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derekscorner · 5 years

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Ambiguity

Alright so it’s still on my mind. The end results of this discussion (link). TDLR as the kids say, the concepts of nobodies-gain-hearts and “walking heart” theories bother me.

“If nobodies can gain hearts, why seek their old ones?” and “If a heart can construct a material vessel then what purpose does a body-soul combo serve?” are questions that plague my mind.

For those not in the know, KH2 established that life as we know it in the series has three specific elements:

Three elements combine to create a life: a heart, a soul, and a body.But what of the soul and body left behind when the heart is lost?

When the soul leaves the body, its vessel, life gives way to death, but what about when the heart leaves?

-Secret Ansem Report #4 (KH2)

A body to give you shape, a soul to give it life and the heart to give yourself. Heartless and nobodies are born when the heart is striped from this equation. Actual death, as defined here, is caused when the soul is extinguished.

When I was younger the soul was a huge pet peeve of mine. People seem to give it more importance than it holds. Even well known channels like HMK confuse this, usually attributing it to the Lingering Will entity.

I wont delve into that old tangent now because this got me thinking on another issue. For years I thought the story explains things that didn’t need it while leaving things that could use it ambiguous.

This is just one of those moments, in hindsight you can see the heart-body-soul fact only exists to explain nobodies as an entity. They’re that living body which has lost it’s heart. The heart’s will was too strong to fade and thus the body clings to existence.

The question that stems from this however is “was that explanation necessary?”

Was it needed? In the long term it’s caused more nitpick questions or misunderstandings than it’s really helped. Which, in fairness, not many read these rules anyway and the ones that do all tend to see it in their own light. Such as the youtuber HMK.

(I’m only using him specifically due to a vid I recently watched btw)(the wikis and forums tend to have just as many)

For example, aside the two question I offered earlier you can further ask:

How do replicas like Xion or Repliku live? Did Vexen just manufacture a soul?

Why does the body+soul of a nobody seek a heart endlessly while beings who’ve cast theirs aside have no such longing? The heartless are mindless, Vanitas wishes to be part of Vens heart and Sora never experienced an issue from being split from his normal body.

How do we explain the souls in KH2′s Underworld?

Is the mind and will truly tied to soul as many believe? If so then how come Sora held the entirety of both after Roxas was born? How come Ansem and Xemnas seemed to hold their own after Xehanort’s would’ve split between them?

This brings other concepts into question. The mind as KH knows it seems to be separate from the heart yet born of it. Terra’s “mind” is inhabiting the armor, the “mind” of people persist in their nobodies, the “mind” of Sora and Ansem persisted with their hearts.

Hell, Roxas and Xion developed their own minds. One being a artificial person and the other half of one.

It just brings up a lot of questions for the concepts KH throws in. As my friend @blackosprey put it, these ideas feel more half realized than truly defined.

It doesn’t even end at the metaphysics either. Time Travel, yes I’m going there, is another hilariously introduced concept.

Xehanort establishes rules to it sure but he also contradicts them within that very sentence. Whether he recalls the memories or not, he admits they mold him into Master Xehanort. That’s the future altering the past.

Yen Sid sends back Riku and Sora. People do point out they’ve filled some of Xehanort’s rules prior but that’s moot because they aren’t traveling on their own. It is Yen Sid sending them back and all we know is that his method required a past version be there.

Hell, in Merlins first introduction in KH1 he bluntly tells you he time travels in his free time. Merlin, in his source movie and in this universe, canonically travels time as a recreational hobby. Then there’s the door to Timeless River.

Then there’s the very scary implications of Maleficent time traveling alllll the way back to Chi just because some fake digital construct of her exists there.

To Nomura’s credit, he’s not used this as an excuse to alter the game entries (yet) but it’s like each example just follows their own rules. Why have them if the rules are not followed?

So, you’re probably wanting me to get to my point. My point is that the things we get explained or introduced to us tend to cause more logical leaps than they do solidify a set of rules.

Yes exceptions exist, notably Ansem who retained his sapience for a decade, but this all ties back into the title. Ambiguity.

Just imagine this with me, let’s say the heart-soul-body thing never existed. Let’s just say Yen Sid’s explanation in KH2 is all we got on them. How much does that change? In fact how many of those questions I ask vanish?

KH1 makes it clear the hearts is an equivalent to what we’d consider a soul or mind. It’s clear there’s a physical body and a spiritual heart, if you only had these two and left it at that nothing changes. If anything it highlights even more how intrinsic the heart is. Every enemy in the game is based on the heart in some fashion.

Heartless? Darkness of the heart, the more you have the greater the monster. Nobodies? That heart’s will, it’s desire to live. The stronger the will, the more human the nobody will appear. Vanitas and the Unversed? The literal darkness and emotions of Ventus. The Lingering Will? The mind according to Xehanort and Terra’s strong hatred according to Nomura. Replicas? Notorious for developing their own sense of self, their own hearts.

Then ya got time travel. There’s so many alternate methods, on top of Xehanort contradicting himself, that any such statements minds well be moot. All you had to do was establish that Xehanort is unable to alter past events.

Of course, introducing this concept at all was poorly received and may have been best left out as opposed to being left ambiguous. Merlin can’t be altered since he has that power in his source material but as supporting cast it wasn’t an issue.

Instead of moments like this we could’ve used that time on things that could use explaining. Like why did the Ventus-Vanitas fusion produce an Xblade if it’s wrong in method?

Why do keyblades exist in the Dark Realm? Can any wielder gain one by going there? Why did only Mickey acquire one? (yes I consider these of needing answers since they felt the need to make 0.2)

Or heck, the best focus would’ve been on characters. They’re in need of it the most, they need the explanation, not the ambiguity. *coughneglectcough*

Anyway, I hope I’ve explained myself well. I feel into tangents here and there but it’s simple. Do you, as fellow fans, feel there’s things that was better left unstated? Do you prefer the mental gymnastics of trying to overlook them?

What things do you feel needed explaining and what do you feel needed less? Lemme know.

Edit:

I just remembered another one, data. I felt Tron was ok in KH2 but the recent titles seem to have taken great liberty with it. Especially the headache of explaining DDD’s Tron world.

#kingdom hearts #kh3 #kingdom hearts 3

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