Spotted HD Roxas in the photo!

The world looks great! also looks like aqua boss battle ?

Sora looks like he has a scouter on xD

And oh my goodness they redidthe reveal trailer and are including it!!!

Aww look Aqua got her Halloweentown costume together just in time.

The Keychain for the Keyblade is made of Honey's chemical balls! Cute!

Flynn's spot on characterization 10/10

OMG Yeah I didn't notice Sora is wearing a visor during gameplay?

Things I noticed:
-They seem to have canon-ized the scene with Sora picking up the Master Keyblade!
-Vanitas be chilling in LoD(?) where the chessboard is
-Only Baymax is a party member
-Leg shot of Sora, Donald and Mickey in a dusty area which looks suspiciously like the Keyblade Graveyard

So much to analyse! Roxas, like Forsaken Shadow said. They kept the scene of Sora picking up the Master Defender. Randall makes his first public appearance! AND YAY ALL OF BIG HERO 6 (though I don't think I saw Fred?)

So is Vanitas chilling in the Land of Departure near the end of the trailer or where is that?

I saw him in suit for like a split second, and it was just his back lol. They really only showed Wasabi and Honey for a second as well ha.

Where's Goofy?

"This can't be happening. Again."

I recognised Wasabi and Honey Lemon but not Fred. Oh well, as if I needed an excuse to rewatch this non stop!

Riku back to his DDD Haircut in this trailer.. interesting. This must be before his haircut actually happens and they've been showing off the look he has post-haircut.

That shot of Sora’s chess piece alone surrounded by those of the Seeker’s has me worried! So much good! I think there will definitely be another trailer at TGS proper.

I wasn't able to process that as I am super tired and that went so fast lol. But yeah now I am concerned as well. I mean, with Vanitas' speech its more concerning.

And yes, now I fully expect a new world.

Also, the scene from the first KHIII trailer with Sora & Master Defender is real.

Old Man Xehanort! You can see him in the scene with Sora Donald and Mickey at what looks like the Keyblade Graveyard in the distance. Very faint.

Also, Vanitas touching his face in Land of Departure in front of the throne Ventus was last seen on... Maybe he’s just been reborn using Ventus’ body?

Next week the full trailer, not getting my hopes up for a new world reveal since it may just be this with more gameplay and cutscenes
https://twitter.com/_KINGDOMHEARTS/status/1039085807699558401

This gonna fuel your Wreck if Ralph theories.

I hope the next trailer is in English, though I doubt it. I am so glad Baymax is a party member, I can't wait to hear him say "Oh no"
Did anyone notice the Hp and Mp? Holy crap!

You had a chance to say fuel your Sugar Rush

But this might give us a hint if that world is in KH3 or not

Sven and Kristoff are behind Larxene in the montage. Please don't hurt the reindeer ;~;

This was my immediate thought as well lol. I really don't think it means anything other than a cute reference, since I still think his being a summon kills the worlds chances but let others do what they do I guess lol

What's up with Aqua's skin? Her legs and arms are a dark purple, looks Heartless-ish. Other Xehanort vessels didn't get weird skin like that. Maybe she didn't get Norted after all and it's some other weird problem?

Wearing his KH3 outfit, maybe not surprising but kind of interesting. Not that much of the clothing/hairstyle stuff makes a lot of sense so far in terms of the timeline anyway.

Soft confirmation for Destiny Islands though!


She's got the same skin stuff going on as Riku when he's in Darkness Mode through KH1 and CoM. Unless we see Aqua in BH6 in the full trailer, I'm definitely thinking there's still something fishy going on with her.

I have been of the opinion she just is taken over by generic darkness and not norted at all tbh. I don't see why she would just chill in the realm of darkness still if she was norted. I don't see how that furthers his purposes at all, other than trolling Mickey and Riku?

Yeah, I'm on the side of it being a cute reference. Digging the Ultros ship though.

Seems the scene with Young Xehanort in Toy Story takes place in the section of the store that was closed off in the demo.

Is that xion ?

I just rewatched the trailer in slowmo and nocited Xigbar in what looks like Twilight Town during the montage. This trailer is so crazy! I loved the gummi ship part! So interesting.
The BH6 part looks like we may have sections dedicated to the other members joining up as temporary party members. I'm still shocked that we saw what looks to be the Keyblade Graveyard. OMG!

Still doesn't explain the eyes though. Riku's eyes never went yellow like that while using generic darkness powers. Plus the way this trailer positions her with the other Seekers, sigghhh that's probably where they're going with it.

But hey, maybe she's a Replica or something. Or maybe like the Riku Replica fused with her, and now they're going around getting revenge together.

I like the Ultros ship too! And I like the lighting on the Bomb one and the pom-pom on the Moogle one as well. It has a nice, glassy texture I wasn't expecting.

And ah, interesting that makes sense. That would be after he summons the Gigas' in the entrance then?


Ugh...I really am hoping not but I'm not gonna hold my breath lol. Kinda seems like everyone is gonna get dark/norted in this game minus SDG, and probably Kairi and Riku and Mickey?

Wow! Who would have thought Vanitas is basically a middle aged white woman who, not knowing Japanese, just repeats things like "arigatou" with different inflections.

Ugh, I was wondering the same thing. All my favorite characters are going to be Seeker'd aren't they.
What a joyous game this looks to be.

Damn I'm about to holler if this is true

Oh boy.. That's definitely a short-haired person with an Org. Cloak.

Anyone else getting the feeling that Nort whose face we didn't see might be Xion?
Edit: Well I guess so

Way after. The way he talks, we should have rescued Rex from the Dinosaur, Hamm from the doll, and the aliens from Vic the Victor.

We are so getting another world revealed at TGS aside from BH6 which is what I predicted. And alongside that I expect FF characters old and new to appear and our first look at either Ventus or Roxas or maybe even Xion? That piece of the trailer looked like Xion.

Yeah, I realize her hair color and eye color lean toward Xehanort, but I just think its doesn't make sense in a few other ways as well. But yeah it is possibly obvious with her being in clips with a bunch of other Xehanorts lol.



Ah, right I did see Rex there. I guess that opening section with multiple bosses probably takes quite a while, but most of that was just in the demo from back in May, right?

Aqua and Xion, both forgotten by an uncaring world. They'll probably have some kinship if they are part of Team Nort.

Fingers crossed it's a red herring. I agree with you that it doesn't make sense in a lot of ways. Most ways. All ways. Ugh.

Kairi is going to be the only female protagonist in this game isn't she.
And she's not going to develop her relationships with anyone other than Sora and Lea isn't she.
Grr8.

Woulda preferred them having a kinship as themselves... >> I guess thats what bums me out about all this, we have to wait till whatever happens next to even see most of these characters in their right minds again, and thus act like we actually enjoy them acting lol.

The problem with this is I would actually just be rooting for the Darknesses to win at this point, which will zap all the fun right out of fighting them.

I kind of thought the short haired Nort was just YX o_O

I don't think the hair matches up with Xion...

But I also don't like her so admittedly I'm just hoping it's not lol

But then there is the case of Aquanort.

Sora’s Keyblade transformation is called Nano Arms! Fittingly, it looks like the nanobots turn into several things like a hammer and a giant hand.

Hair is way too short to be Aqua. The hair matches KH1 Kairi hairstyle.

Cool trailer, but I am a tad disappointed with Sora's facial expressions in the latest trailers. The reaction or rather non-reaction when Hiro introduces himself was kinda ... bland. Yeah, he was surprised, but when some kid with a superpowered robot shows up and Sora freaks out over snow, I expected kinda more of a reaction. He reminds me much more of Roxas now because his reactions come rather slow and with a short delay and I don't really like that. Doesn't feel organic. Vanitas' voice was also too normal. Maybe that's just my opinion. Liked others trailers more.

EDIT: Please don't make Xion a seeker, it gets kinda annoying ... and how, even? Her heart is in Sora and her body is gone, so please not something like "we just restored her body and right in that second Xehanort swooped in". Ugh.

That big strand in the front with the hair in the back wrapping around her neck tells me otherwise.

Looking for a comparison shot has revealed to me that Xion is almost always shown from the right side, it's weird.

His glasses control the nano bots. You were the one who guessed that Hiro would make a new Nano Bot controller right? Congrats on guessing that correctly!


Unfortunately Big Hero 6 cutscenes were still being worked on recently, but that gives hope that his expressions will be improved. There’s some gameplay in San Fran that looks really bad and unfinished.

Marluxia's Nobodies look so cool.

They hid that person for reason for a real I’m pretty sure it xion

[spoiler]

[/spoiler]
Yeah I feel like either it's Xion or they kept YX's face hidden for no reason.


That's a good point, I didn't give much thought to this, but it does seem like Sora's a little inconsistent in his characterization in each trailer. Maybe it will make more sense in context, but details matter. Excited to be a pirate! Oh that's a cool flying robot I guess.

Once again, that Keyblade. What are they doing with these things.

EDIT: Please don't make Xion a seeker, it gets kinda annoying ... and how, even? Her heart is in Sora and her body is gone, so please not something like "we just restored her body and right in that second Xehanort swooped in". Ugh.

Hear hear. That's what I was wondering as well. Bringing back Xion has been established as probably the hardest feat for Sora/the GoL, it's going to feel cheap if that just gets twisted into another way of stacking the deck for MX.

On a related note, I'm concerned about the isolated Sora chess piece because it would seem to indicate Sora VS The Bad Guys at endgame. Not here for it.

I know this seems bad but it shows it's not all easy to get everyone back, there's going to be a challenge

Wow! Who would have thought Vanitas is basically a middle aged white woman who, not knowing Japanese, just repeats things like "arigatou" with different inflections

I have no idea what you mean, but if you be tryin to diss my Miyu you need to not do dat. >_<

Considering how they teased Xion, Twilight Town and the Keyblade Graveyard I feel like the second trailer won't reveal a new Disney world but focus on those 2 original worlds and maybe the Gummi Ship.

Trailer looks great! Anyone else worried about the lack of NPCs though? Hoping this is just because they’re still working on San Fransokyo.

I feel you, but there's more than one way to present a challenge.
"Everybody got turned bad go save them" is redundant and unfulfilling.

Remember the days of just receiving the concept art for BH6 at D23 2015 and where we are now. Extremely thankful, this is looking so good. It's hard to know what's happening, obviously, without context for a lot of those stills and scenes. As far a facial expressions go, I remember the reason why we hadn't seen BH6 yet was the cutscenes weren't quite ready. Of course I imagine they are still working on these.

Larxene and Young Xehanort's looks have improved to my eye. Rapunzel and Flynn look GREAT. Hiro and the rest of BH6 look straight out of the movie, as is consistent for every world so far. San Fransokyo looks HUGE! The backdrop for the San Fransokyo Bridge was beautiful!

Can't wait for TGS!

Because saving everyone so easily has been done by every one (and me) sounds better than not having confilt


At this point, after Aqua, it wasn't going to be the easy way out.

because that's more important than redundancy because if it's just easily saving Aqua, Xion, Ven, Terra, Namine, and Roxas. Once again, people had that idea before Aqua-Xehanort came

Seeing as the scene with Sora picking up the Master Keeper is now confirmed in game I think proves Nomura had planned to have Aqua norted since 2013 and not for “Shock value” as people have accused him of. Aqua knowing her fate probably threw the Master Keeper in the Ocean and it made its way back to Destiny Islands like with Kairi’s letter but in reverse. Cause without it Xehanort shouldn’t be able to get to Ven.

That’s exactly what I was saying to the people who where complaining about the Aquanort reveal back in E3. If Riku and Mickey could just go get Aqua and get out that easily without any conflict or obstacle than her being stuck there and or so long has no weight to it nor should it have been as major of a plot point as it had.

Is it weird that Riku has his DDD haircut in the Realm of Darkness even though he already has his new outfit on? Is Mickey going to give him a trim before they run into Aqua? Lol. Surely they aren’t changing his hair? The other style looks way better.

It must be before the hair changes, that's all. You are correct, they've already released merchandise with the new look!

Aqua doesn't have to be norted / fallen to darkness to present a challenge. Getting into the realm of darkness won't be easy, finding her won't be easy, surviving there won't be easy, getting out won't be easy and it will be hard for her to hear what has become of her friends and the world and there was even a whole game about her hardships and people still think "it shouldn't be so easy to get her", like what? Personally, I think it's much more fulfilling to choose a few of the hurting squad and give them a chance to get back at Xehanort for all the things he has done to them in one way or the other and fight for what they lost or what they want to regain. Having Sora / Riku / Kairi / Mickey go against everyone else because every important character might've suddenly got norted and saving them by beating them all up even though it should be up to the hurting squad to reclaim their place doesn't sound very thrilling to me.

EDIT: If Aquanort is a thing, I don't believe it was planned because 0.2 ended on a generally positive note and the whole game was about Aqua facing her darkness and while admitting doubt and chasing illusions, ultimately regaining hope and deciding what's worth fighting for. She has survived there un-darknessed and un-norted for twelve years, so making her into a Nort just one year before she is going to be saved and even giving her a companion to talk to (even if not the best one) would feel kinda unnatural to me. So, currently it still feels like a shock value thing to me and I'm not really pleased with that.

Gotta agree with Veevee and Alexis here.
There are other ways to provide a challenge than to make every single one of the hurting characters a slave to the bad guys on top of all the hurt they already had to endure.

As Veevee says, for quite some people it would be much more fulfilling to see the other characters have an active stake in helping out and get some comeuppance against Xehanort and his cronies by themselves instead of having Sora (and possibly Riku, Mickey and Kairi) being the rambo squad which do everything on their own.

The prospect of the BBS and Days characters finally joining the fray on the right side, meaning on Sora's, has been certainly teased and used as a possible hook for the audience ever since Blank Points in BBS back in 2010 so people expecting somewhat of a follow up on this is very understandable, as is the notion of not wanting this happening only with a few cameo appearances in the final battle.

So basically

there is no middle ground here


would you rather everyone getting saved so easily that makes Sora going on this adventure pointless

or

everyone Sora has to save he has to fight be unfulfilling because why not try to make the Seekers a threat?

So Luxord is there during the Maelstrom fight :D



And here's Sven and Kristoff in the background, as I mentioned before.

Nice smile, Larxene! I'm looking so forward to her trolling the Frozen crew. The reactions will be great.

Larxene looks so much better in that shot than the one from the Frozen reveal.

Also, someone on Reddit caught that the Bug Blox from re:Coded are in San Fransokyo. https://www.reddit.com/r/KingdomHearts/comments/9em8d0/kh3_so_i_guess_recoded_is_relevant_now/?st=JLW9DSGF&sh=5333db23

Trailer looks great! Anyone else worried about the lack of NPCs though? Hoping this is just because they’re still working on San Fransokyo

I have a weird theory about that.

So, from what YX was doing messing around with the Toy Story world, what if whoever is the darkness in San-fransokyo does something to like...remove all the people?
It would be a lazy as hell cop-out but maybe, MAYBE this could make sense. IF the darkness in this world is Aqua, that could be something that would sort of make sense for her to do. She made a lot of comments while in the WoD about missing all the people, about how empty and devoid of life it was, and how much that kind of hurt to feel so isolated. What if the world is split here too and its one that is just missing...everyone?
Kind of just to show how lonely and sad and hopeless it is?
(...or just a way to get out of making NPCS...)
That maybe would explain why there are these cars basically strewn around, abandoned on the bridge as if the drivers just poofed. And why we see nobody around.

Or...maybe it's just because we were only shown cutscenes and real basic gameplay on a roof and back alley (where no one would be). And maybe they haven't added in the NPCS yet, or just cut them out of cutscenes entirely to not mess with anything. Until I see Sora just wandering around the street with it completely empty I'm still holding out hope the city is actually gonna be populated...
Maybe we could potentially "fix" it and then get the NPCs back?
Just a theory...

1.Young Xehanort's render looks miles better than it was before. I wasn't satisfied with the look at all up to this point.

2.Look closely at Aquanort's hands, you see a bit of red there, it seems that a vanitas-suit is forming on her.

3.Aaaand possibly-norted Xion....bleygh...Is Xehanort's darkness influenza now?

4. Riku's hair seems to be his DDD hair.

5. Mmmmmm hey there BAEBAE.

I believe Aqua was always fated to fall to darkness as of 0.2. I may be pulling this out of my arse, but I'm PRETTY sure Nomura said they changed the ending a little so that it wouldn't be such a downer. Same for Dream Drop Distance. Nomura has been dodging this angst for a while despite how obvious it is looking back.

I agree that Aqua being norted is strange in SOME ways, but it's not impossible. It just brings up questions. if she's norted, why is she hanging out in the dark realm still? That's the main question regarding her being norted.

But Aqua falling to darkness? Succumbing to everything she was holding back in 0.2? It makes sense for Aqua to have fallen eventually. This is the dark realm. THE Dark Realm. Every light eventually get snuffed out, Aqua is not a special case no matter how much we love her. She admitted she had cracks in her heart and the darkness found a way in and repeatedly tried to die at least 3 times now.

The only way she was norted is if Xehanort found her while she was already weakened and vulnerable, but that still leaves the question of why she's just sticking around covered in an inky black shadow waiting to prank Riku and Mickey.

As for Xion, Xion is a replica. Technically the Replica program failed, but I don't remember Xemnas ever disliking the program? In almost every way imaginable, Xemnas always preferred Xion over Roxas. Xion is nothing but a clone of Sora just like Repliku is nothing but a clone of Riku. If somehow they manage to get that working again, then 'Xion' returning is not a big deal.

