#it's one for every xehanort

[firestorm09890]

lengthy kingdom hearts animatics that live in my head now up to 5

#animatic tag #new tag for this stuff #bluejay chirpin #it's one for every xehanort #one for wayfinder trio #one for all of khux #one for castle oblivion nobody crew #and one for a fic that altered my brain chemistry #three are lyrica live songs and two are projmoon mili songs lol #i can never hold back from crossovers #one of the lyrica live ones references both the others actually... #which is silly and also fucked up

[aethergate]

i have too many vanitas headcannons that i just have rattle around in my head

#mun in the moon [ ooc ] #i have no idea how he got to me so badly on this playthrough of KH #i think he only knows like. fire magic and maybe one or two other spells #i think he doesnt know healing magic at all #i know that boy doesnt know how to read and write he was raised in the KEYBLADE GRAVEYARD by XEHANORT #i think he doesnt do training matches he acts like hes fighting to the death in every fight ever #hence why he just fuckin #flops on the ground after so many fights in bbs #he just puts his entire strength and all his energy into every fight so viciously he doesnt keep stamina #so after it hes just absolutely winded #holding my head in my hands. boy whos anger comes from a deep sense of lonliness and envy because hes been alone all his life #and wants what ventus has so bad cause hes gotten so many looks into it #but he thinks the only way he can Stop feeling like that is straight up just dying. and becoming whole with him again #cause he hasnt been given the space to breathe and deprogram himself from thinking hes a monster not made to exist #which. it doesnt help in the bbs times darkness was way more villianized people didnt think you needed both!!! #so everyone would've just been like ew youre mad of darkness youre evil right away anyways even without the xehanort influence #i know he hates looking at his reflection and so many parts of himself cause hes like ew im just a mismash of ventus and sora #my boys lack of a sense of identity out of being a weapon or feeling like something not meant to exist #just meant to die to fulfill a bigger purpose and become someone else again #everyone else is trying to get out of the heart hotel hes trying to get IN #anyways. im normal now. #i have so many other thoughts but i cant word them just yet. boy who i adopted 3 days ago rotting my head

[empxrical]

even's life is eternal suffering. imagine having to be the strict parent who makes ienzo do math homework and meanwhile they are emotionally manipulating him because he doesn't want to crush their tiny heart

#ooc. #THIS IS A JOKE BUT...listen... #we have beef with ansem the wise for many reasons but one of them is he got to be the Fun Parent(tm) #and now xehanort is here like wow you made ienzo cry . what have you done. #this was not in even's job description how did he get here. he wonders this every day. (overall it is a good thing) #(but how does one parent. we just do not know)

[completelyclevername]

sobbing rarepair hell is not fun why do i gotta be the one creating art and whatnot

#clever rambles #this is completely lighthearted i'm just being dramatic #i think i have read every roxner fic there is #speaking of #i've seen it called so many things #hayrox #roxner #pretzelshipping #this applies to other ships as well #but i think roxner is the biggest rarepair i ship in kh #there's so many other cool kh ships i like too why is roxner the one stuck in my brain rn? #there's soriku and vanven and namixi and leasai and whatever xehanort and eraqus are called #OOOOHHHH AND KAIRI AND OLETTE THAT ONE IS SUPER CUTE #and honestly probably a similar rarity as roxner

[nyctoheart]

idk why it only just hit me emotionally but Dark Riku saying Ansem not only time traveled back to Destiny Islands but remained there for another give or take 70 years... at his hoooome 🥺

#idk if people are right in saying he grew up in that little shack #cause its fucking tiny and I seldom jump on the bandwagons of trailer-born theories that are born every single time #like 1 (one) person will tweet something about a trailer and people will just take it and run with it #but never the less xehanort DID grow up on destiny islands #so him just going back to his home after living like 60-70 years essentially as a wonderer as for as we know #idk i like that :)

[shshshshshowrunner]

@masterxofxmasters guess who fell asleep again >:) 'f you're not busy or anything we should see what other forms the liver devouring fiend takes and what other towns he terrorizes.

#also. lore. the xigbar in every x files episode is the one from Kingdom Rhombus that is 50.0000001% xehanort instead of just 50.

[kayura-sanada]

Should Aqua have been Thanos'd?

No. She should have been recognized as a flawed character and then been redeemed, preferably through the game literally made for her. It's annoying that we got absolutely no depth to her character after an entire game was devoted to her story.

#nonny #response #dude imagine if she'd had a character arc that passed through every world though #city of dreams: she remembers the godmother's words that darkness couldn't be defeated w/ light #and she wonders what could defeat it that could help her escape the RoD #Snow White's World: she faces her past self and hears what she said abt Terra & Ven again #and realizes she sounded crueler than she intended & she begins to doubt herself #Enchanted Dominion: she falls further into despair and remembers how her friends needed her #and she unwittingly pushed them away and made all three of them alone #and wonders if they'd be better off without her. only for their keyblades to protect her #and she contacts them and sees Ven still sleeping & Terra still fighting off Xehanort #and she sees Terra try to protect her and Ven and realizes she's still loved #and even more sees how Terra's love for her & Ven has kept them safe from Xehanort all this time #and she realizes the answer to what defeats darkness is love & manages to dispel Xehanort #and with renewed confidence in herself and her bonds she sets out to escape again #this time arriving at the End of the Road #and if ends with her meeting DiZ and him saying no one could go further #and she looks at the horizon and says 'there's always a way back tot he light' #and it ends with her holding out her keyblade (which she gets back dammit) #and pointing it forward & a blue light shines out AND GREEN & ORANGE ONES COME TO MEET IT #AND TOGETHER IT OPENS A DOORWAY TO DESTINY ISLANDS OR SOMETHING #WOW AN IMMEDIATELY BETTER STORYLINE HOW ABOUT THAT #CAME UP WITH IT JUST THIS SECOND #kingdom hearts #aqua critical

[rosie-kairi]

I don't think I've ever really spoken in depth about how much I love Lauriam as a character, which is honestly a crime because out of all the Union Leaders I'd probably have to crown him as my number one favorite.

I love Lauriam not only as a character (pink, sibling plotline) but also as an example of how much prequels can recontextualize an entire character. While Ventus is also an example of this, I think we all knew that he probably had some sort of messed up past that landed him in the clutches of Old Man Xehanort. Marluxia, on the other hand, had absolute zero background to infer from his screentime. He was the villain, you're not really meant to think too hard about him and how he became who he is because he sucks and you hate him.

I don't think there were many people chomping at the bit wanting to get info about his past. Like, it would've been cool to get, but I don't think a background for Marluxia was necessary for the story at that point in time. His role was to establish the organization as a threat to Sora and the other guardians, and that was pretty much the extent of it.

And then Union X happened, and Lauriam entered stage right into a tragedy where his fate was already sealed. You look at Lauriam with his polite little smiles and cute little chibi animations and immediately think "what is this man up to" because you are already primed to distrust him on principle due to COM. Did not help his case that he was introduced in the cutscene immediately following the death of Strelitzia, painting a huge target on his back. Fandom reaction was hostile towards him before he was even fully on screen. Occam's Razor, the most obvious answer is the correct one. Lauriam is the obvious suspect because of his actions in the future, so he must be the killer. Literally him just existing in a scene caused more ire to build against him.

But then the Shift Pride cutscene happened. Then it was revealed that Lauriam and Strelitzia -the girl who so many thought he killed- were siblings, and that he was quite worried for her wellbeing, actually.

Every cutscene a clearer picture of who Lauriam is a person was painted, and soon you stopped looking at him with distrust, and it's replaced with the question of "What happened to you?". What happened that caused Lauriam, someone who has been shown to care deeply and immensely about the people he loves, someone who is willing to do anything for those people, become Marluxia? It became increasingly obvious that they were incredibly different people, even though Marluxia came from Lauriam.

