#i feel like if he remembered riku’s sacrifice sora probably would’ve figured it out

[daylighteclipsed]

The Power of Waking needed to get into the Realm of Darkness changes everything like that means the Herc/Meg Soriku parallel of strength coming from wanting to protect your precious person canonically, deliberately goes both ways. After spending the entire game trying to get his strength back, Sora regains the PoW to save Riku. After realizing at the start of the game that he has found the strength to protect his precious person, Riku takes on the whole Demon Tide to save Sora. “Sometimes you care so much for somebody that other feelings disappear. And then, there’s no room for fear or doubt.” There’s no time to think, to hesitate, to doubt himself like he has been, when Sora learns that Riku is in danger. Whether Sora has the PoW or not is suddenly irrelevant to saving Riku, which is how he gets that power back. Riku, of course, feels nothing but love for and faith in Sora when he walks up to face the Demon Tide — no fear and certainly no doubt in himself or Sora — and it’s this that inspires Sora to keep fighting, to not give up and die, and gives Sora the strength to save all 7 guardians using the PoW. Sora is Riku’s precious person, but Riku is also Sora’s precious person.

#kingdom hearts #soriku #which really shouldn’t even need to be stated if you’ve been paying attention lol #and yeah is already heavily suggested in jp com. but that game came out uhhhh 18 years ago #it’s a core part of riku’s char arc but it’s been a while since any taisetsuna hito (precious person) talk has come up for sora #so it’s a big deal. it feels significant that we are revisiting this now and even more so that it is happening mutually in the same game #all while sora is starting to ask what Love is and what it means to love someone with your whole heart like herc loves meg #i feel like if he remembered riku’s sacrifice sora probably would’ve figured it out #it really seems like he realizes something then but he forgets #and he forgets because his char arc isn’t finished yet #when he remembers that’s gonna be the moment everything clicks together

[zdbztumble]

“Kingdom Hearts II” revisited, Part VII

Little things can have a big impact, and a Twilight Town emptied of any signs of life makes for a very effective and foreboding beginning to the final legs of KH II. The continuation of the mystery surrounding Riku - or, more specifically, what King Mickey knows about Riku and why he won’t reveal it - is continued in a satisfying manner as well. That makes for another good point of comparison with later entries in the series; something like the return of Repliku in KH III, for example. That was thrown into the series more than a decade after that character’s supposed death, is only referenced when absolutely demanded by the plot, ends abruptly, and doesn’t have any logical - or narratively satisfying - continuity with what became of Repliku in R/R. By contrast, Riku and Mickey’s history in KH II was begun in the game immediately preceding this one and, while very much in the background, is referred to in big and small ways throughout the play time. 

(Revisiting Twilight Town also has a great gag, with Sora and his friends incredulous at the deductions made by Hayner and his friends. Just because they happen to be right doesn’t mean they make sense.)

Once we start in on the road to The World That Never Was, however...my feelings start to get mixed.

I’ve learned over the course of this playthrough that Axel was originally meant to die at Roxas’s hands during the prologue of the game. As much as I don’t like Axel - and let me reiterate that I really don’t like Axel - I can’t regret the decision to keep around past that point, for reasons I’ll get into shortly. And wrapping Axel’s story up by way of a noble sacrifice, if a bit cliche, isn’t a terrible idea. But it is a more rushed and arbitrary sequence than I remember, with Axel’s appearance - and his decision to kill himself - just happening, without a strong motive. While it pains me to say this, more cutscenes with Axel - particularly concerning Kairi’s escape from him - would have done this moment a favor. Despite all that, I think this is more successful than not as an ending for Axel...one that should have been permanent. 

(And did no one on staff remember the line “he was the only one I liked” when they decided to start working toward an Axel/Saix bromance?)

The return of Roxas leaves me with similarly mixed feelings. I like how cold and predatory Roxas’s attitude is - it’s a strong contrast with Sora, and indeed with Roxas as he appears in the prologue. I’ll once again save more detailed thoughts about Roxas for another day, so let’s just say for now I think that attitude speaks to why Roxas being subsumed into Sora is appropriate. But there is a big problem with this sequence: it’s only a cutscene. That this wasn’t a playable battle right out of the gate, given how pivotal a moment it is, is ridiculous, and if Final Mix did nothing else right, it fixed this huge mistake.

(And if you have Oathkeeper equipped at the time - as I always do, in any game that offers it, from the time I receive it - that cutscene is a little strange to watch.)

Stepping into the castle unloads a lot of story, for how (relatively) quickly it goes by, so it’s inevitable that there will be highlights and low points. Namine and Kairi finally meeting, and teaming up to escape, manages to be both. That the moment happens at all is wonderful, and both girls being prepared to fight Saix, unarmed if they have to, is a good touch. But these scenes take the old adage of “leave them wanting more” to an extreme, because we’re given only the barest of bones for what Kairi and Namine’s interaction could have been. Add in the fact that Namine’s origins, and the closest thing to an explanation for why she starts to fade from existence, are relegated to Ansem’s reports, and it’s very hard not to feel that she was cheated in the writing. She and Kairi were certainly cheated by the animators; their run cycle looks ridiculous. On the other hand, Kairi pulling back Riku’s hood is touching, and makes for a good reveal of an identity that most players would have figured out by this point, but is no less satisfying for that.

Every scene with Ansem the Wise in this game just reminds me all over again how incredible Sir Christopher Lee was, and how ridiculous they were to recast while he was still alive. The reveal for Ansem (another identity that should have been obvious by now) is well-handled, and he makes for an unlikely but effective partner for Mickey Mouse to bounce off of. But too much of Ansem’s story - his key turning points as a character - is left for the reports, and for his monologues. And the backstory given in that scene, and those reports, seems to be at odds with both the beginning of KH II and the events of R/R. Ansem speaks of Riku as though the two of them were working together, with knowledge of the other’s identity, for a long time, and yet the dialogue in their scenes in the prologue suggests that DiZ, at least, isn’t sure exactly who his cloaked ally is. And Riku leaving King Mickey because “Xehanort’s Heartless was still inside his heart, troubling him” seems to negate the growth Riku had in R/R. Just having Riku and Mickey get separated involuntarily would’ve been fine, I think.

I didn’t remember KH II vanilla engaging in any sequel baiting outside of the secret ending, but there is at least one line of dialogue that does so: “you don’t look like half the hero the others were.” Compared to later entries in the series, it’s a minor and innocuous tease, and if this were the end of the series, one could always justify it by assuming Xigbar was referring to the unnamed and distant Keyblade wielders that Triton alluded to in KH I. The scenes surrounding the boss battle with Xigbar are largely solid, with a fantastic reintroduction for Maleficent, great material for Kairi, and a pretty fun fight in its own right. Sora and Kairi finally reuniting is a very sweet moment - not just in the scene itself, where they embrace, but in the little details following. Kairi’s dialogue box remarking on how Sora kept her charm comes to mind (and made me doubly happy that I stick with Oathkeepr.) Kairi being the one to bring Sora and Riku back together is a wonderful idea too, though I’m one of those people who finds Sora’s reaction a little forced. I wouldn’t say it’s any more overdone than, say, the fake-out with Goofy in Hollow Bastion, but it is a bit much.

