Ever since I played Dream Drop Distance, I was left with many questions (obviously, but I'm not complaining because I enjoy KH's complication (don't ask...)). While I found out the answers to most of these, I am still left with some questions because I'm really confused, pls help.    Plus I have some other questions to ask just to be sure.

 

• Did Sora and Riku actually travel back in time?
• If the sleeping worlds were worlds that did not recover completely after Sora battled Ansem SOD, how come Traverse Town was one of them, seeing how it wasn't destroyed?
• Did Sora and Riku look younger due to Yen Sid's magic? If so, why? 
• Was Riku inside Sora's dreams for the entire game until the point when Riku got the TWTNW title, or was he in Sora's dreams in that world only?
• Why did Traverse Town have two Keyholes?
• Why were Sora and Riku on Destiny Islands? Was it back in time or illusions with Yen Sid's magic?
• If Riku was in Sora's dreams before Riku fought the Anti-Black Coat Nightmare, how did Riku actually find Sora?

Thank you so much to anyone who answers these questions!    (I'm looking at you Flaming Lea   )

1. Yes

2. Traverse Town was created from Rhyme's heart in this case

3. Because they time traveled

4. He entered Sora's dreams during the part where after their raft crashes and they're underwater

5. No special reason

6. They traveled back to that moment in order to enter the Realm of Sleep

7. To be honest I'm not sure. The dream rules get weird when The World That Never Was comes into play. It's not even a dream world

I'm never the best at these sort of questions, but what the hell:

 

1. Yes, though not in a way that any other series has done it before (including that time KH did it). This method of time travel requires a person to fall into some magic sleep and transport their consciousness back to a version of themselves from the past. It's why Sora and Riku start out on Destiny Islands- that's the time and self the traveled back to, just before their islands were swallowed by darkness in KH1.

 

2. That, I don't know. It's a plot device I'm not fond of- I have the same problem with Mysterious Tower being a Sleeping World even though it's the place the supposedly great Master Yen Sid spends his time doing nothing all day.

 

3. Like I said before, they're basically just possessing their younger selves. Think X-men- Days of Future Past, if you've seen that.

 

4. hatok covered it.

 

5. Technically, all of them do. Every Sleeping world Sora and Riku visit are each separate versions of those worlds, so every world gets a different Keyhole (Joshua touched on that a bit on the second TT visit).

 

6. See my answer for 1.

 

7. hatok again. TWTNW is a weird anomaly world that kind fits a lot of circumstances. I think there was an interview that sort of mentioned it, but god help me if I can remember where.

7. hatok again. TWTNW is a weird anomaly world that kind fits a lot of circumstances. I think there was an interview that sort of mentioned it, but god help me if I can remember where.

Found it:

— I want to ask more about the World That Never Was. Is that world a part of reality? Or is also a world of sleep?

Nomura: When that world’s logo appears, it indicates the boundary between the dream and reality. When Sora arrives, it’s reality and then goes into a world of sleep. Riku arrives in the sleeping world, and as you progress and the world logo appears, that’s when it becomes reality.

 

So basically, Sora arrives then it put into a dream, Riku arrives, and escapes the dream into reality

Found it:

— I want to ask more about the World That Never Was. Is that world a part of reality? Or is also a world of sleep?

Nomura: When that world’s logo appears, it indicates the boundary between the dream and reality. When Sora arrives, it’s reality and then goes into a world of sleep. Riku arrives in the sleeping world, and as you progress and the world logo appears, that’s when it becomes reality.

 

So basically, Sora arrives then it put into a dream, Riku arrives, and escapes the dream into reality

True, but when Sora fell asleep, Riku was yet to be in reality, hence the logo not appearing yet at that point, sooo...

1. Yes

 

2. Because Joshua called it in there to house the dreams of his friends so their existences wouldn't be completely erased and he found out those dreams took human form.He wanted Sora and riku to restore those existences.Joshua had hoped that sora and riku being outside sources would allow his friends to become real.

 

3.Yes because Yen Sid wanted them to relearn the keyblade from scratch so he gave them younger bodies and new clothes that wouldn't transform back until they returned to the Mysterious Tower.

 

4.Riku was inside Sora's dreams all along up until after his fights with Ansem.He entered right before Sora went into the RoS when he spotted Ansem.

 

5. It wasn't really explained, 

 

6. Yen Sid literally sent them back in time so they could be present when DI fell into sleep aka when it fell to darkness.They needed to do that to enter the RoS.

