#Kingdom Hearts Dark Road Spoilers

[invidiatechdemo]

did you forget?

that your sister is a human being?

that she's capable of being mad? mad at You, even?

[lightandfellowship]

[Image description: Fanart of Eraqus, Vor, and Vidar from KHDR. Eraqus and Vor are trapped inside an hourglass; Eraqus at the top, Vor at the bottom. Vor’s side has been smashed open, the sand spilling out. Vidar, with his Keyblade in his right hand, takes Vor’s hand with his left, pulling her out of her prison. Within the negative space of the shattered glass behind Vor is the shape of a heart. Eraqus looks on from above, his side of the hourglass still intact. End image description.]

“The longer I stay in this bubble, the harder it’ll be for me to leave.”

[ok4ru]

KHDR SPOILERS

Happy anniversary!

Bonus for the Xehabaldr shippers!!

[goldenchocobo]

Memoriae Sacrum

-

I said in the original post in January, that I struggled with what style to do with the characters, and said that realism may be drowned out- but I was wrong. When I drew the realistic classmates in August, it was kind of a partial 'what if' for re-doing this piece.

I've been slowly chipping away at this ever since. While I enjoy the result, realism takes a lot of motivation; especially clothes; and it wasn't until Hermod (the third one that I drew) that I realised that I had a hatching brush that gave me the texture I felt was missing; it was also when I drew Hermod that I realised I didn't/shouldn't do the entire quarter profile that I was doing- since 90% would be hidden anyway.

Flower stuff (copied from the original post) under the Keep reading, as well as just a plain flat PNG of the classmates.

Every single flower here are funeral flowers- for obvious reasons. The only non-funeral flower is the lily that Bragi is holding, which is an Easter Lily. In some circles can be used as a funeral flower, but its meaning is that of ‘rebirth’.

From what I could see at the end of Dark Road, I identified the lilies that Xehanort and Eraqus were leaving at the graves as Asiatic lilies. They have the right petal and leaf shape as well as the right size. The other two flowers are white roses and white chrysanthemums.

As you can see, even when cut back, a lot of detail is still lost haha

[colonelpancakes]

Has the darkness taken you?

[kitkat-the-muffin]

If you asked me to explain my Baldr brainrot I would have no answers for you

It's probably something to do with him being named after a deity of pure light and goodness but he himself is incredibly flawed and susceptible to darkness

He's an empath who can see the good in others that he cannot see in himself and that comparison drove him to feelings of inferiority, especially when compared to his sister who's heart shown with great light

He saw himself in Xehanort, a being filled with both light and darkness, one he could relate to as they both tried to understand the ways of the keyblade

But then his sister was taken from him, and he felt the light vanish from his heart in an instant. He took three lives before being admitted into the school's hospital

Or more like psych ward as that place was filled with zero enrichment, the perfect place for Darkness to get comfortable and worm its way into his heart permanently

And once he released himself, he went after them all. His friends, his classmates, his sister's closest allies... he killed them all one by one. Why did he do it? Because to him a world without his sister is a world not worth living in... also to summon Kingdom Hearts obviously, the Darkness inside him was trying to start another keyblade war

Of course then Xehanort approached him and Baldr had a "we're not so different you and I" villain speech and then Hoder's ghost pops out of Xehanort's heart to try and calm her brother down

And it works... for a moment. He was reaching for her hand, she was offering him forgiveness, mercy, salvation... and then she took out her weapon, and aimed for his neck. His quick reaction speed saved him as he did the same, and suddenly they were in this stalemate of betrayal

Hoder believed darkness has no place in the world and she was willing to purge her brother's life for that cause... while Baldr was willing to purge all life for her in the name of justice for an unjust world...

They were buried in the same grave

Mmm... brainrot

[isan0rt]

Honestly though like following up on Xehanort like pathologically needing to be in control of his circumstances, like.

The Baldr thing caused that. He was okay with not being in control before then! Xehanort was the one arguing to let Vor go and pursue her own future on her own. He was the one who said it was shitty of Eraqus to try to stop her!

And then she died. Then they all died, except Eraqus, the one Xehanort never let out of his sight once they encountered Baldr. How much did he feel at fault? He was supposed to be the one to overcome darkness and save everyone. He knew there was something wrong with Baldr, but he didn't question him in front of the others, and they died. Baldr said to his face that keeping his mouth shut facilitated Baldr being able to kill them all!

Like. Of course Xehanort spends the rest of his life doing everything in his power to never get taken off guard again. If he's got everything under control, forever, then nothing like that can ever happen again to him.

