, as it's implied that Riku likely saw Sora's face in Xion's, I imagine it would be harder to be especially cruel to her, but considering his sympathy towards Roxas in KH2, I think it's just in his nature. Just...

"Do you hate me for taking your friend away from you?"

"No. I'm just... sad."

IT WAS SO SIMPLE, YET SO EFFECTIVE. GUT PUNCH. OWIE.

Added Riku note: I only now noticed in the final duel between Roxas and Riku that Oblivion, the Riku Keyblade, has the same silver crown on Sora's necklace on the end of it. 🤔 Storing this interesting information away for later...

Xion! I love Xion so much! The fact that she was ready to go down a-blazing at the end because of how she knew she was hurting Roxas? AGH. Killed me. And yet, she got so wrapped up in her sense of purposelessness without Sora that she still was ready to take Roxas down with her at the same time? It feels so contradictory, and yet it doesn't! She didn't want Roxas to suffer, and she especially didn't want Roxas to suffer and feel, as she perceived it, incomplete. And just... ah.... she wanted to give him the greatest gift she felt like someone else could give her: a feeling of belonging in identity. Except she never truly realized that Roxas had found a different answer to that question than she had, even if it turned out to be a shaky one: he found his sense of home in the loved ones around him. He never cared to learn about himself or his origins when he was with her and Axel. His diary entries repeatedly showed him forgetting to ask Xion about his Sora dreams, and repeatedly forgetting to show Axel the Winner stick, because all he could care about when being with his friends was... being with them. Never answers. He only wanted answers when he had nothing else. Whereas with Xion, she was the one who would say she wanted everything to stay the same between them, and yet she, in a conflicting manner, was the one disastifsifed without having answers, therefore driving the three of them further apart.

And MAN the Winner stick with Axel! When he pulled it out of the envelope at the end of the game... ouch. I personally wonder if Xion was the one who gave it to him, considering between grilling Axel for answers and then escaping the castle, I didn't see any off screen time for Roxas to have given Axel the stick. However, in the in-between time of Xion being apprehended by Xemnas and fighting Roxas, there's definitely a window of time where Xion could've given the slipped the Winner stick to Axel, perhaps as a final attempt to reconcile him and Roxas. I personally found that thought so affective that unless there's a canon alternative, I've accepted that as my headcanon. It's definitely something I could see Xion doing and man, I love her. I have hope about Roxas being able to reemerge from Sora somehow down the line, but Xion? What with no one even remembering her and being a blank canvas of an individual to begin with, I don't have as much hope for her. I want to, but... :(

Lastly, poor Axel being stuck in the middle the whole time. That scene where he told Xion that 'he was the one who would always bring her back' rendered my soul vulnerable as all hell. That was the closest I got to crying, honestly. His voice actor perfectly exuded that angry, torn up feeling of trying so hard to help someone who doesn't want to be saved, despite everything. That line perfectly encapsulated Axel's struggle of being stuck in the middle this entire game series. Being a double-double agent in the Castle Oblivion mission. Knowing his previous life, and trying to appease the connections he has in this one. Trying to make it good in the Organization. Trying to find his own freedom. Trying to be a good friend to Roxas and Xion, even when he knows they're destroying each other. He just felt so helpless by the end of this game, seeing how despite trying so hard, despite saying the things he was meant to and keeping quiet about the things he wasn't supposed to, he ended up losing everything it was all for, in the end. By being too careful, he was left scorned and abandoned by the only things that mattered. I bet he wished he would have said "I would miss you," more than he did.

All in all, really interesting experience playing a game I knew was gonna end badly since finishing KH2, all while still becoming invested regardless. It was like reading some sort of old tragedy. I think the KH strategy is to confuse you just enough that you get invested by your attempts to understand the plot, therefore trapping you into becoming emotionally invested, as well. Good plan, writers. I'm taking notes. Another compliment to the writers, I've not found KH's dialogue bad, but it's not stood out to me a bunch for the most part. This game had some really good dialogue writing though, in my opinion. Liked it a lot.

Like I said, I've now booted up Birth By Sleep, and already have my head abound with theories and questions and- Xehanort's old now? I thought this was a prequel! Luke Skywalker is a Keyblade Master mentor? Why does Terra enunciate in lowercase? Why does Roxas look like Ventus? Okay, I do have a theory for that one, given the intro...

I restarted my playthrough after starting as Aqua, because I quickly realized doing so was going to make the story seem very disorderly. Stay tuned for my continued documentation of my KH journey! I'm healing post-358/2 Days by playing KH monopoly in Birth By Sleep's Command Board minigame, lol.

[winter-spark]

CitoIta and Kingdom Hearts Headcanons

Because I like Kingdom Hearts and I like them and they are gamers

(I say CitoIta but honestly, it’s just because it’s about Citron & Itaru, the ship is kinda vague here lol. Like it’s probably optional to read it that way at this point)

(There’s an attempted bonus section about Banri at the end, that’s why I tagged him.)

Edit: Ignore this part, just felt wrong to delete {Opening in new tab is strongly advised. I used bullet points with sub bullet points. UPDATE: I personally struggled with opening this in a new tab on the blog where all the subpoints are properly formatted, so I pinned it so you can go right to my blog and find it easily if you want. Also I moved the Intro below the Keep Reading link for space.}

Keep Reading (I manually put this one so it would hopefully always open in a new properly formatted tab)

In this post, scientifically backed by my memory, understanding of the characters and other things (eg: feelings, unlisted headcanons, & my understanding of types of people in fanbases/the kh fandom, minus shippers, I’m not touching that... here, I might consider it in the future, probably not but maybe), I will go over basics like how many games they’ve played and their fave games, trios, characters by groups, and moments. Also, there are conversations and little tidbits about how it fits into their world. I tried to pick a favorite battle but note that they probably have more than one those are just notable ones that I thought were worth mentioning. There will be KH spoilers if you’re someone unfamiliar/not caught up with it. 

Citron

Has not played every game but has looked into the story and watched playthroughs of some of the other games.

Hasn’t played the games he has played in order, 

Might not have caught up on the story in order but if so that’d be more because he was looking for specific characters and info

Has definitely played BBS, Days, CoM, UX, & Dark Road. 

Might’ve played (one, two or all three of the following, idk) DDD, Re:Coded, KH

Has definitely not played KH2,

Likes to find/delve into theories

Read the Sleeping Realm Theory 

to Itaru, because he thought it sorta sounded interesting but told Citron he wasn’t reading all that.

I don’t know any other names of long theories besides SRT but you can bet your bottom dollar that Citron has read(or listened to) them for sure

Wants very much to try Sea Salt ice cream

Considering figuring out how to make Wayfinders

UX Union:

Anguis 

and has never switched unions

Favorites:

Game: Birth By Sleep

Trio: Keyblade Knights

Lost Trio is a close second

Character from each group:

Destiny: Sora

Sea Salt: Axel

Keyblade Knights: Aqua

Twilight Town: Hayner

Lost Trio: Namine

but Vanitas is a close second

Organization 13(minus Sea Salt): Xemnas, Zexion/Ienzo or Demyx(probably depends on the day)

Foretellers: Luxu

Xkids: Brain

& He gets bonus points for dressing up his Chirithy

DR Underclassmen: Vor

DR Upperclassmen: Vidar

Xehanort: Xemnas (?)

I know I listed Xemnas as one of his faves in Organization 13 but genuinely I feel it’s a v love hate relationship, where the love is that he can and definitely would(is like two seconds away from it) do an analysis on Xemnas’s actions/behaviors/character

Boss Battle(that he definitely 100% played): 

BBS Aqua ft. Terra vs Terranort

Opening:

Birth by Sleep 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage

Moments/Tidbits:

Involving Fave Trio:

All three:

KH3

Terra gaining control and saving Aqua and Ven

Aqua:

BBS

Doing her job but still standing up for Stitch

Giving up everything to try and save Terra

BBS 0.2

Knowingly chasing after illusions of her friends because she misses them so much.

Terra:

BBS

Gaining hope from meeting Cinderella

Standing against Eraqus to protect Ven

Ven:

BBS:

Running away with Stitch, lowkey being a space criminal

DDD:

Putting his armor on Sora to protect him from the darkness 

Involving someone other than Fave Trio:

KH1:

Kairi protecting Sora/saving him from being a Heartless

Days:

that Sora just subconsciously gave some of his memories to Xion because she didn’t have any

DDD

Neku telling Joshua Shibuya is his home too

Sora going off to thank the Dreameaters

Commonly Quoted(? idk what else to call these, i specifically mean the ones you find in compilations and stuff) Lines from the English Translation: “[’Me? I’m already half Xehanort'] ‘That’s nuts...’”

