Okay, as now I'm far more aware on how standards and so on go around these powers, combined with quite better editing capabiltieis to explain the points to give and all, now I'll go over how Hearts in the Kingdom Hearts series are type 1 concepts and Nobody NEP.
I'd also like to give credit to Cyberblader9, PlozAlcachaz, TheSpeedster96, StrymULTRA and RM97, among others, for several of the scans featured or input given before-hand.
Light, Darkness, Hearts and Nobody NEP[]
Nobodies are stated multiple times that they're non-existent and whatnot, so let's just list these cases, shall we?
What's bolded emphatizes their nonexistence, what's underlined confirms that they lack a heart, and what's underlined and bolded supports that their nature is lacking in light and darkness.
- Yen Sid's explanation of them in KHII. It's to be noted that Yen Sid is a retired Keyblade Master and the leader of the Guardians of Light for over a decade, and so he's more than reliable.
An empty vessel whose heart has been stolen away... A spirit that goes on even as its body fades from existence--- for you see, Nobodies do not truly exist at all
- KH Ultimate Handbook[1]
Nobodies are neither light or dark. Instead, they're beings of nothingness, unable to truly feel emotion due to their lack of a heart.
- KH 2.5 ReMix Instruction Manual[2]
“Nonexistent beings” between light and dark that are under Organization XIII’s control.
"Nonexistent beings" under Organization XIII's control.
- Director's Secret Report XIII
The ultimate goal of the Organization was to obtain a Kingdom Hearts of the hearts of people and become complete beings, and because Nobodies were a new kind of being beyond all expectations, said to be "nonexistent beings", the lack of background knowledge made it necessary for them to collect information relating to their own condition.
Embodiments of emptiness that serve the darkness. Nobodies arise alongside Heartless, when the empty body left behind becomes its own autonomous creature. Nobodies who possessed exceptionally strong hearts in life may retain their original appearance, as did all of the previous Organization XIII's members. Not everyone fares so well, however; most bodies cease to exist the moment their hearts are lost. As a result, Nobodies are fewer in number than their Heartless counterparts.
- KH 358/2 Days Intruction Manual[4]
When someone with true strength in their heart loses that heart and becomes a Heartless, every so often a second version of them comes into being. These "Nobodies" have no hearts to feel with; only memories of their human past and what it was like to feel.
If a strong-hearted person loses or is robbed of that heart, their body and spirit can live on as a Nobody. Nobodies have no hearts, but they retain their human memories, which serve as a reservoir from which to draw human emotion.
So why is it that you loathe us who tether on the edge of nothing? We who were turned away by both light and dark--- never given a choice?
Then you lose both light and darkness-- and disappear!
A being that is neither darkness nor light; belonging nowhere; abandoned by its heart; a mere shell of its former self. The relation between the heart and body is complex. However, I am certain that if your self exists here, then by definition, the other cannot truly "exist." The other, the one which does not exist, shall be dubbed, "Nobody."
Nobodies: They are the rarely born incomplete existences from the cast off shell of a person the Heartless have stolen the heart from
This combined with hearts making up all that exists[5][6][7][8], and existence being defined by light and darkness[9][10], with hearts being made of light and darkness[11], and of course being intangible to normal attacks out of this[12][13], leads into that Nobodies are rendered as non-existent out of lacking hearts, and thus light and darkness, which are concepts that make up existence.
And no, the "heart" in this context doesn't refer to the organ[14], but simply to the aspect independant from the body and the soul that defines their existence, emotions and memories[6][1][15], thus they qualify for NEP type 3, Aspects 2, 4 (Each being has its own Heart) and 5 (Emotions and memories, which grants a limited immunity to mind manip and empathic manip).
And before anyone brings up the scene where Xemnas and Xigbar showcase that Nobodies "always had Hearts", this is a terrible misunderstanding, "a budgeoning replacement" means basically that they can grow a new Heart, which is how Roxas got his own individuality as a separate being as Sora's Nobody (and is very different from always having one from the start, especially with how the quotes above show that lacking a heart is the characteristic trait of a Nobody), given that he remained within Sora up to late KHIII when he got a new vessel for his Heart to inhabit. There's also the matter that characters can go back to being "whole" if their Heartless' heart is freed and the respective Nobody is annihilated[16][17].
But before going for aspect 2 (aka, conceptual nonexistence), I think it'd be best to explain a bit further.
