#khux essay

[serenedash]

Let's talk khux gameplay and plot,

imo I think part of khux's story telling and the impact of the story gets lost now that the game is defunct. I always thought people didn't appreciate how the gameplay and the mechanics actually had an impact on the story and while that impact become virtually nonexistent later on, I always thought it made the story far more engaging when the game was just chi/unchained chi and also the English translation didn't do it too well ngl

Anyway what I'm specifically talking about is the medal system. Also I feel like the whole bangle thing wasn't explained well in game but really it just comes down to leveling up medals specifically. If you never played khux, you equip medals to your keyblades and they doa specific attack and to level them up you combine multiple of the same medal and you could see how leveled up a medal is by the amount of yellow dots next to it and, in JP at least, this was called "guilt" and like wow that name fucking slaps. And when nightmare chirithy reveals the player has been collecting darkness this whole time thru the medal system, you have literal guilt on your conscious. You are guilty of collecting darkness and negative emotions like guilt to use for your own power. And in Back Cover when the foretellers are made aware of this, there's no stopping it and ofc the player can't stop either, they HAVE to get stronger, you literally have to keep playing the game,

Another part of the game that I appreciated is the way the name changes factored into the game; chi was the original "world line" that the dandelions existed in and at first unchained chi had come off as just a remake but really what we're playing is the continuation, where the player and the dandelions are now in this unchained state/new world line and they're reliving their time as wielders but now without the war/"dark" memories and finally when they relive everything and get back to the "present," they continue on after into "union cross" which I feel like. wasn't explained well in game that much tbh but if you didn't understand what that meant in game, it was just to say that unions didn't matter anymore and they were all dandelions so the unions. when the unions are crossed.

and tbh the experience of playing this game in real time also added to the experience a lot and the impact of the story especially with a player insert character. I think the most effective use of this game being played in real time was Strelitzia. Now in the english version, everything with Strelitzia was all one update and the english ver was behind so honestly they had to do catch up they couldn't really afford to lag behind. But in JP, which most khux fans kept up with using fan translations, Strelitzia's introduction and her death happened about a month apart so it gave the players time to actualyl grow attached to her and THEN we get crushed. You can easily pin point the exact time certain khux fan art was drawn bc in a group drawing of the dandelions Strelitzia is there instead of Lauriam since he was only introduced after her death

and another thing! It only became apparent by the end of the game but khux actually takes place over the course of about 4 years. which is fucking insane. because the dandelions were stuck in the data for 4 years and didn't know it until the glitches started. and the game ran for roughly the same amount of time and we weren't even aware of that either until the glitches! ("why 4 years" there are cutscenes that literally say "4 years ago" so yeah girl what the fuck haha)

Anyway yeah this was just me rambling I think about this so much all the time can you tell. I hope missing link does something like this too tbh it makes it more fun and makes it feel that your actions as the player actually have impact on the story

#source: dude trust me I was there #'who cares about the gameplay of a defunct mobile game' I DO #I wasn't a whale I was exclusively F2P but I ranked well #I was deep in the khux meta I was watching the few khux youtubers seeing if pulls were worth it + keeping up with roboloid's datamines #me reporting all this information back to my party full of casual players and them being like. okay. #I was a very dedicated party leader #khux #im rambling #kingdom hearts #khml #khdr #khux essay

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

If I said that I’d been working on a fun project where I match Disney songs to KHUX and DR scenes for the past 2 years, would you believe me?

Well, you should 😊

⭐️ Google Docs | Dropbox ⭐️

(note: this is a hefty document best viewed on desktop or in the google docs/dropbox apps, but hey, to each their own)

#khux #khdr #my art #my posts #khx player #xehanort #I hold this project very near and dear to my heart because in all honesty I did actually cry at some points while making this #that should tell you what you need to know about me #I might make a version without the images like I did with my ephy essay just to make it more readable #but I hope you enjoy!! I had a lot of fun making this #khuxdr told through disney songs

[venjamin-kingdomhearts]

as much as i love talking abt ven i dont really have the energy to make a whole essay about connecting him to various disney movies but not enough ppl point towards the little mermaid/princess and the frog/hercules when talking abt him. ariel and naveen both made "deals with the devil", megara was used by hades, and meanwhile ventus made a wish to have friends as a child, and the monkey paw curled. ventus didn't even know what he was doing and that a "devil" had granted his wish, but suddenly he was a union leader with friends at the cost of someone else's life, and since then the universe has been punishing him, no matter how many good deeds he does or sacrifices he makes. and i feel like there's gotta be SOME parallel with a disney movie we can connect this too because this is just some twisted variation of ariel wanting legs and nearly getting her kingdom destroyed. there are so many ven parallels w/ disney princesses its insane, snow white and aurora were just the beginning

ventus is living through the most fucked up disney princess story. and the ride is not fucking over yet.

