#hclianthi

[valorxdrive]

Roxas if u don’t go and put your weeb phase back.

[darlinrogue]

Riku 

Starter for @hclianthi​ w/ Riku and Naminé

A kaleidoscope of glass scattered across the oak floors and ornate rug. Fractures of intricate shards, glinting and gleaming in the light like jewels. Like the tiny hard candies the confectionary shop in town sold. Little lemon drops, ruby red strawberries with tiny green gummy leaves, and delicate orange slices adorned with powder sugar peels. Naminé crouched, sitting back on her heels as she reached for a fractal. Light filtered through the glass and painted her palm pale blue. She gasped when the edge bit into her skin and pricked her finger. Blood welled between the lines of her finger print, a little prick of pain. Naminé dropped the glass and put her finger to her mouth. The floor board by the entry hall creaked. She glanced across the room, to the shadowed hallway and the figure lurking therein. Naminé stood and her hands fell to her sides.

“You shouldn’t have come back here.”

[ursaced]

hclianthi

Foretellers and keykids don't know pizza and yet sea salt ice cream exists in daybreak town

sea salt ice cream is transcendent, ofcourse its there 

[escapekissed]

hclianthi replied to your post: something i’ve noticed in recent disney movies is...

lost in the woods was such a fun romp, but Kristoff’s cut song ‘Get This Right’ was -chef’s kiss- SO GOOD AS A DISNEY PRINCE/RELATIONSHIP ESTABLISHING SONG, WATERS MY CROPS IT DOES

so here’s some discourse:

the kristoff/anna dynamic starts off in the first movie annoying enough bc they so badly want to subvert the ‘love at first sight’ trope but like. how are they gonna act like they invented subversion when. beauty and the beast exists, princess and the frog exists, tangled exists. the little mermaid is actually a whole ass subversion of this trope in its original fairy tale AND the disney movie if u actually pay attention to it. aladdin has all kinds of junk to do with love and identities. their dynamic is so like. pointedly charged at classic disney princes in a way that’s just like ‘what did prince phillip ever do to YOU...’ like sometimes i feel like the frozen writers didnt even watch the other movies except on the most shallow possible level.

and then they prove that with the dynamic in frozen 2 which is not taken seriously at all and is EXTREMELY toxic, which makes sense after anna has such an experience with emotional toxicity and being alone p much her whole life but THEY DONT TAKE IT SERIOUSLY and like. we basically never get a really good moment between kristoff and anna at all in canon except for when kristoff and anna are being told to get married by the worst sidekick characters in the entire disney umbrella and i just. like that’s their only really solid romantic moment to that point and then they’re like ‘kristoff must be ur true love!’ like i know its a children’s movie but. how are u gonna subvert it and then double down on ur heterosexual bullshit

it would be so much more revolutionary for little girls to see representation of healthy romantic couples than just lampshading heterosexual awkwardness. it all comes off as so awkward and ridiculous and TORTURED. like they overwrote these lines so hard its hard to believe it comes from the same movies as elsa’s character development and anna’s sacrifice.

kristoff and anna are like. an entirely different couple in ‘get this right’ and i love that song so much for its ability to show little girls and little boys and the awkward disney-loving young adults what relationships CAN be. trying really hard for each other. not always being able to be what you think the other person wants. but actually ALREADY being exactly what that person wants because ‘you’re doing pretty great so far’ at being what they deserve, which is just. kindness and respect and the benefit of the doubt.

IDK KRISTOFF’S AND ANNA’S TREATMENT PISSES ME OFF TBH

[crossxskulled]

☠ - ”...” Something he just had no damn words. Here she was, holding such an incredible sense of pride over that performance and even still wearing the ‘face’ of her act even now. Why was she so determined to see if this can sway his heart with this matter? He holds no damn idea--

Ryuji Sakamoto sure as hell knows one thing though!

”How many times do I have to tell ya yer not one of those damn anime girls! Did you friggin go OWOOOO at me of all the damn things!?”

@hclianthi​

[blackasteriia]

🔥 story structure bih

Feed the Fires of my Salt

I jumped into Kingdom Hearts right after KH3 came out. I had the privilege of watching the series’ cutscenes from beginning-to-end, starting with the KHUX back cover and ending in KH3. This is a very confusing way to enter Kingdom Hearts. The start of the story is in KHUX and the beginning is in KH1. It’s KH1 that introduces the core mechanics, themes, and principles of the story. Yet, the story starts in KHuX, which is a mobile game. The KHuX itself is a baffling mess with too many twists for me to even bother tracking it. For the purpose of this essay I’ll focus on Sora’s story, he’s the protagonist after all. 

