KHDR Spoilers

previously khnpostskhspoilers and khnpostskh3spoilers

[nyctospoilers]

I don’t tag ANY spoilers here. So it's best to follow when you've beaten Dark Road.

I will be posting my reactions to KHDR under read mores to prevent long posts.

[akimojo]

the difference between sora, getting personally and emotionally involved in the plot of every disney world he visits, and the dark road cast, vehemently refusing to even acknowledge any of it, is so fucking funny

[nyxfaei]

Luxu as bragi saying “as if” shows that that “as if” has always been a Luxu thing. Implying that Luxu was definitely possessing braig since before we met him in BBS

[nyctospoilers]

when baldr’s sitting in his room, the room getting darker and his shadow gradually growing, standing behind him. IDK what it was, since UXDR have such a kiddie appearance, but that scene was just so fucking creepyyy

[lightandfellowship]

Some VERY stealthy foreshadowing

(Major KHDR spoilers)

Well, the scene where Tweedledee and Tweedledum warn the main characters against being too curious and recount the tale of “The Walrus and the Carpenter” now makes a lot more sense with the finale.

To those who are unaware or have forgotten (the game never actually lets the player hear the tale), the story as its depicted by the Alice in Wonderland animated film involves a walrus and carpenter who lure twelve young oysters to their deaths despite their mother telling them to stay at home.

Sound familiar? Immediately after Master Odin tells the main characters that they’ve been relieved from duty and are to stay in Scala, Baldr shows up. And what does he do? He takes advantage of his friends’ curiosity about the circumstances of the upperclassmen’s deaths and lures them to the Underworld in order to pick them off. But that’s not all; the number of oysters is significant, too. If you count Bragi as one of the “fallen”, then twelve young keyblade wielders are dead by the end of the game.

[nyctospoilers]

I really need Nomura to tell us what Mickey is doing. Like at the end of MoM with Yen Sid saying for him to learn about old keyblade welders felt like such a clear set up to bridge X Saga and Lost Masters and just casually saying go to Scala. It still there? Are people there? Is it just Land of Departure transformed and Aqua going to have to Master Defender open it up?? Nomura please

Yeah it'll definitely be interesting, especially since Eraqus implied all the other islands in SaC are abandoned.

It's so weird how we still don't know how Scala ad Caelum went from gothic to cycladic just within what? 14/15 years while Xehanort was on Destiny Islands? (I thought they were two different places, but Nomura says its the same place at two different times...) Nor do we know why when/soon after it becomes cycladic, the other islands are abandoned... it's just so weird.

I've seen people compare it to Ragnarok, but honestly I know nothing about Norse mythology, and I don't WANT to learn because I could NOT care less asldfkjasldfk

[feral-piano-rat]

Did you ever actually meet him?

Warning for both heavily implied Kingdom Hearts Dark Roads spoilers as well as blood/violence in the section below the cut.

(as always, please click to see full quality)

I'd like to give a shout-out to @rosie-kairi for both of us coming to the conclusion in like... the same couple of days that this process involves plunging your hand into someone's chest. (I suppose I went more morbid with him being younger, but I find the idea that they never met the real Bragi to be some extra flavor.

(For real though, go read No Vacancy)

[imaginative-joy]

After that latest injection of Dark Road, I can't help but think that some of the scenes therein rendered in your style would be especially striking.

Thank you! Believe me, I wanna draw so much from it. But I’ve got this for now!

The Master’s foot went through the gutter of my sketchbook and onto the other page, but I feel like that’s in character for him.

[nyctospoilers]

Do you have any ideas as to how they may explain Ephemer helping Sora in later games? I’m losing faith that they’ll bring it up at all

I definitely have faith they will bring it up in ML, or at the very least, the Tear in Time, given how it's referenced in DR (spoilers). I consider the "Tear in Time" and the "Light of the Past" to be two distinct things, but so closely associated that if ML answers the former, it will hopefully shed light on the latter. And if ML FINALLY explains why Eraqus knew both about the Tear in Time and Light of the Past in KH3 flashbacks (as I suspect Brain is somehow responsible), then ML could reveal more about Ephemer's appearance in KH3.

Now besides ML possibly revealing information, this is my theory about what's going on-- at least from the "modern KH time" perspective that I don't think ML will go over:

With the Dandelions appearing as Keyblades during The Light of the Past scene, I theorize it's like Terra and Ven's Keyblades with Aqua, where it's only their hearts reaching out, where the Dandelions themselves are still asleep elsewhere, still protected by their Chirithies-turned-Dream Eaters.

