bambii

Precisely.

This may have been discussed before, but I stumbled upon something that caught my eye in Nomura's interview for BBS Ultimania... Nomura mentions, "In terms of the elements of Terra and Master Xehanort, I think the questions of how their power is related and divided, as well as who has whose memories and heart, will become a key to the story after this one," and in response to the question "Is that to say that there's a possibility that within Xehanort's Heartless, the darkness that sleeps in Riku's heart, there might remain something of Terra...?" he replies, "That's also a riddle connected to the next story, so everyone please use your imagination." It appears that there will be a lot of focus on the special conditions of Terra and Master Xehanort (and Ansem SoD/Xemnas... Eraqus too, I suppose, as his heart is within Terra's), which is something that we take for granted, in that we don't really realize how much we don't know. Subsequent to the birth of Terra-Xehanort, all we know is of the existent of 4 beings - Apprentice Xehanort, Ansem SoD, Xemnas, and Riku-Ansem. Furthermore, we know nothing about what was actually occurring within each of them. We just know of their existence and their actions. We have already seen one situation of abnormal separation - Sora's brief transformation into a Heartless, the release of Kairi's and Ventus' hearts (who were residing within Sora, just as how Terra's and Master Xehanort's (and Eraqus') hearts reside "together"), and the birth of two irregular nobodies (Roxas and Namine) as a result. It appears that the situation of Terra, MX, Eraqus, and Riku is much more complicated, and something that will play a significant role in "the next story," which is presumably DDD. To complicate the situation even further, we've got Terra's Lingering Sentiment, along with the return of MX and the mystery of Terra's location. Suffice it to say, I'm even more excited now.

I actually had the first enjoyable Valentine's Day I've experienced in a long time. My friend made a heart pinata. I woke up to a beautiful sunrise and beautiful weather (quite a change from the subzero weather CT's been having...), had a great day of class, went out for coffee with friends, and we hung the pinata on a tree branch and whacked it with sticks. I love hating Valentine's Day!

Roxas, undoubtedly. I love his personality. He's unquestionably the most realistically human character in the series, and is the single character I feel most emotionally invested in. Aqua comes in as a very close 2nd...

Nope. Aqua's Armor was in the basement of Radiant Garden's castle.

Bud, I can tell you something right now... I've had a few girlfriends, and even more interests. Love was only a component in one of them (in the interests spectrum, she and I never dated)... and I'm lucky to have even experienced that at my age. Love is an unbelievably special and, truly, rare thing, and not something you can or should undermine or underestimate. All I'm saying is (and don't feel as if I'm attacking you by saying this, by any means), I can almost assure you that what you felt toward this girl was not anything close to love. Of course, I'd be completely out of line telling you how you feel, but chances are very high that you were just feeling a strong pull of attraction, or perhaps even just a pure desire to have a girlfriend. That's completely ok, those certainly aren't bad things. And they can, absolutely, easily be confused with... "love"... particularly when you haven't really experienced it, outside of your connection with your family and perhaps a very dear friend or two. I also can't tell you what love is, because I don't really know. It's something you feel, not something you know. It's very visceral. You'll figure it out.

These feelings pass. Much more quickly than you may initially expect them too. You'll be fine.

I always thought it was how much darkness you have in your heart? I mean Sora has a very strong heart but only formed a shadow heartless This is the more accurate statement... the strength of your heart doesn't determine the strength of the Heartless, the magnitude of your darkness does. Rather, the strength of your heart determines whether a Nobody will be created, and furthermore if that Nobody will retain human form.

Not complaining. I don't think any of us are. We're all happy it exists. But the fact is that the game is just unnecessary. If you step out and look at it from the perspective of someone who isn't a KH-obsessed fan (which I undoubtedly am/all of us here are), it wouldn't be a game you'd really want to play. If I weren't as into Kingdom Hearts as I am, I'd skip this game entirely and just read a 2-minute brief on it, because that's all it requires. There's no real character or plot development that requires anything beyond reading a summary. And plus, the plot hardly gives us anything important. It's very very very empty. But I emphasize that, as a die-hard fan of the series, I still highly enjoyed it and am glad it exists.

