Thirteen Hearts of Pure Light?

[Hobbe]

I'm not really seeing this discussed anywhere; perhaps it has been in one of several megathreads.

It was revealed that Kingdom Hearts III will have six new Princesses of Heart, with Kairi making the 7th again as in the original game.

Presumably, the previous six princesses haven't lost their status as pure lights (nor died) since their last appearances. This would suggest that there are more than just seven pure lights, but the legend of the x-Blade was pretty specific about there being seven. The requirement of seven Princesses of Heart to open the Door to Darkness seemed to suggest that there were only ever seven (perhaps that was a hasty assumption).

Does anyone have any thoughts on how this will be reconciled in the upcoming game? Obviously it's a plot contrivance to not have to revisit old worlds and princesses, but what sort of in-universe explanation are we hoping for with this?

 

[Zettaflare]

I think there will be some event at some point early in the game that will purify six ladies' hearts. What would be the cause of it is anyone's guess. Hopefully the next trailer provides better context.

 

[Luminary]

I think it could be a role that passes down with each generation. Perhaps as one Princess finds her happily ever after, her role as Princess of Heart is passed down to a new pure heart, similar to how the Keyblade can be inherited.

I would love to see a nod to Knights of the Round from Final Fantasy and have a link attack that uses either all 13 Princesses or the 6 new ones and 7 Guardians of Light.

 

[SuperstarSaga08]

I think it could be a role that passes down with each generation. Perhaps as one Princess finds her happily ever after, her role as Princess of Heart is passed down to a new pure heart, similar to how the Keyblade can be inherited.

I would love to see a nod to Knights of the Round from Final Fantasy and have a link attack that uses either all 13 Princesses or the 6 new ones and 7 Guardians of Light.

I could see that happening, but what would the link be called.

 

[Leaferian]

I would imagine that though incredibly rare, there's no way that in "countless worlds" there are only 7 pure lights. Perhaps that was the way it started or simply the number needed to form the X-Blade.

My personal theory is that no person is born with a heart of pure light, but there are people born who have the potential for it. I think they'll achieve that potential by conquering their own darkness or overcoming some form strife. Kairi, for example, maybe something happened to her parents and her hope got her through the sadness and pain, stamping out what little darkness there was in the first place.

Perhaps this is why Elsa is a candidate despite her narrow miss with villainy. There could be special meaning to Larxene's line of "What will Elsa accept? Light, or Darkness?".

 

[averagelesbian]

wouldn't that qualify Riku as a princess of light or in his case prince since he overcame his darkness? Young Xehanort did say that his heart is immune to darkness. but then again he said he trapped it in his heart XD

 

[Leaferian]

wouldn't that qualify Riku as a princess of light or in his case prince since he overcame his darkness? Young Xehanort did say that his heart is immune to darkness. but then again he said he trapped it in his heart XD

Well like I said, it's probably a potential. A person born with their heart a certain way that allows them the possibility of becoming a pure light. Not that I think every person that conquers the darkness is automatically a pure light.

 

[Hobbe]

I don't think Riku's heart is pure light. Rather, his darkness is no longer controlling him, but his experience and subsequent redemption from that is what now gives him his immunity to darkness. DiZ's machine merely removed "Ansem's" influence from his heart.

His heart still has darkness and he draws upon it, the difference being that he is the only one who can do so consequence-free, as far as we know.

Interesting thoughts so far on how this might go down. I agree that we need more information so I just can't stay away from the trickle of details coming in.

This is one of those things that I fear may be a total face-palm kind of contrivance (ie more questions than answers) but I do hope not.

 

[Raz]

Maybe after using their power to hold the final keyhole at bay in Hollow Bastion the original Princesses somehow forsook their status / passed it down to a new generation? If I remember correctly, Kairi was incapacitated at the time or hiding out in Traverse Town, which would be why she is still considered a PoH. I'm super into the Princesses of Heart as a concept because it makes a wide range of Disney characters central to the main plot so I'm glad KHIII is reincorporating the concept but I do hope they take the time to explain why a new generation is in order at this point in time.

 

[Elysium]

Maybe after using their power to hold the final keyhole at bay in Hollow Bastion the original Princesses somehow forsook their status / passed it down to a new generation? If I remember correctly, Kairi was incapacitated at the time or hiding out in Traverse Town, which would be why she is still considered a PoH.

That's a really good idea. Perhaps those 6 used up all their power trying to prevent the apocalypse in KH1.

 

[Leaferian]

Replaying KH1 and reading the Ansem Reports has yielded interesting information that I think supports my idea. In Ansem Report 2, one of the experiments listed was to "cultivate darkness in a pure heart". It could be taken that pure means not yet overcome with Darkness, but the next experiment was "Both suppress and amplify" the darkness in someone's heart. That indicates, to me, that Apprentice Xehanort was attempting to taint hearts of pure light.

Then, in Ansem Report 11, he mentions that the Princesses of Heart probably resonate with the Keyblade somehow. He chooses a girl with a pure heart and "sets her free", but admits he doesn't know if she is actually a Princess of Heart. How he can tell the purity of a heart is not explained, but since he is basically just Terranort without memories I would surmise he may have retained the ability to notice light and dark hearts in people on sight.

If these assumptions are correct and we take the information on face value, it could easily point to there being pure hearted people out there who don't necessarily hold the power of the Seven Pure Lights.

 

[averagelesbian]

lol i meant this as a joke of course he's not a princess of light XD