#the 100 acre wood trio

[snupy]

this trio existing = me big happy @luckystarchild

[strayheartless]

I have a little headcanon that when Sora doesn’t feel too hungry he unironically does stoutness exercises to try and work up a little appetite.

Except he’s kind of forgotten that it’s not really a normal thing that everyone does. So he does it in front of the group (wayfinder, sea salt, riku and kairi etc.), little song and all.

The rest of the group are stuck between looking at him weirdly and thinking it’s possibly the most adorable thing sora has ever done.

[magpiejay1234]

So let's talk about KH3 worlds' thematic connection, and why I agree with Jacob that it fails in its purpose, semi-intentionally.

**The biggest problem exists ironically in Toy Box (Toy Story), and Monsteropolis (Monsters Inc.). Both worlds were scrapped worlds from KH2, so their writing keeps the episodic structure of KH2. The worlds have probably some of the best script of the game (helped with Pixar guys working with SQEX), but their episodic structure makes them disconnected from overall theme of sacrificing yourself for a loved one, specifically a romantic love interest.

***100 Acre Woods is similar in this regard, which keeps the theme of growing old, and getting responsibilities with these two worlds, but remains disconnected with rest of KH3.

**Twilight Town, Arendelle (Frozen), and San Fransokyo (Big Hero 6) have the red herring theme of sacrificing yourself for a family member, to falsely set up the potential sacrifice of Sora to release Roxas from his heart. This is a very obvious red herring, but due to Nojima sleeping at editor's role, this red herring is given more attention than it needed during the duration of the game.

***Big Hero 6 like Toy Story sets up Xion's return, but the set up with that has more issues than can be listed here (partially caused by Xaldin not being a member of Org. 13 as originally planned to distract us, thus making Xion's non-presence in base KH3 more apparent), and has nothing to with the larger theme (besides Sora playing God with Power of Waking being set up with Roxas's idea to use Kingdom Hearts to reconstruct Xion at the end of Days).

**Olympus world actually sets up Sora's sacrifice very well, though this is mostly helped with KH2's Olympus storyline, where the Hercules's sacrifice, and return already happened.

***Olympus also sets up a lot of future stuff as well, so it is pretty decent both as a story of its own, and its relation to greater themes of the game. It doesn't have a great script, since it is mostly a boss rush, but it is still pretty good.

**Rapunzel/Eugene, and Will's ends set up the end of the game well theoretically, but the contexts are completely unrelated to overall context of KH3, since Will's end is a poetic conclusion of his five movie long arc, and mostly serves as a thematic connection to his father (and direct contrast with Davy Jones), whereas Rapunzel's storyline with her realizing her true heritage (Eugene does not reveal his true identity until the TV series).

***This COULD have some relevance if MoM is Sora, or his dad, but for the time being, we are keeping the theme of fulfilling your heritage in the freezer.

**Of course besides the Terra stuff the BBS trio's stuff does not have a lot of to do with Sora's sacrifice, they are here, because the set up in BBS/DDD.

***Terra's stuff has some thematic relevance, but the narrative is focused in Riku's arc's parallels with Terra, not Sora's. Sora's actual counterpart, Ventus, does not have anything to do in KH3 as Jacob stated despite all the things **around** him (Vanitas, Dark Inferno X, his Chirity from the Limbo, Union X stuff, possibilities of 13 lights rather than 7), it is kinda hilarious.

Let's not get into Mother Gothel, and Davy Jones' obvious parallels with Xehanort with their obsession with immortality, and how narrative does not do anything with that.

Hades's deal with his brother Zeus somewhat parallels the conclusion with Xehanort, and Eraqus, and we will likely see this further in KH4, but Hades is effectively a third party to Kingdom Hearts' villains cast now, so it feels like he should have more of a presence, not less.

****

Rewatching Jacob's old videos, symbols similar to Xigbar's symbol is used in parts of Scala, so I guess his weapon was secretly planned by Scala guys. We already discussed how KH2-KH3 implies Radiant Garden was founded by Scala people to presumably study hearts in proper scientific form, rather than relying on old alchemic scriptures, so this tracks regardless when Luxufication happened.

[sorazine]

One with the Sky: a Sora Fanzine features artwork by Miyabau 💙 Check out their preview on Twitter too! 

Preorders close in 8 hours

[princess-of-the-corner]

Kingdom Hearts Final Mix Recap: End of the World

Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrive in a cavern known as the Gate to the Dark. They walk towards the mouth of the cave, which opens to a watery plane known as the Final Dimension.

Goofy makes note of what this world is, the remnants of all the worlds the Heartless have consumed, merging together into a nightmarish hellscape. (Just, with more in-character word choice than what I used, even if I would love to hear Bill Farmer say "Nightmarish Hellscape" in his Goofy voice.)

Sora asks if all the worlds will go back to normal once they defeat Ansem, but wonders what will happen to this world and them, by extension.

Goofy figures that the End of the World, being a Heartless world, will disappear, but doesn't think they will. Their hearts are too strong for them to simply disappear.

Sora takes out the Oathkeeper charm, and promises to return it.

The Final Dimension has several invisible walls, forcing Sora to rush between the little rocks on the water's surface while dark globes rain from the sky.

Sometimes, one of these globes will drop right onto the trio, forcing them to fight Heartless in order to escape.

In addition to that, some of the chests ALSO contain globes of darkness, but these at least reward you with the contained item once they're cleared.

However, upon reaching the cavern at the opposite end of the Gate to the Dark, another globe of darkness drops down on the trio, this one containing an Arch Behemoth.

Upon defeating it, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are deposited at the top of the Giant Crevasse, with Donald wondering where Ansem is. Sora remarks that he's going to be in the darkest, scariest part of this place, and from this point on, the trio will be going farther and farther down in order to progress.

The bottom of the crevasse features both a Save Point and a gaping hole. This hole leads to the World Terminus.

The World Terminus is the most iconic location in the End of the World, consisting of multiple pillar-like structures that each correspond to one of the worlds with a Keyhole the player can lock (so both Destiny Islands, which was destroyed, and Monstro, which isn't technically a world in the lore, are absent), all floating in an empty void.

In the center of each world is a terminal. If Sora has locked that world's Keyhole, the terminal will be a pillar of violet light and he'll be able to progress. If not, the terminal will be blue and he'll have to enter and battle Heartless to progress, dissolving into dark mist every time he enters a Terminal.

Note: Each one of these terminals has a treasure chest that holds an accessory, so skip them at your own risk.

Anyway, each one of these terminals links to one of the previous worlds, and go as follows:

Traverse Town's Third District (with the same layout as the first Guard Armor Battle).

Wonderland's Rabbit Hole.

Olympus Coliseum's Coliseum Gates.

Deep Jungle's Bamboo Thicket.

Agrabah's Plaza.

Atlantica's Calm Depths (complete with underwater transformation).

Halloween Town's Torture Chamber (complete with Halloween transformations, the only time the Torture Chamber can be accessed outside of the Oogie Boogie boss battle).

Neverland's Galley.

The 100 Acre Wood is the penultimate terminal, and the pillar of sparkling light leads to the Meadow, which in turn contains a Save Point and a Treasure Chest that holds an Elixer. He also dissolves into sparkling lights instead of dark mist, and there are no enemies to fight.

This is also the only time in the series that Donald and Goofy enter the 100 Acre Wood.

The final terminal is a pillar of flame, and leads to the Laboratory where Ansem performed his experiments in Hollow Bastion. Sora, Donald, and Goofy are spat out of a portal in the hall outside, with the way forward blocked by a Heartless Emblem, meaning the only way to progress is to enter the lab proper. Of course, first they have to defeat the Heartless.

Inside the lab is a strange machine consisting of five pods hooked up to a sphere filled with bubbling liquid.

It's purpose was unknown at the time of release and remained unknown until very recently, but the important thing is the terminal in front of the machine, and its message:

Ones born of the heart and darkness, devoid of hearts, ravage all worlds and bring desolation. Seize all hearts and consummate the great heart. All hearts to be one, one heart to encompass all. Realize the destiny: the realm of Kingdom Hearts. The great darkness sealed within the great heart. Progeny of darkness, come back to the eternal darkness. For the heart of light shall unseal the path. Seven hearts, one Keyhole, one key to the door. The door of darkness, tied by two keys. The door to darkness to seal the light. None shall pass but shadows, returning to the darkness. Ones born of the heart and darkness, hunger for every heart until the dark door opens.

After Sora reads this message, he's ambushed by more Heartless, and can't leave until they've all been destroyed.

Upon leaving, the pillar of fire is replaced by a hole, the wind passing through it howling.

Dropping down this hole leads to the Evil Grounds, where Sora, Donald, and Goofy fly above the bald mountain, and encounter none other than Chernabog.

Chernabog doesn't think much of these insects at first, casually sending his attacks after them and occasionally making his volcano erupt, but these mortals just refuse to die.

That's irritating, might as well start calling upon wisps and use his other powers.

But then they continue to survive.

And then they start to win.

Chernabog scrambles to regain control of the battle, but it's too late. Even after throwing everything he has at these three insignificant mortals, he still can't win. In the end, he vanishes in a blast of white fire, having survived the destruction of his world (which he may have wrought himself) only to be felled by three mere insects who only regard him as an obstacle to stopping their own enemy.

A fitting end for one of Disney's most iconic villains, wouldn't you say?

