Joshua and Christian dive into the original Kingdom Hearts (2002) and the big idea is clear fast: friendship is the power — "My friends are my power" — cheesy but true. Joshua says this game is his fave and he plays it every year because it hits his nostalgia sweet spot. Christian calls the combat clunky but says the boss fights and Disney crossover vibes keep him hooked. They laugh about gummy ships, fight over platforming, and nerd out over worlds like Hollow Bastion and Halloween Town. They also talk about recent KH4 leaks and how the news always drops right after they record. Joshua says he’ll do a members-only bonus to spoil the leaked trophies.
Joshua and Christian roll up their sleeves and nerd out over the original Kingdom Hearts like two pals at a late night diner. Joshua is the walking museum of nostalgia. He says he plays this game every year. He loves the clunky platforming and the goofy combat. He digs the feel of being a kid with a wooden sword that somehow turns into the Keyblade. Christian calls it clunky but charming. He stans the boss fights. They both smile at the weirdness: gummy ships that run on smiles, random Disney crossovers, and goofy platform jumps that make no sense but still slap.
They go world by world, name-drop favorites (Hercules, Halloween Town, Tarzan, Aladdin) and point out why the choices actually matter. Joshua says every world has a reason to be there. Christian is hyped about Beast’s devotion to Belle and how that fits the story. They laugh at the moments that are pure cheese. Yet they also agree those cheesy bits hit hard. The big line—"my friends are my power"—gets treated like the anthem it is. It’s corny. It’s honest. It is why Joshua keeps coming back to this game year after year.
Takeaways:
Joshua and Christian are playing every Kingdom Hearts game in order for the 25th anniversary.
They talk about a Steam trophy leak that spoiled some Kingdom Hearts 4 world info.
Joshua and Christian argue if people should watch leaks or go in cold for surprises.
He loves the original Kingdom Hearts for its cheesy friends are my power message and nostalgia.
They note the game mixes kid stuff with dark themes like death and identity in bold ways.
Christian praises boss fights and Disney world choices, but calls platforming clunky and combat dated.
Joshua describes the Sora and Kairi scene as powerful, about true friends seeing you even when lost.
They reflect on deep questions about soul, heart, and who someone really is after trauma or change.
They invite listeners to join their membership, bonus episodes, merch and Discord to geek out together.
.
Be sure to check out our merch, find extra content, and become an official member of Systematic Geekology on our website:
Become a member of Systematic Geekology on our Website!
Check out the link to become a member of Systematic Geekology! All member get exclusive extras and shout outs on the show! Some of the paid tiers of membership get store discounts, free merch, and more!
Be sure to check out the network website to see other podcasts trying to engage honestly with Scripture, Theology, Pop Culture, Martial Arts, Science, and more!
Our show focuses around our favorite fandoms that we discuss from a Christian perspective. We do not try to put Jesus into all our favorite stories, but rather we try to ask the questions the IPs are asking, then addressing those questions from our perspective. We are not all ordained, but we are the Priests to the Geeks, in the sense that we try to serve as mediators between the cultures around our favorite fandoms and our faith communities.
Transcripts
Speaker A:
My friends are my power.
Speaker A:
If you find that catchphrase cringe, everyone does good job.
Speaker A:
But if you still secret, you're like, well, I mean, it's true.
Speaker A:
Maybe Kingdom Hearts is the game for you.
Speaker B:
We're back.
Speaker A:
Today we're talking about the original Kingdom Hearts.
Speaker A:
As Christian, Ashley and myself, Joshua Null, have been going through the Kingdom Hearts franchise, talking about the games chronologically in order, trying to get through.
Speaker A:
Through the sense of the story and lore and all of the nonsense.
Speaker A:
Getting ready to celebrate the 25th year anniversary.
Speaker A:
And then while we were doing this, found out that Kingdom Hearts 4 actually is going to happen next year.
Speaker A:
And every single time we talk about something before the episode comes out, something kind of makes our conversation null and void.
Speaker A:
So last time we did a bonus for y', all trying to guess what worlds.
Speaker A:
And since then there has been a leak that now we know what worlds are in the game.
Speaker A:
But of course, the leak happened before we actually released the episode.
Speaker A:
So if you heard the last episode, you're like, why are they guessing worlds?
Speaker A:
It was already leaked because it wasn't leaked till after we recorded.
Speaker A:
So today when we talk about something and you're like, why did they do that?
Speaker A:
It was already announced.
Speaker A:
It seems to be the curse of this recording schedule is we always record something right before they give us new news so that we miss talking about it.
Speaker B:
So you're welcome.
Speaker B:
Yeah, we suffer through that for your sake.
Speaker A:
It's.
Speaker A:
It's crazy because we went like nine years of no news at all, and then we're like, okay, we'll start talking about the games.
Speaker A:
And now there's news every single time we tried to talk about it.
Speaker A:
But, you know, that's a.
Speaker A:
That's a good complaint to have.
Speaker A:
That is a good problem.
Speaker A:
I'll take it any day of the week.
Speaker A:
I am Joshua Noel, your local Kingdom Hearts.
Speaker A:
I don't know, fanatic, crazy person.
Speaker A:
Yeah, nerd geek.
Speaker A:
I love these games.
Speaker A:
I've always loved these games.
Speaker A:
I can't wait to talk about the very first one.
Speaker A:
They really got me into all of it for now, though, talking about what I've been geeking out on.
Speaker A:
The Tomb Raider survival trilogy was put on sale on Steam.
Speaker A:
ke, all three of those, like,:
Speaker A:
They're really good.
Speaker A:
They're really good.
Speaker A:
That's what I've been geeking out on.
Speaker A:
I'm already on the third of the three game, but I don't think I finished either of the other two.
Speaker A:
I'VE been kind of like playing bits and pieces from each because I just like doing the tombs.
Speaker A:
And then when I get to a part that I'm like, I don't want a sand tomb.
Speaker A:
Just pick up the next game, I find a tomb I like.
Speaker A:
I'm here for the adventure, not the story.
Speaker A:
Christian, what do you Eventually I'll finish them all, just not in chronological order.
Speaker B:
I'm playing right now, Rise of the Ronin, which takes place at the start of and at the aftermath of America opening up Japan to the rest of the world when Admiral Perry comes in.
Speaker B:
And of course, being a Japanese game, you get to fight Admiral Perry and make him your friend.
Speaker B:
So this is excellent.
Speaker B:
I'm having a lot of fun so far.
Speaker A:
Nice, Nice.
Speaker A:
That's as quick as these are supposed to be.
Speaker A:
If I was better at this, I'd sound more like Christian Ashley.
Speaker B:
No one has ever accused me of brevity when it comes to stuff like.
Speaker A:
This, except for just now.
Speaker A:
And if you guys want to also accuse Christian of brevity, you can rate and review our show wherever you are listening to your podcast.
Speaker A:
Leave us a rating.
Speaker A:
Leave a review.
Speaker A:
It helps other people find the show, makes us noticeable.
Speaker A:
All the algorithm stuff trick people into thinking the show is important.
Speaker A:
Please and thank you.
Speaker A:
We also like to thank our financial supporter.
Speaker A:
Today we're doing a special shout out for the one and only Trip Fuller, who I may see before this gets released.
Speaker A:
I'm not sure on release dates, but Theology Beer Camp's coming up soon and I'll be seeing him at Kansas City, Missouri and it's gonna be a lot of fun.
