#scala ad caelum script

[jellyfishvibes]

I spent a hot minute running around Scala and jamming my face into walls while bored and procrastinating more grinding, so here are screenies of all the posters i could find while fighting the camera and my keykids big head, i dunno if any of this text would be clear enough to translate or if its even translatable but there was less repeating then i thought there would be

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I'm surprised I haven't seen anyone in the community talking about this. (Or maybe they have been, and I've somehow just missed it. ^_^')

All the kudos to OP for figuring this out.

@bluerosesburnblue @palizinhas @disneydreamlights

[recusant-s-sigil]

This video by SolidArf describes and chronicles the history of the fandom's interpretations, expectations, and realities of Scala ad Caelum, or Cable Town, as it was known before the name's official reveal. It's a touching narrative filled with various references to additional media such as the Sandman series, as well as a genuine appreciation for how much effort has gone into preserving the thoughts surrounding the town leading up to KHIII and ReMind's release, as well as a little bit of the possible future Scala holds in Missing-Link.

[themattress]

As we draw ever closer to the 5th anniversary of Kingdom Hearts III, I can't help but reflect more and more upon the realization I've had as of late. For well over a decade, ever since Dream Drop Distance, I have mourned the degradation of the KH series' story and characters, which only intensified after KH3 and all the bullshit it brought to the table in regards to those aspects. But now I understand just as important as those, if not moreso, is the degradation of the KH series' universe. After all, normally in a well-established fictional universe, even if one story with one cast of characters doesn't go over well, you can still potentially look forward to a different story with a different cast of characters unconnected to that other one. And there lies the biggest problem - for all the expansion of this increasingly convoluted lore, the series' universe has shrunk in scope because nothing is unconnected.

The state of the KH universe is that in the beginning it was populated with Keyblade wielders who, due to the machinations of a certain Keyblade master, fought a war over ownership of Kingdom Hearts that plunged the universe into darkness. But then a select few Keyblade wielders restored the universe, which created many more Keyblade wielders who joined up with them, and they essentially ruled over the universe from the shadows in this super special secret world called Scala ad Caelum. Eventually, the machinations of that same Keyblade master from before corrupts a Keyblade wielder who spends his whole life - through several points in time and several different incarnations of himself - trying to take control of Kingdom Hearts so that he could destroy and remake the universe again because he isn't satisfied with how it is now. He is stopped by other Keyblade wielders assembled by a retired Keyblade master, but it caused that damn conflict-creating Keyblade master and his pupils to somehow return, and now the story is venturing into "the realm of unreality" which turns out to have been a big part of that Keyblade master's goal the whole time that he's been working toward since damn near the inception of the universe....OK, do you see what I mean? Everything, and I mean everything, that goes on in this universe that is treated as important by the narrative is directly tied to this one item (Keyblade) and one class of people (Keyblade wielders), and has been scripted by this one omnipotent douchebag (the Master of Masters). Nothing is unconnected, all events and concepts tie back into the Keyblade, the important players who shape the universe are all a part of this one, tightly-knit web of connections, and as a result the universe feels so. fucking. small. It feels so utterly limited in scope and range.

Think of all the Disney worlds in this series, which make up the majority of the universe. Worlds from classic Disney shorts, Alice in Wonderland, Hercules, Tarzan, Aladdin, Pinocchio, The Little Mermaid, The Nightmare Before Christmas, Peter Pan, Winnie the Pooh, Fantasia, Mulan, Beauty and the Beast, Pirates of the Caribbean, The Lion King, Tron, Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty, Lilo & Stitch, The Jun The Hunchback of Notre Dame, Tron LEGACY, Wreck-It Ralph, Toy Story, Tangled, Monsters Inc., Frozen, and Big Hero 6. And then afterwards, ask yourself this single, all-important question:

How many of these worlds matter to this universe's grand story?

The answer: THREE.

I shit you not. Disney Castle (classic Disney shorts), Yen Sid's Tower (Fantasia), and Enchanted Dominion (Sleeping Beauty) are the only worlds that hold any significance, all because of the characters who hail from there that interact with the universe's grand narrative: Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Jiminy Cricket, Chip and Dale, Pluto, Pete, Yen Sid and Maleficent. And yes, I know that Jiminy technically hails from the Pinocchio world, but nothing about his life there prior to winding up at Disney Castle and entering Mickey's service as a chronicler for Sora's adventures really matters. Every other world is visited by Keyblade wielders, but its inhabitants never gets to meaningfully contribute to the story those Keyblade wielders are caught up in.....in fact, they are mostly kept ignorant of its very existence.

And the infuriating part is that it didn't used to be this way! Before the Keyblade overtook everything and was just one important part of a larger universe, the Disney worlds and its inhabitants were able to contribute! In KH1, the story was about the Heartless and the worlds' hearts and a group of villains conspiring to capture a group of princesses to obtain ultimate power and Sora broadening his horizons and making his heart stronger through making friends, all of which were serviced through the Disney elements. In KH2, the story was about Organization XIII and the Nobodies seeking to use the Heartless and the Keyblade for their own ends of obtaining ultimate power, with doing so involving threatening worlds and friends that Sora held dear, as well as competing with Pete and a resurrected Maleficent over usage of the Heartless. So again, the Disney worlds and their inhabitants actually participated in what's going on! Even BBS could be forgiven for not having the Disney worlds connect much to the overall plot (beyond a bunch of Unversed running around and barely anyone reacting) because it was a prequel, and naturally the developers didn't want many world inhabitants getting an inkling of a larger universe before the Heartless invasion of KH1 transpired.

