#NOT TO BE MEAN TO SORA OR HALEY JOEL OSMENT

[doyouknowthisactor]

By "roles" I mean playing a different character, and in a different piece of media; someone playing one character across a franchise only counts as one thing for the purposes of this poll, as does playing multiple characters in one franchise/piece of media

Below are some of this actor's roles. Please only check after voting!

The Sixth Sense as Cole Sear (Oscar nomination)

A.I. Artificial Intelligence as David

Future Man as Dr. Stu Camillo

Secondhand Lions as Walter

Osment is also the English voice actor for Sora and Vanitas in the Kingdom Hearts games

Osment is the brother of actor Emily Osment

More roles

[oveliagirlhaditright]

...

So, for a while I was doing this thing where I was trying to see if I could find parallels between Sora and Kairi's arcs in the games.

I think I've covered all of the games now (I think), except for Sora's arc in KHII... except that Sora doesn't have much of an arc in that game... if one at all.

The only thing I can really think of, that people have mentioned in the past, is what's going on with him and his connection to Roxas (and people calling him Roxas), and him sometimes disassociating because of it, or something like that? And to be fair, even Haley Joel Osment in his KHII interview--from many moons ago now--said there's a lot of identity confusion in KHII, and that's true.

So, I tried to see if Kairi had anything similar to the above with her own Nobody, and this is the closest I can think of. Saïx wouldn't have been willing to let Naminé or Kairi go (so that parallel is like the Sora and Roxas both holding the crystal parallel). ...And I'm surely reading way too much into this (based on a fanfiction I read where Kairi felt this way, and how the name "Naminé" rolls off of Hayden Panettiere's tongue...) but it almost does feel like Kairi could be feeling there that saying the name "Naminé" almost seems like she's saying her own name, for obvious reasons (to me at least). And, I mean, Kairi did seem to figure out that Naminé was her Nobody--or connected to her somehow--on her own.

Anyway...

[h-worksrambles]

who are your favorite voice actors in the kh series? least favorites?

Ah. This is an interesting question.

For favourites, Haley Joel Osment has always given Sora a lot of really endearing energy and gusto. And it’s a big part of what’s kept him as one of my favourite characters in the series. Jesse McCartney has also been a standout. He’s done a very good job distinguishing his roles as Roxas and Ventus and tends to give some of the strongest performances out of many game in the series he’s in. I’ll also say Paul St. Peter’s deep booming, yet silky smooth delivery basically makes Xemnas for me.

There’s also some iconic ones I have to mention. The late Leonard Nimoy killed it as Master Xehanort and gave him a deliciously evil energy. Christopher goddamn Lee is fantastic as Ansem the Wise in Kingdom Hearts 2 (though Corey Burton has been a great replacement since). And you can never go wrong with Mark Hamill. He’s very good as Master Eraqus.

Least favourites? Well these just make me feel kinda mean. I guess I’ll say Jason Dohring as Terra and Willa Holland as Aqua didn’t really work for me in Birth By Sleep. They came across a little wooden, though I’m tempted to say it’s down to direction and scripting. And while Holland did much better in 0.2, Dohring hasn’t had many lines as Terra since, so he hasn’t really been able to show off what he can do. I’ll also say some of the Disney character soundalikes are…not great. A lot of the voices in Pride Lands in Kingdom Hearts 2 especially are really off. Scar’s voice actor is trying so hard to match Jeremy Irons and it’s just not working.

Thanks for the ask.

[irvinenewshq]

Misplaced Kingdom Hearts Animated Collection Pilot Launched On-line

Screenshot: Seth Kearsley/YouTube Regardless of Kingdom Hearts’ seemingly countless capability to proceed current, its relationship with Disney past the literal video games themselves has all the time been just a little distant—not less than on the Disney aspect of issues. You’re not going to see Sora within the theme parks maybe any time quickly, however as soon as upon a time that wasn’t all the time going to be the case. Animator Seth Kearsley, who as soon as served as government producer on a deliberate animated adaptation of the primary Kingdom Hearts sport, just lately revealed that he’d discovered a long-thought-lost VHS recording of the sequence’ animatic pilot, used to pitch executives on the concept of a Disney adaptation of the action-RPG sequence. Now, simply weeks after discovering it, Kearsly has launched the 11-minute brief on-line for followers to see what may need been. The sequence was greenlit shortly after the launch of the primary sport, however by no means made it to air after being scrapped by Disney and Sq. Enix. Kearsley, who has spoken in regards to the challenge overtly right here and there for years, just lately mirrored on his intent to share extra in regards to the unseen work after being in a near-fatal automobile accident. “I nearly died, and there’s some shit I wanna put out on this planet that just about by no means acquired to be put out on this planet,” Kearsley stated in a video made after the invention of the animatic recording. “So I’m gonna put it out on this planet. That’s loads of stuff, I do know—possibly that’s just a little too private, however every part is just a little too private for me now.” Misplaced Kingdom Hearts Pilot Animatic The 11-minute storyboard animatic, titled “Agrabah,” is a fast, free approximation of a number of the early beats of the unique Kingdom Hearts, first launched in 2002. The brief opens with a short rationalization of authentic characters Sora, Riku, and Kairi being separated from their island house by an assault by mysterious creatures generally known as the Heartless, earlier than Sora and Riku discover themselves happening totally different paths to rescue Kairi. A lot of the sport’s solid returned to voice their roles—save for Haley Joel Osment as Sora, changed by actor Bobby Edner as a consequence of scheduling commitments, in response to Kearsley—and it’s by and enormous a surprisingly direct tackle the sequence. The totally different floating worlds primarily based on basic Disney films; Sora, Donald, and Goofy’s battle animations; the way in which the heartless explode into clouds of neon, toylike stars on defeat; and even a number of the sport’s eventual darkness—Riku being introduced beneath the thrall of Maleficent, who’s working with the Heartless—are touched on. Utterly out of nowhere, there’s even a teeny little bit of iconic Hikaru Utada banger “Easy and Clear” in there for good measure! Alas, that is possible all there ever can be of a Kingdom Hearts animated adaptation. The video games themselves have lengthy since diverged into authentic tales, with the Disney components appearing extra as set dressing to their often-memed-upon plots. The concept of a Disney-made Kingdom Hearts present now would look very totally different to what Kearsley and his staff ever deliberate, however not less than we now, a long time later, get to see what may’ve been. Need extra io9 information? Try when to anticipate the most recent Marvel and Star Wars releases, what’s subsequent for the DC Universe on movie and TV, and every part you must find out about Home of the Dragon and Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Energy. Originally published at Irvine News HQ

[themattress]

Kingdom Hearts vs. Kingdom Hearts II vs. Kingdom Hearts III

I am never playing Kingdom Hearts IV, so might as well see how these three stack up.

GRAPHICS - Let’s get the easiest one out of the way first. Obviously graphics improve as time goes on, and such is the case here. While I have issues with many of the KH-original characters’ models in Kingdom Hearts III since they seem so stiff, that’s more than balanced out by all the breathtakingly accurate Disney models and scenery. The worlds of Hercules and Winnie the Pooh look great enough, but the worlds of Toy Story, Monsters Inc., Tangled, Frozen, Big Hero 6 and Pirates of the Caribbean look exactly like those movies; it’s amazing!

Winner: Kingdom Hearts III

GAMEPLAY - The combat in the original Kingdom Hearts is fun, but can also be pretty cumbersome due to Sora’s unrefined movement, Donald and Goofy’s less than reliable AI, a frustratingly too-close camera, and the default game difficulty being a tad more difficult than one might expect. The combat in Kingdom Hearts III is also fun, but its problem is the exact opposite - it’s way too easy, with Sora’s floaty movements combined with all kinds of special features in battle at your disposal right from the start making every fight a walk in the park. Kingdom Hearts II‘s combat, otoh, is a perfect balance; the best in the series hands-down.

