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flightfoot · 3 years

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Apollo’s Redemption Arc

Apollo was never “evil” per se within the books, not really being actively malicious during the course of the story. He did some stuff that COULD have given him the villain slot (What he did to the Cumaen Sibyl, to Harpocrates, and to Coronis most specifically) but those terrible, malicious actions that led to IMMENSE suffering were only introduced via flashback, and not in great detail. Before that, his worse actions were only referenced vaguely, like him talking about sending heroes to die on quests and not caring, and other things were toned down, like the flaying of Marsyas which supposedly didn’t happen the way it’s portrayed in myths, so it’s up in the air how bad that actually was.

The jarring change in Tyrant’s Tomb came from seeing his more actively malicious actions instead of aggressively uncaring actions and attitude of previous books. During The Hidden Oracle, The Dark Prophecy, and The Burning Maze we learned how he used to watch demigod battles on TV as entertainment, not caring about the suffering they went through. Not to mention how he didn’t care much about Commodus beating his cupbearer for spilling a drink beyond some vague pity and think it was distasteful. He’s mostly chastised for being a bystander during these first three books. The great harm he’s caused more actively was only really emphasized in the fourth book, after he’s already turned around enough that he’s not really considered the same person anymore, something that’s accentuated in the text by Reyna and Meg during the confrontation with Harpocrates.

It appears to be an effort to strike a balance; making sure the reader doesn’t forget Apollo’s screwed up and needs to change, but also never wanting him to come across as a true villain. So in early installments when he’s first starting his redemption and is still a bit of an arrogant prick at times, it just portrays him as being MORE of an arrogant prick at first, along with being uncaring. In later installments once he’s changed and any vestiges of his jerkishness have been swept away, Rick’s able to delve into how bad he’s been in the past. We’re already invested enough in Apollo to not only want him to be redeemed, but to already have seen his growth, to have already gone through a lot of it. It takes a lot of the sting out of his horrific actions in the past.

Redemption arcs need something to use to redeem a character, something that makes them realize they need to change and provide ongoing motivation for such a strenuous task, beyond just stopping doing bad stuff. Because just not doing evil things anymore ain’t a redemption; that guy who killed Katara’s mother in Avatar: The Last Airbender wasn’t redeemed just because he retired. It takes changing as a person. Often doing some specific redemptive action is also required to sort of ‘solidify’ the character change, to demonstrate that the change isn’t just in their words, that it’s a change that will stick, as well as to bring the audience and those who the character hurt or who were wary of them because of their past, onto their side. Even if the character knows they’ve changed, it’s not like anyone else can see into their heart; they can only judge by what they observe.

One thing that’s needed here is relatability; can we put ourselves in that character’s shoes and see and understand how they view the world? If a reader can do that, can understand that thought process, the redemption arc will be far more likely to work; it might even be required for a truly great one.

A lot of Apollo’s actions that require a redemption arc (sending demigods off on frivolous, dangerous quests as errands, standing by while people are slaughtered, enacting petty punishments on people who really don’t deserve it, for instance) are written in such a way that the reader could reasonably understand his mindset, though it’d vary by reader obviously, as personal experience and mindset play a large role here. It helps that for a lot of Apollo’s actions we’re inside his head, we know what he was thinking, even if we don’t know the full story of how he developed into thinking that way. With him starting off thinking of demigods and mortals as expendable, we get to thoroughly understand that aspect before changing it. Others are more mixed, like with seeing his thought process concerning the Cumaen Sibyl and her curse. He helpfully explains a piece of his thought process, namely about hoping to find the one true romance that would wash away his past failures, and then how he started hating her when denied what he wanted, and couldn’t understand that her love wasn’t transactional, wasn’t to be bought.

