Just going to cut to the chase on this one. This is my interpretation of what has happened so far what with all of the convoluted body swapping and transformations, starting with Master Xehanort. Note that what I say relies heavily on this translation of the secret ending:
So we've got Master Xehanort. He unlocks his heart using his keyblade, as a Master can do, and places it within Terra's body in order to wield the X-Blade as a more suitable youth (or, if need be, to continue on his quest without his age being a concern, as he elaborates in the Xehanort Reports).
This combination creates the new Xehanort (ie "Another" Xehanort), who will be referred to as Terranort.
The big question here is: Who's calling the shots in this vessel? Terra's heart or Master Xehanort's heart?
And the answer is, at least at first anyway, Master Xehanort's.
But rather than thinking of MX's heart as the active one and Terra's as the repressed one, think more along the lines of Terra's heart being manipulated by MX's heart as the dominant one. That is, both hearts are active, it's just that MX's heart is calling the shots, making Terra's heart essentially be evil as well.
This explains the appearance of the guardian. We have two active forces here- the guardian and Terranort. The guardian is the embodiment of MX's darkness, ie that's where MX's heart is active, while Terranort has Terra's heart active, but is being manipulated by MX.
Now let's skip ahead, after the fight with Aqua. What's different about Terranort?
For starters, MX's heart is no longer the dominant one. It's Terra's heart. Hence why MX says:
"Your heart is clad in darkness. Your body should have been destroyed. Yet, why does it fail to heed me?"
And, of course, Terra directly confirms control himself:
"Just as I control my body[...]"
Further proof can be seen by how Terranort's eyes are no longer Yellow- they're brown (the darkness has been tampered for the time being). What's more, look at the dirty look he gives Braig. As his co-conspirator, had MX been in control of Terranort, he certainly wouldn't be angered at the sight of Braig.
To clear something up though, when AtW finds Terranort, MX was still clearly in control (albeit losing it) before he passed out, hence the yellow eyes and the response "Xehanort" when asked of his name.
But what about the whole memory loss ordeal?
Well, it was one big fat lie. Terra, under the false name Xehanort, lied.
Why did Terra lie?
That's simple.
Because of Braig.
Note how Braig said he'd kill Terranort if it were actually Terra in control and not MX. Braig expected MX to be control, according to plan. With MX already having said his name, Terra had to play along for the time being.
So, with Terra in control, that sheds an entirely different light on the issue.
So Terra is the one responsible for the heartless? Terra is the one who released his heart in pursuit of everlasting power and darkness?
Woah, let's backtrack a bit.
Terra wouldn't do all of that for the sake of darkness and power. Granted, his heart is still tainted by the darkness of MX's heart, so he's probably misguided, but there's got to be some ulterior motive.
And there is.
Terra says he has "only one goal." This is the same Terra we're talking about here, no matter how stained in darkness he is. Think. If you were in his shoes, what would that goal be?
To get his friends back of course.
And before doing that, you would need to rid your body of the influence of MX, lest he be able to take control again.
So, how to get rid of MX's heart?
By releasing it.
Hence why Terranort studied the heart- all this time he was looking for away to cultivate the darkness in it in order to extract it. And he found what he needed in the Heartless.
With that in mind, have a look at this conversation:
Indeed, Terra seems determined to get rid of MX's heart.
But... his own too?
MX said that a part of Terra's heart belongs to him, so, naturally, were he to find a way to release MX's heart, his heart would have to go along with it.
This is the price Terra speaks of. He must give up his own heart to rid himself of MX, a "brazen thing to do." A huge sacrifice made toward reaching his goal, of reuniting with his friends.
He makes that sacrifice, obviously, so what's the end result?
The being known as Ansem SoD is a heartless born from the darkness of both Terra and MX's hearts. Because the hearts were inevitably merging, it explains Ansem SoD's unstable and unusual nature (the brown cloaked being we see which retains its sense of self and memories). It retains the memories because they are MX's memories. And, being comprised of two fused hearts instead of one, it takes on an abnormal form.
So when Ansem SoD possesses Riku (and kicks Riku's heart into the realm of darkness), what we're seeing is as follows:
The Guardian is MX's part of the heartless and is calling the shots, just like it did before.