Right?

[bluerosesburnblue]

You know, I think the reason Xehanort’s backstory getting retconned in KHUx/KHDR pisses me off so much is that his backstory has already been retconned four fucking times beforehand

Ansem is introduced in KH1 as the mad scientist king of Hollow Bastion, retconned in KH2 that “Ansem” was actually Xehanort, the apprentice of the real Ansem, but who’s still from Hollow Bastion (now Radiant Garden)

Then BBS comes in and retcons that Apprentice Xehanort into the main Xehanort that we know: an old Keyblade Master from Destiny Islands possessing the body of a younger Keyblade Wielder, Terra, who ended up with amnesia

Then DDD comes in with “oh, btw, he totally time traveled in his past so tack on an extra 70-ish years to KH1 Ansem!nort that we never told you about, also Young Xehanort is now fated to cause this future because his heart experienced the future and this extends to all incarnations including Ansem/Xemnas.” If you count Nomura’s interviews at the time, then DDD Young Xehanort (who is supposedly 18-20 years old) was intended to be Xehanort from before he became a Keyblade Wielder, the only time he uses a Keyblade being because Master Xehanort, who already can, was possessing him. The in-game dialogue backs this up

This is then immediately retconned in KH3 to “actually Xehanort became a Keyblade Wielder in Scala ad Caelum at age 15/16-ish,” with DDD Young Xehanort now being changed to having always been a Keyblade Wielder on his own merits, which is confirmed in KHDR’s portrayal

So now, on top of all that, to have the series go “actually he wasn’t from Radiant Garden or Destiny Islands, but Scala ad Caelum and also believed he was a special prophecy child AND the descendant of super special Keyblade Master Ephemer even though him not having a special bloodline was kind of a big deal for his character AND HE KNEW ALL OF THIS,” it’s just, like, stop. My god, make a new character at this rate. Xehanort now has five goddamned backstories, enough

The more they change his history, the less defined his character gets because it’s impossible to keep track of his motivations when the reason why they exist in the meta-narrative is constantly changing. Even me, someone who likes the way that his personality is portrayed, especially throughout the main bulk of KHDR (credits scene notwithstanding), can’t call him a well-written character because aspects of him keep changing whenever Nomura feels the need to make him relevant again. Just let the man rest with his KH3 backstory, when his relevance to the main plot is done. The edits keep getting more and more convoluted and they become incongruous with past knowledge so we keep having to re-learn the character rather than learn more about the character if that distinction makes sense to anyone and it’s just tiring

[dorky-crow]

On a scale of 1 to 10, how disappointed would he be?

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 3 - Scala ad Caelum

[edge-of-ultima]

You ever think about how the 2nd Save Point in the series is in the main villain's house?

[invidiatechdemo]

Here's is a video that splices together the conversation Vidar has with Odin in 'True Darkness' in Theater Mode with the one shown in 'To Face True Darkness' to prove a point : that it's very likely that these were

1. the same conversation, considering Vidar basically follows up Odin's mentioning of True Darkness from Section A in "True Darkness"

2. likely took place after Hoder perished and

3. Odin was the one who got the idea of summoning Kingdom Hearts in Vidar's head via him saying that's the only other possible way to theoretically expunge darkness/destroy darkness for good without killing the vessel of darkness. Also, literally gave out the unclear instructions involving seven lights.

I've left the transition between the two scenes clunky/ 'as-is' rather than overediting it to make it seem more seamless than it is so people can draw their own conclusions.

I also made this so even if you disagree with the conclusions I make in the annotated/commentary cut (which is linked in the description of this video) you can at least get to see the two pieces of Odin talking to Vidar alone in the same video.

[lightandfellowship]

[Image description: A recreation of the “woman angrily pointing at cat while crying” meme, but with Hoder, Xehanort, and Baldr. Hoder is the pointing woman, Xehanort is the consoling friend, and Baldr is the cat sitting at the table. In front of Baldr is a bowl filled with nine hearts and a drinking glass filled with darkness. The hand of the dark entity that possessed Baldr can be seen resting on Baldr’s chair. End image description.]

There’s nine hearts instead of ten because Hoder’s heart is with Xehanort, by the way.

[autumn-may]

never forget hoder drew her blade first :)

[cayala-xiii]

What a polite looking guy, I'm sure nothing has gone wrong with him ever :D

[rhelaza]

a tiny sneak peak for an upcoming kingdom hearts zine