#which is how its supposed to be and its made me like larxene just a little bit more but aubg | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

super-kristuff · 1 year

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I finished Arendelle, and I was pleasantly surprised to find that is was a fun and enjoyable experience.

Like, I still think KH3 has a lot to learn about level design, and I think that is still its lowest point. I saw a KH3 post recently where someone was complaining about the number of cut-scenes, and I have to agree that, although I love the cut-scenes, the game is clearly using game-play exclusively to break up cut-scenes and not the other way around. Like, without the puzzle-box level design, the levels are just combat, and each combat feels exactly the same.

Anyway, I really did love the level. Most importantly, I think this was one of the strongest levels in term of KH lore. I'm pretty sure it is the only time KH has even tried to draw parallels between its cast and the in-world characters, and I felt it was pretty successful.

To give a brief summary, we start by running into Elsa after the coronation. I was really hoping Elsa would join the party, but I think I agree with the game that it would be too out of character. Elsa pushes Sora away with the same icy-spike thing she used to push away her sister, and we run into Larxene. Which, holy fuck, Larxene was the perfect character choice.

Like, I feel Larxene is a fantastic foil for Elsa. Obviously, Larxene is there for some evil plan, but from the first encounter, Larxene's interaction with Arendelle seems so personal. Like, Larxene's big argument is that, maybe, Sora shouldn't be chasing after Elsa. That maybe Elsa needs some space to sort out her feelings.

And like, she's right? Elsa building her tower is one of the few times Elsa is happy before saving her sister. There's another scene where Larxene tells Sora to bugger off, and Larxene causally mentions that if Elsa feels her magic is evil she will likely become evil because that's what she thinks she is. And like, Larxene is one of the more magic focused members of the Organization. She uses her classic lightning when we first meet her, but she picks up snow magic and appears to get better with it each time we see her. And like, I can't help but feel Larxene went through something similar? That she felt her magic was coming from a place of darkness, pushed others away, and became who she is now. Unlike the other Organization members, she sticks to her own advice and seems to be trying to let Elsa choose her own path. And that's just really nice? Compared to Monsters Inc.'s "I love pain and suffering" Vanitas, it was a refreshingly deep character.

Also, there was a "Let it Go" musical number. Which, considering the marketing of Frozen, I suppose was unavoidable. It was pretty good, but it did also make me reconsider the level design of Monsters Inc. Like, I forget if this made it into the last post, but I did suspect some content had been cut from the Monsters Inc level. Originally, I suspected that two guys raising a child together caused Disney to step in and cut anything they didn't like, but considering the amount of thought put into Frozen, it makes me wonder if they intentionally cut content from Monsters Inc to make Frozen look better in comparison. Both Pixar worlds have us meet the cast after the movie, and I feel that is a much stronger story model. We don't know how things will end, and it means Sora can actually interact and influence the direction of the story.

Anyway, Larxene wasn't the only well crafted character. Sora bumps into Anna, and in line with the ice-spike reference before, the game explicitly draws a connection between Sora-Riku's arc and Anna-Elsa's arc. Which, like, Sora actually commenting on something and having any kind of personality is huge. It also cements Sora as a foil to Anna, which honestly fits.

There is a fun Olaf building mini-game where you can grab the wrong parts for Olaf, and I felt it was a nice game-play moment. Each world has had a few of these fun non-combat moments, and I feel they really make each world shine. There is also an odd amount of characterization for the snow golem that Elsa created? Like, we get to fight it at one point, but we see it again later, and it just wants to help Elsa. Which, connecting back to Larxene's comment, I think there is some symbolism for Olaf and Golem being two directions Elsa magic could take. I think Sora befriending the Golem shows how even the scarier parts of Elsa's magic have good in them.

I also wanted to comment of the avalanche mini-game and ice-labyrinth, but really all I want to say is the ice-labyrinth was a nice puzzle-box-esqe level. Pretty much the definition of puzzle-box level design, but only embracing it enough to check all the boxes. The rest of the level was just snowy mountain. Like, honestly, a comical amount of the level was snowy mountain. We climbed the mountain three times. Very linear and very boring.

Anyway, that's enough KH3 commentary for one night.

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foreteller-ava · 2 years

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New Beginnings

AO3 | FFN

Summary: A look into the start of Larxene's time as a Nobody.

[Written for Lightning in a Bottle: A Larxene Fanzine]

A/N: Thank you guys over @larxine so much for having me on the zine! It's full of some absolutely amazing talent, and if you guys are interested in picking up a copy, leftover sales are going on right now so go pick up a copy!

The world had fallen into darkness. It was one of the few things she was sure of as she sat on the dark cliffside, watching the lightning strike around her. She wasn’t quite sure how she’d arrived in Enchanted Dominion, but it had been her home for quite a while.

That felt right, though in truth, she scarcely knew enough about herself to recognize more about it.

For whatever reason, her lack of memories didn’t bother her. The knowledge that she had no idea who she was just brought about a cold feeling of nothing, as though she literally couldn’t remember how to react, process, or understand. That should have bothered her too, and yet she felt nothing over that realization either.

The only thing she cared about was the fact that she wouldn’t know who she was or why she was here if she stayed on the cliffside. She stood up and turned around, resolved to find an answer. To her surprise, a cloaked man was behind her, holding a pink scythe.

“Who are you?” she asked. Her voice sounded flat, even to her own ears. She expected the man to be surprised, but the moment he heard her speak, he sent away the scythe. “Well? I’m waiting.”

“Tell me, do you remember anything?” He ignored her question, choosing to answer instead with one of his own.

She shook her head, even her name wasn’t something she had the ability to grasp. “Am I supposed to?”

“I’d be surprised if you did, normally it takes a few days for the memories to return.” The man remained contemplative for a moment.

“You sound as though you know what happened.” There was a slight bite to her voice, and that surprised her, but despite that she still hardly felt anything more than a mild annoyance at how the man wasn’t helpful at all.

“I do, because it’s the same thing that happened to me.” He extended a hand. “Come with me, I’ll take you to the Superior.”

“The Superior?”

The man nodded. “The one who runs the Organization. He’ll give you your new name, just as he gave one to all of us.”

She didn’t want a new name. She just wanted to know who she was. “Why do I need a new name?”

“Because you’ve lost your heart,” he answered. “The person you once were no longer exists. With their death, it is time for you to become somebody new.”

The man’s explanation didn’t make sense, but neither did anything else that was happening to her, and he seemed to know more than most. Sticking with him until she could get a better grasp of what was happening was the best idea. She grabbed his hand. “I’ll come with you.”

“Good.” He raised his hand, creating a shadowy portal in front of them, and she stepped inside with him. Neither of them said much. He didn’t seem to have anything to say, and with barely any knowledge of who she was, it wasn’t like she had much more she could add in either.

The trip was short, and the dark shadows gave way to a room of blinding white. The room was empty, aside from a man in a black cloak like the one her ‘friend’ was wearing on top of one of its thirteen thrones. She stood in the center, looking up at him as the new man spoke. “Marluxia, I see you found another.”

The first man, Marluxia, nodded. “I did, yes. She was found in the remnants of Enchanted Dominion. Which brings our number up to twelve.”

“Indeed.” He looked down on her, and not wanting him to think she was afraid, she made sure to meet his gaze. “You seek answers.” It wasn’t a question. “I can help you find them.”

“E L R E N A” The letters floated around her in a glowing blue before they picked up speed, spinning rapidly until it stopped, a golden X appearing in between them before they formed a new word: “Larxene.”

“Is that all? What does that even mean?” As far as she knew, it wasn’t even a word.

“It is your new name,” the man answered. Her new name, Larxene. She nodded, allowing him to continue. “As he is the one who found you, Marluxia will be the one assigned to your training.”

“Of course.” Marluxia nodded. The other man vanished, allowing Marluxia to turn to her. “Well, Larxene. Welcome to the Organization.”

-x-

“If you’re ready, I believe it’s time we start your first mission.” Marluxia stood above her, and Larxene looked up from the book she had been reading in the Grey Area to face Marluxia. It had been a week since she’d first been brought in, and she’d yet to leave the castle since. It shouldn’t have been too much of a surprise that eventually she would be asked to go.

“You sure, I was hoping to finish my chapter first.” Larxene smiled, hoping the display of kindness would get her more time in the Grey Area before she’d have to leave.

Marluxia didn’t seem to have the heart or energy to care, but he was also impatient by her stalling. “Now, Larxene. You need to learn how the Organization works if you’re going to stay. The punishment for failing to complete missions is far worse than you’d expect.” It was interesting to see the emotionless man display some form of feeling. A challenge, perhaps, to get him to display more despite the fact that Nobodies could not feel.

Larxene sighed, and slammed the book shut. “Fine. Let’s just go already.” She watched as Marluxia raised his hand, summoning a dark corridor in front of them. He gestured to it, indicating for Larxene to enter. She walked in, and he followed shortly behind, leading her to an unfamiliar town, stuck in an eternal twilight.

“So, why are we here anyways?” She knew. She remembered the quick briefing from when she’d first been discovered. They were hunting for Heartless to claim their hearts, but asked anyways.

“We’re here to hunt Heartless. A vast majority of our missions will be learning how to fight them until a Keybearer is discovered.”

From what little Larxene knew, she knew that the Heartless were on every world they could travel to; the corridors of darkness that allowed the Organization members to travel between each world allowed the Heartless to travel between them as well. Still, she got the feeling that playing dumb would irritate him more than not. “On this peaceful world? You can’t honestly believe that Heartless would come here.”

“If we can come to a world, so too can they.” Marluxia’s eye twitched in annoyance ever so slightly, and Larxene smirked, happy that she’d managed to get a small reaction. “I assumed this had been explained to you by one of the other members.”

“Why would I pay attention to what they say when I can continue to ask you?” Larxene leaned back against the wall, making it clear she had no intention to begin the mission quite yet. “You were the one assigned to be my mentor after all. Asking one of the other members so you can just pawn it off on them just doesn’t seem fair.”

“I’m not looking to shirk my responsibilities. I simply assumed you would care more about getting your heart back, rather than making a nuisance of yourself. Most of the other members did.” Marluxia frowned. Perhaps it was just because she didn’t have a lot of memories of her time before she had been a Nobody, but the lack of emotions didn’t bother her. It was just a fact. “If you don’t, then I suppose there’s no reason for your presence in the Organization either.”

Larxene shook her head. “Don’t be stupid. From what I can tell, Nobodies like us–” She indicated herself and Marluxia. “--are rare. The Organization couldn’t spare one of us just because I don’t care one way or the other about having my heart. I’ll play whatever role I need to, don’t worry your little head about it. You’ll get your heart back, and so will the others.”

She expected that to be the end of the conversation, but it seemed she had finally caught Marluxia’s attention. “You don’t want your heart back?”

“I don’t really remember what it was like to have one. Why would I care?” Larxene shrugged. “I mean sure, I remember feelings enough to pretend I have them, but it doesn’t mean I care to feel them again.”

“Interesting.” Marluxia put his hand on his chin, looking at Larxene in a new light. “I suppose I shouldn’t be surprised I’m the only one with limited memories, yet most of the others I’ve talked to seem to have reclaimed theirs.”

A similarity between the two of them surprised Larxene, and she looked at him just as curiously as he did her. “So I guess I’m not that special after all.”

“Having one other person with few memories is still a rare occurrence,” Marluxia smiled, one she might have thought genuine had Nobodies been able to feel. “Perhaps, even after you’ve finished training, we’ll find ourselves working together again in the future.”

At the idea of working together with Maraluxia, there was a feeling of nostalgia. As though there was another that she had worked closely with side by side. As a Somebody, there had been a boy, a boy that she remembered little about, that she had considered a close friend. Perhaps, in a way, he reminded her of that boy. “Sounds like something I might be open to.”

-x-

The rest of Larxene’s training passed without incident, and it wasn’t long before she found herself going on missions like most Organization members, taking down the Heartless with the knives she’d learned how to summon after that first day. While most of her missions lately had been solo, today’s had found herself fighting alongside Marluxia within a world that felt more like it would give her a headache with how every entry in the strange forest had her turned around.

In fact, the only real plus she had was that her partner was Marluxia. Of the eleven other members of the Organization, he may have been the only one she found remotely tolerable. She felt him settle in behind her back, his scythe bared as the multiple varieties of small elemental Heartless surrounded them. “Think you can take this many?”

“I’ve been at this longer than you. I’m more concerned for you and your safety.” Unlike normal, there was a slight inflection to his words, as though he was almost enjoying himself. “You are the newbie after all.”

“I can’t wait to see your excuse when I take down more than you.” And with that they separated, Marluxia taking out each Heartless with a clean stroke while she tore through them with her knives, each small strike weakening them more and more until finally, they were all but eliminated. She watched as the final one fell, the small pink crystalline heart escaping from it and back into the Realm of Darkness, where they would spawn once more in a new form.

“Not bad.” Marluxia nodded to her, impressed. “I see you’ve grown since our first mission together.”

“Not hard, I had to get some experience from all that training.” Larxene smirked. “Of course, that doesn’t make any of this any better.”

“You have complaints?”

Larxene gave a conceited laugh at Marluxia’s question. “Of course I do. I’ve only been here a few weeks and already I can see the flaws in Xemnas’s plan.”

“Do tell.” For a moment, Larxene thought that he was mocking her, but she quickly dismissed it. There was an air of anticipation surrounding him, as though he was actually interested in her answers about her problems with the Organization.

Deciding this wasn’t a mocking question, and it was unlikely she’d get in trouble for voicing her opinion, she was honest. “These missions feel pointless. We can’t collect the hearts for Kingdom Hearts without a Keyblade, and unless you’re hiding something I don’t know about, neither of us have a Keyblade.” When Marluxia didn’t challenge her on that, she continued. “So why are we going out on missions to destroy the Heartless when we can’t do anything with them? It's a waste of time when we can let the Heartless destroy more worlds until we find a Nobody like us that can actually use one.”

“I’m sure the Superior has his reasons,” Marluxia said. She expected that to be the end of the conversation, but instead he continued. “What bothers me is how he always chooses to keep these reasons so secret.”

That caught her attention. “So you’re unsure of the purpose behind our missions too?”

Marluxia nodded. “I’m sure that he’s hiding something about what’s really going on, although about what his true goal is, I’m less certain.”

“Hmph, if that’s the case then why has nobody done anything to get him to tell us something?” she asked. Marluxia didn’t answer the question, and she got the feeling that the threats for going against Xemnas weren’t something that she wanted to chance. She was about to dismiss her own comment, to tell Marluxia to forget about it, when he spoke up.

“Perhaps they are biding their time for the right moment, when they’re sure that they’d have more of the Organization on their side.”

Larxene caught on instantly. Taking on eleven other members alone was foolish, but Marluxia was no longer alone in his quest. “Perhaps that person looking into it might have found himself an ally in finding out what Xemnas really wants. If, of course, I happen to be talking to him.”

Marluxia smiled. It was cold and calculating, more of a smirk than a smile if she was honest, but a smile nonetheless. “I believe you are.”

She nodded. “I’d like to offer myself to be your partner in finding out the truth. If you think you won’t stop my own quest.”

“Don’t worry, I’m sure I’ll manage to keep up. The two of us will work together just fine.” And just like before, on their first mission, she felt that spark of familiarity, the echo of a time that once was.

If she was working with Marluxia, then perhaps this impossible mission of seeking out their true purpose wouldn’t be so hard after all.

#Kingdom Hearts #Larxene #Marluxia

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angelsinflight · 2 years

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Marluxia’s Story

[Copied from the Kingdom Hearts Character Files official release.] [Master Post here ] [Info and Photos under the cut.]

“Ephemeral Flower”

I know who I am and my purpose for being.

Once, I was anxious because I had even forgotten my own name. I was like Roxas when he first joined the Organization. However, I was powerful.

