#and I love to believe that the non-shiny versions of their trios are used to having to fight the shiny versions in their home dimensions

[fierykitten2]

I’m not gonna be one of those people who cries when a Pokémon is shiny-locked especially when it makes little to no sense for them to be shiny in the first place but

(Images from Serebii this time) damn I need them to allow us to get these six amazing shinies at some point

[radwolf76]

FLASHBack: Week 52 - Charlie the Unicorn

Here we go, Major Milestone time here on FLASHBack -- The 52nd weekly installment, which marks the end of year one. Almost a birthday of sorts. Soon we will be entering the final year of Adobe's support for Flash, which was the inspiration for this whole project in the first place. I thought it best to mark the occasion with something truly magical, like say, a unicorn. Flash Animator Jason Steele had a tradition of making a unicorn themed Flash for his mother's birthday each year, which she would then turn around and upload to her Newgrounds account, TypeQueen. This started in 2003 with Evolution of the Unicorn a painting-like animation set to the William Tell Overture, inspired by Disney's Fantasia. 2004's Birthday would take a more comedic turn in The Last Unicorn, which was not based on the Rankin/Bass animation of the Peter S. Beagle novel of the same name but is instead an alien abduction story.   The next year, Steele would lean even harder into the comedy along with a heavy dash of absurd non-sequiturs. On 26 November 2004, Charlie the Unicorn would be uploaded to TypeQueen's account on Newgrounds. The story centers around a curmudgeonly grump of a white unicorn (named Charlie, if it wasn't obvious from the title), who wants to be left alone so he can nap. And since conflict is the engine that drives narrative, he is set upon by two other unicorns, one pink and one blue, both equally overly cheerful and more vapid than a sack full of Kardashians. They insist that he needs to go off on an adventure with them. (As an aside, in Jason's script the two other unicorns also have names, which are never mentioned out loud. The blue one is Lolz and the pink one is Roffle, but the fandom just calls them Blue and Pink.) The two have just acquired a map to Candy Mountain, and Charlie finally agrees to go along just to get them to stop bothering him about it. When their quest brings them to a Liopleurodon ("A magical Liopleurodon") who is supposed to give them advice on how to get to their destination, Charlie has a crisis of faith, declaring that there's no such thing as Candy Mountain. Blue and Pink immediately shun the non-believer ("Shhhhhuuuuuuunnnnn!!").

  The Liopleurodon dispenses its sage advice, in that way that only a land-bound Jurassic-era carnivorous marine reptile can. Then after crossing a "magical" bridge that gives Charlie splinters the trio of unicorns finally arrives at the fabled Candy Mountain. Pink and Blue try to convince Charlie to go inside Candy Mountain's cave, and of course he refuses. This prompts the letters of the word "Candy" in the Candy Mountain sign to hop down and break into a musical number. (Originally Steele was going to have Blue and Pink sing the song, but he felt it was too uptempo for the voices he'd given them, so he gave the song to the letter Y instead.) At the end of the song, the letters explode inexplicably. Charlie who has had quite enough of absurdity after absurdity in his day, gives up and agrees to go inside. The other two ominously say goodbye as the cave seals itself, and then in an unexpected twist, Charlie is mugged for one of his kidneys.   Three years later on 14 April 2008, a sequel, Charlie the Unicorn 2 would be released. This time Charlie finds his TV watching interrupted when Pink and Blue float by in full scuba gear, claiming to be exploring the ocean. Suddenly a glowing vortex erupts from Charlie's back and sucks the other two in. Unnerved by their sudden disappearance, Charlie calls out to the guys and then admits that he doesn't know if they're guys or girls. The pair do return, having retrieved a magic amulet from the vortex. It must be taken to the Banana King to prevent the vortex from releasing a thousand years of darkness. As they journey, they encounter the letter Z, who speaks Spanish. Eventually, they arrive at the temple of the Banana King, where a green... thing wearing a Santa hat (Damnit, there's another seasonal reference, I was trying not to make a habit of that this month) sings a song to Charlie about sticking a banana in his ear. At the end of the song he bursts into flames. When the time comes to return the amulet to the Banana King, it turns out the real Banana King was the Charlie we met along the way. And also this was all some elaborate ruse to distract Charlie so his TV could be stolen.   Jason would put out Charlie the Unicorn 3 a year later on 6 April 2009. This one finds Charlie accosted by Blue and Pink from a future where the world is about to end because evil has overrun good. Naturally they need his help with a snowman. The usual hijinks ensue, culminating in them taking a ride on a submersible duck. There's another musical number, lead by a capricorn sea goat, about how all sea life loves Charlie, especially one Starfish who's so eager to profess his love that he more shouts than sings. Halfway through, the song turns into the sea creature version of the PokeRap. Keeping up the trend, all the singers then explode at the end of the song, just in time for Charlie to find the snowman. He's then knocked out with sleeping gas, because Blue and Pink want his horn for the snowman nose. And while kidneys aren't traditional snowman decorations, Charlie's missing kidney is there too.   It would be another three years before the next sequel, Charlie The Unicorn 4. Premiering on 28 December 2012, Pink and Blue crash a rocket in the middle of the forest meadow. As they're frantically trying to warn Charlie (who has had to reattach his horn with a band-aid) about the danger of a Millipede on the Moon, Charlie cuts them off. He's been in enough of these situations to know the explanations don't help, and so he tells them to just take him to the moon already. They flip the world so that he falls off into space. On the way to the moon, Blue and Pink get up to their usual shenanigans. When they land on the Moon, The Millipede immediately shows up, and she launches into a Broadway-quality "I am" type song (as opposed to the other major song type from musical theatre and film, the "I want" song). The song feels like it should be an homage to the song Shiny from Disney's Moana -- both feature narcissistic arthropods who spend their entire songs bragging about how great they are. Except that Charlie the Unicorn 4 predates Moana's release by 4 years. One significant difference between the two songs: as Tamatoa isn't singing to Charlie, he doesn't blow up at the end of his song. The Millipede is not so lucky.   Having "defeated" the Millipede, the trio then enter the Cavern of the Red Wind. Inside, Blue and Pink reveal their plot to blow up the moon, with Charlie still on it, and then float off, leaving him stranded next to the bomb with its digital countdown. However, the Starfish who was so in love with Charlie in the previous chapter (and who didn't blow up because he didn't actually sing) shows up to rescue him. He talks Charlie into using him as a wishing star to get back to Earth. Pink and Blue are rather shocked to see that Charlie survived, after all the trouble they went to.   Steele produced plenty of other Charlie the Unicorn content, but as this post is getting long, we're going to save the rest for the day after Christmas. In the meantime, there will be a short intermission somewhere in Nevada. Also, if you'd prefer to see all four of these chapters together in one HD video, Here you go.