Come to think of it, he may have had that viewpoint because as a god, he had a lot of capital to trade. Power, wealth, longevity, all sorts of extremely valuable things he could use to ‘buy’ what he wanted. So the idea of being able to obtain love, peace, and fulfillment that way was tantalizing - especially since it wasn’t something he could obtain that way from most of the other gods. He was fortunate enough to have his sister and mother at least, so he DID have some good, healthy relationships, but that didn’t provide immunity from that mindset.

Being thrown down to Earth, being among mortals as one of them, changed everything.

Having good role models helped.

Even way back in THO, Apollo’s touched, nearly driven to tears at his children’s desire to protect him, at their love and care for him. He doesn’t expect it since he can’t provide them anything special.

And it’s not like it ends with them.

TDP: Jo and Emmie’s kindness towards others, their acceptance of those in need, their desire to help even people like himself and Lit, touches him deeply.

TBM: Jason sees worth in him, SAW worth in him, even back in Blood of Olympus, first time seeing him. Even then he risked his father’s wrath to try to get him to go easy on Apollo, because he thought it was the right thing to do. And ultimately he was willing to die in part to save Apollo.

TTT: The camp just accepts him in, weary though they are. Frank in particular expresses concern for him, that he wouldn’t want to live in a world without Apollo.

TON: Any sort of kindness towards him drives Apollo nearly (or actually) to tears (granted this isn’t exactly new). The Jackson’s/Blofis’s willingness to shelter him and Meg despite the danger, treating it as a natural sort of thing that they couldn’t possibly NOT do, Will having gotten clothes for him on the off-chance, on the hope he’d be back and wanting him to have his own stuff - the casual kindness and compassion just continues to drive home to him that THIS is how people should be - including himself.

While Apollo was shown the negative effects of his previous terrible actions, shown why he needed to change, it wasn’t just left at that. Throughout the entire series, he saw, he experienced what being better would actually look like. He wasn’t just torn down, but also built up again at the same time, this time with a healthier view of the world.

That’s one of the things that really stood out to me with Apollo’s redemption arc in particular; while he faces the consequences of his previous terrible actions and mindset, even having them thrown back at him at times, experiencing them from the other side (hello Britomartis); he isn’t treated cruelly by the people around him… pretty much ever. People are temporarily mad at him, but not for more than like, an hour, and they usually come around pretty quickly. (Not counting the people he wronged REALLY badly in ancient times, talking more about current demigods). It doesn’t feel like a redemption arc based around punishing Apollo, but one around changing him.

It’s especially fitting since this whole thing was *supposed* to be a punishment from Zeus, but ended up being far more than that.

I think Apollo put it well here, near the end of TON.

To be honest, though, I could no longer consider my time on Earth a punishment. Terrible, tragic, nearly impossible… yes. But calling it a punishment gave Zeus too much credit. It had been a journey - an important one I made for myself, with the help of my friends. I hoped… I believed that the grief and pain had shaped me into a better person. I had forged a more perfect Lester from the dregs of Apollo. I would not trade those experiences for anything. (TON 373)

#trials of apollo #ton spoilers #toa analysis #the trials of apollo #lester papadopoulos #tower of nero #the tower of nero #apollo #my analysis

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maddrmatt · 4 years

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Kairi’s Epic Journey: The Quest for Sora

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Chapter 3: A Talk with Mom

Destiny Islands

It was past sunset when Kairi and Pluto entered her home. The dog wandered off into the house while she took off her shoes and headed for the stairs. All she wanted to do was spend the rest of the evening in her room before going to sleep.

She was halfway up the stairs when she suddenly heard, “You missed dinner again, Kairi.”

‘Rats!’ thought Kairi as she turned and saw a blonde-haired woman with brown eyes and wearing glasses, a green shirt and skirt standing with her arms crossed in front of her. It was her adoptive mother Dorothy.

“Sorry, Mom. I guess I lost track of time.”

“You’ve been doing that a lot lately. Your father and I would like to see you at meals once in a while especially on days that he doesn’t have to work late at the office,” said Dorothy.

“Is he still up?” asked Kairi.