And ironically, I was put in charge of that castle that governs memories. I understood that when a person loses their body and becomes a NObody, they might also lose their memory. For that reason, I helped with the research of memories. That was also for the purpose of regaining my own lost memories. Memories govern the heart, and the heart is made of them. A heart without memories is merely a husk. If you rearrange a person’s chain of memories, you can manipulate them however you like.

Was it by someone’s design that I, with no memories, became the head of Castle Oblivion? Who on earth was it? Well, I suppose there’s no point in wondering that now.

In the end, I couldn’t obey Xemnas. Why, I don’t know. As I pretended to obey, I was constantly thinking about betrayal. Perhaps that was something left within me from when I had a heart. Or perhaps it was a key that led me to my heart. I have no idea.

It wasn’t until much later that I learned the castle was a special place. Castle Oblivion is a sealed ground-- a place where a hero of the Keyblade slept. Where he was sleeping.

“Soon the emptiness will shatter your heart-- here in this world of nothingness!” I declared, facing the hero of the Keyblade. Although his memories had been manipulated, he still stood against me.

“You fools-- you can never understand our agony . . . !”

Defeated by the hero once, I became a vessel for that old man and met the hero again.

However, I was destined to disappear again. The next time I awoke, I was no longer a Nobody.

“Oh. . . So, now it all comes back to me.” I began to laugh in self-destruction. “Hey. Is that a real laugh?” “Yes. . . My heart is remembering how to feel.”

As I answered the hero’s question, I placed a hand on my chest.

“Really? That’s good.” “And now, I am on the cusp of reclaiming my identity. . . My purpose for being. . . Thanks to you, Sora.”

And I regained both my heart and my memories. When was it that Larxene said this? The heart is an inconvenience. Because the occupants of my heart now are dark thoughts, sadness, pain, hatred-- no, that’s not all. Even love is coming back to life in my heart. But I know that, because of love, hatred also exists in people’s hearts-- and in mine, now that I’m human again. Darkness is something that’s close to light.

If there are people who have full clarity of the world, could even they have predicted a future like this? There’s no way I could accept such a future. I couldn’t accept the future at all. Maybe that’s why I became a Nobody, or maybe that isn’t why.

From here on out, what am I supposed to do? What should I do? Where should I go now that I’m human again?

Is that, too, a future that’s already been decided? I don’t have the answer.

As always, there are so many things I don’t know. However, the one thing I do know is the name of that small flower.

A weak heart which turns its back on the truth. . . Perhaps it was I who bound my heart in a chain of memories and cast away its freedom.

And for me, to find is to lose, and to lose is to find.

Lose what? Memories? Or something else? I don’t even know that. But it doesn’t matter if I don’t. I found, and what I found was my memories. And I regained this gloomy feeling.

I myself was drowning in the ever-blooming darkness as lightless oblivion devoured me.

But no longer.

--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Just uploading scans of the character files pages is making it hard to read, so I’m trying to copy things over for my friends abroad who aren’t able to get ahold of the book, as well as hopefully making them more accessible to people who use screen readers.

#marluxia #lauriam #organization xiii #kh3 #kingdom hearts #character files #khux

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atomic-taco-muffin · 3 years

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The Lost Princess Chapter 36

Warnings: you already know

Rating: SFW

You and Sora exited the Twelfth Floor entrance and had now entered the world of Destiny Islands.

“I'm not going crazy, am I? I know exactly where this is... Yeah! This is our island! Where Naminé and us used to play together!” you said.

“You’re right! It is!” Sora said.

“Heeeey!” Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie said as they ran to you and Sora.

“Whassup, guys!” Wakka said.

“So, whatcha wanna do today?” Selphie said.

“Hey, guys! Are we glad to see you, uh...” you said.

“‘Uh’, what?” Tidus asked.

“We got food on our faces?” Wakka asked.

“Please, Wakka. Only you could be dumb enough to not notice food stuck to your face,” Selphie said.

“Hey, whoa! That's a low blow, ya?”

“I dunno, Wakka. I think Selphie's on the mark,” Tidus said.

“Aw, not you too, Tidus!” Wakka said.

“Oh, yeah. You're Selphie, Wakka, and Tidus, that's who you are!” Sora said.

“Right!” you said.

“You hit your head?” Wakka asked.

“No, uh...just thinking aloud,” Sora said.

“I know... You're thinking about HER again!” Selphie said.

“Ohhh, I get it. Yeah, they’re a total zombie when she's on their minds,” Tidus said.

“That would explain why he's actin' all funny towards us,” Wakka said.

“I bet you want us to take a hike so you three can be ALONE, huh?” Selphie asked.

“Ummm...I guess,” you said.

“All right, all right. We'll disappear for awhile. Go find her, you two.”

“We'll try to be quiet while we SPY on you!” Tidus said.

“Hey, Sora and (Y/N) are serious. Give the guy some room,” Wakka said.

“I'm only kidding!” Tidus said.

“See you later, you two!” Selphie said. The three of them left. You and Sora encountered Riku by the Paopu tree on a nearby tiny island.

“Hey, you two. What's the big rush?” Riku asked.

“I know you...” Sora said.

“Me too...” you said. The two of you thought for a moment.

“You're Riku!” the two of you said.

“Gee, thanks for remembering me. It's been, what, a couple of hours?” Riku said.

“Er... Never mind. Are you okay? Are you still under his control?” Sora said.

“What are you TALKING about?” The three of you thought for a moment.

“I get it... You must be the Riku from our memories,” you said.

“’The Riku from our memories’? Sounds like you're stuck in the land of make-believe,” Riku said.

“I guess we kind of are,” Sora said.

“Ha ha, you're such a kid. How are you gonna take care of HER if you two act like that?”

“Hey, speaking of her---” you said. Suddenly, the ground started to shake.

“What's happening?!” Sora asked.

“How should I know! Whatever it is, it can't be good! I'm gonna go warn the others!” Riku said as he started to run

“Then we should go---” you said.

“I know, I know! It's your job to look after her. Go!” Riku said.

“Okay!” Sora said. You all ran off. A large dark sphere hovered in the sky. The islands had been destroyed and reduced to a single landmass, which you and Sora was on.

“The island!” you said. You and Sora ran to the edge and looked down. A Darkside Heartless rose up behind him. You and Sora destroyed it.

“Okay...We have to keep her safe... Naminé! Can you hear me?” Sora said. Naminé was behind you and Sora. You and Sora noticed her.

“Naminé...” you and Sora said. The two of you ran to her.

“Sora, (Y/N)... You really came for me,” she said. You and Sora nodded and smiled. The two of you then took her hand.

“It's you... It's really you. We've been through so much just to see you,” you said.

“Yes. I wanted to see you guys, too. But this isn't right. I messed up. I wanted to see you... But this isn't the right way.”

“Naminé?” Sora asked.

“I was lonely for so long. I just couldn't bear it anymore. So I called out to your hearts and had you come all the way out to this place. You two came for me and I'm so...so happy, but...but to your hearts I had to---”

“Don't worry. We’re here because we promised that we would protect you,” you said.

“Sora, (Y/N)... Thank you. And I'm sorry.” SHe let go you and Sora’s hand.

“I'm not supposed to be in this picture,” she said. Suddenly, there was another Naminé behind you and Sora.

“That's true,” she said.

“Huh? Naminé?!” Sora asked as the two of you noticed the other Naminé.

“That isn't me. I'm not there,” she said.

“I don't really exist inside your heart,” the first Naminé said.

“I don't exist in anyone's heart.”

“I never have existed anywhere.”

“What... What are you saying? What's gotten into you? Weren't we inseparable, always together? But then you had to go away... we came here so we'd never lose you again!” you said.

“Was it really me you two wanted to see?” the second Naminé asked.

“Of course it was! I know we've forgotten a lot of things in this castle, but never anything about you!” Sora said. The two of you took out Naminé's good luck charms.

“Look! You gave this to us, didn't you?” you said.

“You have it! My good luck charms,” the first Naminé said.

“No, Sora, (Y/N)! You can't believe me!” the second Naminé said. The original Naminé looked away.

“What are we supposed to do...” Sora asked.

“Think, guys. Think just one more time. About who's most special to you. Call out to that piece of memory that glimmers faintly deep inside your hearts. No matter how far away the light gets, your heart's voice will always reach it,” the second Naminé said.

“Who's most special to us? That's an easy one. It's you, Nami---” you said. The good luck charms glowed and gave off a light. It changed into Kairi's good luck charms. You and Sora saw Naminé and she changed into Kairi. The islands were now restored.

“Who... Who was that? I can't remember her, but she feels so...familiar. Naminé? Naminé!” Sora said.

“Neither can I!” you said. You and Sora left Destiny Islands and entered the Twelfth Floor Exit Hall, where the two of you encountered Naminé.

“Naminé! It isn't you. The person most special to us--- It's not you... Right?” Sora said.

“No. The girl you two really care about... The one who was always with you... It's not me. It's her,” she said.

“But then who...who is she? Cuz I can't...think of her name. If she's so special to us, then why can't we remember?” you said.

“Because I went into your memories and---”

“Let ME explain this.” Suddenly, Riku had appeared.

“Plain and simple. Your memories are a train wreck. You're not the one who's meant to protect Naminé. It's supposed to be me! But you and your messed-up memories are always in the way, guys!” he said. You, Sora, and Riku battled one last time with the help of Odile. After the battle, Riku was down on the ground. You and Sora came to his aid.

“Riku!” you and Sora said.

“Want some more?” Riku asked. He fired a blast at you and Sora, knocking you two to the ground.

“Aah!” you and Sora screamed.

“Sora! (Y/N)!” Naminé yelled. Riku had a smile on his face as he walked to you and Sora. Odile ran in front of you two but Riku knocked her away.

“Odile!” you yelled. You stood up and ran over to her.

“Riku...” Sora groaned.

“Looks like I win,” Riku said.

“Riku, stop!” Naminé said.

“You are through!” Riku prepared to strike down Sora. You and Naminé panicked.

“I said STOP!” Naminé said. Riku's head flashed. He stopped and fell to the ground.

“Riku...?” Sora asked.

“Riku! RIKU!” you said.

“What did you do? What did you do to him?” Sora asked Naminé. Suddenly, Larxene appeared.

“Broke his heart. I'd say more like she smashed it, really,” she said.

“Smashed...his heart?! Then...what's gonna... What's gonna happen to Riku?” you asked. Larxene laughed.

“Oh, you two are so much fun to watch. If it's Riku you're worried about, then don't. Because Riku was never really here,” she said.

“What do you mean?” Sora asked.

“Do you really think I'm just gonna say it? That's too easy! Oh, what to do?”

“Quit the games!” you said. You and Sora attacked Larxene but she kicked the two of you away. Odile ran over to check on you. Larxene sighed.

“All right, have it your way, then. I know it'll kill you to hear this, but I think I can live with that. That thing lying there is just a puppet that Vexen made as an experiment. No more than a toy. It's laughable, really. It called you two a fake, but IT was a fabrication all along,” she said.

“Not Riku? A fake?!” Sora asked.

“Fake in every possible way. It was only finished recently. How could it remember anything?” Larxene picked up the fake Riku.

“You get it? Its memories with Naminé were just planted, not real,” she said. She threw the replica near the wall.

“Yup. That means, all this time, it's been picking fights with you two over memories---that were counterfeit, trumped up, and completely bogus. Isn't that the truth, Naminé?” she said. She picked Naminé’s head up.

“Oh, so cute...but behind this little face, you do awful things,” she said. Naminé looked away.

“Naminé...” you said.

“You two are so stupid. Don't you get it now? That's what Naminé's powers are about! She can enter, rearrange, and even create new memories---of anything, even things that never happened. The girl you two have been trying to protect all this time---is really a manipulative witch who shackles people's hearts!” Larxene said.

“Then...our memories...are all...” Sora said.

“Oh, you do get it! Lies, lies, all lies! Just Naminé's illusions, nothing more. Binding you two in the chains of your own memories was central to our trap. It makes me tingle to think how easily you two were duped. So close to it--- we were almost there. This was our only chance to turn the Keyblade master and the Spirit of Light into our puppet, but--- That jerk Axel---he used Naminé to betray us!” Larxene summoned her knives. You and Sora gasped.

“So now, I'm left with no choice but to eliminate you!” Larxene said.

“You'll pay...” you said. Larxene stepped forward. Naminé walked in between You, Sora, and Larxene and spreaded her arms out to protect the two of you. Odile got in a defensive stance in front of you.

“Don't!” Naminé said.

“Huh? It's a little late for the witch to grow a conscience. Last time I checked---YOU'RE the one who fooled around with their memories creating this mess,” Larxene said.

“I know, but---”

“I should tell you that I'm in an EXTREMELY foul mood. Thanks to you, all our plans are ruined!” Larxene knocked her away.

“Naminé!” you and Sora said.

“What's this? Are you two upset?” Larxene giggled.

“And you two don't even actually know her!” she said.

“Maybe not. But still...we made...a promise,” Sora said.

“What?” You and Sora started to stand up.

“A promise we made to Naminé to keep her safe. Maybe our memories are fake. But the promise is real to us,” you said. You faltered a bit due to another headache but regained your balance.

“That's why---we'll keep it,” you said.

“Hmph. You're such an idiot. There is no promise and there never was! You're just delusional. Must you two insist on playing the hero? Whatever. If that's the way you two want it... You're going down alone!” Larxene said. Goofy's shield suddenly appeared and flew past Larxene, distracting her. Goofy appeared and ran in front of you and Sora. Donald casted Curaga on you and Sora and ran in front of the two of you as well.

“Not if we can stop you!” Donald said.

“Huh?” you and Sora asked. Donald and Goofy had their weapons ready, shielding you and Sora. Odile walked next to them and became hostile towards Larxene.

“Donald! Goofy! You found us!” Sora said.

“Of course we did. We were worried about you two!” Goofy said.

“And we promised! We promised that we would protect you two!” Donald said. You and Sora smiled.

“You two won't ever be alone. It's always been the four of us and we stick together...” Goofy said.

“And that is how it's going to stay!” Donald said.

“Who’s this little guy?” Goofy asked.

“That’s Odile. She’s my little guardian,” you said.

“Sweet!”

“Okay... Have it your way. More pain for you means more fun for me!” Larxene said. You and the group fought Larxene and won.

“No... No! I refuse to lose to such a bunch of losers!” She panted as she began to fade away.

“I think I'm...I'm fading?! No, this isn't...the way I... I won't... ALLOW...” she said. Larxene faded away into darkness. You and the trio noticed Naminé in front of the replica Riku, laying on her knees. The four of you walked over to her.

“You must be Naminé! It's good to meet ya. We're friends of (Y/N) and Sora's and my name is---” Goofy said.

“You're Goofy, and you're Donald,” Naminé said.

“Yeah, but how did you know that?” Donald said.

“Congratulations, you two! You finally found your friend. I'm so happy for ya!” Goofy said.

“Gee, there sure are a lot of questions... Naminé, I know this probably won't be easy for ya...but could ya tell us what happened?” Jiminy said.

“Of course. It's my fault, after all. I took the people and memories that were inside Sora and (Y/N)'s heart...and little by little, I replaced them with false memories,” Naminé said.

“Hey... What about Sora and (Y/N)'s promise?” Donald asked.

“Made up. It was fake. Sora and (Y/N) never really promised me anything. Me being with them on the islands---that was a lie, just like everything else. We never met. I was never Sora and (Y/N)'s friend---”

“And you were never anything more---either...” Sora said.

“No. You see, in all of your true memories, I was never really there.”

“Gee, then that must mean it was your magic that made the rest of us lose our memories, too. Is there any way for us to ever get 'em back?” Jiminy said.

“I can fix everything if we go to the thirteenth floor. But Marluxia, he---”

“Bet I know who that is. Was he the fellah who made you tamper with all of our memories?”

“If I didn't obey, he said I'd be locked in this castle forever. I've been alone for so long...”

“So ya did what he told ya to do because you were lonely?” Goofy asked.