Speaker A:
If you guys want your own shout out, you too can support our show by becoming an official member of Systematic Ecology.
Speaker A:
On our website there is a link in the show's description where you can do that.
Speaker A:
The same link, same website.
Speaker A:
You can get other free extra content.
Speaker A:
You can buy some extra merch.
Speaker A:
You can leave a one time financial gift.
Speaker A:
There's a lot of stuff you can do without becoming a member too.
Speaker A:
So it's not just for members.
Speaker A:
But we do appreciate it if you want to become a member.
Speaker A:
But there's other stuff there, so check it out.
Speaker A:
I think it's totally worth it.
Speaker A:
If you want to hear other Kingdom Hearts episodes, there's another link down below in the show's description for or other Kingdom Hearts related content that we've done lots of ways.
Speaker A:
Lots of different links and ways to follow us and be part of all the geeky goodness.
Speaker A:
So do us a favor, check it all out and let's get into some crazy Disney video game nonsense, Christian.
Speaker B:
Let's do it.
Speaker A:
All right.
Speaker A:
So first up, as weirdly has become the case, we have to talk about news, because apparently there's just going to constantly be Kingdom Hearts release stuff.
Speaker A:
I'm not going to touch the Fortnite stuff.
Speaker A:
Yes, I think the designs could be better.
Speaker A:
No, I did not expect them to be different.
Speaker A:
Like, I expected it to look pretty much how it looks.
Speaker A:
They are making it for Fortnite.
Speaker A:
They are not making a Kingdom Hearts game that happens to be Fortnite.
Speaker A:
They're making Fortnite with Kingdom Hearts skins.
Speaker A:
So it's going to look like Fortnite looks.
Speaker B:
I just can't wait for the hidden lore that if you don't play Fortnite, you'll never understand.
Speaker A:
It turns out that everyone who's ever played Fortnite is Xehanort.
Speaker B:
At this point.
Speaker B:
I wouldn't be surprised.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
Anyway, there have been leaks.
Speaker A:
We're not going to discuss what the leaks were, but we want to talk about how it was leaked, what it means for the game, what it means for us, and just how people participate in geeking out.
Speaker A:
Because some people are like, well, the developers didn't want this out, so we shouldn't talk about it.
Speaker A:
And some people are like, I want to know right now.
Speaker A:
I'm one of those.
Speaker A:
There's a range of reactions and how people think you should.
Speaker A:
You know, people, like, try to make up rules on how you should geek out.
Speaker A:
For some reason, I'm like, listen, I get they didn't want it out there, but it's out there.
Speaker A:
It's not going to affect how I enjoy the game personally.
Speaker A:
I know TJ said before he likes to go into stuff without any expectations at all.
Speaker A:
So he doesn't even watch commercials.
Speaker A:
So, yeah, like, I think there's a range of how you can participate, but.
Speaker A:
Well, yeah.
Speaker A:
So before we touch on what actually happened, Christian, do you have any thoughts on, like, should you look at leaks?
Speaker A:
Does it matter how you, like, prep for a game?
Speaker A:
Should people just go in cold and experience as is?
Speaker A:
Does it matter?
Speaker B:
Depends on who you are.
Speaker B:
Me, I'm the same way.
Speaker B:
It's like leaks and rumors and the like.
Speaker B:
All they do is hype me up for something.
Speaker B:
Now I'm already going to engage with outside of certain matters that have already been mentioned for certain film franchises because, oh, this thing's going to happen.
Speaker B:
I'm going to be in this world, the Kingdom Hearts, where I'm going to experience this character, this is going to happen in the movie I'm about to watch.
Speaker B:
Oh man, I can't wait to actually see that.
Speaker B:
Because it doesn't like, it doesn't take away from the surprise of it all.
Speaker B:
Because I was like, well, how are they going to do it?
Speaker B:
Because like in the prequel trilogy, I knew Anakin was going to become Darth Vader.
Speaker B:
Like that's like day one I knew that it's a leak, as it were, given what it is.
Speaker B:
But how is it going to happen?
Speaker B:
Hype me up for watching the rest of it for this.
Speaker B:
This is hyped me up even more because oh, what will happen in that world?
Speaker B:
What will happen in this world?
Speaker B:
I don't know.
Speaker B:
And even if everything is spoiled for me eventually and everyone writes it down, I'm still going to be like, well, I haven't experienced it myself, so.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
But I also understand people who want to know nothing.
Speaker B:
I mean it's a very foreign concept to me, don't get me wrong.
Speaker A:
But I get it.
Speaker B:
Yeah, I get it.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
Like there are some things I like doing that for.
Speaker A:
For me personally, I don't want story leaks.
Speaker A:
I want to experience the story for the first time when I'm playing the game.
Speaker A:
What worlds are going to be, what characters might show up.
Speaker A:
Now I want to know all that that, that hypes me up.
Speaker A:
It gets me excited.
Speaker A:
So what these leaks were, it was a list of the trophies got leaked on Steam.
Speaker A:
So anybody could just go to Kingdom Hearts 4, see what the trophies are.
Speaker A:
And in the description of some of the trophies it said do all of this on Blank World.
Speaker A:
So people were able to look through it and go, oh, so these are the worlds that exist.
Speaker B:
Yes.
Speaker B:
And it wasn't on the Kingdom Hearts Persona got hit by this too.
Speaker B:
Plenty of other games, games that haven't been announced yet would hate their right now.
Speaker A:
Steve is.
Speaker A:
Yeah, it would not be a good day to be the ones responsible for this.
Speaker A:
Especially because, you know, Disney had a whole advertising plan for this.
Speaker B:
Oh absolutely.
Speaker A:
That just got trashed.
Speaker A:
But like, I don't know, man, I will say too.
Speaker A:
So, so here, here are my thoughts without spoiling anything because we're going to do spoiler free here.
Speaker A:
If you want to hear our thoughts on what was leaked, we will talk about it in the bonus spoil free thoughts 1.
Speaker A:
I not completely convinced.
Speaker A:
Like I feel like this is probably all legit.
Speaker A:
This is it.
Speaker A:
But I wouldn't be completely surprised.
Speaker A:
That's how I'll say it.
Speaker A:
If that's not all of the trophies that was only most of the trophies.
Speaker A:
It turns out some got left out.
Speaker A:
And maybe we don't know everything yet.
Speaker A:
So I'm not holding out that this is absolutely everything.
Speaker A:
But if it is, I'm content.
Speaker A:
I'm happy with what I saw.
Speaker A:
To me, my spoiler free insight.
Speaker A:
I think it looks like they're trying to pick worlds more based on the story than, oh, this is new and what kids like.
Speaker A:
Which gives me a lot more hope than what I had for Kingdom Hearts 3.
Speaker B:
I would second that in the fact that worlds I expected to be there aren't there.
Speaker B:
And you know what?
Speaker B:
I want them to be there at some point in time, but the fact that they showed restraint means something to me.
Speaker A:
Yeah, yeah, same here.
Speaker A:
I also think this is probably a spoiler free okay to say it definitely, definitely appears that it's not just like at the beginning, oh, no, Sora was dead and we're gonna move on.
Speaker A:
I think death is gonna be a big theme throughout the game.
Speaker A:
Looking at some of the worlds and stuff that are listed, I wouldn't be surprised.
