#why does data riku remember

[mythicalartistx]

How Riku has no idea that Riku means so much to Sora

An Analysis through mom

Riku has always been afraid of being forgotten and left behind by Sora. And this is how he is able get manipulated by Maleficent. She tells him his greatest fears, that Sora found new friends and doesn't care about him anymore. She gives him proof letting him watch Sora being silly and argue with Donald and Goofy.

But from day one as soon as Sora is separated, he wants to find Riku. All on his mind is finding Riku (and Kairi too) and when he finds Riku in Traverse Town he is happy and to make sure he isn't dreaming he goes up to him and pulls on his mouth.

Riku is glad he had found Sora and wants to continue to play the role of protector but when it seems Sora can handle himself he doesn't know where he is supposed to fit in. Sora has these new friends and now can handle himself, Riku is afraid of being forgotten.

But throughout kh1 Sora keeps trying to reason with Riku and it's important that his friend sees what's right. And when they close the door Riku tells Sora take care of Kairi.

COM

He doesn't exactly do that.... The first thing he does is wanting to find Riku. That's on his mind. He ventures through castle oblivion in hopes he can find Riku. And when he faces Repliku he is so happy even though his thoughts of trying to find Riku is almost replaced with Naminé.

This Repliku is bitter about that and upset even saying how Sora never care about that or cared about him (being Repliku). But Riku hates how he feels towards his friend and how he wants his friend still even though he believes Sora has forgotten about him saying, You always have wormed your way into my heart," and Sora is confused by this statement.

And once Naminé tells Repliku to stop and he falls back Sora is completely overwhelmed by what happened to Repliku and what did Naminé do to him. This scene is especially good in the novel where it shows Sora holding Repliku.

Later Repliku realizes how true Sora's feelings towards him are (how he cares for him as an individual not being a Riku) before leaving, still Sora is sad he is leaving and still wants to find him.

During Rebirth/Reverse when Repliku fades away into darkness he doesn't mind if he fades away but what he actually cares is that Sora remembers him. He doesn't want to get forgotten by Sora or get mixed up with the real Riku.

Kh2

Sora wakes up and forgets everything in Castle Oblivion and still has the same desire to find Riku. Throughout kh2 all on his mind is where is Riku, is he okay, I really miss him. And it's the most precious thing. He integrates Mickey about it and it isn't until Mickey accidentally slip up that Sora is so happy and jumps for joy.

Another time during land of the dragons when he finds out Riku been there he is excited because it meant he is okay and nearby. He didn't care that he might be with the organization, he just cares about Riku. During the novel, Sora talks about fighting Riku was so fun.

And finally when he actually sees him he goes on his knees crying because he misses him and is happy to finally be with Riku. In the novel he states how happy he is to be fighting by Riku's side and is just bashful about this.

Riku doesn't care that much about himself and thinks less of himself on why anyone would actually care for him. And is surprised when Sora helps him up and brings him through the dark world. He admits in the novel, he is sad Sora is there and didn't want him to fade into the darkness but is glad he isn't alone. Sora seems to precious and important to Riku that he doesn't believe he deserves his friendship.

He is afraid of being forgotten but he accepts that he might not be worth it and as long as Sora is happy that is all that matters. He doesn't realize how much Sora truly cares about himself. They come to the conclusion they both will be okay because they're together.

RC

Even though it's technically not them in recoded data Riku doesn't believe in his worth after how he messed up everything in the data worlds. Sora is sadden by how little he thinks of himself and thinks he is the only one trying to maintain their friendship.

When Data Sora hears him talking to him in the Olympus Coliseum worlds, he is glad to hear Riku's voice. Even when his keyblade gets destroyed Riku comes in and Sora is just happy that he is there. It means everything to him and he doesn't care that he has no way to fight, Sora was determined to save data Riku

BBS

Even ten years prior when Terra gave Riku the ability to wield a keyblade, Sora immediately wants to know about Riku. He wants to know who that man was and if he knew him. In BBS it has them both care for each other. Riku admit how important Sora is to him and wishes to get stronger to protect him while Sora blatantly tells Aqua he likes Riku, he is his best friend. He seems to want to do everything with him and wouldn't hesitate to help him from darkness.

When Ven goes to Sora's heart, Riku notices something is wrong and knows how to help him. Without questioning it, he takes his advice even if it is strange.

DDD

He goes through the exam because Riku felt like he needed to be tested, Sora didn't think either of them needed to. Sora really wanted to take the exam by his side and is a bit sad that Riku isn't there. However through his heart he feels connected to Riku and when things happen Sora knows Riku will be there.

Joshua asks Sora if he wants to give Riku a message, he tells him there's no need because he knows they will see each other soon. On Riku's side he goes through a personal journey of accepting himself despite everything he has done. He doesn't know if he deserves everyone but knows he is lucky to have Sora.

KH3

Riku still doesn't see the full extent to how much Sora cares about him. Sora just wants to be with him through out the entire game. He is constantly worried about Riku especially going into the dark world. Sora wants to join him. And once they lose connection with Riku, Sora is sad and is like see this is why I should have gone.

And since discovering the Gummiphone being able to talk to Riku, Sora constantly thinks about calling Riku and just telling Riku about how cool this place is, when they went to Fransankyoto.

Riku is surprised when Sora comes in to save him the the dark realm. He's glad he is there but doesn't think much of it. At the pre battle Riku doesn't think he means that much to Sora, he's just like any of his other friends. He talks to Repliku and allows Sora to spent time with Kairi.

However Sora is questioning why Riku is alone there and seems to want to spend time with him. Then Riku and Sora are the only ones left. Sora breaks down. Riku wants Sora's happiness beyond anything else and reassures him with his words something only Riku can do. He feels better but still Riku doesn't think his life is that important and sacrifices himself. The expression Sora makes during this scene tells you everything. Sora is hurt that Riku is too doing this.

Riku is extremely important to Sora that when trying to recover him, he is floating in Olympus like he is the most important person ever to Sora.

Riku doesn't believe he means much to Sora. He doesn't see how he's the one that Sora just wants to spend time with and searching for. He rather put Sora's happiness before his own and believes in Sora. He let him save Kairi because he believes in him and his own happiness.

Mom

Riku thought it was Kairi who meant so much to Sora. He didn't believe it was him who was supposed to find Sora. That's why he was so shocked when the fairy godmother told him his dreams were the key and it was him who was supposed to dive to the Quadratum by following Sora's heart.

He didn't realize how important he was to Sora. He kept being selfishly selfless about this. Until he realizes it was him. He is the key. And Riku means so much to Sora, but he doesn't realize how much.

This could be a deep friendship or possibly something more, but he's very important to Sora and Riku just needs to realize it...

[gulava]

Sora may have opened the door in KH1

This isn’t to say Riku didn’t do wrong in KH1. He did. But, as far as the door and Destiny Islands is concerned, I think we’ve been getting hints for 20 years that it was Sora and Riku just got blamed for it on top of what he DID do.

How did Riku leave the islands? He disappeared into darkness and woke up at Hollow Bastion. You’ll recall Alice Lidell did the same. A disappearing act, so to speak. Data Riku and Xehanort leave through a dark corridor as well.

In the film, Alice cried tears and floated into Wonderland. Water plus sadness equals DARKNESS, my friends. She never opened the door.

Whether KH2 First Visit Belle is a Riku or Sora parallel in this particular scene is in the eye of the beholder. She’s a Disney character in a relationship so she’s one of the characters that it switches depending on the circumstance to create a balance in the relationship that is Sora and Riku but...

The 3D scene in the dream had me very...curious as to what was going on because we didn’t see Ansem SOD in the original version and sleep holds our memories they say which is why Roxas was able to access Xion’s memories and tell Axel something only Xion would know. That he’d always be there to bring them back. I don’t want to imply Ansem SOD possessed Sora in this moment but it’s plausible since...they met earlier. It always came off as odd to me that Ansem SOD would even speak to Sora if he wasn’t about to use him.

YMX says that Ansem SOD possessed Riku and saw his experiences in real time which...okay, then why wasn’t he with Riku here...? He doesn’t follow Riku when he runs to the inlet. He doesn’t follow him in the dark corridor either. We don’t even see Ansem SOD again until Hollow Bastion way later on when we KNOW he actually does possess Riku. Riku doesn’t know him in the COM Novel when he meets him on the islands during Departure. HE DOESN’T KNOW HIM. Sora does. Isn’t that...suspicious? All Ansem SOD says is that the door will open soon and Riku goes off to find Sora. He doesn’t open a door!

He doesn’t remember Ansem SOD being there.

But he was following him.

Right before this scene, Data Riku states something very interesting after Data Sora accuses him of causing the bugs (the cause being Sora’s shadow). He says: “This world has been connected. Memory and reality now stand tied. It’s time for you to learn the truth.” Ansem the Wise states that data is a clue. The Datascape is shown again in Re:Mind to “remind” us that the future is already written and to go back and revisit the game known as Coded. But I recommend ALL the games on top of that so you can put the pieces together like I have. This is what Remy from Ratatouille was trying to tell Sora and co. about the fruit that he was gathering. (Essentially Nomura trying to hint to the audience that the answers are all THERE if you do enough digging.) He was trying to take the pieces and make it into a dish. In each game, therein lies another hint. Another piece of the puzzle. This is how I work out my theories. I treat each game as apart of each other without the assumption that nothing was planned. This is how Riku laughing like Namine did in COM WORKS even if it’s only finally shown in 3D and KH3. Writing evolves over time and so do characters.

“On the road ahead, more than one truth will come to light.”

