#listen I would also love it if this happened with ventus instead cause I am a sucker for kai/ven

[localcryptideli]

I just realized that the narrative punished Kairi hard for that one scene where she suggests to take the raft and go without Riku.

She suggests that, and then every single time something happens she is the one who gets left behind. It's like the story really hit her with "okay and this is what it would have felt like? have you learned yet?"

You know what would be neat for a fic or the future? A situation in which she is the one to go "what about Riku?" or in which she goes to find Riku (even if Sora is with her).

Now that would be a cool contrast to show off character development. Whether they sre close friends or not, it's about the principle: no one should get left behind because being left behind sucks and friends are meant to support and help each other out.

[nadziejastar]

Pence: Do you guys think we’ll always be together like this?

Olette: I sure hope so.

Hayner: Huh? Where did that come from?

Pence: Oh, well, you know. Just thinking out loud.

Hayner: Well, I doubt we can be together forever. But isn’t that what growing up’s all about? What’s important isn’t how often we see each other, but how often we think about each other. Right?

Pence: Get that off a fortune cookie?

That’s easy. The reason I think KH3 did more damage to Axel/Lea than KH2 is that Axel’s attachment to Roxas was glorified in KH3. It was presented like we were supposed to find it endearing and perfectly healthy. But even in KH2, Axel was presented as dysfunctional and more than a little pitiable. He kidnapped Kairi and wanted to turn Sora into a Heartless again, just to see Roxas. None of this was ever meant to be seen as a healthy display of friendship. It was meant to show that Axel was a broken person, with a few screws loose. Roxas cried (through Sora) while saying goodbye to Hayner’s group. But Axel didn’t get a real goodbye scene until the Final Mix version. And even in that scene, Roxas was calm and at peace. Axel was the one who was broken up. Nomura and the writers knew that Axel’s relationship with Roxas was questionable and unhealthy. They wanted to give him interesting development regarding that.

It’s why I personally didn’t start truly loving his character until the arc that was building up to KH3 (Re:CoM, KH2FM, Days, BBS, Coded, 3D) was created. And I developed a new level of appreciation for him after reading the novels. That’s when he became fully humanized to me. And the reason is simple: his tragic backstory. The fact that a grown man was calling two kids his best friends was supposed to be seen as SAD, not something to celebrate. It was a symptom of his arrested development. After reading the novels, it was even more clear to me that Axel was intended to be seen as a maladjusted person. He lost his childhood and is stuck at 15-year-old in a lot of ways. You know how some people have daddy issues? Well, Axel had “best friend issues”.

Wendy: Listen, Peter. I’ve got something to tell you… I want to go home to London.

Peter Pan: What are you talking about? Why would you want to do that? You’d have to turn into a grown-up. Besides, goin’ on adventures is a lot more fun! If you go back to London, you’ll have to leave the nursery. You’ll grow up and we’ll never see each other again!

Wendy: I know, Peter. But… I still want to go home.

Peter Pan: I came to rescue you! And you don’t care if you ever see me again!

Wendy: No, you don’t understand!

Peter Pan: Suit yourself! And while you’re at it, rescue yourself! I’m leaving.

He was extremely damaged because of what happened to his best friend. It caused him to feel hatred and despair. He was stuck in the past, unable to move on from his childhood. Lea and Isa were just two innocent kids. Then one day they are kidnapped, experimented on, forced to join a death cult, and obey every command of the “Superior” under threat of death. Lea’s best friend was subsequently brainwashed, possessed, and branded with a giant scar of death on his face. His personality became unrecognizable. He changed from an innocent kid into a sociopathic robot incapable of feeling friendship or love. Or at least that was heavily implied to be the case before KH3 turned them into “apprentices” (what a crock).

Axel was a sorrowful person. He cared about Roxas and Xion…but he didn’t actually want to be best friends with them the way he wanted to be with Isa. Lea became best friends with Isa when he was a normal, well-adjusted, happy teenager. Axel became best friends with Roxas and Xion because he was a lonely and emotionally broken adult who couldn’t process the trauma he experienced as a kid. Even as a teen, Lea saw Ventus as a stray puppy. Isa and Lea were inseparable. They hung out all summer and did homework together. They ate ice cream and played frisbee. Normal stuff. They were happy. Axel was always fixated on the past. He doesn’t come on many missions with you in Days. But they made DAMN sure that he came with you to Neverland.