Now it's important to distinguish that the Dream Eaters we use in DDD are not, I don't believe at least, Chirithy-Dream Eaters, because we create those ourselves out of dream pieces, and Joshua describes Dream Eaters as "giving your dreams shape". But I do think it's possible the Dream Eaters Sora summons in KH3 are Chirithy-Dream Eaters, which would explain why they appear outside Sleeping Worlds, since Chirithy already have that ability.

I personally theorize Sora met the Chirithy-Dream Eaters during his trip between DDD and 0.2, which we know nothing about because he tells Donald and Goofy it's a secret. I also think it's possible he already met Ephemer during this, as Ephemer never introduces himself to Sora during the Light of the Past, or vice versa, and Sora never mentions Ephemer to the other Guardians of Light, and I think it's BECAUSE Sora's trip was a secret. IDK the interaction gives me "Nameless Star tells Sora Yozora's name" where Sora makes a weird face, but it's because he's familiar with him. But IDK we'll see!

Now. As for how Ephemer was able to show himself to Sora, I have no idea. I don't think he's asleep like the other dandelions, because Ephemer had to have grown old enough to have kids, and he's still a teen to Sora. So it might be some new form of time travel we've never seen before, but I don't know how likely that is either. Especially because I personally theorize the other Union Leaders (save Brain) were able to time travel to "modern KH times" to disney worlds because they were written of in the Book of Prophecies. But Ephemer appearing to Sora is AFTER the end of the book, so I would think that's impossible for Ephemer to time travel with the Book as his waypoint... And while this aspect, I really don't have any leads, I will say that this is the area I think ML will hopefully go over.

I unfortunately have to go so I'm sorry I can't polish this answer more as I'd like. But I hope this restores your faith at least a little!!

[nyctospoilers]

Well now I'm Intrigued about the Clayton thing

well you’ll NEVER get answers since Deep Jungle will never be in KH ever again 😭

[nyctospoilers]

Yolo what's this about the Drwaf Woodland's mirror being an unversed? isn't it a Disney character? Like from the film and such?I don't think there's enough proof to say it's an unversed,at least not in the original film? although I don't know if there's enough proof to think otherwise either... Anyway if the magic mirror somehow became an unversed then why didn't it change even a slight bit?Like we see people turning into heartless and that majorly changes their appearance,so why would this case be different? I'm so confused...

I mean I totally see your point; in a way I agree. But Terra's journal literally says it becomes an unversed, so it's not like I can just sit here and say "that's wrong." But yeah I agree it doesn't transform, it doesn't get an emblem, it's not connected to Vanitas who's known to be the source of Unversed. But I don't really see why I'm getting so many messages about it from multiple/different people. It's not like we discuss this about Clayton who apparently lost his heart according to the other Tarzan characters, even though he never became a Heartless. I guess I don't really see the need to discuss this all that much because it will probably never be relevant LOL

[telohtwo]

dearly departed (?)

[nyctospoilers]

I always assumed Xehanort didn’t come from a special lineage since he implies he wants to catch up to Eraqus despite the fact that Eraqus is a blueblood, but maybe my interpretation was just off. I just really want them to not retcon lore from kh3, a game that came out just 3 years ago :/ The seeming shortening of the timespan between KHUX and the present not really matching Luxu’s language in the reports, plus the likelihood that Luxu took over Brain’s body makes me really concerned. I so desperately clung to the idea that Luxu never possessed him, it always reassured me to see that you too were adamant that the reports won’t be retconned hahah, especially considering how much of a minority we were. Luxu taking over Brain still doesn’t really explain how he eventually gets to Scala later so I’m hoping there’s a trick to this that we have yet to see.

I agree with you about the worry that KH3 is going to be retconned so soon. I remember before Re:Mind, the reason I doubted Vanitas being a true darkness is because in vanilla KH3 Vanitas keeps implying he's still from Ven's heart. And it's in KH3 DLC that Vanitas starts going all "we're not the same! I was just hidden inside you" Like Nomura... are you really going to retcon a game with its own DLC... (((plus, darkness spoke to Sora inside Ven's heart, when Vanitas was already torn out/separated. and THAT was in Re:Mind too. So it just kinda feels like Nomura can't make up his fucking mind about whether or not Vanitas is a true darkness or not. Very annoying to try to keep up with LOL. I hope it all makes sense in the end...)))

