Kingdom Hearts II - #47 - Ansem the Wise

[@ericvilas]

Ansem: "I must convert Kingdom Hearts into data to save it." Also Ansem: "I must convert Roxas into data to help Sora regain his memories." _Also Ansem:_ "....But to do that, I must convert ALL OF TWILIGHT TOWN into data" Ansem, why are you like this

[@coastersplus]

I just know there's going to be some KH game down the line revealing that all the KH games are just the KH universe in data form thanks to Ansem. Except for Coded, which is the KH universe in data form in data form.

[@Adam-cq2yo]

Ansem walking down to Subway to get lunch: "Y'know, those sandwiches would probably taste better as data..."

[@GeminiTasiri]

Don't forget that he also literally has a world made from data inside his computer

[@timothymclean]

Hey, it's a hobby.

[@dmas7749]

@@GeminiTasiri not surprised, he's the kind of person who makes 15 backups of everything he has on his computer

[@ExileTwilight]

I dunno what Riku's complaining about, I mean.. he grew up to be tall, dark and Ansem!

[@christiancrusader9374]

Doesn't he hate Ansem?

[@christiancrusader9374]

@@pygmalion0451 oh.

[@g3andmo]

Did you know Roxas name come sora if switch letters and x this why so munch metion their names conected 😊

[@g3andmo]

If take out x spelled it backwards you”ll sora

[@sid98geek]

I wish I could come up with puns as clever as that. You, Sir, are witty.

[@Star-Commander-Vong]

"Why did you call me Roxas?!" "Wouldn't you like to know?" "Y- yes. That's why I asked."

[@MrAuthor3DS]

To be fair, leaving others spinning is a consistent trait of Xigbar's, even when everyone else gets more transparent.

[@twinklefeet]

24:00 "I am swapping to that one immediately. No Waiting...Wait..." Such a minor thing, but this really made me chuckle

[@ThePortableTornado]

I still can't believe they got Christopher Lee to voice Ansem. May he rest in peace.

[@bwminich]

Christopher Lee makes any role sound so weighty and awesome. I love that voice so much, in animated or real form.

[@Actual_Mr_G]

I had no idea!! That's so cool!!

[@UnkilledGame]

agreed

[@brettd2308]

So I don't know if this is the right place for this conversation, but that long "Mickey & Ansem explain the plot" scene made me want to discuss expository scenes a bit. Kingdom Hearts in general is full of these long, talky exposition scenes where two characters just stand around and discuss the plot, which are generally seen to be a trademark of poor writing and have fallen out of fashion in more recent media in favor of scenes where the same information is conveyed on top of some sort of continuing action (ie Game of Thrones "sexposition") or in non-verbal ways (via the environment design, character description, visual acting, etc). I've worked as a professional writer and editor for about a decade now, and studied writing longer than that, and these expository conversation scenes are one of the first things you're taught to look for as a general signifier of writing quality (even in film and games). It's become an expectation that a good creator can convey information in a better, more nuanced way than just having two characters vomit it at each other. So finding more interesting ways to deliver that information, even if it is quite subtle and might be missed by some of the audience, is seen as pushing the field forward and improving your art overall. But unless you specifically focus otherwise, a general education on writing focuses exclusively on *Western* writing trends - during my entire time in school and university, I can only recall being assigned *two* Asian stories, both shorts from Japan (hopefully it's become more balanced in the last few years). Since I didn't focus on it in university, reaching out to study non-Western media was something I had to do on my own, and during the last 2 years, I've done a focus on Japanese media. What I've seen is that such expository "let's talk about the plot" conversations seem to be the *expectation* there. Whereas the overuse of such scenes tends to mark a Western work as lowbrow or "lazy" in the eyes of critics, Japanese works across mediums tend to employ them regardless of quality and are not judged negatively for it among *Japanese* critics (whereas Western critics do tend to go after such scenes in material that is exported). I don't claim to be an expert after just 2 years of study, but experts I've talked to point to the more collective identity of Japanese society making such conversations more acceptable as a tool for sharing information, whereas Western society focuses more on the individual audience interaction with the art. All that is to say that it's important to remember Kingdom Hearts is first and foremost a Japanese game made for a Japanese audience (as are most Japanese games, especially from SquareEnix), so a lot of these narrative and pacing decisions that might seem strange are because of cultural barriers. When I first started studying Japanese literature and media, I wrote a lot of stuff off as "bad" because of the familiar "bad" writing techniques they used, when the key was actually learning a new lens to view them through and getting to the characters and themes underneath.

[@pedrog06]

Awesome text! I did not quite understand how the more collective feel that Japanese society, and Asians societies overall, makes that type of expository scene not bad to them. Could you explain a bit more?

