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#it does make sense since shadow was not present during the shattering of the paradox prism
corffee · 1 year
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So you’re telling me that no one remembers who Sonic is-
But only Shadow does?
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Why does it matter if Kreia is Arren Kae?
Solving the mystery of Kreia’s backstory was the most fun I had playing KOTOR 2. I think that her past as Arren Kae is brilliantly woven in the game’s subtext. I don’t view it as an inconsequential theory; to me, it is fundamental to understanding both Kreia’s character and the game itself. As I played through the game twice, I loved talking to my crewmates, because they each helped me understand the nature of Arren Kae and Revan’s relationship. However, in my experience in the KOTOR fandom, I’ve noticed how everyone interprets Kreia differently. And I was disheartened to see that a lot of people don’t like the idea of Kreia being Arren Kae. Other fans simply think it doesn’t matter if she is or not. So I decided to articulate myself why I love this theory so much!   It boils down to this: it matters that Kreia is Arren Kae because Revan tried to kill Arren Kae on Malachor V. That betrayal transformed Arren Kae into Darth Traya, and it informs Kreia’s present relationship with the Exile. Arren Kae was one of the Jedi Knights that Revan sent to fight on the ground when the Exile unleashed the Mass Shadow Generator, destroying almost all life on the planet. In spite of this betrayal, Kreia still cares for Revan. She constantly makes leaps in logic to justify Revan’s actions, calling their descent to the dark side a “sacrifice” instead of a “fall.” If we want to understand why Kreia betrays the Exile, we must first understand why she would justify Revan’s betrayal of Arren Kae. For Kreia, the lesson she internalized at Malachor V was the paradoxical idea that you must be willing to kill the people you love in order to save them. This is why Arren Kae “died” and Darth Traya was “born.” “I kill them because I love them” is a recurring motif in the game, expressed by Atton, Hanharr, Sion, and even Atris. It’s only natural that this theme resonates with the game’s most important character, Kreia; and with the game’s most important relationship (the mother-child relationship between Kreia and the player); and with the game’s most important setting, Malachor V. For all these reasons, Kreia’s secret past as Arren Kae is essential for my understanding of the game.
I see two primary reasons for why fans either dislike the theory, or else they enjoy it but don’t take it seriously:
Fans often consider “Kreia = Arren Kae” to be an unfinished idea that didn’t make it through the game’s development, since much of Kotor 2 is already woefully unfinished.
Fans may think that the most important fact about Arren Kae is that she is the Handmaiden’s mother. Since Brianna only joins your party if you play as a masculine Exile, and since Kreia’s relationship with the Exile is more important than her relationship with Brianna, you could argue from this perspective that it doesn’t matter if Kreia is Arren Kae. After all, Brianna and Kreia barely interact.
Neither of these reasons work for me. First of all, while the writing for Kreia’s past is subtle and mysterious, I believe her past is important enough that all of the necessary clues are there, even in an unfinished game. I also prefer the writing if it is implicit rather than explicit.
Secondly, I think it is deliberate that Kreia’s relationship with Brianna is less developed than her relationships with Revan and the Exile. According to the Disciple Mical, Arren Kae was Revan’s Jedi Master. Since Arren Kae was forced to give up her biological daughter Brianna, the only child she was allowed to love and raise within the Jedi Order was her Padawan Revan. Therefore, it only makes sense that Revan would have a bigger impact on Arren Kae’s life than either Brianna or Yusanis.
It also gives an extra layer to how painful it would be for Arren Kae to be betrayed by her “chosen” child, Revan, since Arren Kae had already sacrificed a potentially happy life with Brianna in order to remain a Jedi.
I also think that a lot of fans miss the plot point that Revan tried to kill Arren Kae, since it isn’t stated directly. Additionally, the idea that your beloved OC Revan would want to kill someone as nice-sounding as Brianna’s mother is distressing. I’ve seen how some fans dislike how KOTOR 2 adds further backstory for “their” Revan, since it is beyond the player’s choice. But personally I love that Obsidian did that, because I think it’s smart writing. After all, the entire point of the “Darth Revan reveal” in the first game is that you are supposed to be appalled at your player-character’s secret uncontrollable past. So, adding on that Revan tried to kill their own mother-figure? That works for me.
