My problem is not really that [Chi] is canon. I mean, it's the story of the keyblade war. I expected it to detail a story of the past... and STAY in the past. Ven I can explain away, but Marly and other direct ties to the future are unpleasant. I've always wanted to know the story of the keyblade war, but not like this.
If Blaine is Luxu, then I'm fine with that. It's still contained in the past.
Since it is a mobile game, it was bound to end up this way. When it comes to mobile games, you have to constantly add on and change things to keep peoples interest. My rule of thumb is, when you run out of ideas, introduce pets. And here we are. They made it make some sense within the story, but the point still stands. I wish they had separated the "gameplay" from the actual story. Like, why can't the story section be reserved for actual important story missions, and all the filler be put somewhere else. Meh.
But anyway, that's besides the point.
Full agreement.
Being canon is not a problem if it is either self-contained or connections are only superficially relevant to the present as a nice-to-have
background knowledge.
Making it super-closely tied to the present and actually placing present-day characters in it is where it gets headache-inducing and, as many fans would say, "needlessly convoluted".
Even Ventus is more or less overdone I'd say.
Yes, his backstory was intentionally kept vague
and teased somewhat.
Yes, the main villain did develop a certain interest for him and spoke openly about immense potential.
The thing is though, even if a direct connection between the X-era and Ventus is
imperative somehow for the present time and his own backstory, it could have been designed in a more simple and coherent way.
A connection doesn't automatically mean that one has to be personally directly involved in an entirely different era.
The way it is presented right now places him directly in the past, involving time travel and reality-crossing mumbo-jumbo yet again no matter what will happen further down the line, breaking him off from the group of other already established present-day characters.
I admit, in a way the actions of constantly inflating the X-era's importance towards the presumed story of KH III and its finale makes it look like right now the setup and stories that happened in the "main" series are shoved aside in favor of it.
The Keyblade War and its consequences were once nothing but
background lore for the motivation of the main villain and the premise was that he wants to unleash another war due to two primary reasons:
1. to satisfy his own curiosity and 2. because he wants to play god and recreate the universe.
Now it is a huge direct influence factor instead.
It looks like it is all destiny, preordained and set in stone since the ancient era of the War itself due to a weird prophecy book and a slimy eyeball embedded in a blade that makes the world's surveillance and intelligence services together look pale in comparison.
In the light of this, what does the given motivation of the main villain even mean? What do all the actions and adventures of all the present day characters (including Ventus) mean in context if everything is preset anyways?
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Back to topic though,
I am personally hoping that Blaine is indeed an entirely original character standing for his own as by now I'm admittedly completely sick of the clones and/or different versions of the same characters, but I do find both the ideas of him "being" secretly Luxu or Gula intriguing.
This is mostly because both Luxu and Gula are more or less masked characters who we haven't seen unmasked yet and we know their current names were bestowed upon them by the Master of Memes, Ruler of the trolls.
Had they other names beforehand? Maybe one of them was Blaine and the character just went back to use it after the whole "Foreteller"-fiasco was over and done with? Shedding not only his robes and animal mask but also the name given to him?
Despite Browser-Chi "depicting" the Keyblade War itself we as the audience get only to witness its opening stages, the middle of the carnage from the Player Avatar's view and the
aftermath when Ephemer and Skuld appear to the Player (which is unusual in itself as Player declined becoming a Dandelion and thus should not even survive or enter the place the Dandelions are supposed to head to after the war).
The actual climax of the war and the fates of the Foretellers are still a total mystery, although we get what may be a glimpse of the
start of the aftermath in 0.2 with the single Luxu-scene, implying that there was indeed either a Kingdom Hearts summoned (what Gula intended to do by the end of Back Cover) or that at least yet another "false" or "forced" KH was
created back then.