Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep/Headscratchers

• Slightly confused as to the memories of the Power Trio. Ven's lost all of his memories before the Land of Departure due to MX forcibly extracting all of the darkness from his heart and his recovery of said memories is a major plot point. However, Aqua says in the prologue that Ven's always lived there with her and Terra, and he agrees. But later Terra flashbacks to when she and him met Ven for the first time, so she must've known that wasn't true. Was she lying? Or did someone make her believe it was true?
  • She was lying. Likely to make Ven feel at home, or because she guessed that the amnesia was likely caused by trauma.
• Considering Lea was friends with Ven, what does that mean for Axel and Roxas's friendship?
  • It was Axel acting out what he remembered of his life with a heart?
  • It was Axel projecting Ven onto Roxas? After all, if Roxas didn't look like Ven, then he might never have talked to him in the first place.
    • Come on, would YOU remember someone you met a couple of times... ten years ago? Lea and Ven's meeting was most likely an act of fanservice, not anything particularly significant, at least not in that regard.
      • Considering that Lea's life as a human being ended a year after that meeting, and Ven was probably the last new face he met before he lost his heart (and presumably after that stopped building relationships or seeing people as anything but tools), and that Ven was carrying a Keyblade, which happens to be the thing the Organization wanted to control... combining that with the fact that Ventus and Roxas are visually and audibly identical, I think he would. Wouldn't put it past somebody who only had his memories to build his personality on.
        • Why would Ven be the last new face? To the standard of Kingdom Hearts, Radiant Garden is quite the big town, and Ven was holding only a toy, not to mention that it probably took years for Axel to see a real keyblade and what it looks like, also Axel was kinda forced to talk with Roxas because that was his mission.
          • It could be a subconscious thing.
        • Since he's so obsessed with having the world remember him, why wouldn't he try to remember every new person that he could call a friend, even if only in passing?
• Also, why were Lea and Isa going to the castle in such a hurry? Were they going to start some kind of training? Get jobs?
  • The city is being assaulted by mysterious demonic forces and they're going by the assumption that the well-defended and staffed-by-guards castle is the safest place to be until it blows over?
  • They're two teenage boys. They were probably curious to see what was going on inside.
• Vanitas is quickly becoming a Memetic Badass, although Fridge Logic would like to point out that being the most Recurring Boss also means he's the losingest.
  • I think it might be the fact that he's terrifying and insane.
  • Think about it. Most bosses aren't recurring because they're completely and utterly defeated the first time around, meaning Vanitas is more resilient and all-around Badass than most to remain a thorn in the heroes' sides for so long.
  • The fact that he's probably the only villain to practice pragmatism both in combat and in villainous deeds, which is notable because he's COCOA CRAZY. To add to that, take the both of the final battles against him (both the Battle in the Center of the Mind with Ven and his fight against Aqua and Mickey while possessing Ven) into account. He is simultaneously fighting on both the physical and mental planes (which would require a lot of effort to maintain) and yet is able to take a bite out of your health the same way Scruff McGruff takes a bite out of crime. Not to mention that he's wielding the x-blade. Coupled together, this potentially makes Vanitas one of the most dangerous characters in KH lore. In comparison, Master Xehanort was conceivably at his prime, having stolen Terra's body, but still got his ass kicked by a suit of armor brought to life by Terra's rage. And then, his Laser-Guided Amnesia kicked in, allowing Terra to temporarily break through and seal away his memories for good. Vanitas fared much better and was able to put up one hell of a fight, which makes Ven and Aqua's joint victory all the more impressive.
    • To be fair to Master Xehanort, like Vanitas, he was fighting (at least in Aqua's case) on two fronts at one time. In fact, in some parts of Aqua's final battle she actually got to join in Xehanort's mental battle and help defeat him there as well. That aside, the primary reason for Vanitas's Memetic Badass status seems to be that the first secret boss is basically an exact copy of him, and that he's That One Boss in ALL of his fights.
      • Not to mention that it's implied that Ven's final battle takes place after Aqua's.
      • It clearly does. When Aqua fights Vanitas in Ventus's body, the X-blade is complete and undamaged. When she beats him, it goes haywire and is ruined and is still in that state during Ventus's battle.
      • Yeah, you can clearly see the complete X-blade become fractured when Aqua's friendship-powered Laser Blade knocks it away. Ventus-Vanitas is knocked out cold, weakening Vanitas's control on Ven, which is when Ventus wakes up in his Awakening Station, with Vanitas musing about how their "union was not finished" due to Aqua and Mickey's meddling. The battle ensues, Vanitas's defeat apparently coinciding with the X-blade's destruction in the real world seconds later.
        • The final battle between Ventus and Vanitas maybe after Aqua vs Vanitas, and we don't check in with Terra' heart during the Lingering Sentiment fight. That hardly means Terra and Ventus were A-OK with proceedings prior to actual scenes with them. They were most likely resisting from the getgo. Neither Vanitas nor Terranort were all they could be when they were defeated.
• If Terra merged with Master Xehanort, who then killed/defeated the merged version to create the Big Bad from KH 1 and 2 (namely, how/who split Terranort into a heartless and a Nobody)?
  • Terranort himself, via experimentation with Heartless. In the process of experimenting, his heart took on too much darkness and got injured by a heartless, resulting in it bleeding into a heartless itself, leaving the body behind to become a Nobody. Same as the other five Apprentices of Ansem the Wise.

Ansem Report 10: ...My body is too frail for such a journey, but I must do this. I will cast it off and plunge into the depths of darkness.

• Master Xehanort grabs Ven behind the head and lifts him up. Ven holds his Keyblade in a Reverse Grip. Why doesn't Ven try to take advantage of his unique status and just stab behind him?
  • Because he's right handed, so he had as much ability to attack Xehanort as Terra or Aqua would have. Strangely, in the original trailer, he WAS left handed, so he had no excuse there; probably why they changed this laterality in all honesty.
• I'm probably forgetting something in the series' enormous Kudzu Plot, but how can there be Neoshadows surrounding Ventus in his flashback? Didn't Terranort's research give birth to the Heartless?
  • The Pureblood Heartless have always existed, just were rarely in the Realm of Light. "Terranort's" research created the Emblem Heartless, which (somehow) attracted hundreds of Purebloods from the Realm of Darkness and started the plague.
• Is it possible we've blown Terra's idiocy out of proportion? Seems like since Maleficent opened the darkness in his heart, his personality changed, becoming more accepting of those of the dark. Out of fairness, let's take a look at Terra's interactions with the villains.
  • Maleficent -- doesn't seem that bad. Yeah, he listens to Maleficent about the hearts full of light, but she was the only person he found outside of the castle. Plus, he didn't free Aurora's heart on purpose.
  • The Queen -- he never trusted her, and he was never going to kill Snow White.
  • Hades -- seemed more like Terra's at war with himself over whether to channel the darkness or try to get rid of it. He chose the latter, but remember that he used darkness to take out Braig and free Master Xehanort not too long ago. Besides, how many people got mad at Cloud for trusting Hades?
