CitoIta and Kingdom Hearts Headcanons
Because I like Kingdom Hearts and I like them and they are gamers
(I say CitoIta but honestly, it’s just because it’s about Citron & Itaru, the ship is kinda vague here lol. Like it’s probably optional to read it that way at this point)
(There’s an attempted bonus section about Banri at the end, that’s why I tagged him.)
{Opening in new tab is strongly advised. I used bullet points with sub bullet points. UPDATE: I personally struggled with opening this in a new tab on the blog where all the subpoints are properly formatted, so I pinned it so you can go right to my blog and find it easily if you want. Also I moved the Intro below the Keep Reading link for space.}
Keep Reading (I manually put this one so it would hopefully always open in a new properly formatted tab)
In this post, scientifically backed by my memory, understanding of the characters and other things (eg: feelings, unlisted headcanons, & my understanding of types of people in fanbases/the kh fandom, minus shippers, I’m not touching that... here, I might consider it in the future, probably not but maybe), I will go over basics like how many games they’ve played and their fave games, trios, characters by groups, and moments. Also, there are conversations and little tidbits about how it fits into their world. I tried to pick a favorite battle but note that they probably have more than one those are just notable ones that I thought were worth mentioning. There will be KH spoilers if you’re someone unfamiliar/not caught up with it.
Citron
Has not played every game but has looked into the story and watched playthroughs of some of the other games.
Hasn’t played the games he has played in order,
Might not have caught up on the story in order but if so that’d be more because he was looking for specific characters and info
Has definitely played BBS, Days, CoM, UX, & Dark Road.
Might’ve played (one, two or all three of the following, idk) DDD, Re:Coded, KH
Has definitely not played KH2,
Likes to find/delve into theories
Read the Sleeping Realm Theory
to Itaru, because he thought it sorta sounded interesting but told Citron he wasn’t reading all that.
I don’t know any other names of long theories besides SRT but you can bet your bottom dollar that Citron has read(or listened to) them for sure
Wants very much to try Sea Salt ice cream
Considering figuring out how to make Wayfinders
UX Union:
Anguis
and has never switched unions
Favorites:
Game: Birth By Sleep
Trio: Keyblade Knights
Lost Trio is a close second
Character from each group:
Destiny: Sora
Sea Salt: Axel
Keyblade Knights: Aqua
Twilight Town: Hayner
Lost Trio: Namine
but Vanitas is a close second
Organization 13(minus Sea Salt): Xemnas, Zexion/Ienzo or Demyx(probably depends on the day)
Foretellers: Luxu
Xkids: Brain
& He gets bonus points for dressing up his Chirithy
DR Underclassmen: Vor
DR Upperclassmen: Vidar
Xehanort: Xemnas (?)
I know I listed Xemnas as one of his faves in Organization 13 but genuinely I feel it’s a v love hate relationship, where the love is that he can and definitely would(is like two seconds away from it) do an analysis on Xemnas’s actions/behaviors/character
Boss Battle(that he definitely 100% played):
BBS Aqua ft. Terra vs Terranort
Opening:
Birth by Sleep 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage
Moments/Tidbits:
Involving Fave Trio:
All three:
KH3
Terra gaining control and saving Aqua and Ven
Aqua:
BBS
Doing her job but still standing up for Stitch
Giving up everything to try and save Terra
BBS 0.2
Knowingly chasing after illusions of her friends because she misses them so much.
Terra:
BBS
Gaining hope from meeting Cinderella
Standing against Eraqus to protect Ven
Ven:
BBS:
Running away with Stitch, lowkey being a space criminal
DDD:
Putting his armor on Sora to protect him from the darkness
Involving someone other than Fave Trio:
KH1:
Kairi protecting Sora/saving him from being a Heartless
Days:
that Sora just subconsciously gave some of his memories to Xion because she didn’t have any
DDD
Neku telling Joshua Shibuya is his home too
Sora going off to thank the Dreameaters
Commonly Quoted(? idk what else to call these, i specifically mean the ones you find in compilations and stuff) Lines from the English Translation: “[’Me? I’m already half Xehanort'] ‘That’s nuts...’”
