#but like the obvious thing is Destiny Islands and the moon. as always

[thehandwixard]

clutching my head doubled over that the things im into are always games that are dozens of hours long to long jrpg length because im going mental thinking abt my funny guys. and the last time i tried to let out my kh meta thoughts i got sucked into a like. fucking real world particle dimension spirituality talk so i just have to sit here

[vannahfanfics]

A Queen and Her King

Category: Friendship Fluff, Puppy Love

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts

Characters: Sora, Kairi

Hey, everyone! I finally decided to try and get back in and participate in full fandom weeks, so here’s a story for Day 1 of @sokaiweek​ for the prompt “King & Queen”! I hope you enjoy this sweet childhood fluff :)

Kairi cooed in delight as she sat back on her heels to admire her artistry— an absolutely splendid sand castle complete with tall towers, a moat with a driftwood drawbridge, and some hermit crab guards that weren’t quite as good at their jobs as she would like. It was an exceptionally large castle, too, one that she could step in! She’d gathered some big palm tree leaves and folded them up to make a nice, comfy throne right in the middle of her castle. She’d made another one right beside it, too, because what was a queen without her king? 

“Wow, Kairi!” She heard someone cry behind her, and she looked over her shoulder to see Sora and Riku dashing over the sandy dunes toward her. Their faces were flushed with exertion and their hands clutched driftwood sticks that had some chips in the bark; no doubt, they’d spent the last thirty minutes or so whacking at one another in a “swordfight.” Sora cast his stick aside as he ran up, and then he squatted down in front of her sand castle to admire the seashells studded into the smooth walls. “It’s amazing!” 

“Thank you very much,” she said, puffing out her chest with pride. Riku tipped his head as he walked a circle around it, inspecting it critically before giving an approving huff. Sora stood up to peer over the edge, squealing happily when he discovered the two makeshift thrones inside. 

“Ahh, are you the queen of the castle, Kairi?” he asked, looking at her with sparkling blue eyes. Kairi’s cheeks flushed a little pink. She’d always thought Sora’s eyes were so pretty, not unlike the glittering sea washing in and out of the shore a few feet away. 

“That’s right,” she said as she stood up. She shyly clasped her hands behind her back and gave him a demure flutter of her lashes. “A castle isn’t complete without a king, though…” 

Bless Sora’s heart, though, he really was an airhead sometimes. The invitation was obvious, but he just gawked stupidly at Kairi while he tried to figure out the meaning behind her cryptic statement. Riku got it just fine, though, prompting him to stomp up and jab his thumb into his sternum in a clear declaration of hubris.

“Why didn’tcha say so, Kairi? I’ll be the king of your castle,” the silver-haired boy declared haughtily. 

“What?” Sora objected. “No way! I’m gonna be the king, Riku, back off!” 

Kairi poked her finger into her cheek as the two began to squabble. She should have known they were going to bicker about it. She hadn’t been on Destiny Islands for very long, but one thing she’d learned very quickly is that despite the two being the very best of friends, Sora and Riku had an intense rivalry about almost anything. She didn’t have the heart to tell Riku that she was really asking Sora to be the king of her castle, but what was she going to do about it? 

“Why don’t we just fight it out, then?” Sora huffed and snatched up his driftwood sword. “Whoever wins gets to be Kairi’s king, and even more, the loser has to marry us!” 

Well, it looks like the two had worked out a solution for themselves— even worse, it was one that had Kairi burying her face into her hands as a blush ran rampant across her cheeks. 

“You’re on!” Riku agreed, brandishing his own stick with a wide smirk. “This’ll be a piece of cake. I beat your butt four times a week.” 

“Yeah, but I win the other three days,” Sora refuted matter-of-factly. Kairi groaned inwardly; those odds weren’t exactly in her favor. She peered through her fingers as the boys marched off to the little island jutting out into the sea with the curvy palm tree in the middle— their favorite battleground. Kairi scurried along after them, nervousness swirling in her belly. Maybe she should have just ruled solo after all…

“You’re going down, Riku!” Sora asserted while pointing his stick at him. 

“Funny, you stole the words right out of my mouth!” Riku taunted back, which made Sora huff indignantly. Kairi crossed between them to sit in the bend of the palm tree, feeling no less than a trophy. It was kind of nice, watching the two boys fight over her; a girl couldn’t help but feel flattered. Still… She’d be a liar if she said she didn’t want Sora to win. 

“Do your best!” she smiled at him, and the brunet looked at her like she’d hung the moon for him. That gave Riku the opportunity to spring at him with a battle cry, and Sora only just managed to throw up his driftwood sword in a block before it whacked him over the head. 

“Hey! No fair!” Sora pouted as he shoved Riku away. 

“What? I was supposed to wait around while you made heart eyes at Kairi?” Riku jeered back, which made both Sora and Kairi flush bright pink. 

With a strangled battle cry, Sora rushed at Riku, swinging his stick wildly back and forth. Riku pranced around on the balls of his feet, parrying each blow. However, Riku underestimated the power behind Sora’s swings, so one of them finally caught him off guard and knocked his stick aside. Riku could only yelp as Sora tackled him to the ground. Driftwood abandoned, they began to wrestle in the sand like a couple of dogs. 

“ I’m gonna be the one to marry Kairi!” Sora insisted as he grabbed Riku by the collar and slammed him into the sand. The spongy surface of the dune absorbed most of the impact, giving Riku the freedom to laugh. 

“I thought it was about being king of the castle?” Riku scorned playfully. Sora had been caught red-handed, making him flush the color of an apple. Kairi was too busy burying her face back into her hands again, both mortified and delighted at the boy’s spontaneous declaration. Riku took advantage of Sora’s shock to try and flip him over, but they ended up just rolling over one another until they plopped right off the edge of the circular island and into the water. 

“Ah!” Kairi exclaimed at the sound of splashing, and she rushed to the edge of the island to peer down into the sea. At first, there were just a bunch of bubbles popping at the surface, but after a few seconds, two heads burst through the surface, spluttering and coughing. Kairi laughed, then squatted down to extend her hands to the two of them before they could start trying to drown each other. 

“You two are so silly,” she chuckled. The boys grabbed one hand each, and she dug her heels into the sand to haul them over the small retaining wall back onto the island. They both collapsed on their backs into the sand, chests heaving with exertion, and Kairi sat between them next to their heads. “Did you decide on a winner?” 

“Just gonna take a breather,” Sora grunted. “Then I’m gonna kick his butt!” 

“Save it,” Riku panted. “As soon as I rest a bit, then I’m gonna kick your butt.” 

Kairi sighed, putting her cheeks in her hands. This was going to take a while. Maybe while these two battled it out, she could find some pretty seaweed to string along her sandcastle walls? Yeah, that sounded like a good idea. 

It was just as she was draping the last bit of seaweed across her sandcastle’s battlements that she heard Sora’s triumphant crow echoing across the island. She glanced up to see him standing triumphantly over a very bitter-looking Riku, who was nursing a goose egg sticking out of his silvery hair. Kairi couldn’t help but smile as he scampered over to her, flinging his driftwood stick aside so he could wrap her up in an excited hug. 

“Didja see that, Kairi? I beat him!” 

“You did!” she praised. Sora pulled back from her, sliding his hands down her arms to shyly hold her hands. 

“And now I get to be your king, right?” he asked bashfully, a smile playing over his lips while he toed at the sand. Kairi nodded meekly, prompting Sora to wiggle his hips in a little happy dance. Kairi giggled, finding herself excited at his enthusiasm. Riku came trudging up behind Sora, still rubbing the top of his head and looking like his ego was a bit bruised. 

“All right, all right. Now I have to marry you two or whatever, right? Darn, and I really wanted to be king…” he muttered under his breath. 

“We’ll build you a nice big castle and you can be our next-door neighbor, Riku!” Sora suggested, and Riku immediately brightened. Kairi felt a little relieved that Riku was more concerned with having a throne than marrying her. She peeked out of the corners of her eyes at Sora, who was looking at her with this big, goofy, dreamy smile on his face again. 

“All right, all right, enough with the heart eyes,” Riku snorted in disgust. “You have crowns, right? You can’t be a king and a queen without crowns!” 

“Oh, right!” Kairi exclaimed. She rushed back to her castle to lean over the edge and retrieve a pair of crowns she’d woven out of fern frowns and tropical flowers. She put one on her head and dropped the other on Sora’s brow, blushing at the absolutely adoring look he was giving her at the moment. Riku crossed his arms impatiently and clicked his teeth as an indication for them to come stand in front of them, so they hurriedly did so, though Sora and Kairi still snuck glances at one another. 

“All right,” Riku said with a roll of his eyes. They weren’t being as sneaky with their glances as they thought, apparently. “Dearly beloved, we gather here today to join these two in marriage, blah, blah, blah,” he said with disinterested gestures of his hands. “Whatever, whatever, Sora, tell Kairi how much you love her or something.” 

“Okay!” he exclaimed with zeal that had Kairi hiding her flushing face in her hands. She squeaked when Sora pulled her hands away from her face to grip them enthusiastically. “Kairi, as your king, I promise to protect you with my life! You’re the most beautifulest girl I’ve ever met and I’m so happy that you’re my queen and you’re gonna rule alongside me!” 

“Sora,” she said quietly. It was so moving that tears had begun to flood her eyes, and with a sweet smile, Sora reached up to thumb them away. “I’m glad you’re my king. I wouldn’t want it any other way.” 

“All right, all right, by the power invested in me or whatever, I pronounce you king and queen. Now kiss, guys!” Riku ordered gleefully, pointing at them with a mischievous grin. Kairi’s mouth dropped open in shock; how had she forgotten the most important part of a wedding? She turned around to see Sora comically puckering his lips and leaning in. She barely had time to clamp her mouth shut before he delivered a sloppy but quick kiss to her mouth. Her face went fiery red at the contact, but… it was kind of nice. 

“Yay!” Sora grinned as he pulled back. “Now, let’s go sit on our thrones, Kairi!” He tugged her to the castle, nearly tripping over his feet and destroying all her hard work in the process— but they managed to step over the wall and plop down on their palm leaf thrones without incident. Sora wiggled on top of the folded leaves with delight, while Kairi rested primly on her knees beside him. Her hermit crab army scuttled around them, as if they were celebrating the arrival of their rulers. 

Of course, Sora got bored of sitting there after about five seconds. 

“All right!” he cried and jumped to his feet. “Riku, let’s build your castle!” he said and clambered back out to run over to his friend. “It can’t be as big as mine, though, because you don’t have a queen.” 

“I could if I wanted to! Maybe I’ll ask Selphie.” 

“Psh, I bet Tidus’ll build a castle and declare war over her!” 

“That sounds like fun, actually. Oi! Tidus! Selphie!” 

As the two boys ran off, Kairi chuckled to herself. They really were a bundle of energy, those two. Kairi reached up to her crown, her fingertips brushing over the petals of the hibiscus flowers woven into it, and she smiled softly. 

I wouldn’t want it any other way… My brave, wonderful king.

Enjoy this oneshot? Here’s Part II! Feel free to peruse my Table of Contents!

[thatsgay-writes]

Day 2

Song that goes with this chapter

PREVIOUS

"You know... day 2 wasn't that interesting. But it was also the day we realized that like, holy shit... We're stuck on an island together. Our plane actually crashed..."

•••••

"Who's gonna wake her up?" Dot asked as she looked over at your sleeping form. Everyone had kind of slept close together, except for you. You set your self up maybe 15 steps away from everyone else. "You go do it Dot not like you've had a problem with waking me up." Fatin says with an eye roll. Dot gives Fatin a look before walking over to you. Toni and Martha shared a concern look, it wasn't like you to separate yourself from people like that especially since you were in and unknown place. The first time you spent the night at Martha's house, you clung to Toni like a koala because it was a new environment and you didn't feel safe yet.

Dot stood over you, "y/n... y/n... y/n!" Dot yelled trying to wake you up. "You gotta shake her awake, she's a heavy sleeper!" Toni yelled from the group. Dot groaned before leaning down over you and grabbing your bicep. Almost immediately you sit up fast and punch Dot straight in the face. "Yo what the fuck was that!?" Dot yelled as she leaned back, the other girls had stood up to when they saw you throw a fist at Dot. Dot doesn't really hear a response and looks down to see you panicking. "I'm not there, I'm not there... Sand, sand... I'm on an island I'm not there, I'm safe." You keep mumbling over and over again as you grab at the front of your shirt trying to catch you breath. You were trying so hard to stop the panic attack that you could feel coming.

"Uhh, y/n?" Dot asked carefully, not making any movements that could set you off. The girls could see you were struggling to catch your breathe but they had no idea what to do. Toni felt a light push on her back and turned around to see Martha looking at her with a begging look. Martha didn't know the exact details of your falling out but she knew Toni still held feelings for you, even if she tried to deny it. Toni nodded her head at Martha before walking over to you. Everyone held there breathe as they watched her walk up to you, it was made very obvious on the plane that you and Toni had some type of history.

Toni gets on her knees on the other side of you, across from Dot, and reaches out slowly to put her hand on your knee. "Y/n, I need you to look at me and take deep breathes." Toni says as her hand connects with your knee. As soon as it does, you stop grabbing your shirt and start to latch onto Toni's, hoping she can bring you back down to earth like an anchor. Toni wraps her arms around you and pulls you onto her lap. "I got you, I got you... Just breathe for me please." Toni whispers into your hair as she holds you. It feels weird, having you back in her arms. Toni missed you a lot more than she was willing to admit. It was also weird to feel where your leg ended. She could feel one leg lay across hers and the other one just stopped. You were finally able to catch your breath and sunk deeper into Toni's embrace feeling completely worn out. "Sleep some more." Toni says as she feels the tiredness radiate off you. "I'll be here when you wake up." You nod your head and close your eyes. Toni looks up to see the rest of the girls looking at her with a questioning look and Toni just waved them off.

When you finally come to, you realize you had moved from the last place you fell asleep. You feel something soft but hard under you and arms around your waist. Your about to freak out and rip the jacket that was laid over you, it was blocking the sun from your face, before you heard the familiar heartbeat against your ear. You pretended to be asleep a little longer as you enjoyed being in Toni's arms. She had broken your heart a long time ago but you still loved her... and missed her... as a friend of course, as a friend. You felt Toni cup the back of your head through the jacket and give you a kiss on the head before rubbing your head. It gave you a flashback to the nights you had spent together and how she would do it often.

You let out a sigh before sitting up, letting the jacket fall off your head. "Well, well. Looks like sleeping beauty finally woke up." Toni says with a smirk as you look up at her. You roll your eyes at her before snuggling deeper into her chest, hearing her heart beat pick up. "How long have I been asleep?" You ask as you notice some people are missing. "A while. Shelby, Rachel, Leah, and Nora went to the top of mountain hill thing. Dot and Fatin are doing inventory and Martha is chilling." You nod your head and sit up. "Thank you... For earlier. I..." You choke up a little as tears gather in your eyes. "I missed you Toni..." You say as you look down. Toni wrapped her arms around you and gave you a kiss on the head causing your heart beat to speed up. "I missed you too."

*Time Skip*

"Alright time for bed guys." Dot says standing up and clapping her hands together. Everyone silently agreed and walked to their claimed "beds". You had moved your bed a little closer to the rest of the girls but only like 5 steps. You laid in bed for what felt like hours unable to fall asleep. "Anyone else awake?" You hear Martha ask from across the camp. A bunch of yes's and hands are raised. Martha sits up and looks your way. "Y/n?" "Yeah?" "Can you sing a song? I always used to fall asleep when you sang." You got nervous as everyone looked your way. "I... I don't know Martha... I don't even have my guitar." You say as you wring your hands together. "Please y/n." Martha says giving you a pout. You let out a sigh, you always crumble at Martha's pout. "Alright... Which song?" You ask as you stand up and walk over to Martha. "I don't know which ever one." You nod your head before thinking before you start singing.

"There was a time when I was alone No where to go and no place to call home My only friend was the man in the moon And even sometimes he would go away too Then one night, as I closed my eyes I saw a shadow flying high He came to me with the sweetest smile Told me he wanted to talk for a while He said Peter Pan that's what they call me I promise that you'll never be lonely And ever since that day"

You start singing and watch as the girls, except for Toni and Martha who both give you a small smile, look shocked at your voice.

"I am a Lost Boy from Neverland Usually hanging out with Peter Pan And when we're bored we play in the Woods Always on the run from Captain Hook Run run Lost Boy, they say to me Away from all of reality Neverland is home to lost boys like me And lost boys like me are free Neverland is home to lost boys like me And lost boys like me are free He sprinkled me in pixie dust and told me to believeBelieve in him and believe in me Together we will fly away in a cloud of green To your beautiful destiny As we soared above the town that never loved me I realized I finally had a family Soon enough we reached Neverland Peacefully my feet hit the sand and ever since that day..."

You smiled down at Martha as you watched her struggle to keep her eyes open. You slowly stroked her head as she slowly but surely fell asleep.

"I am a Lost Boy from Neverland Usually hanging out with Peter Pan And when we're bored we play in the Woods Always on the run from Captain Hook Run run Lost Boy, they say to me Away from all of reality Neverland is home to lost boys like me And Lost Boys like me are free Neverland is home to lost boys like me And Lost Boys like me are free Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Wendy darlin Even Captain Hook you are my perfect story book Neverland I love you so, you are now my home sweet home Forever a lost boy at last Peter Pan, Tinker Bell, Wendy darlin Even Captain Hook you are my perfect story book Neverland I love you so, you are now my home sweet home Forever a Lost Boy at last And for always I will say I am a Lost Boy from Neverland Usually hanging out with Peter Pan And when we're bored we play in the Woods Always on the run from Captain Hook Run run Lost Boy, they say to me Away from all of reality Neverland is home to Lost Boys like me And Lost Boys like me are free Neverland is home to Lost Boys like me And Lost Boys like me are free"

As you sing the song, you hop around to all the  girls and make sure they are asleep. You walk up to Toni last and lean down. You take a second to look over her features. You had missed her a lot since your falling out and maybe this was the perfect opportunity to rekindle whatever you had before. You place a hand on her cheek and watch with a blush as she snuggles into in subconsciously. You don't realize that Shelby was still awake and looking at the small interaction with some disgust.

*Time Skip*

You wake up with a start and immediately feel the rain slam against your face. You immediately go to stand up, grabbing your stick, but the wind is too harsh that it knocks you over immediately and you lose your stick as it gets covered by sand. "Y/n?!" You hear someone yell. "Toni?!" You yell back as you see her walking over with a jacket over her head. Toni crouches down and gets close to you so she can hold the jacket over you as well. "Can you stand?!" She asks yelling over the the sounds of thunder and rain. "No I lost my stick!" You respond. Toni nods her head before letting the jacket fall to the side as she wraps one of your arms around her shoulders and helps you stand.

"Everyone under here!" Dot yells as she pulls the deflated escape slide over. Toni helps you maneuver under it as you both take a spot in the middle between the others. You all sit there for a few minutes, completely silent. "You know..." You say, only meaning to get Toni's attention but get everyone's attention as well. "This reminds me of my brother's funeral..." You let out a watery laugh. "Of course my parents..." You say with so much venom in your face, it shocks the girls. You were honesty one of the more happier people of the group, the nice one. "They didn't give a flying fuck when the funeral happened as long as it was done and over fast." You shake your head and squeeze your fist together trying to calm yourself down.

"You know... I was there..." Toni admits. You look at her in shock. "I... I stood in the back. I wanted so many times to go up there and I don't know... I don't know..." Toni says as she looks down. You reached your hand over after relaxing it and grabbed Toni's hand. She looks up at you and you both share a somewhat knowing smile before releasing hands and looking back out into the storm. "Why the fuck am I so itchy?"

NEXT

[phoenix-downer]

The Princess of Light Chapter 4: Heart of the World

~2290 words. Angst, Romance, Fluff, Fairy Tales. For SoKai Week 2021, Day 4.

Summary: Princess Kairi is cursed to be without love when she is a baby. She grows up cold and without a heart to help her understand other people’s feelings, no matter how hard her parents try to help her. One day, however, she meets a mysterious prince from a faraway world, and he just might hold the key to breaking her curse.