[@Overhazard]

@@pedrog06 I've studied narratology myself--not as extensively as Brett DuVale though--but as a longtime anime and manga fan, I've also examined and analyzed the way Japanese storytelling differs from American and European storytelling, but I came to a different conclusion. First, however, I have an idea of what might have been meant in that the expository scene might not be bad and may be expected (though I may be completely wrong): What you expect in a story that satisfies you is very, very much shaped by the sort of stories you've experienced when you were younger and what other people you know like in a story. For instance, someone who grew up in India is likely to have watched a lot of Bollywood movies and will have people close to them--friends, family, etc.--who has also watched a lot of Bollywood movies. One notable characteristic of the Bollywood film is song and dance numbers, which to someone not into Bollywood would feel happens suddenly and without warning. (This is not true. There are signifiers for when such a sequence is coming, though you have to know what to look for to find them.) Without these song and dance numbers, to such a person, a movie will definitely feel empty, as if it's missing something. (This is part of why Slumdog Millionaire was not very well liked in India: its storytelling structure is much closer to that of North American films.) In other words, you subconsciously learn the rules of a good story through socialization. Japan is no different. If, in Japanese media, scenes where characters just talk to each other without anything else going on are common in popular stories, then that becomes part of telling a good story in Japan. Audiences will come to expect them and may even feel a story is lacking if those scenes aren't present. Now for my theory. Pure exposition scenes like these are present in Japanese media for three reasons: Decompressed narrative, traditional Japanese stage performances, and the popularity of manga as well as how manga is published. Decompressed narratives take a deliberately slow pace, requesting the audience to take in the sights, feels, and sounds of the setting. There may be fast-paced parts in a decompressed story, but they are accompanied by these slower parts as well. You find this in Japanese literature as well, with entire paragraphs describing the setting before it even mentions anything about what the characters are doing. The western TV show Samurai Jack uses the decompressed style, namely in those lengthy scenes where Jack walks through places with no dialogue and sometimes no music. This is because Japanese storytelling is big on negative space--that is, depicting the absence of things to highlight the presence of others. (Contrast this with western storytelling, which is all about positive space, such as there always being music in the background.) Kabuki, noh, and to a lesser extent stand-up comedy like manzai and rakugo are big influences on Japanese storytelling too. In both kabuki and noh theater, there is a man standing off to the side who provides narration, characters' thoughts, and other explanations in the story being performed. He is basically a one-man chorus, though he isn't expected to sing. This role continued to exist even when those plays became less populaer in favor of movies: in the silent era, he would read out the Japanese translations of intertitles (those cards in silent films that show stuff like what people are saying). He only really went away with "talkies." As a result, Japanese viewers are used to hearing someone just explain things directly. Manzai and rakugo, meanwhile, are forms of entertainment made up entirely of the comedians getting up on stage and having a story played out for the audience. In manzai, there are two people, who form a comic duo (the tsukkomi, or the straight man, and the boke, or the funny man) and just have dialogue with each other. In rakugo, a single comedian sits on a floor pillow thing and performs out every line in his or her story alone. Prior to modern media, manzai and rakugo were Japan's dominant forms of affordable entertainment, with some of these comedians just performing out on the streets for free. Together, I think these four forms of traditional Japanese entertainment got the audiences used to people just explaining everything. And lastly, we have manga. As a type of comic book, manga can get away with scenes consisting only of characters speaking out exposition because it doesn't feel as jarring in print than it does onscreen. Hunter X Hunter, in particular, is very much into this, with characters discussing strategies and going over every single possibility before acting--and indeed, in this series, characters who don't carefully weigh all of their decisions tend to find themselves in bad situations. The anime adaptation had to create accompanying animations to not bore the audience (yes, Japanese viewers have their limits too) and to make sense of what these people are talking about. Look at American comic books, and you'll see scenes like these too, with whole pages consisting of nothing but two or more characters conversing about plot details. Scenes like these are present in Watchmen, which is why the movie adaptation stumbled so much. Manga, however, is more prone to this because, simply put, they're written by amateurs. Unlike Marvel or DC, manga publishers are open to anybody pitching a story to them, as long as they can produce a fully drawn chapter. It is very cutthroat due to the huge volume of submissions all the time, but one result of this open-to-anybody approach is that most of the manga authors who make it into these publication have zero professional storytelling experience, with the exception of returning authors. In addition, most of them require the author to generate a new chapter every month or every week. They are writing their stories as quickly as they can, and scenes full of exposition dialogue are an easy way of advancing the plot along without having to draw much or think about what to draw much. And those are my thoughts on it. I'm going to bed now.

[@brgkotme]

Luxord...really should have been in Chain of Memories

[@coastersplus]

"See, we CAN make a fun gimmick out of a card battle!"

[@Jonjon13Jonjon13]

I kinda like how Xigbar refers to "the others" that used Keyblades. And how those "others" might be a ton of different people depending on the games that you have previously played...

[@GreshFan01]

"We're finishing Kingdom Hearts 2 tomorrow" Oh Dan, I get the feeling you're going to regret that promise

[@unversedhero6028]

Shhh, at least we now get a hour and a half long episode.

[@daelix20]

Dan. You only use reflect once. You need to spam it 3 times in a row, thats how reflect bounces enough force back.

[@timothymclean]

That makes as little sense as much of this game's plot!

