Some parallels about SoKai's characters in Blank Points (also Kairi's in Kingdom Hearts I). Sora wants to stay with Kairi in this secret ending, but he feels the weight of responsibility on his shoulders, and does the right thing, and opts to go out to save those who are connected to him.
Likewise, Kairi wishes Sora didn't have to leave her (and you can see some strain in her eyes, I believe). But she also chooses to be selfless, put on a brave face, and see him off with a smile and her lucky charm.
But since I didn't know if people would only want me to compare two instances from the same thing, I decided to choose Kairi from Kingdom Hearts I, as well, where we clearly see her pained to see Sora disappear there (this also doubles as her Kingdom Hearts I arc of being afraid of change). But in the end, she lets go, accepts, and is able to learn to face an uncertain future with a smile on her face and belief in her heart.
Can we please talk about how the ending of KH3 is basically a love confession from Sora to Kairi?
When Mickey said that it's finally over, Sora is the only one not overjoyed.
There is also a very interesting not-quite parallel I noticed. Remember Blank Points? Thanks to the letter Mickey writes in Coded, Sora finds out that there are people - friends - he has to save. And what Riku asks Sora is the following:
No, it's not over, their friend is missing, right? That should be enough of a reason to continue, after all, everything Sora did was for his friends.
But it's not to Sora. It's not because Kairi's a friend that he can't stop now. It's because she is so much more.
He feels the need to explain why he has to continue because those doofuses don't get it despite him risking his life for her earlier. It's not because their friend is missing, it's because Kairi is missing. Returning to her was always his end goal, being with her was the ultimate reward for his selflessness.
Now she's gone. Left alone not only by him - alone for real. That's the last thing he ever wished for her.
It's a figure of speech in the English language. Sora decided to do the right thing, the thing he wants to do because he is a kind person, and save the people that only he can save by going on this new adventure. But this time around, Riku says the following:
Not only his mind, his rational and also compassionate side, decided to chase after Kairi. His heart decided to do so, too.
Why Blank Points Represents The Irrevocable Decline Of The KH Series Narrative
So, I’ve seen the secret ending cutscene of Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, titled “Blank Points”, getting hailed as the best secret ending in the entire series, if not the best cutscene in the entire series. The reason I think why that is would be that the direction, execution, composition, and overall style of the scene, along with the return of Sora and his next big adventure it was setting up, had fans all “GET HYPED! SO MUCH HYPE! OMG!!!” But I’m all...really? The secret endings of KH1 and KHII got me hyped. This one gave me the exact opposite feeling - it made me feel drained and put off of the series based on the direction it was heading in. Because I looked beyond the style at the scene’s actual substance, at what’s actually presented in the writing. And I was not impressed. In fact, to this day I think of Blank Points along with the last chapter of Coded that coincides with it’s end point to be the first major betrayal of the series and all of it’s lore and characters that Nomura committed, and the definitive Jump The Shark moment for the series as a result. And I’d like to analyze why.
Hidden Truths - This section is pretty cool and straightforward for the most part. Just the spirits of Master Xehanort and Terra talking with each other from within the deepest Darkness of Xehanort’s heart, serving as a clever physical representation of what’s going on in Xehanort’s subconscious ‘cause if it had been depicted more accurately, we’d just have words on a dark screen without any faces or voices to accompany them. These are the two essences of two different people that reside within Xehanort’s subconscious at this point and due to his amnesia he doesn’t even know it, hence “hidden truths.” Terra also says something that completely shatters the “Master Xehanort returns to life after Ansem and Xemnas are destroyed” plot point - he says, of the heart that he and MX are currently locked deep within “It’s still my heart. You think you can just come in and take over?” Meaning that MX’s heart had entered Terra’s heart in order to possess his body (keeping with the “it is your Darkness that shall be the arc that sustains me!” line), and that Xehanort’s heart that left his body to become a Heartless was actually Terra’s heart, or what used to be Terra’s heart before Terra’s essence was devoured and the heart became engulfed by MX’s essence as he claimed it would, becoming a purely Xehanort heart from then on out. So Terra-Xehanort is who should have returned whole following his Heartless and Nobody’s destruction, period.
I also love Terra’s “You’re gonna get shown the door, old man” line - perfect foreshadowing to MX’s fate once he’s been reborn as a Heartless, had only Ansem SoD’s fate been his final fate. Terra’s following lines also seemed written with Xemnas in mind: “Even if you wrest control of my heart from me and cast me into the deepest darkest abyss, you’ll never sway me from the one cause that pushes me to keep on fighting. Whatever the cost, I’m willing to pay it.” Hence why that instinct to follow that “one cause” (finding his friends) sticks with Xemnas and he searches for Ventus’ Chamber. Xemnas himself would be the cost that Terra paid for his attempts to endure Xehanort’s darkness within his heart. And sadly, we know that nothing ever really came of this connection between Terra and Xemnas afterwards.
