#and now again at the shit with terra towards the end of BBS

[pan0ramy]

finally listening to all of the kingdom hearts lore dump episodes and i swear to fuck if terra doesn't get some sort of happy ending by the end of all this i am hunting nomura down

[ajdrawshq]

ztd crossover with kh but it's just Carlos meeting Terra, Diana meeting Aqua and Sean meeting Ven. Cursed or blessed concept. Go

HM. WELL. i immediately leaned toward cursed bc like (gestures vaguely at ztd) but that feels mean so im gonna try putting some thought into this

Carlos and Terra :] very good pair for the most part i think. just 2 big older bros doing what they do to try to help people.. but it all goes to shit kupo. i can see them getting along pretty well, both due to their personal experiences and bc of who they are in general. also now that i think abt it its kinda funny that both of them happen to be plagued by visions but only Carlos' have an actual explanation?? Terra morphogenetic field moment?? even funnier is that both of them have the same "welp. anyway" reaction to it like yeah this just happens sometimes 👍 kind of unfortunate Terra couldnt use his to prevent bad things from happening too but oh well. its not like hopping timelines is that easy in his universe anyway. Terra still gets bonus points on an individual level bc while there was very little he couldve done differently there Are things Carlos couldve just uh. not done. yknow. things that i think Terra would kick his ass over tbh

Diana and Aqua.... oof. on god we're gonna get u girls some therapy. they were both so severely fucked over by like. literally everything from ingame events to the narrative itself. trapped in two different but absolute hellholes of sitautions for Very Long Amounts of Time and only called upon as a pawn in a game that both defines and ruins their lives and their entire world, and they barely even know it. and the only people they get to talk to at some point in their respective hells are Sigma and Micheal Mouse (and Terra sort of).. yea i think id lose it too tbh. its interesting that Diana was a 100% crucial part of why ztd happened while Aqua's role in Xehanorts plan wasnt really until ddd/kh3 unless u count him planning the whole end of bbs.. before that she was more of an outside force? not that taking her out wouldnt change anything ofc but her direct actions were more harmful to the overall plan than going according to it. i might need to play bbs again to confirm that more but uhh i forgot where i was going with this. i could see them getting along but i dont really remember enough about Diana as a person to know just how well they would? i guess itd at least be nice to have someone else who knows what their oddly specific and horrific situations are like, more or less

finally Sean n Ven.. Man. talk abt kids who cant catch a break for their entire lives no matter how outragously short OR long. they both just have a Lot going on and play some of the most major roles in their respective stories and god knows they didnt ask for any of it!! tho weirdly enough i dont feel much for Sean considering how he fits into the kinda characters i usually get attached to. but maybe thats just bc it was ztd. anyway !! out of the 3 duos here i think these two are most likely to become actual friends. from the memory fuckery to having a greater role in everything than they couldve imagined (both of them essentially being a key at some point..) to even just. having a very limited world in some way. and not having full control over their bodies. and several other major things im probably forgetting they both have. lots and lots and lots of things. they are friends to me

and just some general other thoughts - while im. not entirely sure how to feel abt what ztd does with the morphogenetic field i can at least appreciate the weird memory stuff that comes with body hopping and the possibilities that has when tied to all the other weird memory stuff that already happens in kh for similar or different reasons. like the way ztd (and vlr to some extent) went about it didnt quite hit the way i wanted it to but the concept is cool to me? itd be fun to play around with it in the context of kh i think. or vice versa. altho maybe introducing multiple timelines to the kh universe isnt the best idea.. hm. much to think about

but yeah!!!! overall verdict: mostly blessed with some underlying hints of cursed. like a weird aftertaste

[xiolette]

Reworking Ansem SoD and Xemnas: Fuck Xehanort

Ansem SoD and Xemnas were interesting characters when they were introduced. Remember that? I’m going to recreate that, because their entire characters being reduced to “bleh Xehanort!” pisses me off!

Xehanort’s plan to take over Terra’s body didn’t work out the way he planned. 

He was successful, for a bit, until the fight with Aqua. When Terra took control and turned his keyblade on himself, that was the end of Xehanort. 

It was also the end of Terra, unfortunately. 

Or, at least, Terra as we knew him. 

It continues as it originally did: An amnesiac Terranort is taken in by Ansem and the apprentices. The only name he remembers is Xehanort but it feels wrong. He doesn’t like it. He has a feeling that he was someone else, but its the only name he has so they go with it. It always rubs him the wrong way. 

Master Xehanort is dead. He is not an influence on Terranort, besides the little remaining memories that cling to him. The important thing here is that this is Terra. Just... an amnesiac, broken down, more susceptible to darkness after All That Terra. 

He takes to being an apprentice surprisingly well! After Ansem and the gang were able to set up some accommodations (I hc that Terra has really bad dyslexia) he’s thriving. Terra is smart, he’s just never had the opportunity to show it. Eraqus saw that he struggled with the more academic side of things and redirected him towards physical keyblade handling because that’s obviously where he thrived. (Which is accurate to an extent, but left Terra with the impression that he’s just dumb and shouldn’t bother with anything else)

In the absence of internal shame and embarrassment and with an instructor that’s actually working with him Terranort soaks up everything like a sponge. He’s guided towards the more metaphysical side of things, latent influence from both Terra and Xehanort being keyblade masters and that knowledge running around deep in his subconsciousness. 

 Ansem’s fascination with his missing memories and Terranort’s own need to figure out who the hell he is spur the experiments that kickstart the whole plot of KH. 

Terranort is being led along by the idea that the heart is important somehow that this is the key to everything. He has bits and pieces that point to something and that something becomes an obsession. This obsession in more than encouraged by Ansem who proposes his own theories and is just glad to see his young apprentice excited about something. 

Terranort convinces Ansem to use him as a test subject, because it’s his heart and his memories and he doesn’t want anyone else being dragged into this. (ha.) 

The experiment was a success.... to a point. Terranort unlocks some memories, but they’re disconnected and scattered and the lack of context leads to the conclusion that whoever he used to be was not a good person. In fact he may have killed a few people. 

This is distressing and Terranort immediately withdraws into himself. Ansem, noticing the change, put an end to the experiments because sometimes things are best left in the past. 

The added pieces of the puzzle only make Terranort more obsessed. He’s angry and bitter over who he (thinks he) used to be be and is angry and bitter over the perceived abandonment of his mentor. (A small part of his mind tells him that this has happened before.) 

Insert: the recruitment of the rest of the apprentices and the KH1 Ansem Reports. 

Curiosity and (mostly) good intentions go horribly wrong and everyone ends up jumping off the slippery slope. 

It’s so interesting when you read the original Ansem Reports how he comes across as a well-intentioned figure that just slowly lets the darkness eat away at him until he’s convinced that this is all there is and all there will be. Then he, y’know, causes the apocalypse over of it. ❤️

Lead up is different, motivations are different - end result is the same. 

Then on the other side in KH2 you have Xemnas who is treated as a villain, yes, but a distinctly tragic one. Remember when his only motivation was to get his heart back? He may not have cared about anyone else also getting their hearts back, but he wanted his. 

Remember when he wasn’t trying to turn everyone into a Xehanort clone and never intended to get his own heart and that despite the supposed amnesia he’s still Xehanort and when he didn’t do everything because of Some Grand Evil Plan? 

I’m angry

But the desperate (and Nobodies are desperate creatures) want/need for his heart despite only remembering the negative emotions always struck me. Like, one: It’s better to feel bad than to feel nothing. Two: That’s fucked up man. 

I do like to believe that Xemnas cared or at least felt a certain kinship to his fellow Nobodies, but also he can’t feel nor does he remember how to fake empathy and still saw everyone as more of a tool than an individual. 

Because that’s, y’know, interesting. 

Again, everything is pretty much exactly the same as what happens in the main games. Nothing much needs to change there, because, like I said, they were interesting characters when they were introduced. 

Post KH2 reformation we get Terranort again! And he feels like shit! (As he deserves.) 

I would like for the protagonists to deal with the fact that the Big Grand Evil Villain was Just Some Dude who was a decent person at first but just went overboard. I would also like Terranort and friends to deal with the fact that this was on him. There wasn’t an evil mastermind brainwashing their friend - it was their friend. 

Uhhhh more solid parallels between him and Riku where Terra didn’t have anyone to reign him in, but Riku did. 

I should mention in this AU Ansem SoD becomes like a weird sort of father figure to Riku that actually gives advice and tries to get him to see his side while Riku is like, “Dude. You killed so many people.” “Fair.” 

Evil father figure Riku has mixed feelings about ❤️

The end result isn’t a full redemption arc, because Terranort really can’t get that. He crossed too many lines to have a fully happy ending. He does get reunited with the BBS dudes, though, and they all have to deal with the aftermath. His memories are never fully restored and, yeah, the Terra they knew is effectively dead and there’s some dude who looks like him in his place. 

It’s messy! 

DDD who? KH3 what? Real Organization XIII? 13 Darknesses??? I don’t know them. That sounds made up. 

(DDD is just the Mark of Mastery and Sora AND Riku both dealing with their trauma. Also the discovery of Aqua and Ven who need help like NOW) 

(KH3 is just Sora and Co. rescuing Aqua and Ven and Roxas and Namine and just giving everyone a relatively satisfying conclusion. No need for a grand epic battle. Just people picking up pieces and finding ways to move on.) 

(That’s it that’s the end of the series goodnight.)

[els-writes]

Some unrequested, unoriginal, and possibly unpopular Kingdom Hearts 3 thoughts - putting them here because I need to vent, sorry if this isn’t the content you’re looking for from me! XD

After sitting on this game for nearly two months now, I think I’ve finally sorted my feelings into intelligible thoughts. So here we go.

Sorry again this is so long and not my usual post, but I needed to vent, and I’m kinda interested to see what other people think! I know the DLC is hinted to expand on the endgame, but that feels like a cheap way of fixing the criticism.

I love Kingdom Hearts. Like love it. I’ve been playing these games for years - I got a PSP purely so I could play Birth By Sleep. I gave UnionX a shot back when it was Unchained, and I even forced myself to watch through all of DDD, even though that game ignites a kind of hatred I didn’t even know I was capable of feeling.

Kingdom Hearts 3 was great. I enjoyed playing it. It was so much fun, and I’ve never wanted to complete a game more. But it wasn’t the game I hoped for. Perhaps I expected too much, or perhaps the game devs built too many plots and overestimated how easily they could put into a single game and tie it all together with a neat bow, but it wasn’t the game I waited years for.

To clear up my thoughts before I get to my main point: 

Gameplay: great. 

Combat: great, if a little easy, but it was fun as hell. 

Pixar levels: holy shit amazing. 

Graphics: so beautiful no game plays the same. 

Music: still got the OST on repeat.

Gummi ships: burn in hell. 

Tangled world: kind dull but pretty. 

Frozen world: why the fuck are they singing. 

Pirates world: I have no idea what’s happening, if I wanted to play Assassins Creed black flag I would have.

But even the negative aspects weren’t bad enough to make me dislike the game (even if I cried in anger at one point during Pirates and I had to leave the room during the songs...)

There were two key problems that kind of ruined the game for me, in a way. 

The pacing, and the treatment of the characters. 

And that’s not a new opinion on the internet from what I’ve seen, but if the pacing had been fixed, if they hadn’t tried to summarise ALL the tiny plots together, if they hadn’t tried to rush through bringing everyone back at once, I think it would have been everything I wanted. Hell, I would rather they had split it into more games! Yeah, I said it! Give me more, fleshed out, singular plot driven spectacular games like BBS and we would’ve been great. They didn’t need to set up the black box plot here. Maybe teased at it, but not had it so thrown in everywhere, only to go no where. Waste of time, and waste of our old villains. Most of the bad guys didn’t really serve a purpose in the Disney worlds - honestly, most of the Disney worlds felt like they only served to level grinding to me - they had no real impact on the overall plot. Disney worlds are always a little thrown in, granted, but no game has had them serve no real purpose whatsoever to the main plot. 

Hard core KH fans have followed these characters through a ridiculous number of titles for this series. These characters are amazing and loved and so incredible. All I wanted was for there to be some decent emotional pay off for them. And honestly? I think they did most of them a massive disservice. 

To start with: I didn’t necessarily want everyone to come back. Some characters (like Roxas, Xion, and Namine) had returned to their ‘whole selves’, and as much as I loved them, I could understand. I was happy that Sora’s story was focused on bringing Roxas back, it felt sweet, like a very in-character thing to do, and I was looking forward to seeing how they would do it. But most of the time, they didn’t have Sora do anything to move towards that goal? He just ran around Disney worlds, and sometimes mentioned Roxas in the cutscenes inbetween? 

The plot barely moved for 30+ hours of my gameplay through the Disney worlds as I tried to complete each one before moving on. As we reached the Keyblade Graveyard, I was excited that things were starting to move forward, thinking it was mid-game. Nope. It was the start of a 2 hour mad dash to the finish line. It was messy, it was rushed, it left me feeling completely unsatisfied and unable to savour the return of most of my favourite characters. 

The scene with Lea/Axel commenting on how confusing everything was was funny, but it felt like the devs making an excuse to not spend time making the most of Ventus and Aqua’s return. I could kind of forgive them for that, since they were in a rush to save the others, and they did try to give the pair a little bit of time. But Terra? Roxas? Xion? NAMINE? They appeared last minute - some of them, Xion and Roxas especially, not even making sense when you think about plot holes. When they did appear, we didn’t get the emotional payoff and reunion of our trios and old friends that I was waiting for, we got quick comments and ‘ironing out plot points’ off screen? Even Roxas and Ventus meeting was completely anticlimactic (yes, I know they were in the middle of a fight, and they probably didn’t have time, but they’re literally twins, a bit more than just a confused glance and then forgetting it was surely needed). 

So overall: 

Roxas: my favourite, appeared without real explanation, barely got time with Axel. And then we still played Sora to fight? When really, Roxas deserved that fight.

Xion: how did she come back? She was in Sora again? Like... explain?