 

7. He was still in Sora's dreams even after Anti black Coat . He was just able to free him from the nightmare

Edited April 12, 201510 yr by Flaming Lea

7. He was still in Sora's dreams even after Anti black Coat . He was just able to free him from the nightmare

The question is why. It doesn't really fit with the rest of the dream logic where Sora and Riku can't interact and as a rule can't see or find each other.

What makes it go from holograms to an actual physical body?

7. He was still in Sora's dreams even after Anti black Coat . He was just able to free him from the nightmare

Then how was Riku able to find Sora's body if he was still in his dreams?

 

5. Technically, all of them do. Every Sleeping world Sora and Riku visit are each separate versions of those worlds, so every world gets a different Keyhole (Joshua touched on that a bit on the second TT visit).

Yeah, but there were 4 Keyholes in Traverse Town, two for Sora and two for Riku, while the other worlds had one Keyhole for each of the protagonists.

Edited April 12, 201510 yr by Master Eraqus

Then how was Riku able to find Sora's body if he was still in his dreams?

 

Yeah, but there were 4 Keyholes in Traverse Town, two for Sora and two for Riku, while the other worlds had one Keyhole for each of the protagonists.

 

 

Because TT was really really asleep.

 

(I dunno, I forgot about that honestly, Joshua probably just made it that way because he's god or whatever. TWEWY is stupid.)

Yeah, but there were 4 Keyholes in Traverse Town, two for Sora and two for Riku, while the other worlds had one Keyhole for each of the protagonists.

there isn't really a rule that says there can only be one key hole

 

 

 TWEWY is stupid.)

oh no you did not

The question is why. It doesn't really fit with the rest of the dream logic where Sora and Riku can't interact and as a rule can't see or find each other.

What makes it go from holograms to an actual physical body?

 

 

It was because of Riku's status as Sora's dream eater pretty much.( he almost woke him up but by the time he got there it was too late)

 

Then how was Riku able to find Sora's body if he was still in his dreams?

 

Yeah, but there were 4 Keyholes in Traverse Town, two for Sora and two for Riku, while the other worlds had one Keyhole for each of the protagonists.

 

Because Riku was trapped in Sora's dreams he was able to follow Sora to TWTNW in the first place even though they weren't suppose to be there but the organization led Sora astray there and therefore led Riku as well. Since he was in Sora's dreams he was also physically able to be present in Sora's nightmare. When Sora fell into the Chasm of dreams then Riku was then trapped in his two fold nightmare.

It was because of Riku's status as Sora's dream eater pretty much.( he almost woke him up but by the time he got there it was too late)

what makes this different though? Riku was always his Dream Eater, why couldn't either of them interact until that point

Because Riku was trapped in Sora's dreams he was able to follow Sora to TWTNW in the first place even though they weren't suppose to be there but the organization led Sora astray there and therefore led Riku as well. Since he was in Sora's dreams he was also physically able to be present in Sora's nightmare. When Sora fell into the Chasm of dreams then Riku was then trapped in his two fold nightmare.

So what you're saying is that the Sora we see asleep, the one Riku tries to wake up, is a 'dream Sora'? I'm really sorry if I'm not following.

Edited April 12, 201510 yr by Master Eraqus

what makes this different though? Riku was always his Dream Eater, why couldn't either of them interact until that point

 

Technically they did though- in Country of the Musketeers with the whole stage trap thing that Riku negated and in Symphony of Sorcery where they both had to get separate Sound Ideas to play at the same time to save Mickey.

 

If one had faith in the writers, one could even say that it was intentional, to have the last two worlds before TWTNW show more interaction between the two to show how close they really were the whole time, and how deeper into dreams they were sinking.

Edited April 12, 201510 yr by HeyMouseSayCheese

what makes this different though? Riku was always his Dream Eater, why couldn't either of them interact until that point

 

I think it was because the last time Riku dropped it was because Sora woke up in the real world and then when the organization put Sora into a second sleep Riku was able to be physically present in the dream that Sora was physically present in.. You got a special dynamic going on due to TWTNW being an inbetween world plus Riku was still trapped in Sora's dream

 

So what you're saying is that the Sora we see asleep, the one Riku tries to wake up, is a 'dream Sora'? I'm really sorry if I'm not following.

 Yes and no .It's both. lol The whole point was to lose Sora into a two fold nightmare so he could never escape...The Sora that Riku freed was the real Sora who was asleep in that dream and by the time Riku freed him he had dropped into the chasm of dreams.

Edited April 12, 201510 yr by Flaming Lea

Technically they did though- in Country of the Musketeers with the whole stage trap thing that Riku negated and in Symphony of Sorcery where they both had to get separate Sound Ideas to play at the same time to save Mickey.

