#Also Lauriam will not lie about thinking Xemnas is pretty

[lordofoblivion]

“My only qualities are what, Lauriam?”

"Your only quality is being pretty. Against such a huge list of flaws, it's not something to be proud of."

[revengerevisited]

Maddie rambles about Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road

Let’s just get this outta the way: Xehanort is my least favorite character in Kingdom Hearts. Now there are certainly more boring and underdeveloped characters but as far as evil deeds go, it doesn’t matter how ‘cute’ or ‘relatable’ Nomura tries to make Xehanort. I will never forget that he tore Ven’s heart in half, tortured Vanitas for four years, killed his own best friend, possessed Terra’s body for a decade, possessed Riku’s body as Ansem, unleashed Heartless on the worlds resulting in countless deaths, manipulated Organization XIII for years, and experimented on Kairi as a child and eventually murdered her in front of her best friends. Any attempt to make me sympathize with him just ain’t gonna work.

Also, I’m not taking any of these ‘Character X is secretly Character Y’ theories too seriously until they actually happen. Yes, it can be fun to speculate that Bragi or Odin is secretly Luxu or the Master of Masters, or that Brain is Eraqus’s ancestor, or that Demyx is the MoM, or that Ava or Vor is Kairi’s grandma, or whatever other theories are out there. But until there’s conclusive evidence that’s all they are, speculations and theories.

On that note, I don’t know why Xehanort is having dreams about the KHUX Player’s adventures but I don’t think it’s because Xehanort is the Player’s Nobody or a reincarnation of the Player. Reincarnation has never been a concept present in the KH series, and honestly it just sounds like bad fanfiction. Plus, if Xehanort does turn out to be the Player, then I feel bad for everyone who spent a lot of time creating their own unique character only to have it be replaced by the generic default Player in KHDR’s opening cutscene and then re-replaced by Xehanort of all people. Perhaps Xehanort simply has a unique, unexplained power to see into the past like Namine’s memory manipulation or Terra’s precognition.

Either way, this past-sight just makes it harder and harder for me to believe that Xehanort wanted to learn about the Keyblade War in BBS, since it seems he already knew all he needs to know. Xemnas knows that Luxord, Marluxia, Demyx, and Larxene are from the past, young Xehanort lives in Scala ad Caelum which was built over the ruins of Daybreak Town complete with a huge machine explaining Daybreak Town’s demise, Eraqus talks about the Book of Prophecies like it’s common knowledge, the list goes on. Also, I don’t like the implication that Xehanort chose Ventus as his vessel and later as material for the X-Blade only because he knows him from the Player’s dreams. Then again, if his dreams of the Keyblade War end before the Player meets Ven and Lauriam, then Xehanort wouldn’t know about them and would instead be more familiar with Skuld and Ephemer.

I will say that one thing I do like is Xehanort comparing himself to a starfish laying on the beach, both for the humorous imagery and also just a bit of that islander backstory flavor. Xehanort being the outsider of his friends group and not telling the whole truth of how he ended up in Scala is also an interesting Kairi parallel, although him being found unconscious in the middle of a city is kinda overused. I do like that the surrounding cities around Scala are all uninhabited, since trying to wrap my mind around these huge mountain-sized cities with potentially millions of people in them was a little too much for my brain to handle.

I do however find it quite bizarre that it’s taken some worlds so long to recover from the Keyblade War. Not only that, but apparently people just appear out of thin air once their world is restored. Like, how? It just feels weird and uncomfortable, almost like these people only exist for the protagonist and audience’s amusement rather than being independent living beings in their own right. I dunno, there’s just something deeply unsettling about those implications. It also makes me wonder how long ago the Keyblade War was, if places like Agrabah still aren’t finished only 75-ish years before KH1. The characters refer to it as a legend, so it must’ve happened a long time ago, right? Some fans think it’s only been 100 years since the Keyblade War, but that would be like the equivalent of calling World War 1 a legend.

