okay i believe you
—Almost everyone at some point
"Let's describe Kingdom Hearts In A Nutshell here. We are Tropers." "You are right." "HAHAHAHAHAHAHAHA."
Kingdom Hearts is a Role-Playing Game video game series made by Square Enix. It is known for, among other things, its mix of Final Fantasy and Disney characters and massive Kudzu Plot. After some initial rumblings, the series became a smash hit, with almost every installment released being given critical acclaim and selling a ton of copies.
Kingdom Hearts in a Nutshell, however, is a video series making fun of almost everything about the game, entirely through the use of sound bytes or Microsoft Text-to-Speech programs. It's tonally similar to many Abridged Series, in that it will lampshade some of the dumber aspects of its original series, and it does not take itself seriously one bit (nor the original franchise, for that matter). There are several other videos surrounding the series, some of which expand on the running gags, others are Pancake's own insights on the Kingdom Hearts series (such as why he likes how Xemnas is portrayed up until
Dream Drop Distance, or why he thinks Aqua is a bad character until she is given proper depth in 0.2 A Fragmentary Passage).
Just A Pancake's channel can be found here. Originally, these videos were released one at a time in late 2017, adding installments as they came out, including for Kingdom Hearts III. An entire compilation of the series can be seen here, though it does not include the side-videos.
Special Attack: Mega Description Trope Ball of Tropes and Descriptions...& Knuckles:
- Abridged Series: It effectively does describe the plots of each Kingdom Hearts game in a nutshell.
- Accidental Misnaming: Due to the text-to-speech programs' pronunciations, Riku is called "Raiku", Kairi is pronounced "Carry", and Xehanort is pronounced "Zeenort/Z-Naught".
- Alcohol-Induced Idiocy: According to Master Xehanort in the Birth by Sleep recap, the Keyblade War was started because some drunk guy thought Kingdom Hearts was full of infinite booze.
- Adaptational Jerkass: In canon, Sora is a happy-go-lucky beacon of sunshine and rainbows to everyone around him (except for a few cases in the earlier games before he got Flanderized). In this series, Sora is routinely the Only Sane Man who sees the logical inconsistencies and complains about the plot. The most notable difference is how in the main games, Sora is head over heels for Kairi. In this series, Sora appears to be more annoyed by Carry's mere existence than anything.
- Adaptational Villainy: Mario, as depicted here, is now Italian Xehanort.Sora: I swear to God, if I see another Xehanort...
Mario: It's-a me, Italian Xehanort! - Advertised Extra: Mickey states that the only reason he shows up for a single scene in Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days is so Nomura can put him on the box art.
- Affably Evil: Almost all of the antagonists as they are portrayed are nice to all of the protagonists. Except for Young Xehanort.Young Xehanort: Suck my dick.
Sora: Rude! - Affectionate Parody: It's quite clear from all of the videos he's made of Kingdom Hearts that Just a Pancake does honestly love the series.
- Argument of Contradictions:
- In Kingdom Hearts Re:coded in a Nutshell:Roxas: You can't handle all the hurt.
Data-Sora: Yes I can!
Roxas: No you can't.
Data-Sora: Yes I can!
Roxas: No you can't.
Data-Sora: Yes I can!
Roxas: You have defeated me. - And in Kingdom Hearts III in a Nutshell:Vanitas: Darkness.
Sora: Light!
Vanitas: Darkness.
Sora: Light!
Vanitas: Darkness.
Sora: But why?
Ventus: But why darkness?
Vanitas: I am darkness.
Ventus: Why not light?
Vanitas: I like darkness.
Ventus: Darkness?
Vanitas: Darkness.
Ventus: ...okay.
- In Kingdom Hearts Re:coded in a Nutshell:
- Author Filibuster: Pancake will sometimes make his feelings quite clear on certain games' writing right in the middle of their videos.
- Bag of Spilling: After Yen Sid mentions that Sora and Riku will forget all their abilities for the Mark of Mastery exam, Sora protests, but agrees to the exam after Riku accepts.
- Berserk Button: After telling them how thankful he is for having them fight with him, Terra immediately declares that he hates Ven and Aqua after Aqua tells him to stop using darkness.
- Big Damn Heroes: The Keyblade wielders are surrounded by Heartless, and escape seems impossible. Enter Yen Sid, who finally gets to say what he's been trying to say for several videos now.Yen Sid: MY NAME... SPELLED BACKWARDS... IS DISNEY! *clears a path for the party to go take on Xehanort*
- Big Stupid Doo Doo Head:
- The go-to insult by the characters is "you idiot poopface", mainly those who have their voices portrayed by Daniel (UK) of Oddcast's text-to-speech software.
