Recent Content by The Soul-Eater

KHII only ever had one release date set. Ditto Days.

It's really only your fault if you keep listening to rumors.

I just checked the site. This is just another stupid rumor.

http://www.square-enix.co.jp/kingdom/days/

Look right there on the main page under "News." The latest thing posted was way back in July, and that was just announcing that the site itself had launched.

This is how you get people excited and spread misinformation. Like the lie that Square has ever once delayed a KH game.

This is nonsense. There's a reason it's in the rumor section.

The KH team is still hard at work on FFvsXIII and will be for a couple years to come. Even Nomura himself has said so. And to announce KHIII before even one of its lead-up games is out would be beyond insane.

I pray for anyone gullible enough to believe that tripe.

Enjoyable though this is, I still have to wonder why Sora and Kairi are bothering to go about each other's daily routine. If they were trying to keep the switch a secret, then I could understand it, but that's obviously not the case. If everyone knows, why not just be themselves?

That was my first thought, too. Either way, though, I'm sure it's nothing big.

This seems to take place right after the first visit to Beast's Castle. So my guess is he's mending a nosebleed inflicted by Sora and/or the Beast.

Either that or he just walked in on Larxene in the shower. >_>

Aye. In Japan all three games have had light novel adaptations. A light novel, by the way, is a children's book usually written in a simplistic fairy tale-esque style with anime-like illustrations.

KH1's novels were more or less straight from the game, but CoM's started to differ from the norm, and KHII's had a bunch of extra content, one or two scenes of which made it into FM+. They're mostly non-canon, though, since some of the extra stuff blatantly contradicts what's stated in the game.

Some extra scenes from the novels, just off the top of my head:
- Various Org. meetings throughout. Fairly different than FM+'s, though.
- Axel, Riku, and Namine on Sunset Hill.
- Mickey meets Riku for the first time after his transformation.
- Axel and Namine are ambushed by Saix.
- Namine, having fled from Saix, finds Riku and asks him to help Axel.
- Extended version of Axel and Kairi on Destiny Islands.
- Riku fights Saix while Axel kidnaps Kairi.
- Axel and Roxas' reunion on Twilight Town's clock tower.
- Lots and lots of emo monologues from Namine at very random times.

Er...those are in the novels, not the manga. As are those two pictures.

Sora's goal has always been to rescue his friends. Kairi? Check. Riku? Not check. Ergo, he went after Riku.

And it's not like Riku ever did anything that bad, anyway. All he wanted to do was be with his friends, just like Sora. It's just that Riku had certain vulnerabilities that Ansem and Maleficent exploited. It would be way out of character for Sora to abandon him just for that.

I don't recall that ever being stated. But regardless of whether the power's real or not, the paopu's still a symbol of their bond nonetheless.

If anything, that's a greater sign of their bond. It shows that they have history, y'know? And that their bond has continued through the years and so forth.

It's symbolic, plus it's a nice bit of continuity between the games. A kiss would be overly cliche; finishing the drawing conveys the same message but more effectively.

Riku had sacrificed his identity and became everything he'd hated just to help Sora. Kairi, on the other hand, not only fine but actually better off for her experiences.

Not to mention the fact that for the first time since the whole story began, Sora, Riku, and Kairi were all together again. That alone would have been emotionally overwhelming, so it's not surprising that Riku's fate kind of tipped him over the edge.

Yeah. Because Riku was missing, possibly injured, or even dead. Kairi was safe at home. Even after she was kidnapped, Sora'd have no reason to ask people where she is. She'd be locked up in the Organization's headquarters (which he does spend the latter half of the game looking for), not roaming around the Pride Lands or something.

Plus, remember what else Sora's always doing? You know, missing Kairi, getting jealous of the other couples he meets, his little dance fantasy in Halloween Town, all that good stuff?

Beautiful. The last half or so of the story was simply enthralling, masterfully done. The plot was succinct but poignant, and the people were kept remarkably in-character but with a wonderful added depth beyond that which we see in the games. Everything from the dialogue to the action to the word choice itself was pretty much perfect. It all gives the story a sort of dreamy yet bittersweet aura that really gives it its charm. Major kudos on that.

And XD @ Luxord. "Are there some cardinal relationships roughing about that I was left unaware of?" Hi-larious.

