So I’ve got a double header for you guys today.
Two theories. They’re not entirely unrelated- in fact, one lead me to think of the other, which is why I am placing them in the same topic (because one of my theory topics is bad enough as it is).
First off, MF’s identity.
I’m just going to come out and say it- MF is MX’s first Nobody. (I admit, recently I said I was leaning against the idea of a Nobody, but I’m worse than John Kerry with flip flops)
You may argue that a Heartless was not created and thus MX couldn’t have formed a Nobody, but I direct you to this post:
Long story short, a Heartless does not have to be made in order for a Nobody to be created, that was a rule that was only established in the fandom.
Nomura himself has not denied the possibility that MX created a Nobody when questioned. If what the fandom said was true, it could have been ruled out instantly.
So, anyway, MX made a Nobody. I know, I know. You don’t like the idea of it. Yeah, I get it. We already had a Nobody for the villain, Xemnas, and they’re making another one. I understand. But bear in mind that I probably wouldn’t have even made this topic if I didn’t think there was a reason for this, so sit tight.
You’ll note that MF even has a somewhat similar battle stance to MX (hunched over, right hand above the head, left arm outstretched). However, there’s a problem. Even if his battle stance is slightly hunched, we can see that MF can stand straight up. And he’s quite... acrobatic. Much more sprightly than MX. What gives? Shouldn’t MX’s Nobody look and act like Geezernort himself?
You’d be correct. But this is where the element of time comes in.
You guys may be glad to hear that this part of the theory does not necessarily have to include time travel.
There’s no question that MF has something to do with time. The time reversal in battle, No Name, both point to time. But perhaps I’ve been thinking of it in the wrong sense. Not time travel, but life time.
As in, MF doesn’t have the kind of power where he can go to the past or future, but he has power over his own age. He can make himself younger!
And that’s exactly what MX wanted. To be young again. To live forever, or to at least live long enough to see what exists beyond the keyblade war. The attributes of Organization XIII are often based on the members’ personalities and desires (eg Lexaeus being stoic, Axel being passionate, etc). So even though, yes, it is somewhat of a rip off of Luxord’s power, it would make sense for MX’s Nobody to have power over time. The extent of it is in question, though that’s not important to my theory for the time being.
Is that all it takes, though? Just a desire? Well, there is a more concrete explanation I’ve had in mind in conjunction with that.
Just to clarify, I am saying that MF is MX’s Nobody, taking on the appearance of Young MX.
So how did young MX get to be his basic form?
It has to do with the fate of MX’s heart.
I reiterate that one does not need a Heartless to produce a Nobody. Nonetheless, there is something about the heart that I can see being an influence on one facet of Nobodies- age.
Remember that when a heart is lost to a Heartless, it is in a state of sleep. In this sleep, time is suspended. And Nobodies don’t age, which may be because of this connection to their heart (after all, their looks depend on the strength of their heart).
But what of a Nobody whose heart is still active? Hypothetically, the Nobody would age.
On a side note, this explains Namine. She is the one Nobody who has without a doubt aged, and yet we have no idea why. There’s your answer. Her heart (Kairi’s) was still active, so she aged along with Kairi.
So, what about MX? His heart went to Terra’s vessel. His heart fused with Terra’s, and he attained youth. Thus, his Nobody also reflects this change. That, in combination with MX’s desire for time, is what created MF’s looks and powers.
But... still, why? What purpose does it serve in the plot, having a Young MX Nobody?
And that, my friends, is the start of my second theory. Now we’re getting into the truth about Xehanort.
As a disclaimer, I’ve mentioned this theory before, perhaps in a slightly different form. I even started to have a similar idea running in a rather short lived fan fic of mine. And that’s sort of the problem. There isn’t a whole lot of evidence for it, so I almost preferred to contain it to the realm of fan fiction. But there is some evidence which I’d like to present to you guys (one bit of which I just recently discovered). So... bear with me. It’ll all fit together.