Speaker A:
That could be pretty interesting.
Speaker A:
I'm actually kind of excited for a game that wrestles a lot with identity.
Speaker A:
Kind of excited to see what they do with that.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
Or worried a little bit of both.
Speaker A:
You never know more, but it's fine.
Speaker A:
Any other thoughts on the leaks and stuff or you want to jump into our Kingdom Hearts talk?
Speaker B:
I'm good to go.
Speaker A:
Cool.
Speaker A:
Well, in that case.
Speaker A:
Last time we talked about Christian's favorite Kingdom Hearts game, Birth by Sleep.
Speaker A:
This time we're talking about my favorite Kingdom Hearts game, Kingdom Hearts, the original.
Speaker A:
I have played it every year since it came out.
Speaker A:
Most of my managers where I work, I have played this game longer than they've been alive.
Speaker A:
I beat it every year for many years before they were born.
Speaker A:
So, like, very personal to me.
Speaker A:
All the nostalgia is there.
Speaker A:
It's the only game that really holds on to, for me, like, that platformer era, which I love the platform games.
Speaker A:
Christian does not.
Speaker A:
It's very simple.
Speaker A:
The combat's very clunky, but these are like all reasons I love it, actually.
Speaker A:
It's like, yeah, he's like a 10 year old kid.
Speaker A:
If the combat wasn't kind of whack, like, if he just came out knowing what he was doing, I'd be kind of concerned.
Speaker A:
Like, it wouldn't make sense.
Speaker A:
It was my first rpg, so someone who grew up with platformers.
Speaker A:
Once I like, I was like, man, I couldn't figure out certain things and I moved on to Other worlds.
Speaker A:
And then it's like, oh, now you have high jump.
Speaker A:
And I'm like, wait a minute, that chest.
Speaker A:
I couldn't get a wonderland.
Speaker A:
I bet I could get it now.
Speaker A:
I'm like, to me, that was awesome.
Speaker A:
Like, it was just the coolest experience all around.
Speaker A:
And it still is.
Speaker A:
Like, it's still just.
Speaker A:
There's all the nostalgia, the gameplay I love.
Speaker A:
The platformer stuff I love.
Speaker A:
And even the story.
Speaker A:
It's the simplest story of all the Kingdom Hearts games, in my opinion, and just kind of gets at that high.
Speaker A:
Like, hey, we can give ourselves to darkness.
Speaker A:
We can try to isolate ourselves.
Speaker A:
Or we can embrace friendship.
Speaker A:
We can embrace the light, stand together.
Speaker A:
And our strength isn't in some magical weapon or something, but it's actually our friendship.
Speaker A:
And yes, that's cheesy, but I actually still love that and it means a lot to me.
Speaker A:
So I keep playing it every year and remind myself that, hey, this is something that matters to me.
Speaker A:
Christian, thoughts on the first game before we get into the story and stuff?
Speaker A:
Just like opening thoughts.
Speaker B:
Yeah, it's clunky.
Speaker B:
It's of its time and part of that is part of its charm.
Speaker B:
It's not exactly my favorite by any stretch of the imagination.
Speaker B:
I still think this.
Speaker B:
As mentioned in other episodes, we've done like the villain alliance here.
Speaker B:
One of my favorite things they've ever done.
Speaker B:
The boss fights are really great for the most part.
Speaker B:
Still never going to be a fan of the platforming in any game series whatsoever.
Speaker B:
It's not for me.
Speaker B:
I'm old and slow and I've been that way since I've been a kid.
Speaker B:
So that has never appealed to me.
Speaker B:
But what does is seeing like Disney characters I knew interacting with.
Speaker B:
Because I didn't really play the Final Fantasy games at this point in time, but like getting to know them and then eventually playing those games later on and going, okay, that's how you would react and stuff like that.
Speaker B:
That's really fun.
Speaker B:
Really cool.
Speaker B:
And of course the anime bs that happens as a result of this.
Speaker B:
I'm a total sucker for it.
Speaker B:
That's why I'm still here.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
I didn't grow up with anime.
Speaker A:
I didn't grow up with Final Fantasy.
Speaker A:
I grew up in Florida.
Speaker A:
So like Disney was all about.
Speaker A:
I talked about some of this before I got stuck on Destiny island for like a year.
Speaker A:
My uncle came and got me past that.
Speaker A:
And then ever since then I've been going because I.
Speaker A:
And I never played an rpg.
Speaker A:
So my first go through I made it all the way to the final boss with just the original Kingdom Key.
Speaker A:
Keyblade.
Speaker A:
And then someone told me what an RPG was.
Speaker A:
I was like, oh, Drop Select Oblivion Keyblade.
Speaker A:
Wow.
Speaker A:
That boss died in, like, three hits.
Speaker A:
That was crazy.
Speaker A:
It was just so cool to be like.
Speaker A:
Then I had to play it again because I'm like, I didn't know I could be doing this.
Speaker A:
And it made the whole game new and, like, I don't know, it sparked something in me that never goes away.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
Like, it's just.
Speaker A:
I don't know.
Speaker A:
It's cool.
Speaker A:
I also remember, and I've talked about this before, we saw the Stitch commercials when legal, and Stitch was about to come out was around the same time, and Stitch was going around to other worlds, like flying through Aladdin, Jasmine, and whatever.
Speaker A:
And then when I watched the Stitch movie, it was just Stitch, and I was like, huh?
Speaker A:
I guess.
Speaker A:
I guess that was something else.
Speaker A:
And when I saw Kingdom Hearts, like, I gaslit myself into thinking, oh, those commercials must have been for this, because this is where you're going to all the different Disney worlds.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
So I have a lot of history with it.
Speaker A:
As far as the story goes, it's pretty basic.
Speaker A:
There are three kids.
Speaker A:
Well, there are several kids, but three main protagonists.
Speaker A:
You have Sora, Riku, Kairi.
Speaker A:
They're all like little kids, so, you know, they have crushes or whatever.
Speaker A:
Sora wants to impress Kairi, but Riku's the cool kid.
Speaker A:
So Riku and Sora are like, best friends, but they're also like a little antagonist.
Speaker A:
And that kind of develops throughout the series.
Speaker A:
Worlds start blinking out.
Speaker A:
They're being lost to darkness.
Speaker A:
King Mickey goes to figure out what's going on.
Speaker A:
Donald and Goofy go to try to find the king with a note that just says, find the Key.
Speaker A:
So when Destiny island starts to go dark, Sora, Riku, and Kairi are already trying to find out how to go to another planet.
Speaker A:
Because they're kids and they're just like, oh, wouldn't it be cool if we got on a raft and went away?
Speaker A:
It's somehow because.
Speaker A:
Nonsense.
Speaker A:
Their world, when it goes to darkness, they all end up in different places.
Speaker A:
Sora ends up with the Keyblade because the Key chose him.
Speaker A:
Because at least at this point in the story, that's how it worked.
Speaker A:
How it works now.
Speaker A:
Don't ask me.
Speaker A:
Not really sure yet.
Speaker A:
Kind of because there was also several hearts living inside of Sora because everyone secretly saw it, and one of them had a keyblade, or several of them had a keyblade.
Speaker A:
So Sora had a keyblade.
Speaker A:
Don't worry about it.
Speaker B:
Supposed to be Riku, but it also wasn't supposed to be Riku.
