#of lux and daybreak (union x)

[tiny-cloud-of-flowers]

Despite her attempts to collect herself, it took Aria a long time of letting tears fall and letting herself purr before she could finally speak again. When she did so, her voice sounded somewhat hoarse, but it was still unmistakeable as hers.

"You.. would really love something like me.." she was mumbling.

"Of *course* I would! And do..!" Clio said back, keeping her own voice light in return. "I'm always gonna be here for you, Ari. And I'm just.. so so glad that you're okay.."

She trailed off and started crying again, this time fully with joy and relief.

(Anyone is welcome to comment on and/or reblog my work if they want to, as long as my DNI is respected)

Tag list: @starlit-selfships | @edencantstopfallininlove | @yoomtahsgf | @sunlight-ships | @dragonsmooch | @thatslikesometaldude | @kuroiikamen | @artificervaldi | @keyblade-ships | @seahydra | @dmclr | @neuvilline

(If you would like to be tagged in any of my future work, please use this form!)

Thank you kindly to anyone who has taken the time to look at this ^-^

[flowering-darkness]

so I may or may not have been selfshipping with Aqua for over six years now

[void-kissed]

"Get away from her!"

This is just a render of Clio fighting a powerful opponent during a mission of some kind, and then Aria very quickly and hurriedly coming in to protect her out of nowhere. I may have gone slightly overboard with the AutoLuminous on the second image, but it works well, right? ^~^

Tag list: @dragonsmooch | @sol-rbs | @bugsband | @sunlight-ships | @stargazer-sims | @darkseeker | @detective-with-one-arm | @deepsea-loves | @mxrealman | @artificervaldi | @thatslikesometaldude (To be tagged in my work in the future, please see this post!)

(Anyone is welcome to comment on and reblog my work if desired, as long as my DNI is respected! An alternate image is under the readmore.)

This is just an extra bonus image to show how Clio looks in the second render, since.. you kind of can't really see her over Aria swooping in, haha

[dxrk-storm]

нєα∂¢αηση: тнє ∂αякηєѕѕ

Catching up on some Union X cutscenes after far too long and rewatching Re:Mind sparked an idea--

While Venitas is technically one entity, it wasn’t always that way. In fact, it was never meant to be that way at all, even if Xehanort had (sort of) planned as such. Vanitas was never truly intended to become an essential part of Ventus, or even become “anyone” at all. That was never Darkness’ plan. But hearts . . . they’re funny and complicated things.

Before Xehanort discovered Ventus asleep in a strange machine on a 𝐑 𝐀 𝐃 𝐈 𝐀 𝐍 𝐓 world, Ventus’ memory is entirely blank. The old master could glean nothing from the boy when he woke--not how he got there, not why he was there, barely even a name. All Ventus could remember was his name, and a book.

While the mention of a book interested Xehanort, more intriguing to him was the boy’s unsettlingly dark aura. It was a darkness that ran so deep that had he not been engaging with Ventus already, Xehanort might’ve believed there to be no light within him at all. And within that, he saw potential.

In his reports in Birth by Sleep, Xehanort touts he intended Ventus to be his new vessel. And through the course of Birth by Sleep we learn that for his plan to work, his intended vessel must have enough darkness in their heart to be considered “similar” enough to his own for the change to take. Xehanort tried to draw that out of Ventus and make him utilize his hidden dark power, but couldn’t do so, resulting in Xehanort extracting Vanitas by force for Plan B: the X-blade.

But what Xehanort failed to realize was that the dark power he sensed within Ventus was never his to begin with. What he sensed was an entirely different entity than mere dark power alone, but a fragment of the Darkness itself, brought along by Ventus from his forgotten past when the Dandelions sent him forward. And this was the true nature of Vanitas.

But like Ventus, the fragment of Darkness could remember little, if anything.

Back when Ventus existed in Daybreak Town, working alongside other wielders and gathering Lux to keep their world safe, he was a meek, almost cowardly child. Weak. And he yearned for greater strength. The Darkness yearned for a peek into the Master of Masters’ plans. Ventus was an unassuming sort, unnoticed or unremembered by most--and Darkness saw in him opportunity.

That yearning for strength was the one chink in the armor otherwise guarding Ventus’ heart from being overtaken, and Darkness utilized it to its fullest to take control of the boy and acquire a Book of Prophecies from the felled Strelitzia. Even with a page missing, the Book allowed Darkness to discern a great deal (or so it assumed), and it realized simply reading the Book and then disposing of Ventus wouldn’t be enough. More was yet to come, and it needed to know more about the Master of Masters and what he was planning.

And so it decided to wait and lay dormant within the weak-willed boy.

However, Darkness failed to account for something, as it often does, and that was its own nature. While it was plenty powerful in its own right, Darkness had fragmented itself long ago to transcend its limitations in the past, and the strength of those fragments lay in their adaptability, to mold and change and infect, like a virus. But in so doing, those fragments lacked identity or any sense of self-governance, except that they were . . . Darkness.

Suppressing its own nature to remain cloaked while laying dormant beside a growing heart had an unexpected effect. Just as Darkness’ fragments were adaptable and fluid, infecting and spreading from one host to the next, the human heart was also adaptable, infinite in its capability for change and resilience, especially in someone so young. This became even more apparent when Ventus was sent forward by the rest of the Dandelions.

Ventus’ heart adapted to the new presence within it, exerting influence over the darkness much in the same way it did him, the pieces co-mingling together into one strange whole. The fragment within him lost more and more of its sense of purpose and self, and in turn, Ventus’ heart became more dependent on it. This was not only why Ventus was so weak when Vanitas was created, but why Vanitas was powerful enough to be almost human, why his form was affected by Ventus’ heart, and why he could create Unversed.

Vanitas himself felt a certain . . . underlying sense that he was meant for more. More than an apprentice. More than Xehanort’s tool. More than half of a broken boy. But he never could quite place why. The anger he felt towards Ventus and desire to destroy him? A reflection of Ventus’ self-loathing for his failures. His hatred and jealousy of Terra and Aqua? The result of Xehanort’s wicked grooming in making him want to forge the X-blade. His fascination with the fabled blade and the Keyblade War? A chance for his own twisted idea of revenge for the wrongs visited upon him--and cause a little mayhem of his own.

That was the easy reasoning. But Vanitas’ hatred towards those of the light, his disdain for this so-called ‘master’, his desire to see through another War that could plunge the worlds into Darkness. . . . While on the surface those reasons were true, underneath, his true nature stirred.

In Ventus-Vanitas, that feeling of something being not quite is stronger than ever after a couple of years of roaming. The fragment within him still calls itself Vanitas, loathe to part with an identity however much it despises it. Ventus still needs that fragment to survive, especially now with his timeline and those in it--his Sora and salvation included--vanished. But beneath their constant internal struggle, there is a sense of nostalgia, of familiarity, and an unspoken and shared desire for answers.

