Way to Dawn (Early game spoliers....maybe)

[Oathkeeper]

I say maybe bc we all know from trailers and renders that Riku has a new car key.

But yes, Way to Dawn breaks

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from a vortex of shadows from the realm of darkness

What I want to know is.....how?

From what I understand, this is the only mention (apart from the half-formed x-blade) of a keyblade actually breaking. How does Aqua, who stayed in the realm of darkness for 10+ years, still have a keyblade when you play 0.2, but Riku and Mickey, who jumped in there for maybe a few hours have theirs broken? (I say theirs bc the journal implied both of theirs were damaged/broken)

The first time Riku was down there, I don't even think he had a keyblade yet, it was still the Soul Eater. How did he survive? It just seems a little anti-climatic.....I mean, no other boss/tough guy put a scratch on your keyblade....Are they trying to say that every other boss/secret boss/xehanort is weaker than the keyblade-breaking thing? If they went head to head, would the

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shadow vortex

win?

Anyways, rant over. I could very well just be missing info from previous games or they could explain it later on. Still love the game, its amazingly beautiful, I'm just confused x.x

 

[Veevee]

Honestly, I think Nomura just wanted Riku to have a new keyblade to show his character evolution from KH2 to 3. I was also kinda shocked that both Riku and Mickey kinda .. appeared in the RoD and after that incident, just walked back to a certain place to regroup. We are talking about the RoD here, Aqua is trapped there for over 10 years now because you can't just go in and out there to level up your gear. I really hope this is getting expanded on further in the game, otherwise it's pretty disappointing to me.

 

[CrimsonSquall]

Remember heartless are stronger in the RoD. Probably just something to do with that

 

[Oathkeeper]

I was also kinda shocked that both Riku and Mickey kinda .. appeared in the RoD and after that incident, just walked back to a certain place to regroup. We are talking about the RoD here, Aqua is trapped there for over 10 years now because you can't just go in and out there to level up your gear. I really hope this is getting expanded on further in the game, otherwise it's pretty disappointing to me.

Yeah, that's confusing too. Now they just dart in and out of there like its a library. What are they using that Aqua wouldn't have?

 

[Xblade13]

Honestly, I think Nomura just wanted Riku to have a new keyblade to show his character evolution from KH2 to 3. I was also kinda shocked that both Riku and Mickey kinda .. appeared in the RoD and after that incident, just walked back to a certain place to regroup. We are talking about the RoD here, Aqua is trapped there for over 10 years now because you can't just go in and out there to level up your gear. I really hope this is getting expanded on further in the game, otherwise it's pretty disappointing to me.

The answer to this is extremely weird actually.

How Riku and Mickey can apparently get into and out of the dark realm so easily is that Mickey's Keyblade is a Keyblade of darkness. Literally lets him walk in and out whenever. And it only gets damaged (hence why he just changes it's appearance later) whereas Riku's is broken. They also explain that the Heartless, even the weak ones, are way stronger in the realm of darkness.

Also, Aqua apparently lost her Keyblade at the end of 0.2. She wandered without it until she met Ansem the Wise..

All in all kinda dumb.

 

[Twilight Lumiair]

Yeah, that's confusing too. Now they just dart in and out of there like its a library. What are they using that Aqua wouldn't have?

This is true. We're told that CoD (Corridors of Darkness) that lead to the RoD are extremely rare, and only appear under very specific conditions (ones they couldn't have possibly repruduced themselves unless they're actively destroying worlds). Furthermore, it's stated those gateways only open in worlds located in the Realm Between, and not once do we see or get any mention of them going there. It was also established Riku could no longer use Dark Corridors, so I dunno.

The answer to this is extremely weird actually.

How Riku and Mickey can apparently get into and out of the dark realm so easily is that Mickey's Keyblade is a Keyblade of darkness. Literally lets him walk in and out whenever. And it only gets damaged (hence why he just changes it's appearance later) whereas Riku's is broken. They also explain that the Heartless, even the weak ones, are way stronger in the realm of darkness.

Also, Aqua apparently lost her Keyblade at the end of 0.2. She wandered without it until she met Ansem the Wise..

All in all kinda dumb.

But Mickey had that key ever since KH1. Are you saying he could've used that to go in and out of the Realm of Darkness as easily as he does in this game for THAT long? It took them no time at ALL to get to that beach, and this was supposedly Mickey's first attempt ever to reach her, so I don't know how to feel about that. And honestly, Aqua losing her Keyblade is never even explained if I remember, and no scenario I can think of makes sense. The whole thing, like you said, just feels kinda dumb. Like the writers just wanted to artificially create drama by having the characters arrive at the [B]exact[/B] place we left her while padding out her suffering till later down the line when they feel like getting to it.

