Tear Jerker / Kingdom Hearts III

WARNING: Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies to Tear Jerker pages. All spoilers will be unmarked.

"Only when your hopes have been broken by battle upon battle can the key be claimed to Kingdom Hearts."

---

• The new theme song, "Oath"/"Don't Think Twice," doesn't have the same hopeful feel like "Simple and Clean" and "Sanctuary" before it. Given that KHIII is the Grand Finale of the "Xehanort Arc" and the nature of this game, it's likely that the song will be a precursor to the saddest Kingdom Hearts game yet.
• Early on in Twilight Town, Sora recalls moments in his life where he felt hurt such as losing his friends, losing the keyblade, and Donald and Goofy having to go on without him afterwards. Judging by the facial expressions on the latter two, it's easy to see that they still feel remorse over abandoning Sora in the first game.
  • Also in Twilight Town, Sora constantly voices some variation of "it's been forever" when seeing various things or people again, only to get a reminder they were there not all that long ago. It doesn't take long, thanks to some information from Ienzo, for the main trio to realize that it's Roxas expressing these sentiments from inside Sora. But due to Roxas mostly knowing only a data version of Twilight Town, the real Hayner, Pence, and Olette don't even know who Roxas is.
• Lea and Kairi's first scene together. He appears with two ice creams, trying to start a friendly discussion with her, and Kairi being happy with his company, but she takes notice that he can't stop staring at her and asks if he still has a hard time trying to remember something important. He says yes and Kairi talks about going against him in the practice, saying "Don't hold back, Lea. Promise?" and, for some seconds, Lea sees Xion instead of Kairi. As a result he drops his ice cream and can't hold back from crying. Even though he can't exactly remember Xion right now, his subconscious still feels pain from losing her.
• Buzz Lightyear's reaction to having to fight the toys possessed by Heartless. He's faced hostile toys in the past, but never has he had to kill a fellow toy, let alone toys who have absolutely no will of their own. Add the Kingdom Hearts elements to it, and his whole perspective of the world is, like in the first movie, turned upside-down. He also becomes worried that the hostile toys were switched to demo mode by accident... a fate that would befall him in the third film, when Lotso forcibly converted him into a minion to attack and imprison his friends.
• Toy Box is split in half, with Woody, Buzz and co in one world and their friends and Andy, etc in the other. This means that, in one world, Andy is running around in a mess looking for his beloved missing toys.
• Eugene's Disney Death, just like in the movie. Not helping that Sora, Donald and Goofy have tears in their eyes as it's happening.
• Elsa's solemn reaction to Sora's amazement over her ability to control ice, believing herself to be a monster who has no control over her powers.
• Marshmallow really does act like a lost child without his mother after Elsa is kidnapped by Hans.
• Xemnas revealing to Marluxia, Larxene, Luxord, and Demyx that they were chosen because of their pasts as ancient Keyblade wielders from the Keyblade War. This surprises them, meaning that they forgot who they used to be.
  • For Marluxia, it means that he forgot about his sister Strelitzia, even though his weapon and one of his Nobody forms are references to her.
• Davy Jones fatally stabbing Will Turner in the heart is kept in. Sora stares in utter shock for a moment, then outright screams, and charges Jones head-on, with Donald and Goofy right behind him. They don't even draw their weapons; they're that infuriated that they're outright clobbering Jones with their firsts. And when Jack declares it's time to leave the Dutchman, they can only sadly watch as Elizabeth is torn away from her dying husband and mournfully flee with Jack. Sora also has a muted, sad reaction to learning of Will's curse of stepping on land only once every ten years, lamenting that, much like Will and Elizabeth, he and Kairi never have time.
• The Big Hero 6 world takes place after the events of the movie, where the Heartless possess the Baymax that was left behind inside the portal near the end of that film. This understandably causes a lot of reluctance for Hiro when they are forced to fight him. It's especially Ryan Potter's delivery that really conveys Hiro hating the idea of having to defeat the first Baymax.
  Hiro: Tadashi...wouldn't want there to be a Baymax that hurts people.
