TVTropes Now available in the app store!
Open

Follow TV Tropes

Cor Autem Aurora

Go To

I’m Carbuncle! the creature says - not with words, but plain as day all the same. It tucks its head under Sora’s waiting hand, and he obligingly scratches at the base of one of those long ears.
“Nice to meet you,” he says. “I’m Sora!”
Carbuncle pauses and looks up at him in something like surprise.

The sky? it says, the end lilted upward like a question.
“Uh, yeah,” says Sora, standing upright again. “That’s what it means.”

Oh! Carbuncle says, and then it leaps into the air, squeaking excitedly. Then you’re like him! The same sky!
—Chapter 2

Cor Autem Aurora, written by HakureiRyuu with earlier chapters co-written by Isis_the_Sphinx, is an ongoing Crossover Fix Fic between Kingdom Hearts and Final Fantasy XV. Set after the events of Dream Drop Distance, Sora is led by a strange Dream Eater named Carbuncle to the world of Eos, where a precarious ceasefire has been struck between the empire of Niflheim and the kingdom of Lucis. When the balance tips, Sora teams up with the world's Princess of Heart, Lunafreya, to clear the path for the one true king to destroy the darkness once and for all. Of course, life isn't quite that simple...


This work provides examples of:

  • Actually Pretty Funny: Hearing "Swim This Way" and then hearing that it was written by a talking lobster has Luna doubled over in laughter and leaning on her trident.
  • Adaptational Badass:
    • Luna gets to show off a little bit of combat prowess here. At the Disc of Cauthess she easily blocks a surprise dagger strike from Ardyn with her trident, and later when Ardyn tries to corrupt Sora, she blasts him with divine lightning from her covenant with Ramuh, killing him over and over until he flees.
    • Riku figures out how to turn his Keyblade into a Glider, which isn't something he can do in the games.
  • Adaptational Sexuality: Sora, Riku, Noctis, and Prompto are all bisexual. Crowe offhandedly mentions to Aranea that she and Libertus are both gay.
  • Adaptational Villainy: Caligo Ulldor was already a villain in XV, but here he's also a serial sexual predator and pedophile. Niflheim gets a dose of this by association, as Ulldor's behavior is an open secret that no one in command cares enough to address.
  • Armor-Piercing Question:
    • When Luna tries to send Sora away, claiming that she has to make her journey alone, he asks if she would ask Noctis to make his trip all by himself.
    • To dissuade Iris from joining him in the Trials of Gilgamesh, Gladio tells her that he can't protect her and undertake the trials, but Iris shoots back with "Then what kind of Shield are you?" and stops him in his tracks.
  • Ask a Stupid Question...: Nyx asks who the hell Riku is when Riku blasts Drautos with a Thundaga. Riku's answer is "Riku."
  • Awesome Anachronistic Apparel: Sora notes that Ardyn Izunia is wearing a very odd combination of clothes from what seems to be a variety of different eras, all in different states of disrepair (some articles look new while others threadbare). That said, Sora doesn't really see the attire as "awesome".
  • Badass Teacher: Lunafreya becomes one for Kairi. Luna has spent her whole life learning how to be a Princess of Light, and is more than happy to pass that knowledge on to Kairi.
  • Bad Liar: Sora can't tell a lie to save his life, and everyone who knows him himself included acknowledges that.
    Sora: I'm really not supposed to tell [where the Keyblade came from] and I'm bad at lying. Do I have to?
  • Big Bad Duumvirate: Ardyn and Xehanort are working together. Everyone confirms it after they encounter Vanitas - who Sora knows to be working with Young Xehanort - working for the Empire.
  • Bilingual Bonus: The fic's Latin title translates to "Heart of Light."