“Are you worried about her, too, Axel?”

The question slipped out before he could stop it.

Axel eyed him in mild surprise. “Of course I am.”

But his voice was still oddly low. Running into Saïx had brought out a different side of him—and that side was a little scary.

He wasn’t interested in Roxas romantically. He wasn’t even really obsessed with him. He was a lonely, miserable person, with a best friend-shaped void in his heart. And he was desperate to fill it. He really couldn’t relate to either Roxas or Xion on an adult level. He never expressed his deeper feelings to them. Axel’s relationship with Roxas was a lot more nuanced and realistic than it is made out to be. It had many shades of gray. This is the event that led to Axel calling Roxas and Xion his best friends. Saïx brought out a side of Axel that Roxas found scary.

“You wanna know?” Roxas quietly waited for the answer.

“It’s because you two are my best friends.”

Axel had said before that he didn’t have a best friend, Roxas remembered. But now it’s us…?

“Got it memorized?” A smile played at the corners of Axel’s mouth. “The three of us, we’re inseparable. You’re my best friends.”

Then he’s all smiles. Even Roxas was confused about why he was calling them his “best friends” at that moment. Roxas really didn’t understand Axel and couldn’t tell what he was thinking most of the time. He never shared anything about his past with them. I always found it fascinating that Axel murdered a bunch of people in Castle Oblivion, then came home and hung out with Roxas and Xion. They never saw that dark side of him. Ever. They never knew that Axel was best friends with Saïx as kids. Axel’s talk of being super-duper bestest friends with them was his attempt to cope with the pain of Isa getting Norted. I don’t think the fandom really appreciated this, though. Most people seem to have taken it for granted that he really became genuine best friends with Roxas and Xion, that he wanted nothing more in life than to be with them, and didn’t care about Saïx. But that wasn’t the case at all.

Roxas: I hope we always have each other.

Xion: Yeah…

Axel: What’s gotten into you?

Roxas: I just…want these days to last forever. Hanging out, the ice cream, the sunsets…

Axel: Nothing lasts forever, man. Least of all for a bunch of Nobodies. But you know, we’ll still have each other…even if things change and we can’t do this anymore.

Roxas: Yeah?

Axel: As long as we remember each other, we’ll never be apart. Got it memorized?

Roxas: Ha ha, wow, Axel. That sounded ridiculous.

Axel: What? I thought it was pretty deep.

His words to Roxas and Xion were so similar to Hayner’s because their time together was supposed to be impermanent. Things inevitably change. They don’t need to hang out with each other every day for their time to be meaningful. It’s more important that they’d always remember each other.

Axel suddenly broke his silence. “Well, even if things change, we’ll never be apart—”

“—As long as we remember one another,” Xion finished. “Right?”

Axel’s encouragement from ages ago echoed in Roxas’s head.

“Don’t worry, Axel. We’ve got it memorized.” Xion grinned at him.

“Just checking.” Looking at the sunset rather than her, Axel munched his ice cream.

When given the choice to leave with Roxas and Xion or stay, he would have stayed. That’s why he said this to them yet again. What Axel really needed was to heal from his past and be with someone who it was more appropriate for him to spend every day with. He needed to “grow up”, but Roxas and Xion first needed to help him heal and remember how to believe in order for him to do that. He also needed to get his best friend back. That was non-negotiable.

Peter Pan: Are you sure you won’t change your mind?

Wendy: Peter, I’m sorry. But I really want to go home.

Peter Pan: I was afraid of that… Everyone grows up—and grown-ups always forget. First you’ll forget what it feels like to be young, and then you’ll forget about me.

Wendy: How can you say such a thing, Peter? I’ll never, ever forget you.

Peter Pan: Sure, that’s what you think now. But when you try to remember me, the memories will be gone. You’ll forget—little by little, one memory at a time. Once you’re grown up, there won’t be a single memory left.