Chapter 1 | Chapter 2 | Chapter 3 | Chapter 4 | Chapter 5 | Chapter 6 | Chapter 7

Prince Sora met with Princess Kairi the next night, and the next, and the next. She thought it was because he liked the light pool too, and he’d also said something about his ship needing repairing. Though all of that played a role, she was blind to the real reason he wanted to see her. This continued for over a month with Kairi none the wiser as to his true intentions, for a girl without a heart cannot understand things the rest of us take for granted.

One pleasant evening in early autumn, the moon shone down on the two of them and the light from the pool shone all around them. Sora thought Kairi looked like an angel as she floated on her back, and she caught him staring at her.

“What is it?” she asked, searching his face. She thought he had a rather pleasant face, all things considered. “I keep catching you staring at me.”

“Don’t you know why?” he replied.

She tilted her head. “Could you explain, please?” 

Sora figured her curse would make any direct confession on his end fall flat. It is also entirely too easy to overdo a romantic confession, resulting in one’s beloved running for the hills, so Sora decided a different approach might be best. Though the thought of Princess Kairi taking off running and creating a miles-long trail of ice behind her after hearing an overplayed, overwrought declaration of passion made him chuckle.

“You’re laughing?” she asked, her face one whole puzzle of perplexion.

“Not at you, at my own silly brain,” he reassured her. “Sometimes I get these really vivid images in my mind, and they make me laugh.”

Kairi gently drifted in the light. “Like stories?” she asked. Not much caught her interest, but stories did. Sora had told her many stories about Destiny Islands, and she always listened quietly and asked him questions afterwards.

“You could call them that, yeah,” he replied. “But I’m getting sidetracked. You asked me why I keep staring at you.” He took a deep breath. “Princess, have you ever… had feelings for someone?”

“Feelings?” She frowned and touched the hole in her chest. “Without a heart, I’m not really sure.” 

“Then let me tell you how it feels.” Sora smiled and rested a hand over his heart. “Like you can’t wait to see that person. Your whole day improves when they’re there. Your heart speeds up when they approach. You feel like you can do anything if you have them by your side. And you would do anything to be with them.” He sighed happily and studied Kairi’s face. “Have you ever felt anything like that at all, Princess?”

“No,” Kairi said after a moment. None of those things sounded like the strange fluttering she sometimes got in her stomach. And none of the rest of it was anything she’d ever experienced.

“Oh,” Sora said, his head drooping. He sank deeper into the light pool. “I’m… sorry to hear that.”

She floated downwards to catch up to him till at last they were both at the bottom of the pool. “Why?” she asked. From here little trickles of light bubbled up from between the rocks, for the pool was some distance above the Heart of the World. 

Sora stared at Kairi, at her face surrounded by light, and despaired over her being so in the dark about what he was trying to tell her.

“Love is the most powerful magic there is,” he finally said, at a loss as to how else to explain it, for it impacted the entire way he experienced the world. “It’s like a light in a dark room that illuminates everything else for me.”

She reached for where her heart should be, but instead the usual empty hole greeted her. Sora’s heart went out to her. She was trying so hard to understand what he meant, but she just couldn’t grasp it. The whole thing reminded him of trying in vain to hold sand in his hand and watching it slip through his fingers.

“I’d like to experience it someday for myself,” she said at last, and he thought he detected a hint of wistfulness in her voice.

“I hope you will,” he replied, his voice breaking on the final word. 

She studied him for a few moments, then said, “Can we fall in again?”

He smiled sadly. This at least was familiar territory. He offered his hand, and she took it. 

“Of course, Princess,” he told her. They fell in several times together, and hearing her laughter, seeing her smile… poor Prince Sora became even more smitten with her. He resolved to help her however he could. It was clear her parents had tried everything they could here on Radiant Garden. But maybe his parents on Destiny Islands could offer their assistance. Maybe there would be some clue or hint as to how to help Princess Kairi. The repairs on his ship had been completed, so he could go back and ask.

When it was time to go home, Sora bowed and said goodbye. Kairi tilted her head, as normally he simply told her goodnight. She looked radiant in the moonlight, with the wind playing with her hair and rippling through the grass beneath her feet, and his heart fluttered in his chest.

“Princess, I’m going home to see if I can find something that might help you,” he said. 

“Oh, okay,” she replied, her voice sounding as if he’d told her he was having a sandwich for lunch tomorrow. He tried not to feel a little stung over her lack of sadness at their parting, but it hurt nonetheless. Still, it drove his resolve to find a way to help her.

“I don’t know when I’ll return,” he said, “but I’ll come back to you, I promise.” His hand curled into an upright fist, a gesture on Destiny Islands that meant you were determined to follow through on your promises. 

Kairi hesitated for a moment, then said, “Okay. Goodnight.” He wondered if she’d understood him at all. What if, in his absence, she thought he’d left her for good and forgot all about him? The truth was that she didn’t have much experience with saying goodbye. The people in her sheltered existence were just always there, and she supposed they always would be.

As she and Sora parted ways, they didn’t notice the strange black bird perched in a nearby tree. Despite what the stories say, spooky black birds can hide in the shadows perfectly well, thank you very much. And this one did its job splendidly and returned to its mistress in her creepy castle and reported what it had seen.

“Diablo, thank you,” Maleficent said, petting its head as it perched on her shoulder. “This is very grave news indeed. You say this foreign prince was flirting with my pathetic excuse for a niece? That he’s searching for a way to help her?” Maleficent shuddered. “That’s not good. That’s not good at all. Suppose she starts to regain her heart. We can’t have that, now can we?” 

Cursing Kairi further would be too obvious. No, Maleficent needed to do something more wicked and depraved than what she’d already done. That’s another problem with being evil. You soon acclimate to lesser evils and need greater and greater ones to give you the same twisted rush of delight.

“You say the princess is always playing in that light pool?” Maleficent said. “And now with that prince too? Well, we’ll have to do something about that, now won’t we?”

She cloaked herself in darkness and used it to travel quickly to the Heart of the World, which was in a cavern deep underground. Now, the Heart of the World is not a heart like you or I have; it is physical, but it is in the shape of a heart that children like to draw on scraps of paper, not the shape of an actual physical heart. At the time of our story, it was not as magnificent as it had been in olden days, but it was still big and red and bright. A single stream of golden light flowed out of it, and from there winded and curved through a series of tunnels and caverns up, up, up to the light pool guarded by the royal family. The whole thing was very beautiful, but to someone like Maleficent, who was twisted by the darkness, it was horrifying. 

Reaching into her cloak, she pulled out a tainted dagger. Tainted objects like this one leave no mark on their victims, who die slowly and in great agony. It was how she had killed her own father, the former king, without getting caught. 

With a cruel glint in her eye, she drew the dagger, strode to her next victim, and plunged her weapon into the Heart of the World. The poor Heart shuddered at the wound, for it is very much a living thing. Maleficent smiled wickedly and yanked the dagger out of the Heart, doing even further damage to it, then tucked it back into her cloak. While she could have used a single curse or spell to completely obliterate the Heart, that would not have satisfied her desire for revenge and petty evil in the slightest. 

