Riku Replica - What is the origin of Replica's heart?

Fake. Impostor. Phony. Not real. Copy. A replica. Today, we're exploring a scientific creation made by the Organization's resident scientist: Replica Riku. Who he is, what he is, how he was made, and what implications his creation has on the future of the series. 

Thank you to Johan, Adrian, and Logan for your questions on this episode!

Next episode: DiZ. Send your questions to sheddingstarlight@gmail.com 

Shedding Starlight YouTube: https://youtube.com/@SheddingStarlight
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Mel's Twitter: https://twitter.com/KHNyctophiliac
The Secret Reports Channel: https://www.youtube.com/@TheSecretReports
Hannah's YouTube channel: https://youtube.com/@hanmckinley

Transcript

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welcome to shedding Starlight your guide To The Kingdom Hearts myth this week we're discussing the replica of rku that both rku himself and Sora come across in their individual Journeys through Castle Oblivion while this replica confronts Sora and duu and what they're striving for he also has his own struggles while this replica confronts Sora and rku and what they're striving for he also has his own struggles like any classic sentient creation he's an astounding scientific achievement who strives for purpose individualism and love so let's discuss the rku replica whether he's a person or object if his feelings are real or fake and his tragic fate let's begin by walking through this replica's short lifespan he visits Sora and Ru in their individual stories multiple times so new fans might have trouble keeping track of when he's aware he's a replica and when he's convinced it's the real rku the replica was created by vexen using data from rku obtained during a fight with him unfortunately vexen creates this replica offscreen so we don't know the intricacies of the process but using that data the replica resembled rku in appearance personality and he could even access dark form the replica is then sent to meet and challenge rku during which he the replica is fully aware that he was recently created don't forget I'm still new soon after Axel gives vexen data of Destiny Islands he collected from Sora vexen and larine used this to give the replica false memories of ru's past completely remaking his personality to have him believe he's actually rku this is when the replica meets Sora misleading him into believing he's really Riku they meet a few times on different floors of the castle between one of the times the replica swears to nomina on her charm that he'll stop whatever is hurting her this charm was originally the destiny Island's data card that Axel retrieved from Sora and nomina was able to transform the card into the lucky charm the third time the replica meets Sora they argue about who made a promise to Nomine with that same charm it seems that just when the replica was about to question what's real nomina quickly shoots him another memory that assures him the charm he had as is the real one however after this encounter the replica accidentally drops the charm and it reverts back into the card for Sora to use later Axel lets Nam go to Sora but the replica steps in to protect Nom from him their fourth fight nomina incapacitates the replica before it could strike Sora down I said stop larine explains to Sora that this isn't the real rku but a puppet who heart Nomine just broke Sora later goes to fight marusia leaving nomina to watch over the replica somehow the replica revives because when marusia took Nom as Leverage The replica appeared and saved her at this point he recognizes he's fake but he doesn't remember his creation only the false memories of Sora and Nom he leaves seemingly content now that n is safe we say seemingly because returning finally to riku's Route Axel convinces the replica that he can become his own person by taking out zexian the replica then fights the real rku at the card world of Twilight Town rku never met the replica During the period it thought it was really him only ever when it knew it was his copy I thought by finding some new Strength I could finally be someone someone who's not at all you but nothing changes so the replica fights one last time to exist as an original but loses to the original he lies in a pool of Darkness contemplating his life and where his heart would go when it's over only as he Fades away does he finally truly accept himself as a replica so what is a replica the closest thing we can compare it to is Pinocchio from the first game described by rku as a puppet with a heart this replica of rku was somewhat similar a puppet esque being that's alive implied to have a heart of its own we mentioned that vexen finished this replica off screen so we don't really know how its creation worked but because lurine described the replica to Sora as only completed recently it's possible vexen already had a base for the replica and only needed riku's data as the final touch to transform its personality and appearance the replica is a fantastic example of how memories shape people in the Kingdom Hearts Universe while the completed replica was always snarky like the real Riku nomina planting in him memories of herself gave him an attitude of intense loyalty there's also the danger of having your memories wiped completely leaving you devoid of any personality or emotion as marusia assumed of the replica if n uses her powers