Winner: Kingdom Hearts II

MUSIC - This seems like a tough one since Yoko Shimomura always does a fantastic job. However, you have to ask yourself which soundtrack is the most impressive on the basis of how it was put together. And the answer is the original Kingdom Hearts’ soundtrack - with the other games’, musical tracks are always re-used and put alongside new additions. The first game’s soundtrack, by contrast, was 100% new, meaning its success was crucial. Also, none of Utadu Hikaru’s songs afterward are nearly as iconic as “Hikari” / “Simple and Clean”.

Winner: Kingdom Hearts

VOICE-ACTING - Another tough one, since the KH series usually excels at voice-acting, helped by many of the voices being original Disney film cast members or convincing soundalikes. When it comes down to it, though, I’m going to have to give the nod to Kingdom Hearts II. There’s only one especially bad performance in that game - Mena Suvari as Aerith. But otherwise, everyone is giving it their best. Standouts include Haley Joel Osment, who isn’t as whinily high as in the first game or artificially modulated to sound younger in the third, Jesse McCartney who first showed us all what an amazing voice-actor he can be with his performance as Roxas, Paul St. Peter who is chilling as Xemnas, the late Wayne Allwine who makes Mickey sound convincing even with dialogue like “Did somebody mention the Door to Darkness?”, and the legendary Sir Christopher Lee lending all his dignity, gravity and general badassness as DiZ / Ansem the Wise. It’s just a perfectly skilled and star-studded vocal cast. 

Winner: Kingdom Hearts II

STORY - Ha! This one’s easy. The original Kingdom Hearts, no question about it. The story of Kingdom Hearts II is good, but it’s haphazardly told due to disharmony between its primary tellers (Tetsuya Nomura, Kazushige Nojima and Masaru Oka), can be confounding with its central concepts which isn’t helped by said haphazard storytelling, and won’t leave the same impact if you haven’t been through Chain of Memories first. And as for the story of Kingdom Hearts III....pfffft, WHAT story? That thing is a goddamn mess! This naturally leaves the original Kingdom Hearts’ story, which is classically themed, perfectly structured, and beautifully told, being both incredibly simple and incredibly deep. The talents of Tetsuya Nomura, Jun Akiyama, Daisuke Watanabe, Kazushige Nojima, and Keiko Nobumoto came together perfectly; it was lightning in a bottle that was never really going to be recaptured.

Winner: Kingdom Hearts

CHARACTERS - From a character arc standpoint, the three leads Sora, Riku and Kairi were never written better than they were in the original Kingdom Hearts. They feel like they’re just wrapping up loose ends in Kingdom Hearts II, and Kingdom Hearts III shits on all of them in various ways. While Xemnas in Kingdom Hearts II is actually a stronger character than his Heartless counterpart Ansem in Kingdom Hearts, Ansem is still well-written in his own right, and both are far ahead of Master Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts III. Kingdom Hearts II also has the advantage of memorable characters such as Roxas and his friends, Namine, Axel, and DiZ /  Ansem the Wise. Kingdom Hearts has more Disney characters in major roles, while Kingdom Hearts II has more original characters in major roles, with certain Final Fantasy characters having major roles in both (and absolutely not in Kingdom Hearts III!) Given that and how well the majority are depicted, I think this one is a tie between the PS2 installments.

Winner: Kingdom Hearts & Kingdom Hearts II (TIE)

UNIVERSAL LORE - Let’s rule out Kingdom Hearts III right now, since the universal lore at this point is nigh incomprehensible and so sharply divided from the Disney stuff that it may as well be two different universes altogether. As for Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, their universal lore is equally solid and compatible, and the difference lies in their presentation. Simply put, Kingdom Hearts does it better because it’s simply put. The more perplexing aspects of the lore are there for you to think about on your own as they float along in the background of the story and the actions of the characters. Kingdom Hearts II brought them to the forefront, which leads to a lot of expositing and drawn-out cutscenes that more often than not still leave players confused, and unless it’s Christopher Lee talking it’s never done particularly well. Leagues ahead of Kingdom Hearts III, don’t get me wrong, but not ideal.

Winner: Kingdom Hearts 

WORLDS - With this category, I mean the worlds from an outside perspective, not related to the events or gameplay that goes on within them. Which assortment of worlds holds the most appeal? Much of that will depend on your preference in Disney properties, but this is my post so my opinion is the one that counts here. And my opinion is that Kingdom Hearts II wins out. Worlds representing Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, Hercules, The Little Mermaid, Pirates of the Caribbean, Aladdin, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Lion King and Tron, all some of the finest Disney properties of all time....oh, and let’s top that off with a world based on fucking Steamboat Willie, Mickey Mouse’s premiere! You just can’t beat a line-up like this.

Winner: Kingdom Hearts II

LEVEL DESIGN - Now we get into how it actually feels to play through the worlds. Kingdom Hearts’ worlds are designed where you get the maximum amount out of all space available, with all sorts of things to interact with, puzzles to solve, and treasures to collect. The downside is that combat in these areas can be a chore, especially with the game’s weak camera. Kingdom Hearts II’s worlds are streamlined for combat, with the camera expanded which helps make battling through them fun as all Hell (or Hades, in one specific case), but the lack of interactivity and exploration is missed, and the lack of collectibles given how easy it is to get every treasure chest in the original edition went over so badly that Final Mix had to make up for it with the puzzle piece and Mushroom XIII sidequests. And that brings us to Kingdom Hearts III - not only are both previous game’s styles merged perfectly, but each world feels like it’s in its own sub-genre of video game altogether. Combine that with the graphics replicating each world’s cinematic source material perfectly and you have the best experience playing through worlds. Kingdom Hearts III is worth it if not only for this factor.

Winner: Kingdom Hearts III

GUMMI SHIP - The scenery and music in the original Kingdom Hearts’ Gummi Ship segments is wonderful, but the gameplay is horrendous. Kingdom Hearts III has great scenery and gameplay, but the music is bland and forcing you to fight Gummi bosses three times to progress to a world was not a good choice. Kingdom Hearts II is the only one that it’s get it all right - great visuals, great music (in a wide variety of different tracks, too!), and great gameplay, feeling almost like a Disney theme park ride. I always love going through it.

Winner: Kingdom Hearts II

MINIGAMES - Kingdom Hearts had many memorable minigames....unfortunately, the majority of them weren’t very well designed. Kingdom Hearts II’s are much better designed, but a lot of them are repetitive and sometimes feel like more time went into them than other things that needed it more. That leaves Kingdom Hearts III as the winner, as its minigames such as the Bistro, the 100 Acre Wood and the Flan Heartless, are fun, plentiful and unique. Special mention goes to the Classic Kingdom app, which packs over 20 minigames into it.

Winner: Kingdom Hearts III

EXTRA CONTENT - In terms of which game is packed with the most stuff beyond what is required to get through, I’m not sure which one objectively places first. What I do know is that what Kingdom Hearts II had initially didn’t feel sufficient compared to its predecessor and needed to be rectified by its Final Mix. Kingdom Hearts III had more from the getgo, but at the cost of crucial things that should have been required being absent and needing to be filled in with Re:Mind. The original Kingdom Hearts, even before its Final Mix, felt so loaded with extra content that it was dizzying; truly on par with what you would expect out of a Final Fantasy game. Square, still headed by Hironobu Sakaguchi at the time, spared no expense.

Winner: Kingdom Hearts 

OVERALL SATISFACTION - So, Kingdom Hearts III clearly isn’t winning this whole thing, with just two victories to its name. But Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II are tied, so this last category has to serve as the tiebreaker. Which game, as a whole product, is the most satisfactory? Which of the two has all its qualities even out to provide the best experience?

Personally, playing through the original Kingdom Hearts is an experience that has never been matched by anything since in this franchise. And therein lies the problem. It’s not that the game doesn’t hold up and I don’t enjoy replaying it - far from it! But the sheer magical feeling that gripped me back at the end of 2002 and start of 2003 can’t be replicated, which leaves some of the game’s technical issues in a more glaring light. And that’s a problem that doesn’t exist with Kingdom Hearts II (especially the Final Mix version). It was a highly fun, thrilling, well-polished ride to begin with, and it still is with every new playthrough. It feels like the apex of what the concept of Kingdom Hearts is supposed to be: the best of Disney and the best of Square all in one crazy, epic package. It’s the series’ finest game....and it always will be.