What strikes me as even odd is that what they use to put Sora in a deeper sleep in 3D is things that happened back when the Islands fell but one of them wasn’t Riku holding out his hand or Kairi being swept away from darkness. It was something we never saw. It’s Ansem SOD coming up close to Sora while he’s either sitting or lying down. Perhaps...before he took a nap at the start of the game even. Hopefully, you’ve read my meta on how Replica Riku has some of Sora’s memories. Horrifying really as he’s used to play on Sora’s guilt as a way to get him further into the castle. But there’s one line in particular that bothered me to no end in the COM novel.

Ventus didn’t remember what happened to Strelitzia nor taking the book for himself. Baldr didn’t initially remember what happened to Hoder. It’s not that hard to grasp Sora might...not correctly remember a good chunk of things. Especially with how vaguely he describes his KH1 hurt in KH3. I imagine a person whose eyes cannot lie like Master of Masters...might educate him on the truth and it will probably be very ugly. My understanding is Sora’s true darkness will involve remembering. Yes, forgetting can hurt but knowing the truth will hurt you even more. I think remembering everything will be what breaks Sora. It certainly didn’t have a good reaction on Ventus or Baldr, now did it?

A very small bonus. Yuffie, a memorable “thief”, opens a door and hurts Donald in the process in the world right after the door opens and the darkness carries Kairi away so...there’s that. Sora is shown running through it also.

TLDR; check out the rest of this scene from KHUX below.

Alice is on trial for opening the door to Wonderland and she didn’t do it but is found guilty despite the lack of evidence against her. Hm...but how did Player get into Wonderland, I wonder? Ever consider that?

*glances at Sora*

[superdorkcat]

I've been dealing with KH brainrot lately and, lacking for other things to do, decided to make a masterpost of all potential evidence pointing to Vanitas (who's one of my favorite characters) making a comeback in KH4.

The first indication that Vanitas could reappear in the future comes in Dream Drop Distance, which implies that he found his way into Sora's heart at the end of Birth by Sleep, much like Ven did. Let me explain.

Xehanort's entire plan in DDD is based on Sora having the whole Heart Hotel thing going on. During his encounter with Sora in La Cité des Cloches, Young Xehanort outright proclaims:

"You are the one who has made your heart a prison. [...] Even if you are not the prisoner."

While it may seem that he's just talking about Ven, Xion, and Roxas here, that notion is contradicted at the end of the game when Riku meets with Data-Ansem the Wise, who says this:

"And some of those hearts never left him- whether they fell into darkness or were trapped there- whether they sleep in the darkness of Sora's heart, or were welcomed into its warmth- they can be saved."

Ven, Xion, and Roxas are all shown to be in a recreation of Destiny Islands - the light of Sora's heart. They can't be who Data-Ansem is talking about here. The only person who can be inside the darkness of Sora's heart is Vanitas.

Vanitas's final scene in KH3 adds to this, where he has this exchange with Sora after being defeated.

Sora: Then why won't you stand by our side? Instead of with darkness? Vanitas: Because I am darkness. And I do stand by your side. I'm the shadow that you cast. How much closer could I be?

This exchange takes on a whole new level once you take Rage Form into account, where Sora becomes consumed with anger (remember that the Unversed are basically Vanitas's negative emotions given physical form), uses darkness-based attacks and the same fighting stance as Vanitas, and doesn't cast a shadow.

Neither does KH2's Anti Form, for that matter. Although Nomura said in an interview that Rage Form and Anti Form are based on separate concepts (Anti is Sora "being completely stained in darkness" while Rage is him "going into a rampage state, controlled by feelings of anger"), I still find the connection notable. Mainly because KH2's Drive Forms are symbolic of a bond Sora has (Valor = Goofy, Wisdom = Donald, Limit = Kairi, and Master = Mickey) but have to be activated manually. That is, except for the two that activate randomly - Final (which is a reward for beating Roxas and thus represents him) and Anti, which Sora has from the very beginning.

Also from KH3 is the chess match between Eraqus and Xehanort. Looking at the board, you can see two versions of the piece that represents Vanitas - one that's still on the board and another that has been captured by Eraqus. Take a look.

Even though it's not strictly canon, there's a passage from BBS's light novel that I want to include. In it, Vanitas is enveloped in the same light that Ven is, the light that brings him to Sora's heart.

"Light arose from the spot where Vanitas had disappeared. It flared, then blanketed Ven's body as well. It was soft and tender. Radiant and whole. Is it over...? Wrapped in this strong, benevolent light, Ven descended into the darkness. I know this place - it's so familiar. This...is your heart."

I know, I know - the light novels aren't canon. However, the BBS novel depicts Vanitas in a far more sympathetic and tragic light than in the original game, which his latest appearance in the games, Dark Road, leans slightly more towards. In it, he disobeys Xehanort's order to stay in the Keyblade Graveyard out of concern for/curiosity regarding Ven's condition post-split and becomes scared after Xehanort threatens him.

The scene also reveals that Xehanort suspected that Vanitas is one of the Willful Darknesses and was never part of Ven, instead being a separate entity that was merely hiding inside him. That being said, this goes against a previous reveal in the game, which establishes that, if someone keeps foreign darkness inside them long enough, it will become a permanent part of them. As Baldr's darkness puts it:

"Are you sure you want to do that? We're one now. If I disappear, he will too."

While Ven's own heart and the Willful Darkness inside him may have been separate, they likely weren't by the time of Vanitas's birth - explaining both Vanitas's ability to feel some of Ven's emotions and how the whole thing almost killed Ven. It wasn't the surgical removal of a parasite, it was a limb being ripped off.

Of course, the connection is still an important one that, given KH's explorations of personhood, individuality, and identity, will likely be explored further. (Especially since Strelitzia is most likely going to be a major character in KH4.) Also, while Vanitas says that he was never a part of Ven in Re Mind, he only does so after Ven shot down them being brothers in favor of them being the "same"... which he doesn't take well.

There's a few more things I want to go over before ending. First, "Heroes and Heroines: Characters' Medley" is a medley combining the leitmotifs for the main protagonists of the series before ending with, of all songs, Vanitas's boss theme.

As part of the celebrations for the franchise's 20th anniversary, a special artwork was released. In it, characters that are connected are grouped together. At the bottom left, we have reformed antagonists. The Seekers of Darkness's traitor trio (Isa, Even, and Demyx) is there, as is Ienzo. However, there's one outlier:

[howdomaddie]

on sora’s time in the sleeping worlds and coming to terms with other’s pain

so, i was recently rewatching a playthrough of the kingdom hearts series from a YT channel i particularly enjoy and had some thoughts when it came to dream drop distance. the player had quite a bit to say about the overall plot of that game, and that seems to fall in line with how i’ve seen a lot more people than i thought view DDD as well--that it’s not that great? i totally get being frustrated with the real organization shenanigans because the planned time travel was a bit much but…idk, i’ve never really been into KH for the villains and their schemes. DDD has always kind of been one of my favorites, so as i was rewatching this playthrough of it, i was thinking over why it gets the flack it does story-wise, and why i still think it’s good beyond that.

i’ve always loved riku’s arc, and i loved sora in DDD, but i was honestly “meh” on it until this current rewatch when i was thinking over it all again, and keeping in mind other things in the series better. and now i think i’ve cracked it--i figured out a nice little piece for why sora’s arc works, even if it’s subtle and possibly not fully intended.

and…bear with me here…but it’s partially because of re:coded

STAY WITH ME, I PROMISE I HAVE A POINT!!! it’s below the cut since this will be long, but hear me out: sora in DDD is going through the same things that data sora did in re:coded, and proving that he will always come to the same conclusion about how to handle the pain the others in his heart have gone through (maybe someone’s discussed all of this before, so sorry if i’m just rehashing a well-known point, but…wanted to share my thoughts, haha)

okay. so, in order to really talk about this, let’s revisit what are probably the most important sections of re:coded, and what they do well on a story-telling level.

in the last quarter or so of re:coded, data sora is brought back to help mickey and friends find the meaning of the second message that’s appeared in jiminy’s journal: “Their hurting will be mended when you return to end it.” data sora ends up arriving at an illusion of castle oblivion, and is goaded along by a data version of roxas to go deeper into the castle. this data roxas taunts him about how he’ll never remember the people he encounters in each part of the castle, poking and prodding data sora along through all the revisited worlds.

in one of the earliest rooms (destiny islands i think), data sora has a conversation with the data version of riku that has turned up. data riku shows him a vision of riku and kairi from the events of KH1. afterwards, data riku asks what data sora would have done if he’d known this. and data sora answers immediately:

[ ID: an image of data sora from kingdom hearts re:coded. he has a determined expression on his face, and his clenching his fist as a show of conviction. the subtitles read: "I would’ve helped you, of course. Both of you! I’d’ve figured out how to undo the hurt." End ID. ]

data riku seems pleased with this outcome, and he eventually goes on to say: “Just follow your heart, and you can change the lives of not one, but many.”

as data sora goes deeper into this version of castle oblivion, he only comes across more pain in his heart as he forgets the people he meets. he may forget the people themselves, but the doesn’t forget that he met someone as he goes through the castle.

[ ID: four images from kingdom hearts re:coded. data sora looks sad and pensive as he says this to data roxas, placing a hand over his heart: “But still, I’m frustrated that I’ve forgotten them. I feel moments of loneliness. You said there would be no hurt feelings, but I AM hurting. When the memories are gone, they just leave a hole. And having that longing inside me hurts.” End ID. ]

data roxas eventually confronts data sora about what he’s come to terms with in the castle: that some of that pain he’s feeling is what helps him connect with others, to truly empathize with them. data roxas sees this as a sign that data sora passed his test, to see if he could come to terms with the pain in the hearts he’s most closely connected to.

data namine soon confirms that the real sora carries around a lot of pain that isn’t his own inside his heart--and that he’s found a way to face the suffering all of these disparate parts of himself had to endure. he’s already equipped to face it and help those he’s met that have been lost.

something that i think i’ve come to appreciate more is that as he’s gotten older, sora has ended up becoming really emotionally intelligent. he’s an extremely empathetic character, and always has been. after all, he gave a piece of himself to someone to fix their broken heart when he was still an infant.

