Originally published here for Sideshow Collectibles on November 18, 2022
There have been tales about daring heroes rescuing pretty princesses for as long as there have been stories to tell. And classic though the trope may be, we’ve moved away from the idea of princesses as helpless and agentless plot devices. Princesses are no longer just a way to highlight how strong the hero is or how dastardly the villain is.
Instead, the princess can now be the hero or even a powerful ally to fight by the hero’s side and defeat the big bad. This is especially true in video games, where the whole point of the adventure is to keep moving forward! Some of gaming’s biggest franchises have a princess at the ready to face the action and save the day. Here are just a few of our favorites.
Kairi – Kingdom Hearts
Granted, being a Princess of Heart doesn’t mean she’s the heir to any sort of throne. But Princess is right there in her title though, so Kairi gets in on a technicality. Her screen time in the Kingdom Hearts franchise has been low considering what an important role she plays in the series, and she spent most of it playing the damsel in distress.
However, Kingdom Hearts 3, its Re Mind DLC, and Melody of Memory all lay the groundwork for Kairi taking a more active role in the series moving forward though. With the announcement that Kingdom Hearts 4 is officially in development during the series’ 20th anniversary celebration in August, fans might not have to wait too much longer to see if Kairi’s finally going to get the chance to get in on the action alongside Riku and Sora.
Kitana – Mortal Kombat
One of the most popular and most recognizable characters in Mortal Kombat and maybe all of video gaming, Kitana has been kicking ass and taking names for almost 30 years. At one time a loyal assassin to Outworld dictator Shao Kahn, Kitana has since joined Raiden as a defender of Earthrealm and, for a time, united the peoples of Outworld as Kahn herself.
Time certainly hasn’t lessened her appeal. After three decades, she’s still guaranteed to be on any flavor of popular video game characters list and remains one of the most popular characters to cosplay. Considering the way MK11 ended, it will be interesting to see what NetherRealm Studios has in store for her as the series moves forward.
Cirilla – The Witcher
Ciri, like Kitana, spends more time wielding a blade than wearing a tiara, but she is still the princess of Cintra in The Witcher series. She has a rough life despite her royal beginnings: Her parents die by the time she’s 5, her kingdom falls, and she is forced to go on the run by the time she’s 10. That’s why she spends the remainder of her youth training for a life of hunting and slaying the most dangerous monsters in the world.
Luckily she has Geralt, her adoptive father and protagonist of the Witcher series, to guide and watch over her. Ciri also possesses powerful magic thanks to her bloodline. The sorceresses Triss and Yennefer teach her to control and understand this magic, so she’s certainly not a helpless damsel.
The Netflix Witcher show has made Ciri recognizable to a wider audience than ever before, and some fans of the games are keeping their fingers crossed that CD Projekt Red’s next Witcher game might make Ciri the series’ new protagonist.
Garnet – Final Fantasy IX
The ninth entry in the iconic Final Fantasy series abandons the relatively modern settings of the previous three titles to return to medieval times. So obviously, the story had to have a princess.
Garnet isn’t actually Queen Brahne’s daughter, thus she isn’t technically the heir to the throne of Alexandria. But Garnet takes protecting her kingdom and all its inhabitants seriously, and resolves to use her powers as a summoner to do just that. She uses the alias Dagger while she’s traveling the world with Zidane and the rest of the party as she learns how to be a more assertive and self-assured person. She still struggles after she becomes queen, at one point suffering from guilt so intense after the annihilation of her kingdom that it renders her mute, but she always pulls through in the end.
An animated adaptation of Final Fantasy IX was announced in 2021, but there’s been little word on the project since then. A fanmade FF9 Remake Project has been keeping fans’ interest piqued as well. Either project will definitely introduce Garnet to a whole new audience more than 20 years after her first appearance in the franchise.
Princess Peach – Super Mario Bros.
Whip out your parasols and grab a toadstool! Princess Peach is another of gaming’s most recognizable characters. Since 1985, Peach has ruled over the Mushroom Kingdom and depended on Mario to help her escape Bowser’s clutches. But she’s had her own adventures too and has even had her own go at being the savior, rescuing Mario, Luigi, and her loyal Toad from Bowser in Super Princess Peach.
Peach has also been a popular playable character everywhere from Mario Kart Racing to Super Smash Bros. and she will even be in the 2023 film adaptation played by Anya Taylor-Joy. Looks like her 37-year reign won’t be ending any time soon.
Princes Zelda – The Legend of Zelda
Only a year younger than Peach but just as popular (if not more so!), Princess Zelda is the namesake of one of the most iconic franchises in gaming history: The Legend of Zelda. Like Peach, she plays the damsel in distress in a number of titles, but she’s no stranger to doing some legwork on her own. Her pirate captain persona Tetra is an ally of Link’s in The Wind Waker, while her most well known alter ego Sheik aids him during the events of Ocarina of Time.
Zelda’s popularity over the years continues to grow, and fans have been waiting for the princess to serve as the protagonist in the series that bears her name. With Breath of the Wild’s sequel Tears of the Kingdom on the horizon, it’s hard not to hope that this time maybe Zelda will get to fight for Hyrule right alongside Link.
Which video game princess is your favorite? Tell us over in our Atomic Misfits Facebook Group, and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!
Vergil from Devil May Cry Is the Best Character Ever, Pt. II
Originally published here for Sideshow Collectibles on September 20, 2022
In 2019, Capcom finally delivered the story that cemented Vergil’s status as Devil May Cry’s best written character. Devil May Cry 5 is one of last generation’s best games, but more than that, it’s a love letter to fans of the franchise who had waited 11 years for a new game to play.
Dante is of course the face of the franchise, but few could foresee that DMC 5 is Vergil’s game more than anyone else’s.
“I wanted to be protected. And loved.”
V is a “new” character who appears in Devil May Cry 5. He’s a dark-haired, tattoo-covered man who carries a book of poetry with a giant V emblazoned on the cover and has three demon familiars at his beck and call. He’s introduced in the prologue, as is a powerful demon named Urizen who is clearly going to be the main antagonist of the game.
V is nothing at all like Vergil. Aside from their obvious physical differences, he’s weak with no demonic abilities of his own. It’s why the familiars fight for him. He quotes poetry regularly, seems to care for the other members of the party, and he’s desperate to stop Urizen from sacrificing innocents to obtain more power. Yet, as each mission progresses, the game drops more hints that V is actually Vergil.
So the reveal that both V and Urizen are Vergil is a real doozy.
Cutting Away the Fear
A flashback in Mission 11 reveals that Urizen is actually Vergil, but V tells the entire story in the next mission. After suffering years of torture and abuse, Vergil, clinging to life, managed to find his way back to the human world. He sensed his beloved Yamato in the possession of Devil May Cry 4’s protagonist (and, unbeknownst to them both, his son!) Nero. Rather forcefully, Vergil took the weapon back. The Yamato is capable of cutting through anything, so Vergil used it to cut through himself: the human half of him who felt fear was purged from his body and became V.
The three familiars that V controls are physical manifestations of the trauma he suffered in the underworld, excised like tumors so they would cease plaguing him. All that was left was the desperate, maddened demon half that wanted nothing but power and would do anything to get it. That half became Urizen.
Urizen’s Terrible Truth
V says he knew right away that what he’d done was wrong, so he sought Dante out to help fix his mess. Dante is easily defeated by Urizen though, so for several weeks, V travels through the city with Nero searching for Dante and getting to experience his own humanity for the first time. He comes to admire humans and their tenacity, believing it to be their best quality.
Tenacity was never something that Vergil lacked though, and V proves it’s a quality he retains despite the split. Even as his body crumbles away, the unnaturalness of what he’s done finally catching up to him, he pushes forward, at times carried by Nero, until he’s able to see his ultimate goal to fruition: not stopping Urizen by killing him, but by rejoining him.
“Would I have your life, and you mine?”
This is where the payoff to all this buildup finally comes.
It is apparent almost immediately that Vergil is a changed man. Dante immediately charges at him, but Vergil rebukes Dante and tells him to go heal himself before they clash blades again. He opens a portal with Yamato and prepares to leave, but just before he walks through it, he turns to look back at Nero … and thanks him. Vergil, who put a sword through Arkham’s torso after the man helped him achieve his goal back in DMC 3, sincerely thanks Nero for his help.
Reflecting on Paths Not Taken
When we see him again, he’s reflecting, curiously pondering if he and Dante would have taken each other’s paths had their fates been switched on the day their mother died. It’s unfathomable that the same man who’d spent his entire life avoiding his past would suddenly take the time to wonder at it. When Dante does finally reappear, there’s no sharp banter or undercurrent of resentment before their clash. Just two tired brothers who realize that they’ve spent their entire lives fighting each other.
It’s at the end of this latest clash that Dante finally reveals to Vergil that Nero is his son, and Vergil takes it well. He doesn’t reject the notion or scoff at it.
“Well, well,” he remarks, “that was a long time ago.”
Father and Son’s Fateful Fight
The response raises all sorts of questions (Who is Nero’s mother, Capcom?!) but he and Dante are too locked into their shared belief that this has to be their final fight to consider it further. Luckily, Nero, who also now knows that he’s Vergil’s son, shows up to put a stop to it. He intervenes in the twins’ final showdown, insisting that he won’t let either of them die, but Vergil challenges him to a fight instead. The last person to stand between him and Dante was Lady during the events of Devil May Cry 3, and he’d attacked her for doing so. Here, as much as he claims that a victory over Nero counts as a victory over Dante by default, it seems that he’s actually gaining a deeper understanding of his son rather than just a victory in battle.
When Nero wins — he has to, he’s the new protagonist! — Vergil concedes under the guise of seeing to the destruction still tearing through the city. In order to do this, he and Dante will have to travel to the underworld and seal the portal that’s allowing demons to come through. This will seal the two of them on the demon side of the portal, however, and Nero objects immediately. Dante assures him that it’s their certainty that he’ll have things handled in the human world that makes them confident that they can leave. He gives Nero a nice uncle-y pat on the shoulder and then takes off, leaving Vergil and Nero to have a moment alone.
The Gift of Poetry
In true Vergil fashion, he insists that the next time they fight, he won’t lose. And as collateral, a guarantee for his son that there will, in fact, be a next time, Vergil leaves him the book of poetry that V had been carrying the whole game. That book is a relic of Vergil’s childhood; it was the first possession that Vergil ever loved enough to inscribe with his name and mark it as his own. This is why the book has a giant V calligraphed across the front cover.
In the manga Visions of V, a story that takes place before and throughout the events of DMC 5, V remarks that this book is a symbol of Vergil’s heart. And Vergil gives it to Nero. It’s a sentimental gesture, one that solidifies just how much Vergil’s time as V has truly affected him. There’d been no room for sentiment before — he’d given it up in his pursuit of power. Vergil doesn’t say anything, but the gesture itself is more than enough to show how much he’s changed.