• Aqua succumbing to the darkness after Ansem casts a spell that plunges her into the sea. This is a culmination of the 12-year-long suffering inside the Realm of Darkness, during which Aqua, as she herself states, waited year after year for help to come, but no one ever came to rescue her.
  Aqua: "Mickey... you're too late."
  • Anti-Aqua then trash talks Mickey for never considering staging a rescue for her. In return, Mickey silently accepts it and apologizes, stating that everything that happened was his fault. He doesn't even try to fight back, hence why the subsequent boss battle (aside from Mickey initially being held back by the Demon Tide) doesn't feature him as an assist character.
  • Of course, given his more understated way of expressing emotions, it's a bit easy to overlook Riku's response to finding Aqua, considering a lot of the attention is on Aqua herself. However, even if someone didn't read too much into the subtext of the initial exchange, it'd be hard to miss how Riku responds to Aqua as she's venting over how frightening, how traumatic the Realm of Darkness has been for her. He clenches his fist. Not only because this confirms what he had suspected earlier during his search with Mickey, but it likely also triggered something inside him. While it isn't enough for him to be able to set his own personal feelings aside and do what has to be done - or at least, make an attempt in getting through to Aqua - he is visibly shaken, at least on some level.
  • The fight itself also tugs at the heart-strings. It's an Ironic Echo of the battles with Phantom Aqua in the Realm of Darkness in 0.2. However, Aqua's clones don't taunt you this time. Instead, they seethe with Tranquil Fury as they reinforce her lonely 12-year journey and her feelings of abandonment.
  • When Sora finally expels the darkness from inside her, Aqua slowly floats down the sea, where she calmly states that it is the end. It isn't, but that doesn't stop the fact that Aqua truly, fully accepts that nothing good will ever happen to her.
  • Even after she is brought back into the Realm of Light, she asks the others when Destiny Islands (where the team brought her to) succumbed to the Realm of Darkness. Right, she has a hard time believing that she actually had a chance to escape the Realm of Darkness. Which just makes her subsequent Tears of Joy and the team's Group Hug even sweeter.
  • The worst part about Aqua's corruption to darkness is that it is technically voluntary. There is no Demonic Possession in hand, unlike Terra and Ventus, both of whom got body-hijacked by other people without their consent. She is not 'Norted. Sure, Ansem SOD's darkness ball started it, but she could have rejected it, because it did not have a mind of its own. Instead, Aqua gave up and, channeled through her complete despair in the Realm of Darkness, let it take control of her, which is why she still has her own personality when confronted by Riku, Mickey, and Sora. Regardless of her reassurances afterward, it's hard not to think that, deep down somewhere, she will always harbor resentment against others (especially Mickey) for failing to rescue her.
• The scene between Demyx and Vexen, where the former says that he's useless and a chicken. Really makes you think about who he is (or in his case, was) as a person underneath his laidback personality.
• The scene with Ienzo apologizing to Ansem, he explains that the apprentices had withheld the truth about Ansem's banishment to the realm of darkness, telling him that Ansem had gone mad and abandoned them. Since he was a kid at the time he easily believed them, and he looks like he was about to cry when he was saying this.
• When they arrive in Land of Departure, Aqua is quick to caress Ventus's face and hug him, all the while apologizing that it took so long for her to return to him. Then she pleads for him to wake up, but he doesn't respond.
• The day before the final battle, Lea sits by himself in Twilight Town clock tower where he used to eat ice cream with Roxas there. If him looking sad because he wished Roxas was there isn't enough, then him buying three instead of two looks even more sad as he subconsciously remembers Xion. Then Saix arrives, which startles Lea until the former assures him that he's not there to fight, only to talk about their past. Saix begins the conversation with, "Back when we were still friends..." Ouch.
• In the Keyblade Graveyard, all of Sora's friends are swept away by Heartless or otherwise spirited away, culminating in a shot of Sora letting out an anguished scream and slumping to the ground as if in despair. Things must really be set to go horribly, horribly wrong if it leads to our typically happy hero breaking down completely.
  • The scream is what makes it worse: Seeing Sora, the All-Loving Hero and determined to save the day, literally breaks and falls to his knees. What broke him completely however? Seeing Kairi being taken away by the Demon Tower.
  • It's even more bleak as Riku rushes to Sora's side, even shocked at the idea that he's reached his limit, and all we see is Sora crying and admitting defeat. It's fair to say he’s been through hell one too many times, and at this point not even Sora has any optimism left.
  • If you take the game into account, who's to say Sora hasn't been undergoing Sanity Slippage? Considering the trauma he endured in KH1 with losing his friends, gaining Goofy and Donald and the Keyblade only to lose them after Riku (who was manipulated by Maleficent) took said Keyblade away; the events of Chain of Memories (almost becoming a brainwashed puppet), KHII (Kairi being kidnapped by Axel) and Dream Drop Distance (Rinzler's death and almost being Xehanort's thirteenth vessel); and the events of this game of worrying about Riku and King Mickey as he couldn't join them in the Realm of Darkness (yet) and witnessing Davy Jones fatally stab Will and attacking him fists on, it's a surprise Sora stayed completely peppy until this very moment.
  • Another reason this scene is utterly depressing is the revelation that Sora has always thought himself completely worthless without all his friends. Considering he’d been constantly reminded of his inadequacy and being trash-talked not just in this game but ever since the first game, it’s pretty clear Sora suffers from feelings of inadequacy and low self-esteem. Then his friends are deliberately murdered in order to utterly break Sora and it’s clear as day the boy we’ve been following this whole franchise is a broken mess.

    Sora: They're gone... Kairi, Donald... Goofy, the King... gone forever. What do we do? Without them, I... All my strength came from them. They gave me all of it. Alone, I'm worthless. We've lost... It's over.

  • It's brief, but Aqua's reaction upon seeing the Demon Tornado clearly shows how spending over a decade in the Realm of Darkness gave her a lifelong PTSD. The poor girl has just come out of a hellhole not even a day ago and now she is about to be swallowed by the darkness again.
  • Then there is Ven, who has just woken up from his 12-year-coma and is barely trying to put his life back together. He is the first to be struck down by Xehanort, who takes the form of his beloved brother figure no less.
  • Donald burns his own life energy up to save his friends.
• The Final World. For all intents and purposes, it's basically the afterlife (or more specifically, the last stop one makes after death before passing on to the real afterlife). Sora almost died and was talking with stars that were dead people, all of whom have reasons for not being ready to pass on yet. One of them is even a kid "following" a light to find their dad - highly implied to be dead as well - again.
  • There’s also another star who was once very close with their friend to the point that they’re practically joined by hip. But when the star arrived at the Final World, their friend was nowhere to be seen, and they just felt...empty.
  • The second star in the Final World doesn't even say her name, claiming that her heart is no one's anymore. All she can do so far is waiting for someone to find her. Sadly, that someone's heart has been replaced by another's that he might've forgotten her.
    • Even worse? The star says "somebody" killed her. And as it turns out, the person she's been waiting for... is Yozora. Or rather, who Yozora used to be.
• In the Final World, the player can finally hear Naminé again, outside of a flashback. She says she will do her best to help and Sora tells her that he still needs to thank her. Properly, face-to-face, and the datascape doesn't count. Naminé also tells Sora that, unlike Roxas, no one will miss her, but Sora assures her that everyone misses her, Roxas included. It's only her voice, but we can notice how happy she was with such simple words.
• The reason why Chirithy was in the final world is because it was waiting for someone, who is implied to be Ventus, though he doesn’t remember his past. And it wants that person to be happy with his friends. They finally do reunite in the Earn Your Happy Ending scene, with Chirithy jumping into Ven's arms.
• As Sora jumps to attack the giant storm of Heartless, he is enveloped by light and encounters Ephemer, who calls on hundreds of Keyblades from around the Keyblade Graveyard, Keyblades of wielders from the past, to assist Sora in fighting the Heartless. What makes it such a powerful moment is that the reaction commands to use each Keyblade have the usernames of real players from Kingdom Hearts χ.
  • Goes the opposite way that, by being referenced in this way, all of those listed players were confirmed as Killed Off for Real as only one Keyblade wielder survived the First Keyblade War. Being listed means that survivor was NOT your character.
