Hey, everybody, I'm a little new to this forum. However, I am a long time KH fan. Basically, I wanted to make a big post about my thoughts regarding the series and how it has evolved over the course of 10 plus years, as well as discuss the plot extensively.
What has been particularly interesting to me is the resemblance between Kingdom Hearts and the Metal Gear Solid series.
Both are long-running franchises with multiple games spread over different platforms, each of which has the ambition of tying virtually every game from every console (with the exceptions of Metal Gear Acid and a few other spinoff titles I believe) to a single, overarching narrative continuity.
Of the 'main games' that came out, the first has been an exciting, unique, audience-grabbing entry game with a relatively direct plot line that was fairly easy to grasp; the second has been an ambitious, but muddled mess that deepened the game's mythology at the cost of coherence; and the third (MGS3 and KHBBS) has been a prequel that was more coherent than the second, though less than the first, which managed to bridge some of the gaps and inconsistencies between the last two installments.
Hopefully, if the KH series follows this trajectory, we're next going to get a fourth main installment of the series on a next-gen platform that will restore the series' reputation as a first-rate game in its respective genre, tie up virtually every loose end and plot hole satisfactorily and bring the series to a new technical level.
But before the "Seeker of Darkness" saga concludes, I'm pretty sure that much like MGS, KH will again retcon to various degrees its already established, sinuous history.
With every single game, like MGS, it has altered our perception of its overarching past, changing the dates of various events, the nature of events, revealing people who were thought dead to be alive or completely shifting our understanding of its villains' motives. Indeed, the series by now operates by the well-known trope of the Xanatos roulette, wherein events are continuously revealed to be part of some grand, overly convoluted master plan that "relies on events completely within the realm of chance yet comes off without a hitch." (http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/GambitRoulette?from=Main.XanatosRoulette)
The whole 'Xehanort' thing is a prime illustration of the fact that KH is really too obsessed with its own past.
The original game introduced Ansem as a once-benevolent ruler of the world that would become Hollow Bastion. However, he grew corrupt in his search for knowledge regarding the nature of the darkness within the heart, leading him to plunge into darkness, casting off his body and becoming a unique Heartless.
Instead of following through on that history, of building on it and adding to it, the sequel KH games have altered it to the point, where it no longer bears any semblance to its original version.
By the time we get to 3D, it turns out that Faux-sem/Terranort cast off his body, so as to travel back in time to inform Teen Xehanort of the future and to make him gather all the future incarnations of himself in one place/time. Apparently, he was somehow well aware of his future, even of the existence of Nobodies and so forth, and remembered the Keyblade War/X-Blade stuff that was the interest of his progenitor. That was all part of the plan.
Right. So, why did Faux-sem bother writing all those reports anyway, where he shows an interest in the nature of the heart and 'discovers' the secrets of darkness and the keyblade? Why does he recount talking to King Mickey, when that never happened? Why does he show an interest and curiosity in the keyblade, when he himself is a keyblade warrior, who, as 3D revealed, regained the ability to wield it?
Seriously, did Nomura conveniently forget that the Ansem reports are canon? (In the same way, in KH1 Donald and Goofey have never seen or heard of the Keyblade until after Mickey leaves, whereas in BBS, they are well aware of Mickey's training as a Keyblade Warrior.)
For every two steps the series takes forward, it takes a step and a half back, rewriting and revising its history to the point, where little if anything really makes sense anymore and where novelty is rarer than reiteration. 3D itself seems to be confused as to why Sora even wields the Keyblade, given that KH and BBS provide contradictory explanations.
The series keeps revisiting the same worlds, reworking the same themes, reusing the same villains or introducing more and more iterations of already existent and familiar characters.
I mean, honestly, how many more versions of Sora, Riku, Kairi and Xehanort will we have to go through before being able to move on to something different? How many more identity crises will there be before a new kind of character conflict arises? And how much more will the Disney aspect of KH be sidelined?
That the series keeps doing this is rather peculiar, given that there is a plethora of Disney worlds and numerous characters we have yet to witness. Why not visit the world of Robin Hood (1973) or Darkwing Duck (1990s)? Why not finally explore the realms of Pixar? Why not introduce more Disney characters, who can wield the Keyblade and make them playable?
Bottom line: the series really needs to move on.
It needs to stop revising the past and instead work towards the future.