“No, he went to bed. He has wake up early to travel tomorrow to the north side to oversee a few projects. He would’ve really liked to see you before he left.”

“Again, I’m sorry and I’ll apologize to Dad when he comes home. But right now, I really just want to go to my room,” said Kairi as she began to ascend the stairs.

“Oh no you don’t, young lady. You need to eat something. Besides, you need to feed Pluto as well,” said Dorothy indicating with a nod of her head to Pluto who come alongside her with his dog bowl in his mouth.

“Oh. I’m sorry, Pluto. I’ll get your food right away,” said Kairi as she headed down the stairs, took the dog bowl from Pluto and headed toward the kitchen.

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“There you go, Pluto. Eat up,” said Kairi as she put the dog bowl, which was now filled with dog food in front of her canine companion. Pluto eagerly dug in.

With the dog fed, Kairi headed to the kitchen table where a bowl of soup was waiting for her. Her mother sat across from her as she began to eat.

“So, what were you doing this afternoon on the Play Island?” asked Dorothy.

“Oh. I was just finishing up a little art project I’ve been working on throughout the month.”

“An art project, you say. Well, it’s good to hear that you’ve been keeping yourself busy. You’ve been spending so much time over there. What is the project anyway?”

“It’s kind of personal so I’d rather not say,” said Kairi. ‘She’d probably worry more if she knew that I was carving and painting a picture of me and Sora.’

“Well, as long as you’re doing something other than just sitting around there, that’s good,” said Dorothy before she realized something. “Oh! It’s the end of the month. Don’t you usually send out a letter to Sora?”

Kairi suddenly dropped her spoon. A morose look came over her face. Dorothy became concerned.

“Kairi? Did I say something wrong?”

“I didn’t send out a letter at all, Mom.”

Dorothy looked surprised. “That’s unusual. Why not?”

“I don’t know. I must’ve sat there for at least a half hour with the pen in my hand and the paper in front of me. But I couldn’t write anything down and I’ve never been unable to do that before.”

‘Then again, aside from completing the picture, there really hasn’t been anything worth writing about this month. What would Sora think if I told him that Riku and the others had given up on finding him?’

Dorothy rose from her chair and walked over to the other side of the table. Sitting down in a chair next to her daughter, she put her hand on her shoulder and said, “Kairi, you know your father and I have supported this letter writing because we know what it means to you. So, I know what I’m about to say may not be what you want to hear. But don’t you think the reason you couldn’t write anything to write to him this time may be a sign that you’re starting to accept that he’s not coming back?”

Kairi almost burst out with rage. But not wanting to start an argument with her mother, she restrained herself and let her continue.

“I know you’ve kept hoping that he’ll come back, and I know you don’t want to accept a world where he’s not in it. Believe me, no one here does not even your father and me. It doesn’t seem right to not see you, Sora and Riku together like before. But as hard as it is, we all need to adjust no matter how much it hurts to. Even Jones and Hayley have to, and heaven only knows how much they’re hurting from the loss of their son.”

‘I can’t lose that hope, Mom. If I do, I don’t know what I’ll do.’

“We all still can hardly believe what you kids have been through over the past few years since that big storm. If you never showed us those Keyblades of yours and hadn’t introduced King Mickey and his friends to us, we probably would have never believed you. I can’t even believe that you were actually dead for a time. But I’ll always be grateful to Sora for bringing you back even if it cost him more than he anticipated.”

‘It wouldn’t have happened if I had been better and stronger. And then Sora wouldn’t have had to sacrifice himself again for me.’

“It’s just not fair, Mom. Sora did so much for so many people throughout the worlds. The worlds probably wouldn’t even be still standing if it weren’t for him. Doesn’t he deserve a happy ending of his own?” asked Kairi who on the verge of crying again.

“Yes, I think of all people, he did. I know you were hoping for so much with him, Kairi. When you told your father and me that you shared a paopu fruit with him, we were overjoyed because we always knew there was something special between you two that would have grown into something wonderful. But the sad truth is that we rarely get what we deserve.”

