Dive to the Heart

The Awakening, or Dive Into the Heart, is a location from  Kingdom Hearts.

It is uncertain whether the Awakening is a world, a dream, or a vision. It primarily poses as the tutorial and opening location in  Kingdom Hearts, and introduces the player to the controls via an omniscient narrator.

The theme music for the Awakening is "Dive Into the Heart (Destati)" in both games. In  Kingdom Hearts, the battle theme is part of the main song. In Kingdom Hearts II, the battle theme is split from the main song and becomes "Fragments of Sorrow", which was used as the battle theme for End of the World in the previous game.

Setting
'' The Awakening has a very simple and stark, but memorable environment. Only six areas can be accessed there ; five of them are giant cylindrical pillars rising out of a void of eternal darkness. Made of giant, glowing stained glass, the tops of the pillars each feature a floor depicting at least one Princess of Heart. The sixth playable area has a surreal, dreamy rendition of the Destiny Islands.

With each pillar (plus the Destiny Islands part), the at first quiet music will grow more intense.

Each pillar had a unique theme and tutorial. The first pillar held the movement tutorial, and determined how Sora's stats would grow by leveling up. The player also had the choice to accept and then turn down two weapons (either the Dream Sword, the Dream Shield, or the Dream Rod). The second pillar held the battle tutorial, and marked the first appearance of the Shadow enemy. The third pillar held the interactions tutorial. The player would have to open a treasure chest, move a crate, destroy a barrel, and open a door. The door led to the Destiny Islands area. There, Tidus, Wakka, and Selphie each asked Sora a personal question. Depending on what the player answered to each question, Sora would either level up quickly until level 40, then slow significantly (called "Starting at Morning"), level up evenly throughout the game (called "Starting at Midday"), or level up slowly until level 40 then speed up significantly (called "Starting at Evening").

The pillar that followed the area held the progress tutorial. It also had the first Save Space in the game. The final pillar held only a fearsome warning before a boss battle with Darkside. At the end of the battle, the Awakening supposedly fell into darkness.

At the completion of each area, with the exception of the third and fourth, the pillar would be destroyed in some way. It may be noted that of the Disney characters pictured on the flooring, all the destroyed pillars depict characters whose worlds were destroyed by Maleficent.

Roxas' Awakening, however, only has four pillars, known as the Station of Serenity (one pillar, blue), the Station of Tranquility and the Station of Awakening (one of these stations has three pillars, one green, one orange, and one yellow). All pillars have artwork of Sora in his Kingdom Hearts outfit, thumbnails of Donald, Goofy, Riku and Kairi, as well as sea and sun, representing Destiny Islands. Similar to Sora's Awakening, Roxas' Awakening ends up being consumed by darkness.

Depiction
Each pillar depicts a Disney princess, specifically the Princesses of Heart. All Princesses shown are depicted as sleeping, making a reference perhaps to that they have been captured and are in their sleep-like state in Hollow Bastion.
 * Green Pillar = Snow White, with the Seven Dwarves, the animals and even the Evil Queen, in her hag form. Note that all are depicted as awake, like the Beast, possibly hinting that the Dwarves, the Evil Queen and many of the animals somehow survived their world (or that it wasn't destroyed at all).
 * Purple Pillar = Cinderella
 * Pink Pillar = Alice, Jasmine and Kairi (This pillar actually depicts three silhouettes of the stereotypical princess image, one of which resembles Alice. This pillar hints that there must be three more Princesses of Heart not yet captured.)
 * Red Pillar = Aurora, and the three Good Fairies (Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather), whom are believed to reside (fully, if not part-time) in Yen Sid's' Tower in Twilight Town, and also "Maleficent", showing her in the form of her disappearing, where she melts into the V-like shape with the green orb of her staff overhead. This picture is shown in the movie of "Sleeping Beauty".
 * Yellow Pillar = Belle (Note that the Beast is represented as the only character on the pillar that is awake, possibly referencing that he survived his world's destruction and was currently looking for Belle)

Trivia

 * The official artwork of the Awakening depicts a pillar that does not appear in the actual game. However, it does appear as such in Roxas's own Awakening.
 * In Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+ Sora fights Roxas in the Station of Awakening.
 * Sora and Roxas' awakenings have numerous similarities:
 * At the end, both fight a massive creature: in Sora's case, he fights a Darkside Heartless, and in Roxas's case, he fights a Twilight Thorn Nobody.
 * After both characters defeat their respective creatures, they are covered by darkness that bursts forth from the creatures as they die. However, there are differences; Sora is completely consumed by the darkness and wakes up back on the Destiny Islands, while Roxas is saved by Naminé at the last minute.
 * Throughout the Awakening in the first game there's a mysterious narrator guiding Sora. Although it's never proven, it can be assumed that the game's antagonist Ansem is the one talking to Sora. This is strongly implied just before his first battle at the end of the game as Ansem tells Sora, "You've come this far and you've still learned nothing!" and during the Awakening the voice says, "There is so very much to learn, you know so little." This can be backed up since Xehanort's various incarnations (Ansem's one of them) do have the tendency to talk in a mysterious way by the fact that no sound emits but the subtitles still appear on the screen.