to erase your memory you'll be nothing but an empty shell your heart will no longer be able to feel or to care memories in Kingdom Hearts seem to be a key factor in creating someone's personality while this replica makes similar use of Darkness that rku does whether or not anom himself is included is unclear we discussed in our last episode that a part of anom still seems to remain within Riku even after after he was defeated so how far into that relationship does the replica copy anom says that the replica is what rku should strive for it doesn't fear Darkness it Embraces it yet anom doesn't seem to have any desire to seek out that replica instead we never see this replica struggle or Embrace any semblance of anom within itself so it's possible that anom did not copy over into the replica but of course that didn't stop the replica from using Darkness for his own means and simply for the thrill of it when the organization wanted the replica's heart remade into believing it was really Riku vexen agreed Carefree how can you are you betraying me I told you I would make good use use of you didn't I while vexen doesn't see the replica as a toy or valet he does see him as only a tool vexen doesn't even Ponder if the replica has genuine feelings but the ru replica is a seed for what grows throughout the series of Kingdom Hearts that even a puppet given memories given interactions can develop feelings feelings about itself its life and its death[Music] welcome back everyone to this episode of shedding Starlight we are at the discussion section of our episode on replica rku I'm here with Mel say hello M hello it's really me and not a replica it's not a replica neither of us our replicas we are real we are here how are you feeling today I'm feeling good I'm feeling good I'm excited to talk about him me too in my head I was like what are we going to talk about with this[ __ ] and you know here we are he's interesting he's interesting cuz like we've never I mean of course this is only the second game uhhuh but Kingdom Hearts 1 didn't have anything [ __ ] like this like just Pinocchio and that's it even pinio you could be like he's just a Disney character like who gives a [ __ ] yeah and it was like two lines R was like I'm going to steal him and study him and that was it yeah and then we he gets kidnapped for like one world and we beat up a heartless and then we free him and that was it for Pinocchio storyline it's not like it goes into any depth of like explaining him you know yeah so yeah yeah he's we have a long probably our longest discussion section yet in our dock so buckle up everybody we might be here for a while I know in today of all days when we actually have something we need to do I know well who cares um okay so when writing this presentation I used so I would the game refers to this replica as a he because he like perfectly copies rku but there are times when I when discussing it when I wrote it with its pronouns because there's just so many male characters in Kingdom Hearts that or especially chain of Memories that when this replica is talking to all those different guy characters saying he's and hims for three different people like is [ __ ] confusing so if you're if you listen to the presentation and we're like well is it a him or an it like I just did the IT thing to make it less confusing and you would know that I'm talking about the replica and not rku itself yeah and himself oh my goodness and then I also wanted to say that I I tried describing it as like the replica the replica of rku but the game will most likely refer to it as rku replica and then fans very frequently use the coin termed replic which is just replica rku short yeah so if you're a new Kingdom Hearts fan and you see this term in like a forum or on social media and you're like what the [ __ ] is that they're just referring to this replica replic is just short for that so yeah anyway so I wanted to start with um kind of discussing its creation um and as you already said this is kind of a concept that we haven't seen yet in Kingdom Hearts it gets a little sciency in here and like Kingdom Hearts 1 like definitely dabbled in science with all of the anom reports you know if you read them when you were playing um you know I didn't when I was a kid you know um but this is kind of straight up we literally have a mad scientist on The Cast here like showing us his you know mad Creations or whatever and they start using the term data which is definitely like in this situation it can be read in a couple different ways me and Mel were talking about it before we started recording um I think a lot of Kingdom Hearts fans especially nowadays I won't go into much detail but like see the word data and think of it as like computer Digital Data but um I feel in this situation we feel in this situation that it's more of like a an observational like you know scientist going out into a prairie to study birds type data are you going to kill me if I reference Skinwalker Ranch no them shooting rockets in the air to get data on the atmosphere it's like that yeah so it's just like I wanted to just kind of point it out because this is not the first or LA or I mean this might be the first but it won't be the last time we hear about data and I just kind of want to put people in the mindset of like data in the Kingdom Hearts Universe really sometimes doesn't work in the same way it does IRL it's a little more Fantastical scientific