I don’t know if you guys noticed, but there are some curious mysteries about MX. For starters:
It is implied that Xehanort discovered details about the X-Blade in his travels. Something that was not even known to Eraqus. It was an ancient mystery, likely long forgotten. Where did he make this discovery? Or perhaps, who gave him this information?
But that’s not all that’s curious about MX:
We know his motives for leaving are a direct parallel to Riku. And with destiny being so prevalent in KH, history is apt to repeat itself.
We might even say, here, that this quote describes Xehanort as much as it does Riku. Xehanort is the one to originally think of Destiny Islands as a “prison.”
So, Xehanort opened himself to darkness, like Riku (or rather, the other way around). What happened to Riku?
He... got an uninvited guest.
Like Riku, Xehanort claims to not fear the darkness. Pay close attention to that last line though: “so long as I found the strength to control it.” A bit of a qualification...
Surely, though, Xehanort was strong enough to control the darkness, to not let anything or anyone influence him, right?...
That quote jumped out at me when I was recently re-watching scenes. Xehanort does not answer Eraqus’ question. It sounds curiously dismissive and foreboding.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am saying that MX fell to the same trap as Riku. He was lured in by a dark entity.
Who? Well, what evidence do we have of a dark entity existing in MX’s heart? We know of one- the Guardian.
When we first see the Guardian in BbS, I don’t believe that is his time of creation. He is clearly a Heartless, he has all the traits of one. So where is the lost heart? Yes, Terra’s heart was taken over, but so was Riku’s, and no Heartless was produced.
That leads to the conclusion that the Guardian must have existed prior to MX’s possession of Terra. Given how MX in Terra’s body controls the Guardian with a sense of familiarity (it’s not as though he was surprised to have this dark entity pop out of him), I am inclined to believe he has been residing in MX’s heart this whole time.
Like Riku letting in Ansem, Xehanort let in the Guardian. I mean, he was aware of the existence of the Heartless, so this should come as no surprise.
But what’s so special about the Guardian? I have an idea.
Remember that when Nomura was called out on the Heartless in BbS, he replied saying that the Heartless have existed for a “long time.” Not forever. A long time. There had to be a point when they were created.
We know that while not an exact history, the fairy tale has some parallels with real life. It basically describes the Keyblade War. But what of this event where “darkness was born in their hearts.” Well, I wouldn’t say everyone was pure-hearted before the keyblade war. But this indicates something else- the creation of the Heartless. Darkness was literally “born,” it was given life from the greed and hate produced in that war.
And if the Heartless haven’t always existed, then there was a first Heartless. I believe the Guardian was the first Heartless. It was around to witness the Keyblade War and the pursuit of the X-Blade.
This is how MX found out. He ditched his armor, he opened himself to darkness and contacted the Dark Realm. In those depths, a voice eventually answered. And it manipulated him, allowing it to take refuge in MX’s heart. It lied to him about there being an imbalance between the light and darkness. In his deception, MX became corrupted by the darkness.
But the Guardian wasn’t just in it to take over MX’s body. It was patient and allowed MX to retain control. A Heartless cannot use a keyblade since it has no heart. So long as the Guardian silently influenced MX, he could put the keyblade to good use.
I know this makes Xehanort a Matryoshka doll, which is a put off. He’s a person within a person within a person, etc. And this just adds one step. But when you look at things from a larger perspective, this makes sense. The Guardian has taken (or at least tried to take) the hearts of MX, Terra, and Riku. He’s accumulating hearts, like a Heartless does. He is a parasite, jumping from one vessel to the next.
As for the name “Xehanort,” I don’t think that’s MX’s real name. Remember a while ago how Nomura said that the anagram “No Heart” would be important? Well, since it is in MX’s name, it still applies. Now, while you could think of “No Heart” as an indicator of a Nobody, and it can certainly be interpreted that way, there is another way to look at it. No Heart=Heartless. It’s a different way of saying Heartless. Thus, this is actually the Guardian’s name. Before the Heartless received their name, he was given one. No Heart. And he assumed a new identity in Xehanort.
