Sep 21, 2024
seen from Maldives
seen from China
seen from Poland
seen from Germany
seen from United States
seen from Poland
seen from United States
seen from Spain
seen from Netherlands
seen from Thailand
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from Singapore
seen from Australia
seen from Israel
seen from Germany
seen from China
seen from China
seen from China
seen from China
Madoka turned into the "Law of Cycles". What if Sora turns into the "Law of Connected Hearts"?
Once, a cousin's kid was shitting on Kingdom Hearts to me, and i just had to leave the conversation. My sister said that I was visibly angry, and I don't even remember not holding myself together. I thought I kept myself in control pretty well. But I guess I still get intensely defensive over Kingdom Hearts.
Hearing Alex Hirsch and Dana Terrace (sounded like he said "Dana") respectively shit on Kingdom Hearts and talk with shame about playing it during childhood, makes me lose any interest in finally checking out Gravity Falls and continuing Knights Of Guinevere.
And that's fine. I never got into Gravity Falls or Owl House. I appreciated what Hirsch has said vs generative AI and for LGBTQIA+ representation amid Disney's hypocrisy. And I respect what I've heard of Owl House, and I was glad Terrace found a different venue with Glitch studios. But I was just barely interested in trying out their series. But hearing them shit on Kingdom Hearts, with so much disdain, absolutely sours me on them.
Which is something that I thought I was over. I was fairly young, when I discovered my first instance of a creator I loved, hating another creator I loved. I loved Calvin And Hobbes, but hearing Bill Waterson go into detail about how much he thought Garfield was shit, was really painful dissonance for young-me. And since then, I thought I'd had grown a thick skin about that. There have been multiple instances where I encountered the same type of dissonance and I handled it better or felt nothing about it. But then I hear creators shitting on Kingdom Hearts, and my inner Kikyo is like "well, fuck you then". lol
.
Ever since D23 this past weekend, I've been thinking about how Kingdom Hearts really is my favorite Disney IP. It's angsty, dark/emo, but just so incredibly sincere and pure-hearted. I still cry at Kingdom Hearts. I still love all the original characters from Kingdom Hearts. I still snatch up merch for them. My collection feels like amulets of intense emotional focus.
People try to dismiss the power of KH, by attributing its effectiveness to nostalgia, and childhood attachments formed during vulnerable ages. But as someone who got into KH as an adult, I can tell you, it's not just childhood nostalgia. Kingdom Hearts is genuinely sincere, earnest, sweet, dark, hopeful, touching, and so emotionally effective.
For years, I skipped around, changing my answers for my favorite Disney IP, dependent on what division of Disney was discussed: Pixar, Disney Animation, Star Wars, Marvel, etc. But I could never pick one IP overall, that I loved so much and always made me excited. But D23 2026 made me realize, it's Kingdom Hearts.
Mostly because it forced me to remember that Kingdom Hearts is a Disney IP. For years, I completely forgot that, and just treated Kingdom Hearts like a Squaresoft/SquareEnix IP, that happened to borrow licensing from Disney. We all know that all the magic from the storytelling, the characters, the game development, etc., all comes from Square, not Disney. I completely forgot that Kingdom Hearts is Disney.
But now that I'm reminded of Kingdom Hearts is a Disney IP, I will have to say Kingdom Hearts is my favorite Disney IP.
.
Because of family members who have worked for Disney for at least half my life now, I've had free access to Disneyland and discounted, rare, Disney merch, almost whenever I want. And I just never cared. My sibling offered to get me the D23 2026 exclusive pins and Futurama plushies, at D23 this past weekend, and I just wasn't that interested. I go to Disneyland rarely, and when I do, I don't even ride the rides. (Motion sickness.) I just walk around like it's a normal, public park and take figure photos with my Kingdom Hearts figurines. But it's striking to me, how much extended family members of mine love Disney and want that merch and to visit Disneyland so badly...but I just don't care. (Other than Ghirardelli. I really should try more ice cream shops than solely DCA's Ghirardelli.) It amazes me to watch people online react with so much emotional attachment to Disney characters, while I in contrast, feel almost nothing.
After I got into anime, I was at THAT AGE where I was so amazed by anime, that I began to define my love for anime by a disgust for Disney. And honestly, Kingdom Hearts was the only thing that brought me back. I remember telling my brother when I was young, that at that time, right before I got into Kingdom Hearts, if the embodiment of Disney Animation walked up to me, I would have punched it in the face. But Kingdom Hearts made me interested in Disney again. (Not that Disney Animation has had too much more after Howard Ashman-influenced movies, to make me as interested as when I was 8 or 9 years old. But y'know, I wasn't defining myself by punching Disney in the face if I could, anymore.)
So it's amazing to me, to hear the disrespect on Kingdom Hearts, when I probably wouldn't even be entertaining Disney anymore, without it.
Since I'm coming clean, I may as well be fully honest. I like watching everyone fangirl over Gravity Falls. I think the results of those Tumblr Sexy Man Tournaments, where Gravity Falls characters won, was really funny. I think the comparisons between Gravity Falls characters and Jayvik is really funny. I respect a lot of what I heard about Owl House. And I'm glad for the message that was sent to the industry when lots of people liked Knights Of Guinevere's premier. ...But I'm not actually interested. I'm not willing to put in the work or time to get into or just watch Gravity Falls. The one or 2 episodes I did watch only vaguely intrigued me. Nothing about the characters catches my particular interests. Doesn't look like it's for me. And I like the analyses of Knights Of Guinevere, more than I enjoyed watching it. Frankly, I tried to watch it, and the first few scenes already made me leave. But I do love watching other people analyze it and react to it. I hope it does well. And I know that Gravity Falls already did well.
But now when I think about giving Gravity Falls or Owl House a try...I'll remember this interview clip and be instantly soured on them.
If they're not going to hold back on shitting on Kingdom Hearts, then I'm going to stop holding back on stating my disinterests too.
Geoff Tweeting about attending a D23 Disney panel???? Could the rumor be true that D23 will announce or sneak peek something about Kingdom Hearts, BEFORE Sunday's Kingdom Hearts panel at D23 2026?????????????
By the way here's Kingdom Hearts 4... by Ragged Knowledge
That Time Disney COPIED Kingdom Hearts - Disney Star Smash by TheGamersJoint
The mangaka for Tenjyo Tenge did art for an official Kingdom Hearts knock-off by Disney???????
Final Weapon @fnlwpn:
"Nomura Says the Idea of Quadratum Existed at the Beginning of Kingdom Hearts: "Interviewer: At the beginning of Kingdom Hearts, there is a monologue that goes: "I've been having these weird thoughts lately. Like...is any of this real, or not?" What does that mean? Nomura: The name “Quadratum” didn't exist at that time, but the idea was there. It was a long preparation for the day when I would reach this point (laughs)." https://finalweapon.net/2024/09/18/new-kingdom-hearts-iv-details-revealed-in-new-interview-with-tetsuya-nomura/"
Kingdom Hearts beta trailer quotes screengrabbed by Bio_Roxas: "I just don't know… Is this world for real or not?" "That's right, Sora. Your body, your soul, your whole existence… they're all going to disappear!" "Come on, guys! We've got to save Sora!" "Please, Sora… Don't go."