“I'm so sorry...”

“Don't be. Please don't cry...” you said. Odile walked over to Naminé and rubbed herself against her in a reassuring way.

“Oh... Of course. I know I really don't have the right to,” she said.

“That's not what I meant!” Sora said.

“What?”

“It's like this... I'm really not happy about you messing with mine and (Y/N)’s memories. But...you know---I can't really get mad at you for it, either. These memories you gave us... In our heads, I know they're lies---but they still feel right. Like the promise we made. We said we would protect you and that we wouldn't make you cry...not ever. Naminé...if you cry now---I'll feel guilty, like I let you down. So don't cry...please. Until we get our memories back, smile and try to be happy. It's easier on me that way.”

“Same here,” you said.

“Sora, (Y/N)...” Naminé said.

“Oh, brother! That's a bit much,” Donald said.

“It's okay. Sora and (Y/N) always gets like this every time they’re around a girl!” Goofy said.

“Aw, cut it out! I thought you both lost your memories, too!” Sora said. Donald laughed.

“Too bad. Good friends don't forget the good stuff!” he winked. Goofy laughed.

“Come on...” you said. You and Sora smiled. Naminé laughed.

“There! That's it! That's the Naminé I remember. Yeah...I really liked it when you used to smile. Of course, that was really only in my fake memories. But what I'm feeling now definitely isn't fake. It's real,” Sora said.

“Sora’s right, you know,” you said.

“Thank you,” Naminé said. Odile walked back to you and sat on your shoulders.

“Well, then, let's go,” you said.

“Oh boy! I can't wait to get my memory back!” Donald said.

“Naminé, Marluxia is gonna be up there, so maybe you'd better stay down here,” Goofy said.

“Yeah. Maybe you could look after Riku? We'll come get you when it's over,” Sora said.

“Okay,” Namine said. You and the trio walked to the stairs. Donald and Goofy waved goodbye. You and Sora stopped for a moment and looked back at Naminé.

“Please be careful, you two,” she said.

“We'll be okay... I promise!” you said. Sora nodded in agreement. You, Sora, Donald, and Goofy entered the Thirteenth Floor. The four of you walked through the door ahead and entered the main area of the floor.

To be continued...

#kingdom hearts #kingdomhearts #kingdom hearts imagine #kingdom hearts x reader #kingdom+hearts+x+reader #kingdom+hearts+imagines #kingdomhearts x reader #kingdomhearts imagines #kingdomhearts+x+reader #kingdomhearts+imagines

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revengerevisited · 4 years

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Maddie rambles about Kingdom Hearts: Dark Road

Let’s just get this outta the way: Xehanort is my least favorite character in Kingdom Hearts. Now there are certainly more boring and underdeveloped characters but as far as evil deeds go, it doesn’t matter how ‘cute’ or ‘relatable’ Nomura tries to make Xehanort. I will never forget that he tore Ven’s heart in half, tortured Vanitas for four years, killed his own best friend, possessed Terra’s body for a decade, possessed Riku’s body as Ansem, unleashed Heartless on the worlds resulting in countless deaths, manipulated Organization XIII for years, and experimented on Kairi as a child and eventually murdered her in front of her best friends. Any attempt to make me sympathize with him just ain’t gonna work.

Also, I’m not taking any of these ‘Character X is secretly Character Y’ theories too seriously until they actually happen. Yes, it can be fun to speculate that Bragi or Odin is secretly Luxu or the Master of Masters, or that Brain is Eraqus’s ancestor, or that Demyx is the MoM, or that Ava or Vor is Kairi’s grandma, or whatever other theories are out there. But until there’s conclusive evidence that’s all they are, speculations and theories.

On that note, I don’t know why Xehanort is having dreams about the KHUX Player’s adventures but I don’t think it’s because Xehanort is the Player’s Nobody or a reincarnation of the Player. Reincarnation has never been a concept present in the KH series, and honestly it just sounds like bad fanfiction. Plus, if Xehanort does turn out to be the Player, then I feel bad for everyone who spent a lot of time creating their own unique character only to have it be replaced by the generic default Player in KHDR’s opening cutscene and then re-replaced by Xehanort of all people. Perhaps Xehanort simply has a unique, unexplained power to see into the past like Namine’s memory manipulation or Terra’s precognition.

Either way, this past-sight just makes it harder and harder for me to believe that Xehanort wanted to learn about the Keyblade War in BBS, since it seems he already knew all he needs to know. Xemnas knows that Luxord, Marluxia, Demyx, and Larxene are from the past, young Xehanort lives in Scala ad Caelum which was built over the ruins of Daybreak Town complete with a huge machine explaining Daybreak Town’s demise, Eraqus talks about the Book of Prophecies like it’s common knowledge, the list goes on. Also, I don’t like the implication that Xehanort chose Ventus as his vessel and later as material for the X-Blade only because he knows him from the Player’s dreams. Then again, if his dreams of the Keyblade War end before the Player meets Ven and Lauriam, then Xehanort wouldn’t know about them and would instead be more familiar with Skuld and Ephemer.

I will say that one thing I do like is Xehanort comparing himself to a starfish laying on the beach, both for the humorous imagery and also just a bit of that islander backstory flavor. Xehanort being the outsider of his friends group and not telling the whole truth of how he ended up in Scala is also an interesting Kairi parallel, although him being found unconscious in the middle of a city is kinda overused. I do like that the surrounding cities around Scala are all uninhabited, since trying to wrap my mind around these huge mountain-sized cities with potentially millions of people in them was a little too much for my brain to handle.

I do however find it quite bizarre that it’s taken some worlds so long to recover from the Keyblade War. Not only that, but apparently people just appear out of thin air once their world is restored. Like, how? It just feels weird and uncomfortable, almost like these people only exist for the protagonist and audience’s amusement rather than being independent living beings in their own right. I dunno, there’s just something deeply unsettling about those implications. It also makes me wonder how long ago the Keyblade War was, if places like Agrabah still aren’t finished only 75-ish years before KH1. The characters refer to it as a legend, so it must’ve happened a long time ago, right? Some fans think it’s only been 100 years since the Keyblade War, but that would be like the equivalent of calling World War 1 a legend.

The worlds all being on different timescales is also extremely headache-inducing, both as analyst and a fanfic writer trying to keep track of the plot. Couple that with time travel and the whole thing just falls apart. Of course, if each world runs at a different time, then perhaps this is why Xehanort looks so much older than Eraqus, or rather why Eraqus looks so relatively young when he’s supposed to be 80-ish years old. And if that’s the case, then do any of the characters’ ages really matter? I’ve already proven that their ages have been retconned before. Also, this renders timecodes such as ‘75 years later’ and ‘one year later’ from Re:Mind and other parts of the series completely meaningless. The timeline is broken.

Anyway, I’m not sure how much Norse Mythology will play into the story, but all the new characters have Norse names with two that stand out the most. The first is Master Odin, named after a Norse god who sacrificed one of his own eyes for knowledge, which is an interesting parallel to the MoM. The second is Baldr, the as of yet unseen seventh student who has a missing sister, because evidently Nomura likes recycling his previous plots before they’ve even finished. In Norse Mythology, Baldr is the god of light whose death kickstarts the events of Ragnarok. How this’ll be relevant in KHDR remains to be seen, but after seeing those four gravestones in the timeskip/flashforward, I can’t imagine this ending well for anyone not named Eraqus or Xehanort.

Now, as funny as I find it that the new characters have all been killed off this quickly, I’m not entirely convinced that those are Urd, Hermod, Bragi, and Vor’s graves. They could actually be the graves of the missing upperclassmen, if some of them turn up dead. Speaking of the upperclassmen, I would hope that Yen Sid is one of them, but I have a feeling he won’t be allowed to show up simply because of Disney’s stranglehold on its own IP. It’s pretty sad and ironic seeing as this series used to be all about Disney, but I assume that’s why Nomura is straying further and further from the brand.

About the four new student characters, I don’t have any particular attachment to any of them, beyond Vor’s name being hilariously unfortunate. I find it a bit eye-rolling that fans continuously snub Kairi but will instantly latch onto any new characters like Yozora and these four despite barely knowing anything about them. It doesn’t help that, and please correct me if I’m wrong, but it seems that any of the four who you choose to be in your trio will have the exact same dialogue in cutscenes no matter who you pick, meaning that these new characters don’t even get much of a chance to develop their own personalities because all of their dialogue has to be generic and bland enough to fit all four of them.

Young Eraqus is probably the best character so far, simply because he’s the only one with any personality. Granted his supposed cowardice has yet to be seen, but it’s mentioned so often that I assume it’s gonna be an important plot point later. However, I’m finding it hard to relate young Eraqus with his adult counterpart seeing as their personalities are just so different. I’m aware there’s a 65-ish year gap between this Eraqus and older Eraqus, but there better be some major character development to explain this, especially since even standing in front of his presumed classmate’s graves he still seems fairly chipper.

On that note, as humorous as ‘Tardy Fleetfoot’ is, just like with Xehanort, don’t think I’ve forgotten that this guy caused Terra’s insecurity and self-doubt with his overzealous anti-darkness stance, probably heavily influenced Aqua’s black-and-white anti-darkness keyblade-first-ask-questions-later thinking, was also probably the one who told her to lie to Ventus about always living with them, and attempted to straight up kill Ven and Terra. Eraqus’s actions aren’t as bad as Xehanort’s, but they certainly aren’t acceptable in any capacity.

Something odd I noticed is that Eraqus knows what the Heartless are called, and even the difference between Pureblood and Emblem Heartless-- well, part of the difference; I’m assuming he doesn’t know that future Xehanort created them. But anyway, my point is that Aqua doesn’t know what the Heartless are called until Mickey tells her in BBS 0.2. Before that she simply calls them ‘dwellers of darkness’, and even mistakes one for an Unversed. Does this mean Eraqus never taught his students about the Heartless? Why? Perhaps after his classmates died, he decided to shelter his own students from the worlds, hence why their Mark of Mastery was so simple? I’m just guessing at this point. Of course, there’s still no real explanation as for why the Emblem Heartless are here in the past. My best theory is that someone used the Book of Prophecies to summon them... somehow. It really just seems like an excuse to gloss over the corner Nomura wrote himself into with the whole ‘Emblem Heartless were made by Ansem’ thing, but we’ll see.

Honestly this whole series is just one big endless death-spiral of constant retcons and nonsensical plot twists and at this point I’m just exhausted. My view on KH has become one of mild and morbid curiosity, rather than expecting anything truly great. Is that cynical? Yes, but I’ve watched other once-great series (Star Wars, Voltron) worsen over time to the point that they just fizzle out and die, and I’m afraid it’s the same deal with Kingdom Hearts. I don’t think I’ve truly enjoyed a KH game since BBS, and if the series just continues down the path of introducing bland new characters every time Nomura gets bored rather than developing the already established ones, I don’t know how long I can stay interested. The Dark Seeker Saga is over and he really needs to let Xehanort go.

To end this on a positive note, I am tentatively hopeful about Melody of Memory. The gameplay looks cute and fun and the story looks like it will have more development for Kairi and her backstory, which is something I’ve been wanting for a while now. Focusing on the original cast is definitely a step in the right direction, and I hope this series can keep moving forwards rather than backwards.

#khdr

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iamoncewas · 5 years

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I think Let It Go was included in Arendelle for more of a reason than because of its popularity. Sora says in his Kingstagram post that the song helped him "understand" Elsa better.

Throughout Arendelle, Sora compares himself to Anna, and Elsa to Riku. So I believe Let It Go is supposed to be a little glimpse into Riku's mental state in KH3.

It's basically about hiding something about yourself that you're ashamed of. But then accepting it. Just like Elsa did with her magic. And like Riku did with his feelings for Sora. [This is what all those conversations with Larxene were referencing. At first, Riku saw his feelings for Sora as darkness. Like Elsa at first saw her magic as darkness.]

In DDD, Riku's correct response to Roxas's question, "What is it you're so afraid of?", is "Losing something important." Riku's greatest fear is losing Sora. So I believe he has been under the impression that if he told Sora how he really feels, Sora would reject and leave him. Riku now accepts that "dark power in his heart" because its born from love, the source of true strength. And 'member, darkness isn't meant to be seen as 'evil' in KH. I think part of the message of KH is the importance of accepting oneself as you are, the light and the darkness in each of us. [Part of the reason I'm so convinced Soriku endgame.]

Obvious reference to Riku's time alone in the RoD. Which, however, made him stronger, contributing to his heart's current immunity to darkness.

Referencing his feelings for Sora and how he felt he had to hide them from him. But he can't any longer. "Couldn't keep it in, heaven knows I've tried." When it says that Elsa must be the "good girl", I'm reminded of 0.2 when Kairi tells Riku he's different and more like Sora, and he responds with "I try too hard to be the role model. It's more fun to just listen to my heart."

I assume the "cold" can be read as the "dark" in Riku's case? Lol

And he's not afraid of the dark, just of losing Sora. [Lmao Riku looks way too happy in that screenshot, I just noticed]

Basically what Mickey was saying to him, fear not having a hold on him anymore because he's accepted that Sora is paramount. He's free and has become the strongest he's ever been. He's still unaware of the magnitude of the power of love however. This also references how being away from Sora made him realize his importance. Sacred distance.

This makes me lol. "One with the wind and sky." [But also, accurate if Riku is as connected to Sora and Ventus as I think he is.]

"The past is in the past", to me this might be a hint that Riku has finally forgiven himself for his initial fall to darkness, for hurting his friends. It took him a long time, and I believe this happened at the end of the Mark of Mastery exam when he confronted Ansem and chose his final path. "I'm going back to the real world. And then, to Sora's side."

Songs are very up for interpretation though. It's the last verse that really gets me however.

I'll rise like the break of dawn.

Here I stand in the light of day.

Like Nomura never intended this to have a double meaning... right. [Especially factoring in all the blatant parallels Sora himself points out between Elsa and Riku...]

#kh3 spoilers #soriku endgame actually #soriku #kh3 #riku #riku is the light

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apharine · 4 years

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The First Annual Staff Party of the Castle That Never Was

Chapter 1: Rumors and Wagers

Pairing: Reader/Organization XIII

Fandom: Kingdom Hearts

Rating: M

Read on AO3

Summary: [Reader-insert Seven Minutes in Heaven with Organization XIII] When you woke up, you were expecting a quiet day off from missions, shared with no-one but yourself. But your day off went terribly, almost predictably, wrong, and by that evening, you'd been roped into contributing towards a potluck dinner and playing some mashup of Seven Minutes in Heaven and Spin the Bottle with your Organization XIII colleagues. Kingdom Hearts help you.

Notes: Hey all! I’m the author Apharine over on AO3, but you can call me Kana here on Tumblr! My main blog on Tumblr is all serious stuff and I wanted a place where I can post my fanfics and fandom-related contributions and talk to people about KH, so I’m making this sideblog! I always follow back and will try to be regular in my updates, and might even take requests at some point, too!

_____________________

When you walked into the Grey Area after a late breakfast, the rumors were flying more quickly than an Air Soldier Heartless.

“Hey, you might be the last one to have heard,” Axel beamed at you as soon as you stepped in the common space, obviously overjoyed to share the news. With one lanky arm around your shoulders, the redhead navigated you into the center of an absolutely packed Grey Area. It seemed nobody was currently on a mission, which was extremely unusual – you thought you were the only one with today off. What was going on? The couches were jam-packed, and even the standing area around them was full, every Nobody unusually animated and talkative. “Luxord apparently finally got Xemnas to make a wager with him! It - ”

“The Superior would never do such a thing,” Saix’s deep voice interrupted Axel’s eager chatting as the blunette approached, clipboard in hand. “And according to my notes, Axel, you should currently be in Agrabah –”

“Nobody’s going anywhere today, Treasure-Face,” Xigbar drawled from where he sprawled on the couch next to Demyx, who was strumming his sitar and adding to the already clamorous background noise. “Go Berserk on them all if you want, but it’s a battle you’re still going to lose.”

