» KHU Guest Blogs - News Archive (Page 4)

Within the Kingdom Hearts realm lurks evil of all sorts. Deception, malice and anger fuel their cause, and sometimes jealousy is added to the potent mix. Last week, I explained how Riku has the honour of carrying the badge of absolute evil. From the Disney ring, I added Hades, for his unrelenting strikes against our protagonist and his tendency for manipulation. This week, I introduce two more worthy foes who have stayed in the franchise for a very long time. Where there’s light, there is darkness. And where they coexist, they also cast shadows into the heart of men.

Several weeks ago, we showcased who we thought made poor and unreliable villains in Kingdom Hearts. Amongst those named, we included: Pete, the blundering fool; Demyx, the musical talent without much motive; Scar, a misplaced Disney icon; and Shan Yu, the silent but boring antagonist. But it would be a mistake to think that the darkness is commanded solely by these weak villains. Behind every pawn, there is a more devious hand that deals the cards. Continuing the Villains series, this week, we continue to speak more evil, hear more evil, and maybe even do more evil.

For our Monday blog, Tarif from Ontario, Canada, presents his huge Kingdom Hearts collection to us. He also tells us about his cosplay experience, his fan-history, his favorite Kingdom Hearts game–and more! Check it out.

Also, if you’d like to have your own collection featured, we’ve got the how-tos at the end of the interview.

Unless you’ve played Re:Coded, in the past few years, it feels like Sora has been missing from action as a significant, directive component of Kingdom Hearts. Roxas, Ventus, Aqua, and Terra were introduced as protaganists and became the characters we interacted with the most in 358/2 Days and Birth by Sleep. Maybe you’ve thought of it, maybe you haven’t, but regardless there have been undeniable impacts that the lack of Sora has had on the look and feel of the games, as well as how players have reacted to them.

Cloudy is back by popular demand as our guest blogger, and she gives you her insider’s dialogue on this issue. Starting from 358/2 Days, she laments the slowed pace of progression of Sora’s story arc, but redeems 358/2 Days by what Roxas brings to the table. Birth by Sleep received greater accolade but the messily proclaimed “connections to Sora” felt forced and the future of Dream Drop Distance now falls into question. Cloudy rounds off the dialogue with a twist on what happens when there is too much Sora.

The next person who submitted a photo is Rae, who spoke in length with me about her tattoo and her experience with playing Re:Coded. If you’ve done neither (tattooed yourself in KH style or played Re:Coded), you’ll definitely want to check out this interview!

Thank you to everyone who has made a submission! We run our features in order of submission date and shall endeavour to miss no one! If you have submitted, you should have received a reply from us, but please note that we ran into an unexpected server difficulty with large files and was not able to reply to some of you. I apologize to Ethan, Kate, Allison, Kristin and Heather–thank you so much for participating. We’re working on the problem, but in the mean time, to quicken the process, you can resend your emails to jackielaw@shaw.ca. To be safe, large files can be zipped as a folder before sending.