    • Also note that Hades didn't do anything particularly evil (at least not in Terra's story). No kidnapping princesses, no helping Xehanort or Vanitas. He didn't even try to go after Hercules this time. The worst he ever did was mind-control Zack, but that was probably only meant to test whether Terra would start channeling the darkness under pressure, not as part of some big plan.
  • Dr.Jumba -- Jumba only said that Stitch was made for evil purposes when they got to Stitch's cell.
    • Actually, I believe he says that Stitch is very "destructive" while still imprisoned, which he promptly amends. Coupled with the fact that generally people aren't thrown in prison for no good reason and nearly every prisoner will assert he or she is innocent, and Terra trusting Jumba does come off as naive at best and idiotic at worst. My interpretation of Terra is that the boy means well, but he is extremely naive (which can be blamed on his master) and not the sharpest crayon in the box.
    • Normally people aren't thrown in prison for no reason, true. Then again, Terra got thrown in for no reason, he probably assumed the same happened to Jumba.
  • Captain Hook -- this might be the one I have the most trouble going along with. Hook says the chest is full of light, but why didn't Terra unlock the chest just to be sure? Is it like how hearts work, once released it'll fly away? Also, would you honestly someone with Hook's accent had good intentions?
    • Supposedly, Hook is an excellent manipulator. We see it in the movie, where he tricks Tinkerbell, after he promises her that he will not lay a finger (or a hook) on Peter. After this, he lays a bomb in Peter's hideout, since he didn't say he wouldn't do that. So we know he's a liar and that people are prone to believing him, just as they do with Hades.
• Yeah, Terra's maybe a bit of an idiot, but was it supposed to be intentional or with reason?
  • I feel like a lot of it is leftover knee-jerk reactions from when we first saw him interacting with Disney villains, which obviously meant that he was hanging on their every word. The interactions he does have with them in the actual game are a fairly decent representation of his struggle with his darkness.
  • For the record, Ven acts just as stupidly when talking to the Evil Queen (in her old-hag form), and he doesn't have darkness as an excuse. Maybe Eraqus taught both of them not to judge by appearances and they took it a bit too literally?
    • Under normal circumstances, old hags aren't a threat to anyone.
    • There's a world of difference between handing some random, ugly stranger something they dropped and breaking someone out of jail based on their word that they're innocent.
      • Remember also that Terra had been arrested himself on false charges. He may have assumed that the other prisoners were in the same boat.
    • How was it a false charge? He was trespassing/stowing away on the ship without permission (From The Other Wiki: a stowaway is a person who secretly boards a vehicle, such as an aircraft, bus, ship or train, to travel without paying and without being detected). His intentions were good, but he still technically broke their rules. And I'm not sure how that makes him look less naive or stupid, in any case.
    • It's not like Terra wanted to get on the ship in the first place; he was fighting the Unversed, only to get captured and imprisoned. He's not just going to wait around in his cell until he pleads his case.
      • And besides, Aqua and Ven were guilty of exactly the same thing, only Ven never got caught and Aqua had a chance to explain why she was there to the Grand Councilwoman. If either of them got thrown in the brig, they'd have broken out, as well.
      • Still doesn't justify breaking out Jumba too. He's a denizen of that world and in prison for a reason, breaking him out was "meddling" in addition to stupid.
• When we first see Ven at the awakening, how is Sora able to contact him? This has nothing to do with him being The Messiah, it's the fact that Sora says "I'm a brand new heart." Maybe I'm taking this a bit too literally, but wouldn't that mean Sora's an infant?
  • Looking through the chronology of the game, this exchange obviously happens right after Master Xehanort takes out the darkness from within Ventus, leaving his heart broken and all that jazz. Master Xehanort then drops off Ventus at the Land of Departure, leaving an indeterminate amount of time between that event and the beginning of the game proper. So Sora could conceivably be a literal infant heart when he and Ventus connect at the beginning.
    • Or maybe newborn just means relatively young. I doubt the time between Ven meeting Sora and the start of the game was more than a year, given how Ven doesn't age.
  • Nomura's original idea was for it to be Sora's heart from before he was born, so I think that yes, Sora was indeed a newborn and Ven was supposed to be 11.
• Rule of Funny aside, how did Ven get shrunk in Cinderella's world? The Fairy Godmother shrank Aqua, but she had the decency to appear and talk to her before doing it. Just shrinking a poor guy without warning and chucking him in a cage seems a little... mean, for her.
  • Knight Templar Fairy Godmother?
  • If you have the guidebook, it indicates that since Ven is not used to inter-dimensional travel yet, he kinda screws up re-entry on Cinderella's world and that's why he is so tiny.
• I probably missed something; but what would happen to Terra and Eraqus's hearts when Terranort lost his? Were they still technically part of the heart that Terranort lost?
  • Yup, definitely still a part. Note that Ansem: Seeker of Darkness kept Terra's shape, despite being in Riku's body, indicating that there was a chunk of Terra in there somewhere.
• So is this the first time that Xehanort switched bodies, or was he just that much older? I know that Eraqus and Xehanort are like old classmates; but why's there such an age gap? Even if he was younger and looked more like Xemnas/Ansem on Destiny Islands, he's still notably way older than Eraqus. (He looks old enough to be Eraqus's father!!)
  • I vaguely recall reading somewhere that Nomura said darkness causes you to age faster or something. Not sure where that was.
  • Maybe Eraqus just aged better.
  • I didn't think there was an age limit on recruits for keyblade wielders. Ven and Terra train together and they are the oldest and youngest of Eraqus's students.
• I just noticed that Ven's right hand when he's standing still is slightly bent backwards -- even when he's not holding his Keyblade. This bugs me more than it should.
  • Either habit from holding the keyblade a lot, or being ready to get the keyblade out at any time.
• So, why is it Terra summons his Keyblade differently, with all those blocks of light? There's really nothing to distinguish him in the beginning except for a vulnerability to darkness, but that can't explain why his Keyblade appears in a more elaborate manner. What gives?
  • Everyone summons their keyblade differently. Xehanort has darkness, Vanitas has like a dark fire, Aqua uses rose petals.
  • Bubble Blaster is actually pretty powerful. This Troper found it especially useful in the Terranort battle, which was interesting, because Mega Flare wasn't doing much.

"Haha! Your puny flames can not defeat me! You should just give u -- OH SHIT MISTER BUBBLE NOOOOOOO"

• • • Not sure if that's a Just Bugs Me. In any case, Mega Flare really isn't useful in one on one fights.
    • Bosses have a cap on the amount of damage they can take per hit. Mega Flare does a colossal amount of damage once, meaning much of its damage gets nerfed by the cap. Multi-hit attacks will always be better against bosses than single, powerful strokes.
• And another thing.... how in the world did Xehanort summon Kingdom Hearts to the Keyblade Graveyard if his entire plan hinged on reforging the X-Blade so he could get to Kingdom Hearts? This could be yet another of his multitude hitherto-unknown powers, given that he's old and certainly been around the block.... then what was the point of summoning Kingdom Hearts? To show off?
  • I assumed that he would want KH opened as soon as possible, so he had it ready for when Vanitas had the χ-blade.
