"May your heart be your guiding key”: The Aesthetic Education of Kingdom Hearts

Abstract

“May your heart be your guiding key” is a motto for the RPG videogame series Kingdom Hearts (2002—). This phrase is usually said before characters embark on journeys and its grammar implies an element of uncertainty, which depends on the fatalistic questions the plot raises. This uncertainty creates a tension between the individual power of choice imparted by the phrase and the big scheme of the plot.

The power of choice has been a self-determining plot device in the literary genre of Bildungsroman, where choices have moral and psychic implications for the characterization of the protagonists; as Franco Moretti states, “the Bildungsroman attempts to build the Ego, and make it the indisputable centre of its own structure” (1987). In Kingdom Hearts, the main characters are seen deciding between certain scenarios which are fated to lead to the unavoidable Keyblade War and the plot that brings together the many games in the series focuses on breaking this cycle. Kingdom Hearts works as an immersible form of canon for Disney, Pixar, and Square-Enix and, as such, it entails the player to make choices based on a deep contact with these worlds, plots, or characters, thus making their hearts guiding keys.