Information and Discussions on the KH Series

(Wow people still follow this blog and want my opinions I’m amazed. XD For people wondering why I went inactive here while I still love KH I’ve been very hyperfixated on another fandom and it’s dominated all my ability to analyze and my brain.)

Personally, I don’t think any ship is going to end up canon outside of SoKai so I don’t think it’s likely Skuld (or whoever Subject X is if it isn’t Skuld since I don’t think we’ve had a confirmed identity for her yet) and Lea will end up together no matter how they interact or what the text implies or even what I personally want, but I do think it’s possible like with how the game hints at several other pairings within and outside of the trios the game may imply a bond closer than friendship between Lea and Skuld.

I am gonna be withholding my judgement on whether I think they’d be a good ship or not though because I like AkuSai better because I want to see how Lea and Skuld interact before I even consider it a ship. There are a ton of factors for why Lea could be so interested in helping Skuld over Isa and why he’s so worried for her (the fact that she disappeared, the fact that he only knew her as an amnesiac captive in Xehanort’s lab, the fact that Isa turned into a bit of an ass while he was a Nobody, etc) so I’m mostly just here for the waiting game to determine whether or not they end up as a good ship.

So we are going to get the stuff that happened before KH3D. Seeing Ansem talking to Xehanort gives us a rough idea of what’s happening here and what’s on the other side of this portal. I don’t have a lot to add here just that I’m excited to see that it’s not going to get ignored.

I dismissed this screenshot at first as not super interesting since it’s just the introduction to Xehanort and Eraqus being friends in Scala and when I first skimmed I didn’t really care. Now I do because of the dialogue box. “What was it like on the other side of the ocean?” is interesting to me for a lot of reasons. Logical thought is this is very early game and other side of the ocean is kind of like code for “off world” since the main city in Scala is basically surrounded by water but like...what if Scala is connected to DI? Or the other side of the ocean relates in part to Xehanort’s heart. Could be interesting and mean more than we know.

I love them more than life itself and if anything happens to these kids I’ll kill everybody in the room and then myself. I’m not gonna break down their names since a few people have already searched for the meaning in their names so anyways. I’ll talk about the screen shot first and then the kids themselves.

So Hermod and Bragi are just kinda chilling in the background. While Urd and Vor are at the table so there isn’t a lot to say. I think this is going to be early game, likely their in game introduction, and they’re waiting on Eraqus and Xehanort to show up. Their relationship is likely going to be a friendship/rivalry kinda deal where they help each other while showing the others up and then later go eat smores around a campfire. It’ll probably be cute. Now let’s address the group themselves.

First of all the fact that we’re getting a KH character connected to nobody is probably the most refreshing thing ever. Thank you Nomura I feel blessed.

Second I think most of this cast is dead dead. Vor is the only one I think that makes it out alive, because I am very impartial to the “Vor is Kairi’s Grandmother” theory since it’s another one of my wild theories I thought up back in high school (Kairi’s grandma being a friend to Xehanort and Eraqus) and she just kinda has Kairi vibes that are difficult to explain. It just feels very likely. I think aside from Eraqus, Urd is probably gonna be the closest to Xehanort (the silver hair and outfit aesthetic is the main reason I’m thinking this though so take it with a grain of salt) and I think the group’s going to, in part, lead to Xehanort’s descent into darkness.

(I would like to disclaimer Anakin Skywalker has stolen my one brain cell and won’t give it back so this might just me projecting my favorite boy into Xehanort’s arc now that he has more friends than Eraqus. We’ll see.)

Also theorizing one of them also kinda gets taken by the darkness before Xehanort and that becomes a story arc but that’s just me being indulgent in what I want and me just having a bit of spit balling on them because if they are rivals hostility between them could lead to this. I also think it’s gonna be either Urd or Bragi.

Finally based on the initial pictures: Hermod is likely the levelheaded leader, Vor is the cute baby, Bragi is gonna be a cocky, snarky one, and Urd...I don’t have a read on Urd from her picture. She seems calm and collected but not in a leader way more of a “I know what I’m doing” way.

