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felikatze · 2 years

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Sora-Baldr Parallels and KH4 Predictions

As per this post, Sora and Xehanort are heavily paralleld in Kingdom Hearts 3, with Sora being Xehanort’s symbolic successor when Xehanort officially bequeaths him the X-Blade. Dark Road in turn parallels Xehanort and Baldr, which opens the door to comparing Baldr and Sora in turn.

First, I’d like to establish a line of succession, so to speak, through how Baldr’s and Xehanort’s deaths play out.

The setting and circumstances of both are exceedingly similar.

Baldr: Checkmate.

(forgive the youtube bar dudes. but hey, the timestamp lets you cross-reference more easily!)

Kingdom Hearts 3′s finale is the first time we see Scala Ad Caelum, specifically in its “light” dark road incarnation, as opposed to its “dark” missing link incarnation.

Though the design appears differently, both confrontations take place atop Scala Ad Caelum’s tower, under an open sky. Both antagonists purposefully choose this location, calling the tower “somewhere worthy of the occasion.”

Baldr: Let’s finish this somewhere worthy of the occasion.

Presumably, its because the tower’s roof is the location in SaC that’s closest to the sky, hence SaC being named “ladder to the sky.” With Kingdom Hearts being a moon, it additionally makes sense for the roof to be closest to Kingdom Hearts.

The summoning of Kingdom Hearts is also the intent of both antagonists. Both intend to “purge the world,” albeit to different ends.

Eraqus: You were after Kingdom Hearts too?

Both of them want to “purge the world.” Xehanort, because he believes it will return the world to being pure light. Baldr, because he believes it will sink the world into darkness.

Xehanort: A purge... The World will be returned whence it started.

Xehanort: Wait. Calling on that power would purge the world, which means that darkness- you- would disappear.

Baldr: You don‘t get it. Once all is purged, the world will be reborn in darkness.

Eraqus: So Vidar‘s plan wouldn‘t have worked… It was all for nothing.

Furthermore, the confrontations play out similarly through a different parallel: Eraqus and Hoder.

In an attempt to stop their friends, Hoder and Eraqus both appear as spirits, having journeyed there on the hearts of others specifically for this purpose.

Eraqus: Checkmate.

Both spirits appear after the actual boss fight itself (for gameplay purposes), yet create the opportunity for the battle to truly end.

Hoder’s interference distracts Baldr for long enough for Odin to trap him, thus allowing Xehanort to finish him off. Eraqus, meanwhile, plain makes Xehanort give up and stop fighting.

(The difference in results here, Hoder’s failure versus Eraqus’ success, is a topic for a different post, really, so I’ll refrain.)

Hoder and Eraqus are additionally paralleld as being Baldr’s and Xehanort’s light.

Baldr: You and I, we stand by the light only to cast shadows and beget darkness; you with Eraqus, me with my sister.

(We will be coming back to this point)

Eraqus is the one who ends up pulling Xehanort out of darkness, just as he promised.

Eraqus: Knowing you, if you wound up wandering into the darkness, you‘d try to escape on your own and just end up heading deeper in. But not if I were around to rescue you. You‘re welcome, buddy.

When putting these scenes next to each other, Xehanort takes the place of Baldr, Eraqus takes the place of Hoder, and Sora takes the place of Xehanort.

What for? Well, I’d say this moment, Baldr’s death, is what inspired Xehanort to become the seeker of darkness in the first place.

Baldr: I see myself... in you...

Baldr: Seek answers... to the unjust ways of the world... to the darkness...

“Seek answers to the darkness.” As illustrated above, Xehanort ends up following nigh exactly in Baldr’s footsteps, meeting his same end at the same place under the same circumstances.

Xehanort has, in a way, become Baldr’s ideological successor.

Darkness: If you no longer have hope for this world, purge it.

Xehanort: The World needs someone to stand up and lead. Someone strong, to stop the weak from polluting the World with their endless darkness.

Xehanort separates people into “the strong” and “the weak.” Baldr separates people into “dark” and “light.” Baldr says both he and Xehanort are dark, whereas people like Eraqus and Hoder are light. By Xehanort’s own ideology, he is weak for spreading darkness, even as a means to an end.

Baldr: I understood then that there were two kinds of people: people like you and Eraqus, and people like me. I knew I would be left behind. That‘s why I chased after you and your light.

Makes sense then, that he truly wasn’t strong enough.

I bring this up because Kingdom Hearts 3′s finale clearly makes Sora Xehanort’s successor.

In your hand, take this key, and all that.

Xehanort, who followed in Baldr’s footsteps, passes his legacy to Sora. Notably, Sora was never officially bequeathed. This is Sora’s first proper ceremony as a keyblade wielder.

Therefore, I feel its fair game to further compare Sora and Baldr. Baldr predicted Xehanort’s future, and may predict Sora’s as well.

The two characters have some similarities. One parallel Baldr draws between himself and Xehanort is their ability to feel other’s hearts, and connect with others.

Baldr / Darkness: Baldr was especially sensitive to the hearts of others, as are you, Xehanort. And few emotions are more potent than animosity.

Baldr / Darkness: When Baldr felt the darkness within- darkness born from your unwavering devotion to light- it grew and grew until it became his own. And now, as light watches over us, as you face me, he can see what hides in the depths of your heart.