 

[Veevee]

The answer to this is extremely weird actually.

How Riku and Mickey can apparently get into and out of the dark realm so easily is that Mickey's Keyblade is a Keyblade of darkness. Literally lets him walk in and out whenever. And it only gets damaged (hence why he just changes it's appearance later) whereas Riku's is broken. They also explain that the Heartless, even the weak ones, are way stronger in the realm of darkness.

Also, Aqua apparently lost her Keyblade at the end of 0.2. She wandered without it until she met Ansem the Wise..

All in all kinda dumb.

And why exactly didn't they do this way further? Heck, in that case, Micky could've closed the door in KH1, walked to her and walked out with her without a problem.

EDIT: I didn't mean to sound annoyed or something; that plot point just really bothers me since 2.8 and makes Micky look like one giant jerk.

 

[Noivern]

Honestly, I think Nomura just wanted Riku to have a new keyblade to show his character evolution from KH2 to 3. I was also kinda shocked that both Riku and Mickey kinda .. appeared in the RoD and after that incident, just walked back to a certain place to regroup. We are talking about the RoD here, Aqua is trapped there for over 10 years now because you can't just go in and out there to level up your gear. I really hope this is getting expanded on further in the game, otherwise it's pretty disappointing to me.

They state in the game that Mickey is the one who knows how to get there, and we know that he was in the Realm of Darkness in KH1 looking for a Keyblade of that side to lock the Door of Darkness like he did in KH1. The Kingdom Key D (or Starlight, I think that's how it's called in KH3? Not sure) is essentially the RoD equivalent to the Kingdom Key. I always assumed that because of that, it allowed him freedom to go back in there.

As for the Keyblade breaking thingy:

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This is actually something that I've wanted them to talk about since BBS was announced with actual Keyblade Masters who know the ways of the Keyblade, but a few games passed since then including Back Cover who flat out tell us how the Keyblade came to be but we still don't know ANYTHING about it besides it allows you to open essentially anything and has control over Hearts.

What is the difference between a Keyblade from the Realm of Darkness and one from the Light?

How does the ownership of Keyblade works? We know that to use one you either have it made for you by those who know (MoM and the Foretellers) or you have it passed down to you, and then there's Riku and Lea who are special cases and birthed their own Keyblades from the strenght of their hearts (unless future games show us that only Riku did that and the mysterious girl actually gave her Keyblade to Lea without him knowing), and then I assumed that the owner is the only one able to use the Keyblade, but then we see Sora just grabing Aqua's Keyblade and carrying it around (not even as a normal item he has to physically carry. He literally SUMMONS it as if it was his own Key), and then Aqua flat out stoles AND fights with Mickey's like it's nothing?

Then we have the mention that they need to strenghten their keyblades only for Sora to beat everything with his old ass Kingdom Key. Can't even argue that it's a special Keyblade either since again, Mickey's keyblade was supposedly the dark realm equivalent of it.

Seriously, we need a Kingdom Hearts enciclopedia in the same format as the reports with the apprentices and other characters explaining how the unique elements in the world work.

 

[Xblade13]

And why exactly didn't they do this way further? Heck, in that case, Micky could've closed the door in KH1, walked to her and walked out with her without a problem.

EDIT: I didn't mean to sound annoyed or something; that plot point just really bothers me since 2.8 and makes Micky look like one giant jerk.

Yen Sid told him to keep it a secret because apparently they thought Sora and Riku weren't ready. If they found out they'd get Mickey to let them in, and risk themselves to do it.

Still makes Mickey look like an idiot though.

 

[OneDandelion]

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I think Aqua lost her keyblade after years of fighting the heartless and Rikus was damaged so fast because (it seems to me) aqua may have been fighting with them the first time they were in the realm of darkness

 

[Face My Fears]

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I thought Mickey needed someone with the power of waking to enter the Realm of Darkness - hence he waited until after Riku passed the Mark of Mastery? But then that doesn't explain how he get there in KH1.

Riku's keyblade breaking I think was maybe because the Way To Dawn wasn't his actual keyblade (the one he was supposed to get) and after becoming a true keyblade master he needed to have a new one constructed? I think Way To Dawn just wasn't strong enough for the Realm of Darkness. When he was there the first time with Souleater, I think the heartless left him alone due to the amount of darkness he had in himself at that time.

It has been stated that it's not easy to go there, even though Mickey knows the way, and is a very tough place. Mickey going to find Aqua during the events of KH2 would have been a bad idea as he could have been killed. Also, he may have never found her as it seems the Realm of Darkness changes shape. Mickey and Riku had to use Aqua's essence in the realm of light to track her down in the realm of darkness (that's why they visited the Radiant Garden - where Aqua was transported to the realm of darkness).

