#though they were all on the same canvas for posting purposes i edited them individually | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

dahniwitchoflight · 3 years

Text

KH: What is Repliku/Riku Replica Really?

Follow up post to “What is Namine really?”

Because of all the people that get to be saved and exist on their own by the end of KH3, Repliku isn’t one of them? Why is that?

What if there is a real reason why he actually couldn’t be with everyone?

and why wouldn’t Repliku appeared to have aged the same alongside Riku?

What if he wasn’t kidding when he says to Riku that “They already have you?”

Consider this

Throughout the series, whenever someone talks about the replica program, never do they actually ever say if they were successful at recreating a Heart, even a fake one from Data

This is something that Zexion attempts for Roxas from the data inside twilight town, but all he can gather from there are Roxas’s memories of the fake twilight town, his actual heart is still inside Sora

and this is something that Riku Replica in Chain of Memories claims that Vexen did to make him

but Zexion claims to be working with the data that Vexen had stored from Chain of Memories, where he was unsuccessful in doing so, since Zexion had no idea how to do so for Roxas

and Vexen himself, never actually claims that he was able to create a heart, it’s a feat that no one, not even Ansem the Wise has claimed to fully master

The purpose of the replicas was always only as physical vessels for an already existing real Heart, for the eventuality of KH3′s final battle where all the various forms of Xehanort from across time would abandon their bodies in their pasts and time travel as hearts to the future, which was enabled by all the body replicas waiting for them to inhabit

and as we see with Xion, seeding a heart from bits of memories given form and experience, was both unexpected entirely and unintended for the replica program and not something that they knew could happen yet with Repliku, since by the time they even realize what happened with Xion in Days, Chain of Memories was over and done with already

The intention with Xion was only ever to have a physical copy of Sora, a puppet with no heart or will that they could command as they pleased that contained all of sora’s powers and memories, but not his heart, having a Real Genuine Heart, again, was never the Point of making the replicas

Namine built all of Riku Replica’s memories from scratch sure, but a real genuine Heart was a canvas for those memories that had to come from somewhere else back during that time, it was something they Needed for the early replica program to work, not something they were able to Make for the replica program

sooo... then how exactly did they make a replica version of Riku’s Heart?

Well, they couldn’t, obviously, so then the real question is, where or when rather, did it come from?

The answer is Repliku’s Heart isn’t as fake as we think, in fact, I’m very sure it’s actually really Riku’s Heart

or at least, a version of Riku’s Heart

Travelled back from the past, when Ansem still had a presence in Riku’s Heart back before the end of KH1

Repliku was actually their first successful experiment not just with replicas, but with the replica’s intended purpose, of transporting a person’s heart from the past, and allowing them to exist alongside the same person’s heart in the present via a replica body

and even better

you know how Repliku looks in KH3? All glowing and without a physical form?

Doesn’t this look a little familiar?

Little blurry, but it’s exactly what Sora did in the Remind DLC

Threw his Heart through time, to a place where it already existed, and he exists in a form that’s basically just his Heart from another time, caught in this sort of glow

Now, Repliku never changed or did anything or broke any sort of causality like Sora did, jumping all through other people’s hearts and trying to change the future, all Repliku did in KH3 was time hop to the future briefly and then go back without changing anything, but the method was the same

He hitched a ride with KH3 Riku when they met in the timeless Dark Realm, to see something important through, and when Riku defeated the Evil Repliku brought to be here as one of the 13 darknesses, Good Repliku and the defeated evil one disintegrated together and faded back to whence they came

So you kind of have to ask, what exactly was even the point of showing that good Repliku still existed within Riku in KH3, if KH3 was never going to revive him to exist alongside the other fallen folks like Roxas Xion Ventus and Namine?

We didn’t need Repliku to find a replica for Namine, Riku and friends were already doing that

Instead, the point was to show that Repliku has always been Riku the whole time, just a version of himself from the past, flung to the future

Confirming that he was never meant to be a separate Riku from Riku, and that all of Repliku’s feelings and memories are genuinely Riku’s from the very beginning

basically, with all that in mind

Rewatch this scene where the Evil Repliku from KH3 meets with Maleficent

https://youtu.be/LbXiZdKUo4s?t=324

and I think this becomes even clearer

Maleficent recognizes Evil Repliku in KH3, saying he is the same as the one she knows from KH1, though she couldn’t say from “when”, and this Repliku acknowledges her back, saying she’ll fall to the darkness “again”

if it was just Repliku recognizing her, it wouldn’t mean much, since we know his memories are fake anyway

But Maleficent returning that recognition? With all that she knows about darkness and hearts? Means that even the first Repliku from Chain of Memories, is a Riku she would recognize

She knows Repliku is just a version of KH1 Riku, but from a different “when”, this to me is the key for this theory

This line doesn’t stick out the first time you watch this scene, because in this scene we don’t know yet that Evil Riku is actually Evil Repliku, the player is led to believe that its just Riku from KH1 time traveled to be here, it’s only in the final confrontation with Repliku that it’s revealed to be Evil Repliku, making this scene with Maleficent stand out A LOT and have a different meaning

So to recap:

The linear timeline of where and when Riku’s heart was throughout the series?

