The Concept of Death in Phase 2

[darknessofheart]

The concept of death in the Kingdom Hearts series wasn't too prevalent in much of phase 1; it was largely about people losing their forms/being forgotten, only for their hearts to migrate to others or get reconstituted at a later point in time. One could make the argument that many were killed throughout the series, albeit temporarily. The Keyblade War was certainly the biggest indication of the permanent loss of human life and we have seen villains die, as well as Eraqus and Xehanort.

Union X and Dark Road seem to be making death much more of a focal point. With Xehanort seemingly losing four of his friends, a massive cemetery in Scala, MoM talking about how many loved ones he lost, Eraqus losing his grandfather to darkness. KH3 also touched on this topic when Sora was in the Final World. It just seems the series is going to a bit of a darker place and I'm all for it, as long as they don't go overboard.

Do you think these developments are an indication that the series will be examing death more closely?

 

[MATGSY]

I mean, we've had a literal god of the dead as 1 of the more frequently recurring Disney characters. Plus Mufasa & multiple Disney villains still bit it.

 

[AegisXIII]

Versus 13 had a strong emphasis on death. I think death and sleep was the main topic according to the leaked info from an obscure 2017 4chan post (I know right? my sources are rock solid).
So i wouldn't be surprised. I am pretty sure all the lore that hasn't been used in the cancelled versus13 project will be fueled in Kingdom Hearts and hopefully bring the narrative to a more mature standpoint.

 

[darknessofheart]

I mean, we've had a literal god of the dead as 1 of the more frequently recurring Disney characters. Plus Mufasa & multiple Disney villains still bit it.

I wouldn't really consider those as examples of the series actively exploring the concept of death. Those were storylines in established Disney properties with Square Enix essentially loosely going through the plot. Hades is a comical and over-the-top villain, so I don't consider him really indicative of the concept of death being examined.

When Eraqus was murdered by Xehanort, that was a true "oh shit" moment that had lasting effects on many of the characters. It looks like we are getting more of that. Not contained within Disney movies, but rather connected to the unique characters of Kingdom Hearts and how death impacts them. The loss of the Master of Master's family, friends, and comrades clearly drove him over the edge, Luxu seems almost broken and just resigned to his role by the end of Union X because of how much death is occurring, and Xehanort losing his friends was a major reason he began to lose faith in the light and why Eraqus hates the darkness so much, alongside it claiming his grandfather.

That is making for some very interesting and frankly much more relatable storylines for these characters because we are seeing motives driven by much more grounded circumstances. Yes, the situations and lore are still insane, but just the concept of someone dying is a much more relatable, albeit cliche, motive.

It's frankly just much better storytelling and almost a psychological horror show. Really at the end of the day, the Kingdom Hearts series is a story about people who have been broken by darkness or light and either coming back stronger or letting it define them and going to the extremes to restart the worlds in their own and destructive way.

 

[okhi12]

Versus 13 had a strong emphasis on death. I think death and sleep was the main topic according to the leaked info from an obscure 2017 4chan post (I know right? my sources are rock solid). So i wouldn't be surprised. I am pretty sure all the lore that hasn't been used in the cancelled versus13 project will be fueled in Kingdom Hearts and hopefully bring the narrative to a more mature standpoint.

For more reliable sources, we know for a fact Versus was originally conceived as part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis compilation sharing the same universe and mythos with the FF13 trilogy and Type-0, where Etro and the unseen realm (the land of the dead) were important lore concepts. There was a painting of Etro in the celebration where Noctis met Stella (for some odd reason it was kept in the Kingsglaive movie even though FFXV discarded that mithology).
One of the Versus XIII trailers showed Noctis seeing the light from Etro's gate and the text on screen said ''eyes that see the light of expiring souls'' or something like that. Stella was also supposed to have that power.
With Somnus being the main theme of the game we can say for sure that sleep/dreams and death were central to the plot.

 

[Noivern]

I don't think KH is getting darker. KH1 had Sora literally off'ing himself for Kairi and only survived because PoH shenaningans and to this day I still think the World of Darkness is the creepiest place we've been to so far, as much as the limitations of an early ps2 title offered.

CoM deals with abuse through Naminé, Axel is introduced as the Org's killer, Riku Replica has it pretty bad as well.

2 can get pretty dark at times as well with Roxas, DiZ also blows himself up (after confessing his sins, lol) and before the epilogue of BBS FM we thought the old man was gone and done for. Days and BBS are both preeeetty dark for very obvious reasons.

X ends in a literal war with who knows how many children dying, UX doesn't get much better either.

Also, Strelitzia being the first character human character getting offed on-screen, with Kairi following a year later on 3.
If we count

So yeah. I don't think us dealing with the Realm of Sleep, the Power of Waking and everything that lies beyond is going to change the overall tone of the franchise. Death is not really a stranger to Kingdom Hearts at this point.