 

[Twilight Lumiair]

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I thought Mickey needed someone with the power of waking to enter the Realm of Darkness - hence he waited until after Riku passed the Mark of Mastery? But then that doesn't explain how he get there in KH1.

Riku's keyblade breaking I think was maybe because the Way To Dawn wasn't his actual keyblade (the one he was supposed to get) and after becoming a true keyblade master he needed to have a new one constructed? I think Way To Dawn just wasn't strong enough for the Realm of Darkness. When he was there the first time with Souleater, I think the heartless left him alone due to the amount of darkness he had in himself at that time.

It has been stated that it's not easy to go there, even though Mickey knows the way, and is a very tough place. Mickey going to find Aqua during the events of KH2 would have been a bad idea as he could have been killed. Also, he may have never found her as it seems the Realm of Darkness changes shape. Mickey and Riku had to use Aqua's essence in the realm of light to track her down in the realm of darkness (that's why they visited the Radiant Garden - where Aqua was transported to the realm of darkness).

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Corridors that lead to the RoD open in the Realm Between after a world in the RoL falls to darkness. This is how Mickey got there in KH1. Also, we see Aqua had her Keyblade for almost the entirety of her stay in the RoD, losing it in around year's time in the RoL before KH3 at most. How this happened, and why it wasn't addressed by the characters who we know went to Destiny Islands multiple since KH2, is beyond me. And if she lost it at the end of 0.2, that would mean it's been on Destiny Islands since KH1, which it wasn't.

I also find it halarious that Mickey kept going on and on about the dangers of the RoD, and how they should have "powered up" their Keyblades before they left despite the fact that Aqua, who was no where near as equipped to deal with the realm as Riku or Mickey were, not only survived there, on her own, for 10 YEARS without losing, breaking, or damaging her Keyblade, but was also sitting on the beach just fine (and with no protective material like her armor) despite having dove so deep into the RoD. Supposedly she was sitting just above the Dark Abyss. Not to mention how Riku and Mickey struggled with a single Demon Tower (allegedly because they were in the RoD), and Aqua solo'd multiple Demon Towers, and a Devil's Wave, AND Red Eyes all on her own.

 

[AdrianXXII]

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Corridors that lead to the RoD open in the Realm Between after a world in the RoL falls to darkness. This is how Mickey got there in KH1. Also, we see Aqua had her Keyblade for almost the entirety of her stay in the RoD, losing it in around year's time in the RoL before KH3 at most. How this happened, and why it wasn't addressed by the characters who we know went to Destiny Islands multiple since KH2, is beyond me. And if she lost it at the end of 0.2, that would mean it's been on Destiny Islands since KH1, which it wasn't.

I also find it halarious that Mickey kept going on and on about the dangers of the RoD, and how they should have "powered up" their Keyblades before they left despite the fact that Aqua, who was no where near as equipped to deal with the realm as Riku or Mickey were, not only survived there, on her own, for 10 YEARS without losing, breaking, or damaging her Keyblade, but was also sitting on the beach just fine (and with no protective material like her armor) despite having dove so deep into the RoD. Supposedly she was sitting just above the Dark Abyss. Not to mention how Riku and Mickey struggled with a single Demon Tower (allegedly because they were in the RoD), and Aqua solo'd multiple Demon Towers, and a Devil's Wave, AND Red Eyes all on her own.

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To be fair the power scaling in KH3 seemed all over the place.

A lot of events in the story felt like they only happened in that way to make it possible for Sora to always come to the rescue and be the hero. A power fantasy I have always hated in video games and shonen anime.

 

[Taochan]

My thoughts on the Way to the Dawn breaking: after DDD Riku no longer walks the path in between. Riku is of the Light now, his heart not wavering to Darkness. The blade breaks because it's no longer his Keyblade. I have no good thoughts on Mickey's being damaged yet, though. Perhaps Master Keeper only held up as long as it did because of how special it is (locking LoD as CO) and all Keyblades are susceptible there, but it's a Keyblade of the RoD so it seems silly. It seemed vaguely implied the one swarm of Heartless was Aqua though, so maybe the first was as well and that's why.

About Master Keeper: even though it's dumb there was on screen precedent for Aqua not having it. She DOES let it go, it doesn't disappear like Keyblades usually do. Where was it from the end of KH1-KH3 during the multitudes of scenes on that exact beach? God knows, perhaps it was effected by the time distortion between RoD-RoL. I'm sure Nomura will explain his madness in a future interview but I think it's pretty safe to assume that's when she lost it.

I'm looking forward to clarification and more Keyblade lore.

 

[Onion Knight]

Maybe the new Keyblade came packaged with the new clothes?