Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

I don't trust him, not one bit.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Keep a water pokemon nearby just in case.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

That's definitely Ienzo to me. Zexion's power was illusions with the Lexicon, plus, it can give further context as to why Xigbar was talking about the Keyblade War to Zexion.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

The guy actually gives me Braig/Xigbar vibes. Because of the whole cowboy set up and "bulls-eye" that's related to that.

Vibes aside, a connection to Ienzo could be plausible I guess. He is one of my favorite Members so making him more important would be cool. But honestly, I'd rather have this guy being his own person. Not some weird convoluted connection to the future and past.

Also what's with all the Pokemon? We're talking about the Darkrai user..?

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

He seems to be from Bloodborne, luln
Nice to see a Paleblood Hunter as a Union Leader.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Yeah he has that Ienzo vibe kinda. Hmm.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Pffftz, wat?
Blaine?

Somewhat unusual design I'd say, although that hat with the feather is certainly stylish.
Is that the lovechild of Sho Minamimoto and Ardyn Izunia?

Also, that book Ava gave Ephemer...is it just a list with the five names or the BoP?

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Lmao thought I was the only one who saw him as Ardyn (if it made any sense) because of that hat hahaha

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Okay, I'm having a Captain America moment here. Who in the Realm of Darkness is this Ardyn character? I am seriously missing something.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

The dialogue implies she's written a set of laws inside the notebook. Blaine has a copy as well, and I assume Skuld and Ven are the same.A character from FFXV​

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Yep, and the outfit also fits a little, yet also reminds me of Sho from TWEWY.



He's a character from Final Fantasy XV:




Oh dear, please no more of this "alliances are forbidden"-bullcrap and other idiotic stuff that only leads to yet another conflict.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Oh. Oh...OHHHH! That guy? If it's the one I'm thinking of from the trailers, I can see the resemblance now.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

so i went googling out of curiosity and found this site... Blaine | KH-Vids Wiki | Fandom powered by Wikia

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Hold on, what does Braig have to do with Cowboys?

Anyway, it wouldn't really be convoluted to have Ienzo originate from this timeline. All we know about him was that in Birth by Sleep, he lost both of his parents and was under the gaze of Ansem, the Wise and Even. There are means to "time-skip" such as The Realm of Darkness, transferring a heart to another body, and the Dream worlds. It's not really about why he's there as opposed to the execution of how he ended up in the present day timeline.



I dunno, the first Final Fantasy character that came into my mind once I seen Blaine was Irvine from Final Fantasy VIII



Though if anyone was to resemble Ardyn, I'd have thought that it would be Marluxia's somebody out of all characters.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

a boring-ass english name in my kingdom hearts?

it's more likely than you think

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

It's interesting to note that all of the "boring-ass" English names are usually associated with the Radiant Garden members of Organization XIII: Braig, Dilan, Aeleus, Ienzo, Lea and Isa. Just wanted to be captain obvious there.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

i'll give you dilan, (even, who you didnt mention) and lea,
but braig, aeleus, ienzo and isa are hardly boring-ass names in the manner i was speaking of (aka, extremely commonplace names).

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Duh, Braig's a gunslinger extraordinaire even if his "guns" are stylized crossbows and he has that western-like scarf.

Since when do we even have any sort of confirmation or even solid hint that Blaine has anything to do with Ienzo in the first place?
(And don't say "hairstyle" as with that we're again in the same situation as with the same poses in renders stuff we had some months ago)

Except the hat Irvine isn't really that similar to Blaine though, especially as when going by outfits as Irvine's outfit is primarily in bright colors.

Marluxia? Just because of the hair color or what? As otherwise I don't think that Marluxia resembles Ardyn all that much.

---

I also noticed with some amusement that Ventus does the "hands-behind-head"-gesture again which he also uses in BBS (and which is on occasion also used by Sora).

Furthermore I don't know if this is just a regular thing with the X-chi art style and if I'm seeing things that aren't there, but isn't there a very lot of blinking with the character's eyes, sometimes in rather fast repetition?
Especially Ephemer seems to sometimes blink more often than the other characters.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

I really don't care, but I expect some people would have a problem with a spoilery title like this.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

I personally doubt this guy is actually Ienzo, but at the same time, something about the idea of that emo squishy mage dressing up as a cowboy's got me rolling.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Oh? come to think about it, you do have a point there. I suppose I never paid that much attention simply due to the fact that he omitted a Cowboy hat to go with the rest of his attire (and the fact that Crossbows aren't really used by Sheriffs to begin with).



I will say hairstyle because that is a valid indicator in my book. Plus, why is his eyes covered by the shade? surely, if he was an original character unrelated to a pre-existing character, why not just show their face normally? It can be easily argued that I'm jumping the gun, but I feel as though that it's a valid comparison to make.

And speaking of Ventus, there's still nothing in the Union X scenes that denies the theory that he originated from the age of Fairytales. If he wasn't from that era, surely he'd let Ephemer and Skuld know, right?



