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hallowed-nebulae · 1 year

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future is past is present

[ @beastenraged ignore the fact that it's 12:43 when i post this. i finished this so y'all are gonna see it. have some references to friend's OCs as well.]

[nyx tenebris belongs to @voidgearr. aria fiore and linaria "ves" fiore belong to @void-feather. Seren Lleucu belongs to @ephemxras. technically these are all alucinari au versions of these ocs, but credit is due where credit is due.]

He's watching again. Watching, because one can never know what will go wrong when you've got two versions of Ruse fighting. (Especially because. . . it's Ruse. Who knows what kinds of things she can break without knowing.)

There are others here. As always. It's a new fight, a new face against one nearly identical (though -- this other Ruse, the Daymare's Fluorescence, seems a bit less healthy. Older, for one. Does she have the same chronic illness as the Mirage Arena's Radiant Nightmare? Has it been flaring up more? Has she been letting herself rest?). Faces that Riku knows, faces he's seen once or twice or faces that he's long-since memorized. Roxas announces the matches, a play-by-play commentary as he always does.

There's Queenie in the crowd, Riku notes, with Seren standing beside him, and Ves and Aria (in her Darkling form, rather than Pink Possessor -- understandable given the crowds) a small bit further back.

(And, of course, there's Nyx making his way through the crowds, but Riku is going to ignore Nyx for now and focus on more immediate things. Like the Xion -- black hair, similar to the Xion he knew but of course not the same -- sitting nearby.)

Riku turns to look at her -- and something in him tightens. There are tears in her eyes -- unshed, but still tears. It aches to see her upset like that (it aches to see any replica upset, any Riku or Replica but especially Replicas or Riku), and Riku folds his wings back, moving a bit closer. "Are you alright?"

She swallows, dabs at her face to get rid of any tears. "Yeah, I just. . ." She looks. . . so sad. And lonely. "It's fine. I miss people back home."

Riku knows that feeling -- a soft, understanding noise leaves him. "I understand. It can be difficult to leave what you've known behind." He's not aware of the story behind this Xion, Xehanort, this Ruse. But. . . they've ended up in the Mirage Arena some way or other, and he knows that feeling. That confusion, uncertainty of suddenly being in a new place. (Whether they're permanantly here or not is irrelevant, really.)

She looks at him, that Xion. Then asks. "Why are you so different from the Riku we know? You feel. . . like a different person entirely."

Riku freezes.

Of all the questions, it's that one to be asked, hmm?

"That is. . . a long story." He settles on. "It's not one many ask."

Still. Even with that vague answer, she looks at him expectantly. And perhaps it's the air of the evening -- perhaps it's the fact that it's Xion, or a version of her, a version of that sister of his. And perhaps it's that -- it's been long enough. Decades. Centuries. Millennia, even. Those who knew him as that broken, confused, tired boy are gone now, all except for Roxas and Genesis (the latter of which isn't here yet -- won't be, for some time, but his future is Riku's past, and like many things in the Mirage Arena time is nothing more than a vague guideline).

Riku sighs. Settles, more, lets his wings loosen and relax. Tail-tip flicking against the ground, like a cat's might. "To be entirely honest," he begins, "my name is Riku, but I'm more like your Rook than your Riku." And then, to be sure she doesn't misinterpret, he adds, "I'm a Replica. I. . . switched places with my worldline's Riku, and thought I was him, and eventually ended up here. Everyone assumes I'm a variation of him -- which, isn't technically untrue, though it isn't the way that they think."

There. That's a palatable-enough summary. Cut out the bloodshed and face of a dying boy realized just-too-late that he was the real one and not an illusion. Cut out the confusion and twisted tangled memories and question of identity. Cut out the way that Riku had fallen apart and broken entirely when Genesis found him, and later Roxas, and carefully fitted the broken pieces together until Riku was a functioning being again. (Being a happy person took a lot longer. But still. Genesis put a lot of effort into it. There is a reason why Riku and Roxas mourned when Ultimeccia slayed him and overthrew him. There is a reason why Riku and Roxas are so quick to look at Ven and his twin, these two children that Genesis adopts, these two children that Genesis had talked so fondly of back when he'd still been alive. Back before his large, feathered wing turned from glossy iridescent raven black to pale ashy gray, before he had died. Past and future all tangled and twisted around.)

Riku offers this other Xion a small shrug. "It doesn't really get talked about much, and I'd appreciate if you don't go shouting about it to everyone. We're all allowed our secrets, mundane as they are, yes?" He gives her a fanged smile. She sees no danger in it. (Good.)

The fight ends. Roxas' voice calls over the cheering of the crowd, announcing the winner. Oh, it's the other Ruse. The older one, more scarred one. (She won't stick around to stay for more fights, won't stay to cement her place in the Mirage Arena. This Ruse -- and Xion, and Xehanort -- is only a visitor. Riku's learned to feel for these things, in the many years he has lived here.) "That's your friend who's won." He comments, to the black-haired girl beside him. Mirror of his once-sister. "Shall we go congratulate her?"

He stands. Begins making his way through the crowds. Eventually meets Nyx.

"Hey Riku!" Says the man (young only by relativity), slinging an arm over Riku's shoulder. "Guess what?"

Riku hums in response. Lets Nyx sweep him up in idle chatter about what this person did or what that person said, about what the Starseers were up to that week, and so on. Mundane things. Things that keep Riku just a bit too connected to the Mirage Arena to ever fade away or die, just as Roxas is too connected to the Mirage Arena, the way that so many others who had been alive in their time had done.

(That is how the Mirage Arena works, after all. If you connect yourself to it -- if you are tied to it deeply enough -- then you will live for as long as it exists, unless someone is to kill you. Unless you are disconnected enough that you fade. And that is why Riku lets himself be tied to his desk and his manager job, why Roxas ties himself to his announcer job, why Axel keeps himself busy with maintaining the little details. Tied to the Mirage Arena like this, they live forever. And it's only slightly lonely.)

Riku spares half a thought for that Ruse and her Xion and Xehanort -- but Ven and Vanitas will find them, and the three will be guided around to wherever they are led. Ven and Vanitas will find Genesis, Riku is sure. Either by Sephiroth's guiding or by Genesis' own first visit to the Mirage Arena.

(And if Genesis does appear in the Mirage Arena for the first time in his present, well -- Riku and Roxas will be there to greet him. Like Genesis had greeted them all those millennia ago, when he'd still been alive.

As much as it'll hurt to see Genesis again, younger and not knowing Riku at all yet. . . Riku finds himself looking forward to it. It'll be good to see the man who'd become almost like a father to him. To share kindness and a good introduction to the Mirage Arena, if nothing else. Riku can hope.)

[ nyx tenebris belongs to @voidgearr . aria fiore and linaria "ves" fiore belong to @void-feather . Seren Lleucu belongs to @ephemxras . technically these are all alucinari au versions of these ocs, but credit is due where credit is due.]

#drabbles #storm whispers #tempests verse #tell me verse #riku #xion

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valkylander · 1 year

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Setowa for the shipcest asks! ^×^

(Any/all questions you'd like to answer <3)

♡ - The answer is 14 for both of them, but here's what happened: When they were reunited, Towa assumed her feelings were just how she was supposed to feel about her little sister. But eventually (after way longer than it should've taken her) she realized "Oh wait. I probably shouldn't be this fixated on Setsuna's body. And it's probably fine to be protective, but I shouldn't be so envious at the idea of her kissing someone else." Meanwhile, Setsuna started from a position of "this is a stranger" and fell for Towa early on. When she got her memories back, she was like "Okay, sister then. But also-"

♤ - Moroha, Riku, and Rin know. Kagome and Kohaku suspect, and have both chosen not to say anything. Inuyasha doesn't know what a healthy sibling relationship looks like and doesn't think to question it. Sesshomaru married Rin and therefore has no room to judge his children and also doesn't think to question it. Hisui is in denial.

◇ - It was a New Moon, and both Towa and Setsuna were full-human for the night. In addition to being Sesshomaru's Daughters, they had also made plenty of enemies of their own, and so it was decided they would be sequestered together for the night under the protection of Sesshomaru and the Demon Slayers (Moroha would've been there too, but she wanted to spend the night teasing her dad for being less demon than she was~). Thinking everyone would be too busy to bother coming into the room with them while they were supposed to be sleeping through this vulnerable time, Towa and Setsuna took the opportunity to make out. Of course, their mother Rin is not a warrior, and they were both half out of their kimonos when Rin came in to make sure they had enough blankets.

♧ - Well, Towa has the benefit of also having a boyfriend who isn't related to her, so she can just say she's taken whenever it comes up. Setsuna, meanwhile, claims she isn't interested in romance or marriage and then holds Towa's hand tightly until people stop asking.

☆ - One is forced to wonder if they would've become a couple if Towa didn't have all that big sister guilt from the beginning driving her to be a perfect sword of devotion. But! Towa is a deeply caring person who can't keep her nose out of other people's business and also would probably have fallen in love with Setsuna at first sight, so it would be very similar but without the excuse of sisterhood for Towa to hide behind when she's clearly a smitten girl in love.

¤ - I think Towa feels guilty about it. She's a moralist, and she grew up in a society where sibling incest (not to mention homosexuality) was frowned upon. More than that, she stakes a lot of her identity on being a good big sister, and dating your little sister is definitely not part of that. She would never wish she and Setsuna weren't sisters, but she sometimes wishes she didn't feel this way about her. Setsuna, on the other hand, is a pragmatist. She understands what the moral issues are with incest, and why they don't apply to their relationship (or at least, seem not to). She knows this relationship makes her and Towa both happier than they could ever be without it. So she doesn't feel guilty and she doesn't regret any of it. At least, not except the nights when she knows Towa is suffering from the guilt of it all.

#Yashahime #Shipcest #Setowa #Long #I wanted to do them all

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daylighteclipsed · 2 years

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Sora really ‘don’t worry babe, I’ve got this’d Riku

Can we also talk about how Riku agrees here zero hesitation? Everybody else doubts what Sora’s capable of on his own. That’s a reoccurring theme throughout the games, but since the start of this one none of the adults have believed Sora could handle the RoD specifically. Even Donald and Goofy a few moments ago were reluctant to let Sora go to the RoD alone. But not Riku. Riku has complete faith in Sora, and he has shown that consistently throughout KH3. He knows Sora’s more capable than everyone gives him credit for. Riku expected Sora to come to the rescue, and that’s exactly what Sora did. Sora is amazing, and he is going to save Aqua.

#not to dump all my feelings abt this scene in one night but that’s what I’m doing #kingdom hearts #soriku #and then it’s kind of the opposite with riku #everyone more or less assumes riku is fine/will be fine #it’s p telling in ddd when donald and goofy are like sora will be fine as long as riku’s with him #like everyone is p chill abt riku’s wellbeing and just assumes he can handle stuff — except sora #in kh3 sora consistently worries for riku when no one else really does #not that sora doesn’t have faith in riku — on the contrary he has more faith than anyone #but he recognizes that riku’s only human #he’s learned that even ppl like riku who are really strong and skilled and stuff need somebody to watch out for them #to worry abt them and have their back emotionally #so like. riku and sora provide what the other needs

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system-of-a-feather · 3 years

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Yeah it's so unreasonable that people would find it more believable when people with a trauma disorder actually behave like they're traumatized. That doesn't make any sense at all.

Bro what the fuck is "behaving traumatized"? Do traumatized people have to look like they walked out of fucking Vietnam or something? Like? Do you not realize that the media / stereotyped depiction of being traumatized is literally just one presentation of it?

And also like, did you know a common behavior people who are traumatized so is - you know, avoid talking about it, avoid addressing it, avoid everything relating to their trauma, and when it comes up to often deflect, change the topic, or make a joke out of it?

Ya know, trying not to look traumatized and making things look more fun / fine than they actually are??

And also did you like, know that wasn't at all the point of the post?? Of course people who are more obviously traumatized are more believed to have a trauma disorder, but the point of the post was about fakeclaiming and trying to compare pain and suffering?

You aren't entitled to see people have breakdowns and look like a hot fucking mess; nor is anyone who has trauma required to show or present themselves as a hot fucking mess. And you know what else? Just because someone doesn't show how much of a mess they can be doesn't put you in the position where you can go and call people fake because that is literally none of your business?

Also if you are upset cause I said "More Suffering =/= More Valid" than good job, you are anti-recovery. Because newsflash, as you recover you suffer less and that doesn't make you any less valid.

If you are not suffering all too severely anymore, that's fucking good and does not at all remove your validity because NEWSFLASH, recovery is a fucking thing that happens and everyone is at different stages and different place in life.

Man I could go on about how stupid this anon's comment is but I really don't have the time or energy to waste on this. I'm probably just gonna delete any follow up asks that are negative or about this topic cause god its a waste of time.

The only reason I replied to this is cause the idea of "behaving traumatized" is a laughable concept with how varied people cope and respond to trauma and also because I wanted to make the point that going off of Pain Olympics to measure who is more valid is literally just discouraging recovery.

Pain Olympics helps no one and punishes people for trying to live and successfully learning to manage and live with their disorder.

So to correct your response to my post; yes it is unreasonable and ridiculous to judge someone and assume you know their trauma history because you don't think they live up to your specific idea of what trauma SHOULD look like.

OH also if you are here because you support the subreddit, you literally can't make anyone on there happy. I've seen them bounce between "too dramatic, this is TV trauma" and fuckin "nope too normal people shouldn't be able to drive".

Additionally everyone on that subreddit literally suffers from horrific confirmation bias. If you are professionally diagnosed and have an opinion / experience that doesn't fit their opinion of what a traumatized person / someone with DID look like, you are lying, faking, and/or have a stupid psychiatrist. If you are professionally diagnosed and have an opinion and experience that does fit their opinion OH BOY FINALLY SOMEONE REAL!!! Even if neither provide any form of evidence of their diagnosis.

Additionally additionally, its really fuckin dumb how most of the reddit is just people going "Well I'm real and better than the others doing it for attention!!!" and like, dude, not saying you are faking, but dude, if you are against people showing up their mental health for attention and shit, don't fuckin post about how you are the REAL DEAL yourself, it's hypocritical as shit.

Anyways, thats my tangent and opinion on Pain Olympics and the dumb reddit cringe stuff. I regularly follow both the cringe subreddits cause its kinda funny watching them implode on themselves every month.

-Riku (Host)

#alter: riku #discourse #syscourse #ask #asks #discourse tw #syscourse tw

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osakaso5 · 3 years

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La Danse Macabre Rabbit TV Part 3: The Third Intermission

Part 4

Riku Nanase: .......

Iori Izumi: .......

Toma Inumaru: ...W-what's with the heavy atmosphere..?

Toma Inumaru: H-hey, Kujo. Aren't you Riku's big bro? You could at least talk to him a little...

Tenn Kujo: ...Sigh... They're probably just moping over their roles.

Tenn Kujo: Leave them be. Otherwise, they'll get you involved, too.

Toma Inumaru: Get me involved how..?

Riku Nanase: Um, Toma-san!

Toma Inumaru: Uaagh!?

Riku Nanase: This tea, Iori... I mean, Kabane... no, wait...

Riku Nanase: Please give this to Iori, who plays the role of Kabane!

Toma Inumaru: Huh!? W-why me!?

Riku Nanase: Well, you're Konoe, aren't you!?

Toma Inumaru: Yeah, so!?

Iori Izumi: Ugh...

Iori Izumi: Nanase-san, how long are you going to keep doing this?

Riku Nanase: ...D-doing what..?

Tenn Kujo: I was wondering about that, too. I know it's important to get in character, but you're taking it too far, Riku.

Riku Nanase: Tenn-nii...

Iori Izumi: For once, I agree with you, Kujo-san.

Tenn Kujo: Weird. I was just about to say the same thing to you.

Toma Inumaru: W-wait, what? Do these two not get along..?

Riku Nanase: ...Mmh... But it's so hard to get in and out of character...

Riku Nanase: There's so much I want to talk to Iori about! But...

Riku Nanase: Since my character needs to ignore him all the time, it's really tough.

Iori Izumi: I-I see. Well... I suppose I understand how you feel, considering how different this drama is from the others we've done...

Toma Inumaru: Right... At least I've got an easy role. Kujo, isn't it tough for you to play Vida?

Iori Izumi: I'd like to know, as well.

Tenn Kujo: ...I've never had a hard time with a role.

Toma Inumaru: ...Seriously..?

Tenn Kujo: Though there have been times when I've needed to put in more work than usual.

Tenn Kujo: Projects like this usually have a huge crew behind them. I don't want any of their hard work to go to waste because of me.

Tenn Kujo: And, I need to understand exactly why I was given the role of Vida in the first place.

Riku Nanase: Why you were given that role...

Tenn Kujo: Your roles come with their own hardships.

Toma Inumaru: Haha. Yeah, because of the whole immortality thing...

Riku Nanase: The first thing I thought about was how it'd feel to be a former Celestial, who's had to live for a really long time.

Riku Nanase: I kind of wished I couldn't die, either...

Iori, Tenn, & Toma: .......

Riku Nanase: But that would mean that all the sad parts of life would always stay with me, too. And that would probably be really painful...

Iori Izumi: ...I think so, too. You could only watch as the world changes around you...

Iori Izumi: If we didn't have Konoe, our spirits would have been completely broken down.

Toma Inumaru: Haha, he's a pretty nice dude, after all!

Tenn Kujo: I'd go so far as to call him the friendliest guy in the entire La Danse Macabre cast.

Toma Inumaru: Y-you would!?

Tenn Kujo: Heh. He's the only one who doesn't have some negative quirk or another.

Iori Izumi: ...Qual was very intense... That shoot from the other day gave me goosebumps.

Tenn Kujo: Ryu's looks are usually what catches people's attention, so his acting skills get ignored a lot of the time.

Tenn Kujo: He can put on quite the performance.

Riku Nanase: So could you, Tenn-nii! I've never heard you laugh so creepily before...

Tenn Kujo: Thank you. I think there's something really appealing about the tone you speak in while in character, too.

Tenn Kujo: You should be more confident in your performance.

Riku Nanase: ......! Okay..!

Toma Inumaru: You got a compliment from your bro, Riku. Good for you.

Riku Nanase: Ehehe.

Tenn Kujo: Hey, can you stop calling me his "bro" already?

Iori Izumi: Exactly. And just so you know, the fixation he has on his brother is NOT a good thing.

Tenn Kujo: And why is that?

Iori Izumi: You know why.

Toma Inumaru: You're arguing again!?

Riku Nanase: Sorry, Iori! You must be feeling left out, since nobody said anything nice about your performance.

Iori Izumi: Excuse me!?

Riku Nanase: I thought you were really cool! Your hooded appearance and the monotone voice you used made you seem super shady!

Iori Izumi: You think it's cool to act shady..?

Toma Inumaru: Yeah, plus Kabane's a literal king! You're always such a polite kid, it's nice to see how differently you act as him!

Riku Nanase: The way Konoe talks fit you really well, Toma-san! It was so informal!

Toma Inumaru: Haha, thanks!

Riku Nanase: ...Ah, I went and said something nice about someone else's performance again, Iori. Sorry...

Iori Izumi: Why do you think I care!?

Tenn Kujo: Heh. You can be pretty cute sometimes, Iori Izumi.

Iori Izumi: Huh..?

Toma Inumaru: Uh, anyway..! All that moving around sure gave me a craving for something sweet!

Toma Inumaru: You guys like sweets, right? Maybe you could introduce me to a place where I could get some.

Riku Nanase: Oh, that's a great idea! What kind of sweets do you like, Toma-san!?

