#the fans of the og tales dont want it

[sammyloomis]

every time gearbox post a video or a tweet abt the new tales game im actively wincing because i Cannot think of who this game is being made for cause from what ive seen literally no one is happy about it

[average-monster-enjoyer]

Heyyy if you rlly like monster, i recommed checking out a brazilian TTRPG named "Ordem Paranormal"! They got a bunch of cool monsters!

Heres a few i think u would enjoy:

The Lurker(og name is "O Espreitador")

It's first appearances(episode 1, season 4) in the TTRPG were only in stalks, only it's eyes appearing. Making the main characters paranoid, because right when they said they saw the eyes, the eyes disappear.

its full appearance only appeared in episode fourteen(still season 4), the characters actually fight it this time. This folk is able to summon almost perfect clones of the victims it watched for a long time, using they to fight the characters.

Its main thing is just stalk people. It can even drain someone's sanity while they sleep and leave them with insomnia for a few weeks just by watching they.

Also, it technically it was created by one of the characters from the first season (Daniel Hartmann), he was a writer and The Lurker was one of his tells... I dont remember how his creations created life my bad.

Alright next one.

The foreigner("O Estrangeiro")

If you accompanied R/Place you prob heard of this one.

This one is quite a mistery yet from what I heard, but we know this folk got a big connection to the "Bells of Tenebris". Everyone who had an experience with this being went back to living their lives normally, as if nothing had happened, but still with a feeling that something is wrong, even though they don't know exactly what it is.

He just appeared in the second spin-off of the TTRPG, "Sinais do Outro Lado"

Next one.

The Needy("O Carente")

(its original introduction to the TTRPG is really, really good. It gives me chills every time I watch it. REALLY recommend taking a look)

This one was also one of the tales of Daniel!! The original story is about a creature that devours the internal organs of women who have given birth thanks to its envy of beings who receive love even before they are born.

And the devil himself says Needy is his child... Cool as hell. And yeah we got the devil in the TTRPG, we will talk about that guy later..... We got a recording from a character of Needy and Devil walking together

Cute.

Anyway next.

I have like... Two more to show u, but i think these are already enough. So we are going straight to the GOOD PART.

The Relics of Calamity("As Relíquias da Calamidade")

The relics are.... complicated.

They are fellas of great power. And only "markeds" can have control of them. Having a relic is equal of having 100% of paranormal exposure.

Long story, quick response: they are very powerfull paranormal object that when a marker takes control of them, that relic becomes one with the wielder. Sometimes, the relic takes more control of the wielder than they.

The relics are also a representation of the elements of the paranormal, energy, blood, death and knowledgent. But for now, we dont have someone to represent the element of fear, being it a very mysterious element.

In the relics, we have:

The Host(Anfitrião), relic of energy

Very chaotic guy, my favorite!! Sadly he just appeared for a few episodes, and for not having a wielder, he doesnt appear anymor :[[

His personality in general is the representation of chaos, making sick games that already distort reality making people go against each other. He doesn't care about anything that isn't his own fun.

Host doesnt like the other relics, but Devil seems to be an exception.... They are kinda of besties.

Love this guy.

The Devil(O Diabo), relic of blood

I dont know if I have much to say bout this one? Not a big Devil fan lol.

While Host just want to have fun, Devil wants to, well, fuck people's life, and he was never manipulated, defeated or imprisoned.

He is known as someone who makes pacts for people, giving them gifts after making the pact, with the payment not coming until some time later... Hes also able to summon any paranormal creature whos envolved with the element of blood, any.

The Magistrate(A Magistrada), relic of knowledgent.

The relic knowledgent is actually a mask, and whoever wear it, becomes Magistrate, the leader of the cult of mask, and their only goal is to protect the balance of reality. (We still don't know why or how...)

The Magistrate knows and remember everything that happened on earth. Everything. However, they can't interfere with reality with their wisdom

Unlike Host, Magistrate is calm and much more reserved. And because Magistrate wants this whole not interfering with reality thing, Host hates they.

LAST ONE!!!

God of Death(Deus da Morte), relic of, well, death.

PAL..... HIS THEME SONG IS SUUUUCH A BANGER, PLEASE SEARCH HEILAG VAGGA AND LISTEN TO IT!!!

Also known as "Parasite of Dimensions", God of Death is the relic that protects the chronology of the universe, able to manifest in multiple places and multiple forms at once via his Time Warp. When he doesn't have a wielder, he manifests himself in the form of an anachronistic civilization, which may vary in name between Holy Cradle, Sacred Beginning, Divine Beginning or Eternal Beginning.

