#sphinx thinks

[riddle-of-sphinx]

Sometimes I think about ffxv and what it could have been.

And that's not to say I wish it was still versus 13, rather, I sometimes think about what could have been for 15 as 15, if the devs had the time to really flesh it out and polish it.

Important lore is scattered in random magazines and such in game, and in tie in movies, anime and books in the real world. The first chapters feel leisurely almost, despite the stakes you're supposed to have, but then once you get to Altissia, the story becomes so dense and crammed. The thing you spend most of your time doing is sit in the car. There's painfully overt sponsorships. Bahamut is super sus and yet you don't get to throw hands.

And then there's the ending (the ending in the game anyway, the vanilla one). The problem isn't necessarily that it's tragic. Plenty of tragic endings work fine, see FF10 for an example. What works with it is that the protagonist's demise was so completely tied into the mechanics of the world, and that it was foreshadowed so well. in 15, you learn about Noctis's fate in chapter 14 and then immediately go to die in chapter 15. And the game doesn't really explain why Noctis dying would be the thing that fixes the starscourge and the whole eternal night problem. Sure, Ardyn's soul is apparently stuck somewhere, but like. The somewhere we see looks pretty much like the inside of the crystal and bahamut has been hanging out in there for like twelve million years. And also, why does killing Ardyn fix anything in the first place? Ardyn wasn't the source of the Scourge, as evidenced by it existing separately from him back before he became black licorice insane. But maybe he became it's storage receptacle, but that also doesn't make sense with the way he can just use it to daemonify people, that's it leaving his body. You can't be like, 'lets gather it all up into one place and then get rid of it' and then just let it leak out. And also also, the part in episode Ardyn, where the trash hobo is being threatened by Bahamut in like, whatever you call that glowy void dimension, why couldn't Bahamut just kill him then, if he's already the evil malaria storage receptacle? If the thing that Noctis needs to die for is to get rid of that part, that's in the void, why not just do it when you have the chance, and spare the world you're supposed to be protecting, Bahamut? And also also also, why would the scourge have anything to do with the long night? It does cause miasma mist stuff, but how many daemons would there really have to be to block out the sun on the entire planet, and it's only when they die, iirc, that they release the miasma. And then there's the Episode Ignis verse 2 ending where apparently we can bypass Noct getting shish-kebabbed just because Iggy looked at some tombs for 10 years, meaning it wasn't actually necessary in the first place (and yes, Iggy killing Ardyn with the ring apparently means that any rando who was willing to sacrifice their life could have gotten rid of Ardyn on the material plane, and we have no idea what happened with the soul fragment thing, but apparently he came up with some way to deal with it that wasn't human sacrifice).

The og ending just comes off as just being sad for the sake of being sad (which it does succeed at, I was very much sad) not because it makes sense. It reads to me like the bad ending of multiple endings, and I guess to some degree it is, what with dawn of the future and all that.

The potential of this world is fascinating, and I love the characters and their relationships dearly, but there are obvious cracks and it makes me think.

[riddle-of-sphinx]

Challenging a Common KH Assumption

As I have been vibing in the general kh space (sometimes feels like a mistake lol) I have noticed that the idea that Kingdom Key was meant to be Riku's is often brought up as if it is fact. For whatever reason that has always bothered me, and thus I have done some thinking about where that idea came from and if it really is as solid as some of the fans think.

Firstly, taking a look at KH1. For this particular analysis, I will be looking at KH1 alone, without the rest of the series informing any ideas about what's going on. The scene that gets talked about the most when it comes down to this idea, is the scene where Riku takes Kingdom Key from Sora. The idea, with that assumption in mind, is that the KK responds to him because it was meant to be his. This doesn't exactly add up in my eyes, as what it sounds more like, is that he is challenging Sora for the role of wielder (think Killmonger challenging T'Challa in Black Panther). He says 'Let it choose it's true master', leaving it completely up to the Keyblade, which at the point when the game was made, was more or less one of a kind, and semi sentient. Rather than the idea of Bequeathing and passing the power down, the Keyblade itself chooses who it wants to be its wielder.

Then there's the scene of Riku actually taking the KK.

Notice how Sora fights it. There is considerable resistance there, as if KK is also fighting it. This looks way more in line with the idea of a heart-to-heart challenge to me, where Riku, with his resolve and stubbornness (and something of a darkness fueled superiority complex) wins.

