#this has probably been done before but whatever here's my version of sora saying 'fuck fascism'

[tempestimes]

:)

[revengerevisited]

i found this vanqua fic the other day, it’s only a couple chapters but i like it so far. :3 it does have a ‘creator chose not to add warnings’ label though, so please be cautious. also baby-xemnas aka kotbysleep (nsfw) aka nekokat42 (also nsfw) is a much better vanqua artist than me so please check him out. X’D (heads-up those twitter threads are way longer than you think so make sure you see eeeverything~).

anyway, more wip art below the cut, plus my endless rambling (i talk about 18+ topics, just a warning)—

i’m still working on venqua week and i’ve got 2 more prompts to go, one i haven’t started yet and one i’m halfway done with—

~aaand yeah i’m re-using it for a vanqua pic too... X’D am i lazy, or just resourceful? you decide. ;P

but yeah, both of these pics will have an 18+ version as well. i admit i’m super anxious about posting it next week, as i’ve seen just how absolutely toxic fandom is on twitter. like, you thought tumblr was bad? i’ve spent the last few days preemptively blocking literally hundreds if not thousands of antis just so i can feel a little safer posting my content without some asshat calling me a pedo or telling me to kill myself over cartoons. XU i somewhat worry that i’ve accidentally blocked some people who were just joking around and weren’t actually harassing anyone, but it’s just so hard to tell sometimes. if i’ve accidentally blocked anybody here, just let me know so i can unblock you. :3 (idk why that sentence came out so sinister sounding but i’m legit being sincere X’D).

but seriously, idk when fandom suddenly got such a stick up its ass (around 2016-17 from my guesstimate) and decided aging-up a fictional character by a year or two is such a crime, but i guess that’s just the state of things. :T i could draw vanitas as a centaur or make him blond or whatever and no one cares, but aging him by one year? suddenly big problem! yeah, right. XP like, i know i said every character in kh is 17+ as of khmom (ignoring any weird timeline retcons of course), but heck i could make an honest case for the wayfinder family all being adults. hear me out—

it’s been 13 years since bbs, right? and for 12 of those years, aqua was in the realm of darkness, terra had some awareness while being possessed by xehanort, ven experienced some of sora’s life when he was in a coma, and vanitas was almost certainly in ven/sora’s heart as well, so all four of them could be said to be 31, 33, and 29 respectively. it’s not like their character models were any different when they were young teens as opposed to older teens, so can we really be sure they’re not all 30~ by now? heck, since ven is from the age of fairytales i could say he’s 1000 years old if i wanted too! (psst, it’s almost as if these are all fictional characters living in a fantasy world with time travel and whatnot and their ages are completely arbitrary numbers nomura made up on the spot, numbers which he has retconned before! :P).

now i don’t actually think they’re that old, but if people are gonna hassle me over a goddamn 2-year age difference, i might as well say fuck it and have fun with it, right? ;P it’s not like antis even know what the canon character ages even actually are, like when they try to say that skuld is underage when (assuming she’s subject x) she’d be around 28~ by now, or axel and saïx’s age. (maybe i’ll draw some saïx x skuld art and watch the antis lose their minds. ;P it wouldn’t even have to be nsfw to rile them up).

anyway, i do admit i’m feeling a little burned out on art recently. XP i’ve been trying to get one art piece out per week plus venqua week, and yeah it’s kinda taken its toll. i know this really isn’t anything anyone wants to hear, but i’ve been kinda thinking of moving away from fandom projects to work on my own original work. now, i’m not saying i’m abandoning a heart and a half nor anything as drastic as that! but i have spent like 2 years of my life on it just to get to the halfway mark, and i’m not sure i can spend 2 more doing only that.

i’ve got an original story idea that i’ve been working on-and-off on for the past 7 years or so, and i’m thinking of going back to it again (it does need a pretty big re-write). its main pairing is actually pretty vanqua-ish, now that i think about it. like, imagine the realm of darkness but instead of the heartless it’s infested with demons, and the main characters are the demon-slaying duo of a serious yet kindhearted half-angel and a feral, snarky half-demon. i even aged them up from 14 to 18 so none of my potential fans have to suffer the same anti bullshit that i have. XP

what else can i ramble about... oh, i got these super cute pins for christmas! :D the heartless is by xkirakira, and vanitas and aqua are by maxxmerch. they’re just so cute! X3 i hope everyone had a merry christmas and a happy holiday! i’ll see you guys later. ^3^ 

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*looks around sheepishly* ó3ò alright... confession time. spoilers for a heart and a half for the rest of this post—