Because God of Death have this thing or protect time and stuff, Host ALSO hates him because of a thing that happened... But if I explain this situation I would do 40 lines of explanation, and this is already big enough.

Hope u enjoyed ig. If you want more monsters from OP i have a few more i think u would like.

Hi I'm so sorry I only read like a little bit of this and looked at the pictures but

OH MY FUCKING GOD I ABSOLUTELY ADORE THE MONSTER DESIGN IN THIS, JUST THE FIRST THREE WERE ENOUGH TO MAKE ME RUIN MY SHORTS, I WILL 100% TRY TO CHECK THIS OUT, THANK YOU FOR TELLING ME ABOUT THIS!!!!!!

:DDDDDDDD!!!!!

[3416]

Not OG "fans" having a go at Ronen on Twitter because he dared to be happy and celebrsted while there is a war in Ukraine, on the other side of the world for him...He may not even be aware of what is happening because of his crazy schedule and even if he knows, then what? He should stop live his life? Dont think so. I'm from Poland, next to Ukraine, and we still live our lifes, we still are happy and celebrste some things, world doesnt stopped for us. We pray for and are thinking about our Ukrainian brothers and sisters (and we are also worried about our own and Europe safety in the future) but we still party, still celebrate, we are still doing thing we did yesterday.... And all of them say the same in the quote retweets so it was planned probably....They are so petty and jealous it is sad.

truly a tale as old as time with internet activism. i'm not surprised in the slightest, and it is just absolutely ridiculous to expect every person on social media or irl to be acknowledging global crises the very minute, hour, day they happen and onward. esp someone legit who's working long days and not even on social media much rn compared to normal. i think it's extremely funny to act like circulating links in your echochamber is the height of activism anyway. like wanting to do your part or make yourself feel better by spreading awareness or even just coming to understand the situation yourself... i get it, but the second we start seeing unrealistic demands abt real life people who are not chronically online fbndn it becomes so clear how ridiculous it is. my heart goes out to ukraine right now, genuinely, but the issue is really beyond any of us or any individual not directly involved in government and it's terrifying and heavy.

[wickedpact]

Are you at all scared that an OG sequel might do something that retrogrades or diminishes the beautiful Nicky/Joe dynamic. We all have such high expectations of a sequel, but I do not want it if it means losing what we already have.

hmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm not especially i dont think

i have two concerns re: new content (referring to both the sequel and tales thru time)

1. joe or nicky or joenicky getting Done Dirty is a concern but admittedly not a huge one. i mean, the way greg talks abt joenicky u can kind of tell theyre his babies, as much as andy is the lead of the comics and nile is the lead of the movie, greg talking about joenicky is different than greg talking abt any of the others. & on top of that gina also loves them and as director she generally gets the biggest say. im sure skydance & netflix have caught on as well to the fact that joenicky are fan favorites, so i doubt theyll do anything to fuck them up at least.

(and tbh, joe and nicky got treated verrrry well in both the comic and more so the movie, considering the fact that their existence is only barely relevant to the plot, and their dynamic really only adds uh, narrative flavor, i guess. nile and andy’s relationship, for example, is important bc it has to do with nile’s [and andy’s!] character arcs thru the movie. joe and nicky, however, arent leads, only sort of have thematic relevance, and just barely have plot relevance [they get kidnapped and thats mostly it]

of course the group comes off as more of a family bc of their existence, and theyre kind of the emotional backbone of the team, but in terms of the story the movie is telling [ie. nile becoming immortal and adjusting to it] they only.. kind of contribute. greg mentioned once that one of the producers suggested that the van scene get cut bc it doesnt contribute to nile’s story...... which... is true, but i think we can all agree the movie is better with that scene in it

which is all to say............ joe and nicky get treated very well considering their (lack of) role in the story, so im not hugely concerned theyre going to get sidelined or written poorly in the sequel bc they were handled so well in tog1- since they didnt really need to be handled well in tog1, but they were anyways)

so.. i suppose its a concern in that its technically a possibility, but them getting written poorly isnt at the top of my list of concerns for future tog content

1b. tho admittedly if they do get any kind of crusades-era content (flashback, prequel, whatever) i do worry about their relationship coming off as like.. . .. .. Pocahontas, But Gay!™ which. urgghghskggkdksggggggh

2. this is less of a concern about how they’ll be written but rather a concern of how theyll be reacted to, but in fandoms where there are usually big content droughts between things getting produced, people tend to....... get really attached to headcanons, and even a few months post-tog1 i have seen a lot of that in this fandom, and i see a lot of people arguing over characterization (like.. porn disc-horse aside) and honestly i have straight up seen so many posts that are like ‘why do people write [character] like [canon traits that the character canonically has, in canon] and not [random ass hc the op has and seems to believe is canon for some reason]??’

so i kind of have a concern with tog2 or tales thru time.... like, proving popular hcs wrong and people arguing over it. having hcs that divorce from canon is fine! its just when people try to like... ‘enforce’ their hcs by passing them off as canon it kind of becomes a problem, and i just know there are probably going to be arguments about new canon.

