王国之心系列故事与传说讨论

With the recent release of KINGDOM HEARTS Collection [I～III], I felt it would be appropriate to have a story and lore discussion thread. This is specifically for people to ask questions about lore and story beats they are confused about. Obviously spoilers will be unmarked and speculation will be allowed as well for newcomers browse at your own peril.

Please note: it is a thread for real questions and NOT a thread to be a dick about the story being convoluted or stupid or to field your complaints about Nomura's writing/Kingdom Hearts being nonsensical. This is not a vent thread.

That being said, there's no such thing as a dumb question and shaming people for misunderstanding story beats is not welcome.

To get us started, I've put together a little FAQ.

- What actually is Kingdom Hearts?
Kingdom Hearts is heart of all worlds, and the source of ultimate power and wisdom. According to Xehanort, one who opens the door to Kingdom Hearts will be able to destroy the current universe and create a new universe shaped any way that they desire. This person would be "reborn as something far greater than human", and also gain "control over all worlds and all people". It appears as a heart shaped moon.

- Is there a difference between the blue Kingdom Hearts and the yellow Kingdom Hearts?
Fundamentally no. There have actually been four manifestations of Kingdom Hearts we've seen so far.

There's the Kingdom Hearts of Worlds' Hearts in the Realm of Darkness, seen as a dark silhouette behind the Door to Darkness at the end of KH1. There's the Kingdom Hearts of People's Hearts in The World That Never Was in KH2. It manifests as a yellow heart-shaped moon with a dark blue aura. This version also appears at the Keyblade Graveyard at the end of KHχ during the second Keyblade War as a pale blue moon. There's the Kingdom Hearts of the incomplete χ-blade in BBS, called when a being of pure light clashes with a being of pure darkness. It's also a pale blue moon. And lastly, True Kingdom Hearts is in KH3 and it's summoned after Xehanort forms the χ-blade from the clash of thirteen darknesses and seven lights. This version is also yellow.

- What is the power of waking?
The power to return sleeping hearts to their proper state. In KH3, Sora uses it in circumstances that go beyond its intended application which is why he's currently blipped out of existence.

- How does someone become a Keyblade wielder?
By having a sufficiently strong heart and being chosen my the Keyblade.

Keyblade wielders can also be chosen via a Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony. This involves touching the keyblade of a wielder of sufficient power akin to that of a Keyblade master and has been shown twice in the series thus far: first intentionally by Terra performing the ceremony with young Riku on Destiny Islands and a second time unintentionally when young Kairi touched Aqua's keyblade when the latter was protected the former.

- So Riku got his from Terra, and Kairi got hers from Aqua. Did Sora get his from Ventus being in his heart?
Actually no. That keyblade was intended for Riku (note that it matches KH1 Riku's color scheme). As Destiny Islands was falling into darkness, Sora briefly touched Riku's light and the keyblade, seeing the strength of his heart, chose Sora as its new wielder.

- How does time travel work?
We've seen two versions thus far. There's heart-displacement time travel as seen in 3D, in which you leave your body behind, can only travel to where a version of yourself exists, and can't rewrite events that are destined to happen. The second is via lifeboat as seen in Union χ, which can send a heart (or one's whole self) forward through time permanently.

It's worth noting that Sora did not time travel with the power of waking in KH3. As per Nomura, the power of awakening put his friends' fading hearts back as they were, which "rewrote reality and created a singularity," making the timeline where they died have "never happened".

- Why can Roxas use two keyblades?
He is borrowing one keyblade from Sora as his nobody and a second one from Ventus. He awakened this power after fighting Xion.

- Where are the 13 True Darknesses?
One was trapped in Ventus as Vanitas, five are in the Foretellers, one each is in Luxu and the Master of Masters, four were trapped in the Data Daybreak Town when your Player character "dies", and one has their whereabouts unknown.

- What are the realms in Kingdom Hearts?
There's the Realm of Light. Most games take place here and virtually all the keyblades are from here. There's the Realm of Darkness. The only known keyblade from this realm is the Kingdom Key D. And lastly, there's the Realm Between which is neither light nor dark. There are no known keyblades of this realm yet and worlds in this realm tend to have special specific purposes, such as Traverse Town being a haven for people's whose world fell to darkness.

Aside from that there are also Sleeping Worlds, which are fallen worlds not restored after Ansem, Seeker of Darkness was defeated, there are Datascapes where worlds are recreated with data as seen in Coded, the Limit Episode of KH3, and the Tron world, and there's the Other Side or Unreality which will be elaborated presumably in KH4.

- Who is Strelitzia?
She's from Union χ. She's the little sister of Laurium (the original form of Marluxia) and one of the ones chosen to become a new Union leader after the Second Keyblade War. She was killed by a possessed Ventus before the War began. Yes, that Ventus.

- Who is Vali?
He's from Dark Road. He's one of the upperclassmen of Eraqus and Xehanort that went missing during the Mark of Mastery exam. He is eventually killed by Baldr's darkness manifested as the Hringhorn. Presumably we'll learn more about him in the Kingdom Hearts anime, since the character silhouette on the teaser very closely resembles that of his classmate Helgi.

- Who is Sigurd?
Wish I could tell you. He briefly appears in the epilogue of Union χ to greet Brain at Scala ad Caelum and is also featured in the (leaked) opening of Missing-Link, but seeing as most of the other Keyblade wielders in Quadratum are suffering from critical existence failure, it's likely things were going to go poorly for Sigurd.