No, she wanted the Heart to slowly die and the light pool to slowly dry up. Her smile got bigger as she thought about what would happen next, and that smile turned into a cackle and then into a roaring laugh. 

~~~

When Princess Kairi went to the light pool the next evening, she had two surprises. The first was that Prince Sora was not there to greet her like he usually was. She frowned, but the light pool was too enticing to leave alone for long, so she sat next to it and began removing her shoes and socks.

Now, Kairi had been visiting this pool every evening since her thirteenth birthday. She knew it better than anything else in the worlds. So when she was about to step in, she noticed there was slightly less light in it than there should be. She shrieked and raced the short way to the castle barefoot, leaving a trail of frozen grass behind her. 

“Aqua! Mom! Dad!” she cried as soon as she arrived, panting for breath. 

“Kairi?” Aqua called from a window a few floors above. She spotted the trail of frozen grass behind Kairi that was continuing to spread and yelped. “My lady, your feet!” 

Kairi gasped as she realized what she’d done. Aqua was already to the rescue; she grabbed another pair of enchanted shoes and socks for Kairi and tossed them down. Kairi hurriedly put them on, and by the time she was done, Aqua had joined her and sent for Kairi’s parents.

“What’s wrong?” Aqua asked, for she could tell Kairi was very distressed. 

“The light pool is drying up!” Kairi cried, her eyes wild. “It’s drying up! What am I gonna do?” 

Aqua’s heart thudded in her chest, for if Kairi was right about this, then… 

“Are you sure?” she asked, searching Kairi’s face. 

Kairi nodded and fidgeted with a strand of her hair. “There’s less light than there was before. Aqua, what’s gonna happen to me? If it dries up, will I freeze?”

Aqua didn’t know what to say. They needed to investigate the issue further. But if the light pool dried up, then Kairi would very likely freeze to death. Right now it kept her warm and kept the curse in check, but if it was gone… The light enchanting her clothes would stop working too, and—

Before Aqua could say anything else, however, Kairi’s parents and a few guards arrived. After a brief explanation, Aqua went with her father and the guards to investigate the light pool, leaving Kairi with her mother to await the verdict.

This was any mother’s worst nightmare come true: her daughter in imminent danger. Especially because the queen partly blamed herself for the curse. If only she’d taken her husband's concerns about Maleficent seriously instead of insisting he try to reconcile with her, their daughter might not be in this situation. So while she did her best to soothe Kairi and reassure her, she was very scared herself. Especially when Kairi’s breath caught and she clutched her chest.

“Mom, I think the hole’s getting bigger,” she said. All of the queen’s careful composure fled at Kairi’s words, and tears filled her eyes and spilled down her cheeks. What if the hole consumed Kairi? What if it devoured her daughter till there was nothing left? 

This was all her fault. If only she’d protected her daughter better.

Kairi frowned and touched the queen’s face. “Water’s leaking out of your eyes again.”

That just made the queen cry harder. Her poor daughter couldn’t even cry for herself and her fate. All she could do was purse her lips and tilt her head to the side as the queen shed the tears her daughter could not. 

When Aqua, the king, and the guards returned, they confirmed that the light pool did appear to have a little less light in it. The next day, the difference was definitely noticeable. By the third day, the light pool had lost a good foot of depth, and Kairi felt ill. The hole in her chest kept getting bigger, and the enchantments for her clothes had weakened, leaving her colder than usual. 

If the light pool drained completely, everyone feared the worst. While the royal family initially tried to keep what was happening under wraps, word soon spread, and the king and queen knew they would have to take action.

It was time to consult outside help.

[kurokoros]

hq x bnha crossover | karasuno

I decided, like an idiot, to do a hq x bnha crossover with one restriction: like Horikoshi, I had to base the character’s quirks on the kanji that make up their name. 0/10. Would not recommend. I swear this took me way too long and some of these are horrible quirks, but considering how bnha has some really ridiculous quirks already, I don’t feel too bad about it.

Shout out to @crocyoota and @shinsotired. I got two encouragements to do this and the serotonin burst was *chefs kiss*.

Karasuno | Nekoma | Aoba Johsai

Daichi (大地) - Ground; Earth Sawamura (澤村) - Swamp Village

Earth Manipulation. Depending on the density of the ground, he can freely manipulate the shape of it and move it at his will. Aside from the kanji in his name being obvious for this, Daichi really is a grounding, stabilizing force for Karasuno, so it ties with his personality fairly well.

Kōshi (孝支) - Supporting One's Elders Sugawara (菅原) - Sedge Plain

Arguably the hardest character of this bunch to come up with a quirk for. Sugawara is absolutely a character that supports others. Where Daichi is more grounding, Sugawara is uplifting. Because of the kanji for sedge (which, fun fact, is a type of plant that grows in wet ground) I almost went with a plant growth quirk, but decided on Reality Manipulation through speech. By offering encouragements, Sugawara boosts the rate of success for a task someone is trying to complete.

Asahi (旭) - Morning Sun Azumane (東峰) - East Peak

Solar Energy Manipulation. Asahi can manipulate heat and light to create energy bursts for combat. The drawback to this is that his quirk is strongest during the day and severely weakened when the sun goes down. As the “ace” he’s an offensive player, so energy beams fit with that.

Yū (夕) - Evening Nishinoya (西谷) - West Valley

Lunar Energy Manipulation. It was only fitting to have Asahi and Noya complement each other with their quirks, so Noya can manipulate the darkness to create tangible shields or cloak his presence from others. Like Asahi, his quirk has the drawback of being affected by the sun, and he’s weaker during the day.

Ryūnosuke (龍之介) - Assistance of a Dragon Tanaka (田中) - Ricefield Middle

Dragon. He can manifest any characteristic of a dragon. Scales. Claws. Teeth. That’s it. That’s the quirk. Primarily an offensive fighter. I know that Japanese dragons are associated with water, but please consider Tanaka breathing fire.

Chikara (力) - Power Ennoshita (縁下) - Below Destiny

Another character that I spent a ridiculous amount of time trying to pick a quirk for. His quirk can boost other’s quirks. Apparently his name comes from an expression referring to someone who does a thankless task, so his quirk is Boosting. He can boost the power of anyone else’s quirk.

Kinoshita (木下) - Under the Tree Hisashi (久志) - Always

Sentient Trees. By tapping into a tree’s roots he can learn information about things the trees have “seen” or experienced. I don’t have an explanation for this one. The only thing I had to go on here was trees, cut me some slack.

Narita (成田) - "become", "rice paddy" Kazuhito (一仁) - "one", "benevolence."

Rice Manipulation. Here me out. Narita can expend energy from his body in able to secrete rice from his skin, which he can then manipulate the shape and density of. He can make something as delicate as a key, or a rice ball that could kill a man. rice paddy? more like rice daddy am I right

Tobio (飛雄) - Flying Hero Kageyama (影山) - Shadow Mountain

Shadow Manipulation. Specifically, using shadows to travel between locations and seeming to “fly” between them. Possibly learns how to manipulate shadows for the purpose of combat. 

Shōyō (翔陽) - Flying Sun Hinata (日向) - "place in the sun" or "sunny place".

Flight. He has wings. Powers are a direct parallel to Kageyama traveling secretly through shadows, whereas Hinata is “in the spotlight” so to speak. There’s probably an allusion to Icarus here, but I’m choosing not to think about that.

Kei (蛍) - Firefly Tsukishima (月島) - Moon Island

Bio-luminescence. Fireflies glow. The moon glows. Tsukishima glows too. Always. Usually faintly. It’s more noticeable in the dark. Because his quirk involves manipulating the way light moves against his skin, he can become practically invisible when he lessens the strength of the glow. Alternatively, he can become bright enough to blind others.

Tadashi (忠) - Loyalty; Devotion Yamaguchi (山口) - Mountain Entrance

Teleportation. Yamaguchi can “open” any solid surface and step through it into a different location. There are two ways this works. 1) he has to have seen the location he wants to travel to (in person, via pictures, film, etc), or 2) he can travel to the location of anyone he has a close bond to, regardless of if he’s seen this location. The second is more dangerous, as it depends on the the strength of his relationship with someone else.

Kiyoko (潔子) - virtue, child Shimizu (清水) - Clean Water

Water Purification. Kiyoko can purify any water she comes into contact with, including the water that makes up the human body. Quirk can be used for healing people of illnesses or wounds.

Hitoka (仁花) - Compassion Flower Yachi (谷地) - Marshland

Empathic Perception. Yachi can make flowers grow based on the mood of whoever she touches, which reveals their true emotions.

Keishin (繋心) - Connecting Heart Ukai (烏養) - Crow Nurture

Heartbeat Syncing. Can link his heartbeat with whoever he has eye-contact with. This can allow him to sense when someone is lying. He can also use his own heartbeat to influence others (calming down someone that’s nervous, hypothetically stopping someone’s heartbeat if his stops, etc).

Ittetsu (一鉄) - One Iron Takeda (武田) - Brave Rice Field

Quirkless.

[prince-toffee]

She-Ra #0

- Karma -

[Two Years After The Defeat of Horde Prime]

Plumeria

The moonlight of the many Etherian moons rained down and coated the greenery of Plumeria. Plumeria was one of the smallest kingdoms on the planet, there wasn’t anything fancy or kingdom-ly about it. No enormous castles, not even real towns, just a bunce of tree-houses and empty fields. Which in a way was perfect for the refugee clones, the open fields were filled with makeshift tents, with tired, injured, and or defective clones with conditions that had to be looked after, taking up residence in them. Over the two years more and more shelters accumulated since the defeat of Prime and his main armada. It all worked out fairly well, with the clones populating the ground and the Plumerians residing in the trees. They much like most Etherians had mixed feelings about the clones, some were more welcoming than others. Fortunately brawls didn’t break out as often as in some other parts. It was clear that the Princess of the land, Perfuma, wasn’t too thrilled about their presence, but she put on a smile and played nice.

Modulok wasn’t quite sure what the title of ‘royalty’ or ‘Princess’ meant on this world, but it seemed as if the success criteria involved owning some land since there were apparently hundreds of Princesses, some with kingdoms the size of a town, or a nightclub, believe it or not. How the political landscape worked, he did not know. But he didn’t really care either. It was peaceful that was all that mattered to a surgeon and medic like Modulok. The settlement at Plumeria was one of the smaller ones, nowhere near as developed and packed as Doormat or the New Salineas. And again that’s why he liked it, quiet, far away from anything and everything, a grasshopper here, the rustle of leaves there. However something always seemed to go out of its way to find him. Case in point his quite drunk brother, Vultak, who barged into Mod’s tent in the middle of the night.

Vultak clumsily stumbled into the tent, two glasses of some sort of alcoholic drink in hand. He set the glasses on the operating table Mod was currently working on. Before Mod could protest, as he opened his mouth Vultak raised his pointing finger up to him to stop him. V then proceeded to drag a chair from the side to the operating table. V sat down and took a swig emptying one glass. The drunk clone just stared dazed at the patient Modulok was operating on, but caught a glance coming from Mod that was disapproving.

“Do you mind?”

“Not at all, carry on.”

That drew out a sigh from the medic, he was all too familiar with those snappy comebacks as well as his delusional pessimistic rants and ravings, which Mod was sure were about to follow. The two just looked at each other, a sedated individual between them, it was quite a comedic scene to be hold if there were a third party observing.

Modulok had lost his arms in one of the countless wars and had replaced them with cybernetics which could split in two giving him the total of four arms to work with. As a defect Modulok had blood red lenses, eyes and teeth. Not to mention his skinny frame, and lack of weight, and inability to gain weight. He wore a black and red tech suit, not bulky like Hordak’s, much thinner with tubes and cables hanging here or there. Under it you could see his bones and rip cage pressed tight around his skin, in some areas the white bone broke through the skin forming vein-like patterns across his body - common side effects for defects. A unique defect to Mod was that his skin was coloured red, it didn’t mean much, but others thought it looked neat.

Vultak was far more odd and different, some clones even called him the strangest clone alive. One of the oldest living too. V was a defect too, defects liked to stick together, at least most of them, not Modulok specifically. Vultak was thin too, like a walking toothpick. Vultak’s top half of his head was a red glass-looking dome resembling a radar display. No eyes. However a long witch-like nose. And shark-sharp teeth, though that was common with all clones. Possibly his most iconic aspect were his retractable wings being able to extend out of his under-arms, unveiling metallic feathers as sharp as knives. Various experimental technology was incorporated into his arms, giving his wings the ability to cause micro-hurricanes, and gusts of wind. And flight, obviously.

Also, he was thousands years old.

“V, you clearly want something so just say it and get it over with, the less time I spend with you the saner I’ll remain.” Modulok stated tiredly knowing fully well conversations with V could be exhausting. He leaned on his right arm which he placed on the table.

“What? Come on, can’t a brother just want to hang out with his other clone brother from another mothership?...” Mod was unamused and unphased, in the pause and silence his expression did not change. “And also my dearest, most awesome, talented brother, who is a doctor... I could... use some of that reeeeeally good tastin’ medicine that only a certified medic like you can hand out.” Vultak gave him a smile and tilted his head.

Mod gave him an eye roll, “I am not handing you the pills!”

“Oh come on, Mod! This stuff’s getting out on the street anyway! You’re not upholding some moral high-ground, you’re not holding society together! Come on, please, just one.”

Modulok waved him off, shaking his head. “Absolutely not. And I’m not trying to up hold anything, I don’t care what happens out there, but it just so happens that when some stupid non-sense takes place out there it means I’ve got more work here.” In a way he was right, Modulok was the most famous medic from the Galactic Horde, known across countless galaxies, being a defect medic and a medic for defects, that increased his infamous status. If anyone, any clone was in need of aid they turned to him for help, to say Mod was busy would’ve been an understatement. “Don’t even get me started on those pills that Hordak and Dryl made, I have no idea what they were thinking.”

The Isle Pills. Small capsules of biochemical engineering, synthesized from the ‘infected’ ‘tainted’ plants of Beast Island. That was the way people described the island, there were many theories about the landmass, a lot of scary campfire stories, disputes about whether it even existed. Its existence was apparently confirmed by the Princess of Dryl. Something about backstabbing and being imprisoned on the island, the clones weren’t sure, and they didn’t care much. But the nature of the island had been kept secretive, partially perhaps because the lab-partners studying the location don’t know many thing about it either.

It is also to be noted that they, the pills, weren’t meant for wide spread public use, apparently the Drylian Princess herself was against the production of it. But somehow they got out. Modulok was sure Hordak wasn’t thrilled that his experimental treatment for his defection was being distributed like hot buns at a bakery sale.

The pills have an altering affect on the consumer’s mood and how they perceive reality. Where the island would have enraptured an individual in their own fears and insecurities, somehow those mad-scientists altered the effect of the flora to envelop the individual in numbness and sleep-like paralysis. Hordak no doubt developed the pills as a way of coping with his defection and all the pain that came with it. So the product became quite popular with other defects. Including V, to no surprise. The pills were addictive and seemingly untested, and someone was making a profit off of it no doubt.

“They probably weren’t thinking, that’s what! If you ask me that Hordak guy is insane. All his bad decisions always seem to bit us in the rear.” The infamous Hordak, a general from a previous life, a defect that was sent to the frontlines by Prime personally, some even have speculated that he was meant to be Prime’s next bodily vessel. So in a sick twisted way, that defect saved him. Funny how life works.

Hordak somehow ended up on Etheria, he doesn’t even know how, somehow he amassed a large following and took over half a continent, destroyed a lot in the process. People hate him, his face, and that means of course many weren’t thrilled about hundreds of thousands of clones falling from the sky and finding a home and shelter on Etheria. Honestly, Modulok didn’t like him much either. Vultak unlike Mod actually quite liked Hordak as he served under him once, V trusted him.

“Mod, they would’ve hated us with or without him at the helm, at the end of the day he’s one of us, the whole universe hates us, we gotta stick together.”

“Where’s your ‘screw everything’ mentality gone to?”

V downed his second glass and wiped his mouth, “Washed away and washed down...” V just stared at the now empty glass inspecting it suspiciously as if he was looking if the glass was withholding additional liquid from him. It became obvious that V was thinking, contemplating something, he placed the glass down with a ‘clink’ on the table. “...I’ve been getting the nightmares again. And it’s getting worse, it always does. It’s not long ‘til the nightmares start coming out during the day, while you’re awake.”

Modulok understood, of course he did. He too had went through some harrowing experiences, war is never a good thing for the mind. Mod was an excellent surgeon and doctor, he can do some miracles with scalpels and bandages, he could take care of physical wounds. But there were wounds and scars that he couldn’t heal.

Vultak continued, “Do you believe in karma, Mod?” The question gave the medic pause, he didn’t quite know how to answer that, and he was sure this was one of those questions you don’t answer as V was going to no doubt continue and give his own answer. But the short reply would’ve been ‘no’, Mod didn’t believe in any higher power or any metaphysical concepts such as fate or destiny, it all rather felt far-fetched to him. “That our actions and deeds from our previous lives affect and decides our fate and fortune in the future?

That the future takes roof in the past? You do good, you have good fortune, a good life awaits you. You do bad, you have bad fortune, hell’s coming your way. Revenge and retribution on a cosmic level. It’s the universe’s way of punishing the evil and the wicked, that’s us by the way.

And we do deserve it, don’t we. I mean we’re literally walking, breathing, war machines, our sole purpose was to destroy, perpetuate war and cause all around carnage.

Everyone always wants to blame Hordak for Etheria hating us, but every single one of us has had a part in conquering half the damn universe! Countless worlds either chained or turned to dust, all thanks to us, all of us.

All the terrible things we’ve done, and now what? We just get to have a happy ending? No. No, no, no. Karma’s just getting ready, reeling back, ready to backhand all of us to oblivion. We gotta suffer first... Karma’s balance, karma’s proportional. Which isn’t good for us since we did a lot of wrong-doings. Remember the Siege of Denebria, the War for Primus, the Taking of Trolla, the centuries-long Massacres at Epsilon-19, everyone wants to forget that hellscape death-trap. But we just can’t, some things claw their way back to the surface from below all that brainwashing-sauce.

And that’s just the horrid stuff we remember!... Can you imagine how many lives we’ve forgotten? How many years we’ve lost? How many people we’ve forgotten? That four eyed freak robbed us of everything that made us, us!... All that stuff’s gonna bite us in the back.”

Modulok simply listened, he was used to V’s rants and ravings, but all that... seemed different. Usually V made out everything to be a joke, never taking anything serious, he was a jokester. The nihilistic joker seemed to be subdued, some sort of seriousness, some existential dread on his face. Vultak was genuinely opening up to Mod, and he appreciated that. But it was a shame they had to get drunk first before having conversations like that.

Mod became gradually more worried as V continued with the dialogue, after he paused and just began to stare blankly at his glass again Modulok responded, “I appreciate you opening up, kind of, V, I just wish it didn’t take the influence of alcohol... [sigh] Look, V, I know tomorrow is never certain, and that we all carry the weight of scars on our brittle shoulders... but please believe me when I tell you, that everything will be okay, everything will get better. Don’t drown yourself in poison. The world’s not falling apart, and neither should you.” Mod placed a hand on his brother’s shoulder, trying to comfort his friend.

Vultak simply looked up at his brother, his face blank, he knew Mod meant well, but it didn’t help much to comfort him. And so V hopelessly replied, uttering almost a warning, “Just you wait doc, the sky’s gonna come crashing down on our heads.”

[smartzelda]

Hey, so I'm gonna elaborate on this quote by Hashimoto. Turns out every game from bbs to the end of kh3 limit cut has to do with exactly what he says right there about Sora an Riku. Stay with me on this

Yeah, @xionshadow @minwuwhite @salted-coffee-beans @lovingthatgayshit and everyone else, I essayed again. Keep in mind there aren't quotes in this, it's more of a ramble of events and such

BBS: Riku and Sora are together being best friends and have a focus due to the keyblade, light, Terra and Aqua. Kairi is by her self and meets aqua. Yeah Aqua puts a spell on her necklace that ultimately leads her to Riku and Sora, but at this point in time it's unknown to them who the person to protect Kairi would be. Also, evidence is always thrown in here that Aqua doing that is so//*ai cause it leads Kairi to Sora, but really the hope is she leads to the keyblade weilder (yknow, on xehanort's end) who is technically Riku before kh1 events, and Aqua makes no romantic mention. It's just supposed to be someone with a strong enough light to protect her, not HER protector as in love or something or as in Sora or Riku being her prince.

Kh1: Sora and Riku have friendship problems and Riku has some jealousy. At the end they close the door, Riku's sad over realizing bad stuff he did, Sora has flashbacks to him and Riku spending time together and promises to go get him and come back with him so the 3 friends can spend time together. Kairi has only a few moments, including her joint saving Sora as of kh3 knowledge, her wanting to share a paopu too, and just her giving Sora the lucky charm and knowing that he'll return it. There's also Riku trying to find Kairi. Arguably, this game is the most we get of 3 friends, they're a trio, even on Sora's end. Sora goes through the worlds searching for both of his friends. But even then, Kairi isn't there 80% of the game. The friendship end is covered, but besides those moments where Sora has Kairi visions of her talking to him, he doesn't reference her. On the other hand, he meets Riku more than once, and we get to see Riku's fears evolve and his fear of replacement. We get Sora accepting him almost the whole time and Riku siding with darkness. We get moments like the moment where Sora is falling and he literally remembers Riku going "Giving up already? Sora, I thought you were stronger than that" and he believes after that and is able to fly with that pixie dust. He's the only one Sora has those flashbacks of the past with in the game like that. Sora and Riku get a scene with working together on the door while Sora and Kairi get separated and only Sora's work goes into everything, namely that he's gonna go get Riku while Kairi waits (not like she has a choice, but it stands). Even when it's about Sora and Kairi it's about just friendship or Riku. That kh1 scene where they get separated is an attributed so//*ai scene that people see as romantic, but it contains Sora's desire for them all to be friends and to find Riku. On the other hand with Riku, it's about Riku. Riku and Sora close the door? Flashbacks specifically about him and Riku till the last flashback, but even then it's Sora and Riku running together while Kairi's in the back running behind them. Sora and Riku's interactions and what's going on with their friendship are definitely focused on while Kairi is a doll most the game and doesn't get that kind of focus

