Vanitas..

[DSantana24]

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I have to say, while I was happy about how Isa and Lea's friendship was rekindled (something I had high hopes for happening) I was underwhelmed by Vanitas' demise which was something I hoped would be really interesting to see.

After his defeat he simply responds to Sora "Because I am darkness"

I laughed hysterically and thought this couldn't really just be it for him.

I mean wasn't there a more detailed backstory to Vanitas? Like he was some tortured soul who was cursed by the negativity from the unversed? Seeing him be free of that pain must've made Vanitas reflect on his actions and perhaps we could've seen a different side to Vantias' story when Ventus and Sora defeat him.. perhaps he would thank them for breaking him free of Xehanort's clutches/The Unversed that cursed him for so long.

But no... all we get is "Because I am darkness"...LOL just turns out the bond between Sora and Ventus is some evil one dimensional asshole... okay..

But hey at least I finally got to play KH3!! I love this game.

EDIT: And also the awkward silence from Sora and Ventus after Vanitas says "What I am is darkness" was so laughable. They were probably thinking "Man this guy is such a douchebag"

 

[shady543]

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i love how i thought that this game would make me rest easy in knowing where his character arc would go and conclude it mostly. lolnope i'm now on this crazy ride until i see some proper resolution with him because his character arc in this game was like the most open and questionable out of the entire diddlying cast #lowkeysalty

 

[Noivern]

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I have to say, while I was happy about how Isa and Lea's friendship was rekindled (something I had high hopes for happening) I was underwhelmed by Vanitas' demise which was something I hoped would be really interesting to see.

After his defeat he simply responds to Sora "Because I am darkness"

I laughed hysterically and thought this couldn't really just be it for him.

I mean wasn't there a more detailed backstory to Vanitas? Like he was some tortured soul who was cursed by the negativity from the unversed? Seeing him be free of that pain must've made Vanitas reflect on his actions and perhaps we could've seen a different side to Vantias' story when Ventus and Sora defeat him.. perhaps he would thank them for breaking him free of Xehanort's clutches/The Unversed that cursed him for so long.

But no... all we get is "Because I am darkness"...LOL just turns out the bond between Sora and Ventus is some evil one dimensional asshole... okay..

But hey at least I finally got to play KH3!! I love this game.

EDIT: And also the awkward silence from Sora and Ventus after Vanitas says "What I am is darkness" was so laughable. They were probably thinking "Man this guy is such a douchebag"

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He was never cursed by the Unversed as they are, quite literally, parts of himself. Unless you mean how the novel talks about how killing the Unversed gives him pain (which is Novel-only as far as I can remember and thus it's not necessarily canon); but even then, they were only present in one world and it's not really a curse since he has full control over them and there would be no need for Sora and Co to kill them had he not been using them for evil.

Also, although he was a pawn to Xehanort, it had always been by his own choice. He never once showed any signs of struggle against the old man, but that by itself is just bad writing in my opinion as they never really bothered to show how their relationship worked.


But yeah, that aside, I'm very disappointed in the treatment he got in this game specially since literally everyone else was redeemed ( with Xehanort and his other selves didn't even needing it in the first place?) and he was the one who deserved it the most.
Personally I'm just hoping it's a hint that his role is not finished yet and Ventus experiences with darkness may expand beyond his time with Xehanort to his time as a Union Leader in UX.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

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That is my biggest frustration, too, but I think it just ultimately means that he is going to come back later on because his arc had no true resolution.

 

[Darkspawn]

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That is my biggest frustration, too, but I think it just ultimately means that he is going to come back later on because his arc had no true resolution.

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Tbh, it made me entertain the idea that he is “Darkness” from UX.

 

[VoidGear.]

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Other than being the epitome of saltiness after what happened to him, I was also thrown off-guard a little by the fact that, unlike the other people you defeat, he doesn't really look too fazed or even surprised? Like, everyone drops to their knees, draws hasty breaths, seems on the brink of death, and he's just like "Well whaddaya know? My helmet's breaking. Lmao bye."
With Sora's totally open "How is this okay?!", it just seems like a) Nomura simply didn't give a damn or b) considering the Chirithy found Ventus after all, that Vanitas might have relevance again, too, at some point.
But maybe that's also just wishful thinking on my side.)