The rest of the screenshots are just pics from the worlds and gameplay so I don’t have too much to add but:

I do want to talk about a little detail in these battle screen shots, specifically

I want to talk about the Keyblade all of the Dark Road squad have been shown to use since it’s an interesting little one. Notably, the Keyblade looks like a mix between two already known Keyblades:

Starlight

And Master Defender (which I only learned today is not called Master Keeper.)

Anyways the guard shape of the new Keyblade is much more similar to Master Defender, but shares references to the Kingdom Key style hilt of Starlight. Further more the teeth are an E with a small star in it, and the colors are very much reminiscent to Starlight’s colors.

Part of me thinks this means it might be a baby form of Master Defender, but given that Keyblade’s legacy it is pretty interesting for all of them to start off using a Master Defender esque Keyblade. I’d like to see them start using unique Keyblades as the game goes on that are more personal to the cast, but given that I think most of them will die I wouldn’t be surprised if the fact that they’re using a proto-Master Defender is hinting to that fact. If it’s possible that the reason Eraqus gets his big shiny version is because he’s the only one who was qualified enough to earn it, either because of the failures or deaths of his friends.

THANK YOU ANON FOR LETTING ME SCREAM ABOUT THIS ILY NOW I DON’T HAVE TO GO ON DISCORD TO DO IT.

God where do I even begin. This is the first thing that’s gotten my brain churning in months.

So first of all I haven’t seen dialogue or even the whole update, just some screen shots and discussions so until I see some translations all of this is just my impressions on second hand knowledge.

With that out of the way let’s get to it. (This is not professional meta analysis, that’ll come when the translations drop later in the week.)

I have a lot of feelings. For those of you who don’t know over the course of the years I have become a very big Lauriam fan despite wishing death upon him in his first intro. So the fact that he’s unconscious and the arc is very badly damaged after his fight with Maleficent? Hello yes I am concerned.

And then we finally fucking know who Strelitzia’s killer is.

I have been waiting almost three years for this update I can finally rest in peace.

I do wanna take pride in being half right? I’ve been on the Ven train for about a year now so while it’s a possessed Ven I’ll take this as a half victory. And it being a possessed Ven by darkness is just so interesting and cool? It gives Ven a chord of resonance I haven’t felt with the boy in years too so that’s also nice. But just like...Darkness possessing Ven makes so much sense. Ven stays a good noodle and it gives a reason for him to be in the past if he’s Streli’s killer and the one out of place, which has been something bothering me for years and the main issue with the theory itself.

Oh, evidently this was sitting here for how long?

I’m sorry anon I’m really bad at noticing when I have notifications. XD

Anyways:

We do know for a fact that Ansem had been doing experiments long before Xehanort had showed up, not to the same extreme as Xehanort obviously, but he had launched the experiments himself, I remembering reading somewhere that the first of the Ansem Reports in KH1 are from Ansem the Wise, not SoD as the rest of them are.

Furthermore, it was said the apprentices threw out Ansem not because he’d gone insane, but to continue their research, as Ansem was putting it all to a halt as soon as he learned the degree to which Xehanort’s secret experiments were going.

I also don’t remember leaving that theory thinking the writers and artists hated Kairi. I remember SRT working with what Square Enix actually gave us about Kairi, which is nothing because they hate Kairi.

Look I try to ignore SRT stuff because I hate the theory and am terrified normally to post any negativity about it whatsoever and I mostly just want to let the writers live because I’ve gotten shit for talking about how the fandom treats anything against the theory as homophobic shit and I just want to remind you that the SRT:

Insists that Kairi’s connection to Sora is leading him down into the darkness, towards destruction and death.

She is not in fact Sora’s light, but Riku is. They gave Kairi’s role to Riku.

Turned Kairi into a Darkside who remains behind in the Alpha timeline while Sora and Riku fuck off in the Sleeping Realm timeline.

Turned her into a Chirithy and removed her entire place in KH3.

Meaning they wrote her out of the story in KH3 and downplayed her significance to Sora.

I know the SRT has undergone edits since I read it when at the beginning, but the fact remains, when I first read the theory back when it dropped in March, these were important parts of the theory.

The theory’s fundamental values were about Riku being Sora’s light, which is Kairi’s primary role in the series. 

Even if you can argue the theory has merit outside of So//////Riku. Even if you can argue the theory got things right. Even if you can argue it has some interesting insights. (You can on all three, I won’t take that away from the theory.) You CANNOT argue that this theory treats Kairi better than canon and Squeenix. It doesn’t. It can’t possibly when it literally argues that Kairi literally doesn’t exist at all in the biggest release the series ever will have.