But then it all shifted so that everything that happened in those games were all a part of Master Xehanort's convoluted grand plan which hadn't been remotely thwarted yet, meaning that retroactively all of those aforementioned games and events the Disney worlds and characters interacted with meant jack shit...and a point is now even being made about keeping specific Disney characters (the "new Seven Lights") out of the main action and ignorant to their potential role in it! And then it shifted again so that it's all about the Keyblade wielders of the ancient past and the Master of Master's grand designs, which means that those previously important Disney worlds and characters feel even less important than they already did following the big Master Xehanort reveal! From what I can tell, the only Disney world and character that may be gaining prominence in the universe's grander narrative is Olympus and Hades respectively, and even then only because he lucked out since Nomura wants to recreate Final Fantasy Versus XIII which involved a god of the dead. Otherwise, it's still all about the OC worlds and OC characters - nearly all of them Keyblade wielders - plus those select few Disney characters from those three worlds that actually know what's up.

That's the sad state of affairs. A supposedly vast universe where the majority of its settings and population....don't actually matter. To the point where they all may as well not be part of the universe but a separate one altogether. Daybreak Town / Scala ad Caelum, the Keyblade Graveyard, the Land of Departure / Castle Oblivion, Radiant Garden / Hollow Bastion, Twilight Town, The World That Never Was, the Final World and Quadratum...those worlds and the characters who populate them are the ones that truly matter to the universe. Those worlds plus those three (soon to be four) Disney worlds mentioned before, as well as all the goddamn datascape recreations of such worlds. It's a small (and boring) universe after all.

[magpiejay1234]

So here's something interesting.

Ultima Weapon in KH3 has the Roxas's X as its effect when attacking, which is a recurring motif in Scala ad Caelum, and the motif itself means "4" in Scala Language.

But Ultima Weapon also sigils similar to x-blade, and its ultimate attack is apparently called Circle of Light (according to Brave Exvius).

It seems then Ultima Weapon was likely an earlier to create an artificial copy of x-blade, and Nobodies (both generic, and humanoid) were somehow important this project.

In a greater narrative, this probably means Nomura isn't done with Rucksack yet, even though he should be, since MoM is the villain of Dandelions, Roxas shouldn't have anything to do with this.*

I guess I will need to hunt all non-Days Keyblades with "X" now, just like the ones with Master's Eye.

This is potentially very interesting, to me at least, not just because Roxas is my favourite, but Nobodies are my favourite enemies, and KH2 didn't fully explore them, so there is a lot stuff Nomura set up, but didn't resolve, remaining.

*I mean it is obvious Nomura is planning a MGSV style twist between Sora-Roxas-MoM, so I'm referring to current timeline Roxas.

****

Something interesting about Xion-Kairi parallels both Nojima-Nomura want to push, the original plan for Xion fight in Days was to have Xion gradually aggressive, and eventually fight Roxas to prove her non-existence, to parallel Roxas vs. Sora fight.

I guess this idea will be used for the Sora vs. Kairi fight in KH5 instead, since almost everyone seems to be convinced that will happen in replacement to Stella vs. Noctis in Versus 13 (though leaked scripts seem to suggest it would happen in the second game of the Versus 13 IIRC, I guess this would then confirm KH5 being the place, rather than KH4).

(I should probably reread the leaks, but they are difficult to find.)

If that happens, Nomura should better remix Kairi's theme into a Snake Eater-esque homage to James Bond. Luxord's Data fight already alludes to 007 Takes The Lector, so we already ripping off Kojima for the MoM arc, who ripped off early James Bond (though Big Boss's period is closer to books, than the movies).

[cloudofash]

KHWaterBlock @ Katsucon (@KHWaterBlock) Tweeted:

Not all of the characters, but the language of Scala ad Caelum is very interesting. https://t.co/GpJNFI3Ct6 https://twitter.com/KHWaterBlock/status/1103031771929681923?s=20

I won't be posting any spoilers yet since some people are still playing KH3 and trying to make it to the end, but I wanted to share this. I have spent the last couple of days trying to figure out the language of Scala ad Caelum (been calling it Scala Script). I've seen some translation posts but I hope we get an official translation for each character soon, sort of how the Gerudo language was translated for the Legend of Zelda. It would add to KH's lore and make the world all that more immersive.

[zxal]

I love your YX art so much because it always just gets me like… this kid has spent his entire life being pulled around by fate, whether it’s these feelings from the past he doesn’t understand but desperately wants to, or this script from the future that he knows at a bone-deep level he has no choice but to play out

YOU GET ITTTT it's like we all know the person xehanort becomes but at his earliest point he is just A Kid who wants to know if there is something beyond the ocean he grew up surrounded by. to know if the people he sees in his dreams really exist. and those feelings get used and manipulated by forces outside his control - the master of masters, his own future self - to send him down the path that sets all of kh in motion. It reminds me a lot of ganondorf's portrayal in tloz:ww and how he describes growing up in a lifeless desert while Hyrule right next door was blessed with fortune, and it's like, suddenly I can picture him as a young boy with a very simple and innocent desire for change. but destiny was never going to let him be just that. Xehanort starts out with a childish curiosity that dooms him from the moment he appears on screen. I'm super excited for khdr and how itll hopefully fill in some of the gaps we still don't understand, like why Xehanort was sent to Destiny Islands in the first place, why he was chosen (?) by MoM, and what happened to him, his classmates, and Scala ad Caelum that made him decide that summoning Kingdom Hearts was the only way to redeem the world.

