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Master Xehanort's motivation.



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Onion Knight

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Hey all, just wanted to clear something up. In one of the cutscenes of Kingdom Hearts III, Master Xehanort speaks about his motivations, and so far I'm not really getting it. I blame the localization team for this, because I once watched the game's leaked Epilogue in Japanese with literal English captions, and the dialogue seemed a lot more straightforward and easier to understand than the official English version, probably because they changed up the English dub in an attempt to make it sound fancy and full of character.

So... what are Xehanort's motivations, exactly?
 

Zul

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It seems he thought that the current balance of light and dark would cause a collapse-towards-darkness of sorts, so he had to "refresh" the world and change the balance so that wouldn't happen.

It really seems like bullshit made up at the last second, this wasn't some misunderstood guy with good intentions, he smiled as he froze Ven and threw him off a cliff. He clearly states in BBS that he simply wishes to see what lies beyond the Keyblade War and makes no attempt to tell or warn Eraqus that this universal collapse will occur if he doesn't.

 

Onion Knight

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I'd like to believe that things he said at the end of Kingdom Hearts III weren't his true motifs, and he only said that to make people feel sorry for him. Either that or non-canon mistranslation.
 

U.N. Owen

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Are we seriously going to believe the ramblings of a madman?

Using the psychology degree I don't have, I would say that Xehanort just spoke what he mentally told himself to justify his actions. Criminals often do this. It sounds sane to them, but to anyone who is willing to listen, it's beyond dumb.
 

Onion Knight

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Are we seriously going to believe the ramblings of a madman?

Using the psychology degree I don't have, I would say that Xehanort just spoke what he mentally told himself to justify his actions. Criminals often do this. It sounds sane to them, but to anyone who is willing to listen, it's beyond dumb.

So, no motivation? He's just insane? But what caused him to become insane, though? He doesn't have a tragic backstory as far as we're told.
 

U.N. Owen

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So, no motivation? He's just insane? But what caused him to become insane, though? He doesn't have a tragic backstory as far as we're told.

Insanity in and of itself isn't a motivation, but Xehanort's insanity probably stem from a number of things: a time loop, not wearing armor in the Lanes Between, being bashed by a keyblade way too many times, etc.
 

Smithee

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Reminds me of the final fate of the Military Uniform Princess from Re:CREATORS, actually.

And given how most fans reacted to that... :eek:
 

Sephiroth0812

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I only know the final scenes from the leaks so far as I haven't reached the finale of the game yet, but concerning Xehanort's motivations I'd say they are still the same as they were in BBS.

Spoiler Spoiler Show
 

Pokie

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Onion Knight

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I'm pretty sure that is not the case. We've already seen Xehanort and his incarnations saying stuff like "darkness is the heart's true nature", "darkness cannot be suppressed, it can only be channelled", as if he was actually a fan of darkness. He showed no signs of wanting to eliminate darkness until now, which seems so out of left field, and not in a good way.
 
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Kirankrt

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Even if it is a retcon, they could have had one line of dialogue to make it actually work and not in the face of his obviously evil persona in the last games:

”I had to motivate others to summon the X-Blade. I had to become the very thing I saw to destroy, play the role of a villain. The suffering of the few chosen, it was all nessercary. And it all worked; I had brought the seven guardians through the bonds of you, Sora. You become the anchor that holds them together. And so...I knew this day would come. My deceptions would pay off and they have. Your friends have helped serve a great debt to the worlds. Now there will be peace,”

Not exactly redeeming him but it explains his additude and still makes him a scumbag.
 
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Onion Knight

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Even if it is a retcon, they coukd have had one line of dialogue to make it actually work and not in the face of his obviously evil persona in the last games:

”I had to motivate others to summon the X-Blade. I had to become the very thing I saw to destroy, play the role of a villain. The suffering of the few chosen, it was all nessercary. And it all worked; I had brought the seven guardians through the bonds of you, Sora. You become the anchor that holds them together. And so...I knew this day would come. My deceptions would pay off and they have. Your friends have helped serve a great debt to the worlds. Now there will be peace,”

Not exactly redeeming him but it explains his additude and still makes him a scumbag.