Here’s the one red flag that this moment contains - due to Terra’s confidence in his chances of enduring, MX has the sudden realization that “someone else has set foot in Terra’s heart”, which he follows by saying “Eraqus, you sly fox.” Implying that Eraqus is within Terra’s heart. But…I thought this WAS Terra’s heart in which they’re communicating? So if Eraqus’ heart had entered Terra’s, Eraqus should be here as a spirit too. But for some reason, he’s not. And even the idea of Eraqus having set foot in Terra’s heart rather than just dying is troublesome because not only is it negating the stakes and consequences of that event, but it basically means that MX’s heart has possessed Terra’s heart, which is already housing Eraqus’ heart, making this a case of a heart within a heart within a heart. At this point, Nomura is pulling bullshit with how many hearts can reside within the default heart of a single person. He does it with Sora, and he’s doing it with Xehanort here, and it’s way too needlessly convoluted. Also, MX’s line at the end of “You are just one of many roads that I might choose to take. Trust me, I made certain of that”, in hindsight is I think meant to be in reference to how he’s got a master plan still going on ‘cause his younger self has literally made certain that he gets more vessels, thus a hint at the 13+ Xehanorts of the “true Organization XIII” we get later on, but how it actually comes off in translation is MX referring to the contingencies he left in place that could take him down literal different roads to unlocking Kingdom Hearts, as it’s immediately followed by the next section with Braig.
Image Of Their Backs, Preserved In Memory - This is the best section of the whole scene, as we actually get to see classic KHII Apprentice Terra-Xehanort again, though sadly he doesn’t speak in this scene, and we also get full confirmation that Braig continued to co-conspire with Xehanort even after he’d lost his memory, and once confirming for himself that he did indeed lose his memory, Braig set in motion events that led to Xehanort’s heart coming awake and succumbing to MX’s essence as Terra’s essence died out completely, and ultimately to the separation of the six apprentices’ hearts from their bodies, resulting in the birth of their Nobodies and the creation of Organization XIII. Seeing Ansem the Wise and little Ienzo eating ice cream together was also sweet, saying a lot about the relationship they must have had and why the apprentices’ eventual betrayal of Ansem would have hurt him so badly. The only aspect of this part that’s a bit unsettling is how, by positioning Braig as MX’s “inside man” who ensures that MX’s goals are furthered even without MX truly being around anymore, Nomura is continuing to push the idea of Brag as some sort of Revolver Ocelot figure for this series’ narrative and that MX will be neither gone nor forgotten in future installments.
Two Who Were Never Meant To Meet - Ah, and here we have it. It even says in the title. Ansem the Wise and Aqua were never meant to meet, as nothing good comes out of this little meeting between them. ‘Cause for one thing, ANSEM THE WISE GOT HIMSELF BLOWN THE FUCK UP. “Anything could happen!” being an excuse for how Riku gets de-Ansemified was pushing it already, but the device’s explosion just sent Ansem to the Realm of Darkness? How? Why? Where’d he get the black coat? Then he tells Aqua “This is actually my second time on these shores.” Except no, he was never here before. Xehanort banished him through Darkness to the Realm of Nothing, not the Realm of Darkness. And then he claims to have lost his memory, ‘cause we hadn’t gotten enough of that cliche that Braig mocked just a few minutes ago in this very cutscene. This plot point sure is going to matter for Ansem the Wise’s part in future games. Aqua tells him that her existence in the Dark Realm has been a living Hell for years. ‘Cause that’s sure what we all want to see and hear about in a Disney game!
But then it takes a turn for the absolute worst when Ansem, out of the blue, brings up that Aqua, just because she’s kind and true to her friends (which any decent person would be) reminds him of a boy he knew, a boy who wields the Keyblade and travels the worlds, fighting to keep their Light safe. Despite his supposed amnesia, he has vivid recollections of this boy, about how the worlds almost fell to Darkness more than once, but “at every turn, that boy arrived with Keyblade in hand to save the day.” (Cringe-inducing line coming from him!) Aqua asks if the boy’s name is Terra or Ventus, to which Ansem replies no, it’s not. Then he (again, he’s supposed to have amnesia) recalls that back then, he was consumed by thoughts of vengeance and did terrible things to the boy and his friends, bringing unhappiness to more lives than one. He drops the bombshell that because of this, he felt something must be done in order for him to atone for his sins, so “while the boy slept his long sleep, I hid the results of my research inside him, transplanting the data to where it might best serve a purpose.” Uh, NO. Nowhere in CoM, KHII, or even Days was this ever even remotely hinted at, and according to Ansem in KHII, he only started to self introspect, re-evaluate his beliefs and choices, recognize he’d done wrong, and seek to make amends for all the suffering he’d caused others in his selfish pursuit of revenge once Sora had become an active force and all expectations and plans Ansem had for him fell apart. Thus after Sora awoke from his long sleep. Ansem would never have done anything to atone for his sins during the time of Sora’s long sleep ‘cause he was still remorselessly sinning and not seeing himself as being in the wrong during that time. Everything we saw of DiZ during this time period was him being a complete bastard - he ordered for Namine’s death once her purpose to him had been served during this time period! And he would not have found Sora’s heart to be “where his data could best serve a purpose” because he didn’t know the true power Sora’s heart held until he found that all of his research and data amounted to nothing next to it, which was, again, after Sora was awake and active! This retroactive redemptive arc is revisionist bullshit! And after Ansem talks Sora up as a special snowflake of a boy who touches so many hearts who could save all those whose lives were ruined by Ansem and Xehanort, he concludes with the beyond forced line “So many are still waiting for their new beginning: their birth by sleep.” AAAARGH!
