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Fridge / Kingdom Hearts

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Per wiki policy, Fridge pages are Spoilers Off!

Kingdom Hearts is a Massive Multiplayer Crossover with a penchant for the Kudzu Plot. It's gonna take a lot of Fridge Brilliance to sort this out.

Games with their own pages:

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    Kingdom Hearts II 
  • How does Riku know that Kairi's letter is aimed towards Sora? "One Sky" ("One Sora")
    • Even more brilliant, it says "there are many worlds, but they all share the same sky." Sora has not only been to and helped many worlds, but even the countless ones he hasn't they all share the same hero, Sora, and "One sky, one destiny" which is also appropriate, since Sora's efforts will determine the fate of all worlds; if he fails to stop Xehanort, all the current worlds will be enveloped in darkness and be destroyed, even if there is something beyond that event as Xehanort thinks.
  • Here's some Fridge Brilliance: with Hades final defeat and apparent imprisonment in the River Styx, and Auron fading into pyreflies as he heads off into the Underworld, the argument could be made that Zeus has appointed Auron the new Lord of the Dead!
    • Either that or Auron went to Heaven or reincarnate since Hades can still be talked to after completing Olympus Coliseum.
  • People make a big deal about Demyx being That One Boss in spite of everyone claiming he is a bad fighter... but when you think about it, aside from the Scrappy Mechanic that is his water clones and the instant defeat that stems from them, the rest of his arsenal is kinda limited. He isn't a good fighter compared to the rest of the organization, he's just a cheating sonofabitch.
  • Why is the Organization trying to turn Beast et. al. into Heartless? To produce humanoid Nobodies with which to replace the Organization members who died and/or left.

