Sleeping Worlds And Sleeping Hearts Who Can Use The Power Of Waking? The Abilities Of The Power Of Waking
Abuse Of The Power Of Waking, And Its Consequences
Being a mixture of Final Fantasy and Disney, it might be hard at first glance to exactly imagine what the storytelling of Kingdom Hearts would be like. Light and thematic like Disney, or more heavy and direct like Final Fantasy. To its credit, Kingdom Hearts somehow manages to be both and neither at the same time.
Every aspect of Kingdom Hearts is hilariously convoluted, yet it always makes sense eventually. Even as a light vs dark story, the simplest of themes, it manages to also be the most singularly complex and difficult to parse piece of media going. Of all the wonderful terms within Kingdom Hearts, the Power of Waking is one of the prime examples of its storytelling and how, even within its own lore, words can take on new meanings as the games progress.
Sleeping Worlds And Sleeping Hearts
Riku and Young Xehanort facing each other before their final battle begins
Before being able to understand the Power of Waking, it's important to know what it affects and what exactly they are. As we see in the original Kingdom Hearts, whole worlds can be consumed by Darkness, trapping them within the Realm of Darkness.
Following the end of Kingdom Hearts, most of these consumed worlds are restored to their original state save for a few. There's no clear reason for this, but that's partly to be expected in Kingdom Hearts.
Dream Drop Distance establishes that these are 'Sleeping Worlds' — worlds that haven't awoken yet from their darkness. As is also established in the first Kingdom Hearts, both individuals and worlds have their own Heart and Keyhole that unlocks them.
DDD then is about Sora exploring these Sleeping Worlds, themselves a dream of their original selves, to reawaken them. Sleeping Hearts of individuals work in much the same way, being Hearts that have fallen to Darkness yet not yet awoken.
Image of the Ventus and Vanitas Station of Awakening artwork
DDD also handles the idea of exploring a Sleeping Heart. While Sora is exploring Sleeping Worlds, Riku is exploring Sora's Sleeping Heart, which itself a dream of the Sleeping Worlds that Sora explores.
As we see, Riku explores through each Sleeping World until he progresses to Sora's Station of Awakening, the deep black area with stained glass portraits. Here, Riku can free Sora's Sleeping Heart, having ventured to its deepest reaches.
As such, to awaken both a Sleeping Heart and Sleeping World requires diving to their deepest sections to find their respective Heart and restore them to their original state.
As with everything in Kingdom Hearts, it's important to not use real-life definitions in reference to its terms. 'Hearts' are not the literal heart, but a metaphorical core of someone as a person.
However, it is also not a soul, as Kingdom Hearts 3 seems to imply the soul is also a thing as shown in The Final World.
Who Can Use The Power Of Waking?
Sora And Riku with the Combined Keyblade behind them in Kingdom Hearts 3
Within the series, three characters are confirmed to have the Power of Waking. These are Sora, Riku and Mickey Mouse. Yen Sid, despite the obscene and unexplained powers he possesses, does not seem to directly have the Power of Waking nor the means to acquire it.
To acquire the Power of Waking, one must awaken the hearts of the Sleeping Worlds. Presumably, there are others methods of acquiring the power, though none have been explicitly mentioned.
This is the means by which both Sora and Riku acquire the Power of Waking. Sora directly awakens the Sleeping Worlds trapped within the realm of Darkness. Meanwhile, Riku awakens Sora's Sleeping Heart and awakens the Sleeping Worlds by proxy, granting him the power.
Mickey Mouse also has the power, as revealed directly in his Gummiphone entry in Kingdom Hearts 3, though we're never shown him directly using it, at least in any entries where the power was given a name.
The Abilities Of The Power Of Waking
kingdom hearts 3 remind anselm namine amd mickey in rikus heart
The Power of Waking was directly introduced in Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance and was expanded upon in Kingdom Hearts 3. The ability likely appeared in previous games without a name, though this has never been directly mentioned and as such would fall in the realm of theories.
As stated directly in DDD, the Power of Waking allows its users to awaken Sleeping Worlds and Sleeping Hearts, bringing them back to their original state. In DDD, we see this being used to bring the Sleeping Worlds back from the Realm of Darkness and to reawaken Sora in the world of the living.
Kingdom Hearts - Ventus Fighting Vanitas In KH3 With A PNG Of Ventus Overlaid On Top
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