Chains of Heart - Episode 9

@respectthepetty's post about Chains of Heart's MiB got my sleuthing juices flowing. Now I just have to know how many different masked men are attacking/helping Ken. Is Tee Lue? Are they all the same person? Who else could it be?

Just who are these masked men?

Masked man #1. He microwaved a phone and blew up some dudes in a meat locker.

It's hard to make out the face because it's so dark and he's looking down.

Masked man #2. He helped fight off Fin(?) on the bridge and saved Ken from his first choking.

No clear shots and blurry. Again, it's hard to tell.

Masked man #3. He attacked Ken at the hotel and told him to go back to Taiwan.

Masked man #4. He saved Ken from Nok at the party.

Masked man #5. He tried to kill Ingpha with a tiny knife.

The Suspects:

The only clue we have are the eyes and eyebrows. It's hard to tell with the eyes making different expressions, but eyebrows don't lie.

1. Lue

Lue's eyebrows are pretty full and flat with a small rise in the fullest part. I think these are the eyebrows from all masked men except maybe #1 where I can't see the eyebrows.

However, would he really be MM #3? If it is Lue that means he runs out to ask Ken if he's ok right after beating him up. Is that his way of saying I love you, sorry for beating you up, but it's for your own good?

Lue being MM #4 makes even less sense. Wasn't Lue shot and knocked out maybe 5 minutes before #4 charged in to save Ken? When Lue meets Ken on the bridge in episode 6, Ken is limping, but Lue is totally fine, so maybe the shot was just a graze and Lue was just groggy and not knocked out from getting kicked in the face. But where did he get the ski mask and leather jacket from? Did he have a duffel bag stashed somewhere? 😅

2. Din

He also has full eyebrows, but with a bit more arch. A possibility for masked man #5, but if Lue is Din then it can't be Din.

3. DeeDee

I don't think it's DeeDee. The eyebrows and eyes don't feel similar to any of the masked men.

4. Inspector Don

A possibility for masked man #3? But I feel like #3's eyebrows are a but more manicured.

5. Payu

I think Payu's eyes are too round to be any of the masked guys.

6. Hin (just to be thorough)

Hmm.... could be... But I think his eyebrows have a bit more arch, similar to Din's.

Conclusions: I think Tee is Lue and all the masked men are actually just Lue. It doesn't make sense for some of the situations, but then again, does anything in this series make sense?

I hate (love) Chains of Heart!

WHAT THE FUCK IS THE DOCTOR DOING THERE?!

This is the doctor from the first episode who Tee took Ken to after he was attacked on the bridge

So he knows who Tee is and is actually working with him?!

And Lue is a widower with a kid (but "that's not the issue"" <-what the fuck does that mean, Payu?!) who was in a car accident which he almost died in the same exact time Din supposedly died?!

And Payu knew this?! Because Inspector Boon has been telling him this, but what about Papi? Isn't he the Inspector?! And that other friend has seen Ken with Lue in the future but he never saw Ken with Din in the future?!

I can't even be happy about the gloves coming off (Lue is on Din's side and he has the same mannerisms as Din. HE IS DIN!) because Lue is staying right next door to Ken, yet they couldn't get into his room.

What the fuck is going on, y'all?!

That dad better be alive. That's all I gotta say because my ass is CONFUSED!

I hate this show because it has a death grip on me! I am addicted to this chaos! This show is a strategic hot mess. There are so many characters who have to be remembered. Everything means something but we won't know what until the last damn episode. Why are there so many people who keep coming back?!

A kid?! LUE HAS A KID?!!!!!!

I need to go lay down

been having some (correct and indisputable) robot opinions (very subject to change lmao)

"When you're the son of Jean-Luc Picard, you have a target on your back."

URGH.

So THIS is what she was always afraid of.

Not that she was afraid to love Jean-Luc because of their past, but because she knew in her heart that the moment they entered into a relationship together, she would be ALL IN- that she wanted a whole future with him, marriage, children and everything inbetween.