While other people have focused on showing the clues for how Kreia is Arren Kae, I’m just going to focus on why Kreia is Arren Kae. So let’s simply look at the three clues that tell us that Revan tried to kill Arren Kae:
By talking to Mical, you learn that Arren Kae was Revan’s Master.
By talking to Brianna, you learn that Arren Kae “died in the battle that shattered Malachor V, and her body was never recovered.“
And by talking to Revan’s droid, HK-47, you learn that Revan’s "true target” at Malachor V were the Jedi. Not the Mandalorians. The Jedi.
I believe that HK-47’s speech is one of the most important revelations in the game. He is the party member who was closest to Darth Revan during the Jedi Civil War. As an assassin droid, he gives a cold, calculating “observation” that “Revan was ‘cleaning house’ at Malachor V.” He notes that “if you examined the records of the deaths on Malachor, […] you cannot escape that many of the Jedi and Republic soldiers who died were not Revan’s strongest supporters.”
Significantly, the game distinguishes between Revan and the Exile’s motivations at Malachor V. No matter how bloodthirsty or dark-sided you make your Exile in the present, the Exile was still unaware of Revan’s master plan in the past; the Exile believed that the true target were the Mandalorians.
Beyond HK-47, other characters speak kindly of the Jedi who were targeted on Malachor V. If Mical is in your party when you fly there, he will say, “And all the Jedi who followed Revan, the true Jedi, died at Malachor V.” He is praising the Jedi who went to fight to defend vulnerable people in the Outer Rim against the Mandalorians, but did not follow Revan into the Jedi Civil War. To him, they are the only “true Jedi.”
While HK-47 gives a cold, calculating analysis of why Revan wanted to kill Jedi, there is another character who gives a more romantic analysis: Hanharr. The dark-sided “robot” and the dark-sided “monster” each have a different reading of Malachor V. Speaking for myself, I had trouble understanding Kreia until I met Hanharr as a Dark Side Exile. Hanharr, the “mad wookiee” who killed his tribe to save them from slavery, is the only crew-member that Kreia invites on board. When you ask her why, she tells you that “the beast is a lesson in strength.” I think that Kreia sees herself in Hanharr, more than anyone else. When Hanharr finally tells you his “true lesson of strength,” I think it gives insight into Kreia’s own beliefs:
Hanharr: Madness is not always that to one who can see it for what it is.
Hanharr: The lesson of strength is this - it is not having the strength to kill those you hate, but those that you love. Strength is when you crush their lives beneath your hands, murder them to save them from falling into the Shadowlands, as you have.
Hanharr: You know what happened when you killed the tribe of Mandalorians. And why the Jeedai had to die, so they did not become as the Mandalorians do. It was a coward’s way of killing, but the choice was strength. To kill your brothers and sisters, those of the tribe who stood with you in battle.
Hanharr: I am here because you showed me what chained me, and there is much I may learn from you. There is strength in such things - and you will know this, when you go into the place all exiles go. When you are willing to kill everything you love - and everything that walks and breathes hates you. When you are willing to leave paradise behind, to curse your life for all time. And know that you did to save another. And to show the galaxy what prey is. This is the lesson of strength, human.
Again, Hanharr is misidentifying the Exile’s motivation for using the Mass Shadow Generator on Malachor V, because the Exile did not mean to target the Jedi. But if we take HK-47 at his word, and if we accept that Revan was the true mastermind behind the destruction of Malachor V, Hanharr is instead justifying Revan’s choice to target the Jedi. And Hanharr’s analysis is quite remarkable. He is saying that Revan targeted the “true Jedi” because Revan loved the Jedi. Because Revan wanted to prevent the good “true Jedi” from becoming monsters themselves.
If we apply Hanharr’s analysis to Kreia’s situation, he is saying that Revan’s attempted murder of Arren Kae was an act of mercy, not simply “cleaning house” of “disloyal soldiers.” It was an attempt to “prevent a greater evil”–the evil in which Arren Kae is compelled by the Force to join the dark side. Which is exactly what happened to all survivors of Malachor V, except for the Jedi Exile, who exercised their free will by abandoning the Force in that moment.
