I remember one day in 2002 when I was 8 years old, I went over to my cousin’s house. Down in the basement, she was playing this strange game on her PlayStation 2. I instantly recognized Donald and Goofy, but couldn’t tell who the person she was playing as was. Little did I know that that day would bring me a love (17 years and counting) of the Kingdom Hearts franchise. From then on, we got the games as a family and enjoyed watching while one person played. Some of my fondest memories come from it. From having my siblings watch my health while I fought Sephiroth or agonizing over having to watch a particular cutscene over and over again because I kept losing against Riku, the whole game was a sheer delight.
Now many years later, we’re finally getting the third installment, and I couldn’t be more excited. Kingdom Hearts has been a lot to not only me but the entire fandom. It’s given hope, laughter, and a few eye-rolls over the years. While we eagerly await the last few days before the third game’s release, it’s fun to go through the games again. Even though they don’t always make sense- especially since they don’t make sense. You see, even though fans love the franchise, it’s not exactly for stellar storytelling. There are a lot of important parts that don’t make sense, and the rules are thrown out the window very early on. Even so, we love it.
The “Fake” Twilight Town Has Some Big Incosistencies
During the first bit of Kingdom Hearts 2, you play as Roxas hanging out with his friends. One of the side missions you need to do is look at mysterious happenings around town. Most of them are easily explained away due to the fact that the whole of Roxas’s Twilight Town is fake. There is one bit though that doesn’t make sense- the alleyway where you have to dodge the balls. It wouldn’t make sense for Namine to make it a reality, and there’s no explanation as to why or how they come out of the walls.
No One Is Concerned About A Space Whale?
If you ask me, the most confusing world to get around in was Monstro. Not only were the portals too similar to figure out which was which, each room turned you around and changed your perspective. Needless to say, it was one of my least favorite places in the first game.
But then you have to wonder- how on earth did Monstro become his own world? When Pinocchio’s world was taken over, did he find some way to escape? Has he always been able to survive the vacuum of space?
How Does Maleficent Keep Coming Back?
Maleficent was a force to be reckoned with in the first game, but she somehow made an appearance in the sequel. The game gives no hint as to how she arose from the cloak- a cloak which disappeared after Sora defeated her. Her raven isn’t shown to have magic powers, and I don’t think anyone could trust Pete with a task like bringing her back. The organization wouldn’t have, as Maleficent was shown to help Sora to stop them from reaching their goal. It’s a mystery lost to time.
Riku Sure Changed Sides Quickly
Now before you start going on about how Riku’s desire to wake up Kairi caused him to blindly follow Maleficent, here’s the question I’d like to ask. Why does he view Sora’s new friendship to Donald and Goofy as a betrayal? Certainly, they had other goals, but out of Riku and Sora, Riku was always the more logical one, prone to thought rather than action. While I know that Maleficent’s word held some sway over him, I can’t help but think that there must have been some other magic at hand to make Riku turn that quickly.
Art by Nick-Ian.
Why Is Alice A Princess Of Heart?
Of all of the princesses of heart, the one that has baffled me the most has always been Alice. Practically every other princess of heart is royalty of some sort. Out of all of the princesses available in the Pantheon of Disney characters, they somehow decided Alice was a good choice.
She wasn’t really portrayed to be pure in heart. In fact, she could be seen as mischievous at best. Maybe it was because they didn’t expect to do a sequel, maybe it was an excuse to go to Wonderland as a world.
Why Exactly Did Sora’s Keyblade Vanish?
Now that we’ve had some other games to explain “keyblade things,” like why Sora and Roxas can dual wield, or why Riku can wield at all, it’s time to get down to why Sora lost the ability when in the depths of Hollow Bastion. There are arguments that it was because Riku’s heart was stronger, or that he was originally supposed to be the chosen one, not Sora. But none of these have been confirmed as the reason why Sora lost his keyblade. It just made the next section of the game super annoying.
How Far Could A Raft Even Carry Them?
The tutorial at the beginning of the game tells you that Sora, Riku, and Kairi are planning a way to get off the island. Their bright idea is a raft. It wouldn’t be a bad idea if we knew that the world was large enough to contain more than one town.
A raft would only carry our heroes so far.
Most of the worlds we visit only really contain a certain space. As far as we know, that’s the whole world. But if you think that’s bad, wait until you see what else could have gone terribly wrong for them.
The Supplies You Collect For The Trip Are Pitiful
As part of your tutorial, you are required to collect supplies for the upcoming raft trip. Among items required are three fish, three bottles of water, and one seagull egg. I don’t know about you, but that sounds like around a day’s worth of food for three people. Perhaps they didn’t think it would take too long to find new land, but given that we know they’ve been to school, you’d think they not only would know their world’s geography, but also to over-prepare.