A New Bond Between Brothers
Vergil’s relationship with Dante seems different too. They’re shown in a post credits cutscene fighting, but their banter is more fraternal than ever. Dante has referred to Vergil as Nero’s “old man,” insisted twice that someone needs to keep an eye on him, and Vergil just gives a humored little “hmph” and lets it go. It feels like the two of them might finally be able to heal some of the wounds of their past. Plus, it’s exciting to think of what a future Devil May Cry game might look like with Dante and Vergil fighting side by side instead of against each other.
DMC 5 supposedly marks the end of Dante’s story and the beginning of Nero’s, but it will be hard to tell any story about Nero without including the family he’s found. For now, all we can do is wait and see how Capcom plans on continuing this saga.
For more on Vergil’s character, check out Part 1 of this DMC blog series. Why do you think Vergil is such a compelling character? Share your thoughts with other Devil May Cry fans at side.show/geekgroup, and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!
Why Vergil from Devil May Cry Is the Greatest Character Ever
Originally published here for Sideshow Collectibles on September 12, 2022
The first entry in Capcom’s genre-defining Devil May Cry franchise actually began life as a sequel in the Resident Evil series. The first DMC game certainly made an impact after its 2001 debut on the PlayStation 2, but it wasn’t until Devil May Cry 3: Dante’s Awakening that the series really found its identity. It is this third game that truly solidifies the series’ place as a leader in the hack-and-slash genre, but it’s also where a lot of the iconic ridiculousness of the franchise, and especially its protagonist Dante, is established.
It’s always perfectly balanced fun, however, providing enough cheese for several pizzas while still not feeling excessive. Maybe that’s why the series’ dramatic story works so well.
At the heart of this very silly franchise is a beautiful but tragic story about trauma and family. And while Dante is the series’ protagonist and from whose perspective we experience each story, it’s his twin brother Vergil that turns out to be the saga’s most interesting character.
It just takes a couple of games — or five — to get there.
The Inciting Incident
Dante and Vergil’s father Sparda was a demon of legend, a devil who turned against his own kind to protect the human world from being invaded. This enraged the other demons, especially Mundus, the general who had been plotting the invasion and under whom Sparda served. When an opportunity to seek revenge against Sparda for his betrayal arose eons later, Mundus didn’t hesitate to take it. While the Legendary Dark Knight himself was missing and presumed dead by this time, the family he’d left behind wasn’t any safer for his absence.
Brothers Separated
The twins are children, barely eight years old, when demons descend on the unsuspecting family at their home on the outskirts of Red Grave City. By the time the surprise attack is over, the manor is burned and crumbling, and Dante and Vergil’s human mother Eva is dead. What’s worse, each brother believes the other is dead as well, only adding to the tragedy of the event.
This is where their paths diverge and where their opposing ideologies form, keeping them in conflict for their entire adult lives up to the events of Devil May Cry 5.
“Might controls everything.”
Devil May Cry 3 is actually a prequel, and it’s the first time we meet Vergil … well, sort of.
The game introduces Vergil in its opening cinematic, showing an epic battle in the rain between him and Dante. It’s the first time players ever see Dante lose a fight, and it establishes right away that Vergil is a formidable opponent. Many demons whom Dante struggled to defeat are easily felled by Vergil. It’s intimidating (and extremely cool, but that’s neither here nor there), and it impresses upon the player that Vergil, up until the very last fight of the game, is the stronger of the two.
Vergil in DMC 3 is quiet and calculated, a complete opposite to Dante. Unless he’s taunting his brother, Vergil says only as many words as he needs to make his point. He ensures his enemies are defeated with swift, critical blows. With Vergil, there are no wasted words or extraneous actions. This shows him to be single-minded — he does what is necessary to achieve his goals and eliminates anything that might get in his way with extreme prejudice.
Searching for Sparda’s Power
As this game’s antagonist, Vergil is attempting to raise the Temen-ni-gru, a tower that serves as a portal between the human and demon worlds. By raising the tower and unsealing the portal, he hopes to retrieve the power his father Sparda used to first seal it away thousands of years earlier. To achieve this, Vergil is working with a man named Arkham who practically worships demons and revels in the destruction that will be wrought once their plan is executed. However, Vergil makes it clear that he doesn’t care about any of that at all. His sole concern is obtaining the legendary power of Sparda, and anything that may come of it is merely a consequence.
The more we see Vergil though, the more obvious it becomes that his single-mindedness has become his greatest fault. Obtaining power isn’t just a concern to him, it’s become an obsession. During that fight in the rain from the opening, Vergil questions why Dante refuses to gain more power for himself. It’s in this moment that the motivation (ha!) behind everything that Vergil does begins to emerge.
“Without strength you cannot protect anything,” he insists. “Let alone yourself.”
That last bit is the key to everything, but it will take 14 years’ worth of context to make that importance clearer.
“…I was alone. My only choice was to survive.”
Since Dante was in the house with their mother Eva when the demons attacked, she was able to hide him and save him from harm. But Vergil had been playing outside by himself and was brutally attacked. He waited for his mother to come and rescue him, but she never did. In his desperation to protect himself, the young boy both summoned the Yamato and activated his Devil Trigger – a demonic form that increases his speed, strength, and healing ability — for the very first time, completely by accident. By the time he was through fighting, tiny eight-year-old Vergil had slain every single demon that attacked him.
Finding Safety in Power
Vergil came to believe that Eva abandoned him to save Dante. But what stayed with him the most about that day was the terror he felt in the face of his own helplessness. His endless pursuit of power, his insatiable need for it, is born the moment he’s set upon by those demons and no one comes to save him. He determines that with ultimate power, he’ll be strong enough to protect himself and therefore never feel that overwhelming fear again.
But his desire to protect himself begins to distort the more he obsesses over it. It mixes with the resentment he feels towards Dante once he realizes that his brother survived the fire. Eventually, it becomes something cancerous that leads him to commit his worst crime yet.
This crime is the story told in 2019’s PlayStation 4 release Devil May Cry 5. And it is here that all the setup from Capcom finally pays off on the path to revealing one of the most finely crafted characters in the whole of the franchise. Check out Part 2 of our Devil May Cry blog series!
What are your thoughts on Vergil and Dante in the Devil May Cry franchise? Keep the conversation going with other gamers over at side.show/geekgroup, and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!
Originally published here during Fandom Rewind week for Sideshow Collectibles on August 16, 2022
This week during Fandom Rewind, we’re revisiting some favorites from the ’80s and ’90s for an extra serving of nostalgia. Whether you grew up then or you just have really good taste in pop culture, Fandom Rewind sheds new light on the movies, music, and TV of yesterday. No VCR required.
Cartoon Network launched in 1992, and for a lot of nerds, it was truly the perfect channel. All cartoons, all day? New ones and old ones, kid-friendly ones and ones you had to sneak to watch at 2 AM? Funny cartoons? Fighting cartoons? Magical girl super hero cartoons? All present and accounted for. Sometimes all in the same show.
There was something special about Toonami though. It’s hard to pin down what exactly made that three hours of action cartoons so exciting, but it was a highlight of the day for so many kids. Maybe it was the 4-7 time slot that made for peak viewing hours for the middle school crowd. Maybe it was the anime, a novelty for most of the viewers tuning into the show.
Whatever it was, Toonami was such an important part of every day and just hearing the name now can spark some pretty hard-hitting nostalgia. Here are some of the things we remember most about some of the best hours of television in modern history.
6. There Was a Whole Lotta Mech
Long before and long after 2003’s Giant Robot Week, Toonami aired a number of shows that featured mechs. Series like Transformers: Armada, Zoids, and every permutation of Gundam ever made had a spot somewhere in the cartoon block. It certainly isn’t hard to imagine why though. When the vast majority of your audience is middle school boys, enormous battle robots are a surefire way to catch and keep their attention.
5. The DCAU Thrived
Batman: The Animated Series originally aired in the early ’90s on Fox Kids, but it appeared on Toonami for a time. It was followed by shows like Batman Beyond, Superman: The Animated Series, and eventually Justice League and Justice League Unlimited. And while it’s true that Teen Titans wasn’t technically part of the DC Animated Universe or comics canon, it was so popular that subsequent comics involving members of the Teen Titans team incorporated elements like costume design and even entire characters into their canon.
4. Edited for Content
As Toonami was meant for kids, it follows that the programming aired had to be age appropriate. For shows that weren’t, there was always editing! With shows like Tenchi Muyo! and its many iterations, some creative means were employed to tone down anything too spicy for the viewing audience. But then there were shows like Outlaw Star and Neon Genesis Evangelion that were so heavily edited that, in Outlaw Star’s case, entire episodes were cut from the broadcast schedule.
Go watch a few unedited episodes of Dragon Ball. You’ll see what we mean.
3. Wh-What’s Happening Here?
That’s … that’s seven Bo’s. Feel free to count them out on your fingers if you have to, it’s okay.
Bobobo-bo Bo-bobo is a show about hair: having it, not having it, fighting with it. The main character’s signature attack is the Fist of the Nose Hair. And remember FLCL? Also a pretty wacky show (with more mechs!) to be sure, but it’s not the only variety of “Uh, what?” programming that Toonami aired. .hack//SIGN is a complex, character-driven exploration of escapism and anxiety disguised as a fantasy adventure, the intricacies of which were undoubtedly lost on the Toonami audience. But it looks super cool and really, that’s what matters in an after school indulgence.
2. Goku
If you’ve ever seen any entry in the Dragon Ball franchise, then you probably saw it on Toonami. And if you’ve ever seen Toonami, you’ve more than likely seen an episode of Dragon Ball or Dragon Ball Z or any of the other series. Even the Dragon Ball movies aired on Toonami at some point or another, and there are quite a few of those! A lot of people claim DBZ as the first anime they ever saw, and Goku is one of the most recognizable protagonists in anime.
1. The Host with the Most
Moltar from Space Ghost Coast to Coast was the inaugural host of the cartoon block, but ask anybody who the face of Toonami was and they’re most likely to name TOM. But no matter which version of Toonami Operations Module you remember – there have been six now – his voice has been the same for all but the first of them. Sure Steve Blum is Spike Spiegel and Mugen and Orochimaru, but c’mon. You can absolutely hear him telling you about all new episodes of Dragon Ball Z at midnight followed by Tenchi Muyo! at 12:30, can’t you?
You can. We know.
Toonami had an immeasurable impact on an entire generation of kids, and after 25 years, the show is still going. Despite a break from 2008-2012, TOM is still introducing audiences to the shows with the biggest mechs, the craziest fights, and yes, even more Goku.
The more things change, the more they stay the same, right? What are your favorite Toonami shows? Keep the conversation going over at side.show/geekgroup, and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!
Originally published here for Sideshow Collectibles on July 8, 2022
The first game in the God of War franchise was released in 2005 for the PlayStation 2 and has since become a flagship property for Sony. The series’ protagonist Kratos is one of the most recognizable characters in gaming. The video games themselves have had a major impact on the character action genre thanks to their fun and aggressive gameplay elements, and the latest release in 2018 was also groundbreaking in its own way. It reinvigorated the series while also reinventing it, changing ideas about what a sequel in a popular franchise could be.