    Series in general 
  • Here’s a bit of Fridge Horror concerning the fact that in the early games (before KH 3), you can’t see any NPC characters except for the important ones. If you go in a town or a city, everything seems rather deserted except for a few important people that are part of the story(for example, take that one scene from olympus coliseum in KH 2 where you can hear people cheering Hercules, but you don’t see anyone there except for Hercules). Why? What happened to all the people who lived in those worlds? Did they all vanish? Well, here’s the thing: There’s also plenty of heartless there as well, not just the important NPCs. Therefore, is it possible that the reason why you don’t see many [NPCs in those worlds is because they were already turned into heartless before Sora got there? Does that mean that the heartless that Sora has been slaughtering were the people that were supposed to be there, but then they got turned into heartless, thus rendering those places almost completely deserted?
  • In regards to Sora being The Unchosen One, this is a bit of Fridge Brilliance: When you think about it, those with the power to wield a keyblade are almost always given the power by someone else. Sora, however, was not. While most wielders are chosen by another Keyblade wielder, Sora was chosen by the Keyblade itself. This becomes all the more evident when Riku takes back his Keyblade from Sora, but it then chooses Sora over himself. Sora is literally so Unchosen that he loops back around to Chosen.
    • Furthermore, as Terra, Aqua, and Ventus demonstrate, a keyblade's base form tends to share the color scheme of its wielder. Throughout the series, Riku's true outfits have a white, yellow, and blue scheme, which is perfectly analogous to the Kingdom Key's metallic silver, gold, and blue.
  • Why do the Heartless carry munny and sometimes random drops? Heartless were once human and technically aren't dead. You must keep all the things you had on your person when your heart was devoured. Killing Heartless isn't generating new currency, its retrieving currency lost in the attacks.
    • It could even be seen as worse than that when one considers that Nobodies are rare. So, what usually happens to bodies consumed by The Heartless? They revert back to their elemental basics, which in the Kingdom Hearts-verse is Power, Spirit, Blaze, Frost, Void, Energy... you know, the materials you get from them.
  • Listed under the former (now disambiguated) Green Lantern Ring trope, Keyblades could turn to many forms, depending on the wielder. Now think back to when you got your first house; your parents probably had a skeleton key, allowing them to open any door in the house. In a sense, the Keyblade itself is a skeleton key, able to open many doors to become stronger. Plus, the Kingdom Key is a skeleton-type, so it's kinda alluded.
  • You are now aware that the introduction song of Kingdom Hearts, “Dearly Beloved,” represents a heartbeat.
    • So does "Destati." It's faster than "Dearly Beloved" because you're in combat, and your heart occasionally skips a beat, leading to that extra drum hit. It's best demonstrated with Project Destati's remix of It Began With A Letter, where "Dearly Beloved" is played on top of "Destati's" rhythm, and it matches perfectly.
  • One of the recurring themes throughout the entire series is that Sora's usage of the Power of Friendship creates a bond with others that can be felt in numerous and extreme circumstances. Notably, the fact that even though they'd all forgotten him due to Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, as soon as Sora started waking up numerous friends began remembering him again. Now look at Xehanort, who has been going out of his way to plant the seeds of his research into every facet of his plans, to the point of not only Grand Theft Me but creating numerous vessels out of both willing and unwitting pawns. Xehanort isn't just a Magnificent Bastard that stays one step ahead of the heroes, he is by all rights and means a Shadow Archetype to Sora; both have great power and potential that can do things no one thought possible, and yet are on opposite sides of the spectrum as Xehanort forcibly embeds himself into other's lives for his own purposes while Sora creates his connections in a friendly and benign manner. While the series mostly emphasizes his similarities to Riku, Xehanort truly evolved into Sora's anti-thesis.
  • Sora's parents don't really seem to exist. We have precisely one line of dialog from Sora's mother in the entire series, which paints a rather sad picture. One argument supports the idea that Sora arrived on Destiny Islands by falling from the sky, and Kairi washed in from the sea. Neither of them would have any biological parents on the island. More importantly, Riku and Sora both knew about Kairi almost as soon as she arrived, but there's no reason why they would know about a new person showing up in the local orphanage... unless they were in the SAME orphanage. It's never stated outright, but it's extremely likely that all three of the main protagonists are Conveniently Orphans, which would explain why they spend so much time hanging out on an island with no parental supervision, AND why no one seems to be concerned about Sora's mother: it's not his mother but rather just someone from the orphanage staff.
    • This is supported by the fact that Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie were all orphans in their own games: Selphie grew up in an orphanage, Wakka's parents were killed by Sin, and Tidus's mother and father are dead and an Eldrich Abomination, respectively.
    • Contrarywise, Riku mentions that Sora's dad is the one who takes them to the small, offshore island on a boat in Birth by Sleep. BbS also confirms that Sora was born on the islands, which means that he at least used to have parents there.
  • When KH2 was first released, a lot of people were pissed that the person we originally thought was Ansem was in fact his apprentice, Xehanort, and that his motivations for studying the darkness seemed to be much more For the Evulz than the Well-Intentioned Extremist we originally pictured him as. Then, in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, we meet Master Xehanort, who appears to be even more of a Card-Carrying Villain, coming across almost as an Expy of Emperor Palpatine. The thing is, Xehanort's characterization is actually pretty consistent throughout the series, even if his appearance and intermediate goals vary from game to game. His interest in darkness and Kingdom Hearts has always been academic, and his reports in Birth By Sleep show that he wasn't always as obsessed with them as he is now, maintaining the He Who Fights Monsters aspect established as far back as the first game. Almost everything we knew about "Ansem" from the first game still applies to Xehanort as he is now, even if the specifics differ.
  • Ever wonder why Sora and Roxas can't hurt Heartless or Nobodies without the Keyblade or magic, yet everyone else is perfectly able to defeat them with their weapons? I wondered that, but then realized that the few times Sora and Roxas wield something other than their Keyblades, it's usually something unfit for combat in the first place (not counting the Casual Gears in 358/2 Days)
  • There's a new bit of Fridge Brilliance for the Master's Characterization of a future full of futility. His Magical Eye is the Eye of Darkness, seen on several keyblades such as in the keychains of the various Foretellers Keyblades, Xehanort's Keyblade (which is also Luxu's), Vanita's Void Gear (which Terra, Ventus and Aqua can use), Terra's Darkgnaw and Chaos Ripper, Riku's Soul Eater and Way to the Dawn, and finally on the End of Pain Keyblade wielded by Sora and Riku. It's said that the Master can see through the eye and it's how he sees into the future. Consider the factor of each wielder of the Keyblades and their stories. They've all experienced some pretty depressing stuff, and in the case of Xehanort he's caused some terrible things! Perhaps the reason the Master sees things as futile is because most of the people who've had the Eye of Darkness about them tend to have generally depressing lives or endings, and in a sense he might also have a moment where he realizes his order for Luxu to pass down his keyblade through the eras would eventually have it land in the hands of someone trying to start the Keyblade War For Science!
  • The terms "Heartless" and "Nobody" are figuratively apt names for what these creatures are, but taken literally are the exact opposite. A "Heartless" is a creature of pure evil that devours hearts, and a "Nobody" is a remnant of what a person once was, a soulless being which is occasionally stated to not actually exist. But they're not Heartless as in "lacking a heart", they're creatures with only a heart. And a Nobody can be read as "no body", but they're only a body.
  • This troper once wondered why after seeing the scene with Namine shattering Repliku's Memories (and thus his heart) and why she didn't try that with the Organization to escape. Then the troper realized, most Nobodies begin as Empty Shell s before they begin regaining their memories. Even if we take into consideration that Nobodies can regrow their hearts, they're still extremely small and thus, barely anything there to manipulate or destroy. Ergo, being a Nobody is basically No-Sell ing Namine's ability.
  • The inclusion of a world based on Herculesnote  is no accident. This is because some of the figures seen in the movie (and of course in Classical Mythology) have also made appearances in the Final Fantasy series, including (at least) Hades, Cerberus, and the Hydra, making them a double (technically triple) reference.
  • Almost all characters with an X-shape on their outfits or design were potential vessels for Xehanort or were considered instrumental to his plans. Riku had an X-shaped strap on his Kingdom Hearts 1 outfit, Sora had X-shaped straps on his 2 and his 3D outfits and The Guardian, who turns out to be Terra's Heartless, had an X-shaped strap of bandages across his face. It's only when they remove the X-shape from their outfits do they become free of Xehanort's influence.
    • Also, while Aqua and Ven had X-shaped straps on their bodies, they had a heart-shaped pendant, making their X's not complete X's, and Ven was only instrumental to Xehanort's plans. Terra was not so lucky because his pendant was not on his X.
    • Taking this further, Xemnas's version of the No Heart Keyblade Armor seen in his boss fight involves several Xs applied to the armor via straps leading from shoulder to shoulder, as if to reflect the fact that he is technically Terra's body, restrained and puppeted by Xehanort's will.
    • Although the Organization's Recusant's Sigil is the X in their names, Xigbar's is inconsequential because he already has an X in his original name, Luxu.
  • When Braig mocks Sora about not being half the Keyblade wielder his predecessors were, it seems odd because Terra, Aqua and Ventus' contributions were less than or equal to Sora's contributions until you realize he might be referring to the Lost Masters and maybe even the Dandelions instead, who he has known and has greater respect for.
  • III gives us a rather horrifying look at how Disney villains can be corrupted into Heartless. We already saw that with Scar, but he kept his usual form (which is concerning for different reasons), but when you look at Sköll and Grim Guardianess, the respective Heartless of Hans and Gothel, it brings up some upsetting implications...

     Regarding characters 
Xehanort and incarnations
  • I started to think about Xehanort and his various main incarnations, and the anagrams formed when you remove the X in his name and I realized each Xehanort embodies a specific anagram to some degree.
    • No Earth- Xehanort's Heartless due to having much more influence from the Original and none from Terra, maybe even no Terra at all given certain implications through the series
    • No Heart- Xemnas for obvious reasons.
    • On Earth- Terra-Xehanort, the first known case of Xehanort's heart encroaching upon another's
    • On Heart- Apprentice Xehanort due to obsession with darkness of heart as well as having the hearts of Terra and Xehanort locked away within this identity near metaphorically stands on heart
    • Another- Young Xehanort because he truly is another Xehanort
    • A Throne- Master Xehanort himself as it is his plans that push the plot forward and our heroes into action, A Throne fits because Master Xehanort is the biggest bad in his saga.
  • Fridge Humor: Why are all the Xehanorts varying shades of Ambiguously Brown? The original Xehanort grew up on a tropical island.

