Destiny Islands

Destiny Islands, named Destiny Island in Kingdom Hearts II, is a world from the Kingdom Hearts series. It is the home world of Sora, Riku, Master Xehanort and Kairi (although Kairi is originally from Radiant Garden), three of the series's main characters. The world seems to be led by an unnamed mayor, who is mentioned as Kairi's foster parent.

Destiny Islands appears as a playable world only in Kingdom Hearts during the prologue and also in Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-. However, the remains of the world reappear at the End of the World. A memory-based version of the world appears in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories. In Kingdom Hearts II, Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix and Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, the world is not playable and only appears in cutscenes. In Kingdom Hearts coded and Kingdom Hearts Re:coded, a data version of the world appears as the second playable world.

The main function of this world in the original Kingdom Hearts is to serve as an extended tutorial where one could get the hang of battle mechanics against opponents without being incapacitated, gain experience, and receive items for future battles.

Locations
The main island is where the residents live and go to school; Kairi and Selphie are known to go to the same school. The main island also has a small beach and dock. There appears to be a fairly large town in the background, with a long clay path leading to the beach. Sora's House can briefly be seen before Sora encounters the Darkside. However, the only portion of the house which can be seen is Sora's bedroom during the storm.

The smaller island, where Sora, Riku, Kairi, Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka play, is where all of the playable scenes take place. It is reached by canoe from the main island. The Seashore area is naturally covered in yellow sandy beaches, exotic trees and shrubbery, and wooden constructions. There is a Seaside Shack and a somewhat treehouse built into a large tree. The Seaside Shack contains the island's only Save Point. A miniature island is settled next to the island and can be reached by crossing a bridge (which can be accessed by using the stairs in the Seaside Shack mentioned above or alternatively, by swimming towards a ladder on the opposite side of the island, and then climbing it).

Sora can also have duels with Wakka, Selphie and Tidus nearby in the first game. Sora and Riku often practice their sword fights at the place where the friends can watch the sunset—past the Bridge, on the miniature island. On that island is a crooked palm tree that grows Paopu Fruits. Local myth dictates that the two people who share one will have their destinies intertwined. The Cove at the back of the island has an obstacle course which Sora and Riku use during their competitive challenges.

The Secret Place is a cave hidden behind the island's waterfall, where the children visited during their childhood. Sora and Riku first discovered it when they were young children. There is a door in the cave which is actually the Keyhole of the world. The cave's walls are covered in chalk drawings, some hinting at the earlier encounters of the children. Among them is a drawing of Sora and Kairi sharing a Paopu Fruit. Riku enters here near the beginning of the game and opens the door, unleashing the Heartless onto the islands. Whether he did so knowingly and willingly is unknown, though it is likely that the words of Xehanort influenced him to do so.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
At the beginning of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, a young Xehanort stares at the sunset and states that the world is too small. Many years later, he returns as an elderly Keyblade Master, intending to leave his seemingly dying, comatose apprentice, Ventus, at the islands for his final days. However, when Ventus's broken heart connects with that of the newborn Sora, he is revived, and summons his Keyblade. Seeing further use in the boy, Master Xehanort immediately takes him to Master Eraqus at the Land of Departure.

Four years later, the islands are visited by four more Keyblade wielders, Terra being the first. There, he watches a young Sora and Riku racing and sitting at the Paopu Tree. After asking Riku why he wants to leave the islands, Riku explains that a man&mdash;Master Xehanort&mdash;once left the islands to visit other worlds, and that he wants to do the same. Terra sees a vision of Master Xehanort as a young man, then sees what Riku will become, which convinces him to choose Riku as his successor, so, that one day, he may wield the Keyblade.

Aqua later arrives on the island. After recognizing that the friendship between Sora and Riku is identical to the bond between Ventus and Terra, she decides to choose Sora as her successor, but when she discovers that Terra has already chosen Riku, she changes her mind because she does not want the boys to walk down the same path as she and her friends. Instead, she asks Sora to save Riku if he were to ever fall into darkness.

Ventus is the last to appear on the island, where he encounters Vanitas, and experiences a flashback that reveals the truth about his past, but never encounters Sora or Riku.

On a night after Master Xehanort and Vanitas are defeated, and their plans seemingly thwarted, Sora and Riku watch the stars on a beach facing the Small Island. As they prepare to depart home, Sora suddenly feels Ventus' sadness touching his heart. Riku advises him to try and reach out to that sad heart, and as Sora connects to Ventus's heart he enters his first Dive to the Heart. He joins his heart with Ventus's, hoping to make it happy again, then tells Riku that he was right, as they go back to watching the stars.