I hope that's the last of the light side we see getting corrupted though.

Re:coded doesn't matter, they said

I was so wanting this... it happenned and I'm so happy.

The no-expression of Sora kinda makes me sad, but I also think it is because it still a work in progress, every other world he had a cool interaction at the beginning, so he not doing any expression here looks really like they didn't finished it. (At least I hope)

Can't wait for 22th.

I'm loving how every keyblade is looking so unique and big. I really don't like the small, thicker ones from the past games.

work in progress, why you think it took until later to see Repunzel

Saying “everyone is norted” is an exaggeration. Only Terra, Aqua, and most likely Xion. Who’s to say those 3 won’t get a chance to get back at Xehanort? Just because they’re norted now it doesn’t seal their fate the whole game. They could be turned back around/before the climax or after the X-blades forging. Roxas and Ventus will likely be brought back without them being norted and their friends being taken over by Xehanort gives Roxas reason to join and be a guardian of light and Ventus room for development and growth. And we don’t know anything about Terra or Namine yet. [TABLE="width: 500, align: left"]
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We don’t know what happened between Blank Points and Riku and Mickey finding Aqua, Ansem the Wise clearly wasn’t there in the Aquanort scene so something must of happened to them both. Aquanort not being a thing would be Shock value. Having people think Aqua was norted in a trailer than being all “Psych” in game would have been done just to get people’s attention and also a massive troll move. But Aqua being Norted gives value and sense to that scene with the Master Keeper. Why would Aqua allow the one thing that keeps Ven safe out of her grasp despite her determination and desire to keep him safe and to one day wake him up? Maybe her realizing it wasn’t safe with her anymore.

Yes, and judging by the Flynn of this trailer, we sure can expect alot of work in these expression\reactions hahaha.

And we're back at they hype train lol

Loved the trailer, loved San Fransokyo and loved all the new pieces of info that they introduced in the trailer

And as it seems we have Keyblade Graveyard and LoD eh? I trully think they are teasing a Wreck It Ralph world and they have been giving us pieces in every trailer since the Fan Event in California.

I think we will get a new trailer at the TGS so let's wait for that eh?

This trailer kinda makes me worried that the TGS trailer may be lackluster in comparison.

It will be funny and sad if all of Lea's friends become norted (Including Roxas)

I can’t get over how GoGo looks like she’s lowkey dead in that opening scene and Hiro doesn’t seem too concerned. Lol

The city and Keyblade look fantastic but the lack of NPCs and only 1 party member is extremely disappointing. Also, WAS THAT XION?!

Just give a look at my boy Sora and his green outfit

Another thing I would like to point out is that the new seeker (xion?) is probably at a town by night time, judging by the background.



The places that we have by now, that are a city at night is San Fransokyo at some locations and The World That Never Was. Maybe Aqua got a new haircut? Maybe?

This gummi ship is based on the Einhander, from the titular game whose developers are designing KH3’s gummi missions!

All this stuff just gets me all the more excited! I'm happy to finally see even a little glimpse of San Fransokyo, whether it's polished or not; I was getting tired of staring at that lone piece of concept art.
That shot of Sora, Donald and Mickey looking at a figure amid a small dust storm made me think that it could be Lingering Will? That is how we're first introduced to him, after all. It's hard to say, since the figure is quite indistinguishable.

Also, is anyone gonna talk about how absurdly large Sora's MP gauge is? I get that it and the HP gauges for enemies will likely be downsized for the full release, but Great Googly-Moogly is that a lot of Magic!

i was wondering when someone was gonna bring that up.

Ahhh I love everything about this trailer. So digging Aquanort's outfit and I love how she actually kept the robes but they're super torn. Its so cool. And the roxas cameo is great, would laugh if that was his only existence in all the trailers lol.

If Xion is a nort, then Roxas being one is probably lower so I'm fine with that aha, anything so that Roxas won't be the 13th and be literally be repeating his entire arc again. >.>

Also I'm so happy that Vanitas seems like he is going to have a big role. Was worried that his significance would go down and he his role would be to just appear in a disney world. This, on top of the fact that the theory that he is using Ven's body is also now false because Sora has the Master Keeper, makes me so excited. <3 Also I swear his pose where he is sitting on the chair looks more hunched and bored rather than proud, but I dunno it's hard to tell.

It’s either him or Master Xehanort. I’d love if it is LW and that formation behind him is the scrapped creature from the KH2 secret ending.

BH6 was well worth the wait. Though I'm a bit disappointed there aren't any NPCs. And that was my biggest concern.

On one hand, I want to say it is Master Xehanort walking away. You can see his white gloves, his robe cape, and his boots.

On the other hand, I want to say it is the Lingering Will. MX's white gloves could be the gauntlets, the robe cape could be Lingering Will's cape, and the boots could actually be Terra's Keyblade.

I can only hope we get a new world shown in the full trailer. Still what is shown here looks great. I like the keyblade transformation too.

So Xion is the final member? Lol I could of sworn it would be Roxas or Ventus. Interesting.

I'm still hoping Aqua is the darkness for San Fransokyo. We still haven't seen Dark Baymax.

I think our best bet is more BH6 footage on the 18th and then a new world at the stage show on the 22nd. With a 50-minute stage show, I think it is more likely than not that we’ll see fresh content there as well.

I'm not disappointed with that, but if it makes you better, the locations shown to us havent any "npcs" at the movie as well. Correct me if I'm wrong. At the night at the movie there is no "npcs", at the movie we just fly to the birdge with cars passing by, and the top of a building isn't a common place to npcs as well. We didn't see the city at day time yet.

Aqua looks so corrupt and ruined by the darkness. It’s a shame she didn’t have a black coat, it would have saved her from looking the way she does now.

I really want a scene where Xehanort offers her one and she coldly replies, “I don’t need it.”

Also, in regards to the LW/MX scene, it would make sense for it to be LW because the last three shots could potentially be representations of the Wayfinder trio, Vanitas (possibly Ven-Vanitas,) Lingering Will, and Aquanort.

Can Xemnas do it? Since he has Terra’s memories it’d be somewhat melancholy for him to try to help Aqua but she rejects it.

Ohhhh yes! I’m here for that. I hope we see her, Xemnas, and Vanitas gathered together at some point.

I wonder if the flying skate that the keyblade transforms can be used later as a move through map thing.

I heard a few people say it could be Data Riku because those Bug Block looking things are in the Big Hero 6 world.

Yes yes yes this is beautiful wow. So good to finally see footage from San Fransokyo. Any guesses on when or even IF we'll be getting an English version of this?

From the angle shown there in comparison with this pic:


Look at the ornament behind Vanitas in that scene, it is located high above the actual thrones as seen in this pic.
He's not sitting on that chair, but on top the backrest of it, a bit like in Joshua's and Riku's first meeting where Joshua is sitting high above the fountain.

Since I enjoy the tv series, I have been following the cast on instagram for a few months now. Not a single one has had time to record. They’ve all been out doing other things every day, so an English trailer doesn’t seem likely at this point.

Ryan Potter is overseas as well, so he can’t record until he is back.

https://twitter.com/_KINGDOMHEARTS/status/1039085807699558401

well I think we might get a world reveal at TGS....

[FONT=Verdana]

Sis, when do you think they will finish the voice work in KHIII? [/FONT]

This makes sense, and if this is true maybe we are going to see Data Sora as well? (I remember nomura saying that KH3 will match all characters through the series).
This made me wonder how data sora would look in this engine.

https://twitter.com/_KINGDOMHEARTS/s...85807699558401 well I think we might get a world reveal at TGS....

If i understood right, this mean 18th we'll get the long version of this trailer, and have more to be shown at 22th that we don't know yet?

Here is the translate of this twitter. (by google)

[FONT=arial]The latest trailer of "KINGDOM HEARTS III" was released on "PlayStation® LineUp Tour". In addition, this trailer is scheduled to be released on September 18 (Japan time) ahead of TGS, which is a short version and a different version of a long version trailer. @ Nomura # _ KH[/FONT]

I don’t you guys notice but this a missing shooter piece is missing on the board from what can we see

Please don’t call me sis. I think the voice work needs to happen sooner rather than later so they can get it all in the can and start mixing the dialogue so it sounds natural. I’d hope they would be done in November, but it’s really just getting some time allocated for them to record. Like Zachary Levi is in Paris, I believe, so he needs to get back to LA to record.

Xion would be a much better choice than an irrelevant Riku clone tbh.

If Noodle Burger Boy isn’t a boss fight in some sort of way, I will be disappointed.
In other words this trailer looks awesome. At least I could get some content as I’m going to try not to watch the TGS one.

I'm sorry

Knew Big Hero 6 would be shown for Tokyo Game Show, it's perfect marketing synergy.

Baymax looks perfect. I need more Baymax!

Dark Aqua as beautiful as ever in her darkness getup. XD Looking nice as usual.

I want to fight Noodle Burger Boy, read Karmi’s fan fiction about Big Hero 6 and the Keyblade Hero, and be scolded by Professor Granville :(


No, it’s fine. It’s just not really a term that I’m called that often and I find it’s usage odd at times.

My precious blueberry mom
; ~;
I'll save you.


Also, I hope next Tuesday's trailer gives is a clearer shot at some of these scenes. Being realistic though, it'll probably just have BH6 gameplay at the beginning. I can hope, though, just like I can hope for a dedicated video on those delicious Gummi Ships. The texturing on that Moogle model is unreal!

Anyone notice SDG in what looked to be the keyblade graveyard. It's the 2nd or 3rd last glimpse.

Japan Time so it likely means it'll be released to us late Monday night or Tuesday morning depending on your timezone.

or we could get it 12:00 am jst which is 10:00am cst my time

Why am I excited about Gummi Ships returning? I mean, I've never outright hated the minigame, but they are just particularly adorable here.

Also, BH6 world looks stellar. Loving the microbots on display during combat~

So Sora finding Master's Defender is canon now, hm?

It's so nice to finally see Marluxia's Nobodies up close. I love the design!

Vanitas is being fab at the Land of Departure! So it looks like Aquanort did restore the place and Vanitas is using Ven's body.

The chess board has me a little curious. Either Xemnas or Xigbar doesn't have a piece on it.



Since the piece looks like crossed swords, I can see it based on Xemnas' lightsabers, but his weapon isn't crossed-shaped. Xigbar's arrowguns kind of are except I would assume the crossed swords would have circles in the middle of them.

I knew it looked familiar, but couldn't place it! Thank you for pointing it out!

I say it's Goofy.

Also, I've stared at every frame and I can't see anything like that in the shot. Halp!

OH YES PLEASE I NEED THIS!

That's what I was thinking.

yeah i that piece next to ansem seeker of darkness not xigbar and once we get a good shot of it and if that case where is xigbar piece because i belive there more xigbar then he letting on

If that is Data Riku then wouldn't that mean Xehanort somehow got control of the Data worlds. Maybe he snatched them at some point during DDD.

Will the age old battle of Repliku vs Data Riku be reborn?

It’s wild that in a little over four months, all this new KH3 trailer hype will be over. It’ll be the end of a five and a half year era.

We got a new trailer, woo! Loved it. Sora's new keyblade is so cool! I'm really digging the transformation. The BH6 world looks great so far.

I really loved the ultros, moogle, and bomb gummi ships. It's nice to see some Final Fantasy references.

Flynn saying "Fleeing is my specialty" made me laugh xD

The ending montage is crazy, and I agree with most that it's Xion. It also looks like Riku got his KH2/DDD hair back. And I definitely believe that could be the keyblade graveyard with SDM. This was a nice surprise for sure.

It’s not so much “back” as it is pre-hair cut. Between when they arrive in the RoD to the scene on the beach when it places his broken Keyblade into the sand, something happens that causes him to cut his hair.

People keep thinking it's Xion, but I think it looks like it could potentially be Riku (not saying he is Norted, just that it looks like it could be him)

My initial theory of Xion being the Darkness for San Fransokyo may end up having credence after all. Aqua was in shadows for the Orchestra teaser trailer before being revealed in the Frozen trailer.

I hope we see more Kairi during the rest of TGS. They teased her and Lea during E3, so it is a bit weird to not see any more glimpses of them now. Like how Riku was revealed at D23 and then we saw more of him throughout all of E3. I think that might be connected to why we haven’t seen Saix yet either. I think he could be the primary antagonist for Kairi and Lea’s scenario.

So.. about the bug blocks


Looks like the monster is made of them.






Does this make Data Riku more likely to be norted and be the seeker of this world?

Yeah, I was really looking forward to see Kairi again but I think this has to do with the fact that she might get a huge role in the game and they might be "saving" her for a Final Trailer? It's just a thought tho lol

I’m pretty sure that piece you have as Luxord is actually Xigbar. His attribute is Space. Those aren’t Dice, they’re just regular 3 Dimensional cubes.

Maybe he finds a styling kit in his suitcase and figures why not?

Like, it's kinda funny how we're wondering why he cut his hair again but not how he's able to? The Realm of Darkness isn't a place I'd call well lit, and even if he has light and mirrors it'd be hard for him to get everything. Are we gonna get a bonding moment where Mickey cuts Riku's hair?

I definitely think it is someone tied to data. But keep in mind they’re also trying to bring back Roxas using his data. That data could be corrupt or it could be a similar case with Xion. I think it makes Aqua less likely to be there since she hasn’t really had anything to do with data and what not.

I loved we still haven’t seen much at all and we only got tip of the iceberg still

It probably is Xion the more I think about it. She serves as a much better parallel to Dark Baymax then Data Riku. Which is disappointing since I thought Aqua would have been such a good fit for San Fransokyo. I still hope she gets a Disney world.

To be fair, both Aqua and Xion can be symbolic with Dark Baymax as Aqua saved Terra like Tadashi's Baymax saved Hiro, but I feel that the Xion parallels are more appropriate because Xion was fundamentally designed a tool like Baymax, and San Fransokyo at night could display parallels to The World that Never Was.

So much to analyze and speculate in just the last 10 seconds of shots!

I'm honestly taking back by how much this game keeps looking better and better with every trailer y'all. And with us getting a full BH6 trailer before the stage show? Ya we definitely getting another one and I'm on team other world reveal incoming. Doesn't even have to be a Disney one.

It would be pretty romantic if Mickey cuts Riku’s hair.

Lol, but really. I could see it. Like Riku’s hair gets in his way or gets frayed by stray magic and he has to cut it.

Pretty great trailer overall, I've been hyped for San Fransokyo for the longest time. It amazes me to no end how they managed to slip in so much important stuff into this trailer.

By looking at the details I noticed immediately that: Sora has a new drive form; the bugs from re: coded make their return (truly have all the enemy types in this game); Xigbar's in Twilight Town for some reason; what is unfortunately looking to be like a norted Xion (the scenes leading up to it imply this to be the case); Lingering Will/ Master Xehanort? (I couldn't catch that); Sora vs. the world (chessboard); and Aqua's mangled and warped body (which sorta reminds me of the the shadows from Persona 5... Anyone else think so too?)

Everything about the graphics were pretty on point (though you can tell they're still working on Big Hero 6 a bit), and I love the character interactions (seriously Hiro's animations look fantastic)! I also loved getting to see Vanitas talk trash, though i'm not too thrilled about the implications.

Speaking of which, the only implications I honestly can't say, in good faith, I liked were Xionnort(?) and Sora potentially fighting everyone on his own (there were at least five white chess pieces shown to be out of commission). Was I the only one who was rubbed the wrong way by that last idea? It feels redundant for Sora to be taking on even the majority of them by himself. I mean, I guess everyone just got norted right(?), lol. As for Xion, you can imagine why I'm pretty upset with this (especially if you saw my rant on Aquanort, not that I was proud of it), so I'll just propose a few questions regarding that dilemma (to nobody in particular). Why? What purpose does it serve for the specific story & narrative of a character that was selfless enough to effectively commit suicide and erase everyone's memories of her? That's arguably a fate worse than death already. Furthermore, she already experienced being a "puppet" (at least in the eye's of everyone except her friends) of the organization for literally the entirety of her existence, and in the end she painfully ended up fighting both of her best and only friends. What is even this scenario if not a repeat of her story, aside from the fact that this time she could really be a slave?

Anyway, that about sums up my thoughts. I really hope we get more soon!

I didn't notice before that there were no pips so maybe? But cubes feel too...vague to be Xigbar? The other pieces shown are pretty obvious who they belong too, except maybe the one I labeled Marluxia's, but given the flower-like shape and placement right next to Larxene's it's a good guess.


At this point, the cubes could very well be bug blocks or pixels.

So do we think there will be another Disney world reveal in the longer trailer? Since they revealed BH6 in this one?

My fingers are crossed for The Jungle Book or Princess and the Frog and then TJB at Jump Festa.

It would follow their tactics from E3, which had a world reveal trailer followed by a trailer that expanded upon the previous one, then a third trailer with another new world. I mean, they’ve gotta do something with those 50 minutes of stage time and I hope it isn’t another Toy Box/Olympus demo playthrough.

Yes, all of this. Characters like Aqua and Xion and Ven have way more potential for growth and a meaningful contribution to the story as protagonists with agency, free will and the drive to right the wrongs in their arcs than as just more villain fodder for Sora or whoever to purify and turn back to the light at the last minute. Which is exactly what we know is going to happen, so there's no dramatic intrigue to it. All it really represents is a way for Nomura to sideline these characters for large portions of the game and neglect his due diligence to develop their arcs in a big way for the final game in this saga, which diminishes the value of KH3 as an installment. Did you really like fighting as Aqua and form a strong connection to her character over the course of BBS and 0.2? Welllll too bad, you'll see fleeting glimpses of her for 90% of KH3 and then she'll be a good guy again for five minutes and all the bad things she did under the influence of darkness will be instantly forgotten and forgiven. Her being a Darkness is a narrative gimmick, nothing more-- I don't expect to be permanently changed or affected as a character, so I have no reason to feel invested in her fall to darkness.