#ventus #kh #my thoughts #khux #ONE DAY ILL WRITE THE ESSAY. but not today no ma'am

[ar-mage-ddon]

i miss khux sometimes

#khux #keykid #kh union x #kh union cross #wahoo first post on the new acc #i watched a couple video essays on kh this past week which got me thinking abt it again #the majority of those thoughts being MAN i miss khux and MAN i cant wait for khml #so i booted up the game to mess around with outfits and here i am #myart

[roxasthatisastick]

I would be happy to hear your rambles about the Player!

crawls out from under a rock. okay. im here player is just such a good character, and legitimately really solidified an architype in my head

i joined khx right after ephemera's intro, so like, i practically saw the arc of player starting to communicate real time, which is why i think its so important to me. like, the point of player is how they *grow.* its xion all over again. a trio doomed from the start, but through friendship, player starts to reach back to others! they change things. they arent someone fully under our control, no matter how much we might have designed them at the start

i love player!!!!!! loving your friends is enough to overturn fate!!!

#mint rambles #legitimately im tempted to go on a second even more adjacent ramble #comparing and contrasting the idea of a 'player insert' in both bravely default 1 and khux #i really should just work on that bravely default essay i have too many brainworms about it

[cq-studios]

11. What’s the first thing you think about when thinking about the character?—Elrena

Whoooooooooooey! Boy do I have a first thing that I think about when it comes to Elrena!

I’ll try my best to keep this concise because I’ve literally been slowly but surely writing a video essay for years about this (seriously Starlight you could not have chosen a better character for this question lol).

Okay, so I spend a lot of time (psycho)analyzing Elrena and trying to decipher how she could’ve gone from who we see in UX to Larxene.

Some bits and pieces of my elaborate theory/headcannon are as follows:

Elrena is not actually as nice as she seems in UX, the reason she seems kind is because we only ever see her interacting with the Union Leaders and she is either intimidated by them, wants to be in their good graces, or both (she can still be nice, just not as sweet and innocent as everyone makes her out to be)

At some point Elrena loses faith in authority (probably once they escape to the real Daybreak Town and Brain is at the computer)

After she appears in (loosely) present KH time she is taken into the Organization (with no prior memories) because she’s supposedly has a Keyblade

She and Marluxia are treated like Roxas (maybe worse since they were unable to fulfill the role they were supposed to) but have no ‘Axel’ to fall back on so they fall back on each other, two people who are both equally lost and confused

We already know Lauriam is prone to anger in stressful situations and Elrena could’ve very much been the same all things considered. In the Organization they both feed into those parts of each other as do the other Organization members, who, as we know, are not the friendliest. They get mean and vindictive to survive

That’s pretty much the footnotes. I have evidence (based on text as well as human behaviour) and other smaller things I think about too but that’s the stuff for my video essay. If I try and write it here I might never finish the post lol

#Man I think about this all the time #I wish I could just finish the video essay but actually sitting down and writing is so hard #(I’m pretty sure I have ADHD/ADD and I’m not quite sure how to counter it) #but I want so badly to share my ideas because I don’t think people talk about this enough #at least not as in depth… that I’ve seen #people normally are just like ‘Elrena used to be so sweet what happened?’ #and I’m sitting there vibrating like ‘I have ideas but I #*I’m so bad a writing it out’ #elrena #larxene #sometimes i think about khux

[cinnabeat]

i wanna go back to the khux era actually that made me feel insane in the best way i wanna feel that again

