EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
All jokes aside, think the idea's a card worth holding onto?
Or ought I shuffle the deck and look for a new hand to play?
EVA01's Unitversal Idea and Concept Posting Bin
- Thread starter EvaUnit01
- Start date
- Idea
Or ought I shuffle the deck and look for a new hand to play?
- Location
- East of the Sun and West of the Moon
I'd follow it.
Dang, I'd read the heck out of this. I'm certainly down.
- Location
- Wouldn't you like to know?
- Pronouns
- He/They/She
You had me at "frightening" and just got me more and more interested.
If you'd like to actually make this as a Quest or something (I think it'd be a very fun Quest), I'd be more than happy to help!
EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
I'll be certain to bear that in mind, and I'm glad to have piqued your interest.
Enforcer of the Ice Barrier prologue
EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
Magical Girl Lyrical Nanoha x Yu-Gi-Oh! GX, and not directly involving Hayate! Wtf?
Enforcer of the Ice Barrier
__________
When Chrono Harlaown awoke, it wasn't in his bed. And it wasn't in his significantly more comfortable girlfriend's bed, either.
Which would've been fine, because the last thing he remembered was dozing off in his seat on some Earthnoid passenger aircraft on his way to a well-earned vacation in Europe.
Except he wasn't in his seat, either. And as much as he appreciated not having to listen to the crying baby in the seat behind him, the brewing domestic dispute in front of him, or the embarrassingly oblivious old woman who'd taken a seat next to him and kept insisting he was her own offspring....
...as much as Chrono dearly, truly appreciated a divorce from all of that crap...
He was in a frozen glade, and his instincts -- finely honed from years on the job as one of the Bureau's top Enforcers -- were screaming at him to wake the hell up.
The bad news? Chrono had no idea where the hell he was. Sure, the vast expanse of trees and snow-capped mountains in the near distance seemed indicative of either a sub-arctic climate or deep into its winter... but lots of habitable planets had one or both of those things, so that data didn't give him anything useful to work with. Further, he didn't have any food or other supplies, so that was another potential problem waiting to be solved.
Of course, there was also good news! Chrono still had S2U, he could still form his Barrier Jacket, and the weather forecast called for at least an 80% chance of asskickings if there weren't a good explanation forthcoming.
"We've been waiting for a long time, chosen warrior."
Turning to look behind him, Chrono observed a man in a white and blue robe. Beneath his hood, Chrono could see a serious face framed by dark brown hair and a long beard.
If Hayate were there, she might've made a 'young Gandalf' joke.
Chrono made a point of drawing S2U, but didn't sense any hostility from the figure. "Waiting for what, exactly?"
A female voice answered from behind him, and Chrono turned to find a woman in a white and green dress with long, flowing hair of the same color. "Our Spirit World and the Material World are both in grave danger," she told him. "Dangerous forces are approaching, and we wish to lend our aid against them."
"But to act in the Material World," said the man with the beard, "we need a duelist to channel our power. And you're the first human we've seen in thousands of years who can truly use our powers to their full potential."
"That's great," Chrono sarcastically replied. "Did anyone think of asking me for help, or was bringing me here without my knowledge 'Plan A'?"
The man and the woman glanced at each other for several seconds, and the silence quickly turned awkward. "....I did recommend to the Generals that we seek your cooperation willingly," the woman said, "but I was outvoted."
"In their defense," the man replied, "in eras past, the last few duelists that we politely asked to work with us were very rude in their refusal. Given the stakes we now face, I can see where they might feel a need to force the issue."
"And while you may be powerful enough to summon me to this dimension against my will," Chrono continued, "that gives me the opposite of a reason to trust you people."
"Our rituals brought you here," the man reasoned, "and we can certainly send you back home just as easily. If you have any better suggestions, I'd like to hear them."
Chrono was confident that the Arthra, once his comrades learned he was missing, could track him down and find him eventually. ....the operative word being, eventually. Whether it were days or months would all come down to luck.
"Fine," Chrono eventually said from behind his palm, even though the situation was the total opposite. "Until further notice, I'll cooperate. And knowing the way these things tend to go, my comrades and I probably would've had to take out your 'dangerous forces' anyway."
"Glad to hear it," said the bearded man. "I am the Prior of the Ice Barrier," he finally introduced himself, "and my companion behind you is the Medium."
The Medium placed a hand over her heart, and offered a tentative smile. "If you'll allow it, it would please me to explain the situation further."
Chrono, muttering under his breath about how this kind of crap normally happened to the ferret and not him, nodded.
And so began the story of how Chrono Harlaown, seasoned veteran Enforcer of the Time and Space Administration Bureau, got his game on.
___________
Thoughts?
Enforcer of the Ice Barrier
__________
When Chrono Harlaown awoke, it wasn't in his bed. And it wasn't in his significantly more comfortable girlfriend's bed, either.
Which would've been fine, because the last thing he remembered was dozing off in his seat on some Earthnoid passenger aircraft on his way to a well-earned vacation in Europe.
Except he wasn't in his seat, either. And as much as he appreciated not having to listen to the crying baby in the seat behind him, the brewing domestic dispute in front of him, or the embarrassingly oblivious old woman who'd taken a seat next to him and kept insisting he was her own offspring....
...as much as Chrono dearly, truly appreciated a divorce from all of that crap...
He was in a frozen glade, and his instincts -- finely honed from years on the job as one of the Bureau's top Enforcers -- were screaming at him to wake the hell up.
The bad news? Chrono had no idea where the hell he was. Sure, the vast expanse of trees and snow-capped mountains in the near distance seemed indicative of either a sub-arctic climate or deep into its winter... but lots of habitable planets had one or both of those things, so that data didn't give him anything useful to work with. Further, he didn't have any food or other supplies, so that was another potential problem waiting to be solved.