[semi-imaginary-place]

I played kingdom hearts union x early in its release days like 2016 and i tried really hard to stay up with it but im just not built for the mobile gaming meta which is geared for daily/weekly engagement over the course of years. i've had this problem with every mobile game i've ever tried to get into, i've tried like 10+ and genuinely wanted to get into these games but i just can't. Anyways eventually I couldn't keep up with ux's powercreep and pay to win gacha, and more importantly its rate of story development. UX is like 98% filler content 2% series breaking story revelations and that actual story only dropped like once a year so I'd play for a year to keep my medals semi competitive because story is also gated behind medal strength all to get a 10 second cut-scene that left 50 million questions and eventually i just could justifying playing ux as being worth it. so i quit a few years later and havent touched the game since and now im rewatching the cutscenes and yeah when ux is good its good and that good part is just inundated with filler. I'm rather fond of the artstyle its like little paper dolls and the devs manage to put so much emotion and nuance with those simple animations its one of the several impressive parts of ux.

a list of revelations. the disney worlds the player visits are fictional, projections made from the book of prophecy to collect lux. each union member has a chirithy, chirithys are dreameaters and thus daybreak town is in the realm of slumber, chirithys are tied to their union member. one fades away when their union member is lost to darkness, i assume ephemer's turns a darker shade of gray. quests 362-275 the plot really begins.

quest 401 the first dandelion metaphor. in a fashback to the day the player meets ephemer, ava compares ephemer and other union members to dandelions, wishing to entrust the future to them somewhere far far away. oh this is the beginning of unchained x. wait this is showing an alternate timeline in which ephemer didn't go missing. ah that was a dream

wait. you're telling me the japan exclusive kingdom hearts x doesn't have the same plot as ux. ux isn't a remake of x its a sequel and we're in a timeloop or memory or datascape or something??????? NOMURA! NO! Bad game dev! Bad! STOP PUTTING CRITICAL PLOT INFORMATION IN JAPAN EXCLUSIVE MOBILE GAMES THIS IS LIKE THE 4TH TIME!!!!! uuuuuuuuuuuuuu time to figure out what khx was about.

uuuuuggaisdadf;o;jkal/k so it so yeah ux reuses x content under the premises that player character is reliving their memories but then continues the story. it seems like i played through most if not all of the x content. i got pretty far huh like through the 700s quests. I wonder why they changed the gacha from cards to medals? cards feels more appropriate since its already a recurring motif for kh like chain or memories or luxord.

quest 425: the ava battle. i remember being stuck here for like a month because my medals were too weak and so i had to grind and gacha until they were strong enough bleh. ephemer sent the dream of exploring the tower with the player. ephemer is in a unchained state in another realm. dont know what that means. and if he can send dreams ava says he's close to "that realm". huh

quest 525. got stuck on this one too.

quest 540: i vaguely remember the enemies here were green. i do appreciate how khux is the story of things going from ok to bad to worse. the enemies here look like heartless but they can talk and are seeking lux. also second time player character talks. purple chirithy! i remember you. is the implication here that purple chirithy used to be the dark gray chirithy we saw earlier? ah so those heartless were former union members filled with darkness. i vaguely remember this and that dark chirithy is a nightmare. purple/dark chirity's wielder is close wonder what that means.

quest 555: they speak again! confirming that ephemer is their friend. the player character petting chirithy was a nice touch. union leader implies they killed ephemer eventhough earlier ava said ephemer was in another realm. i joined unicornis btw.

The Player: "And then I met Ephemer. We didn't know each other for very long, but he left a lasting impression. Not all of our memories are good ones; in fact, he even broke one of our promises. No matter what happened, I knew we were still friends. But you took him away from me."

The Player: "I feel sad, I feel angry, I feel hurt. Maybe that means I have darkness in my heart; I don't care."

The Player: "But I can't let you get away with what you did to my friend. Even if I have to fight you, even if I don't stand a chance, even if I may disappear... I will because I know in my heart that Ephemer would do the same if he were here."

The Player: "Master Ira, I mean no disrespect, but this is something I must do."

Ava's dandelions, a hope for the future cast to the wind. seeds to begin anew. yeah this part where the player character chooses to stay stuck out to me when I was playing. first, quest 555 is where the player characters shows real independence and agency from the player, they have their own thoughts and feelings about ephemer and the end of the world. second, that their greatest concern was not with the destruction of the world, the war, or the legacy of keyblade wielder but of the unchosen left to fight and die, and that the player character chooses not to be one of the special.

the recent kh games have really gone far with the fictionality of the narrative. very post modern meta texual like sora "dying"? and existing the fictional world for the non fictional one. "world outside" here is again vague. if daybreak down is indeed a dream realm then why would ava specify that the dandelions are going to train in worlds made of dreams. but if this is a dream then the dandelions are going to the universe of the main series? i mean thats where luxu/braig ended up with the box. i definitely need to read a plot summary when all this is over.

[moved-to-void-kissed]

I think it’s safe to say I have Lauriam hair again

[drazavonia]

THE MASTER OF HEARTS (1)

Usually when two characters are drawn with a line between the two, it's supposed to represent duality. However it's how the characters are positioned that tells us the type of duality it's supposed to represent. Such as how Sora and Riku are usually positioned with their backs toward one another with Sora cloaked in warm colors and Riku cloaked in cooler colors. This tells us Sora and Riku are opposites, and that despite how close their backs might be to each other they both travel down different paths.

The cover of the VERUM REX guidebook shows the main protagonist, Yozora and the main antagonist(s) of the game, Gigas. Yozora and the Gigas are both facing forward with a line dividing the two of them. Alignment and symmetry is usually what this represents indicating that Yozora and the Gigas either complete each other or share similarities.

Yozora and the Gigas are vessels for hearts to be placed in so they can operate.

Despite the comparison Xehanort makes about the nobodies to the gigas, the difference is that nobodies have intelligence and can move without the need of a heart.

The Gigas are not originally from the Toy Story universe, they are toys but they can't operate or move without being controlled.

Gigas don't possess a heart or a mind of their own, so they don't fit the classification of heartless or nobody.

However if their presence in Toy Box mirrors how they operate in the game:

The Gigas are just toys or robots waiting to be piloted. (Vessel/Body)

The Gigas cannot move until a heart/person takes control and uses them to fulfill their own desires. (Heart & Mind)

The lives of whoever pilots them until they're destroyed or busted, Sora is the player/pilot of the Gigas. (Memories)

Enemies created to destroy and be destroyed. (Worldline)

Yozora is a video game player character. He's "fake", so he can't really have a heart or a body either.

However in his video game:

He is a player character of VERUM REX.

(Vessel/Body)

As the main character of VERUM REX, this game or this journey is his story.

(Memories)

He lacks the will and therefore the ability to move or accomplish anything on his own because he needs a player to take control of him or to guide him on his journey.

(Heart & Mind)

Everything that occurs from the beginning to the end of the video game, VERUM REX.

(Worldline)

Every other possible sequence of events the player/Yozora can experience from the beginning to the end of the video game, VERUM REX. 

(Alternative Worldlines)

The existence of the Gigas and Yozora are the same as replicas.

Yozora and Roxas, both nonexistent originally and have both come to be by the end of KH3 share a lot of similarities: 

They both practically have their own secret movie.

Dual-wielders

Roxas has Waterga when you play as him during ReMind. Yozora uses Waterga immediately after stealing Sora's keyblade.

They are the only two characters in the series to have their eyebrows colored differently from their hair. Roxas is a Sora-Ventus fusion. He gets his appearance and hair from Ventus but his eyebrows from Sora because he was Sora's nobody. Yozora is meant to be a Noctis-Riku fusion. Yozora has Riku's silver hair and Noctis' black eyebrows, but they all share very similar outfits. 

Roxas, born as Sora's nobody, had Ventus' heart hence his form. No surprise, but this might mean that when whomever created Yozora, they gave him the body (Nobody) of Noctis as well as the heart of Riku.

Just like Roxas was at the end of KH1, Yozora is the new "Advent Child" of the franchise currently. A figure shrouded in mystery who will undoubtedly have a significant role in the next mainline KH game.

But, a question still remains. How do these characters in VERUM REX have hearts and memories of their own without the need for players, that breaks the borders of a video game? 

How did they give life to these characters without the need for a player turning them into people? 

If these characters are actual people inside a video game, then does that mean they're trapped inside the possible worldline of VERUM REX like the Dandelions and Maleficent were trapped in Data Daybreak Town?

The one who would have the answers to those questions, is the Game Creator. The one who created the world and the characters to be manipulated by a player, (enabling them to take control or give life to these creations) but somehow completely averting the need for them.

The Master of Masters is the creator of the video game and worldline(s) of VERUM REX.

The Master of Masters created the video game: VERUM REX in the same manner that he created the Chirithies, the alternative Daybreak Towns and Scala ad Caelum. How did he do this? 