That said, I rather dislike the first half. Put simply, it's boring. Forgive my candor, but I found it a little...mind-numbing, and I'm left wondering just what it had to do with the rest of the story. You might think about trimming it down a little.

My only other problem was that at certain times, you kind of...shoved information down our throats. Like when it said that "the book is somewhat reflective of her own situation." Personally, I'd have preferred if bits like that were left up to the readers instead. When you just state it outright like that, it just comes of as...clunky, and unprofessional. In my opinion, at least.

Nevertheless, it's still quite a remarkable piece. You should be quite proud of it.

In FFVIII, that butterfly-ish thing was the symbol of Squall's girlfriend, Rinoa. It's just a little easter egg for the more attentive fans, as well as possible foreshadowing for her appearance in a future KH game.

I doubt it. If Mickey had something that important to tell Sora, I don't see why he couldn't just tell him in person. They did meet several times throughout KHII, after all. It wouldn't make sense to send a letter with the same exact message in it again after they had plenty of time to talk face-to-face.

Limit Form's colors in Space Paranoids match the colors of his clothes. His legs turn red, his feet turn yellow, etc. Not just the circuit lines, but the whole thing.

Not that I can recall. He has a habit of wandering around, but that's the only time I can remember him ever actually running from someone.

Not really. He's been portrayed as at least semi-sentient in most --if not all-- of his appearances, and that trend has continued into the KH series. As is the case in more Disney cartoons than I'd care to count, I wouldn't be surprised if he knew what he was doing the entire time.

You're mixing two different events. The letter at the end of KHII, the one they actually read, was fairly obviously for them. The one from the end of KH1 is a different story.

Presumably, it was for Minnie. That's why Pluto ran from Sora, Donald, and Goofy when they tried to take it: it just wasn't for them.

Ha! You thought I'd forgotten, didn't you? Or else that I just didn't care? No, I admit that my contribution is rather late, but only because this wonderful guide was already so complete. I had a ****ens of a time trying to find something worthwhile to add. Anyway, here it is:

Characterization is without a doubt one of the greatest challenges a write can face, maybe even greater than developing a plot. After all, the plot is something amorphous, easily changeable. Whatever you want to happen is what happens; it's as simple as that.

Characters, on the other hand, are just the opposite. They're delicate and malleable in their own right, but they're also somewhat constant and largely unchangeable. Whenever you give birth a character, you bind yourself to a certain way of thinking, a certain flow of ideas. Sooner than you'd probably expect, your characters tend to evolve a mind and spirit of their own, and it's your job as their author to help them express themselves properly. To do anything else would be to do them a great disservice.

This is doubly true in the case of fanfiction. In this case, you chain yourself not to characters of your own creation, over which you might have had a greater control, but to preexisting characters that already have their own sharply defined thoughts, habits -- everything, really. So the process of characterization is all the more precarious.

For example, I find Kairi to be one of the hardest characters to write for, because her personality is such a delicate balance of strength and weakness, ferocity and kindness, boldness and shyness, and so on. She's fallen victim to the villains and had to be rescued in every game she's appeared in, but she still maintains a firm grip on the situation. She didn't hesitate to act after being awakened in KH1, or to fight the Heartless or confront Saix in KHII. Still, she's not a "tough-as-nails tomboy fighter" type of character, either. She's gentle and kind, and she acknowledges that in a life-or-death situation, she'd be more of a liability than anything else. But despite that humility, she still likes to poke fun at Sora and Riku, and her occasional shyness belies a great bravery.

You can see how that sort of circuitous logic can be a bit hard to follow, and even harder to write for effectively. There's no easy way to do it; it really just takes a lot of careful observation and practice.

Consider my story, "New Beginnings."

EXAMPLE: "I told you not to stay up so late last night. You may be a hero, but you can't just sleep on the beach all day. You've gotta get off your butt some time," she said, grinning. "I was thinking we could make our triumphant return to school today."

Here, several of Kairi's key features are clearly seen. She's a bit bossy towards Sora, but in a friendly, playful sort of way. And in the "triumphant return" line, she pokes fun at both the situation and Sora, as though even a normal day at school could be something epic for a brave adventurer like him. It's kind of a backhanded compliment, but again, it's all just lighthearted fun. It's a mark of her bond with Sora that she can say things like this.

EXAMPLE: And [Riku]'s been through more than any of us. I'd have thought he'd need the most time to settle down. How could he face a day of school so soon after all that?"

