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  • Apparently so, but many things happened as well so maybe it just got buried?

    Sure thing, go ahead with it. ^__^
    I'm actually honored if things from Hearts in Unison would get visualized. ;)

    Speaking of it, I think a two-part chapter won't really capture the finale of Kairi's mini-arc very well so I'm rewriting it into a three-parter.
    This part has so far really gotten difficult in terms of writing it and I've some parts rearranged and written anew up to three times until now, lol.

    Even if the story itself is largely planned out, actually writing out the script and enrich it with more details can be quite the challenge.
    Still busy with ones studies I see. I diddlied my exam timeline so I have free time at least now at the beginning of December. Take your time. One thing what I have done with Arch`s ruminations(the only about 1 hour long videos where he focuses only on 1 game) is that I have downloaded them on my computer and converted them into only sound files. So I can then put that into my phone and listen to it like a podcast while I`m walking outside.
    Hey Ossie!

    Since you still somewhat take part in the lore discussion in the KH-series, I thought you might be interested in one persons YouTubers videos. He is now known as Lorerunner, but he goes by Archengai or Arch too. Anyway, in his channel he has these long videos where he speaks about several games, their gameplay, and their story. One of his favorite series is KH and he has marathons about the games where he just talks about the lore of the series and etc.. I found his analysis and thoughts interesting. While I don`t agree with him on some points, and at times I think he has not read all of Nomura`s interviews(or makes theories that go against canon),and some of the ideas he has have been discussed here before, I still think he is really smart and has some deep thoughts about stuff. Way deeper than the average YouTuber in my opinion. I am gonna leave link to his KH playlist: https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLA_ZFCIpDAd-iaos_RtfTpSFcWRYXkQqn
    It does have one, starting with the usual cliché of lost memories (although they do give a certain creative spin to it) and the twins having to regain powers they apparently already held in the past. Primary goal is thus for Reynn and Lann to regain their lost memories, protect the world of Grymoire from the advance of the evil Bahamut Federation and possibly gain clues towards their missing family.

    Probably, I haven't yet looked towards the price tag though and most of these aren't available in Europe anyways. ;P

    Indeed, although in regards to the shortcuts I must say I am relieved that KH III as seen already in 0.2 apparently has more shortcuts available as it helps greatly those who want to play a primarily magic-oriented style.
    With all those extra mechanics available there would as well be the danger that "normal" magic gets thrown under the bus completely otherwise.
    The main issue I agree with critics of the Command Styles is that you couldn't individually deactivate them like D-Links so unwanted ones wouldn't activate.

    Pfft, lol, I did imagine that said in Leonard Nimoy's voice and him throwing his Keyblade. Then Sora & co. summon Dream Eaters as "Zords" to battle Gutsem and Dragon Xemnas. :D
    With Power Rangers it is somewhat a ping-pong issue. First Saban sold it to Disney, then in the recent years they got it back from them.
    It's slated to be very different and more "mature" compared to the original 90's show despite being based on the same overall premise of the first season. It is not a total "reboot"-movie in the vein that it replaces the TV series continuity, but introduces an alternate universe (the very first Power Rangers movie with Ivan Ooze already did that too) so I am not particularily negative towards it, although also not very enthusiastic.

    Much RL stuff to attend I presume?
    No issue, it will be posted when it's ready. I wanted to continue playing World of Final Fantasy and put up the next chapter of HiU last weekend, yet RL prevented me from doing both. <__<

    It's not that I don't enjoy KH 2, lol, I'm just not very keen on its battle system. I do admit though that when you play on critical certain enemies (Data-battles, Cavern of Remembrance Heartless etc.) require some level of strategic preparation and more than just button mashing.
    Definitely I do. Roxas' Data battle is about my primary favorite, but I also enjoy challenging Marluxia, Zexion, Vexen and Xigbar. Demyx is also very amusing when you abuse Wisdom Form and Firaga. Larxene and Xaldin are very challenging and I hate Luxord's due to the forced mini-game at the end.
    You've never taken on Mysterious Figure at all? Ooo, I remember challenging him on the original PSP and needing over 70 tries with Terra to finally get the troll down. Aqua with her barrier and Ventus with his speed were soo much easier to use and the amount of tries stayed under 15, lol.
    You can try to strategize with Mysterious Figure as well, but it won't do you much good and doesn't increase your odds at succeeding.

    Granted, that is a viable point to make. Still, they could pay a bit more attention to story coherency, also since the story was voted to be the most interesting thing about the KH series back in the great Famitsu survey 2012 by a majority of fans.

    I completely missed out on that whole "Stella"-debacle and nearly all the coverage Tabata made on development progress. I simply always had other, more immediate interests to pay more attention to and the main reason I'm even buying FF XV is to take a look if all the hype and ruckus made around it is actually justified and if it has a decent storyline.
    I remember having some discussions with hemmoheikinen about the mythology concepts and origin of certain names present in the game's setting, but that was probably as much involvement as I got with FF XV so far.

    If Shibuya is in KH III they should at least include all those funny shopkeepers somehow as almost all of them were just hilarious to talk to.
    She should take TAV on a shopping spree too, their clothes are also somewhat outlandish. Or imagine Minamimoto confusing the hell out of Sora with his math-related speech and Mr. Hanekoma just being the laid-back adviser again.

    Well, to be fair the election is a kind of shock whose waves still grip the whole world to some extent. Apparently the amount of hate crimes is soaring in the US and many people are simply afraid instead of being willfully ignorant.
    In the worst-case scenario the US gets now a government indirectly run by religious nutjobs and right-wing GOP-representatives who will press their agenda with a President Trump passing most of it because he either doesn't understand or doesn't care about the consequences.
    There's hope that it is successful enough that it becomes an Essentials/Greatest Hits-version then you might be able to get it for less than 30$.
    It's certainly amusing how contagious the cuteness of the game can be, lol, as only the biggest stuck-up grimdark folks are entirely unaffected by it. ^___^

    Heheh, I'm not sure if the "deal with it"-sunglasses are official part of the plushie or if Lann, typical dork he is, just put his sunglasses on the Moogle plushie.
    Speaking of the baby horse chicken, if I saw correctly on Twitter there will be even a figurine of it, alongside the Cactuar ticket conductor from the train and Tama, the fox-like mirage which is the twin's "navigator" and whose favorite resting place is Lann's head.

    I remember the mobility abilities being tied to the Drive Forms being something even ardent KH 2 lovers complained about, lol.
    Looking at how many different possible techniques are crammed into KH III anyways I'd say it would be actually neat to get to pick a "set" of abilities you want to use and there being restrictions so that Sora can't use everything in the same battle.
    With the BBS Command Styles I had ironically less problems overall as while they look fancy, most of them aren't really overpowered and all have a much stricter time limit than the Drive Forms in KH 2.

    Rofl, it certainly fits and the scene with Sora in Valor form for the Red Ranger was really well chosen. I also cracked up at Donald & Goofy as Bulk & Skull.
    Weeeell, Power Rangers once was Disney and the Jedi Knights/Star Wars are Disney right now, soo...
    Well yea, you're welcome, no matter how much I like TAV as characters, the story script of Birth by Sleep is "Basic Bullshit" because it only scratches the surface of what could have been done and arguably damaged the characters in a way. Eraqus and Vanitas are also totally wasted when one looks only at BBS the game itself.

    Sure, go ahead with it. Theory threads are always an enrichment for the community and who knows, maybe you'll even get that new Foreteller award eventually? :D

    It's not actually that I actively dislike it or something, I only found for my personal preference that I like the battle systems of all other KH titles (except Days!) better and find them more engaging/fun to use.
    Literally the only time when I gained enough measure of fun out of KH 2's system was when playing at the highest difficulty and when challenging the Data battles (Lingering Will was already too much, lol).
    Nah, when it comes to secret bosses BBS actually is the worst in terms of design, especially Trollanort. That secret boss is no fun, but tedious and at least partly luck-based.

    That's exactly it, although such an endeavour also requires some skill on part of the author to smoothly weave those changes and new developments together, something I feel Nomura is rather bumpy/clumsy in, hence why KH's overally story sometimes feels a little off.
    It does seem to get somewhat better though when looking at X[chi]'s writing and the few glimpses we've seen of 0.2. In terms of DDD Nomura admitted that it was partly rushed and that shows. While it does weave together the overall mediocre handheld trilogy Days/BBS/Coded, it trips a few times itself and the "setup" for KH III might be a little too over the top when comparing it to the original setup that was hinted at in Blank Points and the regular ending of Re: Coded.

    Indeed, might have to do with me not really following FF XV-news religiously. I've pre-ordered a FF XV-edition that also includes the Advent Children-esque CGI-movie and played the Duscae-Demo that was included with FF Type-0 for a few hours but that's it.

    To a certain degree yes, as I'd like to see interactions between all the characters to different extents. Sora and Ventus finally meeting in person may be on top of my list, but there are dozens of other possibly exciting combinations around. ;D
    Heh, I just remembered that Kairi and Neku are also both strictly spoken redheads, lol.
    We definitely need more of the Shibuya gang. Beat is also funny as hell, Rhyme is soo cute and who doesn't want to see Joshua being fabulous and flirting with Riku again?
    I'd also assume a meeting between Lea/Axel and Joshua would deliver material for cracking up.

