#anyways. sora and roxas are different obviously

[dreamsy990]

you know i used to think it was weird how sora and roxas have such different personalities for supposedly being 'the same person' but after playing a few games i sort of realized that they do have similar personalities, because roxas acts how sora does when he's under extreme stress.

compare roxas to sora in, say, kh1. that's where a lot of peoples idea of sora's personality comes from. sora is generally very upbeat and optimistic in that game. not very similar to roxas, right?

but let's switch the game and talk about a game where sora is ABSOLUTELY GOING THROUGH IT. chain of memories.

sora's resting state is melancholy in com. he only ever cheers up in short bursts, usually when he's joking around with friends. just like roxas.

he's quick to anger, and tends to lash out at the organization members. best example of this is when larxene makes him 'remember' namine, and he swings at her repeatedly, even after she's gone. he only stops when jiminy is able to snap him out of it.

you know what scene that resembles?

sora, while a bit more on the angry side and less sad, continues to act like this in kh2 when he's in stressful situations. (he also has a tendancy to insult people which, while it's not very related to the point, is very funny and sora saying 'gonna cry?' to xigbar is great.) i cant comment any further than that about kh2 off the top of my head.

so, roxas acts like sora does when he's stressed, right? but why is roxas always acting like that? to which i say, he isnt!

he only ever acts like that when he's also in fucked up and stressful situations, which happens to be a CONSTANT in his life. but when he's hanging out with axel and xion, a decidedly NOT stressful situation, he's a lot more like sora. he's teasing his friends and insulting his coworkers and joking around and acting like a normal kid. not really important, but unless i misremembered some sora lines which is VERY possible, both roxas and sora respond to friendly insults with "oh thanks!" a lot. just a funny little detail that felt relevant.

the biggest differences between roxas and sora boil down to environment and... i dont know how to put it besides volume? roxas is very quiet and tends to keep most of his thoughts to himself, while sora is very loud and expressive in comparison.

there is one other huge difference i noticed, which is less character based and more story. sora wanted to get off destiny islands and explore with his friends, but roxas just wanted routine. sora wants adventure, and roxas wants things to stay the same, for days where he gets off work and eats ice cream with his friends to last forever, to keep having conversations about nothing and watching the sunset. roxas wants normalcy, sora wants excitement. it's just interesting seeing their contrast.

not sure if this is very well said or anything i just wanted to talk about my boys

[cherrivixx]

a scattered dream that's like a far-off memory... a far-off memory that's like a scattered dream...

this was meant to just be a sketch to practise sketching on my laptop directly and to practise drawing him but uhhh my hand slipped

extra thoughts under the cut :)

i havent done a computer drawing of ventus yet but i want to make it so that roxas has browner hair compared to ven looking more blonde...plus using a different skin tone for ven where i used sora's for roxas plus obviously sora and roxas have the same blue eyes while ven can get green eyes :) also i think if i draw roxas at the beginning of his time in the organization, i would give him the same freckles i gave sora, but over time i would fade those and give them to xion. but when they come back in kh3 maybe they both have freckles ? dont know. we'll see. anyways

the heart is probably sora's heart. it took me a little while to actually find pictures for reference but its not very consistent unless you have a heart of pure light which. sora does not. i made the light very strong because its sora's but theres a couple of purple veins at the top for like natural darkness + rip to sora. also since this is probably in the prologue of kh2 (dont ask i dont know either) i put a couple of tiny light cracks in there because his memories arent quite fixed :) white cos like castle oblivion but also because uhhhh light. yeah.

also roxas got black nail polish because it felt right :)

[kingdom-keyz769]

Quadruplets brother au

(My other account got a revamp so I’m kickstarting this account off again with the au that I wanted to post years ago but I was too shy too. Hope I get to brain rot about this again!)(this is obviously almost 3 years old and not at all fleshed out as much as my current au’s are but we had to start somewhere right?😅.)

So this au has been in my head for SO long and I thought I’d share it.

It starts off with their mother and father who one day decided to have a baby. Well, they weren’t expecting 4. They only bought stuff for one baby and didn’t have enough money for the other three. But despite that they continued to try to raise the children anyway. They couldn’t and decided to put all of them up for adoption (because they didn’t want them separated).

All 4 end up in an adoption center ready to be adopted at any time. But, Something happened in the adoption system where the 4 were registered as just themselves and not as quadruplets. So all 4 were adopted around the same time but by different families.

Ventus was adopted by Aqua and Terra (the Way-Finders)

Vanitas was adopted by Xehanort with his sons Ansem, Xemnas and Xehanort Jr who they call junior (he’s just young Xehanort). (The dark family)

Sora was adopted by Aerith and Zach (the fairs)

Roxas was adopted by Cloud and Tifa (the strifes)

They spent about 4 years without each other until kindergarten where a mutual friend (an oc of mine don’t worry bout it rn) of there’s pointed out that they look the same, and even got confused with them (as people who aren’t used to twins, triplets etc do). The teacher notices this and is like “wait a minute-“ and calls for a conference with the parents. They immediately notice the similarities and get in touch with the adoption center. They figure out that the boys were in fact quadruplets and they go off on the center, I kid you not.

They do a lot of government stuff and all the parents become the legal guardians of the boys. I guess you can say that their co-parenting. Since they’re co-parenting, the boys switch houses every month or so.

Ok now time for other characters and their significance to the story.

Xion is their cousin. Her mother and father really wanted to stay in touch with the boys, and even help get the boys in contact with their birth parents (unsuccessfully).

Kairi and Naminé are twins in this au, kairi is sora’s childhood friend and Naminé is Roxas’.

Riku is Sora’s and Kairi’s childhood bestfriend. His parents go abroad often and because they’re so close to Aqua and Terra, Riku stays with them for most of the time.

Xemnas is Xehanort’s son. He started a bakery called “13” and everyone who works there are called the “organization members”.

Ansem is Xehanort’s oldest son,

Junior (young Xehanort) is a second year in college.

Aqua is a dance instructor, she has her own studio in radiant garden (which would be a country?? Ion know I didn’t think that far)

Extras:

Kairi part times at aerith’s flower shop and Naminé too when she has time.

Vani is really into rock and he’s saving up so one day he will go to one of his favorite band’s concert.

The boys actually have days where they all sit down and talk to get stuff off of their chest or just relax. They do it on Saturday since “Saturday is for the boys”

During their Saturday time they lock themselves in their room (of which ever house they’re in for that Saturday) with a sign on the door that says “keep out” and no one is allowed inside until they’re done.

[venjamin-kingdomhearts]

yo this is completely random, but i just want you to know, i happened to see the post about writing a ventus and roxas fic and hi, im the author or AAR, i would 1000% leave a like a long comment on such a fic. it's 1 am and im very reminiscent on things rn, just thought id pass this along <3

oh my gosh! hi! this is so so sweet, AAR was SUCH a huge inspiration for me when it came out. it's actually the whole reason i started an a03, aaaand i think it might've been what encouraged me to start writing on my tumblr! oh man, i remember back in 2019, writing a roxas and ventus fic after reading AAR. BOY is it old, eheh... aaand i definitely see ven and roxas differently from then, not really into the whole "they see each other as brothers" angle anymore. anyhoo, im, like, SO honored you popped in to say hi?? this is like. SO sweet. i definitely need to re-read AAR again. oooh man apologies that this reply gets long, i'm just a bit excited! i love talking to people about these two...

the post you mentioned stumbling across is actually pretty old, eheh. i've written quite a bit since then!

Here's my ao3. You might notice i have a few Ventus and Roxas ship fics, which i TOTALLY understand isn't for everyone. i mostly write non-shippy stuff about them, anyways. I usually tag friendship posts about Ventus and Roxas . I even write headcanons about their friendship from time to time! heh, i'm kinda sitting on this unfinished ven and rox friendship fic right now. i'm definitely gonna finish it *eventually*-- but hell, maybe i'll just link the wip here lol

I hope i'm linking these correctly, but here are some ventus and roxas (and xion) thoughts i've written. and!!! i can totally recommend some of my favorite roxas and ventus friendship fics + blogs, too! just gimme the word and i'll compile some recommendations.

and, hey, it's been ages since i've started this fic and i haven't really gotten anywhere... but i'll share the work in progress here for anyone to see! here's chapter 5 of "five is company", if anyone wants to check it out. eheh, sorry this kinda turned into a self-advertisement. i just figured it'd be a good idea to compile some of my stuff here in case you were in the mood to read some ventus and roxas content! anyhoo, thank you so much for stopping by! it's... so very, very sweet of you to say hello to me. AAR really did inspire me a lot back in the day, and i hope life's been treating you well since the last update. it's awesome to see more posts from you, and definitely let me know if you want some recommendations for roxas and ventus fics.

