Okay, let me rant about THIS ONE SECOND.
So here’s Terra and Aqua, both sinking in the fact that Terra pretty much helped kill his own father figure, and then comes along Ven. Something’s wrong, he’s not quite as happy anymore. He starts going on about some kind of X-Blade- judging by Terra and Aqua’s reactions they seem slightly familiar with it IMO -and Ven goes on about how scared he is. Terra and Aqua set aside their own grief, confusion, and loss just to smile and say “Things’ll be okay.” Seriously Terra is smiling, just shoving back his own remorse and self-hatred for how much he’s screwed up to smile and see that Ven does too.
Tell me that isn’t a perfect friendship, a perfect family.
AND THEN VENTUS ASKS THEM TO KILL HIM. (in a PG manner because this is Disney BUT STILL)
What gets me even more upset (Read: beyond bawling my eyes out) is that WE DON’T SEE RESOLUTION FOR THIS. LITERALLY THE WORDS “Just… put an end to me.” ARE PROBABLY THE LAST SENTENCE TERRA AND AQUA EVER HEAR FROM VEN.
THEIR SWEET, INNOCENT, WONDERFUL LITTLE BOY ASKING THEM TO KILL HIM.
You know, the handheld Kingdom Hearts games haven’t always been my favorite, but goddamn, this game… I just loved this game so much. I loved these three and just, ugh it hurt so much! I still remember when Ventus first showed up and like, something was definitely wrong, but they still treated him like a friend (even after his random screaming fit and just, his off-ness) and… argh, none of their endings were going to be happy :(
Like Kingdom Hearts has this whole trio thing going, and I felt like THIS TRIO was very well constructed. Not to say that Sora/Riku/Kairi and Roxas/Axel/Xion aren’t good trios, but this one just… I dunno, I had a lot of feelings for these three. Like I remember playing and really, really wishing it were a console game that were much longer and bigger, just so I could play with these three more.
I especially love that the girl didn’t feel like she stood aside and did nothing. I mean I love Kairi and all but I really, really, REALLY want her to fight and be in the trio with Sora and Riku, like, they get to go off and have all these adventures, I want her to be there too! Aqua spoiled me so much because I was like, “THIS IS WHAT I WANT FROM KAIRI!” Aqua was damn good and could hold her own, I want that in Kairi! I’m hoping that’s what I get in KH3.
Not gonna lie-
in KH 1, CoM and 2 I got REAL feels when it camee ot the sora/riku/Kairi trio due to the whole they keep being split up everytime it seems they are done and finally home.
I also was like that with Axel/Roxas/Xion during 358 days….less though because I felt like in the grand scheme, it wasn’t meant to be and was all borrowed time for those three (they were great but there was less feels) it was a very bitter sweet feeling to me.
BUT Aqua/Terra/Ven hurt me I think because not only were they the perfect friendship/family. They were so good, their intertwined feelings for each other is the VERY reason things went bad. Xehanort exploited all three of them and they didn’t even know, he divided them physically and emotionally one at a time. Making one seclude himself in secret till he finally succumb to his inner darkness. THEN- He cut another off from his friends emotionally, making him feel inadequate- which resulted in causing him to strengthen himself, to prove himself worthy of equality to them, but later turned out to be for nothing for Xehanort plans to use him later with this new found strength. Then he took away Aqua’s foundation, he changed her friends. He made them no longer who she knew them as. But the SINGLE act he started when this game started, Xehanort cut the thread in the most tightly knit tapestry I’ve ever seen. Instead of watching it unravel. He waited far away, secluded himself marveling in the lack of help his plan needed.
He probably didn’t expect it to go that well. He probably expected he’d have to interfere more. But he didn’t simply because the love between Aqua/Terra/Ven was SO strong and deep, it was so easily corrupted and poisoned with doubt/fear/jealousy. Leading up to a new trio (S/R/K) who’s problems were far different due part to age, and part to situations.
None the Less- Kingdom hearts is a GREAT anthology story. It’s core and foundation is that with all the power the heart has, all the light you can shine from it- you must be weary- for the brighter your shining heart is- the larger the shadows it casts get, making blows to it deeper and more ever lasting >.>
Reblogging for this comment because it’s so true. This is something I want to achieve in my writing. It’s really telling to me if your antagonist doesn’t even have to do much to mess things up.
For example, in the Gankutsuou manga, I remember that all Gankutsuou did was like, make a horse and carriage go out of control? But that act led to one person meeting another person, and so on and so on, and it just… everything went to shit. And he wanted it to, he wanted revenge against them all, but it was like, “… o.k. so you planned this SO WELL that all you did was this one little thing to get your way, holy shit!”
Xehanort’s the same way.
Like, we knew he was the big villain, and I went into Birth By Sleep having grand images of this terrible, destructive villain (and those trailers certainly didn’t help, with them trying to fight him), but then you realize that, shit, this battle is at the END of the game, almost. This giant war, this legendary battle that we’ve heard about a long time ago, it’s… not right off the bat? And you’re playing and you know that Xehanort is bad news, but… it just… it’s so subtle! Like, “Hey everyone, meet Ven, he’s a nice boy isn’t he?” And you know that Xehanort’s done something, but goddamnit these three are so close, and you’re waiting and waiting for the shit to hit the fan but, “Ha ha ha so much fun,” and then… bam.
I feel like the other trios didn’t hit me as hard with angst because with Sora/Riku/Kairi it was pretty obvious that Ansem was bad news and shouldn’t be trusted, and Riku turned so quickly. Then with Roxas/Axel/Xion, we already knew from Kingdom Hearts 2 that they weren’t going to last, I mean, Organization XIII, we knew what was going to happen. But Ven/Terra/Aqua, I mean… I think what did it was that I expected to go in and learn about “the keyblade war,” I wasn’t expecting to have such deep feelings for these three.