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-
Destiny Islands appears within the Realm of Darkness in Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage- when Aqua and Mickey stumble upon it after leaving the Depths of Darkness. Upon arrival, Aqua walks onto the beach and stares out to sea, musing that she knows the place. Mickey latches on to this comment, and presses for an explanation of Aqua's past visit to the island. She explains that in her previous visit, she had considered passing the Keyblade on to either of two young boys whom she had met, but had stopped short because Terra had already passed his on to one of them. Mickey asks what the names of the two boys had been, and Aqua responds that they were Sora and Riku. Mickey is amazed, and explains that it is these two that he is working with to save many worlds in the Realm of Light and also to close the Door to Darkness. He further adds that in order to achieve this feat, he requires the Kingdom Key D, the Realm of Darkness' version of the Kingdom Key.

Eager, the two begin to search the remnants of the world, and advance towards the Secret Place. However, as they approach, a Demon Tide rushes out and the pair are forced to fight it in order to proceed. Eventually, the duo defeat the Heartless hoard and progress into the dark hideout. Inside, they find a wooden door and entering it, they find a shining Keyblade floating in the centre of a dark space. Mickey explains the purpose of the Keyblade, before taking it in his hands. He further adds that in order to prevent darkness from continuing to spread through the open door, it needs to be closed on both sides. Aqua volunteers to be the one to close the door, but Mickey states that that particular job is already taken. The two are then spontaneously transported out of the area in a flash of light, leaving the remnant of the world behind. A short time later, Aqua is separated from Mickey and re-enters the world via the same door in the Secret Place in the company of a second Demon Tide. She is reinvigorated by her meeting with Mickey and also with Terra earlier in the story, and gains an inner strength to continue fighting for the greater good inside the Realm of Darkness. She asserts that when someone else comes to the dark realm, she will be there waiting. After her fight with the second Demon Tide concludes, Aqua lies on the beach staring upwards as the clouds move rapidly across the sky. The sky changes to night and light particles begin to fall from the sky. Aqua realises that the fallen worlds have been restored and is swept into the darkness as Destiny Islands returns to the Realm of Light. As she falls, she reaffirms that the heart should be the guiding key, and also that "they" will know where to find her.

Kingdom Hearts
In a prophetic dream, Sora is swallowed by the tide while trying to save Riku, and is transported to another world.

When Sora awakens from his Dive to the Heart, he meets with his friends Kairi and Riku. The three plan on building a raft and to set sail across the sea to find other worlds away from the island. Destiny Islands is a small world, which often leads to the boredom of its inhabitants, especially Riku, who desires to leave the islands and see the other worlds out there. Tidus once said that once you sail a certain distance from the islands, you simply can't go any further, but the other islanders believe he merely turned back and made up the story.

While gathering materials for the journey, Sora climbs into the Secret Place - a tiny cave on the island where the children scratch drawings onto rocks - and met a figure in a strange cloak who told him cryptic messages about the time to come. Sora's confusion lasts long into the night. Resting up in his bedroom, he sees a dangerous storm approaching, and hurries off the island to save the raft.

Upon arriving on the second island, Sora discovers his friends came too, but only finds Riku, who confuses him further by telling him to accept the darkness, after which, Riku disappears. He then finds an apparently ill Kairi in the Secret Place. The two disappear in the growing darkness, but Sora returns as the Islands slowly crumble into darkness with the Keyblade in hand. He fights the Darkside boss, but fails to save his home and is whisked away on his journey to Traverse Town.

As his first journey ends, Sora and Kairi meet up on the shores of the reforming islands. Sora, knowing that his job is not finished, and that he must still save Riku and King Mickey from the Realm of Darkness, leaves Kairi in the safety of her hometown and promises to return to her as soon as Riku and King Mickey are found.

During the credits, Tidus, Selphie, and Wakka are seen running on the beach in a similar way to Riku, Sora and Kairi at the beginning of the game. Kairi is standing on the beach, looking toward the ocean.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
After the Riku Replica is defeated on the 11th floor of Castle Oblivion, Sora drops his Wayfinder charm, which is revealed to be the World Card for Destiny Islands. Sora rushes to use it in order to get to Naminé, but when Goofy and Donald urge him to be cautious, he angrily rebukes them, and goes through the memory world alone.

