#kh theory

[verathena14]

I JUST HAD THE BIGGEST REALIZATION ABOUT SORA'S POD IN CoM/Re:CoM

(this might be a well-known/widely accepted idea but i have never seen anyone talk about it so im very proud of myself for figuring this out)

So it's a lotus, right?

For the longest time, that wasn't anything of note. Just "oh okay cool. nice flower."

BUT THERE'S MORE TO IT THAN THAT. I WAS A FOOL, AN ABSOLUTE BUFFOON, TO THINK THAT NOMURA WOULD DO SOMETHING SO SURFACE-LEVEL.

As we know, Nomura <i>looooves</i> to pull from mythology (see: Riku on the Delphic Tripod in Olympus in KH3, the foretellers being the Seven Deadly Sins, Skuld being one of the Norns, literally the entirety of the KHDR cast -- and now the KHML cast) AND THEN I REALIZED.

In the Odyssey, Odysseus and his crew happen upon an island full of people who have forgotten who they are and where they came from-- and this is because of the LOTUS FLOWERS.

YKNOW, LIKE HOW SORA'S FORGETTING LITERALLY EVERYTHING THE LONGER HE SPENDS IN CASTLE OBLIVION!

But what I really like about this allusion is that Nomura turns it on its head-- the lotus, the pod, instead heals Sora's memory.

And guess who set up the whole plot to mess with Sora's memories? That's right, MARLUXIA. WHOSE WHOLE SHTICK IS **FLOWERS**

GOD, I don't know how I didn't notice this earlier but this whole thing is VERY yummy to me, I am SO normal about it.

[holleighgram]

Would be pretty wild if Sora's memories of Riku are his light, and be losing them, he is also losing the light in his heart that makes him the loving Sora we all know?

Take Repliku for example- there was no Ansem in Repliku. The main thing about Repliku was that his memories of Sora were messed with.

And it made him a MASSIVE dick that just wanted marinate in Darkness.

Memories of Sora are integral to him being a good person.

What if the reverse is the same?

We all know Sora's Darkness is more prominent the more the story progresses and it's gearing up to be something he is going to grapple with. Sora has been burying trauma and hurt. He has actively been CHOOSING to forget these heartbreaking memories.

In fact, I think this memories loss/light loss is going to be a VERY important theme in the next saga.

This story is about balancing extremes.

Sora WANTS to forget the "Dark" parts of his and Riku’s relationship. But he cant just sift memories of Riku apart to forget the "Dark" and keep only the "Light".

So by willing away those Dark memories, he's unwittingly willing away Light memories as well.

Which is why we see him forget Riku's Sacrifice, and then also Riku's Light leading him back to the Graveyard.

A "Dark" memory is repressed, and so is a "Light" one.

SO

If, for whatever reason, Sora IS losing his memories of Riku-- particularly the memories of Riku being his light- it has a very negative affect on his heart? We could even see Sora temporarily becoming an antagonist.

We've fought Riku as Sora so many times. It would just be a sweet thematic balance to be able to fight Sora as Riku in order to save him.

It's been said over and over that these two art intertwined-- that they balance each other. Their memories of eachother a formative peices of their hearts. They have each shaped eachother into the person they are.

And imnlaying it all out on the table here: this is why I (personally) feel their relationship (romantic or platonic) is the central theme of the story rather than any other characters:

They are eachorher's light AND their darkness.

Their greatest joy and deepest sorrow.

Their best friend and hardest enemy. (Fighting Ansem and Xehenort weren't nearly as emotionally arduous to fight)

This is a story about accepting both, because that means accepting the entirety of the people you love-- the good and the bad. The light and the dark.

This post got away from me. What was I saying?

[endlessskymaster]

We can expect Riku to cry when he finally reunites with Sora in KH4.

[roxasthatisastick]

So, wasn't there something weird about Player?

So, its been almost two years since KHUX wrapped up, and there's something I'm still thinking about.

Isn't it odd, how Player didn't speak for such a long time in Kingdom Hearts χ? It took almost fifteen months for them to speak their first words during Ephemera's introduction.

But, while its easy to say its because Player is supposed to be a silent protagonist, that gets less and less true as the game went on.

