gorsecloud (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
gorsecloud) wrote2013-10-14 05:32 am
gorsecloud) wrote2013-10-14 05:32 am
Time for unpopular fandom opinions
I love Kingdom Hearts. At the same time, I will admit Kingdom Hearts is flawed. There are a lot of them, but most particularly for this fandom rant, the gender ratio is hugely skewed in favor of guys, both in presence and screentime.
Obviously it's been a big time for our fandom recently, what with the release of 1.5, Kingdom Hearts 2.5 in production, and of course, the all-important Kingdom Hearts 3. This has, predictably, generated a lot of discussion about the series, on a variety of topics. This really excites me! I love discussion.
However, lately whenever I see the words "Kairi" and "playable" in the same sentence, I have to resist the urge to roll my eyes, sigh frustratedly, and walk out of the metaphorical room. Bonus points if there's threats to rage and quit the fandom if she isn't.
It's not that I hate Kairi. I love Kairi - I love all the Kingdom Hearts girls. Playable Kairi would be utterly kick-ass and I'd love to see it. But I'm just really, really tired of the topic cropping up if any KH3 discussion goes on long enough, especially as it has a tendency to take over the conversation and/or turn into a rant about how the speaker doesn't like how she's been treated in the series thus far. Which, it's their opinion, it's a perfectly valid one to have! Except I'm seeing it what feels like everywhere. Especially in mediums like plurk, where a conversation can be hijacked and turned in a direction the conversation-starter is very uncomfortable with, with no way to really excuse oneself.
There's also places like Tumblr where one comment will often make the rounds through my followers so the same rant gets reblogged by a good 5-10 people.
((I guess in this sort of way I'm honestly getting sick of being on Tumblr. Because Tumblr, as I've noticed lately, is a place full of angry people just as much as it is full of happy fans. And lately I've been feeling the angry part so much that it's really not fun to be on there half the time. It's really not fun to be a fan half the time because I'm having to deal with post after post of all the Major Problems my fandoms have, to the point where I feel uncomfortable and guilty for even liking it.))
It also feels like people are just setting themselves up for disappointment, because there's a lot of reasons I honestly think Kairi won't be playable in KH3, at least not in the way that would make these people satisfied.
The first (and main) reason being the fact that Nomura has said that the handheld games are/were for experimentation - stuff like the leveling systems in Days and Re:coded, 3D's Drop System and flowmotion, and the triple storylines and numerous gameplay enhancements (Shotlocks, Command Styles, etc.) of Birth by Sleep. But in the same vien, he said that the numbered titles would be more formulaic - which is to say it would have a single storyline with Sora (as the main protagonist), Donald, and Goofy following that storyline together. You could argue about Roxas in Kingdom Hearts 2, but he didn't really stick around long enough to be a true protagonist, and we already knew the story would eventually switch over to Sora.
Frankly, I think if we do get playable Kairi, something like what Roxas had would honestly be the most we could hope for, for aforementioned reason. But what I honestly feel is most likely would be that Kairi ends up being a supporting/ally character, the same way Riku was at the end of KH2.
Of course, people were complaining about the fact that none of the girls were in the KH3 trailer tonight.
And as much as I told Rox earlier, "WHERE MAH LADIES AT," at the same time I'm like "Well duh, of course they're not in the trailer." The girls in KH3 - their roles, what they're doing, etc. - would be HUGE NEWS. If there's anything that Disney and Square know how to do, it's how to hype a project. KH3D was proof of that. And so right now they're showing us basically proof that they're working on the project, and smaller things that would get us excited. There's no way they're going to show us anything major yet. That would be showing too much of their hand way too early.
A friend of mine (who I trust to not spread baseless rumors) said that Nomura is outright hiding anything to do with Kairi in KH3 - which is actually a really good sign. Because why would he be hiding information about her if there was nothing worth hiding?
Which I guess gets me to part of the other reason why I'm frustrated: people acting like a lot of the recent developments - particularly the end of KH2 and KH3D - aren't indicative that Kairi's going to have a much bigger role in KH3? I guess that could be chalked up to a difference in interpretation though. Yes you could claim she's been cheated/shelved in the past, but most of the female characters - Aqua, Xion - that have been introduced recently are movers and shakers in their plotlines, and drivers of their own fate. Whyyyy would this not be a good sign that they were going to allow Kairi to do the same thing?
I dunno. I guess I'm just really really frustrated. A lot.
