Sora's most important friend - Kingdom Hearts Video Essay

I think Vanitas should come back from the dead specifically to hang out with Pooh in Hundred Acre Wood with absolutely zero explanation.

Bruh i cried so hard at the end of 100 acer wood in kh3-

Spacetime.

Who wouldn't be friends with Pooh truly is heartless. That's like chick shredding.

Poohs grand adventure is the best Pooh movie

Pooh is the master of masters and will be wielding a keyblade as the secret boss of KH5

That sccene where Sora and Pooh sit on the tree and watch the moon while Pooh tells him how he doesn't want him to go always warms my heart

You had pooh plushies pooh books and movies and poo butt

I think you are correct to assume that pooh is the embodiment of Childhood because not only is the darkness/heartless are NOT allowed to spawn there but the facf that every character is kind, sweet, naive and simple... something you would see through a childs eyes.
Pooh could honestly be Sora's comfort friend 🥰

Sora ks Christopher Robin in the literal sense.. he even hit Pooh with the 'Sily Bear I'd never.' Line word for word and id you know your Pooh Logic you know why that hurts

And considering the endering of Re:Mind and what we're getting in the future Man

hes just a willy nilly silly old bear

You know I never thought characters, people and other sentient beings in our 💩,🤪,hurting and 😔 universe 🌌 were nothing, pointless, annoying and so irritatingly 😡 complicated to understand. Now I want to say that I'm deeply pity them because I used to look down on those types.

I used to 🤔 they were losers and mindless followers with no ideas or talents, but turns out those like Pooh have alot of ♥.

Even though alot of creatures and other living things may seem weird, cocky and kinda pointless those who have a think-think life like Pooh actually "came to close" specialties and ideas in ither solving problems or HECK save the world.

i love pooh

Im glad that someone else had this kinda thinking before me. I came across your video while seeing if anyone else made a video on this idea. Your Theory went further into details than even my own!

In a game that was already filled to the brim with absolutely mindboggingly dissapointing decisions by the devs (specifically nomura), the decision to have the hundred acre woods in kingdom hearts 3 be three candy crush games in a row, no real character growth or important plot related stuff or just casual good character interactions between pooh and sora, was absolutely infuriating to me.

The hundred acre woods was always one of my favorite worlds to visit, it always felt so much more of a personal thing for Sora. We saw him here both at his calmest, his most carefree, but also as his most caring and brotherly self. In the real world he had to be a warrior, in the hundred acre woods, he could be both a kid his own age and an older brother figure to this gentle doofus of a bear.


I saw it, as you do, as a general thematic line that essentially spells out Sora's character growth, but much more so, I consider Sora's story to be an absolute tragedy. One that was almost entirely beyond his control. All he could do was fight, with a smile on his face, but sadness in his heart. (even if he doesn't show it.)

Let's consider that Sora's one wish was to be together with his friends and play on the island all day. He gets violently ripped away from his home through forces he doesn't understand nor fully understands at the end of his now 4 year long yourney. All while his one concern during this violent interaction was saving Kairi and Riku.

He gets thrust into this savior role for the whole universe on account of having a pure heart. From here on out he has to constantly live a life of danger and violence. Every world is filled with it. He has to live with almost constant physical pain and the threat of death hanging over not only him, but the entire known universe, should he fail.
Luckily goofy and Donald are there to cheer him up and be his new friends (and they are GOATed for that. Even donald, who seemed more business-oriented than the ever lovable goofy.)
His closest friend (and rival) betrays him because of sheer jealousy, even though all Sora wants is to just be friends with everybody. He has to see his other closest friend and love interest be turned into a comatose plant, all while nobody can give him any answer as to how to save her.

Then, once he has done all the hard, mentally and physically challenging things to get to the point where he believes he can save both riku and Kairi, his identity as the keyblade bearer gets stripped from him, his new friends abandon him, and for reasons he doesn't understand, his once closest friend becomes a sworn enemy, all out of his control despite his best efforts and intent. Only Beast manages to stay by his side because Beast is even more GOATED than Goofy and Donald in this moment. (motherfucker travelled the worlds through sheer force of will alone then sticks by Sora till the end. Abolute unit and madlad.)