Of course, there was also good news! Chrono still had S2U, he could still form his Barrier Jacket, and the weather forecast called for at least an 80% chance of asskickings if there weren't a good explanation forthcoming.
"We've been waiting for a long time, chosen warrior."
Turning to look behind him, Chrono observed a man in a white and blue robe. Beneath his hood, Chrono could see a serious face framed by dark brown hair and a long beard.
If Hayate were there, she might've made a 'young Gandalf' joke.
Chrono made a point of drawing S2U, but didn't sense any hostility from the figure. "Waiting for what, exactly?"
A female voice answered from behind him, and Chrono turned to find a woman in a white and green dress with long, flowing hair of the same color. "Our Spirit World and the Material World are both in grave danger," she told him. "Dangerous forces are approaching, and we wish to lend our aid against them."
"But to act in the Material World," said the man with the beard, "we need a duelist to channel our power. And you're the first human we've seen in thousands of years who can truly use our powers to their full potential."
"That's great," Chrono sarcastically replied. "Did anyone think of asking me for help, or was bringing me here without my knowledge 'Plan A'?"
The man and the woman glanced at each other for several seconds, and the silence quickly turned awkward. "....I did recommend to the Generals that we seek your cooperation willingly," the woman said, "but I was outvoted."
"In their defense," the man replied, "in eras past, the last few duelists that we politely asked to work with us were very rude in their refusal. Given the stakes we now face, I can see where they might feel a need to force the issue."
"And while you may be powerful enough to summon me to this dimension against my will," Chrono continued, "that gives me the opposite of a reason to trust you people."
"Our rituals brought you here," the man reasoned, "and we can certainly send you back home just as easily. If you have any better suggestions, I'd like to hear them."
Chrono was confident that the Arthra, once his comrades learned he was missing, could track him down and find him eventually. ....the operative word being, eventually. Whether it were days or months would all come down to luck.
"Fine," Chrono eventually said from behind his palm, even though the situation was the total opposite. "Until further notice, I'll cooperate. And knowing the way these things tend to go, my comrades and I probably would've had to take out your 'dangerous forces' anyway."
"Glad to hear it," said the bearded man. "I am the Prior of the Ice Barrier," he finally introduced himself, "and my companion behind you is the Medium."
The Medium placed a hand over her heart, and offered a tentative smile. "If you'll allow it, it would please me to explain the situation further."
Chrono, muttering under his breath about how this kind of crap normally happened to the ferret and not him, nodded.
And so began the story of how Chrono Harlaown, seasoned veteran Enforcer of the Time and Space Administration Bureau, got his game on.
___________
Thoughts?
King Arthur
The Once and Future King
I'm always up for a good GX fanfic.
KHII Rewrite ideas/commentary, part 1
EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
All right, so partly inspired by some discussion with a dude or two on another forum, going to be throwing around ideas for a hypothetical rewrite of Kingdom Hearts 2 to fix its pacing and some other issues, along with helping to make the overall franchise a little more consistent.
Ruminations thus far, copied and pasted from my own posts in that other thread....
(note: SDG = Sora, Donald, and Goofy; HPO = Hayner, Pence, and Olette)
_________________
Okay, so the concept here is completely rewriting KH2 (FM). Not taking into account supplemental material/the manga or other adaptations, but still keeping other games in the series in mind (that take place before KH2, anyway, so... KHI, COM, and Days), this is how I personally would do it. Having said that, I do confess that I'm going into this with certain fanfic biases/habits of my own in play, and while I'm trying to curb them, they may still show up from time to time, so feel free to agree/disagree on whatever.
To start with, have the game immediately start with Roxas's Dive into the Heart as a cold open, just like Sora's was the opening of KHI. This still allows for the "choose the sword/shield/staff" thing that determines the order in which Sora gains abilities, but also serves to cut out most of the tutorial aspects of Roxas's story.
As soon as Roxas finishes off the Twilight Thorn, cut to Sora, Donald, and Goofy waking up from their stasis pods and starting their new adventure. I place it that way to kind of heighten the "WTF?" factor on the abrupt change between Roxas and Sora as player characters, but in hindsight it likely wouldn't be a problem to have some scenes before or after Roxas's Dive into the Heart to establish him as being friends with Hayner, Pence, and Olette.
The remainder of Sora's first Twilight Town visit, and the following Hollow Bastion visit, can more-or-less go unaltered, but as the party leaves Hollow Bastion after helping Leon at the Bailey, the rest of the game (especially the Disney Worlds, which are the primary focus of this initiative) needs to be in/formed around the plans of all three main factions:
1) Organization XIII, which is the biggest part of the original game's plot. This includes the eventual reveal that Roxas is actually Sora's Nobody, but also bear in mind that their main goal is to complete Kingdom Hearts by having Sora slaughter Heartless by the truckload and feeding into it. They also have the secondary goal of trying to corrupt strong-hearted individuals in order to get control over both their Heartless and their Nobody.
2) Maleficent, who despite not walking the path of heaven still wants to rule over everything. After her defeat in KHI, her current goals/priorities are establishing a new base of operations and re/gaining allies. Before moving on to conquering the universe, she does specifically want to destroy Sora as the greatest obstacle to her ambitions, so expect her to actually get a boss fight this time around.
3) DiZ, an all-around tool at the start of the game who suddenly rediscovers his conscience in the last hour or so of the plot. He didn't really get to do shit in the original game outside of the prologue and endgame, so this time around he'll actually be plotting stuff. Note that while he wants revenge against Organization XIII and wants to hamper their plans, he's considered to be a villain/antagonist up until his later face-turn.
