The reason why the ending of Union X with Daybreak Town being destroyed and the player sacrificing themselves to stop Darkness aren’t shown in Xehanort’s dreams of the Player is because the First episode of Dark Road came out before Union X ended so those scenes didn’t actually exist yet when Episode 1 of Dark Road came out.
So the three episodes you just watched are the only ones that were released before the remaining episodes were dropped a few days ago. To put it in perspective, there was a 7 month gap between episode 3 and Union Cross' Finale, and an almost 22 month gap between episode 3 and the rest of Dark Road. In the first three episodes, you could switch out the third party member and yes, the dialogue would stay pretty much the same no matter who you chose. However, this is not the case for the following episodes - there is a canon party set-up and dialogue for the story scenes. Also, unlike Union Cross the Disney Worlds are not filler and are considered by many, including me, to be some of the best Disney integration in the main plot throughout the series! All Dark Road cutscenes are included in Everglow's video since it is a shorter story without really any filler to cut. I'm excited to see you experience Dark Road and hope you enjoy the journey!
Honestly that was my favourite detail from Episodes 4 to 8, that there is a fixed party so we can see proper characterization for Bragi, Hermod, Urd and Vor.
@@Gwen1661 No problem! He actually doesn't read them until just before he records the next episode so he can pick a Comment of the Day, but I think he said he does read all of them.
11:26 I know its been YEARS so I don't blame you for forgetting, but it was established in Birth by Sleep that Xehanort grew up on Destiny Islands and all
Didn't Riku mention something about that at one point? Like, he grew up hearing stories of a kid who left the islands and that started his desire to leave and when Kairi showed up it cemented that desire?
53:49 Regarding this brief flashback to KHUX here, here's an excerpt from Kingdom Hearts 3 Secret Report 2, which was written by Xehanort in his Mark of Mastery Journal: "Eraqus is a blueblood, descended from the very first masters in the age of fairy tales." That's why he knows this line, most likely.
Ironic how Xehnort said that to Eraqus about "one day turning your keyblade on a being that has no idea what they've become," considering that's exactly what he did in the future; When Eraqus was about to eliminate Ven as his existence became more dangerous, despite the fact he was his student and didn't understand.
1:04:48 "The Walrus and the Carpenter" refers to a poem that Tweedledee and Tweedledum recite in the book Alice in Wonderland. The poem is *18 stanzas and 108 lines long.* So basically it's just a really long poem that pretty much wasted Xehanort, Eraqus, and Vor's time.
So a quick briefing of all the students and the origins of their names: Hermod in Norse Mythology is the son of Odin and brother of Baldr (though they're not related here). He can be considered the Norse equivalent of Hermes, acting as a messenger of the Aesir gods. He's notable for being the only Aesir who agreed to ride down into Hel (the realm) and offer Hel (the goddess) a ransom in exchange for Baldr's return to Asgard after his tragic death. Bragi is the Skaldic God of Poetry and Music, and another son of Odin. He was known for his intelligence and creativity, and knew his way with words better than anyone else. He was the one who welcomed recently deceased heroes into Valhalla. Urd is one of the Norns (along with Verdandi and Skuld) who decided the fates of man. Urd in particular represented the Past, while Verdandi represented the Present and Skuld the Future. They sat together beneath Yggdrasil, spinning and cutting the threads of humans and gods alike. Vor is a giantess known for being incredibly wise. Her name means "Aware" or "Knowledge out of Darkness". Not much is written about her, but she was known for seeking out wisdom wherever it hid. Once she sought it out, it could never stay concealed from her for long. And as a heads up, Vor's name is pronounced either "Ver" or "Vair" Baldr is the son of Odin and Frigg, and God of Light, Joy, and Purity. He was most well known for how he died, beginning with having prophetic nightmares about dying. Frigg forced everything on Earth to swear an oath to not harm her favorite son, leading to Baldr being impervious to all things except Mistletoe (either because Frigg thought it was too nonthreatening or because it was too young to swear oaths). While all the other gods were having fun throwing things at Baldr and watching them bounce off of him, Loki created a spear/arrow from Mistletoe and gave it to Baldr's blind brother Hodr to throw/shoot at him. Because Mistletoe never swore the oath, it managed to impale and kill him. His body was then burned upon his ship, with some versions of the story saying his horse and wife were burned in the funeral pyre along with him. One version says Thor kicked a random dwarf into the fire as well.
So does that mean Thor is also pronounced Ther or Thair? Though I guess you just mentioned that because of the unfortunate meaning of giantesses on the internet lol.
24:15 I believe Joshua touches upon this in Dream Drop Distance at one point. But yeah time flows differently in each world has been a thing in the previous games. The only real new thing is the revelation that the keyblade war and the worlds being rebuilt after the fact is what ultimately caused this. Because after the war, each world began being rebuilt at different times & speeds. Which caused time in each individual world to flow differently. Hence the “some worlds are babies & and some worlds are adults” analogy Eraqus gives. Basically this is the games explanation for why some Disney characters haven’t aged (as keep in mind Dark Road takes place 60 years before BBS’s events). So Time flows much slower in some worlds. While in others time flows much faster. I remember you being confused on the timeline of events in Birth by Sleep’s Disney worlds back in your let’s play of that game too. Like how Aqua showed up in Castle of Dreams later than Terra even though it was his 2nd world visit. This also helps explain that. And I can definitely see Nomura using this concept to his advantage in later games if he wants to use future Disney world sequels. Like Toy Story 3 for example. Since the Toy Story world in KH3 takes place around Toy Story 2, making a world involving TS3’s plot would be difficult. However considering the way time flows in each world is inconsistent, he can make it so that time flowed much faster in that world by the time Sora returns there in a future game (as canonically TS3 takes place 10 years or so after TS2. However only 1 or 2 years would have passed when Sora returns there). Of course this is just an example and under the assumption Nomura is interested in using the Toy Story 3 plot line at any point Also the inhabitants being absent in some of the worlds due to the world still being in its “building phase” can also be interpreted as Nomura’s explanation for why there is a lack of NPCs LOL. For example, the reason why no NPCs can be seen in the audience stand in Olympus is because that world was still suffering from the keyblade war’s effects, and was still in its “Teenager phase” so to speak.
Time flowing differently also explains why some worlds are set in different centuries. Like how the Princess of Heart worlds are mostly medieval times, but San Fransokyo is 21st century.
I want Joshua to come back in KH4, spout lots of exposition and then Sora doesn't understand any of it and Josh is so done with him. I really liked his dynamic with Riku in Dream Drop, because they were like the two smarter people there and I like how they kinda talked shit about Sora during that one scene. Btw, Nomura has said he really likes Josh and Josh can canonically jump into different worlds.
Any time you see what appears to be an animation shortcut, just note that this entire game - along with most of UX - was animated by a team of just two people. At the beginning of Dark Road, they attempted to keep up monthly updates, until eventually the game was put on hiatus until the rest of it was all dropped at once. Presumably it just wouldn't have been possible to complete otherwise, especially since a lot of the animations are more detailed than UX, even on the little chibi sprites.
According to Nomura who did an interview on the day of the finale being released, he said the reason why there are Emblem Heartless here in Dark Road when they're not supposed to exist for decades will be explained in Missing Link.
@@Shantae1188 well in Union Cross’s case it was because the Emblem heartless were simply illusions created by the book of prophecies. Remember that the book contains details of the future, which likely includes emblem heartless. Why they are here in Dark Road as well as Missing Link is a different story though
@@TheFunchip Well, it’s not like Emblem Heartless are THAT different. He just made Heartless and stamped them. Where he got that insignia TO stamp them, we don’t know. Maybe that’s what Missing Link will clear up.
If I remember correctly there were NO FILLERS in the game, what you see is what we all got. So for example at 1:05:13 Eraqus was talking about "Father William" is just something that happened on the side without our knowledge. Most likely the twins were talking to Eraqus about a story which had so little of importance that it was pushed to the sides.
I think the most interesting thing from Dark Road (that you've seen) is theyre trying to actually tackle the nuances of light and darkness, rather than the more... incredibly binary way the series has done so far.
That’s true. They did explore that nuance in CoM and BBS, but after KH2 they really didn’t do much with the idea. I mean there’s a little in 3D on Riku’s side of things but not as much.
They touch on it in BBS and KH3, specifically with what Xehanort was trying to do: restore balance to the world, making it a world that was pure and blank (the English version of KH3 said "pure and bright", but that's a mistranslation) where light and darkness were in perfect balance.
So as you notice Eraqus throughout the story starts off as the class clown then slowly becomes the man whose has obsession against the darkness. Xehanort seems to have strange the power to see those posses by darkness.