[completelyclevername]

so we see in ddd that beyond sora's station of awakening, there's a replica of destiny island. which is where ventus, (probably vanitas?), xion, and roxas chill during their stay at sora's heart hotel.

which begs (i'm the one begging) the question, what was/is xehanort's area beyond his station of awakening?

is it destiny islands? where he spent his childhood, and wouldn't that be so ironic? if the world he was so desperate to leave became the location his heart claims as its own.

or is it scala ad caelum? where he was born and was trained to wield a keyblade along with his friends when he was older?

or is it somewhere else entirely? does ansem sod have a different place? xemnas (post heart starting to grow ofc)? does it change after terranort becomes a thing? or does it not matter since the heart stays the same?

but anyways! my next question is: is the player from union x chilling in xehanort's heart? like everyone in sora's. is there still enough of them left for that to be possible? their hearts might be a little separate after all the splitting xehanort seems fond of. and maybe their heart could be called upon in a similar way that sora calls on ven's during 3?

and i think the location that xehanort's heart reflects changes things (obviously, duh). if it's destiny islands then they're chilling on the beach and honestly? good for them, they deserve to relax.

but if it's scala ad caelum? they get to see the statue of ephemer and know for a fact that at the very least their sacrifice saved him. the player would get to see their friend's legacy.

all of that, of course, is only possible if part of the player lingers even after being reincarnated. but clearly it's something i like to imagine lol

ah. this ended up way more rambly than i intended. sorry and thanks for reading it! –_–;

[yzafre]

while having a breakdown while trying to sleep last night over a point I forgot for my fic, I came around to a very interesting question:

What is up with Aqua's Keyblade situation?

Right, okay, that probably requires some explanation to makes sense. We'll wrap back around to her later, there's some points we need to establish first:

One, dual wielding. Roxas' dual wielding, as the notable instance, is due to a dual-heart/ connection situation(excepting kh3? Maybe?? Idk what's going on at that point), whichever heart you particularly want to think it is(I take word of God as like... A helpful recommendation, to be ignored at my will. If it's not in the game it's not canon to me, sorry).

Even Sora's drive forms are tied to absorbing his party members, though. The other method is someone just... handing off their keyblade to you, like in the kh2 Xemnas boss battle.

Two, what I might call... abandoned Keyblades? Like in the graveyard and with Master's Defender. Seems to be a thing that happens upon death? But maybe not always? Confusing.

Anyways, specifically when Sora picks it up in kh3, it seems to work as just another form for his Keyblade, like using a keychain. His one Keyblade changes into it then back when showing Riku in the realm of darkness.

SO

All that being said. Aqua at the end of birth by sleep.

She passes Rainfell/Stormfall/her keyblade off to Terra before yeeting him out of the darkness for... unknown reasons? Was it needed to keep the armor in-tact, or something? In any case, it goes to the realm of light to become part of the pile of metal Xemnas creeps on.

Then, in the realm of darkness scene after, she is seen using Master's Defender. (I think she also uses this in 0.2, but it's been a while since I've looked at that game)

My question is ...how?

By established rules, summoning your Keyblade should get rid of previously existing instances - like that one dnd spell/ability, whatever it was. You can't just summon all the different versions of the keyblade you've acquired at once. You've got one keyblade, and you chose which keychain to use on it.

But Rainfell is still up there, for the aforementioned Xemnas creeping, while Aqua is actively using Master's Defender.

So. That leaves us with one of two conclusions:

Summoning Master's Defender and summoning her usual keyblade are two separate things, and she could have dual-wielded them if she wanted to. This conclusion would maybe hold water, given picking up a dead person's keyblade is obviously very different, except we've already established that Sora cycles to that form just like he can change out any of his other Keyblade's. It doesn't actually work differently. Add on that dual-wielding is tied to some sort of doubled-heart connection, and it becomes even more unlikely. You could perhaps argue that she's connecting to Eraqus's ghost, but... eh. With all the holes you can poke in this option, that leaves a completely different, very interesting theory:

It is possible to sever off your connection to a specific keyblade, letting it exist outside your influence and preventing you from summoning it. Whether this is a simple fact of Aqua being in the realm of darkness and the key being in the realm of light, or a more conscious decision, I don't know, but it's interesting to think about.

[magpiejay1234]

I will do over Days in a much, much later date now. We'll likely be moving to Tag Force 5.

****

Anyway, back to Days, due to BBS Volume 2 concept trailer, many people assumed Ventus moving away from his Chamber was him becoming Roxas. This is a particular pet horse of Frustrated Jacob, who very unambigiously dislikes the character, and everything he stands for. This is a common trope for KH1-primary fans, or as I like to call them, Genwunners of KH.

However, the game proper has the whole Shadow the Hedgehog style red herring of him being a replica, with the implication of Kairi's memories of Sora being the thing that allows him to leave the Org., so Nomura's original idea was something different, something we don't know, and probably never know, as many plot points in BBS V2 were repurposed in other games, primarily KH3.

So this is seemingly another case of Jacob forcing his interpretation, rather than Nomura's actual intention. Which is fair I guess, we end Xion's death with the whole Asuka hand to cheek pose in EoE, so a decent chunk of Days is meant to be up to interpretation.

Either way, it seems with the The Truth About Naminé thing, the whole ambiguity around Roxas seems to be intended by primarily by Kanemaki who wanted bring back her favourite character Naminé back, and since Xion is basically her OC, she needs to bring back the person she self-shipped herself with. And obviously as an easy out it is, the Replicas of characters without bodies is a consistent way to achieve this.

****

Since game crashed, I cannot say a full verdict about Days's storyline as I cannot get to the post-game stuff, but what I experienced so far up to Day 358 has been quite good, and gave me a similar experience to KH2 FM, despite Days having a more uneven script at parts. I consider the game version to be superior to movie version, due to added context for the rest of Org.

Do I consider this game deserves a remake? Sure.

Would I expect it to be as good? Not with current SE, and Nomura's current priorities (we would need add stuff to tease next game in MoM arc).

Would I expect this game to be remade over Re:Coded? Certainly not. As others noted, Re:Coded has a much better balanced gameplay, though I probably won't prefer it since it doesn't have the sheer power experience of the late-game Days has.

Considering the fandom's current disdain for the platforming, adventuring, and RPG aspects of KH over the character-action-combo gameplay against human bosses, I don't expect a game like Days to be ever made. Western Fandom really, really wants Final Fantasy franchise overall to become Devil May Cry with better writing, and that is nothing but a pure nightmare concept for me, and one that will further degenerate KH's plot structure for centuries.

Would I recommed this game? It will take a really long while you to get full hang of this game, since this game is the anti-Speedrun game due its visual novel structure, but if you are into visual novels over speedrunning action slashers, this game is the Kingdom Hearts game for you. Due to Kanemaki's influence, the story does better justice to the visual novel formula over BBS, and Coded's variants, not to mention there is tons of added context to KH2.

So yes, get a good setup, and play this game, and document every oddity here, since the stuff introduced here are the ones Nomura digs the least through, which means more people will be bamboozled when they come back.

Now we wait for the inevitable Strelitzia game, where you play as the Specter Nobody, playing the events of CoM from Marluxia's perspective. Just like CoM was partially based off SotN mixed with Castle of Illusions the Strelitzia game will be GBA Castlevania games with Soma Cruz mixed with the old DuckTales game.

[kicktwine]

Been meaning to ask, for your Ventus and Vanitas art... how do you feel about people tagging it vanven? Can the art be seen as platonic or romantic, do you care? I know you personally see them as brothers, but I also know others see the whole literal-other-half thing and go the opposite direction with it.

