ch205 commentary

I HAVE. OFFICIALLY. REACHED. ENDGAME. in terms of writing not uploading but then again if you want to consider Disney Castle as Endgame then go for it because it might as well be

I haven't started writing it quite yet but... birthday... celebration.... playing Dream Team.... finishing SMRPG.... seeing movies..... I took Friday and Saturday off and also in reworking some of endgame ended up with two different routes I could take and I didn't decide which one I was going with until right now
And I still need to outline it because I reworked everything

ANYWAY

Afternoon Shore; from kingdomkey on 8tracks Radio.

Have a SoRiKai mix for no reason besides I don't think I've shared it yet

AND CHAPTER TIME

read it

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I'M ACTUALLY,,,, REALLY,,,, NERVOUS ABOUT POSTING THIS CHAPTER BECAUSE IT,,,, GETS INTO A LOT OF LORE I'M,,,,, IDK I'M SORTA BRINGING THIS UP OUT OF NOWHERE ISH SO IT'S. IT'S.... YEAH......
YEAH
*cough*

I think I included it,,,, sorta out of the blue? Magik mentioned I had a slight hole (I was attempting to keep things vague about this subject) and I could've left it or filled it another way but,,,, I really,,, like,,,, touching on this lore so. I really like this lore it's.

It's hard to explain exactly my feelings for it let's start from the beginning.

Tumblr user snoipahkat (now rakatakat) has a fanon/headcanon that Sora and the whole gang end up actually ruling Kingdom Hearts, with Sora as King and Kairi as Queen and then Roxas and Ven and Van are princes and like Terra and Riku and maybe Aqua (I forget) are knights and I just
And just the thought of it is so,,,, it interests me so much and I'm sorta borrowing it. Borrowing from it. The idea of Sora being a Prince and all
It's so
(here's one post of kat's I could find on the subject but she talks about it off and on and I didn't,,,, save everything I'm not,,,, a stalker I just like other's people's headcanons )

I'M JUST. IT'S SUCH A COOL IDEA AND I REALLY HOPE SOMETHING LIKE IT HAPPENS IN LIKE KH3 OR SOMETIME IN THE SERIES SINCE THEY'RE APPARENTLY NOT GONNA FINISH AT KH3
I WISH SO BAD. IT PROBABLY WON'T HAPPEN

Anyway I'm already really attached to this idea as KH """canon""" but then of course you take it in terms of my universe

Sora is a prince he's supposed to rule Kingdom Hearts and save everybody with a Heart that is in almost perfect balance between light and darkness
except
my
universe

ha

Sora's not he's just. He fell to darkness his heart has light but it's not balanced it still heavily leans towards the darkness

I've sorta adapted this whole thing into background thoughts that I haven't touched on since like the Truth Hurts but
But Sora's fall to darkness really screwed the universe over worse than Riku arriving did
Riku arriving threw it off a little--not to mention Namine's creation (which didn't happen like it was "supposed" to aka how it did in canon) and the fact that half the Org died in like a week and so much happened before it was supposed to happen or that wasn't supposed to happen and it all happened in a span of a month
And because it threw the universe out of balance Sora fell into darkness
(it's a  fluke he fell he wasn't supposed to he really wasn't LIKE FOR EXAMPLE KH3D HAD HIM PUT TO SLEEP SO XEHANORT COULD USE HIM AS A VESSEL XEHANORT DIDN'T ONCE CONTEMPLATE TRYING TO CONVINCE HIM TO JOIN DO YOU FEEL ME??)