"I feel so bad for Vor" I know Vor is named after a Norse goddess, but I feel like Kingdom Hearts is the only series where someone can utter such a line without any irony
I love Xehanort. He was already shown as a complex character, especially is you read his reports. But Dark Road made me appreciate even more why he became the adult we know, all the talk from any of his counterpart. Like Ansem saying, at the end of KH3, something like "where my comrades once stood only is loneliness now". He may be one of my favorite fiction antagonist. And Kingdom Hearts one of the franchise who gave me the most to think about.
Funny as hell how they introduce a brand new cast of plucky young protagonists, slap them right smack on the most prominent piece of promotional artwork for the game, and then go full realistic and fucking kill them all in the first chapter because no shit a bunch of inexperienced kids wouldn't do well in real combat scenarios even if they were training for it
YES. Dark Road is Honestly one of my favorite Kingdom hearts narratives so far. I always loved Xehanort as a villain so seeing them finally dive into his backstory is just so good. Also I highly recommend you reread the Xehanort reports from Birth by Sleep. There’s some little details from there that connect to this game
The only time time traveling Young Xehanort was a brat was when he told Sora he was gonna die in KH3. That was literally the only time he was like that lol. He always had his cool moments imo
Dark Road is actually now offline, so all gacha elements have been removed. Everything can be acquired in-game. All the cards can be bought in the shop along with an auto-revive item that used to be rare but now is the cheapest item in the shop. I got through all the content in half a week thanks to the auto battle and the infinite world battle features. That's why I decided to just play through the game myself instead of waiting for this. I actually find it boring just watching all the cutscenes and no gameplay. and I'm a VN fanatic.
I like to imagine every player in Union Cross was canon,and they all did a massive fusion dance to become the strongest, evilest,baldest man in existence: good old wiggly finger Grandpa 'Nort
So just to ReMind you (get it) about the brown hooded Xehanort, that's supposed to be Ansem SoD's heart, he has no physical form yet. He only gets the form we know him as after possessing Riku. Also, I recommend for the next parts to give Xehanort and Eraqus younger voices since they are pretty young, I think they are supposed to be 15 maybe, and also Odin should get a more unique old man voice since he's a powerful master. Also, I bet people will mention this, but Xehanort's friends and Odin are taking their names from Norse Mythology
Oh man, you're doing this WAY quicker than I expected! This story really just made you feel so much for xehanort actually...and not COMPLETELY a crazy psycho old man obssesed with dankness.
The Alice In Wonderland is a strange movie, but a brilliant book. They took out most of the jokes and poems, mixed scenes from wonderland and looking glass, and made an amazing logical parody into an acid trip. If you got the time, read the book.
The Keyblade you are referring to is “Starlight”. Interestingly, the new keyblades for Odin’s apprentices seem to be an aesthetic mix of Starlight and Brain’s Master Defender (whom he gave to Ephemer/aka Eraqus’ keyblade). I think it’s also interesting how much i set up just between Eraqus and Xehanort talking. Especially at 56:11 “I wonder, could darkness burrow so deep into someone’s heart they don’t even realize it’s there?” “Could you turn your keyblade on a being that has no idea what they’ve become?” It’s not only food for thought, but also seems to harken to birth by sleep. Eraqus being so fearful of darkness being present in any of his pupils, that he would rather jump the gun in taking them out before they say anything that could defend their actions (Which Eraqus admits after being beaten by Terra, was itself an act of darkness. Almost shocked that he could have been housing darkness in himself)
I believe at the time Billy Zane was doing some sort of TV show drama, so the odds are he either rejected their offer to reprise the role or they assumed he'd be far too busy/expensive to recast. Sadly a lot of actors in the West are often afraid their skills and selection of roles to play would stagnate if they settled on single characters that feel like they'd box them in; which does tend to happen. So it's no surprise that they often reject VA (voice actor) jobs, especially because the pay isn't as high as it should be. And unlike Japan, where seiyuus are respected, VAs here are still practically non-existent except in need/Otaku circles.
It was apparently because Billy Zane was acting in an Anti War on Terror movie that was very Anti american in terms of how it played out, and it pissed off Disney. Even though Billy Zane has said many times throughout the years that Ansem is one of his all time favorite roles and has always been willing to reprise him, Disney won't let him, even to this day.
@@godzilla4189 I've never this before. That's really unfortunate. I've always felt Billy Zane could have really expanded his career as an actor with voicing a major villain in a video game series. Such a shame.
Death in KH is an interesting thing, given the requirements of both heart and body needing to perish plus the concept of reincarnation; if you die but reincarnate, is it still death? :O
35:18 Pretty sure the entire group was interrupting Eraqus to change his warning into "Run like Eraqus," honestly, Dark road does a surprisingly decent job of making this group of students feel like kids who know and get along with each other
So the funny thing is everything that you have left to see was what was recently released that we had to wait over a year for to come out. In terms of the gameplay, it's actually slightly different compared to how Union X played. The gameplay for Dark Road is similar to how the Flick Rush mini-game in Dream Drop Distance played but the cards didn't have numbers on them, instead they where sorted into two types: Light and Dark cards, each with three different colors: Red, Blue, Green. The first card you swiped up would be the move that you unleased, so if a card was Fire and you swiped that up you would do a fire attack. You had to swipe three cards up before you could attack and if you swiped three cards of the same color you would deal extra damage. I honestly liked the gameplay for Dark Road more than Union X and the good news is there was an auto function to it as well where the game would just play itself so you could grind on that and do something else as well. Going back to Union X it's no offline so you can't even play it anymore all you can do is watch the cutscenes with your character who you can customize into any of the stuff you had before the game shutdown. And one last thing, this is going to be more so after you have finished watching Dark Road, there was an interview with Nomura that came out as well that sheds some light on some of the things that this game talks about and a little bit about what Missing Link is going to be about as well so it is going to be an interesting read as well once you are finished with Dark Road.
There’s been a lot of references to Norse mythology in recent KH games, especially Dark Road here so I’m going to list them all here. •Hermod, the (blue haired guy). Hermóðr meaning “war-spirit" is a son of the god Odin and brother of Baldr. He is often considered the messenger of the gods. After Baldr’s unfortunate death, Hermod quite literally entered the gates of hel to save his deceased brother. •Vor, the girl in the purple outfit. She was the daughter of Bolthorn, sister to Mimir and aunt of Odin's. Her name translates to “knowledge out of darkness.” She is also often depicted as a Grandmother. •Bragi, the reddish haired guy is the god of music & poetry. His name even literally means “poet” and may be derived from the Old Norse word for poetry, bragr. He is the son of Óðin, and husband of the goddess Iðunn. It is known he passed away and resides in the hall of Valhalla. •Urðr (commonly known as Urd) the girl with the silver hair is one of the Norns in Norse mythology. Along with Verðandi and Skuld *👀👀👀* Urd makes up a trio of Norns that are described as deciding the fates of people. She is the norn known for the past. •Skuld (the name means "debt" and is related to the English word "should") is the 2nd Norn in Norse mythology. She held power over the future. And Considering we already have 2 KH characters based off of the 2 norms, it wouldn’t surprise me if future games introduce us to a brand new character based off the third Norn: Verdandi. Who was known for the “present.” •Odin (Old Norse: Óðinn) is the main god in Norse mythology. Described as an immensely wise, one-eyed old man. And I shouldn’t have to point out this man’s obvious similarities to the Master of Master’s and Luxu. Since they all have only 1 eye (MoM’s being planted on Luxu’s Keyblade). 👀 •Balder, Old Norse Baldr, in Norse mythology, was the son of the chief god Odin and his wife Frigg. Beautiful and just, he was the favourite of the gods. Most legends about him concern his death. The blind god Höd, deceived by the evil Loki, killed Balder by hurling mistletoe at him, the only thing that could hurt him. His death would cause the beginning of Ragnarok. And possibly the most important thing about him: He is known as the God of “Light”. •Sigurd (Old Norse: Sigurðr [ˈsiɣˌurðz̠]) or Siegfried is a legendary hero who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Merovingian dynasty, with Sigebert being the most popular contender. We saw this name in Union Cross’s finale. He approached Brain and gave him his hat •Scala ad Caleum (Latin for Stairway to Heaven) also contains many similarities with the bifrost bridge. In KH3, Xehanort describes Scala as “the seat of all Keyblade welders.” And in Norse mythology, the bifrost bridge was at the center of all the 9 nine realms, and was the only way of accessing those different realms. With this in mind, I should point out that Yen Sid mentioned in Melody of Memory that through Scala, the ancient Keyblade masters were able to access other worlds. Potentially even Quadratum (Yozora’s world) perhaps? So with that in mind, maybe Scala acts as a portal to all the worlds and realms in KH’s universe. When looking at both Xehanort & Eraqus, There are HUGE similarities between both the popular gods Loki and Thor. •Thor has a think fast, act later type of personality, and is often depicted as a hero. Also has a bit of a temper, wielding the almighty Almeir. This fits Eraqus perfectly given his hatred towards the Darkness, & always tries to do what he believes is right. Even the Master’s Defender (an obvious important Keyblade) could also have similarities with Thor’s hammer. •Loki on the other hand is a bastard child to Odin who originally came from another world, the realm of the ice giants. Often depicted as a trickster, has the ability to shape-shift, & he has an intense rivalry between his half brother Thor. This fits Xehanort to a T. Xehanort originally lived on the destiny islands and found his way to Scala ad Caluim. When he’s an old man later on, he can arguably be considered a master of deception given how he tricks Eraqus, Terra, Aqua, & Ven in BBS; as well as his long-game plans across the series. Such as sending Kairi to the destiny islands back as Ansem’s apprentice, allowing Ansem to find Sora & Riku in KH1. The different versions of Xehanort across the series (Ansem, Xemnas, etc.) can be compared to Loki’s shape-shifting abilities. Not to mention Xehanort’s different views on light and darkness in comparison to Eraqus‘s views is an obvious mirror to Loki & Thor’s rivalry. Lastly, Xehanort’s ultimate goal is to use Kingdom Hearts to purge the world so he can rebuild it anew, creating a world where light and darkness’s can exist equally; as he believed the world was imperfect. This is an obvious parallel to Loki being the one to cause Rangarok, the end of everything but as well acts as it’s rebirth. Also Loki actually kills Thor in Norse lore; mirroring Xehanort killing Eraqus in BBS. (Also potential God of War Ragnarok spoilers lol). •Last one. Now this isn’t a name mentioned at all in any KH game but I wanna mention it because I believe it may hold some significance. That being “Lodur”. Lóðurr (Old Norse: [ˈloːðorː]; also Lodur) is a god in Norse mythology. But unlike the others, most things about him are relatively unknown. In the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá it’s speculated he is assigned a role in animating the first humans, but apart from that he is hardly ever mentioned, and remains obscure. We know essentially nothing about him due to the lack of information in Old Norse literature. Scholars have variously identified him with Loki, Vé, Vili and Freyr, but consensus has not been reached on any one theory. That being said………. Remove the 2nd “R”, rearrange the name & add an X. You’ll thank me later. Because I truly do believe this single name will hold HUGE importance in later games. 👀 Either way though yeah Nomura has started a weird obsession with Norse mythology in recent years. And I’m all for it!!!
