How does Death in Kingdom Hearts work?

[AngelTheWeirdStranger 504]

How does death in KH work?

When someone dies, he loses his heart and, his body turns into a Nobody and the heart into a Heartless.

If the heartless and the nobody of that person are destroyed then he can be reborn.

But if he dies again, does that mean he can turn into a Nobody and a Heartless once more?

And if they are destroyed again does that mean he can come back to life yet AGAIN making him immortal?

 

I just don't get how it works! Can someone explain?

[Kingdomhe 1,362]

nomura logic...

[Firaga 5,947]

Uh, you just answered your own question. 

 

The whole "Heartless/Nobody" cycle pretty much is the process of death in KH. There is no other way.

 

So yeah, if you lose your heart and you make a Nobody, and then once they're both gone, you come back as a Somebody, and if you lose your heart again, the process starts over again. There is no rule that says otherwise, so we can assume this the standard medium.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Firaga Sensei

[Aru Akise 2,540]

How does death in KH work?

When someone dies, he loses his heart and, his body turns into a Nobody and the heart into a Heartless.

If the heartless and the nobody of that person are destroyed then he can be reborn.

But if he dies again, does that mean he can turn into a Nobody and a Heartless once more?

And if they are destroyed again does that mean he can come back to life yet AGAIN making him immortal?

 

I just don't get how it works! Can someone explain?

Turning into a heartless isn't exactly death.

 

You lose your heart and your body becomes an empty shell until they are together again.

 

Also, the Heart is the most important part of all living beings, as transferring your heart allows one to live longer indefinetly as long as they keep changing vessels.

 

How death works? It probably doesn't, because Disney. KH is far too light even for Disney's standards. C'mon, Disney movies out there are so much darker.

[Revolart 431]

Maybe old age or sickness is the only way out of the cycle

[Forever 3,550]

The old, undesirable characters die, the cute, pretty characters live. It's elementary, really.

[Dracozombie 4,554]

It doesn't, unless you're a Disney character. Seriously, name a movie in the Disney animated canon where someone either doesn't die, or is not part of someone's backstory. So far no non-Disney character has been shown permanently dying, so we can only assume that people in the KH universe can die the old fashioned way, but it's just never been shown because plot/Nomura/censorship logic.

 

Getting Heartless-ified or Nobody-ified are different from death. Those are more like a cessation of being. You can potentially come back from being a Heartless or Nobody under special circumstances, because in those circumstances the soul (aka one's life) can be preserved. Unfortunately, the games haven't much showcased the soul part of the heart-body-soul triad, so we don't know much about it. The most we can get is Terra's Lingering Will brought to life by Terra's discarded thoughts and emotions, but that one's pretty ill explained. That information is probably hidden among one of a hundred different interviews KH needs to make sense.

[Isamu Kuno 2,512]

"When the soul leaves the body, life gives way to death" ~Secret Ansem reportsBasically, as long as the soul is intact a person is alive. The Keyblade seems to work on hearts, not souls so it probably isn't possible to kill someone with it. Same goes for heartless, they attack hearts, not souls so they can't someone. Unversed? Emotions, which reside in the heart. Dream Eaters? They eat dreams not hearts or souls. Nobodies can probably kill because Days said that their weapons (except the Keyblade) can't collect the hearts from Heartless.Basically to kill someone in KH you'd need a gun, a sword or other mundane weapon which aren't heavily featured. Old age is also a factor, it seems one can die from that as the soul is basically a power source and power sources eventually run out. That was part of Xehanort's motivation to posses Terra, that at the 13 vessel thing.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Isamu_Kuno

[The Protagonist 332]

Most likely death by natural means and not losing your heart and whatnot is the way to actual death in kh.

[Master Eraqus 1,340]

You don't die when one splits into a Heartless and a Nobody. It's a very common misconception.

 

When a heart is released, a Heartless is spawned, which is the physical manifestation of the darkness within the heart. The body left behind fades away to be later born as a Nobody, as it is sentient due to the soul which stayed with the body, in an in-between world, such as Twilight Town and Castle Oblivion.

 

If the Heartless is destroyed, the heart is released. When the Nobody is slain, the body fades away once again. The body can be compared with water. Let's say the body is ice and when the Nobody is slain, the ice melts (the water is still there, just in different form). The human is then reborn with the heart, body and soul joining together at the place of their separation (which equals as the water turning back into ice).

 

Now note that the Heartless must be slain with the use of a Keyblade for the person to be reborn. Otherwise, the heart would be released, but take form as a Heartless once again.

 

The only way for one to die is for the soul to leave the body (as stated in the Secret Ansem Reports from Kingdom Hearts 2). For the soul to leave the body, the person simply needs to be killed. Whether it be of old age, diseases, murdered, etc.

 

I hope this helped.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Master Eraqus

[Caity 3,946]

We haven't seen a previous case, but if this is going to be the end of the Xehanort Saga it can be assumed that the nobody/heartless process only works once, meaning that Terra and MX should both be able to die if (well Terra's more of an if than MX) they're killed again.  