Where this section of TWTNW starts to slip up a bit is in its determination to keep the player from ever having Sora, Riku, and Kairi together in a party. How and why various characters don’t fight alongside Sora in this game is often arbitrary, and I think it’s probably impossible to avoid a few forced choices in a game this long, but it really is absurd to never put that trio together for a battle. If you check in with Kairi whenever there’s a chance to pull up dialogue boxes, you’ll get lines that all say more or less the same thing: she wants to be involved in the action from now on and be at Sora’s side in danger. This is why she’s a character that I get upset for, rather than at, because the writers take the pains to establish her as someone with the desire and the will to be an active participant in the adventure (and, apparently, the ability - she gets the hang of that Keyblade pretty quickly), and then force these circumstances that deny her the opportunity.

Having said that, the two boss battles leading up to Xemnas are...what they are. I can’t say there’s anything wrong with them, but they aren’t my favorites. To the extent that I have memories of Luxord from the first time I played this game, I’m pretty sure I disliked him, just for how hard I found it to get the timing right on his games. Saix is a fair challenge, but a little tedious IMO. His fight also leads into one of the most ridiculous moments for Sora in the game - his not remembering that he became a Heartless. Y’know, that pivotal moment in the first game, the choice he made himself for the sake of others that he was then rescued from by Kairi, and discussed with her after the fact as solemnly as two young teenagers could. Anybody could forget that.

But those fights, and the Organization’s graveyard, do bring me back to why I’m glad Axel wasn’t killed off early. Because this is the point in the game where I realized, back in the day, that Organization XIII is kind of pathetic. And I don’t mean that as a point against them as villains, or against the game. What I mean is - if you ignore the bullshit pulled by DDD and just take KH II on its own terms, the Organizers are ultimately little more than glorified Dusks, devoid of real emotions or conscience, aware of everything they’ve lost along with their hearts but careless towards the suffering they cause in an effort to reclaim those hearts that is, in the end, futile. The members’ own self-serving and predatory natures damages the Organization almost as much as the efforts of the heroes, and by the time Sora appears to clean up the mess, the Organization is already on its last legs. Axel’s attempts to get Roxas back by baiting Sora with Kairi - a ridiculous and ill-thought plan - is the whole Organization writ small, and offers a good preview for their own fate. And it’s another reason why I never wanted or needed more information about any of the Organizers as individuals than what we got. Going just off of KH II (and CoM), there wasn’t much left to any of them, and that seemed part of the point.

That Organization XIII is such a hollow, empty, and doomed shell gives the villains some pathos - a more earned degree of pathos than DDD and KH III would attempt to provide them - but it also means that the heavy-handedness of Xemnas’s dialogue isn’t necessary. A fair amount of what he was saying is self-evident. I also find it bothersome that no one calls him out on exactly what the Organization’s plan was, and that the person who gets the closest is Riku - not Sora, the character who had a much less wordy but far more impactful verbal exchange with Ansem SoD in the last game that expressed the contrast between knowledge and wisdom beautifully. That can’t be said for KH II; as I said, that bit of dialogue before the first Xemnas fight, and Xemnas’s conversation with Ansem are over-written. But they aren’t terrible either.

The events leading up to that first fight with Xemnas have many great moments. The image of Nobodies dancing in a shower of hearts is genuinely creepy. Ansem’s farewell to King Mickey is touching, and offers yet another effective character sacrifice that should have been permanent. And the final scene for Maleficent and Pete is fantastic. But Riku seems to be treated by the game - certainly by Ansem the Wise - as the group leader once he gets his body back, and I’m not sure how I feel about that. He was a crucial figure “behind the scenes,” as it were, in reviving Sora and sounding alarm bells. But Sora is the one who’s at the point of action, rescuing worlds from Heartless and Nobodies, and taking out the majority of Organization members. He’s the one who’s been used by the Organization to do their dirty work, the one who fought his way to the castle to save the others and, not unimportantly, the one we play as throughout the entire game. He’s also arguably the person most owed an explanation for what happened over the past year. I can’t necessarily fault KH II for that - it isn’t as though they have time to sit down and regale him with details about the events of CoM. It’s more a failing of later games that he never gets appraised. But that he, and everyone else, just seem to fall in line, and that Riku’s the one who knows what to do (not that it isn’t obvious)...I just don’t know.

I left off right before stepping into the final door, so this playthrough’s not over yet. But next time, we won’t be looking at the finale of KH II, or finally getting into my assessment of Roxas. There’s a Final Mix out there for this game I’ve never gotten to play, and it’s about time I took a look at everything they added...

#z's crits #kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 2 #critique #commentary

[disneydreamlights]

Corrupted Data

A year after coming up with the AU, I actually did something with it. (Aka I wrote 90% of this a year ago and only just now decided to finish it up.)

Based off of that one Data Kairi AU post I made a year ago.

Summary:  After saving Riku from the bugs Pete infected him with, Sora has one more friend he has to save. Data Kairi AU.

Fanfiction | AO3

“Well, we should sign off here. I guess it’s goodbye, guys.” Sora grinned as he said goodbye to Mickey, Donald, and Goofy for what would probably be the last time. Since they’d managed to clear out the last of the bugs in Data Riku, that was it for all the bugs in the journal, and, without the bugs, the data would begin to return to normal. It was time for him and Riku to be reset. Sure, they never really found what they’d been looking for, and Sora couldn’t shake the fact that something was missing right about now, but he had managed to save the Datascape, and that had to count for something in his mind. “Give the “us” out there our best, okay?”

He turned to Riku and nodded, ready for him to close the portal between the real and data worlds. It was time to finally end all this. “What’s that?” Jiminy’s voice came in through the channel they’d all been using to communicate with each other.

And suddenly, the ground was shaking beneath them, as if the entire world was being torn apart. “What is this power?” Not even Riku knew. That was a bad sign if Riku had no idea as to what was going on. Jiminy’s Journal didn’t have an answer as to what was going on, this was unfamiliar territory, and it was a dangerous one at that. “It’s so much stronger than anything I’ve ever felt before. Could it be some sort of bug?”

“Bugs!? But how could that happen? I thought we got rid of all of ‘em.” Goofy’s confused voice came in from over the channel next.

“I thought we did too. There’s a chance we were wrong.” So did Sora, and so did Riku. They all had, otherwise they wouldn’t have said their goodbyes. Whatever this bug was, it had managed to escape eradication, and it was powerful. Maybe the power source for the bugs, that was a possibility, right?

Then came Donald. “Oh…what do we do now?”

“That message said it was going to delete the datascape. We can’t let something that powerful get loose. The journal data has to be locked!” Riku was determined to keep both worlds safe from whatever this was, but what did that mean for them? For Maleficent and Pete? They were all still inside, about to be preyed upon by the bugs once more. If they didn’t stop this, then they’d be destroyed. Mickey pointed those exact thoughts out, concerned for their safety.