Organization XIII and the Nobodies

  • In the Kingdom Hearts manga, one of the changes made to the story is to give the Organization XIII members quirky little habits; things they do when they're not engaging Sora. Lexaeus fiddles with puzzle rings, Zexion cooks, Larxene reads Marquis De Sade, some of them play Twister, etc. The first time I read it, I thought it was simply an attempt to give them a funny quirk; an amusing, but frankly unnecessary way to make the Organization more like a Quirky Miniboss Squad. Then I played 358/2 Days, and I realized that this totally makes sense! The Organization members don't have hearts; emotions and such are very hard for them, and they don't understand a lot of concepts that we humans take for granted. The "vacation" day brings this into sharp relief. Without any missions to do, Roxas finds it hard to fill a single day without work. He ends up wandering around town before doing the only thing he's ever done to pass time; ice-cream. Axel too; he pretty much just sleeps the whole day away, and Roxas is quoted as saying that he has no idea how humans can remain sane over a month of summer vacation. But back to the manga. In light of that little revelation, it makes sense that the Organization members would have these little habits; they're things that they do simply to kill time. They're probably all things they remember doing as a human, so it's all they really know how to do to pass time.—Enlong
    • In Kingdom Hearts 3d, Xemnas reveals that he was technically lying all along about the whole "nobodies don't have hearts or emotions" thing, wich means that nobodies CAN have hearts and emotions. This means that the quirks and personnalities given to the nobodies in the games and manga are basically foreshadowing this revelation by making them appear more human, thus making ourselves ask: "are these guys really as apathetic and hollow as their reputation makes them out to be?" Seriously, if it wasn't for the black coats, the stock superpowers and you knowing otherwise, you would've definitely mistaken most of them for regular humans.
  • I'd recently finished 358/2 Days, and was thinking about Organization XIII's Sigil Spam of the Nobody symbol. Jokingly I thought that it was because they kept forgetting, and kept needing to be reminded that they're Nobodies in Org XIII. Then it hit me. That that's basically what they're doing. Being Nobodies, they have so little identity left, that they're clinging to the scraps they do have (as evidenced with things like catchphrases in Days). Thus posting the Nobody symbol everywhere is just another way of clinging to their present identity (and to a lesser extent their goal of getting a heart). Brilliant!
  • Why are all of Organization XIII (& Nobodies in general) so mean & nasty, when not having a heart should mean that they are as incapable of Negative Emotions as they are of Positive Ones? It's because the void where their heart was is being filled by the Darkness, creating a Heart made of Darkness in the same way as the Heartless have bodies made of Darkness. It therefore takes a great effort for the being to overcome the negative emotions that the Darkness brings with it (Fear, Anger, Hate) which based on how everyone views them they may not see the point in or even want to do if they were evil to begin with.
    • Nobodies do not have hearts of any sort, darkness or light. They are incapable of any kind of emotion, positive or negative. Some of them act "mean & nasty" because they do have memories of their previous lives, which they can use to act on, as a force of habit. Xemnas and Saix don't even bother with the act. Nobodies cannot be being filled with darkness, because the darkness rejected them just as the light did.
      • Dream Drop Distance seems to give some support to this theory with the revelation that Nobodies naturally develop a new heart over time, though it varies from individual to individual. Xemnas's true intention was to keep them ignorant of their own returning hearts until he could use Kingdom Hearts to make them all empty vessels for Xehanort's will. That's right. His entire plan was to use Kingdom Hearts not to give them hearts, but to STRIP them of the hearts they didn't realize they were regaining.
      • The above revelation makes a certain individual case either Hilarious or Harsher in Hindsight, depending on how you look at it: Demyx's claim of "Aw, we do too have hearts!". It's very possible that he thought he was lying to Sora and co., not knowing that he was telling the Accidental Truth. Or maybe he really believed that he and the other Nobodies did have hearts, turning his line into a Cassandra Truth moment.
      • Oh, it gets better than that. The reveal in Dream Drop Distance about Nobodies actually having hearts? It was already revealed in Chain of Memories. Think about it. Where did Co M say memories were located? And, before the big reveal what did the Nobodies that weren't definitely in the know about Xemnas' plans say in regards to them feeling anything? They had MEMORIES of those emotions! (mind you I always thought that they either had fragments/false hearts, but still hearts nonetheless)

Naminé

  • Namine in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories was hated by portion of the fandom as a Canon Sue trying to usurp Kairi's position. Further in, we learn that's not entirely accurate; Namine IS trying to make Sora forget Kairi by literally supplanting memories of Kairi with memories of herself, but the only reason she's able to mess with Sora's memories and the memories of those who interact with him is because she is actually Kairi's Nobody thanks to having her heart temporarily separated from her body in the first game.
    • Another Fridge Brilliance moment with Namine as well but a rather different one: she seems to be a Canon Sue, but she is in fact a subversion/deconstruction, as she has incredible powers and does manage to get the main character to like her... but this is shown to be a horrible, damaging thing, since she basically has to erase his memories to do so.
  • Why was Namine the only nobody without an X in her name? Because Xehanort only needed XIII vessel and as a result saw no reason to brand her with the Recusant's Sigil.
    • That, and she's a Nobody of a Princess Of Heart - a girl with no darkness whatsoever in her being. In layman's terms, she can't create a Heartless, but she can leave behind the empty shell that is a Nobody. On a similar note, the reason that her name isn't an anagram is because she's not a typical Nobody, since she came from Sora's Heart.

Final Fantasy characters

  • The marked differences in portrayal of Final Fantasy characters between their original games and Kingdom Hearts, such as altered appearances and personalities, mismatched ages and/or simply being from different games, seems like a strange decision until you take into account that this is a Disney game. Square was simply adapting the Final Fantasy series as a whole in the same loose manner Disney adapts theirs.
  • The Sephiroth we see during the series? It's part of Cloud that Sephiroth used to possess and control Cloud through most of Final Fantasy VII. The one that was defeated in the unloseable battle at the end of that game.

Kairi

  • Kairi won't be taking the Mark of Mastery Exam, as she isn't as experienced as Sora or Riku yet.
    • And given that Ven was playable in BBS even though he wasn't taking the exam, Kairi could still be playable.
    • The Stinger now confirms that this was indeed the case, she wasn't experienced enough yet and is now going to go through basic training with Yen Sid in order to reach that level.