The worlds all being on different timescales is also extremely headache-inducing, both as analyst and a fanfic writer trying to keep track of the plot. Couple that with time travel and the whole thing just falls apart. Of course, if each world runs at a different time, then perhaps this is why Xehanort looks so much older than Eraqus, or rather why Eraqus looks so relatively young when he’s supposed to be 80-ish years old. And if that’s the case, then do any of the characters’ ages really matter? I’ve already proven that their ages have been retconned before. Also, this renders timecodes such as ‘75 years later’ and ‘one year later’ from Re:Mind and other parts of the series completely meaningless. The timeline is broken.

Anyway, I’m not sure how much Norse Mythology will play into the story, but all the new characters have Norse names with two that stand out the most. The first is Master Odin, named after a Norse god who sacrificed one of his own eyes for knowledge, which is an interesting parallel to the MoM. The second is Baldr, the as of yet unseen seventh student who has a missing sister, because evidently Nomura likes recycling his previous plots before they’ve even finished. In Norse Mythology, Baldr is the god of light whose death kickstarts the events of Ragnarok. How this’ll be relevant in KHDR remains to be seen, but after seeing those four gravestones in the timeskip/flashforward, I can’t imagine this ending well for anyone not named Eraqus or Xehanort. 

Now, as funny as I find it that the new characters have all been killed off this quickly, I’m not entirely convinced that those are Urd, Hermod, Bragi, and Vor’s graves. They could actually be the graves of the missing upperclassmen, if some of them turn up dead. Speaking of the upperclassmen, I would hope that Yen Sid is one of them, but I have a feeling he won’t be allowed to show up simply because of Disney’s stranglehold on its own IP. It’s pretty sad and ironic seeing as this series used to be all about Disney, but I assume that’s why Nomura is straying further and further from the brand.

About the four new student characters, I don’t have any particular attachment to any of them, beyond Vor’s name being hilariously unfortunate. I find it a bit eye-rolling that fans continuously snub Kairi but will instantly latch onto any new characters like Yozora and these four despite barely knowing anything about them. It doesn’t help that, and please correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that any of the four who you choose to be in your trio will have the exact same dialogue in cutscenes no matter who you pick, meaning that these new characters don’t even get much of a chance to develop their own personalities because all of their dialogue has to be generic and bland enough to fit all four of them.

Young Eraqus is probably the best character so far, simply because he’s the only one with any personality. Granted his supposed cowardice has yet to be seen, but it’s mentioned so often that I assume it’s gonna be an important plot point later. However, I’m finding it hard to relate young Eraqus with his adult counterpart seeing as their personalities are just so different. I’m aware there’s a 65-ish year gap between this Eraqus and older Eraqus, but there better be some major character development to explain this, especially since even standing in front of his presumed classmate’s graves he still seems fairly chipper.

On that note, as humorous as ‘Tardy Fleetfoot’ is, just like with Xehanort, don’t think I’ve forgotten that this guy caused Terra’s insecurity and self-doubt with his overzealous anti-darkness stance, probably heavily influenced Aqua’s black-and-white anti-darkness keyblade-first-ask-questions-later thinking, was also probably the one who told her to lie to Ventus about always living with them, and attempted to straight up kill Ven and Terra. Eraqus’s actions aren’t as bad as Xehanort’s, but they certainly aren’t acceptable in any capacity.

Something odd I noticed is that Eraqus knows what the Heartless are called, and even the difference between Pureblood and Emblem Heartless-- well, part of the difference; I’m assuming he doesn’t know that future Xehanort created them. But anyway, my point is that Aqua doesn’t know what the Heartless are called until Mickey tells her in BBS 0.2. Before that she simply calls them ‘dwellers of darkness’, and even mistakes one for an Unversed. Does this mean Eraqus never taught his students about the Heartless? Why? Perhaps after his classmates died, he decided to shelter his own students from the worlds, hence why their Mark of Mastery was so simple? I’m just guessing at this point. Of course, there’s still no real explanation as for why the Emblem Heartless are here in the past. My best theory is that someone used the Book of Prophecies to summon them... somehow. It really just seems like an excuse to gloss over the corner Nomura wrote himself into with the whole ‘Emblem Heartless were made by Ansem’ thing, but we’ll see.