Bracketed the first part bcuz I think he uses the second part as a reaction sometimes, same infliction and everything

It’s at the point that Tsuzuru’s familiar with it, against his wishes(If Citron says the first part Tsuzuru might accidentally properly respond, that’s how deep in he is, he’s not even sure who Xehanort is(but he does think that’s nuts))

Final things of note: 

Is excited for Atlantis in KH2

Enjoys the attractions in KH3:

Loves that Dark Aqua could be beat w/ a pirate ship 

Loves that there was a roller coaster in the Keyblade Graveyard

Favorite Summons:

KH: Tinkerbell & Bambi

KH2: Stitch

KH3: Ariel & Meowwow

Often forgets he has items but has gotten really good at blocking and healing because of it

Very good with magic

Itaru

Has played just about every game in release date order, 

with just about 100% completion on all of them

Is (lowkey, but acts highkey) appalled Citron hasn’t played the games in order, currently planning time for them to play through all the games together

Has read the manga and maybe some of the light novels

Does look at theories sometimes, might even have a few of his own, definitely has his own headcanons

Secretly wishes he could share a Paopu Fruit w/ someone

UX Union:

Vulpeus

There’s a possibility he might’ve tried the other unions at some point but Vulpeus is his main and current union

Favorites:

Game: KH2

Trio: Sea Salt

Character from each group:

Destiny: Currently Riku, 

Wants it to be Kairi, but it’s just not, is always excited and ready for Kairi news tho

Was Sora for awhile

Sea Salt: Roxas, 

It really is, but he would absolutely main Xion if given the chance

Keyblade Knights: Aqua

Twilight Town: Roxas  Olette 

though he somewhat feels guilty to Pence as feels like he spent more time with Pence but that Olette is just a tad bit cooler

Lost Trio: Rep,

but Namine’s a close second 

Organization 13(minus Sea Salt): Currently Saïx/Isa, but it’s kind of a love hate relationship

There’s also a lean towards Larxene

Foretellers: Ava

Xkids: Skuld

DR underclassmen: Baldr

DR Upperclassmen: Hoder

Yes he cried over their story, no he won’t openly admit it

Chikage did witness it tho

Xehanort: Ansem SoD

Boss Battle (that he definitely 100% played): 

Days Roxas v Xion

Opening:

KH2, 

not because KH2 is his favorite game but rather it adds to why KH2 is his favorite game

Moments/Tidbits:

Involving Fave Trio:

All Three:

KH3

Their whole battle/reunion

to clarify the Lea Isa scene is a part of that

Roxas:

Days

The scene around the Riku vs Roxas battle

KH2:

Roxas v Sora scene

(I debated between this and the DDD scene. Also I feel like his list of favorite Roxas moment is longer than this but)

Xion:

KH2:

The seashell in the opening... for Xion

Days

Xion getting her own answers and spending time with Namine and Riku

Xion leaving all those seashells for Roxas

Axel:

CoM

Letting Namine go

KH2

Sacrificing himself to save Sora

Involving someone other than Fave Trio: 

KH2

Sora and Riku in RoD

Coded:

(Data-)Riku reaching for the moon

UX

Ephemer and Skuld saving Player|Star(light)/bringing them to the new version of the world

KH3 Re: Mind

Playing as Kairi in that boss battle

The fact that Kairi throws her keyblade because she trained with Axel

Commonly Quoted(?) Lines from the English Translation: “Roxas, that’s a stick.”

Final things of note:

Has found all 101 Dalmatians

Has read fanfiction longer than the Sleeping Realm Theory

(which is actually really easy to do, I looked it up and the docs word count is 31,265)

Has his Data-boss battles on his channel

Proud it only took a couple of tries to beat Yozora (he recorded each try to put his win on his channel)

Uses items all the time, knows when the best time to effectively use items for maximum item usage

“Actual" conversations:

Fave Games:

Itaru: *rambling about some KH2-related topic &/or how he can’t believe Citron hasn’t played 2*

Citron: ooo! Itaru, are you one of those guys who feels Kingdom Hearts peaked at 2?

Itaru: Kingdom Hearts 2 is just an objectively good game, the other games are good too though. KH2 is just, objectively speaking, great. Is it my favorite? Yes, but it’s completely warranted as...

Citron: *smiling as Itaru starts rambling knowing that he’s point two seconds away from going into a 2hr spiel about how KH2 is great*

Itaru: *clears throat catching himself early* A-Anyway, which one’s your favorite?

Citron: Birth by Sleep! I love the ice cream rhythm game :3

Itaru: *understanding that there’s definitely a lot deeper of a reason to that being Citron’s fave* Oh, that’s a good pick. Actually sorta seems on brand for you. Ice Cream Beat is pretty fun.

[Then they boot up Itaru’s copy of BBS and play Ice Cream Beat]

Play Order:

Itaru: So it’s a little late for you to get the full proper experience but we’re gonna play the games in order because it’s really the best way to experience the games.

Citron: Ok, speaking of order and since we’ll get to Birth By Sleep eventually, we both agree that the best way to play the first time is Aqua Terra Ven, yes?

Itaru [has played each route and in varying order, does not quite remember which order he played the game in the first time but is pretty sure it was Terra Ven Aqua]: ...Ven makes a lot of sense to play last...

Citron: Then I am glad we are in agreement. ^^

Itaru: Most people play Aqua last tho--

Citron: Sure chronologically she left Land of Departure last, but story telling-wise *starts talking about why Aqua, Terra, Ven is the best order*

Twewy: (I could do a whole other post on headcanons regarding them playing twewy, it’d maybe be shorter, tho maybe I won’t bcuz I feel like they know more than me lol(I say like Itaru doesn’t know more about KH than me *cries*). If I refer to twewy’s og name wrong here I’m sorry)

Citron: It’s cool that the twewy characters were in DDD. :)

Itaru: Yea. Oh you played subaseka before you met the cast in 3D right?

Citron: :)

Itaru: Right?

[Citron refuses to answer because he thinks leaving Itaru hanging is funnier than a yes or no ever could be]

Ansem SoD as Itaru’s Fave Xehanort:

Citron *three seconds after finding out*: So, is he your favorite because nostalgia as he was the first one you battled or because you think he’s hot?

Itaru: *chokes on being immediately found out because it’s both*

Bonus: Banri & KH Headcanons for no reason other than he also plays games

(With some obligatory Citron and Itaru mentions below because this is their post lol Banri’s not a part of CitoIta. Just to clarify)

Probably has not played all the games

Stares at Itaru whenever he starts talking about secret bosses or hard-to-find treasure chests/secret reports typically until he stops, lists a specific Banri is familiar with or Banri finds a way to shift the conversation. It’s not that he hasn’t come across them he just

doesn’t know which bosses are secret and which aren’t

doesn’t go out of his way to look for treasure chests

Partakes in the memes

Can quote more games than he played honestly, loves those “out of context”/”lines I quote” videos

Has memes saved to his phone

Azami and Taichi borrowed his phone once for picture reasons and Azami was appalled by the Aqua Cinderella meme & the Terra memes (ifykyk)

Probably had Xion’s scream from Days as Sakyo’s someone’s ringtone as a joke (can people set ringtones and ringback tones anymore?) but then he recieved a call from that person in public and was lowkey highkey embarassed so he unset it

He and Citron:

have done a Goofy rendition of Bring Me to Life one time

though Banri sorta begrudgingly participated

At least one Mankai member who was there said he’s not going Karaoke w/ them anymore

are quick to point out or send pictures of “Lucky Emblems” when they see them, it’s almost a contest at this point

Sakyo has asked them to stop sending “lOOk!! a LuCKy emBlem!” in the main chat with a picture of three connected circles, Itaru eggs them on tho

Itaru participates too but he doesn’t have the same luck in seeing them, he is the reason they started tho as in person he pointed one out so later Citron sent a picture of one to show him, so Banri just had to too but he sent two as he already had the pictures and was gonna show them later, so Citron had to find two more to be in the lead and after he found just one more, Banri caught on that they were competing and they spiraled from there

I know logically they don’t appear that often irl but I also know in my heart that it’s happened enough that Taichi, then Kazu and Kumon participated. Now,  the rest of Mankai keeps an eye out for them

Between Tsumugi’s picture of flower bulbs leaning together captioned “Does this count as a lucky emblem?” Izumi asking how many points she gets for a random spot on the ground that sorta looks like a lucky emblem & Omi sending a picture of at lighting set up from work saying “ at this angle this sorta looks like a lucky emblem right?” Sakyo’s feeling a little betrayed because each of those were during times when people weren’t actively mentioning them in the chat.

