The Deeper Meaning No. 1 ~ Nobodies and their Heartless Counterparts

[Antifa Lockhart]

Shan Yu was leading the Heartless in the Land of Dragons and after his attack with the Heartless of the mountain the two soldiers start walking like zombies as if they'd been replaced, so that's what I was taking it as.

You can talk to the soldiers after the incident at the palace too. They're just generic stand ins for the entire army, and honestly, NPCs shouldn't be counted when talking about particulars all things considered.

The journal's probably the best bet if anybody can find what it says.

 

[Hakan Xatos]

I checked the journal and the whole section on the Land of Dragons. Didn't even mention the scenario. So it can't be proven or disproved. Even checked the Nightwalker page. Didn't say anything about the scene or that they have shape shifting abilities. Chalk this up to grey area I suppose.

 

[BlackOsprey]

Well I'm not sure about the succumbing to your own darkness makes only Purebloods part. Like Absent mentioned about the soldiers in the Land of Dragons turned into Emblem Heartless.
The KHWiki says that the soldiers succumbed to their fatigue (darkness of giving up?) which turned them into Heartless. I know Wiki's are unreliable but it seems reasonable.

The whole nature of Heartless is very confusing really.

Hm... artistic license, or maybe the writers just forgot the specifics of the lore? It's a one-off thing that never happens again, so whoever put that scene together must've put very little thought into it, lore-wise. In any case, we all know for a fact that Emblem Heartless did not exist before Xehanort the apprentice started his little science project in the castle basement. If anyone had ever turned into a Heartless before Apprenticenort started making em, they had to be Purebloods. Therefore, letting the darkness in your heart run rampant should create a Pureblood, or else Emblems would've come into being much earlier than the Hollow Bastion experiments.

 

[Ven_Roxas]

Is no one going to mention how the OP said a powerful Nobody means a powerful Heartless? I mean, Roxas was pretty freaking strong, but Sora produced a lousy shadow. The Nobody is created from strength of heart, the Heartless is created from the amount of darkness in a person's heart.

 

[Sage-Oracle V]

Not so fast my friend! If my theory is right, the others weren't willing and became Emblem

Are you sure Ansem was a pureblood. I'm looking at him right now and he has an emblem, which definitely made more sense as he originally became a heartless by becoming obsessed with researching the darkness and then getting too close to it, that is until Master Xehanort ravaged the countryside with the Great Retcon of 2012.

 

[BlackOsprey]

Are you sure Ansem was a pureblood. I'm looking at him right now and he has an emblem, which definitely made more sense as he originally became a heartless by becoming obsessed with researching the darkness and then getting too close to it, that is until Master Xehanort ravaged the countryside with the Great Retcon of 2012.

Heartless also aren't supposed to be able to think and look like a human, either. Ansem SoD is a really weird case as far as Heartless go, between that Guardian of his, the fact that he kept human sentience and later took on a human appearance, and whatever effects that springing from a mismatched body and heart have...

Also take note that Ansem didn't look like that until he stole Riku's body and probably used unexplained darkness powers to alter its appearance. Until that happened, he looked like Mr. Robe Guy- a hunched, faceless figure that definitely had no emblem. That emblem we do see could be his personal touch on a customized appearance... he is​ the one who created the thing in the first place, after all.

 

[Antifa Lockhart]

No. That's Ansem when he's regained form by hijacking Riku's body.

This is Ansem as a Heartless:

 

[Anagram]

Well lower ranking Nobodies came from somewhere right?

Yeah they came from strong willed and hearted people like the humanoid nobodies did. Yen Sid specifically said this in KH2. Typical nobodies are rare and humanoid ones are even more scarce.

Edit: This seems to have become more about heartless than nobodies. haha

 

[Absent]

One thing is for sure, Ansem was not an emblem since he willingly became a Heartless. Ansem SoD is either a Pureblood or another thing altogether.

As for Nobodies, they're the shinies of the Kh verse.

 

[Hakan Xatos]

Edit: This seems to have become more about heartless than nobodies. haha

Yeah I just looked back to see all these replies.