And this isn't to say that there was no connection between the two. Lauriam seemed to be incredibly self-confident in his abilities, enough to be pretty steadfast in his resolve to square up with goddamn Maleficent of all people (even if he did get his ass kicked). There's also his very intense anger, as seen in the cutscene where Ventus confesses to being the reason why Strelitzia "vanished", as well as a bit in the scene where he's at Ventus's bedside.

This is all to say that Lauriam was not a necessary addition to the khux cast, he very well could've been swapped with a random new character and the plot probably would've worked fine, all things considered. But because it's Lauriam -the somebody of a character that has already been established to be a prick- it gives his whole plotline a hell of a lot more punch. If it was a new character, people probably wouldn't have been as distrusting of him right of the bat, the sibling plotline would be sweet, but because it's Lauriam and we know how he ends up in the future, it becomes a hell of a lot more tragic. How did the change happen? He's tragic because we know that whatever he does will lead to the outcome of him losing his heart and falling to darkness, something that is essentially the exact antithesis of the keyblade wielder mission statement.

Lauriam is someone who was made to struggle against the destiny that was written out for him with a neat pen and ink, and someone who was doomed to fail in every regard. He could not save his sister, he could not defeat Maleficent, he could not help Ventus, he could not keep his memories when thrown into the future. He couldn't do anything about it.

I realize this is all rounding back around to "the inherent tragedy of prequels" but it's true.

...and yeah that's basically it. I have a lot more thoughts about this guy but I feel like if I write anymore I'm just gonna sound completely incomprehensible bc I'm very tired. Thanks for reading, and don't forget to sparkle on

#Rosie rambles #lost the plot a bit but I think it's decently comprehensible #kingdom hearts union x #khux #kh lauriam #lauriam #kh marluxia #marluxia #character analysis #meta #i think

[xehanortsreport]

i love love love ansem but a lot of it is kinda in spite of how he's written and not because of it.

now, most of this is as a consequence of the franchise simply growing far outside of kh1 and ansem being shifted to a secondary antagonist as a result, but the change in his writing is still stark.

he's always been a darkness obsessed weirdo, but pretty much every game after 1 treats him as only this, or otherwise kind of relegating him to a physical manifestation of riku's trauma. and like, that's fine, he plays the role well.

but in kh1 there's this...mystique, and regal bearing, and a distinct intellectualism around him that kind of gets lost in later depictions. billy zane's performance is equally as dramatic as richard epcar's, but a lot more toned down. (though to be fair to epcar, he seems to adjust closer to this performance from DDD onward.)

he fairly whispers at times, a lot of the power in his voice comes from the restraint and controlled use of volume rather than just kinda. yelling all the time, which he does more of later.

you can tell he was and still is a researcher. he's observant and patient and even cordial, though condescending. it comes across less as uncomplicated malice and more as him just being upset that no one else grasps his magnum opus, no one else can understand him, everyone else is just /beneath/ him.

in later games, his taunts are just centered around "succumbing to darkness" and pretty much every line circles that same drain. but in kh1, it's more like he's gloating about his own superior understanding of the universe, of which darkness is but a piece.

like, just compare his lines from KH1 with his later lines. Here's KH1:

Yes he's throwing out his Darkness Lines, but I can't imagine DDD Ansem saying "perhaps this will enlighten you" lmao. Here is DDD and KH3:

i think a lot of it is because kh1 ansem was supposed to legitimately be a fallen sage king who went mad from The Horrors and like. i will die on the hill of that being a way better character than splitting him between xehanort and ansem the wise imposter. in my ideal world that plot point was never erased. anyway - they still could've kept that cool, cruel intelligence in him a little more.

to their credit, KH3 does kinda backpedal and restore some of his KH1 personality - as previously stated, Epcar cranks back his performance, and they even allow ansem to dabble in science again with his discussion on subject x (wow!) it's not perfect, he still gets pigeonholed into Guy Yelling About Darkness for half his scenes, but it was at least nice to see him with his original personality peeking through before he got banished into the void.

idk how to end this. ansem slaps if you're kh1pilled as much as i am. he should've been the one and only ansem. mad king truther over here.

#and i really really miss billy zane #that man gave such a haunting performance. miss billy zanesem every day.

[gayelderstourney]

OLD MAN YAOI BRACKET ROUND 1

Propaganda:

Fiddleford McGucket/Stanford Pines:

lab "partners" who broke the laws of physics and nature together but it went horribly wrong and one of them got stranded in alternate dimensions and the other wiped his memory so hard he went mad. 30 years later and they were finally able to reunite during the apocalypse. even though both had changed so much they wanted to forgive each other and move forwards

if fiddauthor isn't real then why is there only one bed in the bunker. if fiddauthor isn't real then why did they go stargazing and talk about wanting to start a family. if fiddauthor isn't real then why "my partner" and "my fiddleford". if fiddauthor isn't real then why does fiddleford subconsciously hang out around the shack decades after he stopped living there. if fiddauthor isn't real then why does ford have dreams about him every night. if fiddauthor isn't real then why did fiddleford leave his son and his failing/failed marriage to go live alone in an isolated cottage in the woods with his best friend from college. if fiddauthor isn't real then why is ford's ideal world one where he gets to work with fiddleford for the rest of time. if fiddauthor isn't real then why "life would be a nightmare without them" and "it's the most meaningful thing in the world". if fiddauthor isn't real then why did alex hirsch change that one scene in the book to sound less gay. if fiddauthor isn't real then why did fiddleford make his laptop password ford's name. if fiddauthor isn't real then why did they hold hands while hugging. if fiddauthor isn't real then why "i could have sworn that as he joyfully played, i could see the age lift off his face, and see the fiddleford who had been my friend so many years ago". IF FIDDAUTHOR ISN'T REAL THEN WHY DID FORD'S MORE HONEST RETELLING OF THE PORTAL SCENE FEATURE HIM GENTLY CRADLING FIDDLEFORD IN HIS ARMS

Xehanort/Eraqus:

they had a divorce scene where xehanort blasted eraqus in the face with no remorse which permanently left a scar and in the novels when he sees xehanort again (who is literally lying and manipulating him in the given scene) eraqus like. tenderly and lovingly smiles and touches his scar like WHAT

First of all. Eraqus is going gray but doesn’t look insanely old but as proof of age I’d like to say that he’s very close to Xehanort in age in Dark Road, the prequel in which they are teenagers, and Xehanort in the main time frame is extremely visibly old and was included in Retirement Home Rumble so Eraqus probably just aged extremely well. They’re trauma bonded through all their friends getting brutally murdered back when they were teens and the two of them were the only survivors (Dark Road was MESSED UP). I’m not sure if they entirely qualify only because they’re like the super divorced elder gays here but they’re definitely old men and definitely yaoi (noncanon but their end in KH3 was so so gay) so I’m submitting them anyway. Anyways the plot of Birth By Sleep was a weird divorce struggle between these two estranged lovers in which Xehanort manipulates Eraqus’ kids in a weird darkness plot because he went evil mode without his husband around to stop him. They have a decent amount of material being gay as their younger selves but that’s not what’s important here WHAT’S IMPORTANT HERE IS THE END OF KH3 when Xehanort’s evil plans were almost finished and then Eraqus appeared out of his basically-son Terra’s hair as a ghost. And talked it out like some kind of mid-battle relationship counseling. Then they put their arms around each other and Xehanort accepted defeat/death/whatever and they just??? faded into sparkles??? smiling at each other??? after like 11 games of buildup to this final battle??? They’re so Divorced Old Men Yaoi your honor