I don't know however you want to put it but just like I don't know pay attention to it I don't know what do you have to say Mel do you have anything to say that no yeah absolutely I think you have to like sometimes with Kingdom Hearts as you know this is going to sound so stupid but you have to think critically yeah you have to be like they're not talking when they talk about taking riku's data and making a replica of it they're you know rku is not [ __ ] what's that girl with that Pixel Perfect have you ever seen the movie Pixel Perfect no it's about this guy and his holographic girlfriend like a Disney com or something and you know rku is not like that yeah he's a real person so when they're talking about data they're just talking about like his proportions his attitude his his structure biological makeup or whatever and using that data to create the replica even like the way you quoted that just now they say it very literally like we took his data and we used the data to make something new um so it's just it's just weird it's this weird kind of malleable thing and like it's hard to kind of Imagine um being able to make something that is so pixel pixel perfect so exactly the same as the original rku you know without a computer there's got to be like they 3D printed that[ __ ] in the back of gastle Oblivion like they are exactly the same so yeah we don't even know where his [ __ ] lab is do we yeah it's not here I like I mean maybe it's here unless we don't[ __ ] see it yeah we don't see it um but yeah it's just interesting just uh keep an open mind about yeah data in general that's what I'll say yeah um but to kind of continue that thought um with replica's creation I had a question and I think we dabbled on it just a touch in the script and I think a couple other people had this same question about the replica's heart I'm like a little confused on like where did it come from like was it part of the original body like was vexen able to literally create a heart because that like I think we separated back in the Kingdom Hearts one episodes that the body and the heart are two separate things so like where did it come from was it only made whenever Nom gave the body memories would like was there like a foundation that she had to build on it's it's interesting do you have any insight on that I mean like when thinking about this the first thing that came to my mind was back in Kingdom Hearts 1 when the weird kooky doctor from Nightmare Before Christmas tried to make his own heart from scratch yeah but he was very literal so he was like he used like a frog for the pulse yeah and then like a spider for the fear that heart's experienced right mhm but I feel like that's like as dumb as it sounds I feel like that scene in Nightmare Before Christmas World in Kingdom Hearts water or Halloween Town or whatever I feel like that's like the first time we've ever seen someone try to create a heart right like an never did and so it's definitely okay so like we don't have any proof that this replica has his own heart you know I'm not going to I'm not going to deny that we never see it like leave his body he doesn't like create a heartless or anything crazy like that uhuh but because chain of Memories is so early in this series I feel like it's weird I feel like in future Kingdom Hearts games characters are no longer The Vessel for the truth because characters are seen misunderstanding the situation or missing um context for the situation that they're in and so I know but I feel like early in Kingdom Hearts the characters are used for the exposition so and this is just my opinion this isn't fact I guess this is just how I interpret the series uhhuh but to me like larine saying oh Nomine broke his heart and the replica being like where will my heart go when I die to me that's kind of saying like he does have a heart and also like when I think about the replica cuz you know what what comes with is it real or fake is does it really have a heart or not is to me it also following that thought process is the question can it really feel or not or is it kind of just being like a robot and triggering AI to act out in certain ways or whatever yeah but like the way the replica screams when Lark scine was like yeah we're going to remake your heart sorry like biggy like he was like devastated by that and I just feel like that's got to be real yeah like that's got to be real yeah I put that as a discussion point it's down towards the bottom but no it's fine it's just it's a such a small detail but larine knocks the replica on his ass and like when they're talking about that in that scene and then she starts walking toward him and he starts scooting away out of fear and it's just like it's such a small touch but like he's scared of her like she scared the[ __ ] out of him and I that's why I agree with you like I like it's interesting to look at this thing like I feel like that would be hard to imitate that would be a weird thing to to do that would be a weird animation to put in if he wasn't really feeling you know yeah so I I agree with you I I think he does have a heart and I think they're trying to figure it out yeah which you know that's why I think it's so important to have an episode just on this replica itself mhm because I really do think it's the start of so many different topics that Kingdom Hearts Dives really far into yeah you know like if you think the discussion on this episode might be long