#ansems ddd model is the BEST

[robotsafari]

diagram of the degradation of ansem’s model

kh3 excluded because i dont want to fucking look at it (its the worst one)

[mushroom-winners-proof]

Which Ansem model was the best? Og KH1, KH2, Re:COM, DDD/KH1.5 or the unreal engine model?

my Ansem Model tier list goes like

1.) KH1FM

2.) DDD

3.) KH2

4.) RE:CoM

5.) KH3

[ohhicas]

Question: The scene in kh3 where Ienzo tells Riku about Even's dissappearance, he mentoins that Dilan and Aeleus searched for him. Aeleus doesn't say anything (sadly), but does he also looked concerned for you? Bc if that might be really the case, then Aeleus must have a caring nature in canon.

┴┬┴┤( „• ֊ •├┬┴┬

did someone say Good Boy Aeleus 

I went off about this once kind of already but I’ll cONTINUE ON FROM HERE cause before I kind of just took over an ask

You mean this look, right? The one that followed his slow headshake? every time I look at screencaps I just realize how off model I’ve gotten with my art lmao I gotta get better at like, not doing that

I know I’m trying to read the expressions off a fairly preset character model since he doesn’t do much besides squint, pout, and walk away and a lot of this is conjecture but I took it as a self-frustration? A type of concern, for sure. Ienzo’s line (using the Eng translation here cause I don’t know enough of the term nuances to pick apart the japanese/version differences like I did before) really seems that Aeleus and Dilan looked everywhere for him, which is kind of adorable in itself. I hope they went through every one of his old Somebody haunts even if they all woke up in the labs/offices going by the DDD cutscene of Ienzo & Aeleus waking up with Lea. Someone check the bedroom, someone check Ienzo’s bedroom. Scour the library corners. Carefully sneak out of the castle go to check Radiant Garden’s libraries and buildings. Try to find a way to ask the FF Crew if they’ve seen Even running around yes yes ok yes they were all presumed dead like 10 years ago and nobody ever found the bodies please stop screaming and calling them ghosts they have a Mission here. 

(Dilan out there peeking under a table and when he looks up Aeleus is standing there like ???? “YOU DONT KNOW, BUDDY. He could have come back Not Right and gone into hiding like a scared raccoon.”) 

BUT YEAH, THAT? That’s a Caring move for sure, he could’ve easily just been shown to keep his head high and face as stern as ever with a short curt shake ‘no’. I also still believe his turn away and pout move when Ienzo is on the phone with Sora over ‘Roxas’ is another sign of a canon caring nature– it’s not the type of care generally considered, but a guilt kind that toes into that samurai character theme he’s set with? He (possibly, we’re back in hypothesis town) feels bad about what his Nobody self did, because Aeleus would never just backhand a 15 year old hard enough he nearly KO’s just to get his crisis move activated. There’s Rough Training, and then there’s just Nobody level crude (there are several Very Good posts out there about how the backhand thing was taken in the wrong way entirely by some anti-Lex fans, or those who think very highly of Roxas and don’t want to see him hurt. They’re good reads over a good boy if you have the want and while I may not be 100% completely on board with the wording or writer’s ideas they’re still very good and will give you something to think about to come to your own conclusions) so he still feels bad/upset at himself for not being able to like… stop himself? In the same idea that Isa is upset at his Saix side, for what he did to Lea. That kind of thing. 

also part of me really just thinks Aeleus has this face that just constantly looks like he’s fighting back 23423 emotions and it ends up making him just look like a bulldog; permanent :( face

I think it’s the eyebrows

ANYWAY, GETTING OFF TOPIC I THINK 

He has so few speaking segments really outside of DDD & his little bit in CoM which I already went over in the first link that anything I say really is just me grasping at thin straws to try to form a full character so I feel bad using a whole lot of headcanons and things of the sort but I’d really put him up there as one of the (ex)Orgs who has the biggest caring/helpful themed heart. Obviously characters like Lea, Roxas, and Xion win hands down for biggest helpful/caring heart (though I can easily argue those three elsewhere); they had the most and arguably best writing for that sort of thing throughout every game they were in, while the others have selfish or endlessly curious ones. Which isn’t a bad thing! None of that is a bad thing. I’d personally put Isa in the category of selfish/curious over Helpful/caring, for example, and I love that dumb jealous boy. Ienzo & Even’s hearts are full of a pursuit of knowledge and curiosities more than an honest open attempt to help or save/protect someone. But like, I can be 100% wrong here, we just don’t know a lot about some of these people. As far as we know, though, Aeleus’s “drive” is just… Guardian. 

