Theory on the traitor

[OneDandelion]

Sorry if this has been posted before, if it has and no one wants to discuss it just delete it I guess. I've been looking a bit and havent really seen any theories quite like mine so here goes.

This is what the lost page says:
"The fated land will be the battleground for a great war. Light will see defeat and expire, while darkness prevails evermore.
Unable to permit disharmony, you will be disappointed by fate, and lose sight of true strength...
Misreading the truth, you will venture forth in secrecy...
And then with that one strike, a bell will toll for the final battle, and the battle will begin at last, and the time shall be chosen...^[1]"

Here are my first three primary thoughts that im fairly confident about
_____________________________________________________________________
1) Gula is the traitor.

-much of that page is ambiguous, but the part that caught my eye is "Misreading the truth, you will venture forth in secrecy...
And then with that one strike, a bell will toll for the final battle" Gula finds and confronts Aced in secret and if you think about it, its really the moment that Gula accuses Aced and draws his keyblade that the hostilities between all the masters really begins. If we can assume that Gula truly is the traitor here, the "misreading the truth" bit also makes sense as he would be misreading the page and assuming the traitor to be Aced.

-It's very important to my theory to note the scene between Gula and Ava after the struggle Gula had with Aced. Gula is disheartened by his shortcomings with respect to the role his master gave him. In his desperation for an answer he confides in Ava that he wants to summon kingdom hearts and bring the master of masters back; despite Ava's disapproval he begins collecting lux. This prompts the other masters to focus on collecting lux as well to maintain the balance of power and this is eventually what brings about the keyblade war. It would also be quite ironic (if Gula did happen to be the traitor in attempting to bring about kingdom hearts) that in his conversation with the master of masters it was Gula himself that stated "if any of us deviate from our task than the traitor would be obvious".

2) Gula kills Strelitzia to take her place among the dandelion leaders as Ventus in order to continue collecting Lux after the keyblade war is over

-There are obvious physical similarities between Gula and Ventus

-Gula has made collecting Lux in order to summon Kingdom Hearts and bring back the master of masters his prime objective so unlike the other masters he wouldn't care about winning the keyblade war. In fact its the opposite - more than anyone he has motivation to survive the war and live on to accomplish his goal.

3) Gula caused the first keyblade war in the first timeline as well.

-The keyblade war happens outside of the master of masters influence. this is important to note because it means the traitor betrayed everyone based on something outside of the masters influence. In this timeline Gula says he wants to summon kingdom hearts because he wants to bring the master of masters back, but I suspect its truly because he is afraid and desires answers. More than any other master Gula fears the unknown and despite it being expressly forbidden he is willing to summon kingdom hearts even if everything is destroyed in the process in order to find his purpose.

-I don't think it happened nearly the same way or quite so quickly before, but I believe Gula's fears and insecurities likely manifested themselves in a different way in the first timeline that also resulted in him attempting to summon kingdom hearts. Again this would have prompted the others to collect lux to maintain the balance of power in the same way. The difference this time is that the master of masters likely dramatically accelerated the war by giving everyone roles that would promote envy or distrust with the exception of Ava and Luxu whose true roles were to respectively plant seeds for the future and hide that box which I do suspect to contain the master of masters heart like most other people.

4)This also explains Ava's disbelief when Luxu explains to her who the traitor really is

-Luxu asks if that reality is something that can be stopped by Ava - and being that Ava has been shown to care more about Gula than any other master it seems to me to its a perfect fit.

_____________________________________________________________________

I'm still working on a few other theories too they're just not as well developed but I may come back and add them here later. Lemme know what you guys think

***EXTRA***

The biggest reason I feel that I can make extrapolations like this about Gula's character is because the prophecies were based on the lessons learned in the previous timeline before the master of masters had all of the prophecies. Thats why the prophecies are so vague. The traitor they talk about wasn't necessarily a "traitor" (in the same meaning of the word) in the previous timeline, if my theory was correct it would simply be someone with ambition and curiosity. In the current timeline the "traitor" is a "traitor" because they all have given roles to fill given by the master and the traitor expressly goes against those roles. And I hope what im saying makes sense, its even confusing me a bit, but my point is that the way the lost page is written assumes that the roles will be given to the 6 disciples in the current timeline when there was no reason for them to exist in the past timeline. So when I was thinking about who the traitor would be I considered who it would have been in a timeline where the disciples of the master of masters were given no roles.