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sooo~ i’ve kinda hinted at this before, but yeah i’ve always planned on adding a sex scene to a heart and a half; when i started writing back in 2018 i hadn’t realized how hostile fandom had become compared to only a few years ago, and it worries me that some readers might drop the fic because of it, or be angry with me over the underage aspect. :(

idk, i could go on about how i just wanted to explore every aspect of a romantic relationship, or how other disney/square enix characters married or had kids young (ariel, sarah hawkins, héctor, claudia strife, possibly jasmine), or how attempting to apply real-world rules to a videogame fantasy setting is inherently silly and pointless, but really it’s just ‘cause i love vanitas and aqua to bits and i just wanted to write a cute and funny mild sex scene between them (this fic is rated mature, not explicit, so much less graphic than confection affection), and at the end of the day they are just fictional characters, after all.

i guess all i can hope for is that i’m a skilled enough writer to pull it off in a believable way, and that my audience won’t be too put off by it. >_> i know vanitas and aqua have technically only known each other for about 2 months so it might not be ‘realistic’ for them to go so far into a relationship so soon, but i think it’s important to remember that ultimately this is a romantic fairytale, and other canon disney couples haven’t seen nearly as deeply into each other’s hearts as vanitas and aqua have (and this video also helped me feel better about it).

i also wanted to finish that nsfw venqua fic i started a few months back, it’s set just before the mark of mastery so yes ven would be 16. i suppose it’s a way of testing the waters to see what kind of reception i’d get (hopefully positive) before i get to that part of a heart and a half. i was also thinking of including some of the uh, ‘keyblades as erogenous zones’ aspect from this terraquaven fic as well... w-why are you looking at me like that?! it’s funny! *sweats nervously* o3o’

in all honesty, i’m probably just overthinking all this (which, knowing me, is almost a guarantee >_<) and i should just *ahem* let my heart be my guiding key, and just write what i want to write without worrying about it all the time. i just get so anxious so easily... buuut that’s not really news to anyone, now is it? ;P well, i think that’s the end of my endless ramble, thanks for reading if you got this far. X’D and i really hope i didn’t actually upset anybody about a heart and a half. ;_; i just felt like i needed to vent a little, but don’t worry about me, i’m doing fine. anyway, i really should stop typing and get back to work on venqua week, sooo... bye! X3

[zephyrises]

{ re:mind thoughts & feelings!

i’m absolutely not gonna run through every single detail, especially when it comes to things i’m solidly neutral about, but i live to write about my impressions, so here they are!

**WILL CONTAIN SPOILERS!!! please be cautious!!!**

negatives:

my biggest concern going in was how they’d handle kairi, and while having her be playable for the duration of a major battle is a huge step forward and you can tell they put a lot of effort into her moveset and animations, everything else felt like two steps back and i’m not very optimistic for her future. despite the entire premise of the dlc revolving around her, she says and does so little. most of her lines, if you can even call them that, are just Sounds. affirmative hums or confused, “huh?”s. which is a huge nonverbal mood, but doesn’t work as a mood for HER seeing as she’s a very talkative and forward individual. it’s almost like she was only there to be rescued, look pretty and nod along with whatever sora says! reaaaally don’t like that they put her into a coma for an entire year, either. everyone else’s roles in sora’s search seem so proactive and hers is completely idle, like usual. they could spin this around and have her traverse the sleeping worlds while she’s unconscious, but i’m not willing to give the team that much credit until i see it for myself.

we’re retconning vanitas being the wholehearted manifestation of ven’s negativity and darkness now, huh?? he was his own entity beforehand, you say?? they’re not halves of a whole anymore?? okay. cool! absolutely detest that with every fiber of my being and it makes zero sense, but great! canon is only established to be rewritten on a whim, after all! (it’s NOT! not like THAT! what the ever living HECK!)

plot holes, awkwardness and rushed nature of the climax and ending is still grossly present. there’s nothing anyone could have possibly done to remedy that short of reworking all of it entirely, so i wasn’t expecting it to be remedied, but it sucks to relive it for the 358th time.

the ~20 minute segment where it’s all base game gameplay and unaltered cutscenes is torture.

when you consider the price of the base game and the fact that the ~4-5 hour long story campaign was so thoroughly padded with re-used content, $30 is kinda steep.

not to be mean, or anything........ but............ all of the story content in particular.............. probably should have been in base game kh3 in the first place.........................

positives:

terra and riku recognized and talked to each other! ven and roxas shared compliments! those are DREAM interactions, right there.

exploring scala was amazing! everything was expansive, detailed and beautiful and it was very nice to receive explicit confirmation that it was built up from the ruins of daybreak town, even if that was pretty obvious.