But what about MX? What’s his true name? We don’t know. At the moment, he is nameless. Hence, when you fight MF, you receive the keyblade “No Name.”
Speaking of MF, this is how the two theories tie together. How would we get to know all of this past information about Young MX? Through MF. I would say that MF will be the antagonist for BbSv2, fighting Aqua in the dark realm. Or maybe not quite an “antagonist.” His intentions aren’t clear at this point. And he will know about his past because he has MX’s memories.
Notice how when Aqua meets Terranort, he’s still a bit hazy. Then after the fight, he supposedly loses all of his memories, sans his own name. I am suggesting that, yes, he did lose at least most of his memories. When he struck himself with the keyblade, no heart was released, but then what was? His memories, and they found their way to the original vessel.
That is also how we know that MF will die. These memories will be returned to Xehanort.
So... that’s it. Have at it.
Two theories. They’re not entirely unrelated- in fact, one lead me to think of the other, which is why I am placing them in the same topic (because one of my theory topics is bad enough as it is).
First off, MF’s identity.
I’m just going to come out and say it- MF is MX’s first Nobody. (I admit, recently I said I was leaning against the idea of a Nobody, but I’m worse than John Kerry with flip flops)
You may argue that a Heartless was not created and thus MX couldn’t have formed a Nobody, but I direct you to this post:
Spoiler ShowThis has never been explicitly stated, the fandom has essentially just come to regard this as fact.
I really just think it has to do with misunderstandings.
The Ansem Reports never emphasized Heartless in the creation of Nobodies, ie:
"When the heart casts away the body, where does the body go?"
"But what of the soul and body left behind when the heart is lost? When the soul leaves the body, its vessel, life gives way to death, but what about when the heart leaves?"
The important part here is that the heart leaves the vessel. Not what happens to the heart afterward. Really, why would the heart becoming a Heartless have ANYTHING to do with the creation of a Nobody? Or put another way, why would the absence of a Heartless prevent a Nobody from being created? It doesn't make sense, there's no logical connection.
There are, as always, exceptions. Kairi didn't originally produce a Nobody, NOT because her heart didn't make a Heartless (though that itself shares the same reason), but because, as an entity of light, she could not leave the realm of light to be recreated as a Nobody.
So why didn't Riku make a Nobody? A similar reason. His body could not be recreated as a Nobody because it was being used by Ansem, he retained control of the vessel.
The underlying exception in these cases is that the body and soul cannot be used to create a Nobody, for whatever reason. It has been pretty clearly stated that a body and soul are needed in the creation of a Nobody.
But what about Namine?
"Naminé is Kairi's Nobody, but came into being via Sora's body and soul." Even I have debated in the past the meaning of this sentence, and argued against this, but I honestly think at this point that it simply means, yes, she used Sora's body and soul. Part of it, anyway. And this isn't at all hard to understand.
The body (and to a further extent, the soul, as what one can define as the "body's battery"), has been shown to be pretty unremarkable in this series. There's nothing very special about them. In fact, when normal humans die/lose their heart, they appear to disintegrate into light (suggesting that that is their material). People need to stop thinking from a western viewpoint that the body or soul are somehow important. They're not. In fact, Kairi essentially makes Sora new ones from her light when she saves him.
So, Sora never needed Roxas back because of his body and soul. He needed Roxas back because of his memories, and that's it.
In other words, I'm saying that Roxas and Namine simply split Sora's body and soul because there were two hearts that left his vessel (regardless of whether or not they made heartless), and only one body. People need to stop being hung up on the earlier statements in the Secret Ansem Reports when DiZ calls Namine a "non-being" that hasn't even become a true Nobody. That was a hypothesis. One that was debunked by another one in the report directly after it.
Yeah. I know I have made a few theories in the past and have spent a lot of time on this subject. I still like my most recent theory (which I conceded would not be the true answer, so it's more of an individual interpretation than a theory). And, of course, the problem is that the manner of Roxas and Namine's creations was conveyed very poorly by Nomura. But I think that many times we have simply overcomplicated things based on misunderstandings and rules devised in the fandom.