  • Bizarre Alien Biology: When Donald cast that spell that transforms Sora to match the world he's in, it also changed his normal human form and modified his metabolism to follow the same Cartoon Physics that apply in their world because Donald has no idea how human biology actually works. The end result is that Sora doesn't get hungry unless there's food in front of him, can eat impossible amounts, and can sustain himself without food for weeks. Prompto expresses his concern over this but apparently it hasn't affected Sora's physical development.
  • Blatant Lies: The prophecy states that the "most virtuous of the Lucis" are those who "were raised to sit at Bahamut's right hand". When Luna brings this up, Noctis immedietely calls bullshit by citing crimes that the original owners of the Royal Arms did, such as maintaining deals with the mafia, displacing millions of people from their homes, screwing over other nations in trade deals, and more.
  • Blow You Away: When Sora calls Roxas for help, the one who responds is actually Ventus, which is signaled by a gust of wind.
  • Broken Pedestal:
    • It's implied that Dave is planning to have a very long discussion with his mother after he finds out she kicked her sister out of thei village for having magic and lying to him that she's dead.
    • Gladio starts seeing his father and the Insomnia army in a very different light after realizing how Iris was treated by their father and how few women are actually enlisted - and mostly in long range or non-combat positions.
  • Call-Back:
    • Luna makes a reference to the old legend mentioned all the way back in Kingdom Hearts I, about how the Keybarer can be a force that brings chaos or balance.
    • Sora recognizes Vanitas from back in Dream Drop Distance when he saw a vision of him during a confrontation with Young Xehanort.
    • When Sora manages to summon a second Keyblade again, it's Ventus's Missing Ache Keyblade.
  • Clothing Damage:
    • Anti-Form Sora manages to ruin Adryn's coat during their fight, which he meticulously maintained for 180 years. He is extremely miffed about it. Anti-Sora then rubs salt to the wound by laughing at him.
    • Sora, Kairi, and Riku's clothes are enchanted specifically to avoid this trope; they are even permanently clean.
  • Cold-Blooded Torture: Ignis subjects Ulldor to several days of this, including things like having him Bound and Gagged, deprived of all nutrition, depriving him of sleep by taping headphones with extremely loud death metal music to his ears, as well as some very creative usage of his daggers. Most of the party (except the Keyblade wielders) is vaguelly aware of what Ignis is doing, but don't do aything about it.
  • Composite Character:
    • Of sorts. "Oracle" is the title the people of Eos use for "Princess of Light."
    • Noctis is described by Sora and Kairi to be "like Sora", but that he also has a lot of Riku in him.
  • Combat Pragmatist: When Gilgamesh orders Iris and Gladio to take out the Heartless despite lacking Keyblades, Iris remembers Riku telling her that they obey the strongest will in the room. So she shoots Gilgamesh to remove him from the equation and make herself that person.
  • Connected All Along: Ardyn took his fake surname from Xehanort Izunia.
  • Cool Bike: Riku can turn his Keyblade into a three-person hoverbike.
  • The Corrupter: Ardyn. He tries turning Sora into a Daemon, and later he leads Ravus through a Dark Corridor while lying to him that it's completely harmless - after a whole lot of psychological abuse.
  • Crisis Catch-and-Carry: When Luna makes her Covenant with Titan, Noctis is simultaneously in a fight with Loqi and his mech; the effect of the Covenant hits Noctis mid-warp fifty feet in the air, and he drops to the concrete. Loqi's thoroughly-trashed mech nearly falls on top of him before Libertus scoops him up and Gladio shields them from the impact.
  • Cruel and Unusual Death: How Ulldor dies. After subjecting him to days or Cold-Blooded Torture, Ignis leaves him in the Stayliff Grove catacombs tied up with magic wires he found there. He comes back some time later to find said wires having doubled in size and crushing Ulldor's entire body and even going into his body and one around his throat. Ignis proceeds to use his daggers to roll him to the edge of a balcony where Aranea is waiting at the bottom to gleefully mock Ulldor for trying to beg for his life. Ignis then drops him, and suddenly the wires grow thorns that grow from the inside of his body, starting with his eyes and reducing him to Ludicrous Gibs. And that's the quick version. Ignis wanted to take his time killing him.