Sora, Donald, and Goofy fly into the crater, and then walk through the remains of Aurora's, Snow White's, Cinderella's, and Belle's worlds, dropping down lower and lower, until they come across a small room known only as the Linked Worlds, a Heartless Emblem in the back of the chamber.

There, a second Arch Behemoth drops in out of nowhere to block their path, but is felled by Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

A piece of the Heartless Emblem breaks off.

More and more Heartless assail the trio, only to fall one by one, the Heartless Emblem crumbling more and more until finally, the last Heartless falls, and the way forward opens.

This chamber is the Final Rest, containing the final Save Point our heroes will ever see, and the very same door from the Dive to the Heart that also appeared at the Secret Place.

Entering this room unlocks the final bonus boss, and the hardest boss in the entire game.

To access this boss, Sora must return to the chapel in Hollow Bastion, and enter the dark portal that reopened.

When he, Donald, Goofy, and the Best emerge, they find the room they battled Maleficent's dragon form in to be suspiciously empty. But then a man in a black coat appears out of nowhere behind them and walks through Sora, and text from earlier scenes flashes on screen against a black background.

Ah, it seems you are special too.

Goofy, using archived audio of the first time he uttered Ansem's name, questions the coated man's identity.

That name rings familiar.

Sora expresses frustration at the man's cryptic words (again, with archived audio).

You remind me of him.

He then blasts Sora with a bolt of energy, with Sora blocking and deflecting the shot into the ceiling with his Keyblade, before asking what that's supposed to mean as dust rains down.

It means you are not whole. You are incomplete. Allow me-

He deploys ethereal blades from his palms.

-To test your strength.

This is the Unknown. He is the hardest boss in Final Mix, designed to be a final challenge for the player to overcome after conquering everything else the game has to throw at them.

His battle is also canon, and incredibly important to the plot of a later game.

He attacks with his ethereal blades, bolts of energy, spheres of energy, and even locking Sora's Command Menu and forcing him to play a sort of reaction mini game to break free as his health is whittled away. This battle puts all of your skills to the test, but if you emerge triumphant, you'll get an eerie cutscene.

The Unknown immediately shrugs off all the damage Sora, Donald, Goofy, and the Beast did to him in the cutscene, revealing that they barely even scratched him.

Impressive, this will be enjoyable.

Sora demands to know who he is.

It is beyond your comprehension, for now. Until we meet again.

He begins to fade away.

I am-

His answer shocks Sora.

But a mere shell.

Sora is rewarded with both an EXP Necklace (but odds are you'll already be the Level Cap if you're fighting him), and the thirteenth and final page of Ansem's Report:

Where does the body go when it separates from the heart? If the soul remains within the body, is it still considered to be deceased?

When the heart returns to the Heartless, the physical form disappears. But that is merely true in this world. Perhaps the body exists in another form in another world.

If that is the case, then it is possible for one to exist in two worlds.

A being that is neither darkness nor light; belonging nowhere; abandoned by its heart; a mere shell of its former self.

The relation between the heart and body is complex. However, I am certain that if your self exists here, then by definition, the other cannot truly "exist."

The other, the one which does not exist, shall be dubbed, "Nobody."

Back in the End of the World, Sora approaches the Door. However, before he can open it, the voice from the Dive to the Heart warns him that the door is one way, and he will not be able to return once he enters it.

Only Sora can hear the voice.

The voice encourages Sora, and reminds him that he is the one who will open the door.

Interacting with the door a second time(hopefully after some preparation) leads to Sora opening it, and crossing over to the other side with Donald and Goofy.

Sora, however, is shocked to discover that he's back on his island.

The journey ends where it began.

-

Goofy during this whole adventure be like

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

finally got to watch Melody of Memory’s cutscenes and man, do I have thoughts

so I definitely went into this knowing that we wouldn’t be getting too much new content but wow, this might be a new record for the least new content in a game so far

that being said, this game is also definitely meant to set up the bigger storyline, acting as a transition kind of like 0.2 did, so it’s understandable that there’s less and it’s a bit slower in pace

I loved how Kairi stood up to Xehanort and was even able to go toe to toe with him for the most part. It shows that her character arc is starting to go in an interesting direction despite this Xehanort only being a figment of her memory but geez louise it’s still going at a snail’s pace when it’s already been established in kh3 that she trained a lot.

oh yeah, that line about her having to train more really rubbed me the wrong way, as I’m sure it did for many of you as well. Considering that she’s put next to Sora and Riku, characters who could hold their own in dangerous situations long before they had any sort of formal ‘training’, that line really just came off sounding like a double standard, making Kairi have to work for what the boys already had innately or got to achieve thanks to firsthand experiences on their journeys. How much more training does Kairi have to go through before she can actually have her own journey and be seen as a valuable force?

first Sora’s form takes over for the Xehanort fight when it could’ve been executed in so many other better ways, then Riku’s the one who gets to go to Quadratum without her....agghhhh why do the writers shaft her each and every time...she’s almost 20 years overdue for her time to shine

Riku and Kairi interacting with each other, we love to see it. But it felt so disheartening to see Riku turn her down before heading off to Quadratum alone. It’s almost an exact parallel to Sora’s infamous “you’d kind of be in my way” line from kh1 except this time Kairi’s the one who says that she’s not strong enough....ghhhggghhg Nomura

but I digress

not gonna lie, when “fictional worlds” were mentioned, the first thing I thought of was the 100 acre wood and that Sora ended up in there again somehow

also wasn’t it established that everyone has gummi phones now??? Why can’t we use those to tell everybody else what’s going on instead of venturing out to find them in person?

idk man there were a lot of strange storytelling/exposition devices used here and idk how to feel about them. Like Fairy Godmother is a nice character to have around, but she feels so disjointed from the plot, just slapped in there with so much knowledge this time around compared to what she stuck to in ReMind, which was dreams, her forte

I don’t know why exactly Kairi wants to train with Aqua (maybe she feels at ease with her given the connection she has to her, or she thinks Aqua’s RoD experience can help toughen her up), but I’m here for it. Now let me see the two of them team up in a game!!

okay believe me when I say I’m trying so hard to be invested in the Verum Rex/Quadratum plotline and maybe I will be someday, but as it stands now, I’m far more interested in how khux’s story will progress and what the foretellers will be up to

Also curious what the sea salt and wayfinder trios will do now that they’re not going to be helping find Sora using their original methods anymore. Maybe they’ll try something different, or join in on Mickey’s ancient keyblade masters quest? I wouldn’t mind a game about the seven of them working stuff out

For my final thought...since unreality/fictional worlds are for the most part inaccessible...maybe the MoM’s black box acts as a way to get into those worlds. Heck, maybe he or other chi characters are from that kind of unreality too, since they’re from an age called the Age of Fairy Tales aka fiction?

[violethowler]

The Elephant in the Room

In my previous essays, I have covered how the Kingdom Hearts narrative follows Maureen Murdock’s template of the Heroine’s Journey, as well as how various characters and story elements tie in with the overarching themes of the framework. Before I can continue to dig further into other themes and archetypes, there is something I need to address first. While I have avoided directly touching on the topic in my previous essays, I have now reached the point where it is no longer possible to talk about the Heroine’s Journey in full without acknowledging the elephant in the room: 

Romance.

In ongoing serialized stories such as TV shows and video games, conversations about potential relationships in canon are often treated as inconsequential to the overall story. Something that is separate from the main plot. At worst, I have seen fans who openly center a ship in their analysis and theories be dismissed and criticized as biased - or worse, delusional. They are treated as being so obsessed with their pairing that they try to make everything about their ship and jump on any excuse to declare that it’s viable in canon. 

Among the Kingdom Hearts fandom in particular, this has often taken the form of someone trying to dismiss other fans’ hope for a ship to be canon by saying that the series is about friendship, not romance.

While friendship is absolutely an important theme in the Kingdom Hearts series, to insist that this is mutually exclusive from depicting the development of romantic relationships ignores the continued presence of canon Disney romances in almost every game in the series. In each “main” game where Sora is playable, he has directly or indirectly been involved in getting those Disney couples together in the KH universe. So it’s not out of the realm of possibility for the series to turn the tables and give some attention to his romantic interests for a change. 

A story having other major themes is not mutually exclusive from showcasing the development of a romantic relationship. There are many popular movies, shows, books, comics, and video games in which a romantic relationship plays a central role in the narrative but there are still other plotlines going on that are equally as important as the romance. This is especially true for Disney and Square Enix.

The reason why it’s impossible to fully talk about the Heroine’s Journey without acknowledging romance elements is best encapsulated by this quote from She-Ra showrunner Noelle Stevenson about her show’s endgame pairing in an i09 interview after the release of the final season:

“The show’s not a romance show. It is about a lot of things. It’s about choice, destiny, fighting, tyrants, you know, all of these other things. I grew up with so many stories—like sci-fi and fantasy—that I was so passionate about. And it would be considered no big deal to have the hero get the girl and to have a kiss at the end, without it suddenly becoming a romance or ‘Oh, the shippers got what they wanted.’ It was just a part of the story. And to actually see it be a central part of the plot and to fulfill the arcs of the characters in a way that felt satisfying. I really want to take it beyond ‘Oh, the shippers got what they want.’ Like, it’s not just a ship for me. It is a plot point. It is the necessary conclusion of each character’s arc, separate and together.[1]”

While not every story known to follow the Heroine's Journey features a romance for the main protagonist, those that do make the romance an integral part of the narrative. It’s not something thrown in at the end to please shippers, but a central component of the story. Therefore, when analyzing a Heroine’s Journey story, it is vital to acknowledge and discuss textual support for potential romantic relationships in order to have a full understanding of the narrative.