[atsushishelteredinmoonlitjasmine]

KH3 Grievances and Blessings

As of this date, April 8th, 2019, today marks the end of my KH3 journey. I'm recording the date because I know there's DLC for KH3 coming out within the coming months and I don't know whether it'll be plot-related or just gameplay patches/changes (Like Critical Mode). Regardless, I wanted to write down my thoughts and feelings towards KH3 because, like many others, I had been awaiting the release of this game for a long time (Though not as long as others) and, as soon as the game was released in Japan, I blacklisted/muted KH3 tags so as to not be spoiled. It took me over two months since the worldwide release on January 29th to see what KH3 had to offer and, while the main story part ended on April 4th, today was the true end to everything else.

Now I want to make two things clear. First off, I never played KH3. I watched an LP of it, due to money and I didn't wanna wait months for this game. That's also why it took this long for me to write this. Secondly, as of the time writing this, I haven't read the Ultimania outside of some unrelated details since, before April 4th, I made doubly sure to avoid spoilers because I still wanted to be surprised at the ending, despite my predictions of it. If there are some things I bring up in this that are answered in the Ultimania, then link me those.

I'll also be going through practically every aspect of KH3 I can think of, such as the graphics, the gameplay, the story, etc. However, to keep things organized, I'll talk about the main story towards the end of this, since that's where I believe I'll have the most to talk about. Think of it as if the first half was the minor stuff and the second half the major. I'll even mark where it splits off so as to make it easier to know where to skip to.

Listed below are KH3 spoilers, so if you don't want to get spoiled, now's your chance to stop reading. Otherwise, here are my thoughts!

Let's start with the graphics. They are simply gorgeous, sometimes even breathtaking. As many people have pointed out, the in-game graphics are on the same quality level as the old-school FMVs from the older KH games. Even when the cutscenes go to pre-rendered, they are super beautiful. The only complaints I have are, in pre-rendered cutscenes, character models tend to look weird in certain shots. It's a minor complaint but I feel like the characters come off as being... shiny, if that makes sense. I know one of the complaints for 0.2 was that Aqua looked plastic and it seems like, in an attempt to stray away from that end of the spectrum, they made everyone look shiny. Again, that's only in the pre-rendered cutscenes, not in-game itself so... Another complaint was that, in the beginning with Sora and co. heading off to and their visit to Olympus Colosseum, it's easy to tell that they were using the 0.2 graphics because Sora looked exactly plastic. Afterwards, they switched to the current graphics but it's still kinda jarring, in a way. I feel like it may have been to save money, considering the big amount of money they spent on everything else.

Secondly, gameplay. The gameplay, overall, seems solid. It's using the KH2 combat, combined with the BBS shotlocks, Links/Summons, Keyblade transformations, DDD's Flowmotion, and Attractions. However, it also feels overwhelming to have that many gameplay styles/mechanics stuffed into one game. I feel like Nomura was trying to do the same thing that Sakurai (Creator of Smash) did with Smash Ultimate by taking the positive aspects of the previous games' combat and stuffing them into this game, almost as if it were a love letter to the KH fandom. I'm not saying that that's a bad thing, I just think it was clumsily handled.

This leads into a mini-point I had about the difficulty. As I said earlier, Critical Mode, which has been a difficulty setting since KH2 (I believe?), wasn't included in this game, which was considered weird. The LPer I watched KH3 from had played the previous KH games on the hardest difficulty and he believed he'd play KH3 on Critical. Because of this exclusion, he played on Proud Mode and this was absolutely the easiest KH game. It is so easy to overlevel, it is hard to die unless you're purposefully playing terrible or turned on "No Experience", and some gameplay mechanics, I feel, break gameplay. Attractions in particular are ridiculously gamebreaking, due to the insane amounts of invincibility frames and power some of them have. Speaking of it being hard to die, overleveling goes hand-in-hand with that but the fact that you can buy Kupo Coins from the Moogle shops makes Proud Mode a joke. To explain what Kupo Coins are, they are one-use items that basically make it to where it instantly revives you if/when your HP drops to 0 and you can buy many of these coins. They're essentially get-out-of-jail-free coins which, if you're playing on Hard Mode, shouldn't be a thing. There's also a minigame where you can cook all sorts of meals that can grant you any kind of boosts with Remy from Ratatouille. The stat boosts from even the simplest of meals are ridiculous and they also make dying hard to do. I understand that the crew wanted to make KH3 welcoming to newcomers but I feel this is going a little too far in not making the players feel frustrated each time they die in Proud Mode.

Thirdly, the non-original worlds. It's hard to decide whether or not I like them. On the one hand, they're the largest they've ever been, they're expansive, and the crew were able to successfully capture the look of each movie they adapted. On the other, the stories can be hit or miss, they throw tons of enemies at you (which absolutely contributes to the overleveling I mentioned), and they don't serve much of a purpose in the main story outside of fanservice. Some of the worlds were an absolute delight, such as the Tangled and Monsters Inc worlds, while others were a slog to get through, such as the Frozen and Big Hero 6 worlds. This is merely my opinion so don't take it too seriously. The way they decided to go about the stories within each world was to either: 1, be a Cliffnotes version of that world, or 2, create an original story set after the events of the movie. The first way was not a good decision because, out of all the new worlds they revealed for this game, I only watched Hercules, Toy Story, Monsters Inc, and Tangled, so when the LPer I watched headed to the other worlds that weren't mentioned, I was thoroughly confused. The second way could be pretty hit or miss, because I remember getting tired of the Toy Story world towards the end but I enjoyed the story of the Monsters Inc, due to how cute it was. Going back to what I mean by these worlds not serving a purpose, I don't think it's out of the realm of possibility to say these were meant for the express purpose of padding. The reason given for exploring these worlds is so Sora can learn the Power of Waking and, if he doesn't learn it in that world, he'll go to the next and rinse, repeat. I won't go into detail in this section but I'll explain more about it when I get to the story section.