Speaker A:
Exactly.
Speaker A:
Yeah, but anyway, Sora ends up with a key.
Speaker A:
He doesn't know how he got it.
Speaker A:
It just chose him as his planet was going dark.
Speaker A:
Allegedly chose him.
Speaker A:
Pluto, good old Pluto, wakes him up while he's on another world.
Speaker A:
He ends up running into Donald and Goofy.
Speaker A:
They go through all these different Disney worlds trying to find the king and Sora's friends, Riku and Kairi.
Speaker A:
I'm going to simplify a lot of this.
Speaker A:
Riku ends up being lured by Maleficent and them into the darkness, thinking that this power is utilitarianism.
Speaker A:
He's like, if I embrace this power, I can save Kairi.
Speaker A:
And Sora's like, well, I just want us all to be together again.
Speaker A:
Why can't we just be chill and maybe not go to darkness?
Speaker A:
Enrique's like, no, darkness is the only way.
Speaker A:
Abducts Pinocchio and all kinds of craziness.
Speaker A:
Anyway, in the end, Sora and Riku kind of have a clash.
Speaker A:
Sora realizes his strength wasn't in the keyblade or anything else, but it's in friendship.
Speaker A:
And all these friends he made around along the way.
Speaker A:
When he went to go see Aladdin or Hercules and all these other worlds he went to looking for his friends, he made new friends.
Speaker A:
And that's why he ends up being stronger than Riku in the end, kind of able to defeat darkness, which, it turns out, is actually someone named Ansem, which we get basically no information from here other than we needed a mysterious bad guy who was behind Maleficent and Riku, so that when you beat Maleficent, it wasn't the end of the game.
Speaker A:
They had their own bad guy.
Speaker A:
And also they didn't want to join Riku.
Speaker A:
Yeah, it's fine.
Speaker B:
Good.
Speaker A:
At the end, Ansem's whole goal was to try to unlock Kingdom Hearts, and he's, like, convinced that darkness will be at the in.
Speaker A:
In the middle of it, and that'll have all the power.
Speaker A:
And Sora's like, no, it'll be light.
Speaker A:
When the game does end, Kingdom Hearts door opens, you've defeated Ansem, and you're like, oh, there is light.
Speaker A:
But it turns out, actually, it's a lot of darkness.
Speaker A:
And King Mickey was just in the middle of it, holding up a keyblade that shone light.
Speaker A:
Depending on what ending you get, you then see everybody separated, and Sora, Donald, and Goofy run into castle oblivion.
Speaker A:
To be continued.
Speaker A:
What important pieces did I miss?
Speaker A:
Other stuff you want to touch on, Christian.
Speaker B:
Just the various Disney worlds you go to and learning along the way that there is also, outside of Ansem, this council of villains who are actively trying to seek out the Keyblade for their own ends, using the Heartless for their own ends, led by Maleficent, that you eventually defeat most of them along the way or do enough to stop their plans.
Speaker B:
Not really understanding what's going on because, hey, you're in a Kingdom Hearts game and that's fine.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
And there was, and I think see a lot of the stuff here.
Speaker A:
Like In Kingdom Hearts 1, I feel like a lot of the stuff was either to look cool or so that they can include certain stuff from Disney.
Speaker A:
And I don't think they put a lot of thought into it.
Speaker A:
And then later they had to try to explain it away.
Speaker A:
So we get a lot of weird retcons.
Speaker B:
Yes.
Speaker A:
But one of those was Maleficent.
Speaker A:
And then were looking for the seven Princesses of Heart, because when you collect all of them, the door to Kingdom Hearts will open, which, you know, is the excuse why you meet Alice, Jasmine, Cinderella, and them get to be in the end, even though they don't have their own world.
Speaker A:
Because originally, Kingdom Hearts did a much better job at including Disney characters, even if you don't go to their world.
Speaker A:
And I miss that, just throwing that out there, But.
Speaker A:
So the seven Princess of Heart were what was needed.
Speaker A:
It turns out when the world went to darkness, Kyrie's heart escaped into you.
Speaker A:
So Sora had Kyrie's heart in him all along.
Speaker A:
And one of the strongest moments in all the games, in my personal opinion.
Speaker A:
Sora realizes this, and in order to save Kyrie, takes the Keyblade to himself to free Kyrie's heart.
Speaker A:
And that's when he thinks he's sacrificing himself.
Speaker A:
He becomes a Heartless.
Speaker A:
He ends up restored.
Speaker A:
But there's this huge moment where it's like, oh, she's in me.
Speaker A:
And he's willing to make that sacrifice.
Speaker A:
And then moments later, Kairi sees a Heartless.
Speaker A:
You know, the things we've been killing the whole time.
Speaker A:
And she's like, I think that's Sora.
Speaker A:
Because if you recalled from game lore, that was actually established in game this time, all of the Heartless are.
Speaker A:
Are Hearts that were lost to darkness.
Speaker A:
So if you really think about it, it does make it kind of weird that we're just going around slaughtering them and you're like, wait a minute.
Speaker A:
Some of these were just people who lost their way, like Riku or even kind of Sora.
Speaker A:
But I don't think what Sora did was darkness.
Speaker A:
But not really nonsense, you know, Just let it be.
Speaker B:
If you let them be, then they'll do terrible things.
Speaker B:
So the best thing to do is to get rid of them.
Speaker A:
Yeah, but it still was like a.
Speaker A:
Even though it's the best thing to do, I still feel like it adds weight if you think about it.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
More so than most games where you just kill the bad guys because they're bad.
Speaker A:
And they even do play on that in other games where you find out that the organization or different people that we haven't got to yet are trying to make you defeat heartless because it's empowering them.
Speaker A:
And you're like, well, wait a minute.
Speaker B:
It's their goals.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
And Kingdom Hearts constantly does this where like, yeah, you're supposed to beat the bad guys, but also there's consequences to just killing even these monster things.
Speaker A:
And I kind of like that they always add, yeah, there are still consequences, even though that is the only thing you could possibly do in the scenario.
Speaker A:
Yes, consequences are a good thing.
Speaker A:
More storytellers should know that.
Speaker A:
Yeah, I don't feel like I missed too much else.
Speaker A:
Like I said, this one is more simple than the other ones.
Speaker A:
You don't get a ton of lore.
Speaker A:
It's just very simple.
Speaker A:
Worlds are being lost to darkness.
Speaker A:
You find your strength in friendship, you overcome the darkness.
Speaker A:
And gummy ships run on smiles, apparently.
Speaker B:
Sure.
Speaker A:
I also still feel like the gummy ship.
Speaker A:
Like, mind you, I just want to though Kingdom Hearts.
Speaker A:
You can't just have categories with Kingdom Hearts.
Speaker A:
Like, the developers clearly just decided categories don't exist.
Speaker A:
Is this a kid's game?
Speaker A:
I mean, yeah, you go to Winnie the Pooh in them and there's not like curse words or blood.
Speaker A:
But also, you do have to ponder, what does it mean to die?
Speaker A:
And like, what is darkness itself?
Speaker A:
And there are some really scary monsters throughout this game.
Speaker A:
At one point in one of the games, Mickey's getting choked out and you think Goofy died.
Speaker A:
So it's like, I. I just don't think they're concerned of if it's a kids game or not or if it's a Disney game or Final Fantasy.