Winner: Kingdom Hearts II

[avionvadion]

I remember when the biggest plot twist was that close up of Xigbar’s eye in DDD with him being all,

And everyone in the fandom going, WHAAAAAT!???

(Adding cut for kh ux spoilers but like it’s been years since KH1/2/3, Days, CoM, BBS, DDD, Re:Coded, etc)

And then Xemnas was all, “yeah fam like we Nobodies grow our hearts back after a while, so I took those Nobodies in the original Org and sent them off to Castle Oblivion to be killed off since they weren’t worthy of being a vessel. Because they got them unnecessary emotions. Well, except Vexen. Vexen wasn’t supposed to die. But we’ll just kill his human self again anyway so he can go back to being a Nobody so we can have him science up some bodies for those of us who time travel” and we were all like HUUUUHHHHHH??? DEMYX WAS RIGHT ALL ALONG!??? THEY DO HAVE HEARTS!??

Also just the gradual realization of any scene involving Xigbar.

Xigbar: “You aren’t half the hero/keyblade wielder the others were.”

Us: Nani??? Da fuq??? Who you talking about??? Ohhhh, 358/2 Days! He must be talking about Roxas and Xion? But wait- he shouldn’t remember Xion. I am more confusion.

HOLD UP SECRET ENDING IN KH 2- WHY IS ROXAS THERE??? Is that brunette Sora’s dad or Sora grown up!? He kinda looks like Xemnas and Ansem Seeker of Darkness with that hairstyle. Ooohh blueberry lady so pretty!!! They all have keyblades... and so does that evil old man!!! And the guy with a mask!

Okay BBS is finally out!!! Wait, “Ventus” not “Roxas”??? Confusion. “Terra” not “Sora”??? Well he might still be Sora’s dad. Maybe Ven is actually Sora’s dad??? Or maybe even a brother!! Aqua might be the mom if Terra is the dad. Oh hey look it’s the masked guy and the evil old man from the secret cutscene! Spock vs Luke Skywalker let’s go! Wait. Not Sora’s dad...???

Sora and Riku are both four and five years old in this... but then why does Ven look like Roxas?? No, wait- why does Roxas look like Ven? Xigbar is here!??? His human name is Braig!??? He works for evil old man!??? ZEXION IS A BABY NAMED IENZO AND IS A CONFIRMED DISNEY PRINCE!??? LEXAEUS AND XALDIN USED TO BE CASTLE GUARDS!??

Head... hurting... oh gods masked man is evil black haired Sora!!!! How did we not realize his voice actor was Haley Joel Osment!??? Gasp! TERRA GETS BODYSNATCHED!??? NO WONDER HE LOOKED LIKE XEMNAS AND NOT-ANSEM!!! Aqua nuuuuuu!!!!!! Baby girl!!! Wife!!!! Blueberry mom!!!

WAIT SO BABY SORA SAVED VEN IN THE START OF GAME AND VEN’S HEART HAS BEEN SLEEPING IN SORA EVER SINCE HE AND VANITAS DESTROYED EACH OTHER!??? TERRA PERFORMED THE KEYBLADE CEREMONY WITH RIKU WHICH LED TO THE. BEGINNING OF KH1??? WHEN XIGBAR SAID “OTHERS” HE MEANT TERRA, VEN, AND AQUA!???

Aw frick UX and KH3 here we go. Hold on. What. Wait. No. Stop. Nomura. NOMURA. What do you mean “Luxu”!???? How is he Luxu!???? LAURIAM AND ELRENA??? Marluxia used to have a baby sister!??? WHAT. So wait. When Xigbar said “others” he meant all the DANDELIONS AND FORTELLERS FROM CENTURIES PAST!????

(This is mostly a joke post I really love Kingdom Hearts actually, I’m just amused by how crazy this series has become and how the insanity is still going. We got freaking worldlines now, like hello parallel universes. Wait, you mean WE’RE the bad guy, Nomura???)

[ultyso]

Kingdom Hearts is never going to end is it (which is a good thing)? And that means that Sora is going to outlive us all, and Haley Joel Osment found the secret to immortality a long time ago😂

He said he could play Sora forever.

More like so long as Nomura wants to keep making KH. It doesn’t end till he says it’s done. Lol

[luminant-lepidoptera]

Chip ‘N Dale Rescue Rangers better give me a Haley Joel Osment cameo as Sora or just a mention of him. Chip and Dale actually know Sora, so I mean it’s not that far out of the realm of possibility given the fact that the KEYBLADE is IN it

[keytextsfromkh]

Dream Drop Distance: Hunchback

- Did Frollo just call Sora a weeb?

- I'm going to make this young, supple boy squeal...did I say that out loud?

- "I mean look at him, he looks 14 but sounds 30, clearly witchcraft is afoot".

- I think Frollo is how a number of Americans view the police and authority figures in general.

- I guess the Dream Eaters are celebrating that they're having one hell of a feast tonight.

- (Quasimodo really deserves the title of King of Fools) Well, no one will debate you on that.

- There's a look that says "I want to torture the ever loving shit out of her but not before she chains me up and gives me another one of those scarf dances".

- "We won't use a door, we'll use some of that gypsy black magic the Master is always going on about".

- "He's insane, the isolation has gotten to him and now he thinks he can talk to stone statues...really makes you question /your/ mental state now doesn't it?"

- So is this Isolation George? Is there actually a George Costanza in every world?

- You have no idea of the magnitude of this thing. if Sora is allowed to infiltrate this world, then Haley Joel Osment as you know him CEASES to exist. You see, right now, we have Haley!Zephyr, but there is also Haley!Sora. That's the Haley you know, the Haley you grew up with, Haley!Cole, Haley!David, Haley!Teddy, Haley!Mowgli". If Haley!Zephyr walks through this world, he will KILL Haley!Sora. A Haley divided against itself CANNOT stand!"

- "He can't let his heart be a prison", dude, you're the last person who should ever be giving out advice on the heart.

- You know, when it's not being said in song, what Frollo says is kind of messed up.

- "..Good, now put on the school boy uniform and let me spank you until your name is Mozart.

- Hey! They're only barbarous if they're non-consensual.

- No, no, no, it's not a map, it's just a code in Arabic or maybe ancient Greek.

- I guess the slender, young body of a teen boy is no match for the raw power of an old-school Catholic.

- What a gyp, where's the awesome Latin choir music.

- I don't know, Arno could have scaled that place quicker.

- What? No Frollo fight? No Hellfire? What a fucking waste.

- After 20 years of being in the presence of a religious whack-a-doo, Quasimodo felt qualified to officiate Esmerelda and Phoebus' wedding. Sora felt a strange twinge inside as all sorts of paradoxes were on the cusp of taking place.

- You're not going to like it, I mean we are still talking about pre-renaissance Paris.

- See, Xehanort: The Wonder Years knows what's up.

- Vanitas?! This is not good. WORLDS ARE COLLIDING!

- Yes Riku, there was a point where you dressed up in leather and wore a skirt.

- Well yeah, I mean that hump would be pretty noticeable and people are kind of assholes that way.

- I like Riku, he tends to have the right attitude.

- Really? Because it looks like it's just heading for the city in general.

- Seriously, considering what's happened with a certain individual names Jones, it's a little easy to see Frollo in the modern day controlling things like Twitter, Patreon or Youtube. He will "take care" of the hate-filled vermin, one . by . one.

- (Quasimodo’s heart really doesn’t care) No, it just kept producing things like "Ask again later".

- I will start flame wars all over this world, I will argue over the pettiest of topics and everyone who disagrees with me is just ignorant and a hater and I shall purge them.

- Again we're screwed out of a Frollo fight, it's almost like the game is trolling us, just when we think we're going to start the fight, another stupid Dream Eater boss just interrupts.

- Because at this point, I'm contractually obligated to make an appearance in each of these games.