“Then locking the data isn’t an option.” Riku was annoyed to say the least by the fact that they weren’t willing to sacrifice what was already there for the only option that was apparent, but it wasn’t like he didn’t understand where those outside the journal were coming from. He didn’t want to condemn Maleficent and Pete to death either, nor condemn himself and Sora. “Both worlds are at stake! What do we do?”

Sora thought for a moment before rushing forward. “You guys, hang tight! I’ll take care of this.”

“Sora? Where are you going? Hey!” Riku starting running after him. “Sora, are you crazy!?”

Sora turned back to face Riku. “No way I’m gonna leave them out there! You heard what Mickey said. I gotta find Pete and Maleficent!”

“But you don’t even know where they are!”

Sora shook his head, that didn’t matter to him at all. He’d find them, regardless of what it took. “Then I’ll just have to go look for them!”

Riku looked at him, somewhat surprised by that answer. “Aren’t you afraid? All our memories, our entire existence, even this whole world could get erased!”

“I’m afraid, but…you know why I have to do this.” Sora looked straight at Riku. “You feel it too, don’t you? There’s someone in there, and she needs us.”

Riku looked at Sora, a little more than slightly confused. It was true, that he held the journal’s data when it was all erased and the bugs started showing up in the first place, but if that was the case, then why wasn’t he sure what was in there that Sora was talking about, and why could he feel her too.

“Besides, even then, doing something to stop this, it beats just sitting around and waiting for the end of the world to come. I don’t know if there’s any way I can win, if there’s any way to reach whoever’s in there, but I know…I’ve gotta at least try.” And with that, Sora jumped straight into the keyhole, not waiting to hear anything more from Riku or Mickey.

He was going to save them all, Pete, Maleficent, and whoever it was that was in there with them. He’d make sure of it.

-x-

Sora had run through the glitched Datascape. Beyond this point, the area had looked primarily like a System Sector, the portals he’d been debugging in his entire time going through the journal and fixing the glitches. At the very center of the last one lay the end of the journey, and there were Maleficent and Pete along with a cloaked figure. Possibly the one he’d seen at the beginning, when he’d gotten his Keyblade?

“Insolent fool, I’ll take care of you myself!” Maleficent spread out her cloak at Pete fell backwards from a failed hit, sending a magic spell composed of green flames flying at the figure, who side stepped gracefully.

“Don’t get in my way.” The cloaked figure was female, and young from the sound of her voice, and with a single wave of her hand, she’d summoned a dark corridor, banishing Pete and Maleficent from the area.

“Maleficent! Pete!” Sora called out, running in with his Keyblade out, and causing the cloaked figure’s attention to be shifted to him. She let out a laugh, one that sounded a lot darker than should’ve ever been coming out of that voice just from the sound of it.

And she removed her hood, revealing dark red hair, almost the color of a red wine, cropped short so that none of her hair fell below her neck. She looked to be almost normal for somebody buried so deep in the journal, but there were a few startling points that made it obvious that something had happened, namely wire like lines of black coding running down her face, creating a sharp contrast to the paleness of her skin. Her irises were black, with pupils the same red as that of the bugs he’d been facing throughout his entire journey, and despite having never seen her at all before this point, he couldn’t shake the feeling that he knew her. “It’s about time you got here, Sora.”

“K—“ It was like a memory, one he couldn’t access, but this girl knew him, and he knew her, somehow. And despite that, he couldn’t even figure out a name. “Who are you? Why are you doing this?”

“You don’t remember me?” Sora strained to make out the girl’s tone of voice, but rather than detecting hurt in it, like he would’ve expected, she was playful. Almost as if she was toying with him instead. “Oh, that’s right, you wouldn’t. It’s not like I exist really exist here anymore, after all, what does a corrupted piece of data have a place here?”

“Corrupted…you’re the one behind all the bugs!?” Despite that being the logical conclusion to come to, he didn’t want to believe it. Sure she looked heavily corrupted but, at the same time, something in him just looked at her and couldn’t comprehend the idea that she could do this.

“Took you long enough to realize that. Except you got one detail wrong. I’m not the one behind the bugs,” She summoned out a Keyblade, one with flowers on the teeth and a heart for the handle, but it was hard to tell. Like with the glitch lamp that Pete had made Jafar, it was covered with light blue blocks of corrupt data, forced into this form. The Keyblade itself, was black, with dark red lines coming all over it. “I am the bugs.”

From outside the Keyhole, he heard Riku’s voice. “Sora, be careful! Whoever she was, she’s not them anymore.”

“You mean, you don’t know!?”

“She’s data that was removed from the journal…I thought that when it was corrupted and I got the data, I got all the data, but…somehow she didn’t make it in,” Riku explained. “Whoever she was, the bugs must’ve gotten ahold of her!”

Before Sora could respond to Riku, the girl charged her Keyblade slashing down in a powerful strike, causing Sora to raise his Keyblade up to prevent her from landing a hit. A loud clash rang out as the Keyblade collided, and the girl pushed down, hoping to get him to drop his guard. “Any idea how I can free her from them?” He pushed back, watching as she jumped back gracefully, not even thrown off.

“Just try to take her down! If you’re lucky, maybe it’ll delete the remaining bugs in her and restore her to her original state.” It was left unsaid between the two boys about what might happen if the idea didn’t work, but they were pressed for time. If this was their only chance at trying to save her, it’d be worth the risk.  “Good luck, Sora.”

Sora nodded, despite knowing Riku probably couldn’t see him, and ran for the girl again, who kept simply ducking out of the way of his Keyblade. Every swing he took seemed to be matched with a perfect counter step, pulling her just out of reach of the end of his Keyblade. After a moment of matching steps, she swung her Keyblade at him, hardly giving Sora enough time to react before he found himself whacked in the face with it. The girl had begun her counterstrike, and after the initial hit seemed keen on not letting up, attacking him with a series of quick strikes, her blade infused with darkness much as Riku’s had been as she swiped at him once more. He barely had time to dodge the attack, rolling out of the way and putting as much distance as possible between him and the girl.

“Fire!” A fireball left the tip of Sora’s Keyblade as he aimed at the girl, and he watched as she attempted to roll out of the way, just barely failing the maneuver and winding up with the edges of her cloak singed by the flame. Before she had time to ready a counter, he was already upon her, slashing at her with the Keyblade and managing to land a hit this time, but not before she hit him with a counter that he scarcely had time to raise his Keyblade up to block in time. With the counter occurring, the carnage began, and she summoned up her darkness charged blade, slashing at him repetitively in an attempt to catch the boy off guard, with several hits landing successful.

“Just give up already and let me DEVOUR THIS WORLD!” As she finished the statement, the girl let out a pulse of darkness, knocking Sora back and to the ground.

