#sora's heart hotel

[fragmentsofsorrow]

thinking about Sora and his heart hotel and emotions

Sora feeling what Roxas and Xion and Ven and Vanitas feel, whether or not they're aware or even awake at the time

Sora feeling their emotions even before he knows they're in his heart, wondering why his feelings don't make sense, why he misses people he barely knows and feels animosity toward people he knows he loves, why he feels at home in places he's never been but gets melancholy thinking about his actual home

Sora being overwhelmed from the combined emotional weight of five hearts' worth of feelings and not being able to handle the sheer intensity of that much emotion at once

Sora learning about his heart passengers and finally knowing why he has so many feelings that aren't his, but still having trouble telling the difference between Roxas's, Xion's, Ven's, and Vanitas's feelings

Sora even having trouble telling their feelings apart from his own, especially with Ven and Vanitas because they've been with him for so long that their emotions are as familiar to him as his own, but also with Roxas and Xion because they've been in his heart for such a short time that he doesn't have enough experience to tell their feelings apart from any new feelings of his own

Sora having to learn how to handle not just his own emotions but those of four other people, having to learn how to keep this abundance of emotion from overwhelming him without going too far and checking out from his emotions entirely

Sora learning how to live with four other hearts within his own and coming to terms with the incredibly varied and often conflicting emotional responses he has because of them

Sora's heart hotel getting their own bodies and having to figure out how to cope with this newfound separation between the five of them that none of them are used to anymore

Sora feeling disoriented and empty without his heart hotel and longing for the connection they once had, Sora having to acclimate to only feeling his own emotions because he's never known what it's like to not have other hearts within his, Sora's heart hotel having to relearn how to express their emotions themselves because they're so used to Sora being the one who did that

Sora and Ven and Vanitas having a serious case of separation anxiety, because after more than twelve years of being that close to each other it's hard not to fall back on that constant and familiar commpanionship

Roxas and Xion struggling to reconcile the happiness and relief they feel about having their own lives again with how much they miss having such a close connection to Sora and to each other

Roxas, Xion, Ven, and Vanitas all being able to feel the tenderness of hugs firsthand now, but although they hold each other close whenever they need comfort or reassurance and even cuddle up against Sora whenever they have the chance, it just can't compare to the warmth of sharing his heart

just. Sora and his heart hotel being a big jumbled mess of emotion. that's all

#kingdom hearts #sora #roxas #xion #ventus #vanitas #sora's heart hotel #having a normal one tonight as you can see

[hollowwhisperings]

Naminé & Roxas Are Twins

(this meta was inspired by @violethowler's Constructing Kingdoms series on YT)

In KH2, the relationship between Sora & Roxas is seemingly paralleled with that of Naminé & Kairi. It is explained by characters in-game that Naminé, a Nobody, must have been created by Kairi's presence in Sora's Heart during KH1. Thusly is it concluded that Naminé must be the Nobody of Kairi, another facet of that Princess of Heart.

Except... Kairi is a Princess of Heart: a being of pure light, without any Darkness of her own. It is physically impossible for Naminé to be Kairi's Nobody.

At no point has Kairi exhibited the capacity to hold Darkness. Kairi's lack of Darkness is, arguably, one of the major reasons for her lack of combat prowess: without "darkness" of her own, Kairi is unable to feel the selfishness needed to hurt others. This is a small, fundamental kind of Darkness that all living things carry: without it, a Princess of Heart is all too essily incapacitated by selflessness.

Naminé isn't (can't) be Kairi's Nobody: she, like Roxas, is a Nobody of Sora & Ventus. Naminé and Roxas are twins.

Roxas and Naminé are unlike any other Nobody within the KH setting: they alone were capable of developing "selfhood", independently from their Hearts of origin. This is due to the many unique circumstances of their birth: Sora's self-sacrifice in KH1. That event featured multiple oddities likely to affect Sora's Heart, Heartless & the Nobodies created: self-sacrifice (love); heartlessness via keyblade; the specific keyblade used (the Keyblade of [People's] Hearts); the origin of said keyblade (Riku the ???, the person Sora likely loved most at the time); the presence of Kairi, a Princess of Heart, within Sora's Heart; the presence of Ventus, an artificial "Princess of Heart"; the location of the sacrifice (Ansem's Lab in Hollow Bastion, a World fallen to Darkness)... and likely even more factors, known & as yet unaddressed.

As twin Nobodies to Sora's Heartless, Roxas & Naminé were affected by all variables noted above. Sora has been the Host of several Hearts for his entire life: that makes him special, even before Riku chose Sora to be a keyblade wielder. I venture that the Heart most relevant to Naminé's birth was not Kairi's but Ven's: for where Roxas most resembles Sora in disposition, Naminé resembles Ventus-without-Vanitas. Kairi's presence within Sora's Heart had effects, yes, but less than perhaps understood.

The misunderstanding, I argue, comes largely from Kairi's longterm role of "Designated Female": as the lone KH-original female for much of KH's early development (& popularity), Kairi is often considered a "default option" with regards to all things feminine. This feeds not only into assumptions of a Kairi-focused love triangle but also into an overinflation of Kairi's presence in the story.