Also, the Ventus Armored Nightmare Boss in Dream Drop Distance is a reference to the Völsunga saga. Namely the part where the Hero Sigurd goes to wake up the Maiden/Valkyrie Byrnhildr who eventually becomes his wife.
NICE! I love a good lore-dump, and big appreciation for the old-norse spellings and pronunciation as well! OOOHHHH, I really hope you're right about Lodur, that took me a second to get, but that'd be AMAZING if true!! (I wrote a bit about how Loki being Thor's half-brother is MCU canon, not mythic canon, but then I went to look it up and boyyyy, there is SO LITTLE ABOUT LOKI that is AT ALL CERTAIN... I'd have to spend hours to find details, and I got only like 30 minutes! The Lokasenna (with many annotations at sacred-texts-dot-com) mentions him and Odin mixing blood in the past, making them yakuza-style blood-brothers, but also says Odin adopted Loki in the term "wish-son" so... maybe he IS Thor's half-brother, gawd, this is so complicated!)
18:28 The funny thing is that not only was this character is based on Odin but so was Gandalf. Our entire modern image of a wizard as this long white beard old man with a staff and robes and a poity hat is a blatant depiction of the disguise Odin would use while traveling in our world. All that is usually left out is the missing eye.
So I'll be providing the references to Norse Mythology in the series: 1. Hollow bastion/Radiant Garden can be considered a reference to the World Tree due to how the icon for the world in KH1 showed an upside down area with an upside down heartless symbol. Referencing the World Tree and it's dead counterpart. Of course, this applies to Scala Ad Caelum and Daybreak Town as well. So Scala may have became Radiant Garden at some point. It's not confirmed. 2. In Dream Drop Distance while playing as Riku we face the Ventus Armored Nightmare Boss when we go to wake up Sora at the end of the game. The boss battle is in reference to the Völsunga saga. Namely the part where the Hero Sigurd goes to wake up the Maiden/Valkyrie Byrnhildr who eventually becomes his wife. This is a reference to that part because of how Byrn was asleep there was fire surrounding her and armor was growning onto her body. Which is what the Boss Battle we did in DDD referenced. Since the VAM was Ventus' armor on Sora, using fire spells when it can. Of course, Sora and Riku don't get married after the former wakes up. But it's kinda great they don't. Since in Norse Myths Byrn kills her husband after he loses his memories of her. 3. The names of the characters introduced here in Dark Road. Extra: Also it's been confirmed via a tweet that Xehanort just shaved his head. Edit: If this comment becomes the Comment of the day, then Sai please use the Fate series version of Sigurd and Byrnhildr. Just so people can annoy Nico about getting into the Fate series after seeing them in the video.
@@86fifty I've seen videos talking about what Noruma has said regarding Xehanort being Bald. Also imagine how Xehanort would have looked like with hair and a better posture. He would have been unstoppable as everyone is looking at how amazing he looks.
@@86fifty On reddit someone asked what's everyone;s favorite KH moments real and Fake. And I just said that its when Xehanort suddenly got his hair back and became unstoppable. Snapping Sora out of reality and then ascending tothe afterlife.
I’ve been waiting for this. I’m really curious to see how this will play out. It nice to see KH tackling the more nuanced aspects of light and darkness again. I’m especially interested in what they do with Eraqus. We see in BBS that his devotion to light ultimately creates a darkness born of fear, that causes him to make a number of mistakes. I REALLY hope we get to see this explored with his character, since that was what made him interesting to me
Remember that the light side was manipulated by MOM to all eventually suspect and betray each other out of greed, grooming them into perfect vessels for darkness to then kill each other for the sole purpose of helping light destroy darkness. Light definitely isn't always good.
I am snickering at the comment Nico made. What that comment is... Well, I won't spoil it. But I can't wait for the surprise. Also, the editing seems really good here. I like what he's bringing.
55:20 Almost 100% correct. Those guys are little more than stage props. They're glorified background characters created almost solely to make Xehanort's class feel like an actual class.
So if you haven't figured it out, all of the new characters are based on Norse Gods. Their master Odin being a prime example but some more interesting things can happen if you examine the other characters. Hermod is the messenger of the gods, and Bragi is the god of poetry for example. Also Baldr is the god of light, was killed by loki, but was said to be brought back to life to rule over the world after Ragnarok (The end of the world) However, Vor's name may actually be a bit of a mistranslation. Cause while there is a goddess of wisdom named Vor, her Japanese name is Veru, which is more likely to be connected Verdandi, one of the norns (the three weavers of fate, similar to the fates from Greek myths) The other two are Urd (another of the students) and more interestingly Skuld. A character from Union X. Depending on how close the namesakes are to the actually story, may show us a little bit about the characters.
Bless you for making this because I absolutely would never know anything about UX or DR unless you made videos on them. You’re the only youtuber I care to watch for KH material!! ❤️
Just finished watching everything from Everglow and now I'm here for the reaction and thoughts! lol - Yess!!! I have heard theories, about Brain possibly being like Eraqus's grandfather or great-great-great grandfather.
It's weird how the Queen of Hearts is actually displaying darkness in her heart, whereas in the original KH1, she didn't... In fact she never displayed any darkness in her heart that summoned the heartless. And then there was that one Trickmaster Heartless boss at the end of the level, but... there wasn't much explanation for its existence or why it showed up. So the fact that there is actual darkness in her heart here than when Sora shows up could either mean she was purified but still a mean queen.... or Nomura is trying to right a wrong that the original game had where she was evil, but had no connection to the heartless, or even Maleficent.
Darkness exists within every person’s heart. It just doesn’t always present itself Also it’s likely that Xehanort has a special ability to sense darkness
@@BobbyTheGamerOfJUSTICE Ah. True, but then again the Queen of Hearts didn't exactly command the Heartless like previous baddies... I guess if you really think about it, with the name "Queen of Hearts" and the Heartless are stealing Hearts... it would probably explain why she has no connection to them. Though this is just a loose guess.
Me, watching the newest KH let's watch: "I wonder what cooky characters we will follow this time?" *Vor exists* Me: .... "Well off to DeviantArt, then"
Not having played DR (cuz never again lol, I stopped during uX), maybe these world bits are being left in because of what xehanort said about emotions flooding him? For example the dark emotion for that world is fear, fear of the queen, fear of curiosity (leading to danger), etc and that may be relevant to his 4 years later bits?