Toma Inumaru: ...Uh... I'm actually not one for sugary stuff, I just happened to be in the mood for sweets today...

Toma Inumaru: That's why I need help from you guys!

Tenn Kujo: ...Who told you that we like sweets?

Toma Inumaru: Huh? A-are you saying you don't!? I read in a magazine that you like donuts, Kujo, and Izumi's family owns a bakery, so I just assumed...

Iori Izumi: ...I didn't know you paid so much attention to us.

Toma Inumaru: ...Of course I did. We're work buddies, aren't we?

Tenn Kujo: Are we, now?

Riku Nanase: Ah..! We should all go visit Iori's family's shop!

Riku Nanase: Right, Iori!?

Iori Izumi: ...Fine. We'll cause less trouble if we go someplace familiar, instead of wandering around town, where everyone can see us.

Riku Nanase: Will you come with us, Tenn-nii?

Tenn Kujo: I guess I will. This sort of stuff isn't too bad, in moderation.

Riku Nanase: Yay!

Riku Nanase: Toma-san, Iori's family makes the yummiest cakes ever! And not all of them are really sugary, either!

Toma Inumaru: S-sure..! Thanks for having me, Izumi.

Iori Izumi: You're welcome. I'll let them know ahead of time.

Iori Izumi: ...But before that, we need to take our behind-the-scenes photo.

Riku Nanase: Our behind-the-scenes photo?

Toma Inumaru: Ah... Come to think of it, Tora and Mina took those, too.

Tenn Kujo: I was just about to bring that up, myself.

Riku Nanase: Really? I feel like you don't usually take pictures like this! Your fans will be so happy.

Tenn Kujo: Yeah. And I want to make this project even a little bit easier for them to watch.

Iori Izumi: How should we pose?

Riku Nanase: Pose... Toma-san, you seem like you're good at coming up with this stuff!

Toma Inumaru: As in, coming up with poses..? Hmm... Maybe like this?

Tenn Kujo: Very rock 'n' roll.

Iori Izumi: TOO rock 'n' roll. Rejected.

Toma Inumaru: Wow, you guys are really strict...

Tenn Kujo: Let's just act natural. Everyone do a pose you feel comfortable in.

Iori Izumi: Right. It'll make the picture look strange if we try too hard.

Toma Inumaru: So why'd you make me suggest anything in the first place..?

Riku Nanase: Alright! Let's do this!

All: Peace!

End of Part 3.

#idolish7 #la danse macabre #translation #rabbit tv

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littlesparkyabdl · 5 years

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Sora’s Shopping Trip

it was a few weeks after the last trip Sora made, and the little guy had more or less gone full toddler mode at least when at home with daddy.

The only problem with the whole situation however was the fact Sora apparently was all bowels for internal organs, or that's what daddy liked to tease when Sora was once again, on his his knee, getting a stinky horsie ride.

This meant that A) Sora's bedroom (now his nursery, with a crib and EVERYTHING!) always smelled like poop (though Riku found it funny that the stink seemed to soothe the big baby) and two, they were going though diapers like crazy.

Riku had been joking about how he was getting on a first name basis with everyone at the local shop where he got their diapers, having to go just about every other day and sora had had enough of it. "Fine! I'll go and do it today!" he insisted, in his favourite pair of tight tight shorts that always made his diapers stick out. "Look buddy daddy didn't me-" "No! I'm going! so deal with it!" he huffed, put his hands on his hips and then waddled off towards the door as Riku watched, sweatdroping and waiting for him to come back, to realise what shorts he was still in and smiled. there was Sora, looking sheepish, coming back over to him.. thank god the diaper boy wasn't that clu- "Oh uh...I need money for the diapies." the dork said. "...here you go buddy. and JUST the diapers.. no little candy bars or anything." daddy said, mentally noting he'd better follow his little dork. this was NOT going to end well.

Sora marched proudly on his way to the shop, a naughty little grin on his face All he could think of was the triple diapies he was wearing and how NOBODY knew he was just a biggg baby. Passing a playground some of the kids turned and pointed, and he waved to them.. sure it was just the legend of his awesomeness getting their attetion though some of the little kids were pointing and laughing now. Twirling around sora looked for the soruce of amusement, again sure that it wasn't him and then saw that a bird was flying kinda funny and chuckled. "Little kids..so easy to amuse." he said to himself, then bent down to tie his show, his red short being sketched out and his fat diapered bottom poking out of the top.. the kids were hooting with laugher now and Sora grinned and chuckled. "it's just a bird guys!" he called to them, which..oddly got more laughter but he shrugged it off and headed toward the shop again.

making his way to the shopping district, some people were giving him amused smirks and he just assumed that they had been there for his last lil display and just gave nerous little waves, his tummy getting sort of upset and he paused by a trash can to put a hand on his tummy. meanwhile back a few hundred feet Riku was watching Sora, he'd paused at the park to bribe the kids with candy to just keep everything to themselves, so his little guy wouldn't end up crying and now, seeing him with a hand on his belly had to fight the urge now to rush over and give him a little check over. then he looked at his watch and groaned. Sora was semi predicable in a way, if he had his normal breakfast of mashed food and bran ceral (which he had this morning) you could almost set a clock to his afternoon bowel movement, which was about 3-5 minutes away. "this is Noooot gonna end well.."

As Sora got closer to the market, one of the working girls, all done up super sexy and trashy smiled at the big baby. "Awww did widdums daddy trust him out alll on his own? Hope widdums does get all scared and go boom boom in him's pants." she teased, getting a giggle from her freind while Sora huffed, blushing. "I'll have you know I'm the daddy now." he lied. "and I'm here to get diapers for him. I'm in undies." he said proudly, and then glared as the hookers burst out laughing at that "What’s so funny!?" he demanded. ":N-Nothing at alll~ go get your 'baby' diapers Mr. daddy dom." snorted the second hooker, waving him in. Huffing and mad Sora stomped his way inside as daddy came over to have a word with them.

getting inside Sora waddled over to the diaper aisle and looked over the different brands..and stopped as he saw a new brand, lil duckies with a duck print on them and giggled.. grabbing a pack and holding it to his chest, eyes closing and a silly smile on his face.

"Can I help you little guy? " came the voice of one of the workers, a young guy about Sora's age and size who was semi blushing as he looked at him.

"O-POO nope..I'm..just..getting some diapies..for..my boyfriend." Sora said quickly and the other boy giggled and nodded.

"the lil duckys are super good" the clerk said and then looking around to make sure no one else was looking, tugged down the front of his baggy pants, showing a flash of one of the little duckys but then tugged his pants back up and put a finger to his lips, the international symybol of 'don't tell anyone!'

"Oh wow.." Sora coo'ed and almost blew his cover (that only he thought he still had) and flashed his diapers back but caught himself and came over, giggling and giving the other diaper boy a pat on the bum. "your secrets safe wiff me!" Sora coo'ed. "I know how much MY widdle guy would..would.." Sora trailed off as a pain shot though his tummy and then he started to pop into a squat, trying to will himself to stop, how could he hide what a big baby he was if he went boom boom right here!?

the other diaper boy (who's nametag said his name was Sparky) brushed the brunette hair from his eyes and giggled a little..then tried to pull a cart with baby powder he was supose to be stocking in the way to try and block any view of sora from anyone in the store, though the sercurity caemras were surely going to get even gloruis detail. "D-do you want me to keep pretending like i don't see your diapers?" Sparky asked, giggling as Sora started to grunt and groan, tears welling up. "W-Wait you c-can see my..my.. DIAPERRRRRRSSSS!" Sora went to ask and ended up howling as a massive mess forced it's way out of him, quickly filling up the back of the diapers and pushing to the front. with the added bulk it was just too much for the hero's shorts who would be messed as they lost their last hit point and ripped open. leaving just the waist band of the shorts around Sora's waist and the tattered remains of the shorts dragging around as Sora's diaper ballooned out further, not free from the confining shorts and Sparky grinned watching,. till he got a whiff of the smell then he was holding his nose and whining about how stinky the former hero was. Sora.. didn't hear any of this as he just started to wail out loud for daddy and SOMEHOW (Daddy later told him his love and need summoned him there) daddy popped up and scooped him up, hugging him and telling him it was ok and giving him butt squishes. Putting the big baby on his hip Riku went and paid for the diapers, bouncing the whining Sora on hip, and getting a pacifier he popped in the little guys mouth. As Sparky watched them both leave.. he felt a twinge of jealously and wondered if just maybe.. if he made a boom boom at work..maybe he'd get a daddy too..

As Sparky thought about it, and started to pop a squat.. the other employee on at the time, one Gary Malcore walked by and muttered "Don't even think about it, I'm not wiping your ass."

"...I wasn't gonna!"

"rightttt."

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khtrashplatinumstars · 4 years

Text

Ch. 13* ☆*~~~*☆

Location: Unknown

The group landed in what could only be described as a floating castle in a sea of stars, yet very few were within the sky, it seemed that all of them were in the ‘water’ below at their feet. The large female gently lowered everyone carefully to the ground, a bright smile to greet them. Everyone watched cautiously as it sat down before Xion and Roxas. Axel moved before the two only for the other to smile brighter as it reached forward seeming to be uncaring of the red head before them, if anything it seemed more excited. Everyone moved to draw their weapons only to halt as they heard Lio laughing from Terra’s arms.

The Luminary seeming rather excited to see the large woman currently looming over them, as she gave a laugh, “They don’t recognize you in that form, Olix.”

“Olix?” The trio from her days past called as she smiled brightly, wrapping gentle hands around them in a hug, seeing that she was too large now to properly embrace them.

“Where are we?” Ventus asked, looking to the large woman sitting before them who was fondly looking around to the group below her.

“Stella Umbra.” Lio replied, her gaze moving back to Olix as she released the three.

“Have you never been here?” Donald asked.

“Typically Luminary are the only ones allowed here, but Olix invited everyone. I believe you all are the first guests, ever.” Lio replied, as she motioned for Terra to place her down. The man seemed hesitant only to be reassured as she held tightly to his arm, as she stood beside him. “One of the safest places from Kingdom Hearts and the battle.”

Axel chuckled looking up to the giant star filled woman sitting before them, “You really do like your make-overs.”

“This is actually her true form,”Lio explained for the other, in this form Olix had no reason to ever speak, only gaining that when she created her other form. “When I was put to sleep, I only had a short time to do anything, I never expected for her to actually become such a huge part in all this.”

“It’s good to see you’re okay.” Sora smiled, as Olix placed a large finger on his head.

“Xemnas did mention she was fine.“ Mickey replied.

Olix shook her head at this, small flakes of glitter and light coming off of her from the movement.

“What do you mean, he didn’t mean you?” Lio called, as everyone watched in confusion.

“But, but we saw,” Xion whispered as Olix wrapped a hand around her, caressing Xion’s cheek with the tip of her thumb.

Olix turned waving her hand, whisking an orb out the air pushing it towards the lake as she showed a large illusion of the battle scene, her movement as she placed an orb within Kairi’s hood.

“What happened?” Riku asked looking up to the woman.

Olix continued her illusion, showing Xehanort leaving Kairi with Xemnas. The man turned to the red head, as his voice echoed softly around them.

“Will you continue this charade, Illusionist Aria?”

Kairi glared towards the man with violet eyes.

“I’ve known that gaze, you’ve had it since we’ve first met.”

The illusion of Kairi disappeared as Olix stood before the man, “You don’t have to go through with this, Xemnas.”

Xemnas glanced up, before turning back towards the woman, “The others have already fallen, we have come to a climax it is only right.”

Olix shook her head, “They others have returned to the correct self, and you, you left the others alive, if you didn’t have a heart you wouldn’t have done even that. You wouldn’t have let them go.”

Xemnas chuckled, glancing up toward the endless sky around them, “Is that so?”

“You knew that Inzeo and Vex, Evan would find a way to bring back the others, so you let them go, is that right?”

Xemnas turned towards her, “Saix, no Isa should have returned as well.”

“Why would you go through all this?”

“I could ask you the same thing,” He stated, only to watch her finally understand the message he was trying to give. “You are much like the Luminary, would you be satisfied with this end?”

“My time was always borrowed, ” Olix replied. “Why, Xemnas?”

Xemnas turned to the woman, “I would assume the same reason that you are before me. We both wanted a different end.”

Olix gave a nod of understanding.

“The girl, Kairi, is safe?” He inquired.

“Yes,” Olix confirmed with a hand to her heart.

“And yourself?”

Olix shook her head, “Please let them know.”

Xemnas looked as if he wanted to say more, only to stop himself, “As you wish.”

The group stared in shock as the illusion disappeared.

Axel grunted in disbelief as he shrugged his shoulders, “Guess he did care.”

“How did you do this, Xemnas went after you too.” Roxas called to the woman towering over everyone.

Olix showed the moment right before Xemnas had grabbed Kairi, of the way Olix had seen it. The moment she placed the orb in Kairi’s hood the girl had vanished and was replaced with Olix herself in the form of the youth. Showing, the Olix that Xemnas had stabbed was a false created by a second orb, destroying the illusion set in the shape of the woman when the source was shattered. The parting message was actually cut short due to orbs shattering.

“Don’t give up...Sora…I’ll watch over her.”

“But how did this work, why did you go through everything when you could have escaped too?” Riku asked to the larger woman.

“Olix‘s illusions.” Lio translated for the other. “They are just that figments of light, the don’t have a solid form, she needed a body to replace the missing one.”

“But you could have teleported later.”

Lio explained for the other, “I could have, but then Xehonart would have went after one of you. I have always been on borrowed time.”

Sora turned toward Olix with large tear filled eyes, “But where’s Kairi?”

Olix laid a clench hand down, as she released her fingers as Kairi stood there. Leaping from Olix’s hand as she embraced Sora.

“You hid her here?” Lio gasped.

“How, this place is so far away.”

“Stella Umbra is everywhere and nowhere at once.” Lio explained motioning towards the ocean of stars at their feet, “Should a world be created a star takes its place in the body of water, there is always a connection. Luminary’s use it in order to check in on worlds and travel to and from those worlds via portals.”

“Like corridors of darkness?” Roxas inquired.

“Similar but only a Luminary can move through or gain access to them.”

“But how did Xehonart summon Kingdom Hearts if Olix hid Kairi away?” Riku inquired, looking to Lio than back to Olix still kneeling before them.

“Right this is super confusing.” Axel huffed.

Lio’s pink eyes widened as she listened to whatever silent conversation she and Olix were having, “Because of me.”

“What?” Terra asked, turning to the woman still holding to his arm to keep herself steady. “What do you mean, Lio?”

Lio looked down trying to process the information before turning back to the others, “Olix was created by some of my light, a Luminary’s light and hope. Eris said it herself a Luminary can be a key to Kingdom Hearts opening, if that Luminary wasn’t in control of themselves.” She glanced down to her hand not holding onto Terra noticing the slight glow, something surging through her. “I was so angry and scared when Olix was formed, everything was automatically done, she was only a spark when I was asleep, a small flicker of light.”

Kairi looked toward Olix who was waiting patiently a smile on the large star filled woman’s lips, “Olix told us that if a Luminary wasn’t strong enough, someone could use them to create Kingdom Hearts, but that you were more than strong enough to stop that.”

“Yet with Xehonart shattering Olix, he unleashed that magic that Lio, a Luminary, had present, the light used to create Olix being just enough to open Kingdom Hearts.” Aqua followed up, getting a confirmation from Lio in a nod.

“But you said you only felt a tether snap, right?” Ventus asked as Lio nodded looking to Olix for an answer.

“When she hid Kairi she severed the connection and then hid herself.”

“Wouldn’t you be able to see it no matter what?”

“I don’t see tethers all the time, it’s more of a safety line, I have to physically active their appearance. Yet with going from 3 to 10 plus adding the splints of Xehonart it was difficult. I am still not use to everyone’s to be able to pin who is who, there’s so many overlapping and chasing each other.”

“This is confusing.” Sora groaned scratching his head, “Olix is right here so it’s all right now, right?”

“No.” Lio replied, “The Olix we know now is a figment, a very small light, not only did she take some of the rebound of the Spell of Awakening and the Rewind Spell, her light was shattered again and again. She very weak right now.”

Olix reached out setting her hand palm faced up towards the Luminary, who immediately reached out placing a hand to Olix’s. A soft smile on the Luminary’s face as they noticed tears streaming from underneath Olix’s mask, as she removed her hand from Lio, before reaching out picking up Kairi and Sora,

“Now wait!” Lio suddenly barked, frightening everyone. “Where are you going now? I’m sure we can figure something out.”

“What’s wrong?” Aqua asked, as Lio released Terra’s arm, unsteady heels trying to hold the woman upright as her feet left the ground floating up to Olix’s face with great difficulty.

“I’m sure that Inzeo and the other can help,” Lio argued before Olix’s face. “We can do something, please...”

“Lio, what's wrong?”Kairi asked from Olix's hand to the woman floating well above them.

“It’s taking everything you have right now to keep it together isn’t it?” Lio looked ready to cry in frustration as she turned to the others, “Olix was created to help me watch over everything until I could come back, but now that I’m back she’s…” Lio left it open, afraid to speak it into existence, as she heard the shock from the others. She had never expected for Olix to get a name, much less touch so many people’s hearts.

Olix was created simply as a vessel, much like The Gaurdian Terra had inhabited, yet made from a piece of a Luminary’s light and hope. Olix may not have been related to her in blood but they shared a connection that made them sisters in a sense.

“You can’t leave!” Lio called, a soft flicker of white light moving off the Luminary. “You, you promised Namine, what do I tell her now! I just got back and I haven’t even got to know you.” Lio cried, she knew it was selfish but none of this was fair, why did Olix have to pay for her original selfish choice to create her. “That’s not fair!”

Olix shook her head, giving the silent conversation to the Luminary via the bond they had shared, only for Lio to gasp a hand to her mouth as she stared at the other in the mask.

The Luminary’s glow stopped as she rested a hand to Olix’s large cheek as leaned forward, resting her cheek against the large one before her, “This doesn’t have to be the end, Olix please.”

Olix placed a gentle hand to Lio’s back, giving a soft moment as she gave a silent sob, before wrapping her hand around Lio as she lowered the other to the ground beside Terra.

Lio knew that Olix was right, the Keyblade Wielders here needed their Luminary, they had all gone so long without one. Olix wanted to do this and if there was one thing Lio knew was she could relay on was her sister if she wasn’t there.

“Olix,” Xion called as the giant woman turned towards her, “Are you really leaving?”

Olix waved a hand in a circle as she created a small orb, handing it to the girl. Finding a small shell within it from their days back in the organization.

“She says she’s been holding onto it for when you came back.”

A soft finger stroking the Xion’s cheek as Olix moved to stand back up.

“You’ll take care of them right?” Lio called only to let out a soft laugh drying her tears as she felt Terra wrap an arm around her shoulders, “What am I talking about, that’s what you’ve been doing this entire time. Just be safe please, I won’t stop until all of you are back.”

Olix smiled as she cupped a hand to further protect Sora and Kairi within her hand, as she flashed a bright light disappearing in a fall of stars.

“Wait, where did they go?” Axel asked.

“She wouldn’t say.”

Riku chuckled, “As long as Kairi and Sora are together, it’ll be all right.”

Ventus turned to Lio, “What about their tethers, can you still see them?”

Lio gave a weak laugh, for whatever reason Olix was hiding them, “They’ll be fine as long as they’re together.”

“Are you okay?” Aqua asked as Lio managed to get her tears uncontrol, watching as the Luminary gave a nod, uncertain if she was trying to convenience them or the others.