[kitsoa]

“There is no Traitor”

My Complete Speculation on the Happenings of KHUX

There is no traitor.

The thing we were thinking throughout all of Back Cover. It’s obvious. The Master made-up the Traitor in the book so that the Foretellers would go on a witch hunt and stumble into a civil war. It’s why he made arbitrary secrets and rules. Roles that the Foretellers were tasked to complete without a necessary rhyme or reason. Divided factions that the didn’t really have a purpose in separation. A breeding ground for power plays, competition, and tension. The War was inevitable because the blind faith in the Master wouldn’t allow anything else. It’s the one thing they all agreed on. The Master’s word is law. 

The War happens, everything is destroyed-- and the remaining Light escapes to form the inevitable rebirth. But by sowing the seeds of tension, the Master creates a traitor. He lays the pieces in such a way that someone learns the truth of his manipulation and tries to counter it. And the Master knows this will happen. He wants this to happen. 

That’s the premise of Ava’s betrayal. I believe that Luxu simply tells Ava the truth. “There is no Traitor.” The Master set everything up. The Master has been manipulating them the entire time. She responds with denial. Ava’s loyalty to the Master is palpable. She doesn’t want to believe that he would do this. 

But that leads to her striking Luxu’s blade. And the Prophecy comes true. The bell tolls and the War begins. 

(long post)

The prophecy is real and set in stone and everything is going to end and it will be Ava’s fault. But she doesn’t know this part of the prophecy. All she knows is that the Master has betrayed them. She misreads this truth, unable to tell that she herself is playing right into fate. Gula’s Lost Page narrates her following actions.

Because understanding the Master’s scheme, Ava realizes that the Foretellers weren’t the only pawns the Master orchestrated. Her Dandelions have all the makings of the Master’s design. He dictated the rules. He decreed the arbitrary Unions. He selected the union leaders. He scripted their meeting. He appoints the Book of Prophecies to one of them in the same fashion as the Lost Page. He promotes PvP for recreation. He removes the traumatic memories of the war to prevent them from learning anything. And he traps them in a confined, set, data-world. He sets the Dandelions up for another war so obviously that Ava had to see it. It had to hit her in the face hard that the Master made this War happen and he was going to make it happen again. 

But her Dandelions. This was wrong. The Master turned her into him. Made her an accomplice to an avoidable, endless tragedy. 

So... she plans a coup. A sabotage. It’s too late to stop the war and it’s too late to stop the retreat into the data world  but she can attempt to see if this inevitable fate can be change for her Dandelions. She can plant a virus in the Master’s program.

She already appointed the Union Leaders of the Master’s choosing. Ephemer, Skuld, Ventus, Lauriam, and Strelitzia. They are lying in wait for the war to finally ignite. The Master’s script has them unable to meet until after the war so she is the only one who knows all of the leaders. Just like how she never suspected the Master, her Dandelion leaders would never suspect her. 

And she takes her disguise and ventures forth in secrecy. (as the Lost Page decrees). Darkness is a fitting scapegoat for the actions she is about to do.

Because if she doesn’t do anything, her Dandelion’s will be walking right back into a doomed fate. And as such she is forced to create a vacancy in her Union Leaders. After the bell has tolled, the overwhelmed Strelitzia, frantically looking for the Player, is ambushed by the Darkness. Her rulebook is stolen and she is killed by the very person who entrusted her to live on.

And Ava moves to plant her virus. She chooses one of her Dandelions, the lazy but brilliant Brain. She knows he is smart enough to fight the program the Master created. She approaches him to tell him of this appoint, lying to him and saying he was chosen by the Master. This keeps him innocent of her deeds and only hints at her defiant conspiracy by gifting him the Book of Prophecies.

Brain is now a two-fold act of defiance. Not only was he not chosen to possess the book but he wasn’t chosen at all. When he is ready he will become wise to this and continue his fate defying mission but until then he is ignorant. The switcharoo is done and none of the Union Leaders are any wiser. They play along with the script the Master designed.

Ava follows them into the data world and, knowing of Maleficent’s arrival from the future, she intercepts the sorceress. She gives her the secret on how to return to her time, which happens to be the same method necessary in escaping the data world. She conditions this information on Maleficent’s cooperation, designing for her to give this information to Brain so they can leave the Master’s cage for good. 

----

But this is when things get complicated. Because... all up to this point, the Master knew that Ava would behave this way. He knew that she would misread the truth and venture forth in secrecy. He wrote it that way. 

He knew that she’d be driven to creating a vacancy and attempting to defy the book. None of this has actually worked thus far. 

And as it would happen, the death of Strelitzia lingers through the Union Leaders. Lauriam’s frantic search for his sister has him asking around until it reaches Brain’s ears. He doesn’t know that he’s a fraud but the circumstances don’t add up and he’s going to finally check the book and receive Ava’s message he thought he heard loud and clear. 

When he does read the note he’ll realize that he was the one that replaced her. That Strel was the Master’s intended Union Leader. 