4:10 Yeah, it was much better near the start, when you could strategize and use various abilities and status effects to your advantage and cheese the game even with basic cards and smart setups. And then each new gacha stuff was bustier and bustier until we had update that introduced cards with casual 7-9 digits of damage and bosses having to have thousands healthbars to survive against that...
I played a bit of Dark Road when it first came out. Its gameplay was completely different from Union X, initially pretty interesting. And...I recall it also had a mode where it literally played itself so you could set your phone to play it and then just check on it some hours later. It was...um...a thing.
It has been a while since I last played Kingdom Hearts Union X (I completed that) and Dark Road (I only played it until episode 2), so it is great that you do a Let´s Watch for the Dark Road, too. ^^ As far as I remember from Union X, it is not confirmed that the Player is reincarnated to Xehanort (it would be indeed weird if it was). In the end there was only various cutscenes where Player was in the white dream realm/world and then vanished and it switched to a woman with black hair with a baby (who turns out to be Xehanort) and a person with a blue cloak, so many people assumed that the Player will be reincarnated as Xehanort, but I don´t think so and maybe Player is someone else and is connected to Xehanort somehow. We will see in this Dark Road Let´s Watch, because I heard/read that there will be a conclusion/confirmation in the end. About that blue Keyblade which the Player always starts, is named the Starlight Keyblade and yes, you can switch party members during the missions. i am curious how this continues and looking forward to the next part. ;-)
I like how Nico called Odin 'Gandalf' but proceeded to continue joking about Harry Potter when Gandalf is a Lord of the Rings character. I think he meant Dumbledore here.
Nah, people have been jokingly intermixing Dumbledore and Gandalf for forever now. It's part of the overall goofiness, calling him Gandalf but talking about Hogwarts.
The first 3 Episodes of Dark Road did release alongside of Union X back then, but then went on Hiatus for a while until all the rest was all released at once. That's why parts of the first 3 episodes (like with wonderland) can seem a liiiittle more filler-y. But that goes away from Episode 4 onwards really
I just want to mention that we may have an idea to where Skuld went. Take this with a grain of salt because its just a theory and I havent read all secret reports myself, In Kingdom Hearts III, the secret reports mention a person called "Subject X". Its the girl that Axel/Lea and Siax/Isa were talking about throughout KHIII, the reason they say they got a job with Ansem the Wise in the first place (which obviously lead to them being members of Organisation XIII), im prettysure it says Ansem the wise were doing experiments on her. We don't get much about what Subject X looks like, but I'm pretty sure she's described as "a girl with black hair", traits that Skuld shares. So the theory is, Skuld probibaly went to Radiant Garden a few years before BBS (she may have amnesia, we dont know) and was taken by Ansem the Wise and obviously being pre late game KHII Ansem, he took her to do experiments on her due to her being a heart from the land of fairy tales (It was during the time he was doing experiments on the heart and creating emblem heartless). Somehow, Lea and Isa got in contact with Subject X and planed a scheme to go save her, get a job with Ansem and sneak her out (This is probably when Ventus meets them in BBS). But obviously, everything with Aprentice Xehanort splitting between Ansem, seeker of darkness and Xemnas happens and Organisation XIII is created and because Lea/Axel and Isa/Siax were forced to join the Organisation, they eventually lost track of Subject X. Axel eventually put Subject X towards the back of his mind when becoming friends with Roxas, but Siax never forgot about her, trying to climb up the ranks in the Organisation in hopes of getting a clue to where she is. By the end of KHIII, Lea and Isa are now probibaly going to be trying to search for her, maybe with Xion and Roxas.
Boy it was sure a twist to learn how after Lien opened the keyhole in his heart in the last playthrough, it unleashed the secret evil bad person in hoodie number 50 who is also puppetered every evil plan in every kingdom hearts game to date, who had traversed game universes to lock himself away in some randos heart in order to hide after their battle with the super duper secret organization revealed here who is actually 7 Donald Ducks all named Donaldhort, who are all just one bad day from zettaflareing the entire universe into oblivion because Sora couldn’t find any INGREDIENTS, so now the gang has to- *Continues speaking in Nomura for enternity*
Square Enix released an interview with Nomura on the day of DR release, I hope you include it in the final part of this series since it answers some interesting questions you might want to know about after you finish this game
Tbh I thought Hermod would end up being a younger Yen Sid, because his uniform is identically designed to Eraqus and Xehanort's outfits. 😆 And for some reason Vor reminds me of a Chirithy with her cutesy form and outfit.
I can't wait to learn how Xehanort became bald.
Oh well, here we go again
Or how he ended up looking way older and crustier than Earqus.
He was subjected to too much Fruitball, and was deeply influenced by the round and shiny shape of a watermelon...
What dark world is is it is
@PenitentDeadMan308 T spoilers dude 😕 we’re this told later
The reason why the ending of Union X with Daybreak Town being destroyed and the player sacrificing themselves to stop Darkness aren’t shown in Xehanort’s dreams of the Player is because the First episode of Dark Road came out before Union X ended so those scenes didn’t actually exist yet when Episode 1 of Dark Road came out.
So the three episodes you just watched are the only ones that were released before the remaining episodes were dropped a few days ago. To put it in perspective, there was a 7 month gap between episode 3 and Union Cross' Finale, and an almost 22 month gap between episode 3 and the rest of Dark Road. In the first three episodes, you could switch out the third party member and yes, the dialogue would stay pretty much the same no matter who you chose. However, this is not the case for the following episodes - there is a canon party set-up and dialogue for the story scenes. Also, unlike Union Cross the Disney Worlds are not filler and are considered by many, including me, to be some of the best Disney integration in the main plot throughout the series! All Dark Road cutscenes are included in Everglow's video since it is a shorter story without really any filler to cut. I'm excited to see you experience Dark Road and hope you enjoy the journey!
Honestly that was my favourite detail from Episodes 4 to 8, that there is a fixed party so we can see proper characterization for Bragi, Hermod, Urd and Vor.
@@Gwen1661 Hey, careful. Nico reads comments.
@@Gestrid jesus thank you for telling me. i hardly comment so it didn't cross my mind. i edited it out
@@Gwen1661 No problem! He actually doesn't read them until just before he records the next episode so he can pick a Comment of the Day, but I think he said he does read all of them.
11:26 I know its been YEARS so I don't blame you for forgetting, but it was established in Birth by Sleep that Xehanort grew up on Destiny Islands and all
Didn't Riku mention something about that at one point? Like, he grew up hearing stories of a kid who left the islands and that started his desire to leave and when Kairi showed up it cemented that desire?
@@Kamakiri86 Yes, he mentioned that in Birth by Sleep ^^
Hey remember in KH3 when we all laughed at Woody telling Xehanort how no one ever loved him?
Yeeeaaaaaaahhhh
53:49 Regarding this brief flashback to KHUX here, here's an excerpt from Kingdom Hearts 3 Secret Report 2, which was written by Xehanort in his Mark of Mastery Journal: "Eraqus is a blueblood, descended from the very first masters in the age of fairy tales." That's why he knows this line, most likely.
Maybe also why he kinda looks like Brain
Ironic how Xehnort said that to Eraqus about "one day turning your keyblade on a being that has no idea what they've become," considering that's exactly what he did in the future;
When Eraqus was about to eliminate Ven as his existence became more dangerous, despite the fact he was his student and didn't understand.
1:04:48 "The Walrus and the Carpenter" refers to a poem that Tweedledee and Tweedledum recite in the book Alice in Wonderland. The poem is *18 stanzas and 108 lines long.* So basically it's just a really long poem that pretty much wasted Xehanort, Eraqus, and Vor's time.
So a quick briefing of all the students and the origins of their names:
Hermod in Norse Mythology is the son of Odin and brother of Baldr (though they're not related here). He can be considered the Norse equivalent of Hermes, acting as a messenger of the Aesir gods. He's notable for being the only Aesir who agreed to ride down into Hel (the realm) and offer Hel (the goddess) a ransom in exchange for Baldr's return to Asgard after his tragic death.
Bragi is the Skaldic God of Poetry and Music, and another son of Odin. He was known for his intelligence and creativity, and knew his way with words better than anyone else. He was the one who welcomed recently deceased heroes into Valhalla.
Urd is one of the Norns (along with Verdandi and Skuld) who decided the fates of man. Urd in particular represented the Past, while Verdandi represented the Present and Skuld the Future. They sat together beneath Yggdrasil, spinning and cutting the threads of humans and gods alike.