Everyone staring at the place where Olix had disappeared with the others/

“So any idea on how we get back?” Axel asked, flinching at the glare from Aqua, “You've got enough energy to teleport us back, Ms. Luminary?”

Lio laughed her face still stained with tears, “You wouldn’t want me to teleport us anywhere, even if I was at full strength.”

“So what we just hang out around here since we can’t use those Luminary portals.” Axel inquired.

“There’s another portal instead that we can take.” Lio replied allowing Terra to wipe her face dry from the few tears that managed to stay behind. “Hopefully it still works.” She replied as Terra took her hand following her along with everyone else into the large ivory building, leaning more on Terra now for emotional support rather than physical.

“Hopefully?”

“It’s been awhile since anyone's used it.” Lio explained moving them through the open aired hallways.

“What are we talking about, a few years?” Axel inquired.

Lio thought for a moment, “About 200.”

“200?!”

Lio laughed, walking through the sliver halls, flashes of Olix’s memories compared them to Castle Oblivion, that had been the others' adventure. Some of her own days within training flashed between. Everything seemed so untouched by time.

“It seems this place is empty.” Terra replied as Lio opened a large door, the man rushing over to help her push.

“Thanks.” Lio smiled to the man who refused to leave her side, “It was only Master Eris and myself here. I’m surprised that it's still in good condition without our upkeep.”

“Isn’t this where Olix hid you?” Aqua inquired, as another door was pushed open, the other woman moving them through another hall, it honestly was very confusing the fact Lio knew where she was going was amazing everything seemed very much the same to herself.

“I was hidden in my room, and when I woke up I immediately followed yours and Ven’s tethers to Yen Sid’s place.” Lio replied, lifting a hand as she placed it against the next door, the solid form seeming to almost peel back like a curtain at her touch. “Welcome to the Mare Stella.”

Revealed to them was a large ballroom with a huge domed glass ceiling sparking in a rainbow of colors, reflecting and bouncing off one another, small sparkles of glitter scattered throughout. Casting of white, platinum and silvers holding it up, beneath an arch of a clear crystal standing on an elevated platform that slowly spun. Much more colorful than the halls they had just been through.

“It’s beautiful.” Xion gasped, looking around, her eyes falling to a large statue on the other side of the room of a woman.

Lio stepped forward, moving to the top of the platform as she stood before the archway. Raising her hands as she summoned her staff, realizing it was shattered from before and honestly had no idea how it was still holding itself together. “I almost forgot.”

“Right in the fight, will it be all right?” Goofy asked.

“It seems to just be the seal Master Eris placed on it, the base is still intake.” Lio replied.

“Seal?” Aqua inquired.

“Yeah, in training it was easier for me to have a large conductor. So I asked Master Eris to help me create a base similar to your keyblades so as not to overload myself. Kinda of like training wheels.” Lio explained, as she held the staff in both hands horizontally to the floor.

“Will you be able to fix it?” Xion asked.

Lio instead rose the staff above her head, before cracking it over her knee in half, what appeared to be a small pink, gold and silver version of a keyblade appeared, no bigger than a normal casting wand. “It might be better to actually remove the training wheels. Please stand back everyone.”

Everyone moved away from the platform as she swelled with magic from across the room. The platform at her feet erupted in an aura of pastel colors as the archway began to reflect almost in a bubble type of film.

“It’s set, just think of where you want to go and you’ll arrive.” Lio smiled, moving over to the edge of the platform, prepared to jump down, only for Terra to appear, immediately offering his arms to her to assist her down.

“You sure it’s safe?” Axel inquired.

“Safer than me at the moment.” Lio replied as Terra set her down. “Or anytime actually.”

“What about you?” Xion asked.

“Me?”

“Are you going to stay here?” Roxas followed up, as Lio blinked in confusion.

Terra removed his hands from her waist, only to wrap his arm around her, “She’ll be coming with us.”

“Right, you never got to move in.” Ventus gasped.

“And this place?” Riku inquired.

Lio looked around, her eyes turning to the large dome, “Stella Umbra is a trove of magic, spells, history of so many worlds. I’m sure there’s something here that I can find to help Olix and the others.”

“We can help!” Xion offered stepping forward.

Lio gave a giggle as she placed a hand to Xion’s head, “Thank you, but for now, why don’t we all take a much needed rest. Afterwards, I’ll work with the others in getting quick portals set up so that you all have easy access to come and go.”

“Will that be all right, isn’t this place reserved for Luminary only?” Aqua asked.

“As current Luminary I think Stella Umbra has been quiet for too long, it could use more visitors.” Lio smiled toward the Keyblade Master.

Seeing the others through to their homes, Lio turned back to the three that this entire journey started with. “You all are next.”

“That included you too.” Aqua smiled as Terra took the Luminary’s hand.

Lio smiled as she moved through the portal arriving in the more familiar and welcoming Land of Departure. The young woman followed the trio through the castle, her hand firm on Terra’s. She had wanted for so long to be a permanent part of this, instead of just glances from the outside every so often. It was almost too surreal, what was ten years of blood, sweet tears and laughter was over.

They could relax, to take a moment to breathe.

So focused on her thoughts Lio didn’t realize that they had entered a room she hadn’t recalled seeing before. Waiting at the door with Terra as Aqua and Venus moved around collecting pillows and blankets, tossing them in the middle of the room.

“What are they doing?”

“You said we should rest. Sounds like a good idea, and we should listen to our Luminary.” Terra explained, only to laugh at the look of confusion on her face.

“Nap Party!” Ventus cheered, tossing a larger pillow down before collapsing down, only to burst out laughing as Aqua tossed another pillow on him before collapsing on the nest of pillows.

“Long overdue.” Aqua yawned giving a stretch, as Terra led Lio over.

The tall young man, turned falling backwards, which sent Aqua and Ventus scrambling out the way. A more than likely recurring theme considering how quickly the other two managed to get out the way.

“You coming?” Aqua giggled to the Luminary staring in confusion at the situation before her.

Lio seemed to finally accept her fate, as she waved a hand, “I believe that it’s a great idea, but maybe without the armor.” She smiled, as she vanished everyone’s armor, straps, and looser articles that would make getting comfortable harder. “That’s better.”

“One more thing to do.” Aqua replied as she glanced towards Terra who had sat up his hand held out to Lio.

The Luminary in question took his hand, letting out a rather shrill squeak as Terra yanked her off her feet, causing her to stumble forward. Managing to catch herself on his lap and chest, hearing the others laugh as Terra wrapped his arms around her before laying back.

Everyone manages to position themselves correctly to get more comfortable. Terra on his back, an arm behind his head, allowing Lio to rest against his bicep. The Luminary also on her back, head tucked into Terra’s neck. Smiling as she felt Aqua move to rest against her shoulder on her side. Ventus on the other side of Terra against the man’s rib cage.

A place to finally rest and relax, one extremely overdue.

Lio had always enjoyed the night sky in the Land of Departure. It was one of the places she had witnessed a Star Shower in her youth, she recalled waking up in the spare room the following morning. It was years later that she realized it was Eraqus who had put her to bed that night when she had fallen asleep on the lawn refusing to go in until she wished on every star.

Master Eraqus, they had all erected a small monument for him in the Garden, where Lio liked to believe that he had sent little Chritiy back to watch over them. The others had offered to return to Stella Umbra to assist with an honor for Master Eris as well, yet Lio had asked for a little more time.

Master Eraqus was a rather straightforward man, based as a man in kindness, never one to give up on anyone, allowing everyone to pick their own course of action. Treasuring his friends, and students to the very end. Even with everything that had happened there was so much respect to honor, to allow to live on and pass along.

Yet Master Eris was so different, the woman had trained her, had raised her. With such a firm hand that she hardly had any friends, but to learn that it was from a fear, a mistake she couldn’t control. Lio was confused on what to do, the woman had been her guardian for years, but unlike Eraqus there was no type of familial feeling to it.

With such confusing emotions to Eris, she didn’t want to even start thinking about Xehanort.

It was only right for a Luminary to honor all Keyblade Wielders no matter what type of life they ended up leading, but at the same time…

Not to mention she would need to find Sora and Kairi, the young girl’s body was safely with Inzeo and Evan, after having found it on Stella Umbra, where she could only assume Olix hid it for safe keeping. Namine would hopefully be able to return soon, and they were still a few of the Organization Members uncalled for. Not to mention the cryptic message Olix told her prior to leaving.

Luxu.

Was it a place, item, person?

All the worlds that she and her Keyblade Wielders looked after always seemed to have some type of perfect ending wrapped up nicely within a bow, yet she realized for the ones that protected that world it could be a little more complicated.

Lio sighed, normally star gazing especially on the lawns of the Land of Departure cleared her mind if just for a moment. Now it seems that they only provide more questions.

“Lio.”

The woman jumped,so in thought she wasn’t prepared to suddenly be called out.

“Room for one more?”

Lio turned as she smiled to the person, “For you, always?”

Terra moved to stand beside her, watching as her gaze turned back to the sky. “How are you holding up?” He had realized that she might have taken the largest change, while the others could more than likely pick up from where they left off when this all started, Lio had lost just a bit more, and was not getting use to new powers, a new home, new charges. In what would only be less than a week to them was years to everyone else.

Lio inhaled deeply closing her eyes, before letting out a sigh as she opened them their focus on the starry sky above, “I’m, I’m good, just in shock that it feels like it’s over but at the same time just starting.”

Terra nodded, his gaze never strayed far from the woman, who seemed so focused on the sky. He realized he preferred to see them reflected in her eyes and the ones that always greeted him on her cheeks.

He gave a chuckle as it all suddenly became so clear, “I did a lot of foolish things, but there’s one thing I learned throughout this, and I was the most foolish not to realize it sooner.”

Lio didn’t turn to him, but that familiar lipstick outlined a smile as she gave soft hum, show she had indeed been listening to him. She had changed so much, but it was more like she had changed into a more comfortable version of herself.

“What would that be?”

“Just how much,” Terra wanted to make sure that there was no misunderstanding, “I love you.”

This caused those pink eyes to widen in shock, as Lio turned from the sky to him with a soft, “Terra?” fell from those lips. Never breaking contact with those those deep blue eyes before her, she could only watch as a strong hand cupped her face.

“More than all the stars in the sky.”

Lio realized at that moment, any questions she need to solve would be done so, because of the people she had met through all this, the ones she had known and because of the person before her.

She hadn’t realized she had been quiet for so long and she couldn’t find the right words, but at this time it seemed that actions spoke so much louder than words. Her arms wrapped around his shoulders as she pulled him close, her lips against his. She didn’t even have to think about it, just every movement was automatic. That when the words “I love you too” fell from her lips she knew that it was the one thing she never would question.

A muffled giggle against lips as she felt herself being lifted off the ground in a spin.

She often heard of others on different stars having a happy ending, she found she could be happy with this beginning.

* ☆*~~~*☆ End

#Final Chapter #Here we have chap 13 #omg this took a little longer than I thought #but we still have an epilogue #as well as a sidestory to get through #and so many AUs and goofy things #Thank you for coming this far #and putting up with me #kingdom hearts fanfiction #Kingdom Hears OC #aqua kingdom hearts #terra kingdom hearts #Lio kingdom Hearts #olix kingdom hearts #terra x oc

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kingdomhearts-rewrittenarchive · 5 years

Note

I need some Isa fluff. Sorry if this was already done, but how would he react if his SO offered him a Paopu fruit?

if they offered it to him too soon then he would reject them, and depending on their reaction to it, he might even straight up break up with them

if they offered it to him as a joke, he might take it as such and laugh or jokingly agree, but if it wasn’t presented in a nice way, he would be really hurt bc that essentially says that they don’t take their relationship with him seriously

if they offered it to him as a consolation or comfort thing, he could react with anger or by just confessing his love for them which is my personal favorite headcanon and why i wrote a scenario under the cute to go along with it

It had been Lea’s idea to travel to the Destiny Islands for a little vacation. Everyone was in agreement that, for as much as they loved Twilight Town, they wanted something a little different. And seeing Riku, Sora and Kairi wasn’t going to hurt them either.

As far as you were aware, everything was fine for the better part of the day. Everyone was having fun playing in the water, and there wasn’t a quiet moment to be found. Maybe that was the problem. Not long ago, a couple of hours before sunset, you realized that Isa was nowhere to be found and, thinking back to the day, you hadn’t seen him in quite a few hours.

You admit, you panicked a little, because it was unusual for him to just pop smoke like that. Usually, he would just let you or someone know if he needed a little solitude, but he knew better than to disappear without a word. The first, and last, time he had tried it, Lea nearly got arrested for disturbing the peace in his panicked search for Isa.

That being said, Lea was too preoccupied to notice Isa missing this time. Hell, you hadn’t even noticed for who knew how long, and you couldn’t help but feel guilty, even if disappearing without a trace was a specialty of his. You decided that you were going to look for him, but you were going to do it alone. There was no real need to upset Lea; the island wasn’t that big and Isa couldn’t have left the island without the rest of you.

It took the better part of an hour before you finally did find him, though. He was on the direct opposite side of the island, hidden in a copse of trees atop a cliff, hidden from the direct light of the setting sun. You had passed it by at least twice before realizing that you could actually get in there, and were surprised when he was actually in there.

“You jerk,” were the first words out of your mouth when you saw him, sitting as calm and pretty as could be on the worn rock perched near the cliff edge. Clearly someone knew that the view was gorgeous and had managed to position it just perfectly for sitting and relaxing. He had to have heard you stumbling around out there and hadn’t said a word to alert you to his presence. “You could have said something. I’ve been looking for you for at least an hour.”

He snorted, glaring at you before turning back to face the ocean. “Only an hour? I’ve been gone for at least five.” He sounded unusually petulant, and his mouth was set in a hard line, giving him a sour expression.

Okay, that was weird. Was it your imagination, or did he sound hurt that it took you “so long” to find him? In fact, he sounded almost sullen.

“Isa?” you asked, taking a seat next to him. You took his hand in yours, locking your fingers together and just gazing at him. His mouth was twisting, like he was biting his tongue, and you knew it wouldn’t be long before he started talking.

True to form, it only took a minute before he was spilling, and you couldn’t tell if it was more sadness or anger in his words.

“Everyone else is so happy together. They all went through so much together, they saved the worlds together. Hell, even Hayner, Pence, and Olette helped. And it shows. I just feel so out of place.” His voice dropped to a whisper, and he wouldn’t look at you, not even a glance from the corner of his eye. “I don’t belong with them, not after what I did to all of them. I don’t deserve to be happy.”

You pursed your lips, turning to face the ocean, watching a wave roll up and break against a rock protruding from the surface of the water. He had told you some time ago that he was part of the group that had caused all the chaos, and had even gone back to them after his defeat at Sora’s hands, but it wasn’t something that you had actually talked about. Sometimes, he got into a funk of sorts, and you knew that it always had something to do with his past, but this didn’t feel the same. He had never acted like he didn’t want to be with you or the others, and had definitely never expressed such a negative sentiment before. It worried you that he was hiding just how badly it effected him on a daily basis, and you would have to address that later.

For now, you had this to deal with. “Isa, I know that’s how you feel, and I don’t want to diminish that, but the other’s already know what you did. You did it too them. Don’t you think if they were holding it against you, you would know it?”

He snorted again, a cross between annoyed and amused. “They’re all just too nice to push me out. They think I wasn’t myself. But it was me, _____. I can still feel it, sometimes, trying to rear back up. It’s easier to push it down now, but sometimes... I’m afraid I’m going to hurt you.” There, he’d said it. It had been sitting in his heart for so long that it felt like a weight was lifted physically from his shoulders, even as a new fear replaced it. But the new one, the one that feared you wouldn’t know how to handle his, admittedly deep, well of issues was easier to handle, if only because now you at least knew.

Your silence stretched out, and he couldn’t find words to ease you, even though everything in him screamed to console you, to lie and say he wouldn’t, he would never, that he was strong enough to reign it in, because he couldn’t be sure of that. And it wasn’t fair to you to claim that.

After what seemed like forever, you stood up, letting go of his hand. Fear lanced through him, a steady diatribe of negative words building up in his head as he watched you turn towards to the hidden opening of the grove. Then you turned back, a warm, if not quite tight, smile on your face and promised to be right back. And then you were gone.

The sun seemed to be so much brighter, the air so much warmer outside of the dense cluster of trees and, as much as your mind tried to attribute it to the conversation, you were beholden to no such ideas. An idea you were willing to give into, though, was a much better one, a legend you had been told by the natives about a certain star-shaped fruit that only grew on the islands. They were in abundance here, and it didn’t take you long to find one. It was heavier than you imagined it to be, bigger too, and surprisingly it did make an impact on your return back to Isa.

By the time you made it, the sun was nearly gone and you were out of breath. Isa was staring at you, sitting in the same spot you had left him, and you had the feeling that he had been watching the path the whole time, waiting for you to appear again.

Skepticism swept across his face when he caught sight of the fruit in your hands, followed by confusion. “What is that?”

“Oh, the others didn’t tell you about these?” you asked, looking down at the bright yellow star in your hands. He hadn’t been around when you were told, but you had assumed someone would tell him, given how popular the legend was here. You blushed a little as you sat down next to him, close enough that your thighs touched and you could feel the warmth radiation off of him. It had sounded cute in your head, but the idea of explaining it was less appealing. “The islanders have a superstition about these. They’re called paopu fruits, and supposedly if two people share them, their destinies will be bound together. They’ll always find their way back to each other.”

You could see Isa’s eyes widen, flick to your face for just a second, before they landed back on the fruit. He took it from your hands gingerly, as if he was afraid it would bite him, and examined it, like he was looking from some sign of magic in it. He set it down in his lap, still just staring at it without a word, and you half-expected him to start laughing and reject it.

But to your surprise, he sounded almost hopeful as he asked, “Do you want to share it with me?”

Without a word, you took the fruit back and split it as evenly as you could down the middle, handing him half and without hesitation taking a bite out of the other. Wonder filled his eyes, and they never left yours as he took a bite from the center. The both of you waited a few seconds for a sense that something had changed, for magic to swirl around you, for something. The seconds turned into minutes and...nothing.

Your lips twitched before spreading into a grin, and then you started laughing. “Well, that was anticlimactic. I don’t know what I was expecting but...” you said, looking down at the piece in your hands. It still looked like just a regular piece of fruit. “Well, at least it tasted good.”

Isa chuckled as well, but he was still staring at you in awe. You had been willing, with no hesitation whatsoever, to tie your destiny with his. His sense of worth had never been tied to what other people thought of him, but as he sat there and watched you laugh, it made him realize that you, of everyone, treated him the most normal. The others never meant to, but they always made him feel like he was outside of their little bubble of friendship, like he was only ever included because he was there, like he was an afterthought and could disappear without notice. When you appeared and weaseled your way into his heart, he had been reluctant to let it go any further, afraid that you were going to turn on him when everything came to light.

But you hadn’t. You had taken him by the hand and brought him into the fold, made him feel like he could belong.

Warmth towards you filled his chest, and he took the fruit from your hands and flung them into the water far below.

“Isa?” you said, watching him turn back towards you. Your hands were sticky from the fruit juice, as were his, but it didn’t seem to deter him as he pulled you up from the rock and into his chest.

His voice was a deep rumble and full of wonder when he said, “Thank you, _____. I don’t know what I did to deserve this, but thank you.”

All you had time to do was squeak as his lips covered yours, warm and sticky and sweet. Your eyes fluttered closed and you wrapped your arms around his neck, preventing him from moving back as you opened your mouth to his. It was bliss in it’s purest form and you never wanted it to stop.

But from a distance, you heard the sounds of your names being called, and started to pull back.