    I'd say so as Ephemer was definitely stated to be "somewhere else" and somehow gained the ability to contact certain persons through dreams. No one knows yet how flowerboy managed to exactly do that and where/what exactly the "elsewhere" is he moved his flowery bubblebutt to, but the implication of a transfer is there.

    For the Foretellers I'd say the "stronger than average mooks"-variant may apply so that they might be capable of i.e. destroying three or four wielder kids in one strike with a powerful spell/slash. After all, the massive craters and gashes in the landscape seen in BBS have to come from somewhere.
    The "Player" being capable of withstanding the Foretellers so well might be an exception, not to mention that at least Ava and Invi seem to fight reluctantly and Gula more or less throws the fight after a while.
    The story device being used will nonetheless probably be the primary reason anyways, lol, especially if it delivers yet another stand off and insult barrage between Ira and Aced. ;P

    Of course one needs to hold at least a sliver of interest in a topic or any education is wasted. The worst thing about people like those is that they are the ones to complain the loudest when things go downhill, do not actually understand why things go downhill and then come people like Donald Trump who promise these people everything and due to not seeing any of the bigger picture they vote for someone like this.

    Willful ignorance is worse than actual stupidity.
    Maybe you'll get it later once it goes down in price? Adorable is practically the general description for everything in the game except the cronies from the evil Bahamut Federation, those look like some Fal'Cie Nightmares.
    That Chocobo Chick! With That Eggshell!
    Reynn's and Lann's apartment/flat is also full of cute Final Fantasy plushies, the Moogle with the sunglasses on the shelf being only one example.


    I haven't seen the Sora DLC yet so it probably isn't out, but the chibi summons are golden in general.
    Refia from FF III comes in riding a Chocobo, healing the whole party and as you say, Chibi-Sephiroth blasting the battlefield with a massive Meteor (to the Advent Children-version of One-Winged Angel no less) is at the same time totally awesome and cute because of his appearance.
    He also doesn't say a word nor do the twins appear in the summoning sequence unlike with the other champions.

    I'm not shy to admit that I am sceptical, very sceptical about the whole issue but I choose to wait and see nonetheless. So far I didn't like the Drive Forms, but I'll wait until I experience how KH III handles them.
    True dat, TAV even have an "It's morphin' time" sequence with hitting their shoulder pads.
    That reminds me of a very funny video using clips from the KH series to recreate the opening of the first Power Rangers incarnations from the 90's with Master Xehanort taking the place of Rita Repulsa, Mickey as Alpha 5, Yen Sid as Zordon, Donald and Goofy as Bulk & Skull, Sora as the Red Ranger, Ventus as the Yellow Ranger, Riku as the Black Ranger, Kairi as the Pink Ranger, Aqua as the Blue Ranger and Terra as the Green Ranger.
    *searches*, ah, actually found it, nicely put together:
    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hnk6i8oBabg

    While that is true it is still somewhat sad to see that TAV could already be so much more even now had BBS itself been handled better story- and script-wise. The 0.2 opening's already big impact would have been even greater then.
    Pfft, ahaha yeah, BBS' shitty script strikes again. That's actually another thing the abbreviation "BBS" can stand for: Basic Bullshit Script. ;P

    Considering what we learned so far about the lore of the KH universe this seems to be the logical conclusion.
    A totally smashed heart which is not helped by another might not even be able to join with a KH at all either since as the DDD chronicles about BBS state, such a heart is "fractured, useless".
    This is also what I don't get about all these death-fetishists parts of the fandom seem to be since the actual KH lore actually hints at a possible fate much worse than death.
    Even worse, if the memories and pieces of the "destroyed" heart get dispersed around it might be impossible for it to ever recover even if there is another heart willing to help since it would take millenniums or even more to locate and collect all the pieces of the broken heart.

    It is certainly worth to keep in mind this possibility as it would not only explain the things you mention, it would also go hand in hand with Nomura's tendency to go "up to eleven" with already established concepts. Xehanort's plan in DDD in regards to Sora was practically combining the gruesome fates of both Ventus and Terra and throwing in a little of Riku's possession problems on top.
    By now I actually doubt that "Player" will get an actual, definite canon appearance and gender so the prospect of X[chi] being a bunch of memories dumped together from several wielder kids from the Chi-era (who all in some way or form had contact with Ephemer and Skuld) would provide a nice "cover story" to include "Player" of everyone who played Chi without ever giving him/her a concrete form because they are several different people to begin with.

    We don't know what happens after the actual climatic war battle and what exactly happened to the hearts of the wielder kids who fell, so the explanation of it being the location might hold some water.
    We know such things as lingering wills exist and the dead Keyblades lying everywhere might have wisps of their former wielder's memories inside them.
    The Badlands/Keyblade Graveyard are depicted as a haunted and eerie place in any case (I also recall Vanitas stating that the X-blade can ONLY be forged there) and the Goatblade originating from that era might actually result in reciprocal effects when it is used there.
    Xehanort turning the Goatblade into that glowing bowling ball of Darkness and "summoning" that blue KH before Ven and Vanitas even clashed also come into mind.
    We know from Days with the "devices" that absorbed the world's memories of Sora to strengthen Xion that the memories of world's themselves can also be accessed and manipulated.
    The Badlands/Keyblade Graveyard I think can be definitely counted as an remnant of the old world so it might even be possible that Ventus' heart got affected by the memories of the world as well rather than "only" one or several persons.
    His heart was weakened due to Heartless attacks and then gruesomely injured by Xehanort extracting his darkness (Xehanort himself admits that what he did damaged Ven's heart in the "most horrific way") so whaetever was lingering there would have an easy time "latching on".
    So yes, I'm actually pretty convinced about this theory you made about how this might have happened.
    In the end, this might mean that Ventus has a whole bunch of disjointed memories regarding the chi-era in his heart, much the same way Sora has all those painful memories of those connected to him which Naminé found and addressed in Re: Coded. The main difference here however would be that while Naminés actions in regards to both messing up and restoring Sora's chain of memories stirred those memories inside Ven's heart, she would not be aware of those nor being able to access them.
    Ven's heart is sleeping and was injured for a long time, so I'd expect for it being difficult to reach or access. So far Roxas was the only one to directly gain access to Ventus' heart and unlock his Keyblade, but that not only happened involuntary on Roxas' part it also came to pass only when Roxas had a severe emotional breakdown.
    It was only when Sora himself entered the Realm of Sleep that Ventus' heart stirred and started to respond (probably also because by the time of DDD Naminé's memory mess was largely fixed and Ven's heart healed pretty far), so this would also provide a possible entry point as to when Ventus starts to access this bundle of memories and forges a connection to the chi-era (the lack of shoulder armor and straps would then signify that this is a set of memories he gained before coming to Eraqus) and since he has no Naminé to give advice like Data-Sora did, it might not go so smooth especially if these memories are also full of pain and sorrow.

    It's funny somewhat but I personally never saw KH 2's battle system/gameplay to be the status quo as I consider it the worst of the series, lol.
    Even CoM's card system is much more interesting and intriguing, but that may be because I am generally more into strategic battling and planning rather than having the primary focus on boring Keyblade whacking. KH 1's MP system was much better as well and BBS/DDD/Re: Coded gave you many opportunities to do more diverse things than just plain whacking combos.
    A primary reason I'm looking forward to 0.2 is Aqua's more magic oriented playstyle and the battle system being an actual hybrid of BBS + KH 2 instead of just rehashing the KH 2 system.

    That's the basic gist of it.
    I also remember George R.R. Martin stating his conviction that having everything meticulously planned out is poison for actual flexibility and creativity of a story and way overrated in some audience circles.
    In terms of Nomura I am more inclined to believe that it is a mixture of the medium (video game), the often cited fact that he thinks of gameplay stuff first and story second as well as his penchant to needing "more surprises" that harms the story of the KH series more.
    A Song of Ice and Fire is primarily a book/novel series so Martin can ignore such elements as "gameplay" and having to fit the story into a certain frame. I remember ASoIaF was originally planned as having only three books but Martin didn't want to trim the story nor having any pressure to fit it into a given number of volumes so he spread it out. Martin can tell the story how he wants and how long he wants, Nomura is somewhat limited there due to it being a different main medium.
    Still doesn't rule out that Martin is probably a much better writer than Nomura and can pull actually off the "gardener"-author with better results.

    I don't know much more about it either. It wasn't even until this week that I learned from VoidGear that there exists an actual FF XV-anime...*ggg*

    Indeed, didn't think of this particular part. In the end I would like for the whole "trio dynamic" to be broken up a little altogether and the original characters just intermingling with each other independently from any set "trio"-borders.
    Speaking of snarky Kairi, another person I could imagine her getting along with after some initial rocky start would be Neku, as they could then snark the shit out of everyone else. ^__^

    This could indeed work, and while Ven would be the one to explore both dream layers, it would not neccessarily mean that he's the only dreamer in the setting. He would just be the only "outsider" running around in them (well, not really, considering that at least in one of the dream layers the present day Maleficent is also lurking it seems).