     Unsorted 
  • Good God, Larxene's hair. We've all been at least a little annoyed by those antennae, right? Well, given that her power is electricity, it could be argued that she can't get wet at all and has therefore never washed her hair. If that were the case, she'd need to make it so the slicked-back style looked like it was on purpose instead of by necessity. Hence, the stylized antennae.
    • Maybe it's just static electricity making her hair stand up. That's a better thought than that her hair is so unclean it can stand up.
    • Or, you never know, maybe's it's just a regular hairdo in the world of Disney and Square Enix's combined powers of ridiculous 'dos. I mean, Cloud himself is a regular cameo, and Sora's hair isn't exactly realistic, either...
    • She can get wet, just not while she's using her powers. Other than those antennae, her hair actually looks pretty slicked back judging by how uniform it is. She'd probably have to do something to it to keep it that way.
  • Why do you use cards in Castle Oblivion? Because Aqua created Castle Oblivion from the ruins of the Land of Departure as a means to protect Ventus's body. As an attempt to restrict access and mobility, she ordained that no one could act inside Castle Oblivion without the use of cards similar to the command slots she had trained with.
  • About character themes: Ventus and Vanitas' themes are medleys and remixes of Sora's and Roxas' themes, right? However, remember that this game is a prequel. Ventus' theme isn't an expanded remix of Roxas' theme, Roxas' theme is Ventus' theme, stripped of several of it's instruments and notes. Likewise, Ventus' and Vanitas's themes aren't using riffs from Sora's theme, Sora's theme is the '' union'' of their themes. You know what this implies for Sora, guys. Pretty ironic, considering that the part which comes from Vanitas is the cheerful one in Sora's theme.
    • On a similar note, No Heart's battle theme, Forze del Oscurita, is a combination of Forze del Male (Xehanort's Heartless' battle theme) and Darkness of the Unknown (Xemnas' battle theme). No Heart is the discarded keyblade armor of Master Xehanort, who would later be split into Xehanort's Heartless and his nobody, Xemnas. In short, Master Xehanort's battle theme (via keyblade armor) was split apart just as he himself would eventually be. -Brick Buster 90
  • As annoying as it is to wait even longer for Kingdom Hearts III because of Zero Point, Nomura did say that he wanted to tell the story of Mickey's time in the Dark Realm. Aqua's appearance is just a response to her popularity.
  • At first I thought it was odd how in Re Coded Sora didn't have MP and instead it was just a bar that filled up and depleted when it was used. Then it hit me. You're in a datascape. Your abilities are LOADING!
  • At the end of Chain of Memories, Naminé puts Sora to sleep in a pod that resembles a giant lotus bloom. Traditionally, lotus are associated with the concept of rebirth—meaning that Sora was actually experiencing a (re)birth by sleep!
  • The announcement of Birth by Sleep Volume Two in BBS Final Mix annoyed a lot of people, but remember, Nomura said there'd be two games released between Days/BBS/coded and III (he explicitly stated that re:coded wasn't one of the two - quote: "It's like one game's been added"). One is 3D, the other is BBS Vol II. It was always coming. Nomura didn't break a promise - he just kept one that everyone had forgotten! Insert evil laughter here.
  • Ever notice how, in Kingdom Hearts II, you primarily fight Emblem Heartless (the more colorful ones branded with the Hearless emblem that release hearts when killed) and only fight Purebloods (the ones that don't have either of those like Shadows, Neoshadows, Darkballs etc) in large numbers in The World That Never Was? Simple: the Purebloods can't easily get to you! Yen Sid specifically states that the actions in the first game prevented a vast number from pouring into the Realm of Light from the Dark Realm, but he never goes into detail about why there's still so many Heartless in general (heck, you fight an army of them halfway through the game). The Emblem Heartless are running around stealing Hearts and being manufacuted, but the Purebloods have to find a way through from the Dark Realm now! That's why you only fight lots of them in TWTNW: it's easier for them to get through because TWTNW sits on the darker side of the Realm of In-Between (the same applies to Castle Oblivion and possibly The Keyblade Graveyard in Birth by Sleep).
  • Sora, Riku, and Kairi have REALLY disturbing names. So, one thing you need to know about Japanese is that it is utterly choked with homophones. Now, fans seem to think Sora's name is from is Sky, Kairi's is from Sea, and Riku's is from Land... And that's totally valid. But remember what I said about homophones? Riku is a word for land. It is also a word that means "the agony of separations". Kairi is actually the word for Nautical Mile, and this is significant, because it shows that the creators were deliberately aiming for names with double meanings. The other meanings of Kairi are: alienation, dissociation, estrangement, detachment, and beaver. I'm pretty sure the last one is coincidental, as you'll see. Sora is the word for sky. It's kanji is 空. The kanji has another definition: emptiness, blank, vacuum.
    • You know what else means emptiness? Vanitas.
    • Incidentally, "vanitas" is also a term for a particular style of Dutch genre paintings. A vanitas painting is similar to a still life, but somewhere in the painting there will be a part which is dark and dead. This can be such things as a table set for a feast with a piece of decaying food that has insects crawling on it, a bowl of fruit with one rotten piece or a bouquet with a couple of wilted and brittle flowers. This serves as a memento mori, a reminder of the fact that you, the viewer, will die someday. Therefore, Vanitas is not only emptiness, but an omen of death.
    • The first game's tagline mentions 'one sky'. As in, one sky unifying the worlds. Now, say again what Sora's name means?
    • Xehanort's name is also full of those. His name without the X anagrams to No Heart, Another, No Earth (Terra) and A Throne.
  • There's some Fridge Logic here: I finished Re:coded, and I'm starting to wonder...Is it a Sequel Hook for Kingdom Hearts II or Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]? It makes even less sense when the normal ending is one for KH2 and the secret ending is one for KH3D.
    • Speaking of the ending of RE:coded: It's said that Xehanort is back because both his Nobody and Heartless have been killed. That means Organization XIII can come back in future installments. Let The Wild Hunt for your favorite sociopath's Heartless commence! Otherwise, if Nomura wants an easy solution, the bosses from the first game were left unidentified...
    • Care to guess how many Emblem Heartless Bosses there were in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2? 13.