“Not yet,” Isa said, keeping you pressed close. “It’ll take them a minute to find us. Let’s just stay here for a while longer.”

jesus christ this is so long now askdhfa;j i’ve no idea how it got so out of hand? somehow it’s 2k words??? well enjoy the fluff anyway lol

#khheadcanons #khscenarios #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 2 #kingdom hearts 3 #orgnization xiii #sun&moon duo #saix #saix x reader #isa #isa x reader

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lyssala · 5 years

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#Gummiephone

Pairing: Terra/Aqua, Kingdom Hearts

Rating: K

Setting: Post KH3

Notes: I’M REAL LATE and will keep being late cause what else can I do haha I struggle a lot with getting back into my writing after my whole life shifted this year but if I can do it for anything its my sweetest babus <3 This was my first finished fic in months so I hope its decent enough!

AO3

The cold didn’t ever bother Terra too much. When he was a kid he found playing in the snow easy even wearing the lightest winter clothes, and while his desire to toss himself in the snow dwindled over the years, his ability to usually stay pretty warm stayed. That even included visiting worlds that were in their season cycle of winter. Admittedly Arendelle was colder than most in their winter, but he still found himself dumping the fur lined jacket, hat, scarf, gloves and every other bit of winter gear Aqua could possibly think of onto one of the ornate chairs in the guest room of the castle. She seemed to forget just because she was always cold didn’t mean he was too.

He stretched his arms over his head, a yawn pulling at his lips as even the soft sweater he was still wearing made him feel hot. Despite the cold stone of the castle and the snow swirling around outside the large window, the castle kept rather warm. He was just about to toss that sweater into the pile too when he heard the soft knock on door frame.

Terra dropped the hem of his sweater, glancing over to the door he knew he left open to see the only other familiar face on this world.

“All set then?” Riku asked. He discarded most of his winter gear, that Aqua also made him take, making him look more fitting in this world in a similar set of shirt, sweater, and pants.

“All set,” Terra said, gesturing to the tossed clothes.

Riku snorted. “She’s just looking out.”

The thought made Terra feel a little bit warmer than he had a moment ago. “I know, but you’ll learn soon enough she worries too much.”

“I think…” Riku said, tapping his fingers on the door frame. “She has every right to.”

Terra opened his mouth, but quickly closed it again. That was fair. It wasn’t like he particularly was fond of leaving her and Ven alone in their home even if he knew it was plenty safe there. Some habits were real hard to break.

“Hey, I’m going to meet with the princesses, I have very specific instructions from Sora.” Riku rolled his eyes though his amused smile was all too familiar. He raised his hand to wave. “Get some sleep I’ll fill you in tomorrow.”

“Alright, see you.”

Riku closed the door behind him, his footsteps soft on the carpet as he walked away. Terra didn’t move until he was sure nothing jumped out to attack the kid; yeah, old habits died hard.

He tossed off the sweater, dumping it with the rest of the winter clothes before looking back to the room around him. Usually he would’ve gone with Riku to make sure everything went okay but since the sisters knew Sora it was decided Riku would probably be best at taking lead on this particular mission. Terra was eager to get back out into the field and do something…do something good like he knew he was capable of but he also could recognize when strategies better fit situations. Plus they had to walk a few miles to even find the town and he was admittedly not exactly back at peak condition.

It was over half a year since everything happened, and despite being back up to regular training and the ability to take and lead missions again he still found himself sore or winded easier than he used to. An effect from what his body went through he assumed, but he wished he’d work out of it so he didn’t feel like such an old man crawling into the large bed to get some rest.

Or he would’ve if he didn’t feel something jab into his thigh.

Terra quickly reached in to grab whatever poked him, only to remember he left his phone in his pocket.

“Why the spikes?” he muttered to himself as he flopped down into the admittedly very comfortable bed. Whoever designed the gummiephones didn’t think about leaving in in your pocket apparently.

He almost just tossed it off onto the night stand so he could sleep but then decided not to. Instead he brought it up to his face, looking over whatever notifications were floating across the screen. He really only checked the mission chat as it sometimes gave them information they needed and may not have started with but he noticed there were other notifications blinking at him.

The dim fire lanterns on the wall flickered slightly but didn’t blow out, still illuminating the room just enough.

There was some sort of group chat but he didn’t even know how he got added to that. Considering the last message was a bunch of winking faces from Xion, Terra was pretty sure he still didn’t want to know. He scrolled down a little bit, seeing some sort of link Sora sent at some point and a message from Lea asking if he could stay at the Land of Departure to get away from Roxas and Xion; both of whom where in the chat too so it was probably just Lea teasing.

Terra did click on the one from Ven, which wasn’t too old, probably just after Terra left for the mission. The chat opened up on the screen, the remnants of the last time Ven tried to message Terra up top but the newer message was a picture. He clicked on it, making the picture of Ven and Aqua making the most dramatic faces imaginable fill up his screen.

Ven: We miss you already, whatever will we do without you

A smile pulled at Terra’s lips. Despite the silliness of it all, it still made him feel a little less lonely. It was nice to know people somewhere missed him, even if they were being ridiculous about it. It was probably late back home but he still tapped in the text box so he could respond; Ven would sleep through it just fine if he was sleeping.

I haven’t even been gone a day. You’ll be fine.

Terra pressed send but lingered on the screen with the picture. It wasn’t the first time any of them left on their own; Aqua took a few missions, as did himself, and while Ven didn’t take any as of yet he was often off visiting his many new friends. Even then it still made a part of Terra wish he was home. He was more than happy to be able to start rebuilding the life he thought he lost, but part of losing that life was losing the people he loved. He had them back now, and even though it was rocky at first to work through old hurt and new pain, home was feeling more and more like home.

He loved being given the change to work on being the peacekeeper he always wanted to be but at the same time, traveling away from Aqua and Ven made him more homesick than it used to.

Terra clicked out of the chat when he was sure Ven was sleeping well enough to not respond. As much as Terra wanted the interaction to feel closer to home, it was more of a relief that Ven was not responding right away meaning he wasn’t laying in bed on his phone unable to sleep. It was an issue for them all at first, but nightmares started to fade and sleep started to come easier for them all. Granted, now he was the one laying in bed staring at his phone.

He pressed on another set of notifications, bringing up pictures this time. He recognized the app as something Ven excitedly showed Terra the moment they were given the gummiephones. It was a way to post pictures and everyone who was connected to your account could see it…or something like that. He sort of just smiled and nodded at Ven as he explained the whole thing.

With a flick of a thumb, Terra scrolled through the pictures, recognizing faces and even places as Riku was one who posted a shot of Arendelle Castle when they got here. There were a few comments; Kairi saying she thought it was beautiful but she wasn’t sure she could handle the cold, Sora immediately chiming in that it was freezing there and what was wrong with Riku that an island boy like him could take the cold so well.

There was also a comment from Aqua, a small picture of her next to her name and text. She wrote about missing the snow covered worlds, and that she’d love to see it. Pretty typical; Aqua loved the snow even if she also was always cold. He was about to keep scrolling but he saw the timestamp next to her post, that it was only made five minutes ago.

She was still awake.

He hesitated, thumb over her picture. He knew enough that if he clicked on it, he’d be taken to the profile she set up and from there he could message her or call her. A part of him wanted to. It was a long day, trudging through the snow and staying in an unfamiliar bed. The other part of him told him he saw her this morning and it hadn’t even been twenty four hours yet so rationally he shouldn’t miss the sound of her voice yet.

Rational or not, he did.

With a groan he pushed the phone down onto the bed, his head leaning back against the headboard with a dull thud. Maybe it was rational; time passing or not he spent a very long time without someone he used to spend everyday with. He barely remembered the time he lived with Master Eraqus before Aqua. She was always there and when she wasn’t…

He closed his eyes, chest contracting at the swirl of dark memories that flooded his mind. It used to be very hard to push them away, choosing to sink into the guilt of what was done but tonight he could open his eyes and remember the past was the past. He was okay, she was okay, just a little farther away tonight. Which wasn’t common, but it also wasn’t uncommon as they started on the path that they were trained to follow.

Still, there was nothing wrong with checking in, right? Nothing weird about just wanting to make sure his home was safe while he was away. That was completely reasonable. Totally normal to call up his best friend in the middle of the night with an excuse he was checking in when really he missed hearing her knock on his door with two cups of tea to share in a quiet moment before bed.

Totally normal.

He quickly picked up his phone, clicking where he last saw her picture. It brought him to a familiar profile layout so he knew where to find the video call button before he could lose his confidence. The ringing noise echoed in the room as his call was going through.

Terra quickly jumped out of bed (not without nearly falling out as his legs got tangled on the blankets in his effort to move fast) to walk over to the window. There was a small place to sit, the moonlight from outside shining in over the cushions and pillows that sat there. He didn’t know why he needed to move, anxious energy he supposed, but the calling screen cut out just as he was sitting down. He held up the phone to try and remember how Ven said was the best way to angle it but Terra’s stomach fell so fast he nearly dropped the phone.

The background of the call was a vibrant blue sky, palm trees scattered around. While blue eyes were watching him, it wasn’t the blue eyes he wanted to see.

“Terra?” Kairi asked, her forehead furrowed slightly. “Is something wrong?”

“Terra?” Another voice piped up from somewhere nearby. “You mean he actually knows how to call someone?”

More red hair filled the screen, so much of it that it nearly covered the entirety of it.

“Axel,” Kairi snorted, reaching a hand up to shove his face away.

Terra wished he could just hang up and pretend this never happened but he could only hope in the poor lighting of the room they couldn’t see how hot his face felt. “Mmm, yeah, I know how to call people.”

Kairi clicked her tongue, a smile pulling across her lips that was uncomfortably like the redhead still trying to squeeze his face in view. “Just not the right people.”

Terra would never say Kairi wasn’t perspective. He must’ve been in such a panic to actually call Aqua, he didn’t check to make sure he was still clicking on the right picture. His phone probably scrolled up when he tossed it and he just didn’t notice. “No,” he tried, but he had nothing to follow that up.

“Nice try,” Axel said. “If Red needed to know anything about the mission, tall, silver and broody would’ve called her.”

“Stop it,” Kairi chuckled.

“What I’m wondering…” he said, tapping his finger against his chin. “Is how you called Kairi, her name should be nowhere near Aqua’s in the contact list.”

Terra really hoped his choke couldn’t be heard over the phone. “That’s not…I wasn’t…” What could he say? That was who he meant to call.

“Leave him alone,” Kairi said, though she was laughing as she tried to push Axel away again. “I assume it’s late there. Have a goodnight, Terra.”

He always knew he liked Kairi. “Yeah, you too.”

“Try searching under A next-” Axel’s voice was cut off as Kairi ended the call.

Terra groaned as he hung his head. He had done some stupid things in his life, he wasn’t sure if he had done anything quite as embarrassing as that. He should just go to bed and call it a night. Yet even despite knowing he’d never hear the end of that especially from Axel, Terra still wanted to talk to Aqua.

This time he did search under A, finding her name and her picture. He pressed the call button, heart still pounding in his chest though whether cause he didn’t know how she’d respond or because of the last call he accidentally made, he wasn’t sure.

This time when the calling screen ended, he was greeted with a familiar background. It was the library in the castle, a place he knew like the back of his hand. Firelight from the fireplace sent a glow onto the well loved couch, Aqua’s face looking more worried than anything when she came into view.

“What’s wrong?” she asked in that tone that meant she was trying to keep calm but inwardly starting to freak out.

He snorted but he felt a smile pull at his lips, warmth filling his chest like he was sitting in front of the fireplace too. “Why does everyone say that when I call them?”

She seemed to be satisfied that him, Riku, or the mission weren’t in danger because she leaned back against the couch. Terra could see the blankets piled up in her lap, the book she must’ve discarded when he called off to the side. “Because you never call anyone.”

“Fair, I guess,” he said. “The castle is huge here, you know.”

“Yeah,” she breathed, tucking her legs under her in an effort to make herself more comfortable. “I saw the picture, it looked beautiful.”

“Its different, you know, different from home. Nice in its own way, but think I like ours better.”

“Are you homesick?” Aqua asked, her tone just slightly teasing.

“Homesick for what? Ven snoring so loud I can’t sleep and waking up thinking the castle is on fire but its just you up at the crack of dawn baking a multi-tiered cake or something ridiculous?”

The answer was yes though and her smiled seemed to know it. “Did you stay warm? In all the clothes you took?”

“Aqua, I could’ve been buried in an avalanche and I still would’ve been sweating in all the clothes you gave me.”

“Huh, well, maybe you’ll be thanking me when an avalanche hits you.”

He laughed and it made her laugh, her eyes curving into half moons and her smile wrinkling her cheeks some. It was so familiar to him. It reminded him of notes passed to her when Master had his back to them during a lecture, silly drawings to make her smile when the rest of the lesson was so dry. It reminded him of warm summer days when he’d jump off into the lake purposely too close to her to make the water splash up to get her wet. Of dessert snuck to her way past bedtime when he knew she was up studying. Of him being pinned to the ground yet again, her leaning over him in victory. Of very late nights outside under the stars with Ven asleep next to them as Terra told her everything he wanted to do in the worlds.

“I miss you,” he said, probably not very gracefully but all the memories, the lifetime of memories that he never thought he’d get back just made it so hard to feel so far away again.

Her face softened as she leaned her head back against the couch. “I miss you too. Home’s emptier without you. It always is when you were gone.”

“You’d like it here though,” he said, clearing his throat. “Lots of snow and frost for you to freeze in and pretend you’re fine but your fingers are turning purple.”

“Lucky for me there’s someone whose always warm and I can shove my hands up his shirt.”

He snorted, though even the thought of her freezing hands against him was a warm thought. “I should’ve expected that.”

She was quiet for a moment, just sort of watching the screen. He almost asked if she wanted to leave so she could sleep but she shifted the phone a little instead.

“Will you take me?” she asked.

“Take you where?”

“To Arendelle, when the mission is done. Will you take me back there?”

“Absolutely,” he said. “Anywhere.”

Her smile had his heart in his throat, so did the thought of going somewhere with her, just her that had nothing to do with missions or jobs.

Aqua looked like she was about to say something but her eyes flickered to the top of the screen for a few moments instead. “Terra?”

“Hmm?”

“Why is Axel asking me if you finally called me?”

Terra hit his head back against the stone of the wall. Embarrassment was there once again, but for once it wasn’t enough to make the comforting feelings of talking to Aqua made him feel. “I’m going to kill him.”

Aqua laughed, and Terra couldn’t remember even why he was nervous to call her in the first place. She was the one person he never needed to be nervous around, someone who accepted him for everything he was and everything he wasn’t.

Well, he was a little nervous at how much his heart skipped when she arched her eyebrows at him, her way of prompting him to tell the story with her usual smile still on her lips. Ven and the other kids liked to tease Terra that he was dense or oblivious but he wasn’t that much so, he was aware of what it meant at least.

That was absolutely not for tonight though.

He snorted instead, holding the phone up a little so he could shift back against the wall behind him.

“Did you know that yours and Kairi’s names are surprisingly close in the contact list?”

She leaned her head back against the couch and he imagined if he was sitting next to her she would’ve nudged her leg over to kick him. “Liar.”

“No, its true, right next to each other.”

“You called her name without even looking to make sure it was me, didn’t you?”

“Yeah, that was it.”

Aqua laughed again, and he never thought he would ever be tired of the sound. “You really need to learn how to use your phone, Ter. It’s important, not just for the kids to post pictures.”

“Yeah, yeah, I got it handled.”

She paused for a second, and he thought she was about to tell him she had to go; the thought alone making him feel lonely again. “I’m glad you called.”

That was enough, that was worth it all. To know on some level she was happy to see him too. Maybe he would make an effort to learn how to use the phone better if it meant he’d get to feel closer to her while they were apart.

“Me too.”

#terraqua #terraqua week #kingdom hearts fanfic #kingdom hearts terra #kingdom hearts aqua #my fics:kh #canonversekh

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hearts-lover · 5 years

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Something that I wanna talk about; Kairi.

A little warning, If you like Kairi or hate her by any mean, please read this with an open mind, because as open I am, I’m here to defend Kairi, and for those who want to know why is because Not only I’m a Sokai but like Kairi and the reason I’m doing this because I have seen less and less people who are defending Kairi or giving her a benefit of a doubt and since I got nothing better to do, this post will be enough, but please again, read this with an open mind. Also Spoiler for Kingdom hearts 3 Now first I just wanna say that I do understand the lack of Character Development that Kairi have, I understand that this game is the only time that Kairi get to be a fighter and actually help Sora and the rest, but once KH3 finally release, everyone usually knows Kairi in this game as a damsel in distress and how she doesn’t do any.. impactful beside her getting killed by Xehanort But that when the defense comes. Everyone remember in Keyblade Graveyard right? about how Terra-nort knocking down Ventus and Axel and about to slice Kairi?

Many people (mostly on Tumblr) usually say that Kairi has a chance to summon her Keyblade instead of staring at him and while I agree that Kairi should’ve summoned it, but at the same time. Sora didn’t either. As Sora see Terranort about to strike Kairi, he basically ran out there to protect Her.

but since most of us have eyes, we can clearly see that Sora didn’t use the Keyblade, but uses himself to protect Kairi. Despite the fact that he saved Riku from Aqua by using a Keyblade

And he uses Barrier (which btw we NEVER had this as a magic commands, but it's a one-time deal) In the Carribean World.

plus if you think about by the time Sora got up and ran to Kairi, he was in slow motion and Terranort was getting ready to strike, and Donald and Goofy was behind Sora, protecting both Sora and Kairi so we can only assume that when Mickey told Sora to stop while Donald and goofy aids him, Sora may be already 2 foot in (while running) before Mickey can say Stop. Or since we know that Xehanort wants to find a much easier way to fix his issues and since he knows that Sora like Kairi to the point where Killing her will improve Sora motivation.

Its as if Terranort know that is a case, and threaten Kairi just so he can strike two bird with one stone. (thankfully that didn’t happen thanks to Donald and Goofy) Or better yet (I just came up with this) because Terranort could be too strong for Kairi alone. Remember, when you first came to the Graveyard, Terra knock out Ventus and went flying, like about 10-15 feets

after that Sora basically, charge to Terra-nort and Strike him, only to stop him.

and AFTER that, Axel steps in to protect Kairi, only for him to be sent flying more farther than Ventus, and even hit the rocks!

So I will say this, DID YOU EXPECT KAIRI TO HANDLE THAT KIND OF STRENGTH HERSELF? A newbie who has been trained by a non-Keylade wielder such as Merlin thanks to Master Yin Sid

Where the only thing that Merlin has ever trained was Sora in KH1, but it was magic training! NOT KEYBLADE TRAINING!!!

Plus maybe Sora not using his keyblade could explain something. Terranort has already shown that without darkness, he was able to send two people flying just from one swing proving that either the Keyblade is too heavy or Terra really is strong with/without darkness. and since we also know that he (somehow) have the power to stop the keyblade from touching him. That would also explain why Sora uses his body instead of his keyblade. I say it once, I’ll say it again, Why you guys expect a newbie to handle all of Terra strengths? While you guys answer that, I’m gonna move on to the next complaint. After Sora uses his Power of waking to revive everyone (besides Kairi for some reason) and went back to face the New Organization 13 if you go and try to save Kairi and Axel, you get to face Xion and Saix and Xemnas (mostly Xion and Saix) after fighting for a while and Xion and Roxas coming back, Xemnas did something that piss off a lot of people (mostly Kairi fans)

I have seen MANY fans usually take this image apart by saying “Why couldn’t summon the Keyblade into her other arm” and some other than that, but I wanna talk about Xemnas. Now after a short fight against Xion and Saix, Xemnas want to talk to Axel until he died, after a few talks, Axel strike Xemnas, but didn’t hit him, he grabs Axel keyblade.

