I've been holding off on completing this puppy mainly to assure that nothing in the Ultimania contradicts it.
So recently I came upon a topic which introduced the idea of “torment” being a new enemy:
http://forums.khinsider.com/spoilers/146548-next-enemy-sora-s-most-evil-opponent-theory.html
While I still hold by what I said (that an enemy based on torment would be too close to being Unversed and hence redundant), it actually got me thinking about “torment,” the Unversed, and several other things.
Anyone else disappointed by the Unversed? I sure was. Not because of what they were, as it was a novel idea, but how they were incorporated into the story.
Remember all this talk about the Unversed being the “predecessors” connected to the Heartless and Nobodies? Well, turns out they were only an isolated incident. Because they only existed through Vanitas, they really had no relation to the Heartless and Nobodies, so they seemed to be, above all else, filler enemies.
But the fact that they were sentient negative emotions has intrigued me. And when I think about it, maybe they are, in a sense, connected to the Heartless and Nobodies after all.
Now, so far in the series, all aspects, or ingredients, of the heart (which include light, darkness, and memories) have been shown to have a corporeal form. The heart itself, if we are to assume what Sora says is correct (that Kingdom Hearts is inherently light) is light manifest. The darkness of the heart is made real through the Heartless. So too can the memories of the heart become a physical reality- as it is seen through Castle Oblivion in Chain of Memories and Xion (who changes appearance depending on who’s looking at her).
And now the final element of the heart, the emotions themselves, have been shown to have substance to them, as we can see through the Unversed. Thus, if there is matter to the emotions, we have to treat them as such (as “ingredients” of the heart, so to speak, rather than just a function with no substance) when regarding the Heartless and Nobodies.
Let’s take a look at the process behind the Heartless and the Nobodies.
When a Heart is consumed by darkness, the Heart is released from the body to create a Heartless.
The remaining body and soul that is left behind becomes a Nobody.
But there’s more to it than that, as we already know. The ingredients of the heart, and not just the heart itself, are affected. The heart’s darkness consumes the light, and the memories of the heart are released and transfered to the Nobody.
Question: What happens to the emotions?
Again, if the memories are affected because they have a form to them, would it not be the same for emotions? Something has to happen to the emotions.
Interestingly enough, you’ll find that emotions are the missing link in the Heartless/Nobody formula. Memories are transfered to the left over vessel, but there are no emotions left when the process is complete. Both the Nobodies and the Heartless have been described as “emotionless.” They both do not have hearts.
So, where do the emotions go?
While trying to answer this question, I remembered my thoughts concerning Purebloods and Emblems:
Isn’t funny how this whole time Nomura still hasn’t explained why the Purebloods don’t release hearts (and yet has mentioned in the Days Ultimania that there will be a time to do so in the future)? Here’s why, because it connects to the future of the series:
Because the Emblems are classified as having no hearts, yet they literally have a heart captured within, the fate of the emotions can be dismissed. We could say that, since the heart is still intact, the emotions simply still reside in the heart, where they belong. That’s not to say the Emblem Heartless can feel, as, remember they are classified as having no heart. The heart captive within them isn’t theirs, so they don’t use it.
But for the Purebloods, there’s just really no place for the emotions to go. They can’t reside in the Heartless since the heart (its vessel) has been destroyed, and they cannot go to the Nobodies since, obviously, the Nobodies cannot feel.
So that leaves no other option. They’re consumed by the darkness and end up in the Dark Realm. From there, the emotions are released, given the boot. But where do they go? Where else, but Kingdom Hearts? If they can’t take residence in their own heart, naturally they would flow to the greatest heart in existence.
But you’ve got to wonder what kind of state the emotions are in, and that’s where torment comes in.
As Data Riku puts it, torment is defined as the pain that is felt from losing yourself to the darkness:
Hence, torment itself is really the result of emotion, and it can take the form of virtually any kind of emotion. Anger, hate, jealousy, sadness, you name it.
So what constitutes as being lost to the darkness? For starters, virtually everyone taken by the Heartless! So, yup, there’s torment being created from ALL the heartless out there, and its compounding over time.
This rings true enough given certain prerequisites. I’d say that by restoring the original being, Sora is thus freeing them from their torment. But, hold on. Purebloods don’t have any hearts to release, remember? The whole being can’t be restored, obviously, without its heart. So is it possible that what Nomura says here only applies to the Emblems? That is, that in the case of an Emblem, the emotion pent up in the heart goes from being negative to positive when the whole being is restored, since they’re no longer in pain from being taken by the darkness. The Purebloods, meanwhile, have no heart and no emotion to be released. Even though Sora may defeat the Purebloods, the whole being doesn’t return and thus their emotions are not restored either. They remain in Kingdom Hearts.
Given all the Purebloods out there, we certainly have a lot of torment going to Kingdom Hearts. So much so that, perhaps, we might even say that Kingdom Hearts itself is in torment. Really, on a large scale, this is not all too surprising: KH is at the center of the Realm of Darkness, a heart captive in darkness (like with the emblems), creating a state of torment for the emotions within that heart.
And that's it for now.
I actually have more typed out, concerning how I think the story would play (ie how the torment could be released from KH, what the data is within Sora, etc), but I think that it's borderline fanfic-ish, so I'd rather hold off and gauge opinion on what I've written so far.