With the power of Kingdom Hearts

The concepts for their design and purpose or character as a whole come from his Memories held within his Dreams. (Memories)

He computes his thoughts and concepts into the datascape or virtual world, creating the different characters to exist within the game. (Vessels)

With the power of Kingdom Hearts, the Master can "Reality Shift". In other words the Master brings the Virtual/Fake World to the Real World or vice-versa.

These Vessels* containing Memories* gain Hearts and Minds* once they are connected to a Kingdom Hearts. 

The Soul* or existence is the binding of all of these necessary ingredients for life.

Which Kingdom Hearts could the Master have used? In DDD, Luxu tells Sora the true purpose of the original Organization XIII.

In KH1 Ansem wanted the darkness of Kingdom Hearts. Like Xemnas at the end of KH2, Ansem wanted his heart to become one with Kingdom Hearts. 

Technically this still happens by the end of KH2 after Riku was purified and rid of Xehanort's heart. Xemnas absorbed all of the hearts (including Xehanort's) within Kingdom Hearts becoming extremely powerful.

So when did he create VERUM REX and which Kingdom Hearts filled with hearts did he use?

KINGDOM HEARTS

The Master became a God by gaining control of the Heart of all Worlds, creating a new Reality or an "Unreality". 

KINGDOM HEARTS

The Master used the hearts & lux collected from the fallen wielders at the end of the Keyblade War.

Notation for more clarification: 

A video game/rpg is a lot like a worldline or a collection of the possible worldlines.

"A worldline is the sequential path of personal human events that marks the history of a person. "Perhaps starting at the time and place at one's birth until death.""

An example I'll use is KH Chi & KH Union X. KH Chi is the story of your player character from the moment you wake up on the Station of Awakening to choose your Union, to the point in time Ephemer & Skuld appear before you at the end of the Keyblade War.

Your player character's chirithy took away those memories in order to keep the knowledge of the past and the Keyblade War from tainting your heart with negative emotions.

(Credit to damo279)

In Union X, these events of your life (the previous worldline) were converted and preserved in data, in other words copied. This included everything and everyone that pre-existed within that worldline with the exception of the Keyblade War.

To get to the new worldline the Dandelions were also converted to data. They would arrive in a Data Daybreak Town where all of the dandelions would play out the events of the original worldline, however because the Keyblade War no longer occurs, an alternative ending or different courses of events can occur. 

However, because the previous worldline still existed within the datascape, the Dandelions could access their "Saved Data". This allowed them to compete with one another using their "Other selves/Data selves" without damage to them or their hearts. This was the Shift Pride.

[revengerevisited]

@noneofthismakessensetome KHUX is really hard to explain, and I don’t really understand it myself despite watching every update, but the most that I can glean from it is that it’s set in the past in a place called Daybreak Town, right before the Keyblade War. (How far in the past is unknown, not helped by the fact that time travels differently in each World, but it was definitely before Xehanort was born).

There was this guy named the Master of Masters, and he’s supposedly been fighting a war against darkness for a very long time. (No idea if that’s the elemental concept of darkness, or Darkness the character). He’s the person who invented Keyblades (or one of the people. KHUX is extremely vague and likes to throw little doubts in just to make you question everything), and he gathered six apprentices (all named after one of the Seven Deadly Sins). Luxu, aka Xigbar, is one of the six. The only other relevant one is Ava. 

Five of these apprentices (not Luxu) become the Foretellers, leaders of these different Unions of ‘Keykids’ (which I don’t think is an official term, but that’s what the fandom calls them so I will too) who wield Keyblades against the Heartless to collect Lux (which is some sort of light energy). Each of them is also given a Chirithy Spirit created by the Master of Masters. 

The Master of Masters, aka MoM, can see into the future, because he put his ‘eye’ into the Keyblade No Name (Master Xehanort’s Keyblade), as well as other Keyblades like Riku’s Way to the Dawn and Vanitas’s Void Gear (if that is the name of Vanitas’s Keyblade...). Because these ‘eyes’ exist in the future, the MoM is able to ‘see’ into the future, and writes all future events down in the Book of Prophecies. He then gives copies of the Book of Prophecies to the Foretellers (not Luxu), but leaves out a certain page. He then sows distrust through the five by telling them one of them is a traitor.

The Foretellers all mistrust each other, and through a chain of events this leads to the Keyblade War, where all the ‘Keykids’ kill each other and the World is rift apart. The only ones who survive are the Dandelions, a special group of ‘Keykids’ the MoM told Ava to form, who hide in a Data version of Daybreak Town. The Dandelions have their minds wiped of the Keyblade War by the Chirithies and believe they are in the real Daybreak Town, except for the five Union Leaders, who were chosen by the MoM and given Books of Prophecy by Ava (more on that in a second...). 

In the latest KHUX update, the MoM says that it will take multiple lifetimes to defeat darkness (or Darkness), and this is probably why Luxu (Xigbar) has been hopping from body to body for all these years (centuries?). The MoM gave Luxu the Black Box (without telling him what’s inside) and No Name (to be passed down through the generations of Keyblade Wielders and eventually wind up with Xehanort before going back to Luxu). By having No Name be passed down into the future, the MoM can see through its ‘eye’ and write down future events.

So about the Union Leaders of the Dandelions, the ones the MoM told Ava to pick were Ephemer, Skuld, Brain, Lauriam (Marluxia), and Strelitzia. However, (as we saw with the most recent update) a shadowy being named Darkness killed Strelitzia and gave Ventus her copy of the Book of Prophecies instead. Ventus was in some kind of trance or had his memory wiped, and didn’t remember Strelitzia’s death until now. 

Darkness has also been helping Maleficent, because for some reason after her defeat in KH1 she wound up in the past in Data Daybreak Town, and Darkness wants to help her get back to the future (KH2) with a time machine. (The time machine, called the Ark or the Lifeboat in different translations, is the same machine used by Terra-Xehanort to send five-year-old Kairi to Destiny Islands, although in that case she was transported through space, not time). It seems that Darkness wants some of the ‘Keykids’ (Ventus, Lauriam (Marluxia), Elrena (Larxene), and Skuld (who is probably Subject X)) to be transported to the future, and somehow Maleficent will serve as their Waypoint. (I don’t understand how time-travel in KH works, nor why Darkness wants to send the ‘Keykids’ to the future, but that’s the best explanation I can give).

Anyway, the whole murder mystery about ‘who killed Strelitzia?’ has been the biggest fandom mystery in KH for a long time (I’m talking like, three years). And unfortunately, it’s still not solved because it’s still not clear just who/what Darkness is. Some believe that Darkness is Ava, who is actually the ‘traitor’ trying to stop the MoM’s plan, because she believes his plan will end in the destruction of the World (which it kinda did). This is because Darkness takes the form of Ava to speak to Ventus after killing Strelitzia, and tells him that he’s a Union Leader (when really he’s the ‘imposter’). Ava is known to have the power of illusion, which is why some fans think she may have taken the form of Darkness to disguise herself. (Just a note on all this, I can’t remember exactly what all the fan-theories about Ava are, and I may have gotten something wrong here. But the basic gist is that some fans believe Ava is Darkness).

Then there’s the second theory, which unfortunately in my opinion is the more likely of the two. We know from Re:Mind that a being calling itself Darkness is hiding within Ven’s heart, and in KHUX Brain says that Darkness (or darkness) can hide inside people. Combine this with Vanitas’s speech to Ventus in Re:Mind, about how he and Ven ‘aren’t the same like he thinks’ and how he was just ‘hidden inside Ven until Xehanort tore him out’, it seems to imply that Vanitas is actually Darkness (or a piece of Darkness) who was hidden inside of Ven, and not the dark half of Ven’s heart like we’ve believed for the past decade. Basically, if this theory is true, it completely re-writes Vanitas’s entire character, motivations, and origins, while also retroactively making him a child-murderer, and I’m sure you all already know how I feel about that.

