The Reason We Have a Heart

Now I'm stepping out on a limb here and talking about the philosophy of a video game that combines possibly one of the greatest video game companies every and the scourge of the earth in my opinion.

Kingdom Hearts - Disney and Square Enix's love child that's combined classic Disney movies and Characters with a compelling storyline and fresh characters that just amazing all who come in contact with the games. If you want to google the storyline or Wiki all the spoilers, feel free. None of it really matters, but if you want to know more about the characters I'll be discussing that's the plan of action you're gonna need to take.

The most recent game takes place between the two major console hits Kingdom Hearts and the aptly titled, Kingdom Hearts 2 and sometime coinciding with the first bridge game for the Game Boy Advance, Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories (which was remade for the PS2 as re:Chain of Memories). It's titled 358/2 Days. Why I can't tell you and I'm about 14 hours into it myself. The game itself focuses on the elusive Organization XIII who are trying to bring Kingdom Hearts (basically a giant heart in the sky where all lost hearts go when they're released by the keyblade, now I'm thinking you really need to know something about the games to understand part of this... shit.) into actuality in order for themselves to gain a heart. But why don't they have a heart you must be asking? Because they are Nobodies. Capital N. Like in Wicked with Animals and animals. Big difference. Nobodies (capital N) are the hollow shells of people who have lost their hearts. Most turn into a generic form called a Dusk (among others if they had stronger hearts) but the strongest keep a form similar to what they were before they became a Nobody. These are the Organization members.

Now the game focuses specifically on Roxas, the 13th member of the Organization and wielder of the keyblade (giant key used as a sword. done.) He's coming into the realization of what life is and what it is to lack a heart as he experiences things like Beast protecting his castle from the Heartless (come on people, use your brain with that one. Evil things) so that he can protect Belle because he loves her, and Phil pushing Hercules to the extreme because Phil has faith in him that he'll be the best there ever was. But what confuses him is that he worries over his friend who's fallen into a coma at one point, and he misses his friend when he's sent away on a long term mission.

So if he can feel emotions like worry and longing, but not love or faith? Well, at first I thought it was just that he remembered those emotions from his past life as a human with a heart. Good thought, right? But as I pondered more and more on the subject, I looked deeper at what was actually happening. Science tells us that emotions are all triggered by chemical reactions in the brain, and even though the game is rated E10+ by the ESRB, I highly doubt that if we want to look at the game more seriously, we can't expect to just accept that all emotions come from the heart.

So why do we have a heart?

I believe we have two hearts. The first one is muscle and kinda ugly and for some reason Christina Yang and my ex were obsessed with it, but it pumps our blood for us and I guess that's pretty important. The second one looks like a Valentine you made for the kid who had a crush on in Elementary, Middle, or High School (or if you're me, college. FML) that you're afraid to give to them for fear of rejection (or that he's straight. again. FML). Just a simple heart shape. You know, <3 ♥ and all that jazz. That kinda rests inside your rib cage spanning your chest. This is the one that starts out all fresh and pretty, then gets ripped through with machine gun fire and you have to put it back together with duct tape, needle and thread, rubber cement and occasionally staples. This is what the Nobodies lack. It's what they seek.

And they seek it because they don't understand joy. Good things happen to them all the time. They succeed at their jobs, they make discoveries, they have things that they like to do. But it doesn't bring them joy. What brings you joy is watching your favorite movie, eating your favorite junk food and not telling your personal trainer that one twinkie, actually was a whole box, and driving too fast with the top down screaming the lyrics to Kelly Clarkson's latest single with the wind blowing through your hair on the way to the best Fro Yo place in the world. Joy's love at first sight, and the magical life that you send yourself through with that person in the next thirty seconds after seeing them for the first time. It's what happens when a cute guy sends you a DM on twitter. Joy is forgetting that there's something to do, somewhere to be, someone to talk to. Joy is realizing that time has stopped and that nothing in the world can make you want to change what you're doing at that very moment.

Joy is what it means to have a heart.