(SPOILERS) Union X: Confession / The Missing Ark

[OneDandelion]

If I were to guess on what was going on at this point I'd say the dark chirithy the player encounters is behind everything. It's unclear what exactly happened to Ava but I think it must either be that she was killed or (more likely) she was consumed by the [darkness] which would explain the knowledge that [darkness] possesses - either way, according to what Luxu said about "carrying out her goal" it may be that the master of masters intended for her fate to end up the way it did and that giving the book to brain was really the only thing MoM didn't predict, or maybe he did.

Perhaps Luxu was instructed to tell Ava a lie (or the truth) sending her into a rage that opened her heart to darkness?

Whether she was killed or taken over by darkness though, her likeness was clearly controlled in order to recruit Ventus. It would raise red flags if this new Ava appeared before the dandelion leaders so [darkness] takes control of Ventus and kills Striletzia to take her book and seemingly removes some of Ventus' memories from the time that he kills Striletzia. Later I would assume darkness uses Ventus as a vessel to travel to the future and becomes Vanitas in the process. Maybe darkness is also responsible for the amnesia Ven has in BBS, but the mysterious girl also has Amnesia so it could be for other reasons - or completely unrelated.

The only hole in this theory is explaining how [darkness] would be able to jump between manipulating Ventus/using him as a vessel and helping Maleficent. It would seem that Ventus is not hosting [darkness] as a vessel from the point he becomes a dandelion leader until now - and being the Xehanort had to rip Vanitas out of Ventus it wouldn't seem that darkness can simply possess someone and leave at will. There could be multiple darknesses but that seems somewhat underwhelming in a way.

Nomura, I'm not getting any younger.

 

[LoneFox]

What if he lost his heart in the fight against Maleficent?

That would allow Lauriam to time travel to the past, do whatever he can to rescue his sister, and return to troll Maleficent as the Darkness. There are a few details missing, like how he got access to the Book of Prophesies (which we know the Darkness has read), but I think you just solved a large part of the mystery.

 

[DraceEmpressa]

Anyone noticed how Lauriam lies on the floor mirrors Strelitzia 's death scene? Also with how their boots is kinda similar? Really, Lauriam is and Strelitzia is pulling that sibling yin yang trope I see, that ironically how they are opposites yet still similar is how you can tell they are sibs.

That also reminds me that how recently Disney also released Twisted Wonderland, a gacha based on the Disney villains, and the guy based on Maleficent got the most pre-release promotional material, is in the middle of the game's banner, and in universe ppl are scared sh**less of him due to his immense magic, it could be the Hades-based or the Ursula-based guys who are this hyped but no, it has to be the Maleficent-based guy who is the local OP char. And then Maleficent in UX proves her to be threatening again, hmmm, wonder if it's intentional, after all, SE also did have a hand in TW's development...

 

[Tobi]

That would allow Lauriam to time travel to the past, do whatever he can to rescue his sister, and return to troll Maleficent as the Darkness. There are a few details missing, like how he got access to the Book of Prophesies (which we know the Darkness has read), but I think you just solved a large part of the mystery.

If you mean Nobody Lauriam, then I don't think that this Lauriam could travel to the past. Atleast not as he would be now, if my thought turns out to be correct. Afterall, someones heart has to leave his/her body behind in order to travel through time. But Marluxia doesn't have one.

But if you mean future Lauriam, yes that version of him could travel all the way back into The Age of Fairy Tales. And everyone else who got his heart back and - I think that was a condition - lost their body atleast once could do that too.

Another option would be, that Marluxia is managing to regrow a heart fast. Xemnas said it takes the first chance it gets to regrow and the whole thing about Lauriams sister has the potential to be one huge trigger, where the problem only lies in the high probability that the first thing he would feel would be something out of sadness or anger.
But yes, if he manages to do that then yes, he should be able to travel back in time in order to see what happened...

 

[LoneFox]

If you mean Nobody Lauriam, then I don't think that this Lauriam could travel to the past. Atleast not as he would be now, if my thought turns out to be correct. Afterall, someones heart has to leave his/her body behind in order to travel through time. But Marluxia doesn't have one.