Now the question becomes: is Hanharr right? Did Revan actually love Arren Kae? This time, my answer is: it doesn’t matter. It only matters that Kreia wants to believe this is the truth. If you ask Hanharr, “What prey does Kreia seek?” He will answer, “She hunts truth, I think - and she seeks it in you. And truth is dangerous prey - difficult to seek, and difficult to face. And with greater desperation, she hunts that which runs against that truth.” What runs against the truth? I think that a person’s longing to be loved often “runs against the truth.” Kreia’s love for Revan and the Exile “runs against the truth” that these two people worked together to destroy all life on Malachor V, including her own.
What better way to show the emotional impact of Revan’s betrayal of the “True Jedi” than by making the game’s most important character a survivor of that attack? And by characterizing her as someone “who has been betrayed in the heart, and who will betray in turn”?
Kreia was betrayed in the heart. Kreia did not love the Jedi Council, and her alliance with with the Sith was “fragile” and “based on hatred.” Even though the Jedi Council exiled her, and the Sith violently exiled her, they did not “betray her in the heart.” They did not kill Arren Kae and create Darth Traya.
The person who betrayed Kreia in the heart was the person she loved more than anyone else: Revan.
The person who betrayed Kreia was you.
“There is no great revelation, no great secret. There is only you.”
“You”–the player character from the first game–you were the one who betrayed Kreia. Though as the ignorant player, you have “lost your memories” of this.
But Kreia did not forget, and your betrayal twisted her into something monstrous.
And now she will betray “you” in turn, as the player character of the second game.
She will do it because she loves you. She loves you because you are the player and because you have an extraordinary capacity to exercise free will in a predetermined story.
She has always loved you, ever since she was Arren Kae.
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ravenaveira · 4 years
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Ok, time for my review of Kh3 Re:Mind Dlc
This is gonna be long, so be prepared, and yes there will be many spoilers so if you dont want spoilers of the game then you probably shouldnt read this, but if you dont care then stick around.
I will start off with my unbiased and critical opinion.
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From the title menu alone you already know what this game is gonna be about. Kairi is gonna be center focus, or should say specifically Sokai, and Riku will be virtually non existent.
Now I know what your thinking, well duh its all about saving Kairi of course Riku wont have that big a role and she’ll be the main focus, and to that I say no shit sherlock I already knew that. My issue isnt that it was Kairi focused because I already knew that and still pre-ordered the DLC, but my issue is what this title screen represents and my fears were proven correct.
Let me elaborate
Riku is just as much of a friend to Sora as Kairi is, from the beginning of the series its always been Sora, Riku, and Kairi, thats the way its ALWASY been. But from this title screen I could tell Riku’s bond with them wasnt gonna be present at all and I was right.
I’ll elaborate further
I know Im jumping way ahead here but bare with me, at the end of the game after Sora rescues Kairi they travel the worlds together, Sora notices he is fading away which is why he goes to the many different worlds he has visited but now with Kairi, spending his final moments with her before he finally disapears.
See the problem? Sora doesnt involve Riku at all in his final moments being alive, he is just completely absent during his entire remaining life. Sora only spends time with Kairi during his final moments, Riku wasnt shown with them once.
I know some people say well we dont know how long Sora was alive before vanishing and he was probably the one who organized the party, but did we see that though? did we see any signs that Sora was alive for more than a day or two? did we see Sora talking to anyone like he was setting anything up? NO, it was all about Kairi and Riku was completely forgotten.
I can understand if Sora wasnt dying then it wouldnt matter how much time he spends with Kairi alone, but Sora was fading away ANY SECOND and he didnt spend any of his remaining time with Riku at all, even at the beach party who is Sora sitting next to alone with before he finally vanishes? Kairi. That is inexcusable and a huge insult to Riku and his bond with Sora, hes just completely excluded, that is unforgivable.
These new added scenes to the ending actually made it worse than the original version of it, before we didnt even know Sora was around for more than a day and just assumed they all had a beach party afterwards to celebrate getting everyone back and saving the world, but now we know Sora was actually around for an extended period of time and made no effort to spend time with anyone other than Kairi, not even his best friend Riku did he spend time with for his final hours, that is despicable.