3.5) Riku, who initially is working with DiZ as long as awakening Sora is concerned, but later takes on a more "distant/mysterious protector" role afterward.
3.5a) Namine, who initially is working with DiZ and Riku to awaken Sora, but proceeds to GTFO almost immediately afterward to keep DiZ from repeating the COM plot and using her powers to control Sora for his own ends. Namine, who in this version has no relation to Kairi and their resemblance is wholly coincidental (and otherwise isn't a Nobody), thus spends her story watching over Sora from afar as she tries to keep DiZ, Organization XIII (again), and/or eventually Maleficent from getting their grubby evil mitts on her for her powers. She and Riku are generally on the same page as far as trying to help/protect Sora from a distance without getting too close to him out of their respective senses of guilt (Namine for her role in COM, Riku obviously for his douchebaggery in KHI), but because of their mutual hangups it's less that they "are a team/faction" themselves and more that their paths/actions often intersect or parallel one another. As a Witch with power over memories, she may or may not still remember/know about Xion, but as of this post that isn't expected to play a role in the current story. Also, just because it's relevant: because she's not Kairi's Nobody, there's no ship-teasing between her and Roxas. If anything, she's more likely to end up getting scenes with Riku because they both remember the events at Castle Oblivion, and may gradually kind of just end up bonding over their shared guilt of wronging Sora when he'd be so readily prepared to forgive them both on the spot.
So with all of that in mind? The next phase of the game will cover up until the Disney Castle/Timeless River story.
For my own reference and rumination, I believe the remaining flow the game basically goes:
Land of Dragons 1, Beast's Castle 1, Olympus Coliseum 1, Disney Castle + Timeless River, Port Royal 1, Agrabah 1, Halloweentown 1, Pride Lands 1, Twilight Town 2, Space Paranoids 1 + Hollow Bastion 2, All Other Disney Worlds 2, Space Paranoids 2 + Hollow Bastion 3, Twilight Town 3, and finally The World That Never Was.
Atlantica and Hundred-Acre Wood are excluded for being minigame worlds with multiple mini-episodes that can fit basically anywhere in that sequence, and Atlantica is especially excluded because, being an ongoing minisodic world like it is, needs a lot more work as far as rewriting it. Hundred-Acre Wood, however, is more-or-less fine as-is IMO.
Finally, there would be periodic Roxas interludes spaced throughout the Disney Worlds, mostly at times when Twilight Town is inaccessible to Sora.
________________
Land of Dragons part 1:
Canon: basically a rehash of the movie starting fromMulan Ping's joining the Imperial Army, but with shenanigans, a few Heartless battles, and SDG doing the lion's share of the non-cutscene grunt work.
Rewritten version: the opening act of SDG reuniting with Mushu and meeting Mulan is good as-is, because quite frankly it's hilarious and good character interaction. For similar reasons, the following scenes can stay as well. (Sora: "Who's side are you on?! I just got slugged!")
But as for those Missions that Captain Shang hands out? That's where we get potential to do some interesting stuff.
AfterMulan Ping utterly fails to impress in the first Heartless encounter at Camp, she still has to git gud and prove herhimself to Shang over the course of three trial missions.
In the game, they involve 1) investigating "a strange figure" seen at the Checkpoint (but is really just mopping up Heartless), 2) a repeat of the same, and 3) a mysterious infiltrator in the Encampment.
1) As the gang enter the Checkpoint, they encounter a member of Organization XIII (possibly Xigbar), hood still up. The Nobody taunts Sora by spouting some cryptic shit, and makes some vague, offhand reference to Shan Yu, hinting that they consider him a possible candidate for their "make people fall to Darkness in order to get control over both their Heartless and their Nobody" plan. With some parting wise-ass remark or another, the Org. XIII member then summons a swarm of Heartless to attack Sora before disappearing. The heroes defeat the Heartless and go back to Camp.
2) Is just another mob of Heartless, but a) it's much bigger, and b) it consists of different kinds of Heartless than the previous encounter, subtly hinting that they were sent by someone else.
3) While SDG and Ping were throwing down with the Heartless at the Checkpoint, a man in a Black Coat has infiltrated the Encampment! Sora and the gang confront him, but he remains utterly silent and produces a sword made of pure Darkness (spoiler: it's Riku, but Sora doesn't recognize Soul Eater or Riku's stance with it as a result of Namine's assorted tampering with his memories). It looks like things are going to come to a fight, and then another mob of Heartless show up. Inexplicably, the Man in the Black Coat actually helps our heroes fight off the Heartless, but disappears in the confusion before he can be questioned.
Given the conflicting events, Shang concludes that the Black Coats are both bad news/untrustworthy, but that Shan Yu is still the higher priority. Not only because he's invading China, but also because one or more Black Coats seem interested in joining forces with him -- most certainly an alliance of evil to be prevented if at all possible.
Our heroes then scout up the Mountain Trail and battle through another swarm of Heartless in doing so, with Mulan-as-Ping showing ever more confidence in her burgeoning fighting skills, but they don't have a Black Coat encounter on their way to the Village.
While the Imperial Army regroups at the Village, Shan Yu is spotted entering a nearby Cave. The gang investigates without telling Shang like in the game.... but this time, instead of a mob of Heartless, Sora and Ping have to fight the Black Coat from the Encampment!Riku attacks Mulan without a word, gradually escalating as he pushes her to her absolute limits, even as Sora helps to fight him off (as Donald and Goofy are separated by a barrier again). As suddenly as the Black Coat began his attack, he abruptly stops, and with no more than a silent nod, vanishes into a Dark Corridor. (read: he was there to gauge Sora's power and skill for himself to see how Sora's recovering, as well as to measure Mulan's progress for her to be able to defend her World without Sora or Riku being there to help. For now, at least, he is content with their respective progress). However, the question still remains: where did Shan Yu go, and how did he leave the Cave without anyone seeing him?