In fact the Master saw this coming that he probably chose Strelitzia as a Union Leader to play the part of the perfect victim. The soft spoken, beloved sister of another leader-- a more surprising choice than the pacifistic Ventus. He probably circled her name for the Bop to ensure that Ava had to kill her out of the five. 

(For the record, There is an assumption that Ava would deliver the BoP to the chosen leader at the same time they were selected, but this isn’t necessarily true. Ava could have just as easily given the rulebooks out and refrained from giving the book for logistical reason or personal hesitation. This logic is what I’m following, meaning that at the time of her murder Strel was the circled recipient but had not yet received the BoP. But she was the targeted kill because whoever replaced her might misinterpret the note seeing neither their name on it and another alive leader graced with permission to read the BoP. They may see that skipped person as a part of the virus as well.) 

That the only person who could have killed her was Ava herself. But he’s got no way of defending himself. He appears as a perfect accomplice. He cannot tell Lauriam for his own sake, and for the sake of the mission. The mission he still probably believes in despite the methods. But even should he revolt against Ava, following the Master’s design would have him expose the book’s presence to unchosen Union Leaders. 

So he doesn’t. He hides the fact that he has the book and that he knows what happened. And Lauriam, who was consulting with Brain until now is left with a suspiciously unsatisfactory nonanswer to Brain’s efforts to help him. Lauriam probably doesn’t forget this and the suspicions rise. The tension grows. 

Eventually, this tension will spread. And the truth may come out. The Union Leaders will take their sides and the War will start again.

...at least. That’s what it looks like they are walking into. That’s what it looks like the Master is orchestrating. Ava’s act of defiance inadvertently causing the war again. 

In the recent update Ava wonders if giving the BoP to Brain will change what’s been written, if it’s possible. But I think she will be defeated by the idea that she is yet again, just a pawn in the Master’s game.

Conclusion

Now this is speculation based on the theory that Ava is Darkness, with the added theory that the BoP is not a book of prophecy but a hard script of things the Master plans to happen. This means that the Gazing Eye is not a tool to ensure the Book is written but a scope for the present MoM to witness his plan unfold. 

I do think there is more to the final unfolding of khux. I think the forces of darkness have a role to play in triggering and initiating the 2nd war (and that actually has something to do with Ventus). I think there will have to be some sort of understanding or united front with the union leaders and their ally’s to abandon to data world via the method Maleficent will relay. I also think that in this chaos, Luxu will chose to pass on the Gazing Eye to Brain who will form Scala ad Caelum. In this transpiring conflict, Ephemer is going to either get left behind, get killed, or sacrifice himself to achieve that escape. And of course, in that escape the Union Leaders will be scattered through time due to the nature of the technique.

Though it’s worth noting that a part of me see’s the scattering of the Union Leaders and friends through time to be an intentional move. Something either Brain or Ava designs so that there is only one single leader of Scala. To assure that the Unions are no more and the knowledge they harbor is not used against the Dandelion’s. A war preventative.

That’s what I think is going down folks. 

[blackasteriia]

🔥 story structure bih

Feed the Fires of my Salt

I jumped into Kingdom Hearts right after KH3 came out. I had the privilege of watching the series’ cutscenes from beginning-to-end, starting with the KHUX back cover and ending in KH3. This is a very confusing way to enter Kingdom Hearts. The start of the story is in KHUX and the beginning is in KH1. It’s KH1 that introduces the core mechanics, themes, and principles of the story. Yet, the story starts in KHuX, which is a mobile game. The KHuX itself is a baffling mess with too many twists for me to even bother tracking it. For the purpose of this essay I’ll focus on Sora’s story, he’s the protagonist after all. 

Kingdom Hearts 1 begins medias res, ‘into the middle of things.’ It doesn’t know that. It thinks it’s a straightforward story and probably the best told one in all of Kingdom Hearts. Sora and his friends live a normal life. He has a call to action when his island falls into darkness and he losses his friends. To find his friends he must travel through several worlds. On the course of this journey he learns of Kingdom Hearts. He then meets Ansem, the antagonist who believes that all people and things belong to the darkness. Sora takes all that he has learned to confront Ansem. Ansem is defeated and Sora’s journey comes to a close. It’s a simple story but it is effective, charming, and fun. 

Then, Sora loses all his memories in a random castle through an event that he does not remember, he wakes-up after sleeping a full year, and we go into Kingdom Hearts 2. 

Kingdom Hearts 2, is another hero’s journey. Sora seeks guidance from the wise Yen Sid, a mentor archetype we most often find in stories of this type. Yen Sid informs Sora that he must defeat Organization 13, an insidious group seeking to obtain Kingdom Hearts. This bunch isn’t as straightforward as Ansem was. They’re manipulative, and also, very human, with their own quirks and personalities, some even befriending Sora. The series delves into a more mature grey than the pure black and white of KH1. Sora learns that light and dark aren’t clear-cut concepts, but to accept the complexity of himself, and others. Sora defeats Xemnas and returns to Destiny Island with his friends, concluding his journey. 

In Dream Drop Distance, Sora and Riku undergo training by Yen Sid to become keyblade masters, which is very important. Sora must unlock the power of waking by *shuffles notes* freeing seven sleeping keyholes, in the realm of sleep. Okay, yeah, anyway he does that. Then this Xehanort guy --who the hell is this guy? He was in Birth by Sleep. Wait, what?-- kidnaps him and tries to possess him so he can fill out the ranks of Organization 13-- Didn’t we kill all of them in the last game? No, they came back. Then why bother killing them off?-- But he’s saved by Axel --who died in the last game-- and Riku. Anyway, this is apparently grounds for failure and Sora does not become a keyblade master. 