    You know, maybe this is exactly what "Unchained" as a state describes, not an outsider/visitor but someone who's part of the dream becoming aware of their actual state of being, and then going beyond it.
    It may be an expansion to the concept that was introduced in DDD.
    Of Ephemer we know for sure that he "fully" reached the Unchained state, Skuld, Luxu and the MoM being the most likely other candidates.
    "Player" was stated to be capable of it but I dunno if he/she ever reached the full Unchained state.

    Would fit Nomura's penchant to tie gameplay elements and story together, wouldn't it? <__<
    It actually happens in real life too since either the leader/general is much stronger than the average soldier/mook or he/she leads from the back of the army only entering the fray when the opposition is already exhausted or weakened.

    Great, if it would be done like this in all of the USA the cliché that American people are bad in general education and world history would probably disappear in the next decades. ^__^
    It certainly was, furthermore for myself as on the 28th World of Final Fantasy hit european stores.
    And as you might have noticed, I still haven't put up the next chapter yet...guilty for the delay are these dorky cinnamon rolls here:


    So far the game is just a pile of fun combined with nostalgia drugs for any longtime FF fan.

    As for all the neat KH III news, the 0.2 intro definitely took the cake while the confirmation that there will be Drive Forms again is the only thing souring it a little for me. I'd hoped to never see these ridiculous overpowered power ranger suits again.

    It's an incredible sad thing and really not a recommendation for BBS itself and its story structure that so many state and confirm that these few visual scenes make them care about TAV more than the entirety of their debut game.
    It also confirmed to me that deep inside, despite all the tough guy front he puts up, Terra is also a massive dork. Some of those expressions are so chuckleworthy.

    True dat.
    Well, according to CoM the true eternal/immortal part are the memories that make primarily up a heart and Marluxia did order Naminé to erase all of Sora's memories, essentially turning him into a vegetable to "mold into something more to his liking".
    A totally shattered heart that does not get help in a reasonable timeframe (whose length depends on the willpower of the heart I'd assume) would perhaps thus enter a state worse than just sleep. in DDD we're told that sleep holds memories and darkness holds sleep, so the memory/heart-pieces would then probably sink into the RoD and much like a Cie'th Stone in FF XIII, be just in an eternal state of sorrow that is another reason why the RoD is so dangerous.
    Going by that, maybe Ventus didn't even get/absorb a "whole" heart but just bits and pieces and some disjointed memories?

    And with the next paragraph taken in, we can also speculate if Ven had these from the get go or gained them via Luxu's Keyblade.
    Another possibility is that Ventus had this particular trait from the get go, but Luxu's Keyblade was the key to awaken this particular thing whatever it is.
    Similar to how Roxas awakened dual-wieldling by accidentally accessing Ventus' heart.
    We do not even see Ventus' station as a wielder under Xehanort as all stations we see are post-Vanitas creation in BBS, starting with the blank cracked one.

    That's what I meant with the idea. Naminé didn't find the memories herself or saw them, the restoration of Sora's memories as a side effect affected Ventus' heart and brought these "new" memories to the surface and without anyone else knowing or being aware of it (except maybe Vanitas, through their direct connection), Ventus would suddenly have this set of memories he never knew he had beforehand and which strictly spoken aren't his.

    Yep, although I'd say in the KH series KH 2 is the biggest offender of this.

    Maybe Nomura is actually changing the approach gradually by himself, as the newest titles do feel more planned out and directly connected than the older ones. More concrete planning is certainly very helpful if you have a big fictional universe at hand with much of lore, although I recall the author of A Song of Ice and Fire (aka Game of Thrones), which has arguably a bigger universe and especially cast than KH, admitting that he's more of a "Gardener" in terms of storytelling, meaning he has some important stuff laid out beforehand but not every detail planned ahead.

    Pretty much the same stance I have. For World of Final Fantasy and FF XV I actually managed to remain almost 99% spoiler free so far despite often accessing the net.

    Welp, looking at it from this angle I guess you're right. In this case Riku could probably eventually evolve to be the strategist of Sora's/Mickey's faction as being so quick on the uptake is usually the first requirement for such a role.

    Hence why just giving Ven green eyes would probably eliminate much of the problems with Roxas and him as well as increasing eye color diversity in one fell swoop. I'm not even talking about a shade similar to Lea or Riku's aquamarine, nope, give Ventus very deep, green emerald eyes that really stand out.
    The idea of the Lea/Kairi tag team is certainly interesting and could work very well, especially since both already have a rather rocky relationship from the past events in the series. They could easily expand on that and possibly have the two assist both Riku/Mickey and SDG on different occasions throughout KH III.
    Maybe they can even form another trio with Aqua until the rest of the BBS trio is saved. Or maybe Aqua goes with Riku/Mickey while Ventus joins Kairi and Lea?
    So your brother severely falls out of the norm? Well, that happens too, rarely, but it does...^___^

    For 1) another suggestion: Maybe Luxu's the one dreaming? He tells Ava much in the last browser-chi update and apparently severely upsets her. Not to mention he claims that he's just observing, which would fit for someone who knows that this is just an ever-repeating dream of the same events.
    If we go by DDD's precedence case, this would mean Luxu takes Sora's role, experiencing the actual dream of the world (most likely Daybreak Town).
    Now the question remains for the second layer, apparently the layer Unchained X portrays.
    According to DDD we would have to have someone diving into Luxu's dreams.
    I remember a scene where Ephemer meets a Black Coaty in browser chi, but we don't know yet if he encountered Luxu or the MoM, do we?
    Either way, the primary candidates for diving into Luxu's dream would be three: Ephemer, Ventus or Xehanort, the latter two due to their connection to Luxu's Keyblade which obviously has a connection to Luxu himself.

    Ansem SoD states that "dreams hold our memories" so in any case I'd say everything happening in X[chi]/Unchained is memory in some form, but I almost suspect this to be a mess of memories of several hearts thrown together and intermingled together, so there might be more dreamers than just one for every layer.

    As for the being aware thingy, Joshua and Riku managed to become aware through exchanging viewpoints and observations together:


    If Joshua and Riku are capable of it, someone as curious and inquisitive as Ephemer is certainly capable of the same feat, not to mention that he was the first to discover the fact that all worlds beside Daybreak Town are just illusions and that several things in their world don't add up.

    It is most likely that more memory shenanigans are involved, also when going by the premise that X[chi] and Unchained both are a memory mess created by multiple hearts whose memories are mashed together.

    There are so many endgame-sequence theories floating around that one is almost guaranteed to be on spot, lol.

    Exactly, the armor did what it was supposed to do and bought precious time. Enough time for Riku to arrive and finish the job. One might even say that Riku and Ventus worked together without even knowing about each other. Without Ventus' interference and buying time with loaning the armor, there would have been no Sora for Riku to save.

    Probably not, although since the Foretellers are the strongest out of the bunch I somewhat expect the five to be the last ones standing after all of the wielder kids slaughtered each other.

    It's just a broad overview actually as there are still more factors to weigh in. One thing about history is that usually there are multiple factors weighing in and to pick out which ones are the decisive ones may take some time.
    So you actually had this stuff in school? Talk about a positive surprise as I heard from several people living in the US/North America as a whole that history outside the own nation is seldom addressed. :D
    hey, not a huge thing, but if you're going to use a post from my blog for a sig, i'd appreciate it linking back to the site, or some form of credit listed.
    True dat, although if I remember correctly Vexen was also concerned with being "the laughing stock" of the castle if he returned with Roxas having such meagre results.
    Going from a psychological view though, Roxas was arguably still in his "formative" weeks during that time so expecting complex chains of thought of him already requiring to think several steps might have been not the best idea, although his really quick learning skills did result in a decent observation analysis at the second try, which is impressive.

    Even if that heart got swallowed by Darkness, it would be "only" sleeping according to KH's very own lore as memories/hearts are said to be eternal. As for Ventus getting it out of all people, who knows, but one has to keep in mind that Sora's heart contacted Ven's by its own volition the night it was born and the ability to connect your heart with others is explicitly not unique to Sora, he only uses it the most intense.
    Then there's also of course the possibility that Ventus' connection to the Chi-era hails from him gaining his own Keyblade via Luxu's Keyblade (as Xehanort I am to 99% sure surely used the Goatblade to make the ceremony with Ventus) and that is how the connection was made. Not only did Luxu's Keyblade deem Ventus' heart worthy to be a Keyblade Wielder, Ventus could also already summon his own Keyblade even as a kid since we see him holding the Wayward Wind in the flashback with the Heartless.
    The only awakening stations we see of Ventus are from after the Vanitas-creation and we know that stations can change, so maybe before getting chosen by the Keyblade and forming a possible connection with the chi-era via Luxu's Keyblade, Ven's station depicted a different world as background.
    It is also to be kept in mind that the current "make up" of Ven's heart (without the part split off to make Vanitas, stabilized by Sora and healed/nurtured by Terra, Aqua and Eraqus) was practically "born" in the Badlands as that's where the split happens. So for Ven's reconstructed heart, the Badlands would be the "homeworld" because that's where its current contents had their roots.

    BBS also only shows us Ven regaining memories about Vanitas' creation and the immediate events before that, not if he regained any other memories of his childhood before this or his full time as Xehanort's student.
    Another factor may also be his heart being smashed yet again in the BBS finale combined with Naminé's memory bullshit in CoM (and the restoration process during Days + Roxas' newly born heart and new memories also entering the mix) resulting in the resurfacing of something Ventus himself wasn't/isn't even aware of by himself.