[@dmas7749]

that's not how it works, it only hurts if you get attacked during the animation

[@MaraK_dialmformara]

Such an ‘ansem young man Riku’s become... Hey, at least Kairi gets to fight in this one!

[@daelix20]

Dan. Did you notice theres a type of nobodie for each org member? Samurai = roxas Sniper = xigbar Lancer = xaldin Ect And they only seem to show up in places related to or directly under the command of each member

[@mgormley7530]

pretty sure each Nobodie is named after a Final Fantasy class as well

[@superbun277]

Yeah, and the reaction command mechanics for the nobodies also appear in the boss fights with each organisation member, like Berserk in Saïx's fight, Warp Snipe in Xigbar's, and Duel Stance in Roxas'.

[@peggyliepmann5248]

I'm convinced that the whole mess with Sora and Kairi forming Roxas and Namine is the kind of one-in-a-lifetime accident that'll make a fascinating research paper once the worlds aren't in constant danger for at least ten minutes. Same with Riku's experiences with the darkness.

[@RodrigoCVarandas]

Small, super powerfull and respected, a lot of backflips, funny iconic voice and friends with Christopher Lee. King Mickey is Yoda from the Prequels!

[@lorecraftlp6155]

Xigbar's "rambling" is actually *incredibly important*.

[@akiraishin7141]

You know... I saw every single episode of this series so far, and the only thing I know is not to ask any questions, because I'm not getting any answers, and the answers I do get are just confusing and convoluted.

[@samuelturner6076]

Akira Ishin Try me

[@TheBigRalph]

It takes a ginormous amount of abstraction, extrapolation and brute reading to understand this game's lore. The funny thing is, it's not complicated. Just convoluted.

[@pinkwings8036]

Sora... you're telling me that seeing your childhood sweetheart safe and fighting on her own barely invokes confusion, but seeing Riku makes you break down crying on your knees? I'm not saying priorities, but dude, you are feeding a lot of shipping theories.

[@MrAuthor3DS]

He already enthusiastically called out her name with a smile earlier, remember? Before Xigbar showed up?

[@MiseFreisin]

By the light of the moon, you punished the heck out of Sailor Saix

[@lucianodebenedictis6014]

That riku-roxas battle was SO anime

[@jonathanfaber3291]

I have to say the early part of boss fight with the eyepatch organisation is one of the best, especially since you have that whole "dodging from his perspective" thing

[@pyrosianheir]

Said dodging will be reiterated in a later boss fight. When and playing as who, I will leave a mystery.

[@NobodyC13]

28:58 Is it just me or does Luxord look like he had a spray tan in between remasters?

[@MewMewDerez]

oh thank goodness it wasn't just me who noticed how he rendered *super* weird at that part. his mouth freaking *glowed*

[@Duiker36]

So, Sora really likes Riku, Riku really likes Kairi, and Kairi really likes Sora. Did I get it right?

[@Mikesean45]

Everyone just really likes each other.

[@TonyTank721]

That scene is really bad at providing proper emotional context, at least imo. Frankly, Sora was overwhelmed when he suddenly finds out that he found Riku after searching for him for two games, with nothing suggesting that he would. In contrast, his reaction to finally meeting up with Kairi is more subdued, due to him knowing Kairi is there and expecting to find her. But thats just how I've come to interpret it.

[@Duiker36]

@@TonyTank721 I think that's a reasonable reading, though it does depend a lot on the viewer playing along. I was mostly being snarky.

[@jon9828]

@@unversedhero6028 Calm yourself. Nobody was going after you or the franchise. No need for thinly veiled insults/jabs.

[@Duiker36]

THERE's the traditional toxicity we associate with KZbin comments! Welcome, internet hero!

[@thepurplebox380]

Can we all acknowledge that the Kingdom Hearts series has an unhealthy obsession with zippers? Literally every outfit has like 12 zippers on it.

[@shadeknight6537]

After 47 parts, you would think master tactician Dan would use his shiny new Final Form for the boss battle. But that would be too predictable, and Dan would rather choose the more unexpected option, no matter how inefficient it might be.

[@TheBigRalph]

Knowing his track record, he probably just forgot he had that.

[@callowguru2611]

TBH Final isn't really that good against these bosses. Limit is better.

[@TheBigRalph]

Well, Limit isn't really suited for aerial combat. Final is.

[@rmsgrey]

Yeah, the place to use Final Form was on the way up, where it could gain experience from the Nobodies...

[@pedrogarcia8706]

Final form is fantastic against both Saix and Xigbar. Firaga can stun lock them.

[@TheBigRalph]

A little funny thing I noticed after playing these games for a while: So, Oathkeeper can be seen as a token for Kairi (it's keychain is the token she gave Sora, and it's name is preety telling). Meanwhile Oblivion could be seen as token for Riku (it's only acquired in-game after a significant story development involving Riku, and he actually wields it at some point). And I believe I don't really need to tell which person Kingdom Key represents, do I? It's Sora, it represents Sora. The thing is: have you guys ever noticed which keyblades Roxas is seen wielding?

[@Notmyday2009]

Roxas fighting style is that of treating two blades as one . Is reference of him being only one part of two. This game ain't subtle.