So, if Namine was using Sora's body and soul, was she technically Sora's Nobody too? Sure, depending on what you want to emphasize, though she was Kairi's above all else because she personified her. But that explains why she had control over Sora's memories, though did not actually claim them. Because she was born from Sora's body and soul (the containers of memories for the Nobody), but she took on Kairi's identity.
Why then did Namine have to return to Kairi? She didn't. She only did so because otherwise she herself would fade into darkness, it's not as though she was returning anything to Kairi (though it remains to be seen whether or not Kairi gained anything from this). Does it mean Kairi now has a piece of Sora's body and soul? No, because, again, that's western philosophy trying to invade your mind. Namine was made from Sora's body and soul, but these things, broken down into their basic substance, are unremarkable and not very unique (only a heart makes them unique). It may have strengthened the connection between Sora and Kairi at best, but it is not as though Kairi literally has a piece of Sora in her.
So, going back to the original topic, does a Heartless have to be created? No. It simply must leave the vessel. 99 times out of 100 (or really much more than that), this entails that the heart will be lost to a Heartless, but it is not necessarily always the case.
Looking ahead, what does this suggest about the future?
For a hypothetical "Eraqus Nobody," nothing. Eraqus' heart wasn't simply leaving his body, Eraqus died, which is something completely different. It looks the same, but don't let that fool you (they would opt for people to disintegrate into light/darkness rather than have a corpse). As opposed to just letting his heart go back to Kingdom Hearts (or perhaps become a Heartless, whatever happens to the heart after one dies), Eraqus, in his last moments, directed his heart into Terra's heart, probably to act as a guide. But his body and soul are separate and they're gone. There is no Nobody to be made, there is nothing to make it out of.
For Terranort (when he stabbed himself), again, nothing. We probably don't know the full extent of the effects, but no heart was shown leaving the vessel, and in any case, the vessel was still in control (like how Ansem was using Riku's body), so there's no way a Nobody was created.
And for Master Xehanort? Yeah, he might have a Nobody. His vessel was left behind, and that's all that matters. When I made a theory about MX potentially making a Nobody, I thought that I'd have to prove MX made a heartless when he entered Terra's vessel, but that's really not the case.
Long story short, a Heartless does not have to be made in order for a Nobody to be created, that was a rule that was only established in the fandom.
Nomura himself has not denied the possibility that MX created a Nobody when questioned. If what the fandom said was true, it could have been ruled out instantly.
So, anyway, MX made a Nobody. I know, I know. You don’t like the idea of it. Yeah, I get it. We already had a Nobody for the villain, Xemnas, and they’re making another one. I understand. But bear in mind that I probably wouldn’t have even made this topic if I didn’t think there was a reason for this, so sit tight.
You’ll note that MF even has a somewhat similar battle stance to MX (hunched over, right hand above the head, left arm outstretched). However, there’s a problem. Even if his battle stance is slightly hunched, we can see that MF can stand straight up. And he’s quite... acrobatic. Much more sprightly than MX. What gives? Shouldn’t MX’s Nobody look and act like Geezernort himself?
You’d be correct. But this is where the element of time comes in.
You guys may be glad to hear that this part of the theory does not necessarily have to include time travel.
There’s no question that MF has something to do with time. The time reversal in battle, No Name, both point to time. But perhaps I’ve been thinking of it in the wrong sense. Not time travel, but life time.
As in, MF doesn’t have the kind of power where he can go to the past or future, but he has power over his own age. He can make himself younger!
And that’s exactly what MX wanted. To be young again. To live forever, or to at least live long enough to see what exists beyond the keyblade war. The attributes of Organization XIII are often based on the members’ personalities and desires (eg Lexaeus being stoic, Axel being passionate, etc). So even though, yes, it is somewhat of a rip off of Luxord’s power, it would make sense for MX’s Nobody to have power over time. The extent of it is in question, though that’s not important to my theory for the time being.