• Defeating each member of the True Organization XIII at the Keyblade Graveyard:
  • Marluxia remembering his past in his final moments and being glad that he's getting to "die" as himself. One can only wonder if he remember his sister again.
  • Larxene rejecting Sora's attempts to lighten her up about returning to a Somebody and she's just glad that Xehanort can't use her as a tool anymore. Unlike Marluxia, there's no indication that she remembered her past, though her Tsundere side as Elrena seems to return. The callback to her death in Chain of Memories adds extra sadness. "I lost...to a bunch of ''losers!" ...But...could be worse. Become that geezer's heart tank? No thanks." Like her partner in crime Marluxia, there's a definite sense of Larxene dying as herself and feeling some gratitude for that, complete with giving Sora a genuine smile at the end.
  • Luxord accepting his defeat and telling Sora that he hopes they'll be friends in some other life.
  • Unlike the others, Sora and Riku aren't so forgiving towards Xigbar, whose attitude doesn't change at all after they defeat him. Xigbar says that he hopelessly believed that Xehanort would pass down his Keyblade to him, a power he's always wanted. Sora and Riku snipe that he's not worthy of a Keyblade, but he insists that he knows he's worthy before falling backwards off of a wall while smirking. Even though it was later revealed in the epilogue that he faked his death. At first glance, this seems Alas, Poor Villain enough, but the implications behind this if you've read the Secret Reports can make those Secret Reports even worse.
    • Said Secret Reports end up painting everything Xigbar does in a completely different light. It's a little hard not to read his goofier character traits as a coping mechanism, him trying to stay strong by imitating his master.
  • The Riku Replica from the present defeating the replica that hold his heart from the past by taking it out, leaving the vessel behind. Riku tells him to take the replica body for himself, but the present version turns it down, saying that someone else - Naminé - needs it more than he does.
  • Vanitas choosing to remain an agent for Darkness all the way to the end very visibly upsets both Sora and Ventus, but Vanitas doesn't appear to notice or care - he smirks all the way to the end, content with who/what he is and that he gets to go out doing what he enjoys doing, which is "being Darkness."
  • Right when Xemnas is about to kill Lea, Xion grabs his Ethereal Blade with her bare hand and tells Xemnas to let Lea live. In response, knowing they were friends, he forces her to be the one to kill him. Lea realizes she's the person he forgot, but still can't remember her.
    Lea: Who...are you...?
    • Sora recognizing the hooded figure as Xion and stopping her from attacking Lea. Xion tearfully tries to tell him to leave her alone so that she can kill Lea, but ends up giving in. Xemnas moves to strike her for her insolence... only for Roxas to appear and stop him.
      Sora (through tears): "It's all right! You can stop now! It's all right... (Roxas's voice) Xion."
    • Before Roxas shows up, Xemnas readies to take down Xion. Lea, struggling to find the strength to get up, rendered to the ground can only uselessly grab Xemnas by the ankle to keep him away from Xion, who he just barely remembers. Unsurprisingly it doesn't do much to hinder Xemnas.
    • Even worse? Xemnas refers to Lea as also-ran implying that they're nothing but cowards too.
    • "Also-ran" refers to losers. It comes from the idea of a competition (race) where only the one in first place is considered a winner; regardless of their performance, those in second, third, or so on get no acknowledgement besides the fact that they participated. Basically, Xemnas is saying Lea is irrelevant and his survival up to this point, in spite of the OOC plans bending to make it happen, amounted to nothing.
    • When Saix is defeated by Sora, Roxas, and Xion; he's disintegrating and have a bitter conversation to Lea that he had sacrificed everything to find the girl that they found and befriended when they were kids as Isa and Lea. But, when Axel found new friends in Roxas and Xion, he felt that Axel had abandoned him and their missing girl and it infuriates him how Axel just exited their lives. At the end of the day, Saix is not so different than Riku when he was jealous of Sora making new friends and thought Sora had abandoned him and Kairi.
    • During Lea and Saix’s conversation, Roxas and Xion are visibly upset, moreso with the latter. Even if they were victims of Saix’s crimes, they still feel bad for him. It’s even worse when one considers that Secret Reports and Vexen and Demyx’s conversation and the ultimania revealed that Saix was partially responsible for their return.