People complain that it would have been too predictable and "easy" for Riku and Mickey to simply bring Aqua back from the RoD (despite all the factors you brought up) but for whatever reason Nomura using the same exact tactic over and over and recreating the exact same existential stakes for everyone in this game is challenging and fresh? It was one thing when it was Isa and Terra who actually have something to gain as characters from their battle with the darkness and Xehanort's influence; indeed, they have arcs steeped in that primary conflict which need to be brought to closure in a satisfying manner. But Darkness loses a lot of its symbolic potential when its hosts seem to be just a random grab bag of anybody for whatever reasons. Why not just throw in Ansem the Wise, or hell, make Goofy a Darkness? That would be soooo unpredictable y'all.


Yeah, it's pretty convenient that she *finally* lost the light as she was on the brink of potentially getting out of the RoD (I actually think she ought to have escaped much earlier with AtW, but that's another conversation). If Nomura wanted to make this convincing? He would have chosen a different course in 0.2, actively depicted Aqua losing her light bit by bit and ended it with her succumbing. That would have been a valid cliffhanger which would possibly help place her arc in KH3 into perspective. Instead it's this wishy washy noncommittal symbolism that gets him into trouble, because he can't in one breath invoke the "light in the darkness" mantra that underscores the entire series and then out of the other side of his mouth try to convince us that was all just talk this whole time.


Exactly: this is pretty much the entire justification for KH3's existence vis-a-vis every other title we were expected to play and every character we were expected to become familiar with and attached to over the course of the saga. Again, it would be one thing if these characters were somehow going to get powerful, emotionally strong storylines out of this, but that's not what's happening. More than likely, Xion and Aqua and whoever else will be reduced to having about the same impact on the plot as Luxord or Larxene, and possibly even less than characters like Vanitas, Xemnas and Ansem SoD-- because unlike with those characters, Nomura has to play keep-away with the Darknesses he doesn't want Sora and co. to meet too early for the ~dramatic~ impact. It also diminishes the story's capacity to bring characters like Terra and Isa into focus and give them especially powerful redemptive arcs, which is what they deserve: instead they'll just be two more bad guys in need of rescuing, assuming Terra is even a Darkness at this point.


That's simply a false dichotomy. The Seekers and the darkness are not the only threats or obstacles KH can pursue in order to complicate the narrative. Just bringing Xion back in any way, shape or form should be a massive and perhaps even perilous undertaking given the extent to which she is tangled up in other peoples' memories: remember when CoM spent an entire game barely even mentioning the word "darkness" (Reverse/Rebirth notwithstanding) and instead created compelling drama using the emotions and memories of our main protagonists against them? Because it doesn't look like Nomura does.


Not going to rehash this whole argument, just going to say it's not that there isn't an in-world logic to her falling, but its justification is weak and I don't believe the returns we will get on it are going to deliver for her as a character. Obviously within the RoD it's possible for someone to fall prey to darkness, but Nomura could have used 0.2 to advance that narrative instead of playing it in exactly the opposite direction and once a character's resolve has been given the kind of grounding Aqua's was given in 0.2 (i.e. literally the embodiment of the series' core philosophy; yes, I get that she was sad and depressed in portions but playing that up selectively in order to justify a plot twist is just as bad as ignoring it altogether) it's pretty cheap and underhanded to dismantle that set-up in as shrugging a manner as Nomura looks to be doing it. What is the message we're supposed to take away from this? "Actually, there's not always a light in the darkness, it just kind of depends on how Nomura is feeling about the plot that day lol."


Ven will be effectively Norted if Vanitas gains access to his body. Also can't rule out Roxas as a Darkness yet. The point is that you can only pull the same stunt so many times before it becomes routine. We jumped that shark during E3.


Which means all that valuable time they could have been developed during the rest of the game, y'know, had interactions and formed or reestablished relationships with the rest of the main cast, has been lost. That's the damage. We all know they're going to get rescued, but if there's nothing to get excited for after that, what's the point? So they can cameo as assist characters during the last big fight? Even that's speculative at this point, and not the extent of what I want to see out of main characters like Aqua and Xion.


It wouldn't be "shock value," it would be a normal red herring. KH trailers are generally full of them. I don't like them either, but I'd rather see Aqua get the development she deserves than see the final game maintain fealty to bad plot elements introduced in marketing material.

Whenever a Disney world has been revealed it's always been it's own dedicated trailer. Seeing as the full trailer we are getting on the 18th is dedicated to BH6 I don't see anything getting announced through that until the stage show on the 22nd.

I'm betting the 18th trailer will have whoever the darkness is for the world, a glimpse at a boss, and some context to the end clips on this trailer. While the stage show, if it receives a new trailer, will showcase a new world in some capacity.

They already confirmed a new trailer along with the demo though for TGS.

BTW do we take those chess pieces to mean there's 2-3 more Disney Worlds to go. Demyx and Saix definitely have chess pieces on the board and I imagine Xionhort or Aquanort will have one as well.

We have one already and then the extended one on the 18th. I’m not sure where it has been confirmed that there will be a trailer outside of that, but SE’s TGS website only says that the latest information will be revealed at the stage event. That is likely in the form of a trailer, but there’s no guarantee. They could just use these two trailers as topics of discussion. I’m pretty confident there will be a third trailer, but not enough to bank on it.

Yeah, i'm 100% with you on this. I think they will use the same strategy as the E3.

The way they have been promoting the game and announcing worlds there's only Paris Game Week and Jump Festa Left and Nomura stated that there's more then one Disney World left to be announced so... lol

I think we will see a new world at the conference and a final announcement in PGW or Jump Festa :)

Anyways, really looking forward for anything they give us... But rooting for a boxart reveal at the conference as well lol

Xion as the Seeker for San Fransokyo is one of the things I've wanted most. It would make up for only one party member and having no NPCs.

I'm thinking Aqua was norted for the sake of getting her to reestablish LoD as a world in order to utilize Ven's body to reborn Vanitas. And as always, Xehanort will continue to see her as an eternal plan B in case.

Or maybe this is a good way for those who were used by Xehanort or used again to grow afterwards, find their path like Riku did, it might not sound great, but no one is safe and it sounds like the high standards Aqua, Ven, Terra and oddly Xion now, has because they can't be a vessel.

I want characters to get development, but we can't all get what we what.

Duplicated, i'm sorry.

Yeah, the way I am seeing it now, we will get this full trailer the 18th and then a brand new one with a new world during the show.

Yeah...I mean I feel like I am not as appalled by all this as you are, or rather I think I'm just accepting it/getting over it since E3, but this isn't the direction I wanted this to go at all either. All these characters having little to no agency and just needing even more saving is meh, they could have made other conflicts that allowed at least some of these characters to get the story relevancy they deserved instead of just being cheap drama that will all be erased by the end of the game. And yeah. Now we won't get to see them do anything as their actual selves till the next saga which is even meh-er.

My predictions for the the future. I think the last Lights are Roxas and Terra, as for Seekers, I'll say Xion and Demyx. Vanitas is using Ventus's body and the scene of him in The Land of Departure is Ventus taking over and causing Vanitas to feel. Lastly, I predict Princess and The Frog with Demyx as the Seeker and a Pixar world with Saix as the Seeker.

If that's the case that would beg the question of when it happened. Xehanort had eleven hooded figures at the end of DDD and we saw Castle Oblivion and Ventus intact during the after credits scene.

Final Disney World will be revealed at Jump Festa it's the last "big" event before the game comes out and in past KH titles they've revealed big things at Jump Festa.

I believe that at Jump Festa is where Lion King was revealed for KH2 in the magazine.

I wouldn't exactly call my current stance and mood "appalled", more like somewhat disappointed that my skeptical assessments right now seem to get true after all.
I mean we're still in trailer territory with just disjointed snippets so there is still room for misinterpretation and actual red herrings, but the prospect of several characters getting no agency and actual attention to their own characterisation and instead being just used as puppets of the big bad with their suffering extended for drama points isn't very appealing.

The imagery of the chessboard is also pointing in the same direction yet again with the other original characters being just cannon fodder for the villains to get defeated and add even more to the drama pile with Sora alone yet again doing everything like a overpowered shounen hero.
Even if the other characters somehow get back into the fray through some magic super-raise spell, KH shenanigans or whatever it won't do much beyond them becoming the already mentioned final battle cameo, possibly garnished with the usual cheesy "friendship and hope"-speech and everyone transferring their power to Sora instead of actually getting something to do themselves.

Is this official news or just speculation on your end?

I do like that Sora is confronting Xehanort before the final battle. If they do fight I hope Sora loses the first time. Would hammer in that Master Xehanort is indeed Sora's greatest challenge.

The way Nomura specified Japan time basically means this won't be released till Japan is at least awake. My estimate is around noon time in Japan which is roughly 11 pm in the East coast or something. It could even be released the same time as this one was, when in Japan it'll be evening.

Is this official news or just speculation on your end?

Just look at the past history of KH at Jump Festa. It's an event in December, game launches in January. Final Disney World reveal taking place at JF makes sense. It's the final big event of the year.

I think we will see a new world at the conference and a final announcement in PGW or Jump Festa :)

It won't be PGW. It'll be Jump Festa.

Honestly it's obvious which events Disney/SE considers important and worthy enough to reveal KH3 new info and it's not Gamescom or PGW or any of those other events.

The only places they consider worthy are...

1. E3
2. D23
3. Tokyo Game Show
4. Jump Festa

That's it and that is how it's been since the beginning of KH3 trailers coming out.

Big Hero 6 Trailer is 3rd trending on YouTube. Always love the hype surrounding all these trailers!

Randall was hype, but I really have no connection to BH6/Tangled.

Same! It’s wild that we only have a few more of these moments!



The opening for 0.2 was revealed at PGW with that game releasing in January the following year. I wouldn’t rule it out for some new content reveals.

Just based on the history of KH3 content, it's clear which events have a higher chance then others. Nothing for KH3 has been released at PGW. Just those 4 events I listed. I'd love something at PGW but not getting hopes up or staying up that late again.

I'm not really appalled, just frustrated and long-winded. I guess I don't acclimate well to poor plotting, and it's wearying to anticipate a measure of disappointment with every new trailer. I want to be as excited about this game as anyone, but so much of what they're doing with the story isn't working for me at all, and it seems to get progressively worse with each update.


Exactly. At this point my only comfort is in thinking that the trailers are being wildly misleading on purpose, which I also don't care for as a marketing tactic, but if the goal is to make sure nobody knows what's really happening in the game and keep "spoilers" to a minimum, I suppose it's possible.

Though I'd rather just get a straightforward trailer with concrete information and deal with it from there.


Yeah. Nothing about KH3 really strikes me as special or persuasive yet. It's all borrowed either from past games or other, better stories. The characters set it apart (for better or for worse), and if they're going to be reduced to-- literally-- chess pieces that two opposing characters move around and whose fates they determine, eh. It's just not an interesting prospect, it doesn't really sell me on the game, and it feels like an overall betrayal of the rest of the series up to this point.

Anyway, San Fransokyo kinda just looks like a re-skin of TWTNW and playing with only Baymax as a party member would probably be disappointing to me if I were into the BH6 franchise. I'm not sure why Hiro doesn't look to be a party member, they pulled the same thing in Arendelle after making kind of a big deal about having the potential for multiple Disney allies. KH1 made Jack Skellington and Arielle combat-ready so I don't really buy the justification that these characters don't show fighting prowess in their respective films.

This is the first TGS where we’ve had new KH3 content, iirc, so that logic really doesn’t apply.

Now that I've thought on it more, maybe the reason they're norting these characters is to sideline them in an attempt to make the game more "newcomer friendly." Think about it, include most of, if not all the characters from the "side games" in KH3 (both the parties, new and old, know it's a finale, but some see it more as a trilogy than a saga) so fans of those characters stay more curious and attached than the casuals, but push them to background as much as possible so that those who only played 1 and 2, or none at all, won't be too confused. No one unfamiliar with those games (games other than 1 &2) is gonna care about those characters too much, and I'm sure their aware of this to some extent. So by keeping them relevant in the main plot and still tying them to an "important" role but with relatively little screen time, they could appease both parties... If done right at least.

Idk, just food for thought. But I wouldn't be surprised if some of these questionable writing decisions were pressured into existence due to marketing (that is to say, to broaden the overall audience appeal).

Eh I'm just going off the history of this franchise. TGS has always had a big presence for KH series, likewise with Jump Festa.

Plus it'd make sense as game launches the following month for big stuff to come out at JF.

Those Bug Blox make me excited for the trailer where we get to see Riku, Riku Replica, and Data-Riku at the same time

I can't wait for the casual reaction

Then you can’t rule out PGW since the franchise has a history there with the 0.2 opening. I’m sure there will be more stuff at Jump Festa, but that doesn’t mean they can’t show stuff at PGW. Plus, a smaller event like that is more likely to have a world reveal for a film that might not be as hyped as some of the others like Princess and the Frog, Jungle Book, etc. I don’t see either of those bringing the level of excitement they would want for the final world reveal at TGS.

Isn't the hole thing about xehanort the power of, ripoff personalities, like the power of darkness which turns everything in one big thing(darkness). I mean for me xehanort is being true to his philosophy. Darkness have this power to erase free will and conscience. And darkness will spread and turn everything darkness again. The smartest way to win the battle is to breakdown the most strong characters.
After all this years if aqua was able to maintain light she would be almost inhuman, this would be poor characterization for me. Other thing is that, aqua, terra and a bit of xion, already had time being characterized at the light side.
We have only a certain amount of chars. We need 13 darkness, if it was not aqua who would it be? Vexen lexeaus and zexion again? I would say no, because them are who really need time to be characterized in free will state. If not would we really want new characters to claim this role?
If we think in the plot as a whole, we are at the climax point. It is normal in that case, to things get really worst before they become good again.

Kingdom hearts have not a excelent story and plot, but i like the way they are writing it. I can only wait to see if the time that aqua will spend at darkness will really affect her.
I mean if nomura writes like he was xehanort it makes sense to me that darkness spread as much as it can. And i think the characters are being true to their philosophy.

As long as the Norted characters have some sense of agency, which it seems they do, I’m along for the ride to see what happens. In Aqua’s case, it is possible she chose this in order to get out of the Realm of Darkness. She was probably at her breaking point where she figured no one was coming for her and her only known chance of saving Ven and Terra back was taking an offer from Xehanort. Even in this, I think she knows Sora will save her eventually.

Xion may not be so lucky to enter into this willingly, considering her puppet status. But that is fitting with her nature and it gives her something to break out of during the course of KH3. I just hope she and the others still get to do more than be Xehanort avatars, which I think they will.

To me, they’re striking a good balance between the heroes, villains, and those caught between. One of the themes is “Impossible Odds.” The odds are stacked against them even more when they have to fight those they care for. If all the heroes were together from the start, it wouldn’t feel nearly as challenging considering our heroes have beaten all of these villainous characters at some point or another. This way, at least we have some new antagonists.

Wait, I'm confused.

You said

and now you're basing your speculation off the history of the franchise? Which is it, are you going off the history of the franchise or the history of KH3 content?

I think the emphasis on good guys vs bad guys is weakening KH3 fundamentally. The most effective arcs in KH have been about pitting characters against themselves, in the sense that the choices they make based on their understanding of the world are ultimately more important and more impactful than the actions of some distant antagonist. The main villain (where there is one) in a KH game usually represents the critical point at which our hero or heroes are forced to ask themselves a final question, and reach deep to affirm their truest convictions. In KH1, it's Ansem SoD (who isn't even revealed to be acting as a villain until near endgame) causing Sora to reflect on the nature of light and darkness, the basic components of the universe; in KH2, it's Xemnas deconstructing that even further to touch on themes of existence itself and what it means to be whole, or even to be a person. But they're really just vehicles for this process of investigation to take place within the characters themselves as they progress through their adventure: Roxas begins KH2 by confronting (or being made to confront) the same kinds of questions Xemnas is posing near the end, and in KH1 Sora and Riku act at opposite ends of the philosophical spectrum and are forced to face each other and fight each other, albeit in pursuit of the same goal, which teaches Sora some things about himself and the world.

By KH3, all of these characters have battled with darkness. Some have won, some have lost: all of them have made difficult choices for the benefit of others and for themselves, and struggled to keep the light alive. The betrayal with KH3 comes in consigning those choices to random artifacts of their individual histories as characters rather than recognizing them for what they are-- valuable lessons which the characters learned and carry with them, and which inform their position in the universe and in relation to one another. Turning them into villains for the novelty of it doesn't serve to clarify their purpose and expand upon those lessons learned; it stagnates them as temporary distractions or problems which Sora will have to solve somehow. Which also, ironically, reduces Sora's role to messianic simplifications-- remember when he was a curious kid who wanted to help his friend, but ultimately had to learn to trust in and believe that Riku would find his own way back to the light? Well to heck with that, let's just find the magic spell to do it, we don't have time for real character development! Plus none of these characters are actually friends of his strictly speaking, so I'm sure he's going to be just as emotionally involved in chasing after them as he was following Riku around in KH1-- oh, wait, no, we've already done that plot better in the past. Shucks.