Even if one is not aware of the Heroine’s Journey, Sora’s repeated interactions with Disney romances indicate that there is a high probability that he will be in a romantic relationship himself by the end of the series. Every story I know of that follows the Heroine’s Journey broadly adheres to a pattern in regards to how the romantic relationships of a main character are set up.

By examining the series through these patterns, we can narrow down who Sora’s endgame romantic partner will be. 

Because the themes and character dynamics emphasize resolving internal conflict through balance, the Heroine’s Journey lends itself extremely well to Beauty-and-the-Beast, rivals-to-lovers, and enemies-to-lovers relationship dynamics. A major component of the Heroine’s Journey is the main character learning to accept themselves, and since the Animus as a Shadow figure can represent the parts of themselves that they haven’t accepted yet, it is simpler to symbolize that self-acceptance via a romance with the Animus rather than attempting to build a separate relationship on top of the existing story framework.

For these reasons, the Animus is more often than not the main character’s endgame love interest, their feelings for each other made into critical aspects of their respective character arcs. The only Heroine’s Journey stories with romance that I know of where this wasn’t the case are ones where executive meddling resulted in the finale being rewritten to kill off the Animus despite established narrative set up for them to have a happy ending together[2], while the protagonist was either forced into a relationship with a different character or left single.

And like I said in previous essays, the one character in the series who fulfills all criteria for the Animus role within this storytelling framework…. 

Is Riku.

[Image Description: Sora supporting Riku as they walk toward the ocean on the Dark Margin at the end of Kingdom Hearts II. End Description.]

As mentioned in my earlier analysis, this narrative framework emphasizes the importance of balancing contrasting attributes, which fits in extremely well with Kingdom Hearts’ focus on balance between light and darkness. For stories that follow the Heroine’s Journey in a visual medium, that dichotomy is often incorporated into the characters’ look. Height differences are common, while their color schemes and outfits are designed to make them complement each other. Further adding to the focus on balance between light and darkness, the visuals of the story frame the romantic leads with imagery associating each one with light or darkness to create Yin-Yang symbolism when they are finally in balance. 

In Re: Chain of Memories, Vexen openly calls Riku the “Hero of Darkness[3]” as a counterpart to Sora’s role as the “Hero of Light”, and their combination attack in Kingdom Hearts II utilizes moves that reflect both elements. In the Ultimania for the original game, Tetsuya Nomura said that Riku’s look was intentionally designed to balance Sora’s[4], and the contrast between their respective color schemes is maintained in each of their new outfits. In Kingdom Hearts II and Dream Drop Distance, Riku wears white and blue, while Sora in those same games wears black and red. Two different pairs of contrasting colors. Kingdom Hearts III has them both in outfits that are primarily black and grey, but still emphasize the blue and red that have been part of their respective outfits since the first game. 

In a Heroine’s Journey, the love interest is typically an active character in the story and usually serves as the deuteragonist. This fits with Riku having been a mandatory playable character in multiple games since 2004. In addition, series producer Shinji Hashimoto said before the release of the HD 1.5 Remix collection[5] that the main focus of the series is how Sora and Riku develop both as individuals and as a pair, which fits with how the central conflict of the Heroine’s Journey revolves around the dynamic between the Protagonist and their Animus. 

A common viewpoint held by many fans of the series is that Kairi is Sora’s love interest, and it’s not hard to see why people get that impression. He has sacrificed himself to save her in two separate games now. He’s charged enemies head on in order to rescue her whenever she’s been captured. He even got down on his knees and begged for her freedom when Saix demanded he show how important she was to him. Multiple characters have talked about how special she is to him, and Roxas refers to her as “that girl he(Sora) likes.” 

However, there are multiple elements in the narrative that point to them not being the endgame romance. Kingdom Hearts III foreshadows the final shot of them sitting on the paopu together at the end of the game with Sora disappearing from the cover of the 100 Acre Wood storybook, textually framing Winnie the Pooh as a parallel to Kairi. While many fans regarded their sharing paopu fruits in the base game as the beginning of a relationship between them, he still only refers to her as a friend in Re:Mind, and even compares his bond with her to the bond between Ventus and Chirithy. 

Sora also does not treat his promises to her with the seriousness he would if they were going to end up together. The promises to return her lucky charm and to come back to her that he makes in the first game are never treated as anything urgent when he awakens in Kingdom Hearts II. Instead, he declines the opportunity to return to the islands and check in with her in favor of searching for Riku. When Kairi says in The World That Never Was that they’ll be together every day, Sora agrees, yet he was content to spend the rest of his life on the dark beach at the end of the game as long as he was with Riku. 

Meanwhile, the most consistent theme regarding Kairi in relation to the Destiny Islands trio is the idea of childhood friends drifting apart as they get older[6][7]. This is particularly highlighted in Kingdom Hearts III, with Kairi writing letters to Sora that she never sends, thereby keeping her thoughts to herself. Merlin also emphasizes this when he talks about forging new connections after Sora’s visit to 100 Acre Wood. This parallel frames the ending of Re:Mind as the two of them recognizing they’ve drifted apart and choosing to put in the effort to renew their friendship by spending time together.

On a structural level, her portrayal does not fit with how love interests are typically depicted in the Heroine’s Journey, both as an individual and in relation to the main protagonist. There is no contrast between her and Sora’s designs or roles the way there is between his and Riku’s. Her color scheme is predominantly pink, which does not have the same contrast with Sora’s red as Riku’s blue. Because she’s a Princess of Heart, there is no dark and light contrast, and the combination attack she shares with Sora in Re:Mind only utilizes light-based moves. It took 17 years after her first appearance in the series for her to be made a playable character, and even then, playing as her is not mandatory. They are never portrayed as equals, and she is not an active force in his emotional growth. 

The Heroine’s Journey was crafted for narratives revolving around identities that have been Othered by society for one reason or another. Murdock designed her template as a tool to help women deal with being shamed by society for expressing and pursuing their desires. In a similar way, LGBTQ+ people also face stigma from society for expressing and pursuing their desires. So it makes perfect sense that a framework for narratives of people overcoming internalized stigma against important parts of themselves would be ripe for stories featuring LGBTQ+ protagonists of any gender.

As mentioned in previous essays, stories that follow the Heroine’s Journey challenge the biases and blind spots of the audience. A relationship between Kairi and Sora does not challenge anything because she has largely been regarded as the endgame love interest by default since the beginning. Meanwhile, a romantic relationship between Sora and Riku challenges players to recognize heteronormativity within themselves and in the media around them. It challenges people to examine the lens through which they perceive the story and rethink how they look at what’s happening in the narrative.

In summary, the portrayal of Kairi and her bond with Sora is not consistent with how love interests are commonly depicted in the Heroine’s Journey, while the portrayal of Riku and his bond with Sora is. If Sora’s story is going to continue on this storytelling formula to the end, the structure of the Heroine’s Journey narrative leaves Riku as the only thematically viable candidate for the role of endgame love interest. 

Now, as some people bring up in conversations about Soriku, there is a potential obstacle in the form of corporate executives. It is entirely possible that Disney will drag their heels and try to force the development team to downplay or remove any open same-sex relationship the series may try to depict. They do not have a strong track record of LGBTQ+ representation that isn’t a minor character who only appears for one scene. Given that their last IP to follow the Heroine’s Journey - the Star Wars sequel trilogy - crashed and burned at the end, executive meddling is my greatest fear for this franchise.

But the thing to keep in mind is that Tetsuya Nomura is stubborn as hell. One of the reasons the long gap between Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts III was because he was holding out for permission to include Pixar movies in the game, outright refusing to start work on KH3 until they were given that go ahead[8]. If you want further proof of how stubborn he can be, this is how he described the meeting where he first pitched the series to Disney in a 2012 interview with the late president of Nintendo[9]:

Iwata: Their ideas were different from yours, naturally…

Nomura: Yes. They appeared to believe that we would make whatever they wanted us to make and came up with rather specific requests such as, "We'd like the game to feature this character." They were really excited, explaining their ideas... To be honest, though, I wasn't really interested in any of them. (laughs) 

Both: (laughter)

Iwata: You wanted to borrow Disney's characters in order to make a new game that could compete with Mario 64, and you already had a vision of what this game would look like. I suppose their ideas didn't fit in with this vision.

Nomura: They didn't, no. In the end, I actually stopped a presentation halfway through. We didn't have that much time, and it looked like it was all going to get taken up by various Disney presentations. So, I interrupted them and told them the conclusion by saying, "I won't make such games."

Talk about nerves of steel. This man basically said “we do this my way, or we don’t do it at all” TO MOTHERFORKING DISNEY, AND. HE. WON. If there is any human being with enough force of will to make the Mouse House cave in and allow the depiction of an openly LGBTQ+ relationship in the Kingdom Hearts series, it is Tetsuya Nomura.

I cannot say with 100% certainty how things will go. But everything I know about storytelling patterns and narrative structure is telling me that Kingdom Hearts is a textbook Heroine’s Journey with a romance between Sora and Riku at its core. A relationship between the protagonist and the Animus does not truly begin until the “Integration” stage at the end of the Journey, and we are rapidly approaching the point in the narrative where the two leads traditionally become aware of and acknowledge their feelings in order to be on the same page for the finale.

