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kaizokuou-ni-naru · 3 years

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The Voyage So Far: East Blue (Part Two)

east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)

this is one of my favorite little character beats in east blue. sanji and zeff have an entire conversation and then zeff mentions, “by the way, that kid can’t swim” and sanji is like “WHY THE FUCK DIDN’T YOU TELL ME SOONER!!” and is in the water in like three seconds flat.

and, of course, zeff’s fond expression once sanji isn’t around to see.

we don’t see sanji smile like this too often- and when we do, it’s most often related to food in some way (like when he feeds gin, or in his wci flashback when sora says his food is good). it does things to my heart.

kind of reiterating myself from the last post, here, but usopp really does do a lot of cool things well before his water 7/enies lobby character development, just not as many when compared to his crewmates. which is his problem, really- he can’t stop comparing himself to them long enough to recognize he’s pretty cool by any reasonable metric, he just happens to be on a ship with nine of the most badass people on the planet and so his metric is completely skewed.

anyways he shoots a fucking bomb into arlong’s face and that’s completely sick as hell.

zoro left alone in arlong park is so funny. he got nearly cut in half like two days ago, and instead of just leaving like a normal person when nami gives him the chance, he chooses to wipe the floor with all the fishmen around and then hang out on arlong’s throne. also, that shirt isn’t his. he stole it. presumably off one of the guys whose asses he just kicked.

there’s really something to be said about nami’s expressions in arlong park. she’s clearly acting to an extent in most of her scenes prior to her breakdown, but at the same time, god, it really doesn’t look like it. nami in this arc is a really great example of reread value- on a reread, all her coldness and cruelty becomes barely-restrained pain and desperation.

i really, really love one piece’s sibling relationships. and there might be a little bit of bias here, because i’m a big sister myself, but i love how varied they are, how real they feel, both adopted and biological. nami and nojiko don’t agree on everything, and they come into conflict more than once, but at the same time it’s plain they love each other so so much.

bellemere is up there as one of my favorite flashback characters, together with corazon and roger. i love her a lot.

i’m not even doing a thorough reread for this post, just skimming through volumes and picking out moments, and genzo telling nami that she’s fought well and there’s nothing more she can do still made me cry.

nami has been fighting on her own for eight years, with the lives of her entire village and her only remaining family resting on her shoulders, with them unable to do anything but watch as she runs herself into the ground for them. this is where they decide they’d rather all die than have to see her start all over from scratch for them.

arlong park is an amazingly written arc, and it pummels my heart in a new and different way every time.

i really like that zoro, sanji and usopp all follow luffy’s lead in how he chooses to handle the arlong park situation. luffy waits for nami to ask for help, and as soon as she finally does, it cuts around to show that it’s not just luffy there- all four of them were just waiting for her word. it’s the first time the crew is entirely united for a common goal, and it feels really good.

i really am never gonna shut up about usopp’s character development, huh.

i really like the way the scene of him getting up the nerve to face down chuu is constructed- him rehearsing excuses and explanations cut together with memories of his crewmates (and on the next page, later the cocoyashi villagers as well), moments of theirs that he obviously admires. the one that hits me the hardest is him thinking of nami, in the moment she stabbed herself to save his life. that’s how he gets up his courage- from his admiration and respect for his crewmates’ bravery.

i think about this moment a lot. it’s one of my favorite luffy moments, and also one of the ones i think is most representative of him as a character. he’s such a delightful, laid-back person most of the time, but he loves the people he’s decided are his so much, and god help you if you hurt them.

i think about this a lot, too.

luffy is dumb as rocks in a lot of ways, but he’s pretty damn intuitive when it comes to people. he handles nami’s situation in exactly the right way, by waiting for her to ask for help instead of just barging unasked into the war she’s been fighting alone for years, and he handles this exactly right, too- by destroying what’s effectively her prison cell in a permanent, visible way, where she can see and know that she’ll never have to sit at that desk ever, ever again.

i just- i love luffy, so much.

i talked about oda’s use of negative space to emphasize heavy, impactful moments in the last post, and this is maybe the best example of it yet in the story. look at this panel: the future pirate king, the stand where the last one died, and absolutely nothing else but empty space and luffy’s words: this is where the great pirate era began.

the theming of beginnings and endings in loguetown is so, so good, and it could almost be summed up with this panel alone. it’s at once the ending of the story’s east blue prologue and a new beginning- the beginning of the crew’s infamous reputations, of the quest for the one piece proper, of the entire wider story that opens up with the entry into the grand line. the end of roger’s era, and the start of luffy’s.

i love the atmosphere of loguetown so dearly. the thunder strike at the last moment, maybe a rescue and maybe sheer luck; the raging storm, the vow over the barrel, the declaration of dreams. i’ve said this before- there’s something so romantic about it, in the old-fashioned arthurian sense one piece uses the word.

and we’re off for the grand line!

#the voyage so far #one piece #opmeta #long post #arc: baratie #arc: arlong park #arc: loguetown #not japanese

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fectless · 3 years

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(This is technically in response to the post right below this one, as world building totally counts for it, right?)

Anywho, more fandom thoughts, but for BLEACH this time. I recently started rewatching the anime again for the nth time as part of my language practice (and having the Japanese subtitles on while watching it in Japanese is an experience) and reached that episode where Aizen and co. get rescued by Menos Grande after declaring their intentions to Soul Society. And then a few things hit me.

The first: Rukia says, the first time Ichigo sees her sending someone on via Soul Burial, that one neither feels hunger nor gets sick in Soul Society. We know that this is false for a few reasons.

Those who can become shinigami definitely need to eat and all souls need water which implies that they can suffer from thirst (and perhaps heat exhaustion).

Captain Ukitake is suffering from an unknown disease that makes him literally cough out his lungs. I’ve read something about it being a defect in the make up of his soul that is only not killing him because of the pact with the Soul King’s arm, but I cannot recall if this was canon or fanon (as the Blood War arc was just like that). If so, does this mean that sickness does occur in Soul Society, but so rarely as to not be mentioned? Or does it occur more in the outer districts? Why does it occur?

Hisana died from a sickness as well. Yes, it’s stated to be exhaustion, but I feel like that doesn’t make sense? Like, the flashback in the anime has her abandoning Rukia after she collapses while carrying her around. And she collapses later when she regrets this and goes to look for her sister. And then she dies.

Seriously, why does it occur? It’s weird. And it cannot be an Aizen thing as I’m pretty sure Aizen is younger than Ukitake. Is it because of what happened to the soul king? Does it have something to do with when people get sent on (like if they were close to being a hollow)? Is it because they died while sick? Is it because of their resolve?

...Do we never see sick souls in Soul Society other than them because they usually just. Die pretty soon after arriving?

And if spiritual power leaking is what causes spiritual pressure, and the “vents” can be closed... do people in the districts sometimes close them by mistake and then blow up? Is spontaneous combustion a thing in the afterlife?

The second: I’m pretty sure “Ichirin no Hana” is a love song that Byakuya is singing to Hisana’s memory.

Someone has probably stated this before, but the lyrics of the song literally say how some one, a “single flower,” is precious and can’t be replaced. How that flower bloomed despite being stuck somewhere dark and how they looked lovely but like they were about to wither away. And that the singer would accept all of their pain if only that person would smile and stay with them...

The title of the song also matches the title of the chapter in which Byakuya reveals to Rukia the secrets he’d been keeping from her about Hisana. He uses the same words, “ichirin no hana” to describe the season in which she died

Literally his whole dilema during this arc, the entire way he interacted with Rukia up to this point, was that he was conflicted between his sense of duty (to his parents, his wife and keeping his word) and his feelings for his beloved Hisana. Rukia’s physical resemblance to her sister is almost uncanny and the lie she is told when she asks why she was adopted was, “You look like Byakuya’s late wife.” How much must he have hated that? A person whom he had sworn to protect that, had she arrived two years earlier might have saved his wife’s (after)life? A person that looks just like his beloved, who reminds him of her every time he sees her (for those first 50 years), but is not and never will be Hisana. And then. To know that she’s going to be executed for crimes, that she felt she could not rely upon him enough to even let him know she’d encountered trouble in the human world when he’s been doing his best to ensure she’s safe (because that is one of the few reasonable explanations for why Rukia hadn’t been promoted yet, and then was promoted during the 3 year gap)? To see her stripped of her rank, her strength even (with that collar and the stone of the prison tower). To see a small form who so resembles his beloved all listless and soon to die, wearing a white yukata like his wife had in her last days...

Watching it again made me feel things, okay? Like yeah, it seems like it’s a stupid dilema from some perspectives. Especially considering Central 46 had a run in with Aizen by then, but. Byakuya was raised in the Seireitei. He was raised knowing that his life was the Seireitei’s tool. That his duty, his reason for existing was for the sake of his family’s honor, so he must be composed, must act as the family and Soul Society bid him. That’s some mighty powerful brainwashing/indoctrination right there. And he broke it once already to marry some nobody from the slums. He did something not only against the norms, but something selfish. Maybe if she’d had high spiritual power this would have been accepted, but she was sickly and likely did not. He went against the clan elders who had probably instilled obedience in him since birth and was afraid of doing it again.

(And if you count the filler arcs, you can bet that they held that one Kuchiki who went traitor against him too. Like: “he married that Hisana girl against our orders? What next? Will he betray Soul Society too?”)

And maybe I’m making a bigger deal out of his upbringing than I need to. Maybe it wasn’t really like this. But I feel like it really was. (Moreso with the filler arcs and what I’ve heard of the light novels.)

Also, this song and the way that the opening animation fit together really solidifies the whole “Ichigo and Rukia were always meant to have a tragic romance” vibe that I kept getting the first time I encountered this series.

The third: Rukia was likely younger than six months (physically) when she was abandoned, but I’m pretty sure that she was older than three months when she and Hisana died.

Her blanket was pink in the flashback.

Sure, the above might not seem to have much significance but it’s been proven in canon that clothes are part of oneself. I reblogged a post a while ago that went into detail, but to sum it up, clothes are part of your self image and your self image determines a bit about what you look like when you die.

Babies are usually no longer swaddled by the time they’re six months old, and some places recommend that you stop by the end of their second month.

Babies have pretty bad vision when they’re born. They take four to six months to reliably track objects in motion and use binocular vision decently. They take about four months to see across a room, and about two months to see farther than maybe 30 cm away. And around the three month mark, they start having decent color vision. Around then is when babies supposedly start showing color preference.

Babies tend to have poor long term memory. (To be fair, they’ve got a lot going on compared to being in the womb and sensory overload sucks.) Their memory by the age of six months is only a few weeks. Two months old had a memory span of a few days.

If she’s been consistently wrapped in a pink blanket, then by the time she’s old enough to see color, she would be old enough to remember what color her blanket usually is— or if it was a different color that particular day.

The fourth: when Gin raises his spiritual pressure on Aizen’s orders, Chad remains standing. This raised a bunch of questions as Gin is stronger than Yammy (to the best of my memory).

Chad remained standing. Yes, his whole fight with Captain Kyouraku was about his resolve and how he would stand by his friends and fight for their safety/ideals but. Like. Earlier that year, his spiritual strength was on par with Yuzu. He’d been friends with Ichigo for years which was why he was even that strong. He’d been in a Hollow attack maybe three times before Rukia was arrested and could only barely see them the time Ishida pulled a stupid and used Hollow Bait. Sure, he has experience fighting and he’d trained under Yoruichi, but it feels sus considering how the others fared.

Orihime fell to her knees pretty quickly after Gin turned up the pressure. She’d also fought against high-ranking shinigami at that point, and trained under Yoruichi, and fought off Hollow (alone even! And she was the reason why Sora moved on, despite Ichigo’s Blade purifying him) before. And yet... It could just be a lack of resolve, as that had come up in earlier chapters but it doesn’t feel right.

Ishida is excused from this due to circumstances.

Tatsuki has been friends with him for ages. Sure, it seems like they weren’t as close after his Mom’s passing, but by then they’d already known each other for quite some time. I’m pretty sure that they were hanging out semi-regularly through junior high/middle school, at which point he got close with Chad and she got close with Orihime. She also has experience fighting (admittedly in martial arts rather than the street fights Ichigo and Chad get dragged into). She experienced at least one hollow attack during Ishida’s Stupid Day. But she collapses as soon as Yammy shows up? That feels off.

In contrast, Ganju was struggling about the same amount. He was born to a noble family— who are known to typically have decently high spiritual power, like his older brother Kaien and his cousin/uncle Issin. He was raised in the Rukongai, meaning he likely came across Hollow attacks. (And those definitely occur.)

Makes me wonder things about Karin’s strength. Like, she managed to escape from the hollow who attacked their house to run for Ichigo’s help (manga) or lived long enough while alone with it that Ichigo and Rukia could come save her (anime), both of which are quite impressive for an eleven year old. She also kept up with Hitsugaya when they played soccer and he’s a captain. Based on Ichigo’s experience, it’s likely that she too will become stronger as she grows up. And does she have an inner hollow too, or is that Ichigo only? If White was simply a parasite and decided to stick to Ichigo I could accept it. But as a hollow Ichigo is a Vast Lorde, and hollows of that level can split into parts (like Starrk and Lilynette).

Does Yuzu not really have any spiritual strength because she inherited more of the Quincy genes from her mom and the hollow genes she inherited don’t balance out that same way it does in her siblings...? Food for thought.

TLDR: how and why is sickness as thing in Soul Society? Byakuya listens to rock music and I’m p. sure the third opening song is him angsting over his wife’s death; it also gave me strong feelings about how he was prolly brainwashed growing up so his angst over Rukia’s fate is not actually stupid. I continue to have IchiRuki feels. Rukia and Hisana died when Rukia was about 3 months old. And I am more confused now about how spiritual power works than I was before I started rewatching the anime for language practice. Also, more questions have arisen about hollows.

#bleach meta #bleach anime #remind me to look into Japanese textiles and dyes during Meiji era #maybe I should have split this into multiple posts...#long post #wish I knew how read mores can be put in on mobile #this is more than 3 sentences #bleach

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marshthat · 3 years

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I'm here for the 16-pages essay about Mace and Eeth :)

LMAO well you asked for that yourself hshsjhsjj *cracks knuckles*

It’s almoust 16 pages long in my google docs, I’m not kidding, so I’m gonna make a little intro and then hide the rest under the “keep reading” thing (also I’m going to shorten it a bit, but nothing significant will be left out, I promise)

Uhm so yes three things for the intro:

1. These takes are based mainly on my ship interpretation of the canon things, so yeah if you don’t want to see the ship material in them they can be easily disagreed with in terms of how correct I see the intentions of the characters behind their words and actions, but BUT you’re here for macekoth aren’t you? So for a macekoth shipper this is a list of totally canon endless happiness and we’ll go with that :)

2. LEGENDS CANON IS CANON (in my heart there is no decanonising of the EU, nooo, I pretend disney didn’t hurt me qwq)

3. I'm not a native speaker and my english is far from perfect so if you think I’m talking strange - yes I am, I’m sorry, but yeah, that’s how we’re rolling here.

And now - moving on to the essay. I will take random pieces of media one by one and explain why exactly I see Mace/Eeth there.

As I call this, “Fantastic MaceKoth hints and interactions, and where to find them”

Star Wars 13: Emissaries to Malastare, Part 1

So, what do we see here? Oooooh, the Concordance of Fealty. In general, the exchange of lightsabers is a very interesting phenomenon in the Jedi Order, and not only because no one remembered it existing before Macekoth decided to engage in one (because there are not known participants in the timeline BEFORE Mace and Eeth, while there are some AFTER) , but also because of its significance. The Concordance of Fealty is said to establish a “master-less learning relationship” between the two Jedi, i.e., a Force-bond that, if not superior, is equally as close and strong as the bond of a master and a padawan, which is said to be the closest bond possible in the Order.

As you see, this ritual required deep mutual trust from both its participants, and here's why: the exchange. of. the lightsabers. I will repeat it once more and even emphasise: THE EXCHANGE. OF. THE LIGHTSABERS.

As Anakin Skywalker said in “The Clone Wars” and Obi-Wan Kenobi said in the “Attack of the Clones”, a lightsaber is a Jedi's life, a thing that one should not part with under any circumstances. And what is the Concordance requiring? Exactly this. Giving away your lightsaber. A voluntary action of entrusting your saber, a product of your own hands, a part of yourself, to another sentient. This act of trust can have a very deep meaning, deep subtext to it, if you want it to.

I’m not saying the Concordance has a romantic subtext to it in general, no - but once again, I’m insisting that if someone wanted it to have a romantic subtext, he had the full freedom to pull a hecking legal jedi WEDDING under the cover story of this ritual. Why a wedding? Let’s dig a bit more in the comic page above. How it is depicted, such an exchange of the lightsabers looks suspiciously similar to the exchange of the wedding rings between the spouses. So making a guess that probably by engaging in the Concordance Mace and Eeth tried to pull off a legal wedding within the walls of the Temple in this disguised way seems like a fairly logical assumption. In addition, given that this ritual is stated to be very ancient and therefore long-forgotten, it is not surprising that a very bold plan like that in fact worked right in front of Yoda’s salad.

In addition, you should pay attention to the form in which these vows of the Concordance sound. Especially this "until one or both of us becomes One with the Force." line. Very very much like the real wedding vows that spouses say before the altar, huh?))) (For example, I’ll leave this link to the site with some sample wedding vows)

Besides, the fact that Mace had made actual EFFORT to find this Concordance ritual is so priceless by itself. However, here I tend to think that it was master T'ra Saa who suggested to Mace to search for the ritual and its details, and here are the reasons why. Master Saa: 1) was in the age of about a thousand of years by the time of TPM because of being a neti (i.e. realistically could be the only one in the Order left who could have remembered this Concordance of Fealty) 2) had her own experience of a romantic relationship, with master Tholme (i.e. she understood the issue of new feelings born between the two Jedi more than the most) 3) T'ra looked after Mace a lot when he was young, so she was literally his mother figure, and to whom can a poor confused with his romantic feelings jedi master go, if not to his tree mom? :З

Shatterpoint (novel) — M. Stover

Here I want to go back to what I said about “the lightsaber is part of the Jedi.” In Stover's novel, there is an episode where Mace looks at Depa Billaba's saber and speculates about whether she could have given it to Nick Rostu voluntarily.

Mace is mentioning the Concordance of Fealty in this novel too!

The curious thing is that Mace asks “Would she give away part of herself?" So, firstly, by this he is confirming that the Concordance implies exactly this act of mutual trust (what I talked about in the previous part), and secondly, he is hinting that since he did perform this ritual with Eeth Koth, it means that he, Mace Windu, willingly entrusted a part of himself to the hands of the zabrak. (and this is HIS interpretation of what the Concordance means to HIM) Isn't that an act of true love?)