Sora: Don’t say that. Memories—even important ones—don’t come back to us whenever we want them to. But that doesn’t mean the memories are gone. It’s more like…like they’re sleeping. So when the right thing comes along and wakes the memory up, we can remember it. The memories engraved in our hearts never go away. I’m sure of it.

Lea had a dream of Roxas before he woke up. He was sitting on the clock tower eating ice cream, acting perfectly happy. Just like he always did in Days. “Best friends forever”. But…he’d been lying not only to Roxas, but also to himself. He wasn’t happy during those days spent on the clock tower. He doesn’t even like the taste of sea-salt ice cream anymore. His smile always belied his true feelings. It was to mask the pain that he was running away from.

Silence fell over the room. He paused in his munching to stare hard at Riku, then finally asked, “What is Sora to you?”

The question caught Riku off guard. He groped for words. On the sofa opposite him, Naminé spoke up instead. 

“Sora and Riku are best friends.”

Axel’s eyes crinkled as he remembered his own best friend—the only friend he’d ever had, in fact.

“If your best friend goes away, you’re sad, and if you get to be with them, you’re happy,” Naminé added. “Isn’t that how it is, Axel?”

“…That’s about the size of it.” Axel nodded and sat down on the remaining empty sofa, staring at the sea-salt ice cream he held.

“So you are capable of sincerity,” said Riku.

Axel only shrugged at the jab and finished his ice cream pop.

His sleeping memories of Isa awakened after he went to Castle Oblivion. He knew deep down that he was using his relationship with Roxas as a crutch to stay in Neverland and to not grow up. In KH3D, he knew that unless he dealt with Isa, he’d never move on. So, that’s why I think KH3 had a much more damaging effect on Lea’s character than KH2. By making him just as fixated on Roxas as he was in KH2, and making him totally unconcerned with Isa, you keep Lea in Neverland. He doesn’t grow up or mature. He stays an emotionally stunted man, unable to move beyond the age of 15. His arc was rendered totally pointless. It sent such a juvenile message and ruined his character for me. He was totally dumbed down as a character. I can see why you feel the way you do, especially when Axel/Roxas is the most popular Lea/Axel ship. I feel the way you do about him in KH3. I just don’t think he was supposed to turn out this way.

[fandom-rants]

STOP MAKING TERRA THE BAD GUY, AQUA STANS

I hate even dipping my toes into the Kingdom Hearts fandom, because for some reason, this site snuggles the poorly-written female characters (Kairi, Xion, etc.) and plotlines and practically deifies the more well-written ones (Aqua even more than Namine). But the worst are the Terr*qua fans. I mean, so many people like this pairing, and yet even those who do like it also like to make Terra seem like the failure of the two.

Specifically, the two must overcome the damage between them caused by Terra.

Um, what?

What?

By the way, my bitterness and anger over this got long.

First, they give Aqua a free pass for spying on Terra. As if that’s okay. As if she’s right to do so. Let me tell you: spying on a loved one is never okay. Are your parents spying on you? Doubt you’d think that’s okay. Your boyfriend or girlfriend? Beyond not okay! But Aqua spying on Terra? Perfectly acceptable, for some reason. And Terra getting angry about it? “He could have handled it better.” An actual quote from a Terr*qua fan. An actual quote.

By the way, Ven was “insulting her” when he called her awful for spying on Terra. To these people Ven was a bad guy in this situation. My brain can’t even wrap itself around this. Ven, the child of pure light, calling Aqua’s spying awful. Was the rude one. (Someone even mentioned him calling her awful and said “yikes.” WHAT.)

And please. Please. Any of these Aqua stans. Go ahead and find a single instance of Aqua saying something nice about Terra to Terra’s face. Go ahead.

Go ahead.

I’ll wait.

Because there isn’t one.

Every time Aqua stands in front of Terra, she degrades him. She calls him a failure, says she’s heard of the awful stuff he’s done, says he’ll fail to defeat the darkness. Not once does she show him she has any sort of faith in him.

Oh, and when not talking to Terra? She still shows no faith in who he is.

Nope.