    • The thing is, the X-Blade isn't supposed to open Kingdom Hearts, but to summon it.

Xehanort's Report 7: "I have uncovered the Keyblade's ultimate mystery. You see, besides the three families of Keyblades, there is another "Key Blade." While it may sound the same when spoken, it is notated uniquely: "X-Blade." And make no mistake, while it resembles a normal Keyblade, it is something altogether different.
Keyblades are said to be man-made counterparts to Kingdom Hearts. The X-Blade, however, coexists with Kingdom Hearts.
It is only forged when two hearts of equal power intersect -- one heart of pure darkness, one of pure light. At the time of its forging, Kingdom Hearts appears. It must be noted, though, that this Kingdom Hearts is special. Unlike the Kingdoms brought about forcibly and artificially through the collection of hearts, THIS Kingdom Hearts is a perfect and complete union of ALL the worlds' hearts. Surely it was over this that the ancient Keyblade War was fought.
If so, the walls that divide the worlds today are of little consequence. With the X-Blade, all their hearts could be instantly reunited -- and the Keyblade War, refought.

• • But Xehanort made Kingdom Hearts appear in the sky at least three boss battles before the X-Blade was forged. How in the world did he manage to do that when the entire point of his plan to reforge the X-Blade was summoning Kingdom Hearts in the first place?
    • It might have something to do with the "Kingdoms brought about forcibly and artificially".
    • It might also have something to do with the location. Xehanort himself says that the X-Blade could only be forged at the Keyblade Graveyard: maybe that one world is particularly close to Kingdom Hearts itself, and thus Xehanort didn't so much summon Kingdom Hearts as just uncover it.
    • It might be that "At the time of its forging" isn't an exact thing. At that point in time, the Chi-Blade was certainly close to being forged -- or, one might say, it had been in the process of being forged throughout the whole game. The iron of a sword doesn't just snap into shape instantly, you have to work it for a while, all of which is part of the forging process. If you consider the final set of battles to be the fires in which the Chi-Blade was forged, then it makes sense for Kingdom Hearts to appear then.
• Just after Sora helps to repair Ven's heart, he subconsciously summons his keyblade and shoots a blast of light into the sky. What exactly is the significance of this?
  • "A blast of light into the sky." My guess is it was a sort of "thank you" on Ven's part.
  • Wayward Wind is doubles as a plot device. It's used as a kind of heart monitor, of sorts. In the beginning, it proved to Xehanort that Ven would survive, and in the end, it shows Aqua that while Ven's heart isn't in his body, it's still there, alive, even if barely so.
• Was it implied that the Keyblade Graveyard world disappeared? If it didn't, it could have been in KH 2.
  • It was in Final Mix Plus. The portal in Disney Castle's basement takes you there to fight Terra's Lingering Sentiment. It just didn't show up on the world map the same way all the other BBS-specific worlds didn't.
• ...So how exactly did Terra's and Ven's Keyblades get to the Realm of Darkness to save Aqua from the Darksides? The Ends of the Earth was with the Lingering Sentiment, and the Wayward Wind was... presumably... with Ven, who's in Castle Oblivion. Or is it all just visual metaphors?
  • They flew through a Plot Hole.
  • The Power of Friendship is just that powerful.
  • Since the Keyblades are so intricately linked to their users' hearts, and since Terra, Ventus, and Aqua's hearts are all connected thanks to their friendship, perhaps Terra and Ventus were able to sense that Aqua was in danger from within the hearts of Xehanort and Sora, respectively, and guide their Keyblades to her. But they were only able to do it for a limited period of time because Ven's heart needed to heal, and Terra's heart had to continue the struggle with Xehanort?
• In the game, Minnie banishes Pete to another dimension to punish him for his behaviour in the Dream Festival. Not only does this conflict with what Goofy said in KHII, but it also creates a pretty big plot hole: Minnie makes it sound like she's going to release him eventually, so why didn't they discover that he had escaped until ten years later?
  • It was a translation problem. In the Japanese, what Goofy said was (roughly) "Their Majesty", or at least a gender-neutral pronoun for royalty. The translators decided to take a chance and decided that banishment was something more appropriate for Mickey to do. They were wrong. That, and Goofy's line "I wonder how he escaped," makes sense either way.
  • In universe explanation: Namine screwed up.
  • Maybe Mickey and Pete had another scuffle during the nine-year gap between games, and Mickey banished him again rather than actually kill someone he used to be friends with?
    • But, after Pete was imprisoned by Minnie, he heard Maleficent's voice and was busted out. Or does this scenario not take place immediately after his imprisonment?
  • It's important to remember that Goofy wasn't around at the time, he was still with Donald at Yen Sid's place. He probably just heard about what happened later on when he returned and the person got the details wrong when explaining it to Goofy (and Donald). That or since Mickey was currently zipping around the worlds, maybe he heard half the story and assumed Mickey simply returned home quickly and did the job before warping somewhere else. Either way, he's Goofy, someone prone to getting details wrong.
• How is Braig going to explain the loss of his right eye and the scar on his cheek to Ansem the Wise? Not to mention his other eye turning from brown to yellow?
  • I don't think he became an Apprentice until after BBS, so Ansem never met him before his scarring.
    • At the end of the game, he's the one who brings Ansem to take in Xehanort. That, and during Ven's visit to Radiant Garden, Dilan says, "Lord and castle come first," to which Even replies, "Which reminds me, his Lordship was asking for you," which seems to indicate that all six inhabitants of the castle knew each other.
  • There were Unversed a-plenty running around. Considering that Braig was supposed to be defending the town, and that Ansem the Wise didn't seem to know that he wasn't doing his job, he has a ready-made scapegoat to blame the injury on.
  • I had a very good explanation... for the eye at least. See, he made his guns into a sniper scope, then tried to have someone else shoot through the sniper scope because he saw it on MythBusters…
• What's with Xehanort and the princesses of heart? I mean, he tells Maleficent about them, including that Aurora is one, (and steals her heart,) sends Unversed after Cinderella, Snow White, and even KAIRI, but then, after Aqua beats the Unversed attacking a four year old, they leave them alone, and that plot point is never mentioned again.
  • He needs to come up with some other threat for Terra, Aqua, and Ven to deal with in order to buy time to complete his plans. They didn't make much progress, but it did achieve the intended goal -- buy time.
  • That confused this troper quite a bit as well, but during her second playthrough, she had a moment of Fridge Brilliance about why Xehanort was going after the princesses: to forge the X-blade, he needed one heart of pure darkness and one of pure light. Vanitas covered the darkness part, but considering he already had one scare with Ven almost kicking it, he sought out the princesses (who have hearts of pure light) as backups to create it, in case something were to happen. The point where they apparently stop caring about the princesses (that is, the Kairi thing) comes shortly before Aqua defeats Vanitas in the Radiant Garden square. After he loses, he says "I'll keep you around. Never hurts to have a backup." Assuming he meant a heart of pure light to make the X-blade, after that, they wouldn't need the princesses, because they had a surefire Plan B.