  • Curb-Stomp Battle:
    • The attack on Insomnia, of course, as we get to see from the ground level through Kairi and Riku as they work with the remaining Kingsglaive to save civilians.
    • Ardyn doesn't break a sweat besting Sora, knocking away his Keyblade, and subduing him. Once Ardyn inadvertently triggers Anti-Form, though, he's put on the defensive, and then Luna arrives to smite him into oblivion over and over with Ramuh's lightning until he's forced to retreat.
  • Death Glare: Riku's introduction to Noctis and his retainers was a glare that according to him looked like "he would kill them if they touched Sora" - justified as they were ready to strike him down due to Anti-Form. Though later he wonders how exactly he's going to make up for that first impression.
  • Dies Differently in Adaptation:
    • Crowe kills Luche after Sora inadvertently thwarts his assassination attempt on her.
    • Iedolas puts on the Ring of the Lucii as his airship leaves the assault on Insomnia, and is promptly found unworthy and burned alive.
    • Loqi is killed in an early confrontation with Noctis and his retainers; while there's no explicit death for him in XV proper, he goes out pulling a You Shall Not Pass! to save Aranea in The Dawn of the Future.
  • Didn't See That Coming:
    • Fed up with Sora's interference, Ardyn lures him away, subdues him, and pumps him full of Starscourge. It does turn Sora into a being of darkness, but unfortunately for Ardyn, the being of darkness is Anti-Form, and it's angry.
    • After the dust has settled, Vanitas enters Insomnia to steal Riku and Kairi's Gummi Ship...only to find it already stolen by a third party identifying themself in a cheeky note only as "E".
  • Distant Prologue: The story begins with a young Xehanort visiting Ardyn in his prison at Angelgard.
  • Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: After Sora accidentally pokes something in the catacombs that Titan was guarding, the Astral attacks him. Cue Luna starting yelling at Titan for "throwing a temper tantrum" and "attacking a child".
  • Distracted by the Sexy: Sora can barely keep up with the conversation when he runs into Iris because he's so focused on Gladio's size, and eyes, and scar, and biceps, and abs, and...
  • Dramatic Irony:
    • Sora has no idea that Ventus is sleeping in his soul, confusing him for his Identical Stranger Roxas (who also sleeps in Sora's soul). Vanitas is extremely amused at his ignorance.
    • Noctis has no idea that the Daemon who attacked him as a child was Gladio's mom. When Gladio finds out he swears to never tell him.
  • Dreaming of Things to Come: On the day he's about to leave Insomnia, Noctis dreams of the night before his death, the final time he and his friends will get to camp together, all while pondering on the endless time loop. When Noctis wakes up, he hardly remembers the dream - he doesn't remember what he was thinking and he has zero context of the situation, only noting that the camp fire seemed to be the only source of light around.
  • Dream Walker: Carbuncle leads Sora to Eos as it was at the beginning of XV through adult Noctis's dreams of the past—according to the authors, specifically by using the Power of Waking to traverse Noctis's heart.
  • Dumpster Dive: One of the first things Sora does when he hits Lestallum is go dumpster diving. He finds a few pieces of gil and some lightning shards, to his delight.
  • Eldritch Abomination: Kairi defines Vanitas as a Sora-shaped void in the world.
  • Eldritch Location: Whatever is going on at the Steyliff Grove catacombs. The regular-looking paths resemble either fractals or the ribs of a spine, and then things start getting screwy, such as the almost-bottomless pit with it's nonesense fall physics, the time-reverting bridge, then things go literally sideways, and other locations have a ghost sea of some kind. It also has the property of absorbing all kinds of magical energy.
  • Embarrassing Hobby: Ignis apparently has an Instagram account dedicated to grooming routines for men. And then Sora discovers it. He makes a mental note to delete everything before the others find it too.
  • Eternal Recurrence: Eos is stuck in one. The events of Final Fantasy XV occur over and over in a loop that only its gods are aware of.
  • Even Evil Has Standards: Vanitas absolutely cannot stand Ulldor and thinks he's disgusting. When he goes to "rescue" him he has zero pity for the man and makes fun of him for being tied up and left to rot, and clearly thinks he deserves it.
    Vanitas: [...]-wow, dude. I may be darkness incarnate, but I have standards.
  • Fighting Fingerprint: Vanitas thinks that the similarities between his and Riku's sword stances make it obvious that they had the same teacher.
  • Flat "What":
    Sora: Well, don't worry too much if [Titan] gets out of hand. I've fought rock titans before!
    Luna: [starts to nod, then stops] Wait, what?
  • Foreshadowing: When Sora first runs into Crowe and displays his magic, in her internal monologue she makes a comment about "godless abomination worth driving out of village after village to have magic on your own". Twenty chapters later, the gang finds out that there ARE magic users and witches out of the royal family lines, hidden among the villages, driven out by prejudice and hiding from the crown in fear of what the royals may do to them.
  • From Bad to Worse: On top of the city's obliteration, Drautos escapes Insomnia with the Ring of the Lucii. Aldercapt puts it on and is quickly killed by it, leaving Ardyn free to claim it for himself.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation:
    • Prompto's point of view reveals that he has a pretty low self esteem. For example, he cannot imagine having a large impact of someone's life even when that someone was the dog he rescued as a puppy, and he also seems to have some body image issues if his comment about "staring at his stretch marks for too long" is any indication.
    • Noctis believes that he does not deserve any of the loyalty given to him by his friends and subjects.
  • Hypocrisy Nod: Sora acknowledges that he has used "Nobody" as an epithet - or to be more accurate, a slur - in the past, even though he doesn't like it when Vanitas uses it to insult Roxas. Mind you, Sora has gone through some Character Development since first finding out about the nobodies.
  • I Can't Feel My Legs!: Noctis takes a tumble from fifty feet in the air during the fight against Loqi. After Cor uses a Phoenix Down on him and the gang is back in the Regalia, Noctis realizes he can't feel his legs when Prompto taps his knee to get his attention and he fails to notice.
  • Identical Stranger:
    • Riku and Sora both mistake Iris for Kairi at different points. Riku, hilariously, makes this mistake immediately after Kairi cures his concussion during the battle of Insomnia.
      Riku: I'm okay. Are you— Why are there two of you?
      Kairi: Not the most reassuring thing you could have said!
      Iris: [simultaneously] Hi, I'm Iris.
    • Additionally, the group weaponizes Riku's resemblance to Noctis. Kairi dyes Riku's hair black, and Cindy and Ignis set him loose in the world with the Regalia, which bears a new license plate. Riku and the Regalia rendezvous with Vyv Dorden, and when Riku is accosted by MTs, he makes a public scene about being targeted by soldiers and fired upon just for resembling Prince Noctis, sowing seeds of unrest among the population.
  • I Never Said It Was Poison: An imperial officer tries to stop Noctis and his crew from crossing through a check point by saying that the Steyfill Grove ruins are closed. Prompto points out that they never mentioned any ruins.
  • Intimate Healing: Luna pulls Noctis into a Headbutt of Love when she heals him. After taking a shower, Luna crawls into bed with Noctis as the magic works through his body.
  • Knight of Cerebus: Both XV and Kingdom Hearts are full of 'em, but Caligo Ulldor takes the cake here. He manipulates and grooms Talcott into telling him information about the group's plan, nearly bludgeons Jared to death with his own cane, and then proceeds to sexually assaults Iris.
  • Lying to Protect Your Feelings: Regis lied to Noctis that the daemon that almost paralyzed him came from outside Insomnia, even though he was well-aware that it was actually Gladio's mother kept in the castle. Later on, after Gladio and Iris find out they decide to never tell Noctis the truth.