No, what I mean is that he did exactly same thing as Maleficent did when she was defeated in KH1: his heart goes to the past, and his body stays where it is. There won't be any nobody, at least for now. In fact, now that I think about it, I'm sure that in the next update we will see the Darkness taking over Lauriam's body. It really is his own heart reclaiming it, but people will interpret it as possession...

 

[Tobi]

No, what I mean is that he did exactly same thing as Maleficent did when she was defeated in KH1: his heart goes to the past, and his body stays where it is. There won't be any nobody, at least for now. In fact, now that I think about it, I'm sure that in the next update we will see the Darkness taking over Lauriam's body. It really is his own heart reclaiming it, but people will interpret it as possession...

Now I understand what you mean. While I can't say much about the reclaiming part, since I don't see yet what benefit he would have from helping Maleficent and why he should call himself Darkness, it could be possible for Lauriam to travel back (or forward) in time, if his heart wasn't captured before he could do that. There was no Heartless at work as far as we know, so if Lauriam lost his heart the case would be more similar to when Maleficent was stabbed by that keyblade.

 

[LoneFox]

Now, how does this new idea affect the murder scene? Lauriam knows that he cannot prevent the murder, because the past cannot be changed, but he can pick up the pieces of Strelitzia's heart in hope to restore her later. The fake Ava is probably Elrena wearing Ava's clothes stolen from her room in the clock tower (Lauriam is a naughty boy ). Somehow they knew that a third vessel was needed, and Ven seems like a good choice for that. He probably didn't understand much of what was going on, but agreed to help because "Ava" was involved.

The pieces of Strelitzia's heart have been mentioned before. One ended up becoming the unknown part of Vanitas, and another is Larxene's little secret. That's two additional mysteries solved! There is probably a third piece in Lauriam's own heart as well.

The killer can still be Ira hitting wrong target, or perhaps Gula got so obsessed with his role that when he saw something resembling a sigil on Strelitzia's clothes, he attacked her. No new information here, except Lauriam now knows what happened and who the killer is.

Finding Strelitzia's rulebook must have been a big surprise for Lauriam, but after some discussion he realized that Ven doesn't have one yet and got it from here. Ven at this point was so confused and horrified that Lauriam decided to call up his Chirithy and instruct it to perform the memory erasure that was meant for removing the memories of the Keyblade War. Elrena would get the same treatment later when it was done to all the regular Dandelions. We have seen its shortcoming before with the Player Character, it does not work well on very traumatic memories.

Then there is the heart we saw flying away after Strelitzia's death. I was already suspicious of it when I first saw it, because why wouldn't they show it coming from Strelitzia's body. It is actually Lauriam leaving the scene after everything is done. He doesn't have a body, he can probably choose to appear either as a heart or as a ghost like Eraqus did at the end of KH3.

See how well this connects in all directions? I really believe it is the correct solution.

 

[Deleted member 252753]

I'd still say Skuld is the most logical killer/fake Ava (probably with Darkness's involvement). When the leaders voted on Shift Pride only two voted to break the rules: Ven and Skuld. Ventus shouldn't have been there but what's Skuld's excuse? And when the leaders meet for the first time we did learn that Ven didn't really know Ava, which proved to be significant, so it's interesting that they soon talk about how Skuld is like Ava.

Plus I still don't get why Brain and Ava said specifically that the union leaders weren't meant to meet ahead of time when this has no bearing on Ventus. Skuld's whole Chi arc revolves around her looking for Ephemer and they definitely do meet ahead of time.

 

[yuyayuzu]

I'd still say Skuld is the most logical killer/fake Ava (probably with Darkness's involvement). When the leaders voted on Shift Pride only two voted to break the rules: Ven and Skuld. Ventus shouldn't have been there but what's Skuld's excuse? And when the leaders meet for the first time we did learn that Ven didn't really know Ava, which proved to be significant, so it's interesting that they soon talk about how Skuld is like Ava.

Plus I still don't get why Brain and Ava said specifically that the union leaders weren't meant to meet ahead of time when this has no bearing on Ventus. Skuld's whole Chi arc revolves around her looking for Ephemer and they definitely do meet ahead of time.

Well, there still exists the possibilty of skuld is ava the entire time and when ven is called out ava uses her unmasked appearance and to make sure ven dont recognize her, she erases his memory. Well, there is Ava is with Luxu counterargument but is it really Ava instead of her illusion? But I think it is just me overthinking things though