    • That reminds me of something I thought. Xehanort had lead Ansem's five apprentices to giving up their hearts, all of them becoming Heartless. In the first game, the biggest purebloods are Darksides. How many (real) Darksides appear in the game? One in Destiny Islands, one in The End of the World, and three in the Realm of Darkness (the ones Mickey OHKO'd). That makes five...Just some food for thought.
    • In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Aqua's story shows additional Darksides actually (when she sacrifices her armor and Keyblade in order to send Terra-Xehanort back to the realm of the light), so your theory is actually null. Of course, I'm not even counting the Darkside that Roxas and Xion fight in 358/2 Days...
    • Re:Coded takes place between Sora and Riku's return to the islands and the final scene of the epilogue. The final scene in Re:Coded and the final scene of the KH2 epilogue are one and the same, except the former also shows Mickey writing the letter and reveals the contents. The Sequel Hook is for 3D.
  • Another bit of Fridge Brilliance from Days. Why is the fight between Saix and Roxas the only battle between two 'human' characters without any real discussion? Because both of them are Nobodies who are aiming for different things, so there's no way they could change anything by talking to each others.
  • If Sora is holding onto Ven's heart, perhaps Anti-Sora is actually Vanitas?
    • Or heck, even Darkside. It's a good assumption that Vanitas is lodged somewhere in Sora's heart.
  • Why is it that only two of the games has a simple whole number in the name (Kingdom Hearts I by proxy and Kingdom Hearts II by actuality)? They are the only ones where you actually control Sora as a complete being.
    • What about Chain of Memories?
    • He wasn't truly complete; his Nobody was having his own adventure at the time. Due to the uniqueness of Sora's situation, it's difficult to say for sure what he was, but it wasn't whole.
      • My personal guess is, that he was technically a human-form heartless, staying sane on Kairi's light to replace his soul/mind (Which was with Roxas at the time), but that might be a by of a WMG-y stretch...
  • In Days, we find that Xemnas wants to find the room of Castle Oblivion that Ven is in. In the first game, "Ansem" wanted to get into the Dark Realm. Could he have been trying to find Aqua? Terra still has a presense in Xehanort's Heartless.
    • So wait Ansem/ Xehanort's Heartless while trying to get Kingdom Hearts that was in the realm of darkness was also trying to find Aqua. The heck Xemnas is excusable trying to find the room in Castle Oblivion because he seems to be carry more influence from Terra but Xehanort's Heartless would carry more influence from Master Xehanort.
    • They both carry traits from both, Master Xehanort and Terra's hearts are fused together and became Appreticenort's Heartless, Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, while Xehanort's soul and Terra's body became Apprenticnort's Nobody, Xemnas. Terra's soul became the Lingering Sentiment.
      • Master Xehanort is coming back for sure, all three parts of his person (his heart, his body, and his soul) have been released. Now think about Terra a moment. His heart was with Xehanort's Heartless, his body was with Xemnas, and his soul was with the Lingering Sentiment. All three have been defeated/released. Doesn't that mean he will come back too?
      • Lingering Sentiment wasn't released though. After you defeat him in KH 2 FM he pretty much just knees back down and Sora and co leave him there.
      • There's something that kind of puzzles me though. When Lea reawakened as a whole person again, he was in Radiant Garden, the lab where it was implied that his heart was removed. Axel died quite a ways away from there, though. If we go by that logic, perhaps when a person is put back together, it'll happen wherever they were first separated in the first place, and the Lingering Sentiment is still in the same place where Terra lost his body. Perhaps with the defeat of "Ansem" and Xemnas, thus freeing Terra's heart and body, they'll return to where the Lingering Sentiment is and Terra will become whole again, armor and all?
  • In Days and Kingdom Hearts II, Beast is depressed because of Xaldin. That's because he was more succeptable to darkness after the first game. Corridors of Darkness make the users heart susceptable to darkness without protection.
  • This hit like a ton of bricks. Terra and Riku share many similarities right? Both are named for the earth in some way. Both are the big brother of their group. Both relie on power more than their friends. They also were body-jacked by the same being in two different states of bodilessness.They also have one more similarity:
    • Remember how at the end of Birth By Sleep that the talk Terra and Xehanort have in the heart that Terra is harboring Eraqus within him. Okay heres the fun part, Riku was possessed by the heartless of the Xehanort created when Master Xehanort possessed Terra, a two for one heartless if you will, and when the encoded blew up kingdom hearts at World that Never Was he was purged of darkness, keep in mind that Terra's heart was not purely darkness. The similarities shown may implie the location of Terra is within Riku.
    • Something I realized after playing DDD: For all their similarities, Riku did what Terra could not. He became a Keyblade Master in spite of (or perhaps because of) the darkness in his heart. The difference between them is Riku accepted his inner darkness and learned to work with it instead of constantly trying to fight it. Riku's attitude is also completely different. Instead of being angry and lashing out with darkness like Terra, Riku is actively trying to make amends for what he did when he gave into darkness and humbly agreeing to the Mark of Mastery exam precisely because he feels unworthy. With the above theory in mind, Terra is starting to fulfill his promise to make things right working through Riku.
      • In Terra's defense his master never supported his affinity for darkness (and in fact used it as a reason why he shouldn't be a master), while Riku had Mickey who saw potential in working with the darkness instead of against it. So their attitudes were affected by their masters.
    • They both also have the Resucant's Sigil, the X on their chests.
  • Riku handing Kairi an extra keyblade is weird at first even with the explaination in Birth By Sleep implying that Aqua preform an unintentional keyblade inheritance ceremony with her because it make you wonder where he got the keychain for the Destiny's Embrace. When you think about Signs of What's Next(the secret ending from Re:Coded) Mickey says their close to finding out where Ven's heart is while Yen Sid mentions only Terra remains to be found, meaning they already found Aqua and if that's the case then maybe it was Riku that found her since chronologically speaking Aqua would have had the Destiny's Embrace Keychain. All in all it make one wonder if Nomura had that planned out in his head.
    • Fragmentary Passage reveals that while Riku didn't find Aqua, Mickey did. Specifically when he was closing the Door to Kingdom Hearts (at the end of the first game). It's highly possible that Aqua gave it to Mickey who handed it off to Riku to pass on to Kairi.
