Kingdom Hearts: The Next Generation
Hello! I started writing this update in honor of the Kingdom Hearts III trailer that was released at Japan's D23 2018… almost six months ago. Okay, I'm still bad at this.
Anyway, said trailer revealed the Monsters, Inc. world and showed the first glimpses of the cast of Tangled in action. Good stuff. So far I'm two-for-nine in intersecting this fic's Disney worlds with KH3's. Hmm, there was a shot of what appeared to be an Ariel summon. Screw it, I'm calling that a three for nine.
When the Tangled world was first unveiled, I was worried that the crew would assign Eugene instead of Rapunzel as that world's party member. Turns out they're doing both! Rapunzel and Eugene, Woody and Buzz, Mike and Sulley, and always with Donald and Goofy. They're going for a five-party-member system. Coooool. I just sure hope Hercules isn't the only world in KH3 to be returning from a previous game… or from a 2D-animated movie… or to have only one guest party member.
They did not, as I posited, simplify Rapunzel's character model. Nope, they freakin' developed the technology to make Rapunzel's hair faithful to the movie the whole time. Hot damn! That's so awesome. I mean, Tangled is the most expensive animated work ever produced. No wonder KH3 has been in development for so many years; Square-Enix wasn't gonna be satisfied with their product until it looked as good as Pixar and modern CGI Disney. Then there's the Monsters, Inc. world, which also looks incredibly interesting and exciting, way more so than I ever could have imagined it to be since, as I said, Monsters, Inc. was never a movie I was especially passionate about, I just put it in this fic because I wanted Randall on my villain team, I could never have done it justice.
Another thing worth mentioning is that as of last year, there's a Webby Vanderquack for the new generation. A Webby that would have fit in with this story far better than the original model ever did. It was friggin' hard to keep her from being overshadowed by Skye and Max. There would certainly be no such issue with the new Webby.
And now more trailers have been revealed. Frozen world, even though they've been denying for ages that they'd do such a thing, but they'd be fools not to include the most successful animated film of all time in the game… I think I cancelled KHNG before Frozen was out. That was like a whole different historical era. Pirates of the Caribbean world which seems to cover the second and third films in that series—exactly what I always wanted, in fact I've alluded to it having happened in the past of the KHNG 'verse. Anyway, let's go on with the story.
Louisiana Bayou
I did not name the world New Orleans because, I reasoned, no Kingdom Hearts world has ever had the name of a real place—while such names as China and France are mentioned, they're nowhere to be found in the names of the worlds. …Except, as it turns out, Port Royal, the name of the Pirates of the Caribbean world, is totally a real place. And also I put "Louisiana" there in the name of the—look, I don't remember every little thought I had all these years ago when I was desperately trying to tell a great story that nobody even bothered to freakin' read, but it was something like that.
Right about this time, I think "ga" spells would start popping up. Something would be made of that. Ah, there's something about the Brotherhood ditching Xefrii and Ciexu? Yeah: after the loss of Demona and death of Gothel, I think they defer to the authority of Facilier and the Blot, whom they trust more than the mysterious youths, and the entire remaining crew—Facilier, the Blot, Randall, and Chick—set up shop in Facilier's home world.
Meanwhile, Skye, Max, and Webby land in the bayou, where they are immediately approached by the Muppet band, the Electric Mayhem. "Hey, tiny Keyblade dude!" Floyd calls out. "Kermit's takin' a beatin'!"
They run to help and battle away some Heartless, teaming up with Kermit as this world's party member. As a Keyblade wielder, he's pretty strong as a teammate, and has a lot of rainbow-themed attacks and moves as a nod to his iconic song.
With the battle over, the frog versions of Tiana and Naveen emerge. Naveen admires the Keyblades, calling them "achidanza", and Tiana thanks Master Kermit for saving them. Kermit says he's glad to help some fellow frogs; they explain their real background to Kermit and Skye as they settle down to dinner along with Ray and Louis.
So, the team goes to Mama Odie, and I don't think I bothered to Kingdom Hearts-ize it, it was just the Mama Odie scene without a musical number: the discovery that Charlotte counts as a princess until midnight when Mardi Gras is over, and that therefore they can kiss her and break the spell. And Naveen would have gone "faldi faldonza" at some point, perhaps exactly where he does in the film, because I really wanted to integrate every bit of Maldonian vocabulary we get in the film.
They take the plan where they return to New Orleans via a riverboat. There, the Blot attacks. Big boss battle, Blot vs. the team plus Kermit, taking place all over the riverboat. Which is strangely empty, because Kingdom Hearts boss battle, no bystanders.
Skip ahead to the graveyard scene; Skye, Max, Webby, and Kermit first battle the giant mask that represents Facilier's "friends on the other side", then Facilier himself. Facilier skips out on them after the battle is concluded, and they observe his temptation of Tiana. Kermit allows them to see what Tiana is seeing by casting a "spell spell", which he says comes from the teachings of Master Eraqus. Tiana resists the temptation exactly as in the film and Facilier is sucked to the other side by his friends.
Tiana and the party join back up with Naveen for a reenactment of Charlotte's failed kiss, and Ray's death.
Randall and Chick, shaken up by the sight of Facilier being swallowed up by the friends, decide to completely quit the Brotherhood. Chick takes a Corridor of Darkness back to his own world, vowing to get ahead as a racer using his usual dirty tactics rather than the powers of darkness, and Randall elects to stay in the bayou, having heard it has the best jazz school in all the worlds. The Blot, left alone, decides to return to his alliance with Xefrii and Ciexu.
Instead of returning to Mama Odie, Tiana and Naveen ask Master Kermit to marry them, which he does via his authority as a Keyblade Master. As in the film, this gets them fixed and back to their human forms, and they vow to work hard to make Tiana's dream come true.
Kermit offers Skye the services of the Electric Mayhem as a summon. Skye is apprehensive until Floyd tells him, "It's cool, man, we're unemployed," a call back to Skye's question when the Tinker Bell summon was first offered. The concept of the Electric Mayhem summon is that all five musicians appear around Skye, each standing atop a floating disk. Dr. Teeth, Floyd, Janice, and Zoot rotate around Skye, automatically using their instruments to cast a spell whenever an enemy comes near: Dr. Teeth uses blizzard spells, Floyd uses fire, Janice uses thunder, and Zoot uses aero; they all shout out the type of magic they use while playing a noisy chord, save Zoot, who simply blasts a note on his sax. Animal, meanwhile, floats up above Skye and is uses in the summon's limit break, chanting "Magnet! Magnet!" while casting a powerful magic spell that absorbs many enemies, ending with the other four casting their spells all at once.
At this point, Sora reveals something I'm pretty sure hasn't been revealed yet… I'm not sure how exactly I intended to reveal this to the audience, but what he reveals is that he has the hearts of Roxas, Xion, and Axel within himself, and that Kairi is similarly housing Naminé. Though they tried ages ago when they defeated Xehanort to free these hearts and bring their bodies back, they have not succeeded.
As Skye, Max, and Webby traverse the Lanes Between on their way to the next destination, the Phantom Blot appears and attacks. Skye manages to drive him away, but Max and Webby are badly wounded in the attempt, leaving Skye alone in space with their unconscious bodies.