[ ID: an image from kingdom hearts birth by sleep. a four year old sora looks upset as he holds ventus’s heart in his hands and asks, “Are you sad?” ]

we all know that his empathy and ability to connect emotionally to others is kind of sora’s whole thing--his friends are his power! but it makes sense that sora’s able to face the pain and suffering characters like xion and ven went through because he is such an open and caring person.

what struck me as critical in all this as i was thinking over what sora goes through in DDD are the instructions namine gives for how to handle the pain of others that sora is holding onto.

[ ID: three screenshots of data namine and data sora from kingdom hearts re:coded. data namine explains to data sora: “There’s only one way to deal with that [pain]; you face it head-on and then you accept it. And if it happens that the hurt is too great for you to bear it alone, well, then you turn to a friend close to your heart.” End ID. ]

this is less a “do this thing for the first time” to me--it’s data namine reinforcing something that data sora (and the real sora by extension, obviously) already knows very well. there is strength to be found in the bonds you share, and that if you need it, you can always rely on the friends you’ve made. this was made apparent through the entire series but this serves as a reminder that yes, sora has been doing the best thing he can. he has remained true to his heart, and is willing to rely on those he cares about.

we know that being alone and only relying on yourself is not the best thing to do in the series--it’s part of what drives riku to darkness in KH1--so that’s why this is a reassurance that sora already knows how to face this sort of pain.

so. WHAT on earth does this have to do with dream drop distance, you might be asking. well, it all stems from the YT channel i was watching this series playthrough from. the channel is PlayFrame (highly recommend looking at their stuff!) and dan, the one playing through the series, had a good take on re:coded's story: he liked the general themes being played with at the end of re:coded, but was upset it was not happening to actual sora. and that sentiment stuck with me as i got to DDD in the series playthrough, and that’s the lens that i viewed sora’s side of the story through.

anyway. let’s dive (ha) in, shall we?

at the end of re:coded, king mickey writes that letter in a bottle that gets to sora in the post credits of KH2 to explain the revelations from the end of re:coded. sora knows now that he’s the thread that will save people like roxas and xion and aqua and ventus, and he knows what data namine was wanting him to eventually face.

at the start of DDD, sora is aware that he needs to face the pain of others that is currently residing in his heart and find a way to save those that have been lost. he is primed with that knowledge, and likely wants to face it the way data sora did.

why do i think this? well…it's in the true secret ending of BBS, first off. sora acknowledges the contents of the letter (likely mickey explaining re:coded and asking him and riku to meet with yen sid), and knows that he was shaped partially because of the BBS trio and the pain he has in his heart from others.

[ ID: screenshots from kingdom hearts birth by sleep of sora speaking to kairi on the destiny islands. he says, "I have to go. I am who I am...because of them." End ID. ]

i think that the mark of mastery exam in DDD was really a chance for sora and riku to do some self-reflection and consider what may or may not be holding them back from becoming classical keyblade masters. in BBS, master eraqus says this of the mark of mastery exam:

Today you will be examined for the Mark of Mastery. Not one but two of the Keyblade's chosen stand here as candidates...but this is neither a competition nor a battle for supremacy--not a test of wills, but a test of heart. [...] Remember, [ for Aqua and Terra's duel ] there are no winners, only truths, for when equal powers clash, their nature is revealed.

eraqus's words are admittedly more specific to the exam aqua and terra had, but the idea that what's being tested is the person's heart seems very relevant to sora and riku in dream drop distance. they both have a chance to reflect on themselves, and who they truly are.

we know how riku’s arc goes: he finally realizes that he does have the power to protect what matters to him, and that darkness in his heart is not something to fear. it does not make him any less worthy to wield a keyblade, nor does it keep him from being a keyblade master.

[ ID: a screenshot from kingdom hearts dream drop distance of riku and sora. sora’s arm is slung over riku’s shoulder and he is beaming. riku doesn’t seem to believe what he’s saying: “Really? I’m a Keyblade Master?” ]

but what about sora? first off, i do agree that first and foremost sora never really cared about the results of this mark of mastery--he's never needed the "master" label, nor does he think riku needs it. but he goes through with it especially to help riku finally overcome what doubt he still has.

anyway, outside of Overall Series Plot happening to him in this game and the contrived reason he isn’t also named a master, what does sora come to realize? well, it’s what data namine wanted for him: to face the pain inside him head on, and to rely on those close to his heart when he couldn’t do it alone.

what do i mean by this? let’s go world by world to see.

starting with hunchback, since we visit traverse town twice:

[ ID: a screenshot from kingdom hearts dream drop distance of sora, who is looking at the camera. he appears thoughtful as he says of quasimodo: “He can’t let his heart be a prison.” ]

sora realizes that quasimodo is putting up walls in his heart that keep him from being hurt--walls that, in turn, are becoming something of a “prison”. they’re what keep quasimodo safe, but also keep him disconnected from others and is an excuse for why he doesn’t leave notre dame cathedral. 

at the end of sora’s time in this world, quasimodo has opened himself to others, and decides to not keep his fears from holding him back. as sora processes this information, of course, we have the villains telling him that his own heart is now a prison for someone else--ventus.

i don’t think this is true for sora and ven’s situation, and that the organization is just trying to make sora question himself. sora welcomed ven into his heart willingly to keep ven safe--it’s been a very long time, yes, and sora will eventually need to help ven return to his body, but sora’s heart isn’t a prison.

sora opened his heart when he was very young to ventus--and he has continued to be open and compassionate to basically everyone else. he sees the good in people, and believes in them far longer than others. it can make him too trusting at times, but it undeniably saved ven.

after hunchback, we have the grid and prankster’s paradise, and these should be easy enough to figure out.

[ ID: a screenshot from kingdom hearts dream drop distance of sora and quorra. sora is holding quorra back from attacking, and quorra says to sora of rinzler (originally sora’s friend tron), “He’s a program, Sora. Programs don’t have hearts.” End ID. ]

the grid for sora is all about his relationship to tron and making rinzler remember who he truly is. quorra is pretty quick to throw in the towel on sora’s attempts to reach his friend’s heart, but sora keeps trying--and eventually, he does manage to have a breakthrough. he helps tron fight off his reprogramming, and remember their friendship. he’s able to touch tron’s heart and remind him of what’s important--he just has to give tron the time he needs, and eventually help him regain his sense of self.

my, that sounds familiar, doesn’t it?

[ ID: a screenshot from kingdom hearts three of sora, xion, and axel. sora has his hand on xion’s keyblade, and is persuading her not to hurt her friend axel--trying to remind her of who she really is. ]

there’s one quote from the jeff bridges character that i feel is important to note here:

That’s the thing about programs. Mess with the code just a little, and their whole nature and memory can change.

sora’s time in the grid helps him understand a bit more of what “copies” of him can be going through, and honestly is an important part of why he is able to help xion and roxas in 3 (at least to me). xion’s suffering is tied to how the organization used and abused her, and them tampering with her memories is why she starts off on their side in 3. but sora, good boy that he is, manages to break through to her with a little help from roxas--just like he needed the right thing to reprogram rinzler and help him remember that he was tron all along.

as for prankster’s paradise…

[ ID: a screenshot from kingdom hearts dream drop distance of sora and xemnas confronting each other. sora looks determined as he exclaims, “But if Pinocchio could be given one (a heart)--shouldn’t you be able to have a heart inside you, too?” End ID. ]

the fact that nobodies do actually have hearts is confirmed towards the end of the game, but it’s clear sora has already mostly figured it out on his own. i’ll touch on it a little more later on, but sora knows that roxas has his own heart, living on inside his own--it’s a reminder of how roxas still exists, and how much of his own person he is outside of sora. he respects roxas's sense of identity as of the end of KH2, which leads him to act the way he does when faced with xemnas here.

xemnas is still putting on the show here that nobodies are beings without hearts, and sora knows that is blatantly untrue--why else would roxas feel the things he did if that was the case?

the other three worlds--traverse town, the country of musketeers, and the symphony of sorcery--do the same thing that data namine did in re:coded. they reinforce the things sora already knows about connecting with others, and relying on their strength when he can’t do things alone.

[ ID: a screenshot from kingdom hearts dream drop distance of sora talking to neku in traverse town. when talking about neku denying that he said he needed shiki, sora says, “What? Why? You said you need her. That’s a good thing.” End ID. ]

sora says it directly to neku in the revisit to traverse town: it’s good that neku admitted to needing shiki around. sora has always trusted in people to rely on him and to return the favor, so he sees none of the shame that neku feels in admitting that he needs other people.

[ ID: a screenshot from kingdom hearts dream drop distance of mickey and donald. mickey looks to the camera as he says, “Goofy’s right. As a team, we can do anything!” End ID. ]

the recurring musketeer motto of “All for one, and one for all!” when sora joins mickey, donald, and goofy in protecting princess minnie is another reminder of all this: sora knows the true value of teamwork with his party members, and how important donald and goofy are to him. they are his friends for life, and they’ll be at his side the way he’s at theirs. he reassures them the way they reassure him and always have.

[ ID: a screenshot from kingdom hearts dream drop distance of sora, looking wistful as he talks about riku: “I’ve got a friend out there who will help. He’s always picking up the slack for me.” End ID. ]

sora’s belief in riku is something that’s shown throughout the entire game, and the symphony of sorcery is just one example of many in truth--but sora has never doubted riku or even kairi and the others. even if he can’t see riku, even if his friends are a million miles away, sora knows that they have his back.