All The Pieces Lie Where They Fell - Another shudder-inducing red flag title, as it suggests pieces of a full puzzle have fallen at different places and are lying there in need of being put back together. Or “reconnected.” This is when we reach the culmination of all this scene has been building towards - what some fans saw as “HYPE!”, others (like me) saw as “NOPE!” We’re shown Namine in her white room of the Old Mansion in Twilight Town, sitting and drawing, as if we’ve not seen enough of that from her. The picture she drew is revealed to be Sora sitting on a palm tree, as she says the name “Sora.” Then it cuts to the Twilight Town Clocktower, where we see Roxas, Axel, and Xion, black coats and all, sitting atop it eating Sea Salt Ice Cream, as if we’ve not seen enough of THAT from them. They gaze at out at the sunset and all in unison say “Sora” for no real reason. Then for more symbolism shit, we cut to the Land of Departure, where Ven awakens from a sleep (get it) and Terra approaches him, and then they both say “Sora” too! Cut back to End of Sea, where the name of her savior is enough to make Aqua smile and reduce her to tears. “Sora.” she says too. SORA IS THE MESSIAH. HE IS GOING TO SAVE EVERYONE WHO HAS EVER SUFFERED, UNDOING ALL UNHAPPY ENDINGS, NEGATING ALL STAKES, AND MAKING EVERYTHING ALL SUNSHINE AND RAINBOWS! This is what’s being hammered home for all the fans here.
Where They Wait For Him... - That’s a continuation of the previous line. Sora’s the Key to “reconnecting” all these hearts and bringing everything back together as it was meant to be. Sora is sitting on a palm tree like in Namine’s picture, solemnly gazing out at the horizon over the sea of his island home. Riku comes and asks him if his mind’s made up, and Sora responds “Yeah.” We’re shown up close that Sora is holding the bottle and letter from King Mickey that showed up at the end of KHII, thus directly tying this secret ending into the ending chapter of Coded, where the contents of that letter were revealed. Kairi comes along, calling Sora’s name, catching him off guard as she smiles and nods her head, as if to tell Sora that she knows what he’s thinking right then and she trusts his intuition. Sora smiles and nods back. It looks like a nice silent exchange between the two friends/lovers for life...until Sora walks up to Kairi, opens his mouth and tells her “It’s just...they really need me. I have to go. I am who I am...because of them.” And with that single line, Sora’s character integrity, and with it the entire foundations of the KH original story that began in the very first game, comes crumbling down. Sora is saying two things here: that he is not a special existence on his own but has been connected to other truly special existences, and that now that he IS a special existence as a result of this alone, he owes his services to those who “made him who he is” - he needs to “reconnect” his heart to their’s, because that is what was destined. So the story is now taking back the idea that Sora made himself special by having a strong heart that bonds and connects with so many others in bonds of love and friendship, and also taking back the idea that Sora’s journey was not a Chosen One narrative, as it now is, and retroactively always has been, in fact, a Chosen One narrative - Sora was inadvertently chosen by destiny in correlation to these special people to be their savior. In the grand design of fate, he exists to the benefit of them. In hindsight, how KHIII ends isn’t surprising with this kind of setup. And then, the scene ends with Kairi’s character integrity getting slaughtered too, as she hands him her Oathkeeper lucky charm and tells him “See you soon.” What? Whatever happened to “Maybe waiting isn’t good enough” and “From now on, wherever one of us goes, the other one follows?” If the story were properly following through on character development set up for Kairi in her prior appearance, this would not happen. Kairi would never do this. But hey, at least we could assume Riku’s gonna be with her ‘til Sora comes back, right? Hahahaha, nope! Re:Coded and 3D makes this even worse, as it turns out Riku also goes with Sora to Yen Sid’s Tower for a bullshit dream-based Mark Of Mastery Exam, meaning Kairi is once again left behind, left out, left all on her own on the Islands, waiting for her boys to return. Whatever happened to “You shouldn’t be the only ones getting hurt?”