- Marluxia calls Sora a "stinky" when the latter tries to summon Blue-Eyes White Dragon in Chain of Memories.
- Blunt "Yes": When Neku asks if Sora is stupid, the latter responds with "YES! I am!", with a huge smile on his face.
- Call-Back: Axel tries to get through to Roxas by telling him "Let's eat some ice cream. We are best friends." Roxas doesn't react.
- Catchphrase:
- Yen Sid always tries to say "My name spelled backwards is Disney." He only succeeds twice.
- Aced only says "Woof" after being suggested that he growl at his enemies.
- Axel's famous "Got it memorised?" has been rendered here as "Did you remember it?".
- Catchphrase Interruptus: Any time Yen Sid attempts to say his catchphrase, "My name spelled backwards is Disney", someone else will interrupt him before he can finish. Only the very first and very last times does he manage to say the whole thing.
- Character Derailment: Invoked and lampshaded. Vexen shows up to apologize to Ansem the Wise and explain that he was just a good guy who lost his way. Ansem the Wise points it out.ATW: That doesn't fit your character at all, but I believe you.
- Comically Missing the Point: Raiku doesn't seem to understand what he's supposed to be doing with Mickey.
- Continuity Lockout: Invoked and joked about by Axel/Lea in the video about Kingdom Hearts III. The guardians of light are all gathered there, and Yen Sid tells them the final battle is tomorrow. Axel asks if they should get to know each other. Yen Sid counters that you should know them if you played all the Kingdom Hearts games.Lea/Axel: Dammit! I only played Kingdom Hearts I and II.
- Department of Redundancy Department:
- Several times Ansem SoD and Raiku use the Mega Destruction Dark Ball of Darkness and Destruction. & Knuckles.
- Pancake stops to go on a rant when Ansem Seeker of Darkness uses the line "darkness within darkness awaits you."
Pancake: Okay, time out. Who the hell wrote this script? I mean, really. Darkness within Darkness. Darkness within freakin' Darkness. - Don't Explain the Joke: One of the Freeze-Frame Bonus jokes is when Aced starts daydreaming about the gummi bears, and Just a Pancake adds an entire paragraph informing us that the reason why he is doing so is because he is also dressed as a bear (and that we should watch the show since it was very good).
- Duck Season, Rabbit Season: Aced accidentally confesses to the Foretellers.Gula: Aced is the traitor.
Aced: No I'm not.
Invi: Yes you are.
Aced: No I'm not.
Eva: No you are not.
Aced: Yes I am. *beat* Barnacles! - Dull Surprise: Sometimes, especially in games where he's in his Kingdom Hearts I attire, Sora will let out a blank "Huh?" when the series spouts something particularly confusing.
- Easily Forgiven: After Sora defeats Master Xehanort a final time, the latter convinces everyone that he's well-intentioned, albeit misguided. Everyone but Sora believes him.Master Xehanort: I'm actually a misguided good guy.
Sora: Who could ever believe—
Everyone else: OKAY, I BELIEVE YOU.
(Beat)
Sora: I'm gonna kill myself. - Flat Joy: Laughter is always flat as can be courtesy of the text-to-speech, especially when Axel, Xion, and Roxas are doing it.
- Forgot I Could Fly: In Chain of Memories, Raiku learns how to smell where people are because of darkness. He forgets how to do this every video after, and can't find anyone with his blindfold on.
- Freeze-Frame Bonus: Just a Pancake has a tendency to drop blocks of text in his videos which only pop up for a single frame.
- Gendered Insult: Maleficent greets Sora and his friends as "ladies" when they confront her at Hollow Bastion in "Kingdom Hearts 1 in a nutshell.""Good afternoon, ladies. Prepare to meet your doom."
- Get Out!: In "Kingdom Hearts 2 in a nutshell", Aerith passes on to Sora a gift from Leon, in the form of a card with Shrek's face written with "Get out of my swamp" on it.
- Gratuitous Japanese:
- Characters will occasionally say "Nani?" in place of "What?"
- In the 3D recap, Sora also lets out a brief "Bakana!" instead of "Impossible!", when Xemnas states that Nobodies can have hearts.
- There are also a few instances of Xemnas exclaiming "YAMETE!"
- Hair-Trigger Temper: Tell Terra to stop using the darkness, even after he expressed gratitude for your help literally five seconds before, and he will yell he hates you and run away.