Naminé manipulates his memories to make Sora believe she also lived on the Destiny Islands, and Sora is urged by his memories to rescue her. However, after he defeats a memory Darkside, Naminé appears and reveals the truth about Kairi, herself, and what she has been doing to Sora.

After Riku defeats Lexaeus, Zexion appears with a world card and entices Riku to enter his own version of Destiny Islands. Unlike Sora, Riku finds no one on the islands, except a memory of his Darkside, the one who devoured the islands. After defeating the monster, he sees "Sora", who is in actually Zexion in disguise.

"Sora" accuses him of being a monster of darkness, and attacks him with light. In the light, Riku considers giving up, but Naminé (disguised as Kairi) speaks to his heart and urges him to use both his light and his darkness, which are invincible together. Riku sees through Zexion's disguise and attacks, forcing Zexion to flee.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
The world itself has barely any appearances in the game, but is mentioned roughly the same amount of times by Roxas and Xion.

When Roxas fell into a coma for 21 days, Xion had been to this world on day 1 of it, where she picked up a seashell to put on Roxas's pillow. When Xion falls into a coma, Roxas does the exact same thing; he picks up seashells for her at "the beach".

After Xion fled the Organization, she went to the memory version of Destiny Island, where she fell into a terrible nightmare of being Roxas, searching for her; the dream saw her observing Zexion scolding Riku in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. As they talked, she changed back from Roxas until falling over in pain from feeling the memories and turned into Riku. When they finished talking, she had changed into Sora.

Riku had also returned home a few times, but this time, he was watching over Xion as she dreamt; Roxas had also been to the island, but as it is Sora's home, he felt like he was having a dream instead of actually being on a mission.

Xion had a dream of sitting on the Paopu tree with Axel and Roxas, wondering what she should do after finding out what she truly is. She awakens and learns from Riku that she is a puppet that accidentally trapped Sora's memories of Kairi within herself, making him unable to wake up.

Kingdom Hearts II
During Sora's sleep, the residents of the Islands forget all about Sora, due to Naminé breaking the chains of his memories. Kairi, however, being so close to Sora, still retains vague memories of the boy, and begins to remember before anyone else. She sends a message in a bottle across the sea, hoping to find Sora.

In an attempt to draw Sora, and with him, Roxas, back to Organization XIII, Axel goes to the Islands to kidnap Kairi. She refuses to go with him, and flees with Pluto into a portal to Twilight Town.

Finally, after Xemnas is defeated, all the characters meet up on the Islands for one last time. Mickey, Jiminy, Donald, Pluto, and Goofy return to Disney Castle, and leave the others on Destiny Islands. But, in an extra video after the credits, it is seen that Mickey has sent a letter in bottle back to the islands for Sora, Riku, and Kairi.

Kingdom Hearts coded
After King Mickey and Jiminy discover a message in Jiminy's Journal, they create a data version of Sora. After Data-Sora exits his Awakening, he finds out that the island is covered with Bug Blox Corruption which Data-Sora must delete. Afterwards, he encounters Jiminy's Journal wearing the Black Cloak. He then finds the Data Keyhole behind the waterfall of Destiny Islands.

After he opens it he fights Darkside, the island's source of Bug Block corruption. Then the data island is destroyed, just as it was in the first game. The scene then shifts to Disney Castle where a cutscene is played. It shows Ansem, Seeker of Darkness appearing and opening the Corridor of Darkness for Riku to step in. The real Destiny Islands appear in the game's epilogue, where Mickey sends Sora the bottled letter (the same one from Kingdom Hearts II), which Sora reads with Riku and Kairi.

Blank Points
While Sora is leaning on the bent palm tree, Riku approaches him and asks him if he had decided, about what is unclear. Sora replies to Riku that he had. When Kairi approaches the two, Sora tells her that he has another long journey to make, one that might be even more difficult than all of the others they have had. Kairi then gives Sora her Wayfinder charm and says, "See you soon".

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Destiny Islands is the starting point of the game, where the Mark of Mastery exam begins for Sora and Riku. While taking off with their raft, a storm comes and Ursula appears in front of them, calling for a battle of vengeance. The boys defeat her together, and the storm throws them all overboard. While down under, a Keyhole appears and their Keyblades unlock it, and are then taken to other worlds.

Near the end of the game, the island appears again in Sora's dream. Young Xehanort narrates as Sora watches a flashback of Young Xehanort being visited by his future self, and explains that Xehanort had cast away his bodily form to set his youthful self on his appointed path.