CoM: About going to find Riku and Mickey. Evidence at the beginning that Sora really wishes to find Riku. He's distracted by Naminé, but whenever he finally gets to see "Riku" it's interraction that causes Sora to think afterwards about his relationship with Riku and what he could've done (more seen in the novel). If that huge analysis is correct, a lot leads to Riku, including parallels, but it's covered up by Kairi. Even when all Sora's memories of Kairi are replaced with Naminé, Sora's not in love with her until she uses the meteor shower scene, which would be a Sora and Riku memory. Before she uses it, Naminé is essentially at Kairi's current level of "I need to save her cause she's my friend". He only forgets Riku because of Naminé's memory meddling detracting from his purpose and making him forget everything he came to do and everyone except her. Kairi is merely mentioned by Naminé and Sora and everyone else. Even afer Sora knows about the Naminé and the repliku truth of him being not exactly Riku, he still does his actions for Naminé cause his heart still feels the impact of the fake memories, and even though Repliku's fake, Sora treats him similarly as Naminé, probably because of what's true in his heart. In the novels, Sora thinks about Kairi momentarily if she's brought up and when he looks at the lucky charm. Even in the lucky charm case, in the novel, it reminds him of Kairi cause she gave it to him, but also his promise to bring Riku back and of all his friends. It's only in Naminé's case with all the meddling that Sora looks at it and thinks of Naminé and his promise to protect her. Kairi isn't present and the game has no development with Sora and her or real reference to their relationship. On Riku's side, the novels have him mostly think about Sora out of the two, only really mentioning Kairi at the beginning when he decides he wants to say sorry to Sora and Kairi and when he meets Naminé. In the novel, for example, Riku goes to destiny islands of his memories and thinks about times with Sora when they rolled around on the sand. There's a focus on how Riku feels about the darkness and how that translates with his fears relating to Sora and his friends. He makes a promise with Naminé that she'll watch over Sora, and he walks the road to dawn for his redemption and to be able to face Sora and everyone.

Days: Similar to BBS, this one has main character focus on a different cast, but again Sora, Riku, and their relationship is still involved. Riku gets involved with Xion. In the novel, he states that he's willing to help her and not lie to her mostly because she's a part of Sora and is similar in personality, while Kairi factors in as appearance familiarity. In the novel, Riku has clear monologues about how he wanted to reign in his darkness before Sora woke up, and before going to fight Roxas how he's prepared to use his darkness to win at all costs, all for Sora. There's Xion and Roxas having memory visions. Xion awakes from one yelling "Sora". Roxas has a bunch of visions including Riku and Riku lines where he confuses Riku with Xion and wakes up yelling "Riku". There's the focus on how Riku gives up his body to win against Roxas and get Sora back. Then he has Mickey promise not to tell Sora what happened to him. Again, Kairi only is involved in mere mention and memories, and while Sora is too, he's more consistently mentioned. Riku also gets his focus on his motivations relating to Sora and shows up. Riku is there amd we are presented what's going on with him and Sora

Kh2: This one has a lot of obvious. One of Sora's main goals and focuses is to find Riku and bring him back. Along the journey, we also have Riku alienating himself from Sora to protect him while also stalking/leading him to make sure he's okay. There's the big reunion scene moment, and at the end Sora and Riku fight multiple battles together. In the RoD they have a heart to heart, and even though Sora's motivation was to bring Riku back so they and Kairi could be together again no matter what, he resolves to stay in the RoD with Riku for eternity instead without fight or protest, even in the novel deciding that if he was stuck here with anyone, he's glad it's Riku. Again, we see their relationship, how they work together, how they feel about each other. As for Kairi, as usual she is barely present. She is mostly left up to the few times she is mentioned and Sora rarely talks about her. Even with the begging scene and his feelings, we can get that it's a product of Naminé's meddling and not anything to do with him actually developing those feelings. Even Kairi herself only resolves to find Sora, and during the reunion scene, we learn their relationship is iffy due to time, change, and no interaction. After the reunion, Kairi's only Sora relationship moments are when they talk to Naminé and Roxas, which has nothing to do with how Sora and Kairi feel about each other, and when Sora returns the lucky charm. Except the lucky charm thing was just symbolic of Sora's promise to bring Riku back and them all be together again. It didn't have much to do with his relationship with Kairi other than she gave it to him and he remembers that when looking at it too. So again, we don't get much or really anything with Kairi and Sora's development, but we get plenty with Riku and Sora and how their motivations and interactions and everything relate to each other and their motivations and relationship

Recoded: Do I even need to say much? Kairi is again only in mention. There's a whole section where data Riku's about to be overtaken by bugs and Sora resolves to go alone, dive into him, and save him. He travels with Riku and they have a lot of moments and we again get to see (even before when Riku's in disguise and just out of it) about how they feel about their relationship and how they must act with the other in their mind. There's even that flashback of a Riku memory where Kairi is there, but Riku instead focuses on the moon and reaches for it, the moon believed to symbolize Sora.

Dream Drop Distance: Again, need I say anything? This game is about them relationship wise. They think about each other, they believe in each other and have talks with other characters about how they're always connected. There's a whole scene about how their hearts are in tune. In the novel, Riku has a monologue about how light and darkness they compliment each other. We get to see sorta how they feel about the other and trust each other. We again get Riku's motivation to protect Sora and his evolution to finding out that their rivalry is not darkness, but what pushed them to be stronger together and still does. There's so much of them and their relationship. On the other hand, Kairi shows up 4 times in the whole game, only 3 referring to Sora. She isn't even really mentioned. 1 of those 3 is a flashback to Kairi flying through him in kh1, another is just Kairi appearing behind Sora with all the rest of the guardians of light, and a 3rd is just Sora's dream with Riku and Kairi walking away from him. There is really nothing with Kairi and her relationship with anyone here

0.2: There's not much, but even with Riku and Kairi standing there, the only mention between them and Sora is basically how Sora's rubbed off on Riku and how Riku's more like Sora, then Riku talking about how he wants to be more like Sora. So again, more of their relationship focus

Kh3: During Sora's journey section, there is like no mention of Kairi, but he thinks about Riku and mentions Riku and talks to Riku on the gummiphone. We see them meet in the tower and Riku reassures him that he can do it. We see this little of their relationship and the little development. There's the RoD thing where Sora arguably uses the power of waking to get to Riku without having KKD and the gayblade. There's these looks they give where they understand each other without speaking. Even with the paopu scene, it starts out with Sora focusing on Riku. This is also the first point we see Sora trying to do a relationship fix with Kairi. Sora sheilding Kairi doesn't amount to or develop anything. But we get Riku's sacrifice, where by now he's realized that he loves Sora and he tells Sora he believes in him as he goes to sacrifice. It has a bigger focus than Sora's shield of Kairi and is more dramatic. Riku tries to prove to Sora that he is strong on his own. There's Riku comforting Sora and them being the only one left. There's the deliberation of animation in Riku reaching out to Sora and dropping it, only to get up, tell Sora he believes in him and sacrifice. In the Riku keyblade graveyard battle, we get moments of Sora swooping in to protect Riku and them going to fight together, where as in the rest Sora popped in to help or like in Mickey's case where he just gets captured. We get to see their teamwork once again. There's Riku's reaction of being angry after Kairi being "killed" only after Sora gets smad. Riku's heart is the first to reach Sora in kingdom hearts, and Riku supports his end decision and believes in him. All the Sora with Kairi stuff is mention, him fixing his relationship with her, or him going to bring him back and have all his friends safe. I didn't even recognize the evidence of Riku being the light and saving Riku first, even the section of saving Riku having more cutscenes and Sora talk/analysis than the rest of the scenes Sora saves his friends

Remind: All of the Sora and Kairi stuff again is just Sora trying to find her and have all his friends safe and fix his relationship with her. This one is more about Kairi and Sora's relationship, and even then there's a focus on Sora and Riku's relationship. There's still a bunch of the same things as base kh3, but we get more moments of Riku saying to trust or believe in Sora, there's Riku recognizing Sora there when Sora hits him with light when no one else does, even softly saying Sora's name aloud. There's their heartstations side by side and Sora being able to connect to him from inside kingdom hearts. There's another shot when Sora gets Kairi's last heart piece where Riku's heart is the brightest and again reaches Sora first. We still get their relationship and how they feel about each other despite this section not being directly about them, just like bbs, days, and 0.2.

Limit cut: We get big focus here. We see Riku sad over Sora. We learn that he is at least a key to saving him. Riku's dreaming about looking for Sora exactly where he is. We learn Riku is gonna be important. On Kairi's side, she's mentioned again and relegates herself to doll status for a whole year. She can see the final world, but neither she nor the scientists looking in her heart or anyone else looking found Sora or something related, while Riku's dreams hold the or a key and possibly a clue. Also, Yozora, the kh3 Riku lookalike (described by even Sora, Donald, and Goofy) looking for Sora who may just be Sora, but may also refer to him looking for the nameless star who may be his Sora (it's kinda hard to know for now).

In every game, consistently, Sora and Riku's relationship and development is a focus, even if it's not the center or the most important thing

Thanks for dealing with my essay ramble

[popculturebuffet]

Animation Reviews:Star Vs: Mr.Candle Cares

Tom is back! Yeah I know this took about a month, with the pride month reviews and life being kind of chaotic, I put these next two tom reviews on the back burner, even doing another star review in the meantime for Father’s Day. But with Pride Month winding down and our next episode up being gaytatstic, it was time to come back. It’s just a shame it had to be this one.  We’re in Season 2 now, and early in it, with this being only the third episode and the first to not involve the main plot, as the first two dealt with the fallout of the first season finale, and set up some of the main conflicts for the season. I WILL cover those arcs eventually and recap parts of them if necessary but for now they have zero impact on what happens here. That being said just because it dosen’t tie into the main arc with Ludo and Toffee-Wand, dosen’t mean it’s not important, as this episode both marks a major turning point for tom and also digs into the recurring theme for the next two seasons of star grappling with her responsiblities.. in this case future ones. We also get a peak into her mom’s personality. So with not much exposition to cover, I will see you under the cut.. please?

We open at school and it’s career day, something my school didn’t have for whatever reason, but is a common thing as new Gudiance Counsler mr candle has so far been giving everyone really great advice that fits what they want. Star is eager to have her turn and soon does.  Inside the office Star is offered Candy, which she politley refuses before we find out, unsuprisingly, Star thinks he’s a fourtune teller. A great bit. The mood quickly drops deep into the basement when Candle hammers into star that her destiny is to be queen and it’s carved in stone despite what other plans she may have. THen things get.. a bit creepy with Mr.Candle asking if Star’s dating marco and when she says no and that i’d be weird to date given they live together he urges her to start thinking about her future husband.  And yes I’m aware Tom probably wrote his script, and Tom knows about as much about school as star Does or else Mr Candle would’ve been suspended, at least for this, it’s still unnerving to hear a grown man not only before this tell a teenager she has no choice in her future, but then try and set her up with an unstable teenager in the creepiest way possible and somehow not get fired. It’s hard to watch Star leaves depressed and it’s marco’s turn.. and once again Mr.Candle proves to be a pretty terrible minon, suggesting Marco be a janitor on garbage island. Now as probably isn’t a shock to you given most of you have probably seen this ep, and we’ll find out in a minute anyway, Tom is behind this: trying to keep star and marco apart and get her back with him. And while parts of this do stink of Tom’s own lack of understanding of star, more on that later, and hatred of Marco, as well as not getting earth, as we’ve seen Mr.Candle is actually godo at his job and we see a bit of a real session that’s not part of an emo’s poorly thought out scheme that proves it. He could EASILY manipulate both, or at least try to with marco, but instead just goes along with a script written by a teenager that instead makes one of his targets depressed and the other instantly ready to tell him off or , had Candle been less lucky, go to the principal with this. Now granted this level of gross incompence is another day at echo creek, but it just dosen’t work. I don’t buy that tom couldn’t of found someone more competent with the giant amoutns of money he has to throw around. Then again Tom is really bad at evil when you think about it: I mean sure he can throw hands, as we’ll see in later episodes, but his evil schemes are poorly thought out at best and i’m certain if he had stayed a bad guy after this episode, he would’ve dropped to just proposing to star every time he sees her like teddy from brooklyn nine nine. 

So naturally Marco and Star talk about this with Star really depressed about seemingly being trapped becoming queen, while Marco gushes about how great being queen would be from his perspective... including never having to pick out clothes, fair enough, and never having people not like you, which is depressing. Poor boy. I missed this Marco: Awkward, insecure, but likeable. and also very much possibly gender fluid. Why they threw that out i’ll never know, but it’s canon for me now at least.  Anyways, Marco decides to confront candle int he bathroom because why not. It’s not any more awkward than Candle trying to convince star to make out with tom without saying tom’s name. But yeah as I let out of the bag early above, Marco finds Candle talking to tom via the toilet, and tom is livid he didn’t mention his name, while Candle insists he’s working on it and that Starco, and he uses that word exactly to Marco’s confusion and my delight as I do like when writers latch on to fan terms and poke a bit of fun at them, is platonic. Tom tells him to be sure and Mr Candle dismises him. Before tom can get too mad about this, Candle reveals i’ts becaue he has to pee and tom insists he flushes first. A really great gag.  So to try and compete with tom and candle for dumbest person this episode, Marco has his own stupid plan: Brag about being “smooch buddiess” with star to piss him off.  I assume the next two steps are ???? and profit. I”d also like to note for those unaware that this clip was used in the promo and assumed it was a love spell or some sort of altered mind thing, as it was way too early in the series for them to get together, and smacked of “let’s bait the shippers and hope they don’t get too pissed”. Given I did ship them at the time, it was massively annoying knowing this was obviously out of context, but it’s better than when I watched avatar first run and any hint of kataang was played up and an entire fucking episode was dedicated to fucking with shippers heads. I really need to rewatch avatar on netflix I have NOOOO excuse. Anyways naturlaly the obvious happened; A pissed off tom, who Need I remind you last time nearly killed marco and only didn’t because star used freeze dry and it was super effective, who drags marco away to a tourture wheel. Meanwhile, Star goes to her mom for support. So I get to talk about Moon: Star’s distant mother who’s her exact oppsite: strict, stone faced and in control at all times. And she does LOVE her daughter and get some development later on, but it still dosen’t change her core and she still has real issues actually listening to star that, like some of star’s own issues, she never really grows past. So natrually this goes about as well as trying to get a cat to do anything: She confirms star is kinda stuck inherting the throne before , in an oddly sad moment.. being genuinely confused when Star asks if she’s happy. It’s... a really good character moment to be honest, and sets up her character well now she’s being fleshed out better this season: Moon just.. really dosen’t care about herself or her own hapiness. I mean her marriage is , paradoxically, one of the only marriages in the mewni queenship that not only lasted but is very healthy, but otherwise she just dosen’t care. The kingdom comes first... and to me it comes from the later revlation she was orphaned around 15. She just spent most of her life putting the kingdom FIRST, just like she figured her mother would’ve and probably did, and putting her heart and soul intot hat. And thus she can’t really fahtom someone being SCARED of all that responsiblity and drudgery when for her, it was just a fact she had to accept at star’s age. She probably woudl never be happy but the kingdom’s what important. The thing is A) that’s deeply unhealthyt o begin with and B) it’s easier to accept something like that when you’ve lost your mom, your dad’s never been around and you have only one other person in your life supporting you. Star has LOTS Of other things to her life: friends, hobbies things moon never had a shot at. Not only that but Star’s lived her life iwth a mother who, rather than be supremley happy and beloved like moon’s own mother, seemd miserable, strict and a workaholic.. things star wants to avoid being. Their very strained relationshp probably isn’t helping this. Moon quickly leaves the conversation, but it instead just makes Star spiral further and decide to do something.. drastic.  Meanwhile in hell. 

Okay not that bad. Let’s try this agian meanwhile in hell. 

I said not THAT bad. Jesus. 

Close enough. So in hell, specifically Tom’s room. Marco admits he was just getting tom’s goat, which his goat skull objects to, and while Tom is oddly mad Marco lied marco actually gets to tom by countering he lied to star... which is true not just this time but last episode too. Tom relases marco from his pain wheel. 

And states that he can’t let him go, he knows too much etc etc, and challenges marco to a fight to the death, which marco acccepts.. inping pong. However tom is really great at ping pong and destroys him.  Back with star she’s gotten a great punk makeover. I do wish that star had a permanent outfit change at some point as her temporary looks are always great, and it woudln’t of killed them to do it in season 3 when they had to change over the intro anyway. Alas. She plans to do something drastic.. we’ll find out why in ab it. Back at ping point Marco challenges for double or nothing, despite tom having multiple paddles and him having none and the scorring demon begging him to stop. Tom obliges him, and the two.. actually start to bond. We’ll get way more of that next time. Btu the two bond over how star just tends to cheat, making up rules or changing them to win at the last minute, and how she just does what she wants.. and it’s then.. Marco FINALLY gets through to tom and points out the obvious: Star won’t get back together with him unless it’s what Star wants and Tom gives a face that screams ‘my god what have I done” realizing both how hew’s screwed up and how for now at least, he may never get her back and no amount of scheming will fix it. It’s a great character moment: Tom finally realizes that he can’t just.. MAKE star love him. You can’t MAKE someone love you, they have to want it too. And star dosen’t want him right now and his stalking is only hurting her.  It’s here Tom turns a corner. This episode was his lowest moment for sure, as while the blood moon ball scheme was sleazy, trying to make her love him via a magic moon thing was creepy, it wasn’t horribly intentioned and while I do think tom knew it’dmake her love him again I don’t think he knew the full extent of the moon’s magic or how it’d tear her apart inside if she say loved someone else, as ended up happening since it didn’t let her let go of her feelings for marco while with tom himself. Here he knows what he’s doing is wrong,  as Marco’s comment makes clear, but is so desperate he’s gone with an insane, dumb and really creepy and manipulative scheme. He TRIED being nice, that didns’t work so he probably felt he had to get more creative and more manipulative... i’ts just he didn’t realize while he LOVES being Royalty, star hates it. While Tom’s parents, who we’ll get into more in a review or two, were loving and supportive, even if his dad may not have been at this stage again we’ll get to his parents when they show up, are fully loving and supportive star’s are loving.. but one of them as we saw just dosen’t GET HER. So while to tom the crown is a great thing to star it’s not so mucha nd given he has trouble with empathy, Tom simplyc an’t understand how much he hurt her until marco spells it out for him And it isn’t just in the text either; As I said in the previous tom review, the writers clearly weren’t wure which way to go with tom, so this episode was the turning point: would tom get worse and become star’s enemy fully.. or would he do the unexpected, at the time anyway, and truly try to change and become another loveable member of her inner circle? And honestly.. I feel they made the right decision. Tom really dosen’t fit into the mewman oppresion cycle as neatlya s the other antagonists who are either the opressors or the result of them. He’s a privlaged kid on the outside of it, as , again , i’ll dig into more in the future. And the show kind of.. outgrew recurring antagonists by season 3. They had a few set up this season, but most either faded away or went all the way up to big bad, and I feel the writers realized that tom just.. didn’t work as that and worked better as a kid struggling with being better than as an incel douchebag antagonist. And given he’s one of the two things that helped prop the show up during it’s worse moments in the latter half, it was the right call and the reason i’m doing this arc at all.  Anyways Tom and Marco head back to the diaz house where Star.. has a mermaid and is complteplating chopping off her tail so she can legally never become queen... yeah I meant what I said when I said drastic. Tom however reveals his deception, and .. genuinely apologizes, another sign of growth, letting star go for now. He does get a WELLLLL earned slap, as I said his actions this episode were the lowest he’d sink and still really creeptastic.. but accepts his apology after that, appricating that he at least apologized and grew a bit.  Star, while now not going to disfigure someone to save herself, I mean that sort of thinking did give us the doom patrol but still, is still bummed about being queen when Marco, in a good bit of ship tease back when this ship wasn’t in my nightmares, tells her that yeah she’s stuck being queen.. but tid osen’t mean she has to be miserable. Don’t do it like moon, do it like you. They hug, and Tom, in another great bit of growth, just smiles and heads off, letting them have this moment and letting star go.  We get one final scnee where candle bails on local alpha bitch britney after tom recalls him which sends her into a depressive spiral later in the series. Ha ha... why did they bring this character back for Season 4?  Final Thoughts:  This episode is the queen of mixed bags. Seriously on one hand there IS some really damn good character stuff, with Star confronted with the hard truth of her becoming queen and begining this and next season’s theme of star building up to her future, and Tom going from 1 and a half dimensoinal douchey stalker to the complex and relatable character he’d become in future episodes. However the good is smothered like bad.. just like smokey the bear had to smother his joint before each PSA. Like “Red Action to the Future: over in my OK KO reviews, it feels like wasted potetial: the idea of both Star and Marco rexamining their future and Star being confronted with having a fixed path and trying to avoid becoming queen are great.. it’s just Star ends up being a supporting player in the episode, and I feel it would’ve been better if moon had been forced to deal with the effect of her words on her daughter, as she’s gone after her scene and what she nearly caused star to do never has any effect. And Mr.Candle is just an.. awful character. Incompitent, even if parts of that are on tom, unfunny, kinda creepy.. ther’es just nothing really enjoyable about him and it makes the first  few minutes a slog as he gaslights two teenagers for money and we never learn just what the hell he is or what his deal is. He just drags the episode down.  Really whiel i’ts not TERRIBLE like some of the series worst episodes (Lint Catcher, Stump Day, Marco Jr, Mama Star), it just feels like it could’ve been better paced or made a half hour so star and moon could have more of a plot.  If you enjoyed this you know the dril; like, reblog etc and if there’s a star or other animated show or movie you want me to review , just shoot me a suggestion or comission it outright for 3 bucks! I’ll get back to tom this weekend hopefully with freindenimeis and hopefully get to my last two reviews before pride lets up. Until we meet again, later days. 

