#kh coded

[descendant-of-truth]

While I'm of the opinion that the Re:Coded movie that's in all the collections generally does a better job at giving you all the relevant cutscenes than the Days movie, after playing through the DS game myself, I still think it's a shame how much they left out. Notably, the Castle Oblivion section is... extremely nerfed in the movie.

See, when Roxas tells Sora that he can do whatever he wants when talking to the illusions from his past, he means it. You, the player, are presented with different tasks that come with multiple dialogue options, and there are three possible endings for every "world" you enter. You get a different Ending Card depending on how you act; a Normal Card, an Alternate Card, and an Extra Card.

In the movie, instead of providing you with any kind of choose-your-own-adventure routes that lead to different cutscenes, they just. vaguely animate everyone talking silently to each other, and then have the illusions fade away. Which I think loses a lot of the intrigue, but it also means that relatively few people in the fanbase have even seen any of these routes.

I won't go over every single one because that can easily be done by looking them up on YouTube, but I do want to bring up one route in specific because it's really stuck with me ever since - Wonderland's Extra Ending.

So, in Wonderland, you're presented with a series of dilemmas:

Alice can't remember her name

The White Rabbit drops his pocket watch

The Cheshire cat gives you a riddle that requires you to choose the correct box or else fight a Heartless waiting in the wrong ones

One card soldier asks you to deliver a potion to a second card soldier for him

A third card soldier is weakened and woozy

You get the Normal Ending by doing at least one of these tasks correctly, the Alternate Ending by doing all of them correctly, and the Extra Ending by doing everything wrong.

In order to get the Extra Ending, you must:

Tell Alice that she's the Queen of Hearts

Pick up the White Rabbit's watch (causing Sora to lose sight of him, unable to return it; you're supposed to just tell him where it is)

Give up on the Cheshire Cat's riddle

Give the potion to the third, weakened card soldier, instead of its intended recipient (it turns out he was just hungry, not injured, so you didn't help him. the second card soldier would have given you a sandwich)

No matter what you do, at the end of each route, the Queen of Hearts will grab your attention and accuse you of being the thief who stole her memory. She'll try to back it up with proof, and even when you've done everything right (which she acknowledges), she still concludes with an "off with your head!" which Sora implicitly runs away from, ending the world's story.

Except for in the Extra Ending.

After she recaps everything you've done wrong up to that point, she drops this dialogue that I haven't been able to stop thinking about:

Queen of Hearts: "Don't tell me you were trying to be NICE? Cheering that girl up by telling her she was important? Giving things away because you thought someone else needed them more? Trying to... to own up to your failures!? Bah! Go on! Off with you!" Data Sora: "Not 'off with my head'?" Queen of Hearts: The punishment must match the crime! See how YOU like having something NICE done to you!"

It's hard to describe what it was about this that's still so striking to me months later, but it's just... kind of off-putting, in a way?

Having the Queen of Hearts choose to spare you as a "more fitting punishment" is out of character enough already, but the fact that it's the consequence to you actually doing everything wrong makes it feel all the more pointed. This is somehow supposed to be worse than being beheaded, and it kind of works, because it feels so much more personal than her usual schtick.

And it exists in such an isolated incident, too. The level is completed immediately after this dialogue, and nothing else is changed by getting it, it's just. there.

At the same time, everything about it feels so deliberate that I can't help but feel like it either is or will be relevant elsewhere somehow. It could just be overanalyzing on my part, but the first thing that comes to mind is actually that the Queen's final line could parallel the consequence of Sora misusing the Power of Waking?

He did so for a good cause, after all, but it wasn't what he was supposed to do. He broke a taboo of nature in the process. But his punishment isn't a straightforward death; he's just put somewhere else, somewhere he can't see his friends. "Off with you," the universe says, "see how you like having something nice done to you!"

...but that doesn't really feel like it's getting to the heart of the matter, which is that Data Sora did not need to do any of this. He could have told Alice her real name, on account of it being the default dialogue option, and he could have tried to figure out what was wrong with that card soldier before giving away stuff that wasn't his. He could have tried a little harder at the riddle. These were all fairly low-stakes situations - in particular, he really didn't need to lie to Alice.

The original Sora didn't have much of a choice in what he did. It was either lose his powers and vanish, or leave Kairi shattered and functionally dead. You can't really say he made the wrong decision, or did something immoral for a superficial reason.

So then... will this line remain an isolated slap in the face to completionist DS players, or will there be more to it? Is there already more to it that I'm missing? Where's our parallel to Data Sora "cheering that girl up by telling her she was important"? What are we supposed to make of "see how you like having something nice done to you"?

What does it all mean???