  • Blink and you'll miss it but there's a rare moment of show don't tell that pretty much confirms the above.
    Roxas: I owe my return to many. Some of them people you knew.
    Xemnas: Ansem the Wise. Zexion...
    (Roxas raises his keyblade at Xemnas, but the angle makes it look like he is pointing it at Saix.)
    Roxas: And others, too.
    • The sad part? Saix doesn't react or say anything the while scene. Not when Axel is about to be killed, or when Xion is revealed. He just seems to be staring vacantly forwards, a heavy contrast to his reveal at the end of DDD when he at least looked conflicted when attacking Axel. Considering Saix wanted Axel to win and Roxas to come back, it's heavily implied he had little control before being defeated.
  • The reveal that Terra's heart was trapped inside the guardian this whole time. It's more sad when you remember his lines from Fragmentary Passage, about 'only being able to see darkness' when Aqua said she could see Ven next to him. So all these years Terra has been switching between being a heartless, forced to serve his own body-snatcher, and being alone in a dark void fighting a battle of wills with said body-snatcher. Special mention goes to Terra struggling to talk in his heartless form for the first time, after years of silent enslavement.
• When the penultimate showdown happens, Young Xehanort manages to escape back to his timeline after he's finally beaten. Ansem and Xemnas aren't nearly so fortunate. Ansem reveals he knew he was marching to his own final death, being unable or unwilling to rebel against his original self. Xemnas's demise is even worse. Remember, he's half of Terra as well as Xehanort's Nobody, and as a result feels remorse over what he's done to his own Organization. He admits he took them for granted, abused them and now that they're all gone he has nothing. His first genuine emotion in years? Loneliness. Xemnas states that the reason he valued the heart only for its power was because he felt like otherwise to have a heart - to be human - was to be in pain, remarking that living on with a heart and feelings must take "exceptional strength" right as he fades away for good. As he had traveled to the present and people do not retain their memories when traveling back from the future, Xemnas returned to the past, forgetting this revelation, and meets his end without remembering any of this.
• Xehanort killing Kairi. Sora begins screaming "WHY HER!? WHY!?" as he attacks Xehanort, with tears streaming down his face. Not only that, but both Riku and Mickey throw caution to the side and blindly attack him, no doubt being just as upset as Sora.
• Seeing Kingdom Hearts, the literal embodiment of all light and hearts within the game's universe become tainted and lose its signature beautiful glow into a dark purple shade as it fires darkness into the Keyblade Graveyard is both this and a bit of Nightmare Fuel.
• When Master Eraqus’ spirit appears out of Terra’s heart, everyone is surprised. But notice Ventus is especially horrified and shocked by this revelation. When Terra saved Ven’s life back in Birth By Sleep, Ventus had zero clue what actually happened to his former Master. Terra explained what happened to Aqua but Ven appeared after the fact and before Terra could even explain what happened to Ventus, all three were forced into a final battle that ultimately changed their lives forever. Ven wakes up several years later thanks to Sora and after all that transpired in the second Keyblade War, it is only then does he find out his Master is dead. No wonder the Wayfinder Trio (especially Ventus) break down in tears hugging their father figure one final time.
• It's almost impossible to feel any sympathy for Master Xehanort after all he's done. He could have gone down in history as the most universally despised villain in the franchise, but seeing him in a weakened, pitiful state after he's been beaten in the final battle, barely able to stand and barely able to hold the X-Blade, even as he points it at the spirit of Eraqus and insists "No! I can do this!", is actually rather sad, especially when we see how close and brotherly he and Eraqus used to be when they were kids. That it takes Eraqus having to simply tell Xehanort "Enough", along with "Checkmate" as a Call-Back to their boyhood chess games, to get Xehanort to finally give up his ambitions, relinquish the X-Blade, and wait for death to claim him casts a rather somber light on the end of the series' Big Bad to this point.
  • While Eraqus gets to have a tearful and heartfelt farewell with his three students, all Xehanort can do is watch the parting with envy and regret as he's burned so many bridges that there's no one left on the material plane to see him off.