Jedi Council: Acts of War, Part 3

Here is a peculiar moment in the comic - when the two groups of the Jedi join together in the final battle to confront the enemy yinchorri army, both Mace and Eeth separate each other's names from the rest of the group when talking about several fellow Jedi at once. And if Eeth can have a reason for this, because Mace was the leader of this whole mission in the first place, Mace himself still doesn’t have any rational reasons to underline exactly Eeth’s name (and in the background of the second frame you can see that the first one to run in the battlefield is also not Eeth, which excludes the possibility of identifying Koth as just running the first).

What I want to say by this is that they just subconsciously separate each other's names, because their first thoughts, of course, focus on their dear beloved, and only then they add “and others”. Also I want to say that consider that MASTER MACE WINDU, the man of the “less talking, more doing” standarts, in the middle of the battle actually FOUND some time to stop and ask how his dear Eeth is doing.

Republic 65: Show of Force, Part 1

In this comic there is not an interaction, but a hint, but even if it's not the most obvious and outstanding, it is still worth mentioning.

Mace returns T'ra her lightsaber, which she lost during the previous battle, and a curious dialogue happens between them.

Master Saa says that the saber is just a tool that one shouldn’t get attached to. And that Mace SHOULD know that. Personally, I see this here as a direct reference to the Concordance of Fealty (which by the time of this comic has been already completed ten years earlier), and as a confirmation that T'ra Saa knows about the nature of the relationship between master Windu and master Koth.

What I think Mace’s tree mom is saying between the lines here: “you shouldn't get attached to a lightsaber. You once owned Eeth Koth’s saber, Mace, so you understand that by "lightsaber" I mean Eeth Koth himself. And you remember that attachments are still forbidden in the Jedi Order, so be careful there with your little horned husband, son."

Given that the events of this comic take place during the Clone Wars, this means that there has already happened the battle on the Petranaki Arena on Geonosis, where Eeth’s LAAT/i exploded in front of Mace’s eyes. ( This thing blowing up in aotc is the LAAT/i on which were Eeth Koth, Sora Bulq and Tarados Gon )

And perhaps he did spend too much time near the zabrak’s bacta tank afterwards and it gave birth to some rumors or concerns - and that is what T'ra Saa hints at. (also, the timeline of this comic is listed as 21 bby, which does not exclude the possibility of also the battle of Korriban already happened, where Eeth nearly died again, and even the torture of Eeth in Grievous’s hands too, which only gives Mace more reasons to go over his usual reserved boundaries in his wish to comfort and protect his beloved)

Star Wars: Episode II Attack of the Clones

A very interesting thing is in one of the deleted scenes of " Attack of the Clones”. And yes, another hint, but wait, some more interaction are coming later. And for now... I'm of course talking about this scene of the conversation between Mace Windu and Obi-Wan Kenobi before the latter's departure to Kamino. In this scene, Kenobi expresses his concern that Anakin has a strong attachment to the senator from Naboo, and this attachment may cause some troubles for him when serving his duty as a Jedi and as her guardian. And let’s try to think about the reaction of Windu himself to this statement and how we can interpretate it: 1) He is not surprised by the news on Anakin's attachment, and accepts it very calmly. 2) In this scene, it is actually Windu who calms down panicking Obi-Wan with the words "you must believe that he will make the right choice”, and not vice versa.

What can this mean?

This can mean that Mace is not only not at all shocked by Skywalker's forbidden attachment, but on the contrary, supports Anakin and gives him a chance to make the right choice. I mean, Mace doesn't judge Anakin, Mace sympathizes with the young man in love and he trusts him. It’s a fair assumption that Windu himself most likely has an experience of such a situation, to which he compares the Skywalker’s issue and makes his conclusion, isn’t it?

To sum up? In this scene, Windu may be probably recalling his own special bond with _someone_, and, drawing from it the conclusion that a Jedi CAN perfectly fulfil his duties even if he has romantic feelings, advises Obi-Wan to trust his padawan with this.

Grievous Intrigue — Star Wars: the Clone Wars 2x09

A small, but very a cute detail: in the episode when a hologram is shown to the Jedi Council, on which general Grievous tortures Eeth Koth and promises the zabrak jedi master "endless suffering” Mace Windu clenches his fists in the background.

And how much was said about the Jedi acceptance, the fortitude, the “letting go of emotions in the Force”… But what acceptance could be here when your small tender husband is being cruelly tortured with the electrostaff???

Before the holotransmition / / after the holotransmition

Star Wars: Zam Wesell

Here is a moment I spotted in this comics: when masters Rancisis and Koth both speak up during a Council meeting, Eeth is the first one Mace answers to. I know that this can seem a little bit weak as an argument but add to this THAT stare Koth gives Windu when applying for being the Alderaan guard.

Yes, exactly. THAT kind of stare right here ( ͡ ° ͜ʖ ͡ ° )

I mean, seriously, man, stop flirting with your Master of the Order husband right in the middle of the meeting! We know that on Alderaan they make one of the best sorts of wine in the whole galaxy, and you want to offer a date, but calm down a bit please, okay? You don’t want to get caught, right?)))

Star Wars: Episode I The Phantom Menace

No, well, but there is no excuse for the fact that in the background during the scene of the Council meeting before sending Master Jinn and Padawan Kenobi to Naboo as an escort for queen Amidala, Eeth is sitting in exactly the same way in which you could see Windu sitting himself on some of the TPM photos. That's all, that’s like the final proof that Eeth is a stupid husband and in love with his partner. Because one of the forms of love language? Yes, the one with interest copying, when a person is copying the gestures, the stature and the movements of whom he’s interested in, u-hum.

Eeth really have no, NO excuse for that, I swear

Bonus: The seats on the High Council

As one very wise person on twitter had once said,

This person was referring to Plo Koon and Kit Fisto tho, but I tell you what, this also applies very much to Mace Windu and Eeth Koth. So here is Mace and Eeth on the Council staring at each other after a holotransmition!

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fizzingwizard · 3 years

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So I’m sure you’re ALL on tenterhooks to find out what I thought of episode 36... the answer is.... LOVED IT!!!! No I really did. If you like Taishiro friendship, this is an essential episode to watch. Doesn’t blow me out of the water, but still just good.

Although Taichi has a big something to do as usual, it’s still very much a Koushirou episode. FREAKING YAY. I have a dozen thoughts about it, and what bugs me the most, of course, is how we needed this episode AGES ago ugh. But we’ve now had two or three episodes in a row that have actually felt like Digimon Adventure, so perhaps all that finger-crossing is working?

They could unravel all that good work in a minute by never addressing it again... or not letting Koushirou show his personality unless it’s his “turn” for an episode from here on... but you know, I will cross that bridge when we come to it.

Pic of the day:

“I don’t like people. But they are occasionally useful.” - 2020 Izumi Koushirou’s life lesson, lmao

*The red strip at the top is about the big earthquake that hit Eastern Japan yesterday. It’s annoying to have it there for the entire episode - usually they only stick around for a couple minutes - but this WAS a large earthquake. It caused many people to lose power. So making sure everyone knows what’s going takes precedence over Sunday morning cartoons. (I’m in Osaka and didn’t even feel it, but my friends in Tokyo prefecture very much did.)

Lots and LOTS of ranting from a rabid Taishiro fan under the cut!

(also I didn’t check for typos so. yeah)

The episode starts right off by assuring us this is a Koushirou episode. We get the trademark Izumi Koushirou floating in the void of space sequence, which is excellent and very encouraging framing.

Koushirou Kenobi: “Use the force, Taichi.”

Taichi: “Use it yourself.”

(the episode in a nutshell)

The initial thing that bugged me - okay, so the kids got separated for the umpteenth time many episodes ago, and since then we’ve stuck to Taichi like barnacles. The only glimpses we’d get of the other kids showed: Yamato running towards something, Koushirou flying towards something while researching the satellite malfunction, Jou in the hot springs, and Mimi at the crystal caves. For Jou and Mimi, I don’t care, because they never tried to move, but Yamato and Koushirou were constantly moving. Yet, in the end, it’s Taichi’s group that catches up with Koushirou, rather than the other way around. It DOES make sense - it seems like Koushirou told them to “meet at the giant gold pillar” because that’s where they needed to be to save the world, so it became the rendezvous point. But it just bugs me because, once again, all the activity is on Taichi’s side. But that’s a minor quibble. The end result is still THIS:

More of the team is together!!! Taichi and Koushirou are together!!! Yaaayy!!!

... the betting pool for how long it will be till the next separation is now open >.>

Poor Komodomon’s long mop dog fur is so dirty. “Fizz his fur always looks like that.” He’s tracking mud everywhere. “Fizz look at his ears his fur is supposed to look that way.” Next episode - everyone gives Komondomon a bath.

So the start of this episode is just a bunch of talking about how dire things are with the satellite situation. I’m not gonna bother translating. Watch the sub when it’s out if you really want to know :P The important thing is, the gold pillar is directly causing the malfunction, no one on Earth can stop the satellite from plummeting to Tokyo, the city is being evacuated, and there are only 20 minutes till impact.

Koushirou has an elaborate plan which Sora adorably sums up as “So, we’re gonna shoot it out of the sky *makes punching motion*”

The crux of Koushirou’s plan hinges on a repeat of how Omegamon saved Tokyo from the missile way back in like, episode 2 or 3. Taichi says, “Yeah, but I barely remember how we did that.” Which is hilarious because I don’t remember either because it was 30 EPISODES AGO. Once again this episode feels like it was meant to happen WAY EARLIER THAN IT DID. It’s just weird to be referencing something that happened 30 episodes ago after everything else that’s happened, AND on top of that, there are many references in this episode and none from later than like, episode 10 or 12. Making this all seem very oddly timed.

I’m not quite sure if, within the story itself, it matters that Taichi “doesn’t remember well.” He also doesn’t remember the Devimon battle where he and Agumon were infected with dark energy. That one makes sense for him not to remember. If that hadn’t happened, I would just take his “I don’t remember how we stopped the missile” to just mean it was so long ago. But together, it’s making me wonder if something else is going on.

Or maybe Taichi’s just been hit on the head one too many times (okay, that seems the most likely of all, haha)

People of Tokyo: Is it Godzilla again? I heard he’s itching to fight King Kong. You know, given how often our city is attacked by kaiju, some might wonder why we haven’t moved away by now. But home is home, ya know?

The group sets up to fly to the peak of the gold pillar. Obviously, without Yamato, there’s no Omegamon. No one points this out, but Koushirou seems very stressed with his plan, and it seems that he contacted Taichi in the first place because he thought “Taichi’s the one who can pull this off.”

After hearing the plan, Taichi shoots him through the heart with another “Koushirou, you’re so awesome!” and YAY I MISSED THIS SO MUCH!!!!!! *sobs*

Then he does his best to reassure Koushirou by remaining positive and determined that they can and will do this no matter how much Koushirou waves. The majority of the episode is them flying up the pillar while being assaulted by enemies trying to stop them, so it’s not like they get to talk about their feelings (lol). But at least we get a bunch of close ups of Koushirou’s and Taichi’s expressions, and that’s how we see this dynamic in play. Yes, Koushirou is the brainy one who made the plan, but he doesn’t have the confidence to take the lead, so he handed the reins to Taichi. As for Taichi - yes he has the confidence, yes he can do it... but he also has absolute faith in Koushirou. So that’s why this episode makes my little Koushirou fanatic heart skip a beat.

First of the enemies is this guy, aptly named BladeKuwagamon.

They’re actually pretty scary! They do real damage. (Blood in Digimon word is glowy unicorn-like stuff haha). Birdramon gets stabbed, but before Sora can get too upset, she just yanks the blade out of her chest...

... and then crushes it into dust with her beak.

Sora: Holy crap, my partner is metal AF.

Forgot to mention earlier but 5 whole minutes of the 20 minute countdown are used up just by digivolving apparently xD Taichi keeps asking Koushirou “how much time is left” and Koushirou’s panic grows more visible with each passing second...

MetaLiffeKuwagemon looks cooler than he is. Supposedly he’s there to bring out the big guns, but to be honest...

... the BladeKuwagamon don’t seem to need the help :P The enemy’s strategy is obvious: isolate each member of the team to prevent anyone from getting to the top. This is why Koushirou’s so stressed: he’s got a plan that is totally reliant on there being a leader strong enough to pull it off AND there being enough backup to protect that leader from the large number of enemies. And Koushirou doesn’t like these odds.

Garudamon gets stabbed AGAIN

Sora: Go on, we’ll be fine.

Taichi: Are you sure??

Garudamon: *DESTROYS EVERYTHING WITH FIRE*

I MEAN HONESTLY! Garudamon is not only my favorite of Piyomon’s evolutions, it’s pretty much my favorite Adventure evolution. Always has been since I was 11 years old. And she (and Sora) NEVER get that credit. Like. Growing up, with US dub Adventure, I interpreted Sora as more of a straight up tomboy than she is in the original. That’s okay, that’s whatever, but what was most important to me was that I saw her as the third “strong” member along with Taichi and Yamato. Those two were clearly in a class above her, but I saw her as being in the same “Taiorato” league. Garudamon seemed to prove that: she was so cool, so powerful, and... yeah, I just always thought she had so much potential to be awesome and never got why it wasn’t used. That’s also why I was disappointed in Tri - like, I liked Soushitsu, but I just wanted more from Sora’s arc. Same thing in Kizuna: I understand Sora’s arc, I don’t hate it or anything - I think it makes sense for her. But since I wanted something different for her all those years ago, it just left me feeling a bit flat.

but enough about other Digimon series :P Garudamon gets to be super cool here and I only hope we get to see more of it in this reboot. I’ll forgive it some of its other mistakes if we do :D

With Takeru/Hikari and Sora isolated by the BladeKuwagamon, it’s up to Taichi and Koushirou alone to race against the clock! Their teeth are clenched, sweat runs in rivulets down their skin, their hearts are pounding in desperation...

Koushirou: Taichi-san! If we don’t get to the top soon it’ll be too late!

Taichi: Just don’t call me late for dinner!

Koushirou: ASDFGHJKL;’ DAD JOKES NOW?? REALLY????????

MetaLiffeKuwagamon makes life that much harder by knocking them against the pillar. However, this is a pillar of data, which enabled the BladeKuwagamon to evolve into MetaLiffeKuwagamon in the first place. Bugs aren’t that bright.

Taichi and MetalGreymon are nearly submerged inside the pillar as a result, and then we get this sequence of red and black. The pillar had been emitting dark lightning, so I started to think... omg... is MetalGreymon gonna get a Dark Evolution???????

.... Nah. That would have made sense, but.... nah :P

Overall I’m glad though, because that would really have turned this into a Taichi episode instead of a Koushirou one.

I’m not personally certain what the point of bringing BlitzGreymon out was. I had figured he would be like, a super fast evolution that would enable them to make it to the top. That would also have turned this into a Taichi episode. But...

... Taichi tells Koushirou that he will have to go divert the satellite because Taichi has to deal with MetaLiffeKuwagamon.

I was both really pleased and really surprised. Because, again, now what’s the point of BlitzGreymon...? Why did we need a new Agumon evolution? There’s no particular reason why they couldn’t have just isolated Taichi with the enemy the same way the others were and had him tell Koushirou to keep going on his own then. They did do that, but first they gave him a new evolution. Why? Just because it’s cool?? I assume that must be the reason but we don’t even see BlitzGreymon fight xD It’s... it’s weird. But whatever.

Taichi: Go, Koushirou!!!!! You can do it!!!!!

Fiz: *dies a thousand brilliant deaths*

So, Koushirou tells Taichi that he can’t do it - he can support Taichi, but he can’t take the lead. Taichi’s just like that’s wack, dude, of course you can do it. What I LOVE about Taichi and Koushirou’s dynamic is just that: Taichi never sees Koushirou as a weakling. The fact that he’s small, or that he’s brains over brawn, or even that he’s kinda antisocial - those are all reasons an energetic, extroverted kid like Taichi might bully, or at least think poorly, of Koushirou.

But Taichi values Koushirou. He knows how hard he works and is impressed both by that hard work and his talent. What’s more, he doesn’t see Koushirou’s brains as his support system. The whole time Koushirou’s thinking he’s there to support Taichi with his plan, Taichi was thinking, “I’m here to support Koushirou’s plan.” That is SO, SO important. And that’s why I LOVE this episode. The one thing the reboot seemed to really understand, that hooked me from the start, was the way it just GOT Taichi and Koushirou. They each support and follow each other, while each feeling like the other is better than them. Ugh I could like, cry over Taishiro now... omg....

Taichi is successful in pushing Koushirou to go on, but of course Koushirou himself is still plagued with doubts. He reflects on how he’s always been fine being alone. He hasn’t particularly wanted friends and didn’t mind not having them, even though adults worried.

(Side note: this is a normal, if kinda rare, personality trait. I have it too. I always score Koushirou on “what Digimon character are you?” tests too lmao. Just like some people feel the need to be surrounded by others at all times, there are those whose social needs are very very low. I’m one of them. There’s nothing wrong with it except that even those people can get lonely and it’s easy to misunderstand them as shy or snobby. So what I love about Koushirou is, yes he learns to value his relationships more, but also learns to value himself. He is Koushirou: a brainy kid who’s happy on his own, but also happy with friends. While some people, like Mimi, struggle with that aspect of his personality, others, like Taichi, just accept it. To me that’s the best life lesson there is: there are always people who can and will be friends with you. Yes, I’ve lost friends because I just wasn’t social enough for them. But I have other friends who I’ve known for literal decades now. And I REALLY love those friends.)

Koushirou feels grateful that he has AlturKabuterimon, and also that he has Taichi. So... here he is, reflecting on the last time he had meaningful interaction with that great friend Taichi... back in episode three. -____________-

Seriously, this would mean a lot more if this dynamic had been built on continually until this episode...

Koushirou then briefly reflects on each of the other Chosen. Notably, every single solo image of them is from an episode that Koushirou either wasn’t in or wasn’t with them at the moment. Then we get this group image. It’s from EPISODE 12. (I’m actually not sure of the episode number but the point is, it’s from A LONG LONG TIME AGO. I think it’s the swamp episode??) That drives me NUTS. We shouldn’t have to reach soooo far back to find meaningful moments!!! Urk.

Koushirou makes it to the peak of the pillar and AlturKabuterimon attacks the satellite to drive it off course. We see the impression of what looks to be HerculesKabuterimon and I really thought we’d get an evolution - it seemed way more appropriate than freaking BlitzGreymon - but nope.

Oh well. Koushirou still saves the day. The people at home get to see the Crest of Knowledge take over their screens, hopefully giving rise to the idea that a nerd superhero is protecting them. Koushirou is the hero we deserve.

The satellite falls into the water. I was like, shouldn’t that cause a tsunami lol?

... be careful what you wish for >_>;

fortunately people were evacuated soooo things will be okay.

He did it!! He’s so happy! AlturKabuterimon’s triumphant holler is adorable.

Taichi and BlitzGreymon fought hard OFF SCREEN!! OFF SCREEN!! HIP HIP HOORAY! And then we get to see him leaning on Sora T_T could this episode give me any more perfect moments?? Looooove it

So yeah, if you can’t tell, I’m thrilled with this episode. There are just a couple things I would have liked to improve: better animation, at least one palpable heart to heart between Taichi and Koushirou, or just a bit more time spent explictly in Koushirou’s head - but honestly we got something that is pretty darn good, especially for this reboot. I hope we do get more like this, both for Koushirou and for the others. I hope the growth here isn’t forgotten moving forward. I really, REALLY want to see more of that “I lead, you support me - you lead, I support you” mutually beneficial relationship that is the foundation of Taishiro <3

So next week! Mimi’s back and the heads are gonna roll!

Lmao!

My theory that she’s finding crystals to make Crests seems unlikely to be the case now that we know the rocks constract the rock Digimon. But... hey, we’ll find out next week.

Also Taichi’s gonna make this face after talking with Mimi bahahahaha. I can’t wait.

#digimon adventure 2020 #digimon adventure:#digimon adventure reboot #digi spoilers #fizz watches digimon 2020 #digimon

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khtrinityftw · 3 years

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Honest KH2 Critique

I wanna talk about Kingdom Hearts II since we're quickly approaching it's 15th anniversary. Ever since it was released, it's become a game that people irritatingly refuse to be moderate over, or at least when it comes to the vocal fans online. People who love it don't love it so much as worship it, while people who hate it don't hate it so much as despise it with every fiber of their being. I may technically fall into the "love" category (I share the majority fan and critic view that KH2, especially it's Final Mix edition, is the best game in the series), but I'm also willing to look at both its good and its bad, and do so in moderation rather than hyperbolically.

And I know, without a doubt - Kingdom Hearts II...has the absolute worst-written story out of the KH Trinity!

OK, that was said hyperbolically, but I did so as a joke!

It's so weird that the original Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories have narratives that are deeply and thoughtfully structured with such care and consistency, and then the trilogy is rounded out by such a messily-written rollercoaster of quality!

.....Well, all right, maybe not that weird.

When interviewed shortly after KH2's first public reveal at the 2003 Tokyo Game Show, this is how Tetsuya Nomura described the process for writing the game's story: "I'm writing the plot, the main story of Sora and co. Other people are in charge of the plots for the events that will happen in each Disney world. Combining that with Nojima, we're completing one scenario."

The "other people" in question are the Event team: Masaru Oka, Ryo Tsurumaki, Michio Matsuura, Atsuko Ishikura, Yukari Ishida, and Kumiko Takahashi. Daisuke Watanabe and Harunori Sakemi also assisted Nojima with scenario writing whenever the need arose.

The problem that this process caused isn't apparent at first glance, but it's actually right there in that interview excerpt: "I'm writing the plot". In KH and CoM, Nomura only wrote the initial plot outlines, which were very simple and ripe for being fleshed out by the actual scenario writer. There's a big difference between that and writing a full-fledged plot the way he did here.

Nomura wrote the story for what transpires in the KH-original worlds: Twilight Town, Hollow Bastion, the World That Never Was and Destiny Islands. It goes like this:

As far as plots go, I actually really like this one. It's a strong plot.

It's also convoluted as Hell.

I made a post saying the three one-word convoluted elements of KH2's plot are "Nobodies", "Data", and "Ansem". All three of those are literally the cornerstones of this plot that Nomura cooked up: they play a huge role through the beginning, middle and end! Because Nomura had more power with making this game, none of the more...out-there stuff that these concepts created could be curbed or removed. Which means that the scenario writer had better be in tune with Nomura when it comes to presenting them in a coherent way.

For the most part, Kazushige Nojima was....not.

Here is a tell-tale sign that Nomura and Nojima were not in sync. When asked if he planned from the start to make Kingdom Hearts be the heart-shaped moon seen on the cover of the original game, Nomura replied "No, I didn't. I asked Nojima-san to write the scenario and in his scenario it was written that the Kingdom Hearts Xemnas created is 'like a moon that floats in the World that Never Was'. When I read that, I thought ‘’Oh, this can be connected!’’"

Nomura just admitted that Nojima essentially had to make up how to convey Xemnas harnessing and trying to complete Kingdom Hearts, because Nomura's plot did nothing to convey it. It was a "wait, how the fuck is he doing that!?" detail. And you really get the sense all throughout the scenario that Nojima is struggling with trying to convey Nomura's stuff, and he has said as much in interviews: Nomura's plot and concepts confused him.

It also doesn't help that Nojima was the least major scenario writer on the original KH, mainly limited to the co-creation of Ansem with Nomura and writing the entire End of the World section. This is probably why Xemnas and Ansem the Wise are clearly the KH-original characters with the most confidence and complexity behind their writing in KH2's scenario. Nojima writes Sora, Kairi, their Nobodies Roxas and Namine, and Riku far more simplistically and trope-y, and the other Organization members and trio of Hayner, Pence and Olette are side characters so naturally they don't get much depth.

Then there's Masaru Oka and his Event Team. First off, while Masaru Oka is definitely on Nomura's wavelength and understands his vision to a fault, as Event Director he is superbly mediocre at presenting that vision, or Nojima's for that matter. He just isn't cinematically inclined the way Jun Akiyama was in the original KH, and that leads to the event scenes usually being the barest minimum of adequate at best, and laughably awkward at worst.

Secondly, Oka and his team were responsible for creating the plots in the Disney worlds (hence Oka's credit alongside Nomura under "Base Story"). But not only were they frequently lazy and just directly rehashed the movie's story but with Sora, Donald, Goofy and the Heartless shoved in, but half of the time they didn't even bother connecting the world plots to Nomura's main plot in any meaningful way beyond thematically ala CoM, and neither Nomura nor Nojima seemed keen on correcting this even when they really should have.

Here is a chart displaying the game's flow, stage by stage as set by world battle level. Stages where the main plot is progressed in some way are bolded, and stages of the main plot as created by Nomura have red borders around them:

Aside from Space Paranoids which was part of Nomura's plot from the get-go, the only time where correlation with the main plot occurs without any side factor to note is Beast's Castle, where both visits feature the machinations of Organization member Xaldin and culminates in the boss battle against him that leads to his demise.

Olympus Coliseum correlates to the main plot in the first visit but not the second, although the second visit is now made plot-relevant due to tying up loose ends from the first. Port Royal correlates to the main plot in the second visit but not the first, although the first visit is now made plot-relevant due to setting the stage for the second (it also has Larxene's Absent Silhouette in FM). There is technically a main plot correlation in the second visits to the Land of Dragons and Agrabah (the latter of which has Vexen's Absent Silhouette in FM), but Nojima botched the writing of them to the point where there may as well not have been, especially in the case of Agrabah’s which is "oh btw, an Organization XIII member came by off-screen".

And then there's the case of Disney Castle / Timeless River, which only acquires relevance to the main plot because it was decided that Maleficent should be resurrected and be Pete's boss in the present time. And unlike her appearance in Halloween Town, her role in this stage correlates directly to her role in the main story, revealing her resurrection to the heroes and establishing that she seeks a new evil stronghold from which to advance her return to power. Pete's backstory and connection to King Mickey shown here also receives a direct reference toward the climax of the World That Never Was.

While it could be argued that there's additional value in the first visits to Port Royal, Agrabah, Halloween Town and Pride Land due to the presence of Pete (Maleficent when it comes to Halloween Town), I would have to disagree because nothing they actually do in these stages end up mattering to the main story whatsoever - especially in Pride Land, where Pete just shows up in lion form to say “Ooga Booga Booga!”. Their presence alone just ain't enough.

The consequence here is that for the continuous stretch of Port Royal in the first go-round, Olympus Coliseum in the second, and Agrabah, Halloween Town and Pride Land in both go-rounds, it feels like nothing is advancing. And as bad as that sounds on paper, it's even worse when applied to gameplay because it means this lasts for several hours straight! The only main plot event that happens in either cycles is Kairi going to Twilight Town, which happens in a sudden cutscene between Agrabah and Halloween Town and is thus totally out of the player's control!

To sum things up, Nomura wrote a main plot that was good but too overwrought with confusing and complicated details. Nojima is a highly talented writer, but he didn't fully get Nomura's vision. Oka gets Nomura's vision, but he isn't a highly talented Event Director (and as seen in later games, he has even less talent as a writer) and often portrayed scenes that Nomura or Nojima came up with flatly. And none of these men were in sync when it came to how the Disney world plots and the main plot would connect, often simply not caring or else just not trying hard enough.

That is why KH2 has the weakest writing in the KH Trinity: the primary creative voices that shaped the story were completely out of sync with one another on a regular basis. You could say that their hearts just didn't connect on this project. And as a result, we have blatant inconsistences, bad edit jobs, pacing problems, mood whiplashes, missed opportunities, and dumbass moments galore.

However, on the occasions where things between them did manage to sync up, we were given some of the highest points in not only the KH Trinity but the entire KH series, and the input that was given from Daisuke Watanabe, Harunori Sakemi, and others like production assistant (and major Disney fanatic) Eri Morimoto surely helped the messy story become not quite as big a mess as it could have been otherwise. And that story still stayed true to the series' roots as a whimsical Disney/FF crossover project driven by relatable characters and emotional resonance, as opposed to a vanity project for Nomura that is driven by perplexing lore, plot twists and mystery boxes.

And that's why I and so many others love KH2, warts and all, and would gladly take dozens more narrative messes just like it over the different, far less enjoyable kinds of narrative messes that we've been getting afterward.

#Kingdom Hearts II #Anti-Nomura #Anti-Series Beyond

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bearpillowmonster · 3 years

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KH: MOM Review (Gameplay)

Every Kingdom Hearts game feels different. It's always innovating and always adding new types of gameplay. This is no exception. Rhythm minigames are no stranger to the Kingdom Hearts series but a whole game based on it is new.

I don't play a lot of rhythm games but I have played the infamous Atlantica section in Kingdom Hearts 2 as well as the Symphony of Sorcery in Dream Drop Distance and the Ice Cream Beat of Birth By Sleep, Guitar Hero and I'll even throw in the Honeybee Inn rhythm game in FFVII Remake. Out of all of those, Atlantica has been my favorite, that's right, I actually didn't mind it.

Now this system is entirely different than any of those, at least to me. It's definitely the most complex though but just hold on because I know how the word 'complex' can be triggering for a game, I just mean in comparison to the others is all. It's not a DDR right, left, up or down. So without further ado...(Nonspoiler for this part, it’s just gameplay)

This game begins with a stage. You're thrown into it without any notice, there were things that I didn't grasp until near the end of the stage, luckily it doesn't count towards a score yet, and after it is the tutorial but that's just the opening so if you're clueless and want to be prepared, I would say to try out the demo, I didn't even realize how much it helped me until I played the actual game.

I wanted to say at just how friendly this game is to newcomers, it's literally all laid out for you. Nomura came out with HD remasters and collections of the previous games then a recap of the franchise on YouTube then put it IN Kingdom Hearts 3 and people still complained because they don't know the story and are too lazy to play the other games. Now Nomura's packed it all into one whole game to sum it up, explained from the perspective of Kairi herself so that you're still entertained while catching up. If there was ever an easy path to get into Kingdom Hearts, this is the answer. If I hear complaining about it from this point forward, I will be pissed. Now, as you can see, I didn't make it to story yet but that's not entirely what I'm talking about. All the buttons and functions are the same as a regular game, you basically have it all but the different keyblades (well you can collect them but not use them because they're cards). You can play as casually as you want, a song here and there. There are even options for a shuffle and sort function if you want to just jump to track selection but you'll need to unlock them individually in World Tour first. This may sound complicated but that's where the clean and accessible the menu comes in, I have to give props for that.

You're on a set track, it runs on its own, does its own thing except when you're gliding which is just moving left and right to collect notes. You use the normal KH abilities to your advantage because some enemies will be high in the air so you need to jump and slash at the same time but you can't just button mash any more, there's timing involved now. Once you get used to the gameplay, it's quite enjoyable, you may even get a song that you hit every note, my first one was 'Another Side', the first try too, I didn't hit all excellent though.

How do party members work? Well let's say you have Sora, Donald, and Goofy in a party. You have 3 buttons you can press to attack, Sora's the only one that can jump and the only one that can use the reaction commands so you need to pay attention to all three because there could be enemies on the floor and in the sky at the same time. The one thing I will say is a little bit of a complaint and that's that it doesn't tell you which buttons to press except on specific stages, it just has the symbols, I guess that's what makes it more combat oriented but it's definitely different and a little bit harder. But I guess it gets to be muscle memory, after a while. If you already know the themes, it gets easier for you to manage because you focus more on what you hear and less on what you see, that's how I started getting better with timing. I experimented with pretty much everything I could think of so I tried it with low volume and found that I missed a whole lot more because I couldn't hear it, which might be obvious because it's a rhythm game, but it just goes to show how important sound is. I even tried using headphones, I suppose that's up to you, it definitely made the music clearer but my performance was about the same.

What do songs net you other than progress? Well you get materials. Also similar to KHUX, you get crafting materials except these ones you can use for potions and stuff, I did a potionless run because I didn’t feel the need (but I also didn’t do it all proud either) but I used a few summons and item boosts just for fun. You can also craft cards, which are really just for looks to see in the Museum after you finish one of the memory dives (which I'll get into) but the way you get the cards, grinds my gears because it's gacha, you craft them and it's a surprise what you're going to get...so it's essentially a loot box that you don't pay money for?? What the-

(notice how it says KH2 or Days at the bottom, you don’t even know. Of course I have Writhing Shards rn but that’s because I beat the game and didn’t open a whole lot of keyblade cards but the memory and scene ones are the annoying ones for me)

You don't even have to "finish" the song, just get it most of the way before you die then you'll still get credit and still get a ranking, just no exp. Now, there are also stars, stars are from 'missions' for each stage, if you play KHUX, it’s kind of like how it says “get this amount of Lux” or “use this type of medal” or “don’t use continue” so most stars are just “get this many points” and you need to collect enough stars to get to the next area. With that, so long as you have enough stars, you don’t “have” to play every stage, just like regular Kingdom Hearts and skipping worlds, I did though, just for sport, except Let it Go, just for spite. I could see plenty of fans going after those A+++ Proud Performer 3-Star rankings, I can't wait to see the hype it generates, same with the co-op.

They went all out when they didn't have to. The Museum is where everything is collected, so all the cards you collect and craft. You can also just play the song on its own without gameplay through the Museum, so if you want headphones to just chill, it's really nice. You can also play the cutscenes and memory dives on their own without the gameplay. There are "feats" or missions such as finishing a certain number of songs, like Nook Miles or the ones they had in Re:Mind. You can collect profile pictures for your co-op or versus account, mine is Simba (even though I don’t really use it). But the co-op can get pretty intense as you can “sabotage” each other, which seems similar to a Smash or Mario Kart match, adding that much more to the gameplay.

A few more complaints, one is that certain enemies from a stage, (say, the Wyverns) won't have the same attacks as the other stages, sometimes they'll have it so that you jump to hit them and sometimes they'll just have them take a normal hit without the jump so you can't memorize what each enemy requires (there are too many to really do that anyway). The other thing is more just opinion based, particular enemies such as Large Bodies tend to carry a weight so you need to hit them more than once even if its just one enemy. How it does this is that you hit it and then the enemy gets knocked back as your next note so you hit them again. There were definitely times where I struggled because I knew I was hitting the buttons but nothing was happening, I would guess timing was the problem in some of those cases but the indicators can be difficult to keep track of because it has to be “just right”. I think even just a line on the floor to tell when you’re supposed to hit would be a major help but in a way, I feel like that’s on purpose. Also, in the Museum, you can view all the cards EXCEPT the Keyblades which is pretty shotty if you ask me, what's the point in grinding to get my favorite Rumbling Rose, if I can't even look at it properly?

(also new names for some keyblades (this is a zoom-in))

There will be a lot of things happening at once which can be daunting, I do appreciate that they included the easy, standard, and proud modes though. Keep in mind, each of those are used for individual songs, not playthroughs so if you want to change, go ahead, at least as far as World Tour goes. On top of that, there are different modes that also gauge at how good you are (to use on the track selection). There's the basic mode which I already explained, then there's the one button mode which should be self explanatory, and then there's the performer mode which is quite a lot to put on your plate all at once because on top of normal gameplay, you're adding new buttons and things in the middle of your attacks, I would probably only recommend that after you've got a decent amount of experience because I tried it day 1 and it seems like you would need a good understanding of the game and to be on the same wavelength before even attempting it. You can view a playthrough of each stage called a "demo" which is the little play symbol button next to the "play" button, it shows you how you should be playing to get an A+++ rank and giving you a heads up of what's to come, all excellent all the time. On top of that, when I was playing Xenoblade, one thing I proposed was flicking the analog stick in a certain direction for each move, that’s present here in the form of bosses and memory dives but if you want it to, you can go into the menu to enable it for regular gameplay. You'll find out if you want it on the very first stage, again, I would only recommend it after a lot of experience.

Your characters level up but it mainly just has to do with HP so you don’t die so easily but at the same time, you have potions so I don’t see much of a point for normal gameplay. All three of the party members only have one health bar, so leveling does come in handy for the bosses. However, I don't understand how each party member has a different level, maybe it's just based on the amount of notes you hit with that character but it's kind of weird because I don't think it matters. Even on the team selection part of the play screen, it has one compilitive level so why would they be different on the menu?

For bosses, you only encounter a few. If it were me, I would've made one per game but it is what it is. You don't worry about jumping anymore, it's just holding the attack button down instead and the amount of "dodge" notes that you hit will work in your defense whenever the boss attacks. Once the dodge section is over, it actually tells you how you did with the dodging section. The first time I ever did it, it said "Oh No." it has a sense of humor, it took me a while to nail those ones you hold down which is odd because I rock the gliding sections most of the time.

There's only one more type of gameplay type I can think of, memory dives. It's similar to a boss but you're flying and there's a scene playing in the background, also some of the directional notes will have doubles, so you need to point the analog stick in different directions which is as difficult as can be because you have to use BOTH analog sticks (took me forever just to figure that out). You 'mainly' gain the memory dives from crafting which is a bit odd but you unlock the recipes and items as you go through World Tour and then play them separately in Track Selection, until you get to KH3 at least.