Bracketed the first part bcuz I think he uses the second part as a reaction sometimes, same infliction and everything
It’s at the point that Tsuzuru’s familiar with it, against his wishes(If Citron says the first part Tsuzuru might accidentally properly respond, that’s how deep in he is, he’s not even sure who Xehanort is(but he does think that’s nuts))
Final things of note:
Is excited for Atlantis in KH2
Enjoys the attractions in KH3:
Loves that Dark Aqua could be beat w/ a pirate ship
Loves that there was a roller coaster in the Keyblade Graveyard
Favorite Summons:
KH: Tinkerbell & Bambi
KH2: Stitch
KH3: Ariel & Meowwow
Often forgets he has items but has gotten really good at blocking and healing because of it
Very good with magic
Itaru
Has played just about every game in release date order,
with just about 100% completion on all of them
Is (lowkey, but acts highkey) appalled Citron hasn’t played the games in order, currently planning time for them to play through all the games together
Has read the manga and maybe some of the light novels
Does look at theories sometimes, might even have a few of his own, definitely has his own headcanons
Secretly wishes he could share a Paopu Fruit w/ someone
UX Union:
Vulpeus
There’s a possibility he might’ve tried the other unions at some point but Vulpeus is his main and current union
Favorites:
Game: KH2
Trio: Sea Salt
Character from each group:
Destiny: Currently Riku,
Wants it to be Kairi, but it’s just not, is always excited and ready for Kairi news tho
Was Sora for awhile
Sea Salt: Roxas,
It really is, but he would absolutely main Xion if given the chance
Keyblade Knights: Aqua
Twilight Town: Roxas Olette
though he somewhat feels guilty to Pence as feels like he spent more time with Pence but that Olette is just a tad bit cooler
Lost Trio: Rep,
but Namine’s a close second
Organization 13(minus Sea Salt): Currently Saïx/Isa, but it’s kind of a love hate relationship
There’s also a lean towards Larxene
Foretellers: Ava
Xkids: Skuld
DR underclassmen: Baldr
DR Upperclassmen: Hoder
Yes he cried over their story, no he won’t openly admit it
Chikage did witness it tho
Xehanort: Ansem SoD
Boss Battle (that he definitely 100% played):
Days Roxas v Xion
Opening:
KH2,
not because KH2 is his favorite game but rather it adds to why KH2 is his favorite game
Moments/Tidbits:
Involving Fave Trio:
All Three:
KH3
Their whole battle/reunion
to clarify the Lea Isa scene is a part of that
Roxas:
Days
The scene around the Riku vs Roxas battle
KH2:
Roxas v Sora scene
(I debated between this and the DDD scene. Also I feel like his list of favorite Roxas moment is longer than this but)
Xion:
KH2:
The seashell in the opening... for Xion
Days
Xion getting her own answers and spending time with Namine and Riku
Xion leaving all those seashells for Roxas
Axel:
CoM
Letting Namine go
KH2
Sacrificing himself to save Sora
Involving someone other than Fave Trio:
KH2
Sora and Riku in RoD
Coded:
(Data-)Riku reaching for the moon
UX
Ephemer and Skuld saving Player|Star(light)/bringing them to the new version of the world
KH3 Re: Mind
Playing as Kairi in that boss battle
The fact that Kairi throws her keyblade because she trained with Axel
Commonly Quoted(?) Lines from the English Translation: “Roxas, that’s a stick.”
Final things of note:
Has found all 101 Dalmatians
Has read fanfiction longer than the Sleeping Realm Theory
(which is actually really easy to do, I looked it up and the docs word count is 31,265)
Has his Data-bosses battles on his channel
Proud it only took a couple of tries to beat Yozora (he recorded each try to put his win on his channel)
Uses items all the time, knows when the best time to effectively use items for maximum item usage
“Actual" conversations:
Fave Games:
Itaru: *rambling about some KH2-related topic &/or how he can’t believe Citron hasn’t played 2*
Citron: ooo! Itaru, are you one of those guys who feels Kingdom Hearts peaked at 2?
