Uhhh, discuss amongst yourselves for now.

I'm drained. That was a lot to take in.

RIP Union X. Thanks so much for these last handful of bombshells.

Can’t believe [SPOILER]Dream Eaters are our friends all along. And Baby Xehanort[/SPOILER]

Global really didn't get the finale tonight.

I'll try to get these scenes up as quickly as possible.

Wow we really covered all the bases. Teenort, adultnort, geezenort and now babynort.

Holy hell that was a lot

After the reveal that Player's heart fused with Xehanort's waiting for the rest of Dark Road is gonna be tough

Also, what the hell did Nomura mean with that Luxu reveal

Holy cow
[SPOILER=spoilers]So Xehanort wasn't born on Destiny Islands then? Not sure if I like that or not but technically he still did grow up on the Islands so not much of his backstory connected there was altered

Never thought we'd see his mother, lol[/SPOILER]

What an emotional ending... the future of Kingdom Hearts looks so promising!

I have no words. it was truly amazing finale and probably one the best a kingdom hearts game had.
i'm sad we'll likely won't see ephemer again.
also i wonder who was with brain at the end. for some reason i'm thinking demyx, since he's the only one we still don't know anything about.

I can't make heads or tail out of this. Hopefully one the subs are up it'll become clearer.

[ISPOILER]right now it almost looks like Xehanort might be Skulds and Ephimirs kid...?[/ISPOILER]

Videos are up! Sorry it's all separate.

I guess we never gonna see how luxu originally looked like

It's so weird to be able to finally, officially say that, aside from Dark Road, we know the pieces of the puzzle for the next mainline Kingdom Hearts games. Union X, Re Mind, and MoM have set up where we are going and it's awesome.

Kingdom Hearts fans in 2014 "We're going to see Xehanort and 'The Reincarnation Theory' in X".

Nomura.

Me trying not to look at what happens in the finale while also seeing the incredible reaction ITT.



This sounds just incredible. If this is as great as many people here say, I really hope a full blown remake happens that can make this justice.

This confirms Skuld is subject X, she is tired from the fight so it makes sense that she only says a few words

Once again reminding everyone that spoiler tags are not necessary in UXDR threads.

Does anyone here know enough Japanese to translate what Luxu says just before the face reveal? When I went out, the first idea that came to my mind was, it has to be "I tried to warn them, but it all happened just the way I remembered it". Is it anything like that?

I knew it main villains of 2nd phase is MoM & the Foretellers(= in the strongest 7 darkness) !!

That was a relatively okay finale. My only complaints from beginning to end are:
[LIST]
[*]We did not see the titular weapon at all.
[*]We didn’t see Nightmare Chirithy again.
[*]The “war” was incredibly underwhelming in flash.
[*]We saw Daybreak Town end. We didn’t see the other worlds end. For a world-splitting war that destroyed and fractured existence it’s very blah.
[*]Do we even finally get a name drop on who the traitor is? We already know who it is, but I kind of expected an explicit mention.
[*](more to come)
[/LIST]

Brain: *wakes up without his hat*

Random hooded person: ey yo dude you dropped your hat

Can't believe Union X is all over now. It's been a long journey and it only just feels like yesterday since I was at school years ago and the first version of the game was gearing up for it's release in Japan but alas another chapter in the Kingdom Hearts book can be closed... and another one will soon begin.

I’d also like to say, Thank God this wallet trap is finally over! Yes it didn’t take any money since February but it sure took a lot during its entire lifetime.

Let the news drought finally begin. Except September.

So, the Player character is a traitor siding with the Darknesses or do we have another case of possession/hijacking at hand?

It's always somewhat itchy when there's so much talking and you don't understand a word, lol.

Also, the running gag of Ven simply sleeping through everything keeps running and running. At this rate he won't even need that much amnesia anymore but I bet he'll have it anyways because that fight between him and that one "Darkness" likely either damaged or at least affected his heart.

I'm wondering why was the real daybreak town glitching when Ephemer and Skuld returned? Has it happened before? I only remember glitches in the data world.

From what I gathered, Player pretended to join the darknesses so that Ephemer would forcefully send them and the player away. It was imperative that Ephermer and Skuld truly felt like they had to send Player away. Player teleported to a place that I guess made it easy to seal up themselves and the darknesses inside so they'd all die as the world ended. Player laughed at the darkneses because their plan succeeded

Question what quest number is the ending I need to know how close I am to getting there

Finally. The mobileshit gacha beast was felled. This is a momentous day for Kingdom Hearts.

Wow just wow, clearly my problem was I didn't go crazy enough and THAT is saying something.