I don't have much to say here, except that you really should not be taking accutane. For chrissake, what the drug actually does on a molecular level has hardly even been discovered. Of course, this is the case with a whole shitload of commercial drugs that are around (particularly psychiatric medicine - don't even get me started there), but accutane is especially bad in this sense... I mean, the majority of those little side effects are negligible. You're going to have to deal with minor side effects, no matter what drug you're taking. But, due to a lot of its pharmacodynamics being hidden in the dark, in addition to the very little that is known about the brain (which is why so many psychiatric drugs are just absolute crap and based solely on experimentation and statistics - there's hardly any real chemistry involved), accutane can really mess you up. Not trying to scare you, but I'd get off that drug as soon as you can. I know of a good number of cases in which accutane (and the same drug under different trade names) has been a catalyst for clinical depression, some cases being quite serious. And I completely know what you're going through - my best friend suffers from a serious acne problem, such that sleeping is painful for him. But really, not worth it. (On a side note, I generally don't trust dermatologists). Also, you won't even notice the braces soon enough. Don't worry about that... stick to the ibuprofen for a little while and then you'll be fine.

It was data. Everything in that journal, with the exception of Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Maleficent, and Pete, was data.

^That.

Not that I can vouch for what a girl wants in a date/this situation, but I think Cricket's got it down haha. But seriously. Don't be clingy. And don't feel as if you have to force anything. I learned those things, unfortunate as it is, the hard way. But that was quite some time ago The key here is: clear your head. Just live in the moment, don't have any expectations. Enjoy your time with her. Plain and simple.

Sweet. I'm just in high hopes that the finalized visuals of DDD will surpass those of BBS.

hes 18... >_> Then he may have problem more worth looking into, or just an extended version of a phase similar to what I was talking about. Again, I emphasize, it is not necessarily abnormal. I can't by any means make a "diagnosis," that's not what I'm trying to do. But generally, the same things I mentioned in that paragraph apply. Humans often tend to naturally migrate toward the thought processes that are more rational and logical, at some point or another.

This is a phase a great many kids at your age (12-14? 15?) have the unpleasant burden of enduring. My younger sister (14, now) went through a very serious one.. she's only just beginning to come out of that phase. It was not a good time. Regardless, it is very rare, in these situations, that the kid is experiencing a true and severe state of depression/similar mental state. It is often just a phase, and the "I'm going to kill myself" routine is really quite natural - in this phase, the mind is fragile, and its agitation at even the mildest thing can implant incredibly irrational ideas. Fortunately, they almost always remain ideas. Because it is so impulsive and sporadic, the immediate potent fascination with following throw with the idea passes more quickly than the blink of an eye... those, however, with a serious mental condition can potentially put themselves in a higher risk of self-injury, because they are more prone to immediately act upon these momentary irrational thoughts... in any case, don't bother yourself worrying about your friend. Provide him with the support he requires, let him know you're there for him, and perhaps keep an eye out for him in case any more serious signs arise. If you do observe something you'd consider much more serious, in a situation in which he is actively inflicting harm upon himself... slitting wrists is something many kids of that age experiment with, it is not abnormal, but it can be overdone... if signs of significant self damage appear, it wouldn't hurt to inform somebody else, and get him professional help. Just as long as he isn't prescribed to anything... those drugs can really mess you up. But I'm getting ahead of myself. Don't worry about him. Support him. Keep an eye out for him. That's the most you can do.

Hey! I speak Farsi fluently! (though I never learned to read and write... you can blame my parents for that one). Any other Persians here?

