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smartzelda · 4 years

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An Essay (mostly for Soriku shippers looking through the Sokai lens)

So first, before you read this, I would suggest checking out my post on the Sokai vs Soriku lenses (https://smartzelda.tumblr.com/post/189934176949/trying-on-different-lenses)

One off, honestly from what I've learned this year, multiple Sokai scenes aren't as romantic as they seem to be either on the surface or because of mistranslation, and there's not much Sokai in any of the games really. The Sokai really comes up and hits you in the face, and it's because Sora will just not mention it even think of Kairi for length at a time, and then suddenly there's a parallel made in Sora's head (looking at you kh2), but even then, after kh2, that doesn't happen anymore. Kh1 is praised as the best game for Sokai, and that's valid. There's Sora wanting to share a paopu, Sora and Kairi promising to see each other again, Kairi giving Sora the lucky charm as a promise they would find each other, and even Kairi finishing the paopu drawing and crying when looking at it. Though, I would not go as far to say that Sora is completely in love with Kairi. First of all, it's because Sora confirms that he doesn't know what love is in kh3, and two, there's not much suggesting Sora's in love with her, and I'll explain why. After destiny islands falls to darkness and Sora lands in traverse town, he spends a couple worlds asking people where Kairi AND Riku are. Throughout the game, except for a parallel or two (though I can't remember if there are any or not) maybe, he expresses his concern for both Kairi and Riku. He doesn't start to switch gears on that till Riku proves he's on the side of the enemy, but even then Sora tries to reason with him so he can get his friend back. Sora does not care for love in this game really. If anything, he cares for his friends. Now, you're probably wondering why I didn't include a few scenes, and it's simple. I didn't include Sora stabbing himself in the heart because it can easily be taken as something different than "an act of true love". As I stated, Sora makes it clear that he cares a lot more for friendship in this game. Riku's possessed by Ansem, and he wants to save Kairi, so it's no biggie that he sacrifices himself for a friend because he would do it for any of his friends. We know that. You probably wonder too why I didn't add Kairi hugging Sora as love on Sora's part, and that's simple too. It could have been on Kairi's part, but Sora confirms in Twilight Town in kh3 that it was the light from Donald, Goofy, and Kairi and their wants for his return that brought him back. It was not simply Kairi's love that brought him back from being a heartless. We could say that Kairi's in love with Sora, but based on the evidence, there's no way Sora's in love with Kairi at this point of kh1, and even if he was, he could not identify it. But because of a couple scenes and the fact that Kairi is Sora's light in this game, I would say he has a crush on her. Also, I'm going to add that he easily could've hopped the gap and gone with Kairi to destiny islands, but because he cares about having his friends all together over just being like "yeah I love you" and going with Kairi, he decides to go find Riku because what he wants is for the three if them to be together again.

Now onto Chain of memories. This game is also attributed to being a Sokai game because people look at it and go, "Well, Naminé replaced Kairi in Sora's memories and Sora is in love with Naminé at the end meaning that he's in love with Kairi", which is not the case. At the beginning when Sora is let into the castle, Sora answers Marluxia's question of who he misses with Riku. We can argue on that forever on why he said that, but I'm still arguing that he can miss Kairi whether she's safe or not and still miss her, even if he misses Riku too and is looking for Riku. He has been apart from both of them for nearly the same amount of time, and if he was in love with her, he probably either would've said both their names, or just Kairi's, but again, that's just my argument. So, continuing on, I admit that during the worlds, Sora does look at the lucky charm and talk about Kairi. However, the beginning of this game still keeps Sora's goal of finding Riku and bringing his friends back solid. Even when Naminé enters Sora's memories initially, his want to find her is because

1. According to his memories she just disappeared

And 2. He can't believe he forgot a friend and wants to find her and make it up to her.

Then, even when Naminé does replace Kairi in Sora's memories initially, he just has a want to find her because she's in danger. When he talks to Repliku and Repliku pushes him away, he acts a lot like kh1 Riku did. Repliku pretends like he loves her and that he's gonna go find her because he wants to drill into Sora that now he's gonna be alone. Initially, Repliku does this to get his feelings across that he feels like Sora left him alone (leftover from Riku's memories) and never cared about him or his feelings. This is where it takes a turn for the different though. Obviously, just switching Kairi with Naminé in Sora's memories does not make him in love with her. No, there's a very specific memory mentioned that marks a sort of turning point for how Sora acts. This is a key memory that relates to why Sora is in love with Naminé (and Riku, but I'll explain). Before this, Sora's trying to get Riku back as his friend. He tries to spur Riku (repliku) to go with him to save Naminé because he wants them all to be friends again. Things don't escalate further, make any idea of bringing Repliku over to his side unattainable, until the meteor shower promise memory comes up.

So anyways, the meteor shower promise is a key memory. Before this memory comes up, Repliku is much like kh1 Riku. He uses Naminé to get to Sora. To get his feelings of being abandoned and left behind by Sora across, he says stuff like "she doesn't wanna see your face" or "you never cared about her feelings", then it slips out that he's probably talking about his own feelings under the guise of Naminé's feelings because he says "you never cared" and "you're always trying to worm your way into my heart". So obviously, he's mad at being abandoned by Sora and is trying to get all that across, but is also trying to get Sora to feel alone cause "look, now you're alone because Naminé and I are together." This is basically what kh1 Riku does with Kairi, and Nomura confirms in the kh1 ultimania that it's not due to love that Riku tries to save Kairi, but because of his feelings of guilt. Kh1 Riku also uses Kairi to get Sora to feel alone and, get across how he feels about being abandoned, and to get Sora back onto his side, thinking about and focusing on him. There's a switch between Repliku's attitude when the meteor shower memory comes up, and neither of them are in love with Naminé until this memory enters. Maybe Sora has a crush on Naminé before this, but as with in kh1 he cares more about friendship than anything else, and he's not in love with her until the meteor shower promise is a memory of her and him. Same with Repliku, after the promise comes up, his attitude changes, and it's clear that he really could care less about Sora (again, I'll explain more of Repliku's side later) and only wants to protect Naminé. There's something interesting, funny even, about this promise, and it's because there's no way this is a memory where Naminé simply replaced Kairi. It's not because Naminé created the memory completely because when she expresses how terrible she feels for what she did, she assures Sora that she didn't create any new memories. The reason that this memory that spurs Sora and Repliku to love Naminé can't have been one with Kairi in it is because the promise was the night of the meteor shower, and Kairi arrived that night. And it can't be that Riku and Sora met her that night because kh1 brings up a memory of Riku and Sora's where they discover the secret place for the first time, and in this scene, Sora asks if he's heard about Kairi, the new girl, the mayor's daughter, wondering if Riku's heard anything about her because they've only heard of her. They knew she came the night of the meteor shower, but had never seen her. This means that the meteor shower promise had to have been between Sora and Riku. Funny that it's not just Naminé replacing Kairi that gets Sora to fall in love with her, but her finally replacing Riku in a key memory. Maybe he has feelings of love from his memories, but even though he knows it's fake now, he still uses that promise to assure her that he'll protect her, and after she does confesses that, he also shifts back to his more friendship approach. He wants to bring Naminé AND Repliku out of it safely, no matter what's happened (don't get me started with Sora telling Repliku that he's his own person with his own heart and feelings and Repliku telling him that he can tell Sora's feelings are genuine and that he can feel them). Sora probably doesn't remember the meteor shower promise after CoM because of the whole memory thing, but because Sora doesn't remember much from when he was so little, it's safe to say that the meteor shower promise was a memory stuck down in his heart and that he has more important memories stuck in the darkness of his heart like Naminé said. Now, it's safe to say that after a symbolism thing, Kairi is still Sora's light cause they do a light tunnel where Riku's to the side and the light shines through Kairi, however, I again would say that his feelings for Kairi are not of love, but a crush.

So, back to Repliku's side, it's obvious at the beginning that Kairi is replaced in his memory with Naminé as well, but he doesn't actually love her, doesn't switch from kh1 Riku acting towards Sora till the meteor shower promise. Basically, he doesn't love Naminé until Sora is essentially the Kairi of his memories and Naminé is the Sora of his memories. Riku has been shown in the future, time and time again, to put others aside, do bad things to people, for the sake of keeping Sora safe or bringing him back. So when Sora is replaced by Naminé in this key memory of Riku's original memories, Repliku could care less about Sora as long as Naminé is safe, and this is illustrated by his switch in not acting like kh1 Riku towards Sora anymore. After this switch, he makes it clear he does not care about Sora and even goes to attack him, fight him, for Naminé's sake before Naminé puts him down with her power. So, again, it's telling that to finally get either one in love with her, Naminé had to replace the other in a key memory of Sora and Riku's

So, now we got days. I'm giving Kairi a pass on not remembering Sora for a year because she at least knew that something was missing. She knew that there was someone besides Kairi and she didn't completely forget. However, it is also telling for Riku how even though he doesn't completely remember Sora, he holds onto his memory of him and his want to protect and bring him back so hard that he remembers that. He still has memories of Sora. This game is also hailed to be a "look a Sokai game" for a couple reasons. First, people take when Riku says that Kairi's most important to Sora. They take it as a "look, even Riku confirms he loves her" when in fact that might not be exactly what's going on. Sure Riku says that, but if he has no hope at all of Sora liking him like that after kh1 and thinks he's in love with Kairi based on his own anxiety of what he did to Sora and what he saw with Sora putting her over him at times and knowing he has a crush, of course he would say that. He would have no hope of Sora liking him and would think he could only love Kairi. He would even suggest that at that point because it's his dark period and he feels like his own presence is bad to Sora and Kairi and Sora deserve each other after what he's done. We also know that you can't take everything a character says at face value because in kh3 Sora and Riku think and even say that Dark Riku IS Riku from when he's possessed by Ansem before it actually comes out that they were wrong and that Dark Riku in the keyblade graveyard is another version of Repliku. So really, it's not that far fetched to think that Riku saying Kairi is Sora's most important person may be a misled observervation or even something he says based on his own anxiety rather than the complete truth. Another is the existence of Xion. Naminé says in com that Sora has to recover memories most important to him to wake up. All these memories involve Kairi, hence Xion's appearance. However, I would argue that these memories would be important to Sora whether it was Kairi or Riku or someone in them. Many are likely important because he lost them and some are for key development (Imma touch on this later again). Not all of these memories are strictly Sora and Kairi only memories since Naminé implanted herself in every instance of Kairi in those memories. Naminé has Sora hold onto the idea of Kairi because since Kairi is the thing missing in most of those memories, thinking about Kairi will return them to normal with Kairi in them. This has nothing to do with whether Kairi is Sora's most important person, so it doesn't mean too much that Xion looks like Kairi. The last reason people attribute Days as a Sokai game is because Rokushi. Yes, I'm serious. Don't get me wrong, I ship Rokushi, but they are not a Sokai clone. Roxas may be Sora's nobody, but he barely shares memories with him at that point and becomes a completely different person with different memories, a differentish personality, differentish motivations, and his own heart. Roxas doesn't care about Xion as much as he does because "she looks like Kairi and he's Sora". He cares about her because of their memories together. And on Xion's side, besides looking like Kairi, she's nothing like Kairi. If anything, she's a smarter Sora and based on Riku's observations in the days novel, she bears similar personality and anxiety stuff to Sora. Then, even then, as with Roxas, Xion is also her own person with her own heart. Whether Roxas and Xion get together or not have nothing to do with Sokai.

Now for kh2. It is indeed true during the Roxas section where Sora's memories are returning to him, they show memories with Kairi in them. Again, I would say it's because these memories with Kairi are the ones he lost due to Naminé's meddling, and it can't be because he's completely in love with Kairi because of one reason. During the tutorial, there's one last memory or memories Sora needs to wake up. We get through all the memories with Kairi, but that's not enough to wake him up. It takes one last memory that we don't see to wake him up, and based on CoM, I would attribute that to be the meteor shower promise between Sora and Riku in which Naminé messed with that memory and replaced Riku. Again, this is a key memory for Sora based on how it's the memory Naminé had to mess with to get Sora to love her and the final memory Sora needed to wake up at the beginning of kh2. In other words, you can say that those memories Sora needed to wake up are all Kairi because he loves her, but that doesn't take into account that Sora needed a key memory between him and Riku to finally wake up, and I doubt a Sokai fan would like to use Sora's important memories being of the person he loves if one of those memories is strictly a key one between him and Riku, so this further goes that Sora probably holds onto most of those memories because they were the ones that were tampered with and he lost because if the meteor shower memory wasn't a key memory and if Naminé hadn't messed with it, it would not have been a key memory to wake Sora up.

So, Sora wakes up and to his knowledge Kairi is safe on the islands. Now he just has to find Riku. So of course, he asks around, and you can tell this want to find Riku gets more and more desperate as it seems like he's not there and Mickey won't tell him what he knows. Every time he comes upon evidence that Riku's alive, he gets incredibly happy knowing that Riku's okay. Now, this is the game where Sora will bring Riku up, but it takes someone else bringing up a parallel or reminding him of Kairi to remember she exists. It takes being told that Kairi's in danger by the Twilight Town squad for him to try to look for her, and that's valid cause he thought she was safe before, but that still doesn't explain him barely mentioning her. That's why all the Sokai moments such as halloween town and potc are such a slap in the face because he doesn't mention her and BAM a love parallel. Even with these parallels though, it seems he's more holding onto the idea of her and his crush on her, rather than who she is now (I'll bring this up again). In Halloween town, yes he only knows her as a child, but he makes no attempt to age her up, showing he's holding onto and remembering her as who she was, not knowing who she is.

Okay, so now onto a very big attributed Sokai scene. The infamous begging scene. Usually it's attributed this way because on the surface summary, Sora begs on his knees before the enemy, begging to return Kairi, telling him that she's very important to him. That scene is very romantic, however, if you disregard everything about Sora. Again, Sora has shown multiple times that he cares more about friendship rn than a crush. Really, there's a couple things that bother me from that scene by just taking it as romance. First, is the way Saïx puts it to Sora. It's a common trope for villains to ask the hero how much they care about something, and the hero takes it as them needing to show how much they care when the villain is just going to hold onto the person/object the hero is seeking in the end, having meant it as the more the hero cares about the person or object, the more incentive the villain has to withhold that person or object. Sora cares deeply about each and every one of his friends, so it can very well be true that this isn't a romantic Sokai confirmation. It could be Kairi, Donald, Aladdin, or Goofy, if Sora thinks that Saïx isn't going to return a friend safely if he doesn't show that they mean the most to him, then he's going to beg his little heart out in hopes that it'll give a better chance of Saïx returning them safely, and I believe it's possible that that's what happened rather than "he begged because he loves her so much."

Okay, so say you don't believe me on the begging scene. That's fine. That's valid. I simply presented another way of looking at that scene. Now, I'm bringing up another infamous scene. It's the subject of many Sokai vs Soriku arguments and a lot of confusion. It's the kh2 reunion scene. So, as I discussed, under the Sokai lens this scene doesn't make a lot of sense. Sora hasn't seen Riku or Kairi in over a year and they are both his best friends, so why is there such a huge difference in his reactions to both of them in the reunion scene, especially considering those love parallels and the begging scene? Under that lens, Kairi is Sora's crush/he loves her, so why does he react that way? Some argue that Sora's reaction to Kairi is cute and Sora's flustered, but that probably isn't it. Kairi hugs him and Sora reacts like he did when Tron hugged him, uncomfortable just because he's not used to that, but as that hug continues, he never leans into it, comfortable, smiling. That uncomfortable look stays, and as Kairi's into the hug, smiling, glad that she's finally with Sora, Sora hesitantly brings his arms around her to hug her back. He nowhere near looks as comfortable and happy as Kairi does, squeezing him. Then, his reunion with Riku. He cries on his knees, and fine, you can say that it's just because they're best friends. I'll take it I guess. It is valid considering he could've been dead and Sora barely had evidence that he was alive and was holding onto that evidence very hard. But through this lens, an uncomfortable hug vs a heartfelt cry on the knees? Some fans have said it's because knowing Riku was there overshadowed his reunion with Kairi, but that's not true. He only knew Kairi was there during his reunion with her and didn't know Ansem was Riku until Kairi made it clear after his reunion with her. Some fans have said it's because Kairi's simply a crush and Riku's his best friend or that Sora knew Kairi was safe on the islands while he basically had no idea whether Riku was okay, but that's not true either. Kairi is Sora's best friend too, so "just a crush" is not an excuse. Also, he knew Kairi wasn't safe on the islands the whole time. He knew she had been in danger and had been captured by the enemy from the Twilight Town game and Saïx. So that's no excuse either. Some looking through the Sokai lens would rather just put it off as bad writing on Nomura's part because if Sokai is meant to be canon, then there's no other explanation. But, I'm going to take a different approach, look through a different lens. Remember before when I talked about Sora being "in love" with the idea of Kairi and who she was? Because Kairi's changed now, she grew up a whole year without Sora and Riku, and Sora's not much different than he was. So my explanation for the sudden shift in Sora's reaction to Kairi for this scene is...the whole time, Sora's been holding onto his crush, onto Kairi as she was, so when he sees her again and that hug ensues, he's shocked, uncomfortable, because this isn't the same Kairi. Kairi's changed. And I believe this is a turning point for his and Kairi's relationship through the series because now Sora has to cope with having to re get to know someone he used to know. He doesn't really have a crush on her anymore because he doesn't know this version of her, and this has to rebuild that friendship in a way. So, even if that begging scene is romantic, or even taking the romantic parallels into account, how he acts in the reunion scene shows that he was holding onto Kairi was, not taking into account that Kairi may be or is different now. And, this is not the first time a "sokai moment" has a different meaning, a more character growth and friendship oriented meaning if you don't look at it with the pretense that Sokai will be canon(Also, for anyone who's thinking about Donald anf Goofy's teasing, they will tease Sora like parents anytime about whoever they think his crush is. They tease Sora about Naminé on CoM, about Kairi in kh2, and Riku in kh3)

And after the reunion scene, there isn't any romantic parallels between Sora and Kairi in kh2 or even Sora seeming to have a crush on her. After this, there's like 3ish "Sokai scenes" I guess. I'll go in order.