Vor is a giantess known for being incredibly wise. Her name means "Aware" or "Knowledge out of Darkness". Not much is written about her, but she was known for seeking out wisdom wherever it hid. Once she sought it out, it could never stay concealed from her for long. And as a heads up, Vor's name is pronounced either "Ver" or "Vair"
Baldr is the son of Odin and Frigg, and God of Light, Joy, and Purity. He was most well known for how he died, beginning with having prophetic nightmares about dying. Frigg forced everything on Earth to swear an oath to not harm her favorite son, leading to Baldr being impervious to all things except Mistletoe (either because Frigg thought it was too nonthreatening or because it was too young to swear oaths). While all the other gods were having fun throwing things at Baldr and watching them bounce off of him, Loki created a spear/arrow from Mistletoe and gave it to Baldr's blind brother Hodr to throw/shoot at him. Because Mistletoe never swore the oath, it managed to impale and kill him. His body was then burned upon his ship, with some versions of the story saying his horse and wife were burned in the funeral pyre along with him. One version says Thor kicked a random dwarf into the fire as well.
I had not heard the part about Thor and made me laugh more than it should XD
and to think we almost had Wanda kill Daniel Craig's Baldr in _Multiverse of Madness_
So does that mean Thor is also pronounced Ther or Thair? Though I guess you just mentioned that because of the unfortunate meaning of giantesses on the internet lol.
Oooh, thank you for the lore dump! I knew about half of that, so I appreciate learning more!
Oh, what about the upperclassmen?
24:15 I believe Joshua touches upon this in Dream Drop Distance at one point. But yeah time flows differently in each world has been a thing in the previous games. The only real new thing is the revelation that the keyblade war and the worlds being rebuilt after the fact is what ultimately caused this. Because after the war, each world began being rebuilt at different times & speeds. Which caused time in each individual world to flow differently. Hence the “some worlds are babies & and some worlds are adults” analogy Eraqus gives.
Basically this is the games explanation for why some Disney characters haven’t aged (as keep in mind Dark Road takes place 60 years before BBS’s events). So Time flows much slower in some worlds. While in others time flows much faster.
I remember you being confused on the timeline of events in Birth by Sleep’s Disney worlds back in your let’s play of that game too. Like how Aqua showed up in Castle of Dreams later than Terra even though it was his 2nd world visit. This also helps explain that.
And I can definitely see Nomura using this concept to his advantage in later games if he wants to use future Disney world sequels. Like Toy Story 3 for example. Since the Toy Story world in KH3 takes place around Toy Story 2, making a world involving TS3’s plot would be difficult. However considering the way time flows in each world is inconsistent, he can make it so that time flowed much faster in that world by the time Sora returns there in a future game (as canonically TS3 takes place 10 years or so after TS2. However only 1 or 2 years would have passed when Sora returns there).
Of course this is just an example and under the assumption Nomura is interested in using the Toy Story 3 plot line at any point
Also the inhabitants being absent in some of the worlds due to the world still being in its “building phase” can also be interpreted as Nomura’s explanation for why there is a lack of NPCs LOL.
For example, the reason why no NPCs can be seen in the audience stand in Olympus is because that world was still suffering from the keyblade war’s effects, and was still in its “Teenager phase” so to speak.
Why not against that teddy bear in TS3 and what kind of new heartless will form
@@drakofox1362 a boss fight that needs to happen
@@BobbyTheGamerOfJUSTICE definitely and a few mini boss fights against the baby monkey and Possessed Buzz
Time flowing differently also explains why some worlds are set in different centuries. Like how the Princess of Heart worlds are mostly medieval times, but San Fransokyo is 21st century.
I want Joshua to come back in KH4, spout lots of exposition and then Sora doesn't understand any of it and Josh is so done with him. I really liked his dynamic with Riku in Dream Drop, because they were like the two smarter people there and I like how they kinda talked shit about Sora during that one scene.
Btw, Nomura has said he really likes Josh and Josh can canonically jump into different worlds.
Any time you see what appears to be an animation shortcut, just note that this entire game - along with most of UX - was animated by a team of just two people. At the beginning of Dark Road, they attempted to keep up monthly updates, until eventually the game was put on hiatus until the rest of it was all dropped at once. Presumably it just wouldn't have been possible to complete otherwise, especially since a lot of the animations are more detailed than UX, even on the little chibi sprites.
Considering the later story and how they used the animations to enhance the story, I’m glad they got the extra time.
According to Nomura who did an interview on the day of the finale being released, he said the reason why there are Emblem Heartless here in Dark Road when they're not supposed to exist for decades will be explained in Missing Link.
Nomura will probably change that Ansem created them.
I was wondering why that was since Union Cross
@@Shantae1188 well in Union Cross’s case it was because the Emblem heartless were simply illusions created by the book of prophecies. Remember that the book contains details of the future, which likely includes emblem heartless.
Why they are here in Dark Road as well as Missing Link is a different story though
@@BobbyTheGamerOfJUSTICE I did not know that part about them being illusions
@@TheFunchip Well, it’s not like Emblem Heartless are THAT different. He just made Heartless and stamped them. Where he got that insignia TO stamp them, we don’t know. Maybe that’s what Missing Link will clear up.
If I remember correctly there were NO FILLERS in the game, what you see is what we all got. So for example at 1:05:13 Eraqus was talking about "Father William" is just something that happened on the side without our knowledge. Most likely the twins were talking to Eraqus about a story which had so little of importance that it was pushed to the sides.
It's also a reference to a poem from the Alice in Wonderland novel, called "You are Old, Father William"
I think the most interesting thing from Dark Road (that you've seen) is theyre trying to actually tackle the nuances of light and darkness, rather than the more... incredibly binary way the series has done so far.
They’ve touched upon it before in the previous games but yeah they definitely do it in a more direct way here which is cool
That’s true. They did explore that nuance in CoM and BBS, but after KH2 they really didn’t do much with the idea. I mean there’s a little in 3D on Riku’s side of things but not as much.
They touch on it in BBS and KH3, specifically with what Xehanort was trying to do: restore balance to the world, making it a world that was pure and blank (the English version of KH3 said "pure and bright", but that's a mistranslation) where light and darkness were in perfect balance.
So as you notice Eraqus throughout the story starts off as the class clown then slowly becomes the man whose has obsession against the darkness.
Xehanort seems to have strange the power to see those posses by darkness.
"I feel so bad for Vor"
I know Vor is named after a Norse goddess, but I feel like Kingdom Hearts is the only series where someone can utter such a line without any irony
Why?
@@pablothecoffeelover2551 Most likely cuase it sounds like Vore.
@@joelsasmad Its actually pronounced as "vear" or "ver"
I love Xehanort. He was already shown as a complex character, especially is you read his reports. But Dark Road made me appreciate even more why he became the adult we know, all the talk from any of his counterpart. Like Ansem saying, at the end of KH3, something like "where my comrades once stood only is loneliness now". He may be one of my favorite fiction antagonist. And Kingdom Hearts one of the franchise who gave me the most to think about.
9:49 Dark Road actually started before Union X finished, that's why you don't see that stuff.
Funny as hell how they introduce a brand new cast of plucky young protagonists, slap them right smack on the most prominent piece of promotional artwork for the game, and then go full realistic and fucking kill them all in the first chapter because no shit a bunch of inexperienced kids wouldn't do well in real combat scenarios even if they were training for it
Remember when people were theorizing which student from xehanort's class would survive? 🤭
@@bouclechocolat To be fair Vor looks strangely similar to Kairi’s grandma
YES. Dark Road is Honestly one of my favorite Kingdom hearts narratives so far. I always loved Xehanort as a villain so seeing them finally dive into his backstory is just so good.
Also I highly recommend you reread the Xehanort reports from Birth by Sleep. There’s some little details from there that connect to this game
The story was interesting,I just didn't like the gameplay compared to khux
The only time time traveling Young Xehanort was a brat was when he told Sora he was gonna die in KH3. That was literally the only time he was like that lol. He always had his cool moments imo
Dark Road is actually now offline, so all gacha elements have been removed. Everything can be acquired in-game. All the cards can be bought in the shop along with an auto-revive item that used to be rare but now is the cheapest item in the shop. I got through all the content in half a week thanks to the auto battle and the infinite world battle features. That's why I decided to just play through the game myself instead of waiting for this. I actually find it boring just watching all the cutscenes and no gameplay. and I'm a VN fanatic.
what’s VN mean?