Player has quite the speech during Quest 555, or Quest 979, for example. Player certainly has things to say, and certainly makes choices beyond what we, the audience, would choose for ourselves.

So then, why is Player so quiet, especially at first?

Well, Kingdom Hearts has an example of this before.

Xion.

I don't think Player had a heart, before Quest 362. More than that, I don't think they were a nobody, since the timeline on that makes no sense.

I think Player is a replica.

Puppet Without a Heart:

First off though, lets break down why I believe Player doesn't have a heart for a second.

The first time Player speaks, its to Ephemera. But what I haven't mentioned is that Player has interacted with keyblade wielders before that.

Right before that, in fact, by the standard of KHUX. In Quest 231, Player has a short interaction with another set of wielders, where they don't talk at all.

The quest goes about standard with Player hunting some new heartless along with some other wielders. They all promise to meet up, afterwards.

But, unfortunately, they don't make it back.

(They certainly have a bad history with 'promises.')

I think this, along with all of their other adventures (Olympus in particular we'll be getting back to), was the inciting incident for their heart coming into life.

As Ansem the Wise said, "The heart has always been quick to grow. Each exposure to light, to the natural world, to other people, shapes this most malleable part inside of us." This is true of nobodies, but its even faster in replicas.

So if Player's a replica, why are they a replica? Who made them?

Easy.

If you are going to tell me Master of Master's wouldn't make replicas, I don't know what to say.

And he clearly he has some capabilities. looking at Chirithy.

But then, wouldn't every wielder be a replica then? Well, I don't know about that. For one thing, we clearly have some families in the wielders, looking Laurium and Strelitzia.

No, I think Master of Masters made only the one replica.

Player... and in doing so, sowed the seeds for the Nightmare Chirithy.

I Said We'd Get Back to Olympus

So, Master of Masters, when it comes to gaslighting and manipulating his students, truly leaves nothing to chance. He leaves lots of other things to chance, but not that.

So when he told everyone there was a ~nightmare Chirithy~, surely he'd already set that into motion.

But, as far as we can tell, when wielders go dark, most of them don't get a Nightmare, they fall. And, disappear immediately after.

So there's only the one Nightmare Chirithy: ours.

And they have a connection to the Foretellers, that never really got expanded upon.

But then, how did Master of Masters guarentee that we'd gain a Nightmare?

Well, Player explored the worlds, was exposed to people, light... and darkness. Olympus, and its darkness, also happens before we meet Ephemera, and we develop our heart.

Darkness is as much a part of our heart as any modern character. And thus, we have Nightmares.

....that said, I think that's the extent of his manipulations on Player.

The Book of Prophecies, very clearly, doesn't write down everything, and I'm not sure Luxu ever really heard about Player in detail.

For Luxu, our story is that of a background NPC. Player's choices, and their refusal of fate, goes unwritten.

The way the story ends for Player is different than the Book, because Master of Master's never foresaw their bonds.

So everything changed.

Except that, well, Player is still a replica.

I have no idea what effect this will have on the future of the games, but the subtext and foreshadowing is so clear I'm not sure why I've never read this theory from others before!

Anyways, replica!player forever! Have a good day!

[unchained-dual-key]

AXEL: “Trust what you remember and seek what you forget. Then you will find someone very special.”

AXEL: “Our most precious memories lie so deep with our hearts that they’re out of reach. But I’m sure that you can find yours, Sora.”

SORA: “Why me?”

*music stops playing*

AXEL: “You have lost sight of the light within the darkness. And it seems that you’ve forgotten that you forgot.”

SORA: “Light within darkness…”

A hint

A hint

A hint…

A HINT…!

Didn’t get the hint, huh?

[forgotten-lumis]

Way to Dawn and X-blade Particle effects comparison

I don’t know if anyone’s mentioned this yet, but I was recently watching a BBS play through when I noticed- Hey. The particle effects for the X-blade looked REALLY similar to Riku’s Way to Dawn. Like. Pretty much EXACTLY THE SAME, besides the color as they are fading.