Kingdom Hearts 1 begins medias res, ‘into the middle of things.’ It doesn’t know that. It thinks it’s a straightforward story and probably the best told one in all of Kingdom Hearts. Sora and his friends live a normal life. He has a call to action when his island falls into darkness and he losses his friends. To find his friends he must travel through several worlds. On the course of this journey he learns of Kingdom Hearts. He then meets Ansem, the antagonist who believes that all people and things belong to the darkness. Sora takes all that he has learned to confront Ansem. Ansem is defeated and Sora’s journey comes to a close. It’s a simple story but it is effective, charming, and fun. 

Then, Sora loses all his memories in a random castle through an event that he does not remember, he wakes-up after sleeping a full year, and we go into Kingdom Hearts 2. 

Kingdom Hearts 2, is another hero’s journey. Sora seeks guidance from the wise Yen Sid, a mentor archetype we most often find in stories of this type. Yen Sid informs Sora that he must defeat Organization 13, an insidious group seeking to obtain Kingdom Hearts. This bunch isn’t as straightforward as Ansem was. They’re manipulative, and also, very human, with their own quirks and personalities, some even befriending Sora. The series delves into a more mature grey than the pure black and white of KH1. Sora learns that light and dark aren’t clear-cut concepts, but to accept the complexity of himself, and others. Sora defeats Xemnas and returns to Destiny Island with his friends, concluding his journey. 

In Dream Drop Distance, Sora and Riku undergo training by Yen Sid to become keyblade masters, which is very important. Sora must unlock the power of waking by *shuffles notes* freeing seven sleeping keyholes, in the realm of sleep. Okay, yeah, anyway he does that. Then this Xehanort guy --who the hell is this guy? He was in Birth by Sleep. Wait, what?-- kidnaps him and tries to possess him so he can fill out the ranks of Organization 13-- Didn’t we kill all of them in the last game? No, they came back. Then why bother killing them off?-- But he’s saved by Axel --who died in the last game-- and Riku. Anyway, this is apparently grounds for failure and Sora does not become a keyblade master. 

In Kingdom Hearts 3, Sora embarks on an adventure to unlock the power of waking by traveling through the worlds and training to become stronger. Didn’t he already beat like, three series antagonists by now why does he need to grow stronger??? Sora is confronted by the members of the Real Organization 13, who taunt him as he travels. Sora gathers the Seven Guardians of Lights and defeats Xehanort and the Real Organization 13. He returns to Destiny Island with his friends and concludes his story by vanishing into a burst of light.

And that, from beginning to end, is Sora’s journey through the Kingdom Hearts series. I skipped a lot of details. I didn’t include side games. I told it as Sora experienced it. Here’s a few things I noticed:

1). There’s a lot of start and stops. The series has three endings. The end of Kingdom Hearts 1, Kingdom Hearts 2, and Kingdom Hearts 3, are all satisfying stop-points for the series. This makes sense, as Nomura, for the most part, intended them to be endings. Of course, he leaves some running threads to intrigue and hint at another game. It means that Sora has his powers reset twice and he begins another hero journey three times. The goals never change: train, grow stronger, beat-up bad guy, go home. Sora never grows past the dumb kid that picked-up a giant key in KH1 and started swinging, or any growth he does develop is reset. 

2). The side games are useless. I can tell Sora’s story without Birth by Sleep. I can do it without 358/2 Days, Chain of Memories, Re:Coded, and I bet I could kick-out Dream Drop Distance too. Xehanort is the sole character that you need. He is by far the worst antagonist. He shows-up without fanfare and is defeated with little trouble. Ansem and Xemnas both had something to contrast to Sora, some sort’ve dynamic, a personal stake. Xehanort is just a jerk and he needs to be beaten-up.

3). Xehanort is a terrible antagonist. An antagonist is the character that opposes the protagonist. It is the antagonist who the protagonist must overcome in order to complete their journey. Ansem and Sora jostle over the very nature of humans, idealism vs cynicism. Xemnas forced Sora to recognize the complexity of the human condition. Xehanort-- bullies Sora until Sora kicks his ass. Never mind untangling how unbelievably complicated the relationship between Xehanort, Ansem, and Xemnas are. You’d believe that Xehanort would be some culmination of Sora’s journey-- but I’d argue that it’d complete the Sea Salt Trio’s story more to defeat Xehanort, than it does for Sora to do it. 