Speaker A:
What?
Speaker A:
What?
Speaker A:
Like, I just think that Nomura is like, it's Kingdom Hearts.
Speaker A:
That it is what it is, guys.
Speaker B:
Well, to be fair, how are Disney.
Speaker B:
Has Disney traumatized someone?
Speaker B:
Something they saw in one of the movies?
Speaker B:
I think we're in good company here.
Speaker A:
Yeah, yeah, it's fine.
Speaker A:
But the gummy ship still always felt a little out of place.
Speaker A:
I've come to embrace it over the years.
Speaker A:
But like, the more I think about, I'm like, man, we have Disney, we have Darkness, we have all these village.
Speaker A:
It's like, hey, to get to world to world though, here's a little ship made out of gummy pieces because we said so.
Speaker A:
And it's space fight now.
Speaker B:
Okay, sure, I barely ever upgrade them.
Speaker B:
If you can give me more guns, cool, I'll do that.
Speaker B:
But like, I'm not designing a new ship.
Speaker B:
The only way I did that was for achievements and two, so I can make the donut ship that like, it's really hard to kill.
Speaker A:
The only time I make my own ship is in the first game.
Speaker A:
And it's because it's just the easiest to build a ship in.
Speaker A:
And I can just add a bunch of guns and have like two blocks and just hold the fire button so I can get to where I want to go.
Speaker A:
But yeah, man, Hercules, Alice in Wonderland, Halloween Town, Peter Pan.
Speaker A:
It wasn't even like just the 90s Disney.
Speaker A:
It was like the old Disney, New Disney in between Disney.
Speaker A:
Like when I picked this up, I don't know, man, like it's still to this day, like it's just, it's such a good nostalgia bit.
Speaker A:
But if we're going to talk about themes, I feel like we got to get to this.
Speaker A:
My friends are my power so there is a moment where, you know, Riku's trying to use power of darkness, take the keyblade so that he can save Kairi.
Speaker A:
Utilitarian bad.
Speaker A:
Josh complains about it and when he does so we're ends up with this little wooden sword.
Speaker A:
So you have a 10 year old with a wooden sword going around Hollow Bastion with the beast from Beauty and the Beast trying to defeat shadow monsters made out of the darkness in people's hearts.
Speaker A:
And you show up to Riku, who's imbued with darkness and has all these weapons and a keyblade and all this stuff.
Speaker A:
Donald, Goofy, like, well, we're supposed to follow the key.
Speaker A:
So I guess we're with him now.
Speaker A:
And Sora is like, I guess I'm alone, but I'm not alone.
Speaker A:
Friends are my power and they're in my heart.
Speaker A:
And you're like, wow, that was cheesy.
Speaker A:
But that was the moment when he realized friendship was his strength.
Speaker A:
That the keyblade returned to him.
Speaker A:
Donald and Goofy are like, even before he had The Keyblade, when it was still the one sword.
Speaker A:
They were like.
Speaker A:
They're like, the king's not here to tell us what to do.
Speaker A:
But we're pretty sure he wouldn't want us with the guy that's imbued with darkness.
Speaker A:
So we're going to go back to our friend.
Speaker A:
And then that wooden sword becomes the Keyblade again.
Speaker A:
And like, to me, that's the crux of the message.
Speaker A:
I think that was the message of Kingdom Hearts in a nutshell.
Speaker A:
Was in that one moment, friendship is your power.
Speaker A:
Cheesy as hell, Christian.
Speaker A:
You want to comment on that incredibly cheesy sentiment?
Speaker B:
That's why Sora, Donald and Goofy become the true Utilitarians.
Speaker B:
Because they do what's right for the most people.
Speaker B:
By joining forces with Sora and getting things done with him rather than Riku.
Speaker B:
Because it's better for everyone if Sora is the Keyblade master in this instance.
Speaker B:
Because they have, through their.
Speaker B:
I'm being half facetious here.
Speaker B:
Like through their journey together, they've realized who he is, who they are as people.
Speaker B:
Their mission is this.
Speaker B:
What is the better part of the mission?
Speaker B:
Is it to go with the letter of the law or the idea of actually following the true instinct of the law, which is to preserve as much life as possible?
Speaker B:
Which is what Mickey really wants them to do.
Speaker B:
By looking for the Key.
Speaker B:
Rather than being zealots for the cause, they become zealots for the righteous cause.
Speaker B:
Actually understanding what it means to get the job done.
Speaker B:
And that's part of it.
Speaker B:
Is along the way, the people who help push you forward throughout all this have made you into who you are right now.
Speaker B:
So Sora can make the sacrifice play that he does to bring Kyrie back.
Speaker B:
Because it is better for Kyrie to be there for him to be there at that moment.
Speaker B:
Now.
Speaker B:
Thank God for Anime BS and you know, Nomura being no more of because he's able to come back through that same instinct of like, Kyrie wouldn't have been there without him.
Speaker B:
So let me help you in the way that I can.
Speaker B:
Given that I am the special being in this universe.
Speaker B:
This being without darkness in my heart.
Speaker B:
And the reason Sora ends as only a shadow is because he has that little darkness in his heart.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
I mean, there's so much to go back.
Speaker A:
So one still not utilitarian.
Speaker A:
Because I, I. I'm convinced.
Speaker A:
I don't know.
Speaker A:
Goofy went by his side thinking that they were gonna lose.
Speaker A:
And they said, listen, we're gonna do the right thing regardless of what we were told, consequences be damned.
Speaker A:
Because that's what friendship does.
Speaker A:
They stand by your side, even if it's like, hey, we're gonna lose, but we're gonna lose together, dude.
Speaker A:
And I don't know.
Speaker A:
I love the moment.
Speaker A:
And there's something too, about that, where Sora is heartless and Kyrie notices him.
Speaker A:
And I don't think I'm reading in too much to say.
Speaker A:
I.
Speaker A:
What at that moment was trying to convey is a real friend sees you even when you have lost your way to darkness, even when you have become unrecognizable to anyone else.
Speaker A:
A true friend still sees you in that.
Speaker A:
And I just.
Speaker A:
It's such a beautiful moment, like, all of these, because Sora also never gives up on Riku.
Speaker A:
He is imbued with darkness.
Speaker A:
I should have included a picture of Riku in this.
Speaker A:
He's completely gone to darkness.
Speaker A:
Looks so.
Speaker A:
Like, so evil.
Speaker A:
Like, so his weapon is the Soul Eater.
Speaker A:
And so I was like, nah, he's still good.
Speaker B:
As much as people make fun of Terror and Riku is the one who.
Speaker B:
It's way more obvious from, like, the start, you're not.
Speaker B:
You're not on the side of the angels here, buddy.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
But, like.
Speaker A:
And it's just so great that they never give up on each other.
Speaker A:
They always see each other.
Speaker A:
Even in the darkest place, they're always there for each other.
Speaker A:
Like, that feels.
Speaker A:
Friendship is just so awesome.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
I just.
Speaker A:
I love this series so much, and I think it goes into our annual theme this year of the faces behind us, because there's this moment, and I don't remember if you see flashes or hear voices or anything, but, like, it's meant to convey that when he says, my friends are my power, he's thinking of Donald and Goofy.
Speaker A:
He's thinking of Beast.
Speaker A:
He's thinking about how he met Tarzan, Aladdin, Jasmine, all these friends he made along the way.