Well... I've been working as an EMT for quite some time now. So I've known I want to be in the medical field for a long time. I'll be a pre-med student next year, so I'm on my way, it appears. Ideally, I'd love to be a heart surgeon. Cut people open. That sounds creepy. Please don't interpret that the wrong way... hahaha

Yes, but all of this could've easily been explained in a 5-minute long cutscene. It didn't require a whole game. These are mere "facts," as opposed to things that requires a lot of development, such as characters, their stories, major plot devices/twists/all that jazz. The content of a letter/the fact that everyone needs to be saved and Yen Sid's summoning of Sora and Riku (which really has no connection to Re:coded anyway; they could've placed that cutscene at the end of BBS and it would've been just as relevant) do not require any sort of development. Re:coded, for some obscure reason, chose to center an entire game around these basic and relatively unimportant plot elements (relative to the plot elements found in every other game...), and the game itself chose to do so by including some whole other, completely irrelevant plotline with the journal and everything. The series could easily do without the whole journal/data story, unless Nomura somehow miraculously ties it in as a major element later in the series, which is highly doubtful. Again, I'm not saying I disliked it. I deeply love and thoroughly enjoy everything Kingdom Hearts related. All I'm saying is that it was truly an unnecessary game (and, as much as it hurts to say it, almost a scam for money) and they could've done without it. "Less is more," as they say.

Frankly, I completely agree with you. To be honest, I think this whole chapter of the Kingdom Hearts story was completely and utterly unnecessary. I truly believe they could've cropped out this entire portion of the story and simply communicated the apparent need for Sora to "save" TVA/RXA/Namine in a much, much, much, much more concise way. It didn't by any means require an entire game of irrelevant events. And, as you mentioned, the scene with Yen Sid could simply have appeared in BBS/BBSFM/perhaps even at the start of DDD. Also, beyond its almost complete irrelevance (as I've discussed), the story was severely lacking any emotional substance! Whereas BBS and Days were very intimate and emotionally captivating, Re:coded had nothing. In fact, were I a newcomer to the series, my immediate reaction to this game and this series would be that it is silly and not worth my time. Goes without saying, being a die-hard KH fan, I enjoyed the game nonetheless. And if you can look past its failure at telling a good story, the gameplay was really fun and really well developed. It was certainly innovative and kept me intrigued the whole way through.

Yes. From that point in KH1, throughout CoM, and up to the end of the 6th day in KH2, Sora was technically a heartless with a body created by Kairi. Interesting... in a way similar to how Ansem SoD was a heartless who retained human form.

Just to clarify this for everyone - there's no WAY KH3 will be released before BBSv2. All it takes is recycling the BBS game engine. In fact, I'll put money on BBSv2 coming before DDD. For DDD and KH3, they're developing entirely new engines, and they won't even be beginning work on KH3 until FFvsXIII has been released, which will likely be in 2012. We have years to go until KH3. The development of BBSv2 should be a simple process.

Hm, unfortunately this is very unlikely. If I'm not mistaken, Nomura has clearly stated that BBS FM is not the other game he was referring to, and that, in addition to DDD, there will be an additional "mystery game" that he has not yet revealed. It is highly speculated that this mystery game is, in fact, BBSvol2. Furthermore, in the teaser for BBSvol2, it provides us with a huge indication that the game will take place before KH1 and after BBS, in that the number "1" corresponds with the clip of Kairi running to sleeping Sora (from KH1), "0," as Nomura has actually mentioned, refers to BBS (he calls that game KH0), and in the video, the corresponding clip is of Aqua near the beginning of her time in the RoD. And then, of course, the number "0.5" appears, which, therefore, refers to the time, or a period of time, in between 0 and 1. The other clips in the game (Micky in RoD w/Star Seeker, Riku in Org XIII outfit/blindfold watching Roxas and Xion) may indicate that the game may actually move past KH1 and show us all that happened with Aqua, Micky, and Riku all the way up until KH2 or even further. However, the biggest indication that BBSvol2 will absolutely not take place after KH3 is the flurry of different Xehanorts we see at the end of the teaser. KH3, Nomura has said, will be the end of the "Xehanort saga," meaning no more Xehanort.

