fr given the queer coding and how much Riku is associated with light and awakening, esp for Sora, it would be really funny if Riku was the literal gay awakening
Retrospectively it's really funny that dream drop wasn't Sora having adventures during the Big Year Nap while everyone else was experiencing 358/2 Days drama.
Sora getting the Kingdom Key from Riku is a parallel to Ventus getting the BOP from Strelitzia and ever since I’ve been trying to get people to consider Sora might have a Darkness sleeping inside him because he was jealous of Riku’s strength 😭 Terra even attacks Sora over him wielding the key while asking where Riku is like Lauriam asks Ventus mortified
The more I think about it, the more it seems possible.
We don’t know what being possessed by a Darkness feels like. But it is weird that the first line we get from Sora, the opening line of the game, indicates he’s been feeling weird lately and doubting reality, questioning if anything’s real. The station of awakening is strange. The voice in the darkness guiding Sora (and the audience) through the process of gaining power, insisting he will open the door, is strange. Sora seeing heartless before the heartless enter Destiny Islands is strange. The darkness swallowing Sora up at the end of the awakening process is strange. Sora likes to sleep a lot, and sleep is deeply connected to darkness in this universe. Xehanort’s heartless literally speaking to Sora in the Secret Place by the door telling Sora that Destiny Islands has already been “connected, tied to the darkness, soon to be completely eclipsed” even though the door is not open yet supposedly, is strange. Like what is even happening at the start of this game lmao
The parallels to possessed Ventus killing Strelitzia for a BoP is so…. It is chilling when you consider Sora does get what he wants from Riku’s fall. He’s finally better than Riku at something and gets to be the one everyone turns to instead of Riku. He’s in the spotlight. He’s no longer in Riku’s shadow, so to speak. Now, of course, like Ventus, Sora would never consciously want something like this or do something like this. But the Darkness acts on unconscious thoughts and feelings… In CoM, Sora is really frightened by the idea that he has “true” memories he can’t recall and cannot trust what he thinks he knows about himself. On top of him feeling like he really did something wrong, hurt a friend, but doesn’t know or remember how and is scared it might make him a bad person… Well, I just don’t know. It’s not outside the realm of possibility. But man would that recontextualize the beginning of KH1 in such a horrific way.
sora does come back from quadratum a little different but the biggest change is that he loses the mindset that self-sacrifice is a necessary requirement to achieve a better future for everyone. anytime there's a mission or a problem, it's either we go together or we don't go at all. he becomes adamant on that, you cannot change his mind.
Okay, yes, That, all of my yes for That. But also,
Oh my god they turned Pearl into a marketable robot buddy.
DEDF1SH!!??
And...Dead...Fish...god this DLC gets creepier by the second and now I'm worried about Marina. (haven't decided if it's worry about what's happened to her or worry about what she may have done)
Everybody gets to find out that the Mini Mario games were good actually.
Peach slays in every outfit and Grape looks good too.
Oh hey F-Zero, we thought you were dead.
Trombone Champ living up to its potential by using the two dumbest control schemes the Switch has to offer. Glorious.
F U N K Y
Also I completely forgot that Diddy wasn't in the base game.
It's too late Wario, you have friends, there is no escape.
There's Fungus AmongUs! It Was Inevitable...
I'm sorry Sora, I'm happy for you, but I look at Amiibo and feel Nothing.
Everything else looks really good too! I just had less to say about it.