Fourthly, the music. This is probably the one of the few aspects that stayed consistently good. Although I could tell there were more pieces of music that I had heard in other games, Yoko Shimomura still made it fresh by reorechestrating those. I'll give her some slack with those because I can imagine that, with how far into the series KH is and how many themes to keep track of, it was probably easier to remix existing songs than make an entirely new soundtrack. Still, there were some new pieces of music (Most of which from the aforementioned worlds) that I liked. The Toy Story fight music is an absolute bop and the Monsters Inc world music is so whimsical and fun. There were some really nice mashups as well, such as the Other Promise/Vector to the Heavens mashup and Oscuritia de Xehanort. I haven't had a chance to listen to all of the soundtrack yet so these were just the ones from the top of my head.

Fifthly, the voice acting. This is just a personal thing for me, since I want to become a voice actor someday and I like to observe/take mental notes whenever voice acting is involved. The voice acting in of itself is good. Sora was his absolute best in this game, especially in that one scene we ALL know from the trailer and it broke my heart hearing that in-game. Mostly everyone was good, too, aside from some weird line deliveries and voices not fitting some characters. However, I have to point out how... weird the voice-acting is with Terra, Aqua, and Xehanort. Xehanort was probably the weirdest because I'm so used to Leonard Nimoy's Xehanort that this one was kinda jarring. Rutger Hauer is the new VA and... I know he doesn't have the same raspy, gravelly voice Leonard Nimoy had but I feel his Xehanort just doesn't fit the character as much, especially since I noticed Xehanort sounded like he had a very slight Irish accent in this game. Rutger Hauer is Dutch so I don't know how I heard Irish but I'm gonna chalk that up to never hearing a Dutch person speak before. Terra's definitely the best acting out of these three but compared to the other two, it's not much. While it's not bad, I still prefer his 0.2 performance since it seemed like he put effort into that. Terra seems to share the same problem I have with Aqua in that he never raises his voice up above being low. It's hard to tell if he does because they only got Jason Dohring in for two scenes (the Wayfinder Trio reunion and the stupid Xehanort redemption scene), despite being a main character. Aqua was in more than two scenes but her voice acting was kinda the worst, which kills me because she's my queen. For some reason, her voice never goes up above low talking and I don't know if it's just me but she constantly sounds as if she's being cut off. Like, the sound mixing for Aqua makes it sound as if she's cut out at the end for each of her sentences. This was a problem that was present in 0.2 but I brushed that off since I figured 0.2 was not considered a full game by itself. I don't know whether or not it's Willa Holland herself or the voice director for both games but Aqua can be allowed to be emotional other than angry, raise her voice, and not be cut off.

Oh boy, the sixth point. Let me start off by saying this is merely a personal gripe I have and it's fine if people disagree with me or even don't see what I'm saying. I'm just stating this because I talked about this issue on my Livetweet Thread and I want to bring this up. Now... there are instances in this game where Sora express self-doubt or have other characters express worry for Sora (and Aqua for one time) to Donald, Goofy, and Mickey. Each time this was brought up, we had them saying the answer of "they're strong so they're okay". Normally, I wouldn't really be offended at this if it was for one or two times. KH3, however, has this happen several times and... let's just say I got a little testy. The characters this answer was said to or about were Aqua, Sora, and Elsa (as far as I can remember), all of whom I can safely say have issues with their mental health. Sora's the only one I can't definitively say (outside of headcanon territory) but even then... Sora has problems with his self-worth and his sense of strength, Aqua, for all we know, probably has depression and POSSIBLY PTSD, and Elsa definitely has depression and self-image issues. To the Disney characters, any time these issues are brought up, they somehow correlate physical strength with mental fortitude and think that answer is perfectly okay to say. I'm probably reading way too much into this but the way I take it, each time they say that answer, it comes off as Sora/Aqua/Elsa are being weak and need to get over it. The first example I'll bring up of this is when Riku and Mickey are in the RoD trying to save Aqua the first time and Riku expresses worry for Aqua, who's been in this hellhole for 11 years at this point. Mickey just says she'll be fine because she's strong, which baffles me because how does he not remember how Aqua was the last time they met? She was straight up about to succumb to the darkness when he saved her the first time and when she said to him she wasn't sure how much longer she'd be able to ward off the darkness, he just said she'll be okay. Like, she has been stuck in this hell for over a decade, being tormented and having to fight for her life constantly, all the while losing hope she may get out. The one time she's finally close enough to get out, it's snatched away from her. No wonder she was pissed off at Mickey for leaving her when they met again! The second example is any time Sora was expressing doubt in himself over being strong enough and he had Donald and Goofy say he'd be fine. This, to me, made it seem like they were placing such high expectations on Sora to be strong that he wasn't allowed to have moments of emotional vulnerability which I wouldn't be surprised contributed to the worsening of the self-doubt and the culmination of that despair scene. Again, I know it seems like I'm reading too much into this but this was something that legit made me angry. As someone who relates to Sora's self-worth issues and Aqua's depression, I don't think someone telling me that I'll be fine because I was strong constantly would make me feel better. If anything, I'd probably feel worse because I'd be too afraid to appear being weak around that person lest I betray their expectation of me being strong that I keep my feelings of weakness to myself until I eventually broke down. To give benefit to the Disney characters, I believe they were genuinely saying what they thought was best in those kinds of situations. Hell, maybe they even thought that, by saying that, the character would believe them and think they were silly for thinking they were worthless. But I don't believe the Disney characters are good role models for the importance of mental health, given their track record. Still, this was a personal gripe of mine and everyone is free to disagree with me on this. I don't even know if I made any sense in this but I tried.