    That's what I've propagated in threads as well for some time and as DarkosOverlord pointed out more than once, sometimes people tend also to overanalyze things.
    This is exactly why Ventus not having a different model bothered me the most about BBS's flashbacks. Aqua and Terra are in their late teens, possibly early twenties during BBS proper, so their four years-ago appearance shouldn't be too different to their current, but Ventus was a child back then and is now a youth in his mid-teens. Between these periods there is in 9 of 10 cases a rather blatant change in appearance and anatomy due to growth and possible starting puberty.

    It is another viable scenario how it could work without actually having Ventus himself being a relic of the past, a past that is rumored to be centuries ago and considered a legend even by all educated people of the older generation.
    The "strapless"-Ven without the pauldron in general symbolizes the Ventus before starting training with Eraqus (which officially granted him the straps with the emblem and armor), including the time spent at LoD before he was stable enough to start training, so the imagery fits and it is a much more simple explanation than "he's actually from the past".

    Or it is this "general broad idea"-framework at work again and he's just now starting to fill that framework with details. He thought of Ventus and his theme when he planned BBS itself and most likely he just revisited this when planning X[chi]'s scenario and thought that's is a prime opportunity to weave a new connection between seemingly disconnected stories and even eras while at the same time opening up opportunities to possibly expand Ventus' character arc and role.

    That's a good question, also considering what your stance on spoilers is since I expect several things to leak out despite all precaution measures taken. It is the internet after all.

    Also correct, this is actually already shown somewhat in DDD as Riku only mistakes Ven for Roxas for like two seconds and then immediately corrects himself. So if Riku, who had admittedly not really much contact with either Roxas and Ventus to far, can separate them in less than a minute, those who do know them should probably be able to do the same or get not even confused in the first place (except maybe Sora being a dork again).
    You could do that as well of course, but I don't know if that would be very liked among the wider fanbase since many were already put off by Roxas' angsting in the titles he already appears in. Having him experience such an episode yet again would probably be labeled as just rehashing old stuff like i.e. people complaining about Riku struggling with his Darkness issues again in every title he appears in (DDD does put a stop to that hopefully).

    That's also probably a question that has bigger chances to get selected for an interview, so don't forget to bring it up once there's another thread asking for questions. ^__^

    Exactly, that's also why I just love Aqua's "shut up, I'm sick of your nonsense." towards Vanitas shortly before their final fight. Nobody would ever direct such a thing seriously towards Sora because when it comes all together, Sora is the total opposite of Vanitas personality-wise.
    Furthermore, while Roxas has some anger issues and is a little hot-headed, he never goes as violent and "ax-crazy" as Vanitas so the latter also stands out among the "Sora-quartet" even more because the other three are all firmly aligned with the "good" side in the end.
    I'm still crossing my fingers that they manage to strike a balance with Kairi this time. Not shove her aside but also do not repeat the mistake made with Xion and place too much emphasis on her. Kairi certainly desperately needs to be included and involved more, but it should be done in a manner that does not deliver more excuses for the fandom to hate/resent her even more.
    Sometimes the genes are of course also a factor. Do you have many tall persons in your wider family? I remember one of my uncles and my cousin being taller than 2 metres (while my mother is actually really small) so I fall somewhat in the middle height-wise.

    Ah, you may be on to something there possibly. So browser-chi is actually the "inner dream" and what happened there was completely a dream of the player while the "outer dream" which we see in Unchained X is either the dream of the world itself or the dream of someone else. This would also cast a new light on Ava's and Luxu's conversation where Luxu claims something we do not get to hear/read and Ava answers in disbelief that "I can't believe this is reality" or something akin to that.
    If this whole thing is an endless repeating loop then "becoming unchained" would actually mean to become aware that it IS a loop and start to act outside of it, something apparently both Luxu and Ephemer are already capable of.

    This is logical as Keyblades are stated to be tied/connected to their wielder's hearts. In his "behold"-speech in BBS Master Old Fartynort also mentions "keys united with the hearts of their masters" and since the X-blade's "master" or "heart" is the whole true KH itself this fits together splendidly.
    The Nightmare Armor being capable of still summoning the KK might be actually the indicator that despite the armor itself getting possessed, the plan of Ventus to loan the armor to Sora actually worked insofar as the armor protected Sora's heart enough that the damage wasn't as severe as in Ven's case during BBS and possibly the true KH at the end of the Keyblade War.

    Possible, although I wonder if he would be really the last one standing, would he take the "no victor"-issue full circle and have the guts to end himself as well, or would he declare himself victor despite anything said beforehand?
    I think there's partly a mixup included here as I don't remember from any source in browser-chi or Unchained that there are statements that the Vulpes Union is pacifistic per se (just like there's no indication that, despite Aced's own behaviour, the actual members of Ursus being all generally more aggressive and violent than the others).
    As for Ava bringing her union with her, this can also be done for pragmatic reasons as well as Ava just having given up internally like Gula did. In one statement Ava also admits that she doesn't know how long she will be able to guide her union truly as she might also "fall" and end up fighting in the war.
    We also do not know her reasoning yet as only Aced and Ira have so far disclosed their motivation for participating in the battle. Ava's, Invi's and Gula's motivation as well as their stances on their own unions are still a mystery.

    It goes actually much deeper than that.
    Many of the younger people today, especially non-europeans, do not know about it and may look very surprised to hear about it since these days France and Germany are the "best of friends" but these two countries were once archenemies.
    It is somewhat ironic since both France and Germany used to be one single empire between the 5th and 9th century, the Frankish Empire or simply "Francia", whose most famous ruler was Charlemagne.
    This Empire was eventually divided between several sons and eventually developed into the Kingdom of France and the Holy Roman Empire (the predecessor of what is today Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Czech Republic, Slovakia and parts of northern Italy).
    One of the pivotal "events" that created tensions between France and the Holy Roman Empire was the Thirty Year's War which involved many other european back then great powers as well, it being probably the most destructive (and second longest) war in european history when set in comparison to the total populace. In terms of pure numbers, the two world wars were more destructive, but the thirty year's war was much longer (only the 100 year's war between England and France tops it) and the overall populace smaller.
    This war was fought mostly on HRE territory and thus devastated most of what is today Germany. Development and power of the HRE was much reduced due to that and this part of Europe was always "a little behind" because of it.
    Then again sometime later came Napoleon, who forced the dissolution of the Holy Roman Empire, splitting it into many smaller states including Prussia. Thus there existed no unified german state and all the small fief-,earl- and dukedoms were easy prey to be pushed around and bullied by bigger european powers like Denmark, Sweden, Poland, Russia, Austria and of course France itself. Them always squabbling amongst each other (which was secretly fostered by the French to keep them disunited) also didn't help.
    Over time though Prussia developed and emerged as a formidable power, mostly due to their small but very effective military and the keen use of covert diplomacy.
    Without going too deep into it (I'm already realizing I'm going into a history rant here, lol), eventually Napoleon was defeated and the several smaller german states learned to work closer together while Prussia's power continued to grow over the years.
    This lead to the calls for a unified German state, a prospect feared and loathed by both France (which had ambitions of still grabbing more land and didn't want an equal power at its doorstep) and Austria (who saw their sole claim to represent the german royalty threatened (the Hohenzollern, ruling house of Prussia, were rivals of the Habsburgs ruling in Austria) which resulted first in the Austro-Prussian War and later in the Franco-Prussian War.
    One of Prussia's greatest assets in these years was the famous Otto von Bismarck. Yep, exactly that Bismarck, often called the "founder" or "father" of Germany.
    In 1871 France was decisively defeated and Bismarck and his superior, the King of Prussia, proclaimed the founding of the first true united German nation state, the German Empire.
    Against Bismarcks personal advice (who warned that such a move would universally revile the French for centuries), the german nobility decided to annex the territories of Alsace and Lorraine, partly also as revenge for France having bullied and trampled on the smaller german states for decades beforehand, infuriating the French who were already down from having lost the war and having to accept that a unified Germany was created beforehand (which arguably was already much "payback" for the French earlier bullying the small german states, thus this annexation being a typical case of kicking someone who's already down some more).
    Thus a call for revanche was heard universally in France for the following decades, seething resentment between the two powers remaining strong. His advice having been ignored but determined to protect Germany and prevent another bloody war, Bismarck set out successfully in much diplomacy and forged an alliance system which kept peace in Europe (and France isolated) mostly by abandoning most of Germany's aggressive tendencies outwards, assuring the other powers that Germany wants peaceful co-existence and via all those alliances ensuring that no one could attack Germany without having at least three other great powers to deal with.
    However, Emperor Wilhelm II. eventually sacked Bismarck from his post as chancellor because he wanted to shape politics himself, but he was such an idiot/noob in this that eventually it was Germany which was isolated, Bismarcks alliance system in shambles (and he needlessly fostered competition and mistrust with the British due to the naval arms race) and when the tensions of the early 20th century eventually lead to World War I, France took the chance to finally get revenge. Since the German army was very formidable though and the French had such horrendous losses as mentioned in the last post, they became even more embittered and eventually the Treaty of Versailles was at its core a document crafted to get as much revenge and "payback" for France as possible. It were their own allies, Britain and the USA, who had to intervene in order to not make the treaty even harder, arguing that this constant back and forth of revanche does not solve anything.
    Needless to say the terms of Versailles, especially the part that placed the sole blame of WW I on Germany, riled up the Germans as much if not even more than the annexations back in 1871 had angered the French. Now the roles were switched, then eventually came Hitler...and we know what came afterwards.
    It is thanks to Konrad Adenauer (Germany) and Charles de Gaulle (France) that Germany and France are as closely united in Friendship as they are today, which arguably started in earnest 1963.


