Saga of Light is a Kingdom Hearts AU Series Fic written by SirAngelo
on FanFiction.Net.
The series starts by diverging from canon partway through Kingdom Hearts II, where Saïx accepts Sora's offer to exchange his freedom for Kairi's. What follows is Kairi having to take up the mantle of hero and Keyblade Master and journeying the worlds in an attempt to finally bring an end to Organization XIII. The series then deals with the aftermath of the battle with the Organization, as our heroes attempt to live their lives and deal with the burden that has been placed upon them.
The series can also be found here on Archive of Our Own.
Entries in the series:
- Saga of Light: She Will Light The Way (AO3 link)
- XmaSaga of Light: For Love And Friendship (AO3 link) (Christmas side story)
- The Wig (Side story)
- Saga of Light: The Dreamers, The Destroyers, and The Departed
Saga of Light contain examples of:
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She Will Light The Way
- Adaptation Origin Connection: During Kairi's visit to San Fransokyo, it's revealed that Luxord was responsible for kickstarting the events of Big Hero 6 by starting the fire at the expo center and killing Tadashi when he ran into the burning building to save Callaghan.
- Adaptational Angst Upgrade: Kairi gets hit with his hard. She is shown to suffer from some serious mental and emotional scars as a result of repeatedly getting kidnapped. She appears to suffer from a combination of depression and self-loathing, as well as some minor PTSD.
- Adaptational Badass:
- Kairi becomes a Keyblade wielder much earlier than in canon and eventually becomes Sora's equal in combat, although that's only after a lot of hard work and suffering.
- In Kingdom Hearts II, the Gullwings were rather weak and all three working together were only able to take down a single Armored Knight Heartless before getting chased off. Here, they are on a closer power level to their Final Fantasy versions, and are overall more competent and better fighters than in canon.
- Alternate Universe Fic: The fanfic completely diverges from canon after Sora trades his freedom for Kairi's.
- Ascended Extra:
- In canon, Kairi tends to be Out of Focus amongst the Destiny Island Trio and her role usually doesn't go beyond being the Damsel in Distress. Here, she replaces Sora as the main protagonist after he gives his own freedom up in exchange for her own.
- Yuna, Rikku, and Paine go from being minor characters in Kingdom Hearts II to major supporting protagonists after Tifa gives them the task of being Kairi's companions and mentors.
- In the games, the Absent Silhouettes were bonus bosses who mainly served as an excuse for Sora to fight Organization members that were already dead. Here, they take on a more active role in the story and are used by the Organization as substitute members.
- Deconstructed Character Archetype: Kairi is a brutal deconstruction of the Damsel in Distress. It's shown how being repeatedly kidnapped while being helpless to stop it has given her severe self-esteem issues and she even develops some self-loathing due to seeing herself as a "useless damsel".
- The Dreaded: The Lingering Will is this to the entire Organization. When Riku tells Naminé about how he's had visions of the Keyblade Graveyard and intends to investigate, she becomes terrified and begs him not to go, explaining how the Lingering Will easily defeated Xemnas, Xigbar, and Xaldin when they tried to fight it.
- Exact Words: While Saïx promised Sora that he would set Kairi free, he never said where he was going to free her. Upon accepting Sora's offer, Saïx "releases" Kairi into the Realm of Darkness through a one-way portal. Xigbar even lampshades Sora's poor choice of words.
- Fix Fic: Became one for Kingdom Hearts III midway through writing after the author played the game and hated the way Kairi was made into a Faux Action Girl. The author admits that they're partially writing this fic as a response and criticism of the way Kairi was treated in Kingdom Hearts III.
- For Want Of A Nail: This entire series happens because Saïx accepted Sora's offer to surrender himself in exchange for Kairi's freedom in Kingdom Hearts II.
- Forbidden Zone: The Keyblade Graveyard is seen as this by the Organization due to the presence of the Lingering Will.
- Offscreen Moment of Awesome: According to Naminé, the Lingering Will fought Xemnas, Xigbar, and Xaldin all at once. Not only did the Lingering Will win easily, but the armor subjected all three Organization members to a No-Holds-Barred Beatdown so brutal that the Organization designated the entire Keyblade Graveyard as a Forbidden Zone.
- Psychological Torment Zone: While battling Zexion's absent silhouette, Kairi gets sucked into Zexion's pocket dimension where she is assaulted with illusions of her loved ones physically attacking her while screaming verbal abuse towards her about how she's nothing but a useless damsel. This nearly drives Kairi to the Despair Event Horizon before Riku jumps in and kills Zexion at the last moment.
- Refusal of the Call: Kairi initially tries to turn down her new status as a Keyblade wielder because she views herself as too weak and useless to ever be a hero.
- Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Subverted. When Kairi defeats an absent silhouette of Lexaeus, she's surprised to find that he was weaker than Xaldin, who she only barely defeated earlier in her travels, and was expecting the Organization's members to get harder to beat as she progressed.
- Taking Up the Mantle: After Sora surrenders himself to the Organization in exchange for Kairi's freedom, she takes on Sora's role as a Keyblade wielder.
- Thanatos Gambit: This is revealed to be DiZ's plan for his revenge against Xemnas. Having encoded a virus into his heart, he intends to let himself be killed during the final battle so that when his corrupted heart joins up with Xemnas's artificial Kingdom Hearts, the virus his heart is carrying will spread and destroy it.
- Worf Had the Flu: The Absent Silhouettes are established to be much weaker compared to their original selves, explaining why Xemnas doesn't simply resurrect all his fallen Organization comrades as well as giving Kairi a fighting chance against opponents that would normally be able to squash her with little effort.
The Dreamers, The Destroyers, and The Departed
- Has a Type: Riku has a fetish for girls who are a Little Bit Beastly and gains a reputation as The Casanova while visiting a world full of demihumans. Both Sora and Kairi find this hilarious and tease him relentlessly about it.
- Magically Inept Fighter: Riku. He definitely has the best attack stats out of the trio, being rated 10/10 for Power and having his Offensive Capability rated as "Very High". However, this comes at the cost of being useless when it comes to elemental magic. His magic rating is 0/10 and he's stated to have no magic potential.
- Named by the Adaptation: Sora, Riku, and Kairi all receive last names here. Sora's last name is Kido, Kairi's is Hikari, and Riku's is Akiyama.
- Shell-Shocked Veteran: Although Kairi apparently succeeded in rescuing Sora and stopping the Organization, her self-esteem issues haven't completely disappeared. Even after two years, Kairi still retains some of her old insecurities and hasn't fully gotten over her trauma. When she's placed in a extremely stressful situation where she relives her feelings of helplessness, she has a panic attack and nearly breaks down.
- Time Skip: The story is set two years after She Will Light The Way.