Itaru: Kingdom Hearts 2 is just an objectively good game, the other games are good too though. KH2 is just, objectively speaking, great. Is it my favorite? Yes, but it’s completely warranted as...
Citron: *smiling as Itaru starts rambling knowing that he’s point two seconds away from going into a 2hr spiel about how KH2 is great*
Itaru: *clears throat catching himself early* A-Anyway, which one’s your favorite?
Citron: Birth by Sleep! I love the ice cream rhythm game :3
Itaru: *understanding that there’s definitely a lot deeper of a reason to that being Citron’s fave* Oh, that’s a good pick. Actually sorta seems on brand for you. Ice Cream Beat is pretty fun.
[Then they boot up Itaru’s copy of BBS and play Ice Cream Beat]
Play Order:
Itaru: So it’s a little late for you to get the full proper experience but we’re gonna play the games in order because it’s really the best way to experience the games.
Citron: Ok, speaking of order and since we’ll get to Birth By Sleep eventually, we both agree that the best way to play the first time is Aqua Terra Ven, yes?
Itaru [has played each route and in varying order, does not quite remember which order he played the game in the first time but is pretty sure it was Terra Ven Aqua]: ...Ven makes a lot of sense to play last...
Citron: Then I am glad we are in agreement. ^^
Itaru: Most people play Aqua last tho--
Citron: Sure chronologically she left Land of Departure last, but story telling-wise *starts talking about why Aqua, Terra, Ven is the best order*
Twewy: (I could do a whole other post on headcanons regarding them playing twewy, it’d maybe be shorter, tho maybe I won’t bcuz I feel like they know more than me lol(I say like Itaru doesn’t know more about KH than me *cries*). If I refer to twewy’s og name wrong here I’m sorry)
Citron: It’s cool that the twewy characters were in DDD. :)
Itaru: Yea. Oh you played subaseka before you met the cast in 3D right?
Citron: :)
Itaru: Right?
[Citron refuses to answer because he thinks leaving Itaru hanging is funnier than a yes or no ever could be]
Ansem SoD as Itaru’s Fave Xehanort:
Citron *three seconds after finding out*: So, is he your favorite because nostalgia as he was the first one you battled or because you think he’s hot?
Itaru: *chokes on being immediately found out because it’s both*
Bonus: Banri & KH Headcanons for no reason other than he also plays games
(With some obligatory Citron and Itaru mentions below because this is their post lol Banri’s not a part of CitoIta. Just to clarify)
Probably has not played all the games
Stares at Itaru whenever he starts talking about secret bosses or hard-to-find treasure chests/secret reports typically until he stops, lists a specific Banri is familiar with or Banri finds a way to shift the conversation. It’s not that he hasn’t come across them he just
doesn’t know which bosses are secret and which aren’t
doesn’t go out of his way to look for treasure chests
Partakes in the memes
Can quote more games than he played honestly, loves those “out of context”/”lines I quote” videos
Has memes saved to his phone
Azami and Taichi borrowed his phone once for picture reasons and Azami was appalled by the Aqua Cinderella meme & the Terra memes (ifykyk)
Probably had Xion’s scream from Days as Sakyo’s someone’s ringtone as a joke (can people set ringtones and ringback tones anymore?) but then he recieved a call from that person in public and was lowkey highkey embarassed so he unset it
He and Citron:
have done a Goofy rendition of Bring Me to Life one time
though Banri sorta begrudgingly participated
At least one Mankai member who was there said he’s not going Karaoke w/ them anymore
are quick to point out or send pictures of “Lucky Emblems” when they see them, it’s almost a contest at this point
Sakyo has asked them to stop sending “lOOk!! a LuCKy emBlem!” in the main chat with a picture of three connected circles, Itaru eggs them on tho
Itaru participates too but he doesn’t have the same luck in seeing them, he is the reason they started tho as in person he pointed one out so later Citron sent a picture of one to show him, so Banri just had to too but he sent two as he already had the pictures and was gonna show them later, so Citron had to find two more to be in the lead and after he found just one more, Banri caught on that they were competing and they spiraled from there
I know logically they don’t appear that often irl but I also know in my heart that it’s happened enough that Taichi, then Kazu and Kumon participated. Now, the rest of Mankai keeps an eye out for them
Between Tsumugi’s picture of flower bulbs leaning together captioned “Does this count as a lucky emblem?” Izumi asking how many points she gets for a random spot on the ground that sorta looks like a lucky emblem & Omi sending a picture of at lighting set up from work saying “ at this angle this sorta looks like a lucky emblem right?” Sakyo’s feeling a little betrayed because each of those were during times when people weren’t actively mentioning them in the chat.
