Up until now, the light/darkness dichotomy was only ever
something I interpreted as being a plot-specific force within the narrative. Sure,
we had characters verbally telling us that darkness is related to negative
emotions, light is related to friendship and positivity, etc. but beyond characters
getting powered up for battle after verbally making those connections (“My friends
are my power,” basically anything that comes out of Ansem SOD’s mouth), we don’t
really get a chance to see what that means.
A Fragmentary Passage connected the emotions to the forces
in a much more obvious way, for me at
least. I’ll never forget playing the mirror level that has Aqua’s inner
monologue going the whole time and realizing that, holy shit, this game is
about depression! And then we see the E3 trailer from this year. For her to get
Norted, we know she had to succumb to The Darkness, and because we have her experience
in AFP as a background, we know how she got to that point and exactly what she was feeling when it
happened. (Yes, AFP ended on a more hopeful note, but … I still think this
is probably what happened).
I’m playing through all the main games again, and suddenly,
the rest of the series has a LOT more context. The Xehanort/Eraqus
arguments get a lot more nuance. Honestly, I think Xehanort has a little bit of
a point? Light and Darkness (ie: positive emotions and negative emotions)
existing in a balance seems WAY healthier than just trying to have ALL POSITIVE
EMOTIONS ALL THE TIME. This could apply to “The closer you get to the light,
the greater your shadow becomes.” The more you try to push down or hide your
negative emotions in an attempt to remain positive 24/7, the more that
negativity festers beneath the surface and can explode out of you. Maybe this
is what happened with Terra. Dealing with the Darkness is something that has
plagued him since he was a kid, but because light-obsessed Eraqus basically
raised him, he had to repress negativity until it sorta just exploded in BBS. (As
someone with mental health problems who grew up in a family that didn’t talk about
problems or emotions and just pretended everything was fine all the time… my
most recent BBS playthrough hit me kind of hard.) Along these same lines “hearts
of pure light” don’t seem totally healthy either? Maybe it’s different for Princesses
of Heart, because they’re Naturally Occurring, but it makes total sense why my
boy Ven was so fragile after Vanitas got ripped out of him. In any case I am
REALLY SCARED for Sora. I know he was close to getting Norted in DDD, but if he
just tries to stay positive all the time because so many people are counting on
him my boy is going to BREAK.
Now, when I see the darkness cloud animation emanating off a
character, I have context for what that means and what that feels like. When
Terra uses his dark command styles, I used to think “well yeah, he’s mad” but
know I get that he’s pissed. When a
Nort uses dark attacks, I get that he’s channeling his greed, his feelings of
superiority. When Sora goes into Anti-form, I get that this is his moment of
release, where he physically can’t be
his happy-go-lucky self. The black cloaks, which protect people when travelling
in corridors of darkness, have the power to shield
people from negative emotions. Does turning into a heartless feel like being overwhelmed with hopelessness and dread?
This also makes Riku’s arc way more interesting to me! His “road
to dawn” becomes a road to recovery!! Instead of pushing down his negativity,
he lives with it! He uses it to his advantage without letting it overtake him!!!
He doesn’t pretend to be sunshine and rainbows, and his friends still love
him!!!!
I don’t really have a conclusion to this. I’m just really
glad that they did what they did with A Fragmentary Passage.
I’ve always been bothered by Sora’s story for The Grid in DDD. But now replaying it (and being older and wiser- IT FINALLY CLICKED!!) I finally understand what was going on. I was annoyed by how the game seemed to suggest that the Tron in The Grid is the same Tron from the Space Paranoids in 2, aka, Sora’s Tron. Sora was hell bent on proving that Tron’s heart is still alive inside Rinzler and that he’s the friend that he remembers. In the end, Sora does seem to succeed in making Tron remember who he is (he reached for his hand!) which really confused me. (It confused a lot of other fans too which is why I feel the need to write this.) But the thing is, that’s not what happened. It was established in the beginning of 3D that Sora and Riku would see people that seem familiar to them in the dream worlds they venture off to, but they may not actually be the people they’ve met in real life. It was even established in 2 that the Tron in Traverse Town is a copy of the actual program. Sora had this in mind before traveling to The Grid. But more importantly, Sora never said that Tron/Rinzler was his Tron nor did he even urge Rinzler to remember him. He just knew, because his Tron is a good person who likes to help people, (and he’s a copy of the original Tron) then that must mean this Tron in The Grid is a good person too. On top of that, he was turned evil by CLU. So of course Sora would go above and beyond to try to get this Tron back to normal.