He stood up slowly, raising his Keyblade as a green light surrounded him, healing him of most of the damage he’d just taken. “No way. I’m not letting you destroy the Datascape, you’re not getting into the outside world!” He ran at the girl, charging at her with his Keyblade and watched as she raised her Keyblade to protect herself once more. Sparks flew off from Kingdom Key as the two blades met, and she pulled back immediately only for them both to launch at each other again, this time blow meeting blow as neither of the two of them could land a hit. After several moments of attacks meeting one another, Sora pulled back, panting, but the girl seemed just as tired despite being made of bugs…perhaps she wasn’t nearly as powered up by the bugs as he’d thought.

Looking down at his Keyblade, he gripped the handle tighter and looked at the girl, aiming the Keyblade and watching as a bright beam of light escaped from the tip, hitting the girl and causing a single Blox Bug to appear in front of her. “That’s it, Sora! The source of the bugs! If you defeat that, it’ll free her!”

“Got it!” Sora lowered his Keyblade, and the beam of light vanished, but the bug remained, crawling about on its four legs, trying desperately to get back to the girl, who had fallen unconscious the moment the bug had appeared. With one slice of his Keyblade, the Blox Bug was split in two, vanishing in a dark cloud as the last bug was cleared from the journal. The Keyblade that had been in the girl’s hand up until that point shattered, as the glitches that had been sustaining it were no longer in the datascape.

The moment he cleared out the last bug, his eyes widened as memories of a young girl from the islands began flooding back in. He watched her slowly stand up as she awoke from the unconscious state caused by the removal of the bugs. He was hesitant until he saw her face no longer covered by the black, wire like marks it had been before. Her eyes were no longer black and red, but were now normal covered, with purple irises, and she smiled at him. He smiled back, and eager to see his other best friend once more as she should be, he shouted her name.

“Kairi!”

#Heather Writes #I haven't written anything in so long holy shit #Anyways enjoy XD #Data Kairi AU

[xeartofallworldsficsx-blog]

The Imaginary Friend -12-

Warning(s): Yaoi ( boyXboy ) for those Yaoi haters. I guess that’s it.

Pairing(s): TerraVen, hints of SoRiku.

Note(s): Please be as harsh as you could.

I’m sorry if I got any spelling wrong. The only spelling corrections I have are google. So, if I made any mistakes, tell me.

Criticism is welcome.

Enjoy! xD x3

X-X-X-X Sora’s PoV

“Wait, so do we have a lead at least?”

“We have a lead.” I smiled, “I just remembered something, and it’s here. At Disney Castle.”

“You sure? I swear neither of us has seen anything strange.”

“Oh! There was a portal hidden!”

I smiled at Ven.

I see Ven remembered too.

Ven was quiet during that entire fight, but I didn’t feel anything from him. Just, shock. He heard the voices. The suit.

The Armor.

We walked through the large, colorful halls, as we arrived at the door. The large door where we saw the portal. We go through, when Riku stopped me. He frowned.

“I don’t know.” He said, shaking his head, “What is this lead?”

“I remember fighting something through this door.” I answered, “Ven was quiet when we went through a portal. However, there is someone in here. Calling for Aqua and Ven.”

Riku’s eyes widen.

“I don’t know, but this is the best lead we have so far.” I pulled away, beckoning him to follow, “If not, we have Mickey, and Ven for more answers. Where Aqua and his body is at, we’ll figure out this answer. Plus, we need to know more about their story.”

Riku and I walked side by side as I spoke.

“Like, what was the ordeal that caused them to disappear?” I began to speak lower so Ven wouldn’t hear, “What happened to Terra and Aqua. What happened to Ventus?”

“If you can’t handle Ven’s story, you can’t handle Terra and Aqua’s story.” Riku rose an eyebrow, speaking quietly, “I don’t think I could handle another night of cuddling, and you crying on me.”

“H-Hey.” I winced, and sighed, “That… Maybe true, but I want to help them. They went through a huge war, sacrifices themselves for each other. Who knows.”

I frowned.

“Still. We need answers.” I sighed, “Whatever happened. What happened… I want to know.”

We arrived at the area. The portal clear behind.

X-X-X-X

We arrived at the empty, flat ground.

Wind blowing, and the sun shining bright. Mickey blinked, obviously recognizing this place. Ven and Roxas did too, as they looked around in shock.

The armor still there.

“Aqua, Ven…”

We all looked at the armor. The voice remained silent for a while. Kneeling down, still, but we all sense a strange power still here.

However, Ven walked up a little, responding to the voice. He appears to be tearing up.

“T-Terra?”

“Ven… You’re… Okay.”

He ran up to the armored… Man? I can’t tell. He was really fast for just armor.

“T-Terra, I missed you… Wh-Why aren’t you moving?” Ven asked, tearing up a little bit more, “A-Are you hurt?”

“I am nothing but a will. Though I am glad you are here with me, I am not physically here.”

I knew it. I can see Ven tearing up even more from here.

“Oh… Y-You’re like like me…” Ven said, hugging the armor, “I-I don’t have a body… Aqua disappeared. E-Everyone said… N-Neither of us survived…”

Silence.

“I see. I’m sorry, Ven. It seems like we all had the same idea.”

“I-It… I-It seems so.”

We all stood there as Ven cried, holding Terra’s armor tightly. King Mickey walked up to the armor, and sat down.

“Can you help us, Terra?” Mickey said, giving a sad smile, “If you don’t mind, mind telling us your tale on what happened to you? We don’t have Ven here physically, we just have his heart. We’re looking for his body. Anything would help.”

Silence.

“Of course. Sit down. We have a long, and drastic tale to tell. Ven, if you want, you can hold my… My armor’s hand. It only moves when Master Xehanort is nearby.”

We all did as the voice said, and sat down. Though, Riku pulled me onto his lap. Of course. If I couldn’t handle Ven’s story, I definitely couldn’t handle Terra’s story. I winced when he leaned onto me. Ven grabbed onto the armored hand, giving a sad smile.

The story started.

“Where do I start?” Terra paused, before a sigh was heard, “We were all aiming to be a Keyblade Master. I deeply respected Master Xehanort. Though, I couldn’t impress Master Eraqus.”

A small rattle was heard. Ventus leaned on the armor. Surprisingly, it stayed up.

“Unfortunately, Master Xehanort went missing, and I was ordered to chase after him.”

“I wanted to tell you something.” Ven said, drawing circles in the dirt, “That… That… V-Van… V-Vanitus. He visited my room and told lies about you. Saying you’d give into the darkess, and that the next time we meet, you’d be a different person… I-I didn’t want to believe him, so I… I just wanted to tell you.”

“Ven.��� Terra said, sounding, sounding so sad, “I’m sorry I didn’t listen to you. Though, I would’ve been more cautious, I don’t think It would’ve changed this outcome.”

More silence.

“Though, Aqua was made a Keyblade Master, Eraqus was just about to… Um… Send us away, when we noticed Master Xehanort went missing. I was ordered to bring him back like… Like I was.” Terra continued, though, this time, a lot more hesitant with his words, “Though the objective stayed, the reasons to search for him changed, and my respect for him faded, and all there was rage. Anger…”

“S-So… Y-You… Did…” Ven began to tear up, “T-Terra…”

“Y-Yes… I did give into darkness.” Terra responded, disappointed in himself, “Which is exactly why he took my body, and the only thing this suit of armor holds in hatred. Anger… Nothing but armor. Nothing but a will.”