 

If one had faith in the writers, one could even say that it was intentional, to have the last two worlds before TWTNW show more interaction between the two to show how close they really were the whole time, and how deeper into dreams they were sinking.

they didn't directly interact though. They influenced each other's world, which makes sense in an Inception sort of way. When they actually see each other they're intangible holograms though.

 

 

I think it was because the last time Riku dropped it was because Sora woke up in the real world and then when the organization put Sora into a second sleep Riku was able to be physically present in the dream that Sora was physically present in.. You got a special dynamic going on due to TWTNW being an inbetween world plus Riku was still trapped in Sora's dream

Something along those lines is likely, but it doesn't seem to be explicitly stated to my knowledge. I think another possibility could be that the dream Riku explores is the dream the new Org made to double trap Sora in the first place, meaning that it would be the physical Sora Riku is interacting with (which would explain why they CAN physically interact)

But yeah, like I said before, TWTNW kinda throws a lot of the established rules to the wind

Yes and no .It's both. lol The whole point was to lose Sora into a two fold nightmare so he could never escape.

Oh ok thanks I think I get it now.

they didn't directly interact though. They influenced each other's world, which makes sense in an Inception sort of way. When they actually see each other they're intangible holograms though.

 

 

Something along those lines is likely, but it doesn't seem to be explicitly stated to my knowledge. I think another possibility could be that the dream Riku explores is the dream the new Org made to double trap Sora in the first place, meaning that it would be the physical Sora Riku is interacting with (which would explain why they CAN physically interact)

But yeah, like I said before, TWTNW kinda throws a lot of the established rules to the wind

 Nothing in DDD was explicitly stated and we are basically stating the same thing i think LOL..Read my whole post to you and Master Eraqus above lol

Edited April 12, 201510 yr by Flaming Lea

1. Yes, Sora and Riku actually traveled through time. As Young Xehanort and Master Yen Sid explained, in order to travel through time you must leave your body behind and arrive at a point in time where a version of you already exists. Yen Sid put Sora and Riku's bodies asleep so he could send their hearts back to the point in time right before Destiny Islands was destroyed by the Heartless, which allowed them to experience everything in their younger bodies. Once Destiny Islands fell to Darkness like it did in KH1, Sora and Riku were able to gain access to the first sleeping keyhole in the past, which allowed them access to the Realm of Sleep (and it probably doesn't matter at what point in time you enter the realm of sleep, most sci-fi and fantasy agree that dreams can transcend space and time, so as far as everyone in the present was concerned, Sora and Riku's adventure was happening in the present as soon as they entered the realm of sleep).

 

2. Traverse Town may have never been destroyed by the Heartless, but it is a special world of it's own with special properties. Like The End of The World, Traverse Town is made up of the remnants of various worlds that were destroyed by the darkness. This allowed it to act as a safe haven for anyone who survived the destruction of their world and corridors of darkness would regularly open up and close allowing those individuals to find their way there. This is how Sora found his way to Traverse Town in KH1, before he got swallowed up by the dark storm he fell into a corridor of darkness and ended up in Traverse Town. Not only that, but Traverse Town is one of the few worlds that exist in The Realm Between, between the Realms of Darkness and Light, allowing it to be easily accessible to denizens of the Light before they are captured by the Darkness. Because of all of these traits, Traverse Town can be described as a special world that appears to those who need it, a lamp post on a dark road so to speak (kind of explains the whole nighttime scene I suppose). It's because of this that it appears in 3D. As Joshua explained, something happened in their world (Shibuya) that threatened the existences of his four friends who were forced to play the Reaper's Game (I'm going to assume that seeing how they're all chummy with each other now, the events of the TWEWY already happened and the Reapers went rogue and forced them into the Underground again...which probably meant murdering them...again...and possibly made the game so impossible and unreasonable that they couldn't complete it...or the Heartless were invading Shibuya at some point and without that world and it's alternate planes of existence the crew couldn't survive, complete the game, or something like that. Point being, some kind of crisis happened in that world and I can only assume that it was either caused by the Reapers or the Heartless...or both.). So being the deity that he is he managed to save what little he could of them and wounded up in the Realm of Sleep. In order to give them a plane to exist on, he used the dreams of Rhyme to try and create a world that they could survive in, a world that they needed. So naturally it took the shape of Traverse Town, and since Joshua managed to save the dreams of Neku and the others, they were able to take shape and form and were restored within this dream Traverse Town. However, interestingly enough it became split into two, likely because it was formed when Sora and Riku first made the dive into the Realm of Sleep. Since during the whole adventure Riku was in Sora's dreams while Sora went through the actual Sleeping Worlds, it's likely that the sudden creation of two dreamscapes caused dimensional hiccup (or a tactical boo-boo, whichever babble you think sounds funnier), so when the dream Traverse Town was created, it got stuck between the Realm of Sleep and Sora's dreams (which also makes sense since he and Rhyme are both pretty big dreamers). So when this happened the team got split up, Neku and Rhyme in the Realm of Sleep and Joshua, Shiki, and Beat in Sora's dream. Once Joshua was able to use Rhyme (whose dreams as I mentioned were the source of this Traverse Town) as a Portal between the two splintered versions of the town, he was able to take Rhyme and Shiki between them so they could be reunited with their partners. Why he couldn't bring them all into the same version is likely because it would have been too difficult even for him, since he wasn't even in complete control over how the town was created, let alone split apart. But with everyone reunited with their partners they could at least have a chance at completing the game, which the Reapers are apparently still in charge of and don't seem to be letting up on even against Joshua's wishes. After Sora and Riku finished awakening all the Sleeping Worlds, the fate of the Shibuya team is unknown, since we don't know if they have a home to go back to or not. And even if they do, we don't know if it would be safe for them to ever return, since they're only still here because the Realm of Sleep gave them shape. That's probably something Joshua will have to ponder over for a while longer. Also, it's never clear whether this would be considered a pseudo Traverse Town made from dreams or just a dream extension of Traverse Town that can appear for those who are lost in the Realm of Sleep from the waking world and are not part of any other Sleeping World. In either case, it appeared because it was needed, much like it does in the real world.