I hate these bitches but nobody does old man yaoi divorce like them. Inseparable "pals" until the tragedy happened, eventually sending them on two separate paths. Eraqus worried that xehanort would fall to darkness, refusing to see that he already had. Xehanort pushed all his feelings away, trying to see eraqus only as a tool for his goals. Xehanort literally stabbed eraqus in the back, killing him. Eraqus forgives him.

in birth by sleep eraqus is voiced by mark hamill and xehanort is voiced by leonard nimoy so in a way their friendship turned enemyship turned always still cared abt each other represents the love/hate relationship between star wars and star trek fans

they’ve been best friends since they were young, Eraqus just pointedly ignores how blatantly evil and DarkTM Xehanort is and then Xehanort murders Eraqus, then later they just casually move on to the afterlife together??? listen I want to shred Xehanort apart with my teeth but these old men are so incredibly gay for each other it’s insane so I HAVE to submit them

#polls #round 1 #tournament poll #gay elders tourney #gravity falls #fiddleford mcgucket #stanford pines #fiddauthor #kingdom hearts #xehanort #eraqus #xehaqus

[dominicsorel]

Kairi is Xehanort's 14th Darkness Pt. 2

A lot of people have expressed confusion over the artwork on the top middle being used for "Kairi" on this Heart Station. And that's completely understandable considering...it's not actually Kairi!

It never was. It was Ariel.

She was always there in KH1 but her absence at Hollow Bastion is very apparent. There's only six POLs there holding the darkness back.

But why did they decide to have Kairi take Ariel's place? Well, no matter the reason...they sure made it easy to explain what's going on.

Kairi's necklace is the key. It's what holds the pure light and is what disguises her as just that.

However Xehanort managed to create or take away this power from another (and if so, from WHO) is up in the air but I'm leaning on the side of it being artificial. Kairi turns to crystal when she's killed much like Xion does and has been compared to a puppet.

Xehanort tried to create his own pure light and darkness.

It seems only natural he'd "plan for every eventuality".

Vanitas was darkness covered by Ven's light that was unable to be seen until Ventus was forced to face what happened with Strelitzia. Kairi similarly holds darkness within her but has been cloaked in light.

Both appear as the darkness within the light as compared to Riku appearing as the light within the darkness.

There's actually lore reasons that even if Kairi had been a POL in KH1...she wouldn't be one again in KH3.

Sora and Mickey Mouse are just making assumptions about Kairi that aren't based off any actual facts and it's really a giant case of paying attention to what's being said and not misconstruing it all. Don't be a Luxu, guys! If there's new POLs, there's NEW POLs.

Kye is pronounced like "Kai".

Ariel's fate with Eric was to be doomed once the sun set on the THIRD day if she failed to kiss him. And Ursula appears in human form while wearing the necklace carrying her light voice inside it to ensure that.

Sounds like Xehanort got his wish, if you ask me.

A part of him survived for the world after and it's inside Kairi.

Part One

#kingdom hearts #kairinort #kh kairi #kh xehanort #kairi #xehanort #kh meta #text #you are always free to add more! #kairi is the 14th darkness theory

[starlightwayfinder]

I decided to watch some old KH trailers in honor of the anniversary today, and I have to admit, I don’t think I ever rewatched this one after the release of Melody of Memory. When it was first revealed, we were under the assumption that the Master of Masters was the opponent Kairi was facing, but as we now know, it was actually Master Xehanort. While we were aware that the Master of Masters has more plans and tricks up his sleeve, to think of this line in the context of Xehanort is a little different. It brought to mind an old theory of mine, so I decided to go back to KH3, Re:Mind, KHDR, and MoM to compile as much evidence as possible for it.

(As a disclaimer, it slightly undermines the authenticity of his ‘conclusion’ in KH3, so if you’re a big fan of that scene, feel free to skip this one.)