All she shows faith in is her belief that he’ll become who she wants him to be. The only time we get something nice from her is when she agrees with Eraqus to spy on Terra and bring him back should he start to fall to darkness. She says, and I quote, “Only this time, he’ll show you he has what it takes to be a Master. He’s not as weak as you think.” How nice. Only she just promised to spy on him and bring him back, so...? Where’s the faith in him there, exactly?

As for practically every other time in the game, save the short moment she defends Terra to Ven in Enchanted Dominion? Ew. Just ew. Don’t believe me? Let’s look at some of these quotes.

Sounds kinda nice, right? He’ll be all right. He won’t give in to it. He’ll find a way to become better than he is. It may be there, but he’ll overcome. Sounds nice... until you realize it’s on the expectation that he change, that he suppress or deny that part of himself. Then it starts sounding a little... ew.

I actually have two problems with this one. One: Terra asked her to convey his thanks, but instead Aqua makes it about her and does not pass his words along. Two: her “thanks for teaching Terra he needs to keep believing.” Thanks for teaching Terra something I, Aqua, already knew, and he needed to learn. Thanks for helping him start to change.” Again, it may seem nice until you realize she’s still thinking he isn’t good enough as he is.

This continues ad nauseum, because Aqua has taken everything Eraqus says and believes to heart, and she doesn’t question it. Ever. So when Terra, who is so good he gets tricked easier than Ven, fails due to “being unable to control his darkness,” she thinks in Eraqus’ terms, that Terra needs to get rid of said darkness and tamp it down. He must get rid of a part of who he is. She and Eraqus both teach Terra that who he is isn’t good enough if there’s darkness in him.

Do you know who never does that? Who always accepts Terra, darkness and all, and loves him simply for who he is, no questions asked? VENTUS. Only Ventus. And unfortunately, everyone’s too busy trying to put him in a protective bubble to listen. And yes, I include Terra in that list. But let’s move on.

We then get Aqua defending Terra to Ven, which is great! I loved that reaction. But then it’s immediately followed up with her doubting, just as Ven did. Only she never stops doubting. Even though Maleficent, in her next breath, admits to knowing Xehanort, thus potentially learning of keyblades from him. And it’s not like Aqua herself doesn’t demand to know what Xehanort told Maleficent, or tell Maleficent to stop lying (another moment I loved). But no! No, it must have been because Terra really did help Maleficent out of his own free will. Which she must believe enough, or else she never would have pulled that shitty line on him in Radiant Garden. Sigh.

The sad thing is, I liked Aqua in Enchanted Dominion. Okay, so I wasn’t a fan of her “Terra, you better stay strong for me,” but that was because I was already prejudiced against her making his struggle about her, and already hated how she acted as if he wasn’t strong enough already. (Another thing that carries through her entire playthrough.) But this wasn’t bad. She’d continued believing in him... I’d thought.

But unless you want me ranting for decades, I won’t even TOUCH on Radiant Garden. Suffice it to say that she was awful and let’s move on.

No. Seriously. Spying on someone? Saying to Maleficent that you believe in him and then turning right around and throwing Maleficent’s accusations into his face? Having an accusing tone the moment he insinuates there’s something big happening and Ven needs to stay safe? Not even talking to him first? If that’s not awful to Terr*qua fans, then I just don’t know what to say. Enjoy unhealthy relationships, but don’t pretend Terra was the one in the wrong here.

Olympus Coliseum? She was happy because she thought Terra had “triumphed over the darkness,” which meant he wasn’t “spineless.” Again with him needing to become better. Again with the whole light = strong, darkness = weak; Terra must prove he’s strong enough to be good enough. (Wonder where that issue of his with strength came from? Who knows? It’s such a mystery.)

At this point, Aqua is surprised at every turn when she actually hears something nice Terra said or did. Terra fought against the darkness? Crazy! He said a friend made his Wayfinder charm? I thought him the type to drop me like a rock when I did something heinous! (Maybe he should have; what she did was pretty horrible-)

OH WAIT.

OH, NO.

BECAUSE THIS IS WHAT SHE ACTUALLY SAID WHEN SHE HEARD TERRA SAID THE WAYFINDER WAS MADE FOR HIM BY A FRIEND:

WHAT?!?!

