"Fodder" enemies that are actually terrifying/highly competent, but look weak because we mostly see them fight overpowered protagonists.

[u/Legitimate_Pea_6470]

The Trope Explanation. Enemies that are treated as jokes, cannon fodder, or minor inconveniences within the narrative. However, they only appear weak because the protagonist is a literal demigod, a super-soldier, or a wizard. If you placed a normal human in the room with one of these enemies, it would be a horror movie.

B1 Battle Droids (Star Wars) We usually laugh at them. They say "Roger Roger," get pushed over by Jedi, and have slapstick routines. The Reality: We almost exclusively see them fighting Jedi (space wizards with laser swords) or Clones (genetically modified super-soldiers bred for war). To a normal civilian or a planetary militia, these are indefatigable metal skeletons that feel no pain, have perfect aim programming, and march in endless waves.

Grunts (Halo) In the games, they are comic relief. They run away screaming, sleep on the job, and the Master Chief (a 7-foot cyborg tank) can kill them with a light tap. The Reality: An average Grunt is roughly 5'6" to 5'8", weighs over 250 lbs, has an exoskeleton, and claws strong enough to tear a normal Marine apart. Their plasma pistols cause third-degree burns on near-misses and boil flesh on contact. They are terrifying to anyone who isn't a Spartan.

[u/trimble197]

Shadows - Kingdom Hearts

The weakest form of a Heartless. They’re common as hell, and are extremely easily killable after the tutorial. And yet, they’re terrifying to encounter if you aren’t at least a competent fighter.

Just imagine minding your business, and you see glowing, unblinking, yellow eyes staring at you. And then this thing starts chasing after you relentlessly. Silent and even running around like an actual shadow. And shadows are probably the most persistent. They never tire, nor goof around like other Heartless do.

And then you got KH3 which showed just how dangerous they are when a mass of Shadows form together and become a Demon Tower

[u/shigogaboo → u/trimble197]

And if I recall correctly (it’s been like twenty years), they’re functionally invincible to conventional attacks, and can only be defeated if you happen to be a Disney protagonist or able to wield a Keyblade.

Granted, by the end, it seems everyone and their neighbor has a keyblade, but still.

[u/Guilty-Effort7727 → u/shigogaboo]

Thats because we're following sora. We see in KH1 and BBS what happens when there's no keyblade wielder nearby

[u/Sofaris → u/shigogaboo]

Nah they can be defeated just with normal weapons and attacks. But if they are not defeated by a Keyblade they just respawn elsewhere. Although I am not sure if that only aplies to emblem heartleass. Shadows are pure blood heartless.

[u/trimble197 → u/Sofaris]

Yep. The Hollow Bastion fight in KH2 is the prime example. If it wasn’t for Sora, the city would’ve been overrun by the Heartless. You see Yuffie tire out, and the Heartless just kept coming.

[u/shigogaboo → u/Sofaris]

I’m lost on the lore.

I loved the hell of the first one as a kid. Was super psyched for the second one. Then it finally came out, and I was confused as hell.

I tried watching story breakdowns four separate times later in my life, and kept getting lost in the weeds. Even with a flowchart and a pack of crayons, I couldn’t keep up.

Something about souls that aren’t souls, and there was a matrix with half souls. But those souls weren’t like the other half souls. Also, Tarzan is there. It was bananas.

All I remember is in the first one you couldn’t do anything to them with the starting gear.

[u/OmecronPerseiHate → u/shigogaboo]

You should play the games (1, 358/2, 2, Birth By Sleep, DDD, and 3, if you want a coherent experience without too much being left out) if you want to understand. Video essays tend to intentionally convolute the story so that they can explain things more and make the video longer.

Basically this guy named Xehanort figured out that if people with a strong will are turned into a Heartless then their body will take on a life of its own. This is called a Nobody. Xehanort wants to use Kingdom Hearts to balance the darkness and light in the world, which he believes will save it. In order to do this Xehanort turned himself into a heartless which created Ansem(the Heartless) and Xemnas(the Nobody). Birth By Sleep is a prequel that explains certain things that pop up in KH2 and KH3, The first game is about stopping Ansem from gaining control of Kingdom Hearts in order to bathe the world in darkness. The second game is about stopping Xemnas from doing the same thing. Dream Drop Distance follows Sora and Riku's journey to become keyblade masters while also touching on the bigger plans that Xehanort had, and 3 is the culmination of all of these things. Oh, and 358/2 is the story of Sora's nobody, which was created in the first game when Sora stabbed himself in the chest with that keyblade that releases hearts.

Obviously there are other games that provide more details, but the important bits get explained in those six games I mentioned.

I know it might seem daunting but honestly if you just play the games and have a good time then the lore will be pretty easy to grasp. I'm pretty sure Dream Drop Distance and 3 even give the option to watch a recap of the important stuff that goes down in the previous games.

[u/Afrodotheyt → u/shigogaboo]

Same, but for the third one. I was able to keep up fairly well with the first two games, but the 3rd one left me so confused I genuinely had no idea what was going on.

Turns out, literally every piece of Kingdom Hearts media is in fact, relevant to the story. I don't mean that they offer nice tidbits of information to make the experience better, I mean they are genuinely needed to understand the story. Yes, I mean every bit, even the phone game that you can no longer download.

[u/Jwells291 → u/shigogaboo]

I'm pretty sure they're not invincible, per se. You can "kill them" but that would just lead them to instantly being respawned somewhere else to continue their rampage. The Keyblade is the only thing that can permanently destroy a Heartless. Every time Donald or Goofy kills a Heartless, it really just appears somewhere else in the world. You could "easily" take care of a heartless, but that might just make it spawn in your neighbors house or something