- Heel–Face Turn: Any time an antagonist character turns their ways around, they announce "I am a good guy now" (often followed up by "Okay, I believe you").
- Horrible Judge of Character: It's a Running Gag that characters will just accept everything anyone else has to say, even the Obviously Evil characters, all starting with Ventus taking Vanitas at his word. Always accompanied with, all together now...okay i believe you
- Hypocritical Humor: In The Kingdom Hearts Retrospective, Just a Pancake talks about what makes the original game so good and later discusses why Birth by Sleep sucks. The points are nearly identical. (Example: The original game has a Bittersweet Ending where the three main friends fail to reunite, which hits players right in the heart, while Birth by Sleep has a bittersweet ending where the three main friends fail to reunite, which is a stupid idea for an ending.)
- Karma Houdini: Despite all dying, as in canon, and with the notable exception of Young Xehanort, every antagonist bows out audience sympathy and is usually taken at face value by the good guys. The most notable example of this is Master Xehanort, defeated by Sora, admitting that he was a misguided good guy all along, and everyone (but Sora) just accepts it immediately.
- Logic Bomb: Repliku crashes sometimes.
- For Sora, it's contradicting Repliku's belief that he's the one to protect Namine.Repliku: I will protect Namine!
Sora: I will protect Namine!
Repliku: *holds out star charm* I have her good luck charm!
Sora: *holds out his own star charm* I have her good luck charm!
Repliku: DOES NOT COMPUTE. DOES NOT COMPUTE. SYSTEM SHUTDOWN. - For Raiku, it's claiming to be the real Raiku.Raiku: Who are you?
Repliku: I am you.
Raiku: I am me.
Repliku: DOES NOT COMPUTE. DOES NOT COMPUTE. SYSTEM SHUTDOWN. - By the time of Kingdom Hearts III, the idea of creating a new replica for Repliku's heart doesn't register either.
- For Sora, it's contradicting Repliku's belief that he's the one to protect Namine.
- Major Injury Underreaction: When they're not doing an over-the-top death scream, characters will usually react to any injuries with a calm "ouchie ouch", regardless of the severity.
- Mangled Catchphrase: Data-Sora's version of the series' breakout line is "The arguments you have presented seem believable".
- No Fourth Wall: The series addresses reality, Square Enix, and even the main series' writing for the sake of humor.
- Nobody Can Die: Lampshaded.Sora: What is this place?
Chirithy: What bothers you?
Sora: Everyone's flippin' dead!
Chirithy: You silly-billy, this is a Kingdom Hearts game. No one can die.
Sora: Crap, you're right!
* smash cut, everyone is back in the Keyblade Graveyard*
Sora: We're back, baby! - Only Sane Man: Sora seems to be the most aware of all the highly unlikely or overly-complex things going on around him. Most notably, he constantly complains about how everyone seems to end up getting Keyblades left and right.
- Overly Long Gag:
- "Let's eat some ice cream. We are best friends." "You are right." "Hahahahaha." Repeat several times.
- "Hello Roxas." "I am not Roxas." "Goodbye Roxas." "I am not Roxas." Repeat for each Organization fight in Kingdom Hearts II.
- Pokémon Speak: Several characters only say one thing and have it translated in the subtitles. Donald says "Quack," Goofy says "ES LEBE DEUTSCHLAND!", and Master Xehanort says "χ-BLADE!", which extends to Terra-Xehanort mostly saying "DARKNESS!"
- Rule of Cool: After being given any explanation for why some illogical thing is in the series, or why certain plot twists happen with no buildup or hinting, the response is usually "Because Nomura thought it would be cool."
- Rule of Three: Sora tries to summon the Blue-Eyes White Dragon three times in the Chain of Memories video. It works on the third time. Later on "Kingdom Hearts 3" video, Sora wants to go to the Realm of Darkness after every "Two Disney Worlds" later, only to be stopped by Donald. Only at the third time, after receiving a call from Dale, Donald demands them to go to the Realm of Darkness with Sora sporting an unamused expression.Sora: Let's go to the Realm of Darkness!
Donald: Quack. (No.)
(Two Disney Worlds later)
(Sora receives a call)
Dale: Raiku and Mickey are in danger!
Donald: Quack quack quack! (Let's go to the Realm of Darkness!) - Running Gag:
- Yen Sid trying to say "Also my name spelled backwards is Disney" and then getting interrupted.
