Dark Road ► Dark Road: Chapter 2 - The Presence of Darkness

[Cumguardian69]

Xehanort is shaping up to bethe deviant - one who challenges his preconceived notions. This is exactly what we would expect from a Keyblade Master of Darkness. We shall watch his career with great interest.

 

[The_Echo]

Can't say I'm even remotely surprised that SENA has found some way to delay the story update.
$5 this won't be the last time.

As for the update itself, I'm not really sure what I expected out of it, but I guess we have an idea of what DR's pacing will be like.
Seems the search for the upperclassmen will be a bit breadcrumb-esque, at least for now as Xehanort and friends learn about other worlds and their role in them.
The dark figure behind the Queen is... interesting. It's definitely not Darkness as we see it in UX, but it's certainly not just a normal dark aura either.
And Xehanort and Eraqus both repeating Brain's words is uh, confusing. That scene doesn't have Player in it at all, so is he not actually connected to Player specifically?

 

[Idreamaboutcats]

Maybe her name will be Mary Anne!

I laughed! When I read this, it reminded me that Mary Anne and Alice were implied by Disney secondary canon to be the same person and that one couldn’t exist in the same space as the other. Sound familiar, right?

Can't say I'm even remotely surprised that SENA has found some way to delay the story update.
$5 this won't be the last time.

This does feel like it has “artificial scarcity” written all over it. I’m pissed too.

And Xehanort and Eraqus both repeating Brain's words is uh, confusing. That scene doesn't have Player in it at all, so is he not actually connected to Player specifically?

I’m more curious how they even know that scene, since it happened way before any of them were alive. Unless they somehow read a copy of the BoP complete with illustrations and verbatim quotes of the union leaders (even with Ven, because impostor and all that), I’m surprised they even flashbacked Skuld and Ven there since those two were flung into the future far ahead of YX and young Eraqus’ time.

 

[andreverts]

So at least knowing it'll drop during the beginning of August is better than the initial confusion when there was nothing. If their Twitter was used for more than "here's what's coming today" and the odd "strategy and tips" then I'd have expected them to tweet about this delay (they still could!) but alas, just gotta wait until the work is done and ready to go.

My tablet is celebrating.

I already took a pause from the game a couple of days ago when I finished everything that could be done in the game. I won't randomly grind, better take this time to move back on Union.

By the way this delay is so ridiculous that they may just adopt it for the future too: JP at the end of the month and GL at the beginning, why not split the community like on Union? Users sounded happy about it.

They just deserve people not buying WJE until the Global games are updated.
Proud that I never put a cent. into this stuff.

 

[Recon]

So...much...dialogue x___x ahhhhhhhhh

 

[Violet Pluto]

Spoilers for the people who didn't watch or read it yet.

Spoiler Show

This is cool. Sure QoH being here is a bit confusing, but seeing as Wonderland is a nonsense world anyway it's possible since that QoH is this worlds Order that she doesn't age. Or maybe Age doesn't exist in Wonderland because it's like a dream world. Not an actual Dream World, I hope I'm not being misunderstood.

Anywho, Xehanort and Eraqus already showing off how different they are and will be is nice. I also like Xehanort's reluctance to fight Darkness infected beings with a Keyblade. Sora has fought them serially because of their influence on the Heartless; but that reflects what Xehanort said about it becoming necessary to do so, and while what Eraqus says is optimistic it also reflects the people who were able to free themselves from Darkness like Riku. I like this update.

 

[Dreq the Dreck]

Moral of the story: Keep your darkness in your pants, until you learn to control it

 

[Sign]

OP updated with subbed videos! Thanks for your patience~

 

[Chie]

I guess if a world's going to be eternally ageless, it might as well be Wonderland.

Though it's interesting, Xehanort describes worlds as boxes that repeat a cycle over and over. That describes worlds on many levels - most directly the sleeping worlds, most metafictionally the disney worlds, and most relevantly... perhaps a certain box itself (if it contains the UX computer, which is my belief).

The Heartless that showed up was cool, almost felt like I was playing a disney world in a kingdom hearts game. Ha ha.

Also wow I'm not a shipper for KH in the slightest but some palpable Xehanort/Eraqus right at the end there. Or at least in Vor's eyes.

Oh yeah, I also wanted to say that when I saw this had voice acting the delay for the english version actually totally makes sense, if they're going to dub it.

 

[Clue.Less]

OP updated with subbed videos! Thanks for your patience~

Thank you so much!

So intriguing! I love the "What?" / "What yourself" lines and what happened just before. (And Eraqus, stop being so damn cute... No, don't stop^^)

EDIT: What's Vör's line if you pick her instead?

Though it's interesting, Xehanort describes worlds as boxes that repeat a cycle over and over. That describes worlds on many levels - most directly the sleeping worlds, most metafictionally the disney worlds, and most relevantly... perhaps a certain box itself (if it contains the UX computer, which is my belief).

Yes, that concept felt suspicious!

I wish they'd drop story content just a little more frequently. It's so good.

 

[Deleted member 252753]

Though it's interesting, Xehanort describes worlds as boxes that repeat a cycle over and over. That describes worlds on many levels - most directly the sleeping worlds, most metafictionally the disney worlds, and most relevantly... perhaps a certain box itself (if it contains the UX computer, which is my belief).

I find it interesting too and the stuff with the Queen's darkness makes me think about Young Xehanort's line in Re Mind (chronologically at the end of the '4 Years Later' tour, I think ) about how people 'repeat the cycle, and their darkness grows'.

 

[SweetYetSalty]

Thanks for the subs! When it comes to Wonderland I think the area is timeless in that it will never age. Some worlds probably age differently but Wonderland is such a world of madness it's probably in a infinite loop that never breaks and that fits the world. Notice how Alice isn't part of this story. She is probably the one exception...for now.

It also doesn't surprise me the Queen doesn't remember Xehanort. He's just another criminal to her. However with Xehanort able to see darkness like that it makes me curious if every Disney villain has this. Perhaps Darkness the character has been split in the Disney villains this whole time. It might explain why it spoke with Maleficent. If that is the case then this has been the most interesting thing they've done with Disney villains in awhile and I wanna see more.

Vor was really cute in the video. I think next to Eraqus she's my fave of Xehanort's friends so far.

 

[Hirokey123]

How fascinating a direction for Xehanort, having him realize an almost inescapable truth that takes many years to realize. You can't escape yourself, quite often the problems are not just the place you live or the people you interact with but rather the issue is you. Shifting your location often results in only moving your problems not escaping them, you have to fix yourself to avoid falling into the traps of repeating mistakes.

Xehanort's problems seem to largely stem from a life where he feels he lacks purpose, his inability to just accept a happy modest life in a cozy home with friends or family. He needs stimulation, knowledge, and purpose I might very much argue that Young Xehanort heavily reads now as someone who is suffering from depression. Who needed medicine and therapy but instead got super weapons, out of date traditions, and what might as well have been unlimited power and agency.

I wonder if this how he always is or if THIS was the result of his time travel. Where he knew his purpose and his inescapable fate but then forgot both those things and so he could feel it, this gnawing waiting for something to happen, for understanding to take place, for his life to begin to move. In other words I wonder if by traveling through time and etching his path in his heart that he doomed himself to a life that just felt like he was going through the motions. A life where you feel you are just go through the motions is a pretty textbook description of what living with depression can feel like.

It makes Xehanort's actions more understandable, not justifiable but understandable, he is trapped in his life and he ends up going to extremes to escape that. Xehanort never stopped being the kid stuck on the island he just moved to larger prisons but he couldn't escape the actual prison that was his own heart. I always wondered in all the worlds in DDD were meant to be exploring Xehanort at the same time as Sora and I feel this update and the previous confirms that was in fact the intent.

It brings I think extra meaning to Xehanort calling the islands a prison for a heart seeking freedom juxtaposed against the inside of Sora's heart that takes the form of the islands. On one hand that's where the hearts in Sora were trapped which seems to support Xehanort's words, but there is a deeper meaning to this. Where does KH3 end? It ends on the sunset islands where everyone has returned to by choice to share in friendship and happiness. The beach has always been a symbol in this series for freedom not prisons. For RAX the promise to go to the beach and live that represented the ultimate freedom they never had till now, and that goes doubly for Roxas who promised an HPO they would go to the beach but never could as DiZ would not let Roxas out of his digital prison.

While Ventus and Terra didn't have quite the same connection to the Beach, Aqua absolutely did. The beach of the realm of darkness represented a place she could escape from and wait for freedom and when she finally does escape her first sights are the Destiny Islands. Which she first thinks means she is still trapped but instead finally making it here represents her freedom and return to the realm of light. With Kairi the islands act not as a prison but a place of safety, sometimes she feels trapped but as a whole it's the thought she can always return to this place that gives her the courage to explore outside it. For Riku the islands used to feel like a prison but after he matured the ability to return to the islands without shame or guilt keeping him distant from the people there he loves ended up representing the ultimate freedom for his heart. It goes without saying that for Sora the islands have always been a source of comfort, he was curious but never consumed by that curiosity, it's not a prison but a sanctuary the world most safe and precious to his heart.