[@Artista_Frustrado]

yeah, Roxas having the Oblivion & Oathkeeper was literally the very first thing they ever showed of KH2 so kinda hard to NOT notice -also, they can't be seen. Oblivion & OathKeeper ARE a reference to Kairi & Riku, you literally get them from them in KH1 -finally, Roxas' dual wielding is a reference to ANOTHER character we haven't met yet, & is just as needlessly convoluted as you think it is

[@unversedhero6028]

Nope, those two keyblades just symbolize the light and dark in Sora. Nothing more, nothing less.

[@samuelturner6076]

Unversed Hero Nope, although what you say is also true Nomura has stated in an interview that Oblivion is symbolic of riku. www.khwiki.com/Oathkeeper. And I’m pretty sure somewhere it’s said that oathkeeper symbolises sora’s memories of Kairi, besides it’s connected to Kairi anyway since it’s formed by sora using her charm as a keychain.

[@TheBigRalph]

According to the wiki, my point stands. I updated the comment to address the connections.

[@sketchygetchey8299]

Christopher Lee and Mickey Mouse having a dialogue. You can’t get more surreal than that.

[@NijiharaKaito0]

14:10 You do have his counter equipped in the shortcuts, just, you know... use it

[@KumaKaori]

I'm definitely yelling at the screen when it's down to the small square, dude's in invincible white mode >.

[@Mikesean45]

Why do I get the feeling the devs regretted the decision to include *thirteen* new bad guys? Like, that's a lot. I don't think they knew what to do with Luxord there and just gave him a door.

[@MiseFreisin]

*Secret Secret Ansem Report #1* Everyone agrees, we went too far. We should have called it Organization III...

[@Valtharr]

@@MiseFreisin well, there is an in-lore reason why it is 13 members. and an out-lore reason. the out-lore reason being that Nomura has a fetish for the numbers 7 and 13.

[@Hazel_Velociraptor]

@@Valtharr I mean, they are traditional "Power Numbers" as well, like in fairytales and folklore and such, so using them in storytelling might be an easy way to resonate a little more with the audience as well.

[@johnyesjustjohn]

21:39 Words you don’t hear often in Kingdom Hearts...

[@timothymclean]

I wouldn't be so sure. There's plenty of times that people talk about how they're explaining things! The thing is, Sora only reacts to a few of them with the appropriate level of comprehension. "Everything makes sense!" "It...does?"

[@danscantland8066]

The ansem riku body swap makes some sense, remember that ansem took over rikus body in the first game, and looked like ansem at the time

[@NobodyC13]

I think the point of the "Ansem is Riku" twist is they wanted the player to be unsure towards his fate after his battle with Roxas. And so in order to explain the use of the hooded Organization member model (which is a different height and build than teenage Riku) they used Ansem to create a red herring and mystery over who has been acting as the helping hand.

[@chrisME1320]

for the second fight against xigbar, you can run in circles to avoid most of the attack at 13:18. You can also reflect the red projectiles with your double jump making for a very cool experience and some damage as you close in on him. Also you use the hotkey on limit form more xD

[@trace9021]

I don't know how many times I can reread it, Ansem Report 9, 10 and 12 makes no sense to me. The game establishes that when a Heartless is created, the Heart leaves the person's Body behind and is consumed by Darkness, while the Body gets taken to the realm of Darkness and becomes animated by force of will and becomes a Nobody. But Kairi didn't create a Heartless because she has no Darkness. Her empty Body was a major plot element of KH1. I'm following so far. 9 establishes that Namine is Kairi's Nobody, even though Kairi didn't create a Heartless and her body didn't leave the realm of Light. 10 establishes that, while Namine is Kairi's Nobody, she was created from Sora's body when he released her Heart. (Also, 10 establishes that Namine doesn't have any memories, but in CoM she knows how much Kairi means to Sora and knows what memories of his to reshape to make him her friend) 12 says that Roxas was "left behind" in the realm of Darkness when Sora got a new body created by Kairi's heart. Left behind how? Sora's Body became Namine. That should be the end of things, Sora gets a new body created by Kairi's Heart and his empty body transforms into Namine. Shouldn't Namine be Sora's Nobody? Where did Roxas get a body and where does he even come into this? Seriously, if anyone can explain this, I'm really confused.

[@TheBigRalph]

So... Roxas was born through the regular Nobody process: Sora forfeit his heart, and his heart and body were swalowed by darkness. The heart became the Shadow we controlled on KH I, the body became Roxas (and not Namine). Namine's birth, however, is weird. To be honest, she's probably just called a Nobody for the sake of formality. Like other Nobodies, she was born after her original self's heart was released, indeed. However she doesn't have any of the other key Nobody characteristics, like lack of emotions or being composed of the empty shell left behind by its original self. Seriously, if someone were to say she's from another entirely new species, I would buy it.

[@blobbob1]

I think the answers comes from one of the later games so spoilers for Birth by sleep if you haven't played it Roxas looks exactly like Ventus from BBS and his heart gets split at the start of the game and Sora's heart connections to it and at the end of that game Ventus is asleep and locked away in his world so I think Roxas' body was borrowed from at least part of Ventus' boby

[@trace9021]

@@TheBigRalph The only problem is that Ansem Report 10 says "Namine emerged as Kairi's Nobody... but the body and soul necessary to exist as a Nobody belonged to Sora." And it's not a fluke because 12 says "Namine is Kairi's Nobody, but came into being via Sora's body and soul." Two reports confirm that Namine comes from Sora's body.

[@TheBigRalph]

I've interpreted it as Sora's vessel (body+soul) being part of the process (Naminé's birth), but not of the final product (Naminé herself). These are just my interpretations though. The story really isn't clear about this part, so anyone can come up with their own.

[@rmsgrey]

Also notice that 9 talks about Namine being created when Kairi's heart left her body (ie, during the fall of Destiny Islands), while 10 talks about Namine being created when Kairi's heart left Sora's body (ie, during the Hollow Bastion incident). My main takeaway from all this is that Nomura is leaning heavily into unreliable narrator here - what Yen Sid lays out is the normal process of Nobodies being formed, and what the Secret Ansem Reports report is DiZ's speculation, but neither of them know the full truth, and Roxas and Namine are exceptions to the usual rules, so DiZ's guesses are just guesses. They're exceptions in another way too - normally, the Nobody has the same appearance as the original person, but Roxas looks nothing like Sora, and Namine looks more like Kairi's sister than her clone. Roxas mostly makes sense, but nobody really understands Namine.

[@MrAuthor3DS]

22:25 See, this is what happens when you try to keep your situation a secret from someone who's been searching over 10 worlds to find you - ESPECIALLY when that someone was recently told that another someone defeated you.

[@ethanault909]

Man, watching this series really does take me back to the first time I played this in middle school. So much nostalgia...

[@rewrose2838]

How do you kill an introvert? You starve him to death by putting a stranger in his kitchen

[@starlight_circuitry]

It's weird how they put more emphasis on Sora's reunion with Riku than with Kairi.

[@2000sKingdomHeartzHimefujo]

Nooo mooore queerbaiting😟😟*thud*

[@callowguru2611]

Carrie edits were top tier this episode.

[@guygluck4014]

Now that we are in the final stretch I wander if Dan is going to unlock the second secret ending in this game because the requirements on normal difficulty are quite steep.

[@timothymclean]

4:19: Really? From the Nobody naming conventions, I'd expect Xemnas to be the Nobody of Ansem and Xehanort's Nobody to be named something like x_Eronath_x. 21:15: I'm waiting for Sora to be confused again when someone tries to explain how this makes sense. I know _I_ will be! 21:40: ...That opens up more questions than I could have possibly imagined. Like, how is Sora reading Riku's mind? Muffin button? 26:00: Neither is Ditz-I mean, DiZ. He wants to shoot a beam at Kingdom Hearts despite having no idea what it does! I guess he wants to find out? 41:35: You see, Roxas, this isn't his final form. 0:30: Dan: "Everyone's so nice here!" Sora: _immediately proves him wrong_ 17:45: Or "Noughts Skyjla4," as it's know by those who have trouble reading that font. Which is a lot of people, actually, oops. 22:55: The smart one is named "Goofy". Yeah, Riku's analysis is mostly on-point. (Kairi doesn't deserve that, though.) 40:15: I see 9S made a cameo in this game...

[@trace9021]

Xehanort stole Ansem's name when they kicked him out (which is why the antagonist from KH1 is usually referred to as Ansem, Seeker of Darkness (or Xehanort's Heartless), and the real Ansem is Ansem the Wise), that's why his Nobody is Xemnas.

[@Cavouku]

I haven't looked into the deep lore of this series yet, but the first thing I anagramed out when I saw "Xehanort" was "No heart". A clue?

[@Ashebrethafe]

I think Xehanort was already claiming to be Ansem before he became a Nobody -- so he took the name Xemnas to maintain that fiction. In the added cutscene where he goes down into the basement of Castle Oblivion, he logs into the computer there using his real name, Another -- so the rule is reversed. (Although without that cutscene -- as I noted before -- his name could also have been No Heart.)

[@samuelturner6076]

Timothy McLean Xemnas is the Nobody of “Ansem” Ansem is just the name Xeonort was using at the time, so he is the Nobody of Xeonort but he wouldn’t use his original name as a basis for his Nobodies name for multiple reasons.

[@timothymclean]

@@trace9021 Thanks! I appreciate the explanation for the guy who can't keep up with the Kingdom Hearts lore twists. Ashebrethafe also brought up some interesting points. I'm kind of sad that Xenohart's Nobody's true name didn't squeeze in two x's, like xNoHeartx or something. (Or just Naxorthex or something.)

[@Felipe-hl6nh]

KAIRI JOINS THE FIGHT wait as she does nothing for the next 3 games Xigbar has a funny name and he knew other keyblade bearers Guess the rest of the information is straightforward Luna Diviner said that something about Xemnas' plan was a facade, so there's something we still don't know

[@pyrosianheir]

T'be fair, she didn't even have a chance to do anything in them. In 2, she wasn't present as a playable (or particularly relevant) character, and in the third, she was busy training.

