If there's one thing the Kingdom Hearts series is known for, it would have to be pushing mysteries through either vague or otherwise obscured story beats. One of the most obvious examples of this is the various conversations on the beach between several characters, but there are plenty of examples to pull from the most recent title with Kingdom Hearts 3's strange encounters.
A collection of scenes from the end of Kingdom Hearts 3 have sparked a bit of discussion online as fans come up to their own interpretations on what these moments could mean. Some of these interpretations are interesting, giving credence to certain fan theories about some characters and how they might grow or return in future sagas of the series.
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The scenes in questions come at the end of the game, both proceeding and following the events of Kingdom Hearts 3's Lich boss encounter. In a surprisingly dark sequence for the series, Sora and his friends are attacked by the Xehanort-possessed Terra and a giant wave of heartless that wind up "killing" everyone – or at least the Kingdom Hearts version of killing. These events manage to bring the ordinarily cheerful Sora to his knees, and he succumbs to the darkness even after Riku sacrifices himself to try to keep his friend going.
This is followed by a sequence of Sora being sent into the Final World, and then following through a tunnel of darkness through to sleeping versions of the other Disney worlds visited in Kingdom Hearts 3 with a light guiding the way. From there, Sora fights the Lich and saves his friends from Kingdom Hearts' bleak version of purgatory on the edge of death, and then he enters the tunnel again. It's this final time in the tunnel that the game uncovers that the source of light, revealing who allowed Sora to survive in the first place is Kairi, acting as a type of tether to keep him from disappearing all together.
Fans seem to be split on how they interpret these scenes, either choosing to take the game at its word, or suggesting that things might not be as cut and dry as they appear. For the first option, the events play out as described and the claims made about Kairi being the light that guides Sora are simply the full intent of the narrative. On the other side of this argument, Kingdom Hearts' story has been criticized for offering retcons and contradictions that muddy the waters for how to interpret anything.
In the case that the game can't be believed, some fans have begun to believe it is actually Riku acting as the light guiding the way. The idea comes partially from the way that the two tunnel scenes are presented together, with one coming immediately after Riku sacrifices himself to the Demon Tide, and then there's the way that Kairi appears within the tunnel instead of at the end of it. Considering how many times the series has contradicted itself or retconned previously "confirmed" truths, like Ventus and Vanitas' ties to the Darkness, it isn't going too far out of the way to assume a change could be made in the future.
There are a few ways that fans have taken this new interpretation in order to fit into several different theories about the connections between certain characters. Specifically, some fans believe that this scene is meant to show how strong the connection between Sora and Riku really is, having grown much stronger than some other fans assumed. This matches up with the extent of the growing bond that these same fans have noticed for some time, made especially clear during the events of Dream Drop Distance.
It's an endearing fan theory for where the character's relationships might go in the future, and gives an extra bit of motivation for Riku looking for Sora in Kingdom Hearts' new World of Fiction. Giving Riku this additional reason to fight for his friend might even be able to raise the stakes as he heads out toward unknown worlds. A lot of this does also come from a lack of explanation given by the actual story itself for how the tunnel sequence and Kairi's apparent powers seem to work.
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A major plot point in the first game involved the Seven Princesses of Heart, six Disney characters who all have pure hearts that along with Kairi acted as the key to the Door to Darkness. This plot was essentially forgotten after the first game, but reappeared as the catalyst for the antagonists' actions in the new Disney worlds of Kingdom Hearts 3. To make things even harder to follow, several of the older princesses from the first game lost their title, moving their abilities onto more modern characters like Frozen's Anna and Elsa.
While it is implied Kairi never lost her title as a Princess of Heart, little description has really been given on what this means she can do as a Keyblade wielder, or to help people who have lost their hearts. It's claimed the title means she has no darkness in her heart, but other events from the series imply this is why she was able to save Sora from being a Heartless, as well as cause the events of Kingdom Hearts 3's final act. So these powers or abilities, aside from being able to unlock the Door to Darkness, remain undefined and vague.
Finally, there appears to be some confusion coming from how the game defines the price being paid by Sora for following the Lich and saving his friends. This gets better explored in Re:Mind, however, which denotes that not only is all of this skipping around through sleeping worlds the reason he disappears at the end of the game, but that it will also cost him the Power of Waking. Before the Re:Mind DLC explained this in more clear words, it's little more than a vague suggestion implied to be the reason Sora disappears.
This has fed into some alternate interpretations, implying that the sacrifice made was Riku's from before Sora was wiped out by the Demon Tide. Following that logic leads to the idea that when Sora calls out for Riku to help when he first enters the tunnel, it really is him at lighting the end. Some of these moments are left fairly vague, likely sometimes to get players wondering about what comes next, but overall it appears the simplest answer for the whole sequence is that Sora's disappearance is the sacrifice and Kairi is his source of light.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is available now for PC, PS4, and Xbox One.
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