[ ID: a screenshot from kingdom hearts dream drop distance of sora in traverse town, looking happy and patting his chest as he says of riku, “Don’t worry. He’s with me--even when it might seem like he’s not.” End ID. ]

for the Overall Series Plot happening in DDD, this is very good for sora to remember--riku becomes a dream eater to protect sora in this game, so a friend helping from afar is quite literal. (i think it’s also important to remember this when thinking about the ending of kh3, and where sora has found himself. he still has people who love and care for him, even if they’re a million worlds apart from each other.)

anyway, now we come to the heart of the matter. has sora ended up in the same place as data sora? can he accept the pain the different pieces of him went through, and help them? as of kh3’s ending we know he’s helped them, but what about DDD? had he done it by the end of that game?

[ ID: three screenshots from kingdom hearts dream drop distance of sora and xion. sora asks who xion is, but trails off before he finishes asking. in the final shot, sora sheds a tear over xion. End ID. ]

sora comes face to face with namine and xion, and while he doesn’t connect with them, really, he does seem to feel their pain.

the most apparent interaction that leaves its mark is, of course, when he encounters roxas.

[ ID: screenshots from kingdom hearts dream drop distance of sora speaking to roxas, saying, “Roxas, you’re you. We’re not the same. I wanted to tell you that.” End ID. ]

at the end of KH2, sora has accepted that roxas had a clear sense of self, and was his own individual in spite of being sora's nobody. because sora is fully aware that roxas has his own heart and strong sense of, sora can firmly insist that roxas is his own person. roxas respects this, and opens his heart to sora, to share the truly terrible things that happened to him. and sora faces it, the way he needs to.

[ ID: a screenshot from kingdom hearts dream drop distance of sora, where sora looks angry and upset about what happened to roxas. He clenches his fist, and asks, “Did they cause all this pain?” End ID. ]

sora has faced roxas’s pain and suffering, at least. sora knows how the organization used and abused him, and how diz did the same. and sora is ready to face the pain the others in his heart are carrying--or, at least, that’s what i believe.

when riku encounters ansem the wise in sora’s heart at the end of the game, what ansem says is something i think kind of ties everything together:

Sora was the only one able to return to his human form without destroying his Nobody. That is a statement to the love in his heart for other people, and the bonds that tie them together. Perhaps…he has the power to bring back the hearts and existences of those connected to him--to recreate people we thought were lost to us forever. [ … ] Sora has a heart like [ a child's ]--uncorrupted, willing to see the good before the bad. When he sees the heart in something, it then becomes real. When a connection seems broken, he may have the power to mend it. [ … ] He has touched countless hearts, he has accepted them, and he has saved them. [ … ] All Sora needs to do is be himself and follow wherever it is that his heart takes him. It is the best and only way.

after the opening section of kh3 in olympus colosseum, what’s the thing that sets sora off on his journey?

[ ID: a screenshot from kingdom hearts three of sora, donald, goofy, and jiminy cricket in the gummi ship cockpit. sora looks determined as he says, “The others are following Aqua’s heart, so I’ll follow Roxas’s heart!”  End ID. ]

his desire for roxas to truly be his own person. during DDD, sora came to truly understand just how hard roxas fought to be his own person, even moreso than knew at the end of KH2, and wants to follow through on what he said to roxas directly. roxas, to sora, deserves to be his own person as much as sora does. and so, following that desire, sora sets out on this final leg of the Dark Seeker story arc.

so many people move mountains to make roxas beign his own person a reality. not even just roxas, actually, but xion and namine too--all because sora understood that roxas had his own heart, memories, and history. he saw roxas’s suffering and still pushed through to make sure his nobody got the life he deserved.

sora faced what pain he could, and did everything in his power to undo the suffering the people connected to him were feeling--and when he couldn’t do it himself, he let others help him. just the way namine (and her creation, data namine) wanted.

im sorry this is so long and kind of rambly--but i feel like i finally get sora in DDD outside of the organization’s plans for him, and that the off hand comment from this lets play i’m rewatching actually ended up being true. if you made it this far down in this silly post thanks for reading, hope you're having a good day ;u;

[oveliagirlhaditright]

I was thinking about Kairi a lot last night, after my Kairi feelings were reawakened some and I came up with the headcanon that she likes spooky places... that works way too well with spooky season right now, of course, which is part of the reason I'm posting this now. Why do I think this? Because a lot of the time when she's thought about in the series, in happens in a spooky place. LOL

And even before that, as people have joked, she seems to like "musty places." As she has that line twice in KH1: Merlin's Magician Study, which is one of the few places she manifests when she's in Sora's heart, and then in the Underground Cavern in Traverse Town. And these musty places kind of qualify as "spooky," too.

But in KHI, the other time she manifests in Sora's heart is in the Tree House in Deep Jungle--and I'd say that works a bit for this--and also when ASoD is about to kill Sora in Hollow Bastion. And KHI Hollow Bastion is definitely scary. There's also the time she calls Sora in Traverse Town, I guess, which might break this trend? But you know what? Even Traverse Town might count some, since it's a refugee world.

...I might have been too tired to really think about Chain of Memories last night. But you know what? Sora thinking about Kairi in Castle Oblivion and the memory of their destroyed Island works for me.

And then in KHII--what really made me think of this theory, with this and the KHI stuff combined--is it's Halloween Town where Sora imagines himself dancing with Kairi. There's also the moment where he's fantasizing about hugging Kairi in Port Royal. And Port Royal is... Port Royal.

In Coded, Data Sora and Data Riku talk about Kairi in Castle Oblivion, and Data Riku flashbacks to a memory Riku had of himself and Kairi at Big Ben. And if nothing else, that part of it is just a very sad scene for both of them, even if you don't think it's necessarily spooky.

In Dream Drop Distance, Sora has a dream of Kairi on the night their Island fell (brings to mind the one CoM scene, where he remembers Kairi in a somewhat similar moment). And then has dreams of her in The World That Never Was, which is definitely a creepy place.

And Kairi thinks the Final World is beautiful (so does Sora), which it is. But this is the final resting place for those who have died, so... yeah.

Basically, what I'm trying to say with this is, Kairi likes horror movies, y'all;)

[theophagie]

One thing that's been on my mind a lot is how hearts of copies of some kinds are connected. Like how Hayner Pence Olette feel that connection to Sora/Roxas even though Roxas only got to know their data copies. I don't remember when ingame or interview wise it was mentioned but Nomura did say that the "same" heart feels those connections even if they weren't present. And it makes me think a lot about Repliku and Data Sora and Riku. Are they too individual for this to happen or do Sora and Riku also have their connections? Does this also count for whatever copied Rikus were around in KH3? Or is this just a "when it's convenient for the plot" sort of deal lol. What is or isn't real?

Ohh I didn't know that he had talked about this !! This actually makes the Twilight Town kids' deal much clearer to me, but it also brings so many questions...

Could Data Riku not count because technically he's also a vessel for the journal? So he wouldn't be a "true" copy? Too much stuff mixed in there. But eg Sora should have felt connected to everyone that Data Naminé showed to Data Sora then... maybe it was never mentioned because those connections were already there, so he didn't notice a difference? Possibly? >.>

I guess that in a sense this explains why Riku figured out so easily that Repliku was sacrificing himself for Naminé's sake even though they never talked about her (as far as I remember)? Waa... Xehanort and Co become a HUGE question mark in light of this though. Hypothetical Riku internal monologue "Mh I guess I feel connected to them because I was weak and let the darkness get to me..." "My brother in keyblade a copy of your heart is among them". Arggghhhh. An actual mention of this would have been amazing, from quickly thinking about this original/copied heart connection thing on the spot it's the only completely unexplainable instance to me

(It's not the same, but this is reminding me of when Xion told Sora that she could feel Kairi and that she was alright (or that she would be, I don't remember atm)... girl What!!!) (But I guess that Xion is her own mess to begin with since that one time in Days she was shown to also have Riku's memories on top of Sora's)

[braveheartstoryteller]

If Re:coded is about learning to face hurt, and acceptance of that, then KH3D is the opposite, if we're talking about Sora directly. Riku's story does mirror the lessons learned in Re:coded, a story that I love within KH3D. There is a reason why the game is my fave story of the series. He shows, instead of telling, those exact same lessons. Sora, on the other hand, is dropped into an ocean and expected to swim. Perhaps, Mickey was expected to some how pass on the lessons learned by Data-Sora to Sora. Unless there is some sort of "mystical" connection between Data-Sora and Sora. KH3 seems to debunk that, though again the movie version of Re:coded lines that are hard to exactly interpret. So, I don't know. What we do know, is Sora struggled to even know what was going on in KH3D and it entrapped him. He tells Xigbar that the reason why he kept going was that his heart was aching. He didn't know what to think, only to try to push forward and find answers to it all. Something that mirrors Chain of Memories. If Sora gets into a emotional situation he will push until he figures it out. Often to his own detriment. But like Sora, I've been asking the question "why?" It's hard to directly say, but, we know from KH3 that Sora remembers his encounter with Roxas, and we know that left him hurting and aching. So, taking a clue from Re:coded, I think that might be why. Sora wasn't prepared for what he'd would find in his heart. Roxas had faced loss, as well as the fear of it. There is nothing more important to Sora, then connection. It is what drives him, and in his own admittance, where he finds his strength. Roxas showed him what it felt to lose it. He didn't know what to do with it. You could say it made him fight more, and fall harder. When finally on the other side of his adventures, he found himself worried, and perhaps fearful. The profound relief that Sora shows when Riku finally wakes up after rescuing him, to the point that not even Riku's words could break him out of his initial thought process. It was only when directly asked if he was alright that he finally switched gears. That's a powerful emotional response, one that was held back until everything was alright again. As Riku himself says "don't we have this backwards?" Yeah, it is. But Sora isn't ready to deal with his own heart. But does he have a clue how? Seemingly no, not at least in the way that Data-Sora had. I'll continue this in my last part of this series. Again if you're curious about the rest, search for the tag: tale of two Sora's. You'll find it there. I also have a master post: here.