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

I really want to read the post where you say "why Ravenclaw is the House that suits MC the most in the main story" but I dont find it

I haven’t ever made a full length post about it, come to think of it. I’ve talked about it in previous Ask responses but admittedly I have quite a few of those. So I suppose now is as good a time as any! 

Ultimately, HPHM’s story is designed so that any House can work for Jacob’s Sibling. Obviously, no one House is “canon” over the others. But in my personal opinion, certain Houses do make more sense for different reasons. Everything can change based on how you characterize MC, but setting aside the dialogue choices, they tend to have a general personality that fills in for most of the scenes. It’s average, a kind of “everyman” type. And certain choices can arguably be considered “canon” when they’re the ones that are free, placed next to choices that are locked behind attributes or friendship checks. That is the general vision of MC that I’ll be analyzing. 

But first, the characters. 

One of the primary reasons that MC fits Ravenclaw the best in the Main Story is because there are several characters who are aligned to MC in their Sorting. They always follow MC to whatever House they go to. Thus it becomes a question of which house suits them the most. Rowan Khanna, I think, speaks for them-self. I could see them in any House but they are a Ravenclaw through and through. I bet the only reason they ever get Sorted anywhere else is because they ask the Hat to let them follow MC. They are absolutely brilliant, with a love of reading and learning new things. They’re eccentric as well, deeply creative and good at coming up with plans. They dream of being a Professor, and they turn to books above all else. Next we have Jacob. Another character who could go anywhere based on interpretation, but he strikes me as a Ravenclaw too. Several of the options you can give when expressing speculation about him suggest that the reason he probably investigated the Vaults in the first place was his thirst for knowledge, his desire to know their secrets. To be specific, his stubborn and obsessive need to know. I feel like Jacob couldn’t let this go until he had learned all of the hidden magic and secrets of the Vaults, until he realized far too late that he was in over his head, mixed up with R and everything. 

Then there is Flitwick. A canon Ravenclaw of course, and one of the four Heads of House. It could be coincidental, but even if it is, Flitwick is easily the most developed of the Heads of House within this game. McGonagall is totally in character, but she’s part of the sideline outside of a small section of Year 2. Sprout contributes absolutely nothing, and Snape is likewise in character, but lacking anything to do until Rakepick shows up. Flitwick prepares MC for the first duel with Merula and gives them counsel. I suppose it’s not that much more than McGonagall teaching them the revealing spell in Year 2, but this felt so much more personal. You have the chance to make a promise to Flitwick, and either keep it or break it. In Year 4, he is I think the only teacher to speak up in Rakepick’s defense, and this leads into even further development of his character. By Year 5, he starts to warn MC not to investigate the Portrait Curse, but stops mid-sentence as he realizes that nothing he can say will stop them. I bring all of this up because Flitwick being such a fleshed out character in this game kind of goes hand in hand pretty well with the idea that he is MC’s Head of House. He is the only Head who shows the slightest bit of remorse when banning MC from Hogsmeade. With him, you really get the sense that he’s being overruled and doesn’t agree with it. That he’s in MC’s corner. And god I love him.  I won’t stray too far into the Quidditch characters, but I will say that Murphy and Orion are two other characters that stick with MC, who I could very much see as Ravenclaws, both in different ways. But still, it’s Jacob and Rowan who are most important in affecting the story.

Which brings me to the story itself. 

Hogwarts Mystery is different from the story of Harry Potter. This is the tale of Jacob and his Sibling. In HP, we know from the beginning who the villain is, that he’s an evil monster. We know what he wants, and that he failed. It gets fleshed out more later but everything you need to know is in that first book. We see him, he clashes with Harry, and loses. The books are a hero’s journey. A story of good versus evil. They do have mystery aspects, each of the books has a mystery told within it’s pages. But the overarching story is not about what’s hidden in the trapdoor, or who opened the chamber of secrets. It’s about Harry and Voldemort’s rivalry, their hero/villain dynamic. Everyone knew going into DH that Harry would defeat him in the end because that’s how these things go. OOTP basically confirmed it but most fans had known for years. 

