#disney worlds in kingdom hearts

[hollowwhisperings]

KH4 Spec: Disney Worlds & Emotional Vulnerability (for boys)

A key part of any Kingdom Hearts game is the use of Disney (& Pixar!) films as Microcosms to the greater Macrocosm of said game (& often the Series as a whole). The Disney Worlds act as easily recognisable Settings, toyboxes if you will, to convey concepts otherwise difficult to "fit" within the limitations of the JRPG genre.

(even then, KH does tend to rely on Monologue Heavy Cutscenes & Collectible Texts to direct players toward All Those Emotions & Reactions That Are Happening)

Societal Preconceptions of what stories can be told with a Young Male Protagonist actively sabotage the KH series in its efforts to show the emotional experiences of its young male characters: Sora needs the Framework of a Disney Princess in order to express and recognise concepts traditionally Denied to his gender. Players need Very Explicit Parallels and Dialogue, often repeated & rephrased across several Worlds, just to prevent their Dismissing Emotional Text (let alone Subtext) out of hand because "JRPGs/Action Heroes/Boys don't feel Scared/Sad/Insecure".

Emotional Depth is not "masculine", especially for Male Protagonists and Male Antagonists because "Feelings" are "feminine".

KH actively subverts this false perception of [How Brains Work] by very pointedly removing its "Token Girl" from the most Emotional & Introspective moments in the series.

Kairi's whole PURPOSE, in the greater scope of the KH series narrative, is to "Not Be There" when she "should" be: when Sora feels overwhelmed by the enormity of his quests or feels scared of Failure, it is never Kairi who magically pops by to do the Emotional Heavylifting in Sora's Stead. Sometimes Sora is able to articulate his feelings by recognising them in the Stories of the Disney characters (most of them Female) but as "Story" characters, the emotions and memories that are being Expressed are, by default, those of our Male Protagonists (Sora & Riku). The Disney Worlds act as framing devices for a Young person struggling to articulate whst they Feel & for a Male Protagonist to Recognise his own emotions even as his "own" World (the society he grew up in, the societies of We Players) has preconditioned Sora to "grow out" of Feeling emotions, let alone Expressing them.

Kairi the UnCharacter

Kairi's function within the greater narrative of KH ("the Coming of Age of a young boy named Sora") is to Be Female and to Not Be Where She Is "Supposed" To Be.

In most works with Male Protagonists, especially those of the Shōnen or action genres and ESPECIALLY in the videogame medium, a "Token Girl" functions as an Emotional Outlet for the Male Characters.

Has the (male) Protagonist just experienced something Frightening, suffered Loss or become Lost after the Peacefup Setting of the game's Tutorial?

The Token Girl will be there to Recognise and Express feelings of "something sad and scary" having happened to the Protagonist, of how "shaken and out of sorts" the Protagonist must be. The Token Girl will then act as an Outlet for these emotions, a Comfortable Vehicle to Focus on (to "redirect" the negative emotions to masculine "action") via becoming Someone To Protect or Someone To Impress. Or, if the Token Female is Dead By Tutorial, grief for "Her" is an Acceptable Emotion... to then be directed to the "more acceptable" method for dealing with Males Having Emotions via Monologues To The Setting ("talking at the scenery") or Promises To The Dead.

These emotions are, subsequently, Never Brought Up Again except as Character Motives or within the "acceptable" outlet of a Romantic Sideplot or an Epilogue Montage/Cutscenes. Sometimes games will use character commentaries in item descriptions or story logs to Remember The Plot Device but since these Expressions of Emotion are hidden within optional reading, players & the game's cast can Dodge any further acknowledgement of Having Feelings or anything resembling [Emotional Labour].

Kairi, the "Token Girl" of KH1, exists to "not exist": as the Designated Female in the lives of Sora and Riku, Kairi's absence is Glaring and, for some, Uncomfortable.

When Sora is at his lowest, when he feels scared and overwhelmed... Kairi is Not There to do his [Emotional Labour] for him. When Sora feels insecure or has a sudden understanding about himself or his relatio ships with others... Kairi is Not There to be Sora's ("Acceptably Female") Emotional Outlet. When Sora feels inspired or moved by his experiences... Kairi is Not There to say Sora's emotions for him, she is Not There for him to confide in, Not There to serve as a "purpose" for Sora "Having An Emotion".

Sora is a Very Emotional character: he is in a Coming of Age Journey, he is constantly put into the emotional stories of Disney films, and emotional introspection is a fundamental component of his setting's [combat mechanics]. Sora spends most of his games with Disney characters as his companions, his mentors, his confidants: when each KH game has its Emotional Climax, removed from the Disney settings & characters who had subconsciously prepared Sora (& players)... Kairi is Not There.