    Well of course, it might also be that it is like with Pooh's world and this happens all in one of the tomes of prophecies which would also deliver a neat explanation for Maleficent's appearance, but give an even bigger question mark for Ventus' possible involvement. (Except if we get a Sora-/-Data-Sora situation with Ventus as well).
    Yep, me too, lol.
    There can be an answer to that, but not in the way that it goes like in FF X. <__<
    I see.
    Oh lol, that recon mission was so hilarious, one of the few good things in Days, especially since Roxas was still in his "half-zombie"-state and had to learn things like a toddler. In retrospect, it is also astounding how Vexen, despite having his usual haughty speech, was actually rather patient with Roxas and gave him multiple chances to improve his results.

    Yep, or maybe he has actually the heart of a Keyblade War survivor inside him without knowing. Sora is not stated to be the only one capable of this and we have the matryoshka-doll imagery for hearts already in place for the series. Naminé was totally surprised to find other hearts/memories belonging to other hearts inside Sora while he himself didn't even know for a long time he had Kairi piggybacking in him during KH 1.
    I'm not giving too much on the hair yet as it can be just Nomura's art style changing. In the orchestra sketch from the concert Roxas' hair also looks "less spiky" and he's shown in the same angle as Ven on the anniversary art.
    The two chest-straps and armor pauldron missing can indicate another possible time for the RoS-trip during a come though: four years before BBS, Ven fell into a coma due to Terra's barrage of questions and there he still had his outfit without these extra accessoires (can also be seen when Aqua sits by his side in the flashback in his bedroom). We don not know how long he was in that coma nor if he would have more seizures during the first weeks he was in Land of Depature. It is I think safe to assume that Ventus didn't get the chest-straps with the Eraqus-symbol and the shoulder pauldron until he was stable enough to start training with Terra and Aqua.

    Have you taken a look into the new thread about this topic yet? It's shaping up to be quite interesting I think...^___^

    By now I have accepted and mentally prepared that a few flamewars will probably be inevitable once KH III is truly out. <__<

    Me too, lol, it's especially interesting in this case since Rox and Ven aren't actually real twins at all. I can already imagine Aqua/Terra and Lea/Xion getting exasperated with them playing one prank on them after another.
    Considering their personalities, I'd theorize that Ven would be the driving force in doing this (possibly with support from Sora) while Roxas just goes along most of the time. Getting Aqua's and/or Terra's reactions to first
    meeting Roxas would certainly also be an interesting scenario.

    Nah, I think it has more to do with most japanese artists, animators and creators having a sort of fetish for blue eyes. I remember from the manga Hunter X Hunter, the character Kurapica actually has distinctive brown eyes in the manga itself (which turn red when he experiences intense emotion) but in the first anime series they made about this work in 1999 they turned his "normal" eye color into blue (the second anime series from 2011 curiously gave him silver eyes).
    Heh, I wonder if that question would actually be picked by the staff to ask about.

    That's actually what I have thought for quite some time too. In fact, I think in terms of pure physical strength Ventus may actually be the weakest of all the original male characters introduced up to DDD (I'm not including Ephemer yet as we haven't seen so much of him yet and the male Foretellers, except maybe Gula, are clearly more "buff" than Ven anyways).
    Meaning that i.e. in an arm-wrestling contest of all the guys he would place last.
    Well, lol, Vanitas is thus a mash-up that works to a certain extent, although him being "evil" makes it easy to distinguish him from the other characters introduced in BBS. He didn't really get much actual attention beyond "being a dick" after all.

    *in-before-Kairi-gets-left-out-again*
    Exactly, and things like these are why we can't be sure yet that Riku will grow even taller in later installments.
    Does your brother lots of sports and training? As that might be an additional support factor into this. I myself remember also though that at 14 I was as tall as some 17/18 year-olds on my school.

    That's what I think as well. Right now, we know too little of the whole picture to make any definite statements or full scenario. Any thought up scenario or chain of events has to be based around assumptions made from the small snippets we have from Player's PoV and the two Back Cover trailers.

    Geehee, it does, just on a massively bigger scale.
    So if that is the case, whoever planned this was doing essentially the same Xehanort was trying with Sora in DDD...or maybe Xehanort got the inspiration to do this from exactly that source...o_0

    It depends on if Ira was also hellbent on following the Master's teachings to the bitter end, since he doesn't just go against Aced in the war, he also goes against Invi, Ava and Gula.
    Aced made his intentions clear to banish all the other Foretellers because, in his view, they're incompetent and only worsening the conditions, but what reasons does Ira have to go against the other three as well?

    This is painfully true. Having lost nearly two generations of young people due to horrible attrition battles, of which the worst was the "blood-pump" battle of Verdun in the First World War, was one of the reasons why France was so bitter and hostile towards Germany afterwards and the "Maginot-Line", a huge network of fortifications and bunkers at the French-German border was erected to never have to face such horrendous losses again. Germany also faced horrible losses, but due to the higher base population could "compensate" them better.
    This also played into the later Second World War and the rather fast collapse of France in 1940. Not only did the Germans outflank the Maginot-Line with their massive Tank formations (which in actual tank models were actually weaker than the French tanks, but had way better trained officers and were equipped with mobile radio) they also threatened to overrun the French lines from behind and the side, leading to fear in the French ranks that there would be another Verdun or worse and thus morale was sapped greatly, leading to the collapse of French resistance in mere weeks.

    I am actually not 100% sure anymore that the Dandelions, or at least not all of them, are truly the children who rebuilt the world. If they are, why would their hearts (and the heart of their leader, Ephemer) be trapped in sleep? Did they "rebuild" the world with the power of their dreams perhaps?
    If the latter is the case I certainly hope it is not a rehash of Final Fantasy X's plot with the dreaming faith and Dream Zanarkand...<__<
    Ah, I see, so he's completely focused only on Xion in terms of friendship with Axel being totally out of the picture. With Vexen still alive though the Replica project can go on and be further refined. Xemnas does state in one meeting during Days that Vexen's demise at C.O. was not part of the plan and threw at least partly a wrench in his calculations.

    Nomura is definitely a goddamn tease with this and since he not only drew Ventus twice already in connection with the chi-era but also mentioned him alongside Maleficent from the secret episode of Browser-Chi it is obvious that Ventus plays some role in it, possibly as a definite link between the chi-era and the modern-day era with Sora & co.
    The only thing I am definitely not sold on is that Ventus himself as a person has to necessarily directly hail from the chi-era even with the Badlands-background on his awakening station. Rather, I am theorizing that, since KH is often about connections, that Ventus somehow has a connection to someone or something from the chi-era and that connection allows him somehow to, possibly involuntary, access it. I'm planning a new "idea"-thread for Ventus' role and possible connection to the chi-era though, not as a massive actual theory but in the same vein of the "Hourglass"-thread made by Master Spockanort by sharing some observations, so I'll refrain from going into too much detail here.

    Urgh, don't remind me, that's probably exactly what will happen and I will have to restrain myself to not yell at them to get their damn homework done before whining, especially when considering the last of the examples you give here.

    Heh, I noticed it only when positioning two of their renders directly beside each other as well. It really depends on how Nomura and co. work with their appearance though as the boys' twin looks can become a pretty interesting (and funny) part of the story itself if handled well.
    I know right, KH has a severe problem with overusing blue eye color. Regardless of how pretty blue eyes are if there are too many it becomes a sensory overload. Not to even mention that on our actual world, blue eyes are the second most rare (only true green is even more rare) among humanity of earth. Yet in the original KH cast blue, regardless of the different shades, is possessed by about 80% of the cast while another 10% has Xehanort-gold. Terra having hazel/brown eyes would have certainly fitted just as well as giving Ventus green ones. That would have been also an distinction everyone could easily use to tell him and Roxas apart (Rox would have got his blue eyes from Sora just like the brown eyebrows, while the gold hair came from Ven).
    There would have been only one question needed: Green eyes? It's Ven. Blue? It's Roxas.
    Vanitas and Sora have very distinct physical differences though, mainly light brown hair compared to jet-black and blue eyes to gold ones. There's also the issue that Sora is rather skinny and slim while Vanitas has a slightly more muscular build, but that's more akin to Ven's/Roxas' eyebrow thingy, a rather minor thing you need to know beforehand in order to pay attention to it.
    This fact is also rather ironic since Vanitas came originally from Ven, who is arguably the skinniest of all four of the quartet, even more so than Sora and Roxas. Seriously, have you seen how totally twig-like his arms are in the newest trailer (especially noticeable in the scene where the BBS trio puts their wayfinders together)?
    Vanitas' eye color is the same gold as Master Xehanort has too, but MX is also thematically an inversed version of Sora as they more or less use the same powers, but with totally different intents and consequences.

