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happy (belated) halloween! featuring @nikutsuneart's halloween town wolfku :)c

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I prommy this is the only time ill post kingdom hearts(lie)

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2019 tribute

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chat are u seeing this shit

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PRACTICING BACKGROUNDS WITH THE SILLIES‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️

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Riku as X-Blade Knight

If Sora is an incarnated aspect of Kingdom Hearts (whether its deity, king, or whatever), I’ve had this idea that Riku could be the incarnated aspect of the x-blade, or rather, the Knight that wielded the x-blade to protect Kingdom Hearts.  While it’s not a super solid theory in itself, there are things in the game that I think would support the idea.  First, for the sake of argument let’s go with the idea that Sora is Kingdom Hearts in some way (its king or deity), as supported by what we know from the games.  If Sora is Kingdom Hearts, why might Riku be the x-blade (its original wielder)?

Here’s what we know about the x-blade:

“Rather than being a man-made key to an artificial Kingdom Hearts, like the Keyblade of heart, it coexists with the true Kingdom Hearts itself, a perfect union of all hearts and worlds, and is the only thing that can summon its door.

Originally, the χ-blade was the counterpart of Kingdom Hearts, for which it acted as protector.”

Isn’t it interesting that in the same game we are introduced to the x-blade and the continuous hinting that Sora and Riku are somehow connected to it, we are also introduced to the now fundamental aspect of Riku’s character, “To protect the things that matter.  You know, like my friends!”. 

While protecting his friends has certainly been a large part of Riku’s character since after KH1 (and the fact that he felt Sora no longer needed his protection, and therefore no longer needed him, was a big factor in his fall to darkness)  This was the first time it had been explicitly stated as his motivation, and ever since, this line has been hammered home over and over:

“Immediately you knew something was wrong, so without even knowing it, you dove into Sora’s dream.  And you became exactly what that sigil on your back represents- a Dream Eater to protect Sora from nightmares.”

“What is the one thing you care about more than anything else?”

“Riku, what do you wish”

Data Riku: ��Of all the possible vessels to protect the data, I was chosen from the journal’s pages.  The full set of memories was transferred inside of me to shield them from corruption.  So, in a way… what I really am is Jiminy’s Journal.”

“Everything in Jiminy’s Journal revolved around one person, and that person is you, Sora.”

And then, as if this wasn’t enough get the point across, Riku’s Dawn recap video has 6 separate points where it talks about Riku wanting to protect what matters/his precious person (explicitly Sora) in the span of 4 minutes.  I mean I know this is an important part of Riku’s character, but this is just excessive (not that I’m complaining).  And remember, the recap videos are supposed to be only the most important, need to know information in preparation for KH3.  This complete emphasis on Riku’s drive to protect what matters seems like it might be going beyond a character trait, and could actually be a set-up for something more deeply lore related.  Such as this seemingly innate drive to protect originating from his position as protector of Kingdom Hearts (especially if Sora is Kingdom Hearts/KH’s King).

But the parallels between Riku and the x-blade don’t stop here.  As a keyblade is forged from its weilder’s heart and draws its strength it, it would make sense that the keyblade would be a reflection of the heart (and the designs of each wielders’ primary keyblades shows this).  The original x-blade was made up of two elements- one of light and one of dark.  While more than one person might be required to create the x-blade (and in the x-blade theory, Sora and Riku might be able to create it together due to their balanced light and dark), you would expect the original wielder of the x-blade to have embodied this balance of light and dark in their own heart.  This is exactly what we see with Riku:

“The road you chose- I didn’t know.  Light and dark, back to back.  With you, I think they might meet in a way nobody’s seen before.”

Riku’s keyblade, Way to the Dawn is a visual representation of this as well- demon wings for darkness, angel wings for light.

And just to go back to this quote for a moment: “Originally, the χ-blade was the counterpart of Kingdom Hearts, for which it acted as protector.” 