  • Alternatively, he told Maleficent about the Princesses solely so that she would help him awaken Terra's darkness. He tells her about the princesses, and steals Aurora's heart for her, and she does something for him. The interesting thing is, he was planning to screw her over from the beginning. As Maleficent says, "Such a search (for seven pure hearts) may take some time." However, Xehanort was planning to forge the Χ-Blade to open Kingdom Hearts. In other words, steal Maleficent's prize before she's able to get the hearts she needs for her plan. With that in mind, what does he care if she knows about Kingdom Hearts? She's never going to be able to go ahead with that plan.
  • I always assumed it was one of his (multiple!) backup plans. If the X-Blade thing didn't work out, Master Xehanort still planned to be in fighting condition and working on his own side plans; by telling Maleficent about the Princesses of Heart, he suckers her into putting that method of summoning Kingdom Hearts into action and doesn't have to lift a finger for it. Since it appears that Braig is trying to help him once he loses his memories, it's not beyond belief that he'd have contingency plans for everything else.
• Ventus uses a Reverse Grip with his Keyblade. Why don't Sora, Roxas, or Vanitas as well?
  • Sora wielded Way to the Dawn in a reverse grip when he was briefly using it to pound Xemnas to dirt while Vanitas's stance is the same as Riku's and Master Xehanort's, probably as a shared link between those who use the darkness. Other than that, variety.
  • Roxas would naturally fight the same as Sora. As for Vanitas, his costume and stance is foreshadowing of Riku's own fighting style, to make his face even more of a surprise. Also, they likely only thought of it after they started working on the whole 'keyblade war' concept.
    • As for Sora, he doesn't actually have much of a "stance", at least at first. What he has is a low posture brought on by the unfamiliar weight of a weapon he's never used before and doesn't even really understand. As he becomes more familiar with the keyblade, he keeps that posture because it's how he learned. Remember: Ventus has had formal instruction and training. Sora's basically using it as a club.
  • I have pretty good theory on how Vanitas used his keyblade, seeing as he's the opposite of Ventus, being pure darkness and Ventus held his keyblade low and in a reverse grip, it would make sense that Vanitas used the Keyblade in an opposite way.
• When Terra was in Enchanted Dominion and was manipulated to steal Aurora's heart... uh... what the hell happened? I know MX is all "heh heh heh" about it later, but I still don't have a clue what or how it happened.
  • It's implied that Xehanort did it himself in order to make Terra doubt himself, although the how of it is left unclear. Presumably he was nearby watching (somehow) and intervened at the right moment, I guess?
    • Xehanort was the one that in his letter suggested too Eraqus that he saw darkness ready to emerge in Terra the first time we met. When we read his Secret Report pertaining to his first meeting with Terra he says he merely saw him singlemindedly seeking power. The incident during the Mark of Masteery Exam and with Aurora were most likely Xehanort intervering with Terra. Terra himself most likely never had a problem with the darkness inside him until Xehanort convinced Terra, Aqua and Eraqus otherwise.
• So how ageless are the toons? It seems that Hercules is the only character that undergoes any change in physical appearances, if only by bulking up. Do they (or at least the Walt Disney characters) essentially age depending on what Era of Animation they are (as evident by the Timeless River)?
  • Who are you asking about specifically? The princesses of heart that showed up were in their early 20s, so they probably wouldn't change much. Neverland is a place where you never grow up, and Stitch has been shown to stay the same after 10 or even 20 years.
    • Maybe I shouldn't bring up Donald's nephews...
      • Yeah, about 5 minutes into Ven's part of the story, I was like "...wait a minute..."
      • Different worlds have time flowing at different rates? That kind of works.
• Here's one: Why aren't there D-Links for Sora, Riku, and Kairi (for Ven, Terra, and Aqua, respectively)? It would fit in thematically and give the BBS trio access to abilities they normally would never have (Aqua, for instance, can't get Auto-Life because that's part of her D-Link and she can't D-Link with herself. If Kairi's D-Link had the same ability, she could get Auto-Life that way). It seems like such an easy fix; why didn't they include it?
  • Because the kids didn't know they had said abilities, if they did at this point in time?
    • Then how do you explain Cinderella, Snow White, and other characters who can't/don't ever fight at all? At least SRK will eventually have abilities worth using, and D-Links are about drawing on someone else's strength of heart, not having them actually fight for you. At the very least, it would be a cool way to fix a gameplay issue while still integrating it into the story.
    • You can probably handwave Snow White and Cinderella due to being Princesses of Heart and how Heart Is an Awesome Power.
    • Some of the D-Links are kind of questionable by nature. For example, why are Donald and Goofy D-Links despite being barely interacted with by the characters (they just happen to be there when Yen Sid's being Mr. Exposition).
  • Or, you know, the creators figured that having Sora, Riku, and Kairi fighting would be a bad idea considering they're five years old.
    • Actually, only Riku is five; Sora and Kairi were four.
• If Stitch has yet to meet Lilo and actually go through the events of Lilo and Stitch (since Terra, Aqua, and Ven fulfill the role of teaching him about friendship), why does he have Ukelele-style techniques?
  • There's nothing saying he doesn't meet up with Lilo; after all, in the end, we see him going towards a little blue world.
  • But since we see Stitch in Hollow Bastion in KH II, does that mean... The Heartless WIPED OUT HAWAII?!
    • One fan thinks somebody (perhaps the Organization) kidnapped Stitch (with Lilo as hostage most likely). Although I don't think that belongs here. Also, who says the world Stitch goes to is KH's representation of our world?
• How long was Pete locked up in... Wherever Minnie and the Fantasia brooms dumped him before Maleficent busted him out? If it was before KH1, then where was he? I just got the impression that Minnie wasn't planning to leave him in there for that long, though considering Toon Age (as discussed above), 10+ years might not be that long for toons.
  • BBS made it look like he was busted out not long after being put in. Still, one would think Minnie would have released him before KH1, thus finding out he was no longer there, but that wouldn't explain Goofy's reaction in KH 2 (unless the events of CoM caused him to forget that little detail). Aside from that little plot hole, I'd say we didn't see Pete in KH1 because he was working behind that scenes. In KH 2, he was Maleficent's only remaining follower, so he couldn't stay behind the scenes anymore (since he had to do the work her other followers normally did), so we saw more of him in KH 2.
• Something that bothered me just a bit; why don't Terra and Aqua seem to recognize the significance of Snow White, Aurora, and Cinderella?? When Master Eraqus sends them out, he specifically mentions that "the Princesses of Heart" are in danger, and the worlds they visit first belong to the princesses, so obviously their identities must be known at least to Eraqus and Yen Sid; so why don't Terra and Aqua seem to realize who they've met? Terra in particular doesn't seem to put two and two together about the Princesses of Heart being in danger, and Master Xehanort looking for "maidens with pure hearts".
  • Terra was naive with a one-track mind. He was probably too focused on proving himself and finding MX to put two and two together. That doesn't explain Aqua, however.
  • Aqua was supposed to be looking for Xehanort and spying on Terra. She never got around to either of thoe things either. She was just to busy looking for Terra and fighting the Unversed.
