I said before I'd probably redo my theories regarding Chain of Memories and what happens in Kingdom Hearts 2, and avoiding actual homework now is as good an excuse as any. My thoughts have changed based off of 1) replaying CoM and transcribing it, 2) Looking at screencaps of KH2 and reading various articles/theories, and 3) chatting it up with V-chan and OPR-kun.

*WARNING! 'CHAIN OF MEMORIES' SPOILERS AHEAD!*

On how KH2 Begins:
It's known that KH2 takes place a year after the first game, but now it seems that it will begin *directly* where Chain of Memories left off. Which means we start out with Sora, Donald and Goofy waking up in Castle Oblivion after being asleep for a year. This is mostly based off of this segment , (in which Donald accidentally freezes himself.) It's clear from the picture that they're in the room of Castle Oblivion with the large flower pods, and would indicate that they had just woken up. (Which would explain why Goofy looks rather out of it, and Donald looks exceedingly irritated.) Obviously, the question then arises as to why it took a full year to recover their memories? And where would Sora have gotten his new outfit?
Unless Namine makes a very early appearance (which I highly doubt, if she's even in the game at all), Sora is obviously going to be in the dark as to how he lost a year of his life. He's either going to need Riku or Namine to explain things to him, or discover the truth through some other means. No ideas yet as to how that will happen. Again, this is even assuming that Sora *will* eventually find out what happened in Castle Oblivion...although it would seem necessary if he's going to face off against the Organization effectively.
From there, Sora could conceivably go one of two places: Hollow Bastion or Twilight Town. It's already been indicated through articles that Hollow Bastion shows up early in the game. It some ways it would make sense to go to Hollow Bastion first because of a distant link to Castle Oblivion (more on that below.) Also, this segment, which has Sora and friends facing off against a bonafide Army of Darkness, appears to be an early cinematic sequence without actual fighting. (At least, I HOPE you're not actually supposed to fight all that! o_O) Should Sora get to Hollow Bastion first, he'll immediately be meeting the Organization (again, more on that below.)
However, it is also quite possible for Sora to head to Twilight Town first, since this world houses the train station that allows travel between other worlds. (No more Gummi Ship! Woohoo! XD) If this were the case, Sora would meet up with King Mickey first, since Mickey saves them from a pack of Dusk Heartless. From there, Mickey can give a bit of explanation as to what's happened, and give instructions on where to go first...possibly to Hollow Bastion where Heartless are amassing. It would be assumed that while Sora is in Twilight Town, he would eventually meet up with BHK. And speaking of...

On the Blond-Haired Kid:
Man, I keep wanting to call him Toshi, or at least call him *something* besides BHK...but I'll get over it. Anyways, it still seems pretty clear to me that BHK is the other side of Sora's heart. This is based off of the confrontation between Sora and the Unknown in Final Mix, in which the Unknown says "You look just like him...which means you're not complete." And then again with the beach scene in Deep Dive: "He looks just like you." And again, when Sora faces Vexen in the Twilight Town floor in Castle Oblivion, Vexen says, "Then recall that this place was made from another side of your memory. Yes, the other side of your heart knows this place. The other side remembers." Since Twilight Town seems to be the home base of the BHK (look at all of these pictures), it would follow that BHK is the other side of Sora's heart. The big question is: what does "other side" entail? It can mean many things...my personal interpretation is that BHK is the "nonexistant Sora," or that he is everything that Sora is not. But that is just an interpretation.
I've heard a few people speculate that BHK is the reincarnation of the Riku replica, but this doesn't really hold up for me. For one thing, while the match isn't perfect, BHK bears a lot more resemblance to Sora than he does to Riku, both in his look and in his outfit. BHK also weilds Keyblades, and appears to go through the same awakening process as Sora does in the tutorial. (I highly suspect that we'll be able to play as BHK, at least for the tutorial.) Also, while we've had plenty to indicate light/darkness versions of people and "other sides," reincarnation has played nearly zero factor in the game or in hints on the next one. While the Riku replica was an interesting character and I think fans want to see him return, I don't think he will. Honestly, I think the Riku replica situation was an excuse in CoM for Sora to fight Riku without actually facing the *real* Riku. (As this would compromise the story quite a bit.)