 

3. As I said before, in order to gain easy access to the Realm of Sleep, Sora and Riku had to be sent back in time to when a world they had been on was being destroyed by the Darkness. And in order to time travel to the past, you must leave your body behind in the present and have a past version of you at your destination so that you may exist as your past self for that adventure. Because the Destiny Islands were destroyed in the past, Sora and Riku were present when it happened, and Destiny Islands fell to slumber until it was restored by Sora, the circumstances were favorable enough to act as a gate for Sora and Riku to enter the Realm of Sleep (the only other alternative would be to cast a world into darkness in the present and...yeah, kind of not their thing). So when Yen Sid sent them to the past on Destiny Islands before the storm hit, Sora and Riku awoke in their younger bodies (and I guess Riku wanted to cut his hair in his past body too because...reasons). So in a sense it is due to Yen Sid's magic that they appear younger, but that's because they actually followed the rules of time travel and they are actually in their younger bodies. It's possible that maybe Yen Sid did give them new adventuring clothes to better harness their dream powers (since he and the good fairies do have clothing magic), but it's also likely that their clothes changed entirely due to the outside forces at work (Sora and the Recusant's Sigil, the sigil likely coming with the outfit, and Riku and the Spirit sigil, the sigil representing Riku's state as a Spirit Dream Eater and the clothes likely came with it as well). Point being, the bodies they have in 3D are the same bodies they had in KH1, their hearts and minds however are from the present.

 

4. Yes, Riku was in Sora's dreams from the moment they first Dived all the way to when he appeared in front of Memory's Skyscraper in the real world. As Ansem SOD explained, when Riku spotted the "Man in the Robe" (which was Ansem as just a heart), he realized that something was not right, so when he and Sora opened the first Sleeping Keyhole that lead to the Realm of Sleep, he unconsciously used the Keyhole to enter Sora's dreams instead so that he may be able to protect Sora, causing him to become a pseudo Spirit Dream Eater. That means that while Sora had been dreaming through the Sleeping Worlds all this time, the whole time Riku was dreaming through Sora's dream of the Sleeping Worlds. It wasn't until Riku defeated Ansem and Sora fell into a dark slumber that Riku was finally able to escape both the Realm of Sleep and Sora's dream. It should be noted that while Sora was in the real World That Never Was, he was forced into sleep again, placed into a nightmare version of the world created by the Organization (essentially they just gave him a nightmare), so the World That Never Was that Riku was in was the dream of Sora's nightmare of The World That Never Was, which was how he was able to access it. Once Sora had fallen into slumber, Riku's connection to him was cut off, allowing him to appear in the outside world, and since they were no longer in the Realm of Sleep, he appeared in the real world where Sora was. It's also interesting to note that while Sora is slipping further into darkness the world that Riku is in gets more and more dark and distorted during his fight with Ansem until he is finally back in the real World That Never Was.