Keep in mind that I played the demo on both PS4 and Switch and compared the two, my performance was about the same, though I will say this. With Switch, you can take it on the go and just do a few levels here and there as well as remove the joy-cons. The thing about that is that I feel the need to shake the joy-cons but there's no function that uses that in the game, I really wish there was though. And those directional ‘slide’ notes have to be way easier on PlayStation because the analog sticks are right next to each other.

#kh #mom #melody of memory #kingdom hearts #gameplay #review #game #kh: mom

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verumking · 4 years

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⚔️ *:･ﾟ✧┆HEADCANON : RE/MIND TRAILER ANALYSIS

I’ve been working on this since the final Re/Mind trailer was LEAKED, but now that it has been officially released I can finally POST IT! This headcanon post encompasses all three Re/Mind teaser trailers and some of the events of KH3. I know this is structured like a THEORY POST, but take it all with a pinch of salt: this is just a LORE DUMP for how I’ll be roleplaying Yozora until the DLC actually comes out. I’m not aiming to be ‘accurate’ or right, just stringing bits of CANON to line up with my portrayal ;v; So, without further ado, let’s jump right in...

( Warning, this is a stupidly long post ! )

ONE. ┆ THE TWO HALVES OF THE SKY - YOZORA VS SORA

Without a doubt, Nomura has been planning this ARC for years. It is my firm belief that he was planning SORA and NOCTIS to eventually meet, the latter being axed from the joining the KH PLOT after Nomura was removed from XV’s development. Here is what Nomura ORIGINALLY SAID in 2013 about Sora and Noctis’s dynamic:

Do you know the name Sora mean the “sky”, in Japanese and Noctis, his family name is Caelum which mean sky as well so basically, Noctis means “night sky”, so they are kind of complete opposites to each other. There is a reason why I named these characters as opposites.

I don’t believe that Sora and Yozora are the SAME PERSON, nor is Yozora a FUSION of Riku and Sora, but rather, they PARALLEL each other narratively, like what Nomura originally INTENDED for Noctis and Sora. Yozora and Sora are simply OPPOSITES of each other.

I believe as much as SORA embodies light and hope, YOZORA embodies darkness and despair. SORA, not being TECH SAVVY ( see any interaction he has with a COMPUTER, or the first time he uses a GUMMIPHONE ), and YOZORA, who uses hyper-futuristic weaponry with EASE, and comes from a world where ROBOTICS is commonplace.

Aside from the obvious VISUAL JUXTAPOSITION between the optimistic keyblade wielder and the austere newcomer, I also believe that they are going to OPPOSE each other in abilities and goals. Much as Sora used the power of waking to BRING BACK LIVES, Yozora has just as much power to TAKE THEM: see the characteristic skull motif upon Yozora’s sleeves, as well as the prominent THEME OF DEATH within Versus XIII lore.

Which ties in perfectly to my headcanon about the role of REINCARNATION within the KH and Verum Rex worlds respectively. YOZORA is a harbinger of DEATH, and SORA is the harbinger of REBIRTH. Rebirth, of course, being the meaning behind the TITLE of the DLC, as mentioned by Nomura himself:

“ ... The meaning of what I just mentioned and the double-meaning are the same. It means “remind”, “reconfirmation”, “ reclaim the heart* ”, and so forth. ”

(*Note: 心 means “heart” and also “mind”, and 再生 can mean “regeneration”, so 心の再生 can also mean “regeneration” or “rebirth” of the “mind”. Also, “Reclaim Your Heart” is a phrase used on the back of the box for Verum Rex in Toy Box)

The TWO SKIES, like day and night, perpetually maintain this SAMSARA of death and rebirth. Both UNAWARE of each other’s existence, and IMPACT upon the wider universe.

UNTIL NOW. Given the description of the DLC mentioning ‘a secret episode and boss battle’ in a separate line, this is most likely alluding to YOZORA. As such, Yozora will play an antagonistic role towards SORA, at least for the events of Re//Mind. Yozora confronts Sora, after he ABUSES the power of waking to bring back all of his FRIENDS from death. The friends YOZORA was intending to REAP. And thus, the boss battle begins.

Whether Yozora CONTINUES to antagonise Sora even after Re//Mind, it can’t be ascertained at this point. But Sora had been REPEATEDLY WARNED that he will have a price to pay for abusing the POWER OF WAKING ( see the section on YMX below for more detail ). I believe YOZORA has come to deliver this retribution.

TWO. ┆ A SEA OF STARS - THE FINAL WORLD

There has been a lot of speculation about the ‘FINAL WORLD’ we see at the end of the Re//Mind trailer, and whether it IS EVEN the Final World, or the SAME 'Final World’ we have been visiting thus far with SORA.

So far, YOZORA’S WORLD has only been depicted at night. This, PAIRED with Yozora’s name meaning ‘night sky’, could imply that YOZORA HIMSELF caused the Final World to shift from DAY to NIGHT. The two ‘Final Worlds’ are one and the same.

But WHAT IS the Final World exactly? Chirithy describes the FINAL WORLD as a place where “the edges of sleep and death touch”, and that Sora had VISITED the Final World “more than once before on his visits to the Station of Awakening”. Chirithy also mentions that SORA previously came to the Final World “out of his own choice” and can’t just “wander out like his other visits”, when he came to the Final World after PERISHING at the Keyblade Graveyard. The fact that Sora QUESTIONED “What is the Final World?”, despite visiting NUMEROUS TIMES before, implies only one thing: Sora visits the Final World in his DREAMS. And, like most humans upon awakening, he fails to REMEMBER what he dreamt.

The fact that YOZORA is also present in the Final World, in a fully CORPOREAL FORM, implies that he also visits the Final World in his DREAMS, rather than simply arriving there after PERISHING. Their SHARED LINE from the KH1 opening says it all:

“I’ve been having these weird thoughts lately. Like... is any of this for real? Or not?”

The Final World is a realm one visits on the BRINK OF DEATH, and with Yozora and Sora being agents of DEATH and REBIRTH, they visit this realm even in their SLEEP. Yozora’s visits during his sleep are a PREMONITION orchestrated by the Watchmen of Fate, alluding to his destiny to ascend as the VERUM REX: aka the god of death.

THREE. ┆ A STRONG SENSE OF PURPOSE - THE NAMELESS STAR

I joked a lot about the NAMELESS STAR being Yozora’s love interest, but it may be CLOSER TO CANON than I originally thought: especially given Yozora’s appearance in the FINAL WORLD, and how accurate her DIALOGUE is to Stella Nox Fleuret: the infamous LOVE INTEREST from Nomura’s cancelled project, Versus XIII.

Aside from the obvious indicators ( “They took away my name, everything about me” ), the male she “PINES” for also fits perfectly with MY DEPICTION of Yozora. She mentions that he has been “changed beyond recognition, his heart replaced with another’s”. Aside from the developmental parallels of NOCTIS becoming YOZORA, it’s also accurate to my Yozora’s HEART being replaced with an ASTRAL CORE, with the Gigas experimentation CHANGING HIM beyond recognition ( his hair and eye colour ).

The NAMELESS STAR also mentioned that “were he to regain his old self again, he would be distressed by my absence”. Whatever HAPPENED to Yozora that made him forget about his LOVE INTEREST, his presence in the Final World alongside SORA gives the impression that he has REMEMBERED his love interest, and has come to rescue her-- much has SORA had returned to the Final World to rescue KAIRI.

Delving a teeny bit more into my OWN META here. I find it interesting that the NAMELESS STAR gave Sora advice about how to OVERCOME the TASKS before him. What intrigued me the MOST, is how she mentions his ability to RETAIN his PHYSICAL FORM in the Final World, due to his “strong sense of purpose”. The word ‘PURPOSE’ is distinctly emphasised by her voice actress, so I want to BELIEVE that there is importance to it.

MY PORTRAYAL of Yozora and his world encircles the concept of the ‘KARMA’ that lies inside all humans, as per the back of the VERUM REX BOX COVER in Toy Box. To summarise that post, this KARMA is the sum of a person’s grasp of FATE + CONSEQUENCE, and their connection to the SPIRITUAL REALM. The stronger your hold on your DESTINY, aka your karma, the stronger your CONNECTION to the cosmos. It is Sora’s POWERFUL HOLD ON FATE that gave him his corporeal form in the Final World-- much like YOZORA at the end of the Re//Mind trailer.

It thus becomes obvious that the NAME the Nameless Star whispers to Sora is YOZORA. Which not only explains why he looked so SHOCKED after hearing it, but also why Sora RETURNS to the Final World alone in the Re//Mind trailer. He was explicitly LOOKING FOR YOZORA, and was calling out his name-- and expressed the same level of SHOCK upon discovering that Yozora is MORE THAN just a video game character.

FOUR. ┆ AN AGENT IN THE SHADOWS - YOUNG MASTER XEHANORT

Puzzling enough, the Re//Mind trailers also REVEAL that Young Master Xehanort has been WORKING ALONGSIDE the Master of Masters. How is this relevant to Yozora, you ask? Consider the following:

1. YMX was the MAIN VILLAIN in the Toy Box world. He was responsible for introducing SORA to Verum Rex, quite literally, by THROWING HIM into the Verum Rex video game ( which I canon to be the ‘data’ version of YOZORA’S WORLD... but that’s for another post lol ). 2. YMX is WORKING with MoM, who appears along with Yozora in the SECRET ENDING, in the Shibuya district of Yozora’s world. 3. In Dream Drop Distance, YMX made a PROMISE with two characters from The World Ends with You, a game directed by NOMURA encircling the concept of reapers, also based in SHIBUYA. The promise being to bring them back to their world, if they brought Sora and Riku to him. Perhaps YMX did FULFIL that promise, and RETURNED the TWEWY characters to Shibuya. Which implies that HE KNOWS how to reach Shibuya: where MoM was present.

Nomura mentioned in the KH3 ULTIMANIA, that the Shibuya featured in the SECRET ENDING is in a “different reality” compared to the TWEWY Shibuya. What if the SHIBUYA of Yozora’s world, coexisted with the Shibuya of TWEWY? Much like how the worlds were SPLIT IN TWO, not only in Dream Drop Distance, but in Toy Box as well?

4. More specific to my META for Yozora, YMX finds it INTRIGUING that “even empty puppets can be given strong hearts”, and that “a heart can be placed in a vessel of our choosing”. My Yozora was essentially moulded into a PUPPET of Gigas Corporation after having his heart replaced with an ASTRAL CORE, with the intention of making him rise as a ‘HIGHER BEING’: an elevated version of humanity. Also note how YMX says ‘OUR’... what if he was not alluding to True Organisation XIII... but HIMSELF AND MoM?

5. YMX also plays a ROLE in Sora abusing the power of waking. Before unleashing the FINAL BOSS of Toy Box on Sora, he whispers “Find the hearts joined to yours”. In the Re//Mind trailer, SORA re-emphasises this: “But, follow my heart? Hearts are all connected. Trace the connection!”. YMX also APPEARS again, after Sora dove into all of the Sleeping Worlds, claiming that he nearly “buried himself in the dark of sleep”, TWICE OVER: once in DDD, and once again in KH3-- instances where YMX was both present.

Note how also, Nomura chose SAN FRANSOKYO as the final Sleeping World that Sora reaches, before YMX appears. San Fransokyo being very AESTHETICALLY SIMILAR to Yozora’s world ( Both being TOKYO CODED CITIES, with a night time setting ).

Despite LEADING Sora down this doomed path, YMX WARNS him that there is a “high price to pay” for wielding such power FOOLISHLY, and that he had now “paid (this) price”. The price? HIS OWN LIFE. This is reiterated several times in the GAME and PROMOTIONAL MATERIAL:

a. On the BACK of the Verum Rex box cover in Toy Box, it mentions ‘A JOURNEY WITHOUT A PLACE TO RETURN’. b. In the Re//Mind trailer: once by XEHANORT himself: “Seeing that you have also taken the FORBIDDEN PATH, you too must be ready to make the ULTIMATE SACRIFICE”. c. And once again by CHIRITHY, claiming that Sora will “vanish from this world”, and that “without ( his ) powers, ( he ) can’t return to the world ( he ) came from”. Sora has not only LOST the power of waking, but had also SACRIFICED HIS LIFE.

Stranded in the FINAL WORLD, with no one left to turn to, Sora calls out a NAME. The name of a person he knows is COMING to the Final World... to save his lost star.

SHOUTOUT to Steph ( @kyecupio ) for fuelling the big galaxy brain with XEHANORT and YOZORA’S connection fgjhfg.

FIVE. ┆ THE WATCHMAN OF FATE - MASTER OF MASTERS

We’ve gotten an INSIGHT into YMX’s intentions, but what has the MoM got to do with all of this? Why does he APPEAR in the secret ending?

We already know that MoM is working alongside YMX from the brief Re//Mind trailer, where it is disclosed that the MoM GIFTED YMX the characteristic black coat that wards off darkness. YMX is also seemingly REPORTING to MoM about a ‘world tour’, which I assume MoM advised him to go on. What is this ‘world tour’? Difficult to tell at this point.

But what I do know is that MoM is OBSESSED on keeping universal order. He created the GAZING EYE to allow himself to see into the future and write the BOOK OF PROPHECIES, and refuses to give LUXU a copy of the book to ‘avoid temporal paradoxes’. Nomura has definitely created an ANTAGONISM between Luxu/Xigbar and Xehanort, especially NOW with it being revealed that YMX is working with MoM.

WHATEVER Nomura is planning with LUXU vs MoM/YMX, I can’t be certain. But what I do know, is MoM’s MOTIVES are extremely similar to MY META for the Watchmen of Fate, something I have come up with exclusively for MY PORTRAYAL of Yozora and his world.

The WATCHMEN OF FATE are responsible for maintaining the BALANCE AND ORDER of the universe, and are CHARACTERISED by their dark reaper’s hoods. Note how the MoM never takes his hood off, and this HOOD is strikingly uncanny to a GRIM REAPER. Furthermore, the Watchmen of Fate in my canon are not only NOTED for keeping the order of the universe, but some are also ‘TRICKSTERS’ by nature and occasionally like to manipulate fate. Note how MoM also has a PLAYFUL PERSONALITY despite his wider goal.

I believe the MoM has a greater power in the UNIVERSE, and has advised YMX to lead SORA to the Realm of the Dead where YOZORA resides. For what purpose? To UNITE the agents of DEATH and REBIRTH under the same sky. To fulfil the cycle of KARMA. To achieve the REINCARNATION of all worlds.

To reincarnate Kingdom Hearts.

TO CONCLUDE:

1. MoM and YMX are rogue Watchmen of Fate, trying to REBIRTH the universe together via KINGDOM HEARTS. 2. They want to UNITE SORA ( who embodies rebirth ), and YOZORA ( who embodies death ), to achieve the REINCARNATION of the universe ( death + rebirth ) 3. SORA is seeking Yozora because he TALKED to the Nameless Star, YOZORA is seeking Sora because he USED the power of waking to REVERSE DEATH, they both meet at the FINAL WORLD. Yozora initiates the BOSS BATTLE because “ you broke the rules, perish ” 4. YMX ( + MoM? ) possibly SPLIT SHIBUYA into two: one comprising of YOZORA’S REALITY, and one comprising of TWEWY’S REALITY ( not sure of the reasons yet but it’s suss ) 5. ( Specific to my VERUM REX META ) YMX and MoM are potentially connected to GIGAS CORP, given YMX’s intrigue about placing STRONG HEARTS in EMPTY VESSELS, much like Gigas Corp are, thus already serving as ANTAGONISTS to both Yozora and Sora.

#⚔️ *:･ﾟ✧┆a synthetic heart bled dry by the hands of fate. ❪ headcanons ❫#( this is a mess but i just want to post it jfhjfhg )#( i'll tidy it up later if this makes any sense-- )

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phylumhearts · 5 years

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a zero-sum game

[958 words, pre-KH3, Luxord’s Somebody and Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. My take on how Luxord returns to the Organisation.]

A man wakes with a start and winces. His skin feels like one giant bruise and every muscle aches. Glancing around, he finds himself in a dimly-lit alleyway, alone with a few crates and barrels. He stretches his protesting limbs, analysing his surroundings - Traverse Town, he decides. A refuge for the lost and worldless.

It feels appropriate. He can’t remember having a world that felt like home.

He inspects himself next - he’s wearing a loose coat with voluminous sleeves that seems familiar, perhaps. A heavy braid hangs over his shoulder, identical to the one he remembers cutting off many years ago. He puts his hands to his ears and finds less piercings than he expects. Strange. He can worry about that later, after he’s ascertained how he’s alive at all. He has some nice boots, at least.

He stands, legs shaking, and steadies himself against a crate. His head pounds. He weighs the urgency of finding food and shelter against the temptation to sit back down and rest, but his deliberations are interrupted by the uncomfortably familiar sensation of a dark portal opening farther down the alley. A twist of fear slides through him. The first strong emotion he’s felt in far too long is fear, he notes dimly. How unpleasant.

The portal blossoms to reveal an unfamiliar man - tall, dark, and handsome, in a formidable way. He wears one of those horrible black coats and a brooding expression. Don’t they all. His head snaps up and the pair of them lock eyes. He smiles with no warmth.

“I have come for you, Luxord,” he says, voice deep, rich, commanding, and... resigned, somehow.

“Unless I’m deeply mistaken, Luxord was vanquished. I’m...” He pauses, realising with a sharp hit of panic that he still doesn’t remember his previous name. “...someone else,” he finishes lamely.

The other man frowns. “Then is there a name you would prefer?”

He picks from the options at random. “Rould.” It could be right. “And yourself?”

“I am Ansem, Seeker of Darkness.” Ansem? Would that make him Xemnas’ somebody? No, the Seeker of Darkness was... it was a powerful heartless that appeared suddenly after Maleficent gathered the seven hearts of light, then was vanquished by Sora just as quickly. Xemnas’ heartless, then? Human-shaped and speaking lucidly? No stranger than his own continued existence, supposes Rould. “I am here to recruit you for the new Organisation XIII.” There was that hint of resignation again. This man - heartless? - doesn’t want to be here. Rould wets his lips.

“A new Organisation? Forgive me if I’m skeptical. I don’t believe the old one fared too well. What does this new Organisation want?”

“Kingdom Hearts.” Ansem’s eyes flash and Rould can see Xemnas in him for that moment.

Rould nods. “Still at it, then. Is there a reason I should be more confident they’ll be successful in their endeavour this time? I don’t plan to back the wrong horse twice running.” Ansem hesitates, and a plan clicks into place.

“It is none of your concern. You have been chosen to join the Organisation, and you will comply.” That’s a no, then.

“Then is there a reason I have been chosen? I was hardly an instrumental member previously. Why me?”