#i need to get invested in something truly mind boggling again #or not invested so much as experience it #nothing wouldve ever prepared me for the khux finale actually i need to feel that again #i need to feel alive is what #i am so. tired? #like hm #i dont have the energy to break down my thoughts like usual #in better news i finished my essay i just need to type it up and clean it and shit #gotta proofread #thats a lie i never proofread anything ive dont it only once before and while fun ive never truly bren as invested in something #oedipus just sparked something in me #also my teacher required we have like three drafts or whatever WITH editing marks so #actually tenth geade english was my best work the things we had to read in that class really tickled my 'i need to talk about this' itch in #my brain #i also ended up writing an essay before the year started bc it was summer hw that i never did #anyways i wrote in on the alchemist and i read a little bit of it before i was like wow this is terrible #and just sparknoted the rest and just rante daboit how awful a book it was and i got an A! #i still have it on my google docs i gotta transfer that shit to a harddrivr #ive never been so heated by something lmao #also reading the metamorphosis in class was wild i remember we were doing silent reading and i got way ahead of everyone else #and everyone in my table was like what is bc i had a horrified look and i was like just keep reading #and again reading the great gataby i aas just vibing while reading and then i got to thr car accident? scene?? and i like #put my hand on my mouth like you know 🤭 and again people were like whattt #i was like literally read three more pages #i never got a chance to read the yellow wallpapaer and im sad about that #no thats a lie i did have a chance i just chose not to read it #1 bc i was too lazy to read it at home and i also forgot and also something something adhd or whatever point is i didnt read anything that y #year besides catcher in the rye and TWO my teacher had powerpoints that would go over each section we read in such excruciating detail that #we basically didnt have to read anything and sshe didnt really foster an environment for discussion but rather just tell her what she wants #to hear and what she wants to hear is literally on the powerpoints so what was the point of reading

[rosie-kairi]

Ventus Character Analysis based entirely off of the 10 or so pages he exists for in the KHX novel.

A couple months ago I made a post regarding a small passage from the KHX novel that had caught my attention because of how it established a bit of character for Ventus in such a short paragraph. Now, I’ve decided to comb through the rest of the section he appears in to see if I can find anything else worth talking about character-wise, and take up the challenge of writing my first ever character analysis essay for something non-school related. Lord have mercy on my soul please, I swear I’m trying my hardest over here. While his appearance in the KHX novel was brief, we can still learn interesting information about Ventus’s character as he appears in the Chi Saga. 

(Essay under read more because this gets long.)

(Also on AO3 here.)

Ventus first appears in the book on the very end of page 136 -11 pages before the book’s conclusion- during the epilogue titled “Epilogue- Unchained X”. This is the only section of the book he appears in, as the epilogue covers the end of the keyblade war, the union leader meetup, and has a short interlude for Strelitzia’s death. It should be noted that most of the more interesting bits about Ventus can be found on page 137, as that is the page where he is fully introduced, before the book shifts its attention over to the arrival of Brain. Like I said, very brief appearance. So forgive me if I end up repeating some points on accident. As is common for the Kingdom Hearts novelizations, a majority of the dialogue is taken straight from the game cutscenes, and KHX is no different. There is nothing in the dialogue in this book that could allow us to glean information about Ventus’s character that we would not have already gotten in-game. That’s not to say there’s absolutely nothing new to be taken into account, because if there wasn’t I wouldn’t be writing this. It’s all in the prose.

Ventus’s arrival comes with a description of him, that being “The one who answered was a boy with short, wavy golden hair and a tendency to look at the ground. He seemed so quiet that it was hard to imagine him fighting with a keyblade” (pg. 136). While it doesn’t really describe Ventus physically, it does tell us a lot about him personality wise. Mainly, Ventus seems to be a very shy and timid person. He’s not the type you’d imagine when thinking of people who go out everyday and fight dangerous creatures made of darkness. Ventus’s apparent tendency to look at the ground as mentioned above might also suggest that he’s unsure of himself, as doing so can be seen as a sign of nervousness or uncertainty -at least, according to body language analysts. What’s more is that the speech indicators used when Ventus speaks seem to support this. When Ventus introduces himself to Skuld and Ephemer, he is described as doing so “shyly” (pg. 137), when he wonders why he was chosen Ventus sounds “uncertain of himself” (pg. 137), and when lamenting his lack of friends, Ventus mutters (pg. 137). Suffice to say, Ventus is not a very confident person. He lacks what he sees as sufficient enough skills that would warrant him being chosen as a union leader. He says so himself, “I’m not especially good at anything… And I’m never at the top of the rankings.” (pg. 137). In the very first scene he appears -and the only section that is dedicated to him specifically- in the novel it is made very clear that Ventus lacks self-confidence. He talks down on himself and all-around just seems very unsure as to why he, a timid, not very strong 10-12 year old boy of all people, was chosen to lead the unions after the war. 