  • This one is fairly simple, but hard to notice due to mislabeling. Axel's chakrams are actually more like Chinese Wind and Fire Wheels. Axel's power is fire, and is friends with Roxas, the nobody of Sora/Ventus, who would most accurately be represented by Wind.
  • The stations in Sora's awakening in Kingdom Hearts 1 had the princesses in the order of which one Ven visited first but the colour of the station also shows which world Terra Aqua Ven showed up to first. Ven travelled to Dwarf Woodsland leads to Snow White's station being in green tones, Aqua went to Castle of Dreams first the station for Cinderella is blueish, Terra first went to Enchanted Dominion and so Aurora's station ended up red, no one noticed before because those colours also match the princess involved.
  • In Bb S, the Unknown battle is, according to Word of God, canonical. It doesn't make a lot of sense, since the first time around you can't fight the Unknown, only on your subsequent playthroughs. It does make sense if you consider a possible time travel.
    • Plus, look at his blades. They have a symbol - something between a heart and an infinite symbol.
      • They also resemble traditional clock hands◊
      • If you're really dying to know who it is, listen to this(until 1:15) then this (until 1:05). Will be a bit spoilerly for those who have not played Dream Drop Distance.
  • You know that scene in BbS where Lea picks up Ventus' wooden keyblade and gives it a few swings? Well, twelve years and a whole lot of crap later, he gets a keyblade for real. Nicely foreshadowed, Nomura.
  • So why is it that Data-Roxas is torturing Data-Sora about losing memories in Castle Oblivion? It's because Roxas lost his memory of Xion. Even in the ending of 358/2 Days we can clearly see that Roxas remembers Xion to some extent, and Riku mocks him for it, so it's very likely that he wanted Sora to feel the absolute pain of remembering that there was someone so close to you but not being able to remember their face, name, or why they were so close to you.
  • In the White Room of the Old Mansion in Twilight Town (during KHII), one of Namine's drawings depicts four figures: two of them are obviously Roxas and Axel, but who are the other two? Perhaps Riku and Xion, drawn before the Ret-Gone?
  • Has any of you seen how Roxas and Naminé get on at both the prologue and the ending of Kingdom Hearts II? It´s almost like they are in love. But then, I realized that they actually are in love. Roxas got Sora´s memories, ALL of them. So, who could say that he didn´t get the memories from COM in which Sora´s memories get wiped and he starts believing that he loves Naminé. We all know how the subconscious plays tricks on us, right? Well, Roxas has memories of Sora falling in love with Naminé, but he can´t remember them. However as Naminé puts it, the memories don´t dissappear, they are just disconnected. This way, when he meets Naminé, he is actually remembering loving her, and that is how he falls in love so quickly.
    • Actually, no. 358/2 Days takes place before, concurrently with, and after Co M. At first Roxas can't emote because he has no memories with which to base them on (or, going with 3D's 'Nobodies have hearts' thing, he wasn't used to his heart, or whatever.) Sora went through Castle Oblivion around 358/2 Days's midpoint time-wise, as Marluxia, Larxene, Zexion, Lexaeus, and Vexen show up in Days (You get trained by Lexaeus, and Vexen created Xion), before they get sent to Castle Oblivion. After Co M happens, Axel does mention his 'cleanup' there in Days. The first time Roxas and Naminé could ever meet was in the White Room in data-Twilight Town, and even then, Roxas might not even feel anything at all towards her, because he never got Sora's memories (remember, Sora had all his memories once he got unShadowed in 1). Unless it was deep memory of Xion, there is no way Roxas or Naminé could be in love in II's prologue.
  • Let's look at the Magic systems throughout the KH series. KH1 Sora has to use large amounts of mana to do anything powerful with his Keyblade. The only way to replenish this power is through direct contact either from or against the enemy. Mana is stored through his rage and frustration, which is something an inexperienced fighter would do to gain power (even somewhat lampshaded by the MP Rage ability). KH2 Sora still uses mana to perform spells, but when depleted, Sora's magic recharges by itself. Being more skilled with the Keyblade, Sora is more experienced with his magic as well, being able to concentrate to recover his mana. Then Birth by Sleep comes along with our three formally trained Keyblade Warriors. Having way more experience than Sora in his KH2 state, TAV can use techniques with more freedom than Sora, only needing to recharge the mana for that particular attack. When fighting Xehanort and Eraqus, actual masters, they use magic and special techniques without restraint. Later on, in Re:Coded, Data Sora's system is like BBS. Its brilliant since he's a program and is constantly reloading his moves. And in DDD, Sora and Riku are more or less on the same bar as Terra, Aqua, and Ventus, so of course they can use their attacks with more freedom.
    • Days shows that Nobodies have a much more impersonal approach: they use magic as ammo. In fact, the customization system resembles that of BBS, but without a D-Link\/Combination Attack\/The Power of Friendship mechanic.
    • The reason Nobody magic works differently from everyone else's is also simple: let's assume that the spells that most of the cast use is "flavored" light, with particularly pure (like Minnie, Ventus, or any of the Princesses of Heart) or strong (like Mickey and Eraqus) magic users capable of manipulating light directly, and a handful of people (i.e. Xehanort, Terra, and Riku) using darkness as a substitute. Nobodies don't have hearts (or rather, don't have strong enough hearts) to replenish that light or darkness when it's used, forcing them to store the energy for their spells separately.
  • More like Fridge Hilarity, but I just noticed: Saïx's weapon is a giant Claymore . He is also the seventh member of the Organization. Now, which game is best known for having a protagonist with weird hair, a deep voice and a ridiculously large sword?
  • Heartless have hearts but no bodies and Nobodies have bodies but no hearts. At first glance it seems like the two should be reversed, but think of it like is: a heartless is someones heart that has succumbed to darkness, when a person called a heartless in real-life it means that they are acting cruel or acting on darkness. Likewise with nobodies, when a person feels like a nobody they feel empty or nonexistent. Figurative genius.