(In conclusion: go check out the DS versions of these cutscenes, they're great)

[kairithemang0]

Reblog to put bugs into the prev

[nebuvoid]

*debugs you*

[no-context-kh]

[luxustextbox]

jj / data riku

[derekscorner]

I shall now adopt this.

That is Jim, Jimney Jr, faux Riku, data bits, Rikumon.

[kitkat-the-muffin]

After running an entire experiment for over a year and a half

I have finally perfected the best order to play the Kingdom Hearts series in

The aforementioned best order has been completely play-tested by an outsider new to KH in order to verify its effectiveness, and it goes as follows:

Kingdom Hearts 1

Kingdom Hearts X [chi] and Kingdom Hearts Union X [cross]

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep • (start with Ventus, then Terra, and end with Aqua. Include Final Ending. Exclude Secret Ending)

Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain Of Memories

Kingdom Hearts 2 • (followed by Kingdom Hearts BBS’s Secret Ending)

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days • (read Roxas’s diary alongside the cutscene movie if not playing the original release. Then read the secret reports after finishing the game)

Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded • (you may also play Coded if so desired)

Kingdom Hearts Dark Road

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage

Kingdom Hearts 3

Kingdom Hearts 3 Re:Mind

Kingdom Hearts Missing Link

Kingdom Hearts Melody Of Memory

Kingdom Hearts 4

Extra notes:

DON’T FORGET THE SECRET BOSSES! All the cutscenes that precede and follow every secret boss fight is important, so I recommend looking them up on YouTube if you can’t beat them

ALWAYS READ THE SECRET REPORTS!!!! All of them. For every game

Look up BBS’s Secret Ending on YouTube, unless you feel like beating all three routes on Proud Mode (including the Mysterious Figure boss… I think. Idk, look it up)

As of writing this post, Missing Link and 4 have not been released yet, so they may be skipped for now. However, based on their trailer vibes alone, I’d still recommend this order whenever they do release

The mobile app for KHUX and KHDR has been discontinued, so the only source we currently have for them are cutscene movies on YouTube and Damo’s fandubs

The Dark Road fandub is not out yet as of posting this chart, but hopefully I can update this post whenever it does release (same with Missing Link cutscenes)

If you have any questions please reply to this post because I have answers!

Here are some obvious ones tho:

Days is AFTER 2 to preserve the Riku plot twist

Dark Road is BEFORE DDD to increase player attachment to Xehanort before he takes full control over the narrative

Ventus is played FIRST in BBS because it helps the narrative make more sense (sorry Nomura, Xehanort being evil is not a plot twist)

Any spoilers for future games revealed in the prequels are intentional (like Maleficent thinking about Master Xehanort in Union X, or Terra seeing a vision of KH2 Riku in BBS) and are meant to serve as foreshadowing

If anyone feels like streaming the games in this order please let me know. I skewed the results of my experiment a little by being present for the Test Subject’s playthrough, so it’d genuinely benefit from another account played entirely in a vacuum

But also we kind of sped through the games rather than relishing them. There’s so much to do in all the games but to get to the rest of the story we didn’t really play them to their fullest. I hope future players can enjoy all there is and take their time with it :3

Anyway, please reblog this post if you found it interesting! I want to share this order with the world because I genuinely think it’s the best way to play the games! And again, if you have any questions, feel free to ask!

Thank you to @goldensunset @8golden-harvest8 @share-the-skye for acknowledging my experiment’s existence a couple times, y’all are real ones 💕💕💕

[thetrashthatsmilesback]

Funniest Iconic KH Lines Poll

(This is not comprehensive. It's 8 in the morning. Op is curious but tired.)

I think some of these also overlap with regularpat's worst kh lines bracket but I'm not 100% about that. I haven't gotten the chance to watch the vod yet.

*i meant your name"

[allykakamatsu]

Twisted Hearts: Re:Coded

Another edit done. This one is unfortunately on the less elaborate side given that Deuce getting stuck in the journal and having to help Data Sora means he's really the only one that I could add to the art, but I'm still happy enough with it. Wish I could change the whole thing to show just how chaotic this arc gets in the au though, cause I may or may not be making the non serious moments play like an abridged series-

Masterpost

Buy me a coffee

Commission Prices

[autumn-may]

anyone else think it’s absolutely awesome that data-soras more of a traditional nobody to sora than roxas ever was and by having Data-Sora grow a heart through the acknowledgment of his own sense of self seperate from og-Sora and the bonds sustained through Donald/goofy the game not only serves as a chronological transition between kh2/DDD but also as an ideological transition between only special nobodies getting emotions and all nobodies having the potential for them. Or am I just codedpilled

[nyctoheart]

(Acronyms included; I.E. "re:CoM" or just "CoM")

[descendant-of-truth]

So I beat Re:Coded for the first time the other day after previously knowing its story from the movie and novel versions, so you know what that means. It's time for more Data Sora Thoughts(TM)

Plenty has been said about how he serves as an interesting comparison to the original Sora, which makes sense as that's kind of the point of him existing. You're supposed to take notice of how he's different, despite all their similarities. He's kind of an idealized version of Sora, which makes sense as he's the Sora that Jiminy wrote. Jiminy doesn't know the depths of Sora's insecurities or his flaws, so Data Sora is almost unnaturally good-willed and pleasant.