Another key part of Ventus’s character throughout the events of KHUX is his lack of close friends. Before becoming a union leader, Ventus was completely alone. Besides maybe his Chirithy, Ventus had no one. His apparent timidness and self-confidence issues probably factored into this. He was too shy to try and approach random keyblade wielders in the hopes of befriending them. If we choose to believe that Ventus was in-fact a preteen around this time, then his age would present a problem as well. Being a 10 year old surrounded by teenagers in an incredibly competitive environment where being stronger than all of your peers and collecting the most lux to get high up in the rankings is highly encouraged is not going to do much good for your self-image. In an environment like that, many wielders would likely look down on those they deem as being too weak, and by Ven’s own admission, he would’ve been incredibly likely to be one of those seen as too weak. Not to mention how a lot of teenagers probably would not want to be hanging around with a 10 year old who could barely pull his own weight. So, Ventus would’ve been stuck in a cycle of being rejected by stronger keyblade wielders for being too weak, but not being able to get stronger because he was completely alone aside from his Chirithy. In a series that puts so much emphasis on the strength we get from our friends and peers, Ventus had none of that. There’s one paragraph -the one that inspired me to make this in the first place- which reads, “Ephemer had never seen this boy Ven. Many keyblade wielders he would at least recognize by face, and you usually heard stories about the really exceptional ones, but Ven belonged to neither category.” (pg. 137). It may not say so directly, but this passage once again reiterates how lonely and for all intents and purposes unremarkable Ventus was in Daybreak Town. Ephemer, someone who feels that in a town of potentially thousands of keyblade wielders he would be able to recognize most of them by face alone, does not recognize Ventus at all, and he’s clearly never heard of him either. It feels mean to say, but Ventus is not well-known, he’s not recognizable, and he’s not an exceptional keyblade wielder. Ventus is a nobody, and I don’t mean like in the Kingdom Hearts enemy way, I mean a literal nobody.

It’s mean, I know it’s mean, I’m basically just bullying the poor kid at this point, but that’s what we can infer from the text. With all of this in mind it’s really not hard to see why Darkness chose him as its target. He was weak, he was vulnerable, he was the perfect choice for Darkness to leech onto. Ventus, above all else, wanted strength and friendship, and he did get that eventually with the union leaders. But it was all at the cost of another person’s life. Darkness answered Ventus’s wishes and gave him everything he wanted. Strelitzia had to die in order for Ventus to get what he wanted. Ventus, of course, did not know about this. He did not kill Strelitzia, not on purpose. He was an unwilling participant in her murder. But it would not be inaccurate to say that Strelitzia did die directly because of Ventus. If Darkness did not “fulfill” Ventus’s wants, Strelitzia would still be alive and a union leader. But where would that leave Ventus? The reality of it is that in a world without the interference of Darkness Ventus would not have been asked to become a Dandelion by Ava due to his lack of strength as she was tasked specifically with recruiting the best keyblade wielders, and he wouldn’t have been recruited any of his friends who might’ve been in the dandelions because he had none. Poor Ventus would’ve fought in the war and realistically would’ve died very quickly. 

That’s really all I have to say here. I could say more, but this is meant to be an analysis of Ventus’s character as he is portrayed in his very limited appearance in the KHX novel. For what it’s worth, this whole essay probably won’t reveal anything about Ventus’s character that we couldn’t already assume from the cutscenes in-game, but I do think it’s still important. For how little we see of him in the novel it does one hell of a job in establishing parts of his character right off the bat without outright saying anything definitive. 

Thank you very much for reading my lil essay here, I know it might seem a bit disjointed at some points and I really do apologize for that. This is the culmination of a lot of my brainworms about Ventus and I never have been very good at putting thoughts on paper. If anyone has anything they’d like to add, please don’t hesitate to do so. Hope you enjoyed!

Also, I do want to just throw a shout out to everyone who left tags of their thoughts on the original post because they really helped me out here.  He’s our collective sad little Charles Dickens-esque orphan boy and we are taking turns giving him soup.

#Rosie rambles #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts union x #khux #kh ventus #ventus #character analysis #reblogs appreciated <3 #gonna pin this bc i worked hard on it

[starrysmiling]

(threateningly) all the numbers

i have been threatened.

How many words have you written this year? published total on ao3 is about 33k, but if i add all the unpublished stuff the total is just over 70k! i sure wrote a lot of stuff i won't publish this year LMAO

How many works did you publish this year? 4 (salute emoji)

What work are you most proud of (regardless of kudos/hits)? finishing steps v2...! it adds a lot of canon exploration and also fern character study which was fun to write and really satisfying to get out!

