Kingdom Hearts III Spoiler Thread

What was that thing that was said by one Zidane Tribal? "You don't need a reason to help people"?

Fits Sora to a t.

I mean.

If you're going to literally die for them, it helps to have one. I know a lot of people I would offer a helping hand to, but probably wouldn't commit suicide for.

I don't know. It's weird that Xion and Namine and Roxas all get fancy new bodies and get to come back and have a big happy ending, but Riku Replica's just like, "Well, I got nothing better to do with my life. Might as well kill myself so that Namine can have the insurance money. She's very special to me, after all. Just like Kairi is to Sora! Because she brainwashed me into thinking that."

Like. Tonally. It's a very weird direction to go while at the same time passing out resurrections to everyone else.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Mar 6th 2019 at 10:00:39 AM

Riku Replica has a reason for going that far for Namine. His fake memories of Namine are all he has, since he was a Replica created for no other purpose than to antagonize Riku. The Riku Replica had nothing. Even his fellow Replica Xion had something to call her own: namely her friendship with Roxas and Axel.

So he gave his life to save the fake love of his life because, fake or not, it was the only thing that gave him any meaning.

It didn't help that he had more or less internalized the idea that he was superfluous since he was "just" a Replica of Riku.

Edited by M84 on Mar 7th 2019 at 1:01:53 AM

Yeah, repliku being nothing if not Namine's protector is the entire point of his character. letting go and settling for his fake memories was the best he could have got, and he comes this close to actually go for it, and he dies because Axel gets in his head and convinces him that being his own person was worth having another go at riku and staking his existence on it.

The fact that he's at peace with being that in 3 is a good thing because it shows he moved past his angst and made peace with both himself and riku.

Sora doesn't have that excuse, but Sora is, as others pointed out, Sora. He'd say the exact same thing to namine close to word for word with or without the fake memories.

Edited by Yumil on Mar 6th 2019 at 6:29:27 PM

Riku Replica choosing to embrace his fake memories is almost Absurdist in nature. Though Camus may not have approved of Riku Replica's decision to sacrifice himself.

I mean.

When Roxas was put in the Digital Twilight Town. He got fake memories, didn't he? Of him, Hayner, Pence, and Olette.

How far back did those memories go? Did they go back to childhood? Because, while Roxas's year with the Organization was maybe more "real". It's also only a year.

At the very least, when we first see Repliku. He knew who Kairi was. And referenced real!Riku's "Take care of her" so like. Presumably he had the memories of being a kid.

As opposed to when he fights Riku where he seemingly has no actual memories and knows he's only existed for like.

...I mean, supposedly Riku arrives at Castle Oblivion on Day 25, Vexen dies on Day 26, Marluxia gets beaten on Day 49, and then Riku leaves on Day 52.

The timeline of Chain of Memories as it intersects with Days is kinda fucked. If you don't assume that Sora did a lot of grinding and backtracking to do 100 Acre Wood minigames.

Man.

Replica Riku's life is pretty messed up.

I mean that's kind of the one thing the character has going for him. In a world like kingdom hearts where death is a joke and being a nobody is a fancy immunity to death, he's the one broken guy who knows that he'll never be more than a shadow. Re Com's cutscenes really sold him to me.

If nobodies recompleting had never been a thing he would have deserved the "you deserve just as much as I do to be your own person" from sora.

Edited by Yumil on Mar 6th 2019 at 6:45:45 PM

Riku Replica kind of got the short end of the stick compared to damn near every other character.

Even Xion, a fellow Replica, had it better than him.

Edited by M84 on Mar 7th 2019 at 1:45:50 AM

What about Kairi, who's not even allowed to be the action girl they hinted she would be...which makes me wonder why they even gave her a Keyblade in the first place?

Also, he's as dead as Roxas was post-KHII, for whatever that's worth. Just seems he doesn't have the privilege of a Sora going "wait, no, that's fucked up, you're your own person". The name probably doesn't help.