 

[Deleted member]

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y'all took a lot more from it than i did, lol. i really just saw his scene as him refusing to be redeemed like so many wanted and that's all there is to it.

 

[shady543]

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^ That's quite funny actually aha, since I actually read his body language during that scene that he actually doesn't 100% believe what he is saying or his ego got in the way and he refused to show weakness in front of Ven. I personally didn't want him to get redeemed and join their side and all, more go anti-hero. It looked like I got what I want but then he just... faded...???? I think???? The whole scene could have been done better. It frustrated me how he disappeared the second the whole 'you can chose what you want to be' got finally brought up with him.

I'm hoping that he is still relevant because Ven is to UX, and he is Ven's darkness. I'm starting to believe the theory of Ven before the split was quite a dark character, so Vanitas may know of more things of what Ventus was like in the UX timeline due to being his darkness. From a writer's POV Vanitas just has too much potential, which the light novel proved, to be wasted like this so I will be pissed if he's really gone for good.

To be honest it really frustrates me that Nomura is shown to not be able to write characters to their full potential when we have a different writer who can, through a diddlying light novel, literally make Vanitas such a great and complex character who can even give other well-written characters like Riku and Roxas a huge run for their money and also make the BBS trio very convincing. The games tend to only focus on cutscenes that drive the plot forward (and if not that, then it's disney world cutscenes), and unfortunately because of that we are unable to get true characterizations from a lot of characters.

 

[DarkosOverlord]

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As far as I'm concerned I needed Isa and Vanitas to be switched, lol. I don't HATE Saix, but I've never thought of him as more than a villain, a boss to defeat. I'm surprised they actually pushed so hard on the whole "I was jealous" part. Oh well, I know a fair share of fanwriters and artists who'll have a field day with this.

Meanwhile, Vanny is whom I cared about and wanted to see in another light due to the fact that he really never had a choice. But apparently, he loves being darkness and that's about it. Yeah, I'm with Sora, what's okay about all of this.
I hope he'll be back I guess?

 

[shady543]

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Got to admit I do lowkey love the idea of him eventually being to the BBS trio what Isa seems currently to RAX. Didn't like the whole jealous thing. Thought he was irredeemable at this point to be honest.

ugh having Vanitas as a huge favourite is hard I swear. I've picked the worse possible characters to have as favourites in this franchise it seems. First it was Sora is fine, but Roxas is stuck and Vanitas is god knows where. Now Roxas is fine, but Sora is stuck elsewhere and Vanitas is still god knows where. People who have Riku as their favourite or even Axel or Aqua at this point must be having a blast.

But yeah, I don't really get the hate towards the "I am darkness" comment. I felt that that was the most natural progression in his character arc. He went from someone who is an evil bastard to someone who thinks he can only be evil (or that's how I'm reading it). I mean there is hints that he doesn't like the fact that he has Sora's face and didn't take off that helmet until it was forcibly smashed. I think accepting Ven's offer would have been too sudden and out of character. But I don't like the comments that he said that because he truly is evil and cannot be redeemed, because I really don't see whats the point in even bringing up the whole 'you can chose what you want to be' thing with him in the first place then. There was also Ven's "Okay" in which he sounded sad and Sora's "how is this okay!?". What I didn't like was the sudden weird fading away. Hopefully he's not actually gone here and he's now trying to live his life without his master (and hopefully without his diddlying helmet since it's broken)

 

[kirabook]

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I thought his ending was perfect. Ok, maybe not perfect, but pretty much exactly what I was expecting. "I am darkness". The way he kept saying it to rebuke Ven and Sora... I'm not entirely sure Vanitas really believed that, but he refuses to believe anything else or accept anything else. Or maybe he's truly convinced he is darkness and can't be anything else. It's probably easier for him to play the bad guy than to try and get along with someone like Ven (or Sora). Not sure if it was just Haley's delivery, but as the game progressed, Vanitas sounded less and less like himself and more like a gremlin. Maybe he was going insane even. I dunno.