The emotions in Sora's Story are HIS emotions: his to experience, his to recognise in Others, his to express and articulate.

And, when removed from the comforting framework of Disney, who does Sora share his emotions be they positive or negative?

Riku, the OTHER Male Protagonist.

Kairi is Not There for Riku's emotional experiences either. Kairi, whose "purpose" in most works is to be Designated & Acceptably Female Emotional Outlet, is Not There. When Kairi is conveniently nearby either boy when they have an Emotional Revelation... Kairi is left in the background. The KH games COULD include Kairi, the Designated Female most "convenient" for its Male Protagonists to Emote At... yet, at every opportunity, Kairi is Not There. Kairi Not Being There is Deliberate, it is Pointed: it is the KH series saying "here is where you expect Emotions to come from & go to" and "we will not be doing that".

Kairi is Conveniently Female so that the KH series can Actively NOT USE THAT CONVENIENCE: Sora's Coming of Age Journey is emotional, as all such stories are, and it is SORA'S. Sora's to feel, Sora's to act upon, Sora's to recognise through Disney Parallels, Sora's to come to terms with, Sora's to express to whomever Sora most wants to express them to.

Now that the KH series has "retired" Kairi from her Role as "Convenient Female We Actively Never Use For Convenience", she might be allowed to have an opinion and perhaps even Have A Personality! I fear, however, that Players will need even more very pointed instances of Kairi Being There & Female and how Pointedly Unused she is when Sora needs to do something "feminine"!

Because KH is about deconstructing the "gender" of emotions: it is about exploring how feelings affect and influence our memories, our behaviour. How our identities, our relationships, require us to engage with our emotions. How refusing or ignoring what we feel leads to pain, isolation and sometimes tragedy. How each generation's relationships with emotional expression affects the generations that follow them, shaped by beliefs of predetermined suffering: how younger generations, if given the tools and context for such trauma-shaped beliefs, can show us all that these cycles of suffering are not inevitable or destined. That it takes all of us engaging with our emotions honestly, respecting each other's emotions as being as important to them as yours are to yourself... and, together, we can share our emotions (our Hearts) and find grounds for reconciliation (Connection). How we can only become stronger by embracing our ability to "feel" and by respecting how important and natural emotions are to us all. Emotions ("hearts") and the tools we use to understand them (stories, friendship, introspection) are not solely "allowed" to "children", to females or within the bounds of romance. Emotions are human and limiting who is "allowed" to express them or how they "should" be expressed? That harms us all. So open your hearts, connect with the hearts of others, and heal the hurts we have done unto ourselves & each other.

[goldensunset]

when people refer to canon story-relevant kingdom hearts games as ‘spinoffs’ it makes me sad not only for the obvious reasons i always say but also bc like man i WISH this series had spinoffs. imagine what they could do if they had permission from nomura to truly go off the rails and ignore the greater canon for a second and just do some fun whimsical plotless thing in an alternate universe. imagine a fishing/boating game on destiny islands. kh fighting game. it is an injustice that we have been deprived of kingdom karts. can anyone hear me

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts 3 - The Caribbean

[corfidbizna]

KHIII Chapter 34 (Eng): https://www.mediafire.com/file/chzljkfluz4zcey/KH3_Ch34.zip/file Chapter List

Sora's missed a few memos.

[the-seraphim-weep]

[ashlaf99]

A Princess with a Heart of Pure Light

Pics taken by my friend!

I give these updated photos of my Kairi cosplay from KH3 that we got at Animal Kingdom on Pandora! I fully believe that Kairi would go to different worlds and universes to find Sora 🫶🏻

Please tell me what you think!

[manuelgaviro]

Some quick fanart that my free time during the holidays gave inspiration to : What if Figment was a KH party Member? I made three UI Icon fanart : Non-Combat, Battling, and the classic low-healthed "Somebody come quick!!"

[asksakura1125td]

Hmmmm brain worms made me do these. It was just a snow ball after I made the first two.

[mzminola]

Keyblade wielders Dick Grayson & Cassandra Cain.

Princess of Heart Tim Drake.

[writebackatya]

I have a small pin collection, but I just HAD to get these

[theblueprincess590]

The Protector of Children’s Laughter-An Analysis of Kingdom Heart 3

Sora has assumed many roles throughout the Kingdom Hearts series from, Unlikely Hero, to Knight in Shining Armor, to Fool, but in Kingdom Hearts 3 Sora assumes his most important role, as a Fairy Tale Guardian.This can first be seen in Kingdom Of Corona where Sora Guides Rapunzel throughout her journey and encourages here to see the beauty of the outside world. The main point of the world was to explore how Sora’s role allows him to spread joy to others. Monstropolis further elaborates on Sora as a Fairy Tale Guardian by exploring how his role makes him a protector of children.