4). Final Fantasy and Disney are window dressing. This game series is supposed to be a crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy. If you read my synopsis, you would not know this. Maleficent in KH1 is the sole character I feel I could’ve added. None of the Final Fantasy characters are on the list or come close to deserving mention. Why do we have the fiftieth Xehanort clone, and not Sephiroth, or anyone else, as a main antagonist? When I watched this series for the first time I did not watch a single Disney World, and I lost nothing for it. About 60-70% of this entire game series is useless, poorly written filler. This becomes worse as it drags on too. There’s some neat character study in KH1 but by KH3, it’s all crap. Instead of using the Disney World’s for character exploration and building plot, they’re usually charmless retellings of the original movie. 

5). There are so many useless characters. We don’t need Roxas. Get rid of Xion. Namine, who? Xehanort just needs to go. You can remove Kairi after KH1. Maybe we keep the BBS-trio because we have to have someone fill-out the Guardians of Light in KH3, but I think Terra is expendable. All of the Union Cross cast, gone. After KH2, all of the Organization members are wasted screen time. These characters do not contribute to the main plot and they have no satisfactory, useful, or good character arcs. They’re just here, repeating what we already heard. Axel finished his story in KH2, why is he still here? The entirety of Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days and Re:coded can be removed, and you would lose absolutely nothing. If I was Nomura’s editor, I’d be making judicious use of a red pen on his scripts. Characters that die don’t stay dead, characters that finish their arcs just hang around taking-up space, and characters that shouldn’t be added, are added. Cut, cut, cut, cut, cut, trim this down to like, 2-3 games, tops, and you’d have a powerful story. Not a long overwritten piece of absurdity that’s wheezing like a pneumonic horse on its last legs. 

6). Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts 3 are the worst. Sora sets out to complete one task: become a keyblade master, and, he fails. He doesn’t even finish his secondary task, master the power of waking. Kingdom Hearts 3 has no tension, it’s so cut-and-dry, you need about... an hour of the game to know what happened in it. Sora defeated Xehanort, the all important villain, introduced in DDD. It then ends on a stupid cliff hanger. Also, goes to show that Re:Mind was stupid and didn’t help anything or anyone. KH3 had one job, complete all the character arcs introduced in the series in a satisfying way, and it failed on every single account. 

How this series tells story is terrible. It’s done through long-winded exposition that is boring and confusing. Somehow, after watching hours of cutscenes and reading all of the additional side material, I still do not know what Kingdom Hearts is supposed to be. Sometimes, it’s the ‘heart of worlds,’ other times it’s a ‘source of wisdom,’ or it’s a ‘source of power,’ or it can just grant Xemnas’ wish like a star, and it looks like Scala Ad Caelum inside, or its the door to the Realm of Darkness. How can it be the name sake of the series and be so poorly defined? The Metal Gear series is just as convoluted as Kingdom Hearts is, but at least I know what a metal gear is. 

Nomura can structure a plot. He understands the basics of hero’s journey. Every single game is based on that structure, individually. When tied together, however, they make this weird mass  of starts and stops, retcons, wasted time, and poor story telling. I like Sora and I like his story. I would not be here if that was not the case. It’s the same way with Xion. I really like Xion and her story, but she shouldn’t be here. That, or it needs to be written in a way that it matters. This plot stuff isn’t just about the events. It’s about the characters.  What happens to them. What do they do. How do they behave. How do they change? Plot happens when characters act. What a bad plot indicates is bad character motivation and action. These characters don’t matter because Nomura didn’t give them backstories, nuanced motivations, real flaws, or meaningful action. So he crams as most information into the dialogue and pretends that counts as a plot. 

 And it’s not like plot is  complicated, shit happens, that’s it. To add in some RP salt? It bothers me when muns says they’re ‘bad at plotting.’ What do you mean you’re bad at plot? Plot happens when our two muses meet and shit happens. Your muse has encountered a wild Xion, what do you do? > Run > Attack > Talk to > Feed. I’m not writing a passive brick here, ya’ll. I want shit to happen. And when I’m slogging through 13 hours of Kingdom Hearts 2 I want shit to happen, and not watch Sora faff about in a Disney world for forty minutes. Why is that so much to ask for?

[strelitzic]

that person was here again , sitting by fountain square.  she never understood why the other , near every day , sat by the fountain without fail.  was she waiting for someone??  if so , just how much longer was she going to have to wait for them??  strelitzia  ...  didn’t understand why someone would be that  ...  determined to wait , to sit still.  she would have given up a long time ago.  but that was her , not this one , not this special person.  at least , in her eyes.  fingers pressed into the side of the brick wall , from where she was peering around.  without realizing it , a faint whisper left her lips.          ❝  how cool.  ❞

        (  @hclianthi​ for phos. s.c )

[pyrhass]