And yeah Brain and Luxu are just so weird to think about. I think another reason I doubt Luxu possessing Brain is because... literally why. Why possess Brain instead of just continuing in your own body. Luxu wasn't injured fatally. Luxu doesn't need Brain's body as a disguise to trick someone, because the only people who knew Brain are gone. Unless Ava is alive and Luxu tried to trick her, but that's so hypothetical. We still don't even have confirmation that Ava's alive 😭

And plus, we don't know why the person in the black coat has No Name. If that's really Brain we see in ML's trailer, and it's Luxu with No Name, we don't know why Luxu gave Brain No Name in UX, but took it back later. And if they're both Brain, just at different times, we don't know how Brain got the coat back after time traveling. Even if it's Brain in the black coat before time traveling, that doesn't make sense either because gothic Scala ad Caelum shouldn't have been built yet..... Like no matter what it doesn't make fucking sense.

And like, I think the difference now and how KH usually is is that... idk I feel like KH overall answered a lot of (maybe not all, but a lot of) mysteries it created in the following game. But with UX and DR, it's like all the mysteries keep building and building and even ML might not give us all the answers. Like I can't believe UX didn't explain the virus and Brain's odd behavior, and DR didn't explain why Eraqus knew about the Tear in Time. If ML doesn't give us these answers, when tf will we get them!!!!

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

You ever think about how Xehanort is the thing that connects the Daybreak Town Trio after the end? Ephemer's descendant, Player's student, Skuld's captor...

god n o I have not thought of that, but now I won’t stop thinking about it

Actually you could even go a step further and say that this is a child of destiny thing, to be connected to so many people in an intricate web. Like Sora, Xehanort is integrally connected to so many other characters and it’s kind of amazing, in a way

[nyctospoilers]

YX telling sora to find the hearts joined to his makes me wonder if somehow YX only found out Sora was the child of destiny rather than himself during his time travel trip. Because otherwise Master Xehanort would have known that too….. right?

Or maybe he DID know because I assume by the time MX opened KH, he realizes the book of prophecies final passage "didnt happen" (by which I mean the events post Tear in Time)

i dont fuckin’ understand

[nyctospoilers]

I honestly think the great-great grandfather was one of these short hands for not saying having to say all the greats myself cause I can’t find the interview but Nomura already said that Missing Link was three gen after Ephemer, still wish that was longer but better then 150 year or whatever. That said I’m putting money on Kid Odin being one our main characters with the player with Sigurd and Brian to tie something’s together.

not-shazam asked:

Sorry misremembered it 4 generations -- What are the "societies that sprawl and branch like veins" mentioned in the trailer? Nomura: KH Missing Link takes place about 4 generations after Ephemer's time. His descendents have each formed their own societies: the main family who carries his bloodline is the "Society of Successors", while the branch family who doesn't is the "Society of Non-Successors".

Yeah I see you, just hitting send on that last ask I was like "wait, does great great grandfather" even cover that amount of time? Cause if I recall correctly, that's just your grandfather's grandfather right? what is that, 120-140 years??

And I don't know enough Japanese to be able to tell what DR says then 😭 damn I really relied on Goldpanner's UX translations for interpretations LOL. Still, I wonder if the Japanese is more clear/specific with the EXACT relation of Ephemer and Xehanort...

[nyctospoilers]

What are your thoughts on the "Ancient era" with the "Great-great-grandfather" mention in khdr. Do you think that khux still happened "a long time ago"? Everyone seems to be talking about it, so I am unsure if it's retconned or if I am missing information.

Similar to what I said in this post, vanillas KH3 itself implies that Xigbar had lived hundreds (possibly thousands) of years. But it does seem that with ML and Dark Road, the gap between say, X and BBS, is a lot shorter than KH3 originally implied, with the whole "ML is 4 generations after Ephemer's time" and great great grandfather thing you mentioned.

I don't really care if Nomura is retconning it, as long as it makes sense in the end. I will say though that the idea of "Luxu being a thousand years old" is waaaay fucking cooler and more mysterious than "luxu is like 200 years tops" so... :/

But if the worlds are truly still reforming during DR, it makes more sense that only a couple hundred years have passed rather than like a thousand. But honestly I think the students referencing the worlds still reforming aren't 1000% correct on their conclusion. Idk it gives me Brain vibes, where he would assume something and then it would be revealed by events or Luxu that he was mistaken. I'll need a more educated character to say for sure that the worlds were still being restored by the time of DR, or if the students were just explaining why worlds are all on different time axes, and that they are all restored by this point.