The story changes are most obviously reflected in Kratos himself who is in a brand new place with a brand new look that undoubtedly threw a lot of fans for a loop. Some were surely worried that the character they knew and loved had been turned into a stranger in the effort to reboot the series (Whose voice is this? He has a son now?!). However, players learn early on that Kratos is the same man, just with new motivations. In an interesting way, the game uses one of the series’ most iconic mechanics to demonstrate how Kratos has evolved.
Kratos’ Rage
Kratos as we are first introduced to him is a man in his prime. A former Spartan captain, he is muscular and agile, powerful and quick. He is brash and explosive, as is typical of a man of his age, station, and gifts. His circumstances contribute to this brashness, however — Kratos is, more than anything else, full of rage. It’s this characteristic that defines him almost more than his ashen skin and vibrant red tattoos.
This rage is so integral to the character and the series that it’s present in nearly every game as an actual mechanic. Whether it’s called “Rage of Sparta” or something else, the core of the ability remains essentially the same: The player can trigger Kratos’ rage state which allows him to move faster, hit harder, take less damage, and sometimes even heal himself. It would be almost unthinkable to have a God of War game without this mechanic (one does exist, we’re just not going to talk about it). It seems just as impossible to imagine Kratos without this rage.
Greek Era Kratos
Young, Greek Pantheon-slaying Kratos’ rage stemmed from guilt and grief. His own pride and lust for power led to his most criminal act: the murder of his wife and daughter. Though he was tricked into committing the act, the fact that his hands did the deed never left him. He never forgave himself for it. The first game is a recap of all the favors he completed for the gods, hoping they would honor his service by freeing him from the nightmares of the murder of his family. He does the gods’ bidding to alleviate his guilt, and he does not allow anyone or anything to get in the way of achieving his goal. That rage, the explosive temper that defines Kratos, comes out with lethal effect when he doesn’t immediately get what he wants. Or when he feels wronged. Or when he’s fed up.
In truth, it doesn’t take much at all to trigger Kratos’ rage. He carves a bloody path across the whole of Greece until even the Pantheon itself is completely wiped out. All twelve Olympian gods, dead by his hand because of rage. The mechanic that reflects this, Kratos’ rage ability, is unlocked when he receives a weapon or power upgrade. The game’s systems show that Kratos’ desire to obtain more power — a desire which ultimately killed his family — is inextricably linked to the manifestation of his rage.
Norse Kratos though … his rage is a little different.
Norse Era Kratos
Curiously enough, this older and, dare I say, calmer Kratos of the latest God of War installment is not without rage. The mechanic is still part of the game, and the man himself is also still quick-tempered and volatile. But the difference lies in where the rage comes from now.
This new Kratos is not what fans were used to. He now has a young son despite the fact that fatherhood didn’t work out so well for him the last time around. Kratos is also visibly older. And bigger — he’s enormous, having traded in lean and agile for solid and bruising. There is a weariness about Kratos now and, more importantly, a wariness that hasn’t ever been part of his character.
That’s because this Kratos is afraid.
Fear Factor
Kratos is afraid of being found by others who might know of his deeds. He’s afraid of how his legacy will come to affect Atreus, his son, and he’s afraid that if the boy knows his history, he’ll despise him. Or worse, turn out just like him.
So while young Kratos’ rage was a product of guilt, Kratos’ rage now comes from a place of fear. When Atreus fires his bow too quickly during their hunting lesson and alerts their prey, Kratos snaps in a way that seems disproportionate to the error. Is he upset that his son isn’t a perfect Spartan soldier? … Maybe. More likely though, he’s afraid that the boy isn’t ready for the journey they’re about to take and the troubles he knows they’ll face along the way.
When Atreus kills Thor’s son Modi and Kratos yells in the boy’s face that there are consequences to killing a god, is he upset that his son disobeyed his orders? Sure. But he’s even more afraid that the gods will seek their revenge at Atreus’ expense. Just as much as he’s angry, he’s terrified that Atreus is becoming more like the man Kratos himself was back in Greece. He knows where that path leads, but allowing Atreus to walk it himself is just as terrifying as cautioning the boy against it.
Using Fear as a Weapon
Again, the game’s mechanics help to tell this story. When Kratos’ Spartan Rage is finally unlocked in God of War, it’s not because he gets a new weapon or upgrades his axe but because The Stranger (the game’s first real boss) threatens Atreus. He wants information from Kratos and taunts that he’ll find whoever else lives in the house with him and hurt them to get it. This is when Kratos’ rage takes over — it’s the first appearance of the series’ staple mechanic, and it shows up when Kratos fears for his son’s life.
Even other characters can tell that fear is a driving force behind Kratos’ behavior, made obvious when The Stranger explicitly asks Kratos, “Who are you afraid I’ll find?” The game underlines the idea later on when Atreus is goaded into manifesting his own rage state by Modi and passes out from the stress on his body. When Kratos, who’d been caught in a trap and unable to fight, sees his son fall, the fear of a parent’s worst nightmare coming true sets in and his rage washes over him. He breaks free of the trap, unleashes a beating on Modi, and only calms once he has Atreus in his arms and is reassured that he’s alive.
Ultimately, God of War does something truly special by designing its gameplay to underpin the story it’s trying to tell. Kratos’ rage is as much a part of his DNA as it is the franchise’s.
Will the upcoming God of War Ragnarök expand on this new face of Kratos’ identity? Will Atreus’ rage manifest itself again as he learns more about himself and his powers? We’ll have to wait until the game’s release later this year to find out, but it’ll be plenty of fun considering all the possibilities until then! Keep the conversation going over at side.show/geekgroup, and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!
The Staying Power of Superman’s Story — Why He’s Steel Here
Originally published here for Sideshow Collectibles on June 12, 2022
Why are we still telling Superman stories? It’s interesting to consider what his creators Joe Shuster and Jerry Siegel might think if they knew their character from another planet would still be capturing people’s minds and hearts nearly 90 years later. Every creative person certainly hopes their work will have an effect on people and leave some sort of a mark on the world.
But 87 years is such a long time, and Superman’s story is still being told. He’s still connecting with people. If Mr. Shuster and Mr. Siegel could be asked why they think that is, they’d surely have something special to say. Here’s what I have to say about the Man of Steel and his staying power throughout the DC universe.
Power Beyond Limits
Superman holds so much appeal for many reasons. The obvious wish fulfillment aspect cannot be ignored. Superman is a power fantasy: He’s tall, strong, and handsome with cool abilities and seemingly unlimited power. He has no limits and thus no boundaries — should he choose to do so, Superman could go anywhere and do anything, knowing all the while that no one could ever hope to stop him. After all, there is hardly anyone on Earth who can beat him in a fight.
He could have become a cautionary tale of sorts. Superman has everything he needs to impose his will on the whole of humanity, and omnipotence is incredibly tempting. Everyone likes to think they’d do good things when they imagine having unlimited power and no fear of punishment. However, there are times when doing whatever you want, even in the name of the greater good, ends up being the worst thing to do. Yet, Superman would never do that … right?
A God Among Us
Wrong. NetherRealm Studios’ Injustice series explores this very idea to great effect. The games depict a universe where Superman has had enough of the violence and horror that The Joker and others like him inflict on the innocent, so he decides to take control. Of everything.
He makes himself a dictator of the entire planet and does so with impunity, rounding up common criminals and super-villains alike and locking them up, even executing them in the name of establishing a new, kinder world order. He decrees that anyone who tries to stop him is working against him and, therefore, against the greater good and must be put down. It’s a dark but realistic take on what would happen if someone who cannot be stopped decided to do whatever they wanted without regard for consequences.
Holding Back
This is an alternate universe though. And it’s fascinating to be sure, but it’s easy to tell that story. After all, it’s natural to assume that someone who could do anything at all would. It’s more difficult and much more interesting to tell a story about someone who has all the power in the world and chooses to rein it in, even when letting loose could mean changing the world for the better.
This is what makes Superman so interesting and so memorable. What is the character of a person who chooses restraint over might in a world like the one that he lives in? Is he right to refuse to do something about the world’s ills even when he knows he has the power to do so? Or is it actually the right decision not to do whatever he wants just because he’s able to?
Considering those questions, the stories told in order to answer them must have something more than just big, epic battles to drive them — remember, every fight is a guaranteed win for the hero. Luckily, by nature of the character that Siegel and Shuster created all those years ago, Superman’s stories do. Though he is an alien, Superman’s stories are, at their heart, about the experience of being human.
Not-So-Hidden Humanity
It is Superman’s humanity that has cemented him as one of the most timeless characters in fiction. He can do incredible things, but when left to his own devices, he is simply Clark Kent, a smalltown boy living in a big city who wants to fit in with everyone around him and do the right thing. That’s painfully relatable and one of the most human things of all.
Who hasn’t ever felt different and seen it as a weakness or something to hide? Who hasn’t struggled to choose what’s right in the face of a difficult decision?
In an ironic twist, this very human feeling is described in the story of a man who is as not-human as it gets. Superman’s — or rather, Clark’s — otherness and his feelings about it serve to humanize him and make him easy to relate to despite his origins.
Caught Between Two Worlds
This idea carries through in the character’s dual identities as well. It’s not the hero who flies around in tights and a cape that is the character’s alter ego. Clark Kent is the alter ego. Interestingly, Superman flips the super hero trope on its head while, at the same time, established many aspects of it as well. What this means for the character, then, is that “Clark Kent,” the disguise, represents what Kal-El the person feels will keep him from standing out. What will make him most like the rest of humanity.
Clark is a little awkward and bumbling. He occasionally hides or runs away from conflicts. He’s sometimes a little too earnest. But more than anything, Clark Kent is kind. He is respectful. He loves and respects his mom. He’s a journalist who uses his voice to expose wrongdoing and uplift those with no voices of their own.
Clark Kent is a reflection of us, and Clark Kent is good.
We tell stories for a lot of reasons, but among the most important of those is to instill hope. Some of the most impactful stories teach us that the darkest and most trying times can be overcome as long as we have hope. Superman is strong, powerful, and near impossible to kill, and he saves us without reservation. Believes that we’re worthy of it.
And he’s human in the ways that really count.
So perhaps we still tell stories about Superman decades after his creation because his is ultimately a story about hope. Hope that we don’t need a god from outer space to come down and save us.
Because we can save ourselves.
What does Superman’s legacy mean to you? Join the conversation with other DC fans over at Sideshow Social Network or in side.show/geekgroup, and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!
Fruits Basket: Differences Between the 2001 and 2019 Version
Originally published here (and now with an audio version for your listening pleasure!) for Sideshow Collectibles on April 15, 2022
Fruits Basket began its life, as many anime do, as a manga series. It tells the story of a young girl named Tohru Honda who befriends two young members of the Sohma family. Some members of this family also transform into animals from the Chinese Zodiac when they’re hugged by members of the opposite sex. The series was first adapted into an anime in 2001, but 18 years later it got a reboot.
In 2019, Fruits Basket was rebooted into an anime that, in the US at least, brought back the majority of the original voice cast to bring the new content to life. A lot changes in 18 years, and it can be hard to recapture the magic when trying to remake or reimagine older works. Here we explore how two adaptations of the same story can end up being very, very different.
5. Fruits Basket Length
Let’s get the obvious stuff out of the way, yes?