Oh gosh, dude, I don’t care. And I don’t see them as brothers, actually, it’s a fine interpretation and I use it for some aus, but I don’t see it that way in canon at all. The only ones I see as actual family are Aqua-Terra-Ven (adopted by dadmaster eraqus, even tho that’s not “canon” either, it’s just my favourite hc) and Lauriam-Litzy(obviously! I think they’re the only canon siblings). Ven and Vani though, I don’t like it. It’s reductive to me (<— about to get really snotty about ven and vani don’t worry about it), I really REALLY like the whole literal actual “we are pieces of some kid who used to exist mashed together with pure light and pure darkness respectively and turned into entirely different people from both who we used to be and each other, and no matter how much we can try to put that broken plate back TOGETHER, it’s never ever going to fit into the person we used to be ever again because the pieces have been rearranged” thing. Like I’m obsessed with it. They’re two aspects of the same person flung in wildly different directions like a messed up science experiment. You made a whole boy out of one boy’s crippling depression. And then you let ANCIENT DARKNESS GOO GET IN IT and expected that to be okay— like what is WRONG with you— anyways I just think that applying a stock familial relationship like that to canon takes away a loooot of fun existential nuance you can get out of them with the two halves of a person thing. it can be fun, in that mushroom zombies post they’re intended to be brothers that died together, but I think applying it to everything is (GOING TO BE SNOTTY AGAIN IM SORRY) really boring. No offense to anyone who sees them as brothers in canon!

same reason I think aus like liverpepper are THE CUTEST, but I wouldnt apply “Sora and Roxas are brothers” to canon either. That’s a boy and a boy made out of his body. They’re all little fake guys, they can do whatever they want. Just don’t do familial-romantic at the same time, ya weirdo. You know?

i don’t think I’ve ever posted art of them with the intent for it to be romantic… I have never, I think, gone into a drawing with the intent to ship. but if I did, I would tag it. I try to tag any ships when I reblog them, but I have DEFINITELY missed some! Sorry!

[narwhalwrath]

Let's talk about the KHUX finale as a whole rather than just as the piece we only just got.

So we started off with with Lauriam and Ventus alone in Ventus' room, and Lauriam is conflicted about Ventus because they have no way of knowing whether or not Ventus destroyed Darkness or whether it retreated back within Ventus (I mean we know that this Darkness is Vanitas but they don't), in which case Lauriam seems to contemplate taking out Ventus, only Strelitzia reminds Lauriam that giving into his negative emotions is exactly what Darkness wants - which obviously spooks the hell out of Lauriam and he turns around to find that she's not there. Having had time to think about this, I'd say that what I believe happened to Strelitzia after she was struck down by Darkness was that her Heart took refuge within Lauriam's, much in the same way Kairi's and Ventus's Hearts did with Sora's Heart in KH and KHBBS respectively. You might recall that Sora even saw Kairi at one point while he Heart was still within her Heart.

What does this mean though, well I believe that Strelitzia will return thanks to the Data Luxu pulled of her in Data-Daybreak Town, which is what he sent to the future via the Ark. Think of it as similar to how Roxas and Namine were brought back in KHIII, once Lauriam releases Strelitzia's Heart, it can join with the Data-Strelitzia, which is likely vacant, as the Data versions of the Dandelions were all occupied by their own Hearts presumably when they became Unchained and crossed into Data-Daybreak Town.

Moving on, Elrena is brought into the story to reveal that her Chirithy had seen Luxu and Strelitzia, which leaves hope for the others about Strelitzia, but doesn't do much more than confuse them otherwise and get her to join the party as they make for the Ark. Seriously, Elrena was completely underused in KHUX. I still think it's odd how Lauriam and Elrena act entirely different from Marluxia and Larxene, and I think it is even more odd how Nomura specified tht Lauriam and Marluxia are different characters rather than telling the interviewer who had asked the question what we are meant to believe: that Lauriam is Marluxia's Somebody.

To be clear, I don't think that he's not, simply that 4 years go by between when he, Elrena, Ventus, and Skuld woke up in the future and KHBBS and then nearly another 10 years (presumably) before Marluxia is found by Xigbar and Xaldin and Larxene is found by Xaldin and Lexaeus. We have no idea what happens then, and both had completely lost their memories, making it even more hard to say. However, Lauriam was shown waking in Dwarf Woodlands, while Elrena woke in what I assume to be Enchanted Dominion, both of which were some of the first Worlds to be swallowed by the Darkness when Maleficent began her pursuit of Kingdom Hearts at the end of KHBBS, so maybe that's how they fell to Darkness?

After Luxu sends the True Dandelion forward via the Ark, I noticed that, while Darkness explains its intention, it mentions that it plans to 'accompany the chosen one into the future to lay claim to Worlds not yet created'. This is odd, because later it explains that there are five Darknesses still in Data-Daybreak Town, and since only four of them confront Ephemer, Skuld, and Player, then that all but confirms Lauriam's suspicions. What's more, is that it engages Luxu in battle and then is missing when Brain, Lauriam, Elrena, and Ventus arrive in Daybreak Town to utilize the real Ark.

Where did Darkness go? Not within Ventus, as it would have had no opportunity to do so, and there's already an iteration of Darkness in there. Luxu is the only other candidate. It was revealed in the second part of the finale that the Master raised his apprentices in order to give the seven strongest iterations of Darkness a tangible form so that it could inevitably be struck down. This was the entire reason for the Keyblade War, and why the Foretellers had to be sacrificed. The conversation with Luxu all but confirms that those seven of the original Thirteen Darknesses were already destroyed, as they discuss how, after the Keyblade War, only the six Darkness we've now seen remained and found themselves within Data-Daybreak Town. The Master reveals this to be another part of his scheme, as Daybreak Town and its Data counterpart were constructed to act as a cage for Darkness that would be sprung as soon as the first pod of the Ark it utilized.

This trap is something Darkness knew after watching the Master compose the Book of Prophecies, the Master intentionally excluded Enchanted Dominion from the Worlds realized in the real world, instead trapping Maleficent within the Datascape much in the same way that he had done to Darkness. Darkness then helped Maleficent reach Daybreak Town via the virtual Ark in order to then have her use the real one, thereby triggering the ends of both iterations of Daybreak Town, which would motivate the Dandelions to use the Ark themselves, unknowingly providing Ventus to Darkness after another iteration utilized him to take the place of Strelitzia. While it would travel into the future to lay siege to Worlds not yet in existence, the other Darknesses in the Datascape would spread across the Data-Worlds. However, Darkness didn't concern itself with the parts of the Book of Prophecies which it considered unimportant to itself, which ultimately proved to be its undoing, because it missed out on the true plans of the Master, as Luxu later confirmed.

On the topic of Luxu, let's discuss his meeting with Brain, as well as his appearance in the Keyblade Graveyard. The most important part about these two parts is to know that, even though it appears as though Luxu possessed Brain, he didn't. Brain has just always resembled Luxu for whatever reason. I wonder if this could have something to do with iterations of the same person from two separate Worldlines? Why do I say this, because they made a point of noting the similarities between Skuld and Ava as well, on two separate occasions, and I would guess that with what we've seen in the finale, that it was intentional for this exact reason. Does this mean that all the Foretellers look like the Union leaders? I'd say no, I mean Ventus and Gula appear to bear physical similarities from what we can see (height give-or-take, jaw structure), but for sure Ephemer and Lauriam do not resemble Ira and Aced.

The two seen in the finale are clearly different because Luxu was stated in his Secret Reports of KHIII to have passed on No Name to on of the Union Leaders amid the chaos of the destruction of Data-Daybreak Town. The only one he came into contact with was Brain, so clearly Brain got No Name, thus its a done-deal, both are Brain, right? Wrong - as Brain then awakens generations later in Scala ad Caelum, not by using the Ark but by using Ephemer's memories passed down through the generations all the way to Sigurd, as his Waypoint, while his hat acted as the Medium. I believe that when Luxu claimed that Brain's life had to end, he merely passed on No Name to Brain and taught him how to unlock his Heart - or become Unchained, thereby allowing him to partake in said time travel and see through the destruction of Daybreak Town. I think what we see of "Brain" in the Keyblade Graveyard is like the scene from KHX:BC where Luxu arrives in the Keyblade Graveyard with No Name and the Box, just with his hood down, otherwise it wouldn't make sense for Luxu to have No Name, as he said he didn't have it anymore in the Secret Report.