First is the RokuNami = Sokai canon parallel that was done with Rokushi in days. There's a scene where Roxas and Naminé emerge from Sora and Kairi's hearts and have a talk. This is normally attributed as a romantic tragedy scene because people look at it as "oh gosh they'll never be human again but at least when Sora and Kairi are together they'll see each other again". But really, it's not that romantic when you look into it? Like, Naminé and Roxas talk about how at least they'll be able to see each other again as long as Sora and Kairi are together, but they kinda became friends sorta during before Sora wakes up and they're the only nobodies left. Naminé is Roxas's only living friend at this point. Roxas doesn't remember Xion, and Axel "died". Of course they'd wanna get to see each other again. They're the only ones. It really doesn't have to have a romantic meaning. Plus, there's no way Roxas and Naminé fell in love. Yeah he spent some moments with her in the beginning tutorial of the game, but it was a bond forged over Roxas wanting to know his past and what it means to be a nobody and Naminé wanting to make up for all the hurt, help him, and fulfill her promise of promise to Xion to protect him. Them becoming friends is plausible, but a few meetings isn't enough time to fall in love. People argue that Rokunami is canon because Sora and Kairi are in love, and that because Sokai is canon Rokunami is canon, and it doesn't make sense. The circular reasoning runs off the assumption of one pair being canon when neither have been confirmed canon by Nomura. Also, again, Roxas and Sora are not the same people. Roxas is "a Sora" but he's got a different heart, motivations, memories, etc like I said earlier. Similarly, Kairi and Naminé, although Naminé is closer to being Kairi than Roxas is Sora, are still their own people, with different hearts, and even Kairi mentions this in kh3. So like Rokushi, even if Naminé and Roxas happen to get together, it isn't a Sokai clone and it doesn't confirm Sokai.

The next one is sorta a Sokai scene? It's during when Riku and Sora are in the RoD on the beach and they receive Kairi's letter. I mean, it could be love on Sora's side? It really more shows the love on Kairi's side, especially since she wrote it while barely remembering Sora. I mean, it's true that after reading it, Sora's heart opens a door to the realm of light to the play island where Kairi, Donald, Goofy, and Mickey are. What's interesting though, is that that whole scene isn't framed as a Sora returning to Kairi thing really. Before they return to the realm, it puts focus on how Sora is taking Riku back with him, framing this as a finally Sora's with Riku and Kairi, together again. This whole thing is framed as a group reunion, not a "finally Sora and Kairi can be together". Then, they focus on Riku and Sora together dropping down into the ocean, then it focuses on individual reunions. It frames Sora and Riku by themselves before stepping through the door, then Mickey and Riku, then Sora, Donald, and Goofy, then Sora with Kairi, finally giving her back the good luck charm (effectively closing off the charm thing where Sora had to get to Kairi to bring it back, also symbolizing that Sora doesn't need it because now he, Kairi, and Riku are together again), then finally Roxas and Naminé, going back to them being able to see each other through Sora and Kairi and still be friends. Again, it's fraimed as a whole group reunion and Sora and Riku coming home, the trio being together again, not a Sokai reunion.

The last Sokai attributed scene is in the credits of kh2 when Sora returns to the secret place and sees the finished paopu scene drawing. It's hard to know exactly what Sora was thinking, but I still doubt it shows Sora being in love. Again, as I argued before, at this point since Kairi's different, him reacting or smiling at the action of Kairi having finished it as he does probably incites a reaction like that because the Kairi that did that is the Kairi he knew and had a crush on. The Kairi that did that is not the same Kairi he has to get to know now. Also, I think the fact that he smiled further shows that it probably was just a crush he had on her and not full on love in kh1. When Kairi sees that Sora did the paopu drawing and completed the drawing more at the end of kh1, she smiles and cries and it's heartfelt. When Sora sees that she completed it, he just kinda smiles after putting his hand on it. But then again, the fact that he traces his hand over it means he's probably reminiscing because before he finds that particular drawing, he traces his hand over other old drawings in the cave. Plus, reminiscing can also be attributed to him not having a crush on her anymore. I can look back to moments with my first crush and reminisce over old moments and even remember how it felt, but it doesn't mean that I still like that person that way. Also, I'm gonna add that after Sora bounds out of that cave, he goes over to where Riku is on the paopu tree, and they basically end up switching spots and watch either the sunset or sunrise for a moment together, not to mention that Riku would sit up there in kh1 and look at the sky alone, but Sora coming up there means he's not alone anymore and that their relationship has shifted to be closer than it was in kh1.

Okay, so there's basically one Sokai attributed scene in bbs since Sora and Riku are childhood best friends and they haven't met Kairi yet. It's when Aqua and Mickey save Kairi from the unversed. Aqua puts a spell on Kairi's necklace. Most take it as Aqua meant the spell to take her to "the person" meant to protect her as in someone who would be "her" true love. That's not what Aqua says. Aqua just says that it would lead Kairi to someone's light so they could keep her safe. Based on what Aqua says, this person is effectively any person with a heart of light with the power to keep her safe. Then, according to the Ansem reports, he set Kairi out in hopes that she would lead him to the keyblade weilder, which technically Riku was before Sora temporarily gained use of it in kh1. That means that Kairi could've been lead to the light of either Riku or Sora since they both had a strong light and Riku technically was the keyblade weilder, and based on what Aqua says, it doesn't have anything to do with love.

Recoded wise, Kairi appears like once I think? Really, there's no Sokai in this. Kairi's not present, so Data Sora's fretting over Data Riku like the real Sora does starting with CoM and Data Riku acts like days/prereunion Riku. Data Riku constantly apologizes, and when taken over by darkness/the bugs, tries to get Data Sora to leave him be. He'd rather take it all and alienate himself from Data Sora because, like days and prereunion Riku, thinks Data Sora better off without him. If anything, it shows how different things would have been if Kairi wasn't there.

DDD wise, Kairi literally appears like 3 times, and during blank points when Sora decides he's gonna leave with Riku to go to the tower, Kairi gives Sora the good luck charm again as a promise that he and Riku will come back, but unlike in CoM, he doesn't mention the good luck charm the whole time. About the times when Kairi appears, she appears once when Sora says "my friends are my power" while in the presence of Xigbar and Xemnas, and she appears along with the rest of the weilders and people Sora's connected too out of Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and the main cast of original characters. Another time, she and Riku appear, and Sora tries his hardest to catch up to both of them. Another time, she appears so young Xehanort can explain that the robed guy was there at the right time at that moment in kh1 when Kairi flies through Sora. Then, the final time, she appears in the secret ending so Nomura could reveal that her keyblade wielding was gonna be important for kh3. Besides those times, Kairi is not mentioned the whole time unless Riku happens to be talking about a time with Sora and Kairi or unless Sora happens to be talking about Kairi and Riku, and I can't remember a single time like that where they mention Kairi by name (though I could be wrong). They pretty much just refer to the other. Also, there are plenty love parallels in DDD, especially the hearts in tune scene, and none indicate Sora and Kairi. Every parallel you can make love or relationship wise in that game parallels to Sora and Riku. And, in the end, we don't even see if Sora brings that good luck charm back to Kairi. It's just not important or brought up in that game

So now, we're to kh3 territory (I skipped 0.2 because Riku and Kairi are there, and the only mention of Sora is Kairi telling Riku that he's more like Sora). I get how this one also seems like Sokai the game, but I would attribute that to the Eng version and its mistranslations. Also though, there's not many Sokai scenes in kh3 anyways, and many I could breakdown as not really being romantic as everyone says.

Literally, there's basically no Sokai the entire game until the paopu scene. So, the paopu scene. The first problem I have labeling it romantic is the framing of the scene. The scene starts out with Sora focused on Riku, even when Kairi says that they should leave him be and that he said he wanted to be alone. It takes Kairi shoving a paopu in Sora's face for him to shift his focus onto her. So then, similar to the reunion scene, Kairi shoves the paopu in his face and he moves back with a look uncomfortablility on his face, and that's valid because that's a valid reaction to having something shoved in your face, but like the reunion scene, that uncomfortable expression stays. Sora looks at the paopu and to Kairi uncomfortably until (in the jap version because the eng version mistranslated it with an obviously romantically slanted line) she just puts it off as a good luck charm. Because of bbs, we know that sharing a paopu can be a romantic or platonic. Based on Sora's knowledge of the paopu though, it's likely he sees Kairi handing him this paopu as a romantic advance. But, when faced with this romantic advance, again, he keeps that uncomfortable look until she just puts it off as something else. And when she puts it off as just a good luck charm, that's when he decides he's gonna share the fruit. If this scene was gonna be romantic, his uncomfortable face would've disappeared into comfortability and a smile after he processed looking at Kairi and the fruit. He would have easily been receptive off the bat. And again, it's not like he's flustered. That look, just like in the reunion scene, is a look of uncomfortablility, not being flustered. So, when Kairi puts the sharing off as something else other than romantic, a simple sharing, he becomes receptive, and they share the fruit, just like in the cave drawing...almost. During the creation of the cave drawing of the sharing, Sora was the one to share first, showing that at that time he wanted to share a paopu with Kairi. But in this scene, Kairi's the one who makes the move, and Sora's not interested in it till he knows it's not binding as a romantic sharing. Also, though they don't take a bite of the paopu in the cave drawing, if you look at that scene closely, Sora's the only one who takes a bite of the paopu. Kairi doesn't take a bite, and no matter how you look at it, if she had taken one, it would be clear to see based on how every point of the paopu is a curve. Now, relating back to the kh2 reunion scene, Sora hasn't had the time to reforge his friendship with Kairi. Maybe they get a week after 2 because in 3 the Twilight Town kids are still on vacation, but not enough time to get to know each other. So really, there's no way Sora's in love with Kairi during this scene because he still doesn't really know who she is yet. My vote is that the real significance of the scene is it's supposed to be a key point showing that now Sora and Kairi are going to rebuild their friendship (because Kairi loves Sora and Sora doesn't really know her anymore), and I'm gonna come back to this later. Also, I forgot to add the fact that the scene can't be a Sokai romance confirming because Sora just states a few worlds back that he's got a lot to learn about love, and I doubt he figured out enough to know whether he's in love with anyone in the span of a few worlds

So, the next scene is the scene where Sora hugs Kairi when Terranort goes to attack her. On the surface and out of context, this seems like, "Oooh how romantic. It's a true love sacrifice", but again, I'd argue that it's really not. First, in context, before Sora does this, Lea goes to protect Kairi, holding up his keyblade to block Terranort's attack, and it does no help because Terranort launches Lea back and goes to attack again. So, Sora could've gone to block the next attack, but he likely realized that wouldn't work because of what just happened to Lea, so he didn't do that. Again, Sora has been shown time and time again to be self sacrificial for his friends, so if blocking the attack doesn't work, and Sora really wants to keep all his friends safe, of course he would just be a meat shield, especially if that's the only option he sees that might work. Also, it can't be an act of true live for a couple reasons. The first is that there's no way he figured out love yet (it definitely would've had more of a focus if he had figured it out) and next is cause of the framing and emphasis of the scene. Acts of true love in kh3 such as Eugene and Rapunzel's and Elsa and Anna's are given emphasis, they feel climactic, the shot is directly focused on it. Sora's sacrifice in that moment doesn't seem much like that. Yeah there's some focus on it, but the focus and framing is put more on Goofy saving them both with his shield. Heck, emphasis and shot wise, Donald casting Zettaflare got more of the attention of a true love's sacrifice. Based on the way this moment is framed, if Sora had died for Kairi like that, it would have just felt pitiful, and definitely undeserving because Kairi just didn't fight back. It wouldn't have felt like an impactful true love sacrifice. Really, after looking into it, this scene is more of Sora being desperate to keep his friends all safe and being lucky Goofy was there to save him

The next scene attributed to being a Sokai moment is just before Riku's sacrifice (which has all that dramatic, climactic, true love sacrifice framing btw). Kairi gets swept up in the demon tide originally after meat shielding for Lea (again showing that meat shielding doesn't necessarily mean romance, especially if you're trying to keep all your friends safe), then pulls around again, reaching for Sora before getting swept back and Sora reaches for her too. Again, a moment that's like, "omg so romantic," but really, no? Sora just watched all of his friends, all the other keyblade weilders besides him and Riku get swept up and he reaches for Kairi in hopes that he can at least save somebody

Okay, so next is the light tunnel scene. This is taken as another Sokai confirming moment cause on the surface it's like, "See! Kairi has been Sora's light all along! She saved him! They're holding hands!" I believe that's not how it is though. First off, Kairi does have a part in saving Sora so he can end up in the final world because Naminé does say that it was due to Kairi he endured, but that's not all. Sora's heart and body both endured in the final world, he just needed to piece himself back together to be whole and have a whole form. Now, we know that Sora's enduring was due to an act of true love, so Kairi must have performed one (even though there's no focus on what it was, so it's probably less important that Kairi did it and more important on who else), but who else may have allowed Sora's heart to endure? Who performs an act of true love for Sora, framing and all? Riku does. Riku's sacrifice has a lot of emphasis, focus, especially considering it happened twice literally, and a third time symbolically for the Final World world title screen (you can check the SRT for more detail on that). So, it's safe to say that Kairi held Sora's body, his form together, but it was because of Riku's sacrifice, telling Sora he believes in him (jap version cause in eng it's mistranslated to "you don't believe that"), that Sora's heart endured. So yeah, Kairi helped save Sora, but it wasn't all her. Now, as for Kairi being Sora's light (as in the light for Sora versus a light), I don't think so. There's more detail on this in the SRT, but after CoM, there's no symbolism for Kairi being Sora's light, and there are plenty of parallels, including exact ones, where Riku is shown to be Sora's light (such as on Sora's station of awakening at the beginning of kh3 when they do an exact, frame by frame, parallel of Riku=light with kh1's opening). You may say that she must be because Sora decides that (but again as with Riku thinking Dark Riku is him from the past taken over by Ansem, character's original thoughts can be wrong, and Kairi also never approves or denies Sora's statement of her being the light) or because she's there in the tunnel, but in the first instance of Sora's tunnel of light the person who is the light is not in the tunnel because they are the light, and they are the one presenting flashbacks, or the person who was the light was presented with the light shining through them. Kairi is in the tunnel with Sora, so that knocks off what happened in the first instance, but in the second instance, the light shined through Kairi. In kh3's tunnel scene, Kairi is spotted off to the side from the light and purposely has to eclipse the light to get Sora's attention. Then, I doubt Kairi gave Sora those visions cause of how she reacts. When Sora receives the visions of the true love sacrifice, she reacts to his reaction as if she had no idea he's getting the visions. To Kairi, she just feels Sora jolt, but when she looks back and sees he's fine, she just smiles, showing she's unaware. If she had purposely given him those visions, she would've probably expected his reaction to seeing the visions and would've initially looked back with a smile instead of concern. Sora also gets these visions from looking deep into the light, not at Kairi. Further that Kairi can't be the light is that she's in the tunnel, and besides when she eclipses the light, she doesn't have the light shining through her like that at all, instead, she's to the side, leading Sora to the light, but if that light IS Kairi, then there's no way she can follow herself, taking Sora with her. Kairi may be helping lead Sora TO the light, but there's no way she IS the light (again, this whole scene is detailed further and better in the SRT and I would suggest taking a look). Also, I would say that Kairi can't be Sora's guiding light rn, because he still doesn't know her as she is yet and still has to rebuild that friendship. About the handholding in that scene though and Sora's reaction to finding her though, first of all, she is leading him, she was the one who initiated the handholding, not Sora, and simple handholding doesn't automatically mean love (no matter how much heteronormativity drills into you that a girl and a guy holding hands = relationship, while two people of the same gender holding hands always equals friendship), and second, Sora wants all of his friends back, together, and alive so when everyone is saved but Kairi, and he can't find her, and finally finds her again, of course he's happy because he finally found her and all of his friends are okay and safe now.

Now, onto the scene where Xehanort kills Kairi. First, I'm going to add that Sora has a hero complex. Whenever a character is presented in danger and/or has a history of that, his reaction is to decide to protect them. Example A is Aqua. Aqua calls Sora out on it. Sora sees her weak, she had fallen to darkness, and his kneejerk reaction is to do all the work, to protect her and fight Vanitas when he shows up. Then, although Nomura has Sora show up for every battle in the keyblade graveyard to drive the story, it can also be telling of Sora's personality. Sora shows up to every battle because as Kairi says, this is their toughest battle yet, and just before he lost everyone in one fell swoop, so if he's there for every battle, he can protect all his friends and make sure he doesn't lose any. This also reaches back to example B, which is the paopu scene. Sora promises to keep Kairi safe. It could be attributed to him "being in love with her" (even though there's no way that's possible at this point), but it could also be his hero complex taking over. If there's anyone who's been kidnapped the most, shown she needs saving, and hung back during fights, it's Kairi, so his hero complex says that now that she's fighting, he needs to be ready to protect her so he doesn't lose one of his friends. Her telling him she would keep her safe is almost a parallel to Aqua telling Sora that he had seen her weak and her going to fight Vanitas because it's her telling Sora's hero complex that she can protect herself and that she can save him too. So, with all that in mind in the scene where Xehanort kills Kairi, it's probably not like "Sora's in love with her and that's why he's so sad and angry when she is killed! It's soooo tragic!" So, really, Sora and his hero complex have gone through all this trouble to make sure no one dies again, to make sure everyone of his friends are safe, and then Xehanort summons Kairi, Sora goes to save her, and Xehanort kills her, effectively ruining Sora goal (since one of his friends got killed), and causing all the stress and desperation he built up trying to keep everyone safe to burst out. So Sora's terribly angry, "Why her?!", because out of anyone who gets to die in the war, why does it have to be one of his friends? After all his hard work, why does one of his friends deserve to die? It's similar to when the Demon Tide killed everyone but him and Riku. He breaks down because despite everything he cares about and has worked for, one of his friends is killed again, and there's nothing he can or could do about it.