“T-Terra.”

“You may hate me. You may even look down on me… You may even not aknowledge me at all after this, but…” He continued, though, sounding disappointed, “… Master Xehanort did teach me something. Darkness shouldn’t be looked down upon. That doesn’t mean you should give into it, but it’s a part of you. It’s balance. I eventually stopped fighting it, and just let it flow. That was how I managed to protect Ven…”

“O-Oh.” Ven said, and began to sob, “Terra… T-Terra… I wish you could come back to me… You and Aqua both. I-I miss you so much.”

“I miss you too, Ven.” Terra sounded much more sadder, “I miss you so much.”

Ven cried onto Terra’s armor, as I leaning onto Riku. I began tearing up too.

“You nearly killed me a couple times.” I say, shaking slightly, “You’re so strong… So very strong.”

“I noticed you have a Keyblade. So, my first thought was the person I gave my power to. Though, you look nothing like that person. So, my next thought was that you were Master Xehanort… My armor came to life with that thought. For it’s only purpose was to attack Master Xehanort. That is my will.”

“I can’t believe you’re not Master yet.” I reply, trying to smile, “If I was one, I would’ve name you one right away… S-So strong…”

Riku held me closer. Probably with the near death thought. He glared at the armor, supporting my claim.

“Forgive me for attacking you.” He said, sounding disappointed, “I should’ve checked some more before jumping to conclusions like that.”

“T-Terra.” Ven nearly whispered, “I’m so glad Sora found you though… Your armor, at least. I’m so glad.”

“Ven.”

Ven reached up and grabbed the armor’s arm, and placed it’s hand on his head. Tears rolling down still.

“Please pet my head again… L-Like you use to.” Ven nearly whispered, shaking, “P-Please, Terra… P-Please.”

“I can’t, Ven. I’m sorry.”

Ven then just hugged it. Crying into the armor.

The arm fell down, and rested on Ven’s back.

Almost like it was hugging him back.

Silence.

“That is my tale. Thank you, for listening. You may move my armor, though, there is nothing it could do. It’ll just be extra luggage during your trip. I suggest leaving me here, and I will continue to wait for Master Xehanort. That is the only thing I am after. That is the only thing I will do for the rest of eternity.”

“L-Let… Let me stay for a little bit longer.” Ven whispered, lifting it’s arm back on the keyblade it was kneeling against, “Please… J-Just for a few minutes.”

“If that is what you want.” Terra sounded much more sorrowful, “Though, you’re gonna leave at one point… I won’t be going anywhere, so you can visit anytime.”

“Thank you.” Ven whispered, holding the armor tight, “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, Ven.”

With that, we all left him alone to be with Terra’s armor.

Let him catch up to his friend, at least.

I couldn’t let go of Riku either, so, he just carried me as I cried.

X-X-X-X

Waiting back towards the portal, Riku just rubbed my back, as I whimpered. Shaking at this point.

I knew I wouldn’t handle Terra’s story. Good thing Riku was here.

“Wait, so Terra was Master Material? Equal to Yen Sid?” Riku asked, tilting his head to Mickey, “So, does that mean Ven was Master Material at one point? Is he strong?”

“Of course!” Mickey cried, smiling, “Trust me, I fought along side him. He’s strong. As strong as you, and Sora.”

“And Terra and Aqua is stronger since one almost killed Sora a couple times.” Riku said, and pulled me closer, “That’s a scary thought.”

“Gawsh, I hope Ven is okay.” Goofy said, concerned, “It’s been almost an hour.”

“It’s been a while since he ever met his friend, Goofy.” Donald said, nudging him, “He needs time to catch up to him.”

“That makes sense.” Goofy replied, by kept that concerned look, “If I ever met an old friend I met for the first time in forever, I’d want to catch up for as much as possible. Ahuck.”

“There he is.” Roxas said, frowning, “Looks like he’s done.”

Ven ran up to us, and stopped right in front of us. Panting.

“Sorry guys. Let’s go.”

“Aw shucks, how was your reunion?” Goofy asked, smiling, “Did you catch up to Terra like you wanted?”

“I sure did!” Ven cried, and wiped a stray tear, “L-Let’s go. Sora, are we gonna visit him again?”

“H-Huh?”

“Are you gonna visit from time to time?” Ven asked, softly smiling, “‘cause I’d like to keep visiting him again someday.”

“O-Oh. Of course.” I reply, smiling back, “I’ll visit from time to time.”

“Then let’s go!” Ven cried, excited, “We gotta find Xehanort! ‘Cause remember? Xehanort took Terra’s body? Let’s go find him!”

He ran through the portal, and we all looked at each other, confused.

Well, let’s go find him.

Certainly, I hope we find him.

X-X-X-X To be Continued…

#Kingdom Hearts #Kingdom Hearts Fanfic #Kingdom Hearts fic #Fanfic #Fanfiction #SoRiku #TerraVen

[zdbztumble]

So What to do About it? (KH III Spoilers)

Complain about something enough, and you may end up hearing from somebody: “well, what would you have done differently?” No one’s asked me that about Kingdom Hearts III, but I’m bored at work and eager to dodge emotional problems, so that’s what we’re getting into tonight, kids!

Note: I’m going to limit myself to changes I would make to KH III only. A number of its problems are the culmination of trends begun much earlier in the series, particularly DDD, but I don’t want to get into hypothetical changes to five different games, none of which were as flawed in degree, or as painful an experience as the story of KH III was.

To start out with, the first change I would make to KH III would be to make cuts. A lot of cuts. Because there’s a lot in the story of this game that didn’t need to be there. On the chopping block would be:

- Maleficent. She’s my favorite Disney villain, and I love her role within the KH series, but Maleficent (and Pete) had no role in this story. A tease at a potential future game and a promotion of KH UX are no reason to include a character. And, if a character - even a favorite one - has no good reason to be in a story, they shouldn’t be.

- Roxas, Xion, and Namine. Again, they have no real role to play in this story. Namine doesn’t do anything except summon the Lingering Will (and we’ll get to that), Roxas isn’t needed to complete the roster of Seven Lights, and the whole point of Xion’s tragic death was that she was gone for good. She comes back into the story from nowhere, while Roxas and Namine are only present to give Sora and Kairi some semblance of a quest in the front half of the story; they both want to find a way to let their Nobodies live as real people outside of their hearts. But Sora and Kairi didn’t need any additional motivation to do things in this story, because they’re already motivated by the far more consequential goal of stopping Xehanort on a macro level, and by the desire to keep each other safe on the micro level (as poorly reintroduced as that idea was.) They also have very little (and in Kairi’s case, no) role in restoring their Nobodies in the game as-is.