Just, above all, if people are excited, let them be excited. Don't interrupt it with your own frustrations. Please be careful about when and when not are good times to bring up your own opinions.
As a friend of mine put it, you aren't excluded from the "Don't be a dick" rule just because you're talking about female characters.
Obviously it's been a big time for our fandom recently, what with the release of 1.5, Kingdom Hearts 2.5 in production, and of course, the all-important Kingdom Hearts 3. This has, predictably, generated a lot of discussion about the series, on a variety of topics. This really excites me! I love discussion.
However, lately whenever I see the words "Kairi" and "playable" in the same sentence, I have to resist the urge to roll my eyes, sigh frustratedly, and walk out of the metaphorical room. Bonus points if there's threats to rage and quit the fandom if she isn't.
It's not that I hate Kairi. I love Kairi - I love all the Kingdom Hearts girls. Playable Kairi would be utterly kick-ass and I'd love to see it. But I'm just really, really tired of the topic cropping up if any KH3 discussion goes on long enough, especially as it has a tendency to take over the conversation and/or turn into a rant about how the speaker doesn't like how she's been treated in the series thus far. Which, it's their opinion, it's a perfectly valid one to have! Except I'm seeing it what feels like everywhere. Especially in mediums like plurk, where a conversation can be hijacked and turned in a direction the conversation-starter is very uncomfortable with, with no way to really excuse oneself.
There's also places like Tumblr where one comment will often make the rounds through my followers so the same rant gets reblogged by a good 5-10 people.
((I guess in this sort of way I'm honestly getting sick of being on Tumblr. Because Tumblr, as I've noticed lately, is a place full of angry people just as much as it is full of happy fans. And lately I've been feeling the angry part so much that it's really not fun to be on there half the time. It's really not fun to be a fan half the time because I'm having to deal with post after post of all the Major Problems my fandoms have, to the point where I feel uncomfortable and guilty for even liking it.))
It also feels like people are just setting themselves up for disappointment, because there's a lot of reasons I honestly think Kairi won't be playable in KH3, at least not in the way that would make these people satisfied.
The first (and main) reason being the fact that Nomura has said that the handheld games are/were for experimentation - stuff like the leveling systems in Days and Re:coded, 3D's Drop System and flowmotion, and the triple storylines and numerous gameplay enhancements (Shotlocks, Command Styles, etc.) of Birth by Sleep. But in the same vien, he said that the numbered titles would be more formulaic - which is to say it would have a single storyline with Sora (as the main protagonist), Donald, and Goofy following that storyline together. You could argue about Roxas in Kingdom Hearts 2, but he didn't really stick around long enough to be a true protagonist, and we already knew the story would eventually switch over to Sora.
Frankly, I think if we do get playable Kairi, something like what Roxas had would honestly be the most we could hope for, for aforementioned reason. But what I honestly feel is most likely would be that Kairi ends up being a supporting/ally character, the same way Riku was at the end of KH2.
Of course, people were complaining about the fact that none of the girls were in the KH3 trailer tonight.
And as much as I told Rox earlier, "WHERE MAH LADIES AT," at the same time I'm like "Well duh, of course they're not in the trailer." The girls in KH3 - their roles, what they're doing, etc. - would be HUGE NEWS. If there's anything that Disney and Square know how to do, it's how to hype a project. KH3D was proof of that. And so right now they're showing us basically proof that they're working on the project, and smaller things that would get us excited. There's no way they're going to show us anything major yet. That would be showing too much of their hand way too early.
A friend of mine (who I trust to not spread baseless rumors) said that Nomura is outright hiding anything to do with Kairi in KH3 - which is actually a really good sign. Because why would he be hiding information about her if there was nothing worth hiding?
Which I guess gets me to part of the other reason why I'm frustrated: people acting like a lot of the recent developments - particularly the end of KH2 and KH3D - aren't indicative that Kairi's going to have a much bigger role in KH3? I guess that could be chalked up to a difference in interpretation though. Yes you could claim she's been cheated/shelved in the past, but most of the female characters - Aqua, Xion - that have been introduced recently are movers and shakers in their plotlines, and drivers of their own fate. Whyyyy would this not be a good sign that they were going to allow Kairi to do the same thing?
I dunno. I guess I'm just really really frustrated. A lot.
Just, above all, if people are excited, let them be excited. Don't interrupt it with your own frustrations. Please be careful about when and when not are good times to bring up your own opinions.
As a friend of mine put it, you aren't excluded from the "Don't be a dick" rule just because you're talking about female characters.