Okay, so the next "sokai" scene is the scene after everyone returns to the keyblade graveyard after Sora defeats Xehanort. I'm going to redirect you to a post by @blowingoffsteam2 on tumblr because they do a great job of explaining how the mistranslations in this scene make all the difference on how this scene and Sora's feelings are perceived. The post: https://smartzelda.tumblr.com/post/189913559229/at-the-ending-of-kh3-sora-decides-to-go-save

Now, there is one final Sokai scene in kh3, and it's in the ending. In the ending, Kairi and Sora are on the tree, holding hands, and Sora disappears. First, this scene is a direct parallel to Pooh's story book in kh3 and where I talked about how Sora needs to rebuild his relationship with Kairi as seen by the kh2 reunion scene and the paopu scene. In kh3, pooh's storybook is shown to have Sora missing from the cover, and when he sees pooh again, he figures out that it is because their bond weakened. Then, when talking to Merlin, Sora learns that when that happens, those friendships simply need to be reestablished and rebuilt. It's obviously a lesson Nomura wanted Sora to learn if it is directly focused on by Sora and explained by Merlin, so it's not far fetched to think that this lesson may be relevant in kh3, and I'd attribute it to Sora and Kairi's relationship. Kairi and Sora's positions on the tree in that final "Sokai scene" and Sora's disappearance are a direct parallel to Pooh's storybook in which they are in the exact same positions, and in both Sora disappears. This may also symbolize that Sora needs to rebuild his relationship with Kairi as Merlin discussed. Kairi being paralleled with pooh doesn't stop here though, and this is better discussed in a post by @fandomoverflowThe post: https://databoyreekoo.tumblr.com/post/188351277667/kairis-grand-adventure-an-analysis-of-kairisWe won't know more about this scene till remind comes out probably, but from what we have already, the fact that they are on the tree holding hands is not a confirmation of romance. In the end, after kh3, there's no way Sokai's canon because Nomura never stated it himself and all of these Sokai scenes either aren't romantic at all, or can be taken as not romantic (at least on Sora's side).

So really, based on all this, it's safe to say that although Sora thinks Kairi is his light rn, she is not, and that going forward, Soriku has more chance of being canon if we're not going off the assumption Nomura's a bad writer (which it's pretty sad that to make sense of writing choices through the Sokai lens that you have to put Nomura off as a crappy writer for so much) and that Sokai will be canon in the end. I would probably attribute any romantic tension between Sora and Kairi after kh2 to Kairi being in love with Sora and making advances while Sora isn't at that point. I'd say rather than leaning more towards a Sokai confirmation, knowing some of the mistranslations and all the Soriku parallels people have found, Soriku has a bigger chance rn, though Nomura left it open ended at the end of kh3 in a way because we don't know for sure how Sora feels yet because he doesn't know love yet (we'll just have to see). If there's anything you learn from reading this or take back, I hope it's not that "I'm right and you're wrong blah blah". Instead, I hope that especially the Soriku shippers looking through the Sokai lens learn to question, look past the surface, and look for other explanations for Sokai besides taking it for romance. I urge you to stop perceiving everything through the notion that Sokai is going to be canon (especially when Nomura has never stated this would be the case), and instead try to leave it more open ended on your journey to discover Nomura's intentions and where he's taken the series.

I'm incredibly sorry for writing this huge essay

#sorry for writing this huge essay #soriku #didn't tag it as sokai cause target audience

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winterstorm032802 · 5 years

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i was gonna say rokushi but i know you're just gonna give that infinity/10 and call it a day so... Rikunami

I'm still gonna do it!

Ahem

Roxas x Xion also known as Rokushi or any other way you take it

This is hands down my favorite ship in all of Kingdom Hearts. The way it went from meeting each other to even their first words being the others name

When Axel said (manga and yes I'm counting it) "You're acting like a human scared that you'll get hurt" "Then I'm the opposite I'm scared of hurting Xion"

Axel is suprised at this as he soon smiles (if I remember correctly)

Riku and Naminé say that Xion is a special person to Roxas as is Kairi to Sora

The girl he treasures is Xion. OathKeeper: A symbol of the promise they gave to each other

And Oblivion is the symbol of her. The promise he made to Xion will forever be with him.

Xion knew what she was doing

The last thing she's done was being with Roxas. Roxas was the only person who refused to forget Xion.

Romantic

Platonic

Rating:

+99999999/10

My opinion: It's gorgeous and is true to me, from the interactions to the last words. It's truly my favorite and I will never let this ship sink

#xion #xion kingdom hearts #kh xion #roxas #kh roxas #kingdom hearts xion #xion kh #kingdom hearts roxas #kingdom hearts #roxas x xion #rokushi #rokushion #kingdom hearts rokushion #ask box #ask box is always open

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animexalchemist · 5 years

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Keyblade Theorising II

So after posting about the Kingdom Key and Riku’s role in giving it to Sora, someone asked me what I made of Kairi’s keyblade. The result? A bloody essay. Read on for more mad theorising!

Note: contains spoilers for KHIII!

So Kairi gets her keyblade in KHII and it happens thusly: she jumps down to save Sora, gets surrounded by heartless, and they immediately bury her. She calls out for Sora to help her as the heartless’ darkness begin to consume her and then there is a bright flash of light. This bright flash of light immediately kills all of the heartless and then Riku is holding out a keyblade for her (and really, this whole thing can be paralleled with how Sora got his keyblade in KHI). Clearly the light that vanquished the darkness is Riku’s. Think about that: Riku’s light despite him taking the form of Ansem, where darkness is currently winning in Riku’s internal dark/light battle.

Riku’s light, eh? Pretty damn strong.

So I have two theories about where her keyblade came from, and I’m not saying one is better than the other. I’m just kinda laying down my thoughts.

1.) This is Aqua’s keyblade

We know in BBS that Kairi accidentally touching Aqua’s keyblade meant that she inherited it. Which… I always thought was complete bullshit and ran counter to everything that had been established about how bequeathing ceremonies worked (Terra actually performed it for Riku, where Kairi just touched Aqua’s blade and that counts??), but supposedly Kairi’s heart was worthy of the blade which is why it’s legit. I don’t think that this keyblade was forged of Kairi’s personal light because none of the other princesses of heart were able to call forth a keyblade, and the manner in which she gained her keyblade suggests that it didn’t come directly from her, but from an external source.

So let’s assume this is Aqua’s keyblade. We know thanks to KHIII that at some point while Aqua was trapped in the RoD, she lost her keyblade. She had it in II.5, which covers the events of KHI, but lost it at some point during KHII. So it could be that Kairi being in danger called forth the keyblade that was ‘bequeathed’ to her by Aqua, and that’s where it came from, thus in effect leaving Aqua keyblade-less. Aqua ‘losing’ her keyblade shouldn’t be a thing, given that keyblades are connected to the wielder, but if Luxu literally lost his ability to keyblade once he passed it on then this would explain why Aqua suddenly lost her ability to keyblade: it passed on to Kairi, leaving Aqua behind.

This once more shows how powerful Riku really is. Aqua is a full on Keyblade Master but once she has lost her keyblade, that’s it. She’s defenceless. She cannot make another. And yet Riku, if my earlier observations hold any weight, has at least two keyblades in the Kingdom Key and Way To Dawn (later Braveheart).

How did Aqua’s keyblade seek Kairi out? Aqua put her own magic in Kairi’s necklace and given the things we have seen in this series so far, it isn’t too much of a stretch to believe the keyblade zoned in on this magic and ended up with Kairi.

But then why was Riku the one holding it? The fact he could hold it at all, when keyblades typically reject anyone but their true wielder, leads to my other idea.

2.) This is yet another keyblade forged from Riku’s light

So, in effect, this is the THIRD keyblade that Riku is sustaining. The bright light happens, Riku’s light, and suddenly he’s holding yet another keyblade that he quite literally hands over to Kairi. When he gave the Kingdom Key to Sora, it was more of his heart choosing to do so. But he just up and hands her this one. And I think it’s likely due to similar reasons as to why he gave one to Sora: Riku wants to keep Kairi safe.

Despite KHIII utterly ruining any relationship these two had, KHI and KHII actually did a decent job of making it seem that Kairi and Riku are friends. Riku in KHI is literally doing everything in his power to get Kairi’s heart back. He even says that he’ll work with Maleficent and embrace the the darkness more if that is what it takes to save Kairi (whether this is truly genuine or only part of the truth, in that he says this as an excuse to get closer to darkness, is up for debate). The last thing he says in KHI? “Take care of her [Kairi]”. And in KHII, when Kairi and Naminé are surrounded by Nobodies and shit looks dire? Riku swoops in to save the day, and subsequently spends a lot of his time protecting Kairi (he literally wraps his arms around her to protect her from Saïax’s berserker mode). So it isn’t wildly out of character for him to try and give her a means to protect herself, as he did for Sora, by giving her a keyblade. The only difference being that, while the Kingdom Key was actually Riku’s keyblade that he’s passed on, this seems to be a keyblade he forged specifically for Kairi.

Extra: I didn’t know this as I initially typed these musings as I haven’t read the manga, but a friend pointed out that in the manga Luxu seems shocked that Kairi had a keyblade and (with a sort of begrudging respect) asks Riku how the hell he managed to make one for her.

Kairi’s Keyblade: What’s In A Name?

So Kairi’s keyblade is called Destiny’s Embrace (in English) or Destiny’s Place (in Japanese). This emphasis on destiny is interesting to me. Sora, essentially a non-wielder who gained the ability to wield thanks to Riku’s heart choosing Sora over himself, was never ‘destined’ to wield the keyblade. Or, at least, not destined to wield the Kingdom Key (destined to wield Kingdom Key D, however… see this link to another theory that I think holds water). Whereas Destiny’s Embrace suggests that Kairi was always destined to become a keyblade wielder, which is… odd, given that her ‘inheriting’ of the keyblade from Aqua was a fluke. But what WASN’T a fluke was Aqua putting a charm on Kairi’s necklace and saying it would take her to someone that would keep her safe. She was destined to be protected, and sure enough, if Riku did make this keyblade for her, then this destiny is fulfilled. Interesting again to note that Riku, not Sora, was the one protecting her in this instance.

Kairi’s Keyblade: The Paopu Keychain

Why is it that Destiny’s Embrace has a paopu keychain? I have a few ideas, some of which are more plausible than others.

1.) Riku wanted to share a paopu with Kairi

Wow, what a rogue idea! Full (and probably obvious) disclosure: I’m a SoRiku shipper and read a lot of the KHI moments of Riku getting jealous and bitchy as him being jealous that Sora didn’t like him, but let me just take my SoRiku goggles off for a hot second and… put my KaiRiku ones on?? It’s not as crazy as it seems.

As mentioned earlier, a huge part of Riku’s motivations in KHI was protecting Kairi and getting her heart back, and he even thanks Kairi for coming to the island and inspiring him to seek a world beyond Destiny Islands. During his race with Sora in KHI, he says that if he wins then he wants to share a paopu with Kairi (again, let’s say that this wasn’t actually Riku just trying to razz Sora and there was a part of him that did genuinely want to share it with her). If Destiny’s Embrace really is a keyblade that Riku forged for Kairi in order to keep her safe, then the paopu keychain is essentially him finally getting to share a paopu with her as per his request in KHI.

Now, of course, paopu fruits don’t necessarily have romantic connotations all the time. It could be that he just wanted to keep the two of them close, like how Kairi gave Sora her way-finder. Regardless of if this is read as romantic or platonic, Kairi’s keychain being a paopu fruit is symbolic of her relationship with Riku— and I would also extend it to Sora as well. If Riku gave both of them keyblades, he’s kind of like some secret guardian watching over those that matter to him and wanting to keep them safe. He is the origin of all of their keyblades, and in this way binds the Destiny Trio together.

‘Ah, but Alchemist!’ I hear you cry. ‘Riku no longer wants to protect the THINGS that matter, as KHIII made it very clear he cares about one person and one person only: Sora.’

Fair point. I think KHIII did Kairi and Riku’s relationship SUPER FUCKING DIRTY, but it’s also true that Riku’s number one priority is and always has been Sora. Giving Kairi a paopu fruit to keep the three of them together does make sense for his character, but when push comes to shove, Riku would probably push Kairi off a cliff if it would save Sora (I mean come on, RIku would throw HIMSELF off a bloody cliff if it would save Sora, and take King Mickey along with him for good measure). So maybe the keychain means something else.

2.) Kairi’s ‘destiny’ is a solitary one

So why does Kairi have a complete paopu fruit all to herself, but the combined halves of Sora’s Nightmare’s End and Riku’s Mirage Split together make a whole paopu fruit?

We know that if two people share a paopu fruit, they will remain part of each other’s lives forever. In effect: their destiny’s become entwined. The Gayblade being formed of two halves to form a whole, and being a keyblade that both Sora and Riku share, is a clear illustration that Sora and Riku’s destiny’s are entwined. By sharing this keyblade with its paopu imagery, they essentially seem to be sharing the same destiny. But Kairi has her own fruit, and it isn’t being shared with anyone. This makes for a rather tragic reading of her character, but one that seems to make sense given the events of KHIII:

If the Gayblade paopu is symbolic of Riku and Sora sharing the same destiny, the paopu of Destiny’s Embrace is symbolic of Kairi’s destiny being a solitary one. Her destiny is one that she will have to face alone, with no one to share it with her.

I’m sure you are all aware of the star-crossed quality that characterises SoKai; Sora even explicitly states this at the end of KHIII when he vents his frustration of always being separated from Kairi just when it looks like they can finally be together. Then there’s the fact that Kairi seems to have been left on her own in some alternate Destiny Islands at the very end of KHIII, so this all points to her destiny being apart from those of her close friends. Her ‘place’ (Destiny’s Place) is separate from them. And this is rather apt, given what her name means: Kairi means ‘ocean’, of course, but it also means ‘separation’.

We can take ‘separation’ in many ways: she tried to separate Sora from Riku in KHI by suggesting they take the raft together, and she seemed to keep them separated again in KHIII with the now infamous paopu scene. But really, the separation is felt most keenly on her end. Sora and Riku were friends long before she washed up on Destiny Islands, and they’re always going off and having adventures without her and leaving her behind. In KHII she very fervently states her desire for the three of them to stay together from now on, and almost immediately after she is separated from them AGAIN. The Destiny Trio is an uneven trio in a lot of ways, and while I could also write about the ways Riku is excluded from it, Kairi is excluded from it just as much if not more so. And that is why a single paopu fruit just to herself is fitting: no one to share it with, a destiny that she will have to face by herself.

3.) Kairi is whole but Sora and Riku are incomplete

And this is the batshit crazy side of this epically long journey through my thoughts, but while I’m here I may as well put it down. What if Kairi, having a whole fruit, is symbolic of her having a full and complete destiny, being a full and complete person? What if the two halves of the Gayblade actually mean that apart, Sora and Riku are ‘incomplete’? Yes this is all cute and romantic in one sense, but what if they are literally incomplete? Admittedly this idea is fuelled purely by Yozora, who seems to be a combination of the two of them. But I don’t really want to get into what the fuck Yozora could possibly be (An ultimate fusion of them both? Their illicit lovechild? Some dude who just really loves cosplaying Riku but made it ‘edgy’?) and so I’ll just end this one right here. I don’t have much stock in this particular reading but eh, thought it worth shoving down anyways while I’m here.

#kingdom hearts #kh #kh3 spoilers #kh theories #riku #sora #kairi #keyblades #soriku #kairiku #rikai #sokai #sorikai #axa musings #yozora #aqua

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kingdomdizzy · 5 years

Text

a birthday

this is a small drabble i wrote awhile back for Sora’s birthday (march 28th) and thought i’d toss it on here for people to see. if you’d rather read it on ao3, here’s the link: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18272339

summary: Everyone was here for a birthday party. Everyone, except for whom the birthday was for. rating: G words: 1238

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Embers escaped from the fire into the air, mixing with the stars until no one could distinguish what was real and what was fake. That was how it had been since the end.

It seemed that everything had been done; Kingdom Hearts was closed, locked, and Xehanort had found his place with his old friend among the light. The long lost and troubled children sat under the night sky, listening to the waves that washed against the sand. The moon was full and cast a faint glow on them. This was the second time they had all been together since the end. Everyone was here, on the beach of Destiny Islands, for a birthday party.

Everyone, except for whom the birthday was for.

Hayner, Pence, and Olette were on a log off to the side, eating their ice cream. They all stared absently into the fire, not knowing anything to say to break the silence that surrounded the small flames Axel had made. Olette occasionally wiped her eyes quickly with the back of her hand. Hayner’s eyes, too, would occasionally fill with tears, but he squeezed his eyes shut until they disappeared. Pence was on his phone; sometimes they asked what he was doing, but even the statement ‘trying to find a solution’ couldn’t bring about the thought of relief.

Axel was cross-legged in the sand, spinning the flames with his fingers and making shapes as sparks popped into the air. His eyebrows were furrowed. Occasionally, he would clench his fists and cause the fire to grow and spread a wave of heat around the circle. What an icky job, he thought, and continued painting with fire. Xion was next to him, watching his actions carefully and huddling closer into herself to stay warm. In her head, she was begging and pleading to find any connection remnant that was left, anything that could help find him. But everything was still, and she began to silently cry. She had thought that becoming her own person would be the most wonderful thing that could happen, but now her thoughts seemed too empty, and the warmth she had felt so close before was now far, far away. At this thought, she looked around for Roxas.

Behind them, in the cold shadows of the island, Roxas was pacing back and forth in the sand. His hands anxiously flew from his sides to his head to fists to punching the air relentlessly then back to his side. Anger seethed off of him; his teeth were barred, grinding harshly against each other, and tears uncontrollably fell down his cheeks. He would sometimes glance over at the fire to make sure he wasn’t causing a distraction, then get angry again. This was supposed to be for him, he thought. His knees caved from underneath him and he collapsed into the sand, pounding the ground and feeling another small wave of heat from the fire.

Naminé watched him sadly from the roof of the shack leading to the bridge. She was cold, but just being slightly higher off the ground gave her a better view of the stars. The pages of her sketchbook rustled slightly in the wind. Her thumb held them down as she continued sketching out a constellation that caught her eye, carefully tracing the lines together to create a familiar crown shape echoing through the sky. A small smile formed on her lips. Her connection had become significantly weaker, but she felt something, and to her, that was enough. The wind flipped a page over, revealing another constellation that she had found. It was a symbol she had never seen before but remembered it as important. She glanced down at the fire, at the three figures huddled together on a log that had been lost for so long, and knew it had to do with them.

Aqua was slowly drawing and erasing shapes in the sand, swaying in time with the waves. Terra just watched her, smiling in the dim light at how beautiful she was, even with tears in her eyes. Ventus was leaned back and looking up at the sky, something he seemed to do often ever since he came back. His eyes moved quickly from each light to the next, looking for something. What it was, even he didn’t know, but he was hoping that something would appear. Nothing. With growing frustration, he sat forward and rubbed his eyes. He looked at the small party hat that was sitting on the other side of the sand that had somehow not been knocked over by the wind. His felt a tightness in his chest and Aqua began to sob next to him.