Did she just act like he was the one who’d acted unacceptably, like he was the one who’d nearly destroyed their friendship - like he was in danger of being lost, but if he still think she’s his friend, then he’s okay??? As if, if he stopped being her friend after the stunt she pulled in Radiant Garden, he would clearly have fallen to darkness?? BY NOT BEING HER FRIEND AND ACCEPTING HER SPYING AND ACCUSATIONS?!?!?! Oh ho ho ho no, I am not okay with that. At all.

(Neverland hardly mentioned Terra at all, and I know I’m getting pithy here but if people want to jump Terra’s shit for thinking he could take on Xehanort and Vanitas by himself, then Aqua deserves the same level of fish-eye because she thinks she can beat Vanitas. In fact, she fights him twice, and both times thinks she beat him even though she didn’t even come close. Don’t talk smack about Terra without holding your female fave up to the same stark lighting.)

(I’m not sure how to take her whole “one keyblade is enough for any friendship thing,” because does she think her becoming master and not him made him fall into darkness? Because he already had darkness, or else he would’ve been made a master. And he’d never brought up any feelings of anger or jealousy over her becoming master, so...??? Where is this even coming from???)

Then we get the usual denial that Terra did something horrible, this time with her denying Yen Sid’s words that Terra killed Eraqus. But then she backflips once again and says this:

So much for not believing him capable of killing Eraqus, eh? And then, of course, she goes to the Keyblade Graveyard and once again rags on Terra to his face. Wonderful. Maybe, just maybe, Aqua stans, she’s not nearly as perfect as you make her out to be.

Look. Aqua isn’t a bad person. But her entire story was one in which she needed to learn some things. That light isn’t all good. That light can’t get rid of darkness. That love defeats darkness. She had to come to terms with her self-righteousness (though she didn’t, even at the end) and accept that what she’d been taught might have been wrong. (Something the Fairy Godmother herself started teaching her.)

Love conquering darkness. This is the thing she learns only in the Final Episode, when she goes after Terranort. Until then, she hounds Terra’s every step, saying he’s done awful things, saying he’ll fall to darkness because it’s nothing but hatred and rage and he’s bound to fall again - she shows no faith in him, no trust. Even though Cinderella taught Terra that simply having faith was enough to banish the darkness, she fails to have faith in him. Huh.

Look. Like Aqua if you want - I do, when I’m not seeing the drivel on this site. Like Terr*qua if you want, though, ugh, talk about a giant ‘no, thank you’ from me on that one. I don’t think I have a bigger NOTP in any fandom anywhere, ever. But acting as if Aqua did no wrong, that Terra was the one messing everything up, is just disgusting. Hell! Say they were both in the wrong, even though Terra, throughout the game, was being manipulated, used, and abused. Go ahead! (Even though that’s gross, too.) But Aqua isn’t perfect, and it’s about time you stans, especially you terr*qua stans, started facing that fact.

[disneydreamlights]

Yeah, and I'd actually expand on Back Cover a bit. For one, it would be three hours long, and we'd have the scene of the Foretellers debating the intellect of tempting fate by encouraging mistrust between the Unions when a WAR was Foretold, plus the Power Bangles getting distributed and Ira jumping the gun by asking who made the demon Chirithy. Following that, Ira's character arc would be based on trying to get the others to stop fighting and watching everything fall apart, Invi and Gula would-

-would go on a traitor hunt, separately of course, with Gula eventually getting accused of being the traitor himself and getting forced into hiding while Invi eventually corners the Nightmare Chirithy, only to quickly get overwhelmed by a legion of Darklings. Ava’s plot would, more or less, consist of her recruiting the Dandelion leaders: Ephemer, Skuld, Ventus, Blaine, and Strelitzia. We’d also get Lauriam stalking the Dandelions and, earning Strelitzia’s misplaced trust. As for Ava vs Luxu?-

-We’d actually see Ava confronting him, meaning the iconic scene would actually be voice acted. As would Strelitzia’s death scene, which would be the last thing we’d see before the credits. It would actually be shot from her perspective, starting from her scanning the room (and you’d be able to see Lauriam’s shadow if you look closely), and, when she turns around, there’d be footsteps, the sound of a Keyblade getting summoned, and Divine Rose would materialize in such a way to make it clear she-