Honestly this whole series is just one big endless death-spiral of constant retcons and nonsensical plot twists and at this point I’m just exhausted. My view on KH has become one of mild and morbid curiosity, rather than expecting anything truly great. Is that cynical? Yes, but I’ve watched other once-great series (Star Wars, Voltron) worsen over time to the point that they just fizzle out and die, and I’m afraid it’s the same deal with Kingdom Hearts. I don’t think I’ve truly enjoyed a KH game since BBS, and if the series just continues down the path of introducing bland new characters every time Nomura gets bored rather than developing the already established ones, I don’t know how long I can stay interested. The Dark Seeker Saga is over and he really needs to let Xehanort go.

To end this on a positive note, I am tentatively hopeful about Melody of Memory. The gameplay looks cute and fun and the story looks like it will have more development for Kairi and her backstory, which is something I’ve been wanting for a while now. Focusing on the original cast is definitely a step in the right direction, and I hope this series can keep moving forwards rather than backwards.

[square-enix-headcanons]

How would Even, Isa, Lea and Laurium react to their s/o or crush finding out about some of the sketchy stuff they did as nobodies?

The Angst potential in this!!

(Cut under Even for length)

Even

He’d asked the other members of the organization not to tell you - Maybe he’d do it himself one day, but if you were to find out, he wanted to be the one to tell you

That was the plan, at least

Most people in Radiant Garden don’t know how exactly everything went down, but there are a few who do

One day, you and Even are taking a stroll through the city when one of those people sees you and flinches away

“You’re him! One of the black coats!”

Confused, you try to ask Even, but he just tries to postpone it. Which usually means he won’t tell you

So you follow the other person to get answers

Even looks after you for quite a while before he anxiously returns to the castle

He can’t even focus on his research right now - He tries a few times, but then accepts it’s not going to happen right now

You come back late at night; there was a lot to unpack, and you still don’t know any details

Even is sitting on his bed in his room, only looking up when he hears you enter

Honestly, he wasn’t expecting you to come back. He did horrible, horrible things as a Nobody.

And, truth be told, even before that. He still had his Heart during some rather bad things

He wants to say something, anything, but what do you say in such a situation?

He finally settles on “I’m sorry”

You sit down next to him. “Tell me everything.”

He’d really love to get around this, but then what? Sure, he could refuse to answer, but he’s scared you’d just leave

He does downgrade things quite a bit, though. You don’t need to know the grisly details; he settles on the facts that he did experiments and that people got hurt

It’s a long, long night for both of you

Once he’s done, he goes silent and waits for your reaction - he’s fairly sure you’ll leave, but a small part of him hopes you’ll forgive him for the things he can’t forgive himself for yet

Isa

Isa hopes you’ll never find out about his past - It’s nice to have someone who doesn’t know about all he’s done, who couldn’t ask or talk about it

(Truth be told, if it were an option, he’d be very tempted to just forget about it all)

He does sometimes feel a bit worried and guilty, though

Would you still be with him if you knew the truth? Does not telling you mean everything is based on a lie? Don’t you deserve the truth?

Sometimes, you catch him looking at you very thoughtfully, but he refuses to say what he’s been thinking about

Then, one day, you find his old journal - less a diary, more a work planner

And since work planners aren’t usually too personal, you give in to your curiosity and look inside

Inside is a list of missions, with descriptions, names, whether they were successful, and a reference for the full report

While some missions don’t sound too bad, others are very worrisome

Even more so once you spot Roxas’s and Xion’s names; they’re still kids, and judging by those descriptions, they should not be doing missions like that!