- The Mega Destruction Dark Ball of Darkness & Destruction & Knuckles never actually hitting anything, or never doing any damage when it does. Except in the Kingdom Hearts III recap, in which Ansem Seeker of Darkness corrupts Aqua with it, causing Raiku to insult Aqua for getting hit.Raiku: You have to be an idiot to be hit by the Mega Destruction Dark Ball of Darkness and Destruction.
Evil Aqua: (angry yell, charging at Raiku)
Raiku: It's just a prank, bro. - Kingdom Hearts II in a Nutshell:Organization Member: Hello, Roxas.
Sora: I am not Roxas!
Organization Member: Goodbye, Roxas. (dies)
Sora: I am not Roxas! - Every time a character accepts another character's statement without having any reason to, it cuts to that character's face photoshopped on top of Ventus' saying "okay i believe you."
- "I am not [character]. I am... evil [character]."
- Every time a character gets hurt and/or killed, they say "Ouchie ouch!"
- Running Gagged: After fighting Luxord and Saïx back to back and having to say "I am not Roxas" four times in a row, Sora finally asks Riku why people keep calling him Roxas. The running gag stops after this, which is just as well, since there weren't any more Organization members to fight after that point in the story besides Xemnas.
- Running Gag Stumbles: In the Dream Drop Distance episode, Joshua informs Raiku that the Sleeping Worlds are split into two, to which Raiku responds "okay I do not believe you". Though he immediately changes his tune when Joshua mentions that Sora is on the "other side".
- Sanity Ball: The whole series is built to make fun of and lampshade poor choices, bad writing, and strange story beats across the Kingdom Hearts series, so at any given moment, one character will be the Only Sane Man in a given scene before going back to being a fool in the next. Sora holds the ball most often, occasionally King Mickey does as well, but neither is immune from the things they make fun of.
- Schmuck Bait: Marluxia asks Sora to follow him at the opening of Chain of Memories, and says that doing so is most definitely not a trap. Similarly, Young Xehanort asks Sora and Raiku to keep taking their Mark of Mastery tests because they are most definitely not traps. Predictably, he believes them.
- The Scream: Characters screaming in defeat or emotional pain are depicted with Yaju Senpai's scream.
- Sdrawkcab Name: Yen Sid tries to lampshade that his name spelled backwards is Disney at every turn, but only manages it in his first appearance in Birth by Sleep, and in a Big Damn Heroes moment in Kingdom Hearts III.
- Self-Deprecation: Just a Pancake loves to take potshots at his own jokes.
- According to the Master of Masters in "χ - Back Cover in a Nutshell", his apprentices collectively reciting "okay we believe you" to everything he says is dumber than the jokes by Just a Pancake himself.
- In "The Ansem Interview Show", Ansem invites Just a Pancake to react to a comment that says "OK i believe you.", to which the latter remarks that he found it funny at first, but eventually found it repetitive with time. Adding to the self-deprecation, Ansem proceeds to cut him off before he can explain further.
- "Shaggy Dog" Story: Pancake's opinion of Kingdom Hearts coded, because the video opens with Ventus saying "Nothing happens."
- Share Phrase: Pretty much every Running Gag that isn't Pokémon Speak gets repeated by everyone enough to where it may as well be a "shared catch-vocabulary".
- Shoo Out the Clowns: Axel laments being the comic relief character when he is nearly killed by Xemnas, fearing this is about to happen.
- Shout-Out:
- "Come forth, Blue-Eyes White Dragon!"
- When Data Raiku brings everyone to the digital world, Mickey asks if they get their own Digimon. Sadly, no.
- Yen Sid tells the party "Fly, you fools!" while he holds off the Heartless.
- In the recap of Back Cover, Aced gets distracted by thinking about Adventures of the Gummi Bears. Unfortunately, the Master of Masters asks that he not think about them because it will get the video copyright-striked.
- Mickey's "Stopza" from Dream Drop Distance is accompanied by a "ZA WARUDO!" voice clip.
- Signature Line: "okay i believe you", more than anything, is the most recognizable line in the series, partly because of just how everywhere it is.
- Soundtrack Dissonance: L E A D M E I N T O E V E R L A S T I N G D A R K N E S S mocks the infamously unskippablenote cutscene prior to the fight with Ansem-Riku in the first game by replacing the background music with cheery Spongebob Squarepants music and dubbing over Ansem-Raiku's and Donald's voices with their TTS voices from the Nutshell videos (though Sora keeps his actual voice).
- Stating the Simple Solution: In "The Ansem Interview Show", Ansem berates Johnny for turning the darkness off and tells him to turn it back on. When Johnny says he is unable to reach the light switch, Ansem tells him to stand up, which Johnny can't do because he only has one leg, to which Ansem then asks if he's tried using the darkness. Johnny gets fired when responding that he doesn't know what Ansem is on about.
