Some Things I Need To Remind Myself Daily Tbh

Farmers pick marigolds in Minzu village, Weining County in Guizhou, China on August 2, 2015. (Yang Wenbin/Xinhua)

OhOHoHOHO - Its d o n e!!! This was such a big drawing sdfgjsk

This clock points to the numbers 2 and 7.

I’m-

Dark Forest by James Mills jamesmillsphotography.com

Oathkeeper, Oblivion and Keychains

A while ago I answered a question about Roxas’ Oathkeeper and Oblivion, but after the ReMIND trailer released, which showed Sora using Oathkeeper… I started to suspect something about the Keychains we see on Keyblades, and how Roxas can still wield Oathkeeper and Oblivion.

My current theory is, Keychains are physical manifestations of memories associated with a certain world or a certain person. A Keyblade is practically an extension of the heart, and within the heart are memories; the heart and memory being intimately linked with the Keyblade and its Keychain isn’t that far-fetched when you think about it. Keyblades change form and abilities depending on what Keychain is equipped, though we never see Sora being handed a Keychain or exchanging them out himself. Kingdom Hearts III introduced the mechanic of switching Keyblades, which…we know to be able to wield multiple, you’d need to have multiple hearts within you. And yes, during the majority of the game Sora does contain three other hearts — Roxas, Xion and Ventus — meaning he could probably wield up to four Keyblades at once, but we never even see him dual wield a single time in Kingdom Hearts III.

When switching between Keyblades, Sora’s actually calling out to his memories associated with a specific world and it manifests into a different token on his Keychain (and in turn, that alters the appearance and abilities of the Keyblade). That’s why in Kingdom Hearts II, when Sora wakes up, he’s left with nothing but Kairi’s charm. Because her charm is a physical item. During Chain of Memories, he lost memories to gain memories, and gained memories to lose memories. His head was constantly altered and played with; he forgot about the friends he had made and the worlds he had visited. The Keychains were changed into cards for him to use, because — like Marluxia said at the beginning — he, Donald and Goofy forgot every spell and every ability they ever learned. And later down the line, they started forgetting people and places too.

So, why am I bringing this up? Because I think I know what Roxas’ Oathkeeper and Oblivion are and how he can wield them at the same time Sora can.

As Sora’s Nobody, Roxas can wield the Kingdom Key, and as Sora’s replica, Xion can also wield the Kingdom Key. After Xion’s destruction, Ventus’s heart “awakened” within Roxas and provided him the ability to dual wield, with his second Kingdom Key being Xion’s. But, they end up transforming; one becomes Oathkeeper and the other becomes Oblivion, which is strange considering Sora — at this point in time — still has Kairi’s charm with him in the pod.

What I suspect happened is, when Roxas’ Keyblade transformed into Oathkeeper based on his promise to Xion, the token manifested as Kairi’s charm, because in his memories (and Sora’s memories) that was the only symbol of a promise that he knew of. Xion’s Keyblade, Roxas’ second Keyblade, transformed into Oblivion due to Roxas being the one responsible for her destruction. The token manifested as…Riku’s charm? The black crown. It’s origin has yet to be explained.

If Oblivion is the other half of Oathkeeper, but also it’s opposite (light and dark)…it can be seen as “Oathbreaker.” A symbol of a promise that has been broken, forgotten — a “passing memory” of a promise. Of what promise?

The mind may forget, but the heart will forever remember — it has been etched. Memories that have been repressed or forgotten, the heart still remembers. It’s possible that Xion’s death stirred some of Sora’s repressed memories within Roxas, something that this newfound pain could relate to, which caused the Keychain on Xion’s Kingdom Key to take the form of the black crown token. And that in turn transformed it into Oblivion.

“My treasured best friend that I destroyed with this hand of mine.”

Roxas’ Oathkeeper and Oblivion cannot be wielded separately. They’re a duo. I assume that if he were to only have one of the Keyblades in the set, it would take the form of the Kingdom Key, his default Keychain (just like Sora). This means his Oathkeeper and Oblivion are separate from Sora’s, as Sora’s are both connected to physical items (Kairi’s charm and Riku’s charm).