Meanwhile, Shan Yu has still destroyed the Village and pretty much obliterated the Army during our heroes' absence, and since retreated up the mountain. Almost as if to taunt the heroes (and audience) for being so preoccupied with the Black Coats.
Hot on Shan Yu's trail, the gang climbs up to the Summit, where the Hun leader ambushes them with nothing less than a horde of Heartless. As in the game, Mulan resorts to a mortar-induced avalanche to dispose of them all at once, but is subsequently outed as a woman. We basically follow canon for the remainder of the episode, with the heroes discovering that Shan Yu survived and is going to attack the Imperial City, racing back down the mountain to try and head him off, and having a proper Heroes vs Shan Yu showdown at the Palace Gates.
We get the same happy ending to the episode as in canon, with one significant departure: as the heroes are celebrating Mulan's new status as the Hero of China, we pan out to a rooftop, and see DiZ watching the scene in disdain and briefly expressing frustration at the good feelings running rampant below. Given that his goal is later revealed to be using Sora as a weapon against the Organization, it can be inferred that he was behind at least some of the Heartless attacks (intending both to make Sora stronger and believing that a higher bodycount would've also helped to sharpen his blade with anger), as well as helping Shan Yu in some of his plotting for similar reasons (as well as interfering with the Black Coats).
______________________
Now, what I did (or intended to do) with Land of Dragons was to change and elevate the importance of the episode in context of the larger game, without actually changing the plot of the episode all that much. I did this by using it as an opportunity to continue showing that there are multiple forces at play beyond SDG, all of whom have mysterious goals they're working toward. Organization XIII wants (long term) to complete Kingdom Hearts and (short term) to increase their power by getting stronger Heartless and Nobodies. Aside from Organization XIII, there is another Black Coat who's got about a 50-50 track record on helping Sora vs attacking him, so who knows what his deal is. And then the player knows that DiZ is also scheming schemes of some kind, though Sora doesn't know about that yet.
.....also, Rikansem at LOD 1 was still working with DiZ at that time, but seeing DiZ collude with Shan Yu might've been the catalyst (or one of them, anyway) for breaking off from DiZ and doing his own thing.
Moving on.
Beast's Castle, part 1
Canon: In large part thanks to Xaldin's involvement, Beast's Castle (both parts) has pretty much always been one of the best parts of KH2, so in a lot of ways I'm kind of hesitant to mess with it. But having said that, let's see if we can't find anything else interesting to do here.
So we open with a Heartless battle in the Castle Parlor, until Beast comes in like one seriously pissed off big damn hero, stomps everyone (including SDG), and promptly nopes off with his enchanted Rose. SDG are understandably perturbed by their ally's behavior, and investigate the castle. The start by interviewing Belle, and we know in canon that Xaldin's been trolling Beast and playing on his insecurities to further the Organization's B-plot.
rewritten version: As others have noted, this is a pretty good story already, and even BC 1 still furthers the overall plot as far as confirming the Organization's B-goal. So for the most part, we instead use this episode to further some of the new/original-but-offscreen angles that are being explored more in depth here.
SDG do see a girl at the top of the stairwell, but it wasn't Belle -- it was Namine, whose purpose in being there we don't find out until later.
Anyway, SDG's investigative journey through the castle goes pretty much like in canon. Talking with Belle, moving the wardrobe to get at the Dungeon, freeing the other servants and escaping via the Secret Passageway, etc, just leaving the nagging question of "but if it wasn't Belle, then... who was that girl?"
After SDG confront the Beast in his room and bring him back to his senses, Beast mutters about how "she was right". "She?" someone asks. Beast then explains about how he'd been visited by a girl in white who tried to tell him (if not in these words) that Xaldin's a punk-ass douchebag trying to drive a wedge between him and Belle, and that Belle really did have Beast's best interests at heart. Unfortunately, Xaldin had already gotten too far under the Beast's skin (and it's not like Beast was in a state to believe someone when they were telling him good things), and he sent her away.
Our terrific trio once more increased by one, they go looking for Belle, whom they learn is chasing after Xaldin, and then whoop ass against the Giant Boss Heartless he tried to sic on her.
Somewhere among the end-of-episode denouement (a word I learned from Marluxia btw; thanks Marly!), DiZ appears before Sora. "Beware of the girl in white," he ominously warns the heroes. "Her name is Namine, and she's a witch with power over memories."
Sora: "But she tried to help the Beast, didn't she?"
DiZ: "I don't claim to know what her plans are, but I can assure you this: Namine has worked with Organization XIII to enslave your heart in the past, Sora. And it was in my mansion that you recovered."
Sora, Donald, and Goofy have appropriately WTF-ish reactions to that bombshell and briefly try to figure out when the hell that would've been, before coming up blank. They turn back to DiZ to question him further, but he's already disappeared.
End of Beast's Castle 1
_____________________
So at this point, DiZ basically doesn't care about Namine for the most part (she's not a Nobody in this version so she manages to sidestep his hateboner somewhat), but does recognize her as a potential threat to his plans for Sora and knows that he won't be getting her again without Riku's cooperation. So for now, his best bet is to try and manipulate Sora into also seeing her as a threat, and in the best case scenario either Namine will be brokenhearted enough to stay away from him permanently, or Sora will end up cutting her down himself. More realistically, by sowing seeds of doubt and leading Sora to distrust Namine, while presenting himself as "the guy who helped you wake up after she enslaved you and also has common enemies with you", he's trying to edge his way into some influence over Sora. Naturally this won't pan out in the long term, but we've now established the players in the game thusly:
Sora, Donald, Goofy, and friends: Good guys! HUZZAH!