But she knew that with that future came risks - their potential family would never have been safe, not completely, from past enemies or new threats, either in Starfleet or out.

And though she knew that somehow she survived losing Jack, she couldn't go through that trauma again. Couldn't bring herself to begin a life with someone knowing that at any given moment, it could all easily be taken away from her.

So she settled for what she had with Jean-Luc, their close friendship, because it was better than losing him completely - to have a little part of their dream, a little part of his heart, a little glimpse of what could be...

Until she didn't.

And they did get together.

And fuck, her worst fears did come true.

And she did the only thing she felt she needed to do above all else: protect their son.

(And i need to hear all about this and only in these next episodes because I am mourning the life these two could have had together.)

NOTHING IS OKAY BUT I AM HERE FOR ALL OF IT.

Todays rips: 02/02/2024

Simple and Clean (Psi Mix) and Simple and Clean (Omicron Mix) and Simple and Clean (Gamma Mix) and Simple and Clean (Mu Mix) and Kingdom Hearts-type beat

Season 4 Episode 1 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume L [Side B]

Ripped by Keeby10

Season 4 Episode 1 No Album Release (Read More) Simple and Clean (Omicron Mix) - Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories II

Ripped by Keeby10

Season 4 Episode 1 No Album Release (Read More) Simple and Clean (Gamma Mix) - Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories II

Ripped by Keeby10

Season 4 Episode 1 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume L [Side B]

Ripped by Keeby10 Visuals by SparkBag

Season 4 Episode 1 Featured on: SiIvaGunner's Highest Quality Rips: Volume AI

Ripped by Moder112

Suddenly, the memories all come flooding back.

Ever since I started taking this blog seriously, I'd known what today's post would be. I've celebrated a good few events on here - Christmas, Halloween, Voiceless Week, and so forth. Yet for the second of February - the day of the sequel - there was only one event fit to be covered. The legendary Chain of Memories II Day.

I wanted to make sure, before the day of reckoning came, that I'd made a post covering long-time ripper ShonicTH, as he's very much at the core of this event and all that surrounds it. As I described in Trial of the Heart, ShonicTH was one of the first members on SiIva that felt recognizable from their output alone, due purely to just how prominent his love for Kingdom Hearts and its music was. Soon enough, that expression of love would extend into ironic shitposting, as we got exposed to what one could consider an inside joke turned channel meme. As a Kingdom Hearts megafan, ShonicTH was aware of a subset of the community on YouTube who would post "remastered" music uploads from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, only for the remastering effort to simply be slathering the original tracks in heaps of reverb. That is of course terrible for the sake of remastering, but undeniably fucking hilarious for the sake of ripping to SiIvaGunner - it wasn't long until we'd start seeing reverberating rips of Chain of Memories posted to the channel, and not long therafter where a very iconic catchphrase would begun being spread in the comments of each one of them.

"LOL with all that reverb and also it being KH, I know exactly who made this one. Good stuff my dude." -SSB_Seal, SiIvaGunner YouTube Comments

In SiIva's later years, the idea of SiIva uploading rips that have no intention of sounding good is kind of just commonplace, be it with Sex - Steve Harvey or even Snowball Park - Super Mario 3D World. But what the Chain of Memories reverb in-joke would eventually culminate into, on ShonicTH's birthday on May 13th 2017, was an entire day dedicated to these rips: the entire game's soundtrack of 38 tracks were ripped and all posted to the YouTube channel at the exact same time, promptly flooding the sub boxes of anyone who wasn't prepared. Chain of Memories Day became the sort of thing I would tell horror stories about to my friends, the perfect example of just how thoroughly unpredictable SiIvaGunner was, and how fucking funny it was all along the way.