Winter Troupe is the first troupe to all find at least one “Lucky Emblem”
Autumn troupe (jokingly) blame Sakyo for them not being first
UX Union:
Has probably been in a couple, Ursus or Vulpeus most recently
Favorites:
Game: Dream Drop Distance
but would rather tell you he “hasn’t thought about it, maybe 2″
Trio: Destiny,
but might not correct you if you guessed Sea Salt,
Character from each group:
Destiny: Riku
He honestly sorta relates in ways. I’m not gonna get too into it but like yea he feels.
Sea Salt: Roxas
Keyblade Knights: Terra,
but he makes jokes that rag on him a lot so unless you know Banri you would probably think he hates him or just likes to make fun of him. He really does like Terra as a character tho. Feels for him too. But as we know bullying is his love language
Twilight Town: Seifer Pence
Seifer’s a joke fave because of the undeniable proof [they] totally owned [those] lamers (if ykyk)
Lost Trio: Vanitas,
but Rep’s a close second
Organization 13(minus Sea Salt): Larxene & Xigbar
Foretellers: Luxu (?)
Xkids: Player|Star(light)
DR Underclassmen: Xehanort, “but Bragi’s kinda cool, I guess.”
DR Upperclassmen: *hasn’t actually caught up yet, but he likes Helgi’s design*
Xehanort: Young Master Xehanort(YMX)
Itaru says it’s because they’re both brats
Boss Battle (that he definitely 100% played):
KH2 Sora v Sephiroth or DDD Riku v YMX [I couldn’t decide which one to list]
Opening:
KH3
Moments/Tidbits:
Involving Fave Trio:
All Three:
KH2
Kairi “calling Riku tf out” ultimately leading to the reunion
KH3
Riku talking with Rep on the beach, Kairi and Sora sees him sitting there by himself
Sora:
KH1
Sora giving his goofy smile before plunging a keyblade into his chest
KH3
Sora dropping down to protect Riku from Dark Aqua in the nick of time
Riku:
DDD
That Riku just subconsciously became a dream eater
KH3
Riku taking a stand against the heartless despite just about all hope being lost
Kairi:
KH2:
Kairi(and Namine) preparing to fight Saix and the berserker nobodies with their bare hands
KH3 Re:Mind
Kairi getting a surprise attack in on Xemnas
Involving someone other than Fave Trio:
KH3
Yeetus Vanitas
Woody roasting YMX
DDD
YMX & Vanitas spouting “nonsense” at Sora
Lea showing up and Donald & Goofy dropping from the sky, ultimately coming to the rescue
UX
Star ready to square up with the Foretellers
mainly in reference to the Star v Ira speech/scene/fight but the Aced one too
Commonly Quoted(?) Lines from the English Translation: “Mickey it’s Riku, they put bugs in him!” & “Thank you Sora’s heart”
Final things of note:
Always plays on proud mode from the get-go
Not really a completion-ist but does have just about every trophy earned on DDD
Didn’t know you could lose to Yozora in the battle against him
Probably actually more of a Final Fantasy fan than KH, or at least got into KH because the Final Fantasy appearances
Bonus Convos:
Demyx:
Itaru: Yea, I can’t figure out Luxord, for Demyx I’ve seen people guess his name as Myde.
