It’s almost here!! In two days (more or less) the 14 years of waiting will be over! Going into Kingdom Hearts 3, we all have some questions. Who are the 7 Lights? Why does Maleficent keep working with Pete? How has Xehanort not broken the time-space continuum with bringing together so many clones of himself? Will Kairi ever be useful? Some of these questions we know are going to get answered in the game, but there’s still quite a few more that have us wondering. Here’s six of our biggest questions for the series.
Where did Pluto go in Kingdom Hearts 1?
After finding Sora in Traverse Town and helping to set the events of the game in motion, Pluto takes off through a corridor of darkness, only to be seen again with a letter at the end of the game, leading Sora and Co. to Castle Oblivion. So where was he this entire time? He didn’t appear with King Mickey at the end of the game, but he did have a letter from him. How can Pluto traverse the corridors of darkness by himself? Why doesn’t he need protection from the darkness? And, when Mickey and Riku were supposedly trapped in Kingdom Hearts, how did Pluto manage to hop across to get a letter and then hop right back out? Considering it took Sora all of fifteen seconds to lose track of him at the start of Chain of Memories, what did he do after that? Was the letter ever meant for Sora in the first place?
There’s a lot of questions about Pluto that remain unanswered, and some have the potential to change how we think the Kingdom Hearts universe operates. Unfortunately, with the idea to follow Pluto scrapped for the main plot of Coded, it doesn’t look like we’ll get answers any time soon. Until then, we’ll just be happy to see our favorite loyal friend helping out around the worlds like a benevolent, furry angel.
How does the power to wield the Keyblade actually work?
This question has been answered several times in several ways, which is why we still want to know what the real deal is. From having a multitude of Keyblade wielders, enough to have a Keyblade war, to having Sora as the sole one, to then having the power passed down from Aqua, Terra and Ven to Sora, Riku and Kairi—there’s been several different explanations. However, we’ve now also seen Axel—Lea?—spontaneously develop the ability to wield it. Is it a power that you can just develop? Does it need to be passed down? Why did they tell Sora he was the only one who could do so? Was Mickey Mouse, symbol of all that is good and pure and holy, LYING to his best friends!?
It’s unlikely we’ll get this answered by Kingdom Hearts 3, as it seems to change how and if the plot requires it to, shifting its own internal logic at the same time. And if they do decide to explain it, we’ll probably get fobbed off with “Kingdom Hearts decides how many Keyblade wielders it needs to call into existence.”
What timeline is Kingdom Hearts X/Unchained X/Union X in?
For those who have been keeping up with Kingdom Hearts X/Unchained X/Union X aka the mobile game, you’re aware by now that there have been several different timelines introduced, not all of which have had the Keyblade War happen, despite the fact that it’s always been a central tenant of the series. How are these all intertwined with the continuity of the main games? What started out as a simple “Here’s what happened before the Keyblade War!” addition, has quickly spiraled out of control.
The biggest question at this point is whether or not this will be resolved in Kingdom Hearts 3 or if we’ll have to wait for the mobile game’s own storyline to clear it up, if they decide to. It’s a shame it got so confusing, because the genesis of the Keyblade War and the events leading up to it were a great jumping off point for spinning out another facet of the series, one that wasn’t Sora/Xehanort-centric.
Why does no one seem to have parents and yet they’re still mentioned?
All jokes aside about Sora and Riku being orphans or Destiny Islands being Edea’s Orphanage 2.0, the game goes out of its way to avoid mentioning the parental or familial supervision for a group of 14 year old kids. If it wasn’t for the fact that Sora’s mom has 10 seconds worth of dialogue in the first game, we’d be pretty sure they’re living on Lord of the Flies island. This also isn't helped by the fact that two of the three other inhabitants of the island - Tidus and Selphie - are certifiable orphans.
But why all this secrecy? It would’ve been easy enough to sneak in a few throwaway lines like “I hope mom’s not mad if I’m not back in time for dinner” if they don’t want to add the tragic angst orphan backstory to Sora and Riku. We already know that Kairi is an orphan, but we’re not given much more details than that. It’s a very bizarre way to dance around what should be a very straightforward topic, which means our questions won’t likely be getting answered any time soon.
Which Union leader is the traitor?
Again, a major question we have ties back to the mobile game. One of the main plot points that the game initially brought up was that one of the Union leaders is a traitor and that, without spoiling too much of the game’s plot, something went down. But we still don’t know who the traitor was, or what happened with the Master of Masters. Not to mention, how did his Keyblade get passed down from his apprentice all the way to end up at Xehanort?
There’s still a number of gaping plot points here, and many questions that may not get resolved in Kingdom Hearts 3. But oh boy do we want to see these play out on the big screen! You know you don't want to wait to wade through all of the levels of Union X to see this mystery solved. Plus, the story of the Foretellers and the Master of Masters was included in Kingdom Hearts X Back Cover, which means there's at least a small chance we'll get to see how this all plays out in 3.
What is Kingdom Hearts?
Much like the power to wield the Keyblade, the exact definition of what Kingdom Hearts is and isn’t seems to change every five seconds. However, there is a better reason in this case—no one actually knows what Kingdom Hearts is. Everyone that we hear from is speculating about this, but no one, not even Master Yen Sid, seems to know firsthand what exactly it is. And yes, that's including Riku and Mickey in that category, even though they were, we think, stuck in Kingdom Hearts for a while.
Our best bet right now is that Kingdom Hearts is a delicious heart-shaped ball of vanilla ice cream surrounded by a crunchy chocolate layer of darkness, much like the Mickey Bars they sell at the parks. Clearly, this idea was not thought up in an elevator between Square Enix and Disney executives, it was Tetsuya Nomura walking through Disney World on a hot day when he was struck by a bolt of inspiration. And yes, I do realize that this means the Keyblades are actually popsicle sticks.