Conceptual Hearts[]
It has been made clear by now that hearts, which are made of light and darkness make up all that exists in the series. With that in mind, here are the arguments to further complement that and how they fit as a type 1 concept:
For Kingdom Hearts itself to be brought forth, it needs to be summoned by a high dimensional clash forged from the X-Blade. Xehanort was used as a portal to push him and the X-Blade out of the world for a time due to him 'transcending space and time'. The result is Scala Ad Caelum, the place where true Kingdom Hearts resides. This shows that the thing that sustains the cosmology, and is the embodiment of all light and darkness, exists above and isn’t bound by the universe, in fact, it's stated to have existed before it, thus qualifying as a type 1 concept.
Now, to further back up its conceptual nature:
- Xemnas says destroying Lea's soul would not affect Lea's heart.
- Xehanort calls his "heart" his essence
- Kairi's "heart" is literally referred as her essence
- Chirithy states that the hearts being destroyed makes one fade out of existence entirely
There's also the matter that as Sora's Heart was fragmented, Chirithy described out of this that he was conceptually in pieces.
While the Japanese version of KHIII doesn't mention the "conceptual" part, there's still the matter that the English version should have more priority here as it was the one intended to be "as directly as possible"[18].
Overall, hearts, which are made of light and darkness make up existence in a fashion fitting of a type 1 concept, and Nobodies follow as the exception with Nonexistent Physiology type 3, aspects 2, 4 and 5.
- ↑ 1.0 1.1
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑
- ↑
https://www.khwiki.com/Director%27s_Secret_Report_XIII#Part_1_-_ABOUT_THE_WORLD_OF_KINGDOM_HEARTS
In the Kingdom Hearts (hereon KH) series so far, two kinds of "Kingdom Hearts" have appeared, the "heart of worlds" and the "heart of people". Can you please explain their makeup?
Nomura: I think of "all life has heart" as the most basic premise of KH. The heart of worlds was a great heart that gathered everything that formed those worlds: the natural things such as the trees in the forests, the oceans and rivers, the flowers and such. The heart of people, as it is called, was the collected hearts of the humans and animals and such that lived in those worlds. A Kingdom Hearts is considered to be an aggregation of the originally invisible "proofs of life" known as hearts.
- ↑ 6.0 6.1
https://www.khinsider.com/forums/index.php?threads/latest-famitsu-interview-with-tetsuya-nomura.130181/
–What is the definition of a heart in Kingdom Hearts?
Nomura: It is the theme of the series. To explain it simply, a person has a body, a soul, and a heart. As an image, the soul is the life source, without it a person would be dead. Since the heart doesn’t have a form, memories play an important part in forming a heart. Also, the heart isn’t limited to people, but to all things. I tried to explain this concept to Disney, and they merely said that it must be an Eastern way of thinking. It may be interesting how overseas players think of it.
- ↑
KH Memorial Ultimania
In the world of Kingdom Hearts, not restricted to just people and animals, but every existence contains a heart. The collection of all kinds of hearts would become the big heart--- Kingdom Hearts.
- ↑
KH Birth by Sleep Novel
"Xehanort chuckled as he parried Terra’s strikes, and each one made him more sure. This was his true goal; long had he had awaited this fateful day. The power concealed within that young flesh—that was what he sought. There was no value or purpose left in this aged body. What meaning was there in flesh? It was the heart that had the final word in all things. The heart was the very reason the body existed at all. What’s more, Keyblade Masters such as he were capable of setting the heart free."
- ↑
https://youtu.be/LqUxK-hOItc?t=46
But the world's made of light AND darkness. You can't have one without the other, cause darkness is half of everything.
- ↑
https://www.khinsider.com/news/KH-Character-Files-Short-Stories-Terra-Ventus-Aqua-16640
"It was dark.
There was nothing but darkness.No, not even darkness... it was just nothing.
If the place Aqua fell was the Realm of Darkness, then where had I been? Had I even existed? Surely I… well, I probably had. I just have no idea where. I did exist as the being behind Xehanort, but my sense of self—my heart—was sealed away. My heart was somewhere in this realm.
Perhaps it was a Realm of "Nothing," devoid of even darkness. A realm without light or dark. Darkness cannot exist without light, nor light without darkness. That's what that place was like.
I wasn't asleep like Ven. It wasn't the Realm of Sleep—or a dream—it was a realm that existed in “nothing.” And so, pain, sadness, and hatred all became an onslaught to oblivion. I was writhing in pain in the middle of it. Perhaps that place is something like the realm of the Unversed. A void that swallows all, even sadness and pain. A realm where hope and joy never existed to begin with.