And the final icing on the cake? He has to sacrifice himself to save the one he loves. And only through plottwisty shenanigans he could never have predicted, did he get revived, unknowingly at the cost of a portion of his being.

And then? When all things seem to be going well? Turns out there is no turning back the clock. If he saves the worlds, the cost is that he will be transported to some other random world entirely, locked off completely from ever realistically returning to Destiny island. Forever removed from his two best friends. Once again, at least goofy and donald are there to back him up.


This poor boy's entire story, including the tragedy of sitting in a memory-pod or whatever for a full year, missing an entire year of his teenage life, is about being forced to grow up at a time when he should be having a blast as a young kid, doing stuff kids his age should do. It's about things never being able to return to normal (although kh2 does, of course, end in a happy ending for everybody except roxas, namine, xion and the heretofore unknown Terra, Ventus and Aqua). It's about Sora losing everything he cares about and being powerless to make things go back to normal, even though he will try regardless, because that's who he is at heart. Sheer indomitable will to do the right thing.


The hundred acre woods was a reprieve from all that. It was a place where he could truly be himself, be both the caring helper AND the joyful kid. Where he could truly experience friendship free from the bonds of duty and circumstancial, beneficial alliances. Pooh is a true friend, in the truest sense of the word. It breaks my heart every time the both of them have to go their seperate ways.


So yes, I fully agree. While at the end of the games, I'd say Donald and Goofy have truly become his best buddies, Pooh is still on another level entirely. It's like Pooh represents Sorah's lost innocence and childhood.

love this. this makes me want a real stuffed animal pooh like from christopher robin to show up in kh4

Legit I thought the same even as a kid I felt like his the only true simple honest friend and since he was a kid he was the best fit for young sora

Interesting idea

Pooh's memories of his friends needing to be restored does kinda echo Sora's own memory loss during and after COM.

Countertheory to KH being set after Christopher Robin left the 100 Acre Wood: KH1 and 2 visits happen before the events of Pooh's Heffalump Movie, which would explain Lumpy's absence prior to KH3. In the end credits of that film, C.R. is briefly seen visiting. So I assume this is just an alternate timeline.

Sora vanishing from Pooh's world....hmmm...

This one made me want to cry a time or two. Thank you for this. I always loved Pooh's world in the games, and you've beautifully captured some of the reasons why here.
God be with you out there, everybody. ✝️ :)

Winnie the pooh is filler

this is a beautiful video thank you

I hope that if Winnie the Pooh and friends return in Kingdom Hearts 4, their story follows the plot of Christopher Robin.
Like, maybe Pooh & friends feel that after many times of Sora helping them in the past it's their turn to help Sora and so they find a way to leave the 100 Acre Wood and into the outside world, maybe even Quadratum, to search for Sora and help him, kinda like Pooh's Grand Adventure The Search for Christopher Robin if you think about it.
This is pretty unlikely but I think that would be interesting to see. I really do hope that silly ol bear returns in KH4.

You make some good points. 100 Acre Wood is an escape where Sora can be a child. Anytime he goes, that’s the case. It’s like in real life, we can watch Pooh movies and read Pooh books and be taken back to our childhood. It’s magical to be honest.

Sora has more chemistry with Winnie the Pooh than Kairi.

This is the kind of friendship that Pooh needed after Christopher left.

Eh, im prettu sure Kairi will always be sora’s best freind

This was a really sweet video. As a huge Milne fan, I liked thinking about Pooh and his relationship with Sora’s childhood.

Great video! I have a bit of a contrasting theory (but I promise, Pooh is still VERY important). You see, it's important to keep in mind the origins of Pooh. A. A. Milne, who wrote the original stories, based the character of Winnie the Pooh on his son's teddy bear, and the stories were recreations of the bedtime stories he'd make up for his son (his son was actually Christopher Robin, fun fact).