  • Mad Scientist: Sora's justification for asking Dr. Yeager if she ever considered experimenting on humans.
    Sora: Look, ninety-nine percent of the scientists I've ever met or heard of have been somewhere between unscrupulous and flat-out nuts.
  • "Magic A" Is "Magic A": The fact that this apparently doesn not apply in Eos has Riku - and the other Keybarers - extremely troubled. Riku spends hours trying to figure out the logistics around maintaining the wall of Insomnia (according to him, the only way it could have worked was if everyone in the continent shared the magic burden, yet that's absolutely not the case), and the fact that magic is supposedly restricted to only two families makes no sense to any of them because in all other worlds they visited, bloodlines have nothing to do with magic. The evidence keeps piling up that something is very wrong with Eos' magic.
  • Many Spirits Inside of One: According to Sora, he currently hosts Roxas, Naminé, and "that girl" (meaning Xion), but there could be more. He takes advantage of this trope when he, Riku and Kairi encounter and ancient mechanism that requires four people to open.
  • Masquerade:
    • Sora attempts to follow the Alien Non-Interference Clause of not revealing there are other worlds, but Luna encourages him and the others to talk about it openly to Noctis, dropping the deception.
    • It's revealed that there are actually magic users hiding all over Eos, completely disconnected to the Royal families; they are all in hiding due to prejudice and fear of what the Crown may do to them.
  • Missed Him by That Much: Sora was inside the Lestallum power plant while Riku was outside, yet they didn't run into each other for days.
    Riku: We must have missed each other a hundred times...
  • Mistaken for Related: Riku ends up at the receiving end of this quite frequently. Some people assume that he's a Royal Bastard of the Fleuret family — as he shares the family's trademark silver hair and light eyes, as well as their talent for magic — while others assume he's somehow related to Prince Noctis Lucis Caelum due to them being (almost) Identical Strangers. A tabloid even calls him Noctis' long-lost twin. In reality there's absolutely no relation because Riku is from a different universe.
  • Morph Weapon: Riku and Kairi only find out that Keyblades can transform thanks to an ancient book that displays images of a keyblade turning into a Solar Sail. Riku thn spends several hours trying to figure it out.
  • Mundane Utility: Noctis has a wheelchair, crutches, and a knee brace stored in his armiger.
  • My Friends... and Zoidberg: Sora half consciously introduces Riku, Kairi, and Noctis's party to each other by saying something good about each of them... And ends introductions with "an' Ignis, he's here too."
  • My God, What Have I Done?: Played for Laughs. Everyone immediately regrets giving Sora a Gummiphone and introducing him to texting and social media. Prompto, though, revels in the chaos.
  • My Greatest Failure:
    • Gladio arrives back in Lestallum only after Ulldor has nearly killed Jared and has sexually assaulted Iris, and not being able to protect his sister (who he belatedly realizes is his only remaining living family) throws his confidence in his ability to serve as Noctis's Shield out the window.
    • Sora appears to think that never noticing Riku's crumbling self-confidence back before the events of Kingdom Hearts I is his.
  • Mythology Gag:
    • At night, Luna asks which star is Sora's homeworld. He explains that it can be hard to tell; only some worlds keep fixed positions in the sky—"Like that one there, second star to the right."
    • Sora has some of his KHIII summons; particularly Simba, who manifests as a gigantic lion made of fire.
    • Kairi demands from Noctis he teaches her his teleportation trick (that one where he throws his weapon at teleports at where it landed). She actually does have that technique in the KHIII Remind DLC.
    • One of the previous Oracles was named Stella, after the scrapped Versus XIII character.
  • Named by the Adaptation:
    • Gladio and Iris's mother is named Protea in this fic.
    • Xehanort has the surname Izunia here.
