DDD

[Dotmore 11]

Why were Riku and Sora still in theyre young bodies in TWTNW? It was the real world. Also, if it was the real world, why did they keep their dream eaters?

[KingdomHearts3 2,591]

They were, but they were in the realm of sleep in that world. That world never really fell. It just went to sleep.

[Dotmore 11]

Yes, but like when Mickey etc came to help, Riku and sora were still young. Then after they rescued sora, they are suddenly old again. Then Riku goes back to save sora, and theyre young again

[HarLea Quinn 26,501]

• When both of them are in the reality parts, they don’t return to their original bodies. Why is that?

It’s because of Yen Sid’s magic that they’ve taken their old forms. If they didn’t return to Yen Sid’s place, their bodies wouldn’t return back to normal. Incidentally, their new outfits were thanks to Yen Sid’s magic as Sora suspected.

• In the latter half of The World That Never Was, despite returning to the real world, why do Sora and Riku stay in their younger forms, and why do Dream Eaters appear etc?

Sora and Riku’s form is due to Yen Sid’s magic, so the way it works is that they can’t turn back until they return to the Mysterious Tower. And Dream Eaters were appearing because Sora was still asleep. Also, ever since Organization XIII was defeated in KH2, The World That Never Was’s existence as a world became uncertain. In the first place, the worlds in the void between darkness and light have different rules than other worlds. The Mysterious Tower isn’t always standing in a fixed place, for example, and Traverse Town reforms its shape every time, which is why the version that appears in this title is clearly different than the version in KH1.

[Dotmore 11]

Oh, and post credits, Sora goes back into the dream world, as his older self..

 

 

• When both of them are in the reality parts, they don’t return to their original bodies. Why is that?

It’s because of Yen Sid’s magic that they’ve taken their old forms. If they didn’t return to Yen Sid’s place, their bodies wouldn’t return back to normal. Incidentally, their new outfits were thanks to Yen Sid’s magic as Sora suspected.

• In the latter half of The World That Never Was, despite returning to the real world, why do Sora and Riku stay in their younger forms, and why do Dream Eaters appear etc?

Sora and Riku’s form is due to Yen Sid’s magic, so the way it works is that they can’t turn back until they return to the Mysterious Tower. And Dream Eaters were appearing because Sora was still asleep. Also, ever since Organization XIII was defeated in KH2, The World That Never Was’s existence as a world became uncertain. In the first place, the worlds in the void between darkness and light have different rules than other worlds. The Mysterious Tower isn’t always standing in a fixed place, for example, and Traverse Town reforms its shape every time, which is why the version that appears in this title is clearly different than the version in KH1.

 

Ahh thanks, that made a little bit more sense

[HarLea Quinn 26,501]

They were, but they were in the realm of sleep in that world. That world never really fell. It just went to sleep.

 TWTNW is an inbetween world and exists in both sleep and the RoL aka the real world...Both Sora and Riku were in reality and sleep while there:

 

 

• I want to ask more about The World That Never Was. Is that world a part of reality? Or is also a world of sleep?

When that world’s logo appears, it indicates the boundary between the dream and reality. When Sora arrives, it’s reality and then goes into a world of sleep. Riku arrives in the sleeping world, and as you progress and the world logo appears, that’s when it becomes reality.

[KingdomHearts3 2,591]

 

 TWTNW is an inbetween world and exists in both sleep and the RoL aka the real world...Both Sora and Riku were in reality and sleep while there:

 

 

• I want to ask more about The World That Never Was. Is that world a part of reality? Or is also a world of sleep?

When that world’s logo appears, it indicates the boundary between the dream and reality. When Sora arrives, it’s reality and then goes into a world of sleep. Riku arrives in the sleeping world, and as you progress and the world logo appears, that’s when it becomes reality.

 

Thank you for the clarification! I thought it was only in sleep and not in between.

[The Transcendent Key 12,109]

No, no, no.  You see, when they went to the Realm Of Sleep, Yen Sid's power reverted them back to their younger selves, which is why you see them in their young forms in some scenes, and in their current forms in other scenes!  It's all a result of their journey into the Sleeping Worlds!

[Dotmore 11]

I still dont like this game's story. It made things so complicated

[catmaster0116 2,676]

They discovered the fountain of eternal youth

 

The game was set in a dream, but then the barrier between reality and dream began to blur near the end of the game.

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

Basically like Flaming Lea said they were put into their younger forms by Yen Sid's magic in the first place....exactly HOW that was done is never clear (did he make their bodies younger, did he place their hearts and minds in their younger bodies, is it just an illusion and they only look younger? Details Nomura, details!), but point is that Yen Sid helped give then their younger looks again. That said, they can't return to their older forms until they can return to Yen Sid's Tower, so that's why they stay that way the whole time, even when there were moments that seemed to take place in the real world (so I guess that was the actual Grid then...but it was still reliving itself...). The World That Never Was is an in-between world, and a Nobody one at that. Given it's strange properties, it can likely teeter on the boundary between existence and non-existence, which means like Traverse Town it could probably find itself with one leg in the Realm of Light/Realm Between and the other in the Realm of Sleep. That said it can be considered a boundary or grey area between the waking world and the sleeping world. No matter what realm it is in, it's nature seems to be ambiguous, much like a Nobody's existence.

 

Also another thing to consider is that Sora's level takes place within a Nightmare he is having while Riku is in Sora's dreams, so it is also likely that the playable levels up to the point where Riku is on his own are more illusory than the actual world. But that hasn't been made clear, so don't quote me on that.

[jadentheman 72]

Yen Sid made them younger to revert their keyblade weidling skills, but it was Xehanort who dressed Sora in his dream world clothes. Riku's clothing changed because of the fact he unconsciously became of Dream Eater for Sora.

 

Towards teh end of the game though, Sora was still sleeping in the real world and Riku was still a dream eater as that result. TWTNW like Traverse Town existed in the Realm of Light and Sleeping Worlds at the same time. That kind of mix was sort of confusing toward end game though as Sora was seen in his KH2 at TWTNW for brief moments. So maybe the effect of the world was altering their appearance, because they entered through the dream world but were existing in both realms at the same time as that result.

[HarLea Quinn 26,501]

Yen Sid made them younger to revert their keyblade weidling skills, but it was Xehanort who dressed Sora in his dream world clothes. Riku's clothing changed because of the fact he unconsciously became of Dream Eater for Sora.

 

Towards teh end of the game though, Sora was still sleeping in the real world and Riku was still a dream eater as that result. TWTNW like Traverse Town existed in the Realm of Light and Sleeping Worlds at the same time. That kind of mix was sort of confusing toward end game though as Sora was seen in his KH2 at TWTNW for brief moments. So maybe the effect of the world was altering their appearance, because they entered through the dream world but were existing in both realms at the same time as that result.

 

Yen Sid gave them new outfits like the interview I posted above confirmed . Xehanort only gave Sora the recusant sigil after the fact. Same with Riku's dream eater symbol- this appeared after the fact once he became Sora's DE.  "Incidentally, their new outfits were thanks to Yen Sid’s magic as Sora suspected."

 

As for the circumstances of reality and sleep it is outlined here once again in interviews I posted above:

 

• I want to ask more about The World That Never Was. Is that world a part of reality? Or is also a world of sleep?

When that world’s logo appears, it indicates the boundary between the dream and reality. When Sora arrives, it’s reality and then goes into a world of sleep. Riku arrives in the sleeping world, and as you progress and the world logo appears, that’s when it becomes reality.

[Hero of Light XIV 2,381]

Yen Sid made them younger to revert their keyblade weidling skills, but it was Xehanort who dressed Sora in his dream world clothes. Riku's clothing changed because of the fact he unconsciously became of Dream Eater for Sora.

 

Towards teh end of the game though, Sora was still sleeping in the real world and Riku was still a dream eater as that result. TWTNW like Traverse Town existed in the Realm of Light and Sleeping Worlds at the same time. That kind of mix was sort of confusing toward end game though as Sora was seen in his KH2 at TWTNW for brief moments. So maybe the effect of the world was altering their appearance, because they entered through the dream world but were existing in both realms at the same time as that result.

Sora was in a Nightmare version of the world, so as he kept progressing his perception of the fake reality in front of him became more distorted and inconsistent. Think of it like how in a dream your perceived appearance or identity might change randomly. One second your mind might be telling you "this is me right now" but then in a second you'll be in another scenario and you'll be like "this isn't me" or "I feel different somehow". Since a dreamer technically has no true body or form, the form they dream themselves having doesn't always stay consistent (and you don't see yourself half the time regardless, so your subconscious doesn't think it's that important of a detail anyway). So the fact that Sora kept switching between his Dream form, his KH1 form, his KH2 form, Ventus, and his childhood self indicate that what he is walking through is a dream. I mean, maybe the world physically looks like that in the Realm of Sleep, but regardless it's been made evident that he's been put into a nightmare that he is being lured deeper and deeper into.