Sources: 

[1] “She-Ra's Noelle Stevenson Tells Us How Difficult It Was to Bring Adora and Catra Home” May 18, 2020

https://io9.gizmodo.com/she-ras-noelle-stevenson-tells-us-how-difficult-it-was-1843419358

[2] “Death of a Dark Youth, Desecration of the Animus”; December 20, 2018. https://www.teampurplelion.com/death-of-a-dark-youth/

[3] Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories. Square Enix, 2007. 

[4] “A Look Back: Kingdom Hearts Ultimania Gallery Comments Part 1″; August 30, 2019;

https://www.khinsider.com/news/A-Look-Back-KINGDOM-HEARTS-Ultimania-Gallery-Comments-Part-1-15519

[5] “How Kingdom Hearts III Will Grow Up With Its Players;” September 24, 2013.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2013/09/25/how-kingdom-hearts-iii-will-grow-up-with-its-players.

[6] “E3 2018: Tetsuya Nomura on If Kingdom Hearts 3 Is the End of Sora's Story”; June 14, 2018.

https://www.ign.com/articles/2018/06/14/e3-2018-tetsuya-nomura-on-if-kingdom-hearts-3-is-the-end-of-soras-story

[7] “Character’s Report Vol. 1 Translations”; Jul 16, 2014

https://www.khinsider.com/forums/index.php?threads/characters-report-vol-1-translations.195560/

[8] “Edge Magazine Features Kingdom Hearts III Cover Story”; January 9, 2019. https://www.khinsider.com/news/Edge-Magazine-Features-Kingdom-Hearts-III-Cover-Story-14331

[9] “Iwata Asks: Nintendo 3DS: Third Party Game Developers, Volume 12: Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance], Part 2: It’ll definitely be fun”; April 2012. 

https://iwataasks.nintendo.com/interviews/#/3ds/creators/11/1

[nyctospoilers]

Favorite thing of every world?

Olympus: I really liked exploring olympus as a heavenly city. I liked looking at the gold and marble textures. This game was my FIRST PS4 game ever so I was surprised at the unreal’s textures and details asdfasdf. I also liked that you can tell Sora and Herc are genuine friends. Every other disney world is sora’s first visit, besides pirates, and even that one Sora and Crab Jack are aren’t close. So the chemistry was nice and genuine with Herc.

Twilight Town: I do appreciate the new found detail and the NPCs, but I still think my favorite part were the character’s interactions. I loved the twilight town trio, both ansems, vexen. Just a lot of fun cutscenes in this world

Toy Box: I can’t help but appreciate all the individual detail that went into this world. Every world had detail, of course, but i feel like there’s a difference between details of buildings and forests, and details of individual toys and boxes all with their own labels and price tags. And they all genuinely looked like fun modern toys, not stuff obviously made by adults were out of touch with the times.

Kingdom of Corona: okay this world kinda made me feel like i was playing a barbie videogame but like, a GOOD WAY. idk everything was just so princessy and i fucking dug it. The town, the bunnies and birds, the music, i felt like a little girl again and idk I just liked it :) Esp. because girl games were of course always half-assed, so this was like “here’s your childhood game except GOOD.”

Monstropolis: This and arendelle are a bit harder because I didn’t enjoy them as much (NOT to say I didn’t like them! because I did!). I think I like Vanitas’s role in this world. I like that it’s present him, and no just past vanitas. The use of child negativity was really clever to tie in.

Arendelle: I like a lot of Sora, Donald, and Goofy’s interactions in this world. Sora being cold, Sora being annoyed at going up the mountain again. The trio with Marshmellow and his sad roar of “Elsaaaa :(” Just a lot of fun banter, esp. with Larxene

100 acre wood: Probably Lumpy because I watched the Heffalump movie recently asdfasdf. And I did like the book cover of KH3 sora with pooh

the carribean: I loved that tia dalma had a soft spot for sora. She just like. spoke to him once, knew there was more to him than meets the eye, then made a fake jack and a fake boat so that he could have some fun as a pirate, while still loathing the brethren court. it was great! lmaoo

san fransokyo: I LOVED the part of Sora showing off in the city, which gave everyone inspiration for updating their weapons. Sora was so belittled in this game that when he finally was like “fuck yeah I’m amazing” I was holding up my camera telling him he’s doing amazing, sweetie

Keyblade graveyard: I can’t even fucking answer this one there was too much that I liked about it asdfasdf. maybe that time loops/rewinds were confirmed a thing? maybe the Union Cross keyblade scene? trio reunions? I DONT KNOW!! 

The Final World: I really am impressed with how they pulled off transparent Sora. You could clearly define him, and polygons from the opposite side of the camera weren’t visible so he didn’t look like a big mess. ((I also love that the Memory archives with Chirthy walking around the books with little ripples in her footsteps were reference to The Final World))

scala ad caelum: ugh this is also a hard world asdf. I’m torn between it’s design and connection to daybreak town, and the ending cutscene with sora talking to xehanort atop the tower. or the past scenes with eraqus and xehanort?? IDK TOO MANY

[fernlomwrites]

Chronicles of Tenaria: Homeward Hero

“Come gentlemen” Gabrielle pushes through the brush and vines of the forest, following close behind the rusted angel were Retro and LUCAS, the pixel knight and glitched hero. “We are almost out of this forest”

“Marvelous! The sooner we are out of this dreaded bush the better!” Retro replied.

“Yeah! All this plant stuff is bugging me!” LUCAS agrees.

“Yes yes, it is bothersome, so let us pick up our pace and get through it quickly, all these vines are getting caught in my chains” Gabrielle complains.

The trio finally get through the brush and enter a clearing. It was large, at least a couple acres of clear land, with a small wooden shack at the center.

“Well that’s ominous” LUCAS comments.

“We are heroes my friends! We must explore this mysterious little home!” Retro replies.

“Unfortunately I agree with Retro. We should inspect it. There might be someone in trouble, or some way we can get to civilization faster.” Gabrielle steps forward towards the house.

Retro opens the door first and steps in, LUCAS and Gabrielle follow close behind and staying vigilant.

Just past the front door lay four skeletons, the tattered remains of black suits still clung to their bodies.

“Wow, what happened here?” LUCAS asks.

Loud creaking came as an immediate reply, followed by groaning metal and loud scraping sounds. The trio look up to the source of the sounds to find a staircase, and standing at the top was a strange amalgamation of a machine.

It was tall, with four arms, the top two being very long and ending in three fingered claws, and the bottom two being much shorter and ending in more simpler five fingered hands. It seemed to be made of multiple materials, various metals, wood, plastics, glass and even strange crystals. It’s head was a simple chrome orb with a blue stripe along the diameter.

“What on this great blue Earth is that?” Retro asks.

The machine tilts its head and slowly descends the stairs. A static-filled voice begins to gradually emanate from the chest of the robot, “greetings. Welcome to the Revenuex Residence. I am...well I cannot seem to remember what my name was. All I remember is what those dastardly men who invaded my home called me...Mesh.”

Gabrielle scowls “the dead bodies at the door? Were they the men who you speak of?”

Mesh nods it chrome head “yes, they came for my master, the young Arnold Revenuex. A genius he was, only eleven years old. They wanted him for some...program..to build some machine for them”

“The Group 100 Project” Gabrielle replied.

“Yes, that was the name”

“Excuse me, my dear robotic acquaintance, “ Retro inquires “but what happened to Mr. Revenuex? “

Mesh slowly sat on the floor, though his face was without expression, his sadness could be felt.

“The young Mister Revenuex was unfortunately taken from this earth by those horrible men...I could not protect him.”

“No, but you can protect others” a new voice comes from above them, from the top of the staircase.

Looking down to them were two men, one completely gold with wings and a halo, dressed in a classy tuxedo with a caduceus in his hand, with two thorn covered roses instead of snakes.  The other looks like he came straight from a WW2 Bomber. Dressed in a dirty, slightly torn brown shirt and a faded old grey bomber jacket, black bandanna tied around his neck, a black ushanka hat, and a pair of brown pants with a lot of pockets. He has heterochromatic eyes, one a deep blue, the other a vibrant purple. His hair is a messy brown floof that wildly sticks out of his hat.

“Who are you two dudes?” LUCAS asks.

“I am Staliel” The angel replied, “and this is Aloach. We are here to offer you four a chance to be a part of something great.”

“Yeah, something big is coming, and we need heroes to help us save the world” Aloach grins.

“I need you two” Staliel points to Gabrielle and Mesh.

“And I’m here for you two” Aloach points to Retro and LUCAS.

“Uh huh...well I’m in!” LUCAS replies.

------------

Chrono Link

My AO3 Account

[queen-ofsunflowers]

Queen Plays KH3 Pt. 4

FINAL TIME: 32 hrs. 32 minutes. 33 sec.

FINAL LEVEL: 40

DEATH COUNTER: 69

WORLDS COMPLETED:

Olympus

Twilight Town

Toy Box

Kingdom of Corona

Monstropolis

100 Acre Wood

Arendelle

The Caribbean

San Fransokyo

The Final World

The Keyblade Graveyard

Scala Ad Caelum

The rest is under the cut to avoid spoilers. And oh my gosh... just... read at your own risk while I go and speculate what just happened.

AND NOW THE ENDS REALLY BEGINS.

should it really be a surprise that I go to help Riku first?

RIP XIGBAR. Literally this time. Like... damn. It was just.... sad to watch that.