    Indeed. What gave me quite a grin though about their new outfits is that Riku and Sora share certain elements like i.e. the plaid area at the front of the collar and the same buttons. They're sporting a "brofit" instead of an "outfit" there.
    Riku is now what? 16/17? To be honest I don't know when growth really tends to stop and when one is considered "fully" adult, but that can also vary by each person and it is undeniable that Riku is among the tallest of the original cast even when comparing him to full-fledged known "adults". He's probably about as tall as Aqua if not more, so the only ones still slightly taller among the "good guys" might be Lea and Terra.

    I can't help it, lol.

    Now that you say it...duuuh, makes you wonder who really is behind it all though. The Nightmare Chirithy originated from Player, but seems to have an entirely independent, own agenda rather than working for a higher force. Despite him having the Goatblade and looking all intimidating with the black coat I am not fully sold yet on the assumption that Luxu is actually evil per se while the Master of Masters is certainly suspicious, one can't yet definitely pinpoint him as the true mastermind either.
    Furthermore, if I've noticed it correctly Luxu seems to be not an adult like Aced, Ira and Invi, but more like a teenager/kid like Ava and Gula are. He's rather average in height and his voice in the trailer sounds rather young.
    It is stated in the legend that the Keyblade War caused the original X-blade to shatter and that it existed alongside KH all along is also stated, however it's also stated that the war was fought to get hands on it, so instead of "forging" it per se maybe the clash/war was brought about to materialize it somehow?
    During the carnage in Browser-Chi we see numerous hearts from fallen wielder kids float upwards, where do you think these hearts go? Forming yet another artificial KH or are they slated to get to the true one. Maybe it is a thing like in FF XIII or FF Type-0 with the Fal'Cie trying to bust open Etro's gate with a flood of souls, that by creating a mass of disembodied hearts the mastermind behind everything tried to draw out the true KH (strictly spoken one could say all hearts are KH's "children" because KH is what give birth to hearts) and its counterpart, the X-blade, with it. The sheer mass of hearts (and the undoubtly high amounts of sadness, despair and pain radiating from them) all at once was too much for KH and the X-blade to handle however, causing the latter to break and the former to fall into the realm of Darkness. "Light falls into Darkness", basically what happened to Sora's heart in DDD on a vastly bigger scale with KH itself.

    When looking at this statement more closely, Ira's stance suddenly doesn't feel too different from Aced's, does it? He may be more collected and calm, but in the end Ira also opts for total destruction.
    Considering the exchanges we got to witness from some NPC wielders the most these kids knew is that there are apparently traitors among them who "steal" the light, so a sort of "horde" mentality was most likely in play as well, especially in Ursus as Aced states something along the lines that "the only thing we can trust in now is our own union" which I would assume he instilled into the most members of his own union.
    Correct, sometimes I get the vibe that most people do not have even realized yet that more than 90% of the participants in the Keyblade War seem to be kids/teens younger than 16/17 and how horrible this whole thing is in its entirety when you look closer at it.
    If there's really no true traitor among them I certainly could imagine one or more of the Foretellers going mad/insane because of perceived guilt.
    (I know, wacky forum-software at work, that's why I tend to write all my posts in notepad/Word first and Ctrl+C/Ctrl+V them over...:D)

    Oh definitely, it is wonderful to see how some fans can make the storylines and characters even more loveable without completely changing their established traits and milestones, but some AUs and what-ifs (except those High-School or similar ones which are made just for shipping) also manage to keep the spirit so closely that it could be accepted as a legit KH entry.
    Vexen out of all people? Lol, that's a really bold move to make considering that he apparently had no one he was really close with in the Org (except maybe Zexion, who also perished in C.O.) and it would make necessary an entirely different premise for KH 2. Without reading a word from it, lemme guess, the one who then actually becomes Roxas' closer friend in the Org after C.O. is Demyx?

    I can see that point, and yet KH is neither the first nor the most origina workl in having two identical looking characters who are in fact distinct persons all
    around. Nomura said he always knew from the beginning when he thought of the character that he should look either like Sora or Roxas, but wasn't sure with which one to go for quite a while (it's obvious that by the time KH 2 FM came around Nomura had made the decision).
    Certainly you're right with that one, even more so since Ventus has received not really much attention outside of BBS except some cameos in other handheld titles and so far was also never shown together with Roxas.
    Yea, that's practically what Nomura said, lol, if you pay attention you can differentiate them easily. But that goes for many things in KH and I guess that it is a phenomena of our current era that people have problems paying attention and are often no more capable of noticing subtle things.
    Their wristbands having white, thick edges (Ven) and black, thin edges (Roxas) is also a nice little detail, but you need to know about it beforehand in order to pay attention to that and it is not exactly a physical difference.
    The green eyes-thingy is actually something I would be totally fine with as it would be a small, but distinct physical difference to tell them apart. As Gram once said, the different colored eyebrows are a nice try but too secondary, especially since depending on the lighting brown can sometimes look like blond and vice versa.
    So as it stands right now if Roxas and Ven would ever go skinny-dipping in the same swimming pool one couldn't tell them apart at all.
    Not to mention that green eyes would totally fit Ven's wind theme and since I've seen some gifs with this I think he looks just s cute if not cuter with green eyes. Now give Terra brown eyes to fit his earth theme and the BBS trio would have a great diversity in eye colors.
    Sora and Vanitas are really easier in that vein due to eye and hair color (although I do wonder when the golden eyes are indeed Xehanorty-trait and Vanitas gets freed of them somehow, will his eyes turn blue as well like Ven's and Sora's?)

    That's a possibility indeed, it's also very noticable with Riku's design evolution as he's arguably the only one of the younger characters whose anatomy became more realistically proportioned with each instance.
    True dat, Xehanort does it with more "style" and less "sloppy" than Aced, although even counting all that and definitely acknowledging that Aced has a problem with his temper I'm still reserving my final judgement on this character until I get a fuller picture of him. Xehanort on the other hand, I'm itching to finally do that damn old bastard in with all the stuff he has done throughout the series, not even counting the stuff he will undoubtly pull in KH III itself before it's (hopefully) finally paytime.

    Holy Chirithy...hahaha, that's so cute. Cloudskating Gula.
    That's the answer to the question "Where did Gula jump to in the finale of X[chi] after fighting Player?"

    There is a thunderstorm going on through all the battle and according to the design of his Keyblade Gula has an affinity for the thunder element, so he could theoretically really ride one of those dark clouds overhead.

    Imagine during their training with the MoM before all that whole chi-stuff Gula skipping lessons by cloudsurfing, lol.
    MoM: "Now, for todays lesson..."
    Luxu: "Wait Master, where's Gula?"
    Invi *deadpan*: "It is cloudy outside, you have three guesses."
    Ira *sigh*: "Not again."
    Ava just chuckles.
    Outside, Gula is flying by the window on a cloud.
    Gula: "Yaaaay, freedom."
    Aced: "God damnit, come back in here, you little shit!"

    Sorry, just got carried away, lol.

    Indeed, indeed, it also speaks for Gula having a strong will to live, even despite his own words to Skuld that "nothing matters anymore".

    Oh, I'm also on the impression that none of the five Foretellers is in fact truly antagonistic or "evil" as some would say (since wanting to end the world can be considered very evil), but I am also on the impression that they all played their part and were perhaps "the traitor" at different points in time during the whole crisis. It wasn't Ava alone.
    There is no denying though that there IS someone or something who uses the power of darkness to wreak havoc (and create black garments among other things) and bring about the apocalypse willingly, and that force is arguably the "true" traitor to the world and all who live in it.

    This is also a possibility as well, since we so far know only snippets from the Foretellers (due to X[chi] and Unchained being players pov and the trailers being vague) we can't make a coherent chain of events yet.
    I'd say the actual casus belli is truly the mistrust and evermore escalating animosity between the Foretellers and their unions as well. We see normal wielder kids almost getting at each others throats in broad daylight eventually (makes me wonder where their Chirithies are and why they don't interfere as Player's Chirithy does) and Aced states in the second to last browser update that he will wait on the "fated battlefield" which is an indicator that the bell serves just as a starting signal like for a marathon, akin to "NOW you can shed all restraint and actually bash each other's heads in".
    It's just an assumption but I'd think that the bell ringing actually might also signal that the forces of light and dark are perfectly equal right now, ushering in an attempt to forge You-know-what, but without any of the wielder kids or even the Foretellers knowing.