like baby you ain't seen nothing yet you ain't said nothing yet you don't even know and so that is something that I think I just I the writing this has really made me not that I ever disliked him but it's made me really appreciate him and his role and what he does and what cuz like you can argue if he has a character Arc because he kind of goes back and forth yeah I'm going to talk about that later for sure yeah okay um but I still think he is an interesting character and he really starts a lot of what kingdom hearts is known for today yeah so I owe him a lot you know but anyway it all comes back to replica it always do okay I oh okay so when writing this I didn't my dumbass didn't really realize that rku only meets the replica during times of its life when it knows that it's fake rku never meets the replica when it thinks it's rku himself so we never had that conversation of like no I'm the real rku no I'm the real rku yeah I mean they have like that whole I me he says but like in that situation the replica knows that it's fake yeah and so that's something that I don't think I ever really realized until diving backck into this game for the podcast so crazy yeah and like thank God like if I I know if I were presented with that situation like an identical me walked up to me and was like I'm the real one I'd be like [ __ ] maybe they are the real one I this is what I do in my free time is sometimes I think to myself like okay if I ever had a clone how could I assure to my clone that I'm not against them like how could cuz that's always a story you know like your own clone turning against you like how can I make sure that like we're together in this and that it's me and them versus the world you know yeah it's just so funny that you said that like I would fully Gaslight myself into believing I'm not the real the real one sometimes I do like look at my hands and I'm like wow my hands I'm real I'm touching the world around me like we are experiencing life oh God this is what kingdom hearts wants this is what king wants you to do yeah oh my God anyway so I once in the presentation we kind of mention how at one point okay so Sora and the replica are about to fight the replica is about to kill Sora Nam go stop and the replica faints and then a little bit later Sora leaves to go fight meria which and he leaves namina to watch over the replica which is on the floor like a ragd doll so at one point marusia sneaks in and takes away Nom and uses her as a shield so that Axel or Sora doesn't fight him or right and so but at some point the replica comes in at the last second and saves Nam from marusia and so this is at one point this is when the re after the rku kind of revives this is when he realizes like yeah I am a replica I don't remember being made but I I only remember nomina and Sora but like I know that I'm not real yeah and so first of all part of me wonders if this isn't confirmed we don't see this on screen but when marusia is like dragging Nam away I'm wondering if like she quickly gave him a memory to like revive him like maybe like remember how to like move your fingers and move your body so that system reboot yeah system reboot yeah that's such a good way to put it and I wonder if that's what was able to kind of wake him up in time to rescue her and then I didn't write it right here but I also wonder if when rku was knocked out in that in that ragd doll state if he was still able to like hear everything going around going on around him because it's when he's a ragd doll that larena is like yeah he was bogus he wasn't real like haha and I wonder if he could hear that and that's what made him kind of know like oh I'm fake oh I'm not real you know because other than that we don't really have any other any other opportunity of when he could have learned he was fake un like Axel did it off screen but like I guess was fighting Mia I think yeah maybe just the fact that he was able to be literally like turned off by Nom possibly could lead him to that conclusion but I think maybe you're right that your explanation makes a little more sense to me but yours is too I didn't think about it like that mhm him being like oh [ __ ] like you're right like he turned him off and I guess he could have been like oh I fainted but like I don't know she said stop and then I was dead on the ground so like mhm yeah I don't know that's interesting that's an interesting thing to think about um but I want to Circle back to I wrote I wrote it down here as replica's identity crisis in all caps because as you said before um he really goes back and forth about how he feels about himself um at the very beginning um he's very insecure about being called fake like being called a fake fake should be destroyed he says later um so I think I don't remember who he says that to uh exactly but I don't remember either but I do remember him saying it I think it was TKO I I don't remember um but to me that's that like me looking at this from like an a little bit of an outside perspective looking at at this in a character Arc sort of perspective it's just it's very interesting to study his obsession with this word about being fake and what that means to him like he's not a fake he calls himself an impostor or something later um but you know fake he doesn't feel that way he feels that he is real but different which is very interesting he has a lot of pride in himself at least at the beginning before all the heart Shenanigans