So if I'm seeing this all right...
[LIST]
[*][SPOILER="Wut"]Xehanort is the reincarnation of player and he got abandoned on Destiny Island when his old care taker who brought him there died.
[*]The Dandelions went on to become the first proper dream eaters by merging with their chirithy.
[*]Lauriam woke up in a flower glade in Dwarf Woodlands while poor Elrena wakes up on a raining mountain in the middle of a friggen lightning storm. There is an implication here then that someone must be in this world who know them right? Perhaps Strelitzia?
[*]Luxu body snatched Brain ejecting his heart.
[*]Brain's heart time traveled and reconstituted in scala.
[*]Ephemer remained behind and did a good job at rebuilding the world.
[*]Skuld either ended up in Scala and become Xehanort's mother or Skuld is subject X?
[*]The MoM is a gigantic douche who set himself and his apprentices up to slaughter so he could get rid of darkness this way, which recontextualizes him naming them after the seven deadly sins.
[*]The Darknesses are the original 13 darknesses that split from the X-blade (?) or at the very least their existence might explain why the dark part of the X-blade broke into 13.[/SPOILER]
[/LIST]

Given we didn't see the actual war over the x-blade, does this confirm there was a war BEFORE this one and that was the real Keyblade War fight? Meaning, there has been more than one Keyblade War, meaning, they've introduced yet another prequel to the series?

Right, though I did think maybeeee we'd get some mention of the x-blade. Or a glimpse of it. Or something relevant during the finale to tie it all together. But for sure now, the actual war over the x-blade was before this game.

So we can count there's been 4 keyblade wars that we're aware of so far, but it doesn't seem like this one had anything to do with the x-blade unlike the other three. I mean technically it does because MoM was involved, but the people fighting the war didn't know jack.

Brain’s body in the Scala scene is not his original body as you can’t take your body with you when you time travel. So it’s entirely possible that Luxu took his body, as shown in his face reveal, but Brain’s heart still traveled to the future and was then reconstituted in Scala.

In addition to what Zip said: Who knows, maybe Luxu did the same thing Ansem SoD did with Riku in KH 1 and yeeted Brain's heart out of the body so he could use it unhindered. We know by now it being possible that a new "container" can be created/summoned for a heart so when Brain "appears" in the city with the Ephemer statue it may be not his original body his heart is using to interact with the physical world.

I think many of us keep forgetting that a physical body is much less of a limitation in the KH universe than it is in our own.

The scene where Luxu removes his hood I suspect to be taking place after the war shown in the original X[chi], but before the events of Union X and everything happening in the Dandelion "cage" world. He still has the box there while it is nowhere to be seen when he confronts that Darkness entity or later Brain.

So... [ISPOILER]I did wonder why the pets in Chi looked different from the other spirits from DDD, like with the eyes and such. I guess this explains it. Are they really the actual spirits of the Chi keyblade wielders? [/ISPOILER]

This woman has to be Skuld... she has the same hairstyle as her. Before Kingdom Hearts III, we assumed Xehanort inherently had amber eyes but that wasn't the case so it would be a pattern if the same revelation happens with Skuld.

I don’t know if that’s Skuld, but the eyes look different. Speaking of the mother, I find it ironic yet funny how Xehanort is suddenly motherless (because what sane and healthy mother would willingly give up their child unless there are dangerous or mortal circumstances). It’s a classic Disney protagonist formula, except he’s a villain.

For some god knows unknown reasons inside my mind, I was believe baby Xehanort was inside that black box and we finally know what is inside the box.

What a heart wrenching finale, I hope the story gets the game it deserves someday, third time's the charm.

I'm liking the Luxu and Brain swap places theory - too.

Otherwise, what is the purpose of taking Brain's body at the time he did.

I am legit wondering whether the creators of the game were too lazy to add in the keyblades or if there’s more to it. At this point I would assume the former. But hey, you never know.

I gotta say I really love the look of the Scala ad Caelum that Brain arrived in. It looks like Paris or Victorian England. Too bad we probably won't get to play in that version outside of flashbacks

Okay, so I haven't seen any of the videos yet, I know nothing of what's in them, but I just wanted to come on and post this real quick:
I am infuriated that Global didn't get this update same-day. I know it's not that big of a deal, because we'll probably get it by tomorrow, but it's just really shitty that after dealing with YEARS of Japan being months ahead of us for absolutely no good reason, and after all the trouble that Global went through to catch up to the JP story leading up to the finale over these last several months, it really grinds my gears that on the very last update, on the conclusion of this five-year-running game, we're having to deal with this bs one last time. It honestly feels like a huge middle finger. There's no excuse I can think of for why they would pull this now of all times.

Guys wait. Why are you all so obsessed with the idea that Eraqus descend from Brain if the character holding the Master Defender is actually Ephemer? I mean.... Brain wields the noname.
I don't even think that Eraqus strikes ressemblance from Brain tbh... they just have the same color of hair and eyes (and so does many characters of the series. They bear some similarities to each other [like Aqua and Skuld, Kairi and Ava and so on....] and they are not blood related last time I checked)
If the criteria we are using for this heirloom is the keyblade, I guess we are missing out something, aren't we?

(I mean, I guess we can rule out that Brain is blood-related to Eraqus. I'm not saying that Ephemer is indeed a relative to Eraqus tho; maybe Ephemer was just a master that passes the keyblade to him (like how Eraqus himself passes down the keyblade to Aqua, and Brain does the same to Ephemer))

So...am I the only one who is disturbed that some random hooded person just dropped dead on Destiny Islands? Seriously that's Sora, Riku, and Kairi's future playground. They are playing on some guy's graveyard. Like say what?! I'll never look at the islands the same way again. Whenever I see Sora beat up Selphie, collect coconuts, and run around the beach I'll always now think of that hooded dude who just died there in creepy fashion. Kingdom Hearts just became a horror story! Who even was that guy?