• Ok, so, when Terra, Aqua, and Ventus meet up again in Radiant Gardens, Aqua tells Terra that "I've been to the same worlds as you, and I've seen what you've done". Wait, what? The only world where Aqua saw any reasons to become suspicious of Terra was Enchanted Dominion (ONE world!) and it mostly consisted of Aqua refusing to believe what Maleficent told her about Terra. So... how did she suddenly go from "Terra would never do that!!" to being so suspicious the next time they meet?
  • It probably uses the same logic as Ventus telling her that she's being too controlling when so far all she's done is lightly reprimand Terra.
  • Because "Terra would NEVER DO THAT" was a kneejerk reaction she threw back at Maleficent in the heat of the moment. Her suspicions of Terra came much later, when she's had time to properly digest what she's been told and her doubts about Terra, rooted in Eraqus's own doubts, have had time to fester.
  • That still doesn't explain her suspicion, only the fact that she was worried about Terra being close to the darkness. The fact that she ran into Terra right after the Enchanted Dominion means she went from believing in him to suspicious of him in a short time frame only really on Maleficent's word. Also, her talk with Maleficent puts more doubt on Master Xehanort then Terra, which is even more odd, as in that same scene, she questions Terra'a actions not following Eraqus's orders, but he basically told them to figure out about the unversed (which Terra does, as he names the person responsible) and find MX (who a bunch of red flags were raised about), yet this isn't brought up once by her at all. Seems more of a case of Rule of Drama.
  • Aqua's consistently terrible at saying what she means, being alternatively incapable of saying what she wants and overly blunt. It's not that unlikely that Terra's mention of "a boy in a mask" (who had no obvious connections to their mission) reignited her remaining fear for Terra's heart from Enchanted Dominion, causing her to come off more accusatory than she intended, with things spiraling out of control from there when his angry reaction seemed to confirm her suspicions.
  • The "boy in the mask" was mentioned by Ventus who basically said that he was talking bad about Terra, that really shouldn't have raised up that fear. In fact, Terra basically tells Ven to go home, since he and Aqua would have to fight something dangerous (which doesn't say anything about not doing Eraqus's mission but actually gives credence to it). Even if Aqua is bad at communication, this particular example doesn't make sense, and other than Rule of Drama doesn't seem to have any real justification.
  • Or it could be just as Ven says and that Aqua has let the title go to her head. It's already apparent that Aqua has Mother Bear tendencies, and the new responsibilities she has as a Master, namely looking after her friends as a "better", would likely have been weighing on her mind quite heavily. It's possible that she got so wrapped up in trying to look after her friends, that she simply jumped to the worst conclusion (my friend is turning evil! I must save him!) and said exactly the wrong thing at the time.
  • That still doesn't explain the scene, since again Aqua's first accusation was that Terra wasn't following Eraqus' orders. Which even though he was following MX, he did (Again he names the person responsible and found MX). And she only accuses him after he says that both he AND Aqua would have a dangerous mission ahead to Ven. Her being accusing of Terra after he was an idiot and didn't tell her anything but "I'm fighting the darkness, in my own way" is still ridiculous but you can at least justify that somewhat with Aqua's personality. But her accusing Terra about Eraqus' orders when there was no reason for her to do so and no real justification as to why still doesn't make sense.
• So Birth By Sleep has a section in which Aqua and Prince Philip are fighting Maleficent as a dragon... so what are your theories on why she can become a dragon of her own free will in Birth by Sleep, yet in Kingdom Hearts, has to have her heart unlocked by Riku. Is she actually kind of afraid to use the dragon form except as a last resort (When covering everything in thorns won't work) because of the last time that happened?
  • In KH, Phillip's sword sealed Dragon Maleficent rather than killing her, hence Maleficent needed Riku to unleash it.
• What's with the Magic Mirror being a villain? He's supposed to be neutral.
  • There was nothing to suggest that the thing wasn't evil. As far as we know, it could be a demon trapped in glass.
  • I thought it was creative with the mirror being a boss. Although, I'll be annoyed if he had non-canonical powers like a blizzard spell as they did to Jafar in the first game.
    • But how do you know Jafar never had an Ice spell in Aladdin, though? Is his entire arsenal of what he can do with magic really important to the film's plot? For all we know, he could have summoned a Blizzard to crush Aladdin... he just never saw any use to do so. Plus... Gameplay and Story Segregation. Are you also bothered that Maleficent is able to stand on a floating platform and call "Meteors of Heaven" to unleash her fury? I don't recall her using that kind of magic in Sleeping Beauty... or any incarnation of Pegleg Pete ever having barriers....
    • If you've seen Aladdin, it makes perfect sense for him to have Ice magic. He was a sorcerer, then upgraded to the most powerful sorcerer, then further upgraded to an ALL POWERFUL GENIE. What's surprising is that he isn't pulling out Flare, Meteor Swarm, etc.....
  • Pay attention. The Evil Queen threw a potion at the thing after she thought it was defying her. Somehow, the potion turned the Spirit of the Mirror into an Unversed (I don't get how either, just roll with it), hence the sudden combat abilities and ensuing battle.
• Is it just me, or is anyone else bugged by the fact that Ven looks exactly like Roxas? This troper has a sneaking suspicion that the whole "Ven is connected to Sora/Roxas" thing is just a convenient excuse by the writers to shoehorn Roxas into a game that the "real" Roxas couldn't have logically appeared in. Of course, Birth By Sleep isn't out yet, so the final verdict will have to wait, but in this troper's opinion, there better be a REALLY good excuse for the way they look.
  • It's been implied that they are in fact connected somehow - Ven asks someone to "erase him" on Destiny Islands.
  • Ven's heart is merged with Sora's. As a result, his nobody, Roxas, looks like Ven because Sora had Ven's heart.
  • To be fair, Ventus's personality is completely different from Roxas's. And the connection actually makes a lot of sense when you look back at the series as a whole.
• Am I the only one who wants to know more about the Unversed? What the hell are they?! What's their connection to the Heartless and the Nobodies? It's driving me Nuts!
  • Everybody wants to know what they are, just look at how many theories Wild Mass Guessing has on these things.
  • They are creatures made from the negative emotions generated by Master Xehanort's experimentation on Ventus, and as such are controlled by his dark half, Vanitas.
• According to the secret ending of Birth By Sleep, Sora's going to fix all the sympathetic characters that died in this series. Thing is, this includes Roxas and Xion. How he is going to fix those two without breaking himself in the process?
  • We're not sure if Roxas and Xion appearing in the video was to be taken literally or merely symbolically. I think the latter, just because it would ruin perfectly tragic parts of the series if they got brought back.
  • Um, no. I think the ending refers to helping Terra (which will be interesting), Ven, and Aqua especially.
    • Well, Coded has revealed in its ending that they are ALL most likely going to come back, every sad event be undone, and everyone will live happily ever after. ....Crap, this is going to cause so much wank...
    • Coded does place a lot of emphasis on the pain of being forgotten, though, which seems designed to fit Roxas and Xion's cases.
    • Technically, Terra should be beyond help also, considering that both the Heartless and Nobody of Master-Xehanort-in-Terra's-Body are destroyed now.
