Welcome to the Salty Spitoon, how tough are ya?

^Also because of this I've been foaming at the mouth trying to also find relevancy for the PS2 menu graphics, since Nomura clearly considers KH and the PS2, its console of origin, to be connected. For instance there's these four specific light orbs in the memory towers that give me the same vibe as the ones from the BBS OP, and the red cube of death for inserting a disc. <- the imagery of it always felt so ominous to me as a child. this black void, a foggy middle and a red light with the statement to insert a disc or nothing exists.

Yes, yes, yes!! Let’s get crazy, let’s get meta!!!

I never made the connection to the pillars on the Final Mix cover looking like the salt pillars in the Final World omg… But now that you say that, those pillars look like the towers on the PS2 startup screen, which represent saved data on a memory card. That’s why some people see more towers when they start up their console than others.

Each tower is a saved game file. So Sora running up and down those towers having to piece himself back together in the Final World with his memories hits different. Maybe it represents the many times his character has died in a single run through the game… or maybe these are memories from many, many runs. Many save files. Maybe the story always resets when it reaches the end, but every reset is saved to Sora’s “memory card” — his heart — even if he can’t consciously recall those memories.

Chain of Memories compares hearts to memory cards. But the heart stations do resemble discs, and they are also pillars that rise out of the darkness like the PS2 memory towers. A new memory tower in the PS2 forms with each new disc that’s played. The worlds in KH all have hearts, like you said, and they regenerate at different speeds, separate from each other, not unlike different games sharing one console. So I think there could also be a connection there.

Oh my god, wait, is THAT why the tower in The World That Never Was is called “Memory Skyscraper”??? Is that why it’s a tower?? ?

Something else I noticed: When a game disc is being read by the PS2, the screen is gray like the Realm In Between where Riku wakes up at the start of CoM…

You’re in between the startup menu and the game until you click the memory card… Riku doesn’t “wake up” until he takes the card that contains his memories. And when there’s an error reading the disc, you see No data. The gray is also a gradient like the place you fight Xemnas in.

No data being read from the disc/heart... Nobody. Except the disc/heart IS there, even if the system can’t recognize it/doesn’t know that.

Also, the 4 lights on the startup screen ARE like the ones in the BBS opening omg… Terra’s light is orange, but the heart station it morphs into is definitely red.

It’s also interesting how the colors on the PS2 startup screen correspond with the first four Princess heart stations Sora sees in KH1: Snow White, Cinderella, and Aurora, as shown above. And…

Whoever this pink one is supposed to be. I think it’s Ariel. After the startup screen dives into the darkness/depths of the system’s memory (which feels similar to Dives to the Heart), you see this screen below — usually if you don’t have a disc inserted, in my experience. And guess how many lights are spinning around?

Seven. 7 Princesses of Heart. 7 Guardians of Light.

This might just be a coincidence, but given everything else, it’s also interesting what the light looks like when the PS2 CMOS battery is dead.

It’s the same color as Sora’s heart station and this window you see shining above Riku in KH1 Hollow Bastion. I had to look up what a CMOS battery is. The internet says it helps retain system settings, like the date, time, and other stuff even when the console’s sleeping or powered down. Basically the settings that make the console yours. Someone who knows more about computers might be able to comment on this.

And yeah, the way the PS2 drags you to the shadow realm if you insert a disc it doesn’t support lmao…

It reminds me of the dark sphere that consumes Destiny Islands, and the red and black cubes that represent “bugs” in Coded… which are made of the darkness from Sora’s heartless.

he is using a rare mage build

he calls trinity marks "banksies"

he is obsessed with sending the postcards

every time Kairi appears or is mentioned he gets audibly miffed because she jokingly suggested taking the raft without Riku and now he's mad at her

he similarly hates Donald for putting the kibosh on Riku coming with them in the Gummi Ship. he calls him "the duck" and kicks him out of his party whenever possible.

he is the type of gamer who meticulously combs the map thinking up abstract solutions to simple puzzles

he ships Merlin and the Fairy Godmother

Okay so first, Phillip killing Caleb is a very cut-and-dry case of Cain and Abel; Cain gets jealous because God favours Abel's offering, while Phillip gets angry because Caleb learns to love a witch. God then curses Cain to wander and to no longer work the soil, while Phillip "curses" himself by consuming palismen to live a long time - however, Cain did settle eventually, near Eden, much like how Phillip played uncle to Hunter

And here's where I diverge from what's probably intended. Phillip played God and not only claimed to speak to the Titan (essentially God), but he also created the long line of grimwalkers. One ingredient being a bone from Caleb. Who biblically was created from a bone? That's right, Eve! And he says that all the grimwalkers "chose" to betray him, much like how Eve was the first sin.

This is admittedly a bit more twisted than the Cain and Abel parallel. Essentially, Caleb would have committed the "first" sin of loving a witch - Evelyn (who's name has Eve in it) is the snake, the devil, and Caleb falls for her tricks. Phillip, playing God, creates more and more of him, expecting a different outcome - but they all commit the "sin" of betrayal to him, their creator, in the same way that humanity is cursed to sin.

I imagine that most, if not all of the grimwalkers met a witch that planted that seed in some way. Except Hunter, who actually meets Luz, the human who wants to be a witch. Who is constantly associated with snakes, with Eda (who is likely Evelyn's descendant), with the "sinful" wild magic. Who actually speaks to the Titan, and only because she's a good person. Hunter breaks free of this cycle because he meets someone like him who can be on his side, while not even Caleb had that.

“Uhuh, yeah, I see that look in your eyes Glynda. You know exactly where I’m going with this. How high do you think Spiderman can throw you?”

Cue Spider-Man kicking ass in pink ballet shoes and leggings.

This actually increased his popularity severely, and lots of people suddenly gained the interest in ballet; boys too, because if someone as cool as Spider-Man does it, everyone can do it.

The Stage Manager:

and I could not get the image of Terra's low resolution, empty head looking sprite standing awkwardly in the corner of the pub out of my head.