Nobodies in Kingdom Hearts

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I thought about posting this on the gaming forum, but the discussion there doesn't necessarily appear to be AS-centric.

I was wondering what anyone here thought about Nobodies in the Kingdom Hearts series. They've always been fascinating characters to me, and I can't help but wonder if I understand them differently from how they were intended.

Nobodies are shells of people who have lost their "hearts." They are similar, but different from their original selves. The most powerful Nobodies remember who they were before their heart was taken. Nobodies have no feelings, no emotions... at least, that's what is said. The heroes are warned to never trust a Nobody's motivations, because no matter how sincere they may appear, they don't have hearts.

All this seems paradoxical to me... Nobodies can be very emotional. They even have interests, such as playing music. Some Nobodies become friends with each other. Roxas even becomes friends with normal humans, with neither Roxas or the humans realizing anything is different between them (at the time, Roxas had no memory that he was a Nobody). I just have a hard time accepting that Nobodies truly don't feel anything, because they don't appear to be very different from any other characters, at least, to me.

The thing that's most interesting to me about Nobodies is their mission... they want to acquire hearts of their own. They don't actually know what it's like to have a heart, yet they pursue this mission at all costs. They live in a world that is full of people who have something that they cannot comprehend. I suspect that it's implied that Nobodies can acquire hearts through friendship, not by "collecting" hearts as they actually do. I believe that some, particularly Roxas and Axel, in fact do have hearts, but say they don't, simply because they were told they don't. So ultimately, they don't know that they know what it's like to have a heart.

Do you see some parallels between this and autism/AS? This is kinda how I feel, especially with me not having a diagnosis... I don't know if there's another layer to life and reality that I am struggling to grasp, or if I already have the mental/emotional tools to comprehend it, but just don't know it.

They do know what it's like to have hearts, though; besides Roxas, they all remember.

This is the can of worms of KH fandom, though. Have you read through the typical debate that follows a post like this?

I have my own theories on the matter...

But I see no parallels.