  • Isa and Lea were friends before the became nobodies. In Days, the friendship between Axel and Saix fades, until they utterly hate each other in KHII. Well, that sort of thing just happens, but once you consider the revelations in DDD it becomes an utterly horrible Tear Jerker. It is confirmed that Xehanort possessed Saix, and turned him into another Xehanort clone, of sorts. Saix has yellow eyes, which indicates the presence of strong darkness, which implies he was already becoming increasingly Xehanort-like, while entirely unaware that his identity is being overwritten, all through Days and KHII And that's why they stopped being friends. If you look at the secret reports in Days Axel's reason for them drifting apart was "you've changed, not me.", in reply to Saix saying he was different. And it turns out he was absolutely right...
    • Even further tearjerker when you realize Xemnas probably made Saix second-in-command even though he is only number 7 because it's revealed in DDD that Nobodies can regenerate new hearts after the person has lost theirs. What's a heart made of? Memories and the people you share them with. Saix and Axel being the only known former-friends in the Organization, Xemnas kept him so close to his side and gave him so many duties to keep him away from Axel in fear of him regaining his heart through bonding with his old friend. Further demonstrated by making him number II (although Xigbar kept the title), as opposed to number VII, next to Axel, number VIII.
  • A Fridge Brilliance argument for Luxord: His ability is "Time", which, in all regards, be it Hasting things up, Slowing them down or Stopping them alltogether, is a pretty damn overpowered ability, as has been demonstrated time and time again (heh). Yet Luxord himself is really no big deal in battle, only using his power to turn himself into a Time-Limit Boss... Keep in mind now that Luxord is a gambler, and he isn't the cheating kind, either; even when he and his Nobodies are putting their lives on the line they actually play by the rules they set up. Go ahead and ask yourself now: Would a proper gambler like Luxord really bring a game breaking power into the fold?
    • You know who else has power over time? Young Xehanort. And he does not play fair with it at all. That his existence also explains where Luxord's time powers come from is even more worrying.
  • Kingdom Hearts III was recently announced at the time of this writing. The trailer featured Sora picking up Master Eraqus' keyblade on the beach of Destiny Island. Now think, why would the trailer show that? It doesn't make sense for it to be a literal event at this stage, so it must be symbolic. But symbolic of what? Master Eraqus was a massive fan of light, believing it to be an absolute. The very first time we saw him, he was overseeing the Mark of Mastery exam. The last time we saw his keyblade, it was in Aqua's possession. Aqua, who is in need of rescuing like many other characters. Put it all together and you have the plot of Kingdom Hearts 3. Sora will head off from Destiny Islands to save his friends and gather the 7 lights while on a personal journey to become a keyblade Master.
    • I figured it was because the similarities and differences between Kairi and Aqua. Think about it Kairi sent the letter in a bottle to Sora from Destiny islands which found him at the Dark Meridian, while the last person to have to have the Master Keeper was Aqua who was at the Dark Meridian last we saw her, the keyblade being washed up at Destiny Islands. Heres the brilliance Kairi and Aqua both have water themed names while the Letter and Master Keeper were washed up on shore. Also given what we know of Ven's fate it adds even more brillance.
      • Both items were also found at a beach. The Letter in the dark realm's beach and the Master Keeper at Destiny Islands. What is a beach but where the Land(Riku, Terra) Sea(Kairi, Aqua) and Sky(Sora, Ven) meet. Another thing commonly seen in a beach scene is the Sun(Lea) which at such a location may rise and set at either land or sea but transverse the sky. Count the characters mentioned.
    • It could also have been Sora getting his own Keyblade, seeing as the Kingdom Key was supposed to be Riku's and Riku picks it up at the end of Dream Drop Distance.
      • Actually Sora still has the Kingdom Key as he uses it in the ending to go back to the Dream Worlds
  • In Birth By Sleep, Lea says something along the lines of "I want to befriend as many people as possible because in their memories, I can live forever." Now, what's his (and Axel's) catchphrase? "Got it memorized?" or "Commit it to memory." He's constantly trying to make sure that people remember him, because he really does want to live on in their memories! And what game did Axel debut in? Chain of Memories. And then in the prologue of Kingdom Hearts II, Axel was afraid that Roxas didn't remember him, was elated when he thought that Roxas did, and angry when Roxas tried to fake it again. Remembrance seems to be a theme with Lea and Axel.
  • Chernobog is always associated with Xehanort whenever he appears, fighting SDG in The End of the World and being summoned by his younger version to fight Riku, and one wonders why. Then you realize that Chernobog is the Slavic God of darkness, so of course he'd be associated with the man who brought darkness across the multiverse.
  • Fridge Brilliance why does Sora's Keyblade the Kingdom Key look the way it does because it's based off of the Dream Sword a basic no frills sword while the Kingdom Key is a basic no frills skeleton key.
  • Axel has two teardrop-shaped tattoos under his eyes. In Real Life, in the American prison system teardrop tattoos on your face mean that you have murdered somebody, one tattoo for each person you've killed. Now let's remember what happened to Vexen and Zexion...
    • Except he had them even before then.
    • Going along with this, remember what happens in 3D when Lea wakes up and the tattoos are no longer on his face. Axel's crimes have been forgiven.
      • Not only that, but killing Vexen and Zexion merely brought them back as their original selves, Even and Ienzo, as well as sparing them from becoming Xehanort hosts like how Saix and Xigbar ended up. All things considered, Axel did them a favor.
  • Captain Hook in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories has a reputation for being That One Boss. Consider that in the first game, you put him through a Humiliation Conga... no wonder he doesn't show any mercy on you: He wants REVENGE, and not just on Sora- he wants to see you nearly throw your controller or Game Boy Advance against the wall.
    • Heck, considering that ten years before Sora beat him up, Ventus also beat him up (and hit him with every status in the book except Mini.) so no wonder Hook really wants revenge against those pesky keybladers.
  • It used to seem weird to me that the worlds are so tiny, sometimes only containing one town and a little bit of surrounding land. It makes sense, however, when you consider that, before the Keyblade War, all the worlds were once one unified world. With that in mind, places like Twilight Town and Halloween Town and Destiny Islands were all probably actual towns and cities that made up a larger planet. It would be like if Earth magically fractured and suddenly New York, London, Tokyo, Mumbai, Lagos, etc. became their own unique mini-worlds.
  • In KH re:coded, the final level, Castle Oblivion, is sligthly different than its first appearance, namely it doesn't fully replicate the worlds it imitates, instead displaying characters and random images in its white halls. But think about it: nobody but Naminé remembers what Castle Oblivion is supposed to look like, and Naminé hid it inside Jiminy's journal. It's a watered-down version.
  • Nobodies are treated in the games as non existant beings.... Who was the one who started this notion? Xehanort! His reasons? It was because of a belief that a person can't exist in 2 different places at the same time. This seems hypocritical considering that Vanitas is a second Ven made from half of his Darkness until you listen to Xehanort's words when creating Vanitas ("Empty creature from Ventus riven... to you, the name Vanitas shall be given.") He's declaring Vanitas to be made of Nothingness just as he does the Nobodies! With this in mind it should be obvious that Nobodies exist just as much as Heartless and Vanitas does and that everyone including Xehanort's enemies have bought into his bias of them not existing and in all likelyhood they would most likely question that bias if they knew that it extended to a being made of Darkness rather than Twilight like the more powerful Nobodies are composed of or the mysterious energy lesser Nobodies are composed of that Xemnas uses that everyone calls Nothingness. With this in mind it leads one to question what that "Nothingness" energy considered stronger than Darkness by the Princesses of Hearts really is...
  • Good, Sora, you've taken off the X, the Recusant's Sigil off your chest in the KH3 trailer. However, it's all over your wrists, your pants, and the rest of your clothing...
    • Look closer! Not a single X to be seen, as of some of the newer trailers.
  • Fridge Horror: What exactly do Riku and Sora's parents think happened to them for TWO YEARS?!
    • And some extra, Sora's parents didn't even remember his existence for a YEAR. Must have been an interesting day when Namine got to fixing their memories.
      • Throwing on yet another, what if they were spared the worry of their missing children... because they were turned into Heartless when Destiny Islands was destroyed? It wouldn't have been until Sora defeated Xemnas that they could have come back from being Nobodies, which is just as horrific, as Sora would have had to destroy them at some point.
  • Fridge Horror: Every sentient and sapient being has a heart. With seven exceptions, every heart contains darkness. When the darkness becomes to much, a Heartless is created. That means every single character in this series is a potential Eldritch Abomination waiting to get loose. If knowing that everyone you know could potentially lose their minds and try to kill you isn't terrifying, then I don't know what is.
  • Here's abit of Fridge Brilliance, Fridge Logic mixed in with Fridge Horror and Wild Mass Guessing. In Kingdom Hearts 1, the Keyblade of People's Hearts was made from the Hearts of the Princesses of Heart. In DDD, we learn that the 7 shards of light from the X-Blade became the Princesses's Hearts. Ergo, the Keyblade of People's Hearts is actually the light half of the X-Blade. The part where the Fridge Logic, Fridge Horror and finally Wild Mass Guessing takes place is that the 13 shards of Darkness from the X-Blade isn't mentioned. What if there's 13 people in the Kingdom Hearts worlds with hearts of pure Darkness? Furthermore, if they exist, could there be a Sequel Hook outside of the Xehanort saga of them going to their full potential?
  • Here's something I noticed, though it's probably nothing. Sora's hair color in KH 1 is a light/normal brown, while in KH 2, it seems to be between brown and blonde, before turning dark brown in KH3 (as I've seen so far). We know that in KH 1 and 2 Sora's holding Ventus's heart, and in 2 he's also holding Roxas's heart. As it's been shown that hearts affect hair color (one of the telltale signs of a Xehanort vessel is this), could it be that his hair color turns blonde/brown in 2 because he's holding both Ventus's and Roxas's hearts (they're both blonde), and the reason his hair is dark brown in 3 is that they are no longer within his heart?
  • The opening of Re:coded, which recaps the events of previous games, is depicted quite inconsistently; some scenes are skipped, while others are obscured by Matrix Raining Code. However, if you pay attention, you can pinpoint what causes them to "go wrong", and deduce that they are all actually visual representations of Sora's memories:
    • The brief scenes showing the Birth by Sleep trio, Terra, Ventus, and Aqua, are heavily grained and shown only split second. Sora was never properly acquainted with the trio, and those are possibly impressions left by his heart's connection with Ventus', which in turn connects him with Terra's and Aqua's.
    • The scenes from the first game are initially depicted normally, but start to be obscured by the Matrix Raining Code from Hollow Bastion onward. Sora sacrificed himself to save Kairi in Hollow Bastion, causing the birth of his Nobody, Roxas, who remained separate even after he was brought back as a human. The codes symbolize the fact that Sora was incomplete throughout the duration of Roxas' existence, and the memories were the hardest for Naminé to reconstruct because they were shared by another person. The codes rain down heavier when it gets to Chain of Memories, before skipping it over completely from the moment Sora, Donald and Goofy enter Castle Oblivion to the moment when Roxas merges back with Sora, because Naminé made Sora forget those memories.
    • 358/2 Days is almost completely skipped over, with a split second of Roxas cradling a dying Xion and a brief mugshot of Axel. Much like Birth by Sleep, Sora did not experience the events of Days, and it's possibly an impression left by Roxas' connection with him.
    • The events of II, by contrast, are depicted crystal clear in their entirety. Not only they were Sora's most recent experiences, nobody tampered with his memory anymore.
  • Kingdom Heart IV features Quadratum, a world where reality is fiction and vice versa. What does 'quadra' mean? Four. It's on the other side of the fourth wall.
  • Kingdom hearts created the worlds but what or who created the original Kingdom hearts. If a being created Kingdom hearts is it still benevolent or does it seek to restart everything.
  • Darksides are very dangerous Heartless. No, really. The one that fights Sora on the Destiny Islands wasn't actually defeated by him; Sora just managed to delay his defeat until the islands were completely destroyed. I mean, think about it. The very first Darkside Sora fights handed his ass to him and from that point on, Darksides are fought only very late in the game with few exceptions.
    • The one from 358/2 Days is actually able to knock Roxas out and it was only defeated because Xion managed to take it by surprise with her own Keyblade.
    • The one from Coded has three different phases and Sora's Heartless actually takes the form of one.

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