Web Animation / Another Time, Another Story

Another Time, Another Story is a Kingdom Hearts web series directed by The Killer Critic, meant to be a Fix Fic for Kingdom Hearts III.
As of this writing, all present tropes are from The Killer Critic's two-part series of "Fixing Kingdom Hearts 3's Story", on which he bases his series on, as well as a trailer.

Unmarked spoilers ahead. You Have Been Warned

• Adaptational Alternate Ending: Unlike in the games, both Sora and Kairi survive the Keyblade War, and the story ends with a clear Happily Ever After.
• Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Throughout the worlds, the Organization constantly taunts Sora and Kairi about their desire to protect each other, and the events of the worlds does plant some seeds of doubt into them.
  • A notable moment is the visit to Monteropolis; there, Vanitas hits Sora with the scream-extracting device, modified to make people live their worst fears. Sora then relives the night Destiny Island fell to darkness, and faces illusions of Roxas and Xion, who go through a Break Them by Talking tactic. Afterwards, he sees himself as Xehanort's vessel, killing Kairi. This Trauma Conga Line broke Sora, causing him to be seriously afraid and tell Kairi he's not okay when she asks him if he is.
  • Furthermore, in a Wham Episode, Sora becomes Xehanort's vessel.
  • On the long term, this is to make the Happily Ever After at the end all the more satisfying.
• Adaptational Context Change: Here, Luxord's Wild Card is used to Summon the completed Organization members (namely, Dilan, Even, Aeleus, Ienzo, Isa, Lauriam and Elrena, as well as the Somebodies of Demyx and Luxord himself. The only Organization members that are not summoned are Xemnas, Xigbar, Axel, Roxas and Xion, the former two being Killed Off for Real, and the latter three were already there when the Wild Card was used.) While it's currently unknown how the Wild Card works in the games, it working differently from here is a given.
• Adaptational Expansion: To compensate for Arendelle being Adapted Out, several other worlds were visited. Lilo & Stitch is a confirmed world as of this writing.
  • In terms of already existing worlds, Zurg is a boss in the Toy Box, and Randall's Villain Team-Up with Vanitas is more developed.
• Adapted Out: Arendelle; the only character present from Frozen is Elsa, who appears as a summon.
  • The subplot with Subject X was removed.
  • Instead of Chirithy, it's Eraqus that helps Sora in the Final World.
  • Sora does nothing to help Riku and Mickey to save Aqua from the Realm of Darkness, Anti-Aqua being fought by Mickey.
• Alas, Poor Villain:
  • Luxord is a Graceful Loser and gives Sora the Wild Card. Pretty much like in canon, except it happens earlier, and this time, Kairi is by Sora's side.
  • Larxene zigzags this, as she doesn't have time for last words, being mercilessly murdered by Sora in Rage Form.
  • Marluxia begins to regain his memory as he fades away and gives a sad yet genuine laugh, feeling emotion for the first time in years and apologizes to Kairi for the pain he caused her, Sora and Namine.
  • Xigbar goes through a self-imposed Disney Villain Death after revealing that he wanted a Keyblade of his own. Since Kingdom Hearts χ is not canon, it's implied that Xigbar actually dies this time around.
  • Saix makes amends with Axel after finally admitting his own jealousy of Roxas and Xion before dying in his friend's arms, promising to meet him again as a human. This goes just like in canon.
  • Terra-Xehanort averts this when he gets booted out of Terra's body by his Guardian Heartless—possessed by Terra's heart—after trying to kill Aqua and Ven. He then comes back, but Terra then kills him for good.
  • Zigzagged with Dark Riku, who is just as determined to prove he's the real Riku. However, he's slain by Roxas and Ventus, the former going through an identity crisis because of the latter. Roxas sees himself in Dark Riku's shoes and decides to let go of his jealousy towards Ventus.
  • Just like in canon, Ansem finally acknowledges that Riku has triumphed over the power of darkness and accepts that his own time has passed, offering words of encouragement to him to move on.
  • Xemnas and Young Xehanort avert this. Xemnas in particular is subjected to a Karmic Death, being killed by Roxas, the one person Xemnas screwed over the most, while Young Xehanort taunts Terra over his failure to save Eraqus. (Though Xemnas still has his "It must take incredible strenght" line, indicating he at least has some Villain Respect for the Clock Tower Trio.)
  • Vanitas reveals Sora the Training from Hell Xehanort put him through, and passes him over his Void Gear.
  • Master Xehanort has a Death Equals Redemption moment, finally seeing the monster he became, and, with his last breath, begs Eraqus to forgive him. It may be a case of Heel–Face Door-Slam, because no one in-universe feels sorry for Xehanort's death.
• Alternate Universe Fic: There are many implications that Kingdom Hearts χ is not canon.
• And Then What?: The Destiny Islands Trio wonders what will happen when (and if) they won the Keyblade War.