Is that all it takes, though? Just a desire? Well, there is a more concrete explanation I’ve had in mind in conjunction with that.
Just to clarify, I am saying that MF is MX’s Nobody, taking on the appearance of Young MX.
So how did young MX get to be his basic form?
It has to do with the fate of MX’s heart.
I reiterate that one does not need a Heartless to produce a Nobody. Nonetheless, there is something about the heart that I can see being an influence on one facet of Nobodies- age.
Remember that when a heart is lost to a Heartless, it is in a state of sleep. In this sleep, time is suspended. And Nobodies don’t age, which may be because of this connection to their heart (after all, their looks depend on the strength of their heart).
But what of a Nobody whose heart is still active? Hypothetically, the Nobody would age.
On a side note, this explains Namine. She is the one Nobody who has without a doubt aged, and yet we have no idea why. There’s your answer. Her heart (Kairi’s) was still active, so she aged along with Kairi.
So, what about MX? His heart went to Terra’s vessel. His heart fused with Terra’s, and he attained youth. Thus, his Nobody also reflects this change. That, in combination with MX’s desire for time, is what created MF’s looks and powers.
But... still, why? What purpose does it serve in the plot, having a Young MX Nobody?
And that, my friends, is the start of my second theory. Now we’re getting into the truth about Xehanort.
As a disclaimer, I’ve mentioned this theory before, perhaps in a slightly different form. I even started to have a similar idea running in a rather short lived fan fic of mine. And that’s sort of the problem. There isn’t a whole lot of evidence for it, so I almost preferred to contain it to the realm of fan fiction. But there is some evidence which I’d like to present to you guys (one bit of which I just recently discovered). So... bear with me. It’ll all fit together.
I don’t know if you guys noticed, but there are some curious mysteries about MX. For starters:
Xehanort Report said:My heart sought knowledge, and so I sometimes visited other worlds—though such travel was forbidden unless duty required—and found what my heart sought.
Xehanort Report said:I have uncovered the Keyblade's ultimate mystery.
It is implied that Xehanort discovered details about the X-Blade in his travels. Something that was not even known to Eraqus. It was an ancient mystery, likely long forgotten. Where did he make this discovery? Or perhaps, who gave him this information?
But that’s not all that’s curious about MX:
This world is just too small.
We know his motives for leaving are a direct parallel to Riku. And with destiny being so prevalent in KH, history is apt to repeat itself.
Take a look at this tiny place. To the heart seeking freedom this island
is a prison surrounded by water. And so this boy sought to escape from his
prison. He sought a way to cross over into other worlds. And he opened his
heart to darkness.
We might even say, here, that this quote describes Xehanort as much as it does Riku. Xehanort is the one to originally think of Destiny Islands as a “prison.”
So, Xehanort opened himself to darkness, like Riku (or rather, the other way around). What happened to Riku?
Open yourself to the darkness. That is
all. Let your heart, your being, become darkness itself.
He... got an uninvited guest.
Our Master instructed us to don armor while traveling between worlds, so that we might shield ourselves from the darkness. But there, in the Lanes Between, I could feel the force of it—the power—and from then on, I forwent my armor's "protection." I had been told the darkness would devour me, but what terrors could it possibly hold, so long as I found the strength to control it?
Like Riku, Xehanort claims to not fear the darkness. Pay close attention to that last line though: “so long as I found the strength to control it.” A bit of a qualification...
Surely, though, Xehanort was strong enough to control the darkness, to not let anything or anyone influence him, right?...
Eraqus: That power... Has the darkness taken you, Xehanort?
Xehanort: Not your concern.
That quote jumped out at me when I was recently re-watching scenes. Xehanort does not answer Eraqus’ question. It sounds curiously dismissive and foreboding.
If you haven’t figured it out yet, I am saying that MX fell to the same trap as Riku. He was lured in by a dark entity.
Who? Well, what evidence do we have of a dark entity existing in MX’s heart? We know of one- the Guardian.
