#kh meta

Hey everyone! I finally rubbed my two brain cells together and managed to make a video essay. It’s an in-depth queer analysis of the KH4 trailer, complete with speculation about the future of the series and an exploration of the Sleeping Beauty parallel contained within it. It’ll be coming out on June 13th at 7PM ET. I hope you give it a watch! Watch on my new youtube channel when it goes live: https://www.youtube.com/@gabbygirlhorse 

I came to the unfortunate realization that there was a massive translation fumble in Union X last year.

The Official English Version

In the English version of the cutscene Confrontation, we're only informed that Darkness believed it was decided that Ventus would harbor Darkness via the Book of Prophecies.

However, this is not the only information provided in the Japanese version.

The Japanese Version

Here's the Japanese version for comparison. It is mostly the same until the last textbox, but I'll include everything for a 1:1 comparison. I know some Japanese (around N3 level) so I'm not trying to claim I can translate perfectly, but I did cross-check with a machine translator.

"First, why did you choose Ven?"

"Because it was decided."

"What was?"

"That he is/will be an existence that harbors Darkness."

"Does that mean Darkness' vessel was decided?"

"That's right."

"The Child of Destiny is written in the Book of Prophecies."

For the record, 運命の子 is the official term used to refer to the Child of Destiny in Dark Road too. It is the name of the final cutscene of DR, when toddler Xehanort is talking to the blue robed player.

I think the true implication of the scene is that the Darkness believes that Ventus is the Child of Destiny, having read the book of prophecies, and that they should target him as their vessel as a result.

In my opinion, this is a huge oversight and is detrimental to understanding the story. We NA players were led to believe that the Child of Destiny plot point was introduced in DR, when it was teased all the way back in UX all along. It also justifies why Darkness targeted Ventus even more, and tells us more about the Darkness' motives going forward.

"My friends are my power, and I'm theirs."

Suddenly, the focus is not on Sora's light, which we all know well, but on the darkness he hides so well that it lurks even behind his strength. Because Sora is like Ven; he is his friends' power. Riku, Kairi, Donald, Goofy, the King, none of them can live without him. Why doesn't Sora understand that?

I'm thinking back to Dream Drop Distance, and how Sora said the line again to Xigbar before falling into the deepest abyss.

"I know the Keyblade didn't choose me, and I don't care. I'm proud to be a small part of something bigger-- the people it did choose. My friends: they are my power!"

Sora is dangerously imbalanced. He thinks far too highly of his friends, who are just normal people, and far too little of himself, the greatest hero the World has ever known. His light comes from the fact that he can connect with any heart, and his darkness comes from the fact that he's begun to doubt his own importance to that process. By believing he is insignificant to the big picture, Sora can drown his perceived inadequacies in the positive traits of the people he helps, never realizing that he's destroying his identity in the process until all is lost.

He was 100% wrong in DDD. The Keyblade did choose Sora. It abandoned Riku, the apparent child of destiny, to be with him. Pure light from the age of fairy tales traveled through time to rest in his heart, so he has actually been chosen by the Keyblade TWICE, and it would have been thrice if Aqua didn't notice Riku already had one.

Up until Ventus and Vanitas’ final conversation in Kingdom Hearts 3, Vanitas never mentions darkness once. Surprising, right? He never mocks Ventus for not using darkness, he never goes on monologues about how the darkness is great and how you shouldn’t fear it…

This makes Vanitas unique among KH villains. If anything, Vanitas might be one of the few characters who knows that the idea of power can be separated from darkness. This is because he needs Ventus, pure light-hearted Ventus, to get stronger without using darkness in order to forge the x-blade.

(Well, he is using darkness, but it’s Vanitas supplying it—pushing Ventus further with the Unversed…)

Vanitas only talks about darkness when other characters bring up the subject. Xehanort mentions Darkness in Dark Road and Vanitas is all dismissive, saying "Hmph. It has nothing to do with me" and "Who knows?”.

When Xehanort suggests Vanitas fearing the light, Vanitas’ mind goes to Ventus. Not the essence of light. Ventus. To him, the idea of light is inextricably linked to his other half, perhaps inseparable.

The only reason Vanitas talks about darkness in Kingdom Hearts 3 is because Sora brings it up:

Sora: "Then why won't you stand by our side? Instead of with darkness?"

Sora’s thinking of the big picture: the heroes of light versus the villains of darkness. He doesn’t realize just how deeply personal Vanitas is driven.

Vanitas has always thought of himself in relation to other people, never just to pure darkness. In Dark Road,

Xehanort: "Darkness was once whole. And though fractured since, their minds were once connected. You must know where the others are.”

Vanitas: “I'm my own being.”

Xehanort: "That was once part of a whole?”

Vanitas remains silent. It's almost as if he’s too annoyed to answer, as Xehanort somewhat dials back the pressure in his next question.

However, in Kingdom Hearts 3, Vanitas says,

"I'm the piece of Ventus that was taken away. And you're the piece Ventus needed to be whole again… You define me, Sora, the same way that Ventus does. We are brothers who, together, make a greater whole.”

He chooses to identify himself through Sora and Ventus instead of Darkness. They are whom he feels a sense of wholeness with.

This particular bit of the trailer really caught my attention. I've briefly spoken before about how noticeable the influence of daoism seems in kingdom hearts. This bit very clearly echoes the beginning of the second chapter of the dao de jing.

(Two translations)

I think this also plays into the whole light against dark narrative that we've seen play out. For example with Xehanort and Eraqus. (Their whole colour palette is a yin yang reference for crying out loud.)

The yin yang as a symbol comes from daoism. As can be seen from this bit of text, two opposites define, flow into, and cannot exist without the other. No dark without light, no silence without sound, there's only an after because there's a before. But you cannot seperate them.

And seen here when it comes to Oathkeeper and Oblivion. The teeth of the keyblades are even stylized versions of the kanji for light and dark. (And the light one also being the number 7 in scala numbers, because 7 lights.)

We've seen that pure light is unsustainable as is the case with pure dark. They exist in tandem. The fairy godmother said as much.

The push to center light and fight to eradicate darkness only serves to destabilise the balance and have the equal and opposite reaction.

While I'm using this specific scene for this point, it's been said again and again. Usually in reference to darkside. And as we can see from the trailer, it's only gotten worse over time.

When we look at dark road and at what happened between terra and eraqus it shows us that the fear of darkness, rather than accepting it as a part of life, is the very thing that usually brings harm.

Mickey changed his views because he saw that it was possible with Riku.

Sora's currently suffering from this disbalance as we've seen from anti/rage form and the massive darkside.

Now with Riku (with the help of the fairy godmother) following his dreams to find Sora, I hope that he'll be able to bring that balance.