Organization XIII, Maleficent: Bad guys! BOO! HISS!
DiZ: shady as hell, but presents himself as helpful to Sora. Maybe not as bad a guy as he seems? (he is, for the most part)
Namine: Beast says she tried to help him, but supposedly she's connected to Organization XIII and has apparently done some really bad stuff to Sora in the past. Is she really as benevolent as she appears? (actually, she's even sweeter)
Riku Seemingly Unaffiliated Black Coat: who even knows what the heck that guy is planning? (HE'S THE WILD CARD, BITCHES!)
_________________
Anyway, the original game forcibly cuts over to Hollow Bastion to start the Hundred-Acre Wood subplot, so we can leave this bit alone. And in fact, this might not be a bad time for a Roxas interlude!
I'd probably suggest making it the Photo Thief episode; this shows Roxas as a pretty cool dude around town, being on good terms with HPO and the shopkeeper NPCs, and it also suggests ("We have come for you, my liege.") that Roxas has or had some power or authority over Nobodies (and as a member of Organization XIII, he did).
Roxas defeats the Nobodies and recovers the stolen photos, suggesting that a) he's not a bad guy, and b) he doesn't know or perhaps remember his association with the Nobodies. And hasn't Namine, said to have control over memories, been seen around him too? Curiouser and curiouser....
And with all these additional questions raised to be preying on the audience's minds.... it's time for Olympus Coliseum 1!
_____________
______________
Questions/comments, anyone?
Ruminations thus far, copied and pasted from my own posts in that other thread....
(note: SDG = Sora, Donald, and Goofy; HPO = Hayner, Pence, and Olette)
_________________
Okay, so the concept here is completely rewriting KH2 (FM). Not taking into account supplemental material/the manga or other adaptations, but still keeping other games in the series in mind (that take place before KH2, anyway, so... KHI, COM, and Days), this is how I personally would do it. Having said that, I do confess that I'm going into this with certain fanfic biases/habits of my own in play, and while I'm trying to curb them, they may still show up from time to time, so feel free to agree/disagree on whatever.
To start with, have the game immediately start with Roxas's Dive into the Heart as a cold open, just like Sora's was the opening of KHI. This still allows for the "choose the sword/shield/staff" thing that determines the order in which Sora gains abilities, but also serves to cut out most of the tutorial aspects of Roxas's story.
As soon as Roxas finishes off the Twilight Thorn, cut to Sora, Donald, and Goofy waking up from their stasis pods and starting their new adventure. I place it that way to kind of heighten the "WTF?" factor on the abrupt change between Roxas and Sora as player characters, but in hindsight it likely wouldn't be a problem to have some scenes before or after Roxas's Dive into the Heart to establish him as being friends with Hayner, Pence, and Olette.
The remainder of Sora's first Twilight Town visit, and the following Hollow Bastion visit, can more-or-less go unaltered, but as the party leaves Hollow Bastion after helping Leon at the Bailey, the rest of the game (especially the Disney Worlds, which are the primary focus of this initiative) needs to be in/formed around the plans of all three main factions:
1) Organization XIII, which is the biggest part of the original game's plot. This includes the eventual reveal that Roxas is actually Sora's Nobody, but also bear in mind that their main goal is to complete Kingdom Hearts by having Sora slaughter Heartless by the truckload and feeding into it. They also have the secondary goal of trying to corrupt strong-hearted individuals in order to get control over both their Heartless and their Nobody.
2) Maleficent, who despite not walking the path of heaven still wants to rule over everything. After her defeat in KHI, her current goals/priorities are establishing a new base of operations and re/gaining allies. Before moving on to conquering the universe, she does specifically want to destroy Sora as the greatest obstacle to her ambitions, so expect her to actually get a boss fight this time around.
3) DiZ, an all-around tool at the start of the game who suddenly rediscovers his conscience in the last hour or so of the plot. He didn't really get to do shit in the original game outside of the prologue and endgame, so this time around he'll actually be plotting stuff. Note that while he wants revenge against Organization XIII and wants to hamper their plans, he's considered to be a villain/antagonist up until his later face-turn.
3.5) Riku, who initially is working with DiZ as long as awakening Sora is concerned, but later takes on a more "distant/mysterious protector" role afterward.
3.5a) Namine, who initially is working with DiZ and Riku to awaken Sora, but proceeds to GTFO almost immediately afterward to keep DiZ from repeating the COM plot and using her powers to control Sora for his own ends. Namine, who in this version has no relation to Kairi and their resemblance is wholly coincidental (and otherwise isn't a Nobody), thus spends her story watching over Sora from afar as she tries to keep DiZ, Organization XIII (again), and/or eventually Maleficent from getting their grubby evil mitts on her for her powers. She and Riku are generally on the same page as far as trying to help/protect Sora from a distance without getting too close to him out of their respective senses of guilt (Namine for her role in COM, Riku obviously for his douchebaggery in KHI), but because of their mutual hangups it's less that they "are a team/faction" themselves and more that their paths/actions often intersect or parallel one another. As a Witch with power over memories, she may or may not still remember/know about Xion, but as of this post that isn't expected to play a role in the current story. Also, just because it's relevant: because she's not Kairi's Nobody, there's no ship-teasing between her and Roxas. If anything, she's more likely to end up getting scenes with Riku because they both remember the events at Castle Oblivion, and may gradually kind of just end up bonding over their shared guilt of wronging Sora when he'd be so readily prepared to forgive them both on the spot.