The sudden noise caused Kairi to look back from her spot on the paopu tree. At the sight of Terra and Ven comforting Aqua, she looked back out at the water. Her hand was resting on the tree at her side, just like it had been when he disappeared. She remembered the small squeeze he gave her as tears rolled down her face. His words were fuzzy in her head, and she hated herself for not being able to remember them. A sudden spike of pain shot through her back, causing her hand to crinkle the party hat she held in her hand. The pain from Xehanort’s strike still hadn’t gone away, even through her return. Tears welled in her eyes. Her grip on the party hat lessened and she looked down at it with disdain. An image of Sora wearing it on his last birthday flew into her mind; his smile was bright, his laugh was pure, and he was as happy as he always was. Kairi guessed that wherever he was, he was still smiling.

A bright flash from the horizon lit the island momentarily. Kairi’s head shot up, more pain going down her back, and jumped from the tree and started running.

Everyone else on the beach looked up at the sudden flash, too. Terra, Aqua, and Ventus all stood up, Xion following quickly after and the bonfire growing another foot as Axel clenched his fists. Roxas looked up, knees still in the sand, and stared at the ocean through his tears. The wind blew a blank page open in Naminé’s sketchbook as she gazed back up at the sky. Pence’s ice cream, melted from the fire, fell onto the sand as Hayner and Olette both turned their heads.

Riku had seen the whole thing. He was standing in the ocean, the water up to his knees. The flash was bright enough for him to block his eyes, but he knew what had been there. The party hat he had been holding was resting on the sand behind him, safe from the waves. There should be a cake, he thought bitterly, gifts, laughter. Not this.

It was Sora’s birthday, and he wasn’t even here.

Riku started to take a step further into the water when a hand grabbed his wrist. He whipped around and his eyes landed on Kairi. Her face was determined, the party hat still in her hands. Everyone on the beach was watching them silently with only the sound of the growing wind, breaking waves, and popping coals. Kairi’s grip tightened, and Riku could see the red in her eyes. With a soft breath, he relaxed and nodded at her, then turned to the light growing slowly on the horizon.

“We’ll go together.”

#kh #kingdom hearts #fanfiction #kh fic #sora #riku #kairi #the whole gang #angst #and just sad #hbd sora #come home

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yo-namine · 5 years

Text

Last KH3 playthrough post! Endgame spoilers are below the cut.

Just a warning: This post is REALLY long and contains, um… opinions.

I’m glad the final battle trailer scenes happen right off the bat. I had no idea what would come next, and it made the experience that much more interesting.

Why do none of these keyslingers know how to block? First Aqua tries to shield Ven with her own body, then Sora does the same for Kairi. Just hit square, guys.

ZETTAFLARE DONALD ILU SO MUCH

The way Riku and Aqua stepped up to Sora’s side made me think they were going to be party members in another demon tide battle, but nope. Boo.

I’m surprised that Aqua just… let the demon tide take her? What the hell?

Sora loses Kairi, Donald, and Goofy and just… crumbles. He completely gives up and says it’s all over. Riku almost starts to try to soothe him, but instead, he gets up, tells Sora that he knows that’s bullshit, and then faces off against the demon tide (which was polite enough to wait for Sora and Riku to finish their conversation before attacking, by the way). It’s like a moment of tough love, and it’s actually what I was expecting Roxas to do back when I assumed he would be the one to show up in the Graveyard and pull Sora back on his feet. I wasn’t expecting a bunch of reassurances like “no, you’re not worthless, we can still do this, everything will be okay” but rather, “Get up, we’re not finished here.”

So Riku confronts the heartless and Sora just… watches in horror as they take him, too. And he doesn’t even fight back when they turn and come for him. And then the screen cuts to black and shows the final line of the prophecy, and… That was a really effective way to end that scene. Damn.

Yeah, I don’t know how to play chess, but I’m pretty sure you’re not allowed to just conjure extra pieces from thin air, Eraqus. That was a nice line from him, though, about light from the past. Like, “The light doesn’t need time travel bullshit to kick your ass because HEARTS.”

Sora fucking died. Sora actually, literally fucking died. He goes to the Final World because he died. Holy shit.

The Final World is beautiful, and the music is lovely, too. The first thing I did after getting control again was take some selfies of dead Sora, ngl.

Sora’s been to the Final World before in his sleep, and Chirithy just let him pass through lmao.

Who is the first star that Sora talks to here? At first I thought it was Xion, but she says a “somebody” sent her to the Final World, so… Strelitzia? Ava? Skuld? lol I like that Sora just sits down next to her like this conversation’s the most normal thing ever. He’s dead and talking to another dead person, and he just rolls with it. I love this kid.

Some of the optional star conversations really got to me. One of them says that their friends replaced them after they died (“That was my seat. That was my place at the table.”). There’s also one that was apparently a child looking for their father, and that one actually made me tear up.

I’m not sure who the one who talked about being “identical” was. I think a third talks about their mentor, and perhaps that was a past keyblade apprentice? Another says that people teased them and a friend about being an item, and they pulled away from the relationship, and the other person never closed the distance. All of their little stories are just… sad. Jesus.

Naminé has a star! I missed her star on my first playthrough, but I replayed this part just for her scene. I wish I’d gotten it the first time, though. She clarifies that Kairi’s the one keeping Sora tethered to the world of the living. And god, Naminé’s words are so sad. She truly doesn’t think anyone really misses her or that she matters at all. But Sora says that he and the others (including “someone else special,” who I think may’ve been Xion?) miss her and want her back. AND she mentions her conversation with Terra from the orchestra! Holy shit, WHY was this conversation optional? That was important story stuff that explained why Lingering Will shows up when we rehash the fight in the Graveyard. Naminé came through for everyone in a pretty major way, and if you don’t talk to her star (which is VERY easy to miss), you’d never know it. Though… I guess that’s kind of fitting in a meta way. Naminé helping people from behind the scenes and not expecting any credit, I mean. Still, I wish I hadn’t missed this on my first playthrough. Anyway, Naminé’s “Let’s just say I’ve got your back?” was really cute. And then Sora thanks her and gets all flustered. “That’s not the official thank-you!”

I’m… still not clear on what exactly the power of waking is or how it differs from restoring someone’s heart the old-fashioned way (i.e. taking a Keblade of Heart to the chest), but okay.

JIMINY SURVIVED ALL OF THAT JFSKLFFJL

I liked going through the different worlds to save all of Sora’s friends. It was a nice callback to KH1, when you visit different worlds in End of the World, and when you get to Realm of Chaos and have to rescue Donald and Goofy from Ansem SoD’s heartless… ship… thing. It was really annoying fighting the same boss over and over again, though. It wasn’t difficult (save for one instance where the lich spammed aeroga and pinned me against the ceiling. I only survived because it triggered rage form.), and I get that it was just a series of symbolic battles, but I dunno, maybe just giving him less HP for me to have to mow down would’ve made it less tedious.

So the power of waking is “traversing hearts to reach worlds.” So I guess that’s what Sora was doing while falling through the different Stations of Awakening and then arriving in different worlds.

“There’s no saving you.” Fuck, okay, after finishing the game, this line in the sleeping San Fransokyo hits a lot harder. You think Kid Xehanort knows that Team Nort is planning to snatch Kairi and use Sora’s desire to save her to ultimately destroy him? Because if so… ugh.

Sora and Kairi’s little spin when they reunite is so cute.

“I feel strong with you, Kairi.” Awww but also UGHHHHHHHH because I know what’s coming. And then Sora has flashbacks to Eugene and Anna sacrificing themselves for someone they love, and I’m not 100% sure why. Is it just foreshadowing his sacrifice for Kairi? Is he afraid that her rescuing him will cost her her own life? Whatever it is, Kairi seems to read Sora’s mind and says that he’s safe with her. And again, that’s really sweet, and I like that her PoH powers are FINALLY being explored in some way, but fuck, knowing how this all ends makes watching this scene so painful the second time around.

I was so confused when Sora was revived and we started replaying that confrontation scene in the Graveyard. The first time I played it, I was very seriously considering skipping the cutscene and reloading my save because I thought I’d gone the wrong way or something, but then Lingering Will showed up and the scene changed. Phew. I guess we went in a little time loop there. But wait, if everyone’s aware that Sora revived them, then they must remember how they were taken in the first place, right? If that’s the case, why the hell did Ven run up to Terra a second time? Why didn’t anyone stop him? Why did Aqua have to look “Terra” in the eye a second time to know it wasn’t him? Am I to assume that if Naminé hadn’t summoned Lingering Will, these dingdongs would’ve all lost their hearts AGAIN?

I’m so over demon tide boss fights, but damn if that battle theme doesn’t kick ass.

EPHEMERA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! HOLY SHIT, OF ALL THE THINGS I NEVER SAW COMING. He helps Sora use the keyblades of all the fallen wielders from the first war to fight off the heartless, and you use the names of all those KHUX users who won that KH3 contest as attacks. Oh my gosh, what a sweet tribute. I like thinking that Larkey’s keyblade helped, too. <3

Oh god, when KH1 Riku showed up and Forze Del Male started playing, my entire life flashed before my eyes. I DID NOT want a rehash of that fight. I was relieved that I didn’t have to, but I was also just a little disappointed because that Xehanort shadow that emerges from him looked like a cool potential boss. I feel like there are actually a lot of scenes that happened in the Graveyard that would’ve worked better as actual battles or gameplay, tbh.

Also, that Forze De Male remix was hot as hell.

R.I.P. to all of fandom’s “Yen Sid is useless” jokes. What a way to go.

“You’re a whole pint by yourself, Sora.” I LOVE THIS DUCK SO MUCH.

I like that the maze tries to force you to choose between helping Riku or Mickey first like it’s some tragic moral dilemma. Like oh gee, let me think: Best written character in the series, or corporate icon Ricky Rat? That said, I actually did go to Mickey first just because I couldn’t get past the moving wall puzzle lmao. I wish this area had had a few more puzzles, though. I felt like I breezed through it way too fast.

Riku is really nerfed as a party member. He was CONSTANTLY KO’d in my fight against the Norts. Like damn dude, even Kairi stayed conscious through her battle (all 5 seconds of it, but still).

Repliku tears himself away from his own vessel and leaves it. For Naminé. Fuck, I didn’t expect that at all. What a great scene, and what a better ending for a character whose story I thought ended in CoM. I loved that.

Didn’t love that Riku and Sora just left Naminé’s vessel facedown in the dirt, though. Like… at least prop it against the wall or something guys, geez.

I like that you get a sort of farewell scene between the heroes and all the main villains of the series. It may’ve been a little fanservicey, but oh well. I’m not so hot on it from a story standpoint. Like I know we’re doing the anime thing where “I defeated you in battle, now we’re cool” but it still felt… odd. But at least it’s not as obnoxious as what comes up later with Master Xehanort.

I liked Larxene’s take on this especially, how she’d rather be destroyed than be a Nort. Why she joined up in the first place is still a mystery… And her answering Sora the way she did implies that the Norts aren’t just possessed mind slaves. They do have agency, though I guess that was clear from Even and Demyx turning against them, now that I remember it.

Building on the agency thing, I liked Vanitas’s scene with Ven. Ven wanted so badly for Vanitas to come to the light, but… It really wasn’t what Vanitas wanted for himself. “We decide who we are.” “I did decide who I am.” It’s tragic, but I like that it showed that not everyone was getting a happy ending from this game, and that there are some people you just can’t save.

COME GUARDIAN WAS TERRA’S HEARTLESS AFTER ALL. FUCK YES. I love that theory and I’m so happy it turned out to be correct!!!!!

And then we finally get a Wayfinder reunion!!!!!!

“What final words do you have for your superior?” Okay, I know this game is rated E10, but I half expected Axel to just look up and say “Fuck you.”

Xemnas and Axel’s conversation was so meta. Axel bragging about how popular he was, Xemnas calling Axel’s keyblade a joke. Like… Damn, they really paid attention to fandom over the years, didn’t they? I just wish they’d paid this much attention to all the fans who wanted a good storyline for Kairi. Anywho, Xemnas destroys Axel’s keyblade, so we lose two Lights from this scene. I’m kind of grateful that happened, actually. Having Axel lose his spot made it a little easier to accept Kairi losing hers. But only a little. Kairi getting kidnapped AGAIN was still stupid and contrived.

Unlike the other Norts, Xion’s apparently not acting on her own free will when the fight starts. Sora telling her “You can stop now” seemed to break something within her. And then Xemnas turns to attack her, and Sora’s heart reaches out to someone, and then BOOM. Roxas shows up to sass Xemnas and save the day!!!

I barely did anything in that Isa fight, lmao. I tried to land a few hits on him, but then I realized Roxas could handle him just fine alone, so I just hung back with Xion and cast cure here and there.

I’m disappointed that there’s almost no interaction between Roxas and Sora beyond a couple of nods, tbh. It’s kind of a weak payoff after all the fuss Sora made about wanting to save Roxas at the start of the game. That was what Sora decided to fight for “with all his heart,” and then once Roxas is back, we just keep blazing ahead with the story without a moment to appreciate the fact that he accomplished his goal (or rather, someone else accomplished it for him).

Aww, Xion looked so left out when she stood of to the side and started crying. It was almost like she was hesitant to join Axel and Roxas after she came so close to almost killing both of them. She didn’t even reach for the other two when Axel pulled them into a group hug, she just kept her hands clasped tight together and sort of curled in on herself. Aw, honey. Anyway, I’m glad these three will get to be together again.

I half expected Riku to snap “ARE YOU FUCKING SERIOUS?” when Sora tells him that Kairi’s been kidnapped.

I liked both Xemnas and Ansem SoD’s sendoffs. Kid Xehanort doesn’t give a shit that he lost, though, he just fucks off back to the past knowing damn well what’s about to happen. And to that, I again say ugh.

And then we get… that scene. What the fuck did Xehanort mean by “You need motivation.”? Motherfucker, we are already out here in the Keyblade Graveyard having this showdown. Kingdom Hearts is looming above us. Sora just got done killing all ninety-seven billion Xehanorts. This fight is happening no matter what you do. This doesn’t make any fucking sense. Having Xehanort kill off Kairi was stupid and unnecessary and pointless and lazy and truly horrible, horrible writing. And see, I can’t even give Nomura the benefit of the doubt here because he actually had Xehanort call Kairi Sora’s “motivation.” That was it. That was the only reason Xehanort killed her. Not because she was a keyblade wielder who was in the way of his goal, not because she was a Princess of Heart whose power could pose a threat. Not because of anything Kairi did or who she was as a person, but because she was a THING that was important to Sora. Fuck that. Fuck that entire scene, fuck everything about it, fuck everyone who gave that writing decision the green light. Fuck it. And knowing how this game ends (with Sora apparently sacrificing himself to save Kairi), Kairi now has more motivation than EVER to fight to get him back, but you know Nomura won’t give a shit when it comes time to write scenarios for KH4. He’s just gonna throw Kairi back on the islands and have Riku be the hero. Riku will find Sora, they’ll have adventures together and apart, they’ll continue to grow as characters, and then they’ll go home to where Kairi’s just sitting pretty, waiting to be the perfect reward for everything Sora’s accomplished. So there you go, that’s Kingdom Hearts IV. I just saved you $50 in the future (not adjusted for inflation).

Just. Jesus Christ, of all the idiotic tone-deaf bullshit… To have so much self-awareness while writing Naminé’s dialogue in the Final World and Axel’s scene with Xemnas in the Graveyard and then NONE OF THAT WHATSOEVER when it came to writing Kairi’s final scenes… That’s unreal. It’s almost unbelievable, but I really shouldn’t be surprised. Nomura’s pulled this shit before, so oop @ me for actually expecting better from him. Lesson fucking learned.

Anyway, after we get past all that stupid sexist bullshit that I actively hated, Sora gets ready to leave for the next area. I like that Donald and Goofy literally pick him up off the ground and help him stand, and that they go with him afterward. I just love the Trinity Trio in this game so much. They feel so much like a family now, and since I’m clearly never ever ever ever getting any decent Destiny Trio development, that’s a nice comfort. The other keyslingers stay behind to keep Kingdom Hearts shut, and Xion tells Sora that she can sense that Kairi will be okay, which… Yeah, alright. I just saw Xehanort slash into her back and shatter her into thousands of pieces, but no, I’m sure she’s fine. flskjdf Okay, sorry, I get what that scene with Xion was trying to do, but it just doesn’t make any sense? Xion is Sora’s replica, not Kairi’s. I could buy that she can sense Sora’s heart, but she has no real connection to Kairi’s at all, so how would she know that Kairi’s okay? Maybe she was just saying that as a way to comfort Sora, like a “she’ll always be in your heart” kind of thing, but even that feels off. Like that’s the kind of thing you say to someone a couple weeks after the funeral, not right there at the crime scene. Oh well. I guess it was sweet that she at least wanted him to hear that.

Then we get to Scala ad Caelum, which was kind of a letdown, really. I was hoping to get to explore the city, but you really just have one large area that’s ultimately just a battlefield. The boss battles weren’t much of a challenge at all, and you don’t even have to defeat them all, which was disappointing, but eh. The only tense moment was when Xehanort triggered Sora’s rage form in the final battle, but Donald and Goofy kept me healed up enough that it wasn’t much of a problem.

Xehanort uses the “one sky, one destiny” line from Kairi’s letter. Like it’s not enough that he killed her, he’s gotta plagiarize her, too. Dick.

Donald and Goofy help Sora ward off Xehanort’s final attack! Like they literally, physically help him push back against it! I love these half-pints. <3

Eraqus! He asks Terra to look after his other apprentices for him, aw.

Xehanort gives Sora the X-blade, and there’s no “sorry I killed your friend” or anything. He just goes on to be at peace with Eraqus. Seriously? This dude abuses Ven, hijacks Terra’s body, throws Aqua into the Realm of Darkness, murders Kairi, and he still gets to pass on peacefully into the next life with his bff? Come the fuck on.

Hearing “Always On My Mind” again was nice. That was always one of my favorite tracks from KH1.

