#Kingdom Hearts theory

[starrduzt]

What would Sora's actual keyblade look like??

okay, guys, hear me out.

All the keyblade wielders can manifest a keyblade that is uniquely theirs as a reflection of their heart, marked by their character symbol as the keychain. It doesn't matter if this person was officially bequeathed. Y'know like Kairi, Roxas and Axel.

Now, we know that once it's summoned, the keyblade can be used by anyone. For example, The Master of Masters keyblade being passed down through teachers to their students since ancient times, Eraqus' keyblade to Aqua, and Mickey's keyblade to Riku.

Let's focus on Riku's for a second.

In KH3, Way to the Dawn breaks in the realm of darkness. Then Mickey makes a whole new keyblade and gives it to Riku to use for the time being, so he's got something to fight with. Riku is able to use this keyblade with no issues and no drawbacks - as if it were his own. But what's that on the keychain?

Mickey's character symbol. Sure, Riku's using it just fine, but it's still not his and it's not a reflection of his heart. Thanks to the wayfinder trio in BBS, we know keyblades can grow and change with the wielder's heart, and even old ones can be reforged again when the person really goes deep into their own heart. So Riku has the ability to resummon Way to the Dawn with a few tweaks to match his current self.

Now lets assume Mickey's symbol is also just the overarching world symbol cause ✨️Disney✨️ and alla dat. Sora's keyblade was summoned after touching the light within Riku.

Sora's keyblade is not his, but the Keyblade of the Realm of Light. It's the keyblade born from the realm just as the Kingdom Key D is born from the realm of darkness. (Later on Riku says his keyblade went to Sora, just cause he was the closest nearby BUT in the same breath he also says only one person can wield a keyblade soo.... I'm not inclined to believe him.) This is further supported by the X-Blade, which is supposed to be the ultimate convergence of light and dark, is just two Kingdom Keys. Also the only keyblade that has Sora's character symbol, is associated more closely with Riku so that design is kicked out.

Sooo.... if Sora's keyblade is just being borrowed, what would his own actually look like?

[unchained-dual-key]

AXEL: “Trust what you remember and seek what you forget. Then you will find someone very special.”

AXEL: “Our most precious memories lie so deep with our hearts that they’re out of reach. But I’m sure that you can find yours, Sora.”

SORA: “Why me?”

*music stops playing*

AXEL: “You have lost sight of the light within the darkness. And it seems that you’ve forgotten that you forgot.”

SORA: “Light within darkness…”

A hint

A hint

A hint…

A HINT…!

Didn’t get the hint, huh?

[hollowwhisperings]

Kingdom Key & Kingdom Hearts: A SoRiku Theory

The Kingdom Hearts series (& its creators) actively emphasizes the ways that its primary protagonist, Sora, is a "normal, ordinary boy". Yet Sora wields the iconic Kingdom Key, the Ultima Keyblade & even a x-blade (as forged by Xehanort): Sora's Story has been that of a Chosen One, even as he fits the archetype of one "Unchosen".

This theory explores the nature of Choice within the KH series, specifically in the context of "Destiny" and prophecies. It employs the "Riku is The Light" & "Necklace" theories, as well as elements of "Sleeping Realm". It also casts Riku as one of those Strange Women in Ponds who Distribute Swords as a Basis of [Galactic World Order].

Sora's story seemingly begins as a Classic Hero's Journey only for such a reading to fall flat when Expectations such as "Getting The Girl" and "Becoming a Keyblade Master" pointedly do not happen.

The driving force of the KH series has always been Riku: Riku wished to see worlds beyond his home, knowing the truth of the KH Multiverse well before proof literally crashlanded in the form of Kairi (a literal shooting star).

It is Riku's Heart that drew the attention of the Worlds at large to the Destiny Islands: the brightness of his light lead Terra, Aqua & Xehanort to meeting Sora in the first place.

Terra chooses Riku as a future Keyblade Master.

Aqua chooses Sora for the sake of preserving Riku's Light, the events of BBS teaching her that the strongest lights cast the longest shadows.

Xehanort chooses Riku as a Dark Vessel, whispering to him & encouraging him to doubt, to mistrust.

It is assumed, by Sora and by Riku, that Riku was also the person responsible for "opening the door" to the Darkness that felled the Destiny Islands. Yet throughout his childhood, each attempt by Riku to open the mysterious door on the play island failed and, when Darkness Falls, it is Kairi who is found at its source (Kairi, who had been expelled from her home by a version of Xehanort & whose heart harboured yet another fragment of the Seeker of Darkness).

Regardless of whether he truly opened the Destiny Islands to Darkness, Riku believed it & through Darkness did he find "freedom" to explore the Worlds Beyond, just as he had always dreamed... except for one, rather significant detail becoming derailed: Sora's presence by Riku's Side.

The two were separated and Sora was almost lost: even with Darkness swallowing Riku whole, the light within his Heart acted in time to save Sora by entrusting to him 'Kingdom Key'. Riku's Keyblade. A physical manifestation of Riku's Heart.

(notably, the "Kingdom Key-D" found by King Mickey was found not too far from the scene where Kingdom Key manifested: it is plausible that this keyblade was also manifested by Riku's Heart, perhaps alongside its 'Light' counterpart - I'd need to check the timeline to see how such a theory holds up)

Kingdom Key was entrusted to Sora, a subconscious act of Riku's Heart that mirrored an earlier act of protection Riku gave to Sora: on the night where Kairi fell to the Destiny Islands, a young Sora felt frightened and a young Riku swore to protect his dearest friend. This oath was sworn in turn sworn by Sora to Riku. They sealed these oaths with tokens they held close: while Sora's charm gifted to Riku remains unknown, Riku entrusted Sora with a crown charm he had had since infancy.