So with all of that in mind? The next phase of the game will cover up until the Disney Castle/Timeless River story.
For my own reference and rumination, I believe the remaining flow the game basically goes:
Land of Dragons 1, Beast's Castle 1, Olympus Coliseum 1, Disney Castle + Timeless River, Port Royal 1, Agrabah 1, Halloweentown 1, Pride Lands 1, Twilight Town 2, Space Paranoids 1 + Hollow Bastion 2, All Other Disney Worlds 2, Space Paranoids 2 + Hollow Bastion 3, Twilight Town 3, and finally The World That Never Was.
Atlantica and Hundred-Acre Wood are excluded for being minigame worlds with multiple mini-episodes that can fit basically anywhere in that sequence, and Atlantica is especially excluded because, being an ongoing minisodic world like it is, needs a lot more work as far as rewriting it. Hundred-Acre Wood, however, is more-or-less fine as-is IMO.
Finally, there would be periodic Roxas interludes spaced throughout the Disney Worlds, mostly at times when Twilight Town is inaccessible to Sora.
________________
Land of Dragons part 1:
Canon: basically a rehash of the movie starting from
Rewritten version: the opening act of SDG reuniting with Mushu and meeting Mulan is good as-is, because quite frankly it's hilarious and good character interaction. For similar reasons, the following scenes can stay as well. (Sora: "Who's side are you on?! I just got slugged!")
But as for those Missions that Captain Shang hands out? That's where we get potential to do some interesting stuff.
After
In the game, they involve 1) investigating "a strange figure" seen at the Checkpoint (but is really just mopping up Heartless), 2) a repeat of the same, and 3) a mysterious infiltrator in the Encampment.
1) As the gang enter the Checkpoint, they encounter a member of Organization XIII (possibly Xigbar), hood still up. The Nobody taunts Sora by spouting some cryptic shit, and makes some vague, offhand reference to Shan Yu, hinting that they consider him a possible candidate for their "make people fall to Darkness in order to get control over both their Heartless and their Nobody" plan. With some parting wise-ass remark or another, the Org. XIII member then summons a swarm of Heartless to attack Sora before disappearing. The heroes defeat the Heartless and go back to Camp.
2) Is just another mob of Heartless, but a) it's much bigger, and b) it consists of different kinds of Heartless than the previous encounter, subtly hinting that they were sent by someone else.
3) While SDG and Ping were throwing down with the Heartless at the Checkpoint, a man in a Black Coat has infiltrated the Encampment! Sora and the gang confront him, but he remains utterly silent and produces a sword made of pure Darkness (spoiler: it's Riku, but Sora doesn't recognize Soul Eater or Riku's stance with it as a result of Namine's assorted tampering with his memories). It looks like things are going to come to a fight, and then another mob of Heartless show up. Inexplicably, the Man in the Black Coat actually helps our heroes fight off the Heartless, but disappears in the confusion before he can be questioned.
Given the conflicting events, Shang concludes that the Black Coats are both bad news/untrustworthy, but that Shan Yu is still the higher priority. Not only because he's invading China, but also because one or more Black Coats seem interested in joining forces with him -- most certainly an alliance of evil to be prevented if at all possible.
Our heroes then scout up the Mountain Trail and battle through another swarm of Heartless in doing so, with Mulan-as-Ping showing ever more confidence in her burgeoning fighting skills, but they don't have a Black Coat encounter on their way to the Village.
While the Imperial Army regroups at the Village, Shan Yu is spotted entering a nearby Cave. The gang investigates without telling Shang like in the game.... but this time, instead of a mob of Heartless, Sora and Ping have to fight the Black Coat from the Encampment!
Meanwhile, Shan Yu has still destroyed the Village and pretty much obliterated the Army during our heroes' absence, and since retreated up the mountain. Almost as if to taunt the heroes (and audience) for being so preoccupied with the Black Coats.
Hot on Shan Yu's trail, the gang climbs up to the Summit, where the Hun leader ambushes them with nothing less than a horde of Heartless. As in the game, Mulan resorts to a mortar-induced avalanche to dispose of them all at once, but is subsequently outed as a woman. We basically follow canon for the remainder of the episode, with the heroes discovering that Shan Yu survived and is going to attack the Imperial City, racing back down the mountain to try and head him off, and having a proper Heroes vs Shan Yu showdown at the Palace Gates.
We get the same happy ending to the episode as in canon, with one significant departure: as the heroes are celebrating Mulan's new status as the Hero of China, we pan out to a rooftop, and see DiZ watching the scene in disdain and briefly expressing frustration at the good feelings running rampant below. Given that his goal is later revealed to be using Sora as a weapon against the Organization, it can be inferred that he was behind at least some of the Heartless attacks (intending both to make Sora stronger and believing that a higher bodycount would've also helped to sharpen his blade with anger), as well as helping Shan Yu in some of his plotting for similar reasons (as well as interfering with the Black Coats).
______________________
Now, what I did (or intended to do) with Land of Dragons was to change and elevate the importance of the episode in context of the larger game, without actually changing the plot of the episode all that much. I did this by using it as an opportunity to continue showing that there are multiple forces at play beyond SDG, all of whom have mysterious goals they're working toward. Organization XIII wants (long term) to complete Kingdom Hearts and (short term) to increase their power by getting stronger Heartless and Nobodies. Aside from Organization XIII, there is another Black Coat who's got about a 50-50 track record on helping Sora vs attacking him, so who knows what his deal is. And then the player knows that DiZ is also scheming schemes of some kind, though Sora doesn't know about that yet.