That is why I focus on the point that Aqua's situation with darkness IS a personal issue. Xehanort didn't plan for her to fall down there and suffer for a decade just so he could grab her. While she's been down there, she's literally been fighting herself. All her fear, doubts, and assumptions. She'd been doing nothing but blaming herself for the events of Birth by Sleep, probably thinking about all the things she couldn't done differently as if it were her fault (it wasn't).

It's why she's my favorite. How many times have you made a mistake or missed an opportunity in the past and you regret for ages? I mean, none of us are locked away in a hell like landscape that will literally create a dark version of you to kill you, but still. I have so many cringe middle school regrets. I have family situations where I felt like someone was going down a dark path and I could've done more to help them (but there's nothing I could've done, Maybe. Maybe I COULD have done something and changed the outcome?)

Sure, Aqua is norted, but whether Xehanort got her or not, she would have fallen. Period. Aqua fell into the dark realm with regrets and none of that was ever resolved. The only word of comfort she got was from Mickey and all he told her was, "You'll be ok!"

I want to see a corrupted Aqua truly believing everything is her fault (and possibly going after the people who her twisted mind believes abandoned her). I want her to be 'saved' by everyone telling her, "No gurl, it's really not. You good. You've done really good. We got you."

"The light within the darkness" can still apply to her even if she's in her worst place right now. I doubt any of the good key kids are going to die as villains. I don't expect more development for characters like Luxord or Larxene, but we've seen characters with their own agency despite their nortification (Xigbar and Vanitas), it's not like it's never been done.

So after watching the trailer, all I can say and describe is the following:

- SDG interacting with the Big Hero 6 gang
- The Big Hero Keyblade being a Speed form Keyblade
- The BugBlox (from Coded) invading San Fransokyo acting reminiscent to the Microbots from the film
- Baymax interestingly enough being the Only party member in Sora's Party.
- Randall's first appearance to the Public (He looks exactly on how he looked in the film compared to his appearance from the Orchestra Event exclusive to attendees)
[SIZE=2]- Flynn Rider's unique sense of Humor
- Gummi Ship Customization
- Vanitas
- Sora Picking up the Master Keeper Keyblade, which is reminiscent to the announcement trailer for KH3.
- Xion being Norted?!?!?
- Our Heroes at the Keyblade Graveyard
-Dark Aqua preparing to battle Riku and Mickey

[/SIZE]Can't wait to see the extended version of the trailer next week[SIZE=2]

I don't know about you but I think Big Hero 6 cast has the best character models in the game, followed by Tangled and third being Frozen.
[/SIZE]
Much like The Caribbean, it seems we're going back to have the one party member instead of having two (Toy Box, Monstropolis, Corona) for the Big Hero 6 world. A little disappointed as I was expected at least one of the members (particularly Hiro or Go Go) to be in the party, but to be fair, it makes sense that we only will have Baymax as your Party member for the majority of the world as from Hiro's dialogue in the trailer both Hiro, Go Go, Honey Lemon, Wasabi and Fred will deal with protecting the citizens from the Bugblox attacking the city while SDG and Baymax will deal with protecting the other citizens.

Hopefully, in a future interview from Tetsuya Nomura he will give some insight regarding his decision on choosing Baymax as the ONLY party member for the world and whether Hiro and the others will be party members in a different section of the world or be characters assisting Sora in battle just like the FF characters at Radiant Garden in Kingdom Hearts II.

Lastly, please include NPC's in the Big Hero 6 world cause the scene with the abandoned cars at the San Fransokyo Bridge makes it feel lifeless, that is one of my biggest fears for this world.

I know right, also the Hilt is modeled after Hiro's Megabot both on the front and backside and the keychain at the end is the Smiling face logo for Baymax's Healthcare chip





I don't think from that brief scene featuring Larxene she is about to harm Kristoff and Sven, in fact, that scene is actually taking place when Anna sacrificed herself to save Elsa from Hans.

Perhaps

in this shot she is actually taunting Sora for "failing" to protect Anna and Elsa.

Here's to hope, on the other hand, they could be assistant characters just like Leon and the Gang from Kingdom Hearts II where they assist SDG and Baymax in different sections of the world battling enemies and/or bosses.


Looks like it, I don't think the hair matches the length of the hair of Young Xehanort or Aqua. Oh boy, the internet is soon going to get heartbroken and devasted if that was the case. I bet, this would just play out just like the Frozen trailer when that particular scene from the trailer is the MOST talked about by fans on the internet than the actual world reveal itself. So be prepared everyone.


You think so? perhaps it was something to do with the lighting effects of her skin from the scenes in the June E3 2018 trailers. On top of that, since both Frozen and Tangled belong in the second set of worlds they were about 75-80% completed back in June, and now looking at the recent trailer it's around 85-90% completed.


Do my eyes deceive me did I see Akuma Island from in the Background? It seems that this is taking place before the Island was officially destroyed in Episode 15: Fan Friction of Big Hero 6: The Series.

Ah I have to agree that if the chessboard is showing the final battle I'm going to be disappointed. I'd rather the other lights not get defeated and Sora saving the day thanks.

I'm hoping that maybe it's not the final battle but one before it, and the lights lose or something. :\ I mean Roxas has been highly teased and being the biggest secret for KH3 and all, so it would be weird for him to be this huge secret then get knocked out the final fight. Hell I don't like the idea of Riku getting beaten in that fight ether.

I've also noticed that a lot of the SOD facing Sora are characters qualified to be a traitor with Vanitas, Saix and YX, and Larxene and Marluxia betrayed the organization in the past too. Luxord doesn't really fit though, but maybe they could all betray Xehanort or something and that's how Sora gets out of that situation. Also Saix and Vanitas seem to be closer to Sora than the rest, and Larxene and Marluxia are closer together. Ether that or Xigbar isn't in it because he's the traitor or he got defeated/died. So many possibilities aha.

There is no way they can avoid yet, the good vs evil, just because this is in the essence of the discussion that he propose about light and dark (and is a disney based game). Such maniqueism is in the center of the games, which i think may change in the following saga a bit.
I think that because by now we have only one character who could follow the dawn path, and only now he is overcoming the guilt for his past.
I mean, he is the only one who truly won the battle, Aqua, and us, just though she did. For me the kind of thinking she had at the end of 0.2, is the same when you achieve a good philosophy which you think that will make stable and good, just to fall harder in the next weeks. If she wants to overcome darkness, maybe she needs to fall there to know, and not generate a naive philosophy.

Sora is a differente case because as xehanort is kinda the human form of darkness, which is the power of one making all him self. Sora is like light, the power to bring diverses forms of light (this is my interpratation). And the game not just drop that, the third act of re:coded is he proving that he will not sucumb to ignore the existence of other lives and hearts that are not himself. Like he said to roxas, he is another person not him.

Kh3 may be repetitive cause this discussion is not over, nomura needs to close this theme, to deep it down and maybe create more dawn than darkness and light.

He is repeating the conflicts it istrue, but the way i think, he repeat to be different. I think after the character who embodies this type of darkness-thinking dies, we will be seeing another discussion. Back cover points to that imo.

The past couple pages made me think it's really likely that Xion's in Big Hero 6. But Twilight Town has two seekers, Ansem SoD and Xemnas. Why can't other worlds have criminal duos? Aqua and Xion haunting San Fran together could be interesting, they're sisters in sorrow. And I've just built up the idea of Aqua in Big Hero 6 so much the past few months that I'm going to be hugely disappointed if she's not involved, lol.

Why is no one else freaking out that basically all of the good guys are off the chessboard except for Sora? Nomura said the ending was gonna be hard to swallow... Maybe that's what he meant. But another thing I noticed... There are seven Guardians of Light. But there are only five pieces off the board, at least that we can see, plus Sora, so that only makes six. And the bottom of the board is hidden. Makes me thing that Sora isn't the last one standing in the fight. Also, the shot was very careful to cover the tops of the pieces, so we can't see who's out of the game. I think there's a lot more going on in that shot than we realize. Nomura is totally teasing us with it.

Yes, they are.

Not excited about the return of Riku's ugly 3D hair. I was hoping he'd just look the way he has up to now right from the beginning of KH3. I mean, we didn't ever see him cut his hair between KH2 and 3D, so why are they bothering now?

All the Seekers are looking pretty good here.

I wonder if Sora uses the Master Keeper to change Castle Oblivion back to Land of Departure without knowing ven is in castle oblivion, and Vanitas meets him or follows him there to try to get the keyblade/ven's body. Ether that or wonder if it's a flashback to him being brought back. :\

I am TOTALLY flying the Endymion model every chance I get....

Gonna repaint the blue to pink and name it SELENE!!! XD

Absolutely LOVE the little add-in and hope to see more cameos from Einhander <3

This is isn't the full story, though. Mickey gave Aqua something more important than hope: knowledge. Yes, his words of wisdom fell short, but what he showed her in the Realm of Darkness during the time they spent together was more valuable than anything he could have said, and it clearly shows in how all of her convictions are reaffirmed and her faith in herself is renewed not after he *says* "You'll be ok," but after he helps her see that the Realm of Darkness is not something to fear or despise because it is intrinsically connected with the Light-- just like she is. All of her self-hatred, her doubt and her guilt, is a reflection of the darkness inside of her, and what Mickey helps her to see is that, simply put, the thicker the darkness, the stronger the light burning bright within it.

Nobody had ever given her tools to see that before-- Eraqus taught her to hate the darkness, which meant hating the part of herself that is darkness; Terra made that conditioned fear literal, acting for her as a cautionary example of what happens when the darkness is not suppressed completely, and embedding within her the seeds of fear that even the power she wields for good causes can only bring sadness in the end (hence she declines to perform a ceremony for Sora). But as she traveled through the RoD, she got to know the dark intimately: it forced her to face her own inner darkness, and absent the knowledge she gains while fighting alongside Mickey, she couldn't see it for anything but that toxic shame and those feelings of failure within herself. Not so at the end of 0.2. The darkness isn't something she fears at that point: she recognizes it as part of her complete person, and chooses to keep the Light inside of her burning. It's an intentional and unmistakable shift in perspective, from "I'm losing this fight," to, "I am Master Aqua."

Shrugging that off as just another step on the path to defeat is reductive. Nomura can still write her that way, sure, but I won't pretend it's some genius attempt to provide nuance. It's just angst porn.


This doesn't work because even in her darkest moments, Aqua has never shown any indication of passing the blame for her situation to anybody else. We went through the entirety of 0.2 and all she ever did was internalize feelings of negativity, which is consistent with her tendency to put everything on herself and try to take the world onto her shoulders. When she sees Ven and Terra, or Mickey, there's no hint of resentment, only concern for their safety and well-being. Trying to graph Riku's KH1 plot onto Aqua isn't very believable or rewarding.

To be honest, I can't really see where Aqua's arc could have gone other than saving Ven/going with Riku and Mickey in KH3. Like her arc kind of got a lot of focus in 0.2 in terms of character development. Like I actually kind of get why it happened. In fact I feel that norting Aqua would actually give more character development to her and add a new arc that doesn't just involve saving other people. Same with Xion; her character is honestly quite minor considering she appeared in just a DS game, so it kind of makes sense to nort her since her relevance is quite low (although this could just be my bias talking since I really don't care for xion and feel she should never have been written). Really the characters that I can think of whos character development and arc could branch out in KH3 that isn't just 'help save the others' is Sora, Kairi, Roxas, some of the SOD members like Vanitas and Saix and Terra. The rest, especially Riku kind of already had theirs and is just in KH3 for the ride from what I'm getting out of it. Ven is a different story since his new character arc is linked to KHUX, so I can see his relevance coming after KH3.

i honestly love how this really feels like infinity war's current state

As she recognize the darkness in herself, why she cant fall? She was at the RoD for years, the presence of mickey only revives the flame of light, but how long she was alone there. For me is so logical that she would fall. Even sora would fall. She being aware of her darkness is just a step, not the full control of it.

Is not like nomura is some kinda of genius, for me, the story he is telling is so common, what happened to aqua is what would happen with any other person.

Ultros is the superior choice! Did Endymion ever interrupt an opera as part of a kooky revenge scheme? I think not! The choice is clear!

In all honestly, if Aqua wasn't norted I couldn't really see her being in KH3 that much other than being there to rescue Ven and be involved in some BBS shenanigans. I honestly feel that her being norted and possibly being a SOD for a Disney world actually makes her more relevant to the plot and have more screentime. I mean on top of being in a disney world, which I highly doubt she would have been if she wasn't norted, Sora now has to save her, and she will get some character development related to all the shit she caused. :\

She's last seen with Ansem the Wise, another character who needs to escape the Realm of Darkness. Their meeting is valuable because he's the ultimate representation of what it means to be fallen: from the leader of the Capital of Light to a denizen of darkness sitting alone on the Dark Margin without even a memory of who he really is. Aqua and he could have gotten out of the RoD together and gone to recover his memories, and that could easily cause their paths to cross with SDG's or Mickey and Riku's, eventually; Aqua, at the beginning of her journey to understand the true nature of light and darkness and how they work in harmony when she met Ansem, could arrive to help the GoL with a complete understanding of how darkness is being used by people who resent the light to create the illusion of a false dichotomy where there isn't one. There's a whole story in there where Aqua gets to help someone in need (fulfilling her promise in 0.2 to be the Wayfinder for one who is lost) and gain a broader perspective on the universe in the process. Plus, Ansem the Wise also has a story to tell in this game, so pairing him with Aqua would have been an efficient way to provide that opportunity. Two birds, one stone.


Yes, she was exposed to the darkness for an extensive period of time, but remember that darkness is not evil, it's simply a force of nature. Once one understand the darkness, and learn how to coexist with it (like Riku has), it presents as much less of a danger. The RoD was dangerous for Aqua primarily because she was carrying around all of that negativity: she perceived her sadness and her loneliness as products of the dark but in reality those were her feelings and the darkness was simply reflecting them back at her. Same as Riku in KH1, the darkness didn't manifest any of his feelings of jealousy or resentment towards Sora, nor did it drive him to act in the way he did, those were extant emotions he had been carrying since they were kids and he had to take accountability for his own actions, and now he and his darkness get along great and he's never been more admiring of and affectionate towards Sora. This is the part of the series that gets most misconstrued: the darkness can only corrupt someone who is vulnerable to its corruption. Sora literally turns into a Heartless after unlocking the darkness in his heart and yet remains completely pacifistic towards his friends, which allows Kairi to see him for who he is. Darkness doesn't turn people into raving sadists: it might attract people like that due to its nature as a very powerful and volatile force, but those inclinations have to be present in the first place.

I will agree with you however that Aqua was not at the end of her journey in 0.2. I think she still had a lot of learning to do with regards to accepting the dualism of light and dark as part of the essential fabric of the KH universe, but 0.2 set her on that path, and it sucks to see that derailed for a pretty basic plot twist.

This made me remember that she can also fall, not because (or only because) the bad feelings, but her body was 12 years(?) being exposed to darkness.

I think what bugs me is the way nomura puts this situations, like if it is a big plot twist, which is not(and he do this every time e.e), but it doesnt mean imo that what happened to her is poor, or just for the sake of the twist. If he had show this in a more fluid and natural way maybe it would make it more interesting, "and less aha got you"

This is what we call dramatic effect in media. When everything seems lost with no hope of being victorious. When your protagonist is surrounded by the enemy, all lonesome, knowing he/she is outnumbered.

But then, something amazing happens. Where the oddity of overcoming what seems impossible starts to unfold, a sign of possibility emerges from the depths of our eyes, gazing at the sight of "Holy shit, is he/she really going to..."

Yes. Believe. Believe in the chances given.

[video]https://youtu.be/wM7_mquczbs[/video]

this reaction about aqua hahahahahaha

Mickey gave Aqua nothing but false hope, the knowledge he gave her just makes everything more painful.

The Worlds aren't at peace
Her friends are still missing
She's been sealed in the realm of darkness for 10 years, the world she left behind at this point is basically gone.

Light and darkness are connected is not something Mickey taught her, it's something she already had long since learned. Both Eraqus and the Fairy Godmother told her that, Eraqus just added that the fact light and darkness are connected is a bad thing because it means they can't ever truly be rid of it and should just seal it away. Nothing she did with Mickey would have changed that view, yes she sees light and dark being connected but Mickey's entire quest resolves around BREAKING that connection, shutting the door to darkness to keep the dark from getting out. That doesn't challenge her views on darkness it just reaffirms what Eraqus taught her, that to protect light you must keep darkness sealed up and away. Mickey himself doesn't think darkness has any place in the world until CoM where he sees Riku show darkness in a new light.

Now What part of that is supposed to make Aqua feel good?

Mickey did nothing to console Aqua properly, instead he brushed off her pain foolishly believing a few encouraging words would be all she needed. But Aqua needed much more than that, when Mickey told her she be alright Aqua there is several seconds of silence followed but a deadpan and hopeless sound "right" from Aqua. She doesn't believe she'll be alright, because she knows she won't be, she can't fight the darkness forever now that the cracks in heart have started to appear.

Aqua is suicidal and there is no sugar coating that. Aqua has had her hope restored multiple times and then each time the emotional high faded away and she was ready to let herself be killed. Phantom Aqua is a manifestation of Aqua's own desire to destroy herself and fade away, she is seriously messed up emotionally. She bursts into tears talking to Ansem the Wise because she is not in a good emotional state, Aqua had a stalwart emotional control that has basically whittled down to nothing thanks to her time in the RoD. In a lot of ways Aqua is a lot more like Terra at the end of 0.2, a person with a growing darkness they can't manage because Eraqus never taught them a healthy way to and whose emotions are kind of all over the place making things worse.

The heroic moment Aqua had near the end of 0.2 did nothing to address all the cracks in her heart. It was Aqua running off an emotional high, renewed with a sense of purpose and hope. But it's not the kind of thing to realistically last, that's now how depression which Aqua is suffering from works. You want to believe you can be better, that you've got your fix and now from now on things will be fine, but that's not how it works. Instead it's a constant ebb and flow, you're going to have your highs and lows and you're going to be battling with it for quite a bit of your life and you may never recover from it completely. Aqua isn't in a place nor has support she needs to recover, Aqua's promise to wait and guide can't last forever.

Eventually Aqua is going to start thinking she was forgotten again, and it's clear that she did with that line very bitter sounding "Mickey you're too late". Aqua's emotional high died down, all her inner issues she never actually dealt with reared up again, and she gave up waiting for Mickey to come back for her. Then somewhere in all this Xehanort came in and preyed upon it norting her, and I guess apparently she got access to a sweet looking dark mode suit of her own as part of that deal.

I recently replayed 0.2 to grind out the Ambitious trophy. Man, this scene. This fucking scene! It just destroys me. Going back to 0.2 knowing about Aqua's fall makes an already morose adventure even more horrific.

But it's not the kind of thing to realistically last, that's now how depression which Aqua is suffering from works.

Yeah this is exactly what I think. Looking this way, it is cool to see how Sora can only keep going because of his friend, so cute, love you Sora <3

Still looking this way, I hope the way Aqua overcome this situation (even keeping to be darkness for free will, who knows, and being friend with the light? Just wondering) show us some cool things to deal with those days.

That's part of why it rubs me the wrong way as well, if 0.2 had set this up properly I would still have my problems with it but it would have given the players the opportunity to engage with that story development rather than what will happen in KH3, which is that we will be told it happened and maybe there will be a flashback or something. Genius.


And then right after that he tells her she has a bright light which led her to him and she remembers that she literally just saw Terra fighting the darkness. "And I know he wants me to keep fighting, too." Mickey confirms for her some of the hard truths of what has happened, but it's nothing worse than what she might have imagined and it's far better than wandering alone with no knowledge of the outside world whatsoever, which was one of the constant refrains in her mind throughout 0.2-- that not knowing, and being haunted by visions that seemed to taunt her in her ignorance, was slowly eating away at her. Mickey also informs her that Sora and Riku are both fighting for the light, which clarifies one of the central doubts that had been plaguing her since the events of BBS, when she decided not to pass the Keyblade to Sora because she saw too much of the conflict she and her friends were experiencing in the boys' future. Knowing that Sora and Riku are working together reaffirms that redemption and unity are possible, and that goes hand in hand with what she knows about Terra at that point. She also knows Ven is safe because she has to be there in order to retrieve him. And then at the end of the game, Aqua knows for a fact that Mickey, Riku and Sora succeeded because she sees Destiny Islands returning to the Realm of Light, and has no reason from then on to believe the worlds aren't at peace until she meets Ansem the Wise. The only thing she has left to worry about is herself, and the whole point of her journey in 0.2 is that she rehabilitates and reframes her mindset in the ways I've already outlined elsewhere.


Yes, which indicates how central this reconciliation is to her as a character, but prior to falling into the RoD Aqua had never known darkness. She has a heart of almost pure light, and as you correctly stated, Eraqus drove into her through her training that darkness is something to be feared and rejected, so she never would have actively sought out a deeper knowledge of it. With her journey in the RoD, she's put face to face with her own darkness in a way she never has been before, and while that's obviously a frightening and difficult prospect, it ultimately strengths her convictions.


yes, but again, what Mickey tells her and what he conveys are two different things. The darkness which is pouring from the door to KH obviously doesn't belong in the RoL, but in order to prevent that, he's going to seal the doorway using a Keyblade of Darkness, which was born at the same place its light counterpart came into being. Aqua makes an observation about this when, upon finding the KKD, she comments with some hesitance, "A Keyblade of Darkness?" Eraqus had obviously not even told her there were Keyblades of the Dark Realm, so this is new information to her. But what does it mean? It means they can protect the Ream of Light, using a tool from the Realm of Darkness. Aqua doesn't reject this idea; she embraces it, and offers to close the door so Mickey can lock it. A far cry from, "What else is darkness but hate and rage?" Now she's seeing something that proves otherwise.

Do both she and Mickey still view the darkness as dangerous? Yes, but there's another layer of recognition underscoring that, which is that it has its place, and they with it. Aqua doesn't look to slip back into the darkness: she aims to be the strong light that will burn within it, and find a way to do some good while she's at it.



The part where she and Mickey succeeded in saving the worlds and returning them to the Realm of Light. That'd give me a sense of accomplishment, at least.


And by the end of that exact same scene she is smiling and firm in her resolve, because Mickey gives her something to actually work with, and then there's the "I am Master Aqua" bit, so if we're going purely by tonal cues, the evidence in favor of her endurance is at least on par with the evidence against.


Yeah, but all of that is before she saves the world with Mickey and sees for certain that her friends are alive, and develops the conviction not just to fight the darkness out of obligation or for sheer survival, but to actually be a guiding light within it and make it a central part of her purpose. At the end of 0.2 Aqua knows that her light, even all by itself, is strong enough to penetrate the darkness, something she had never before accepted. She was too desperate to maintain her connection to Ven and Terra, and anything that threatened that disrupted her resolve; she didn't believe in herself, so she relied on them, and that's why she keeps seeing symbols and phantoms representing the two of them, because her heart yearns for them so strongly and the darkness knows that. That's no longer the case at the end of 0.2: of course Aqua still aims to be reunited with Ven and Terra, but she knows that in order to do that, she has to be the Keyblade Master as she was ordained and fight for the light just like everybody else is doing.


That's not what happens. Aqua quietly tears up as she is reminded once again that the light is under the protection of Sora and Riku, then smiles and turns and looks out serenely over the Dark Margin with Ansem the Wise. That scene isn't played remotely for pathos.


Kingdom Hearts is not beholden to nor does it make any effort whatsoever to provide accurate psychological profiles for any of its characters reflective of real-world pathologies or mental illness. I encourage you to stop trying to use this as a metric for understanding literally any of its characters.

Is it hard to grasp that Aqua isn't some perfect being that even she can't be taken over by Darkness?

So far we don't know what happen between Blank Points to Riku and Mickey meeting her in the Dark Margin and for all we know, her heart may had hope, doesn't mean her heart isn't clouded with doubt. No heart is pure, even the seven princesses can have their hearts clouded, Belle, Cinderella, even Elsa is wavering between light and dark.

This is the point where I'm ready to stop seeing/reading about the game. This is the first trailer where it's "all too familiar to me"; it's losing it's freshness, in that we've waited so long for this game.

Either that, or I have no attachment to BH6, but I believe it's the former.

Aqua doesn't need to be perfect, but she's a heckuvalot more interesting if she isn't stagnant.


Again, darkness does not equal negative emotions or evil intentions. Belle and Cinderella can experience sadness and loneliness and whatever else without having a drop of darkness in their hearts. Eraqus can attempt murder on a 14 year old while wielding the power of light. Darkness is just a very difficult kind of energy to control which is naturally driven to consume, and feelings of weakness or resignation, or an overconfidence in one's ability to manage it, can cause that natural drive to kick in. A steady, temperate heart with the right mindset can hold the darkness at bay with practice. Master Xehanort is bad and does this. Riku is good and does this. The right kind of fabric can apparently do this. Aqua, a Keyblade Master with not much darkness of her own to control, should be more than capable of doing this given time and willpower.

It's not like anyone who steps foot in the Realm of Darkness is doomed to be consumed by it. Ansem the Wise managed to survive there all by himself and he doesn't even have a Keyblade. People are wary of the RoD because they are wary of the darkness itself, and don't understand it. Also it's not very populous so it tends to get lonely.

Aqua had that knowledge at the end of BbS. Terra and Ven's keyblades literally came and saved her just as she was about to give up. The game technically ended with her saying, "There's always a way." That didn't stop her from later almost giving up again and was only motivated by Mickey showing up in the knick of time and giving her back her wayfinder.

Aqua has always known that the darkness is eating at her fears and doubts and making them worse. She says it before she even sees Mickey. She's fully aware of what's happening to her. But knowing is only half the battle, as they say. Why are you convinced that after more time passes, she won't once again be willing to give up with no one left to give her the boost she needs to keep fighting? It's unfair to expect her to always be at her best.

I'll reiterate, just because she's in her darkest place right now doesn't mean her light is completely snuffed out. I'm sure even Terra's light is still burning despite his current situation. Despite everything Riku went through, his light still burned too. Being norted is not the end of the world, her current situation is not that different from what Terra and Riku already went through. (the bad guy, whether it be Xehanort or The Darkness

[FONT=Roboto]â„¢, [/FONT]

eating at their insecurities until they succumb)



Nothing Mickey said is even close to 'the darkness is not as bad as you think' or 'darkness is just a part of you, don't fear it.' This is pre-Kingdom Hearts Mickey. This Mickey still thinks darkness is all bad. He doesn't change his mind until way later when he watches Riku go through every stage.

Mickey has given her the temporary strength to keep going and be the light within the darkness to guide their way (which again, she can STILL be. I think that's how Mickey and Riku find her in the first place and that probably encourages them that Aqua can still be helped).

Aqua faces her inner darkness, and she came away from that thinking, "I'm losing this fight. It's found it's way in. Are my days coming to an end?" Yes, her "I am Master Aqua" is badass and shows off her renewed strength to fight a little stronger, but it's no different from her, "There's always a way." statement which was just as strong after she thought about all her friends. "There's always a way" was so important that they plastered it on some merch and yet we saw what happened after she said that.

Aqua didn't just fall, she was beaten down until she had nothing left. This isn't an on and off situation, it's a steady decline, a decline anyone else would also go through. A decline Ansem the Wise probably succumbed to (except he possibly just faded away like she would have).

You're tired of hearing me say it of course, but this is the Dark Realm. When even the main villain warns people from staying there too long... I mean come on now. "You're too late." has a lot of weight for that reason. Her being down there for too long has always been a concern. It'd be silly if she came out of the dark realm a-ok. She's not a princess of heart immune to the darkness, she's just as vulnerable as Riku, Terra, Sora, Ven, and everyone else. It was to be expected darkness would do something to her, that was never a question.

I'm on the fence about the nortification, but Aqua falling to darkness and struggling with it has always been high on the possibility list. The strength of her light and the light of her friends is what will keep her from being lost forever.



"No one will save you. And no one wants to." is something Phantom Aqua said.

It's not necessarily blame. It's further self hatred. "Why are you here? It can't be because you want to help me. I don't want your help." is totally a twisted statement I can see coming from her. There was a trope name for it that I can't remember in which the 'captive' refuses to be 'rescued'.

I'm not slapping Riku's story onto Aqua. Riku's story is like Terra's story, which is not Aqua's story. Arguably, Aqua's struggle with darkness is MORE personal compared to them. She wasn't fighting anyone else down there except herself (and pure darkness). No one was manipulating her feelings trying to make her do bad things or make her believe the darkness is her only way out (which is why I'm not interested in the idea that Aqua would willingly sign on to Xehanort's plan ever. It had to be forced like Sora)

This new story possibility has little to do with Xehanort. The way to help her is not to defeat Xehanort, but address her own personal issues. It's not Riku's story. Or Terra's. Or Sora's. Though I guess it's more similar to what Sora went through except 10 times worse (and again, not because of some bald dude's manipulation).

To summarize my blabbering on: You can't make assumptions on what Aqua has concluded about herself. No where does she state she has accepted darkness is a natural part of her or welcomed. Neither has Mickey who only comes to that conclusion about 10 years later. Aqua was struggling with her insecurities. Aqua is strong and powerful, powerful enough to last down there a decade before her resolve starts to crumble. Luckily, Mickey saves the day and gives her a boost she really needed, but as we've seen before, who knows how long that lasted. Aqua is a human being. "The closer to the light, the larger the shadow" or whatever. She's tired, depressed, and vulnerable. I think it's unfair to expect she'd make it out of the dark realm relatively unscathed and doesn't make sense lore wise. I don't think this hurts her character, and if written correctly (who knows if that will happen), this can be a very personal plot line for Aqua different from our other darkness inflicted pals.

Gee! I can't believe that when BH6 actually happens I'm away from the forums (sigh)

But, oh my was this a good trailer.

Loving the portrayal of the BH6 in this engine. I can't wait to explore San Fransokyo. Hopefully there's a chance for different sections to have seperate party members. Would be disappointing if they only appeared in cutscenes.

Why does YM Xehanort look so different in this new cutscene? It seems like they just can't give him an expressive face.

What would be funny, would be if the one everyone suspects to be Xion actually is a young Kairi. That would be a twist that would never happen.

someone made a good arugment that person could be soranort
https://twitter.com/EmtheLimey/status/1039497201305702401

(credit:https://twitter.com/EmtheLimey)

Omg finally, I thought I was the only one who was seriously thinking that the hair frighteningly matches Sora.

Don't know if this has been mentioned yet, but I've been thinking the people of San Fransokyo have been digitized.

You say that and people will find that a excuse for no NPCs, so better hold on to that

It could be. But my theory is that the Bugs are using WiFi, cellular airwaves, or other airborne data channels to manifest in the real world. Perhaps Hiro invents something that allows them to be seen, possibly those goggles Sora is wearing.

Considering the micro-bots play some role in this, seeing how Dark Baymax is using them in the concept art, I'm not surprised if the Bug Blox are merely manifesting through the micro-bots.

Not against your theory, but I just notice I somehow deleted part of my comment before posting. The deleted part was just that the Bug Blox have indeed appeared in the real world, but are converting everyone into data. Not that there's two San Fransokyo's like what's going on in Toy Box.

Kingdom Hearts 3: Transistor Edition

Xehanort "Who gets to go first? How about... me."

Anyone else insanely impressed by SE model of Randall?
He blew both Sulley & Mike out of the park.

For a video game, this really felt like feature film quality.

Randall looks great, but his eye color is too bright.
It just pops at me too much. Still looks good though.

Hands down, what made me excited the most. He looks incredible! SE really knocked it out of the park with him!

-wondering what Waternoose looks like-

Glad to see my man, Randall making his official appearance, and I'm very impressed with how the People at Square Enix made Randall in the game, huge props to Pixar for lending them the original character model. He looks exactly on how he looked in the movie.

Also dunno about you guys but I also noticed that the Randall from the leaked Orchestra trailer back in June didn't have any texture, maybe it was the video quality but that's just me.

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I'd also give credit to Pixar Animation Studios who lent Square Enix the original character models from the films for use in the game. I'd put Randall in the same level as the Toy Story characters in the game.[/FONT]

It was the video quality, Randall looked fantastic in person.

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Have they retconned his eye colour?

It isn't bright in his Monsters Inc render from 2001 but even Disney Infinity has bright green

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I'm not making assumptions, just using long-standing symbolism and the language of the series to draw inferences about the events depicted in 0.2, because it's a better story when the stuff that happens in it actually matters. Mickey doesn't draw the right conclusions about light and darkness until he travels with Riku in CoM, but the experiences they shared together in the Realm of Darkness paved the way to that understanding: it's one of the first thing he brings up with Riku in Castle Oblivion; "You and I have seen it. The far, welcoming light within the door to darkness." Aqua saw it, too, but through a different lens, after 10 years of believing the darkness was endless, of believing that no light could ever survive down there. She saw proof of its existence, and proof of the inextricable link between the RoD and the RoL-- that impacts her understanding of the darkness as well as her understanding of the light, which of course impacts her understanding of herself. It has to, or what's the point of showing her the KKD, of showing her the door to Kingdom Hearts? It's wasted narrative on an Aqua who can never break free of a cycle of remorse and self-hatred, just because Nomura wants to keep her trapped in the darkness even longer until Sora or someone else can come along, wave a magic wand, and make it all go away. What more satisfying resolution can come from her continued struggle with her darkness in KH3 than what was already depicted in 0.2? That's the question I continue to struggle with, and haven't found a substantive answer; just vagueness and rule-of-cool retorts.

I'm not under any illusion that my reading of her journey is likely to be canon. I just don't see the point of teaching her a lesson she has already learned. I'd rather see her develop actual relationships with other characters in the series, and capitalize on the streak of resilience that has evolved in her since her first appearance in BBS. It was a good trajectory they had going, depreciated to messy KH shenanigans. Not holding my breath for Nomura to deliver on this.

Since one white chess piece is completely out of view (and possibly still on the board), is it too much to hope for Roxas?

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Also, if my eyes saw correctly, that was a super quick transition from blade to ^YO-YO's to hammer.[/FONT]

yeah, this Keyblade uses the transformations of the other keyblades.

Yeah it seems Nano Arms will involve the MicroBots taking the shape of the other Keyblade transformations. Another reason this is probably the last Disney world we will visit.

To support the theory that the nort we saw in the trailer is actually not Xion, if you look at the image of when they appear during when the image is still on Xigbar, you can actually see more hair behind the spikes at the back of the head, and the hair appears to be sticking outwards rather than down like Xion.