When Riku was 5, Riku entrusted Sora with his Crown. Both boys swore to protect the other.

When Riku was 15, Riku's Heart entrusted itself to Sora in the form of 'Kingdom Key'.

When Riku was ~16, he subconsciously protected Sora by becoming the latter's Dreamel Eater. Within the same timeframe, Riku sacrificed himself entirely to save Sora at the Keyblade Graveyard (an act of sacrifice, an act of True Love).

At every instance where Riku has been at a crossroads, knowingly or not, his Heart has Chosen Sora's: Riku, presumed descendant of Ephemera and a child of the Destiny Islands, has always & continues to choose Sora.

When the pair were reunited in KH2 and confronted the threat of Xemnas, the two fought as one & passed their keyblades between each other intuitively

When the pair existed in parallel realms of Sleep, separated but connected, their heartbeasts joined to form a Waltzing variation of the melody 'Dearly Belove'. They then fought in sync with a Combined Blade, formed from the keyblades "Mirage Split" and "Nightmare's End", acting again as two halves of a whole.

When Riku was to meet his end in the Realm of Darkness, far within the abyss, Sora appeared to him and they once again wielded their Combined Blade. Beast had once reaponded to a 15 year old Riku's questioning of his impossible arrival to Hollow Bastion, where Beast's Beloved Belle was held hostage, that he had "simply believed": belief brought Sora to Riku in the Realm of Darkness, belief brought Sora to the Final World in the wake of Riku's Ultimate Sacrifice.

The premise of Kingdom Key & its counterpart, Kingdom Key-D, being Manifestations of Riku's Heart & indicative of Riku's being the "Child of Destiny" does run into some Logistical Obstacles.

One, if Riku's Keyblade is being wielded by Sora (& Mickey, assuming the two keys were originally one) then whose keyblade is Riku wielding?

Two, how can Riku's Heart manifest multiple keyblades? Posession by Ansem Seeker of Darkness explains 1 of the "extra" keyblades (the key of "all hearts"). The bequeathing ceremony by Terra could explain another. Kingdom Key-D is definitely connected to Kingdom Key yet never specifically associated with Riku, evem being wielded by King Mickey (a stranger to Riku, at that point).

To the first: if Riku's keyblade is being wielded by Sora (& its counterpart by King Mickey), how can Riku wield another keyblade in KH1 even before getting possessed?

There are several immediate & varyingly plausible explanations: Riku's nature as a "Child of Destiny" allowing his Heart to churn out keyblades on demand like some Fey Lady of Avalon; or the other keyblades were not actually manifested by Riku at all.

While I greatly enjoy the imagery of Riku playing the "Lady of the Lake" to Sora's "Arthur" in KH1, given Sora's opening dream sequence already set Riku as being stuck in a Body Of Water (which is additionally representative of Darkness), it is Stretching Things to assume all other Plot Focused keyblades were ALSO fished out from Riku's Heart.

Perhaps Riku's Heart simply conjured new keyblades in response to Sora's Heart taking in new quests: Riku's Heart supplying keys to the metaphoric doors of Sora's Heart Hotel.

It is more likely, however, that the "new" keyblade wielded by Riku (the one currently known as "Braveheart") is a manifestation of SORA'S Heart: Riku entrusted his crown & his heart to Sora, first on the night of the Meteor Shower & then on the night the Islands Fell; Sora, in turn, entrusted his sword & heart to Riku. It explains how each boy readily wields the keyblade of the other & fits within the theme of their hearts beating in sych.

Riku choosing Sora, Riku's entrusting his Heart (literally & figuratively) with Sora, resulted in Destiny Itself 'choosing' Sora: if Riku represents Kingdom Hearts, the subject of his love would naturally become beloved by the Worlds in turn.

Sora acting as "[the] One Sky, One Destiny" due to Sora having the 'Heart' of Destiny through its child (Riku)'s love.

Sora is not only Riku's Dearly Beloved, Sora is THE "Dearly Beloved": beloved by the Worlds, entrusted with their Hearts & appointed their Savior. And all because, dull and ordinary boy that he may be, it is Sora's naturally normal self that Riku fell in love with. Sora may not be any more innately special than anyone else but Sora is special to RIKU, the love between them (knowingly or not) serving as the driving force of their stories & of Destiny itself.

[mr-deblob]

Just a thought, but what if the Quadratum Riku’s currently jumped to isn’t the Quadratum that Sora’s stuck in? They both look like Tokyo, but real-world locales have been used in fiction all the time. Verum Rex looks based in Tokyo too. The games aren’t strangers to the idea of multiple iterations of the same world.

So maybe Riku traveled to the Quadratum of Verum Rex while Sora’s one step further into his unreality/our reality. Maybe Yozora’s guarding the portal to the “truer” Quadratum and is keeping an eye on Riku because of that, knowing that someone who comes from that side of reality is searching for the Sora he’s meant to save/protect.