HPHM is different. 

There are heroic moments, and Merula in particular compares MC to being a “hero.” But nothing they do is heroic in the same way as Harry. They both take active roles in the story but in different ways. Harry is still reactionary. He takes it upon himself to solve the problems, but he still waits until the problems show up. MC plans to open the Vaults even before the Curses show themselves. They arrive at Hogwarts with a goal in mind, finding Jacob. And with Hogwarts Mystery, the overarching story is not a hero’s journey. Because MC is so much more ambiguous than Harry. It might seem redundant to say that this story is a Mystery, but it is. An ongoing investigation, the unraveling of a conspiracy. Learning the truth about just what went down during Jacob’s years at Hogwarts. By HBP, Voldemort was such a familiar presence that we were learning the ins and outs of his childhood, right down to how his parents met. By Year 6, we still have no idea what R really is, or what they want. We don’t even know what it stands for. The black and white of the books, the heroes and the villains...that’s all replaced with shades of gray. Jacob is constantly in the gray. So is Rakepick, at least at first. Don’t get me started on Merula. Ben is another character who is definitely good, but has gone through such a roller coaster about who he is and whether he can be trusted. 

Then there’s the ambiguity of MC them-self. The hints that they don’t share everything with people, are prone to tricking others, and for all we know, might wind up on the Dark Side someday. I’ll admit, this can also lend itself well to MC being a Slytherin, and indeed there are dialogue choices that are locked behind being one. But I still feel as though MC playing detective throughout this entire game, that whole premise lends itself pretty damn well toward a Ravenclaw MC. They’re trying to defeat the bad guys, but their main method of preparing for that fight is not train up an army of students, it is to investigate the Vaults, and investigate R. Even going as far as to work with Wizarding police. Granted, I know Harry poked around a lot too. And MC does form the Circle of Khanna, just like how Harry formed Dumbledore’s Army. Both of them do exhibit both behaviors, but MC specializes in covert investigation more than preparation for combat. Again, at least they do so in the main story. The Circle of Khanna was not meant to be like Dumbledore’s Army, at least not in concept. MC first conceived it as the idea of standing toe to toe with the Cabal by having a secret organization of their own. I know that didn’t really land perfectly in actual practice but that was the whole idea. And if there’s one thing MC has a constant stream of, it’s ideas. Not always the right ones, not always fast enough, but they do have them, and these ideas steer the plot. In the main story and otherwise. 

It’s probably a bit cheap to get meta, but so be it. 

I can’t help but notice how, if we take every other contribution to the Potterverse into account...well then, we’ve got a Gryffindor Protagonist in the form of Harry. We’ve got a Slytherin Protagonist in the form of Albus Severus. And a Hufflepuff over in Fantastic Beasts with Newt Scamander. If MC is a Ravenclaw, then that completes the quartet. But there’s another Quartet out there as well - that of the Original Four. Rowan, Ben, Penny, and Merula. The Year 1 characters and the OG leads of the Hogwarts Mystery story. Notice anything about them? We have a Hufflepuff, a Gryffindor, and a Slytherin...but no Ravenclaw. None that is, unless MC, and therefore Rowan by extension, is a Ravenclaw. MC being Sorted into the House of Eagles completes both of these groups. I dunno, I just find it curious that unless the Player goes to Ravenclaw, the first student character we meet in that House shows up in Year 3. Because Jam City wrote in some amazing characters for Ravenclaw. My love of Tulip Karasu is well documented, but I also think Talbott is pretty damn fascinating. Andre and Badeea rock too! Ravenclaw is also a relatively neutral House. I’ve said before that HPHM ignores the House rivalries, and that’s easiest to incorporate in the House of Eagles, which mostly keeps to itself. It would not be socially strange for a Ravenclaw to have so many friends from different Houses. I’m not saying a Slytherin MC couldn’t befriend Ben, for example, but he’s a Muggle-born Gryffindor and that would be a big deal to everyone else. Again, not saying it couldn’t happen, just that it would turn heads and people within Slytherin might go as far as to treat MC like a traitor. I like this premise, but...would Felix seriously help MC prepare to fight Merula, a fellow Slytherin, on behalf of someone like Ben? There are other trivial problems, like the question of two male Prefects if MC is Gryffindor, etc. 

But that’s just a few thoughts. Again, there’s clearly no “canon” House, and neither of my MCs are even in Ravenclaw. But I think it’s fun to explore the idea as Ravenclaw is a House that, I think, is sorely needing development.