- Stylistic Suck: Just A Pancake's videos often feature poorly drawn versions of Kingdom Hearts characters, by Just A Pancake himself.
- Subverted Catchphrase: The "okay I believe you" line is played with in Kingdom Hearts 0.2 a Fragmentary Passage in a Nutshell:Aqua: But that doesn't make any sense.note
Terra: It's a Kingdom Hearts game. Nothing makes sense.
Aqua: Okay I trust you.
Just a Pancake: (for a split second) Did you really expect a "Okay I believe you"? - Suddenly Voiced: The only time Xehanort says anything that isn't "χ-BLADE!" is revealing that he's actually a misguided good guy, right before he dies.
- Suicide as Comedy: When everyone accepts Master Xehanort's explanation of really being a misguided good guy, Sora remarks "I'm gonna kill myself." He then changes it to "I'm gonna go save Carry." (Which requires him to kill himself.)
- Title Drop: Mocked. When Namine asks Sora to let her fix his chain of memories, Pancake inserts a sitcom laugh track with the phrase "SHE SAID THE TITLE OF THE GAME!" slowly fading in.
- Too Dumb to Live: The Birth by Sleep recap has Terra go to the Keyblade Graveyard because Master Xehanort assured him it’s definitely not a trap... right after he killed Eraqus and flat-out told him that he was evil (though he does question himself why he still takes such a Schmuck Bait).Terra (wandering through the Keyblade Graveyard): Why am I still listening to him?
- To Win Without Fighting: In The 13th ASSistant, a twerking Donald animation usually tackles through the Organization members to defeat them. For Saïx? He shows an insult: "Get a heart loser LMAO". VII didn't take it well, self-KO-ing.
- Trademark Favorite Food: Roxas, Axel, and Xion, as in canon. Every day, they eat some ice cream. They are best friends.Roxas (and later Xion): You are right.
Everyone: HA HA HA HA HA - True Sight: Averted with Raiku's blindfold. In the games, it was a sort of power limiter to keep him from indulging in darkness too much, but it allowed him to follow people based on the scent of darkness they let off. In this series, it's just a blindfold and he routinely has no idea where anyone is.
- Unfortunate Name: Rearranging Xemnas's name spells out "Mansex." The narrator in "The Epic Story of Xehanort" refers to Xemnas as "No-I-Am-Not-Making-A-Mansex-Joke."
- Vitriolic Best Buds: Mickey and Raiku in this continuity have a strange bromance where they both mess with each other at every opportunity.Mickey: He offered to get us out of the Realm of Darkness for only ten dollars. You owe me five bucks, by the way.
- Vocal Dissonance: Master Erasqueeze and Xaldin's voices are both depicted with the voice of an Indian woman.
- Well-Intentioned Extremist: After losing to Sora, Master Xehanort reveals he was a misguided good guy the whole time. Everyone just accepts it (except Sora).
- Who Writes This Crap?!: It happens a lot, but most notably when Ansem Seeker of Darkness goes off on the writers when he says that "Darkness within darkness" awaits Raiku.
- Yank the Dog's Chain:
- Outside of "Birth by Sleep in a nutshell", Yen Sid comes close to announcing what his name spelled backwards is multiple times, only to be cut off before finishing his sentence.
- Ansem invites Yen Sid as a guest to his game show, Darkness, and baits him into answering what his name spelled backwards is. Before Yen Sid is able to fully answer the question, Ansem cuts him off at "Diz" and awards him with two tickets to Disneyland, and Yen Sid requests that his soul be taken in response.
- Yen Sid writes a letter to Santa and requests that he be able to announce what his name spelled backwards is for Christmas, but runs out of room to fully write out "Disney" at the end of the letter."You gotta be kidding me. You absolutely have to be kidding me. There is no room left on the letter. No!"
- Ansem invites Yen Sid as a guest to his game show
- After everything the party has gone through, everything Xehanort is done, and all the shit he's personally been through, Terra finally asks Master Erasqueeze if he can be a Keyblade Master now. Master Erasqueeze turns him down.Master Erasqueeze: No pass.
- Outside of "Birth by Sleep in a nutshell", Yen Sid comes close to announcing what his name spelled backwards is multiple times, only to be cut off before finishing his sentence.
- Your Answer to Everything: Ansem has a habit of making some mention of the darkness as the solution for one's problems, context be damned.
Also, my name spelled backwards is Disn-