Terra: had to rewatch a few times before I understood what it was all about, but his return was half decent once I understood it. Also Lingering Will? Hello? 

Namine: she doesn’t even speak (aside from in star form) and is just introduced in the ending? I might forgive this, as she wasn’t really needed, if they hadn’t rushed the reintroduction of EVERYONE. 

Seasalt Trio: a momentary hug, the only thing that made me cry in the game, that was cut short and then dealt with off screen. 

Wayfinder Trio: No where near enough emotional payoff. None. 

Kairi: Wow. Nomura must really hate her? 

So, yeah. That’s all I have for now. The more I type it, the more it annoys me to think about. I’m disappointed in how it all played out in the end. It was rushed, hurried through, gave no payoff, and didn’t make sense a lot of the time. 

The game was incredible. Truly. Wonderful game. But the story? As an end to the massive series that I’ve invested so much time into? It wasn’t enough. 

Also no to the ending. Just no. 

[asiryn]

so hey.......y’all remember when i said that sometimes, just for fun and the hell of it, i make lists of “endgame” ships in my fandoms? bc yeah, that’s a thing that i do sometimes. XD

having now finished kh3, i’ve finally finished my endgame ship list for kh, and i figured that it might be a fun thing to share!

the actual list i’m gonna put behind a cut, bc it’ll be hella long (bc seriously.....i put about 95% of the characters into ships, and this includes all of the humanoid-ish disney characters too (barring most of the villains, bc....well, those characters are dead)), but before that, i’ll give you some....idk, context behind this list. 

keep in mind, this entire affair is just like........gonna involve a fuck-ton of indulgence on my part. and most of this is fairly light-hearted. most importantly of all, this is pretty much a self-challenge: i paired up the majority of the characters just to see if i could, with the additional challenge that i could only pair them with characters that actually, canonically, have appeared in kh (this means that i couldn’t substitute in other final fantasy or disney characters); i did this to see how creative i could get with my ships, really. 

idk if i’ll ever actually get around to writing fanfic for this verse (tho i do have a lot of headcanons, and i’ve actually put (probably far too much) thought into how i think these ships would work/come about, and my long-suffering friend Ip, bless her, has been an incredibly good sport about being a sounding board for all this), but i tend to refer to it as my “Healing Vision”, and it’s basically a post-kh3 AU, that presumes that everyone but xehanort (and also eraqus) got to live happily ever after. and this verse is so named bc, apart from everyone being able to heal and be happy after the traumatic canon, i also wanted to do my absolute best to put them in.....idk, healthy ships, and not ones that i think would be more toxic. everyone had redemption arcs, is what i’m saying (even if they never did or would have gotten them in canon).

y’all don’t understand, at this point i probably have over a hundred pages in various word docs of notes about this verse, so please feel free to ask if you want to hear more about it, i need validation of my madness---

anyway, here we go!

just so that there isn’t just a massive wall of text, i’m gonna break this up into roughly 2 sections: square/original kh characters, and then the rest of the disney characters.

Square/original KH characters:

Olette/Xion/Namine/Sora/Riku [OXN, SoNami, & SoRiku], Shiki/Kairi/Selphie, Axel/Saix, Hayner/Roxas, Terra/Cinderella, Aqua/Larxene/Yuffie, Repliku/Vanitas, Ven/Beat [more friends w/ benefits], Xigbar/Luxord, Aeleus/Even, Ienzo/Demyx, Sora’s Mom/Dilan, (Cinderella’s) Prince Charming/Marluxia, Geppetto/Ansem, Tidus/Wakka, Zack/Cloud/Leon, Aerith/Tifa, Cid/Auron, Fuu/Tinker Bell, Seifer/Rai, Jack Sparrow/Setzer, Boo/Vivi [platonic], Rikku/Paine, Yuna/Elsa, Neku/Joshua, Rhyme/Snow White, Hiro/Pence, & Eraqus/Xehanort [together in death]

i have no idea what’s going on with the khux characters going forward, and atm they don’t really have anything to do this AU, but assuming they’re alive and they’re all their own characters, at least for the time being, those ships would be: Skuld/Strelitzia, Ava/Ephemer, Invi/Ira/Aced, Gula/Brain, and Sephiroth/Master of Masters (but again, these are more tentative, and i don’t actually care about these characters, really)

Disney characters:

(again, keep in mind that these are only the humanoid or really anthropomorphic characters; ones that are straight up animals, like simba for example, were not included)

Mickey/Minnie/Daisy/Donald/Goofy [M/M, D/D, MinDaisy, & qpt Donald/Goofy], Horace Horsecollar/Pete, Clarabelle Cow/Clara Cluck, Hercules/Meg, Tarzan/Jane, Aladdin/Jasmine, Ariel/Eric, Belle/Beast, Lumiere/Cogsworth, Will/Elizabeth, Quasimodo/Phoebus/Esmeralda, Kristoff/Anna/Rapunzel/Eugene, Maleficent/Aurora/Mulan/Shang/Phillip [Malora, Philora, Mulora, Mulan/Shang, Phillip/Shang], Alice/Wendy, Peter/Wendy [qpt], Peter/Tinker Bell [qpt], (BatB) Chip/Pinocchio, Anastasia/Chien Po, Yao/Prince (from Snow White), Ling/Drizella, Merlin/Yen Sid, Hades/Genie, Mrs. Potts/Flora, Merryweather/Triton, Hook/Smee, Doc/Grumpy, Blue Fairy/Dopey, Fairy Godmother/Happy, Fauna/Bashful, Slightly/Cubby [platonic], Calypso/Barbossa, Sam Flynn/Quorra, Queen of Hearts/Agrabah Merchant, (BatB) Wardrobe/Gibbs, Emperor/Sleepy [his cuddle-cubine, if you will], Grand Duke/Sneezy, Mike/Sulley, Woody/Buzz, Honey Lemon/Go Go, Wasabi/Fred, Baymax/Tron/Baymax, & Phil/Zeus

Assorted Notes:

- should probably mention that all the worlds are just vaguely All Connected Now

- ven and hercules dated in bbs (then the Plot happened, ven pretty much vanished, and eventually herc moved on. they’re a bit awkward with each other now, but they agreed it’d be too weird to even attempt to date now, bc herc outgrew ven while he was in a magic coma)

- zack’s alive bc they forced hades to resurrect him like he did with auron (my hc is that the deal he made with cloud in kh1 was to bring zack back to life, but hades reneged on this; when cloud finally shared this info with sora, a Quest was undertaken to get hades to honor the deal)

- repliku’s name in this verse is Kiru (he decided to go along with the Theme, minus the sigil); sora’s mom is named Hikari; and i’m going with henry and florian for the real names of prince charming and snow’s prince, respectively (marluxia will probably still call henry “charming” as a sort of affectionate and kind of joking nickname (bc in this verse, henry is the definition of a Disaster Gay))

- goofy and pete dated in the past, but broke up with goofy came out as aroace; pete’s still kinda bitter about it

- aqua/larxene/yuffie is 100% a thing bc i feel that aqua deserves to be able to have fun and not be the responsible mom friend for once; aqua and cinderella also have some playful flirting, but it’s never really serious

- terra’s getting a staycation with his girlfriend, and aqua’s getting a vacation with her girlfriends 

- olette/xion/namine/sora/riku is Peak indulgence for me; i love namixiolette, sonami, and soriku too much to want to choose between them? fuck it, they’re all smushed together in a poly pile now. this is my indulgence fic, i can do what i want, and none of you can stop me XP (the other sub-ship combos, riku with any of the girls, and sora with the other two girls, are more queerplatonic, ftr)

- there’s like a whole soap opera behind mickey/minnie/daisy/donald/goofy coming to their current arrangement, mostly bc the idea of giving all the Drama to these characters in particular amuses me; same with past goofy/pete

- a recurring Theme in this verse is that compulsory heterosexuality is the true darkness, and pretty much no one is straight (and so, light = gay) (this is how the final confrontation in kh3 truly went down: sora: kingdom hearts, is gay! / xehanort: shit...u right, bro. kk, lemme just fade into the light of gay with my bf then)

- sephiroth in this verse is mostly just a vehicle for me to be able to mildly punish terrible lightside mentors, so this ship with the MoM is kinda a cracky spite ship (before kh3 went all in on xehaqus, this was eraqus’s original fate XD)

- i will admit, gula/brain is mostly just me going, “you both really annoy me, and i don’t care to find you better ships, so you two can deserve each other”; to be fair to myself, this attitude was on the rarer side during this process

- hiro totally builds a robot body for tron to use to visit the outside world, tho he still chooses to live in the computer most of the time; tron’s besties with baymax 1 & 2

- i’ll be honest: scrooge, huey, dewey, louie, chip, dale, and possibly jiminy, by my rules, should have been put into ships. they’re not bc i couldn’t find any that worked for me *shrugs*

- phil is more like zeus’s on and off again boyfriend; he’s really fucking annoyed that he keeps having to train a lot of zeus’s offspring, and that he kinda, in a way, ends up doing more parenting for them than zeus does; currently phil is kinda claiming herc away from zeus (”i’m his dad now, so there”) (so at this point, their relationship is more of a hatemance than anything else) (i guess in my hc, zeus skews more towards being like his myth self than the disney version)

- the total number of ships, if you’re curious, is 75

- i’ve actually got queer headcanons for the square characters (excluding the khux squad), and some of the disney characters, figured out (as an example, namine is a demiromantic asexual)

okay, i think i’ll stop here for now, tho of course i might tweak or add things later XD

[madfictionland]

KHIII - Strengths and Weaknesses of Nomura’s Insanity

1. Xehanort Saga’s Closure

Great:

- Axel vs Xemnas sequence and that entire battle alongside Xion and Roxas, with Shimomura’s orchestrated music - Sea Salt Ice Cream Rules!

it was just golden and weighted heavily on me! Lots of emotions and great closure there

- Xemnas and Ansem... being awkward... it was extremely weird at first, seeing them on strange errands, behaving the way they did, no Darkness lines for Ansem, and overall the two of them kind of less important than Xigbar, for example.

But it was actually perfect and then it all came full closure with their defeats! They were taken from their own timelines (in which they were soon to be defeated or right before the final blow?), briefed on the current situation and assigned tasks under MX. And Ansem being the most awkward because...

no madness, no darkness showdown! Being approached by some children! it’s just aren’t his thing, clearly... Oh, and Xemnas handling the “benched” Norts as if they were his students, something that he does proudly. Pretty much the only thing that gives them both purpose after that time travel ordeal is the sense of companionship and MX’s goal which they feel obliged to pursue “because they are him” - only not really, actually. Because as it turns out... they found they did not really care, in the end.

So yeah, in the end it’s actually pretty sad... and they fade away to be ultimately defeated in their own timelines!

- Young Xehanort being an utter dickhead of darkness (although the bad thing is... no more backstory, explanation and only minimal amount of screen time for him, damn)

I mean, seriously, I enjoy the fact he turns out to be one of the most engaging KH3 villains, so focused and bitter. When you think about it, then it makes sense since he was given great power early on and explored through time... obtaining even more power. He never met Eraqus, he never created his bizarre self-rightous grand goals to begin with... He was just... alone, traveling through time, and exploring the outside world through darkness and his dark future selfs, the future that he embraces fully. He is the embodiment of everything what’s dark about Xehanort, in some aspects perhaps even more souless than the old man himself, and we even have him take on Ansem’s role... lol

I like his interactions with Sora, especially here.

- Goofy being smart in the Xehanort’s plot business, lol and they’re always debriefing Sora on Mickey’s encounters from BBS. Nice!

- Finally we know how Axel and Saix got turned into Nobodies - we really needed that backstory...

- The replica research plays a big part here and it serves to create vessels for hearts... with data!memories... and we even get glimpses of artificial hearts being researched now... nice, it REALLY does bring into closure all this data madness that Nomura had started

- Vanitas regenerated through negative emotions of children’s screams in the Monster world + his entire ending with Sora/Ven which was amazing - Vanitas was darkness and it was his own choice because his very nature was darkness... he wouldn’t have it any other way! but despite this, he appears to be actually humanized in the end, at least as much as a rebelious pure darkness plucked from someone’s heart can be

- Terra reveal and him being Ansem SoD/Terranort’s sidekick pet all this damn time... like, I never thought that’s a possibility... even though it does make sense...

Now that’s the kind of crazy Nomura reveal that I like!

- Yen Sid finally takes action! WOOOOW

- final battle with 3 main Norts, and Master Xehanort doing a fingers thingy!

With a glorious MAD score and mix of all three bosses themes! YESSS

Bad:

- Kairi situation... although to be honest it was expected so it doesn’t weight on me too heavily, personally

- very few cutscenes/very few long dialogues and NO backstory cutscenes... now that’s a BIG flaw

- none of the time travelling stuff from DDD gets explained... we don’t know why Young Xehanort is still here despite (apparently) dispersing at the end of DDD... and we don’t even know which Norts are time travelers... and we don’t know their backstories either... how they got Norted? When? How many are there??? It’s not even clear if all of them (those that we meet in game and cutscenes) are present at the final battle because 13 figures showcased with MX prior to battle... all of them with hoods! And we know Demyx is not one for fight so maybe he bailed? Plus Vexen betrayed them? Also, Marluxia, Larxene, Demyx and Luxord were all secondary vessels... kept only due to their Keyblade War connection... so I would assume they had other more serious Norts in store? So who exactly was fighting and who wasn’t? Who was a time traveler and who wasn’t? Who was in a replica body and who wasn’t? Also, is Xigbar a Nobody or somebody Braig with Xigbar’s features? Just FUCK IT. I really like all these convoluted little details but none of this was discussed... which is so unlike Nomura...