The idea that these characters could, or at least deserved to, exist as their own persons was first introduced in DDD, but it was presented as more of a desire on Sora’s part than something that could practically be done. There wasn’t a wealth of build-up to this idea in previous games that needed to be paid off. And as I’ve said before, Roxas and Namine choosing to return to Sora and Kairi, no longer existing as themselves but as a part of their true selves, was a wonderfully bittersweet aspect of KH II and a noble sacrifice on their part. Even with the stupid retcons concerning Nobodies and hearts pulled by DDD, that sacrifice is still valid, and Roxas, Namine, and Xion all remain distinct enough from other Nobodies and replicas that their choices and losses remain valid. Without any good reason to undermine that sacrifice, it shouldn’t be.

That said, while I would cut their revivals and presence in the larger plot, I would make use of them in the game...but we’ll get to that later.

- Ienzo and the other ex-Organizers. If Roxas and Namine go, then these guys might as well too. Ienzo is the only one who actually functions in the plot, and other than researching means to restore former Nobodies, he has no role to play. Any residual exposition that he gave out could be given to other characters. I would cut Ansem the Wise as well, but secret endings of previous games and my self-imposed rule mean he has to stay.

- Demyx. Again, without Roxas, he has no role to play. Vexen’s role would also change significantly, but...well, we’ll come back to that.

- Riku and Mickey updating their Keyblades. What was wrong with their old ones? And what value does the idea of re-charging Keyblades, or arbitrarily getting a hold of new ones, bring to the table?

- The mystery girl. Both of them. When it comes to Nameless Star - I do not care about Marluxia’s long-lost sister. There is no bottom to the well of how little I care about the pasts of any of the Organizers, especially any that tie into KH UX. If you do, then more power to you, but a game that’s meant to be the culmination of so many stories does not have the time or space to tease something like this. Leave it in the mobile game.

Subject X is a trickier issue. When that idea first came up via Ansem and “Ansem,” I thought they might be talking about Kairi, and that the story might finally be at least hinting at something of her past. It took me until last night to realize it, but Kairi’s past is the one plot point directly tied into Xehanort’s schemes that isn’t resolved in KH II. When Xion finally appeared, my first thought was that all the talk about a girl with no memory was actually about her all along, which I could’ve figured out wasn’t the case even before getting the Secret Reports if I’d thought about it for more than a minute. But that the mystery girl is actually a character who has never before been mentioned or had any role in the plot, and is probably yet another reference to KH UX, is absolutely ridiculous. If it wasn’t bad enough that Kairi’s past is going to be left unexplored, a key detail of it - that she was in some way a victim of Xehanort’s experiments before turning up on Destiny Islands - is re-purposed for another character who does not matter to this story.

I would be sorely tempted to modify this material so that the mystery girl who the Ansems discuss actually is Kairi. If this game really is the end to the Xehanort saga, and Kairi’s past is directly tied to Xehanort, it’s the last chance to get into it. But even if the story saw all the cuts I suggest here through, it would still be a very crowded story tasked with paying off a very complicated plot. So unfortunately, if we’re assuming that every other game in the series stays the same as it is, Kairi’s past is still a casualty of poor decisions in those earlier games. The mystery girl material gets cut - completely.

- Chirithy. He’s cute. He’s also not necessary. Cut him.

- Replica Riku. Repliku living inside of Riku, and Riku becoming aware of that, is the closest thing to an arc that Riku has in this game. His character arc, at least as far as the Xehanort saga is concerned, really reached its conclusion in DDD. In KH III, he remains throughout the stoic chief supporting figure to Sora and King Mickey, not counting Donald and Goofy. But I can’t say that I found that a bad role for him, or that I find him being set and constant in who he is to be a bad thing. And Repliku suddenly re-entering the story, in its finale of all times, through truly convoluted and confusing means, was just not worth it to give Riku some small measure of an arc.

- The chess frame. This put a metaphor on to the entire conflict that I didn’t like, and made the whole thing feel much smaller than it should. And, if you cut this, then you also cut...

- Eraqus. Again, the chess frame lessens the story, and Eraqus turning up to talk down Xehanort takes a lot away from the actual protagonists of the story.

Alright, so that’s everything for the chopping block, which already clears out a lot of narrative real estate. So besides what I would’ve left out, what would I have changed? Well...

- Show Kairi’s training. Axel’s too, but Kairi’s the one who’s been a main character from the beginning and started getting built up since the end of II as a Keyblade wielder. And I would have used her training as the tutorial. In the spirit of the prolonged Roxas segment of KH II, a mix of cutscenes, tutorials-as-in-time-gameplay, and tutorials-as-Dives-to-the-Heart would illustrate Kairi’s training, give some context for her thoughts and feelings (which I imagine would be an outgrowth of her expressions of wanting to be part of the adventure from the end of II), and introduce the idea of the Final World. In KH III as it is, it just sort of appears; here, Kairi could find her way there from the Dive to the Heart stained glass, and be confused and a little disturbed by what she finds. At the end of the tutorial, a cutscene could show her summarizing everything for Sora in a letter and actually sending it to him, and we’d cut over to Sora reading the letter (and conveniently, the letter carries over the choices you, the player, made as Kairi about which powers you wanted.)

- Improve Sora’s recovery. Motivating Sora’s reset to Level One by the events of DDD is one of the game’s better notions, but it’s not executed very well. Sora regains most of his abilities, in their basic form at least, within the first level, and the Power of Waking becomes an exercise in repetitive cutscenes until it suddenly needs to start working. I would spread out when Sora regains certain abilities and when he acquires new ones (though he’d get everything within the first World Map), and I would wait to bring the Power of Waking up until much later in the game, so that it isn’t hanging around the plot like an albatross. And he would get Glide some time before the Badlands.

- Multiple parties. The only Final Fantasy game that I’ve played is XIII. I don’t remember much of it, but I do remember that, at various points in the story, you control different characters. That was an ensemble cast; Kingdom Hearts is meant to be centered on Sora, and I wouldn’t make an even division of time spent with other parties. But I would give Riku and Kairi one Disney world each, and Aqua her own level. And the way I would do that is...

- Motivate the Disney worlds. III as-is is easily the worst game in the series for integrating the Disney worlds into the larger plot. This was frustrating as a failure to execute the founding concept of the series, but also because there were plenty of openings for how to integrate the worlds they chose, either through story or through character and thematic ideas. To wit:

Olympus: Admittedly, this one is motivated, by Yen Sid sending Sora off to it to try and regain strength. And, had they preserved the training/tournament angle on this world from previous games, that would have made even more sense. But I like that they went in another direction with Olympus this time, as that was rather played out. So I suppose I wouldn’t change all that much here, other than improving the dialogue, reducing the number of abilities Sora regains, and have Herc’s talk about Meg trigger some recollection of Kairi in Sora. I’d also emphasize a line from the movie: “A life without Meg would be empty.”