Speaker A:
And even though they weren't physically there with him, he was like, I know that they're with me in heart, whatever that means.
Speaker A:
And that's what gave him strength.
Speaker A:
And I think so much of.
Speaker A:
Like, when we talk about the face of the hindsight, usually we're talking very literal, like, who taught Christian, who was his teacher, who was his professor, whatever.
Speaker A:
But sometimes it's like, hey, man, I'm out at Chipotle having a hard time, but my friends, like, I like, okay.
Speaker A:
I'm pretty sure, even if not at this exact moment, I know that Christian prays for me.
Speaker A:
I know that Will cares about me.
Speaker A:
And even though right now I want to just cuss out all the customers and storm out, sometimes I could just think, like, wait a minute, I have people in my corner.
Speaker A:
This is a hard day.
Speaker A:
But I'm not alone in this.
Speaker A:
And that makes all the difference in the world.
Speaker A:
And yeah, it's such a cheesy line, but it's true as why I keep coming back to this game.
Speaker A:
And I think as far as Faces behind us, I think that's just fits.
Speaker B:
Yeah, I get it.
Speaker B:
Like, completely understand.
Speaker B:
Like, it is so very difficult right now.
Speaker B:
As I was sharing before recording, like, I still don't have a job in the field.
Speaker B:
The second time I went to school, greater education.
Speaker B:
And it's so frustrating as someone who wants to do that thing so very desperately, who has learned the lesson that this is what you're here on this earth to do.
Speaker B:
And yet it's not there.
Speaker B:
And yet at that same time, I know I have people backing me up.
Speaker B:
Like, Will has tried to get me jobs.
Speaker B:
Family members have tried.
Speaker B:
It just hasn't worked out because that wasn't God's plan.
Speaker B:
And at the same time, I'm not angry at God either because I know he's got my back.
Speaker B:
I know he wouldn't put me through this just for sake of me suffering.
Speaker B:
As I know he's got something for me.
Speaker B:
I can't see it because I'm limited to where I am.
Speaker B:
But what he is doing is he's putting people around me, people I've become friends with now and that I wouldn't have been friends with if I had gotten the job that I wanted.
Speaker B:
People around me who already knew me and, like, are praying for me and reaching out for me, and yet they're the ones helping to lift me up as I'm doing part of the work myself to make sure that I don't lose sight of the goal.
Speaker B:
The goal is to still do what I'm supposed to do to further the kingdom.
Speaker B:
And without them, I couldn't do that.
Speaker B:
And sorry for the pun with Kingdom.
Speaker A:
No, I. I liked it.
Speaker A:
I was hoping it was on purpose just for.
Speaker A:
Just for our videos watchers, the YouTube people.
Speaker A:
Now I'm wondering if this little glass figure shadow I have, what if this is Sora?
Speaker A:
What if it's supposed to be Sora?
Speaker A:
In my head it is.
Speaker A:
Now that's Headcanon.
Speaker A:
But so, yeah, friendship.
Speaker A:
We mentioned that as one of the themes.
Speaker A:
One of the other themes all of the games touch on is like, identity, annoyingly.
Speaker A:
And you would think that it would get repetitive and I would get bored of it, but I don't.
Speaker A:
I think every Kingdom Hearts game, if you're just to boil it down to only the themes, it's.
Speaker A:
The theme is going to be, are you still you without blank?
Speaker A:
And the answer is always the same.
Speaker A:
You are defined by your friends, your relationships, what you're, who you're entangled with, so that will can get roughed back in.
Speaker A:
So this game, it's your heart.
Speaker A:
Are you still you without your heart?
Speaker A:
And mostly it seems like they mean soul by that, but it seems like Nomura also wants to talk something else about soul in another game.
Speaker A:
So I'm going to use the language they use in the game for this and say heart, even though I think that's confusing unnecessarily so.
Speaker A:
But, you know, they show where Kyrie doesn't have a heart.
Speaker A:
Her body's still there.
Speaker A:
And it's like, that's still Kyrie, though, right?
Speaker A:
Or is it?
Speaker A:
And then it's Pinocchio is just a puppet.
Speaker A:
Or is he?
Speaker A:
No, he has a heart.
Speaker A:
He can't just be a puppet.
Speaker A:
And they asked the game, are you still you without your heart?
Speaker A:
So convoluted language.
Speaker A:
We're just gonna accept the language of heart, and hopefully you guys are with us and we're just accepting, like, Disney has its own thing.
Speaker A:
And we're gonna use the word heart to talk about what we're talking about.
Speaker A:
Christian, how do you answer this question?
Speaker A:
Are you still you without your heart?
Speaker B:
Am I still me without my heart?
Speaker B:
But in the sense of, yes, this body would still be me, but if my soul were to depart from there and I.
Speaker B:
And the fact that I was dead, then no, like, it's.
Speaker B:
It's just a vessel, an empty that's moved around.
Speaker B:
Like, unless there's some way to restore my soul to my body, it's the former part of me.
Speaker B:
Now, if we're dealing with the.
Speaker B:
The anime BS of this game, then absolutely, yes, then that's.
Speaker B:
That's still me.
Speaker B:
Because there's still a possibility that I could come back or someone could restore my heart back to my body or my memories.
Speaker B:
Memories is more what he's going for with heart ultimately, rather than soul, which is another thing that comes up later on, but it's its own thing.
Speaker B:
But if we're talking game, yes.
Speaker B:
If we're talking real life.
Speaker B:
No.
Speaker B:
But at that same time, there is still something about that.
Speaker B:
If I were to die right here and now, my funeral is held.
Speaker B:
Well, hopefully it's an open Casket people can look and go, oh, that was.
Speaker B:
That was Christian.
Speaker B:
And or so that some may people think that is still him and they're grieving my loss, or may even be people say, thank God he's dead.
Speaker B:
I'm so happy about that.
Speaker B:
You know, they're putting their feelings to me onto to that.
Speaker B:
So you can argue to an extent that it still is.
Speaker B:
I would say ultimately, no, but I would understand someone who made the opposite argument.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
Like, philosophically, there's a lot of interesting arguments here.
Speaker A:
Like, if you were to somehow completely take my consciousness and put it into a robot somewhere and then put some AI into my body, which one's me?
Speaker A:
That's not a question I'm prepared to answer.
Speaker A:
I don't know if there was an exact clone of me with all the same memories.
Speaker A:
Which one's really me?
Speaker A:
Is it just me or is it the clone?
Speaker A:
It doesn't matter if we switch consciousness because we have the same memories.
Speaker A:
Still don't know.
Speaker A:
Philosophy is hard, but that's what these games do.
Speaker A:
So we're going to attempt a little bit in the game, Riku has this thought.
Speaker A:
He's going to take the heart of Pinocchio.
Speaker A:
He's going to steal this puppet's heart and put it into Kyrie's body, and that's going to make Kyrie come back again.
Speaker A:
Now, what he doesn't know, and what we, the gamer now know, is that Kyrie's heart is actually in Sora, like, concealed away.
Speaker A:
So hypothetically, if Riku was successful and took the puppet's heart and put it into Kairi and she woke up, who's Kairi?
Speaker A:
The body or Kairi's heart inside Asora,.
Speaker B:
How much of Pinocchio remains?
Speaker B:
It would be the question.