Also how dare the player hit Skuld! Yeah those were the two main things I took from the update.

Someone on friggin Gamefaqs keeps saying Player is Ansem SoD.

Like we can imply that Player's heart merged with or reincarnated into Xehanort but there's no proof that he becomes Ansem.

Also can someone link to me that Nomura interview where he supposedly said there would be no announcements til '22? I only remember him saying no new releases til then and HOPING he can bring good news.

When can we expect the translations? I’m dying of curiosity :(

I guess we finally have a reason for Xehanort's "Another X" anagram huh

NoWay: Patience, grasshopper. Translation takes time, tho I'm as anxious as you to find out what the frick is going on.

It's weird that it seems like they wanted Xehanort away from Scala; almost like they knew something dark was in his future. I mean, Luxu mentioned there was a prophecy concerning a Keyblade master devoted to the darkness who would bring about another Keyblade War. I wonder if that prophecy was also known throughout Scala and Xehanort was feared to be that master, so in a futile attempt to prevent the prophecy, they sent Xehanort away to ensure he had no knowledge of Keyblades, other worlds, light, and darkness, ect. Then his heartless comes along and ensures it does happen.

If that's the case, it's creepy to think that Xehanort was feared even as an infant by his own family.

I personally don't believe the theory that Luxu is possessing Brain. Re-reading Luxu's secret report entries in KH3, he mentions bequeathing his keyblade to one of the leaders and no longer having it, which doesn't really match up with the face reveal scene we saw in this update. I feel like there's simply just more time shenanigans going on, par for the course for recent KH content, especially Union X lol.

Edit: another thing I just realized is that it makes sense for Brain to have the No Name keyblade with him when he appears in what appears to be early Scala, we know that keyblade has to get there eventually for both Xehanort's master and Xehanort himself to get it.

If the player is indeed Xehanort reincarnated, then watching the KH3 ending hits a bit different. When Xehanort's and Eraqus' hearts float upwards, that's not just Xehanort's heart anymore.

I'm pretty sure that Ephemer has read a lot of the BoP and that's how Brain's arrival was prepared.

Here is Cherrim's translation.
[URL unfurl="true"]https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/15GHy4uzo8JKdoKt8JrUR-Y9ewP3wtgJ6EVg7UsvE9VA/edit#gid=891763736[/URL]

I'm surprised the arcs can be returned to the data world. I legit thought the trio would escape with a single pod using the heart hotel method.
But that brings the question, why does the pod sometimes remain and other times disappear from existence after arriving at the destination?

You know, when I saw the hooded old man, I immediately thought of the robed figure. Could Ansem SoD have possessed that person's robe?

Strange that the Player fuses with Xehanort. I was expecting the Player to maybe merge with Ventus. Not only is there that parallel with Nightmare Chirithy and Vanitas (well, I think, NC is the Player's darkness and Vantias was originally introduced as Ventus's darkness), but now there's the question of how the heck Sora can summon Ralph in KH3. KH3's summons are all connected to Sora's heart, as explained by Nomura himself, so what's the missing link if it's not the Player's heart?

That said, when I saw screenshots of the Dream Eater scene, I remembered something that was in my mind a few days ago. In KH3D's epilogue, Sora goes to Traverse Town and meets the Dream Eaters again. Next time we see him is in KH0.2's "2.9" scene, where he arrives late and doesn't explain where he was other than "it's a secret".
KH3 never explained what the secret was, or even mentioning the secret existed at all. Maybe the tutorial was a hint, but that's it, we have nothing. Could we be getting a second Sleeping Realm game with KH2 clothes Sora? Maybe that's how Sora connects to Ralph?

Also, I don't know if there's any meaning to it because they're both Norse names, but Sigurd's name is Japanese is extremely similar to Skuld's. Like, get the name スクルド (Skuld), change the first letter and put a dakuten on the second, and you get シグルド (Sigurd).

As for the Luxu and Brain face, maybe they are twins? Like, Lauriam has a sister, Baldr has a sister, and Eraqus's grandfather is important. There's a theory that the 2nd Phase will involve more blood relations unlike the Dark Seeker Saga. If that's correct, than having a set of twins would fit. And besides, with KH everyone is so used to cloning and body possession that some old-fashioned "they're twins" would legit be the surprising option.

I am devastated, memories of 2015 playing the browser version in Japanese I barely understood flash before my eyes.
Looking at my old screenshots folder I seriously get emotional

[SPOILER]
cries in meetingEphemera.jpg
[ATTACH type="full" width="680px" alt="meeting Ephemera.jpg"]13980[/ATTACH][/SPOILER]
I'm with you all waiting for updates and excited for interpretations. *raises Keyblade to all the players as well
But y'all tell me ONE thing
HOW, just HOW are you going to pet and feed your Dream Eaters in DDD NOW?
GOsh I'll never be able to look my Keeba Tiger and Me Me Bunny in the eyes the same way again holy shit

You know I don't think ALL dream eaters are dandelions just the dandelions became dream eaters. The dream eaters in DDD are specifically said to be our dreams made manifest and we like actually create them and the entire point of them was because creating people didn't make sense. So I think people are kind of jumping the gun saying "oh my god all dream eaters are dandelions" it's more they are the progenitors I think.