As with Xion, Naminé's true identity is obscured, in-game & within fandom, by her gender: "Xion & Naminé are female; the only female in proximity to this plotline is Kairi: Xion & Naminé must therefors be derivative personas of Kairi".

Here, as always, Kairi serves as a convenient "default" of femininity, misdirecting players and characters from the queer potential within KH. It is wholly believed, by Sora & the girls in question, that Naminé was Kairi's Nobody. Yet, it is never Kairi whose story and character is most expanded by Naminé's involvement: Naminé's story is, instead, a follow-up to that of BBS's Ventus.

Kairi struggles with a forgotten past, loss & a resistance to change (of "growing up"). Naminé, in parallel & in contrast, experiences the kind of life that Kairi has forgotten: [medical abuse], extortion & isolation. Naminé's time with Organization XIII & with DiZ mirrors that of VEN's with Master Xehanort (&, to a lesser degree, with Master Eraqus).

Kairi's history as a test subject of Xehanort &, possibly, of Ansem the Wise? She's forgotten it and, outside of Melody of Memories, we never get to see how it affected her.  Kairi's Ambiguously Traumatic Past is only ever used for her in her role as "MacGuffin" (i.e. an object of plot importance & no other story-relevant function, one that is ultimately interchangeable with). Kairi's story barely affects Naminé's & Naminé's doesn't affect Kairi's either: the characters most changed by Naminé's character arc were Sora & Riku. This further alludes to Naminé not truly originating from Kairi's Darkness but from Sora-Ven.

The duality of Sora-Ven is reflected in Sora's producing two distinct ("twin") Nobodies during KH1. Roxas is most reflective of Sora but physically looks like Ventus; Naminé is most reminiscent of Ventus-without-Vanitas but (allegedly) "looks like Kairi": this does not occur in the Nobodies of other hybrid-beings, as evident in Xemnas (Terra & Xehanort) & Xigbar (Braig & Luxu). In this way, Naminé & Roxas are more akin to Xion than most every other Nobody.

Ignoring the gender binaries (canonically used & assumed in-universe), the characters that Naminé actually resembles are Ventus (who I propose as Naminé's "primary" origin) & Xion (another artificial being with Sora Origins).

Narratively & thematically, Naminé's arc from CoM to KH2 was a continuation of Ven's story in Birth By Sleep. Both characters are strongly tied to themes of isolation, abusive authority figures, and artificial life. While other characters - Xion, Repliku & Terra-Xehanort - also explore these themes, Kairi notably does not.

I will note that Naminé does not NEED to be Kairi's Nobody to act as her narrative foil: I just find that identifying Naminé with Kairi is buying into the very same (false) Binaric Gender Roles that CoM, Days & (to a lesser extent) BBS sought to poke holes in. Tiny, easily mistranslated-into-nonexistence holes but holes nonetheless. Attempting to conflate Naminé with Kairi is to give the latter character more narrative presence than she truly has, in an effort to reconcile the two together beyond "similarly aged females in proximity to KH's plot".

#kh meta #kh nobodies #naminé #naminé and roxas are twins #naminé is ven's nobody #kairi the character #kairi the designated female #female characters in kingdom hearts #princesses of heart #sora's heart hotel #kairi & naminé #ventus & naminé #kh theories #queer readings #this is two different essays/theories merged into two: “quality” shifts notably #edit later

[holly-natnicole]

Sora, Vanitas, Xion/Shion, Naminé, & Ven: playing 'Twister' (1966).

Roxas: walks into the room.

All 6 members of Sora's Heart Hotel: freeze where they are.

Roxas after unfreezing: "...I'm not even going to ask."

#sora's heart hotel #sora naminé xion vanitas ven roxas #sora #sora kh #kh sora #sora caelum #naminé caelum #naminé #namine #namine kh #kh namine #kh shion #shion #shion takirua #xion #xion kh #kh xion #kh vanitas #vanitas #vanitas ducimus #vanitas kh #kh ventus #ventus #ventus aurora #ventus “ven” aurora #ven aurora #ven #roxas #roxas takirua #kh incorrect quotes

[authorchan13yeager]

#Kingdom Hearts #Sea salt trio #Destiny trio #Wayfinder trio #Lost trio #Sora's Heart hotel #Sora #Riku #Kaïri #Vanitas #Rikureplica #Namine #Ventus #Terra #Aqua #Roxas #Axel #Xion #Anti Sora #My drawing #Try to draw

[alphascorpiixx]

There's a haunted house on the island.

Everybody knows the boy who lived there died. They say he killed himself trying to bring his friends back. Stabbed himself right in the heart. There was no body to bury.

There's a haunted house on the island.

Nobody can remember who lived in it. Some rumors say it was a boy. What color were his eyes? Blue? His hair—brown or blond or black? No, it was a girl, others say. Sweet girl who let her best friend kill her.