  • In the last "chess as kids" flashback, Xehanort admits that Eraqus will surpass him and be chosen as the world's defender, but declares he would still be there for Eraqus regardless. Yeah, we know how THAT ended. One of the Secret Reports that can be found post-game further describes how Xehanort went on his own pilgrimage after that, determined to remain Eraqus's equal, and turned to harnessing the darkness in order to accomplish this, and everything went down-hill from there. In the same way that Riku's past obsession with one-upping Sora was a shadow of his original desire for the strength to protect what matters, Xehanort's insane quest to change the entire world was a shadow of his desire to stand by his friend... and unlike Riku, Xehanort remains consumed by this shadow until the very end of his life. Plus, in the original Japanese text of the aforementioned Secret Report, Xehanort admits that he had hoped for Eraqus to come along with him- which just makes it even sadder.
  • Master Xehanort's death is now even more tragic with the passing of his english voice actor for KHIII, Rutger Hauer.
• Somehow in a big helping of tragic irony, Sora manages to save nearly everyone, from Aqua and Terra who were fully corrupted by darkness, to Roxas, Namine and Xion who didn't even have bodies. The one person he misses after all is said and done? Kairi, of all people, again, and it's a heartbreaking pattern that Sora recognizes with a very bitter lampshade. Sora has to leave to use his power of Waking to find Kairi's heart, and while he does manage to get her back, it means that he may never be able to return to this world.
• The ending for Sora and Kairi. The two inexplicably return and at first, it seems like everything is going to be okay with the reunited. The two share a loving moment together, staring into each other's eyes warmly, with Sora squeezing her hand as if to show how he cares. Then Kairi starts crying, evidently aware of what is about to happen. Sora suddenly and mysteriously vanishes into thin air, leaving Kairi alone. Whatever he did to bring Kairi back, it cost him his very existence. It's apparent she probably knew that Sora would disappear and is saying her last goodbyes. Before he disappears, Sora gives Kairi's a hand a tight squeeze and he smiles at her. He's probably reassuring her before his tragic vanishing act.
  • Before leaving the final world in Re:Mind Sora gives Kairi a big smile similar to the one he gave to Donald and Goofy after he notices his left hand is starting to fade without Kairi noticing anything amiss. As it seemed that they spent a day in The Land of Departure before returning home without much concern from Kairi, its likely that she didn't know until the last minute.
  • There's a soft moment right after Sora vanishes of Kairi's reaction. As the clouds cover the sun as it sets, the scene gets visibly darker, making her seem a lot more lonely. You can see the exact moment Kairi winces as she realizes Sora is no longer by her side, indubitably crying before the screen cuts to black.
  • Adding to the sadness is the fact that in the moment where Kairi starts crying, immediately beforehand the ending song "Don't Think Twice" has the lyrics "I want you for a lifetime," heavily implying that is never going to happen.
  • If you think about it, Sora didn't lie when he said that he would bring both him and Kairi back, and that she wouldn't be alone anymore. For all intents and purposes, he did. He was on Destiny Islands long enough for the others to acknowledge him and Kairi back. He managed to stay in his form long enough to fulfill that promise before he faded away.
  • Sora still hasn't thanked Namine. Not in the way he actually wanted to, face to face, with Namine as her own person. With how the game ends, it's hard to say if he'll ever be able to.
  • As soon as Donald saw Sora sitting on the tree with Kairi, he looked about ready to sprint over to greet Sora, meaning that it's the first time they've seen Sora since the Final Battle, but Mickey stops him to allow him and Kairi a moment together. Everyone was watching Sora and Kairi share a moment together with smiles on their faces, but it also meant that they also watched Sora inexplicably vanish out of existence.
    • And imagine being in Riku's shoes, watching as your best friend of over a decade simply... vanishes. Especially after everything Riku did, particularly in Days and DDD, to bring Sora back from the brink of oblivion. At least the secret ending seems to imply Riku's going to get Sora back once again.
  • The only consolation the player has, with Sora disappearing, is that Nomura said that Sora will still be the protagonist of future games, meaning that he is not truly gone. But fans have to deal with the bittersweet ending for who-knows how many years. After all, it took 6 years for III to come out, so who knows how long it'll be until IV does?