Where now I can also question, why Axel didn’t use the keyblade in his other hands, but we’ll get into that later. After destroying Axel Keyblade, he summons spawn of lasers and aimed at Axel

and then summon a laser in his hands

Anyone who played KH2 would know about that. and so I ask you. WHAT KAIRI SUPPOSE TO DO? As I have just explained, Xemnas was able to destroy a keyblade, able to summon laser either as a weapon or projectile, and can teleport (or just move really fast) and since we know that Xemnas can summon a laser in each hand, thus having him get two lasers. If he grabs Kairi in one hands, he can always summon the laser and Threaten her if she done something stupid. and even if that isn’t true, Look at Kairi faces!

HE IS OBVIOUSLY HURTING HER The way she flinches when he gripped her hands, the way the noise she makes every time she flinches, and the way she closes her eyes too? I’m surprised that people just forgot about Body Language. And the whole “use the keyblade in another hand” and while I do agree to do, we can’t simply ignore the rest who do this too. In the Toy Story world, while Buzz has been taken over, and Sora attack Young Xehanort, before Sora enter to the game, this moment happen.

and we see this again in Monstropolis when Sully scared Vanitas so much, that he dropped his keyblade and then sully Grab and hold him.

Now this moment is where Vanitas should’ve used his keyblade because anyone who play BBS (or face him in the same game as Aqua) know that he can shoot fireball

and have an ability to pull fake flitches and goes behind you to attack you.

and yet, of course, he gets scared by Sully. Now I know some people here is gonna say “but he has a heart of a child, its only expected of him to be scared of sully” but if I remember correctly; He once told Sora and Ventus that he IS darkness.

So unless you trying to tell me that the game trying to tell us that Sully is WAY scarier than Darkness itself then I think we should rethink our opinion about KH3. (one more complaint since Tumblr doesn’t want to work for me) After Terranort knock out Ventus, we get to see Aqua witness Ventus getting hurt, After Terranort stand back up, Aqua stare at Ventus for awhile (Maybe to see him breathing or moving)

After she finally reacted, what did she do?

okay, that fine, in this game, there have been character calling out their names, whenever they got hurt, or its something else. okay so what about everyone else (besides Sora, since he was already charging after him)

Literally, the only one who has their keyblade out is Sora and Axel, none of the keyblade MASTER (Mickey, Aqua or even Riku) has summoned theirs. (Even Aqua didn’t attack Terranort where she was behind him, and doesn’t do anything about it, she just disappear until the Heartless came.) And when Axel got knock out, and Sora Charge to protect Kairi, what did the Master Keyblader (besides Aqua since she probably ran to Ventus to check on him) Riku and Mickey did?

while Donald and Goofy come and protect Sora. now we all know that Donald and goofy isn’t part of “Seven light” Sora, Kairi, Riku, Mickey, Aqua, Ventus, and Axel are, but if it gets to the point where 2 out of seven lights summon their keyblade and actually do something, while the rest just stand there and 2 NON-seven light was able to block Terranort attack and defeat him. I’ll say it once, and I shall say it again, maybe we should rethink our opinion and listen to both brain other than focusing the RIght brain. In conclusion, this isn’t fair for Kairi, I know its shame that she doesn’t do much (or we didn’t see much) of her doing something compare what she did in KH1 and KH2 (mostly KH2) but that doesn’t mean that Kairi is the only one who suffers the same thing. and the fact that some of these people is a fan of this game, but doesn’t think about stuff like this, its just show that people have been overhyping Kairi of actually doing something instead of being a damsel in distress, and while I can understand that, I don’t understand why Kairi is the only one who got the hates because of the same reason where I can say to the other character. And that not fair for her. While I agree that her character is wasted, I can say the same thing to other characters. Remember when Riku cut a building into two and then throw it?

Cause I sure do...

#kingdom hearts 3 #kh3 spoilers #kh3 rant #Kairi

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talinexa · 5 years

Text

Unfinished Challenge (Our World/High School!AU)

The Shower: a truly wondrous place for coming up with random ideas like this. This takes place in a pretty much identical universe to Sparring Partner. You’ll have to pry the “Hayner and Axel are related” headcanon out of my cold, dead hands.

Pok!

The pencil eraser struck me in the temple and clattered to the ground.

“What the heck, Roxas?” I demanded, whirling to see the boy who threw the pencil at me.

He laughed. “Hey nerd. You and me. Dojo of Departure after school. Prepare to get wrecked,” he teased.

I picked up the pencil and held it backhand. “You’re gonna be sorry, ya punk delinquent.” I took a swing at him with the backwards pencil. He deflected by smacking my wrist, avoiding the pencil sticking out from my pinky-side.

“Oh we’ll see,” Roxas joked.

“You are so on, Roxy.”

“Don’t call me that!” He glared at me.

I smirked. “Deal with it.” I threw the pencil at him. He snatched it from the air.

“You’re goin’ down, nerd.”

“We’ll see about that, jock,” I retorted.

He smirked and moved to go catch up with Hayner, Pence, and Olette. “Bring your blade!”

“No I was planning on bare-knuckle boxing, ya dingus!”

Roxas rolled his eyes and left the cafeteria.

I went back to finishing my lunch. Ventus strolled over and plopped down next to me. “I get the feeling that you and Roxas don’t get along,” he remarked, scooping a French Fry into his mouth. I snorted.

“We get along fine,” I said. “We just banter.”

“Really? I always got the feeling that they’re both mean to each other because they like each other and don’t know how to handle it,” Riku teased, taking a seat on Ventus’ other side.

I threw a Cheeto at him. It glanced off his white hair and fell onto the table. “I don’t have a crush on Roxas,” I snapped.

Riku snorted. “Whatever you say.”

*****

“There’s no way this is fair,” Axel remarked.

“What do you mean?” I asked, tying off my wrap shirt and stretching.

“You know Roxas dual-wields. And you use a reverse grip. You’re at a disadvantage when it comes to defense.”

I shrugged. “Thanks for being worried about me. But I’ll be okay. Roxas and I have sparred before.”

“Really?”

I spun my blade into its backhand grip and then back into the forward grip most everyone else (except me and Ventus) used before setting it down and continuing to stretch. “Everyone seems convinced that Roxas and I hate each other. We don’t. We just annoy each other out of mutual consent because that’s how our friendship developed. We’re not rivals either. We’re just... weird.”

Axel made a face. “Okay...”

“Look, Axel, I know Roxas is your friend or nephew or something---”

“Nephew’s best friend.”

“Oh right. You’re Hayner’s uncle. Sorry. Anyway. I know you and Roxas have a good friendship but I don’t expect you to understand the way he and I understand each other. It’s weird and it’s kinda unique and it’s just... how we are. I can’t explain it.”

“I know. Just be careful. I don’t think two blades against one that’s backhand is a fair fight.”

“If I thought it wasn’t I wouldn’t consider myself on-par with his skills. And I do consider Roxas and I equals. I can beat his butt in the ring and then help him with his math homework.”

Axel chuckled. “Stay safe. Both of you.”

“I’ll let him know you’re worried.” I scooped up my Keyblade and gave him a sarcastic two-fingered salute as I left the warm-up room. The warm-up room always had the heater on because apparently a warm atmosphere helped muscles loosen up even if it meant being sweaty before even beginning a workout or a sparring session.

I glanced around the open dojo floor. Friends and classmates were training against practice dummies, some kids were swinging light wooden practice Keyblades at each other, causing almost no damage.

On the other end of the dojo I saw two familiar Keyblades.

“��Ey, Roxy!” I called.

The blond hair turned to reveal the exasperated face of a friend. “Stop calling me that!”

I wove over the floor and flashed my Keyblade at him. “Make me,” I teased.

He clenched his jaw and tightened his grip on his Keyblades. “You are so going down,” he growled.

I laughed and twirled my Keyblade. “We’ll see.”

He closed the distance between the two of us, dragging his dual Keyblades across the dojo’s mats. Not digging them in hard enough to tear them, but resting them enough to make noise.

Thing about sparring against Roxas besides his double weapons was the fact that since I wielded my blade backhanded, my blade was shorter and that made it pretty difficult to defend against two coming at me at the same time from the same person.

I’d learned how to defend against Aqua and Sora at the same time but Roxas with two blades? That was remarkably harder.

CLANG! Our blades rang together. I heard Ventus go, “Ooooooh! We got a fight guys!”

A small crowd of friends gathered to watch. Sora, Ven, Riku, Terra, Aqua, Axel.

Eraqus—the master of the dojo.

I caught him folding his arms out of the corner of my eye. I couldn’t tell if he was displeased or just curious about how this would turn out. Normally sparring sessions were reserved for the classrooms rather than the open dojo floor—but Roxas and I hadn’t bothered to clear off the open floor.

Still. He didn’t order us away. That was something.

Roxas and I sparred, blades ringing against each other. I fought more like Ventus—he and I were the only ones who preferred to keep our blades reverse-gripped—and tended toward speed. Roxas fought like no one else. No one else dual-wielded like him. It was difficult enough learning one blade, let alone two. But Roxas was stubborn.

He fought like a menace. He was incredibly strong for being as small and skinny as he was. He, Sora, and Ventus were all about the same size and build but Roxas was probably the physically strongest of the three.

I spent most of the sparring session on the defensive, deflecting and parrying attacks I wasn’t strong enough to block directly.

Until I saw an opening. I took a slash with my Keyblade toward his abdomen. I heard the sh-sh-shing! of the blade brushing against the zipper of his jacket and smirked.

Roxas launched himself backward, away from me. I laughed. “Fight me, coward,” I teased.

Roxas laughed. “Okay I will.”

This time it was my turn to charge.

I went on the offensive, borrowing a couple of Ventus’ faster moves. Ven was faster than I was but I was still slightly faster than Roxas. I didn’t spin as much as Ventus but I knew the way I fought—it was reckless and slightly chaotic. That was how everyone described the way I fought.

Including Master Eraqus. He’d given me a lot of lectures about being less reckless. But I’d never figured out how to fight any other way. Fighting fair only happened in training. No one was going to hand me a victory.

Least of all Roxas.

He slashed at me with his right Keyblade—the dark one—and barely managed to avoid cutting my hair off. I deflected and kicked him in the gut, sending him stumbling back into a training dummy. I pressed my arm and the edge of my blade to his chest.

“I win,” I said.

“Not yet,” he growled, shoving me in the gut with his knee. It was enough force to knock me backward.

Roxas swung his Keyblades down at me—

CLANG!

Both of his blades were blocked by one broad, sleek, silver one. “Alright, guys. That’s enough,” a familiar voice said.

I sighed and rolled my eyes. “Rikuuu,” I complained.

“Riku is right,” Master Eraqus said. “The beginner’s class will be arriving shortly. It’s best to not have any ongoing sparring sessions on the main floor when a bunch of extremely young children are inside.”

Roxas lowered his blades. “Alright,” he said, turning to go back over to Xion.

I poked him in the back with the end of my Keyblade. “I still win.”

He snorted and just kept walking, not disputing but not agreeing either. I assumed that meant he thought the challenge wasn’t over and he’d get me back later.

Well, fine then. I’d be ready for him.

*****

“I still think you two butt heads so often because you like each other and don’t know how to handle it,” Riku said while we waited for my car to air out all the hot air that had built up inside.

I levelled my Keyblade at his chest over the roof of my low car. “Shut up,” I retorted.

He just chuckled and climbed in the car. “Just invite me to your wedding.”

I climbed in too. “I hate you.”

“I know you do.” He was smirking as I turned the engine over and twisted the A/C to full-blast.

I pulled out of the dojo’s parking lot and we headed home. Riku, Sora, and I grew up on the same street. Kairi was just around the corner. Roxas too but in the other direction. That was the thing about relatively small towns—everyone lived pretty close to each other.

We were heading down the main road of town when I caught sight of a familiar blond head in the bike lane.

“Is he skateboarding home?” Riku asked incredulously. “In this heat?”

“It’s only June,” I said. “it’s gonna get a lot hotter.”

I pulled in front of Roxas—because it mostly definitely wasn’t Ventus despite their similar appearances—and then pulled over, rolling down my window. The skateboarder with the Keyblade bags over his shoulders slowed down.

“Get in, dingus,” I said, unlocking the doors.

He braked his skateboard completely. “What for?”

“Because y’ain’t outta my way and it’s blistering hot. And I can see your sweat. So get in.”

Roxas sighed but got in the car, bringing his board and setting it on the floor. “Thanks,” he muttered, semi-reluctantly.

I shrugged and pulled back onto the road. “It’s no problem.”

“I like skating though.”

“I know.” I rolled up the windows and cranked the A/C to blast even more, angling one of the vents to blow into the backseat. My car was old and didn’t have vents in the backseat. “But if you get heat exhaustion someone’s somehow gonna find a way to blame me for it.”

Roxas chuckled. “Hey, Axel mentioned to me that he was worried about your defense,” he remarked, leaning forward to pat my shoulder.

I snorted. “Axel means well but he doesn’t know that I’m perfectly capable of handling myself.”

Roxas chuckled. So did Riku. I turned a corner and we were three streets away from our street. “Well, tomorrow we’ll finish the challenge. I’m gonna win,” Roxas said.

I laughed. “HA! Puh-lease, Roxas. I’m gonna totally whoop your butt.”

Riku snickered at both of us. “You two are hilarious.”

“Hey, just because you have your Mark of Mastery doesn’t mean you can tease those of us who don’t have it yet,” I snapped. Riku laughed harder as I turned onto our street.

“I’m not teasing you because I have my Mark and you two don’t. I’m teasing you two because you’re both hilarious.”

I snorted. “Thanks.” I pulled up to Riku’s house. “Now get out of my car, ya dingus.”

Riku laughed and opened the door. “Don’t make out in Roxas’ driveway.”

“RIKU!” I shouted as the door slammed shut and Riku ran into his house. In the rearview mirror, Roxas had bent forward out of my sight, but I could see the bright pink edge of his forehead. “He’s so going down.”

“I propose a team-up,” Roxas muttered into his hands. “You and me take him down.”

“He’ll just use that to add fuel to the fire. I’ll take him on alone,” I said.

“If you think you can.”

“Well I’ll have to for my Mark exam anyway.”

“True. Eraqus likes to test new Masters against Riku and Aqua.”

“And Terra soon too.”

“Yeah.”

“Let me take you home.”

“Thanks.”

#Roxas #Roxas Imagine #Kingdom Hearts #Kingdom Hearts Imagine #KH #KH Imagine #You can pry 'Axel is Hayner's uncle' out of my cold dead hands #Tal writes

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thisselflovecamebacktome · 5 years

Text

Was SoKai forced? A look into the issues surrounding the pair

I want to preface this with while I have done some writing and scripting classes, I am in no way the next James Cameron or whatever. I’m just a girl giving her opinion.

To determine whether SoKai was forced or not, I think two aspects need to be looked into. One, was there implications that the pairing would occur throughout the series or was it a last minute ‘match the remainders’ type ditch? And secondly, was the development there to expect this outcome?

I think we can all agree that the answer to the first question is a clear yes, there were signs from the first part of the first game that the game developers intended SoKai to be cannon and impliedly end game. I’m not here to argue that because whether I ship it or not, I don’t think it is arguable. The second question is where the topic gets more tricky.

In my honest opinion, SoKai has the potential to be a great love story, but the writing makes it fall short. To me personally, even though I ship both, the reason SoKai feels less natural than SoRiku is because a lot of things that feel like they are vital for growth and really establishing the relationship as more than a crush happen off screen and/or are quickly glossed over. A large part of this has to do with the developers giving Kairi the short end of the stick and keeping her in the whole ‘damsel in distress’ stereotype in general to be honest.

With SoRiku, we get emotional moments of “I looked everywhere for you” and Riku literally stepping in front of a bunch of heartless that just ‘killed’ their friends to protect Sora while telling him that Riku doesn’t believe that Sora believes that Sora is useless. We also get small fun little moments like Sora saying he needs to call Riku to tell him about something that reminded Sora of him. Hell, we even had Riku call Sora’s name and Sora randomly show up when there was no reason to believe Sora would show up in KH3. Like that’s some gay shit right there.

When it comes to SoKai, in my opinion, because Kairi as a character is paid dirt, we also miss out on moments as deep as SoRiku have had. Sure, we had Sora begging for Kairi’s life in KH2 and the letters Kairi writes to Sora/for herself, but a lot of these moments lack the communication that the SoRiku moments have. Like when Riku jumped in front of those heartless, we get Sora’s shocked (and in my opinion somewhat guilty) reaction as he realises Riku is still there and willing to give up everything because he believes in Sora. Likewise, we see the guilt in Riku when he realises the pain he caused Sora. In comparison, when we do get SoKai moments together, a lot of it is a hug/glance before moving on. And the sad thing is that I feel like we did have these deeper moments at the start of the game. Little things like Kairi telling Sora she has concerns over how Riku was behaving and her half joking about just the two of them taking the raft and going felt like it was building up a proper, long lasting romantic relationship over just a crush.

But at some point, it personally feels like the writers just went “well, we’ve told them they want to share a paopu fruit, we don’t need to do any more to develop the relationship” and forgot that people change, relationship change and time doesn’t stand still for anyone (yes this is meant to be ironic given Kairi was sent to a place with no concept of time in KH3). From my understanding, with the exception of Birth By Sleep, the whole Kingdom Hearts franchise is meant to take place give or take during the period of SoKai being 13 - 15. While I obviously cannot talk for everyone, in that time period of my life romantically I dated the boy I liked for most my childhood and thought I was going to marry for a year, broke up with him, dated another two people shortly and had a crush on another person. And hey, maybe I’m a ho, but the point still stands that a lot happens in that time without the ptsd inducing shit these two went through and 15/16 year old me was a vastly different person than 13 year old me. And that’s fine, it doesn’t mean that Sora and Kairi can’t be childhood sweethearts. But I want to see that the way they have changed still compliments each other and that it’s not just them relying on nostalgia and conversations we’re supposed to assume happened.

And that is the predominate issue I have with Kairi’s arc in KH3. After (from memory) not having an on screen discussion with Sora after KH2 about how things have changed/how they feel (specifically a response from him about the letter she wrote) and where they stand, she’s chucked into a situation where she doesn’t even interact with Sora (or anyone outside Axel) directly for most the game. The worst part about it is that especially in KH3, there are some moments where it literally feels like it’d make more sense for Sora to talk to Kairi than the other characters. Sora feeling frustrated at having to start again and feeling weaker than the others? Sounds a lot like how Kairi would feel being at the start of her journey. Sora’s feelings on Roxas? Probably a good match for Kairi’s feelings about Namine. Like there’s so many intimate things that could help establish them as a couple and make them closer. Instead, the first proper interaction SoKai has leads up to the point I’m sure most shippers have waited for where Kairi pulls out the paopu fruit... and Sora is surprised? Like my dude, you may die tomorrow and you’re shocked and need it explained to you that the love of your life wants to be a part of your life forever? It’s just so awkwardly written and once again in my opinion underdeveloped given the lack of on screen interaction since KH2 before that. The conversation then moves towards them both talking about protecting each other and I was like ‘Yes! Finally some communication about how they feel!’. I want to preface that part that while I would have adored for Kairi to be a kickass keyblade welding badass who slammed Xehanort down herself, I do not need that in a female character for me to love her. What bugs me is that in this game’s trailers and with how the place without magic works, it heavily implied that Kairi was going to be a ‘stronger’ character than ever in the physical sense, but her character doesn’t even feel like a step up from KH2. Don’t get me wrong, I think the “Kairi is Sora’s light” scene was done very well just like her transforming him back in the first game and is a good way to show rather than tell us that they have a strong connection, and once again, I do not need her to be physically strong to like her, but advertising that she is going to be physically stronger then having her fall into the same ‘damsel in distress’ trope was disappointing. Like I could even understand her having to die, but at least have Saix or Xehanort pull a dirty move on one of the others and her dying trying to defend them or Xehanort making her fight rather than just smashing her into pieces. Also, this has nothing to do with SoKai, but the fact that Kairi’s murderer got to go to heaven within the hour that he murdered her was wack af tbh.