Now we move on to the major stuff. This next half will mainly include my opinions on the story, the characters, how they were handled, etc. and everyone is free to disagree with me on any of those. I should also warn that any of the next sections may be lengthy, though it wouldn't be me if they weren't. There may also be some instances where I talk about how I would've rewritten some scenes, since there were some that desperately needed to be rewritten or re-edited or whatever else (which will be marked with *). However, I'll write those up in a separate thing because this entire post is mainly for my thoughts on KH3 as a whole and not just certain scenes. Besides, I don't want to bog this post down even further so...

Where to start? Well, I think it may be good to start with the plot and its loose threads. KH3 seems to have a problem with introducing plot threads and then dropping them off with no resolution, meaning they'll either be answered in the upcoming DLC or in the next game (Release dates unknown on both options). We have Maleficent and Pete looking for a black box (A significant thing in KHX, if you've watched Back Cover), the complete drop-off of Vexen and Demyx, the new seven Princesses of Heart, Subject X, the reveal that some of the New Organization members were Keyblade Wielders from the past, the whole thing of the heroes coming back after dying, and possibly other threads I cannot remember for the life of me. Again, I understand that these threads may be picked up in either the DLC or the next game but we don't know when either of those will be released. In a game that's supposed to bring answers to the many questions that were brought up in previous games, we still end up with many other questions that haven't been answered.

Let's go back to my mention of the non-original worlds serving no purpose other than fanservice. As stated in the beginning, Sora needs to learn the Power of Waking so that he can find and save Aqua in the RoD and, later on, awaken Ventus's heart so it'll return to his body sleeping in Castle Oblivion/Land of Departure. However, every time he reaches the end of a world, he still hasn't learned the Power of Waking and so goes to another world to see if he'll learn it there and rinse, repeat. In the newly-returned Land of Departure, it's stated that Sora had the Power of Waking in him all along, which made the trips to the worlds completely pointless. As someone pointed out in their review of KH3, while the Disney worlds in previous games served little more than fanservice, they at least had a goal in which the protagonists needed to fulfill, such as locking and unlocking the worlds, finding lost friends, and defeating those that pose a threat. In KH3, while the goal has been to learn the Power of Waking, it ultimately becomes meaningless upon revealing that Sora had the power within him all along.

Speaking of which, this leads into another thing that legitimately made me angry. We are never told what the Power of Waking is or what it does, only that it is essential to saving Aqua and Ventus. I had to learn from the comments section on YouTube what the Power of Waking was and it still wasn't fully explained what it was. Whenever Sora would be in Yen Sid's tower, Yen Sid would keep telling him that he needed the Power of Waking to venture into the RoD and everyone chastising Sora for being too impulsive and I'm just sitting there like "If you probably told him what the fucking power was, he'd probably have an easier time trying to learn it". It's one of those things where, if Sora were under my writing control, I'd have him slowly getting more and more frustrated over being told to learn something he doesn't understand and isn't being told on what it is that he'd eventually snap. I have some personal experience with that so maybe it's my bias talking.

Next thing I wanted to bring up was my thoughts and feelings towards the third act and the ending. I'll start from the Anti-Aqua stuff to the scenes right before the ending first. Anti-Aqua, while one of the best fights in KH3 (if you're not overleveled and using Attractions), is very quick. I mean, you do battle her a bit as Riku then switch over to Sora to full-on fight her and then she's saved but that sequence doesn't last long. It goes from Aqua calling out Mickey for abandoning her to fighting her to saving her then going off to save Ventus. Even the way she succumbed to darkness wasn't very... climatic. Earlier in the game, Ansem SoD surprises Ansem the Wise and Aqua as they're sitting on the Dark Beach from Blank Points and, after a pretty pitiful fight between Aqua and Ansem SoD (Totally understandable, though), she gets hit with a Dark Ball and falls into the dark ocean as the darkness consumes her. When I first watched the trailer revealing Anti-Aqua, I had a different idea in mind for how Aqua succumbed to the darkness* and the canon kinda disappointed me with how quick it came and went. Moving on, Sora, Aqua, and Disney (Dolan and Gooby) arrive at Castle Oblivion/Land of Departure to save Ventus and then Vanitas shows up. Aqua's only playable during the fight with Vanitas and she's taken out of the action as soon as he threatens Ven. Cue Sora learning the Power of Waking, saving Ven, Ven about ready to kick Vani's ass, and Sora and Ven meet for the first time. Then we move to Yen Sid's tower where everyone has a little chat and prepare for the fight tomorrow. Nice little scenes ensue (Riku meeting with Repliku, Sora and Kairi FINALLY becoming a couple, Aqua and Ven talking about how they'll save Terra, Lea and Saix eating atop the clocktower) then it's off to the Keyblade Graveyard! After an awesome fight with 10000 Heartless and shit, everyone fucking dies. You think it's a joke, no, everyone straight up dies! Terranort manages to take out Ven, Lea, and almost Kairi as well before Dolan pulls out the Zettaflare and vanquishes his ass. A Demon Tide comes into the mix and after becoming a cyclone, kills everyone except Sora and Riku because they were hit with the Stick of Incompetence. Sora and Riku join soon after and we meet with Chirithy in Purgatory! Sora abuses the Power of Waking to bring everyone back from the dead with Kairi's help (BTW, that's the only useful thing she does in this game) and somehow they forget that they died then proceed to almost die again immediately afterwards! Lingering Will shows up with next to no reason why, keeps Terranort busy while everyone fights the Demon Tide again until the power of Union Cross defeats it once and for all. Many New Organization fights later and Kairi getting the Damsel in Distress treatment YET AGAIN to only die later and Sora finally fights Xehanort. Even then, Xehanort manages to corrupt Kingdom Hearts but he's then used as a time portal for Sora and Disney to go to Scala ad Caelum to fight him there. Xehanort manages to forge the X-blade and actually kills Sora before he revives again with the power of friendship to defeat his wrinkly, veiny old ass. Xehanort then gets hit with a dose of Creator's Pet syndrome, which causes him to somehow be fucking redeemed as he goes to the KH equivalent of Heaven with good ol' brother Eraqus. Sora then decides to abuse the Power of Waking once more to save Kairi and, after he successfully brings her back, gets  hit with the Thanos snap and disappears. In Secret Endings, the Foretellers come back, Xigbar is revealed to be Luxu, and Sora and Riku are in Shibuya and Shinjuku respectively, probably about ready to play the Reapers Game! If I missed anything, feel free to disagree!