Twilight Town: If you cut Roxas from the game, then this world doesn’t really have much point other than the Bistro and the shops. Given that, I’d just as soon replace it with Radiant Garden as the hub world, relocating the Bistro mini-game and the 100 Acre Wood to there. Any exposition that can’t be delivered by Yen Sid, Mickey, or Chip and Dale, can be delivered from Radiant Garden by...Leon, Yuffie, Cid, and Aerith. Nomura may have been right when he said that original characters from Kingdom Hearts could take the place of these three as sources of exposition, but the fact is that Sora has more of a relationship with them than he has with the ex-Organizers that displaced them, and their presence would mean that the Final Fantasy elements of this series get some real representation. They wouldn’t have much to do; they would in essence be making cameo appearances, which I’m sure some would find unsatisfying; but those cameos would at least be justified by the story and the setting.

The Toy Box: Here is where Vexen would come into play. Have him back as a non-Norted member of Organization XIII, unrepentant, building replicas for the Xehanorts. He’s the one who put the toys in a split world, as study subjects for building his replicas. He would be the member of Organization XIII appearing in cutscenes to taunt Sora and attempt to pit the toys against each other. And he’s the boss battle in this world. That’s right; you’d actually get to fight a member of the Organization before the Keyblade Graveyard. A cutscene following his defeat could reveal that he’d obtained sufficient data from his research for the replica bodies of the various Xehanorts who need them to be perfected.

Kingdom of Corona: Here’s where the multiple parties come into play. I’d let Kairi be the one to explore this world. Let her have a Gummi ship, and be on her way back to Master Yen Sid’s from training. She can sense that there’s something wrong in the nearby world of Corona, and she and Axel can check it out. Kairi can be the one to relate to Rapunzel’s feelings about setting out into the wide world, she can recognize in Rapunzel the light of a Princess of Heart, and she can realize on her own that the Organization (via Marluxia in this case) is seeking out new princesses, as incentive for the heroes: “fight us like we want, or we go after these innocent people.” (A cutscene from another game where Yen Sid and Mickey discuss why they have to play into Xehanort’s plan wasn’t enough to clarify this point IMO, nor was the idea of “seven new lights” given enough motivation. Kill two birds with one stone here.) Kairi would also take note of Eugene’s sacrifice, and Rapunzel’s revival of him. As for what Axel would be doing here...I suppose he could hang in the background, existential about his second chance at life.

(I would hold off on Riku and Mickey’s sojourn into the Realm of Darkness until here. By mentioning one of the factions peopled with a member of the Destiny Trio but not showing it until the first World Map is complete, you can build a certain amount of suspense, and avoid the problem of Riku and Mickey’s story dragging throughout the first two acts. This would also eliminate their check-in with Yen Sid from the first World Map, and thus eliminate Sora’s check-in at the same time as well, cutting down on repetition.)

Monstropolis: Play up the fact that Vanitas is after negative energy, in particular the screams of children, more. This is one of the few things about KH III that I think could’ve done with a bit more exposition, or more specifically, exposition spaced throughout the level.

Arendelle: I would make Riku and Mickey’s retreat from the darkness a more rushed and hurried affair, so much so that they have no time to make it to Yen Sid’s and end up diving for the first world they can. That world would be Arendelle, and you’d play as Riku. That connection Sora made between Elsa’s treatment of Anna and Riku’s of him and Kairi? Riku’s the one to make that connection, and he actually talks to Elsa about it. And Elsa is your battle partner, at least for the final boss; I would probably structure it so that, after Anna’s sacrifice, the darkness overwhelms Hans, and Elsa joins you in fighting him as Skoll. In the aftermath of that, she can break down crying, revive Anna, happy ending, etc. And Riku and Mickey can deduce the same conclusion that Kairi did about the princesses - Larxene wouldn’t blurt it out. Seeing the sisters and their plight could also re-energize and re-motivate the two of them to head back to the darkness in search of Aqua.

(The cutscene after Arendelle is where I’d probably introduce the Power of Waking. Sora and Kairi would be the ones checking in with Yen Sid, Mickey and Riku heading straight back to the darkness. On the basis of what Sora saw in the Toy Box, he could also ask if it’s possible for Roxas to get a replica body of his own, and Kairi could ask the same about Namine. And Yen Sid could tell them...no. That Roxas and Namine aren’t the same as regular Nobodies, and that they chose to become a part of Sora and Kairi again. And this could have a real impact on Sora and Kairi, as it hits them that not everything can work out the way it should be, that not everyone can get a happy ending in this story at this point. And it could affect Axel by further deepening his ambivalence about his second chance, when his one friend [that he can remember] is lost forever while he lingers on, recompleted but alone.)

The Caribbean: I would re-work the adaptation of At World’s End to include more material concerning Will and Elizabeth, for thematic purposes; I want Sora to make a connection between Will’s death, and his possible future with Kairi. But I would adapt that material, and everything taken from the film, more freely than the game did as-is. I’d also cut the Kraken as a boss, and instead have Davy Jones be the opener to a Heartless-possessed Endeavor as the final boss. And instead of teasing the Black Box concept, I’d have Luxord trying to recruit Davy Jones as a Xehanort host. Jones is already a being without a heart who can walk and talk and function the way the Organizers can; why not make that connection? Jones would refuse, of course, and Luxord’s desire for the chest is to gain leverage on Jones to comply. When that whole plan fails, he sends the Endeavor against Sora and the others. And, by the end of the level, you could have a cutscene where Luxord makes his apologies to a hooded, shrouded Master Xehanort (tease him before the final level without seeing him outright), who assures him that they’ve been able to find another thirteenth.

San Fransokyo: This one is tough for me, because the further away I get from the game, the more this world baffles me with the sudden appearance of Dark Riku and all the blather about hearts and data. I suppose I’d just try to simplify things down to simple taunting; instead of talking about data, Dark Riku (revealed as the thirteenth just set up in the previous world) just wants to prove something to Sora about pain and loss, which would let that reviewer’s perceived theme about what makes a heart whole come into play.

- Overhaul on the Anti-Aqua fight. I would not have had Aqua or Ansem appear before this point in the game. Riku and Mickey’s encounter with Anti-Aqua can be her first appearance, and it can be preceded by an encounter with Ansem the Wise, warning them to turn back. When Aqua fell to the darkness is thus left as something that happened at an indeterminate time between the KH 0.2 and now, not something that arbitrarily happens right after we see her just as she normally is. Sora can still rush in to save the day, but I would change that fight so that it’s Sora and Riku together who combat Aqua, and Riku who first greets her when she awakens. Ansem would be saved from the darkness too, and take his place back at Radiant Garden, mingling with the FF characters, Merlin, and Uncle Scrooge and Little Chef.

- Yensid warns Sora. After the rescue of Ventus and the big group conference, have Yen Sid hold Sora back and explain the consequences of misusing the Power of Waking, a bit more clearly than Xehanort did in the game as-is.

- No Saix talk. In the whole “respite” sequence, I would do without Saix and Axel meeting up. If Roxas and Xion, and Subject X, aren’t here, most of that material would be rendered meaningless anyway. Instead, I would have Riku and Axel talk about being lost to darkness and about second chances. Riku would be at peace with where he’s ended up; Axel would be more ambivalent.

