So apparently a lot of you wanted to hear me talk
about Yen Sid! And while I'm hard at work on a Ventus analysis and planning my next Undertale
video, I figured I'd just fast track this so that we can get at least one KH video out this month.
Yen Sid is an interesting character to discuss because while he's not the most proactive
character in the Kingdom Hearts series, he has gone from a fun cameo at the start of
Kingdom Hearts II to a mainstay in nearly all subsequent titles. His use in the Kingdom Hearts
series even impacted other Disney properties, from the official adoption of the Yen Sid name to
his appearance in other games such as Epic Mickey. From the very beginning, he's been depicted as
a pillar of wisdom for the heroes to depend on, delivering crucial information to guide them on
their journeys. Yet as I grow older and look back, I find that Yen Sid sits in an awkward place
narratively, where the writing simultaneously wants him to have all the answers, yet has him
withhold information for the sake of the plot or due to the nature of how these games are written.
There is a fair bit to like about Yen Sid, but due to the sloppiness of some of the series'
writing, he often comes across as negligent or far too complacent for his own good, and in this
video I'd like to discuss Yen Sid. The pros, the cons, and how he reveals the pitfalls
of writing an all knowing mentor character. While it might make sense to tackle the series
in chronological order, I think it's important to look back at Yen Sid's first appearance as
it was in 2006. In KH2, after a brief meeting with King Mickey, Sora, Donald, and Goofy catch
a ride on a peculiar train and reach Yen Sid's tower. Though Pete bumbles around a bit, he's
unsuccessful in turning Yen Sid into a Heartless, for the wizard is far too powerful and wise
to fall to the darkness. A short climb later, and the heroes reach Yen Sid, and his first
speaking role begins. Yen Sid is revered by Donald and Goofy as King Mickey's mentor, and he
reveals that he was expecting Sora's arrival. In lieu of Mickey, he hopes to impart wisdom for Sora
on the journey ahead. First, he drops a book that contains vague passages pertaining to Kingdom
hearts, Chain of Memories, and potentially the future stories as well. Curiously, he he doesn't
elaborate on what it all means, so it's just a cryptic puzzle for Sora at best, with hints to the
future… which would be nice for him to articulate, but instead the story keeps moving on as Yen Sid
delivers more direct exposition. This includes a recap of the Heartless to bring new players up
to speed before he discusses the new threat: the Nobodies, who are empty husks left behind when
a Heartless is formed. But here is where the first troubling sign appears. Yen Sid, like many others
throughout the game, states that Nobodies are beings that cannot feel and do not truly exist.
He paints them in a wholly malicious light and urges Sora and company to defeat them at all
costs. While this makes sense in that the Organization IS a grave threat to the worlds and
their machinations far from innocent, when you look at the series as a whole, many holes start
to form. Disregarding the fact that Roxas was already painted in a tragic and sympathetic light
alongside Naminé, at the end of Kingdom Hearts re: Coded he reveals that when a Nobody and Heartless
are slain, the original person returns. By defeating Xemnas, Xehanort's return is guaranteed.