Does this ending make more sense with or without alcohol?

[ATTACH type="full"]13981[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full"]13982[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full"]13983[/ATTACH][ATTACH type="full"]13984[/ATTACH]

Someone on tumblr made this comparison.

It's either a reach or another part of the ol' 5D chess.

Added goldpanner's translations to the OP! Gotta ask y'all to wait until tonight for videos ?

Nomura bout to revive Fabula Nova Crystallis bois

If that woman isn't Skuld, could she be Verdandi? We already have Skuld and Urd.

With the Foretellers being the vessels for the seven worst darknesses and being named after the seven deadly sins, it connects that Vanitas is/was a physical vessel for one of the other darknesses since his name means vanity, which is also considered a sin.

I'm just pointing out the most interesting things in the translation before I go to sleep:

The translations really help understand what's going on, though there's still things I don't quite feel I understand especially at the end.

Like is Xehanort's mom Skuld or just someone that looked like her. How were Elrena and Lauriam recompleted and why in those worlds? It seems like Sigurd was resposible for Brains recomplition, so perhaps other Scala citizens were tasked with getting Lauriam and Elrena to those worlds. I'm surprised Brain didn't seem to suffer memory loss, like I was expecting him and the others to.
Also did Luxu body hope into Brain after sending a version of Brain to the future? Or how are we to read that scene in the bad lands?

That said I'm glad we now have a better understanding of the Darknesses. There were 13 of them, the strongest were trapped in the original masters, with Vanitas being a derivative of one of the lesser 6. I do wonder what happened to the Darkess that Luxu was talking to. It also seems Darkness can control people without possessing them. Though the wording they used for the player to abandon their meatbag indicates perhaps Player tricked them into thinking that one of them had possessed them, unless they were just trying to encourage player to become a darkling.

Guess we also have confirmation as to why Xehanort had memories from the Player, but we still don't know why Eraqus did too.

I feel there's a lot more to process here now with the fuller picture, but I think I'll do so tomorrow. Really looking forward to seeing everyone else's takes when I get up in the morning.

I almost wonder if Luxu either loses/openly accepts his heart to Darkness/ it posesses him (he behaves different while talking to brain). He's still somwehat himself, and even is willing to play along as he role of Luxu to make the MoM think he's still in control? I dunno, maybe not.

Because normal Luxu would have no reason to take his body yet... unless by possessing Brain, he's actually helping Brain by letting him escape via taking his body... since Luxu could escape on his own, but since Brain couldn't, by ejecting his heart he was actually able to somehow save him? Hmm...

what I keep thinking is that if Luxu had taken Brain's body, when he says 'MMHBMGK' in badlands (which is the cutscene we've seen in BC) it wouldn’t be the same voice as throughout back cover :/ and we know his voice has changed at least once with Xigbar.

I think the woman could be his biological mother. Her eye color looks similar to Xehanort's before they turned gold to me. That could hint at a family connection

Plus actual blood relationships are a thing in regards to Chi and Dark Road

That woman cant be Skuld she dont have the same eye color. P

One thing 5o remember is that getting bodyhopped doee not inherently mean bad. A heart and a person can be restored. See Terra - Xehanort hopped him, his heart got trapped in Terranort's stand, and Sora/Riku saved him.

My theory with Brain being in Scala is the following:
* Luxu planned Brain to survive and end up in Scala
* Luxu took over Brain's body
* After taking over his body, Luxu put Brain's heart into one of the pods
* Luxu survived long enough to live in Scala, and when it came time, he discarded Brain's body and jumped into another one
* This is why Luxu isn't seen wearing Brain's hat: he stored it as a memento to be used in order for him to be remembered in the future, and thus, could use that as a waypoint to that era

I think this is what happened or Luxu used himself as a waypoint and maintained the memory of Brain alive

Or Luxu somehow preserved Brain's body. Maybe the MoM is the original owner of the pods seen in the Twilight Town Mansion?

the scene hits different now
the fact ven shows up at the end smiling means nomura had this planned all along.

I’m a tad confused. I thought all of the additional Dandelions were in the data world? And if so, didn’t Luxu just say that that world won’t fall asleep like the others thought it would? If that’s the case then how are they all turning into dream eaters?

playing catch up on updates on my phone, was this foreshadowing?

[IMG width="620px"]https://i.imgur.com/zt4frSU.jpg[/IMG]
[IMG width="620px"]https://i.imgur.com/H1l8zT1.jpg[/IMG]

God, the new Dearly Beloved they dropped in the end credits is something else. ?

The whole finale not only confirms Luxu's the traitor, but why

1) He used one of the arks for the True Dandelion, which he clearly wasn't supposed to do
2) He assisted Brain in reaching the future somehow, despite the Master telling him he couldn't interfere

Makes me wonder how loyal he really is. He didn't seem too fond of him and his friends being sacrificed for the greater good.