Another major issue is how Sora keeps saying his journey started with losing Kairi in this game, as if Riku wasnt ALSO lost that day, as if Riku wasnt the reason Sora kept on his journey even after saving Kairi and sending her back to Destiny Islands, as if he didnt fall to his knees and bawl his eyes out finally reuniting with him, as if he wasnt content with spending the rest of his life trapped in the Realm of Darkness with Riku, as if for the entirety of the base game of kh3 Sora wasnt constantly and only thinking about Riku and how many things he wished he could show him.
Apparently in Remind none of that happened, none of that mattered, it was Kairi that was his main motivation, it was Kairi that started his journey, Riku wasnt involved in it at all.
That is a huge issue with this DLC, it treats Riku like a side character and of little importance to Sora, in the base game they handled them fine minus that on instance in the Keyblade Graveyard where Sora says ‘Alone, Im worthless’ even though Riku’s right there but other than that their relationship and bond was handled very well but in Remind? practically non existent.
Now onto the story aspect, if your not into time travel and have trouble understanding the many variations of it then your gonna have a bad time because it gets VERY confusing to follow, which is why you should never introduce time travel because it becomes way too complicated to keep track of and not only that you also have to worry about things like paradoxes, ripples in time, alternate timelines etc. Its a complete clusterfuck to keep up with and manage so time travel really shouldnt have been introduced in this series.
Chirithy tells Sora that no matter what he cant change the past again, yet there are times where Sora does just that so exactly what cant he change? for example, when Roxas appears he asks Sora to do him a favor which is essentially getting the X back from Xemnas in their names. Sora does several things to make this happen and even Kairi gets a couple swings at Xemnas this time but then the two of them are basically caught and restrained inside shadow balls [pause]
See the prob? this is a huge change to that fight, Kairi never took a single swing at Xemnas, she just stood there and got snatched up, Roxas never asked Sora for help getting the X’s back from Xemnas, and Sora and Kairi never got restrained by Xemnas and knocked out.
Chirithy explicitly said Sora cant change what happened and no matter what he has to accept it for what it is, yet here he is, changing what happened. Maybe you could argue well this is an alternate timeline, even if it is that makes all of this irrelevant and means it never happened because the true ending is the one where it didnt happen, making this semi useful Kairi moment really pointless because at the end of the day its not canon, her being useless is the true outcome, none of this matters.
That is extremely disappointing, so even if you alter the past for the better it doesnt matter because its an alternate timeline and that timeline isnt the real one making this whole redo pointless and time consuming for a short DLC that was an extra 30$ to play.
So the time travel is very confusing and even if you follow it, it ends up being very disappointing when you realize none of it matters.
Moving on to some of the tied loose ends, Im glad they explained why Aqua froze up after saying ‘We stand together’ and I like how we get to see how Young Xehanort came to have the beliefs that lead to what he did and also MOMs subtle influence on him succumbing to darkness.
He told Xehanort that he would outgrow the robe and no longer need it because if he was truly powerful then he’d be the one controling the darkness, this leads to Xehanort later begining to travel without the robe and being corrupted. So we know now that MOM also influenced that as well and is very sketchy, even more now than he was before since this action greatly influenced what Xehanort eventually does and all the pain he caused, all of which would have probably never happened if it wasnt for him.
But thats just my theory and what I got from it.
I liked that we got to see Namine for a brief moment where Sora basically brushes her off and completely forgets about thanking her, this is a plotline Im pretty sure at this point is just never going to get resolved. He just tells her to go to the Final World and walks off, which makes no sense because Sora was surprised to see her in the original playthrough.
Another change was Lingering Will dying to protect Sora, again this never happened because Sora was busy fighting alongside everyone in the maze while Lingering Will and Terranort were fighting away from them. After Lingering Will died for him then Sora is pretty much squeezed to death by Terranorts Stand, or atleast knocked unconscious.
So much about these are just so confusing as to how they are happening when Chirithy said the events couldnt be changed I just stopped questioning it.
But atleast this time its made clear that Namine is the one who sent Lingering Will to help everyone and how she did it, so now people can stop saying Kairi is the reason everyone survived because it wasnt, without Lingering Will they would have all died a second time.
