I've come up with this theory and I've been itching to share it. I decided to put it up here on KH13 because the social websites I put it up in don't have a lot of KH fans to discuss it with. Also my first post on this website, so please be nice ;v;
Note: This theory is not spoiler free. It contains spoilers for all the Kingdom Hearts games so if you haven't played it yet and don't want to be spoiled, it is recommended you don't continue on.
Everyone knows how cheerful Sora can be. In situations where it’s clearly time to be serious, he goofs off without a care in the world. This has some fans annoyed out of their wits and sometimes they call him a Mickey clone. I tend to agree with how childish Sora can be sometimes, even when the situation is really serious (even though he is my favorite character), but recently I have come up with a theory will explain why he is so ‘childish’. He may not even be truly childish at all.
Like a regular person, Sora has his own personal darkness. His darkness is rarely shown in the series and is sometimes overlooked. He is not a perfect person; he has a light and dark side. Most of the time, Sora chooses to think positively instead of negatively. Rarely seen truly sad or angry, it’s hard to think that Sora even has a negative point of view. However, just because he acts and sees everything positively doesn't mean that the negative view of things doesn’t exist to him. It still does, but he avoids it. Sora hates the darkness. It’s done so many bad things to him. Sora dislikes people who use darkness, but he acknowledges it to a certain point. That’s why Sora doesn’t take selfish and cowardice actions easy. He berates anyone who was once selfish, one example being Iago in Aladdin’s world. It took him quite a long time to trust Iago, but is willing to forgive to an extent anyone if they helped him (i.e. Maleficent, Ansem --actually Riku in KH2 when he saved Kairi--, etc). Sora doesn't like the people who use darkness and considers it to be ‘evil’, though he seems to have admitted (not really overcoming it; he simply acknowledged that he has darkness in his heart) that the “darkness had gotten to [him] too."
Before I delve any further into where I’m getting at, I’m going to make a statement: Sora has never overcome/conquered his own personal darkness on his own or really by his own will. Unlike Riku, who had to struggle with the darkness in him for so long before finally overcoming it with light in KH3D (on his own), Sora always needed some form of help or events to get over his darkness. When Sora becomes a Heartless in KH1, the only reason he came back is because Kairi wished it to. Although Roxas is not technically an evil Sora, when merging with Roxas (first time I thought he was sora Sora’s evil side), Roxas only merged with Sora out of his own will. In KH3D, he was tempted by the new Organization 13 and finally gave in. He was only saved by the darkness by Riku. It irks me, it really does, that when I realize it. Noruma engineered almost everything so that whatever Sora does, it can be explained because of someone else linked to him and that he can be considered ‘not really special’ at all. Sora is using Ventus’ fighting style (not really, Sora has his own style, I'm just mimicking the people who think it's true)! He can’t really wield a keyblade either! It’s Ventus’! Sora can’t really duel wield, that’s really because of Roxas (or whatever, duel wielding originates from)! The keyblade Sora uses is not his! It’s Riku’s! He also can’t pass the Mastery Exam because he got kidnapped! Sora’s actually not special at all! Dangit Noruma, toss Sora a freakin’ bone already. Let him do something cool that isn’t because of someone else. Anyways, I wanted to get this idea out. To be honest, Sora finally overcoming darkness on his own seems like a plot element in KH3.
Now back to my theory, most of the time, negative thinking can be considered a part of darkness. Think too negatively all the time, you’ll spiral into depression or something like that. From personal experience, depression is a very dark part of your life. When someone is pessimistic, we tend to encourage that person to be optimistic and such. Donald and Goofy give this advice to Sora when they try to get him to come with them to find the king. Specifically, they said “No Frowning, No sad faces.” Sora seemed to have taken this to heart. The sadder and more emotionally disturbed you are, the happier you should be. When Sora feels a great amount of negative emotions, his mindset automatically clicks to a positive thought so he won’t have to deal with it. More specifically, he doesn’t want to deal with the darkness that comes with negative emotions. So basically, when Sora is expected to react negatively, but reacts positively (the example I used is in KH1 when he’s supposedly depressed from losing his world and then suddenly smiles like some deranged lunatic) he’s really overacting so he won’t feel so bad and that he avoids the darkness. They say that if you’re really good at lying, you’ll be able to convince yourself of the lie. In truth, Sora does feel broken and sad in times where it seems like he’s not, but he’s trying to protect himself by acting happy. Sora’s lying to himself about how he feels. DiZ compares Sora’s light to an innocent child, and what to children do when they encounter something they don’t like (or afraid of)? They avoid it. When I was young, I didn’t like TinTin (I like it now though because of the 2011 movie), and I ended up avoiding everything TinTin related growing up because I was disturbed by one episode when I was younger. Like me, Sora had bas experienced from Darkness from Ansem (Xehenort’s Heartless) and has developed something real strong against it. So in reality, Sora knows the seriousness of the situation and switches his perspective accordingly so he can fabricate being happy; to keep the darkness away. He only vents his anger/sadness in small outbursts when it’s too much for him. Maybe he (subconsciously?) knows that if he is too negative, the darkness in his heart would take over in a moment’s notice. When Sora was about to stab himself with the keyblade, he smiles, not because he’s happy, because he’s really sad, probably afraid. The real reason why Sora is so ‘childish’ and so darn happy all the time is so that he can protect himself from the darkness. Sora can’t overcome his darkness, so he tries everything he can to make sure to avoid the darkness at all cost.