And then the “Reconnect: Kingdom Hearts”, the insignia of the series once it’s gone past it’s prime, appears for the first time. Literally every entry to the series that has this logo attached to it at any point is a KH entry that has been botched up and sucked of the series’ original magic in some way. First here in BBS, then Re:Coded, then 3D, then the Re:Coded movie, then UX/X Backcover, then BBS 0.2: A Fragmentary Passage, and finally KHIII itself. This asinine, seemingly endless “Reconnect” stuff, and along with it the re-contextualizing of the series’ narrative and re-branding of the releases into “the Dark Seeker Chronicle”, after which there’s meant to be more convoluted, poorly done sagas starring Sora to come, is what truly vaulted Kingdom Hearts over the shark and wrecked the franchise beyond repair. What Blank Points was advertising to me was not anything resembling the magical Disney-Square Enix crossover epic series I signed on for. And sure enough, it was never quite that series again.
My Translation: There are still people out there who are suffering, and they’re waiting for me. I have to get them back, they’re all connected to me.
Literal Translation: There are still people who are sad. Because they’re waiting, I have to go and get back all (the ones) connected to me.
I wanted to make a post about how great these lines are in both languages, so here goes.
The word Sora uses in the Japanese version that I translated as “get back,” torimodoshi, has the sense of regaining something that’s been lost, something that’s rightfully yours. And just who or what does Sora intend to get back? Well, “all the ones connected to him” or to be more faithful to the English version of Kingdom Hearts, his friends. Because his famous “My friends are my power!” line is more along the lines of “Connecting hearts is my power!” (つながる心が俺の力だ！) in Japanese, and we see that connected hearts motif continued here.
And not only that. By using torimodoshi, Sora’s basically implying that all these people who are connected to him are his, not Xehanort’s, and he’s going to get them back precisely for that reason. He won’t rest until he’s regained the friends he has lost, until every last one of these people has been saved and returned to their rightful places at his side. That’s what drives him to leave, why he tells Kairi he has to go and why she understands and accepts his departure. His friends need him, and we all know the lengths Sora will go to for the sake of his friends.
Taking a look at the English version, one thing that really stands out is the “I am who I am...” line. It makes the religious tone of Blank Points even more blatant, especially with the pause before he says, “...because of them.” Maybe the implications are unintentional, but it’s something interesting to note all the same. I mean, after everyone called out to him like they were praying, culminating in Aqua crying when she heard his name, it’s hard not to draw the connection...
Anyway, I really like how he says his friends have made him who he is here. He could take all the glory for himself, but he doesn’t. He gives credit where credit is due, because he knows he’s connected to his friends as much as they are connected to him. And because of all the ways they’ve helped and shaped him, he feels it is his duty to help them in return, so off he goes.
Kingdom Hearts 3, you can’t get here soon enough.
Screenshots are from Everglow’s Blank Points videos here (Japanese version) and here (English version).
I may have just realised something. You know in Blank Points, how Namine is shown in the Old Mansion, Roxas and Xion on the Clocktower, and Terra and Ventus at the Land of Departure? People assumed that it was just symbolism that didn’t actually happen in canon, and Nomura sort-of confirmed that, I think? But, I was just looking at the Blank Points video on youtube and when I got up to Namine’s moment in the character montage I noticed something:
This is Namine’s drawing in her scene in the character montage. It shows Sora sitting on a paopu tree on Destiny Islands, wearing his KH2 outfit.
And:
This is Sora sitting on a paopu tree on Destiny Islands a few days after KH2, still wearing his KH2 outfit. It’s very similar to Namine’s drawing, isn’t it? It’s not identical, since Sora’s hands are resting on his lap in the latter picture while they aren’t in Namine’s drawing, but it’s similar enough to make me think.
Namine never got a chance to see Sora in his KH2 outfit until the very end of the game, unless she is omnipotent (which I don’t think she is). So if this is a purely symbolic scene, why add that detail in? And, Namine has merged back with Kairi by the time Aqua meets Ansem in the RoD, so she can’t be physically present in the Old Mansion in the Realm of Light.
And then there’s the case of Ventus and Terra, who really can’t be present at the Land of Departure because there is no Land of Departure anymore. And Roxas and Xion have gone back into Sora (and so have no bodies) and can’t be eating ice-cream with Axel like old times at the Twilight Town Clock-Tower.
The only way any of this is possible is if they are dreaming it.
In summary: Namine, Roxas and Xion, and Ventus and Terra are in the Realm of Sleep and are dreaming, which is how they can be in the places they are shown in when they aren’t really there in the physical world. Those scenes in the Blank Points montage really did happen, they just happened in the Realm of Sleep and not in the physical realm.