Basically the first half of the DLC is just recap with some minor changes and additions to the cutscenes, you get to play as other characters like Riku [optional] Aqua [not optional] and Roxas [optional] but other than that its basically the same thing all over again for the first 3-4 hours of the DLC, that is ridiculous.
The new content finally starts when Kairi is shattered, funny how the game gets good after Kairi dies xD I’ll stop.
Anyway once Kairi dies is when we finally get explorable Scala, but not without having to endure an insane fight with tons of heartless and nobodies and yes its more complicated than you think. It doesnt matter how many heartless or nobodies you kill, they will keep coming until you kill this one red heartless with way more health than your average heartless has.
After that you can pretty much wander around Scala as you wish and this is the only time where you can buy items or food so make sure to do that if your low on items. If your low on money there are minor enemies there that you can kill to get some so take advantage of this opportunity because your not getting another one.
Your goal in Scala is to basically run around, solve a couple puzzles, and get 5 of Kairi’s heart shards, revealed to having to be 7 later on. Sound fun? besides being able to see more of Scala’s layout, not really. But its a good place to take a breather before getting back into the big battles ahead.
Unfortunately your actually forced to fight the armored organization again but thankfully you dont have to do the ENTIRE final battle over, just that one section which I appreciate but wish we didnt have to do any of it at all.
So after we’re done Scala we get in MY opinion the two best parts of the entire DLC. We get to see what was going on with the rest of the keyblade wielders back home and it was INSANE and extremely well done, everybody had a chance to shine.
When everyone was swept away and Mickey was down and out, it was amazing seeing Mickey push himself back up and slowly with what little strength he had take on all the armor organization BY HIMSELF severely weakened, yet still powerful enough to hold them off and stand his ground. He really showed us WHY he is the King, so THAT I really enjoyed. It was extremely well done and one of the most memorable parts of the DLC.
The next part was even more insane and well done, which is us getting to fight as all the keyblade wielders against the armored organization and even get some cool dialog and team attacks in between, it was just amazingly well done seeing everyone work together and switching between characters was just so epic and enjoyable.
Honestly I could play those two parts over and over again and enjoy it everytime, their just that good and the most memorable in the entire DLC.
Coming back with Kairi and killing Xehanort together with all the keyblade wielders including Kairi this time was satisfying to see but it excludes Xehanorts and Eraquses final words, I mean yea seeing Xehanort have a semi happy ending put off alot of people but at the same time, seeing Xehanort come to the realization that he was wrong about everything and giving the Wayfinder trio closure by seeing their master one last time and hearing his apology to them just held more weight to me.
Im not saying I think Xehanort should be redeemed as easily as he was, but I feel like excluding Eraqus and their final words made the ending feel hollow, just ok we beat the bad guy, happily ever after now. Thats pretty lackluster and unsatisfying In my opinion.
Finally the ending....
Heres where Im gonna be biased and give my personal thoughts. Warning if your a fan of Kairi skip to the very end of the review where I give my overall rating
I hate the ending, for the reasons I listed in the beginning but also many others. I get the main focus was gonna be Kairi since the DLC was about saving her, Im not mad about the obvious, Im mad about the execution.
The Sokai agenda was so forced and apparent its not even funny, they shove it in your face so hard yet when Sora is talking with Chirithy he still refers to Kairi as a friend, really? your shoving this pairing down our throats just to have Sora still friendzone her? Im not mad because I dont want them together anyway but I hate the games being played here, you either want them together or you dont, pick a friggin side Nomura.
And while we’re on the subject, I hate, HATE, how this game is so heavily romance focused when Kingdom Hearts was NEVER about romance to begin with, it was always about friendship and bonds. Not in this DLC though, no now its all about Kairi and being with her forever, traveling the world together, holding hands, all this lovey dovey nonsense nobody invested in the plot could give a rats behind about.
Sure people who are into Kingdom Hearts for the romance of course they dont mind, but Im pretty sure MOST people invested in this series are in it for the story, not some stupid pairing, and I HATE how much they shove it down your throat because it is just so forced and obvious what they were doing.
