What are some really common KH misconceptions?

[WaltK]

Things like how, when Sora is depicted in parodies, or when one of his Play Arts figures are set up for display on store shelves, there is a good chance that he'll be holding his Keyblade the wrong way around.

It makes sense logically; if you're using a giant key as a blunt force weapon, you're bound to do more damage to the target if you're hitting them with the jagged teeth. But that's simply not what's done in-universe.

Even official media makes this mistake sometimes, like Disney Emoji Blitz

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[AR829038]

I would say by far the biggest misconception of the series is how densely complicated and impossible to understand it is. Part of this is rooted in a kernel of truth—the series IS very lore-heavy and keeping all the information straight can be difficult, and that's before you introduce time travel and parallel worlds into the mix. But I think the series' reputation for being impenetrably convoluted is largely a smokescreen created by the fanbase itself. I think at some level the fans of the series enjoy playing up how complicated the series is to normies, maybe because they feel insecure about liking a Disney game meant for children and feel they have to justify it by emphasizing the intellectual rigor of keeping up with its lore, or maybe it's a gatekeeping thing, or maybe some people just feel like they need to over-prepare newcomers to get them ready to pay attention to every little detail.

But overall, I don't think the story of the series is that complicated. What makes it SEEM complicated is the fact that a lot of information is not presented clearly, and a lot of information just isn't presented at all, which can lead to confusion and inconsistencies. There's a big difference between the ambiguities in Kingdom Hearts, for instance, and the ambiguities in games like From Software titles, where the ambiguity and lack of information feels like an intentional part of uncovering or comprehending the narrative. But with Kingdom Hearts, it really just feels like Nomura writes stuff in that he doesn't really think about, and then either forgets about it or comes up with some retro-fitting convoluted explanation later when he make it conveniently tie into the current narrative.

At the end of the day, Kingdom Hearts is just a series about a boy and his circle of friends trying to stop the universe from falling out of balance by keeping the darkness at bay. That's really the long and short of it. Everything else is just window dressing and getting from point A to point B. And I think fans tend to fool themselves into believing it's more intricate and sophisticated than it is, or they just get a kick out of making outsiders think that to counterbalance the whole kid's-game vibes.

 

[LoneFox]

(This is image is supposed to be a gif, but it's not moving on my end. Is just me?)

Looks like the forum software has converted it to jpg.

 

[MATGSY]

Disney didn't veto a KH fighting game, as far can be determined anyway. It was said in an interview once that Dissidia was at first intended to be a KH fighter, but it was to FF after it was decided that Disney characters fighting wouldn't be appropriate. Thing is, the way it was worded, they didn't specify who decided that. The fandom collectively jumped to the conclusion that it was Disney who rejected the concept when that isn't a confirmed fact. It's most certainly possible, given Disney's track record with restricting how their IPs are utilized in the past. But not confirmed to have been the case as so many have assumed.

With the way it's worded & framed in the interview however, it honestly sounded to me that it was itself Square themselves who made the call. They were detailing the creative process of what led them to DFF so it comes across like all of the decisions were theirs.

Besides, there was always a couple of things suspicious about the idea of the Disney veto: like the fact that S-E probably made more money on Dissidia in the long run because they didn't have to give the mouse his cut. Or why the option of just using originals for the roster wasn't pursued.

 

[kirabook]

That Sora was the only keyblade master/wielder when the first game literally has 3 of them already.

 

[Chie]

Basically everything.

One of the most well-known KH meme plot points is "norting" which ended up not even happening to any character cause they were all defeated before it could happen.

Sephiroth's prominence in the series is greatly exaggerated by every joke about the series; I've seen Goofy's death attributed to him so many times when Goofy was merely killed by a random rock. "Mickey Mouse fights Sephiroth" is also said a lot but I don't think they've ever interacted once.

Everyone who hasn't actually watched X's cutscenes thinks that X Back Cover is a remake of that game's cutscenes, but it's a completely original movie that just takes place at the same time, and introduces important plot points that are never directly introduced in the game. The presence of X Back Cover on websites like Letterboxd or MyAnimeList provokes people to question whether "mobile game cutscenes" should even be allowed on those sites, even though that isn't what the movie is.

"Nomura removed the Final Fantasy characters from KH3" is wrong on multiple levels, but is often repeated by casual fans such as those who only played the numbered games. Leon + co already hadn't appeared since 2 (not counting coded), so their absence in 3 isn't a change from the status quo, and other than that there was Zack and that's it. And going even further than that, the Verum Rex characters are Final Fantasy characters, and Verum Rex's inclusion in the plot is vastly more integrated and has more to say regarding FF than having Leon + co stand in a room in the DLC. (Not that the Squall+Rinoa plot being dropped isn't somewhat egregious, it just isn't new that it's been dropped.)