- very little presence for MX, no backstory explored and... overall VERY anticlimatic final boss fight and weak ultimate resolution to his “big” saga

- Vexen is just too good at pretending... he really does seem like a bad guy again, who just wants to do research, I don’t buy his sudden redemption and I actually thought he was going to double cross Ansem and use him as his puppet! How can Vexen even feel anything, especially redemption desire, as a freshly cooked Nobody? lol

- Big big flaw is that many Norts were... not really Norts. What’s the point of them getting Norted if they don’t get a slight change in personality and aren’t driven by Xehanort’s purpose? It worked so well with Saix... only think what kind of Demyx or Larxene we could get if they were actually Norts. Seriously, that was disappointing. Frankly enough, we even have Demyx say this line...

which is EXACTLY the case, he would make an interesting vessel, and I assume one capable of good fighting skills or intimidation... if only they were influenced by the entire process and written as actual Norts - important to the plot - not just some toys and Keyblade War Legacy research project for Xemnas...

2. Union X / more...

Good:

- Ephemer and all the Keyblade wielders coming to help! With players’ names shown! Just wow, this was super powerful, and great soundtrack for it too. Also, it kind of confirms my suspicion there were two Keyblade Wars? The “Lost Masters” one and “Union Leaders” (the one in which Ephemer fell, thus he is there with the “spirits” of the wielders).

- Ven’s Chirithy, such a cute little detail :)

- The Final World - atmoshere, music and design... all of them GREAT. It makes sense in the lore + some of its design/animation reminds me of data worlds... Hmmm, could it be... some kind of bin folder on the MoM desktop?

In any case, the future of Nomura Mindfuck seems bright

- the ending with Sora vanishing (to another plane/world?) and Secret Movie with MoM fucking conceptualizing Kingdom Hearts under the normal’s moon light, all of it in a remake of the newest FF title......

I mean, we are one step closer to ultimate shit, right? Which would be Nomura self-inserting himself into the game as Master of Masters... and I’m all for it! XD

- seems like the time travelling Ven + other guys from Union Cross will be progressing places... diferent worlds, planes, realities? And I like it, this seems more interesting and like a fresh surge of madness from Nomura that he kind of wanted to do with Xehanort (hence time travel) but wasn’t really able... in the end. So maybe, just maybe... MoM will get a better conclusion?

- Xigbar makes it to another game. What can I say? I like him, he’s entertaining, that’s all

Bad:

- Xigbar being Luxu seems to be poorly explained, like... he ONLY pretends? Even in those Braig scenes from BBS? And when talking with YX? Really? Even though his BBS scenes were short and we knew nothing about him... it could have been done better, like maybe Luxu planted a piece of himself into Braig and pointed him towards Xehanort, but he wasn’t actually Braig? Hence the guy who gets Norted - Braig - isn’t Luxu? At least not yet? But then Luxu can take over? Well, I think that would be much better... unless there is more to it that we don’t know but i really doubt

- Maleficent, the Box, Xigbar searching for the Box... (wtf even? what MX has to say about this? what’s that box Xigbar? and how dare you hide shit from me?)

All of this... is quite different than earlier KH hints or reveals. It’s just extremely CRYPTIC. It leaves you with nothingness because the characters themselves feel like nothingness when they are forced to speak about this. I could understand it if it contributed to KH3 plot in any major way, like the box being a catalyst in MX’s plans maybe, but it wasn’t - it was pointless, so the attention it got, and they always speak about it in such vague terms... what’s the point? because that’s hardly a surprise and we knew about the box...

- Maleficent and Pete are pointless, especially pointless because the only way for Maleficent to be interesting was to explore some of her hidden (?) memories regarding her time travel experience (which she does not remember, I assume?). Instead, something was “etched”... and a black coat told them about the box... and replica Riku has an akward encounter with them... but nothing is explained or actually said in clear terms. OK, so it sucks, why don’t you skip their cutscenes then - it does NOT create a *Nomura mystery*, it just says “here is some random gibberish that won’t be ever explained because it doesn’t mean anything and doesn’t introduce anything new” A Nomura mystery would be to explain to us whether Maleficent actually remembers the box from her time travel experiences and THEN introduce a new solid mystery, like: she doesn’t remember, but there was a mysterious black coat guy who said there was a box (and there would be a flashback of this past encounter!). But at this point it seems like Nomura just completely doesn’t care, at least not in KH3

The Final Judgment: KH3 was quite a letdown (as the Xehanort’s saga conclusion) but still enjoyable and with grand potential for better mad shit in the future.

PS: Also, it delivered the greatest score in the history of KH... so that’s a win!

[atsushishelteredinmoonlitjasmine]

Kingdom Hearts 3 Theories

So I’m writing this on the same day that the D23 Expo’s trailers for Kingdom Hearts 3 have been uploaded. If any new information comes out after I’m done writing this, I’ll update this to include the new stuff. The stuff I’ll be covering in this post are the story bits that were revealed in both trailers. There are three main sections that plot was the focus of so I’ll be talking about those.

Let’s go over the two plot sections from the trailer that confirmed the Monsters Inc world. The first is when Sora, Donald, and Goofy meet with Marluxia (Or Lauriam, whichever you prefer) and they’re talking about the new Organization. The second is when Vanitas confronts Sora about Ventus and finds out where Ven went to after their fight in Birth by Sleep.

For the first story section, we can’t tell if we’re seeing Marluxia or Lauriam. Sure, he refers to himself as Marluxia but Marluxia, as we know, died at the end of Sora’s journey in Chain of Memories. It could be possible that it is Lauriam, since Marluxia was his Nobody and we can only assume his Heartless died as well, but why wouldn’t he refer to himself as such? I can only think of two reasons why “Marluxia” is here. Either Lauriam lost his heart again to darkness or (What I believe to be the more plausible) Xehanort has a hold on Marluxia the same way he does with Xigbar and Saix. I can’t think why Marluxia doesn’t look as Norty as the others, other than this may have been a recent seize of dominance unlike with Xigbar and Saix, where it took years for them to look Norty.

Secondly, it seems as if Marluxia has not forgotten what transpired in Castle Oblivion. Course, we know why Sora doesn’t remember what happened in COM (Namine’s memory manipulation) but I doubt that’ll stop Sora from defeating Marluxia again. To be honest, Marluxia’s really calm in that scene, considering he’s face to face with his ‘murderer’ and the guy who ruined his plans but he is the type of person to not lose his cool easily.

Now, for the second story section, Vanitas is somehow alive again and Ventus has appeared, if only for one line. So here’s where I’m going to present my theory as to why that is and even I’m not sure if it’s even plausible. As we all know, at the end of Ventus’ storyline of BBS, Vanitas disappears and Ventus’ heart goes on to live in Sora’s heart. Then towards the end of DDD, after Sora’s heart becomes damaged, Ventus shields it with his Keyblade Armor. When Riku goes into Sora’s heart to save Sora, he has to fight the armor that had become possessed by a Nightmare. One of the twists for DDD was that Riku was a Spirit Dream Eater in Sora’s dreams, fighting off the Nightmare Dream Eaters. The possessed Keyblade Armor had the emblem of the Nightmare Dream Eaters. Is it possible that Riku was still acting as a Spirit Dream Eater (Knowingly or not) and that Vanitas was the Nightmare Dream Eater possessing the armor? Then after Riku beat the possessed armor, Vanitas was released into the world? I’m only suggesting this because it’d make sense as to why Vanitas is out and about and, with Riku triggering something in Sora’s heart (And by extension, Ventus’ heart), triggered the movement in Ven’s body at the end of DDD. Not to mention that I guess the feeling of seeing Vanitas again after he was sure he vanquished him shocked Ventus enough to temporarily come out of Sora (Essentially pulling a Roxas). I could be completely wrong about this but this is something I thought to throw out there.