I compare Blaine to Irvine because of the Cowboy motif, and Ardyn to Marluxia because of the hair colour, that's really about it really. Just my comparative observations.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Pretty much what Sephiroth said. Also 1 eye is shaded. Eyepatch. But that's just my weird brain linking things. You all see a link to Ienzo, I see a link to Braig.

O, I'm well aware of that. But that doesn't mean I necessarily like it.

You make a good point. Same happend when Chirithy was revealed to be Dream Eater in Chi. Alot of people in the Chi section didn't like that it was said in the title. Ever since the mods started updates like this with "Spoiler". I guess Sign forgot.

Well it was more a thing with the "bulls-eye" like I said. Crossbow guys and Cowboys always have this theme were they hit the mark either really fast or with some incredible trick shot.

There is nothing that confirms it either. So how about we hold on to our horses for now, eh? (Heh, cowboy pun)

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

We never did find out where Ienzo's illusionary powers come from. The others were simple forms of magic and weapons they used in their lifetime, Vexen and Axel's powers could also on some level be contributed to their personalities. but Ienzo's illusionary powers always stood out to me as a little bit weird/mysterious.

Anyway looking at him I definitely immediately thought it was Ienzo, I mean it's hilarious to imagine and also hurts my head so bad but part of me at this point feels we've already jumped the shark with Ventus being a dandelion soooooo why not make Ienzo one to. Give their meeting in RG a bit more meaning to it other than being a shallow nod to the 5 minutes Zexion and Roxas saw one another.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Eyes covered, holds a book, has Ienzo's hair.

Totally not suspicious.

Also, "Blaine"? Really? That's so...normal. XD I mean it's not like this series hasn't had normal names before, but it still amuses me.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

It was like 2am, y'all are gonna have to deal with it until someone bothers to throw up a spoiler warning.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Guys, guys I know who it is! Take some letters from Billy Zane and rearrange it and you get Blaine! It means that Billy will reprise the role he couldn't live without, Ansem SoD. Ansem leaves his body once again to go back in time and infiltrate the unions as one of the leaders. Disguised as the dark, silent hero, loner type he knows that these stereotypes will prevent the others from getting close to him. Giving 'Blaine' the perfect cover that no one will question! It's ingenious xD Mwahahahaha!

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

I hope I'm not alone in thinking of Noctis when Blaine first appeared.

I don't really get the Ienzo vibe. I mean, I guess the hair is kinda similar, but...
Come on. It's not him. Doesn't even act like him.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Actually this made me think of a good point. I mean check out how awful Ven’s hair is when they could’ve used something more accurate. I don’t think we can go by hair with ole Blaine.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

What's with everyone saying that it's a normal name? I've never heard of anyone named Blaine. Or Dilan... closest I've ever gotten to Lea was someone named Lee. Seriously, in my book it's a pretty cool name.

Eh, I don't mind. I always spoil myself anyway (which is kinda annoying actually...). But you're the mod, shouldn't you put up the spoiler warning... ?

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

echo we just meet him today so i not ruling anything out yet

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Your right, we just met him today. While we shouldn't rule anything out, we shouldn't jump the gun either.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Ven's hair is supposed to be his way to make him appear younger.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Whelp.. missed that spoiler lol

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

Well this "Chibi" (however you wanna call it) style makes everyone look younger. In that art piece made by Nomura I actually found his hair making him more mature.

Re: KH Union X: Blaine, the 4th Union Leader

This is kingdom hearts, unless your name is Riku (who Nomura has openly said he likes to use his hair to show the passage of time in the games) your hair only grows longer, spikier, and more ridiculous as you get older.

For those scratching their heads at the name Blaine, Blaine is Celtic for source of a river

Name Blaine - Meaning, origin etc. - Boy Names - Baby Name Blaine

in Norse mythology, Skuld sits at the base of a holy tree that resides over a well/spring/lake from which a lot of holy power comes
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Urðarbrunnr

vexen badge here I come, thanks for reminding me of the well ethyyy

Any unofficial translations floating around the net for these? I don't mean to ask anyone to rush, I'd just like to know :)

Iyeah I don't trust this guy. Seems shady.

Watch him be an original character. Though with Nomura making clones and connecting every character I don't "Blaine" you guys for thinking he might be Ienzo or Mr. As If.

Yeah, he's not Ienzo. I think that's just some wishful thinking - if Nomura makes him be Ienzo I'll formally apologize and make a "Tinny was Wrong" award.

Thanks for searching up what his name means, Dandelion! I was hoping that someone would:)

Tbh... There's a part of me that's kind of disappointed by Blaine? Mainly because this is another boy in a series that really didn't need anymore boys. Why couldn't the Dandelion leaders have been made up of more girls than boys Why?!

I also am sort of miffed by Nomura introducing so many new characters in Chi, who are probably going to have some sort of part to play in III--and by doing so will take time away from characters who actually deserve it.