Xehanort returning to Scala and his heart being set free there I think makes a lot more sense as an ending for Xehanort in KH3 now. What's happening in those final moments is after as far as Xehanort had come he was back on Scala, back in his prison true prison his heart where this all really began, he's trapped, cornered, and doomed it should have been a suffocating and all consuming feeling of anger, desperation, and dread. Instead however it's only by returning to this prison, by reuniting with the people he left behind (well the one that was left), that finally Xehanort's heart could be set free. Free from the embittered old man that he had become who is also from the man who had set him on this path to become this, the imprisoned childlike heart of Young Xehanort in his final moments is free possibly for the first time ever in his life.

That's why we are seeing "Xehanort" get a happy ending because MX he is the one who caused all this, quite literally going back in time to corrupt his young self the same way he did to Riku, and thus in every respect Xehanort was both the victim and villain. We "killed" Master Xehanort completely and utterly he vanished from within Xehanort's own scala and we saved the young Xehanort boy who had been so lost, trapped, and corrupted just like we saved Riku. In other words the Xehanort saga, isn't about defeating Xehanort it's about saving him. That's why we could never defeat him by combat only by releasing his young heart from the decades of imprisonment that had twisted and ruined him.

Which makes me wonder even more now if the MoM is in fact a form of Sora it would be pretty thematically fitting that after dealing with a story where we rescue a young boy from the major villain, the major villain being his future corrupted self. If now the story is shifting to Sora facing off against the same thing though he doesn't know it yet. If the MoM's machinations are a time loop designed to cause Sora to become the MoM, a possibly bigger villain than Xehanort ever was, and the story is going to be based on helping Sora advert that. Preventing Sora from ending up like another Xehanort, changing time and history.

Hirokey123 Rambling thoughts™

 

[Clue.Less]

Hirokey123 Rambling thoughts™

I've had the same thoughts (except I hadn't replayed KH3 yet to finish making sense of what Scala meant to MX), so thank you for writing them down so well!

 

[Ballad of Caius]

Hmm... I wonder if Xehanort calling the Islands and Scala "a box" because of the routine is just a coincidence or not, seeing as how we still have the pending Black Box plot.

Also, I wonder if the Xehanort from four years later is the Xehanort that had told the MoM that he was gonna go to the worlds and see them. I think KHDR Xehanort is a Xehanort trying to find himself, while the 4 years later Xehanort is that Xehanort that is starting to become the man that decides that the world needed to be plunged into darkness and then purged with light in order to restore it.

 

[The_Echo]

Hmm... I wonder if Xehanort calling the Islands and Scala "a box" because of the routine is just a coincidence or not, seeing as how we still have the pending Black Box plot.

Between this and the ark (uses the "box" kanji), I think Nomura is getting a real kick out of throwing around "box" in normal dialogue, knowing full well it gets our attention every single time

 

[Chie]

Which puts us in the exact same position as the villains in KH3 getting distracted by Pandora's Box and Davy Jones' Box!

 

[Sign]

Didn't realize until now that the third scene was set up for another party switch, thought Vor was just being playful xD

Between this and the ark (uses the "box" kanji), I think Nomura is getting a real kick out of throwing around "box" in normal dialogue, knowing full well it gets our attention every single time

That and "darkness" I'm sure, whenever it's mentioned just vague enough to make it difficult to discern whether it's referring to darkness in general or Darkness the character lol

 

[Sakuraba Neku]

It's really sad how they always find a way for us to officially get behind the jp version. Thanks for the translation guys!

Hoping more episodes have a flashforward to 4 years later. I feel like it's just a matter of time until they slow down the pacing, but it's breath of fresh air seeing a story told like this.

 

[Sign]

I added the alternate dialogue you get if Vor was in your party during the third scene. Seems like no matter who you choose, Eraqus would just rather it not be her lol he does not look very pleased

Vor: Alright! Don't worry guys, I'll stay out of your way.

Eraqus: You better.

(Vor jumps up and down with joy. Eraqus sighs.)

Here's a vid if you want to watch it play out, if the timestamp doesn't work, it's at 18:35: