griffinborn

Ok I get where everyone is coming from when they see the design of Pavitr ‘Pav’ Prabhakar aka Indian SpiderMan as an expression of gender queerness, but let me be frank this is very typical Indian male costuming.

Even the toxic masculine patriarchal men have similar stylistic expressions or to be be more precise this is a traditional/historical/ye olde male aesthetic.

Having said that I love what design elements are being used here. So…

Let's take it from the top.

The FACE MASK

The Three Colors surrounding the eyes are typical spider man colours but they are done to evoke the image the traditional makeup done for the ancient dance art Kathakali. In which the whole face is painted and bold lines are drawn to emphasise/exaggerate the eyes. These eye mask lines are usually thin - bold-thin.

Same with the white lines on the cheek bones which are indicative of tusks or pincers of demons or Animorphs in folklore/myths.

The white dot in the centre of the forehead is the most common Hindu motif, expressed in myriad of ways all over the country .

The ARM/LEG BANDS/CUFFS

The bicep cuff is a part of Indian historic armour - made of malleable metal, its bejewelled ornate counterparts were then worn in day to day life. Here in the north Royals still wear it during big ceremonies. These metal bands are generally worn by warriors.

bangles (metal circles worn at wrists) are an important male accessory and are more daily wear even in present modern times, some religions (Sikh,Jain etc.) require the males to always wear one at all times. The ones on the suit were more in the shape of wrist guards which again were an armour accessory. In Indian male clothing the cuffs are usually emphasised.

Due to traditional male footwear being sandals metal ankle cuffs were employed to guard the shins and were worn during wars while thinner bands - ornamental accessories - were worn in daily wear.

There are so many other things I want to elaborate on like: The PATTERNS/LOGO,The LEG GARMENT (??!)(what’s the collective term for clothes for legs?), The Cat’s Cradle swinging/body animation ; but my ADHD is already acting up so imma leave this here.

SIDE NOTE:

I love how the heel and toes are bare in this design. It makes sense from the spider powers perspective - no barrier in contact allows for better manoeuvring and jump control as is seen in gymnastics. But also because in Hindu culture important tasks including some traditional sports require the removal of footwear and getting feet dirty is not discouraged (of course with an adherence to washing of the feet multiple times in a day)
I also loved how incorporated his wrist guard is in his spider style using it as a toy and a tool. This aspect of making use of something in a completely different way was so desi ‘Jugaad’ I was stunned.

atsv spiderverse atsv spoilers tagging spoilers just in case lol

hoicoro

Kagepro mekakucity actors ayano tateyama

serenedash

Let's talk khux gameplay and plot,

imo I think part of khux's story telling and the impact of the story gets lost now that the game is defunct. I always thought people didn't appreciate how the gameplay and the mechanics actually had an impact on the story and while that impact become virtually nonexistent later on, I always thought it made the story far more engaging when the game was just chi/unchained chi and also the English translation didn't do it too well ngl

Anyway what I'm specifically talking about is the medal system. Also I feel like the whole bangle thing wasn't explained well in game but really it just comes down to leveling up medals specifically. If you never played khux, you equip medals to your keyblades and they doa specific attack and to level them up you combine multiple of the same medal and you could see how leveled up a medal is by the amount of yellow dots next to it and, in JP at least, this was called "guilt" and like wow that name fucking slaps. And when nightmare chirithy reveals the player has been collecting darkness this whole time thru the medal system, you have literal guilt on your conscious. You are guilty of collecting darkness and negative emotions like guilt to use for your own power. And in Back Cover when the foretellers are made aware of this, there's no stopping it and ofc the player can't stop either, they HAVE to get stronger, you literally have to keep playing the game,

Another part of the game that I appreciated is the way the name changes factored into the game; chi was the original "world line" that the dandelions existed in and at first unchained chi had come off as just a remake but really what we're playing is the continuation, where the player and the dandelions are now in this unchained state/new world line and they're reliving their time as wielders but now without the war/"dark" memories and finally when they relive everything and get back to the "present," they continue on after into "union cross" which I feel like. wasn't explained well in game that much tbh but if you didn't understand what that meant in game, it was just to say that unions didn't matter anymore and they were all dandelions so the unions. when the unions are crossed.

and tbh the experience of playing this game in real time also added to the experience a lot and the impact of the story especially with a player insert character. I think the most effective use of this game being played in real time was Strelitzia. Now in the english version, everything with Strelitzia was all one update and the english ver was behind so honestly they had to do catch up they couldn't really afford to lag behind. But in JP, which most khux fans kept up with using fan translations, Strelitzia's introduction and her death happened about a month apart so it gave the players time to actualyl grow attached to her and THEN we get crushed. You can easily pin point the exact time certain khux fan art was drawn bc in a group drawing of the dandelions Strelitzia is there instead of Lauriam since he was only introduced after her death

and another thing! It only became apparent by the end of the game but khux actually takes place over the course of about 4 years. which is fucking insane. because the dandelions were stuck in the data for 4 years and didn't know it until the glitches started. and the game ran for roughly the same amount of time and we weren't even aware of that either until the glitches! ("why 4 years" there are cutscenes that literally say "4 years ago" so yeah girl what the fuck haha)

Anyway yeah this was just me rambling I think about this so much all the time can you tell. I hope missing link does something like this too tbh it makes it more fun and makes it feel that your actions as the player actually have impact on the story

psianabel

There are things lost to time now, now that the game is cutscene only and it makes me so sad. When in the story we reached the Underworld, Chirithy saying "hey dont go down that road", meaning darkness, the game introduced Reverse Medals. Honestly this was so metal af, that, yes we are now in this place of darkness and we also get medals that represent darkness.

No one will get this now, not even people who actually played this game, only those who played it when this udpate was actually released.

The same goes for Shift Pride. The canonization of the PVP mode. Heck it is such an important point that "yes there are all data copies of everyone in here, you can use those to whack each other to follow the rule written in the Rule Book". Again enforcing the whole Data thing, and then later brought up that yes "wait if Dandelions have data copies, where are the Union Leader ones" gets mentioned in the ending itself. Watching this scene now doesn't have half of the impact if you don't know that this was actually the PVP mode canonized into the game.

And even if it was just a small thing, but Union Cross mode also gets briefly mentioned in a cutscene, from Chirithy just a bit after the war - people should work together to keep their mind off other things and form a bond to help them overcome this confused and stressed state of not remembering the keyblade war. Like bruh What, no one will get this now just seeing this cutscene. No one knows there was an actual mode called Union Cross where you fought heartless with a group of other players.

Cutscenes only don't do justice to this game. There are important gameplay things you have to know and remember to get the full experience ...

That fight against Darkness in the ending together with the Union Leaders is in my book of the most beautiful things ive ever witnessed lmao. And of course the Final Battle - you fight your friends, damnit, they attack you together with a beam of light. No one will experience this anymore.

Oh god okay but when the keyblade war event came out in UX, the Foreteller fights were another level - they were hard as shit, like they were supposed to be, if you didn't keep up with the current medal releases. It was an Experience honestly, trying to figure out strategies, waiting for new medals to help you out, and over time you were able to do it. But that struggle ... man. Man.

God im so sorry but there is just. Gestures into the air. So much.

thetwilightroadtonightfall

I’ve just realized that the very fact that the game is unplayable now really cements and finalizes the relevance the gameplay had on the story. It’s not like the other kh games where you can pick it up and play it over and over to experience the story with the gameplay elements as many times as you want. khux is gone, it’s offline now, mirroring the loss of Daybreak Town in both the data world and the real world. None of the characters are able to go back to their lives there, and neither are you. You can only move forward.

serenedash

Theres been so many amazing additions to this post I love khux so much jfhdkhdid

I cant believe I forgot to mention spirit pets and pvp!!!!! Remember when we all thought Brain made the dream eaters and then the finale Did That lol

Tbh I remember when pvp was added I was extremely impressed with how it was handled lore wise, it was an incredibly smart move to let wielders fight each other but without any real competition that could lead to another war due to everyone understanding it was just data recreations and how that fact alone led to new developments irt strelitzia and the reveal that they were still in the data

Another thing I forgot to mention is how in unchained chi/union cross, there is NO keyblade war in the main quests. I remember everyone was really confused when we got to that point in the game and everyone was like??? But in chi this is when the war happened????? And now we know its because we were just reliving the events but without those sad memories like I mentioned in the original post, and how that manifested in khux as dreams and it was a side event disconnected from the main plot.

Playing in real time gave the player real impact when it came to Ephemera too, which I saw people mention in tags. Like there was a very noticeable empty space with him gone and some people might know I used to actually really hate Ephemera because I felt so betrayed lmao, and I think people now don't understand how much khux fans love Skuld for that reason because in those months you played without Ephemera, you did EVERYTHING with Skuld leading up to the war so it made it easy to get very attached to her ~~so imo it made me sad how skuld was kinda shoved aside in union cross but that's not what this is about,~~

But also speaking of Skuld, someone mentioned parties being important to plot too! And if you never played khux, you could form parties with friends and help each other in boss battles or play multiplayer. Skuld was a party leader and had Ephemera in her party before he switched unions, which I always thought was a neat bit of lore (fun fact canonically the player, Skuld and Eph are in Anguis and Eph switches to Unicornis, most likely to get closer to Ira as the leader of the foretellers to get the book lbr) and a MAJOR part of khux gameplay thats rarely talked about is the NPC's the player is friends with. In English fandom a lot of people call them the sewer squad since you first meet them in the sewers and they're in basically every event and holiday sidequest and it can be read as this is the player's party if you didn't have one yourself. And tbh I know it meant a lot to see these NPCs in the ending scene with the dream eaters because these guys really were loved by the player base and tbh its a real shame the only one that has a canon name is Mog but regardless, their sidequests always showed how important parties and friendships were in khux and you never see anyone talking about them since it was side quests (this can also be said for the "friends ARENT my power" guy and his friend, who were also important NPCs) like you see people make cutscene compilations for khhx and they're just. Never there. Truly another part of the khux experience that's lost on most fans who never played

I mentioned this in on another post but Im gonna put it here too for everyone, a major impact on the khux experience was kh3 trailers since kh3 released in the middle of union cross and I'll go thru it for those that didn't play, SPECIFICALLY on Lauriam and Strelitzia-- marluxia and larxene were shown in a trailer after they were introduced but BEFORE the sibling reveal. For many people this was proof that Lauriam killed Strelitzia since they drew parallels between namine in castle oblivion and rapunzel in the tower and figured Strelitzia was in a similar situation. And THEN it was reveled Strelitzia was related to either Lauriam or Elrena BUT the Japanese was very vague and it wasn't specified and we had a length of time where we had no idea who she was even related to but with the appearance of Larxene in Frozen in a trailer, people thought her appearing in a movie about the bond between sisters was proof she was Strelitzia's sister. It really was a wild fucking time to be alive. You can tell real intense khux fans from casual fans when they tell you to play kh3 in the middle of union cross and then go back and finish khux,

Kingdom hearts khux i LOVE khux so much and i miss it so!!!! i'm so here for the sewer squad appreciation im so sad that theyre basically forgotten i had headcanoned names for all of them and everything and i really liked the story wiyh their former squad leader also i miss my spirit pup skypaws you will forever be in my heart