[aion-rsa]

Upcoming Movies in October 2020: Theaters, Streaming and VOD

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October looks a lot different than it did only a few weeks ago. As the month many movie theater owners were hanging their hats on with the hope of a weekly deluge of new movies , October has recently been vacated by high profile features that include Wonder Woman 1984, Death on the Nile, and Candyman.

Yet if you’re  a cinephile or movie lover who is desperate for new stories and visions, it is not all doom and gloom. Between the streaming market of Netflix, VOD, and other platforms, as well as some smaller films willing to roll the dice on a limited theatrical release, there are still more than a few things to see in October 2020…

2067

October 2 (U.S. Only)

A high-concept science fiction setup if we’ve ever heard one, 2067 is the story of Ethan Whyte (Kodi Smit-McPhee), a young man born in a dystopian future where he learns that he might be the savior of humanity… at least that’s what people from an even more distant future are saying. In a plot twist that sounds, at least on paper, akin to a reversal of The Terminator, messengers from the future say Ethan is the key to saving the world and wish to transport him via time machine to an unknowable destiny. Chaos ensues. It’s a big idea, but we’re always game for someone swinging big in this genre.

Death of Me

October 2 (November 23 in the UK)

Darren Lynn Boseman, director of Saw II through Saw IV, returns to the horror genre again alongside Nikita’s Maggie Q and Westworld’s Luke Hemsworth. In this VOD release, the pair play a vacationing couple who wake up on an island with a horrible hangover. Yet a video on their phones seems to suggest the night before was even worse: Neil (Hemsworth) spent the evening brutally murdering his wife, as per the screen in their pockets. Nevertheless, here they are now, left with a lot of questions of what happened yesterday… and what can happen today.

Black Box

October 6

The first of Amazon Prime and Blumhouse Productions’ “Welcome to the Blumhouse” series, Emmanuel Osei-Kuffour’s Black Box has a tantalizing premise. Nolan (Mamoudou Athie) survived a car accident that took his wife, but it also took large swaths of his memory of her. So in order to regain his memory, and regain a sense of stability for his young daughter, Nolan undergoes an experimental treatment where his psychologist uses hypnosis to thrust him into his subconscious where he’ll be able remember his past and face his personal demons. Literally. 

Like something out of Christopher Nolan’s Inception, this horror movie shows how scary being trapped in dreams really is if all that’s in them is the stuff of nightmares…

The Lie

October 6

The second Amazon/Blumhouse feature is more of a psychological thriller than a straightforward horror movie. Originally premiering at the Toronto International Film Festival in 2018, The Lie follows a father (Peter Sarsgaard) who discovers his daughter Kayla (Joey King) accidentally killed her friend… until she admits she may have actually murdered her.

How far will he go to cover-up his daughter’s sins? Well, that’s the logline, and it seems to be a gripping one, albeit reviews from TIFF were less than kind two years ago.

Hubie Halloween

October 7

Last year Adam Sandler warned the Academy that if he doesn’t win an Oscar for Uncut Gems he’d make a film so bad that it’d make “you all pay.” Well, he wasn’t even nominated and eight months after the ceremony, here we are with Netflix’s Hubie Halloween. It remains to be seen whether this is actually the bad one—for starters it filmed before Oscar nominations went out—but it is still very much a Happy Madison production, complete with major supporting roles for Kevin James and Rob Schneider.

Read more

Movies

Uncut Gems: The Real Noir in Adam Sandler’s Classic

By David Crow

Movies

Horror Movies on HBO Max: Hammer Films, It Chapter 2, Us, to Arrive in October

By Don Kaye

In the movie, Sandler plays Hubie Dubois, the town loser of Salem, Massachusetts. A lonely fry cook obsessed with Halloween, Hubie spends all year looking forward to decking out his home and town the same way Clark Griswold anticipates Christmas. But on this particular Halloween, the town appears besieged by actual supernatural forces, and finally Hubie will have his time to shine. Eh, it looks more amusing than The Do-Over and The Ridiculous 6?

Books of Blood

October 7 (U.S. Only)

Who doesn’t love anthological horror? Hulu certainly does, as they’re releasing Books of Blood, the latest adaptation of Clive Barker’s multi-volume series of short stories by the same name. Previous tales from Books of Blood have been adapted into movies as beloved as Candyman and as decidedly not as Rawhide Rex. In this film version, three stories are created for the screen by co-writer and director Brannon Braga. Here’s hoping it lands closer to the former?

Saint Maud

October 9 (UK Only)

The UK will be the first to get A24’s only horror movie this year. Lucky. The feature directorial debut of Rose Glass, Saint Maud follows an unhealthily repressed and zealous young woman: Maud (Morfydd Clark). Maud is technically a caretaker by trade, looking after people in hospice. But she also imagines herself to be something of an apostle, sent to save godless folks from their sins, particularly Amanda (Jennifer Ehle), the woman she’s living with as the in-home nurse.

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Movies

Best Modern Horror Movies

By Don Kaye

Movies

Best Horror Movies on Netflix: Scariest Films to Stream

By David Crow and 2 others

It’s already a tense situation, even before Maud starts hearing voices and having images of ecstasy and Heaven, and demons and Hell. Rich with atmosphere and grueling anticipation of something horrible happening, Saint Maud is a great debut for Glass and a potential star-maker for Clark, who is skin-crawlingly pious as Maud, the young woman who’s wound up tighter than a jack-in-the-box.

The Wolf of Snow Hollow

October 9 (U.S. Only)

Debuting in theaters and on VOD, The Wolf of Snow Hollow is Jim Cummings’ follow-up to Thunder Road. That earlier, underrated movie was a delightful mix of comedy and drama that won the SXSW Grand Jury Prize. So the sophomore effort being a werewolf comedy-horror movie is intriguing. Indeed, Wolf of Snow Hollow is the rare lycanthrope yarn that’s told from the point-of-view of the would-be wolf hunter, Sheriff John Marshall (Cummings).

Following a series of grisly murders every full moon, the residents of Snow Hollow become convinced they have a wolfman on their hands, even if the frustrated sheriff refuses to accept the obvious. The film also marks the final performance of Robert Forster as John’s crusty mentor.

The War with Grandpa

October 9 in the U.S. (October 16 in the UK)

For most people, having Robert De Niro as a grandfather can be an imposing experience. But kids these days! That’s at least one amusing takeaway from The War with Grandpa, the delayed family movie that sees De Niro’s grandfatherly Ed enter into a prank war with his grandson Peter (Oakes Fegley) after upsetting the youth by moving into his old bedroom—Peter’s mom and Ed’s daughter Sally (Uma Thurman) forced them into the arrangement.

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Movies

The King of Comedy: What’s the Real Punchline of the Martin Scorsese Classic?

By Tony Sokol

Movies

Al Capone: 9 Actors Who Played the Original Scarface

By Tony Sokol

Soon shaving cream reveals itself to be foam sealant stuck to De Niro’s face, and Peter’s oral report announces he is a louse. Oh, and there’s a dodgeball battle in which De Niro is aided by a squad of screen legends like Christopher Walken, Cheech Marin, and Jane Seymour, to squash the pups. Now things are getting serious…

Nocturne

October 13

The first of Amazon and Blumhouse’s next batch of original movies, Nocturne is the tale of a hellish rivalry between sisters. Genuinely. The feature debut from director Zu Quirke stars Sydney Sweeney as Juliet, the younger sister of fellow musician Vivian (Madison Iseman). While both young women are gifted pianists, Vivian is a prodigy and the center of Juliet’s envy. That is until Juliet finds the diary of another child prodigy at their prestigious conservatory who killed herself. The book includes all the late pianist’s hidden compositions… and symbols and incantations.

Ever heard the story of Faust? It seems like Juliet is about to get an up-close modern example.

Evil Eye

October 13

As the final Blumhouse effort to be released on Amazon Prime in 2020, Evil Eye hails from directors Elan and Rajeev Dassani and presents itself as both a psychological thriller and supernatural chiller. The truth of which it really is depends on how much you believe the eye of Usha (Sarita Choudhury).

Read more

Movies

How Jason Blum Changed Horror Movies

By Rosie Fletcher

Movies

Jason Blum: No Plans To Restart Universal Monsters Universe

By Don Kaye

For this mother of Pallavi (GLOW’s Sunita Mani) is convinced her daughter is necking with a new boyfriend (Omar Maskati) who’s the spirit of an evil abusive ex Usha escaped in her youth. Is he the vestiges of a half-remembered curse or the potential victim of a mommy dearest prone to snap judgements? Tune in to find out for yourself…

The Trial of the Chicago 7

October 16

“The whole world is watching.” That’s the chanted refrain of protestors in Aaron Sorkin’s second movie as director, but it might also apply to the level of anticipation regarding this major Netflix release and potential awards season darling. The movie itself is an old-fashioned legal thriller like Sorkin cut his teeth on with scripts like A Few Good Men, but Chicago 7 feels urgently (and depressingly) vital.

Following on the heels of the Chicago riots during the Democratic National Convention of 1968—riots later deemed to have been started by the police—eight men categorized as “the far left” are rounded up for a show trial by Nixon’s Justice Department where they’re charged with conspiracy.

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Movies

Aaron Sorkin: Donald Trump Made The Trial of the Chicago 7 Movie Possible

By David Crow

Movies

Quentin Tarantino Calls The Social Network the Best Movie of the 2010s

By David Crow

The film features the same blistering abundance of dialogue Sorkin has become famous for, as well as his penchant for breezy fast-paced editing. But the political heft of the subject matter and the movie’s deep bench of an acting ensemble that includes Sacha Baron Cohen, Jeremy Strong, Yahya Abdul-Mateen II, Eddie Redmayne, Joseph Gordon-Levitt, Mark Rylance, and Frank Langella is what makes this one of the most thrilling movies of the year.

Honest Thief

October 16 (U.S. Only)

Liam Neeson plays a thief who wants a second chance. A bank robber willing to turn himself and $9 million in to be with the new love of his life. But then crooked FBI agents (Jai Courtney and Anthony Ramos) steal his money and frame him for murder instead. So he’s left with one thing to do: menacingly hiss over the phone, “I’m coming for you.” We imagine that trailer-ready threat was what Honest Thief was sold on during its elevator pitch.

Rebecca

October 21

Remaking Alfred Hitchcock remains a tricky proposition that has thwarted many filmmakers in the past. Readapting the only one of his movies to win the Oscar for Best Picture, Rebecca, appears all the harder. Yet everything we’ve seen from Ben Wheatley and Netflix’s luscious adaptation of the Daphne Du Maurier novel is highly encouraging.

With a winning cast that includes Lily James as the new Mrs. de Winter, Armie Hammer as her husband Maxim, and Kristin Scott Thomas as his menacing housekeeper Mrs. Danvers, the film opens with the young bride trying to step into the shoes of Maxim’s dead first wife, Rebecca. An apparent light of his mansion that has been long snuffed, Rebecca’s flame burns still if only because of Mrs. Danvers’ admiration for her late mistress… and maybe the ghost who prowls the house. This is archetypal Gothic horror, and with screenwriter Jane Goldman apparently keeping the novel’s original ending, we already feel seduced by the imagery.

On the Rocks

October 2 in the UK (October 23 in the U.S.)

Sofia Coppola and Bill Murray work together again. For the first time since their luminous Lost in Translation (if you ignore the ill-considered A Very Murray Christmas), the director and star are collaborating on this visibly intimate tale. It’s about an adult daughter (Rashida Jones) and her famous father (Murray) spending a weekend in New York City on an adventure after years of estrangement.

Read more

Movies

10 Best Alfred Hitchcock Movies

By Michael Leader

Movies

8 Essential Gothic Horror Movies

By David Crow and 1 other

The film, which also stars Marlon Wayans, premiered to a largely warm reception at the New York Film Festival and is already being written about as a spiritual successor to their original collaboration. Once more a woman in the midst of an existential crisis is aided by Murray between glasses of scotch. Who doesn’t want to pull up a seat and order another round?

Over the Moon

October 23

You probably don’t know Glen Keane’s name but you should. The longtime Walt Disney Animation Studios animator oversaw the design and animation of Ariel in The Little Mermaid, Beast in Beauty and the Beast, Aladdin in Aladdin, and Rapunzel in Tangled. With Over the Moon, he steps away from the Mouse and toward Netflix as a first-time co-director, alongside John Kahrs (an animator on Tangled and Frozen).

The trailer for the film is like a Georges Méliès fever dream from  as a little girl named Fei Fei (Cathy Ang) builds a rocket ship to take her to the moon. But once there, Fei Fei and friends meet a mythical moon goddess (Hamilton’s Phillipa Soo) who takes them on a candy-colored odyssey through the cosmos.

Synchronic

October 23 (U.S. only)

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Justin Benson and Aaron Moorhead are two of the most intriguing new voices in science fiction. If you don’t recognize their names, go watch The Endless right now. One of the strangest and cleverest sci-fi yarns of the last decade, that film is now being followed up by Synchronic, another original tale that stars Anthony Mackie and Jamie Dornan. The specifics of the film remain vague other than it is about two New Orleans paramedics who investigate a series of murders caused by a new, bizarre designer drug. But we already know we can’t wait to watch what horrible side effects come from these poor bastards taking it.

The Craft: Legacy

It cannot be Halloween without at least one more horror movie coming out the week of. Thus enters The Craft: Legacy, Sony Pictures and Blumhouse Productions’ legacy sequel to the original 1996 The Craft. Like its predecessor, this follows an outsider who is the new girl in school (Cailee Spaeny). She may be ostracized by the popular kids, but she befriends fellow students who have alternative tastes… like witchcraft.

The original is a touchstone for millennials and Gen-Xers of a certain age, and this reboot looks to push the story into a more complex understanding of friendship. And if it doesn’t, it’s still a Blumhouse effort so it should have plenty of spooky jumps!

Relic

October 30 (US Only)

Dementia is at the heart of this very eerie chiller where three generations of women convene in an old family home which seems to be rotting from the inside. Robyn Nevin, Emily Mortimer and Bella Heathcote star in a slow build drama which delves into the horror of losing your sense of self, as Nevin’s matriarch goes missing for days and can’t remember what happened while her house is filled with odd notes, black mould and snippets of a life slipping away from her grasp. This is the feature debut of Australian-Japanese director Natalie Erika James and it’s a stylish, chilling and confident first feature with a final act that veers into full blown horror. Out already in the States on VOD it has a UK theatrical release in the UK.

The post Upcoming Movies in October 2020: Theaters, Streaming and VOD appeared first on Den of Geek.

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[dexi-green]

Rise of Skywalker was good. Rant/Appreciation, spoilers ahead. Super long and rambling. This is all personal opinion, if you disliked it, thats fine. If you disagree, great.

First some quick points, then the longer stuff.

I loved Babu Frik and D-O

We finally got to see the Knights of Ren in action!

Also all those Star Destroyers?? Like those things are gotdamn huge... and that many of them? Actually scary honestly.

LANDO LANDO LANDO! LANDO AND CHEWIE IN THE FALCON!!

WEDGE!!!

CHEWIE GETS HIS MEDAL!!!

Also not gonna lie.. I wanted to see a gungan. Put some respect on Jar Jar. Or confirm the Darth Jar Jar theory you cowards.

We got to see a proper version of Rey’s version of Luke’s Dark Side cave vision (The TLJ one just wasn’t it for me. The mirrors..okay...)

Storm Troopers fly now... Did they steal stuff from some Mandalorians. Mandalorians are like..the only ones ever to have jet packs like that (that I’m aware of). Maybe the Mandalorian show will see some leftover imperials stealing Mandalorian armor, which they will replicate (obviously badly, because there stuff is no beskar).

I was so happy to see the interactions between Leia and Connix, because I just loved to see Billie with her mom <3 I’m so glad they gave her a role and just kept expanding it.

Hux... I love the back and forth between him and General Pryde, (I was hoping Richard E Grant would’ve played Thrawn but alas...) wondering who the mole is, and OF COURSE ITS HUX! Because he just wants to see Kylo lose. We love it.. I’m kinda sad he was taken out so quick, but it was good while it lasted.

How they tried to push Poe into some kind of.. not relationship, but not too subtlety trying to tell the audience, no he’s not gay, in like...just a bad writing way, like okay gosh, he’s straight (Also Poe was a drug runner...). That LGBTQ “representation” was trash, but definitely better than Endgame’s so-called representation.

I also wished we woulda got more (legacy) cameos, especially in the final battle when all the ships arrive. Maybe the Ghost Crew (I think you can see the ship though), or a character from the Mandalorian show (I was hoping for more tie-in’s in general (baby yoda), but The Mandalorian did sorta set up the force healing ability). My foolish soul was hoping for a super old old clone or a super old and scarred up Mace Windu, or just super old Ahsoka, but this film 100% confirmed no going back that they are totally dead with their voices amongst the other dead jedi :/ I can’t have everything and thats alright. I’m just glad they were in there in some capacity.

JJ has said that the thing Finn was going to tell Rey was that he was force sensitive (none of the good ships flew sadly imo) but that is still...amazing to me. I love it so much. Especially with that exchange between him and Han in TFA “We’ll use the force.” “That’s not how the force works.”. Hopefully he got or gets the chance to tell Rey because then she could train him and <3 Also I think that now makes it go back to no non-force sensitive people have used a lightsaber in the films (aside from Grievous). I loved the inclusion of Jannah and the other storm trooper deserters. Not only because of the kinship with Finn, but also... They are on a moon of Endor... So moon of the Endor system inhabitants, with slightly primitive techniques and tools and things come to help in the final battle? I love it. Putting some respeck on the Ewoks (also we see Ewoks?!?! Specifically Wickett <3) (Also I noticed a Fire, Water, Earth theme. The final battle in the prequels was in fire/lava. The final battle in the original trilogy was on the forest moon of endor, and while not the final battle, Kef Bir is the ocean moon of endor)

Palpatine doing what we all knew he was, using bodies to live through. I mean thats why he always had apprentices, just so he could skip over to them when his body got gross and weak, or at the very least work through them. I definitely wanna know more about the whole Snoke operation. We knew it was insane for some rando to be that powerful to be whispering and seducing Ben to the dark side from birth. And the cloning? like please, tell me more. I loved Palpatine’s exclamation of “Return of the Sith!” as an obvious nod to the films Return of the Jedi and Revenge of the Sith, but also the fact Return was going to be Revenge of the Jedi.

I LOVE LOVEDDDD the small scene of Luke training Leia. Yeah the CGI on their faces wasn’t the best but just being able to see it and knowing that he did go forward and train her as well as other students was everything to me. I’ve always wanted Leia’s force abilities to be more acknowledged outside of the comics, so you know I went crazy in the scene from TLJ (for multiple reasons). Leia training Rey?! Rey referring to her (and Luke) as her jedi masters?! we love to see it <3 Rey going back to Tatooine, back to the moisture farm (I could just hear Aunt Beru calling out for Luke (but also him calling for her and uncle owen when they got disintegrated..oop)). Calling herself a Skywalker, AND SEEING LUKE AND LEIA’S FORCE GHOST!! WE LOVE TO SEE IT (but hate it because it’s the end). THE TWIN SUNS AS THE SAGA ENDS WHERE IT BEGAN!!

The voices of the Jedi at the end?!? I cried. I mean there was Anakin, Obi-Wan (both old and young), Qui Gon, Mace Windu, Yoda, and Luke of course, but also Aaayla Secura, Luminara, Adi Gallia, KANAN JARRUS (who is voice by Freddie Prinze Jr. aka the best Fred Scooby Doo could ask for) , AHSOKA TANO!!! Nothing I want more than more Ahsoka <3 I would’ve loved to see them all show up as Force Ghosts at the end ala the ghosts of Harry’s family in Harry Potter Goblet of Fire/Deathly Hallows but I understand why they opted for voices only. Also no Ki-Adi-Mundi because while everyone was saying, “Rey, You can do it! We are with you!” he just woulda been like, “But...what about the droid attack on the wookiees?”

Han!! Han!! When he appeared to Kylo, after Leia pulled him back as much as she could, and Rey healed him and inched him further, and then of course, Han finished the job. Leia asked him to bring him back and he did in the end. The person he seemingly hated the most (maybe thats tied with Luke. I honestly would’ve liked to see some kinda of thing between Luke and Ben, some reconciliation). The famous Solo “I know” which we all know means I love you. like come onnnnn <3 AND Ben and Leia’s bodies becoming one with the force... but Leia only after Ben... like she was holding on, waiting for him <3 This really made me like Ben/Kylo a bit more, obviously the light side Ben more, because Kylo is actual trash imo.

I cried when Chewie cried for Leia. Her death was sad on it’s own, but Chewie just broke me. He had a happy family, then Ben went bad, Han and Leia split, and Luke left, then when he thinks everything is coming back together, He lost Han, then he lost Luke, now Leia? If you actually watch him he just collapses to the ground, throwing his arms, sobbing... AND HAVING TO SEE HIM IN SHACKLES!?!? And not like “oh we gotta trick these guards” but actually captured and shackled, After all the wookiees being captured and enslaved and he how he had to deal with that...come on man....

I cried when Luke pulled his X-wing out of the water. We all saw it submerged in TLJ, waiting for that moment when someone would do it. The fact that he does it, when he couldn’t back when it happened on Dagobah. It shows how much he’s grown, showed him stepping into Yoda’s role even more fully. He never got to leave that island in it, but Rey did. Plus Rey wearing his Rebel helmet like she wore the helmet in TFA?! Honestly... Two “nobodies” from nowhere sand planets who become the hope and saviors of the galaxy (you could include Anakin in that as well, but he just...kinda sparked the hope in Luke and was his savior so...indirectly the hope and savior).

The only thing I didn't like was the Ben and Rey kiss at the end but luckily it wasn't drawn out and he died right after. Cause you really expect me to believe that within the same movie of him pushing her to her limits and making her believe she killed a friend that she gone be like...oh but you still cute tho?  Also while re-watching everything and watching the prequels last month I remembered how Palpatine influenced the midichlorians/force to make Anakin in Shmi (it might not be canonized though, I’m not sure...). Obviously he’s not a biological father but...he is responsible...so that in a way makes him Kylo's grandfather in a sense. Rey is Sheev’s biological granddaughter so...big yikes. To me Kylo/Ben and Rey have a much better dynamic as brother and sister anyway.. I think a brother and sister bond suit them so much better. A rhyme of Luke and Leia, and the forged sibling bond between Obi-Wan and Anakin. It has pieces of both and would have been beautiful for it to play out that way. About Rey pulling her family in Ben Solo back to the light. I mean she even thought of Han, Leia, and Luke as parental figures... but luke and leia kissed so :/  guess just a family thing. 

Running themes in all of star wars is hope, family, and who you are. In this, the prequels were the darkest. They end in a family divided, hope seemingly lost, and giving into the worst parts of yourself. The original trilogy was about finding the hope in the darkest times, becoming more than you think of yourself, and that family can overcome anything together. This trilogy was about clinging onto hope that you can find and making it a beacon for others, becoming more than what you and others think of you, "subverting destiny", and the fact that family isn't blood, not always. Just because someone tells you you're a monster, just because you started to believe it, doesn't mean you are. Once you have hope you hold onto it with everything you have, no matter how many times you fail or slip.