-I forgot where I left off, but suffice to say that if you could see Strelitzia and Lauriam, you would be able to see that Lauriam had stabbed his supposed friend in the back. Strelitzia would black out for a few seconds, but open her eyes to see her Chirithy wounded as Lauriam’s silhouette picks up her rule book and walks out of the warehouse. Cue Strelitzia’s death scene from her point of view, with a smash to credits. We’d have the Case of Luxu scene in the post credits, of course, but still.

…Listen three hour long backcover I’d kill for more time with the Foretellers and more expansion of their dynamics I love all of them.

Ira working hard to keep things from falling apart after he started all this by bringing up the traitor in the first place would honestly be so good. Because then he could be like “I shouldn’t have done that, I fucked up, now I gotta fix this before we fall apart and I cause the Keyblade War” except obviously that’s not how it ends up going because the war’s gotta happen but I want to see Ira realize his actions of bringing up the traitor instead of just bringing up the Nightmare Chirithy were not good.

Invi fighting Nightmare Chirithy and that being her final stand before the conversation with Ava and she realizes the only option she has is to keep gathering more Lux would just be a really good scene. I’d love to have something like that happen at least. And poor Gula he deserves so much better than being the assumed traitor because he’s working so hard to find them. ;w;

AVA AND STRELITZIA TALKING AND STRELITZIA IN THE HD BACKCOVER GRAPHICS LISTEN I AM ALL FOR THAT! Aaaanyways, yes. Yes please. I want all that though tbh I think Backcover should end with the five Unchained union leaders meeting. Not the extra scenes like the one we just got in NAUx a couple weeks ago (the one with Chirithy) but like the ones where they’re all gathering in the Keyblade Graveyard should be when it ends, just to show the build up. But also dude I would love to see the Ava versus Luxu scene voice acted, we don’t even get it in Ux since I think it was only X exclusive so like…the only way we’d get to see it would be in a Backcover movie.

Granted ending it with Lauriam stabbing Strelitzia is also a good breaking point because like…you can basically tell who did it (and if they still want to obscure it they could use slight hints like you said with the Divine Rose Keyblade and silhouettes but I just really want to see all my kids interacting together in one scene (except Strelitzia but hey I already know she’s not gonna get to talk to them anytime soon anyways.)

(P.S. Do you write Anon because honestly I would love to see your ideas for more content in the backcover movie (and some of the changes/additions in general) in fic form or something, either as one shots, or an actual fanfic, or just as whatever form of media you want to use, because most of them sound real interesting.)

[somniiari]

Days is my favorite Kingdom Hearts game but I haven’t played it in a while and I don’t think I ever watched the movie version all the way through! So I watched it and liveblogged it.

I basically have the Saix’s monologue in the beginning memorized

Axel has said “got it memorized” at least 6 times within the first 10 minutes of this movie

Hayner, Pence and Olette run past these literal cult members without even looking

7! 7 times Axel please!!

Quinton Flynn’s delivery seems pretty weird and flat now, which is weird cause I know he can do really well. maybe it was intentional, cause Axel hasn’t started developing a heart yet?

I forgot that my pronunciation of Xion is technically wrong

Footsteps in The Castle That Never Was sound so strange. like they’re walking on metal suction cups.

Axel: Wait did you want me dead? Saix: ... *walks away*

Ah yes Xion’s creepy hood thing that I thought was a glitch until later in the game

What was Organization XIII doing in the 10 years before a Keyblade weilder was available to them?? I’m sure they had plenty of scheming and experiments and mischief but 10 years worth?

THEY LEFT OUT THE BEST PART

THEY DIDNT ANIMATE IT

“ROXAS THAT’S A STICK” I NEEDED IT

“As long as we keep each other in our thoughts, we’ll never be apart!” yall forget each other

8 times

Axel is so bitter about/to Saix oh my god tone down your salt man

The Chamber of Repose and the Chamber of Waking. I don’t remember which is which but one houses Aqua’s armor and the other is Ven’s body, right? So one’s in TCTNW and the other is in Castle Oblivion.

