TERM PAPER: The Laws of Physics in an Animation Universe

Kingdom Hearts is a crossover action role-playing video game created in 2002 with the collaboration of Square Enix and Disney Interactive Studios. It is centered on a fourteen-year-old boy named Sora, who is chosen to be the Keyblade wielder and battles against the forces of darkness. In the search for his lost friends after his world is taken over by creatures called the Heartless, Sora is to seal each world he visits to keep the Heartless from returning. During his journey, he meets several Disney and Final Fantasy characters as he fights alongside them to defeat the Heartless. For players to proceed in Kingdom Hearts, not only will players notice the different art styles between the two, but they will find that there are many instances in which the law of physics is being broken.

One of the first things that players can notice about the law of physics being broken is how Sora never has any scratches or tears on his clothes. He wears a pair of yellow hefty shoes with a black and white jacket over his red jumpsuit. In addition to his outfit, he wears stylish gloves and a crown necklace for accessories. Since we see him wearing these clothes for the opening intro of the game, we can assume that this is his casual outfit he wears every day and that it doesn’t contain any special powers or isn’t some kind of superhero outfit.

However, when players advance and battle their opponents, we can see that Sora is getting hit by the opponent but his clothes can withstand a lot of damage. In our world when we watch people battle with weapons, having no armor or any protection on their bodies can cause severe injury to them and/or usually involves some rupture in the material of the clothing when being hit by the weapon of the opponent. In Kingdom Hearts, Sora's clothes not only resists the attacks of the opponents but is also able to handle fire from the opponent, where his clothes act like an armor. Furthermore, Sora magically turns into a merman in the underwater world Atlantica, but still is able to avoid any physical damage to himself when fighting underwater.

Another example that players can notice during a battle is how Sora handles his weapon—the Keyblade. The Keyblade is a giant key that is about the length from the ground to his waist and seems to be constructed of solid metal. Though it doesn't have an edge, the Keyblade acts like a sword, where Sora is able to swing it and defeat the Heartless. The Keyblade can also act like a boomerang. After completing so many levels, Sora learns the ability "strike raid," an attack where players can throw the Keyblade to strike their enemies and automatically coming back to Sora after it hits the opponent. This proves how the world in Kingdom Hearts is different to our world. The reason why the boomerang is able to return back to the person who threw it is due to its design of being flat and how it is thrown. The Keyblade is similar to looking like a steel pole, where it is obvious that a steel pole is not flat or light. If you throw a steel pole in our world, you will find that it will not return back to you because of its cylinder shape as well as the weight it carries.

Additionally, Sora is able to use magic elements with the Keyblade, casting fire, ice, and thunder towards enemies as well as controlling gravity by flattening them. Despite the fact of Atlantica being the underwater world, Sora is still able to use these magic abilities, which is an unusual sight for us as it is impossible to have fire or thunder underwater in our world. Sora can also summon certain characters to help him during a battle—yet it is a mystery where they come from. In the game, we see that Sora uses the Keyblade to summon them and they respond immediately, coming out of nowhere. This ability in terms to our world is illogical.

Our last observation will be about Sora jumping and falling. In the beginning of the game, Sora can jump as high as his height. Later on in the game, he learns the ability to "high jump," which allows him to defy gravity as he can jump twice his height by doing a somersault in midair. But this isn't the end of it—after players complete the levels in the world Neverland, Sora learns the ability "glide," meaning that can Sora can glide as he gains momentum and speed across the air as his altitude slowly lowers. Although Sora loses altitude at a certain point, it's very strange looking when he continues to glide without touching the ground. This happens for only a short period of time until he gets back on his feet. What's also strange is when Sora is gliding and an obstacle is in his way, where he doesn't stop gliding but hovers in place. In the world we live in, humans aren't made to fly or glide (although I wish we could). Flying squirrels can glide because of a membrane of skin between their front and back legs, spreading out its limbs in the air. With Sora being a human being with no special membrane from his arm to leg and can still glide is mind-boggling. Along with Sora's abilities to jump really high and glide wherever he's at, this causes no damage to himself when falling. In our world—depending on the height—when we fall, we reach a certain point of terminal velocity when our speed is constant and we stop accelerating, which can cause serious damage or death due to how fast we're falling. In the game, Sora doesn't have a normal terminal velocity when falling, which is why he can overcome any height and still land on his two feet.

Kingdom Hearts is a video game that purposely breaks the law of physics for the players to progress into the game. Even though there are many times that Sora's actions are improbable to our world, it does not distract the player from its entertainment in the fantasy world. Players learning how to wield the Keyblade, using different techniques of magic, and unlocking different abilities when advancing the game also helps them advance in the storyline. Due to this intention, it makes the game enjoyable and intriguing as it invites players to their world and traveling to other worlds that are outside of our universe. If there were no broken law of physics in Kingdom Hearts, it would change the story dramatically along with making the game boring and unamusing.