“Lock of Fate” Chapter Three Commentary

[babyrodent]

 Overview

Although this is a rather short chapter, something that I am not very proud of, this chapter is where things go off the rails very quickly. Because I wanted to spare my readers the boredom that is the tutorial prologue nonsense in the original “Kingdom Hearts II” game, I chose to cut the amount of days spent in the Digital Twilight Town in half just to get to the point. As a result, the previous two chapters and this chapter itself ended up as being the unofficial “prologue” chapters version 2.0 following the actual prologue chapter.

About This Chapter

In this chapter, whereas the previous two chapters introduced Fusa and what her personality is going to be like, we see that Fusa is still reeling from the previous day’s little “incident” but is looking forward to going to the beach with the Usual Spot gang (as well as inviting Vivi along for the ride). So while the trio is getting a loan from their parents (novel idea– the Usual Spot trio having parents! Who’da thunk it?), Fusa is getting some sea-salt ice cream for herself, her “friends”, and Vivi. But things do not go so well when Axel, here unnamed again, makes his appearance again and brings along Dusks and his Assassins to capture her. This is also where Fusa summons her Keyblade for the first time, but whereas your typical “Kingdom Hearts” character would immediately know what to do and fight about back, she doesn’t and thus turn tail and run. Nonetheless, she is captured and taken out of the Digital Twilight Town by Axel, leaving the rather shocked DiZ to change his plans for Roxas. Elsewhere, Max Goof and Gremlin Gus arrive to Traverse Town on the Gummi Excalibur.

In the timeline for “Kingdom Hearts II”, this would be during Day 2 in the prologue itself.

1st Trace of the Earliest Attempt

During its earliest time as the poorly disguised self-insert, there was going to be a moment where, while in the Digital Twilight Town, the main female Nobody was discovered by Axel and promptly knocked out before being removed from the recreation. While the details are vastly different, mostly because this happened during the 6th day, the core concept is unchanged.

The Cutting Room Floor

Originally, I was going to add a detail where Fusa’s outfit phases through the wall and cause her to get confused by this, tipping her off that there is something going on. However, this would have disrupted the flow of the scene, so it was scrapped.

Little Touches

• The moment where Fusa gets sea salt ice cream (and drops it) is also based off the Kingdom Hearts II manga, though in this case, it’s out of fear than sadness.