[dojae-huh]

Just asking around cuz I'm so bored

Why do you think Dy and jh rarely takes part in the baggy jeans challenge??I have collected data from NCT reels and the results of challenges carried out by 7th sense members as follows:

7th sense unit with other

Ty : Giselle, Xiaojun, shotaro, wonbin, jungwoo, miyeon, bada, ingyoo (wedemboys), baekho (with mk), haechan (2), Yerin, stayc member, Hyo, Johnny (with ten)

Mk : Yesung, Riku, jungwoo (2), Xiaojun, (Yangyang, haechan(with Dy)), somi (with ten), baekho(with ty)

Ten : Karina, ningning, seulgi, jungwoo, Xiaojun, somi (2) (one with mk), Hyo (with ty), Johnny (with ty)

Jh : winter, Jeno

Dy : [haechan, Yangyang (with mark)]

7th sense with 7th sense

Ty Ten (2)

Jh mk (1)

Jh ten (1)

Ty, Dy, mk (1)

Mk ten (1) not dance

Dy (1) not dance

The other challenge is all member of 7th sense

Out of member 7th sense

Renjun, younghoon.

Jh very introvert, and tonight so It's surprising that he did the challenge with members other than NCT. For Dy, i think he feels not interested or lack in dancing until he hasn't challenge duet with 7th sense member too? Jh has unique dance and one of great dancer though he is not dancer in his position. What do you think, sorry for my boredom ^^ thanks

I think you answered your own question.

Tae, Mark and Ten are dancers. Tae also loves tiktok challenges. These collabs usually require a returned gesture - a dance tiktok with the other party's dance. Doyoung both doesn't think of himself as a dancer, and he usually is careful with asking favours from others. He did challenges with his own friends for DJJ. Jaehyun is antisocial, he does challenges with NCT members. Gotta bet a manager caught Winter and made her and Jae record a challenge, heh. I think they are a ship. Let me check. They might have a collab planned as singers as well.

Also, remember that Doyoung was very tired during BgJ run. And socialising requires energy. These tiktoks need some practice and a few takes.

[whyarewecalledtheshipname]

a tiny new addition to my Data Sora&Riku in riku’s phone crack fics. this one isn’t totally crack tho smh. The paragraph breaks don't always indicate a change in speaker, bc I'm a little shit like that, so oops if it's impossible to tell who's speaking when.

ao3 Summary: Very short interaction between Riku and Data Riku, regarding Sora's memory loss. Issue is, which one?

~<~>~

"Hey."

Riku looked down at his phone on his lap, then away again.

"It's not the end of the world."

"Sora forgot me."

"Sora forgot me, too."

"I know. You're me, from back then."

"But I'm not you. Have you forgotten? Sora and I had our own adventure in the datascape back home."

Vague recognition entered Riku's eyes, for only a second.

"When all was said and done, I told everyone that the journal, and all of its data, would be reset. And it was. Everyone in the datascape, everyone Sora and I had met, even Sora himself—they all forgot."

Riku frowned, but suddenly his eyes focused and snapped to Data Riku's. "They?"

"I didn't. But I told everyone that I would. I told Sora I would. And seeing him, talking to him, being with him, knowing he'd forgotten all that we'd been through—"

Data Riku took a deep breath.

"I was so scared. I knew Sora had grown a heart. But we lived in a world of data. When data is erased, you can't just 'remember' it. It's gone."

A breath.

"I thought Sora's memories would be gone, too. But Sora came through."

Data Riku looked into Riku's eyes with purpose. "Sora always comes through."

Riku took in a shaky breath and slowly leaned back, resting on the bench. He slowly breathed out. His eyes glistened, but there was hope in them nonetheless.

"Yeah." Both Rikus had to smile at the thought of Sora. "That's how he is."

~<~>~

jotted this down bc i CAN'T get enough of amnesiac sora oml. this is kinda working with the idea that sora's memories of riku have been lost or mixed up. (how did riku find out? hell if i know. if sora's dreaming while in stasis, and riku dove in or something and realized someone had photoshopped him out of sora's key memories, ummm)

i also can't get enough of Data Riku and his FUCKING PARTITIONS. little fucker just resets the whole journal and then pretends it's completely normal to just NOT be reset, himself. and so does everyone else (in-game lol) and it pisses me off! wtf!! whyyyyyy (edit: data riku did eventually become reset too but towards the actual end of the game)

and Riku's line about "the me back then" refers to Riku assuming Data Riku has the "memories" or data of the aftermath of Chain of Memories. And Riku is also assuming Sora's memories of Riku must have been lost in that time, too, though we know Sora never truly forgot Riku despite everything.

UGH wHY are all the memory concepts such ANGST and they are RIPE for the soriku plucking, fr. i'm TELLING youuuuu all that shit from CoM and recoded is gonna come for our soriku asses with a VENGEANCEEE

[daylighteclipsed]

Thinking again about the end of CoM as a metaphor for repressing trauma vs facing it to heal and grow as a person and I really just

It really does feel intentional that what Sora goes through in CoM — losing his memories and almost losing himself — is a lot like what Sora describes being a heartless was like: “I was lost in the darkness. I couldn’t find my way. As I stumbled through the dark, I started forgetting things — my friends, who I was… The darkness almost swallowed me.”

Both halves of CoM are visual representations of what Sora and Riku each went through when they fell/almost fell to darkness in KH1. Riku’s memories are devoid of people because he cast them from his heart. Sora’s memories are full of people he forgets because he sacrificed his heart. And if we are supposed to see CoM as a near-death journey/an exploration of the unconscious, it is pretty on point for Marluxia to have a grim reaper aesthetic. Sora’s battling death.

Anyway, that’s why Data Sora’s decision to accept the loss of the memories of his friends and face that pain in Coded, live with it, is so significant.

Because that’s what the real Sora failed to do in the real Castle Oblivion. He never should’ve forgotten what happened there. He should’ve accepted those losses — and the pain attached to them — knowing that even if he can’t remember his friends, they remember him. Even if he doesn’t know them, he remembers caring about them. And even if he can’t recall specific memories, they’re not gone. He’ll remember them, some day. And in the meantime, the people he loves will help him shoulder the burden.

In a figurative sense, Sora has never left Castle Oblivion because he’s never accepted this pain. He has never moved on past this point, unlike Riku who decides to face Ansem, the representation of his trauma, and leave the castle, leave the darkness, to begin walking the road to dawn — the road to recovery. Sora’s still there, still under that dark night sky.

And now, after sacrificing himself again, there’s a very real chance he’s forgetting things and losing himself again, and surprise, surprise — look where he is.

Tied to a new character whose name means “night sky” to boot… Trauma has a way of biting us in the butt when we don’t deal with it properly. The past has a way of chaining us when we don’t move forward… Sora’s gonna have to do it right this time. He’s gonna have to face his pain and accept it if he wants to step forward into the light and exist again.

[felikatze]

Sora was still a Heartless in CoM: A Headcanon-Theory

It’s easy to say Sora’s status in CoM as a seemingly regular human despite Roxas’ existence is a simple retcon; what if the concept of Nobodies simply didn’t already exist during KH1′s development?

But it doesn’t have to be that easy. If we want to examine this without clinging to any real life explanations, the lore can still be consistent within itself. It’s a somewhat popular theory as far as I can tell, so I’m by no means claiming I came up with it, but no harm in compiling why it makes sense to me, right?

The Hypothesis is as such: Kairi didn’t restore Sora to human form, she simply restored his mind, and he only fully became human again after joining up with Roxas following the KH2 prologue.

For this possibility, I want to examine similarities between Ansem and Sora, and several observations during CoM.

(As a note, “How come Sora still has his Keyblade then?” is a question I’ve already answered in my post, “Could a Heartless wield a Keyblade?” )

Returning to “How is this possible?” I want to point to this post by Thark that already points out visual similarities between Rage Form and Ansem Sod (side note: the one going on a recoded tangent in that reblog chain? my sideblog. time is a flat circle.)

From Thark’s post, we have the visual similarity, and we have Ansem and Sora sharing a “special” position among Heartless. Supposing the theory is true, they are the only Heartless capable of speech. As pointed out (by me) in the reblog chain above, the trait of speech is shared by Data Sora’s Heartless, which shows that Sora as a Heartless very much had the potential to gain that trait.

Furthermore, UX introduced another class of Heartless that can speak, Darklings. If we compare the three, we have other similarities as well. All three are the Heartless of Keyblade Wielders, and all three became Heartless willingly.

Ansem and Sora both turned their blades upon themselves, and Darklings didn’t get turned by other Heartless, they simply fell to Darkness.

This comparison doesn’t really prove anything, I know. But it shows that the possibility very much exists for Sora to exist as he does in CoM, while also being a Heartless.

In CoM, Axel even points out this similarity.

Axel: There was a time he became a Heartless. And if one becomes a Heartless-

Larxene: They lose their minds and their feelings... They’re consumed by the darkness.

Axel: Right. But not Sora. He held on to his feelings, even as a Heartless. And there’s only one other man who’s been able to do just that.

Larxene: It’s the strength of his heart... [...]

The “only other man” is quite obviously Ansem SoD. Even compared to Darklings, he’s the only one with full control over himself and his actions.

Neither Axel nor Larxene ever remark on the miracle that is Sora’s return to humanity, though they speak of him becoming a Heartless in past tense. At this point, only the Organization knows about Nobodies, and the requirement of Nobodies to return a Heartless to human form. They’d know Sora would need Roxas to truly become human again, and yet it doesn’t faze them in the slightest.