 Next up is the story section from the Utada Hikaru trailer. We see Riku and Mickey in the Realm of Darkness, presumably to save Aqua, and Riku sticks “Way to the Dawn” (His Keyblade) into the ground. He says something along the lines of “I won’t be needing this anymore. I’ll leave it here in case the other me needs it”.

What in the fuck could that mean? Lots of people are speculating that it could be hinting at the return of Repliku (Or Riku Replica) from COM but I have my doubts. First, Repliku died towards the end of Reverse/Rebirth so it’d be kinda hard to bring the same Repliku back. Second, I can’t think of an in-universe reason for bringing Repliku back. Riku and Mickey probably don’t need its help, considering they’re both Keyblade masters, it wouldn’t make sense for Lea and Even to bring Repliku back since I believe they’re on the side of Sora, Namine’s inside of Kairi so she has no use for him, and what would the new Organization do with a Replica that has failed plans before? I’m not trying to shit on people’s expectations here but I literally don’t see any reason to bring back a character that was created and died in their only game. At least Xion, Namine, and Terra have more reason to come back than Repliku.

Anyway, my interpretation of Riku’s “other me” was that Riku was gonna pull a Xehanort and somehow travel back through time to his younger self to do… something. I was initially thinking ‘save Aqua’ but how would that be possible? Riku was only in the Realm of Darkness from the end of KH1 to about partway through Sora’s journey in COM. Aqua didn’t exactly sit still while in the Realm of Darkness so it’s highly doubtful that, even with his older self’s help, Riku and Aqua would have met in the RoD. Granted, Mickey was stuck in the RoD as well but it’s still two people looking for one person in a giant realm of Heartless and darkness. Unfortunately, I can’t think as to why Riku would want to time travel outside of erasing past mistakes but character development would render that stupid so… I was also thinking that that was how Riku got Soul Eater in COM but then I remembered he had it in KH1 so I sorta disregarded that.

I also don’t know how Riku would time travel. I can’t be bothered looking back on the cutscene Xehanort talked about this and even then it didn’t make much sense to me on how he did it. I doubt they’ll pull the time travel card out again since it wasn’t well-received in DDD so…

 So these are mainly my theories on what the story bits from the trailers are. There’s probably a lot of information I got wrong on here but I’m hoping at least some of it was right.This is something I’m highly wanting the fandom to share thoughts on and maybe share their own theories on what the story in KH3 could be! I can’t wait for this game to come out and I really hope it answers a lot of questions that have gone long unanswered!

[pixel-creates]

About Me: Kingdom Hearts

Behold, my excuse to cry over KH with paragraphs for nearly each answer.

(shamelessly copied from @khfriendlyreminders​)

Favorite Kh Game Overall: … I underestimated how hard this would be. I mean, I can't simply say I love all of them (even though I do), so... I guess it has to be

ALL OF THEM.

Least Favorite Kh Game Overall: Aside from nitpicks in story and gameplay, I don't have much to say against the KH games. ^^'

I understand perfectly well when people analyze the story and explain why certain parts just don't work, but unless it's something that just outright doesn't sit well with me, I find it hard to be critical of the games. Which is weird since I can be very critical of other media, but KH is kind of... hard to see or make criticism of. I'm not entirely sure how to explain it...

Kh Games I Should Replay: … ALL OF TH-

Okay but for real, I do have to repay them all for the sake of my fic since I'm basing the events off of my gameplay. Though, one I'd like to experience once again is 0.2. I only had the chance to play once at my older brother's before I moved and I feel like I need to experience it again to really understand where the story stands currently.

Most Played Kh Game: KH2 definitely.

Least Played Kh Game: Maybe Re:Coded, Days, and Re:COM. Re:Coded, while I do enjoy, is just not that fun to play on my dying 3DS. Also, I can't remember if it's just Re:Coded, but the camera was just really loose?? On my 3DS with broken left and right triggers, there was just no end to the frustration when those babies started going out. Days is a long game to play and my gameplay is either short and brief stints or finishing the entire game in a day. Right now, I'm in the short and brief stint gameplay mode since I need a new 3DS. On that part, Days and Re:Coded aren't at fault. Re:COM just scares me. Eveyone says that it's easy to get a handle on the card system, and it is but I don't do very well under the pressure of getting the cards together. It's gotten to the point where just looking at the menu screen makes me cringe. ^^' KHUX can count, as well. The game has a hella lot of filler quests, which are fine here and there, but wow those mission goals (“Defeat Every Enemy” has been seen in my nightmares). Not only that, but I'm not really that good at keeping up with games that often require constant/daily logging in for advancement.

Kh Games I Need to Play: I've technically played them all in one form or another, but I would very much like to try out the original GBA COM game at least once. GBA used to be my favorite system and finding out a KH game had been made for it is amazing!

Favorite Gameplay: This one is a tie between KH and KH0.2.

KH2 is just... fun. It's fun to play, it's fun to watch, and it just feels satisfactory to attack and explore the worlds. It might seem a little weird, but my favorite part was being able to 'Examine' everything with the triangle button. It was like Sora's (and Roxas' thoughts for a time) were given a place to exist outside cutscenes and gave insight into how Sora/Roxas were viewing the world. I dunno what anyone else thinks about it or if they even care, but I sincerely hope it makes a comeback in KH3.

KH0.2 is like KH2 in which we are given more of an opportunity to explore and interact with the world around us by actually creating change within the world through spells, hitting objects, or finding the lost memories. I absolutely love to freely roam in games, but it doesn't do much to bring me into the world itself if I can't interact with the world. That's why, as much as it creeped the frick out of me, the Dwarf Woodlands in the Dark World was my favorite world to explore even after the main story.

Least Favorite Gameplay: It's not my least favorite by far (in fact, it's really high up there), but I feel I do have to mention that in KH DDD, I felt really bad about using Flowmotion. It was like, I'd find my way up to several treasures, but then, it turns out, that you'd eventually make it up there by unlocking the way so that you could walk to the treasure. I feel like if there was a couple of puzzles that locked some treasures away and couldn't be accessed through mobile means, it'd balance out the gameplay a little more.

I also find the Dream Eater system to be... a little cool and also a little bad. A little cool because while I can adventure to who knows where and not get constantly freaked by Donald and Goofy teleporting right behind me. It felt like I was on a little solo adventure! Not only that, but the feature to import Dream Eaters from a previous save to a new/other save was a great feature. It was especially helpful when I replayed DDD went from Beginner Mode to Critical Mode. Did I mention it was y first time playing any KH game on a mode tougher than Normal?