The first iteration of the anime was much shorter than its revamped counterpart. While Fruits Basket (2001) only has a single season, Fruits Basket (2019) has three. This makes sense though, as the earlier series is adapted from early volumes of a manga that was still in progress when the show was produced. The new show has the entirety of the manga’s story to draw from, taking the show from 26 episodes to 63. This allows for an expansion and deeper exploration of the show’s plot, themes, and characters. Those extra 38 episodes are what give rise to the other differences in this list so even though it’s a simple difference, it’s a major one.
4. Tone and Themes
This show is so cute. It’s sweet and funny and absolutely adorable, and nothing about that changes between versions. The 2019 version, however, gets much darker than the 2001 series ever did. The original certainly has its share of sad, somber moments. After all, the show does start with a high school girl living alone in a tent in the woods because her mother has died. Yet the first version doesn’t wallow in any of that sadness, likely due to only having one season. With room to breathe and stretch, the 2019 show doubles down on the original’s most heartbreaking moments and then adds several more for good measure.
In the first series, for example, Kyo’s sensei and foster father Kazuma tells Tohru that his grandfather was the bearer of the curse of the Cat before Kyo. He was also locked away in an isolated pagoda on the Sohma estate until the day he died. It’s sad to be sure, especially since Kazuma regrets how cruel he was on the one occasion he met his grandfather. But in the second series, it’s revealed that Kyo has until he graduates high school before Akito locks him away in that same pagoda for the rest of his life.
A Darker Tone in 2019 Fruits Basket
Suddenly, things are much more dire. Kazuma’s grandfather is an old man who has long been dead by the time we’re told about him. Kyo is a kid, one we’ve spent the entirety of the series getting to know and love. The idea that he’s shunned from the rest of the family for something beyond his control is horrible. The knowledge that he is desperately hoarding moments and memories with Tohru before he’s locked away in total isolation for the rest of his life is even more horrifying.
Even though the 2019 series is still colorful and silly in its second and third seasons, there’s an undercurrent of anxiety. In each of the later episodes, viewers are waiting to see if this is the one where Kyo finally beats Yuki and wins his freedom. Is this when Isuzu finally finds the key to breaking the curse and saving her beloved Hatsuharu and the rest of the Sohmas? We feel the mounting anxiety, despair, and fear as each episode passes and there doesn’t seem to be an answer in sight. Probably just like Kyo as each day passes and he comes closer and closer to losing his freedom.
3. Characters and Character Development
It sounds obvious to say that a show with more episodes would consequently have more character development. But that isn’t necessarily a given. There are plenty of instances of shows, movie series, and even video game franchises that have an overabundance of entries yet not as much substance to match. This isn’t the case at all with the newest version of Fruits Basket; the show’s darker, sadder tone is made evident through how it develops its characters.
Some incredibly important new members of the Sohma family are introduced to viewers of the show. At the same time, many characters from the original are given much more depth and backstory (like Kyo). Fruits Basket (2019) gives Tohru, Yuki, and Kyo so much more history, nuance, and growth — which makes sense as they are the show’s protagonists — but characters like Ayame, Hatsuharu, and Momiji are turned into real people. They’re no longer just the fictional-tropes-as-characters they were throughout the 2001 iteration.
We learn that Tohru’s cheer and optimism, even her speech pattern, are imitations of her father. She mimics her father because she fears that she’ll lose her mother Kyoko to heartbreak after his death. Additionally, we find out that Yuki’s parents aren’t just disinterested in him. Instead, they sold him to Akito to obtain their own wealth and status among the Sohma family. His Zodiac animal, the Rat, is the closest to God (and thus the most important), so they abandon him to Akito’s obsession and abuse.
See? Character development, but make it heartbreaking.
2. Akito
The discussion about characters and character development has already been had, yes. But still — we need to talk about Akito.
And not just because the second series reveals that she is a woman and not a man as viewers and even most members of the Sohma family originally thought. That Akito is female is a huge change between the shows, yes, but it’s not why she has her own section. What makes the new series’ Akito different from the first one is why no one knows she’s a woman and how that affects every member of the Sohma family.
In Fruits Basket (2001), Akito is the head of the family. Despite being rather sickly and frail, and largely off-screen, Akito is a powerful figure in the show. The main and secondary characters have all suffered at Akito’s hands. But that’s all Akito is: the clear and indisputable antagonist. The 2019 series, however, has the time to flesh out Akito’s backstory, and boy, is it a doozy.
Akito’s Tragic Past
Akito’s father Akira was head of the Sohma family before her. Like his daughter, he was very frail. One of the maids responsible for his care was a woman named Ren who, he thought, understood how lonely he was. He fell in love with her and married her extremely quickly, despite the disapproval of his attendants. It’s hard to tell whether Ren’s love for Akira was completely genuine. Sometimes it seems as though she only wanted to be close to him because he was the head of the family. But one thing that’s certain is her love became obsessive.
When she gave birth to Akito and realized she was a girl, Ren insisted that Akito be raised as a boy. This way, Ren would remain the only woman in Akira’s life. She saw her own daughter as competition for Akira’s attention and affection. It made her jealous, spiteful, and cruel. Akira, in an attempt to make up for Ren’s contempt and abuse, doted on Akito. He told her that she was special, being the newest incarnation of the God of the Zodiac curse and thus the most important member of the family, and that she was born to be loved. He told her that the other members of the Zodiac had been waiting for her arrival and that they would stay by her side forever. Akito clearly clung to those words, especially after Akira died, and it becomes obvious fairly quickly that Akira’s constant praise did her a disservice that had resounding consequences.
Akito Grows Into a Monster
Akito takes Akira’s words to heart, but too much so. She uses them as an absolute truth to combats her mother’s constant harassment that Akito’s bonds with the Zodiac members are unnatural and aren’t really love. Over time, she turns these bonds into something toxic that stifles the rest of the Sohmas. She begins to believe that the members of the Zodiac belong to her and that she’s entitled to their love, their loyalty, and their obedience. She even says in an argument with Shigure that she can do whatever she wants with the Zodiac members because they’re hers. After all, like Akira always told her, she’s special and they have to love her. It’s why she was born.
Suddenly, Akito isn’t simply an evil egomaniac like in the first series. Instead, she is as much a victim as any of the other characters, but in a twist of irony, she becomes exactly like her mother. She continues the cycle of abuse by weaponizing her trauma, terrorizing the rest of the Sohmas out of fear that her mother may be right and none of them actually love her. She throws tantrums and lashes out when Zodiac members fall in love or find someone who might endanger her importance. By berating them and beating them down, she ensures that none of them feels worthy of anything better. Then, because it’s all she knows thanks to Akira, she insists that she loves them despite how she treats them. Akito’s story is tragic, and we only really see the full scope of it and how it shapes the entire plot of the show in the second series.
1. Shigure
Anyone who watched the first series was probably pulling their hair out during the second one trying to figure out what the hell is going on with Shigure?!
Shigure is a writer of novels of both the reputable and the spicy varieties, and he’s the bearer of the curse of the Dog. It’s his house that Tohru stumbles upon on her way to school in the first episode of both series. This is also where she, Yuki, and Kyo all live. In Fruits Basket (2001), Shigure is silly and playful, capable of being serious on occasion but mostly a bit irreverent and irresponsible. He has genuine affection for his younger cousins — the ones who live with him and the ones who don’t — but he’s never averse to teasing them when he’s not pranking his poor editor Mitsuru.
Maya Angelou once said “When someone shows you who they are, believe them.” Shigure says early on in the second series that he’s “the worst kind of man.” What person fighting insecurity and self doubt hasn’t thought that about themselves, though? In a show full of characters with deep trauma and nonexistent self esteem, it initially seems like Shigure is just another innocent but traumatized man giving in to his own intrusive thoughts.
That’s not the case at all. Shigure admits he’s awful because he is truly awful. We should’ve believed him.
Shigure: The Worst Kind of Man
In the second series, Shigure is revealed to be petty, spiteful, and conniving, all in the name of getting what he wants most in the world: Akito. He’s in love with her, not because his curse as a member of the Zodiac demands that he love his God, but because he genuinely loves her. He’s much like a child who doesn’t want to share their favorite toy. He wants Akito all to himself and can’t stand the thought of her being anything other than his. His only goal is to be with her, which he knows isn’t possible due to the Zodiac curse.
See, Shigure believes that the Zodiac curse will break on its own, but nature doesn’t move fast enough for him. He wants it broken as soon as possible, and he’s willing to do anything and everything to make that happen. It becomes clear that Shigure has been playing a very manipulative, very problematic game of chess with his family members from the very start. He asks Akito to let Tohru stay at his house because he knows that she’ll be a catalyst for all sorts of teenage shenanigans between Yuki and Kyo.
When Momiji invites Tohru and the cursed Sohmas to a family vacation house for a special getaway, Shigure visits Akito and suggests that she show up as well. He knows that her arrival will cause a great deal of anxiety and emotional upheaval among his younger cousins. Despite being in love with her, Shigure is also cruel to Akito. Her mother Ren tells him that Akito has been sleeping with Kureno, another member of the Zodiac, so he sleeps with Ren to get back at her. This particular coldness towards Akito is as much a part of his plan to break the curse as it is him indulging in his own petty jealousy. He pushes each member of the Zodiac to their breaking point so that he might trigger the breaking of the curse. Just because he’s in love with Akito doesn’t mean he won’t hurt her if the end result is that he gets to have her.
Without Remorse or Regret
It’s made all the worse by the fact that Shigure is completely aware that he’s terrible. Hatori confronts him with that observation, that he knows he’s horrible but has made no effort to change. Shigure doesn’t even object or apologize. He’s more concerned with freeing Akito from their forced bonds than helping himself or any of the other Sohmas. All that matters is he’ll finally be able to have her once the curse is broken and she’s no longer burdened with the role of God.
Putting all his wrongdoings down on paper makes it clear that Shigure is not as good-natured as the first series made him out to be. But in the magical way this show has of making the worst people seem redeemable, Shigure and Akito manage to become characters that you sympathize with and even root for by the series finale. Shigure was in love and heartbroken, after all, and was acting out of pain and selfishness. Akito was a victim of childhood abuse who didn’t know any better than to inflict that same trauma on the family she claimed to love. None of this excuses either of them, certainly, but in the world of cute shoujo anime – or at least this shoujo anime – knowing how they’ve both suffered is enough to make viewers happy that they are finally able to be together in a healthy way in the end.
Perhaps that’s why this anime sneaks up on people the way it does – the bright colors, cute animation, and silly comedy leave you vulnerable to the gut punch that is the real story of all these characters. The best media does that though, providing us with a whole bevy of topics to consider and emotions to feel. Now with a prequel movie on the way telling the story of Tohru’s mom and dad, fans of Fruits Basket, no matter which version, have a new story to look forward to.
Or maybe not. The feels were way, way too real the first two times around. Do you prefer the Fruits Basket of 2001 or 2019? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!
Top 5 Most Interesting Curses Used on Jujutsu Kaisen
Originally published here for Sideshow Collectibles on March 14, 2022
The first season of Jujutsu Kaisen has had anime fans enthralled since its release in October 2020. While the hunger for season 2 of the dark fantasy title builds, a tiny snack to satisfy our appetites is on its way in the form of Jujutsu Kaisen 0. The prequel film releases in the US and Canada on March 18 and will tell a story that is brand new to fans of the anime and the manga alike.