• Sora fell to darkness in the last game, albeit unintentionally and only for a very small portion of time... yet this is enough to "do something" to him to make Winnie The Pooh lose him in his heart. When the small bear full of fluff and honey forgets you, it's a real bad time!
  • And with Sora now faded away into nothing, Pooh might never see him again ever. Let's hope that bear holds Sora tight into his heart.
  • It becomes sobering to see that Sora isn’t very interested in spending too much time in the Hundred Acre Wood this time. He goes into the book concerned that something is wrong, but when he confirms Pooh and his friends are okay, he quickly tries to leave, and becomes exasperated when he’s roped into helping Rabbit with his garden. The sad thing is that Sora is growing up, and has a lot more to worry about besides the mundane playfulness of Hundred Acre Wood. In Pooh’s own franchise and original stories, a recurring ominous theme was that one day, his time with Christopher Robin would end due to him growing up. It looks like that time for Sora, who has filled in for Christopher, is already here.
  • One subtle detail that becomes worse after the ending - Sora on the cover on Pooh's book in sitting next to Pooh in the exact same position he'd be seen sitting next to Kairi in the final scene. And prior to completing the 100 Acre Woods games, Sora has disappeared from his spot on the cover. Just as he would disappear from his spot next to Kairi in the end.
• When Mickey and Minnie reunite in the credits, Mickey runs to his wife and Minnie is actually crying in happiness at being reunited with him!
• After the visit to the 100 Acre Wood, Sora expresses sadness over his connection to Pooh becoming weaker, admitting to Merlin that he doesn't want his lose his friends. It makes the ending 10 times more sad in hindsight.
• In Re:Mind's Limitcut episode, we see that while Riku and everyone else is trying their hardest to find clues to Sora's whereabouts, Kairi has given up her heart to Ansem the Wise's study in the hopes that it might hold a clue. Limitcut takes place one year after the main story. Kairi has been sleeping for a year, unwilling to be without Sora.
  • You have to feel for Riku during all of this. His best friend of at least a decade has been gone for a year and he can't find a single clue about where he might be, his second closest friend has been in a Deep Sleep ever since Sora disappeared in the faintest hope that she can find him, and any other possible friends are searching all over to try and find any hint about where Sora might be. After walking alone in the darkness for so long he can now walk in the light with others by his side only to find that he's well and truly alone.
    • Before, Riku willingly separated himself from his two best friends for a year, because he was ashamed of what he'd done in KHI. Now he's been unwillingly separated from them for the same amount of time. Poor kid can't catch a break.
    • To top it off, the Limitcut episode and Melody of Memory more or less reveal/confirm that the secret ending to KH3 is a dream Riku has frequently about looking for Sora in Quadratum. He's a seventeen-year-old constantly plagued by dreams of trying to find his best friend. Ouch.
• Re:mind reveals why Aqua froze upon seeing the demon tide: Seeing it caused a Trauma Button that triggered flashbacks to her time in the realm of darkness, while she hallucinated the darkness as clones of dark versions of herself. You really can't blame her for her reaction.
• Even though the real Xion is alive, well, and back on the side of light, fighting the recreated data of Xion in Cid’s computer can be pretty gut wrenching. The base game didn’t dwell on Xion being forcibly recreated only to be a vessel for Xehanort, but the boss fight goes for all the tears it can jerk out of you. Xion sounds like she’s in constant pain as she screams in anguish at you even when she’s not being hit or damaged. Her victory quote when you lose to her is “You’re going where I belong”, and her quote on defeat is "This is how...it's supposed to be...", implying that, data or not, this Xion is a Death Seeker.
• In the secret episode, should you lose to Yozora, you receive a Nonstandard Game Over where Sora is crystallized in a manner reminiscent of Final Fantasy XIII's Crystal Stasis. After everything Sora has gone through in the game, it's devastating to see him go through it, especially as right before he has an expression of resignation on his face. Making it worse is that Yozora takes no joy in having done this, apologizing to Sora and vowing to save him, even though this is his doing.
  Yozora: *Gently touches Sora's crystallized body, a solemn look on his face.* I will save you.

---