But what stood out to me while playing it for myself is how much the game is just... not supposed to be about him, and how much it still is despite that.

Nothing exemplifies this more clearly than his journey through Castle Oblivion. The whole reason he's even there is to be tested, to see if "Sora" is ready to take ownership of all the pain that's inside him. But they're not testing Data Sora, the person, they're testing what they think is just a representation of the original Sora.

So, when Data Sora resolves himself to face the pain head-on and not run away from it, even learning that it can help him connect to people, no one thinks this is unique to him. They just go, "great! that means Sora's ready, too!" with absolutely zero awareness of the fact that they can't really treat him like this now that he has his own heart.

Which, is kind of insane?? Data Sora is provided a consistent level of support and guidance that even the original Sora didn't get, he develops a heart of his own because of how effectively he was nurtured by his friends, and yet. None of them have ever seen him as HIS OWN person. Even Data Riku, who introduces himself as "zeroes and ones that look like somebody you know," is incapable of separating himself and Sora from their originals.

Data Sora is surrounded by people affirming his personhood while in the same breath denying his individuality. It's an interesting position to be in, to say the least.

That said, the characters may think the test is all about the original Sora, but narratively? It's absolutely about Data Sora, too.

You know how he was surprisingly at peace with the fact that the journal resetting meant that he'd lose his memories? He seemed pretty content with the knowledge that his friends would be able to remember their journey for him, even if he got a little choked up about saying goodbye. It's easy to think, while seeing it for the first time, that because he's already accepted everything with a smile, that his character arc is over by then.

Yeah, Data Roxas comes into the story swinging with "hey, idiot, you have no idea how much forgetting your friends is going to hurt you in the long run. Why don't you do that a couple more times and then maybe you'll get the idea"

Because it's true, I really don't think Data Sora was prepared for the pain of amnesia in the slightest. He has this habit of going along with whatever anyone says without much thought, so when Data Riku told him that everything had to be reset, I think he was just kinda like. well darn. guess I can't do anything about that

(This is the same guy that went "I'm good with that" when he considered that doing what Mickey says will just blast him off into the unknown repeatedly, so it checks out)

I love that the game refuses to end where you'd expect it to, and instead forces Data Sora to reckon with the pain of what was just unfairly taken from him. It treats him with just as much respect as it does with every other character in the series, and gives his feelings the weight they deserve.

Of course, the way the test is set up is... kind of cruel. It bludgeons him over the head with the pain he just went through repeatedly until he figures out exactly how it works and what he's going to do about it. And it's like this because it wasn't set up with a real person in mind; Data Sora's supposed to be acting like a first draft for something the original Sora's going to do later.

But he can't. Because they're different people.

So when you get down to it, he arguably doesn't really fulfill his purpose? He gets everyone the answers they need, sure, but he proves absolutely nothing about Sora. And not just because he became his own person, but because the premise of the test was flawed from the start. Jiminy's perception of Sora is meaningless in the face of the real thing, so it was never going to have accurate results no matter what they did.

It's a story that's undeniably relevant to both Soras, but I still hope we'll get to see Data Sora again so we can finally address how everyone in-game expects them to be like each other. It's a mindset that affects both of them in different ways; Sora has this impossible ideal to live up to, and Data Sora - despite being that ideal - is forever just "another version" of someone else.

And they haven't even met each other. When is that going to happen

[nerdyperday]

Day 2522 Gold Tricholoma

[c-worldproductions]

I wonder what the real Riku is like?

⭐️ Data Riku: me

📷 Photographer: tearsoftwilight96 (IG)

🗓️ Event: @otafest 2024

💈 KH1 Riku Wig: _wubear (IG)

🧥 Organization XIII Coat: sixonclothing (IG)

[no-context-kh]

[icejewelqaurtz]

CALLING ALL PROJECT MOON AND/OR KINGDOM HEARTS FANS

Okay so I know I'm a small blog, but I'm morbidly curious as to what the venn diagram for the fan bases would look like, so thus I set up this experiment.