I wonder if, given Master's Defender belonged to Brain originally and eventually makes its way to Eraqus - Brain's suspected grandson - if that means that Brain recclaims Master's Defender when he gets to Scala ad Caelum? I really felt for Ephemer toward the end because it became evident that when Ephemer and Skuld attempted to escape, Ephemer was caught in the destruction of Daybreak Town and left alone in the past. Although he created Scala ad Caelum from the ruins of Daybreak Town and began a new lineage of Keyblade wielders, it's sad that he died without the friends he had come to know throughout KHUX. I wonder also what Ephemer did with that last copy of the Book of Prophecies that Brain gave him - could it still be hidden somewhere in Scala ad Caelum?

In the end, Player had to fight Ephemer and Skuld in order to convince the 4 iterations of Darkness left in Data-Daybreak Town that he was on their side, as they did not seem to realize that their comrade had left with Ventus. This led to Ephemer sending Player and the Darknesses to Game Central Station, wherein Player trapped them and Data-Daybreak Town came crumbling down, just as the Master intended. This resulted in all the Dandelions falling into a deep Sleep, with their Chirithy's becoming the Dream Eaters we know today in order to protect them - only Player chooses not to Sleep and his Heart becomes a part of Xehanort's when he is born.

What's interesting to me about this is that we see Xehanort's mother, who looks sort of like Skuld, but I theorize is actually Brain's mother, which would thus make Xehanort the brother of Eraqus, but what I want to know is who that cloaked figure could be? Maybe it's Brain, who somehow knew about Player's Heart and took Xehanort away from Scala ad Caelum because Player's attack on Ephemer and Skuld (which I assume Ephemer would leave some note about for Brain, considering that Sigurd makes it sound as though they knew Ephemer was coming). I'm really not sure, but considering that Eraqus' grandfather isn't around anymore, that means he'd have had to have disappeared when Eraqus was young, and if it was because he was off with Xehanort, that could certainly explain it, but who knows.

Anyway I think that's everything I have to say about the finale (I hope it is at least lol) Let me know your thoughts below :) KHUXDR still has to finish later this year, so maybe these questions I have won't go unanswered for long.

[dahniwitchoflight]

KH Thematic Trio Roles

I feel like I've made this post before about just the BBS trio and KH1 trio, but I’ve been thinking about it and expanding it a bit, and I think there’s actually a funny way to phrase things that groups all the trios into one of three types of emotional arcs and I thought it was neat to see who ended up with who so I’m typing them all out here:

1) Their path led ever downward until they were left with nothing but despair

2) They started out strong and kind, but were manipulated into making regretful mistakes

3) They're young, newer, but fierce and they were cast down before their time

So first up, the trios im using are: 

BBS (Terra Aqua Ven), 

KH1 (Sora Kairi Riku),

Days (Axel Roxas Xion)

and Other (Namine, Repliku, Vanitas) (Yeah okay I know theyre not any sort of official trio together but they are a trio of special outcasts who don’t have a place of their own and they fit this pattern so im doing it anyway)

Anyway first off we got: 

1) Their path led ever downward until they were left with nothing but despair And our winners are: Aqua, Riku, Roxas, Vanitas

Now obviously this doesn’t include any happy ending earned because mostly everyone got a happy ending in KH3 anyway we’re just here for the feels of the tragedy

but in general, Aqua started off a master, slowly lost everything, and was left to rot in the dark world for a decade before losing her keyblade and ever her own heart

Riku had his heart slowly filled with darkness over time and ended up losing both his best friends, his heart to darkness, his appearance and even currently still has his moments of despair but it was strongest in Days for him, but he ended up the best out these four tbh

Roxas started off knowing nothing but on a high note, making friends and chilling, but the more he learned the more his friendships were torn apart until he lost his trust for Axel, all memory of Xion, any love for the organization at all, and eventually was beaten down and lost his own identity for kh2

Vanitas is the clear downward trended one, he started off bad as a darkness being ripped out of a piece of a heart, only knowing constant pain and agony while seething over how he could feel how happy Ventus was and eventually fully accepted he was nothing but darkness and lost his sanity a little bit

Next we have:

2) They started out strong and kind, but were manipulated into making regretful mistakes

Terra, Sora, Axel, Namine aka people who at one point fully caught protagonist syndrome and it bit them later

Terra was the dude who started his adventure and is most well known for how he fell to xehanort’s careful and insidious manipulation (Sidenote, KH1 only Riku also fits here technically, but as Riku’s arc evolved it slowly changed over time to falling to darkness and then rising out again so it goes above)

Sora’s major arcs especially in DDD and KH3 have all been about how the Xehanort’s basically just be toying with him the whole time but yeah the regets part don’t really happen until KH3 for sure (but hes the main chara of main charas so of course it gets fixed easily) 

Axel’s got main character syndrome obviously because he’s so memetically popular, but his story also fits, as a kid him and Isa had ideas about being gallant heroes, then oops they lose their hearts, and suddenly Saix is manipulating Axel once their nobodies into doing icky jobs for the sake of their “friendship” to the point where it ends in the tragedy of Days and Axel is left regretting what he might have done different, everyone seems him as the clever sassy one but they forget Days was about him slowly becoming resentful of how his youthful friendship with Saix turned into nothing but manipulating him all the time

Namine was lonely and just wanted a friend so she put a self insert into the story and tried to become the main special focus and ends up regretting it hard, and even though she changed memories, it was Marluxia and Larxene who manipulated and mocked her feelings of loneliness making it worse and leading her to do that

Finally, we got:  3) They're young, newer, but fierce and they were cast down before their time aka they basically died at the end of the games they appeared in and those moments fill me with grief more than anything especially because of how spunky they were: Ventus, Kairi, Xion, Repliku (again, KH3 fixes everything so it’s not that bad too)

Ventus, couldn’t be clearer here, he starts off s young and full of hope and at the end makes the decision to shatter his own heart just so that Vanitas won’t have his own way Kairi, we all waited so long for her keyblade to become relevant and then MX just shatters her like that (thankfully KH3 DLc fixes everything up)

Xion, do I even gotta say it?

Repliku, his last lines wondering where does a fake heart go when it dies as he lies disappearing hurt me deep anyway yeah just thought that was neat to see the groups of people who might relate emotionally to eachother and how it’s not always as clear cut like all the soras together or all the rikus etc

But yeah,

Aqua, Riku, Roxas get to bond over life sucks syndrome (and drag Vanitas kicking and screaming along for the ride) Terra, Sora, Axel and Namine learn to stop constantly apologizing to people when and Ventus, Kairi, Xion and Repliku just be vibing like Same Death? Same Death!

[fuzz-onyx]

I have recently completed all 3 routes for KH: Birth by Sleep and I wanna talk about it:

This one made me feel more things than the accumulation of the past couple of games. I love it. (SPOILER WARNING for GAME)

But I'm also sad now, and kinda dislike Terra a bit. Speaking of Terra:

The Terra route:

- Him having darkness in his heart makes no sense! It made more sense for Riku to have darkness since it was obvious that he wanted power, as well as exploring more shit than an island. There is motivation, and there's conflict with Riku and his old life.

But with Terra, there is a one sided conflict, he's learning all the good things about light and dreams and beliving and stuff, but he got no desire for power as the people around him claim to be. He isn't drawn to darkness AT ALL. Yes, there is hades trying to get Terra to conquer/master the darkness in him, but it was all deciet anyway.

Yes, he did some bad shit, most of it was unintentional or being controlled. Not the greatest keyblade warrior ever.

- Xehanort is a conniving bitch who is obviously evil. That is all.

- I do find it interesting that instead of using the power of friendship when saving Ventus, he drew on darkness. Very neat.

- At the end of his route I was pressing f to pay respect to the dearly departed. Especially after Aqua's route, but I'll get to that later.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

but first ✨

The Ventus route:

- baby, baby boy, child who protec and attacc. Little harbringer of death that one.

- The X-blade is pretty interesting. It kinda made me wonder why an X-blade wasn't formed near the ending of the first KH game since Riku at the time was a consumed by darnkess and Sora is good-boy-friendship-light-kachow. Like the clash of the two. I dunno.

Also finally getting some sort of idea as to why Xehanort wants kingdom hearts, so sorta a villain origin story but not really?

- Ven and mickey together... that is all.

- Also because of Ven's route I think I finally understand the whole Roxas debacle. Its gonna take a bit to explain my theory, but here we go:

In beginning of whole game, Xehanort thought Ven was gonna die and took him to Destiny islands where our first protags were. My theory is that Sora gave Ven a piece of his heart in so he could live. Its also this connection which is why Vanitas looks like Sora, since Van and Ven have a bit of a connection, and Sora's heart piece was in the place of Van's heart-piece.

Also Ventus route ending is the reason why Roxas looks like Sora. So yeah. Not going to indepth but the summary is that they got a connection. It explains alot.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Now for the final character and best girl✨

The Aqua route:

- I didn't really notice it with the others Until I was playing with Aqua, but I found the association with side characters very interesting. Like: Terra was with the Villains for most of his playthrough, Ven was with the princesses and their friends, and Aqua was with the people helping said princessess and getting their happy endings. Neat little character parallels, very nice 👍

- Aqua is the only Keyblade master out of the three, and that really isn't saying much. She's super weak in the beginning, and that's saying something - since i was playing proud mode for all their routes. It was hard, but I eventually figured it out. Also I died alot in Aqua's route the most. so that's a thing.

- Something that I'm pretty happy about while playing the three routes, is that while each character moves in the same areas and overlaps at times, each have their own section of the world to explore. Very nice 👍

- Now for the ending... Oh boy:

So we got terra fighting Xehanort - he lost and got possessed :(

Ven fighting Vanitas - externally and internally - forging the X-blade ... sorta - he won, but broke his heart in the process, not great :(

As for Aqua.... we get some context to everything. After fighting Braig (Xigbar but in the past) we fight a possessed Ven weilding a completed X-blade. I thought that this would be the hardest fight out of the entire main story... So after using the power of friendship we help Ven break the X-blade and free him.

So, at the end of Aqua's route, we got a sleeping Ven, a possessed Terra, and a sad Aqua. AT LEAST WE GOT A FINAL EPISODE AYY?

Now for the final episode of the entire game:

- All the levels are higher and easier to level up in..... wanna know why? haha-hahaha-HAHAHAHA--

- Possessed Terra is the hardest fight in the entire main game and he was scary. So I died SEVERAL times. So I leveled up a bunch and changed spells and attack stuff, and I eventually defeated Xehanort... but I didn't get terra back D':

So now I'm stuck in the realm of darkness and feeling hopeful but SAD WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

Now for some final notes:

- Its cool seeing all the characters from the past games, including the organisation 13 characters before they became nobodies.

- This game had some slightly different mechanics, but after I got used to them, it was so much better than the previous ones.

- Leveling up in this game is actually FUN. Merging spells together, also cool.

- Seeing new disney worlds was great, love it, 10/10.

- Seeing the development of not only the characters, but the development of how the story is told and the quality of it all... its great, I can see why people like it apart from the gameplay.

so that's my thoughts on the game, can't wait to play more :D

[aealzx]

It was in the middle of a more somber breakfast with the others that Aqua got another call on her phone. She was quick to answer it of course, but for once in the past day and a half it turned out to be good news.

“Really?” Aqua sounded like she didn’t believe what she’d just been told, but a hesitant smile was still growing on her face. “I’ll be right there,” she said quickly before hanging up. “Master Eraqus is awake,” she announced as she was already standing up, tears in her eyes just barely being held back.

It was a relief that washed over everyone, the other five giving a mixture of sighs and giggles at the announcement. They were quick to clean up and follow Aqua down the winding halls to the room Eraqus was staying in. It was a little hard to keep up with her, and Roxas ended up waving the others on ahead, not wanting to slow them down. But luckily for him Axel wasn’t going to leave him in the dust, and ended up scooping him up off the ground so they all could reach the room together.

Aqua was the first to get there, and after excitedly opening the door she ended up freezing with hesitation. Eraqus still had his eyes closed for the first moment, but when he heard someone come in he blinked them open to look over. “... Aqua,” he greeted, sounding obviously tired, but not as weak as one would expect.

“Master!” Aqua cried after hearing her name, rushing forward as she could no longer keep the tears back. She was careful not to put any pressure where he’d been hurt, but still had to get a hug in. “I was so worried.”

“I’m sorry,” Eraqus apologized, wrapping her in a warm hug and leaning his chin on her head. “It’s going to be alright. I’m not going anywhere,” he assured, giving her a gentle pat on the shoulder.

“Ven, and Terra…,” Aqua mentioned while the others filed into the room quietly, though she wasn’t able to bring up specifics.

“... What about them?” Eraqus asked, trying to remain calm but feeling increasing worry. He ended up catching sight of Roxas as Axel was setting him back on his feet too, and had a silent question about his condition as well.

“They’re here too, but not doing well,” Roxas spoke up bluntly, but figured it was better to break the news instead of letting Eraqus dwell on any other, worse thoughts.

Riku flinched at the abruptness of Roxas’ voice, but was thankful for the ice breaker. “Terra was injured with a blow to the head. He’s out of surgery, but he hasn’t woken up yet,” he added, looking over to the others for confirmation, in case they had gotten any updates other than that.

“And Ven is with Sora in reverse isolation. Ven got a bad case of pneumonia, so…” Kairi offered as well, also looking to the others to see if they had heard anything different.

That wasn’t as bad as it could have been, so Eraqus relaxed slightly. He could understand why Aqua was still so upset though, and gave her a firm squeeze. “... and Roxas?” Eraqus asked, a little bit of firmness in his tone. As far as he knew Roxas hadn’t been anywhere near home when everything had happened.

“Xemnas tried to kidnap Terra. So I beat him up,” Roxas answered with a smug smile. As he’d expected, his response earned a few snorts from the others, including a small one from Eraqus, so he knew he wasn’t in trouble. Too much trouble anyway.

“You’re grounded. But thank you,” Eraqus responded bluntly, knowing that Roxas was expecting no less. “No leaving this hospital until everyone else is discharged a well, or until I say otherwise.”

“....Okay,” Roxas nodded, not really liking being confined to the building, but finding it fair for having done something so dangerous. And when Eraqus went back to focusing more on Aqua, Roxas figured he may as well call Sora and give them the good news as well. If Sora was even awake yet.

______________________

previous snippet

Eraqus is one of my favorite characters, even if he did a big dumb, so there was no way I was going to kill him off XDD

[yo-namine]

happy monday, have some headcanons/ramblings about Naminé and Roxas's relationships with their Others

Kairi and Namine are very protective of one another, and both carry a certain amount of guilt towards the other: Kairi for "stealing" Naminé's existence, and Naminé for trying to replace Kairi in Sora's memory (and temporarily costing Kairi her memories of Sora himself). Their friendship starts off as one of obligation, basically; they both feel that they owe the other one something after what they've put each other through.

But that feeling doesn't last too long, at least from Kairi's side. Naminé's kind of overwhelmed by the novelty of someone genuinely enjoying her company and wanting to be around her with 0 ulterior motives. She initially sees a lot of Kairi's friendliness toward her as some magnanimous act of selflessness that just proves what a perfect person her Other is, when in actuality, it's just Kairi being a decent human being who happens to like her, lol. 

The thing is, Naminé feels like Kairi's guilt was totally unfounded because she viewed going back to Kairi's heart as the best end scenario for her; the only alternative (as far as Naminé knew) was to fade to darkness. Having a heart of her own, or even a life of her own, presumably wasn't even an option, and even wanting that would seem selfish to her after all the trouble she'd caused. Not to mention the fact that Naminé possesses a very dangerous power that has been used to hurt people before, and she may’ve seen locking herself in Kairi’s heart as a sort of precautionary measure against that happening again.

Meanwhile, Kairi just assumes Naminé would want her own life separate from her, but Naminé actually finds having that much freedom dropped on her at once a little overwhelming. When Kairi initially tries to give Naminé space by, idk, leaving her to herself during some social gig or suggesting she go hang out with so-and-so without Kairi being there, Naminé prefers to stick with her anyway, lol. Naminé doesn't mind "sharing" her life with Kairi because really, she feels like it rightfully belongs to her anyway.

Kairi eventually realizes all this and is just like "...Girl..................... No." And it takes time, but she does help Naminé gradually unlearn all of this.

And all this is totally different from Sora and Roxas's dynamic. Like I think Sora—who's always 10000% ready to jump right into the personal business of total strangers—would want to be part of Roxas's life and would always be checking up on him to make sure he's doing well (and if he isn't, Sora's ready to drop everything and fix whatever the problem is ASAP). There's nothing really wrong with that, but Roxas remembers all that time he spent confined to Sora's heart. The two of them shared a body for over a year, so like, Roxas thinks they've spent enough personal time together, thank you very much. He gets annoyed by Sora pestering him all the time, but that said, if Sora goes like, two days without contacting him, Roxas starts to miss his nosiness, lmao.

But it's still a point of contention between them. Obviously Roxas likes Sora and all, but he also likes having space away from him and needs a little reassurance now and then that certain things are his and not his Other's. And Sora's coming from the almost opposite end, wanting to share everything with Roxas because that's what friends do. But Roxas can't help but view this as just having to cede more of himself and his life to Sora, even though he knows that's not Sora's intention at all.

[excusemewhileiplaykh]

It’s Possible Kairi Opened the Door at Destiny Islands in KH1

Ok, so... hear me out.

We are told out right or it is implied several times throughout the series that Riku was the one who opened the door, making it possible for him, Sora, and Kairi to leave the islands.

Yet, we never outright see Riku open the door. We can guess that it happens before Sora finds him on the play island, but the CoM novel puts this into doubt.

In Riku’s side of the novel (pages 286-288 if you have the english version), he describes what happened on the island on the night of the storm.

As you can see from this recollection, Riku never actually opens the door. He may have inadvertently opened it, but whenever a door is opened in the series, a keyblade is always present. Moreover, Riku had not summoned Kingdom Key, or any keyblade for that matter, at that point. (Remember: Sora was the one who “delivered” the keyblade to him in Hollow Bastion. He hadn’t summoned a keyblade before then it appears.)

I also find it interesting that Ansem tells Riku “the door will open soon” (second page inserted, underlined), as if when they are talking in the cave, it has yet to open.

This would further suggest that the door opens between Riku leaving the cave and meeting Sora.

So... who opened the door?

Let’s keep in mind that both Kairi and Riku had the keyblade inherited to them by Aqua and Terra, respectively. 

So, theoretically speaking, both Kairi and Riku could have both opened the door, as they both had the ability to summon keyblades.

Moreover, since the door was inside the cave, the person who must have opened it must obviously be someone inside the cave. The only two left inside the cave after Riku left were Kairi and Ansem. Ansem did not have the ability to summon a keyblade because of the circumstances of his existence (being a heartless, not having a body, etc.).

All of this evidence put together makes Kairi the most likely person to have opened the door. But, there are complications with this interpretation.

For one, at no point during KH 1 does Kairi ever summon her keyblade (that we see anyway). You would think she would have summoned it after Sora got turned into a heartless in order to protect him, but she does not. (Then again in KH3, Sora could have easily used his keyblade to protect Kairi from Terranort, but he instead shields her with his body much like Kairi does in KH1). It seems she first gets her keyblade in KH2 when Riku gives it to her. But how does Riku summon her keyblade anyway?

I would suggest that Riku actually changes his Way to Dawn into Destiny’s Embrace and then hands Destiny’s Embrace over to Kairi. I think Riku is able to do this because of the way that keychains and different keyblades work in Kingdom Hearts.

In terms of Kairi and her keyblade, it occured to me that most keyblades aren't based on physical objects but are more connected to memories or connections. We usually don't have physical objects as keychains (i.e. like in the case of Oathkeeper), but we get new theoretical keychains after we finish a world and establish a deep connection with the patrons of that world.

Thus, it seems keychains are based on these fonds memories rather than actual physical keychains. I went more into detail about how keychains work in this post if you want more context.

So if keychains are based on memory, theoretically it is possible then that someone may have seen someone else’s keyblade and could then summon that very keyblade based on that memory. You could even say something similar occurs with Roxas who probably has memories of Sora wielding Oathkeeper and Oblivion and this may have helped him manifest those keyblades, along with the fact that he had Sora’s memories of his bond to both Kairi and Riku.

So what does the fact that keyblades being connected to memory relate to Kairi and her keyblade?

Well as I explained earlier, its been told to us that Riku opened the door and this makes sense because Riku had the potential to wield the keyblade from Terra, saw the keyhole before when he was young (scene from before Monstro in KH1 and after Neverland in KH1), etc. But again, it seems as if the first time Riku wields the keyblade is at Hollow Bastion. So how could he open the door without a key? Furthermore, we only see the door actually open when Sora goes to the cave to find Kairi. That's when it flies open.

Also, Kairi could have seen the keyhole just as much as Riku because she got the potential to wield the keyblade from Aqua, much like how Riku gets it from Terra. It is possible then that on that night in the presence of the keyhole and under duress, her keyblade came to her. If she did open it with her keyblade, Ansem would have saw this. Thus, because Ansem was inside Riku, he would have remembered seeing her keyblade. Riku would have been able to conjure it up for her because his heart was connected to Ansem and thus connected to Ansem’s memories. This is similar to how Sora had access to Kairi’s memories in KH1 (for instance, when he recognizes Radiant Garden in the slideshow in the Deep Jungle) and how Sora has access to Roxas’ memories in KH2 and KH3. Moreover, remember that YMX confirms in DDD that Ansem had access to Riku’s memories, so it would not be surprising for this relationship to work both ways.

Also keep in mind that in Chain of Memories, you gain the ability to wield different keyblades by gaining cards of those keyblades. The cards in Chain of Memories, of course, represent memories. Thus, I believe it is entirely probable that a keyblade, even if it is not originally your own, could be summoned if you have the potentiality to wield and access to the memory of that keyblade (again, think about Roxas with Oathkeeper and Oblivion).

So let’s say Kairi was the one who opened the door, let’s say Riku can summon her keyblade because he has access to a memory in which she used it. Why, then, would Kairi open the door?

Remember, that much like Riku, Kairi also wanted to leave the islands with Sora. She even tells Sora in KH1 that she wants to leave with him. Of course, Kairi plays this off as a joke, but it wouldn’t be farfetched for Kairi to have been partially serious. Sora is obviously important to her and she had sensed that Riku had “changed” and perhaps thought this change could threaten her relationship with Sora. She probably wanted to her friendship and much like how Riku was afraid of being left behind by Sora and Kairi, perhaps Kairi had the same fear. 

I propose then that she may have been egged on by Ansem, and in desperation after she was left alone by her best friend (reference the COM novel pages), she opens the door, figuring much like Riku in this moment, that she would be able to leave the islands with her best friends, but most importantly Sora. After she opened the door and did what Ansem wanted of her, it is possible he then he extracted her heart and even moved her body. When Sora enters the cave and “sees” Kairi, this may just be an illusion, much like in Traverse Town when he sees Yuffie as Kairi.

This is, of course, is all very speculative, but I think nonetheless, this theory could be true. Kairi being the one who opens the Destiny Island door could help resolve how Riku summons her keyblade and help explain how the door opens without Sora or Riku opening it at the moment. It is possible this could all be disproven in the future, but I don’t think we should ignore where all this evidence leads. 

[nadziejastar]

OMG, thank you so much for sending this! And thank you to the person who translated it! This story proves to me that Lea and Isa were just too gay for the mainstream Kingdom Hearts series. Seriously.

We thought we could save that girl. I don’t know why we felt that way.

The little story is very nice. It’s about as good as it can possibly be given the shitty source material that is KH3. I thought it was hilarious how Isa has pretty much nothing to say about Subject X. Oh yeah, she sounds so important to him here, doesn’t she? Isa sacrificed everything for her, lol. Maybe you just wanted to help her, Isa, because you had a good heart. Ever think of that? 