This never comes up in his initial exposition. You can chalk that up to the series being in its
infancy still, and perhaps that Nomura hadn't planned that far ahead, yet we know that Birth
by Sleep was the next game planned due to the many allusions throughout the game from Xigbar,
the original secret ending, and the new content added to the Final Mix game that released the
next year. The Doylist excuse is that none of this was super solidified and from a pacing and
tone standpoint, and it would feel very odd to bring up. Xehanort's whole existence is a late
game plot twist, after all, so mentioning him this early on wouldn't make a lot of sense. But from a
Watsonian perspective, it makes it seem as though Yen Sid is deliberately withholding information
that may prove important later. That he doesn't at least mention that the Organization's leader
is a counterpart to Ansem shows an irresponsible side to him that I don't think the writers
intended. That coupled with later reveals that Nobodies can regrow their hearts and the tragedy
of many of the Organization's members leaves Yen Sid feeling unintentionally cold and judgmental
towards Nobodies, even if only by necessity due to the stakes. He does explain why the Heartless are
still at bay, of course, as well as the fact that even he doesn't have all the answers regarding
the Organization. This does make things a bit odd, though, since he'd later act as though he knew
far more about the situation in later titles, right down to suspecting multiple Xehanorts as
the next threat. That, and the way he reacts when Goofy says they have to get rid of all darkness
in people's hearts to get rid of the Heartless is also a bit unfortunate, given that the series
had recently and even in this game suggested that light and darkness are part of a necessary
balance. Other than that, Yen Sid is harmless enough in his debut appearance. He and the good
fairies help Sora prepare for the journey ahead, and he even returns the Gummi Ship to them as
well as instructing them on how to traverse the worlds and how their enemies are one step
ahead thanks to corridors. He serves a simple purpose and isn't overtly malicious. Within the
original context of KH2 on its own, however, there are still issues with how indirect he can
be while seemingly knowing more than the heroes at a given time. Unfortunately, this pattern
would continue into Birth by Sleep. Birth by Sleep was the first game to really flesh out
Yen Sid beyond vague exposition guy who trained King Mickey. At the very beginning of the game,
we see Mickey taking a test before him, and when Mickey fumbles, Yen Sid warns him that he has a
terrible feeling before we focus in on three stars that represent the main characters, Terra, Aqua,
and Ventus. Master Eraqus later adds that Yen Sid is a former Keyblade master and an associate of
his and Xehanort's. While he no longer wields the Keyblade, he continues to survey the worlds
via the stars and serves as an important ally and source of wisdom.I talked about this in my
Terra video, linked above, but when Terra meets with him, we learn a few things. One, Yen Sid
is pretty chill with Mickey despite him running off with the Star Shard against orders. Two, Yen
Sid is suspicious that Vanitas and Master Xehanort are connected and urges Terra to investigate while
stating he he himself must not make assumptions. On one hand, it's understandable that he wouldn't
want to jump to conclusions, but as I discussed in that previous video, it's a problem when he
feels Xehanort has gone astray and doesn't voice this until AFTER Terra has left the room. While it
wasn't his intent, his words led Terra to Master Xehanort and did contribute to the eventual
downfall that Terra and the Birth by Sleep trio faced. To Yen Sid's credit, though, he is
one of the few adults in the story who genuinely respects Ven and his skill as a Keybearer. He's
very kind and doesn't order Ven to return home, even finding it amusing how like Mickey he
is. When Ven goes to save Mickey, Yen Sid has complete faith in Ven's abilities, which cannot
be said for Aqua or even Terra at points.The problem is that, like with Terra, he did not raise
concerns about Xehanort. He did not warn Ventus, and surely he would have known about Ven's past
with Xehanort. Surely he could have concluded that the dark magic interfering with his spells
was either Xehanort or Vanitas. The omission of a warning once again paints him as far more
complacent than the writers probably intended, even if he comes across as somewhat likable here.
When Aqua arrives, he informs her of Eraqus' death at the hands of Xehanort… and Terra, and when
Aqua refuses to believe in Terra's involvement, Yen Sid laments that he hopes this is true and
that he states that the stars could have misled him. He says there are some things that stars
can't tell him, and it's here that I feel like one of the biggest Yen Sid writing problems rears its
head. How much or how little information he has seems to be based on the whims of the writers-
the stars may tell him a ton of specifics, or they may omit info, and it's left so
vague that you can see the writer's pen, so to speak. And given how informed he is of
other aspects of the lore and meta in the series, it genuinely does feel like he knows as much
as the writers need them to know and can't know anything that would interfere with the plots
they wanna tell. BUT, once again, to his credit, he shows more wisdom at the end of Aqua's story.
When Aqua's first impulse is to protect Ventus, Yen Sid explains that Ven needs Aqua's belief and
love, not protection. It once again shows that, for all his negligence, Yen Sid could at least see
Ven as a capable Keyblade wielder and urges Aqua to have more trust in him. The sad thing is, this
interesting backstory of him as a former Master and friend of Eraqus and Xehanort would never
see more development. He is completely absent from Dark Road, likely due to Disney not wanting
them to depict one of their iconic characters in a younger state. While this absolutely is great for
fan creators who wanna fill in the gaps, it makes his history with the other two Masters tragically
vague. Some may argue that Master Odin is a stand-in, but I feel that clashes with the way
that he was depicted in Birth by Sleep and other titles as more of a peer to the other Masters.
