Why the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony is BS

Today I am going to initiate a rant about the keyblade inheritance ceremony, and why everything about it is wrong. Or rather, a better way to explain the ceremony and pretend that official explanations as to why people obtained the keyblades are wrong.

Today, we are going to mostly talk about Kairi:


This little picture here is the official explanation for why Kairi is able to wield the keyblade. But I have a few problems with this being the exact reason why Kairi can in fact wield it.

For example, do any of you remember this?


This was a little scene where Sora kind of handed off the keyblade to Jack Sparrow. Possibly as a joke, but the fact of the matter is that if anyone who touches the keyblade initiates the ceremony, are we going to end up with Jack Sparrow jumping in from the sky keyblade in hand to save the day?

Or perhaps people'll say "well, Kairi had the makings, Jack didn't." but the fact of the matter is... anyone who has the makings through the simple act of the taking can get the keyblade? I think this is a little bit of a problem .

Now, if we were talking about this particular moment being where Kairi got the keyblade:


THAT would make more sense to me. But even still... I never got the impression Kairi could actively wield the keyblade. She could just temporarily use it. I was never under the impression she could do anything other than hit people with it. Like a magically imbued stick or something. But if we're going to make it so the passing of the keyblade is a thing... shouldn't it be something more formal?

I was under the impression Riku accidentally performed the inheritance ceremony.

And maybe someone out there is yelling, "But for the inheritance ceremony to work, they have be a keyblade master!"



Terra wasn't a keyblade master. And still isn't a keyblade master (no matter what Arch says, he's not a keyblade master)

So therefore... this logic doesn't work. So, why would just someone touching the keyblade passing on inheritance be a thing?

Does this mean every single heartless that Sora hit, that turned out to be worthy, is going to come back with a keyblade in hand led by Jack Sparrow to save the day in Kingdom Hearts III?

This just doesn't make sense to me. And I just don't like the idea that touching a keyblade ever so slightly means that scared little girls can end up keyblade wielders.

Ya know...

 

The official explanation for this is that Kairi is a Princess of Heart (while Jack is very much not, he's a pirate), and so Aqua's Keyblade, without her permission said "Lmao you can't see what's in front of your eyes I'm gonna choose this girl because her heart is strong." I think that's a pretty fair explanation considering we know how powerful the Princesses of Heart are. I understand why it's a little bull******, and if this didn't happen with Kairi but it happened with like... Xaldin accidentally touching it, I would feel you.

I think it's important to remember that with Sora and Riku, Terra and Aqua were both drawn to them. That could very well be their Keyblades giving off a feeling of "hey see this guy over there, go give it to him" rather then them actually deciding. Because they both had this feeling of "Oh these people are strong I should probably do this", the difference is Terra said yes, and Aqua said no. But the thing is, the Keyblade always gets what it wants, and Sora got the Keyblade no matter what she did. I think that's a sign that they really didn't get to decide to do it, but rather they're being used as a vessel.

Like @Explode said, the Keyblade chooses it's master and so really, all it was doing was trying to get Aqua and Terra to go over there and get the job done, so to speak.


This does beg the question though, if the Keyblade chooses it's master, can it not change it's mind? Why is Xehanort's Keyblade perfectly okay with destroying things, or is that why Ansem and Xemnas never use it? Like, they got their Keyblade card taken away cause they were being evil, while Xehanort's keyblade didn't know if he was evil or not until after BBS. That's what I find weirder then Kairi being able to use it tbh, unless this is the ONE evil Keyblade in existence that is fine with Xehanort dicking around

 

The reason I personally have problems with Kairi wielding the keyblade being determined by her being a Princess of Heart is that... does this mean you could hand out a keyblade to all princesses of heart? This seems odd to me. If a princess of heart is able to USE the keyblade because of their strength of heart that makes sense to me, but being chosen by the keyblade cause Kairi accidentally touched Aqua's keyblade is a little.... aha... poor in terms of writing? I mean, I get it, I just don't like it.

Now, the Xehanort situation. The keyblade as far as I am aware is not inherently good or evil, it it a tool simply given to those based on their strength of heart (which I personally look at as strength of resolve/determination) so it isn't THAT weird to me, honestly. Not nearly as much as the Kairi situation.

 

Idk man I've seen some bombass art of that idea, that all the Princesses get Keyblades and kick ass and I'm here for this

Spoiler

Spoiler

But as cool as I think that would be I do understand what you mean. Because then you could say not all the Princesses are willing to fight, but then again neither is Sora at the beginning of KH1 and it didn't give a ****. So yeah, it's a weird situation and it would be interesting to see where they go with it, if anywhere tbh

 

In order to get a Keyblade, you need to be Bequeathed (have the Keyblade inheritance ceremony performed on you). Being Bequeathed causes a Keyblade to choose you. The person Bequeathing someone needs to be a Keyblade Master or someone on the level of a Keyblade Master, and the person being Bequeathed needs to have a strong heart. All you need to wield a Keyblade is a strong heart. In order to obtain a Keyblade though, you need to be Bequeathed. Terra Bequeathed Riku, Aqua accidentally Bequeathed Kairi, and Sora was never Bequeathed. Sora's a special case. Terra Bequeathing Riku caused a Keyblade to choose Riku. That Keyblade was Kingdom Key. In KH1, during the storm on Destiny Islands, Sora unknowingly touched Riku's heart. During that moment, Kingdom Key saw Sora's heart as stronger than Riku's since Riku was falling to darkness and chose Sora instead and jumped over to him. Sora is able to wield it because he has a strong heart. So, Sora receiving a Keyblade is a rare and unique case since he wasn't Bequeathed. He happened to be at the right place at the right time and happened to have a strong enough heart. Later, at Hollow Bastion, Riku took back Kingdom Key because it was still technically his/he showed that his heart was stronger than Sora's during that moment. But, after Sora gave his iconic speech, Kingdom Key chose Sora again since Sora proved his heart was stronger than Riku's, and this time, it was permanent.

And jump to KH2, and Riku now has another Keyblade called Way to the Dawn. It resembles Soul Eater. Soul Eater isn't the same thing as Way to the Dawn. Soul Eater is just a sword. He can still summon Soul Eater separately from Way to the Dawn. It's unknown how Riku got Way to the Dawn. It's unknown what happens when someone who was Bequeathed loses their Keyblade. So, it's possible that when someone who was Bequeathed loses their Keyblade, another Keyblade chooses them. So, it's a possibility that after Riku lost Kingdom Key, Way to the Dawn chose him. Who knows though. We don't know for sure how Riku got Way to the Dawn and we don't know for sure how Riku got Destiny's Embrace. And we don't even know why Riku even had to give Kairi a Keyblade since one should've already chosen her since she was Bequeathed by Aqua.

But yeah, the Bequeathing didn't work on Jack Sparrow because Sora wasn't a Keyblade Master or on the level of a Keyblade Master. Terra was able to Bequeath Riku because he was on the level of a Keyblade Master. Being titled a "Keyblade Master" doesn't all of a sudden magically give you Keyblade Master abilities. Getting Keyblade Master abilities is something you do by progressing and getting more powerful.

 

You see, the reason for Jack Sparrow being added into this at all was to be a joke really. But overall, I still think the idea of Kairi being accidentally bequeathed is dumb. Because she never actually was able to summon the keyblade until Riku gave it to Kairi anyway (and at this point Riku was more at the 'level of master' if you're gonna get technical on me).

I still think the idea of the keyblade being thrown at someone and that being why they can use it is... a bad idea? Like even with all these 'special cases' around it's really odd to write this kind of a 'a person has to be bequeathed a keyblade' rule into everything.

 

Can you summon the Keyblade though without knowing it’s something you can do? Because we can make the argument Sora knew to do it through Ventus’ sleeping heart and the dream scene, while Riku knew because maleificent told him he could and because of Terra. But Kairi would have no way of knowing she could summon a Keyblade so maybe that’s why?

I know that’s a lame answer but I think it still makes sense to an extent. Like if you don’t know you can do something you won’t do it, I suppose. So Riku kinda let her know she could

 

But it's the most contrived thing possible to have Kairi just accidentally touch Aqua's keyblade when she was a scared toddler and then be able to summon it. Again, imagine if baby Riku were afraid and hid behind Terra and touched his keyblade in the same manner. There we go, worthy kids accidentally touching keyblades gives us fun times.

What if Mickey got knocked away in Twilight Town and his keyblade went flying and somehow Hayner had the makings and briefly went to reach for the keyblade just to give it back to Mickey (you know, as a gesture) and he touches in briefly but Micky summons it back. But now Hayner can wield a keyblade?

How come Lea couldn't just walk up to Mickey and touch his keyblade and get the power. Sure, maybe he didn't know touching keyblades is all you need to do to get infected but it would have saved him the trouble of having to find Yen Sid to get one.

If they had made it so Aqua gave Kairi the ability to wield a keyblade in a similar way to Riku, I wouldn't even be complaining. But she just touched the keyblade when she was afraid. You'd think Aqua would be more concerned if that's all it took for someone to get the keyblade and she'd try to keep it on the far side away from children

 

It’s all pretty contrived XD I think the argument is is that Kairi is a princess of heart and so her pure heart gets priority over say, Hayner. That maybe the Keyblade automatically goes there because Kairi has no possibility to get corrupted by darkness. I think that they’re going by the “rule of cool” but if I turn my brain on I just can’t handle this lol

I think the thing is, is that if the series seems to doubt its own magic it’s transparent. If I’m writing a book and I strongly convinct that “in this world people grow flowers out of their ears” and I never change those rules and I’m really strong about it, the reader doesn’t question

The thing about KH is, is that it doubts itself and it’s own ability to make sure rules are consistent and so instead of being strong and wrong so to speak, they’re shrugging it off almost. I think if they had stronger rules and stronger convictions we’d just be like “weird but okay”

 

No offense, but I don't think it's "cool" to have kairi just accidentally touch the keyblade rather than have her get it from Riku in the way she did xD

Also they did have a strong rule in the first game. Only one person can wield the keyblade at a time, the one with the strongest heart. They dropped that fast. So at this point whatever rules they do have they add on for the sake of the plot. My problem is I think Kairi's addon was unnecessary. But whatevs

 

Yeah that’s kinda what I’m saying. Like they made that rule in KH1 but obviously didn’t stick with that lol, so instead of establishing strong rules for their universe they’re constantly changing them to fill their needs. Which is a bit of a problem and I can see how the series really confuses new fans, cause old rules go out the window.

 

so late to the party here, but this thread was enlightening to say the least :)