Sora fell to darkness and you hit the universe at it's strongpoint which was supposed to be it's Perfectly Balanced Prince except that Prince fell
and it screwed everything over
Aqua was spat out of the dark realm
Ven was split from Sora too early (the universe was trying to spare at least one of it's Princes. unfortunately whatever was left of Vanitas went to Shad. there was no saving him)

and I mention in a tumblr post in the ch205 tag about how Sora's also missed out on so many opportunities and on top of being unbalanced he's completely lost this understanding of frienship because he hasn't been able to make friends
and it's

guh
It's frustrating a little but it's wonderful to think about I love thinking about this

and I'm not sure how it's going to play out because Kingdom Hearts itself has dropped the "open the door" plotline in favor of Xehanort and I guess that's not a problem but there's also no telling how it's going to be solved in KH3 because KH3 is only guaranteed to be Xehanort's death it's not guaranteed to be anything else

and the "ending" where Sora and Kairi become King and Queen of Kingdom Hearts is real interesting and I'd love to do it but I'm not sure how it'd play out

I mean it doesn't have to happen because it's a fanon but like

Every projected ending of KH involves Sora doing some crazy important stuff which I'm sure requires his pure heart and compassion for others

and guess what my Sora doesn't have?

(There is also a bit about Shad and the universe but I wanna put that off like you should remind me to talk about it once Dead Inside's over because otherwise it most likely won't come up at all unless I actually write book 6 and. I could. But I won't need to. Book 6 will get into this lore a little more and be about them finding Kingdom Hearts but whether or not I actually want to go through with writing it is another story because I actually don't have a lot of ideas for it and would rather not chain myself down to writing another book in this series)

BUT ANYWAY THERE'S A LOT OF LORE HERE AND I LOVE EXPLORING IT

AND THEN COME THIS CHAPTER

AND MICKEY

Like I said I'd adapted some of these ideas into background thoughts and while I was brainstorming I thought:

THO OMG I WONDER IF MICKEY LIKE WOULD KNOW THAT HE SHOULD’VE BEEN KING IN LIKE THE FUTURE not that I will write that but y’know thoughts to entertain

I wonder how much it troubles him like he knows who Sora should be but the boy standing before him isn’t the boy like spoken of in the prophecies this boy is broken and scarred and like

Mickey wouldn’t discriminate it just throws him off

Sora’s tainted with darkness and it’s

Hard to stomach when you take into account what he COULD’VE been what he SHOULD’VE been

Jus’ sayin

and as it says I wasn't intending to include it but then again Magik mentioned that Mickey's thoughts/attitude towards Maleficent and Sora having a Shadow seemed a little,,,, underexplained or she wanted to hear more about them I don't remember
UNFORTUNATELY THIS ISN'T 100% SOMETHING THAT'S GOING TO BE COVERED maybe I'll cover Shad in book 5 I could but if I'm writing book 6 I'll want to save it sigh
We'll see
Shad is actually this big huge thing I promise
I promise
He's important he plays an important role in this
I just wanna wait and not give it away

But back to Mickey

Mickey is literally thrown off by Sora because now that he's actually interacting with Sora (instead of fighting one short battle and having a short conversation after like they did in Beast's Castle like ch98 or so)

Now he's interacting with Sora he realizes how unhero like Sora actually is how little he's lived up to the "prophecy" or whatever.

Because canon!Sora is like.... he literally hits you in the face with his optimism and light but my Sora

nope. nada. He's. If there's anything that hits you in the face about him it's how tired he is how broken he looks and then if you can sense light/darkness you will sense that he's actually a little darker than your average person

and it throws Mickey for a loop because it's not what he expected. He's not the kind of person to go "oh well you're not good enough" but I still can see him being a little "?????" about things especially when he's been promised something different than he gets
And y'know it's one thing to know Sora's struggled with the darkness but another entirely that he has a Shadow because yeah a Shadow's creation/existence/whatever is up in the air right now but the point still stands that you have to have a certain level of darkness you have to be at a very specific risk it doesn't just happen to anyone
It really honestly doesn't

So that throws Mickey for a loop on top of Sora not being what he expected because not only is Sora that but he also has a Shadow and.... ????
?????

Yeah

It's all

Incredibly complicated but I love this lore a lot and I've said it before I'll say it again: If I write book 6 it will be to explore this lore and for pretty much no other reason
and I'd love to write book 6 if I could come up with a more concrete plot than "searching for Kingdom Hearts" I mean I guess that's something but then again there's also the fact that I still have at least two things to write (three if I don't combine book 4.5 and book 5) and so book 6 will be at least two years down the road (if we're lucky)

I think I've rambled let's just get back to the chapter commentary

As you can see I dropped Mickey and Minnie's titles real quickly ha I knew that would happen

AND THEN OF COURSE Mickey and Minnie were being really obnoxiously adorable at least in my head though it bled into the story

I cut so much stuff that Mickey thought like back in the first chapter of this sequence that was largely just “wow minnie’s so great” among other such thoughts throughout the sequence and I just

They’re so

Lovestruck??

