HeartlessAqua

I'm expecting a decent amount of people here to rush to the rescue of their favorite game, but as much as I love KH, the fact does remain that their depiction of Disney characters is usually, but far from always, lackluster. Personally I don't mind, because these characters are mostly side characters, so treating them as NPCs sort of can't be helped. And since lots of people know their Disney movies, these characters don't really have to be introduced and fleshed out as deeply as they are in their films. But with that in mind, I DO think the Disney side of KH grows steadily more and more irrelevant to the plot with each game. In KH1 and CoM, there's at least some attempt to make most worlds relevant, often thematically more than anything, but still. This is an adventure series after all. Starting with KH2 however, the Disney worlds have become very bland, almost dull, retellings of the movies. Even the second world visits in KH2 don't stand out much except as extra quests or hurried continuations of the previous visits, even when Org. XIII is involved. That's not to say they're all done badly, or that they don't have their merits, but I would be surprised if someone told me that the watered down retelling of Aladdin 2 was really any good except as an arena for fun gameplay. BBS and 3D do this slightly better in some ways but slightly worse in others. I think reducing the Disney worlds to phoned-in backgrounds for the main characters' tragic stageplays feels kinda awkward. In the end, I think KH is a great series, and technically it is obviously a Disney game, but it isn't great at representing Disney in recent years. I'll even risk riling up the more spirited fans by saying I think the representation of Disney is pretty bad in KH, aside from the optimism which is integral to KH as well as Disney movies as a whole. Hopefully KH3 remedies this however, which the trailers seem to promise.

Minnie ears. Because wow that is adorable.

Aqua Wearing Minnie Mouse ears I love how she has such a serious look on her face even while wearing it.

Parents don't exist in the world of Kingdom Hearts. They're myths and legends like Nessie and Sasquatch.

I personally think resurrection is okay, but it has to feel earned. If a character is brought back to life solely to please people, then I'd probably find it lame and uninteresting. I don't like it when stories pander to audiences at every opportunity. Even if a story is needlessly spiteful, I will prefer that over a story which does exactly what the audience wants with no sense of logic, creativity, or art. But if a character comes back to life in an emotionally and dramatically satisfying way, maybe especially if the story was trying to lead up to that point and the characters fighting for it, then I could enjoy it and even love it. Depends. Though I don't have much trust in Kingdom Hearts because sometimes it can be emotionally powerful, and other times it just feels like a very by the numbers fanfiction. Kingdom Hearts is a fun as hell video game. And as a video game, it should indeed focus primarily on gameplay over story. But since it does spend a lot of time on story, I can say that Kingdom Hearts' story is kind of a hit and miss in quality, so resurrections may be either glorious or ridiculous.

The problem with that is that Disney movies feature lots of permanent deaths. Bambi's mom died, Mufasa died, Kerchek died, Tiana's father died, an entire village in Mulan was slaughtered, at least one side kick died (the bug from Princess and the Frog), and many villains died. Pinocchio himself died, and only came back to life because he accomplished the goal he promised to do. Disney is filled with permanent deaths. So when Kingdom Hearts shows that death is meaningless, it cheapens a lot of the thrill and danger.

Well in that case, you are correct. The world is made a certain way as proven by science, and anyone arguing against that would need some pretty fantastic evidence. I was under the impression that this was the debate over whether or not religion was viable.

It's simple. There's a world outside of us. Earth as is defined by pure hard science. A big mass of rocks and stuff orbiting around a big ball of gas. There is no God or magical force guiding the universe. The universe is just what it is. No good, no bad, no nothing but the things as they are. However, every human being sees the world differently. Human minds are limited by biological components, true, but human minds are still quite vast and variable. What makes one person happy and healthy might not appeal to another person. Might even disgust them, like how Christians might find Aztec ceremonies wicked and evil while the Aztecs themselves saw them as glorious. So many people are obsessed with cold hard facts, but they forget or even dismiss the importance of each individual human psyche, which can function in a variety of ways. Religion is one of those ways, and religion has produced plenty of good in this world.

Precisely. There is a world outside of us and a world inside of us, and both those worlds are valid. Simple psychology.

What many people argue is whether or not religion is bad, or if it has any place in this world. I am not religious, but I argue that religion does have a place in this world because on an inward, psychological level, it can be very healthy to some individuals. Look at the Haitians. They practice Voudou. Would it be wise for a person to go to a Voudou ceremony and tell them that what they're doing is wrong? What's the point? What would that accomplish? Basically, that person would be trying to destroy a culture which has so far been living the way it wants to without harming others. And religion is more than just stories. Religion encompasses ethics and philosophy. Ethics and philosophy, whether fueled by a big man in the sky or by rationalism, can be good useful tools. I enjoy reading the works of Carl Jung and Nicholas Roerich (please tell me someone has heard of at least one of them), and they are rational, good men who see the strong points of religion and discuss in depth how religion can be a healthy, and sometimes even necessary, expression of the mind. People are so obsessed with cold hard logic that they forget that there's a more complicated emotional world inside all of us, and all of these inner worlds (our psyches) require different things, and there are different ways to gain those different things, whether through religion, spiritualism, rationalism, etc.

Note that I said religion in general isn't supposed to coddle you (nor is it usually supposed to be used as a way to manipulate others). I said that many Christians don't understand their own religion and often simplify it to "God will do good things for me and punish everyone I don't like". But that is not what religion these days is supposed to be about. I thought I made that clear. Religion has LOTS of cases of assholes using it for their own selfishness, but it also has lots of examples of people trying to become better or good people. The only reason you and many other people focus solely on the bad side is because that's the part of religion which gets all the coverage. What do you think people will talk about more? Terrorist acts which make the news? Or the theological essays of an old scholar from Europe? Do you know anything about Buddhism? Because that's a religion which basically demands you to strengthen yourself.

Interestingly enough, God isn't supposed to be a miracle worker. Christians who treat God like he's this guy who will do everything for them are kinda missing the point of their own religion. In regards to the horrible world thing, religion isn't that simple. At least, ideally it shouldn't be that simple. Certain Christians today might treat their religion that way, as a mere comfort, but for more serious people, religion does not exist to merely comfort and coddle them. Religions aren't supposed to hold people's hands and tell them everything is fine. Religions are supposed to push people to become better, or to at least follow virtuous laws. Just look at Buddhism. There's no coddling here.

I cannot stress this enough. This is a great, intelligent answer. You can be a stubborn fool and tell everyone how they should live, but in the end that decision is up to every individual. You can have a dozen people in the room, and each one can see the world completely differently. As long as they don't harm or bother others, it shouldn't matter what they think.