[embraceyourdestiny]

tell me about the two vanitases. vaniti

Post I made a while ago about it (might be slightly awkward / messy bc it’s from 2 years ago) :)

Essentially, at the end of bbs Vanitas and ven have a “battle of hearts” (similar to Roxas and sora in kh2) and Vanitas, as the weaker heart, loses and retreats back into his “origin”, ven’s heart. We see sparkles dissipate into vens stain glass, signifying that Vanitas has become embedded into ven’s heart. THEN ven becomes embedded in Sora’s heart, thus making a sort of matryoshka effect inside of sora;

sora<-(inside, ven [<-inside, vanitas])

Cut to ddd where sora is DEEP inside his own heart and thus coming across a lot of shit embedded within. Including Vanitas who appears as a fractured vision saying Sora’s heart is a prison “even if he’s not the prisoner.” Upon hearing this most people’s immediate thought would be *terra/aqua voice* ven!! But most people miss the hidden layer (cleverness intended) that would also mean Vanitas since he’s inside ven. Of course if someone is locked inside a prisoner in jail that also means they’re in the prison, whether them also being locked up was intentional or not

Cut to kh3. The first instance we see Vanitas is monsters inc. but we don’t see Vanitas first, we see the manifestation of his power because as he explains he needed enough energy to come back to life. The clever part about this is this only happens because sora is there with ven in his heart, thus physically bringing Vanitas’s heart to a place where he can regenerate and, if the plan works out, extract himself/ven from Sora’s body. There’s an extra bonus that the power becomes even more potent by upsetting sora and therefor having a STRONG sense of negativity which had been building in our poor boy all game, and as Ansem The Wise said, sora is able to make things be real and that means he was able to make Vanitas come back to life without whatever Xehanort did to make him, even though he didn’t mean to

Then Vanitas gets bodied by scully and thrown into a door, seemingly gone forever

Then like 3 seconds later we see him again in the land of departure. But. Wait. Didn’t scully just throw him to somewhere in Connecticut?

Act II: The second Vanitas

This Vanitas is a replica Xehanort pulled from the post. Xehanort had no fucking clue where Vanitas went after bbs bc he just disappears and honestly he clearly didn’t care because hes always known could just make another one so he does. The reason I know this isn’t monsters inc Vanitas is because one that’s impossible, it was 100% intentional this scene happens after yeetus Vanitas, and two Vanitas acts. Different. For one he’s much more brazen than he was in MI, instead of just his long winded monologuing he’s actually goading them on and being arrogant and feisty and trying to fight, immediately transporting us back to the kind of personality he had before. You know. Ven kicked his ass. And he also teleports and does magic and is way stronger than MI Vanitas because that Vanitas had just formed. There’s no possible way he had all his strength back after being rebirthed for 3 seconds so the fact that he was able to hold his own against aqua who’s been fighting nonstop for 10 years definitely raises an eyebrow and points to this theory because how was that possible and why didn’t he fight in MI if this was the case.

Some people have pointed out that it’s weird Vanitas wears a cloak of darkness in MI and thinking about it I think there’s two answers. The first is he was weak and I think it’s possible the cloak could protect him, esp if he’s not fully darkness anymore bc he has his own heart, has regenerated on his own instead of being extracted by Xehanort’s dark power, and was touched by two very powerful lights for like 10 years (they probably got their light cooties on him lol) and two, I think he was hiding from Xehanort. Vanitas likely knew of his plan since his conception even though he might not have fully understood was it was and therefore he would’ve known what was going on in kh3 and been like “shit. I’m not following the plan bc I’m not even a part of the plan anymore so Xehanort can’t find out.” Because if you remember in com DiZ says the cloaks can hide you from anyone and if Xehanort knew Vanitas was back he would at the very least force him to do his plan again or at the worst destroy him because he’s an unknown factor

Then sora fights replica Vanitas and he goes back into the past and somewhere out there Vanitas is walking around the streets of New York (or shibuya) having no clue what the fuck is going on

So yes. Two Vanitases bc we can’t get enough of this boy. Two of them

[violethowler]

I am firmly of the opinion that the idea behind the New Seven Hearts in Kingdom Hearts 3 makes perfect sense and is entirely consistent with the themes of the narrative. In a series that consistently hammers in the message that light and darkness cannot exist without each other and must ideally be in balance, and how there is always darkness in every heart, the idea that there are at least seven people at a time who are naturally devoid of any darkness whatsoever throughout their entire lives from birth to death sticks out as contradictory to this messaging.

So the idea that it’s a temporary position that’s passed on from person to person without requiring the previous holder to die first makes a ton of sense in light of the symbolism behind what light and darkness represent that I’ve talked about multiple times in my Constructing Kingdoms videos: Light in KH fundamentally represents focus on others and darkness represents focus on yourself, with the conflict between the two representing conflicts like selfless vs selfishness, community vs isolation, conformity vs individuality, etc.

In that context, the idea that being a heart of pure light is a temporary state works as a potential metaphor for how even the most selfless people who are constantly doing things to help others around them still naturally have to take time to take care of their own needs – physically, mentally, and emotionally – or else they’ll ultimately burn out. (There are also a few meta elements when you factor in the workings of the KH universe when it comes to the Disney worlds, but I’ll save those for later so i don't get distracted lol).

However...

I do think it's a missed opportunity that we were introduced to the idea through the Organization going after new Princesses in KH3, rather than through BBS dropping the bombshell that Minnie was a PoH in the pre-KH1 era.

Think about it.

In her KH2 escort mission she exclusively light-based magic, and her attempt to seal off the Disney Castle audience chamber demonstrates a knowledge of how to ward off darkness, similar to how six of the Seven Princesses in KH1 were able to hold back the darkness coming out of the Final Keyhole using their own power until Sora returned to seal the Keyhole. Her sealing of the audience chamber not being effective at keeping out Heartless could even be retroactively explained by her Light magic being weaker after she gave up her PoH power.

A single mention of Minnie being a PoH in the BBS era would be enough to plant the possibility in players’ minds of more Princesses outside of the 7 we’d already seen without taking away screentime and narrative focus from the Wayfinder trio’s story.

Nomura has talked about how he likes giving players things to think about and speculate over when it comes to the story in the games that he's been involved in, and the fact that Minnie is obviously still alive in the present-day narrative would’ve given fans tons of questions to speculate over as we waited for KH3:

Did this mean that Princesses can pass on their pure light status without dying the way that similar mantles commonly work in a lot of fantasy media? Or is she still a PoH in the present day and there were always more than just the seven that Maleficent needed to open the door to Kingdom Hearts in KH1?