It just clarified, Chamber of Waking is Ven, and in Oblivion

Can Saix and Axel’s objectives  really be a secret from Xemnas? Saix is norted after all, and even though he has most of a free will at the moment, he’s still possessed.

IT STARTED PLAYING THE OLYMPIUS COLISEUM MUSIC AND I HAD BAD FLASHBACKS

“[the memories of my past] have never done me any good” because they instilled loyalty to a norted jerk?

“i can deal with 7 days maybe” well just break my heart roxas why dontcha

Axel spends his rare days off sleeping #relatable 

9 times

“try not to bungle everything-” WHAT KIND OF WORD IS BUNGLE

ARE YOU GONNA ASK THEM NOT TO RUSTLE ANYONE’S JIMMIES TOO AXEL?

“you’ve changed” i can vividly remember Axel saying “i’m not the one who changed, you did” in response to that, but its not in the movie. maybe it was actually a journal entry?

“why are you dressed like one of us?” Xion, honey, your uniform is the most well known form of protection against dark corruption of the heart

Of course Organization XIII has no way of knowing that, bc they were deliberately lied to

This is the scene that made me hate Riku. Watching it again after i’ve fallen in love with him is quite the trip

“You’re the real sham!” “Fair enough” Riku bby no your self-hatred is showing

*Xion screams* BBY NO

“’Special?’ Isn’t that another way of saying I’m a mistake?” XION BBY NO but also #same

“According to Axel, girls are complicated and there are buttons to avoid pressing” ah yes, i forgot this part. don’t worry Roxas, she’s just upset because she’s a girl and girls are weird, she’s not having an existential crisis or anything! 

“Roxas ate alone after missions.” where’s Axel though??

the love conversation may have been a great thing to animate but that’s fine square, just tell us about it

And so Axel’s lies begin. He was just trying to give Roxas hope, I can’t wait to remember how this all got twisted and horrible.

Did we fight the Zipslasher in this time skip? I think we did. I hated the Zipslasher gdi

Axel bridal carrying Xion is what got me started shipping AkuXi. Don’t ship it anymore though, really. Maybe in AUs when they’re closer to the same age

Saix: “Did it break again?” Me: XION’S NOT AN IT

Roxas: “Xion’s not an it!” oh yeah thanks Rox

“does the past mean nothing to you” Saix you’re the one being an ass

10 times

omg please tell me he does it 13 or 14 times

Almost all the books in the Organization library look the same; plain white binding. y’know, cause aesthetic.

Flying in Neverland would have been a nice animation too but whatever

This is why you dont hang out in high places kids!

the scene with Axel and Xion in Castle Oblivion is one of my favorites

Story time: Axel’s explanation of the sunset helped me pass an earth science quiz, cause i was out sick when we learned about light but i was playing days while in bed

THE MINDSCREW DREAM

i still have no idea what it means!! or even who was having it!

Neither Xion nor Roxas knew Zexion that well, and that seemed like Riku’s memories, not Sora’s! so WHY

aw i was too angry as a child to realize that Riku was looking for a way to save them

what has Saix done that make you think he has any mercy Roxas

Xion, Axel probably wasn’t gonna fight you if you hadnt attacked him, the first chakram was a warning not to stab Roxas

“i’ll bring her somewhere safe” thats all you had to say Axel

So Xemnas did call him Sora. Way back when I thought he may have said Ventus.

now you screwed up Axel

DiZ is the worst

"i know you’re not just a puppet.” ;~;

11 times

“I saw a boy today who looked just like Roxas” i thought she meant Sora but Xigbar was spying so was it Ven? I mean it should be Sora but....

Also, Xigbar spying!