• Author Filibuster: The entire web series started as a rant made by The Killer Critic in which he states that everything that could go wrong in Kingdom Hearts III went wrong: the Sequel Hook for a Kingdom Hearts IV, Subject X being Remember the New Guy?, Kairi getting kidnapped, Xehanort being a Karma Houdini (one would understand this one better should they watch Just A Pancake's Kingdom Hearts III recap) and the ending being a Bittersweet Ending rather than a Happily Ever After. He even goes as far as to go that Sora fighting Anti-Aqua makes Riku and Mickey losers. (Which is why Sora does nothing to help Riku and Mickey save Aqua in Killer's series, as noted at Adapted Out above.) In fact, he claims that's the case for any fight in which you had the potential for a fight with an impact on the heroes (Mickey vs. Anti-Aqua, Aqua and Ventus vs. Terranort, Riku vs. Repliku, Axel vs. Saix, Roxas and Xion vs. Xemnas), since you fight those bosses as Sora.^note While Re:Mind does allow you to fight Dark Riku and Xigbar as Riku, and Terranort and Vanitas as Aqua, Killer finds it to be too little, too late.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: Xion goes through one with the Xehanort fragment put into her. She wins.
• Beta Couple: Sora and Kairi are this for Roxas and Xion, as well as Terra and Aqua.
• Book Ends: This series ends in a similar manner to how Kingdom Hearts started: Sora, Riku and Kairi go out to explore the worlds.
• Call-Back: The series starts with Sora staring at the horizon, saying that the world is too small. Young Xehanort does the same thing in Birth By Sleep.
  • During his final battle with Xemnas, Roxas tells him one of his most iconic lines from Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days:
    Roxas: "I am me! Nobody else!"
  • Sora makes one all the way from the first game when he stops the Lich from taking Kairi to the afterlife:
    Sora: "Forget it! There's no way you're taking Kairi's heart!"
• The Cameo: Lotso, Waternoose, Noctis and Ardyn would be secret bosses if this web series was a game. Oswald the Lucky Rabbit would be one as well, but only if Mickey is in the party while visiting Disney Castle.
• The Cavalry: Formed by the Disney characters Sora befriended throughout the series, the Final Fantasy cast and the original Organization XIII, excluding Xemnas and Xigbar.
• Death by Irony: A subverted example; in Sora's nightmare, Kairi is killed by the one person she loved and trusted the most, which is Sora himself. The subversion comes from the fact it's All Just a Dream.
• Death Equals Redemption: Xehanort, after snapping out of his Villainous Breakdown, has such a moment, finally seeing the monster he became and, with his last breath, asking Eraqus to forgive him. Of course, since everybody hates Xehanort, no one forgave him.
• Downer Beginning: If this web series was a game, the start menu would show Xehanort winning.
• Earn Your Happy Ending:
  • Just like in canon, the Clock Tower and Wayfinder Trios manage to reunite.
  • This is also the case for the Destiny Island Trio; they've been through a lot (and the Adaptational Angst Upgrade doesn't help much), and yet they pulled through.
• Foreshadowing: The aforementioned Call-Back foreshadows that Sora will become Xehanort's vessel.
• Happily Ever After: Every one of the heroes gets this.
  • Roxas, Xion, Axel, Isa, Hayner, Pence and Olette become a big group of friends, with Roxas and Xion being implied to have feelings for each other.
  • Terra, Aqua and Ventus's story is rather bittersweet because of Eraqus's death, but they're still together, and it's stated that Riku is now teaching Terra how to control his darkness, which is ironic since Riku is Terra's successor.
  • Ansem the Wise, Even and Ienzo are free from their dark past.
  • Sora and Kairi finally have The Big Damn Kiss. The secret ending goes through a Time Skip, showing Sora and Kairi's wedding.
• Karmic Death: Xemnas goes through this, being killed by Roxas, the one person Xemnas screwed over the most.
• Moment Killer: Xehanort's Villainous Breakdown prevents Sora and Kairi from having The Big Damn Kiss.
• Relationship Upgrade: Sora and Kairi have two throughout two days. The first one is sharing the Paopu fruit before the Keyblade War. The second one is The Big Damn Kiss at the end. And that's without counting the Time Skip when they get married.
• Ship Tease: Between Roxas and Xion, as well as Terra and Aqua. Most evident with Sora and Kairi being Shippers On Deck, but the ending also gives this for Roxas and Xion.
• Take That!: Given the air The Killer Critic has in his rant described at Author Filibuster above, this entire series could be considered a massive "F you" towards Nomura.
• Time Skip: The secret ending takes place years after the Keyblade War, showing Sora and Kairi getting married.
• Villainous Breakdown: Xehanort has one when he realizes all his plans were ruined by "a dull, ordinary boy", and plans to make all Guardians of Light suffer through Cold-Blooded Torture, with Sora being Forced to Watch.
• Villain Respect: In spite of how viler most Xehanort incarnations are. When Xemnas attempts, with his final breath, to taunt the Clock Tower Trio by saying that, no matter how hard they'll try to end their pain, someone will just bring more, Xion replies by saying that pain is human, much like Sora did in canon. Xemnas then responds with his last words in canon:
  Xemnas: "Really? It must take... incredible strenght..."
  • And then there's Ansem's Villain Respect towards Riku, which was kept from canon.
• Wham Line: The battle between Rage Form Sora and Xehanort ends with the same line as the one between Terra and Xehanort in Birth By Sleep:

  Xehanort: "Only now have I truly won..."