Ansem frowns. “Also none of your concern. You have been deemed useful to the Organisation. You will bow once more to the darkness and join us, or you will be destroyed.” The threat pulls a fresh wave of fear over Rould’s heart, but he maintains his poker face.

“Useful, is it? I’m sure you can imagine that some of the skills that make me useful could also make me rather difficult to find, if I chose to be.” It’s a bluff - he’s not sure how much of his previous power he has access to in this new-old form. Ansem’s frown deepens. Rould prays he’ll take the bait. “However, I am willing to pledge myself to the Organisation, freely - if you’re willing to play a game.”

“A game?”

“A game of chance - a fair one. One of your choosing, if you wish. If you win, you get my loyalty, no questions asked, for as long as you require it.”

“And if you win?”

“If I win,” Rould’s stomach flips, but he’s come too far to fold now, “I get yours.”

There is a pause. In the silence, Rould can feel the darkness rolling off Ansem, smell it, almost. Power enough to crush him where he stands, undoubtedly. Sweat prickles on the back of his neck. Suddenly, Ansem laughs. It’s not a kind laugh, barely a human laugh, making Rould’s heart hammer in his chest.

“A bold creature you are.” Ansem’s eyes are gleaming - he has an energy that was absent before, a new dark vitality. “Very well. I shall play your game.”

Rould barely manages to keep his surprise from showing. “Excellent! Shall we confirm this wager?” He extends a hand and Ansem shakes it once. His grip is uncomfortably firm.

Rould searches his coat for a dice pocket and finds one precisely where he would have put it if he’d had the choice. He suggests a simple set of rules, invites Ansem to confirm the dice aren’t rigged, finds a suitable barrel to play on. His heart makes the most of its newfound capacity for fear. He hopes desperately for the chance to use it for more pleasant emotions.

“The game is set.” He keeps his voice steady, somehow. Ansem wears a small, dangerous smile. “We roll on three. One... two...” please fates oh please “...three.”

The dice fall. They clatter across the table, moving slow-motion with no time magic needed. They slow, and spin, and stop, and...

He’s lost.

For a brief moment, Ansem’s face echoes Rould’s disappointment.

#kingdom hearts #kh #kh3 spoilers #luxord #ansem #fic #I wrote a thing again?? wtf #vegas son #changing fate au

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squiishiichaos · 5 years

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The Right Way to Share a Paopu

Got a bit carried away by @novallion‘s Scala Headcanons and may or may not have written a little something...

Hope you enjoy! <3

Scala looked different this time. More serene, perhaps?

Roxas wasn’t sure, but there was something about the school this time that hadn’t been there the hundred other times he’d returned from a mission.

The distant bells that always sounded so eerie in the past rang gentle in his ears on each warm breeze that swept through the loose strands of his hair, and the normally nauseating scent of the inlet down the bank from him soothed his tense nerves like the refreshing taste of sea salt ice cream sweet on his tongue. With the sun still high enough in the sky to not yet pepper ominous reds and purples across the bruised horizon, it was quite possibly the first time he’d returned to the Islands without the blink of mocking red eyes to guide him. It was certainly the first time he’d made it more than ten seconds without a single contender finding him tip-toeing through these normally thriving fields, ready for yet another losing battle.

Maybe that’s it… He thought with a calm exhale. Completely alone in this tiny stretch of the world, Oblivion and Oathkeeper were—for once—safe and sound in the sheath of his heart. Content to just stay there so long as no threats divided his attention between the many wards thrumming painfully in his ears and the command of battle boiled into his blood. Without the pull of their contesting powers draining at his energy, he felt…alive.

Real.

A laugh managed its way through his lips for the first time since he left. Soft as the keychains chiming in the distant towers and bright as the afternoon sun. Another followed shortly after, then another—until he found himself unable to stop the chortles from stealing his breath with every teary-eyed inhale. Felt the tug of a cheek-burning smile split his lips with a cheer he didn’t know he had left.

Finally, he thought with a fist bunched tight over his pounding heart, I’m home…

Home. He tasted that word in his head again. Swirled it around and felt the warmth it crackled together in his chest. Let that sensation of belonging somewhere settle right next to the fluttering trickle of anxious energy that yearned to see everyone and everything. To put away the jingling set of keys hooked to his waist in the tower beside all the other Masters’ and no longer feel the burden of Oblivion and Oathkeeper weighing heavy on his mind. To no longer need the damned coat siting heavy on his shoulders or the resistances it offered.

In fact—he quickly slid the black gloves off his hands and shoved them into his pockets before undoing the zipper down his front and letting the heavy material slide off his shoulders with a solid thud. One heavy exhale departed his lips as he felt the humid breeze off the sea brush through the thin cotton of his black tank top. Over all the scars and bruises left from a life spent constantly at war, inside and out.

With a shiver, he accepted the cold of a coming evening with a fond gaze out over the polished white steeples of the school hovering off in the distance. Already, he could hear the excited holler of students finishing classes for the day amidst the crow of teachers barking homework and assignments over the growing chatter. Could see the flicker of keyblades flashing into existence only to sizzle away within the void of corridors back and forth between the various islands. The splash of potions and ethers cracking open over the sparring grounds where all the Apprentices kept hope alive in blasts of magic bright enough to shine like little worlds themselves.

Is Scala always this beautiful? Roxas wondered, taking a step closer to the teeming courtyards of the school. Had there always been so many flowers blossomed beneath his feet—painted in this many colors?

He couldn’t remember.

How couldn’t he remember?

The words—I’m sorry—sat heavy on the tip of his tongue with a bitterness that left all the warmth in his chest depleting against the chilling bite of the cooled winds. But he refused to say them—not this time. Not when they could actually mean something now. Something besides another heartless goodbye or worthless excuse.

Instead, he steeled himself with a deep breath and took a couple hesitant steps closer to the front gates of the Academy. They were some of the hardest battles he’d ever fought in his life. So much harder than the scores of Heartless he had mowed down just two nights ago in the desert sands of Agrabah. So much denser than the throng of Nobodies he’d spent two whole weeks clearing out of the darkest depths of Atlantis. A challenge he had spent so many days and nights running from that the very idea of looking at it now—facing it now—made him rethink his entire strategy of returning in the first place.

No more running away, he told himself with all the confidence he could muster. Folded it into his fists at his sides and kept trudging forward with all the strength he could gather.

He made it a sum total of three steps before his eyes betrayed him and focused, instead, on movement amongst the many tall flowers. Felt Oblivion threaten its way into his grips, and willed it away when he saw that familiar crest peak out at him from within blades of emerald green

A chuckle tugged a grin across his lips as the Flood—Shaded a bright magenta pink—practically vibrated with a nervous energy that had Roxas unable to stop a fond coo from departing his lips. It shook under his breath of acknowledgement, skittering a couple inches closer with the apprehensive blink of eyes filled with far more sadness than something so sweet and innocent should ever harbor.

From within the shadows of its tiny body, it drew forth a small brick of chocolate, holding it out in an offer that set Roxas’s heart galloping.

Another coo fell from his lips as the Blonde shrunk down into a crouch and accepted the offered treat in one hand before lifting the creature gently in his other. He carelessly threw the offering into his mouth and nearly melted where he stood. As it was, it took all his strength not to puddle into his weak knees at the rich flavor that coasted over his tongue, accented at the very end by the dust of just the right amount of salt and hint of sugar to have warmth flooding through him with twice the strength it had just moments before.

Of course it’d be my favorite flavor, he thought with a heavenly sigh, unable to keep his fingers from petting over the flood in affection. It purred up at him, sinking into his palm as he scratched beneath its chin with a light chuckle. Filled with a breath of confidence, he brought the little creature up to his lips and pressed a light kiss to its forehead with a slight nuzzle of admiration.

The Flood softened to a rose pink—a color and emotion that even Roxas couldn’t quite identify, but it made him somehow even more flattered than the chocolate. “Did you miss me, Uno? I certainly missed you.”

Uno blinked up at him silently, still vibrating like an unsteady heart. It gave the subtlest nod of its head, but it was more than enough for Roxas’s heart to bleed out to the small creature. “Well, you won’t have to miss me anymore, okay? I think…” A laugh exhaled from his nose as he dropped his voice into a loving whisper, “I think I’m here to stay this time.”

Roxas laughed aloud as the little creature darted out of his palm and landed with a scratch of claws on his chest. Another giggle and a chuckled hey fell off his tongue while it scurried up his torso and whipped around his shoulder. A coo wrestled itself out of him when the little Flood nuzzled its whole weight against his cheek before slipping under his chin and settling against his other ear with another light and quiet purr.

Roxas gently stroked his fingers over its curled shadows as he continued, “and I have a little something to commemorate my return, but I need your help again. Think you can do me this one little favor?” The Flood didn’t even hesitate to nod. God, it made his heart ache. “Alright well, I still have this,” he reminded it, reaching into his pants pocket and retrieving a familiar pastry box. Opening the lid for the first time in weeks, he relished in the scent of bitter sweet fruit that filtered up from the delicate treat folded together in his hands.

Taking a corner of the tart, he broke off a piece of the golden dessert and offered it to Uno with a grin. “Here, bring this piece to Sora and then bring a few of your pals back to me, okay?” The Flood sniffed at the piece for one quick second before blinking at him and disappearing in a void from his shoulder.

Once more alone in his little corner of the world, Roxas began to rip off pieces of the Paopu tart for each of his remaining friends. He set aside three for Xion, Lea and Isa; another three for Aqua, Terra, and Ventus, and then two more for Kairi and Namine. He begrudgingly tore off a small chunk for Riku and placed it into a far corner by itself.

After separating each of the remaining bites to another section of the small case, he was left with only one larger—untouched—chunk to divide.

Just as he began to work out how to break it up, Uno returned to his shoulder in another cold void of swirling energy. Behind it, several red eyes blinked to life in the several magenta shaded Unversed that made his arms their new perch. He offered each and every one a smile before gesturing to the box in his hand with a flick of his finger against its side.

“Alright, guys! I need each of you to take one of these pieces to my remaining friends! They better get to them, too, okay? No eating them along the way! Promise?” He placed a finger to Uno’s nose and chuckled when it gently pressed its forehead back in acceptance of his terms.

But before it could void off to find any more of his friends, Roxas stopped it with a light scratch at its chin. It gently nuzzled into his cheek as he whispered, “I need you to do me one more favor, Uno. There’s someone else who needs a taste of this. I bet you can guess who, right?” With another tap to its nose, the Flood shaded that unfamiliar rose pink and gave a hearty nod of its head before scurrying off his arm and dashing down to the ground. Roxas screamed after it, “bring him back to me, Uno! I believe in you!”

When he looked back at the final chunk of paopu tart that remained, he decided with a sigh, guess I’ll just have to split it once he gets here…if he does. Despite the somber note of loneliness that always came when the Unversed left him—by choice or not—he couldn’t help another light chuckle.

Finally, he thought, I’m actually…home…

~0~0~0~0~0~

“What?!” Vanitas barked at the little rose shaded Flood practically dragging him to his hill. “What is the hurry? Where are you taking me? Why are you that fucking color?!”

Needless to say, Vanitas was…

Confused. Confused was a good word.

Imagine his surprise when the little abomination leading him along to his favorite hill ported into his bakery right in the middle of whipping together a mean batch of Red Island specials and all but ushered him out of his sanctum with all the strength its tiny body could muster. It was bad enough he couldn’t fucking identify why the little shit was currently the sad color of Aqua’s favorite high-end Rosé, but nothing topped being out in these student infested grounds without actually knowing why he was even here.

And the little shit was not helping to clear up any of these annoying mysteries. “Are you ever going to tell me why you dragged me away from a perfectly good batch of cookies?”

“Hey, be nice to your Unversed!” Vanitas stopped mid-step and groaned into the evening air.

Of course. Of fucking course that’s why he was dragged here. Why else would one of his own minions escort him across the grounds if it wasn’t for the one—the only—Roxas? How hadn’t he sniffed this plot out from half a mile away?

He was getting soft—that was the only explanation, unless Blondie here had a better one to light up his fucking day. “Whatever. What the hell are you doing here?”

“Watching the sunset—what else?” Like it was the most obvious thing in the world. Granted, there really was no better area to watch the sunset than this spot right here. Standing at the edge of the sea—right where Roxas had his toes inching dangerously close to the incoming waves—was the only place in Scala one could appreciate the true depths the sun plunged into the world below theirs. Where a person could simultaneously feel high-tide inching up the bank, as if displaced by the golden light shimmering off blocks of white stone miles below, and also enjoy the first rays of silver moonlight from behind clouds of indigo and violet. It was also the only place dark enough out in this lamp of perpetual light that offered a venue to stare into glowing crimson eyes and beyond to the many glittering worlds hiding behind the shining wards of the Castle.

It was…a sight, surely, but that was never what Roxas came for. Not his—

He caught himself with a sharp glare at the traitor now buried in Roxas’s lap. He still wasn’t sure what that color was—what it meant—but it was starting to irk him. He could feel the itch to destroy something bubbling up in his veins; could feel his annoyance blossoming as yet another—less friendly—Unversed somewhere on the school grounds. Felt the electricity of his strength flaring into a big enough force he could get the fuck out of whatever this was before he was tamed by whatever fucking spell had his minions curled up to the goddamn Traveler like a motherfucking cat.

But the more of it that trickled out, the more obvious his tension became, and the harder it was to hide. To just jump into the many shadowed corners of the School and disappear. Especially now, when those cerulean blue eyes looked like a tsunami just waiting to come crashing onto his golden shores. Contrasted by the coming dark of night, they were somehow still so remarkably blue that he wondered—not for the first time—how anyone could fear the darkness with such a sharp sword on their side.

Yet, even with all that light reflecting back at him, the echoes of a storm ricocheted in the glare the Blonde shot him. It was so familiar in so many fucking ways, but it was also unique in a way Ventus’s and Sora’s never were. It carried a weight in it that was more feral, than anything. An instinct that went for the throat and didn’t let go until his target was silenced once and for all. Even now, when there was no one around to protect. No heartless to fight. No nobodies to kill.

It was just the two of them—and honestly?

Vanitas was scared.

He couldn’t stay here any longer.

He needed to go.

To leave.

To find a nice, lonely little hole where he could sit and just—“Vanitas, wait!”

He jerked back before Roxas could even touch him, stumbling back a few steps in blind fury. Harsh words settled at the tip of his tongue, but he made the mistake of looking up. Of peering into wide sapphire pools and seeing the fear and longing that reflected there. The regret. It reminded him of so many times before. All the times before.

Of nights lying on this very spot—together—in the quiet of a somber night. Sharing scars and emotional battles while watching distant worlds blink in and out of sight with every dragging hour that passed. Of being so close he could smell the sweetness of sugary syrup lingering on Roxas’s lips atop the metallic aftertaste of blood long since shed. Of being so distant even warmth could hardly travel between them, even when they were pressed side by side.

Recalled so many sleepless nights watching the exhausted Blonde fight sleep for his sake, only to lose the fight with his head balanced precariously on his shoulder, arms bunched between them and huddled in that goddamn coat. So many early mornings that came before the sun could dare rise and peppered by the furious rush to regain lost space before anyone could admit how far they had come. Could see that maybe—just maybe—between the two of them, someone might actually have a heart.

That was ridiculous, of course. In this bright sea of Somebodies, they were both Nobodies. Shadows of original, carbon copies who would always be more—do more—than either of them ever could.

The difference was that Vanitas had accepted that. Why couldn’t Roxas?

“This is pointless,” he growled out, meeting that steady gaze with a narrowed leer. “I’m going back—”

“No, Vanitas, please—”

“What?!” He barked, edging up on the Blonde until hardly an inch remained between them. Close enough that he had to look down his nose to accommodate the couple inches he’d grown on the Blonde these past few years. Even with that advantage, Roxas still met his muddied glare without a flake of hesitation. “What possible reason could you have to want me around?!”

“Plenty! Do you want me to list them?”

“Do you have a list?”

Roxas nodded with that same flaming confidence. “I do, actually. Do you wanna know what it starts with?”

“No.”

“Because you’re the only one who never tried to stop me. Do you wanna know the second reason?”

“I already told you—”

“Because you were the only one who waited for me.” Vanitas’s glare darkened.

“That’s bullshit and you know it!”

“Is it?” The heat had left his voice, leaving a weak shudder in its wake. “Is it?” His voice cracked with a desperation that had Vanitas reeling back from him in a mix of apprehension and speechless anger. “Then, where are the rest of them? Huh?! Where are they?!”

“Roxas, what are you—”

“Do you remember this?” The Blonde reached into his pocket and pulled out an all too familiar brown box from its depths. It looked innocent enough, but he didn’t need the top opened to already know what special secret lay hidden within. But Roxas still opened it up and showed him the broken-up contents with a heavy frown.

Vanitas felt his chest seize. A mix of jealousy and regret pooled in the barren depths of his torso, beating at his ribcage with enough force to almost make him think he might actually have a heart in there. Seeing such a small piece remaining from the much larger tart he’d originally given the Blonde carved a scar far too deep for his already shattered emotions to take.

But there was no retribution hiding in those big blue eyes. Just wave after wave of pooling sadness. “I gave a piece of my heart away to all of my closest friends,” he told him while daring a step closer, “but not a single one of them is here, except you.”

“And what?” His voice was surprisingly soft—almost neutral—despite the turmoil building in his chest. “Why does it even matter?”

“Because I want to share the final—largest—piece with you.” His breath hitched and eyes widened. With…me?

He swallowed the knot in his throat and steeled his eyes into another piercing glare. “You don’t mean that.”

“Don’t I?”

“Fuck no—Roxas…” He cut himself off with a moan, turning away from those fucking blue pools so he could think straight for a minute. Darkness be damned, how did one deal with this?

You know what you want to do.

Of course, he did, but it couldn’t be that easy. It was never that easy.

Instead, he fell back on the basics. “Is this because you’re leaving for good this time? Because I will not—”

“No, Vanitas, I’m here to stay.”

“—be blamed for letting you…what?” That made him turn. Had gold falling on darkened blue with a disbelief that had him reaching out to touch what he was now sure was a fantasy. But no—it was real. He felt the radiance that came off the man before him—knew it better than any other energy on this damn island. “You’re what?”

“I’m back,” Roxas told him, daring to inch back into his space. Close enough Vanitas could feel his breath warm against his skin. “I’m home.”

“And this—” Vanitas asked with a flick to the box still seated in his hand, “—is how you tell me?”

“What? Upset I’d give your gift back to you?” No, I’m upset I wasn’t first on your list.

“I’m not gonna eat something that’s probably already spoiled sour.” Roxas’s lips split with a smile despite his jeer.