Would we be seeing new Princesses in KH3? And if so, would it be a new set of seven, or will some of the PoH we know be keeping their positions a little longer?

If we do get new Princesses in KH3, would we get to see the transition happen or would it just happen off-screen between games? Did the ones who passed their mantle on already do so and we just didn’t know it?

Would any of the new Official Disney Princesses be Princesses of Heart if or when they appeared in KH? If so, which ones?

If not the new Official Princesses, what about Mulan, Ariel, Tinkerbell, or Esmeralda – the few Official Princesses (the latter two of which only formerly) – to appear in KH but not be a PoH? Would any of them become one in the future? Or were they former ones who had already passed on their mantles like Minnie had?

And since Alice’s inclusion in KH1 means that being an Official Disney Princess is not a prerequisite for PoH status, what other iconic female characters from Disney properties – both those that had already shown up in KH and those who had yet to appear – might be candidates for former or future PoH?

Imagine how excited people would've been if Larxene's line in the KH3 trailers about Elsa being one of the New Seven Hearts was confirmation of theories that the fandom had been debating back and forth over for almost a decade, rather than introducing a whole new concept that most fans had never thought of before.

[heartkade]

Thinking about that one theory of Luxu taking Brain’s body and sending his heart to the future. If true, it shows how important Brain is & how caring Luxu as a person is. (thoughts continued below)

We already know Luxu was super worried and cared about the Dandelions from the beginning. Throughout all the events he watched over their safety.

But he didn’t just watch, he directly involved himself with them (when he shouldn’t have, thus making him the traitor)

Imagine how Luxu felt when the first Dandelion he actually gets to speak to is during the apocalypse… and it’s a kid who says he’s sacrificing himself to make sure at least his friends can live on in the new world.

Luxu throughout his observing must’ve been very impressed by Brain, who put all the puzzle pieces together and remained coolheaded in the face of extreme danger. Because he did not want this kid to die.

So going by the theory, right then & there he yoinked Brain’s body and sent his heart to the future, where Brain could be spared from the destruction, be recompleted and given the chance to live.

Bc realistically, Brain would have likely Not survived the total collapse minutes later without a lifeboat.

And Luxu’s personal thoughts on self-sacrifice has persisted to present day (the below text is from his official character file set during that one KH3 Olympus scene)

-

Luxu kept the naming pattern of his subsequent vessels really similar from what we can tell, too (Bragi, Braig).

I really doubt he selects only people who have the letters B-R-A-I in their names by coincidence. I think he names his vessels purposefully this way. What if it’s to remember Brain?

With Luxu going through so many lifetimes, maybe he wanted to ensure Brain’s memory was never forgotten in all of those years. Maybe this contributed to Brain’s later revival in Scala, since to be recompleted, there must be a person at the destination who remembers you.

Though since Luxu still does this, perhaps it’s really in honor of Brain? The Dandelion from the age of fairytales, who was his first vessel kickstarting a very long saga. Because without Brain’s sharp thinking, the Dandelion leaders wouldn’t have escaped & the current world of Kingdom Hearts as we know it… would not exist.

We also don’t know if those two met again (maybe they created a plan) and what other major stuff Brain does in Missing-Link! I can’t wait to find out!

[mythicalartistx]

Strelitzia is actually Experiment X and it's not hard to see why

Since Skuld being Experiment X is almost disproved because of the time stamps relating to Missing Link... I have another theory

Who X truly is that nobody else have ever thought of—

It's Strelitzia

But first I'm going to discuss why Skuld theory no longer works

Spoilers for Melody of Memory, Union X, and Luxu's identity

There is a theory that Skuld is X, the person that was founded by Ansem and experimented on. X is also what drove Isa (Saïx) and Lea (Axel) to do what they did. They often talked to her and planned to help her escape but before they could she was moved. they planned to infiltrate the organization to save her, however they soon lost sight of what their goal was.

In Missing Link it is noted it is place full of Ephemer's descendants. However, in Dark Road, Xehanort has a "dream" vision when talking to (Player) of the adventures Player had and refers that a girl with dark hair (Skuld) looking like his mom.

It is noted that X had amnesia and it seems many people after going through the time travel pods loose memories. Kairi who was experimented and forced to travel to destiny Islands forgot her memories as well. Ven forgot his memories (though it could be from abuse from Xehanort and being separated from Vanitas). But Player also loses their memories in KHML

Which is why it makes the most sense that Strelitzia is X.

It's probably implied they get together. Now his mother is implied to be Skuld meaning they had kids and then she has Xehanort awhile afterwards. This means after their time something happens for her and the others to come back. It wouldn't make sense for her to be X and then go back to Ephemer.

But what if he also took her to Ansem and he did experiments on her. After all, Luxu helped showed where Terra—Xehanort was so how come he couldn't do the same for Experiment X. Ansem then did experiments on her. After that Luxu eventually took her and brought her to Quadratum where she stays.

Strelitzia dies but after the dandelions go off, many of the characters see Strelitzia. It is even shown that Luxu or maybe even MOM might have taken Strelitzia somewhere else such as the Quadratum... Where we do end up seeing her in the KH4 trailer

It adds up the most and there's little reason why it can't work.

[ok4ru]

People keep saying Remus is Kairi Grandpa and I agree with it but I think it would make sense if he was Kairi great- great Grandpa.

This is the only way it makes sense to me:

Remus> Remus son> Remus grandkid kid> Kairi!