- I think thematically, Riku fighting Frollo would have been on-point. Listen to the lyrics of Hellfire and see it from the perspective of Riku dealing with his Darkness. Replace Esmeralda (and all reference to her) with either Ansem and Xehanort. This becomes more apparant during the "Mea Culpa" part of the song where you could pretty much have it be Riku wracked with guilt over the shit he's done and no matter how much he's done to fix the damage, in his eyes, it will always be his greatest fault. The entire battle could have been Riku's confession. Considering Nomura's fetish for Catholic imagery, this is probably one of his biggest missed opportunities (His mea maxima culpa if you will).

- I will say that that's one of the cooler ways to do these boss fights, Riku fights it on top of the cathedral and then it loses its wings and falls to the ground, where it is then fought by Sora.

- I guess Sora did jack-shit when it came to helping you.

- (Regarding the Organization becoming human again) "Now we can walk in direct sunlight, listen to happier music and people won't keep writing us as emo punks".

[akingdomtheorist]

KH Catch-Up: BBS FM Ventus

VEN STORY START

"Xehanort fuckin' used darkness in plain sight! I didn't notice that!"

"And that's when Xehanort was like 'ooh that's gonna be my new vessel'."

"I just realized- that's Haley Joel Osment? That's on purpose, that's on purpose isn't it. Why do you sound like Sora?"

"How did you get in my room?"

"This is really bitter sweet now."

"Why were we allowed to just leave?"

"We have a skateboard? Oh heck yeah we do."

"Wait it was Xehanort that refused Terra's Mastery?"

DWARF WOODLANDS

"Let's go follow those little peo- I mean wait no, little people's the correct term."

You're not here for our diamonds? "No I'm not playing Minecraft."

"Obviously no one can be that tall, god."

"I'm sad." "Why are you sad?" "You know whats not there?" "What?" "Cure..." "Yeah." "BUT YOU KNOW WHO HAS CURE?" -proceeds to D-Link with Aqua-

"Are we seriously playing Hide & Seek?"

"This is a wide open area and you're telling me no Unversed are here?"

"Ven, get with the program, we gotta rhyme in this world."

"Now all the Unversed are gonna show up."

"UHHHHH... that's a big boy."

CASTLE OF DREAMS

"What the fuck? Yeah you almost look like a person! What?!"

"Mhmm. Yup Terra. About that dream. Nothing bad's gonna happen."

"I wasn't expecting to be shrunk down to the size of a mouse, and then saved by a giant- oh this is pathetic."

"Now we're breaking into her room! This is someone's fetish."

"Has no one noticed I look like a human yet? I guess with talking mice a tiny human is not the weirdest thing Cinderella has seen."

He immediately buys Cure the first chance he gets.

-sees fork- "Ooh, I know what to do here."

"What does the cheese do..."

"I get to beat up a cat."

"I've done this boss fight a hundred times."

ENCHANTED DOMINION

Can you tell me why she's sleeping? "Because it's night Ven."

"Damn invisible walls, I want to be king."

"You missed a bird." "I'll get him when I'm done with these." "See?" -completely WHIFFS the finisher- "Flawless."

-walks into room with magic circles, pans camera around- "Nope. Nope not dealing with that."

"Aww no this is the Rainbow Rocket bullshit."

"I hate this. Oh look it's the end I'm not gonna get any chests but fuck it whatever."

"I'm just waiting for Maleficent to dragon me."

He got hit out of Cure after being Doom Stunned.

"OH NO. OH GOD. OH NO I NEED LEAF BRACER."

-sees spiral of doom- "Wtf is this?"

"NO, NO YOU DON'T GET TO SLEEP ME."

"Aqua! =D"

"Can we just talk about the fact that Ven took the presence of a nightmare being in his room very well?"

"Welp time to go to the Keyblade Graveyard. I know what this is now, it's not just Land Before Time meets Chernobog to me."

KEYBLADE GRAVEYARD

-Vanitas summons keyblade- "Oh good..."

"Jesus-wait did he just actually kill me? Oh no it's an I had to lose fight."

"Hi Mickey?!"

"Now we fight for real!" "Yeah with that one inch of HP you took off his health bar." "Shut up."

"I miss Leaf Bracer so much."

He died. So he made Cura, and then went to go get it and Second Chance.

"It is weird hearing Haley Joel Osment being all edgey and shit."

"I almost said I didn't need Cura this entire time, but I didn't, because I would have died."

"Oh my god, Mickey is like a little baby right now."

"Oh, no Radiant Garden yet?" "That's LITERALLY RIGHT THERE." "Oh. I'm an idiot."

RADIANT GARDEN

"Are we gonna meet Ansem?"

"Who is that?" "Well put an X with Even and what do you get?" "Uh... Vexen?" "Yeah." "That's not--that IS Vexen!"

-gets Disney Town passes- "That's a credit card!"

"Ven is like 'Mom Dad stop fighting!'"

"Who is that? Is that Siax?" "No, but his real name is Ienzo." "OH THAT'S ZEXION?" "Yeah he little!"

"There are so many people with grey hair and blue eyes."

-gets Reversal- "-GASP- YAAAAY!"

"Poor Ven! Poor Ven... I'm sad now." "Well get ready for a flashback and a callback."

"Is that? IT IS! And theres-" "I told you."

"Oh my god you dork."

"AAAAAAH. This is why Axel is so attatched to Roxas! Right?" "It might help."

"I LOVE HIM."

"Oh my god, Isa laughed, what."

"I love Lea. AHH I GOT A KEYBLADE FROM HIM!"

OLYMPUS COLISEUM

"Hi Zack."

"Oh it's this again."

He won the mini game by two points and had no right to win that.

"Why is Phil a jerk in this one?"

"Well yeah your only friend in the world that isn't Aqua is about to get Norted so I mean..."

-sees the onslaught of Unversed- "Time Splicer is gonna be so good in this..."

"Aww Zack..."

DISNEY TOWN

"Is this Pete's new scheme?"

-unlocks Master Mode for It's a Small World- "Excuse me...?"

I wish I had someone lookin' out for me. "Yes Ven and they all told you to go home."

DEEP SPACE

"I feel like a security system that can be defeated by spitting is a very bad security system."

-Gantu shoots Stitch's wayfinder- "How DARE you!"

Gantu is now a dick for what he did.

"Did you read what the tutorial thing said?" "No, not at all. I assume I have to stop the ship from taking too much damage?" "Well yeah. The strategy is to yeet Stitch at the boss." "Ohhhhoho... or I could just do that!" "What did you do?" "I Time Splicer'd it took out half it's health!"

"Did we just get tossed into space? Aw we just got Mass Effect 2'd... alright when are we gonna wake up dead on a spaceship..."

NEVERLAND

-sees Vanitas- "Oh my god..."

"WINGBLADE???" "You gots an upgrade."

"Why is there no Moogle here?" "Moogle probably went on Union Break."

"Or I could just beat you up with a giant key..."

"I like how he told the Unversed to scram."

"I feel like I've seen this (Wingblade) before..."

"Hello old grinding spot, I missed you."

"I know where I've seen that animation before! Noctis!"

"WE HAVEN'T GOTTEN TO THE ANAKIN PART YET."

"You could say he's caught between a croc... and a hard place." "....." "Now excuse me while I beat up this middle aged man."

Then there was a lot of grinding for a lot of rare commands to meld them into.

KEYBLADE GRAVEYARD

"Sorry I'm late I had to grind!"

"Oh hello bad man."

"Oh good we got our memories back. This was the perfect time for this to happen."

"Oh that's why he puts the x in everyone's name..."

"I'm not falling for it and neither is Terra!"

"Oh, are we getting sent to the Anakin part?"

LAND OF DEPARTURE

"Shit, I feel WAY less bad about the Anakin thing now."

"Honestly this is on Eraqus."

DESTINY ISLANDS

"Oh heck... I forgot they go to Destiny Islands. I forgot Terra sent Riku on the path to super villainy."

"Oh you bitch..."

"Those are Heartless, those are straight up Heartless."

"Very intentionally hiding Vanitas' face."