The show tells the story of a young boy named Yuji Itadori who is thrust into the world of sentient curses and the jujutsu sorcerers who exorcise them. Depictions of these battles between curses and sorcerers have introduced the audience to cursed techniques, methods by which cursed energy is harnessed and used in battle. While not necessarily the most powerful, the following list presents some of Jujutsu Kaisen’s more interesting techniques.
5. Boogie Woogie – Todo Aoi
If for no other reason than its fantastic name, Todo’s Boogie Woogie stands out from an already impressive list of cursed techniques in the show. Todo is able to instantaneously swap the positions of any two objects or people given they have enough cursed energy. While it’s not quite teleportation, Boogie Woogie still gives Todo incredible mobility in a fight and, as Fushiguro notes in their fight in episode 8, Todo is already extremely fast. Add to that the fact that he’s as powerful as his body suggests and much smarter than his personality would lead some to believe, and it’s undeniable that Boogie Woogie is an innate technique that helps make Todo a formidable opponent.
Even the technique’s greatest potential weakness — that he has to clap in order to perform it, thus letting on that a switch may be coming — becomes a brilliant disruptive maneuver thanks to Todo’s battle acumen. As seen in his fight with Yuji against the cursed spirit Hanami, Todo mixes his opponents by throwing in random, useless claps with the ones he actually needs to activate his technique. Anyone who tries to adjust their own technique to account for Boogie Woogie is thrown for a loop, unable to tell whether he’s preparing to make a switch or simply feigning, allowing Todo to stay unpredictable and completely wreck his enemies.
On a side note, it’s often said that fights are like dances with their own sort of rhythm. With the clapping and a name like Boogie Woogie … Todo is absolutely going to break out in a little dance routine in the middle of a battle one day and really throw someone off. It’s totally coming.
4. Cursed Speech – Inumaki Toge
Every writer knows that words have power, but Inumaki takes the adage and makes it frighteningly literal. Cursed Speech is an innate technique that amplifies the inherent power of words and imbues them with cursed energy. At its most simplistic, Inumaki’s technique allows him to compel his target to do or endure whatever he says.
He calls Miwa over the phone and tells her to go to sleep, and she drops like a fly. He tells a fully charging Todo to stop moving, and Todo just … does it. Because he has to. That is far, far too much power for any single person to possess.
To be fair, there are risks and limitations to Cursed Speech. Anyone who is aware of the technique can learn how to nullify it as Kamo notes, and Panda explains to Itadori that using Cursed Speech is as dangerous for Inumaki as it is for anyone within hearing range of him. Overusing the technique can drain him and cause him to cough up blood, as seen in his fight against Hanami. He also risks creating a sort of feedback loop if his speech is too powerful. Theoretically he could tell someone to drop dead … but he would probably drop dead too.
To keep himself and everyone around him safe, Inumaki keeps his mouth covered and limits his speech to nice, neutral words like rice ball ingredients that can only ever inflict sudden hunger on anyone who hears him. His limited vocabulary makes communicating with him difficult to be sure, but he is clearly willing to put up with the inconvenience to avoid unwittingly hurting himself and others.
3. Idle Transfiguration – Mahito
Mahito is extremely cool. Mahito is also extremely terrifying.
Anime viewers don’t know much about Idle Transfiguration aside from the fact that it makes Mahito seemingly invincible. The technique allows him to touch and change the shapes of souls, his own included, transfiguring the bodies of those whose souls he touches as a result. This is what allows him to morph parts of his body into just about anything he can imagine and heal his own injuries. As he explains to Nanami during their fight, the shape of one’s soul determines the shape of one’s body so he’s not truly healing himself despite how it looks. He is simply maintaining his soul’s original shape, and this restores the shape of the body around it.
Normal people die once the shape of their souls is distorted, and Mahito has no qualms about stockpiling (his words, not ours) human victims to aid him in his exploration of and experimentation with his technique. Scarier still, even those who manage to protect their souls with cursed energy eventually succumb to Mahito’s touch, and ultimately death, if he succeeds in using the technique against them enough. Mahito has the speed, strength, and intelligence to infiltrate any opponents’ defenses and develop techniques on the fly, and this technique in combination with all of those things makes him more dangerous than any of the show’s antagonists thus far.
2. Infinite Void – Gojo Satoru
Unfortunately, we couldn’t headline this section “Literally Everything That Gojo Ever Does” but that’s really what we meant. Gojo is one of the show’s most popular characters, and in-universe, its most powerful jujutsu sorcerer. The nature and scope of his techniques make that fact very obvious. Infinite Void is just one of the abilities that Gojo has, but it’s easily one of his most fascinating. It is his Domain Expansion — a physical space manifested from the user’s own innate domain and imbued with a cursed technique — that is literally what it says on the tin.
Or so it appears.
The space created by the Domain Expansion is, in fact, infinite, but it is certainly not a void. Those trapped within Infinite Void are instead met with everything: every sound, taste, touch, smell, and thought, every stimulus imaginable comes at his victims all at once, overwhelming their minds and rendering their bodies immovable. When faced with all things, as Gojo himself puts it, “All you can do is die peacefully.”
Even a curse as powerful as Jogo is left helpless against the barrage of Infinite Void, and it’s only Gojo’s dissolution of the Domain Expansion that saves his life. It’s a philosophical conundrum turned into a powerful combat technique, and that easily makes it one of the most interesting cursed techniques in the show so far.
1. Ten Shadows – Fushiguro Megumi
Now why would shikigami be ahead of literal infinity? How does Fushiguro earn a spot above Gojo, the strongest of all jujutsu sorcerers? Easy.
Doggos. Fushiguro can create doggos. Two of them. Obviously, this means he wins everything.
The Ten Shadows technique allows Fushiguro to summon up to 10 shikigami, and despite the fact that he has summoned Nue, Toad, and even the Great Serpent, clearly the greatest of all of them are his demon dogs. What makes the technique even more interesting is the fact that it garners Fushiguro so much attention from people who are so much more powerful than he is. Sukuna takes immediate notice of him when he witnesses how Fushiguro fights as a close combat Ten Shadows user and says he’ll be keeping an eye on him.
When he improvises his Chimera Shadow Garden Domain Expansion and takes out the special grade curse in “The Origin of Obedience, Part 2,” Sukuna, still tucked away in Itadori’s mind, approves almost proudly. Gojo tells Fushiguro that he has the ability and potential to be as great as Itadori, that he needs to be greedier in his training and his desires for himself in order to push past his own boundaries. It seems as though Fushiguro’s innate gifts, in addition to his ability to use the Ten Shadows technique, make him someone to pay attention to. This potential is what truly makes the technique interesting (in addition to the doggos, obviously).
We’ve already seen Fushiguro push the limits of the technique, using it to store weapons and developing his Domain Expansion mid-battle, so the idea that there is so much that Fushiguro has yet to discover makes us eager to see what’s in store. Maybe there will be even more dogs.
There are so many other curses in season 1 of Jujutsu Kaisen alone; who knows what else we’ll see in Jujutsu Kaisen 0 and in season 2 once it finally arrives! Anticipation might drive more than a few fans to pick up the manga to get some sneak peeks into the future of the show, but for now, we’ll continue re-watching and dissecting the first season to get our fix.
Which Jujutsu Kaisen curse would you most like to use? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!
Miles Morales Video Game Review — Celebrating Culture
Originally published here for Sideshow Collectibles on February 21, 2022
As a video game, Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales is astounding — its story, visuals, soundtrack, and gameplay mechanics all make for a ridiculously fun experience for anyone. What makes the game unforgettable, however, isn’t how smooth Miles’ web-slinging through Harlem feels or how dynamic and satisfying the not-new-but-certainly-improved combat system is. It isn’t the fact that the narrative is engaging and tells a complete story despite being only eight hours long.
It’s the representation. It’s the culture.
The developers at Insomniac Games wanted to do right by Miles; they clearly love him. In striving to tell the best, most authentic story for the character, they truly created a celebration of culture and diversity that is worth far more than just a great gameplay experience.
Feeling the Beat
One of the ways any culture expresses itself is through music, and this game does a fantastic job of using the medium to tell who Miles Morales is. The orchestral score is still very much a Marvel’s Spider-Man score — there are motifs that come straight from the 2018 game that act as a signature, letting you know exactly what game you’re playing. But this score leans into Miles’s Black American heritage by adding hip hop beats into the orchestration, especially during battles and important character moments.
This also aligns beautifully with who Miles is as a person. Music is important to Miles — he has a mural of a DJ painted on his bedroom wall and his own bedside setup for making beats. He hears salsa music on the street one night during a rally, and his first thought is that he wants to put it over a hip hop beat. The score reflects this exact concept, as it combines hip hop with a very different genre of music yet does so in a way that complements both elements to make something unique.
The in-game music, like the salsa that Miles hears at the rally, also celebrates Miles’ Black and Puerto Rican roots. We can hear rapper Lecrae coming from Miles’ headphones when the game starts. When Rio asks Miles to pick out a record from his dad’s collection to play during their Christmas dinner, the selection of albums includes Art Blakey, a jazz pioneer, Otis Redding, an icon of soul music, and Héctor Lavoe and Willie Colón, two influential artists who helped popularize salsa in America. Then Solomon Burke, a singer that helped shape what we call R&B today, plays over the scene of Miles eating a lovely meal with his mom and his two best friends.
Sidequest with Soul
The music in these moments is tailored to represent Miles and his family, and the entire experience feels more authentic for the careful attention to detail shown by the developers. Even the story itself leans into Miles’ love of Black music. One of the game’s sidequests is a musical scavenger hunt initiated by his uncle. Aaron instructs Miles to look for old sound samples that he left all over Manhattan and identify what sounds of the city he and Jefferson, Miles’ dad, used to create them. Upon finishing the sidequest, Miles discovers Aaron’s hideout. Behind a frequency lock (the key to which is the song Miles just created), a new suit awaits.
The mission serves a story purpose, as collecting the samples and unlocking the suit also leads to Aaron revealing why he was forbidden from seeing Miles by his brother. But it’s also another way that the design of the game is purposefully crafted to represent and honor Miles. After all, these are not the sort of collectibles that would’ve made sense for Peter to look for, yet Miles’ culture and his love of music make them perfect for him.
Speaking His Language
The use of language in Miles Morales is yet another way that the developers at Insomniac lean into Miles’ cultural heritage. His mom Rio is Puerto Rican. Her mother has moved back to Puerto Rico, which is how she and Miles find themselves living in her apartment in Harlem. Whenever we hear her, Rio is just as likely to be speaking in Spanish as in English, and Miles responds to her using both languages just as often. A mover on the street thanks Miles in Spanish when he stops to help lift a couch, and again, Miles naturally replies in Spanish because it’s familiar to him. As a bilingual kid, he’s clearly comfortable switching between the two languages with Rio and anyone else he meets.