You could say that Dream Drop Distance established Sora and Riku as each other’s counterpart- showing how they helped each other in the worlds despite being separated by different realities, how they completed each other’s heart songs (and earned a keyblade called “counterpoint”, the musical equivalent of the word “counterpart”), and how the two halves of the combined keyblade joined together as a representation of light and dark in one.  And Riku literally becomes a different class of being without even realizing it, for the sole purpose of protecting Sora- as if there is an aspect of himself that drives his very being whether he’s aware of it or not.

Then there’s the allusions to Riku as a Knight.  For one thing, knights have a sworn duty to protect their king or lord: “The promise of faithful service to the lord was called the Oath of Fealty.”  I think I’ve established that protecting his friends, especially Sora, is fundamental to Riku.  Then, in Dream Drop Distance, Shiki asks Riku if he’s her Knight in Shining Armor:

“Aren’t you my knight in shining armor?  Well?”

Riku reacts with surprise and rejects the idea, I think for a mix of two reasons.  First, at this point in the game he still believes darkness as a hold on him.  He doesn’t feel like he’d be worthy of the title of “knight”.  Second, it becomes clear that Riku doesn’t have any interest in being her knight specifically, with the way he responds to her with sarcasm and outright annoyance.  But later we learn he has become a Dream Eater to protect Sora, and in a way becomes Sora’s knight.

It almost seems like Dream Drop Distance is a play on the classic fairytale of the princess who falls under a sleeping curse and the brave knight must go on a quest to wake her up- except here it’s Sora who has fallen asleep, and Riku is the knight that wakes him up. *cough*

And there’s one last thing.  I’m not necessarily convinced it’s intentional, but I entertain the idea of it only because I know Nomura LOVES double/triple meanings and plays on words when he names things in Kingdom Hearts (like how Heartless have hearts but no bodies, and Nobodies have bodies but no hearts, the many meanings of “Xion”, “Vanitas” and other character names).  In DDD there are two types of “spirits”- Dream Eaters, and their dark counterpart, Nightmares. The word “nightmare” is derived from the old english “mare”: a malicious entity in Germanic and Slavic folklore that rides on people’s chests while they sleep, bringing on bad dreams.  So you could say an uncorrupted (k)night-mare” is just a Knight.

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RIGHT. AM I RIGHT.

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more twitter side account doodles

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And they lived happily ever after.

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Hi I think if Kingdom Hearts started showing up in Dreamworks worlds Sora and Po would be deeply inspired by each other

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Your KH Enchanted posts are driving me INSANE! I've never thought about the connection before but like, Enchanted is literally about a cartoon character going to the real world and finding out that her designated "perfect" love interest wasn't actually the one for her despite the fact that he should be. And then cut to SORA WAKING UP IN QUADRATUM AND RIKU THERE LOOKING FOR HIM like... it's all coming together.

YES!!!! There are so many parallels. In Sora’s dreams, the way he and Riku wake up in this huge city at night with so many lights and signs and skyscrapers… it’s so much like Giselle pulling herself up into the center of Times Square. The area Sora’s in especially, Scramble Crossing, brings to mind Times Square.

Enchanted is about a fictional character becoming real. Giselle’s from a simple, “perfect,” fairytale world. She’s designed to be a stereotypical Disney princess, and she’s a trope more than a person until she ends up in the real world, where she’s quickly challenged by the real world’s imperfections and complexities, embodied especially in Robert and through her relationship with him.

I’ve talked before about how Kingdom Hearts features fictional characters waking up and coming to life, deviating from the script when they’re not really “supposed” to and becoming real. Like Giselle, Sora starts out as a pretty stereotypical trope — the hero — but over the course of his journey grows further away from that. He’s challenged and he changes, and a lot of that is embodied through his relationship with Riku, as Riku represents change and complexity, especially in the context of growing up.

There’s a lot of parallels in the dynamics between Giselle/Robert and Sora/Riku. They’re complementary opposites, and they learn from each other. Giselle inspires Robert to believe in the messages fairytales champion about kindness, the power of love, dreams coming true, and happy endings. Sora inspires Riku to follow his heart and open his heart to others. Robert helps Giselle understand that real life is not as simple as a fairytale. Riku helps Sora see and understand the nuances in their world and in each other.

