Sora: The Original Keyblade Hipster

He had a keyblade before it was cool and they started handing them out to everyone.
Alt title: Remember When Keyblades Were Special?

I've seen a lot of my anti-keyblade proliferation sentiments being echoed throughout this forum, so I decided to make a topic about it.
Keyblades used to be special. What made them special? Not their ability to unlock doors. Not their monster slaying abilities.
The thing that made keyblades special was their rarity. It's really the same for anything, it's basic supply and demand. when Sora was the only keyblade wielder, it made him special, made him VALUABLE. When it turned out that Riku/Ansem was able to create -gasp- a SECOND keyblade, it was a big deal. When Roxas showed up with a keyblade, it was mysterious; a new kid who had a keyblade? What are the odds! Wait, what!? TWO keyblades! WOAH!
And then, after getting the secret ending.
HOLY! DID YOU SEE ALL THOSE KEYBLADES! THAT'S SO MYSTERIOUS AND AWESOME! AT SOME POINT THERE WERE A WHOLE BUNCH OF KEYBLADES!
And then BBS happened. And it turns out there are tonnes of keyblade wielders. And all of Sora's friends get keyblades.
And then we find out the origin of the keyblade: they're man-made swords used to fight in a war, based off a much cooler sword.
Suddenly keyblades aren't so special :/
(And the origin of the keyblade is revealed in some random text blurb pretty much nobody will read? Seriously.)

 

I agree completely. When kh first came out it was awesome Sora had a special weapon. Then Riku and Roxas and Kairi got one. I was alright with that. Then BBS and DDD just took out the specialness of them imo. Especially that report in DDD. But oh well.

 

Riku getting a Keyblade is hard to argue against because he was able to use one in KH, Kairi is just ridiculous, there is no reason for why she needs one.
Everyone that has one except for Kairi and Lea are more or less justified in having one, but that doesn't change the fact that it takes away everything special about having one.

 

Actually yes, it used to be a big deal, now it's not much of a big deal, but a keyblade is still important. It's still sort of mysterious, and is very rare due to the lack of keyblade wielders now compared to how many there were before. (in the story's timeline) Kairi's use of a keyblade can be justified by what happened in BBS, while Lea's use for it I can't say because i haven't played DDD yet.

 

Didn't Ventus-Vanitas say keyblade-bearing warriors would flock to the Keyblade graveyard in BBS? I figured that meant there was roughly the same amount as the last war, but they just kept quiet about it like how TAV were and so keyblades seemed rare but actually weren't.

 

Really? I thought he just meant that the surviving keyblade wielders would be the ones to flock there, so basically, TAV, Mickey, and Xehanort. (Yen Sid doesn't count)

 

I guess it's open to interpretation, like all of Kh but a "War" of just those guys seems lame to me.

 

It makes sense if they're the remaining keyblade wielders. The original war basically finished off majority of the keyblade wielders.

 

I guess, I found the quote btw.

"This χ-blade will open a door―one that leads to all worlds! Then, Keyblade-bearing warriors will flock here from each and every one of them, to battle for the light within Kingdom Hearts! And just like the legend says, the Keyblade War will begin!"

It just seems weird because TAV, Mickey and Xehanort were already there. Why would Ventus-Vanitas say warriors would flock there if everyone on the list you mentioned was already present at the time?

 

Everyone referred to it as "The Keyblade" in the beginning.

 

You really need to take a lot of KH1 with a grain of salt since clearly that was more testing the waters and the larger plot didn't exist yet. (There was the secret ending advertising KH2, but they could have made it end there. Or they could have closed the project early if reception was real bad).

And while keyblades have become less special they do still have a certain draw and mystery to them, just like key-holes are still awesome but every world has one. And keyblades being more common comes with the kye-blade lore which is significantly awesome.


All of that is not to necessarily say I disagree with you, but I feel like a lot of people make it out to be a bigger deal than it is.

 

And called Sora "The Keyblade Master"

But it is a big deal. The keyholes are a part of the world, so they enhance the mythos. Think of it more like a heart or lungs; something vital. Keyblades, however, aren't like that. With them, their value comes from rarity. If there are lots of keyblades, everyone without one becoems significantly less valuable. Look at DDD, where Donald and Goofy absently wonder when they're going to be useful again.
Rarity ruins the value of something. Think about all those MMORPGs out there, that have NPCs willing to send an adventurer out to get their missing keys, because heroes are so someone they go by a collective term of adventurer.
And the keyblades seem to cause exponential power growth in their users, which again makes them leagues above all others.
See, despite what others might say, the only thing that made Sora special was the keyblade. Especially recently, where Square's writers have REALLY been emphasizing the 'ordinary boy' part of him. That's the whole point; he's supposed to be a kid, a regular human like you or me, perfect for self insert and adventure. The idea is Sora, an average boy, gets the most awesome weapon in the world, and goes on a huge adventure, exploring a world much bigger than he imagined, and eeing things he never would have thought of.
But a little kid could brush against some random keyblade, and automatically become a wielder. There's nothing special about it. Keyblades are a dime a dozen. When you have a few others with keyblades, and maybe allude to a time when they were plentiful, that's interesting and mysterious. Not the case when someone simply goes and asks for one, and gets one, because keyblades aren't mystic, unknowable items of legend, but rather a manmade Swiss-army-sword.

 

I was going to mention in one of my posts on this matter that the keyblade has gone from being called "The Keyblade" to "a Keyblade," and Sora, who was once referred to as a Keyblade master, is actually not a master at all by anyone's standards.
It's pretty obvious that this had not been planned out in advance. There seems to be a certain amount of "making it up as you go" on the stories part.

 

Well, I can't argue with that. I guess there may be more keyblade wielders, but not as abundant as before. But I guess that makes it less special, considering that the keyblade isn't that rare anymore. Still, the keyblade can't just be given to anyone, only to those with a strong heart, which are apparently just as abundant.

 

Yup. Whoever taught Xehanort, Eraqus and Yen Sid probably came from his own group of wielders so there might be more left than previously thought. And yeah, quality vs quantity and all that. Also, you're right, the amount of humanoid nobodies attests to that.

 

i always thought the reason kairi automatically got a keyblade by touching it is because she was a princess of heart.

 

I don't think it has ever been spelled out in game, but it currently seems that one of the requirements of a keyblade is touching the hilt of another keyblade (I'm not sure if the original wielders did this with the kye-blade, the keyblade of hearts, or some exemption of that rule). Formally this is done as the passing of power like from Terra to Riku, but it works under other methods such as the young Kairi reaching for Aqua's hand. It does help that Kairi is a princess of heart though because strength of heart is another requirement that she has pretty much by definition. But her getting the key by those means is not unique to her being a princess.

 

So glad you made this thread. My heart actually kid of sank seeing the secret ending when there are about 1532459123023155023 differend keyblades just chillin' on the ground. I honestly hope Nomura reiterates in some way in KH3 that Sora's is special and he is different from the rest as a keyblade weilder. Like it's been said, the rarity was the best thing about it, now its so commonplace in the games it has kind of lost a lot of its glamor...

 

Dream Drop Distance does paint Sora as being special again in a couple of ways that are both a little odd (though I will take odd over cliche any day)

 

Yes, i suppose you're right, But you know what I mean, right? It doesn't really capture that sense of awe and importance you felt in the first couple of games.