@@pablothecoffeelover2551 visual novel
@@BlueCrimson10 ahhhh i see thanks
I like to imagine every player in Union Cross was canon,and they all did a massive fusion dance to become the strongest, evilest,baldest man in existence: good old wiggly finger Grandpa 'Nort
So just to ReMind you (get it) about the brown hooded Xehanort, that's supposed to be Ansem SoD's heart, he has no physical form yet. He only gets the form we know him as after possessing Riku. Also, I recommend for the next parts to give Xehanort and Eraqus younger voices since they are pretty young, I think they are supposed to be 15 maybe, and also Odin should get a more unique old man voice since he's a powerful master. Also, I bet people will mention this, but Xehanort's friends and Odin are taking their names from Norse Mythology
Oh boy Nico you’re in for a real treat, Dark Road is pretty incredible with its story
I hate classes with professor Gandalf, he just never lets you pass
Oh man, you're doing this WAY quicker than I expected! This story really just made you feel so much for xehanort actually...and not COMPLETELY a crazy psycho old man obssesed with dankness.
Tbf he was never completely psycho. But yeah DR definitely does make his character more sympathetic
@@BobbyTheGamerOfJUSTICE yeah he wasn't completely
And makes Woody's reply to Xehanort about no one loving him hurt all the more T_T
@@muigokublack6487 goes from a Roast to.....low blow woody
@@drakofox1362 Xehanort be like: If I wasn't already dead inside, that would have actually hurt.
The Alice In Wonderland is a strange movie, but a brilliant book. They took out most of the jokes and poems, mixed scenes from wonderland and looking glass, and made an amazing logical parody into an acid trip.
If you got the time, read the book.
The Keyblade you are referring to is “Starlight”. Interestingly, the new keyblades for Odin’s apprentices seem to be an aesthetic mix of Starlight and Brain’s Master Defender (whom he gave to Ephemer/aka Eraqus’ keyblade).
I think it’s also interesting how much i set up just between Eraqus and Xehanort talking. Especially at 56:11
“I wonder, could darkness burrow so deep into someone’s heart they don’t even realize it’s there?” “Could you turn your keyblade on a being that has no idea what they’ve become?” It’s not only food for thought, but also seems to harken to birth by sleep. Eraqus being so fearful of darkness being present in any of his pupils, that he would rather jump the gun in taking them out before they say anything that could defend their actions (Which Eraqus admits after being beaten by Terra, was itself an act of darkness. Almost shocked that he could have been housing darkness in himself)
I believe at the time Billy Zane was doing some sort of TV show drama, so the odds are he either rejected their offer to reprise the role or they assumed he'd be far too busy/expensive to recast.
Sadly a lot of actors in the West are often afraid their skills and selection of roles to play would stagnate if they settled on single characters that feel like they'd box them in; which does tend to happen.
So it's no surprise that they often reject VA (voice actor) jobs, especially because the pay isn't as high as it should be.
And unlike Japan, where seiyuus are respected, VAs here are still practically non-existent except in need/Otaku circles.
It was apparently because Billy Zane was acting in an Anti War on Terror movie that was very Anti american in terms of how it played out, and it pissed off Disney. Even though Billy Zane has said many times throughout the years that Ansem is one of his all time favorite roles and has always been willing to reprise him, Disney won't let him, even to this day.
@@godzilla4189 Ugh, leave it to them to spoil things. They couldn't even do him the decency of reprising the role one last time for KH3. 😠
@@godzilla4189 I've never this before. That's really unfortunate. I've always felt Billy Zane could have really expanded his career as an actor with voicing a major villain in a video game series. Such a shame.
36:50 Never say no one dies in KH. Well we already have all the unfortunate kids from the first Keyblade War but you know.
Death in KH is an interesting thing, given the requirements of both heart and body needing to perish plus the concept of reincarnation; if you die but reincarnate, is it still death? :O
@@sylxeria I mean, yes
35:18 Pretty sure the entire group was interrupting Eraqus to change his warning into "Run like Eraqus," honestly, Dark road does a surprisingly decent job of making this group of students feel like kids who know and get along with each other
Fun fact: Xehanort’s keyblade armor is Xemnas’ armor during his final battle with Sora and Riku in kh2
30:00 You can edit your party at any time. Everglow just edited their party off-screen and didn't show it.
So the funny thing is everything that you have left to see was what was recently released that we had to wait over a year for to come out. In terms of the gameplay, it's actually slightly different compared to how Union X played. The gameplay for Dark Road is similar to how the Flick Rush mini-game in Dream Drop Distance played but the cards didn't have numbers on them, instead they where sorted into two types: Light and Dark cards, each with three different colors: Red, Blue, Green. The first card you swiped up would be the move that you unleased, so if a card was Fire and you swiped that up you would do a fire attack. You had to swipe three cards up before you could attack and if you swiped three cards of the same color you would deal extra damage. I honestly liked the gameplay for Dark Road more than Union X and the good news is there was an auto function to it as well where the game would just play itself so you could grind on that and do something else as well.
Going back to Union X it's no offline so you can't even play it anymore all you can do is watch the cutscenes with your character who you can customize into any of the stuff you had before the game shutdown. And one last thing, this is going to be more so after you have finished watching Dark Road, there was an interview with Nomura that came out as well that sheds some light on some of the things that this game talks about and a little bit about what Missing Link is going to be about as well so it is going to be an interesting read as well once you are finished with Dark Road.
There’s been a lot of references to Norse mythology in recent KH games, especially Dark Road here so I’m going to list them all here.
•Hermod, the (blue haired guy). Hermóðr meaning “war-spirit" is a son of the god Odin and brother of Baldr. He is often considered the messenger of the gods. After Baldr’s unfortunate death, Hermod quite literally entered the gates of hel to save his deceased brother.
•Vor, the girl in the purple outfit. She was the daughter of Bolthorn, sister to Mimir and aunt of Odin's. Her name translates to “knowledge out of darkness.” She is also often depicted as a Grandmother.
•Bragi, the reddish haired guy is the god of music & poetry. His name even literally means “poet” and may be derived from the Old Norse word for poetry, bragr. He is the son of Óðin, and husband of the goddess Iðunn. It is known he passed away and resides in the hall of Valhalla.
•Urðr (commonly known as Urd) the girl with the silver hair is one of the Norns in Norse mythology. Along with Verðandi and Skuld *👀👀👀* Urd makes up a trio of Norns that are described as deciding the fates of people. She is the norn known for the past.
•Skuld (the name means "debt" and is related to the English word "should") is the 2nd Norn in Norse mythology. She held power over the future.
And Considering we already have 2 KH characters based off of the 2 norms, it wouldn’t surprise me if future games introduce us to a brand new character based off the third Norn: Verdandi. Who was known for the “present.”
•Odin (Old Norse: Óðinn) is the main god in Norse mythology. Described as an immensely wise, one-eyed old man. And I shouldn’t have to point out this man’s obvious similarities to the Master of Master’s and Luxu. Since they all have only 1 eye (MoM’s being planted on Luxu’s Keyblade). 👀
•Balder, Old Norse Baldr, in Norse mythology, was the son of the chief god Odin and his wife Frigg. Beautiful and just, he was the favourite of the gods. Most legends about him concern his death. The blind god Höd, deceived by the evil Loki, killed Balder by hurling mistletoe at him, the only thing that could hurt him. His death would cause the beginning of Ragnarok. And possibly the most important thing about him: He is known as the God of “Light”.
•Sigurd (Old Norse: Sigurðr [ˈsiɣˌurðz̠]) or Siegfried is a legendary hero who killed a dragon and was later murdered. It is possible he was inspired by one or more figures from the Frankish Merovingian dynasty, with Sigebert being the most popular contender.
We saw this name in Union Cross’s finale. He approached Brain and gave him his hat
•Scala ad Caleum (Latin for Stairway to Heaven) also contains many similarities with the bifrost bridge. In KH3, Xehanort describes Scala as “the seat of all Keyblade welders.” And in Norse mythology, the bifrost bridge was at the center of all the 9 nine realms, and was the only way of accessing those different realms.
With this in mind, I should point out that Yen Sid mentioned in Melody of Memory that through Scala, the ancient Keyblade masters were able to access other worlds. Potentially even Quadratum (Yozora’s world) perhaps? So with that in mind, maybe Scala acts as a portal to all the worlds and realms in KH’s universe.
When looking at both Xehanort & Eraqus, There are HUGE similarities between both the popular gods Loki and Thor.
•Thor has a think fast, act later type of personality, and is often depicted as a hero. Also has a bit of a temper, wielding the almighty Almeir. This fits Eraqus perfectly given his hatred towards the Darkness, & always tries to do what he believes is right. Even the Master’s Defender (an obvious important Keyblade) could also have similarities with Thor’s hammer.