Thus, we can only look ahead. Re:Coded established the precedent with Yen Sid going forward as the
main mentor figure and his tower as a home base for the heroes. Starting with the end of re:Coded,
Yen Sid reveals to Mickey and to the audience the nature of recompletion- that is, the way a Nobody
can return to human form after their death and the death of the Heartless and the Nobody themselves.
This sets up Xehanort's return, but as already mentioned, it becomes a glaring omission not only
to Sora, but Mickey as well. And it seems odd that he would leave such a detail out to his own pupil,
though you can perhaps make a case that he did so in order to avoid discouraging Mickey from doing
what had to be done to Xemnas. In order to tend to Xehanort, Riku and Sora are called to take the
Mark of Mastery exam and to descend into Sleeping Worlds in order to gain the ability to wake
sleeping hearts. On its own, this setup isn't terrible, but I do have some more grievances with
Yen Sid here. First, the fact that he makes Sora and Riku abandon all that they have learned in
order to learn the "right" away. Considering that trained Keybearers like the Wayfinder trio failed
to stop Xehanort, while Sora and Riku had done so twice, on top of all their impressive feats
across the worlds, it feels odd to view their abilities as lesser than formal training. I get
that it's to justify starting at level 1 again, but it makes Yen Sid come across as way more
uptight about Keyblade Mastery than he was in BBS. Of course the Power of Waking is important,
and the fact that he is including Riku despite his self doubts with darkness is still respectable.
Most of his exposition here is harmless, too, simply explaining the mechanics like the Sleeping
Worlds and Dream Eaters. It's just another case of the writing surrounding him being weird for the
needs of the plot and the game. For instance, though he knew quite a bit about Xehanort's goals
and intentions and suspected what Xehanort may be planning next, he did not anticipate Xehanort
traveling through time and somehow neglected to consider when Riku was possessed. He knew of
Xehanort's Heartless, yet had to be reminded that Xehanort abandoned his body in the first
place. It's… weird, because there's once again this weird lack of consistency with what he knows
and what he doesn't know. I'm all for giving wise mentors flaws and gaps in their knowledge,
but the problem here is that the "rules" to what Yen Sid knows and doesn't know aren't really
outlined. There isn't a set limitation to what he can or can't know at a given time, and it's not
that easy to follow. It really is just down to the whims of the writers once again. And it's
not that he's uncaring or written as purposely negligent. He does show great care and concern
for people like Sora and Riku throughout the game, is willing to give Lea a chance despite his former
ties to the Organization, and even awards Riku the Mask of Mastery in spite of his crimes in the
first Kingdom Hearts games. He genuinely did believe this Mark of Mastery was the best way
to prepare Sora and Riku for the dangers ahead, and the fact that Xehanort was able to hijack it
all was treated as a flaw on Yen Sid's part that he genuinely apologizes for and owns up to. It's
just that all of this really does raise questions and makes his actions in games like BBS look far
worse because his passivity opening the door for Xehanort's treachery to reach this far in the
first place. He's established as very powerful, yet those powers are mostly reserved for explosion
and displaying holograms for said exposition. It's so odd because in the Fantasia short he originated
from, he's shown with this immense power and then through most of the series, he just sits in his
chair and strokes his beard. Granted, this isn't a problem exclusive to Yen Sid. Merlin, the Fairy
Godmother, and other deeply powerful figures are reserved for passive roles, too, simply imparting
some spells, giving Pooh's book, or summons. Fairy Godmother at least knows how to get to Quadratum,
and I'm curious to see what happens with her next. Then of course there's 2.8, where it's revealed
that he and Mickey knew Aqua's whereabouts the entire time. A lot of people like to hold this
against Mickey for not going in to save her, and against Yen Sid for not informing Sora and
Riku. This at least can be justified in that the story wasn't fully mapped out during KH2's
development (though BBS was in preproduction when KH2 released), and Yen Sid himself explains
that he'd withheld the information due to the risk it presented. Add that to the more active threat
of the Organization, and you can at least give the old man some slack… But what about KH3?
Did they finally stick the landing? Honestly, Yen Sid's role is pretty much the same
as in Dream Drop and 0.2 for most of the game. He gives exposition and guidance to
Sora and the other heroes. He along with the Good Fairies provide clothing to allow
them to better face the Realm of Darkness, and he along with all the old magic farts like
Merlin contributed to a space outside time for Kairi and Lea to train. He's really mostly there
for guidance and support, dropping reveals like how the original seven princesses of heart passed
on their power, save for Kairi, and nudging Riku and Mickey in the right direction when they're
trying to find ways to save Aqua. On the whole, it's mostly inoffensive here, though there's
a valid criticism that he's a bit too hard on Sora in light of everything he just endured, but
that honestly goes for almost everyone. For some reason, everyone keeps teasing Sora about his lack
of skill or patience and it feels a bit too mean spirited for Donald and Goofy even if Donald's
been prone to playful ribbing in the past. Yen Sid does, at least, provide some reassurance
for Sora throughout the game and does show some faith in him even where his friends dive into
relentless teasing. I think one thing that benefits Yen Sid's depiction here is that he feels
less like he's withholding crucial information. His role here is more utilitarian, and he shows at
least some remorse in how he acted in the past.And to his credit, he does show up at a crucial
moment with a cool callback to Fantasia where he parts the Heartless swarms to allow the heroes to
proceed to Xehanort. It's just a shame that this moment follows a lot of the heroes standing around
and talking in a field of Shadow Heartless where the Heartless wait patiently for the dialogue
to progress. KH3 has a really big problem with fight choreography in its cutscenes that makes the
heroes seem less competent and makes this moment feel a lot less triumphant than it could've if
there was a more overt struggle from the heroes. And, y'know, throw in some Darksides and
Neoshadows and maybe some Invisibles to keep it more interesting than the literal
weakest Heartless, guys. C'mon. I think Yen Sid presents a problem with the wise but powerful
mentor archetype, not only in Kingdom Hearts but in fiction as a whole. It's a trope that can be
used to great effect, but one that just as easily raises questions like why the mentor figure isn't
a more proactive part of the story, or why the mentor has specific knowledge on some things
yet completely gets blindsided in other areas. I don't think the writers intended for Yen Sid
to be truly negligent or to mislead the heroes, or to have even had an implicit hand in the
tragedies like Birth by Sleep. Yet retroactively, his existence in the Kingdom Hearts series raises
questions like, "What was he doing in KH1, and why didn't he help?" "If he knew about recompletion,
why didn't he tell Sora and the others and why didn't he frame the Nobodies as more tragic
villains?" If you just take the games at surface level and try not to think too hard on it, Yen Sid
is a perfectly serviceable mentor for the heroes and a clever use of Disney history. But when you
start to dissect his knowledge and passivity, it all starts to fall apart. He has his admirable
traits, sure, and has even proven helpful in the past, but because the Kingdom Hearts series aims
to be a power fantasy for young characters and young players, the adults can't be too actively
involved, or it takes away from the young heroes' agency in facing these huge threats. Basically,
Kingdom Hearts follows a lot of shonen tropes, and while more recent titles like Union Cross and
Dark Road have deconstructed the child hero and how traumatic and exploitative that can be, the
main series has only lightly dipped its toes in it. We'll have to see where the story goes from
here and if anything changes with Yen Sid going forward. For now, I simply see him as a well
meaning but mishandled character with a lot of missed potential and inconsistency. But that's
just me! If you have thoughts on Yen Sid and his role in the Kingdom Hearts series, I'd love to
hear your thoughts in the comments below. This is only my second Kingdom Hearts analysis in this
style, so if you have any other topics to suggest on the series, feel free to leave those here,
too! My next video will be another Undertale related project, as I'm juggling between
branching out to series like Kingdom Hearts while continuing to contribute to my main, core
audience that I've had for the past few years. I do a lot of other content, such as
my Undertale webcomic, Inverted Fate, and my two Kingdom Hearts fic series, Antipode and
Hurricane Heartbeat, which will be linked in the description! Antipode is currently undergoing a
remaster of its first story, and I hope to start releasing that very soon and will announce
it on my community page when the time comes. If you want to keep up to date not only on my
projects, participate in polls for video topics, get early access to videos, scripts,
audio, music, concept art and more, you can check out my patreon. Every pledge
helps me keep producing content as a career, as right now I really only make enough
to cover rent and a tiny bit of savings. Hope you had a wonderful holiday season,
and happy New Year! I'll see you next time.