And then we get to the ending. And I get at this point, ya’ll probably saying “God this grinch ass prick really just wants to rip everything apart, why can’t she just say she hates KH3 and go?” but I don’t care. This ending was literally the biggest let down to the Kingdom Hearts fandom in general, but especially SoKai shippers in my opinion. Before you go breathing down my neck about me not liking bittersweet endings, that’s not the issue. The issue is that once again, SoKai had a chance to have a big emotional moment and potentially growth along with us as viewers getting some clarity over what happened, but instead, they just brushed it over with the only explanation being a vague “You may not come back” from Mickey. And I’m sorry, I’m not taking ‘there wasn’t enough time/space on the disk’ as an excuse when we had to fight Xehanort multiple times and when the Keyblade Graveyard felt as dragged out as it did. Also, once again not SoKai related, but it still feels out of character that Riku just allowed Sora to go alone like that given how much he loves both Sora and Kairi. Likewise, him and the others letting Kairi cry alone in the ending frustrated me to no end.

But here’s the thing; even if it doesn’t fully fix everything, the developers could have done one little thing to place importance on SoKai’s relationship. All it would have taken was an extra scene where Kairi says something like “Given we shared the papou fruit, I am the only one who can find Sora/his soul” and either 1. (and preferably tbh) sent her instead of Riku to find him or 2. If they really wanted to include Riku, have Kairi go along with him. Or hey, better yet 3. Have Riku be the one who died instead and have it end with Sora going to leave and then Kairi showing up saying she refuses to be left behind because Riku was her friend too and have Kingdom Hearts 4 (or whatever title is coming next) have them as teammates and switchable playable characters. Because power couple teaming up to find their best friend? Count me in.

Anyway, this is turning into a “Why KH3 was a disappointment story wise” post, but to answer the original question, no, I don’t think SoKai was forced. However, I also don’t think that the writers have really put the time, effort and development into the relationship that it really deserves given it is meant to be the main cannon end game ship, much as Kairi does not as the original main female. Given that SoRiku does get that attention, it often feels like SoKai (and platonically RiKai but that’s a discussion for another day) pales a lot. So while I never thought SoRiku would be cannon, I can understand the arguments that SoKai feels less genuine and heteronormative given the difference in development. And I hate saying because like I said, I could see SoKai being one of the great love stories if written well.

Given SoKai is still set to be end game, my hope is that in future games we get this development and SoKai and Kairi as an individual gets the chance to shine the way main cannon ships and characters deserve. But I guess all we can do is wait and see.

#kingdom hearts #i'm sorry this is so long #also i'm not tagging ships because i know there are people on either side that will take this the wrong way #tbh kinda expecting to get a lot of hate from this post but whatever

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nadziejastar · 5 years

Note

I don’t mind if Skuld meets up with Lea and Isa, as a friend. I just not looking forward to the writers pushing Skuld/Isa romantically. She barely had any screen time with him, and it would feel forced and infuriating. I’m fine with it if she’s meeting them again and getting to know each as FRIENDS, but I know the writers have a different idea. Honestly, there’s probably gonna be ship wars between Isa/Skuld and IsaLea.

Yeah, it does feel like they are going to push Isa/Skuld romantically, at least from Isa’s end. When I heard Lea and Isa’s backstory in KH3, I was totally incredulous. I knew it was total B.S. Like, it was just so contradictory to everything we saw previously, I didn’t buy it for one second. Like, who did they think they were kidding?

But even besides the bad retconning, it had such an awful effect on both Isa and Lea as characters. It was a horrible idea to make a mystery girl Isa’s motivation, let alone his potential love interest. That’s going to fuel terrible shipping wars. I have noticed that the worst shipping wars tend to happen because of bad writing. When the canon relationships are well-written, there is not as much controversy and toxicity.

Isa/Subject X Is A Horrible Pairing

Saïx: Back when we were still friends, we used to sneak into the castle.

Lea: Yeah.

Saïx: And we made a friend there, a girl. We apprenticed to Ansem the Wise to rescue her.

Subject X hasn’t had ANY screen time with them. She was just mentioned out of nowhere. Now all of a sudden, they were apprentices and doing everything in Organization XIII for her? And I love how Saïx is so casual about how they used to be friends. Nice to see how much you valued your friendship with Lea there. He talks like he couldn’t give less of a shit that they’re no longer friends.

Geppetto: Pinocchio! Pinocchio! Please! Give me back my son!

Riku: Sorry, old man. I have some unfinished business with this puppet.

Geppetto: He’s no puppet! Pinocchio is my little boy!

Riku: He is unusual. Not many puppets have hearts. I’m not sure, but maybe he can help someone who’s lost theirs.

In KH1, Riku was a huge asshole. It didn’t matter that he was trying to help Kairi. He kidnapped Pinocchio right in front of his pleading father and he wanted to steal his heart.

Axel: You’re sure things are better this way?

Saïx: I never expected you to question it. If you could save one of them…why would you choose the puppet? Or put it this way. Which would you rather suffer the loss of: some make-believe friendship, or a real one?

Saïx was also a huge asshole. He constantly dehumanized Xion and called her broken, defective, and “it”. He wanted to destroy her and didn’t care that Axel considered her a close friend. If you make finding Skuld his motivation, you are confirming that he was aware of his actions the whole time. If he had enough empathy to care about Skuld, why was he so cruel to Xion and Roxas? Why did he not feel bad for kidnapping Kairi, and trying to kill Sora and Riku?

Sora: Hey, let Pinocchio go, Riku.

Riku: A puppet that’s lost its heart to the Heartless… Maybe it holds the key to helping Kairi. How about it, Sora? Let’s join forces to save her. What? You’d rather fight me? Over a puppet that has no heart?

Sora: Heart or no heart, at least he still has a conscience.

Riku: Conscience?

Sora: You might not hear it, but right now it’s loud and clear. And it’s telling me you’re on the wrong side!

Riku: Then you leave me no choice.

In KH1, the message was clear: it’s wrong to join the villains, and steal people’s hearts, even for a girl. They’re the actions of a villain.

Kairi: You know, Riku has changed.

Sora: What do you mean?

Kairi: Well…

Sora: You okay?

Kairi: Sora, let’s take the raft and go—just the two of us!

And let’s face it: Riku was NOT presented as an appealing love interest for Kairi in KH1.

Lea: Yeah, and we failed. One day she was just gone!

Saïx: You gave up.

Lea: I did not give up. One day we’re apprentices, the next Ansem the Wise has up and vanished, the day after we’re Nobodies, the day after that we’re doing icky jobs for Xemnas. I couldn’t keep up with you.

Saïx: Following Xehanort’s Nobody was the only way to discover what happened to her. She was his lab rat.

Lea: So? You found her? I helped you rise up the ranks, so I hope it paid off?

Following Xemnas’ icky orders without any remorse doesn’t make Isa more sympathetic, nor does it help us support a possible romance between them. And why is Lea so nonchalant about this? He helped Saïx rise through the ranks, and he hopes it all “paid off?”

Are you crazy!? Of course it didn’t pay off!!! Your best friend sold his soul to the devil and is a Seeker of Darkness! He has yellow eyes and pointy ears. He’s corrupted by darkness! He lost his heart to Xehanort! And you think it might have paid off!? What the hell is wrong with you!? Do you not care about your friend at all?

Sora: Riku, why are you siding with the Heartless?

Riku: The Heartless obey me now, Sora. Now I have nothing to fear.

Sora: You’re stupid. Sooner or later they’ll swallow your heart.

Riku: Not a chance. My heart’s too strong.

Sora: Riku…

Riku: I’ve picked up a few other tricks as well. Like this, for instance. You can go see your friends now. Let’s get under way, already. And keep Sora away from Kairi until we’re ready to land.

When Sora hears that Riku joined the dark side to save Kairi, he says he is stupid!!!! He cares about Kairi, too. But he’s afraid Riku’s heart will be swallowed by darkness. He’s worried for his friend, and rightfully so! Besides, Kairi wouldn’t want that. Lea would have said the same thing if he was a true friend.

Saïx: I’m afraid not. Nary a trace. I started to wonder if we’d imagined her. Maybe she never existed. And then in time I awakened to a new purpose. I realized I could be stronger.

Okay…? So now all you wanted was to become stronger? It wasn’t about the girl? It was about power? First off, I don’t buy that at all. But whatever. Let’s go with it for argument’s sake.

Ansem: The heart that is strong and true shall win the Keyblade.

Riku: What? You’re saying my heart’s weaker than his?

Ansem: For that instant, it was. However, you can become stronger. You showed no fear in stepping through the door to darkness. It held no terror for you. Plunge deeper into the darkness, and your heart will grow even stronger.

Riku: What should I do?

Ansem: It’s really quite simple. Open yourself to the darkness. That is all. Let your heart, your being become darkness itself.

Isa is basically KH1 Riku. It wasn’t even about saving Kairi at that point. It was about being stronger than Sora and gaining power. This tempted Riku to open himself up to darkness. He sold his soul to Ansem after he lost to Sora! This makes Saïx more sympathetic how?

Saïx: The marks under your eyes. They’re gone.

Lea: Yeah. Don’t need ‘em.

Saïx: Always told you they’d stop you from crying. The upside-down tears.

Apparently Saïx has “always” been a condescending douchebag…

Riku: It’s up to me. Only the Keyblade master can open the secret door…and change the world.

Sora: But that’s impossible. How did this happen? I’m the one who fought my way here with the Keyblade!

Riku: You were just the delivery boy. Sorry, your part’s over now. Here, go play hero with this.

You know who else was a condescending douchebag? KH1 Riku! He kidnapped Belle, taunted the Beast, took the Keyblade from Sora, and then threw him a wooden toy while he was wallowing on the floor as Donald and Goofy left him. The difference is, Riku was a condescending asshole when he was a villain—the very beginning of his arc in the Dark Seeker Saga. Saïx is a condescending asshole during his “redemption”—the very end of his arc in the Dark Seeker Saga.

Lea: I didn’t forget you.

Saïx: Yes…I know. You wouldn’t do that. But…I was jealous.

Lea: You admit it.

So, what is his excuse? Why is he still allowed to party with everyone in the epilogue? Well, instead of being a victim of Xehanort in need of rescue, Saïx was just mad that Lea forgot about him and Subject X. And I love how Lea acted like he knew the entire time that he was jealous, and was just being too stubborn to admit it. I’m sorry, I gotta call B.S. again.

And yet, Axel couldn’t keep the sarcasm out of his response. “Well, nice to know where I stand.”

He said it with a grin, but the hint of a frown tugged at the scar between Saïx’s brows. Apparently, the joke wasn’t very funny. “You made it back in one piece, didn’t you?”

Were you worried I wouldn’t? Axel almost said, but he didn’t want to deal with putting him in an even fouler mood. Disgust and rage seemed to linger closest to the surface of Saïx’s memories.

Axel didn’t know Saïx was “jealous”. He was desperate to find any evidence Saïx had feelings for him at all. On ~Day 72 Change~, Axel finally returns from Castle Oblivion. Roxas said he was worried about him, and Axel was upset that Saïx wasn’t. He is sad about how much his friend has changed. But let’s assume that was the truth. Let’s say that all of Saïx’s abuse in Days was him acting passive aggressively due to his petty jealousy over Axel hanging out with a couple of kids.

Maleficent: Why do you still care about that boy? He has all but deserted you for the Keyblade and his new companions, after all.

Riku: I don’t care about him. I was just messing with him a little.

Maleficent: Oh, really? Of course you were. Beware the darkness in your heart. The Heartless prey upon it.

Riku: Mind your own business.

Sora: Riku! What’s the matter with you? What are you thinking? Don’t you realize what you’re doing?

Riku: I was about to ask you the same thing, Sora. You only seem interested in running around and showing off that Keyblade these days. Do you even want to save Kairi?

Riku always used Kairi as a shield when he was bullying Sora. “Don’t you care about Kairi?” In reality, Riku was bitter that Sora made new friends. Yeah, he was trying to help Kairi. But she was just an excuse. He was being petty. It also seemed like he only became so hellbent on rescuing her, because he wanted to one-up Sora. The way KH3 was written, it also felt like Saïx was just using that girl as a cover for his own resentment of Lea. It didn’t seem like he genuinely cared about her very much. She was just a convenient scapegoat.

Right…this little room that Maleficent had made up just for me. I stayed here in this castle, except when I went to Captain Hook’s ship to get Kairi. And when I was here I spent most of that time in this room. Swinging a sword…reading books…and what else?

Thinking about things that upset him. He’d been angry at something. He’d believed it was his fault that Kairi was in that state…but he told himself that it wasn’t a mistake to have gone to other worlds and gently touched her face as she slept.

In KH1, they didn’t have an entire saga planned for the story. And it’s clear that Riku was originally written simply as a villain for the first game. An arrogant, jealous, bully who wants to steal your girlfriend. He has a weak heart that is prone to darkness. After they decided to make more games, they wanted to make Riku a main character. And so they focused on him being Sora’s best friend instead of his bully/rival. They tried to humanize his actions from the first game in the novel for CoM. They emphasized his his strong affection for Kairi as his motivation, and the reason for him turning to darkness. And...it didn’t work. He strokes her face while she’s sleeping.

All this did was make Riku seem creepy. To be honest, Riku always seemed creepy to me in KH1, even when I first played it as a 14-year-old. This is why they distanced themselves from that interpretation of Riku’s character. Terra became the reason he wanted to see the outside world, not Kairi. But now, this this what they want Isa to be like? He willingly joins someone he knows is evil, gladly follows their orders, and tries to murder his best friend…just so he can get his hands on the object of his affection? Someone he doesn’t even know? That comes off as creepy. And stalker-ish. They’re going backwards regarding positive character portrayals.

Lea: Stop it. The whole act. I thought this was all for her.

First of all, this is B.S.

“Shouldn’t you already be out on your mission, Axel?” Saïx interrupted.

Mission? Saïx hadn’t given him his assignment yet. Axel blinked up at him, and Saïx stared back. Oh. Axel felt a little bit sorry for Saïx and his inability to lie.

Saïx could not act to save his life.

Saïx: At first. I sacrificed everything to try and track her down. You’re the one who went off and made other friends. Left me and her both in the dust. It infuriated me how you just exited our lives. I lost…all sense of purpose.

Saïx never showed any kind of human emotion except disgust. He was by far the most Nobody-like Organization member. But he feels such rage after Axel leaves, that he tries to kill him over and over again. His best friend. All because he was jealous that Axel made new friends with a couple of children who didn’t treat him like shit? That makes him sympathetic how?

Saïx: Do you know what happens to those who lose their true purpose? Inevitably, they destroy themselves.

And why is he so violent to Axel anyways? In his own words, when you lose your true purpose, it makes you inevitably destroy yourself. So why is he trying to destroy Axel and not himself?

"And we still haven’t found out where Axel went?” said Xaldin.

Saïx scowled with displeasure at the name.

It would make sense if Isa’s heart lost all sense of purpose and wanted to fade away after Axel left. And it would make sense if Saïx was not aware that it was Isa’s heart making him feel suicidal.

“What are you doing here?” The Claymore materialized in Saïx’s hand. “Foul traitor—”

“No, Saïx,” said Xigbar, glaring hard at Axel.

“What have you come for?” With rage barely contained under every word, Saïx stalked toward Axel.

It would make sense if Saïx felt Isa’s despair and took it out on Axel in a psychotic rage. He was so unhinged, even Xigbar had to stop him from attacking Axel.

Riku: Quit while you can.

Sora: No. Not without Kairi.

Riku: The darkness will destroy you.

Sora: You’re wrong, Riku. The darkness may destroy my body, but it can’t touch my heart. My heart will stay with my friends. It’ll never die!

Riku: Really… Well, we’ll just see about that!

KH1 Riku also tried to kill Sora when he was consumed with darkness. Goofy shields him from Riku’s attack. It didn’t matter that Riku had the Keyblade. Donald and Goofy chose to stay with Sora because he was on the right side and Riku was not.

Lea: Well, then, you blew it! Wise up already and just quit.

Um, its not that simple, Lea. You see when you have Xehanort’s heart implanted, you are consumed by it. You become one of his 12 selves. Your true heart and consciousness has to be put to sleep in order for Xehanort to turn you into a vessel.

Mickey: There’s something real strong that binds us to each other. Even in the darkness, you can reach him. All you gotta do is follow that connection!

Goofy: Gee, we’re all connected to Sora.

Donald: You said it!

Lea: And if the darkness gets ya, I promise I’ll bail you out. “Dark Rescue” is my middle name.

Riku: Guys, thank you. Sora and I will be back soon.

You should know this already after they almost made Sora the 13th vessel and Riku had to go save his heart afterwards. They didn’t ask Sora to fill out a résumé before they hired him as a vessel. Presumably they didn’t ask Isa, either. You can’t just quit. You couldn’t even leave the original Organization willingly. You’d be turned into a Dusk. But Lea thinks he should just quit…

Lea: Would you get lost? I’ll clobber you tomorrow.

Saïx: I expect no less.

This is how you act after you find out your best friend has been turned into Xehanort’s vessel? You want him to get lost and can’t wait to clobber him?

Sora: What? You… You’re not Riku.

Riku: The Keyhole cannot be completed so long as the last princess of heart still sleeps.

Sora: The princess…? Kairi’s a princess?

Riku: Yes, and without her power, the Keyhole will remain incomplete. It is time she awakened.

Sora: Whoever you are, let Riku go! Give him back his heart!

Sora knew Riku wasn’t acting like his old self. And neither was Isa. Axel complained CONSTANTLY about how much he had changed. When Sora learned the truth, he wanted Xehanort to let his friend’s heart go.

Young Xehanort: To move through time, you must leave your body behind. Ansem first sent me on my way, and then placed himself here when the time was right. That was what set all these events in motion.

Sora: What are you saying? That he knew everything that would happen?

Young Xehanort: No, not everything. But remember, Ansem possessed Riku and saw his experiences in real time.

The reason Riku acted like a sociopath is because he was possessed. BBSV2 would have gone into more detail and made Riku more sympathetic by showing how Xehanort’s heart took control of him from the very start. That’s why in KH3D, they showed Young Xehanort reach out his hand to Sora, causing him to have a flashback to when Riku did it in KH1.

Riku was being influenced by Xehanort’s heart for the entirety of KH1. If Saïx was possessed, then Xehanort also saw his experiences in real time. That’s why he always knew what Axel and Saïx were planning and why he didn’t stop them. It provided him with too much valuable information.

Saïx: Why…so sad?

Lea: You let them reduce you to this?

Even though his friend was supposed to be possessed, Lea isn’t the slightest bit sympathetic. He’s disgusted at him for bringing it on himself. After he’s defeated, he turns his head and can’t even look at him.

Aerith: No wonder there are more and more Heartless everywhere. The only way to stop them is—

Sora: Seal the Keyhole, right?