visuals and aesthetics were gorgeous in general. kh is always really good about that.

for as many issues as i had with kairi’s writing and presentation, her and sora were ADORABLE. that floaty, twirly hug! their finisher! their added cameos in the ending sequence! PRECIOUS....

battling as an op version of roxas filled me with carnal energies i haven’t experienced since i was 16 years old and i’m honestly living for it.

voice acting was prime! i had some beefs with base game deliveries but everyone really brought their A game for the dlc, however little or much they spoke. naminé, vanitas, yozora, yuffie and cid sounded the best, imo. master xehanort’s new voice actor also did such a wonderful and standout job even though he had two massive pairs of shoes to fill. rest in peace.

it has lots of limitations and there are a couple of design decisions i don’t agree with, but photo mode is a PARTY and i’m gonna be going absolutely feral with it when i have more time/energy.

the uncontested BEST PART was the guardians of light working together to battle off the xehanort replicas. it screamed personality and charm and left room for cute little character interactions that the cutscenes didn’t. i’m super impressed with how well they pulled it off from a technical standpoint and would adore seeing more segments like it in future installments.

Little Ven Things(tm):

really appreciated sora lunging to try and catch ven when he was flung through the air because that’s probably as close to a canon hug as i’m ever gonna get.

not sure what to make of the “Darkness” lurking in his heart because i don’t ux outside of what i hear from friends, but i’m so ridiculously interested to see where it goes. his arc’s not over yet, kids!

hearing ven say, “vanitas. you’re coming home too,” destroyed me on the spot. that’s gonna be playing on loop in my brain nonstop to infinity and beyond.

i like my vans and vens with a healthy dose of banter and to have vanitas go on a contrary monologue in response to ven’s extension of kindness, then see ven turn around and say, “okay! fine! fuck you, actually! go away, then!” was RIVETING. ripped straight out of my soul. 10/10. absolutely do not endorse the retcon nonsense that prompted it, but i’ll take what little i can get.

he and aqua were such a good combo in battle and i never got tired of watching their limit. i’ve complained before about how limits were one of the biggest things missing from bbs and this really made it up to me.

HE WORE HIS CAPE!! it was only for a split second but HE WORE IT!! AND HIS ARMOR!! my son is off to the realm of darkness to find his crush and he’s gonna look dashing as hell the whole time he’s there.

ven and riku are the oldest of the minors and their heights are still so wildly different. i eat seeing them next to each other up and re:mind did it at two different instances. god bless.

i’m sure i’m forgetting a subject or two, but that’s definitely the gist of it!

all in all, i went in with pretty low expectations since base game kh3 let me down so badly. re:mind disappointed me too. i’m just not gonna let it bother me much! regardless of the path canon takes, doing the things with ven that i wanna see done is still my MO. that’s why i roleplay in the first place!

anyway, i wanna end on a good note, but i’m honestly unsure of what else to say since i’ve rambled on for so long, so here’s some snaps from the very first scene i made in photo mode! }

[thekingdomheartsprincess]

when kairi died part of me felt relieved

very long rant filled with run-on sentences, over-use of bold words, and over-use of italics. you’ve been warned

I’ve been holding off on my full review and thoughts on kh3 until after I get through my second playthrough. I will say, it was an overall great game and I was pleasantly surprised by a lot. I have my issues, but I’d like to hold off until I’m finished with my regular paced play through (not speedplay) before I write all my thoughts. However, one thing I really have to get out now is how absolutely disappointed and disgusted I am by kairi’s entire existence in kh3.

And just an fyi, I set the bar low going into this for her. I wasn’t expecting much, yet somehow, I was still let down harder than I thought was actually possible.To me, the highlight of kairi’s appearance in kh3 was probably going to be because she was training with axel. Therefore, with the reasoning that axel usually gets excessive screen time---you know, the guy that should have fake died twice before his actual fake death (which I’m not complaining about, just saying)...kairi would have by default gotten some of that extra relevance right??