He’s an apprentice of Ansem, one of his ‘best students’, so maybe curiosity could be there? But we’re unsure what ‘best student’ means, it could just be in magic, which could be pointed towards the Guard/Protect. It could mean the science/heart research lean! Which would put him hard into the Curiosity side. It’s very, very hard to like… put this in words. All we’ve seen him do is protect others, apologize for not being able to protect, (beat someone in the face in a way that teaches them how to learn to protect themselves because he’s concerned, possibly, but for sure mentions that you can only really trust yourself in the Organization which is WORRY-CODED) and possibly be visibly ‘upset’ to the extent of his character model and samurai themed personality type over failing to find/protect others. He’s so “I Greatly Care For My Companions and Others” coded (to me!). 

HE IS

A GOOD BOY

[slowbladed]

here it is folks. my kh3 review/rant/thing

im gonna disclaimer and say that i try my damnest not to compare games to another, but in this case I am (at least SE made titles) because for as cool KH3 was I felt it took a few steps back.

First off, I enjoyed the game. It is not my favorite game for miles, and not my favorite KH game (Re:CoM), but I had fun with it. 

The environments were amazing, I had fun looking through them and just taking in the scenery. I had some fears of KH3′s models looking weird but they did a pretty good job (sometimes it does look like clay though). The enemy designs were clever, and I love how the Nobodies look weird. Though the Unverse were not too good design wise. Bosses were ok,. However the ending boss fights was.. underwhelming.

I understand expectations tend to be different than what is given, but in this case my expectations for the boss fight was shattered then stepped on. Should have I expected each Organization member to have a cool transformation sequence? No, but for characters like Xemnas? Ansem? YX? Marluxia? Maybe. For Xehanort himself? Yes, I think I am just to think so. And I think Xehanort’s boss fight was underwhelming and frankly I was very disappointed in it. In fact, I thought we were going to have four forms, one the multiple armor battle (which I thought was cool), the normal armor battle, then Xehanort turns into some dragon or whatever, then a good on head to head battle. Well. No turning into some monster. Ok, thats fine, as long as his ending battle has some cool movesets and stuff you have to get out of based on all the Org13 members that would be coo- oh I’ll just go rage form I guess. It wasn’t hard. It wasn’t even that fun. I think I tuned out as soon as I went to the underwater section. Keep in mind, I went into this thinking that Nomura was going to crash my PS4 with the amount of big he was going to make Xehanort. I mean, Ansem turned into a ship, Xemnas turned into a LITERAL DRAGON which you fight THEN you fight his armor formed merged with the dragon AND you run to him getting buildings tossed to you AND you-- well you get the point. On a purely gameplay point? Come on. Even Marluxia had a cooler boss. I mean, even BBS had a bigger build up to Xehanort which was literally fighting Xehanort THEN YOURSELF??? IN TERRA’S STORY?? but KH3 just.. was that.  i guess.

Which brings to... HOOO the story. A few parts they did good. Those parts? Sea salt Trio. Thats IT. FUCK wayfinder trio, FUCK the organization, FUCK everything. There was NO build up to the new organization. I was expecting to fight them in these worlds, as you do in KH2 to build up the hype and make you think WOW these guys mean something! but instead we are all thrown a boss rush and for PLOT reasons I GUESS but at the same time it felt so.. bland. There were no stakes! You fight Vanitas ONCE and then he goes “ok im out” to fight later. Which would have been a cool build up if they did that with the other members but instead we see them once? They say something weird? Ok bye??? I’ll fight your Nobodies now???? I guess I’m racing Luxord now??? eeehhhhhhhhhh??? Overall the story felt so disjointed. I mean in KH1 it made sense you tried to protect the princesses of light, they came back later for the story. It made sense you went and beat up the Org in KH2, they were trying to bring people to darkness. But in KH3 it felt like they were just there to be there? Ok we are getting the power of waking OH it doesn’t matter anymore I’m just going to go to the realm of darkness anyway. And yes, I know that disney worlds tend not to be the biggest points in the series but in BBS? Hell I never would have thought to ship Cinderella/Aqua but you know what Nomura did it. And he did it Well. There was no build up to the final boss, there was nothing that connected everyone together, it felt like everything was there to be there. What happened to Demyx? What about that data twilight town? Some things were NEVER brought up ever again! If you’re not going to bring it up or have an overall meaning to the story then DON’T PUT IT IN YOUR STORY. I feel like if they just cut out explaining a bunch of stuff that was already established in past games then the game would have been better. And, yes its FF14 YES I KNOW, but FF14 does a better job in explaining past events that happen via just mention or actual dramatic sequences that has bearing with the plot. 