But that's the thing - it was, in some small way, able to be predicted. If you'd been following ShonicTH's imprint on the channel up until May 2017, and knew that it was his birthday, you could've at least been prepared for what was to come. NOBODY was able to be prepared for the secondcoming - Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories II Day.

Season 4 Episode 1's main mission statement, before being wholly engulfed in the King for Another Day Tournament, was to make a season more unpredictable and chaotic than anything the channel had been before. And on August 31st, we saw perhaps the best demonstration of those efforts - 69 rips from a made up sequel game, 28 of which were some sort of absurd spin on the theme song Simple and Clean, uploaded at the span of once per minute. To call this day a rollercoaster would be an understatement.

Because, like, as only the second rip posted across the event, Kingdom Hearts-type beat began as sort of giving us false hope. Compared to the rips of the Season 2 event, it was just a pretty neat trap remix of the Hollow Bastion theme, with little indicating the intents of the rips to follow beyond just being moderately trashy in the way trap music tends to be. That room for doubt would be soundly squashed in the minutes to follow, as every rip seemed to be getting worse than the last. Simple and Clean (Gamma Mix) is, in no uncertain terms, LITERALLY just noise, as four separate poorly-done covers of the original song are laid atop one another with a metric fuckton of reverb, as the culmination of three prior rips each adding one more garbage cover onto the pile. Simple and Clean (Omicron Mix) features a bizarre audio recording of a poorly done Donald Trump impression, pretending to hold a speech whilst actually just reading the lyrics to Simple and Clean, althewhile a Kazoo blasts faintly celebratory music in the background. The amount of layers of irony at play to be making one of the channel's first-ever jabs at America's most ridiculed man take place during an event like this is simply incredible, and its the kind of rip that's so thoroughly unfunny that it loops back to being comedy gold.

To say that the day was painful would be one thing, yet it was the kind of pain that felt like a genuinely unbelievable experience to be part of. After Simple and Clean (Mu Mix), I think most of us expected the event to be over, with the typical Snow Halation celebration video a la Snow Halocean and its many predecessors. And yeah, despite the dubious quality of the cover, Simple and Clean (Mu Mix) was still giving the event a sort of "final" feel, as the rapid uploads halted at a nice, sufficient 29 rips.

Only a few minutes later, the rips would continue as if nothing had even happened - we'd been utterly bamboozled.

Having lived through both the Chain of Memories Day events makes me feel like a genuine survivor of war, yet when looking back on the events in hindsight I can't help but let out a sickening, yet joyous cackle. And I wanted to put Simple and Clean (Psi Mix) as the headlining rip of this mess because how well it encapsulates that joyous side to it all - through the reverb and through the context, you can tell that Keeby10 was genuinely having a ton of fun preparing all these bizarre rips for the event. SiIvaGunner is a fantastic source for quality, amazing rearrangements, but as I talked about in Can't Say Goodbye to Yesterday - as performed by Bob Dylan, there's something so thoroughly enjoyable about seeing the human nature behind the channel shine through from time to time. Simple and Clean (Psi Mix) isn't going in anyone's playlist of bangers, but it embodies so much of the fun that defined the event, and by extension so much of the affection that the team clearly hold for ShonicTH and his niche in-joke about Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories music remasters.

It was hell on earth to try and pick just five rips for this silly gimmick post, let alone if I were to have picked just one - so, if you're feeling truly insane one particular morning, to go through the event yourself and see if you can make it through on the other side.

Starts with the classic: strangulation of Ken

I mean if this dude isn't strangled at least once in the episode why even bother making the show

FINALLY! Some context. I guess.

Man just giving away his identity and still Ken can't recognize

These shots, location continue to blow my mind

Is putting on helmet going to be one of my trope set? I hope I have enough of them!

LIES!!!

Now we know why he wears those gloves. You never know when Ken might want to eat something hot and there won't be any table or tray where you can put it down so Lue is always prepared to be Ken's tray 🧤 🤡

He is one step away from spelling his name D-I-N

It took them 4 episodes to give some context but I am still confused. Highly watchable. Specially Khun Lue looking at Ken with so much intensity that if he could he would jump Ken in a heartbeat.

chaos in Xenosaga Episode I shares a voice actor with Vexen from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.