Later on, Larxene makes... pointed remarks toward Sora.

Larxene, on Namine’s charm: Yes, she’s the one that gave you that tacky little good luck charm. Not that you even bothered to remember. Seeing as you also couldn’t remember her NAME. Talk about heartless! I can’t believe you!

But she doesn’t just do it once. She does it twice.

Larxene: You really are a hero. A heartless hero.

Sora: Who asked you!?

Larxene: Oh, does it hurt because it’s the truth? You are just a baby.

Heartless is obviously a jab at him “forgetting” Namine, riling up and goading him deeper into her and Marluxia’s trap, but the specific choice of heartless as an adjective, along with the repetition of it, feels veeeery pointed, and deliberate.

Again, she knows about Nobodies and Roxas. Sora doesn’t.

Later on, with Vexen, we have more similar terminology.

Vexen: The Riku you speak of... has but one fate, to sink into the darkness- and you will share that fate, Sora!

Vexen: If you continue to seek the girl, Namine, the shackles will tighten, you’ll lose your heart... and end up becoming Marluxia’s pawn!

(Vexen’s Absent Silhouette battle in kh2 having him create specifically shadow Soras is also just a fun detail in this case.)

CoM‘s narrative is also overall cool for this case. In the game, as Sora loses memories, he grows increasingly emotional. He gets angrier more often, frequently yelling at the different Organization members, which he really doesn’t do to this extent in any game since. He yells, sure, but never nearly as vicious.

He’s losing memories, he’s falling to darkness. That’s how Vexen describes the fate in store for Sora if Marluxia gets his way, and that’s the same way Sora describes becoming a Heartless in KH1.

There’s the overarching narrative of losing yourself, and trying to hold onto your feelings, which Axel pointed out as special. Sora is guided pretty exclusively by his emotions, here the feelings inspired by his “promise” to Namine. The game places a looot of emphasis on Sora’s strength of heart, on Sora’s persistence, and Sora having a heart (to contrast the antagonists’ lack of one), and others trying to destroy or shatter it.

Irony is a part of that, too. Sora is going up the Castle, and in the process, falling into darkness. Additionally, it was Kairi who pulled him out, and it’s Namine pulling him in. If Kairi restored Sora’s mind, Namine is the one reverting Kairi’s actions, in a way.

‘s cool. is all.

If we want to get into more wishy-washy lore territory... If being a Heartless is a detriment to your memories and your mind in general, it slots in neatly with CoM’s Sora. And to the importance placed on Sora’s memories in Days. Furthermore, if Sora is a Heartless, it feels kind of logical for him to be unable to awaken without Roxas and Xion, if his heart’s all he’s got, and it’s all scrambled up.

Added to that, the comparisons to Ansem, and Data Sora’s Heartless, and all that neat stuff, I just think it makes sense. We don’t have to call retcon on everything that doesn’t immediatly make sense, when digging around for in-universe possibilites

Utlimately, this theory changes.... nothing, about the plot, or implications of the plot. It’s just cool to think about, which is why I’m gonna say it’s true, because there’s nothing proving explicitly otherwise, actually. There’s probably more to find on this, but going through.. all of Sora’s story in CoM was enough for me for today, thanks.

[avionvadion]

Rewatching Zexion scenes and-

For being the Nobody who “has no room for emotions” Zexion actually shows a lot of them during Chain of Memories, and I find that very interesting. Looking through it all, most of his “emotions” tend to fall back to the betrayal/abandonment he believes he suffered at the hands of Ansem the Wise.

This particular face I think about frequently-given what we know about how Ienzo had been groomed into villainy by Xehanort after Ienzo’s line in KH3 of how, “They told me you’d gone mad! That you abandoned us! I was just a boy, but… I should have known better.”

He’s all too familiar with the negative emotions involved, which is why he’s so bothered when Marluxia and Larxene start acting suspicious, doing things without even bothering to consult him, Lexaeus, or even Vexen.

It’s also why he’s so disgusted when Vexen dies.

He hates betrayal, hates what Axel has done, for, even if at this moment Zexion can not truly “feel” depending on whether he had nurtured a new heart or not at this time, he still had the memories of his child self. The one who had been orphaned, then told he had been betrayed and abandoned by the one he called his adoptive father and mentor, and was eventually killed and reborn as as an empty shell without a heart. He could remember all those memories vividly.

Emotions have only ever brought him pain. So he has “no room for them” in terms of decisions and the like. He is, by all means, ruled by science and logic- for science and logic is the one thing he can trust.

Then there’s this next one-

“We were going to set him off against the traitors, but with Marluxia gone there’s no need. He’s nothing but a nuisance now.”

He’s clearly disturbed by Riku rampaging about the castle after Marluxia’s death, the majority of the CoM cast having been killed save for Axel and Zexion himself, and is very concerned about what’s going to happen to the Organization. Especially now that both Lexaeus and Vexen are dead.

It’s all he knows, being forced to become a Nobody at a young age and growing up within the Organization. It is, by all means, even in the worst kind of way, the only family he has left.

“Tell me, did you obtain the data on Riku’s home?”

Zexion is also all too willing to get rid of the one that’s threatening that family. And how does he try to do that? By manipulating Riku’s emotions and guilting him by blaming him for what happened to Destiny Islands. Trying to pit him against an artificial version of Sora. Convincing him he has betrayed Sora by giving in to the darkness, as Sora is on the side of light.

(Something greatly ironic, and is actually a parallel, to the fall of Radiant Garden as it was Ienzo who had convinced Ansem the Wise to allow the inhuman experiments. Ienzo who had been manipulated by Xehanort, and was then later manipulated by Xemnas during his many years as Zexion.)

Zexion, despite having been stated to shun emotions, still very much uses them. He uses the negativity and pain he felt as a human child and tried to turn it against Riku, and expresses his surprise and anger and even alarm when this fails.

His confusion, his rage.

The way he slams himself against the wall in fear of death upon seeing Repliku, gasping, terrified that Riku had found him and was about to finish him off after he had just narrowly escaped. The sheer relief when he realizes it’s not actually him.

Even his voice is full of fear when Axel is talking Repliku into murdering Zexion and absorbing his powers.

“Axel, what are you saying to him!? You can’t do this-!”

Looking at Chain of Memories!Zexion closely, it really shouldn’t have been so surprising when, after he was revived as an adult Ienzo, that he ended up so talkative and expressive. Zexion himself wasn’t short on words and, despite having been said in Days to hate idle chatter, clearly enjoyed some sassy banter with Axel right before Marluxia’s death.

AN:

Please note that when I say “forced to become a Nobody/was killed and joined the Org” it is because despite him saying, as an adult in Kh3 that he “gave his heart up by choice” he was still very much a child at the time it all happened, and therefore did not know any better/had any ability to stop it from happening. He couldn’t have been older than ten when it all happened.

The Cloaked Schemer had been caught up in a scheme without ever realizing, the manipulator having been the manipulated all along.

Little Ienzo had been manipulated and murdered by the adult (Xehanort) he had trusted, and continued to be manipulated (by Xemnas) as Zexion and later murdered (by Repliku/Axel) a second time.

We even seen Even’s arm outstretched towards little Ienzo, as if he had tried to protect him, and what is his weapon after he becomes Vexen? A shield. Zexion meanwhile gets a lexicon- a weapon of knowledge, of illusion. Because, for the majority of his life, Xehanort and Xemnas have casted an illusion over him, over his beliefs, manipulating him for their own purposes, and had him killed off after he learned far too much.

[asteriskheart]

collection of misc kairi headcanons i'm reposting from my old blog

kairi can handle spicy food to an extent, but really she has a sweet tooth. it’s easy to find her snacking on a confectionery of some type, or the (sigh) healthier substitute of sweeter fruits. is partial to watermelons.

purple is her favorite color. she loves those cool, soft shades it has the most, and has it incorporated into her attire in bbs and kh1.

respects authority figures but like. conditionally.

she loves keyblade training after she gets into it. serves as a great method of clearing her mind. 

this one isn’t a headcanon, just a reminder that kairi canonically displayed telepathic abilities able to transcend the dimensional barriers separating the worlds and project her voice into the data realm by accident

strong. as of kh3 the girl has muscles on her. she launched another person like 20 ft into the air and somehow smashed through xemnas’ light sabers. she could pick up riku or sora and carry them around if she wanted to.

lacks any great dancing skills. she's light on her feet but she has no real technique.

pretty fond of art. while namine is an artist in the sense of drawing and the like, kairi leans more toward the crafting side of art and putting things together from various materials with her hands. knitting, weaving flowers, making charms. she has a tendency to give away finished products. gets really into synthesis when she discovers it.

likes to wear clothes of her friends. or rather they seem to gravitate towards her in mysterious ways. chances are if you’re her friend you’ve probably lost some articles of clothes and you’ve miraculously gained some around kairi’s size.

one of her struggling points starting out is magic ( outside of light magic ). she has too much power, not enough control, and it's influenced by her emotions.

eventually gets a gummiship for herself after collecting stray gummi blocks across worlds because why hitch a ride when you can snag a ride of your own?

she can be pretty silly and will send her friends late night memes and puns when she’s not playing the games on her new gummiphone.

sora was shown as the focus of her letters which is a habit she picked up during her year alone on destiny islands while struggling to remember him, but you know what goddamn it, she wrote letters both her friends because she was always worried about what riku was doing while missing and continues to do so after she went off to train in bambi's forest.

kairi is a physically affectionate person but she's a bit of a disaster when it comes to anything romantic. she's used to keeping things like a crush on the down low if she gets one, plenty of practice in that area.

has vivid recollections of sora’s kh1 memories. both the good and truly awful, terrifying moments. this gets even worse post kh3

in hollow bastion, sora sacrificing himself to release her  heart triggered her ability to use the keyblade after it was bequeathed  to her by aqua. her keyblade was actually summoned back in kh1.

kairi froze up in the keyblade graveyard at seeing terranort. not because of him destroying everyone, but because she recognizes that face. she recognizes and remembers the face of the man who experimented on her and tossed her off the edge of radiant garden, she just had those memories buried up until he was right in her face and ready to kill her.

namine  has just as much influence over kairi's memories and the people  connected to her as she does over sora, though it’s impossible to erase  them in her ‘original’ completely. it wouldn’t make sense if namine’s ability didn’t extend to kairi when she’s her nobody. or maybe sora’s the actual add on to the original ability due to  circumstance while kairi’s the intended target the memory manipulation  stemmed from. it’s just that sora was the one organization 13 wanted to call to castle oblivion and is the prominent  figure of connection in the series.  