[teamnick]

Favourite Characters & Quotes

Rules: name five of your favourite TV show characters and post one quote from them. 

Yeah I love making lists, so...here we go! 😊 These are my favs, in no particular order.

1. Nick Blaine (The Handmaid’s Tale) - “I’m trying to keep you alive. You and our baby.”

So uhm, in no particular order, aha...I am sooo subtle! Anyway, this brooding driver from Michigan absolutely deserves a spot among my top 5. I dont even know what’s my favourite thing about him! The huge character development? His selfless and unconditional love for June and their baby? (Excuse me, but yeah, he is a Dad now and it still freaks me out in a good way). His smokin hot looks? The fact that he can be so tender and so passionate at the same time? Whatever it is, he absolutely conquered me during S1 and my love for him was growing with every episode in S2. He deserves the world and nothing less! ❤

2. Noora Sætre (OG Skam) -  “According to studies, girls who call other girls sluts have 90% more chance to get chlamydia.”

I have a permanent obsession with this show, and Noora is definitely my favourite female character from it. Funny, witty and feminist af - yes, you can be a feminist AND be in a relationship at the same time. Faux feminist fans of a certain other show might...take some notes. 😉

3 Tom Branson (Downton Abbey) -  “Look, it comes down to whether or not you love me! That's all! That's it! The rest is detail.”

Yeah so...apparently I do have a type and that’s the sexy driver. His storyline provides almost everything I want in a period drama. Smoldering looks? Check. Hot Irish accent? Check. Seemingly impossible love interest A.K.A the chauffeur falling for the daughter of the Lord? Check. The love of his life finally chooses him after he waited 4 years for her? Check. Oh there’s one caveat tho, we dont talk about 3x05. At. All.

4. Alexander Hardenberg (Druck) - “I love you. Do you love me?”

This was...unexpected, to say the least, for 2 reasons. He stars in a Skam remake and I never ever would have thought that I would prefer a “remake character” over an original one. Also I didnt care much about him in S1. But S2??? OMG. This is the character development I’m living for!! A dorky, soft, vulnerable, cocoa-drinking, bath-loving, super proud boyfriend who cannot stay away from his gf for more than 2 hours and absolutely lets her lead in their relationship. Need I say more?? He’ll always have a special place in my heart. ❤

5. Chandler Bing (Friends) - “I’m not great at the advice. Can I interest you in a sarcastic comment?”

Chandler Muriel Bing is my spirit animal. That’s it. Master of sarcasm and iconic one-liners. He’s also the most relatable Friends character for me. I mean - covering insecurities with funny comments? Yup, been there, done that!

Tagging my buddies @skyshipper @dcgal814 @splitscreen @pegsccarter @benofie @smoulderingocean @verarin142 @potpourri-of-ecclecticism @lady--amber @supermessgirl @aperture @crollah @sharkraybay and anyone else who wants to do it.

Pls tag me in your answers, I’m very curious of your lists! 😊

[last-flight-of-fancy]

fatedeniedhope replied to your post “* sees people confused over various kh plot points * * is not people i...”

I would like yo know a bit. Only play kh 1 and chain of memories and half way to kh 2

oh boy there is a *lot* to cover here then!

I don’t mean that to sound intimidating, kh just has a tendency for long, sprawling interconnected plots (many of which are still unresolved even now)

i am also doing this entirely by memory, so if i’ve skimmed something i shouldn’t have its because my brain has stopped registering it as important; feel free to ask for clarification, i wrote this in one sitting because i was avoiding doing laundry XD

putting a cut because i am overviewing a Lot of game here and tbh there’s still a lot of stuff i am skimming or skipping entirely. I’m just trying to hit the highlights.

i don’t know where you stopped in 2, so i’m just gonna give a brief overview

-there is a boy named roxas

-he’s being hunted by these strangers called nobody’s

-things get weird

-turns out he’s sora’s nobody, as nobody’s are created when a person is turned into a heartless (which sora did during kh1)

-roxas returns to sora (”looks like my summer vacation is.. over...” whoops there goes my heart) and normal sora gameplay resumes.

-DIDNEY WORLDS

-turns out everyone forgot sora for a year bc of what happened in chain of memories (and also 358/2. dont worry about that yet we’ll get there). kairi sends out a bottle to “the boy she can’t remember” trying to call him home. (yes this is important)

-organization 13 (all what? eight of them left?) pops up, xemnas is cryptic, and they say their goal is to recreate kingdom hearts via sora killing heartless, since apparently only killing heartless with a keyblade sends the trapped hearts to Kingdom Hearts

      -this version of the tale persists through 358 as well. it’s.. half right.

