Kingdom Hearts 3 is a beautiful mess that gives me the emotional payoff that I wanted but still leaves a lot of unanswered questions and loose threads. The entire endgame begins with a false start and took roughly five hours to complete. I'm definitely looking forward to a novelization of it in the future. My favorite world was Monsters Inc, if only because of how they defeated Vanitas; second would go to Toy Story if only for Woody's savage verbal beatdown of Young Xehanort. Tangled was pretty good too, though I don't know why they tried to make Gothel sympathetic; if you didn't know the story, she appears to have done nothing wrong except for the whole kidnapping thing. There was also a scene missing of her giving the satchel to Rapunzel, so there seems to have been some oversight or cut corners. Phil, Hans, Aeleus, and Dilan didn't get any dialogue, and I'm more unhappy about that for the latter two. At least Aeleus got to be a character in Dream Drop Distance. And like I thought, Jesse and Derek were just lying about not being in it as they do reprise their roles. Apparently Even can act, as he was bullshitting the Organization after being kidnapped by them (which he wasn't happy about either, as Saix had grabbed him just as he'd woken up by the sound of it). One of my favorite scenes is where Even saves Hayner, Pence, Olette, and Ansem the Wise from Ansem Seeker of Darkness. While what he'd said to Luxord pissed me off initially, his admission of guilt and wanting to atone made me want to hug him. Then there was his scene with Demyx which was slapstick gold. He still bares his heart about being a scientist who got wrapped up in his work and lost sight of helping people, but Demyx isn't a scientist so he doesn't relate or care. As long as he doesn't have to fight, he's willing to help Even out. Of course, my favorite scene is when Demyx drops off the replica for Roxas and brings Ansem home. It's everything I ever wanted (except Aeleus and Dilan didn't talk, which is easy to remedy in fan fiction later; they didn't even need to say much, and emoting without words is fine, but they needed something the whole time!). It turns out Ienzo didn't have much to do with anything except giving up his heart willingly to Xehanort. After banishing Ansem and stealing his research, Xehanort told Ienzo that Ansem had gone mad and abandoned them; he knew Ienzo would never join him as long as Ansem was around, and making him think Ansem didn't love him anymore demoralized him. As a kid, Ienzo tended to believe what he was told. Ansem addresses him as "little Ienzo," which probably means he calls him "Ienzo-chan" in Japanese.
Xigbar only pretends to die in the final battle and retains his Nobody form (whereas it's assumed that Luxord, Marluxia, and Larxene would be reconstituted, and Demyx and Even would return to normal after Xehanort's death). He's apparently been Luxu the entire time and hangs out in the Keyblade Graveyard with the black box and the ghosts of the other Foretellers (except Ava who's in some sort of cloud limbo). I don't know if this was planned all along or if it came out of left field, but I hate how Braig isn't his own character anymore. Ansem and the others didn't seem to acknowledge his absence, and he doesn't mention them at all. This bothers me a lot, even more than Even and Ienzo not having any scenes together (the best we get is Ienzo stating that Dilan and Aeleus couldn't find Even, so he's starting to worry). Maleficent and Pete barely did anything, but now they know Xigbar has the box. Kingdom Hearts X/Union X was the worst thing to happen to the story for all the complications it brings to a series that was already overly complicated. Xemnas mentions that Larxene, Marluxia, Demyx, and Luxord are all from this time, but then it's never brought up again or explored. It's also confusing as to who has power as normal humans and who doesn't. Lea was able to use a dark corridor to get to Mickey's castle in Dream Drop Distance, but Ienzo and the other apprentices can't. Braig had his Nobody powers as a normal person in Birth By Sleep, but no one else seems to be able to do anything. Maybe because he's Luxu, who knows? Is it just Luxu leading multiple lives or going through multiple reincarnations like Ozpin? I have no idea what's going to end up happening in Union X to have this make sense.
The theme of this installment is homecoming, as everyone is reunited. There was much rejoicing, hugging, and crying, and while that got a bit overwhelming and tiresome, it was definitely earned. Force ghost Eraqus is a plus also. Kingdom Hearts may have been light in the first installment, but it's pretty much armageddon in this version. Xehanort's reasoning is thus: darkness begot light, light begot humans with hearts, hearts begot darkness that poisoned the universe, so he wants to reboot it all and try again. Sora calls him on this and says he's a dictator. Woody was probably wrong, as Eraqus may have been the only one to love Xehanort. Xehanort has been proven wrong, and Eraqus takes him to the afterlife. Then other bullcrap happens because Xehanort had killed Kairi to prove a point, but Xion says she'll be fine. Sora decides to go save her offscreen, but Mickey says if he does this he cannot return, so he does it anyway. Then the secret movie is the video game from the Toy Story world, and Sora and Riku are in Shibuya for some reason.
Some closing thoughts: I liked Xion's outfit. Ienzo's test post was my favorite. :3
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