Miles uses a lot of AAVE throughout the game as well. When he checks himself out in the bathroom mirror after changing into his Christmas dinner outfit, he tells himself he looks fresh as he brushes down the waves in his har. He meets up with his former best friend Phin and as they reminisce, he brags that their award-winning science fair project from middle school was fire. Whenever Miles talks to Aaron, he calls him “Unc.” Then he can just as quickly and easily have a conversation about voltage analysis and clean energy conversion.
Miles is surrounded by different languages so he’s learned to speak them all, as anybody does who finds themselves immersed in more than one world. Miles even knows ASL! He meets a deaf street artist who ends up being a useful contact in one of the late game missions, and whether he’s Miles or Spider-Man, he always uses sign language to communicate with her.
Nothing ever feels ham-fisted or unnatural though; it never seems like inclusion for inclusion’s sake. The Insomniac team obviously went out of their way to learn as much as they could so that putting what they learned into practice worked seamlessly within the game.
Authenticity in Style
The care and attention put into Miles himself is a celebration of culture: the devs went to extraordinary lengths to make Miles look, dress, talk, and even move like a typical Afro-Latino kid would in the real world. The first time we see Miles, he has on a pair of Timbs, a puffy coat with fur lining the hood, and some Beats-like headphones hanging around his neck. He wears classic sneakers (Adidas, not Jordans, but that’s a whole different discussion), and his hair is freshly lined like he just stepped out of the barbershop. Insomniac even paid attention to the texture of his hair — the pattern of his curls is defined and often visible when he’s out of his mask.
He walks with a bit of swag in his step that, by the end of the game, he has fully embraced (especially when approaching Hailey, the cute street artist, but that’s beside the point). When he greets his neighbors, he reaches out to give dap. He’s real and authentic, thanks to the time and effort put in by Insomniac’s development team and, of course, Nadji Jeter who does his voice and motion capture. There isn’t a single element of Miles that gets overlooked in this game, and that consideration adds so much character and genuineness to the game.
The game’s tagline is “Be Yourself,” and it’s a theme that is written into the story. Miles Morales has to learn how to be his own version of Spider-Man. It’s when he stops trying to imitate Peter and starts to embrace himself that he flourishes. He designs his iconic black suit and finally becomes the Spider-Man that the residents of Harlem are proud to claim as theirs.
And like Peter does in their reunion at the end of the game, Insomniac celebrates Miles’ individuality by telling his story authentically. That celebration and respect is obvious in all the details from his hair down to his shoes, and it’s what makes this game something you feel and not just something you play.
Which part of Marvel’s Spider-Man: Miles Morales speaks to you the most? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!
Originally published here for SIdeshow Collectibles on February 10, 2022
In November of 2021, DC Comics released the hardcover collection of The Other History of the DC Universe. The book is written by Oscar-winning writer John Ridley (12 Years A Slave), with art by Giuseppe Camuncoli and Andrea Cucchi, colors by José Villarubia, and letters by Steve Wands.
In five volumes, the book explores some of DC’s most iconic moments: the formation of the Justice League, the death of Superman, Batman forming the Outsiders, and even Gotham’s No Man’s Land arc. The twist, and the beauty, is that these events are shown through the eyes of some of the company’s lesser-known characters from underrepresented backgrounds, such as Black Lightning, Katana, and Renee Montoya.
Narrative Structure
The hardback collects all five volumes of Ridley’s run. Each volume tells the story of a different hero during a different period in American history. Volume 1 covers 1972-1995 from the point of view of Jefferson Pierce, AKA Black Lightning. Next, Volume 2 is from the perspective of Karen Beecher-Duncan and her husband Mal Duncan, both of whom are former Teen Titans. They explore their lives from 1970-1989.
Volume 3 is a departure from the rest of the volumes as it marks the first and only time that the narrator isn’t American. Tatsu Yamashiro, or Katana of the Outsiders, describes life in America during the ’80s, a time when anti-Asian sentiment was high. Volume 4 is yet another departure — Renee Montoya is the series’ first gay narrator, and her story covers the late ’90s and early 2000s. In her journey, Renee faces the consequences of assimilating for success, while in the process having to contend with her queer Latinx identity.
Finally, the last volume, centered on Dr. Anissa Pierce, AKA Thunder, furthers the conversations happening around the Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell policy, the fight for gay marriage rights, and the election of President Obama. Volume 5 brings the story full circle, as Thunder is also Jefferson Pierce’s eldest daughter. She describes her life as a gay Black woman in the years spanning 1981-2010.
Art Styles to Reflect the Heroes
The book itself is as beautiful to look at as it is easy to read. The art tells the story as much as the words do — a must for a work in this medium, obviously — but it does so in more ways than just the actual imagery. The art style in the beginning of the book looks very 1970s; the colors are vibrant and bright, and the illustrations look old school. When we get to Renee Montoya’s story in Volume 4, the colors lose their vibrancy. They’re muted (much like Renee), as if the grime of Gotham City reached through the pages to tarnish them the same way it tarnishes its residents.
The shapes in the art sometimes help tell the story too. Boxes of text molded to spirals in the illustration guide your eye in the right direction despite the fact that things are going the wrong way. It’s clever at times, but never disorienting or detracting from the words themselves. The art and the words complement each other well. There are less than a handful of places where there’s any uncertainty about which narration is the correct one to read next.
Tough Transitions
It’s not a perfect book though. There is enough overlap in most of the volumes that the collection feels like a whole; finishing all five books feels like finishing a complete story. But the individual volumes often seem disjointed. Rather than feeling like each volume of the collection tells its own story, it sometimes seems like each page of the volume tells a story and you’ll read a new, possibly related one on the next page.
The first volume from Jefferson Pierce’s perspective reads this way in its entirety. By the end, though, the issue eventually resolves, as if Ridley struggles to find his stride at first and then slowly figures things out. Interestingly, the problem becomes evident once again in the final book about Dr. Anissa Pierce, Jefferson’s daughter. Perhaps in trying to tie Jeff’s story to his daughter’s, Ridley fell back on the same style of storytelling that he employed in the first volume to what is, unfortunately, the detriment of both.
In both volumes, Jeff or Anissa will relay a story and, at the turn of a page, move on to a completely new one with no indication of how it relates at all to the one preceding it. Rarely do any of them come up again for any sort of context or closure. The lack of transition is jarring and pulls you out of the narrative, though this doesn’t happen in Volumes 2-4. Perhaps, then, the rapid cuts are deliberate choices for the Pierces, made by a writer who has spent much of the last few years creating for film and television where the sudden shifts in perspective aren’t quite as disorienting.
Real Historical Context
What makes the book interesting is that Ridley uses real historical events as context for each character’s story. This grounds the entire narrative and makes it feel even more real, helping to contextualize the choices of these characters. With historical background, readers understand why they describe their experiences of teaming up with their better known super hero coworkers the way that they do.
Jefferson Pierce describes the creation of the Justice League within the historical context of the Watergate scandal and America’s retreat from the Vietnam War. It’s no wonder, then, that he sees the group of all white, mostly male superheroes as propaganda, a distraction from how the country’s reputation is suffering worldwide.
America in the ’80s was mired in anti-Asian sentiment as an irrational fear response to the rising domination of Japanese culture and economy throughout the world. Thus, it makes sense that Tatsu feels othered by Batman’s decision to name his newly formed super hero group – a group featuring minorities, immigrants, and a “genetic freak” – Batman and the Outsiders.
In the early ’90s, Black tennis champion Arthur Ashe contracted AIDS – still known as “the gay disease” – from a blood transfusion. Where nearly twenty years before he’d been a cultural icon, his dying days saw him defending himself against rumors and suggestive questions about how he caught the disease. Renee Montoya, a woman who is actually gay, sees the vitriol with which this former hero is met and decides it’s safer to bury herself even deeper in the closet. She’s outed by Two-Face in 2004 as a means of turning everyone in her life against her at a time when the President of the United States was running for re-election on the promise of amending the Constitution to ban gay marriage.
It should be mentioned that Ridley doesn’t demonize any of the more well-known characters – the point isn’t to make DC’s major heroes The Bad Guy™ but instead to provide some new perspective. He simply takes iconic DC characters off their pedestals and asks readers to look at them more closely, from a new angle.
The Power of Perspectives
Volume 2 is interesting because it is the only time in the run that Ridley uses two characters, Bumblebee and Mal, to tell one story. The married couple covers American history from 1970 to 1989 as it relates to their history — with each other and with the Teen Titans. The dual, and sometimes opposing, perspectives in regard to the same events demonstrate something that the collection as a whole does quite well. It shows that minority groups are not monoliths. Karen and Mal sometimes view the same event in completely different ways, despite both being Black.
In the same respect, Jefferson and Mal are both Black men who had similar experiences growing up, yet they’re dramatically different characters. Jefferson is hard and aggressive and proud of it, while Mal is much more reserved. By the end of the book, Jefferson is even a bit unlikable. What’s important about this is the acknowledgement that that is okay. Katana, for example, is a good character with a gripping story but maybe not the best person considering her cavalier attitude towards taking lives.
Likewise, Renee Montoya struggles to reconcile her family, her religion, and her sexuality, but she’s also a drunk and an adulterer. She’s a fantastic, rounded character but, in her own words at the beginning of Volume 4, not a good person. This is exactly what proper representation is though, and it’s why The Other History is so interesting and so important. The characters are human; they are allowed to have flaws and shortcomings without becoming stereotypes or tropes.
For people who see themselves represented in the six narrators, The Other History of the DC Universe feels validating. For everyone else, the value of the chance to see our world and DC’s through several new pairs of eyes cannot be overstated.
John Ridley provides an alternate DC history that feels just as gripping and important as the one that everyone already knows, and for that, even despite its flaws, the collection is well worth the time and the money spent on it.
Why Kingdom Hearts Is Not a Video Game for Kids, Pt. II
Originally posted here for Sideshow Collectibles on January 18, 2022
The Kingdom Hearts series is known for its convoluted plot and its rampant memeability, but its themes are a big part of what turns casual players into true fans. For such a seemingly lighthearted video game franchise, Kingdom Hearts deals with tricky and sometimes uncomfortable subjects that a young audience would have a hard time connecting with. The loss of innocence is one such theme, and it’s present through much of the early arc of the series. In addition, the games confront identity and the fight to establish or reclaim it. This makes sense – we change as people when we lose the most innocent parts of ourselves, so it’s only natural to want to know who we are and who we’ll become without those parts.
Identity as a concept is, like the loss of innocence, something we all face, but the struggle for it, the corruption of it, even the right to it, are extremely complex. Even adults have difficulty grappling with these ideas. The childlike appeal of the series almost becomes a spoonful of sugar – Kingdom Hearts uses its bright and colorful style and young characters to create a safe space where its older audience can relate to and explore ideas that are much too complicated for kids.
Two of Hearts
The topic of identity is first presented by way of Riku Replica in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, a Game Boy Advance title released in 2004. The game’s antagonists, a questionable group of shadowy figures called Organization XIII, study Riku as he fights his way through their stronghold and they use this data to create a replica of him. The replica is essentially a clone made from inorganic material, and he looks, sounds, and fights just like Riku. It becomes immediately clear that they are inherently different people, however, when Riku Replica (or Repliku, as he’s known in fandom) dismisses Riku as a coward. Repliku insists that he’s unafraid of the darkness in his heart and is willing to use it to fight, making him the stronger of the two.