-bla bla bla, shenanigans. there’s ansem (the boss from kh1) and a guy named diz. That isn’t who either of them actually are. It’s actually Riku (who tapped too far into the darkness trying to capture roxas for the whole twilight town scenario at the beginning of the game, thus altering his appearance to look like the guy who posessed him for a bit) and THE ACTUAL ANSEM (ie, the ruler(?) of radient garden before it fell, and the guy heartless ansem stole his name from.

-anyways

-sora goes off searching for riku, bc as far as he knows, he’s still lost out in the darkness.

-he’s not, he’s fine, but he’s super embarrassed about the whole ‘looking like the enemy’ thing and won’t let sora find him.

-sora casually murders most of the remaining organization members (only most of whom shot first)

-this continues on until axel attempts to kidnap kairi, who ends up in twilight town for a bit hanging out with the hayner/pence/ollete trio, before being slightly more successfully kidnapped a second time.

-and then she gets kidnapped again by saix. Axel apologises to sora over this. in his defence, he’s pretty desperate at this point (he just wants his friend(s) back)

-sora storms The World That Never Was, kairi is rescued by Namine.

-the trio finally meets up (namine disapeared at some point? yknow, i actually dont recall what happened to her in between these scenes), sora and kairi share a slightly awkward but sweet hug, and after a moments trepidation over ‘Ansem’, kairi tells/shows him its riku, at which point sora bursts into tears.

-i ship a lot of ot3′s, but sorikai is the OG ot3

-anyways

-namine and roxas have a very symbolic moment refusing with their Other’s, Namine opens a portal back to destiny islands so they can go home.

-everyone except sora and riku make it through, and thus commences several final fantasy style boss fights

-they win, of course, riku’s injured in the line of battle, and they limp out, having traversed several realms during the course of this battle, they’re now trapped on a beach in the realm of darkness. it’s the same beach everyone else seems to end up on in this place. There is only one beach in the RoD apparently

-they stay there a while, and then they pick up a message in a bottle; it’s from kairi, “to the boy she can’t remember”

-Feelings make a door to the light open, and sora and riku fall like actual comets from the sky and everybody’s reunited and happy. huzzah!

-.... well for a while anyways.

-should i get into the whole xemnas/xehanort/ansem thing here?

-eh

-okay so

-lets swing back into Birth By Sleep for a bit

-(im sorry if kh can’t hit any of its plot points in order i think its fair neither do i)

-BBS takes place roughly nine years prior to kh1, with the exception of bbs’s prologue, which i would estimate as being an additional four years prior to that

-during said prologue, we meet Master Xehanort, an incredibly old dude with brown skin, gold eyes, and a white beard. even newcomers to the series will probably recognise that only one type of person gets those colours in these games.

-we also meet baby Ventus, Xehanorts apprentice. He looks exactly like Roxas.

-shenanigans happen, Xehanort splits Ven’s heart in two, creating Vanitas, who is Ventus’s darkness.

-Vanitas’ whole shtick is he wants to be reunited with Ventus, ostensibly to create the X-blade (yes it’s pronounced exactly the same as ‘keyblade’ and yes, every single kh fan ive ever talked to has found this annoying af)

-unfortunately being split in two like that puts ven in a coma, and xehanort takes the unresponiseve body to destiny islands to dump it like unwanted ravioli

-luckily for ven, “a brand new hear” hears his hurt and reaches out to help, filling out the gaps left in his and allowing him to start recovering

-the heart is sora

-actual, literal baby sora reaching out to help people before he can even walk yet. 

-the game never spells this out explicitly, which makes it an easy plot point to miss if you aren’t paying attention

-ven doesn’t recover immidietly though, and xehanort sends him to live with his old friend Master Eraqus and his two teenage apprentices, Aqua and Terra

-here’s where we time skip, ventus is fully recovered, terra and aqua are young adults and about to take their Mark Of Mastery exams for becoming keyblade masters.

-Terra fails because he has darkness in his heart and also xehanort rigged it against him

-aqua passes and becomes a master. I love her very much.