This line in KH3 is a good place to start. From the get go, it was established that Xehanort planned for nearly every possible outcome of the Keyblade War. I also think it’s safe to say that every action he made was an intentional choice based on these plans. So the question is, what is the “final plan” referenced in Melody of Memory’s trailer? I think the game gave us the answer:

It may be easy to jump to the conclusion that this was just a plan for revenge, since Sora is the one who stopped Xehanort to begin with. However, I want to reaffirm that every action he takes is for a reason that serves his goals. It wasn’t just a plan to make Sora disappear, but likely to make him disappear to Quadratum specifically.

This was even foreshadowed in KH3’s Toy Box world. Young Xehanort sends Sora to the world of Verum Rex—though it’s probably closer to a “data” version in this instance:

YX in particular is very confident that Sora’s overuse of the Power of Waking will lead to his disappearance:

And MX has a similar line in Re:Mind:

Except this is where things get interesting. The Sora in Re:Mind is time-traveling from a point in time after he defeated Xehanort.

Xehanort must know this, because he sees the real Sora (from this point in time) about to begin the final battle in the distance. He then acknowledges that the Sora he’s speaking to is from the future. Unless he witnesses the present Sora time travel during their final confrontation, he can conclude that Sora survives their fight to time travel later on—meaning his plan doesn’t come to fruition. Sora unknowingly reveals his hand in Re:Mind this way, and opens the door for Xehanort to plan accordingly—which is kind of mind-breaking to think about…

It gets even better here, during Sora’s fight with Terra-Xehanort:

Sora brags that, like Xehanort, he can also time travel. To which Xehanort responds that Sora will then also need to make the “ultimate sacrifice”, or in other words, “pay the ultimate price”, as MX said. “Also”—as in, Xehanort has made this sacrifice as well by time traveling. As in, Xehanort will also disappear to Quadratum.

We have evidence to believe that as well. I also like the interpretation that he intentionally planned this to survive the world being purged, but that’s kind of a separate theory.

So to recap, Xehanort was probably aware that Sora would survive their final confrontation in order to time travel afterwards. He correctly predicts that the consequence for time traveling would be to disappear… specifically to Quadratum—something that Melody of Memory considers his “final plan”.

So… why? Why would he want Sora to also disappear to Quadratum? Trying to answer that question leads to the most controversial part of this theory:

It’s really nice to believe that Xehanort gave Sora the X-blade as an admission of his defeat, and I’m definitely not against that interpretation. But it is a little strange that before—and after—this scene, in Melody of Memory, he continues to act like making Sora disappear was his big plan. It doesn’t feel right, if he was supposed to be letting Sora “win” here.

I’ll be very curious to see if Xehanort has a role in Quadratum, and why exactly he “paved the way” for Sora to be there as well. Either way, I am holding out for a geniune change of heart from him, especially if what we saw in KH3 was more of a manipulation.

#Sorry to anyone who has heard me ramble about this before #but this time I brought a little more evidence to the table—haha #I’ve tried to type this up before but I always get shy about posting it because I don’t want to “ruin” kh3’s ending for anyone #But in all honesty as a Xehanort fan I would *like* this theory to be true #because I feel like it could ultimately lead to a more satisfying redemption for him

[zxal]

(Every offhand motion, every formal phrase. The ghost of someone she once knew and now no longer remembers. Even with nothing, even as no one— Subject X had looked at Xehanort and seen the echo of someone once beloved to her.)

The request "more quadratum skuld" has been sitting in my inbox for a while because I wanted to do it justice and i finally found inspiration in this scene from a wip that @izabellwit was kind enough to share with me - i hope you guys enjoy this concept as much as i do because God has it possessed me.

