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bluerosesburnblue · 3 years

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I think what I'm most bummed out about is how subsequent games couldn't seem to recapture that dynamics and chemistry the Destiny Trio had in KH1. I can still quote many of their lines from the Destiny Islands segment of KH1, and I love how realistic their friendship is, how they tease and sass each other, all while showing that they clearly care about each other. I think the main reason we don't get that is because the three aren't onscreen together that often. It's a shame.

Speaking of Riku's stoicism, I recently noticed that in KH2, while Sora is kneeling and shedding a tear or two because he presumably thought Riku was dead, Riku just stands there and doesn't react much, aside from calmly explaining what he was up to that year. He later calls Sora a total sap. He could be disgusing his emotions, but you would think he would react more after all he did to bring his friend back. You know I think Mickey Mouse is the only character he's hugged?

The Destiny Trio had such a strong start. I’m sure that served the purpose of making their separation throughout the game more impactful, but then they decided to base the series around them constantly being separated. They all developed independent of each other, and we haven’t gotten to see how their now changed personalities interact extensively. So they haven’t managed to come up with a new chemistry for them

As for Riku’s stoicism, I don’t want people to misunderstand me. I’m not saying that modern Riku is boring because he’s stoic. I’m saying that he’s boring because he’s a poorly utilized stoic character. Stoic characters can absolutely be done well, which is why I keep bringing up Kiryu from the Yakuza series

The thing about stoic characters is that the story around them can’t be completely devoid of emotion or drama, because the greatest strength of the stoic personality is the contrast. Their normal state is a lack of expressed emotions, so the impact of every time that you do make them show emotions is heightened. This is not just an excellent tool, but it’s necessary to continue making the character more interesting. Everyone has a breaking point. A character who doesn’t is completely unrelatable. And unrelatable characters cause a disconnect in the audience and thus become boring to watch

They also shouldn’t be completely devoid of humor. A stoic character breaking out in laughter is as powerful as them breaking out in tears. The contrast element can also be used for humor, as a character failing to be phased by the absurdity around them can actually be more funny than one that’s reacting because it subverts our expectations of how they should respond. This can even serve to make them more memorable

Riku breaking down in tears as much as Sora did in KH2 when they were reunited could have been powerful, but even in KH2 they still used Riku’s stoicism to some good effect. The moment where he breaks out in laughter at seeing Sora’s funny face? Iconic. Him hugging Mickey at the end? Delightful! He’s not the most physically affectionate person (and never has been) so that satisfies the contrast element well. Not to mention that I’m fairly forgiving of Riku’s stoicism at the end of KH2 because there was a good portion of it where he was trying to hide the fact that his body was turned into Ansem’s so he was keeping his distance to keep anyone from realizing it was him. He was so overcome by guilt, and even after that he was probably still unsure of his place in the group

KH3 Riku, though... the one time he has what should be a funny reaction to something, it’s to a completely innocuous statement and isn’t memorable so much because Riku’s breaking the stoicism, but because it comes after a really innocuous statement and Riku’s reaction is confusing. The extent of his anger is glowering at Dark Riku, yelling Xehanort’s name once, and clenching his fist. But there’s no emotional follow through! In basically all of these he’s totally back to normal in his next lines! And the result of that is that it comes across less like he hit his breaking point and more like he was just executing Preset JRPG Protagonist Reaction #1. Thanks to that, the audience has difficulty empathizing with the character, which leads them to emotionally check out, which makes watching him boring

#kingdom hearts #technically you could say that riku hugged kairi when he blocked her from saix blowing them back in kh2 #but it was more of a desperation hug than an affection hug #mademoiseli #liz answers

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violethowler · 4 years

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The Elephant in the Room

In my previous essays, I have covered how the Kingdom Hearts narrative follows Maureen Murdock’s template of the Heroine’s Journey, as well as how various characters and story elements tie in with the overarching themes of the framework. Before I can continue to dig further into other themes and archetypes, there is something I need to address first. While I have avoided directly touching on the topic in my previous essays, I have now reached the point where it is no longer possible to talk about the Heroine’s Journey in full without acknowledging the elephant in the room:

Romance.

In ongoing serialized stories such as TV shows and video games, conversations about potential relationships in canon are often treated as inconsequential to the overall story. Something that is separate from the main plot. At worst, I have seen fans who openly center a ship in their analysis and theories be dismissed and criticized as biased - or worse, delusional. They are treated as being so obsessed with their pairing that they try to make everything about their ship and jump on any excuse to declare that it’s viable in canon.

Among the Kingdom Hearts fandom in particular, this has often taken the form of someone trying to dismiss other fans’ hope for a ship to be canon by saying that the series is about friendship, not romance.

While friendship is absolutely an important theme in the Kingdom Hearts series, to insist that this is mutually exclusive from depicting the development of romantic relationships ignores the continued presence of canon Disney romances in almost every game in the series. In each “main” game where Sora is playable, he has directly or indirectly been involved in getting those Disney couples together in the KH universe. So it’s not out of the realm of possibility for the series to turn the tables and give some attention to his romantic interests for a change.

A story having other major themes is not mutually exclusive from showcasing the development of a romantic relationship. There are many popular movies, shows, books, comics, and video games in which a romantic relationship plays a central role in the narrative but there are still other plotlines going on that are equally as important as the romance. This is especially true for Disney and Square Enix.

The reason why it’s impossible to fully talk about the Heroine’s Journey without acknowledging romance elements is best encapsulated by this quote from She-Ra showrunner Noelle Stevenson about her show’s endgame pairing in an i09 interview after the release of the final season:

“The show’s not a romance show. It is about a lot of things. It’s about choice, destiny, fighting, tyrants, you know, all of these other things. I grew up with so many stories—like sci-fi and fantasy—that I was so passionate about. And it would be considered no big deal to have the hero get the girl and to have a kiss at the end, without it suddenly becoming a romance or ‘Oh, the shippers got what they wanted.’ It was just a part of the story. And to actually see it be a central part of the plot and to fulfill the arcs of the characters in a way that felt satisfying. I really want to take it beyond ‘Oh, the shippers got what they want.’ Like, it’s not just a ship for me. It is a plot point. It is the necessary conclusion of each character’s arc, separate and together.[1]”

While not every story known to follow the Heroine's Journey features a romance for the main protagonist, those that do make the romance an integral part of the narrative. It’s not something thrown in at the end to please shippers, but a central component of the story. Therefore, when analyzing a Heroine’s Journey story, it is vital to acknowledge and discuss textual support for potential romantic relationships in order to have a full understanding of the narrative.

Even if one is not aware of the Heroine’s Journey, Sora’s repeated interactions with Disney romances indicate that there is a high probability that he will be in a romantic relationship himself by the end of the series. Every story I know of that follows the Heroine’s Journey broadly adheres to a pattern in regards to how the romantic relationships of a main character are set up.

By examining the series through these patterns, we can narrow down who Sora’s endgame romantic partner will be.

Because the themes and character dynamics emphasize resolving internal conflict through balance, the Heroine’s Journey lends itself extremely well to Beauty-and-the-Beast, rivals-to-lovers, and enemies-to-lovers relationship dynamics. A major component of the Heroine’s Journey is the main character learning to accept themselves, and since the Animus as a Shadow figure can represent the parts of themselves that they haven’t accepted yet, it is simpler to symbolize that self-acceptance via a romance with the Animus rather than attempting to build a separate relationship on top of the existing story framework.

For these reasons, the Animus is more often than not the main character’s endgame love interest, their feelings for each other made into critical aspects of their respective character arcs. The only Heroine’s Journey stories with romance that I know of where this wasn’t the case are ones where executive meddling resulted in the finale being rewritten to kill off the Animus despite established narrative set up for them to have a happy ending together[2], while the protagonist was either forced into a relationship with a different character or left single.

And like I said in previous essays, the one character in the series who fulfills all criteria for the Animus role within this storytelling framework….

Is Riku.

[Image Description: Sora supporting Riku as they walk toward the ocean on the Dark Margin at the end of Kingdom Hearts II. End Description.]

As mentioned in my earlier analysis, this narrative framework emphasizes the importance of balancing contrasting attributes, which fits in extremely well with Kingdom Hearts’ focus on balance between light and darkness. For stories that follow the Heroine’s Journey in a visual medium, that dichotomy is often incorporated into the characters’ look. Height differences are common, while their color schemes and outfits are designed to make them complement each other. Further adding to the focus on balance between light and darkness, the visuals of the story frame the romantic leads with imagery associating each one with light or darkness to create Yin-Yang symbolism when they are finally in balance.

In Re: Chain of Memories, Vexen openly calls Riku the “Hero of Darkness[3]” as a counterpart to Sora’s role as the “Hero of Light”, and their combination attack in Kingdom Hearts II utilizes moves that reflect both elements. In the Ultimania for the original game, Tetsuya Nomura said that Riku’s look was intentionally designed to balance Sora’s[4], and the contrast between their respective color schemes is maintained in each of their new outfits. In Kingdom Hearts II and Dream Drop Distance, Riku wears white and blue, while Sora in those same games wears black and red. Two different pairs of contrasting colors. Kingdom Hearts III has them both in outfits that are primarily black and grey, but still emphasize the blue and red that have been part of their respective outfits since the first game.

In a Heroine’s Journey, the love interest is typically an active character in the story and usually serves as the deuteragonist. This fits with Riku having been a mandatory playable character in multiple games since 2004. In addition, series producer Shinji Hashimoto said before the release of the HD 1.5 Remix collection[5] that the main focus of the series is how Sora and Riku develop both as individuals and as a pair, which fits with how the central conflict of the Heroine’s Journey revolves around the dynamic between the Protagonist and their Animus.

A common viewpoint held by many fans of the series is that Kairi is Sora’s love interest, and it’s not hard to see why people get that impression. He has sacrificed himself to save her in two separate games now. He’s charged enemies head on in order to rescue her whenever she’s been captured. He even got down on his knees and begged for her freedom when Saix demanded he show how important she was to him. Multiple characters have talked about how special she is to him, and Roxas refers to her as “that girl he(Sora) likes.”

However, there are multiple elements in the narrative that point to them not being the endgame romance. Kingdom Hearts III foreshadows the final shot of them sitting on the paopu together at the end of the game with Sora disappearing from the cover of the 100 Acre Wood storybook, textually framing Winnie the Pooh as a parallel to Kairi. While many fans regarded their sharing paopu fruits in the base game as the beginning of a relationship between them, he still only refers to her as a friend in Re:Mind, and even compares his bond with her to the bond between Ventus and Chirithy.

Sora also does not treat his promises to her with the seriousness he would if they were going to end up together. The promises to return her lucky charm and to come back to her that he makes in the first game are never treated as anything urgent when he awakens in Kingdom Hearts II. Instead, he declines the opportunity to return to the islands and check in with her in favor of searching for Riku. When Kairi says in The World That Never Was that they’ll be together every day, Sora agrees, yet he was content to spend the rest of his life on the dark beach at the end of the game as long as he was with Riku.

Meanwhile, the most consistent theme regarding Kairi in relation to the Destiny Islands trio is the idea of childhood friends drifting apart as they get older[6][7]. This is particularly highlighted in Kingdom Hearts III, with Kairi writing letters to Sora that she never sends, thereby keeping her thoughts to herself. Merlin also emphasizes this when he talks about forging new connections after Sora’s visit to 100 Acre Wood. This parallel frames the ending of Re:Mind as the two of them recognizing they’ve drifted apart and choosing to put in the effort to renew their friendship by spending time together.

On a structural level, her portrayal does not fit with how love interests are typically depicted in the Heroine’s Journey, both as an individual and in relation to the main protagonist. There is no contrast between her and Sora’s designs or roles the way there is between his and Riku’s. Her color scheme is predominantly pink, which does not have the same contrast with Sora’s red as Riku’s blue. Because she’s a Princess of Heart, there is no dark and light contrast, and the combination attack she shares with Sora in Re:Mind only utilizes light-based moves. It took 17 years after her first appearance in the series for her to be made a playable character, and even then, playing as her is not mandatory. They are never portrayed as equals, and she is not an active force in his emotional growth.

The Heroine’s Journey was crafted for narratives revolving around identities that have been Othered by society for one reason or another. Murdock designed her template as a tool to help women deal with being shamed by society for expressing and pursuing their desires. In a similar way, LGBTQ+ people also face stigma from society for expressing and pursuing their desires. So it makes perfect sense that a framework for narratives of people overcoming internalized stigma against important parts of themselves would be ripe for stories featuring LGBTQ+ protagonists of any gender.

As mentioned in previous essays, stories that follow the Heroine’s Journey challenge the biases and blind spots of the audience. A relationship between Kairi and Sora does not challenge anything because she has largely been regarded as the endgame love interest by default since the beginning. Meanwhile, a romantic relationship between Sora and Riku challenges players to recognize heteronormativity within themselves and in the media around them. It challenges people to examine the lens through which they perceive the story and rethink how they look at what’s happening in the narrative.

In summary, the portrayal of Kairi and her bond with Sora is not consistent with how love interests are commonly depicted in the Heroine’s Journey, while the portrayal of Riku and his bond with Sora is. If Sora’s story is going to continue on this storytelling formula to the end, the structure of the Heroine’s Journey narrative leaves Riku as the only thematically viable candidate for the role of endgame love interest.

Now, as some people bring up in conversations about Soriku, there is a potential obstacle in the form of corporate executives. It is entirely possible that Disney will drag their heels and try to force the development team to downplay or remove any open same-sex relationship the series may try to depict. They do not have a strong track record of LGBTQ+ representation that isn’t a minor character who only appears for one scene. Given that their last IP to follow the Heroine’s Journey - the Star Wars sequel trilogy - crashed and burned at the end, executive meddling is my greatest fear for this franchise.

But the thing to keep in mind is that Tetsuya Nomura is stubborn as hell. One of the reasons the long gap between Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts III was because he was holding out for permission to include Pixar movies in the game, outright refusing to start work on KH3 until they were given that go ahead[8]. If you want further proof of how stubborn he can be, this is how he described the meeting where he first pitched the series to Disney in a 2012 interview with the late president of Nintendo[9]:

Iwata: Their ideas were different from yours, naturally…

Nomura: Yes. They appeared to believe that we would make whatever they wanted us to make and came up with rather specific requests such as, "We'd like the game to feature this character." They were really excited, explaining their ideas... To be honest, though, I wasn't really interested in any of them. (laughs)

Both: (laughter)

Iwata: You wanted to borrow Disney's characters in order to make a new game that could compete with Mario 64, and you already had a vision of what this game would look like. I suppose their ideas didn't fit in with this vision.

Nomura: They didn't, no. In the end, I actually stopped a presentation halfway through. We didn't have that much time, and it looked like it was all going to get taken up by various Disney presentations. So, I interrupted them and told them the conclusion by saying, "I won't make such games."

Talk about nerves of steel. This man basically said “we do this my way, or we don’t do it at all” TO MOTHERFORKING DISNEY, AND. HE. WON. If there is any human being with enough force of will to make the Mouse House cave in and allow the depiction of an openly LGBTQ+ relationship in the Kingdom Hearts series, it is Tetsuya Nomura.

I cannot say with 100% certainty how things will go. But everything I know about storytelling patterns and narrative structure is telling me that Kingdom Hearts is a textbook Heroine’s Journey with a romance between Sora and Riku at its core. A relationship between the protagonist and the Animus does not truly begin until the “Integration” stage at the end of the Journey, and we are rapidly approaching the point in the narrative where the two leads traditionally become aware of and acknowledge their feelings in order to be on the same page for the finale.

Sources:

[1] “She-Ra's Noelle Stevenson Tells Us How Difficult It Was to Bring Adora and Catra Home” May 18, 2020

https://io9.gizmodo.com/she-ras-noelle-stevenson-tells-us-how-difficult-it-was-1843419358

[2] “Death of a Dark Youth, Desecration of the Animus”; December 20, 2018. https://www.teampurplelion.com/death-of-a-dark-youth/

[3] Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories. Square Enix, 2007.

[4] “A Look Back: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania Gallery Comments Part 1″; August 30, 2019;

https://www.khinsider.com/news/A-Look-Back-KINGDOM-HEARTS-Ultimania-Gallery-Comments-Part-1-15519

[5] “How Kingdom Hearts III Will Grow Up With Its Players;” September 24, 2013.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/25/how-kingdom-hearts-iii-will-grow-up-with-its-players.

[6] “E3 2018: Tetsuya Nomura on If Kingdom Hearts 3 Is the End of Sora's Story”; June 14, 2018.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/06/14/e3-2018-tetsuya-nomura-on-if-kingdom-hearts-3-is-the-end-of-soras-story

[7] “Character’s Report Vol. 1 Translations”; Jul 16, 2014

https://www.khinsider.com/forums/index.php?threads/characters-report-vol-1-translations.195560/

[8] “Edge Magazine Features Kingdom Hearts III Cover Story”; January 9, 2019. https://www.khinsider.com/news/Edge-Magazine-Features-Kingdom-Hearts-III-Cover-Story-14331

[9] “Iwata Asks: Nintendo 3DS: Third Party Game Developers, Volume 12: Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], Part 2: It’ll definitely be fun”; April 2012.

https://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/creators/11/1

#kingdom hearts meta #kingdom hearts theory #kh speculation #kingdom hearts analysis #kingdom hearts and the heroine's journey #soriku

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echotovalley · 4 years

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hello i am very much here for your klance + blue lion meta ☕

I cannot believe my browser crashed the first time I typed this up and nothing was saved. I tried my best to remember what I could - there are parts that I know are missing that can’t remember right and it’s so frustrating because I was really proud of them. nonetheless -

okay, everyone get comfortable because this is gonna get lengthy

I’ve always been interested in episode one, when everyone is standing in front of Keith’s conspiracy board and Keith is talking about hearing/feeling something calling him out into the desert, that’s it’s the Blue lion. He has no idea what it could be, but it’s all encompassing and he can’t ignore it.

Just this voice that’s maybe not even a voice in its completed form, the whisper of something that wants him to find it. He probably hopes against hope that it’s something about the Kerberos mission attempted to be covered up by the Garrison, something that will link him to finding Shiro.

He’s always gone with his instincts.

((there was a great transition between these bits that is forever lost to the sands of time and I weep))

Dial back 18 or 19 years (maybe even more), when Unnamed Kogane and Krolia find the Blue lion and even though they can’t interact with or enter her, they decide to protect her together. She’s the key to peace and protection for more worlds than could be counted and of course they’re going to do everything they can. The form a bond with her that way - words aren’t always needed.

You can tear Keith’s dad and Krolia showing Blue bby Keef from my cold, dead hands. But I think the Blue Lion knew what was up. Perhaps when she stood guard behind her shield and they made the pact to protect her. But definitely the second she saw this shock of dark hair peeking out from a big blanket, she knew. There’s the familiar curl of warmth she hasn’t felt in so long, a small spark in this new life. The flicker of the spirit of an old friend, Red.

The Galra are tearing apart galaxies and this tiny baby is the bridge between worlds and he doesn’t even know how special he is. How so loved he will be as a paladin. What Krolia and Keith’s dad know for sure is that they would in time teach Keith to look out for her too.

But things don’t always go as planned, do they? Thing have a way of coming apart at the seams and no matter how much restitching you do, it never comes back the same way it did before.

Krolia leaves - to protect the Blue lion and keep the Galra away from earth, away from the family she has made (something she possibly never thought of having because of her career withing the Blade). In an effort to not ruin the work they’ve put in to keep the Blue lion safe and to protect their son, Keith’s dad stops taking Keith to the cave. Maybe stops going all together. His son is his shadow and follows behind him even when he’s specifically told not to.

Besides, he trusts and believes in Krolia to keep the Blue lion and them safe.

So, Keith would have no memory of the Blue lion or her location.

Wouldn’t have the faintest idea that it’s a 10k+ year old sentient lion from outerspace that never forgot him and knew the someday they were meant to see each other again was fast approaching.

I have a separate headcanon that Krolia thinks about being selfish, she should have brought Keith’s dad and Keith with her and hidden them on a safe planet where Keith would grow up knowing he had a mother that loved him more than words. If Keith was always meant to be part of the war she fought so hard to keep away from him, then she could have taken that chance. Maybe his father would still be alive, but if he wasn’t meant to live in this timeline, then at least she could be there for Keith.

But if he was with her, then he never would have met his team the way he did.

Now Keith wasn’t the sole person to bring everyone together, the universe put a lot on this boy just from being born, but everyone had their part in bringing each other together featuring the seven degrees of separation between the Kerberos crew and the Garrison trio.

Pidge had her suspicions, broke into places for documents and created an entirely new identity to infiltrate the Garrison to get the answers and the proof and find her family.

It just so happens that she winds up on assignment with Lance.

Lance who is nosy and wants to figure out what’s going on in that funky, little dude’s head to have him breaking curfew and sneaking out into the desert in the middle of the night with enough tech and equipment on his back to trap a ghost.

And because Pidge isn’t the only Garrison cadet Lance is trying to figure out - their destiny is spelled out the second Lance recognizes Keith also breaking curfew and government laws to infiltrate the pop-up tent of lies.

Things start to fall into place

Lance only knew Pidge as Pidge, he had no idea that his new teammate was the direct family of Sam and Matt Holt undercover. He and Hunk didn’t have a reason to question the fate of the Kerberos crew and the official ruling of the Garrison. It didn’t occur to him to suspect that there was something bigger going on.

Now we’re going to get into the promised klance part.

The lore of the lions is unquestionable and will not be rewritten or overridden. They’re sentient beings whose purpose is to bring peace and protection through means that surpass race and species and time. They won’t let just anyone into their world, into the pilot chairs of giants.

The connection between a lion and their paladin is definite and all-in.

Isn’t it interesting that the Blue lion called out to Keith?

Or that he felt her presence, whichever way you want to look at it.

I will take A:TLA’s ‘friendships can last more than one lifetime’ everywhere I go. Add to that, season one was very deliberate and concise in it’s storytelling, there weren’t coincidences. I’m not saying the Lions are psychic, but I think they know who would be destined to be their paladin. Maybe they didn’t have names or a solid time frame locked down, but there would be the sense of that person on the edge of their conscious - a blip of light down the path of their future.

Maybe she knew Lance wasn’t ready to answer if she tried to reach out to him. But she knew Red.

She trusted Red, as varied and nuanced as their connection could be, to bring her paladin to her.

Of course it would be in an unconventional manner and never so straight-forward.

Not to be that guy, but the reveal in later seasons that the bond between a lion and their paladin transcends space - literally and figuratively - didn’t surprise me. The importance of that connection and how it’s built up episode by episode just makes it obvious that they would have some kind of homing beacon that wasn’t bound by a particular radius. If Keith could sense a lion that wasn’t his then, that tether between the color coordinating paladins and lions would be immeasurably magnified.

When the team entered that cave and approached the Blue lion, she reacted instantaneously to Lance and invited him in with zero hesitation. That was her paladin. This big moment of ‘Oh, there you are.’

Whether any of the other lions would have called out to Keith, we don’t know. Since the team split up to find the other lions and those timeframes were wholly dedicated to the paladin and lion connection to sync up, we don’t know if the others would have felt the lions too. Once the team all has their lions and they begin the adventure of mindmelding, 100% they could feel the presence of the other lions as they felt each other.

Pidge had the data anomalies, hacking into encrypted files and studying radiowaves. And bringing it all together to hone the information Keith had collected.

Keith felt and heard the disturbance in the force, if you will.

The Blue lion and its paladin aren’t just the guardians of water, they’re the glue that holds the team together. Who else other than Lance could bring so many different people together?

I wasn’t super into The Great Lion Switch, but all of this still applies to that. When Lance’s role changed, it didn’t mean the Blue lion stopped having a connection with him. It was a mutual acceptance that his place on the team evolved and who else but Red to trust with her paladin? She acknowledged how much he cared about Keith.

This leans heavily on the ‘friendships last more than one lifetime’ - despite times and species, race, and age, this team would have always found its way together and the relationship of trust and respect and care between the Red lion and Blue lion were always there and would always level itself out.

Even if their paladins don’t know it yet.

Thanks for coming to my TED talk.

**I don’t really talk about Shiro or Hunk but they are also very, very important and I love them dearly.

#klance #Keith Kogane #Lance McClain #Voltron #whatthebodygraspsnot #VLD #hc #the ask tag #this was all going to be fleshed out in a post-canon fix-it(ish) story that I never finished #Krolia teases Keith relentlessly about being called by the blue lion

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kemonododo · 4 years

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Decided to rewatch the whole series after seeing the finale, here's my thoughts as they come along part 1

Razz tells Adora not to look for others to tell her what to do and asks her what she thinks. Adora decides she must fight the Horde. It's poetic that Adora gets so hung up on destiny and fulfilling her goal, when the final message she needed to learn was said in the third episode. Razz is the wisest of us all.

Angella repeats what she heard in the legends of She-Ra, notably that she is meant to "bring balance to Etheria". From Angella's perspective this seems like a good thing, but it's so much more sinister knowing that basically means "to turn the death star on".

Catra was pissed at Adora, but seemed willing to leave the Horde until Hordak elects her as Force Captain. This is the start of her conclusion that Adora was only holding her back, and so the decent of her madness. That little smirk kills me, because that face will shed a lot of tears from this point on.

Season 5 showed us what Adora's She-Ra looks like, without the First One's influence. It might be a bit blasphemous, but I think that reveal would have worked better if this early season She-Ra was the mini-skirt, cleavage design of the 80s. Have a bit of symbolism about societal beauty standards. Love the muscles though that part is perfect.

The first time Catra and Adora meet back up after their falling out is a little unremarkable, the wounds are still fresh and they're still angry at each other but I think both still don't understand how big this schism between them will be.

I just realized Entrapta's castle has a picture of a Tyrannosaurus rex with a unicorn horn and Pegasus wings. Is that what Mara's dragon was!? 😂

God I love Entrapta, even when I first watched this I was excited to see the purple Hatsune Miku in the intro. She always cared about people since the beginning, she just doesn't understand politics.

Castaspella and Angella were shipping Glimbow from the start lol.

The show gives us a full view of how Shadow Weaver's abuse affected Adora. Being constantly pressured to be the best and strongest at the threat of Catra's health has left Adora a jittering wreck. Call me sadistic, but I love that it wasn't resolved in this episode. Adora wins the battle against SW today, but all the way up to the series finale we see SW's dirty fingers clawing away at her conscious. It takes more than 20 minutes to escape a life of manipulation.

Princess Prom! This is when the show goes from a 7 to a 10. Not only the prom being a fun venue, but this is where Catra begins to get some agency. This is the first time she really feels like a main character, which is great because I love her more than anything. Also the first time we see Double Trouble and the Star sisters, which I guess are different from the Star Siblings in season 5? A bit of a continuity error.

Aww, Glimmer is jealous. I can relate to her fears of being pushed out, but the fact that she's pretty madly in love with him adds a whole new layer. Bow is right but he's being a bit insensitive here.

Let's just take a moment to appreciate how far we've come. Remember when this was the gayest thing in the show?

It's fun watching the princess alliance so early in their friendships, they obviously care enough to go with Adora on this mission to save Glimmer, but I love how annoyed and distracted they get with each other.

This episode is also really big for Catra, realizing she will never get Shadow Weaver's approval, that longing look at Adora, "this is not because I like you".

The Beacon is sandwiched between two great episodes that make it feel like filler, but a lot actually happens. We see more of Adora's insecurities, especially how she starts to take it out on herself when she runs into a problem out of her control. We got the formation of the super pal trio, a short lived group with an amazing dynamic. And we also have a huge moment with Angella that basically defines her entire character.

Entrapta's insecurities are revealed. She wants friends, she loves people, but they're complicated and hard and always seem to leave her. It's heartbreaking and something that comes to a head on Beast Island.

I love this scene with Catra and Shadow Weaver. It's clear she still loves her evil mom, and we see how SW has abandoned the idea of Adora for now and is now beginning to manipulate Catra. We also see another Catradora parallel, both of them tell straight to SW face that she has no power over them anymore, something we continue to see is not true.

Promise! 18 months later and it's still my favorite episode of the show. I like how it starts off with the anger they've been feeling up until now, but through the mind melting manipulation by skynet Light Hope, it's multiplied a thousand fold. Before this Catra was pissed at her friend, now Catra wants to murder the person she thinks destroyed her life. After this Catra isn't a cute tsundere, she's completely homicidal. She still loves Adora obviously, but Light Hope has corrupted that love into the most vitriol hate on the planet. It's wild to think they both love each other so much, and yet the abuse that have scarred them prevents that love from breaking free. This is the true moment where the show starts, this is where it became the best cartoon I have ever seen.

Also this is the only time since the first episode and Catra's redemption in season 5 where their chemistry is in full play. They just love each other so much, god I'm fucking tearing up again.

An important thing people forget about the Catradora dynamic is Catra's inferiority complex. She has been told since the day she was born that she is worthless, below Adora in every way. She loves and looks up to Adora, but her existing in Adora's shadow blackens that love. Which is why her joining the rebellion isn't a good ending for her. She needed time on her own, away from Adora, to carve out her own identity. It was her struggles as Force Captain that finally pushed her to start doing good, that realization that she is unhappy in that role. If she had left with Adora in episode 1, she would still be bitter and cruel and toxic, because she'd still be standing behind Adora.

Shadow Weaver's abuse goes both ways, as now Adora feels like she needs to protect Catra like a helpless kitten. That dynamic was not healthy, and it would not have lasted. Catradora can only exist now because they both accept each other as equals.

That final "you promise?", probably the most important words in the show. I've seen this episode a dozen times, but after seeing the finale the tears are running down my face again. Adora was the light of Catra's light, nothing mattered as long as Adora was there with her. She loved her so much. The Fright Zone, Shadow Weaver, her own insecurities, they all impacted Catra. But in that moment, them cuddling on their bunk, it didn't matter. Little did she know Adora loved her back just as much. Fuck I'm crying again.

Catra took that memory, tainted by Light Hope, and saw Adora as a monster. Someone who manipulated her like everyone else and abandoned her at the first opportunity. Someone who broke her most important promise, someone who broke her heart. Catra is probably the best written character in fiction, no I am not exaggerating.

It's a hard follow up after that episode, but the amazing juxtaposition of Entrapta and Light Hope telling the same story with different information is bone chilling and goosebumps giving.

Knowing the whole story of Mara, Light Hope's speeches are terrifying. Her manipulation makes Shadow Weaver look soft. Luckily we have an Alicorn to help, like all other abuse in the show it isn't over in a single dialog exchange, but Swift Wind is speaking the truths Adora needs to hear. The thing about Adora though is one of her main character flaws, she gives in to the doubt her abusers seed her. Her friends constantly tell her she has worth and deserves love, but she has it in her head that she must sacrifice herself for the greater good. That's another reason why Catradora works in the end, Catra helps bring out the selfishness she needs.

Battle of Brightmoon isn't a great finale, my time in the MLP fandom has soured me on "then all the friends came together and shot the villain with a rainbow" conclusion. Luckily, the show would knock the next three out of the park.

Catra starting the new season strong, I love the juxtaposition of the horde soldiers fearing her while the super pal trio doesn't. I love that little smirk, she thinks it's the first she wants yet we all know it's the later.

Frosta got a character change, I understand what they're doing where the other princesses are bringing her out of her shell, but it all happened off-screen so she just seems out of character. The little moment with her and Glimmer is great, and a little bit of forshadowing for Glimmer's queenly role.

Every Shadow Weaver and Catra interaction is fantastic, I love how SW gets so easily under her skin and how Catra pretends to brush it off. Those black tenticles still have a hold on the Kitty's heart.

Ties that Bind is a fantastic episode, especially seeing Catra's interactions with Bow and Glimmer. I love how this contrasts with the season 5 episode A shot in the Dark, here Catra is bullying the best friend squad with malice while the later has Glimmer and Bow playfully making fun of her with love.

Glimmer's actions here are also great forshadowing for her role as queen, especially how desperate she is to destroy the horde and how it affects her morals. Makes her decision to use the heart in season 4 very believable.

I love how Adora keeps referencing ghost stories she heard as a kid. I love the idea of her and Catra under the covers telling scary stories to each other until they'd both end up cuddling while insisting they aren't scared.

Entrapdak! Entrapta's love of science, complete lack of fear, and unending kindness can turn even a dictator cute. They have fantastic chemistry.

I love this little moment with Catra, Shadow Weaver correctly assumes that she's being pushed out and left behind by Hordak, and sure enough she finds Entrapta standing next to him in the lab she was almost killed just for stepping in. Her fears are repeating.

Ah! Goosebumps! The show is slowly moving to be more and more Sci-Fi, and that little shot of Mara's crashed ship with the fantastic music is just a hint to what's to come.

Roll With It is an absolutely adorable low stakes slice of life episode that shows how fun these characters are even when they aren't fighting a war. It's probably the funniest episode in the series, the 80s She-Ra segment is my favorite. There's also the wonderful moment of Adora's breakdown, the pressures of being the world's savior takes a toll on her.

White Out! One of my favorite episodes. The mostly self contained story, the new setting and outfits, great Super Pal Trio bonding, Scorpia being a lesbian, Sea Hawk, and the only time we see the corrupted She-Ra. It's a fantastic microcosm of the show itself, and it's really funny. The Scorpatra stuff is a bit sad knowing how it ends, but it is nice seeing how Scorpia can have a crush while still realizing the toxicity of her relationship later on.

Shadow Weaver's backstory and the biggest window into her head. She believes what she is doing is right, but her methods are full on psychotic, and she was power hungry from the start. I love her so much, she's so deliciously evil. The Eldritch horror that is the spell of obtainment is a treat, and SW's arrival at the Fright Zone is beautifully terrifying. This episode also has the best scenes with her and Catra, it's devastating to watch Catra continue to pine for SW's approval and how, after all this time, SW still only sees her as a tool.

Shadow Weaver is one of my favorite characters, literally every scene with her a amazing. "I can tell by how your voice turns shrill when you scream" what a bitch I love her. I also really like how you can tell Catra and Adora still love her, even after all this abuse. She's a monster, but she's also a mom, and both of those identities conflict in their heads.

Shadow Weaver's and Light Hope's reveal of Adora's origin is goosebumps giving. The revelation that there is a universe beyond Despondos is amazing, but I especially love Light Hope continuing to withhold information and effectively lie to Adora. Razz, Swift Wind, Angella, Catra, they all tell her to make her own decisions but this moment with Light Hope where she is told she doesn't have a choice is what Adora latches on to.

There's also the deal with Hordak, when Light Hope tells the story, she paints it as Hordak ripping the poor baby away from her family. We later learn that's wrong, Hordak saves Adora, he finds a tiny baby and even as a heartless destroyer he knows he can't leave her out there to die. He steals her away, but he does so from Light Hope, the original kidnapper. If Adora was raised by Light Hope, she probably would have fired the heart without question. The Horde was not a good environment to grow up in, but it was an important part in making her the hero the universe needed.

I love Hordak's monologue, the art style and music are fantastic and the whole thing is terrifying. To imagine the big bad horde of the show is just a tiny sliver of what is out there. It also shows Hordak's motivations, which don't excuse his actions but do explain them. This show does a fantastic job at letting us sympathize with the evil-doers, and that has only grown now that Wrong Hordak has shown what it's like to be disconnected from the hive-mind. Bonus points for explaining Imp's origin and showing how Entrapta is exactly the person that he needs right now.

Catra is being embarrassingly edgy here, but it is funny that she's talking about "lost it all" and she seems to think this is rock bottom, oh girl you are in for a ride awakening with how much farther you can fall.

Promise plays again as Adora has another break down. We finally see Mara, and as with everything to do with the First Ones it is chilling. I love this slowly unraveling storyline of Light Hope's true intentions. At this point it is clear she is not to be fully trusted, but we have yet to see how truly sinister her intentions are.

Catra, again, being one of the best characters ever written. She finds a minimum amount of happiness in the wastes, and immediately it all comes crashing down when her trauma resurfaces. That scene of the anger taking over is a masterpiece. I have said a million times that she'd never be truly happy in the wastes, and the later seasons confirm it, but it is heartbreaking to see how even the slightest hint of a smile is ripped off her face.

The Glimmer Angella arguments hurt, they're both right but it's sad to see them fight and how Angella takes Glimmer's advice while Glimmer doubles down on her faults.

Shadow Weaver back on her bullshit, manipulating teenagers to give her power. Noelle mentioned how she truly believes she's on the good side, and obviously she doesn't want the Horde to win, but you can't deny she has some selfish motivations behind recruiting Glimmer. That lust for power remains with her until the very end.

We see Adora getting to Entrapta here, people I think really didn't get their impressions of her right. Entrapta loves tech and science, and sometimes it blinds her, but she isn't immoral, she does care about the safety of her friends.

"You made me this way, and you get to be the good guy" "you couldn't wait to get away from here, from me. But you came back for Adora". You can see how SW's betrayal not only reaffirmed Catra's fears, but was probably just as much a force behind her decent into madness as Adora was.

There's also something beautiful about the symbolism of Shadow Weaver using her new victim like a battery to crush her old.

And Catra betrays Entrapta and Scorpia, this is officially the worst she gets, at this point her hatred of Adora is taking over her. We see more of it in season 4, but her desire to hurt Adora as much as Adora has hurt her causes her to crack like an egg. Scorpia's face says it all.

I love getting to see Catra and Adora in their element, completely in love with each other. None of the complexity of the world at large, just them two together. Even Shadow Weaver's approval of Catra, this is her dream world.

It's funny how Scorpia's first instinct upon seeing Catra is to hug her while her first reaction to Adora is to insult her. She has terrible judgement of character lol

Everyone's insistence that it's "perfect", watching the world shift and fall apart, the confusion, the panic, the show masterfully shows Adora's emotions in this mind-melding episode.

"Soon the two of us will be ruling Etheria together just like we always planned" "Is that what you really want, to rule the world?" "I mean, yeah, obviously. Isn't that what you want too?" God this little moment is perfect, it shows how much they're wavelengths differ. Catra focuses on the "together" while Adora focuses on the "rule the world". Like DT says later, Catra's heart was never truly in it. This thirst for power is just the world's most destructive coping mechanism.

#she ra #spop #analysis

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smartzelda · 4 years

Text

Hey, so I'm gonna elaborate on this quote by Hashimoto. Turns out every game from bbs to the end of kh3 limit cut has to do with exactly what he says right there about Sora an Riku. Stay with me on this

Yeah, @xionshadow @minwuwhite @salted-coffee-beans @lovingthatgayshit and everyone else, I essayed again. Keep in mind there aren't quotes in this, it's more of a ramble of events and such

BBS: Riku and Sora are together being best friends and have a focus due to the keyblade, light, Terra and Aqua. Kairi is by her self and meets aqua. Yeah Aqua puts a spell on her necklace that ultimately leads her to Riku and Sora, but at this point in time it's unknown to them who the person to protect Kairi would be. Also, evidence is always thrown in here that Aqua doing that is so//*ai cause it leads Kairi to Sora, but really the hope is she leads to the keyblade weilder (yknow, on xehanort's end) who is technically Riku before kh1 events, and Aqua makes no romantic mention. It's just supposed to be someone with a strong enough light to protect her, not HER protector as in love or something or as in Sora or Riku being her prince.

Kh1: Sora and Riku have friendship problems and Riku has some jealousy. At the end they close the door, Riku's sad over realizing bad stuff he did, Sora has flashbacks to him and Riku spending time together and promises to go get him and come back with him so the 3 friends can spend time together. Kairi has only a few moments, including her joint saving Sora as of kh3 knowledge, her wanting to share a paopu too, and just her giving Sora the lucky charm and knowing that he'll return it. There's also Riku trying to find Kairi. Arguably, this game is the most we get of 3 friends, they're a trio, even on Sora's end. Sora goes through the worlds searching for both of his friends. But even then, Kairi isn't there 80% of the game. The friendship end is covered, but besides those moments where Sora has Kairi visions of her talking to him, he doesn't reference her. On the other hand, he meets Riku more than once, and we get to see Riku's fears evolve and his fear of replacement. We get Sora accepting him almost the whole time and Riku siding with darkness. We get moments like the moment where Sora is falling and he literally remembers Riku going "Giving up already? Sora, I thought you were stronger than that" and he believes after that and is able to fly with that pixie dust. He's the only one Sora has those flashbacks of the past with in the game like that. Sora and Riku get a scene with working together on the door while Sora and Kairi get separated and only Sora's work goes into everything, namely that he's gonna go get Riku while Kairi waits (not like she has a choice, but it stands). Even when it's about Sora and Kairi it's about just friendship or Riku. That kh1 scene where they get separated is an attributed so//*ai scene that people see as romantic, but it contains Sora's desire for them all to be friends and to find Riku. On the other hand with Riku, it's about Riku. Riku and Sora close the door? Flashbacks specifically about him and Riku till the last flashback, but even then it's Sora and Riku running together while Kairi's in the back running behind them. Sora and Riku's interactions and what's going on with their friendship are definitely focused on while Kairi is a doll most the game and doesn't get that kind of focus

CoM: About going to find Riku and Mickey. Evidence at the beginning that Sora really wishes to find Riku. He's distracted by Naminé, but whenever he finally gets to see "Riku" it's interraction that causes Sora to think afterwards about his relationship with Riku and what he could've done (more seen in the novel). If that huge analysis is correct, a lot leads to Riku, including parallels, but it's covered up by Kairi. Even when all Sora's memories of Kairi are replaced with Naminé, Sora's not in love with her until she uses the meteor shower scene, which would be a Sora and Riku memory. Before she uses it, Naminé is essentially at Kairi's current level of "I need to save her cause she's my friend". He only forgets Riku because of Naminé's memory meddling detracting from his purpose and making him forget everything he came to do and everyone except her. Kairi is merely mentioned by Naminé and Sora and everyone else. Even afer Sora knows about the Naminé and the repliku truth of him being not exactly Riku, he still does his actions for Naminé cause his heart still feels the impact of the fake memories, and even though Repliku's fake, Sora treats him similarly as Naminé, probably because of what's true in his heart. In the novels, Sora thinks about Kairi momentarily if she's brought up and when he looks at the lucky charm. Even in the lucky charm case, in the novel, it reminds him of Kairi cause she gave it to him, but also his promise to bring Riku back and of all his friends. It's only in Naminé's case with all the meddling that Sora looks at it and thinks of Naminé and his promise to protect her. Kairi isn't present and the game has no development with Sora and her or real reference to their relationship. On Riku's side, the novels have him mostly think about Sora out of the two, only really mentioning Kairi at the beginning when he decides he wants to say sorry to Sora and Kairi and when he meets Naminé. In the novel, for example, Riku goes to destiny islands of his memories and thinks about times with Sora when they rolled around on the sand. There's a focus on how Riku feels about the darkness and how that translates with his fears relating to Sora and his friends. He makes a promise with Naminé that she'll watch over Sora, and he walks the road to dawn for his redemption and to be able to face Sora and everyone.

Days: Similar to BBS, this one has main character focus on a different cast, but again Sora, Riku, and their relationship is still involved. Riku gets involved with Xion. In the novel, he states that he's willing to help her and not lie to her mostly because she's a part of Sora and is similar in personality, while Kairi factors in as appearance familiarity. In the novel, Riku has clear monologues about how he wanted to reign in his darkness before Sora woke up, and before going to fight Roxas how he's prepared to use his darkness to win at all costs, all for Sora. There's Xion and Roxas having memory visions. Xion awakes from one yelling "Sora". Roxas has a bunch of visions including Riku and Riku lines where he confuses Riku with Xion and wakes up yelling "Riku". There's the focus on how Riku gives up his body to win against Roxas and get Sora back. Then he has Mickey promise not to tell Sora what happened to him. Again, Kairi only is involved in mere mention and memories, and while Sora is too, he's more consistently mentioned. Riku also gets his focus on his motivations relating to Sora and shows up. Riku is there amd we are presented what's going on with him and Sora

Kh2: This one has a lot of obvious. One of Sora's main goals and focuses is to find Riku and bring him back. Along the journey, we also have Riku alienating himself from Sora to protect him while also stalking/leading him to make sure he's okay. There's the big reunion scene moment, and at the end Sora and Riku fight multiple battles together. In the RoD they have a heart to heart, and even though Sora's motivation was to bring Riku back so they and Kairi could be together again no matter what, he resolves to stay in the RoD with Riku for eternity instead without fight or protest, even in the novel deciding that if he was stuck here with anyone, he's glad it's Riku. Again, we see their relationship, how they work together, how they feel about each other. As for Kairi, as usual she is barely present. She is mostly left up to the few times she is mentioned and Sora rarely talks about her. Even with the begging scene and his feelings, we can get that it's a product of Naminé's meddling and not anything to do with him actually developing those feelings. Even Kairi herself only resolves to find Sora, and during the reunion scene, we learn their relationship is iffy due to time, change, and no interaction. After the reunion, Kairi's only Sora relationship moments are when they talk to Naminé and Roxas, which has nothing to do with how Sora and Kairi feel about each other, and when Sora returns the lucky charm. Except the lucky charm thing was just symbolic of Sora's promise to bring Riku back and them all be together again. It didn't have much to do with his relationship with Kairi other than she gave it to him and he remembers that when looking at it too. So again, we don't get much or really anything with Kairi and Sora's development, but we get plenty with Riku and Sora and how their motivations and interactions and everything relate to each other and their motivations and relationship

Recoded: Do I even need to say much? Kairi is again only in mention. There's a whole section where data Riku's about to be overtaken by bugs and Sora resolves to go alone, dive into him, and save him. He travels with Riku and they have a lot of moments and we again get to see (even before when Riku's in disguise and just out of it) about how they feel about their relationship and how they must act with the other in their mind. There's even that flashback of a Riku memory where Kairi is there, but Riku instead focuses on the moon and reaches for it, the moon believed to symbolize Sora.

Dream Drop Distance: Again, need I say anything? This game is about them relationship wise. They think about each other, they believe in each other and have talks with other characters about how they're always connected. There's a whole scene about how their hearts are in tune. In the novel, Riku has a monologue about how light and darkness they compliment each other. We get to see sorta how they feel about the other and trust each other. We again get Riku's motivation to protect Sora and his evolution to finding out that their rivalry is not darkness, but what pushed them to be stronger together and still does. There's so much of them and their relationship. On the other hand, Kairi shows up 4 times in the whole game, only 3 referring to Sora. She isn't even really mentioned. 1 of those 3 is a flashback to Kairi flying through him in kh1, another is just Kairi appearing behind Sora with all the rest of the guardians of light, and a 3rd is just Sora's dream with Riku and Kairi walking away from him. There is really nothing with Kairi and her relationship with anyone here

0.2: There's not much, but even with Riku and Kairi standing there, the only mention between them and Sora is basically how Sora's rubbed off on Riku and how Riku's more like Sora, then Riku talking about how he wants to be more like Sora. So again, more of their relationship focus

Kh3: During Sora's journey section, there is like no mention of Kairi, but he thinks about Riku and mentions Riku and talks to Riku on the gummiphone. We see them meet in the tower and Riku reassures him that he can do it. We see this little of their relationship and the little development. There's the RoD thing where Sora arguably uses the power of waking to get to Riku without having KKD and the gayblade. There's these looks they give where they understand each other without speaking. Even with the paopu scene, it starts out with Sora focusing on Riku. This is also the first point we see Sora trying to do a relationship fix with Kairi. Sora sheilding Kairi doesn't amount to or develop anything. But we get Riku's sacrifice, where by now he's realized that he loves Sora and he tells Sora he believes in him as he goes to sacrifice. It has a bigger focus than Sora's shield of Kairi and is more dramatic. Riku tries to prove to Sora that he is strong on his own. There's Riku comforting Sora and them being the only one left. There's the deliberation of animation in Riku reaching out to Sora and dropping it, only to get up, tell Sora he believes in him and sacrifice. In the Riku keyblade graveyard battle, we get moments of Sora swooping in to protect Riku and them going to fight together, where as in the rest Sora popped in to help or like in Mickey's case where he just gets captured. We get to see their teamwork once again. There's Riku's reaction of being angry after Kairi being "killed" only after Sora gets smad. Riku's heart is the first to reach Sora in kingdom hearts, and Riku supports his end decision and believes in him. All the Sora with Kairi stuff is mention, him fixing his relationship with her, or him going to bring him back and have all his friends safe. I didn't even recognize the evidence of Riku being the light and saving Riku first, even the section of saving Riku having more cutscenes and Sora talk/analysis than the rest of the scenes Sora saves his friends

Remind: All of the Sora and Kairi stuff again is just Sora trying to find her and have all his friends safe and fix his relationship with her. This one is more about Kairi and Sora's relationship, and even then there's a focus on Sora and Riku's relationship. There's still a bunch of the same things as base kh3, but we get more moments of Riku saying to trust or believe in Sora, there's Riku recognizing Sora there when Sora hits him with light when no one else does, even softly saying Sora's name aloud. There's their heartstations side by side and Sora being able to connect to him from inside kingdom hearts. There's another shot when Sora gets Kairi's last heart piece where Riku's heart is the brightest and again reaches Sora first. We still get their relationship and how they feel about each other despite this section not being directly about them, just like bbs, days, and 0.2.

Limit cut: We get big focus here. We see Riku sad over Sora. We learn that he is at least a key to saving him. Riku's dreaming about looking for Sora exactly where he is. We learn Riku is gonna be important. On Kairi's side, she's mentioned again and relegates herself to doll status for a whole year. She can see the final world, but neither she nor the scientists looking in her heart or anyone else looking found Sora or something related, while Riku's dreams hold the or a key and possibly a clue. Also, Yozora, the kh3 Riku lookalike (described by even Sora, Donald, and Goofy) looking for Sora who may just be Sora, but may also refer to him looking for the nameless star who may be his Sora (it's kinda hard to know for now).

In every game, consistently, Sora and Riku's relationship and development is a focus, even if it's not the center or the most important thing

Thanks for dealing with my essay ramble

#sora #riku #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts remind #kh remind spoilers #remind spoilers #remind #another kh essay

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maxineswritingcenter · 5 years

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An Unlikely Friend

@toxicskullxxx said: Y/n the youngest Archangel that shakres similar abilities with god in creating things and she made an after life with their creations and her personal heaven called Purgatory. Y/n is know as a Goddess among supernatural beings, but she's a myth in heaven having fallen/disappeared before Lucifer fell. She comes out of hiding to help save Castiel when he prayed for help and she gladly came. Winchester's were wary of her since she created the creature's they hunt, but started to warm up especially Dean.

Alright, first request let's DO THIS! The setting in this fic will be season 8 because I thought it related to the Purgatory aspect.

-------------------------------------------------

After Dick exploded, the force of it blew Dean and Castiel into Purgatory with him. After meeting a vampire, Benny, and finding Castiel, they had to make a plan to get out. Castiel was sitting by the river, staring into the water.

Dean stared at him and groaned, "Hey! Are you just going to sit there all day?" Castiel looked back at him, then back to the water.

Benny leaned over to whisper to Dean, "Is he uh... righ' in the head?" He used the tip of his knife to tap his hat. Suddenly, the ground began to shake and the familiar sound of angel speak filled their ears. Dean and Benny covered their ears, trying to block out the ear piercing sound. Castiel's face fell slack. After the noice ended and the ground was stable, Dean grabbed Castiel's coat and jerked him to his feet.

"Hey! Snap out of it. What the hell was that?" Dean asked, motioning to their surroundings.

"I apoplogize for that. My voice drives them away. I thought it would be safer." They all turned to face their new arrival. Dean and Benny brought out their weapons. Castiel put a hand out.

"Stop!" He said, staring in awe. The figure before them was a woman. She had long white hair and a flowing white dress but she was young and beautiful.

"(Y/N)... You do exist..." Castiel took a step forward.

The woman grinned, her smile was bright and warm, "Indeed. It has been so long since anyone has called upon me." She walked forward and hugged Castiel, "Thank you, Castiel."

"Excuse me." Dean cleared his throat, the woman pulled away from Castiel and looked at Benny and Dean. The smile on her face falling.

"You're human... what are you doing here?" She asked, her chest rising and falling quickly.

"Listen, how about before we start asking questions you explain who you are." Dean said, still wary of the new arrival.

"Right... I apologize. I am (Y/N), creator of Supernatural Creatures." She said simply.

"Come again?" Benny asked, not believing his ears.

"So you're like Eve?" Dean asked.

"Oh no." (Y/N) laughed, "Eve was my sister." Dean coughed awkwardly, rubbing the back of his neck, "Uh... Sorry about that."

(Y/N) looked down sadly and sighed, "You did what you had to. I understand. My sister sought to destroy with the creatures we made. I wanted everyone to live together in harmony." She motioned to Dean and Benny, "Like this. Human and Vampire working together." Dean and Benny looked at each other.

"Well," Benny began, "It's more of an arrangement." She stared for a moment and smirked.

"You're going to use him as a vessel." She said, "I'm glad it works."

"You made that?" Benny asked.

"Benjamin, I believe in second chances. The vessel system works to provide that. It is a bond formed by trust." She clasped her hands together.

"Now I do believe it's my turn to ask a question. How did you get here?" Her eyes met Dean's. He stared into them for a minute. Their color seemed to change from one color to the next.

"Dean?" Benny broke his train of thought

"Uh," Dean cleared his throat. He then explained the Leviathan outbreak and then killing Dick.

"Dick exploded?" (Y/N) asked, her head tilted to the side.

Dean coughed to hide the laugh, "Yeah. Then we showed up here. We've been walking around for a while, killing everything that attacks us. We just found Cas two days ago."

"We're trying to get the portal." Castiel said, "Can you help us?" (Y/N) looked at him. They both knew well that the portal only worked for humans. And Dean couldn't carry both.

She nodded, "Follow me. And keep close. My children only know and agree with my sister. Even the Leviathans will not listen to me anymore. Their hearts grew as black as their blood." She turned and began to walk into the forest. Dean watched her, she walked like she had no care in the world. She was even barefoot. The men quickly followed.

They walked for days. Weeks even. Purgatory was vast and easy to get lost in. Dean began to grow closer to (Y/N). His favorite thing was making her laugh. She had this unearthly, musical laugh that made his heart leap.

(Y/N) had never met a human. They were as interesting as she had heard. From the stories she heard from former humans who had come to her realm, she didn't gather much. But Dean was a true person. He fought for good, wanting nothing in return but the knowledge of safety for others. He fought the creatures her sister had poisoned with her intent. But monsters like Benny who tried again, those were (Y/N)'s. Dean was special. She knew what his destiny had been chosen to become. That her father would force her brothers to fight and fall. Then to force innocents to fight in their name again was wrong. And she was cast out for it, kept here until the end of time.

They were walking through the woods, Benny, Castiel and Dean followed behind (Y/N).

"Are we close?" Castiel asked. (Y/N) only kept humming her strange song.

"Come on, angel, aren't you all about faith?" Benny asked.

"Not particularly." Castiel replied as they all came to a halt. They all looked down and watched as a leaf float up off the ground. They watched as it flew up and into the blue portal just up ahead.

"Oh ye of little faith." Benny said, watching the portal.

"The hell?" Dean stared into it. It reminded him of the looking up at the surface from beneath the water.

"There it is. It's reacting to you." (Y/N) had moved to Dean's side, placing her hand on his shoulder. He sighed and started to roll up his sleeve.

"Alright? You ready? Just like we talked about." Dean cut open his arm and looked up at Benny.

"Lotta trust in you, brotha." Benny said.

"You earned it." Dean said. (Y/N) smiled at the two, happy that a deep friendship was forming between man and creature. Benny cut his arm and then they both grasped each other's forearms.

"I'll see you on the otha side." Benny said. Dean nodded and then recited the incantation. They watched as Benny turned bright red smoke and flew into Dean's open wound. Dean gasped at the pain, lowering his sleeve. He took (Y/N)'s hand and looked at Castiel.

"Let's go." He said and they all started the trek up the hill. They moved quickly over rocks and through branches. Near the top, Castiel stopped.

"Wait." He yelled. Just then two balls of smoke landed in front of them. The black substance soon morphed into two Leviathans.

(Y/N) stepped forward, the Leviathans didn't look her in the eye but they didn't back away.

"Let us pass." She commanded, "He doesn't belong here."

"We don't take orders from some prissy bitch." The male Leviathan said.

"Eve is our mother. Not you." The woman said. They lunged forward. Dean swung his weapon but was shoved down a hill. Castiel went to attack the man, but was teamed up on by the woman. (Y/N) went to Dean helping him up. They made it back up just in time to kill the male, who was about to make Castiel's head a meal. Castiel punched the woman in the gut, then Dean cut her head off as well.

Dean helped Castiel to his feet, "We gotta move!" He shouted over the sound of the portal, "The portal's closing!" The trio climbed their way up, the force of the wind from the portal was hard to fight again. (Y/N) slipped, but Dean held her steady. Dean was the first to the portal, Castiel and (Y/N) behind him.

"Dammit come on!" Dean shouted again. His words were like a whisper compared to the portal. Dean stepped through the portal, holding out his arm for Castiel. They grabbed arms.

"Come on!" He shouted again, "I got you, hold on. (Y/N) grabbed onto Castiel's jacket. Castiel looked back at (Y/N) who only looked at him sadly, then looking back at Dean.

"Dean!" Castiel shouted.

"Hold on!"

"Dean!" Castiel said again, throwing away Dean's arm. Dean looked at him shocked and confused. His attention was brought to (Y/N) who had tears streaming down her cheeks.

"Go!" Castiel said, standing.

"You have to go, Dean!" (Y/N) shouted, her voice was shaking, "You can't be here!" Before he could reply, Dean was sucked into the portal.

Dean had come back, and after releasing Benny, he went to find Sam. It had been a whole year since he had been gone. It was hard adjusting at first. Not only because he had been killing his way through purgatory, but because he lost two people. Castiel, his best friend. And (Y/N), someone he had dreamed about. She was kind and strong. Didn't take anybody's crap either. He had been seeing them, both of them together. Whether it was on the side of the road or in his room. One minute there, the next gone.

Dean was staring at himself in the mirror, thinking about his friends. He leaned down in the sink to run cold water over his face and when he looked up, Castiel was behind him. Looking as disheveled and dirty as he had been in purgatory.

"Hello Dean." Castiel said, as he usually would.

"Dean!" Sam called from the other room. When he opened the door he saw Sam who was up from his chair at the table and staring at a white haired woman. She turned to face Dean and his heart almost stopped.

"Dean!" She grinned, running and throwing her arms around his neck. He chuckled nervously, looking back at Cas and then at Sam as he wrapped his arms around (Y/N).

-------------------------------------------------

I think this went well, I really liked how this turned out!

Requests are open! Send me an ask with your suggestion and I'll get to it as soon as I can.

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#demon dean #dean winchester x reader #dean winchester imagine #dean winchester #dean x reader #requests #supernatural creatures #supernatural reader insert #supernatural imagine #supernatural #purgatory

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blasphemous-tiefling · 4 years

Text

I wanna take a few steps back for a minute and talk about KHI Riku and the Destiny Islands Trio as whole.

We are given:

1. Main protag with spiky hair and happy-go-lucky attitude

2. Cute and plucky obvious love interest girl

3. Edgy older boy who’s cooler and tougher than main protag

The very first scene between these three sets up a very important image where Sora is much less serious than Riku, Riku has an affectionate yet playful friendship with Kairi, Kairi and Sora like to tease each other and are probably into one another, and Sora and Riku are very competitive with one another. When given the opportunity to one-up the other in a race, Riku sits down, they both act uninterested, and as soon as Kairi says go, they both hop up and bolt for it, probably silently hoping the other one wouldn’t get the jump on it and would have a late start.

In the next scene with the three of them, we once again see that Riku is mildly flirtatious with Kairi, and Sora is less than happy about this, presumably because he likes Kairi himself. We get more characterization of Riku as an adventurer, someone who wants more from life than what he has in front of him now. Sora and Kairi seem to share this desire, but not on the level that Riku does. They both even show minor hesitation when Sora asks, “But how far could a raft take us?” and Kairi asks, “You’ve been thinking a lot lately, haven’t you?” as if this is a newer, more forceful side to Riku that she’s not used to.

Immediately after, Riku introduces the player to the concept of a paopu fruit, teasing Sora saying, “C’mon, I know you wanna try it,” hinting that Riku is well aware that Sora likes Kairi. In fact, this is probably why Riku is a little flirtatious with her- to get under Sora’s skin and mess with him. It’s clear to us that Riku has a rivalry with Sora and that he likes to joke with him. This scene’s impact is extended when the race occurs and Riku says, “Winner gets to share a paopu with Kairi,” and Sora then hesitates, unsure if he can actually beat Riku and considering how high the stakes are.

The next major scene is between Sora and Kairi alone as they sit on the docks. It is made clear here that Kairi shares Sora’s romantic feelings, suggesting that Riku has changed and joking, “Let’s take the raft and go, just the two of us!”

So. We’ve established that Sora and Kairi like one another. Riku is like the jerk of an older brother who is better than Sora at everything and likes to tease Sora by flirting with Sora’s girl. BUT it is important to note that Kairi and Riku DO have a friendship all their own. Riku credits Kairi with giving him the ideas of exploration. Without her, he probably wouldn’t have been so inspired. He also has a different form of teasing her, remarking that she is just as lazy as Sora. For Kairi to suggest that Riku has changed implies that she knows Riku well enough to notice any change in his normal day-to-day behavior. This is a group of three friends, two of whom just happen to like one another romantically.

Fast-forward a little bit to Traverse Town when Sora finds Riku (or the other way around) and Riku becomes jealous of Goofy, Donald, and the keyblade. Riku’s always been better than Sora, but this is the first time he sees that Sora is able to hold his own and probably starts to feel a little unnecessary. He falls into Maleficent’s lies that Sora does not want or need Riku anymore. He starts believing Sora has not only abandoned him, but that he’s abandoned Kairi as well. Riku takes on the responsibility of getting Kairi back and making sure she’s safe. Because she’s his FRIEND and that’s what friends do for one another. Guys, this is so important. There was a time when Riku and Kairi were FRIENDS. Riku goes through hella lot to make sure that Kairi gets her heart back. He screws over some people, feeling hurt and betrayed by Sora, desperately doing what he can to regain at least one friend. “Soon, Kairi. Soon,” was a line that Riku spoke after being granted some new dark powers. He wasn’t going along with Maleficent because he wanted cool new abilities and got all cocky acting like he was better than everyone else. He did it because he genuinely thought it was the right path to save Kairi. The road to hell is paved with good intentions. Riku did some bad things in order to save her and ended up losing himself in the process.

Fast-forward even farther to The End of the World. Kairi has her heart back, and Sora has to go off on one last venture to try to get Riku back. When Riku is inside the Realm of Darkness, about to be cut off from the Realm of Light, he turns to Sora and says, “Take care of her.” THIS is Riku’s last comment to Sora, a sentiment that declares that Riku knows Sora can handle himself now. Sora doesn’t need Riku anymore. Kairi has Sora to take care of her. Sora and Kairi can be together. And Riku doesn’t hold a grudge about it. He just knows it’s the flow of how things worked out. He’s fading into darkness. There isn’t much he can do for his friends anymore. But he trusts Sora with the responsibility of taking care of Kairi and blesses him with the ability to do so unimpeded by any anger or frustration Riku may have had.

All I’m trying to say is that Riku and Kairi were friends. Riku loved both Kairi and Sora at one point. I don’t understand why the newer installments (namely KHIII) decided to act like they were never a trio, as if it was always just Sora and Kairi and then just Sora and Riku rather than Sora, Kairi, and Riku.

KHII, while it didn’t have very many scenes featuring the three together, still did its part to remember the trio. Kairi begging Riku not to leave, desperately calling out for both of them before the dark pathway closed off and Sora and Riku were left to fight Xemnas.

I’m gonna keep posting these things, man. This series has changed a lot. How I felt about the characters and their dynamics in KHI is not at all how I felt about them in KHIII. In KHI, I actually liked Kairi and wanted to see her in the spotlight. In KHIII, I want nothing more than for Xehanort to slash that gal in half and be rid of her forever. In KHI, I love Sora and Kairi’s relationship, the evidence that they like one another but neither one of them have the nerve to say it. In KHIII, I’m screaming, “GAAAAAAYYYYY!!!” any time Riku is on screen and I’m rewatching that scene with Dark Aqua and Sora and Riku’s reality shifts thinking about the Sleeping Realm Theory and how desperately I want Soriku to be confirmed. In KHI, I want the three of them to be together again, free to explore the worlds. In KHIII, I don’t see any reason for the three of them to even be in the same room at the same time. There is a distinct shift in their relationships. Maybe it’s because the series decided the push Kairi to the side for many installments and just focused on Sora and Riku. Maybe it’s because Kairi’s voice actor changed, and that has a huge affect on me. Maybe it’s because Kairi didn’t have the same drive she seemed to have in KHI and KHII. I always go back to the scene where she and Sora are in the tunnel in Traverse Town, and she just assumes she’s going with Sora to save Riku. And then in KHII when she jumps in Naminé’s dark pathway, without knowing what it is, because she’s decided that “waiting isn’t good enough.” And then again in KHII when Riku gives her a keyblade and she immediately hops in and starts killing some heartless. Where was this ready-to-fight, all-in Kairi in KHIII? Maybe it’s because Riku as a character has grown so stoic and cool-tempered. Like KHI Riku got smad and aggressive and sassy. KHIII Riku acts all Mr. Placid McBoring.

I’m all in for character development. But this doesn’t feel like development. In fact, it feels like the opposite. It’s like character regression where the characters slowly get more and more one-dimensional.

I think that’s about it. That’s all that I have to say today.

Edit: Okay, my bad. I can see where this would suggest that I don’t like Riku anymore. That is very much not the case. I still adore that boy. It’s just... different than how it used to be...

#kingdom hearts rant #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #soriku #sokai #straight up not how to write a story #straight up not how to write characters #destiny islands trio #sora #riku #kairi #sora don't ever change #this time ill protect you #take care of her

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yo-namine · 4 years

Text

Okay, time to talk to myself about Re:Mind and Limit Cut Episode.

Spoilers galore under the cut!

I'm just gonna start off by talking about how the DLC handled my biggest gripe with base KH3, which was obviously how Kairi was written in the last few hours of the game. Like I said in my other post, Re:Mind doesn't totally fix those problems, but... Well, here's what we get:

Kairi's "murder" is reframed a bit in the DLC. Base KH3 presents it as Xehanort killing her just to provoke Sora et al. into "clashing" with him to make the final key. In Re:Mind, we learn that Xehanort was actually stowing Kairi away (by "crystallizing" her, which... means she wasn't dead? But Sora still takes all the steps Chirithy gives him that are specifically for restoring a heart from death, and it works, so...?) as a fail-safe of sorts in case he needed another Light. Xemnas foreshadows this a bit when he says that Kingdom Hearts needs the Princesses of Heart in case the whole 13 Clashes of Light and Darkness thing doesn't work out. And for what it's worth, I do think this is a little better for Kairi as a character just because it shows that she was "killed" due to something unique and special about her, rather than what she was to Sora. She's still being used, and she's still sapped of her agency, but presumably no other character could have worked in that role against Xehanort, so... that's something, I suppose.

During the Xemnas/Saix/Xion fight, there's an added scene where all the Lights get to take a shot at Xemnas, and Kairi actually broke that motherfucker's guard and made him stumble when no one else could... And then she got captured, bloop, but at least this time it was because she was actually fighting and simply got bested. I can appreciate that. I liked seeing her shield Axel from Xion's attack, too.

And of course, she does get the chance to take on Xehanort later. She has a nice battle set-up (a sort of warp dash ability similar to Riku's and Roxas's, shotlock, reflect, and a GORGEOUS link attack with Sora), and it's a little cathartic to play as her taking Xehanort down. However, I don't think she ever learns that Xehanort took her as a safety measure for his plan or why she was the one chosen for this in the first place. She doesn't speak to Xehanort at all, which makes her big battle with him at the end feel rather... impersonal? And never mind him "killing" her in KH3; Xehanort's ultimately responsible for her losing her family when she was four years old, as well as the destruction of her home world. I'm not saying Kairi and Xehanort needed to have some long overwrought conversation or anything, but there definitely should've been some dialogue between them.

Kairi's actually involved in Naminé's restoration after all!!!!!!!! I remember the Ultimania's explanation of Naminé's return leaving a bad taste in my mouth because it seemed like they framed Kairi's death as ultimately a good thing, because hey, at least her murder freed Naminé from her heart. But that's not what actually happened; instead, Kairi and Sora go to Radiant Garden at the end of the game, and she lets him use the keyblade to release Naminé's heart from hers. And honestly, that scene right there? That was probably my favorite part of this entire DLC. The fact that Kairi really did play a part in restoring her Nobody is a much better payoff to her earlier lines in the game about wanting Naminé to have her own experiences. She wanted to give Naminé her life back, and rather than that being something wrenched from Kairi against her will, it was something she did for Naminé of her own volition. I just. 😭

/tl;dr thoughts on kairi

As for everything else in Re:Mind:

I loved the background moments with Sora and Kairi in the ending cinematic. Each one is framed so that you can't see their faces, so they all feel like you're looking in on something secret. The "Behind the Curtain" trophy name is pretty fitting (and just downright cute, lol). And like I said above, I loved the scene where Kairi and Sora restore Naminé's heart. You just see him pull the keyblade away from her chest, and then she cradles Naminé's heart in her hands and fjsldfjskd. I teared up at that. It was just such a sweet and gentle little moment. Sora and Kairi taking Chirithy to Ven (and Sora even giving them a little push, lol) was really sweet, too. I loved their body language while they watched Ven run off, how you see them turn toward each other just slightly.

I also like how Sora and Kairi's relationship evolved from "Even if we're apart, our hearts are always connected" to "Heart connections are nice and all, but I'd much rather actually be with you."

Demyx and Riku interacting was something I never knew I needed. Riku's like "PLEASE be careful with that vessel, it's very important--" and Demyx is just "Bro, I got this," and hoists it over his shoulder like a sack of potatoes.

Sora and Roxas actually talk to each other! I liked the scene where Sora's Station of Awakening starts to peel away to reveal Roxas's, and you get little glimpses of Roxas's memories. And it turns out that Sora actually did release Roxas's heart from his, and it wasn't just Xemnas kicking Xion into his chest that did the trick, lmao. I like that change.

Xemnas mentions that the original Organization doesn't remember Xion, but they do have records of her. That's a nice little tidbit to have for my Day 4 AU. 👀

Saix says the Guardians must be desperate if they're getting a Princess of Heart involved in the war, and Axel's like "Nah, she's our trump card." Aw. I also thought it was interesting how Saix purposefully uses Axel and Roxas's names to try to trigger Xion's memory of them.

I had to watch the recusant's sigil bit like four times before I understood what the hell was happening, lmao. The sigil represents the Sea Salt Trio's actual connection to one another that they had to "reclaim" from Xemnas, which... okay, but why was that needed? The thing I always liked about this trio is that they're the only one that we see develop fully from the beginning to the end of their relationship. They were always the most believable (canon) trio to me because of that, so throwing in this whole "The sigil binds us together!" thing just seems kind of stupid and unnecessary. They're friendship is good enough as-is. You don't have to add in this nonsense to represent their bond; their relationship development itself already did that. But whatever, they still had a really cool combo attack.

Scala ad Caelum is expanded on! I really enjoyed exploring it and solving the little puzzles to put Kairi's heart back together.

I LOVED THE GUARDIANS VS. NORT REPLICAS BATTLE SO MUCH I HAVE TO YELL ABOUT IT. I ACTUALLY DIED THE FIRST TIME BUT I DIDN'T CARE THAT I HAD TO REPLAY IT BECAUSE I WAS HAVING SO MUCH FUN. THE TAG TEAM ATTACKS!!!!! AQUA, XION, AND MICKEY'S COUNTER-ATTACK!!!!!! EVERYONE ACTUALLY WORKING TOGETHER!!!!!!!! IT’S ALL I EVER WANTED!!!!!!!!

There are so many cute dialogue exchanges during the Guardians vs. replicas sequence, too! Ven and Roxas compliment each other, Aqua scolds Axel for talking too much (twice, I think? Axel fusses at her the second time, lmao), Terra says something to Riku that I couldn't quite catch, and Riku's like "All thanks to you!" It's just so cute and charming, and it really made the Guardians finally feel like a team.

Mickey Mouse straight-up Boromir-ing his way through the Nort replicas was... I think I loved that? Yeah, no, I loved that. I was laughing through half of it because I kept getting knocked back, but it was a great sequence (visually and gameplay-wise).

Connecting all the keyholes was very satisfying, and was just a beautiful visual altogether.

Sora and Kairi's reunion was adorable. And then Sora sees Goatanort enter the scene, and he just looks at Kairi and is like, "You ready, B?" and Kairi's like, "FUCK yeah, I'm taking his trachea through his kneecaps!!!!!" Okay, not really, lmao. Actually, Kairi's surprised when Sora asks her that, like she didn't expect him to let her help, or maybe she felt like she wouldn't even be able to, but she says she's ready anyway. Kairi’s under-confidence in her fighting skills is a little more apparent in the DLC. Like she says "I can do this" right before the final battle, but it comes off as her trying to reassure herself. She even has a counterattack where her battle quote is "Please work!" and I don't remember hearing her say that in the base game. Girl knows how outclassed she is compared to most of the other Guardians (and Xehanort), but she fights like hell anyway. Attagirl. 🎉

And as for Limit Cut:

Aww, I love that Terra calls Riku "a great leader."

Cheers to David Gallagher for saying "Are you sure about this?" with the exact same inflection as the John Cena meme.

Riku's a master now, right? When will he get some spiffy keyblade armor???????

Okay. Riku is having dreams about looking for Sora. Sora is dead (?), and "the edges of sleep and death touch." Kairi has been asleep for the past year so that the Radiant Garden team can study her heart in effort to find Sora. Nomura? Nomura? Nomura. You cannot fuck this up, man. You can do this. You can write the Destiny Trio working together again. You can write a full story in which Kairi has an active role. You can write her and Riku interacting. You can do it. I believe in you.

The data battles are so hardddddd. I wound up just watching all the LC cutscenes on youtube, lmfao. But I do want to try to beat at least some of these bosses. Tragically, Riku is TRAPPED IN MERLIN'S HOUSE, so you can't leave to grind or anything. Boo.

I don't really care about Yozora. I think we got a confirmation from Sora that Nameless Star is Stella (?), and that's cute for her I guess, but I genuinely don't care, lmao. But I definitely understand the compulsion to include beloved characters from old cancelled projects in your newer ones, so I hope Nomura has fun with that. ...That sounded sarcastic, lol, but I meant it. I hope he gets to do something cool and creative with this recycled cast. It just might not be a story I'll end up following, is all.

Data greeting is SO much fun. I sank a couple of hours into that the other night just creating scenes and playing with effects. The controls are really easy to use, and it's even fun to just explore environments like Radiant Garden and Scala ad Caelum without messing with photos at all. I hope we can unlock more character outfits and poses in the future, but I can definitely enjoy it as is for now.

Overall, I'm pretty happy with this DLC. True, about half of Re:Mind is a rehash of the Keyblade Graveyard scenes with some extra content here and there, but it's sort of justified story-wise since we're in a timeloop. I enjoyed the extra Kairi scenes and the interactions between the Guardians the most. Limit Cut is mainly just bonus bosses, but like I said, I do want to actually beat those once I can figure out a strategy for them. And I'm obviously having way too much fun with Data Greeting, lmao, so yeah. Not a bad update.

#my posts #kh3 bloggin #dlc spoilers

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blowingoffsteam2 · 5 years

Note

I just finished the Dream Theory, and because I’m a bit slow on the uptake and I’m shipper trash at the end of the day, can I ask for clarification on how you guys see the Destiny Trio romances being portrayed? Reading the theory, I got the impression that you think Sora and Kairi are still the romantic focal point and their love story is a tragedy...with Riku as a possible “backup” love interest for Sora to eventually figure out only after Kairi is definitely not an option anymore/gone for good

So I asked for input on this and Niku had an answer we all agreed with:

Niku: “It’s more like a transitional period for Sora. There’s a lot going on; he doesn’t know what he wants, he doesn’t know a lot about love. He just wants to go home with his friends safe and sound. He wants everyone to be happy, and if he has to ruin himself, he’ll do it. The game shows us Sora slowly piecing together realizations bit by bit and it shows us his hesitance with Kairi. He doesn’t really know how he feels anymore. That I can say definitively. I don’t even think he’s questioning his feelings for Kairi so much as he just doesn’t feel much about it and hasn’t given it thought or had the chance.”

I would also add that in no way is Riku a “backup”. Feelings change, we grow up, it’s a natural part of life. People can date someone for years, decide it’s not working, and later start dating someone else. That doesn’t make the second person a backup. And as for Sora and Kairi I would say that regardless of the romantic aspect (which they were going to have to address at some point anyway), their friendship is already a tragedy as Sora describes it- they are constantly separated, and the moment Sora thinks they can all be together again, she slips away again. I think that’s sad no matter how you look at it.

#the sleeping realm theory

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writingonjorvik · 5 years

Text

Can We Discuss Why The Flying Foxes Would Make A Better Soul Rider Group?

Ok, spoilers on the new quest below the cut. If you don’t know who the Flying Foxes are, go play the Red String quest. Also, forget upload schedules, I needed to write this down before I forgot it. Also also, I’m not really sure if this is going to be a Can We Discuss or a Jorvegian Myth kinda thing, so kinda a bit of both.

Now, that’s a really big claim to make since that’s kinda the core of the story, and as such, it’s going to require this thing people have called opinions (gasp!). And the opinion behind this is that I don’t really feel attached to the Soul Riders. Not that I don’t like them or that I’m not invested in the plot, but half of the attachment needed feels like it comes from the games that SSO is based on but no one has easy access to anymore. And even though I’ve played SSL, I still don’t feel attached to the Soul Riders. Their story is too far removed from me having any nostalgia over them for me to care, or care as much as I should for them being the main plot.

However. I do feel really invested in the Flying Foxes, the new club set up by Emma, Sonja, and Luciana in the new quests. Why? Because I’ve known their whole stories. Hell, I’ve been a part of their whole stories. And while I hope we see more quests about them outside of events, it seems like the devs have really enjoyed writing this budding trio more than the Soul Riders, what with every update having some kind of addition with this group of girls, in some cases more so than the Soul Riders (some of who don’t even show up at events).

So as a team that you get to help build, versus the current Soul Rider squad that you kinda were pushed into, I feel more emotionally attached to the Flying Foxes. They were becoming better friends throughout my story, unlike the Soul Riders who we kinda become the fifth wheel in their group. And while we do get accepted, I’ve never felt like the PC, or my character at least, is part of that group.

And this isn’t a one off issue. It’s hard to write a new character in, particularly one that is supposed to take over as the leader, into an already existing story. Guild Wars 2 did it, and they ended up moving away for a group that the player built up around them over the older existing narrative. Now, SSO is obviously not GW2, but it can’t ignore that writing difficulty that when bonds already exist, it’s hard to make new ones with new people in closed groups. And hell, the PC is never going to be as close as the other Soul Riders, because they’ve already been to pink hell and back with each other in SSL. There is no narrative where we fully fit in with them, and no good narrative where we take over as leader (yet another problem on the shifting leader topic) that feels natural without undermining their dynamic.

And hell, the members of the Flying Foxes can all already fit into the circle archetypes. Luciana is clearly in the Moon Circle. Emma’s kinda reckless and wild attitude reminds me of Lightning, though I could also see her as Star since she’s kinda the heart of the group as her trope. Sonja is a good fit for the Star Circle with her focus on helping people, but she’s a rules stickler. And that fits nicely with the PC being trained in Sun. However, as we know, that’s not the limit of the PC’s abilities. But that leads in nicely into my how, because working this into the narrative is good too.

The PC is connected to Aideen, however you cut the origins. And with that kind of power, why would it be unreasonable for us to be able to gift or awaken magic in others? Or be able to choose what power we think they should have based on our story? Most of the magic just appears as flashy lights anyway, so I don’t think this would be too much of a stretch to let us assign Circles to the new members of a sisterhood. We’re likely going to have those powers ourselves, and with more and more characters on the same stock model, it won’t be a big stretch to add it to other characters.

But here’s the thing. If we do have the powers of a god, why should it be limited to just the Flying Foxes?

Now, I’m not saying that we should be able to give magic to everyone. That would be insane on the devs. However, the story did itself a bit of a knot when it made the whole “gender doesn’t matter” comment with Concorde after having just said that male characters were never coming to the game because this is a “female story.” More reading on this here and why it’s bad. And so now the story is walking this dangerous line about the soul mattering, not the body. And then that also walks the line of saying that only certain people can be important because they were chosen without giving them real agency. Which is dangerous.

Look, not everyone is meant to be a hero. But when you say people are destined just to their lot, like the current Soul Rider narrative does, you support this like celestial caste system, where some people are chosen to do good and others aren’t. And I don’t like predestination. And so now we have a narrative where gender doesn’t actually matter, but we also have a limiting set of terms that have to be met to make the PC a hero where gender still kinda matters. And it feels restricting. It takes away the feeling, the illusion, of control, which doesn’t feel great.

However, give the player the ability to grant magic, to create and build a new “sisterhood(s),” a new cycle, and even though the PC may be reincarnated/chosen/destined, suddenly they are making their own choices as a character, but it also breaks down that idea that SSO has to be about the Soul Riders as we know them. Why does it have to be just the four? There are clearly more druids than that. Why not have more Soul Riders? Why not pick NPCs to take with you on adventures that fit your narrative? Sure, there will still be a limited list, but it’s better than being told you have to be friends with this group of people. Yeah it’s more scripting, but it’s not voice acted. It’s not just about a sisterhood, it’s about sisterhood, the concept, and then by extension, friendship, which is a non-genderbound thing.

The problem with an MMO with a chosen one is that you have to admit that everyone else is also a chosen one. That breaks immersion already. But what if you empower that idea? What if everyone is a chosen one because your PC gave the world the opportunity to be? Not to mention that then gives you the opportunity to genuinely be able to merge your character with others. SSO is clearly testing out the idea of minor combat with the Anwir fight and the archery tease in the quest today. Imagine taking four of your actual friends, each kitted out with different magic types, to go and take down a boss in the core story. It’s not mandatory. You could still go with the Soul Riders, or a new group of Soul Riders, or a mix of the two.

Video games have the unique ability to tell interactive narratives. So let us interact. Let us chose to make bonds and connections that matter to us. Canonically, the Book of Light is gone, the current Soul Riders aren’t really whole (and won’t be a for a while), and we don’t fit in this group. They could use help. And we could use a real place in the story.

Because if this change were made, then the point of the story changes from “You were chosen for a great destiny” to “You chose your destiny.” And only one of those two can translate to real life. Inspire change. Heroes come from everywhere.

#woj analysis #sso #star stable #starstable #star stable online #starstableonline

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lyssala · 5 years

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Your Heart is the Only Place

Pairing: Terra/Aqua, Kingdom Hearts

Setting: One month after the previous chapter

Rating: K

Notes: LISTEN It’s my birthday so have some sappy sappy fluff cause what better way for me to celebrate hahaha We’re getting real close till I can finally actually write the babies! Not quite there yet, but soon. I actually like how this one came out though I was stuck on it for a little while. I just wanted a quiet moment with the Wayfinder Trio more than anything <3

Previous Chapter / AO3

7. Warmth

“And then, we got pushed right into the chalk drawing, like it came to life all around us.”

Out of the corner of Terra’s eyes he could see Ven waving his arms around frantically like that would describe adequately what was going on in his story. It didn’t, even to people who had eyes to see him, but Terra appreciated the effort Ven was going through to keep Aqua entertained.

“It almost had a strange feel to it,” Ven continued. “Like we could tell it was a world inside a world, which is I guess why we got asked to go in the first place. Something like that wasn’t heard of in other worlds so they wanted to make sure nothing was bad about it.”

“I see,” Aqua said. She sounded alert and interested to what Ven was saying but there was also a layer of exhaustion to her voice.

“Well, the only thing bad was the outfit Terra had to wear. I wish I had been smart enough to remember to take a picture to show you. You’d all probably cackle about as much as I did.”

“I think you did enough cackling for all five of us,” Terra said, trying to focus on the papers scattered over the desk but the words were blurring together. He reached up to rub his forehead, letting his eyes close for a second. How late was it?

“That’s true,” Ven snickered.

“Even though you had to wear the same outfit.”

“Yeah, but I pulled it off spectacularly.”

“Real cute, Ven,” Terra yawned. The temptation to just keep his eyes closed and fall asleep right on the desk was tempting but he forced his eyes back open to look down at the reports he was supposed to be finishing. He used to wonder what Eraqus did in his study all the times that he wasn’t teaching or training with them; Terra didn’t quite have to wonder anymore.

“I’m sure you were,” Aqua said and he didn’t even have to look to hear the amusement in her voice. “Both of you.”

That only sent Ven into a spiral of laughter again.

It was a warm night, summer coming in fiercely. Terra had the windows in his room open, the night air blowing in and hopefully taking out some of the humidity. It smelt almost like it would rain, but every time he looked the stars and the moon were clear, not a cloud in sight.

“But everything was…” She cut off with an exasperated sigh. “Ven, do you mind, getting…”

Terra turned around in his chair looking over to the bed where Aqua was trying to push herself up to sit better.

“Got it,” Ven said, leaning backwards almost off his spot on the bed to grab an extra pillow that must’ve fallen off at some point. “Here, lean up a little more.”

Aqua did as he asked while he secured the pillow behind her lower back. She sighed again when she leaned back against the pillows that were already propped up against the headboard of the bed, but this time she at least seemed a little more comfortable. “Thank you,” she said. “But everything was okay? On the mission?”

“Everything was fine,” Terra said, resting his arm on the back of his chair even though he knew the faster he got this paperwork done the faster he could go to bed. “No problems.”

“No problems at all,” Ven nodded as to support the statement. “It was fun even. Have you ever seen penguins wear suits before?”

Aqua laughed, and though it was breathy and tired, she still had a smile on her face as she looked to Ven. “Suits, really?”

“Really! They even danced.”

“Oh? Will you show me?”

Ven reached a hand to the back of his head, like he was suddenly embarrassed. “I dunno, I don’t remember.”

“Don’t be modest,” Terra said. “I’m sure you could do it off memory.”

“Hey, you’re just teasing now,” Ven huffed. “How about you do it.”

“No, Aqua already knows what a terrible dancer I am. I don’t think she needs a reminder.”

“I beg to differ,” she chuckled, though it was broken with a sharp breath, her hand fluttering down to the side of her stomach.

“What’s wrong?” Ven asked, quickly leaning forward to her.

Nights like these Terra was thankful that Ven liked to hang out with them more than he liked to sleep. Aqua refused to let Terra abandon any sort of work for her, but she was also having a difficult time getting any sleep. He knew it only came with the territory; she was eight months pregnant and the bigger the babies got the more active they were at all hours of the night. Not to mention the additional strain it put on every inch of her body let alone being comfortable enough to fall asleep. When Ven was here to keep her company and look after her if she had any discomfort made Terra feel a little more at ease, even if he’d gladly leave his work any chance he got.

“Oh, nothing,” she said, though her voice was strained slightly, gesturing for Ven to give her his hand. “They just don’t seem to understand what sleep means.”

Ven let her place his hand over to the side of her stomach and he must’ve felt them moving around because his blue eyes lit up. “Not even a little bit.” Ven leaned in a little bit, rubbing his hand gently against her. “We’re going to have so much fun, you know that right?”

Terra yawned again, leaning his chin against his arm as Aqua reached her other hand up to Ven’s head, brushing some of his bangs from his face. The babies must’ve done something in reaction to his voice because he was grinning as he looked up to Aqua.

“I think they do,” Aqua said.

Ven gave her another quick few taps before he flopped down on his back on the bed “Since it’s so close now, what do you think of the genders? Staying the same? Changed at all?”

“You’re only asking because I know you guys have a bet going,” Terra snorted.

Ven placed a hand on his chest, looking a little outraged. “Excuse me, how dare you think I’d profit on my future nieces or nephews.”

Terra arched his eyebrows.

“And because we all know I’m going to win so it’s pointless to discuss that fact.”

“That’s what I thought.” Terra glanced over to Aqua who was laughing slightly but was also already watching him. She didn’t say anything about him essentially abandoning his paperwork but it was also like…

He glanced to the clock in the corner of the room. It was already nearing two o’clock in the morning, so maybe she already understood he probably wasn’t finishing it tonight.

“I’m still the same,” Aqua said, tapping her fingers absent mindedly. “I think its girls. I couldn’t tell you why, I always thought it was a girl before I found out there were two so I figure there could be two just as easily.

“I know I probably should listen to you,” Terra said.

Aqua got this look on her face, which despite her exhaustion was so familiar a teasing face he saw countless times. “When have you ever?”

Ven clapped his hands over his mouth trying not to laugh.

“Yeah, yeah.” Terra rolled his eyes, even though he was just happy that she felt well enough to still have that personality of hers he loved so much. “I’m only saying I remember how I was as a kid, only boys could cause you as much trouble and annoyance as they have.”

“He has a fair point,” Ven said.

“Well what about you then,” Aqua said, reaching over to push lightly at his head.

“The best of both worlds, a boy and a girl.”

“Why?” Terra asked, more curious than accusing. It was reasonable enough he supposed, and it’s not like he never thought about it either but Ven sounded so sure in the fact that there had to be some reasoning behind it.

“Because, you guys were like meant to be together,” he said. “I always knew that before I even knew that I knew that, so I think it would be destiny’s way of…I dunno, making things right after things went wrong for so long.”

Okay, well, that wasn’t quite what Terra was expecting but still felt a smile on his lips; both from the sentiment and from how mature Ven sounded when he said it. Sometimes it was hard to realize how much he grew up, that he wasn’t that scared little boy any more, that he was ready to be a master in his own right but Terra found himself more proud than sad.

“That’s sweet, Ven,” Aqua said, her eyes looking a little watery. “I like that.”

He waved her off slightly, be the smile from the approval was clear on his face. Terra loved that the castle had so many residents again, that there would be even more. He loved that his family, both through friendship and now blood, continued to grow but there was something special to him about the three of them. It was how his life started really.

Terra didn’t really remember his parents, they died when he was young but ever since he was brought to the Land of Departure with Eraqus it was home, they were family. Aqua came after and while they butted heads a lot as they both tried to figure out how to be friends with each other, once they understood how the other operated, what made them happy, what made them mad, what made them laugh, they were inseparable. When Ven came into their lives he was like the little brother neither ever had; their own unique family that couldn’t be broken apart even when outside forces tried their damnedest. Sure they were missing one important family member, but only in body not in heart.

Terra often felt like Eraqus was still with them in the quietest of the halls, in the warm breezes that blew around their hair, in the moonlight that kept the darkness at bay at nights. He knew he wasn’t the only one; Ven often said because they left their wayfinders on Eraqus’ memorial they left him a way to always come back to them, even if they couldn’t see him. Aqua would hum in approval, the thought of him being still with them comforting. Terra knew because he felt the same way about it.

He hoped it was true, because in a month and a half he was going to need all the help he could get, especially from the only dad he ever knew. Terra tried not to worry about it, but late at night when he realized that he’d never even held a baby before how was he supposed to know to take care of his own kids it wasn’t exactly easy. He saw the lives of two kids who trained under the same master, and how one was led to darkness while the other embraced light. How was he supposed to lead anyone down the right paths when he himself wasn’t always on the right path?

The comfort of Aqua and Ven talking, of their presence was starting to fade, leaving Terra’s chest clenched, making it feel hard to breath. He didn’t have time to push off the what ifs any more when every day came closer to the reality that he was going to have two lives in his hands.

“Terra,” Aqua said, making him blink his eyes. Both Aqua and Ven were watching him, and Terra wondered just how long he had zoned out. “C’mon, I know you’re about to fall asleep on that chair.”

Ven looked like he was about to laugh at catching Terra passing out at his desk but Aqua looked a little more knowingly; despite the smile her forehead was furrowed. Maybe not knowing exactly what he was thinking, but something along the lines.

“Alright,” Terra said, pushing himself up from the chair to walk over to the bed that was already looking a little full; considering Ven rolled over on his side to face Aqua it was clear he had no thought of leaving.

She carefully inched herself forward on the bed, moving aside some of the pillows so there was room for him. Terra did his best not to jostle her too much as he climbed in behind, kicking his legs up on the bed on either side of her. She laid back against him with a small sigh, but one he at least knew was a content one as he placed his hands over her stomach.

He could easily feel them moving around, clearly the reason she was still awake. It made his chest feel warm for a moment, feeling living proof that they were there and they were real never got old, but he couldn’t shake his previous mindset that easily. Terra leaned his head down slightly, placing a quick kiss to the side of her head, letting the easy comfort of Aqua’s presence try and make him relax.

“Do you have names yet?” Ven asked, tapping his finger against the blanket under him.

“Not since yesterday when you asked last,” Aqua chuckled, though she was sounding significantly more tired.

“C’mon,” he said. “You need names, names like make it so real.”

“Believe me, Ven. It’s plenty real to me.”

Terra snorted, closing his eyes, his head still leaned up against hers.

They were all quiet for a moment and Terra thought the two of them might’ve actually fallen asleep this time, but the babies were still moving around and Ven was shifting on the bed.

“Hey,” he said, though his voice was much quieter than before. “Can I ask you guys something personal?”

That question could be alarming coming from a teenager but Terra knew from his own embarrassing experience, Eraqus was plenty adept in giving those sorts of talks. Ven was already plenty aware of what went into actually having kids.

“Of course,” Aqua said. “You know we’ll always be honest with you, Ven.”

He was quiet, hesitant almost. Ven was always curious and always open with that curiosity so it was strange to see him nervous to ask them something. Terra opened his eyes, turning his head to look at Ven who was picking at the blanket.

“Do you guys ever get scared? Like about all of this?”

Terra swallowed the lump in his throat, afraid that maybe he accidentally spoke aloud when he was lost in his mind a few minutes ago but it wasn’t directed just at him. He knew he was afraid, and often afraid for that matter, but voicing that to the two people he loved the most was a lot harder.

“Oh, Ven,” Aqua said in that soft tone of hers. “Of course, absolutely.”

It wasn’t like he didn’t know, but there was something about the honesty in her tone that made him feel not quite as alone in his own fears.

“I get scared sometimes too,” Ven said, not looking up at them. “That like something bad might happen to you or them, and then I don’t know what I’d do. I don’t know if I could do it again.”

“It’s okay,” she said. “It’s okay to feel that way, that’s what love is. You don’t want anything bad to happen to the people you love so much so that it hurts sometimes. You know what makes me feel better?”

Ven did look up that time.

“You,” she said, reaching her hand out to ruffle his hair. “Terra, and Sora, Kairi, Riku, and Lea all people who I know if anything ever happened to me would not only take care of our children, but would take care of each other and that’s all I’d ever want.”

“Okay,” Ven said, a small smile on his lips.

“And I know…” Aqua said as she reached for Terra’s hand, lacing her fingers with his. “Terra gets scared sometimes too, it’s not just me.”

“I am right here,” he said, though he wasn’t actually upset; it was the truth after all.

“Yeah, I know but you’d never actually say it.”

He couldn’t ever say she didn’t know him.

“For the same reasons?” Ven asked, glancing up to Terra.

“Mostly,” he said, also not a lie. The fear of something happening to him again and not only leaving Aqua and Ven but two small children now was enough to keep him up at night at times.

“He gets worried he won’t know what do to as a father, that he won’t make the right choices or won’t be able to be there for them like he wants to be but he should know he’s wrong.”

Terra shook his head and laughed despite himself. He supposed it was pointless to keep anything from her. “Am I now?”

“Absolutely. I know it because I’ve had bandages put on my knees by you, and I’ve watched you encourage Ven to be the best person he could be, I’ve seen you make special meals for Sora, Kairi and Riku that reminded them of their home, and I’ve seen you keep Lea on his toes in training like Master used to do to you. All not your biological children, sure, but that doesn’t matter. You do all those things without thinking, so stop thinking.”

“Should be easy for you, Ter,” Ven chuckled.

He supposed it was the mark of their own family bonds that he could reach out to gently hit Ven in the head as he leaned in to press a kiss to Aqua’s cheek. It didn’t make all the worries that swirled around in his head and the pit of his stomach vanish, but it did make him feel more at ease that in the least she believed in him just fine.

Ven was careful about it, but he scooted in, wrapping his arms around them as best as he could as his head rested on Terra’s other arm. “Well, I know you’re the best parents I ever had so I think any kids of yours are lucky. I know I was.”

Aqua hummed as she reached an arm around him but it sounded slightly choked. Terra closed his eyes as he leaned his head against the headboard, breathing out slightly.

It was scary most all the time, the closer she got to her due date the harder it got but at the same time no matter what they had each other. They already went through the worse and here they were, still awake at two am in one of their rooms keeping each other company. He supposed he should know they could get through anything as long as they were together, and in this case it was a good thing, a very good thing.

He looked back down to try and see if they wanted to move but it was too late. Terra noticed the babies had settled under his hands, Aqua’s eyes were already closed, her breathing rhythmic. Ven didn’t make it much better; he was snuggled up next to them, his head buried but Terra could see Ven’s side’s rising and falling. Also Terra’s arm had already fallen asleep.

Of course, how did he not see this one coming?

He carefully untangled his hand from Aqua’s, moving to flip off the lamp on the night stand next to him. The darkness wasn’t quite as scary as it used to be, plus the moonlight was shining in through the window.

Terra sighed as he leaned against the headboard again, eyes glancing towards the open window. His family really was much bigger now, his world even so much bigger and yet these were the times he’d cherish the most, when it was the three of them.

A warm breeze blew in through the window; blowing over them and making him close his eyes with a small smile. Ah, of course, how could he forget?

When it was the four of them.

#terraqua #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts fanfic #my fics:kh #onlyplace #canonversekh #I started the next chapter today as well #then only 2 left!#I'm excited to finish it up and start my next canonverse set <3

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koukoupepia · 5 years

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i posted this on twitter but i might as well post this here too, somewhat aimless rambling about the destiny trio in kh3 and how it did them dirty under the cut. beware, its kind of long. kh3 spoilers, obviously

this isn't my thoughts on kh3 as a whole, its more of a kairi/destiny trio rant. this isnt entirely coherent either. god ok im sorry for all the kh3 talk but i dont know how long its going to take me to stop being pissed about what happened with kairi when for a long time they were building her up to be a character who Does Stuff now. she gets her keyblade in kh2! it was revealed she's be joining the 7 guardians in the ddd secret ending! she's talking to yen sid with riku at the end of 0.2! and when we were let down i saw people saying "well, what did you expect? it's square." like its not common knowledge kh doesnt have the best writing but i dont thing its unrealistic to have expected better than THAT. a cardboard cutout who got fridged for manpain. like kairi wasnt always the best character, certainly wasnt very well treated, but i cant believe that fucking kh2 treated her better than kh3 did.

anyway i keep thinking about how it makes me sad that the destiny trio is really not a trio, but also that their relationship progression... doesnt make a lot of sense. when info came out about kh3 having a theme of relationships changing, i wondered if they were actually going to be leaning away from the romance angle (still too much to ask for, but god.) i wondered if sora and kairi were going to realize they weren't as close as they used to be, since they have spent SO much time apart with no contact. and sora and riku continue to be very tight, because every game since kh2 has woven them together like the tightest knit sweater. i like the idea that sora & kairi have puppy crushes on each other in the early games - -in kh1 theyre very sweet. i wouldve been happy with canon sokai if their friendship continued to be as sweet as that. it's kind of interesting how in kh2, when sora sees sally and jack dancing, he imagines himself and kairi dancing together, but it's his current self and a younger kairi, because it's how he last remembers her. at that point he still feels closest to kairi and his relationship with riku is strained.

kh2 changes the dynamic when sora and riku finally reunite and they make up in a very healthy way (catch me crying about the scene on the dark margin, ive never seen two characters mend their relationship in a way that made me cry that much.) sora leaves the islands again, but the scene where kairi regifts the charm she made him after he gives it back is important because it shows that they both have faith that they'll continue to be friends no matter how far apart they are, and they'll find each other again. by Days you see the utter dedication that riku has to sora, he basically treats living a waking nightmare with the single goal to make sure sora wakes up safely as atonement. sora doesnt know the extent of this but you, the audience, do. the series REALLY emphasizes their relationship and their closeness and their dedication to each other, how they support each other in the ways they need. re:coded has the journal decide that riku was the best form to take to protect information about sora's journey. ddd shows riku as the only one fit to dive into sora's heart to wake him up. (and as of kh3 we know that dives to the heart exist in a place where the line between sleep and death is very thin -- aka, riku really risked his whole ass life AGAIN for a CHANCE to wake sora up.) when riku is told he passed the mark of mastery, sora is too busy being happy for him to feel sad for himself.

the relationship between riku and kairi.... is very minimal. but i think it's interesting that in kh1 when maleficent manipulates riku's feelings of jealousy to draw him further into the darkness, he thinks "oh god i have to get kairi. sora can't abandon her, too." i like that in kh2, kairi is able to tell that it's him immediately and she refuses to let him walk away without reuniting him without sora. in kh3 they dont interact at all, its weird as hell. it's like they dont know each other and kairi is sora's friend only.

i was disappointed at the minimal interaction between riku and sora in kh3, and i know that it's partially because this is the first game where their individual goals and motivations dont revolve around each other somehow (sora's goals in this game are all over the place in a bad way but that's a different post) but i was really hoping for a good chat and/or heartfelt moment between them like almost every other game has, since their relationship is probably the backbone of the series. one of the things that irked me about how they treated kairi is that sora actually thinks about riku on multiple occasions throughout the game and wants to talk to him, and the part where he thinks about how riku thought he had to push him away to protect him re: elsa was an "oh shit they really did go there" moment for me. on the other hand sora did not think of or mention kairi even once before their first conversation -- they didnt even have him wonder how she was doing, or wish he could call her, or have anything remind him of her. between the end of kh2 and ddd he and kairi dont interact or contact each other once, because nomura only cares to stick kairi where she can be a romantic prize for sora and doesnt treat her like theyre actually friends.

then the actual first scene they have together is so damn jarring. this was 24 hours into my playthrough of a game that took me ~30 hours to complete. theyre on their usual spot on the paopu tree, kairi points out that riku is by himself, which is not ooc for riku, but when they have her use that moment to pull out a paopu fruit and go "heysoraiwannabetogetherforeversoletssharethese" my reaction was "where did this come from suddenly and why is it happening so fast." theres NO buildup to this scene whatsoever. and then sora's attitude completely changes after that in a really weird way, like kairi is suddenly the Thing That Matters Most when he's never ever acted like one friend meant more to him than another. nomura if you revisited your damn games you'd know sora loves everyone intensely and indiscriminately. when everyone fucking "dies" in front of sora and he's following a light that he calls riku's name to and it turns out to be! surprise! it's kairi for some reason! when i think about it, it hurts a little but i don't know why. i like that she did actually find a way to protect him, but i dont like that it had to be this weird deus ex machina that has no explanation (is this part of kairi's unexplained powers? is this just a plot device?? who knows.)

dont FUCKING get me started on xemnas kidnapping kairi in front of sora and xehanort killing her in front of him in a scene that reduced my enjoyment of the game by a solid 25% because it's BULLSHIT and FRIDGING WOMEN FOR MANPAIN IS SO ORIGINAL AND NOT CHOCK-FULL O' MISOGYNY.

sora saying kairi's the reason for his whole journey is blatantly not true (ATTENTION NOMURA REVISIT YOUR FUCKING WRITING) so he should go look for her alone while riku is standing right fucking there and riku just. lets him go??? like kairi's not his friend too??? what the fuck??? the last scene where it pans up the paopu tree to kairi and sora holding hands and sora fades away while everyone else, including riku, is just having a good time???? what the fuck???? you know sora /would/ drop everything to go save a friend but i dont like that suddenly he acts like kairi outweighs every other person in his life simply because theres some romantic interest there. with someone he was never written to have an actual relationship with. in a game about friendship. and like, shipping aside, sora and riku have one of the most SOLID friendships ive seen in any media and riku just gets ejected out of his own damn trio because of a hamfisted romance AAAAA

in conclusion: Not My Destiny Trio

#kh3 spoilers #kingdom hurts #am i done yelling about kh3? no. am i done being mad about kairi? also no

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tamgerines · 5 years

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KH3 First Impression and Complete Thoughts

BACKGROUND: i've played kh1, com, kh2, bbs, 2.8, and a bit of khux. i've watched coded and 3d on yt, so i know the story relatively well. this is an impression of my first playthrough. i did my run on standard mode and watched the secret ending on yt. i mostly did this for story, so this will have my initial impressions based on my run that will not cover extra content like the phone mini games and cooking. my opinions are subjected to change if i ever do any later playthroughs. pls, feel free to disagree w/ me.

!!! WARNING: THERE WILL BE A LOT OF STORY SPOILERS!!!

AUDIO:

Music: utada is queen!!! that opening song!!! also i kept noticing how lit the songs are in each world esp frozen??? and aqua's. worth a replay just for the soundtrack alone.

Voice Acting: everyone sounded great for the most part. sora’s va have certainly improved and sounds less strained. his vanitas voice has suffered significantly though lolololol. i think i read that someone called it a wannabe dark knight voice? the organization sounded incredible, w/ my fav being xemnas, marluxia, and larxene. the disney and pixar va’s are incredible w/ my fav probably being randall in monster’s inc.

some ppl did not get vas like xaldin and laxeaus. and phil in hercules. which were all very disappointing bc in the scenes that they were in, they would just stand around woodenly, and it’s very noticeable.

VISUALS:

mostly a+. environments are beautiful. water and frost textures are amazing!!! you can really feel that waterga and blizzaga. fur textures in monster's inc. could use some work. little details like the sails moving in potc rly make the worlds come alive. this could be a me prob, but environments in certain worlds make it very hard to see map markers, treasure chests, and disney emblems (which are supposed to be hard to find, but still). mostly in tangled.

strangely enough, this is the only game where i prefer in game graphics to cgi. it's already highly expressive and there's something creepy and uncanny about the cgi esp in the final fight. and it's mostly bc sora's thin chapped lips throughout the entire game suddenly becomes full.

DESIGNS:

i don't love everyone's outfit or sora's outfit changes in this game besides toy story. this is something i alrdy knew going in, but i've always felt like the outfits in kh1 and 2 rly suited each of the character's personalities. and this is not just destiny trio but even chars like roxas, the twilight town kids and the hollow bastion crew. the move towards a uniformed look makes no sense to me like is it to unify the key bearers as one force against the organization? i could understand why destiny trio was wearing plaid but why the twilight town kids also? by the end of the game, almost everyone was wearing black and it's just boring to me. like there's a right way to do uniform while retaining characters' individual looks, and that's the wayfinder trio in bbs. in this game, not so much.

an aside, but i'm sort of disappointed in the hud moving to 3d too. the 2d portraits have always been part of kh so it's kinda a bum to see it go away.

i don't love the lvl designs but it might also be due to a narrative and pacing issue that i'll expand on. any case, vertical maps are a challenge to figure out. i don't consider myself bad at directions but there are so many moments, esp in hercules and tangled where i would be like where the heck do i go next (and i have the map) only for me to look up and find a shotlock teleport point (and this isn't so much a thing that heightens the difficulty but a time waster).

lvls and bosses in previous kh games have always been known for their gimmicks and mechanics, but in this game particularly i found it to be more tedious? and this mostly applies to frozen: who the fuck designed frozen? who the fuck thought it's a good lvl design to have sora climb a mountain, get kick off it twice, and climb it again as good lvl design? who?

all the disney bosses started blending together for me bc they're literally all giant monsters and rly easy. i think the mistake here is the fact that the disney worlds are put back to back whereas in kh1/2/bbs you have the interruption of original worlds and an actually playable important parts to the main story, in this game all the important storyline in radiant garden are locked in cutscenes interspersed throughout the game between finishing disney worlds.

a lot of ppl might disagree w this, but i miss the cinematic reaction commands and limit attacks. we still have them but i find them to be on a much smaller scale in the form of drive finishers and situation commands, but i find them to be less imaginative in kh3 in order to be less """"disruptive""" to the gameplay. i've always found cinematics charming in previous games as a way to show sora interacting with his party members during combat. little things like beast putting a hand on sora's shoulder, aladdin leaning on him, or riku bumping his fist have a way of making the friendships he forms feel organic. outside of link commands/ summons, in this game, he........just throws a lot of ppl around or is thrown around?

GAMEPLAY:

already sort of went through parts of it in the previous section, but overall combat was smooth. i love how mobile sora is in this game. the improvement to his running speed and addition of all the mobile skills like dodge roll, super slide, flow motion, blizzard skating, etc. makes combat feel fast paced and juking so easy.

magic is super improved on ever since 2.8 and feels satisfying to use esp bc i feel like ur given a lot more mp now and with the ability to save the last of your mana for cure, it feels like you're not always budgeting your magic.

underwater combat was smoother than i expected.

it's a mistake putting almost all the commands on the triangle button. there's so much options you can do in combat and you'd mean to activate one thing, but then an attraction flow comes out and you just want to die. it gets a bit easier as i went on and got more used to the controls, but in general, i still think it's a mistake to not to have an ability or something to disable certain features like in kh2 fm.

gummy ships continue to be a thing. why. i don’t like how i have to turn the camera myself now ;;;.

i'm not a speedrunner or anything, so i can't say too much else about fighting. the physical combos to me did feel like he was spinning a bit too much tho.

STORY: oh, fucking boy.

i'm not mad, i'm not disappointed, and i'm not even surprised. i already knew that post bbs, kh has already departed far from the franchise i loved as a kid and still today, at least story wise. but let's walk through it.

Disney Worlds: the disney worlds was literally a retelling of their movies. and unlike in kh2 and bbs, where visits to disney worlds were split into two parts, with the first part following the disney story and the second part being heavily tied to the main kh story and thus having original content, the disney worlds in kh3 only get one long visit. and the integration of kh into disney was just done so poorly. remember how kh villains used to kidnap princesses? remember how they used to actually conspire to take disney characters' hearts and turn them dark? remember, you know, when they were still evil and actually interfered with the worlds? in almost every world in kh3, an org member just comes says vague menacing things to sora, calls him stupid, and then leaves. yeah. and oh, maleficent and pete looks for a black box only to not find it, and leaves. AND THEY DON'T DO ANYTHING ELSE FOR THE REST OF THE GAME.

the pixar worlds + bh6 were the only ones with any actual new content and they feel so fresh. i esp loveeeeeeeed toy story omg. the script was so good, funny, and heartwarming. the pixar consultants should have helped kh all the way tbh.

like previous games, there's an attempt for each disney world to thematically tie into the main kh story. in this game, it was as heavy handed as ever, probably even more so.

Original Worlds: onto the meat of kh, the main story was rushed up until the end. you have a slew of disney worlds, then bam, they slam you with all the human bosses and the important story stuff.

the ‘awakening’ of roxas, xion, and ventus were very rushed. you literally have one moment they’re no there then two seconds of white screen and all of a sudden they’re there.

there’s a shit ton of shoehorned character redemption arcs: vexen, demyx, saix, eraqus, xehanort, xemnas, ansem. all were done either offscreen or by some miracle, they reached an epiphany after sora beat his keyblade into their heads.

the only death scene that i actually liked, that a lot of ppl complained about, was vanitas bc yes, although i thought his character had so much potential, it was at least a consistent and sympathetic death. bless him, born a villain die a villain. same with xemnas bc i loved his last speech.

xehanort was a shitty villain through and through. no one understood his motivation; it’s like nomura took a page from thanos’ guide of how to write villains, gave him some stupid ass goal to have a keyblade war to restart the world, and then just have him...get everything he wanted? his estranged friend comes back in ghost form for whatever reason and is just like ok we’re cool man even tho u took my student and indirectly murdered me and then gets taken up to heart heaven, like O K. and like what’s the most frustrating is that it’s implied they’re keeping him as a villain??? bc fucking ymx is like ooohh imma just go back to my own time via time travel. it’s too late for u sora hurdur.

and the younger members of the organization, the ones that we do know were in khux. we don’t get to know how they became nobodies and they don’t get a redemption??? really???

you can tell they tried, TRIED, hard to give everyone closure. and they miserably failed to close plot points. they actually opened more. who the fuck is the unnamed girl in lea and isa’s storyline? why the fuck did you mention her if you were going to play the pronoun game and not name her??? what the fuck was in the black box??? why are they looking for it when no one know what’s in it??? why the fuck was repliku inside of riku the whole fucking time??? why have org members be norted if they can still have agency and choose to betray xehanort??? why the fuck was BOTH sora and riku in different worlds in the secret ending????? ? ? ?

and tho i’m very glad that wayfinder and sea salt trios get their happy ending, the destiny trio had their characters assassinated. kairi was teased to become an independent character of her own and fight alongside sora, only to get shafted to become a damsel in distress, again, literally replaced by xion in one of the last battles, AND referred to as ‘motivation’ for sora by xehanort lol. sora, the guy who’s always going my friends are my power, ONLY grieves about losing kairi, accrediting all of his strength ONLY TO HER. riku, who spent the first game desperately trying to get kairi’s heart back, and who protected her from saix in the second, suddenly doesn’t give a shit about her and is just there as sora’s moral support. it’s so frustrating that nomura has the audacity to say that this series is primarily about friendship and then pull this shit lol. it’s transparent.

CONCLUSION:

i think for me, the quintessential kh trilogy has always been kh1, com, and kh2. as far as i’m concerned, the story should have ended there for destiny trio. and it’s like nomura said, how he feels more sympathetic towards villains now, i think nomura’s ideas have outgrown his main character.

sora’s journey worked in 1, com, and 2 because he had an overarching goal to find kairi and riku and return home. not everyone has to understand heartless vs. nobodies or dark vs. light but at least, anyone can understand the desperation of saving your friends. when that framework is taken away, sora’s goals and motivations become unclear; he’s a kid and has little reason to be caught up in xehanort’s plans, the keyblade war, or the organization’s agendas. and his failure to grow with the increasing complexity of the plot, to investigate for himself the bigger picture or even come into a similar realization of his own darkness/ balance like riku, makes him unfit; he’s a reactionary character instead of an active one. that’s why this game, being experienced from his point of view, felt mostly like a catch up to speed for sora and a set up to nomura’s next big thing instead of a genuine ending. i honestly don’t think nomura knows what to do with him and with kingdom hearts anymore.

kh3 is a game wrapped in nostalgia and promised something bigger than it could fulfill. and aside from better graphics and improved gameplay, the story wasn’t worth the wait.

#kh3 spoilers #my thoughts #i didnt mean for my ramblings to get so long but #yeah im im sad

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tester10001000 · 5 years

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How KH3 could have gone and still been Nomura’s:

I’ve never posted on tumblr before, might never again, but I needed to get this out; for the sake of the catharsis I didn’t receive after 16 years with the end of KH3. The game itself was fine, in fact, I’d even rate it as a ‘great’ up until the Keyblade Graveyard. That’s when things go off the rails. So let’s rethink KH3, keeping all of Nomura’s plot points and intentions, but communicating them in a way that feels, I hope, much more rightful. I hope you enjoy this! First, the good and mostly-good. -Keep Gameplay as is—very nice. Very satisfying. Keep nice world set-up and secrets. Maybe ratchet up difficulty. Make a Coliseum in Zeus’ court to round off the whole thing as a triad. Have Yoko Shimomura write the soundtrack for real life, plz. Keep the lovely humor. Keep Sora’s excellent arc. Keep most worlds as-is: I was pleasantly surprised by how relevant and well-done most of the world’s plots were. -Cut back on the ridiculous amount of minigames that like 5% of people will be invested in and use those resources to make other improvements (like these?).-Rewrite Arendelle and Corona (and maybe Pirates?) to be unique stories–or, at least, only loosely based on the movies, while actually including important plot points. Have Pixar do it, because they kicked butt with their worlds. Include more Disney-bosses and either get rid of 100-Hundred Acre Wood, or do something more with it. -Don’t give Larxene and Marluxia magic cutscene powers like sleep and time-stopping they won’t use elsewhere. Don’t let the others, like Ansem SoD in TT or Luxord in Caribean, became decayed and cheesy versions of their prior threat. Get rid of, or explain better, why there are six new Princesses+Kairi. Explain “the Power of Waking” just a bit better. -Give us scenes between every world with more meaningful stuff re:Kairi and Riku. We haven’t really known them in awhile, so we need to be reacquainted. Have Riku actually do stuff—rather than constantly fail until Sora literally falls from the sky—like, expand on Repliku return? Or involve him in the Maleficent angle, because of his obvious and interesting connection? Maybe follow her around out of suspicion, making the Maleficent stuff feel less-tacked-on? -Have Kairi do more stuff, with more scenes expanding on her (like that lovely scene where she talks about Namine!), rather than just how Axel sees her as Xion (but still keep that, too—hence, more scenes!) -Insert a mid-climax between Corona and Monstropolis, with a return to Radiant Garden. Seriously needed to unbloat the climax and evenly redistribute the story. You could do some of this: 1. Meet the FF peeps and conclude their plot with RG’s redemption (How cool would be to hear Leon finally say “you can call me Squall”?); see how everyone is doing and how they interact with the people like Ienzo and the apprentices who caused RG to fall. We could setup the replica/sea-salt trio better here (Roxas body/who and how Xion/further Axel redemption), even though it’s probably the best thread currently, behind SDG. The FF folks were foundational to the start, they should at least be acknowledged in the end. 2. Give. Us. Sephiroth version 3.0. and resolution to that thread. 3. Have some seriously needed interaction among the Destiny Trio—(A) as individuals (sorely needed for Riku and Kairi–have her interact with her forgotten home!), (B) as a united friendship (Kairi/Riku, plz!) and © to set up the SoKai stuff better. Like, for real, we need to be able to take selfies with them—seriously, how could we have the phone and NEVER have a change to selfie with our OG friends?!) 4. Save Aqua here (don’t make her passively suck suddenly with OOC decisions) and then Ven; cement their return and relationships to everyone else (so as to stop rushing the finale and let their moment have its own power—just say they need to “rest” till the climax). 5. Tell wtf happens with Demyx. Set up Vexen/Ansem stuff better. Nomura, you could even tease Subject X girl more. C’mon. Have a tease-fight with the Org, rather than saving it all for the end.

6. It would probably be too much to ask to have Kairi and/or Riku accompany Sora the rest of the way, though it would be dearly needed. So have them do something interesting and important with their time post-RG. Make RG/HB the hub world, returning to it for various stuff. Play up Repliku, Namine, and Roxas/Xion in their hearts so we feel more invested in their persons and, thus, more catharsis when they are retrieved. -Expand on the lovely “calm before the storm” moments for our heroes—especially the Destiny Trio. Have the paopu moment, but don’t rush it so much. Have Riku, Sora, and Kairi doing something together. Have Axel engaging with someone about Xion/Roxas—along with the good Isa stuff. Show us what Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are doing -together-. -At Keyblade Graveyard opening, don’t make everyone suddenly suck. Why is Aqua not reacting -at all- to Terranort killing Ventus? What was the point of Kairi’s “infinite time training” if she just stands there so Sora can, also, not draw his Keyblade? Why are Riku and Mickey just twiddling their thumbs? Have everyone be badass, but still get beaten—then do all the interesting Final World stuff, with Riku’s words keeping Sora encouraged in death while SHOWING Kairi, as a PoH, still in the Realm of Light, somewhere in the tornado, ACTIVELY WORKING to keep Sora’s hanging on in the FW, rather than including her passively after. Or show her doing something beforehand. Just show some damn agency and the profound bonds of the Destiny Trio.

-Make the Namine scene here mandatory—I can’t fathom why they’d let that crucial plot point pass as optional.

-Keep sick final-boss rush, but don’t make everyone take a heel-turn redemption (and give us some team-up limits with everyone! Riku/Sora limit! Sora/Kairi limit! Sora/Roxas limit! SoRiKai Limit!). Marluxia and Xemnas needed to be more ambiguous in death. Luxord, Larxene, Xion, Vanitas, YX, Terranort, Xigbar, and Repliku were all great—even perfect. Saix needed to prove himself more, and there’s NO WAY Ansem SoD can suddenly be sympathetic like that. Slow it down. -Give the Xion-return moment to Kairi—not Sora. It’s perfect for her; she’d remember her because she is made of her. Gives Kairi agency and unique engagement for the both of them. Keep giving other characters agency in these moments other than Sora—let Aqua and Ven play centerstage in returning Terra, rather than Sora’s magic. Don’t make Sora the savior of every story—it feels cheap and demeans the character journeys we’ve been invested in for so long when they don’t play an active and significant role in their resolution. -Don’t have Kairi just be kidnapped again after 30-seconds of scripted fighting, after promising to -finally- invest in her immensely untapped potential. Have Saix (+Xemnas?) versus Sora, Xion, Roxas, Kairi, and Axel (also, explain how Axel got his keyblade -back-). Axel, even though he couldn’t face Xemnas, still has -powerful- character moments—at least give Kairi the same respect. Make that the last scripted battle, so that Kairi accompanies Sora to meet Mickey and Riku. -Either have Kairi use her infinite-training to join the fight with Xemnas, Ansem, and YX (to resonate that the whole Destiny Trio is together at the end, evolved, but together) or have her doing something else important (maybe with, I dunno, PoH POWERS?!). Have her ACTIVELY sacrifice herself for Sora, mirroring what he did for her in KH1, rather than MX passively killing her for no good goddamn reason while snarking at the camera that Kairi exists literally only for Sora’s motivation—even though Sora was already charging MX. Also show Riku have some damn emotion about his other best-friend. Sorry, I’m reaallly salty here. -Don’t have MX give up so easily, and get his motivation to work better with what came before in all these years. Don’t swap it out to something else in literally the last 30 minutes of the game. Don’t let the story treat flippantly him being the cause of everyone’s pain and suffering , as he is given a divine “thumbs-up” by turning into a kid with his best bud, giggling, and floating away into the light of Kingdom Hearts. What was that? Xehanort deserves better than that. Have him struggle to the end, and have our heroes really counter him—thematically, emotionally, and physically. Have Eraqus usher him away—stubborn to the end. If you want to redeem him, Nomura, you gotta be setting that stuff up WAAAAAY earlier. -Have anyone, anyone, other than Sora also care that Kairi is now missing. Have Riku and Sora go together to find her—because, you know, they’re BFFs and have the power to. Preferably explain and make it playable how they do that. Then have the lovely ending with Namine returning and with everyone together (except redeem Isa better). Keep everyone’s great new clothes, and have the whole party on the beach—end happily, with everyone (seemingly) together again in satisfied bliss. Wrap up the saga on a cathartic high note, for goodness’ sake. Then, and only then, Nomura gets to keep his ending—but in its proper place, separate in our minds from the ending-ending, in which we can feel full satisfaction for 16 years of investment. -In the Epilogue, before going to the Foretellers, show Sora, Kairi, and Riku leaving the Island. Riku and Kairi are on ahead, everything seems happy and complete (joking about Sora finally getting his mom’s dinner, eh?), when suddenly Sora hears the echo of YX telling him that “there’s a cost for it all” and that “it’s too late for him”—suddenly, Sora fades away. Show Riku/Kairi reactions -together-. Fade his fading into the dust of the Keyblade Graveyard. Do all the Epilogue. Do the Secret Ending. Everything on whatever track Nomura wants—but for us, the audience, all of us, we FINALLY GET SOLID, CATHARTIC CLOSURE FOR EVERYONE IN THIS SAGA AFTER 16 YEARS—WITHOUT IT ALL BEING TEASER BAIT FOR SOME UNION CROSS/TWEWY CROSSOVER COMBINED WITH NOMURA’s OBSESSIVE BITTERNESS OVER FFv13! Sorry, also salty about that. -Secret Ending is Riku AND Kairi going together to find Sora in Shibuya. Boom. -Also, for all our sakes, get rid of the concept of worldlines and minimize the time travel here, plz. That’s the quickest way to undermine the stakes of your story. Tl;dr: Give us more of the characters and their agency, don’t have them act OOC for bad plotting, give us a mid-climax to slow down the rushed 3-hour ending, let us appreciate what’s happening with more characterization, explain some things better, don’t fridge Kairi (and everyone other than Sora, really), give us a real, cathartic ending for 16 years of investment—then tease us in the epilogue/secret. Thoughts? Too much to ask? Too little? I tried only to make only minimal changes to Nomura’s vision, adjusted to some universally shared criticisms among fans. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and what you liked/didn’t like! If you liked this at all, I’ve been writing Kingdom Hearts at Fanfiction under the name “Marsuvees” (with hopefully increasing quality) for over ten years. I love this series deeply, and hope Nomura can get it back on track next time. He really needs to get other people involved in writing and plotting.

#kingdom hearts #kh3 #kh3 spoilers #sora #kairi #riku #xehanort #spoilers #cmonNomuraucandobetter #roxas #namine #xion #axel #aqua

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