I would also have Riku talk to Sora and Kairi, briefly, before leaving them alone to have their moment with the paopu fruit.

- Revisiting Worlds options. From this point on, when you revisit worlds, you can choose which party you visit them as: Sora, Donald and Goofy; Riku and Mickey; Kairi and Axel; or Aqua and Ven (and later Terra.) If you visit a world as a party that didn’t visit that world, the characters there will drop some line of dialogue like “friend of Sora’s, huh? You’re welcome here.”

- Toggling against the swarm. Instead of having the group all split up, everyone takes part in fighting the massive swarm that meets them when they first land in the Badlands, and you would toggle between parties. You’d start out fighting as Sora with Donald and Goofy; at a certain point in the fight, you’d throw over to Riku and Mickey. At another point, you’d toss to Aqua and Ven, then to Kairi and Axel, finishing back with Sora to use that awesome train attack.

- Maze first, then death. A wholesale rewrite of the events surrounding the battles in this section of the game, basically. The swarm that you just finished battling as all the different parties is replaced by another swarm, of multiple Demon Towers; they just won’t stop coming. Here is where Yen Sid appears to hold them at bay, and where Donald and Goofy stay behind to help as the Keybalde wielders press on.

Our heroes are greeted by Organization XIII, who immediately raise the maze and separate the seven into smaller groups. You, the player, would jump around to each one. I would do this to give individual heroes a bit more agency in resolving their personal stories before moving on to the final resolution. Riku would defeat Dark Riku on his own; you could fight as Ven against Vanitas, and as Aqua as she (and Ven) succeed in awakening Terra (a moment in the fight triggers the Lingering Will to suddenly appear, instead of having Terra inside the Heartless); Sora could join up with Mickey to take out Luxord; and Kairi and Axel could handle Marluxia, Larxene, and Saix. (Yes, I changed the arrangements of bosses. It doesn’t matter all that much. And outside maybe Luxord and Saix, no faux-pathos at their deaths.) 

The casualties would begin in the maze. I might have Ven and Vanitas both fall, after Terra is restored, so Ven can point out that he kept his promise before fading. Axel and Saix could go down together (and I admit that’s recycling Axel dying a noble death; I don’t know what else to do with the guy.) Just to play up Xigbar’s sliminess, he could snipe Mickey as the survivors make their way through the maze, and Aqua and Terra could stay behind to fight him, giving you a turn to play as Terra; the cutscene at the end could show Terra and Aqua wounded, unable to go on. And the very next cutscene could cut back to the Disney characters holding back the swarm. Here is where Donald can use his Zetta Flare, with a much clearer need for that drastic spell on-hand to motivate it. Sora can sense Donald’s fall, and the others, as he presses on, so that he’s already angry and distressed when he, Riku, and Kairi face the three Xehanorts together. And unlike with the other Organizers, you need to beat all three before the cutscene triggers.

Said cutscene would have all the combatants exhausted as Master Xehanort declares that he has his twelve keys and just needs the one more. The heroes can declare that they won’t give him his thirteenth clash; I might give the lines for this to Riku, the one of the group who had fallen into Xehanort’s schemes in the biggest way before. But Master Xehanort jumps in to land a blow against Riku, making for the thirteenth clash with darkness. That creates the X-Blade, and Master Xehanort uses it to summon the Demon Tornado and sweep everyone left away before he turns to Kingdom Hearts. But in this case, it’s Kairi who tells Sora not to give up and is the second-to-last to get swallowed. 

- Play as Kairi in the Final World. If Kairi’s supposed to escape falling into darkness, and if she’s meant to be the one holding Sora to life, go ahead and run with that. This would pay off her discovering the Final World during the tutorial earlier. She (via inference and text boxes explaining things instead of a random cat creature) collects the various pieces of Sora, depositing them in his translucent body. Two of those pieces can be Roxas and Xion (I told you I’d work her in somewhere). Kairi and Sora, and even Roxas, wouldn’t know who Xion is, but she could trigger something within Kairi that allows a telepathic conversation with Namine that gets into questions about hard choices and the greater good - something Kairi hasn’t yet had to deal with, but Namine, a part of her, and Xion, built out of memories of her, have.

Once Sora is fully restored, he becomes the player character again, but it’s Kairi who comes with him to rescue the others, not Jiminy Cricket. She’s your battle partner as you make your way through the worlds saving everyone. Master Xehanort (not the Young version) can still turn up to give Sora another warning about the Power of Waking - and Kairi takes that to heart, more than Sora does. The sacrifices and deaths from the Disney worlds come back to mind, just as they did in the game; only this time, Sora and Kairi have both made the connection prior to this point, and this is just brings it back to mind.

- One battle, two trios. When time resets, it’s after the X-Blade has been formed. Sora turns the time power against Xehanort, and he, Riku, and Kairi follow him while the others hold shut Kingdom Hearts. In the course of this battle, there can be a moment that triggers a cutscene where Riku is severely injured and blasted through the portal back to the outside world. Caught off-guard, Sora is about to be struck down, but Kairi takes the hit. (As I said, I don’t object to the death itself; it’s the execution. This would let Kairi have a chance to shine as a character, throughout the game and in the boss battles, and would tie in more directly to the thematic threads in the chosen Disney worlds and pay off the conversation just held with Namine.) Sora hits a point of despair here, but Donald and Goofy join him for the final stretch (an injured Riku could have enough strength to return to Scala ad Caelum and bring the two of them with him.) And there is no bullshit last-minute redemption for Master Xehanort; he gets wiped out.

- SHOW. SORA’S. FATE. The single biggest flaw in the game as-is, and the one that would most need to get fixed. Have Sora go back to the final world, find Kairi, and have a scene between them. I would have Kairi not want Sora to use the Power of Waking to save her; she would point out its risks to him, and that she made a choice to keep him safe (see that callback there?) In response, Sora would bring up Herc’s line about an empty life. Kairi would be in the same boat, so they’d both be at a standstill. In the end, Sora persuades her by quoting her; that he trusts her to believe that he won’t fade away, and that she’ll keep him safe, even in this. So, as he readies the Power of Waking, the final cutscene is triggered, and you can have that final shot of Sora and Kairi holding hands as he fades away - only now, it’s motivated. And you have not just a bittersweet ending, but a hook into a future game that would be nearly impossible to write Kairi out of.

- Xigbar =/= Luxu. You want an epilogue and a secret movie? Fine. But don’t pull this shit.

And there you have it. Would this be a big improvement on the game we got? Yes, if I do say so myself. Would it be good? I don’t know. Since it assumes everything else in the series stays put, we’re still left with a lot of the problems that III was saddled with, not the least of them being too many characters even with the cuts I made. There’s no clear way that I can see to give everyone a meaningful payoff. But it’s what I’ve got, and it at least keeps the original threesome all prominent and sends Sora off with more grace.

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts 3 #critique #headcanon #alternate #z's crits