For the KH3 Countdown Challenge.
Everyone always told Donald he had a short temper. And sure, it was true, sort of. He couldn’t help that he was more spirited than other folks! Besides, Goofy (and to a lesser extent Sora) were always around to keep him in check.
But today something had happened that had made Donald have to hold Goofy back for once.
The two of them stood there in the aftermath of it all, panting and dirty and banged up from the fight. Xehanort’s cronies were gone now, but the damage had been done. Sora faced away from them, and his shoulders were shaking and his head was hanging low. He wasn’t even trying to hide his quiet sobs from them, either.
Because clutched in his hand were the broken pieces of Kairi’s good luck charm. Xehanort was waging an all out war against his heart, and this was the latest in a long string of casualties.
Donald wouldn’t forget the look in Sora’s eyes or the way he’d cried out when it had happened. As their enemies had disappeared into swirls of black smoke with cruel smirks on their faces afterwards, it had taken all of Donald’s strength to hold Goofy back from jumping in after them.
Sora sniffed, and it snapped Goofy out of his funk. He walked over to Sora and put a hand on his shoulder.
“There now, Sora, I’m sure Kairi can fix it for you—”
“I broke my promise.”
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Colores.
Elephant - Watercolour and ballpoint pen
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Not for the first time did Sora wonder about his place in this game. Every time he thought he found where he needed to be, someone came by and shook up his world. Maybe he was not supposed to be in this situation in the first place. After all, most everything that happened since the islands fell to darkness was meant for another.
He wished he could return to the islands. Unlike Riku, he never found Destiny Islands to be a prison, but instead, he thought of them like a homing beacon. Sora just wanted to return home some days. Leave the balance of light and dark to someone else; perhaps someone else would be more suitable to wield the key.
He watched the clouds roll around them in the eternal twilight sky. The Tower was home base for the Guardians of Light right now. The only home he had for the last year.
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Choose Your Favorite Poke Girl Weeding 🔁 Retweet and ❤ #amourshipping #satoxserena #serena #lillie #mallow #lana #pokemon #pokemonsunandmoon
The Price of Freedom is Steep || Crisis Core (2007) / FFVII Remake (2020)
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.
Cloud’s Promise to Tifa.
Spider-Man: Into the Spider-verse - paintings by Patrick O'Keefe
Bueno, empecemos con esto, juro que algún día publicare mi propio contenido, mientras tanto, me maravillare con todo lo que este sitio puede ofrecerme.
Vanitas Appreciation Week - Day 1 - Favourite Scene.
UNPOPULAR OPINION BUT - I like the extremely brief appearance of Vanitas in Dream Drop Distance. Why? Because I wasn’t expecting him to show up at all in the game. AND EVEN THOUGH he had one tiny line of dialogue, I believe it heavily hints towards Vantias’ return in KH3 which gets me excited.
I’M SORRY IM LATE. And post-post-post-haste is completely responsible for inspiring the painting style I went with in this. It needs work I know~ I’ll get there. ONTO THE NEXT PROMPT.