Just thought it was worthy to point out. In all honestly I'm having second thoughts of it being Xion now and leaning more on other possibilities like Repliku, Data Sora, Sora or Vanitas after looking at it more. I'm going to laugh if it's not Xion lol, since a lot of people seem 100% sure it's her.

another trailer down and still no hide nor hair from our boy demyx. maybe well have better luck with the extended version on the 18th

I'm hoping Demyx is on the good side. But yeah hope he appears. But at this stage I'm just glad that Roxas is away from speculation of being a nort for now and Vanitas seems to be playing a big role. They're my favourite characters at this stage so seeing my favourites go down a road that I hoped for is really a blessing.

I did notice that, yeah. Xion's hair is uneven and this person's looks even. It is still a similar hair cut overall though so I guess I'm not sure either way at this point.

Eh if there is hair that is facing outwards then it would rule out Xion; her hair goes straight down. But at this stage it could just be the wind or something. But with the Coded stuff in Big Hero 6 and now seing this, I'm gonna place bets on it being Data Sora now lol. Especially since his younger self does have a longer strand of hair on the side of his face and I wouldn't be surprised since his younger self does seem to get a lot of attention.

Just gonna post the image here and stop being lazy. It's actually quite hard to see though, but it honestly looks like to me that the main chunk of the hair is going outwards, but then there is hair going down on the sides. But I'm honestly not 100% sure on anything now tbh.

The hair may appear to go "outwards" because the person's head is tilted. Based on the animation, it looks to me like this character has just pulled off their hood and revealed their face. Between the angle of the chin and the movement, I don't think the hairstyle can be relied on to necessarily confirm or deny identity at this stage.

However it IS worth noting Xion had some kind of similar face reveal at one point during Days, so I think it's more that coupled with the hair that is making people think it's for sure Xion.

That particular bit of hair gets cut off in the image where they are revealed fully on screen, so people don't see it. Yeah I was also thinking it could be wind or hair movement with the hood as well. Its really hard to tell at this stage. And if that is another reason why people think it's her then that's another good possibility. Guess we have to wait until the 18th. >.>

I think the fact that the mysterious member is shown after Xigbar is talking in Twilight Town may be a further hint for it to be Xion. But that's just me.

Since her reveal as a vessel we didn't see her character as it's just a trailer but nothing says her development can't work but everyone is having a knee jerk reaction and blinded to the truth

Those blinded by the truth only will continue to walk the fog of delusion

Master Ava said it best in Back Cover that any heart can fall to darkness, that's whybI brought up Cinderella or did you forget how her negative emotions about not able to go the ball because her step family ruined her dress which her negative emotions that if it wasn't for the Fairy Godmother knowing she still had hope, she would still attract Unversed. Belle wasn't feeling all happy about Beast wanted her to leave


Aqua is a vessel, and for all known she gets saved and Riku and Mickey are sure they can get her since they came back to Yen Sid's tower and not all sad about it, meaning they are going to save her. We don't know if she's in their ranks, members are still speculation.

I watch a lot of shows where characters fall a dark path of themselves and have to face their darkness and themselves. Nomura and KH isn't perfect but no different here. Accept the truth, you know it's ture

This right here, is an assumption. Nothing that happens in 0.2 casts the Darkness in a good light from Aqua's perspective at all. That plot point so far has been reserved for characters like Riku and I'm sure in the future it will pass down to characters like Terra and now Aqua. Mickey has only stated maybe darkness isn't all that bad because of Riku's experience, not Aqua's. Riku is the one who used darkness to 'win' and fight for the light, this is what makes Mickey believe the darkness itself isn't the problem and even at the end of KH2 Mickey gave a wishy washy response about why darkness is bad before Riku strongly states, "It's not the darkness that's bad, but the people lurking inside" or whatever. With Mickey's opinion still being so uncertain all the way to KH2, there's no way he could impart any knowledge to Aqua about how she should think about the darkness while she's trapped in hellish darkness.

Aqua did not accept the darkness, Aqua did not accept the balance, Aqua does not want the darkness and Aqua is clearly afraid of the darkness overtaking her (maybe less so at the end 0.2 as she seems resigned to be stuck there longer). Mickey didn't say anything to her that would push her to the conclusion that light and darkness is a balance and she shouldn't be afraid of it.

Aqua believes she can be the light in the darkness despite the darkness eating away at her. She's hoping and holding out for them to come find her. She's trying to keep fighting despite her situation and give as little room to darkness as she can. Even now that she's corrupted, deep within there is probably still a light burning brightly within her that they can reach.

Aqua's character development that darkness is a part of her and everyone else and she shouldn't be afraid and darkness isn't evil and all that jazz? Hasn't happened yet. Everything that's happened to her would naturally lead her to the conclusion that darkness IS bad. I just feel like you're jumping the gun on character development that hasn't happened yet. Everything I've written here can be used to develop her character from here on out.

I too am waiting for her to accept that darkness is a natural part of the world and Eraqus was wrong about it (and so is Xehanort), but that just hasn't happened yet. These are two separate realizations (light in the darkness & darkness is not to be feared), she's only come to accept one of these.



I mean, maybe I'm reading what you're saying wrong, but it's clear that Aqua has not learned her lesson from Fairy Godmother yet (light and darkness are a balance or darkness can be used for good) but she obviously believes there is always light within darkness (which implies darkness is bad and light is good).

I don't know why you think her belief that there's always a light within the darkness would save her from the darkness eating away at her doubts and insecurities and driving her to insanity. Knowing you have a progressive disease doesn't stop the progressive disease? Maybe you can slow it down and stall it (which she did for a decade), but.... it was inevitable. Darkness infecting Aqua was inevitable. The whole norting thing? Who knows, but if she's been norted, it's only because the darkness already got to her and she was weakened.

Even with the darkness having her or Baldy having a hold on her heart, that STILL doesn't override the fact that she probably has a strong light burning within her (light within the darkness, as has been repeated multiple times) that will lead to her being saved. Part of her being saved is probably Aqua witnessing characters like Riku or Axel using darkness to to fight for the light, showing her darkness isn't an evil force out to get her (even though it technically is, it doesn't have to be that way). We all thought Aqua would save Terra and Ven, but maybe it's Terra and Ven that have to turn around and save her and prove that same point (darkness isn't something to be feared, it can be used for good, etc etc).

But I stress this whole dynamic of darkness =/= evil? Aqua has NOT learned that lesson yet, so yes. You are making an assumption that she has. All she believes is that there is always a light within the darkness, which she believes herself to be and I have no doubt she still is.

https://www.reddit.com/r/KingdomHearts/comments/9f9k8i/kh3_xigbar_may_be_the_seeker_of_darkness_in_big/

So someone on reddit stated that there was a quick glimpse of a sniper nobody during the trailer. If so Xigbar might have some involvement in San Fransokyo, even if he necessarily isn't the darkness for that world.

Do they posted some picture of this sniper?

There’s a link to the point in the video. It’s hard to see and I can’t 100% make out the Nobody itself, but I do see one of the red laser bolts shooting across the screen around the time Sora uses the microbot shotlock.

I'll see when get off work. But just based on what you said, it can be the airplane heartless too, some kinda of missile, don't know.

Just went back frame by frame and you can see the Sniper Nobody holding the crossbow. It’s in the back behind the Neoshadows at 1:05.

It's not inevitable. AtW survived in the Realm of Darkness for years (RoL years, anyway) by bringing his heart into stability with the darkness, and he had none of the benefits of Aqua's powerful connection to the outside world. He had been betrayed by all of his closest friends: that thirst for revenge drove him to befriend the darkness and use it to his ends. Yes, his ends were wrong, but the darkness doesn't care one way or the other-- absent the malignancy of the human spirit, it's just a state of being, an element within the universe. And, tellingly, it never consumed him, anymore than it has consumed Riku or Master Xehanort. AtW's own folly drove him back to the Dark Margin.

Aqua's baggage is not the result of darkness "infecting" her, and the disease analogy is not accurate; though the darkness can "corrupt" a heart, that heart has to be vulnerable to its corrosion. Aqua is vulnerable throughout 0.2 because she hasn't addressed her own, internally conflicted spirit: she despairs for her friends, she sees the Castle of Dreams and fears the worlds may be falling to destruction, and she has more deeply resonant, personal issues of self-deprecation and difficulty accepting and recognizing her own strength for what it is. Throughout the game, she confronts all of these fears and either overcomes or begins to overcome them: she knows Ven is safe and Terra is fighting against the darkness, she knows the worlds are restored, and she has her own light and conviction reaffirmed through the last leg of her journey with Mickey. No, she hasn't reached a point of perfect equilibrium, but she's set on that path, which begins with acknowledging her own power: that allows her to face the darkness for what it is, something extant both within and without her, but not something to fear so long as she doesn't allow it to hold power over her. What, exactly, is left to drive her to the darkness after 0.2? The last time we see her, she is once again full of hope and relief that the worlds are still under the care of capable Keyblade wielders, and that the light is still being protected. She has no reason to give into the darkness knowing that. It's a cop out.

And, more to the point, it's a derailment of her ongoing character arc either way. She gets corrupted by the darkness so that she can play bad guy for game. Then she'll go back to being good and it will never be mentioned again, everything she does will be written off as Xehanort's influence, and what does she learn? That she really was weak all along and needed somebody else to come save her? That's cool. I'm glad she spent all that time in the Realm of Darkness so she could learn that about herself. Much better than delivering on the promise of a superior Keyblade Master who has been made stronger by the struggles she's faced in the series, who comes out of her journey through Hell fashioned into somebody even more capable and more driven than she was before. That kind of character development is reserved for the boys like Sora and Riku. Even as a Darkness Aqua will never be as strong as Master Xehanort. Wait your turn, Aqua. I love it.

Throwing my hat in the ring here. The person in the black coat is not (physically, at least) Xion. Xion's hair doesn't come down like that at all. In fact, the only person with a singular hair spike that goes down on both sides (and has spikes going out the back) is Sora. I made a quick pic to show what I mean:


Aside from the alleged spike of hair not lining up perfectly to the top half of the image, (a lot can change in a character design in 16 years) there's another little spike coming in to the lower right of the ear that is an exact match to Sora's hair. It may be a bit of a reach, what with the pictures not being a perfect match, but KH3's new assets obviously aren't going to be point-for-point remakes of old ones. So while the person may be Xion, it would seem she's manifesting in Sora's form just how she did in Days.

I posted the same idea in the Data Sora thread, but this is a much better way of showing how it matches up! Lol

I definitely think this some form of Sora, whether Perfected Xion, Data Sora, or whatever.

(a lot can change in a character design in 16 years) there's another little spike coming in to the lower right of the ear that is an exact match to Sora's hair. It may be a bit of a reach, what with the pictures not being a perfect match, but KH3's new assets obviously aren't going to be point-for-point remakes of old ones

Looking side-by-side, replica riku's hair changed considerable between the kh3 trailer and CoM. Aqua's hair also did change alot between the new engine and BBS. KH2 Sora's hair tho didn't change a thing, all the spikes still the way they are.
Don't know if it means anything tho.

The nort's chin also perfectly aligns with the KH1 Sora pic. Might not really mean anything, just pointing it out.

With KH2 Sora, they probably didn’t change anything to further accentuate his transition into the KH3 hairstyle.

Speaking of the Bug Blocks I'm hoping Donald and Goofy recognize them from Coded. They could be the ones to inform Sora and Hiro about what they are and how to deal with them.

If you spend a considerable about of time in the dark realm, you WILL fade. There's no evidence to say otherwise. Xehanort specifically states you shouldn't stay there long and even he wouldn't dare to sit down there for that long. AtW has been there twice, escaped the first time through sketchy means, and seems resigned to his fate last we saw him. Aqua, arguably the strongest and most light based key wielder we've seen has admitted the darkness is even getting to her and she's on the edge of giving up. Aqua has never been given a break. She's been down there longer than Ansem ever has. Aqua never found an escape. While Ansem had a break and was creating schemes in the light realm, Aqua was still down there being bathed in darkness.

It's inevitable that someone stuck in the darkness will fade away and nothing has ever implied otherwise. Aqua is not special. No matter how many friends she has, how much light she has, how strong she is, that doesn't protect her from the purest of darkness. Maybe even her armor wouldn't have protected her. It was inevitable period. If there was never the threat of Aqua eventually succumbing to the darkness down there, we all wouldn't feel the urge to quickly to rescue her realizing how long she's been there. It's dangerous for a reason. You're ignoring the length of time she's been there compared to literally everyone else. It wasn't a 5 second visit like Sora and Riku. It wasn't a quick jog through the park like Mickey. It wasn't a timeout like Ansem. She's been down there for the equivalent of 11-12 light realm years.

Aqua is not Ansem. Aqua was not consumed with revenge or hatred. Aqua wanted to get back to her friends and wanted to go home. Unlike Ansem, Aqua is unwilling to let the darkness in her heart. She believes it is bad, she believes it will overtake her and she will fade. These are things she said in 0.2 that were never addressed. I repeat, Aqua has not learned the lesson that darkness is not evil and that it can be controlled and harnessed. Neither has Mickey or Sora or Riku. They don't know that until Riku shows them the way through trial and error. This is a lesson Aqua will eventually learn, albeit in a much more complicated way. Whatever's happening to her isn't normal (compared to say, Riku and Terra)

Aqua's situation is actually the first time we'll see the long term effects of being in the dark realm.



If you remember, I've written before that Aqua's current situation is extremely personal. It's more personal than Terra's. It's more personal than Riku's. It's more personal than Sora's. Aqua's fighting nothing but herself.

Her insecurities are not being created by the darkness, as she says herself, the darkness has FOUND her doubts and insecurities. It's found it's way into her heart and is repeating all her deepest and darkest regrets out loud. This is what I loved about 0.2. Obviously Aqua was struggling a bit in BbS with what she should do to help her friends on the right path, and of course she'd feel a certain kind of way after failing. 0.2 allowed us to hear it all in plain language. The darkness has done nothing but manifest her inner feelings into illusions (and literal phantoms that tried to kill her)

You keep saying she addressed and confronted her issues when she did not. Her fight with Phantom Aqua ended with her admitting Phantom Aqua was only expressing her own feelings and then she went on to say the darkness has found a way in and fears this is the last 'warning' before she's done for. Where did she confront this? Was it when she nearly gave up again and dropped her wayfinder only for Mickey to find her in the nick of time? Was it when she told Mickey the darkness is getting to her and Mickey answered with just "You'll be ok!" Was it when she solemnly stated they'd know where to find her as she resigned to falling into the darkness again? You accept one thing happening, but ignore all the context and patterns around it. She's hopeful, then she's down. She's hopeful, then she's down. It's not hard to see where that would end up without another continuous 'hopeful' moments and events...

Every time she reassures herself things are fine (at the end of Castle of Dreams, after she sees Ven in the casket, and possibly after meeting Mickey again) there's always something else to bring her down physically and emotionally. You really think after her meeting with Mickey, she was feeling honky dory and the darkness couldn't possibly twist her emotions and resolve again like it's done at least two times prior?

And I think you completely misunderstand the concept of "giving in to darkness". I think very little people here are thinking, "Oh. One day Aqua's going to say, 'Ok I give up!' and accept the darkness." No. I've also stated before that Aqua's situation is going to be much more similar to Sora than Riku and Terra. Riku and Terra purposely used the darkness for their own means. Sora has never purposely used the darkness, the darkness was forced upon him. he extended himself too much and became weakened. They kept smacking him with it over and over again until he couldn't keep going and it consumed him. If Aqua has fallen to darkness, that is why. She's been beaten down and literally cannot keep going. There's a reason why Sora and Aqua are parallels of each other through and through (and Riku sometimes too).

Your rush to conclude she just decided to shake hands with the darkness one day is ... weird because obviously that's not the kind of person she is and that's not the only way to 'fall to darkness'. I say Aqua isn't special because anyone stuck down there would eventually be beaten down too. Anyone. Even people like Xehanort who has aligned himself with the darkness. Even Ansem the Wise. Even Mickey if he spent enough time there.

The darkness isn't some... intelligent foe making plans and creating schemes to get its way. It's just there. It's just like a disease. It's there, spreading, doesn't care who you are or what you're doing. Light, dark, good, bad, doesn't matter. If not taken care of, it'll have its way. You can willingly give into it and fade away (aka die). You can willingly give into it and gain power (Terra, Xehanort, Ansem, all of the org, Riku) OR, you can have it unwillingly thrust onto you and end up basically dead (coma Sora). Or, you can have... whatever is happening to Aqua right now.



This is an assumption, but it's whatever. Aqua fought Xehanort in what he considers to be his 'prime' and won (when he possessed Terra and was pretty much in complete control for 99% of the fight). I'm not gonna say Nomura is the best writer ever, but I was impressed with 0.2 that he brought up key points in Aqua's character I never thought would be mentioned (her obvious depression, her fears, her doubts, all her insecurities, I love that we actually got to see how she was feeling compared to the boys). We'll both have to wait and see what happens, but since you're already set on hating it, I doubt you'll enjoy it whether it's good or not.

Aqua believes she is the light in the darkness. Aqua believes she can lead them to her and wants to save her friends and I think she will. She first needs to witness that despite what's happened to her (falling to darkness), it can still be used for good. She's not tainted or useless or anything. She'll make do and protect her family.

Let’s have a recreation of the infamous “we’re a sandwich” scene. Lol.