Rey being a Palpatine isn't "the bad guys bloodline living while the good guys die out". It isn't about bloodlines. Sure Kylo and Vader's terrible deeds will live on in infamy, but so will the entire rebellion's. Instead of being like, "oh well by blood I'm a Palpatine so I gotta use that last name" she made a conscious choice to go by Skywalker, because of what the Skywalker family meant to her and the galaxy, so that their deeds live on and not Palpatine. He will become a bad memory, a scar on history, while Skywalker’s, the positive idea of them, will continue to live and spark hope year and years into the future. Her blood isn't tainted and her grandfathers nature isn't hers, if it was she really would be the empress on the sith throne after Palpatine's death. She would've took Kylo's hand and offers before. Its the same with Kylo. He succumbed to what Rey was actively fighting against. Its the idea its harder to be good than bad.

Palpatine's bloodline living on means nothing unless Rey decided to make it mean something. But she didn't. As far as I'm concerned the only thing the bloodline might've impacted is her connection to the force and how strong it was naturally (like Kylo because of Leia (maybe Han..debatable, i like to believe he’s a little force sensitive) and her and Luke's connection to it because of Anakin). Her parents also actively fought against Palpatine as far as we know, Luke and Leia fought against Vader like... To say oh your parent was like this so you are gonna turn out the same? Yikes. Also Finn and the other stormtrooper deserters? Literally brainwashed from such a young age to be killers but they said no? It seems like the theme was you can fight against your destiny or like Yoda said about the future being hard to see because its constantly moving so "destiny" is kinda just a trash idea, be who you are or the person you want to be, not what others tell you.

Also I see some people saying it destroyed Anakin's legacy, and I have to disagree. To the fan's Anakin's legacy was never killing Palpatine. Sure that was the action, but the act was saving Luke. It was coming back from the dark to the light to save his son and in a way, the rest of the galaxy, at least for a time, it was betraying his master. It was the why he did it, not the how. Not only did he save Luke's life, but he fueled Luke to go forward and continue down the path of hope and light as long as he could. Anakin's true legacy lives on in Luke and Leia and the Rebellion. Palpatine's return doesn't diminish Anakin's sacrifice. Because it wasn’t about just destroying Palpatine. Anakin/Vader's thoughts went to Padme and Luke, and the prophecy of bringing balance, he knew he had to do something. When Luke takes off his helmet when Anakin is dying he thinks, “The boy was good, and the boy had come from him–so there must have been good in him, too. He smiled up again at his son, and for the first time, loved him. And for the first time in many long years, loved himself again, as well.” (coming from the novelization of Return). As long as Luke lived, and Luke's legacy lives on, so does Anakin's and so does Anakin’s return to the light. Anakin's legacy and impact, the good and the bad, will continue. Maybe the people of that galaxy won't know of the person named Anakin compared to sith lord Darth Vader, but his impact will always be there.

Yeah they aren’t always the most perfectly written stories with the best effects and yadda yadda, I know there are some missteps and less then stellar things in this films, but they are here to entertain, and I’m entertained. There is probably so much I’m missing, and I really want to go see it again, and can’t wait till it’s out on DVD or streaming services... 

It was a beautiful film that did the best it could to end a saga thats bigger than anything ever, thats been going on for years, something that is unheard of and never been done. I just want to honor the history, the memory, and the work it all took. I just love these films so much. <3 Also, always remembering Carrie, Peter M. and Peter C., Christoper, and Kenny, and all other actors and crew who have passed who lent their time and effort to all of these films and this entire franchise <3 

[afreakingdork]

Review: Tangled: Before Ever After and Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure

I should have realized that Tangled: Before Ever After was going to precede something. The movie ends with Rapunzel's father knowingly "locking" Rapunzel up once again and telling her she will not be allowed out of her tower. It ends with her singing about how she will someday be free.... and almost immeidately as Rapunzel's Tangled Adventure begins, we see this rule is not enforced in its entirety and instead is set to be anywhere in the kingdom of Corona and they never really touch back on this point set by the movie that is MEANT to set up the show.

As the first season progresses, I was excited to see more about the black rocks. The part of season 1 that jumps out the most to me is Varian's turn. Sure, he blames himself for his dad's encasement in amber and it's logical to lash out those feelings of self hatred, but for him to point blank turn completely evil because Rapunzel has 'betrayed' him is just too much. Rapunzel even tells him that the storm is about to destory all of Corona (which includes his hometown and where his dad is encassed in amber mind you). She even tells him that she will help him as soon as she is done, but I guess I am supposed to believe he is too far gone to hear these words? No? Yeah, no, because he responds by saying that by then it will be too late. The question as to why this is so dumb is revisted later.

So season 2 sets us out on the road, Rapunzel will finally be free to explore the world like she wanted. There is a ton of fun to be had in these episodes; adventures aplenty. We slowly uncover the mystery of the black rocks' origins and the Moon Stone. I like the concept of an opposing force against the sun drop. My favorite arcs are the Captain Quaid arc right at the beginning of the season and the Tirapai Island arc. The outfits in the Tirapai Island arc are especially choice. In fact, kudos to season 2 for having all these really dope outfit changes in general. They are all beautiful. Also kudos to the Tirapai Island arc for giving Hook Foot his own episode before they just wrote him off the show. Also, also Vigor being Lord Demanitus was an awesome (albeit stupidly hilarious) twist that I did not see coming.

As we get closer to the Dark Kingdom things really start to fall apart. "Rapunzel: Day One" creates a rift in Rapunzel and Cass's relationship that seems so out of character for Cass. She's mad that Rapunzel won't heed her warnings about Adira, but Rapunzel has always gone around Cass to find the good in people. It's been happening since season 1 and it seemed really strange for it to only be a problem now. I guess since the whole world is getting more dangerous, but it really leads into "Rapunzel and the Great Tree" where Cass sings "Waiting in the Wings." She's harboring this loneliness that I guess I can see, but also more on that later.

Finally reaching the Dark Kingdom, King Edmund being Eugene's true father is someting I saw from miles away. It's too obvious a set-up and really a bit uncessary, but yay Eugene backstory I guess? That is until Eugene is immediately convinced by the father he rightfully rejects to keep Rapunzel from her destiny because it's his destiny to stop her? It makes absolutely no sense for Eugene who has turned around his entire life solely on his belief in Rapunzel's abilites, but I guess we need even more conflict at the castle.

Moving into season 3, there are just so many implications and dropped storylines. Starting with Cassandra's turn; how was she Mother Gothel's biological daughter? Mother Gothel is shown to be quite old, so I kinda doubt she could sow an heir. Also what does it really matter? On Tirapai Island, Cassandra was shown her truest desire was just to be accepted by her father. I'm glad the head guard is just dead to her after being her beloved father just because he lied about her being the heir of an evil witch? That's usually not something you'd be too happy about and defintely not something you would hold against your best friend for being 'the one your mother preferred.'

When we get back to Corona, the king and queen's memories have been erased and Varian is still being all evil, but only until things get too real and he might hurt actual people. The rest of Varian's redemption arc and him struggling with other people's perception of him was quite good though, I have to say. Picking up on the 'visit later' point I mentioned about Varian earlier, there was no rush because I guess Quirin was in stasis while frozen in the amber. I will say, there was no way Varian could have known this, but it really shoots the whole rush to save my father or you aren't really my friend thing in the foot.  

Episode 2 of season 3 just starts with Rapunzel in a new (ugly) dress and is just Queen. There is not even a throw away line of dialog to explain that Frederic and Arianna still have not regained their memories. In fact Frederic and Arianna just don't show up for 6 more episodes until this problem needs to be addressed! The whole issue is a mess, "Rapunzel's Return" shows Rapunzel recognizes the memory erasing wand from "Rapunzel: Day One," and yet even though in "Rapunzel: Day One" there is a very easy to make cure that Cassandra aboslutely explains to Rapunzel, they never try to even create this cure and instead rely on love to hopefully coax back Frederic and Arianna's memories.

"Who's Afraid of the Big, Bad Wolf?" ends with Red wanting to be called by her real name which is Catalina. Now, I don't know if this is a production erorr, but in the very NEXT episode "The Lost Treasure of Herz Der Sonne," they go right back to calling Red Red, but then a few episodes later in "Day of the Animals" they are appropriately calling her by Catalina.

Rolling back one episode from that, let's return to the 'visit that later' I mentioned for Cassandra, we have "Beginnings" that creates a huge plot hole for "Waiting in the Wings" as we see Cassandra has absolutely had the chance to go out and do what she has always wanted to do, but decided not to for the sake of friendship? I get that the story is supposed to be touching and Rapunzel is looking for a friend, but she makes friends wherever she goes and Cass is full well shown to understand that. So it doesn't really help the whole betrayal storyline to know that she gave up her dreams to stay with Rapunzel when she was never actually ordered to do that in the first place. She made that choice consciously. She finally starts to see the light in "Once a Handmaiden..." and I was really excited for the change and how Cass and Rapunzel would work together to sort this out, but one little change and boom Cass still believes Zhan Tiri even though she knows they're evil and manipulative. Cass has shown throughout the series that she is FAR smarter than this. She always trusts herself above all else. Overall, for it's flaws I'm not sad I watched it. The end tied up nicely and I feel satisfied.

[excusemewhileiplaykh]

Some Thoughts on the KH 3 Ultima Weapon, Double Meanings, Assumptions, and “Over-Analyzing”

The KH 3 Ultima Weapon is very obviously different from any other ultima weapon in the series, precisely because of its color scheme

Many people have discussed the red of the ultima weapon and have suggested that it is darkness, as KH 3 has established that red=darkness and accordingly, blue=light (refer to Yozora’s eyes and Goofy’s too I guess...)

However, I would like to consider another meaning behind the weapon’s design. I do not necessarily want to throw away the idea that it’s design is meant to signify darkness, but I moreso want to suggest that there is a double meaning behind the design. The color may suggest darkness, however, I believe the design itself may represent light, especially a new form of light

In order to do this, I want to consider the role of water throughout the series.

As I’m sure most of you know, water is symbolic of darkness and since the first game, it has been used to signify characters falling into darkness (ex. Riku getting consumed by the wave in the KH 1 opening, Aqua, Terra, and Ventus getting submerged in water, we even have a Darkside in KH 3 who is made out of water, etc.)

Also to note is that the moon controls the tides and the movement of waves. The moon is of course connected to nighttime. The moon is also promptly shown in the Dark Margin. Yet on the Destiny Islands, its counterpart, it is mostly sunny and the sun is prominent in most scenes.

The obvious opposites to water and the moon are fire and the sun. Thus, if water is darkness in the KH universe, then fire must be light.

And this makes sense. Fire can obviously be associated with the sun and thus with daylight or light in general.

Looking at the ultima weapon again, notice how the charm, the wings adoring its handle, and the accents on the tip, etc. appear like fire or a burning sun.

Thus it would seem that although red has been established as darkness and blue as light, Nomura wants us to appreciate the double meanings behind this symbolism. Of course, although water is connected to darkness in the series, water can also purify and bring life. Kairi means ocean and to suggest she is darkness would be a stretch. Similarly, fire is also necessary for life, but it can breed destruction and ruin.

In a way, it would seem Nomura may be attempting to deconstruct our notions of strict binaries and bring attention to the fact that things can have double, trip, etc. meanings. He also wants to show how things can change. What was once darkness, can become light and what was once light can become darkness (ex. Riku was part of the darkness, but through his journey has returned to the light. The Foretellers believed they were protecting the light, but instead fell to darkness, as suggested by the fact that they appear as dark pieces on the chess board at the end of KH 3)

This shouldn’t be surprising because the series has always been about going against preconceived notions. Sora himself is not the typical protagonist. He wasn’t chosen by the keyblade, but Riku was. Riku, being more masculine and “cool” is who you would expect to be the main character and end up with the girl, etc. and you would guess Sora to be the comic relief at best. Yet, our assumptions are turned upside down. 

Nomura isn’t concerned with what we expect. He is, but only in terms of him wanting to deviate from these very preconceived notions. He wants to show us that not everything must follow a strict formula, not everything is as it seems,, etc. Nomura has suggested this himself in his interview for the KH 2 Ultimania:

Moreover, in the art book for KH 3, Nomura wrote the following:

(”I ended up keeping it simple”? Nothing about that ending was simple, Nomura..)

Nomura wants us to use our imaginations and speculate and over analyze and read into things so we can find the secret things he has placed within the game. He has said himself that this is how KH 3 and possibly even the entire series is completed. 

Thus, to fully appreciate KH 3 and KH in general, you have to think outside the box. Taking things at face value will only disappoint you in the end.

[shyly-yours]

not too obvious

notes: was inspired by a reddit snapshot. it’s really quite adorable.

---

“Quick, let me hold your hand!”

“Sora, I’m eating lunch--”

“I only have five minutes to feel everybody’s hand before I have to make my next delivery!”

Lea put down his chopsticks inside the Cheeto’s bag he was holding. He wasn’t five anymore and did not appreciate cheesy powder clinging to his clean hands. “First, gross. Second, do I even--hey!”

Sora took Lea’s free hand and interlaced their fingers in a firm hold for several seconds. The hungry man learned the best tactic to any Sora brand shenanigans was to let it play out, and then bail when it looked like government enforcement got involved. “I would say you should buy me dinner first, but I kind of think Riku would have a problem with his boyfriend of four years taking out his ex-lover on a date.”

“No, this isn’t right either,” Sora mumbled and then sighed while letting Lea go. “I’ve held at least a hundred hands today and none of them are right!”

Shaking out his released digits, Lea set down his Cheeto’s, leaned forward on the table they were currently occupying, placed his elbows on the surface, and put his head onto his folded hands. “Well, if we’re doing hand counts now--instead of bodies--I can positively say you’ve actually one upped me for once. I’m so proud of you.”

“I’ve done Kairi, Ventus, Roxas, Terra, and Xehanort--”

“Maybe, check, check, check, and what the fuck.”

“--and none of them feel right.” Sora ruffled his spikes as he sighed. “Why are you the only one here? I was hoping to feel Isa’s hand before he left for band practice. Did he leave already?!”

“It’s a holiday, dumbass. How did you even get in here? The shop isn’t open--waaait, did you make copies of the key I gave you years back?”

“There’s no time for questions, Lea! It’s imperative you tell me where Isa is!!”

“I’m not telling you where my other half is if you’re just going to molest him like you did me.”

“What?! I did NOT--”

“Sora? What are you doing here?” Namine’s sweet voice asked from the break room doorway. “Doesn’t Riku have a show tonight? You’re usually with him when he does.”

“Let me hold your hand!”

----

There was a talent show at a convention Sora took Riku to that one time. They were dressed as popular video game characters that Riku had no clue about, but he would do just about anything for Sora (well, okay, he would do anything for Sora), and they received positive comments everywhere they went. Therefore, it was easy for Sora to persuade Riku into a duet to “give the people what they want”. It was a wonderful memory Riku cherished very much. 

He has to remind himself that Sora didn’t orchestrate Riku being discovered by an attending talent agency representative. Riku thought it was a joke at first--he was a good singer, but he didn’t think it would necessitate things like recording contracts or publicity interviews. He wasn’t so far gone into stardom that he needed a bodyguard to protect him from invading paparazzi. He was in that sweet spot of having gained enough notoriety to be recognized once or twice while buying toilet paper with his cute boyfriend at the local supermarket. 

It’s just... most of the good things to happen in Riku’s life are usually associated with Sora. It took him a while to recognize self sabotage and learning to take time-outs when haunting thoughts resurfaced before old habits reverted him back to a person Riku didn’t like. Sora met him at this stage in his life--a chapter where Riku looked at gift horses in the mouth and manipulated the situation into a disaster before anybody else could ruin it. Despite fading into a toxic shell, Sora remained his friend, eventually a best friend, and coaxed Riku back “into the light” where Sora knew he belonged. Such a genuine person deserved somebody who didn’t occasionally hiccup, right?

“So when are you planning on asking him?”

Riku and Kairi sat side-by-side on the edge of the amphitheater stage. “You don’t think it’s too soon to ask him to marry me?”

Kairi shoved Riku’s shoulder with hers and said in a disbelieving tone, “Are you seriously asking my opinion about whether or not you should ask Sora, our impulsive and reckless and dearly beloved Sora who you have been dating and living with for a while now--”

“Only because I was getting evicted!”

“--who, might I also add, has been deeply in love with you since the day you two first met--”

“You just said he’s impulsive and reckless. I don’t know if I’ve been complimented or insulted.”

“--and whether or not you should marry him?”

Kairi stared.

“...the jury’s still out?”

And then smacked Riku upside the head.

----

What’s fascinating about the world of Sora is that he inherently knows when the time is right. His mother always told him to follow his heart when it came to the facts of life and making tough choices. Leaving Destiny Islands behind was an internal struggle, but a necessary change as Sora felt the universe calling him elsewhere. He made new friends, reunited with other adventuring islanders, and eventually landed in the energetic hubbub of Radiant Garden.

This is where he met Riku, one of the adventuring islanders Sora was surprised existed (although now he knows better than think he was the first to venture away from Destiny Islands). It wasn’t obvious then, but Sora’s heart knew Riku would always be a part of his life. Now to find the correct hand measurement for the ring he wanted to buy to further cement Riku’s permanency in his world.

“I’m really exhausted trying to find Cinderella’s shoe--”

“We made a list of code words, Sora, and you’re still sticking to this one?!”

“--and I’m not going to give up until I find the right hand, but Aqua I’m really starting to freak out here. LOOK OUT I’M COMING THROUGH!”

Sora threw his cellphone into the bicycle basket in order to put both of his hands onto the handlebars for better swerve control. Exclamations and shocked shouts were hollered in his direction both from walking pedestrians and his mobile. Sora was never meant to multitask at any capacity no matter his stubbornness to improve his lack of skill. Riku said Sora must have been born under a new moon to have been inhibited with so much chaos. 

“SORA! What’s happening?!”

Out of harms way and coming up to his final destination, Sora plucked his cell out of the basket and resumed his conversation. “Sorry, Aqua! Yen Sid’s Bao buns have been really popular today and he called me in to help with deliveries before Riku’s concert tonight!”

Aqua sighed in disapproval. “I really wish you wouldn’t talk and drive, Sora.”

“It hasn’t been that bad today! I only crashed once and it was smooth sailing up until just a minute ago.”

“So let’s reset the accident calendar to ‘zero days since last incident’, shall we?”

“Can we focus on what’s really important right now?”

“Oh! You mean you don’t want to discuss the state of your health and well-being? Because I have a mountain of evidence that says there should have been an intervention weeks ago.”

It was Sora’s turn to sigh. “Okay, I hear you Aqua! I need to take better care of myself! No need to mother hen me into an early grave.”

“I love you, Sora, but how does that even make sense?”

“Listen,” Sora grabbed the last take-out bag, walked up to the townhouse front door, and knocked. “I haven’t found a hand that resembles Riku’s and if I don’t get the ring size for the jeweler soon, tonight will be ruined. Well, not ruined-ruined because Riku is perfect and wonderful and his show is going to be GREAT but, like, I want to be married to him already, Aqua!”

The last part of Sora’s tirade came out whiny and the person who answered his knock heard every single syllable. “Um...”

“Oh! Hello, my name’s Sora and I’m your delivery service today! Oh behalf of Heavenly Buns we thank you for your order!”

“I thought you were joking when you said that was the name of Yen Sid’s restaurant,” Aqua mumbled to herself.

The patron smiled at Sora’s enthusiasm. “Awesome! I paid over the app already, but, um, give me a sec to get get you a tip.”

Already on the edge of despair from time’s harsh reality, Sora glanced at his wristwatch (anniversary gift) and said, “It’s totally okay! Your thanks is enough!”

“No, no, no, I have my wallet nearby. I used to work as a pizza delivery guy and I know how hard this job can be,” the customer said. He grabbed his food and left to find the aforementioned wallet leaving Sora to awkwardly stand on his doorstep.

“It’s nice to know there’s still decent people around,” his phone crackled. 

Biting his lip nervously, Sora sighed. “Yeah, you’re right. Sorry, I’m really anxious about getting his ring in time and, well...”

“I’m listening.”

“...him saying yes.”

Sora couldn’t see her, but Aqua has been his confident throughout this excursion and he knew she was softly smiling. “Sora... do you want me to list all of the reasons why he is going to say yes to you like Kairi? Or do you want me to sprout endless quips like Lea until you finally get it knocked into your brain?”

“Um, how about some mother henning like Aqua?” It was Sora’s worst kept secret that he gravitated towards his friends that had strong maternal qualities when he had an episode. It was his quiet way of remembering his mother who passed two years earlier.

Sora heard a change of background noise and the click of a door shutting. He imagined Aqua stepped outside of her house as she tended to do that to better focus on serious conversations. “I may not have known you two from the beginning of your relationship, but I rarely see a person look at you the way Riku does every time you’re both in the same room together, Sora. You might not notice, but Riku is always making sure you’re comfortable first before he takes care of his own needs. He’s a dependable young man that cherishes the heart you have given him and he will always protect it from harm. It actually makes me jealous you found somebody that compatible in midst of your uncontrollable life.”

Rubbing at his eyes, Sora released a surprised laugh. Shakily, he said, “Riku worked hard to become the person he is now. He just needed somebody to believe in him to start creating the future he has now. I mean, he’s going to the next biggest pop star, Aqua! I can’t let him be tied down with me when his career hasn’t even started yet!”

“You’re doing it again, Sora.”

“...doing what?”

“Not believing in you. He won’t say no because he suddenly has a new life ahead of him. He’ll only say no if this isn’t something you want. Which, by the way ding-dong, are you already forgetting how passionate you were about wanting to be ‘married to him already’?”

“But what if he doesn’t want this?!”

“Then you will come to my place and we will hash it out over some moscato while Kairi and Lea wreak hell upon his person until he see’s sense again.”

“I don’t want him forced into marrying me, Aqua! That’s got to be illegal in several countries if not all of them!”

A throat cleared behind Sora. “Uh,” it was the customer back with the promised munny. “That sounds like a really interesting conversation you got going on there, buddy.”

Sora turned red in embarrassment. “Well, uh...” in for a penny, in for a pound. “Just, y’know, having an internal crisis about whether or not my almost famous boyfriend wants to settle down with,” Sora paused and gestured to himself, “this.”