I mean, on one hand I am thrilled to have more original characters, that seemingly have no connection to our main cast. But I just think Chi has enough characters already. We didn't need more. Especially since the new characters Nomura's introducing seem to get flatter and flatter. He should've made the Foretellers new, original characters (because as much as we all might want to pretend the Foretellers are unique, deep down I think we all know they won't be; their faces wouldn't be being hidden, otherwise), and probably have not done the "five new leaders" thing at all. It could've just been Ephemer, Skuld, and Ventus.

Though I get why he did it, of course, because each new person is supposed to represent the old Unions, probably, and be the new Union leaders for them. But I don't think it was necessary. The Dandelions still could have been doing quests for their Union--even if said Union and Union leader didn't exist, and had no representative anymore--because their memories were messed with. IDK.

Tbh, I think I woke up on the wrong side of the bed this morning (I've been having a really bad week). Yesterday, I was so excited about this update and now I'm irked by it. But I'm sure when time passes, I'll be completely on board with this. And there already is stuff I like about it. Like, seeing Ava and Blaine carrying a book (a simple thing that this series never does, even if one has one in their inventory?), heck yeah.

Blaine also really reminds me of Ardyn, and it makes me think of this post So, I got Kingdom Hearts II.8 yesterday, watched... someone talks about how all of Kingdom Hearts Chi feels like Nomura putting his XV stuff into here. And that we'll probably be able to tell which parts of XV he was responsible for, depending on what similar things from it end up in KHIII. LOL.

Also, poor Player is breaking my heart:(

Hmm, feels like a missed opportunity happened here, but whatevs. Blaine kind of reminds me of one of my OCs, ironically he's the fourth just like Blaine.

Yeah, I'd be lying if I said I wasn't disappointed we didn't have a new female. Admittedly this is because I adore Skuld and do not like Blaine at all, whether it be in name, design or attitude.

Still waiting on the 5th, so we'll see how that goes~

i think nomura will stick 2/3 for the leaders so it could match the forteller leaders

So... let's see if what I've been reading is correct:

[spoiler=4th union leader spoilers]So, the player continues to dream of the keyblade war, where we seemingly replay the battle against Aced and then relive the ending of the keyblade war. It's pretty clear now that this definitely happened, and Chirithy is simply forced to lie to us under instruction of Ephemer and the Union Leaders. Skuld, Ventus, and Ephemer seem to have hit it off, and are having some fun, when they are introduced to the fourth Union Leader, named Blaine. Blaine says that he was supposed to meet them at this place, and doesn't hit it off quite as well with everyone else. They certainly don't seem to dislike each other too much, but he does seem slightly shady. He tells Skuld that she reminds him of Master Ava, which is something she has heard before, and questions Ephemer as to whether he's their leader or not, to which he declines until the fifth leader arrives. He questions if they have to stick to the rules laid out in the book, and Ephemer, in a sudden spur of loyalty, repeats what Ava said word to word about the law being followed. Ephemer and Ava earlier had a talk, where Ephemer seemed extremely uncomfortable about having to be a leader of the Dandelions. She tells him that he must pull everyone together for the sake of keeping the light safe, and hands him a list of rules she has laid out for them, instructing him that the Dandelions must have no knowledge of the keyblade war after this time of tragedy. The last cutscene ends with a quote from Ava over the four Union Leaders, talking about how Ephemer was foolish in saving the player and made his job harder for himself.[/spoiler]

This certainly isn't perfect, but this is what I've taken from it so far from multiple translation videos.

Well, it's not like Blaine is too suspicious other than his hat covering his eyes. That's the only thing that makes him way to suspicious for me.

Otherwise, his dialogues pretty much indicate he's a punk-ish sort of guy. Kinda like how Demyx and Axel/Lea speak. In fact, that's what JPN fans initial impression was like from the official teaser pic in Twitter.

Almost but not too close at the last part. Rather than thinking of foolish of Ephemera for saving the player and made his job harder for himself, it's more like Ava wants Ephemera to think about the memories of the players. Would they really want to remember those traumatic events, especially at their last moments? Now that Ephemera saw what happened to the player, he more or less resolves not to let them remember the war at all.

Also, for the longer summary version:
[SPOILER=Summary]
We learn here that Ephemera doesn't really want to be a Union leader at all. He doesn't really believe in Ava's words that the world is heading for destruction, but you know, Ava just kinda forces him.

Back to present, Ventus has no idea why Ava chose him too. He works alone and is never in the upper part of the rankings. Ephemera hints that Ven is probably just an easy person to talk to*, to which Skuld interprets that Ephemera means any person could've been chosen. Of course Ephemera, quickly takes it back. Ven then says he's jealous of the two of them since they're friends, but Ephemera says he's part of them now too.

Blaine then comes in and introduces himself. After that, a repeat of part of browser X's final chapters happens in a form of a dream. The player wakes up a little bit puzzled. Chirithy then assures him that it's all fine, and helped him back to sleep.

