big bro axel!!
[image 1 is a drawing of ventus, sora, roxas, kairi, xion and namine all piling onto a delighted axel in a group hug. riku stands to the side with a hand on axel’s shoulder. image 2 is a follow up. saix: what IS it with you and picking up stray puppies? axel: shhhhhhh i’m protecting them. labels point to every kid axel is hugging, and they all read “tougher than him.”]
this isn’t even eraqus’ car
Tried to imitate my oomfie @roovenn's artstyle :D
While making yesterday's post I was reminded of this other topic that had been giving me brainworms lately. And I was going to do this on another day but the thought bugged me constantly so I'm just gonna let this out now.
Part ??? of Yoroshiu just reiterating obvious points that have been chewed on a billion times
Kingdom Hearts presents empathy as a means to have characters connect with each other in both the emotional sense and as a literal ability of sorts. If someone is happy, that joy is shared, and if someone is sad, then it's felt on a visceral level.
We've had three characters be confirmed literal empaths:
Sora, Xehanort, and Baldr
And if you know, you know.
It says a lot that 2/3 ended up being antagonists and when we look at the events that shaped them, we see how Kingdom Hearts handles the negative effects of being that exposed to others emotions, especially when put it certain circumstances.
(I didn't really want to use screenshots I used in my last post but these two shots and the following one are important here, even moreso than in the previous one LOL)
In Dark Road, Baldr was shown to be attached to his sister, Hoder, because she being a heart of pure light made him feel safe as, the screenshot shows, he was sensitive to others' hearts. That's part of why it makes Hoder's death so devestating for him.
And for Xehanort, he was able to take in his caretaker's memories and felt a personal and genuine connection with Player and their friends. It's partly why the events of Dark Road hit him so hard. Baldr states that Xehanort shares the same dynamic with Eraqs.
And even for Sora, our current hero, we've seen this Empathy be harmful to him as well. He's felt echoes of the heartache of his Heart Hotel residents (KH2, BBS, etc.) and you can assume how difficult it is to have to handle multiple people's most intense emotions.
And what happens when these characters hit their lowest? Especially when it's in tandem to this Empathy?
They break down, they fall apart, their hearts get wrapped in Darkness.
And what's the factor that turns empathy, the means to bring people together in understanding, into a force that drives people into despair?
Isolation.
If there's one consistent pattern with these characters is that being alone ends up contributing to the downfall.
Baldr falls apart because he's completely isolated from his friends in a completely white room with no windows for SEVEN DAYS. How did Odin think this was a good idea?????
(Day 1 vs Day 7)
Xehanort is a person who prefers doing things on his own. This is what makes him use others and even other versions of himself as tools for his plan. He gets wrapped up in all his plans and essentially becomes a more refined Baldr by the end.
Sora is someone who's tied to a lot of different people and their hearts. This contributes to his heart being broken down and made vulnerable to Darkness, especially with how he was kept alone in his dreams, led further and further away from Riku trying to wake him up.
(Sora being mostly alone in the new saga is going to be interesting. Strel is there but there's probably going to be an effort to isolate him again.)
Being left alone with all these emotions, with no proper way to process it—empathy becomes the most destructive force.
Despite what the mainstream might think, Kingdom Hearts has always believed in the proper balance between Light and Dark, Good and Bad. Empathy is good, it connects hearts together, but at its most extreme, it poses a danger. It can overwhelm a person and make them expel it to the world in the worst way possible.
Being completely alone with no forms of support turns compassion into despair.
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Making Kingdom Hearts Stuff Until KH4 Comes Out (Day 66)
pleasesaveus trio
White-hooded Strelitzia.
If we don’t get kh4 news soon I’m gonna start drawing fanart of the trailers that play inside my mind
Nnnnnn I messed up but I still like some parts of it