Speaker A:
That's my question.
Speaker B:
Would he take over the body because it's his heart, as it were being put in there, I would say it's probably Pinocchio, like, literally puppeting around Kyrie's body in that circumstance, which irony.
Speaker B:
Yes.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
Which is what the game was getting at, actually.
Speaker A:
Really well done choosing Pinocchio.
Speaker A:
Chef's Kiss.
Speaker A:
Chef's Kiss, guys.
Speaker A:
Oh, man.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
Like, I do like, to me, it really is a hard one.
Speaker A:
The way that I grew up.
Speaker A:
Theologically, I was almost taught, not blatantly, but I was almost kind of suggestively taught to hate my body.
Speaker A:
Like this thing I need to do away with.
Speaker A:
It's only the spirit that matters.
Speaker A:
It's only, you know, like, I feed the soul.
Speaker A:
And what happens to this doesn't matter.
Speaker A:
But the more I've matured, the more I've learned.
Speaker A:
I'm like, the two are kind of inseparable.
Speaker A:
Like, how I feed, literally the food I eat can change my emotions and change my receptivity to even a church service.
Speaker A:
How awake I am when I'm trying to read the Bible, how, you know, like, all the stuff is connected necessarily.
Speaker A:
So trying to untangle it almost seems like nonsense to me.
Speaker A:
The older I get, I'm like, I just.
Speaker A:
I don't think that's how it works.
Speaker A:
But, like, we have cases.
Speaker A:
And to me, this is like.
Speaker A:
Would be actually really hard where, like, someone's experienced some kind of traumatic thing in their brain and they went from someone who went to church all the time, read the Bible, loved Jesus, and then all of a sudden, now they're cursing all the time and want to, like, they're violent, all this stuff because something happened physically to their brain.
Speaker A:
And if you were to ask me, hey, they said the Lord's Prayer back when they were this person, did they lose salvation because of their brain damage?
Speaker A:
Man, that's in the Lord's hands.
Speaker B:
But I do think that's the question these we ask.
Speaker A:
Here's the thing that I think probably is the annoying answer.
Speaker A:
I think it is foolish to try to act like we have the answers of, like, who's really who.
Speaker A:
But I also think it's foolish to act like the questions don't matter and we don't need to ask them.
Speaker A:
You know, like.
Speaker A:
Like, it would be absurd of me to think that, okay, I can just take care of my soul or just take care of my body and I don't need to care about the rest, that's absurd.
Speaker A:
And to, like, really think about, like, if I can separate it and put my consciousness into a robot one day, like, all of it's a little absurd to me.
Speaker A:
But also I think that it's irresponsible not to actually contemplate, like, what does happen to my soul.
Speaker A:
What if I get brain damage and all of a sudden I start having violent tendencies?
Speaker A:
That's not really me.
Speaker A:
That's not who I am.
Speaker A:
Am I accountable?
Speaker A:
I think it's still important to think about these things, to ask and stay in prayer and be the guide to protect me.
Speaker A:
Ultimately, at the end of the day, I believe God is love, and I trust God to show mercy and to show love, and I trust myself to be fallible, to not know what mercy looks like, to not know what love looks like all the time.
Speaker A:
But, you know, I do my best And I think that includes trying to ask these questions and answering it faithfully.
Speaker A:
But at the end of the day, it would be absurd for me to think I had the answer.
Speaker B:
I'm with you there.
Speaker B:
To extent the idea we need to pursue reasonable questions and reasonable answers as best as possible.
Speaker B:
Like if you were feeling down one day or you like snapped at me, said, oh, no, Joshua has been replaced by a spaceman from Venus, is probably not the answer.
Speaker B:
That's not a reasonable assertion unless you have gone to Venus and somehow come back and survive that atmosphere.
Speaker B:
But I go, oh, wait, what happened to him?
Speaker B:
Did he suffer another brain injury after the first one?
Speaker B:
Has he suffered from something else?
Speaker B:
All the loss that has been impacting you lately, like, would that be why he would act this way?
Speaker B:
Well, possibly way more possible than the other thing I brought up earlier, so I could use that as evidence.
Speaker B:
Okay, well, because of this, maybe I should pursue this and reach them.
Speaker B:
Or let's say you were that person.
Speaker B:
Let's say after your initial, you know, brain injury from the car crash, like, you went completely in another direction as far as spirituality was concerned.
Speaker B:
And like, you hated God.
Speaker B:
You wanted nothing to do with him.
Speaker B:
You had moments, as you've shared before, of like, doubts and the like.
Speaker B:
That's not what I'm talking about here.
Speaker B:
Like, if you want, like super ultra atheist or whatever, like, my answer would be, yeah, you're still saying now, whether or not this creates a second personality inside of you, that's an interesting sci fi concept, but I can't tell you for sure.
Speaker B:
But what I can see is someone who needs help.
Speaker B:
And what I can do for that person is, okay, you're suffering because of this or because of this.
Speaker B:
What can I do with you right now to help understand what you're going through, to help you through this process?
Speaker B:
I think that's more.
Speaker B:
There is an answer, don't get me wrong, but there's something more important involved.
Speaker A:
I think we're probably going to disagree a little bit.
Speaker A:
This is where I think the questions are more important than the answers.
Speaker A:
Sometimes, like, I think it is important to ask the questions, but sometimes that's more important than having the answer.
Speaker A:
And when I look like biblically, here's one of the things that really annoys me about myself and other Western Westerners, because I don't want to say Western mindset because, like, yeah, I'm part of that.
Speaker A:
Guys, when we pray, it's almost like we have to know the right thing to pray or what God's going to do.
Speaker A:
Before we pray it, you know, it's like, well, I don't want to pray for that because, you know, God doesn't show mercy on people who are in sin.
Speaker A:
Or he, you know, God doesn't, like the gay or whatever.
Speaker A:
Like, we come with this.
Speaker A:
Like, we need to have a preconceived notion of what God's going to do ahead of time before we pray.
Speaker A:
For some reason, like, I feel like a lot of times that's the attitude.
Speaker A:
And like, a lot of times in the Bible, some of the stuff they're praying for, they're like, hey, God, show mercy on Sodom.
Speaker A:
And you're like, what?
Speaker A:
You're like.
Speaker A:
To me, a lot of Christians that I know, it's like, well, no, of course God's gonna judge Sodom, but maybe he'll, you know, save some.
Speaker A:
And like, yeah, that's.
Speaker A:
That's good.
Speaker A:
I just.
Speaker A:
I find it really interesting in the Bible, typically people are praying and it's stuff that they have no right to ask of God, and they know they have no right to ask that of God, but they're gonna pray it anyway.
Speaker A:
And I don't know, like, maybe this is a me problem, but, like, I. I want to get more of that where, like, I'm not worried about, oh, wait, is this a sin?
Speaker A:
Is this not a sin?
Speaker A:
Or is it okay for me to.
Speaker A:
Like, sometimes I was like, hey, I'm going to pray for mercy and love on Christian.
Speaker A:
Even if I'm like, convinced that, I don't know, wearing the kind of shirt he's wearing will send someone to hell.
Speaker A:
Like, I know that for a fact and he'll never stop arguing with me and he's stuck in his ways.
Speaker A:
I'm still going to just pray that God shows love and mercy.
Speaker B:
Yes.
Speaker A:
Who cares if I'm praying for no reason?