 

5. The first Keyhole that appeared in Traverse Town was used to "awaken" the town and unlock the rest of the way to the other Sleeping Worlds. However since the town is still needed for Neku and the others it still remains. So when Sora and Riku use the Keyhole again on their second adventure there, it's not used to awaken the town but rather to unlock the path to the next two Sleeping Worlds, meaning that while they have technically used "eight" Sleeping Keyholes, they really only "unlocked" seven. This leads to further confusion as to what the fate of that world and the Shibuya team currently is.

 

6. Sora and Riku really were on the Destiny Islands, but it was back in the past, the very day that it fell to darkness. Yen Sid used his magic to take Sora and Riku's hearts and consciousnesses into their past bodies so that they would be able to dive into the Realm of Sleep when the Destiny Islands became a Sleeping World. The only "illusion" of the world was the Phantom Ursula that showed up to battle Sora and Riku, created by Yen Sid as their first trial of the Mark of Mastery Exam. It disappeared once it was defeated and the world fell to darkness.

 

7. The "Sora" that Riku finds in the dream of a dream version of The World That Never Was isn't the "real" Sora, it's more of a existential metaphorical representation of Sora's subconscious as he's experiencing the nightmare, and it also possibly represents the "nexus" of his dream of the Sleeping Worlds that Riku has been traveling through, meaning that that "Sora" represents the center of Sora's dreams and Riku has finally caught up to his subconscious mind (which is likely why Sora was able to faintly hear Riku's voice during his nightmare). So the Anti-Black Coat Nightmare that Riku fought also acted as a physical manifestation of the nightmare that Sora was having, which makes sense since a majority of the people he comes across are in the Organization's coat, the nightmare was brought on by Xigbar and Young Xehanort, he's fighting Xemnas, and the Nightmare actually mirrors some of Xemnas and Young Xehanort's attacks. The Nightmare emblem appears on the back to also mirror Riku in a way, as while Riku is represented as a Spirit to protect Sora from Nightmares that would harm him, the Anti-Black Coat Nightmare is the strongest one that has ever been encountered by the two and it exists to drag Sora further into the darkness of his dreams and keep Sora trapped in a dark slumber that he can never wake up from. Riku was able to defeat the Nightmare, thus leading to Sora's actual nightmare to end, but once Sora began to fight Xemans to the point of exhaustion he was already starting to fall into the darkness, which started to cut Riku's connection to Sora's dreams, which is what caused the Sora image to disappear and the dream Riku was in to distort and become more dark and twisted while he fought Ansem, who probably also had a hand in the nightmare.

 

I hope this helps clear things up for you. I too also love Kingdom Hearts for it's complexities, it's fun to have a series that acts as a puzzle rather than one that spells everything out for you the first time. It makes the series more deep and fun to explore. Also trying to explain things sort of helps you better understand it yourself, so I feel that I've learned something from this too!

Because TT was really really asleep.

 

(I dunno, I forgot about that honestly, Joshua probably just made it that way because he's god or whatever. TWEWY is stupid.)

You really have to try harder to dig deep into these sorts of things. There's all sorts of possibilities as to why that is, I already covered some, I'm sure there are others.

Technically they did though- in Country of the Musketeers with the whole stage trap thing that Riku negated and in Symphony of Sorcery where they both had to get separate Sound Ideas to play at the same time to save Mickey.

 

If one had faith in the writers, one could even say that it was intentional, to have the last two worlds before TWTNW show more interaction between the two to show how close they really were the whole time, and how deeper into dreams they were sinking.

Ok, that's more like it.

 

they didn't directly interact though. They influenced each other's world, which makes sense in an Inception sort of way. When they actually see each other they're intangible holograms though.

 

 

Something along those lines is likely, but it doesn't seem to be explicitly stated to my knowledge. I think another possibility could be that the dream Riku explores is the dream the new Org made to double trap Sora in the first place, meaning that it would be the physical Sora Riku is interacting with (which would explain why they CAN physically interact)

But yeah, like I said before, TWTNW kinda throws a lot of the established rules to the wind

As I said, I think it might be that while Sora is trapped in the nightmare world of TWTNW, Riku was still stuck in the Sora's dream of that dream. It's like layered cake almost, if the real world is the frosting and the layer underneath that is the dream that Sora is in, then the layer under that is the dream that Riku is in, and it becomes affected by Sora's layer and vice-versa. That being said, I'm not so sure that the Sora that Riku finds is the "real" Sora, but that rather it might be the metaphorical representation of the nexus of Sora's dreams, and that Riku is able to do things like grab him because he's a Dreameater and he's able to do interact with dreams like that. So when Sora falls into slumber, the nexus Sora disappears and the stability of the two-fold dream Riku is in starts to fall apart.

 

Yup, this is still fun.

Edited April 12, 201510 yr by Hero of Light XIV