Real people are complicated, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Giselle’s thrilled, for example, the first time she feels really, truly angry. Robert makes her feel things she’s never felt before, messy things that make her feel alive, that make it easier for her to understand him and grow closer to him. KH emphasizes that experiencing grief, sadness, anger, etc. allows us to connect with others deeper, whether we’re leaning on loved ones for support or trying to understand a stranger. Pain is a necessary part of having a heart, of being alive.

Also, these scenes are literally the same. Giselle and Sora even both smile in their sleep.

Giselle/Robert and Sora/Riku’s relationships develop significantly over the course of their stories. In comparison to Giselle/Edward and Sora/Kairi, which rely on trope expectations instead of character development/actual relationship building. Giselle hardly interacts with Edward. But he’s a prince, he resembles the man of her dreams, he saves her from falling, and she can finish his duet. Surely it’s true love! I’ve already compared sharing the paopu fruit with singing the duet. Kairi is also a princess. She saves Sora from falling to darkness in KH1. And it’s pretty and perfect and Disney, with him reappearing in her arms, gently pulling away, quietly thanking her with sparkles all around them. Just like how Edward catches Giselle right in his lap, perfectly in his arms, with the tree branches forming a heart behind them.

Compare that to later in DDD after Riku saves Sora from falling to darkness and Sora thanks him… and when Robert catches Giselle from falling off a billboard. It’s the same thing, but the moments are not pretty and perfect.

Giselle takes Robert to the hard ground, with a chorus of yelps and ouches as she nearly breaks his wrists. Riku is almost bowled over by Sora’s hug, and Sora holds him tightly, loudly exclaiming his relief, reluctant to let Riku go. But the lack of “Disney fairytale perfection,” I guess, in these scenes kind of makes them better, right? Robert is willing to get really hurt trying to catch Giselle. Sora is so happy to see Riku he can’t contain his emotions. Near the end of Enchanted, we see this again, except Giselle is the one catching Robert. And it’s still very clumsy and rough — he takes her down with him. It’s not perfect, but it’s real.

That’s the biggest difference between Giselle’s relationships with Edward and Robert, and Sora’s relationships with Kairi and Riku. In both surface dynamics and appearance, one is a pretty idea. A perfect, soft, simple fantasy that doesn’t exist, that can’t exist in reality beyond little boys and girls playing Prince and Princess. And the other is grounded in reality, with all the good and bad, the joy and heartbreak, laughter and tears, that entails. Being human is hard. But there is something magical about finding someone you can be human with.

Giselle mistakes Edward for the true love she’s been dreaming of. He’s got the blue eyes and the dark hair, and he catches her from falling. And it reminds me a lot of Sora mistaking Kairi for his light in the darkness in KH3.

It’s reasonable why Giselle and Sora would assume this… But Robert also catches Giselle from falling. He also has blue eyes and dark hair. Later, he dresses exactly like Giselle’s dream prince at the ball, and he even dances with her like in her dreams. In KH3, Riku sacrifices himself in an act of true love for Sora, and we see the light in the tunnel respond when Sora calls out Riku’s name. There’s a number of visual parallels from Sora’s dream and Dive to the Heart that indicate Riku is Sora’s light. While Giselle realizes the truth, it only seems to click for Sora a moment before he forgets. Giselle also gets a follow up parallel. Sora hasn’t yet.

Another little thing I want to point out — Giselle and Edward have a duet (that she stops singing), but Giselle and Robert have a waltz. They have the love song, and they dance to it. Sora and Riku don’t dance, but we see their hearts dancing to the song they create — a waltz version of Dearly Beloved.

Also Robert/Giselle still get the Disney singing element. It’s just not big and flashy like Giselle and Edward’s duet. Robert quietly sings a few words to her as they dance together… Sora and Riku still get the paopu fruit — it’s the keychain of Dearly Beloved (the Combined Keyblade) — but it’s not obvious like the cave drawing between Sora and Kairi is.

TLDR: I completely agree with you and I think, like Enchanted, KH intentionally plays with Disney tropes and audience expectations in order to subvert them. Like Giselle, Sora discovering his designated “perfect” love interest is not the one for him is part of his journey of awakening. It’s part of him becoming real, and growing up.

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..an unwanted guest..