    Heheh, of course, that was just the strategy gamer/armchair nerd in me coming through. It is practially a huge free for all anyways and they all just charged in mindlessly anyways, which does make me wonder, do the wielder kids just indiscriminately slaughter each other on the spot? There aren't any uniforms in place (except if we count the union armor avatar parts, but the NPCs in the war scens aren't wearing them.) so how do they discern who is actually a wielder from their union? Wielder kids who are from the same party most likely know each other well and won't attack each other, but what about the other union members from other parties?
    Asking beforehand which Union can be a deadly mistake so does that mean even kids from the same union start eventually killing each other?
    Piles of dead bodies and blood like in the Battle of the Bastards in Game of Thrones would certainly have satisfied those who are on the opinion that KH needs to be more grimdark and graphic in nature and more akin to what it would look like in reality, but Disney would never put up with that and it also more or less goes against the established norm of the series. The darkened, dead Keyblades falling around everywhere pretty much symbolize the grave situation good enough and if we keep in mind that except three of the Foretellers all participants are either kids or youths in their early/mid-teens it is probably better it is not shown more graphically.
    Depending on how it exactly ends for the Foretellers themselves, I could actually see at least some of them despair over the sight when they realize what has happened all around them and that they are more or less guilty for it.
    In the one KH Trailer about the Lost Masters Xehanort does say that they were the ones who started the Keyblade War. At first, duie to the background being "greed for light and its ownership" it looked like they would be all greedy, evil assholes, but by now it looks more like they are tragic figures.
    I'm trying to do exactly this for about two years now *snorts*, so far only with lukewarm success. :p

    Of course. ;)

    Maybe it is the sloppiness with with the actual story is done which drives me to do it like this, lol. Although this clearly also partly affects the pace of which it is written as there is often some research and re-reading to do in order to make things line up.
    When I look at the "Who posted"-section of the thread I also realize with some melancholy how many of the former constant readers have by now left the forum completely...

    True that, and among the unreliable fans there is also that one particular subgroup who puts their own headcanons above what really happens and ignore/deny any development they personally don't like. Such people are "poison" to newbies or returners who genuinely want to catch up with the story and lore.
    Back in 2006 when KH 2 FM and that massive secret ending video birth by sleep first came out many people mistook Ven for Roxas. This is also partly again a case of "interview only"-information as Nomura himself confirmed not long after the video came out that this character is named Ven which is only a nickname and he may just resemble Roxas, but that there will very likely a connection due to this appearance.
    Later on, shortly before BBS' release (somewhere in 2009) Nomura again spoke about the Ven/Roxas issue and declared that people who will play BBS and pay attention will be able to "differentiate Roxas and Ven with ease".

    See, and that's where my opinion then comes in that those who don't care have no right to complain. If they aren't willing to at least open up to the information when it is given to them (on many fansites people do not even need to search for the info themselves, as often a dedicated fan will be willing to fill them in), I do not really feel that I have to accomodate to them in any way.
    It has no negative impact on my personal enjoyment of the series as well, but certainly on my enjoyment on being part of the fandom. I quit the FF fandom largely precisely to avoid all the bullshit that is often happening there.

    Yea, lol, KH has had some problems with correct anatomy proportions anyways, keywords "yaoi-hands" and "cruise ship shoes"!
    He already has no qualms physically pushing around a small Leopard boy and his actions against the player in browser-chi are outright outrageous, not even Xehanort has sunk so low up to now in this particular field.

    Yep, Gula seems to be very laid-back and like his symbol animal, doesn't particularily like to fight, but does so if he has to. It's also noticeable in his before-battle dialogue with the Player, as he apparently doesn't really want to fight the Player, only starting it because "this is a battlefield and we're required to".
    Gula certainly has a maxed out high jump, possibly combined with doubleflight, lol. Although I wonder where he went as he jumped directly vertically up. If normal gravity is in play he should return to the exact same spot he started (and probably break his legs from the height). Maybe he gets on one of those dark clouds above the Badlands and surfs around like Goku in Dragonball, rofl.
    It says also something about Gula's character that he apparently sees no shame or negative stigma for himself by retreating willingly. In that particular situation though it is a little weird. He knew that the end of the world couldn't be avoided anymore, so there would inevitably come the point where he can't retreat anymore.
    It's also suspicious that while we got shown that most if not all of the normal wielder kids perished/lost their hearts, the fate of the five Foretellers is still kept ambigious. It might be cliché, but I do suspect that in the end all normal wielders have fallen and the five Foretellers are left as the only ones standing in a vast field of millions of dead Keyblades.

    Correct, and another thing I've noticed is that Browser-chi, Unchained and the Back Cover snippets we got so far all have in common that they each provide dialogue and situations that alternately paints a different Foreteller in a possibly traitorous light. The only one who hasn't yet been provided something that makes him look suspicious is Ira.
    Invi has some ominuos dialogue in the newest trailer, is generally the most shady/reclusive of the Foretellers and was seen "observing Mickey" in that one update in Browser-chi.
    Gula has the thing with actually knowing entire parts of the Lost page (and is capable of reciting those passages word by word) and apparently generally being more withdrawn (which again fits his animal).
    Aced is the most obvious one with an "antagonistic role" due to his overly hot-tempered and violent approach which eventually culminates into him wanting to build the Reich from the ashes of the world according to the last browser-chi update with himself as the Führer (Heil Aced sounds stupid though...like Heil Asshead) ;P
    And Ava, well, she's the one to actually do the strike that signals the start of the war, but I personally think that since by that time everything was too late anyways, this doesn't necessarily paint to Ava being actually traitorous.

    Hmmm, I wonder though if Aced has still time to seek out and clobber Gula at that point as the bell ringing for the start of the war cuts right into Gula's conversation with Skuld and the others who are still present.
    Wouldn't Aced be more busy mobilizing his troops and head to the battlefield?
    In the opening scene of the "war" we see Aced, Invi, Ira and Gula all present with their armies lined up before them, Aced and Ira on the left side, Invi and Gula on the right. If the Aced-knocks-out-Gula scene happens really in that timeframe, how can Gula then already stand there and lead his army?
    It is the Vulpes Union and Ava that arrive late, not Gula and Leopardos, and they march directly into the middle of the Badlands.
    Military-spoken this is a decision that is beyond stupid when all four sides of the surrounding armies are enemies, as in that situation the Vulpes-kids would all be annihilated in minutes, overran by the Ursus and Unicornis armies charging from the left and the Anguis and Leopardos units coming from the right. The other four unions would then fight each other over the corpses of the Vulpes union.
    Except of course if Ursus and Unicornis start battling each other first on the left side and Anguis and Leopardos on the right, then Vulpes would be in the unique position to be the force that can tip the scales and decide which one of the other four unions will be the first to fall by falling into their flanks.
    Lol, that is probably right to 70 maybe 80%, as I like sometimes in my sparse free time to also "goof off" with a book or a video game. ;D

    Maybe at a later date, right now I scrape already at the bottom of the barrel for enough time to get my other free time activities done so me joining won't be of much use since I would barely be active. ^__^
    A forum like this you can easily have open in another tab even at work (with all audio turned off) and occasionally take a peek into it when you have a longer running task or a small pause between tasks, but something like a chat requires constant attention.

    Heh, I always suspect that quirk to be because English is not my native tongue and I wonder if I will ever get better on that one, lol.
    I certainly intended it as a small hommage as well as giving a little alternative to having always Mickey being the one to clear things up. I originally planned to give this role to either Queen Minnie or Scrooge, but then realized that with Goofy, who was present during the events of KH 1 and CoM, I could actually verbalize and bring up the parallels between "Coat-crony" and KH 1-post-stabbety-Sora in-universe. Since Kairi was also involved by purifying/restoring Sora, the two could actually play off each other and thus enrich the whole scene. It being a shoutout and a connection to KH 1 somehow is then just the cherry on top.
    As a measure of compensation for Minnie and Scrooge I thus decided to draw out the scene of Kairi walking towards the Cornerstone a little to have them both give some wise-cracking and encouraging lines. Beforehand, the plan was to just have them give a silent thumbs-up like Daisy does. ^__^

    This is certainly a danger, although I do think it goes both ways as some of these "old-timers" are just as condescending in dismissing the handheld entries as unimportant or openly admitting they don't bother to read at least the journals and reports in-game.
    Those fans among them who really had sound reasons like financial troubles or other RL-stuff interfering (let's be honest, the console spread was bullshit and not everyone owns a PS3) and actually want to get filled in on the lore and connections I would certainly help along if they came as newbies to the forum.
    It also has a lot to do with how these questions are phrased and in what context. Nowadays one should be really aware that searching the internet even just a little will answer the most obvious and important things (like Roxas and Ventus being entirely different persons/characters) in mere minutes, even for someone who was out of the loop for years.
    Tolerance is not even the problem, whining and complaining about the story making no sense, at the same time denouncing the handheld titles as unimportant/garbage (detached from any gameplay/writing-perspective) and expecting for everything to be delivered on a silver plate without doing at least an inch of own effort is.
    It's like wut? You complain about not understanding the story, setting and characters, yet decry the parts of the series who do introduce these very settings and characters as unimportant? That's your own fucking problem for having a warped view, not of the series.

    Yup, indeed.
    Bahaha, you might be on to something with that as Gula is arguably rather tiny compared to Aced (but also Invi and Ira). Makes me wonder if Aced at one point also goes gung-ho on Ava, who's similarily tiny. <__<
    Looks almost like a typical school bully.
    It does make sense somewhat with their symbol animals though as bears are said to be massively strong, straightforward and not afraid to wreck shit with their paws while Leopards are agile, quick, strong enough to carry prey into trees and good in seizing chances, they're rather weak overall in physical strength and have the "lightest build" of all the great cats.
    Even the mentioned tendency of Gula keeping often to himself and rarely venturing to the Foreteller Castle fits with his symbolic animal as Leopards are largely living solitary as well as being active mostly on dusk and night (the warehouse Gula most resides in is almost always darkened or only dimly lit).
    In terms of aggressive behaviour though there is an interesting tidbit I read, as while larger predators like bears, tigers, lions and some species of snakes tend to be more willingly aggressive when danger is imminent, a Leopard normally tries to avoid the danger if somehow possible but if the rare case of it being driven to aggressiveness occurs, the Leopard might react with a fierceness and rage that sometimes even surpasses a tiger.
    Considering a Leopard is also smaller and better in concealing itself, some experts consider an angry, aggressive Leopard to be way worse than a bear, tiger or lion.