Wrong... in a stunning turn of events they actually left axel to the side as well. He got a few good lines in, but at the end of the day he barely fights, does anything important, and somehow has his keyblade destroyed by xemnas in his first real battle with it. I’ll get back more to the truly ridiculous lack of keyblade skills later. While I’m still on the topic of axel though, let’s talk about kairi’s use as a tool to figure out axel’s feelings and xion. Like, no problems with the whole kidnapping thing, no deep connection making. Did a lot of us expect and fear that kairi would be used as a plot device for axel’s xion memories? Yes. Does it make it any better that we were prepared for it going into kh3? For me, yeah, but the real problem is it doesn’t stop there. And axel’s feelings and memories of xion were poorly included and barely mattered anyhow

Also the whole letter writing thing axel comments on, a sad excuse for not wanting to actually provide sokai interaction. “They’re more for herself”-bullshit tbh. Someone tell square enix that if they make me play another game where my girlfriend writes me letters and I can’t respond I’m gonna lose it. *cough ffxv cough* It was a sad excuse for trying to build up sokai before end game. Plus, bad writing aside, if my girl kairi is gonna be a romantic plot device forever; you could at least let her send sora those stupid letters. The poor girl is talking to him in her head. WHY

So much opportunity here to build up sokai before the end of the game. And you know what? I don’t really care about sokai anymore, or whether its canon, or if they have any moments at all in the game. But it you are going to use it as a plot device, you could at least put some effort into it. Sokai needs to be better if it is going to have such a huge direct impact on the ending of the game. Maybe this was difficult, because this really wasn’t the game for it. Everyone has a lot going on in this game, and for sora, his focus is really on getting the people connected to his heart back. He barely even talks about riku in the game! Which is completely justified, because the boy has a lot of stress on his shoulders and a lot going on. The sokai getting thrown in basically at the last minute of the game, is like white noise in the background...that shouldn’t have been there.

The paopu fruit scene felt uncomfortable and thrown in at the wrong moment. There was opportunity for this scene at the end of kh2, or before sora left the island again for 3d. Or if some effort was put into developing sokai throughout the game (which again, I don’t think this was the game for this) it could have worked. Instead, we got a scene which really wasn’t romantic in the slightest, and pretty much had “somebody or both of them is dying/being separated tomorrow” written all over it. The scene starts out of nowhere basically, riku is quite literally shoved to the side to talk to himself, kairi sort of dismisses romantic intentions when asking sora to share it with her, and sora sort of just nods his head and rolls with it. The best part, is the imagery relating to the drawings in the cave (which is admittedly beautiful). However, this is not the sokai paopu fruit scene 7 yr old me envisioned. While I certainly don’t expect to get what I wanted to see, this is almost an insult to all of the build up to this moment in previous games.

What would have been the only wonderful and meaningful sokai scene in the game, is the one where kairi is able to help sora basically escape death and light his way through the darkness or whatever. The whole “I’m going to keep you safe now” and “you make me feel stronger” thing is really sweet as an out of context scene if I knew nothing else about kh3. The problem is, this isn’t really true. Kairi doesn’t keep sora safe, and the limits of her strength seem to be in that one cutscene. Not to mention, this already happened. We literally saw this same thing happen in kh1-and it was a better scene.

Maybe I could believe kairi’s determination behind her words if she was able to even lift her keyblade when she’s being attacked, or put up a fight against her kidnapper (i mean come on, even belle got to elbow xaldin), or finish a battle against someone who was not an alternate version of herself (or remotely believably on xehanort’s side for more than a second). Seriously, she did more with her keyblade knocking out a few heartless in kh2. That scene was actually cooler. I am truly disgusted that I have to even think that. It’s not that I thought she would go up from kh2, but I surely didn’t think she would go soooooo far down. 

They totally shot themselves in the foot with the whole merlin’s magic excuse. Axel and kairi show up as if they just got the keyblade 20 seconds before the keyblade war, yet supposedly they had unlimited time to train. Maybe we’ll get some bs excuse on how it “wasn’t exactly unlimited time” later, but seriously? If you were going to have both of them fail so miserably, you could have used the short training time as an excuse!! Why would you write yourself out of that excuse, just to give me these pathetic jokes of keyblade wielders. By all logical reasoning, if they had unlimited time to train, they should have both shown up stronger that xehanort and eraqus combined. Like did they just settle after they could shoot magic at x number of moving objects in merlin’s training facility???

She may not have done much, but by the time we saw her get mercilessly stabbed for no real logical reason I was relieved. Relieved that I might finally not have to watch this anymore, and can just go into all future kh games without having to worry about what they will do with her character. I want to say I was pissed, upset even, that they killed her off like that. Confused as to how this helps xehanort’s plan? Absolutely. I mean, wouldn’t that ruin his 7 princesses part 2 backup plan if he needed it? Wouldn’t the last key form as soon as he killed kairi? Were the 7 lights going to stop fighting him there? Was he just being a cruel dick? I don’t have the answers. But I will say that I didn’t actually get angry, until xehanort stole her fucking lines. “One sky, one destiny” She doesn’t even have that anymore. The significance of those lines, now can’t just be kairi’s but has to be shared with the man who killed her. Could it get any worse? Yes! Because sora has to go and do some strongly hinted form of self sacrifice for her again. Turning the shit show writing of kairi into probably the most detrimental part of the story. 