What work of yours has the most hits? from this year it's steps because i didn't publish anything that wasn't unbound but is it cheating if like half of its 600 hits were from last year. haha. haha

What work of yours got more feedback than you expected? i actually didn't get that much feedback at all from anyone who wasn't already a friend so i guess i'll have to work harder for that. nobody new commented on anything that i published this year and i didn't get a single reblog note so... (shrugs) but there was a nice comment i got about steps taking liberties with the post-canon which made me very happy...!

Favorite title you used i'll post this later this month but 'one step at a time' as a half-companion piece to steps... if i can finish it in time.......

If you use song lyrics, which artist’s songs did you pull from the most? let's just take a moment to listen to acacia by bump of chicken the fucking song ever the everything the fax essay

Pairing you wrote the most for this year?

Favorite pairing you wrote for this year? 8 and 9 are the same. fax. i only wrote fax. fax the ever

What work was the quickest to write? respite took me about a day, which is insanely fast actually

What work took you the longest to write? steps took me like 8 months to rewrite. it turned out pretty damn good so we're winning here

How many WIPs do you have in your docs for next year? surprisingly not a lot... i have bodyguard to work on, which is pretty much a constant, but otherwise i think i'm done most of my wips. i want to take a writing break once i'm done with my current fics because i'm just. tired. but i have a bunch of ideas (some basic ideas and aus, some about aros with jax... i have reincarnation sitting in my notes... promised to do something w crime boss and syndicate too...)

What’s your longest work of the year? stop making me say steps BUT it's 38.5k baby!!!!!!

What’s your shortest work of the year? actually this unpublished micro study of fern which i find really sexy. i'll put it at the end so you guys can read it too!

What WIP are you taking into next year with you? bodyguard (fernsleep) it's always bodyguard. augh

What’s your most common “Additional Tags” tag? pov 2nd person because it's so fucking sexy but to be real it's probably fluff

Your favorite character to write this year? i literally only wrote fax. so uh. i guess jax ? he's easier than fern

The character that gave you the most trouble writing this year? SEE ABOVE. FERN IS HARD

What’s one pairing you want to explore next year? not really pairing but once i get up to khux i have something in mind w ephemer! and also maybe some khml things because i can't just be faxing all the time (i can absolutely fax all the time and i will continue to if left unchecked)

Which work of yours have you reread the most? probably steps again but i think hook, line, sinker gets privileges too

How many kudos in total did you get this year? ao3 is telling me 27 on the fics i've posted this year of which like. 10 are from steps being from last year. let's do better next year. otherwise i get a ton from my old prsk works and occasionally from enstars but i haven't posted anything new for either for a while

Which work has the most comments? please i literally wrote only for a ridiculously obscure fandom. please give me a break (it's steps.)

Did you do any collaborative works this year? no :( i think it'd be fun to try but i'm kinda bad at working with people because of my specific vision and vibe for whatever i do (also perfectionism). i also literally don't have friends into the same things as i am

Did you write any gifts this year? mage i know you're here. i hope you enjoyed your 13k of porn

Did you receive any gifts this year? no. i don't expect to get any though

What’s your most common category? what does this mean . umm. m/m G-T usually i think releasing porn this year was a bit new but it was good and i liked it a lot so ,

What do you listen to while writing? whatever song i'm addicted to recently! this is how you get me listening to catchy idol pop while i'm writing about fern getting his sanity fucked out of him. the vibes don't really matter because the music is just there to stop me from getting distracted at everything

Favorite work you wrote this year? this ask game really wants me to say steps again but it's literally my pride and joy. i hope you all play unbound so you can read my 38k monster oneshot

Favorite line/passage you wrote this year? "It's cute, in a way, how his dishonesty betrays everything he wants to say."

Biggest surprise while writing this year? i actually quite liked a lot of the things i did this year. they're not bad and i don't mind rereading them and i hope that means i've gained a bit more confidence in myself... also i wrote 13k of straight up porn that's new. i've never wrote that much goddamn porn before lmao

anyway that bit from (14) because i think it's really sexy thinking about fern in terms of his relationship with intimacy and how that relates to sex and romance in his view of things... y'know......

#ask game #grinning weakly. i did it

[houseofsannae]

So I finished playing Dark Road last weekend

Meaning I finally caught up to where everyone else had been a few weeks previously when the concluding update actually released. I have thoughts, but without spoilers (spoilers below the cut), I will say:

Dark Road might actually be one of my favourite Kingdom Hearts games

Bold claim! Why is that?