.....also, Rikansem at LOD 1 was still working with DiZ at that time, but seeing DiZ collude with Shan Yu might've been the catalyst (or one of them, anyway) for breaking off from DiZ and doing his own thing.
Moving on.
Beast's Castle, part 1
Canon: In large part thanks to Xaldin's involvement, Beast's Castle (both parts) has pretty much always been one of the best parts of KH2, so in a lot of ways I'm kind of hesitant to mess with it. But having said that, let's see if we can't find anything else interesting to do here.
So we open with a Heartless battle in the Castle Parlor, until Beast comes in like one seriously pissed off big damn hero, stomps everyone (including SDG), and promptly nopes off with his enchanted Rose. SDG are understandably perturbed by their ally's behavior, and investigate the castle. The start by interviewing Belle, and we know in canon that Xaldin's been trolling Beast and playing on his insecurities to further the Organization's B-plot.
rewritten version: As others have noted, this is a pretty good story already, and even BC 1 still furthers the overall plot as far as confirming the Organization's B-goal. So for the most part, we instead use this episode to further some of the new/original-but-offscreen angles that are being explored more in depth here.
SDG do see a girl at the top of the stairwell, but it wasn't Belle -- it was Namine, whose purpose in being there we don't find out until later.
Anyway, SDG's investigative journey through the castle goes pretty much like in canon. Talking with Belle, moving the wardrobe to get at the Dungeon, freeing the other servants and escaping via the Secret Passageway, etc, just leaving the nagging question of "but if it wasn't Belle, then... who was that girl?"
After SDG confront the Beast in his room and bring him back to his senses, Beast mutters about how "she was right". "She?" someone asks. Beast then explains about how he'd been visited by a girl in white who tried to tell him (if not in these words) that Xaldin's a punk-ass douchebag trying to drive a wedge between him and Belle, and that Belle really did have Beast's best interests at heart. Unfortunately, Xaldin had already gotten too far under the Beast's skin (and it's not like Beast was in a state to believe someone when they were telling him good things), and he sent her away.
Our terrific trio once more increased by one, they go looking for Belle, whom they learn is chasing after Xaldin, and then whoop ass against the Giant Boss Heartless he tried to sic on her.
Somewhere among the end-of-episode denouement (a word I learned from Marluxia btw; thanks Marly!), DiZ appears before Sora. "Beware of the girl in white," he ominously warns the heroes. "Her name is Namine, and she's a witch with power over memories."
Sora: "But she tried to help the Beast, didn't she?"
DiZ: "I don't claim to know what her plans are, but I can assure you this: Namine has worked with Organization XIII to enslave your heart in the past, Sora. And it was in my mansion that you recovered."
Sora, Donald, and Goofy have appropriately WTF-ish reactions to that bombshell and briefly try to figure out when the hell that would've been, before coming up blank. They turn back to DiZ to question him further, but he's already disappeared.
End of Beast's Castle 1
_____________________
So at this point, DiZ basically doesn't care about Namine for the most part (she's not a Nobody in this version so she manages to sidestep his hateboner somewhat), but does recognize her as a potential threat to his plans for Sora and knows that he won't be getting her again without Riku's cooperation. So for now, his best bet is to try and manipulate Sora into also seeing her as a threat, and in the best case scenario either Namine will be brokenhearted enough to stay away from him permanently, or Sora will end up cutting her down himself. More realistically, by sowing seeds of doubt and leading Sora to distrust Namine, while presenting himself as "the guy who helped you wake up after she enslaved you and also has common enemies with you", he's trying to edge his way into some influence over Sora. Naturally this won't pan out in the long term, but we've now established the players in the game thusly:
Sora, Donald, Goofy, and friends: Good guys! HUZZAH!
Organization XIII, Maleficent: Bad guys! BOO! HISS!
DiZ: shady as hell, but presents himself as helpful to Sora. Maybe not as bad a guy as he seems? (he is, for the most part)
Namine: Beast says she tried to help him, but supposedly she's connected to Organization XIII and has apparently done some really bad stuff to Sora in the past. Is she really as benevolent as she appears? (actually, she's even sweeter)
_________________
Anyway, the original game forcibly cuts over to Hollow Bastion to start the Hundred-Acre Wood subplot, so we can leave this bit alone. And in fact, this might not be a bad time for a Roxas interlude!
I'd probably suggest making it the Photo Thief episode; this shows Roxas as a pretty cool dude around town, being on good terms with HPO and the shopkeeper NPCs, and it also suggests ("We have come for you, my liege.") that Roxas has or had some power or authority over Nobodies (and as a member of Organization XIII, he did).
Roxas defeats the Nobodies and recovers the stolen photos, suggesting that a) he's not a bad guy, and b) he doesn't know or perhaps remember his association with the Nobodies. And hasn't Namine, said to have control over memories, been seen around him too? Curiouser and curiouser....
And with all these additional questions raised to be preying on the audience's minds.... it's time for Olympus Coliseum 1!
_____________
______________
Questions/comments, anyone?
Last edited:
EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
I actually thought of that a bit ago, and it really isn't too hard for DiZ to spin that in a way that works for his story.
"Before you went into your recovery sleep, Namine must have mind-controlled Jiminy into making that note so that the lot of you would be inclined to trust her again, and make it easier for her to get control over you again."
Or something like that.
- Location
- East of the Sun and West of the Moon
Hell, you could work it into the Dive into the Heart itself. Stained glass of the trio, visions of them that disappear when Roxas tries to interact with them, shit like that.
So the idea with Roxas is basically to spread the getting to know him from the prologue across the game, and have the reveal that he sacrificed his existence for Sora be a late-game climax kind of thing? That could probably work, though honestly I liked the end of Roxas's story enough (poor kid) that I kind of automatically side-eye changes to it.