So recently I came upon a topic which introduced the idea of “torment” being a new enemy:
http://forums.khinsider.com/spoilers/146548-next-enemy-sora-s-most-evil-opponent-theory.html
While I still hold by what I said (that an enemy based on torment would be too close to being Unversed and hence redundant), it actually got me thinking about “torment,” the Unversed, and several other things.
Anyone else disappointed by the Unversed? I sure was. Not because of what they were, as it was a novel idea, but how they were incorporated into the story.
Remember all this talk about the Unversed being the “predecessors” connected to the Heartless and Nobodies? Well, turns out they were only an isolated incident. Because they only existed through Vanitas, they really had no relation to the Heartless and Nobodies, so they seemed to be, above all else, filler enemies.
But the fact that they were sentient negative emotions has intrigued me. And when I think about it, maybe they are, in a sense, connected to the Heartless and Nobodies after all.
Now, so far in the series, all aspects, or ingredients, of the heart (which include light, darkness, and memories) have been shown to have a corporeal form. The heart itself, if we are to assume what Sora says is correct (that Kingdom Hearts is inherently light) is light manifest. The darkness of the heart is made real through the Heartless. So too can the memories of the heart become a physical reality- as it is seen through Castle Oblivion in Chain of Memories and Xion (who changes appearance depending on who’s looking at her).
And now the final element of the heart, the emotions themselves, have been shown to have substance to them, as we can see through the Unversed. Thus, if there is matter to the emotions, we have to treat them as such (as “ingredients” of the heart, so to speak, rather than just a function with no substance) when regarding the Heartless and Nobodies.
Let’s take a look at the process behind the Heartless and the Nobodies.
When a Heart is consumed by darkness, the Heart is released from the body to create a Heartless.
The remaining body and soul that is left behind becomes a Nobody.
But there’s more to it than that, as we already know. The ingredients of the heart, and not just the heart itself, are affected. The heart’s darkness consumes the light, and the memories of the heart are released and transfered to the Nobody.
Question: What happens to the emotions?
Again, if the memories are affected because they have a form to them, would it not be the same for emotions? Something has to happen to the emotions.
Interestingly enough, you’ll find that emotions are the missing link in the Heartless/Nobody formula. Memories are transfered to the left over vessel, but there are no emotions left when the process is complete. Both the Nobodies and the Heartless have been described as “emotionless.” They both do not have hearts.
So, where do the emotions go?
While trying to answer this question, I remembered my thoughts concerning Purebloods and Emblems:
Isn’t funny how this whole time Nomura still hasn’t explained why the Purebloods don’t release hearts (and yet has mentioned in the Days Ultimania that there will be a time to do so in the future)? Here’s why, because it connects to the future of the series:
Because the Emblems are classified as having no hearts, yet they literally have a heart captured within, the fate of the emotions can be dismissed. We could say that, since the heart is still intact, the emotions simply still reside in the heart, where they belong. That’s not to say the Emblem Heartless can feel, as, remember they are classified as having no heart. The heart captive within them isn’t theirs, so they don’t use it.
But for the Purebloods, there’s just really no place for the emotions to go. They can’t reside in the Heartless since the heart (its vessel) has been destroyed, and they cannot go to the Nobodies since, obviously, the Nobodies cannot feel.
So that leaves no other option. They’re consumed by the darkness and end up in the Dark Realm. From there, the emotions are released, given the boot. But where do they go? Where else, but Kingdom Hearts? If they can’t take residence in their own heart, naturally they would flow to the greatest heart in existence.
But you’ve got to wonder what kind of state the emotions are in, and that’s where torment comes in.
As Data Riku puts it, torment is defined as the pain that is felt from losing yourself to the darkness:
Hence, torment itself is really the result of emotion, and it can take the form of virtually any kind of emotion. Anger, hate, jealousy, sadness, you name it.
So what constitutes as being lost to the darkness? For starters, virtually everyone taken by the Heartless! So, yup, there’s torment being created from ALL the heartless out there, and its compounding over time.
This rings true enough given certain prerequisites. I’d say that by restoring the original being, Sora is thus freeing them from their torment. But, hold on. Purebloods don’t have any hearts to release, remember? The whole being can’t be restored, obviously, without its heart. So is it possible that what Nomura says here only applies to the Emblems? That is, that in the case of an Emblem, the emotion pent up in the heart goes from being negative to positive when the whole being is restored, since they’re no longer in pain from being taken by the darkness. The Purebloods, meanwhile, have no heart and no emotion to be released. Even though Sora may defeat the Purebloods, the whole being doesn’t return and thus their emotions are not restored either. They remain in Kingdom Hearts.
Given all the Purebloods out there, we certainly have a lot of torment going to Kingdom Hearts. So much so that, perhaps, we might even say that Kingdom Hearts itself is in torment. Really, on a large scale, this is not all too surprising: KH is at the center of the Realm of Darkness, a heart captive in darkness (like with the emblems), creating a state of torment for the emotions within that heart.
And that's it for now.
I actually have more typed out, concerning how I think the story would play (ie how the torment could be released from KH, what the data is within Sora, etc), but I think that it's borderline fanfic-ish, so I'd rather hold off and gauge opinion on what I've written so far.