Okay, after rewatching the ending cinematic, it makes a lot more sense to me. Riku suggests that they all go back to Yen Sid’s place to figure out how to save Kairi (which… why are we all acting like this is something that can just be undone? She wasn’t taken into darkness by the heartless like before; Xehanort struck her down. We didn’t see her heart leave her body or anything, she just shattered. To me, that looks like an E10-rated game’s version of death.), but Sora knows what he has to do. It wasn’t until the second time through this ending that I realized he was already planning on waking her heart at the expense of his own life. Knowing that, it’s a little odd that Riku just lets him go with a roundabout way of saying “I believe in you.” Kairi’s supposedly Riku’s friend, too, isn’t she? And he knows how to wake sleeping hearts, too, so why couldn’t he go with Sora to find her?

I loved seeing the Wayfinder Trio laying flowers at Eraqus’s memorial. I also like that keyblades are apparently used specifically for this when the wielder has passed on. That’s a nice bit of world building. And Chirithy is reunited with Ven after all (who apparently remembers them)! Aww. I still don’t know how the hell Ven exists in this timeline, but still. Aw.

I love Xion’s new outfit, and that she and her boys got to go back to Twilight Town together. I’m not so hot on Isa being there, though, and I’m really put off by how chummy he and Roxas seem. I know these scenes are taking place after a little time has passed, so maybe there was some tension between them at first that we just don’t see because it’s not particularly relevant, but still… Anyway, a shadow passes over them for a moment, and I think it must’ve been the gummi ship arriving to pick them up and take them to a party on Destiny Islands. Nice.

When I got to the scene of Naminé waking up in Radiant Garden… I actually started sobbing. Like that’s embarrassing to admit, but that scene hit me so hard. Just watching her open her eyes, and then seeing Dilan and Aeleus lead her out to the courtyard where the ship lands. Seeing her smile when Riku holds out his hand to her… I started crying while typing this up just remembering it, haha. I loved that moment so, so much. I’m so happy she gets to be her own person, that Ansem helped restore her to finally give her a life of her own after everything he put her through. I love that Riku’s the person to welcome her onto the ship, that he’s doing this for the Replica who gave up the vessel for her, but also because she’s been his friend, too (albeit largely off-screen). And the final shot of her laying her hand so gently in his... Holy god, what a finale shot. That scene ALONE was worth the thirteen year wait for me. I am truly stunned that that was part of the ending, that Naminé—of all characters—was the final person they built up to. That was just so much more than I had ever hoped for for her.

And then the actual final scene. You have all the main characters playing on the beach. Xion and Naminé are finding seashells; Riku, Roxas, and Terra are running around doing… something; the Twilight Town kids and Goofy and Donald are making sand castles; Lea, Ven, and Isa are playing frisbee. And then everyone stops to look at Sora and Kairi on the paopu tree. Sora vanishes, and you see Kairi start to slowly curl in on herself as the scene fades to black. And… upon rewatch, I actually like this ending? I was confused the first time I watched it because I didn’t have Kid Xehanort’s words in San Fransokyo fresh on my mind at the time, but when I went back and watched all the scenes together, I understood that Sora woke up her heart, and him “abusing” that power took its toll. I’m alright with us actually not seeing him do this (or at least, I’m not bothered by that by itself. I’m really bothered that it happened like that after Kairi got fridged the way she did, but on its own, it’s fine.). I’m upset that Sora’s gone, but truthfully, I was sort of expecting it. And like I said in my tirade about Kairi’s writing a few bullet points up, you know he’ll be back. It’s just really upsetting to know that Kairi now has to live with the guilt over the fact that he gave up his life for her, and that—as far as she knows—she’ll never see him again. And you just know that Nomura will absolutely, positively not let her do anything about it come KH4, to which I can only say, again: UGH.

I don’t care about Braig being Luxu, bye.

I think I’m still too raw from the emotional highs (and lows) of this game to really analyze everything as clearly as I’d like. There’s still stuff I want to talk about, but I’ll save that for another time. I can’t deny how much I enjoyed everything that happened before Kairi got fridged, but man, that one point really sours a lot of this game for me.

But yeah, that’s all for now.

#kh spoilers #kh3 spoilers #my posts #kh3 #kh3 bloggin

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storm-driver · 7 years

Text

The Data Theory

This theory was originally developed by derekscorner and revised last night. I delve into the theory a little bit myself and came up with something pretty incredible. Again, most of this theory is in credit to derekscorner. All I’ve done is branch it out a little more. You can read the original post along with what I came up with here.

Kingdom Hearts is never entirely clear on how it’s universe works. The only trustworthy information you can get is spoken by characters in cut scenes, usually rather vague and said with symbolism, or it’s hidden somewhere in the “Reports” you recover throughout all of the games.

Because of this, the game can constantly flex it’s rules to bring about more scenarios and fix discrepancies it might have had in the past. But assuming, with the release 1.5+2.5 for the PS4, all of those discrepancies were fixed and the game is official, theories about this game will now become all the more relevant. And sensible.

Most things in Kingdom Hearts can be explained away in a rather convoluted essay. However, there are still select few scenarios that fans can’t seem to tackle because it wouldn’t make sense for how the game’s universe operates. One of these leading scenarios is the issue of bringing the lost Nobodies back into existence. I’m talking about Roxas, Naminé, and Xion.

“But it’s easy!” You say with excitement. “Sora just needs to release their hearts and they’ll be here!”

Well, in a sense, you’re right. But it also wouldn’t make sense regarding how the game works. Not many people remember them because they weren’t really relevant until now, but the Secret Ansem reports obtained in Kingdom Hearts II describe how an individual being works:

Secret Ansem Report #4

Three elements combine to create a life: a heart, a soul, and a body. But what of the soul and body left behind when the heart is lost? When the soul leaves the body, its vessel, life gives way to death, but what about when the heart leaves? A being does not perish when its heart leaves its body. The heart alone disappears into the darkness.

The body is quite obviously the body of a person, which is just their vessel. Their heart is basically their personality and memories, as well as “power”, which is stored inside their body. And the soul is not really their spirit, but rather just the life-force or energy used to make a body living.

This is where things start to get confusing. Regarding Sora releasing the hearts of Roxas, Naminé, and Xion, it could only POTENTIALLY work for Roxas. It’s best if we explain what each character’s scenario is.

Roxas, even though he doesn’t look like Sora, nor even has his voice or personality, is still Sora’s Nobody. His creation was brought about by Sora’s sacrifice. Sora’s heart was cast into the darkness, reforming as a Heartless, whilst his body and soul reformed in the Realm Between as Roxas. Roxas had Ventus’ heart within him because Ven’s heart didn’t leave Sora’s body upon him stabbing himself with the Keyblade. Because of this, his body reformed to somewhat compare to Ventus. Though there still isn’t an explanation as to why his clothing isn’t identical. Maybe we’ll never know.

So Roxas was created from Sora’s body and soul and could only be recreated if Sora became a Heartless again, giving up his body and soul for Roxas’ possession.

Naminé is something different altogether, but somewhat similar in how she exists. She was created when Sora released Kairi’s heart from within him, but she doesn’t actually have the qualities of a Nobody that normally others do. Because Kairi has a heart of pure light, she literally can’t create a Heartless. When her heart was stolen, her body kinda just slumped over like a sleeping puppet, kinda like what happened to Ventus. But it’s the fact that her body DIDN’T reform as a Nobody, but stayed in the Realm of Light. What ACTUALLY created Naminé was Sora releasing her heart from within his body. This leads me and some others to believe a fraction of him went off to form Roxas while another to form Naminé. It also kinda adds up as to why Naminé has blonde hair, because Ventus’ heart influenced her appearance slightly. And why her appearance is so basic, because it’s not a real body whatsoever.

So Naminé doesn’t have any body or soul, but she was created from borrowed fragments of Sora’s and influenced by Sora and Ventus’ hearts.

Xion is a pretty straightforward one. She isn’t an actual Nobody, but a puppet that had a soul stuffed inside it. She also has memories of Kairi from when Vexen “tested” Sora in Chain of Memories. But because Sora’s memories of Kairi were being shadowed by Naminé, she appeared like a shadow of Kairi. Her entire existence is dependent on these memories remaining inside her body. But because she decided that Sora needs to awaken, she willingly gave them up to Roxas and her body perished without its fundamental core. And without that core, all memories built on top of it crashed down and the chain was destroyed, leading everyone to forget Xion ever existed. The links of her memories were buried in Sora’s heart.

So Xion’s entire existence was dependent on Sora’s memories of Kairi and without them, her body couldn’t stand. And because all of her memories are broken in Sora’s heart, she is woven into his being.

“But wait!” You say with confidence. “Sora returned to the Realm of Light without his body and soul when Kairi brought him back!”

And there you are, calling out the holes in the theory. Hate it when people do that. This is best explained by looking somewhere completely different in the series: the creation of Vanitas.

Oh yeah, our mean bean who wants to murder everyone and gave Haley Joel Osment the time of his life getting to laugh so deviously. Vanitas’ creation isn’t too hard to understand: when the darkness of Ventus’ heart got ripped out of his body, it reformed as a being of darkness, Vanitas. And this is the cool part: Vanitas DIDN’T use Ventus’ body to form himself, but rather the power of darkness itself. He created his body through sheer force of manipulating the darkness within him, or perhaps Xehanort did it. My point still stands either way: if a being of pure darkness is capable of creating a body of pure darkness, could a being of pure light create a body of pure light?

Yes, you heard me. Kairi didn’t bring Sora’s body back from the Realm Between, but rather made him a new one out of the light within her heart. This did, however, make Sora an incomplete person. Because he no longer had a real body, I would think his life would be more on the line than ever. He is literally a floating heart surrounded by light at this point, making Darkness all the more lethal to the boy. But that’s not too important right now.

Because it’s dangerous for Sora to just be a heart surrounded by light, especially with Xehanort still trying to turn him into a vessel, him just giving up his body for Roxas would be rather dangerous. Even if Kairi pulled him back from the darkness, there’s no guarantee the same thing would happen again. And you can’t repeat the actions for Naminé without somehow hurting Kairi in the process.

So our issue here is lack of body and soul. Roxas can’t just take Sora’s body again, it would leave Sora in harm’s way. Naminé being created out of fragments of a body, or even just sheer nothingness, won’t work again. And recreating Xion would require that they know where this puppet lab is and how everything there works.

Each of these situations, each person is under special circumstances. But there has always been one definite and constant thing that has been able to manifest itself in the real world without harm: the data used in Ansem’s computer.

Yeah. Data. Just the 1’s and 0’s. Need an example?

1) The munny pouch that belonged to data-Olette in Twilight Town. Riku was able to retrieve it from within the data-world and BRING IT INTO THE REAL WORLD. He handed it off to Mickey, who gave it to Sora for them to buy train tickets.

See, that always bugged me. Really badly. That train we just took is a MAGIC TRAIN that’s ONLY HERE FOR US. Why in the world would we need to pay for tickets to go on this train that Yen Sid sent for US? There’s no one on the train checking for tickets! YOU CAN TELL BECAUSE THEY JUST WALK RIGHT ON WITHOUT ARGUMENT. There wasn’t any reason for that munny pouch to be handed off to Sora unless they wanted to make it BLATANTLY OBVIOUS that DATA CAN BE BROUGHT INTO THE REAL WORLD.

2) The Heartless invasion by the MCP. This one is the less obvious, but complete giveaway. Those Heartless used during the invasion were, quite obviously, not meant to be in Radiant Garden. The MCP was spawning them there using data.

Yes! He used data to spawn the Heartless. Their models and code already existed in the computer, so he just turned on the Heartless Manufactory and went to work. And also, THE HEARTLESS MANUFACTORY! It literally CREATES BEINGS FROM DATA! This is a dead giveaway that data can be used to CREATE REAL LIFE THINGS!

And in Dream Drop Distance on the Grid, it’s constantly hinted at the fact that the device used to bring Sora and company in and out of Space Paranoids can work BOTH WAYS! In the actual movie, IT HAPPENED! A data person was brought out of the Grid and into the real world!

Data can be made into real, physical objects. And evidenced by the ending to Tron:Legacy, they can be alive, as well.

Now, how can I truly persuade you that this theory is correct? I was pondering this for a long time. While I first read about it, I was thinking to myself that this is completely bizarre and there’s no way the games would go this route. But as I looked into things myself and stared at the wall of Kingdom Hearts theories I’ve had over the years, it clicked. This was meant to happen. Allow me to explain.

The data version of Ansem and his research that was discovered inside Sora’s heart. This is huge. It seemed like a random thing that Nomura and crew threw into the game because… reasons. But it’s not. What if I told you that this data Riku found was actually research about how data can be brought into the real world and, in turn, can be used to recreate a person?

Ansem was researching the Nobodies and must’ve discovered something about using the data to make bodies for them. He must’ve told Naminé to some degree about this, giving her hope that she and Roxas wouldn’t actually disappear. This is what leads to Coded (Kingdom Hearts Re:Coded).

“WHAT?! CODED?!” Yeah, I know! Coded is ACTUALLY RELEVANT? Incredible! Anyways, it starts like this:

Naminé placed a data version of herself, as well as the memories inside Sora’s heart, in the journal. Because these weren’t supposed to be here, the journal got all messed up. After repairing it, Data-Riku was able to find this hidden data and Data-Sora was sent to investigate. He found the hidden memories as well as Naminé telling him that Sora needs to call these memories to the surface in order to awaken their hearts. From their, the Keyblade to Return Hearts, as mentioned in previous games, would be used to extract their hearts from within Sora and return them to existence.

“Okay, cool. So Coded is hardly relevant.” OH, BUT I’M NOT DONE! Coded gets way more important. It’s actually the fundamental base for this part of the theory. And it’s mind-blowing how well this fits into place!

I’m gonna break away and give you guys a little lesson on 3D printing. In order to actually 3D print you need something that can fabricate what you’re trying to print. Once you have the device, you need a model. A good example of a model is like a ring. That ring was initially created or scanned into a model file so that the printer would be able to create it. You essentially make something out of data. So I’ve been thinking...

The transfer device in Ansem’s lab is basically a 3D printer, but it works both ways. It’s for someone to enter or exit the data-world. It’s MEANT to transfer atoms to data and data to atoms. It’s how they’re going to fabricate the bodies of data for Roxas, Naminé and Xion. It doesn’t even matter if you’re thinking of the lab in Twilight Town or the lab in Radiant Garden, because BOTH were built by Ansem!

But then comes the issue of the model they must “print” out. We need to create models of each of our little Nobodies from scratch. Huh? “Use Ventus as a model for Roxas?” Haha, well, you’re onto something. I’d completely agree with you to use Ventus as a basic model for Roxas were it not for the fact that we already HAVE a model of Roxas that’s already been created. The same can be said for Xion and Naminé. We have them already.

The models are already present in the journal in Coded.

Don’t believe me? Well, take a second glance at the Re:Coded HD Remaster from 2.5!

HE’S THERE! Roxas already has a FULL MODEL of his body in the journal, complete with voice and body build, as well as his face and his hair, as seen underneath the hood. All you need to do is drop his heart into it and export the data using the terminal in Ansem’s lab!

Naminé PLACED all of this data inside the journal, not just for Mickey and company to find it and inform Sora about the memories inside him, but so they could USE the data to CREATE BODIES FOR OUR LOST FRIENDS.

“Wait a second! This is really cool and all, but wouldn’t Ansem’s computer already have some of this data then, effectively making Coded useless again?”

Man, we all really hate Coded, don’t we? My answer to that is: no, Ansem’s computer wouldn’t have this information on it nor would the models exist there. Why? Because, as BLATANTLY SPOKEN by Ansem and Riku themselves, and clearly evidenced multiple times throughout the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II, their data-Twilight Town has been completely compromised. Nobodies are everywhere and searching for Roxas. If the Organization found any of this information that Ansem and Naminé had discovered, everything would be over. So, in a panic, Ansem wiped his computer of anything having to do with data in correlation to Nobodies and hid it inside Sora, hoping they would find it. Naminé would hide the information about Sora’s hidden memories and the models that could be used inside the journal to be discovered later. Because Naminé was taken somewhere safe by Axel, she never got the chance to tell Sora about it. And seeing how Ansem immediately felt the need to begin his revenge scheme against Xehanort, he just left the boy to his own devices.

Seeing the main plot of Coded be revealed with Castle Oblivion in the end, I have no doubts that this theory is correct. The focus of the game is to figure out what Naminé hid in the journal. I feel like data-Roxas’ role in the journal is important here. He was meant to get Sora to understand the painful memories inside him and that it was Sora’s role to wake them up and return them to existence. I’m still not entirely sure how he can tie into this theory, but I know he’s a strong point of it.

But in short, here’s what we came up with:

Data can be used to recreate bodies for the Nobodies who disappeared.

The data transfer device in Ansem’s lab can be used to fabricate these bodies.

The journal informs Sora on how to wake up the hearts inside him.

The journal holds the models required to fabricate the bodies.

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nadziejastar · 4 years

Note

If you were to put together a deck of KH Tarot cards which characters would be which?

Ooh, this is fun. It’s like the characters in Persona.

Sora - The Fool

“The Wild card is a playing card that can represent any other card, or something that has an unexpected effect on a situation. It is like the number zero… empty, yet holding infinite potential within itself.”

The Fool represents new beginnings and carefree adventure. Though this card could indicate foolishness, it is more optimistic in the sense that it stands for pure actions and being free from the constraints of your present life. More than likely, there are important decisions coming your way. This Arcana is originally the only one that doesn’t have a number, thus it is considered as the Arcana number 0. The Fool Arcana tends to be the “jack of all trades”. Mythological figures of the Fool Arcana are often heroes, fools, or the protagonists of their own mythological stories.

Donald - The Magician

“Attaining one’s dream requires a stern will and unfailing determination.”The Magician is symbolic of action and power in your life. Its positive connotations illustrate someone who is a smooth talker and good at all aspects of communication. This card suggests using your strong will power to move forward and take action. A common trait shared between members of Magician Arcana is their strong vision and aspiration for the future, and fulfilling their inner potential.

Kairi/Naminé/Xion - The Priestess

“The silent voice within one’s heart whispers the most profound wisdom.”The High Priestess is a spiritually intuitive woman full of mystery, wisdom, and understanding. A journey of self-discovery goes hand-in-hand with the presence of this card in your spread. She stands for things yet to be discovered in your life. Individuals associated with the Priestess Arcana are usually quiet, reserved, hardworking and very intelligent. They are often modest and shy.