I’ll post some images here for comparison

X-Blade effects, Vanitas fight BBS:

(Sorry for the awful image quality lmao)

Riku’s Way to Dawn, Kh2:

I can’t be the only one who finds that really really weird, no?

The end part of the animations does have some differences, but really only in color. Even the shape they form as they fade away is exact.

X-blade, Vanitas:

(Sorry Ven- it’s for science-)

These ones are an orange/yellowish color

Then for Riku’s Way to Dawn:

Kh2:

His start out a bit yellow at the center then fade to blue

They are also like this in Kh 3D

Some bonus images:

Vanitas Fight, BBS:

This is how I originally noticed the effects, because I got a good look at them down on the attack command panel in the corner.

And here’s Xehanort’s in kh3, when he has the X-blade:

I feel like his are a bit more red?

Anyways, yeah. That’s that. It’s pretty odd in my opinion. I also don’t think any other keyblades share these effects, either, but if anyone else finds anything then please post it lol

I had originally posted this in a discord server I’m in, and a few of the people there (including myself) theorized that it could be related to how the X-blade isn’t truly the final form of it’s“X-blade series”. That it’s like the “Way to Dawn” of its respective line, not having arrived at its final evolution yet, still on the path to get there. That’s just one interpretation, but I do quite like it.

What do you guys think?

[cor-regnum]

So, Sora and Riku's Gayblade. It's rainbowy, only they can summon it, and it has a paopu fruit as the keychain. But we still don't know it's confirmed name, or the two separates pieces names.

With how much of a focus Hercules gets in the series and how KH3 Herc parallels Riku, I want Riku's half to be named Achilles and Sora's half to be Patroclus. AND, since I firmly believe that the two combined are the Child of Destiny (originally just Riku, but necklace theory and beginning of KH1 pulls Sora into it), I kind of want the Gayblade to be named Destiny's Iliad or something.

Iliad being the poem, obviously, but also the meaning of the word is a series of disastrous events, which is what KH essentially is. And it also is linked to any long narrative similar to the famous poem, which KH definitely is. So I think it'd be fitting to incorporate it in some capacity. Because gay.

[pilichainartandmemes]

KHML Black Coat Mommy's Boy Theory

This joke post and ff7 reference was brought to you by SonnyNovus's Brain teaser video mentioning the theory that the black coat could be Young Xehanort. ;)

[ID : KHUX style comic panel with the scala ad caelum rooftops as the background. Young Xehanort  in the black coat with a neutral expression faces away from KHML Player who their eyes shut are holding their right arm in pain. The dialogue box caption reads three question marks two dots out of my way. Line break. I’m going to see my mother. END ID]

[azurajae]

Thinking about the fact that right after Sora finished fighting in what probably a very traumatic war, he fucking time travels to experience it all again, not only as himself, but as different people and inheriting all their pain and trauma in the process. And if you count the first failed attempt, Sora has straight up experienced three different versions of the same damn war and all the trauma that came with all three of them just to make sure everyone he cares about makes it to the end, knowing fully well he was going to "die" in the end.

While everyone else was experiencing their happy ending and a chance to put down their weapons, Sora literally never stopped fighting.

And his reward for all this? Being ripped apart from everyone and everything he knows, with no easy way back home. It's actually incredible that he can still have the mental fortitude to smile in the Secret Episode after all that.

I really hope all this trauma gets unpacked in KH4 or in a future game because I think it's so sad that he has collected all this pain, not only of his own experiences but everyone else's too and now is just holding on to it all.

I want Sora to be happy, but I don't want pain to be hiding behind it.

[keykidpilipili]

Dissected new Missing Link emblem

Link to the Scalan alphabet numberals here and connection to Land of Departure by toro_cocoron0te on twitter

[blowingoffsteam2]

I had a realization.

This is why Fairy Godmother, the dream specialist, knew to go to Nameless Star. Because her dreams are the portal.

[verathena14]

Okay so the other day, I stumbled across a post asking why Sora forgave Riku for everything he did in KH1. And of course my Soriku brain went "It's because he loves him, duh," but I realized that something a lot of us Soriku Endgame Actually believers discuss quite a bit... might not be common knowledge. And so I got to thinking.