But how if he has no connection to the Tron in The Grid? He didn’t even know for sure he could change him back or that this Tron even has a heart to fix. BUT! Remember what Ansem the Wise said about Sora at the end of DDD? “Our most precious treasures- even an empty puppet- the trees of the forest, and the petals on the wind-there are hearts around us everywhere we look. …Sora has a heart like that -uncorrupted, willing to see the good before the bad. When he sees the heart in something, it then becomes real.When a connection seems broken, he may have the power to mend it.” Remember how everyone around him was adamant, “Programs don’t have hearts.”, but Sora is such an amazing person that he was able to see the heart his, the Space Paranoids’, Tron possessed. He wasn’t just a program to him. Tron was also his friend. And Sora’s Tron knew too that just being around Sora made him feel something special. This ability was the key to getting Rinzler to change back into Tron.
He didn’t even know this Tron. Never had a connection with this Tron. But he was even able to convince Quorra, a program, that Tron is still alive (as in his heart is alive) inside of Rinzler enough to cheer him on. That in itself is amazing! And because of Sora’s strong heart, he was able to awaken it enough that, by the end when CLU goes to attack Sora, ‘Rinzler’ protected him by pushing him out of the way. And then of course when the glass breaks underneath him, why wouldn’t the almost fully awakened Tron try to grab the hand of the kind hearted boy who’s trying to help him? ON TOP OF THAT!!, Tron reacted and looked (and reached) in Sora’s direction when he yelled his name, “Tron!” something he did not do before then.
So anyway, that’s my take on the matter. I hope this helps out those who never really got this either :3 Sorry for the long post, but I had to! I can’t believe how off the mark I was before! I so, so love DDD though and always have!
So I was watching the Japanese version of the Pirates of the Caribbean trailer and noticed something interesting: Xigbar’s dialogue is longer in the English version to make up for not having the scene with Marluxia that’s in the Japanese version.
Here’s Marluxia’s dialogue. No subtitles, so I did my best to record it as accurately as possible:
JP: 私は頼みがあってお前に会いに来たんだ。
TR: I came to see you because I have a favor to ask.
Notes: He uses watashi to refer to himself, which Xehanort also uses. But Marluxia also used watashi to refer to himself in Chain of Memories when I checked one of his cutscenes with Axel, so not a big change there.
Anti-Form in KH2 always fascinated me. Because according to an interview with Nomura Sora gets this power (from a story perspective) as a side effect of him becoming a Heartless once. This is even reflected in Halloween Town where he has a Heartless Mask in that form. He’s even more likely to turn into one in fights with Organization Members because of his anger towards them and their taunting. It Sora using the Power of Darkness himself but unlike Riku Sora seems to do this unintentionally and with no control seeing as he becomes more feral during this form. It’s basically Sora becoming a Heartless without actually being a Heartless. It’s very much a double edged sword as it’s very strong but also dangerous to yourself because you can’t heal. You’re just this primal… thing. No Keyblade, not much of a human, but not really a Heartless, no magic, no tactics, unpredictable attacks and patterns. Just a ball of Darkness and aggression. The thing is I feel like this is the pure embodiment of all the Darkness Sora has buried away in him. It’s stated that he is actually very sad, has a lot of fear, and anger and worry in him but he buries it and doesn’t confront it. Hiding with a smile, jokes and distracting himself with helping others. It’s actually made him a prime target for Xehanort, because if he can get Sora to crack just enough then he can get him. He has so much light in him but an equal amount of Darkness and those fights with the group of Nobodies whose entire mission objective with Sora revolves around making him angry just makes that built up anxiety, sadness and anger break through the surface even for a few seconds and manifests as this wild, feral shadow of a boy that’s literally a whirlwind of violence, throwing away his own well-being just to hurt these people.
Listen, guys. I see A LOT of posts in the Lexaeus Tag about Lexaeus beating a child to near-death (in order for him to learn about Limit Breaks, mind you)
But I feel like no one ever really delves deeper into the rest of Roxas’s experience with Lexaeus in 358/2 Days.
For Starters: In the original DS game after enduring almost every organization member (Saix, Larxene, Zexion, Marluxia, Xigbar, and ESPECIALLY Vexen) treating you like an absolute idiot (aside from Axel) you meet Lexaeus. Not only does this large, hulking monolith of a man have the patience to explain how to use the Limit Break without treating you like an imbecile he has the GALL to tell you that you are valued:
Which like…. BLOWS Roxas’s MIND to the point of him saying:
To which Lex bluntly responds:
And even in the manga he says:
(In the actual American release he says that they’d beg him for 3 days and 3 nights if it meant having Roxas on their team)
But that Manga panel about him “Becoming passionate” is something that holds true in the game. When Roxas asks why they are trying to complete Kingdom Hearts, Lex looks wistfully into the distance and says:
This poor fucking guy doesn’t even quite REALIZE what he’s doing… he just knows it will make him whole. That’s all he wants. It’s what ALL of them want.
and when your day with Lexaeus is done Roxas postulates:
or MY FAVORITE….. the original DS version:
[Our group had its good apples, just like it had its bad. But everybody wanted the same thing: to complete Kingdom Hearts.]
