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Answers to misconceptions about the Mark of Mastery and becoming a Keyblade Master

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Audo

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it's funny how so many people got upset sora wasn't named a master and like "it is so rude for yen sid to do that when sora did stuff and sora should be made master"

what y'all should really push for is not sora being recognized by the established old white dude sitting in his ivory tower doin jack shit, but for him and his fellow queers to rise up and overthrow

the.

whole.

thing.
 

Riruru

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Here, I am less in agreement. I do agree that Eraqus was the blindest fool around and an extremist, but Aqua deserved the Mastery nonetheless while Terra didn't.
It's okay that Terra was manipulated and had no real reason to doubt a wise Master until the very end, but that doesn't mean he's free from any guilt.

Well hey, I never said I disagreed with the results either. What I disagree with and what I think led to the disaster in BBS was how it was done. Eraqus went about it the wrong way and happened to luck out that Aqua really did end up being suited to being a master while Terra wasn't quite yet. If we compare it to how the Mark of Mastery was done in DDD, you can tell that Sora learned a lot from his experience despite not passing, and wouldn't just abandon all his friends to go on an emo conquest for darkness. Yen Sid saw the entire thing through, and didn't just deem Riku or Sora as failures even though they both either fell into or wielded darkness at some point during the test.

what y'all should really push for is not sora being recognized by the established old white dude sitting in his ivory tower doin jack shit, but for him and his fellow queers to rise up and overthrow

the.

whole.

thing.

I vote Yoshiya "Rainbow Joshua" Kiryu as our president.
 

kirabook

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I guess, just for funsies, I'll explain my headcanons of what the Mark of Mastery is for and how you get it and blah blah blah. At this point, who can say what is canon or not in what I'm about to say, it's all speculation.

The Mark of Mastery is not much of anything except a formality and it grants new Master permissions and knowledge they wouldn't get otherwise.

Since this was never delved deep into in Birth by Sleep, we can't say exactly what special info or permissions a Master might have other than a few I can speculate:

  • You are granted special knowledge about the history of the Keyblade and wielders (knowledge that Aqua, the only master we've followed closely, did not get the opportunity to explore?)
  • If you are chosen as successor, you learn very important things like how to protect places such as Land of Departure (that may have a special significance we do not yet know of)
  • You are allowed to grant new wielders the ability to one day wield a keyblade if they are deemed worthy (Xehanort did technically name Terra a Master. The only one who didn't pass on anything was Ven who was certainly not named Master in any way... so far)

As for how you can become a Master, I'm pretty sure it's stated that the Master gets to decide how their pupils can gain the title. It's totally up to them on what absurd trials they put their students through. It could be as easy as just saying, "Congrats lad, you're a Master now!" or even making them go through a hot dog contest and the biggest eater wins.

In Eraqus's case, his decision on whether his pupils would become Master's or not is if they didn't show signs of darkness, using darkness, or struggling with darkness. Terra failed that test. I'm not saying Eraqus is absolutely right though, Eraqus is the one that made Terra so insecure about his darkness in the first place. Instead of telling Terra everyone has darkness and helped him find a way to balance it out or control it, he insisted Terra just push it down and pretend it didn't exist.

That said, Terra did fail Eraqus's test, and as we saw, Terra did have problems with his darkness with unfortunately lead to the bad guy manipulating him into losing his own body.

This parallels greatly with Yen Sid's test with Sora and Riku. Yen Sid's only requirement was for them to return safely and learn a new power and they would be granted the title of Master. His test was seemingly even easier to pass than Eraqus's. Sadly, due to Xehanort, Sora did not return safely at all. It's not Sora's fault at all, but he didn't meet the requirements AND Yen Sid said his grasp on the power he set out to learn was sorely lacking.