      • Word of God says that when both the Heartless and Nobody are destroyed, the person is reborn as their original self. So, he could actually be the easiest to "save".
  • Really, though, Coded never specifies what it means to "save" someone from torment. It may not mean that they come back to life, in some cases, but more that outstanding threads regarding them are tied up. (An example being that Namine seems to imply that being thanked "saved" her from lasting torment).
  • But it was DATA Sora thanking DATA Namine. How does that save the REAL Namine? Not to mention Sora never promised to thank Namine to start with......
• They've left a huge clusterfuck for Sora to piece out on Kingdom Hearts III. The laundry list of things they have left hanging to resolve is huge:
  • Sora sorting out his essence -- he's got 3 other people piggybacking in his body that he should probably find some way to make independent entities. This is going to be really trippy.
  • Making sure all of the Disney characters get their Happily Ever Afters.
  • Making sure all of the Organization is put back together into human form, and killing off the members that were evil even as humans.
  • Putting Terra back together and destroying Xenohort's heart once and for all.
    • I wonder how that is going to work now that Sora already destroyed Xemnas and Ansem.
    • Word of God is that if you destroy both a Heartless and the corresponding Nobody, the initial person is restored. So, as of the end of II, Terranort's back in action, somewhere.
      • Can I have a link to that Word of God?
    • I don't have a link offhand, but the secret video in Re:coded has Yen Sid specifically saying Xehanort will be back because his Heartless and his Nobody were both destroyed.
      • I've seen it elsewhere on this wiki; the original is probably in Japanese somewhere.
      • And this is a bad thing how? This will lead to a longer game. With all this stuff to do, I doubt they'll pull another Prolonged Prologue. But honestly, they need to utilize Pixar. Maybe with the dark counterparts to the Princesses of Heart.
      • Probably should be noted that Nomura has said there will be many more games after KH3. Not all of those need to be solved in this one game.
      • .....That might be even worse a prospect.
• In the secret ending of Birth by Sleep, why does Aqua look like she hasn't aged a day when it's been at least ten years between then and her final battle? Particularly grating since the series did a great job of showing the aging of Sora, Riku, and Kairi. And besides, who wouldn't want to see a grown-up Aqua?
  • The Realm of Darkness might have an adverse effect on aging. Either that, or the programmers didn't have the time/space/paitience to create an entirely new character model for one scene when Aqua already had one.
  • Um, perhaps the simplest answer: Aqua is physically mature in Birth By Sleep (I'd guess 18-20) and as such the next ten years of her life don't show as blatantly on her as the aging of our heroes, who are going from 14 to 15 and 15 to 16. I mean, there should be a little physical difference, but that I think we can chalk up to lack of time/patience from the animators.
  • Word of God says time works differently in the Realm of Darkness than the Realm of Light.
• Maleficent controls people by using the darkness within their hearts. Aurora has no darkness in her heart because she is a Princess of Heart. So how did Maleficent get Aurora to prick her finger? Especially since what Maleficent does to Aurora in the movie looks the same as what she does to Terra in the game.
  • Maleficent doesn't control people through their darkness; she controls "that which sleeps". In Terra's case, he was trying to suppress his darkness, so Maleficent was able to manipulate it.
• With regards to the coliseum battles in both games... where the hell is the audience?
  • It's the Olympus Coliseum. The audience is probably watching you from a cloud.
  • Or maybe the creators were just too lazy to make a audience.
    • That pretty much is the reason. They did the same thing in KH 2.
• Stitch's ending in Birth By Sleep shows that Stitch went straight from Deep Space to Hollow Bastion, never meeting Lilo. Why do you hate Hawaiians so much, Japan?
  • Joking about Japan hating Hawaii is kind of a bad idea, if you've been listening in your history classes.
  • Given that he was distinctively Hawaiian in KH2, presumably he went to Hawaii later, possibly when Radiant Garden became Hollow Bastion.
• Spoiler-heavy one. Okay, so the Xehanort that unleashed the Heartless was Xehanort's heart in Terra's body. Terra's heart is still intact, albeit in his armor rather than his body. So, when Xehanort left Terra's body and became the Heartless calling itself Ansem, why didn't Lingering Sentiment take the opportunity to take his body back, since it no longer had a Xehanort in it to force him out?
  • Because that's not what happened, and Terra's heart is as much a part of Ansem-Seeker-of-Darkness's being as MX is?
    • So, what's the Lingering Sentiment, then, and how is it continually animated, and by what, if it isn't a sapient chunk of Terra?
    • The Lingering Sentiment is the memory and will of Terra, trapped inside the armour; it probably doesn't have enough sense left to take its body back.
• How old are Huey, Dewey, and Louie? They're supposed to be ducklings, but they appear in Birth By Sleep and haven't grown since then.
  • Maybe the classic Disney characters just age at a different rate?
    • Hmm... it's been a while, so remind me: were they as short in KH I & II as they were in Birth By Sleep?
• According to Xehanort Report VII, there is only one true Kingdom Hearts made up of the world's hearts. Which means that all the Organization's plotting, manipulations, and conniving, all of Sora and co, and by extension, the player's attempts to stop Xemnas's master plan, it was all to create or stop an artificial, sub-par Kingdom Hearts, that apparently had been done before. Granted, we would only learn this by Birth By Sleep, but that doesn't stop the cheated feeling I have.
  • Just because it isn't the genuine Heart Of All Worlds doesn't mean it cannot be harnessed for a massive, massive powerup strong enough to make the user godlike in power; it just means that it's a big honkin' ball of hearts, rather than the big honkin' ball of hearts.
• So the official reason that Roxas looks like Ven is that he's Ven's heart in Sora's old body which got there when Sora stabbed himself. But since the definition of a Nobody is "someone who doesn't have a heart," and Roxas DOES have a heart, doesn't that make him a normal person with mix-n-matched parts, and not a nobody?
  • You know that, and I know that, and Xigbar probably knows that. But Roxas and Xemnas have amnesia, and so don't know that, and Xigbar ain't talking 'cause it'd mess up the Plans.
    • How much Roxas is able to use Ven's heart remains a mystery, but it seems Xemnas remembers something of his old lives, and if he did know about Roxas, considering he was also behind the very-much-not-a-nobody Xion, it's not likely he'd care very much. In fact, as long as he had a keyblade master, could visit Aqua's armor at will, get Kingdom Heart,s and make ridiculous speeches while doing it, i'm not sure he really cared about anything. It takes a heart to care...
      • And then there's the fact that he knows the Chamber of Awakening is very important, but he doesn't remember WHY it's very important.
• Is it just me, or has the final boss for the last few games just been Sora Vs. Roxas over and over again? I mean, Days has Roxas Vs. Xion, Birth by Sleep has Ventus and Vanitas, coded has Data Sora/Data Roxas, and for good measure, Data Sora and Data Sora's Heartless. It's like Sora's just fighting himself over and over again.