“We have an Organization to run, Number Two,” Saix returned, but Xigbar had already turned around and was chatting with Larxene, who was leaning against the back of the couch.

“I heard Zexion say that they were betting on the outcome of Vexen’s current Replica project,” Demyx said to you conspiratorially. Beside you, Saix’s grip on his clipboard tightened just incrementally.

“They would not –“ Saix began, but was cut off by Marluxia, who had just traded spots with Xaldin on the opposite couch.

“I heard from a rather reliable source that they were betting on which of the recent worlds we’ve acquired would prove to be more strategic for us,” the botanist announced, leaning casually on the armrest of the couch.

“They’re all strategic, and producing many hearts,” Saix interrupted, trying desperately to reassert authority. “Marluxia, you’re supposed to-“

“I heard that they were betting on who could win the trivia night at that bar in Hollow Bastion,” Xigbar laughed, cutting Saix off yet again. You were certain that the Freeshooter was just doing it to piss the Diviner off…and to stir up trouble. Surely Xemnas would never bet on something as frivolous as that – would he?

Xigbar’s comment set off the firestorm that he had intended. Everybody exploded in a downright brouhaha of what they’d heard, what they thought, and why certain theories were a bad or good idea – all at once. Even Lexaeus, normally as silent as Nobodies were known to come, was chattering with Zexion and Vexen in a little huddle. The sheer noise of the Nobodies was startling; hadn’t anybody designed this place with decent acoustics, or did everything echo here?

“Wait, Axel,” you shouted over the cacophony. “I don’t get it. Just because Xemnas made a bet – what’s the big deal?”

“Well, there’s only one outcome when you bet with Luxord,” Axel shouted back over the din, leaning down towards you. “So, naturally, Xemnas lost.”

_____________________

Speculation could only last so long, and eventually, the crowd died out, trailing off to do whatever it was Nobodies did on their collective self-appointed day off. Eventually, you, Demyx, and Axel were the only ones left in the Grey Area with Saix, who was still seething. Demyx didn’t care about the bluenette’s anger; after all, he never cared anyway and would barely have done the mission even on a normal day. Axel and Saix, you knew, were pretty close, so Axel probably didn’t feel nervous even when he was the target of Saix’s irritation. And you – well, this actually was your day off, so what was the Diviner going to do to you?

“It’s pitiable,” Saix growled, “that one little rumor is enough to send our infrastructure crumbling to the ground. We should all be better than this,” he added, casting a sidelong glance at Demyx, who was showing you how to play a C chord on the sitar and really not listening at all.

“Yeah,” Axel said absent-mindedly. “I guess we should be. But, you know, the funny thing is that I think around when Luxord first joined the Organization, he made a wager with me that he could get Xemnas to lose a bet. So, even though it’s been years, I guess I’ve lost that one. I’m honestly kind of nervous about what’s in it for me, now.”

“Wait, wait, wait,” Demyx said, letting go of your hand where he’d been positioning it on the neck of his sitar. “You made that bet, too? I did the same thing when Lux first joined!”

“Yeah, me too, when I first joined,” you agreed, a bit taken aback. Soon, all eyes were on Saix.

“I…” he trailed off, and you almost wondered if there wasn’t a touch of a blush rising to his cheeks. You tried to suppress a smile; he took himself so seriously! “Me too,” he mumbled, barely audible. You and Axel exchanged a glance, and you knew he was thinking the same thing as you; how many others were there who had been caught up in this? Or was it just the four of you?

A tap on your shoulder made you jump and almost let out a yelp. You twisted around, surprised, terrified of finding Luxord or Xemnas waiting for you. But no, it was just a Dusk, politely handing you a playing card. You frowned and took it, turning it over to reveal its face, as the Dusk went around, politely handing out cards to everyone else in the room before stalking off.

“You have been summoned to Where Nothing Gathers for a lunchtime meeting. Arrive at noon promptly,” you read aloud. There was no signature; there didn’t need to be. Every one of you knew who had distributed these memos.

_____________________

You and Larxene entered Where Nothing Gathers together, finally having fallen silent from all of your shared speculation. She, too, had made that same bet with Luxord when she joined the Organization. How many others were there? Had Xemnas really lost? Moreover, were you all totally, royally screwed?

“See you,” Larxene said with a small grimace and a shrug of her shoulders before parting ways with you to take her place on her throne.

“See you,” you echoed, sure your face looked as bewildered as hers, though it was oddly reassuring to know that you weren’t the only one confused and a little afraid.

Demyx was the last one to take his place on his throne, somewhat unsurprisingly. The Superior sat and waited for him in stolid, stony silence, his face betraying nothing. For a long moment, it looked like he wasn’t even going to speak.

“So why are we all gathered here today, in Where Nothing Matters?” Xigbar asked to no one in particular, kicking back and looking quite amused with himself.

“Gathers,” Saix growled. “Where Nothing Gathers.” Xigbar only grinned and shrugged; it was obvious to everyone that today was an ideal day for him to stir up some trouble, and he was loving it.

“We are gathered here, at this abrupt hour,” Xemnas spoke, his deep, resounding voice silencing all others. “Because our Number Ten has an announcement to make. You will all follow his every order without exception. Do I make myself clear?”

Around the room, everybody nodded slowly, and all eyes shifted to Luxord on his throne.

“Greetings, colleagues!” He chirped out in his British accent, sounding so cheerful that the sharp contrast to Xemnas’ monotone was startling. “I understand that various rumors are flying around the Castle, and I want to make one thing perfectly clear: whatever you’ve heard, it’s all true. Now,” he grinned, looking out at everyone with a dangerous light in his blue eyes. Your stomach turned; what were you all in for? Never before had Xemnas announced that you were all to follow any orders other than his or Saix’s, and Saix was really just an extension of the Superior, anyway. “I’d like to announce that tonight, at eight o clock, we will be holding our First Annual Staff Party in the Hall of Empty Melodies.” Luxord paused for effect, beaming out at his audience.

“You’re serious?” Marluxia spoke up, interrupting the silence.

“Besides the Superior’s orders,” Xaldin snapped. “I see no reason to attend this Staff Party. It’s frivolous and a distraction to our plans.”

“Well,” Luxord answered cheerily. “The funny thing is, Xaldin, you may recall a bet that we made when I first joined the Organization…” He trailed off for a moment, and the Whirlwind Lancer frowned, slumping in his seat. “I do believe that you’ve lost that bet today. In fact, I do believe you’ve all lost that bet today,” Luxord added. You glanced around the room; Luxord had roped literally everyone in the Organization into this somehow? “And unless you want to encounter the Superior’s anger, or you want to find out how unpleasant it is to break the terms of a contractually-binding bet with me, you will be in the Hall of Empty Melodies at eight tonight. Dress is casual, jeans and a shirt are fine.”

“Hey, Lux,” Xigbar called up, wasting no time. “Is it bring your own beer?”

“Potluck! Potluck!” Demyx started chanting, pumping his fists in the air and obviously thrilled at the idea of a party. You sighed, slumping into your seat the same way that Xaldin had in his. This was going to be a very long day off.

_____________________

Thanks to Demyx, Luxord actually had adopted the potluck idea, and you and Larxene had to go out together to pick some food up, since most of the rest of the kitchen was being dominated by Nobodies who were surprisingly eager to do some cooking. You weren’t thrilled about having to spend the munny, but had to admit, it was kind of fun getting ready for a party with the only other girl in the Organization.

“Which one?” Larxene asked you, holding two tops up. She wasn’t too into the whole casual-dress affair, and was enjoying getting a little dolled up for once. Her fervor for it was infectious, and you had to admit, you were enjoying it just a little, too. “I like the silver one, but then I’ll have to find a different bra, because this one is so dark it’ll just show right through it. But the other top’s cute, too, and I can wear this bra with it, and let’s be real…it’s my best bra. What do you think?”

Before you could open your mouth, a very familiar voice interrupted.

“Definitely the silver one,” Xigbar announced, vanishing through a portal in Larxene’s wall before she could manage to electrocute him – though not for lack of effort on her part.

_____________________

You and Larxene were among the first at the party. Luxord had, of course, already beaten you to the Hall of Empty Melodies, and greeted you both with a one armed hug and peck on the cheek when he saw you.

“Wonderful to see you both, so glad you could make it. Potluck food on the table to the right,” he announced. “Do mingle with the other girls; you’ve likely seen them around some places, Traverse Town, Hollow Bastion, that sort of thing. They’re all good friends of mine, all have lost bets, you’re all in the same boat so do try to be friendly, loves. Vexen! Wonderful to see you…” The Gambler of Fate moved on from you two as you shuffled toward the table to the right, as directed, eyeing whatever-it-was that Vexen had cooked up and was carrying in. It looked gelatinous and very concerning.

The staff party, it turned out, was a lot of fun. Xigbar had brought some beer, Marluxia had brought some liquor, and you were sufficiently tipsy, your voice slightly hoarse from socializing and cheering on various beer pong teams, by the time ten o clock came around.

“All right everyone,” Luxord called above the din. “Gather round, circle up, come along now.” Slowly, like a herd shuffling into place, the partygoers – yourself included – moved into Luxord’s ascribed position. “Next up, we’ll be playing a game.”

“King’s cup!” Axel shouted.

“No, no,” Luxord grinned with a little chuckle. “Maybe later, though I’m certain some of you will be quite done for the night after that. We’ll be starting with something a bit new, something that we couldn’t have done quite so well if not for the ladies present tonight. Who here has heard of Seven Minutes in Heaven?”

You and Larxene exchanged glances. Oh, God, you thought, and you could see the same look written across her face. Things had been going too well for you all as a group that had lost a bet with Luxord; you should’ve known it couldn’t last.

The game had to be slightly modified, since it turned out that nearly nobody had any small, insignificant trinket to be contributed to pull out of a hat. It was almost embarrassing, watching member after member of the Organization offer either munny, pocket lint, or their weapons to be put into the pool.

Before Luxord attempted to collect from Xemnas, he gave up, redistributing the possessions back to their respective owners (give or take the pocket lint).

“Somebody grab a bottle, I know you’ve all drank more than a few together so far,” he instructed as he struggled to move Saix’s Claymore back to him. Saix, in exchange, gave him the requested bottle, looking extraordinarily nonplussed. “We’ll determine who spins first by having the girls draw cards. The first lady to pull the Ace of Hearts goes first. Let’s see…Larxene, why don’t you start us off?” The Gambler approached your friend, who was seated to your left with a very plain grimace on her face. Luxord didn’t seem to notice or care, offering her a deck of cards fanned out in his hands. With a small, angry groan of frustration in the back of her throat, Larxene drew the card from the far right. You watched closely as your friend turned it over, revealing the Jack of Spades. Her posture and face relaxed as she handed the card back to Luxord.

“Next,” Luxord announced, moving the deck to you. You sighed and shut your eyes, pulling from the deck at random. When you opened them, you found the Ace of Hearts staring back at you.

Just your luck.

Setting your face into as unperturbed an expression as you could muster, you handed the card back to Luxord, who held it up for the group to see. Surprisingly, the group remained silent as you walked toward the center of the circle, where the bottle lay. You took a deep breath and knelt down, giving it a spin – not too hard, but not too gentle, either. The little brown bottle turned around and around, wobbling and wobbling, until finally, it slowed, and when it stopped…

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memaha19 · 4 years

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Things I Want(ed) From KH3 That Re:Mind is Probably Not Going to Fix

AKA, a brief interlude from Frozen 2 posting because Kingdom Hearts was on my mind this morning.

AKA, I’m excited for Re:Mind but still...

AKA, KH3 disappointed me and I’m still salty about it almost a year later.

AKA, there are many “my problems with KH3″ posts/discussions floating out there on the internet and many are probably worded better than mine but, as I said, the game was on my mind this morning.

Just...the worlds. The Disney worlds in KH3 bothered me. There were so few of them but they were so so LONG. Some of them were painfully long. Toy Box felt like the longest experience of my life. Every time I thought that level was coming to an end, BAM, another trek to another area. And Arendelle...though I love Frozen, there’s only so many times I can trek up the mountain only to get thrown off and have to climb back up again. There were so few worlds, only seven, I believe, (because we’re not counting Twilight Town or the 100 Acre Woods, more on those later), that I think they could’ve given us a few more worlds and made the levels a little...shorter? A little more detailed and charming? The levels were huge but empty and devoid of the character that previous Disney worlds had in other games. The previous main games had about 10 or 11 worlds, not including the throwaways (like Atlantica in KH2) or the final worlds (TWTNW and End of the World), so there could’ve been some more! Birth By Sleep had numerous shorter worlds and I vastly prefer that to slogging through the same world for hours. Even the way that KH2 had us revisit each world would’ve been nice. What’s more, they could’ve taken some of the massive time and space devoted to the empty, excruciatingly long Disney worlds and given us more time in Twilight Town or the Keyblade Graveyard, or put a playable Radiant Garden in the game. Those non-Disney worlds always served as nice interludes in the other games and it’s sorely lacking in this one. (And yes, I have heard that Re:Mind is going to let Scala be a playable world, so I’m excited for that!)

Related, I also wanted some worlds from older Disney films. I know the other games have had worlds from older films, but almost all of KH3′s worlds were so jarringly...current. I would’ve liked to see some of the older Disney film worlds rendered in the beautiful graphics of KH3, but, instead, the oldest film represented was Hercules (1997). Three of the worlds (maybe four, actually, with the Pirates world) were from movies from this decade (Corona, Arendelle, and San Fransokyo).

Related, they did the 100 Acre Woods so dirty. It was disappointing and short. It used to be a fun little interlude between the big worlds in previous games, a time to chill and play a mini-game and not have to fight a big boss fight. This was like “hello, here’s one mini game, goodbye.”

Related: all that Twilight Town exploration we got in the other games and this one gives us the forest and the town square area and that’s it?! We can’t even go to the clock tower or inside the mansion? When we first got to Twilight Town I was like “wow this is gorgeous!” and then quickly disappointed when I realized we couldn’t go anywhere.

Related, I’ve seen others say this and I agree: the Disney worlds seem like they’re just there, oftentimes, to get in your way. They feel like obstacles to the actual plot because they didn’t bother to place much/any relevance to the plot into any of the Disney worlds. Sometimes we get little snippets of the big story, like Marluxia and Larxene hanging around in Corona and Arendelle just to say cryptic things without ever being a real threat (that in itself is weird too, I spent ALL of the Corona level bracing myself for a fight with Marluxia only to fight...Mother Gothel’s heartless?) but it feels like two different games: The KH that wants to still be about Disney worlds and the KH that has gotten so deep in its own world building that it doesn’t have time for anything else.

Related, again: KH3 has an abundance of Disney worlds where Sora being there doesn’t make any difference to the plot. The most fun Disney worlds have always been the ones that have an original story that we’re actually involved in. Corona is just the plot of Tangled with Sora and co. tagging along. Their presence or lack thereof make no difference to the story. Arendelle is the same way.

The boss battles in the worlds were...lame. I understand that it maybe doesn’t make sense to fight someone like Mother Gothel, who never shows any physical fighting power in Tangled, but we can’t fight Zurg? We’re in a literal toy store and we can’t fight Zurg as the boss? We have to fight a weird doll and 800 robots? We have to fight Hans’ heartless? Not Hans? We fight Mother Gothel’s heartless? Not Marluxia, who’s been harassing us all level long? I understand that they held the KH characters back because of the whole “assembling 13 pieces of darkness for a big final battle” thing, but we had to fight Xemnas like ten times in previous games, they could let us fight Marluxia twice. I feel like the other games were a lot better at having us face a combo of heartless/nobodies/unversed AND Disney bosses. But, as the game has really zero interest in making the Disney worlds a part of the plot, they throw these cheap (and endless) unversed/heartless bosses at us and they’re all so EASY. They could have, and probably should have, let us fight the Organization at the end of each world and then let us fight them again in the Keyblade Graveyard, similar to the way Chain of Memories had us fight each Organization member a couple times.