Sora’s nigh instinctual ability to connect with others has always been one of his defining characteristics and greatest strengths. No matter where he goes, Sora will find a way to connect with others and draw strength from those bonds.

Baldr and Xehanort have, or had, a similar ability. And yet, their insight made them see the darkness in others, whereas Sora kept unwavering faith in light.

Sora: That’s weird. It’s like something’s squeezing me inside!

Riku: Somebody up there must be sad.

Sora: Up where?

Riku: They say every world is connected by one great big sky. So maybe there’s somebody up there in all those worlds who’s really hurting, and they’re waiting for you to help them.

Sora could feel Ventus’ hurt all the way from a different world.

Throughout the series, Sora also takes the emotions of others for his own. Think of moments in Kingdom Hearts 2 where he can feel Roxas’ heart within his own.

It’s Sora‘s greatest strength, yes, but this same ability was Baldr’s downfall.

Baldr: But the more darkness I felt, the deeper my heart sank into the abyss.

Baldr: It started to consume me, until one day, I realized the darkness I thought was theirs was in truth mine.

I’ve made a post about this before, but just to reiterate: Sora’s darkness is growing throughout the series. And yet, Sora does not acknowledge it. It is not his own darkness that he fights, it is the darkness of others, surely.

Sora’s connections are his weakness, too, as pointed out in this fantastic post by embraceyourdestiny with additions from tharkflark1.

I can’t find the post at the moment, but, in addition to Sora’s darkness growing, the Darkside is a Heartless often connected to it, by appearing in Sora’s Dive to the Heart, and through Data Sora’s Heartless taking the shape of one.

Therefore,

a great big Darkside in the KH4 trailer!

If we take these parallels to predict what Sora may go through in KH4, I would bet good money that Sora has to confront his own darkness, realize it is his own, just as Baldr did.

How Sora arrived in Quadratum is in itself a parallel to Baldr.

Sora sleeps for seven days.

Strelitzia: You’ve been asleep since you arrived in this world seven days ago.

People have pointed this out as a potential reference to The World Ends With You, which I agree with. TWEWY’s Reaper’s Game takes place in Shibuya, which is where Sora ended up (even using the 104 Building for its real life equivalent, same as TWEWY), over seven days, which is how long Sora slept. TWEWY also connects to the theme of the afterlife and coming back to life, pointing to Sora’s disappearance form reality.

But this post isn’t about TWEWY parallels. I think this is potentially another parallel as well.

Namely, to Baldr’s confinement and fall to darkness in precisely seven days.

We don’t yet know how Sora is doing in Quadratum; we’ve only seen him fight. We don’t know how his disappearance may have changed him.

Returning to a previous point: How Sora came to be in Quadratum in the first place. Sora overused the Power of Waking, which untethered him from reality.

But, why?

Baldr: You and I, we stand by the light only to cast shadows and beget darkness; you with Eraqus, me with my sister.

Baldr: And when that light disappears, we lose our purpose and are swallowed by the void.

Sora was swallowed by the void, by unreality, because he lost his light.

If Xehanort takes the place of Baldr, Eraqus takes the place of Hoder, and Sora takes the place of Xehanort, who takes the place of Eraqus? Who is Sora’s light?

Honestly, I’m not giving a clear answer on that one. Whether you believe that Riku is the light, or that Kairi is, what matters is that Sora lost them. And that loss pushed him to desparation, to sacrifice.

The loss of his light is what lead him to Quadratum, same as the loss of Hoder led Baldr to darkness, after seven days of isolation.

The closer you get to light, the greater your shadow becomes.

Dark Road offers a lot more nuance on the topic of light and darkness. Darkness isn’t evil, and light isn’t good. Both can bring order.

Baldr: Hearts aren’t ruled by just light or darkness; it’s not that simple.

Sigrun: There might not be a clear difference between the light and darkness in people‘s hearts.

Helgi: It‘s all about different beliefs. People want to believe they‘re right, so anyone who goes against them is wrong, making them darkness in the eye of the beholder.

Heimdall: In every world, there was strife born of conflicting beliefs. Instead of creating a divide like light and darkness, maybe there‘s a way for everyone to coexist.

I believe Dark Road’s finale, having come out well after KH3 and now coming on the heels of the KH4 trailer, shows us what is to come for the series, and for Sora.

Sora has been cut loose from all he knows. He’s on his own. He has lost his light and been swallowed by the void. Thus, I believe that Sora will have to finally face his own darkness, and accept it. He has to confront his worldview and understand that not all darkness is evil, and that no one can be truly free of it. Darkness born from unwavering devotion to light, that Sora has ignored and pushed down.

What Sora being on his own looks like is still up in the air.

Baldr: Believe what you will, but I‘m not the ancient darkness you suspect. I am the unknown- that which you fear- and that fear is what gave me shape and form. I am the terror in your minds, the shadow that lurks in the forgotten recesses of your hearts.

Sora must face the unknown.

Let’s just hope Sora doesn’t repeat the cycle, shall we?

#kingdom hearts #khdr #khdr spoilers #baldr kh #sora kh #feli speaks #long post #all the tags cuz i'm proud of this one #this took uhh (looks at clock) mayhaps three hours #love the parallels love using baldr to try and predict sora bcuz that Hurts #a lot of aspects focused on sora draw from other posts bcuz like #i already made a sora's darkness post just go read that one i dont need to repeat myself

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