I was about to actually point to KH3D too where we have a solid YMX, but given that’s the Sleeping Worlds I’m not sure if that counts.

(Another Anon) 1. OK, this is kinda confusing so you might want to take notes: According to Vexen’s Secret Reports on the Replica Program in KH3, he originally created 20 Replicas for the original Replica Program, but only 2 (Xion and Repliku) were completed before his demise, leaving 18 behind. The Ultimania says Young Xehanort, Ansem SOD, Xemnas, Vanitas, Dark Riku, and a newborn Xion were taken forwards in time and placed in 6 of those bodies, leaving 12 to become the Armored Figures in Scala ad Caelum.

2. Vexen was only recruited because the Replicas were still flawed, so he put the finishing touches on the ones already in use, fixed up the one Xion would eventually inhabit when she was brought forwards in time (before being sent back to the past by her present self taking over her body), and created one more Replica that he had Demyx deliver to Zexion so Roxas could use it. The Replica Xehanort's in Scala ad Caelum were the leftover 12 Replicas that were never completed.

Nah they look pretty silver.

KH3D.

Anyways deferring to KH3D aside and how it literally states “Yeah they actually had hearts we lied” if we look at it from the perspective of “They actually didn’t have hearts” it doesn’t feel last second at all. 

The best example is Demyx. Demyx acts light hearted, silly, and takes nothing seriously, but in the end, he’s going through the motions as ingrained by his personality manifesting best. He doesn’t actually care, and so he just goofs around because hey, why not. We see this when he finally does drop the facade and tells Sora to be quiet. “Silence traitor” in a monotone voice is acting like he feels, and it’s kinda clear that he’s not faking that.

There are things tied to us that don’t necessarily facilitate emotions that can facilitate actions as well. Let’s just pull an example, let’s say you’re checking the archive for fanfiction and you find one, ship is one you like (and you know you like it), the plot catches your interest, and so you click it. The writer turns out to be a hack and it’s neither so bad that it’s good (like My Immortal) nor a particularly enjoyable experience, or maybe it’s a fandom you’re mostly done with and you’re just kinda off chance hoping that something might bring you back to it, so you just kinda read it dead eyed and you don’t feel anything. You’re still going through the motions you would be, somebody from the outside might even think you’re having fun because they know you enjoy the ship and reading fanfiction a ton, but you aren’t really feeling anything particularly strongly.

That’s what the Nobodies were intended to be like. They’re going through the motions, Larxene may look like she’s enjoying toying with people and hell, but that doesn’t mean she’s experiencing happiness from what she’s doing.

Likewise, we also have examples of Nobodies who are gifted actors (XIGBAR ANYBODY HELLO??? HAVE YOU READ HIS JOURNALS IN DAYS AND HIS REPORTS) and even Nobodies who don’t particularly bother to try to fake emotions (Marluxia, Saix, Xemnas) or barely fake emotions (Zexion is sarcastic, not emotive. I never got a vibe that he particularly cared about anything from any of his dialogue in CoM and my Zexion stanning sister confirmed). 

(I’m gonna take it a step further and be blunt, nobody in CoM feels particularly emotive except maybe Vexen but that’s just my personal opinion on the subject, it’s honestly funny that the game in which we wouldn’t have known these characters could feel anything is the one where they feel that much less emotive.)

Anyways I’m not going to break down each Nobody and how they distinctly lacked emotions sans one or two in this post because I think it’s getting long enough and if I keep going I’m gonna get into nitty gritties based in personal experience involving personalities and emotions (nice people getting angry, mean people being happy, etc.) and how they aren’t the same thing and all but I’m gonna end it on this note.

She...doesn’t even look like Skuld though?

I know the only traits we have about Skuld are her dark hair and her eye color (because the official art and KHx only would not match in game models), but that’s already enough to debunk this idea.

Verum Rex girl has blue eyes, but Skuld has brown eyes, and this is consistent in both her UX model and her official art meaning it’s not accidental. On top of that, Verum Rex girl has well...a lot shorter hair. (If anything, she actually reminds me more of Rinoa than Skuld.)