Now, literally nothing outside of Re:Mind implies that Vanitas is Darkness, and in fact the scene in the Keyblade Graveyard with Vanitas, Ventus, and Sora right after the scene in Re:Mind seems to contradict this theory, as well as every piece of material on Vanitas released both before and after Re:Mind including his character file, so this all may be just one big misunderstanding, but that doesn’t dissuade the fact that there is literally an entity calling itself Darkness inside Ven’s heart. I can’t even begin to imagine how it got there, unless 1. It’s Vanitas after returning to Ven’s heart after his defeat in BBS or 2. Darkness somehow got into Ven’s heart while he was sleeping in Castle Oblivion. 

This is all pure fan-theory, but since the Vanitas in KH3 is a time traveling version of Vanitas from the past, it could be that the ‘real’ Vanitas is still living inside Ven’s heart (like how Roxas was still inside Sora’s heart), and if the ‘real’ Vanitas is now calling himself Darkness, then it’s possible that Vanitas was either lying about being half of Ventus this entire time or is only now just remembering his memories of being Darkness. Either way, if Vanitas really does turn out to be Darkness, then I can only imagine his entire personality will be overwritten by Darkness’s and Vanitas will basically cease to exist as a character. As in, he won’t just be dead, he’ll have never truly existed in the first place. 

And that, my friends, is why I’ve been in a constant state of anxiety, stress, and depression for the past year, and the reason I haven’t updated A Heart and a Half, because I’m having trouble reconciling the Vanitas from the BBS Novel (an abused, neglected child manipulated from birth to be a weapon) with what is potentially his true identity as Darkness (an ancient, child-murdering demonic entity). Once again, it’s still just a fan-theory... But a very plausible fan-theory.

Anyway, the third theory is that Darkness isn’t secretly some other character, but instead is exactly what it says it is— a sapient amalgamation of the elemental force of darkness. Darkness tells Maleficent that she should think of it as an ‘old friend’, leading some to believe it’s someone Maleficent knows from the future. However, it could be that Darkness ‘knows’ Maleficent because it itself is the embodiment of elemental darkness, and Maleficent is a darkness-user. In that case, it could be said Darkness is a ‘friend’ to all people who use darkness. 

Unfortunately, before anyone says this line of dialogue proves that Vanitas can’t be Darkness because Vanitas never met Maleficent, Vanitas did meet Maleficent... in the BBS Novel. In the BBS Novel, Maleficent asks Vanitas if he’s a ‘friend’ of Xehanort’s. Vanitas hesitantly says yes (because his abuser isn’t exactly a friend to him), simply because he and Xehanort are allies. He then asks Maleficent if she’s ‘friends’ with Xehanort, and she says yes (in the sense that they are allies). In this roundabout way, it could be construed that if Vanitas is Xehanort’s friend, and Maleficent is Xehanort’s friend, then that makes Vanitas Maleficent’s friend, which still fits in with the theory that Vanitas is Darkness if Darkness is Maleficent’s friend.

Even if we ignore the (technically non-canon) BBS Novel scenes of Xehanort kicking twelve-year-old Vanitas in the face and beating him with his Keyblade until he cried and leaving him isolated in a wasteland for weeks on end, and just go off of the games’ canon, the story of Ventus and Vanitas can still be seen as both literal and metaphorical child abuse, with Ven being the part of the victim who represses the trauma and Vanitas being the part of the victim who lashes out. Of course, if Vanitas does turn out to be Darkness, then he will be retconned from a victim into a scheming child-murderer just as evil as his abuser and the demon/abomination/empty creature that Xehanort always said he was! (Maybe that’s why Vanitas had such a mental breakdown in Re:Mind... he realized every horrible thing Xehanort ever told him about himself was true...). Which is why, as you can imagine, this theory causes me a lot of stress! 

Anyway, that’s the story of KHUX and the reason why I turn into a big ball of anxiety every time a new update occurs. I literally wouldn’t care about KHUX at all if Ven wasn’t in it, but he is, and everything that happens to Ven in the past is something that will effect him and Vanitas in the future, whether Vanitas is confirmed to be Darkness or not. We now know that Ven has had even more trauma forced upon him than he’d had with Xehanort, and I now have a suspicion that the reason Ven refused to create the X-Blade by using the darkness in his heart in the BBS flashback scenes was because he remembered what darkness and/or Darkness did to Strelitzia.

I really can’t imagine why Ven is in KHUX other than to connect him to this Darkness character in some way. Some fans still claim that Ven is the one who killed Strelitzia because they think he was ‘possessed’ by Darkness, but it seems pretty clear that Darkness was the culprit while Ven just stood there in a trance. Even so, I suspect that Ven blames himself for what happened anyway, even though it wasn’t his fault. I don’t know how this will play out with the future/current Ven. Is he suddenly going to remember his past and think he killed Strelitzia? Why? For the angst? Is he going to realize that Vanitas is (or is a part of) Darkness and therefore the murderer of some random girl Ven barely knows? Is Darkness just going to pop out of Ven when he’s in the Realm of Darkness with Aqua and Terra and... I don’t even know. Fight him? Gloat? Enact his evil scheme of destroying the World because you see, Vanitas never really wanted his light back, he never really wanted friends (page 378 of the BBS Novel), he was lying the entire time! Yes, he’s totally this evil monster who just wants to kill people because he’s evil~!

...Alright, I’ll stop. But seriously, I don’t know where this story is headed, guys. This update basically had the MoM tell us to stop trying to figure things out or theorize and that we shouldn’t want to know everything that’s going to happen, so who knows. Next update might throw us a curveball and reveal Darkness was secretly... idk Pete the entire time. He’s Maleficent’s friend! Or maybe it’s just Xehanort again, who knows. I just feel... really tired of KH, and I don’t really know where I’m going to go from here. Hopefully this is the last time I rant about this subject, though, because I really feel like I’ve already said all there is to say.

I want to finish A Heart and a Half, but I also feel hampered by everything that might happen with Vanitas. I also feel like managing my Tumblr blogs is causing me too much stress and distracting me from doing other things (including writing my fanfics), so I’ve been thinking of putting them both on a more ‘permanent’ hiatus after their queues run out sometime later this month. I dunno how everyone would feel about that, though, nor how long that hiatus would be. I’d certainly miss talking to everyone, and you guys make me smile whenever I get a comment or a question from you all! But I also feel like I need to focus on my health (both physical and mental) and work on things that don’t involve social media. I guess I just need a little more time to think about it.

[player-1]

KHUX: Wreck-it-Ralph’s world is more important than you think! (More info and TL;DR in the end)

Another Union X update came and went (Missions 910-915), and players could only sigh at the knowledge of yet another set of filler missions for this month. But even with the story tackling the pros and cons of technology (of course, in the most outlandishly KH way possible), having the Player explore a world completely comprised of digital arcade characters should open up a few interesting factoids. Game Central Station shows startling similarities to Data Daybreak Town (or the one if the Union Leaders went along with the rulebook). 

For example:

Characters being aware of their separate games/worlds but also becoming friends or companions regardless of differences (almost like the Unions, huh?)

Said characters also being aware of the players that see them as a form of entertainment and works within the game’s rules without question.

Characters who go rogue or “going Turbo“ are seen as a dangerous threat to both the inhabitants of the game and the entire arcade as a whole.

Does the last point sound familiar? Ephemer (and later on the Player) questions their role as a Keyblade wielder and their reasons for collecting Lux and defeating the Darkness, especially when the World seemed so divided within the Unions and Foretellers. And what happened to them while they were searching for the truth? The Foretellers threatened to kill reprimand them for their disobedience from the rules.  Of course, in Unchained, the Player pushed past their warnings entirely, going so far as joining the Keyblade War regardless of Skuld, Ava, and Gula’s reasons. And even after all of that, and as the Player is saved by Ephemer and Skuld in the end, what do they do to them? They erased the Player’s memories. (Disclaimer: The Player’s memories were altered/erased after Mission 555 (at the end of Unchained), and in UnionX after Mission 675 (the battle with Aced). Both of those times were about the Player speaking his mind about his purpose as a wielder and calling out the Unions on their own BS. Yikes...)

