On how the ending of KH1 left a lot of people stranded

[Hoarse_Phuqer]

We learn that those who lose their worlds to the Heartless but not their hearts themselves will make their way to Traverse Town. Sora restored the worlds at the end of the first game and with them, the people whose hearts were consumed by the Heartless.

What happened to the people of Traverse Town though? There wasn't much to suggest in the first game that they too would be magically brought back to their worlds, as they didn't lose their hearts. Admittedly we did see Kairi being brought back to the islands but her rightful home is Radiant Garden, so there's definitely some gray area there.

I'm tempted to think that there really was no reason why the people of Traverse Town would be automatically brought back to their worlds and are simply stuck there, away from their homes, friends and family.

 

[Face My Fears]

We learn that those who lose their worlds to the Heartless but not their hearts themselves will make their way to Traverse Town. Sora restored the worlds at the end of the first game and with them, the people whose hearts were consumed by the Heartless.

What happened to the people of Traverse Town though? There wasn't much to suggest in the first game that they too would be magically brought back to their worlds, as they didn't lose their hearts. Admittedly we did see Kairi being brought back to the islands but her rightful home is Radiant Garden, so there's definitely some gray area there.

I'm tempted to think that there really was no reason why the people of Traverse Town would be automatically brought back to their worlds and are simply stuck there, away from their homes, friends and family.

It's mentioned in KH3D that Traverse Town is a "sleeping world". Joshua states that it is a world that appears when someone is in need of shelter, so that's why it appeared in the Realm of Light in KH1. After KH1 ended, the temporary inhabitants (like Geppetto, Pinocchio, Cid, Dalmatians etc.) were returned to their home worlds, and Traverse Town returned to the Realm of Sleep (or whatever the correct name for that realm is).

 

[Elysium]

We saw the characters returned to their worlds in the end credits. Cloud meets Aerith in Hollow Bastion's library, Pinocchio and Geppetto are in his cottage from the film, etc.

 

[DarkosOverlord]

What happened to the people of Traverse Town though? There wasn't much to suggest in the first game that they too would be magically brought back to their worlds, as they didn't lose their hearts. Admittedly we did see Kairi being brought back to the islands but her rightful home is Radiant Garden, so there's definitely some gray area there.

Not really. Leon and the gang (and the Princesses) state pretty clearly that as soon as the worlds get rescued, everyone would go back to where they came. They never specified only those who lost their hearts, in fact they even underline how both Sora and Kairi would've returned to the island too.
Sora merely opposed to it, and about Kairi, Nomura stated that the way the whole system works is that whatever world you were in before the Heartless' onslaught was where you'll return, so Kairi returned to the island because that's the world she was in that was destroyed, so the "system" that rules the whole process counted her as being part of that world.

 

[GrovyleTheThief]

We saw the characters returned to their worlds in the end credits. Cloud meets Aerith in Hollow Bastion's library, Pinocchio and Geppetto are in his cottage from the film, etc.

I assumed they were still in Traverse Town and that Pinocchio became a real boy shortly before the end of KH1. If that's really Gepetto's original cottage, then doesn't look any different from the one in Traverse Town.

 

[Face My Fears]

I assumed they were still in Traverse Town and that Pinocchio became a real boy shortly before the end of KH1. If that's really Gepetto's original cottage, then doesn't look any different from the one in Traverse Town.

It's the cottage in Traverse Town. I think it was supposed to be a replica of his actual cottage in Prankster's Paradise. I'm assuming that Pinocchio became a real boy before returning to his home world.