When we first see the Guardian in BbS, I don’t believe that is his time of creation. He is clearly a Heartless, he has all the traits of one. So where is the lost heart? Yes, Terra’s heart was taken over, but so was Riku’s, and no Heartless was produced.
That leads to the conclusion that the Guardian must have existed prior to MX’s possession of Terra. Given how MX in Terra’s body controls the Guardian with a sense of familiarity (it’s not as though he was surprised to have this dark entity pop out of him), I am inclined to believe he has been residing in MX’s heart this whole time.
Like Riku letting in Ansem, Xehanort let in the Guardian. I mean, he was aware of the existence of the Heartless, so this should come as no surprise.
But what’s so special about the Guardian? I have an idea.
Remember that when Nomura was called out on the Heartless in BbS, he replied saying that the Heartless have existed for a “long time.” Not forever. A long time. There had to be a point when they were created.
Long ago, people lived in peace, bathed in the warmth of light.
Everyone loved the light. Then people began to fight over it. They wanted to
keep it for themselves. And darkness was born in their hearts. The darkness
spread, swallowing the light and many people's hearts. It covered everything,
and the world disappeared. But small fragments of light survived, in the hearts
of children. With these fragments of light, children rebuilt the lost world.
It's the world we live in now.
We know that while not an exact history, the fairy tale has some parallels with real life. It basically describes the Keyblade War. But what of this event where “darkness was born in their hearts.” Well, I wouldn’t say everyone was pure-hearted before the keyblade war. But this indicates something else- the creation of the Heartless. Darkness was literally “born,” it was given life from the greed and hate produced in that war.
And if the Heartless haven’t always existed, then there was a first Heartless. I believe the Guardian was the first Heartless. It was around to witness the Keyblade War and the pursuit of the X-Blade.
This is how MX found out. He ditched his armor, he opened himself to darkness and contacted the Dark Realm. In those depths, a voice eventually answered. And it manipulated him, allowing it to take refuge in MX’s heart. It lied to him about there being an imbalance between the light and darkness. In his deception, MX became corrupted by the darkness.
But the Guardian wasn’t just in it to take over MX’s body. It was patient and allowed MX to retain control. A Heartless cannot use a keyblade since it has no heart. So long as the Guardian silently influenced MX, he could put the keyblade to good use.
I know this makes Xehanort a Matryoshka doll, which is a put off. He’s a person within a person within a person, etc. And this just adds one step. But when you look at things from a larger perspective, this makes sense. The Guardian has taken (or at least tried to take) the hearts of MX, Terra, and Riku. He’s accumulating hearts, like a Heartless does. He is a parasite, jumping from one vessel to the next.
As for the name “Xehanort,” I don’t think that’s MX’s real name. Remember a while ago how Nomura said that the anagram “No Heart” would be important? Well, since it is in MX’s name, it still applies. Now, while you could think of “No Heart” as an indicator of a Nobody, and it can certainly be interpreted that way, there is another way to look at it. No Heart=Heartless. It’s a different way of saying Heartless. Thus, this is actually the Guardian’s name. Before the Heartless received their name, he was given one. No Heart. And he assumed a new identity in Xehanort.
But what about MX? What’s his true name? We don’t know. At the moment, he is nameless. Hence, when you fight MF, you receive the keyblade “No Name.”
Speaking of MF, this is how the two theories tie together. How would we get to know all of this past information about Young MX? Through MF. I would say that MF will be the antagonist for BbSv2, fighting Aqua in the dark realm. Or maybe not quite an “antagonist.” His intentions aren’t clear at this point. And he will know about his past because he has MX’s memories.
Notice how when Aqua meets Terranort, he’s still a bit hazy. Then after the fight, he supposedly loses all of his memories, sans his own name. I am suggesting that, yes, he did lose at least most of his memories. When he struck himself with the keyblade, no heart was released, but then what was? His memories, and they found their way to the original vessel.
That is also how we know that MF will die. These memories will be returned to Xehanort.
So... that’s it. Have at it.