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The World That Never Was
Since we looked at Kingdom Hearts 2 I've wanted to make a post about the franchise again! I know that Star Wars Battlefront just came out, we'll come back to the franchise, but I think it's time to look at one of the series' most iconic destinations! Not quite Destiny Island but that doesn't mean the story is any less sad, like the franchise, the more depressing themes are ever present and this place is the pure embodiment of this!
Last time we discussed the war between the Heartless and the Nobodies, this culminated in the battle of 1000 Heartless in the world known as Hollow Bastion. For those who are completely lost this world is basically where you'll find all the Final Fantasy characters, and an assortment of Disney characters. The World That Never Was is the homebase of Organisation XIII who created this realm and reside in The Castle That Never Was, very imaginative names here! Despite this being the world of the Nobodies there still exist the heartless here, however, The World That Never Was proves the difference between the two factions, displays the desires of the Nobodies and ultimately their intent on how to acheive their goals!
First of all let's address the fact that the Heartless, the warring faction seem to be able to spawn in this realm with ease, to answer that we'll have to address the second point too: their desires. The Nobodies want hearts, they want possess emotions, imagine the total opposite of a Cyberman! Last time we discussed how a Nobody is made, a person, or other creature, is turned into a Heartless and a corresponding nobody is created, it may be as clear as mud but this gives us an explaination as to why the Nobodies want emotions, they didn't choose this way of life. They retain intelligence, independent thought, at least the members of the Organisation do! The Heartless, however, exist off of instinct, they try to take the hearts of others and invade their ultimate goal: Kingdom Hearts because that's all they know! They want evil to spread because they are made of evil itself! Which clearly means that the same is true for the Nobody and that's the ultimate difference between the two, the Nobodies are evil but they want more!
This finally leads us to the second point, I know I said we'll start with point 1 but we really need to address point 2 first! The World That Never Was is more than a cool and atmospheric place for a final showdown, it is the world that has been created by the Nobodies! From what we've learnt we know that the Nobodies want to feel like we do, this world is their only hope of doing that! The World That Never Was is a man-made Kingdom Hearts! Here they plot to take the keyblade, if necessary from Sora (the protagonist of most of the series)'s corpse! They wish to use the keyblade to open the door to Kingdom Hearts and gain the power of emotion and feelings! This finally takes us to point 1, why the Heartless can spawn here, well after a bit more explaination it will!
The Heartless aim to open the door to Kingdom Hearts and corrupt all the hearts in all the worlds that retain their purity. Kingdom Hearts, however, already contains darkness, even the smallest amount of darkness is enough to create the Heartless. If any single person in the whole of the worlds connected to Kingdoms Hearts has any darkness the Heartless will be present. Using that knowledge we can look to The World That Never Was, a man-made Kingdom Hearts run by beings without hearts, beings made of the same evil as the Heartless! The darkness exists wherever either faction exists, the Heartless can form wherever darkness exists. That's why the Heartless can spawn in a world created by their enemies!
Now all of that is out of the way let's talk city layout! The first notable thing here is the sky, in the sky is a heart shaped moon bathing the "Dark City" in a purple glow. Also in the sky you'll see the Castle That Never Was, here is where Organisation XIII plan to take the keyblade and open the door to Kingdom Hearts, should you be playing Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days you'll be using this as the main hub for all activities. You also get to fight your way out of it too! Close to that is Memory's Skyscraper, here you can find a large screen that shows the memories of anyone nearby. This site was also the site of battle between Soras's Nobody: Roxas and Sora's best friend: Riku. Sora himself also had a battle here too later in the series!
Perhaps we should have started with the absolutely most obvious sight in the whole city: Alley to Between. Why is this place so obvious? Here we find the portal Betwixt and Between, the portal that takes you from the tutorial world of Twilight Town to the final showdown in The World That Never Was. On the road to Memory's Skyscraper you'll pass through Fragment Crossing. This is a series of winding streets that lead directly to Memory's Skyscraper, this place is full of neon lights and is chock full of Nobodies! Next up on our whistle stop sight seeing tour is Avenue to Dreams, this is a huge urban areas that contains yet another skyscraper! This one, however, has a stream of blue-green mist flowing from the roof. Next up we have the Contorted City, that's right: a city in a city! This one emerges from a canyon and everything is coated in the blue-green mist that decorates the tower in Avenue to Dreams!
Finally we find ourselves in the Nightmarish Abyss! It sounds scary but this place is largely a sizable plaza surrounded by skyscrapers, this plaza leads towards Memory's Skyscraper. That concludes our tour, mainly because this post has become way too long! We just broke 1000 words! The World That Never Was is a huge metropolis, built to grant something we take for granted: feelings and emotions. In the context of the lore it adds to the tragedy of the game, the depressive themes that are ever present! Kingdom Hearts is one of those series' that have such a complex lore that even The World That Never Was has an in depth lore and geography all of its own! This in just one world out of so many! It just goes to show the love and attention the series is given by Square Enix, the love and care that Organisation XIII dream of...