“What, afraid of trying your own baked goods, tough guy?”

Vanitas rolled his eyes. “Of course not!”

“Then, why not? Is it because it’s me?” Something about the look in those eyes—the lingering trace of doubt—softened the tight grip he had on his words.

He admitted, “yes,” and watched that bright smile immediately droop, but he saw Roxas work hard to keep it from turning into a frown.

Even still, he saw how painful it looked to swallow the knot in his throat to get his next question out. “Do you…wish it was someone else…?”

“No.” The word was bit out from between clenched teeth and said with a tightness that did nothing for the seeds of doubt sewn deep into that fragile gaze. His fists curled painfully at his side, cutting crescents into his palm for blood to trickle slowly out of.

For once, he doesn’t know what to say. He always knows what to say. Why is this somehow different?

He doesn’t know, but it only makes him angrier. “Look—”

“No, it’s okay.” It hurts. It hurts. It fucking hurts—that sound. That voice. You did that to him, he heard his inner demons croak with glee. You’re the reason he’s a dam seconds away from overflowing. “I understand, Vanitas. Thanks, for meeting me here...”

He made the mistake of looking up again. Of plunging into sapphire pools without any spells left to keep breath in his lungs or carry his prone body back to the surface. Without any harness to keep him afloat, he could do nothing but drown in the hope that remained bright within the navy stroke of night shadowing normally cerulean depths. Felt it pulling him deeper and deeper into the pain and suffering he saw etched there in every scar they’d given each other over the years. Toward the wealth of regrets both of them have teetered on since the first time they opened that door and decided two shadows could be the ones who held the fort in the eclipse of darkness.

Vanitas licked his lips and let a sigh out through his nose. Felt the electricity at his fingers diminish just enough that he could touch the Blonde’s skin without scorching flesh. Roxas let him—trusted him—with a frown. But no matter how hard he tried, the words wouldn’t come.

So, he let go and sucked back in a breath with a glance at the lit body of the inlet. “Guess that’s it, then, right?” When he heard no reply, he gave an uncaring shrug and turned around on a heel. “Well, good—”

“You know what? Fuck this.” Vanitas had barely processed the words before a strong hand was on his shoulder and turning him back to glaring oceans of determination. He opened his mouth to question him—maybe tell him to watch his language—but then choked—literally—on the piece of paopu tart Roxas pressed into his mouth.

Vanitas’s eyes bulged open as the Blonde threw his arms up in victory and barked a laugh of triumph. A startled moan was swallowed up as the saccharine taste of paopu mixed with the salty sweet bitterness of pastry dough, filling that empty spot in his chest with a warmth he’d never felt before. It had a smile threatening at his lips for the first time in years, refusing to leave even as he fought to brush it off with a roll of his eyes. It was made further impossible when he watched Roxas share the most pitiful high-five with the rose-pink Unversed before coming back to him like a puppy back to its master.

The Blonde made the mistake of showing him the last little sliver of Paopu that remained stark against the dark cardboard, just waiting for the trouble Vanitas had in mind for it. His lips split into an impish grin as he sneered up at Roxas and calmly folded his arms across his chest.

“You know, can’t say I like it. I think that’s the last one I’ll ever make.” The Blonde Keyblader pouted—actually pouted—with a light jab to his arm.

“You asshole, you know you’re gonna have to make more, right? I already shared a piece of it with Sora and you know he’s gonna—”

“Hey, Roxas.”

“—Be begging you to…” Cerulean blinked up to mischievous gold with a confused furrow. “Wha—” Flashing forward, an afterimage remained where he once stood, a benign-enough shadow smirking in triumph. It was enough of a distraction for Roxas to gape and frantically look up to try and find his real body.

From behind him, Vanitas grabbed at his shoulder and turned the Blonde with a jerk, earning himself a startled hey—before he shoved the final piece of tart between his lips and toward the back of his throat.

He barked his own laugh of triumph whilst Roxas coughed and hacked on the pastry. His Unversed shot him a harsh glare as it scrambled over and lightly patted the Blonde on his foot. The Blonde held up a hand to reassure it and gulped down the rest of his gift with a forced swallow.

Letting out a heavy breath, he glared up at Vanitas from his stance doubled over and panting. “Seriously?! That is not how you share a paopu fruit, you asshat!”

“What? You’re the expert now?”

“Well, yeah!” Roxas challenged, though there was no fire behind his words. “I’ve had to listen to Sora moan and groan about the legend for literal years now!”

“And he’s definitely the leading authority on all things mythological.”

“Really? Really?! Is sarcasm the only response you can muster after almost killing me?!”

Vanitas grinned with a shrug. “That’s what you get.”

“For wanting to be friends with you?!” Roxas stifled a chuckle and worked hard to keep a grin off his lips. “Is it too late to take that tart back?”

“Only if you want it as an Unversed.” The Blonde actually thought about that for one long moment before narrowing a glare on him and releasing a breath through his nose.

“As…tempting as that sounds…friends is better.”

“Friends is—”

“ROXAS!!!” Vanitas took a knowing step back as blue eyes widened in horror. A dark snicker fell off his lips just a second before Sora crashed into Roxas with a wide smile, tackling him to the ground.

Vanitas watched with a truly impish grin as Roxas struggled to pry the brunet off while fending off cuddles from his other.

Making a scene of ignoring that cerulean plea for help, he couldn’t help a light chuckle. Friends…I think I can live with that.

#scala #roxas #vanitas #paopu fruit #just two shadows #being shadows #novallion

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themattress · 5 years

Text

Wow. Tomoko Kanemaki SUCKS!

I decided to be masochistic and read back through the KH2 novels by Tomoko Kanemaki. And I just have to say: that there are actually people out there who like her writing and consider it to be in as good or superior to the games astounds me. These books are awful.

When they just straight-up adapt the game to text like the KH novels and the COM novels (except for the R/R one, but R/R sucks anyway), it’s fine. They even do the visits to Land of Dragons, Beast’s Castle and Olympus Coliseum better than the KH2 manga does, plus swaps in Agrabah for the far more important Port Royal. But that’s the only good thing I can say about them. In literally every other regard, the game and manga are infinitely superior.

The main problem is simple to sum up: Kanemaki is a fanfic writer. A pretty stereotypical KH fangirl. This in of itself wouldn’t be a problem if she weren’t adapting the games, but she is, and when she combines the game adaptations with her own fanfic based on what she wants to see, there is inevitably going to be a clash between them. The story written by Kazushige Nojima that she is adapting to novel form does not gel at all with what she writes, and as a result she has to either change that story (to the detriment of both it and its characters) or she neglects to change it even when it directly contradicts her own writing. This happens so much that it really makes for an excruciating reading experience. So let me list all of my problems with these novels point by point, to clarify just why Kanemaki’s writing fails so hard.

- I’ll get the biggest one out of the way right off the bat: Kanemaki is obsessed - and I mean obsessed - with the existential plight of the Nobodies, which includes the Draco in Leather Pants treatment to Organization XIII (”Is it really wrong to seek what you’ve lost?” is asked at one point, as though it’s a profound question. Um, when you’re doing so by inflicting that exact same loss upon millions of innocent people, yes it is!) The worst part is that characters (usually Namine, but Axel, Riku, Saix, Xemnas and even Ansem the Wise get on it at some points) are constantly repeating the exact same angsty inner monologues and internal (and sometime external) quasi-philosophical debates about Nobodies. I’m not kidding, it’s usually word-for-word. “Is it right for Nobodies to exist?” “Nobodies have nowhere to go or call home”. “Do Nobodies really lack hearts?” “What defines a heart?” “If Nobodies don’t have hearts, then why do they feel such-and-such?” “Why were Nobodies even born?” “Nobodies aren’t meant to exist, but does that still mean...?” And so on and so on, blah, blah, BLAH. Hearing this over and over and over and OVER again throughout my reading of the novels doesn’t make me more sympathetic of the Nobodies, it actually makes me less sympathetic and want them to go away so I don’t have to keep reading the same damn woe-is-me grade school-level existentialism! I want to keep reading about Sora, Donald and Goofy, damn it!

- Three characters who were mostly on the sidelines in KH2 somehow get a majority of time and focus here: Riku, Axel and Namine. They are even forced into an apocryphal trio together. They are basically treated as the de-facto secondary main characters next to Sora, Donald and Goofy, with their actions and development being given equal importance. Actually, that’s a lie - Riku, Axel and Namine are honestly given more importance. There is so much wrong about this - not only does the trio not feel organic and reek of bad fanfic, but each character in it isn’t well portrayed at all compared to the game or even the manga.

- Riku had the most potential, since he’s always a major character and a more talented writer could’ve come up with more feasible things for him to have been doing off-screen during KH2. But what Kanemaki has him do is ridiculous. If it’s not just stalking Sora, Donald and Goofy as a silent protector (which is the least interesting thing you could do with him), it’s bullshit with Axel and Namine, or fighting Saix midway through even though Kanemaki still keeps Saix’s later line of “Didn’t Roxas take care of you?”, or having him fight Xemnas in the Old Mansion only for Ansem the Wise to show up and Xemnas then just...retreat for no reason, letting Ansem live and thus ensuring the later destruction of his Kingdom Hearts like a dumbass! And through all of this, she frequently makes Riku default back into snarky, arrogant asshole mode, which doesn’t fit his character at this point at all. Also, while I saw no deliberate yaoi bait in the writing of the KH2 game, it’s definitely present in these novels.

- Axel. Oh my God. Anyone who hates what was done with him as Lea in the games, you should blame Kanemaki, since she actually ran with that kind of writing and characterization for him in these novels long before that happened in the games. He is treated as a totally trustworthy good guy who is a great friend to Roxas, Riku and Namine. The one dick move Kanemaki has him make is quickly backtracked on and then swept under the rug. His whole villainous role is whitewashed at every turn, from both what he intended with Roxas (legit deciding to kill him is changed to attempting a murder/suicide so that he can die with his best friend) to everything concerning Kairi (no, he didn’t kidnap her at all, that point is hammered in frequently, he was going to take her to Namine and they’d then see Sora together! And he didn’t want to turn Sora into a Heartless, that was a wrongful assumption on Saix’s part! And Saix summoned those Dusks on Destiny Islands, not Axel! Axel is chivalrous and heroic and does everything possible to protect and save Kairi! Gag me.) It’s so obnoxious, and beyond removing all of the character’s edge, it’s a blatant case of giving a character a major role in a story that they aren’t supposed to have one in just because he’s a favorite of the writer.

- Namine is an equally blatant case of this, but her case might be even worse. Not only is she THE source of the repetitive woe-is-me existential Nobody monologues and debates, with her whole character arc being changed to revolve around this which honestly makes her unintentionally unsympathetic and annoying, but this portrayal of her has a negative effect on her in both fandom and canon. In terms of fandom, a cult of bad apples (usually yaoi fangirls who already hated Kairi) arose around Namine following KH2, declaring her as superior to Kairi in every way and worthy of being the real main heroine of the KH series. Not only is this false, but it arguably got started because of these novels (translations of which had made their way online long before they were localized), where a character who literally only got 10 minutes of screentime in the game literally gets transformed into the main heroine and one of the most frequently appearing characters in general, even if her “character development” is horribly written and amounts to her being a mouthpiece for Kanemaki’s views. Then again, maybe they just projected onto Namine due to her introverted, fond-of-drawing nature, and Kanemaki was just one of them and thus produced something that kept them going. It’s a Chicken/Egg type of thing, I guess. But whatever the case, what it did in canon was worse. Kanemaki was the first to write for Namine after KH2, in 358/2 Days, and her characterization of her translated in game form to the stagnant caricatured plot device that Nomura then realized was easy to write for and convenient for making other convoluted plot turns happen.

- Come to think of it, Kanemaki’s partnering up with Nomura for Days probably did a lot more harm than just with Namine. Because her obsession with the “What Measure is a Non-Human?” trope never truly leaves the series after Days. It doesn’t pop up in BBS, since that was being worked on before Days, but everything afterwards is sure to feature it in some abysmal way or another, whether it be Nobodies, replicas, data copies or beings of pure darkness. The “Nobodies have hearts after all” comes straight from her writing (even if she had it as a needless overcomplication of the original idea that strong hearts can share feelings with those without it and thus serve as a heart for them too, while Nomura’s retcon is just “Nah, the body can regrow a heart, Xemnas lied”.) A lot of KH3′s worst writing might have not existed had Nomura not picked up on Kanemaki’s fixation with woobified “non-beings”.

- Sora honestly feels like an afterthought for Kanemaki. She’s so eager to write new fanficcy material for other characters, but not for the actual main protagonist, who only gets straight-up game adaptation. Oh, except that some of his lines that were “mean” to the Nobodies (and thus “OOC”, as both KH2-hating anon and Kanemaki seem to think) are changed or cut out.

- Y’know how the KH2 manga made Kairi even better than her game portrayal? Yeah, well this novel makes her far worse. First off, her defiant “you’re not acting very friendly!” to Axel is cut because Axel is whitewashed in that moment (he even readies himself to defend Kairi from the Dusks which Saix summons). Later, she does not get away from Axel because he was never kidnapping her to begin with here. She then realizes that he’s really a good person before Saix kidnaps her, with Axel desperately trying to protect her. She then only shows up toward the end when Axel once again comes to be her hero (again thwarted by that dastardly Saix), with her moping about how she can do nothing to help the brave, noble Axel. (I feel sick just typing this...) In the finale, not only does Kanemaki not take advantage of the potential Kairi development that the game relegated to optional text boxes, but she actually destroys Kairi’s entire arc long before BBS did by making one of her few additions to Kairi be an inner monologue she has on the shore of Destiny Islands alongside Mickey, Donald and Goofy just before Sora and Riku make it back, where she’s just wishing with all her heart that they’ll come back because “We’re here waiting for you. We’ll always wait for you.” BULL-FUCKING-SHIT. Kanemaki, just like Nomura and Oka, clearly has no interest in Kairi as a character on her own. She is used here as a plot device for the character development of Axel and Namine, characters she is interested in, even though Kairi had more significance and screentime than them by far in the actual KH2 game. Geez, even Nojima tried with her!

- Roxas is written just fine during the prologue, since his scenes are just lifted from the game. But when he resurfaces in the final novel, added material make Axel be the most important thing on his mind. Even his final thoughts as he makes the full merging with Sora is that he hopes to meet Axel again. More deliberate yaoi-baiting, and more shoving Axel down our throats. Hell, that last novel is even named “Anthem - Meet Again / Axel Last Stand”. God damn it, Kanemaki, Axel was not important to KH2. It’s not his story. Get over it already!

- Hey, remember how in the game DiZ/ Ansem the Wise did a total character 180 due to offscreen reasons when he came back after the prologue? That was dumb. The novels add new scenes for him, so Kanemaki could actually rectify this issue....OR she just repeats it, since the first new scene she gives him also has him in 180 mode due to offscreen reasons!

- Xemnas and Saix both have their levels of menace neutered thanks to the existential angst of the Nobodies affecting them too, with none of their inner monologues bemoaning their fates really adding up with their actions. The game let you make up your own mind as to whether you found them sympathetic despite their monstrous behavior, but Kanemaki is clearly trying to force the sympathy angle, and it really lessens them, especially Xemnas.

- Really, only Xigbar, Xaldin, Demyx, Luxord, and the trio of Hayner, Pence and Olette were written completely accurately out of the KH-original cast. Nothing felt out of place with them.

- Other nonsensical fanficcy events besides what I’ve already mentioned include bringing stuff from COM (like Repliku) back up frequently instead of keeping focus on the story at hand, a totally different version of how Namine and Axel split from Riku following the prologue (one that continues making Namine unintentionally unsympathetic), Riku having Mickey make the promise after the prologue before Kanemaki’s own 358/2 Days retcons this to happening before it, Riku meeting with Maleficent in Hollow Bastion, Mickey meeting with Axel in Hollow Bastion, Axel being the one to wake Goofy up after his “death”, Axel having a sort of odd friendship with Pluto, Ansem the Wise being the one to provide the box of clues for Riku to give, Axel pretending to betray Riku and Namine so that he gets let back into the Organization and thus be able to rescue Kairi, meetings between the Organization where they talk about totally different and less interesting matters than they did in the game, and having Namine stalk the group throughout the finale as she thinks her last pretentious inner monologues. Also, given its subject matter and how it plays during Days’ opening, I swear to God that Kanemaki created the Axel/Roxas ghost scene that Nomura added to KH2:FM. That it shows up in the last novel, word-for-word, a month before KH2:FM’s release, proves this.

- The misplacement of Disney Castle. This one REALLY bothers me. She places Disney Castle between Beast’s Castle and Port Royal in the third novel. This makes no sense whatsoever, since not only was this meant to be Maleficent’s re-introduction to Sora, Donald and Goofy, but now it comes after Maleficent already made an alliance with Sora and his friends at Hollow Bastion! And then all of a sudden, she’s no longer keeping the Nobodies at bay and is back to self-interested villainy! And there isn’t any dialogue explaining this away or anything! We still have Maleficent saying “If it isn't the wretched Keyblade holder and his pitiful lackeys!” as if she hadn’t agreed to temporarily join forces with said wretched Keyblade holder and his pitiful lackeys! Way to ruin one of the best Disney world visits, Kanemaki!

- The whole finale and especially the ending itself, which were so powerful in both the game and even the manga, has no power in the light novel style of writing Kanemaki uses. Part of that isn’t Kanemaki’s fault, since so much of the finale’s greatness is visual and that obviously can’t be recaptured in text form. And yet she still makes some baffling pacing decisions, with stuff like the aforementioned Namine stalking passages throwing the whole thing off, LOL moments such as Riku himself outright admitting that he has no idea where he got Kairi’s Keyblade also breaking the immersion, character alterations like to Xemnas and Kairi ruining the effectiveness of things they do, and a truly WTF-inducing final chapter where the entire Secret Ansem Report is put before a novelization of both the credits scene where Sora sees Kairi’s drawing in the Secret Place and the epilogue scene where they get the King’s letter.

