Due warning: SPOILERS ahead. If you don’t want them, don’t read on.
Throughout the Kingdom Hearts series, we have come across four different kinds of enemies, in timeline chronological order: the Unversed, the Heartless, the Nobodies, and the Dream Eaters. Each embodies a fragment of a real person, and the essay here today discusses the enemies as representations of the psyche, as envisioned by the Kingdom Hearts universe. It should be noted that since psychology is a complex thing, the representations discussed here are innately highly simplified.
The Unversed: Emotion
As Vanitas states in Birth by Sleep, the Unversed are “fledgling emotions”, born from his negativity. Vanitas was born from Ventus’ heart being split. Since Vanitas is but fragment of Ventus, the Unversed themselves are also parts of Ventus. Therefore, it can said that the Unversed may be born from all beings with whole hearts. Each Unversed has a different pair of eyes, smiling, angry, or crying, further establishing the Unversed are emotion personified. Since they are “Unversed”, those “not well-versed in their own existence”, it follows that emotion as an individual component is useless. Vanitas commands the Unversed, being an intelligent being, which implies that emotion has no inherent direction. Simply put, to feel is not enough, action or direction is required to fully realize it.
The Heartless: Intent or the “Id”
Unlike the Unversed, the Heartless are the darkness, rather than the raw emotion of a person who has been physically compromised. As noted throughout the series, the darkness is not inherently evil or malicious, which seems to be the case in the first Kingdom Hearts. But as the story continues, it is made apparent that the Heartless are mindless, much as the Unversed are. The Heartless on a desire to have a heart. This domination of being by desire is similar to the concept of the “id” in Freudian psychology. The “id” is the part of the personality that directs basic needs and wants. The basic component of a full person in the Kingdom Hearts universe is a heart, which explains the Heartless’ narrow-minded search for hearts. However, without the ego and superego to regulate the id, the Heartless cannot fully grasp having a heart. It is the darkness that shows people what they really want or need, but it is the ego and superego that keeps it in check. It is implied in the Ansem Reports of the first Kingdom Hearts that the Heartless have always existed, since people have always had darkness in their hearts. However, we know that the Emblem Heartless were initially manufactured in experiments, and that the Purebloods such as the Shadow and Neoshadow are byproducts of a natural process. Therefore, it can be said that the Emblem Heartless are twisted or modified versions of actual desire. The Purebloods, such as the Neoshadows, are relatively few, as Xehanort does not release them in Birth By Sleep, except to use them to test Ventus. The comparative rarity and lack of danger of Purebloods indicates the desire is rarely ever malicious or deadly. The Emblem Heartless, which are plentiful, with their armor, weapons, and improved powers over the Purebloods further show that they are desire acted upon in a most twisted or misguided manner.
The Nobodies: Logic or the “Ego”
If the Heartless are the id, then it follows that the Nobodies are the ego, which directs the id, to consider logical consequences of actions (whether physical, mental, or social), and the idea that other people have ids as well. Unlike any of the other enemies in the Kingdom Hearts universe, the Nobodies are intelligent and are driven by their will and ability to plan. There is further evidence that the Nobodies are the psyche’s logic and mental capacity. Nobodies can, with sufficient willpower, become a higher form of a Nobody, namely those that make up Organization XIII. These Nobodies are very intelligent, retaining their memories as people, and desiring a heart to complete them. They can even affect emotion in order to feign having a complete personality. However, their lack of “intent”, or rather an “id”, prevents them from realizing that their goal of completion implies more than restoring their hearts, as explained by Yen Sid. Both the Heartless and the Nobody of a person must be destroyed in order to restore a person to their original form. The higher Nobodies are arrogant and presume to be a higher existence than the Heartless, when their very existence is paradoxical in itself. Given that the Nobodies are the ego, and that the Heartless are the id, the heart is the super ego. This is because just as the Heartless do not have the ego or the superego to regulate them, the Nobodies do not have the id to realize what they need, nor the superego to show them morality. Nobodies are ruthless, particularly those in Organization XIII, not considering whether their actions are right or wrong. This is further supported by the fact that Axel and Roxas were some of the first members to show the “unquestionable signs of a burgeoning replacement [a new heart]”, as noted by Xemnas. Axel’s being was fully restored, whereas Roxas, despite having a new growing heart, had no id “darkness” to show him what he needed was to return to Sora, where his shared id and original superego (Sora’s heart) lay.
The Dream Eaters: Dreams, fears, and aspirations
The Dream Eaters are a more complicated matter. In Dream Drop Distance, Yen Sid explains that they are entities that wander the world of sleep, and they are in constant flux. The Dream Eaters, unlike the other enemies, have two forms: Nightmare and Spirit. Nightmares create problems and harm the world of sleep by creating more nightmares, which keeps the worlds they roam in sleep. The Spirits keep them at bay, and Sora and Riku help them to fully awaken the worlds of sleep. These Dream Eaters take myriad forms, from bats, to horses, to dinosaurs. Similarly, the dreams of people are also varied. Nightmares and dreams are continuous and can occur simultaneously. It could be said that, along with the Unversed, the Dream Eaters are a part of the superego: the conscience. The Unversed are the emotions of people, which are produced in response to various stimuli, and the Dream Eaters are people’s fears and dreams. People dream and have various emotions as a result. People hope and aspire, and that, too, evokes emotion. The heart, or the superego, incorporates emotion and dream in order to sort through one’s conscience, what is right and wrong, and to form one’s own morals.
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