Winter Troupe is the first troupe to all find at least one “Lucky Emblem”

Autumn troupe (jokingly) blame Sakyo for them not being first

UX Union:

Has probably been in a couple, Ursus or Vulpeus most recently

Favorites:

Game: Dream Drop Distance

but would rather tell you he “hasn’t thought about it, maybe 2″

Trio: Destiny, 

but might not correct you if you guessed Sea Salt,

Character from each group:

Destiny: Riku

He honestly sorta relates in ways. I’m not gonna get too into it but like yea he feels.

Sea Salt: Roxas

Keyblade Knights: Terra, 

but he makes jokes that rag on him a lot so unless you know Banri you would probably think he hates him or just likes to make fun of him. He really does like Terra as a character tho. Feels for him too. But as we know bullying is his love language

Twilight Town: Seifer Pence

Seifer’s a joke fave because of the undeniable proof [they] totally owned [those] lamers (if ykyk)

Lost Trio: Vanitas, 

but Rep’s a close second

Organization 13(minus Sea Salt): Larxene & Xigbar

Foretellers: Luxu (?)

Xkids: Player|Star(light)

DR Underclassmen: Xehanort, “but Bragi’s kinda cool, I guess.”

DR Upperclassmen: *hasn’t actually caught up yet, but he likes Helgi’s design*

Xehanort: Young Master Xehanort(YMX)

Itaru says it’s because they’re both brats

Boss Battle (that he definitely 100% played): 

KH2 Sora v Sephiroth or DDD Riku v YMX [I couldn’t decide which one to list]

Opening:

KH3

Moments/Tidbits:

Involving Fave Trio:

All Three:

KH2

Kairi “calling Riku tf out” ultimately leading to the reunion

KH3

Riku talking with Rep on the beach, Kairi and Sora sees him sitting there by himself

Sora:

KH1

Sora giving his goofy smile before plunging a keyblade into his chest

KH3

Sora dropping down to protect Riku from Dark Aqua in the nick of time

Riku:

DDD

That Riku just subconsciously became a dream eater

KH3

Riku taking a stand against the heartless despite just about all hope being lost

Kairi:

KH2:

Kairi(and Namine) preparing to fight Saix and the berserker nobodies with their bare hands

KH3 Re:Mind

Kairi getting a surprise attack in on Xemnas

Involving someone other than Fave Trio: 

KH3

Yeetus Vanitas

Woody roasting YMX

DDD

YMX & Vanitas spouting “nonsense” at Sora

Lea showing up and Donald & Goofy dropping from the sky, ultimately coming to the rescue

UX

Star ready to square up with the Foretellers

mainly in reference to the Star v Ira speech/scene/fight but the Aced one too

Commonly Quoted(?) Lines from the English Translation: “Mickey it’s Riku, they put bugs in him!” & “Thank you Sora’s heart”

Final things of note:

Always plays on proud mode from the get-go

Not really a completion-ist but does have just about every trophy earned on DDD

Didn’t know you could lose to Yozora in the battle against him

Probably actually more of a Final Fantasy fan than KH, or at least got into KH because the Final Fantasy appearances

Bonus Convos:

Demyx:

Itaru: Yea, I can’t figure out Luxord, for Demyx I’ve seen people guess his name as Myde.

Banri: lol I like the theory that his name is Demyx and he just wandered into the Organization 

Citron: That one is funny, but as far as likelyness goes I like to think his name is Demy and they just slapped an x at the end.

Banri: The laziest naming.

Citron: Exactly!

[and then Banri and Citron start talking about Demyx and it somehow leads them to talking about Goofy’s “death” in KH2 and now they’re talking about KH memes and jokes and Itaru just wanted to know if they had any thoughts on Luxord’s name.]

Vanitas vs Aqua:

Banri: *(possibly somewhat jokingly) insinuates Vanitas is as strong but probably stronger than Aqua*

Citron: *gasp* No!! He is not.

Banri: Really? Then how come he almost took Aqua out?

Citron[genuinely loves Vanitas]: He is a rat! He cannot beat Aqua in a fair fight!

Itaru: I believe he means brat.

Citron: No!! I mean rat, feral ferret child! Can only beat Aqua after biting her and giving her rabies! And even then, she still has at least a week to destroy him.

Itaru: lol that’s quite the metaphor.

Banri: I... *got lost* ???

Itaru: He’s saying Vanitas can only use dirty tricks to even get close to beating Aqua.

Banri: ???

Citron: If Vanitas could beat her he wouldn’t have to result to tricks like firing at Ven, which she was already off her A-game then mind you. But honestly, if Vanitas can’t even get close to beating Terra what hope does he have to actually beat Aqua. I can vouch that he can’t beat Terra. I beat the Terra v Xehanort and Vanitas battle by whacking Vanitas around. It was really easy. Vanitas has only beaten Ven in a fair fight. He’s not nearly as strong as Terra and Aqua. It’s demonstrated through their elements, really. Vanitas is fire...

Banri: *stressed, wasn’t expecting a whole lecture, looks to Itaru for help*

Itaru: *nodding along listening to what Citron has to say*

So yeah those are some of my headcanons involving KH and CitoIta (and Banri with minor Mankai mentions.) If anyone wants to do Taichi(who idk could play already, while I haven’t picked any out I know what type of moments would be his faves, I just can’t figure out yet if he prefers characters he relates to or characters he thinks are cool/want to be like) or Kumon (who I’d feel would want to start after seeing them enjoy it, bet Banri and Citron would have him play chronologically by timeline rather than release order “for science”) or any other characters, really, I’d gladly read it. I can see Taichi & Kumon playing KH but I don’t feel like I know them well enough to do this with them lol. I’m not even sure I know Banri well even to this with him but I attempted it lol. If there’s any questions about my decisions I might answer them, some are easier to put into words than others though. 

Anywho, I dunno how to end this post tbh. Ship CitoIta, Play Kingdom Hearts. idk. 

Thanks for reading all of my nonsense lol.

[theblueprincess590]

Riku and the Power of Faith-an Analysis of Riku’s Story in Re:CoM

The two major themes in Riku's story are Power and Faith. Now lets talk about the faith theme first. When I say faith I don't mean religious faith but more so the general idea of faith. Throughout the story of Re:CoM Riku's faith in himself is constantly tested with both Ansem and Organization XIII trying to tempt Riku into giving into the darkness again. From Ansem offering Riku power in exchange for becoming one with him again to The Organization trying to torment Riku into submission. And as The mind games continue Riku's faith in himself grows shackier and shackier until he is forced to witness his greatest sin. While in the memory world version of Destiny Island Riku is faced with his guilt for sinking his world into darkness in order to satisfy his own selfish ambitions and Zexion uses this guilt to break Riku by taking the shape of the one person Riku seeks forgiveness from the most, Sora. Riku nearly fades away into the light as his faith shatters but thanks to Namine's words Riku is able pick up the pieces, continue believing in himself, and seeing past Zexion's illusions. By facing doubt head on Riku's faith becomes unbreakable. But Riku's strory is not just about faith in oneself but faith in others. Throughout the Story Riku receives aid from Mickey, who for most of the game can't physically be there with Riku and is simply a voice. In order to survive in this hellish castle of isolation Riku must put his faith in someone he can't see. Of course this faith is rewarded when Mickey finally arrives in Castle Oblivion.

Now lets talk about the Power theme. Power is a recurring motif of Riku's character. In KH1 he abandoned his friends and ideals to obtain power which ends up costing him not only his body but his very sense of self and it was only when he choose to protect his friends again that he regains his body and identity. In Re:CoM Riku must come to a greater understanding of what it means to have power if he wishes to obtain redemption.  Throughout Re:CoM Riku is dependent on the power of Darkness to fight but at the same time he fears this power. He's terrified of being consumed by the darkness, that once again he will become a slave to the power. But it is this fear of his power that truly endangers Riku within the walls of castle Oblivion. Because Riku is afraid of his powers he is defeated by Lexaeus who is the very embodiment of raw physical strength, a man with complete dominance over power.  And because Riku's fears lead to his defeat Ansem is able to take control of body again, because those that fear their strength are just as likely to be consumed by it as those that indulge on their strength. Of course though Riku needs to do far more than just stop fearing his powers to control it. After all if that's all it took then Replica Riku would not of meet his end. Replica Riku is a refection of Riku's past and as such he is doomed to repeat Riku’s mistakes. Replica Riku is desperate to prove himself different from the original Riku and so he lusts for power in hopes that it will make him unique. But in doing that he just copying The actions of KH1 Riku and failing to see that he already had something that made him special, that the real Riku didn't have, His feelings for Namine. Because Replica Riku sought an identity through power he failed to become his own person and faded away into the darkness.

Now then how exactly does Riku come to a better understanding of what it means to have Power? Well that ties right back to the Faith theme. Riku learns that he needs to have resolve in both himself and his ideals. That he must have faith in himself and the path he travels to control his power so that it does not enslave him. Which is why he chooses to face Ansem alone and keep the memories of his mistakes because now he believes he can defat his demons, Now he truly understands that strength is meant to protect what matters. Riku entered Castle Oblivion Scared of both his powers and himself but when he leaves the castle he's ready to walk the road to dawn with a confident smile.

[darkvolley]

Okay, since Tumblr screwed me over last time I wanted to say this, and I decided I actually wanted it out there, I'm gonna say it all again but this time it's in an essay.

Ienzo's whole situation just fills me with pure visceral rage. Ienzo lost his parents first, which must have been tough if he was even old enough to remember it. There can be a whole feeling of abandonment that comes with that, not to mention any trauma involved if he happened to see anything. It was probably scary and/or confusing for him when he began staying with Ansem too.

I'm not gonna get into the experiments Ansem was doing cuz we have no idea how Ienzo fit into any of that, but once Terranort showed up that's when Ienzo was getting in involved. Ienzo was a kid, and kids are unfortunately easily manipulated. Terranort manipulated a legit child and got Ienzo to manipulate his own father figure into helping with their research bullshit. Which eventually got Ansem sent to the Realm of Darkness for wanting to put a stop to it all, and Ienzo probably thought his father figure was dead after that.

And the way Ienzo reacts to seeing Ansem again is horrible. He says he was the one that fucked up. He felt guilty about that! Ienzo believed, as children usually do, that he did something horrible and everything was his fault. He had so much guilt for something he didn't do! He thought that just being a child made him at fault cuz as a child he couldn't have done anything! Of course it's the other way around, but that's not the way children think.

Another thing about all that that pisses me the hell off is all the other adults around. Maybe they did care about him, but obviously not enough to remove him from the situation. Even could have done something, Aeleus could have, Dilan could have, fuck Braig cuz he was even more in on it all than anyone else, but none of them did anything. None of them tried to make sure Ienzo wasn't involved. It wasn't Ienzo that failed to do anything, it was them. The adults failed to protect him, a literal child, from everything going on and Ienzo! Ienzo is the one that thinks he failed! It's fucking disgusting.

Then there's the whole becoming a Nobody thing. Ienzo lost his heart at about eight years old. The experience alone must have been terrifying. Then he wakes up and he's a Nobody! He had to grow up not having any emotions/not believing he could have any, which is even more manipulation, now from Xemnas. He grew up wanting a heart for fucks sake! And he got bitter too. You can tell with all of Zexion's sarcasm and backhanded insults that he isn't happy. He can't do anything about his situation. He got stuck in the organization and when you feel helpless in a situation you don't wanna be in, you get mad about it. Obviously Zexion got mad but kept it inside and only let it show through his sarcasm and insults.

Basically all of Ienzo's life makes me wanna go absolutely feral. This kid was robbed of a normal childhood. He didn't deserve that and he didn't deserve anything that happened to him. He was a kid who was manipulated into manipulating his father figure then lost his fucking heart and no one stopped him from getting involved. He's got guilt about it all and that's just wrong. So absolutely downright wrong. And like, that's normal! Which sucks, but it's normal, especially since Ienzo hadn't really grown up in a proper way so he still thinks like a kid in terms of thinking he fucked up when he had no control over anything that happened. And god, it just pisses me off so fucking much! He deserved to have the chance to grow up like a normal kid and not have all this bullshit happen to him cuz of shitty adults! And I'll stop now cuz I'm just gonna end up repeating myself over and over again.

[sharingthesamesky]

I’ve seen a few theories or posts going around various corners of the internet saying that maybe Lauriam is a red herring and that we should be looking at the others, particularly Blaine. I think the association with flowers that Marluxia shares with Strelitzia makes it pretty clear that he’s the one taking her spot. I mentioned it before - it’s a neat move, to have him take this association of hers along with her destiny. But.

We don’t know if Blaine is actually connected to Ienzo at this point - I mean, my key kid also has that hair - but if he is, there is the curious detail that Zexion’s weapon is a book.

I don’t know if there is much evidence at the moment pointing towards Blaine’s involvement in Strelitzia’s death, but if he is connected to Ienzo, I wonder if he gets his hands on that book at some point. I mean his character entries in both CoM and KH2 specifically mention that he prefers to let others do the dirty work rather than dirtying his own hands. Letting Lauriam actually kill the girl even if he was already after the book does fit with that. At this point it’s still a crack theory, and seeing as both Marluxia and Zexion appear genuinely distressed and surprised by their deaths in CoM, it seems unlikely either of them as we know them at that time has access to such a book, though its still rather unclear how thorough any of the Master of Master’s books are. Especially if he knows who is eventually going to get their hands on it. As much as I’d love for Strelitzia’s death to have totally derailed all the “the future is already written” stuff, it clearly doesn’t, which means, presumably, the Master of Masters totally knew poor Strelitzia would be killed, as well as who was going to kill her and take her book.  I’d call him a douchebag for it, but character agency and fault is kind of a mess when predestination is involved.

I’d somehow be a lot less surprised if it turns out Zexion had access to a book about the future than if Marluxia somehow still did. But who knows where this roller coaster is going.

[avionvadion]

I’m like half tempted to write a character analysis on the original Sesshomaru (the only acceptable one, the one that was intended) like I did for Zexion/Ienzo. Or at least, like, my understanding of his character which I believe is pretty accurate.

Might just be me being narcissistic. I dunno. But like. I’m very tempted to write one.

Because there are also a lot of misunderstandings about his character and personality, and a lot of things don’t exactly explore his pettiness and daddy issues which formed a huge part of his prejudice towards humans and, especially, Inuyasha himself.

Also I just wanna write about good ol’ Hogoshamaru and talk about him for a bit.

[nadziejastar]

Your analysis helped a lot. Though I’m still unsure if I’ll ever forgive Ansem the Wise or the other apprentices besides Ienzo.

Yeah, you’ll get no arguments from me there. I would have loved to see the apprentices get more development to make them more less flat, and also to perhaps make their atonements easier to swallow. But I don’t think they’re innocent, aside from Ienzo.

Other than Xehanort, Braig was definitely the most evil. He was probably the most heavily involved in the human trafficking and experimentation, since he was the only one that knew Xehanort needed vessels. Which is why he said he didn’t like the Chamber of Repose. Ignoring the Luxu stuff, he kills himself in the end, so there was no redeeming him.

Dilan was probably the next evil. He said he gave up his heart to escape the shackles of emotion. He thought love was a weakness, even when he was human. So, his main motive was probably to transcend his humanity and become godlike. The fact that he and Even were bedridden after they were recompleted, probably meant they were the most guilty (besides Xehanort and Braig).

Even admitted that he didn’t think Ansem the Wise nurtured his talents. He wanted the freedom to continue his research, and that was why he cast his lot with Xehanort. Vexen couldn’t go into the Chamber of Repose, so I got the sense he was aware of the human experimentation, and this haunted him.

Next is Aeleus. In the novel, Xehanort asks him where Kairi is and he replies that she’s sleeping in the capsule. So, he was aware that Kairi at the very least was being experimented on. In his Character File story, he says he was more fascinated by darkness than hearts. He was motivated by gaining power.

Ansem the Wise was the second least guilty, IMO. He was a kind-hearted ice cream loving sage. But after his banishment, he became consumed with hatred. He held a grudge against all of his apprentices, even Ienzo. I see him as similar to Eraqus. He did fail as a father figure. But he was still nowhere near as bad as the others.

Ienzo was the only apprentice who was completely innocent. He was just a kid. He had no say in what was going on, and I’m sure that everything was very confusing and traumatic for him. Even raised him, but he was very strict and Ienzo felt more attached to Ansem the Wise. So, he was an orphan who was also "abandoned" by his adoptive father. Nomura said he had a master/servant relationship with Xemnas. It wouldn’t surprise me if Zexion had developed some form of Stockholm Syndrome. He began to look at Xemnas as a replacement for Ansem the Wise and that was why he was so dutiful. Xemnas was the only adult figure he could gain some acknowledgement and approval from.