Well, you've got the KH numbering scheme down pat.
I'd just note here that it's a lot harder to control the narrative of a fight in that kind of video game, where you've got the player running around doing whatever bullshit and messing with your pacing.
Or he just claims Namine wrote it herself. She clearly altered the journal by wiping it clean, so why wouldn't she stoop to forgery?
Because Jiminy Cricket is the one who writes in it and the writing is in scale to him, so it would be physically impossible for her to be actually able to write something that small let alone have it look exactly like Jiminy's handwriting at the same time.
@EvaUnit01 Would it be breaking too many rules if Sora just kind of had a weird feeling about DiZ's explanation in regards to the journal from the getgo? "That... doesn't sound right"
EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
I like that idea, although come to think of it you'd expect Axel and Xion to have stained glass portrayals in his Dive too.
The way I look at this, is that I'm not trying to change the story so much as expand on it. And a consequence of that is that DiZ, Namine, and Riku (and to a lesser extent, Organization XIII and Maleficent+Pete) are all doing a helluva lot more stuff onscreen than in the original game.
Like.... the main thing I'm trying to do is edit the Disney Worlds to that they do more to further the main plot of the game instead of being filler. As far as Roxas's story is concerned, he still has the same canon ending (and I agree with the "poor kid" sentiment), I'm mostly just spreading his story out and rearranging it somewhat.
The "gameplay canon", if that's something we're going to go into, is that Sora and Ping have a boss fight with Black Coat Riku by themselves, with Donald and Goofy unable to help, and that BCR mysteriously disappears partway through.
This:
Not necessarily, but it would more likely fall under an umbrella weird feeling about DiZ in general, that shady SOB.
Last edited:
- Location
- East of the Sun and West of the Moon
Sure, sure. I'm with you on the Disney filler and so forth, it's just that changing Roxas's prologue, even just what part of the game it shows up in, gets a kneejerk "if it ain't broke" reaction from me.
On reflection, however, I can definitely dig interweaving it with the main narrative like you're talking about. Because someone going in blind is generally going to expect the two narratives are happening concurrently, and maybe Roxas and Sora team up for the last world. And then comes the reveal that this blond kid you've been following is effectively dead, has been this whole time, and the whole game's worth of adventures Sora's had only happened because Roxas sacrificed his existence. Welp.
EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
Yep, pretty much.
I'll get to work on Olympus Coliseum 1 whenever I get the time to work on it, although upon reflection it's actually a remarkably busy world in KH2, especially in comparison to several of the other Disney Worlds in that game. You have Demyx stealing the Olympus Stone, Hades using Pete in a plan to trick Sora into unlocking the Underdrome, summoning Auron and toying with his free will in a bid to try and off Hercules once and for all (again)....
Last edited:
Bleach project proposal
EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
So, I've been thinking about some kind of Bleach project. Now, I'm still super-early into my reread thereof, so if I decide to go through with it, it won't be for a pretty long while.... but I'm still going to go ahead and present an interest-check so I can mull things over in the back of my mind.
If I were going to run a Bleach quest of some kind, what kind of premise would most interest you?
[]When Uryu uses the Hollow Bait in his initial dick-measuring contest with Ichigo: a Wild Adorable Arrancar Girl appears! (Nel pops up that early, and may or may not be the protagonist)
[]Ichigo first activates his Fullbring powers on the night he meets Rukia, before she resorts to giving him her Soul Reaper powers.
[]YuYu Hakusho crossover story, with the two works taking place in the same universe and starting at roughly the same time.
If I were going to run a Bleach quest of some kind, what kind of premise would most interest you?
[]When Uryu uses the Hollow Bait in his initial dick-measuring contest with Ichigo: a Wild Adorable Arrancar Girl appears! (Nel pops up that early, and may or may not be the protagonist)
[]Ichigo first activates his Fullbring powers on the night he meets Rukia, before she resorts to giving him her Soul Reaper powers.
[]YuYu Hakusho crossover story, with the two works taking place in the same universe and starting at roughly the same time.
Last edited:
King Arthur
The Once and Future King
One of these two.
EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
The main obstacle regarding the YYH option is that I need to actually re/watch a lot YYH to prep for it.
In large part because I've seen most of the Dark Tournament arc, but I missed out on a lot of the early stuff except for Genkai's introductory arc.
Contrasting with the Early Nel option where I only have to re-familiarize myself with one series instead of two, but I have to go a lot further into it before I'd be able to start, where as for the crossover option I could start after doing the opening arcs of each.
Of course, I could combine the two options, but that feels just a bit shady....
King Arthur
The Once and Future King
Honestly I just wanted the YYH one because I like YYH a lot. In fact, I flat out think it's a massively superior show to Bleach.
On the other hand I'm not entirely sure Bleach and YYH would actually go well together as a single setting, so maybe the Nel thing is the smarter choice.
EvaUnit01
Kept you waiting, huh?
I actually agree.
Eh, I'm
Not in Person
Once Known as The Nobody
- Location
- A place
[X] The one where you educate us, unrelated people, about what is Bleach actually about, and what exactly is so good about it. Other then protagonist's power levels being higher than everyone else's, and his uniqueness more unique than everybody's combined.
Dark Lord Potato
Aspiring OverLord from Canada
- Location
- Ottawa, Ontario
One of these two. Still need to watch YuYuHakusho.
- Location
- East of the Sun and West of the Moon
Not like you haven't had practice mushing together random settings.
As for your actual question, Bleach kinda fell off my radar for some reason before Nel or Fullbrings showed up, so the YuYu Hakusho option looks like the only one where I'd be able to follow most of what was going on.