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Should Kingdom Hearts Explore DATING/RELATIONSHIPS?



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Face My Fears

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Regardless of the ship you're with: SoKai/SoRiku/Raxel/Aquiri/Niku/Voxas/Naion/Terriku/Venitas/Xehanoraqus etc. I was curious whether the series has reached a point where relationships should be introduced? I'm not saying pair everyone up, but would it help the franchise grow by actually pulling the trigger on Sora/Kairi or do you think that will worsen the series? I am (kinda) of the opinion that keeping people's relationships vague or alluded to, but never fleshed out or confirmed, actually will start to hold back the series. It's been over a decade of Sora/Kairi hinting to romance. How long can that go on without a confirmation? Or an even better question -- why would you tease something with no plan of ever doing anything with it?

So I put it out there to the KH community -- should KH finally use/confirm romantic relationships?
 

Twilight Lumiair

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Personally, I'd rather they keep romantic subtext as just that, subtext. Partly because when japanese stories like KH begin leaning into romance, it typically results in one side playing hero while the other is the damsel, and I'm not a fan of predictable tropes like that. Nomura already utilized a lot of (harmful) shonen-esc tropes of a similar nature in KH3, so I'd rather the series stay away from any more.

The only pair with egregious amounts hinting and symbolism is Sokai, so I actually don't mind that one (even if it's not something I exactly wish to see more of). That said, the two's chemistry and relationship still feels a bit shallow, and I'm not a fan of how it was presented in KH3. I'm not sure if Nomura just struggles to write couples or not, but I don't really trust him.

I just want Soriku & Vanroku content
I typically prefer Soroku and VanVen, but that sounds nice too, lol. On that note, if the series does start leaning more into romantic relationships, I hope we get at least one non-hetero pairing out of the main cast. Pls Nomura 😣

*Edited for grammatical errors*
 
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Face My Fears

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Personally, I'd rather they keep romantic subtext as just that, subtext. Partly because when japanese stories like KH begin leaning into romance, it typically results in one side playing hero while the other is the damsel, and Nomura utilized a lot of shonen-esc tropes of a similar nature in KH3 already, so I'd rather the series stay away from that.

The only pair with egregious amounts hinting and symbolism is Sokai, so I actually don't mind that one, even if it's not exactly want to see more of. That said, the two's chemistry isn't and relationship feels a bit shallow, and I'm not a fan of how it was presented in KH3. I'm not sure if Nomura just struggles to write couples or not, but I don't really trust him.


I typically prefer Soroku and VanVen, but that sounds nice too, lol. On that note, if the series does start leaning more into romantic relationships, I hope we get at least one non-hetero pairing out of the main cast. Pls Nomura 😣
Axel/Isa please. I can't think of any lesbian pairing because the only female that is a non-Kairi relative is Aqua, so it'd have to be Aqua and Kairi/Namine/Xion.

Has Nomura ever written romances in stories before? I was always curious on his track record with romances.
 

Any

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Axel/Isa please. I can't think of any lesbian pairing because the only female that is a non-Kairi relative is Aqua, so it'd have to be Aqua and Kairi/Namine/Xion.

Has Nomura ever written romances in stories before? I was always curious on his track record with romances.

Aqua x Larxene is top-tier 👌🏽
 

FudgemintGuardian

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Nomura can't even get friendship right half the time.

Personally, I'd rather they keep romantic subtext as just that, subtext. Partly because when japanese stories like KH begin leaning into romance, it typically results in one side playing hero while the other is the damsel, and Nomura utilized a lot of shonen-esc tropes of a similar nature in KH3 already, so I'd rather the series stay away from that.

The only pair with egregious amounts hinting and symbolism is Sokai, so I actually don't mind that one, even if it's not exactly want to see more of. That said, the two's chemistry isn't and relationship feels a bit shallow, and I'm not a fan of how it was presented in KH3. I'm not sure if Nomura just struggles to write couples or not, but I don't really trust him.
I think it's partially because Nomura never knows what to do with Kairi. He also seems to have a hard time committing to some of his own concepts in general, like how nothing can just be as they are. There always has to be some plot twist connection....


I typically prefer Soroku and VanVen, but that sounds nice too, lol. On that note, if the series does start leaning more into romantic relationships, I hope we get at least one non-hetero pairing out of the main cast. Pls Nomura 😣
tumblr_m7af9uTsqJ1qmmgpmo1_500.gif
 

Zettaflare

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Well if Sokai is Canon as implied by the ending it might be something that is addressed in the next saga.