Overall, these novels just don’t feel like Kingdom Hearts II to me. Even the KH2 manga, the middle of its first half notwithstanding, felt like it. This does not. And that’s because whatever the faults in its narrative, KH2′s story was first and foremost a fun Disney/Square crossover adventure starring Sora, Donald and Goofy, with angsty existentialism merely being one of its themes and meant more for players to think about and discuss rather than the characters. The novels tell a story about angsty existentialism starring characters who think about and discuss it, with Sora, Donald and Goofy’s adventures being a passionless afterthought. That there are people who honestly think that Kanemaki doing this “fleshes out the characters” is shameful. Constant angst and grade school-level philosophical circle-jerking is not character depth. It is pretension of depth, hence the word “pretentious” which fits perfectly here. It takes a lot more than talking and expressing feelings at length to constitute character development. It requires meaningful actions, and it requires some form of growth and change. Kanemaki’s characters are largely static, simplistically characterized beings who spin their wheels in terms of both actions and growth. Riku does not change: you can barely tell he has any kind of depression or has experienced any kind of humbling. Axel does not change: he’s a great guy from the start and has no internal problems to overcome, only the external one of being separated from Roxas. Namine does not change, she goes through the same questioning and angsting over her existence and the existence of other Nobodies until the last minute where the answer just suddenly comes to her (in fact, it was apparently in her all along and she just forgot it. Shades of Sora’s dumbass “Power of Waking” arc in KH3 here...) Any actual development that happens with some characters (like Ansem the Wise) comes straight from the game...and Nojima didn’t write that all too well either! There is just very little that’s enjoyable about the KH2 novels to me, and Tomoko Kanemaki’s writing is to blame for that.

In the words of Lemony Snicket: I highly advise you to not read these books.

#Disney #Square Enix #Kingdom Hearts #Kingdom Hearts II #Anti-Tomoko Kanemaki #Bad Writing #Opinion #Analysis #Truthbomb #This has been a PSA

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adventure-hearts · 6 years

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Do you see tri as a deconstruction of digimon as a whole? if so do you think they did a good job? what tropes do you think were “deconstructed“? (like the original children having such a tragic ending, daigo and makis final fate, mieccomon sacrifice and final death, all the political stuff with mei´s father), or do you think it was just darker version of digimon?

I haven’t thought too deeply about this, but I wouldn’t call tri. a complete deconstruction.

After all, the main “patterns” we’ve come to expect from a Digimon (and, specifically, a Digimon Adventure) story are all there: a group of chosen children who evolve their partner monsters in order to save the world from darkness and destruction, while exploring themes such as friendship, courage, hope, personal growth, and becoming an adult. The essential elements that made the original series stand out are also mostly preserved: a bildungsroman against a background of fantasy/sci-fi/action-adventure, with references to other works of fiction, mythology, technology, and philosophy. Even the more “external” characteristics of the show (music, colour, visual gags, callbacks to the other series, the relatively “static” roles of the characters within the team) were very recognisable.

However, in my opinion tri. did go beyond following the old formula and avoided being a by-the-book sequel, by bringing new ideas to the table.

Specifically, there are two big aspects than, in my opinion, make tri. feel slightly “different” from the previous series; even “darker”, as you put it.

First, it has to do the writing and the storytelling decisions that were at the basis of this story. I’ve been writing about this for a while, but tri. is deliberately hermetic and ambiguous. It doesn’t even attempt to provide the audience with direct answers to everything. It eschews a typical three-part story structure and the hero’s journey. It tells a detailed, complex story using suggestion and winks, and expects the audience to unite the dots and come up with their own reasons for what is happening. Moreover, it is a show that seems to ask people to rewatch it multiple times, to reinterpret everything that happens continually, and to reflect deeply about what we are seeing. In other words, it requires the viewer to engage with the story on a deep level, wanting us focusing more in matters of feeling and themes than (it often feels that way) plot intricacies, brushing aside whatever it doesn’t consider “important”.

This means that watching tri. can often be a frustrating and confusing experience. Unsettling, even. As a result, it is no wonder that this approach is unpopular with many viewers, because not everyone is going to be satisfied with a show that doesn’t provide direct answers and tells a story in an ambiguous way. The line between “subtle” and “lazy” is very thin, as is the line between “ambitious and profound” and “convoluted mess”.

However, the way I see it, this approach was deliberate, not only to mark a contrast to the relative “straightforwardness” of Adventure, but also to confront the adult audience’s expectations.

In other words, the fact that tri. is “messy and confusing” reinforces some of the larger themes in tri., namely the fact that adulthood itself is messy and confusing, and doesn’t give you all the right answers. There isn’t a single Big Baddie to defeat; instead, the Chosen Children are caught in the middle of a powerplay between multiple agents, feeling lost and lacking easy solutions. When Taichi says “I see more and understand less”, that ends up being very applicable to what the audience experiences when they watch tri. unfold for the first time.

I think the second point is related to how. tri. presents a somewhat bleak vision of what happened post-02. In other words, the answers it gives to the question “What happened in those three years?” aren’t exactly what most of the audience expected or wanted to hear, nor did it correspond to what many of us had imagined.

Maybe Taichi did not grow up to be a confident and fearless leader. Maybe the 02 kids did not stay best friends forever. Maybe Takeru and Hikari are bad friends. Maybe Yamato and Sora did not start dating at 14 and stayed together all their lives. Maybe Jou’s doubts about his future and his priorities weren’t completely resolved when he was 12. Maybe the Chosen Children go back and forth in their development and continue to be imperfect and forget what they learnt. Maybe being an adult Chosen Child isn’t all sunshine and roses. Maybe Homeostasis is actually not a friend. Maybe the human world doesn’t embrace the digimon. Maybe sometimes you have to kill a partner, and it won’t be reborn. Maybe humans can die even though you never really did anything truly wrong. Maybe the kids’ troubles are never going to end completely.

Again, I think this may have been a calculated choice, in order to emphasise the themes of the series, and the rough path to adulthood. You can’t always get what you want. It doesn’t make tri. a “dark” show, but it does show that they aren’t interested in only giving viewers happy moments sprinkled with a few sad moments, to maximise nostalgia and be exactly like Adventure. Instead, they throw the audience uncomfortable ideas about the world and the characters they love. (Another reason why so many people react negatively to tri. and feel angry.)

To sum up, I don’t think tri. is a “desconstruction” of Adventure; it just tried to tell a more complex, ambitious story while emphasising a less-than-idealistic vision of growing up. It treats the audience as adults, expects them to do a lot of homework and it doesn’t pull any punches. However, this also means that it is much harder for it to succeed and to please everyone. In the end, each fan is going to have a different view and a different appreciation of what tri. attempted to do… and no-one is wrong or right.

#asks #digimon #digimon adventure tri

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plumedesimili · 6 years

Text

The way you are

Summary : When Terra wakes up, he doesn’t recognize the room. He doesnt’ know that boy talking to him, Sora. All he cares about could be summed up in one word: Aqua. Word Count: 800

When Terra opened up his eyes, he did not recognize the room. His eyelids were heavy, his mind clouded and his body painful, and he wanted to go back to sleep, but he also wanted to know where he was. There was a dim light in the room, rays of sunlight sneaking through the wood shutters blocking the window. He was in a bedroom, in a massive, king size bed all for himself. On the nightstand, there was a glass of water, and a pot with fresh flowers. In a corner of the room, two boys were playing cards, a candle lit so that they could see, the other source of light in the room. In a way, there was a third source of light : the boys themselves. Terra could feel how much light there was in them. A Light that felt… familiar.

Memories from things he would have rather forgotten flashed in front of him. His body, being used as a vessel, as a puppet. The terrible things he did with it. His heart, being torn apart, being shattered, fighting against Darkness every second, failing every second. His mind, trapped in an armour, fighting to protect things that were gone. All three kind of memories rushed to his head, making him sick, making him want to scream. But from all this suffering, he focused only on one thing. One single thing. The most important one.

“Aqua?” he asked, his voice raspy and painful. The two boys almost jumped out of their seat, noticing he was awake. They turned to him.

“Aqua?” he repeated, the only question that mattered to him right now. One of the boys, the brunette, smiled at him, and this smile reminded him of Ventus. Of course, Ven mattered too. Of course he did. Just… not the exact same way.

“Hello, Terra. My name is Sora, and this is Riku. How are you feeling?”

“Aqua?” He repeated a third time, his tongue refusing to form any other word. Sora chuckled, showing his hands in an universal sign of peace.

“She’s fine. We sent her to sleep an hour ago, because she’s been awake by your side for more than twenty-seven hours, just in case you’d wake up. We promised to tell her the minute you’d open your eyes.”

Riku yawned and stretched. “I’ll go check if she’s awake. I’m sure she is, anyway. It was hard even to get her to leave the room. I’ll be back with her soon.”

Terra stared at the boy, walking to the door.

“I… know you?”

Riku smiled at him. “You do. We met long ago, and you gave me the strength to protect my friends. But that’s a story for another time. Nothing urgent.” He chuckled and left the room. Sora took the glass of water, offering it to Terra.

“Here. You’ve been asleep for quite some time now. Are you feeling alright?”

Terra thought about his heavy body, his lungs aching when he breathed, his eyes begging to be closed again.

“I’m fine.”

Sora smiled and nodded. Terra drank the whole glass in one go. The boy laughed and picked a bottle of water on the floor, filling the glass up again.

But Terra didn’t drink it. Because she was there.

She took an hesitant step forward, then stopped. Her hair was a bit longer than he remembered, and she had tied it in a messy bun, locks of blue hair going wild on her head. Her clothes were crumpled, she was wearing only one dolphin slipper, her cheeks were hollow, her skin paler than death, dark circles under her eyes making the cerulean of her iris pop even more.

A tear rolled down his cheek, followed by a second one, then a third one, until it was an unstoppable river. She gasped, and even that sound was the most beautiful melody he’d ever heard.

“Terra, is anything wrong? Are you hurt? Do you need anything?”

“I.. I…” He stuttered, unable to take his eyes off her. “I had forgotten how beautiful you were, Aqua.”

He had barely finished speaking that she was already in his arms, using a dash to go faster, making the landing a bit painful, and yet so enjoyable. He closed his arms around her, drinking in her scent, watching the goosebumps on her skin as they touched, hearing her sudden erratic breathing next to his ear, feeling the drumming of her heart matching his own. He squeezed her tighter, thinking about how he would never be ready to let go of her. She spoke, and he spoke, and even though they both started at the same time, it did not matter, because just as their breathe were in sync, just as their hearts beat in unison, their words and the feelings they poured into them were identical.

“I missed you so much.”

Tomorrow we will start receiving some new KHII informations, and I’m so hyped. Of course, I’m hoping for nothing too spoilery, but I have faith in Square.

Anyway, I think this fic was inspired by one of @chachacharlieco‘s artworks when I wrote it, although I cannot tell you which one exactly. But you should check out her work no matter what, hehe.

See ya’ around!

#fanfiction #kingdom hearts #terra #aqua #terraqua #romance #fluff #KHIII setting

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cienie-isengardu · 6 years

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Well, the great difference between the Jedi and the clones is that while Jedi indoctrination makes for mitigating circumstances, they are still held personally responsible. Yes, the narrative may skirt around these issues, but it still brings them up - Slick calls the clones slaves, Barriss criticizes Jedi's part in the war, otoh Miraj argues that the Jedi themselves are akin to slaves etc. But the clones are blameless. They did not turn against their buddies and slaughter them with a clear head

2/2 to the audience it also feels different to slaughter a complete stranger or a passing aquaitance as opposed to a friend. In spite of all else, how could fandom not hate Wolffe and co. if they killed Plo for no reason than because a superior ordered it? As for the comparison to Kenobi, as opposed to clones he had very good evidence of Anakin’s crimes. If he had any doubt, it disappeared when Anakin strangled Padme. He might not wanted to be the one to deal with it, but there was no one else.

Firstly, I’m sorry it takes me so long to answer, I had really tiresome two weeks at work and couldn’t reply earlier. Also, I lost my first draft of the answer and needed to rewrite it entirety, so sorry in advance for possible grammatical mistakes and so on.

Secondly… Well, I’m not so sure if Jedi were truly held personally responsible in The Clone Wars animated series - yes, TCW’s narrative brought the issue few times, but never really addressed them in a way that made me feel the Jedi actually were forced to think over what happened. Slick’s accusation was pretty fast dismissed, because he was the traitor and “disappointment” and it was his selfish doing that killed so many clone troopers in the process. Barriss would never be brought to trial at all (and thus never openly criticized Jedi Order), if not for Anakin and Padme, the only people willing to prove Ahsoka’s innocence. But did Jedi Council take any blame for the whole fiasco? Not really. They just washed their hands of both Barriss and Ahsoka. Anakin & Plo were the only one who bothered to say “sorry” to Ahsoka, but rest of Council acted as it was the Will of the Force or her Jedi Trail and were now kind enough to allow her come back. In the end, Ahsoka’s departure was about how she couldn’t trust herself since Council didn’t trust her than how they failed a child in their care. I don’t know what happened to Barriss after trial (and since that was public thing, I doubt Jedi could sent her to their own top secret Ghost Prison), but did any Council member or the girl’s master even get involved afterwards? I don’t remember anything like that. Barriss’ words had merit but are easy dismissed - she is terrorist whose action killed innocent people. If she cared so much how Order changed for worse, why she used violence or did not speak about that in more civil way? How she can criticize Jedi when she alone put bombs and killed people?

And the queen Miraj? She was the “bad one”, so why Jedi (or audience that is supposed to cheer up for Jedi) should care for her claims and screwed up ideology/POV? She enriched on human trafficking, allowed to torture, abuse and dehumanization of captured people - what she really knew about Republic and Jedi corruption, if she alone wasn’t saint? Did she really meant that or did she just messed up with Anakin who was forced to obey her, otherwise dear to him people would be hurt? Or Asajj, who by most of time mercilessly killed people and never questioned Dooku’s evil orders until he betrayed her? See, the problem with accusations coming up from the bad ones is that, those characters do not have any higher moral ground to pass judgment or criticize anyone. I admit I didn’t watch TCW for a long time, so I may missed some more important moments (the padawans left behind, for example). But at the end of day, Jedi are the heroes and rescuers, even when some groups didn’t want to be bring into their military conflict. The villains may have valid points, but it’s easy to dismiss them. TCW did not bring criticism for Jedi from the good guys and for most of time, I feel like all accusation only reinforces Jedi false belief how flawless they were.

I mean that. Yoda, Plo and Shaak Ti may gave clones pep talk, but they would send them on suicidal mission without any remorse or doubt, if that was for the greater good. Saving son of Jabba the Hutt is the best example. Does anyone hold Jedi responsible for letting behind slaves in need, when they actually made a deal with slaver? Not really.

Or did any senator (citizen of Republic) even once asked why Jedi will not pay themselves for clone army whose creation they ordered without the senate’s knowledge, when republic budget was discussed? Did anyone asked how out-of-nowhere, there is a full army ready for a war? Did we even see Yoda to explain any Jedi matters to non-Jedi person (senators?) at least one time? Or being questioned by anyone? Not really.

That said, in some sources (usually Legends) Jedi were forced to rethink their choices or were blamed for things that went wrong. Like senator Ask Aak, who blamed Jedi for another lost battle and even questioned not only their ability, but the desire to defeat Dooku. Still, Jedi weren’t hold responsible nor their mistakes weren’t publicized (“Whispers of names that the Jedi would like to pretend never existed. Sora Bulq. Depa Billaba. Jedi who have fallen to the dark. Who have joined the Separatists, or worse: who have massacred civilians, or even murdered their comrades.” [RotS novel]). They did not apologized for action of Jedi who fell to Dark Side. They did not answer to senate or court the way average citizen would be forced to.

Let me quote fragment from Order 66 novel, between ARC troopers and Jedi master Zey that I think sums up pretty much the different idea of obedience:

“They killed us … They killed us all … Why?” […]

“Orders,” Ordo said. “You never read the GAR’s contingency orders? They’re on the mainframe. I suppose nobody thinks contingency orders will ever be needed.”

Zey leaned panting against the door frame as if he was about to collapse. “But why?”

“Because,” said Maze’s voice from outside the doors, “it’s neither your right nor your position to decide who runs the Republic. Who elected you?” […]

“Maze, what are you going to do now?” Ordo asked.

“I’ve never disobeyed an order,” said the ARC captain. Zey didn’t seem to have the strength to turn and look at his former aide, just shutting his eyes as if he was waiting for the coup de grace. “What am I supposed to do? Pick and choose? That’s the irony. The Jedi thought we were excellent troops because we’re so disciplined and we obey orders, but when we obey all orders - and they’re lawful orders, remember - then we’ve betrayed them. Can’t have it both ways, General.”

[…]

“I really must be going, General,” Ordo said. But he had to know. “Just tell me, is it true that Windu tried to depose the Chancellor?”

Zey raised his head all anguish and agony. “He’s a Sith. Can’t you see? A Sith! He’s taking over the government, he’s occupying the galaxy with his new clones, he’s evil…”

“I said, is it true?”

“Yes! It was our duty as Jedi to stop him.” “What’s a Sith?” Maze asked.[…[

“Like Jedi,” Ordo said “only on the other side. Mandalorians fought for them thousands of years ago, and we got stiffed by them in the end. We got stiffed by the Jedi, too. So, all in all, it’s a moot point for us.”

“Palpatine’s probably the one who had you created” Zey said. He was lucky he was still breathing. Ordo wasn’t sure why Maze hadn’t just slotted him. “Why couldn’t you see what he was?”

“Why couldn’t you sniff him out with your Force powers?” Ordo asked. “And why the shab did you never ask where we came from?”

Jedi Order was politically untouchable organization until now. Jedi matters were only for Jedi. The outsiders didn’t have much to say about that nor could put them on public trail (Ahsoka was a special case). Jedi ruled themselves on their own way. But the moment when Mace Windu and Council members attacked Chancellor - a legally elected leader - this changed everything. We know why they did so, but for average citizen of Republic? This was just coup. No one cared for Sith or Dark Side of the Force. Council tried to take control over Republic and so all Jedi paid the price. It’s unfair and cruel, especially for all children killed in Temple and padawans who suddenly lost their masters and friends and remained alone in the cruel galaxy. It’s unfair for all those Jedi that never had anything to say about Order politics or Yoda/Council decisions. But they paid the price and since then Jedi were blamed for everything bad that happened or forgotten for good. But to that point, Jedi rarely were hold responsible for their crimes or ignorance. And TCW made it quite clear, all bad things happened because of Sith’s doing or Jedi who fell to Dark Side or corrupted politicians & greedy people or mad scientist and so on.

But at the same time, clones weren’t blameless. Jedi blamed clones for “betrayal” when troopers suddenly followed someone’s else (legal!) orders. Some people actually don’t think that much about reasons behind clone action, because they don’t see them as human beings. Clones were breed to war and obedience, so it’s easy to dismiss their feelings or beliefs or inner pain, if they really didn’t like Order 66 but still did as were ordered.

I saw Revenge of the Sith in cinema in 2005, way before knowing that much of clone wars era, but even then I didn’t hate clones. For sure I don’t blame them now. Frankly, I wouldn’t mind seeing someone shooting down Yoda for sure. In a way, Jedi had a chance to save themselves during the three years of war. They could dig and dig all the mystery of clone army yet they never did much about that. They took clones (and their obedience) for granted and that was used against them.

