I'll reply to you in a moment, Tartarus
I just read the most recent page of the retrospective, so my mind is brimming with things about that right now. But I will get back to you. Promise!
...
So, I was thinking about it, and I think Xemnas' lines in the last part: "Sora, are you certain you can trust Riku?" and "Riku, are you sure you're not jealous... of Sora?" were probably to add context to Sora and Riku's conversation at the Dark Margin (and a bit before that)?
Because otherwise, the topic of Riku having been jealous of Sora does seem to kind of come out of nowhere. But I still think they could have done better to start it out, than to have Xemnas just yell out random things to try and mess with them.
Thanks a bunch for the shout-out, btw, Blackdrazon. I'm glad that I reminded you of something you're actually interested in, so that you could put it in the update in time
...I just realized that my response is probably going to be really long (and all over the place, as I give my thoughts on the game in general and try to address some of the things that were said in this part of the retrospective), so brace yourselves.
And I apologize, that I can never seem to restrain myself to small comments. I fail at life...
Okay, when I first played KH2, I was kind of annoyed at how Sora's so mean to some of the villains in this game, while Riku gets to be more respectful to them. I guess it could make sense of that in some ways, but it still bothers me. What happened to Sora's nice speeches from KH1 (and somewhat CoM)?
I'm referring to the "You're right, Xemnas. Light and darkness are eternal. Nothing probably goes on forever, too. But guess what?" "That doesn't mean YOU'RE eternal," scene, if I wasn't clear.
I always thought Sora was the kinder of the two (until I played this game, though some of Sora's fiery comebacks could be Roxas' fault), but anyway, this is just a miner nitpick.
I actually do like the scene in some ways. Especially Xemnas' "Heh. No more eternal than that radiant of yours" line. I have no idea why, but I adore that.
And I just recently watched NicoB die to the Xemnas fight, in realizing he was supposed to be controlling Riku, too, during the laser show, and it was pretty amusing! I'm glad I never made that mistake!
I'm also pretty sure that that white light after the Dusks show up
is supposed to be a time skip...
So, I'm not going to lie: I don't really like the scene with Sora and Riku on the shore that much.
In fact, it was in comparing that scene to KH1's ending, that I finally admitted to myself that I liked 1 better than 2 (when for years I'd thought I preferred 2).
With KH1's ending, you defeat Ansem, you see Kingdom Hearts and he's defeated by it, there's the rush to close the door, Sora and Riku's final (bittersweet) moment together happens, and then Sora and Kairi are parted, with Sora growing up and deciding he's going to go help his friend instead of going home to be with the girl he loves.
But in KH2, it's just two dudes talking on a shore? Okay, I guess.
I don't
hate this instance. And now, I do appreciate it a whole lot (someone on KH-Info-Block on Tumblr brings up just how much deeper it is than Sora and Riku's reunion together was, and that is very true; and what they say here is so very important and great character development), but I can't help finding it anti-climatic.
But then again, seeing as how 2's almost treated like the end of this series (at the point that it was made), maybe it makes sense to have a more chillaxed ending, since all threats are gone and most loose ends are tied up here.
I guess what really drives me insane about it is how okay Sora and Riku seem to be with being trapped in the RoD forever, and fading back into darkness, or whatever.
Maybe it's admirable that they'd be fine with doing this--if they think they have no other choice, and that they are reassured that at least their loved ones are alive and safe--but you think they'd be just a little bit upset over this and trying to find a way out!
I also find them both (especially Riku) kind of melodramatic here (mainly talking about the "At least the waves sound the same" line, that I've never been able to make sense of), though Riku always is that way.
IDK. It's a fine cutscene. I don't know why I'm harping on it so much. It's just a bit... strange to me, is all. I don't entirely understand why it's here, or at least for so long at that.
But moving onto cheerier topics: Kairi's letter! I remember when I first played KH2 and got to that moment, I was thinking how pleased I was with KH2--in that it had (I thought) answered every question I had in the game, except for Kairi's letter; but I thought I could live without knowing about that, if I had to--and it was exactly in that moment that Kairi's letter washed up on the beach.
I was so happy. I was like, "Yes, KH2, you tied up every loose end imaginable that I could have ever wanted! Go, you!"
...Even if I was somewhat scared about that back then, too, because I thought that it meant that the series was over for a hot second.
ANYWAY, the ending cinematic is really something spectacular. I'd never seen amazing graphics like that before (KH1's were a bit lesser than 2's, and the opening to KH2 is shorter than the ending cinematic, I think), and I remember playing that scene again and again and again just in order to see the characters looking so beautiful.
My sister even had just gotten a digital camera with its own printer prior to this, and we ended up taking pictures of the characters' gorgeous faces (and even recorded the entire ending on the camera, though it had black lines on it), because I wanted to use them for a clock project that was going on at school; and I didn't have the Internet at the time, and had no idea that anyone could somehow get the images and post them online. That was like black magic to me at the time.
So back then, I was just trying to take the pictures and develop them to put on my clock for tech class--it was the best that I could think to do.
I still have some of those pictures to this day, and when people come over to my house and see them they're like, "How'd you get that?" And I'm like, "Well, funny story about that..."
But I really do love the ending (...despite some slight renovations I have about parts of it now).
And I swear that Sora would've kissed Kairi here if Donald and Goofy hadn't tackled him, which would have made my life complete.
Sora and Riku growing a more healthy bond before all this? A SDG reunion, Mickey cuddling Riku, Roxas and Naminé getting some sort of closure (even though after I first played Days, and became an uber RokuShi shipper, that used to set my teeth on edge for a time--even though I actually played 2 before Days and had shipped RokuNami! But now I'm totally fine with it, and actually do ship RokuNami again; I ship both RokuShi and RokuNami these days), and an amazing SoKai ending (even if Nomura was somewhat cruel to end it so fast)? Yes, please!
Sometimes, when I think about the KH2 ending, I kind of do find myself wishing that the franchise had ended there. Because it would've been so PERFECT. And we still could have had games like BbS, without our main cast having to be involved in it.
But tbh, I am glad that this saga continued--as I love it, and I don't know what I'd do with my life if it hadn't--but I hope that the KH3 ending is as good, or not better, to double make certain it was worth them carrying on after that point.
And the ending where Sora finds Kairi's cave drawing (echoing her movements from before entirely) makes me weak. Absolutely weak! I can get why it's Nomura's favorite scene in the game. Well done, sir. That was a really touching thing that you did there.
It's just nice to have some Sora and Kairi parallels at all, when this series is dripping in the Sora and Riku ones. Now if only we could get some Riku and Kairi ones...
So then we have the epilogue. And how I laugh at the fact that some casuals to this day don't know that the letter's contents have been answered in Coded.
It's also somewhat irksome that when we do find out what the letter says, it's partially addressed to Kairi--and even talks about her in it--but then Sora and Riku leave her for DDD and are just like, "Just kidding. Mickey didn't know what he was talking about in including you in this, and you have nothing to do with this bridge game to 3 at all. Goodbye, now."
...And honestly, since that's the case, I can kind of see why people have come up with theories that Kairi actually had the letter for a long time and held off on giving it to Sora and Riku, because she knew they'd leave her again.
I don't think that idea's true at all (even if the look on her face does give some credence to it)--because when does KH ever care about Kairi's thoughts and feelings on things, or how she suffers?--but if it ever were to be revealed to be true, I could believe it and see how things could have hinted at that.
...But I'm not going to get into that now, because this is supposed to be a happy post. And the KH2 ending
does make me happy/is happy.
All in all, this has been SUCH an amazing retrospective, Blackdrazon, and I thank you so very much for writing it.
And I'm especially interested to see what you have to say about KH2's original script! One of the things that I theorize about it is that either just Saïx kidnapped Kairi (and Axel wasn't involved in at all, because he was originally supposed to die), or she never even left the Islands at all and her and Sora's reunion at the end of the game was/is actually their first reunion... That would explain a lot, tbh.
But, yeah: I'm definitely going to be interested to see what you bring to the table next...
Though I have to say that I'm glad that this game is mostly behind us now (and I think that you probably are, too).
As Tartarus said a while back, KH2 is exhausting--even if there are some small things within it (like this ending) that make it so very worth it.
Oh, and I forgot to mention above how the fact that Square Enix decided
not to use a different model for the beach Sora and Riku are on leads to so much confusion down the line for casual fans, who think that Sora, Riku, Aqua, and Ansem were all in the same place (when they weren't), and that if Sora and Riku had just waited a bit longer, they could've taken them with them. *sigh*
I also forgot to mention that when I first played this game, I thought Sora's: "Then I guess I'm okay the way I am. I've got something you could never imitate, too," meant Kairi (but then I quickly figured out that Sora would never be mean like that). In my defense, they could have made that line a bit clearer--by actually having Sora spell out "having
you as a friend".
...And they could have had Riku point at Sora's heart a better in the epilogue, because it legit looks like he's saying it was Sora's necklace that was the Door to Light and not his heart. LOL.
Also, I really wish the Door to Light had been more of a plot point. All of KH1 (and a bit of this game) set it up as being SO important, but then every game after 2 never even mentions that Sora finally accomplished this thing. It's like it never even happened.