Personally, I don’t even really view Lea and Isa as apprentices, but I know that is what they canonically are now. As apprentices, their backstory is not all that compelling. They were apprentices for like a day, and chose to give up their hearts with the rest of the apprentices, all to find someone they might have just been imagining the whole time? I like the idea of them being test subjects a lot more. That was hinted at in 358/2 Days very strongly and it makes more sense. And it is just a lot more tragic and compelling. Lea and Lea should have been seen as innocent child victims, like Ienzo, not lumped in with the adult apprentices who were guilty of sins and needed to atone.

[joyokosuka]

Kingdom Hearts 3 Novel 3 - Remind Me Again

Ienzo and Ansem the Wise reunite

Radiant Garden - Ansem the Wise’s laboratory.

Ienzo was standing in front of the monitor, as usual.

“It’s possible we reconstructed his heart, to a degree.  But, we still need a vessel...”  Ienzo spoke to himself, closing his eyes.

The data will soon be completed.  The analysis from those who served the King was also useful.  However, we don’t have anything to put that data into.  We can’t use a living human as a vessel.  Therefore, is our only plan right now to back up the data?  In that case, he could at least live in the datascape.

But still -

“That’s not a true solution…”

As Ienzo spoke to himself, a dark portal suddenly opened up behind him.

“Phew, finally here.”

Surprised, Ienzo turned his head to see Demyx.  He had some kind of large, human-shaped package over his shoulder.

“Whoa…look at this place!”

“Who are you?  Demyx!?”

Ienzo froze at the Organization member’s entrance.

Are they invading the castle!?

“Heya!  Long time no see, Zexion!”

Despite Ienzo’s nervousness, Demyx was bright as ever, and lifted a hand to greet him.  He lowered the package onto the floor.

“Oof.  Is it awesome to be a human?  I’m back to being a Nobody, but ya know, I feel like I was sweet-talked into it.  Let me know later what you think is better.”

“Wha….what is this, all of a sudden?”  Ienzo was a bit confused.

He’s gonna be a lot more confused.

Demyx began to speak again.

“Oh!  Sorry, sorry, enough of that.  I have to do something important.  Nobody’s watching me, so I’m the best fit for the job.”

Demyx turned back to the open dark portal.

“Ta-da!” Demyx shouted, voice full of excitement.

A figure appeared from the portal.

“Master Ansem!”  Ienzo blurted out.

“Yes, it’s been a while, Ienzo,”  Ansem said, with a kind smile.  He slowly stepped forward onto the laboratory floor.

Dilan and Aeleus rushed into the room.

Ienzo turned his face down, shoulders shaking.

“I was so young, and I was told you ran away.  I really believed that.  And then I joined forces with them…I’m so sorry.”

Ansem the Wise quietly put a hand on his shoulder, then looked him in the eyes.

“You have begun your atonement...that’s enough, Ienzo.  I clung onto resentment, and did not think of any of you.  Please forgive me.”

Ienzo, Dilan, and Aeleus quietly reflected on his words.

“Uhhh, can I continue talking?”

Demyx was the one who had broken the silence, popping his head up between Ienzo and Ansem the Wise.  Everyone turned to him.

“Actually, Vexen asked me to bring this to you.  He was only able to prepare one, but he said to leave it to you guys…”

“A vessel...?”  Ienzo exclaimed, looking at the wrapped cloth that Demyx was holding.

[firestorm09890]

In Re: Chain of Memories most of the Organization members have a cutscene named after them in the format of “[character] the [epithet]” but not Axel and Marluxia because they’re special and yknow what the easiest way to go about it is probably to go through them in order before I try to talk about anything- here’s all the cutscene titles that directly reference or name Organization members

The Smiling Siren (first cutscene featuring Larxene) Larxene the Ruthless (meeting Sora) Larxene’s Sneer (before Larxene 2)

Vexen the Scientist (first cutscene featuring him) I am Vexen (meeting Sora) Vexen’s End (death cutscene) Vexen’s Replica (tbh this one doesn’t count for what I’m talking about bc it’s about the replica not Vexen but his name is in it so I had to record it)

Marluxia’s Graceful Blade (first cutscene where we see his face)

Axel vs. Marluxia (Axel and Marluxia fight) Axel’s Dancing Flames (before Axel 2) Axel Vanishes (“death” cutscene)

Lexaeus the Taciturn (meeting Riku)

Zexion the Tactician (the one where he decides eh this is Vexen’s problem which is a tactful move i guess????) The Tactician’s Move (Axel and Zexion convo) The Tactician’s End (Zexion death cutscene)

Got It Memorized? (the one where Axel first shows up) is also very obviously an Axel trademarked cutscene but it doesn’t have his name or an epithet for him in it, it’s just his catchphrase, so it’s kind of a different thing, but I think it’s worth mentioning

Larxene the Ruthless, Vexen the Scientist, Marluxia’s Graceful Blade, Axel’s Dancing Flames, Lexaeus the Taciturn, and Zexion the Tactician all have some sort of reference to their respective titles in the Organization, kinda (Savage Nymph/Callous Vixen, Chilly Academic, Graceful Assassin/Graceful Assassin’s Blade, Flurry of Dancing Flames, Silent Hero/Taciturn Stalwart, Cloaked Schemer/Shadow-walking Tactician) and god as I’m writing this I’m realizing what a huge missed opportunity it was to not call Larxene the Savage Siren, she’s much more like a siren than a nymph- ANYWAY

I think the inconsistencies in this are interesting. They’re more important than the others, yes, but there are so few Org members here that wouldn’t it have been more organized to give Axel and Marluxia a “[character] the [epithet]” title too? How come Zexion carries his epithet of Tactician with him to the end while Vexen doesn’t get to keep being referred to as Scientist? The answer is no one respects Vexen enough, not even the guys who named a cutscenes. That’s a joke the real answer is that they probably didn’t think about the cutscene titles at all. Doesn’t mean I can’t think about it though. I also think it’s interesting how Zexion’s referred to as Tactician even though in localization he’s the Schemer. honestly i should make another post talking about orgxiii titles

[violethowler]

Break the Wheel

It’s a common point of discussion in the Kingdom Hearts fandom how often the main heroes are screwed over by the actions and attitudes of their various mentors. Ansem the Wise, Eraqus, the Master of Masters... Nearly every mentor figure in the series has contributed in some way to the pain the young people they interact with have endured over the course of the series. 

The Master of Masters deliberately manipulated his pupils into turning against each other and starting a war to further his own agenda. The Foretellers spread that suspicion and mistrust of each other outward to the members of their respective Unions. From what we’re seeing so far, the Dandelions are removed from the Master’s direct influence and are handling the Potential Traitor discussion so much better than the Foretellers did in Back Cover, but something still clearly went wrong that left at least four of them thousands of years in the future with only vague memories of their past at best. 

Birth by Sleep showed how Eraqus’ paranoia and distrust of darkness directly lead to the suffering of his pupils. His attitude toward Terra’s darkness in the beginning drove the latter to seek validation from Xehanort, who used Terra for his own agenda causing Aqua to trap herself in the Realm of Darkness to save her friend. Eraqus’ insistence that she spy on Terra and bring Ven back to the Land of Departure drove a wedge between the trio at Radiant Garden. And his willingness to kill Ventus to stop Xehanort leads to his duel with Terra and subsequent death. 

Ienzo’s role in the experiments performed by the Organization’s founders prior to the fall of Radiant Garden is unclear, but his conversation with Ansem in Kingdom Hearts III suggests that the older apprentices kept him in the dark about many things and might have potentially used Ansem’s fondness for him to manipulate their mentor. This resulted in Ansem’s banishment and - if DDD is any indication - turning Ienzo into a Nobody against his will when he was only 8 years old. 

Ansem himself went on to openly seek the destruction of Roxas, Xion, and Namine for the sake of his revenge against everyone who wronged him, using his prejudice against Nobodies to justify the things he did in pursuit of his goals. And despite guiding Riku to accept his own darkness in Chain of Memories, Ansem still fundamentally buys into the view of Darkness as something inherently negative, best illustrated at the end of Riku’s side of that game where DiZ attempted to make Riku choose between the “road to light” and “road to darkness”, implicitly trying to force Riku into a rigid either/or path that Riku rejects in favor of choosing “the middle road”.

This pattern has repeated often enough that when fans on Twitter shared screenshots of Dark Road from the game’s prematurely leaked website showing Master Odin, several fans - myself included - began eagerly anticipating the ways in which this pattern of old men failing the young would rear its head in Xehanort’s time as an apprentice. 

