Gaping Plot Hole?

[Endless Strategy]

Alright, everyone, please listen while I explain this (in my opinion) gaping plot hole. You would assume that when the Heartless invade any given world they take a ton of hearts by force before taking the Keyhole and the world itself, right? After all, the Heartless had been in Traverse Town for a fair amount of time without finding the Keyhole that was right under their noses. At the end of KH 1 all the worlds were restored. This is the big plot hole I'm talking about. Allow me to explain.

So, just as an example, Sora visits the Pridelands in KH 2. This world was said to have been destroyed in KH1, or else Leon would never have gotten the Sun stone that contained Simba who survived his world's destruction. So, seeing as animals can become heartless (example: Scar) there is a big problem with this occurence. The Heartless would surely have taken countless hearts before bringing down the Pridelands themselves. Yet when the worlds are returned there are no characters absent at all, and none seem to even remember being attacked/turned into heartless. So this means that every heart that has ever been taken by the heartless has been returned to where it dwelt originally.

But that is ridiculous. Why does restoring the worlds cause all the taken hearts to return, and why can the Heartless still take hearts of people if the world's hearts are no longer accessible (if the keyblade can safeguard one kind o heart, why not another?). Furthermore, if all the hearts were restored, then why is the organization still around?

The more I think about this the less it makes sense, any help here?

 

[Gray Aria]

If this is a plot hole at all, it certainly is not "gaping". We shouldn't assume that the only characters that exist in that world are the ones that we've seen in the movies. It could have been just extras who had their hearts taken.

 

[Ruran]

Was it said that the Pride Lands fell during KH1? It's been a while since I played KH2.

The Heartless try to take as many hearts as possible but it doesn't mean they succeed in taking them all. Most of the character in Traverse Town are refugees from worlds that were taken over by the heartless. If I recall correctly, the Earthshine said something about containing a spirit that wouldn't yield to darkness so apparently if you can't escape your world and you have a strong heart/heart with potent light...you turn into a stone. *shrugs*

Any way, restoring a world doesn't restore the hearts of it inhabitants. There have been absent Disney characters, but some probably aren't shown because they can't fit into the plot or there would be too many characters at once.

Why does restoring the worlds cause all the taken hearts to return, and why can the Heartless still take hearts of people if the world's hearts are no longer accessible (if the keyblade can safeguard one kind o heart, why not another?).

That's an interesting question, but could you imagine Sora running up to every person he could find and try looking their hearts. That'd be hella funny but...

 

[Chuman]

Why people scream plot hole at every little thing they don't understand stupifies me, but anyhow, when a Nobody is not created, the body is not being occupied, so the heart returns to body and everyone goes on as if nothing happened. And they probably weren't caring because they were restored over a year ago and they had bigger problems to deal with, like the Heartless invading, Scar controlling the Pride Lands, and the hyenas wrecking havok.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

That is certainly not a plothole.

The Pride Lands were one of the destroyed worlds, yes, so was also Destiny Islands and several others.

Like Ruran said, not all inhabitants of a world are turned into heartless when their worlds are lost to darkness. Some get swept into the Lanes Between, some may have ended up in the Realm of Darkness together with their worlds (beings are able to exist there, as seen with Aqua and Ansem the Wise), some stranded in other worlds like Traverse Town and some might indeed have turned into heartless.

When the world is restored though all hearts that aren't "captured" by a heartless are restored as well.
World's hearts are slightly different from people's hearts as those apparently, as said, can be shielded from access due to locking the keyhole of the world, however, it has never been said that human hearts do have this as well. It rather seems that human hearts are locked by default and succumbing to darkness actually opens them.
The phrase "open your heart to darkness" was said several times during the series, when Sora sacrificed himself to restore Kairi, giving birth to Roxas and Naminé he unlocked his heart with the dark keyblade and when Master Xehanort created Vanitas he unlocked Ventus's heart and cut it, extracting the darkness from within it.
So, according to this human hearts are locked by default and unlike the lock of a world's heart, heartless apparently can bypass that lock.

I can also only agree with Chuman here, not every tiny bit of mystery we don't understand is a plothole.
He's also completely right on the issue when a heart taken by the heartless is restored when no nobody was made.
When the heartless gets destroyed by a keyblade the heart is freed and the original being is restored.

Sora slayed many, many heartless during the journey in KH 1 so it is very likely that many beings could be restored at the end of KH 1.

 

[axel95]

That's an interesting question, but could you imagine Sora running up to every person he could find and try looking their hearts. That'd be hella funny but...

They could do a game just to show that, but it would be worse than Days....

 

[Th Key of Destny]

Let's not forget the buttload of heartless around the Pride lands during KH2. It's fair to assume that at least some of them were original inhabitants of the Pride lands

 

[Spikeyroxas]

Well <spoiler>
In the bbsfm secret cutscenes (v2)
You see castle of dreams in the dark realm

So maybe when a world falls to darkness, not everyone becomes a heartless, but rather they may still be alive and trapped in the RoD.

This is assuming that is the castle of dreams in the RoD and it is still Inhabitted