Back when I read the CoM novel, one of the most exciting things for me was discovering the implication that Riku had a “forgotten promise” that he wanted to remake with Sora, along with the other possible hints that I was onto something with the necklace theory. But even though the novels did sometimes contain information that wasn’t revealed as canon until later games, this particular bit still wasn’t necessarily canon to the games…I thought. I found out that after the credits of Sora’s and Riku’s stories in Re:Chain of Memories, there are two poems that directly correlate with the lines at the end of Sora and Riku’s stories in the novel. So that forgotten promise? It’s there. In the games. Incorporated into- honestly- a romantic as hell poem.
The GBA version of CoM also has versions of these lines which are more similar to the ones found in the novel. Starting with Sora’s story, here are the three versions:
Novel (Sora has just fallen asleep in the pod. These are the words seen at the very end.) :
Memories fading. Memories reborn.
And a dream- A dream of you in a world without you.
This clearly seems to be talking about Sora sleeping while forgetting his memories of Castle Oblvion (memories fading), and remembering everything he had forgotten while there (memories reborn). And he is dreaming of someone- “A dream of you in a world without you.” We don’t know who he is dreaming about, but it’s interesting to know that immediately after these lines, Riku’s story begins…with the words “I was dreaming.”
GBA CoM:
fading memories reconstructed memories and a dream- a dream of you in a world without you
Virtually the same as the novel. These words appear after the credits, after showing a (kinda creepy) image of Sora sleeping in the pod.
Re:CoM:
There is always sleep between part and meet with our usual words on the usual street.
So let us part like we always do… And in a world without you I’ll dream of you.
When I come to, let us meet with our usual words on the usual street.
Man, the writers really stepped up their game with this :’‘) This poem appears with a short cutscene of Sora sleeping in the pod:
“There is always sleep between part and meet.” Sleep always seems to be a part of Sora’s story, doesn’t it? Sora enters Castle Oblivion hoping to find Riku there, but by the end, when Riku finally finds Sora, he’s already sleeping. And again in DDD, Sora’s sleep is what keeps him and Riku separated. “with our usual words on the usual street” This line gives me the feeling that whoever this is about is someone very close to Sora, a familiarity and comfort in “usual words”, as there is with friends met with every day. “So let us part like we always do…” Two people constantly separated by this sleep… “When I come to, let us meet.” The first thing Sora wants to do after he wakes up?
Alright, so that’s the poem on Sora’s side. Now for Riku. Here are the three versions that go with his story.
Novel (For context, I’m including the scene that immediately precedes the lines):
“What are you making me choose now?” Riku asked. “Between the road to light…and the road to darkness,” DiZ told him, looking at the paths that split off to the right and to the left. “Neither. I’m taking the middle road.” Riku began to walk past DiZ on the path between. “Do you mean the twilight road to nightfall?” said DiZ. “No.” Riku looked back at him with a faint smile. “It’s the road to dawn.” Riku kept on walking, and Mickey ran to catch up. What lay ahead of them was the daybreak path- the road to dawn. And a new journey would begin.
Walking the path without you, so that we might remake our forgotten promise. So that I can find you on the road ahead.
In this context it seems clear that those last lines are from the perspective of Riku (More on this quote here:x) . He is walking the daybreak path without Sora, so he can remake some forgotten promise he had made with him. And not only does he hope to meet Sora on the road ahead, the wording here (”So that”) seems to imply he believes that his fulfillment of this remade promise is the key to being able to meet him again in the future. And we all know the lengths Riku went to in Days to protect Sora and reclaim his memories from Roxas and Xion…. As Riku says twice in the Days novel: “Everything…is for Sora.”
GBA CoM:
Walking this road without you to remake forgotten promises and meet you at road’s end.
Basically the same as the novel. Though here, an ending image comes up after the poem- Sora and Riku back to back:
Re:CoM (hold onto your seat for this one OOF):
Beyond the path without you is a forgotten promise to keep.
We may have walked side by side, but now we go on back to back.
And though our paths may not cross, all paths are connected somewhere.
When I arrive at where you are, we may not appear to be as we were…
But we’ll make another promise to keep.
The thing about this poem is that it appears over scenes of Roxas in the Data Twilight Town, with Hayner, Pence, and Olette. And there’s no doubt this poem also fits some aspects of Roxas- his forgotten promise to Xion- but taking the whole thing into consideration, the context of the novel, the fact that it plays after Riku’s story (after Riku has chosen the dawn path), and the ending image that comes up immediately after the poem:
Yeah, I think it’s still safe to think this poem is coming from Riku’s perspective, about Sora, just like Sora’s poem came from his own perspective. “Beyond the path without you is a forgotten promise to keep.” Just like the novel quote, Riku is walking the Dawn path without Sora- and there’s a forgotten promise he needs to keep.
“We may have walked side by side, but now we go on back to back.” Best friends that used to walk side by side, but now their paths have split (I’ve talked here about how since CoM Riku has been on the road to dawn while Sora has been on the road to twilight). “Back to back” is a recurring theme for Sora and Riku (representing light and dark) in imagery, especially in CoM as shown above and on the cover of the game:
“And though our paths may not cross, all paths are connected somewhere.” No matter how far apart the paths they are on take them, they will always be connected.
“When I arrive at where you are, we may not appear to be as we were…“ When Sora and Riku finally meet again, they have both changed. Sora has grown and matured, while Riku has taken on the appearance of Ansem. They don’t appear to be as they were before.
“But we’ll make another promise to keep.“ They’ll make another promise…or as the novel says, remake the old promise… What will this promise be about? I don’t know, but for the necklace theory, I have my hopes up :) I can’t help but connect this with the quote we saw at the beginning of the E3 trailer: “The light is gathering together. Hearts driven by one oath, one purpose.” Maybe, just maybe…an oath, a promise to protect Sora?
to celebrate The News, posting a bunch of my old kh art (most from when i was playing through for the first time) that never made it to tumblr for whatever reason
I love Axel. Sure, Quinton Flynn plays him perfectly, and the redhead is such an awesome, manipulative, loving, adventurous fireball. For shippers and non-shippers alike, his drive to see Roxas again is beautiful and I hope they’re reunited in KH3.