With each other??

AND I’M NOT EVEN SURE WHERE IT CAME FROM THEY DIDN’T ACT LIKE THIS IN HOUSE OF MOUSE WHICH IS WHERE I’M LARGELY DRAWING MY INSPIRATION FOR THEM FROM BUT LIKE. THEY DEFINITELY THINK LIKE THAT AND. ALSKJDFLKSFJ also they were totally holding hands while sitting at the table heh

I was gonna have something about what Sora's scar like,,,, felt like but I couldn’t find any information on it and unfortunately the one serious scar I have is really really tiny so I can’t exactly tell what it feels like. Plus mine was a scrape wound and is like ten years old and Sora’s is a cut wound and only a month old

Also I honestly almost had Daisy be an airhead and just sorta ask Sora point blank “so what happened to your face?” but idk I couldn’t get a scene with her in it to flow and I feel like the whole Shadow thing would be something Mickey would want to bring up in private like if it came up while other people were around he’d kinda hush the conversation unless someone else asked because he can’t,,, stop Sora from answering but he himself would’ve refrained and

I WAS GOING TO HAVE IT HAPPEN OVER LIKE A DINNER OR SOMETHING BUT HAHAHA TO ME FIGURING OUT THE LOGISTICS OF HOW DINNER WORKS IN THAT CASTLE BECAUSE LIKE ONLY TEN PEOPLE CANONICALLY LIVE THERE AND JUST. IT WASN’T WORTH IT.

*whispers* Shad wants to remember the Scar Incident as a fight not as him lashing out in anger go ahead and cry now

Accidental symbolism makes me laugh like I can’t peg any intentional symbolism in my story but Sora’s scar was definitely accidental symbolism har

(He's the Scarred Prince both metaphorically and literally)

FUN FACT like I said the scene with Mickey and Minnie was an after thought but magik was like “yo I wanna know what Mickey’s thinking” and I expanded the bit with him and Sora discussing Maleficent because that’s important to the plot a little (well Mickey knowing Sora’s dealt previously with her is)

the Mickey and Minnie scene isn’t 100% necessary but y'know I love this lore a lot and didn't want to pass up the chance to expand on it like I guess I could've but

Idk I don't honestly feel like I'm chaining myself to a book 6 I think three years down the road if I say "nevermind" no one will care because a) I'll have lost readers or b) most readers would know me well enough to understand

also c) I'll try and give book 5 an actual ending so I could wrap it up there and they'll have a happy ending and no one will be dying to know what happens next

This scene was really hard to write actually because Mickey’s almost,,, disturbed by Sora but he’s so polite he doesn’t want to say that it is literally jarring for me to write him saying that so a lot of this was both me and Mickey figuring out how to phrase this

AS FOR SHADOW'S UM this is actually still A Thing that I was talking about with Shad so I won't answer any questions on it just keep in mind unreliable narrators are a thing and either Mickey's wrong or Sora's wrong but I'm not going to tell you who is

Ha

(I just really don't want to give out information about the story because you guys should be able to figure it out for yourself!! And I shouldn't have to explain it!!! 

I'm not sure if it'll come up in-story exactly like I said but I hope it will and if it does I wouldn't have wanted to previously spoil it)

AND ANOTHER QUICK THING which is just interesting to note is I don't often point out the fact that Mickey is actually a mouse as in I've contemplated mentioning his tail a time or two (he does have one obviously) but I always chicken out because it's??? weird to bring it up??

I'm not sure

But I keep chickening out of mentioning it. His tail was likely twitching as he was pacing.

(Also he squeaked in this chapter hahaha. I was going to use the "voice was tight" phrase but I couldn't pass up the opportunity to make him squeak)

that's it!