My Thoughts, etc.

The most common complaint is that the game feels rushed/the pacing is horrible. This is not necessarily a problem. Any game developer worth their salt knows that the level design should be in harmony with the level itself. There’s a narrative, and the level design should make players feel whatever emotion fits the narrative. So, overall, in the most general sense, the game design should be derivative of the game’s story. Easiest example: players should feel scared in a horror game. Therefore, in a game where the characters are rushing to achieve their goal, the player should be rushed to reach that goal. The characters are well aware that Xehanort’s Keyblade War is right around the corner, and reiterate to Sora that he must attain the Power of Waking as soon as possible every chance they get. There’s not much time before the war in the story, so should we really be surprised when there’s not much time getting to that point through the gameplay? Subsequently, people complain that there’s not much worlds/worlds are too quick. I think this point boils down to the placebo effect. The idea of what content is and the expectation of such content fools people into believing that there’s a lack of content. It’s all relative. More worlds mean less time per world, and less worlds mean more time per world. There’s a trophy for beating Kingdom Hearts 1 in under 15 hours. I don’t know about Kingdom Hearts II, maybe it has been beaten in that timeframe, but I think 20-30 hours sounds about right. Having played Kingdom Hearts III for the first time, I made it to Scala Ad Caelum at around 28 hours. I think I could cut it down to making it at somewhere between 20-25 hours. At this point, I can average 45 minutes per world in KH1 except for Hollow Bastion and I think End of the World as well. Hollow Bastion, due to two trips, takes about 1.5 hours and End of the World, is maybe that long, maybe closer to an hour, I can’t remember. Anyway, point is: Kingdom Hearts 1 - 15 hours. I have played the first Kingdom Hearts far more, and I haven’t timed myself on the second, but if I had to guess, 45 minutes sounds about right for the first world visits and 30 minutes for the second world visits. All things considered, it really would take 20-30 hours to beat KH2. Kingdom Hearts 3 does have less worlds, but less is more. Disney worlds in other games would rush their movie’s narrative by jumping from plot point to plot point with no fluff. Disney worlds in this game have all that additional narrative between key points. They took an average of 2-3 hours to complete. The game may seem rushed, but on the other hand, you’d have players going “I keep hearing how we have to hurry up and prepare for the Keyblade War, but then we keep doing all this other stuff and it’s taking us forever to actually be ready.” There’s a purpose to why Kingdom Hearts 3 lacks content. Then again, if you cut out all the fluff, the game would basically be the length of A Fragmentary Passage. On the other hand, as opposed to the other games, this one has come out in an age where DLC is so mainstream, that we may see Kingdom Hearts games do with their storylines that the Destiny games have done with theirs.

Another complaint is Kairi’s character development or lack thereof. She’s apparently no less useless than before, but could we honestly expect much from her? “Maybe we were wrong to expect much from Kairi given how new she is to combat [and how little time she had to train] when Yen Sid himself told Mickey that Sora and Riku [two experience combatants] had to be made Masters to face Xehanort.” That quote alone sums up my defense of Kairi, but it’s part my rant on a problem that does needs addressing. There is someone else who needs character development more than Kairi: Yen Sid. The way his character was handled in this game is far more disappointing (Though I do admit we care more about Kairi than Yen Sid, but still). This is where the game is wrong according to my responses in a discussion I was part of:

And how is Merlin going to train Keyblades wielders? Is Merlin the wizard suddenly retconned into being a Keyblade wielder for plot convenience now? My God Yen Sid is so lazy to the point of being a pointless character. In 12 years, he's only gotten up once. I don't think he even left that chair to use the bathroom.

I wanted him to die in the war for the sake of "spring cleaning" but no, they take out Kairi instead who is a marginally more useful and significant character. Everyone told me "they won't kill the guy who is named after Disney". I get he's old, but even Geezernort managed to pull off a Keyblade War.