Now, its playing such a huge role in kh3 and future kh games. It makes the major plot point of the ending of the game suffer. There’s no kairi for me to appreciate that would make me care about her dying, the one really good moment sora shares with kairi is hardly based in reality, and what’s supposed to be used as a way for sora to prove himself doesn’t really do that. He already sacrificed himself for kairi. What more is this proving? And with no excuse for kairi’s lack of training or presence in the game, I’m confused as to how this happened or why I’m supposed to care. However Nomura needed this to end up to set up future kh games, was this really the only way to do it? 

I wish I could say I just personally cared this much about feminism in kingdom hearts, and that’s why I’m so disappointed by this complete and utter failure of writing a character, but that’s not even it. When I was little I loved kairi because she was like a new disney princess in a video game, and I was heartbroken when sora told her she couldn’t come with him for the rest of his adventure. That she would just “get in his way.” 23 year old me is still pissed and not letting go. Even more frustrating, is that square enix has (deliberately or not) ignored a large part of the fandom who just asked for a little bit better. The kairi bar was low, and square enix did the limbo rock under it. (bad joke i know, it’s 2:30 am and i should be sleeping)

I’ll shut up now, but be aware i’m screaming “and another thing about kairi in kh3!” every hour on the hour in my mind

[storm-driver]

THEORIES ON THAT NEW TRAILER

Not going into anything with Maleficent and the box, because fuck Back Cover, that thing killed my hype for Kingdom Hearts. I’m not letting it ruin this for me.

Rather, what everyone was screaming and crying about, IMA TALK ABOUT THE SCENE WHERE SORA WANTS TO BRING ROXAS BACK. 

I PRESENT MY THEORY: ROXAS IS BEAUTIFUL AND NEEDS TO BE SAVED, BUT SORA IS GONNA DIE OR SOMETHING

Let’s start with the dialogue. (This is from the OFFICIAL English subbed version released by Square Enix. This isn’t translated by a fan, so these lines should be taken as literal as possible. also, square, smh for not releasing the english dub)

“How do you expect to bring Roxas back when he should never have existed in the first place?”

This line is literally the precipice of the emotions in this scene. Xemnas is a character who says things to manipulate people, get in their head and provoke some reaction out of them. He does it constantly in KH2 and KH3D; everytime he talks, Sora somehow gets a little pissed. This line isn’t a question, it’s meant to provoke Sora, make him do something. 

Prior to this scene at some point in the game, Sora was talking aloud about how he wanted to bring Roxas back, probably mentioning how Lea said he was a great friend, and also when he saw him in his dream, he wished he’d gotten more time to talk to him, etc. Sora states in 3D that Roxas deserves to be his own person, so seeing Xemnas outright question Roxas’ right to exist, it’s obvious it’s meant to anger Sora in some form or manner. Much like Xehanort did to Terra back in BBS when he constantly told Terra that he was powerless to save his friends, all to draw out the darkness in his heart. Which leads me onto the next line:

“There is only one way to accomplish it... Sora, are you finally going to call upon the darkness?”

He says there’s only one option Sora has to get Roxas back. We don’t really... know what he means when he says Sora has to use the darkness to do it. It could mean a multitude of things, but the most obvious is that Sora gives into the darkness, turning into a Heartless and in-turn, creates Roxas again. He’s done it before, and on purpose. He didn’t know what would happen when he stabbed himself with the keyblade, but he does now. He’s fully aware that using the keyblade on himself will yield his Nobody into existence again. But we still have no confirmation that this is what he meant. Regardless, the following still stands.

Seeing how Sora reacted to his statement, it’s kinda obvious that Sora knows exactly what Xemnas is talking about. He’s not really shocked, but more apalled by the fact that Xemnas called him out. He isn’t making a suggestion here, that Sora use the darkness. The way it’s worded, he KNOWS Sora has been talking about it. He talks about it with his friends, telling them how he feels and what he’s been thinking of doing. Xemnas didn’t tell him to do it, but rather he’s making the choice HIMSELF.

In summary:

Sora has been trying to find a way to get Roxas back, discussing it with friends, and that’s probably what part of the game is gonna be about: getting Roxas back into existence. But Sora isn’t running through the worlds, searching for THE way to get Roxas back, but rather an alternative way. He already knows what he has to do, but he’s searching for a different way to do it. And by the looks of it, he might go through with whatever he has planned. He didn’t find an alternative, and he accepts that. Good or bad, Sora will do whatever has to be done to bring his could-be friend back.