AND REPLIKU (I had to look up who it was) IS DOWN FOR THE COUNT. And they confirmed it was the replica just now. Okay. I got very confused at the beginning.

And now we have a body. That makes two. One for Roxas, and one for Naminé apparently?

FUCK LUXORD. Hate his card game. Glad I got him. And he gave me a card? Okay? Is this gonna be useful later on? Love how Sora's nice to him though as he's dying.

AND THERE GOES LARXENE. AND STOP MAKING ME FEEL SAD FOR YOU. DAMMIT. Stop making me feel sad! SHE LOOKS OVER AT MARLUXIA WHEN ASKED WHY SHE HELPED THE ORGANIZATION. Lord... I need to play some Union X.

AND THERE GOES MARLUXIA. DON'T MAKE ME CRY. HE REMEMBERS. HE REMEMBERS WHO HE USED TO BE BEFORE BECOMING A NOBODY. I CAN'T--

Gonna go save redhead squad.

HE'S JUST... ISA. AXEL DONT DIE.

OH YMG GOD OH MY GOD. IS THAT. IS THAT?! OH MY GOD XION!!!! MY SWEET GIRL!!!

Who... wha...

OH MY GOD. ROXAS!!!!!!!

LET HER GO. NO.

Isa's death scene was too emotional for my liking. And I loved it. THE SEA SALT TRIO IS BACK TOGETHER. NOW FOR THE WAYFINDERS.

And there goes Vanitas. I feel kinda bad for him.

Just... "ow" as I finish off Terranort. Nothing special just... “ow”.

TERRA. SAVE HIM.

NO. DID THE GUSRDIAN JUST?! YES. IS THAT TERRA? IS THAT-- IS THAT TERRA!? ITS TERRA BBY. THE EMOTION I CAN'T

NOW FOR THE XEHANORTS.

YOUNG XEHANORT IS DOWN. ... is Sora gonna die? Please don't let him die.

DIE SOB.

Then there went Xemnas. ALL THESE DEATHS ARE MAKING ME SO SAD.

NOW ONE REMAINS.

NO KAIRI. AHHHH. MY GOD... NO!!!

DONALD! GOOFY! We gonna kick ass and take names. LET'S GO KICK THAT OLD MAN'S ASS.

MY FRIENDS. Love how Ven noticed the resemblance between him and Roxas like that while no one else did.

Roxas clapping his blades together.

TAKE HIM DOWN. FUCK YOU XEHANORT. YOU HAD THIS COMING. YOU ONLY HAD YOURSELF TO BLAME.

Now NOW we take him down. Or at least... start to.

Holy crap this world is BEAUTIFUL. But what is going on???

Oh, this can't be good.

A long battle with many deaths. Seems like this is right.

World name drop. “Scala Ad Caelum” Wonder what it means. (A quick Google Translate later, and I discovered it means “Ladder to Heaven”. Kind of pretty, isn’t it? And a bit cryptic? Or foreshadowy?)

WHATBIS GOING ON!??

Xehanort is a dirty cheater.

GET WRECKED.

NOW I'M GONNA GET WRECKED.

Jokes on him. I've perfected the Rage Form.

YES. FUCK YOU OLD wait what's happening

OH MY GOD. GO SORA GO. MY BOY. HE'S DOING IT. HES DOING IT!!! AND SQUAD COMES FOR THE FINALE. YAS.

I forgot Eraqus's heart was in Terra.

"Checkmate". Just that one scene with the chessboard... you know what's going to happen to them and it hurts. So much.

I love how Xehanort knows that he's beaten, and doesn't try to fight it. He goes down with decorum. Nicely done. He put up a fair fight, and killed me about 30 or 40 times, but it was a fair fight. Its interesting. I didn't expect it to turn about this way.

THEY'RE ALL HUGGING ERAQUS. AHHH MY GOD. It hurts!!!!

WHY ARE THESE DEATH SCENES SO EMOTIONAL?!

And with that, Kingdom Hearts is sealed. Hopefully for good this time... it's kinda beautiful.

Huh? ...such a brave boy...!!!

AND SIMPLE AND CLEAN IS PLAYING IN THE BACKGROUND IM CRYING.

EVERYONE IS SAFE AND SOUND. EVERYONE IS BACK TOGETHER. THEY’RE ALL HAPPY. THIS IS EVERYTHING THAT I’VE WANTED OUT OF THIS GAME. JUST... YOU GOTTA SEE IT FOR YOURSELF MAN. I CAN’T DESCRIBE IT... not right now, at least. I mean... I have a fanfic that I’ve been working on for about two years now that I need to finish up. I’ll post it here at a later date.

Um... what was that? WHY DID SORA JUST... WHERE DID SORA GO?!

After credit movie time, and I’m still trying to figure out what happened.

Huh? That voice... WAIT. DOES THAT MEAN. HOLY CRAP. ooooOOOH MY GOSH?

Is that... the white piece... is it... Sora... my heart hopes it is.

Okay, I know there's a secret ending. I didn't get it, but I'm gonna look it up because I wanna watch it.

...Sora? SORA?! WHERE IS HE?! RIKU?!! WHERE ARE THEY?!?!?!

...??? Who are these guys???

Even though the game might be over, the story isn't. Not by a long shot. And I can't wait to see what happens next. There were a lot of question left unanswered, such as with the card that Sora got from Luxord... what happened with that one cutscene between Even and Demyx... WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED TO SORA. And how Kairi got back. And the secret ending only brings up more questions about what’s going on. But either way...

I can only hope that our boy returns home.

[snupy]

head empty? no, just overloaded with the 100 acre wood trio 🫡

@luckystarchild

[davidmann95]

Any last KH3 theories before the game's out?

To my own shock, not any truly tremendous ones (aside from, of course, what I already posted). My BIG one from awhile back - that it would turn out Roxas actually is an amnesiac Ven with both sides of his heart reincorporated - seems to have been shot down by all the marketing, and as many individual moments as we’ve seen in trailers, it’s been very carefully crafted to not actually come together into the coherent shape of a narrative. Really, most of my thoughts/theories/hopes for the franchise are regarding future installments. But shooting off a few final speculations, with SPOILERS if you’ve been avoiding the last few months worth of trailers:

* Not a theory: gonna cry at the opening credits.

* The big one as far as I’m concerned: I hope when you finish 100 Acre Wood this time Sora takes the book with him, and in the traditional ‘here’s how everything went for everyone afterwards’ credits sequence you see Sora’s put it in his room back on the islands so he can visit them anytime.

* (Speaking of which, I wouldn’t mind in the very least if, given she would have grown up around it, @chachacharlieco‘s idea of Kairi having been there as a kid turned out to be true.)

* This’ll get heavy, but not often secret movie/A Fragmentary Passage-level heavy. If the series heads in that direction on a regular basis, it’ll be in the future.

* While they don’t appear to be regularly accessible worlds, I wouldn’t be surprised if there were briefly playable segments in areas like Castle Oblivion and Destiny Islands and Kairi and Lea’s training grounds.

* Since it appears to be a regularly accessible form where Donald and Goofy stick around, ‘Rage Form’ is something that’s going to be acknowledged in the story as opposed to a little surprise bonus thing like Anti.

* The box that Maleficent and Pete are hunting down either won’t be opened in here or will hold more questions than answers; I haven’t played it aside from watching Back Cover, but I think all the X material is more laying groundwork for future stories, because the alternative is that all the mythology stuff I know it incorporates basically overtakes this in a way that isn’t my impression.

* On a similar note, I wouldn’t be surprised if not all of the XIII were taken down in here, and if in fact Marluxia and Larxene specifically escaped to have expanded roles in the future.

* I’m…skeptical that anyone’s really gonna die. If someone does I won’t be shocked, but somehow that’s not really the feeling I’m getting. If anyone it’s gotta be Riku, not to redeem himself (god, we’d all be dying for our sins if we had to account for being assholes at 15) but because his arc is the one that can really be said to have come full circle. Again though, not the feeling I’m getting.

* Speaking of character outcomes, other than Sora and Kairi and maybe Roxas and either Namine or Xion, I don’t think there’s going to be much in the way of characters pairing off at the conclusion, unless a lot of work is put in here to make that happen: I know pairings are the fandom’s lifeblood and I’d be happy to see those possibilities come to fruition in the future, but as is I’ve never really felt much in the way of deliberate chemistry between the other major characters.

* If it isn’t the final battle, there should be some battle between Xehanort and one of the main trio on Destiny Islands with the history there.

* I’m guessing that like Riku, Kairi will indeed be briefly playable. Hopefully they’ll both be party members at some point.

* Keyblade-wise, I have to believe we’ll get an explanation as to how Lea got his, but I doubt we’ll ever learn how Riku was able to give Kairi one in The World That Never Was.

* (Speaking of Riku and Kairi and dangling threads, I have a feeling that that secret movie at the end of Birth by Sleep - the second one, showing the two of them in Neverland when Riku was still a dick and showing Sora and Ven vanishing - won’t really be followed up on, since my impression is that it was rooted in a very preliminary idea of what A Fragmentary Passage ended up being.)

* I don’t think Aqua’s a ‘Nort, just understandably corrupted. I don’t think Sora’s getting ‘Norted either, or if he does it’ll only be for a single major scene before he’s pulled back.

* I’m honestly not completely positive that that’s Replica Riku and not a time-travelling young Riku given the series is going all-in with time travel at this point.