In Kingdom Hearts 3, Sora embarks on an adventure to unlock the power of waking by traveling through the worlds and training to become stronger. Didn’t he already beat like, three series antagonists by now why does he need to grow stronger??? Sora is confronted by the members of the Real Organization 13, who taunt him as he travels. Sora gathers the Seven Guardians of Lights and defeats Xehanort and the Real Organization 13. He returns to Destiny Island with his friends and concludes his story by vanishing into a burst of light.

And that, from beginning to end, is Sora’s journey through the Kingdom Hearts series. I skipped a lot of details. I didn’t include side games. I told it as Sora experienced it. Here’s a few things I noticed:

1). There’s a lot of start and stops. The series has three endings. The end of Kingdom Hearts 1, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Kingdom Hearts 3, are all satisfying stop-points for the series. This makes sense, as Nomura, for the most part, intended them to be endings. Of course, he leaves some running threads to intrigue and hint at another game. It means that Sora has his powers reset twice and he begins another hero journey three times. The goals never change: train, grow stronger, beat-up bad guy, go home. Sora never grows past the dumb kid that picked-up a giant key in KH1 and started swinging, or any growth he does develop is reset. 

2). The side games are useless. I can tell Sora’s story without Birth by Sleep. I can do it without 358/2 Days, Chain of Memories, Re:Coded, and I bet I could kick-out Dream Drop Distance too. Xehanort is the sole character that you need. He is by far the worst antagonist. He shows-up without fanfare and is defeated with little trouble. Ansem and Xemnas both had something to contrast to Sora, some sort’ve dynamic, a personal stake. Xehanort is just a jerk and he needs to be beaten-up.

3). Xehanort is a terrible antagonist. An antagonist is the character that opposes the protagonist. It is the antagonist who the protagonist must overcome in order to complete their journey. Ansem and Sora jostle over the very nature of humans, idealism vs cynicism. Xemnas forced Sora to recognize the complexity of the human condition. Xehanort-- bullies Sora until Sora kicks his ass. Never mind untangling how unbelievably complicated the relationship between Xehanort, Ansem, and Xemnas are. You’d believe that Xehanort would be some culmination of Sora’s journey-- but I’d argue that it’d complete the Sea Salt Trio’s story more to defeat Xehanort, than it does for Sora to do it. 

4). Final Fantasy and Disney are window dressing. This game series is supposed to be a crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy. If you read my synopsis, you would not know this. Maleficent in KH1 is the sole character I feel I could’ve added. None of the Final Fantasy characters are on the list or come close to deserving mention. Why do we have the fiftieth Xehanort clone, and not Sephiroth, or anyone else, as a main antagonist? When I watched this series for the first time I did not watch a single Disney World, and I lost nothing for it. About 60-70% of this entire game series is useless, poorly written filler. This becomes worse as it drags on too. There’s some neat character study in KH1 but by KH3, it’s all crap. Instead of using the Disney World’s for character exploration and building plot, they’re usually charmless retellings of the original movie. 

5). There are so many useless characters. We don’t need Roxas. Get rid of Xion. Namine, who? Xehanort just needs to go. You can remove Kairi after KH1. Maybe we keep the BBS-trio because we have to have someone fill-out the Guardians of Light in KH3, but I think Terra is expendable. All of the Union Cross cast, gone. After KH2, all of the Organization members are wasted screen time. These characters do not contribute to the main plot and they have no satisfactory, useful, or good character arcs. They’re just here, repeating what we already heard. Axel finished his story in KH2, why is he still here? The entirety of Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days and Re:coded can be removed, and you would lose absolutely nothing. If I was Nomura’s editor, I’d be making judicious use of a red pen on his scripts. Characters that die don’t stay dead, characters that finish their arcs just hang around taking-up space, and characters that shouldn’t be added, are added. Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, trim this down to like, 2-3 games, tops, and you’d have a powerful story. Not a long overwritten piece of absurdity that’s wheezing like a pneumonic horse on its last legs. 

6). Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts 3 are the worst. Sora sets out to complete one task: become a keyblade master, and, he fails. He doesn’t even finish his secondary task, master the power of waking. Kingdom Hearts 3 has no tension, it’s so cut-and-dry, you need about... an hour of the game to know what happened in it. Sora defeated Xehanort, the all important villain, introduced in DDD. It then ends on a stupid cliff hanger. Also, goes to show that Re:Mind was stupid and didn’t help anything or anyone. KH3 had one job, complete all the character arcs introduced in the series in a satisfying way, and it failed on every single account. 

How this series tells story is terrible. It’s done through long-winded exposition that is boring and confusing. Somehow, after watching hours of cutscenes and reading all of the additional side material, I still do not know what Kingdom Hearts is supposed to be. Sometimes, it’s the ‘heart of worlds,’ other times it’s a ‘source of wisdom,’ or it’s a ‘source of power,’ or it can just grant Xemnas’ wish like a star, and it looks like Scala Ad Caelum inside, or its the door to the Realm of Darkness. How can it be the name sake of the series and be so poorly defined? The Metal Gear series is just as convoluted as Kingdom Hearts is, but at least I know what a metal gear is. 