  • Never Be Hurt Again: Iris, feeling powerless and helpless after Ulldor's attack, asks Noctis to make her a Kingsglaive and declares that she's joining Gladio in undertaking the Trials of Gilgamesh.
  • The Nicknamer: Prompto admits that he's a "nicknames kind of guy" after he calls Lunafreya "Luna".
  • Night and Day Duo: Noctis and Sora have this motif. Carbuncle calls them "the same sky", and in their shared dreams, Sora's side is a bright noon sky with some sparse clouds while Noctis' is a clear night sky where you can see all the stars. Their names also match this motif, with Sora meaning "sky" and Noctis meaning "night".
  • No Cure for Evil: Sora says that Riku used to have issues using Cure spells because he had issues with the darkness in his heart (which was too strong), but eventually figured out how to use them again after achieving balance. He uses this as proof that Noctis will eventually figure out spells he lost access to after he was infected with the Starscourge as a child, particularly Barriers and Cure spells.
  • Noodle Incident: Vanitas has been to Eos before.
  • The Nose Knows:
    • Ignis says that Umbra (the dog) "nose how to find them".
    • Riku references this trope when he mentions that he can't smell any darkness coming off Sora. The others are baffled.
  • O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Luna notes that Gentiana, for the first time she's ever known, sounds cautious when she asks what Sora, a Keyblade wielder, is doing in Eos.
  • Power at a Price:
    • Using the Royal Arms comes at the price of burning you from the inside - Noctis simply has the advantage of being able to instantly heal from that, as he is part of the bloodline, but it does nothing for the immense pain that comes with using them, or the Volcanic Veins that form while he does so. Prompto suggests that there's something wrong with them such as there was with the Astral Covenants, though Nocits isn't so sure because the Royal Arms are artifacts instead of contracts.
    • For Sora, using the Power of Waking comes at the price of breaking himself, or at least that's how Vanitas puts it.
  • Precision F-Strike: Kairi when she finally has enough of the way Vanitas treats all of them like they are dumbasses that are worth less than the dirt on his shoes.
    Kairi: Fuck this guy.
  • Properly Paranoid: Sora isn't away on Eos for very long before Riku is worried by his absence and goes after him with Kairi. Sure enough, their Gummi Ship touches down in Insomnia in the middle of Niflheim's assault.
  • Rape as Drama: Caligo Ulldor assaults Iris in Lestallum. How far he goes isn't specified, but it (combined with the near murder of Jared) deeply affects both Iris and Gladio, as well as their allies.
  • Refuge in Audacity: Lunafreya and Sora are caught escaping Fenestala Manor, with the maid that helped Luna held at gunpoint. Grasping, Lunafreya claims that Sora is kidnapping her, and Sora plays along (poorly) after a solid moment of open-mouth gaping at her. Somehow the guards are shocked enough that it works.
  • Screw Destiny: Carbuncle brings Sora to Eos to break the cycle the world is stuck in. Eventually it gets Gentiana in on the plan, and Ramuh helps to point Noctis and Luna in the right direction.
  • Screw This, I'm Outta Here!:
    • Elrena wakes up recompleted, only to witness Lauriam, recomplete but not yet awake, turned back into a Heartless and Nobody by Young Xehanort and Xigbar. When they set their sights on her next and she realizes she can't win in a fight against them, she turns into lightning and books it.
    • Aranea and Wedge decide it's high time they leave the empire because they can't figure what the higher-ups want,cand regardless of what that is, it's not actually helping the people of the empire.
  • Sealed Evil in a Can: Sora is curious about what's inside the Black Box and wants to open it. Riku retorts that he knows Sora has heard the story about Pandora's box. Vanitas implies that there is a corpse in it.
  • Seeing Through Another's Eyes: During the Trials of Gilgamesh, Gladio and Iris see various events of the past through the eyes of people other than themselves. For example, Gladio sees the attack that paralyzed Noctis as a child through the eyes of the Daemon that did it.