  • One of the main themes of the series is the stronger one's light, the stronger the shadow. It's only natural that in the games between major Xehanort manifestations, the protagonists end up having to fight the shadows produced by their own blinding light. And besides, BBS's final battle was the Final Chapter, and that's against Terranort, ultimately the same guy as the final battle in KH1 and KH2. Plus, virtually none of the fights play out the same way (Xion turned into a suit of armor thingy, etc), so it's purely a plot-based thematic thing, rather than gameplay repetition.
    • I was over simplifying things a bit with Birth by Sleep, but you have to admit, Vanitas is A Final Boss, if not THE final boss. (And technically, Xion and Data Sora's Heartless aren't really final bosses either.) But it's almost annoying how for three games, the major climactic battles have been the same person fighting the same person, over and over again.
• The timing in BBS makes no sense whatsoever. I mean, at the start, Terra leaves, and then Ven minutes later, and then Aqua, again, only moments behind. And yet somehow, her FIRST world is the END of Terra's THIRD. Um, really? So Terra stole Aurora's heart, interrogated the Magic Mirror, and lead Cinderella to the ball all before Aqua even made it to the FIRST WORLD? You would think that these transactions would take more than ten or fifteen minutes...
  • Best I can figure is either their gliders travel at noticeably different cruising speeds, or the trio habitually flies at noticeably different speeds. Given that we're dealing with worlds here, so the travel time can probably be as much as a day or two, differences of as little as ten to fifteen percent probably add up to several hours at least.
  • Aqua left later. It was Ven who pursued Terra immediately.
    • I saw her follow shortly after, just as few seconds.
  • Didn't someone have a timeline posted on how the events happened?
    • There's actually a timeline built into the game, but you do have to have completed the Final Episode to be allowed to view it.
• So let me get this right from the Blank Points movie. It's implying that along with Terra, Aqua, and Ven, Sora will have to rescue Axel, Xion, Roxas, and Namine? Uh, hang on... aren't Roxas and Namine already merged with Sora and Kairi, respectively? And Xion just doesn't exist anymore, since she was just made of leaked memories? And Axel gave up his own Nobody life to help Sora? And finally, if he were to bring back Ven AND Roxas... won't that cause confusion of twins wandering around?
  • Here's how I see it:
    • Axel could potentially return to his former self, like Xehanort.
      • As of the Dream Drop Distance trailers, we know this is true, as he appears protecting Queen Minnie and introducing himself by his former name Lea.
    • Sora probably doesn't have Roxas and Xion's memories (otherwise, he'd probably would have gone into a Heroic BSOD the minute he fused with Roxas). Sora probably has to create new vessels for their memories, a la how Kairi did for Sora.
    • Either Roxas actually is Ven, or they'll just give them extremely dissimilar outfits.
• Also... isn't Sora's mother worried sick about him? Kid's been away from home over a year after the destruction/restoration of Destiny Islands, so you'd think he could just call her every so often to avoid homesickness...unless the Heartless got to her first...
  • He's also asleep for the majority of said year.
• Okay, guys, help me out here. Major spoilers up ahead for Kingdom Hearts 1 and Birth By Sleep, so please be warned: What exactly is Master Xehanort's plan after Kingdom Hearts? Ansem Seeker of Darkness, AKA Xehanort's Heartless, found Kingdom Hearts and opened it. But wait! He expected Kingdom Hearts to be pure darkness, yet all that comes out of it is light. Sora even literally says it: Kingdom Hearts is light. Shouldn't Xehanort's plans have ended right there and then? Master Xehanort's complete motivation for finding Kingdom Hearts was because of the supposed darkness inside: infinite darkness would outweigh the light, acting as a sort of reset button for a universe in which he ruled as a god. If Kingdom Hearts is light, Xehanort can't fullfill his plans. Sure, he could open it again as a not-Heartless, but it'd have no effect whatsoever on his plans! Am I missing something here? If anybody could explain this, I would be very grateful.
  • This is where the conundrum of Xehanort really decides to strangle anyone who even attempts to get a grain of truth. For simplicity's sake, don't expect each incarnation of Xehanort to have the exact same plan as the others. Master Xehanort never had delusions that Kingdom Hearts was no more than the ultimate light: his Report clearly states that he knows it is "the heart of all worlds" and a great reservoir of light. He wanted to take control of it using the X-Blade because it would let him restart the Keyblade War, a motivation not present in either Ansem or Xemnas, who just wanted power for its own sake. Ansem the Seeker of Darkness obviously expected Kingdom Hearts to be the great darkness because after all, he is a Heartless. Xehanort's motivation in BBS is less "gain unlimited power and become a god" and more "use unlimited power to destroy the worlds and then see what will happen next", which he is still perfectly capable of doing.
• After giving it some thought, I really don't understand the concept of Deep Space as a world. Given that it's actually a spaceship (which suggests that it's artificially created), Deep Space can't be a true world so much as just a ship traveling through space, kind of like Monstro in the first Kingdom Hearts. That being said, Deep Space also can't be a Gummi ship, since Birth by Sleep takes place before Kingdom Hearts I where the walls between worlds were broken down and the Gummi blocks were born. Since a ship would obviously need to refuel and stock up on provisions at some point, how can "Deep Space" land on a world when all the barriers are still up? And on a similar note, since this game takes place before the barriers were broken down, how can there be a Galactic Council anyways? The worlds should all be separated, it shouldn't be possible to have a single governing body amongst what are presumably several different worlds.
  • I was under the impression that the "worlds" were more like alternate universes. Deep Space encompasses the entire universe that Lilo & Stitch's Hawaii/that galaxy is in. Space travel doesn't mean interworld travel. Besides, Monstro.
  • If that's the case, how the heck did Stitch manage to get to Radiant Garden (or whichever world he was flying off towards) using a regular spaceship rather than a Gummi Ship?
    • He was right next to Ven when he engaged the hyperdrive, so it's possible that the interaction of Ven's Keyblade Glider and a device designed to exceed the speed of light (or at least go really really fast) broke the laws of the universe a little and let Stitch fly wherever the hell he wanted.
  • Yeah. This bugs me all the time; implementing sci-fi worlds into Kingdom Hearts, especially those involving outer space travel across worlds.
• I don't know if this should go here or on the page for II, but: Mickey met Xehanort/Terranort, if only briefly, and heard his name spoken aloud. I don't think he ever really met Terra (Terra saw him run off with the Star Shard, but Mickey din't see him), so he wouldn't have noticed the resemblance, but shouldn't the name have been a hint that he was connected to MX?
  • Just a guess, but I don't think Mickey knew at the time that MX had body swapped. So when he met this new, younger, different Xehanort, he probably figured it was a different guy. Alternatively, he did figure it out, but he saw that the new guy had amnesia and hoped that Xehanort would become a good guy.
  • When did Mickey meet Xehanort? He met Vanitas, but Xehanort wasn't there at the time. During the final battle, he was busy helping Aqua fight possessed Ven.
    • A flashback in Kingdom Hearts II shows that Mickey met Ansem the Wise and Xehanort walked in. Then again, Mickey states he has a bad memory, so maybe he forgot about Xehanort? Mickey saw Roxas at the end of Kingdom Hearts II, but he never thinks it is Ven.