On Namine:
Thusfar there hasn't been any indication Namine will be in KH2, which is sort of disappointing, but understandable. I think people are automatically assuming she'll make an appearance, but considering the fact we've seen more of Pete than we have of Namine, I'm not counting on it just yet.
However, what I don't understand is that there seems to be a refusal of a connection between Namine and Kairi. My assumption is that Namine is Kairi's "other side" just as the BHK is Sora's. Considering the fact that they look even *more* alike than Sora and BHK, it seems like there has to be at least some connection between them. I'm not saying that they've met or in any way know each other, since it's obvious they haven't. However, just because they have no knowledge of each other means they lack an important connection...as anime tends to remind us over and over again.


On Riku:
I feel confident in saying it's been made clear that the blindfolded Unknown in Deep Dive and Another Side/Another Story is Riku. But the question then arises: why is Riku wearing the blindfold? (Besides wanting to look sexy for his fangirls, I mean...) It's assumed that Deep Dive takes place between CoM and KH2 (although I can see it taking place during KH2, but with extreme difficulty.) The original theory was that Riku was blinded by the light of Kindom Hearts once Ansem was destroyed. However, this obviously doesn't hold up anymore, since Riku was seeing perfectly fine all throughout CoM (and at the end of KH, if you remember correctly.) So why the blindfold?

This theory was actually suggested to me by the very-muchly-smart V-chan, and it seems to make the most sense to me. Riku wears the blindfold not because he can't see, but so that he can smell better. All throughout CoM, scents are a running theme with Riku...he even "smells" when Marluxia is defeated by Sora. The Organization members seem to have this ability as well, suggesting that particular "scents" of things, people and power are linked to darkness. Wearing a blindfold would force him to rely on his nose more than his eyes (just as the senses of blind people are heightened) and would allow him to detect certain scents faster and from greater distances. This would be especially helpful when traveling through different worlds with no idea on who is a friend or foe.

On the Organization:
It seems the Organization is going to be the Big Bad this time around. We already know that Axel makes an appearance, and fights BHK in an attempt to get to Sora. My suspicions are strong that we'll be seeing more or Larxene, Vexen, Marluxia and more next time around as well. Yes, I am well aware that they kicked their respective buckets during CoM. However, I *do* find it difficult to believe that Square would spend that much time developing those characters if they weren't planning on using them in KH2. Heck, we know more about Axel and Larxene's personality than we know about Ansem. Also, it's quite obvious that Ansem makes a reappearance in KH2 (whether as himself or as DiZ or some combination of them) and he died quite soundly in the first KH. So having that section or the Organization come back to life for a bit more ass-kicking is more probable than improbable. Otherwise, Square would have to come up with a whole new set of foes, and all of the good kinds of magic (fire, ice, thunder, earth, etc.) are already taken. But I suppose we'll never know for certain until KH2 when they take off those damn hoods.
It is also automatically assumed by many that Mickey and Riku join the Organization because they leave Castle Oblivion wearing the uniforms. I don't necessarily jump to that conclusion, since there's been no indication that wearing the uniform means that you *are* a member, just that all the members *happen* to wear that uniform. After all, DiZ's costume is entirely different, and he seems to be the one in charge. However, DiZ's motivations get into a whole new gray area. If he is heading the Organization, it doesn't quite make sense why he acts so passively towards Riku and Mickey...and never encounters Sora at all. I'm hoping all of this gets *eventually* explained in KH2.
On the flipside, it would make sense if Mickey asked Riku to infiltrate the Organization, especially since they've got a whole year to kill while Sora sleeps. My theory is that the Organization member about to unhood himself in this scene is actually Riku, which will pretty much screw with Sora's poor confused head. (SHOCK! DRAMA!)
However, I still stand by the idea that Axel's quickly going to become an outcast. Call it a hunch, but it at least seems if Axel doesn't go good, he'll strike out on his own agenda.