“That’s certainly true. From what the others told me, after all the pain and suffering he caused, Xehanort’s ultimate fate was to journey to the afterlife alongside Master Eraqus, his best friend who he murdered. Why did he get a kind of a happy ending when we didn’t?” thought Kairi bitterly as she recalled the man who had scarred her in so many ways.

“All you can do now, Kairi, is make the most of the second chance that Sora gave you. He wouldn’t want you to spend the rest of your life miserable.”

‘No. He’d want me to spend the rest of my life with him.’

“Time heals all wounds, Sweetie. You just have to let it. Now you just finish up your soup and then get yourself to bed.”

“Yes, Mom.”

Dorothy then got up and left the kitchen. Kairi just sat at the table staring at her dinner. She wasn’t feeling very hungry anymore.

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(Mood Music: Wherever You Are (End Title) by Barry Coffing and Vonda Shepard from Pooh’s Grand Adventure: The Search for Christopher Robin)

Much later, after showering and dressing in her nightgown, Kairi sat on the window box in her room. Pluto was laying down with his head in her lap as she scratched it while gazing out at the starry night.

Despite what her mother had said, Kairi often tried to delay going to sleep as much as she could. This was due to the fact that whenever she let sleep take her, the nightmares would come, and they would always have the same theme.

In all of her dreams, she and Sora would often be doing something together in one of the many worlds he had visited. They would be competing in the games at the Olympus Coliseum, swinging and sliding through the trees of the Deep Jungle or soaring through the skies of Neverland. They would be happy right before he would just vanish and leave her all alone in her sadness.

‘As bad as they all are, they were nothing compared to the first one. The one where we were all celebrating on the Play Island and Sora and I were watching the sunset hand-in-hand. He looked so happy and I was so relieved that we had made it that I cried. Then he just faded away.’

Looking out at the stars, Kairi thought about Sora’s other friends throughout the worlds. She thought of Rapunzel, Hercules, Jack Skellington, Aladdin, Ariel, Simba, Big Hero 6, Jack Sparrow, Mulan, Tarzan and everyone else and how blissfully unaware that a good friend of theirs was gone.

‘I wonder what they would think if they knew. Would they believe that he could be saved? Or would they think he’s gone for good?’

Pluto let out a whimper. She met his sympathetic gaze.

“Oh Pluto. I know Mom means well. But she doesn’t understand that finding Sora is the only way I can make it up to him. Of course, she doesn’t know that I blame myself. I wonder if Riku and the others knew that, would they have reconsidered giving up?”

Pluto just looked at her with an unsure look. Clearly, he didn’t have the answer.

Kairi let out a deep sigh. “I don’t know what to believe anymore, Pluto. Maybe Mom’s right. Maybe I finally am starting to accept that Sora’s gone.”

She then let out a sob. ‘But I can’t! I just can’t! Because if I do, then I’ll never see him again, I’ll never be free of the guilt and I’ll have wrecked things with my friends all for nothing!’

But on some level, Kairi knew that her hope was at an all time low. Her inability to write a letter was proof of that.

Kairi wiped away her tears. “Come on. Let’s go to bed. It looks like my dreams are the only way to see him now even if they all end badly. But it’s better than nothing.”

Pluto leapt off Kairi’s lap as she rose up and walked to her bed. Sadly, she climbed in and pulled the covers up to her chin. Pluto climbed up the foot of the bed and curled up in his usual spot.

With one final sniffle, Kairi finally allowed sleep to take her. As she drifted off, she wondered what dream would haunt her in the midst of her diminishing hope and increasing guilt.

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Onto the next chapter!