  • Shared Dream: Sora and Noctis share some of their dreams thanks to Carbuncle, most notably the one where Sora's asked "what do you fear, what do you value, what do you wish". Later Sora can see in Noctis' eyes what he has dreamed of even when awake.
  • Shout-Out:
  • Simple Solution Won't Work: Sora's strategy for dealing with Titan is to attack what he assumes is his weak point, namely the horns. Noctis then informs him that Titan doesn't have a weak point.
  • Situational Sword: Sora describes Keyblade magic as incredibly situational, so he can't pull off big attacks out of nowhere.
  • Sneaky Departure: While Sora is in Lestallum picking up camping supplies for himself and Luna, she leaves the haven to go find Ramuh and make her next Covenant.
  • Spanner in the Works: Carbuncle becomes this by bringing in Sora from the Dreaming Worlds to Eos to help Noctis.
  • Spared by the Adaptation: Crowe survives her assassination thanks to a timely and unintentional interruption from Sora, and Riku interrupting Nyx's duel with Drautos saves Nyx's life...and Drautos's as well, allowing him to escape with the Ring of the Lucii.
  • Spot the Imposter: While Noctis and Luna commune with Ramuh, Sora spots Young Xehanort fleeing the scene. He follows, and Xehanort taunts him. But Sora realizes that he isn't wearing his usual Organization cloak, he hasn't summoned his Keyblade, and for as much as he talks about Sora's friends, he never actually names them. Sora calls him out on the last one, and "Xehanort" reveals himself to be Ardyn.
  • Spotting the Thread: Noctis realizes that his father was the 13th Luci when he a) realizes that only the location of the tombs of the previous twelve was ever recorded, even though there were hundreds of monarchs on the throne, b) his father was indeed absurdly powerful by any reasonable standard, and c) the prophecy triggered right when his father died.
  • Take That!: Sora sings "Swim This Way" for Luna on their way to the Disc of Cauthess. Luna is less than impressed.
    Luna: Sora, that's atrocious.
    Sora: What! Come on, I'm not that bad!
    Luna: Not your voice, your voice is fine. Just... the song. It's unbelievably terrible.
    [beat]
    Sora: In fairness, it was written by a talking lobster.
  • Team Dad: According to Propmto, Cor Leonis is this to the party. Cor immediately denies this and says that he's a distant uncle several times removed.
  • Team Mom: Ignis is the one who does all the chores, maes sure everyone is fed and properly prepared for the journey, and is generally the responsible one. Lampshaded when Prompto likens the group to a big family and appoints Ignis the mom role.
  • Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: Despite currently working together, Ardyn and Xehanort both know that eventually their means to achieve their goals will become mutually exclusive. Neither of them is happy about it.
  • There is Another: Turns out Maleficent lied to Riku when she told him there were seven Princesses of Light. He's rather miffed with himself for believing her for so long when Lunafreya tells him there are more. Specifically, every world has one heart of pure light, but only seven in the multiverse have a fragment of the χ-blade at any given time.
  • Terrifying Rescuer: Vanitas shows up to "rescue" Ulldor from his Cold-Blooded Torture. Ulldor quickly realises in how much trouble he's in when he sees how absurdly powerful and callous Vanitas is, and that he'll be disposed of once Vanitas gets what he wants.
  • These Hands Have Killed: Prompto lands the killing shot on Loqi, and it shakes him.
  • Took a Level in Badass:
    • Iris. After Caligo Ulldor's assault in Lestallum, she convinces Noctis to make her a Kingsglaive.
    • Riku figures out how to turn his Keyblade into a Glider, which he never did in canon.
    • Sora figures out Shotlocks from watching Noctis, much earlier than he does in canon.
  • Took a Level in Cynic: Implied to be the case with Sora. He used to be able to fly no problem thanks to Tinkerbell's magic. However, now to his confusion he finds that he cannot bring himself to try. The requirment for Tinkerbell's flying magic to work is to think happy thoughts.
