so here’s something weird about this game. maybe it’s exclusive to La Cité des Cloches, i haven’t seen enough of the other worlds to know
earlier in the game, when going through Traverse Town, it’s explained to us (insofar as anything in KH is explained) by Blonde Genesis that while Sora and Riku seem to be on the same world, they’re actually on two entirely seperate ones that just happen to be occupying the same space. two copies, distinct, but parallel
this seems to be true of La Cité des Cloches as well, because we see events unfold differently across Sora and Riku’s journies, and due to this, we actually see Judge Claude Frollo perish in two entirely different ways
in Riku’s version of the world, Frollo loses his footing when the giant Not-Heartless he commands swoops up behind him. he plunges to streets below, presumably to his death, but because he’s been more or less eaten alive by the oh-so-tempting power of darkness, he dies assured that he’s won anyway
in Sora’s version, on the other hand, events play out more or less identically to how they do in the movie, with Frollo being dispatched seemingly by Notre Dame herself, ostensibly being made subject to the judgment of God that the archdeacon warned him he could not escape
the two sets of events seem to unfold independently, which makes sense if Blonde Genesis was telling the truth about Riku and Sora journeying across parallel planes of reality- but the thing that’s really interesting to me is that the Not-Heartless seem to be able to cross between either plane, or at least are connected in some way
Riku’s version of La Cité des Cloches ends in a fight with Frollo’s massive Not-Heartless, Wargyle, atop the cathedral, a battle which culminates in Wargyle plummeting to the streets below, shedding its wings, seemingly defeated…
… and then subsequently (or not, depending on the order in which the player completes the stories) appears in Sora’s version of La Cité des Cloches, falling from the top of Notre Dame, wingless and seemingly injured, but otherwise ready to fight
the Not-Heartless being able to move freely between realities while Riku and Sora themselves cannot is an interesting idea. so interesting, in fact, that i bet it will never be fully explained or utilized, because Nomura is a hack like that