happen and also vexon has a lot of pride in him it's just very interesting to look at that and then you know watch everything he goes through but then at the end whenever you know all of the the fight with marusia and everything Sora says reku and then the replica says not rku I'm a fake and he seems to be like okay with it he seems to be very nonchalant about it yeah and then he fights Riku after that and he's like I'm a phony I'm a fake can't have you around you know I'll never be real with you around or whatever so it's just it's very back and forth like you said it's just interesting to to kind of watch cuz like whenever we see the end of sora's Route it seems like he's gone through this kind of complete character Arc of like yeah you know no I wasn't a fake before Oh I am a fake but I'm myself now later but then with Riku it's like different I don't know it's very interesting I almost Wonder so after rku after the replica is like not Riku I'm a fake but I'm okay with it and then he walks off mhm I wonder if that's when Axel gets him and retrieves him and I wonder if Axel cuz we talk about how Axel is really willing to like do the Dirty Work yeah he's not afraid of moving around these pieces around him to do what he thinks needs to get done so I wonder if he took this replica who was at this moment okay with himself and was like but you're not real but you are nothing but I can make you real if you kill this guy I need you to kill that will make you real yeah and unfortunately we don't see that on screen so we don't know if that is what happened yeah but part of me Wonders that yeah part of me Wonders that and like something that cements it even more to me that he's like he has finished this character Arc um is he says to Sora I don't have to be real to see how real your feelings are which is like so nice of him to say and so like self um selfa aware of him to say like yeah it's just very odd so I think you're right something must have happened or maybe just seeing Riku again you know reminding him of like his weird existence yeah um especially because when he when he is talking to Ru he goes like I thought I was okay I thought I could handle it but I'm still just empty inside and so yeah I guess maybe he just thought he was okay and then he saw rku and was like no actually[ __ ] this [ __ ] this seeing an old ex and being like no I'm not okay I thought I was over you but I'm not um and then just another observation and I could be totally off base here tell me if you think you agree with me or not I feel that replica rku is a lot more grandstanding and confrontational against Sora than rku in Kingdom Hearts 1 ever was like I think it might just be because replica and Sora talk I think more in this than Ru and Sora did during the events of Kingdom Hearts 1 but maybe this comes back to the idea of you know puppets being able to have their own personality and feelings because it feels like he's this more exaggerated you know version of Ru who is even more Grandy even more cocky you know um CU he wants to fight all the time and like I don't know I just don't I didn't get this I get different energy from Raba Riku than I did from Kingdom Hearts 1 rku yeah would you agree yes I do I do agree and I might have wrote this as a response to an email that we're going to get to but I'll just say it now because I don't remember which email I said it to okay but um I agree with you I think that even when this I feel like even when it was first made it was ever so slightly different than the normal rku it's especially when Nomine reshapes his heart because to me it seems like you know in the presentation I described the replica as like always being kind of snarky like rku but then when nomina is on the is the topic the replica gets so touchy yeah so so touchy that I feel like the real like the real rku gets a little touchy but like he's very cool and and Cal and collected in Kingdom Hearts one yeah like I'm trying to think about like even if Sora and Kyrie even if Maleficent is talking to the is talking to R about Sora Kyrie like yeah you can tell he's like hurt and confused but I I just you know I agree with you I feel like the the replica is just like[ __ ] you you don't love Nom you don't love me you abandoned us and now I'm going to run away for the fourth time[ __ ] you you know like yeah yeah I don't know I just think characters should say the word [ __ ] in this whatever he let rku say [ __ ] he deserves it um yeah okay I'm glad you agree with me cuz I I was getting that Vibe for sure yeah I do I feel like almost ever even before Nom cuz like even before Nom gives it memories of her I feel like I don't know if maybe it's it almost feels like it has the person I don't know if you would agree with me on this but to me it seems like it what has the personality of rku before rku leaves the island because when rku first leaves the island he seems like you know he's always kind of playing around with Sora like oh I'm the only one working on the raft I you know he still seems really cocky he's the strongest fighter on the beach like nobody's beaten him yeah and the replica seems really kind of arrogant and cocky like that almost like careless yeah but then when Nam inserts herself in his memories that to me is when there's like still that major shift but I feel like either way it's not exactly like how rku acts throughout Kingdom Hearts 1 yeah still feel like it's a little different