* Speaking of time travel, what’s with everyone being able to show up physically given DDD went so hard on them only being able to do so in dreams or without a body? That was always silly given it was done the old-fashioned way in II with Merlin, so maybe Nomura changed his mind, or maybe there’ll be a rationale.

* How many of the Organization are time travelers themselves? Is this Ansem and Xemnas and Vanitas and Master Xehanort all somehow returned (you’d think it would be Terra-Xehanort brought back in the latter case), or them travelling forward prior to their original defeats?

* I’m guessing that Ansem and Xemnas are going to be fought together, to differentiate from prior final battles with them and to show how far whoever fights them has come.

* There’ll be a Final Fantasy appearance of some sort, but unless they bring back the traditional Sephiroth fight or Seifer and his gang get in on the Twilight Town story it’ll be one so brief as to basically be a cameo.

* If all the Xehanorts DO fuse together for the final battle, I hope to god he’s voiced by Billy Zane (with Ansem still voiced by Richard Epcar to hide the surprise).

* Isa seems to be regarded as the leading candidate for a face turn, but honestly I’m pulling for Vanitas.

* Namine won’t have a Keyblade and that’ll be silly; hopefully in future installments.

* Aside from a hopefully-inevitable reckoning with Xehanort, I doubt we’ll go too deeply into Kairi’s past. Not that it won’t be acknowledged, I wouldn’t be surprised if her grandmother turned out to be alive and we got that heartwarming scene, but I don’t think she’ll turn out to be the queen of Radiant Garden or Ansem’s daughter or anything like that.

* Nomura seemed to suggest they were coming, so lots of heavy conversations between the three trios by the end of the game: Sora with Roxas and Xion, Sora with Ven, Lea with Ven, Terra with Riku and maybe Kairi and Sora, Aqua with pretty much everybody.

* Unlikely, especially given it would probably involve creating new models, but I’d love if the end credits had Sora taking Riku and Kairi all around everywhere he’s been throughout the series. I expect it’ll be the three of them as a team going forward though, so I suppose it isn’t necessary.

* I think that unlike previous games where it ran into the credits, the ending song will be played entirely in a scene - there isn’t a softer version of it to contrast in being played in the beginning, nor an obvious breaking point.

* The secret movie will either be an old-school concept video of Nomura workshopping ideas for future games, or more on the Coded/DDD end of a brief epilogue/teaser; an extended prelude to what’s next would be out of place given this is supposed to be the end of this particular journey, and I imagine a lot of pieces for the next one will already be put in place over the course of it. When I envision it, I imagine Sora, Riku and Kairi (maybe after a time jump? They deserve a break) on the shore of Destiny Islands at night, sensing that soon - not yet, but soon - something else is coming, promising hand-in-hand to stand together against it no matter what. Or, if it is a plot setup, I hope it goes for my bonkers theory that Eraqus will be the villain of the next arc prior to the Master of Masters waiting at the end of the series as the ultimate enemy.

* Not a theory, but I’m really bummed that apparently Haley Joel Osment isn’t voicing young Eraqus like I thought, because that would imply that if the future games went for a big enough time jump we could’ve gotten a Sora voiced by Mark Hamill.

[tester10001000]

How KH3 could have gone and still been Nomura’s:

I’ve never posted on tumblr before, might never again, but I needed to get this out; for the sake of the catharsis I didn’t receive after 16 years with the end of KH3. The game itself was fine, in fact, I’d even rate it as a ‘great’ up until the Keyblade Graveyard. That’s when things go off the rails. So let’s rethink KH3, keeping all of Nomura’s plot points and intentions, but communicating them in a way that feels, I hope, much more rightful. I hope you enjoy this! First, the good and mostly-good. -Keep Gameplay as is—very nice. Very satisfying. Keep nice world set-up and secrets. Maybe ratchet up difficulty. Make a Coliseum in Zeus’ court to round off the whole thing as a triad. Have Yoko Shimomura write the soundtrack for real life, plz. Keep the lovely humor. Keep Sora’s excellent arc. Keep most worlds as-is: I was pleasantly surprised by how relevant and well-done most of the world’s plots were. -Cut back on the ridiculous amount of minigames that like 5% of people will be invested in and use those resources to make other improvements (like these?).-Rewrite Arendelle and Corona (and maybe Pirates?) to be unique stories–or, at least, only loosely based on the movies, while actually including important plot points. Have Pixar do it, because they kicked butt with their worlds. Include more Disney-bosses and either get rid of 100-Hundred Acre Wood, or do something more with it. -Don’t give Larxene and Marluxia magic cutscene powers like sleep and time-stopping they won’t use elsewhere. Don’t let the others, like Ansem SoD in TT or Luxord in Caribean, became decayed and cheesy versions of their prior threat. Get rid of, or explain better, why there are six new Princesses+Kairi. Explain “the Power of Waking” just a bit better. -Give us scenes between every world with more meaningful stuff re:Kairi and Riku. We haven’t really known them in awhile, so we need to be reacquainted. Have Riku actually do stuff—rather than constantly fail until Sora literally falls from the sky—like, expand on Repliku return? Or involve him in the Maleficent angle, because of his obvious and interesting connection? Maybe follow her around out of suspicion, making the Maleficent stuff feel less-tacked-on?   -Have Kairi do more stuff, with more scenes expanding on her (like that lovely scene where she talks about Namine!), rather than just how Axel sees her as Xion (but still keep that, too—hence, more scenes!) -Insert a mid-climax between Corona and Monstropolis, with a return to Radiant Garden. Seriously needed to unbloat the climax and evenly redistribute the story. You could do some of this: 1. Meet the FF peeps and conclude their plot with RG’s redemption (How cool would be to hear Leon finally say “you can call me Squall”?); see how everyone is doing and how they interact with the people like Ienzo and the apprentices who caused RG to fall. We could setup the replica/sea-salt trio better here (Roxas body/who and how Xion/further Axel redemption), even though it’s probably the best thread currently, behind SDG. The FF folks were foundational to the start, they should at least be acknowledged in the end. 2. Give. Us. Sephiroth version 3.0. and resolution to that thread. 3. Have some seriously needed interaction among the Destiny Trio—(A) as individuals (sorely needed for Riku and Kairi–have her interact with her forgotten home!), (B) as a united friendship (Kairi/Riku, plz!) and © to set up the SoKai stuff better. Like, for real, we need to be able to take selfies with them—seriously, how could we have the phone and NEVER have a change to selfie with our OG friends?!) 4. Save Aqua here (don’t make her passively suck suddenly with OOC decisions) and then Ven; cement their return and relationships to everyone else (so as to stop rushing the finale and let their moment have its own power—just say they need to “rest” till the climax). 5. Tell wtf happens with Demyx. Set up Vexen/Ansem stuff better. Nomura, you could even tease Subject X girl more. C’mon. Have a tease-fight with the Org, rather than saving it all for the end.

6. It would probably be too much to ask to have Kairi and/or Riku accompany Sora the rest of the way, though it would be dearly needed. So have them do something interesting and important with their time post-RG. Make RG/HB the hub world, returning to it for various stuff. Play up Repliku, Namine, and Roxas/Xion in their hearts so we feel more invested in their persons and, thus, more catharsis when they are retrieved. -Expand on the lovely “calm before the storm” moments for our heroes—especially the Destiny Trio. Have the paopu moment, but don’t rush it so much. Have Riku, Sora, and Kairi doing something together. Have Axel engaging with someone about Xion/Roxas—along with the good Isa stuff. Show us what Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are doing -together-. -At Keyblade Graveyard opening, don’t make everyone suddenly suck. Why is Aqua not reacting -at all- to Terranort killing Ventus? What was the point of Kairi’s “infinite time training” if she just stands there so Sora can, also, not draw his Keyblade? Why are Riku and Mickey just twiddling their thumbs? Have everyone be badass, but still get beaten—then do all the interesting Final World stuff, with Riku’s words keeping Sora encouraged in death while SHOWING Kairi, as a PoH, still in the Realm of Light, somewhere in the tornado, ACTIVELY WORKING to keep Sora’s hanging on in the FW, rather than including her passively after. Or show her doing something beforehand. Just show some damn agency and the profound bonds of the Destiny Trio.

-Make the Namine scene here mandatory—I can’t fathom why they’d let that crucial plot point pass as optional.