"But, wouldn't Kairi's mother be around Eraqus and Xehanort age then? No, I believe Kairi Grandma is Master Ava and that she came around after the events of Dark Road.

(I can make a post but not now...)

So, she may be somewhat around or close to their ages then. Ava could have met Remus kid eventually and dated then had a kid around the time Xehanort and Eraqus probably finally Masters.

Which has to be true because by the point of Eraqus, Xehanort and Kairi Grandma are really old in BBS... (Eraqus has to be the youngest he looks 40 or 50 some who...)

As for being related to Remus he could also be related to his brother or one of his kids we don't know how many he has btw!!

[ohonama]

the true kh3 remind ending is a mix of both.

and i can prove it.

taken from the good and bad endings respectively of kh3 re:mind. notice the exact same shot usage. sora on the bottom when yozora disappears. yozora on the bottom when sora disappears, followed by a pan out, and a flash of light. the good ending has sora back in the final world and yozora WAKING UP IN QUADRATUM (who wakes up there anyway, ignorant of endings, but keep reading!) (this is specifically important because sora in the good ending is still, supposedly, trapped in the final world. however, if the bad ending were real, it would give us a legitimate explanation as to why sora is in quadratum in kh4.) (assumably) (this is important!!!) even focus is drawn to each characters respective left arm, with yozora losing his as he disappears first, same exact thing with sora. luxord going “impressive, is it not?” as yozora looks around outside the car.

i’d like to remind you of the kingdom hearts 4 trailer: sora woke up in quadratum. who didn’t return to the final world in the “bad ending” of kh3 remind? sora. who disappeared in a similar way to yozora in remind? sora. yozora woke up in quadratum, and it appeared to be his first time there (“impressive, is it not”!!) from luxord’s words. who woke up in quadratum, his first time there, and was immediately presented with a view of the city? sora.

these parallels are INTENSE. they’re in your face when you notice them. sora waking up in quadratum directly parallels the good ending for re:mind, with yozora having been the one to wake up.

so, to say, in short:

sora was crystallised, and due to the parallels with yozora, we can say in confidence that nomura is probably mixing both endings, to have both yozora and sora in quadratum. this is why sora wakes up in quadratum, because yozora disappeared, and he too woke up in quadratum.

thank u, next.

edit:

of course, yozora DOES wake up in the bad ending too, but it’s likely just a whole establishment, he would’ve woken up anyway. in fact, him being awake even in the bad ending cements to me that yozora isn’t just “in the final world” no he’s ALSO in quadratum. like. yozora’s was a dream. sora’s was very much, probably, real! because he used the power of waking. yozora wakes up differently in the kh3 bad ending for remind, luxord doesn’t wake him up, in fact, there’s nothing said at ALL but these parallels are too intense to ignore. also cements to me that nomura is mixing the endings about and throwing it up into the air. yozora beats sora, or sora beats yozora, at the cost of themselves within this final world dream-place thing, both wake up in quadratum. i simply made this post because i wanted to toss my hat in the ring on the whole “remind ending.”

so yeah. sora gets crystallised, yozora disappears and wakes back up, but the important thing is there’s a parallel present here: they both went out similarly within the final world, and both woke up in quadratum with a SUPPOSED immediate ally. hell, yozora could’ve just disappeared after beating sora, but due to the whole “file name” i’d like to believe sora defeats yozora, and then something happens to him (be it he disappears, or is crystallised) but either way, they both woke up the same way, went out the same way, and are both in quadratum. that’s the important part of this theory.

my point is, i suppose: yozora would’ve woken up anyway, but the bad ending was the catalyst for sora’s own awakening in quadratum. it’s likely he wouldn’t have awoken had he stayed in the final world.

both endings are quite literally leaking into eachother. bleeding into one another. both endings are true. both are real. but only one is the reason sora is in quadratum, and that’s the bad ending. likely, the one yozora dreams while in the car. (the true ending being both what sora could’ve dreamt of happening, but the “true true” ending is a mix of the two dreams.)

[luridaemos]

i have a theory that maybe vanitas is actually sora's darkness now that was know he's not ven's..?

it's been in my mind for so long for so so so long but when you realize that kingdom hearts 1 when sora turns into a shadow all kairi does is return his form back to normal, right? right.

returns him to normal BUT he's still just a heartless. he's just a heart like ansem. end of kh1 is just humanoid heartless vs humanoid heartless right? right.

so it's not until kh2 when he meets up with roxas and he returns that sora is completed right? bc that was the whole point, sora wasn't complete so that's why xion and roxas had to go back it wasn't just his memories but sora himself. right.

so that whole time during 2 sora has anti form up until the end, which essentially is him using too much power and essentially fluctuating between his heartless form and himself. nomura himself confirmed it's due to becoming a heartless in 1 and that story-wise it's due to using too much power... it represents his darkness. right.

he also said that rage form is something different to anti-form. that it's representative of his anger. emotions.

and yknow who shows up in 3 when that debuted? the man of emotions himself:

so all this just to say i've been thinking about how both ven and van are from years into the past, and that vanitas ultimately wasn't ventus' to begin with. (ventus was a being of pure light if I'm understanding correctly.)

vanitas' form was created before either of them met sora too. it's stated that vanitas was removed from ventus and then ventus then went to meet sora. so where did vanitas' form actually come from?

it's possible that:

ventus was able to transform him into a sora clone simply because fate said so, it was always meant to happen like the closed loop for heart ansem sending young xehanort to scala.