which to me I think my point that I'm trying to get to is to me that goes to show that it has a heart that it's still acting on its own and not completely copying Riku from yeah you know black and white or whatever yeah it's acting on its own yeah for sure okay so we got a few emails we got a lot of questions for this one a few of them are a little long but that's okay we love it when you guys write long emails and tell us everything everything you think um so this first one is from Johan thank you Johan for your email we all know how things went for rku replica after his first encounter with rku so I wonder how would have things went if replica got to encounter Sora with his original memories intact without any nomin tampering whatsoever what do any of you think would you like me to answer immediately or would you like to see your own you can go ahead go ahead okay well I feel like so like I said before the the replica before nominee's memory seems really carefree and arrogant and cocky yeah and so I think that it seems like you know at one point when the replica is talking to rku it's like no I'm not you I'm [ __ ] better [ __ ] yeah and so I feel like it would have that same attitude with Sora and be like no I'm not your friend I'm the better stronger hotter version so that's what I think he would have done I really do I really do no yeah I agree with that I also think doing that would have clued Sora into something being weird like with memories like oh there's a there's an exact clone of rku standing in front of me but it's not actually him okay something's [ __ ] with this castle Yeah and maybe I shouldn't you know maybe I'm mean gaset in real time um totally so yeah it's just one of those things that we that I kind of call back on a lot where it's like you know that wouldn't really serve the story or the game um that just this is a little bit of a tangent but like it just reminds me of have you seen the movie Passengers it's with Chris Pratt and Jennifer Lawrence no but I've seen you two videos that's literally what I'm about to talk about it I'm sure a lot of people have seen this video but like that movie what like came out as like a Sci-Fi kind of not really Thriller I think just more of a drama but it could have been really good if like they made choices serving the story better than the script did than the final product did of like basically the story I'm going on a tangent I'm so sorry but like basically the story is like oh they're sending people I haven't even seen the movie I just watched a video on it um they're sending people to the Future like 200 years in the future they have to sleep in cryo sleep for like 200 years or whatever and the story is that one guy's pod malfunctions and he wakes up and he's trying to fill his time and then he makes the horrible choice to wake someone else up so he's not lonely um and basically the story takes place from his point of view and people have analyzed the movie being like oh this movie could have been so much better if it took place from her point of view where she just ran woke up one day and there's this other guy who's awake and nobody else is and it could have been a cool like Thriller horror movie because you know like that would have been a much better route to take to serve the story so I don't know this just reminded me of that like it would just remove all suspense that happens in chain of Memories if you know Sora interacted with rku replica as he was I think that's why some of the scenes that expand upon s sora's route are only shown in ru's route yeah it's that kind of control of information and things are more intense when you don't have the context of what's going on yeah so yeah I completely agree with you about you know there's a reason why Sora believes that this is really rku like rku why are you here in the castle why are you so[ __ ] mad at Sora when he literally like just wants you to come home yeah you know so without all that context it really UPS the stakes yeah so just like it's fun to imagine scenarios like this and like I think that would be fun to explore in like fanfiction or you know a video essay if you want to talk about that sort of thing but it would really like choices like that you do have to take the story into account you have to take the game into account of like they're making you know they're not making just you know books of lore for you to read they're trying to tell stories um that are interesting and engaging true so true I think that's why as you know being such the Kingdom Hearts La nerd that I am like you will not catch me and I don't mean to drag other people who do this this is just how I enjoy Kingdom Hearts and how I like to spend my time enjoying media but you will not catch me reading the wiki I'm not interested in learning about a character by reading paragraph after paragraph after paragraph like I know that I know a lot of information about Kingdom Hearts but what got me into the series is the characters and the way that they are driven and the way that they find out things about themselves that they didn't know in the beginning of the game yeah you know so I think that is what always makes a Kingdom Hearts game so strong is when yeah the character knows so little in the beginning and like every every Disney World they come across the world that they're in gets bigger and Messier and Messier that's what I love Yeah speaking of the Kingdom Hearts Wiki I one