I may have gone jokey after the Anti-Aqua fight but let me break the last paragraph and a half down. The Land of Departure sequence is nice, except for the part Vani one-shots Aqua in order to get to Ven. She doesn't throw up a barrier or try to deflect the magic with her Keyblade, she just tanks the hit which, if anyone's ever played Aqua in BBS, she ain't like Terra or Ven. It's only because Sora was able to awaken Ven that Aqua didn't get skewered on Vani's Keyblade. Aqua's a Keyblade Master who's fought and won against Vani twice, why the hell did she lose to him here? That, however, is NOTHING compared to her treatment in the Keyblade Graveyard. After Ven and Lea are taken out and Dolan annihilates Terranort, a Demon Tide becomes a Demon Cyclone and, after she, Sora, and Riku decide to fight it, she suddenly gives up and lets the Demon Cyclone kill her*. WHAT THE FUCK?! You mean to tell me that Aqua, a Keyblade Master who's spent 11 years in the RoD fighting for her life and was FINALLY brought back to the RoL, took one look at the Demon Cyclone, which is just a bigger version of the Demon Tides she's fought before, and decided to do suicide by cop? People from the comments section on YouTube try to justify this by saying she had PTSD and/or she was mourning the loss of Ven but I can't see her basically committing suicide over either of these reasons. I'm normally all for Aqua having PTSD because I can imagine that being in a stressful environment with everything trying to kill you on a daily basis isn't good for your mental health but she doesn't show any of the signs for PTSD and she doesn't give up on living the second time the Demon Cyclone shows up. As for her mourning the loss of Ven, I can MAYBE see that but I feel like Ven's death would give her more motivation to defeat the Demon Cyclone because one of the reasons why she fought so hard to get out of the RoD just died in front of her and she'd probably be pissed the fuck off. It may be my love for my oceanic queen coming through but she got hit with the Stick of Incompetence in KH3, along with many other characters.

The one character that was practically killed with it was Kairi. She easily became one of the most disappointing things from KH3 in that she was given the Damsel in Distress treatment yet again and was only killed to give Sora more angst/development. People were expecting her to do something and make herself useful and were instead given shit on a dirty platter. Yes, I know it's stupid to expect Kairi to fight on the level of a Keyblade Master. I don't think anyone was expecting that of her, considering how she literally started training with Lea days, or even weeks, before the final battle. However, we don't see her fighting at all, outside of the battle with Saix and Xion before she gets kidnapped again by Xemnas. She doesn't try to fight back against him and just lets herself be taken, not to mention how she just stares at Terranort after he takes out Lea, not even trying to defend herself*. This girl seems to have no survival instincts, whatsoever. The only useful thing she does in this game is bring Sora back from the brink of death so that he can save everyone else and that's it. While it's a good thing she did that, it's not really explained how she did that, other than 'Princess of Heart' BS.

I'm starting to believe that Nomura genuinely has no idea on what to do with Kairi. To me, he doesn't know what to do on making her stand out from the rest of the cast and has to keep turning her into a faux fighter. In terms of fighting, he doesn't know what to make her as. In my mind, Aqua and Xion (the only female fighters, since Namine is a non-combatant) have two different fighting styles. Aqua's more focused on magic and staying a distance away from her enemy while Xion's more focused on brute strength and getting up in her enemy's face. Kairi then should be the balance between the two, using both magic and strength to her advantage to keep her enemies on their toes. I should stress that I myself am not good at defining fights in general so I may be completely wrong on this but this is merely my interpretation/suggestion. There's a lot more I want to talk about with Kairi but these last two paragraphs pretty much summarize my point. I want to stress that I'm not blaming Kairi for her shitty writing. I'm blaming Nomura because he doesn't know how the fuck to write her as.

Which leads me to my next point of how I feel Sora got hit with a dose of Creator's Pet syndrome in this game. This is probably a point that people will think "Of course it's like that, Airi. He's the main character", which I agree with to an extent but... I'm probably the only one who thinks this but I feel like Sora was made out to be too... important, if that makes sense. In terms of reconnecting lost friends and defeating Xehanort, that's fine. However, also being the one to solve everything by either defeating the enemy or saying stuff from a typical stock shounen series kinda rubbed me the wrong way. It's hard for me to explain in a way that doesn't make it seem as if I don't understand a main character's importance but I'm trying. Here's how I see it: while it's been stated time and again that Sora is the one to connect everyone (Memory's fuzzy on that part) and I know he has to fulfill that purpose in some way, KH3 puts so much emphasis on that, it downplays the other characters' importance or even ruins any chance of development they could've gotten. Sora has to have the spotlight no matter what, even at the cost of characters who need it more. The biggest example of this is Xehanort killing Kairi so it gives Sora more motivation to beat him. Sora was given more development at the cost of Kairi's own. As I said before with Kairi, I'm not blaming Sora for this, I'm blaming Nomura because he decided to give Sora more development than he needed/should've had and sacrificing the other characters in order to boost the already massive value his role has. Hopefully, the DLC will give the others the much-needed development they need.