#kingdom hearts #kh fanfiction #sokai #kairi #pluto #kairi's mother #maddrmatt

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didsomeonesayventus · 5 years

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okay long time spending in gestation but I imagine that someone out of the followers I have wants to know my onion on KH3 is

Overall, good!

so consider wordbarf of very repeated and tired onions no one actually actively asked for below:

Alright so I’ve been trying to figure out how to make these words and what my opinions even are considering this game has been out for almost a year now (KH3 existing is wild imagine it turning a year old) so this will be. mostly bullet points + incoherent and unorganized rambling forgive me

BAD THINGS FIRST lets get the salt out of the way

Literally everything with Kairi was oof. I still feel her relationship with Lea is incredibly rushed given the last time they were interacting in canon he was literally kidnapping her but go off I guess nomura they’re brother/sister friendsy now at least the fandom can sell me on that better than you can. I seethe with rage recalling that they didn’t even try to hide that killing her off was a classic case of fridging (“You lack motivation” FUCK OFF) and I have been angry since the day I was spoiled by leak stuff accidentally. I wouldn’t have minded her getting her ass handed to her if they made it look like she tried and gave us some moments where she did defend herself and get some victories and not conveniently cut away from the actually badly needed training montage (surprise! this is why we have training montages!!!!) and I get she was instrumental in rescuing everyone and the fact she wasn’t THAT bad speaks for how much she improved but it still just. bites that she still feels more like a satellite love interest than ever.

Kairi was bad enough to get her own thing but tbh everyone who isn’t Sora also.. really suffers. The writing is really Sora-centric here and that’s not inherently bad (see good list) but it leaves a lot to be desired, especially since they dog pile the extended cast moments in at the end. There was no big confusion at Ven and Roxas sharing a face, no talks between characters who would have interesting interactions given their histories and circumstances, no obvious sign of development from anyone except maybe sea salt family and Aqua. They’re here to be more one-note than usual and resolve their arcs. Ven in particular (I’m totally not biased clearly /sarcasm) I feel is a big example given he was kinda in a really rough mental state at the end of bbs?? and 3 is exceptionally vague on just how conscious ventus was during his nap so I can’t even answer if he was able to give himself therapy the past 12 years or whatever

Anti Aqua is a damn cool concept but ultimately kinda pointless and I think we could have received it better if it wasn’t spoiled in trailers and wholly out of left field. Plus Sora coming in after what was pretty clearly set up as a Riku moment- while it gave us the incredibly gay press triangle to Sora + use a big keyblade made from ur love moment -was uh! really cheap!!!! and ruined what was clearly set up for being Riku’s thing with an almost nonsensical SIKE ITS SORA (it’s saved from being wholly nonsensical by 0.2′s opening foreshadowing + it still kinda makes sense for sora to at least help but damn if the narrative wasn’t leading us towards a riku moment)

Also everyone was hit really hard with the nerf effect in-narrative so unless you’re the dream team you’re screwed I guess and that. doesn’t quite work since it makes everyone else look... not great. And I think this is kinda a miscommunication on part of Nomura and the fans (IM MAKING ASSUMPTIONS TAKE WITH SALT) in that we kept saying we wanted people “saved” but meant having their arcs resolved in a reasonable way that preserved their agency and power and relationships, but got interpreted literally as “alright Sora comes in and solves every problem, is tough on stains, and makes julienne fries”

And yet there’s also a lot of mean spirited “oh no sora’s dumb and helpless w/out a second braincell” which was kinda funny the first couple times and I failed to pick up on it first go I’ll admit, but honestly? Yeah. they pick on sora too much. Donald and Goofy are the most guilty, and everyone else by virtue of not seeing Sora that much actually in-narrative are off the hook from me because they probably didn’t know how much teasing he’d been getting from his pals, but it felt kinda like they didn’t know what to fall back on between the three besides “oh donald and goofy pick on sora” which is cute once or twice but the amount he gets and how it clearly leads to his breakdown at the end is uhHHHHhhhHH hm.