When you finally do get through the Disney worlds, the ending is like “here’s all these characters that have been missing from the rest of the game” and the Keyblade Graveyard flings boss battle after boss battle at your face without much rhyme or reason. And while some of them are fun, some of them feel like “let’s just pair these characters together and make you fight them at the same time so we can save some time because we didn’t bother to put any of these fights into an earlier part of the game”. I’m looking at the Luxord/Marluxia/Larxene fight in particular. I would’ve understood pairing the last two together, but then Luxord is also there like they didn’t have any other place to put him.

This game is too easy. I’m not great at video games. I’m good-ish. I’m into stories more than anything so I hate when a game’s difficulty keeps me from completing it and keeps me from seeing more of the story. But I still like a little challenge. I have not-so-fond memories of yelling at the TV as I died time and time again fighting Ansem/Riku at Hollow Bastion in KH1, but I also have fond memories of finally beating him and what a rush it was! I didn’t get any of that in KH3. I’m not sure I died more than once or twice, if that.

The way they just let the Organization members hang out in the worlds and do nothing has always seemed weird to me. They’re big parts of the overall plot but now they just stand around and verbally harass Sora? As I said above, I spent all of Corona thinking I was going to have to face Marluxia at the end. Instead, they stand around in the worlds and then they stand around in the Keyblade Graveyard in the cutscenes and just talk. Also, okay, maybe I get the reasoning behind why Luxord was in the pirates world and why Vanitas was in Monstropolis, but Marluxia seemed like he was shoehorned into Corona solely because of the connection between the magic flower and his powers, which was stupid. And Larxene had zero connection to anything going on in Arendelle.

All the characters we’ve been waiting for (Ventus, Aqua, etc.) don’t appear until the very very end, which is a problem with the story pacing. They tease us, very early, with Riku and Mickey trying to find Aqua and then immediately drop that plot point to give us some empty Disney worlds. (Side note: this 100% tricked me into thinking we’d be switching back and forth between what Sora was up to and what Riku was up to and I was sorely disappointed as I played and realized it wasn’t true.) They dither in this “Sora needs the power of waking” to avoid giving us Ventus until the very end.

Just...the story pacing in general, which kind of ties into everything else. This game has a beginning, because it had to, and something they wanted to end with but they weren’t really sure how to fill the space in the middle. You spend most of the game just chilling in the Disney worlds with very low stakes. This big battle waiting at the end is always there in the background but, partially because the Disney worlds feel like distractions that don’t add to the story, the middle of the game never really feels like it’s building toward the ending, or anything. And then, when you do get through the Disney worlds, about 75% of the plot is thrown at you in the last hour or two of the game. It reminds me (a lot of this game reminds me, actually) of FFXV. I love FFXV dearly, I’ve poured A TON of hours into gathering ingredients and taking photos and doing side quests, but it has the same plot issue. The majority of FFXV is a light-hearted journey about four bros on a roadtrip, only for everything to take a VERY dramatic tonal shift about 3/4 of the way through the game and then stay very very SAD for the rest of the game. KH3 does something similar, with the way we spend most of the game traveling through Disney worlds and cooking food with Remy, only for the game to suddenly remember at the 11th hour that it’s supposed to be wrapping up this big 10+ year long story and thrust you into battle after battle and plot-heavy cutscene after plot-heavy cutscene.

To the pacing point: yes, I’m aware these games have always had slightly funny/back-loaded pacing. However, a main thing the other games had that KH3 lacks is that Radiant Garden/Twilight Town/Traverse Town interlude world that helps push the plot along. Without that in KH3, we get a ton of long Disney worlds where we’re like “when is the story going to happen?” and then the Keyblade Graveyard where suddenly ALL of the story is happening. Previous games have let us experience the Disney worlds for awhile before bringing us to an interlude world which furthers the plot, a la the big Radiant Garden section in KH2 that happens midway through the game.

Anyway, I think Kingdom Hearts 3 was a gorgeous game, graphics-wise, and I’ll still be shelling out money for Re:Mind come January, but after waiting for 14 years for a continuation of the main story line, this game just feels like, after everything, Nomura still wasn’t sure how to end it? It feels rushed and underwhelming and incomplete as hell.

TL;DR: I have all these thoughts about KH3 that I’ve waited 11 months to express.

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #kh3 #kh3 remind #sora #riku #bad plot pacing galore #rant #review #tldr #kh #kingdom hearts 2 #this is like almost a year late #i've had a lot of time to think about how underwhelmed i was

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khtrinityftw · 4 years

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Part 10: Rage Against the Patriarchy

Let’s face it: the Kingdom Hearts series has always had something of a woman problem.

A number of strong Disney heroines like Jasmine and Megara were wimpified, Aqua in BBS was a powerful fighter but a weak character without the kind of arc her male friends got, and I already covered the issues that plagued Namine and Xion. And by Kingdom Hearts III, things had only gotten worse, as more Disney heroines all the way up to fucking Elsa weren't given their due, Aqua was finally given an arc only to have it rendered meaningless all while her powerful fighter status got compromised repeatedly, and even Organization XIII's resident badass bitch Larxene was revealed to be motivated by feelings for a man.

But when talking about how the series failed its female characters, there's one female character that stands in a class of her own, and that's the original female lead of the KH Trinity herself: Kairi.

Kairi was the emotional heart of the KH Trinity. She is introduced very early into the original game and through several interactions we get to know her and how behind her bubbly front she has deep anxiety over her life changing and the possibility of losing her home and friends, an anxiety stemming from a traumatic past that she might remember a little more of than she lets on.

After she disappears during Destiny Islands' destruction, she occasionally appears to Sora to provide insights or advice. That's because her heart took refuge inside of his, and she is consciously sharing his journey with him. Riku and many stupid, sexist players identify her body as her, claiming that she's "in a coma" for most of the game and needs to be woken up. But the point of the story that Keiko Nobumoto finalized is to challenge you to look past this kind of objectification and consider the spiritual reality that Sora learns: hearts are who people are in the KH universe. Sora doesn't need to save Kairi because he already did from the start, just by being such a close friend to her and connecting his heart to her's.

And after the "Kairi's inside me" (heh) revelation is made, Kairi actually saves Sora three times in a row! She stops him from getting his head smashed in by Ansem, she refuses to believe he's gone after he disappears which allows him to hold on to his feelings as a Heartless, and then she shields him from the attacking Heartless with her own body, an act which allows him to regain his human form. That's no mere damsel in distress!

Really, the only quibble I have with Kairi in the first game is that she isn't allowed to go back to Hollow Bastion for no good reason during the big Oathkeeper scene. That was stupid and awkward, that scene really should have taken place at Hollow Bastion before going to End of the World. But otherwise, Kairi was a fully-realized, three-dimensional character with her own emotional growth. The entire ending FMV even focuses on her and how she's learned to cope with a changing life and separation from her friends thanks to the lessons she's learned about the unbreakable connections of hearts from her journey inside of Sora.

But it was all downhill from there.

Kairi is still good in COM and KH2, but not to the same extent. The idea of Kairi is a powerful one in COM and drives the entire story, but Kairi herself never makes an appearance until the end credits of the 3D remake, and I wouldn't mind so much except that Riku gets his own playable story mode in the game which sets a bad precedent going forward.

In KH2, Kazushige Nojima's writing caused Kairi's personality to be flattened mainly to just 'love interest'; she's like a two-dimensional shadow of Final Fantasy VIII's Rinoa Heartilly. The pacing for her appearances is also sporadic and mainly confined to the last stretch of the game, and she's needlessly kidnapped by the Organization after going to Twilight Town when she could have stayed around longer and developed her character more. Also, would it have killed them to give her a combat AI? Or explain where her new Keyblade even came from!?

But with that said, she's still a likable character who is spirited and brave, she makes a lot of new friendships like with Pluto, the Twilight Town kids and her own Nobody Namine, she effectively shows her maturity since the first game and even has some small development about learning to stop waiting after a certain point and actually take action to make what you want happen. Most importantly, she still plays a major role in the story that justifies her existence. Sora still cares deeply for her and is just as motivated to find her as he is to find Riku once he learns she's been kidnapped. And she's the linchpin for the entire finale, as both Sora and Riku's reunion and their return home to Destiny Islands would not have happened without Kairi facilitating them. It really helps establish their friendship trio as just that: a trio, where all three are needed to make it work. Sora and Riku would not have survived the game without her.

Also, she served as the springboard for the manga adaptation's rendition, which fixes all the problems and gives us the definitive version of the character. Gotta appreciate that!

Unfortunately, you might remember that I mentioned Sora and Riku were shipped together by the massively vocal yaoi fangirl community, and they despised Kairi with a passion. This hatred spread to many fanboys too, who called her "useless" for not being an in-game fighter (hey guys, literally all of the playable characters of the KH Trinity wouldn't be around to play as without Kairi! I think that counts as a use!) And because Nomura is both a sexist pig and a shameless fan panderer, it was clear to him what to do with Kairi.

Nothing. Absolutely nothing.

She isn't actually in Days, not even in Mission Mode as a playable character despite even fucking Donald and Goofy being so, and Xion's connection to her is a red herring to make her connection to Sora more shocking. She's only in BBS briefly - one scene as a child and then at the very end of "Blank Points' - and not given the same amount of importance as Sora and Riku. A data version of her does not exist in Coded, even though data versions of Sora and Riku and even Namine do. As I mentioned before, she doesn't show up in 3D until the last shot of the secret ending. And in 0.2 BBS, she doesn't say anything until toward the end, and is promptly shut up and told to go train alongside her former kidnapper! What the fuck!? I honestly think the most justice done to Kairi past KH2 would be the powerful medals with her image on them in the UX mobile phone game!

This is 6 games over the course of a whole decade, and there is barely any Kairi in them at all, let alone as a playable character despite her being the series' original heroine. Worse still is that when Kairi is there, her character has been rewritten by Nomura and Oka into the weak, boring nice girl that her detractors saw her as: the fire and the passionate desire to act freely whenever she had the chance is totally gone. She just lets Sora and Riku leave her behind on the islands again after specifically saying in KH2 that she won't let that happen anymore, and despite being able to wield a Keyblade she only joins the cause when some old white dude summons her to do so! Hayden Panettiere being replaced by Alyson Stoner as her voice only adds to the effect, she just doesn't have the same spunky quality to her.

And when Kairi isn't around? She is pretty much never talked about, or even thought about, by her supposed friends Sora and Riku. Per the sexist cliches of shonen writing and the desire to pander to the fans, the Destiny Trio became a Destiny Duo, with Sora and Riku managing just fine on their own without needing Kairi, their bromance was emphasized as the most important thing in each other's lives ad nauseam. This misogynistic brand of queer-baiting worked all too well, with fans continuing to support Sora and Riku as boyfriends while condemning Kairi as a boring, useless character who oughta just die already.

Well, Nomura sure did continue to listen to these fans...

#Plinkett-Style #Anti-Series Beyond #Anti-Nomura

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nadziejastar · 4 years

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Can you think of other characters besides Riku, Terra and Isa who might have a 'Shadow self' and 'supressed feelings'?

“Master Eraqus, you see, is so afraid of darkness that he, too, has succumbed—not to darkness, but to light. It shines so brightly, he forgets that light begets darkness.”

It’s sad how underdeveloped a lot of the characters are. Fortunately, we’re gonna get Dark Road pretty soon, which will flesh out Xehanort and Eraqus a lot. I think Eraqus had a very strong Shadow Self and a lot of suppressed feelings. He was so afraid of darkness, it caused him to turn on his own pupils and miss vital warning signs that Terra needed support.

*Sigh*, it was so much better when I had no heart. When I didn’t have to worry about things like liking someone.

Becoming fond of something is painful. That’s why those feelings were taken advantage of.

Larxene definitely had a strong Shadow Self. Unfortunately, she didn’t get much backstory during the Xehanort Saga. But obviously, her issue had to do with love. Larxene wanted love, but she was suppressing that desire. She pushed people away and acted cold to protect herself, like Elsa. She had been hurt in the past.

Namine was originally thought of as Kairi’s Shadow Self. I think Namine was supposed to be the manifestation of Kairi’s suppressed feelings. Kairi was left alone at the end of KH1 while Sora went on other adventures. She felt useless and forgotten about by everyone. Her two childhood friends were gone. She was lonely. Of course, since Kairi is a Princess of Heart, even her Shadow Self is still really pure-hearted and bright.

Are you really worthy of being a Keyblade Master?

Obviously Aqua developed a strong Shadow Self after being in the Realm of Darkness.

Is there any point in continuing this fight?

Her Shadow Self voiced all her fears.

You'll never see the Realm of Light again.

And all her doubts.

Just let go of everything and fade into the darkness.

She felt hopelessness and despair.

No one can save you. And no one wants to.

She didn’t even think anyone wanted to save her.

Your bonds of friendship only tie you down.

My favorite of Shadow Aqua’s lines has to be this one. All of her other ones are pretty much what you’d expect. But this one sounds so out-of-character for her. She’d never EVER say that out loud. It was definitely a suppressed feeling.

Only your heart is hollow enough to be a demon's.

But part of here DID feel like her bonds only brought her down. And she felt guilty for feeling that way.

Ansem the Wise had a strong Shadow Self. DiZ was nothing but a persona to hide his shame. He convinced himself that he was acting as a servant of the world when deep down, he knew he wasn’t. Of course, Ansem the Wise didn’t get fully developed, either. I’m sure there was a story there in KH0.5 where it would show his whole backstory, how he got banished, how he became DiZ, and how he came to be remorseful enough to put his data inside of Sora’s heart while he was asleep.

Sora is...complicated. Too complicated, which is probably why it didn’t really go anywhere.

The figure at the center of the room glanced up at him, and Roxas flinched at being caught staring. But though the hood kept the wearer’s eyes hidden, Roxas could see a smile. Something was so familiar about it, but he couldn’t think of where he would have seen it before. There were so many things he couldn’t remember about these last seven days. It hadn’t scared him before—but now it did a little.

When Xion was born she looked up at Roxas with a creepy smile. I think Xion was born of Sora’s Replica/Shadow Self, who also had a creepy smile. Xion wasn’t a unique character any more than Riku Replica was. She was a Sora Replica. Riku Replica is Riku’s Shadow Self. Xion is Sora’s Shadow Self. Xion can even wield a Keyblade from the Dark Realm (Two Keys).

Roxas was also the bright one, while Xion was the more “dark” and pessimistic one. Roxas was optimistic and didn’t worry or think too deeply about stuff. He always thought Xion could come back to the organization and everything would be fine. He was pretty simple, like Sora. Xion was the moody angsty one who questioned her existence all the time. She felt like a burden on Axel and especially Roxas. Roxas always helped her out. And at the end, she was sucking his power from him. She felt like she didn’t deserve to exist.

Once Roxas absorbed Xion, that’s when he became the angsty person everyone remembers from KH2. Before that, he was pure and bright, like Ventus. It was only after Xion disappeared that he became so “dark” and angry.

Like Namine, Roxas was originally meant to just be Sora’s Shadow Self, nothing more. But he evolved into his own unique character with his own heart (Ventus). I think Nomura originally wanted to use the connection between Sora and Ventus to develop both Ven’s and Sora’s darker sides, but he never really got the chance. KH3′s story was a mess and Xion and Vanitas really didn’t amount to much other than being needlessly convoluted. Vanitas didn’t have any depth at all. But he was supposed to be Ven’s darkness as well as the shadow that Sora cast.

Ventus is Sora’s darkness. Sora’s powerful light was the reason why his heart was a prison to him.

Roxas: I hate you so much...

DiZ: You should share some of that hatred with Sora. He's far too nice for his own good.

Roxas: No! My heart belongs to me!