And interestingly, he says afterwards, that 'Maleficient was right.' Now, this could either mean Maleficient somehow knew that 'Riku was actually meant for the Keyblade, something something chosen one' which, how would she? Or, she informed him, due to Ansem SoD whispering in her ear, that he could challenge Sora for the Keyblade.

Then when Sora takes it back?

No resistance at all. Like the choice to go back to Sora was easy as blinking. Whether or not Sora meant to, when he gave his friendship and hearts speech, he challenges Riku right back for his status as wielder again, and his resolve is enough that he wins it back.

Then we get what is more or less a confirmation here, with ASOD explaining that the heart that is strong and true will win the Keyblade.

Nothing about him losing his destiny, but instead offering him more power to 'become stronger' which Riku may have taken to mean more power in order to challenge Sora again but just resulted in borderline demonic possession (RIP Riku).

People also point to the scene in the beginning where Sora first gets KK, because there's Riku getting eaten by a portal and them reaching for each other. There is the idea that that's when the Keyblade passed to Sora. However, is that the only explanation for that scene? Isn't it just as likely, that the desire to help a friend even when within the terrifying throes of a darkness trance and portal, was enough to make Sora worthy for the Keyblade to choose him? He was focused only on trying to help his friends in that moment.

So, nothing in KH1 on it's own necessitates the idea of KK being Riku's, so where does that idea come from?

(now getting into the meat of the rest of the series)

My hypothesis is that it comes from the tail end of DDD. The scenes where Xigbar says that Sora wasn't chosen, and where Xehanort mentions the Keyblade passing down the list.

and to that I say. Please consider the context, and who this information is coming from.

Firstly Xigbar/Luxu is attempting to help the Org kidnap and enslave Sora, so any way he can demoralize him would be useful. Secondly, think back to what Xigbar said to him back in KH2. He says that 'the Keyblade sure chose a dud this time.' That time, he's still trying to demoralize Sora, but within the idea that Sora was chosen. What changed?

I imagine it was Xehanort's influence there.

And speaking of him, his line about the Keyblade going down the list, and Sora being a dull ordinary boy...

First of all, when has it ever been a good idea to trust Xehanort (or his extensions) about anything? He is a manipulative liar (see: Terra's route in BBS, ASOD and Riku, Xemnas being a cult leader, etc..) and is also shown to be completely capable of being wrong in his ignorance, even about things he's researched! (e.g. "Kingdom Hearts is Light!", him thinking that the best course of action for some people being bad is to cause an apocalypse, assumptions made about Vanitas) And he's wrong even in that scene too! Calling Sora a dull ordinary boy? The kid who killed both of your alter egos and saved all the worlds twice? The kid who saved Ventus's life as a literal infant, and again at age four? The kid who taught himself everything he knows about fighting with the Keyblade? The kid who had the dream sequence where he was ominously told that 'you hold the mightiest weapon of all' and 'you will be the one to open the door'? The kid who somehow made two nobodies out of himself? The kid who was able to exist at the same time as his nobody? Evidence shows that despite what Ol' Nort says, Sora is anything but ordinary.

So yeah. I don't buy the idea that the Kingdom Key was meant for Riku from the beginning. I think there's something else going on here.

[riddle-of-sphinx]

Having finished BBS I have been having some thoughts about what happened to Vanitas. It's all a little unclear. He disappeared after Ven shattered the x blade, so it could be that he's dead (ignoring kh3 Vani, because he's time traveling) but it's never that simple.

Here's a possible idea that I thought up: We're told that Sora was able to save Ven, by providing the piece that was missing. The piece that was missing was Vani.

Vani, from what I could tell, was motivated in BBS by the idea of re-fusing with Ven and being whole again (with extra x blade stuff either being a bonus or a Nort manipulation thing)

So. By that logic, we have a being who wants to be whole, but was rejected/couldn't because the hole was fixed. Something we don't know, though, is if there was any damage or consequences to Sora for repairing Ven's heart with his own (twice!).

If there is a missing piece there for Sora, that piece would be Vanitas shaped (carving a piece of that shape out to give to Ven). And Sora, who immediately accepted Ven with no questions asked, probably would have accepted Vani too.