 

Though it isn't always the case that death results in the nobody/heartless process, we've just never seen a natural death

Edited April 29, 2015 by Caity

[Aqua7KH 5,395]

I don't think it's actually death tbh. You turn into a heartless which isn't exactly death. However I do believe you can actually die (old age, being killed, etc) however you wouldn't turn into a Heartless. In KH you only turn into a Heartless by the Heartless, getting your heart taken by the Keyblade, etc, but if you were to actually get killed in a regular manner you would probably just be killed for good, unless the rules state that your heart or spirit can still reside or possess another without the Keyblade or the Heartless etc.

[Master Eraqus 1,340]

I don't think it's actually death tbh. You turn into a heartless which isn't exactly death. However I do believe you can actually die (old age, being killed, etc) however you wouldn't turn into a Heartless. In KH you only turn into a Heartless by the Heartless, getting your heart taken by the Keyblade, etc, but if you were to actually get killed in a regular manner you would probably just be killed for good, unless the rules state that your heart or spirit can still reside or possess another without the Keyblade or the Heartless etc.

Or be revived by an evil fairy, or other magical being. (Maleficent reviving Oogie Boogie)

 

Or you're Ursula, because her return in KH2 wasn't really explained.

[hatok 6,413]

you don't turn into a heartless from dying

you turn into a heartless from losing your heart

if someone came up and stabbed you in the KH universe, you wouldn't create a heartless and nobody, you'd just die

[HarLea Quinn 26,501]

you don't turn into a heartless from dying

you turn into a heartless from losing your heart

if someone came up and stabbed you in the KH universe, you wouldn't create a heartless and nobody, you'd just die

 

 

Came in here to say this...Yeah if you died of natural causes or from falling off a cliff or from getting shot you are dead.

[Kaweebo 3,617]

What those guys said^

 

It's like the idea that when you die, your soul leaves your body and becomes a ghost. Technically, there are ghosts in the KH universe (although the only one I'm thinking of is Zero from Halloween Town) but that's never been fully explored. THAT is 'normal' death, though. The soul leaves and the Heart and Body shut down and give way to decomposition, etc, etc.

 

What we see in the series is almost a reality-bending way to 'die', without actually dying. Losing your heart is a form of death, but you can recover it and be a 'whole person' again. As long as you have your soul in some shape or form, you're not technically dead. Even Nobodies have souls. That's why they're still 'alive'. Heartless don't, but then, they're effectively zombies anyway. Hearts being controlled by Darkness.

 

Like what Xemnas said in Dream Drop Distance: "But understand, one can banish the heart from the body, but the body will try to replace it the first chance it gets, for as many times as it takes." So, the body is still reacting and aching for a heart because it has the soul inside of it that yearns to be a complete person. 

 

Given that Hearts were what were explored in KHI and the No(Bodies) were explored in KHII, it's possible that KHIII will focus on the Soul.

Edited April 28, 2015 by Kaweebo

[Hyper-Rushe 17]

I seem to remember Clayton being crushed to death under a heartless, and Barbossa being shot to death so death works just as well as any other universe. there just happens to be ways to circumvent it like becoming a Heartless/Nobody.

[AngelTheWeirdStranger 504]

So you're all telling me (except Caity) that Xehanort cannot die in Kingdom Hearts, unless Sora uses a real gun, or a real knife, or throws Xehanort of a cliff in Keyblade Graveyard.

 

 

 

BTW. Did you know you have a limit of how many likes you can make? I wanted to like everyone's posts and they just stopped me like that!

[Kaweebo 3,617]

So you're all telling me (except Caity) that Xehanort cannot die in Kingdom Hearts, unless Sora uses a real gun, or a real knife, or throws Xehanort of a cliff in Keyblade Graveyard.

Honestly, it might take the power of Kingdom Hearts itself to destroy Xehanort. Hell, the only reason Ansem wasn't completely obliterated by the Door to Darkness in KHI is just because he managed to preserve a piece of himself inside of Riku. But unlike Ansem, Xehanort is a whole being, but I liken characters like him, Sora & Riku to being supernaturally powerful anyway, sort of like the characters in Dragon Ball Z. After all, you can get shot by real bullets in the Pirates of the Caribbean world and it doesn't one-hit kill Sora. 

 

They're too strong to be killed by bullets or knives or being thrown off of a cliff. (Remember Terra got thrown off of a cliff in BBS and survived) To defeat anyone that powerful, you need an even stronger weapon. 

Edited April 28, 2015 by Kaweebo

[AngelTheWeirdStranger 504]

To defeat anyone that powerful, you need an even stronger weapon. 

 

You mean something like friendship, love and rainbows?

[Kaweebo 3,617]

You mean something like friendship, love and rainbows?

More like the Death Star.

[AngelTheWeirdStranger 504]

More like the Death Star.

 

 

 

pfft. Friendship, love and rainbows will thrash your death star!

 

[Aqua7KH 5,395]

Or be revived by an evil fairy, or other magical being. (Maleficent reviving Oogie Boogie)Or you're Ursula, because her return in KH2 wasn't really explained.

That too.

[ScorpioGirl1987 17]

(I watch too much Supernatural...but...)

 

What if someone slices off someone else's' head and burns the body? Would they be dead, then?

[AngelTheWeirdStranger 504]

(I watch too much Supernatural...but...)

 

What if someone slices off someone else's' head and burns the body? Would they be dead, then?

 

I doubt it since there is no body left when they die anyway.

They kind of turn to golden lights.