-terra journey’s out to try and figure out where the darkness comes from

-vanitas taunts ven saying terra’s leaving him bc ven’s stupid or something and ven panics and chases after him (he’s like 14 and has a bit of a hero worship thing, stupid decisions are par for the course)

-eraqus sends aqua out to both spy on terra (he words it nicer but thats the gist of it), which aqua doesn’t particularly like but trusts her masters judgement and does it, and bring ventus home, which she is more on board with

-the biggest tragedy in bbs is that no one talks to each other

-stuff happens, they learn some stuff, aqua’s route has So Many Lesbian Feels with every single princess she runs into it brings me great delight

-Ventus learns the whole ‘fight your darkness to become the X-blade’ plot, eraqus learns this too and tries to kill ven. Terra busts in at the last moment and saves ven, at this point using his dark powers fully.

-#terrawasright

-eraqus dies, which i don’t think terra fully intended to do (he just wanted to save ven) and if you recall the scene in kh1 where kairi catches a falling sora only for him to burst into a bunch of floating glitter? imagine that but with two grown men

-aqua’s just trying to figure out whats going on. she gets to meet kairi (saves her from some heartless and then puts a charm on her necklace to keep her safe) and then meets Mickey, who will be our future duex ex machina

-they all meet for the final battle.

-ven asks his friends to murder him

-no one does that

-what the fuck ven

-they fight, and a lot of stuff sorta happens at the same time

-1: terra fights xehanort, who has essentially been spending the whole game prepping terra to be his next host. xehanort is a body snatcher confirmed. xehanort wins, terra becomes the fanon-named terranort.

-2: ventus fights vanitas. vanitas reveals his face, and he looks exactly like a colour swapped version of sora. (also voiced by the same voice actor! it’s actually surprsingly difficult to notice this if you don’t have some kind of clue already because haley joel osment does and *amazing* job). ventus wins, the X-blade is not forged, but as a lot of this battle takes place in his heart, the effects are bad and ven falls into a coma (he reaches out once more, and another hearts answers. “you can stay here a while, I don’t mind” says the other heart. yes its fucking sora again. too good, too pure)

-3: aqua gets knocked out to start with, but then she fights vanitas controlling ventus’ body, which eventually gets sorted out. terra’s dissapeared at this point, and she takes a comatose ven and hides him in the land of departure, which she uses a secret mechanism to turn into Castle Oblivion (and thus, impossible to navigate  without her key)

-aqua goes to hunt down terra(nort), and finds him in radiant garden. they fight, aqua wins, but when he begins to sink into the darkness she sacrifices herself to save him (which is how he ends up as one of ansem’s apprentices and mostly without any memories)

-aqua will spend the next ten years in the realm of darkness

-bbs is such a goddam tragedy

-OKAY

-time to fast forward

-so sora and ven are connected, which is why vanitas and roxas look the way they do, which brings us to

-the case of xion

-and 358/2

-the worst game to play but my absolute favourite in terms of slow-burn pacing and emotionally investing you in the characters

-this game pretty much just deals with the year sora spent asleep, and the kids time in the organization.

-roxas wakes up with no memories, is inducted into the org, and told “kill heartless with your keyblade”. He’s more or less a zombie at first, and accepts this without question.

-a week later, a new member is introduced, named Xion, who also has a keyblade, and is also a zombie with no memories at first

-Axel, the org’s assassin, is basically told to babysit them both

-he’s not really into it at first, but those natural Big Brother instincts kick in Hard about five minutes later and from that point on he’s mostly just trying to keep them both alive.

-oh, also Lea, Axel’s somebody, met Ventus in bbs, so that was probably a little weird for him.

-as the game goes on and these kids essentially learn how to human and try to figure out what makes them different, the Big Plots stew in the background. Axel and Saix have some kind of plan that Axel apparently isn’t sticking to, and Axel questions his loyalties more as the game goes on and circumstances force him to choose between two kids Who Did Nothing Wrong, and his oldest friend.

-Xion learns they are a replica, a la Repliku, created as a backup to roxas if he could not fulfil his duty in creating kingdom hearts. their connection with roxas, and through him sora, has the unintended side effect of flitering memories and feelings into and through Xion.

-this is why putting sora back together takes so long

-Xion, between the pressure of being an org member in general, and the mental load from being caught between three+ people in a very literal sense, has a breakdown. Riku finds them, and despite a pretty rocky start between them, helps them through it.

-Xion leaves at two different points, the first time, Axel brings them back. “please don’t hold back, Axel. Promise.” “Everyone always thinks they’re right”

-excuse me i have to lay down again after thinking about how emotionally wrought this scene is.

-(the alternative is he has to kill them. he does everything he can to avoid that, but it’s clearly approaching an unsustainable situation; the org is running out of patience for dealing with the ‘clearly defective replica’, xion doesnt feel this situation is right, and axel just wants to keep everyone alive.