All of the evidence available explicitly states otherwise. Who else has been trapped in the darkness aside from AtW and Aqua for any extended period of time? Neither of them faded. Aqua didn't fade after 10 RoL years. How long is it supposed to take? 20 RoL years? This is just conjecture based on an unreliable narration of a facet of the universe which nobody knows anything about, really. Xehanort wouldn't stay in the RoD because despite being aligned with darkness he still doesn't understand the Dark Realm nor can he be sure what the long-term effects would be on him: not because he knows they would be dangerous, but because he doesn't know enough to be sure that they wouldn't, and he's got nothing to gain by spending time there. All of his plans involve the RoL.

edit: And if you've played KH1, you know that the whole point of that game is to prove that light can and does endure even in the deepest darkness. The RoD may be dangerous to wander in for a lot of reasons, but the idea that it's "inevitable" that a person will fade to darkness there is directly contrary to the foundational theme of the series. Light always persists, one way or another.


This is exactly why I view this as a wasted opportunity. Instead of another boring retread of the captured-by-darkness schtick we've already done ad infinitum with these games, they could have used Aqua's time in the RoD to give her knowledge and an understanding of the darkness that nobody else has, from the perspective of a person filled with light. She could have wielded the intimate insight she has into the darkness for the benefit of the GoL, it could have made her a stronger Keyblade Master, it would have complicated her understanding of the worlds, and it would have been poetic for Eraqus' star apprentice to completely shift the RoL's understanding of the darkness through the dissemination of her experience and direct contact with the feared Dark Realm for all those years. She could have arrived in KH3 triumphant, not embittered and broken down and in need of rescuing. Still waiting on the supposed benefits of this approach.


Aqua's fear of the darkness is rooted in her feelings about herself vis-a-vis her own darkness. I think we agree on this fundamental point, but unlike you, I see this as being absolutely addressed in 0.2. That's why the Phantom appeared to her halfway through the game to set up that dynamic. The Phantom doesn't get the final world on it, that would occur during the climax of the story, which is when she meets Mickey, learns that her light drew him to her, helps save the world, and sees the light deep within the darkness that is Kingdom Hearts. That's where 0.2 leads Aqua: it only pulls her deeper into darkness in order to position her closer to the light within it. The whole game is leading up to that: the Phantom, the visions, everything. Cap that off with Blank Points, where she and Ansem sit side by side in full knowledge that the worlds are in good hands, and she's closer to that light than ever, or that's the impression it gives you. That scene could have ended with the Door to Light opening up right in front of them and it wouldn't have been a bit out of character for the series.

Prior to the E3 trailer reveal, few people aniticipated the possibly of Aqua falling to darkness. It wasn't a common theory within the fandom. That's why it caused such an uproar. 0.2 didn't set it up. Blank Points didn't set it up. This is a reverse-engineered plot point designed to surprise the audience. If it works for you, cool. I'm not convinced.


It's not like Sora's situation in DDD. Sora was being actively assaulted by people who were using the darkness to malicious ends-- they actively tricked him into letting the hurt inside him drag him down. Aqua doesn't have to contend with outside manipulation, her situation in the RoD is better understood in similar form to Sora turning himself in to a Heartless in KH1: he unlocked the darkness in his heart, but for righteous reasons, and his Heartless ends up being totally chill. Despite his heart being completely overwhelmed by darkness to the point where we literally see him falling into it, he's not driven to harm anyone. Aqua, likewise, is only fighting her own darkness, and in 0.2, she learns everything she needs in order to do so successfully. There's nothing left to gain by turning her into a Darkness. One more friendship monologue shouldn't make the difference here.


It's more that I think the conceit is bad from the outset, and everything else is fruit of the poisonous tree. Not all stories have potential. This one withered on the vine.



Everything you said here could have been true without turning her into a proxy villain and rehashing the same drama we've already seen with her as a character. 0.2 put a nice bow on this plotline, I was ready for something fresh and to see her make some progress in KH3. Instead we get another Xehanort clone. It's an arbitrary extension of her suffering, and it's a bad choice in terms of the narrative economy of the series: not enough time for a redemption arc like Riku's, not enough grounding to bring things full circle like with Terra.

While I understand the lack of faith in execution, I have to admit I'm a little disappointed and a lot bored with the "she fell because darkness" situation. It's clear that she's been infected, but why? I'm a little more hopeful that her being a Xehanort is an extension of the flaw she didn't overcome in 0.2. Her tendency to self-sacrifice for the greater good.

I don't think it's out of character at all for Aqua to have jumped in the way of a Xehanort heart blast, or for her to have chosen the path in an effort to stop Xehanort from going after Ven (or possibly even Terra). 3D calls her the light within the darkness in the secret ending. I'll choose to dream she's had agency in the choice and is working as a double agent.

I think this would be a really good explanation for why she fell.

I wouldn't be shocked to find she gave herself over to the darkness just to save Terra and/or Ven. For that matter I would also be unsurprised if they revealed that she isn't an actual Seeker of Darkness.

What's happening with her physically as of the new trailer is absolutely unprecedented as far as I'm aware. Yes the color scheme does remind of Dark Riku/Vanitas, but it is definitely not the same thing. For one, the red on DR and Van is from the forearm to the wrists and STOPS THERE, where Dark Aqua has red fingers/parts of her hands. Second, both Dark Riku and Vanitas have been rendered in the KH3 engine, and what you can see of their bodies reiterates and makes clear that they are wearing body suits effectively. They are materials, with material texture. Dark Aqua's effect, slowly spreading up her arms and legs, is very clearly her skin. To be totally honest, the only thing that is close to similar are the Darklings from KHUX which, if I recall correctly, were keyblade wielders who fully gave in to the darkness. Red claw-fingers and blue-black shadow bodies with yellow eyes... They're wearing hooded clothes so who can say if they have hair or what color it might be?

I've been saying this since the day it was revealed Aqua was Norted-- It's either just 'stuff happening with no real narrative purpose or depth', which happens a lot in KH, or it's to set an example that self-sacrificing heroics aren't always the healthiest thing. Aqua has put her friends before her own safety so, so many times. It's a defining positive trait in her character. But if she were to, say, protect AtW from Xehanort in the RoD, that might be the last sacrifice she'd be able to make before all these choices come back and bite her in the rear. This is the reason why Yen Sid withheld Aqua's location from Sora; he'd find a way into the realm of darkness with no preparation or contingency, and get himself turned into a Heartless again.

Again being the operative word, as stuff like this has already happened several times in the franchise and isn't surprising or anything to get up in arms over. Nomura just wants to give us a cool character to fight before everything is magic'd okay again. These games don't have in depth arcs, they're all about flashy solutions and crazy reveals; it's all very on the nose, and now is a very strange time to start getting angry about that.

^this thank you launchpad for saying this

Will just leave it here... Credits to the autor wickenstrife

Nomura just wants to give us a cool character to fight before everything is magic'd okay again. These games don't have in depth arcs, they're all about flashy solutions and crazy reveals; it's all very on the nose, and now is a very strange time to start getting angry about that.

In the end we can't forget this is a game, the games who have excellent\genius narrative are excpetions. And the first reason why I love the series, is because is so freaking cool to play, and the bosses are so awesome.



Digged this up, just to point out that the cubes piece are, more probably, from whoever are controlling the bug bloxes, than Luxord.

And I just noticed that the flower piece, looks like a wayfinder.

Before the Aqua was confirmed to be Norted, it felt more natural to have her to slowly be corrupted to a dark being. It would transition to ending the Xehanort saga while introducing a new threat but one that was once a hopeful keyblade master, one that we liked, turn corrupted. I would like to see a main female antagonist, not like Maleificent but more like Xehanort. A good person turned corrupted antagonist angle would have been very emotional which Kingdom Hearts is known for doing. I'm not sure who they'll have as the next antagonist but hopefully one that doesn't snatch bodies, go back in time, take on the same name as someone else, etc like Xehanort. I'd like the next saga to be less convoluted as possible lol.

I'm actually more curious about that star keyblade since it appears to be Aqua's replacement for Master Keeper. Was it always in the realm of Darkness? Did Mickey(or Riku) secretly have it?

Luxord is the Gambler of Fate... Why is it so hard to believe the cubes are dice to represent him? Because they don’t have the dots? They also don’t have the Bug Blox markings. We don’t even know if a Seeker is controlling the Bugs. Also, Wayfinders have five points, not six. Given that Luxord and Marluxia are confirmed Seekers of Darkness, these are most likely their chess pieces. They could have used cards, but the dice are probably just more recognizable as a three dimensional object. I also think they intentionally only showed the pieces for the confirmed Seekers in this shot.

In other news, it looks like that mystery figure is probably a form of KH1 Riku. https://www.reddit.com/r/KingdomHearts/comments/9fdlp8/kh3_mystery_solved/?st=JM04I4O4&sh=635b8e2a

Hm, the lead-up to KH3 sure is a convenient time to apply the, "KH just has a bad plot anyway" defense mechanism in full force. Because I'm sure we're all anticipating the next Great American Novel, and discussing basic plot points back and forth eternally is so unlike this fandom.

Everybody plays these games for different reasons. Some of us have an emotional investment in the characters and the narrative, and that's always going to come first for us. For me, all of the gameplay elements exist solely to deliver the story. Others may consider the opposite to be true. Regardless, Nomura has an obligation to his audience to put out the best game he possibly can. I think we're all aiming to encourage as well as define that in our own terms in anticipation of the big finale, regardless of whether or not we agree on what that will ultimately look like.

Wow, nice find. This gives me some hope, actually. Riku's hair doesn't have to change color at all in order to seem like a Seeker, so whichever Riku that is, it may be that little montage isn't conveying quite that message. Which means Aqua might not be a Seeker. Still haven't seen her out of the RoD yet... *patiently waits for all hope to be dashed on Sep 18th*

Although it does feel a little silly to have all that speculation going around and then...oh, it's just Riku. [strike]Pretty much how we'll all feel when the second playable character is revealed.[/strike]

edit: also yayyy Xion's not a Darkness. The thing that launched this whole retread of the Aqua debate. Yeah. I'd actually prefer if Xion's role in KH3 remains a secret along with Roxas and maybe Namine, as much as I want to see her again I just think she's going to be way more important than a Xehanort lackey or some such.

The thing with self-sacrifice for the greater good is, and here I agree with Launchpad, that it can in most cases only be done once and removes any further possible agency on your own part and can fail/be for naught if the issue you seek to solve with that sacrifice can be brought back via different means or "only" buys time others fail to use effectively.

You think along the lines of Aqua trying to protect Ansem the Wise or something? If her aim is to stop Xehanort from going after Ven giving in to Darkness and thus providing Xehanort an opening he can exploit is arguably the most bad decision she could make as she's literally the key to at least Ven's body and soul. It's Aqua who has the knowledge and power to transform C.O. back into the LoD and and find/gain access to Ven's chamber. The latter can be done without having to transform the world back and unless Xehanort is specifically interested mainly in Ven's heart, he would already get everything he wants from accessing the chamber alone.

While working as a double agent certainly sounds intriguing and I think it might be a somewhat fresh take on the whole thing which still leaves Aqua some agency I'm doubtful if this can work if she has literally Xehanort sitting in the back of her heart overlooking everything she does, not to mention possibly having to put up with Xemnas and Vanitas, who are practically evil caricatures of her beloved friends.



If that is the case I'm certainly intrigued how that plays out and especially how Aqua rationalizes this decision. By giving in to Darkness, no matter how willingly, she does give Xehanort an opening to possibly exploit and that would be 100% counterproductive to her aim of saving Ven since she would put him in even more danger by doing it.
On the topic of Terra I could see actually some merit in the prospect as Aqua possibly trying to find Terra in the Darkness by immersing herself in it despite hating it, like Kreia in Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic who hated the force yet wielded it "like one would wield poison".
I wouldn't necessary say it is out of character for Aqua to eventually resort to radical means to try and set things right, especially if she really lost faith in Mickey and Yen Sid to finally do something about the predicament of her and her friends.

These things that constantly chant "Lux, give us Lux"?
Well, the opening scene of 0.2 did feature the aftermath of the Keyblade War and lingered on Luxu and the No Name for a while, so it is possible that Aqua is slowly turning into a Darkling?
What would induct such a transformation and why wouldn't Aqua just lose her heart and become a Heartless like Sora did?
Maybe they have to "subdue" Dark Aqua somehow and then Kairi can show off her purification powers again like in KH 1?

I'm willing to entertain such notions purely because I wouldn't put it past Nomura to throw some extra wrenches and twists into the soup just for the heck of it.
It has been shown that he values surprises and shocks more than narrative coherency anyways.

Maybe Xehanort's seekers aren't the only Dark powers at work after all.



Is that really a "defense" mechanism or an attempt to strangle any debate or discussion?
Frankly, it may sound weird but I can see good points in both kirabook's approach to the topic and yours, depending on if one looks at the overall narrative from the possible setups given or more in terms of personal character arcs.

In the former, 0.2 can be interpreted as a deliberate setup for Aqua's eventual fall, be it because even her formidable defenses and resilience (which no one doubted here btw) got eroded to a point where she finally cracks or because a third party (The norts) gave her a final push to shatter the new resolve she had build up.
That Ansem the Wise also seems to be nowhere to be found is also a fact to be concerned about and an indicator that the scenes on the dark margin shown in the secret ending of DDD are not the most up date view we got on this theater of operations.
It is a devious but very effective tactic to break someone by repeatedly building up hope and then cruelly crush that hope shortly afterwards again. Repeat this process three or four times and the target will eventually succumb because the next provided hope spot (even if it is a genuine one) won't be taken for fear of the inevitable dashing of that hope the being has already experienced many times beforehand.

Both Ramsay Bolton of Game of Thrones and Morganna from .hack are very effective in deploying this tactic and while in Aqua's case there might not have been a conscious force following it the properties of the Realm of Darkness seem to work in a similar way.

So from this angle, I can entirely see where kirabooks argument comes from and that it makes in-universe sense to happen, also when considering that the original ending of 0.2 which was eventually scrapped did include Aqua breaking down according to Nomura.

Agreement, I am certainly more into it for the story elements than the gameplay side, so unlike i.e. Launchpad I don't give much about yet another interesting boss fight just for the sake of having it and prefer seeing a character getting agency, characterisation and interaction with other characters over that any day.
So in terms of the information we currently have I agree with the notion that it doesn't really looks well or advantageous for Aqua as a character since unless they play "Dark" Aqua as a rogue element who goes to extreme lengths to save Terra and Ven (like i.e. her getting sick of waiting for that lackluster mouse to finally show up and deciding to polish Xehanort's bald dome with his own weapons and if necessary rip Ventus out of Sora etc.) or something similar that explores her own issues it will indeed be just a rehash of what we've already seen x-times in this series with "possession by the main bad guy".

That comparison with KH 1-Riku certainly has quite some convincing similarity.
I guess that means the Team Data-Riku and Team Riku Replica contest can be dusted off and re-introduced, lol.

"Just" Riku is probably the wrong way to describe it, more like "which" or "what" Riku in this case.

We haven't seen neither of those three nor Terra or Ven yet anyways.

I'm gunning for Data-Riku with those Bug Blox and all.

Also, this will mean that we saw him 6 years ago and nobody except me recognized him as a 'nort.

didn't we have the whole Data Riku/Replica Riku banner six year ago?

Oh I’ve been saying for ages that this Riku from DDD is one of the vessels, but others insisted it was part of a dream. However, I’m not 100% sure it is Data Riku, particularly since he’s just a manifestation of the journal and Riku describes this guy as the dark side of himself. But I also don’t think it is Riku Replica. Some of Nomura’s recent comments have made it seem like the Riku on the beach is supposed to be Riku Replica, but he may be an illusion and might not be the “other Riku” that has been teased. So I think this new “other Riku” will be a manifestation of Riku’s dark side, whether a time traveled Riku-Ansem or something else. Personally, I found it curious that they focused and ended Riku’s story so far video on the moment he turned into Ansem to stop Roxas. Perhaps, something was created at this point without him knowing.

I have always loved KH mostly for the story. The gameplay is fun, but I'm no expert. I can't beat the secret bosses. I'm not out to get trophies or fight 'cool bosses' or anything. We can agree to disagree whether this is good or not for Aqua's character, but I find this turn not only predictable and reasonable. but fascinating.

One moment you say you're just following the themes of the series and use it to explain why Aqua shouldn't fall to darkness. I bring up patterns, themes, and other characters who've been through similar situations and how it makes sense for her to end up like this, but it's suddenly unoriginal, repetitive, and bad writing? :confused:

The norting thing I'm 50/50 on. That was the only surprise for me really. I want her NOT to be norted because of all the extra stuff that goes along with that, but time will tell. But I see the norting and the darkness as two separate things here.

Aqua is not like everyone else (Riku, Sora, Terra, Xehanort, etc etc). Yeah, they've gotten a lick of darkness here and there, but Aqua is neck deep in it. I've always been interested in how the dark realm works and how it affects people. We know you endlessly fight heartless (BbS Secret Episode). We know it can eat at your memories (Ansem the Wise). We saw a few more pureblood heartless and the veiny organic theme continues throughout which I find curious. We know it sucks overall, but that's about it.

But through Aqua's journey in 0.2, we see more than ever. The darkness distorts the worlds and breaks them down. It almost freezes the worlds in time at the exact moment it fell into darkness (same for people too if Aqua is any indication). The darkness can mimic you, and not only in a dark shadowy form like we've seen heartless shaped Sora or heartless shaped Roxas or whatever. It can literally mimic your appearance, your abilities, and even your own thoughts and feelings use it to try and drag you down further. Phantom Aqua, though we may never see it again, was pretty awesome lore and story wise. (I wouldn't dare to try and fight Zodiac Aqua).