We're taken back again to Ava and Ephemera's conversation. Ava gives him the rule book, but despite all of this talk of the world's destruction, Ephemera makes it clear that he still doesn't believe Ava's word. But whether he believes it or not, Ava wants Ephemera to listen to her plea. Ava wants Ephemera to bring the Dandelions to another world, where they will experience the same beginnings but not its destruction and will continue to live on. She also adds that she wants every Dandelion, save for the 5 new Union leaders, to be erased of anything that's related to the previous world's destruction. She said they don't need memories of tragedy at all in the new world. Ephemera attempts to argue that even if their memories will be erased, their hearts will not move on that easily. Ava says she expected that from Ephemera, but then counters that in the last moment, will he still be able to think of that? Ephemera then falls silent.

Back to the present, Blaine says that he never expected that someone, other than him, would be as 'slow'** pace as he is. He then asks if Ephemera is the leader of the 5. Of course, Ephemera says it's still undecided, and that they should wait for the last one to come in. Blaine then asks if the rules are absolute, to which Skuld replies that it is the rules after all. Blaine then comments that Skuld is such a serious kid, almost like Ava. Skuld says that's the 2nd time that she's heard of that. Ven agrees, but Ephemera teases that she doesn't since she lacks elegance compared to Ava. The 3 proceed to laugh.

However, Blaine questions one last time, is it okay to leave it like this? Even if they keep the secret of the world's destruction to the 5 of them, they'd still be lying to other kids. Ven agrees that he's also worried with that part. Ephemera and Skuld sort of rethinks again, especially Ephemera. He thinks back to Ava's words about being at their "last moments", and probably that moment with the player. He then resolves himself that everything should be kept a secret. That is the law, they should follow it, and he doesn't want them to remember the tragedy they experienced.

Blaine agrees with a roger that, and says he believes in Ephemera's decision, so does Ven and Skuld. Now they wait for the last member to come in.

-----

Also the green book that's given to them is like a rule/law book it seems, according to Blaine's dialogue, not the Book of Prophecies.

*or maybe he means Ava? That part wasn't specific to me. Ava also gets labeled by Ephemera as quite an easy person to talk too in previous chapters.
**He means 'my pace'. Sort of like you're taking your time.[/SPOILER]

So does that mean

[spoiler]Ava survived then? I mean how could she comment on Ephemera saving the player if that didn't happen until the war was over? Also nothing good comes from trying to erase history no matter how dark, it just makes people doomed to repeat it. Which is probably what the MoM is aiming for by not letting the Dandelions have the right to know about the war that occurred.[/spoiler]

I think "Blaine" could be a villian, maybe with ties to the darkness or someone sent to the past by Xehanort to kidnap Skuld, Ephemmera and Ven, but only got Ven...

Nope. She means erasing the memories of ALL the players, not just our avatar player. The exceptions are the new Union Leaders. She didn't really comment on how foolish saving our own Player is. What she said at the last part was to think about the players who will be experiencing the war, would they really want to remember the trauma when they experienced their last moments? It's more or less Ava's generalization on what's to come.

From what I understand, Ven doesn't understand why he was chosen since he doesn't know what kind of person Ava even was, and Ephemer says she was easy to talk to - Skuld interjects that everyone's easy to talk to when they're around Ephemer, at least that was what I've picked up. Ven's envious of Skuld and Ephemer being friends, since he's always found himself to be a loner.

Ah, it could be interpreted like that, especially the Ephemer-Skuld part. I think I mistranslated that. But for Ven, it's not like he didn't know what kind of person Ava was like, otherwise he wouldn't comment about Skuld and Ava being similar too. He did reason out that he's a loner and never in the upper rankings. He also didn't talk with Ava about why he's been chosen, and doesn't get how Ava chose him and her method of choosing. Of course, they will never know since it's MoM who actually chose them, not Ava.

About all that
[SPOILER] I'm still confused about why they are doing all of this, I mean, it's foolish to erase all the memories about the war and the fact that there was a war, those who forget are doomed to repeat past mistakes, and in this case it's not just that they deleted the war from the players memories, it's also the fact that they are organizing themselves like the foretellers (5 unions) and following orders mindlessly and without question almost anything, that didn't work out before, so I believe it's pretty dumb to re-do all that again, it'd be way better to know about the war, what caused it and what happened, that way it's less likely to repeat past mistakes.

I mean seriously, why is none of them thinking about all this, why are they following orders and not questioning them???
[/SPOILER]

I'm also going to say that I believe at least Ira survived the war, and went to live at daybreak town -3-

Hypothetically, let's pretend Blaine was somehow Braig. Then it would be cool if we find out Blaine betrays them and takes Ephemer's scarf, and that explains Braigs scarf :).

Or pretend Blaine is somehow Ienzo (I would love if Ienzo was connected somehow). The hair, and mysterious vibe he gives off, makes me feel Ienzo because to me Ienzo/Zexion was probably the most mysterious member of the Organization. His weapon was different, and he seemed oddly important with how they kept using his illusion abilities. The fact that his doorway was the only one destroyed in that one room in the Nobodies castle. At the end of BBS, little Ienzo looking suspiciously toward Braig, and Xehanort (why would he do that?). Also in Chain of Memories he was the only member who was able to "sense" things. Lexaeus would ask Zexion "what did you detect?" because only Zexion had the ability to do that apparently. There just always seemed to be something more important to this character despite how minor he was in the series, and I would LOVE it if he was somehow involved, but I won't hope for too much because I don't want to be disappointed. Also looking back at Ven's scene with Ienzo was very interesting... My only gripe with this whole idea is, how would Ienzo be even younger in BBS.

Well, while the former Union leaders were mostly young adults, they did love or trusted the Master too much that they never questioned much of his given tasks, aside from Aced. Also, I think they wouldn't doubt a person who claims to see far into the future, eh?

In contrast, the new ones are kids. Even much younger than the previous Union leaders. Coupled with a reluctant leader like Ephemera, Skuld who goes by the book like Ava, a 10 year old or even younger Ventus, Blaine, a mysterious guy who may or may not be a villain, and hundreds of players whose memories got erased, they're likely to make the same mistakes.

Although Ephemera and Blaine were almost on the right since they did question things, but they kinda just slid back to 'let's just follow the rules because rules' mindset. Ephemera has a kind reason for doing so, albeit it's still not exactly a good idea.

If Nomura can write it right, then the development here should mean that they should surpass what they're told to do, and do what is needed to be done. Unless, of course things won't get resolved and Nomura will make Sora help them do that in future games instead.

You know thinking about it, it would be super interesting if Blaine is actually like kid Braig. Maybe Blaine escapes earlier than Ventus so Blaine grows up to the adult that is Braig in BBS. In fact that would actually give a reason that a hateful look from a kid he only knew for 15 seconds was burned into his mind if it turns out they were actually childhood friends. Maybe we could start to understand the deal as well like maybe Blaine later Braig wants the keyblade war to happen because he wants the dandelions to experience it instead of live in this weird perpetual state of no memory of everything. Or maybe he wants the second keyblade war to happen because that's the trigger to release the dandelions so he can reunite with his friends. I dunno just spitball but this is a lot of fun to speculate....course Blaine could and is probably just a new character.

I think we all know what will become of Blaine.

Very interesting theory and I really like it, but one thing pokes a hole in it. In BBS, Braig sided with Master Xehanort to gain the ability to wield a Keyblade, as part of their bargain. However, Braig never had one in his known past, nor has he gotten one up to this point. Blaine is a Dandelion, and therefore has a Keyblade already. Which means he can summon one. Unless Blaine/Braig somehow lost the ability to use the Keyblade between now and BBS, him wanting MX to give him the power to use one wouldn't make sense as technically he already could and would have little need to side with MX to get one. It's the only thing that keeps this theory from being solid, but it's a really good one regardless.

Couldn't the same be said for Ephemera? If this Blaine has the possibility of being a young Braig, then I think Ephemera has just as much chance of being young Braig too.

Guess its high noon..?

But Blaine seems rather odd, why is he wearing a hat to cover his face? I mean he is rather edgy...But the rule book, if they all have it, why does it exist? And as we all know the Master of Masters rigged this.

But I guess I was right about the Player suffering from PTSD, when the Player remembers (And they will) I wonder what is going to happen. They are probably going to derail from the Unions, take on a bunch of solo quests. And find the Union Leaders...Boss Fight with the Union Leaders anyone? But this time the Player actually wins?

But I wonder what made them qualified...

Ephemera is in the leader job, yet is really uncomfortable with it.

Skuld plays by the book, and doesn't question anything.

Ventus is rather young.

Blaine seems sorta edgy...


I wonder...Maybe its a twist to try to kill off the Dandelions after they served the role they where needed for? I mean, they already remade the worlds. And Luxu, a true Keyblade Master is more capable of carrying on the ways of the Keyblade.

I know Ephemera would question everything, and "try" to derail from it. But then that will cause panic among the Union Leaders...Well probably Blaine wouldn't be...And they will repeat history, or they could begin to distrust one another after finding out one has the Book of Prophecies.


...I don't know, something about this...


Side note: I found the whole ordeal surrounding the Player quite interesting. Not only is the memory erasing failing, but rescuing the Player seems to be a sort of mistake. Ephemera made it a lot harder on himself, but Ava also wanted the Player to join the Dandelions. I wonder if this will cause a widespread panic...

Ardyn Izunia in Kingdom Hearts? More likely than you think! Blaine sure has a suspicious vibe around him.

Ven's envious of Skuld and Ephemer being friends, since he's always found himself to be a loner.

I am new here but I am sure that part is also mistranslated, it is not like ven commented how ava looks like skuld . Rather, after he listened to blaine saying that skuld is like master ava he commented that "oh I see, Master ava is a person like skuld "

Exactly that's the point. Jumping the gun has already lead more than once for fandom to take what is essentially just a theory as confirmed fact. <__<



Which is strictly spoken somewhat ridiculous as a person's hairstyle can make him/her look both older or younger depending on who is making the observation.



I guess it would be marvelous if he indeed IS an original character, lol.
Nomura making clones and too many tight connections forged by "fate" rather than actions of the characters themselves is so often widely criticized in the KH community yet it seems every new character introduced has to be somehow tied to already existing characters.
It's almost like a compulsion.



Huh? Like...we just have seem him for only a few minutes yet?
There isn't really anything to judge yet about this character?
Or is it really just his sex which automatically gives him minus points...like really?

Probably because to maintain the parallelism and "Power Rangers"-vibe of two girls/three boys from the original Foretellers, meaning the 5th is very likely to be a girl.
Or should I rather say, the 5th should be a girl so Skuld isn't the odd one out and can also have a possible "best friend" scenario.

There's still hope that all this is also partly a setup for the next saga and the new exclusive characters from X[chi] actually only playing a minor role in KH III proper.


One thing I am definitely on board with is that I too think that this whole "maintaining the unions" and "having five new leaders" stuff is bullshit and unneccessary.
Worse, in-universe it is just begging for a repeat of the same mistakes already made in Browser-chi, what about the "great divergence" and upheaval of the story, Nomura?
Just swapping out the Animal-Mask-Power Rangers with some kids whose eyes we can see (except Blaine) is not really a "great divergence" at all.
Ephemer, Skuld and Ventus leading the Dandelions as a whole group which works together, without the useless unions and their competition, as a triumvirate joint leader group would make more sense as well as depart from the setup we know does not work.

They're completely overhauling the whole game app, even changed the name and introduced whole new gameplay mechanics, so I'd wager that if they wanted to they could have scrapped the whole "Union"-baggage and introduced something else reflecting the Dandelions being a united group while still somehow keeping the competitive ranking system among wielder parties as a gameplay option intact like i.e. the competitive part just applying in simulated missions or the coliseum.

Looking at it storywise it is somewhat iffy either way as the task of the Dandelions is, as far as I understood, to simply "keep the light alive", yet collecting Lux as Browser Chi showed us actually works more or less against that goal so one would have to wonder why the Keykids still do that?



Missed opportunity in which way?

The more I look at Blaine the more he actually reminds me of the Gunner-class from the Disgaea games.


Yea, like the Power Rangers it'll be two girls three guys, lol.
Going by that, the chances that the 5th is a girl are pretty high I'd say.



Yea, but Ven could have heard that via others, not necessarily from meeting Ava in person, although if he does have one of these "rulebooks" it can be inferred that he met her in person at least once.
As for the "why was I chosen"-question he didn't talk about with Ava, I wonder if the others actually brought forth that question?
Ephemer seems to be really highly unsettled with his new responsibility and his curious/investigative side seems to be toned down quite a notch due to this and he resolves to do "things by the book/the rules" because he's afraid to screw things up as a leader otherwise.




If anything it'll more a shoutout/expy-thing to Ardyn, like Nomura again stealthily putting in FF XV references in KH.
Watch the 5th being a look-a-like/expy of either Lunafreya or even Stella.

Heh, I'm so totally not surprised that Ventus is more the shy type, lol.
This is actually a nice contrast with Sora, as while they're both friendly and benign the one is more outgoing while the other is rather reserved.
The "more outgoing" Ventus we see in BBS is probably more thanks to both Aqua's and Terra's "education" and his forged connection with said Sora.

---

One thing I am right now really at a loss with is the whole "erasing memories of the war"-issue though.
Maybe I missed something in the story, but why is that even neccessary/possible in the first place?
According to what Ava said, the Dandelions were supposed to not even participate in the war at all and leave before it breaks fully out, so except the Player Avatar no one should actually have any memories of the war that can be suppressed/erased because they were not supposed to even see it in the first place.
Why do the five "leaders" have memories of the war when they were not supposed to be there at all?
Did they sit on some clouds or mountains in comfy chairs with jars of popcorn watching it all unfold (like Luxu) or what?
Am I the victim of a logical fallacy here or was there a story update I missed?

The "more outgoing" Ventus we see in BBS is probably more thanks to both Aqua's and Terra's "education" and his forged connection with said Sora.

This makes a ton of sense, this might have been very well what happened.

One thing I am right now really at a loss with is the whole "erasing memories of the war"-issue though. Maybe I missed something in the story, but why is that even neccessary/possible in the first place? According to what Ava said, the Dandelions were supposed to not even participate in the war at all and leave before it breaks fully out, so except the Player Avatar no one should actually have any memories of the war that can be suppressed/erased because they were not supposed to even see it in the first place. Why do the five "leaders" have memories of the war when they were not supposed to be there at all? Did they sit on some clouds or mountains in comfy chairs with jars of popcorn watching it all unfold (like Luxu) or what? Am I the victim of a logical fallacy here or was there a story update I missed?

Maybe it does not mean specially about the direct memories about what happened in the war, but the knowledge/memory itself that there was a war? They do not have to have seen it directly, but I think they live with the knowledge that there was this horrible event.

But I am one the same page with Hirokey here, that the idea of erasing history even thou how horrible it is does not sound like a good idea. Like, the memory of the horrors of the war are a good teacher to avoid past mistakes. Why they want to erase such memories? Doesn`t it make more likely to trigger yet another Keyblade war? Of course, even with these past experiences intact, humanity has shown how short their memory is when dealing with these things, just by looking at the how soon WWII happened after WWI.