-yes typing ‘clearly defective replica’ physically hurt me. xion is a perfect bab and xemnas can fite me

-Xion leaves again

-Roxas, learning pieces of this but not all, runs away from the org. cue titular “no one would me” “that’s not true!” scene from 2

-(this leads to what is a hilariously depressing scene of roxas on the clocktower looking at his life and going “where could i even run to? I havent got anywhere to go” because he’s never known anything other than the organization and whoops i made myself sad again)

-namine explains to xion that sora can never wake up so long as they have his memories. The only way for them to release the memories is to die. It’s a hard decision.

-Xion meets roxas on the clocktower, feigns insanity, and goads him into fighting them (”do you see my face, roxas? is it a boys face? don’t you see. I have to make you a part of me too.”)

-cue more ff style boss fights

-xion dies

-look i can’t go into detail on this one i’ll start crying again, xion dies, everyone forgets they ever existed, and roxas gets to watch them shatter into dust in his arms.

-in the brief period where the memories are quickly vanishing but Not Quite Gone Yet roxas goes into a Roaring Rampage of Revenge and storms the World That Never Was

-this is where Riku catches up to him, and from there its a pretty straight shot into the beginning of kh2

-which im sure if you played these in chronological order would be *some kind of mood whiplash* i bet

-okay what have i missed

-recoded happened. the only important part here is that malificent and pete find out about the black box and malificent being malificent of course she Has To Have It

-”but whats the black box??” you ask

-good question

-we still dont know

-its  origin point is in KHUx though, 

-which is the multiplayer mobile game set during the Keyblade War of ages past. each weilder also has a companion dream eater named chirithy

-there are five unions, each headed by a leader and represented by an animal (unicorn, bear, snake, fox, and leopard)

-#anguisforlife

-these five (plus one more, named luxu) are each given roles by their master (the Master of Masters, or also known as MoM). He also tells them there is a traitor amongst the warriors of light. it’s unclear at this point how much of this he is directly steering. He also doesnt specifiy Which warriors of light, probably on purpose so everything happens as it should.

-so figure, trying to figure out who the traitor is is a pretty direct cause to no one trusting each other and eventually going for each others throats

-there is a page from the book of prophecies he gives only to luxu, who he tells that his role is to see the future with this Special Keyblade (and specifically the Eye in it). You might recognise it as xehanorts keyblade (and then you’ll start to see the Eye in a whole bunch of other ones too, notably in soul edge, way to dawn, and void gear)

-luxu fucks off, and everyone else goes about their business

-the first half of khux details how these unions came to  be rivals, and then how they fell into war with each other and destroyed the light. the second half detailed how Ava, leader of the fox union, created a fifth group known as the dandelions, specifically picked to survive the fall of the light and rebuild.

-ventus and lauriam are two of these leaders. No, we still don’t know how they got from one point to the other.

-one of the replacement leaders, strelitzia, got murdered and replaced by someone else. i think this plot point has been resolved in japan but i havent checked yet

-strelitzia is lauriam’s sister. she also knows elrena.

-and if you’re bad at anagraming like i am, lauriam=marluxua, and elrena=larxene

-so yeah figure that one out for me

-also i love strelitzia she has like two scenes total and i was already ludicrously attached help

-(Yes i screamed very hard during that One Scene in 3. we dont even see her face but it’s heerrrrrrrr)

-anyways

-right the black box

-luxu is seen carrying it off in the Back Cover movie as he wanders into exile. we still dont know whats in it. and that’s basically that.

-which leaves just Dream Drop Distance

-sora and riku take a Highly Modified mark of master exam under yen sid.

-things go wrong almost immidietly

-sora gets trapped by the xehanorts in a deep sleep, where they plan to use him as one of their 13 vessels of darkness

-there has to be 13 for some reason

-13 darknesses, and 7 lights, and when they clash it’ll make the X-blade

-because reasons

-it’s fate or something

-riku rescues him

-there is time travel involved now

-because at this point the 13 darkness now include; heartless ansem, master xehanort, xemnas, young xehanort, xigbar, and saix.

-more time travel will be involved later, but to keep this in mind the rules of time travel here are

     -you cannot take your body with you

     -you lose any future knowledge you gain if and when you return

-things are obviously wibbly here because it’s half in the dreamscape, but just. keep those rules in mind when you play 3.

....... im sure im missing a bunch but i just spent two hours writing the most casual pre-kh3 synopsis ever i hope you can forgive me XD