Characters? Vexen had the most character development in that entire game. Hands down. I mean, I really don’t know what else to say. I felt like Sora took a few back in what was already established in previous games. I mean, you go from Sora screaming and yelling at Xemnas for lying to Org13 for lying to them about having no hearts then you turn around and call Marluxia a has-been? We spent an entire game, the entire KH2, talking about how Nobodies just wanted their hearts back, how they wanted to be whole, how they wanted to BE SOMEONE, you slam that nail in the coffin shut with DDD, then you make Sora turn around and say “well you work for xehanort even though you probably are being forced haha!!” YIKES! It kind of made their deaths a little disjointed? You go from Sora not caring or even trying to reach out to these Nobodies to ‘so those emotions huh?’ I’m not even going to get into Kairi being just a damsel in distress, or Namine coming in for .2 seconds at the end.. but man... you done did it.

Gameplay? uhhh hhhgeeeh ghgughghghgg. it was fun? I felt overwhelmed with all the stuff happening though. You put everything from previous games into one and... it worked out but it didn’t? I don’t know. I think its fun but it wasn’t hard. There was no real tactics in it. It really became a press X to win game. Ariel Recovery and defend are busted which makes me REALLY salty but hhh . Overall it was ok, I think KH1 still is the best with battle mechanics, but that’s just me (please bring Goofy’s old stats I’m begging you SE). 

Can I say I’m happy with some of the plot? Sure. I guess. I’m glad Xemnas had his moment. I’m glad Marluxia had his. Same with RepliRiku. I’m happy marlar became canon bay bee. But uh, as far as Vanitas goes? mmmmmmmm yeah.... not... really. As far as Xehanort being a good guy all along? I can’t really say what I feel about that. I’m conflicted. If nomura was going for that, good on him. 

overall? 7/10, maybe 6.5/10. Not my game of the year but hey, it was fun.

[keybladewyvern]

Actually, you know what, no, I’m not done talking about this whole “I think Saix is an abusive friend and being brainwashed by Xehanort doesn’t excuse his actions” topic. This is going to be probably long, and seriously rambly, and probably not make sense, but let’s buckle up kids because this is why this whole thing is so important to me. Saix was probably brainwashed by Xehanort at one point. Honestly, there’s a lot I can excuse Saix for doing. He follows Xemnas’ orders without question. He tirelessly hunts for the room with Axel and when he kidnaps Kairi, it’s because Xemnas wants Sora and probably not much of another reason (except, possibly, to get back to Axel for going rogue). Those are all actions I can reasonably excuse on the “brainwashed by Xehanort” front. But there are things Saix has done that can’t be excused by him being brainwashed because they have nothing to do with what he was ordered to do by Xemnas.

You know who WAS brainwashed by Xehanort? Who I can totally forgive, even though he did a shit ton of very messed-up shit, because he was a desperate, emotionally unstable person with very few role models of positive behaviour in his life? Who I will 100% defend despite the (staggering) number of fucked-up choices he made? Axel, that’s who. And let me tell you the difference.