It’s almost 3AM and while I wanted to write an essay, this is probably going to be a lot more rambly and topic-jumping than any of my uni profs would have accepted. I’ll start by saying: this should have been a full Playstation title. With the traditional KH control scheme (By which I mean the command deck system, AKA the one we had for three games seriously why did they bring back KH2′s shitty magic system for KH3 BUT I DIGRESS). Dark Road should have been a “full” game, and it should have been made before KH3. I recall reading somewhere that Nomura had wanted to tell this story before KH3, but had decided not to since people had already waited so long for KH3. Not sure if that’s true, so don’t quote me on it. Frankly, Dark Road makes a lot of bizarre choices from KH3′s ending... make sense.

There’s a common, repeated theme for the “main” Kingdom Hearts villains (Ansem and Xemnas, meaning). Both of them had their plans fail because they made a mistaken assumption. Ansem assumed that the mass of dark power he could feel behind the Door to Darkness was Kingdom Hearts (because obviously darkness is stronger than light, and therefore Kingdom Hearts (which is strong) must be made of darkness). He was wrong; the Door to Darkness led to the Realm of Darkness. Xemnas believed that Nobodies could not regain their hearts save by accessing Kingdom Hearts, and built his own to accomplish that. While 3D is cited to claim that he lied about not knowing Nobodies could grow hearts of their own, there is no evidence to show that he knew that in KH2. Both Ansem and Xemnas based their plans on something they were fundamentally wrong about. So it would make sense for Xehanort to have done the same thing... but KH3 doesn’t indicate that’s the case, going so far as to have Sora say that what he’s doing (xenocide) must be done... just not by Xehanort. But that’s a different rant.

Dark Road gives us “what Xehanort believed and was wrong about”. Xehanort has apparently believed all his life that he was some special “Child of Destiny” destined to save the worlds from Darkness. And, as we all know, he’s not.

Riku is.

A bunch of you auto-filled “Sora is”, didn’t you? I’ll remind you that the premise of KH1 is that Riku was supposed to be the “chosen one”, but refused the call so hard Sora had to do it instead. Sora’s not the chosen one, he’s not a “Child of Destiny” or what have you; he’s the guy that stood up and said “I’ll do it” when the actual chosen one said “no”. If this “Child of Destiny” nonsense is going to continue going forwards, which given how no one in KH3 could affect the plot aside from Sora, it probably will, I will take heart in the fact that Square Enix adores the “Screw Destiny” trope so much that averting it was one of the major factors in making FFXV such a tragedy.

Speaking of things I don’t like but am living with, confirmation (sort of) that they’re definitely sticking with Vanitas not originally being part of Ventus. I still don’t like it but I’m not mad about it anymore. Let’s see where Nomura’s Wild Ride takes us.

I also want to talk about the presentation of the story (the segue will make sense in a minute I promise). If Dark Road had been released all in one go, we could have avoided all of the “What do you mean the KHUx Player reincarnated into Xehanort” backlash. Because surprise! The Player didn’t reincarnate into Xehanort, they reincarnated into the elderly person who raised Babynort. (That’s right, folks, we are now one of the parents who fucked up a perfectly good child and gave them anxiety!) My objection isn’t to either of these twists, it’s to the fact that all the hairpulling could have been avoided if the game hadn’t been released in segments.

Relatedly I have to say something on a more somber note. What we did get was a remarkably solid game (once the gacha elements were removed), but... I get the distinct impression there was supposed to be more. That the other worlds that are visited during the story missions were supposed to have their own grinding modes, not just Wonderland and Agrabah. That, plus the fact that so much of it was released in one go... It’s sad to me that there was obviously a longer plan here to do more, that was (I assume) curtailed by COVID. I feel bad for everyone who worked on the game not getting to fulfill the full extent of what they’d planned. At the same time, though, I’m glad they did manage to at least complete the story. Yes, there could have been more to the game, but what is there was done well.