So at his very core, Pooh is a teddy bear and represents that very special bond children have with their most beloved stuffed animal. That's why for such a silly old bear, he's one of the disney characters that consistently elicits strong emotions out of people.

Thus in essence, Pooh is serving as Sora's teddy bear. This shows how Sora takes care of him (like a kid taking care of their stuffed animal), but at the same time - Pooh tends to be the most perceptive of Sora's emotional state. I'll never forget that moment in KH2 when Pooh out of the blue comments on Sora being sad, even though Sora's done his best to act cheerful around Pooh. No one knows their kid better than their teddy bear.

As for him weakening the connection in KH3.... yeah, not only is a sign that Sora's growing up, but also that Sora's emotional problems have reached a point where a spending time with a teddy bear can't fix it. It's tragic, and it's an early warning sign for things to come.

I always felt Pooh story and relationship with sora was extremely important why put him in 3 titles otherwise. However I couldn't have put the pieces together as well as you did , thank you. Great theory about C.R.

It's worth noting that pooh is the only disney charachter Sora actually remembers in CoM

With what you mentioned about the storyline of the 100 Acer Wood bit in Kingdom Hearts III, you wanna know what other Winnie the Pooh storyline with that same theme? Yep, it's the live-action film Christopher Robin and yeah when I played Kingdom Hearts III the first time and played through the 100 Acer Wood bit, the ending of it reminded me of the 2016 film as both have the theme of while when you were a kid, you had a lot of free time and the things you did were fun, but as you get older, your life becomes busier and you get lesser free time on with the things you used to love and so sometimes you forget the simpler times of your childhood and you miss those times dearly. While I am never a fan of Disney's live-action remakes, I'd say that Christopher Robin is my favorite one because of this theming that we all relate to as young adults, as well as the nostalgia theming of the film. We relate to Christopher Robin in the film with how many of us grew up on Winnie the Pooh and/or other things and as we grow older, we end up being drifted away from those happy times because our life gets busier and once we finally get a free moment, we go to our favorite childhood place or thing and remeninsie on the things we used to do. This is also Sora in Kingdom Hearts III.

Bro when Pooh was sitting there on that log trying to figure out how to say goodbye to himself because everyone left and he was going to disappear soon I almost cried bro

I hope Winnie the Pooh comes back in Kh4 as a summon, and Sora finds him in a barnes and noble or some book store in a Winnie the Pooh Novel.

IF and i mean BIG IF kh 4 has to do the live action movies at all this is the big reveal/payoff I want for pooh. I want sora to meet the adult Christopher Robin in quadratum

I liked the 100 Acre Woods in Chain of Memories as well

Christopher Robin in Quadratum would be cool

soras true friend is the CCP and its glorious leader xi jinping

I think you helped me realize that Sora is (kind of) a Pooh to me specifically as Pooh is to Sora; Sora’s sweetness resonates with me in a way that I can’t fully describe, but it feels like a refuge from the world around me that’s overwhelming due to a disability I have. He’s my favorite fictional character❤

Was waiting for you to talk about how Soras relationship with Pooh and 100 Acre wood is a parallel to his relationship with Kairi and the Islands. I'm KH1 its about collecting the pages and restoring the book- much like restoring Destiny Islands..
In KH 2, Kairi forgets Sora, as does Pooh, but they both remember the promise they made in their hearts and end up remembering him once again.
In KH3, Soras connection is fading- he's trying to desperately hold on to all of the ones he holds dear, but he is growing up, and as we grow up, we grow apart. As Merlin said, we need to find new ways to connect our hearts-- like.they do with the paopu fruit.
With Soras relationship to both Kairi and Pooh, they won't be able to see eachother everyday like the way we maintain friendships as kids, but we rely on these new connections to hold our loved ones dear even if we are worlds apart.

Wait, doesn’t the game straight up say it’s because Sora was almost possessed by Xehanort?

just dont turn your back on him or he will become a murderous blood eating bear

As a kid, I liked the Pooh sections of the story. As an adult, I crave it when life gets too hard.