The evolution and gradual shift of Keyblade wielder culture is probably my favorite running narrative of KH that is only lightly touched upon.
Like, in UX times, being a wielder was just a thing. And yeah, there’s darker stuff and sinister plots in regards to the union leaders, but in general, the title is very casual. You make friends, you travel the worlds, your Chirithy just says “looks like you have the natural drive to protect light and forge human connections! *pats you on the head*” One was a wielder just because the world was Good and there were people that were also Good.
But then darkness in the hearts of men, war, infighting, ex cetera ex cetera. Suddenly, being a wielder isn’t a just a casual title, it’s a responsibility. We’ve got the UX kiddos struggling to keep things afloat because they’re the only ones left, and presumably dandelions around the worlds in hiding, with just the mission to survive. The key became less a symbol of a nice heart and more a sentence to live, because wielders are now an endangered species. They’re not prioritizing going around and spreading good deeds to the worlds, they’re just hunkering down and trying to stay safe.
And then it gets kind of murkier in DR’s time because that game isn’t completely finished but we can gather that after a couple generations the survivors met again on the destroyed world of Daybreak town and said “Okay. Time to rebuild.” We see castles literally built on the remains of the old, we see restrictions of worlds travel, we see closeted academics who are being taught about keyblade wielding in a classroom. The status has shifted again, from “Play it safe. Survive.” to “We need back the world we lost.” But, seeing as they’re literally working from drowned ruins and few surviving records and generations of keeping your head down, it’s a slow, cautious campaign that attempts to follow the letter of being a wielder, but not the spirit. Kids aren’t being taught “Be a good person and spread light in the world,” they’re being taught “Study history and shoulder this responsibility and try to recreate a society we know next to nothing about.” And hey, look how that turned out.
So now we’re in the bbs era and are seeing the attempts of the, as far as we know, only surviving light-serving wielder. And it’s the man who probably would have been everyone’s last choice to be the teacher for the next generation, the self proclaimed coward “Tardy Fleetfoot” Eraqus. But, he’s the last survivor, so he has to try to pass on what he’s learned. “Don’t visit other worlds, read lots of books, your key is a symbol of your responsibility, you will oversee the world order.” He’s working with fragments of fragments of a culture that people have been trying to resurrect for hundreds of years. He does his best. (his best isn’t very good) And when one of his kids isn’t a complete paragon of an impossible standard, things spiral out of control and he dies and his apprentices are scattered, still trying to be the resolute protectors they were brought up trying to be.
And then, after a decade of wielder loss, we finally see some rebirth. Because the bbs kids may have been academics, soldiers, and products of a system that was trying to make heroes instead of good people, but when they finally get a chance to go out into the worlds, they rediscover that wielder instinct to do good. To spread light and make friends and give worlds the power to defend their hearts. The next generation is literally formed because the bbs apprentices were nice to kids. They saw some carefree children who just wanted to protect their friends and thought “Yeah. This is what wielders are supposed to be.”
And then the resurgence of wielders comes, not from kids being taught in a classroom and being told it’s their responsibility to protect the worlds, but by some kids who just wanted to explore and make some friends. Sora gets to travel around and try to protect people and just be a nice little bean, and guess what? He’s the greatest wielder since the fall of daybreak town. Because he accidentally tapped into what the wielder were originally supposed to do. Just be kind and visit worlds around and do good deeds. And literally every Keyblade wielder after that is almost directly inspired by that do-good-in-the-world attitude that he pioneered, and suddenly Keyblades are so much less “you have a pure soul and the training to protect the worlds” and so much more “Hey I want to do some good” (This is why I really like Lea getting a Keyblade because it’s the epitome of “You want to help your friends? Yeah, that’s the only requirement these days. Have a big key.”)
Sora and friends are unintentionally returning to the roots of wielding and making their own new culture of being a nice person. And I just think that full circle, plus tying back in to the underlying unironic themes of “My friends are my power”, is really neat. :)
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