My other takeaway from this is, turns out Xehanort’s complex towards Eraqus is invalid after all. The guy’s also a blue blood.

We also finally get a name drop on the traitor!

I think the idea of there being a traitor was both a lie and a fact. A lie because the MoM wanted the Foretellers to be on each other's tails and true because it was Luxu the one that ended up being the traitor, but a traitor to the MoM's plan. Even so , the MoM knew Luxu was gonna betray him.

How does Luxu betrayal mom?

I'm still not understanding why Luxu looks like Brain, but like others have said, it could be that he did the whole "Have another body in another time" so he can go where he needs to go. And Luxu gave him the No Name so he can continue Luxu's role, while he took over Brain's body and now looks like that?

I mean, with how Nomura is, I wouldn't question this theory at all.

You know, re-reading Secret Report 11... I wonder if Luxu is actually referring to himself there in a rhethorical manner.

Since Xehanort is sharing a few parallels with Kairi it'd be cool if he was also adopted by the mayor of Destiny Islands at the time

[ATTACH type="full"]13985[/ATTACH]everyone said I was crazy lol

I'm assuming they were all dropped off in different times.

Ephemer = Scala has yet to be founded
Brain = in Scala. Scala looks the same as it does with Skuld.
Skuld = may or may not be that person in the scene, may have aged a few years. Scala looks the same as it does with Brain.
Ven = Graveyard
Lauriam/Elrena = disney worlds

If Xehanort and Eraqus are supposed to be the same age, then Brain would have been dropped in Scala some years before that scene with babynort.
But if Brain and Skuld were dropped into the same time, then would they not have found each other?

There are still some questions left that need answering. Dark Road will hopefully give these answers.

Guys nomura is calling us out


for those who didn't get it, it's about us, the players, being xehanort.

Really at this point, I'm starting to wonder if Xehanort was truly an evil person at all or just a bitter and angry kid being possessed by one of the darknesses that forced him to become the guy we end up fighting for the entire saga. He clearly had a massive amount of horrible darkness in him, as described by Ava in BBS when he grabbed her, which makes me think that perhaps one of the more deadly ones got to him or he made a pact with it. To add to this, Eraqus accuses Xehanort of being taken by darkness in BBS and Xehanort doesn't deny it.

Clearly, a pivotal event happened to cause him to have yellow eyes which will probably be covered in the last Dark Road update. Perhaps MoM wanted to use Xehanort to give this darkness a form that can be destroyed (like the Foretellers), which it was when Sora, Donald, and Goofy struck down Xehanort in KHIII. We see darkness excel from his body, perhaps indicating he was finally purged and allowed his true motives to surface. Would explain his sudden shift into a more sympathetic light. This may have been an original darkness or an even more extreme variant that was created when the darkness spread across the worlds in the future/present.

Makes me also wonder if Xehanort's departure from Scala was an attempt to prevent the original timeline from happening. where he stayed at Scala and become a Keyblade Master devoted to darkness. Perhaps Ansem SoD was from this original timeline and once he realized that someone was trying to change this original timeline, he made sure to visit Xehanort on Destiny Islands and ensure that he would grow in the prophesized Keyblade Master to bring about the second Keyblade war.

The name of the game might have been a hint all this time?
KH(kingdom hearts)U(r)X(ehanort)
maybe it's a reach but still cool

I’m confident Skuld is still Subject X and she was dropped in Radiant Garden. But her similarity to Xehanort’s possible mother could be related to his interest in her. Even if subconsciously. And there could be a deeper connection.

I wonder if the four Darknesses in the cable are gone for good. It’s weird that it seems MoM was wrong about them traveling through time via the Union Leaders. Of the five that were in the data world, only the one that possessed Ventus successfully made that trip it seems. The four that remained were trapped in the cable and possibly destroyed. Meanwhile, the sixth who fought Luxu is unaccounted for.

Now it makes sense why Dark Road asks us to put in a player name and displays it on the status screen, even though there's no multiplayer system or other gameplay reason for it.

How does brain get to the future. All of the pods are gone

So Brain and Braig being almost the same name really was significant after all

Also not a lot of talk about Sigurd here. This dude is interesting to me, and he's somehow part of a group with an "HQ" + wireless communication that knew exactly when Brain would be arriving. Is he really a resident of Scala, or part of something bigger?

Videos are up, thanks for your eternal patience~

Btw is this the confirmation that Kindom Hearts, the thing in the sky, is actually the "god" of the cycle of life?
Actually, we should have seen it coming a long time ago, it was stated IIRC that hearts can't be created and that they return to KH when the body dies. It just makes sense that new life comes from KH too, a cycle of reincarnation nonetheless

Looking through all this, I'm not sure if I can classify Luxu, or Xigbar for that matter, as a villain. Antagonist, yes, but a villain? He is obedient to a fault, even if he has the same sentiments as Ava, both being protective of the key kids, and even going against one of the darkness to gratify that desire.

I can't believe I'm gonna say this, but goddamn UX. How dare you.
That was honestly great. Way better than it had any right to be. I'm still happy that UX is over, but this ending almost made it worth it.

On the ending, I really loved that dream eater reveal, most "HOLY SHIT" moment from it all. Loved the Ephemer statue and "old" scala, it looks incredible. Really enjoyed the foretellers being vessels twist, I really like those designs what can I say and I'm glad they're coming back as bad guys.

On the other hand, xehanort somehow found his way once again into another story, which like...I'm tired of him honestly. That final luxu is brain but is also still brain was very strange and I'm scared of what will come from that.

I’ve watched the cutscenes and I’m really impressed. Everything is amazing. I still need to know what happened to the Union Leaders after their escape.
And is it safe to assume that the Darknesses traveled to the real world with the Foretellers by the end of KH3?

Or are the Foretellers now the next antagonists because of being vessels for the Darknesses? This is what I have understood after watching the cutscenes. And I really love how vicious the MoM is while explaining Luxu his plan. To me it also seems that Luxu wants to stop the MoM’s plan, which is why the MoM calls him “the traitor”.

I can't believe an ark pod, called a lifeboat in global, was used as a literal lifeboat by Ephemer

I'm more confused than ever. But really interesting. Nomura adds elements every time, looks like KH never gonna end.
Please, I dont wanna die before seeing the true KH's Final.

Looking at KHIII and the Chess Game, 4 Foretellers + Darkesses are our enemies for sure. Also 1 Darkness is still in Ven, staying at Re Mind
Plus, Darkness and MoM were friends? I mean before that Darkness became without form.

Mmmh, and what about Xehanort, could she be Skuld, and the old hooded ? Why Xehanort has that destiny? I dont think it has something to do with the Player , anyway.

Luxu probably used Brain to go out, but what if the scene in the Land is after the one where Brain is at Scala? I mean probably the Brain's body ended like Braig one, just like a vessel.

I believe that Darkness was referred to as a "friend" of MoM in a previous update as well, and they reinforce that here. I'm not sure what this means plot-wise, but they're the only things that know eachother from whatever era MoM came from. They may see themselves as something closer to equals than anybody else.

(This is yet another late-KH point that's very similar to something from a Kill the Past game, and so my theory of Nomura being a huge Suda fan continues on.)

While I liked this ending, I have to admit that the more I think about it the more frustrated I become with how much of the KH3 introduced age of Fairy tale plot points just didn't get addressed.
Like they could have easily confirmed, if Skuld was Subject X or not, but instead they showed us a Woman with baby Xehanort, who looks like her, leaving us questioning if she really is Subject X.

We also don't get any clear info on what Luxu did or what happened to Ava. The events Luxu described weren't the ones we saw, which means he was either distorting the truth in his reports or there's even more that went on we didn't get to see.

I'm kind of disappointed by how every KH game now feels more like a setup for another game than a game and story that stands on it's own. It feels like they're stretching things out introducing concepts,but trying to save them for bigger titles or their own title at the same time.
Like this game establishes a lot, but most of it's own introduced plot points are left open ended for other games to pick up, which didn't really work out the way I'd have liked in the Xehanort Saga.

Hopefully we wont have to wait too long to learn what Luxu did to Brain, what happened to the girl in white and who she is. And how Mickey and friends showed up in Daybreak Town.

I'm curious as to how long Lauriam spends in Dwarf Woodlands and how long Elrena spends in Enchanted Dominion. I think this is the first instance where a Disney world has been fundamental to an original character's growth.

Re:KH3, the Ephemer + players scene is also kinda weird now. It makes sense on its face already in KH3, and up until this update I could see how they were setting it up (i.e. Ephemer and the other dandelions would have been stuck somewhere unreachable, their help in kh3 as basically ghosts from the past is all they can do) but now Ephemer went on to do something else entirely and the other dandelions became something even different-er.

But honestly, that's the thing about KH3 in general (except in its fringes) especially when compared to UX. KH3 is such a standard on-its-face game, where most of the story is "the things we said were going to happen, happen". All the heroes come back and all the villains come back and they have a big fight scene. At least in my opinion it's the simplest KH of all, while UX is the exact opposite: every update introduces more questions, implications, ambiguities, series-spanning recontextualizations, series-spanning themes even. And no easy answer is provided for these in the end. The gap between the kinds of stories they are is so vast that it feels strange to think back to KH3 at all for me now.

All that said, I love UX for being all of that, or at least the later parts of it (I came in to actually following the story late). I don't really mind if many questions are never answered, or if the answers always lead to more questions. The atmosphere of mystery and ambiguity created by a work like this is more exciting to me than seeing things explained, and after KH3 I was worried that a lot of UX's ambiguities would be given less interesting answers than the questions they posed.

So when the hell exactly did Brain find the time to have grandkids? Because clearly the guy's just hopping around everywhere

After all these new plot points, the next KH better NOT have too much filler content like KH3. We need a game in which the story takes time to develop. Please. And give us more original worlds.

Oh. My. Dog... I don't even know what to say, mates. There are so many questions bouncing in my Koopa head right now: Is Luxu really Brain? Is the Player Xehanort himself? What is left for Brain now that he is in Scaela Ad Caelum? I'm not even sure anymore!

But all I can say is, this has been a thrilling journey for Kingdom Hearts fans like me. I never got to play Kingdom Hearts Chi myself, but watching the story unfold and progress overtime somehow got me hooked it. It got me craving for more answers that we don't know about, and even though we haven't found ALL the answers we've been looking for, this has gotten me more excited for the second phase for Kingdom Hearts, and I can't wait to see what Testuya Nomura and the Kingdom Hearts staff has in store for all of us. And I'm certainly looking forward to what awaits for us in Kingdom Hearts Dark Road.

Ephemer and Skuld as the final boss is really cool but at the same time it shows the big flaw of UX's gameplay.

You either get your ass kicked in one hit repeatedly or you spam your most powerful medals and the bosses only get one hit in before you revive and kill them

I come back from a major hiatus only for the finale to drop and all I can ask is..THIS is what happens to my Player? Reincarnates only to be wrecked by a 16 year old boy with parachute pants? GG Nomura.

I'm shocked how the official global team screwed up in the big finale. They still didn't even said anything. They know we exist, right??!

Anyway moving on, this finale was crazy. You know it's truly Kingdom Hearts when it ends and you still aren't sure about everything. Even after 40 minutes of cutscenes

I'm confused about Luxu. Is that his real body or his first body swap?

I thought it was the former somehow, but I'm seeing a lot of people thinking its the latter. There was a time I thought one of the reasons why MoM and Luxu don't wear attires like the other foretellers and instead they wear black coats is to give us a hint they may not be from X era and time travelled there. When MoM disappeared without a trace I assumed he returned to the era where he came from, after put his plan in motion. I even considered the possibility of MoM being an older version of Luxu.

Xehanort didn't born in Destiny Islands. We also know Kairi isn't from there. I think Sora is safe, but maybe Riku didn't born there either?

Luxord and Demyx somebodies never appeared in this story. They can still appear in Dark Road, but until proven otherwise I will keep thinking Demyx's somebody is MoM and Luxord's somebody is from Quadratum.

I'm glad this story is finally over, but did they ever revealed who was the wielder of Nightmare Chirithy?

Props to the incredible work KHInsider staff and Goldpanner did all these years. You guys are the best!! ?

MoM says that he wanted to raise the Foretellers to have such strong hearts that they can be vessels for the Darknesses but not get possesed.

Does that imply that Ava didn't have a strong heart? The only clue we have about her is that the Darkness that killed Strelitzia looked like her, and people theorized it's an illusion, but considering what the MoM said in this update... well... Things aren't looking good for Ava, sadly.

Questions:
So was Luxu the traitor?
Ventus, Marluxia and Larxene got yeeted into the future and that's why they're in the present time?
WHAT'S GOING ON WITH BRAIN?!

I get the the Player = Xehanort arguments but the time frame doesn't seem to fit at all. Have we entered "Unbirth theory" territory again?

dumb theory I just thought about that probably has too many plotholes in it:

I was thinking, could Luxu's method of Body Hopping eject the Vessel's heart out of their body? Or did he just do that for Brain?

If that's the case, could Luxu's vessels all come back recompleted at some point?

They would need a medium and memories at the place they're recompleted.

Maybe Ienzo will be researching about Braig's past (after they all find out about Xigbar being Luxu) and finding an old item that belonged to him then suddenly the OG Braig pops into existence.

Also why did Luxu say May Your Heart Be You're Guiding Key?

Wouldn't He have Said May MY Heart Be My Guiding Key?

Becoz that scene was kind of weird. Maybe Luxu was helping Brain after all, or maybe that was somrthing else??

I.. Wow. I watched the finale in japanese when it first came out, and just now watched the translated version to understand what actually happened; well, as much as I could gather, anyways.

I'll go back and read the entire thread before commenting further to see the discussion, but I'll post my impressions for now:

- Ephemer's destiny was.. really sad. It seems like he ended up alone, building the city on his own? Only waiting for his friend to show up in the future to continue their plans..
- I guess this also confirms that Eraqus descends from Brain, in the end? Not really sure how I feel about that. Also, Sigurd? More Nordic mythology? Amazing.
- So, Xehanort's mother is Skuld? Who the heck was that, really? I really want to understand why Xehanort got sent away to Destiny Island.. But I guess that also explains how he found his way back into Scala as well, he just followed his heart.
- I guess that also confirms that Vanitas is Darkness; one of them, anyways, taken shape. Going to assume that Xehanort is another one of them, and when the player reincarnated he brought that with them.

I don't think ※ was censoring anything. I think he was saying exactly what he said - a world of ※.

I'm not sure how to explain ※ accurately but it makes some sense to me.

Okay, so I finished reading the entire thread and now have a better grasp on the events, so with that in mind, there's some things that I feel like make sense now:

- Xehanort IS the player. It's not a case of having two hearts in one nor anything like that, it's simply "our" heart reincarnating from the cycle of Kingdom Hearts. That brings two things to consider:
1. Maybe the reason he is so obsessed with KH is especifically because he unlocks fragments of memories of his past life.
2. Xehanort was born with Darkness already present inside him, as the player seemed to be holding it in the final scene; they simply acted as being possessed, when in fact they managed to remain in control.