 

[Foxycian]

If there is indeed a traitor then it's most likely all of them since they triggered the keyblade war with their actions

 

[Alpha Baymax]

Personally, I think the whole traitors and fortellers business is something that will be dealth with in the X saga, and beyond Kingdom Hearts III.

If any of these plot elements do end up in Kingdom Hearts III, then it's more than likely going to be part of the secret ending.

 

[OneDandelion]

@Foxy If we were looking for a single person to blame for the start of the keyblade war it would have to be Gula if we can assume the master of masters could do nothing to stop it. The others may have added fuel to the fire but Gula really prompts the keyblade war for reasons that have nothing to do with his original role.

@Alpha That could be a possibility too, although I think its strongly linked to the Xehanort saga through Ventus and the master of masters box is also mentioned in some of the trailers. At the very least I expect to find out who the traitor was, what the master of masters true goal was, and whats in that box in the next game

 

[Insomniac]

I also believe that Gula is the traitor, with the greatest piece of evidence being his comments about summoning Kingdom Hearts. It makes too much sense no to be even close to the truth. I would like to include the notion that since The Darkness was taken out of Ventus’ heart making Vanitas, then it should be safe to assume that Vanitas too can time travel to any point in time that “Ventus” existed. This would allow Vantis to travel back to the X era and perform reconnaissance for Master Xehanort, which provides us with an explanation as to how Xehanort knows so much about everything.

 

[DraceEmpressa]

Sorry if this has been posted before, if it has and no one wants to discuss it just delete it I guess. I've been looking a bit and havent really seen any theories quite like mine so here goes.

This is what the lost page says:
"The fated land will be the battleground for a great war. Light will see defeat and expire, while darkness prevails evermore.
Unable to permit disharmony, you will be disappointed by fate, and lose sight of true strength...
Misreading the truth, you will venture forth in secrecy...
And then with that one strike, a bell will toll for the final battle, and the battle will begin at last, and the time shall be chosen...^[1]"

Here are my first three primary thoughts that im fairly confident about
_____________________________________________________________________
1) Gula is the traitor.

-much of that page is ambiguous, but the part that caught my eye is "Misreading the truth, you will venture forth in secrecy...
And then with that one strike, a bell will toll for the final battle" Gula finds and confronts Aced in secret and if you think about it, its really the moment that Gula accuses Aced and draws his keyblade that the hostilities between all the masters really begins. If we can assume that Gula truly is the traitor here, the "misreading the truth" bit also makes sense as he would be misreading the page and assuming the traitor to be Aced.

-It's very important to my theory to note the scene between Gula and Ava after the struggle Gula had with Aced. Gula is disheartened by his shortcomings with respect to the role his master gave him. In his desperation for an answer he confides in Ava that he wants to summon kingdom hearts and bring the master of masters back; despite Ava's disapproval he begins collecting lux. This prompts the other masters to focus on collecting lux as well to maintain the balance of power and this is eventually what brings about the keyblade war. It would also be quite ironic (if Gula did happen to be the traitor in attempting to bring about kingdom hearts) that in his conversation with the master of masters it was Gula himself that stated "if any of us deviate from our task than the traitor would be obvious".

2) Gula kills Strelitzia to take her place among the dandelion leaders as Ventus in order to continue collecting Lux after the keyblade war is over

-There are obvious physical similarities between Gula and Ventus

-Gula has made collecting Lux in order to summon Kingdom Hearts and bring back the master of masters his prime objective so unlike the other masters he wouldn't care about winning the keyblade war. In fact its the opposite - more than anyone he has motivation to survive the war and live on to accomplish his goal.

3) Gula caused the first keyblade war in the first timeline as well.

-The keyblade war happens outside of the master of masters influence. this is important to note because it means the traitor betrayed everyone based on something outside of the masters influence. In this timeline Gula says he wants to summon kingdom hearts because he wants to bring the master of masters back, but I suspect its truly because he is afraid and desires answers. More than any other master Gula fears the unknown and despite it being expressly forbidden he is willing to summon kingdom hearts even if everything is destroyed in the process in order to find his purpose.

-I don't think it happened nearly the same way or quite so quickly before, but I believe Gula's fears and insecurities likely manifested themselves in a different way in the first timeline that also resulted in him attempting to summon kingdom hearts. Again this would have prompted the others to collect lux to maintain the balance of power in the same way. The difference this time is that the master of masters likely dramatically accelerated the war by giving everyone roles that would promote envy or distrust with the exception of Ava and Luxu whose true roles were to respectively plant seeds for the future and hide that box which I do suspect to contain the master of masters heart like most other people.