KEYBLADE GRAVEYARD AGAIN

-uses Faith for the first time- "OH... well that's a thing."

"Some of these are stretching the definition of key. Some of them are just straight up swords."

"Oh hey Vanitas."

"The only one who actually takes off his helmet is Terra. God dammit Terra."

"Yeah yeah Kingdom Hearts is fuckin' here I don't know why."

"Oh hey Braig. He's been Norted!"

"Ven is VERY angry..."

"Oh no I know how this works, we never attack first, we always dodge."

"Oh right we weren't supposed to do that, shit."

"OKAY WHAT THE FUCK WHAT- WHY DOES HE LOOK LIKE SORA?"

"Oh hello asshole. Oh. Hello broken X-Blade."

If Time Splicer had IFrames, it could one shot bosses. Thats what we are learning.

"That was the COOLEST SHIT. BEST ending fight in this series so far."

"That's right bitch, don't got your sword now do ya?"

I had to go find the one cutscene to watch because I was mad it didn't show up.

"So that's Ven arriving in Sora's heart?"

"This is really cute."

"Awwwww..."

VEN STORY END

So we will be doing Aqua’s as the last KH Catch-Up post, only because of time constraints. KH3 will be streamed on Twitch and I will post about that, and then eventually KH3D because even though he watched all the cutscenes, I refuse to not let him play it.

[last-flight-of-fancy]

fatedeniedhope replied to your post “* sees people confused over various kh plot points * * is not people i...”

I would like yo know a bit. Only play kh 1 and chain of memories and half way to kh 2

oh boy there is a *lot* to cover here then!

I don’t mean that to sound intimidating, kh just has a tendency for long, sprawling interconnected plots (many of which are still unresolved even now)

i am also doing this entirely by memory, so if i’ve skimmed something i shouldn’t have its because my brain has stopped registering it as important; feel free to ask for clarification, i wrote this in one sitting because i was avoiding doing laundry XD

putting a cut because i am overviewing a Lot of game here and tbh there’s still a lot of stuff i am skimming or skipping entirely. I’m just trying to hit the highlights.

i don’t know where you stopped in 2, so i’m just gonna give a brief overview

-there is a boy named roxas

-he’s being hunted by these strangers called nobody’s

-things get weird

-turns out he’s sora’s nobody, as nobody’s are created when a person is turned into a heartless (which sora did during kh1)

-roxas returns to sora (”looks like my summer vacation is.. over...” whoops there goes my heart) and normal sora gameplay resumes.

-DIDNEY WORLDS

-turns out everyone forgot sora for a year bc of what happened in chain of memories (and also 358/2. dont worry about that yet we’ll get there). kairi sends out a bottle to “the boy she can’t remember” trying to call him home. (yes this is important)

-organization 13 (all what? eight of them left?) pops up, xemnas is cryptic, and they say their goal is to recreate kingdom hearts via sora killing heartless, since apparently only killing heartless with a keyblade sends the trapped hearts to Kingdom Hearts

      -this version of the tale persists through 358 as well. it’s.. half right.

-bla bla bla, shenanigans. there’s ansem (the boss from kh1) and a guy named diz. That isn’t who either of them actually are. It’s actually Riku (who tapped too far into the darkness trying to capture roxas for the whole twilight town scenario at the beginning of the game, thus altering his appearance to look like the guy who posessed him for a bit) and THE ACTUAL ANSEM (ie, the ruler(?) of radient garden before it fell, and the guy heartless ansem stole his name from.

-anyways

-sora goes off searching for riku, bc as far as he knows, he’s still lost out in the darkness.

-he’s not, he’s fine, but he’s super embarrassed about the whole ‘looking like the enemy’ thing and won’t let sora find him.

-sora casually murders most of the remaining organization members (only most of whom shot first)

-this continues on until axel attempts to kidnap kairi, who ends up in twilight town for a bit hanging out with the hayner/pence/ollete trio, before being slightly more successfully kidnapped a second time.

-and then she gets kidnapped again by saix. Axel apologises to sora over this. in his defence, he’s pretty desperate at this point (he just wants his friend(s) back)

-sora storms The World That Never Was, kairi is rescued by Namine.

-the trio finally meets up (namine disapeared at some point? yknow, i actually dont recall what happened to her in between these scenes), sora and kairi share a slightly awkward but sweet hug, and after a moments trepidation over ‘Ansem’, kairi tells/shows him its riku, at which point sora bursts into tears.

-i ship a lot of ot3′s, but sorikai is the OG ot3

-anyways

-namine and roxas have a very symbolic moment refusing with their Other’s, Namine opens a portal back to destiny islands so they can go home.

-everyone except sora and riku make it through, and thus commences several final fantasy style boss fights

-they win, of course, riku’s injured in the line of battle, and they limp out, having traversed several realms during the course of this battle, they’re now trapped on a beach in the realm of darkness. it’s the same beach everyone else seems to end up on in this place. There is only one beach in the RoD apparently

-they stay there a while, and then they pick up a message in a bottle; it’s from kairi, “to the boy she can’t remember”

-Feelings make a door to the light open, and sora and riku fall like actual comets from the sky and everybody’s reunited and happy. huzzah!

-.... well for a while anyways.

-should i get into the whole xemnas/xehanort/ansem thing here?

-eh

-okay so

-lets swing back into Birth By Sleep for a bit

-(im sorry if kh can’t hit any of its plot points in order i think its fair neither do i)

-BBS takes place roughly nine years prior to kh1, with the exception of bbs’s prologue, which i would estimate as being an additional four years prior to that

-during said prologue, we meet Master Xehanort, an incredibly old dude with brown skin, gold eyes, and a white beard. even newcomers to the series will probably recognise that only one type of person gets those colours in these games.

-we also meet baby Ventus, Xehanorts apprentice. He looks exactly like Roxas.

-shenanigans happen, Xehanort splits Ven’s heart in two, creating Vanitas, who is Ventus’s darkness.

-Vanitas’ whole shtick is he wants to be reunited with Ventus, ostensibly to create the X-blade (yes it’s pronounced exactly the same as ‘keyblade’ and yes, every single kh fan ive ever talked to has found this annoying af)

-unfortunately being split in two like that puts ven in a coma, and xehanort takes the unresponiseve body to destiny islands to dump it like unwanted ravioli

-luckily for ven, “a brand new hear” hears his hurt and reaches out to help, filling out the gaps left in his and allowing him to start recovering

-the heart is sora

-actual, literal baby sora reaching out to help people before he can even walk yet. 

-the game never spells this out explicitly, which makes it an easy plot point to miss if you aren’t paying attention

-ven doesn’t recover immidietly though, and xehanort sends him to live with his old friend Master Eraqus and his two teenage apprentices, Aqua and Terra

-here’s where we time skip, ventus is fully recovered, terra and aqua are young adults and about to take their Mark Of Mastery exams for becoming keyblade masters.

-Terra fails because he has darkness in his heart and also xehanort rigged it against him

-aqua passes and becomes a master. I love her very much.

-terra journey’s out to try and figure out where the darkness comes from

-vanitas taunts ven saying terra’s leaving him bc ven’s stupid or something and ven panics and chases after him (he’s like 14 and has a bit of a hero worship thing, stupid decisions are par for the course)

-eraqus sends aqua out to both spy on terra (he words it nicer but thats the gist of it), which aqua doesn’t particularly like but trusts her masters judgement and does it, and bring ventus home, which she is more on board with

-the biggest tragedy in bbs is that no one talks to each other

-stuff happens, they learn some stuff, aqua’s route has So Many Lesbian Feels with every single princess she runs into it brings me great delight

-Ventus learns the whole ‘fight your darkness to become the X-blade’ plot, eraqus learns this too and tries to kill ven. Terra busts in at the last moment and saves ven, at this point using his dark powers fully.

-#terrawasright

-eraqus dies, which i don’t think terra fully intended to do (he just wanted to save ven) and if you recall the scene in kh1 where kairi catches a falling sora only for him to burst into a bunch of floating glitter? imagine that but with two grown men

-aqua’s just trying to figure out whats going on. she gets to meet kairi (saves her from some heartless and then puts a charm on her necklace to keep her safe) and then meets Mickey, who will be our future duex ex machina

-they all meet for the final battle.