[@CrushaKRool]

Luxord has a strong resemblance with Austrian singer DJ Ötzi. Which makes it really hard for me to take him serious when I imagine him singing apres ski songs about his taut calves...

[@hakimdhaou]

"DJ Luxord" 🤣 Nice

[@Nielzabub]

You know what might be fun. A Kingdom Hearts game where you can freely swap between Kairi, Riku, and Sora as your primary character.

[@pyrosianheir]

Kind of a thing in Dream Drop Distance, and probably a forced thing in 3. Or so I hope.

[@oakenshadow6763]

He actually felt betrayed by Roxas. 32:44 Thank you, Carrie! 44:28

[@_Bookmark_]

22:22 Que the lovers reunion Yes I know Kairi and Sora are the canon couple. But it's kinna weird how much more emotional Sora geta when he finds riku... Strange way to write this scene

[@AskWaffles]

I think it's because Sora knew Kairi was safe at the islands, but he was under the impression Riku was lost in the realm of darkness the whole time. He has legitimately spent the whole game asking around for Riku wherever he went.

[@coastersplus]

Kairi's totally shipping them there.

[@_Bookmark_]

Are you implying Kairi is a Fujoshi.... Wait... ok a lot of KH makes sense now

[@rundinj]

DAN TIME Oh wasent someone just wondering why you would use REFLECT?

[@TheBoundFenrir]

8:37 "You're not half the hero the other*s* were" (emphasis mine) ...hmmm... *takes notes*

[@pyrosianheir]

What, nooo... noooo, that's nothing. *hides Birth By Sleep*

[@fisherdotogg]

No thoughts on Luxord's animation? It's pretty fantastic actually

[@fourcatsandagarden]

Usually the clothing animations in this series are quite impressive, but the choice to have True-Ansem's skirt move on its own even when his top part isn't moving is kinda.......well, it looks like he's just constantly wiggling his hips or bending his knees, like he needs to go to the bathroom (or he, like me, can't manage to stand still for more than 2 seconds at a stretch).

[@rachelhahn2979]

4:46 So, your "research" and "pride" were what was most precious to you? Not, say, the world you were in charge of? Your home? Your subjects, who believed in you? Who probably don’t trust in you anymore? How about the thousands who probably died because of what happened? Nope, just your /highly dangerous/ and /secret/ research, and your /pride/. That's what mattered the most to you. Also, and SPOILERS All your apprentices just got grouped together, huh? Including Zexion, who the last time you saw him, was a /literal ten-year-old/? How about Saix and Axel? They weren’t that much older - heck they weren’t even there that long, man! You want vengeance and retribution on ALL of them? Like, I'm not saying a few of them didn’t deserve a good thumping at the very least, I'm just not that down with CHILD MURDER. Which you APPARENTLY ARE, CONSIDERING YOU SENT RIKU ON A DEATH MISSION, AND ROXAS AND [REDACTED] WERE ONLY A FEW MONTHS OLD. OH WAIT, I FORGOT! THEY AREN'T /REAL/! THEY DON'T /COUNT/! I'M JUST SAYING, GAME, YOU ARE TRYING /HARD/ TO MAKE ME SYMPATHIZE WITH ANDUMB HERE, AND CONSIDERING WHAT I KNOW ABOUT HIM, YOU AIN'T PULLING IT OFF!

[@SkyeFyre2131]

The whole "Riku Turned Ansem" thing puzzled me until 1FM. When Billy Zane takes control of Riku he says that he's turning his whole being into darkness, which I took to mean literally. Like his human form was basically destroyed around his heart and replaced with (for lack of a better term) the molecular and atomic rules of the Realm of Darkness which is a world where reality is a lot more...soft than the Realm of Light. In the same way that one Heartless can take on different physical forms, basically. It's somewhere between D&D Planewalker rules and Final Fantasy final boss rules.

[@MatthiasPendragon]

"You don't look like half the heroes the others were." Was that line in the original release? Its been too long and I don't remember. Knowing the context of other games, its a way more important line than I realized.

[@yoavzack]

YES BEEFY EPISODE

[@MoolbniBrie]

I think Riku looking different is a little contrived but actually kind of cool thematically. The idea that no matter what you look and sound like, you're still you and your friends can still feel your presence. It's actually a good pay off to how Roxas is handled, and I like that its set-up is just half glossed over in the Lion King world 'cause Sora is literally a Lion there and Simba doesn't recognize him at first. Like Axel's whole motivation and character growth is literally because he thinks Roxas is still somewhere inside Sora, and he just wants his friend back. It's heartbreaking. They do Roxas so dirty in this game. It's a stretch but I think it works.

[@ImperatorPenguin]

Sora, it's Kingdom Hearts... EVERYBODY RAMBLES! I could write an 'Everybody Poops' knockoff about the rambling in these games.