4)This also explains Ava's disbelief when Luxu explains to her who the traitor really is

-Luxu asks if that reality is something that can be stopped by Ava - and being that Ava has been shown to care more about Gula than any other master it seems to me to its a perfect fit.

_____________________________________________________________________

I'm still working on a few other theories too they're just not as well developed but I may come back and add them here later. Lemme know what you guys think

***EXTRA***

The biggest reason I feel that I can make extrapolations like this about Gula's character is because the prophecies were based on the lessons learned in the previous timeline before the master of masters had all of the prophecies. Thats why the prophecies are so vague. The traitor they talk about wasn't necessarily a "traitor" (in the same meaning of the word) in the previous timeline, if my theory was correct it would simply be someone with ambition and curiosity. In the current timeline the "traitor" is a "traitor" because they all have given roles to fill given by the master and the traitor expressly goes against those roles. And I hope what im saying makes sense, its even confusing me a bit, but my point is that the way the lost page is written assumes that the roles will be given to the 6 disciples in the current timeline when there was no reason for them to exist in the past timeline. So when I was thinking about who the traitor would be I considered who it would have been in a timeline where the disciples of the master of masters were given no roles.

I wholeheartedly support this theory, and to support that, Gula is
1: The only Foreteller whose animal does not match his deadly sins
2: The only foreteller who does the sin in their name, in this case Gluttony (desire for excess, which refer to the excess of Lux needed to summon Kingdom Hearts.

That being said, while I agree with the theory of Gula is infiltrating the Dandelions, I disagree that his guise is Ventus. Ventus' personality is too different than Gula. I think Gula's guise is Brain/Blaine instead, here's my theory of it
part 1:
My insanity didn't decrease my fabulousness, My Theory on Blaine’s True Identity
part 2:
My insanity didn't decrease my fabulousness, Part 2 of Why Brain is the Main Suspect
lastly, this should have been posted to the Union Cross/Unchained X subforum.

 

[OneDandelion]

That's some really compelling evidence for Brain. But Brain does ask "Doesn't the rulebook say we need to assign new leaders?" demonstrating that he does in fact have some knowledge of the dandelions rulebook. Ventus on the other hand doesn't demonstrate any knowledge of the book at all and instead says: "sure if thats what everyone else wants to do" in response to their discussion about keeping the unions the same. I don't think Brain questioning the strictness of the rulebook is really that significant because the masters did the same thing questioning their own roles.

Ventus also says "I'm still not sure about leading my own union", which would make sense if you were a past union leader who instigated the keyblade war and got all of your followers killed. Leading his own union could also interfere with his true motivations at this point in the story if he was the traitor as well, whatever those may be.

Although the other argument would be that maybe brain is trying to get a new union established as fast as possible in order to start collecting lux again.

Its hard to say at this point because there hasn't been a lot of dialogue but imo I think Ventus personality matches Gula better than Brain's does. Ventus is far more reserved and I felt the same thing with Gula. Even when Gula attacked Aced his interrogation felt rather unsure of itself. I don't get that vibe from Brain at all, he seems far more confident and calculating.

I can see it being either of them at this point but the fact that Ventus is even there and the importance behind his character and summoning kingdom hearts all seem to be connected somehow.

 

[DraceEmpressa]

That's some really compelling evidence for Brain. But Brain does ask "Doesn't the rulebook say we need to assign new leaders?" demonstrating that he does in fact have some knowledge of the dandelions rulebook. Ventus on the other hand doesn't demonstrate any knowledge of the book at all and instead says: "sure if thats what everyone else wants to do" in response to their discussion about keeping the unions the same. I don't think Brain questioning the strictness of the rulebook is really that significant because the masters did the same thing questioning their own roles.

Ventus also says "I'm still not sure about leading my own union", which would make sense if you were a past union leader who instigated the keyblade war and got all of your followers killed. Leading his own union could also interfere with his true motivations at this point in the story if he was the traitor as well, whatever those may be.

Although the other argument would be that maybe brain is trying to get a new union established as fast as possible in order to start collecting lux again.

Its hard to say at this point because there hasn't been a lot of dialogue but imo I think Ventus personality matches Gula better than Brain's does. Ventus is far more reserved and I felt the same thing with Gula. Even when Gula attacked Aced his interrogation felt rather unsure of itself. I don't get that vibe from Brain at all, he seems far more confident and calculating.

I can see it being either of them at this point but the fact that Ventus is even there and the importance behind his character and summoning kingdom hearts all seem to be connected somehow.