-ven asks his friends to murder him

-no one does that

-what the fuck ven

-they fight, and a lot of stuff sorta happens at the same time

-1: terra fights xehanort, who has essentially been spending the whole game prepping terra to be his next host. xehanort is a body snatcher confirmed. xehanort wins, terra becomes the fanon-named terranort.

-2: ventus fights vanitas. vanitas reveals his face, and he looks exactly like a colour swapped version of sora. (also voiced by the same voice actor! it’s actually surprsingly difficult to notice this if you don’t have some kind of clue already because haley joel osment does and *amazing* job). ventus wins, the X-blade is not forged, but as a lot of this battle takes place in his heart, the effects are bad and ven falls into a coma (he reaches out once more, and another hearts answers. “you can stay here a while, I don’t mind” says the other heart. yes its fucking sora again. too good, too pure)

-3: aqua gets knocked out to start with, but then she fights vanitas controlling ventus’ body, which eventually gets sorted out. terra’s dissapeared at this point, and she takes a comatose ven and hides him in the land of departure, which she uses a secret mechanism to turn into Castle Oblivion (and thus, impossible to navigate  without her key)

-aqua goes to hunt down terra(nort), and finds him in radiant garden. they fight, aqua wins, but when he begins to sink into the darkness she sacrifices herself to save him (which is how he ends up as one of ansem’s apprentices and mostly without any memories)

-aqua will spend the next ten years in the realm of darkness

-bbs is such a goddam tragedy

-OKAY

-time to fast forward

-so sora and ven are connected, which is why vanitas and roxas look the way they do, which brings us to

-the case of xion

-and 358/2

-the worst game to play but my absolute favourite in terms of slow-burn pacing and emotionally investing you in the characters

-this game pretty much just deals with the year sora spent asleep, and the kids time in the organization.

-roxas wakes up with no memories, is inducted into the org, and told “kill heartless with your keyblade”. He’s more or less a zombie at first, and accepts this without question.

-a week later, a new member is introduced, named Xion, who also has a keyblade, and is also a zombie with no memories at first

-Axel, the org’s assassin, is basically told to babysit them both

-he’s not really into it at first, but those natural Big Brother instincts kick in Hard about five minutes later and from that point on he’s mostly just trying to keep them both alive.

-oh, also Lea, Axel’s somebody, met Ventus in bbs, so that was probably a little weird for him.

-as the game goes on and these kids essentially learn how to human and try to figure out what makes them different, the Big Plots stew in the background. Axel and Saix have some kind of plan that Axel apparently isn’t sticking to, and Axel questions his loyalties more as the game goes on and circumstances force him to choose between two kids Who Did Nothing Wrong, and his oldest friend.

-Xion learns they are a replica, a la Repliku, created as a backup to roxas if he could not fulfil his duty in creating kingdom hearts. their connection with roxas, and through him sora, has the unintended side effect of flitering memories and feelings into and through Xion.

-this is why putting sora back together takes so long

-Xion, between the pressure of being an org member in general, and the mental load from being caught between three+ people in a very literal sense, has a breakdown. Riku finds them, and despite a pretty rocky start between them, helps them through it.

-Xion leaves at two different points, the first time, Axel brings them back. “please don’t hold back, Axel. Promise.” “Everyone always thinks they’re right”

-excuse me i have to lay down again after thinking about how emotionally wrought this scene is.

-(the alternative is he has to kill them. he does everything he can to avoid that, but it’s clearly approaching an unsustainable situation; the org is running out of patience for dealing with the ‘clearly defective replica’, xion doesnt feel this situation is right, and axel just wants to keep everyone alive.

-yes typing ‘clearly defective replica’ physically hurt me. xion is a perfect bab and xemnas can fite me

-Xion leaves again

-Roxas, learning pieces of this but not all, runs away from the org. cue titular “no one would me” “that’s not true!” scene from 2

-(this leads to what is a hilariously depressing scene of roxas on the clocktower looking at his life and going “where could i even run to? I havent got anywhere to go” because he’s never known anything other than the organization and whoops i made myself sad again)

-namine explains to xion that sora can never wake up so long as they have his memories. The only way for them to release the memories is to die. It’s a hard decision.

-Xion meets roxas on the clocktower, feigns insanity, and goads him into fighting them (”do you see my face, roxas? is it a boys face? don’t you see. I have to make you a part of me too.”)

-cue more ff style boss fights

-xion dies

-look i can’t go into detail on this one i’ll start crying again, xion dies, everyone forgets they ever existed, and roxas gets to watch them shatter into dust in his arms.

-in the brief period where the memories are quickly vanishing but Not Quite Gone Yet roxas goes into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and storms the World That Never Was

-this is where Riku catches up to him, and from there its a pretty straight shot into the beginning of kh2

-which im sure if you played these in chronological order would be *some kind of mood whiplash* i bet

-okay what have i missed

-recoded happened. the only important part here is that malificent and pete find out about the black box and malificent being malificent of course she Has To Have It

-”but whats the black box??” you ask

-good question

-we still dont know

-its  origin point is in KHUx though, 

-which is the multiplayer mobile game set during the Keyblade War of ages past. each weilder also has a companion dream eater named chirithy

-there are five unions, each headed by a leader and represented by an animal (unicorn, bear, snake, fox, and leopard)

-#anguisforlife

-these five (plus one more, named luxu) are each given roles by their master (the Master of Masters, or also known as MoM). He also tells them there is a traitor amongst the warriors of light. it’s unclear at this point how much of this he is directly steering. He also doesnt specifiy Which warriors of light, probably on purpose so everything happens as it should.

-so figure, trying to figure out who the traitor is is a pretty direct cause to no one trusting each other and eventually going for each others throats

-there is a page from the book of prophecies he gives only to luxu, who he tells that his role is to see the future with this Special Keyblade (and specifically the Eye in it). You might recognise it as xehanorts keyblade (and then you’ll start to see the Eye in a whole bunch of other ones too, notably in soul edge, way to dawn, and void gear)

-luxu fucks off, and everyone else goes about their business

-the first half of khux details how these unions came to  be rivals, and then how they fell into war with each other and destroyed the light. the second half detailed how Ava, leader of the fox union, created a fifth group known as the dandelions, specifically picked to survive the fall of the light and rebuild.

-ventus and lauriam are two of these leaders. No, we still don’t know how they got from one point to the other.

-one of the replacement leaders, strelitzia, got murdered and replaced by someone else. i think this plot point has been resolved in japan but i havent checked yet

-strelitzia is lauriam’s sister. she also knows elrena.

-and if you’re bad at anagraming like i am, lauriam=marluxua, and elrena=larxene

-so yeah figure that one out for me

-also i love strelitzia she has like two scenes total and i was already ludicrously attached help

-(Yes i screamed very hard during that One Scene in 3. we dont even see her face but it’s heerrrrrrrr)

-anyways

-right the black box

-luxu is seen carrying it off in the Back Cover movie as he wanders into exile. we still dont know whats in it. and that’s basically that.

-which leaves just Dream Drop Distance

-sora and riku take a Highly Modified mark of master exam under yen sid.

-things go wrong almost immidietly

-sora gets trapped by the xehanorts in a deep sleep, where they plan to use him as one of their 13 vessels of darkness

-there has to be 13 for some reason

-13 darknesses, and 7 lights, and when they clash it’ll make the X-blade

-because reasons

-it’s fate or something

-riku rescues him

-there is time travel involved now

-because at this point the 13 darkness now include; heartless ansem, master xehanort, xemnas, young xehanort, xigbar, and saix.

-more time travel will be involved later, but to keep this in mind the rules of time travel here are

     -you cannot take your body with you

     -you lose any future knowledge you gain if and when you return

-things are obviously wibbly here because it’s half in the dreamscape, but just. keep those rules in mind when you play 3.

....... im sure im missing a bunch but i just spent two hours writing the most casual pre-kh3 synopsis ever i hope you can forgive me XD

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Man, I had a dream last night that I was telling someone something like, "God bless Haley Joel Osment for selling Kingdom Hearts III Sora so hard." And you know what? That's so very true. He did such a good job with Kingdom Hearts III Sora. I mean, he always does a good job with Sora well, maybe not so much DDD Sora. But KHIII Sora was really great and such a return to form.

[storm-driver]

The Data Theory

This theory was originally developed by derekscorner and revised last night. I delve into the theory a little bit myself and came up with something pretty incredible. Again, most of this theory is in credit to derekscorner. All I’ve done is branch it out a little more. You can read the original post along with what I came up with here.

Kingdom Hearts is never entirely clear on how it’s universe works. The only trustworthy information you can get is spoken by characters in cut scenes, usually rather vague and said with symbolism, or it’s hidden somewhere in the “Reports” you recover throughout all of the games.

Because of this, the game can constantly flex it’s rules to bring about more scenarios and fix discrepancies it might have had in the past. But assuming, with the release 1.5+2.5 for the PS4, all of those discrepancies were fixed and the game is official, theories about this game will now become all the more relevant. And sensible.

Most things in Kingdom Hearts can be explained away in a rather convoluted essay. However, there are still select few scenarios that fans can’t seem to tackle because it wouldn’t make sense for how the game’s universe operates. One of these leading scenarios is the issue of bringing the lost Nobodies back into existence. I’m talking about Roxas, Naminé, and Xion.

“But it’s easy!” You say with excitement. “Sora just needs to release their hearts and they’ll be here!”

Well, in a sense, you’re right. But it also wouldn’t make sense regarding how the game works. Not many people remember them because they weren’t really relevant until now, but the Secret Ansem reports obtained in Kingdom Hearts II describe how an individual being works:

Secret Ansem Report #4

Three elements combine to create a life: a heart, a soul, and a body. But what of the soul and body left behind when the heart is lost? When the soul leaves the body, its vessel, life gives way to death, but what about when the heart leaves? A being does not perish when its heart leaves its body. The heart alone disappears into the darkness.

The body is quite obviously the body of a person, which is just their vessel. Their heart is basically their personality and memories, as well as “power”, which is stored inside their body. And the soul is not really their spirit, but rather just the life-force or energy used to make a body living.

This is where things start to get confusing. Regarding Sora releasing the hearts of Roxas, Naminé, and Xion, it could only POTENTIALLY work for Roxas. It’s best if we explain what each character’s scenario is.

Roxas, even though he doesn’t look like Sora, nor even has his voice or personality, is still Sora’s Nobody. His creation was brought about by Sora’s sacrifice. Sora’s heart was cast into the darkness, reforming as a Heartless, whilst his body and soul reformed in the Realm Between as Roxas. Roxas had Ventus’ heart within him because Ven’s heart didn’t leave Sora’s body upon him stabbing himself with the Keyblade. Because of this, his body reformed to somewhat compare to Ventus. Though there still isn’t an explanation as to why his clothing isn’t identical. Maybe we’ll never know.

So Roxas was created from Sora’s body and soul and could only be recreated if Sora became a Heartless again, giving up his body and soul for Roxas’ possession.

Naminé is something different altogether, but somewhat similar in how she exists. She was created when Sora released Kairi’s heart from within him, but she doesn’t actually have the qualities of a Nobody that normally others do. Because Kairi has a heart of pure light, she literally can’t create a Heartless. When her heart was stolen, her body kinda just slumped over like a sleeping puppet, kinda like what happened to Ventus. But it’s the fact that her body DIDN’T reform as a Nobody, but stayed in the Realm of Light. What ACTUALLY created Naminé was Sora releasing her heart from within his body. This leads me and some others to believe a fraction of him went off to form Roxas while another to form Naminé. It also kinda adds up as to why Naminé has blonde hair, because Ventus’ heart influenced her appearance slightly. And why her appearance is so basic, because it’s not a real body whatsoever.

So Naminé doesn’t have any body or soul, but she was created from borrowed fragments of Sora’s and influenced by Sora and Ventus’ hearts.

Xion is a pretty straightforward one. She isn’t an actual Nobody, but a puppet that had a soul stuffed inside it. She also has memories of Kairi from when Vexen “tested” Sora in Chain of Memories. But because Sora’s memories of Kairi were being shadowed by Naminé, she appeared like a shadow of Kairi. Her entire existence is dependent on these memories remaining inside her body. But because she decided that Sora needs to awaken, she willingly gave them up to Roxas and her body perished without its fundamental core. And without that core, all memories built on top of it crashed down and the chain was destroyed, leading everyone to forget Xion ever existed. The links of her memories were buried in Sora’s heart.

So Xion’s entire existence was dependent on Sora’s memories of Kairi and without them, her body couldn’t stand. And because all of her memories are broken in Sora’s heart, she is woven into his being.

“But wait!” You say with confidence. “Sora returned to the Realm of Light without his body and soul when Kairi brought him back!”

And there you are, calling out the holes in the theory. Hate it when people do that. This is best explained by looking somewhere completely different in the series: the creation of Vanitas.

Oh yeah, our mean bean who wants to murder everyone and gave Haley Joel Osment the time of his life getting to laugh so deviously. Vanitas’ creation isn’t too hard to understand: when the darkness of Ventus’ heart got ripped out of his body, it reformed as a being of darkness, Vanitas. And this is the cool part: Vanitas DIDN’T use Ventus’ body to form himself, but rather the power of darkness itself. He created his body through sheer force of manipulating the darkness within him, or perhaps Xehanort did it. My point still stands either way: if a being of pure darkness is capable of creating a body of pure darkness, could a being of pure light create a body of pure light?

Yes, you heard me. Kairi didn’t bring Sora’s body back from the Realm Between, but rather made him a new one out of the light within her heart. This did, however, make Sora an incomplete person. Because he no longer had a real body, I would think his life would be more on the line than ever. He is literally a floating heart surrounded by light at this point, making Darkness all the more lethal to the boy. But that’s not too important right now.

Because it’s dangerous for Sora to just be a heart surrounded by light, especially with Xehanort still trying to turn him into a vessel, him just giving up his body for Roxas would be rather dangerous. Even if Kairi pulled him back from the darkness, there’s no guarantee the same thing would happen again. And you can’t repeat the actions for Naminé without somehow hurting Kairi in the process.

So our issue here is lack of body and soul. Roxas can’t just take Sora’s body again, it would leave Sora in harm’s way. Naminé being created out of fragments of a body, or even just sheer nothingness, won’t work again. And recreating Xion would require that they know where this puppet lab is and how everything there works.

Each of these situations, each person is under special circumstances. But there has always been one definite and constant thing that has been able to manifest itself in the real world without harm: the data used in Ansem’s computer.

Yeah. Data. Just the 1’s and 0’s. Need an example?

1) The munny pouch that belonged to data-Olette in Twilight Town. Riku was able to retrieve it from within the data-world and BRING IT INTO THE REAL WORLD. He handed it off to Mickey, who gave it to Sora for them to buy train tickets.

See, that always bugged me. Really badly. That train we just took is a MAGIC TRAIN that’s ONLY HERE FOR US. Why in the world would we need to pay for tickets to go on this train that Yen Sid sent for US? There’s no one on the train checking for tickets! YOU CAN TELL BECAUSE THEY JUST WALK RIGHT ON WITHOUT ARGUMENT. There wasn’t any reason for that munny pouch to be handed off to Sora unless they wanted to make it BLATANTLY OBVIOUS that DATA CAN BE BROUGHT INTO THE REAL WORLD.

2) The Heartless invasion by the MCP. This one is the less obvious, but complete giveaway.  Those Heartless used during the invasion were, quite obviously, not meant to be in Radiant Garden. The MCP was spawning them there using data.

Yes! He used data to spawn the Heartless. Their models and code already existed in the computer, so he just turned on the Heartless Manufactory and went to work. And also, THE HEARTLESS MANUFACTORY! It literally CREATES BEINGS FROM DATA! This is a dead giveaway that data can be used to CREATE REAL LIFE THINGS!