A little bad because sometimes that solo adventure was just a bit too solo – and when just starting out (especially on Critical Mode), rather than being my allies, my Dream Eaters were more so the colorful Pokemon rejects I babysat so they didn't die after three hits. It became annoying pretty quickly to constantly keep them alive, only for them to wander away from where the enemies are or just simply not attack and once again die.

KH Re:Com as explained above, though I will admit that once I start to get into it, I feel a lot less pressured unless it's a boss fight. Other than that, the game just feels really repetitive and as someone who's gameplay style is 80% grinding until you simply can't die, it just really didn't feel that fun to play after an hour of just grinding for a boss fight that I felt really unsure about fighting because I'm sill having trouble with the card system.

Favorite Story: Yikes, another hard one. It's easy for me to talk about gameplay in the games because they're self-contained to a singular game within the series, but goodness the story.

I suppose out of all of them, I would replay KH2, DDD, Days, and Re:Coded for story reasons only. I find them to have the more interesting stories. Right now, I'm kind of side eying BBS for... reasons, and KH1 is kind of hard for me to say anything about. More on that in the next one.

Least Favorite Story: Out of the games, KH1 is probably the most consistent one... on its own. As the series progressed and the writers tried to fit more lore and story into an idea that... no one really expected would garner so much attention, it becomes more obvious how... out of place the first game seems in comparison. This took me years to realize and I only really understood why people made such a deal about it when Caddicarus talked about it in his review.

I can't bring myself to really blame the writers (or Nomura) too much for the inconsistencies between the first game and the latest one, but I will say there are some things I wish could've been kept consistent throughout the series, or just plain kept.

So, I don't think of it as my least favorite (since there are times I'll play it simply because I love the story a heck of a lot more than the gameplay), but it's question because of how out of place its story is in comparison to its children.

Favorite Character:  Sora. I would fucking die for him – but he probably wouldn't let me. Why is he my favorite character? Probably for a similar reason why Naruto is – I am not a particularly outgoing or outspoken person. My voice is naturally soft and whenever I try to gear myself to ask people the simplest of questions or even to say hi, I chicken out at the last second. And then, we have this character who not only talks to people without an issue but easily has an active participation in not only social situations but in everyday life.

In a way, my younger self strived to be just a little but more like that, if only because I wanted to be surrounded by friends like Sora was. Not only that, but there's just the overall positivity vibe Sora gives off that I feel like I lack; I almost immediately assume the worst of situations, have trust issues, and stress horribly over situations that even I can admit are out of my control. And seeing this character go through what he did and still keep that positive outlook? How could I not want to be like that, if only just a little?

Least Favorite Character: I'll probably get shit on for saying it, but I really can't bring myself to like Kairi in any way shape or form. She's pretty much the only thing about KH that I can be really critical of and I'm not very proud of that. I can't get into her in canon and I can't get into her in fanon. I can detail point by point about why I just can't like her in any capacity and my own disappointment towards how she's written, and I really wish it was the opposite... but that's a whole other post.

For now, I'm more than content to ignore her.

Favorite Character from Main Cast: Aside from Sora? Roxas, Xion, Vanitas, Riku, Namine, and Ventus are in the ring competing for 11th favorite character since Sora has taken up the first ten spots. Aqua, Terra and Goofy are shoe ins for the next spots after them.

Least Favorite Character from Main Cast: Aside from that one chick? It's mostly as a joke, but Donald can rot.

#NeverThankDonaldDuck2018 Also, fuck Yen Sid.

Favorite Drive Form: Final. Fucking fite my vanilla ass.

Favorite Spell: While the Cure line is a staple, I'm going to have to go with the Reflect line. Late game KH2 often ends up with Heartless/Nobody encounters quickly ending as soon as it started with a single Reflectga. I really hope it makes some kind of comeback in KH3.

Favorite Keyblade: Kingdom Key. Call me vanilla, but I love it's simple design and the lore around it.

Favorite Summon: I've honestly only ever really used Tinkerbell and it's always for the Dragon!Maleficent fight in KH1. I always stress about using things with time limits, so I often just don't use them period. :,D

Favorite Limit: Okay, but if I rarely use Summons, then I really don't use Limits like ever. I hardly switch my party members out unless mandatory. Even then, I turn off the Auto Limit shit because I find it more important to make sure Sora has magic for Cure than pulling off an attack that will only hit like 3 times.

Aside from completion purposes (and Riku because how can I deny the beauty that is Sora and Riku's Limit), I don't use them in the main story.

Favorite Dream Eater: It's a toss up between Pega Slick and Me Me Bunny. While offering some pretty good abilities, I really like their aesthetic. Yoggy Ram and Aura Lion are pretty high up there, too.

Favorite World: Oooo~ How about we have fun with this answer?

KH1 – A toss up between Hollow Bastion and End of The World. The aesthetics for both just really agree with me and the map for Hollow Bation especially is really fun to explore. KH Re:COM – 100 Acre Wood for being the only world that isn't completely repetitive. Whenever I play Re:COM I use it as the 12th floor just so I can reward myself for sticking with the game. KH2 – Radiant Garden for being probably the biggest world in KH2, linking to worlds I really like (Space Paranoids/100 Acre Wood), and having an interesting story that was actually intertwined with the main plot. KHBBS – This one is a bit hard since I don't play any other story except Ventus' 90% of the time. It's a toss up between Land of Departure (aesthetic and story reasons), Disney Town (mini games are really great – except I Scream Beat), and Mirage Arena (Rumble Racing and Mono- Command Board ftw!!).

KH Re:Coded – Pretty much all of Hollow Bastion. While a re-hash of KH1, it still felt like its own thing, especially with the battle system since Data!Sora's Keyblade was destroyed. I also really liked Olympus Coliseum. It was my favorite place to grind. In fact... Re:Coded took a lot of risks in changing up how you could fight and/or navigate the world and, to me, they were all interesting takes and fun experiences. Except Agrabah. Fuck Agrabah.

KHDDD – I like La Cité des Cloches because of what it could have been... Actual worlds I like are The Country of Musketeers, The World That Never Was (Sora's story), and Symphony of Sorcery. KH0.2 – Dwarf Woodlands as explained above. KHUX – I honestly really like Daybreak Town. I wish we could freely explore it.

Least Favorite World: F U C K M O N S T R O

I have some bad memories with Monstro from KH1.

First off, there's a chance you will just plain miss the cutscene needed to get access to him. I once had to drive between Halloween Town and Atlantica six times to get him, and often require 2 or more trips around to get him to appear in general.

Second, in KH1, a game that actually would've benefited from the nowadays useless as shit map system, has a world where everything looks the damn same and has rooms literally titled 'Monstro: Chamber 1' and 'Monstro: Chamber 2'. Just watching Raisoren, someone who has played KH1 at least twice, try to find his way around Monstro was a headache in itself back when I first found out about KH. Actually playing it was a migraine.

Third, the aesthetic... just the aesthetic. I am very squicky about the 'insides' of things. I understand that the team went through lengths to make it not look realistic, but that ultimately failed since the main different between most of the rooms are ledges and the amount of barrels in a room.