Aqua - The Empress

“Celebrate life’s grandeur…its brilliance…its magnificence…”

The Empress stands for all things motherly. A nurturing, loving problem solver, she indicates successful business ventures or other positive, productive opportunities to come. She suggests moving forward to fulfill your full potential. The Empress Arcana often belongs to women of authority or wise and motherly figures. Characters under this Arcana may also be cold-hearted in personality, but still present a high degree of care and concern towards others. And like queens, they are also very elegant in character.

Terra - The Emperor

“Only courage in the face of doubt can lead one to the answer…”

The Emperor, as the counterpart to the Empress, stands for all things fatherly. He is structure, order, and authority in your life. While moving forward in your endeavours, this card indicates that assertiveness and rationality will take you a long way. In tarot readings, the Emperor symbolizes the desire to control one’s surroundings, and its appearance could suggest that one is trying too hard to achieve this, possibly causing trouble for others; some elements in life are just not controllable. Characters of the Emperor Arcana are often male leaders or father figures (or both). Often times, the Emperor character is troubled by something very personal and doesn’t know how to deal with it.

Eraqus - The Hierophant

“It is indeed a precious gift to understand the forces that guides oneself…”

The Hierophant is a symbol of education, authority, conservatism, obedience to rules and relationship with the divine. The definition of a “hierophant” is a person who interprets sacred mysteries or esoteric principles, and the term was originally used to name ancient Greek priests who did so. Characters of the Hierophant Arcana are often older than the protagonist, and are typically quite wise and logical. The most common connection between Hierophant characters, however, is their association (and obsession) with the past.

Elrena - The Lovers

“There is both joy and wonder in coming to understand another…”

The Lovers Arcana initially represented two paths life could lead to, and thus a symbol of standing at a crossroad and needing to make a decision. Today, however, it is portrayed more of a symbol of love and romantic relationships, although it can also be a symbol of finding agreement with an ordinary friend or even two conflicting elements within.

Goofy - The Chariot

“One of life’s greatest blessings is the freedom to pursue one’s goals.”The Chariot reveals some sort of journey. With a positive connotation, this journey will most likely be a progression of some sort. It could also be the final success you have been working for. Portrayed as a king leading a chariot made up of two differently colored horses. The Chariot Arcana is a symbol of victory, conquest, self-assertion, self-confidence, control, war and command. Characters who are of the Chariot Arcana are typically very driven individuals, who have a personal goal that they aim to achieve at any cost. Combat-wise, they also tend to focus on physical attacks rather than magic.

Even - Justice

“To find the one true path, one must seek guidance amidst uncertainty…”

The Justice card is all about karma, fairness, and balance in different affairs in your life. It does not suggest an outcome that is either for or against you, but accountability, dignity, and integrity are all liked to its presence. In tarot readings, it means that one will have face a trial of their justice. Commonly, characters of the Justice Arcana are concerned with matters of fairness, and otherwise are very stoic individuals.

Ienzo - The Hermit

“It requires great courage to look at oneself honestly, and forge one’s own path…”

The Hermit is a card symbolic of seeking some sort of spiritual enlightenment. Solitary introspection and contemplation are also associated with the Hermit. Perhaps some soul-searching and reflection are required on your part. Similarly, Hermit Arcana characters share the commonality of placing themselves in situations that hide them from the public eye. Hermit individuals hide away from others or act in more supportive roles rather than putting themselves in the spotlight.

Luxord - Fortune

“Alongside time exists fate, the bearer of cruelty.”The Wheel of Fortune stands for fate, luck, changes, and a new direction in your life. While it also shows ups and downs, the overall feel of the card is a positive one indicating changes for the better and good fortune. Human characters of the Fortune Arcana are usually individuals who attempt to seize their own destiny in spite of fate and are typically involved with making important choices and decisions in response to what life throws at them.

Riku - Strength

“Only with strength can one endure suffering and torment.”

The Strength card shows a presence of self-assurance and confidently facing problems in your life. It suggests a person who enjoys power but has the capacity to exercise great self-control in all matters. Portrayed as a young woman holding up a terrifying beast, the Strength Arcana symbolizes an imagery beyond the Beast and Beauty, and is associated with the morality about the stronger power of self-control, gentleness, courage and virtue over brute force. A commonality between characters of the Strength Arcana is their strength of heart. Strength characters are not upset easily and typically portray the fortitude that the Strength card represents in readings.

Dilan - Lust

“Clearly distinguish between your ego and your intuitive self.”

The Hunger/Lust Arcana is not found in standard tarot decks. The Lust Arcana is the Thoth tarot equivalent of the Strength Arcana, numbered XI. Lust symbolizes the danger of losing control, of being consumed by power. The card also implies strength, but strength which comes through Dominance. It is not true power, but the pure bliss of abusing power.

Ansem - The Hanged Man

“In the face of disaster lies the opportunity for renewal.”The Hanged Man suggests some sort of metamorphosis through breaking patterns, letting go, or going through a period of transition. Although it could indicate having to give something up in order to gain a fresh perspective, it has neither positive or negative connotations. In Tarot readings, this card’s appearance can be seen as an advice to take the time necessary to reflect over one’s upcoming actions. Hanged Man characters are sometimes self-sacrificial, but are more often notable for being caught between two different extremes, parties or stages in life.

Lauriam - Death

“Free yourself from a past that no longer serves you well and proceed toward the future with all your heart.”The Death card shows some sort of dramatic change in order to have a new beginning. It is often associated with some sort of loss, failure, or destruction. While it is associated with foreboding and doom, the Death Arcana also symbolizes metamorphosis and deep change, regeneration and cycles. In the earliest Tarot decks, it was the only Arcana that didn’t have a name, but the depictions of an ominous skeleton bearing a scythe led people to call it Death.

Demyx - Temperance

“Find balance in your life and approach problems with a calm demeanor.”

The Temperance card suggests divine intervention, optimism, balance, and harmony. The positive overall presence of this card in your spread reveals high levels of self-confidence and control in your endeavors. Characters of the Temperance Arcana are often struggling to find a balance in their lives and in their hobbies.

Braig - The Devil

“Making the wisest of decisions requires one to escape from the desires of temptation.”

The Devil is about all things negative. Anger, violence, temptation, fear, and doubt are just some of the terrors associated with this card. It suggests feeling trapped perhaps in an unhealthy relationship, an addiction, or a lie. Portrayed as a hermaphrodite devil over two naked and chained figures, the negative aspect of the Devil Arcana represents the urge to do selfish, impulsive, violent things, and being a slave to ones’ own impulse and feelings. Human characters associated with the Devil Arcana are often “devilish” individuals; they can be greedy, proud, lustful, or otherwise of poor character. It is not uncommon for this type of character to have somewhat of an antisocial tendency, often not caring much for the needs or well-being of others.

Aeleus - The Tower

“See things as you want them to be in order to make them become that way. Knowing the worst is behind you can give strength.”

The Tower is all about unexpected events and changes coming up in your life. However, the changes are along the lines of something catastrophic, disastrous, and overall negative. The Tower Arcana is commonly associated to overly arrogant, prejudiced and authoritarian organization, which walk to their own ironic demise. Furthermore, it is also more generically used as an omen of doom and disaster. It can be seen as the worst card of the deck, as it rarely has a positive meaning. Human characters of the Tower Arcana can be arrogant, and typically find themselves in bad situations where they themselves have fallen from grace.

Roxas/Ventus - The Star

“The time of your renewal is approaching. You have chosen the right path to restore your mental and physical health. By being brave enough to choose the riskier roads, you will inspire those around you.”

The Star’s presence signifies a period of respite and renewal for you. This renewal may be spiritual, physical, or both. It is a light in the darkness, illuminating your future and your past. The Star is symbolic of hope, renewal, and beauty. It suggests a period of spiritual tranquility, happiness, and positive opportunities. The overall feeling of this card is optimistic and serene. Characters of the Star Arcana embody their arcana’s traits of hopefulness and joy.

Isa - The Moon

“The struggle to reach your potential may bring about many conflicts in your life, but the results will be beautiful.”

The Moon is an illusive and confusing card. It suggests the presence of risks, secrets, and some level of mental confusion. It is associated with creativity, inspiration, dreams, madness, illusions, fear, fantasy, the subconscious and trickery. In tarot readings, it can also represent being attuned subconsciously to the world around, gaining the ability to sense things without being told about them or without anyone else knowing. Characters who are of the Moon Arcana are often similarly psychically-attuned, but a more common trend is their projection of their own fears and faults onto others. They often tend to have trouble accepting themselves for who they are and, because of that fear, try to correspond to an ideal person. And like the Arcana, there is a hidden depth as to why they act in their behaviors.

Lea - The Sun

“Let your light shine. Be confident in the sacred power of your original nature.”

The Sun, being the opposition to the Moon, is a card full of life, joy, and energy. It reveals positive achievements, successful endeavors, and an overall manifestations of good fortune in your life. It symbolizes happiness, joy, energy, optimism, and accomplishment. Occasionally, it is also associated with one’s initial happiness. Persona of the Sun Arcana commonly excel in Light and Fire-based attacks. They are typically mythological figures directly related to the sun, light, or fire. Characters of the Sun Arcana almost always (ironically) find themselves in terrible situations, the situation belying the underlying optimism present in nearly all of them. Also, as the Sun Arcana portrays accomplishment, some of these characters have deep thoughts about the meaning of life and manage to find their answers.

Xehanort - Judgement

“The fruits of your decisions are coming and you will receive that which you deserve. The path at your feet and the direction it is leading you are clear. You will see your ultimate desire through to the end.”

The Judgement card is representative of some sort of change or transformation, likely one that has already occurred. It could mean the presence of a spiritual or professional calling and making decisions that will lead to your success. The Judgement Arcana, in tarot, is associated with realizing one’s calling, gaining a deep understanding of life and a feeling of acceptance and absolution.

In gameplay, the Judgement Arcana is commonly associated with a balance of Light and Darkness. Figures of the Judgement Arcana are usually related to Judgement Day myths or are gods tied directly to the judgement of humankind. Characters of the Judgement Arcana are well-aware, quite intelligent and view the world with infinite possibilities. Most powerful when combining their intuition with their smarts, their thought process is among the most vast and realistic.

Mickey - The World

“You must find your purpose to accomplish it. The same with dreams; you must first be aware of it to make it exist.”

The World card means satisfaction and success at a journey’s end. Fulfillment, rewards, certainty, and positive outcomes are all things directly associated with the presence of this card. It often appears as the final triumph arcana, creating miracles and aiding the protagonists. The World Arcana is a representation of the world’s totality, the symbol of fulfillment, wholeness and harmony. The World Arcana is commonly associated with Social Links, where its power is based upon the protagonist’s bonds with others.

#kh #kingdom hearts #kh meta #persona #tarot

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nadziejastar · 4 years

Note

Can you also go in detail about how Roxas might presnt Sora's shadow like Namine as Kairi's shadow?

Naminé: I was lonely for so long. I just couldn't bear it anymore. So I called out to your heart and had you come all the way out to this place.

Naminé was Kairi’s shadow, a suppressed part of her personality.

Nomura: “I like the scene in KHI, when she watches the sunset with Sora, and tells him not to change. I thought it showed very well her anxiety and loneliness over how as we get older we find a distance growing between us and our close friends.”

She represented the anxiety and loneliness within Kairi’s heart that she kept hidden from everyone. The fear that there would be a growing distance between her and Sora as they got older. This fear stemmed from her past in Radiant Garden.

Naminé: No matter how much I change his memory, Sora will never forget Kairi. Memories of me--- More false memories of me will just make his feelings for Kairi even stronger than before. Because...I'm the shadow of Kairi.

She was afraid of Sora changing. But the whole point of Naminé’s story was that Sora wouldn’t change. He would never forget Kairi and her shadow only made his feelings stronger.

Sora: So you’re saying we’ll never...?

(Their faces become sad)

Leon: We may never meet again, but we’ll never forget each other.

Aerith: No matter where we are, our hearts will bring us together again.

Roxas probably represented the same fear inside of Sora (and later, Ventus). The fear of growing up and having his relationships with his friends change and never being able to see them again. This fear made him want to share a paopu with Kairi. He wanted to make sure that they’d remain a part of each others lives no matter what.

Pence: Do you guys think we'll always be together like this?

Olette: I sure hope so.

Hayner: Huh? Where did that come from?

Pence: Oh, well, you know. Just thinking out loud.

Hayner: Well, I doubt we can be together forever. But isn't that what growing up's all about? What's important isn't how often we see each other, but how often we think about each other. Right?

Even though Roxas’s summer vacation ended and he had to say goodbye to Hayner, Pence, and Olette, he and Naminé got to reunite. They’d be together whenever Sora and Kairi were.

Axel: Well, nothing lasts forever, you know? Least of all for a bunch of Nobodies like us. But it's okay if things change and we can't meet up here.

Roxas: Huh?

Axel: As long as we keep each other in our thoughts, none of us will ever have to be apart. Got it memorized?

And Roxas’s relationship with Xion was another iteration of Sora’s relationship with Kairi. It’s the shadow counterpart.

Aqua: Somewhere out there, there's this tree with star-shaped fruit... and the fruit represents an unbreakable connection. So as long as you and your friends carry good luck charms shaped like it, nothing can ever drive you apart. You’ll always find your way back to each other.

Ventus was part of a trio that was similar to the Destiny Island trio, but that had a sad and dark ending. He couldn’t be with his friends, but Sora gave him a second chance at life.

Young Xehanort: Hypocrite. You are the one who has made your heart a prison... Even if you are not the prisoner.

After their hearts fused together, Sora’s light was so strong, it overshadowed Ven’s heart. Ventus kept losing his friendships because of Sora. Xion had to go back to Sora, and he couldn’t stay with Hayner, Pence, and Olette because he had to go back to Sora, too.

Vanitas symbolically looks like Sora because he’s the shadow Sora casts over Ventus’s heart, due to his powerful light. Ventus’s heart was living in Sora’s shadow and thus became his Nobody--his shadow, named Roxas.

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nadziejastar · 4 years

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What are your thoughts about Naminé as a character? Not enough attention is paid to the fact that she spends her whole existence being abused and controlled by older men (Marluxia/DiZ).

That’s a good point. I think it is pretty fitting, honestly. In KH3, when Naminé said that she came from Kairi, they used the clip of her saying she was Kairi’s shadow. Why does Kairi--a princess with no darkness in her heart-- even have a shadow? What does her shadow represent?

I liked Naminé, but I think bringing her back as fanservice wasted an opportunity to give Kairi more complexity. Kairi is depicted as kind of a tomboy. She’s spunky, headstrong, and ready to leap into danger. In KH2, she jumps right into the dark portal with Pluto. She summons a Keyblade and is immediately ready to fight. She stands up to Axel when he kidnaps her.

I think Naminé was the embodiment of Kairi’s suppressed fears, symbolized as a quiet, timid, lonely little girl who sits and draws pictures and is too afraid to act out of line. She’s meek and passive and submissive to Marluxia and DiZ. She’s the weakness in Kairi’s heart that she doesn’t like and suppresses. We should have gotten Kairi’s backstory BEFORE KH3 came out, and KH3 should have resolved her trauma.

In the Melody of Memory trailer, we can see that Kairi has suppressed memories of being kidnapped by Xehanort.

She was placed in a machine and whisked off to another world.

She came fact-to-face with Heartless.

Kairi: You know, I was a little afraid at first, but now I’m ready. No matter where I go or what I see, I know I can always come back here. Right?

Sora: Yeah, of course!

Kairi: That’s good. Sora, don’t ever change.

She was terrified and completely helpless. What is Kairi so afraid of? Not being able to return home again. That’s why she was nervous about leaving on the raft at first.

Riku: That was my...my dark side. I gave in to the darkness once. And ever since, it's chased me around in one form or another. The Seeker of Darkness who stole my body...a puppet replica of the shadows in my heart...and now, I'm facing me.

KH3 was all about facing your fears and confronting your shadow. With Riku and Aqua, their shadows were used to give them more character development. They had to confront their inner weakness. When Riku was swallowed by the Demon Tide in the beginning, I think Mickey was supposed to dive into his heart and help him face his shadow.

Kairi’s heart was the only one Sora didn’t save from the Lich. So he should have had to use the power of waking on her. Then he should have confronted her shadow. Naminé was Kairi’s shadow. Sora should have helped Kairi face her fear. She should have had the opportunity to deal with her past trauma and reintegrate her shadow into herself for good. Treating Naminé as her own character is weird to me. Her connection to Kairi is her whole identity and is what made her interesting.

#kh3 #kairi #namine

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nadziejastar · 5 years

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Sora: Don't worry. I've got a friend out there who will help. He's always picking up the slack for me.

I think if it was pulled off well, and Isa was properly differentiated from Saïx, then I don't think most diehard fans would oppose it. Among the general KH fandom, the biggest obstacle in my opinion is that Saïx is extremely unlikable (deliberately so). We never got a big reveal showing how Isa was Norted, like we were supposed to. It's left to the realm of innuendo and subtext.

It's not like it wasn't obvious he was possessed, but it was never stated outright. Still, I thought it was very easy to see where they were going with Lea and Isa ever since BBS. Saïx was very nasty, yet Isa was Lea's best friend. You can just tell that they were originally planning to give Isa an extremely endearing personality, if he was supposed to make up for how bad Saïx was. I'm sure if his backstory was shown in detail, he'd be way more popular. Isa was done dirty.

Riku: Sora can find the brightest part of anything, and pull off miracles like there's nothing to it. It's pretty hard not to smile around him.

Huge Akuroku fans might not like it, but I doubt it would cause a huge backlash or anything. I mean, let's face it. There never was any canon support for that pairing anyways. People are still free to ship it if that's what they want, just like they did when Xion was created as the obvious object of Roxas's affections.

And simply put, yaoi pairings are the most popular ships in KH. So LeaIsa has that working in its favor. SoraRiku is the most popular ship overall, and Lea and Isa were actually pretty similar to them in BBS. Two boys with cute character designs, complementary opposite personalities, and who are really close? KH fans eat that stuff up. I wouldn't be surprised AT ALL if LeaIsa was conceptualized, in part, based on the popularity of SoraRiku. I personally think that Nomura wanted to move away from AkuRoku as much as possible due to the inappropriateness of it, so he tried to create an appealing alternative ship.

“That Genie we met seemed really worried about his friend Al,” Xion remarked eventually. “But then he said he’d respect his friend’s wishes. I guess you can’t just jump in and do everything for them, even if you want to.”

Idly swinging her legs, she took another bite.

