the-terranort-report:

This is Sora, the personification of all that is good and happy in the world of Kingdom Hearts. He is the Keyblade’s chosen, the person who will always be there to rush in and save the worlds form the darkness, he puts his friends above all else and will sacrifice himself to save them without a second thought. His heart is connected to basically every significant person in the story and it is up to him to save those who are lost in the darkness.

From a very young age, Sora has always been a cheery boy. Carefree and lighthearted he was actually considered for the Keyblade by Aqua, but sensing that Riku had been given the power, decided against it because “One Keyblade is more than enough for any friendship”. From a young age Sora was doomed to a life of hardship and an eternal uphill struggle. Sora may have sensed that this was his fate as he grew up but when have you seen Sora sad? When have you seen him throw down his Keyblade and give up? Never. He’s had his doubts and hesitated but that’s because he’s human. But no, when Sora’s Keyblade was robbed of him he took up a wooden sword and fought his way, not to get it back, but to protect his friends. 

“My friends are my power!”, Sora could have everything robbed from him, but he will continue to fight for his friends until he wins or drops dead.

Vanitas, on the other hand, is the polar opposite of Sora, he exists solely to bring pain and misery, oh and create the X-blade. He gets a sadistic pleasure from antagonizing Ven and isolating him from his precious friends, he wants to strip him of everything he loves and make him feel just as alone as he has been (according to the novelization). There is not even the slightest trace of mercy or restraint from Vanitas because his heart is pure darkness and he feeds off of negativity. Vicious and straightforward Vanitas is arguably Kingdom hearts’ greatest villain.

For most of the game he remains masked, a complete mystery to the player, but what happens when he and Ven fight in his heart, he ditches the mask and exposes his face. Now this serves no purpose to Ven, who has connected with Sora, but only in heart and probably does not have a solid idea what the boy looks like, this was for the player to see. This personified monster has stolen what players have come to accept as the face hope and heroism, and twisted it into a monstrosity of the deepest darkness. By skewering Sora’s image on such a character is like a punch to the gut to any who love the character. Ven is so much like Sora, and then there’s Vanitas who looks just like him, and to see someone with Sora’s face do such horrible things like threaten to “choke the life” out of Ven’s friends only draws such a contrasting similarity between them.

Vanitas is the darkness of Ven’s heart, and everyone, save for the Princesses of Heart, has darkness in their heart. By allowing such darkness to run rampant the thought comes to mind that this could be a stone’s throw away from Sora. If he ever lost himself to darkness this could be him almost to the tee.

The reason Vanitas looks like Sora is more than just because their hearts are connected, it is to shock the player. It is to devastate the student of the series. By transplanting something so deeply associated with light and placing it in the deepest darkness, Square Enix showed that nothing is safe, nothing is sacred. And this is just me speaking, but perhaps this parallel foreshadows events to come.

(Inspiration drawn from this post)