It also goes somewhat well with Xehanort's assessment that Ventus is "too benign for his own good" as i.e. Ven not making the first move to befriend someone or enter an existing group in order to "not be a bother to anyone" would also fit in this category.

Certainly possible, although erasing even that is something beyond stupid that can't end well if seen through to the end.

Well, the reasons WW II happened so soon after WW I were less about how short humanity's memory is but how utterly wrong and shortsighted the aftermath of WW I was handled by the world's elite back then and there were warning voices that things were handled wrong, for example the French Field Marshal Ferdinand Foch said 1919: "This is not a peace. It is an armistice for twenty years".
And when did WW II break out? 1939, exactly 20 years later...<__<

Back to KH though, I do have a hunch as to why this whole "no memories of tragedy"-schtick might be a thing, although I admit it is a little stretching.
In the "original" time of Browser-Chi there is the Keyblade War at the end, total destruction, despair, sadness and pain everywhere. Everything negative, or said otherwise: Pure Darkness.
In the "Unchained" realm of Union Cross there is "supposed" to be an experience entirely without tragedy for all the Keykids involved according to the words of the MoM. Supposedly everything positive, or said otherwise: Pure Light.

So what if this is intentional to get the two "equal forces" in position that are required to intersect/clash to form a certain ultimate key.
This wouldn't be an 1 vs 1 nor an 7 vs 13, but many vs many.
Maybe this whole thing is a setup for the (chronologically) first attempt to forge (or re-forge if it already shattered at the end of the war) the X-blade?

Well, I'm pretty sure I didn't say looks. Rather, their similar demeanor or personality traits were being noted, not appearance. And I pretty much said, 'Ven agrees' to the similar personality traits between Ava and Skuld. Dandelion did kinda mentioned that Ven didn't know what kind of person Ava is. To be specific, Ven didn't mention that. I was kinda saying that he at least had a little bit of an idea what kind of person Ava is, whether hearing it from others or in the few meetings he had with her.

Anyway, the main idea of that conversation, including Blaine's comment, is to point out Skuld's personality being similar to Ava.

Also, for the erasing memory part, at least I see it as how hemmoheikkinen sees it. Yup, the knowledge of the war's existence is part of it too it seems. There wasn't really any specific Player being mentioned in any of the new Union Leaders conversations and Ava-Ephemera conversations at all, other than Ephemera's thought process on why the knowledge of the war should be kept hidden. He didn't mention our Player Avatar to be exact, but he thought of them too when asked if they should keep the lies up.

Kinda looks like Ardin from FFXV...

"Hands off the keyblade clown, its for the chosen master only"

And I am also not exactly talking about appearance either, ventus is not agreeing it , to be more precise he just realized that master ava is a person like skuld after blaine says that skuld is a serious type just like ava, he doesn;t know ava well enough to agree with blaine

Sure seems that way. After all, the two silhouettes of the last two leaders had a masculine and feminine design in Nomura's anniversary sketch.



Meaning I felt Nomura could've used this opportunity to connect more to the player, he could have chosen people from real life to be the last two leaders; one from jp and global. A real life Union of sorts. It's disappointing, but probably would have been more trouble on their end logically, as they're probably planning to make models for the leaders as well.



Lol. Connecting my two most favorite game series, nice. :3

I guess, if you guys say so, then I'm wrong with the translation then. The only reason why I thought Ven agreed was because there was no 「なるほど」or 「確か」, or any other indicator otherwise anyway.

The conversation went like this and how I read it:
ブレイン「スクルドは真面目な子なんだねぇ。まるでアヴァ様だ。」
スクルド「2人目、それ言ったの。」
グウラ「アヴァ様ってスクルドに似てるんだ！」
Blaine: You're really a serious kid, huh Skuld. Almost like Lady Ava.
Skuld: You're the 2nd person who said that.
Ven: Lady Ava and Skuld are similar!

I see it in this context as an agreement though. But if you guys mean Ven had just had a realization moment here, and not agreeing to Blaine, then so be it I guess. Any corrections are appreciated. :D

It's more of what was said before, because Ephemer saying that Lady Ava was really easy to talk to is in direct reference to what Ven says before about not really knowing her.

Are we sure it's Blaine and not Braig?

Certainly not Braig. I wonder if Blaine's name is actually spelled differently in English. Maybe Brein, Breyin, Brain, or something similar? I've seen a few Japanese fans in twitter who said his name might be a reference to the anatomical brain.

And who knows if Blaine and Braig are connected? I'm in for that theory though, it seems interesting.

As of now we're not sure of anything. Please keep in mind that almost everything in this thread is speculation.

First Braig was the Master of Masters, now Braig is Blaine. Maybe Blaine is the Master of Masters too!?!

So when are those English subtitles coming out?

Glad you asked, Everglow has uploaded an English playthrough.