Shoulda made a "What The Hell is a Heartless?" thread instead lol.

Also he could have been strong willed and hearted. I mean he is back somehow.

So probably not the best time to ask but does anyone have nominations for my next topic? Hahaha

 

[Divine Past]

No. That's Ansem when he's regained form by hijacking Riku's body.

This is Ansem as a Heartless:

This always creep me out tbh.

 

[Anagram]

This always creep me out tbh.

The look or the fact that he hides out in caves to talk to young boys for their bodies? lol

 

[Divine Past]

The look or the fact that he hides out in caves to talk to young boys for their bodies? lol

Yes.

/one hundred char to break the rule.

 

[Hakan Xatos]

Or the fact if given the choice, he'd go back in time to teach his younger self a special power right on the beach?

 

[Face My Fears]

Ansem: Seeker of Darkness was an irregular heartless. Every other heartless that we've seen or heard of have never been able to think on their own or appeared in humanoid-form. Also, a lot of those heartless that you suggested are emblem heartless. When somebody loses their heart and becomes a heartless, the heartless produced is a pure one. The reason why that Accessory Shop guy's heartless became an emblem heartless is because another emblem stole his heart, which I believe can create an emblem heartless (can someone confirm this for me please?). I also believe that it was said that the Organization destroyed their heartless as soon as they became nobodies and/or have been destroyed.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Is no one going to mention how the OP said a powerful Nobody means a powerful Heartless? I mean, Roxas was pretty freaking strong, but Sora produced a lousy shadow. The Nobody is created from strength of heart, the Heartless is created from the amount of darkness in a person's heart.

That is because the conditions for strong Heartless and strong Nobody are different.

A powerful Heartless does not mean a powerful Nobody.
This is even physically impossible since as Incognito already explained, a Heartless does not always produce a Nobody. Nobodies in general are actually pretty rare and their form depends on the strength of will of the heart that was lost. weak willed and average willed hearts do not produce a Nobody at all while strong willed hearts produce standard Nobodies. Only the hearts with the most exceptionally strong wills actually produce human-shaped Nobodies.

The strength of Heartless on the other side depends on the amount of Darkness a heart had before it is lost/stolen. The more Darkness a heart has, the more strong and more monstrous the resulting Heartless is.

 

[Chuman]

uh. they're all emblem heartless dude, pumped out of a machine rather than kingdom hearts' loins. those are the purebloods, where true nobodies are made from, when somebody loses their heart it becomes a heartless and their body becomes a nobody.

 

[Wildbullet]

Well to be fair Xemnas does have the ability to reduce humanoid nobodies into dusks. Who knows how many Nobodies that were human that he turned because they either don't want to be in the Organization, don't want to be the dispensable tools of the Organization, or just all-around useless and he made them dusks to be servants.

Then there is the case of the Replicas, who rely so much on a person's data/memories more than a direct connection to the heart. It's like a basic imperfect cloning process that eventually degenerates. And there's that most unusual Nobody of all, who defies every convention and has no basis to actually exist, whether in Light, Twilight, or Darkness, who can use the Darkness but was sourced from the purest of Light.

 

[Anagram]

who rely so much on a person's data/memories more than a direct connection to the heart.

Not exactly since more than once memories have been stated, shown and clarified to be key and direct parts of the heart.

 

[Wildbullet]

Not exactly since more than once memories have been stated, shown and clarified to be key and direct parts of the heart.

Fair enough. Memories are a component the heart, among the many others like Light, Darkness, and the other unknown elements. Speaking of, is there any credence to what Dr. Finkelstein says to what makes a heart too, like Pulse, Surprise, Hope and Fear etc., since he did mention "Memory" and he got that right? Memory also extends to the body and soul, since Nobodies can act as if to have feelings while waiting to nurture a fledgling heart.

Since Nobodies could also nurture a fledgling heart, wouldn't that mean the "Special Cases" Nobodies like the Replicas and you-know-who just got a little less special, since they now have a foundation to actually have feelings?