    • Mickey never met Master Xehanort. He didn't know what went down with Terra and Xehanort, and honestly, would body snatching be the first thing that popped into your head, or would you just assume it was an Identical Stranger?
      • So when he was training with Yen Sid, when he was send by Yen Sid to th Keyblade Graveyard, after he promised to save Terra, after everything, NEVER ONCE did Yen Sid bother to mention to Mickey that Master XEHANORT is the enemy they ae fighting?
• The lost boys are afraid to fly up an enormously steep cliff edge, pixie dust or no. Peter Pan calls them cowards and goads them on to their current quest... annoying armed pirates capable of killing them. Aqua calls Peter Pan "a good leader."
  • What? Never heard of sarcasm before?
    • Except that she was being completely sincere. And to be fair, she did see some good qualities of leadership in him, but she was ignoring some gaping flaws there too.
    • Their current quest had nothing to do with the pirates. The pirates just happened to show up which, well, happens like every other day in Neverland. She was calling him a good leader because the point of the "treasure hunt" wasn't the treasure, it was getting the kids to push themselves and conquer the obstacles that would lead to the treasure.
    • This would hold a grain of truth if Peter Pan was actually trying to teach the kids something...given his character, that probably wasn't the case. Aqua, having only known him for a little while, is probably having an understandable misjudge of character.
  • She said he was a good leader, not a perfect leader.
• Why does Vanitas look like Sora? Ventus hadn't merged with Sora yet, Vanitas has no connection to Sora.
  • They hadn't merged yet, no, but their hearts had touched before Sora was born, when Ventus was unconscious and Vanitas was coalescing (yeah, Sora only came into contact with Ventus's half, but they were two sides of the same coin). There must have been some cross-pollination of phenotype then.
    • Or, Actor Allusion. Or both.
    • Reverse it. Maybe Sora grew up to look like Vanitas.
    • After wondering that myself, I came to the conclusion that maybe it was for the sake of parallels. Sora and Roxas are separate halves, so why not make Ven's other half look like Sora?
      • Word of God states that Vanitas was originally a vaguely human-shaped heartless, and the contact between Ven and Sora gave Vanitas a human form.
• None of the main characters seem to know which people are Princesses of Heart, even though Eraqus makes it clear that they know that the Princesses exist, and are important. You'd think that, for example, Terra would know where the hearts of pure light (the Princesses) are. And yet, he seems surprised to discover that Cinderella and Snow White are such individuals.
  • TAV probably never left the Land of Departure for more than a brief visit before (it was definitely Ven's first time, and possibly Terra and Aqua's, as well), so they wouldn't know where to look. Besides, these are supposedly worlds we're talking about. It might be common knowledge that there is a Princess of Heart on a given world, but actually finding them would be searching for a needle in a very big haystack. It was pretty much luck (or destiny, or both) that TAV met the princesses at all.
  • For what it's worth, while Terra is apparently ignorant even after meeting them, Aqua recognizes who is and isn't a Princess of Heart (or at least, who has a heart of pure light) just from being within a few feet of them -- which is probably one of the reasons Aqua is named a Master and Terra is not. Also, there's thousands of worlds, according to the dialog, and they end up on only a handful -- it's likely they were able to sense in some fashion which worlds were being attacked by the Unversed and were drawn there, and Eraqus was counting on that to lead them to defend the Princesses of Hearts.
• Is it just me, or was Minnie's punishment for Pete a bit of Disproportionate Retribution?
  • The guy was about to attack her (seriously, look at his pose, it's one of the ones he uses when in battle) over ice cream. That sounds worthy of banishment to me. Hell, considering modern law against assaulting political figures, let alone a monarch, he's lucky Minnie intended to eventually release him.
    • Actually, his arm was outstretched but low and had the palm face up, clearly in a pose expecting something to be put in his hand and not threatening her at all. So no, he wasn't going to attack her over the ice cream.
  • The explicit reason wasn't just that Pete was trying to steal ice cream, it was that he dismissed and put down the few people -- whoever they were -- who had voted for him for the prize. The prize itself, several characters note, was never the point of the award. Pete was kind of a dick, but what really sent Minnie over the edge was that he just kicked to the curb the people who had sincerely believed in him. In a game that's as subtle about the whole friendship thing as this game is, that's going to be a big deal breaker. And it was just a time-out in a place where he was clearly doing OK even though he was angry, so it's not that disproportionate.
• A more meta headscratcher, what is so confusing about how Aurora's heart was taken? Xehanort clearly tells Braig that Terra was not yet capable of doing something like that.
• Ventus's connection to Sora at the beginning explains Vanitas's physical appearance to Sora, but it doesn't explain his voice before Ventus connects to Sora. Was it officially said that Vanitas resembles Sora or the other way around?
  • Vanitas resembles Sora, not the other way around.
• How does Ventus know what the Unversed are called? He was never at the meeting where Master Eraqus says Yen Sid calls them unversed, yet he knows that name as shown by his inner thoughts (the goals written on the screen) and the cutscene where Vanitas forges the X-blade.
  • The information about the Unversed was covered in Master Xehanort's letter to Eraqus, which Ventus acquired upon leaving the Land of Departure.
• Minor headscratcher, but still one nonetheless. How come they retconned Ventus from being The Southpaw? I thought it would have been a reference to Roxas' ambidexterity with Keyblades, but then they rid of it.
• Why didn't Xehanort try to make an attempt to retrieve Terra's keyblade from the Lingering Will considering since he possessed Terra's body and a heart, he had a potentially more legitimate claim to the keyblade.
  • He probably couldn't during the fight, and afterwards he likely didn't even remember it.
• On Aqua's route in the Castle of Dreams, why couldn't she just open Cinderella's door with her Keyblade instead of waiting for Jaq to open it?
  • Scaled down magic, I suppose. Terra could bust through an automatic prison door at his regular size, so maybe that could explain why Aqua can't open a brass lock at mouse size.
• So, Cloud and the other Final Fantasy characters were from Radiant Garden, right? Then why is it Zack is from Olympus Colleseum?
  • AU versions. That is all. Just look at Seifer and his posse; no relations to Leon.
  • Has it ever been confirmed that Zack is from Olympus Coliseum? Cloud first showed up at Olympus Coliseum, but he's not from it.
  • He's clearly designed in a Disney-esque fashion, wearing Greek armor, and wielding an ancient-styled sword. It's safe to assume he's a resident of this world.
• So am I the only one who thinks hiring Susan Blakeslee for the wicked Queen was kind of weird? I know she's a good Maleficent and Tremaine, but it seems a tad too obvious as the Wicked Queen.
  • Indeed, it was really distracting when all three villains of the first set of Disney worlds sound alike. Maleficent and Tremaine can get away with it, as they always had the same voice actress. But the Queen ought to have had someone else voicing her.
• About the Keyblade of Hearts, it's stated that keyblade has the ability to "unlock people's hearts", which Sora's Keyblade doesn't have. Then, in BBS one of Xehanort's reports reveals that ALL keyblade wielders have the ability to use their keyblades to pretty much do whatever they with people's hearts at will. Seems like a contradiction to me.