Hm... I'm gonna take a guess here. One obvious factor is the concentration, or amount, of the reactant. If you increase the concentration of the reactant you are using (the thing that's being added to induce the chemical reaction), you'll increase the rate at which the reactions happen. Also, the conditions in which the reaction is occurring could definitely have an effect on its rate... you could be surrounded by liquids or gases, you could be in a very polar region or a very nonpolar region... all these things could potentially affect the rate of a reaction.

Well that's just the thing, it is my belief that Roxas is actually using Ventus' body. Perhaps this is what is implied in the BBS FM secret ending, when we see Ventus' body disappear from the Chamber of Waking. Perhaps it went to Roxas when he was... "born." I think it is important to understand that it was not Ventus' heart that was consumed by darkness when Sora became a heartless. It was Sora's alone, and the heart(s) that had taken refuge within him were released (as is the power of the Keyblade of People's Hearts). Kairi's as we know, was released and returned to her body. Ventus', too, we can assume, was released. So Ventus, his heart not having been consumed by darkness but purely been released (like Kairi's), does not have a nobody. It is plausible, however, that Ventus' heart, due to its residence within Sora's body, naturally migrated with Sora's body as it went off to become a nobody. HOWEVER. We know that Sora actually got his body back when Kairi miraculously saved him. This does not, moreover, negate his nobody having been born. We can speculate many things, perhaps from the beginning Sora's body changed its form to resemble Ventus as it became a nobody due to Ventus' heart, and furthermore remained with Ventus' heart as Sora' nobody after Sora regained his human form. This, however, would mean that Sora now has TWO bodies: the one which he uses, and the one which his nobody uses (that has taken a form resembling Ventus). This doesn't make a whole lot of sense. Rather, it is my belief that after Sora regained his human form (thus getting his body back), his nobody (now lacking a body)/Ventus' heart naturally migrated back to Ventus' own body (meaning that initially, Sora's nobody, using Sora's body, maintained Sora's actual appearance, until that body was returned to Sora). Thus, Roxas is born, harboring both Ventus' heart and body, but yet still being Sora's nobody. Or something along those lines. No Ven's body remains in Castle Oblivion. In Days, Roxas goes to CO and immediatly faints, because he has Ven's heart and its' so close to his body. He fainted because Ven's heart was reacting to the body. If he had Ven's body, that wouldn't have happened. Frankly, not much is changed either way, beside the quantity of existing bodies (which, in the situation you're proposing, is higher than would naturally make sense). Nevertheless, Roxas fainting in CO could be due to a number of reasons. It could be due to his heart (Ven's heart) resonating with his home (CO = The Land of Departure), it could be because that was where his body had lain dormant, or it could be because of Sora's presence there (although it is likely that by this point, DiZ has already transferred Sora's pod to Twilight Town). It is unclear, in any case. It is, as you stated, very well possible that Roxas' fainting was due the presence of Ven's heart in the castle. And if this happens to be the case, we can conclude that the only difference is that Roxas' body is Sora's body with the appearance of Ven's, and that, somehow, Sora (or Roxas) developed their own new body when Sora regained his; Ven's body remains in the Chamber of Waking. This still, in my opinion, does not change the fact that we can, theoretically, say that Roxas is Ventus, in the sense that Roxas literally has Ven's heart. When Ven's heart was within Sora's body, it was just resting there - Sora's heart was in control. But now, Ven's heart has a body all to itself. If I'm not mistaken, the heart is what determines who one is. The body and the soul just act as the means to make it happen. (On a side note, we can come to the question of what happened to Ven's soul/mind/will/whatever you want to refer to it as. Clearly, it did not stay with his body, seeing as his body is utterly lifeless. Likely enough, it went to Sora, and later went on to Roxas. We don't know enough about the soul/mind/will to determine much, yet). But returning to the original question, I maintain that, in essence, Roxas is Ventus because they share the same heart (and a heart is who someone is, not so much the body and the soul - though, again, perhaps the soul more so, which could, hypothetically, be a contributing factor as to why their personalities are different). Again, however, Roxas became his own person with his own personality, memories, and mannerisms, making him quite different than Ven. From this perspective, they are, undoubtedly, two different people.