[video=youtube;A-wkcbURpEM]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A-wkcbURpEM[/video]

What's interesting to note from this translation is that, Blaine doesn't come out as an "obvious" villain, rather, as someone who's genuinely questioning the new set of rules the new kids have to follow. I presume his whole mysterious attire is a "red-herring" plot device at best (just like Aced and his adamant attitude).

I'm starting to wonder if with Blaine we don't already have our second female leader.
If this was a standard anime, that's the character I'd call out as a girl pretending to be a boy.

[SPOILER]So based on this new release of information I've come up with two hypotheses:
1. The world we've been playing the majority of the Kingdom Hearts universe in is merely another hologram projected by the BoP as ordered by Ava and executed by the new five Union leaders. This would bring the first line from Kingdom Hearts to full-circle "I've been having these weird thoughts lately...Like, is any of this for real...or not?"
2. The Union leaders are going to put the Dandelions in this "hologram world" and leave the old world behind, but as it turns out we were playing in the old world, and one of our missions in the future is to bring the Dandelions back, restoring the wielder population and possibly bringing enough light into the world to restore it.[/SPOILER]

But then that begs the question, what purpose would Blaine get out of that? there's an equivalent amount of females and make Keyblade wielders.

I mean, what's the point though? This series has never really been fixated on gender, all of the issues of gender are brought up by the fanbase.

The point is the same as Blaine being Ienzo, Braig, the MoM, a FF gunslinger character or the traitor: who knows.
It's a completely new character and I'm just speculating on their looks.

About the "point" of a woman acting like a man... I don't think there's reason for that in anime as well, but they do that. It's a possibility.

That's because their main audience are horny teenagers.

Well, it's not like KH fans instead are old and wise philosophers who would never start vicious shipping wars or putting characters on pedestals based on their looks.
I understand it's unprecedented, but anime tropes are a thing in KH since at least CoM, this would just be a new one.
If is there in the first place.

I get that, I guess you have a point with his/her appearance there. Guess we'll see with the voice. Definitely think it's an original character, though. I don't see it being Ienzo, and I have no doubt in my mind that it's not Xigbar. It just isn't.

Me neither. I mean, I hope it's an original character.
(Male or female, in the end it's not like I care a lot about that)

@Sephiroth0812 The reason I was frustrated about Blaine, is because we have twenty-four original male characters in this series (so pretty much twenty-five, and close to thirty), and haven't even hit the double digits yet when it comes to the girls yet (though we are at nine, I'll admit, and Chi has taken big steps forward with that), and that's a problem.

And a lot of it comes from Nomura's obsession of having two guys-and-one-girl trios. And now it looks like we're going to have two groups of three-guys-and-two-girls (Also, Organization XIII).

Just... Nomura, my love, break tradition every once and awhile! Let the girls outnumber the guys in a group, just for once! It'll be refreshing, and stop the gap from getting even bigger than it already was.

Add all of this on top of the fact that the girls we do have don't nearly get the screentime we deserve--and this series almost solely focuses on guy friendships (with some guy-girl friendship stuff, and absolutely no girl-girl friendship stuff), and it's just annoying.

Though to be clear, I have warmed up to Blaine a lot. He seems quite interesting, and I'm interested to see where this goes. Especially if he is an original character. But I'll be down for it, even if he isn't.

But anyway...

[FONT="]"They're completely overhauling the whole game app, even changed the name and introduced whole new gameplay mechanics, so I'd wager that if they [/FONT]

wanted to they could have scrapped the whole "Union"-baggage and introduced something else reflecting the Dandelions being a united group while [I]still somehow keeping the competitive ranking system among wielder parties as a gameplay option intact like i.e. the competitive part just applying in simulated missions or the coliseum." - [/I]You are the Kingdom Hearts planner we deserve, Sephiroth. Seriously.

And man, I would kill for someone akin to Stella being the fifth member. Though some people are already theorizing that Skuld is the KH version of Stella, which I could somewhat see:)

...You know, I'm beginning to think that another Keyblade War will happen with the Dandelions, and the theory about there having been multiple ones--and the universe needing one every so often to keep itself in check--is correct.

That, or Sephiroth's idea, that the MoM is trying to create an equal amount of light and darkness to create the X-Blade--even if it doesn't turn into a war for the Dandelions.

Also, wasn't Braig mistranslated as "Bleig" in the original version of KHII, or something like that? Just some food for thought...

I wonder if the next story update is either the fifth leader, or the new Disney world? (I'm really hoping it's the latter, because at this point, I'm getting really impatient for this surprise that they announced way too early)!

Ummm... Hi, i'm new here.

The japanese text posted before confuse me a little bit
ブレイン this is Blaine (read Burein)
スクルド this is Skuld (Sukarudo)
グウラ but this one isn't Ven it reads Guura/Gula.

So I wonder if anyone notice it?

Really? well then, what's Ventus' name supposed to look like in Japanese?

According to the wiki, ヴェントゥス (Ventus) or ヴェン (Ven).

I thought qbaysan simply wrote the wrong speaker name for that line. The actual text in-game in that scene refers to Ven with the correct kana and text bubbles don't have speaker names written, so the inconsistency wasn't there...