There’s a user on KH13 who is basically an authority on FF Type-0/Agito (they dug-up/translated the entire available script for the cancelled game) who makes a very compelling argument that KH Ux and moreover much of the direction the franchise is currently taking is very clearly directly inspired by the Type-0/Agito mythos - even possibly quite literally within the same multiverse. I’m not too familiar with that series myself but the gist is that there’s a neverending cycle of war in which the world ends and re-starts, awaiting the chosen “Agito” who will change destiny and finally end the cycle. Granted, this theorist is also a proponent of MoM = Demyx, which I’m not sure I buy into, but to their credit, it’s by far the most convincing/comprehensive MoM = Demyx argument I’ve ever come across. Worth checking out.
Quote Jack: …*sighs* It seems like the time’s come. Jack: Are you scared, Player? Don’t worry. I’m here. Jack: We’re just going to sleep for a little while. And when we wake up, we’ll be in another world. Even if we lose our memories, we won’t change. Jack: And then let’s aim to become Agito toge...
www.kh13.com
Never seen their posts I would be interested to read it. Type-0, which I did play, is EXACTLY what I was thinking about when I typed that. You can draw a lot of parallels there especially in raising a group of students who bring the end of the world. But you know what gets me of that extended mythos is how Bhunivelze's japanese and english interpretations seem to scary similar to our KH villains.
In the Japanese release, Bhunivelze still sees their Chaos—their hearts—as unclean, and seeks to "cleanse" them by destroying the souls of the dead so the living would not remember them and live in his new world free of pain or sadness. In the English release, he instead wants to remold humanity into soulless puppets that he would rule over.
The latter sounds a lot like Xehanort while the former reminds me suspiciously of the MoM. The MoM as far as we know basically plotted the destruction of everything because of a long term plan to defeat Darkness. But what stands out to me is the bit about erasing things so the living can't remember them and people live free of pain and sadness. That's quite literally what the MoM did, he suppressed the memories of the keyblade war and claimed the exact word for word reasoning of doing it to prevent sadness.
Also of note Bhunivelze cannot see the hearts of people which matches Xehanort well, it's unknown how the MoM has any differences on the views of hearts from Xehanort or if he also looks at them with a robotic nature that misses the point. This is the descriptor of the heart in that mythos.
People's hearts are pure chaos. Formless and ever-changing—a mystery no one can solve. That is why humans are such contradictions. One moment they're at each other's throats, the next they're forming shaky alliances. Soul is the "essence of humanity", heart is the "essence of a person", giving a person their individuality.
That sounds a LOT like the hearts in Kingdom Hearts but what does it say about chaos, this strange dark looking energy.
The chaos of the unseen realm is a malevolent energy that seeps through into the world of mortals. The existence-defying darkness witnessed by Lightning is an immense and inexorable force, a creeping doom that she is not even certain acts with a unified purpose or will. Where the chaos of Valhalla leaks into the mortal realm, the laws of the physical world are undone. This paradoxical energy seeks to return all existence to the unseen realm, but at times it seems to show an almost affection for those who share an affinity with chaos.
I can't be the only one who thinks that sounds like the force we call darkness in KH right? Mallovent energy, seeks to consume all, show affection to those that line with it, seemingly no unified purpose or will, exists in the hearts of everyone, darkness seems to literally defy the laws we know granting the power to traverse space and seemingly to stop or drastically slow down time itself?
Furthermore where did Kingdom Hearts originally reside before it was called here? Well according to MoM Kingdom Hearts resided in an
unseen realm. Darkness seemingly only appeared in the world we play in when people sought contact with this realm, desiring Kingdom Hearts. I will propose this idea, the unseen realm that kingdom hearts resided in was the original form of the place that would later be called the realm of darkness. Shadows are the absence of light, in an unseen realm where the only thing was Kingdom Hearts it was fine. But when this pulsing living light was called forth to this world it shone on the people directly, it cast their shadows and brought to life the natural chaos in their heart giving it form as the beings called Darkness. Formless shadows able to feel the negativity in the heart of people, feeding and growing from it, and unable to understand the heart and its light as they are only an empty silhouette.
Eventually this would reach its peak in the keyblade war and ultimately Kingdom Hearts was banished back to it's unseen realm, and it took with it that which had been swallowed by the shadows it had cast. The majority of the world, the endless darkness, and the living shadows all returned turning the unseen realm into the realm of darkness. Without people's hearts to define them and no real desires of their own the living shadows devolved into pale imitations of what they once were, creating the pureblood heartless. However just as some fragments of lights, the Dandelions, avoided being swallowed at the end of the war so to did some of the living shadows, both Darkness and Dandelion have taken refuge in the new world the war that never happened. Eventually both returned to original world rebuilt and a world of light and darkness in constantly conflict. Which is kind of funny because if I'm right darkness is literally just a reflection of what's already in those bright little hearts, people are fighting themselves, and destroying the manifestations of these traits doesn't actually get rid of them in their heart. Aqua can destroy her phantoms all she wants but the pain and trauma remains.
Which ties I believe to the MoM and Xehanort because if I'm on the right track then Darkness isn't really the issue, people are. You can have a heart as bright and pure as possible but it will still act chaotically, be capable of sadness and anger, capable of harming others hell look at Kairi and the inner demon she created in MoM. Darkness is just a reflection of the truth that is already there, the monstrous heartless and murderous phantoms spouting your worst fears are just the dark parts of your heart made manifest. You can never truly defeat darkness if you don't address that, you have to do something about the people.
Xehanort tried to make a blank world, the new people would have hearts but they be puppets he would lead so that they are never again unbalanced, creating a world where instead of constantly at war light and dark would be in balance. MoM I surmise wants something much worse. He is shown to be fairly disillusioned with the world like Xehanort and thus like him wasn't above plotting its destruction but there is key critical difference in all this. Xehanort never said you should forget painful stuff, he believed in accepting those painful memories and the dark urges they bring, to harness them for power, that they are a necessary part. The MoM erased the painful memories, he believed that life be better off never knowing or living with such sorrows. That's why I wouldn't be surprised if the MoM's ultimate desire is some awful cosmic cleansing of the heart maybe as going as far as to eradicate all hearts forever, remove all negative memory and the ability to feel negative stuff and darkness will cease to be, but I digress as this is just a theory.
Regardless it's the MoM saying that people are better off just losing their bad memories of their pain. That the sorrows the hurt should just be thrown away and aren't needed in a new world. These are as anti-Sora as one can possible get and no amount of potential cycles or spirals or whatever could ever have me believe Sora could grow up into someone who would advocate tossing away the pain. Two completely separate Soras came to the same conclusion that the painful memories are what tie us to things we lost, that they drive us to work towards a betterment, and that pain can help us empathize and connect with one another. Sora knows sometimes people give into the pain and some are even consumed by it becoming truly vile, but he has never let that cause him to lose faith in the nature of people or this world.
That's why Sora can't be the MoM as they may be similar as people in some ways just as Xehanort and Riku were. But at the end of the day Riku never went as far as Xehanort and in a lot of ways is just a better version of the type of person Xehanort is. I think that's the same for the MoM and Sora with Sora ultimately being a better version of the type of person MoM is.