There's an empty house on the island. One by one, all the residents left. First the girl who wasn't really from the island, then the boy who lived there for over a decade, and finally the last two who only needed a temporary place.

No wonder why they left. That house is haunted, you know.

#kingdom hearts #sora #sora's heart hotel #tw suicide #tw murder

[reliand]

#Sora #Kingdom Hearts #I guess I'm done with this :/ #the top one was finished first and for some reason some of my layers disappeared #im too frustrated to fix it but I like the bottom version better #the heart hotel being emptied #sora's heart hotel #my artwork #heartless #darkside

[notquiteanenigma]

One of my top two favorite Kingdom Hearts fics:

It's got the Heart Hotel Plus, Lea&Axel as separate people, and headcanons about how Replicas are made!

#kingdom hearts #sora's heart hotel #lea #axel

[kwoojii]

rage

#kingdom hearts #kh #kh sora #sora #ventus #xion #heart hotel #my art #happy halloween!

[starrduzt]

the heart hotel siblings, my sweet sweet children

close ups!!

TW FLASHING GIF

#kingdom hearts #art #kh fanart #sora kh #kh1 #kh3 #kh2 #vanitas kh #ventus kh #roxas kh #xion kh #sorashearthotel #heart hotel #kh bbs #destiny trio #theyre just a bunch of silly goobers #my children

[skys-trash-bin]

you know what, fuck you *weezers your heart hotel*

#kingdom hearts #kh #sora kh #ventus kh #roxas kh #xion kh #heart hotel #weezer

[arachnits]

hc i came up with a bit ago, i thought itd be cool if once someones in your heart, you take on a physical trait from them!! sora truly is a mosaic of all the people hes ever known

#file name for this was called sora the stealer #hes a little thief........ #ill be real its kinda hard to think of distinct traits for 2 characters who are very similar in appearance. twice. #i imagine the roxas scar was from the riku fight. or smth else. i dont even care i just couldnt think of one for him </3 #kinda implied with the blue eyes but i also imagine theyre permanent #once people make an impact on you its always there yknow? #kingdom hearts #kh #sora #heart hotel #ventus #kairi #roxas #xion #my art

[holleighgram]

The Heart Hotel:

The Counsel of Rikus:

RIKU:

#kingdom hearts #riku #kh riku #sora kh #heart hotel #counsel of rikus #kh shitpost

[pineapplebread]

Sora gang

#more super groupies drip #sora #roxas #xion #ventus #vanitas #sora heart hotel #kingdom hearts #kh #kingdom hearts 4 #kh4 #square enix #super groupies #fashion #street wear #my art #art #illustration #fanart #artists on tumblr

[strayheartless]

How to tell the difference between the heart hotel gang:

Sora:🌈 ✨traumatised✨🌈

Roxas: 🤬traumatised🤬

Ventus: 😰traumatised😰

Vanitas: 🔪traumatised🔪

Xion: traumatised but in 💅🏻girl font 💅🏻

#hope that helps #KH sora #KH roxas #KH Xion #kh ventus #kh vanitas #Soras heart hotel #the heart hotel gang #they are not okay honestly #kingdom hearts #kh1 #kh2 #kh3 #kh4 #kingdom hearts 358/2 days #birth by sleep #dream drop distance

[alphascorpiixx]

trigender Sora in kh1 then when he wakes up he’s like “??? why do I feel agender now?”

then he meets Roxas Xion and Naminé

#they stole his gender #kingdom hearts #sora #roxas #xion #naminé #sora's heart hotel

[yoroshiu]

You wake up with holes in your memory.

Holes you don't know exist until later.

You're given a mission, you take it in stride. You've saved the world once so a second time isn't too bad. Though sometimes you feel things towards places and people you don't know. Crooked smiles, the gentle and eternal sunset, sky-blue ice cream that tastes salty then sweet—the traces of Summer constrict your lungs. Huh? What's this? They question why you're shedding tears. You don't know the answer.

You're met with faces you don't—you do—know, and yet they know you. They call you another name and it doesn't ring a bell. Over time, it gets annoying as they look past you with smirks and no care about who you are. Secrets and missing friends drive you to anger. Why does no one say anything?

Who is, what is, why is—why, why?

The answers are weird. There was a you, not you, but you. They had a different name but a similar face, but different hair and the way they smiled was a bit different. Everyone says they were you but when you see their visage for the first time, they seemed like someone else. They lived a life you didn't. You don't know what exactly they lived through, you just feel the weight of a deepened loss.

You, everyone says. It's you.

But that feels wrong. Memories blend and blur like a watercolor painting, but it feels distant. Them. Not you.

And when you understand, feel, the gravity of their existence, you wonder why they were made to be you. You feel like you can't comprehend fully, what it means to be you or them. What is you, what was never you. There was more too. One, two, three, maybe four. Preceding, succeeding—what were the bits that belonged to you?

You, you, you.

Who are you really?

#kingdom hearts #kh #sora #kh sora #roxas #kh roxas #heart hotel #thinking about sora and the crisis that comes with having your identity split without your awareness #yoroshiu writes