"'Like this!'" Kairi squealed giddily, squeezing her palms against her face. Even despite himself, Sora couldn't help but laugh.

Similar situation here. She lightens a potentially awkward situation with gentle humor. Sora knows it's a jab at him, and he finds that funny in and of itself, but more than that, he realizes what Kairi's doing and can't help but smile. Again, it's a mark of their relationship.

EXAMPLE: "Yeah," Sora said whimsically. "And you had such a hard time [on your first day of school], too. Remember? You couldn't answer any questions in math, your crayons kept breaking in art, and you didn't even have a blanket for nap time."

Here we have some direct, less subtle characterization. Sora relates a bit of Kairi's history from around the time she first came to Destiny Islands. It makes sense, given her past, and it lets us in on some more of her personality. Apparently, she was much weaker and more insecure in her younger years, but her time with Sora and Riku has helped her grow and develop. It fits in with the information we're given in the games, and it helps set up the rest of the story.

EXAMPLE: Kairi mumbled, blushing slightly. "When I was called up to the board to do some spelling. And I...y'know...dropped the chalk...and I went to get it...." Her face was glowing a bright crimson now.

"And then what?" goaded Sora playfully.

"Forget it. Forget I said anything," she snapped curtly.

"C'mon, say it. You'll feel better."

"Oh, as if you didn't know!" Kairi shouted, flustered. "I farted, all right? Right in front of the whole class," she squeaked with modesty. "And everyone called me names for a week!"

Here we see more of her unique mixture of strength and weakness. When she starts talking here, the perpetual confidence we'd seen throughout the story's opening drops significantly. She gets embarrassed, and to hide it, she gets a bit angry, feigning a sort of strength very different her own. But Sora sees through her, and through his playful banter, he gets her to open up to him. Note how this echoes their exchange from before, except with their roles reversed.

EXAMPLE: "Yeah, well...you know how witty those kindergarten kids can be," Sora quipped, grinning broadly. His smile must have been contagious, for he soon saw its echo etching its way onto the princess' face.

"But, of course..." Kairi said coyly, "that's nothing compared to the time you wet yourself at the moives...." she cooed smugly.

"For the last time, I wasn't scared!" Sora whined unconvincingly. "Besides, I was like eight years old!"

"Try thirteen," Kairi responded, her voice positively dripping with joy.

Here, through more interaction with Sora, she regains her composure and manages to turn the tables on him. Again, it's a mark of their closeness that they can say these things to each other without anyone getting offended. They just enjoy being together; it's like every minute they share just furthers their feeling for each other. But, like in the games, it never gets too cheesy or overt. There's no "I love you"s to be heard or kisses to be seen, but their emotions are conveyed just as clearly anyway.

EXAMPLE: "But, you know..." he said as smoothly as he could, picking up speed all the while. "You're really cute when you get all worked up like this. Maybe after school, we could...y'know...meet back up out there in the Seaside Shack...."

Instantly, Kairi's smirk was gone, replaced instead by an expression of mock-outrage.

"Sora, you jerk!" she cried, paddling faster. "You'd better run! When I catch you, I'll kick your butt! You'll be lucky to pee your pants when I'm through with you!"

Same basic situation. They make fun of each other, and despite Sora's seemingly random advances or Kairi's apparent anger, nothing's really changed, except maybe that they understand each other even better. It's like they're speaking in code. The words themselves have meaning, yes, but behind them lies a playful back-and-forth exchange. And most importantly, behind that, lies the strong central message of the story, and indeed, the Kingdom Hearts series as a whole.

That kind of thinking is what ought to go into each and every story. It's the key to making realistic, enjoyable characters and stories; it's absolutely essential, nothing more to it.

Some general parting tips:
- Treat your characters like they're real people. Don't ever try make them say, do, or wear anything that wouldn't come naturally. That would be like trying to force your best friend to dress up like a big baby everyday, diapers and all. It would look creepy and unnatural, and it probably wouldn't work out very well. >_>
- Remember to make dialogue sound like dialogue. If you can't imagine yourself saying it in conversation, it's almost certainly not good enough.
- Moreover, if you're doing a fanfic, try to imagine the characters' VAs saying it. If you can't hear Haley Joel Osment saying one of Sora's lines, rewrite it.
- Practice, practice, practice. You might have to try hard at first, but before long, this sort of thing becomes second nature. And more than that, it gets to be great fun!