[dahniwitchoflight]

KHUX - Where’d they all go?

Alright so, first!

Who and what and where did everyone end up?

Maleficient: Took a pod to a specific point in the future, achieved this by also using her pet crow to force memories of her present self by having it fly her cloak to the great fairies and make them remember her

Ephemer: Brain from outside manages to send two pods back into the data Daybreak Town to rescue Ephemer and Skuld, (with the last Pod still in the Data meant for the Player, so all three could escape) Pops out of the pod to see the destroyed real Daybreak Town, goes back in with Skuld to escape the dying worldline along with the others, Gets flung forward in time just a tad from his own perspective to become the Founder of Scala Ad Caelum from the ruins of the destroyed Daybreak Town (Still doesn’t answer how or why he popped out in KH3 to help, but eh, guess that’s a question for Dark Road?)

Lauriam: Hops into one of three Pods in the real Daybreak Town to escape, Gets flung to present KH Times in a flower field from Snow White’s world, most likely proceeds to become a nobody some time later

Elrena: Hops into one of three Pods in the real Daybreak Town to escape, Gets flung to roughly the same time and place as Lauriam, but on the stormy mountain from the Witch’s area of Snow White’s world,  most likely proceeds to become a nobody some time later

Ventus: Hops into one of three Pods in the real Daybreak Town to escape, Ends up in the keyblade graveyard, roughly a few years before BBS and is found by Old Xehanort starting that story

Player: Tricks Ephemer into sealing them and the 4 darknesses into a piece of the Data Daybreak Town by pretending to have fallen to darkness, ends up dying from the 4 Darknesses, sacrificing themselves to save Ephemer and Skuld. In the realm between Death and Sleep, their dying heart then reincarnates eventually into a new young Heart (as they sometimes do), into that of newborn Young Xehanort, who is from Scala Ad Caelum in the time of Dark Road-ish, gets sent to Destiny Island’s by a mysterious old man who then dies, and then Young Xehanort begins his journey in Dark Road

Strelitzia: Her apparent Nobody gets sent to the future into the real world by Luxu, but it’s unknown where or when she ends up, last seen walking off in a white version of the Nobody Coat  (I suppose this is another question Dark Road will likely answer?)

Skuld: Brain from outside manages to send two pods back into the data daybreak town to rescue Emphemer and Skuld, Pops out of the pod to see the destroyed real Daybreak Town, goes back in with Ephemer to escape the dying worldline along with the others, We don’t find out her whereabouts, but the remaining theory is that she is Subject X from BBS, Lea and Isa’s friend with amnesia (I suppose this is another question Dark Road will likely answer?)

Rest of the Sleeping Dandelions/Fallen Keyblade Wielders: As their hearts fall asleep, the Chirithy that is bound to their hearts also takes on a sleeping form and become Dream Eaters, Spirit shaped by their wielders Dreams in order to protect them

Luxu: Last seen dragging along the box, holding the keyblade, and lifting up his hood to reveal that he looks exactly like Brain just without the hat

Brain: Gets flung forward roughly to the time of Dark Road-ish, last seen in Scala Ad Caelum that has been rebuilt for a while now by Ephemer the founder from a long time ago, just without his signature hat, and due to his conversation with a figure named Sigurd (who gives him his hat back), has likely fallen roughly into the times of KH Dark Road, and is perhaps a closer ancestor to Eraqus than first thought! maybe even a grandpa or great-grandpa

now the fun thing about Luxu and Brain and why they might look the same, cuz there’s a few options:

Is that before their final scenes, the 2nd last scene Luxu and Brain had was with eachother, right after Brain sent everyone on their merry way, Luxu pops up and says hey watcha doing, and Brain says he wants to stay behind to help free all the sleeping keyblade wielders, even if it takes him the rest of his life, and Luxu comments at him that it’d be a shame for him to waste his life like that or something to the effect before a fade to black

and the thing is, we don’t get to see their individual arrangements for how Both Luxu and Brain escape to the worldline along with the others. We just know that for sure he doesn’t stay and wake up the wielders, because all of their chirithy’s turn into the dream eaters. (And also that apparently he left his hat behind before he left as he picks it up in Scala when Sigurd gives it back to him)

And since there’s only one seemingly possible pod left to take, the one from the data world left for the Player (who never took it and instead dies), theres seem to be only one spot left on the ride out, and with Luxu’s body snatching tendencies, it seems to suggest that Luxu overtook Brain’s Heart and Body, grabbed the last pod from the data and adios’d

BUT the key here is in their apparent attitudes that we know this is likely not the case, and also the Hat, not only does it make it obviously clear who is who, the logistics of the Hat make it clear as well

In both cases, the boy who ends up in the graveyard with the box and the key, and the boy who appears in Scala, neither of them have Brain’s hat

But Brain IS last seen with his hat

If Luxu had overtaken Brain, there would be no reason for him to discard the hat, since the entire point of the body snatching is to be that person

Then, when Brain wakes up in Scala, Sigurd comes along and presents the hat saying “We’ve been waiting for you.” and Brain takes it back

Brain would neither remove his hat, nor would Luxu remove it if he had overtaken Brain

Instead, the likelier option is that Luxu forcibly put Brain into a pod and sent him to the future, saying it would be a shame if Brain were to die while Daybreak Town fell to darkness, because that’s what would’ve happened if Brain tried to stay behind

Where does that Leave Luxu though? How does he get back?

Well back in the data daybreak town, there are actually two Pods left, one meant for the Player who never used it, which Brain likely ended up taking, and a Destroyed Pod that got written off since who would know how to fix it?

Oh, Luxu would! And we know he does, because he specifically taunts Brain with that knowledge, asking him if he even knows how their supposed to work, And wouldn’t ya know, it’s in the Data Daybreak Town, meaning Luxu wouldn’t have even need to physically fix it, he could have easily reprogrammed it to be fixed from the computer side

So, two people, two pods, Luxu sends Brain on his merry way, in the scuffle because Brain would have resisted, the hat might’ve been removed, and Luxu could have easily set it up so that the hat could be preserved and in the future they would know to look and wait for Brain to appear

The only mystery remains then is why does Luxu looks like Brain?

appearances are tricky things in the KH series as well all know, and Luxu’s face has been hidden all this time, likely because his face would have been a spoiler or potentially confusing had it been shown from the beginning of KHX, not KHUX even

The one hint we have, is that in the Back Cover cinematic, which takes places during KHX, If you look closely, apparently you can see a shaggy lock of hair under his hood that matches Brain’s

which means Luxu has probably looked liked Brain all along from the start!

And before getting into the crazier reasons of why someone would look like someone else in the KH series (look at you Ventus/Roxas, Sora/Vanitas, Kairi/Namine/Xion) 

the one that makes the most sense to me personally, consideriong this fact, is that Luxu is a Replica of some sort, of Brain, made by the Master of Masters to fulfill a specific purpose for him, and considering Luxu’s purpose was easily the most important of MoM’s plans, and with how in his early appearances Luxu appears very withdrawn, shy, or dependant on MoM but also separate in some way from the rest of the 5 and with how we know that MoM has no qualms creating living things to do his bidding like the Chirithy’s, we know he’s aware of the replica technology at the very least since the pod system appears to be a workaround for this very issue of needing a medium for the flesh at the appropriate time and place

I think him being a replica with Brain’s appearance makes the most sense, Brain was certainly already on MoM’s radar as a special keyblade wielder, since he was one of the ones MoM chose to be a new union leader, and the way that Luxu’s appearance has always been hidden, how he always wore the black coat which in KH3 seems to be confirmed as what a “default” Replica body appears in when not in use, as we see when Riku Replica shunts out evil Repliku to have the body for Namine, it appears as a doll covered in the black coat

To me, I think it’s fitting, and I think that Luxu being comfortable with shunting from body to body and switching between forms is also part of that, his original form is a replica made to mimic another person, so why wouldn’t he continue that trend? Moving his heart from vessel to vessel, never getting attached to the flesh or identity itself? 

So yeah, I believe that Luxu taking over Brain is a red herring that KHUX ending presents, but I believe it will ultimately not be the case, and the rest of Dark Road/Verum Rex will go further into the reason why that is, with Luxu being a Replica of Brain from the very start coming out on top as the most likely series of events

[kingdomhearts-and-soriku-trash]

KH 2 playthrough post so far so I don’t actually have to spam my blog and you all:

OOOH!! I just beat Aladdin’s world for the second time and now the organizations place is showing up!! It’s beginning to appear which isn’t too good-

But it’s also perfect bc I am craving to see Riku pleaseeeee.

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I have to go back to Twilight Town for the second time and I didn’t see that the path wasn’t opened up yet (like I can see the world but I can’t land there yet), so I went up to it and it did that barrier thing and it scared the crap out of me. Idk why it did, but it did-

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AXELL!! IM IN THE DATA TWILIGHT AND AXEL IS SAVING US IN THE PORTAL THING!!!