The goal of Monstropolis is to protect Boo and get her back home. Fighting the Unversed, putting out the fires, overcoming Randall’s challenges, and traversing the Door Vault, it’s all done for Boo’s sake. However it is not just her physical body that the team strives to protect her heart as well. Throughout the World a special meter known as Laugh Power appears. Whenever this meter appears the mission statement changes from just fighting the unversed and heartless to keeping Boo happy. You must pull out all the stops and defeat the monsters as flashily as possible without letting yourself or Sully get hurt. This is all done for the sake of keeping Boo Happy. Her laughter must be preserved in the face of darkness, not just because it serves as an in-universe power source but because a child should be laughing. No child should ever go through such terror like this, their childhood should never be sullied by the greed of selfish adults. So Sora fights to keep Boo smiling, to keep the memories of terror far away from her heart and to instead give her memories of laughter. 

Even outside of the meter the ideal of preserving Children’s laughter is ever present in the World’s story. Several times throughout the Journey the Gang takes pit stops to cheer Boo up such as when Mike and Sully cover themselves in paint to make Boo laugh or when Sora puts on his iconic silly face. And interestingly enough both of these events have the characters calling back their past. During Mike and Sully’s College years they were humiliated by a group of bullies who covered them in colorful paint. This was one of their lowest moments as their dignity was stripped from them for the sake of a petty joke. And Yet in this moment they reclaim that humiliating memory and use it as a force of good. Willingly covering themselves in pink and blue paint in order to make Boo Smile. The sting of the painful memory now replaced with the child’s joyous laughter. As for Sora’s goofy face this moment calls back to Sora’s first meeting with Donald and Goofy in KH1. When they first meet Sora’s soul was playing a symphony of sadness. The loss of his home and friends dragged his heart down, threatening to drown him in darkness. And so to combat this Donald and Goofy shared their ideals with Sora, telling him that if he wants to come with he has to wear a happy and silly face, explaining that their ship runs on happy faces. And while out of context this may seem harsh, it’s far more than the two just telling Sora to buck up and smile. As disney characters and fairy tale heroes it is Donalds and Goofy’s mission is to not only help others but to make them happy. They can not waste time worrying when people need them, they must traverse the Ocean Between smiling all the way so that others may smile in turn. Sora shows his understanding and acceptance of this ideal by giving his own Goofy smile in turn, Truly becoming a Disney character and fairy tale hero. So when Sora brings this smile back in KH3 we know he is putting on a Brave face for Boo, inspiring her to be courageous and smile in turn, becoming for her what Doanld and Goofy were for him in KH1.

If Sora and Sully are Fairy Tale Guardians Than Randall and Vanitas are Childhood Nightmares. Randal is a selfish egomaniac terrifying children and  preying on the weak simply to validate himself. He rejects the truth that Laughter is more powerful than screams in order to justify his self-serving desire of returning to the old way. He doesn’t care for the safety of his world nor the well being of the children. To him everyone else only exists to stroke his ego. And so he warps Monsters Incorporated into a twisted reflection of its past. A death trap filled with mindless monsters that never think for themselves as they preying upon those that are different from them and machinery that destroys rather creates. Born from sinful pride Randall’s path of fear only serves to reveal the weakness of both his ideology and his true self. The Factory falls apart under Randall’s control. With the Unversed and Heartless free to run wild as they burn down the metaphorical Kingdom Randall lusts for all while the screams Randall gathered fail to power anything of value. Randall himself is shown to be nothing more than a parasite. He never once fights Sora, Donald, Goofy, Sully, and Mike himself, instead choosing to hide in the shadows while letting the Unversed and Heartless do all the fighting for him as he pathetically taunts the heroes or complains when they fail to get the job done. Randall can do nothing for himself because he is fundamentally a coward  who prays on the weak in order to feel like a big man. And in the end Randal is rejected by the world itself as not only does the authority of the world in the form of the CDA Agents oppose him but he is permanently banished from the monster world thanks to Sora’s keyblade, a weapon born from a literal age of fairy tales. For parasites parading as Nightmares have no right to stop children from laughing.

 While Randal was just a weakling parading as a creature of fear, Vanitas is a true walking nightmare. A horror born from the abyss itself, Vanitas seeks only to spread terror and despair. Using Randall’s ego and the Unversed spawned from his maelstrom of hatred Vanitas spreads terror to not just the world of monsters but the countless dreams of all children, he torments them, scarring their very hearts for no reason other than to consume their very screams. Every tragedy in the world is born from his twisted machinations, the torment of the children, the destruction of the factory, and the creation of the Lump of Horror. This is what Nightmares do, they spread misery everywhere they go, feeding off the fears of children to take shape, just like how Vanitas needs the negative emotions of others to take a form. And that is exactly why Vanitas losses at the end of the world. He can only exist through the pain of others whereas Fairy Tale Guardians like Mike and Sully exist for the sake of others. They do not rely on the children for strength but instead are the ones who give children the strength to move forward. And as such Vanitas is powerless against Sully. Even with his body fully restored Vanitas is incapable of fighting back against Sully who effortlessly banishes him from Monsters Incorporated using the Very doors Vanitas abused.

In Contrast to Vanitas and Randall who are punished for their acts of terror against the young, Sora and Sully are rewarded. By protecting both Boo’s innocence they are able to use her laughter to save both their world and themselves. Through the Laugh Power meter they are able to destroy Armies of Heartless and Unversed or restore power to the falling machinery, more importantly near the end of the journey Sora is rewarded with the powerful accessory of the Laugh Pin. A one of the kind item that grants the miraculous ability MP walker which restores MP with every step taken. Ultimately the accessory represents both the courage Sora gave Boo through his goofy face and the power Boo’s laughter gave to Sora. 

In the end while a Fairy tale Guardian’s job is to protect children they can’t keep them safe forever. As Seen by the Unversed malice will always find a way to reach the children and their hearts. Pain is an inevitability of life and while what Randall said about fear remaining sticking with a child is true that is not the end all be all. Hope though weak is eternal and can blossom in any heart is nurtured by Joy. While Mike and Sully can not erase the pain burdened upon them by Vanitas they are more than capable of healing the wounds by continuing to make them laugh every night. For a fairy tale guardian never gives up on the children. They will always be the protector of the light of children, Just like how Sora will continue to protect all hearts in his war against Xehanort.

[hollowwhisperings]

How Unreality Could Expand the KH Multiverse: KH4

I've seen a lot of fans talk about Quadratum as a FF-inspired setting, as a tool for narrative existentialism, as a "pitstop" before returning to Disney Crossovers & the Foretellers Plotline.

But... KH4 isn't "just" set in Quadratum. It will feature "layers of reality", likelythrough dreams and datascapes, but the setting of KH4 is not just Quadratum: it's a Second Reality, a [universe] of "Fiction".

The KH series has ALWAYS used its ability to include & reference the settings it can "crossover" with: while I don't think 'Unreality' will have Disney Worlds for Sora (or Riku) to literally travel to via Gummi Ship... I DO think that Unreality or 'Quadratum' will have Other Worlds within it, Worlds that our protagonists can travel to & learn from.

They just won't be Disney ones: they'll be Square Enix ones.

But, uh, Disney Worlds will feature in KH4 too. Not only through the universe traversed by the "Guardians of Light" (King Mickey might finally be playable outside Dying!) but hrough books, dreams, datascapea and "near-death experiences" in Unreality/Quadratum.

Square Enix's Final Fantasy series is referenced throughout the KH series, largely through game mechanics and the odd character cameo but a "Final Fantasy" or "Square Enix" World has not yet appeared. Until Quadratum.

Now, forgive my limited knowledge of Square Enix titles outside KH but I do recall that the FF games have crossed over with each other before, for the purposes of a cosmic conflict between the forces of "Good"[/Light/order?] and "Evil"[/Darkness/chaos]: while some characters from the Dissidia FF games have already been "established" as living in the "Disney" side of Reality, is it not Plausible that their "fictional" counterparts could reappeat, now in their "original" settings?

Will KH4 allow its players to meet "Squall" as the Unreality Counterpart to Radiant Garden's "Leon"? What FF games could act as Worlds for Sora to learn from, with themes that share or expand on those of the Disney Worlds? I genuinely do not know and I am very interested to find out.

[glitteringstardust]

♡ Mickey's Boo To You Halloween Parade at the Magic Kingdom (2023)

[gummi-ships]

Kingdom Hearts - End of the World

[minijenn]

Let It Go/Love Is An Open Door

Finally, the cover for my favorite Disney world in all of Keys to the Kingdom! I saved the best for last with this one (though this isn't the last one of these world covers I'm gonna do... :3). But yeah, I'm still so proud of the Frozen chapters, because not only did I actually make Frozen good as a Disney world (lookin at you, KH3 T_T) but I also was able to tie in some really strong themes and explore some really fun dynamics, especially the friendship between Elsa and Sora. Boy collects supportive older sibling/parental figures in Keys like crazy, man I love it.

[hatchpaper]

Kingdom Hearts Worlds Compilation

By Corbin Leach | 9/26/2015—10/19/2023