#kingdom hearts #kh #kingdom hearts union x #khux #xehanort #young xehanort #skuld #subject x #i will start tagging this as #quadratum au #unless it turns out to be canon 🤔 #my art #kh art

[hubristicassholefight]

Hubristic Asshole Tourney: Round 1 Part 2a

Xehanort (Kingdom Hearts) vs Vegeta (Dragon Ball Z)

Propaganda Below the cut (Spoiler Warning)

Xehanort

He so believes hes the only one correct that hes trying to clone himself thirteen fucking times. Restarts a war that ended 400 years ago and then gets beat by a 16 year old. Always scheming and is so sure that all his little schemes are gonna happen perfectly even though he KEEPS getting foiled. Like every time. Keeps scheming anyways. Ends up acheiving his long term goal (opening kingdom hearts) but then doesn't know what to do with it and then gets killed badly.

Vegeta

His hubris is the core of his character for the first few arcs, and while he has moved past it somewhat in later ones it still remains a large part of his personality; List of things Vegeta’s pride has screwed up: Goaded Frieza into transforming on Namek Allowed Cell to achieve perfection Allowed Babidi to possess him so he could fight Goku, directly leading to Majin Buu’s revival and all the death and destruction that followed Dragged out the fight and gave Frieza an opening to blow up Earth during Resurrection F Ultra Ego in the DB Super manga is basically him weaponizing his hubris to enter a state where his hubris makes him stronger. However this also comes with the drawback of being consumed by it.

Vegeta will usually let his opponents gain some kind of advantage so he can have a good fight. This has happened with Cell (letting him absorb Android 18, powering up to perfect form and nearly destroying the planet) and Babidi (which gave Vegeta power to fight Goku again, but allowed Buu to be resurrected as a direct result). Vegeta will then always try to fight the big bad, showing how no matter how strong they get, he will always be stronger. ...it never works, and Goku and co. usually have to bail him out; The only time this man was ever humble dealing with a threat was when the threat was literally God.

#xehanort #kingdom hearts #vegeta #dragonball z #official #poll #hubristic assholes tourney #round 1 #round 1 part 2a

[ngc-5194]

yknow i could very easily accept someone not liking the mobile kh games if people actually gave... understandable reasons??

mostly i've heard that they're 'inaccesable'. which. they're in general more accessable since the console they run on is a phone, a device more people have than a ps4. though, granted, it is the offline version of both games only.

however, if you don't have a phone, have limited space on your phone, or are uninterested in a mostly unplayable game, all of which are understandable, there are cutscene compilations (ux (story important, all), dr) available on youtube too!

if the lots of reading is the issue then there is a completely dubbed version of the cutscenes of ux and you can easily find voiced playthroughs of both union x and dark road on youtube as well.

(for instance, here is a playthrough of dark road that i watched as my phone needed repairs by the time i had caught up with the series enough to move onto khdr. but, of course, there are many more options if you simply search up 'kingdom hearts [dark road/union x] playthrough' on youtube. find whichever one suits the kind of videos you like to watch best!)

if you don't have the time to sit through all of the cutscenes, there are summaries also avaliable! here is a video one for union x, and though unfortunately i can't find a similar one for dark road, it is also always acceptable to just read the wiki section on the story of the game! (here is the union x wiki section as well)

the other major complaint i've heard is that it's 'too confusing' or that the story 'doesn't make sense in parts'.

to which i first must ask, what part of kingdom hearts does make sense to you then? many many signifigant, heavily important parts of this series can be the most mind boggling things you have ever read or heard. so much so that we are known as the fans of that overly complex and insane disney game. that is what we are known for!!

and more to an actual point, there are many many people out there in this fandom who would be thrilled to talk to you about parts of the plot you found confusing. who have posts pages and pages long on minute details.

we are all fans of this weird ass game series and we all can. i don't know. help each other, newcomers and people who have been here awhile alike. us fans who like the mobile games are no different. we are willing to share and help and explain anything you need.

and as for the take that the mobile games are 'unimportant'.

strelitzia, someone deeply important to marluxia, larxene, and ventus' backstories, is seemingly implied to be one of the main characters in kh4 and if you have no knowledge of union x, then you likely have zero idea who she is.

the foretellers and the master of masters are being set up as potential villians in the next arc of the series. all of these characters were introduced in union x, four years before back cover released. and while yes, back cover gives the perspective of the foretellers more while union x is from the eyes of the keykids, there are many interactions with the foretellers in union x, beyond the scope of back cover, that are deeply important to the plot and establishment of their characters.

while yes, dark road has drastically less set up for the future in it, as all of the characters featured are now dead, it gives a lot of depth to xehanort and eraqus both. eraqus' behaviours and motivations are given reason—not necessarily morally good ones, and certainly not ones that always provide justification for his actions, but actual fully defined reasons for it all.

as it has always been with kh, every game is important to understand the story. you couldn't simply play kh1 kh2 and kh3 and expect to understand everything, and you can not expect to understand everything if you don't at least know surface level of the stories of the mobile games too.

you do not have to play them yourself. they do not have to be your favourite games in the series. if you are reading this and you hate them, you can stay not liking them even for all i care.

but you have to accept that they are important to the plot of the series. that they can not simply be ignored if you want to grasp the entire story of kingdom hearts.

#kingdom hearts #kingdom hearts union x #khux #kingdom hearts dark road #khdr #khuxdr #long post #SORRY #i am just. can barely stand it here anymore #like. you're perfectly allowed to just Not Like them. thats literally fine. who cares #but at least just come out and SAY that you just dont like them #stop burrying it behind 'it's not important and it's a phone game waah wah' #just say you don't like the games. i really don't care if you hate them with all your heart and soul. just. stop being a coward. and Say It #anyway. uh. who wants to talk about khml with me :3

[lightandfellowship]

I sort of see Xehanort as a walking contradiction. A person who feels very deeply but shuts that part of himself out (quite successfully).

In his early days as a youth, his primary goals were all about other people. Finally getting to meet his mother and his dream friends. His focus at first was on relationships and love. And then, of course, there is the fact that he is an empath to a supernatural degree, and has been all his life. He feels things strongly even when he doesn't want to; he is forced to consider the feelings of others even when he doesn't want to. His life revolves around emotions, for better or for worse.

The deaths of his friends in Scala affected him dramatically even if he doesn't show it much. That loss helped reshape his worldview, as did Baldr and the MoM's meddling. It motivates him to fix the world and dedicate himself to its improvement at the cost of his own personal life and attachments. I mentioned in a previous post how I think Baldr and the MoM successfully convinced him that love is meaningless and powerless, and I think while he agrees with that on a logical level, he still can't help himself at times. Love often isn't a choice, after all.

Even as an old man who has been corrupted by the darkness he clung to so closely for so many years, he still shows rare glimpses of "compassion". He spares Eraqus during their second fight and opts to just scar him rather than kill him outright, even though leaving Eraqus alive could result in his plans being ruined down the line. He tells the all-knowing, can't-be-lied-to Magic Mirror that his dream friends still hold a special place in his heart. He takes a presumed dead Ven to Destiny Islands so that the boy can have a peaceful place to be laid to rest, rather than leaving him in the barren Badlands to rot. He claims to Vanitas that he brought Ven to Eraqus for Ven's sake. (Partially true, partially false, I think—since Ven is one of his dream friends, I imagine there is a fondness there motivating his actions, but Ven being alive and healthy is of course advantageous to his goals as well. And Xehanort will take any opportunity to make Vanitas upset, I think).

He kills Eraqus from a distance, from behind, without speaking to him or looking him in the face. Perhaps he wouldn't be able to bring himself to do it otherwise. After all, he seems to have no trouble killing others either face-to-face or at close-range. What made Eraqus different?

I think some part of him still cares about the people closest to him, and still mourns those he has lost. But he's become an expert at supressing those feelings for the sake of his goals. Letting only his cruelty and single-minded determination show. And every once in a while a tiny, microscopic instance of compassion will leak through on those rare ocassions that he allows himself to be emotional and sincere.

#rambling about dim path #ch tag: xeh #ch tag: era