His heart couldn’t wake up because Sora’s light was casting too large of a shadow on him. Sora’s light only fueled his anger and pain and pushed him further into the darkness.

Sora was supposed to do something to awaken the darkness in him in order to wake Roxas/Ventus up, but of course that subplot went absolutely nowhere.

“But why would you advise me not to fight darkness with light?”

The Fairy Godmother replied, gentle but admonishing. “Strong rays of sun create dark shadows. Sadly, Lady Tremaine and both her daughters are jealous of Cinderella’s charm and beauty, qualities that appear to you as ‘light.’ Jealousy is darkness. Light and dark go hand in hand. You can’t have one without the other.”

I think the idea was that when someone is in a lot of pain, you can’t truly connect with their heart just by being “light”. You need to be able to meet them where they are---in the darkness.

Riku didn’t preach to Dark Aqua about letting go of her misery and despair. He could empathize with how she felt because he had his own darkness. And I think THAT’S what Sora needed in order to be the real hero. His light wasn’t enough. He needed to enhance his darkness in order to really be empathetic and wake Ventus up. But that never really happened.

Perhaps it’s why Nomura said he cannot empathize with Sora and he relates more to dark characters like Xehanort. Sora was too bright for him in the end. It’s why he wouldn’t have made a good Seeker of Darkness.

Nomura probably relates to Riku more. The closer Riku got to Sora’s light, the greater his shadow became.

“You’re talking like I’m some kind of creature of the darkness.”

But it was true that he’d turned away from the light.

No—not from the light exactly. From Sora.

Because Sora shone too brightly… And then, he became the hero of light, and I gave myself over to the darkness.

Like Roxas/Ventus, Riku couldn’t tolerate Sora’s strong light because it fueled the darkness inside him. Being around someone so overwhelmingly bright and positive made him feel bad about himself and he became jealous.

“And Aqua and Ventus, their lights shine too bright. It is only natural that they cast shadows on your heart.”

Master Xehanort pointed at Terra’s chest.

The light within Aqua and Ven—created the darkness in me…?

Xehanort probably felt that way about Eraqus, too. I’m sure he had a very strong Shadow Self and was projecting that onto Terra. Ventus and Aqua were too bright and they only fueled Terra’s shadow. Of course, Aqua and Ventus had their own darkness. Aqua threw herself into darkness for Terra. And I think Ventus’s time as Roxas (Sora’s Shadow) was supposed to give him enough development and darkness to truly understand Terra’s pain, so he could be able to properly connect with him and bring him back to the light using the power of waking.

It seemed like you didn't need me either. Yes, I thought that I didn't need you with me anymore. That's why I sacrificed myself to that man. If you didn't need me, then I no longer held meaning.

The greater the light, the darker the shadow. Riku and Terra felt like they were overshadowed by their friends. I think they had a similar idea for Lea and Isa, only a bit different. Riku was jealous of Sora in an envious way. I think Isa was jealous of Lea in a possessive way. And this is why I don’t think Lea would have made a good Seeker of Darkness. He was meant to be the bright one, like Sora. It was part of his character. He did gain a lot of darkness over the course of the story, to make him empathetic enough to reach Isa. But he was a Guardian of Light at his core.

I think Isa felt the same way Xion did. He felt like he was nothing without Lea and had nothing to offer him. He was just a drain on him. Lea was the light, the Sun. Isa was the Moon, the darkness. The Moon can’t create its own light. It is dependent on the Sun and simply reflects its light. And I think that’s how Isa felt about Lea. Lea was the source of his light. He was so happy, positive, outgoing, and cheerful. But Isa felt like he had nothing to offer him. And that’s why Saix became so irrationally jealous when Axel became close to Roxas and Xion.

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complicatedandstained · 5 years

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The Other Day at Hot Topic: Kingdom of Isolation

Xion’s plan had been to get to the mall early. And not just the regular kind of early. The ridiculous, what-the-heck-was-I-even-thinking-?, now I have to go buy a coffee and scroll through my Instagram feed twelve times kind of early.

The plan had been to surprise Roxas. Roxas being her college roomie and favorite human bean and best friend since they split a grilled cheese and tomato sandwich in fifth grade.

“Hey bestie, I got a job next door to you and now we can hang out on our breaks and Christmas shop together and gossip about your SEXY NEW GINGER CRUSH and give each other rides home and chit chat and stuff.”

Just, you know. Something along those lines, maybe.

Except Xion does not get to the mall early.

She was going to leave on time—really, she was—but then she started watching the second half of this Hallmark Christmas movie that she couldn’t remember if she had seen before or not. And then, it was time to leave, but the movie wasn’t quite over yet.

And Xion needed to know if the middle-aged, big city celebrity chef lady was going to stay with the smexy, small town cookie baker with the heart of gold that she used to date in high school, and thereby rediscover the magic of Christmas, or if she was going to go back to the gorgeous, but kind of boring, but definitely more financially secure, attorney she had been seeing back in NYC, who, footnote, plays the prince in a different Hallmark Christmas movie.

Also, Xion was all curled up on the couch of her parents’ condo, nested in pillows and blankets, and her chubby black cat, Pete, was sitting on her lap, and he looked so peaceful, she didn’t have it in her heart to disturb him.

Also, she hadn’t quite finished her mug of tea.

So, by the time that the celebrity chef lady and the small town cookie baker had their tasteful yet disgustingly romantic first kiss during the first snowfall of the season, just after they had won the town’s annual baking competition and donated the prize money to the local children’s hospital, and Pete the Cat had deigned to move on to another part of the loveseat, and her tea was gone, it was well past when Xion should have left if she wanted to be the regular kind of on-time.

The best part of running late is that, because Xion is literally running, she does not have to exert as much effort as she usually does to force herself not to go into Hot Topic and buy half of the inventory.

The worst part of running late is, of course, the actual running, which is making itself known as the air enters her lungs with an unusual sharpness, and sweat glues her long-sleeved white blouse to the small of her back and the inside of her elbows.

The second worst part of running late is that she does not get to surprise Roxas.

And the third worst part of running late is that when she skids to a halt in the entrance of Claire’s, her black combat boots squeaking like rubber ducks, and her breaths a bit heavy, nobody actually notices.

Xion lifts her phone from one of the pockets of her black denim overall mini-dress by its pink bunny ear attachment and checks the time.

Five minutes early.

“Fuck,” Xion mumbles, and then slaps a hand over her mouth as a five-year-old trying to fit an entire candy cane in his mouth jostles her knee.

The new woman’s wearing sheer black hose with black combat boots, under a short black dress with overall straps and a long-sleeved white blouse. Looped around her arm is a black handbag shaped like the head of a cat, with three yellow eyes. Her own dark eye make-up makes her eyes enormous.

She’s nodding gently to a kiddo with half a candy cane in its mouth, who is animatedly explaining to her what kind of dinosaur it wants to be when it grows up.

Sizing the new young woman up as he, Larxene, and Marly approach, Axel can’t help but think Saïx will be a little disappointed Hot Topic didn’t nab her first. She’s so on-brand, it hurts a little. Axel’s half waiting for her to welcome him to Night Vale.

Then again, he sees why Marly called dibs.

Aside from a short, choppy black bob that would have looked more at home in the flapper era, she is every inch Kairi 3.0.

She has, objectively speaking, the world’s softest smile. She’s short and slender, her face too thin and heart-shaped, her skin the kind of pale that doesn’t tan. Although, unlike Kairi’s 1 and 2, he can still see a smear of hastily applied sunscreen thumbed across one cheek.

“I’d want to be an Apatosaurus,” the new employee replies in a soft voice to the kid without prompting. “Maybe we could be herbivore friends, is—” She pauses, eye catching on someone in the crowd. “Is that your mommy looking for you?”

The Claire’s newbie turns the child by the shoulder.

A relieved looking woman with another two kids hanging on either arm, alongside at least four shopping bags, hustles over to corral the third one, offering Newbie a grateful smile.

Think I just met your soulmate, Axel will text Naminé later that day. How’d you feel about a pastel goth? Naminé will send back seventeen question marks in response and not receive a reply.

“Over here.”

Marly waves Newbie over to Axel and Larxene. They have paused near Axel’s piercing station, just beside the shop window, only a few feet away from the mouth of Claire’s, so that Marly can continue to monitor the traffic trickling in and out while they chat.

“You’ve gotta be kidding me,” Larxene mutters to Axel as she catches sight of the approaching Newbie. Larxene’s obviously seeing what Axel saw because her eyes get bigger and her lips twitch—whether in disdain or amusement, he can’t tell.

Axel nods his reluctant agreement. “Think you’re outdone yourself this time, Marly.”

“Her hair is completely different than Kairi’s…” Marly argues, scowling as Larxene playfully swats his arm.

“That’s the only thing.” Larxene takes another long look at Newbie. “What are you and Vexen growing these things in a lab or something?”

The heavy electronic beat of the club overtakes the hum of Christmas music, and Axel’s nostrils fill with the sickening sweetness of e-cigarette smoke instead of vanilla bean.

The gaunt face of the med student with his pin-straight, platinum blond hair materializes in Axel’s mind’s eye, his pale, narrow lips curling up as if at the tail end of yet another condescending remark.

Axel winces, hisses, “Larxene, really?” His gaze shifts to Marly, concerned. It’s difficult to imagine what’s whirling through his head. Axel’s not sure if Marly never told Larxene what happened between him and Vexen; if it slipped her mind; or if she’s just 100% that bitch.

Marly’s own smile has evaporated, but not his composure. His posture remains sure and confident as ever, though his arms cross with an air of impatience. “Now’s hardly the time for this conversation.”

Axel makes yet another mental note to ask Marly when he last went out with somebody. Axel and Marly aren’t exactly best friends. In fact, he’s not sure Marly would bless him with basic human interaction at all if Marly and Saïx weren’t so close, and they are so close—a gardening club of two, high-end fashion snobs, closet The Bachelor addicts.

Axel and Marly, not so much. So, ordinarily, Axel would mind his own, but under the circumstances, he might be the only man for the job.

If Larxene doesn’t know what happened between Marly and Vexen, and Saïx definitely doesn’t know what happened… that just leaves him. He’s not exactly Mr. Matchmaker, but he supposes he could give it a whirl.

Larxene doesn’t miss the tension that passes between her two favorite coworkers, and she rolls her eyes. “Axel needs to get over it already.”

“You don’t know what you’re talking about,” Axel counters, tone gone hard, cold, hoping she’ll drop it, if she realizes the wound is still fresh. Which it is—it’s just not him bleeding.

“Everybody knows, Axel.” Larxene plants her hands on her hips. She leans closer, in his face. “You and Saïx and Marly and Vexen went out and drank too much. You flirted with Marly’s date all night long and then got pissed when he made a pass at you. Saïx found out, so you blamed everything on Vexen, and now he’s fired. How’m I doing?”

She reaches out to rap her knuckles against Axel’s chest. “Because if you’re not careful, you’re going to wind up doing the same damn thing to your new buddy boy.”

Axel grits his teeth, something burning in his chest. Months. It’s been months. He thought the worst of this was done with. Leave it to Larxene to dredge it up.

No wonder she’d gotten in such a snit about Roxas.

“Well, you seem to know what you’re talking about.” Axel’s just as tempted to tell her everything as he is to tell her off. She’d feel like shit if she knew. She would understand.

But it’s not his place.

This isn’t the response she’d been expecting. Her confidence slips for a second. “Am I wrong?”

Marly steps between them. He places a hand on Larxene’s shoulder, “Shut,” a hand on Axel’s, “up.”

Marly doesn’t look like he’s hurting, there’s no pout to his lip, no wild, injured animal wideness to his eyes, but the command in his voice is sharp and the grip on Axel’s arm is firm and insistent. Hurt doesn’t always look the same on everybody.

The message is clear. Keep your mouth shut, Axel. You promised you would.

Axel can’t help but glare at Marly, Marly stares back, wearily. Realizing how misdirected his anger is, Axel’s expression softens. He covers Marly’s hand with his own, and smirks at Larxene. “None of your business, babe.”

Ordinarily, this would make her absolutely explode, but with Marly grounding her shoulder and the approaching Newbie stopping just in front of her, Larxene becomes painfully aware that she’s standing in the middle of Claire’s in a goddamn flower crown.

Larxene blinks at Axel, the kind of calm that’s too calm, the eye of a storm. “Fine. Sorry I brought it up.”

Marly’s hand loosens on Axel’s shoulder. There’s something in his nod like gratitude. Axel wishes it made him feel better. Doing the right thing really sucks.

They shift their attention to the new recruit whose wide blue eyes scream: SOS. What the fuck did I sign on to?

Which honestly sounds about right to Axel. God, forget Kairi. This is Roxas all over again.

“I’m so sorry if I’m interrupting…!” Newbie exclaims too quickly in her quiet voice. Her lips halt in an apologetic pout and her hands clutch tightly at the strap of her alien cat head handbag.

Axel and Larxene both sigh and ease out of their locked glares, but the air still feels a bit thick, almost staticky with tension. Frozen’s “Let It Go” seems to be playing six times as loud as it should be.

“Not at all,” Marly says, but it doesn’t come out sincere enough for anybody’s taste.

Xion had certain expectations about what her coworkers at Claire’s would be like: bubbly, chatty, smiley females, maybe a little shallow, maybe a little dumb. Maybe she had been stereotyping. Maybe she had watched one too many Christmas movies. Maybe she’s jumping to conclusions.

Watching the trio in front of her, flower crowns settled in their vibrant hair, bickering in quiet tones dripping with sarcasm, almost launching into a full on, fist-clenched argument as Queen Elsa belts her heart out overhead, Xion is not sure whether she wants to laugh or cry.

But then the crazy tall one with his wild red mane and the well-dressed, The Rock level muscle-y one with the pink hair that had seemed so nice and pleasant when he interviewed her and talked to her earlier—Marluxia—seem to come to some kind of abruptly tender understanding. So, the angry blonde chick seems to reign in her temper.

And that makes Xion feel just a smidge better about things. She’s a sucker for a happy ending.

And at least they didn’t realize she was late.

But then all three of them turn, these expressive, snide, emotionally-charged Claire’s people, and they are looking right at her, their neatly manicured brows raised in question.

Xion feels a little bit like she had day one, back in the middle school cafeteria, before Roxas had offered her a seat and a half of his grilled cheese sandwich, looking out at the strangers, wondering which sharks to throw herself to. The strangers looking back up at her, wondering what the hell the new kid who hadn’t said a word all day was going to do now.

Fuck.

#kingdom hearts #xion #marluxia #axel #Larxene #Vexen #Saix #akuroku #akusai #organization xiii #tw: abuse #tw: language #my writing #the other day at hot topic #frozen #roxas #kairi #namine #namixi

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writteninsunshine · 4 years

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Wonderful Vices - Xigbar/Xaldin, Larxene/Namine - NSFW

Title: Wonderful Vices Author: Donnie Fandom: Kingdom Hearts Setting: Xigbar and Xaldin’s apartment, The World That Never Was Pairing: Xigbar/Xaldin, Larxene/Namine Characters: Xigbar, Xaldin, Larxebe, Namine, Xemnas Genre: Humor/Romance Rating: M Chapters: 1/1 Word Count: 3616 Type of Work: One-Shot, for Xig/Xal Day 2020 Status: Complete Warnings: Gay, Slash, Yaoi, Xaldin is turned on by aggression, Everyone is sassy, Quick Sex, Rushed Sex, Anal Sex, Arguing, AU - Canon Divergent, Larxene isn’t dead yet Disclaimer: I don’t own anything. Summary: Xigbar had planned for them to have a quiet night at home, but Xemnas had other plans. AN: Soooo, I wanted to write this for Xig/Xal day, and I ended up staring around 7pm on the second so that I could get it done in time. It’s finished at 9:50p on the third, but at least it’s finished. Also, they never really do get to enjoy anything they planned. This was really just an excuse to write so much sass and I really love this entire fic. It’s a gem, if I do say so myself. I hope you guys enjoy!