-Keep sick final-boss rush, but don’t make everyone take a heel-turn redemption (and give us some team-up limits with everyone! Riku/Sora limit! Sora/Kairi limit! Sora/Roxas limit! SoRiKai Limit!). Marluxia and Xemnas needed to be more ambiguous in death. Luxord, Larxene, Xion, Vanitas, YX, Terranort, Xigbar, and Repliku were all great—even perfect. Saix needed to prove himself more, and there’s NO WAY Ansem SoD can suddenly be sympathetic like that. Slow it down. -Give the Xion-return moment to Kairi—not Sora. It’s perfect for her; she’d remember her because she is made of her. Gives Kairi agency and unique engagement for the both of them. Keep giving other characters agency in these moments other than Sora—let Aqua and Ven play centerstage in returning Terra, rather than Sora’s magic. Don’t make Sora the savior of every story—it feels cheap and demeans the character journeys we’ve been invested in for so long when they don’t play an active and significant role in their resolution. -Don’t have Kairi just be kidnapped again after 30-seconds of scripted fighting, after promising to -finally- invest in her immensely untapped potential. Have Saix (+Xemnas?) versus Sora, Xion, Roxas, Kairi, and Axel (also, explain how Axel got his keyblade -back-). Axel, even though he couldn’t face Xemnas, still has -powerful- character moments—at least give Kairi the same respect. Make that the last scripted battle, so that Kairi accompanies Sora to meet Mickey and Riku. -Either have Kairi use her infinite-training to join the fight with Xemnas, Ansem, and YX (to resonate that the whole Destiny Trio is together at the end, evolved, but together) or have her doing something else important (maybe with, I dunno, PoH POWERS?!). Have her ACTIVELY sacrifice herself for Sora, mirroring what he did for her in KH1, rather than MX passively killing her for no good goddamn reason while snarking at the camera that Kairi exists literally only for Sora’s motivation—even though Sora was already charging MX. Also show Riku have some damn emotion about his other best-friend. Sorry, I’m reaallly salty here. -Don’t have MX give up so easily, and get his motivation to work better with what came before in all these years. Don’t swap it out to something else in literally the last 30 minutes of the game. Don’t let the story treat flippantly him being the cause of everyone’s pain and suffering , as he is given a divine “thumbs-up” by turning into a kid with his best bud, giggling, and floating away into the light of Kingdom Hearts. What was that? Xehanort deserves better than that. Have him struggle to the end, and have our heroes really counter him—thematically, emotionally, and physically. Have Eraqus usher him away—stubborn to the end. If you want to redeem him, Nomura, you gotta be setting that stuff up WAAAAAY earlier. -Have anyone, anyone, other than Sora also care that Kairi is now missing. Have Riku and Sora go together to find her—because, you know, they’re BFFs and have the power to. Preferably explain and make it playable how they do that. Then have the lovely ending with Namine returning and with everyone together (except redeem Isa better). Keep everyone’s great new clothes, and have the whole party on the beach—end happily, with everyone (seemingly) together again in satisfied bliss. Wrap up the saga on a cathartic high note, for goodness’ sake. Then, and only then, Nomura gets to keep his ending—but in its proper place, separate in our minds from the ending-ending, in which we can feel full satisfaction for 16 years of investment. -In the Epilogue, before going to the Foretellers, show Sora, Kairi, and Riku leaving the Island. Riku and Kairi are on ahead, everything seems happy and complete (joking about Sora finally getting his mom’s dinner, eh?), when suddenly Sora hears the echo of YX telling him that “there’s a cost for it all” and that “it’s too late for him”—suddenly, Sora fades away. Show Riku/Kairi reactions -together-. Fade his fading into the dust of the Keyblade Graveyard. Do all the Epilogue. Do the Secret Ending. Everything on whatever track Nomura wants—but for us, the audience, all of us, we FINALLY GET SOLID, CATHARTIC CLOSURE FOR EVERYONE IN THIS SAGA AFTER 16 YEARS—WITHOUT IT ALL BEING TEASER BAIT FOR SOME UNION CROSS/TWEWY CROSSOVER COMBINED WITH NOMURA’s OBSESSIVE BITTERNESS OVER FFv13! Sorry, also salty about that. -Secret Ending is Riku AND Kairi going together to find Sora in Shibuya. Boom. -Also, for all our sakes, get rid of the concept of worldlines and minimize the time travel here, plz. That’s the quickest way to undermine the stakes of your story. Tl;dr: Give us more of the characters and their agency, don’t have them act OOC for bad plotting, give us a mid-climax to slow down the rushed 3-hour ending, let us appreciate what’s happening with more characterization, explain some things better, don’t fridge Kairi (and everyone other than Sora, really), give us a real, cathartic ending for 16 years of investment—then tease us in the epilogue/secret. Thoughts? Too much to ask? Too little? I tried only to make only minimal changes to Nomura’s vision, adjusted to some universally shared criticisms among fans. I’d love to hear your thoughts on this and what you liked/didn’t like! If you liked this at all, I’ve been writing Kingdom Hearts at Fanfiction under the name “Marsuvees” (with hopefully increasing quality) for over ten years. I love this series deeply, and hope Nomura can get it back on track next time. He really needs to get other people involved in writing and plotting.

[hashtagkairideservedbetter]

My main issue(s) with KH3

Spoilers abound, so please don’t read if you haven’t beaten the game or don’t want any negative opinions influencing how you see the ending/ the game. I did enjoy several parts of KH3, but this post is focused on things I had issues with, and if you don’t want to see criticism of your media please look elsewhere. 

This is how I interpreted the game as someone coming into KH3 with KH2 being the last game I played, and a playlist of youtube videos spanning lets plays, summaries, and humorous deconstructions as a codex. 

Here’s the thing. I’ve seen several people already break down how KH3′s story and pacing could have been handled better. Specifically, to more comprehensively tie in the 10,000 plot points that needed to be covered in a way that actually helps connect the main characters. I’m not going to get into all of that, because frankly I can’t fake knowing enough about the background lore of Kingdom Hearts to know how to better juggle all of the intermediary games into KH3. 

Most of my grievances honestly lie with the handling of the Destiny Trio and the Disney Worlds. 

I’m going to do a read more on this because it’s gonna be a long one. (Also very much a train of thought, so disorganized, sorry). 

So. Sora. Protagonist of the game (mostly. kind of?). 

A cheerful ray of sunshine.

A Keyblade wielder who has overcome traumatizing ordeals that tore him away from all he loved and knew at least twice now for over three years. 

A continuity disaster stuck being pinballed back and forth between happy goofs and hollow tragedies every thirty minutes in between busywork battles and off-scene disney films for 85% of KH3. 

I understand that Sora’s greatest power is supposed to be his optimism, as it’s sort of the prerequisite for going through disney worlds where people sing about their problems. I get it.  

However, there’s a difference between, “I’m naive and happy and oblivious and that’s why I’m a guardian of the light,” and “I have battled true darkness and felt true loss and decided that choosing to be kind, choosing to embrace joy in new experiences and relationships, is a bigger middle finger to the darkness than anything else.” Guess which one I prefer. Guess which one I was thinking would finally be Sora’s character arc. Instead he’s happy, happy, happy, happy... and then suddenly in the eleventh hour having a mental breakdown. 

Sora is written into a loop every game of kind, naive, but unchanging (”Don’t ever change, Sora”). That was endearing when we were both 14, but after almost twenty years it gets tiring to watch Sora get hit with a reset button every time you meet up with him again. There’s a scene in the gummi ship early on in the games where Donald asks Sora to “take this seriously,” and Goofy remarks that they seem to be stuck in a rut as Donald and Sora have the same conversation over and over again before entering the first series of Disney worlds. Sora knows he needs the power of waking in order to help his friends and free those trapped in his heart, but seems content to just drop into various worlds and wing it, and hope that it all sort of works out. 

And then when it does work out, and Sora uses the power to save everyone, he’s immediately told he’s doomed now? Like, what was the point of him being able to use this to connect with people if he’s doomed. Why did they want him to have this. What’s the point then of Sora having these strong connections. 

Each world makes a big scene about the friendships and connections that Sora makes so easily, but in KH3 there never seems to be enough time for Sora to actually pay them any attention unless the person is right in front of him. Sora seems to make connections for the sake of making connections in KH3, and the ones he has, he does very little to advance or reconnect with.  

Like, the whole point of 100 Acre Wood this time was apparently that Sora’s connection to Pooh was weaker for some reason. I honestly didn’t understand the reason or how it was magically resolved just from Sora showing up and saying hi? But whatever. 

My two least favorite worlds were Corona and Arendelle, for the same reason. There was no believable connection between Sora and the characters there. For fuck’s sake, the combat ally you get in Arendelle is the snow monster, not even a main character.

Sora is like the living embodiment of the B99 clip of Rosa with her dog. He just met Elsa and spoke a whopping five sentences to her, but damn if he won’t climb a mountain five times just for her to save herself without ever talking to him again. Like, literally that is the only interaction Sora has with Elsa. Same thing with Anna, and in her case I literally had to mute my tv so I could track what she was actually saying since they decided to shove two songs from the movie into this game.  

You spend the majority of your time in these worlds trying to play catch up to the leads as they have their movie play out around the bend in the road in front of you, out of your sight. Props to Disney’s ego that they think I remember the beat by beat plots of their films when they came out 9 years ago (Tangled) and 6 years ago (Frozen). I actually had the thought of going and watching Tangled just to remember what Flynn and Rapunzel got up to while Sora wandered around a marsh and had a pointless conversation with Marluxia. 

(Also, getting real tired of the “Good to see you Sora” “Who the fuck are you?” “Oh that’s right you don’t remember that game haha it’s fine it was a gameboy game nobody even knows what those are anymore.” That shit was getting old midway through KH2.) 

To be fair, the PoTC world suffers from the same problem as the other two. Sora shows up, sees everyone for thirty seconds, gets separated, and while we’re dicking around trying to find white crabs on the islands there’s a whole movie going on that we don’t see or participate in. I feel really bad for anyone who did not keep up with that franchise because I only watched the third movie the once and I was confused as hell. Also, the whole time I was finding the crabs in Port Royal all I could think about was this ProZD video. 

I just. I’m 26 years old. These movies hold no nostalgia for me, and maybe that’s the problem. I already had a connection to Aladdin, Peter Pan, etc, so I was maybe more willing to suspend my disbelief and just enjoy the interactions. But those Disney worlds also felt more tied in to the plot. You can make the argument of Marluxia and Larxene putting pressure on Sora to find the Wayfinders so that six princesses of heart aren’t used as backup... but where are the other three? Anna, Elsa, Rapunzel, and Kairi make four. Where’s Merida, Tiana, Moana? Mulan or Pocahontas even, since Moana was probably too recent. (But probs not, as it was probably starting development in 2014). If that’s going to be yet another subplot, shouldn’t you at least see it through?  

My point is, I can distinctly recall prior games mostly keeping to the established script in the disney worlds, but still letting Sora really get in there and interact with the characters. The heartless, nobodies, etc were a real wrench in the works for the plots, and had an actual effect on how the story was told and the order of events. Sora felt more involved in cutscenes and was an active participant in the world’s events instead of just a bystander. 

In KH1 and KH2 there was a dialogue happening between the villain of each world and a greater evil. Hell, in KH1 they were a unified council! In KH3 they’re puppets who don’t even talk to the bigger bad like Randall or Mother Gothel, or are there for a whopping thirty seconds like Hans. It makes it more and more obvious that the Disney worlds are just being shoehorned in as a contractual obligation than for any real purpose anymore.

 The only world that’s appeared in all three games, Olympus, was especially jarring. Like, you could tell there was a lot of corners cut on what VAs they could get for this game, as Phil does not speak once. Meg spends more time making eyes at Hercules and nodding than showing any of the sass she has from the film. (This was a thing in KH2 as well tho so I can’t complain about them continuing to drop the ball on even background women characters-- Oh wait, I can, because they’ve had T H I R T E E N YEARS to get it right.) 

Which I guess is as good a segue as any into Kairi Time. 

Listen. Did I mention I’m 26? Yeah. I started reading fanfic on livejournal. I was there when AO3 first got its start. I’ve seen the shipping wars. I know the dark past of Soriku vs Sokai.

I couldn’t give less of a fuck. 

These characters are still 16 and I am now 26. I’m fine with them trading noogies and maybe being able to kick back and play some Mario Kart. Kairi would wipe the floor with both of them because she had time to get good enough to beat Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie combined between KH1 and KH2. 

The point is, I don't care one way or the other about shipping. If my 15 year old self were here, they would be horrified I wasn't over the moon when Kairi and Sora finally shared the paopu fruit. As it is, I kind of stared blankly at my screen and went 'huh, there's gonna be a lot of fanfic fixing this moment.'  From both sides, I think, because even if you're into Sokai you gotta admit that moment did not feel romantic. It felt forced. Like "Oh hey, we've been putting this off, huh. Welp, here we go!" 

It doesn't help that I really, truly, don't like whoever Kairi's VA is in this game. Like, she sounds so ditzy and soft. Get that shit out of here. The dialogue and voice acting in this series has never been its strength, but honestly, I cringed my way through every interaction between Kairi and Axel because of how stilted and bad their conversations were! I’m definitely not saying that Kairi’s voice was stellar in 1 and 2, but at least her voice was clear, and had personality, and by the end of 2 was actually fairly strong. She sounded strong, and determined to be fighting with Sora and Riku, green as she was then, in the World That Never Was.

Whenever she talked in the third one I just sort of grit my teeth and wondered why someone on the production team wanted Kairi to sound so weak. 

Then they killed her at the labyrinth and I said, ‘Ah, that tracks.’ 

I played FFXV, so I guess shame on me for not seeing the signs when the girl love interest is about to be capable and not needing the hero to save her. She gets taken! And killed. Fool me twice, shame on me. 

I actually saw people excited about that Verum Rex thing and after seeing the Noctis ripoff reaching for the Luna ripoff covered in purple light I laughed, and laughed. And then sighed and reached for a stiff drink. 

All this to say that while I’m angry but not truly surprised that Kairi was once again shafted, I’m all the more pissed that they did it in the laziest, most insulting way possible by hinging it all on Sora needing a reason to fight Xehanort. Like, really???? Really. That’s your angle. The man-pain trope is so painfully overdone. Please. It’s 2019. Come into the future with us, Nomura. 

And I feel bad that all of the stuff I just wrote mostly revolves around Kairi being Sora’s romantic interest. But that’s because that’s all this game allowed her to be! Princess of light what? Bequeathed Keyblade wielder in her own right who??? Every battle she and Axel share with Sora they get their asses kicked in 30 seconds flat, so maybe Merlin should have left them suspended in time a little longer. Maybe long enough to convince someone out there in the universe that these two deserved to be competent. 

Hell, not just competent. Amazing. Kairi deserved to be able to stand on her own two feet and hold her own. To be running alongside her boys and not just be an object for them to tussle over or save. As Aqua’s somewhat successor, she deserved to be a terrifying wielder of battle magicks and flurries of light magic. 

To be replaced by Xion was just insult to injury. Like, I’m very happy that Xion got her heart back and was reunited with Roxas and Axel, but she didn’t need to be brought back at Kairi’s expense. The world won’t implode if the replica and actual person inhabit the same space. 

Which is leads us to our third member. 

Riku. To be fair. Riku got the most growth as a person out of the three of these kids, easy. We finally see a Riku who is confident in himself and his journey, and willing to take everything he learned along the way to help Mickey, Aqua, and even his own replica. However.... 

He doesn’t seem to give two shits about Kairi anymore? Did they even talk, like, once during the whole game? I can’t recall a single instance where Sora, Kairi, and Riku were in the same place together where it was just them, and they held an actual conversation. Hell, where they even said “Hi, how’s it going? What have you learned, had any good food lately?” 

God, even when Kairi was taken, and then when she was killed, Riku had one moment of anger, and then was completely, like, chill again, and back to talking Sora down. Like, what? I don’t want any love triangle bullshit, but Riku and Kairi were friends as much as Sora and Kairi and Sora and Riku are friends. 

And that’s what bothered me the most about the disappearance of Kairi introducing this bullshit narrative of Sora abusing his power of waking. He spent two games trying to get him, Riku, and Kairi together. But he doesn’t want Riku to help him get Kairi back? And Riku’s just going to let him go?! After all Riku has done and learned about falling to darkness and clawing yourself back to light and peace, he’s just going to let Sora do the same?

I call bullshit. 

And this is why when Sora suddenly faded out of view on the beach next to Kairi I slowly leaned back in my chair, dropped my controller into my lap, and flipped off my tv screen with both hands.

[violetstar-writes]

One other thing I’d like to see (but mostly likely won’t happen) in KH3?

The Wayfinder Trio reuniting with Stitch

Like maybe he’s just really excited to show them that he has friends and a family now

And they get to meet Lilo

It could be a mini world like KH2 Atlantica or the 100 Acre Woods

Surfboarding mini game and swimsuits? Since character customization seems to be a thing now and Nomura really likes adding mini games and other easter eggs

[slightly-gay-pogohammer]

for the ask meme... homestuck and kingdom hearts?

fandom asks yo [accepting] 

HOMESTUCK

Favorite Male Character: john is still my beautiful boy and i love him. alternatively karkat bc im basic

Favorite Female Character: ROXY IS GREAT but so are terezi and jade 

Least Favorite Character: i still hate vriska with burning passion and i dont think ill change my mind anytime soon

Favorite Ship: canonically speaking im so happy for rosemary. and tbh as much as i love how davekat turned out im still all over johnkat

Favorite Friendship: the one between the four beta kids. idk i didn’t see the same friendship between the alphas, the main four are still adorable

Favorite Quote: there are so many good speech and quotes and yet my favorite is still the entire talk dave has about how big the meteor might be. yes sir, earth is literally under seige by planet fucking jupiter

Worst Character Death (if any) ill never get over all the deaths in [S] Game Over, but out of all of them mom and dad’s deaths still hurt me a lil bit too much for my own good

This made me so happy you have no idea Moment: roxy and rose meeting up again in the fixed timeline. i DIE.

Saddest Moment: i,,,,literally don’t know. too many. probably dirk reacting to the game over thing.

Favorite Location: LoWaS!!!!!!! also prospit is great,

KINGDOM HEARTS 

Favorite Male Character: SORA SORA SORA and DEMYX!!!!! when it comes to the disney cast i love how happy jack skellington is tho,,,

Favorite Female Character: kairi, always, forever, best girl, give her some fucking love nomura i swear to god,,

Least Favorite Character: uuhhhh nice question. i don’t like very much riku in like, half of kh1, or how much of a joke maleficent seems in comparison to the organization in kh2 tho,,,

Favorite Ship: im,,,,still deep in sokai hell

Favorite Friendship: anything involving sora tbh. the trinity trio more than anything tho,,,, also i really like the wayfinder trio, idk they feel so close,,,

Favorite Quote: im clichè af but kairi’s letter. you know the one

Worst Character Death (if any) listen we’re all sad for xion’s or axel’s death ok but CAN WE TALK ABOUT DEMYX???? IM BROKEN.

This made me so happy you have no idea Moment: sora talking about how he flew in kh1, at the end of neverland. idk he could be all sad because kairi is a lifeless puppet and riku is being a dick but NO!! he just thinks about how he flew and how much he wants to tell kairi about it and he’s so pure i die. also sora dealing with the 100 acres wood’s gang,,,

Saddest Moment: sora’s sacrifice is still up there but,,,, look. terra accidentally murdering his dad. can-can we talk about it,

Favorite Location: when we talk about disney worlds, i’d go for wonderland or the beast’s castle, while i really dig the world’s end and traverse town for the original locations. also rapunzel’s tower looks super promising,,,