ventus somehow was able to alter vanitas' form after the removal while inside of sora's heart

vanitas' form looked like this before the Darkness hivemind was separated/fragmented

so i'm thinking if Sora continues to have the rage form ability or some kind of upgraded emotion-based darkness form... maybe it's related to vanitas somehow? either something removed from sora and sent into the past or something that grows from sora and into something like vanitas? it very well could just be that vanitas' return, sora's rage form, their confrontation being in monsters inc which has swapped to "this ships runs on happy faces" + yeeting vanitas, sora seeing vanitas' face, sora refusing to accept that vanitas chose to be darkness is all just to show the player sora's emotional state.

that sora himself refuses to acknowledge the darkness' that he harbors could be bad in any way, avoids confronting his negative emotions properly, and feeding into the toxic positivity that he's carried since the first game...

but idk i think it'd be really interesting if that's a deeper reason for why vanitas looks the way he does. that he could potentially be darkness that sora had cast aside and stuck with ventus long enough to essentially become intertwined with him. idk i also kind of think this could go along with MoM's whole thing of wanting to get as far away from Darkness as possible. sora's on a path to rejecting darkness in his heart, but with guidance from riku who went through accepting his own it's possible that maybe sora's meant to be the one to accept vanitas as he is instead of ventus.

if anyone has thoughts about this lemme know, i'd love to see others thoughts

[royalberryriku]

I have so many thoughts about Namine and Ventus rn but all I'll say is potential parallel between Namine and Strelitzia, and how this could mean Namine is in danger of the same things repeating or just having some sort of future parallel associated with Strelitzia.

Particularly with how Namine is connected to the Book of Prophecies like we see with Jiminy's Journal in Coded (imo maybe because Kairi is a princess of heart and has some sort of connection to the OG X-Blade and maybe Lux and all that??), but especially just the concept that maybe Kairi, Ventus and Namine will all be the ones in more danger form Darkness and how this, specifically, may offer a way for Repliku and Vanitas to return of their own volition, potentially from the Realm of Darkness since it was made more or less clear that dark beings go there when defeated (Maleficent and Repliku post Chain of Memories for example). Though as for how one would do this, seeing as Vexen stated that escaping by yourself is almost impossible, I still can't help but wonder. Especially seeing how much it would work with their development as characters and actually pushing them to consider if they really don't want to exist or if they do but want to escape the pain of their circumstances. It would also work well with exploring how darkness can be a way for hearts to protect itself from breaking/ being harmed: like how anger born from fear is literally just the fight reaction of fight or flight, and just generally the whole "light within darkness; darkness within light" analogy.

This is very unorganised but I have a lot of thoughts here and I'm just very. Thinky rn at around 12:30am-ish lmao

[strange-poet]

Alright so for some reason i have been thinking of kingdom hearts right? (obvs not procrastinating on my book right?) and i accidentally came up with a crazy theory that may or may not make all of the kingdom hearts lore no longer be so chaotic and senseless... although its been a while since i played a game so i may not be correct?

The theory itself began as a question, What exactly IS kingdom hearts? A location? An Entity? I don't know! So i began to think about it... Kingdom hearts- SPECIFICALLY THE OPENING OF IT- Has taken on many shapes! No solid form... right? So maybe not a location specifically... Then I thought about it more, And remembered that the only time kingdom hearts is presented as a place is in the first game. (work with me on this ok, be patient) I thought about it more and began compose an idea Kingdom Hearts itself, and some cools ideas... So lets take a look at the first game for a sec... Maleficent Tries to open it by gathering the Purest heart from each planet right? but somehow wasn't fully successful until the final moments, these being the times that sora is present, And Kingdom hearts needed to be closed from the inside and out right? (this makes ZERO sense without the rest of my theory so please be patient!!) So I kept thinking, and eventually came to a point...

"What if you couldn't just OPEN kingdom hearts... What if there needed to be steps taken beforehand"

Think about it, IN BOTH OF THE OTHER TWO GAMES, KINGDOM HEARTS IS A GIANT HEART IN THE SKY... But this isn't all of the theory... This gets crazier somehow! Thought about it some more and discovered that Where Maleficent went wrong was that she tried to open the door without the needed steps taken beforehand. She needed to "unlock" more "doors" first... And this is where the events of 2 and 3 come into play Xehanort (thats his name right?) and co. have realized Maleficent's mistakes and are trying to open Kingdom hearts the correct way... I have a feeling that in kh2 they succeeded in opening the first door, same goes for kh3... but there are also more doors as well so we're safe for now. But of course... I kept thinking about this story right? and I came up with a little story idea that i think is cool!

So you know how Each of the doors had to be opened with a different key? What if the final doors "key" was Sora. Thats why, despite all of his training and efforts, he's still not a master. Because he can't, he's meant for a different purpose. Heres my idea, Remember all of those people who stayed in "Sora's heart Hotel" or whatever? yeah, they were in Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom hearts isn't a Location, It's a consciousness (or a form of subconscious). A place where your mind goes when seeking protection. Sora is the only one who can enter without permission or a key... Because he IS the key. All of the times Riku, Mickey, Aqua or someone else entered Kingdom Hearts for a mission, they were subconsciously given permission by Sora to DO SO! Sora can't learn to properly wield the Keyblade because the Keyblade is the Symbol of Kingdom hearts-Its chose weapon of protection- If the Key of Kingdom Hearts used a Keyblade, it be a walking beacon ("Hey look here, I'm the key to kingdom hearts, come kidnap me and use my power against me and my friends!")

Anyone who was in Sora's heart was in there for one reason, Protection, whether it be for themselves or a mission/cause. I dont know why but i love this idea!?