Riku Finally Learns To Be Prepared
After realizing he was incredibly ill-prepared for a raft trip that never happened, I guess Riku decided to be better next time. In one of the trailers for the third game, we see Mickey and Riku about to head out. What’s interesting though is the fact that they’re both yielding suitcases. None of the characters have ever had to worry about changing clothes or packing anything extra. Why start now? Perhaps more importantly, a good question to ask here is where that suitcase will be staying for the entirety of the game.
What Exactly Is Kingdom Hearts?
Despite being the game’s namesake, there isn’t really any solid information as to what Kingdom Hearts is or what it can do. It has served a few different purposes in each of the games, and is mentioned several times.
What does Kingdom Hearts do?
But because of this inconsistency, there really isn’t any way to know what it does for certain. Is it a tool? An ultimate power source? A plot device? It can be anything it wants to be at this point. You go, heart-shaped moon.
Where Are The Union Leaders?
I recently bought a copy of the game that includes Back Cover. I wanted to catch up on everything, so ended up watching the movie. It was decent enough, but something that made no sense is why the master wouldn’t tell everyone the roles he gave to each union leader. It not only would have saved time, but it also would have saved the trouble that came with the intrigue and work in the dark by the leaders. I can only hope the third game will finally answer the questions that arose because of it.
art by ShiylaKirisame
At Least Send Your Mother A Postcard
In the game’s timeline, it’s probably been about 3 or 4 years since the beginning of the first game. As far as Sora’s concerned, everything is fine and he’s coming into his own. Things may not be quite as rosy at home, though. We know Sora has a mother who seems to care for her son. But in the time he’s been gone, she not only had her memory of him wiped and replaced, but also no clue as to where he is or any way to get a hold of him. I can’t imagine her grief.
Art by Flamesalvo.
How Exactly Was Namine Born?
When nobodies were introduced, the rules to their creation were laid out pretty clearly. A heartless is required in order for a nobody’s birth. But one person breaks the laws on this subject: Namine.
How was Namine born?
She was created because of some gobbeldy-gook with Kairi’s heart joining Sora’s. Kairi never turned into a heartless. Her body was kept by Maleficent and Riku the entire first game. It kind of explains her powers, but not much else. Still, she’s my favorite, so I’ll overlook it.
Where Are All Those Keychains Stored?
I get that each of the keyblades has a special keychain and are large enough to use as a tool. But does that mean they can revert to just that size when not in use? After all, you’ve amassed quite the collection at the end of the game. It’s hard to believe the trunk of the gummi ship is just filled to the brim with all of the clutter gathered on their journey. I get that this is a game and you have to have some suspension of belief. But give us something.
Art by keixell.
How Do Letters Reach Other Worlds?
One of the biggest things that gets stressed in the first game is the fact that there is a border between the worlds that needs to be kept at all times. However, a lot of people send notes between worlds throughout the game and it isn’t told how they get from point A to point B.
How do letters travel the universe?
Perhaps Mickey uses his magic (the same could probably be said of the letter Leon gets at the end of the second game). But if they’re using magic, why use a written letter?
The Mystery Of Yen Sid
In the same vein as the last entry, the world borders prevent people from mingling. So how on earth did Mickey and Master Yen Sid meet up? If Mickey had been spending time ruling his kingdom with its over-sized doors and Yen Sid was sitting in his tower, there wouldn’t be much reason for the two to meet. Once again, it seems like Mickey is breaking rules all over the place. I suppose he can because Disney owns practically everything, but who knew their reach went all over the universe?
Riku’s Strange Outfit And Attitude Change
Riku is probably a better-developed character than Sora and could arguably be a better protagonist. One of the many things I don’t understand about him though is how he has access to a form that looks like Ansem. He takes it after being defeated by Roxas and only turns back ‘because he defeated the darkness’ inside of him. But how did he know he could do it? What purpose did it really serve? It’s a nice turn of events but hardly makes sense.
An Unknown Destination
At the beginning of the game, Riku and Mickey seemingly get caught behind the door to darkness in order to stop the oncoming of heartless. What we saw through the crack was our first glimpse of it.
What is the realm of darkness?
We get to see more of it as the games go on, but it’s completely different. We have to wonder then: is it a different realm of darkness, or was there more to see? That’s what I’d wager, but with these games, you never know.
Why Didn’t Mickey Check On Kairi?
Mickey is the one who helped escort Kairi away from Radiant Gardens during Birth By Sleep. Because of this, he knows where she would be in case they ever needed to protect her from the world’s lights blinking out. Mickey was one of the first to look into it, so you think he would have checked on her, first things first. But the game’s gotta have a story, I suppose. If Kairi hadn’t merged hearts with Sora, who knows what would have happened.
What’s Up With All The Sora Clones?
It seems that we get some sort of new ‘Sora clone’ with every few games. At first, it was Xion, and then Vanitas. While there are story reasons why they are so connected with Sora, it’s all either incredibly inconvenient or an odd line of happenings. The creation of Vanitas especially gets very convoluted and depends on a lot of things going exactly to plan. They are loosely connected, Sora and Vanitas. That is what doesn’t make sense. Why does Sora have to be connected to everyone in some way?