SO LIKE. LEMME BE REAL HERE: WHEN PEOPLE BOIL LEXAEUS DOWN TO A BIG, SMASHY MAN WHO BEATS CHILDREN I REALLY WANT TO CRY BECAUSE HE’S ACTUALLY A BIG, PATIENT, SOFT BOY WHO WANTS ROXAS TO KNOW THAT HE’S VALUED AND JUST WANTS TO BE HUMAN AGAIN AND DO HIS JOB.
(And don’t even get me STARTED on Lexaeus picking up odd jobs that the other team members put onto him when they slack off.)
Lexaeus/Aeleus is the real MVP of the Kingdom Hearts series and I genuinely love him to pieces.
I’ve seen a lot of people criticizing Axel as a character or alternatively criticizing fans for liking him.
Based on the criticisms I’ve seen it is clear that many people do not understand Axel’s story or the nature of this character (which to be fair, Kingdom Hearts is confusing).
Some fans dislike Axel because they dislike the dynamic of the Sea Salt Trio including the apparent age gap (which is weird – retconning Axel’s age to 25 so that Lea and Ven could meet at the same age in BBS creates a really awkward age difference – However, Nomura has also stated that Nobody’s do not age – which means Axel is around 16/17).
Other KH fans who dislike Axel take issue with fans who dolike Axel and claim “Axel did nothing wrong and Lea doesn’t deserve punishment”.
Both fans who think Axel did nothing wrong (if there really are fans of this character who think that) and fans who think Axel is awful and Lea deserves punishment/shouldn’t be treated like a good guy have missed the point of Axel’s character arc.
To understand this character you must understand 3 things:
1) Axel is a villain
2) Axel is not Lea
3) Buffy The Vampire Slayer was a really awesome show and if you watch at least the first two seasons you won’t be disappointed
Ok – the third thing is optional – but the vampires on Buffy make a good point of comparison to Kingdom Heart’s Nobodies. In Buffy, when a person becomes a vampire they lose their soul and a demon takes over their body “and it walks, and it talks, and it remembers your life, but it’s not you.” Without a soul vampires feel no guilt or remorse or compassion. “When you become a vampire, the demon takes your body. But it doesn’t get your soul. That’s gone. No conscience, no remorse… it’s an easy way to live.”
Much like Buffy’s vampires, in Kingdom Hearts Nobodies lose the thing that allows them to be human and to care, in this case: A Heart. No conscience, no remorse, no feelings whatsoever. Only the drive to exist and to become human again – to feel again.
Nobody’s base their personalities on Memory. Axel allies himself with Saix because he remembers that when they were human they cared about each other. As Nobody’s they don’t feel anything for each other but value the relationship because it’s something they remember from their human life and thus ties them to their lost identity as humans. In order to exist as nothing, no feelings, just memories, the Nobody must go through the motions based what they remember or they’d lose themselves entirely.
Axel and Saix cling to the memory of being friends. Axel takes Roxas to get ice cream after their first mission because getting ice cream together is what he remembers doing with friends. This is imitation human behavior.
Now that we’ve established what Axel is let’s get to our points.
I forgot about this until now but I saw a comment regarding Marluxia in the new trailer and why his eyes weren’t yellow and that if he’s connected to the new Organization, why would he work with a group he sought to overthrow originally.
My theory is that it isn’t Marluxia we’re seeing here, it’s Lauriam and he’s not directly involved with Xehanort’s plans the same way Xigbar and Saix are, he’s more of a wild card (a wild flower card if you will) and is involving himself with the new Organization simply because their motivations align, it’s sort of like what Axel did in CoM and KH2 only this time, we know he’s a villain. He will play as many sides as he chooses as long as it gets him the desired result.
I mean if both CoM and Chi are anything to go by, he will kill and deceive if it’ll help him get something and odds are, if Sora hadn’t appeared when he did in CoM (or if Marluxia had the foresight to not involve Sora in his plans until a bit later), he might have succeeded in a few more things before eventually falling.