I’m also happy that the cardboard cutouts ceased to be cardboard cutouts! (I’m referring to the other students, who seemed to have nothing to them other than character designs in the initial release, which was all I had played). I love every single one of them, and even though their deaths were foregone conclusions, what happened still hit for me. I will say I’m pissed that the people who were saying “Well obviously Bragi is Luxu, since (actual name of a Norse god) Bragi is an anagram of Braig!” were right. It feels like we were supposed to assume that was too obvious to be anything other than a red herring, and thereby be blindsided by the reveal... but people called it from the character reveal on that stupid basis alone. Contrarilywise, I am elated that Vor is not Kairi’s grandmother, which was the other thing that everyone was trumpeting from the character reveals. I have absolutely no idea why anyone thinks Kairi’s grandmother holds any narrative importance whatsoever. Further, I am immensely frustrated by the obsession with trying to figure out “Who of these new characters are actually someone we already know in disguise!” Just let a new character be a new character. Fuck’s sake, I did this with the Star Wars sequels and had my victory from TLJ yanked out from under me by RoS. Just let me live.

So yeah, I adore all the new dead kids, and someday I might even memorize their names. I wish we could see more of them, but given that they’re dead... well, if there is some bullshit and we see them again, I won’t be complaining.

I feel like I had more to say but it’s now almost 4AM and my brain is shutting down. If you have any questions or want me to comment on specific points that I didn’t cover here, the ask box is always open - though I reserve the right to disagree with your opinions, naturally.

All in all I enjoyed my time with Dark Road and I’m excited about Kingdom Hearts again (well, moreso than the baseline excited, that never goes away. You know what I mean)

#kingdom hearts dark road #kingdom hearts dark road spoilers #I most definitely forgot things I wanted to comment on but eh #long story short I liked the game

[hollowwhisperings]

due to a suspected bout of Brain Fog, my current KH speculation series has halted at Part 5.

i might just dump the bullet point list that prompted my going into Essay Mode (i was finding connections between the existing roster to figure out who the Other New Lights could be).

i'll try to do An Edit of it but Brain Weather Bad (Hollow's brain, not KHUX Brain nor his brain: his brain = ?).

#hollow whispers

[serenedash]

I love thinking about daily life in Daybreak Town and I'm gonna put a read more for my own sanity here LOL feel free to add your headcanons about Daybreak Town :]

one thing I really like thinking about is what quests/missions and raid hour was like for wielders since khux loved to make game mechanics actually Mean Something lore-wise. If you never played khux, raid hour was twice a day (11am and 11pm in my time zone) where powerful enemies would appear called raid bosses and you and your party could take them on solo or together

So like. Daily missions/quests are really only mentioned briefly in actual cut scenes (off the top of my head, Ephemera mentions it to Player that it would be suspicious if they were gone too long because it would look like they were slacking, Strelitzia also is shocked that Lauriam basically gets all of his missions done before noon) but I imagine that daily missions take up most of the day for wielders (again, another gameplay mechanic where you earned in game currency for doing things). And you know obviously we get to see lots of wielders around during the day, we get to see our character and others going to bed at the end of the day, and when Player waits for Ephemera at the fountain we see how no one is around at night,

I've seen a lot of discussions about night time in Daybreak Town, headcanons about how there are wielders that only do their missions at night, how darkness is more potent and there are more heartless (I especially love when people point out the night sky would be pitch black since the worlds are still one world so there would be no sky, only adding to the darkness at night). But back to raid hour!! I like to think about wielders getting their daily missions done and going back home to relax/nap/whatever and then when raid hour happens the clock tower rings and its like the empty streets suddenly fill with people, wielders meeting up with their parties or people going for the solo boss fights, and they all go ham until the bosses disappear and everyone goes back to bed. In the khx novel chirithy says that the clock tower only rings at "special times" but never elaborates so I like to think raid hour counts lol

for other daily life things tho, I've always had this headcanon that since the unions were formed (or maybe since the master of masters took on apprentices,) wielders just flocked to Daybreak Town and kinda. basically drove out the original people in Daybreak Town so its literally like a town run by kids (and moogles) and I like to think there's a good amount of kids/teens running little shops like there's that one part of Daybreak Town that's like a street market and I just know those were all run by like 15 year olds (also you can't convince me that 18 is like the oldest people get in Daybreak Town bc the game makes it SO SO SO CLEAR that wielders die CONSTANTLY and its VERY NORMALIZED) but anyway yeah some wielders not really doing their wielder stuff and instead just running businesses because you can't tell me there's moogles for Everything,

I've also had some very clear ideas about how parties work like since day one of unchained x, I like to think party leaders have get togethers to discuss what's happening in town or in their union and each union has their own like. Office I guess? for party leaders to gather and I always liked to imagine the leaders going there in the morning for reports of where strong heartless are or orders from their union leader yknow (idk in my head its like a post office, go to your little mailbox and get your stuff)