Sora doesn't really know when Riku got possessed in KH1.

Sora didn't see Riku get possessed. And Riku had been acting weird ever since the night of the storm. So it's reasonable to assume that Riku had been possessed before they even left the islands.

...Right?

Everything that Riku did after the islands got destroyed?

Sora thinks that was Ansem. That it was always Ansem.

We, as the players, know it wasn't, but Sora doesn't know what we know.

He doesn't realize that everything before their final confrontation was Riku. And yeah, Riku wasn't in the most mentally stable position, and Maleficent was gaslight-gatekeep-girlbossing him, but he still had control over his body. Everything he said were his own words and feelings.

And this is made even more clear by CoM, right after SDG (and Jiminy) first meet Repliku.

But... it's not. In the few scenes where Ansem was possessing Riku, he had the double-voice, and he spoke like Ansem, not like Riku. Repliku's behavior is much more like Riku's than Ansem's; he's cocky and volatile, while Ansem-Riku had an air of "untouchability" that would've made Repliku absolutely insufferable as a character.

It's clear that Sora thinks Riku was not in control during KH1. That's why Sora forgives Riku; because he thinks his friend was just another pawn in Xehanort's 5D chess game and had no autonomy throughout KH1. But that's not true. And they're going to have to talk about this.

Sora believed Riku did nothing wrong. Riku believes he did everything wrong. Sora's been trying to ignore the way Riku's words had hurt him - by deflecting the blame from his friend, by not dwelling on the events of KH1.

But with KH4 upcoming - with its focus on Sora and Riku stuck in a fictional world together, and the likelihood that Sora will have to learn to work through his darkness - Sora and Riku will have to discuss this.

And maybe, Sora and Riku will be able to have a true heart-to-heart conversation: no secrets, no lies, no misunderstandings. A KH2 Dark Margin 2.0.

And maybe they'll admit that there is a little bit of homo between them.

[holleighgram]

Shamelessly based on my earlier post

[endlessskymaster]

I believe that a situation similar to what occurred in Dream Drop Distance will happen again in Kingdom Hearts 4.

[localcryptideli]

Was looking at a post with this image (recently reblogged) and I got hit with the ouchie ouch so, of course, I have to share.

Okay so I find it quite telling and also a bit heartbreaking that the place Sora finds most beautiful is the final world.

He has travelled far and wide, he has been in mountain places, towns frolicking with people, fantastic worlds, metropolis, the open ocean, his own quiet island, space, you name it.

And the place he finds most beautiful is the afterlife. A very quiet, very still place with just the sky, a mirror of water, and pillars of salt. He is right, it is beautiful, but I also find it kinda... sad? One would think that with the way he is, he would think a place filled with people (as long as they are friendly) would be the most beautiful in his mind, that his own island where he wanted to return so badly is the most beautiful, that Radiant Garden or Twilight Town, or even the open ocean in the Caribbean with its freedom would be his favourite.

But it's the land of the dead, where those who are not yet ready to move on rest and let themselves fade away.

I wonder if it has a psychological component. Sora has been running and dashing from one task to another ever since the islands fell - and it's really highlighted in kh3 when he shows to be so used to only being somewhere to help someone or as part of a job, that he is confused by Pooh's desire to just hang out with him and have some fun. He is running from task to task and hasn't stopped and it seems like he has passed the line where one is so used to being on the job one finds it hard to unplug and do anything else at all.

And then he is dead (for the first time). And he is in this place, and there is no time really, and he is being asked no favours - he has something to do, but that's something he wants to do, a task he gives himself.

And I think not having that pressure of running from one place to another, not having continuous screening for a good performance, not having anything else to do and plenty of time might have made that place beautiful to him.

Honestly, it might be that it's the most beautiful place because, for once in years, he finally has the time to stop and spend some time admiring a new place without worrying about a mission or a quest. It's quiet, it's timeless, and he is alone and he has no pressure to be fast at putting himself together. He can breathe.

And he can take a moment to look around and go "oh, wow. Look at the sky."

[paintsplash1712]

Now I want to know what's up with Sora's uncle. What did he do that SORA of all people hates his guts?