Young Riku in KH1 gets his heart infected with Ansem’s darkness and eventually falls into the dark realm

During his short time in the dark realm, Ansem time travels their heart a short while into the future, into a replica in Castle Oblivion, and Namine does as she’s told and rewrites his memories to suit the Org 13′s purposes as the puppet Repliku, proving both the memory and the time travel replica experiments a success

The original Riku wakes up in Castle Oblivion on his own and meets with the Replica version of his time travelled past Self, Repliku

At some point during this time, (likely the point where Namine had scattered his heart) Repliku gets time travelled by Ansem’s Darkness into the future, in KH3 where he is Evil Repliku, one of the 13 darkness’s

Once Evil Repliku is destroyed in KH3, he goes back to where he came from post-Namine scattering in Chain of memories, and he goes on to face the OG Riku trying to prove his realness.

He fails and falls to the dark realm, where his heart sat waiting in the timeless darkness, and eventually Old Riku from KH3 shows up, and Young Repliku’s heart tags along to the future and does all the things Good Repliku does in KH3

It’s after merging a little bit with the Evil Repliku in KH3 and leaving the replica body behind for Namine, that Good Repliku rejects Riku’s plea to take the replica for himself and exist in the future, since Good Repliku knows that his place is in the past, since he is Riku and he doesn’t need to be here in KH3, since he’s already here as KH3 Riku

and so when Evil Repliku is destroyed and goes back to where he comes from, Good Repliku chooses to go back to the past, all the way back to the very first point that Riku ever time travelled via Ansem’s influence and live on from there

and also when everyone is KH3 questions if it’s Young Dark Riku or Evil Repliku that is this version of young Riku, they’re both correct

and, just like Young Xehanort, before he ever met his future self, standing on the beaches of Destiny Island, knowing somewhere deep in his heart that more lies out there, the memories of his future adventures all throughout time as his other selves remain inaccessible, sleeping in his heart. They unconsciously direct his actions in the future and in the past, and is indeed the first thing that makes his heart feel that his world is just too small, and that there must be something beyond just these Destiny Islands...

Young Riku first builds a raft with his best friends because this world is just too small, and his Heart somehow feels and knows that there is more than just these Destiny Islands..

Fitting dontcha think?

So when it comes to feelings for Namine, it’s the same between Sora and Riku

the memory of Namine exists somewhere within their hearts, and even though it stemmed from how Namine changed their memories, and it was revealed to both that the memories were fake, both individually decided that regardless of the memories being fake, their feelings and choices were real and they choose to continue having affection for Namine

Sora as a close friend, and Riku as someone close to her

all that just to explain why the heck Repliku didn’t get revived in KH3 and why it’s Riku who gets with Namine in the ending instead lol

The answer was: Because it was always the same Riku and the same Heart and the same affectionate feelings all along!

*edit*

one last thing to add to this...

Of all the battles with the 13 darkness’s, each group that is fought always had some sort of connection with eachother

Marluxia, Larxene and Luxord - Luxord was actually supposed to be appear in chain of memories, but ended up being cut and moved to KH2, but otherwise all three still share that theme of the Cards from Castle Oblivion

Terra-Xehanort and Vanitas - They were the bad guys from birth by sleep, pretty obvious connection

Saix and Xion - The major emotional players for Roxas and Axel from 358/2 days. Saix is the one who rejected Xion and Roxas the hardest due to jealousy, was originally friends with Lea as Isa, and Xion obviously is the third in the trio with Roxas and Axel

Xemnas, Ansem and Young Xehanort - All time travelled versions of Xehanort

and then finally we have Riku Replica and..... Xigbar?? What? What could possible connect the dude who suddenly revealed he was actually a time travelled version of another character all along and we never knew until now? And even had multiple time travel adventures? To Riku Replica?

Hmmm What Indeed 👀

#KH #Kingdom Hearts #Riku #Repliku #Riku Replica

25 notes · View notes