Nomura's statement about Neku's Shibuya and Yozora's Shibuya in the KH3 Ultimania is frequently interpreted as the exact opposite of what he said due to a lack of understanding of basic Japanese and confusing translations. People have insisted to me that he said that TWEWY!Shibuya is written differently than Quadratum!Shibuya, but that's completely wrong - Nomura drew a distinction between 渋谷 (OUR shibuya) and シブヤ, which was used for BOTH KH-related Shibuyas, which actually links them further, not dis-associates them from eachother. As time's gone on it's become clear that it's because both are linked to death (シ), but that's an aside.

If I think a little harder I could probably go on forever. Never underestimate fandoms when it comes to sheer misinformation.

 

[Ðari]

Probably Days and Coded getting converted into short-films to condense their plots. Arguably, they left out a lot that could only really be explained in both of the handheld titles in an attempt to concise the stories of two relatively short "assisting" narratives in the timeline.

Just out curiosity has anyone read the manga, Ultimania(s) and Light Novel's for this franchise?

Still no origin story on the keyblade and where all others come from, it's only really been explained as a means to an end to explain concepts: Locking|Unlocking|Sealing|Unsealing|Heart Removal|Heart-Transplanting

Two concepts never revisited ever again. Keyblade of Heart & A Keyhole being "incomplete" requiring the 7POH to power/activate it.

 

[MATGSY]

"Nomura removed the Final Fantasy characters from KH3" is wrong on multiple levels, but is often repeated by casual fans such as those who only played the numbered games. Leon + co already hadn't appeared since 2 (not counting coded), so their absence in 3 isn't a change from the status quo, and other than that there was Zack and that's it. And going even further than that, the Verum Rex characters are Final Fantasy characters, and Verum Rex's inclusion in the plot is vastly more integrated and has more to say regarding FF than having Leon + co stand in a room in the DLC. (Not that the Squall+Rinoa plot being dropped isn't somewhat egregious, it just isn't new that it's been dropped.)

No, VR are not FF characters, they are original characters created for KH. They may have 1 or 2 striking similarities to those of a certain other game but that's not the same thing.

 

[Chie]

No, VR are not FF characters, they are original characters created for KH. They may have 1 or 2 striking similarities to those of a certain other game but that's not the same thing.

There is precisely zero functional difference in the end result. Every FF character was redesigned for KH and given a different backstory for this new setting (except Auron maybe). And at the very least, KH becoming reflective on the development of Versus XIII/XV makes KH's content literally about Final Fantasy to an extent it's never been before, ever. Which is a pretty important point if we're talking about a narrative like "Nomura removed FF characters from KH".

It would seem undebatable to me that Yozora (whose name is literally just "Noctis Caelum" but in Japanese) has many, many more similarities to his original self than KH's versions of Tidus, Selphie, Seifer, etc.

If you're going to respond with "they aren't FF characters because they are legally distinct", that's completely irrelevant to us. I'm talking about reading the game as a work, in which there is no actual difference, not pretending to be a lawyer or producer.

 

[MATGSY]

Ok, how about "because Disney owns them" then? That's a pretty functional difference to me.

VR is not a legally distinct IP from KH. It is part of KH in the same way Fight Fighters is part of Gravity Falls and Sugar Rush is part of Wreck-it Ralph.

 

[Chie]

Well it's a good thing I already responded to that in my post before you typed it, because now you can just read my post again.

 

[Squood!]

I would say by far the biggest misconception of the series is how densely complicated and impossible to understand it is. Part of this is rooted in a kernel of truth—the series IS very lore-heavy and keeping all the information straight can be difficult, and that's before you introduce time travel and parallel worlds into the mix. But I think the series' reputation for being impenetrably convoluted is largely a smokescreen created by the fanbase itself. I think at some level the fans of the series enjoy playing up how complicated the series is to normies, maybe because they feel insecure about liking a Disney game meant for children and feel they have to justify it by emphasizing the intellectual rigor of keeping up with its lore, or maybe it's a gatekeeping thing, or maybe some people just feel like they need to over-prepare newcomers to get them ready to pay attention to every little detail.

But overall, I don't think the story of the series is that complicated. What makes it SEEM complicated is the fact that a lot of information is not presented clearly, and a lot of information just isn't presented at all, which can lead to confusion and inconsistencies. There's a big difference between the ambiguities in Kingdom Hearts, for instance, and the ambiguities in games like From Software titles, where the ambiguity and lack of information feels like an intentional part of uncovering or comprehending the narrative. But with Kingdom Hearts, it really just feels like Nomura writes stuff in that he doesn't really think about, and then either forgets about it or comes up with some retro-fitting convoluted explanation later when he make it conveniently tie into the current narrative.

At the end of the day, Kingdom Hearts is just a series about a boy and his circle of friends trying to stop the universe from falling out of balance by keeping the darkness at bay. That's really the long and short of it. Everything else is just window dressing and getting from point A to point B. And I think fans tend to fool themselves into believing it's more intricate and sophisticated than it is, or they just get a kick out of making outsiders think that to counterbalance the whole kid's-game vibes.

Certain videos made by people who clearly get annoyed while explaining it only made the misconception worse ngl.

 

[Keyblade Knight 1st Class]

To this day my mom still calls KH a "Disney game", which isn't necessarily inaccurate but everytime she says it I reply with "There's so much more to it than that".