A plot contradiction?

[UrbanQuattrus]

Saix and Xemnas say that they need Sora to kill heartless with the keyblade, because doing so frees the hearts trapped within, which go to power Xemnas' Kingdom Hearts.

But remember Xehanort's reports in the first game - he created a machine that produced artificial heartless, without having to draw them from people.

So, seeing as the vast majority of heartless present in all games are those artificial heartless, they should not release a heart when killed, as they weren't produced by one in the first place. This would make Xemnas' plan very inefficient.

(Of course, this is a tangent to the question of where the artificial heartless keep coming from, seeing as Xehanort's heartless and his machine were both destroyed at the end of the first game, and aside from when the MCP and Xehanort get their hands into things briefly at the battle of Hollow Bastion halfway through the third game, the machine at Hollow Bastion stays dormant because the world is under control of the good guys. But that's for another post.)

 

[Kaden]

Well, the emblem heartless, as they are known, steal hearts from people, and that is why they have hearts.
They multiply when they steal hearts.
Everything is answered in the Ansem Reports of Kingdom Hearts 1:


Ansem Report 2
It is my duty to expose what this darkness really is. I shall conduct the following experiments:

- Extract the darkness from a person's heart.
- Cultivate darkness in a pure heart.
- Both suppress and amplify the darkness within.

The experiments caused the test subject's heart to collapse, including those of the most stalwart. How fragile our hearts are! My treatments produced no signs of recovery. I confined those who had completely lost their hearts beneath the castle.

Sometime later, I went below and was greeted by the strangest sight. Creatures that seemed born from darkness... What are they? Are they truly sentient beings? Could they be the shadows of those who lost their hearts in my experiments?

Ansem Report 4
The Heartless appear in groups and are multiplying rapidly. I've provided them with both living and non-living samples. They've responded only to the living. They seem to multiply after absorbing something from the living creatures. Their prey vanishes without a trace.

I believe the Heartless are taking hearts. They are born from those who've lost their hearts and thrive on hearts seized from others. The hearts taken by the Heartless become Heartless themselves.

Though I lack proof, I'm confident in this hypothesis. I must also study their behavioral principles. Though they lack emotions, they do seem to have some intelligence. How to communicate with them?

It just occurred to me: Could they be the darkness in people's hearts?

 

[Destiny's End]

The experiments caused the test subject's heart to collapse, including those of the most stalwart. How fragile our hearts are! My treatments produced no signs of recovery. I confined those who had completely lost their hearts beneath the castle.

Sometime later, I went below and was greeted by the strangest sight. Creatures that seemed born from darkness... What are they? Are they truly sentient beings? Could they be the shadows of those who lost their hearts in my experiments?

That could explain the scene in KH2 Final Mix when Xemnas walks through the Hallway and you see all those chain-linked doors.

I believe the Heartless are taking hearts. They are born from those who've lost their hearts and thrive on hearts seized from others. The hearts taken by the Heartless become Heartless themselves.

Though I lack proof, I'm confident in this hypothesis. I must also study their behavioral principles. Though they lack emotions, they do seem to have some intelligence. How to communicate with them?

It just occurred to me: Could they be the darkness in people's hearts?

I thought Heartless' goal is to the find the Heart of a World, contaminate it, and eventually destroy it. If The Heartless are born from the Darkness in people's hearts, then why seek out a heart? I thought it was The Nobodies goal to become whole beings again.

 

[KershaFangs]

Emblem Heartless seek out more and more powerful hearts to take from themselves and since the Heart of a World would be more powerful than a person's... Naturals may too, however they feed directly and indirectly on darkness to survive so they seem more intend on darkness than hearts themselves.

 

[gottaluvkh1992]

how do all of you know the emblem heartless are the artifical ones, was it confirmed?
and if they are artifical should they release hearts?

 

[Kaden]

how do all of you know the emblem heartless are the artifical ones, was it confirmed?
and if they are artifical should they release hearts?

Secret Ansem Report #5
In this realm, where all existence has been disintegrated, I have just barely managed to preserve my sense of self by continuing to think and to write. It is a place where even time has lost all meaning. Eternity is as but a moment here. I must make haste. Certainly their plans are already underway. The Heartless must be the key to unraveling this mystery. The six traitors were operating a laboratory that churned out those cursed shadows. Not only did they generate "pureblood" Heartless from living hearts, but they then used those Heartless to synthesize artificial versions of the creatures as well. These synthetic Heartless bore insignias and were called "Emblems". Pureblood or Emblem, these Heartless act only to fulfill their instinctive needs. They single-mindedly detect hearts and swarm around them. A human's commands would be ineffective: the Heartless would easily steal the human's heart and use it to increase their own ranks. But what if an even stronger Heartless was giving the orders? If he cast aside his own soul and body and became a Heartless, wouldn't he be able to control the otherwise intractable Heartless? Furthermore, wouldn't he be planning to make use of the creature's instincts? If the heart-seeking Heartless have their sights set on a larger, more powerful heart, their ultimate goal is crystal-clear. The largest heart in existence---the heart of the world. This is all conjecture, but it would seem he is utilizing the Heartless in his search for a path leading to the heart of the world.

 

[Ehud]

and ansem also said that made him closer to making hearts out of nothing.so xemnass plan would work.

 

[moos]

we only know pure 5 heartlessthey are shadows neoshadows darkballs invisibles and darksides all the rest (which bear the heartless symbol) are emblems

 

[boygame66]

um.....dont heartsless steal hearts from people so the would have their own hearts?so when the first artifacial heartsless died there would have still been the real ones that took the hearts from people....right?

 

[KershaFangs]

um.....dont heartsless steal hearts from people so the would have their own hearts?so when the first artifacial heartsless died there would have still been the real ones that took the hearts from people....right?

Heartless steal the heart. It's not their own, since they took it from another person.

Real Heartless don't seek out taking hearts as much as the artificals. Naturals feed off the darkness of hearts, so they may take a heart to expose it to Darkness and they live off that source and continue to hide away in the shadows. Of course, more powerful Naturals would do this as they are bigger and stronger, then they must or should require more darkness to live off than the smaller ones. Many smaller Shadows could band together as well to try to take down a person, however such order in mostly unlikely to occur in teamwork and rather in brute force of several of them attacking randomly.

So yes, a bit of both. Naturals just don't seek out hearts as much as the darkness of the heart itself.

 

[Koji]

Even tho Emblems are artificial heartless, they should still release a heart even just after being born. Because it's using a very similar method. Both -the artificial and natural- ways of creating a heartless involved exposing the heart to darkness. And since a heartless is a heart that has been taken over by darkness, there should always be a heart within a heartless (a small light shines from within the darkness).