[unchained-dual-key]

Kingdom Hearts Predictions

Everyone is trying to come up with a way to stop the eternal clash between light and darkness, but are taking different paths to find the answer. Apparently only Sora has the real answer or, at least, is the key to finding and acting it out. Personally, I think the answer is as simple as love because duh, love is the answer to many things, especially when dealing with Disney. I think Sora’s role is to teach everyone’s heart on how to love, once he has found it out himself. It’s canon information that Sora doesn’t understand it yet. If he is the key to their survival like King Mickey was telling everyone he was, then he needs to understand love first. Riku may also be another key to the puzzle because he made great strides to be the only person to walk either light nor darkness, but somewhere in between. He works with darkness instead of shunning it. Riku’s role might be to teach Sora about the darkness within him, guiding him to be like Riku, or maybe something better. By loving yourself, your light qualities and dark qualities, too.

They will answer the meteor shower promise. If it was really made only between Sora and Riku, then the story has to give us the answers to the following questions. What that promise was made between Riku and Sora? Why was a charm given and if it was the crown necklace? Who made the promise to who? Or was it an equal exchange of promises? The other person who knows the truth of what happen that night is Namine. Sora forgot that he had fogotten AND THEN forgets again! Riku remembers though. Remember in KH3 during his first visit in the RoD to save Aqua, he says, “‘Strength to protect what matters…’ It reminds me of a promise I made,” The only reason I don’t think he was referring to Terra is because the only promises we hear made that day was Terra telling Riku to keep his bequeathing a secret. Riku telling The King about his bequeathing won’t really impact anything, so…yeah. Anyway, maybe that’s why Sora still hasn’t been able to say thank you to Namine. He still doesn’t know what he should really be thanking her for. He just knows that’s something he has to check off his box. If I was to guess, when Sora does remember he will thank Namine for restoring that tampered with memory.

We will get closure on the hidden misery and despair Riku is still experiencing. We are all assuming it’s unrequited love and him suppressing how he feels toward Sora. I say this because Riku says he changed from being the big brother figure to Sora, but don’t know when that happened.

KH Character Files, Riku’s story.

And Sora saying something similar after comparing Elsa and Anna’s love for each between Him and Riku. He thinks the love he feels for Riku is different than Anna and Elsa’s love. It isn’t the love they share between two siblings.

[mr-deblob]

The True Light in Deepest Darkness, the True Darkness in Brightest Light

Or how the Master of Master will win his war

Kingdom Hearts 3's ending has heavily implied that the main antagonists of upcoming arc will be the Lost Masters themselves. So far, the series has heavily focused on a Light vs. Darkness narrative, with the villains having all used darkness for evil, maybe amoral purposes at best. Now many people are anticipating light to take the spotlight as the driving force behind the Lost Masters' philosophy, especially since we've been told that the goal of his plan is to truly and utterly destroy darkness, to remove it from the world entirely.

Union Cross, Back Cover, and Dark Road have all given small glimpses into what exactly this plan entails, but we haven't gotten quite enough to piece together the entire picture. It's clear that Sora must be a part of this plan, that there's some reason he ended up in Quadratum where seemingly the Master of Masters is preparing for the next step in his scheme.

Though we're walking completely blind into the Lost Master Arc, I've come up with a general outline of his plan, one that'll hopefully tie all the elements we know of together. And if it's revealed to be anything close to what's written here, I expect it to be as cold, manipulative, and ruthless as the Master of Masters himself.

A Plan of Absolute Necessities

The Master of Masters has waged a long war against the true darknesses, the only known survivor of the True Darknesses' attack on his allies. He's spent the rest of his life coming up with a plan that would destroy them once and for all, stopping at absolutely nothing to achieve it. His steps so far have consisted of:

Knowing that Darkness could not be destroyed without form, he recruited six apprentices whose hearts he molded to trap the seven strongest Darknesses inside them and himself.

Manipulated his apprentices to start the Keyblade War to sow intense emotions in their hearts as bait for Darkness, causing the deaths of countless young Keyblade wielders.

Inciting Xehanort to pursue his idea of remaking the world in balance, ultimately causing countless worlds to be plunged into darkness and upturning many more lives in the process.

Ultimately plans to end all those trapping True Darkness within their hearts to defeat it once and for all. Given Baldr's fate, it's almost certain that they will die.

He's already consigned himself and many others to the fate he foretold for the sake of his war. Although the effects of some of these were undone or allayed, his absolute lack of remorse is unnerving.

Following that cold train of logic as far as I can follow and looking at the current state of things, I've made certain hypotheses about his next steps:

The Master of Masters will attempt to have any remaining members of True Darkness bound into vessels.

He will gather these vessels in Quadratum, the unreality of the Kingdom Hearts universe, and have them all struck down.

Sora is going to try and be turned into a vessel for True Darkness by manipulating his care for his friends and his low self-worth.

When a being from another reality dies in one that isn't theirs, their heart completely disappears alongside anything within it.

I can't say for certain exactly how he plans to carry these steps out, but I'm going to theorize about the details of each step and the implications that has for the already-existing cast.

Vessels of True Darkness

While formless, Darkness cannot be destroyed, but without form, Darkness begins to lose their sense of being and individual will. They've likely survived by possessing different people and particularly target hearts experiencing intense emotions to feed on, especially negative emotions. It's also likely that they prefer the brightest hearts that don't easily give into darkness, wanting to inhabit a form as long as they can.

Given the reemergence of the Lost Masters in the Realm of Light, it's very possible that the Master of Masters will charge them with finding suitable vessels and locking True Darkness away in their heart.

Of the six remaining Darknesses, four are currently trapped in the Realm Between within a data-gate, one is/was locked away in Ventus' heart, and one remains missing. I'd assume that defeating Darkness would require gathering them all in one place- something akin to the Princesses of Heart opening the Final Keyhole in KH1.