With all that said, I bet many of you can guess my reaction to Monstro in KH:DDD... it honestly wasn't too bad. Unless I was grinding, I didn't have to spend as much time in Monstro as I did in KH1 and the layout was a lot more varied and easily distinguishable from each other.

And then I played it in Critical Mode. :)

Am I ready for Kingdom Hearts III: Very much so! I've been steadily getting more and more excited with each piece of news we get. I don't know what to expect, but as long as it feels like a KH game, I don't think there's a way to disappoint me.

[ladykattz]

Things that I loved about the new Teen Titans movie

-Jaime trying to explain to his beetle that his racing pulse doesn’t always mean that he’s in danger, sometimes its sexual attraction

-Jaime getting to see his familia, meaning that the beetle is starting to chill out around people

-Kori talking about her past before the coup

-Kori, despite having spent 5 years on Earth now, still not entirely understanding the social nuances of not talking about your sex life in front of your boyfriend and the group of teens you are leading

-Dick and Kori’s relationship and how it showed their communication on what was troubling to one of them

-Dick backing off when she needed him to

-Nightwing’s detective skills and ultimate fight scene

-Damian telling his big brother that he was happy for him and Kori in his own roundabout way

-Damian resonating with Terra and finally acknowledging (out loud!) the abusive brainwashing he experienced growing up.

-How no one fucking realized how this standoffish boi was missing until they went missing too

-Damian being somewhat less of a little shit to his friends/family

-Flashback!Beast Boy finding “Tweeter”

-Current Garfield religiously maintaining his 1 million+ follower count

-Gar as his regular happy-go-lucky self but being good at talking to because he is (somewhat) perceptive towards people

-BB calling Terra “Mama”

-Flashback!Roy/Speedy calling Flashback!Dick/Robin “Boss”

-Damian calling Slade “papa” and handing him his “pipe” (to the face) as a beautiful comeback to a gross and creepy scene from earlier (you know the one)

-Terra’s complexity in character as a result of her experiences

-Terra being colder than other versions (like the old tv show one) due to her past

-Terra being touched enough to cry after being thrown an anniversary party

-Terra’s guilt and inner turmoil at her actions/realizing that Damian and everyone were right in the end, allowing her to save the Titans, if not herself

-The way BB talked about Terra in the end

-Ms. “Is there a problem?” Terra

-Ms. “Not yet” Raven

-Raven putting Damian in his place when he gets too pushy/nosy (again)

-Raven kicking ass, esp. in the last fight

-Raven showing up with a puppy (Ace? Titus maybe?) at the end with Damian

-Just Raven in general

Lastly:

-JeRiChO?!?!?!?!?!?! <3

[groundramon]

Hey so yknow how I said I had a lot of feelings about the origins episode?  I’m gonna talk about them now bc i dont want to go to bed yet

I should mention by “feelings” I actually mean thoughts, some good and some bad.  If I wanted to gush about something I’d gush about the Season 4 finale (god i love Raven), but the season 2 finale broke me so bad that I think I’m physically incapable of being concerned for any of the characters anymore.  No fault of the show itself, I just... //sobs// and its not that i cant enjoy it, i just cant express any emotions anymore.  I feel them but.  How do I express them.

So anyways, over analytical time it is.

God I would really love if we spent more time looking at how the Titans came to be??  I’m not really complaining and I mean I’m not done with the fifth season yet (and the show never had a proper ending so who knows, maybe they wouldve elaborated on it later) but the dynamic that the original Teen Titans had is...extremely different than they have in the regular show, at least once the show finds its footing.  And besides edgy Cyborg (who...was the reason i disliked episode 1 and 3 so much and im having war flashbacks [and it wasnt Cyborg himself, he just got along like shit with the others and that made me sad]) I actually find their original personalities to be extremely interesting.  Young Beast Boy is adorable and I want to hug him (and I dont even like BB normally), Raven’s different personality was just...interesting, and dark Starfire?  HELL yes.  *Grabby hands* gimme more Starfire angst and development.  Also I realized after I watched the episode that Starfire has had racial slurs directed against her and was nearly sold into slavery and *sips cup of tea nervously* there was also an episode description I read once for an episode where she was forced into an arranged marriage and I was like “ah okay, we’re doing this plot” (the recording ended up not being Teen Titans tho so i didnt see it) but remembering that Starfire and her race deals with all that while keeping this plotline in mind is *sips tea nervously and quicker* this show scares me sometimes.  They’re fucking bold and I’d be scared but fascinated to see what would happen if the same writers were writing for, like, Adult Swim.  Also I dont like tea

But while I find their initial dynamic to be slightly more interesting because I’ve always found their roles in the show to be generally pretty stereotypical, I’m actually more interested in how they developed into the characters that they are today.  In fact, to make a fully well-rounded story, you kind of NEED to show that, and it’ll be a gaping plot hole if the show doesnt surprise me and make an Origins Episode pt 2 or something.

We need to know how Starfire became the adorable, kind gal we know today.  I can kind of guess based on context clues and her changed demeanor at the end of the episode, but it would be far more impactful if we saw that development.  Since Teen Titans is an action show I havent seen the characters go through much outward personality change, and like I said its an action show so that makes sense, BUT if you did a series of flashbacks, that’d actually be a really interesting way to include serious and personality-altering character development in a show that wouldn’t otherwise demand too much of it.  But I still need to know how she became like that.

I need to know why Raven is MORE emo after hanging out with these people for a while than less.  And I guess it’d be interesting to see Beast Boy change but I think we can chalk that up to puberty and possibly Cyborg being a bad influence.  Also Cyborg doesnt change that much but it would be funny to see him gradually adopt “Booyeah” as a catchphrase.  And it’d be cool to see Robin gradually adopt his role as leader and learn to work with the others.

But about Raven, while the others I can guess and approximate how their personalities changed, I have no earthly clue why Raven acts different.  Was she just younger so she was less edgy??  Was she on her best behavior??  Was she just in a good mood that day??  Was she gay for Starfire bc that seems likely.  They’re all lesbians sorry i dont make the rules.  But anyways, seriously, what changed her?  SHE SAID SHE THOUGHT BEAST BOY WAS FUNNY.  It also kind of contradicts what Beast Boy said to Terra in the second season but...sure w/e....just ignore your own canon...I guess Beast Boy was making a joke but it seems unlike that he would make that joke if Raven wasnt at least hostile towards him since the start, or if he wasn’t one of the more recent additions to the team.

I do wonder if there were potential plans to have more flashback episodes in season 6.  Since each season revolved around a Titan and Starfire didn’t have a season dedicated to her (she had the movie dedicated to her and wh...thats not fair, starfire deserves better) I guess its possible.  Not saying it was for-sure the case but it’s possible.  That’s what I’d do if I was writing for the show anyways, but then again there are a lot of things I would do differently if I was writing for the show (and im not talking about saving Terra, I love her but i think ive come to grips with her death, altho some of my changes would involve fixing some of her arc’s problems bc she deserved better before you killed her off for The Emotions(tm) >:U)

I dunno.  I’m just confused.  Also I feel really bad for Starfire and damn I wish she had her own season.  I want to learn more about her.