Ansem SoD is Terra's part of the heartlless and is being manipulated by MX. However, given the nature of the heartless, unlike with Terranort, there really is no struggle. Ansem SoD has fully given in to the darkness and is utterly evil. Just like when he was MX, Xehanort's heartless continues to seek the princesses of heart, and perhaps was attempting to create the X blade through the fight between Riku and Sora.
As for what's left over, Xemnas is, by process of elimination, Terra's body and soul.
This is the effect Terra had planned. That his "body [would] become darkness itself."
But, obviously, Xemnas isn't as happy-go-lucky or as merciful as Terra, partially due to the fact that, without a heart, he is amoral, and he was stained by Xehanort's darkness. Looking back at what Terranort and Xemnas have done, you guys may be apprehensive to consider Terra to be the one responsible, but this is a theme all too common in KH. Terra himself said he would do ANYTHING to reach his goal, whatever the cost. That not only includes hurting himself, but others as well. Just like how Riku would do anything to get stronger, and Axel would do anything to get Roxas back, Xemnas was desperate to see his friends again.
He retains his goal of reuniting with his friends.
From what we can deduce, the armor Terranort kept from Aqua took on the form of a Lingering Sentiment.
By conversing with it, he is filled in on what happened to Ven (in the Chamber of Waking) and Aqua.
So, knowing what happened to them, how could he get them back?
By creating and merging with Kingdom Hearts, of course! With the power of KH, he could bring Aqua back from the Dark Realm, recreate Ven's entire heart, and maybe even restore Eraqus as well.
Even if he had to steal the hearts of thousands, or millions, to do so, he'd do it.
Though I get the feeling that, in the end, should his plan succeeded, Xemnas would have tried to absolve himself of his sins, hence why he says he wishes to grant hearts to all Nobodies (to restore those whose hearts he stole).
To those of you that still think KH's power was Xemnas' ultimate goal:
Merging with KH was not an end in and of itself, Xemnas had always wanted to use its power for a higher purpose, unlike Ansem SoD who just wanted the power of darkness.
Now, knowing that when the heartless and Nobody are defeated, the original is restored, it's hard to say what is to become of Terra and MX given Xehanort's special condition, but I'm sure you guys can speculate on that.
That's basically my interpretation, but there is still one mystery which remains, one which I might update this post with later.
So we've got Master Xehanort. He unlocks his heart using his keyblade, as a Master can do, and places it within Terra's body in order to wield the X-Blade as a more suitable youth (or, if need be, to continue on his quest without his age being a concern, as he elaborates in the Xehanort Reports).
This combination creates the new Xehanort (ie "Another" Xehanort), who will be referred to as Terranort.
The big question here is: Who's calling the shots in this vessel? Terra's heart or Master Xehanort's heart?
And the answer is, at least at first anyway, Master Xehanort's.
But rather than thinking of MX's heart as the active one and Terra's as the repressed one, think more along the lines of Terra's heart being manipulated by MX's heart as the dominant one. That is, both hearts are active, it's just that MX's heart is calling the shots, making Terra's heart essentially be evil as well.
This explains the appearance of the guardian. We have two active forces here- the guardian and Terranort. The guardian is the embodiment of MX's darkness, ie that's where MX's heart is active, while Terranort has Terra's heart active, but is being manipulated by MX.
Now let's skip ahead, after the fight with Aqua. What's different about Terranort?
For starters, MX's heart is no longer the dominant one. It's Terra's heart. Hence why MX says:
"Your heart is clad in darkness. Your body should have been destroyed. Yet, why does it fail to heed me?"
And, of course, Terra directly confirms control himself:
"Just as I control my body[...]"
Further proof can be seen by how Terranort's eyes are no longer Yellow- they're brown (the darkness has been tampered for the time being). What's more, look at the dirty look he gives Braig. As his co-conspirator, had MX been in control of Terranort, he certainly wouldn't be angered at the sight of Braig.
To clear something up though, when AtW finds Terranort, MX was still clearly in control (albeit losing it) before he passed out, hence the yellow eyes and the response "Xehanort" when asked of his name.
But what about the whole memory loss ordeal?
Well, it was one big fat lie. Terra, under the false name Xehanort, lied.
Why did Terra lie?
That's simple.
Because of Braig.
Note how Braig said he'd kill Terranort if it were actually Terra in control and not MX. Braig expected MX to be control, according to plan. With MX already having said his name, Terra had to play along for the time being.