The fact that this pattern appears so consistently across the entire Kingdom Hearts timeline is not an accident. The entire starting point of the Heroine’s Journey is built around the idea that the protagonist’s environment - parents, mentors, peers, sometimes even their entire society - has failed them in some way[1]. By forcing them to adhere to a rigid binary of what traits are considered desirable versus undesirable, it forces people who do not fit those standards to cut themselves off from vital parts of who they are in order to be recognized and validated.

So when the younger generation grows up with these standards and is called to fix the mistakes of their elders, they are expected to do so on their mentors’ terms[2]. In doing so, they will ultimately continue the cycle that led to those problems in the first place. But the central protagonist of the Heroine’s Journey is different. The qualities which set them apart are the same ones that allow them to think outside of this rigid binary and ultimately break that cycle. In the course of their growth, the main character learns to create a new, better world not by vanquishing a villain who represents the failures of the old one, but by healing the wounds those failures created. 

Kairi said it best in Kingdom Hearts III that Sora’s journey is about helping people, many of whom he’s never met before. This is significant because the protagonist breaking out of the cycle has commonly taken the form of learning to solve problems with compassion and understanding instead of violence and punishment[1]. The main character cannot improve the world around them by simply killing the villain and calling it a day. In order to achieve meaningful change they need to help the people who have been hurt by this rigid cycle. And as the contrast between Sora’s attitudes towards the dying Organization members in Kingdom Hearts II and III demonstrates, that includes the same villains he’s fighting against. Yes, even Xehanort.

Because when you look back and think about it, every non-Disney antagonist in the Kingdom Hearts series is shown to be motivated by the pain and/or trauma inflicted on them by the worldview of their peers and mentors, which they then took out on the people around them. 

Marluxia as Lauriam was powerless to stop Strelitzia’s murder, and then he lost all memory of his past when he arrived in the present from the Age of Fairy Tales. That knowledge casts his behavior in Chain of Memories as someone trying to control the people around him as a proxy to feel like he has control over his own life[3]. 

Ienzo’s words when Ansem returns in Kingdom Hearts III[4] and the fact that he was a child [5] when Radiant Garden fell[6] paint his words toward Riku in Chain of Memories about the latter destroying his home as Zexion projecting the repressed guilt over the destruction of his home onto Riku. 

Saix’s cruelty toward Roxas and Xion in 358/2 Days is revealed in Kingdom Hearts III to have been driven by jealousy towards Axel and the feeling that he was being abandoned and replaced[7].  

All of these characters’ villainous actions can be traced back to the influence of the mentor figures of their generation. Marluxia’s survivor’s guilt over Strelitzia’s death is the result of her killer attempting to defy the manipulations of the Master of Masters. Saix was gaslit about his own humanity by Xemnas and Xigbar for over a decade with Xemnas’ manipulation and whatever effect Norting had on him on top of that. Ienzo’s conversation with Ansem in Kingdom Hearts III indicates that he didn’t fully understand what Ansem’s adult apprentices were doing around him when they were conducting their experiments, and the flashback at the start of Dream Drop Distance suggests he had not become a Nobody of his own volition. 

Xehanort too, is someone who was hurt by this destructive cycle. The things he indicates he saw during his world tour - people refusing to acknowledge the darkness in their own hearts and allowing it to grow [8] - showed him the consequences of repressing one’s darkness and negative emotions as he and Eraqus were taught. He wanted to change this, but he was still so entrenched in that system that the best he could think of ultimately amounted to the same rigid viewpoint but flipped so that darkness was on top. 

The merciless death many fans felt Xehanort deserved would only reinforce the “darkness evil, light good” worldview that Riku’s redemption arc was built on overturning. In order to truly heal the wounds created by the rigid belief system that made the villain who they are, the protagonist needs to be able to extend their compassion and sympathy even to their greatest enemies, or else it fundamentally breaks the narrative. The idea that there should be limits or conditions on such compassion is exactly the kind of mentality that led Eraqus to try and kill Terra and Ventus in Birth by Sleep. It doesn’t mean the main characters will ever forgive the villain(s) for what they’ve done, but that they are choosing to let go. To focus their energy on self-care and rebuilding, instead of more violence and more destruction[2].

Regardless of how individual fans feel about it, Xehanort being treated with dignity in his final moments needed to happen in order to show Sora’s growth. If Kingdom Hearts III had given Xehanort a violent demise like some of us wanted, it would have been a betrayal of the Heroine’s Journey’s major themes. Treating opponents with sympathy and compassion is a critical element of the framework, and is necessary in order to allow the protagonist to break free of the destructive mentality that created the story’s overarching conflict in the first place. 

Sources:

[1] “The Heroine with a Thousand Faces”; June 13, 2019;

https://www.teampurplelion.com/heroine-with-a-thousand-faces/

[2] “On Love and Lions Part 1: An Analysis of Love in VLD”; February 14, 2020. https://www.teampurplelion.com/on-love-and-lions-1/

[3] Analysis of Marluxia by @mlhelena;  https://mlhelena.tumblr.com/post/185211447430/thought-that-ive-been-nursing-for-a-while

[4] Kingdom Hearts III. Square Enix, 2019. 

[5] Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep. Square Enix, 2010.

[6] Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. Square Enix, 2012. 

[7] Concerning Atypical Heart Regrowth in Nobodies: Saïx Case Study by dicax; June 23, 2019.

https://archiveofourown.org/works/19329115

[8] Kingdom Hearts III Re:Mind. Square Enix, 2020. 

[imagine-organization-xiii]

Heyo! How about Organization XIII as college students? What courses would they take? What kind of students would they be? owo

If you’re in college, leave a comment with your major and your favorite courses!

Most of you already know that I majored in history, and my favorite courses at my university were the ‘Psychology of History’ and ‘Founding Fathers and Mothers’

Also, shoutout to Matthew for helping me with a few of these when I needed some inspiration!

oOoOo

Xemnas

Pursuing: Double Major for Master’s Degrees in Business Administration and Public Administration, in a PhD program for Government Studies

Their Favorite Course (link): ‘Philosophy,’ ‘Anthropology,’ Business Management’

Type of Student: a student that all other students wish they could be and a student that all of the teachers like but are slightly afraid of. He’s a no-nonsense type of guy who prefers to study alone and keep to himself. Probably Student Body President but he has absolutely no idea how he was elected to that position.

Xigbar

Pursuing (link): Master of Arts in History with a Concentration in Military History

Their Favorite Courses (link): ‘History of Women, Gender, and Sexuality,’ ‘History of Modern Warfare,’ ‘African Americans Since the Civil War,’ ‘History of Rock: Rhythm & Blues, and Rock and Roll to Indie Rock and Hip Hop’

Type of Student: An infuriating bastard to literally everyone that comes into contact with him. He’s so freaking smart that sometimes it takes the teachers and students by surprise, but he’s lazy and sometimes just doesn’t want to force himself to do the work. But sometimes he doesn’t have to! He manages to scrape by with an above average grade without studying.

Xaldin

Pursuing (link): Master’s of Sports Psychology and Counseling

Their Favorite Course (link): ‘Counseling Student Athletes,’ ‘Multicultural Issues in Counseling’

Type of Student: More focused on other activities that don’t have to do with school, but he does fairly well for himself in his classes. He does just enough to pass with average grades even though he would do better if he took the time and effort to apply himself.

Vexen

Pursuing (link): PhD in Chemical and Biomolecular Engineering

Their Favorite Courses (link): ‘Polymer Physics,’ ‘Protein Engineering,’ and ‘Thermodynamics for Chemical Product and Process Design’

Type of Student: So SMART. So damn smart but he’s SUCH an annoying little shit and all of the professors dislike him because he’s obviously more intelligent than they are, and HE knows it, too. He’s a genius and is going to go on to do great things, but most think he needs a steady, guiding hand to lead him in the right direction.

Lexaeus

Pursuing (link): Bachelor of Science in Nursing - Pediatric Care

Their Favorite Courses (link): ‘Infant, Child, and Adolescent Health,’ ‘Pharmacotherapeutics,’ ‘Procedures and Skills for Pediatric Care’

Type of Student: He’s never been book-smart, but when it comes to hands-on learning? There’s no one better to have on your team. Lexaeus has always learned better when he can actually see information in front of him instead of listening to lectures, so he spends a lot of time teaching himself the information in his textbooks - even if it might take him a while to get through the material.

Zexion

Pursuing: Master’s in Library Science

Their Favorite Courses (link): ‘Archival Management,’ ‘Knowledge Management,’ ‘Librarian Special Collections and History of the Book’

Type of Student: The dream student that every teacher wants. He’s quiet, studious, asks really intelligent and thought-provoking questions, always does his assignments and turns them in on time, etc.