So, to become a Master you must:
  • Have a steady heart and have confidence in your own balance (mostly). By the time DDD ended, Riku had battled it out with himself one last time and is confident in his balance of light and dark. Aqua is very confident in her balance of light and dark and even if she faltered once, she still wasn't anywhere near actually falling into darkness.
  • Pass the specific test each Master puts forth. It's up to them to decide. If they hate you, maybe you'll never pass despite having proven yourself countless times or being the strongest person ever

And lastly, for the tests itself, specifically the one in DDD. What happened in DDD was a very special test. Yen Sid was trying to come up with a way to surprise Xehanort, so he set Sora and Riku off on the down-low trying to help them gain a new unexpected power that would turn the tides. Unfortunately, Mr. Mad Man Xehanort always has a plan and seems to be 5 steps ahead of Yen Sid somehow.

I think what Yen Sid did was fine. Some people roll their eyes at Sora and Riku starting over, but I think it was a clever way to say, "Hey, you were doing fine before, but you can be even better if you review the basics properly." or even "Hey, I know your techniques are cool and all, but if you learn it in this special way from the beginning, all your techniques will have a new flavor to them, making them even better."

Technically Sora lost all his strength, but we saw that he at least retained some basic stuff like magic and even flowmotion (and new stuff that is clearly a new take on shotlocks). His training (even though he failed the test and was stripped of most everything) still added a new 'flavor' to his existing abilities thanks to him starting over in DDD. That's how I look at it anyway.

To summarize, the Mark of Mastery and becoming a Master is like... driving licenses. Every keyblade wielder can have a license, and some, like Sora, are 100x better than all the other wielders. BUTTTTT.... if Sora can't pass the written exam to get a commercial license, then Sora's can't drive a big rig across the country to deliver cookies to a bakery no matter how good a driver he is. Not every test is based on your skill.

(fyi, I almost failed the written exam to my normal driving test. and I hit the curb on the actual driving test. But I still have a license so. I don't think they care about keeping terrible drivers off the road. Hahaha)
 

Jaychance

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I mean Yen Sid is giving Sora another MoM test but this time with the help of Goofy and Donald instead of Dream Eaters. This time the way to pass is to get all the strength he lost during the first test or at least that's how I saw it during 2.9
 
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Well it was already indicated that Sora and Riku's exam had to be rushed because they needed to be masters to battle Xehanort. And their exam was a lot more complicated than just combat training and balance of power like Terra and Aqua's exam.

Plus the experience Sora and Riku gained as Keyblade wielders was colossal compared to Terra and Aqua. Terra and Aqua were confined to one world their entire lives and trained under Eraqus. Sora and Riku traveled to multiple worlds, battled Heartless and Nobodies, defeated strong figures who were actual threats to the realm of light. They were exposed to a lot more than Aqua and Terra were, so it makes sense for them to be able to take their exam so soon after becoming Keyblade wielders.
 

Riruru

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I might've interpreted this or even remembered it incorrectly, but wasn't it stated in BBS that Keyblade Masters have the ability to lock worlds while regular Keyblade Users don't? I recall that Eraqus said that the predecessors of Keyblade Masters were the ones to devise the trick and pass it down.
 

Audo

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I might've interpreted this or even remembered it incorrectly, but wasn't it stated in BBS that Keyblade Masters have the ability to lock worlds while regular Keyblade Users don't? I recall that Eraqus said that the predecessors of Keyblade Masters were the ones to devise the trick and pass it down.
no that was specifically about being able to turn LoD into CO.
 

DarkosOverlord

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Eraqus does unlock the Lanes Between, but Sora can do the same, so I guess everyone has the power to do it and Masters are the ones with the authority to do it (obviously Yen Sid decided to screw the rules while dealing with the Organization)
 

Riruru

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Was Land of Departure the only world that could do that though? I mean, it could be that any world can be locked away, or that there are other worlds out there like LoD which must be protected by Keyblade Masters.

Eraqus does unlock the Lanes Between, but Sora can do the same, so I guess everyone has the power to do it and Masters are the ones with the authority to do it (obviously Yen Sid decided to screw the rules while dealing with the Organization)

I was more referring to specifically being able to lock a world away so it's inaccessible like the Land of Departure. Ahh, I wish they'd explain the keyblade more instead of just using it as an almighty weapon that magically works depending on the context...
 

Genocide

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sora is an ordinary kid with no formal training

I agree with everything you said except this. Maybe you skipped the fights, but all the kids trained to fight. Play fighting gave him the background necessary to start his journey, and he self taught after that. They look at his self taught style as inferior, but at the height of it all, he DID take down a significant portion of the Organization. I bet Yen Sid won't say nothing, if he caught a triangle to the face.
 

Sephiroth0812

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Riruru said:
Besides, to truly make a test fair, they wouldn't take past accomplishments into consideration otherwise the results would've too heavily favored Sora. It's like that saying that chefs use, "you're only as good as your latest dish."
Full agreement, I remember bringing up this point multiple times already back in 2012 when DDD was still new and Sora fanboys/-girls were throwing fits that Sora wasn't made a Master when he "saved the worlds twice already".
Like duh, people, for this MoM exam that doesn't count, that's not how exams work in general.

Well hey, I never said I disagreed with the results either. What I disagree with and what I think led to the disaster in BBS was how it was done. Eraqus went about it the wrong way and happened to luck out that Aqua really did end up being suited to being a master while Terra wasn't quite yet. If we compare it to how the Mark of Mastery was done in DDD, you can tell that Sora learned a lot from his experience despite not passing, and wouldn't just abandon all his friends to go on an emo conquest for darkness.

The funniest thing about this is that the test shown in BBS isn't even what Eraqus intended in the first place.
According to Xehanort's letter, it was Xehanort who proposed to Eraqus to let Aqua and Terra undertake the "traditional" examination (whatever that means in practice, maybe it is whacking light balls and sparring with a fellow Padawan/Apprentice) and he went along with Xehanort's suggestion.
It is unknown what Eraqus had initially planned before MX's intervention.

To be fair, Yen Sid himself says in DDD that the version shown there is not how it is usually done which would imply that there is a default sequence of events/tests how a MoM is conducted for reference. We as the audience just never get to know this reference since it is kept vague, as many things/concepts in this series are treated.

Yen Sid saw the entire thing through, and didn't just deem Riku or Sora as failures even though they both either fell into or wielded darkness at some point during the test.

Which may be because Yen Sid is a more lenient master who holds some more flexible views than a strict, dogmatic teacher like Eraqus while still not going into harmful extremes like Xehanort.
 

DarkosOverlord

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Yeah, if Yen Sid had Eraqus standards, Riku wouldn't even be allowed inside the Tower

I agree with everything you said except this. Maybe you skipped the fights, but all the kids trained to fight. Play fighting gave him the background necessary to start his journey, and he self taught after that. They look at his self taught style as inferior, but at the height of it all, he DID take down a significant portion of the Organization. I bet Yen Sid won't say nothing, if he caught a triangle to the face.

"Self taught" is literally the equivalent of " with no formal training".
No one ever said Sora and Riku's self teaching was inferior, quite the opposite it was deemed "an admirable feat".

However, self teaching can only take you so far and can't teach anything, or else masters wouldn't be needed.
 

Synn

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The series has done kind of a poor job at explaining why being a master is important or good at all. Sora picks up the Keyblade and saves the worlds with 0 training in KH1, and we haven't really been shown the difference between his strength in KH1 vs Master Aqua's strength in BBS-- KH1 Sora has abilities that Aqua and company CAN'T do!

Also in bbs they state that the unversed are weaker versions of the heartless, if aqua, vents and terra struggle against the unversed while sora and riku are beating heartless, it kinda proves that riku and sora are on a different level, which no doubt will be retconed in 3. Either that or they'll explain they got stronger because of the years aqua was in the dark realm, ventas gaining experience through sora's heart, and terra through xemnas
 
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