Speaker A:
Like, I think God still honors the heart even if mercy can't be shown in that scenario.
Speaker A:
Believe it or not, as great as Anime and Nomura and all these people are at creating nonsense ways that people just come back to life and things work out somehow.
Speaker A:
God's even better at it, thank God.
Speaker A:
God will absolutely find a way that Riku is going to come back and it'll be okay.
Speaker A:
If that is God's will, it's going to happen.
Speaker B:
Even if it temporarily looks like ansem.
Speaker B:
For a bit.
Speaker A:
More on that later.
Speaker A:
Did you have any other thoughts as far as, like, the themes or story or worlds gameplay of Kino Hearts 1.
Speaker A:
Before we start wrapping this up, I.
Speaker B:
Would say one thing.
Speaker B:
That always stood out to me that I have really appreciated about this game is Beast's introduction and with the not even just lore implications, but like, person, like, his love for Belle is that strong that he does the impossible.
Speaker B:
He transcends from his world to.
Speaker B:
To a separate world to track her down and bring her back and save her, even though by the.
Speaker B:
The rules of the world, that shouldn't happen.
Speaker B:
And yet it did, because his love was that strong.
Speaker B:
And I said, especially I. I rewatched the movie not too long ago and I really, really enjoy that film, but there's so many people out there.
Speaker B:
Oh, Stockholm syndrome.
Speaker B:
Oh, blah, blah, blah.
Speaker B:
It's like, number one, you haven't watched the film and actually understood it.
Speaker B:
Sorry, media literally is so low.
Speaker B:
But, like, this is like proof of that outside of that film.
Speaker B:
Like, the writers saw who Beast was in that film and said, yeah, this makes perfect sense.
Speaker B:
He can do the impossible for the sake of love.
Speaker B:
And yet, once again, hokey.
Speaker B:
And it's okay to be hokey and cringe sometimes when you've got a point to make.
Speaker A:
Yeah, Yeah.
Speaker A:
I, too, I could pick apart world by world and tell you stuff about every character because everything in this game mattered.
Speaker A:
Like, it wasn't there for no reason.
Speaker A:
There was a reason they used Pinocchio.
Speaker A:
We kind of already touched on.
Speaker A:
Right.
Speaker A:
There's a reason they use Hercules to talk about what it means to be a true hero.
Speaker A:
There's a reason Tarzan was like, all of the pieces are there for a reason.
Speaker A:
And it's just a beautifully crafted game.
Speaker A:
One, I do want to shout out Halloween Town.
Speaker A:
I had never seen the Nightmare Before Christmas till after I played this game.
Speaker A:
So this was a crazy introduction to Tim Burton's world.
Speaker A:
But the way that they use that world to kind of exploit, like, can we control the heartless?
Speaker A:
Can we control the monsters?
Speaker A:
Does science give us the ability to control the mystical, the spiritual, whatever, and just kind of having that redu.
Speaker A:
Like, no.
Speaker A:
And also, why would you want to, like.
Speaker A:
I don't know, the way that the science of the characters in Tim Burton's world, there kind of clash with the mysticism and light versus dark kind of messaging and how even Jack was part of that message of, like, friendship.
Speaker A:
I don't know.
Speaker A:
I think the inclusion of that world was just really powerful.
Speaker A:
I like that one a lot, too.
Speaker A:
And I like when you learn to glide from Tinkerbell.
Speaker B:
Of course.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
Because.
Speaker A:
Because one, thematically makes sense, and two, having the ability to glide made the game so much more fun.
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker A:
All right.
Speaker A:
All right, let's wrap this one up.
Speaker A:
That was my favorite Kingdom Hearts game, guys, which is my favorite game.
Speaker A:
So I didn't even.
Speaker A:
Didn't even need to say Kingdom Hearts game.
Speaker A:
I could have just said my favorite game.
Speaker A:
There you go.
Speaker A:
If you want to hear us talk some about the leaks, we're going to do that.
Speaker A:
We're going to talk about some of the worlds and different stuff that was revealed in those trophies that were leaked on Steam for Kingdom Hearts 4, just for our official members of systematic ecology.
Speaker A:
So if you want to hear us, that'll be our bonus segment.
Speaker A:
This time, head over there and we'll talk about it.
Speaker A:
For now, though, given recommendations.
Speaker A:
Christian, do you have any recommendation for our listeners?
Speaker A:
Yeah.
Speaker B:
As doomsday looms upon us.
Speaker B:
Secret wars after that.
Speaker B:
hen the Jonathan Hickman one,:
Speaker B:
And both are stellar for different reasons.
Speaker B:
Like, yes, the first Secret wars is let's throw action figures up against each other and maybe there'll be a story.
Speaker B:
I'm fine with that.
Speaker B:
But both of them are good for different reasons.
Speaker A:
Recently, I cut up a Futurama and I think the new Futurama season still really hold up.
Speaker A:
So if you haven't seen Futurama in a while and we haven't seen, like the new Hulu episodes, they're still pretty good.
Speaker A:
I think they're worth it.
Speaker A:
So that'll be my recommendation this time.
Speaker A:
I also recommend you guys checking out one of these T shirts.
Speaker A:
You know, we had the the Throne of Geeks shirt up right now.
Speaker A:
It's got some of the different weapons that look like weapons from some of our favorite franchises like Kingdom Hearts and Marvel and different stuff.
Speaker A:
All just, you know, nodding our hat, praying a little, little tribute to all the cool pop culture references.
Speaker A:
And it just, you know, it's simple and clean.
Speaker A:
I like designs like that.
Speaker A:
I also want to thank everybody who's taking their time to rate and review our show.
Speaker A:
Wherever you get your podcast, it really helps a whole lot when you guys do that.
Speaker A:
So if you can get on Spotify, Apple Podcast, wherever you're listening, just take a couple seconds and leave us a rating.
Speaker A:
It helps us get more listeners and we really appreciate it.
Speaker A:
We also really appreciate all of our financial supporters today.
Speaker A:
I want to shout out to the one and only Trip Fuller.
Speaker A:
Can't wait to.
Speaker A:
To put my arms around you, give you a hug, man.
Speaker A:
And I when I see you in Kansas City soon, or if I've already seen.
Speaker A:
You know that I really appreciated getting to see you.
Speaker A:
And guys, thank you all so much again.
Speaker A:
If you want to become an official member, get your own shout out like Tripp.
Speaker A:
You can do so by going to our website.
Speaker A:
The link is in the show description.
Speaker A:
You become an official member of Systematic Geekology without becoming a member though you can still go to that website.
Speaker A:
You can get some other free extra content.
Speaker A:
You can buy merch, you can leave a one time financial gift.
Speaker A:
There's a lot of stuff on the website for people who aren't members.
Speaker A:
So it's not just like a members only website.
Speaker A:
But we do appreciate it if you want to become one.
Speaker A:
But there's all kinds of ways you can.
Speaker A:
There's also a link in the show description for all of our Kingdom Hearts episodes.
Speaker A:
Tons of ways that you can be a part of what we're doing.
Speaker A:
Geek out with us.
Speaker A:
Connect with us.
Speaker A:
Join us on Discord.
Speaker A:
Have a chat.
Speaker A:
We do this for friendship, because friendship is my power.
Speaker A:
And guys, remember, remember, we are all a chosen people.