The reason why in KH3D, he reverts to being super childish is because he’s in a lot of pain. Disturbed by the New Orgs’s weird questions, he tries to brush it off and plays off as childish person so he can deal with it with how scared/troubled he feels. When he was forced into a dream within a dream (or whatever happened that caused Sora end up in the inception limbo), he saw so many visions of Roxas, Namine, Xion, Ventus, Terra, Aqua. So many emotions he can’t understand. The pain from those connected. Sora doesn’t want the darkness to get to him. He literally describes the feeling of his heart ‘aching’ and Sora being Sora decides it’s time to remain positive. He clings onto his friendships and pushes forward, but still falls in darkness away because it was a part of Xehenort’s plan. Later after he is saved, he wasn’t the least bit bummed out that he failed the Mark of Mastery Exam. Why is that? I mean I’m pretty sure, no matter how positive you are, you would at feel at least a tad bit discouraged or bummed out when you fail something you put your heart and soul into. I was expecting Sora to be a little sad or something, but no, he’s just explodes in naïve happiness over the fact that Riku had succeeded. If my theory is put into play, Sora’s actually overreacting because he feels bad. He’s happy for Riku and decides to emphasize that emotion so he can drown out the bad emotions he’s feeling. He actually feels really sad, perhaps guilty for making him put his best friend through thick and thin for him. It’s evident because Sora immediately departs for another journey. I’m not sure whether or not he’s thanking the Dream Eaters or training, but Donald and Goofy state that he has been gone for a long time despite the fact that Sora said that he wouldn’t be gone for long. I believe he’s training or such, to make up for failing the Mark of Mastery Exam.
Anyways, as many instances proven to us, running from darkness doesn’t make things the least bit better. When Riku tries to avoid darkness, it only gets worse until he manages to conquer it with light. Sora has been doing this emotional mechanism for a long time now and running from darkness will only work for so long. It’s a possibility that Sora is going to give into the dark in KH3. It may even be possible for Sora to be ineligible to be a Guardian of Light. After all, Xehenort has his eyes set on Sora as a new vessel and it doesn’t seem like he’s the type to give up that easily. The plot twist seems right up Noruma’s alley and he’s clearly obsessed with trying to prove that Sora’s just a normal kid (technically a young man since he’s about 18 in KH3). In one interview, he says this:
Read the Article here: http://www.khinsider.com/news/A-Look-Back-Director-s-Secret-Report-XIII-4883
When I read this, I got really excited The translation for the report had just come up about two months ago (I was a l late reading it, ;v; ) I’ve always seemed curious to why Sora’s turning into a heartless has been somewhat ‘overlooked’ since it’s appearance. Clearly Noruma has something planned for Sora’s darkness. Since it's still an unresolved issue, the problem still persists. It wouldn’t be a surprise to me if Sora was actually a Seeker of Darkness rather than a Guardian of Light. Of course, this was said roughly 8 years ago and it could be referring to Sora’s fall in darkness in KH3D; however, I believe that this is a crucial plot element to KH3.
A large portion of the SoD (Seekers of Darkness), are unknown. It’s hard to believe that Xehenort will not waste such an opportunity as Sora. It’s probably quite difficult to round up the correct vessels and Xehenort had to resort to time travel to get the remaining vessels. There was a reason why Xehenort decided that Sora was a suitable vessel. Although it's been stated that he merely 'move down the list', there is a reason why Sora was on the list in the first place. Both Roxas and Riku had become inadequate vessels because they both managed to overcome their darkness. Sora still hasn't and thus why Xehenort had put him on the list of potential candidates. It would be strange of Xehenort if he didn’t try to ‘recruit’ Sora when he’s at his weakest in KH3. There has been some speculation regarding whether or not Sora will lose the ability to lose his keyblade when he awakens Ventus by giving back his heart. Noruma seems to thrive on proving Sora is just normal (HE IS CLEARLY NOT :U) . It certainly seems like a strong possibility and it would open up a chance for Sora to step into darkness. Without a keyblade and the loss of the connections to his heart (He would've saved most everyone by then), he would be ‘normal’ again (except that he can probably do magic with or without the keyblade). Discouraged that he was no longer of ‘importance’ and that he was unable to do anything might drive him over the edge and into darkness. I expect some conflict with Sora’s darkness in KH3 or I will be very upset.
Edit: There's a counter-argument against the fact that Sora will lose his ability to wield when giving back Ventus' heart. This is because if Ventus is the true source of Sora's keyblading abilities then it should've been lost with Roxas when Sora turned into a Heartless in KH1. Other people claim that the reason behind this because Ventus is still out of commission and did not need the keyblade. Technically, Roxas is tethered to Sora so even if Ventus went with Roxas, supposedly, the ability to wield will still be distributed through both of them; mainly because Sora and Roxas were using the same two keyblades at the same time during CoM and Days.
But hey, that’s just a theory...
A Game KH Theory!
Thanks for reading!
There's bound to be some loopholes or contradictions in this theory and this is purely speculation concerning Sora's childish attitude and such. If ya find something contradictory or something, please tell me. I want to revise this theory to the very best I also love to discuss this further. I've also never played CoM (the card fighting system screwed me over), Coded, and BBS so there might be some important cut scenes I have missed. I only got my information from this games via the internet.
So yea thanks again for reading my theory :biggrin: