Tag: kh

Aqua’s experience in A Fragmentary Passage and subsequent Norting changed the entire way I look at Light and Darkness in the Kingdom Hearts series.

invigoraide:

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.

leonawriter:

To be honest what I think is such a truly pure idea is de-Norted Isa interacting positively with not only Lea, but also Roxas and Xion.

These are people he – Saix – hurt! He hurt them a lot!

So the idea of all of them learning to let go and to let him in, is just… so good. 

Especially since it’s not just a case of ‘these are the people he hurt who are forgiving him’ but… more importantly? Lea is the one who binds them all together. Isa was Lea’s friend first, and then they drifted apart because of being Nobodies, and because of Saix becoming a vessel for Xehanort. 

But Lea still cared about him. Even when he didn’t know he had emotions at all, he still cared! If nothing else, there was a nagging sense of ‘I should be concerned over what Saix is doing/how he’s doing/I should want to be with him’ even if the emotions wouldn’t come (or wouldn’t come strong enough, or properly).

So of course then Axel gets two ‘new’ friends. Seemingly abandoning Saix. Saix gets angry, jealous… emotions he probably isn’t aware of feeling, and is perfectly fine with just pretending they’re him going ‘I should feel this’ by habit. So he’s more spiteful than he should be, more sharp, a bit less the cold professional that he puts himself across as when it comes to those two, because they’re taking his best friend away from him, and he can’t even express how that makes him feel, how can he feel anything at all.

And now he’s a true vessel, and he’s probably been lured in like a fish with a sharp hook in his jaw that says he doesn’t need you anymore, look at him, he’s got Sora and the others now, they’re going to try and get Roxas back, and he’ll forget all about you. Why should you care about him at all, when he clearly doesn’t care about you? 

What has friendship ever truly done for you? He goes on about never forgetting, but he sure has seemed to forget you real quickly.

So it’s that much easier for him to fight Lea, to fight Lea’s friends, when all he’s ‘feeling’ is the idea that he should be angry and upset at these people, and if there’s nothing to go back to, nothing to fight for, then what’s the point of fighting to free himself from Xehanort?

But then… let’s say he, through some means, does get freed. Things happen. Lea makes it plain that they’re still friends. Sora makes it plain that just because Saix has hurt him and those he cares about, if Isa is important to Lea, then they’ll get Isa back, no matter what.

Isa comes back.

But instead of being forgotten or Lea having to switch between hanging out with Roxas, Xion, Sora and the others, and then also Isa sometimes, Lea… pulls Isa into the friend groups he’s made.

Look, see? There was this massive great hole here where you were supposed to be. An Isa-shaped hole in my heart. And I’m not gonna be happy until all of my friends are also all of your friends too, got it memorised?