Axel leaned his head to one side. “Your friend’s wishes, huh…” It feels like I have heard that before, a long time ago, when I was human.

IMO, LeaIsa is what SoRiku would have looked like if it was actually specifically written to be romantic in nature. Sora and Riku had a very strong bond and Riku was very protective of Sora, but it also had that competitive rivalry aspect.

“He worries too much. Thinks he has to help Sora do everything…” Axel grimaced in irritation.

“But, Axel, aren’t you the one worrying about Riku and Sora?” Naminé giggled softly.

“Me, worry? You think I need to be worried about those two?” He stretched backward and rocked the chair back and forth, like a restless child.

LeaIsa had no such thing. It seemed like it was going for a purely protective dynamic, with Lea wanting to step in and do everything for Isa because he constantly worried about him.

“Say something. Have you even thought that maybe I can’t erase Roxas?” Axel said, in a playful tone, and Saïx finally looked up. “It’ll be all right. Cause I’m tough.” Axel puffed out his chest.

“How stupid,” said Saïx, and for a moment he smiled.

Also, not only was Lea protective, he apparently liked to show off for Isa. I just can't read this interaction as anything but flirtatious. It reminds me of how Sora and Riku were showing off for Naminé about protecting her from a shooting star. No other male characters in KH interact this way with each other. And Isa was a shy and softspoken boy who only came out of his shell for Lea. If they managed to emphasize these characteristics and successfully carry them over to the adult version of LeaIsa, then I can't see any reason why it would not be widely supported. I imagine most shippers would find it very cute.

“Why are you talking to me? There are heaps of other people to talk to.”

“I don’t want to talk to rough old men,” Larxene clearly intoned.

“If that’s so—there’s Demyx, or Marluxia, who joined just before you did. And then there’s Zexion. There’s also Saïx, in a way—”

And I think that's exactly the direction Nomura wanted to take them: cute. It would be a surprising but charming twist, considering how rough Saïx was. And I think it's why he specifically gave Saïx a different character design. Axel is very attractive. He is youthful and kinda looks like he's wearing eyeliner, too, which is neat. He was always fangirl bait, basically. Saïx was handsome, but he was still originally made to look like a villain. More rough around the edges compared to Axel.

I have no doubt that Nomura wanted an adult Isa to look more like he did in BBS. That's how he looks in the illustrations that were made after he was changed into Axel's best friend. And I mean, Isa's design is definitely going to be a lot more appealing to most shippers than Saïx's original design. That was no doubt intentional. IMO, Isa was created specifically with shipping in mind. He was obviously designed to look distinctly feminine and pretty. Softer facial features, slimmer build, etc. He has even softer features than Riku, who is also a pretty boy and huge fangirl bait.

IMO, Isa is the single most feminine KH male. I think this was intentional and based on the Sun/Moon theme. Sun is masculine, moon is feminine. So, Isa was also intended to be yaoi fangirl bait, no question. He was meant to be a very cute character. Both in looks and personality. It's why he has the Bunnymoon Mystery Gear and why Axel's fondest memories involve ice cream. He even has cute clothing, like that jacket with the little moon on it. It's just...cute. Basically LeaIsa was going for an adult yaoi vibe. They eat ice cream, play frisbee, and act cute together, since they want to relive their childhood. Done properly, fangirls would eat it up, of that I have no doubt.

In general, there is huge support for same-sex pairings in anime things. Sure, there will always be some opposition, but I don't think it's really a huge issue in these types of niche fandoms which love slash and shipping in general. Look how much demand there was for gay romance options in Fire Emblem. Korrasami was the most popular ship in TLoK and actually became canon. It was warmly received in general.

And KH2 had a very bromantic ending with Sora and Riku. And the series skyrocketed in popularity after that game, so it obviously wasn't a huge turn-off for that many people in the KH fandom. Female KH fans tend to like yaoi and male KH fans are already playing a Disney JRPG with a bunch of pretty boy heroes. In my experience, most male KH fans online don't seem to mind gay characters or anything.

And you know, KH isn't really heavy on romance anyways. Friendship has always been the most prominent thing in Kingdom Hearts. That wouldn’t change. The most canon pairing is Sora/Kairi and all we see between them is paopu fruits and hand holding. Even if LeaIsa were unambiguously canon, I still think it would be depicted in a very subtle way. It's not like it would have to be shoved in everyone's face, or become a distraction.

IMO, Nomura originally intended for them to be an ambiguous (but heavily implied) gay pairing. If the series didn’t have so much corporate interference, it would have remained that way in KH3. They even kept Isa’s outfit the same. The little star and crescent pin that Isa wore in the epilogue is a sun and moon symbol. All the games were building up to Lea using the power of waking on Isa in KH3. 358/2 Days was able to imply that Axel/Lea loved Isa, and that was fine because it was a smaller release that flew under the radar.

Then suddenly in KH3 their relationship was not okay and had to be downplayed. I don't think that was a coincidence. KH3 had more than just the JRPG audience in mind. KH Days was a JRPG with Disney elements. KH3 was a Disney game with JRPG elements. Disney was a lot more strict with KH3 since it was a bigger title and had modern stuff like Toy Story and Frozen in it. Even if LeaIsa was ambiguous, who knows if Disney had any objections to it or not. They can be very conservative.

I think Square and/or Disney was definitely worried about casual fans disliking it. KH3 had a much stronger push to appeal to casual fans than any other game in the series. And let’s face it: a large percentage of people playing KH3 probably only played KH1 and KH2 (or it’s their first one). They didn’t play BBS or the “spin offs”. They don’t know Isa, they only know Saïx.

And I can see many of them disliking the ship if it became canon because of that. KH3 clearly wanted to keep things familiar to causal fans. Incorporating Lea and Isa’s REAL backstory into KH3 was not a priority. Familiarity was. So sadly, Lea had to go back to being Axel and Isa had to stay Saïx. Then there’s people who just play for the Disney aspects and don’t even like the story. They might not like it, either.

#leaisa

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nadziejastar · 5 years

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Part 2: Axel

Saïx: You have changed…Something at Castle Oblivion changed you. Does the past mean nothing to you now?

Unlike Isa’s scar, Axel’s tear mark tattoos disappeared when Lea was recompleted. It implies that he got them after he became a Nobody, while Isa received his scar as a human. In the concept art, Lea was shown with tear mark tattoos and without them. Isa was shown with green and gold Norted eyes. It suggests that there was backstory that was going to show these characters before and after.

A teenage Axel probably gave himself the tattoos. KH3′s explanation for the teardrops was lame and I doubt that was always the story behind them. Saïx told him they’d stop him from crying? Well, Nobodies don’t cry. So are we supposed to believe that Isa was mocking Lea for crying before they became Nobodies? Why on earth would he do that? And why is Lea crying all the time, anyways? I thought they were apprentices, not test subjects? It’s pretty dumb.

Hearing his old name, Axel glanced up to see Saïx watching him intently. He remembered being human. Memories surged inside him, crowding the space in his chest. For Nobodies, memory had all the weight of a heart.

I remember. I won’t forget. But those sunsets with Roxas and Xion were part of his memory.

KH3 apparently forgot, but Axel was an assassin. And since he wasn’t trained to kill the apprentices, I highly doubt that was a profession he chose for himself, lol. The teardrops were almost certainly associated with that history. Axel had them before the idea that he was old friends with Saïx even existed. The teardrop tattoo can mean that the wearer has committed murder. It can also mean that one of the wearer’s friends was murdered and that they are seeking revenge. In Axel’s case, both are probably true.

In order for Sora—no, for Roxas to live, and also for us to accomplish our own goal, Zexion is in the way. And, if it’s for the sake of our own goal, we already decided what to do, that time.

Since Axel’s tattoos are upside-down, I’d say they represent fact that Axel couldn’t cry anymore even if he wanted to. And since that ability was taken away from him after he lost his heart, the tattoos symbolize him embracing his lack of emotion. When he gets his revenge, he will show no mercy and have no remorse. I think Axel gave them to himself not long after losing his heart. They symbolize that he will never forget what happened to him, Isa and all the other innocent victims lost during the experiments.

Zero Gear: “A powerful weapon that draws forth its wielder’s true worth.”

Lea was able to create a Corridor of Darkness even as a human. The apprentices couldn’t even do this, nor Riku after “Ansem” left him.

Nomura: While only those known as beings of darkness and beings of between are able to create entries and exits, in rare cases even other kinds of beings such as the Beast and DiZ, who held strong sentiment or hatred in their hearts, have been able to open a path themselves. However, this means being near the darkness.

It’s rare to be able to do this and requires strong feelings like hatred in the person’s heart. I think because of their differing personalities, Lea was thought to be more capable of destruction, while Isa was seen as more submissive.

And so, Axel appeared in front of Sora. He threw a chakram at Vexen right then. It wasn’t that powerful, but it could kill in one hit if it got a vital point.

Lea seemed to be molded for his skills related to being an assassin, while they tried to turn Isa into an obedient robot with no ability to think for himself.

The members of the Organization each had their own distinctive weapons that didn’t exactly cooperate if someone else tried to use them, but Keyblades were even more particular. If someone else so much as tried to pick it up, a Keyblade would simply return to its wielder’s hand. Or so Xion had heard.

There’s a few interesting bits of info about Organization XIII’s weapons and abilities in the novels. This scene happens while Xion was trying to use Roxas’ Keyblade. First of all, the weapons of the Organization are formed by their memories. Second of all, the weapons cannot be used by just anybody.

Nobodies derived their personalities and abilities from memories of their human lives. But what exactly were those abilities? What gave rise to them?

The answer that came to mind was the presence of memory itself. They were chained by their memory, and in those bonds was power. So it was probably fair to say that Roxas and Xion were bound by the same memory.

And thirdly, Axel doesn’t even understand how he got his abilities. Just that they are related to “memory”.

There are also many things regarding Castle Oblivion that remain mysterious. Did Organisation XIII build that castle themselves, with Naminé the original subject of the experiments they conducted there? Please tell us the details of the experiments the Organization were carrying out. Also, was that pod that Sora entered something the Organisation built in relation to those experiments? Are they the same pods in Twilight Town?

The ultimate goal of the Organisation was to obtain a Kingdom Hearts of the hearts of people and become complete beings, and because Nobodies were a new kind of being beyond all expectations, said to be ‘nonexistent beings’, the lack of background knowledge made it necessary for them to collect information relating to their own condition. One major feature of the Nobodies is that they form personalities and feelings through memories without hearts. This means that ‘memory’ is a very important element to them. The creation of Castle Oblivion itself is still a mystery, but, as you can guess from the cutscenes added to this title, you may consider that the Organisation discovered the castle, which was there since before the Organisation was created, at quite an early stage.

And also, around the same time that Roxas woke up in Twilight Town, Naminé woke up in Castle Oblivion. This means that she was found by the Organisation after that. Just as each Organisation member has an attribute ability, Naminé possesses the power to manipulate ‘memory’, and they thought that this ability was the key to illuminating the truths of the condition of the Nobodies. This means that in that place that affected the ‘memory’ of those who entered they carried out experiments relating to memory. Above all, Xemnas, the leader of the Organisation, seemed to be searching for something important related to ‘memory’. Some of their experiments involved the breaking and rebirth of memories, and those pods were for that purpose indeed created by the Organisation. The pod that Sora woke up in in Twilight Town was the same one from Castle Oblivion. DiZ had moved everything as it was in order to escape pursuit by the Organisation. Also, as Xigbar says in a cutscene added to this title: when the time comes to reveal the details of ‘the true purpose of Castle Oblivion’, all the mysteries regarding Castle Oblivion will be solved.

These details are given legitimacy in one of Nomura’s interviews. Organization XIII carried out experiments in Castle Oblivion to understand themselves and their own abilities. Keyblades come from a person’s heart. You need a strong heart to wield one. So, it appears the weapons of the Nobodies come from their mind. You need a strong mind to form a Nobody. And their weapons are similar to Keyblades. So, the story of how each member got their signature weapons was apparently something that was planned to be revealed, especially if they are specifically tied to their memories.

Many of the members had combat experience as humans which make it obvious how they got their abilities. Lea play fought with frisbees and his chakrams are based off of that. Others are not so obvious. Isa was not shown fighting, yet Saïx uses a berserker’s claymore. Berserkers fight in trance-like state with adrenaline coursing through them. Thus, I highly doubt this weapon had anything to do with Isa’s memories as a normal kid.

Mystery Gear: “A weapon that draws forth its wielder’s personality.”

In addition to their abilities, their personalities are said to be drawn from their memories. This is probably where the whole idea of the Mystery Gear came from. I was never really comfortable with Mystery Gear being labeled a “joke weapon” on the same level as the Casual Gear. Sure, some of the weapons seem silly, like Vexen’s Snowman or Xigbar’s Trumpet (and even those I believe are meaningful). But others are completely serious, like Xemnas’ Absolute or Roxas’s Aubade. So, my theory is that the Mystery Gear is the weapon that is created from the memories of the person the moment they lost their heart.

An aubade is a morning love song (as opposed to a serenade, which is in the evening), or a song or poem about lovers separating at dawn. It has also been defined as “a song or instrumental composition concerning, accompanying, or evoking daybreak”. In the strictest sense of the term, an aubade is a song from a door or window to a sleeping woman. Well, Sora chose to become a Heartless to awaken Kairi, who was sleeping. He did so out of love.

The Heartless come from people’s hearts, as does the darkness. Is the core of the world’s heart the world of the Heartless? I will pursue the answer there and become all knowing. My path is set. I shall seek out the wielder of the Keyblade, and the princesses. My body is too frail for such a journey, but I must do this. I will cast it off and plunge into the depths of darkness.

Apprentice Xehanort wanted to become all-knowing. Xemnas’s Mystery Gear is “Absolute”. And trumpeters are harbingers of the apocalypse in the Bible. And that’s exactly what Braig signed up to be when he gave up his heart to Xehanort. Axel’s is called “Fuma Shuriken”, or Wind Demon Shuriken. It also has a Recusant’s Sigil on it. In the warring states period, the Fuma Clan were a group of outlaw ninjas, especially skilled at night raids and other sorts of sneaky surprise attacks. They were extremely strong, extremely deadly, and had a reputation for pretty much having no morals whatsoever. They would slash enemies in the back, set entire villages on fire, and resort to all sorts of violent and non-violent trickery. They were also said to be experts at the use of fire and smoke – including the smoke-shield practice known as Enton-no-jutsu.

Axel leaned his head to one side. “Your friend’s wishes, huh…” It feels like I have heard that before, a long time ago, when I was human.

“Inseparable” is the day Xion needs to rely on Roxas. Friends lean on each other. Axel says best friends can be together when they’re apart as long as they feel close. But he sadly said he didn’t have one. The description of this day says that Roxas learns about a friend’s resolve.

“He worries too much. Thinks he has to help Sora do everything…” Axel grimaced in irritation.

“But, Axel, aren’t you the one worrying about Riku and Sora?” Naminé giggled softly.

Axel said he’d heard that back when he was a human. Axel worries a lot about his friends, like Riku does.

“You have your own mission, Roxas,” Saïx told him before Xion could answer.

“I can’t trade with Xigbar or something?”

“What an extraordinarily childish notion. Do you need Axel to walk you everywhere now?”

Roxas bit his lip and looked at the floor. “That’s not it…”

Day 353 is called “Resolve”. Axel was worrying about how to save everyone and also respect their wishes. This is the day Xion left to sacrifice herself. Saïx said this on Day 353. He’s projecting. Lea probably always worried over Isa and tried to care of him, like Riku does with Sora. Saïx still has Isa’s “personality”---his memories, that is. He knows that he was clingy and dependent on Lea. And he can’t STAND it. It’s humiliating to him. He thinks Isa was a childish baby who needed Lea to coddle him.

“It’s the best thing for everyone,” said Xion.

Everyone? Everyone, who? For us? Or…for someone else?

“How do you know that?” Axel demanded. “Everyone thinks they’re right…”

“This is right,” Xion said firmly. “It’s better this way.” Axel hated that argument. Nothing was better any which way. All it came down to was what you wanted to do and what you didn’t. He’d learned that lesson back when he had a heart.

It’s heavily implied that Isa’s thoughts at the moment he lost his heart were related to love. In the story of the Moon Rabbit, the hare was a bodhisattva. The bodhisattva vow is the commitment to put others before oneself. It is a statement of willingness to give up one’s own well-being, even one’s own enlightenment, for the sake of others.

“Me, worry? You think I need to be worried about those two?” He stretched backward and rocked the chair back and forth, like a restless child.

Naminé returned to her sketchbook.

“Say, Naminé… Are you still going to try to meet Kairi?”

Her head snapped up at the unexpected question. Across from her, Axel met her gaze, grave and earnest.

“I have to help her,” she said with a sad smile.

He scowled. “Is that really the best thing?”

“The best thing…?” Naminé set her crayons down on the table, her gaze dropping as she thought for a moment, and then she smiled at him again. “It’s the right thing.”

In response, Axel only leaned back and rocked in the chair again. She took up her crayons.

No one could know what was right or wrong.

I think Lea’s last thoughts as a human were related to rage. The hare decided to offer himself up as food to a hungry stranger even though other food was available. It can be seen as foolish. And I think that’s how Lea felt when he realized Isa wanted to sacrifice himself for him. He was furious, like he was with Xion. He was mad at Isa for trying to destroy himself, when there HAD to be another way. He was mad at himself for being powerless to save Isa. And he was furious at the apprentices most of all for causing everything.

He was probably waiting for me. Standing there against the wall with his arms folded was once my best friend—Saïx didn’t take his eyes off the ground to look at Axel.

“…You’re sure this is for the best?”

He HATES the idea that there is a set way that is “best”. And because of what happened, he’s perpetually stuck at the age of 15, unable to move on from his trauma. He’s actually compared to a child in the novels. He can’t control his anxiety and rocks back and forth like a child. He has severe abandonment issues.

“Everything is back to normal. Of course this is for the best, isn’t it?”

The reason I’m unable to answer Saïx is probably because I depend on him, thought Axel.

I enjoy seeing both the official localization and the fan translation translation of the novels. The fan translation can sound a little awkward sometimes, but it’s usually more literal which I appreciate. In the localized version, it says that Axel doesn’t want to alienate Saïx anymore. In the fan translation, it carries a heaver connotation and says that Axel depends on Saïx. And I think hearing him say that things were “for the best” is the exactly reason why. He remembers Isa as a selfless person. So even though Saïx is abusive to him, they are codependent. Axel totally relies on him to connect him to his past and we all saw how poorly Saïx handled Axel leaving him, even though he constantly pushed him away.