This was all damage control for Kairi, who has been a useless damsel in distress and dues ex machina in every single game shes been a part of. I repeat, EVERY SINGLE GAME SHES A PART OF.
Kh1 - Kidnapped, unconscious, Sora needs to die to save her.
Kh2 - Kidnapped, held hostage, Sora needs to find and save her.
Kh3 - Kidnapped, unconscious, is killed twice, Sora needs to die to save her.
Do you see what I fricken mean? Every fuckin game its the same danm thing over and over and quite frankly Im sick of it. You might as well say this is a Mario game because Kairi is princess Peach always gettin snatched up and Sora is Mario always going through insanely deadly trials to get her back, and then it happens all over again.
This DLC was damage control for that, instead of immediately getting snatched up by Xemnas she actually gets a few good swipes at him to no avail of course, and then she fights together with Sora against armored Xehanort, all of which is just damage control for her not doing anything in the entire franchise and pandering to her fanbase that are constantly screeching for playable Kairi and for her to do something.
It was also damage control for how non existent their relationship was and what a joke its been since Kh1. They arent fooling anybody because thats exactly what this was, otherwise why you have to try so hard to CONVINCE us how important she was to Sora? why did Riku have to get sidelined so much just to boost Kairi up? why’d Sora completely disregard Riku as a part of his journey? why did Sora not spend ANY time with ANYONE for his final moments alive? its so obvious why. The only way to convince anyone shes actually important and relevant is to play down everyone else or exclude them entirely.
Congratulations, you got your wish, good for you fandom, but at what cost?
The time they spent forcing so much Sokai could have been used to tie up way more loose ends than there were but nope, gotta squeeze in that Sokai, thats what yall really here for right? fuck off.
The two best moments of the game was so short lived its not even funny, this DLC was full of so much padding in the first half, forced romance and pandering for damage control they forgot to actually make this a decent DLC.
Since I recorded my gameplay from start to finish I can actually tell you the amount of old content vs the new
3-4 hours of mostly what we already seen with a few changes, I only died twice
1-2 hours of new content, probably less because I got lost and died alot
That is unacceptable, 30$ for only 10% new content? that is a robbery.
Not only that but the worst part is the Limitcut episode, databattles have always been optional for competative players who like the challenge. Now you are FORCED to fight these INSANELY hard bosses, all 13 in order to get the final bits of the aftermath of the story.
WE PAID FOR THIS, this wasnt free we PAID for it and yet we’re basically told ‘Hey if your a casual player and want the rest of the story? well you gotta fight 13 of these insanely hard databattles that used to be optional but now their madatory for you to get the rest of your moneys worth. Too difficult? cant do it? well too danm bad, get good or go home we got your money already so screw you guess you’ll never know’
That is a fucking robbery and a huge slap in the face to people who are invested in the story, not proving their the best by fighting insanely difficult battles no matter what difficulty your on. It wouldnt be an issue if this was always the case, but these battles were always OPTIONAL for competetive players to do if they WANTED to, but now its mandatory and if you cant do it then oh well middle finger to you.
I couldnt even beat Vanitas, I fought him first and then Luxord and I couldnt beat either of them so I just said fuck it and went on youtube to see what I paid to see for free. 30$ wasted on a game I cant even finish, your out of your fucking mind if you think thats fair and excusable.
Thats why at the end of the day I give it a 5/10, its not good but its not bad either, its just decent. But if you asked me if it is worth the time and money? fuck no, my advice? watch other youtubers play it and keep your 30$
If you want it just to play as some of the characters, experience the new content for yourself, and play the databattles then by all means get it.
But if you think thats not enough for you to spend 30$ for then dont get it.
Overall Re:mind gets a 5/10, useless padding for majority of the first half of things we’ve already seen and cant skip because theres new scenes mixed in, forced romance that nobody but shippers care to see, severely lacking new content, and unfair extremely hard mandatory databattles just to see the final aftermath of the story which is kind of important setup for the next game.
Fuck this DLC, this was my fist time EVER buying a DLC for ANYTHING and thanks to this its probably my last. So thank you Re:Mind, for ReMinding me why I never bought DLCs in the first place.
Ps - Im so glad playable Kairi was optional, thats one of the only things this DLC did right.
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