You know what? That actually sounds good. Nomura needs to get his shit together.
 

Sephiroth0812

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You know what? That actually sounds good. Nomura needs to get his shit together.

I doubt he will.
He's like George Lucas in this regard.
Both are visionaries with great and creative ideas but largely suck at script writing and coherent dialogue.


What would be needed is Nomura no longer doing all the writing by himself and gather together a writing team again, especially some professionals who proofread the stuff and tell him when some parts don't make sense or contradict formerly established stuff.
 

Onion Knight

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What I gather from all this is that Xehanort was afraid that darkness was fated to consume all existence, so he decided to retcon the entire universe so he could write his own fate for it. Correct? And if so, then why was he antagonized? For the same reasons as Thanos, because his ambition comes at the expense of other people's lives?
 

Kirankrt

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What I gather from all this is that Xehanort was afraid that darkness was fated to consume all existence, so he decided to retcon the entire universe so he could write his own fate for it. Correct? And if so, then why was he antagonized? For the same reasons as Thanos, because his ambition comes at the expense of other people's lives?

Well, it is kinda jarring when a villain who keeps rambling on about darkness suddenly goes “oh no, see I wanna destroy darkness.”
 

darknessofheart

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Pretty much everything has already been said, but Xehanort wants a balanced universe. He believed the first Keyblade War resulted in a world fated for failure; light was far too prevalent, darkness was nearly excluded, and those that used darkness did so recklessly. He had no respect for beings like Maleficent, simply seeing them as fools, but decided to control and manipulate their darkness for what he saw as the greater good rather than outright eliminate them.

Playing through the game, I actually think Xehanort had a pretty unhappy childhood. Woody believes that no one ever loved Young Xehanort. This form was before he left the Destiny Islands, so his childhood was probably a contributing factor for him longing to leave the islands and made his heart more susceptible to darkness. This makes me believe that he used corridors of darkness to travel throughout the worlds and learned of the power of darkness as a result, eventually meeting a master of the keyblade, who decided to train the boy because of his strong heart.

He meets Eraqus at this time, a "blueblood" descended from the ancient keyblade wielders who he eventually saw as a brother. This period of time is the only time we see Xehanort acting as carefree and genuinely nice individual; I think it's because he finally has someone to care about and vice versa. However, Eraqus' beliefs in light being absolute, coupled with Xehanort's new findings into the Keyblade War, made him look at Eraqus as a reckless fool and their friendship was shattered.

From there, he was consumed with his ambitions; create the X-Blade to reenact the Keyblade War, complete Kingdom Hearts, take control of it and transform it into pure darkness and use it to purge the worlds and recreate them into a single existence that is balanced of light and darkness. To ensure no one misuses the light or darkness again, he would then lead and control this new world and dictate everyone's destinies. With the knowledge and power he would obtain, he would be immortal to rule over the world for eternity. He still believes that darkness is the heart's true essence because everything begins and ends in darkness, but also believes in the light, which is born from the shadows; they just need to be balanced out and maintained.

The only aspect that Xehanort did not mention is his lust for knowledge, but as others have said, he was trying to justify his horrible deeds throughout the series and did not want to openly admit that a large portion of his plans were because he wanted to leave his own mark on the world and the history of the Keyblade. He had a sense of entitlement to the X-blade and Kingdom Hearts, but if he believes in destiny, than he realized that it was not his destiny to lead after all. His disbelief in Sora defeating him was not only because he couldn't believe that he was defeated, but the realization that he is not worthy after all to usher in the new world. Thus, he accepted his destiny and allowed Sora and his friends to decide their own fates in the world.

The Xehanort we knew throughout the series was destroyed (quite a bit if you count his other forms being taken down in the Keyblade Graveyard) and we are left with the one Xehanort that was actually a good person, even if it was only for a very brief period of his life, departing with the one person that ever showed any concern for him; his brother. It's fitting that Eraqus is the only person to feel sorry for Xehanort because he knew him as a brother.
 
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