On the Heartless:
I would just like to say right now that these new Dusk Heartless are extremely creepy. But they're also very interesting, especially considering they seem to bear this same inverse Heartless symbol. If you look closely, this symbol is in more than just the Dusks...several of the Organization members incorporate the design into their weapons: (Larxene's shuriken, Marluxia's scythe, etc.)
Of course, it's important to figure out what the original Heartless symbol even means. I believe it's not necessarily a Heartless symbol as it is the emblem (possibly a coat of arms or seal?) of Hollow Bastion. This is because the symbol pops up practically everywhere in Hollow Bastion, and unless Ansem had time to do a bunch of remodeling after he went evil, Hollow Bastion looked that way before there were ever any Heartless. But, as Ansem says in Report #8: "This may be a step toward creating a heart from nothing. The artificially and naturally created Heartless showed nearly identical traits. But the two types remain distinct for the purpose of the experiment. So, I will mark the ones that are created artificially." Considering the fact that Ansem lived and worked in Hollow Bastion, it would make sense he would mark his artificial Heartless with the castle seal.
Going off of this assumption, the only Heartless we've seen that aren't artificial are Shadows, Neo-Shadows, Darkballs and Invisibles...all of which, interestingly, seem to bear some kinship to Darkside. But this is kind of a stretch; and I don't see the next game expanding upon the differences between natural and artificial Heartless.
What I do find interesting is that this ties in with the inverse Heartless symbol. If the original symbol is the seal of Hollow Bastion, is this inverse one the seal of Castle Oblivion? It would seem to make sense, since both the castle itself and the Organization that hangs out there keep incorporating the design into various objects. So is someone making inverse versions of Heartless and marking them with the Castle Oblivion seal? Or are the Dusks natural byproducts of the originals..."other sides" of Heartless as it were? Again, no real answers on that yet. But I do suspect that there's some deeper association between Castle Oblivion and Hollow Bastion...and following that, a connection between Traverse Town and Twilight Town. I mean, come on, even their theme music sounded the same.

Random Geeking Out:
Mickey kicking ass Yoda-style = frelling awesome
Drive mode in general = KICKASS
Axel being sexy = Droolworthy
Mulan's world being playable = also kickass
Disney Castle being a playable world = even more kickass
Christmas Town being playable = sweet
KH2 on two discs = holy crap
Beast possibly going evil = WTF?
Any Pixar world being included = would probably never happen because of licensing issues, but would pretty much rock my socks off if it did.

Also, apparently they are coming out with a Chain of Memories manga. While I wasn't necessarily happy with the art style they chose for the first KH manga and the way they portrayed Sora (spastic much?) it would be quite cool to see Axel, Larxene & co. in a non-pixely format. And if Reverse/Rebith gets included in that, I'm totally down with it. XD

And hey, go and visit these sites: Ultimania and Sora's Domain, whom I pretty much linked the hell out of for this.

Alright, I think I'm done now, and should go actually do something productive. Dang. Hit me with comments to discuss, if you want! XD I'd like an intelligent KH conversation with someone other than V-chan and OPR-kun (no offense, I love you guys!). Pretty much every forum I've visited is populated entirely by OMG SORA & RIKU 2GethA 4EVA KAWAIIII!!!!111eleven1 middle school junkies. Argh.

Operator status: Decent

Macromedia studio comprehension status: 60% Don't even talk to me about this.

Website reconstruction status: 85% See above. I'm sooo pissed off with my website right now it's not even funny.

Drawing: Finished a KH fanart recently. Now I'm kinda stuck in a rut. Really need to finish those thumbnails for next RSOM, or else find something new and exciting to work on.

Writing: On chapter 18 of KH fic...only to suddenly have an idea for another. Dammit! I thought I'd be free of the fanfic bug after that first story! T_T