May contain spoilers for Kingdom Hearts III.

What confused me most about Kingdom Hearts III was not the lore (though that is pretty confusing at first) or the fact that it starts out by saying Kingdom Hearts II.9, but how they kept talking about needing to keep “the order” of the worlds they visited.

When Sora, Donald, and Goofy visit places like the Toy Story world and the Monsters Inc. world, they change to fit into the world, such as turning into toys, but in places where the main people are humans, like in the Tangled or Frozen worlds, they look the same. Sora remains a human; Donald remains a giant talking duck that wears clothes; and Goofy remains a talking dog.

I don’t know about you but if I saw a talking duck and dog, I’d be a little bit concerned. Why aren’t Donald and Goofy transforming into human characters when they visit a “human” world?

This actually brings up a funny side note. When the first trailer for the first Kingdom Hearts game came out (so very long ago), for a long time I thought the plot was that Mickey had somehow been turned into a human. It wasn’t long before I discovered that person was Sora. But come on, don’t tell me you wouldn’t think the same after seeing Sora in his original red pants, oversized yellow-ish shoes, white gloves, and white and black shirt; he looked very similar to a certain iconic mouse. Plus, he was always hanging around Goofy and Donald.

Anyway, back to what I was saying.

No one seems too bothered by a talking dog and duck. I found it kind of funny and odd that Donald and Goofy had to be turned into monsters for Monsters Inc. I could understand why a human like Sora would need to but Donald and Goofy are “not human” already. Or are they?

Maybe for some unknown reason, even though they don’t look human, they are considered to be human. Since it is Donald that changes the group, maybe he doesn’t think to change them on human worlds because he sees Goofy and himself as human. Maybe to the people of the game, they are just another race of humans, much like there are Hispanic and Asian people. Kind of blows your mind, don’t it.

It would certainly explain why Goofy can talk and walk on two legs but Pluto cannot; Goofy is a dog looking human while Pluto is just a dog. But then how can Chip and Dale talk? Why aren’t they human size? They wear clothes too. Was Chip and Dale given some kind of intelligence serum? Are they the next step in animal evolution? Or are they human but just short? People come in all shapes and sizes mind you. More questions for another day, I suppose.

The other possibility is that people in realms like Tangled, Hercules, and Frozen are just used to strange creatures walking around. I mean, Rapunzel has healing hair, Hercules is a demi-god with super-strength, and Elsa is an ice queen. Seeing anthropomorphic animals might be a normal Tuesday for them. (Or they could just think they’re Furries.)

Or…it could be that the game developers knew that no one would want a video game that promises teaming up with Donald and Goofy only to make them look human every few levels. But I wonder what a human Goofy and Donald would look like.

Hmm…personally, I kind like the idea of Mickey, Donald, Goofy and the others being considered some kind of unknown (to us) human race. It just goes to show you it isn’t what’s on the outside that matters…Also, it could totally mean that there is some kind of anthropomorphic race of humans living on Earth. Hey, a guy can dream.

Kingdom Hearts III is available on Playstation 4 and Xbox One and published by Square Enix.

Joe Rover eBooks are available at many online retailers, such as Barnes and Noble, Apple Books, Walmart eBooks, and more.

The first interactive story game based on my book series can be found here.