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HE DIESSS NOOOO. I mean Ik he doesn’t die but STILL ITS SO SAD😭. He just wanted to see Roxas….

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I’m looking at the shadow profile in the journal and gosh the way it just twitches…it makes it so hard to believe that Sora was one of these at some point-

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Went back to Pride Rock to lvl up bc I remember that spawning those flying creatures thing on top of pride rock and it’s worked pretty well. Got Sora leveled up at least once since the first time so :).

But also why am I only now learning that Sora can actually run in Lion King’s world?? He doesn’t do a short dash…if you hold down square he actually runs…why am I only now realizing this after years-

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Yesss!!! The heartless wasn’t that hard. I just didn’t go up to the actual heartless at all and just attacked the big dinosaur thing bc it was safer and that thing was dead within 5 minutes?? Maybe?? Idk but anyways. I really wish we could do drive form in pride lands bc that fight would’ve been really good for leveling up my Valor form and others. I think I need to lvl each form up to beat Roxas so I need to get to working-

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Tron: Hugs the crew

Donald and Goofy: Happily accept the hug

Sora: Acts like he’s never been hugged in his life and is so uncomfortable

I still find this moment so funny-

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Leveled up my Drive Forms (even tho I could only use limit :’)) and I beat Roxas on the first try! I’m so happy!! And while reading through comments of a video about how to beat him since I haven’t played him in awhile and needed a refresher of what he does, I saw people saying they quit. They literally got to this fight and quiet and it made me a little sad. One comment said they got to lvl 40 and couldn’t beat him and I was like, “Did you…not read the lvl recommendation? It says 50 for me, plus leveling up the drive form needed wasn’t too difficult.” I literally took a TON of damage and could barely block any of his attacks, but if you have Curaga and Hi-Potions, then you can beat him. Literally my first time posting on normal mode and I managed to do it!!

Some even said that it took them two hours to beat Roxas and I was like dang. It took me awhile to level up my drive forms sure, but not two hours. I guess they didn’t go to the right areas :/. I just want to tell people that if you gave up bc of him, to back to this game! It’s so amazing to beat him yourself and feel that satisfaction! It really is! Plus, as long as you’re at the recommendation lvl then you can do it! I’m literally barely dodged his attacks and almost died once, but I managed and it’s very satisfying to beat him!! And very emotional if you look up why you fight him :’’’(.

But yeah there’s my small rant about my fight with Roxas. I really can’t believe I beat him on my first try. Last playthrough (which was the first time I beat the game ever) I sucked so bad.

.

BROO WHY AM I CRYING AS I WATCH SORA AND ROXAS HAVE A MOMENT. HE HAS A WHOLE MOMENT WITH AXEL AND THEN HE JUST TELLS SORA, “You make a good other.”

BRO IM LITERALLY IN TEARS. My head hurts😭. I love that KH seems like a Disney game because of the worlds, but it’s story and lore is real deep and punches you in the heart while simultaneously making you laugh. I love it here even as I cry :).

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This is so terrible out of context, but Namine and Kairi running away while holding hands is kinda funny. Just the way they run is a little bit funny. Situation is terrible but I just had a small chuckle at their run-

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Okay that’s all for tonight :). It’s almost midnight and I’m just now quitting KH, so yeah. Goodnight yall or good morning :).

[excusemewhileiplaykh]

Re:MIND Made the Meteor Shower from CoM Relevant Again

There’s one scene from Re:MIND that has been driving me crazy since it came out and I haven’t really seen anyone talk about it.

When Demyx arrives at the Keyblade Graveyard to retrieve the replica for Naminé, Riku tells him the vessel is filled with “important memories”.

When I first heard this, I thought, (“lmao why is riku so expressive?”) “What is Riku talking about? What ‘important memories’?”

Well, the only memories Riku could be talking about are Repliku’s memories, right? This makes sense when you think about how Riku and Repliku had that talk on the beach, in which Repliku references his promise to Naminé. Remember that Repliku had his heart broken by Naminé in CoM which wiped him clean of all of his memories except for the fake memories Naminé imprinted on him, including the meteor shower promise (which I’ll get back to in a minute). This means he would only have the fake memories and memories of the events preceding his heart being broken. Repliku mentions this himself at the end of CoM:

Riku Replica: Not Riku. I’m a fake. I can’t remember why i was created or where or when... All that’s inside of me— is time with you and  Naminé. But I know those memories are not real.

(source)

Thus, if Repliku did leave behind his memories in the replica, it would make sense for Riku to call them “important” since he understood how special Naminé was to him. 

So let’s run on the assumption that Repliku left his memories inside the replica after he disappeared. From a meta perspective, what does this serve? Why would Nomura hint that Repliku’s memories were inside that replica and now they’re with Naminé?

One possibility is that Naminé may be able to use those memories to bring back Repliku. This seems unlikely, however. For one, Repliku’s goodbye was pretty definitive. He was okay with disappearing if it meant Naminé could have a body. Moreover, a whole year has gone by at the end of Re:MIND and we more or less know what every character was up to during that year and yet there’s no mention of Repliku. If the meta purpose of having those memories in Naminé’s replica was to bring back Repliku, why didn’t they do it during that year? It seemed that putting Naminé and the rest of the organization in replicas was easy enough. Moreover, it doesn’t seem to matter that they only have memories to reconstructure Repliku because people can be reconstructed from Data, a source similar to memories (Data seems to be based on memories, anyway).

So… Naminé has Repliku’s memories… but it’s not to bring back Repliku?

But then the question remains, why hint that Repliku’s memories are now with Naminé?

Well, let’s think about the content of those memories. Like I said, Repliku’s memories would consist of the fake memories Naminé implanted in him, including the meteor shower promise, and his memories of events after his heart was broken. As I’m sure you remember, the meteor shower promise played a key role in CoM. To summarize, both Sora and Repliku believed that they had made a promise to protect Naminé on the night of the meteor shower and this leads to antagonism between the two (that and Repliku being angry that Sora is constantly trying to “worm” his way into his heart). We are meant to believe that the meteor shower memory is just made up by Naminé, but that doesn’t seem likely, especially when you consider how Naminé’s memory manipulation works.

I put stress on the word manipulation because that seems to be what Naminé does. She manipulates preexisting memories by messing with their links, moving, removing, and inserting things into the chain as she sees fit. This means Naminé could manipulate true memories and not just manufacture them. She actually explains this to Sora and the gang at the end of CoM:

Naminé: Of course. It’s my fault, after all. I took people and memories that re inside Sora’s heart... and little by little, I replaced them with false memories.

Donald: Hey... What about Sora’s promise?

Naminé: Made up. It was fake. Sora never really promised me anything. me being with him on the islands— that was a lie, just like everything else. We never met. I was never Sora’s friend—

Sora: And you were never anything more— either...

Naminé: No. You see, in all of your memories, I was never really there.

(another scene)

Naminé: When you remember one thing, that leads to remembering another— and then another and then another. Our memories are connected. Many pieces are linked together like they’re in a chain— that makes up each of us. I don’t actually erase any memories— just take apart links and rearrange them. You still have all your memories.

(source) 

For instance, this promise obviously occurred during a meteor shower. The only confirmed meteor shower we know of on the Islands was the night that Kairi arrived (reference). Since Kairi came on that night, it is, for obvious reasons, very unlikely Sora made the promise to her. Moreover, let us consider that Repliku was made using Riku’s memories. Naminé tells Repliku this in the CoM novel (please excuse my notes lol).

This suggests that the way Naminé’s memory manipulation works is that she takes pre existing memories and inserts herself within them, making false memories. If this is true, then we can imply that the meteor shower promise was actually something Sora experienced with someone.

This isn’t a new theory, of course. Most prominently, Blowingoffsteam2 suggested that the meteor shower was a real memory in this post. They also suggest that Sora shared this memory with Riku, which if this is a real memory, would make the most sense.

For instance, this promise obviously occurred during a meteor shower. The only confirmed meteor shower we know of on the Islands was the night that Kairi arrived (reference). Since Kairi came on that night, it is, for obvious reasons, very unlikely Sora made the promise to her. Moreover, let us consider that Repliku was made using Riku’s memories. Naminé tells Repliku this in the CoM novel (please excuse my notes lol).

(pg. 357)

This suggests that Riku also had a memory of the meteor shower, which was implanted in Repliku. This suggests that the meteor shower that exists within Naminé’s replica (as in the replica she takes for herself at the end of 3)  is Riku’s version of the meteor shower memory. Sora had his own version of the memory that was altered by Naminé. The fact that this memory was taken from Riku is also consistent with the CoM poems, specifically written by Nomura, which appear at the end of Sora and Riku’s stories. In Riku’s poem, it talks about a “forgotten promise”.

Beyond the path without you

is a forgotten promise to keep.

We may have walked side by side,

but now we go back to back.

And though our paths may not cross,

all paths are connected somewhere.

When I arrive at where you are,

we may not appear to be as we were...

But we’ll make another promise to keep.

(source)

Seeing as Repliku may have his memory of the meteor shower, it would make sense that Riku forgot this “promise”. All of this evidence suggests that if the promise did in fact take place, it would have had to occur between Sora and Riku as Steam suggests.

Alright, so now that we have all of this information, let’s try to organize some conclusions. The main conclusion we can make is that it appears Naminé is once again in possession of Riku’s version of the meteor shower scene.

But the question still stands… Why would Nomura bring all of this up? What’s the purpose?

Well, let’s consider how powerful the meteor shower memory is. It’s so powerful that even after Repliku accepts that the memory isn’t his, he still believes Naminé is his most precious person and he’s willing to sacrifice himself so she can have a body again.

If the memory were to return to Riku, what would happen? Could it help bring Sora back? Does Sora remember the meteor shower?

I guess we’ll have to wait and see.