I mean, come on now. When you think about it, all things considered... Kairi rescued Sora from the realm of Darkness not once, but twice, three times if you count the letter, she fought albeit momentarily in the Castle That Never Was, and she did end up fighting in the Keyblade War. Yen Sid shows up out of nowhere and waves his hands and that's supposed to make up for years of doing nothing? "Sora, Riku, you must save these new characters post haste because even though I am a seasoned Keyblade wielder who could do it, this important mission is the responsibility of you scrubs while I sit on my wrinkled fat ass and to do it you need the power of waking which I, a great Keyblade master, doesn't even have and I should keep an eye on you in the realm of sleep but I won't and let the Organization come in and steal Sora" Kairi has done more in two years then Yen Sid did in twelve. Yen Sid is like that negligent parent that's  all coked up while their toddler runs around the neighborhood in a dirty fiaper while eating glue. Somebody call the Keyblade Association, Yen Sid needs his Keyblade license revoked.

Yeah, I'm not saying people are wrong about Kairi, I'm just saying that Yen Sid is as deserving, if not more of criticism than she is, and hasn't been criticized as he should be. It looks like he's a worse character, and personally, I had been saying for two years that his existence is so pointless that he'd be better off getting killed off. If you go back and watch my Keyblade War theories video, it exposes Yen Sid for just how little of a difference he makes to the series. While this game wasted it's opportunity to develop Kairi, Yen Sid has several games worth of wasted opportunities and has had far more screen time to boot. Maybe we were wrong to expect much from Kairi given how new she is to combat when Yen Sid himself told Mickey that Sora and Riku had to be made Masters to face Xehanort.

They wouldn't have needed Kairi if they actually freed Roxas instead of just talking about doing that. They materialized a marble, a pouch, and a photo. They could materialize a vessel. No one in this series is known for seriously thinking. The great mighty master OG_YENSID_69 could have whipped out a Keyblade, stretched his hamstrings and his aching back, and have been the seventh guardian, but no. Why have as many Masters as possible fighting the big bad when you could have a team of scrubs?Kairi could have been fine chilling on the islands, but no. It's all Yen Sid's fault.Heck, if Xehanort could bring past selves to be seekers, the others could bring past selves to be guardians.

So, while Kairi should have become a better character, Nomura isn’t necessarily wrong for keeping her the same. Yen Sid, on the other hand, has no excuse.

The Arrowverse, arrow universe, named because Arrow was the first show in the set of seemingly connected superhero shows. Why isn’t the MCU called “Tonyverse” because Iron Man was the first movie? That’s just stupid. It’s the Marvel universe within the boundaries of it’s medium. If the shows themselves are named after the main hero, does Arrowverse revolve all around Arrow? Stupid question. Of course not. Then, why not just call it the DC TV-verse? Equally stupid question. There are other shows on other channels. You can’t generalize CW as all DCTV. Why then, have we generalized a portion of Marvel movies as MCU, calling it such as excluding the Marvel franchises that have been unable to be included? Haha, maybe MCU should be Tonyverse then, because, you know, Deadpool and X-Men are Marvel, too. 

Anyway, time to get to the point. We’ve seen how bad DC movies have done compared to Marvel movies, but is DC in general a failure when compared to Marvel? The MCU works. It has synergy that DC doesn’t have, it’s fluid, so well connected that every movie is “Mi casa es su casa” in terms of other characters showing up in movies where they would otherwise not belong. On the other hand, DC, at least Arrowverse, is holding itself together with glue. I can’t speak for the movies since the only one from DC’s rebooted universe I’ve seen is Batman vs. Superman. It seems that the interactions between shows is forced and only happens when it is absolutely most convenient for the writers. They are trying to establish a mythos, but the lore and rules seems to be discounted for the sake of drafting narratives. It is becoming painfully apparent the amateur job CW is doing at having an interconnected universe.

My first grievance is Supergirl. The platonic chemistry between Flash and Supergirl made the CBS show a welcomed addition to the CW’s Arrowverse, but the “Crossover” between their two shows was no such thing. When I think of Crossover, I think of every other crossover I’ve seen which is a multi-episode arc where each episode happens on a different show, but the characters from each show still show up on the others. We never got a Flash episode with Supergirl, so it wasn’t a crossover. It was just Flash making a guest appearance, because the writers said “Let’s have Supergirl and Flash race for no other reason than for the hell of it and they are both played by co-stars of another show so bonus points for us.” I guess we couldn’t have expected much from Supergirl pre-CW. Season 2 on the other hand... most frustrating finale ever. Kara was all “boo hoo Mon-El, you must go into an unknown region of space to survive and I won’t see you again” and I was like “Hello!? You have a device that can open a breach to another earth where he could be an ally to your allies and where you could VISIT HIM ANYTIME!” but no, she only thinks to use this important plot device (pun intended) to go to a wedding. Now, since Winn is no longer part of the show, the Winn/Cisco geeking out I was hoping for isn’t going to happen.

My next grievance is with the way the Arrowverse handles time travel. So before we had Legends, we had Flash. Four years later, I think CW is still fleshing out the concepts/rules of time travel because there are apparent plot holes. So at the beginning of Flash’s third season, Jay Garrick explained that once time is altered, the iteration of the earth you go to is a new one and there is no way to go back to the old one. How then do the Legends always seem to end up in the same version of Earth-1 as always despite the fact that they alter time EVERY episode? Are the rules of time travel themselves different for Speedsters? Then, we see Eobard Thawne show up in Legends of Tomorrow. The Legends just couldn’t hold their own against him. Who better to fight a speedster than a SPEEDSTER? The way they can time travel, they can return to when they left as if they never left at all. The Legends could have called upon Barry to help them stop Thawne and he could have been back to Central City two seconds later just in time to stop Savitar. Yeah, Barry would show up on two shows at the same time, but for all intents and purposes, the rest of the Flash would chronologically be happening after the end of Legends of Tomorrow. Speaking of the end... the show established that the Legends would break the timeline if they interacted with previous versions of themselves, which Barry has done, and he didn’t break the timeline like they did. Come on, CW, get it together! The next season comes around, and we are introduced to the Time Bureau, an organization formed by Rip for the purpose of protecting the timeline (I think “fixing” is more accurate, but anyway...), but maybe it should be called the Legends Bureau. If the Bureau (and the Legends) really is/are about protecting and preserving, maintaining the timeline, why have they done nothing about the current situation with Nora West Allen? After spending an entire season putting an end to Anachronisms, preventing major changes to the timeline, why are they turning a blind eye to someone from 2049 in 2018/2019? Nora already caused a major change. Cicada is a different Cicada. This should have alerted the Bureau/Legends. Shouldn’t she be imprisoned like Nora Dahrk, or is it okay because she’s the good Nora. “We don’t lock up the hero daughters of our hero friends.” Biased, much? So Nora gets to save Barry, but Sara can’t save Laurel? These inconsistencies make my head hurt.

My final grievance is with Elseworlds. I think Crisis on Earth-X spent more time on Earth-X than the others earths, so maybe it’s okay, but isn’t it Earth-38′s time to host a crossover. The first crossover was Earth-1, the second was Earth-1 when not Earth-X, and here we are spending most of our time on Earth-1 again. We have yet to see whether or not the heroes will end up on Earth-38 or whether it’s heroes will simply just come to Earth-1 again, but I am as disappointed as I am hyped. Is this like Flash? Three seasons of speedsters than non-speedsters but in this case three Earth-1 crossovers followed by a Earth-38 one? We’ve seen Flash on Earth-38, but what about Team Flash, Arrow and Team Arrow? The main plots of the crossovers have been rooted in Earth-1, but how many more years until we get a main crossover plot on Earth-38 that forces Kara to call upon the heroes of Earth-1 for assistance? That is what I was hoping for for this year, but that’s not going to happen until next year at the earliest. Maybe not this crossover, but future ones should include characters in “Purgatory” such as Vixen and Jesse Quick.

"Caution. Wet Floor” - just reading that, it sounds lazy and apathetic, but then Spanish comes along all elegant with its rhyming

“Cuidado. Piso Mojado”

“Kentucky Fried Chicken” is such a simple and unimaginative name, but 

“El Pollo Loco” has that same linguistic flare as the first example. “La Cocina de Pollo” is boring in comparison, but translated to English is “The Chicken Kitchen” which is more or less playfully worded in English which is more than can be said about KFC.