Here’s aa list of things Axel has done when his orders from Xehanort conflicted with his loyalty to his friends:

-He ARGUED with them. He fucking screamed at them. He wanted them to come back of their own volition and he made it perfectly clear that he didn’t approve of what they were doing, why did they have to be idiots? But he argued. He wanted them convinced, not forced. -He made it pretty clear his first priority was their well-being in almost every situatioon. Half the time he basically only brought them back because he couldn’t see a better way out for any of them. -He made it VERY clear that he Did Not Want To Be Doing This At All. -Even when he was on the opposite side of the battlefield, he made sure they knew that he cared and supported them. (”I’ll always be there to bring you back!”) -He goes out of his way to find a better solution -He lets Roxas go. In the end, in The World That Never Was, in the one scene we all probably know by heart, he lets. Roxas. Go.

Yeah, Axel wasn’t the pinnacle of good friendship, maybe, but he was trying. He wanted to help. He was caught between a rock and a hard place, and the hard place was the conditioning that the Organization Came First, and would Destroy You if you didn’t follow their orders.

Conversely, when Saix’s orders conflict with his friend’s loyalties, and his own loyalties to Axel, here’s what Saix does:

-He threatens Axel. Obey, or else. -He tells Axel “If you were really my friend, you would X.” -He deliberately calls Axel “Lea” in order to manipulate him. -He tells Axel he has to choose between his new friends (phrased as the wrong choice) or his old friend (his “real” friend, according to Saix) -He goes behind Axel’s back to threaten and demean Axel’s other friends, implied to be a result of Axel not paying enough attention to Saix. -He gives Axel orders that will conflict with his loyalties despite there being other Org members he could tap -He tells Axel that what he’s doing is for Axel’s own good -He doesn’t stop to ask Axel’s feelings on the matter - he just assumes that he knows best -When Axel tries to speak up for himself and his friends, Saix pulls the aforementioned emotional manipulation tactics instead of listening to what Axel has to say.

Do you see the difference? Saix could have easily asked one of the other Org members to go after Xion. Saix could’ve easily stopped, listened to Axel, still disagreed with him. Saix could’ve skipped the whole “Lea” bullshit, could’ve told Axel he disapproved in other words than “which are you going to choose, a make-believe friendship, or the real one?” None of that had anything to do with his orders - it had everything to do with how Saix chose to go about dealing with, interpreting, and reacting to his orders. Axel still carried out his orders, bitterly complaining all the while because he hated going against his friends. Saix just expected Axel to shut up and sit like a dog.

And then there’s the matter of how even characters that had spent WAY longer, and from WAY younger an age than Saix, listening to Xehanort’s bullshit and being manipulated by him - i.e Zexion/Ienzo, who according to the Secret Ansem Reports was the one Xehanort used to manipulate Ansem into the dark heart experiments - chose to go against him once they got their hearts back. Even Even - who was VEXEN, creepy mad scientist, implied by BBS to have been working with Braig/Xehanort from the beginning - decides, you know, hey, maybe this whole Xehanort becoming-a-vessel thing isn’t a good idea.Saix, meanwhile, leaves with Braig before the others even wake up. There’s no hesitance. He didn’t mill around waiting, didn’t try to escape before reluctantly returning to Xehanot. Gave no indication that returning to Xehanort wasn’t a wholehearted, willing decision. Yeah, there’s historical evidence of people who’ve been brainwashed choosing their former captors/masters in a sort of Stockholm-y way, but Saix doesn’t show any of the signs of that when he meets with Sora in DDD. In that moment, he chooses Xehanort just as fully as Braig does. He even still goes by Saix despite having his heart back - even Braig goes back to Braig from Xigbar (if I remember correctly; that’s one detail I could be wrong on).

And most telling of all is a line from 358/2 Days. When Roxas asks Lea what a best friend is, as opposed to a regular friend, Axel replies, “I wouldn’t know. I don’t have any best friends.”

This happens right after the way Saix treats him in the scene where he calls him Lea (if I remember the order right). Axel has moved on from Saix. In that moment, he’s essentially disowned him as a friend. Whatever Lea had with Isa is gone. So unless Saix shows remorse, a sincere change in his personality, and wholly renounces Xehanort and apologizes for what he did, I’m not going to say he deserves redemption for Lea’s sake, because Lea doesn’t want him anymore.

Saix isn’t a poor victim abused by fate and circumstance. He’s a toxic, abusive person who burned his bridges with Lea a long time ago, and even if he’s “rescued”, a rescue he doesn’t show any indication of wanting, he’s going to have to start over from the beginning, because what he had before is dead, gone, and buried.