Riku's Darkness (and some other things)

(WARNING - this post is kind of long....)

First of all

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pNPIih4X7SA&feature=BFa&list=PL2603FF4D3C4C995A
the How to Train Your Dragon soundtrack. It is AMAZING!!

And, admittedly, not at all related to this post. But the soundtrack is absolutely beautiful and I really wish I owned it

Second of all:

Yes, I finally got around to redesigning it

view on deviantART here http://rarmaster.deviantart.com/art/FtP-Riku-s-New-Dark-Mode-332427943
(you'll have to go to dA to get all the concept art for this -- it's WAY too much to be posting here)

Fun story, each of these pictures have a scene attached to them (not that I intended that, but they do)

left: an AU sequence where Riku confronts Larxene -- considering it's AU, I don't think mentioning it is spoilers, but I will not be posting it for quite some time (after THAT. It'll be posted after THAT)

middle: The last chapter posted to Dead Inside. Ch128, I think. *checks* Yes! ch128! Anyway, I imagine this is what he looked like when threatening 37 (though, I don't think his dark mode had finished morphing at that point, but... meh)

right: erm-- spoilers. Sorry.


concerning drawing this:

Well, I adapted each from the KHCoM manga (minus the middle one, which is from KH1 manga hint: "It is I, Ansem, Seeker of Darkness!") after doing a crapton of concept art and stuff.

The one on the left was probably the easiest to do -- though I can't draw Riku's boots worth crap, and I'm pretty sure there was a speech bubble in my way, so that couldn't have been helping

the middle one -- well, I did some finagling with Riku's hands. I took out the Keyblade, and then the left hand failed so I drew him holding Dark Firaga instead. I like how the Dark Firaga turned out...

the one on the right was probably the hardest to draw -- I think I remember there being a speech bubble in my way, but I might be wrong. Anyway, it was the worst.


concerning details and stuff:

So, my first idea for this was the "belts" (not they are actually belts, I'm nearly positive they're just darkness that decided to look kind of like belts and be red -- but they are not actually belts, I have drawn them and there is nothing on them that makes them belts. However, it is easiest to refer to them as "belts") With them going across his chest, and then--
Well, "belt" number one snakes down Riku's left arm before morphing into a glove. This is the same "belt" that snakes down his right leg before attaching to his boot
"Belt" number two does a lot of, erm, twisty stuff. It does this twisty thing on his back (you can sort of see it in the picture on the right, but otherwise you'll have to look at concept art 2 or 3 which you'll have to go through dA to find) before it goes across his chest, around his neck, and then onto his face.

About it going onto his face -- this was originally inspired by Haseo (not kidding you) even though it turned out completely differently. See, depending on how upset/angry Riku is, the more it will spread across his face. I'm not sure why it does, maybe to achieve a sort of "monster-like" appearance (not that it succeeds) to represent the (Riku don't kill me!) monster that Riku can be when influenced by darkness.
That's probably not accurate at all -- that is something I came up with practically on the spot -- but I did it because I thought it looked cool.
I only drew what it looks like when he's in a good mood, annoyed, and pissed (you'll find them on dA), but I'm sure there's multiple variations depending just HOW annoyed or HOW pissed Riku is.
This will, however, never be brought up in-story, except when the change in Riku's dark mode is first brought up. It's too much work to describe exactly what his dark mode looks like every time he's in it (this would be a detail much better represented in a video game or anime), so I'm just not going to bother. I'm sure you can picture him in your head without my help -- and if you can't (or if you're like me, who doesn't actually take the time to picture everything in my head while reading) well, whatever. I'm still not ever bringing it up.

Fun(ish) fact:
I considered removing the Heartless-esque symbol from the design, but couldn't bring myself to do so. The same happened with the skirt, but, as you can clearly see, the skirt stayed. =P
Like archsage said, it's hard to picture dark mode without it!


About Riku's Darkness
(I could've put this in a separate post, but I figured I might as well cover it now since I'm covering Riku's new dark mode)

(btw, prepare yourself for things that probably sound like excuses and, admittedly, probably are excuses)

So, you'll find this rant in my last chapter commentary, but here it is again (not word for word):

I've always wanted to experiment more with darkness as a weapon, but I lack a character for this purpose. I mean, Sora's in no condition to use darkness on a regular basis, and the only other person I've got is Shad -- and Shad doesn't fight frequently.
So, who's the first character I turn to?
Riku.

I do realize that I've written myself into a hole here. Well, not entirely a hole... I do know that archsage, quite some time ago, brought up the fact that "the darkness didn't used to be a problem for Riku because he's data". When I first read that, and until I looked at it just now, I assumed that I was contradicting something. In fact, I assumed I was contradicting Riku's "rant" (it's so not a rant) in Ch19 of Falling to Pieces.

Because, in this "rant" he's explaining how the darkness inside of him is data. To my distorted memory, I just assumed that this was where my problem was and that I had honestly contradicted something. As I went back to look at the "rant" I realized that Riku never explicitly said that darkness couldn't affect data. Sora merely asked why he could use darkness without it hurting him, and he replied that it's because the darkness he uses is data.

Of course, the "darkness can't affect data" thing was implied in that conversation, and I'm sure it's been implied in countless other places throughout both mine and magik's fics. The fact that Replicas can use dark corridors without it being detrimental to them is implication enough.

So, back to that hole of mine...

I'm going to say that Replicas are immune to the effects darkness and probably other forces, provided there is no meddling involved.

What happened to Riku?

Shad meddled.

(Yes, I'm aware this sounds like an excuse of sorts. However, it's a bit late to back out of all of this now, considering it requires rewriting 10 chapters, taking down Riku's new dark mode from deviantART, and the whole "super-infused with darkness" thing has become absolutely pivotal to the plot of book 5. So... meh. I'll make excuses.)


So, another question, why does data + darkness = pain?
(not that any of you have asked, but I feel like explaining it anyway)

Because darkness warps and changes everything it touches (that it can touch, anyway). Data is very finicky about being changed unless it is done by typical methods -- through a computer and the Program.

You see where this is going?

Darkness is, by no means, any typical way of changing things. Thus, data does not like it, and it cries out in pain as its way of saying "hey! There's something wrong here!"


Now, I was going to go into something actually specifically concerning Riku and his darkness, but I have been working on this post all day and I can't remember what I wanted to say and I need to do something else with my life.
If you have any questions concerning Riku and his darkness, please ask. Maybe I'll figure out something to do with a post.

So, instead, I'm going to send you off here:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OR7Vj7sWgeY

What is this, you may ask? Well, if you haven't seen How to Train Your Dragon, don't bother going to watch it. However, if you have seen the movie, it is a wonderful short and you absolutely positively should watch it. Go. Watch it now.
(And if you haven't seen the movie itself, you should go watch that too)