Banri: lol I like the theory that his name is Demyx and he just wandered into the Organization
Citron: That one is funny, but as far as likelyness goes I like to think his name is Demy and they just slapped an x at the end.
Banri: The laziest naming.
Citron: Exactly!
[and then Banri and Citron start talking about Demyx and it somehow leads them to talking about Goofy’s “death” in KH2 and now they’re talking about KH memes and jokes and Itaru just wanted to know if they had any thoughts on Luxord’s name.]
Vanitas vs Aqua:
Banri: *(possibly somewhat jokingly) insinuates Vanitas is as strong but probably stronger than Aqua*
Citron: *gasp* No!! He is not.
Banri: Really? Then how come he almost took Aqua out?
Citron[genuinely loves Vanitas]: He is a rat! He cannot beat Aqua in a fair fight!
Itaru: I believe he means brat.
Citron: No!! I mean rat, feral ferret child! Can only beat Aqua after biting her and giving her rabies! And even then, she still has at least a week to destroy him.
Itaru: lol that’s quite the metaphor.
Banri: I... *got lost* ???
Itaru: He’s saying Vanitas can only use dirty tricks to even get close to beating Aqua.
Banri: ???
Citron: If Vanitas could beat her he wouldn’t have to result to tricks like firing at Ven, which she was already off her A-game then mind you. But honestly, if Vanitas can’t even get close to beating Terra what hope does he have to actually beat Aqua. I can vouch that he can’t beat Terra. I beat the Terra v Xehanort and Vanitas battle by whacking Vanitas around. It was really easy. Vanitas has only beaten Ven in a fair fight. He’s not nearly as strong as Terra and Aqua. It’s demonstrated through their elements, really. Vanitas is fire...
Banri: *stressed, wasn’t expecting a whole lecture, looks to Itaru for help*
Itaru: *nodding along listening to what Citron has to say*
So yeah those are some of my headcanons involving KH and CitoIta (and Banri with minor Mankai mentions.) If anyone wants to do Taichi(who idk could play already, while I haven’t picked any out I know what type of moments would be his faves, I just can’t figure out yet if he prefers characters he relates to or characters he thinks are cool/want to be like) or Kumon (who I’d feel would want to start after seeing them enjoy it, bet Banri and Citron would have him play chronologically by timeline rather than release order “for science”) or any other characters, really, I’d gladly read it. I can see Taichi & Kumon playing KH but I don’t feel like I know them well enough to do this with them lol. I’m not even sure I know Banri well even to this with him but I attempted it lol. If there’s any questions about my decisions I might answer them, some are easier to put into words than others though.
Anywho, I dunno how to end this post tbh. Ship CitoIta, Play Kingdom Hearts. idk.
Thanks for reading all of my nonsense lol.
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rn the roomie is showing off the House Weaponry and i was thinkin abt the way marc kind of . seems to ? avoid fighting with knives ? and was just like . exploding bc im. watching the way marc brawls on the rooftop & he . he constantly knocks knives to the ground but he keeps his own hands weapon-free. the moment marc gets his hands on a knife, the fight’s over too quick (at least for bad guy #1)- and suddenly steven takes the wheel.
and then the next time there’s a knife in Marc’s hand it’s certainly not nice and shiny like it was before- no, it’s buried in bad guy #1’s gut. there’s so much more blood.
… listen i came into this ask wondering if marc and jake had different styles of fighting with weapons- with knives specifically- and walked out with too many more questions than i had answers.. Marc’s movements with the knife were. very certain and fluid- well practiced, even. and yet he seems to shy away from picking one up- he sticks to his fists.