time made a semi viral Kingdom Hearts tweet this was like years ago and I it was like a meme format that was popular at the time and I literally just copy and pasted text straight from the wiki that was pretty uh pretty like wellknown information and people in my repes still got mad at me and I was like for like getting information wrong and I was like listen I took this straight from the wiki take it up with them or like become an editor I will say so I I will say I was looking up uh rku see I already learned my lesson because I was like there was something I didn't know about the replica so I was like I don't have time to like scroll through cutscenes like does the rep does the wiki have the information I need and then reading the wiki I was like that's not true like that's totally not true there's some page of some Kingdom Hearts Wiki that says the first time that you only fight the repca rku like the last time you meet him but that's not true you fight the replica every sing every single time Sora meets the replica you fight him and so I remember thinking myself like oh my God like I know something about cha of memories so does yeah interesting Mel that's how you should fill all of your extra time is you should become a Kingdom Hearts Wiki editor because of all the time that you have God so our Adrien sent an email thank you Adrien Adrian asked a a few questions we'll get to the second and the third one I hope that's okay so Adrien asked it could be said that repu has two sets of memor one he was created with and one that nominee created for him to pretend to be the original rku what set of memories do you think replic who has after nominee shattered his heart the one Nomine constructed or a combination of the two okay so this is when earlier in the discussion I was like I think I talked about this to an email but I'm not sure okay so my theory is that after the the replica is kind of awake from Nomine knocking it out is that while he was incapacitated he heard everything by larine so he only remembers what's fake but now he knows it's not true if that makes sense yeah and so I personally don't really think he has two sets of memories I think he has only what the fake stuff he remembers even though log logically logistically logically I don't know what are the two words either either he's like I know this is what I remember but I know it's not true so I think he only has like one set of memories but maybe that's just my own interpretation of the story you know I think that that makes sense to me um now what shattering his heart entails is just another thing to think about yeah wild um you know this it comes back to like what I was saying earlier about how chain of memories is so early in the story that like our characters always right about what they're talking about but I guess in this situation I don't necessarily know if I agree with larine saying Nomine shattered his heart because yeah he still has all the memories he had before you know I think he just maybe like you know I use the term in incapacitated him I don't really think I guess you know like sorry larine but like I guess I just don't think Nomine shattered his heart yeah because it seems pretty [ __ ] fine a little bit later you know so true that's what I think true yeah I would agree with that all right Adrian's next question why do you think repu was so hung up on being the real Riku after sora's story ends I always found it sad that he didn't try and see who he could be and fixated on not being able to escape riku's Shadow we already talked about this a little bit but okay so if you are so I I talked before about how I wonder if Axel got to him and was like you know kill zexian and then you can really be real but if you are an experienced Kingdom Hearts fan read my mind telepathically read my mind cuz I wonder if somebody else talked to the replica and was like you can be real I can make you real just do this do what I have to say and and I can make you real did are you are you reading my mind Hannah maybe yeah anyway I hope any fan who thinks is Mel talking about this that hopefully we are on the same page and if we're not at the same page then you know maybe one day in the future we can come back to this and kind of talk about it a little more you know you never know yeah you never know okay so hi Logan we got a question from Logan hi Logan and there was a part Hannah that I did kind of want to address because I guess I just have a different opinion than what Logan has okay so Logan writes in regards to repu is this heart actually real or not which we have kind of been talking about on and off but Logan asks when he's first introduced to Sora he's unaware that he's a replica I always just kind of assumed he was more or less a robot programmed to think and act like rku based off the data vexen was able to gather from the real riku's memories therefore his heart would just be code however after he has reprogrammed and made aware of his existence as a replica uh and thus given the ability to formulate thoughts at an identity of his own it seems like his fake heart starts to develop into a real one and then he continues on Logan continues on a little a little later after all we know that a non-living body or puppet can gain a heart just as evidenced by Pinocchio and Kingdom Hearts 1 which we also talked about so I don't see why repu then wouldn't have a real I'll be at fledgling heart of his own okay so at