And in Dream Drop Distance on the Grid, it’s constantly hinted at the fact that the device used to bring Sora and company in and out of Space Paranoids can work BOTH WAYS! In the actual movie, IT HAPPENED! A data person was brought out of the Grid and into the real world!

Data can be made into real, physical objects. And evidenced by the ending to Tron:Legacy, they can be alive, as well.

Now, how can I truly persuade you that this theory is correct? I was pondering this for a long time. While I first read about it, I was thinking to myself that this is completely bizarre and there’s no way the games would go this route. But as I looked into things myself and stared at the wall of Kingdom Hearts theories I’ve had over the years, it clicked. This was meant to happen. Allow me to explain.

The data version of Ansem and his research that was discovered inside Sora’s heart. This is huge. It seemed like a random thing that Nomura and crew threw into the game because… reasons. But it’s not. What if I told you that this data Riku found was actually research about how data can be brought into the real world and, in turn, can be used to recreate a person?

Ansem was researching the Nobodies and must’ve discovered something about using the data to make bodies for them. He must’ve told Naminé to some degree about this, giving her hope that she and Roxas wouldn’t actually disappear. This is what leads to Coded (Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded).

“WHAT?! CODED?!” Yeah, I know! Coded is ACTUALLY RELEVANT? Incredible! Anyways, it starts like this:

Naminé placed a data version of herself, as well as the memories inside Sora’s heart, in the journal. Because these weren’t supposed to be here, the journal got all messed up. After repairing it, Data-Riku was able to find this hidden data and Data-Sora was sent to investigate. He found the hidden memories as well as Naminé telling him that Sora needs to call these memories to the surface in order to awaken their hearts. From their, the Keyblade to Return Hearts, as mentioned in previous games, would be used to extract their hearts from within Sora and return them to existence. 

“Okay, cool. So Coded is hardly relevant.” OH, BUT I’M NOT DONE! Coded gets way more important. It’s actually the fundamental base for this part of the theory. And it’s mind-blowing how well this fits into place!

I’m gonna break away and give you guys a little lesson on 3D printing. In order to actually 3D print you need something that can fabricate what you’re trying to print. Once you have the device, you need a model. A good example of a model is like a ring. That ring was initially created or scanned into a model file so that the printer would be able to create it. You essentially make something out of data. So I’ve been thinking...

The transfer device in Ansem’s lab is basically a 3D printer, but it works both ways. It’s for someone to enter or exit the data-world. It’s MEANT to transfer atoms to data and data to atoms. It’s how they’re going to fabricate the bodies of data for Roxas, Naminé and Xion. It doesn’t even matter if you’re thinking of the lab in Twilight Town or the lab in Radiant Garden, because BOTH were built by Ansem!

But then comes the issue of the model they must “print” out. We need to create models of each of our little Nobodies from scratch. Huh? “Use Ventus as a model for Roxas?” Haha, well, you’re onto something. I’d completely agree with you to use Ventus as a basic model for Roxas were it not for the fact that we already HAVE a model of Roxas that’s already been created. The same can be said for Xion and Naminé. We have them already.

The models are already present in the journal in Coded.

Don’t believe me? Well, take a second glance at the Re:Coded HD Remaster from 2.5! 

HE’S THERE! Roxas already has a FULL MODEL of his body in the journal, complete with voice and body build, as well as his face and his hair, as seen underneath the hood. All you need to do is drop his heart into it and export the data using the terminal in Ansem’s lab!

Naminé PLACED all of this data inside the journal, not just for Mickey and company to find it and inform Sora about the memories inside him, but so they could USE the data to CREATE BODIES FOR OUR LOST FRIENDS.

“Wait a second! This is really cool and all, but wouldn’t Ansem’s computer already have some of this data then, effectively making Coded useless again?”

Man, we all really hate Coded, don’t we? My answer to that is: no, Ansem’s computer wouldn’t have this information on it nor would the models exist there. Why? Because, as BLATANTLY SPOKEN by Ansem and Riku themselves, and clearly evidenced multiple times throughout the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II, their data-Twilight Town has been completely compromised. Nobodies are everywhere and searching for Roxas. If the Organization found any of this information that Ansem and Naminé had discovered, everything would be over. So, in a panic, Ansem wiped his computer of anything having to do with data in correlation to Nobodies and hid it inside Sora, hoping they would find it. Naminé would hide the information about Sora’s hidden memories and the models that could be used inside the journal to be discovered later. Because Naminé was taken somewhere safe by Axel, she never got the chance to tell Sora about it. And seeing how Ansem immediately felt the need to begin his revenge scheme against Xehanort, he just left the boy to his own devices.

Seeing the main plot of Coded be revealed with Castle Oblivion in the end, I have no doubts that this theory is correct. The focus of the game is to figure out what Naminé hid in the journal. I feel like data-Roxas’ role in the journal is important here. He was meant to get Sora to understand the painful memories inside him and that it was Sora’s role to wake them up and return them to existence. I’m still not entirely sure how he can tie into this theory, but I know he’s a strong point of it.

But in short, here’s what we came up with:

Data can be used to recreate bodies for the Nobodies who disappeared.

The data transfer device in Ansem’s lab can be used to fabricate these bodies.

The journal informs Sora on how to wake up the hearts inside him.

The journal holds the models required to fabricate the bodies.

[angel-with-a-pipette]

Do you think Vanitas will come back in KH3? Anf if yes how and in what kind of role? Will he turn good and help Sora and co.? Will he just be a secondary antagonist and die? I hope he get's a happy ending... and since the Heroes and Heroines track of the orchestra has Vanitas theme in it... I think it's not complet unlikely?

One thing in general: I still wonder whether the short union between Ven and Vanitas means that both of them are truly united once again. If they aren't, I'd assume that Vanitas must be around somewhere and in some way. Basically, if Naminé and Kairi had to rejoin, I would assume Ven and Van have to do so, too. Apart from that, I kind of imagine that Vanitas will end up being one of the thirteen Darknesses, whether it's the current version or a past version. I mean, he has a heart full of Darkness, if he isn't one of the Seekers, who else would be??But he is also part Ven. Sometimes I wonder whether Ven's heart of light is capable of growing its own darkness to become a 'normal' heart again - and if that happens, who doesn't say that Vanitas can't also grow light inside of his heart of Darkness?While Vanitas's theme in the medley can be a hint at him ending up on the heroes' side, I would still be sceptical (after all, Vanitas's theme is a mash up of Sora, Ven, Xion and Roxas, so it's the perfect ending to the medley without him necessarily ending up as a good guy).I am open to a redemption arc, though! If it's executed in a good way. And I can't really see him dying, not after other characters get a second chance, they might try to change things and spin around situations to find a way to save Vanitas, too.The most important thing though: We need a Haley Joel Osment vs. Haley Joel Osment fight!!! XDDDD

[unintentionaloracle]

As I'm Playing TWEWY (And Having Not Played Dream Drop Distance In A Long Time)

Me: Oh, so the characters are technically dead…

My Brain: So, that means that in Kingdom Hearts: Dream Drop Distance, Sora (voiced by Haley Joel Osment in English) saw dead people?

Me: …

Me: …

Me: …Sonuva-

[oveliagirlhaditright]

What if the potential Kingdom Hearts TV show is about the Keyblade Wars--against darknesses that possessed people--that the Master of Masters fought in when he was a boy?

This would at least explain why they’re apparently casting new people... 

Unless they really are just chaining the voice actors on this show for some reason. But if so... why? Okay, I get why--because Haley Joel Osment doesn’t sound like a fourteen-year-old anymore--but literally no one cares, because we all acknowledge he’s the perfect Sora/is Sora. At least people who are already fans of the series don’t care, I mean. But I guess I can get if Disney/Square Enix’s trying to draw in new fans with this potential show and thinks they’d think it’s weird, that’s why they’re maybe doing this.

But they’d better not recast everyone for the next saga, like they recasted everyone for FFVII Remake, because I swear to God...

...If any of this rumor is even true, I mean.