With all that said…how do you suppose Oblivion’s token, the black crown, ended back up in Riku’s hands by the end of Kingdom Hearts II? He must’ve gotten it from someone…after a certain treasured friend was put to sleep, something to remember him by in case things were to go awry, causing Riku to forget? Reuniting with Riku in The World That Never Was rewarded you with Oblivion… Seems like Riku’s been carrying that around for a while… 👀

Aqua’s experience in A Fragmentary Passage and subsequent Norting changed the entire way I look at Light and Darkness in the Kingdom Hearts series.

Up until now, the light/darkness dichotomy was only ever something I interpreted as being a plot-specific force within the narrative. Sure, we had characters verbally telling us that darkness is related to negative emotions, light is related to friendship and positivity, etc. but beyond characters getting powered up for battle after verbally making those connections (“My friends are my power,” basically anything that comes out of Ansem SOD’s mouth), we don’t really get a chance to see what that means.

A Fragmentary Passage connected the emotions to the forces in a much more obvious way, for me at least. I’ll never forget playing the mirror level that has Aqua’s inner monologue going the whole time and realizing that, holy shit, this game is about depression! And then we see the E3 trailer from this year. For her to get Norted, we know she had to succumb to The Darkness, and because we have her experience in AFP as a background, we know how she got to that point and exactly what she was feeling when it happened. (Yes, AFP ended on a more hopeful note, but … I still think this is probably what happened).

I’m playing through all the main games again, and suddenly, the rest of the series has a LOT more context. The Xehanort/Eraqus arguments get a lot more nuance. Honestly, I think Xehanort has a little bit of a point? Light and Darkness (ie: positive emotions and negative emotions) existing in a balance seems WAY healthier than just trying to have ALL POSITIVE EMOTIONS ALL THE TIME. This could apply to “The closer you get to the light, the greater your shadow becomes.” The more you try to push down or hide your negative emotions in an attempt to remain positive 24/7, the more that negativity festers beneath the surface and can explode out of you. Maybe this is what happened with Terra. Dealing with the Darkness is something that has plagued him since he was a kid, but because light-obsessed Eraqus basically raised him, he had to repress negativity until it sorta just exploded in BBS. (As someone with mental health problems who grew up in a family that didn’t talk about problems or emotions and just pretended everything was fine all the time… my most recent BBS playthrough hit me kind of hard.) Along these same lines “hearts of pure light” don’t seem totally healthy either? Maybe it’s different for Princesses of Heart, because they’re Naturally Occurring, but it makes total sense why my boy Ven was so fragile after Vanitas got ripped out of him. In any case I am REALLY SCARED for Sora. I know he was close to getting Norted in DDD, but if he just tries to stay positive all the time because so many people are counting on him my boy is going to BREAK.

Now, when I see the darkness cloud animation emanating off a character, I have context for what that means and what that feels like. When Terra uses his dark command styles, I used to think “well yeah, he’s mad” but know I get that he’s pissed. When a Nort uses dark attacks, I get that he’s channeling his greed, his feelings of superiority. When Sora goes into Anti-form, I get that this is his moment of release, where he physically can’t be his happy-go-lucky self. The black cloaks, which protect people when travelling in corridors of darkness, have the power to shield people from negative emotions. Does turning into a heartless feel like being overwhelmed with hopelessness and dread?

This also makes Riku’s arc way more interesting to me! His “road to dawn” becomes a road to recovery!! Instead of pushing down his negativity, he lives with it! He uses it to his advantage without letting it overtake him!!! He doesn’t pretend to be sunshine and rainbows, and his friends still love him!!!!

I don’t really have a conclusion to this. I’m just really glad that they did what they did with A Fragmentary Passage.

Bueno, empecemos con esto, juro que algún día publicare mi propio contenido, mientras tanto, me maravillare con todo lo que este sitio puede ofrecerme. 

Shifting Shadows pt7

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