In hindsight, this was to keep the Player from becoming too traumatized after witnessing the War firsthand, but it turns him back into a simple little Keyblade wielder he was before the conflict began to escalate (ie the “reboot”). 

Now why did I mention that this new data world is important for the story? Let me list a few turning points from the movie:

While Ralph wants to make himself a hero, regardless of the rules of crossing through different games, he eventually becomes a “hero“ by using his villain qualities for good; eventually creating a compromise between himself and Felix.

Likewise, Vanellope pushes through the warnings and discrimination against her being a glitch and eventually gains popularity as a racer with her unusual quirk.

Calhoun wins against her program/PTSD with Felix’s unwavering support, eventually getting the dream marriage she always wanted.

For the most part, all three of them show a key similarity: they find the chance to fight against the grain, and after going through certain repercussions along the way, they emerge victorious and create a solution that works in their favor. On the contrary, while Ephemer and Skuld question their actions and successfully beat the odds, the Player gets punished multiple times and eventually has their memories erased/suppressed on two separate occasions.

And now that the Player is left exploring this new world all alone and has no definite way of returning to the “real” world, who knows how long it will take before the deja vu sets in...

Only time will tell.  ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

For now, I just imagine the Player going through the mental gymnastics like this (Finding the source of the glitches while the raging terror of existentialism and trauma burns in the background):

TL;DR: While the Player Character gets royally screwed over trying to make their own decisions, Wreck-it-Ralph’s world explores the concept of working in a niche environment while also making their own choices and creating compromises that help improve everyone’s lives.  Sooner or later, the Player will not be happy about this...

UPDATE (KH Melody of Memory Trailer) Regarding the theories connecting the Player Character and Xehanort, especially with this post, I can say for a fact that the player qualifies as a low-key villain (though Riku was only short-term). To be honest, with Daybreak Town's chain of command and the Player's almost complete disregard to said rules make him a subsequent threat to the Foretellers before and during the War. Not that the Player knows they’re the villain, it's just that they don't consider the consequences of their actions...at all.

[nyctospoilers]

Please talk about nameless star

OKAY IF YOU INSIST. [[btw I clearly digress here and that’s why I ended up deleted the tangent in the last post]]

For those who don’t know, I said in this post’s tags that I deleted a paragraph, going off about the nameless star. So the context is how The Final World could be outside any realm of reality, since Namine telling Sora after he already died that she’ll contact Terra’s will to help him, which affected a time and place from before Sora died. 

Now in that post’s tags I said I went on a tangent about what it would mean if Strelitzia is the nameless star. Strelitzia supposedly died in the other worldline that the Dandelions jumped too. So, if that’s the case, then her being in The Final World is more evidence that that world exists outside any worldline. However, in truth, I think that sooner or later we will to come to the realization that the “worldline” the Dandelions jumped to was in fact only a data world, one like the disney worlds the dandelions go to in Unchained X and Union cross.

For those who don’t know, in KHX before the keyblade war, the keykids went to disney worlds that were projections of the future (which explains why, for example, Agrabah with Aladdin is in KHX) to collect lux, but they weren’t real worlds. But it’s revealed that the MoM created data from those worlds, so that after the keyblade war when he and the foretellers are gone, the Dandelions can still go about disney worlds. But we were lead to believe that even though the disney worlds are data projections, Daybreak Town is actually Daybreak Town, just in another worldline.

But, in the last KHUX update, we see Elrena seeing a glitching projection of Strelitzia before her death in Daybreak Town, and then later we see Brane describing himself as a virus. And in Luxu’s Observation Excerpts from KH3, he describes Brane as a virus in the MoM’s program. This can imply that the “separate worldline” that the Dandelions jumped to was only a data world. We can take this theory a step further, and say that the dandelions remained in the data world, time passed without them even realizing, and when the Union Leaders leave it like Luxu mentions in his Observation Excerpts, they arrive at the current time (Ventus, Lauriam, Elrena, Subject X, etc). And THIS could explain how they “time traveled” with their bodies.

However, the data theory would not explain Eraqus’s lineage (assuming it originates from Brane) with The Gazing Eye, or Ephemer’s spiritual appearance in the Keyblade Graveyard. I’ve said before that I think Ephemer purposely remains in the past rather than jumps with the other Union Leaders, and his spot is replaced with Elrena. However if the data theory proves true, we DEFINITELY are missing an event that explains why Brane and Ephemer are still in the real world, but arrived way in the past and not in current times like everyone else.

I DIGRESS, MY POINT IS: If Strelitzia is the nameless star, then that means two different things for The Final Wold, depending on if KHUX takes place in a Data Daybreak Town OR if it takes place in an entirely different worldline.

Data Daybreak Town: This would mean that ‘alternate universes’ don’t actually exist like the term ‘worldline’ would suggest. There is only one single line of time (including data worlds, and the sleeping realm/realm of darkness/inbetween), and that The Final World is only separated from that single line of time, as I mentioned with Namine.

Different Worldline Daybreak Town: This would mean that The Final World is so unbelievably disconnected from the reality that our characters know, that people from different times, different worlds, different universes ALL end up in that one singular place if their heart persists after death.

Taking that second theory a step further and how Sora has been known to enter the Final Wold accidentally many times before when being in the Station of Awakening. In either theory it means Sora has the ability to walk across time (and in the second theory, walk across universes) and he doesn’t even fucking KNOW IT.

And all of that stems from the idea of Strelitzia being the Nameless Star asdfasdf

[matthew-niverse]

Kingdom Hearts Union X: Ventus’s “Missing Ache”

As we wait for more Kingdom Hearts news, Kingdom Hearts Union X has been receiving brand new story updates! To players of Union X: If you login now, you will receive free Draw Tickets based on your Lux Level!

Anyways, in the most recent update, we’ve received startling information about Ventus. (If you’ve never studied the story of Union X, basically it takes place many years before the first Keyblade War in ancient times. (Why don’t you go watch a summary video of Union X before the next Kingdom Hearts game?))

Currently in the story, the World of Daybreak Town is being run by the second group of the five Union Leaders. (^From Left to Right) Brain, Ventus, Ephemer, Skuld, and Lauriam (Marluxia).

Anyways, in the recent update, Brain seems to have released ‘bugs’ in the data world of Daybreak Town and Ventus tries to go after him.

Eventually Ephemer catches up with Ventus, who is trying to fend off some bugged out heartless. This is the first time we see Ventus use his ORIGINAL Keyblade in Union X. His original being the ‘Missing Ache’ Keyblade.

We haven’t seen this Keyblade since Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days (2009), where Roxas and Xion was able to wield it! This strengthens the connection between Ventus and Roxas, and gives new insight on what Ventus might have been like back in the ancient times of Union X.

In the game, Missing Ache has a whopping 4 Reversed (Darkness) medal slots with only one Upright (Light) slot. Ventus wields more darkness. At this point in time, Ventus still has his darkness, Vanitas, inside of him.

Xehanort never separated the two yet. It seems that back when Ventus was whole, he really did have a powerful darkness.

4 out of 5 of him is darkness. With the fact that Ventus could be split into two different beings based on his light and his darkness, he possibly had a split personality disorder as a whole person. Before he became the pure Ventus we know and love, he probably had a dark -possibly a very dark- side, which was able to manifest as Vanitas.

With this in mind, Ventus could very well be the person that killed Strelitzia.

As of now, with Brain being ‘The Virus’, evidence seems to point to Brain being the murderer. However, it seems too obvious for Tetsuya Nomura’s standards.

There is a possibility that Ventus got rid of Strelitzia for her Book of Prophecies. Ava was never seen giving Ventus the Book, so he may have longed to see what was in it. Curiosity killed the Strelitzia, y’know? Heck, it’s made clear that Ventus is rather clueless about the Book of Prophecies, as if he hasn’t had time to read it like the other Union leaders.

SOMETHING AIN’T RIGHT. Whatever happens, I’m excited to see what comes next in the Kingdom Hearts story!

[tiny-cloud-of-flowers]

"Well, well.. So it was you of all things that I sensed. Somehow, I had doubted your ability to exist here.. but it seems that you've been able to keep going, hm?"

My first proper MMD render for.. several months, ahaha, but also the first one of this year! It's of my Kingdom Hearts self-insert, Aria, being very comfortable yet ominous in the Realm of Darkness; specifically, the caption is her talking to Litas (@neuvilline's self-insert), upon meeting them again for the second time! I had a lot of fun trying to get the right vibes for this, even if actually deciding what Aria would look like at this point in time was.. somewhat of an ordeal, haha

Tag list: @starlit-selfships | @edencantstopfallininlove | @yoomtahsgf | @sunlight-ships | @dragonsmooch | @thatslikesometaldude | @kuroiikamen | @artificervaldi | @keyblade-ships | @seahydra | @dmclr | @neuvilline (to be tagged in future works of mine, please see this form!)

(Anyone is welcome to comment on and/or reblog my work, as long as my DNI is respected!)

[flowering-darkness]

okay I can’t find the post I was referring to in my tags just then, which is a shame

It’s the one of a drawing of a monstrous hand with thorns growing from it, and the initial caption is something like “I cannot let you hold me, for it will hurt you” (that might be completely wrong but the idea is there). But then someone reblogged it with a drawing of another hand in a big gardening mitt holding the original one and said “How wonderful, then, are gloves!” or words along those lines

I remember it because it makes me think so much of the Darkling AU that I have for my selfship with Clio - where Ves is lost, and Aria can no longer keep up the lie that she is human, and she is so scared that Clio will strike her down for what she is once it becomes obvious there’s no way to restore her old form, because surely as a wielder of the Keyblade it’s her duty. But Clio still acts with the same kindness and determination as she always has, and finds solutions to things so that she can be as happy as she wants to be (which makes Aria as happy as she can be), and.. the monster gets to still be loved, because she still loves, and- it’s just one of those AUs I have grown very attached to ^~^

[void-kissed]

✨

Ah! Thank you very much for sending this, friend!

(source: this post by dragonsmooch)

Send me ✨ for a random thing about one of my OCs! (Optional: You can specify one!) - Um, I currently have Obsidian open for writing yet another (much smaller this time) Arilio piece. So, I'll be using this sparkle for Clio, if that's alright!

I tend to think of Clio as being very well-rounded when it comes to life as a Keyblade wielder. What I mean by that is that she's not one of those Lux-obsessed overcompetitive people who constantly hunt down raid bosses and complain when party members don't activate a Lux boost at the right time. She's also not one of those people who only shows up for missions once a month and skips out on all the events then wonders why she never has jewels for the most recent medals. Instead, I like to think of her as someone who enjoys taking on missions where she can for the sake of helping the party complete all their shared requirements each week - she's the type of person to have a good idea of what she plans to do, and is fine with doing her own thing on her own, but who is always happy for others in her party to come with her if they want to, such as for Union Cross missions. I like to think of her as likeable, so a fair few of the other Sapphires would probably enjoy getting to come with her and help her out with this kind of thing!

I hope that that fact was alright! Thank you very much again for sending in the sparkle, friend!~

[khstoryanalysis]

Chapter 11: Virgin Birth (Part 3)

NOTE: The following discussions you are about to read are only assumptions and theories. Only take them with a grain of salt for the time being.

From the stories told by Kairi’s Grandmother and Yen Sid, the world in the past was filled with light. That light was a gift from the unseen world of Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts is the creator who creates everything and makes life possible. Everyone was pure light and loved the light.

As confirmed by Nomura, the Master of Masters knew about the X-Blade, and forged the first Keyblade from his heart – the No Name Keyblade. The Keyblade was forged under the image of the X-Blade. As a scientist, the Master of Masters carried out various research and wanted immense knowledge. Since Kingdom Hearts is the creator, opening the Door to Kingdom Hearts would allow the person to reborn as something greater than human – becoming Kingdom Hearts.

The Master of Masters went to search for the X-Blade, the Keyblade that acted as the protector to Kingdom Hearts. When he found it, he tried to use it to open the Door to Kingdom Hearts. However, the X-Blade was the Keyblade of Kingdom Hearts, and it could not be used against its wielder. Hence, it shattered into 20 pieces – 7 lights and 13 darknesses. More darkness was due to the prideful action of the Master of Masters.

The shattered X-Blade represented the broken relationship between Kingdom Hearts and its creations. Without the X-Blade, light and darkness became imbalance. Due to the prideful action of the Master of Masters, darkness began to spread across the world and contaminate everything. With the broken connection between Kingdom Hearts and its creations, surely the darkness would destroy everything and all creations were fated to die.

However, Kingdom Hearts refused to allow that to happen. So it gave the Master of Masters the gazing eye. This idea came from the theory made by HMK. He theorizes that the real Kingdom Hearts is green in colour since the hearts of worlds in Birth by Sleep is blue while the hearts of men in Kingdom Hearts 2 is yellow. In addition, Kingdom Hearts is depicted to glow in a faint green glow in the Kingdom Hearts Unchained X artworks. Since the gazing eye has a tint of green, along with its ability to foresee the future, it is possible that this is the eye of Kingdom Hearts.

Besides the gazing eye, Kingdom Hearts created a physical incarnation of itself – a being that had half light, half darkness in his heart – like the X-Blade. The Master of Masters brought him to Daybreak Town and took care of him. The boy was Ventus.

It is possible that Ventus is able to wield the Keyblade because of his connection with Kingdom Hearts. He wields his Keyblade backhanded, which is considered to be pretty weird. Why backhanded? Ventus is a pacifist, and he strongly objects using the Keyblade to hurt innocent people. His method of holding the Keyblade makes the blade turns inwards to his back, in the way that is not visible to whoever is in front of or at the back of Ventus. In Birth by Sleep, Ventus feels ashamed when the Old Lady (the Evil Queen in disguise) feels that he is threatening her as he holds his Keyblade in front of her. Holding his Keyblade backhanded matches his attitude as a pacifist.

Moreover, Ventus uses his Keyblade for defense purposes. He fights the Unversed because they are threats to the worlds and their inhabitants. He uses his Keyblade to assist and protect his friends or anyone in trouble. He only uses his Keyblade to attack when he is being threatened or challenged, or to defend his actions against someone who is a threat to him and his friends.

The Master of Masters feared that Ventus would be harmed if anyone knew about his true origin. Moreover, the darkness was growing, spreading across the lands. In an effort to stop the spread, the Master of Masters collected the 13 pieces of darkness from the shattered X-Blade and locked them in the Black Box. This prevented the 13 pieces in taking physical form similar to the 7 Princesses of Hearts that came from the 7 pieces of light.

Though, the darkness continued to spread. The Master of Masters resorted to protect the light. He had 6 disciples and he made 5 of them into the Foretellers. He forged Keyblades for the Foretellers from their hearts. He trained them to fight off the dark beings and gather light. Once they became Keyblade Masters, under the Master’s teachings, they created Unions. They gathered children, gave them Keyblades and Chirithies, and sent them on missions to gather light.

Looking at the land outside Daybreak Town, the Master of Masters foresaw the worlds that would come into existence. He wrote them down into the Book of Prophecies, and using the Book, he created holograms of the worlds, including the characters and the Heartless. Through this method, they could gather the light from the future characters (since the worlds were the homes of the Princesses of Hearts), and fought off the darkness from the future (the Heartless). Besides, the holograms concealed the consequence of taking the light from the lands for themselves.

The action of taking light for themselves caused Daybreak Town to flourish, but other lands became barren and fell to the darkness. Soon enough, the resistance of light grew weaker, and the darkness grew stronger. Due to greed and selfishness, darkness sprouted in everyone’s hearts. Those who had weak hearts disappeared into the darkness. They later became Darklings that stole Lux, a form of light that Keyblade wielders were collecting. The fear of darkness became apparent as it had the power to steal light, so the Keyblade wielders collected even more light for themselves, but that only spread the darkness further.

One day, the Master of Masters foresaw the Keyblade War, which was the end of the world. He tried everything he could to prevent it but it was inevitable.  He also realized that he would soon meet his fate. Distraught, he went to Ventus. He was shocked to realize that nobody wanted to befriend with Ventus because of his weak Keyblade skills. Ventus refused to change himself as he did not want to fight to the extent of causing imbalance and hostility among unions. He also accepted the pain he had experienced and turned it into positive emotions.

Enlightened by Ventus, the Master of Masters planned a way to rebuild the world after the war. He made more copies of the Book of Prophecies, and gave them to the Foretellers for analysis. In the meantime, he handed the No Name Keyblade to Luxu, and told him that he would train an apprentice and pass down the Keyblade to him. He would succeed in his role due to the existence of the Book of Prophecies, meaning that he would only carry out his role after the war.

Besides that, the Master of Masters handed Luxu the Black Box. He told him to hide it and never open it. Fearing that someone in the future would open the Black Box and unleash the 13 darknesses, the Master of Masters planned to hide his heart inside the Box as well so he could return if the Box were to be opened. He told Luxu about the Box’s content and his plan, which shocked Luxu. This was because Luxu did not know about the future as he was not given the Book of Prophecies to avoid temporal paradox. Nevertheless, Luxu followed the Master’s orders and went outside Daybreak Town to hide the Black Box.

After sending Luxu on his way, the Master of Masters met up with each Foreteller individually to assign their roles. Due to a change of ideology, he corrected Ira that Keyblades were not for protecting Kingdom Hearts, which confused Ira. He also behaved like a jokester as he already knew that Ira, Invi, Aced and Gula would fail in their roles.

However, the Master of Masters was serious when giving Ava her role. Ava’s role was to gather Keyblade wielders of great potential to become Dandelions, who would survive the war. The Master of Masters must ensure that Ventus would become a Dandelion. Among the Foretellers, Ava was the best choice. Ira was a leader and Invi was too strict, they would be too intimidating to Ventus. Aced was too rebellious while Gula was a loner who regarded other Keyblade wielders as merely comrades rather than friends. Although Ava was a Keyblade Master, her young age and her friendly nature resulted in most Keyblade wielders to regard her as a friend. Besides that, Ava was adamant in following the Master’s teachings. These reasons made the Master of Masters to assure her that she was the only person suitable to recruit wielders to become Dandelions – because she was the only one who could convince Ventus to join the Dandelions.

It was possible that the Master of Masters came up the name “Dandelions” for the Keyblade War survivors due to Ventus. Ventus’ hair looked like a dandelion before it shaded its petals. His union cross avatar showed that his clothes were tinted slightly green like the stem of the dandelion. The dandelion brings forth the meaning of the sun due to its bright petals and that it only opens in day. The dandelion also means surviving all challenges and is associated with healing, specifically emotional healing. The dandelion may be bitter but it has plenty of healing properties. Many people see them as weeds, but no matter how they try to destroy them, they still survive and continue to thrive. This was what the Master of Masters wanted the Keyblade wielders to be – to be healed from the pain of the war and moved on. Moreover, Ventus means “wind” and dandelion seeds are carried by the wind. In addition, dandelion means “the lion’s tooth”. This may symbolize that Ventus had a crucial role in leading the Dandelions.

With that, the Master of Masters wanted Ava to make him a Union Leader and hand him the Book of Prophecies. Since Ventus has a different ideology than the Foretellers and other Keyblade wielders, he would interpret the content of the Book differently and prevent another Keyblade War from erupting in the new world. The Master of Masters also told Ava that only the child circled in red could read the Book, and chaos would ensue if others were to read it. This was to prevent conflict among Union Leaders due to different ideologies.

After assigning all of their roles, the Master of Masters vanished. His body faded away and his heart was released. Luxu returned to Daybreak Town just before his disappearance. Using the No Name Keyblade, Luxu guided the Master’s heart to the Black Box. After that, Luxu went to observe the events while keeping out of sight from everyone else.

Ava went to carry out her role. She possibly tested Ventus the same way she tested the Player and Skuld. However, Ventus reacted differently, much to her disappointment and confusion as to why the Master would choose him. Nevertheless, she invited Ventus to join the Dandelions. Perceiving as a new opportunity to make friends, Ventus accepted, but he still ended up without friends until the war happened.

Ava wanted to follow the Master’s teachings but she did feel uncertain about it as well. She ended up not giving the Book of Prophecies to Ventus or anyone else. As a result, none of the Union Leaders knew how the Book looked like and the content. Due to Ava’s action, the future was changed – becoming the one we currently see in this series.

The Keyblade War then happened. It was inevitable because there were too many Keyblade wielders who used their Keyblades for selfish purposes that led to fighting between unions. A war was needed to destroy all that was evil and cleanse the world. With that, the Keyblade War is similar to the Great Flood. Only the righteous ones are chosen to live and escaped from God’s wrath. The righteous ones were the Dandelions, who would not fight in the Keyblade War. They were the only ones who believed that the war was coming. Even when they tried to warn the others, they did not believe in it. During the Keyblade War, rain poured down onto the world. The rain cleansed the world, taking away all the evil. The Dandelions were sent into the Unchained Realm to restart their lives without the memories of the war. The Unchained Realm was similar to the Ark.

Data Worlds had existed during the Age of Fairy Tales. When the world fell into darkness, they too fell as well. Since the Realm of Unchained may have connections with the Realm of Sleep, it was possible that the Data Worlds ended up there as well. As darkness took over the world, the Keyhole of the world could be found and used it to assess to the Unchained Realm. This was where the Dandelions lost the painful memories.

When assigning Ava’s role, the Master of Masters told her that he intended to erase the memories of the war from the Dandelions. When Ava asked if he could do that, he replied “Apparently so.” This may imply that the Master of Masters was not absolutely sure if it would be successful. After all, memories are not really gone even if they have been removed. If the Master was unsure of its success, then why would he do it anyway?

Perhaps he did it to buy some time for Ventus. For a boy who had nothing to suddenly become a Union Leader was a drastic change for Ventus. He had no experience of being a leader. By erasing the memories of the war from the Dandelions, the Union Leaders would need not concern about it and would be more focused in guiding Ventus to be more confident of leading his own union.

Unfortunately, with Strelitzia, one of the Union Leaders, being murdered and replaced, things would not go well. To make things worse, none of the Union Leaders (except Ephemer and Skuld) knew about each other before the war. This was because Ava elected each of them privately. With Lauriam and Erlena on their quest to search for Sterlitzia, everyone, including the Player was dragged into this matter. Soon enough, Erlena might find out about Sterlitzia’s fate, and felt immense pain. Moreover, the Player was suffering from nightmares regarding the Keyblade War, and since the Nightmare Chirithy was not completely gone, it could be its doing.

From Re:coded, bugs appeared in Jiminy’s Journal because Namine had inserted painful memories into his journal. Once the Dandelions began to feel pain, bugs would probably appear in the Data Worlds, causing mayhem to the system. This might result in the Dandelions to be brought out of the Data Worlds for safety. Though, they might eventually find out that the Keyblade War did happen.

As for the Union Leaders, they would try to find Sterlitzia and rebuild the worlds. I have a theory that Destiny Islands was created from the light of Ventus’ heart. His heart was a balance of light and darkness: the heart of the world was behind the door located in the Secret Place, and everything outside the Secret Place was bright. Land was surrounded by water that represented creation, and the water reflects the sky, similar to the world seen in the Winnie the Pooh trailer. Moreover, the Paopu Fruit that binds people together through sharing was created – a potential connection with the power of Kingdom Hearts.

However, this Union Cross business would meet its end. With the “X” on their Union and on their clothing (except Ventus), bad things would happen to them. Ventus, being the insecure one, was probably the easiest to be exploited. He might be wrongly accused to be the traitor and the Union Leaders turned against him. To protect Ventus, Kingdom Hearts brought Ventus to the Realm of Darkness. The Realm of Darkness was the safest place as it was difficult to enter there and even more difficult to escape from there. Nobody with the right mind would go there. Since time flows very differently in the Realm of Darkness, Ventus remained young. He was not swallowed by darkness because of his strong light.

Soon, Union Cross met its end, and the Dandelions ended up having to leave Daybreak Town. It was uncertain what happened to Daybreak Town and the Union Leaders, but we do know that Lauriam and Erlena ended up becoming Nobodies and lost their ability to wield Keyblades.

The Dandelions might have encountered Luxu in the Keyblade Graveyard. Together they built up a city to reach the heavens – hence the name Scala ad Caelum. The city served as a seat of power for all Keyblade wielders. Scala ad Caelum, based on its name and design, was similar to the Tower of Babel. The city probably represented their pride of wanting to reach Kingdom Hearts and become like Kingdom Hearts. This unification of Keyblade wielders certainly would bring chaos. With that, Kingdom Hearts made them to have different ideologies, and scattered them across the world, leaving Luxu there.

Using the light in their hearts, the Dandelions rebuilt and repopulated the world. The worlds were scattered and separated from one another. Each world had its own rules and order. Since each of them had different ideologies, the events of the past became muddled up, or just regarded as fairy tales. Some chose to pass down the stories in a positive tone, like how Kairi’s Grandmother told Kairi about it. Some shared the knowledge of outside worlds and the Keyblade with good intentions, which explained how some characters like the Genie, King Triton and Merlin had such knowledge. Some refused to pass down the knowledge of outside worlds and the Keyblade in fear of destruction, which explained how Maleficent did not know about it until Xehanort told her.

Xehanort was born in Destiny Islands and might have the knowledge of outside worlds and the Keyblade through the stories of the past. That could be why he perceived the world was too small and wanted to explore. He ended up in Scala ad Caelum and alongside Eraqus, they were trained by Luxu. Xehanort wanted to know more about the Keyblade, and he ended up descended into the darkness. He eventually became a powerful Keyblade Master and received the No Name Keyblade. His desire to create a new world with light and darkness in balance led him to cut ties with Eraqus and went on to search for the X-Blade.

Kingdom Hearts knew that Xehanort would succeed if he was not stopped. After all, he intended to turn against Kingdom Hearts. To save its creations from his dark desire, Kingdom Hearts led Xehanort to the Realm of Darkness and made him encounter Ventus. Seeing Ventus having great potential to become his vessel, he brought him to the Realm of Light. Unfortunately, Ventus was too benign for his own good, so he used him to forge the X-Blade. Kingdom Hearts already foresaw that and chose Sora to save Ventus from dying, even before Sora was born.

Why Sora, “the dull, ordinary boy”? Kingdom Hearts chose Sora not because he had any special qualities or abilities, but out of love. Moreover, Sora mirrors Ventus a lot, making him a great candidate. Besides, Sora greatly contradicts with Xehanort. Xehanort always wants to know whether he will be worthy of the light he seeks, which is Kingdom Hearts. Even though Xehanort is the most powerful Keyblade wielder with a great ability of foresight, he will fall short to the person who is perceived the least capable to be a Keyblade wielder – Sora.

Kingdom Hearts also foresaw Ventus’ friendship with Terra and Aqua. Hence, the events of Birth by Sleep were destined to happen. “As your flesh bears the sigil, so your name shall be known as that… of a recusant.” The X-Blade was the origin of the X sigil – the one that brought the meaning of death and the letter that spelt endings. The X-Blade was like the Forbidden Fruit, causing everyone to stumble and become the “recusant” because they refused to submit to Kingdom Hearts and complied with its teachings. In addition, the games that took place before Birth by Sleep all have the sigil in their titles, hinting that nothing would ever go right in those games.

Ventus and Vanitas must forge the X-Blade to fulfill their roles. Vanitas represented darkness, evil and negativity – the ones that caused people to stumble. Ventus represented light and all that was good, but that did not mean that he could not feel negativity. Ventus’ victory over Vanitas represented that light prevails forevermore and he had overcome darkness, evil and negativity – from the past, present and future. It was worth noting that Ventus successfully fought Lucifer, Cinderella’s Stepmother’s cat, which was named after the fallen angel. This could have foreshadowed his victory. Besides that, Ventus survived even after the X-Blade was shattered, which meant that his heart was shattered as well. It was believed that in this stage his heart would vanish forever, but it did not. Instead, Ventus’ heart ended up in Sora’s heart for healing. This could mean that Ventus also had overcome potential death.

Ventus’ sacrifice paved way to new beginnings to everyone – their “birth by sleep”. This might be the reason why the game was titled in such a way – it signified a new era. Though, this did not put an end to Xehanort’s plans. Xehanort continued to find other ways to bring his plans into fruition, which in turn brought suffering to many people. He created Organization XIII in the way by manipulating people to join him. Once he managed to secure his 13 vessels, he would clash with the 7 lights and summon Kingdom Hearts. He will merge with it and create his own kingdom. This is similar to “The Greatest War” when Lucifer manipulated one third of the angels to rebel God.

To ensure that Xehanort’s plan will be foiled, Sora will have to carry out many wonderful things. To do that, he must follow his heart, like he always does. As the result, Sora can find light in the deepest darkness and pull off miracles as if it is nothing. His heart is close to the light and is connected to Ventus. Sora even ensures that his friends will not stumble to the wrong path, like a shepherd with his sheep. The most notable example is his relationship with Riku. When Riku falls into the darkness, Sora is determined to save him, not wanting him to perish. He leaves Kairi at Destiny Islands so she will be safe, and he goes to look for Riku. When he finally finds Riku in Kingdom Hearts 2, he is happier about him than his reunion with Kairi. This is similar to the parable being told by Jesus in Matthew 18:12-14.

Sora heard Mickey’s voice in the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 1, but how would Mickey know that Sora would be the chosen one? Perhaps Mickey was guided by the light, Kingdom Hearts, or Ventus to Sora? What about Namine, the Nobody created from Kairi’s heart and Sora’s body and soul? How did she possess the ability to manipulate Sora’s memories and those connected to him? Perhaps it was a gift from Kingdom Hearts so she could remind Sora about the people he must save? After all, Sora would never know that he has memories that do not belong to him and the people were hurting if Namine did not mess up his memories and then fixed them.

As for the Princesses of Heart that comes to existence from the 7 lights of the X-Blade, their roles are apparently to maintain the stability of the worlds. Without them, the worlds will fall into darkness. However, in Kingdom Hearts 3, there are the New Seven Princesses of Hearts, and unlike the original ones, the new candidates are susceptible to darkness. Why does this happen? It is possible that the role played by the Princesses of Heart is an old law. That law may have become obsolete due to Ventus’ sacrifice. As the six Princesses use their light to hold back the darkness pouring out from the Keyhole in Hallow Bastion, they lose their status and these roles are handed down to new ones. Since the role is no longer of much importance, the new Princesses are more susceptible to darkness. The light in their hearts can become dim when being plagued by negativity and insecurities. They have the tendency to descend into darkness as well.

No matter what, Sora is not alone in this fight. He has many friends and those who are connected to him, who also ends up having some form of connection with Ventus. The notable ones are Roxas, Xion, Namine and Vanitas. However, the Keyblade War in Kingdom Hearts 3 will only begin after Ventus awakens. He is the first and the last, and with the possibility that other characters connected to him will return earlier, Ventus will be the last to return – marking the beginning of the end.

[moved-to-void-kissed]

A preview (or four) of what I’ve been working on this evening. I would write everything out for it now and get it posted, but it’s twenty to three in the morning, so.. have these to tide you over.