So, with Terra in control, that sheds an entirely different light on the issue.
So Terra is the one responsible for the heartless? Terra is the one who released his heart in pursuit of everlasting power and darkness?
Woah, let's backtrack a bit.
Terra wouldn't do all of that for the sake of darkness and power. Granted, his heart is still tainted by the darkness of MX's heart, so he's probably misguided, but there's got to be some ulterior motive.
And there is.
Terra says he has "only one goal." This is the same Terra we're talking about here, no matter how stained in darkness he is. Think. If you were in his shoes, what would that goal be?
To get his friends back of course.
And before doing that, you would need to rid your body of the influence of MX, lest he be able to take control again.
So, how to get rid of MX's heart?
By releasing it.
Hence why Terranort studied the heart- all this time he was looking for away to cultivate the darkness in it in order to extract it. And he found what he needed in the Heartless.
With that in mind, have a look at this conversation:
Indeed, Terra seems determined to get rid of MX's heart.
But... his own too?
MX said that a part of Terra's heart belongs to him, so, naturally, were he to find a way to release MX's heart, his heart would have to go along with it.
This is the price Terra speaks of. He must give up his own heart to rid himself of MX, a "brazen thing to do." A huge sacrifice made toward reaching his goal, of reuniting with his friends.
He makes that sacrifice, obviously, so what's the end result?
The being known as Ansem SoD is a heartless born from the darkness of both Terra and MX's hearts. Because the hearts were inevitably merging, it explains Ansem SoD's unstable and unusual nature (the brown cloaked being we see which retains its sense of self and memories). It retains the memories because they are MX's memories. And, being comprised of two fused hearts instead of one, it takes on an abnormal form.
So when Ansem SoD possesses Riku (and kicks Riku's heart into the realm of darkness), what we're seeing is as follows:
The Guardian is MX's part of the heartless and is calling the shots, just like it did before.
Ansem SoD is Terra's part of the heartlless and is being manipulated by MX. However, given the nature of the heartless, unlike with Terranort, there really is no struggle. Ansem SoD has fully given in to the darkness and is utterly evil. Just like when he was MX, Xehanort's heartless continues to seek the princesses of heart, and perhaps was attempting to create the X blade through the fight between Riku and Sora.
As for what's left over, Xemnas is, by process of elimination, Terra's body and soul.
This is the effect Terra had planned. That his "body [would] become darkness itself."
But, obviously, Xemnas isn't as happy-go-lucky or as merciful as Terra, partially due to the fact that, without a heart, he is amoral, and he was stained by Xehanort's darkness. Looking back at what Terranort and Xemnas have done, you guys may be apprehensive to consider Terra to be the one responsible, but this is a theme all too common in KH. Terra himself said he would do ANYTHING to reach his goal, whatever the cost. That not only includes hurting himself, but others as well. Just like how Riku would do anything to get stronger, and Axel would do anything to get Roxas back, Xemnas was desperate to see his friends again.
He retains his goal of reuniting with his friends.
From what we can deduce, the armor Terranort kept from Aqua took on the form of a Lingering Sentiment.
By conversing with it, he is filled in on what happened to Ven (in the Chamber of Waking) and Aqua.
So, knowing what happened to them, how could he get them back?
By creating and merging with Kingdom Hearts, of course! With the power of KH, he could bring Aqua back from the Dark Realm, recreate Ven's entire heart, and maybe even restore Eraqus as well.
Even if he had to steal the hearts of thousands, or millions, to do so, he'd do it.
Though I get the feeling that, in the end, should his plan succeeded, Xemnas would have tried to absolve himself of his sins, hence why he says he wishes to grant hearts to all Nobodies (to restore those whose hearts he stole).
To those of you that still think KH's power was Xemnas' ultimate goal:
Xemnas secret report said:
Merging with KH was not an end in and of itself, Xemnas had always wanted to use its power for a higher purpose, unlike Ansem SoD who just wanted the power of darkness.
Now, knowing that when the heartless and Nobody are defeated, the original is restored, it's hard to say what is to become of Terra and MX given Xehanort's special condition, but I'm sure you guys can speculate on that.
That's basically my interpretation, but there is still one mystery which remains, one which I might update this post with later.
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