  • Travel to Projectile: As per the source material, Noctis can teleport to the locations he tosses his weapons at. Seeing this, Kairi demands he teaches her how to do it with her Keyblade. Noctis at first is at a loss at how to explain the trick, but apparently it's based on the steps to create a barrier spell. He warns Kairi against using it too often because it's a massive energy drain.
  • Troll: Ardyn, as per usual and taken to rather malicious levels. Can be best seen when he reveals that he has taken the Emperor's place to Ravus and only Ravus while he is swearing fealty to him in front of the Nilfhiem high command.
  • Twisting the Prophecy: Thanks to Sora being a Spanner in the Works by encouraging Luna to travel with Nctis and telling Noctis and the others of her poor condition, Team Noctis puts together that the Covenants will kill Luna. As a result, Noctis and Luna start messing around with how the Covenants are forged, basically making the Astrals work with Luna instead of through her. Kimya describes it as Luna "carrying the weight properly". For the Astrals, Ramuh and Gentiana (Shiva) are all in for it, though they have to talk Titan into it.
  • Uncanny Valley: An In-Universe case combined with Cybernetics Eat Your Soul. Everyone finds the MTs extremely unnerving and compare them to machines. Ignis apparently called them "soulless" off-screen, but it wasn't enough of a description...
  • Uncertain Doom: Vanitas' fate in chapter 26. Kairi and Riku manage to trap him into an exploding cage made of not-quite-Light, where they hear him scream in agony and when it fades he's no longer there. However, they're not sure if he's really gone, because Riku thinks that he tried escaping via Corridor and something (either the cage or the location itself) messed with it. On top of that, the Black Box is gone. They decide to treat the situation as "still alive but not a problem for now".
  • Unusually Uninteresting Sight: In contrast to all his teammates, Noctis is not weirded out by the stuff Sora can do in the slightest. He actually lampshades this because he knows he should be freaking out but somehow everything Sora does just "makes sense to him".
  • Wall Run: Sora is shown teaching Kairi how to run up vertical surfaces. He compares it to falling of all things, to which Kairi immediately points out that they're the exact opposite. Sora says she's overthinking it.
  • What's a Henway?: Noctis wakes up to Gladio reading the Cosmogony, Gladio saying that Cor gave it to him when he asked him some questions.
    Noctis: What the hell did you even ask Cor in the first place, if a copy of the Cosmogony is his answer?
    Gladio: Oh, nothing serious. I just had a couple questions about nunya.
    When Noctis thinks about his reaction later, and how he fell right into the stupidest of all traps, he will console himself with the knowledge that he was still drowsy, still focused almost entirely on the prospect of seeing Luna again, and had quite a trying few days on top of it all.
    Noctis: The hell is nunya?
  • Who Names Their Kid "Dude"?: Prompto tells Noctis how Kairi mentioned an artist friend of hers named Selphie. Noctis immediately questions who names their kid "selfie". Granted, there are no phones in Destiny Islands where Selphie lives.
  • Wrong Context Magic: Everyone who sees the magic the Keyblade wielders use is completely dumbfounded by it—in Eos, only the Caelum and Fleuret bloodlines are capable of using healing magic at all, and only the Lucian monarchs and those they share their magic with can summon weapons.
  • Year Inside, Hour Outside: There frequently are discrepancies in the passing of time between worlds, but when Kairi and Riku call Ienzo, he says they only left a few minutes ago, while Kairi and Riku have been in Eos for two days. Ienzo says it's the most extreme time discrepancy he's heard of.
  • Yin-Yang Bomb: Riku and Kairi switch Keyblades to overwhelm Vanitas with an attack that's Light and something that's not-quite-Darkness, creating a cage of spears of light wreathed in dark mist.
  • You Remind Me of X: Sora and Kairi say that Ravus reminds them of Riku during his worst, taking horrible decisions and hurting everyone he likes in an attempt to help them.

Top