Saix

Pursuing (link): Master’s in Law and Business

Their Favorite Course (link): ‘Business Evaluation and Analysis,’ ‘Game Theory and Strategic Decisions’

Type of Student: Quiet, studious, and knows that he’s smarter than you. Has a lot of activities outside of class because he knows that they look good on a job applications, but his heart is truly just into his classes because he enjoys learning new information.

Axel

Pursuing: Bachelor’s in Paramedic Technology

Their Favorite Courses (link): ‘Physics for Poets,’ ‘Immunology,’ and ‘Genetics’

Type of Student: Doesn’t study at ALL and it infuriates literally everyone to no end how he manages to do so well with so little effort involved. The class clown, but also knows when to keep his mouth shut. Defends female classmates whenever they get mansplained by teachers or other students.

Demyx

Pursuing: Double Major Bachelor’s Degrees in Music Composition and Sound Design

Their Favorite Courses (link 1, link 2): ‘Film Scoring,’ ‘Producing Music with Logic’

Type of Student: Demyx is both a good and a bad student. When it comes to topics that he enjoys, he is the most dedicated, task-oriented person you’ll ever meet. When it comes to the boring stuff - basic classes that he’s required to take, like math or science, his mind wanders and he gets distracted way too easily.

Luxord

Pursuing: Bachelor’s in Hospitality Business Management

Their Favorite Courses (link): ‘Introduction to the Casino Industry,’ ‘Introduction to Wine and Hospitality Beverages,’ ‘Hospitality Marketing,’ and ‘Hospitality Business Law’

Type of Student: No one understands how he can possibly have such amazing grades when he sometimes doesn’t even bother to go to class, but they’re impressed, especially when he does manage to go to class without a sign of a hangover when most of them know he spent the night before drinking.

Marluxia

Pursuing: Bachelor’s in Horticultural Science

Their Favorite Courses (link): ‘Plant Breeding,’ ‘Agricultural Law,’ ‘Greenhouse Management’

Type of Student:  Knows a lot, sometimes more than the teachers, but is happy to let them all think that he’s dim and oblivious. Aces all of his tests and assignments, keeps himself to the back of the room and watches, silently observing.

Larxene

Pursuing (link): Master’s of Science in Engineering with a Concentration in Electrical Engineering

Their Favorite Courses (link): ‘Engineering Electronics,’ ‘Circuits Laboratory’

Type of Student: Sly and sometimes gets other people to do the heavy work on some of the more tedious projects she’s assigned. She’s too smart for her own good, but she hates the majority of her classes and teachers, so she skips class more often than not.

Roxas

Pursuing (link): Bachelor of Arts in Animation

Their Favorite Courses (link): ‘Storytelling for the Screen,’ ‘Interactive Animation,’ ‘Figure Drawing’

Type of Student: He tries. He tries so hard, really. But sometimes the words dance across the pages of his textbooks and he just can’t concentrate on something that’s so boring, so it’s difficult for him to focus when he studies. He passes all of his courses and is an absolute sweetheart to all of his teachers, but he definitely puts in a few extra hours of studying than most people do just to keep up with the rest of his peers.

Xion

Pursuing (link): A Bachelor’s in Elementary Education

Their Favorite Courses (link): ‘Assessing Impact on Student Learning,’ ‘The School as a Community of Care’

Type of Student: A sweet bean who is a gift to everyone who manages to get her in a group project. She’s studious, sweet, and always willing to help those who need it. She’s also not afraid to ask questions and stay after class if she needs it, especially in math and science courses, which aren’t her strongest subjects.

[sorakingdomhearts]

I just finished watching all of the Kingdom Hearts game cutscenes in 16 days! Under the cut, my super-long analysis post.

This was such a bad idea and also the best I’ve ever had. I can no longer tell the events of separate games apart, other than the stuff I added to this post’s draft while watching, but it’s given me so much to do in the quaran-times.

I would say my favorite games at this point are KH3, BBS, and 358/2 Days. I actually played through KH3 to like 90 something percent so I’m most attached to it, but storywise Aqua, Ventus, Roxas, and Axel/Lea have the best plots. If I had to pick a top favorite, other than Sora(because. Well. Sora’s my chosen middle name for a reason) I would say it’s Axel/Lea, and Aqua is the world’s closest second.

My favorite Disney worlds are probably Traverse Town for the music, Nightmare Before Christmas for the costumes(both the wintery ones and the spooky ones), Disney Town for the character appearances and aesthetic/colors, and BH6 for the plot/dialogue. Honorable mention to Hunchback of Notre Dame for being the only one I hadn’t heard about before starting this journey AND being a friend’s current hyperfixation so I got to share hyperfix joy with them for a bit.

I think Aqua has the best voice in the series. Especially with BBS 0.2/KH2.8 there’s quite a few scenes where the only dialogue is her talking to herself and she’s got such an emotional, pretty voice to pair with her heartbreaking journey home.

Axel/Lea’s relationship with his name is the same as a trans person with their deadname and I love that for him. For example, in the end of Dream Drop Distance, he gets frustrated with Riku not knowing it’s changed to Lea again but gives up on correcting him because the rest of what’s going on is more important. I’ve definitely done that with people deadnaming me.

On the other side of that coin, in ReMIND Demyx struggles to remember it’s Ienzo, not Zexion, but he corrects himself over and over. He doesn’t seem to want to deadname Ienzo, he just hasn’t gotten used to it yet. I think that more than anything else is what proved to me personally that Demyx really was trying to do something good.

Also, with Axel/Lea, can he not make bad jokes IN THE MIDDLE OF HIS OWN DEATH? Hello?! I said this on Twitter but hey, buddy, I love you dearly but now isn’t the time.

Xion’s name is pronounced she-on, not zee-on like I thought when I read it. Idk why I thought it was that way when I read it printed but it’s not.

Donald is always cute, all the time, and he’s cutest when he and Sora are squabbling like little kids. I love him. Or maybe that’s the Ducktales fan bias creeping in...

Speaking of HEY, WAS ANYONE GONNA TELL ME HDL AND SCROOGE ARE IN MORE THAN JUST THE KH TRILOGY?!?! What a pleasant surprise to see Scrooge in BBS and to visit Disney Town.

Nobodies make the wobble sound of laminated paper being shaken. I keep thinking about that for no reason.

Does anyone else think Riku saying he can “smell the darkness” on people in ReCOM is weird? Am I just really late to the party, or are we just going to ignore that? Yeah? Okay.

Aqua’s end of Birth by Sleep has some of the sweetest, most poetic dialogue in the series imo. When Aqua and Mickey are talking about Ven, and Sora and Riku talking about hurt within the heart? Yeah. I’ll cry.

Also, another sad scene: Isa and Lea as kids when Lea explains his whole “get it memorized” thing is so he can be remembered and live on, if need be. I cried real tears at that one.

Conversely, some of my favorite sweet scenes are: in the beginning of BBS when Aqua tells Ven and Terra they’d “make the weirdest brothers,” Sora meeting Santa in KH2(I think?) which reminds you hey, these are children, the scene right after they find out Goofy’s not dead and Donald flips out, Lea summoning his Keyblade for the first time(powermove,) and of course the series of reunions in KH3. There’s at least a solid scene or two in each game that really warms my cold sad heart.

Speaking of the KH3 reunions, the best one I think was Xion, Roxas, and Lea’s. At least with Aqua/Terra/Ven they started out with hope, and Aqua and Ven at least had the ability to hold onto that hope to get them through. The ex-Nobody crowd really didn’t have anything. Just the promise that they’d meet again, and maybe not even in this life. I will cry.

Some of the voice casting is surprisingly great. Like, Nala’s voiced by Vanessa Marshall, who did Gamora in the GOTG tv series. Love her. And Hynden Walch who does Starfire is the Alice voice at one point which was such a pleasant surprise.

Also hey, Zachary Levi went so fucking HARD on his voice work. Even Rapunzel has some lines that fall a little flat compared to the tone of the original, like the KH version of the “first time outdoors” sequence. But Flynn Rider has this consistent energy to him that I really love.

In ReCoded I really liked the second-person Mickey narration. Idk why. It just made me super happy.

Hercules is a movie that frequently becomes a level in these games and like every time they continue that trend of Phil’s “I got two words for you” joke like guys, wasn’t the thing in the original that it translated to two words in Greek? Not that he couldn’t count? Anyway that’s the best reoccurring joke. I hate it and love it in equal measure.