Nomura can structure a plot. He understands the basics of hero’s journey. Every single game is based on that structure, individually. When tied together, however, they make this weird mass  of starts and stops, retcons, wasted time, and poor story telling. I like Sora and I like his story. I would not be here if that was not the case. It’s the same way with Xion. I really like Xion and her story, but she shouldn’t be here. That, or it needs to be written in a way that it matters. This plot stuff isn’t just about the events. It’s about the characters.  What happens to them. What do they do. How do they behave. How do they change? Plot happens when characters act. What a bad plot indicates is bad character motivation and action. These characters don’t matter because Nomura didn’t give them backstories, nuanced motivations, real flaws, or meaningful action. So he crams as most information into the dialogue and pretends that counts as a plot. 

 And it’s not like plot is  complicated, shit happens, that’s it. To add in some RP salt? It bothers me when muns says they’re ‘bad at plotting.’ What do you mean you’re bad at plot? Plot happens when our two muses meet and shit happens. Your muse has encountered a wild Xion, what do you do? > Run > Attack > Talk to > Feed. I’m not writing a passive brick here, ya’ll. I want shit to happen. And when I’m slogging through 13 hours of Kingdom Hearts 2 I want shit to happen, and not watch Sora faff about in a Disney world for forty minutes. Why is that so much to ask for?

[jcmorrigan]

Kingdom Hearts III Fix Fic Masterpost

(Queueing because I wrote this up at late o’clock when I wasn’t likely to get traffic, so I’m setting it for a more reasonable time of evening)

I’ve made no secret of the fact that I’m disillusioned with Kingdom Hearts III, and I have at least two projects on my AO3 that take different approaches to FIXING IT. But I’ve also, on my journey, found several great fics NOT BY ME that improve upon canon so much and this really just warms my heart because it proves that this entire fanbase has such a good grasp on these characters and concepts that our homebrews end up being more satisfying than the real thing, and I’m proud of us for being such frickin’ good writers. Not all of these are finished, I’ll warn you.

Anyway, if you were personally victimized by Kingdom Hearts III, you might enjoy one or more of these titles:

Points of a Star by Beastrage is a time-travel AU where, after the events of KHIII make way for an apocalyptic future ravaged by the Foretellers, the most unlikely squad in the world (Skuld, Vanitas, Naminé, Repliku, and Demyx) travels back in time to KHIII in order to make sure things go better this time. Featuring beautiful magical imagery and worldbuilding, addressing of character themes that really should’ve been talked over in canon, and just about every subplot you can think of getting a wrap-up. If you like that, you may also enjoy Beastrage’s other KH writings. Moon Out of Phase is another time-travel AU that changes the timeline, but instead begins all the way back in 358/2 Days, and our time traveler is Isa, finding himself with his post-III memories but in the body of Saïx in the World That Never Was with no explanation. Beastrage’s latest endeavor, Tell Me That I’m Real, concerns a girl from our world coming into consciousness as the Riku Replica’s original personality, and changing the timeline as of Chain of Memories by refusing to let Vexen erase her mind from the Replica’s body and deciding to go off script.

With All of My Heart by greylina acts as a KHIII sequel. Ten years have passed, with little incident. Riku pines for the lost Sora and seeks him for ten years. Then, with the power of love combined with a little magic and a stroke of good luck, he manages to travel back to Scala ad Caelum...to find Sora, ten years wiser, leading a peaceful civilization of oddly familiar people. Largely a feel-good, though it contains some intrigue. VERY SoRiku, which you know is good in my book. Also takes a “Where are they now?” perspective at what the lives of the KH ensemble cast might be like ten years after the fact, and expect some really cute and not-so-predictable background ships! It has a sequel, In the Spaces You Left, that concerns Kairi’s history during Sora’s absence and follows her through graduating school, forming a sisterly bond with Naminé, and falling in love with an OC who would become her wife. This one spends more time on the ensemble cast as well, so get ready for some cool worldbuilding on the Land of Departure and Destiny Islands as well as catching up with the rest of the Keybearer crew.

Riku’s Disposition Has Changed To: by PuppyGuppy managed to figure out before canon did that Riku is still Sora’s Dream Eater and should be able to locate him easily. Riku goes on a poetic, imagery-filled quest through the Final World and the Realm of Darkness to find Sora’s soul and bring him home. Another SoRiku. Includes Riku gaining permanent monster features (including wings), Sora dealing with PTSD, and the cutest bonding scene to end on that you ever did see!

You can tell I’m a SoRiku shipper. But if you want to see how I think SoKai should be done, take a look at To All the Worlds I’ve Written Before by AppleSoda. This is the Kairi-centric fic you’ve been waiting for. As the main quest goes on in the background, Kairi and Lea find themselves on their own little adventure when Kairi’s letters accidentally get mailed and she realizes she has to intercept her love confession to Sora before he can read it. What started as trying to get her letter back turns into Kairi dueling Organization XIII, befriending a few Disney heroines, teaming up with Riku for the Maleficent showdown we needed, and actually explaining a logical way to bring Xion back. AppleSoda also has a SoRiku fic, The Keyblade Master’s Guide to Journaling, which isn’t very far in but has already given the Frozen plotline of KHIII a major facelift, and another Kairi-centric series, Data and Dreams, which concerns Kairi taking her Mark of Mastery DDD-style in order to gain the means to bring Sora back home after III and running into several members of the ensemble cast in the Sleeping Worlds.