We've seen romance with the Disney couples so maybe it won't feel too out of place. Of course since Sora and Kairi are separated next game it may not be something we will see for quite a while, lol
 

AR829038

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Well, they kind of already did pull the trigger on SoKai in this game. The sharing of the paopu fruit was the final step in locking their destinies together and becoming intimate with one another. It's not a kiss, but I actually think it's a much more original and unique way to display that kind of affection, and I'm really happy Nomura went with that instead of a kiss which, to me, would have just felt kind of off in this series.
I can't see this series going off and hooking characters up just for the sake of it. Sora and Kairi have pretty much been an item since the start, but everyone else is always on a platonic level, even when it seems like there might be something more there, and that's likely because Nomura doesn't always write relationships of romantic/platonic affection in a way that make them distinguishable from one another. He doesn't really understand how people realistically speak and act in these situations. Which is ironic, because the series is fantastic at eliciting emotions from the player.
And anyway, I don't think Kingdom Hearts would ever make a relationship status that meaningful. I mean, throughout the entire series, Sora and Kairi already talk about each other as if they're already an item, and I don't think we'll see a lot of change in their behavior just because it's been made official. I think Kairi will still pine for Sora like she always has, and Sora will still pine for her as always, and there won't be any substantive change.
 

SomeKHFan

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Please, we all know the true pairing is Lea and Goofy :p

But seriously, I always felt that KH was better with it's little focus with romance (excluding Disney ones). Apart from the SoKai subtext we see it feels friendship is the main core of the series and should stay that way.
 

Twilight Lumiair

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Nomura can't even get friendship right half the time.

I think it's partially because Nomura never knows what to do with Kairi. He also seems to have a hard time committing to some of his own concepts in general, like how nothing can just be as they are. There always has to be some plot twist connection....
Sad, but true. SRK hardly feel like a trio anymore, which is a shame since the first game sold their friendship better than most others in the series.

Lacking consistency and commitment is one of Nomura's glaring bad habits as a writer. You can't just introduce 5 new ideas and then fail to follow through with any of them. The whole premise of KH3, for example was Sora recovering the PoW by going around the Disney Worlds. Only for it to be revealed, in the most backwards way possible (seriously, how does Ven even know this when Sora & co don't?), that he never lost it in the first place. Nope, he just needed to "call out to it" and boom, problem solved. I wouldn't be surprised if Nomura ends dropping a romantic pairing at the earliest convenience once he feels like it's limiting his ability to do whatever the hell he wants (even though he desperately needs something/someone to reel him in with all of his out of nowhere concepts).

Lol, as adorable as I find these two, I can never manage to picture them as an item due to their designs and styles being so radically different. Like.. I want to, but my brain just can't take it seriously.🤪
 

disney233

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No. They can even get the Disney-FF crossover aspect right anymore.
I'm guessing you mean can't, to which I CAN'T help but agree with you on this. Noumra is at a point where it's LITERALLY impossible to make SRK even an actual friend group anymore. If the man even tries to make a confirmed couple it'll crash & burn like the chances of returning to the good times of actually FEELING the presence of Disney & Final Fantasy in the same game.
 

VoidGear.

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Not any more than they have up until now, unless it's actually done well. The only relationship that developed enough and especially healthily and steadily enough over the course of the games to even be considered going *there* is SoRiku in my book anyway.
 

Nukara

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I am not opposed to the relationship, provided that these are couples to which hints were made, like Sokai or RokuNami (a hint was made in credits 2.8), TerraAqua, no matter how much I liked this shipping, has no romantic basis.((
However, I probably would not mind if their relationship began to develop.)
 
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Nukara

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Axel/Isa please. I can't think of any lesbian pairing because the only female that is a non-Kairi relative is Aqua, so it'd have to be Aqua and Kairi/Namine/Xion.

Has Nomura ever written romances in stories before? I was always curious on his track record with romances.
It seems to me, but is Nomura more likely to develop a relationship between Isa and Subject X? For Isa is suspiciously interested in this mysterious girl (Much stronger than the Lea in my opinion)
 

Oracle Spockanort

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So, like a few others have said, Nomura doesn't even really have a good handle on the friendship aspect of the series at the moment. He overloaded himself with a ton of characters and it has made it difficult for him to balance them all out. I'm not talking about TAV or RAX when I am talking about this, but rather the interpersonal relationships between all of these characters with each other and in relation to Sora.

Sora has a very thin connection to them all but he considers them all his friends, but how am I supposed to believe Ven and Sora are friends and not just...heart buddies? There are no scenes to show that they have any connection to each other in any other way than the convenient roles they served each other. Sora was Ven's bed for 10+ years and Ven was there to whip out a deus ex machina when Sora needed it.