Later on, when Riku dives into the deepest reaches of Sora's heart to rescue him from his slumber, he is confronted by Roxas, Ventus and Xion, who ask him questions; these are the final key to waking Sora from sleep. Riku though, is not aware of this, and soon finds a bottle floating in the water which he picks up. Ansem the Wise approaches from behind, stating that Riku was not the visitor that he had been expecting. Riku expresses curiosity regarding Ansem's presence in Sora's heart. Ansem the Wise explains that he wished to atone for the mistakes of the past, and so he had digitized himself and his research and hid them within Sora. He states that the data may act as a clue to help find themselves or their lost friends in their hour of need. Ansem talks about the malleable nature of the heart, and relates the tendency of the heart to grow quickly to the nobodies of Organization XIII, giving Riku a clue that the Organization's members may have had hearts of their own. He also discusses Sora's ability to return to his human form without destroying his Nobody, and the bonds that Sora has with his friends. Ansem suggests that perhaps Sora has the power to recreate people that had been thought to be lost forever, and to mend connections that had been broken; this is due to the uncorrupted and caring nature of Sora's heart. For this to be achieved, Ansem states that Sora needs only to follow where his heart leads him, and the rest of the information needed is in the data. Riku thanks Ansem, before being questioned by the older man as to why he is on the islands. Riku explains that he needs to wake Sora up; Ansem finds this amusing, and then explains that by defeating the Nightmare imprisoning him and by answering the questions posed to him by Roxas, Ventus and Xion, Sora had been awakened. Riku prepares to leave, but before he does so, Ansem surprises him by inquiring after his real name. Riku realizes that he had never told DiZ his name, and quickly responds with it, before leaving the islands.

Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth By Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage-
While traversing the Realm of Darkness, Aqua and Mickey stumble upon the remains of Destiny Islands as they had appeared at the End of the World. Aqua recognizes the islands as the location where she met Sora and Riku, and whereupon Terra bestowed the power of the Keyblade to one of them. Mickey deduces that this means that they are close to the location of the dark realm's Keyblade, and thus proceed to the Secret Place. When they approach, however, the Demon Tide returns and attacks, forcing Aqua and Mickey to battle. After seemingly vanquishing it, Aqua and Mickey approach the door in the Secret Place and open it. Within the door lies the Kingdom Key D, which Mickey subsequently claims as his own.

During an attempt to protect Riku and Mickey from the Demon Tide, Aqua is thrown through a door to the islands' remains, which subsequently seals behind her. Finding her resolve, Aqua continues the fight on Destiny Islands while Mickey and Sora seal Kingdom Hearts.

In the ending, Aqua is seen lying on the shore and staring up into the blue sky, which subsequently turns into nightfall. As she gazes into the stars, droplets of light begin raining down, indicating that Kingdom Hearts has been sealed and that Destiny Islands is being restored. Aqua, unable to leave the Realm of Darkness, falls off the disintegrating shore and drifts into the darkness.

Trivia

 * Inside the Secret Place in Kingdom Hearts, there are sketches of Donald, Goofy, and a crossed out chocobo on the right side. On the left there are sketches of a dragon, Disney Castle, and a world that has a crown on the top on one of the lower rocks. Even the four suits of cards and what seem to be Bit Snipers can be seen.
 * The orientation between the Main Island and the Small Island is somewhat ambiguous. Although both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days depicts the Small Island's miniature islet (accessible from the Small Island by bridge) as facing the open ocean and the setting sun, the scene in which Kairi stands on the beach of the Main Island in Kingdom Hearts II depicts the Small Island in the opposite position, with the miniature islet facing the Main Island and the Cove facing the setting sun. However, if this was its correct orientation, the Main Island would have been visible from the islet's Paopu tree, and previous games show the view from said tree as simply endless ocean and an unobstructed view of the setting sun.
 * There are several Hidden Mickey insignias in the Kingdom Hearts version of Destiny Islands. Easy-to-spot insignias include one on the ground in the Cove, and a patch of purple in the trees.
 * If you rearrange the letters of "Destiny Island" you get "It's Disney Land".
 * Both words of "Destiny Islands" are seven letters long which is the number of Princess of Heart. Kairi, a later residence of the islands, is one of the Princesses.
 * In Sora's room there is a model of the airship from Final Fantasy hanging from the ceiling with two dolls in it.
 * Although this world was addressed as Destiny Islands, it was mostly referred to "island" or "islands" by the characters, until Yen Sid addressed its name in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.

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