But for real, what a crock of shit that whole idea is. Skuld was just shoehorned into their story because Axel and Saïx were too gay otherwise. That’s all it its. Just blatant homophobia, and I’m disappointed in Square and Disney for it. It’s okay to shiptease popular same-sex couples, but as soon as there’s an actual same-sex couple, they go out of their way to fuck it up like this. Pathetic.

Yes, I thought that I didn’t need you with me anymore.

So, yeah, Isa doesn’t give a shit about Skuld. They can’t even force him to seem like he cares. On the other hand, Isa sure had TONS to say about Lea in this story. I’m not surprised that there’s all this subtext hinting that Isa really loved Lea. That’s my favorite part about this story. It’s just so gay. Isa said his life had no meaning if Lea didn’t need him. Lea was his purpose.

“Kairi…? Oh, I expect she’s catching up with her friend from the darkness,” he said as if it were nothing of much concern.

“What’s that mean?!” Sora demanded.

“She doesn’t need you anymore.” Saïx smiled, but the expression didn’t reach his eyes.

It just makes me even more pissed off over how badly KH3 ruined Isa. There was so much wasted potential with the LeaIsa relationship. IMO, it’s still the most complicated and interesting relationship in the series. At least before KH3, anyway.

Ultimately, what is a heart?

What are friends?

Is there any meaning to making connections with your heart?

I’m not blaming the writer of this story or anything. They did the best they could with the cruddy source material. But I gotta be honest, this story still sounds like it’s written from Saïx’s point of view, not Isa’s. He just sounds so…robotic? If that makes sense. Like, he still doesn’t sound fully human here, if you ask me.

It was just that if he went back and reported that he couldn’t find anything, he would have to deal with those attempts at “personality”—the sneers, the snide remarks, the only trappings of human emotion that Saïx ever showed. Not that Saïx was even capable of annoyance or disappointment, of course, what with the lack of a heart and all.

Saïx was very, very cold and unfeeling. He couldn’t understand friendship or what it meant to have a heart.

In a way, Saïx put more effort than any of them into pretending he had a heart, Axel thought. And yet, he was more lacking than any of them.

He was the most Nobody-like organization member. There was a distinct lack of humanity with his personality. He didn’t even want to be that way. He desperately wanted a heart so he could feel like a normal human again. He was a tragic character. A victim. But…there was clearly something very, very wrong with him. He was NOT normal. And this never gets addressed. It really bothers me.

“I know I won’t forget you. Believe me, I try all the time,” Isa replied with a bit of humor in his tone.

“See? I’m immortal!”

“You’re obnoxious.”

I gotta say, I don’t like how Isa is now being written like Saïx, as if that was just his natural personality. In BBS, Isa actually seemed VERY sensitive. He simply seemed reticent with his feelings. He seemed like he had very strong affection for Lea, but was too shy to express this outwardly. So he teased Lea all the time.

Lea seemed to understand that Isa’s teasing was simply his way of showing affection, so he enjoyed their banter. A lot. Although Isa was shy, he still gave me the impression that he was a totally normal kid, like Lea. He had a good sense of humor and acted playful. He didn’t seem to be so…stiff or unable to understand emotions like he does in this story.

Talking to Roxas and Xion always brings back memories of my human life, back when I was a kid. It’s a weird sensation. I ought to be able to share all this with Saïx, but I just don’t feel like it anymore. It’s strange, but I’m content with just missing what’s gone. I’m not the one who changed. You did.

Lea was a normal human kid. Axel was a normal Nobody. Isa was a normal kid. Saïx was NOT a normal Nobody. So why would Isa be so different from Lea? IMO, there’s no good explanation for why Isa changed from a normal shy kid in BBS to what he became as a Nobody. This…unfeeling blob of a man. At least a backstory as a human test subject would make his personality understandable.

“Say something. Have you even thought that maybe I can’t erase Roxas?” Axel said, in a playful tone, and Saix finally looked up.

“It’ll be all right. ‘Cause I’m tough.” Axel puffed out his chest.

“How stupid,” said Saix, and for a moment he smiled.

It feels like KH3 had to sugarcoat Saïx a lot, in order to portray him more sympathetically. Saïx had a few moments where he showed genuine emotion and love for Axel (feelings that I don’t even think were his). He acted shy in this scene, for instance. He acted more Like Isa here. But generally, it was very, VERY hard to get anything out of him, no matter how hard Axel tried to connect with him.

After a while I became selfish, and turned into a foolish person.

I cannot say enough how much I loathe how KH3 handled Saïx. He was deprived of all the complexity and sympathy he could have had if he had been an abuse victim and human test subject. And at the same time, they also had to try and whitewash his character in order to redeem him. KH3 writes Saïx as just this normal guy who is a bit bad with expressing his feelings and as a result, acted selfish when he lost his heart. His personality as a Nobody was just an extension of his personality as a human.

Saïx: He won nothing and is nothing. He couldn’t stand the emptiness of being without a heart, and that led to his demise. He was foolish and weak.

But that’s just not true. Saïx wasn’t just a bit brusque. He was a monster. His moniker was “Demoniac Dancing in the Moon”. He was demonic. There’s no need to downplay this. He was not just this tsundere guy who just needed to apologize for being a bit douchey. He was savage and acted downright evil much of the time. Being bad with emotions doesn’t even begin to describe him. Nor does it explain why he acted the way he did, especially with Axel.

Saïx: All I did was find a place to send everyone who was getting in the way.

Axel: Well, it’s nice to know where I stand! Sheesh…

Saïx: Did you come back in one piece or didn’t you?

For instance, it’s never explained WHY Saïx pushed Axel away in the first place. In KH3, they’d have you believe that all the problems started when he became jealous of Axel’s closeness with Roxas and Xion. But that’s obviously not true. Saïx was messed up long before Axel got close to them. And the only reason Axel spent all his time with them was because Saïx had already changed and pushed him away constantly. There’s no explanation given for why Saïx acted so cold with Axel all the time. None.

In canon, Saïx’s personality just makes NO SENSE. Why did he abuse Axel if he felt like Axel gave his life meaning? It wasn’t just because he had no heart, because Axel didn’t have one, other. And if they both loved each other, they should have been able to grow hearts rather easily, anyways. So why did Saïx have such a black hole for a heart? In KH3, they’d have you believe that that’s just how he was. It was just his flawed personality and possibly him being upset that Axel wasn’t as obsessed with finding Subject X as he was. Not because his heart was swallowed by Xehanort’s after he was a human test subject.

Yes, I thought you didn’t need me anymore. If you didn’t need me, then I no longer held meaning. That’s why I sacrificed myself to that man.

He said he sacrificed himself to Xehanort because Axel didn’t need him anymore. But what I wanna know is, why he thought that! Axel never pushed Saïx away. Ever! He tried and tried and tried to get close to him. But Saïx always pushed Axel away. I hate how KH3 almost makes it seem like Saïx was justified to feel abandoned by Axel and hate him. I think that’s totally unfair to Axel. He did everything he could for Saïx. Axel almost killed Roxas and Xion for Saïx’s sake. And Saïx was never grateful to him or anything.

You’re ultimately still a crybaby, but you don’t need the marks anymore.

Saïx’s personality in KH3 just feels so random to me. In canon, there’s just no depth or substance to him as a character. He’s just this weird guy who is really bad with his emotions. I swear, there was so much more going on with him that was left on the cutting room floor. Like, why does he call Lea a crybaby? What is that all about? I have my theories, but still. Nothing about Axel and Saïx’s canon backstory made any sense. It pisses me off so much.

[mastrechef]

I finally finished one of my other writing projects, so I came back to this early. So here’s the next installment of my Kingdom Hearts fic that I still have yet to come up with a name for.

If you haven’t read the previous parts, here are links:

Part 1: https://mastrechef.tumblr.com/post/610880203769757696/this-idea-has-been-stewing-in-my-mind-for-a-while

Part 2: https://mastrechef.tumblr.com/post/611540563650609152/more-kingdom-hearts-stuff-just-because-i-feel-like

The scene was familiar, and yet at the same time not. She looked like no more than a doll, motionless and absent of any sign of  life aside from the faint rise and fall of her chest. Looking on, Namine felt the usual stirring of remorse as a different image superimposed itself over Kairi. She had already spent far too much time standing by the wayside, watching while others slept away, unaware of the world moving on without them. To be in that situation again, even if—or perhaps, especially if—her involvement was minimal, left her feeling unsettled.