It doesn’t help that there’s not much footage on how jake uses a knife, we just see the .. result. anyways this is for you to munch on when you find a spare thought cos i know this’ll be rotating in my brain on repeat for a goooood long while. skdjdksj byeeee
Percy, have I ever mentioned how much I love when you talk to me about House Weaponry? lsdgjskljgs ANYWAY. I have.. commentary on this.
So, in that scene on the rooftop, there's three guys he's fighting total, five knives (the particularly flashy guys are carrying two. Y'know. For funsies, I guess.) The confrontation starts with Marc being, bless his heart, more himself than we see very often. A little sassy, a lighthearted jab here and there. Oh shit, you killed him? I needed to talk to that guy. Oh. What, are we dancin'? We fightin'? What are we gonna do? He's more comfortable, the situation more familiar.
And throughout the fight, he's more focused on getting the knives out of their hands. He disarms, but he doesn't necessarily take advantage of the weapon itself. (It's something we learn in combat self defense, your best chance of survival is to take the knife out of the fight entirely.) Marc's strategy is this:
Guy #1: Dodge the first slash so the knife is already directed away from him, takes his wrist holding the second knife, forces it in the same direction so both points are no longer a threat, and uses his own momentum to push him away, falling to the ground.
Kid and Guy #2: In the time it takes Marc to land a solid kick on someone else, the kid manages a good slash against his back, distracting him from the older men. When he tries again, Marc grabs at the wrist holding the knife, twisting the joint in a way that makes it fall from his grip. It's important to note too that he hesitates for a second, striking his back with an open palm instead of a closed fist. Less pain, more jarring or surprising than anything.
Guy #1 again: He crosses the guys arms across each other, making it pretty difficult to near impossible to stab forward. He brings his knee up to strike his wrist, and so another knife falls. The second knife comes up, and Marc strikes again to the same result.
With every motion and decision Marc makes, a weapon falls to the ground. But he doesn't reach for it, not until the end. And even then he's angry, the adrenaline is pumping, he's reaching for that familiar violence, but at the last moment, Steven steps in. That's enough.
And I used to think it was so strange, because Marc's very familiar with utilizing the crescent darts when he's wearing the suit. There are multiple times he uses them to stab, to cut, to slash, in the same way a knife would be handled. So why did he seem so against taking advantage of a dropped weapon, when he was very clearly outnumbered? And then I remember this line:
Or it was just a way for me to keep being what I've always been. A killer.
And that is Marc's entire struggle with his identity as Moon Knight, isn't it? He refuses to accept that certain satisfaction he finds in his own violence, because in doing so, he thinks he's confirming everything his mother ever made him believe. He finds it easier to use those weapons wearing the armor because he thinks he can almost.. draw a line between himself and what he becomes as an Avatar. He can separate the two.
And by trying to put those different parts into neat little boxes, that is what causes him to believe he hates being Moon Knight. Because he puts all that anger and violence, those things that he hates, all in that same box. That internal conflict arises when the line becomes blurry, or it disappears entirely, like that moment on the rooftop.
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the phantom hourglass manga is the one i care about the most out of all of the loz manga and therefore the one i am most willing to rip apart because of its relation to the game, its own problems, and the potential that was lost or thrown away for any reason at all
making this separate than the list of things i liked about the phantom hourglass manga
im not going to be too organized about this; ill go by topic and in each topic go in chronological order through the manga and everything else will probably be all over the place
im not even going to touch the story yet and just go after the art off the bat because i really believe that this manga has the weakest art of all of them. i dont know if its due to some kind of time crunch or a lack of care but its really… im not expecting any of these books to have killer art, but in ph it just feels like there was less effort with inconsistencies in some designs and either very low detail or just absent backgrounds. this feels like a mean-spirited critique since i understand that manga is difficult to create and requires a lot of effort but its just visually… worse than the loz manga that came before or after it.