“Huh? Why am I a slap on the wrist?” Roxas asked.

“Well, they know how much I hate babysitting.” Axel let out an exaggerated sigh.

“Gee, thanks,” huffed Roxas.

Unlike Zexion, Axel had a very happy life as Lea. Then it was all taken from him relatively quickly. In the novels, the chapter titled “Inseparable” shows Axel’s playful and childish side. It gives you a better glimpse of what he was like as a teen and why he always longed to go back to the past.

“Watch this!” Axel threw a dart at the board.

“Hey! We have to investigate.”

“C’mon, it’s just a couple darts.”

Axel tossed one more, which neatly struck the bull’s-eye.

He hated babysitting because he would rather still be a kid. He had the most fun when he could act like a teenager.

“But what is all that stuff?” Axel leaned closer, examining the map.

“I guess we can’t just ask the one who hid it here… Pence, I think his name was,” said Roxas.

Axel shrugged. “As if. It’s probably the easiest way to find out.”

“As if. We still have to find him first.” Roxas imitated the gesture, albeit with considerably more drama.

“Ugh, okay, no more Xigbar impressions,” Axel said, cracking up.

“You started it!”

Roxas lost it, too, and it took a few minutes for them to recover from their fit of giggling.

He wanted to play darts and do Xigbar impressions.

“What should we do now, Naminé?” Riku asked as he reached for the little freezer under the computer. He removed a bar of ice cream and took a bite.

“…Aw, is it good?” Axel teased. “Seriously, you’re like a little kid. Even though you look like a mean old man.”

Riku made no response, keeping his gaze fixed on the computer screen. The comment did rub him the wrong way. But mentally, Axel was definitely older than him by at least a little. Not that you could tell from looking.

Riku said that Axel is mentally older…but only by a little.

As Riku sighed, Axel stole the ice cream out of his hand.

“There’s plenty in there. Just get your own. And you call me a little kid,” Riku grumbled.

At his irritation, Axel only shrugged and chuckled to himself.

Axel was definitely a case of arrested development. Socially and emotionally he was still stuck at the age of 15. It’s why he eats so much sea-salt ice cream.

Axel’s eyes crinkled as he remembered his own best friend—the only friend he’d ever had, in fact.

“If your best friend goes away, you’re sad, and if you get to be with them, you’re happy,” Naminé added. “Isn’t that how it is, Axel?”

“…That’s about the size of it.” Axel nodded and sat down on the remaining empty sofa, staring at the sea-salt ice cream he held.

“So you are capable of sincerity,” said Riku.

Axel only shrugged at the jab and finished his ice cream pop.

Axel took a particular liking to Sora and Riku, but became depressed by them, too. He acted like a kid, denying that Isa was ever his friend and eating tons of ice cream to make himself feel better.

In that world, Roxas was laughing.

Like he was having fun.

Like he’d always lived in that place.

It’s a place of lies Naminé made from his own memories, but, maybe, that’s the real Roxas. Not clad in a black coat, but playing with friends his own age, laughing, eating ice-cream, wandering around—like Sora.

He was jealous of Hayner, Pence, and Olette, especially when Roxas called their names when time froze during the Struggle.

“Then what did you wanna come with me for?” Axel flung his arms out angrily.

“Because… Because you seemed lonely.”

“What?” The irritated furrow between his brows deepened.

“You seemed lonely,” Naminé repeated, raising her eyes.

“Lonely? Me, a Nobody, lonely? That doesn’t even make sense!”

“You know, Axel… I wonder if we really do have hearts after all.”

“Yeah, well… That’s impossible.” He turned away from her.

I like that he wasn’t completely healed of all his issues as soon as he was recompleted. He still HATES showing vulnerability around people. And since he had lost the ability to cry for so many years, he cannot stand letting people see him cry. He formed his identity around being strong. He turned away from Roxas when he started tearing up and he ran away and dropped his ice cream when he cried in front of Kairi. He trusted her, but still wouldn’t talk about his past or why he still wore his black cloak with her.

#kh axel #kh lea #isalea #kh leaisa #kh meta #kh theories

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nadziejastar · 5 years

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Definitely think it's a scrapped idea. The entire way Riku Replica was handled in KH3 made no sense. It was just so...weird. Riku Replica was the Seeker of Darkness we fight at the Keyblade Graveyard. And also...a ghost Riku? There’s three Rikus now?

Riku Replica: I thought by finding some new strength, I could finally be someone---someone who is not at all you! But...nothing changes... I'm still just empty! Everything about me is borrowed. As long as you're around, I'll never be more than a shadow!

If you ask me, Riku Replica wasn’t supposed to be some kind of unique character distinct from Riku. He was supposed to be an aspect of Riku. His Shadow Self. It's why he had such an exaggerated personality. Like his rivalry with Sora and his belief that the real Riku was a wimp who was afraid of the darkness. Shadows are the embodiment of the repressed qualities of their human counterparts. In the Persona series, Shadow Selves wish to kill their original selves and take their place in the world. I think Kingdom Hearts had the same idea. This is exactly what Riku Replica tried to do in CoM and what Aqua's Shadow Self wanted to do, too.

Larxene: What's your problem with that? That should be your incentive not to screw anything up. Just do a good job rewriting Sora's heart. Then you can actually be somebody---and no longer just Kairi's shadow. You'll be real in Sora's heart.

It's exactly what Naminé was trying to do as well, just in a different way. She tried to replace all of Sora's memories of Kairi with memories of HER. I also think Naminé was meant to be simply an aspect of Kairi’s personality, not a unique character unto herself. IMO, the Riku Replica ghost thingy only existed to come up with SOME excuse to bring Naminé back. If Kairi’s shadow could come back, people would wonder why Riku’s shadow couldn’t come back. Oh, look he sacrificed his vessel for her. How sweet. Well, in reality, Riku Replica just wasn’t as popular as Naminé.

Shadow Kanji: I am a shadow... The true self... I'm just being true to myself...And that's why... I'll get rid of anything in my way!

Yukiko: Are these... Kanji-kun's true feelings?

Yosuke: This isn't really him! It's just his emotions going haywire!

IMO, the Seeker of Darkness Riku was the only Riku Replica that was supposed to be in KH3. The original idea was that the hidden aspects of Riku's psyche were manifested in him. I’m sure this was something that was supposed to be explored in KH0.5. If Riku was supposed to have some kind of subplot with his "other self" in KH3, it would be similar to something like Persona 4. Basically, the character is dealing with some personal issue that they are ashamed of. This issue manifests as an exaggerated mirror image of them---what they are afraid to be perceived as.

Aqua: Terra and Ven didn't have anything to say. But my shadow... She wanted to destroy me. Never would have thought I'd become my own worst enemy. I've talked to myself a lot since falling into these shadows. But with the phantom, it's as though all of my doubts have gained a voice of their own. She's the weakness in my heart.

My guess is that Riku leaving behind his old Keyblade for his other self was a remnant of the original idea for his character arc. It was featured in the trailer because it was supposed to be a very important scene for him (like Anti-Aqua). Riku would finally overcome the darkness inside of him by accepting it head-on. He was trying so hard to deny certain aspects of himself, because he was ashamed. Riku Replica was the embodiment of what Riku was afraid of being perceived as---a horrible person who destroyed his home and rejected his "loser" friends.

Quasimodo: Master Frollo--he made me live inside the bell tower, but the real walls were the ones I built around my heart. You helped me see that, Riku.

Riku: I was...speaking from...personal experience.

Phoebus: I'd say you still keep a lot locked inside.

Esmeralda: We all do that sometimes. There are just some things we need to keep separate from the world at large, at least until we have time to figure them out.

He’s extremely jealous of Sora's ability to follow his heart and make friends so easily. He hated how Sora always “wormed his way” into his heart, so he constantly tried to kill him. Suppressing those parts of himself only made his Shadow Self stronger, allowing it to become a Seeker of Darkness.

Yosuke: Dammit... It hurts to face yourself... I knew it wasn’t lying...But I was so ashamed that I didn’t want to admit it... You’re me... and I’m you. When you get down to it, all of this is me. > The strength of heart required to face oneself has been made manifest...Yosuke has faced his other self... He has obtained the facade used to overcome life’s hardships, the Persona Jiraiya!

Riku would need to bring these issues to light and accept them as parts of himself. All people have shadow aspects of themselves, so Riku would learn that it's really nothing to be ashamed of. It's just part of being human. Having a friend see his Shadow and still accept him would also help. That may have been Mickey's role while using the power of waking on him. After dealing with his Shadow Self, Riku would gain the strength of heart to awaken a new power.

Mickey: Yep, it's just the key I was looking for. A Keyblade from the dark realm!

Aqua: A Keyblade of darkness.

Mickey: "The door of darkness...tied by two keys. The door of darkness...to seal the light." Welp, we've got the keys. Now we find the ones to close the door.

It's VERY likely that Riku's original Keyblade was a Dark Realm Keyblade (a concept that was left unexplored). Riku would symbolically leave his old Keyblade behind for his other self because he doesn't need it anymore. He confronted and accepted his Shadow Self, and was able to overcome his shame. He "faced his fears," allowing him to summon a new Keyblade from the Realm of Light. So, Shadow Riku can keep the Keyblade with the Gazing Eye. But Riku's leaving it behind for him in a figurative sense, not a literal sense. Nobody can actually use that thing. It's a broken piece of junk. And I think that was the point. Riku was supposed to be facetious by saying that.

#kingdom hearts #KH #kh3 #kh riku

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nadziejastar · 5 years

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"She’s a Mirror That Reflects You”

And Xion was a girl Roxas cared about, which made her like the girl Sora cared about. She was a reflection of Sora’s memories. “That’s why his recovery is stalling,” Riku went on. “They have the part that’s most precious to him—his memories of Kairi.”

Xion prevented Sora from waking up because she was siphoning off his most precious memories, which were the key to his awakening. She was also acting as a mirror—a puppet who was merely reflecting his most precious memories of Kairi.

He’d been dreaming. It left him in terrible anguish—a nightmare about his two best friends torn away from him because he was too weak to protect them. Because he had lost the use of the Keyblade.

He wondered if Xion had that same helplessness when she couldn’t use her Keyblade. Roxas got up and stared into space. He felt so…heavy. So tired and listless. Like he hadn’t slept at all. He just wanted to go back to sleep.

Was it because of the dreams? But he dreamed all the time. Even if he couldn’t always remember them so vividly, the dreaming was nothing new.

His reflection in the mirror was no different from usual. Maybe his eyes were a little red—probably because he was so tired.

Roxas couldn’t recover because there was a puppet draining him of his strength.

“Ugh, I’ve got enough on my plate.” He groaned, imagining Saïx’s face if he reported all this.

Those days as a trio had been so wonderful. Why did this have to happen? The memory of his heart twinged. Had the breakdown of a friendship always been this painful? It was hard to tell when he didn’t have a heart anymore.

“Don’t wanna get up…”

But he dragged himself out of bed, taking a huge stretch and cricking his neck. He had to get to the Grey Area early if he wanted to talk to Saïx. Most likely, today would be another bad day.

It’s basically what Organization XIII did to Axel, too. They replaced Isa with Saïx, a puppet created from Isa’s memories. Axel was the Organization’s puppet like Sora would have been if his memories of Kairi had been replaced with Naminé. And I would argue that Saïx was doing the exact same thing to Axel that Xion was doing to Roxas. Unbeknownst to him, his strength and energy were also being drained from him by the puppet.

Outside the window, the moon—the heart-shaped moon—floated. Axel watched it, still sprawled on his bed. There was still a little time before he had to leave on his mission.

To gather hearts, to have hearts of our own, to not let the heart mislead us…

For these past few days, I’ve been thinking about the meaning of Xemnas’ words. To not let the heart mislead us? What does that mean? Whenever I’m alone, these thoughts just float around in my head the whole time. I don’t know why I have to think so much about it. I bet the other Nobodies don’t.

The heart… emotions. I think about their origins. Contemplate it. Reason about it. When did I start doing this?

The truth was, Axel knew when. Maybe I’ve been pretending I hadn’t noticed.

This is a passage from the novel. It’s on Day 117 ~Secrets~. It’s the night before Day 118 ~Lazy Day~. The day Axel spent all day of their vacation in bed sleeping, before joking about his dark secrets to Roxas and Xion.

Yeah… I started thinking about this stuff when Roxas—no, Roxas and Xion joined the Organisation.

Those two had lobbed so many questions at him as they grew as Nobodies. Was it just their curiosity that had him thinking so much? But it hadn’t started when they joined the Organization. It was after he’d gotten to know Xion, after Castle Oblivion.

Anyhow, I have to admit that something is changing inside of me. Before this, I wouldn’t have thought about those kinds of things. Changing… why am I changing?

I called it ‘contemplating’, but it’s just rambling.

Axel felt the waver of an unexpected presence, and sat up in bed. “Don’t just barge in here—you could at least knock,” he said, in a displeased manner.

It’s also the day Axel complained in his report that Saïx was the one who changed, not him.

Saïx was standing next to the bed. Axel looked away from him and stared at a speck on the wall. However, seeming to not notice Axel’s attitude, Saïx began to speak in his usual tone.

“How has Xion been acting?”

“S’not like I’ve been keeping watch in particular, so I wouldn’t have a clue,” Axel answered in a sulky tone.

“You seem quite close,” Saïx continued.

For a moment, Axel thought about the reasons Saïx could have for being so interested in Xion.

I already know why Roxas is special. The Nobody of the Keyblade Hero is going to be special.

But, I still don’t have the information to decide how Xion is special compared to other Nobodies. I wanted to know, but now I already understand that it would be useless to ask Saïx to tell me.

“What, am I meant to report even that to you? If you don’t need anything, get out,” said Axel, getting up out of his bed with a violent movement.

Speaking of changes, my relationship with Saïx has, too. I think it’s changed slightly since I’ve had time with Roxas and Xion. I couldn’t really say how, though.

Even in this scene, what’s going through Axel’s mind is that his relationship with Saïx has changed. It’s written to be mostly similar to the game, but there’s an interesting addition to this scene...

“You and Xion are on the same mission today.”

“Thank you ever so much for going to all the trouble to tell me that,” Axel answered, facing the mirror and starting to get ready.

“I need you to go to Castle Oblivion again soon.” Saïx glared at Axel’s reflection, their eyes meeting in the mirror.

“Orders from ‘Lord’ Xemnas?” Axel asked, lips curling.

...A mirror. And I’m sure that was done with very much symbolic meaning in mind.

Saïx didn’t reply to that. “That castle still has secrets. Even there, there are unknown places—”

“Unknown places?” Axel interrupted. He turned his gaze back on his own reflection in the mirror. “You’re talking about that chamber. I’ve scoured the place and I haven’t found it. It won’t be discovered that easily.”

The tension in Saïx’s pursed lips slackened a little. “Very well, I’ll tell you something you’d like to hear. Xion was born in that castle. Just like Naminé was, in that castle.” Saïx was silent for a moment. “The place Naminé and Xion were born—sounds like a place you’d like to go, am I right?”

That’s bait. But there’s no skill in simply taking the bait.

Axel snorted and turned to Saïx. “Well, well, well… it sounds like the one who wants to go to that castle isn’t me, it’s you, am I right?” Axel said, as he stepped past Saïx, out of his field of vision. “Cause if you go to the chamber that Xemnas is searching for—you’ll figure out his true goal, right?”

Because he’s finding it increasingly hard to recognize Saïx as Isa anymore.

“The Chamber of Repose, and its twin, the Chamber of Waking,” Saïx began, back still turned.

“Xemnas has a goal that he hasn’t told anyone. A clue towards it should be in the Chamber of Waking. If we can get our hands on it, we’ll have the advantage in every conceivable way—for our goal, too.” At that last word, Saïx turned and looked at Axel.

I know… our goal. That part won’t change.

Axel sighed, and said, “Vexen and Zexion were in your way. That’s why they were taken care of—so you’d reach the top of the Organisation, right?”

It’s almost like I’m telling myself this.

Because he’s not Isa. He’s Xehanort masquerading as Isa.

Us not having hearts doesn’t mean our behavior means nothing.

It doesn’t mean we can’t think. Doesn’t mean we don’t have goals. Acting for the sake of those is something both humans and Nobodies share.

“I do the dirty work, so you better get to the top.” I’m not lying when I tell him this.

Axel looked as Saïx. Saïx stared back.

Yeah… we have a goal. That part won't change.

Saïx turned his back on Axel.

“In a few days, you’ll be sent to Castle Oblivion on a solo mission. Be expecting it,” said Saïx, leaving the room.

Alone, Axel clenched his fists, and followed Saïx out of the room.

Axel is just as much trapped by an illusion as Roxas and Sora. An illusion that keeps him trapped by his most precious memories. But the mirror has to break at some point.

Xion got up and looked in the mirror.

It’s me. Nothing new.

After getting ready for the day, she went to the Grey Area and found Saïx and Xigbar there.

Xion also had a habit of looking in the mirror. The first time she does, Xigbar and Saïx are there.

Xion washed her face and looked in the mirror. Nothing out of the ordinary about her reflection.

I’m the same as ever.

Then she left her room and headed for the lobby. Depending on when she showed up, she would run into some of her coworkers and miss others. Today she found no one there except Saïx and Xigbar.

Xigbar and Saïx are there again the second time, too.

Xion got up and took care of her morning routine in front of the mirror in the corner of the room.

I’m the same as ever.

And yet, I’m not.

She stared hard at the mirror’s reflection. It showed…someone else. But she knew who it was.

The boy who looked like Roxas.

For a moment, she lowered her gaze, then looked again.

Just her.

Her and her identity crisis. Xion laughed at herself.

I have time here. Riku gave it to me.

But not forever. I’ll ruin everything if I stay. I have to decide…before the Organization decides for us.

The third time, she’s alone. Something’s different. She doesn’t recognize her reflection for a moment. This is the day she runs away in Wonderland, and Xigbar and Axel are there. This is also the day Axel told Roxas that Xion was a mirror. I’m excited to see how the KH3D novel writes this scene when it’s localized. It think Axel looking at his reflection while wondering where Braig and Isa were was...intentional, to say the least.

#kh meta #kh axel #kh saix #kh leaisa #kh akusai

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