Caught in the moment with this exchange of words, Sora barely heard Aqua on his phone, “I know you just didn’t call yourself a ‘this’. That is the equivalent of ‘it’ and you are worth so much more than that.”

The client clearly had no idea what to do. “Oh, well, um, good luck with that?” He shoved his fistful of munny at Sora. “And here! Thank you again for the delivery!”

Sora looked at the patron’s outstretched hand and froze.

“...Are you... are you okay?”

“Can I hold your hand?”

“...What?”

“Your hand! Can I hold it just for a quick second, please? I promise this isn’t for something weird--well, it’s a weird request, yes I know, because you don’t know me--well, you kind of do because I told you my name, but I don’t know yours! What’s your name? WAIT, that’s not important right now!  Please help me propose to my boyfriend who I love very much?!” Sora looked at the guy with the biggest puppy dog eyes he could muster. Considering the emotional rollercoaster he has been through recently it didn’t take much effort on his part.

The guy’s eyes widened as he considered calling for help. “Look, can you please just take the munny and go? My buns are getting cold.”

“I’ll pay for your dinner if you just hold my hand for a few seconds, sir, and I promise you’ll never see or hear from me again! Unless you wanna be friends!!”

“...Okay, I guess?”

Relieved, Sora set his phone down onto the townhouse banister and reached for his wallet to pull out munny. Elsewhere, Aqua facepalmed in exasperation. Sora was a sweet kid, truly, but his eccentric approach to life is why Lea purchased the accident calendar to go next to the tally marks of how many new friends Sora makes in a week. Sometimes their group makes bets.

Aqua smiled when she heard Sora’s shout of excitement on the other end of the line (and casually overlooked the distressed sound from the ex-pizza man).

----

note: part one of two...?

[nadziejastar]

I was SO MAD when Nomura said he didn't know how Saix got his scar! The answer is obvious when you put the pieces together, but he refuses to do so

There are several Organisation members whose original names are still unknown. Will we have a chance to learn them someday, or to find out about the scar on Isa’s face?

Nomura: If there is a sequel, then that chance may come. But in my heart right now my desire is a blank page.

Ugh, I felt the same way. I was SO mad. After 10 years of looking forward to the resolution of this subplot… that is the only explanation we are going to get apparently. I couldn’t help but laugh and roll my eyes, though. Because, like you said, it’s so obvious what Saix’s deal was, if you put the pieces together. I was just thinking, “Gee, I wonder why you have no interest in explaining Isa’s scar, Nomura? Maybe because you gave Isa’s backstory to Skuld?”

Even if Nomura does give us another explanation for the scar in a hypothetical sequel, I still won’t care because it won’t feel authentic. I’ll know deep down it’s not the real reason. Plus, with the precedents set already, it’ll most likely be something stupid. Like, “Isa gave himself the scar to never forget Subject X”. Ugh, better not jinx it.

Terra: Strength for what?

Riku: To protect the things that matter. You know, like my friends.

Going into KH3, there were many things I was excited about. But there were three things I was looking forward to the most. One of them was seeing Terra, Aqua, and Ven get saved. This was a given. There was no way it was NOT going to happen. I was disappointed in how it happened.

I would have preferred to see the characters actually use the power of waking instead of just talking about it. These segments actually could have provided much-needed closure to the characters’ emotional journeys. I would have preferred to see Ventus dive into Terra’s heart to wake him up, instead of Sora just nonchalantly freeing him with a flick of his Keyblade. But, at least they got saved…I guess.

Another one had to do with Riku and Terra. I haven’t had the chance to talk much about this, but I guess now is as good a time as any. This was also was a HUGE disappointment for me. I LOVE Riku and Terra. This actually ties into my disappointment with Lea and Isa’s story. I was looking forward to Riku and Terra’s subplot for years. I was just…speechless when I learned that it would all amount to nothing.

In “KHI”, the robed man, Ansem the Wise’s apprentice Xehanort’s Heartless (the body of Xehanort’s Heartless before he inhabited Riku’s body), appeared on the Destiny Islands. Is this because it was Master Xehanort’s homeworld?Nomura: That may be one reason, but if he somehow had some of Terra’s memories, we can consider that it might be because he had laid eyes on Riku previously. In terms of the elements of Terra and Master Xehanort, I think the questions of how their power is related and divided, as well as who has whose memories and heart, will become a key to the story after this one.

Riku’s period of absence was something that Nomura wanted to cover in BBS Volume 2. We see KH1 Riku in the Blank Points secret ending. It looks like that would have been the game where we would see a LOT more from his perspective over the course of the entire series, filling that “blank” period.

Is that to say that there’s a possibility that within Xehanort’s Heartless, the darkness that sleeps in Riku’s heart, there might remain something of Terra…?Nomura: That’s also a riddle connected to the next story, so everyone please use your imagination.

This connection between Riku’s darkness and Terra was supposed to be followed up in the “next story”. Of course, that is the game that got cancelled. During Blank Points, we also saw Riku watching Roxas and Xion. This was the time period where he struggled with the darkness inside of him. I was SO looking forward to learning about this.

Lingering Sentiment: “Aqua…Ven… A Keyblade? Who are you? I know you. We’ve met before, way back when. No, that wasn’t you. You’re not the one I chose. Where is he? Xe…ha…nort… Is that you? Xeha…nort… Xehanort!”

To Terra, Riku was his last chance for help. He was the boy he’d chosen to carry on his legacy. Riku gave him hope when he thought his friendships were beyond repair. He inspired him to listen to his heart. During his time in the darkness, Terra must have been thinking, “Riku will save me.” As the Lingering Sentiment, he clearly had Riku on his mind.

When each world is completely debugged, a scene is shown that was not seen in Kingdom Hearts I. Did those scenes occur at the same point in time as Kingdom Hearts I?

Nomura: Yes, they were memories deep in the data of the worlds recorded in Jiminy’s Journal, however as a result of Data Riku searching after the worlds were debugged, they were tangible to the King and company.

And that strange unexplained cutscene in Re:coded appeared to show that Terra was indeed searching for Riku. And Riku showed signs that he recognized Terra. Something about that darkness was familiar somehow. He smiled at the robed figure, like it was an old friend he hadn’t seen in a long time. 

Then the darkness immediately engulfs him. In DDD, the bad guys are able to travel to the sleeping Destiny Islands because a version of Xehanort physically existed there. So it is safe to say that Riku was already possessed even at the very beginning of KH1.

I always thought Riku’s personality in KH1 was strange. In BBS, he’s a really pure-hearted kid who wants nothing more than to protect his friends. His powerful light is what drew Terra to Destiny Islands to begin with. In all the later games, he’s a very devoted friend who is wiling to do anything to protect the people that matter. 

How could he have become Maleficent’s pawn and agree to turn on Sora so easily? It made total sense that Riku’s openness to Xehanort’s Heartless was more about his connection to Terra than some innate disposition to he had to darkness.

Riku: I’ve got something you need to see.

Sora: Oh yeah?

Riku: A hidden truth that isn’t part of your memories. I want you to see it. And, I want you to feel it.

Sora: Well, okay. I know you wouldn’t ask if it wasn’t important.

Riku: Thanks, Sora. Close your eyes.

In Re:coded, we also saw a new scene of Riku in Neverland, reaching out to the moon. Data Riku felt it was very important to show Sora. In that scene, Riku was behaving more like Xehanort than himself. The way he reaches for the moon is so similar to how Xemnas reaches for Kingdom Hearts. 

Riku: Darkness had taken ahold of my heart, and Kairi had lost hers completely. But at the end of your journey, Sora, you would have saved us. Now, what did me and Kairi have in common? When you watched–what did you feel?

Sora: Umm…

Riku: It was “hurt.” We had both lost ourselves, and we were hurting. So what would you have done?

I think this is because Riku already had a piece of Xehanort’s heart implanted inside of him, and he was gradually being swallowed by it. Riku’s possessiveness toward Kairi and his decision to turn on Sora was really Ansem Seeker of Darkness and his desire to find the last princess, manifesting through Riku. He was Xehanort’s vessel in KH1. Just like with Lea and Isa, I don’t think Riku got to truly heal his “hurt”, either.

“Stop it, Sora!” he shouted desperately, managing to block the Keyblade. “Don’t you recognize me?!”

“Yeah, I do. I can see exactly what you’ve become!”

“Augh!” Another blow from the Keyblade knocked Riku down. He couldn’t see that giant shadow anymore—did that mean it really was himself?

“How can the light hurt you? Have you really become a creature of the dark? You’re not Riku anymore—just a pawn of the darkness.” Full of regret, Sora kept the Keyblade pointed at him. “It’s time for you to face the light!”

This is a scene from the Chain of Memories novel. It’s when Zexion is trying to mess with Riku’s mind. It’s one of my favorite scenes in the series. Riku constantly refers to himself as a “creature of the dark” in the novels. He feels so ashamed of himself. His biggest fear is that Sora will realize what he “really” is, and destroy him.

A fierce glow radiated from Sora. Just like a shock wave of darkness, it had a terrible power that bowled Riku over and pressed in on him.

“I’m fading… Fading away…into the light…?”

If he was a creature of darkness—if he couldn’t fight the darkness with his own strength—then there was no other way but for Sora to destroy him, Riku thought hazily.

And if someone had to destroy him…he would much rather that Sora do it than anyone else.

Riku accepts this fate as something he deserves.

Young Xehanort: It was yours first, wasn’t it? But you succumbed to the darkness  you could not control, and your prize–the Keyblade–passed onto Sora instead. Your mistakes always end up being other people’s problems.

Young Xehanort uses the same tactic Zexion did. He tries to manipulate Riku, using his guilt. They want him to fall to darkness so that he can become a vessel yet again. It doesn’t work. But even in KH3D, Riku still blames himself for the problems that Xehanort caused.

“That was my… my dark side. I gave into the darkness once, and ever since, it’s chased be around in one form or another. The seeker of darkness who stole my body, a puppet replica of the shadows in my heart, and now, I’m facing me.”

This subplot explaining Riku’s darkness most likely would have explained why he saw a dark version of himself in Monstro in KH3D. This other Riku is trying to kidnap Pinocchio, but he’s wearing an Organization cloak, which KH1 Riku was not. It seems like Riku saw a past version of himself from an alternate timeline—one who won’t get saved by Sora.

This Riku meets Young Xehanort and gets a black robe. Eventually, his heart will get totally swallowed by Xehanort. He will become a full-fledged vessel, and join and the Real Organization XIII. Then they will transport his whole body through time, like they did with all the other versions of Xehanort, including Terranort. I don’t believe that Riku Replica had anything to do with this subplot originally. They didn’t NEED replicas. They had time travel. That’s what Young Xehanort’s Keybalde was for. That’s why they left Vexen and only took Isa with them.

Riku: After allowing darkness into my heart, am I still fit to wield the Keyblade? Even after locking you away, here you are, haunting me again. So I get it now. There’s no point in trying to hold the darkness back.

Ansem: At last, you see clearly.

Riku: You know…when I look at you…there’s this memory that flashes back. A secret I said I’d keep when I was little. The main reason I kept dreaming about seeing the outside world…was ‘cause of him.

Riku could clearly recognize Terra yet again during the ending. The darkness that hounded him constantly was not a manifestation of Riku’s true nature. It was actually a friend in need reaching out for help.But Riku never learns this. How can he truly forgive himself if he never learns that he was not to blame for succumbing to “his” darkness? 

That it wasn’t his fault that the Destiny Islands fell to darkness, simply for wanting to see the outside world? That he is worthy to wield the Keyblade? That he’s not and never was a “creature of the dark”? Xehanort is the source of all the bad things that happened. Not him. He was being used as a vessel, like Terra. He was a victim.

When do Riku and Terra meet again?

Nomura: In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Terra made a promise to Riku, “anyway, when you reach me, let’s teach the world the power to protect the ones we love, and the truly spacious world we live in”, in case he should ever succeed him. It appears Riku has remembered this promise, but when will the two ever meet again?

Terra and Riku don’t even speak in KH3. I. Was. So. Mad. LOL. 

Then of course, there was Lea and Isa’s story. The one other thing I was really excited to see the resolution to.

So not only the members up to number VI were living in Radiant Garden, but Lea and Isa as well?

Nomura: Yes that’s right. But at this time they were just two innocent boys who liked to play with a frisbee.

Yes, exactly. That’s what I found so interesting about them in BBS. They were just a couple of nice, normal kids who weren’t harming anyone. What’s the point of going out of your way to show how innocent they are, unless you plan on showing what made them change? This all seemed like it was foreshadowing a very dramatic revelation.

By the way, Braig’s dealings with Master Xehanort in Birth by Sleep make sense, he was to become a vessel.

Nomura: There is a certain reason for Braig to proudly exclaim, “As for me, I’m already half Xehanort.” Isa (Saix) is included too. I think you’ll understand the details about their circumstances eventually.

To me, it was so obvious, I never even questioned it. Two innocent kids are trying to sneak into a castle while shady human experiments are going on. They wind up in Organization XIII. Axel absolutely delights in assassinating its members, and he has a plan to overthrow Xemnas. And Saix is on on it, too.

Saix is pathetically miserable. He desperately longs for a heart, more than anyone. He has a big-ass scar of death on his face, orange eyes, pointy ears, and his personality did a total 180 after the events of BBS. He changed from someone who Lea loved spending time with…to someone exactly like Xehanort. 

What else could they possibly have been trying to imply with all of this context? And I thought the idea of them being research specimens was fascinating. It totally explained Axel’s complex personality, and it also added an additional layer of tragedy to his whole story. Axel was NOT in the Organization by choice. He was a victim. And Isa was basically Terra 2.0. Though unlike with Terra, Isa’s closest friend doesn’t even know he’s a vessel. 

That he is also suffering. Axel just thinks Isa’s forgotten about him. I really wanted to see them heal each other’s “hurt”. I wanted to see Isa get saved just as much as Terra, Aqua, and Ven. He was a victim. Riku, Lea, and Isa were all victims whose pain never got acknowledged by the story. So they never get to confront it and heal. Even though healing pain was the main theme of KH3.

Even though Axel had been eliminated in Kingdom Hearts II, since that time, had you considered having him appear again in his human form Lea?

Nomura: I thought a lot about that. Should I leave him as he was or should I bring him back again? However, when I considered the people that Lea wants to bring back, his existence plays a big role. I think Lea has successively become a key character.

Yes, Lea is a key character. According to Nomura, his pain was special. He’s the only one who doesn’t say Sora’s name out loud in the Blank Points ending. Because he’s planning to fix his own pain. He doesn’t have to sit around and wait for Sora to do it. That’s why he sought out Mickey and Yen Sid in the first place.

Too Precious to Lose

Axel and I talked for a while about the things we can’t bear to lose. Axel thinks that for Nobodies, it’s our pasts, because that’s all we have to remember the pain of losing something.—Roxas

Axel’s whole relationship with Saix was to demonstrate that Lea has something important that he’s lost. Something that he wishes to recover. And he has the power to do this now. His Keyblade is called Flame Liberator. The Phoenix represents, “the freeing of the spirit from the bounds of the physical.” It represents the point when a person recognizes their true nature and is liberated from suffering. It’s the bird of resurrection and immortality. He finally has the strength to “protect what matters”. 

Roxas: What is it that you’re so afraid of?

Riku: Huh? Hmm… Losing something that’s important.

Riku learned that you need to acknowledge the pain of losing someone you care about. That is the key to awaken someone who’s lost in the Realm of Sleep. Because it shows how much you love them. This love gives the other person the strength to face their own pain, and return to reality again. Unconditional love is even more important than having the strength to protect what matters. That’s what Riku learned. That’s what Lea and Isa needed, too.

Yet in KH3, all of these lovely themes get tossed aside. Now I’m supposed to just accept that Lea doesn’t really need to save Isa. He’s not really a victim. He’s not really suffering. The mind control experiments and Isa’s scar weren’t really that important to the plot. I. Was. So. Mad.

As bad as the long wait was, I could handle waiting a very long time to get proper closure. I am pretty patient when I have to be. But with these things, I’ll never get closure. The story will forever remain unresolved. And that just sucks. Two of the things I wanted to see the most. Things Nomura explicitly told us we’d learn more about…just thrown in the trash. It was a total slap in the face as a fan.

And yet, I truly believe Nomura is deeply unhappy with KH3′s story, as well.

Hmm if I had to choose a favorite character, I would say Sora, and Noctis. Why them? Of course Sora, I’ve been together with him for more than ten years now, this is the first time I’ve been with a character for such a long time, so he’s very very special for me and he’s been adopted by Disney also, so he’s a very very good boy. More like a good son actually. —Jul 2013

Around late 2013-2014, he was taken off of the FFXV project and it was drastically changed from his original vision. And Birth By Sleep Volume 2 was also cancelled around this same time. This interview was done before either of those things happened. Back then, he clearly had a lot of respect for what Sora’s character represented, and he was a lot more positive in his interviews overall.

“If I had to pick, I am a person more on the dark side like Xehanort and co. I harness the burning anger in my heart into what I create. Kingdom Hearts III’s current development explodes very much in this sense. Each time, it’s a battle with Sora and co. who are the exact opposite of myself, it’s been over 10 years and yet we haven’t reached a conclusion.”  —Oct 2014

Something drastically changed his outlook over that year. He said he was filled with “burning anger,” and started to distance himself from Sora’s character.

“I actually don’t sympathize or empathize with Sora at all,” Nomura says. Instead, he relates to the game’s mysterious villains, Xehanort or likely Ansem, anyone who’s fallen prey to their dark natures. “I think I’m closer to those characters, so Sora is like my enemy,” he says. “How I always think of him is I would unleash my attacks on him, and then I draw him in a way that I think he will be able to make a comeback at me. In that sense, I really think that Sora is just like an opposite personality character to who I am.”—June 2018

By the end of KH3′s development, he seemed to actively dislike Sora.

“The Kingdom Hearts series has become a huge title nowadays and back then it was more like I was making it secretively in the corner, but now that a lot more people are involved I do feel that it’s not my title anymore, it’s everyone’s title. And just talking about all this … It actually kind of makes me really sad.”—June 2018

This…deeply saddened me, too. Because it explained so much about KH3′s story. To me, it didn’t feel like Nomura’s true vision. It just didn’t feel like the same Kingdom Hearts I grew up with. The story was massively watered-down and the character arcs weren’t resolved in a satisfying manner. At all.

It felt like the higher-ups wouldn’t give Nomura full creative control because they needed to make the game as mainstream as possible. And that doesn’t work with a story that has a decade’s worth of side stories to resolve. So they canceled BBS Volume 2 and pushed for KH3′s story to be greatly simplified. And KH3′s entire story line got butchered in the process. And I think that’s the real reason why Nomura wants to distance himself from the Xehanort arc, and also why he doesn’t want to explain Isa’s scar. He’s very depressed with how everything turned out and he wants to start over with a blank slate.

[dat-town]

destiny is jealous of us

final part of the destiny trilogy

Characters: Jeongguk & fairy!you

Setting: Beauty and the Beast au (part of my fairytale collection)

Genre: finally the happy ending i swear

Summary: With the war going on, he asks you to stay. With an aching heart, what will you say?

Warning: mentions of war and death

Words: 3.1k

Oh the irony.

The same long wooden table, the same throne room and the same people at the two ends. Or are they? Two years ago, an arrogant and selfish king was seated on the gilded armchair and in front of him sat a proud, powerful princess. By now the king has matured and became wiser while the princess went into hiding. They both lost a lot. They've grown by pain.

"Where's the Queen?" Jeongguk fills a crystal glass with red wine taken from the basement’s oldest section. His voice cuts through the thin canvas of memories swirling around them. They both remembered this place too well.

"Dead. The Kims killed her. They were really proud of it," the princess says in an emotionless voice, eyes hazy but her grip tight and white on her napkin. "You would know if you didn't isolate yourself totally."

There's a hint of mocking in her always all-knowing voice.

“Then aren't you the Queen?"

"The Queen of what?" The fairy princess snorts, laughing bitterly without an actual sound. "You need land you can rule over to have a kingdom to begin with. We lost and the island has been taken by the Kims."

Jeongguk nods, he's gathered that much but he didn't expect the royal ridiculing her own role in the equation. He knows fairies have never had many allies and the Jeons used to be their last hope. The king couldn't help but wonder if that was the reason behind the disappearance of the curse's symptoms. Fairies are said to be naturally manipulative creatures after all and he learned not to trust in the Princess, even if she says she wants to help. But everybody deserve a second chance, don’t they?

"So that's the reason you really help me? Because you need me."

Even though he knows it's not wise to accuse a possible ally of something like this, Jeongguk also knows that fairies can't lie and he has to know the truth before agreeing.

"No, I help you because you're a better person now and you have the potential to be a wiser and more just king than any of The Kims," the Princess says and she looks like she actually means it.

Jeongguk considers it and runs his fingers through his soft brown locks. He still couldn't get used to that he's back in his original form. In the mirrors he still expects a monster to look back at him. But his own reflection in the glass is just as fine as the wine according to what he hears of whispers behind his back. He paid a huge price to learn to be considerate and humane. But he wasn't the only one, the Princess paid her part too.

Out of simply curiosity he asks: "Do you regret it?"

"What? Not marrying you or cursing you?" The fairy sounds amused but her darkened blue eyes are solemn. "No to both. Then your arrogance would have ruined us. Maybe not so soon but eventually."

And no matter how much it hurts his pride, Jeongguk has to agree with her.

It's been days and each one feels like a decade as looking back, you realize you had absolutely no chance to spend some alone time with the king. He has daily strategic meetings with the general of the knights and long politic talks with the Princess. Day by day, fairies keep coming upon hearing the news that your Court is finally formed again after such a long time. Everybody is hopeful around you but you can't help your blue mood.

Of course, you're aware that Jeongguk has no choice and it's not his fault. To win this battle is the only chance to get back what's his... And your kind's. Yet, it hurts to be neglected.

"Were you waiting for me?" A familiar, melodic voice reaches your ears in the dead of the night and you whip your head towards the entrance of the greenhouse. At first you don't even believe your eyes because Jeongguk look so ethereal under the moonlight like he was from another world. Even if he’s just standing still among the beautiful flowers you and your kind helped to bring back to life. You couldn't stand ruined greenery around you.

Your traitor mouth curls up in a smile without your own accord and even though you could play around with words and find a way to deny his statement, you don't even try.