Kenobi had a solid proof of Anakin’s crimes. And you know what he still said to Yoda then? I will not kill Anakin.

Despite everything that Skywalker have done, Obi-Wan didn’t want nor feel to be emotionally ready to kill Anakin. And yet he did what Yoda ordered him; he used pregnant woman to get to Anakin (and revealed himself in the worst moment, really). But the worst part of that? He shouldn’t be sent after Anakin. Skywalker should be stopped faster than later, yes. Should be brought to justice, YES. But Palpatine was the biggest threat then. Yoda shouldn’t be so fucking arrogant to think he alone will kill Darth Sidious, when Mace Windu and three other members of Council get killed in less than, like what? Two minutes? And since Yoda felt death of Jedi in the Force I pretty sure he could put all pieces together how quickly they died. My point is, Skywalker fall to Dark Side was important stuff to deal, but death of Palpatine should be prioritized over everything else. Too sure of themselves [Jedi] are. Even the older, more experienced ones. Yeah, shame Yoda never thought he may be the most arrogant one. And to the end of his life, Yoda had never been held responsible for that arrogance, while hundreds of Jedi paid the ultimate price.

#star wars #jedi #clone troopers #order 66 #my answers #my rant #yoda #anti yoda #more likely #sorry it took so long #to answer

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fizzingwizard · 4 years

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We got episode 3 “Into the Digital World”! And the good news is we are still Very Much at it with the Taishiro lol

This pic pretty much sums up the whole episode for me:

❤️!

Spoilers under the cut...

So let’s knock the most important thing off right away, at the end of the ep they DO go to a real digital world!

And it looks like a child’s fantasy... a beautiful natural world full of amazing creatures. I have no idea how similar it’s gonna be to the world we know, though! So far everything’s different, even things that seem the same. Keeps me guessing.

The landscape is pretty intriguing. Looks like a planet/moon on the horizon? And I’m sure that interesting island’s gotta mean something...

But back to the beginning.

So last week, I was all boggled because they introduced Omegamon and Jogress so early. It was easy to think that since they’d started this hype wave, they were gonna keep riding it out, especially with Hikari and Takeru seeming to receive magic feathers and all. Well, that’s not really how it goes down.

The battle is very quiet, with few words - none at all from Taichi or Yamato until Koushirou gets their attention. I am not 100% sure about this, but from the way Taichi looks to the side when an attack comes his way and Omegamon then takes it out, I think it might mean Taichi and Yamato have some mental work of their own to do to help Omegamon fight and that’s why they’re so quiet. But that’s just a thought. I do love the idea that the kids’ ties to their Digimon have more of an affect on their ability to battle than just their evolutions.

One thing a Jogress does is make you glow. Yeah yeah, we glowed before too. No, I mean GLOW.

Like, nonstop.

Also, I have figured out that Taichi and Yamato must have suction cups on their shoes and that’s how they don’t fall off Omegamon while he’s hurtling all over the place

Cue awesome rock version of the theme song battle music!! Omegamon kills nu!Diaboromon the same way he kills him in Our War Game, with a STAB. But that doesn’t stop the missile. Here I thought would be Koushirou’s turn to shine, but aside from continuing to keep tabs on things, he doesn’t get to join in the fight this time.

Omegamon is somehow able to detect missiles, I guess?

And lock on to the infected one, which conveniently shows an actual lock, is red, and even has the monster’s eyeball symbol. We also see a bunch of Digi code before this.

He absorbs the powers of all the Crests into his sword (!!) ...

(notice they’re still glowing!)

... and stabs it. Because in Digimon, stabbing is always the answer.

BOOM shakalaka

People of Tokyo: Wow that’s bright! I should probably avert my eyes or put on sunglasses. But first, to Instagram!

Thanks, Kouushirou’s computer.

The missle blows up way up high and no one gets hurt. They also don’t seem to care all that much about what this is either! Seconds later everyone’s devices lose power, including Koushirou’s computer. He is very distressed, but the outage doesn’t last long.

Yamato and Taichi’s suction cups finally lose their grip and they fall away into a bright light...

Omegamon became a butterfly!!

It is now certain, Taichi didn’t pull a Kouichi xD He’s perfectly fine. That’s the RIGHT way to get in and out of the digital world at a train station. Take notes, kids.

OK before we move on I must take a second to appreciate these text messages Koushirou receives from someone named Mr.Unknown (gee I’m sure we’ll never hear from him again!)

OMG my life is

WHAT KIND OF REACTION IS THAT TO YOUR IMMINENT DEATH!?!?

“Someone stop it!” Suddenly Japanese (also from Mr.Unkown)

Twenty bucks says this guy is Gennai? Ryou? Wallace? KEN?!

no don’t bet against me please, I have no money.

Have an adorable Hikari, who didn’t get to do anything with the feather in the end. Who knows if she even really has it. She DOES seem to totally know what happened with her brother though. Takeru might know also? But Hikari definitely does. Our little oracle is back.

So Taichi is fine, Koushirou is fine, Yamato is fine. They all get back to the human world safely. Taichi and Koushirou head home, wondering if all that really happened, talking about what could happen next. More importantly, the Taishiro power returns at full throttle.

Koushirou: Do you know about this? This? This?

Taichi: Hmm... hmmm... hmmm.. thinking makes my head hurt...

(Like I rag on Taichi for not thinking but tbh he’s quite the thinker and planner... maybe more so in this season than in the original.)

Gloves returned to pocket. Goggles still at the ready.

Then Taichi reaches out his hand... Koushirou stares at it like he’s not quite sure what to do with it. And Taichi’s like, “Thank you so much, for everything, you were a huge help!”

Koushirou: “But I didn’t do anything.”

Taichi: “You helped so much by doing all that research! You’re awesome!”

Koushirou: :D “Y-Yeah!!”

He agrees that he’s awesome!! My baby!!

They shake hands! They’re such good friends now!

... Then Taichi walks backwards out of the elevator with his hand still outstretched, staring at Koushirou

WHAT

WHAT THE HECK IS THIS!?!?

This show producers aren’t even TRYING to hide their bias hahaha okay that’s the Taishiro fan in me but HOW ELSE AM I SUPPOSED TO READ THIS SCENE CMON LIKE!?

So Taichi’s about to go home, and at this point I’m thinking “I guess Koushirou’s never gonna ask that question about camp...!”

Then Taichi is like, “Oh yeah, didn’t you have a question about camp?”

Fricking. TAICHI.

I am absolutely stunned that it’s him who brings up Koushirou’s original errand xD Koushirou himself has completely forgotten about it! (Too busy basking in the glow of being called awesome about twenty times in what this episode establishes is less than an hour!)

Seriously Taichi is SUCH A DAD!? His mom comes home and tells him about her day. Hikari comes over and he pats her on the head and tells her she was brave and did a good job. All he needs is a newspaper and a tie to reach peak Dad-ness.

Hikari: “Thanks big brother!”

Taichi: “...? For?”

So about Yamato... on the elevator Taichi realizes he never found out where Yamato lives...

... It’s Shimane. Grandma’s house in Shimane! Well I mean, they could make it somewhere else, but the point is it’s super inaka countryside. Yamato has a call with Takeru which makes it seem like they indeed don’t live together, as Takeru shyly asks Yamato if he’ll come visit since it’s summer break, and Yamato says he does intend to go to Tokyo and see him. Not sure yet who Yamato’s living with, if it’s still his dad or he lives with his grandparents in this version, or there’s some other reason he’s not in Tokyo...

Yamato also asks if Takeru’s okay, and Takeru replies he was inside all day so he’s fine. That’s what makes me think Takeru knows about Yamato going to the digital world. He might not, but I like the idea that he does. My guess would be he knows because he’s seen Yamato do it or something, whereas Hikari just knows because she’s psychic :P

Then guess what! WE GO TO CAMP!

Only for like, two minutes, though. That was a bummer for me. Camp is just a vehicle to introduce a couple other characters, then they go home. Well, we don’t need two of the exact same show I guess... I’ll just appreciate this as a nod to the original.

First we see Jou! He’s hancho again and trying to tell other kids how to use a knife. He immediately cuts his finger. Good ole Jou I can’t wait to have him back.

Taichi and Koushirou are walking around camp and Koushirou trips due to Jou yelling and basically throws his laptop straight into the air

Laptop: “FREEEEEDOM!”

Mr Superior Reflexes AKA Taichi quickly grabs Koushirou and prevents him from smashing face first into the dirt. GOSH THEY JUST WILL NOT STOP WITH THE TAISHIRO. I CANNOT.

Koushirou: “H-H-Human c-c-contact?!?!?! Is this SKINSHIP”

Like y’all know this isnt my fault right? I wouldn’t have to say these things if the show didn’t make it so durn easy. Bahahahaha.

Guess who catches the laptop! Soooooraaaaa!

My girl is back! She’s got butterflies!

Koushirou says he knows who she is because the girls in his class always talk about how she’s so cooooool!

This episode establishes that Sora is 1) popular 2) well-liked 3) responsible 4) quick-thinking 5) athletic 6) Taichi’s old friend 7) coooooool in like, thirty seconds.

Taichi and Koushirou continue to spend aaaaaall their time together. My one complaint here is that all they do is talk about the digital world. And while I know it’s no surprise, the one thing I always loved about old Adventure was that to a certain extent, the kids got to act like kids. Of course they had uncanny adult wisdom and ability to sit still, lol. I understand that. So far in this show, they’re not really acting like children even a little bit. It’s all superheroing. That’s how I feel at the moment though - the only one I expect to really act like a child is Takeru, and probably Mimi, I’d guess. I do hope we get to see a larger range of personality from all of them in the future. It is only episode three.

Koushirou’s icon is a pineapple <3

So there’s a new threat but it’s not as obvious as the old one. Another power outage happens but they don’t know how important it is right away. Then both Taichi and Koushirou’s digivices start to glow! Taichi runs out, and here we finally got some new personality from him, something beyond friendliness and bravery: He really, really wants to see Agumon again. He’s already feeling the depth of that bond and it’s really been weighing on him that they parted so abruptly. He has so many questions. I would say, Koushirou talked about the digital world non stop because he finds it interesting, but Taichi talked about it because he misses Agumon. (Koushirou after all hasn’t met Tentomon yet.)

Before he can run out, Taichi runs into Hikari in the living room. She’s worried, and she clearly knows what he’s up to, but all she says is “Itterasshai.” I super appreciate that the set up and lighting is the same as these scenes between the two of them in original Adventure! It’s a total throwback to that hallmark ep of Adventure, episode 21.

Unable to think about anything but seeing Agumon again, Taichi runs outside to the train station where Koushirou is (I wonder if the train station is going to become like their base point or something). He doesn’t even notice Sora, but she notices him...

... and in true Sora fashion, immediately turns around and starts chasing after Taichi without a word xD

ugh I will always hate how PINK she is in this

Sora: “Taichi’s running somewhere awful fast... he has that look on his face... he’s going to get into trouble ugh I just know it”

The digivices glow and both Taichi and Koushirou disappear into the digital world. As they go through the vortex, we see a bunch of colored lights...

So this one is clearly Taichi and Koushirou, and Sora as well. My guess is she gets swallowed up as a result of following Taichi.

However, over here we have Yamato, Jou, and Mimi, but why would they all be together? Yamato’s fine, but how are the other two getting in?

It doesn’t seem like Takeru’s joining this time, which is interesting. But I might be wrong - only episode 4 will tell.

Taichi wakes up in the real Digital World and is finally reunited with Agumon. End episode 3 <3

I’m really curious about what’s coming next! I’m still pretty shocked that a Jogress happened so early, but I’m gonna guess now that we might not see it again for a good long while. My prediction is that Yamato’s gonna be more like the lone wolves of other seasons (Ken, Ruki, Kouji, etc) who don’t want to join the main team right away, then suddenly just do. Everyone loves a rogue hero. I am super excited for the whole team to be together though so we can see all those personality dynamics grow! I really want them to not go home for a while and have to live by their wits, but I don’t think that’s the way this show wants to go, it wants the drama of going back and forth between lives... OTOH, we now know for sure that it IS summer break, so I suppose they don’t really have a NEED to go home. Maybe we’ll get a bit of both - they usually go home after, but sometimes end up on a longer stay?

I think what I need most from this show is the rest of the team before it will really feel like Digimon Adventure to me. So looking forward to episode 4!

eta: I totally forgot about the pics I took of the trailer for next week!

Look how awesome this is! This is exactly what I am hoping sticks around for a good long time! We need the partners to bond and we need to live up to the name of “Adventure”!

Since the trailer only shows Taichi and Sora, I wonder if that means everyone’s split up. Koushirou’s light seemed a bit distant from the other two in that screencap up there, so maybe he lands somewhere else and they all have to find each other. Makes sense, really. I’d expected that for the other three but figured Koushirou would be with Taichi... but it’ll be awesome if he has to try to get by on his own in the beginning. Also, so excited for Birdramon!

Bonus: I found a vid on youtube that claimed to have English subs and I clicked out of curiosity... this is what it wrote when Taichi says “Koushirou”:

X’D Koushirou has so many nicknames now. DJ Wiseman, Kou the Bro, Awesome, Taichi’s New God, Godzilla... I love Youtube.

#fizz watches digimon 2020 #digimon adventure 2020 #digimon #digi spoilers

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florencetheflowerfairy · 6 years

Text

more thoughts on Sora and Yamato in tri.

Hi @adventure-hearts! Thanks for your thoughtful replies! (Linking to my original post here.) I really appreciate them. I wanted to write back, and I’m sorry that this is kind of long.

Yeah. I think you’re absolutely right.

My issue is: I don’t think Yamato was ever meant to be an “all-out leader” either? He’s louder than Sora, but he’s still always in a supporting role. When Yamato fought Taichi during the Dark Masters arc, he wasn’t trying assume leadership. I think it was more about him trying to assert himself without much thought for the future. And afterwards, he struggles a lot with how his personality is different than Taichi, who is a “good leader.” But in the end, Gabumon helped him see that it was okay that he was different than Taichi.

If Yamato had ever taken a Gogglehead role during Adventure, with Sora being supportive to him in addition to her being supportive to Taichi, I probably would not ship Sora x Yamato as an OTP. Instead, when Taichi “dies” in Adventure, then the group falls apart, so Sora and Yamato end up looking more equal to me, and it leaves more to my imagination.

It was definitely Yamato’s time to shine. You summed up his character in tri. really well. In a way, it was a relief for me that Yamato was finally the main focus of a movie. I admit that one of my frustrations with tri. has been waiting three years for Yamato (and Taichi) to finish their character development. Seeing Taichi take charge in movie 5 was such an emotional relief, and I had a similar emotional response to the Yamato-Gabumon scene in movie 6.

I’ve written this before, but I think if the Taichi-Yamato relationship was my favorite friendship, then I would have liked tri. a lot better. Their relationship develops in all six movies in a way that the other relationships don’t.

Before I go any further, obviously it’s naive to ever think that the T/Y relationship wouldn’t be the main focus, since it’s also the main focus in Adventure. And I do love their relationship a lot.

With that said, I’ve been frustrated with the Taichi-Yamato “role-reversal” since movie 1. Part of the reason for that is because I love Adventure’s Yamato-Gabumon Dark Cave scene a lot, in which Yamato learned that it was okay that he was different from Taichi, and (in my view) that it’s okay if he’s the support and not the leader. And I like that message a lot.

In hindsight, the obvious endgame of a Taichi-Yamato role-reversal is Leader Gogglehead Yamato. I don’t think I ever predicted that, but I’ve been frustrated all along with what I felt was a “rejection” of Yamato’s Dark Cave lesson of “You have so many good things about you that belong only to you!” Or, in other words, “You don’t have to be like Taichi in order to be worthy.” I might be being too harsh, but this gets to the heart of why watching Yamato transition from “support” to “leader” has been frustrating to me.

My other frustration with the tri. Taichi-Yamato dynamic is related to your next point...

...Which is that if Sora doesn’t have a (mostly) equal role in the story to Yamato, then I don’t enjoy the writing for their relationship.

It’s true that Yamato still gets more screen time than Sora in Adventure, but both he and Sora develop from beginning to end, culminating with the Dark Cave scenes and Sora’s sacrifice and Yamato’s realization that they don’t need the crests to beat Apocalymon.

You’re absolutely right that Sora assuming a leadership role in the end would “get in the way” of Yamato’s tri. development. I understand that but I don’t enjoy it. :/

I think my criticism is all to do with tri.’s format of splitting up the character arcs in different movies, while in season one then everyone basically developed at the same time throughout. There’s nothing inherently wrong with tri. splitting up the characters that way. It just means that I was always going to struggle with finding Sora and Yamato romantic when their arcs are split up, rather than paralleling each other.

This is a lovely interpretation (the best interpretation honestly), and I’m happy that you shared it with me. Thank you.

I have mixed feelings about that particular scene. When I watched it with subtitles, I enjoyed it more than I thought I would. (I had been reading all sorts of spoilers, so my expectations were all over the place, haha.) I was more frustrated with it later when I was trying to think about it critically in the context of the whole movie.

Again, I totally understand what you’re saying! I won’t repeat myself, except to say that it’s less an issue of understanding for me and more of an issue of straight-up not enjoying Yamato’s character arc and the way tri. is formatted.

tl;dr

My personal frustration with the writing for Sora x Yamato in tri. has a lot to do with the fact that I had a circuitous route to shipping them. When I was a little girl, I didn’t much care for English dub Yamato. When I re-watched Adventure as an adult, I expected that my OTP would be Sora x Mimi, but Yamato’s character surprised me. I ended up falling in love with the Dark Cave scenes, Sora and Yamato’s families, and their parallel character arcs. This means that my love of the pairing has all to do with specific writing decisions in season 1 that are hard to recreate.

I think that a lot of Sora/Yamato fans have been worried with questions like, “Have they broken up? Will they get back together?” And I sympathize with that, but my main concern has always been “Will they be written as equal supporting figures in Taichi’s life?” Because I knew if tri. didn’t deliver on that, then I wasn’t going to enjoy their relationship that much.

I’m sorry that this was rather long. I used your replies as an excuse to work through ideas that have been bothering me in the back of my head for a while. But I really appreciate that you shared your ideas with me (because it’s always nice to hear from someone smart), and I understand where you’re coming from.

#adventure-hearts #replies #my analysis #tri spoilers #long post #Sora #Yamato #Sora and Yamato'#I feel a little happier now that I've slept on it and I know that it's over #Though I'll miss the fandom like everyone else and I hope people keep staying engaged for a while #Anyway I was kind of in a sad mood last night but I appreciate that you still took the time to write responses to my bitter post haha :)#tri criticism #Florence versus Tri

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