Voiced by Derek Stephen Prince

apocalypse

Ken: You want to be Din, right?

Lue: *expecting to get shot then and there*

Ken: So tonight, you have to make me forget Din. And I'll spare your life.

Me, you, Lue, everyone:

Chains of Heart ep 10

So that was...disappointing. I'm generally not one to not finish things that I've started, so I'll do this anyway, but it's not satisfying.

I guess the main thing to say is that, despite the...open?...ending, the show at least stuck with the design elements already set up from the beginning.

Since this ep was focussed mainly on Lue/Din and his revenge again, the main featured colours were Lue's red and Din's green.

This is seen straight off with Lue/Din walking into his family home.

And meeting his mother (both also have some of Ken's blue).

Sai also has green and red in her top (with the green scarf used to cover her eyes).

And then Deedee brings more of the red/green combination as he did in ep 9.

In the end, Red Lue got his revenge and which literally bled out from the man he was so hellbent on taking down. Ironically, the moment happened in a place surrounded by Din's green.

Even the information to take everyone down was stored on a red usb.

And as if we didn't need the reminder/confirmation, the dodgy doc shows where his true allegiance lies in Ken's blue and Din's green.

I was happy that I was right about Don being good/working with Din/Lue (Poppy can do no wrong!).

And I was also right in my prediction that the below was going to be Lue/Din looking down at a dead or dying Ingpha... It's a hollow victory though because the moment was so heart-wrenching. In some ways, it might have been more satisfying for Ingpha to have stayed alive and be given life imprisonment like his sister.

And speaking of unsatisfying... I kept waiting for Lue/Din to show up at the end -> with Ken being in Din's green under the red flowers, and at the green and red temple, and on the circle of green and red tiles. WHERE WAS HE?!

But wait! There was an extra scene after the credits! Ken is in Lue's burgundy red, entering the airport through doors with a green stripe, passing a sign with blue and red...

...and checking in for a flight with a red airline and stood by a PURPLE barrier (which was symbolic for Ken and Din/Lue's love)...

...aaaaaaaaand then NOTHING.

So... DAMMIT... we can glean that Ken is off to Sai's wedding on the 7th of July and that he will most likely see Din/Lue again...but whether he'll still be Lue or be back as Din, we can only guess.

I DIDN'T WANT TO GUESS, DAMMIT, I WANTED TO SEEEEEEEE IT.

[ep 1] [ep 2] [ep 3] [ep 4] [ep 5] [ep 6] [ep 7] [ep 8] [ep 9] [ep 10]

Like two people drowning, fighting to survive.

Audio drama sunday!

Crossposted from twitter as usual. None next week as I will be in a field encouraging war crimes sorry I mean VIRTUE at LARP.

I am part way through and would like to congratulate @theheartpyre on the clever harem anime bait and switch. "Aha!" I thought "The YA protagonist will now have to choose between the mischievous rogue and the sarky military man…..wait….no, never mind the rogue and the military guy are flirting with each other..."

First episode of Surcease is intriguing. Also looking forward to more tales from this totally not sus psychiatric health facility which clearly has no dark secrets or anything.

Caught up on the Cellar Letters, spent E53 like "Jamie so help me if you leave Bella in that house ALONE…oh thank goodness." I'm still really very worried about that dog.

Went through of @chainofbeing for reasons. Wow. I was not expecting a sprawling epic Dune-but-queerer anime-vibes religious space opera. Looking forward to more of this. Have a good week everyone!

Just wanted to see if you, by chance, watched this week's episode of Chains of Heart yet? Cause I have some thoughts, some questions, and I think we got a couple of answers.