Kingdom Hearts Fic Masterlist Wonderful Vices ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ “So, I was thinking,” Xigbar called into the dark intestines of their apartment, reaching underneath the baggy hoodie he wore to scratch at his stomach, “We’d get pizza, put on a movie, and pretend to watch it. What happens next is up to you.”

There came no response, naturally, which he’d almost been expecting. Xaldin had never been very good with holding conversations that weren’t one-sided on someone’s account, but it seemed to be a different kind of silence than usual. You could cut it with a lance, Xigbar mused with a quiet snicker, half expecting one to fly past his head for good measure. It didn’t come, but movement out of the scope of his vision had him glancing to the mouth of the hallway. What filled the doorway seconds later had him grinning like a madman and breathless in the same second. In all of his grumpy glory, Xaldin stood mostly bare save for a pair of painted-on boxers and a shirt demonstrably six sizes too small. It seemed he’d decided to go for broke this evening and try Xigbar’s usual shtick of stealing his hoodies; the biggest problem being that Xaldin was a wall of muscle and Xigbar was a bit puny stood beside him. It seemed that an extra-large really shouldn’t try to fit into a medium, because not only was the grey, non-descript t-shirt he’d stolen stretched across his chest in the last seconds of its life as a shirt, but it protested loudly with each movement of his arms. “You uh, misplace somethin’, big guy?” Xigbar asked, his voice finally found despite the crack in it. Xaldin shot him a glare that could have frozen Axel’s blood, but he was so used to it that it barely seemed to have an effect. In seconds, hands devoid of gloves graced Xaldin’s biceps with gentle caresses, petting the straining fabric of the shirt’s sleeve absently. “Looks like you uh, were going for ‘drop dead gorgeous’ instead of ‘finally off of work.’” Seemingly pleased with that answer, Xaldin offered him the sly smile of a pleased cat before leaning down to press a chaste kiss to the corner of his lover’s lips. “You already took the jacket I was going to wear for our night of ignoring whatever movie you chose.” He practically purred, his voice rich and smooth in a way that sent chills bolting down Xigbar’s spine, “So I decided to pay you back the… Kindness.” “The kindness of losing a shirt to your rippling musculature? Oh, Xaldin, you shouldn’t have.” Xigbar chirped playfully, gently batting at his chest, “If you breathe too deeply, I’m gonna be out a shirt.” “Which is why I chose a plain one.” Xaldin replied shortly, rich purple eyes deflecting to the floor for a second, “You’re impossibly tiny for someone that can handle me.” “Well, I apologize for not being born like a brick shithouse, but I think you prefer me over Lexaeus for a reason.” Xigbar smirked, dragging his hand over the taut fabric of Xaldin’s chest, giving it a slight pluck before turning on his heels, “Just wait until you see the movie I picked. Go order pizza, it’s a surprise.” “I swear, if it’s Sharknado, again,” Xaldin trailed off, narrowing his eyes as he escaped to the kitchen for his phone, snatching it off the counter to put in their usual orders. Pineapple, pepperoni, mushroom and olive for Xigbar, and spinach, onion, and chicken barbecue for himself; they could never agree that pineapple just didn’t belong in savory settings. Xigbar, meanwhile, made himself comfortable on the couch as the opening credits played on the TV. Already, he wasn’t paying much attention, waiting with a grin on his lips for Xaldin to find that he had not only chosen Sharknado Two: The Second One, but also that he’d decided to peel off his pants. Boxers for boxer briefs, he figured, was the best way to go tonight. It wasn’t like Xaldin was going to keep his shirt on indefinitely; that thing was already ready to bust off of him should he so much as sneeze. Gracing the living room with his presence, Xaldin’s nose scrunched up as Sharknado Two appeared on the screen across from his grinning manchild. He crossed his arms, opening his mouth to speak, but Xigbar’s raised hand halted his words. “You said Sharknado, and this is clearly the second one, babe. No need to get pointlessly pedantic, right, Zexion?” He teased, giving an exaggerated wink. Xaldin was tempted to simply call it a blink if only to spite him. “These movies are pointless.” “True, but the point of it being on in the first place is to ignore it.” Xigbar replied nonchalantly, shrugging as he leaned back into the couch, “Come sit, take a load off and lay it on me, yeah?” Grumbling something under his breath, Xaldin skated around the coffee table Xigbar’s feet were already taking up residence on, crashing into the couch beside him on his side. Intense purple eyes watched him for a second, waited for him to hit ‘play’, before they fluttered closed too close to Xigbar’s face. Lips pressed to his, and for a split second, the world behind them melted away into nothing. Even the first few scenes of Sharknado were a pleasant, unheard hum in his ears as he shifted and found himself caging his lover into the couch with every ounce of power his body held; Xaldin found himself surprised at how easy it was to ignore. It was the knock on the door telling them their pizzas had arrived that had him breaking the kiss with a growl, eyes narrowed and a snarl on his lips. Rising, he grabbed Xigbar’s wallet off of the table by the front door and swiped a couple of bills, nearly punching the poor delivery guy’s face with his fistful of cash when he opened the door. Snatching up their dinner, he muttered a quick ‘keep the change’ before the door slammed shut. In a flurry of movement, the poor pizza guy stood in shocked silence as he stared at the closed white door in front of him. Thankfully, he took the hint and got the hell out of dodge before Xaldin had to open the door again. “Terrifying the poor guy, again, really?” Xigbar teased goodnaturedly, grinning from ear to ear as Xaldin deposited the pizzas on the table and crawled back into his chilling seat to warm it up again. “He interrupted us.” “We started too early.” “You hit ‘play’.” “Touche.” Instead of accepting all the blame, however, Xigbar leaned in to capture his lips at the same times his hands cupped firm asscheeks to pull him down tighter on top of him. He swore he heard a couple of stitches pop when Xaldin tensed in his arms, but he couldn’t even care. If he shredded the thing by flexing, it would honestly be the hottest thing he had seen all day, and he’d had to go to Atlantica with Demyx. Settling back in above the other, Xaldin rolled his hips down a few times in an expert move that left Xigbar’s mouth hanging open while he plundered it. His own hands remained fisted against Xigbar’s chest, but not for long as they trailed down to the hem of his hoodie, both of them diving under the fabric to push it up over his pecs. One thumb brushed over a nipple and Xigbar practically crooned, only earning another rock of Xaldin’s hips, leading him to gasp into his mouth. Somewhere behind them, Xaldin’s phone began to buzz, shocking itself off the table to skitter across the floor. When it finally stopped, Xaldin pulled back to pant above his lover, eyeing him up with pupils blown wide. It started up again and made him snarl, throwing it a pitiful glare over his shoulder. “He can’t be serious.” Xaldin snapped, only getting his cheek tugged by Xigbar’s hand, another kiss to his frowning lips as he tried to come up with a good excuse to ignore it. Instead of speaking, he simply jerked his hips up. “If it’s important, he’ll leave a voicemail.” “I can’t tell if that’s the best or worst idea I’ve heard today,” Xaldin replied, an anxious lilt to his voice. “Do you want to tell the Superior why we ignored his calls?” “It probably isn’t even him,” And Xigbar wasn’t necessarily wrong, “So we’re fine. Just… Ignore it.” Xigbar’s phone was the next to light up, blaring Thunderstruck at the top of its little mechanical lungs. Xaldin’s scowl turned to the table, watching Larxene’s photograph flash over the screen. “...Naturally.” Xigbar offered with a grin, “Tell me it’s not perfect for her. But that also means it’s not the Superior.” Wiggling his eyebrows with another grin, he playfully slapped Xaldin’s ass, delighting in the tense line his back made with the movement, “So we can ignore the little lightning bug and keep going.” “Does she usually call you if it doesn’t pertain to work?” Xigbar rolled his eyes, letting his head fall back against the couch, “Not really, I’m not her kind of dude. But do you really think Xemnas would send Larxene to do his job?” “I supposed I’d expect a call from Saix, first,” Xaldin replied, sitting down a little tighter against the bulge in Xigbar’s boxer briefs. The keening whine that left the other man didn’t seem to phase him as he sighed, “But if she’s calling, it must be important.” “Or,” Xigbar pointed at him, wagging his finger, “Or. Or, she’s just trying to bug us. She has a pretty good track record of ruining good things.” “But she’s also likely not to leave us alone, regardless of the importance of her message.” Xaldin huffed, crossing his arms as he watched the light fade from the screen. “It’s probably just some kid stuff, yanno? She’ll answer the phone and say ‘hi’ and then just hang up because she hates when other people are having fun.” Much like the man currently crushing his pelvis with the weight of a promise of sexual adventure, “So, we could always, you know, ignore her.” “But what if--” “As if. She’s probably just trying to bug us because I let it slip that we might get some time alone tonight. Come on, Xaldin, back to bed.” “But we aren’t in--” Taking hold of Xaldin’s hips once more, he rolled up into him hard enough to earn a soft moan from the taller man, he smirked. “Back to the right mindset, yeah?” “I… Suppose.” Xaldin spared one more glance at the phone before another jerk beneath him claimed his attention, and with deadly precision, he locked his teeth over Xigbar’s jugular and bit down. A wheeze left the smaller man, punctuated by another roll of his hips. Just about ready to sink into the routine of Sunday night sex with Sharknado in the background, Xaldin was ready to unwind when an impatient, droning knock sounded at the front door. “For Hearts’ sake.” Xaldin snapped, exasperated, as he raised his head, a tethering of saliva holding his lips to Xigbar’s neck, “If this is just because she wants to ruin our night--” “It’s probably unwise to leave her waiting, love,” Xigbar muttered, just as Larxene’s voice pierced the silence outside of their apartment. “Hey, losers!” Her voice was sharp, commanding instead of mocking for once, “I know you’re in there, open up! His Highness requires your immediate attention.” Xaldin was up lightning-fast, stalking to the door and adjusting himself in his boxers on the way. Nearly yanking it off the hinges, his look was feral when he narrowed his eyes at Larxene and Namine standing blithely in the doorway. The second she saw him, Namine turned shy, moving so that Larxene was the only thing standing between her and the certain doom written into Xaldin’s brow. Bristled, Larxene stood in the face of his deadpan ‘what’ with a smirk on her lips that told him there would be Hell to pay if he didn’t change his demeanor. Not that Xaldin would change for anyone, any way, at any time, and Xigbar was smart enough to know that, swooping in to save the world from ending. “What he means is, sunshine, which His Highness? If you’re here for Marluxia--” “I’m not, I assure you.” Larxene bit out, her eyes still locked with Xaldin’s as if waiting for him to back down from her challenge. Xigbar quickly placed a hand on his chest to try and avert disaster when she simply took a step closer. They were seconds away from a showdown that would level the block, and he had to work quickly. “The Superior himself asked me to tell you two lame-asses to get off the couch and head in to work. He has something fun lined up, I’m sure.” “I detest fun.” Xaldin quipped, barely hiding a snarl beneath a thinly veiled attempt at what could only have been a smile. “That being the case,” Xigbar cut in, placing himself between the pair in a last-ditch effort to push Xaldin a little back into the house, “We were kind of in the middle of something. Is it that urgent?” “Yeah, I think you need to change your gorilla out of his crop top and run off,” With your tails tucked went unsaid, “To get your orders.” Larxene crossed her arms, and Xaldin mirrored the motion behind Xigbar. What he hadn’t quite been expecting was the sudden, nearly echoing rip of the T-shirt trying so desperately to contain his muscles as it gave its death cry. Snickering behind her hand as a ruse to deflect just how perfect she found that moment, Larxene turned on her heels and ushered Namine along. “I’ve said my piece, it’s up to you two if you want to get turned into Dusks.” She cackled over her shoulder as she pushed Namine a little quicker ahead of her. It wasn’t like she was running, not from Xaldin, but Namine’s fear made her a priority. Plus, the idea of watching Xigbar have to rub off on Xaldin’s leg to get him back into the apartment wasn’t as interesting as the prospect of comforting the blonde in her arms. Xigbar had to use more of his body than he’d like to admit to crowd Xaldin back inside, all but putting his entire body behind the final push that shoved him into place. “Xal, please,” Xigbar muttered, placating in its weakest form, “Come on. We can at least get some of that rage out the good ol’ fashioned way.” He offered, trying on a wicked grin without its bite, “Whaddya say?” “No.” Xaldin snapped back, eyes narrowed and full of fight. Xigbar could see when he was dealing with an ‘immovable object’ situation, and right now he had to figure out how to get him to blow off some steam. If he was going to put his foot down, then sex really was out of the question, but Xigbar had an inkling that Xaldin just needed to be provided with a good reason to do it. “You already ripped my shirt, and you can’t go to work with a boner.” He pointed out, actively pointing to the throbbing problem trapped against Xaldin’s thigh. Nobody knew half as much about Xaldin’s rage issues as Xigbar did, and if he was already raring to go, a challenge would only make it worse. Xaldin seemed to consider this, staring down at his body with a scowl before grabbing Xigbar under the armpits and carrying him towards the bedroom. “Woah, woah, dude, no. Door’s still wide open.” With a heavy sigh, Xaldin set him down in the hallway, stomping back to the front door and slamming it hard enough that the whole apartment seemed to buckle under the force of it. Returning with that same air of pissed off purpose, he resumed carting Xigbar off by his armpits to the bedroom. Tossing him haphazardly onto the bed, Xaldin was on him in a second, caging him in and crushing their mouths together. He didn’t seem pleased until he heard the clack of their teeth, finally lowering his hips to meet Xigbar’s. The gasp that earned him was enough to put Xaldin at ease enough to raise his hips again to remove his boxers. Divesting Xigbar of his briefs went just as unceremonious as he tossed them somewhere behind him, leaning on one elbow to reach down and stroke him. Much to his surprise, and pleasure, Xigbar hadn’t seemed to have flagged, either. With a swift motion, he had the other positioned at his entrance, prepared to ride him into nonexistence, when Xigbar piped up again, breathless. “Xal-- Lube?” The look that earned him made his grin turn appropriately sheepish, “Please? You’ll hurt yourself.” With a frustrated grunt, he reached for the drawer in the bedside table where Xigbar kept them well-stocked for just such an occasion. Grabbing the first bottle he touched, he popped the cap and spread an ungodly amount of liquid onto his fingers. The first round went to Xigbar, who he slicked up rather roughly. Thankfully, the rough treatment didn’t earn him any flack, so he continued, a second squeeze to the bottle ending up being pushed up inside of Xaldin. The quick preparation wasn’t exactly what Xigbar had been hoping for, but he wasn’t exactly complaining when the sudden tightness around his throbbing cock dropped all the way to the base, effectively winding him. With both hands fisted in his own hoodie on Xigbar’s chest, Xaldin set a grueling pace with his hips that left his partner in painful bliss. If nothing else, Xigbar was lucky that he was a masochist, he supposed, or he couldn’t handle someone like Xaldin as a partner. His hips rolled and swirled, a shallow but quick rhythm that was sure to bring them both off quickly enough for Xemnas’ liking. As much as he didn’t like to think of him during sex, he kept their inevitable missions in the back of his mind to remind him why they had to do this quickly. Xigbar clutched the sheet beneath him like it was the only thing tethering him to this world, moans pouring from his lips to match the heated grunts of the man working him into a frenzy above him. He was already close, thankfully, because after a solid five minutes he was sure Xaldin would get up and deny them both release. As careful as Xaldin was with his rage, he had a tendency to be impatient when he knew he had things to be doing instead. The hitching of Xaldin’s breath told him that it wouldn’t be long, now, he was wildly chasing his orgasm down and it would be a quickly won battle at this rate. He was lucky that he was right behind him, to be honest, because he would have been left behind once Xaldin was done in most cases. The veritable roar that left the dreded man pulled a keening moan from Xigbar as they hit their orgasms, one after the other. A second or two was all they had to appreciate the afterglow before Xaldin was moving again, pulling off the ruined shirt and tossing it aside. Xigbar was left, cold and breathless on the bed, as Xaldin left him to wipe off with a towel he found on the floor. A cursory clean-up was all he afforded himself before he was shimmying into those skin-tight leather pants that Xigbar appreciated any other time and pulling on his coat. When he shot a lukewarm glare at Xigbar, he jerked his head to the side. “Come on, get dressed. It isn’t going to do us any good to keep him waiting any longer.” Xigbar could at least appreciate the breathlessness to his voice as he forced himself up and off the bed. With the same towel in hand, he wiped up and paused, looking at the sweat still dripping from Xaldin’s brow. He wasn’t about to use a cum-covered towel to wipe his face, though, his poor sideburns would catch too much illicit liquid for that. “I’ll be fine.” “Gotcha.” Xigbar nodded, sliding into his jeans and out of Xaldin’s hoodie, only to replace it with a T-shirt emblazoned with ‘R For Reload’ in bright purple letters. Xaldin rolled his eyes as he opened a portal, stepping through only when he was sure Xigbar, cloaked in black, would follow. Walking into the Superior’s favorite lookout in The World That Never Was, Xaldin kept his head down and his hands firmly clasped behind his back. Xigbar was the first to speak, “You wanted to see us?” “Yes.” Xemnas told him, “You both have urgent business. Xaldin, I believe you need to give the Beast an extra push.” The silver haired man turned to look at Xigbar, then, “And I think Shan Yu could use a little bit of a… Pep talk.” The pair of Nobodies glanced between each other before Xaldin nodded, portaling off for Beast’s castle. Xigbar could only imagine the smug look Larxene would have given them if she could have had the chance, waving slightly before disappearing. His last words were ‘you be a good boy, now’. Xemnas frowned, but didn’t say anymore, hoping that his evening could finally calm down. He had a monologue to prepare for Kingdom Hearts, after all. ~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~ AN: Wow I didn’t exactly expect this to be so long. I’m kind of proud of myself, to be honest, even if I struggled with how to write their sex scene and keep it quick. I hope you guys enjoyed! I know I sure did. Prompt: Wearing Each Other’s Clothes