Or let's look at Terra and Riku as another example. They have a connection. Terra is one of the motivations for Riku wanting to leave Destiny Islands. He is the one that eventually made it possible for Riku to even have a Keyblade. He apparently was in his heart at some point since Terra is the Guardian and Riku had the Guardian when he took on the appearance of Ansem: SoD. We see meaningful moments interspersed here and there but they never once actually interact in KH3.

Or Ven and Roxas. They just had that look and that was it.

There are no cohesive interpersonal relationships being developed and it is all passive and only has the illusion of being friendship.

This isn't me complaining about KH3, but rather just laying out that there is a genuine lack of development for these characters on their own and in relation to others throughout the entire series that would help to sell these friendships better.

Which leads me to my next point.

If Nomura can hardly balance all of these characters as friends, how in the world are we supposed to trust him to develop any romantic relationship without it being just as surface level as everything else?

I already personally find SoKai to be a dreadfully developed potential romance, with 90% of it being because Nomura can't seem to care enough to develop Kairi into something more than Sora's potential love interest or a plot device for convenient use whenever he needs somebody to fill that role (and at this point he's been using so many other characters like this that Kairi really doesn't even have this going for her anymore)

The only relationship with any meaningful and good development in this series, regardless of if you see it as friendship or in a potential romantic light, is Sora and Riku. They are the only two Nomura has really poured all of his attention into and it shows. It makes it hard to really enjoy any other relationship in this series that didn't have its own game to be developed (i.e. TAV, RAX) because these two have set the bar so high.

Nomura has to fix a lot of problems with his writing before he can even think to have any textual canon romances.

I'm fine living in my corner with soriku, terraqua, leaisa, replinami (?), namixi (?) and nothing being canon. I just want Nomura to write some really good development for everybody and make them all actual friends.

Well, they kind of already did pull the trigger on SoKai in this game. The sharing of the paopu fruit was the final step in locking their destinies together and becoming intimate with one another. It's not a kiss, but I actually think it's a much more original and unique way to display that kind of affection, and I'm really happy Nomura went with that instead of a kiss which, to me, would have just felt kind of off in this series.

I completely disagree with this. The paopu scene was awkward and hardly sweet or romantic in my point of view. It came off as a bit like something Nomura was checking a box over.

Sad, but true. SRK hardly feel like a trio anymore, which is a shame since the first game sold their friendship better than most others in the series.

This is the most disappointing part about that trio. Every time there is space to develop them, Nomura just doesn't. He'll develop Sora and Riku's friendship up to the moon and back (which I'm not complaining about. if I had it my way, they'd be the canon pair of this series but I don't have any hope about this), throw a bone for Sora and Kairi in the most non-passionate way every main game, and show Riku and Kairi together maybe every now and then, but they don't even exist as a trio at this point and that's just so disappointing and sad and altogether a waste.

I don't think they should shy away from showing relationships if it's deemed relevant, but actually exploring it? No thank you.

Agreed. Exploring it is absolutely the worst idea, not only because I think it would only further bloat and distract from a story that has a hard time focusing itself sometimes, but also it just doesn't sound appealing? Most of what is appealing about seeing relationships in media is the lead-up to the relationship and the fleeting hints about it, not so much the actual relationship.

I kind of have a soft spot for Terra x Aqua so I'd be fine with that couple becoming Canon, lol. Especially after their reunion in KH3

This is the ONLY het couple I can realistically believe in.

I am not opposed to the relationship, provided that these are couples to which hints were made, like Sokai or RokuNami (a hint was made in credits 2.8), TerraAqua, no matter how much I liked this shipping, has no romantic basis.((
However, I probably would not mind if their relationship began to develop.)

Roxas and Namine aren't really being pushed as a pair anymore. It seems to be leaning more toward Namine and Replica Riku.

Well if Sokai is Canon as implied by the ending it might be something that is addressed in the next saga.

We've seen romance with the Disney couples so maybe it won't feel too out of place. Of course since Sora and Kairi are separated next game it may not be something we will see for quite a while, lol

Eeeeeh, the ending didn't really imply anything, though. It's very much a sweet and sad moment but I hardly find it to be proof of them being canon.

The difference between romance from Disney couples and romance by Nomura is that they have source material to follow for the Disney couples. They are established in their own films and media, and then injected into KH so we already have that association with them. Also the films (usually) do a better job of selling those characters as couples way better than Nomura could ever do to sell people on any other couple.

No. They can even get the Disney-FF crossover aspect right anymore.

Exactly.
 
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