    That's a difficult question as we don't know the exact order of events yet. It might even be that both variants come into play one after another at different points.
    When Aced milkshakes Gula in the trailer, he says "We haven't even found the traitor yet.", possibly implying that at some point during the time period Back Cover takes place Aced and Gula are somehow working together, even if it might not be an official alliance. Aced is obviously upset with Gula over something and I do suspect that their "working relationship" will shatter possibly due to mistakes made by both of them. The main question is if Aced's conversation with Ava takes place before or after his "fallout" with Gula.
    If it takes place before it, when Aced says "I want the three of us to form an alliance" it could point towards him wanting to deepen his "working relationship" with Gula (the reason for his anger towards him not being present yet) and bring Ava along due to her being close to Gula and him possibly either suspecting Invi or Ira to be the traitor or not believing in a traitor among them five at all as he says in the very first Back Cover trailer, wanting to create the alliance specifically to defy the Master's "orders"/rules and thus avoid the whole prophecy by ignoring parts of it entirely.
    If it takes place after it, it may be that Aced has at that point only given up on Ira and after whatever caused his falling out with Gula no longer trusts the Leopard enough to be of help in his variant of avoiding the end of the world, thus turning towards the only two others left and that would be Ava and Invi.

    As for what caused the rift/falling out between Aced and Gula, I dunno, but one possible scenario would be that Aced finds not only out that Gula knows at least some passages of the Lost page, he also learns from where he got this information (Luxu? MoM?) and gets pissed about Gula not filling him in on it.
    This is of course all going by the assumption that Aced and Gula actually have a sort of "joint investigation" at some time during Back Cover in the first place.
    I know that problem, lol. It's often like "where did the time go?" "Did I do anything today that was not just dutiful stuff to finance my life?"

    Alrighty, and what's your opinion on the latest chapter? On my portrayal of Kairi and her interactions with the central Disney cast?
    Next two chapters is actually a two-parter that concludes Kairi's arc with her getting a "weapon" and another appearance of Naminé and Xion.

    I've also kept up more generally rather than actually participating too in-depth in the theorizing.
    Also got a sort of shock/facepalm moment reading some comments to the trailer on Youtube, like some people insisting that Roxas is in the trailer, specifically the hooded figure with the "Oblivion-Keyblade" (which is actually Luxu with MX's Goatblade, but heh, casuals I guess) and thus Organisation XIII is also a thing again (because of the Black Coats).
    Other highlights: Who are these weirdos in the masks? Are they KH's equivalent of terrorists? Where is Sora? What's up with that blue-haired chick? Why does she call Roxas "Ven" and what's he doing in Snow White's coffin? (Seriously, people still get that wrong?)

    Nah, I was speaking about our VM-conversation itself, as in my post is continuing the convo from August 15 as the parts from August 26/27 are by now more or less already discussed in "official" theory threads.
    As for the trailer itself, it did give some more insight into Aced's initial mindset I'd say, he wasn't always the fascist-leaning radical he is shown to us in the last few browser-chi updates, although he definitely has problems keeping his temper in check and for some reason he apparently has a penchant for going physical especially with Gula as while we see him bicker and argue with both Ira and Invi, he never physically touches them (until his feud with Invi escalates into full-blown battle, that is).
    I guess you're quite busy as well these days. ^__^

    Don't know if you have already read the current chapter of the story, so I'd figure I'll warn beforehand that either this coming weekend or the weekend after that I may have the time to upload the next one. ^__^

    The Unchained theories have gone through the roof with the arrival of the new trailer so I think this one is actually an answer to the parts of the VM convo from August 15, lol.
    You know, for a while now I hadn't really paid much attention to your avatar and at the corner of my eye, it looked like a Storm Trooper. Only now have I noticed that it's actually sans.

    Oops
    Yep, Ava practically gave the starting shot, but this single action hardly makes her the traitor as by the time this happens everything was already lost anyways.
    I even assume that Luxu is only so open with her because he knows he has already won. I am still convinced that there was once a chance to avert the whole disaster back when the time/era of x[chi] was still the present, but the crucial point in the timeline where everything became unavoidable lies further back and I do not think that browser chi nor Unchained chi actually showed the audience that point, because this point is firmly tied to the Foretellers as a group themselves so maybe Back Cover will show when exactly the turning point came.
    It doesn't even have to be a single event, but a chain of smaller events with different groups of people involved escalating is also possible.
    I firmly do not believe that this was truly unavoidable "fate" at all but that this "fate", much like what Xehanort also likes to call fate, was engineered rather than truly destinied to happen.

    Well, Gula says "It's why the traitor began trying to end the world.", indicating that the traitor may initially not have wanted to end the world but later changed his/her mind.
    Of course, we also have to take this statement with a grain of salt as this may just be Gula's personal interpretation.
    Going by that, it might be actually a bit of both.
    I've actually made this theory into a thread now as well and there was brought up the notion that all five Foretellers may "partly" be unwitting traitors at least in relation to their fellow Foretellers and the world itself.

    This is exactly what I think as well. the "traitor" did at first not exist and also didn't want to end the world, but the one who truly has the apocalyptic intentions and is the puppet master behind it all manipulated events and people so a traitor was "born" to play the role intended by the prophecy.

    That the fades to black were put exactly in these parts is somewhat aggravating, but I bet that this "truth" is a huge game changer that may explain quite some mysteries still around, so maybe it won't even revealed in Back Cover, but in KH III itself!
    Tehehe, no problem, I'm actually also still at work...at least for the next 1 and a half hours (yay for long running tasks that only need occasional oversight, allowing for short forum peeks). ;P
    It's ok, especially when the posts of a convo get longer it can certainly become somewhat of an effort to answer them.
    As long as it doesn't take more than two months to all parties forgot what the convo even was about it should be fine.

    Except that Luke was the very same in the original trilogy as was Anakin in the prequels and they certainly haven't got as much backlash as she got (Anakin did get backlash, but for different reasons).
    That's certainly true about the Kylo Ren issue, although I'm still somewhat wondering how this wimpy tantrum throwing little son of a bitch apparently managed to wipe out the whole newly established New Jedi Order (which I think to this day is an idiotic plot point and a needless rehash, constantly bringing new Jedi purges just for drama sakes is cheap and unbelievable) when Anakin/Darth Vader needed the whole 501st Legion and Palpatine's/Sidious' master plan of Order 66 to pull off the same thing.
    Also Luke just letting it happen is way out of character for him.
    Pfft, Rey has to be somehow related in order for her immense force potential to be at least somewhat explained. Especially since the Jedi still being almost extinct (Return of the Jedi my ass, JJ Abrams) does not really give much leeway for her to be hailing from another rather strong force-sensitive lineage.

    He doesn't have to have full destruction in mind as endgoal to grow concerned/interested though as Ava setting up the Dandelions is apparently not something that has been foretold in the book of prophecies, so that may act as an additional incentive on top of the one that the Dandelions might turn out to be a hindrance for his plans eventually, not because of him caring or not if there are survivors.
    Being able to reach this "Unchained state" might also be something that he wishes to attain if he cannot already do it (if he can, he can also easily follow them and appear again in Unchained X/Season 2 of the whole story).
    Yep, Flowerboy's tendency to stick his nose everywhere might be seen as a threat to some forces as he could accidentally stumble upon knowledge that isn't meant to be uncovered.
    Perhaps, as we by now should know that the KH series can have several fates in store that may be considered worse than actual death...<__<

    More fodder to feed the "Sora-is-secrectly-Cloud's-and-Aerith's-son"-theories? ;P
    People who have hair like that are actually pretty lucky as they don't need much extra stuff to make themselves look good again hairstyle-wise. ^__^
    Tbh I see that more in the same vein as they did with Cloud's hairstyle in Advent Children. With the UE 4 engine and the PS4 characters are looking more "realistic" and detailed than ever before so making Rox' and Ven's spikes less obvious just helps getting the whole picture across better.

    As so often it is a central question about finding the right balance between reasonable policies. The German Health Care system is also very good, but also ridiculously expensive mainly because especially the rich including politicians have several loopholes at hand with which they can avoid depositing money into the system thus forcing the middle and lower working class to shoulder all the burdens.

    At least she isn't impulsive, racist and outright dumb like Trump who would probably not hesitate to actually start an atomic weapon and turn the whole world against the USA with his loose mouth even worse than George W. Bush ever did.
    And unlike Trump, she would probably at least partly listen to competent advisers.

    Ah ye, I see.
    Yep, I'm actually happy I finally got that chapter out as it has some nice callbacks to KH 1 and more Disney centered stuff. ;)
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