•Loki on the other hand is a bastard child to Odin who originally came from another world, the realm of the ice giants. Often depicted as a trickster, has the ability to shape-shift, & he has an intense rivalry between his half brother Thor. This fits Xehanort to a T. Xehanort originally lived on the destiny islands and found his way to Scala ad Caluim. When he’s an old man later on, he can arguably be considered a master of deception given how he tricks Eraqus, Terra, Aqua, & Ven in BBS; as well as his long-game plans across the series. Such as sending Kairi to the destiny islands back as Ansem’s apprentice, allowing Ansem to find Sora & Riku in KH1.
The different versions of Xehanort across the series (Ansem, Xemnas, etc.) can be compared to Loki’s shape-shifting abilities. Not to mention Xehanort’s different views on light and darkness in comparison to Eraqus‘s views is an obvious mirror to Loki & Thor’s rivalry.
Lastly, Xehanort’s ultimate goal is to use Kingdom Hearts to purge the world so he can rebuild it anew, creating a world where light and darkness’s can exist equally; as he believed the world was imperfect. This is an obvious parallel to Loki being the one to cause Rangarok, the end of everything but as well acts as it’s rebirth. Also Loki actually kills Thor in Norse lore; mirroring Xehanort killing Eraqus in BBS. (Also potential God of War Ragnarok spoilers lol).
•Last one. Now this isn’t a name mentioned at all in any KH game but I wanna mention it because I believe it may hold some significance. That being “Lodur”.
Lóðurr (Old Norse: [ˈloːðorː]; also Lodur) is a god in Norse mythology. But unlike the others, most things about him are relatively unknown. In the Poetic Edda poem Völuspá it’s speculated he is assigned a role in animating the first humans, but apart from that he is hardly ever mentioned, and remains obscure. We know essentially nothing about him due to the lack of information in Old Norse literature. Scholars have variously identified him with Loki, Vé, Vili and Freyr, but consensus has not been reached on any one theory.
That being said………. Remove the 2nd “R”, rearrange the name & add an X. You’ll thank me later. Because I truly do believe this single name will hold HUGE importance in later games. 👀
Either way though yeah Nomura has started a weird obsession with Norse mythology in recent years. And I’m all for it!!!
Also, the Ventus Armored Nightmare Boss in Dream Drop Distance is a reference to the Völsunga saga. Namely the part where the Hero Sigurd goes to wake up the Maiden/Valkyrie Byrnhildr who eventually becomes his wife.
NICE! I love a good lore-dump, and big appreciation for the old-norse spellings and pronunciation as well!
OOOHHHH, I really hope you're right about Lodur, that took me a second to get, but that'd be AMAZING if true!!
(I wrote a bit about how Loki being Thor's half-brother is MCU canon, not mythic canon, but then I went to look it up and boyyyy, there is SO LITTLE ABOUT LOKI that is AT ALL CERTAIN... I'd have to spend hours to find details, and I got only like 30 minutes! The Lokasenna (with many annotations at sacred-texts-dot-com) mentions him and Odin mixing blood in the past, making them yakuza-style blood-brothers, but also says Odin adopted Loki in the term "wish-son" so... maybe he IS Thor's half-brother, gawd, this is so complicated!)
@@86fifty WTF is the name?
@@colt1903 Lodur - add an X and rearrange the letters - Luxord :)
@@colt1903 Lodur. Which could be “Luxord”
It’s important to note that we basically know nothing of him as well
Man remember when Woody said "Nobody loves you before" Yeah that line hits differently now, after seeing the first episode.
18:28 The funny thing is that not only was this character is based on Odin but so was Gandalf. Our entire modern image of a wizard as this long white beard old man with a staff and robes and a poity hat is a blatant depiction of the disguise Odin would use while traveling in our world. All that is usually left out is the missing eye.
So I'll be providing the references to Norse Mythology in the series:
1. Hollow bastion/Radiant Garden can be considered a reference to the World Tree due to how the icon for the world in KH1 showed an upside down area with an upside down heartless symbol. Referencing the World Tree and it's dead counterpart. Of course, this applies to Scala Ad Caelum and Daybreak Town as well. So Scala may have became Radiant Garden at some point. It's not confirmed.
2. In Dream Drop Distance while playing as Riku we face the Ventus Armored Nightmare Boss when we go to wake up Sora at the end of the game. The boss battle is in reference to the Völsunga saga. Namely the part where the Hero Sigurd goes to wake up the Maiden/Valkyrie Byrnhildr who eventually becomes his wife. This is a reference to that part because of how Byrn was asleep there was fire surrounding her and armor was growning onto her body. Which is what the Boss Battle we did in DDD referenced. Since the VAM was Ventus' armor on Sora, using fire spells when it can. Of course, Sora and Riku don't get married after the former wakes up. But it's kinda great they don't. Since in Norse Myths Byrn kills her husband after he loses his memories of her.
3. The names of the characters introduced here in Dark Road.
Extra: Also it's been confirmed via a tweet that Xehanort just shaved his head.
Edit: If this comment becomes the Comment of the day, then Sai please use the Fate series version of Sigurd and Byrnhildr. Just so people can annoy Nico about getting into the Fate series after seeing them in the video.
LMAO, it really was just "he shaved his head" in a tweet?? I love that. very mad-lad action.
@@86fifty I've seen videos talking about what Noruma has said regarding Xehanort being Bald.
Also imagine how Xehanort would have looked like with hair and a better posture. He would have been unstoppable as everyone is looking at how amazing he looks.
@@zeroknight1311 oooh, like the mythical Rehydrated Ganondorf from BOTW 2!? LOL
@@86fifty On reddit someone asked what's everyone;s favorite KH moments real and Fake. And I just said that its when Xehanort suddenly got his hair back and became unstoppable. Snapping Sora out of reality and then ascending tothe afterlife.
I’ve been waiting for this. I’m really curious to see how this will play out. It nice to see KH tackling the more nuanced aspects of light and darkness again. I’m especially interested in what they do with Eraqus. We see in BBS that his devotion to light ultimately creates a darkness born of fear, that causes him to make a number of mistakes. I REALLY hope we get to see this explored with his character, since that was what made him interesting to me
I was thinking how young Eraqus looked a lot like Brain, so it's possible he ended up becoming his descendant.
Remember that the light side was manipulated by MOM to all eventually suspect and betray each other out of greed, grooming them into perfect vessels for darkness to then kill each other for the sole purpose of helping light destroy darkness. Light definitely isn't always good.
1:22:08 - A darkness theory! Thanks for listening!
30:00 you can switch party members between Quests at any time. That's what happened there: dude replaced Urd with Vor.
23:09
"by the way, my name backwards is disn..."
*Fades to black*
Yesss Dark Road time
I am snickering at the comment Nico made. What that comment is... Well, I won't spoil it. But I can't wait for the surprise.
Also, the editing seems really good here. I like what he's bringing.
55:20 Almost 100% correct. Those guys are little more than stage props. They're glorified background characters created almost solely to make Xehanort's class feel like an actual class.
Remember guys, it's canon that Woody roasted you in kh3.
So if you haven't figured it out, all of the new characters are based on Norse Gods. Their master Odin being a prime example but some more interesting things can happen if you examine the other characters. Hermod is the messenger of the gods, and Bragi is the god of poetry for example. Also Baldr is the god of light, was killed by loki, but was said to be brought back to life to rule over the world after Ragnarok (The end of the world)
However, Vor's name may actually be a bit of a mistranslation. Cause while there is a goddess of wisdom named Vor, her Japanese name is Veru, which is more likely to be connected Verdandi, one of the norns (the three weavers of fate, similar to the fates from Greek myths) The other two are Urd (another of the students) and more interestingly Skuld. A character from Union X.
Depending on how close the namesakes are to the actually story, may show us a little bit about the characters.
Bless you for making this because I absolutely would never know anything about UX or DR unless you made videos on them. You’re the only youtuber I care to watch for KH material!! ❤️
What a happy day, the new NicoB Kingdom hearts content, yay 🎉
Just finished watching everything from Everglow and now I'm here for the reaction and thoughts! lol
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Yess!!! I have heard theories, about Brain possibly being like Eraqus's grandfather or great-great-great grandfather.
It'll be my birthday in 2 minutes & I'm starting it off by watching a NicoB Let's Watch. Nice!
Happy birthday 🎊🎁 🔑
Happiest of days of birth 🎊
Happy Birthday!
Happy birthday!
thank you
Queen of Hearts: Guilty!
Xehanort: Eraqus, how are you feeling?
Eraqus: Uh, worried, why?
Xehanort: I'm feeling Regicide
i can Imagine Ben Diskin voicing Young Xehanort in this phone game. Nico did great to match Ben Diskin.
And now we once again dive head first into the convoluted lorefest that is Kingdom Hearts. Honestly, it’s alway great to see more KH stuff from you!
