Blowing Off Some Steam

And also that red light pulsing like a heartbeat on Yozora’s face in the secret ending

hi it was my birthday AND it's pride AND i'm soft launching a top surgery fund tip jar over on ko-fi and ooooo you wanna donate some funds sooo baddd over here

silliness aside, if i'm being honest I'm kinda going through a lot right now with a lot of uncertainty at work, looking at reduced hours, and being a full-time caregiver to my grandma so that's why I decided to make a little tip jar for it... I'm taking care of a lot of those family expenses rn so I can't really prioritize myself... ;_;

And also the center negative space looks just like the book of prophecies symbol

Miscalculated a tip which I told my friend to pay. She wasn't bothered by it, but I doodled her an apology gift/shitpost.

Uhh have more cosplay Sorikus I’ve been neglecting to post for the last, checks watch, like two months, oops 😅

Anyway, more down below!

Sora and Riku’s dynamic in DDD carries over to KH3, and arguably, it’s a little more in the Light than before. No big moments (that are acknowledged in-game, at least), but I would say it’s starting to leave the shadows with Sora being teased by Donald and Goofy for finding Riku attractive and always listening to Riku, the reminders that Riku is always at the back of Sora’s mind throughout the game, and Sora’s discomfort when Kairi offers him a paopu fruit (with Riku nearby on the beach… who Sora starts this scene looking at and thinking about). Those are moments that happen in the Light. But the big ones still happen in the Dark… or are forgotten.

Sora saves Riku in the Realm of Darkness. He uses the Power of Waking to do this, which is honestly a huge deal. That’s Sora’s entire goal for most of KH3 — to gain the PoW and regain the strength he lost in DDD. It complements Riku gaining the PoW by wanting to save Sora in DDD, and it parallels Hercules getting his strength back because he wants to save Meg. But the fact that Sora’s goal is achieved here is unacknowledged in the game, to the point where it seems to go over a lot of people’s heads. It even went over my head the first time I played KH3. (Side note: I wonder if it says something that the Combined Keyblade, which symbolizes Sora and Riku’s relationship, has only been summoned in the Realm of Sleep and the Realm of Darkness so far. We’ve never seen it in the Light.)

Riku’s True Love sacrifice for Sora in the Keyblade Graveyard is in the Realm of Light, but it’s ultimately forgotten. This sacrifice saves Sora. It’s the reason light prevails over the dark and our heroes win in the end. And it’s totally unacknowledged in the game. It’s implied Sora sees something in the tunnel of light when he reaches for Riku, but that also seems to be forgotten. Not only is that in the physical dark, but we are left in the dark as to what Sora sees. It’s out of frame, outside the bounds of the story presented to us. The shadows of the shadows. As the audience, we literally and figuratively do not have the full picture.

These parts of KH3 are practically erased, almost like they never happened. Almost like they cannot happen. (The KH3 graphic novel actually does erase Riku’s sacrifice from the story.) And I do think that’s very, very interesting in the context of KH taking place in the Disney fairytale universe. Even in the Realm of Darkness, even in the shadows within this reality, there’s only so far the boundary can be pushed. A queer relationship has to remain subtext (Darkness). It can’t exist on the surface (Light). It can’t significantly impact the story. The story can’t be about that. Not in this world.

I’m sure I’m not the only one that jokes about Sora and Riku getting together in Quadratum because it’s (from their pov) Unreality. But it’s not a joke either, right, because this is a different world, made up of things that don’t exist in Disney fairytale land with all its traditional cishetero relationships and happy endings… This is a world where a queer relationship could happen. Because it’s not “real.”

Let’s take this a step further.

(fun fact -the moment from KHX is also the only spoken line in the entire game)

the moment from kh1 is so, so much the blueprint for these other scenes. this is why we see it again in DDD, with young xehanort.

funnily enough, he does say at least a similar phrase in the novels and the manga:

and the phrase is also contained in this line sticker (extremely funny)

each of these moments feature a transition of some kind (flynn moment less so but ignore it) it's how ephemer brings player into the new worldline, it's how young xehanort brings sora down into another layer of sleep, it's how sora ends up retrieving the keyblade and leaving destiny islands, its how sora and riku return to the realm of light; and in the secret movie, it's the light that pierces through the darkness.