I don't have anything else those are my random disjointed thoughts👍

#im kinda tired sorry if this didn't flow well #but hopefully all my ideas are coming across lmao #sliding in my demyx somebody headcanon here of him fucking off to just play music in the fountain square all day #he's the daybraek town equivalent of that one guy at every college who sits outside playing guitar #irt the business thing- some friends and I have fun talking about our key kids running a deli together in town thats where that came from #khux #kh #kingdom hearts #headcanons #foretellers #chirithy #player #khux essay #im rambling

[ephemxras]

it took me way too long to remember the name of thr funny guy you like a lot but you're an expert on uhhh ephemer from kingdom hearts ♡♡ you are the reason why people can get a phd in this field

THAT LAST LINEBAISJDOSJDKDB PLEASE i have a soft spot for him i could literally make an essay for him WAIT I DID MAKE A PARAGRAPH ESSAY ON WHY I LOVE HIM HOLD ON

okay so it was 2015? 2016? when khux was pretty damn fresh. i think my tokyo ghoul phase was still raging but kingdom hearts was also a raging hyperfixation and it still is xD anyways me and my close friends were all in debacle over khux. making ocs. making our own stories. etc etc. i think somewhere in between where global updated khux to the point where we first met ephemer i was like woah wair hold on. hold on he’s super cute !!!!!!!!! and i partially. well no wholeheartedly blame kaneki ken for pin pointing my taste in fictional men now because i know for sure this emo twink ass influenced certain characteristics of fictional dudes that would make me swoon over them. ephemer was the first victim (affectionate) of this endeavor and you know what i don’t regret it. not just the white hair. but just that damn scarf and cute little face and UGHHHH his voice n personality is just so wksoejsoejdkdhddofjdjb ,,, a lot of my friends fell out of khux but i stayed pretty much for story and ephemer (honorably mentioning skuld who i shipped with another keykid bc i’m gay as hell) 👉👈 ;;; also my keykid,,, and tbh i’m actually really glad this game ended up having the most fantastic story in the kh franchise which made my solo efforts to play through worth it in the end as i experienced the ending and end of service through my own eyes and keykids. i don’t want to cry typing this out so moving on

source: this was from my powerpoint on psychoanalyzing myself

#anyways. ephemer kingdom hearts. #so glad this is what i’m famous for #❥ mystery box #strel.txt

[remberedink]

KHUX brain make me go AAAAHHHH

#kingdom hearts #khux #kh ventus #kh lauriam #kh skuld #kh ephemer #kh brain #kh elrena #kh darkness #kh luxu #my art #I have half an essay about Darkness and their body language in their teleporting #but how tf do I make that art

[xhda1449x]

I DID NOT GET BACK TO KH FROM ATTACK ON TITAN JUST TO GET TRAUMATIZED AGAIN.

seriously i deleted the post where i was like “snk is just kh and evangelion combined!!!” because it was a stupid post and people noticed it and it was scary. BUT. i still stand by it

#khux #kinda #khux spoilers #...kinda #xehanort is an eren #<-putting this in the tags so no one can see #and if you do see it #send me a weird ask so we can be friends #:) #snk kinda #hiro being stupid #why nomura why #why isayama why #i guess #why everything. #i should be studying not typing a whole essay into the tags #oh well #kingdom hearts

[storm-driver]

also i dont wanna be the one to say it, but i will:

despite how iconic roxas’ outfit is, he’s had the same outfit for 15-years (both his org coat and his regular attire). 

his outfit is also ridiculously similar to ventus’ which would make identifying them on-screen way more difficult.

he needs new stuff that doesn’t look like a slight rehash of ven’s outfit. 

#it's nothing against the outfit cause his outfit is pretty dope #but if he were ever to stand next to ven on screen #like yeah we could tell the difference but oh my god it's like when alphinaud and alisaie are next to each other in arr #you're just staring cause like....what the fuck #proud of heavensward for finally giving them both very different outfits #i dont think they're gonna give ven a new outfit sooner than they should give roxas a new one #just because ven is still the newer one to the franchise and so we can see the similarities between him and his khux model better #sure he's been in this game for 10 years now (longer if you count his appearance in the kh2 secret movie) #but roxas has been here since fucking forever #let him have some NEW CLOTHES #kingdom hearts #i could actually write a whole essay about why its important but ill do that when im not dying of allergies