"I hoped you'd come by," you admit with a small shrug. Your fingertips touch the colourful petals of flowers on your way to the king. You feel nervousness seep into your veins and bones which is ridiculous, isn't? He's the same then why are you so afraid to look him in the eye? Maybe, whispers a little voice inside your head, you fear that your eyes can't lie either.

"It's just that you have been busy with royal affairs and I wouldn't..." want to be a burden.

You ramble, trying to take your mind off the heavy truth when Jeongguk steps a bit closer and your breath hitches. He looks like a vision: tanned skin glowing under the silver hues, skin flawless and velvety. His hair is messily styled, it's obvious how often he ruffles up the stands. The brown of his beautiful eyes is like liquid walnut cream, sweet and soft, genuine. He wears leather pants with boots, a sword on his belt and his white shirt is unbuttoned on the very top. He's so dreamy and yet, there so much human vulnerability in him as he nibbles on his lower lip trying to form the right words.

"I missed you," he blurts out and your heart sings the same song. Isn't it funny to miss one who's so close you could touch their face?

But as the matters stand, you ought to be careful.

"Oh. I'm not sure the Princess would be happy to hear that," you mumble and it's unfair. If it was anyone but her, you could be angry, you could be jealous but you respect the Princess too much.

According to your laws, she could have anything anyway. She has the right to claim and take anything from another fairy of her Court, everything they have. For the first time you think it's too much.

"What does she have to do with this?" The king sounds utterly and genuinely confused but you know humans are great liars. Maybe he thinks he can spare your heart from hurting by not telling you but there are curious ears and talkative mouths at every corner.

"Well, you will marry her, won't you?"

At that Jeongguk's face falls as if you told him about something dying.

"I..."

"You don't have to lie. Carrick told me about your history with the Princess. She rejected you but now she needs land and you need soldiers, it's perfect. I'm happy that it works out, I really am."

What you aren't happy about is what it means for you.

Upon hearing your statement, Jeongguk falters, words frozen onto the tip of his tongue. He has so many things to confess, secrets to whisper to the night and the lulling truth he wishes to kiss into your soft skin. You smell like wildflowers that grow in the greenhouse and he yearns to bath in your closeness.

"I want to show you something," he says the safest of all the things he could say. He offers his hand, a pretty hand with long fingers without burgundy scars and painful thorns. Pianist fingers. Oh how you wish you could hear him play or chase after his talented movements in a piano piece written for four hands.

You let him lead you through the castle. Up the stairs, through secret passages behind paintings, laughing at almost tripping in a threshold and not letting go. There are unfamiliar walls around you since you've never been in this part of the castle, in the highest place of all, the stargazing tower.

"Where are we– oh. It's beautiful," you mumble in awe as soon as you step out in the open and see flowers pullulating over the fence. The blossoms are red like the blood moon.

"It's the bush of the rose the Princess gave me when she cursed me. She told me that if I cannot break it until my 21th birthday when the last petal falls, I will stay like that," Jeongguk explains but it broaches more questions than answers. The wild rose overgrown the whole tower looks far from dying. It's beautiful and in a way it reminds you of the king's heart protected by huge glass walls.

"You never told me how you broke the curse," you wonder out loud while your fingers curl around the fence.

"I've wanted to tell you but we didn't have time to properly talk... you know since the..." appearance of the royal head of Court and her people.

"Oh. Right," you nod. True. He also noticed it then. For some reason it makes you happy.

"After my parents died, I became cold. I didn't care about anything just about winning the war. I thought it's the only way I could make them proud but I lost myself, I forgot what it meant to genuinely care and it's not something you can force on yourself, so I thought there's no chance to fight the curse. But then you came, stubbornly stayed in my life and showed me so much empathy, patience and care. It hurt when you left."

You suck in a breath. It hurt you, too. You remember the anxiousness bubbling in your stomach, the urge to look back and turn around so strong you had to physically strain yourself to keep going. A part of you wanted to stay but you weren't sure you were welcomed to. You're still not sure what it all means.

"Why are you telling me this?"

Jeongguk lets out an awkward laugh like doesn't know what to do with himself. There're so many emotions in his reply: hope, trust, affection. He looks straight into your eyes.

"When it's over and if we both survive, would you stay?" With me?

The weight of the question crashes down on you and it scares the hell out of you.

"I– I can't. My family..."

"They can come too. I need you to keep me sane," Jeongguk pleads and even though you know he'd never take advantage of the situation, it disgusts you how others would look at you if you stayed in a castle with him and the fairy princess.

"I won't be your mistress," you snap at him harsher than you want to and all colours drain from his face.

"I never asked you to. It was never about that. You can leave, of course, but you made me want to be a better person and you taught me a lot about kindness and love. I'd like you to stay."

His words are just what you wanted to hear but not enough, never enough.

"It's your home, Jeongguk, not mine..."

"It can be ours."

"Jeongguk..." His name falls off your tongue as a cautious warning but he doesn't let you finish your protest. He can see it all in your eyes: fear, worry and uncertainty.

"You didn't look at me any differently in my monstrous form or knowing that I'm a king. Why are you looking differently at me now?" Desperation bleeds of his voice and it's choking you. He has no idea how much you actually want to stay but you know better than to believe in a mirage

"It could never work, Jeongguk. I'm just a simple fairy, I can't be a queen."

"By your laws maybe but you can be with mine," he says finding all the loopholes but the hard lines of your agitated expression doesn't change, so he sighs burying his face in his hands. "You don't want to be my queen, you don't want to be my mistress. What do you want then?" Even with his hovering closeness, the heat of his human body, you tremble at the sound of my queen. Oh you're so weak.

"I want you. Without titles," your tongue takes control and your confession has no end as you dive in deeper. It feels like freefalling as you speak and Jeongguk's eyed soften around the edges. "I didn't plan on falling in love with you but I couldn't help and I could imagine staying here, just the two of us, but now it's too much. You have a war to win, a kingdom to rule. You have greater things on your plate than to worry about a mere fairy. I don't want to hold you back.

And it’s out, there’s no way to take it back now that the king stares at you so intensely.

"You don't. Please listen to me..."

"Your Majesty!" One of the watch guards stomps up on the stairs ruining the intimate moment. You can feel Jeongguk’s arm brushing against your shoulder as he turns around.

"I'm busy," he grits his teeth and the knight ducks his head down in apology but doesn't waver.

"It's important."

"Can't it wait?"

"I'm afraid not, Your Majesty. The attack is here."

You lock eyes with Jeongguk knowing that you don't have a choice to prolong this talk. A moment later the war horn rings loudly.

The Kims only sent a small army since they didn't expect big confrontation, especially since they attacked at night. Even with this dirty trick, the horde of fairies manages to surprise them. Still, it's a bloody battle, each one is. Jeongguk gets nauseous just thinking back when his general pleaded him through the door every single day to come out and reassure his people, to fight with them. But back then he was too proud and too much of a coward, so instead he locked himself up in a room. And one day the visits stopped, the castle turned quiet and lonely. Eventually Jeongguk came out but it was too late.

This battle lasts for three days and the utterly demolished mainland army's single survivor leaves with a written offer: the Kims either let them have the province and Jeju or they will fight until their last breath.

Jeongguk has been distant in these days but you found him easily at a balcony. Your balcony. It reminds you of all those mornings you spent together when the war happened only outside the gates. It all seems so long ago.

"Jeongguk?" you step closer and take a look at the pile of paper scattered around him on the table. His handwriting is pretty on the parchment.

"I hate numbers," he admits in a rough voice and jabs on each paper with his index finger. "The dead, the wounded, the gunpowder, the assets. We won one battle but in a war like this, there'll always be more and we'll lose more than what we did now."

"It's okay to focus on today's troubles, you can worry about the rest when you get there," you tell him softly and pry his cramped fingers off the pen as you sit down beside him. His right hand is bandaged, so you’re careful with it but seeing him well is a great relief. You heard he got that deep cut on his palm but otherwise he's untouched and it seems confirmed right now.

When his eyes snap at you, his gaze settles right away on the bloody strain you have.

"Did you..." get hurt? Jeongguk gently touches your temple where a sword grazed you because you were too careless.

"It's just a scratch, nothing serious," you whisper and wish to cup his hand, to pull him close and never let go. You remember clearly how scary it was, the very thought of losing him.

"I can't ask you to stay out of the fight, right?" There's a hint of smile in the question. He knows you too well, your cold fingers, warm eyes and enchanting smile. He's fallen for all of it. And what is a greater love than letting you be yourself and fight your own battles even if he doesn't want you to?

"No, you can't. It's my fight too."

Jeongguk nods, understanding and his hand warm yours as he’s blowing hot air on your pale knuckles in the chilly March weather.

"You said you would want me without titles but... I can't do that. I've already let my people down once," he whispers still not letting go of you. Hesitation is swimming in his eyes and you hate to be the reason of his inner conflict.

You take a deep breath.

"I know. That was silly of me. This is your rightful place. I can't care for you any less as a king than I'd care otherwise," you slowly press a kiss on the back of his hand sweetly after you overcome your own fears and stupidity. In the last days out in the battlefield, you realized there are scarier things to be afraid of. "If the Kims come back with a bigger army and let's be honest, they will, we can die any day. I don't want to have regrets."

The king, young and foolishly in love, looks at you with big doe eyes and takes a sharp breath as he leans his forehead against yours, pulling your whole body closer. You can almost taste the apple tarte he ate on his lips and his name trembles on yours.

"Jeongguk."

"Hm?" His hum resonates through your bodies as you place your palm over his rapidly beating heart following the rhythm of yours.

"When it's over and if we both survive," you echo his earlier words," ask me again."

His kiss is the softest promise you've ever tasted.

Months pass, the empire of the three Kims falls apart as the fairies – your family too – join the resistance from all over the country and the old residents of the former Jeon Kingdom also go back home to fight against the invaders. By the Fallfirst Festival, they have to sign the pactum and ensure the autonomy of the country.

Summer has been blazing hot so far and rained rivers of blood but the season of withering not only brings colder breezes but peace, too. It celebrates the king's birthday with newly picked grape and cherry wine, performances of his heroic acts during the war, a statue of him in the French garden but he doesn't care about it at all. He's hiding in the ballroom, playing a four hand piano piece with you and his off-key ending note, a chaste kiss on your rosy lips takes you by surprise.

Then, with stars in his eyes and the slightest doubts in his heart, he asks again:

"Would you stay with me?"

"Always."

[projectgaiarp-blog]

Full Name: Sebastian Jordan Ashford Nicknames: Bastian, High Ball Level: II Species: Metahuman Age: 29 Date of birth: August 8th, 1988, Home Town: George town, Cayman Island Occupation: Transportation/Fighter jet pilot Faceclaim: Armie Hammer

Personality: Myers-briggs type: ENTP — The Visionary. ENTPs are fluent conversationalists, mentally quick, and enjoy verbal sparring with others. They love to debate issues, and may even switch sides sometimes just for the love of the debate. When they express their underlying principles, however, they may feel awkward and speak abruptly and intensely. Allignment: Chaotic good — A chaotic good character acts as his conscience directs him with little regard for what others expect of him. He makes his own way, but he’s kind and benevolent. He believes in goodness and right but has little use for laws and regulations. He hates it when people try to intimidate others and tell them what to do. He follows his own moral compass, which, although good, may not agree with that of society. Enneagram: The challenger — Powerful, dominating type; self-confident, decivise, willful and confrontational Basic Fear: Of being harmed or controlled by others Basic desire: To be in control of their own life and destiny Biography:

Growing up, the skies were where Seb belonged. Well, so he thought. Born in miami, his family soon moved to the cayman islands where he’d spend most of his childhood. Now, he’s never been good in school. Barely even showed up, as he’d spend most of his time sneaking onto the local Air base, watching as his fathers jet took off. Why should he sit in class, read stories about the past and solve math issues when he knew exactly what he wanted to do? The kid wanted to fly. Wanted to follow his fathers footsteps. Become a pilot the world had never seen before. Large, blue eyes would light up as the roaring of the jet engine blared through the hangar, heart pounding to the beat of the turbines. He was a goner the first time he saw the fighter jets mark the skies.

Much to his mothers dismay, of course. his father was obsessed with his work. A well-respected pilot that always knew how to handle a stressful situation, never once left a scratch on a jet. Practically lived on the field. Seb’s mother raised three young boys on her own, the blaring of jets flying over their heads like a cruel reminder that the man she loved could die any day in a gruesome accident. Obviously, hearing that her youngest son wanted to become a pilot himself, felt like a slap in the face. She forbade him to go to the hangars, skip school to watch his father and for three nights, the kid would cry himself to sleep. It felt unfair that he couldn’t be what he wanted to be. Something he was so set on already, so obsessed with. Other kids would run outside to play with friends, enjoy the peaceful environment the island offered. But Seb would sit in his room, fantasizing about his to come pilot years. Until, one night, his father woke him up from his deep slumber. 1 AM, everyone was asleep. He practically hauled the young boy up, threw the pilot jacket on his much too narrow shoulders, the name tag standing out like a trophy.

That night, when Seb was eight, was the first time he actually got to sit in a fighter jet. He had been scared at first, despite the boyish grin and obvious excitement. ‘Don’t worry, you’re flying with me.’ His father had said as he adjusted the helmet on his youngest, lifted him into the jet and followed suit.

If Seb hadn’t known exactly what he wanted to do in his years to come, he knew then and there for sure. The stars were ever so close. Rules, authorities — nothing mattered. He got to feel the unwavering freedom of gliding through the clouds, watching the stars and the moon come closer and closer.  

‘Are you scared?’ ‘No.’

They’d spend hours in the air, barely made it for Seb to go back to bad and be awoken by his mother for school. That day, he actually did join his older brothers and attended class. Physically, at least. Because his head was still in the clouds, watching the stars as they shone and it felt like they did only for him in that moment.

Two years later, Seb had sneaked onto the hangar again. The pilot jacket his father usually wore outside his jet baggy and loose on the scrawny kids form. It was a clear morning, simply another test flight for the new jets they planned on launching. He was ten, still ever as sure of his future as suddenly, flames lit up the boys blue eyes. He watched in horror. Screamed as the jet his father was in fell from the sky, flames engulfing the aircraft as it plummeted to the ground. Seb watched as his father died. The relationship Seb had to his old man wasn’t anything like the father-son relationship most had. Joshua Ashford was his hero. The man that could do anything, wouldn’t let fear take over his life and lived it. Lived it to the fullest with the heart of a lion.

It shattered the boys world. He mourned, mourned and mourned. Cried until his eyes had no tears left and his throat felt raw and bloody, was forced to promise to never follow his fathers footsteps.

That night, something changed for him. It wasn’t just the fact that his father had died, no, something had been triggered. His body would go through constant shifts — drained of all energy before, in the next second, it’d practically burst out of him. The change didn’t happen over night for him, no. Months would pass that he’d slip in and out of consciousness, a constant state over overwhelming power surges running through his body. No doctor could find anything, simply blamed it on the growth spurts Seb had in summer before his fourtheenth birthday. But he knew that wasn’t the case. He was used to aching joints and muscles, hips popping out of their sockets, the headaches. This, however, was different. He just couldn’t place it. Sebastian had always been an active kid, but days would pass that required no sleep. Too much energy stored in his body to even think about resting. And it wasn’t until he turned fifteen that he began to realize that something was terribly wrong with him. The incident occurred in school, now, he wasn’t the most liked kid of all. He was loud, had a big mouth and didn’t know how to hold himself back, so it was a given that people would latch onto that. Beat the shit out of the odd, lanky kid that didn’t quite seem to know his place in the world. Well, they definitely knew theirs as a surge of energy threw the kids off of him. He must’ve looked just as shellshocked as them, though, as they scrambled to their feet and ran off, leaving Seb to look at his palm like he had just found out he’d be growing horns. From then on, situations like that would happen more and more. He’d reach out for a bottle and accidentlly chuck it through the room without even touching it. Soon, he’d start manifesting the energy his body was harboring. Small things, at first. Round shaped objects that grew increasingly more complex each time he’d try to form something. It was kept a secret from his family and friends, too afraid they would react badly. So instead, while secretly trying to work with, well, what he suddenly had to deal with, Seb tried to focus on the promise he had made his mother. To never set foot into a jet, let alone follow his fathers footsteps.

But it wasn’t a promise he’d keep. Seb had been confronted with his biggest fear when he was ten, was the only one to watch as his father burned in the scraps of metal, the only one that ever understood the man completely. And he started to understand that his father would’ve wanted this. That going down in flames, doing what he loved, was the only honorable way for his father to go. He lived as he died.

So it came to no surprise that Seb Ashford enrolled in the US Air force the second he turned eighteen. His mother swore to never speak a word to him again, but he knew he had to. It felt like he owed his father that much. To continue his legacy.

And soon, the youngest Ashford made a name for himself. Not because he was as honorable and respected as his father. No, it was because Seb was an extraordinarily fearless pilot. He’d force the most out of each jet, test it until it nearly broke apart in the air and gave it everything he had. His flying style was his character personified. Cocky, fearless and a little crazy. He underwent military training, spent nearly eight hundred hours in pilot training and he loved every single second of it. He was reckless, didn’t feel like he had anything to lose the second he stepped into a jet or plane of any sort.

And god, that boy could fly.

Probably the only reason, aside from his last name, that they didn’t kick him out for his foolery. For risking his life when he wasn’t asked to. When there was no reason to. But Seb lived for the thrill. He lived for the pounding of his heart as he pulled the nose of the jet up just seconds before it’d hit the ground. The thrill of getting himself into situations only he himself could save his ass of. Whether it was in training or combat - he trod life like it meant nothing.

All the while his family chose to cut all ties to him. Too afraid to lose another beloved person. To lose him to the sky just like his father.

That changed when his mother fell terminally ill. Yet, even on her deathbed, she refused to see him. He’d stand in front of the hospital room, forehead pressed against the cold material, fists balled. Helpless. A little lost.

A distraught call from his brother one day snapped him out of it. He was at work, getting ready to jump into his machine as he rushed to the hospital, only to find out that he was too late. Sebastian had only been twenty-three when he watched his mother die. Felt a similar, aching pain eat its way through his body. He felt lost, helpless. Wandered the streets that night, drunk beyond belief. Energy was building up, pressing for a release and in the state of mind he was in, he had no control over it. Didn’t figure a way out to help himself as he broke down. Fingers buried in the mess of blonde locks of his as he fell to his knees, street lamps exploded, windows crashed as he let loose of everything. Forgot himself.

Seb wasn’t aware of the destruction he had created until the next morning. Well, rather said, as two men in suits showed up at his apartment. They knew about him, his secret. That, alongside the fact that he was a trained fighter pilot, left Atlas interested in the man. Terrified of what type of destruction he was capable of - incapable of controlling, for that matter - Bastian went with them. He just disappeared, accepted the job offer that meant he’d find out more about his abnormality. With the promise on paper that he’d be capable of doing what he loved still. That, maybe, his life did have a purpose that didn’t include him dying at the age of twenty-five.

Powers: Energy Manipulation

Seb can create, shape and manipulate energy, one of the basic quantitative properties describing a physical system or object���s state. It can be transformed (converted) among a number of forms that may each manifest and be measurable in differing ways. The law of conservation of energy states that the (total) energy of a system can increase or decrease only by transferring it in or out of the system, thus the total energy of a system can be calculated by simple addition when it is composed of multiple non-interacting parts or has multiple distinct forms of energy.

Sources of energies include kinetic energy of a moving object, radiant energy carried by light or electromagnetic radiation. They can be used, absorbed to be used on the owners body or formed into solid matter.

Sub-abilities:

Energy constructs   Seb can turn energy into tools, objects, weapons and other items. Users who have mastered this ability can use it for almost any situation, creating anything they need. Energy attacks: He can release/use energy to attacks of various shapes and/or intensities, either projected, used as a part of melee attacks, etc., from huge rays of pure energy that can knock over or even obliterate dozens of targets, or slightly singe them.

Weaknesses:

-  Drug use, neural interference, vertigo or other forms of mental incapacitation can renders the owner of the powers useless. Energy constructs and powers in general rely heavily on the mind of the user and require full control. - Is unable to create energy, being limited to manipulating only from already existing sources - Distance, mass, precision etc. depend upon the knowledge, skill and strength of the owner - Extensive use of powers over a long period of time could deplete one’s energy reserves. - In most cases constructs will return back into their original state if the User becomes unconscious, leaves the proximity or otherwise loses contact/control of the item. -  limited on how complicated constructs they can create -  imagination, less creative usually means they can only make simplified constructs, such as geometric shapes and stick figures. Advanced practitioners can make exact replicas of anything they think of. - Can be broken if the amount of force that is applied is greater than the amount the user’s imagination can produce. - If the construct takes too much damage it may be difficult to maintain and can break, especially if the user has problems with maintaining focus. -  require outside source of energy to create a blast. - Firing may be involuntary reaction, or released in constant stream. - may be over-charged/wounded if too much energy is used at once. - need control to avoid unnecessary destruction.

(Optional) Headcanons + wanted connections: — Possible brother, older than him and whether he’s a metahuman or not is completely up to whoever may be interested. If they kinda look alike that’d be grand but even if you may be interested in the connections with a FC that wouldn’t work for complete brothers, half-brothers can totally be a thing too.