Dolorem et Consolationem actually doesn’t count as a fix fic, strictly speaking, but I’m including it here because it entertained me far more than III despite being canon-compliant. This fic is pure, undiluted IsaLea shipfic, traveling from Lea’s suicidal feelings of regret to the moments of comfort and domesticity shared between the two after moving in together in Radiant Garden to their adoption of a Found Family of Roxas, Naminé, Xion, and a dog. Mostly just ship development, but a lot of the ensemble cast turns up, and there is an undercurrent of intrigue regarding a mission to the World That Never Was to tie up loose ends.

And I’ve saved the most esoteric for last. Yes, this person is my friend, but this fic is also really, really good...though it’s not strictly a Kingdom Hearts fic so much as a fic that uses Kingdom Hearts lore for a backdrop for multicrossover shenanigans. Quite a Glittering Assemblage by @gavillain is a Maleficent-centric fic that features our favorite spurned faery gathering a team of Disney villains, Marvel villains, and some villains who just fit the right aesthetic despite having no Disney association in order to create a team strong enough to bring down the Thirteen Vessels of Darkness before they even get the chance to start a Keyblade War, given that Xehanort really, really made Maleficent angry. Expect villain protags, squad goals, and black comedy. The first fic is the only one that really acts as a fixer for KH canon, but if you liked it and want to continue the adventure, GAvillain is currently on the third work in the Quite a Glittering Assemblage series! (Oh, and there’s enough background SoRiku that if you’re still here for that ship, you’ll be well-fed, but arguably more importantly, if you were sad that Hades and Maleficent didn’t get along in III, well, they’re a primary ship in this series, so rejoice!)

Anyway, hoping somebody finds something of interest here! Happy reading! And KH fans, let’s keep continuing to kick canon’s ass!

[nyctoheart]

I could be wrong, but I think Scala ad Caelum has two+ scripts of writing, similar to Hiragana vs Katakana

[nadziejastar]

Opinion on ff7 remake?

Day 1 for me. Other than Pokemon Yellow, it was my first JRPG and I fell in love with it. Although Square has disappointed me with recent FF games and KH3, somehow I still have hope that this will be good. If it’s not, then I will lose all faith in Square.

-It’s gorgeous and the battle system looks like it will be pretty good.

-I like Nomura. I think he’s an extremely creative and talented guy. He gets blamed WAY too much for Square’s problems as a company. He’s pretty much the only big name left at Square who’s still part of the old vanguard.

-Kitase and Nojima are back on board, too. Nomura directing and Nojima writing the script was one of the reasons I was so excited for Versus XIII, all the way back in ‘06. After it got rebranded as XV, it was NOT the same creation, I could tell. I'm still sad I'll never get to play Versus XIII. I know Nomura loves FFVII so I’m confident that he’ll put his heart and soul into this. 

-A lot of fans interpreted Cloud as a cool badass. Nomura said Cloud was a nerdy character, which is exactly how I interpreted him. So, I am not really worried that the remake is gonna ruin my memories or anything. Everything I've seen so far look perfect for what I remember FFVII to be like.

-It doesn’t have some of the issues that held KH3 back from living up to its potential. The story already exists, so you can’t screw it up TOO badly. It’s not like KH3, where they had a huge chunk of the story missing due to a cancelled entry. And it hails from a time when FF games were actually thought-provoking.

-I always found FFVII’s story interesting and emotional. One of my favorite video game scenes is when you see inside of Cloud’s psyche and learn that he’s not some badass hero, but a lonely kid who just wanted to be noticed. I can’t wait to see how that’s handled. Reminds me a lot of how KH3 should have had moments just like that with the power of waking. You get to see the characters on a more intimate level. That’s the kind of stuff you don’t see anymore in Square’s games, but DAMN, do I miss it.

-It’s being released in multiple parts. I am fine with this. I would rather they do it in multiple parts than have them cut out a bunch of shit. Hell, I wish they could have released KH3 in multiple parts if it meant that the story didn’t get mutilated and we actually got FF characters, an explorable Radiant Garden and Scala ad Caelum.

-Midgar is still one of the coolest fucking video game locations I’ve ever seen. FFVII was the first game I played where, instead of being some idyllic fantasy world, it was a pretty authentic slum. There was trash everywhere, homeless people scraping by, a “gentleman’s club” where organized crime took place. It was a shitty ghetto hellhole just like the one I grew up in, which made me love it that much more, lol. There was just…something kind of beautiful about it.

[blowingoffsteam2]

Based on things that have been released so far (like the new Ultimania and KH3 itself) do you think it's possible for fans to decipher the Scala ad Caelum language?

Mmmm I mean I don’t want to say it’s impossible, but it’s hard when we don’t even know if it’s gibberish or actually says something.  And if it did, would it be in Japanese?  Or English?  Right now we just don’t know enough, but if someone does manage to decipher it, I’ll be floored.  There also seems to be more than one type of script used- one for the regular Scala ad Caelum writing that has been found on posters and stuff around the town, and one or two more types used on the transmutation circles.  So it’s…really complicated.  The only thing that can be deciphered right now is the numbering system.

Edit: if anyone knows anything about alchemy symbols, that might be one good place to look for at least some of the symbols on the transmutation circles.  There are a lot of similar symbols in the Book of Prophecy too...like the ichthys.

[themattress]

Subject: Tetsuya Nomura’s KH3 Release Day Remarks

I’m sorry, I just had to react to this.