I take it you didn't read the "Gula and Ava are super close" paragraph , and I'll just repeat it here.
Gula and Ava are said to be exceptionally close, and if the skeptical Gula trust Ava, then the more idealist Ava should have trust him back as well.

It is likely that as much Gula trust Ava to tell her about the content of the lost page, she would trust him deeply enough to tell him about the Dandelions and the content of the Dandelion guide book. BBS as well, swayed by Aqua, Terra, Eraqus, Xehanort and Vanitas thru and thru. Ventus has serious lack of self esteem that is also seen in BBS. He's the one getting swayed by people and not the other way around.

Ventus isn't reserved. He's nervous. He doesn't even dare to say his opinions bc he doesn't think it worth and can change anything.

Gula when he attacks Aced OTOH, is more like he realized he's f**ked up when Aced shows he's still strong even after ganged, and stil plans to change things more carefully

idk what it is that keychains never matter in plot, only the keyblade itself , but remember that Ventus still have his own keyblade, Lost Memory, when Gula's keyblade is that leopard one. Brain doesn't join the others in gathering ingredients not bc he doesn't have a keylade-but bc his keyblade is the leopard one.

 

[TruestSyn]

Another theory I have here that I've been rolling around in my head a while, what if Lauriam, Erlena and Ventus are their current world representations? Obviously the implications that Ventus is either time traveling or is hundreds of years old seem off to me, so I think if the World Without Borders is sleeping because it's been broken all these years, what if they are there in this endless dream because their hearts are sleeping too? As nobodies, they obviously don't have their hearts and Ven's has been missing all these years because of BBS events so maybe if Xehanort brings it all together they'll become themselves again?

 

[OneDandelion]

I take it you didn't read the "Gula and Ava are super close" paragraph , and I'll just repeat it here. \

I did read that piece I don't know what part of my response made you think I didn't. I agree with you that that's probably how he infiltrated the dandelion's I just question who Gula really is. If you're looking into literal similarities between what the characters are saying when making a comparison to Gula I agree that Brain is the obvious choice. In fact, it's almost like the game wants you to be able to connect the dots from Gula to Brain. I would not be surprised if it turned out Brain and Gula were one in the same, okay?

But there are some other things I'm personally speculating about that makes me think that Ventus is Gula. Aside from the obvious physical comparison and the fact that Gula sounds just like Ventus imo (i know they have different voice actors).

Another theory I have here that I've been rolling around in my head a while, what if Lauriam, Erlena and Ventus are their current world representations?

This is exactly the theory im currently working on, but Ventus is the only one Im looking into:

1) Because of the way time travel works in the series, we know that the Ventus we see in the graveyard in union cross at that time is either the original Ventus or a version of Ventus that has already been influenced by a heartless Ventus that journeyed back to the past the same way that Xehanort did to influence young Xehanort. Alternatively it could be Ventus "heart" that travels back and not necessarily a heartless, being that current Ventus' body is currently comatose it could be possible (because the only real requirement is the heart must leave the body behind ) imo but its pure speculation on my part

2)Because Ventus is unaged at the time he meets Aqua and Terra we can assume that Ventus time traveled forward the same way that young Xehanort does. And much like young Xehanort he loses his memories from what we can also assume to be completing the mission that was bestowed upon him by his "present" self which could be the Ventus currently asleep in castle Oblivion.

3) Why does Xehanort need ventus to unlock the X-Blade in the graveyard? What is special about him that Xehanort went to the lengths he did to create darkness in Ventus' heart? It seems unlikely that a similar Vanitas could be extracted from just anyone, so I assume that Roxas is special in that he has a particularly strong heart. At the time when Ven, Aqua and Terra fight Xehanort together Xehanorts goal was to summon the X-blade by combining an equally strong darkness and an equally strong light. Well, Vanitas is just about the most pure darkness you can find, so I have to ask why is Ven's heart have such a strong affinity for the light?

To me it would make more sense if Ven was an original Master and thats why his heart could produce the light and darkness to open Kingdom Hearts and obtain the X-blade. It would make sense why Xehanort used him specifically. I'm also starting to suspect that Brain is actually Luxu and that after hiding away the masters chest he comes back in order to keep a watchful eye over what is happening. Maybe he doesn't want to go along with the others because the keyblade he would summon would be the master of master's keyblade and draw suspicion. It would also explain the comment that skuld is a lot like Ava because Luxu also knew Ava.

I could be wrong about this part, but the master of master's also designated the people that would form the leaders of the dandelions didn't he? It could be that he did this specifically so that he could place Luxu as one of the leaders so that he could watch over everything...