@slayerkitty, It was the FIRST thing I watched today! This show is My Strange Addiction™

Before I get into anything else about Chains of Heart's fourth episode

WHY HAVE WE NOT DISCUSSED THE GLOVES?!

Lue NEVER takes them off. Why? Does he not want his fingerprints on anything? Do his hands have physical markers that would make it easy to identify him? What is the deal with the damn gloves? I think it's the fingerprint theory.

Because he is Din, right? Because when Ken woke up calling for Din

Lue responded with this

We could not trust the subtitles (because they have been a wild experience), but that was an odd way to respond, when he could have said "No, it's me, Lue" or something.

And he responded this way, when he knew the dish he was eating was Din's favorite.

And he paints and draws just like Din

And he went to the same place Din put the jewel the monk gave him. Why did the monk give him that? Was it the camera that Din dropped on the stakeout?! IS IT THE EVIDENCE?!

And and AND he avoided the monk because the monk could possibly know his true identity.

And Lue bought the timber factory last year, while Din was investigating the illegal transport of timber from the woods

Lue has resources because he called his secret super spy assistant

AND WHY HASN'T NOK KILLED HIM?

This is the second time Nok could have killed Lue because the car crash was the first time. And why he is killing all these other people? How would he have known that Ken would look for Fin?! How did Fin even know that? I thought Fin was hiding out from someone else and just got lucky. Why wouldn't Fin have just killed Ken in Taiwan since he worked with him?!

I HAVE SO MANY QUESTIONS!

Thank goodness this show continues to serve stunning visuals.

because I'm lost. Buddies, help! @sliceduplife

Of all the things Chains of Heart has done, I’m angriest that the finale didn’t even mention the gloves. The opportunity for a dumb joke was RIGHT THERE.

Imagine Lue/Din sitting down across from Ingpha and slowly taking off the gloves while staring at him. Then Ingpha, the only person who I recall even barely reacting to the gloves could have said, “so the gloves come off.”

I wasn’t surprised that Lue turned out to be Din but people got kinda confused about why Peter/Din cried after Ken said ‘Din is my only love’. In my theory and imagination it’s because the old Din is kinda there and kinda not. He went through so much, he was given a new face and identity. He needed to leave his family and love behind. He also couldn’t contacted them because if he did, they maybe could’ve gotten in trouble because as far as we know only Din knew that the Chief is the villain. Only a few people knew he was alive hence the Doctor and if I am not mistaken the sister... He came up with a plan to get his revenge and on his own (again it’s only what I think because he was alone when the attacks happened) I don’t even wanna imagine how lonely he must’ve felt during all this... So, now he is back in Thailand to get his revenge and look ‘his’ boyfriend is also back. He tried to get close to him as ‘Peter Lue’ while Ken was all about Din. Yeah, at this point we know Peter is Din but at the same time not (are you all still with me on this? Can you follow?) like I don’t want to interpret too much but like we cannot deny the fact that Din changed inside and out (at least that’s what I think). So Peter/Din is trying to approach Ken in many ways so he can forget the old Din because he is not coming back but at the same time Ken can’t and won’t forget his only love to the point where he believed he was still alive. His delusions became a reality for Ken which kinda hurt Peter/Din because yes, I believe he wanted to tell Ken the truth about everything because nothing hurts more than when your hands are bound and you can’t do anything to help your love to ease his pain. He could only watch even with his many attempts to get close to him. I believe he truly wants to help him to move on to find some kind of happiness in his life, to begin a new life maybe with Peter/Din while Ken can’t and won’t give up. Peter/Din sees how miserable Ken is because of him but like I said he can’t do anything about it... How many times did Ken push him away? I can’t even count anymore.... Din is Peter’s past while Peter is his present and future, for Ken - Din is his past, present and future (can you all still follow because I can’t even catch my thoughts). So in conclusion: Ken would’ve never gotten Din as Peter a chance, which of course hurts Peter/Din because he can’t replace ‘Din’.