Maybe Vani fused with Sora as a replacement for Ven, and that's where he went? And I mean a full fusion, like into one being, and not whatever the heck he and Roxas had.

It would explain some things like anti/rage form, and how he can wield two keyblades even after he has all of his passengers removed (because he would have void gear and kingdom key at that point)

I dunno if it works with the idea that Vani is an aspect of one of the Willful Darknesses from union cross though.

[riddle-of-sphinx]

For as bonkers as a lot of kh story stuff is, the devs are actually very good at foreshadowing things, whether it be through design or gameplay.

Take the dream eater link system as an example. In DDD, as you fight alongside your dream eaters, you fill up a little gauge next to their portrait. (Image from khwiki)

when the gauge is full, and if you're playing as Sora, you will do a team attack with that dream eater, kinda akin to the limit attacks from 2.

However, for Riku, this is different. Riku straight up fuses with his dream eaters which gives boosts and bonuses to his attacks. He can do this, because at this point he's become a dream eater himself, and thus his interactions with them are different. It's a little gameplay detail that gives a little 'oh' moment when looking back.

Sora is not a dream eater and thus interacts with them in a different way.

Though that does beg the question. If Riku is a dream eater, and Sora's dream eater specifically, shouldn't they have a link attack together?

Well...

I would argue that they do.

[riddle-of-sphinx]

can we talk about the foreshadowing the devs managed with this, by putting the Kingdom Key (and even one with Sora's crown on it) on the logo for the *Graveyard*?

Basically telling us what's gonna happen to Best Boy

[riddle-of-sphinx]

Shout out to Aqua for immediately projecting her and her friends' issues on two 4 year olds within 3 seconds of meeting them

Also can I just say that her decision to tell Sora that his job is to 'follow Riku and protect him if he starts down a dark path' without bequeathing him was a little... I can't think of the right word here but like. Keyblades are absolutely busted on a power scaling level. If Riku did go down a dark path (cough kh1 cough) what did Aqua expect Sora to be able to do to stop him/protect him? I mean, he could be a voice of reason, but that only works as long as someone is willing to listen, and the most effective way to defend against a keyblade is with another keyblade. And that's not even getting into the fact that if Sora was following Riku being a keybearer, he would need some way to defend himself, considering the things keybearers fight on the reg.

I get that she didn't want to to bring the Horrors down on them (and I guess to try and preserve what continuity they could with the weird circumstances Sora got Kingdom Key) but that ship had sailed when Terra bequeathed Riku in the first place.

she gave him a job but not the means to do it.

[riddle-of-sphinx]

One of Two Things Perpetuated by the Zelda Community that bothers me to No End...

its the constant insistence that the hero's shade is a stalfos. Like. Ok. I understand his face is skeletal but just...

Ok here's the man himself.

And here are the depictions of stalfos in both OoT/MM and TP. They don't resemble each other at all. They are totally skeletal while only his face is skeletal, while his legs are transparent and ghostly. And the skull shape is totally different as well.

But do you know who the hero's shade does resemble?

These guys. They're the ghosts of hylian soldiers in Hyrule castle. It's hard to tell in these specific pictures, but these guys also have the skull like face and transparent legs.

The hero's shade is not a stalfos. He's one of these ghosts.

[riddle-of-sphinx]

Using the power of 358/2 days to get an estimate about how long some things actually took in kh!

Starting off, we can use Day 1, or Roxas' formation as a reference point to kh1. Roxas forms right after Sora becomes a heartless.

From there, we can assume that Sora arrives at Castle Oblivion when Axel leaves to keep an eye on what Marluxia and Larxene are doing with him, which puts his arrival on Day 22, so the finale of kh1, the fight with Ansem (seeker of darkness) took roughly 22 days.

And then, we know that due to memory resonance shenanigans, Roxas passes out until Sora gets put to sleep, and he wakes up on Day 50. Using basic math we can estimate that that means that CoM took about 28 days.

After the rest of 358/2 Days, Roxas gets put in a computer for about a weekish (estimated by the fact that on day 2 of the prologue, Sora's memory restoration is only at 28%. If Roxas was in the matrix for longer, I can assume that the restoration would be higher) .

Subtracting the 22, then the 28 days from the 358, then adding 7, we get 315 days for how long Sora was under.