[@angel_wolf_98]

seeing sora cry made me want to and seeing him sad hurts

[@Edranair1]

"(Luxord) really just does just look like the second least popular member of a third-rate early-2000s boy band" DAMN, Dan, coming for Luxord before the battle's even started!

[@Crazybean2012]

OH MY GOD RIKU'S HANDSOME

[@RatherWatchThemSA]

That's a good description of Luxord.

[@ernestotorelli1209]

Spam that triangle, there's no point to try to get the reaction commands timings, so just mash it

[@Hazel_Velociraptor]

39:44 Yeah, keep believing that, Riku.

[@julieheinz9067]

Kairi better get to use that Keyblade in Kingdom Hearts 3 because we have had umpteen interim games and has not used it in ONE

[@pyrosianheir]

T'be fair, she hasn't had the opportunity to use it in any of them before 3 either....

[@liamwhite3522]

Are we sure Sora and Kairi are together? He sees her and is like, "I'm glad you're safe, you were awesome out there" and gives her a hug. He sees Riku, falls to his knees, cries, and lists off what he's done in his attempts to find him. Soriku is canon.

[@FalkaRiannon]

It's so damn weird to hear Sir Christopher Lee talk to Mickey Mouse. It feels as if Alice Cooper suddenly decided to show up in a Britney Spears song. I know they are both technically in the same field of work but I never would have thought they would show up together.

[@phyrofox1641]

I still think its weird to make xigbar the eyepatch guy with no depth perception the marksman Yeah sora, those two things totally balance out 20:52-21:08 He never told you his name

[@pacha269]

50mn of chill incoming

[@g0mikese]

So yeah I'm really beginning to realize how convoluted and strange the Kingdom Hearts storyline is.

[@Ninjinhah]

48:00 They could have just KILLED Roxas, and his "essence" would return to Sora. I mean, every Organization member was reborn as a whole Somebody after their Nobodies perished.

[@TheBigRalph]

No one knew that's how things worked at that point. When Master Xehanort comes back, it's treated as a surprise.

[@petervilla5221]

How much was changed between 2 and 2.5? It feels like all of these end scenes are so different from before. Can't say I like it.

[@HimmelsBlues]

Undyne is Xigbar theory confirmed

[@HKtraidon]

This organization isn't very organized is it? One guy summons heartless for sora to fight the other guy kills them and tries to kill sora...

[@bryanbradford2829]

So, Riku is a Final Fantasy last boss? You beat his first form and he goes all "one-winged angel" form on you?

[@marekpopioek7259]

Great and crazy complicated story :) looks like graphics made a game and someone had to write story for animations ;)

[@pedrogarcia8706]

You dodge Xigbars DM by running in a circle. As to the fight itself, you really need to be blocking/parrying his shots back at him.

[@pedrogarcia8706]

Also to win Luxord's final game, you have to turn all the X's into o's.

[@EnderPryde]

"Roxas is your nobody" ... Anybody who's played Birth by Sleep is facepalming right now because of SO MANY RAISINS.

[@pyrosianheir]

I mean... There are 2 and change Nobodies that come from Sora... So, it's not wrong, if you consider the number of Hearts he released in KH 1. XD

[@EnderPryde]

@@pyrosianheir I mean...... Thats what I mean with the facepalming... they are all Soras nobodies... and yet they are actually somebody elses nobodies and/or aren't real nobodies. That one event in KH1 was so simple but its grown into a gordian knot of absurdities as each game progresses to the point that I don't even know anymore.

[@pyrosianheir]

@@EnderPryde it is still simple, they just need to explain it better. Right now, they've done a terrible job of it.

[@EnderPryde]

@@pyrosianheir well... no. It isn't quite as simple *because* they haven't explained themselves. Skipping some space for spoilers ... Like... who is Roxas the nobody of? Sora or Ventus? It's said that he's Sora's, despite all evidence to the contrary if you take that one conversation out. It's not a question of "is this being badly told" so much "is there information they just haven't given to us which would more definitively solve this issue". Dark Souls had a similar situation going on where for the first two games the audience only had a few pieces of the puzzle and there were questions left hanging. In this case, it could go either way - maybe Rikku was lied to/everybody guessed wrong and just went off of wrong assumptions, maybe there's some plot twist that reveals some heretofore unknown information that reveals Roxas really was just an exception. The basic structure is not bad storytelling, since the story is still incomplete. More likely is that it's a clumsy story being told weirdly.

[@UnkilledGame]

I wish we had billy zane for ansem, seeker of darkness still :(

[@kaptenteo]

The fact that so many of the important characters, good or bad, are dressed in those black robes, is pretty darn confusing to me. I thought that that outfit signified a member of the evil organisation. :/

[@ironmilutin]

So... Why exactly does Kairi have a Keyblade?

[@aznsorawarrior]

KH:BBS explains. nutshell. Keyblade wielders can be "chosen" by a previous wielder. In BBS (which is a prequel), Kairi as a kid accidentally made a previous wielder choose her. Sora was also chosen in a different way by another wielder and so was riku.