one point Logan says I think I I could be wrong but I think Logan is at one point referring to the scene of after rku revives from nominee's attack but like we talked about I think I don't think that he had a fake heart and then it grew into a real one I think he's always had a a real heart but I guess it just kind of depends on like it's kind of weird because it's like okay so let's say vexen has like the base of some replica like a clean slate no data inserted mhm and then vexin inserts the data and then like the replica forms into Rico or whatever and it's like is the heart born right then you know yeah so it's kind of you know I guess I can't really say like when I think it starts to have a heart but I guess I personally think it's just had a heart for a much longer time than I guess some fans think yeah it's that brings us back to like my one of my original questions of like where did this Heart come from like was vexen able to make one did it come with the and then it just needed memories imprinted on it or did it like you know to use the term grow um yeah from from the memories so it's just yeah yeah it's weird especially because it kind of reminds me of how when your maruia says that if you have all your memories destroyed then you're just going to be an empty shell you're not going to be able to feel anything you'll just kind of you know he made it it reminds me of how Kyrie was in words it's one when her heart wasn't in her body and so yeah it's we don't really you would think that the replica would behave like that and then maybe start like slowly moving yeah but it's weird how we just never see that and we never I wish we could see its creation CU I think that would answer so many questions of that we have and then Logan continues on my question then becomes the same as the replica what happens to his heart when he dies um I the just like how we don't see the when the replica is made we also just don't know anything about where Hearts go we don't know anything about like the afterlife we don't know anything if there even is an afterlife um I will say that so Logan in his question I think misunderstood what rku said and I think Logan thinks that rku was like when you die your heart will join with mine and like maybe he says that in the Japanese but in the English he says your heart will go to the same place that mine will go to and so like if they're kind of just being like Poetic and thinking about afterlife for the comfort of it all then maybe their hearts will go to the same place but you know unfortunately we can't really discuss what happens to this replica and what happens to this heart because we don't really know that much about death in Kingdom Hearts in general other than like I don't know maybe normal people die maybe not just because like you turn into a heartless maybe that's not the same thing as death yeah that's what I was about to say itself we don't know that much about it's like turning into a heartless consider dying like yeah um but yeah it's just again we've come across one of those things where it's like we don't it doesn't happen on screen so we don't know we don't know how to answer it um yeah and I feel like some fans are like oh can't you just like entertain the thought a little like it makes me sad when you like brush things off but it's like yeah what are we supposed to say yeah I don't want to make [ __ ] up and like cuz you know the whole point of our podcast together is that yeah we're trying to walk through people what kingdom hearts is not what it could be yeah yeah so anyway all right well I think that's all we got for today Mel unless you have anything else you want to hit on no I feel like I've talked about this interesting interesting character enough as it is yeah for a thousand years um okay well what are we going to talk about next week next week we're finally going to talk about we're finally going to talk about dis yes we're finally going to get to him I don't know how long that episode can be because he's so mysterious yeah but we got to talk about him at least a little because he's so interesting he's weird weird old man what are you doing yeah um okay well if you have any any questions at all about Diz send them to shedding Starlight gmail.com yes and thank you everybody who always sends emails we really do appreciate it even if we can't answer all of them maybe we can't answer you at all unfortunately for whatever reason we do read them and we do appreciate them thank you yeah we do have a couple of repeat people who send in questions every week and that's really great I love that we are kissing you through your headphones on your forehead on your forehead um so yeah if you uh enjoy the show or this episode in particular please feel free to reach out on Apple podcast or Spotify and give us a little five star review if you're five star baby five stars baby uh we got a clean record right now I don't think we've ever gotten anything under a under a five so let's keep that record clean knock on wood KN on wood um if you're watching on YouTube feel free to subscribe feel free to like the video feel free to uh turn on notifications and if you love a podcast tell your friends about it that's the number one One Way podcast growth happens is through word of mouth so if you have Kingdom Hearts friends which I know you do if you have friends that want to play Kingdom Hearts I 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