Speaking of which, it's not only the heroes who got mishandled in this game. Three specific villains (Young Xehanort, Vanitas, and Luxord) come to mind and it somehow got worse down the line. In the Toy Story world, Young Xehanort gets verbally beat down by Woody. In the Monsters Inc. world, Vanitas get yeeted through several doors by Mike and Sulley. In the Caribbean world, Luxord faints because Jack Sparrow had bad breath. These are villains we're supposed to be intimidated by/motivated to defeat and they're made into a complete joke in the world they're antagonizing. Young Xehanort got off easy compared to Vanitas and Luxord, since all he had to deal with was Woody giving him a scolding and brushing it off like nothing. As much as I like the Yeetus Vanitas joke, you mean to tell me that Vanitas, the darkness gremlin himself, didn't sense Sulley sneaking up on him or even try stopping himself from being yeeted through more doors after the first few? What about the Gambler of Fate? He faints because Jack had a little rum in his breath after he got to play pirate again? If that scene was meant to be funny, it accomplished its purpose, just not in the way it was intended to, because how the fuck am I supposed to be intimidated by Luxord when he gets taken out due to someone's bad fucking breath? The way the New Organization's written as is anywhere between being inexplicably strong and able to kill everyone (with the exception of Sora after a despair-induced death and revival) to being laughable and weak enough to be yeeted through doors and taken down by bad breath. That's totally good writing!

Getting back to the story, let's move on to the abso-fucking-lutely stupid Xehanort redemption scene. In the game proper, after he's been defeated once and for all by Sora with the power of friendship, it's revealed that the reason why Xehanort went on this crusade to control Kingdom Hearts was to restore balance and essentially reset the world. He's basically portrayed as this person who, in his pursuit of restoring balance to the world, resorted to extreme methods that almost achieved the opposite of what he wanted. To be fair, that in of itself isn't bad and probably would've made Xehanort an interesting antagonist. However, this completely contradicts what we know about Xehanort before this point! If he really wanted balance, he shouldn't have been spreading darkness to every world he and his incarnations have been to! Even disregarding that point, he's manipulated, controlled, and ruined so many lives. He took control of Terra's body after spending the entirety of his story manipulating him, almost killed Ventus with creating Vanitas if not for Sora's timely intervention, manipulated and controlled Riku, manipulated all of Organization XIII while using them for empty heart tanks, and killed both Eraqus and Kairi! If we're supposed to feel sympathetic for him, why not show him regretting doing all that, hesitating, anything to make us think he didn't WANT to do that but had to in order to accomplish his goal? Then there's the fact Eraqus decides to just forgive him for all he's done, as if he forgot that Xehanort's the reason why he's dead in the first place and almost ruined his pupils' lives, who he saw as his own kids. I get that they once saw each other as brothers but you'd think that relationship would've soured once Xehanort scarred him and dumped a nearly comatose Ven on him. I know Eraqus got a lot of shit from the fandom because of how he acted in BBS but he was at least sympathetic. While he was ultimately wrong in how he treated Terra and Ven, he only decided to kill Ven because he didn't want the X-blade to be forged and cause another Keyblade War and he admitted to Terra he regretted his actions towards him and Ven, all the while crying. THAT’S how you write a character who's majorly fucked up but regrets it and is sympathetic. Not whatever the fuck we were supposed to get from Xehanort. For the third time in this post, I'm not blaming Xehanort for the BS way he was written, I'm blaming Nomura, which is funny since he stated that Xehanort was his favorite character, leading me to think he'd actually try writing him decently.

With that out of the way, we can FINALLY get to the ending. As I said before, Sora decides to abuse the Power of Waking once more to bring Kairi back to life and, after successfully doing that, fades away as if he got hit with the Thanos snap. I'm surprisingly okay with this ending, if only because I know there's going to be more KH games coming out with the confirmation that Sora will still be the protagonist in those games. Normally, I'm against endings where the protagonist dies (unless under special circumstances and even those have to be pretty special) because I like to see stories where the protag, who's gone through a journey full of pain and emotions and any other number of issues, finally gets their happy ending. To me, who writes to escape from the dark and sometimes painful aspects of life, happy endings give characters who've fought so hard for them or characters who were previously unable to achieve them the rest and happiness they deserve (Like the Wayfinder and Clocktower Trios staying together after being reunited). It's hard for me to explain but this isn't the place to talk about that. As I was saying, I'm okay with Sora 'dying' because it showed the consequences of him abusing the Power of Waking too much. From my interpretation of it, the Power of Waking could be used to resurrect the dead, rewrite reality as we know it, etc., but its main purpose is to 'awaken sleeping hearts'. Riku used it properly in DDD to wake Sora up and Sora used it properly in this game to wake Ventus up. The PoW, to me, is the equivalent to playing God, which REALLY goes against my beliefs. I don't know whether it's due to my (loose) Christian faith, my beliefs towards death that I've formed over the years, or because I watched FMA, that mortals messing with things they shouldn't (I.E. Sora bringing the dead back to life) scares me. While the reasoning behind Sora abusing the PoW is understandable (and I'm giving him a pass on what I'm about to say next due to this), he's still a mortal playing God, which HAS to have consequences, no matter what. Just because I say this, however, doesn't mean people aren't allowed to say the ending sucked. Hell, even I think the ending kinda sucks, despite me being okay with it. The only way this ending couldn't have come about is if Sora didn't abuse the PoW and the only way Sora wouldn't have abused the PoW is if no one died and the only way no one could've died is if Nomura could've written something better. The best we can hope for with Sora is that he's given a happy ending down the line and NO ONE DIES OR TAKES HIS PLACE! NO MORE OF THIS BITTERSWEET NONSENSE, ALL RIGHT?!