You leave for a while to clear your head, leaving the journal behind

Which is when Isa comes back

And sees his journal - dammit he thought he’d gotten rid of it all - and that you’re not there

He’s sure you’ve left for good. After all, you just found out that he’s, you know. A murderer, formerly part of an Organization of murderers, and back then saw no problems using two kids in said Organization

If you were there, he might try to find excuses for you - It was because he had no Heart, because he was controlled by Xemnas, that he had a good reason. But while all those things are technically true, he doesn’t even really believe them himself

Isa ends up punching a wall in frustration. He’s not angry at you; more at himself for not getting rid of the journal, at the world, the general state of things, whatever

Once that’s done, he tries to sort his thoughts - which means tidying up (or rather, reorganizing, it’s already pretty tidy) the room, starting with throwing the journal away

If you come back, he’ll be completely stunned for a moment. He did not expect that.

He’s very hesitant and careful around you for a bit, since he doesn’t know yet how you took the news

However, if you forgive him (or even say that you’ll try), he’ll give you a big hug, and probably cry a little

Lea

Lea genuinely plans on telling you, as soon as he figures out how

Several times, he starts to say something, but then quickly finds a new topic to talk about

The first few times, it wasn’t too noticeable, but at some point it does become kind of obvious

“Lea, come on, what were you really going to tell me?”

He stops whatever he was going to say and hesitates

“Well, it’s kind of a long story…”

Inwardly, he’s wondering if maybe he should never have started

He’s changed, right? So maybe there wouldn’t have been any need for you to know at all

Maybe knowing will just make things harder for you

Maybe you’d wish he’d never told you

But, well, now it’s too late to back out again

Okay, admittedly, he does try to shorten it to “I used to be part of a pretty bad group, but now I’m not anymore”

But you only need to raise your eyebrows, and Lea sighs and starts talking about what that “group” was

He doesn’t look at you while he explains

You’d heard about the black coated people before, but you wouldn’t have guessed Lea was one of them!

Near the end, Lea kinda just trails off, shrugs, and looks at you

Everyone else did forgive him so far, so he’s pretty hopeful you’ll do the same

But at the same time, he’s also kinda scared how you might think of him now

After all, not everyone is like Sora and his group

If you say you still want to be with him, you get a b i g hug and probably get twirled around a bit

If you don’t, Lea will mostly be confused at first; it takes a while to really sink in

He won’t go out of his way to avoid you, but if you two cross paths, he won’t do more than maybe wave at you

His heart breaks a little every time you turn around or hurry away

Lauriam

Lauriam decided to put his past where it belongs - in the past

It’s not that he doesn’t care. He does, and feels horrible about some of the things he did

But he can’t change them anymore now, so he tries his best to accept that those things happened and move on

Which is why he never told you anything. That’s the past, while you’re the present

Now, putting his past behind him doesn’t mean completely getting rid of it; Lauriam still has some things from his time in the Organization, including his coat and an old diary

The latter of which you find. And, sure, it’s not nice to read someone else’s diary, but...

Lauriam comes in while you’re reading, and pretty quickly figures out what’s happening

“So, now you know.”

He sounds amazingly calm, grabs a chair and sits down near the door, much farther away from you than he normally would

Inwardly, he’s scared of your reaction. He doesn’t know how much you read, but honestly, none of it is flattering

So he thinks you’d prefer keeping some distance. He didn’t get the title of “Assassin” for nothing, after all

And while he’d never hurt you - and doesn’t plan on hurting anyone else anytime soon - assassins aren’t the type of person most people want to be near

He gives you some time to say or do something - ask a question, accuse him, run out of the room. All very understandable reactions in such a situation

If you don’t react at all, Lauriam asks whether you’d like him to leave - he would if you did

Mainly he wants any reaction at all. He’d prefer you yelling at him over sitting there in absolute silence

“Please, love, say something.”

He answers any question you might have. Sometimes he glosses over the finer details, but he doesn’t lie to you

He knows all this info would be hard to accept

If you decide you can’t, he’ll send you one last flower bouquet, then try to avoid you as much as possible

If you decide you still want to be with him, he’ll thank you - It sounds way less thrilled than he actually is, but trust me, he’s over the moon

The following days or maybe even weeks, Lauriam tries to be more careful around you. No sudden movements, for example, and he won’t initiate stuff like cuddling or hand holding as often, though he 100% reciprocates if you start