#Kingdom Hearts Fanfic #Kingdom Hearts Fanfiction #Xigbar Month #Xigbar x Xaldin #Xigbar #Kingdom Hearts Xigbar #Kingdom Hearts Xaldin

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zdbztumble · 5 years

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“Reverse/Rebirth” revisited

I’ve mentioned a few times now that, in this look back at the Kingdom Hearts series, I’ve finally come to like Riku as a character. That’s in part due to seeing everything in context again several years after my last play-through, but another thing that helped put things into perspective was a LP by YouTube’s Frustrated Jacob. He worded Riku’s story in a way I could finally grasp: that Riku sees himself, and is treated, as mature and trustworthy, but ultimately proves himself to be selfish, insecure, and childish, while Sora is a more childlike underdog who ultimately proves to be mature, responsible, and heroic. Riku does, of course, redeem himself after realizing to what end he’s being used for, and with the context straight in my head, I could finally appreciate that story on an emotional level, instead of conceding its technical merits but remaining cold to Riku himself.

Given all that, I was curious to see if my opinion on Reverse/Rebirth would change after playing though it again. As it turns out, it did change - for the worse.

My issues with the gameplay remain. I just couldn’t enjoy the card-based battle system without having the option to customize. Besides taking a lot of the fun away, it made troubleshooting against challenging bosses (which, I’ll admit, there aren’t many) more hassle than it needed to be. Riku’s lack of magic or summon abilities is another thing that just makes for a less fun game. The limited number of sleights available in Dark Mode gave some little bit of variety, but I so rarely needed to use Dark Mode that it wasn’t worth dragging out battles to build up the meter.

Riku does pack a lot of power in his attacks - that was the reason I hardly ever needed Dark Mode. This makes much of the game a cakewalk, even compared to the later stages of CoM proper, but the difficulty spike in the boss battles with Zexion and Ansem are ridiculous. The decks you get against them are pathetic, and their abilities are overwhelming. Having a real challenge was a nice change of pace at first, but the disparity is too great.

And I still can’t get over the way this game’s “worlds” are structured. My memory of this game was that Riku got all the same world cards as Sora, in reverse order (except for the last three floors), which would at least make some sense, tying into the “reverse” of the title. But they aren’t strictly in reverse order; some of the Disney worlds aren’t even in the same set. And Riku wasn’t in most of those worlds. There shouldn’t be any memory cards of those places for him. The game does acknowledge this, in a sense, by leaving out any Disney characters from these worlds. But that’s another problem with R/R: nothing happens for most of it. If the Disney worlds in CoM didn’t tie in to the larger story except in a thematic sense, they at least had self-contained plots that gave you something to follow. Riku just wanders through rooms here, to no aim.

Like with CoM, there was a missed opportunity to give the Disney worlds more connection to the plot. Riku was in Monstro, Neverland, and Hollow Bastion, after all, and spent most of KH I in Maleficent’s thrall. Having him deal with the memories of that - of his actions, of his alliance with a confederation of Disney villains - would have provided story material and illustrated his dilemma more effectively than cutscene after cutscene with blather about the darkness (and yes, I know this series is notorious for this - but even by KH standards, the word “darkness” is abused to all hell in this game. I’m not sure how they could have avoided that, given what Riku’s story is here, but it was still excessive). At the very least, Maleficent should have been a recurring character in Riku’s memories. Wasting her as the start-up boss is still an unfathomable decision to me.

Really, the lack of content is enough to make one wonder if this story warranted its own title. To call it the “B side” to Sora’s story in CoM suggests more than it can provide. If it had been cut down to just those three Disney worlds Riku actually visited, with more story content for them and cleaner writing for the larger story, the ten hours the game took (compared to just under 40 for CoM proper) might have felt worth it, instead of rushed and empty. But at that length, I would’ve just presented it as a bonus mini-game to be unlocked after a certain level of completion, not as a B-story you get to play no matter what.

As with CoM, I have to take issue with the villains here. I’m convinced now that his battle in this game is the only reason anyone remembered Zexion well enough to justify giving him a backstory, because there’s nothing else to his character, or to Lexeaus. I may not have liked the villains of CoM, but I can concede that Axel, Vexen, and Larxene are memorable (and no, I didn’t forget Marluxia - he’s off the memorable list for a reason XP). These two are devoid of even one major identifiable personality trait (and I would note that Zexion’s backstory hasn’t solved this problem). I suppose Zexion staging an elaborate illusion of Sora to torment Riku rather than killing him outright might qualify as sadism - if it were played as such, and if Larxene hadn’t claimed that territory, so that whole sequence doesn’t have a lot of foundation. Though I will concede that, prior to the realizing it made no sense, I found the impersonation of Sora an effective story beat that fed well into Riku’s fears.

Of course, the ultimate antagonist in R/R isn’t anyone from the Organization, but the darkness still within Riku, and the trace that “Ansem” left on him. Whether this Ansem is meant to be the real deal, or some residual trace or memory, I was never quite clear, but in any event, the solution to the conflict turns out to be that Riku chooses neither to reject the darkness nor succumb to it, but to straddle the line between light and dark, a trait unique to himself in this series. That’s been criticized as an idea, but I don’t object to it in principle, the same way I don’t reject efforts to move Star Wars beyond a black-and-white conception of the Force. But in execution, there’s a lot wrong with it.

1. With hindsight, we can see that it was never really followed up on. Darkness = evil in the first KH game, and that’s been true for the games that have followed R/R. For this idea to really work, it would’ve needed follow-up that it never got.

2. That this idea comes to Riku from Namine of all people feels extremely abrupt. Granted, if I were writing a story about someone learning that light and dark sides to their soul could co-exist extrapolated into a fantasy setting, I would want the revelation to feel abrupt at first glance, with hindsight showing seeding throughout the story. That seeding isn’t here, and Namine is an awkward choice to deliver the message to Riku given that they have no connection prior to this point in the story.

3. Namine’s line about how “no power can defeat [Riku]” makes no sense to me. He’s defeated throughout these games by light and dark powers. A lot of the wording of the dialogue on this plot point just seems designed to try and make Riku seem more special and marked by destiny. Of course, this ignores the element of the first game where Riku appearing to be the person suited to a great destiny was part of the problem.

4. On that note - as has been pointed out to me by @themattress, Riku declaring himself unafraid and accepting of the darkness, and using it to ends he found right, was what led him down the path to possession in the first game. Now, I do think there’s reason to doubt his bravado in that scene in KH I; his pretense at maturity and confidence both fall pretty quickly when his jealousy and paranoia of Sora set in. But it is true that Riku accepts, embraces, and abuses the darkness in KH I, and what fears he does have aren’t tied to that. I still wouldn’t say I object to R/R trying to twist that idea around in principle, but just as it needed more follow-up to work properly, it needed more set-up than this game provided to work properly.

In a way, though, the biggest fault with this plot point is that it doesn’t really impact Riku’s behavior all that much. I’ve seen some critiques that praise Riku’s development in this game over Sora’s, and I can’t say I understand that. You can like Sora’s story in CoM or not, but he experiences a lot and undergoes dramatic changes over the course of that story. Riku here is pretty static. While I’m now fully on-board with his arc in KH I, I’m afraid I still find him rather bland here.

To be honest, the best bit of story content in R/R IMO isn’t even concerned with Riku; it’s a cutscene that expands on Sora’s story. It’s the scene I wanted in that story, where Namine calls herself “the shadow of Kairi” and explains how her messing with Sora’s memories of Kairi can’t truly erase them. When the best story beat in the B-story is an expansion on the A-plot, you know you have trouble.

And then there are the things about R/R that are just weird - turning Riku and Zexion into bloodhounds comes to mind. Has that whole “scent” business ever really come up sense?

So, that’s where I stand with R/R now: it’s unimpressive fare and wasted potential. Playing through it again has actually forced me to give some new credit to Dream Drop Distance. I still consider that game a worse story, and more damaging to the series overall, but there are two points I must concede to it:

1. It handled two player characters much better than CoM and R/R did. Whether they were any good or not, the game gave Sora and Riku each stories to follow in the Disney worlds, enough content to fill out a full game, and tied them together in such a way that one didn’t feel like the superfluous B-side to the other.

2. I thought DDD was where the retconning of Sora and Riku’s friendship began, but it was here in R/R, with Riku describing Sora as someone who “always did as he pleased” and setting up the idea of he, Riku, being the responsible one. Granted, he’s being rather jokey when he says this, but accusing Sora of being the lazy one while he does all the work just rubs me the wrong way. When I thought that DDD was the one to introduce this change, I could at least credit it that such a retcon helped explain their dynamic in that game. But now I just can’t understand why they went down this road. Everyone who played the first game spent the first few levels on Destiny Islands, working on the raft as Sora. And Riku complaining about anyone else “doing as they please” at this point in the series, when we’re only one game removed from him plotting to run away and never come home (embracing the power of darkness to do so) while Sora took on the responsibility of being the Keyblade Master without protest is really pushing it.

Well, that’s that. No need to revisit that game for a long time. Now, on to KH II - the one I’m most interested in replaying. Will it hold up as well as KH I did? Only time will tell...

#z's crits #kingdom hearts #reverse/rebirth #Riku #critique #commentary

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lioncunt · 5 years

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okay i’m done playing for the day

just to update where i am, i’ve beaten xigbar, dark riku, larxene, luxord, and marluxia, and i saved at the save point behind the blue doors in the labyrinth

my thoughts are super scattered rn honestly. mainly i’m just entranced at how grand and beautiful the graphics are. i remember seeing the secret trailer or whatever for birth by sleep waaaay back when, and playing this game feels like playing that trailer -- like i’m literally playing a high budget final fantasy movie. this is exactly what i’ve always wanted for kh3.

in this same vein, i’m so so grateful at how the whole team up has played out. it’s just so epic, so anime. i love it. i love how we’ve all come together and everyone’s getting their moments to shine, every single relationship/friendship gets its moment. i just really really love it.

that yen sid moment was fucking AWESOME. not the anime old man battle i’d been hoping for a la netero vs meruem, but like. still pretty cool.

donald is honestly so fucking great. GOD he just blasted terranort away like he was NOTHING like u fucking go donald good for u hun

but in that scene i was really, really angry that kairi did absolutely nothing to protect herself or fight back. and no, i’m not mad at her character, i’m furious with nomura. you GAVE HER A KEYBLADE. let her use it!!! she said she’ll protect sora, let her fucking do it!!! i’m all for characters protecting each other, like, that’s my shit, but it gets annoying when it’s the same character that needs protecting over and over again. and we KNOW that they’re capable of writing physically strong female characters, like aqua and xion, so why does kairi keep getting the short end of the stick?

anyway. it pissed me off. and sora didn’t do jack shit by hugging her lmfao like boy i love u with my whole heart but that was a dumbass move.

so moving on

i’m not sure how i feel about the whole sora half dying and going to weird heaven thing. that implies that riku wasn’t strong enough to stop the demon tide which annoooyyyss me. he went to all the trouble of shielding sora just to not actually be able to stop the tide from hurting him. that sucks :/

but bro i was so devastated by all the lost souls he spoke to. i wasn’t sure who they were supposed to represent, if they were even supposed to represent anyone at all, and god that little kid one made me really emo lmao plus that one with the person who was like “i stepped back but he never closed the distance” it made me think of riku BYE

aqua and ven have been great, every moment they’re on screen is a blessing. i love themmmm and oof the moment ven runs to terra and aqua’s like that ain’t terra hit me right in my heart

oh wait that just reminded me of a question....so did none of that original timeline with everyone dying happen? cause like. when kairi rescued sora and he came back and reunited with everyone it seemed like they all were like “yay we’re back together!” but then the original beats of the finding terra scene played out like they’d never happened before. idk i’m just confused on if sora rescuing everyone’s hearts erased that original timeline, and how it changed honestly? like how would saving everyone summon terra’s soul to fight?

unless ven is just a dumbass and thought that really was terra for a second time lmfao

and another question i had....sora sees a light and calls out to it with “riku”, then later when he gets kairi back she’s also a light. was she the light all along, or are there two separate lights? i’m fine with either but i’m just confused.

this boss rush is prettyyyyy stupid tbh. i like the concept and i like teaming up with everyone, but the villains dying mid battle and having basically the same cut scene for all of them (”you beat me....heh....guess my emotions are returning” “let’s meet up when u come back even tho u were trying to kill us!”) is repetitive and annoying, not to mention silly since there’s always at least one more org member still trying to kill us. like the luxord larxene marluxia one was REALLY silly. you expect me to believe larxene and marluxia just stopped attacking so luxord and sora could have a Moment?

but whatever it’s fine lol not a huge deal

i loved when we went to olympus btw like that was just super fucking cool. the other worlds less so but olympus was dope

i’m very curious to see how sora ends up crying fighting xehanort? does everyone die a second time?? rip

but seriously they totally tricked us when they edited all the trailers u know

lastly....and i know i’ve been saying it a lot in my liveblog....but sora and kairi just aren’t doing it for me. i love her a lot and they’re sweet together, a pure healthy relationship, but there’s just....no substance. unfortunately she’s not a deeply written character, much as I’d like her to be, and that makes her relationship with sora fall flat. while there’s nothing wrong with their relationship per se, and i can see it working and being cute, it’s hard to truly root for them when it’s just lacking so much depth, depth that DOES exist in another relationship sora has.

basically, them fucking over kairi’s character development fucks over her relationship development with sora.

but i expected them to end up together, so i’m not disappointed or upset in any way. these are just my honest feelings on the subject.

anyway! i feel like this is a lot of griping which i didn’t intend? but i actually really do love this game lol and i’m super excited to beat it this week!

#kingdom hearts #kh3 spoilers #kingdom hearts 3 spoilers #and please don't come on this post bashing me or my opinions lol #im not tagging this kh for ppl to see it this is just for me and my blog

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