But despite their similarities, a void is not darkness. Nothing is born from it. And so in that world, I could do nothing but endure. I could no longer remember my actions, which had manifested in a lingering will. Well, maybe that proves that I wasn’t just waiting. I was believing, holding on to a promise."
- ↑
https://www.khinsider.com/news/1up-E3-2005-Interview-2566
1UP: How would you describe Kingdom Hearts II’s plot versus KH1s? Would you say it’s more fully-realized, more epic in scale, more sentimental, etc.?
TN: With KH1 there was a conscious effort to not make the entire world too difficult. But then obviously if we went too simple just because it’s Disney, that wouldn’t be a very good Square-Enix-like game. That doesn’t really represent what we’re known for. So obviously there was a pretty deep and good base foundation storyline there, but I think in KH1 what we did was we only tried to bring out some of the deep elements up to the surface. Whereas in KH2, we’re going to bring even more to the surface, where you’re going deeper and deeper into the storyline. And the theme of the Kingdom Hearts story, which is ‘the heart,’ is hopefully going to bring out light at the end too. So at the same time you’re going in deeper to the story, hopefully that will bridge the gap between dark and light, which I think is basically both sides of having a heart. A heart will have darkness but it will always have light too.
- ↑
KHII Novel, Part 1
“Augh!” He swung at the winding, writhing creature. He was sure he’d made contact, and yet the sword seemed to go right through it. “It’s no good… Why can’t I hit it?” The moment he lowered his sword, the world went askew. “Not again…!” It felt like what had happened to him back in the hangout. But not exactly the same. This time, there was a quiet, electronic kind of sound. Light gathered around the toy sword in his hand. It looked like there were spirals of numbers swirling around it. “Huh?” And before his eyes, the sword transformed—into a giant key. “What…is this thing?” The key seemed to draw him forward, moving on its own to attack the creature. “Whoa!” This time, when the key made contact, Roxas felt the impact. A second and a third strike, and then the strange creature vanished like it had been an illusion the whole time. Likewise, the giant key he held changed back into wood. He had no idea what was happening.
- ↑
KHIII
- ↑
Vexen: "Oh, how does he do it? A creature absent a heart and yet somehow able to keep existing... Not even my finest replica can claim that achievement. [...] How disappointing. So this is all they meant when they said "heart." We've been chasing the wrong box this whole time."
The above statement also backs up that a heart is generally required to exist
- ↑
https://www.kh13.com/news/larxenes-story-marluxias-story-and-the-daybreak-town-story-kingdom-hearts-series-character-files-translations-r3279/
"Memories are governed by the heart, but the heart is made of memories. A heart with no memories is already an empty shell."
- ↑
https://www.khinsider.com/news/Re-coded-Ultimania-Scenario-Mysteries-Interview-Translated-1796
“If you release the heart of the Heartless and annihilate the body of the Nobody, then the real form will be revived.” If those conditions are met, can others outside of Xehanort be revived too?
Nomura: It can be considered a possibility. Although it’s what-if speaking, I think that if the members of Organization XIII were restored, they would become there true form.
- ↑
https://www.khinsider.com/news/January-2012-Famitsu-Interview-Translated-2148
- Well, can you tell us about "Lea" who interrupts the confrontation between the King and Maleficent?
Nomura: That's Axel as he has returned to being human. In the same place are Zexion and Lexaeus too, they have also returned to being human.
- Do they have their memories of being Nobodies?
Nomura: They do.
- So their Heartless, you're saying they were defeated somewhere along the line?
Nomura: Well Sora has defeated many Heartless before now, hasn't he? To say that they returned to being human, their Heartless was probably included among those, huh? (Laughs.) Even when Sora became a Heartless, he was a normal Shadow type. The details of their Heartless aren't really that important.
- ↑
https://www.khinsider.com/news/Hobby-Consolas-interview-Nomura-on-Kingdom-Hearts-3-s-dubbing-translations-and-more-13046
-- There's an impressive attention to detail in the translations of Square Enix games. How is the translation progressing and what is the process like?
Nomura: We've spent a lot of time making preparations so the original text has been translated as directly as possible, whereas for the different Disney worlds, we've asked the translators to keep the original dialogue from the films. The translation for Kingdom Hearts 3 is done internally, and we follow a multi-layered process where Co-Director Tai Yasue, who speaks English, will check the text first, and then Disney will look it over again later.