[@Valtharr]

@@aznsorawarrior I'm pretty sure Kairi wasn't an accident. Sora was, but not Kairi. You-Know-Who explicitly conducted a ritual with Kairi, while Sora basically just...picked up a hitchhiker in his heart.

[@aznsorawarrior]

@@Valtharr Actually, another You-know-who conducted the ritual with Riku but Kairi only touched the keyblade and the ritual was conducted w/o you-know-whos knowledge (from what i understand).

[@TonyTank721]

@@Valtharr hmm, I'm pretty sure that was just a spell that would take her to someone whose light could protect her, hence how she wound up on destiny islands. You see that ceremony done properly in one of the other campaigns, and they had to touch their keyblade in order for the "magic" to take effect, so I'm pretty sure that you just need to have physical contact with a keyblade in order to get one normally.

[@Valtharr]

@@aznsorawarrior it can't be that merely touching the Keyblade gave Kairi the ability to wield one, or else Leon and Jack Sparrow would be wielders too. I think there's three possibilities: 1. the spell You-Know-Who cast on Kairi simply had the additional effect of making her a wielder (maybe her nature as a Princess had sth to do with it) 2. Kairi gained the ability because her heart was inside Sora's heart together with the _third_ You-Know-Who 3. Keyblades can choose their wielders without any prior ritual, and Kairi was chosen I think #3 is likely, since there is _another_ person in a later game who gains the ability to wield a Keyblade without any previous wielder conducting a ritual on him

[@raupy_prince]

Riku is..... such a good boye

[@darter9000]

A double length play? Ni~~ce

[@justember794]

So... Why does Saïx have elf ears?

[@Hazel_Velociraptor]

Lore reasons.

[@Mikesean45]

I guess DiMN didn't sound as cool.

[@King__John95]

You the first person I see who doesn’t used relceft

[@RiddleAnim]

Kairi? That dress is way too short. Pants,young lady. Pants.

[@Soumein]

I just get by telling myself that everything after KH1 is retcon, that it's just made up on the spot. I don't get why Riku gets his voice back, as Ansem. Is he acting the whole time? Is it just how Sora hears him now that he knows it's him? Why do all the cloaked people have hoods on until they're named, and then never wear them again? Seems like it's just for the sake of being mysterious. One could say that since they're Nobodies, and they don't exist, the person who sees them cannot quite clearly register their face, so they're just a shadow, until they give their name. That whole DiZ thing is just stupid. "I could only laugh at my shame." Oh come on. This whole thing is just retconning the mysterious suspense from the beginning of the game, making the player think Ansem is back. So yeah, I gave up taking the plot of KH seriously. They're just fun to play, and it was cool seeing Disney movies I grew up with reformatted to let me live in them for a little while. I must ask though: does the Keyblade somehow absorb or temporarily inherit enemies' abilities? Suddenly, Sora can use instant transmission to reflect magical laser arrows. If it can let him do that on its own, that would be reeeally useful.

[@rmsgrey]

It's not quite ongoing retcon. There are retcons in there, but they tend to come in waves - KH1 was written as a whole, then CoM and KH2 were (mostly) written together, then BBS, 358/2 and (Re:)coded (with possibly some rewrites of the later portions of KH2) - though either 358/2 was written last or a particular element was later retconned into greater long-term significance. I'm not sure whether DDD, X, 0.2 and KH3 were written together or separately. A pretty good marker for the sequence things happened in is the references to things that are significant in other games - certain characters suddenly start getting mentioned in the strangest places in games that were written after their own...

[@Mikesean45]

I miss when Ansem was just a scientist-King that went bad. They totally could've kept that for this game too. Xemnas could easily have been written just as Ansem's Nobody. Idk why they had to bring a 2nd Ansem into this.

[@coastersplus]

@@Mikesean45 Let me see if I got this straight. There's: 1)Ansem the Wise, introduced as DiZ; 2)"Ansem", Seeker of Darkness, Xehanort's Heartless; 3)Xehanort, Ansem's apprentice, who resembles "Ansem" and is now a nobody going under the name of Xemnas: 4)Riku, who looks like "Ansem" now ... and somehow I feel like there's just going to be more Ansems/Xehanorts/whatever at this point

[@PlayFramePlus]

I've come to understand that Nomura very much enjoys trying to create moments that shock the player, that make them go "WHAAAAAAAT" and question what's going on. But he hasn't really got an end game for those twists other than the mystery and reveal. No larger purpose. The explainable-but-pointless surprises are one of many recurring bad habits in KH storytelling.

[@Soumein]

Thinking about it some more, maybe the complications for the sake of complicating is an artistic way of making you feel like Sora. All that really matters is your friends need you. It doesn't matter what gets in his way, or how deep the bad guy is playing his life chess; if people need his help, he'll help. Nothing else ultimately matters.

[@bnerd1]

roxas and namine are more alike then you thing SPOILER Birth By Sleep

[@angelcollina]

I'm so confused T^T

[@dingledorf887]

Sora X Riku confirmed??????????

[@urc12345]

Riku and sora..... They gay

[@XxWillwBreezexX]

Am I the only one who dislikes kairi