Alright! First post to go in a theory thread! This is what I came here for, so with this out of the way...time to move on
This symbol has been the subject of much debate over the past couple of pages, so I looked into it. After much research (Five Minutes) I figured it out. You see, if you were to look in the Guide Book Bestiary, there are three sections: The Heartless, The Nobodies, and The Other Enemies. Now we all know the heartless and nobody symbols, but the symbol for all non-heartless enemies is this. This applies for Seifer, Scar, all pirates, and even some bosses. I would provide a scan, except my scanner is down and I do not have a camera.
Birth By Sleep said:
As for Ansem's 0 Report, I think I understand it now. He's researching the Keyblades, most likely because he wants to unlock Kingdom Hearts, and the keyblade would seemingly be the easiest route. That means part of what Xehanort was doing before he came to meet Ansem the Wise included researching the Keyblade.
Perhaps Xehanort was trying to reach the Keyblade, and realized he'd have to give up something to wield it. His memories now taken, the process of attaining a keyblade forgotten. Someone picked up his memories somewhere, and is picking up where he left off- making themselves a keyblade bearer.
This is a good theory except that it relies on one thing...Xehanort's loss of memory after he gave into the darkness and split into Nobody and Heartless. I hate to do this, as I like where this could go, but this is impossible because it specifically states within the game that a Nobody retains all their memory after the change (KH II, Ansem Report 12, Paragraph One). Now I extend a question to you, where does it state in KHI or II that the memories are left floating? This is interesting and could lead to many theories if true.
Now it is time for my own theories...
First off, this interview,
Interview with Tetsuya Nomura, states that the armored people are three new characters. Though this has been stated, no one has offered a direct link to the proof. Now that that is out of the way...
I believe that we can all agree that the phrase "Birth by Sleep" is important and appears to be the center of the secret video. To look into my theory, we must look into the meaning of words and what they hold...
Birth- a state resulting from being born especially at a particular time or place
Sleep-a state resembling sleep: as a : a state of torpid inactivity b : DEATH
For this theory, we're going to use the second definition of Sleep (Death for those who can not count) and call is "Birth by Death". Now, the last bit of background information before the theory is how a Heartless and Nobody come into being.
A heartless is born when a person's heart is taken from their body. One can lose their heart in three known ways...
1) The person's own will (Riku, Ansem The Wise's Six Apprentices)
2) A Keyblade (When Sora willingly gave his heart in KH I)
3) When another heartless takes it
Each way allows a heartless, a primal creature whose goal is to gain more hearts (there are some exceptions: Xehanort's Heartless, Sora), and a nobody, a creature whose known goal is to exist, to be born; the body itself is removed from the known planes and is forever gone, with only two times has the body returned (Sora and Riku). There are many types of each species created, but no one knows how one comes into being specifically.
Now that that is out of the way, let us move onto the theory...
Throughout the secret ending, we see a barren wasteland that appears to be a past battlefield. We see what appears to be Xemnas' "Battleship" crashed on the ground, millions of key chainless keyblades, and the three main keyblades: The Way to Dawn, The Kingdom Key, and The Inverted Key. The confusion is even more apparent when we see the three new characters reach the keyblades and pick them up. The first thing we must notice is that the keyblade did not disappear from their grasp. All throughout Kingdom Hearts, we are shown that the keyblade will only rest in the hands of keybarers and no one else. The second thing we must notice is that they are there. While this seems stupid, I want you to look back into KH I when Sora what transformed into a heartless. When he was removed from the universe, his keyblade disappeared and only came back once he was human again. More support for this is when you were defeated in KH I your keyblade appeared to shatter or disappear. So the fact that these three keyblades stand in this battlefield show that the past owner is not gone from the universe. Now this opens up two very versatile paths that I will attempt to incorporate into my theory as I just realized these two points as I write this.
Path 1
The Three Armored Figures (Whom I will call Rider [The man who was on top of ship], Girl [The female Armored Figure], and Boy [The other male Armored Figure] should the need arise) are the current holders of the three keys and are returning to retrieve them for a new battle. This pathway opens up many doorways to many interpretations, but I will not talk about this as I am only on the threshold and do not wish to dive so deep should I be wrong anywhere; but we should recognize that if they are returning for their keyblades, then we now have two logical paths for the timeline of this video...
Past-The are the original owners of the three keyblades, which leaves much for interpretation
Future-Sora, Riku, and King Mickey have died and the three are the new owners of the three keyblades, which yet again leaves much for interpretation.
Path 2
The Three Armored Figures are keybarers, but not the owners of the three keyblades. This pathway has been mentioned many times in the past by others, so I will only show what this could lead to in relation to the timeline...
Past-This takes place before Sora and Co. existed
Future-Sora, Riku, and King Mickey have grown up or died, which means new owners were chosen
Not much to go with on this right now...I will add later.
As to where these two pathways tie into "Birth by Death", it is quite simple. Since a Heartless and a Nobody are born the moment someone's heart is removed, it is easy to make the connection that Birth = Death and Birth refers to the creation of a heartless and a nobody. If you remember in KH II in Radiant Garden/Hollow Bastion, it is said that the heartless first arrived after Xehanort opened the door in Ansem's basement (I found this funny, think how you would feel if someone opened the door to ultimate evil in your basement) and let darkness take over him. This led to his Heartless (Fake Ansem) and his Nobody (Xemnas) to be born. After this, one by one the worlds were consumed by Fake Ansem and his army of heartless while Xemnas created Organization XIII with the other Six Apprentices. This led to the Master of the Keyblade, which is King Mickey (He was referred to this by Fake Ansem in his reports all throughout KH I), to travel across the universe in an attempt to stop him. Meanwhile, Xehanort's Nobody, Xemnas, starts to gather up more members for Organization XIII through Fake Ansem's campaign for the goal of obtaining Kingdom Hearts, which he knows of because of Xehanort's memory (Memory of Xehanort). Now the natural curiosity of one boy leads to the arrival of heartless on his world; this leads to him, his best friend and other friend to be separated (Riku, Sora, and Kairi for those who are slow). Through out the story of KH, we see that Riku and Sora are constantly looking for each other and are always lost (The Lost Two). This explains for four of the mystery phrases, the last two being Chasers and Keyblade wars. I will not attempt to explain those yet as that would be pure speculation with no fact.
So more or less, I believe that "Birth by Sleep" is when Xehanort was split into heartless and nobody because that is what started everything is the known KH universe.
As you finish reading this, please remember that this is just a rough draft and is open to revisions and more ideas.
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