Nomura: KH3 is, if I had to say, "the story of taking down Master Xehanort." As such, it is the conclusion of the Dark Seeker Chronicle, and serves as an emphatic piece of punctuation to the series. Many mysteries are resolved.  

“An emphatic piece of punctuation to the series? God, Nomura literally talks as pretentiously as he titles games! 

Also, the way Master Xehanort was finally taken down sure was satisfying, and the series’ narrative is truly left with almost no mysteries whatsoever afterward! (That’s sarcasm, btw.)

Nomura: It has a few special qualities, but to put it simply it's the "power to return hearts in abnormal states to what they were originally." It can "open that which is closed, and recover hearts from within." In KH3D, they opened a portal… or type of entryway to the sleeping realm, and visited each world. That was partially training in order to gain the "power of awakening."

LOL, Nomura is describing it directly and yet it still confuses the Hell out of me. It’s one of the clearest proofs as to how vague and hollow most of his concepts truly are at heart.

Nomura: It would be defined as resurrecting him as an independent individual with his own body. In KH2, it seemed as though Roxas returning inside Sora was the resolution to the whole thing. But after that, in KH3D, Sora came into contact with Roxas' heart and memories, and tells him that they are different and that Roxas deserves to be his own person. Sora thinks it is necessary to bring Roxas back because Roxas has his own heart, because there's someone waiting for him (Axel), and because now he wants his help as a Guardian of Light.

“It seemed as though Roxas returning inside Sora was the resolution to the whole thing” because it fucking WAS the resolution to the whole thing!  You only decided it wasn’t because Roxas became mind-bogglingly popular and the series could profit off of his return the way that his fans demanded it (since they insisted it was so “unfair” that he just has to exist within Sora). Back when KH2 ended, Roxas didn’t have his own heart, Axel wasn’t alive, and “Guardian of Light” wasn’t a thing. Nomura only changed all that for the most mercenary of reasons, even at the expense of what was portrayed in KH2.

Nomura: Of course it will continue. KH3 is the conclusion of the Dark Seeker Chronicle, but it is not the conclusion of the KH series - including KH Union Cross. As for future ideas, I think you will find your imaginations ignited if you watch the epilogue (releasing Jan 26) and secret movie (releasing Jan 31) which shall cast a fortune for the future.

Well, I’ve seen the epilogue. My imagination wasn’t ignited - I got a headache. I am NOT kidding around here, I quite literally developed a headache after watching that epilogue and thinking about its ramifications. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again - I am not sticking with this series any longer, and I suspect that I’ll be far from the only one. All of its story flaws have only gotten worse with KH3, to the point of bad self-parody. It’s not fun, it’s frustrating.

But by far, THIS exchange in the interview is the most illuminating of them all:

Nomura: When it comes to the scenario, including the script, in the end I write everything myself. I haven't made this public before, but after KH2 generally everything was written by me, especially KH 358/2 Days.

--I see. I had thought that you assemble the plot, and then the script and other small details were assigned to someone else.

Nomura: That is how it was in the beginning. However, ever since KH2, roughly speaking I will create the outline of the scenario myself, and then (Masaru) Oka will take that and create a springboard scenario, including dialogue, that takes into consideration requests from the level design team. Then after that, I write the final manuscript myself. That's the general flow. Other staff have worked on the scenario in the past, but the KH series lore is complicated, and when lots of people are involved it gets hard to keep everyone updated on it all. In the end, I'm the one with the best grasp on it, so that's why we ended up with the style we have today.

--But, you haven't been credited with "Scenario" in the end credits in any of the titles so far.

Nomura: I get credited with "Story," so I guess it doesn't need to be said. Plus, I've been in the industry for a long time. I worried that if people were to go into things with the preconceived notion that "Tetsuya Nomura wrote this," it get in the way of their play, so I didn't make it clear. But the series is 17 years old now, and the fact that "an old dude is writing it" is simply the truth (dry laugh). I wrote this game myself too. I wrote all the text: not just the scenario, I even decide the item names myself.

This. Explains. SO MUCH.

The writing of the original KH trilogy was a much more collaborative process. But in KH2, Nomura’s base story (which was made in conjunction with Masaru Oka and his event team) got so big in scope and overwrought with detail that the script writer, Kazushige Nojima, who had barely worked on the original KH, had a difficult time working with it and ended up producing a scenario with some very glaring, obvious flaws. Nomura then came to the wrong conclusion and thus the wrong solution: excising Nojima except for as an uncredited consultant (it’s said later in the interview that Nojima wrote the Scala Ad Caelum event / ending for KH3 as a favor to Nomura), making Oka the scenario writer since he has a firmer “grasp” on the KH series lore, and then being the one to pen the final draft himself to ensure that his complicated lore is “kept updated”. I’ve mentioned before that the writing process for the series was monopolized by Nomura and Oka, but now I finally have outright admittance of that from Nomura himself, as well as the motivation behind this decision.

The right course of action should have been to find someone like, say, Daisuke Watanabe and keep him on board - someone who not only is a great scenario writer who understands Nomura’s ideas but who can also challenge Nomura on those ideas, add his own unique contributions to the story if he thinks they’re needed, and make sure that it’s accessible and of high quality. That’s what we needed, not clueless guys like Nojima or yes-men like Oka.

Nomura, you suck. Go to the Realm of Darkness, and don’t come back!