What Exactly Is Kingdom Hearts In The Games?

The Kingdom Hearts series is notorious for its overall narrative being tricky to understand. While the reason a lot of fans come back to the series is the complicated and entertaining relationships between the core cast of characters, their circumstances in each game tend to be the biggest source of confusion.

This confusion can be sourced back to many different entities and events, but one particular being that stumps a lot of people is Kingdom Hearts itself, the series’ namesake. Getting involved and engaged with this fun series is easy, but when asked what Kingdom Hearts actually is, the answer is a lot less straightforward.

What Is Kingdom Hearts?

The answer for what is Kingdom Hearts has changed slightly throughout the multi-decade long series, with new information being added, and old information being shifted as we learn more about the titular entity.

Despite this, some information has remained the same throughout most entries, so these can be seen as the most reliable sources. Kingdom Hearts is the heart of all the worlds in the Kingdom Hearts universe, and it is formed by an aggregation of many hearts.

It can be seen as the collective heart of everything in the Kingdom Hearts universe.

Hearts in the Kingdom Hearts universe are not treated the same as hearts in the real world, being less of a biological term, and more as a part of a being like a soul, but not actually a soul, since that is a separate part as well.

Kingdom Hearts itself is seen to be the strongest heart in the Kingdom Hearts universe. Because of the strength Kingdom Hearts wields due to all the hearts it is formed from, it is seen as a source of great power.

This is why, time and time again throughout the series’ history, it has been a goal of the antagonists to gain, create, or open Kingdom Hearts to take control of its power.

While it’s unknown exactly what form the power of Kingdom Hearts takes, its power is reported to be able to create a new reality, but in doing so wiping out the current one.

This ability to create a whole new reality in the image of its wielder is why villains who are discontent with the state of the Kingdom Hearts universe wish to hold its power and change what they find unjust.

Why Is Kingdom Hearts Not Always The Same?

One of the more complicated aspects of Kingdom Hearts as an entity is why it appears in different forms throughout the series. For example, Kingdom Hearts shows up and plays a major role in all of the numbered entries, but each time it looks and seems to act slightly different.

This is because of the different circumstances under which Sora witnesses Kingdom Hearts in each game. Because of these different circumstances, Kingdom Hearts is in a slightly different state.

For example, while there is only one true Kingdom Hearts, it is also possible to create an artificial Kingdom Hearts to wield a similar power.

Kingdom Hearts In Kingdom Hearts 1

While Kingdom Hearts itself is not seen or heard of by Sora and friends throughout most of Kingdom Hearts 1, it ends up playing an important role in the finale, and ends up heavily impacting the events for the next few games in the series.

Ansem Seeker of Darkness (or as he is referred to later in the series, Xehanort’s Heartless) as well as Maleficent and the other Disney villains all seek the power of Kingdom Hearts throughout the first game in the series.

Ansem is the one pulling the strings to fulfil this goal.

Ansem Seeker of Darkness’ goal is to draw out the strong darkness that he believes surrounds Kingdom Hearts to be able to use its power.

Under Ansem’s manipulations, Maleficent and the other villains collect the seven Princesses of Heart as it is told they will unveil the last keyhole needed to reach Kingdom Hearts and use its power.

This did not go exactly as planned thanks to Sora’s interruption, which led to him sacrificing himself to save Kairi, one of the Princesses of Heart, and temporarily turning Sora into a heartless.

This leads to the final keyhole being opened and the games’ finale taking place. Ansem, in control of Riku’s body, traveled through the final keyhole, and Sora, after recovering, sealed the keyhole to stop any darkness pouring out, but not before following Riku hoping to save him and stop Ansem.

After working through the End of the World, Sora reached Ansem, having taken his true form, in an abyss bordering the Door to Darkness, which on the other side, housed Kingdom Hearts.

After his defeat by Sora, Ansem hopes to empower himself by wielding Kingdom Heart on the other side of the door, assuming it would be dark, but instead the light of Kingdom Hearts overwhelmed and destroyed him.

With the help of King Mickey and Riku on the other side of the door, Sora manages to seal away Kingdom Hearts, but in the process, separating him from his friend who he had hoped to save.

Kingdom Hearts In Kingdom Hearts 2

After the events of Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Sora’s being was recompleted, with Roxas and Xion being temporarily returned to him.

With these two out of the picture, Organization 13 needed to come up with a new scheme to form the artificial Kingdom Hearts they were looking to create.

Instead of using Roxas and Xion to harvest hearts from Emblem Heartless, they would manipulate Sora to harvest them by releasing them into innocent worlds, so Sora would be forced to save their civilians.