So what do I think of the story overall? Well, it's... something. It's not the worst thing I've ever had the pleasure of experiencing but it's also not that good. The pacing seems to only have two settings; it's either too slow to the point of it being padded for extra time or too fast to really know what's going on in favor of getting to the next goalpost. I wouldn't be surprised if it's because of the pacing that I don't know where the halfway point of KH3 is. I thought it'd be like the first half being the Disney fanservice and the second half the actual plot but it's not like that here. The first half got WAY more time dedicated to it than the second half did and it REALLY shows with how sloppily written the plot towards the end was. The way I see it, Nomura had the major plotpoints planned and figured out but the details surrounding those plotpoints were left as an afterthought. He had goalposts set up but he got stuck figuring out how to get Sora and co. from point A to point B. I think if he had just finetuned those details or rewritten scenes to make more sense or even asked for help, the story could've been a lot better. Granted, there were probably a lot of factors at work during KH3's production so I won't place all of the blame on solely Nomura, especially with all the news articles lately about game studios overworking their employees to the point of exhaustion/illness/death/eventual breakdown of the company. While I mainly talked about the negatives concerning the story, there were also some positives about it. Sora was at his absolute adorableness in this game. Like, there were so many moments where I just died from how cute he was (which I noted many times in my Livetweet thread) that helped to highlight how Sora's still just a kid who unfortunately carries the fate of the world on his shoulders. The reunions of both the Wayfinder and Clocktower trios just killed me because they had suffered so much up to this point  and to see them crying from happiness at being reunited with their friends again and staying together this time had me tearing up. Although she didn't appear much in KH3, Namine being able to exist outside of Kairi was also a sweet moment, especially with her being treated like a princess when she first wakes up and Riku taking her by the hand to the Destiny Islands like a prince. I don't care if it's considered ship tease, that shit was goddamn cute, all right? The scene of Aqua crying after she finally realizes she's in the RoL again hit me in the feels so much, especially after Sora told her she was home. Now thinking about it, I wonder if that's sort of a parallel to KH2's ending with Sora taking on the role of Kairi from that scene. The relationship between Kairi and Lea (What little we saw of it), the ending of everyone on the Destiny Islands, and the occasional Disney stuff I did enjoy were all good. It just sucks that there's so little of the stuff I mentioned featured that I wish more time was spent developing those.

So what is my overall opinion on KH3? It's not my favorite of the series, that honor still goes to both KH2 and BBS. Without running the risk of repeating myself, I won't go into detail about the gameplay or the story because you can just read all the points I've mentioned above. I still enjoyed KH3 but some of my expectations fell through and I felt a bit underwhelmed by everything. In some ways, the wait was worth it but I think I would've been fine with waiting more if it meant some aspects were developed more. In regards to this game being a good entryway for newcomers, I think it is, if only because you're provided with recaps of the previous games right at the main menu so that anyone who hasn't played at least one KH game won't be completely lost playing KH3. I feel like everything I've mentioned in this post may be discredited or even disregarded as an actual review of KH3 because I didn't play the game, I watched an LP of it, but keep in mind these are merely my observations and the conclusions I've reached using those observations. The experience may be completely different to those who actually played it but I won't know until this is posted so...

Where do we go from here? Well, we still have the DLC to look forward to but, as I stated earlier, we have no idea when those are coming out and it's the same with any upcoming games. I'm hoping the DLC will answer some questions while also giving some much-needed development to the characters who aren't Sora. The only thing left to say is, may the DLC guide our wandering hearts.

[funatsukazuho]

FemEx Dear Creator Letter

Hello there! Thank you so much for joining this exchange. I’m so excited to see whatever you make!

Here is a list of some things I’m looking for in the stuff I requested! If you have stronger ideas and a story you’re just dying to tell about one of these ships, please go full steam ahead. First off though, I’d like to clarify somethings I really, really would not like to receive:

NSFW of minors (I consider this as characters aged up to 20). Please don’t include this at all. 

NSFW for characters who are of age is fine - but I’d prefer it to be subtle rather than the point. 

PLEASE DO NOT INCLUDE FINGER PAINTING, FINGERNAIL/TOENAIL TRAUMA OR OTHER FOCUS ON NAILS - it’s a big squick!!

Here are some things I’m super happy to receive!!

Character studies, including ones with unsatisfying conclusions

Dark themes including assault, murder and death, provided they’re handled with care 

Discussion of past relationships that don’t include the couple who is the main thrust of the work

Trans headcanons! (I especially love trans girl hcs for Kaoru Seta, Mari Ohara, Selphie Tilmitt, Ursula Callistis and Croix Meridies but anyone is fair game!)

Alright, let’s get stuck in!

1. BANG DREAM! GIRLS BAND PARTY

Tsugumi Hazawa/Sayo Hikawa 

I love this ship - I really suggest reading their first interactions in this event to get a feel for how they interact, if you have only had access to the English version. I’d especially love an internal look at Tsugumi’s feelings if it’s fic, and a cute shared moment with sweets for art. 

Kaoru Seta/Kokoro Tsurumaki and Kaoru Seta/Hagumi Kitazawa/Kokoro Tsurumaki

So here's the thing - Kaoru and Kokoro talk past each other constantly and I actually LOVE that. I think it's made even better by having Hagumi as a mediator (Hagumi is stupid but she's not as stupid as Kaoru, and benefits from Kokoro's weird brand of emotional intelligence.)

I want to see them having madcap adventures, buffeted to ever greater heights of idiocy, but also tenderness too. Let them get a little closer than they do as co-buffoons!

Kaoru Seta/Himari Uehara/Rimi Ushigome

While it's super cute that both Rimi and Himari are head over heels for Kaoru I would love it if she got flustered by both of their attention too!

Kaoru Seta/Maya Yamato

It might be a little unorthodox to request a non-romantic cameo but I would LOVE to see Chisato's reaction to this. I like that Maya doesn't fall victim to Kaoru's ridiculousness (maybe due to overexposure?) and it puts her in a perfect position to make the first move for once.

Kanon Matsubara/Chisato Shirasagi

I like this at its best when it's bittersweet, something that Chisato is clinging to a little too desperately while trying to look like she isn't. A touch or two of sadness goes a long way here with this ship, though of course I love cute fluffiness too.

Misaki Okusawa/Rimi Ushigome

My poor forgotten friendship! How I wish the game would remember that they interact! They're both fans of horror fiction which is ADORABLE. Make use of it!

Aya Maruyama/Maya Yamato

Their names are practically the same it's like fated (no but seriously. I love how Maya is so openly supportive of Maya when others are bringing her down, and how Aya sticks up for Maya and celebrates all her weird little foibles. Cute as heck.)