“nor become the person we see” not everyone sees Xion as anything though, not even at this point. What do you see, Xemnas?

just kidding i’m pretty sure its Ven

why wouldnt you want two Sora capable people?

like tbh if you spent your time balancing Xion and Roxas’s powers instead of pitting them against each other they would have both stayed in the Organization at least a little while longer

the older i get the more i relate to Xion, bc i too am afraid that i will wreck everything

“do you hate me for taking your friend away from you?” “nah. i guess i’m just sad.” ;~;

now i see why people ship RikuXi

i can dig it now that i love them both, still a little weird to me though, i gotta warm up to it

Riku is projecting, i never realized

“you have to do what’s best for everybody” cause so does he, even at the expense of his own life

and he doesn’t want to have to tell Xion that, but he does, and maybe he can do it to someday

that illusion would have been a nice thing to animate, especially since i forgot it happened holy crap

leave it to Axel to do his best to save the day

Give me Lea sadly turning in the WINNER stick in KH3

or even better, give me Lea cheerfully turning in the WINNER stick with Roxas, Xion and Isa at the end of KH3

Xion said it this time but i’m gonna count it, 12

im super mad about the fixation on memories making everything okay in the end because EVERYONE FORGETS AND I HURT

I KNOW ITS ON PURPOSE BUT PLEASE

what is Diz’s purpose, just to order these kids around? he’s a huge jerk, why do you listen to him

he’s telling you to murder people

i mean they need to die i guess but wouldn’t both of you feel better if you came to that conclusion yourselves instead of this asshole telling you you gotta

though they are both kids and i guess there’s a comfort in an adult getting a final say

still DiZ is bad news and i don’t like him mistreating all the young’ins

Axel’s dancing between the truth, trying to be gentle and trying not to care too much resulted in literally the worst explanation ever no wonder Roxas got pissed

Why was Riku just chilling outside Beast’s Castle and how did Xion end up in just the right place to portal in front of him

i don’t REMEMBER XALDIN’S VOICE BEING THAT ODD

also #rude Xemnas, Xion is a she!

good to know most of the Organization thought of her has a person though. or a Nobody at least. an equal.

Were there more than 2 Replicas? oooooh that could be a good plot twist

Xemnas was insistent on calling her an “it” but uses “she” again when giving Axel the task of getting her back, a dialogue inconsistency or a deliberate manipulation?

There’s an implication that Demyx and Xion talked a lot thats adorable

At least now we know why they were insistent on having 13 people even before they had 13 Nobodies

Axel walks away from conversations almost as much as Vax’ildan

Roxas: “Could it be that you knew for a long time, and never told me anything?” Axel: I walk away

I still don’t get why Riku transforms without the blindfold, and how “his eyes couldn’t lie” is a valid explanation

Riku was projecting, he thinks he has to die

13 maybe? Roxas said it, but also accusing Axel of not memorizing it

Axel told Xion the truth and she left. Axel kept the truth from Roxas and he left.

That sucks.

~cause i’m leaaaaaavin, never to come back again~

“you’re Kairi as Sora remembers her” come on you can’t tell her she became her own person before she dies?

Namine is being kind in general though

I ship it

“i know. i’m ready” ;~;

they’re solving the problem themselves and DiZ walks in pissed that they’re doing what he asked. Almost like a real parent!

MY FAV SCENE IN THE WHOLE GAME

THE VOICE ACTING

THE BODY LANGUAGE

YOU CAN HEAR MY HEART BEING RIPPED OUT

you can also almost hear Axel’s abandonment issues developing even further!

this day is just titled “Tears”. Accurate

I just realized Xion was trying to get Axel to kill her first

but he couldn’t do it

she got Roxas to do it instead

Memories of Xion going static and fading are the WORST

Roxas did break Riku’s arm or something

yes hello i look eerily like your boss now

I wonder if Axel/Lea ever looks back on his conversations with Roxas and notices a hole. An awkward silence where he and Roxas are just listening to nothing. Laughter after a beat of quiet. Looking at something that isn’t there.

literally why is everyone just okay with DiZ he’s a total jerk

in II DiZ acts like he figures out that Ansem is actually Riku. Here he doesn’t question that Riku is 2 heads taller and his voice is 2 octaves deeper.

The rooms in KH are so nice

Well there it is. the end.

WAIT

“Got it memorized” and close variations were said a total of 13 times in this movie

11 by Axel, once by Xion, and once by Roxas, as a denial.

I’m so mad