some specific grievances i have with the art are things like inconsistent designs of some characters (linebeck is hard to draw and i get that but hes just… never totally consistent) and some items like weapons (the shape of bellumbeck’s sword changes during the fight for some reason) and stuff is… left out. the fire temple has basically no layout since link’s just in some flavor of void for the entire blaaz fight. one of the panels with linebeck’s ship shows it from the behind at an angle where you should see the deck but its just not there
his ship is also missing its chimney on the cover art
this is also more of an opinion thing but the way astrid looks almost nothing like her game counterpart is just… it’s a nickpick based on opinion but that is Not The Same Character.
you can absolutely tell a fantastic story with lacking art, but the reason why im criticizing this manga’s art is because its the tenth in a series of manga who, up until this point, has had consistently good art, and then it drops off with weak backgrounds and character inconsistencies.
plus, i really care about how this story is visually portrayed.
the pacing, even with half of the story cut, is also a bit of a problem. as far as i'm aware, this is the only loz manga to have significant chunks of the story cut out, and while it admittedly works well with only half of the story, it fucks with the pacing a bit. specifically, it screws over linebeck's arc, which i'll talk about more in a different section, but it also kind of glosses over the phantom sword and (obviously) loses some possible time for further character exploration and whatever. the cut from the ghost ship right to jolene right to the final boss is, while handled well, kind of abrupt.
obviously, cutting half of the damn story will make what's kept feel a little too fast, but even some of the stuff more original to the manga is paced weirdly or is just... eh.
there's a bit after neri is found where linebeck decides to stop working with link and basically ditches him and this whole thing lasts one to two goddamn pages before everything is patched up and good and... why even include it if you turn the page and oh problem fucking solved. it's even a little out of character for linebeck at that point since a few pages before he's seen getting the sands of time for link and it's... it make sense but it's a really extreme character choice and while it serves its purpose (introducing the idea of linebeck not valuing other people very much and realizing that) it's still extremely brief.
the added stuff with linebeck being a past member of the ghost ship, while fine and interesting at first glance is also a strange choice that doesn't work all that well? it works for characterization and all of that but it makes for a weird situation with linebeck's character motivation where he's a coward and after the ghost ship for the treasure on it, but if he was present on the ghost ship literally as it was fucking gutted then he would know exactly what the danger of the ship is and want to avoid it no matter what. in the game his motivation for going after the ghost ship works because he doesn't know for certain whats on that ship and has never been on it. plus, aside from character backstory and whatever, it doesnt serve much of a purpose. linebeck even makes some comments about the ship's interior and the like but it all amounts to nothing because link never actually goes into the ship anyways. it's just a weird backstory to give linebeck.
the shuffling around (and cutting of one of) the three final bosses is also weird. it makes sense for the story order the manga goes with, but it actually lowers the stakes for the bellumbeck fight (in the game literally everything is on the line but in the manga its just linebeck and they absolutely use that to their advantage but still) and mixing the ghost ship fight and bellum fights make the final encounter really brief and kind of anticlimactic in some way. it's difficult to express, but the order of the final bosses in the game makes bellum a more interesting villain and melds with linebeck's arc in a much more interesting way. it feels like there was a specific reason for that given order and for the manga to just toss that aside means it loses something.
also reserving pretty much an entire chapter for jolene is A Choice to make. there's nothing wrong with using an adaptation to flesh out a character but here you don't learn anything new about jolene she just kind of makes very little sense in her motivations when you give her more screen time but dont change her from wanting to kill linebeck for fucking off but also still liking him maybe. good for you if you like jolene since she got more time here but they did pretty much nothing interesting with her
this is something i figured out while writing this, but the manga actually does Fuck All with the actual hourglass. you could've cut the fucking thing out and it wouldn't have effected the story too much. link never goes into the temple every again and the phantom sword is just. made on request with link having no interaction with it before using it to kill bellum. the only time the phantom hourglass is actually plot relevant aside from link first getting it and then using it to gather sand is when bellum tells link to bring it to the temple and then it's used exactly once to stop time and then it's used as proof that everything happened. oshus says link needs to use it and the sand to break the curse over the temple of the ocean king and then that never actually happens the sand and the hourglass is just used once to stop time once and otherwise it might as well not be in the story it's so weird. it's also implied that oshus needs the sand to restore tetra after he returns to his own true form but they dont say anything about that after he initially mentions it so who cares. oshus also tells link that zuaz will teach him how to defeat bellum. link never meets zuaz and still beats bellum anyways.