This does actually make him stronger than Riku for a time, and the replica is proud of this fact because it sets him apart from the original. He’s so proud of his individuality that when the Organization decides to give him real Riku’s memories, he not only protests but is terrified of the idea. After all, giving Riku’s memories to Repliku will make him afraid of the darkness inside of him, and that is the distinguishing factor that, for Repliku, makes him different. He’s horrified that he’ll become a copy of someone else instead of a unique person.
In a very short time, Repliku, who was only meant to be a tool, establishes an identity for himself that he clings to and fights for. By the end of the game, he battles Riku not because the Organization has commanded him to do so but because he sees it as the only way to make sure he can continue to exist as his own person. He’s certain that he can’t be more than a shadow while Riku is alive.
But just as Repliku is fighting to cement his identity, Riku is fighting to accept his. He knows that there is darkness inside of him, and Riku struggles to figure out what that means without Ansem’s influence to sway him. In Chain of Memories, the events of the first game are fresh in his mind, so Riku is convinced that the darkness within him is something he not only has to deny but also condemn.
Unlike Repliku, he refuses to use the darkness as a weapon; he can acknowledge that it exists, but he can’t knowingly engage with it considering his actions in Kingdom Hearts I. The fights he has with Repliku are as much a representation of him fighting against his identity as they are a representation of Repliku fighting for his. He and Repliku are mirrors in this way: Riku is fighting his darkness rather than accepting it while Repliku cherishes his darkness as the thing that makes him a whole, separate being.
Nobody’s Perfect
Repliku’s story lays quite a bit of groundwork for this idea of asserting and fighting for personhood, but the idea is further explored to heart-wrenching effect in Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. When it was first released in December of 2005, Kingdom Hearts II threw its fans for a loop – the story begins not with Sora but with a completely new character named Roxas. It is only after 2-4 hours of playing as this character that we discover that Roxas isn’t a “real” person. He is Sora’s Nobody.
Nobodies are an interesting commentary on identity in their own right. They are the sentient shells that are left behind when a person loses their heart and turns into a Heartless. This happens to Sora for a short time at the end of the first game when he tries to save Kairi, and in the moment when this occurs, Roxas is formed. He is discovered by Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII, who decides to use him as a tool in his plan to create a new Kingdom Hearts and “recomplete,” or regain a heart and become whole again. Because he is Sora’s Nobody, Roxas slowly begins to copy his abilities and his memories, thus giving the Organization a Keyblade wielder of their very own. What Xemnas and the others don’t account for, however, is Roxas starting to develop his own identity.
When he is first formed, he exists in a vegetative state much like Ventus does at the beginning of Birth by Sleep, but as he goes on missions and develops a friendship with his fellow Organization member Axel, his personality blossoms. He even starts talking about his feelings — which Nobodies, beings who by definition lack hearts, are not supposed to have.
Fading Memories
The fifth entry in the series, 358/2 Days, was released in 2009 and takes place parallel to Chain of Memories and leading up to Kingdom Hearts II. It tells Roxas’ story and that of Organization XIII in much more detail, and it’s here that we meet Xion. To further ensure they’re able to reach their goals, the Organization creates another replica, this time a girl that they call Xion. Her purpose is to copy Sora’s powers from Roxas so they have a backup Keyblade wielder should he fail or fall. Xion is much the same as Roxas at first: She starts out blank and listless until Roxas begins courting her friendship. Soon she too blossoms, and she, Roxas, and Axel become yet another tragically doomed trio of friends.
Things begin to fall apart for them very quickly — Xion becomes curious about where she comes from as she feels instinctively that she and Roxas are not the same, even though Xemnas says they’re both special. She eventually stumbles upon Naminé, who has the power to create and erase people’s memories, and Riku. Through the two of them, Xion learns that she is a puppet who is not just copying Sora’s memories and abilities from Roxas but erasing them from him as well. If she continues to exist, Roxas will be destroyed and Sora, who has been asleep so that Naminé can restore his memories, will never awaken. After winning a fight against her, Riku (who is trying to protect Sora and make sure his memories are returned to him) calls Xion a sham, and it sends the already vulnerable Xion into a spiral she is unable to recover from.
Eventually, Xion decides to give up. She chooses to reintegrate with Sora to give him back the memories that reside within her, but there is a cost. Because she isn’t actually real, the memories of her existence will fade away in those who knew her. Knowing this, she still forces a fight with Roxas, who briefly forgets her name the moment he beats her, confirming that she will indeed disappear from her friends’ memories. In the end, Xion found fighting against her destiny to be too much to face. For her, any identity she could claim didn’t really belong to her so she decided to let go and fade away instead.
Spirit like Nobody’s Business
Roxas has the complete opposite reaction when he discovers the truth about his origin. Like Repliku, Roxas wants to be his own person. He clings desperately to his life and his friends. He fights viciously for them, even going so far as to set out to destroy Kingdom Hearts (the opposite of the Organization’s ultimate goal) and to defeat Xemnas so he can have his life back. “I am me!” he insists when Riku calls him Sora during a fight to needle him. “Nobody else!” Roxas wants more than anything to be acknowledged as his own complete being.
Even after he’s placed in a digital version of Twilight Town while Sora begins to re-absorb his memories (this being where Kingdom Hearts II picks up), and even after his memories are erased, Roxas continues to fight to retain his identity. The more he remembers as Sora comes closer and closer to waking up, the more he pushes back against the fate that Xion submitted to. He fights until the very end; it is only when he is standing in front of Sora who is moments away from waking up that he resigns himself to his destiny.
Still, his determination won’t allow him to completely give up. In a boss fight added to Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, Roxas and Sora fight each other inside Sora’s heart in what is essentially a battle for the right to live. Roxas fights hard, wielding two Keyblades to Sora’s one, but ultimately Sora wins. It’s an absolutely gut-wrenching moment that resonates deeply if you have the wisdom to understand what’s truly going on. Otherwise, it’s just a very cool battle.
Riku’s Heart of Darkness
While Roxas fights for his identity, Riku is coming a step closer to accepting his. Thanks to his fight with Roxas at the end of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Riku doesn’t look like himself during Kingdom Hearts II. To win that fight, Riku had to tap into the darkness in his heart and use that power to overcome Roxas’ strength, and the result is that his body takes on the form of the person who put that darkness there: Ansem. Afterwards, though, Riku is unable to return to his own form. He spends the majority of Kingdom Hearts II in Ansem’s body, an interesting twist considering Ansem spent all of Kingdom Hearts I in Riku’s body, but this is also a crucial step in Riku’s journey to finally accepting who he is.
Riku is literally forced to live with his darkness when he’s inside Ansem’s body. He’d been suppressing it while fighting against the Organization in Chain of Memories, but when he finally decides to tap into it, there’s no going back. He hides himself throughout the course of Kingdom Hearts II, wearing one of the Organization’s long hooded jackets to keep himself and his shame covered as he wrestles with being stuck in his darkest place. It is only when Sora, Kairi, and the rest of their friends reassure him that he’ll always be Riku, no matter how he looks, that he’s able to begin reckoning with himself and regain his own form.
A Light Within the Shadow
Kingdom Hearts: 3D Dream Drop Distance (2012) is a few games after 358/2 Days, and in it, Riku and Sora begin their Mark of Mastery exam in preparation for the return of Master Xehanort. At this time, Riku appears to be a bit more settled in his own skin. His unique attacks and special moves are powered by his darkness, and he isn’t hesitant to use them, nor does he appear to be in danger of returning to his Ansem form when he calls on them. He has clearly come to accept that the darkness is a part of him but does not define him, and it is perhaps this realization that both light and dark power can live within him peacefully that leads to him passing his Mark of Mastery exam while Sora fails.
By the time we come to Kingdom Hearts III, released in 2019, Riku is clearly a stronger, more self-assured person. He traverses through the Realm of Darkness with Mickey Mouse, completely unafraid of their environment the way he’d been the first time he was trapped there. Finally, Riku is aware that he’s in total control of the darkness inside him. “You’ve done years of growin’ in almost no time at all!” Mickey tells him. It sparks a realization in him, and we as players understand that Riku at long last recognizes his true identity and has accepted it. Riku reaffirms the sentiment himself, saying “My doubts and fears are gone.”
Riku goes on a long and complicated journey throughout Kingdom Hearts, and it is his character that demonstrates some of the series’ strongest and most complex themes. Learning to accept all the parts of who we are is something that many of us struggle with as adults, and Riku has mastered it by an early age.
There are so many other themes explored in the story of Kingdom Hearts that are just as difficult to untangle. The basic plots of these games are confusing enough. Considering its themes as well, it only follows that the series’ target audience has to be older. After all, what writer would dedicate so much time and energy to crafting stories that their audience is incapable of understanding?
Which Kingdom Hearts theme resonates most with you? Let us know in the comments and don’t forget to Let Your Geek Sideshow!
Why Kingdom Hearts Is Not a Video Game for Kids, Pt. I
Originally published here for Sideshow Collectibles on January 11, 2022
The first Kingdom Hearts game was released for the PlayStation 2 in 2002, and for the last 20 years, the series has captivated hearts and addled minds all over the world. Most of the series’ 13 games follow a young boy named Sora who, along with his companions Donald Duck and Goofy, visits new worlds based on iconic Disney and Square Enix properties.
The group battles creatures of darkness called Heartless and they protect the light at the heart of every world using Sora’s Keyblade — a magical, key-shaped sword that only people with strong hearts can wield. Keyblades are the only effective weapon against the Heartless. Mickey Mouse is even a regular character in the series and is a Keyblade Master in his own right. The Disney name, as well as the innocent, guileless nature of the main protagonist Sora, might convince anyone who hasn’t played the games that Kingdom Hearts is for children. Of course, the very surface “Light is good, darkness is bad, the power of friendship will save us” plots don’t do much to dissuade people from this notion.
This perceived lightheartedness is undoubtedly the draw that has lured so many streamers and content creators to the series in the past few years. After all, Kingdom Hearts’ fun and carefree appearance seems like a wonderful escape from the stress of a global pandemic. The irony is, of course, that the story of these video games is complicated and at times incredibly heavy. So while it may arguably have been true that the first entry in the series was targeted to kids, it’s clear that the core themes of the series are far too complex for a child audience.
Sora, Riku, and Kairi Face Destiny
Loss of innocence is a theme that runs through a number of Kingdom Hearts games, starting with the very first one. Here it is rather simply represented by the literal loss of the Destiny Islands, the home of Sora and his best friends Riku and Kairi. One stormy night, a swirling, ominous void rips the islands apart before sucking them into the darkness. Donald and Goofy, Sora’s eventual travel buddies, see this happening from another world, and Goofy exclaims that a star is going out. The visual imagery is easy to understand — the trio’s home literally blinks out of existence, and they’re left with nowhere to return to — but what the imagery stands for tells the real story, and understanding that requires maturity and insight that only come with age.