She at least had a life. And she's not dead at the end.

Yeah she got the short end of the stick when it came to character writing, but in terms of what kind of life she had? She's way better off than Riku Replica.

Edited by M84 on Mar 7th 2019 at 2:03:15 AM

Yeah, but the main difference is that for Roxas, a bunch of lore changes happened so that he could come back to life and live happily ever after with his bestest best buddies.

For Riku Replica, a bunch of lore changes happened so that he could die harder.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Mar 6th 2019 at 11:03:30 AM

Hey! He chose to die harder instead of living in his fresh doll suit.

Eh, if you have a choice between dying hard, and dying harder, might as well go all in on the second one.

Don't half ass it and all.

It's kinda weird, though. Xion and Roxas were both, in a way, part of Sora, as was Namine with Kairi (and Vanitas with Ventus), so when they merged with their counterparts nobody really minded until Sora did a Sora. But Repliku is a clone of Riku, not an excised part of him. Yet he ends up inside Riku. One wonders if that could happen to anyone. Like, could Demyx's heart end up inside, say, Aeleus or something? Would be interesting to know.

Eh, Riku's used to ferrying around strangers in his soul. If he had room for Ansem, why not Riku Replica?

Proximity might be a factor. You can usually pinpoint the moment someone gets Heartcepted.

Eraqus wound up in Terra despite not being in any way a parallel version of him because he exploded into particle effects RIGHT THERE in Terra's face. Terra was probably sneezing out pieces of Eraqus for hours after that.

I haven't gotten to how Xion died just yet. But I remember something about Roxas and Namine, like, entering Sora and Kairi (insert obligatory wanking joke) at the end of II. Which is presumably how their Hearts got into them.

Kairi Heartcepted Sora on Destiny Islands when her body/Heart/soul/whatever was blown right in his face.

Since Riku was standing right over Replica Riku when the latter died, it's possible the Replica's Heart drifted inside Riku right then and there. Riku even sorta invited him with his unhelpful "Your Heart might go to the same place mine does, I guess?" remark.

Like, that's not what he meant when he said that, but since when do quasi-magical metaphysics care about intent? Aqua sure as hell didn't mean to doom us all and release Xehanort upon the world once more when she gave her jet-ski to Terra and let him be the one who returns to the Realm of Light.

Edited by TobiasDrake on Mar 6th 2019 at 11:34:43 AM

Right, I forgot about Eraqus. Kinda ruins my idea there: yes, in the world of Kingdom Hearts if your heart does end up getting split from your body (which apparently can happen if you trip and fall down the damn stairs) then hope you have loved ones next to you who don't mind a few paranoid schizophrenia symptoms.

And I believe Repliku's heart didn't enter (huehuehue) Riku until the latter went to the Realm of Darkness in KHIII.

Edited by Ninety on Mar 6th 2019 at 10:44:27 AM

Yeah, unless Repliku really wanted to end, what he did was a pretty Stupid Sacrifice. They had Vexen on their side at that point. There were bodies aplenty if they wanted to make another for him, or Naminé.

Riku and Repliku didn't know that yet tbf.

And I think Repliku was ready to pass on once he gave his life for Namine. I don't think he wanted to live anymore.

"The world already has you."

But original Riku said as much when he told his clone to take the replica. Anf according to the Ultimania, most of the Xehanorts are also using replicas, So it's not like they're hard to make either.

I didn't think about it during the game but its pretty odd that Riku Replica just gets written out like that compared to everyone else. I guess its like Riku losing his Way to the Dawn keyblade; Nomura was deliberately writing out any traces of KH 1 Riku, and that included his (formerly) evil twin.

I mean, they kinda are. Both good and bad guys were stumped without Vexen to make them, they're his masterpiece. He really has a colossal case of Small Role, Big Impact, he's just a whiny condescending scientist for the most part, but none of the plot of III would be possible without him.

His accomplishments back up the ego, even if he still sounds so hilariously whiny.