2. Love Live! Sunshine!! 

Kanan Matsuura/You Watanabe

I like this best post-highschool after both of them have grown up some, but you can feel free to set it when the series happens if you like. I like that they're both silly jocks who love the ocean, so any work focusing on a maritime theme is A+!

Kanan Matsuura/Dia Kurosawa AND Dia Kurosawa/Kanan Matsuura/Mari Ohara

My OT3... My favourite dynamic between them is Kanan and Dia but I do also love when Mari is there to be the shiny, sparkly bond that glues the group together. Super happy to read about fights and disagreements with these three so long as they all make up by the end

3. Steven Universe

Garnet/Peridot

I'm really interested in this as a character building piece for both of them; Garnet has to learn to not be such of a pedestal and set boundaries, Peridot has to apologise and keep apologising and also learn to give herself over to the moment more. It's okay if it's just a moment of tenderness between the two of them without anything concrete, but building to a relationship is fine too.

Bismuth/Garnet 

Again, I really want to see them get back up to speed with each other. Something harking back to their past together would be super lovely too!

Bismuth/Pearl

This is a bit more self-indulgent but it would be so nice to see Bismuth help Pearl dress a little more butch, get a little more in touch with that side of herself. I'd love for Pearl to open up more fully to Bismuth and make her feel secure... 

4. Gatchaman Crowds

Hajime Ichinose/Utsutsu Miya

My OTP of all OTPs. Anything you could possibly provide to me I will treasure, provided it's SFW (unless it's post canon and they're adults). I want to see them in love but also I love seeing the imbalance in their power explored, Utsutsu's sadness and Hajime's manic happiness, I love everything about them. 

5. Sora yori mo Tooi Basho

Takako Kobuchizawa/Gin Toudou

While a retrospective on their relationship is exciting, I'd also appreciate just plain old flashback fic exploring how much they meant to each other when they were raising Shirase.

Shirase Kobuchizawa/Hinata Miyake AND Yuzuki Shiraishi/Mari Tamaki AND Shirase Kobuchizawa/Hinata Miyake/Yuzuki Shiraishi/Mari Tamaki

I love all of these dynamics equally and would be super delighted to receive any of them! With Shirase/Hinata I'm all about the difficulty in communication between them, and navigating the gaps. When they can connect it feels like a relief, almost, and I love that. 

Yuzuki and Kimari are much softer and sillier by contrast and lend themselves well to goofy shenanigans, especially because of Yuzuki's sharp tongue. When all four of them are together I like it best as it is in the show, but with more kissing. 

Megumi Takahashi/Mari Tamaki

Oh please kill me with angst for these two I invite it openly (Megu's jealousy is a great resource, but also Kimari's stubbornness to keep loving her - they can make it work if they work hard! I believe in them!)

Yume Sasaki/Honami Yasumoto

I feel like its a given to ask for fanfic where the two of them get absolutely sauced and spill everything about their feelings about each other but can you blame me for wanting that

Gin Toudou/Kanae Maekawa

Would love to see this potentially contrasted with their prior relationship with Takako and how they're picking up the pieces from it.

6. Teppuu

Natsuo Ishido/Sanae Sawamura

I really love how integral their relationship is to the work without it ever overshadowing everything else; it's very subtle. Well, now I'd like it to take center stage for once. They can kiss while fighting right???

Mai Ganeko/Sanae Sawamura

Mai is such a sycophant, bless her. It would be nice to see Sanae finally validate her a little.

Karin Kotani/Mitsuko Honma

Good old fashioned rivalry with a spark of mutual respect. Imagine if Karin got to win for once? How would they both react?

Mitsuko Honma/Shinobu Kannagi

Really love how thorougly Shinobu knocks Mitsuko off kilter, so making use of that would be super fun (I also love the contrast in their personalities, with Shinobu being a big teddy bear and Mitsuko being a terrifying ice queen)

Karin Kotani/Manami Hiki

Manami is still such a n00b in so many ways and it would be great if she got some special focus from Karin for a change. The dash of hopeless pity just makes it cuter imo.

Kei Ninomiya/Mai Ganeko

I didn't figure anyone else shipped this! I like Kei getting to break away from Natsuo to talk and grow close with other characters (though I'd of course welcome Natsuo's presence in a fic like this). They can bond over being the sidekicks to extremely intense women who hate each other, haha!

7. Professor Layton

Katrielle Layton/Emiliana Perfetti

Just please... I want to see them solving a mystery together... and Katrielle giving Emiliana a jubilant kiss when they figure it out, and consequently ruining her life

8. Marvel Cinematic Universe

Nakia/Okoye 

PLEASE THE WHOLE MOVIE I WAS BEGGING THEM TO INTERACT give me anything. I will take literally anything. Space AU. Mafia AU. Bodyguard AU seems too obvious, right? In canon, I'd really appreciate an exploration of what they mean to each other and a way to make it work while keeping both their principles intact.

9. Final Fantasy VIII

Selphie Tilmitt/Selphie's Friend (FF8)

Even as a little kid I felt like this was ripe for potential, especially considering how Zell and other party members conduct their romantic business outside of the main party. I'd love to see her coming back to Trabia after the end of the story and getting to relax with her girlfriend for once. (Name the girlfriend whatever you want, but if it's hard to name her how about Tabitha?)

10. Little Witch Academia

Ursula Callistis | Chariot du Nord/Croix Meridies

I'm obsessed with the idea of Ursula determined to redeem Croix by her own hands even when the rest of the world spurns her (and rightfully so!), so something with comedic potential or a more meaty emotional exploration are both things I'd love to see or read.

Atsuko Kagiri/Sucy Manvaran/Lotte Yanson

I love my silly weird protag trio. I think what I'd most like to see here is how they became a couple and then more than a couple; bonus points for keeping Sucy her malevolent, extremely dangerous self while retaining all that exhausted fondness both she and Lotte have for Akko.

Thanks so much for reading so far!! I really appreciate it. :D 

To whomever I'm writing for, I hope I do a good job! Sorry if you were expecting something especially NSFW, haha, but I hope I can do your ships justice!  LETS GO LESBIANS LETS GO