Leon: Maybe. But no one knows what will happen once it’s sealed.

Sora: Well, we can’t just stay here. We have to do something. I’ve got a friend back there.

After Sora defeated the possessed Riku, he wanted to go back and rescue him from Xehanort’s clutches.

Saïx: Well, if I make it back…you won’t get it out of me a second time.

Lea: See you, Isa.

Saïx: See you, Lea.

After Isa is finally freed from Xehanort’s control, there is no sincerity to his confession of jealousy. No apology for trying to kill Lea. No heart-to-heart conversation about everything they went through as kids. Isa is just an asshole, telling Lea that he won’t hear an apology from him a second time. Then it’s just “see ya”. And they’re magically friends again.

It was Naminé’s drawing of Roxas and Axel, standing side by side. “You’re best friends,” she said.

Right. Those two had been friends—well, Axel believed they still were. Roxas was his only friend and his best. And Axel was the same for Roxas—probably.

Axel states multiple times that Roxas was his only friend. After everything that happened between them, Axel to stopped thinking of Isa as his friend.

On the sofa opposite him, Naminé spoke up instead. “Sora and Riku are best friends.” Axel’s eyes crinkled as he remembered his own best friend—the only friend he’d ever had, in fact.

But more than that. Roxas was the only friend he’d ever had. He considered that Isa was never his friend in the first place. That’s how badly Axel was hurt by his relationship with Saïx. That’s how betrayed he felt.

“…Riku…” Sora looked up, holding tight to his friend’s hand. “It’s Riku… Riku is here.” He knew that it was Riku’s hand he clasped. It was bigger than the one he’d held a thousand times before, but in his heart, Sora felt it.

A knot of something he could barely define swelled in his chest. Clinging to that hand, to Riku’s hand, Sora fell to his knees. “I was looking for you…!” Tears spilled over and flowed down his cheeks as he pressed Riku’s hand against his face.

How long had he been searching? How badly had he wanted to see Riku, to talk to him again? And Riku was here. Here at last. I found you. Finally. I missed you. I’ve missed you for so long…

They’d been separated on Destiny Island, then they ended up fighting, and then they’d gone through that door together from opposite sides…and he’d been searching, searching for Riku all the while.

“C’mon, Sora,” Riku chided him lightly. “Keep it together.”

Riku allowed himself to be locked behind the Door to Darkness, and he sacrificed his appearance to save Sora. When Sora and Riku finally reunite, Sora was overcome with emotion.

Riku: What I said back there…about thinking I was better at stuff than you…To tell you the truth, Sora… I was jealous of you.

Sora: What for?

Riku: I wished I could live life the way you do. Just following my heart.

Sora: Yeah, well, I’ve got my share of problems, too.

Riku: Like what?

Sora: Like…wanting to be like you.

Riku: Well, there is one advantage to being me… Something you could never imitate.

Sora: Really? What’s that?

Riku: Having you for a friend.

Sora: Then I guess…I’m okay the way I am. I’ve got something you could never imitate too.

Compare Lea and Isa’s final conversation to Sora and Riku’s reconciliation at the end of KH2. The latter have a genuine talk where they gain insight into each other’s feelings. There is forgiveness and mutual respect. They are able to empathize with each other and grow closer as a result. Lea and Isa were turned into a cheap knockoff of Sora and Riku from KH1.

Only they forgot to actually, ya know, redeem Isa and show that he was possessed like they did with Riku. And unlike Sora, Lea became less concerned with his friend’s well-being after finding out he was possessed. Based on canon, I don’t know why they were even friends to begin with. And why are they friends again now? They don’t get along, they don’t seem to like each other, and they don’t act like they care about each other at all. But now Subject X is going to come along and be part of a healthy trio and have a possible romantic subplot with Isa? Yikes.

#kh meta #kh #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts meta #kh lea #kh isa #kh axel #kh saix #kh riku #anti kh3

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bluerosesburnblue · 5 years

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This very nearly became a Kingdom Key Only run because I like challenge runs like that but honestly I never felt like sticking to the Kingdom Key was ever really a hindrance

...so let’s talk about that ending, from the start of the Keyblade Graveyard to the credits, yeah?

I cannot BELIEVE that Nomura gave us the Beach Party Ending we were all hoping for just to rip Sora away at the last second. Good GOD, man, who spit in your coffee?

So I guess we should get the elephant in the room out of the way, first. I’m actually not... that upset by the ending? Like, yes, I find it extremely ironic that the game that made me love Sora more than any other character in the game would essentially kill him off, but... okay, when Nomura said that the ending would be “hard to swallow” I had two worst case scenarios in mind. And I mean “worst case” in the “Nonononono he’d better not do that if he does I’m done” way

Scenario 1: Xehanort unlocks Kingdom Hearts. Either he’s stopped or he succeeds, but either way the damage is done and he’s too far along to stop and the universe is reset. All of the heroes are alright, they survive the ending, but the world of the game is changed irreversibly, forever. It’s all one World again, the Disney worlds are gone, or they’re there but they’ve been forced together in a weird jigsaw-puzzle way. The details don’t really matter, I just didn’t want a status-quo shakeup like that that gets passed off as a happy/bittersweet ending because the heroes survived

Scenario 2: Xehanort unlocks Kingdom Hearts. Either he’s defeated but whatever he started can’t be stopped, or Kingdom Hearts is the only thing that can defeat him. Either way, Sora has to use the power of Kingdom Hearts. He keeps the world exactly as it was, but has to give up his own physical existence to do so. After all, he who opens the door will become a god in the next world. Maybe he persists as a “force” that watches over his friends, but Sora is gone for good

What we ended up getting was... very similar to that second scenario, but it differs just enough to save it for me. At the very least, knowing that Sora and Kairi are connected and that Sora’s in Shibuya in the Secret Movie gives me enough hope that he can and will come back. Which, when compared to what I was afraid we were gonna get, leaves me weirdly optimistic. I still cried a lot (NOMURA I AM TAKING CUSTODY OF YOUR SON THAT’S MY SWEET BABY BROTHER NOW FIGHT ME) but I’m nowhere near as emotionally devastated as I could’ve been

And here’s the big thing, I liked most of the scenes in the Final Battle sequence. As scenes they were (mostly) fine. The reunions were heartwrenching (even if Sora is just kind of... there for most of them), the KHUx stuff was incredible (Ephemeeeeeer <3<3<3), the locales and concepts were all interesting. My problem was actually the order events happen in

So, first off, everyone dies way too fast. WAY too fast. It’s one of the two scenes I have a problem with. Everyone arrives at the Graveyard and fights a swarm of Heartless. They walk down a crevice and see Terra. A surprising amount of people get knocked out or injured trying to take care of just Terra-Xehanort? Then another big wave of Heartless shows up and everyone just... dies? Like, the second big scene in what is a very long finale and everyone dies? Hell, Aqua just gives up!

They also blew the KHUx Union X attack WAY too early. A set piece like that (it’s SUCH A GOOD CONCEPT AND THE SCENE WAS BEAUTIFUL) and you waste it on a big cloud of Heartless at the start of the final battle? Guys... guys that’s some last minute “all hope is lost, so here’s unexpected help” stuff, you shouldn’t just have that happen that soon

And the thing is... both of those scenes would be so much more impactful if they had happened later in the finale. Ideally, picture this:

The team takes care of the first swarm of Heartless. (You could have moments in that fight where you get a different guest Keyblade wielder, one at a time, in a callback to the KH2 Battle of 1000 Heartless with the FF characters). They’re feeling pretty good about it. They just all worked as a team for the first time together and they did alright. Maybe a little shaky. After all, most of them don’t really know each other that well. They can’t know each other’s styles or predict each others’ moves. Their teamwork is shaky, but they managed and that gives them some confidence. Maybe they can do this if they work together

Then Xehanort shows up. We can’t be having any of this “friendship” and “teamwork” nonsense. He throws up the labyrinth to try and separate everybody and pair off the Darknesses each to 1-2 Lights so that they clash, but the Darknesses are at a clear advantage. Unlike in the actual game, the labyrinth is crawling with Heartless to break up the tedium of the boss rush a bit. (I liked the idea of having to choose who to rescue first in the actual game, but it didn’t actually effect anything except which order you took the fights in.) While running through the Labyrinth you encounter different friends in different sections to help you fight off Heartless, and their boss fight is at the end of their section. That would give everyone just a bit more time to bond with each other. Maybe put in a few puzzles or something that make use of them creatively, like Ven and Aqua using wind and barriers to traverse their section of the Labyrinth. Just... everyone needs more time together. Some things about the fights and reunions would need to be changed, though. I wouldn’t be adverse to changing it up just slightly so that Lingering Will shows up as a guest for the Terranort + Vanitas fight, and it takes both Lingering Will and The Guardian to wrest Terra’s body back (instead of having Lingering Will only show up for Attempt 2 of the Terranort and Heartless Tornado Kill Everyone scene and then fuck off somewhere? Never seen again?) The Saix and Xion fight is also changed up. Roxas doesn’t just... appear from nowhere, and while this seems to be Xion... something’s off. It’s not really Xion, just a puppet made to look like her using data from the finale of 358/2 Days that had, miraculously, survived. This Xion is like the second Replica Riku (and can I just say thank GOD it’s not the “Riku from the past when he was controlled by Ansem” like they thought for the longest time because that was SILLY. Though I’m slightly disappointed that it wasn’t Data-Riku’s digital heart shoved into a Replica body like I’d theorized based on the trailers). This Replica gets purged, too, leaving two Replica bodies conveniently wearing Organization coats behind at the Keyblade Graveyard. We’ll get back to that

(Also, and this is just me, but I actually like how unrepentant Vanitas is. I think a lot of people forget that his sympathetic traits and background of abuse were novel-only things and the novel canon isn’t game canon in the same way that the Harry Potter movies aren’t book canon. Game!Vanitas has never been anything other than a completely unrepentant jackass, and Sora and Ven still gave him a chance to redeem himself. He just refused to take it, and I like that. It’s refreshing to have a character in KH not even try to justify their evil. He’s evil because he wants to be. It’s as simple as that.)

So, anyway, we have the labyrinth stuff. The team is worn down. NOW is where you place everyone dying. I don’t care if you keep it the same, or the Heartless Tornado is controlled by Ansem, or even just Ansem, Xemnas, and Young Nort pick everyone off because they’re all the same person, so of course their teamwork is stronger. You all weren’t good enough friends. You couldn’t have won, because none of you had fought together before, so your friendship was a detriment as you stumbled over each other and just assumed you’d be okay. Sora is left alone. And then he’s gone, too.

And here’s where you place the Final World. I think there was a big opportunity missed here. We get Namine separated from Kairi here. So here’s what I propose: remember all the talk throughout the game about the hearts within Sora’s melding with his, but they might be able to be saved if their memories and the parts of themselves were placed in the right boxes? Fffffffuckingggg... HAVE NAMINE AS A GUEST HERE and have it be just as much about putting Sora back together as it is separating the pieces of Roxas and Xion from him. Once you meet up with Namine’s star (or just have her have a physical form, too, since she’d be tethered to Kairi, too?) she helps out because now that Sora’s in pieces, it’s just a simple matter of sorting those pieces. Putting the scattered links in the chains of memories in different chains, back where they belong. Two hearts are released, now to find everyone else’s. Chirithy is still there, just give Nami some more time

(Also, add a colored tint to the stars or something that goes away after talking to them they were so hard to see)

Anyway. Dives. Lich. I don’t hate this section, I just think the Lich fights could’ve been a little more interesting? Also uhh... maybe have the characters hearts be found in worlds that actually, like... mean something to the character thematically? I guess Aqua in the Caribbean makes sense because water but it would make more sense to have her in Arendelle because ice is also water and she’s basically Ven’s big sis and there are quite a few parallels between the two relationships? The hell does Axel have to do with San Fransokyo? And since Terra would theoretically be there in the rewrite, we’ll need an extra world so place Axel in Twilight Town. Then I dunno. Donald in the Caribbean because he’s canonically a sailor. Ven in Corona because his isolation by Eraqus has parallels to Rapunzel only a bit less evil in intent. Terra in Olympus because that was the world he learned he could be a true hero and beat the darkness. Goofy in Monstropolis because out of all the characters he’s the funniest and they use laugh energy. Mickey in Toy Box because he’s the face of a major franchise and has so many toys based off of him you have no idea. That would place Riku in San Fransokyo where his Norted Replica counterpart was and also poetically make him and Kairi the last ones saved

SO EVERYONE’S ALIVE. We return to the land of the living. There’s no weird... like, time repeats or anything. The last four Norts are... kind of shocked! But also laughing it up because Sora just abused the Power of Waking to hell and back and they know what that means. Also, the lights are still at exactly the same disadvantage they were before they got revived. Or so they think until two bright lights emerge from the labyrinth behind them. That’s right, Roxas and Xion are here, having had their hearts freed from Sora’s in The Final World and taking the abandoned Replica bodies from the Labyrinth. Now we have the Sea-Salt reunion, sans the stuff with Isa because why the hell should Roxas and Xion just be sympathetic to Saix? Save that for a scene in the finale. Doesn’t even have to be spoken, just make it seem like Saix, Roxas, and Xion are trying to come to an understanding but still awkward around each other

After that I’m a little shakier, admittedly. I know you leave Ephemer’s appearance to summon the ancient Keyblades until the very end. I’d also have given him some line like “You remind me of an old friend” or something. Just... slight reference to Player

I have no idea how to work around the Kairi getting killed stuff and still get the ending Nomura wants! That’s the second scene I have a problem with. Sora doesn’t “need” motivation, he’s already prepped to bash the old man’s face in. I dunno... maybe opening Kingdom Hearts messes up Kairi’s light or something and that’s why she disappears? I dunno, there were better ways to do that if you HAD to kill Kairi, and better scenes if you didn’t, tbh

So in summary, I like the pieces of the ending, just not how they were put together. There was a lot of cool stuff in theory, it just wasn’t executed as well as it could’ve been for a more satisfying and emotional finale. The ending’s fine, and I honestly expected it to be a bit rushed considering how much they had to wrap up in this game, but I think it was a low point in what was otherwise a really fun and enjoyable finale to the story arc

I mean... I think that’s all I have to say about the ending, so here’s some assorted thoughts:

I think it was a missed opportunity to not have a Max Goof cameo at the end when the Disney trio is reunited with their loved ones and Goofy just stands there with Jiminy. Max wouldn’t even have been voiced. Just let him show up

I’m torn as to characters’ outfits in the Final Battle. On the one hand, I like how in the end all of the trios are wearing outfits that match the other members of their respective trios. On the other hand, I would’ve killed for EVERYONE to have had a new outfit with the black and plaid/gingham theme to show that they’re not just disjointed trios that happened to come together, but a big group of companions. Everyone is a Team, it’s not just a Team made of Everyone. They made excuses for Mickey’s shirt and Lingering Will’s cape. They could totally have done some “oh weird I guess getting brought back from the dead changed our clothes isn’t that convenient” thing

Why did they “break” Lea’s Keyblade only to have it be just fine when they needed to lock Kingdom Hearts? Why was that there?

I heard someone once say that KH3 was an “obligation.” And I can see where they’re coming from. While I loved the game overall and can feel the work and love put into it, between the sheer amount of sequel hooks and the rushed resolution, it does feel like Nomura just wanted to move on to the stuff he’d thought of in KHUx but had to wrap up the ongoing arc first. I’ve been spoiled on SOME of the Secret Reports, not all of them, but the Subject X stuff and Luxu’s true role with the box could’ve easily been put elsewhere. Maybe in a game in the next arc. That would’ve freed up some time in this game for a few more things, like giving Dark Aqua more screentime (she’s defeated in the same scene she’s introduced? Really?) and just in general spread the original plot stuff out more. As it is now, I feel the sequel hooks just distract from the current plot arc

I appreciate that they tried to give reasons for the Organization members to be in different worlds, but I don’t think it was executed that well. Yeah, we get explanations, like in some they’re performing more experiments on the heart and in others they’re searching for the New Lights, but they never do anything with what they accomplish in them. I was so sure they were going to do something with Data-Sora or Data-Riku because of the “digital heart” stuff in San Fransokyo, and NOTHING came of it. Here’s an idea: Data-Sora in Xion’s place among the Norts and Data-Riku in the Riku Replica’s place. Have Data-Sora look like Xion or act like her before the reveal. I dunno, just do SOMETHING with them. Have the Norts reference the Lights they found in the final battle or something. Just don’t drop them once the world is done

That being said, the worlds themselves were amazing, I really liked the original plots in Toy Box, Monstropolis, and San Fransokyo. The character interactions in Corona and Arendelle were delightful. I also loved the design for the Ice Labyrinth in Arendelle and Galaxy Toys in Toy Box. Would’ve loved to have seen more of the town in Corona but loved what we did get to see of it. The Caribbean was... alright, but did contain my favorite party member: a shambling pile of crabs that were gifted sapience by an ocean goddess so that Sora could free her, only for her to get freed by someone else offscreen

Funny enough I actually didn’t care much for The Caribbean and San Fransokyo, but for opposite reasons. The Caribbean was FAR too open for its own good (I am NOT an open-world person and bad at navigating, so the ship, while interesting in concept, was a nightmare) and San Fransokyo was too scripted (I felt like I was locked in Hiro’s garage). I didn’t hate them, but I also 100% completed every other world and decided that with those two, it just wasn’t worth doing before beating the game. I didn’t hate either of them, and my feelings may change when I go back for treasures and lucky emblems

I absolutely killed Davy Jones with the Pirate Ship attraction. Pass up the opportunity to summon a neon pirate ship on top of a hyper-realistic pirate ship during a climactic battle? Who do you think I am?

I love how Ephemer’s name in the journal is just “???” because that’s an accurate representation of Sora’s reaction. “Who is this guy? Why is he here? Huh???” But I know. I know who the best dandelion boy is. So typical of him to swoop in at the last minute to save you and then disappear to who knows where

I ADORE that the final battle is Sora, Donald, and Goofy together and that the final attack is Trinity Limit. Sora coming back on his own from no health just for Trinity Limit was AWESOME and such a perfect end to the series, gameplay-wise

And finally, I am a little sad that the one theory I had throughout the game was wrong. I’d thought that, since Young Xehanort and Eraqus are always shown in in Scala ad Caelum, that it wasn’t a flashback but simply their spirits playing a metaphorical chess game in the afterlife. Their dialogue after the final battle seems to indicate that that isn’t the case

Also, and this is just for me, but my final death count was 5

Once to the Tornado Titan due to having a poor grasp of Airstepping and NO grasp of Rage Form, killed myself thanks to spamming Riskcharge

TWICE to the electric arena trap in Verum Rex because I am SO BAD at shooters and ejected myself directly into the Death Pit twice

Once during the ship battle portion of the Zombie Kraken fight

Once during the Union X Keyblade summoning because I was too busy reading the list of names to notice the text on the screen that said “HEY IDIOT DODGE ATTACKS DON’T JUST SIT THERE WHAT ARE YOU DOING”

But for now, I think I’m out of stuff to say about KH3. I’m sure I’ll find more once I’ve processed everything, but for now...

now we’ve just got to wait for Sora to come home

#liz's shenanigans #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #kh3 #kingdom hearts 3 spoilers #kh3 spoilers #kingdom hearts iii spoilers #khiii spoilers #i should mention that this isn't ONLY final battle stuff #i threw some opinions from other parts of the game in there #it's just primarily about the finale

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applegelstore · 5 years

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My sis and I are through with the actual main plot of KH3, so I can officially go back to scheduled ToZ fangirling now. …Well, I promised Cray a bit of fix-it-fanart, so after that, I guess.