But yeah. I always predicted Vanitas would die kinda like how Repliku died in CoM. Not really redeemed, but accepting of his fate. I'm not sure if this is the end of him though. It's entirely possible he can come back somehow as long as Ven exists. (though Vanitas seemed to imply Sora has taken his place. Was that a bit of jealousy? Mm.)

 

[Axel92]

The only thing I hated is Sora being shocked seeing Vanitas face, while in Monstropolis he said to him "you were in the Cathedral". In that scene of DDD Vanitas doesn't wear the mask.

 

[kirabook]

He recognized Vanitas though in the mask with the cloak, so there is some inconsistency anyway. Sora has never seen Vanitas like that so why would he say he's the one he saw in the cathedral when he didn't. I wonder if Sora recognized him by his voice.

As for why Sora would be shocked, it's about what I expected despite the cathedral scene. I'm more surprised that not once did he mention Ven looks like Roxas. It's almost like he expected him to (and I wonder if subconsciously he did expect Ven to look like that or knew he looked like that...)

 

[Alpha Baymax]

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Vanitas is the real MVP, he's the only character who is not a direct Xehanort to genuinely be loyal to Xehanort's cause. Everybody else who was not a direct Xehanort had a contingency plan of their own, or to help the lights in some fashion. I find that so hilarious, the sheer irony of The Real Organization XIII being faker than the initial group.

 

[VoidGear.]

CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY CER-TAIN-LY

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Vanitas is the real MVP, he's the only character who is not a direct Xehanort to genuinely be loyal to Xehanort's cause. Everybody else who was not a direct Xehanort had a contingency plan of their own, or to help the lights in some fashion. I find that so hilarious, the sheer irony of The Real Organization XIII being faker than the initial group.

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Was he, though?
I mean, if he had truly managed to strike Aqua down, and somehow been able to force Ventus into another fight to the death, that would've kinda defeated the purpose of gathering the seven lights? Yeah, sure, princesses as back up, but it would still have clashed with the initial plan, especially if they had, somehow, created another broken X-Blade in the process.
Rather than "not a plan on his own", it's more that his plan didn't clash with Xehanort's plan for the biggest part of it, thus he had no real reason to become a traitor or anything.

 

[shady543]

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The one thing I don't really get with the whole ending scene about him saying he chose darkness is that his entire plan up to that point was to be whole. And being whole means combining with Ven who is basically a pure light, so he wouldn't be only darkness.

But yeah, also I'm kind of disappointed at the amount of cutscenes he actually appears in. The fact that he is the only org member that you fight more than once (and gets a proper 1 vs 1 fight, unlike the others who you fight in pairs) does kind of make up for it, but I still found it disappointing that you don't see him again until the end after he got thrown out of Monsters Inc. Wasn't expecting Ienzo to get more screentime than a lot of major characters.

 

[DarkosOverlord]

Vanitas so loyal to Xehanort's cause, in BbS he happily tried to kill Ventus while knowing that it would've sent the whole plan so south Jack Sparrow was already throwing a welcoming party.

 

[kirabook]

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Vanitas is simply a wild card. A joker. A Loki. He's not truly loyal to anyone but himself. If Xehanort's plan gets him closer to what he wants, he'll listen. And what he wants isn't set in stone either. Sometimes he wants to kill Ven, sometimes he wants to recombine with Ven, I don't think even he knows what he wants.

I'm willing to bet Vanitas didn't truly care about the whole Kingdom Hearts ordeal. This battle of 13 vs 7 let Vanitas get close to Ven.

Whatever the case may be, Vanitas is obviously feeling some kind of loss or emptiness and being who/what he is, can't help but want a connection with Ven (even though Ven clearly doesn't want it).

"I AM darkness". I really think it's as simple as "What the heck else am I supposed to be? I'm not a complete person and I can't be a complete person unless I'm with you. So, I am darkness."