As always the pacing is pretty awful where the disney worlds are somewhat relevant at best and then the end is 0-1000 but that is a usual KH gripe so its pretty low on the bar

Attraction flow is cute and neat at first but it gets.. really wearing towards the end and in the serious fights at the Keyblade Graveyard BOY are they a mood breaker

the “repeat the plot” worlds- Tangled, Frozen, Pirates -REALLY stick out like a sore, ugly thumb compared to the worlds that went out and did their own creative thing, and Big Hero 6 was.. cute? but kinda maybe too much of a breather.

Frozen also get an extra award for “Audio mixer most in need of firing!” because who the hell allowed the do you want to build a snowman scene.

They did nothing with Scala and I want a refund on that aesthetic if they’re not gonna do anything besides a framing device with it

HEY WAIT THERE WAS GOOD THINGS TOO!

Good news point that may or may not come to pass: Re:Mind DLC might fix some of the above salt! We shall see and probably know by the time this post is a year old sfjhdsakjgh

SORA! Sora was actually a character again!!!! holy cow they pulled up from the utter nose dive that was DDD!! god i love this dork and it was really fantastic to see him back to normal.

The graphical upgrade lost a lot of the squish and stretch that the OG graphics had but you know what? pretty. tastey. good graphics and better at doing more subtle emotions and hey have i mentioned Pirate’s glow up? Pirate’s glow up. The details in Olympus to recreate the swirly aesthetic of the clouds and explosions and lava is a great touch.

Worlds as far as levels go?? really good! They feel legitimately like worlds and explorable and with their own flavors and I LOVE battle and field themes x2 its really great I’m down for less worlds if they keep the quality. Hell we have NPCs!! maybe even too many npcs.

Writing OVER ALL/ON AVERAGE I’d say has improved a lot! It’s still not a literary masterpiece or anything but I found the disney worlds really cute and easier to get invested in even if long term they were less relevant than I hoped they would be. In every world there was at least one scene I found myself actually invested in. Like there was something to the writing that was legitimately more endearing than usual on average, and toy box and monstropolis were strong contenders for really good overall imo

honestly there were moments that- as moments -were incredible. Wayfinder reunion scene will haunt me, and Sea salt’s was good too, final world and rescuing everyone was jaw dropping, getting the LoD Back was also good, Union X, Xigbar exiting left stage pursued by a bear, wayfinder trio making a grave for eraqus, all the gummi ship scenes had great chemistry, beach party ending, hanging out with rapunzel for the first half of Corona is adorable as hell, all the nods to scenes in the movies, the easter eggs, like the game is not consistently amazing but it is peppered with stuff that I feel in a bubble ignoring surrounding context just work really really well

Damn if the end boss rush wasn’t thrilling as hell and honestly??? really good. Hard to parse out first flush but I think this was a good decision and added a lot of blood roaring urgency and wild turns, and even if I want to overhaul a number of things about the endgame I think this can definitely stay

Kingstagram is a beautiful gift man

OST? A fucking banger all around and I love how they’ve made cutscene-specific tracks that play with the leitmotifs throughout KH’s illustrious musical history

Over all there’s some really glaring issues, but overall it’s KH really at its best. I’m not sure if it’s my favorite entry and I’m still really mixed + befuddled on just how exactly I feel and I think a lot of that is I had pretty high expectations and my own ideas of how it would play out since like. 2012. it’s really hard to detach from those feelings and ideas sometimes. But KH3 wasn’t bad! It could’ve really been worse, and the fact that it got out the door in the state that it was is a good deal

now here’s to the wait for Re:Mind and to see if it’s basically the content we’d get in Final Mix that could definitely bump up my opinion

#Katie rambles #long post #((in case this fucks up on mobile which it likely will))#but yeah I'd say 7-8/10 #solid entry did remarkably well for what it needed to do but not really amazing favorite entry ever sort of love #got its pros got its cons. its solid and good and enjoyable for what KH is #anyways obviously this is my opinion and you're not obligated to agree but yeah! KH3.. exists.. its a thing.....

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