Hit the cut for a resume. It got super long and has endgame story spoilers, so you might not want to stumble upon it by accident.

Another extra big shoutout (again!) to @crazayrock for bearing my liveblogging on Discord, screaming without context and occasional spoilers. And linking me fluffy Soriku doujinshi. Here, have my favourite, spoiler-heavy excerpt of our conversation:

Okay anyway, let’s get started: GAMEPLAY

Kingdom Hearts 3 is BEAUTIFUL. The gameplay is so smooth and intuitive that you can immediately get to playing like you’d never done anything else; in fact so smooth that I doubt I will ever be able to pick up the first game ever again. It’s always been fun, but the looooooong years’ gap actually did wonders to the gameplay.

The keyblade form changes are fun and keep things fresh, you can do flashy triangle button shit every other minute, and shotlock is still insanely useful without being a game-breaker.

It seems easier than the first two main games, though?

The gummi ship is still a pain in the ass to steer, but I do enjoy the open world-like travel options (even if there’s not… much to discover except heartless lasering the shit out of you). I’m also eternally grateful that they kept the gummi ship thing from KH2 where you can just use a new gummi ship once you got the blueprint and don’t buy actual fucking legos as in the first game.

Thank you, Square. Not thanking you for the dumb cherry flan game, though.

The Caribbean being basically an open world stage was delightful! Apparently what our resident island kid needs is a big ship and tropical islands to plunder.

VISUALS AND STUFF

PRETTY LIGHTS EVERYWHERE

The long gap between the games also did wonders to the visuals.

There’s finally, FINALLY a few towns with actual NPCs you can talk to. Why it took the team so many years and the Gods know how many games is beyond me. The magic effects are beautiful, the animations smooth (honestly you can hardly tell apart cutscenes and fully rendered CGI scenes in this day and age of the PS4. I’m probably the only person still amazed by this because the only games I played on PS4 before were a few hours of Child of Light and of course Tales of Zestiria and Berseria. No, I still haven’t played FFXV but that’s a topic for another day). How far videogames have come.Even space finally looks like space, lol. Not really high-end what the PS4 can do I assume but god, it’s such an amazing and much needed upgrade from the terrible textureless colourful tubes you flew through before.

No excuse for the terrible battleship thingy before the Keyblade Graveyard, though. I got lost and beaten up so many times and crashed against more walls than I can count.

Nothing beats the World that Never Was, but the Keyblade Graveyard also has creepy cool potential, as does the beautiful but ghosted City in the Sky.

Still not getting what’s with JRPGs and very Definitely Final Dungeons (TM) that are basically space. …………or heaven. Or nothing. I’m getting the bad kind of original NGE TV series ending vibes. But. Okay.

The soundtrack is splendid

.……I miss Traverse Town and Radiant Garden, however.

Which brings us to:

THE WORLDS

I guess I can live with no more Final Fantasy characters being there (although I always loved that), and the meta jokes in Toy Story world really got me. Seeing Disney characters calling the KH villains call out on their shit was delightful. …the KH characters lampshading their own games’ sloppy dialogue writing was delightful.Still, those Disney worlds are always so much more in my head than what I actually get to play. This has been bugging me ever since the first game and it still does. I do not expect or want to replay the entire movies, but would it hurt to give the cutscenes some goddamn background music? Whenever there’s cutscenes, either the world’s usual BGM keeps playing or the music stops altogether. Together with the shortened dialogues and generally drastically shortened plots with odd cuts, that leads to scenes that are awkward at best. They never even remotely have the impact the movies had. You just sit there and think “oh wow that is so silly and awkward”.

Dancing scene in Corona? My favorite scene in Tangled. Zero impact on me without the lovely BGM (at least they made it a minigame so the moment isn’t over after 3 secs). Just for example. You can ask me like, world by world, but I can think of only exception off the top of my head and it’s not helping:

Let it Go of course. Listen guys, I actually love the song. But it’s so overused (and Frozen is an overrated movie at best that doesn’t deserve its hype in the slightest) that I can’t even really enjoy it being there. Like.

 IF THAT’S OKAY WITH YOU,WHY DIDN’T YOU INCLUDE LITERALLY ANY OTHER ORIGINAL SONG FROM THE ORIGINAL MOVIES. Instead of BGM just not being there entirely, or in odd, cringey re-renderings that nobody wants to listen to (*cough* Atlantica *cough*).

Why torture me and not give me the one good scene from At World’s End (the up is down scene) when you had the chance?Kingdom Hearts is also prone to super lazy level design and wasting chances at wonderful scenery for no apparent reason other than I suppose empty cliffsides are quick to render. All games before did that, and KH3 is, sadly, no exception. We get to see a bit of Corona and Athens and they finally have NPCs, too, but you cannot even get near Arendelle. You cannot enter Elsa’s palace. You spend the entire time there climbing around in the snowy mountains of Norway, and unfortunately it looks less interesting than one would expect from the lovely concept art that the film unfortunately never used.You cannot enter Rapunzel’s tower although Sora can apparently parkour his way up even without her help.

………In short, the places you can go are, again, very limited, and a lot of interesting places and scenes you never get to see.

And to follow the plot you still only need the stuff that does NOT happen in those Disney worlds because they’re all beach filler episodes. It’s always been like that, but I keep wondering whether I’m the only one bothered by that. I’m also still salty they didn’t introduce a single new world from a 2D animated movie.

Also, as I said, I miss Traverse Town, it felt so warm and welcoming and beautiful.

And I get behind The World that Never Was missing although I loved it there, but why not give us back Radiant Garden? Destiny Islands since they’ve been restored? Disney Castle?

As much as I love the series, it never fucking lives up to its own potential. Idk whether it’s made more difficult by copyright issues or whatever, I just know that it bugs me.The first two games also had like twice as many worlds.

PLOT

I mean it’s never been deep; however, it’s complicated. No analysis or whatever from me because plot analysis and meta writing bore me like seven hells, just my emotional reaction: AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH  Okay, bad news. I got into it expecting nothing, and still got disappointed. I don’t actually enjoy the prospect of writing essays about it, but here’s my tea with it; in not particular order:

1) the pacing is terrible. Nothing happens for like 30 hours and then suddenly like 20 characters’ arcs are (naturally poorly) resolved within the last few hours of cutscenes. Build up anyone? At least they actually did pick up Maleficent and the box thing again. …In the epilogue.

2) Speaking of build ups, Sora’s breakdown could have been developed nicely and steadily over the game to feel natural, and instead it’s hinted at in the beginning by everyone picking on him, but then it’s never further developed and comes out of fucking nowhere. Like. For real? It felt terribly OOC.

3) Why on earth have they shown 90% of the plot in the trailers already, and why are those scenes so massively disappointing in context

4) Kairi. Oh god, Kairi. What are we gonna do with you. I want to love her, I really do, but she’s a prime example of shittily written female leads. Mostly because she’s not leading. It’s not her fault. She’s just a fictional character. But honest to God, Nomura, why. Her screen time is almost nonexistent, and she’s entirely use- and helpless whenever she’s on screen (which isn’t often). Her ONLY point in the plot is being rescued because she is fucking useless. Why. Just why. Why waste her character like that. All we know is that she’s shoehorned into being the token love interest, but she has zero plot relevance and there is even less build up of her relationship with Sora. It’s all tell and NEVER show; and not even much telling, either. She has literally zero direct interaction with in the entire game before they share their paopu. The question remains: why are straights like this

5) On a related note: look, I don’t even ask for (or expect, or even hope) my ship to be canon. Squeenix doesn’t exactly have a rich history in queer representation. I’m totally fine with Sora and Riku being best friends. BUT. Building up Sora as the most important person in Riku’s life (and arguably, vice versa) over the course of several games, just to then hardly have them interact in the finale and then SUDDENLY bring back Kairi into the equation, who hasn’t interacted with him since the ending of KH2 (except for one unsent(?) letter) is just piss poor writing, period.I actually love Cray’s suggestion she gave me over Discord: let Sora, Kairi and Riku all share a paopu together (and let them group hug, too, you cowards). It would have been the perfect message to send (Sora as truly all-loving hero, and loving all your friends equally; romantic love isn’t more important than platonic love and doesn’t need to be singled out). Really sad that this isn’t what happens. Apparently that wouldn’t have been no homo enough.

LET THE DESTINY TRIO GROUP HUG YOU COWARDS 

Do Riku and Kairi even interact once in the whole game?

 HOW IS THIS A TRIO, IT’S JUST A SHITTILY WRITTEN LOVE TRIANGLE

6) Time travelling is a bitch, Christ. It doesn’t solve plotholes or can be played for drama, it just adds MORE plotholes. It just got WORSE. The cloning blues and people not aging doesn’t help, either.

7) Just so you know, I care absolutely zero for wild fan theories. You’re not Nomura. I want a statement from the man who wrote this shit himself why on bloody earth Sora dies when he apparently successfully found and brought back Kairi (and since nobody aged a day, apparently it didn’t even take that long lol). DUDES, THIS IS KINDA PART OF THE PLOT, AND YOU DON’T BOTHER TO EXPLAIN IT INGAME???? And how was Ienzo/Zexion able to revive Naminé while Kairi was still missing/dead/whatever…?

Okay so in short the writing is worse than ever and that’s saying something.

However, let’s try to find something good in this trainwreck; it wasn’t all bad. There’s some really nice scenes which sadly are better enjoyed without any context at all.

So, guess my favourite scenes.You had time enough, here’s the solution:

1) Purifying uhm er rescuing Aqua. Poor girl. She deserves the rest. Poor, poor Aqua. The only properly wirrten female in the whole damn franchise. Also the only person other than Riku who fucking gets shit done.

2) The Gayblade (TM)

3) Happy Axel in the reunion with his kids. Oh god, the poor chap deserves it so much. Thank you, Nomura. I don’t care that it makes pretty much no sense. Make him happy. Give him his friends back. Just give Axel all his friends and let him happily set things on fire. Hi I love Axel

4) The party at the beach cutscene before the credits roll. Axel and Xion get clothes. Half the organization is on our side now. I almost teared up at the Wayfinder trio saying goodbye to Eraqus’ forceghost. Hey come on he’s the voice of Luke Skywalker

5) Sully yeeting Vanitas

6) Woody calling out Xehanort that nobody loves him

7) Jack Sparrow bad breathing Luxord

I wish we had gotten:

1) justice for Kairi

2) a happy Zexion, the poor emo kid. Well maybe now he will be, with all the orga members who changed sides now, lol.

3) I will never trust mobile games ever again so I don’t want to play KHUX but I would have loved to learn about the Keyblade Wars :;)))) 

WHAT WAS THE KEYBLADE WAR ABOUT CAN WE SPEND MORE TIME IN THAT COOL CITY IN THE SKY WHAT’S THE DEAL WITH MIKLEO I MEAN THAT EPHEMER KIDDO

 WHAT’S WITH THE MASKED DUDES AND DUDETTES FROM THE MOVIE 

WTF WHAT HAPPENED TO THEM AFTER THE MOVIE???? WHERE THOSE KEYBLADE USER NAMES ACTUAL MOBILE GAME PLAYER NAMES??? Next game? PLEASE?

I really, REALLY hope the epilogue means we will get Xiggy/Luxu as our new big bad and we learn more about the five dudes and dudettes from the movie. Please. PLEASE. I’m so up for it. Them finally pickung up the bit with Maleficent and the mysterious box again? Hell yeah.

The secret movie was really unexciting in comparison, although I laughed very hard at the “Verum Rex” scene in Toy Story world. Maybe that’s why it was much cheaper to unlock than in KH1 and KH2.

4) give Ven a drink

DLC ideas I would actually pay for because I’m a sad human being: 1) more Disney worlds 2) Japanese audio 3) at least one of the following as permanently playable characters: Riku, Kairi, Axel, Ven, Aqua. At least as a guest member as in KH2. THIS SUCH A BIG STEP BACKWARDS I’M FUMING

FINAL THOUGHTS

Kingdom Hearts 3 is a hella lot of fun, beautiful, and also moving when it sets its mind to it. Unfortunately it doesn’t always do so. I don’t feel like it wasn’t worth the wait; it was. However, I’m very salty how rotten the writing is. I do not mind logical fallacies, I do not mind the cheesiness and cringeyness; however, I do mind how so many interesting characters do not get the screentime they deserve, and Kairi is a very bad joke.

I’ll probably find more to nitpick about (Gods. Just. Don’t come up with dub excuses why Sora is lv 1 in each game. JUST LEAVE IT BE. You don’t explain why Donald and Goofy are lv 1 again, either. JUST. LEAVE. IT. BE. The sacrifice was dumb and not even moving, I’m just still furious that Kairi’s ONLY point in the plot is being so useless that it’s literally getting herself KILLED and she needs constant rescuing to the point that Sora has to sacrifice himself for her, effectively. Kairi deserves better, Sora deserves better, I deserve better than to think about this absurdity.…I’m just… gonna cherry-pick the good bits from the lore and try to pretend the finale didn’t exist, I guess. GODS.

#long post #random rambling tag

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effervescible · 6 years

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KH2 meta thoughts

Finished Kingdom Hearts 2 in my great series replay today, and I have a bunch of thoughts about narrative and story structure and character bits that I’m gonna slap down. Originally posted on plurk so forgive the rambliness.

Playing KH2 again with the full series knowledge but years removed thanks to fannish hibernation was a really interesting experience. It helped me sort of step back and look at the story as a whole, the game itself and its place in the series, and the structure of it.

The Riku-Sora stuff remains really, really good. I'm not going to say it's perfect but I can't think of anything specific I would change without changing the general story. Since my last jaunt through Disney hell, I've become extremely partial to games that meld gameplay with story and themes, and KH2 does that really well with Riku once he joins the party. I super love that his most frequent reaction command is a shield. Kid evolved from a darkness brat into some kind of paladin protector. And that little fist bump on their limit break, ahh. And all the stuff on the beach is just *chef kisses fingers* No complaints there Oh and storywise, even though we only see Riku's true face at the end and he's absent for so much of the game, his presence is felt throughout so his arc from KH1 to Reverse/Rebirth to KH2 feels really good and continuous

But god, they did the girls dirty. Everyone's written a thousand angry words about Kairi and how she just gets shoved offstage and they are 1000% true (why give her a Keyblade in one scene and do nothing with iiiiiiiit) but right now I'm more asspained about Namine. Her story in Chain of Memories is so good and her promise with Sora to become real friends is this important thing before a break in the story, after which we naturally assume it'll happen in some way and it just doesn't. (Can someone tell me if the scene between Riku and Sora before fighting Xemnas where Sora says he wanted to thank her but couldn't was added for Final Mix or not? It felt new to me but I legit can't recall whether it was there in vanilla KH2 or not.)

On an in-character level, I get why Namine would be focused on Roxas. Holy shit, someone just like her, someone she's very connected to through their births! But it's not good storytelling to just kind of drop things with Sora. Also she doesn't even get to go back to Kairi onscreen! I do like the eerieness of her started to distort through proximity to Kairi. And I like that she gets to face the Organization again but this time she isn't afraid. But goddamn does her story just kind of trickle to a stop. She's low on my list of priorities for Sora needs to save, since I'm most concerned about characters who got actively fucked over and she chose her fate, even if that choice was informed by a lot of emotional abuse. But I really hope she gets something more in KH3 if they're getting the band back together

On that note, (inhales, steeples fingers) Roxas.

Roxas has some of the most amazing moments in the game, even at the end, but his story is also where the game feels really disjointed. Not quite the same as Namine, where her story just sort of fell apart; the pacing is really weird with Roxas-related stuff. Back in the day, I came away from KH2 having enjoyed the game but feeling ultimately disappointed because here was this kid who clearly had an important story and an important friendship and we never learned much about either. I still feel that way to a degree, but having Days in the back of my mind made a big difference. Not so much for the specific events in it, because during most of my playthrough I wasn't really thinking about Xion or the specific happenings of Roxas' year in the Organization at all. But having them in the back of my mind gives him an extra narrative weight that feels lacking looking just at what we know of him in KH2.

I'm not sure if I'm making any sense, but looking only at KH2, it feels like they were writing Roxas with the idea that he'd experienced certain emotions more than that he'd experienced certain events. Which is fine, but it does sort of feel like he's just Sora's foil--a beautifully written foil, but not a full character of his own. But add Days into the mix and even if it doesn't change any of the following story, it feels like there's more heft to it. This kid still suffered a tragic fate, but that tragic fate happened to a person and not just a narrative device.

I will say that this playthrough made me 100% understand why people used to characterize Roxas as being very serious and moody most of the time. Even aside from the serious and moody flashbacks with Riku and Axel, late in the game, when you're doing the Organization boss rush and the references to his time in the Organization are flying fast and furious...I don't know, I just got a very strong sense of melancholy, that his life there wasn't a good one. (Related, Saix asking if Roxas hadn't taken care of Riku really sounds like they meant for Roxas to have done it on Organization orders, but then that doesn't fit with the game's stated timeline of Riku fighting Roxas after he betrayed the Organization. Still, an interesting idea.) But Roxas' story kinda peaks with his fight against Sora and then falls down. He's the elephant in the room the entire game, always in the background of Sora's story and the things Sora hears and feels. And then they never even talk. His last spoken scene should have been with Sora, not Namine.

Again, it makes characterization sense that there would be a bond there, because as far as they know they're the only people like each other that exist. But they were pushing the Sora-Kairi parallel way too hard to the detriment of the storytelling. I mean, it's great that in a way you'll get to see Namine every day, but don't you have anything to say to your other self over here...? The scene in Dream Drop doesn't feel like a fix-it for me, it feels like a narrative conclusion that got lost and resurfaced a few games later. Luckily, it was pretty much note-perfect in my book. But to me it feels like the conclusion of Roxas' KH2 arc, not an addendum. He might have another one depending what happens in KH3, but emotionally, that scene belongs under the same subhead as all of KH2.

Final Mix made a big improvement to things Axel-related. In vanilla KH2, yeah, Roxas does finally get pissed off enough to force a heart fight with Sora after Axel's death, but otherwise you'd almost wonder if their friendship was one-sided, there's so little aftermath. But their final clock tower scene is fantastic and even without knowledge of Days, you get a good sense of what their friendship was like.

It is kind of funny that, once you know that Axel was originally going to die sooner and got more screentime (and more importance, generally) due to popularity, you can really tell. Because there's so much stuff in this game you wouldn't necessarily expect him to have a lot of screen time, but he's absent for a really long time and then shows up without warning and dies immediately. But in all the post-KH2 games, even the prequels, there's definitely a sense of This Is An Important Character.

Overall, coming away from this, I feel like the biggest difference between KH2 and all the games that come after it is that they are building up to something and KH2 is kind of playing in its own sandbox, not really looking ahead to what's coming next. At least until they added the BBS hints. It might be absolute bullshit and they had no idea what they were going to do with the characters until KH3 development began properly, but BBS-Coded-DDD-0.2 all give the impression that there's a road map they're following. Less so for Days, but that they pointedly tie in the fallout of Days to stuff that's going to happen. But KH2 feels like more of an end point.

THESE ARE MY EXTREMELY EARNEST FEELINGS ABOUT THIS DISNEY HELL-GAME, COME TALK TO ME ABOUT THEM or just slink away rolling your eyes, that's cool too.

#kingdom hearts #roxas #riku #axel #namine #kh2 #meta #kh meta #good god jaina do you have this much to say about a disney anime game you are a grown adult #clearly yes i do #i'm in hell and you're all coming with me

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