“How are things looking?” And there was Riku, checking in for updates like clockwork.

“Still nothing I’m afraid. Ienzo and the others were thinking it might be time to wake her up.” Riku nodded distractedly. Namine contemplated him for a moment. He had been running himself ragged lately, although he tried his best not to show it, his misplaced guilt over Sora’s disappearance driving him to extremes. Idly, she wondered when he’d last had a decent night’s sleep.

Speaking of sleep… “I heard you’ve started looking into your dreams for leads.”

“That’s right.” He huffed in discontent. “I feel like there’s something there, but I don’t really know what it is I’m looking for.”

Namine pursed her lips together, debating to herself. There had been something on her mind for a while now, something she hadn’t really known how to address. If anyone should know about it, it was Riku; yet, she still found herself hesitating. Her powers had caused nothing but pain, and if she could live the rest of her life without using them again she would be happy. More than anything, she wanted them to be gone. But in this case, her lingering connection to Sora might be their best lead. As much as she disliked it, she owed him this much.

“There’s something I need to show you,” she said eventually, flipping through the sketchbook she carried with her everywhere. She skipped past all the old drawings of Sora and of Roxas, past the newer sketches of Radiant Garden, finally coming to a halt on an image that stood out from the rest in its monochrome coloration. “The place in your dream...does it look like this?”

He took the offered sketchbook from her to examine the drawing in detail. “The buildings themselves look different, but something tells me they’re the same place. How did you know?”

“I suspected as much,” she said mostly to herself. “It was so strange, I wasn’t sure what to make of it at first. It seems my ability to influence Sora’s memories still works. I pulled this from some of his newest memories.”

“You mean you can tell what Sora’s been up to? What he’s doing right now?”

“Sort of. The memories are distorted, and they’ve only been getting worse.”

“Still, it’s another avenue we can pursue.” He took Namine’s hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Thank you for sharing this with me.” Riku understood what it was that she was offering; he also understood just what it would cost her. Already she felt anxious. For Sora, she reminded herself.

...

He’s like a stray cat, Sora couldn’t help but think when Vanitas inevitably hunted him down again, this time aimlessly wandering the winding city streets. About as prickly as one too. He made a mental note never to mention that out loud. He had a feeling Vanitas would take issue with the comparison. Deciding to let the other start the conversation this time, Sora kept his silence. He didn’t have to wait long.

“Who is that guy you’re always fighting?”

“His name’s Yozora, although I don’t think that’s really him.” Sora didn’t bother to elaborate further. He had the barest inkling of what was really going on, though Yozora’s role in it was the one thing he was certain of.

Nevertheless, Vanitas obviously understood anyway. “He’s the reason you’re stuck here.” It wasn’t a question; rather it was a confident assertion.

“Yeah.” Sora took a moment to scrutinize the other boy. There were deep bags under his eyes and weariness hung over him like a cloak. While physically they looked to be about the same age, Vanitas looked to be much more weighed down, like every instant just existing was felt as a physical burden. An ache of a different kind bloomed in his chest. “Why don’t you stay with me for a while?” he offered on impulse. “My heart has always been a sanctuary for others. I was able to help Ventus become whole again; I could do the same for you.”

Vanitas shot him a flat stare. “You don’t get it.”

“I’m not dumb. I don’t know all the details, but I know that everything you’ve been through must have been painful.” He had enough vague impressions from Roxas and Xion to understand that much. And he himself knew intimately the pain of not being enough; not strong enough, not fast enough, not worthy enough. More gently, he said, “At least if you stay with me you won’t ever be alone. And if you want to sleep and ignore the world for a while, that’s fine too.”

The sound of Vanitas’ footsteps halted, and Sora stopped as well to look back at him.

“Why are you trying so hard to save me?” If he was trying for aggressive, all he achieved was sounding mildly annoyed. Above all else, he just sounded tired. It made Sora incredibly sad to see someone in such a state.

“Because you deserve a chance. All you’ve known is darkness, but that doesn’t mean you can’t have something else.” He put as much sincerity into both his words and his expression as he could. He wanted—no, needed Vanitas to believe him.

In the face of Sora’s earnest desire to help, Vanitas was unable to refuse. Sora could read it in his eyes. He beamed. Vanitas stubbornly avoided looking at him directly, seeming to already be regretting his decision, but all the same, he didn’t call up a dark corridor to get away.

“So how does this work?”

“I have no clue. I don’t really remember how it happened before. Maybe—if it’s anything like the power of waking, it’ll come to me when I need it.”

Without warning, Sora grabbed Vanitas by the wrist to pull him close, simultaneously placing a hand on his chest, digging blunt nails in slightly when he tried to flinch away. He closed his eyes in concentration. He had opened his heart to Ventus once, and later to Kairi, Roxas, and presumably Xion, even if he hadn’t been conscious of it at the time. Now, he just needed to replicate that. His heart would lead the way.

There was a slight shift in energy, and a tingle went down his spine. Sora could sense it now, the flickering pinprick of light coated in darkness that was Vanitas’ heart. He focused on it, drawing it out. Vanitas exhaled in a woosh, but Sora didn’t acknowledge it, focused as he was. Come to me, he willed. There was a sudden pulse and Sora nearly lost his balance as Vanitas disappeared in a shower of light. In his mind’s eye, he could see Vanitas descending gently onto his station of awakening.

“Oh,” he whispered breathlessly. The void that had opened up when Ventus woke was shrinking, the cracks in his heart filling in. The old, persistent ache was gone. In its place he felt...surprisingly warm, like a flame had ignited within his chest. It was a little strange, but not unwelcome. Apparently he wasn’t the only one who had forgotten what being whole was like.

You cozy in there? He was only a little startled to actually receive a reply.

Just peachy. Now shut the fuck up and let me sleep. But don’t think I won’t take over if you start doing stupid shit.

Got it.

Sora lifted his gaze to the stars overhead, renewed resolve flowing into him. He had a feeling that his next meeting with Yozora would go very differently.

Dodging immediately to the side had become so routine as to be pure muscle memory. He brought his keyblade up to block the swift alternating succession of laser beams and sword strikes. Feeling faster than he had in all their previous battles, Sora took the initiative to charge Yozora, landing a couple solid strikes to his midsection. Yozora backflipped away, and Sora held back, knowing he would be readying his next attack.

Phantom sword slashes flew through the air as Sora danced around them. Narrowly twisting away from another one, he threw a firaga his opponent’s way, distracting him enough to allow Sora to close the distance once more. A surge of exhilaration flooded his body. After what felt like an entire lifetime fighting heartless or nobodies or any resident big bad that was up to no good, battle was in his blood. As much as he’d like nothing better than to return to Destiny Islands with Riku and Kairi, he doubted he could settle into a peaceful life. A restless part of him would always seek out adventure or the adrenaline rush of a good fight.

When Yozora retreated from his assault again, Sora tensed his muscles in preparation. He rolled away before the glowing red pyramid could trap him. As soon as he got to his feet, he instantly spun around, bracing his keyblade against Yozora’s lightning quick onslaught. He evaded a second pyramid, then cast thundaga to interrupt the other’s rhythm.

The battle continued, becoming more of a competition of stamina. The fatigue that had plagued Sora before was non-existent. He felt so energized that he could go on like this for ages. Yozora showed no signs of slowing either.

An idea formed as he recalled the fight at the Keyblade Graveyard. Pouring all his magic into it, he summoned forth the ultimate keyblade transformation. Surrounded by a swarm of blades, he had but to direct them towards Yozora. He was quickly overwhelmed.

Yozora collapsed to his knees, panting in exertion. He lifted a hand as it began dispersing into blue light. “I guess...that my powers aren’t needed yet.”

“What do you mean?” Sora was confused. What powers? Was Yozora not the one who trapped him here?

Yozora’s expression turned strangely melancholy. “Nevermind.” He gave Sora one last tiny, barely there smile before everything burst into light.

Sora uncovered his eyes, blinking away the spots burned into his vision, to see the cloud filled sky and mirror-like watery landscape of the Final World. The last specks of light drifted off into the air like puffs of dandelions blown by the wind.