It's weird how the Queen of Hearts is actually displaying darkness in her heart, whereas in the original KH1, she didn't... In fact she never displayed any darkness in her heart that summoned the heartless. And then there was that one Trickmaster Heartless boss at the end of the level, but... there wasn't much explanation for its existence or why it showed up. So the fact that there is actual darkness in her heart here than when Sora shows up could either mean she was purified but still a mean queen.... or Nomura is trying to right a wrong that the original game had where she was evil, but had no connection to the heartless, or even Maleficent.
Darkness exists within every person’s heart. It just doesn’t always present itself
Also it’s likely that Xehanort has a special ability to sense darkness
@@BobbyTheGamerOfJUSTICE Ah. True, but then again the Queen of Hearts didn't exactly command the Heartless like previous baddies... I guess if you really think about it, with the name "Queen of Hearts" and the Heartless are stealing Hearts... it would probably explain why she has no connection to them. Though this is just a loose guess.
Me, watching the newest KH let's watch:
"I wonder what cooky characters we will follow this time?"
*Vor exists*
Me: ....
"Well off to DeviantArt, then"
Yo!! Nico with the voice acting!! I was like “wow, that’s a really good Billy Zane Ansem impression!!”
Not having played DR (cuz never again lol, I stopped during uX), maybe these world bits are being left in because of what xehanort said about emotions flooding him? For example the dark emotion for that world is fear, fear of the queen, fear of curiosity (leading to danger), etc and that may be relevant to his 4 years later bits?
I had a feeling Dark Road would be next and this should be an interesting story to watch.
4:10 Yeah, it was much better near the start, when you could strategize and use various abilities and status effects to your advantage and cheese the game even with basic cards and smart setups. And then each new gacha stuff was bustier and bustier until we had update that introduced cards with casual 7-9 digits of damage and bosses having to have thousands healthbars to survive against that...
I believe the White Rabbit is voiced by the same actor who played Mr. Smee in Peter Pan.
He's a very distinct classic Disney voice.
THE TIME HAS COME AND SO HAVE I!
I played a bit of Dark Road when it first came out. Its gameplay was completely different from Union X, initially pretty interesting. And...I recall it also had a mode where it literally played itself so you could set your phone to play it and then just check on it some hours later. It was...um...a thing.
I love Eraqus being somewhat of a class clown
It has been a while since I last played Kingdom Hearts Union X (I completed that) and Dark Road (I only played it until episode 2), so it is great that you do a Let´s Watch for the Dark Road, too. ^^
As far as I remember from Union X, it is not confirmed that the Player is reincarnated to Xehanort (it would be indeed weird if it was). In the end there was only various cutscenes where Player was in the white dream realm/world and then vanished and it switched to a woman with black hair with a baby (who turns out to be Xehanort) and a person with a blue cloak, so many people assumed that the Player will be reincarnated as Xehanort, but I don´t think so and maybe Player is someone else and is connected to Xehanort somehow.
We will see in this Dark Road Let´s Watch, because I heard/read that there will be a conclusion/confirmation in the end.
About that blue Keyblade which the Player always starts, is named the Starlight Keyblade and yes, you can switch party members during the missions.
i am curious how this continues and looking forward to the next part. ;-)
Damn, Young Xehanort so buff. Look at his arms. Jeez
I like how Nico called Odin 'Gandalf' but proceeded to continue joking about Harry Potter when Gandalf is a Lord of the Rings character. I think he meant Dumbledore here.
Nah, people have been jokingly intermixing Dumbledore and Gandalf for forever now. It's part of the overall goofiness, calling him Gandalf but talking about Hogwarts.
@@Random_Kelsey Is that so? Interesting...
The funny thing is that Gandalf was originally based on Odin so he is technically not wrong.
The first 3 Episodes of Dark Road did release alongside of Union X back then, but then went on Hiatus for a while until all the rest was all released at once.
That's why parts of the first 3 episodes (like with wonderland) can seem a liiiittle more filler-y. But that goes away from Episode 4 onwards really
Nico: all along the world darkness whispered to me
Me: who know how long I talked to it
owh God, Nico watched Better Call Saul. What a man of great taste. I respect you, good sir
As soon as I saw the Everglow’s upload, I was ANTICIPATING Nico’s reaction. 😂👏🏼
Did not disappoint. Forget how much I missed the countless voices. 💯
I just want to mention that we may have an idea to where Skuld went. Take this with a grain of salt because its just a theory and I havent read all secret reports myself, In Kingdom Hearts III, the secret reports mention a person called "Subject X". Its the girl that Axel/Lea and Siax/Isa were talking about throughout KHIII, the reason they say they got a job with Ansem the Wise in the first place (which obviously lead to them being members of Organisation XIII), im prettysure it says Ansem the wise were doing experiments on her. We don't get much about what Subject X looks like, but I'm pretty sure she's described as "a girl with black hair", traits that Skuld shares.
So the theory is, Skuld probibaly went to Radiant Garden a few years before BBS (she may have amnesia, we dont know) and was taken by Ansem the Wise and obviously being pre late game KHII Ansem, he took her to do experiments on her due to her being a heart from the land of fairy tales (It was during the time he was doing experiments on the heart and creating emblem heartless). Somehow, Lea and Isa got in contact with Subject X and planed a scheme to go save her, get a job with Ansem and sneak her out (This is probably when Ventus meets them in BBS). But obviously, everything with Aprentice Xehanort splitting between Ansem, seeker of darkness and Xemnas happens and Organisation XIII is created and because Lea/Axel and Isa/Siax were forced to join the Organisation, they eventually lost track of Subject X. Axel eventually put Subject X towards the back of his mind when becoming friends with Roxas, but Siax never forgot about her, trying to climb up the ranks in the Organisation in hopes of getting a clue to where she is. By the end of KHIII, Lea and Isa are now probibaly going to be trying to search for her, maybe with Xion and Roxas.
Dark Road actually had different gameplay to UX, as I recall
It's also gone entirely offline. It USED to be gacha, but those elements were adjusted for offline or removed
@@BlueCrimson10 You love to see it.
Boy it was sure a twist to learn how after Lien opened the keyhole in his heart in the last playthrough, it unleashed the secret evil bad person in hoodie number 50 who is also puppetered every evil plan in every kingdom hearts game to date, who had traversed game universes to lock himself away in some randos heart in order to hide after their battle with the super duper secret organization revealed here who is actually 7 Donald Ducks all named Donaldhort, who are all just one bad day from zettaflareing the entire universe into oblivion because Sora couldn’t find any INGREDIENTS, so now the gang has to- *Continues speaking in Nomura for enternity*
Time to delve DEEPER INTO HEART LIGHT DARK BARF!!!!
16:47 has me dying 😂😂😂😂
Let the Darkness IN, NICO!
Just realized, what if the Emblem heartless is the darkness of hearts, and the pure ones are of real darkness
YES FINALY IM SO EXCITED
Square Enix released an interview with Nomura on the day of DR release, I hope you include it in the final part of this series since it answers some interesting questions you might want to know about after you finish this game
Nico from interviews from Nomura conformed yes Brain is Eraqus grandfather. witch is cool thanks Nomura.
Nico, notice that Scala ad Calum here looks very different from the one that Brain got to. It seems to indicate a long passage of time.
Yes, now, this is where the "Dark Toad" begins.
Tbh I thought Hermod would end up being a younger Yen Sid, because his uniform is identically designed to Eraqus and Xehanort's outfits. 😆
And for some reason Vor reminds me of a Chirithy with her cutesy form and outfit.
It’s time for everyone’s irregular dose of heart light dark heart Bart dart
I can't believe Xehanort killed Dumbledore.
DARKNESS LIGHT KEYBLADEEEEEEE HEARTSSSS
There is a short Q&A that has been translated from Nomura that clarifies anything vague at the end of Dark Road, I'd recommend you check it out ^^
I like the dialogue so far. It seems better than the usual kingdom hearts dialogue
Miss the Kingdom hearts content
Does Nico’s voice for Odin sound like the Moviefone guy or is it just me?
Oh boy. Nico, you're gonna be in for a wild ride. I ain't spoiling nothing, just giving you a heads up.
Appreciate the refresher in the beginning.
Oh , huh, Xehanorts armor is the one his has as "No Name" the king knight and Xemnas' armor form in KH2
Well yeah, cause that's his armor. The armor in KH2 isn't Xemnas', it's Xehanort's. Which is "No Name" as well.
@@loganbigmo Okay, I know that but the reason I mentioned it was because in KH3 his armor was very different
@@krasherom that's his new armor. This is the old one.
Young Xehanort was never us... People only theorized that. We were the hooded person at the end most likely.
Wasn't he literally having dreams of what happened to our character in the previous game at the very begining?
Now for a ReMind Final Mix HD version of this game(s)
Time to digest the light heart dark lore once again. Can my brain cope?