Note: If you're not familiar with Kingdom Hearts, then I strongly advise against reading this analysis. You might just get lost.

Before I begin, let me just say that I have followed the Kingdom Hearts storyline ever since I first played the games in my mid-teens. In fact, I take great pride in the fact that I'm fairly familiar with the concepts and ideology Square Enix incorporated into the games.

However, there's one ideology that bothers me: the contrast between light and darkness.

Granted, such a contrast is normally expected in commercial media such as video games. After all, Kingdom Hearts isn't the only story to use what TV Tropes calls "color-coding" to show us who the good guys and bad guys are. Just look at Darth Vader from Star Wars and Makuta from Bionicle.

However, I can't keep myself from questioning that color-coding at different points in the games.

Take Riku, for example.

True, he gave into darkness and eventually paid the price by serving as the unwilling puppet for Xehanort's Heartless, but he also strove to redeem himself and confront his inner demons afterwards. The young man was even willing so far as to change his entire appearance to that of his antagonist just so his friend could return to normal.

Yes, darkness can quite be detrimental, even only in physical terms. However, it can also prove quite useful if handled properly. Not only that, not every character that uses the darkness is necessarily evil. Some are simply misguided or misunderstood.

So why is light treated so differently? Why does it have to act so differently?

What if light lost itself instead?

The only case in Kingdom Hearts where light goes even remotely awry is when Master Eraqus attacked Ven prior to Terra's timely interference.

Beyond that event and a few minor cases, the games seem to suggest that no wrong can be done with light.

So is the light basically an incorrigible good? Can Sora and his friends, as such, do whatever they want with the element? Oh no, Sora, Riku, Kairi, and the others know better than to abuse their powers, but…

The Keybladers could still get away with a number of deeds if light truly is without fault.

Think of the argument this way:

Like Aqua once said, "What is darkness but rage and hate?"

So, therefore, what is light but happiness and love?

If darkness is fueled by anger and other negative emotions, then light is theoretically fueled by happiness and other positive emotions.

What would happen then if those positive emotions became too much, though?

What if the light made you so happy that all you could focus on was your happiness? Would the end result be a person filled with cleansing light…or a blinded zombie at the whim and mercy of either the light or a corrupt master of light?

What if you were so unselfish that you would be willing to sacrifice your own sanity and even humanity—perhaps even those of your loved ones—for the greater good?

What if you were so calm that even watching thousands of people dying horridly wouldn't even faze you? Could the light numb your emotions towards such a sight?

Could the light, in a moment of Knight Templar mania, even convince a person to commit an act against darkness, an act that would disregard the difference between the guilty and the innocent?

In such a scenario, you could perhaps even be consumed by said light and hypothetically generate creatures created from the light in your heart.

I'd continue with my argument since I have much more speculation on this topic. Unfortunately, that speculation might draw away from the focus of my entry, so therefore I'm concluding my debate.

Be on the lookout, though, folks, I'm itching to create some characters based off of the concept I've been talking about.

Until then,

Kooky4U