The official Kingdom Hearts Twitter account has shared a key moment from the first game and inadvertently restarted a debate about Donald’s negative impact on Sora.
One of the most important themes throughout Kingdom Hearts is Sora’s dangerous lack of self-worth. The happy-go-lucky Sora and his inherent belief that his, say it with me now, friends are his power may seem sweet and inspirational, but they hide a darker and much more human side to him that we see bubble up now and again.
From the moment Sora is split up with Kairi and Riku in the first game, he’s at a total loss for what to do, especially when he finds himself swept up in a destiny that wasn’t meant to be his in the first place. Pretty early on, Sora is somewhat encouraged to push all of those feelings down, which the series' official account has just put an awkward spotlight on.
Earlier this week, the official Kingdom Hearts account shared one of the most iconic moments from the first game where Sora, Donald, and Goofy meet for the first time in Traverse Town. It’s here that Donald tells Sora to stop being sad and “frowning” about Riku and Kairi, since the Gummi Ship “runs on happy faces”, seemingly to try and cheer him up.
In Donald’s defence, the Gummi Ship is shown to actually run on smiles in the manga, and is even said to do so as recently as Kingdom Hearts 3. The trio also crash whenever there’s an argument, so take it for what you will.
The moment is played for laughs as Sora pulls off a cheesy grin to a drum roll, but it’s pretty central to his character going forward. We see in later games that Sora really doesn’t deal with his emotions well, such as when he breaks down when meeting Riku and when he fully loses it and calls himself “worthless” on his own in Kingdom Hearts 3.
This is exactly what every Kingdom Hearts fan seems to be discussing right now, as the quote retweets of the official account’s post are almost entirely discussions about Donald’s “worst moment” and how it “single-handedly obliterated” Sora’s psyche. Many are even pointing to the late-game scene where Sora sacrifices himself with a smile without hesitation.
I’m a little split on whether we can entirely blame Donald for Sora’s self-worth issues, though. As much as the “no frowning” thing probably does have an impact, everyone telling Sora how powerful he is because of his connections to other people is unarguably just as much to blame. Whatever the case, spare a thought for Sora, as he’s clearly about to go through it all over again next year.
سەرچاوەی فەرمی بە زمانی ئینگلیزی: https://www.thegamer.com/kingdom-hearts-account-post-donald-worst-moment-sora-mental-health/