Besides, Marluxia has always had too much of a dominant personality to allow himself to be taken over by another force so there’s no way he’d be on board with the idea of Xehanort implant his soul into him. Something tells me that if he survives to the end of the game, we’ll have a scene where Marluxia attempts to stage a coup against Xehanort and is either taken down by him or by us, either way.
1) XIgbar/Braig knows a lot more than they let on.
2) He worked with Master Xehanort who wants knowledge of the Keyblade War
3) Marluxia AKA Lauriam was involved – somehow – in the keyblade war
4) Xigbar recruited Marluxia into the Organization
5) Marluxia tried to overthrow the Organization because it’s “Stated Goal” was not it’s true goal was.
5a) He was correct on this, but he never says how he knows.
Unknown: 1) Did Xigbar find Marluxia/Lauriam deliberately, or did he actually stumble across one of the only people still around from the Keyblade war.
2) HOW IN THE WORLDS IS HE STILL ALIVE NOW?
3) HOW IS VEN STILL ALIVE?
4) DID MX FIND VEN DELIBERATELY, THAT FAILED, THEN SET XIGBAR OUT TO FIND LAURIAM?
5) HOW DOES MX KNOW THIS? OR IS THIS PURE LUCK?
Which, again, leads to…
Did Xigbar deliberately pick Laruiam/Marluxia as 11, and then set him to die? And how much was Xemnas and Saix in on this? They are all hypothetically the same person, but who knows how much Xemnas knows about Xigbar, and if Marluxia wants Kingdom Hearts too, why not string him along for longer? And why did Saix tell Axel, not Xigbar?
Ah yes the Dandelions new images. Though Nomura left a message about their positions so I’ve taken upon myself to figure it out, please bare with me.
1. Lauriam. First of the way he is positioned is right behind Ephemer and co. This could be since he is working behind the scenes, either as the traitor or as the one who watches over the Dandelion. This makes sense since he is holding the Dandelion, which are the keyblade wielder who survived/escaped the war. Could he be holding the Book of Prophecies? Probably. But along this theory, he is holding us, our lives, in his hand. Almost admiring it’s beauty even. Also, his position is seemingly higher than Ephemer, the leader and 4. It’s very suspicious and makes one think that he probably knows more than what is presented, perhaps everything and what will happen.
2/3. Skuld and Blaine. Their position is on either side of Ephemer, almost like a pair of bodyguards. This could be symbolism in that they are loyal to Ephemer and will protect him. It also signifies how they hold an almost equal status, with Ephemer being a little bit above them, it makes sense as he is the leader. Something else I noticed is that Blaine is looking to the right, where 4′s direction is, just as Skuld is faced in Lauriam’s direction, left. I can’t think of what this spells currently,
4. Mysterious figure that could or could not be Strelitzia’s nobody. They are holding the Bleeding Heart Vine… The white one which signifies a tragic death of a beautiful lady. They are also behind the scenes as nobody is aware of their presence, except Lauriam maybe. Not much can be said.
5. Ven is in front of Ephemer surprisingly, which could be like a guard who may take a hit or attack for Ephemer. His status is also a lot lower than everybody except Chirithy. It adds in that he believes he doesn’t know why he is selected. It could also mean that he is right under surveillance, not enough to be noticed. He looks down as opposed to everybody looking forward and up. Perhaps it’s his lack of goal that is the reason. Ven’s position is stationary and aloof. A thought is that he won’t act much in the new plot or he will stay “mentally” the same.
6. Chirithy. Or more specifically, the symbolism that the player is right there with the group. Not much can be said except that they (or us) are looking earnestly in the future. Our position is the lowest because obviously we do not hold that status… but we are still important and looking forwards.
7. Ephemer is at the center of it all. He is the heart of it all. And most importantly he is looking towards the future, his expression serious since he is in charge of being the one who leads everyone. Everyone is circled around him because they are connected to him. He is the leader and arguably, the main character in this new story we’re heading in.
Last thoughts! The number shows 7… I’m sure what most of us are thinking. There is also something to note with the fact that all the new union leaders share a color scheme. Black, Red, and White.
If there are any thoughts or theories, please tell me. I love to hear them! Also tell me if you agree or disagree!
Feather inspection revealed that not only Riku but main protagonist himself has undoubtedly learned the art of the eyeliner, our theory is that boys were taught by none other than The Flurry of Dancing Flames himself (aka Axel (aka Lea)). The ending of KH:DDD serves as a proof, since it has shown that subject not only came back to life but joined the gang, and even shown his ability to summon keyblade which automaticly makes him the part of the fam:/
Stop talking and start doing: My Fallout Shelter for my Tumblr blog 