The Master of Masters told us that a Darkness can be held within a heart strong enough to resist its influence and one that experiences extremely intense and painful emotions to draw the Darkness in. One way to do this would be to set up the whole Union Cross/Back Cover saga, but he probably doesn't have time for that now.

So it's likely that the Lost Masters will be scouring the Realm of Light looking for/inducing the perfect candidates to seal Darkness, alongside locating the Darknesses unaccounted for.

This can be the reason to introduce more of the New Seven Hearts, as there's still three unaccounted for. Their hearts are naturally unable to be touched by darkness, and if they're put into extremely trying or traumatic circumstances, that would make them into the perfect cages for Darkness.

Plus, the newer movies have presented a number of potential candidates that could check those boxes. I have two guesses for which of the New Hearts could be targeted.

Anna going through Frozen 2 definitely goes through some Moments, literally sings a whole song about feeling trapped in the darkness of despair and trying to seek the light of hope nonetheless.

And Encanto, if it gets in, will most likely have one of the Hearts. Though I don't think it'd be Mirabel, but Alma who holds the pure light. In her darkest hour, her love and pain was powerful enough to fuel a light that saved her people, making her strive to keep that miracle (light) burning. Would also lend itself well to metaphors about how too much fixation on light can blind you and cause those around you to hide their shadows. Plus, it'd be neat to see an elderly woman be part of one of the metaphysical concepts keeping the universe together.

Disney worlds not directly involved with finding vessels could be turned into securing the Darknesses as well. And if there's truth to Vanitas coming from true Darkness, that'll spell trouble for the Wayfinder Trio. Though maybe it'll show that these supposedly incomprehensible beings still have hearts themselves, that deep within the darkness, there's a light that still hasn't gone out.

Speaking of, it's possible that the inverse of that is true. Perhaps that's what the MoM is counting on regarding Sora.

A Perfect Light of Self-Sacrifice

It's no secret that Sora's got a lot of problems he's been pushing down for a while. KH3 just showed us how little he cares about his own existence compared to the value he sees in his friends. He's always trying to be their light, make sure that they're fine, that they know they deserve to exist and live their own lives. There's no way he could burden them with his own shadows, not when their issues are already so hard for them to deal with.

So he keeps on shining and pushes that darkness down where it won't be seen. It's impossible for him to completely contain, though, as Anti-Form and Rage Form are small glimpses into the depth of that darkness- anger, pain, destroying himself for the greater good. until he locks it away once more.

Now in Quadratum, this strange world that he and Strelitzia aren't really meant to be in as Fictional relative to the world. The MoM described it as a place not ruled by neither Light nor Darkness. And yet we see a Darkside landing in Shibuya, something the people of Quadratum likely have never experienced before. So where did it come from?

Perhaps Sora's darkness is leaking out into this world now, and without the natural light inherent in the Realm of Light, the Heartless(?) it manifests are powerful, potent, anguished. It's mere presence is enough to start destroying the surrounding area.

It's very unlikely that the darkness stems from either Strelitzia or the Masters. She's seemingly lived in Quadratum for a while since she got sent out over 100 years ago during Union Cross and the people don't look used to Heartless at all. As for the Masters, since they have Darkness locked in their hearts, it's doubtful they could release darkness themselves without risking their prisoners escaping.

If true, then it'd make him the perfect person to manipulate for containing and destroying Darkness. Imagine the Master of Masters, snarky and serious, telling Sora that he's the reason the people of Quadratum are in danger. Tells Sora about his plan to have the vessels all destroyed to defeat darkness, tells him that there's a way to do it where only one person has to sacrifice themself, that solves every issue.

He proposes that Sora act to contain all the True Darknesses inside his own heart, the shining beacon filled with irresistible pain, capable of holding so many hearts without losing himself to them. The brightest light where the True Darkness can sleep. This might even draw the missing 13th Darkness to him and complete the plan.

Pass the Darkness from each vessel to him, make sure that no one else has to suffer the whims of darkness ever again, free the people of both the Realm of Light and Quadratum from this immortal enemy. If he takes them with him in this world where he isn't real, not meant to exist, then there's no way for his heart to return to Kingdom Hearts and pass along. He'll destroy them forever alongside himself.

And Strelitzia might be the MoM's insurance to make sure Sora goes through with it. After all, she's an innocent who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, living alone in this world for so long. Her brother's waiting for her on the other side of reality, and Sora can be the portal that can get her back to where she belongs, where people who love her wait for her return.

Just let the Master of Masters open his heart, open the door, and everything will be solved. He can refuse, but how many more people will get hurt the longer he puts this off? Is it fair for him to deny Strelitzia the life she deserves just so he can live? Is Sora really that selfish that he'd place himself over the fate of two realities?

"You're the key, the kindling for the fire that burns away all shadows. Everyone will have you to thank for giving them a life of peace, of light. You'll be the morning star, the light that rises every day to tell the world 'you don't need to fear the dark.' It'll be simple. Barely even hurt. So? What's your answer?"

Tl;dr: MoM is gonna try and make Sora die for everyone's sins, and the boy's not that far from agreeing to it.

[24blogs]

sooooo has anyone else thought about this?

Like at the end of Re:Mind, Xigbar/Luxu/Whatever his name is never faded away. He "fell to his death" off camera. He should still be half nort right? Luxu's heart is probably stronger but it's still a fusion heart right? Maybe I'm misremembering things...just correct me in tags or smth

i know Nomura said he was done with Xehanort but Nomura can lie.

We're gonna be dealing with the foretellers and their master soon and the whole plan was to give darknesses form so they could be eradicated. So wouldn't the one extracted from Luxu look like Xehanort? (For the body shenanigans Luxu expels the OG heart out if i remember correctly)

ah whatever *spits this into the void*