One of the frequent things in KH that I love is there’s this sense of ridiculousness to it. Like, it’s a lovely story with excellent worldbuilding and character designs, with a brilliantly complex plot, but like. You get into scenarios like the end of ReMIND, and Sora’s time-travelled to save his dying and sorta already dead friend(Kairi). He’s cradling his other dying friend in his arms and talking about how he found his way to them by tracing the connections between their hearts. Beautiful, poetic, showstopping, right? Except it’s Mickey motherfucking Mouse. You can’t find this anywhere else.

Speaking of ReMIND, the part where Sora connects all the keyhole things? It looks like a starry sky full of constellations? Yeah. Holy fucking SHIT is that pretty. I literally had to pause it twice to absorb the visuals in that scene.

To end off, here’s some of my pride headcanons: Terra and Xion are trans, Ventus and Riku are nonbinary, Saïx/Isa is agender, and Sora is genderfluid. Axel/Lea is pan, Kairi, Riku, and Sora are poly, and Aqua is bi. ((I definitely have more of these but these ones I think are most important.))

[fandomoverflow]

Of Their Own Volition: Luxu, the Master, and KH3′s Secret Ending

Shortly I finished playing Kingdom Hearts 3, someone (can’t remember who but if anyone knows/finds the OP for it) suggested on Tumblr that Xehanort “shattering” Kairi was Luxu’s idea. That Sora didn’t require further motivation to fight Master Xehanort, but he did need a reason to keep abusing the Power of Waking until he faded away at the end of the game. 

My initial take on the idea was that Luxu either wanted to remove Sora as an obstacle to the Master of Masters’ plans, or Sora was part of the Master of Masters’ plans and Luxu wanted to isolate him from his friends. But now I think I’ve hit on a different take: Sora was just a means to an end. Getting Riku to the Master’s location was the true goal. 

Let me break it down. 

When Sora chases the Lich to rescue his friends’ hearts, Young Xehanort says 

“Dream by dream you nearly buried yourself in the dark of sleep. And now you’re at it again.” 

And when he departs, YX tells Sora that: 

“You’ve paid the price, and it lies at the bottom of the abyss.” 

Connecting Sora’s fate at the end of KH3 to the eternal slumber the Organization planned for him in DDD indicates that those who misuse the power of waking like Sora did trap themselves in the deepest layers of the Realm of Sleep.

Since the Master of Masters’ talk of fading/vanishing is reminiscent of what happens to Sora at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3, a lot of us have caught on to the indication that the Master’s disappearance in Back Cover is the result of misusing the power of Waking. 

For what purpose we still don’t know yet, but what the puzzle pieces laid out in the games tell us is that the Master of Masters knowingly sealed himself in the deepest abyss of the Realm of Sleep. How he’s able to interact with Young Xehanort in the Re:Mind trailer remains to be seen, but my best guess is that this is a projection of him, while his heart is elsewhere, like Crab Jack and what the Sleeping Realm Theory suggests happened with Kairi. 

Twitter user Scherzo pointed out the parallels in Chain of Memories’ Hollow Bastion storyline between Sora and the Beast as well as Riku and Belle. In their analysis, Maleficent’s role in this plot has paralles to Organization XIII. But in the comments for the post, Scherzo brought up the possibility that this plot parallel (Villain wants to use Character A’s love for Character B for their own nefarious ends) being repeated with the Master of Masters filling the role that Maleficent played in Chain of Memories. 

And that's when I remembered this line from Re: Chain of Memories when Vexen hears that Maleficent was one of the scents Zexion detected in Castle Oblivion’s lowest basement:

“The witch is gone. She cannot return from the Realm of Darkness of her own volition.”

Given the fact that the Realm of Sleep is repeatedly connected to the Realm of Darkness, it would stand to reason that returning from the deepest layer of the Realm of Sleep where Sora and the MoM are works similarly to returning from the Realm of Darkness.

So let’s look at the characters who have ended up in the Realm of Darkness at one point or another and how they were able to escape: 

Case 1 (Riku; COM): Sora enters Castle Obvious with the express goal of finding Riku. In Re:Com, his gut feeling that Riku and Mickey are in the castle is verbalized as “our very best friends. They’re here.” And during the course of Marluxia’s exposition dump, Sora out loud puts Riku into the category of “people I miss”. During or shortly after this time, Riku awakens in the Castle’s lowest basement. Vexen openly states that Riku’s arrival is because “his existence resonates with that of another.” In other words, Riku is able to escape the dark realm because of his connection with Sora.

Case 2 (Maleficent; KH2): After her apparent death in KH1, Maleficent’s heart ends up in the Realm of Darkness, where she manages to time travel back to the Age of Fairy Tales and ends up trapped in a Data Simulation made from the Book of Prophecies. A mysterious figure referred to as “Darkness” helps her return to her own time, back in the Realm of Darkness. In KH2, her raven diablo brings her robes to the Mysterious Tower. The three good fairies attempt to deny her existence, but simply remembering her is enough to reconstruct her body and return her to the realm of light. 

Case 3 (Sora & Riku; KH2): Sora’s heart opens the Door to Light at the end of KH2 after reading a letter that Kairi had written to him at the beginning of the game. 

Case 4 (DiZ; KH3): DiZ was removed from the Realm of Darkness by the Heartless of his former apprentice, who as a Heartless could travel in and out of the Dark World at will. 

Case 5 (Aqua; KH3): Rescued by Sora, who from her perspective she had met not too long ago when she recognized Riku as Terra’s chosen successor and made Sora promise to support Riku the way she knew Terra had needed support from her and Ven. In addition to that, Sora still had Ventus’ heart inside him when she was rescued. 

What all of these cases have in common is that each character is only able to leave the Realm of Darkness because of a strong enough connection with another person. 

Meaning that even if he knowingly consigned himself to the depths of the Realm of Sleep of his own choice, the Master of Masters cannot leave and return to the waking world without the outside assistance of someone he has a strong connection with: 

Riku’s connection to Sora allows him to slip out of the dark realm into Castle Oblivion in COM. 

Sora and Kairi’s connection allows him to open the Door to Light in KH2. 

DiZ was taken out of the dark realm by the Heartless of his former Apprentice. 

Aqua and Sora met once and he has Ven’s heart inside him. 

And although they tried to forget her, the three fairies, her enemies, were enough of a connection to allow Maleficent to come back in KH2. 

This fits incredibly well with Joshua’s line in DDD: 

“By ourselves we’re no one.  It’s when other people look at us and see someone.  That’s the moment we each start to exist.  All they needed was someone to see them, connect with them.”

In summary, escaping from the Realm of Darkness requires someone you know and have a strong connection with to acknowledge your existence.

But despite the similarities the Realm of Sleep is still the Realm of Sleep. The requirements for exiting its deepest layers aren’t going to be the exact same as exiting the Realm of Darkness. So it’s a good bet that the Power of Waking has to be involved 

The only times the Power of Waking was shown being used in DDD and KH3 were situations where the sleeper had a connection with the person waking them. Sora and Riku. Sora and Ventus. Sora and Kairi. 

So we can infer then that releasing someone from the depths of the Realm of Sleep requires 2 things: 

someone you have a connection with on the outside to serve as a beacon home

someone you have a connection with who can use the Power of Waking to release your heart from its prison. 

Which brings me to the end of Kingdom Hearts III and beyond. 

In the epilogue, Luxu summons four of the five Foretellers to the present day after Xehanort’s defeat. They are now the only people left alive who have a connection with the Master of Masters. No one else in the present day knows who he is. The few other X-era characters only knew of him at most and had no real connection to him. So it’s up to Luxu, Ira, Gula, Invi, and Aced to serve as the anchor point. 

As for the second requirement… 

After Kairi was “shattered” Sora used the Power of Waking one last time to restore her at the cost of casting himself into the depths of the Realm of Sleep. As his Dream Eater, Riku followed him. 

The presence of the Gazing Eye on Riku’s Soul Eater and Way to Dawn indicate that there is some connection between Riku and the Master of Masters. 

What that connection is remains to be seen (although I’m a big fan of the Nightmare Family Theory suggesting that the MoM is Riku’s father, with Luxu as his older brother and Nightmare counterpart), but I’m willing to bet that the Master of Masters is fully aware of that connection, whatever it may be. 

Now all he has to do is force Riku to acknowledge that connection and the Master will be freed from his prison to return to the Realm of Light once more. 

TL;DR: The Master of Masters has spent ages sealed in the deepest layers of the Realm of Sleep. The epilogue and secret ending of KH3 represent the beginning of the culmination of Luxu and the MoM’s carefully orchestrated plan to use the bond between Sora and Riku to free the Master from his self-constructed prison.