One of the most interesting theories I've seen lately is Aqua is becoming just like those Darklings/Black Costumes we saw in UX. As you can tell by my signature, I actually like those things because of what they might be. Fallen Keyblade wielders who technically haven't been classified as heartless yet, have they? (within the game I mean, I don't really remember) I'm more interested in this possibility (the darkness literally sticking to her like a disease and crawling up her skin) than her being norted.

What really happens to someone like Aqua when they're trapped down there? People like Ansem eventually fade away and lose themselves (and pretty quickly too compared to Aqua). If a princess of heart were thrown down there, maybe nothing would affect them (or hey, maybe it COULD, but the themes don't support that idea). But a formidable person like Aqua... well, if she's becoming one of those darkling things and is completely independent of Xehanort's schemes (because it'd have nothing to do with him), ooof, I think that's interesting.

But I suppose it's just personal preference. I don't see this as a duplicate of any one else's story even if the themes are similar.

It's not hard to believe that can be him, I was not doubting that until I saw the bug bloxes.

Alrighty, I got a better look at the piece in the top left corner and the closet thing I could find that resembles it is Xigbar's old crossbows. So either this is Xigbar's piece or his Braig self is also trolling about.

Doesn't surprise me since there was that other Riku in DDD. Now we just need to know which Riku it is. lol

Dear Lord, Jesse hasn't been asked to dub Roxas/Ventus yet

https://twitter.com/SingingInJersey/status/1040042514672181248

Yeah I think that is Xigbar/Braig.

Am I the only one who will find it off putting if they show his face but don’t provide any story context to what iteration he is? They’ve already done that once with Riku on the beach and the speculation of what version this is isn’t that fun or interesting. Just feels like a repeat of Team Data Riku/Riku Replica from 2011. Only worse since it could be both. I’d rather know who the character is and then be able to speculate what actions they’re going to take and how they’ll impact the story.



We’re actually discussing that in the voice actor thread if you want to join!

If it's Data Riku then that technically means it's not Riku. Jiminy's Journal only took the form of Riku to personify itself.

Yeah this is why I don’t think Data Riku would qualify as the “other me” since it really isn’t him at all.

Not that I asked for a rebuttal to my hypothetical, but you're forgetting that as of this last trailer (and for that matter, something we've been shown all along) Aqua no longer has the Master's Defender

Do you think she lost it when Destiny Islands was restored? I saw a theory somewhere that because she wasn’t holding onto it at the end of 0.2, it probably went back to the RoL like the other objects on the island.

And that matters how exactly?
When Eraqus told Aqua about the "trick" of Land of Departure he only spoke of herself as being the key to solve its riddles and access the chamber.

The Master Defender is only required to transform the world from one state to another and Xehanort has no interest in this part. The chamber Ventus' body is kept in can be accessed without having to transform the world back and Aqua knows how to exactly do that.

I don't remember it being said that for accessing the room the Master Keeper is also needed.

Data Riku over Xion and Roxas. San Fransokyo looks to be the biggesg disappointment.

It's not, but since the Key is what caused the castle to change we don't know if Aqua is the only one who can access the chamber because she's the one who changed it, or because she's the one who holds the Key. Personally, I suspect the latter since I don't think Aqua has a schematic on the Castle, nor do I think the doors would come flying open to her return as a Darkness if the entire point of the castle was to keep the balance between light and dark.


I don't see the point in wanting your favorite characters to become vessels, especially when we know they're coming back anyway.

San Fransokyo for me is meh... It looks great and beautiful but I have never watched the movie so for me is just another world and it's an ok world so far lol

I really hope princess and the frog is a world and maybe the next world

That's a fair point, I concede. I was making my point also from one of Nomura's answers (I don't remember if it was in the BBS or Days Ultimania) where he said that without Aqua no one can reach Ventus.
Now if the Master Keeper is indeed also a key to access Ven and Sora gets it, there is a stalemate for both sides as each would have one half of the Key to Ventus' location.


True, and Big Hero 6 is a world that has lots to do with technology so having a Coded-tie in there is actually a pretty natural decision.

Xion is a puppet and works great as an endgame Seeker and pulls at heartstrings. Xion as a Seeker would mean she'd get a boss fight and a variety of interactions with other characters. Now she'll likely get 2 scenes after being brought back, like Eraqus will likely get.

How is it dissapointing when you don't know the context of the characters integration?

Dissapointing is Hayden not returning to voice Kairi, this is just unexpected if anything. But like Sephiroth said, it's thematically fitting.

Anyone think the Verum Rex game could be another FFXV reference like Yozora? It (word-by-word) translates to “true king,” which is a term frequently attributed to Noctis.

yeaah you did see the square enix logo on the poster?

Yep! That’s why I was thinking it could be more likely to be an intentional reference.

Lemme grub a screesnot in case peeps can't cheek the vidya.

And the flurry of swords is probably in reference to Noctis' Armiger.





....Also what the diddly is Blinx doing here?

I'm loving San Fransokyo! It looks incredible. I can't wait to see what the next trailer has in store.

I knew that cat thing looked familiar, but I’d never actually played that game! What a random cameo. Lol

I mean you could watch the movie lol, though I assume you have considered that. I think its amazing, but I feel that way about all the Disney Animation "Revival era" movies. And most of the Pixar ones as well lol.

There's an obvious difference between paying homage to the central themes and conceits of a work and rehashing the same premises and conflicts with some ornamental variations in context or character.


I completely agree with you that what we saw of the Dark Realm in 0.2 was mostly great, across the board. It generally felt like a proper expansion of the lore and mythos already surrounding it within the series, the only caveat to that being that while it kept in line with the understanding of darkness which has been reached through characters like Riku in an objective sense, it was all funneled through the perspective of a character who wasn't positioned to make proper sense of what was happening to and around her. That was dramatically gratifying but might have inadvertently perpetuated the mistaken construct of "darkness" as "evil" (because the series regularly associates it with bad things), and showcasing Aqua's corruption by darkness only contributes to that failure to clearly delineate.


My problem with this is that they're not doing anything inventive with her characterization, and yet this is being framed as a character moment for her. She's obviously going to be an antagonist of some sort who needs to be saved from the darkness, who's holding a grudge against someone for something-- that's a dime a dozen in this series, hell in this game alone we're likely to have several protagonists in the exact same situation. We can split hairs about what drove her to the darkness, sure, but if the end result is another assembly line possessed/corrupted boss fight with impermanent bad-guy affliction, it's a wasted opportunity to present the darkness as something different and Aqua as someone different in relation to it. KH3 would be the perfect time to take this road less traveled.

I too am really interested in knowing what happens to a person with a strong heart of light who has remained in the RoD for an extended period of time. The thing is, we've already seen somebody who used the darkness to escape and carry out a plot for revenge/his own agenda. His name was Ansem the Wise, we got that plot line like a decade ago. (Yes, I know he wasn't there as long as she was, but I'm going to call that an arbitrary distinction here because again, what we're getting from her based on what we've seen is not notably different. He even masked his appearance using the darkness and got some new clothes.)

I'd actually argue that making her a "Darkling" or whatever diminishes the potential for this to be a character moment-- seems to me it's just another hackneyed attempt to dredge up some superfluous lore from the mobile game I reject with my whole soul at the expense of a character with awesome potential. What is effectively the difference between a Darkling and Heartless? My guess is, very little, but slap a fresh layer of paint over common terminology and I guess anything is recyclable.

edit:
Xion already had a boss fight in the series, we can always go back and play Days for that. I'd rather see KH3 honor her defiant commitment to be the master of her own fate, and to seek a balanced relationship with a universe that she knows is bigger than herself, but which she is still a part of. That would be emotional for me, not retrofitting her back into being a puppet and servant to the will of others whom we can smack around with a Keyblade for twenty minutes.

"No, it was my choice to go away now," really loses a lot of its tenor when that character is resurrected just to be placed in the exact same situation she was before she made that difficult decision.

Also I don't see why everyone in this series has to be punished for their acts of self-sacrifice except Sora and Riku, and I guess Goofy. Like it's sooo unhealthy for Aqua to repeatedly put herself at risk for others, meanwhile it takes a bucket of Xehanorts being thrown at Sora to even put a dent in his existential fortitude after like years of constantly putting everyone ahead of himself. It's just a very unbalanced message.

Anyone else think we should fight one of these guys as a secret boss on the San Fransokyo bridge?

Yes! If it's not in the game already, I hope it gets in as a DLC.

I need this. I want this. I GOT TO HAVE THIS.

I have always wanted Gilgamesh as a Secret Boss, fighting him on a bridge makes it even better.

Xion already had a boss fight in a game that wasn't even remastered so let's have another Riku clone boss fight? 😂Xion being a Seeker doesn't ruin her character development anymore than Aqua being a Seeker ruins her's.

Because being evil ruins character development

Willow from Buffy
Wesley from Angel


And many characters who ended up on the wrong side for a arc would like to take you up on that

I just realized it makes sense!!! KH3 will be on the XBox One and Blinx is XBox's failed mascot. They're having him a success in the Toy Story world and gosh darn it that's sweet.


Pleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleasepleeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaase!!!

I don't think there's much of a difference at all. If you believe, it will happen. Everyone is connected and somehow, someway, you'll be able to do the impossible. Even the theme remains the same in Aqua's case. She's the light in the darkness and will somehow make it through even the toughest trials, whether it's a powerful boss heartless like Red Eyes or whatever his dumb official name was, or fighting within herself to overcome what she perceives as flaws about herself.

The core disagreement here still seems to be you think she's already been through that development and accepted that while I don't think she has. We can criticize the story overall all day for keeping information from characters for seemingly no reason (we have no earthly idea if they've decided to tell Sora everything like the basics of who Terra, Aqua, and Ven are so that he isn't surprised when he sees them. But since he doesn't even know Vanitas... well it's pretty clear they didn't), but the truth of the matter is Aqua doesn't understand that darkness isn't evil. That's not her fault. Her master told her that. Xehanort who prides himself on using darkness took out her best friends with it.

As a player, we know the darkness can be good because we've seen Riku's journey. She hasn't. She knows nothing about it. Maybe Ansem the Wise can tell her, I don't know. She hasn't met anyone other than Terra (and Ven I guess) who was inflicted with darkness and wasn't a bad person. Both of them are down and out. No one and nothing has presented her with a chance to truly think, "Oh wait, maybe darkness doesn't always lead to tragedy." yet.

My point is, with someone like Aqua, someone who believes darkness has essentially destroyed her life... right now she's in a shark den (the Dark Realm) with hungry sharks (the darkness). I know that sharks aren't the evil creatures they portray in Jaws that will attack anything with a pulse just because. But what about Aqua who believes every time a shark gets close to her it's trying to attack her, so she antagonizes it?

If you create the struggle (believe darkness is bad no matter what, resisting it to a point where the pressure becomes overwhelming), it will struggle and do harm. Of course we've all seen other characters believe darkness is bad and eventually come to the conclusion that it's not, but they haven't been swimming in a shark tank.

Sure, you'd like her development to be at the 200 mark, but Nomura hasn't advanced it past 150.



I kind of already stated this above, but Aqua and Riku have lived out different experiences. No one has been in Aqua's situation. Unlike Aqua, Riku has the advantage of being in the light realm. While darkness was infecting him, he was still surrounded by light. It was a matter of taking control of his situation, realizing that little piece of darkness he had isn't inherently evil, and balancing things out. It's the exactly opposite for Aqua. Aqua IS the light and she's surrounded by what she believes is evil. The only person who can help her see the darkness differently is Ansem the Wise who has been through it all, but he doesn't even have all his memory so who knows what knowledge he could've imparted on her other than Sora's name.



I still don't believe Aqua's 'grudge' will be a typical grudge. I don't think she's particularly out to get them and at the end of the day, she might not actually care about them. Even corrupted as she is, Aqua's goal might still be the same. Maybe while she's like this, somewhere the light within her still drives her to fox what's been broken (Ven and Terra). The only person I can really see Aqua 'going after' (not sure if antagonistically or just stalky and possibly confused since they look alike) is Sora who seems to not only has Master Keeper, but also Ven's heart.

Terra dabbled in darkness because of a lust for power and strength and later a bit of jealousy. Riku dabbled in darkness first because he was desperate to leave their world and then later out of jealousy. Ansem dabbled in darkness because he was betrayed by his students and wanted revenge and 'justice'. Aqua has never purposely dabbled and darkness, she's not jealous, she's not really out for revenge, she wants more than anything to be with her friends and somehow feels like it's her fault they aren't together. I'm basically talking in circles but... Aqua's situation just seems different to me. Completely personal and internalized. Even when she might trash talk someone else in the current state she's in, she probably still somehow it implies it's her fault they're against her in the first place.

The reason why I'm on the fence about her being norted is because it makes this possibility less likely AND it makes no sense why she's still just chilling in the dark realm. Surely she'd be out doing whatever the old man is scheming? I see a lot of story value in Aqua just having fallen to darkness and not being associated with Xehanort. So far, everyone who has 'fallen to darkness' is associated with Xehanort, but I'm trying to present a road where Xehanort is not the cause or reason (cue, being a Darkling/Black Costume)



I'm not interested in a story where Aqua willingly accepts darkness or Xehanort just because she wants to get out of the dark realm. That just isn't her to me, she hates Xehanort. I find it more likely she was defeated by no one but herself. If Xehanort is involved, he only swooped in when she was already down and out like the scumbag he is. He already tried to trick her once so far.

I just cannot see Aqua shaking hands with darkness and accepting it. I can't envision her trying to play double agent or anything. Maybe it'll happen, but I can't see it. The only person we haven't seen purposely using the darkness to gain an advantage is Sora which is why I think Aqua situation would be more similar to his. Not the same, similar. (being force fed a darkness sandwich)



I've pretty much given up on the mobile game except some of it's core ideas. Keyblade wielders who have fallen turn into those things. They never stated if there is a difference between a Darkling and Heartless. There probably isn't a difference at all other than it's a purebred heartless rather than an emblem. These Darklings could be the very first heartless to truly exist, that's my belief. All the heartless you fight in KHUX are fake illusions except for the Darklings if I recall correctly. Those things can even speak.

I mean, all those purebred heartless were human/normal once, weren't they? And we know killing them, even with the keyblade, doesn't release their hearts, right? I'm just too curious to know if this is the true method of making a purebred heartless, a being covered in and distorted with darkness. It's not really NECCESSARY to know what makes a pureblood heartless compared to an emblem one, but if Aqua is showing the signs of the natural progression of becoming a pureblood heartless and that's how it's always been, then I'm for seeing it play out. If that is the way the universe works, Aqua shouldn't be an exception no matter how much we like her and we don't yet know how this will turn out for her characterization or her future.

Not going to re-litigate this, just going to clarify: 0.2 brings her to a place where she believes in (finally accepts) her own ability to endure as the steady light within the darkness. It does this by putting her in connection with her darkness: by getting her to see it as a part of herself rather than externalizing all of her fears. She doesn't need to believe that the darkness is "good" in order to accept either of those things. The "I am Master Aqua" monologue is delivered via her internal voice, which was utilized throughout the game in specific scenes in order to convey a definitive sense of her state of mind: just as it portrays her defeatist streak in the early goings, it signifies a concrete shift in her perspective at the end of the game. That was by design. We're supposed to get a full sense of her conviction in that moment-- that it's unbreakable and unwavering. This insistence that she made no progress in 0.2 isn't borne out by the material.

But, to borrow your metric, keeping her at 150 is fine for the purposes of my argument. She sees the darkness as a force of nature, which means it can be countered and managed: she knows this because she and Mickey literally do that together in the game and it works. That's not something she would just forget or dismiss. It's not something the darkness can take away from her. It's knowledge, and as the saying goes, knowledge is power.


Again, you're identifying variations in context without clarifying how that alters the outcome. I don't disagree that Aqua is uniquely positioned in the RoD, but that they're wasting the uniqueness of her position on a story line we've seen play out before. Not the literal exact same thing, but that this is a facsimile of better-told or established arcs in previous games feels not especially debatable to me. They could have gone somewhere new with it: heck, they could have kept her as just a shadowy shell whispering to Mickey and Riku who appears to be wasting away into nothing and that might convey what you're talking about. But they made her a Seeker or someone who looks exactly like one, with a dark suit like Riku or Vanitas, and coordinated all that with a typical snarky "mean" personality. First impression: if it looks like a typical bad guy and walks like a typical bad guy...


What exactly is an atypical grudge? She stayed in the RoD to ambush Mickey and make him feel bad about leaving her down there when she could have gone and looked for Ven or tried to get the Master Keeper back if she needs it or assassinated Xehanort or any number of things. Regardless of why she did that, sure seems to play out like your average just-turned-to-the-darkside temper tantrum.


I agree with you that it would be preferable for her darkness to not have direct ties to Xehanort, but at the end of the day, it's still Xehanort's actions which caused it to happen, and I find it unlikely that knowing she's in the RoD he wouldn't have prepared for this eventuality. Ultimately, she's still playing his game one way or the other, and I just don't find that interesting. A Keyblade wielder of Aqua's caliber should be leading the charge against him, not stuck as a perpetual victim of his schemes.


A fictional universe works however the author wants it to: Nomura makes intentional choices about how he's going to introduce ideas into the canon, it doesn't just happen. I don't think trying to link Aqua's experience in the RoD (which I don't believe was even around during the Ux era? I'm fuzzy on the mythology here) to some spurious plot device is to the benefit of her character or the narrative at large. If this is what Nomura's trying to do here, I appreciate it even less.