The artificial Kingdom Hearts the Organization (lead by Xemnas, Xehanort’s Nobody) was attempting to form would use these hearts, and even when Sora worked out what their plan was, he still had to keep harvesting the hearts to ensure innocent people would not fall victim to the Organization’s scheme.

By the time Sora has learned of Xemnas’ plan, the fake Kingdom Hearts had grown to a massive size, taking the form of a heart-shaped moon that soared above the Castle that Never Was.

On top of this, a revived Maleficent was also vying to obtain the power of this Kingdom Hearts, and ended up helping the heroes to ensure that the Organization would not be able to use it.

Out of guilt for the unintended repercussions of his experiments, the original Ansem, Ansem the Wise, (that Xehanort’s Heartless from Kingdom Hearts 1 had stolen the identity of) used a digital encoder to attack the fake Kingdom Hearts, which ended up restoring Riku to his true form, halting the Organization’s plan, but also led to countless Heartless leaking from the broken Kingdom Hearts.

Unable to manipulate Sora and Riku to help him create another Kingdom Hearts, Xemnas merged with the remains of the broken Kingdom Hearts and used this power to attack the pair, but he ended up defeated.

The status of the remains of the fake Kingdom Hearts from Kingdom Hearts 2 is still unknown, but it is assumed to no longer exist thanks to Sora defeating Xemnas.

Kingdom Hearts In Kingdom Hearts 3

Between the events of Kingdom Hearts 2 and Kingdom Hearts 3, it’s revealed that the true method to unlock Kingdom Hearts is by forming the χ-blade, which can be done by creating a conflict between seven beings of light and 13 of dark.

This is achieved by Xehanort after his machinations throughout the series materialized in the Keyblade Graveyard at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3. The χ-blade is used by Xehanort to attack Kairi, which leads to Kingdom Hearts opening over the world, which Xehanort enters.

The remaining Guardians of Light strategize to send Sora after Xehanort while the rest of them hold off the escaping darkness from the newly opened Kingdom Hearts. When following Xehanort, Sora, Donald, and Goofy enter Scala Ad Caelum.

After beating the spirits that defended Xehanort, Sora and Xehanort finally have a direct conflict, with Xehanort using the power of Kingdom Hearts channeled through the χ-blade.

After Xehanort is defeated by Sora, he reveals that he was planning to use the power of Kingdom Hearts to reset the world. But the spirit of Eraqus, Xehanort’s old friend, appears from Terra, and convinces Xehanort to sacrifice the power of χ-blade and move on.

The χ-blade is then used by Sora to seal Kingdom Hearts.

Kingdom Hearts In Non-Numbered Kingdom Hearts

Kingdom Hearts takes up the largest role in the main numbered titles. However, the namesake of the series is still referenced in other games. It is not as important as in the non-numbered entries, but it is still worth mentioning the entries where its role is most important.

Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep

Outside of the main numbered titles, the game that features Kingdom Hearts the most is Birth By Sleep, the prequel title that introduces the audience to the Xehanort, as well as the χ-blade.

The events take place ten years before the first game in the series, and it shows the countering ideology of Xehanort and Eraqus, and how this leads to Xehanort manipulating Eraqus’ students; Terra, Ventus, and Aqua.

Xehanort teases his goal in Kingdom Hearts 3 of resetting the world to better balance light and darkness. He summons the power of χ-blade and Kingdom Hearts by manipulating Ventus and his dark counterpart Vanitas, and then uses this power to enter Terra as a new vessel to house his heart.

However, Xehanort is unable to continue his plans thanks to the Lingering Will of Terra leading to him losing his memories, and Aqua sending herself to the Realm of Darkness to keep Terra’s body in the Realm of Light.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

While Kingdom Hearts is not as important in 358/2 Days, the artificial Kingdom Hearts from Kingdom Hearts 2 grows throughout the game as you control Roxas, who continually harvests hearts to help it grow under the orders of Xemnas.

Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance

Like Birth By Sleep, Dream Drop Distance contextualizes the events of Kingdom Hearts 3. In Riku’s version of The World that Never Was, the fake version of Kingdom Hearts from Kingdom Hearts 2 floats in the dream version of the world.

Near the end of the game, a more detailed version of Xehanort’s plan is revealed — to reform a new version of Organization 13 and summon Kingdom Hearts once again.

The Future Of Kingdom Hearts

While Kingdom Hearts was sealed using the χ-blade at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3 by Sora, this does not mean that the entity itself does not exist anymore.

With Sora’s ambiguous status at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3, and the importance of a version of Kingdom Hearts being in every numbered Kingdom Hearts title, the chance of Kingdom Hearts appearing in some form in Kingdom Hearts 4 feels like an inevitability.