it feels like they cut the latter half of the story but forgot that the fucking majority of linebeck's entire goddamn character arc happens in that part of the story. sure, most of the cutscenes and whatever happens in the first part and linebeck does develop a bit in the first part but he doesn't really start to change until after the ghost ship, when you get his letter and his dialogue starts to change slightly to suggest that he's starting to like link more and care about something other than the possibility of treasure. the manga cutting out the latter half of the story but still making linebeck's arc end in similar places makes his arc feel really fast and even abrupt in the manga. he goes from being fully motivated to get treasure and still kind of selfish to caring a lot for link and deciding not to wish for treasure and the time was just NOT put in to make that a smooth transition.
honestly linebeck overall got fucked in the manga more than any other character. his arc was shafted, his characterization is strange and even kind of changed from the game, he's never drawn consistently and doesn't even look great since he seems to be stuck between two styles when he's drawn, he's more shallow and generally a less interesting character, and while most of that is probably a product of having one book to cover ph, it's still a problem.
like with all of the loz manga, the extremely limited amount of space and time the story is given absolutely fucks it over so you really are stuck with telling nothing more than an abridged and seriously inferior version of the story. i dont care how good the original stuff is if it barely qualifies as a good adaptation. the story wasn't told all of the way and none of the game's strengths are kept or expanded upon. you lose the majority of the best character's arc and depth. half of the story was cut. the title item is barely used. it feels like they didn't really care about adapting phantom hourglass and just hashed out a trimmed-down version of the story to fit into 188 pages and while there was some effort put in with a bit of a unique take on linebeck but it just falls flat when everything around it feels like it wasn't given a second thought.
i'm not suggesting that the author's didn't fucking care, i don't know what the process was with this, but it just... it doesnt feel like they actually wanted to earnestly create a good adaptation of this game. i have an altered perspective on all of this because this game is my special interest and something i deeply care about and inspect the little details of and it kinda just sucks that phantom hourglass never got a good adaptation because... this game has some serious potential for a really good extended adaptation.
Unlike the other Zelda games that the other manga cover, the structure of the journey in Phantom Hourglass has an insane amount of space for fleshing out of character, exploration of new concepts or character relationships, or just.. whatever you want. Providing you cover the original story, of course. Off the bat, there's a nebulous amount of travel time between islands, which can be used by authors for character moments and interactions and just little moments that can be used to further themes or concepts. You can use the implied time overseas between islands to have some interactions between Link and Linebeck. Show the three fairies hanging out with each other. Show the whole crew becoming closer to each other as time drags on.
Linebeck's existence and function within Phantom Hourglass alone is so fucking unique and amazingly good for an extended adaptation. In most other Zelda games, the companions are pretty much glued to Link's side and follows him through dungeons, or they're characters locked in a specific place, more or less divorced from Link's quest, but Linebeck is an integral part of the plot, present for every part of it as it advances, and yet he's out doing fuck-all while Link is in dungeons. He's a great excuse for authors to add detail to islands, write new characterization for background characters, or even just give Linebeck his own b-plot running concurrently with the game's normal plot. He's important to the plot and yet doesn't touch the gameplay; he's free to do whatever you want while Link does dungeon stuff. One possible idea I've mentioned before is the idea of, while Link is in the temple of the Ocean King, is to create and explore a possible relationship between Oshus and Linebeck. Scenes of them talking can be used to flesh out Oshus as a character and to add some extra depth to Linebeck and make his arc more interesting to follow.
There is... SO MUCH you can do with Phantom Hourglass if you care enough to do it, and I'm just so frustrated that we got this solid 4/10 of a manga.
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