After losing their home, Riku is possessed by a Seeker of Darkness, Kairi is completely lost, and Sora, the youngest at heart if not by age, is chosen to be a wielder of the Keyblade and defender of the light. The trio’s greatest worry up to that point had been collecting materials to build a raft. They suddenly have much bigger, much scarier things to worry about.
Eventually, the Destiny Islands are restored and the trio returns there together. When Riku and Sora are sitting on the trunk of a tree in their customary spot, looking out at the ocean once again, Riku remarks that nothing ever changes. The fallacy in that statement is visually obvious – he and Sora are both taller, his hair is much longer – but again, the visual imagery serves to illustrate what isn’t so obvious just by looking: He, Sora, and Kairi have all changed as people. They know for sure that there are worlds that exist outside of what they previously believed. They know that those worlds can be dark and that the people they meet won’t always have their best interests in mind. Their home is restored, yes, but it’s been touched by darkness, as they all have. It will never be the same and neither will they.
Terra-fied of Xehanort
This theme shows up again in the’ sixth game, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. It takes place about a decade before the events of the first game and tells the story of three young Keyblade wielders — Terra, Aqua, and Ventus — who also lose their home, their innocence, and even themselves to darkness. Birth by Sleep isn’t nearly as gentle in its exploration of the loss of innocence, however, and this is due to the introduction of the series’ main antagonist, Master Xehanort.
Xehanort is a terrifying enemy and he has a direct hand in the loss of innocence of this game’s trio when he destroys their home world, the Land of Departure. He casts it into darkness to goad Terra into meeting him for a final battle, just moments after striking down the trio’s teacher and his former friend, Master Eraqus. This grand gesture causes disillusionment in the three protagonists, much as the destruction of Destiny Island does the same for Sora, Riku, and Kairi. But even before that point, Xehanort spent the entire game manipulating and corrupting the characters in a much more personal, individualized way.
Xehanort uses Terra’s naivete and his need for approval to groom him. Xehanort is old and weak; he sees Terra as the perfect new vessel for his heart, so he reassures Terra that the darkness inside him isn’t wrong. He encourages Terra to use it, despite what Master Eraqus has been teaching him. Terra has no reason not to trust him though, especially as he’s a Keyblade Master, a figure of ultimate authority and righteousness. Xehanort uses this blind faith to exploit him, manipulating Terra with minimal effort until eventually, Terra is completely at the mercy of Xehanort.
Terra tries his best to fight back, of course, but ultimately he’s no match for a Keyblade Master like Xehanort. For a long time after their clash, his heart is shuffled between the body he can no longer control and an enormous Heartless known as the Guardian, which Xehanort can call forth and use in battle. It is only during the events of Kingdom Hearts III, 10 years later, that Terra is finally able to take his body back. By then, however, any innocence he once had is long gone. He, Aqua, and Ventus are able to return to the Land of Departure after it is restored, but Xehanort’s manipulation and the consequences of it will stay with him for the rest of his life.
Xehanort’s Manipulation Continues
As excellent as he is at working under the radar, Xehanort is also capable of getting his hands dirty. One of his ultimate goals is to use the fight between pure light and pure darkness to create the legendary χ-blade (pronounced “key” or “chi” blade), so he sends a swarm of Heartless after a scared and pleading Ventus, telling him to use the power of darkness to save himself in hopes that the χ-blade will be forged in the clash.
When Ventus refuses to do so, Xehanort decides to rip the darkness out of Ventus himself, causing significant damage to the boy’s heart. Ven lives in a vegetative state until his heart heals and is strong enough to sustain him again, but even then he isn’t free of his former master’s machinations. Xehanort eventually forces Ventus, now a being of pure light, to fight Vanitas, the being formed from his extracted darkness, in order to create the same χ-blade he wanted before.
The clash succeeds and creates the χ-blade, and it also merges Ventus and Vanitas back together. Ven manages to destroy the χ-blade before Xehanort can get it, but again he damages his heart in the process. It finds its way to a young Sora to rest and to heal, but Ven’s body falls into a deep slumber until Sora is able to wake him up 10 years later. Like his best friend Terra, his heart eventually rejoins his body, but he is changed by Xehanort’s corruption. He will never be the same as he was before Xehanort came into his life.
Keyblade Master Aqua
Even Aqua doesn’t escape Xehanort’s schemes. She is forced to fight Terra-Xehanort (as he is called in this new, younger form) when she discovers he has taken over Terra’s body and suppressed his heart. Aqua is the most mature member of the trio and a Keyblade Master herself, but even she is no match for Xehanort’s power, especially in a stronger body.
The three of them – Aqua, Terra-Xehanort, and the newly created Guardian Heartless containing Terra’s heart – all accidentally fall through a portal into the Realm of Darkness during their fight. Aqua, in a last ditch attempt to save her friend, sends her Keyblade and protective armor back through the gradually dwindling portal to the Realm of Light with Terra-Xehanort in tow, leaving herself trapped in the Realm of Darkness. Even knowing that Xehanort is in control of Terra’s body, she refuses to let him languish in the darkness where Terra will never have a chance to come back to himself, so she stays behind instead.
But it changes her. Aqua is strong in body and in heart, so it takes a very long time, but she eventually succumbs to the darkness. Sora and Riku are able to save her, but by then she, like Terra and Ventus, has lost 10 years of her life. She’s lost all hope of rescue or of seeing Terra and Ventus again. She is forever changed by the things she’s endured thanks to Xehanort, and though she is able to return to the light and later to the Land of Departure, she isn’t the same girl who left there years before.
Riku’s Battles
After the events of Kingdom Hearts, Riku spends a good amount of time in the Realm of Darkness, much like Aqua does. She even rescues him while he’s there (though he doesn’t know it until much later). A lot happens to Riku in that first game. He is used by two separate adults as a tool to meet their own ends, and it leads him to do terrible things. Ansem coerces him into opening a door that lets the Heartless overtake Destiny Island. He is manipulated by Maleficent into believing that Sora has replaced him and Kairi with Donald and Goofy, and thus has no problem doing things that undermine or foil Sora’s plans when they cross paths on various worlds. He is even forced to battle Sora, his very best friend, at the end of the game.
Riku does regain control of his body to save Donald, Goofy, and Kairi from a horde of Heartless soon afterward, but by then, he’s already been robbed of the innocence he once had by two people who most definitely knew better. In the game’s final moments when Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrive at the Door to Darkness and struggle to close it, a newly autonomous Riku appears behind it and helps Sora close it from the other side. After all he’s been through, he traps himself within the Realm of Darkness in order to keep the Heartless from invading the Realm of Light, almost as though he’s atoning for what he’s done.
This loss of Riku’s innocence in the first game is particularly important because it serves as the catalyst for his search for redemption and, ultimately, the reclaiming of his identity – another core theme of the series. The rest of the series becomes, for him, a journey to find out who he is after losing an important part of himself and coming to terms with who he really is.
Loss of innocence is a recurring theme in the Kingdom Hearts series for good reason – it happens to everyone eventually and can leave us feeling bereft and afraid. So while it’s true that you don’t have to be a certain age to be upset about what happens to these characters, to understand what happens to them requires some insight that really only comes with age and life experience.
It’s clear, then, that Kingdom Hearts, despite its childlike, playful packaging, is actually a story meant for an older, more experienced audience. Exploring such fraught and complicated topics by way of characters like Sora who are, after everything, optimistic and hopeful makes wrestling with these ideas a little easier and a little safer.
The Touch of the Sea (Is Sensuous): An SND!AU ficlet
For the AU from Hell, as we’ve lovingly named it. Requires no intimate knowledge of the SND rp group or The Fault in Our Stars though both are glorious and break my heart all the time.
…That line though. That one everyone’s always quoting from the book. I fell in love the way you fall asleep: slowly, and then all at once. Friday hadn’t understood it at first. She’d loved the book when she read it, of course, cried as much as anyone else by the end of it. But her relationship with sleep had always been an all or nothing kind of thing: she was either dead to the world as soon as her head hit the pillow or wide awake and buzzing with energy. So this middle ground, this slow drift before some sudden, inexorable plunge comparison didn’t make much sense to her.
Well… Until it happened to her.
Then she hadn’t understood how it hadn’t immediately made all the sense in the world.
She’d loved Ryder for what felt like forever by then. He was her very best friend, her Lancelot. Loving him was easy, and it had happened right away. It was natural. Not at all the way loving Matt was. That love had bulldozed her, knocked her down and run her over and left throbbing, blue-black bruises all over her that never seemed to disappear, even when Matt did. Even her love for Jake, her protector and best friend seemed to just spring up out of nowhere. One second he was just a sweet boy who’d offered to be her Valentine, and the next, he was as much a part of her as a limb or an organ or her own first name.
But loving Ryder… falling in love with Ryder…
They’d been snuggling together on his bed as they had done so many times before in the weeks since Jake and Matt had both skipped town, and he’d said it so casually. I hear tell that’s what heaven is. Just… eternities of moments just like this. She realized suddenly that she’d been in the slowly part for a long while leading up to that moment. She’d begun spending more and more of her time wrapped up in his arms or wanting to be. And when she wasn’t with him, she was wondering about him. She’d brushed it off as her usual affection towards this lovely young man who’d been her rock and her backbone and her crying shoulder. But then he’d said this thing, this gorgeous, pure, genuine thing.
Her heart would’ve melted if she hadn’t realized then that it wasn’t even part of her anymore. It was in him, stolen quietly through osmosis during all those nights spent wrapped up together, tucked away behind his ribs and squeezed into the spaces between his fingers and spread over the stretch of skin behind the lobe of his ear.
That single, beautiful moment was the inexorable plunge. The all at once after weeks and weeks and months of slowly.
Every time she saw him after that, she felt it pulse warm and slick through her veins, this new, certain knowledge that she was in love with him. And every time he left her, sad and broken with Jake’s name on his lips, that warm slickness froze and rusted and settled into her bones like a winter ache, and she knew just as surely.
She’d fallen for yet another boy she could never have.
***
"The voice of the sea speaks to the soul. The touch of the sea is sensuous, enfolding the body in its soft, close embrace." -Kate Chopin
As the grey flakes drifted through the air, thick, heavy clumps that settled onto her hair and clothes and stuck to her eyelashes, Friday could almost believe it was just snow. It was certainly deserted enough to be a blustering January day in Lima. The stifling press of humid air wouldn’t let her pretend though. The crackle and snap of the fire tearing through the house across the street and the bloody, broken lump of Jake’s body in the driveway where he’d finally fallen kept her delusion of cancelled school and snow angels at bay. She had half a mind to join Ryder at his side, provide him with just a fraction of the strength he’d so selflessly given to her while they fled the battle, but she quickly turned away when she saw him bend down to kiss Jake one last time. It wasn’t her right to observe Ryder’s quiet, intimate goodbye and besides, he didn’t need to hear the high, strangled whimper that clawed its way from her throat at the sight of her protector, once so strong and thrumming with life and now so, so still. His grief was heavy enough; he didn’t need hers too.
a thing I started while eating breakfast at IHOP that makes me hate myself cuz it hurts (via geneticllyenginrdsupersoldiers)