- Dark Inferno IS related to Ephemer, in the end; I think it's the materialization of his regrets regarding the playable character, possibly forever seeking them. Which could explain why it was present in the Graveyard; The place we "died" once before going into the data world, as well as where Xehanort used as his base. I'm not sure how canon the whole encounter is, but I'd guess it works as a visual representation of that?

- Scala seems to have quite the technology going on, seeming with how Sigurd seems to have been talking through a headphone of some sorts. Might be relevant for future DATA shenanigans.
- The graveyard we see in Dark Road might not have been for the inhabitants of the world in a timeskip end of the world scenario like how we were theorizing before, but instead is a memoir of the Dandelions made by Ephemer. And now we know why Xehanort was there; he may have remembered too much.

That moment when Player's memories are what causes Xehanort to recreate the Ark in Radiant Garden

Nomura, dammit, there was so much here I've already forgotten some of the questions that arose while I was watching. I've also completely forgotten after all this time why Daybreak Town was even destroyed here, can someone explain? And why, when Ephemer and Skuld returned to the real world DB, was everything glitching like they were still in a computer? Was Ephemer the predecessor of Eraqus, or was Brain?

I'm guessing we're not supposed to know when Brain's last scene occurs in relation to the previous scene with the Luxu reveal, or how? Presumably much later, since Brain was apparently Luxu's first body swap.

Player (us) joined Xehanort's heart but since we aren't really a character it doesn't make much difference. Guessing we're not supposed to know who was the robed figure who took him, or even the woman, but knowing KH we probably have to wait another 10 years to find out.

I'm not even gonna ask wtf ※ is cause I see literally nobody can explain that lol.

Ultimately, aside from the broad strokes of the Master wanting the primary 13 darknesses to incarnate in him and his successors (mirrored in Xehanort's plan sort of) so they can be beaten, the dandelions taking arks to wind up in the present time, and the dream eaters being Chirithies protecting their wielder's hearts, I didn't follow a dang thing specifically in this finale.

I'm just gonna say it... Brain as Luxu looks a lot like Zexion.

Could've sworn Nomura originally also wanted to do the whole heart reincarnation shenanigan with Sora and Ventus in BBS, but decided to ditch the idea because of Western belief or something. No idea where exactly it was mentioned... But it seems like he picked up on it again though.

Oh yeah, just want to add something else that popped up in my head in another thread:

While the Xehanort = No Name connection is pretty spot on as a callback to our playable character having no defined name, gender, age or appearance, it also works amazingly well for the Keyblade: as a tool for the Master's plan with no clear owner in mind, passing from user to user while keeping a record of the future: No Name, the Keyblade with no identity and no user.

I wouldn't be surprised if whenever we get a proper reveal of who the MoM is behind that coat, we also get another Keyblade for him.

So is Secret Report 12 just retconned or does it line up somehow?

Amid the chaos, I bequeathed my Keyblade to one of the Union leaders, just as the Master instructed. I watched as the Five were sent to another worldline—at no small cost—ensuring the line of Keyblade wielders will live on. And now, Keybladeless, I must depart this land to fulfill my final task. This means casting my own body aside and sojourning my heart in vessel after vessel—as many as it takes.

Luxu specifically says he doesn’t have a Keyblade when he starts body hopping. But the figure who appears to be Luxu-Brain has his Keyblade.

Well that's just incredible

Why do people think Xehanort's mom is Skuld

I'm also realizing I still don't know what was up with the Dark Chirithy way back in the beginning. And people were telling me Ava was the answer to the traitor question a long time ago, but apparently in was Luxu after all?

Is it possible that Xehanort's possible mother is a descendant of Skuld? That would explain the different eye color

Mommynort is not Skuld. She can't be. Skuld probably would have been a Keyblade Master and detected something off with her Baby, namely that his heart was fused with a friend's. Idk how childbirth works in KH but headcanon says a different style of gregnancy would probably have happened.

Assuming the animators didn’t mess up the eye color of Xehanort’s mother, I doubt and hope that’s not Skuld. I think if Skuld was Xehanort’s mother, they should have shown her waking up in future Scala in the montage of what happened to all of them. I don’t see why Skuld’s fate would be something left at all ambiguous compared to the others unless she’s Subject X. At the least, if this was meant to be her, they could have kept her star earrings or some kind of star motif to make it clear it’s the same character.

It also seems Brain arrived in the same time period that the scene with Xehanort’s mother took place in based on the background design and Sigurd said Brain was the only one of the group to arrive in that era. Of course, there’s no guarantee it is the same era.

I’ll be disappointed if one of the few original female characters with a face that isn’t Kairi’s gets reduced to Mommynort.

Watching the Xehanort scene again it is strange that as a baby Scala had the older look, but as a teen it was already completely different and mostly empty. Did it change that much in that short a time, or was he yet another person sent forward in time?

I'm willing to assume it's not Skuld, if only because we know Nomura has a thing for long black-haired women with bangs. He's created how many of them in the past few years?

In DR, all the other islands are abandoned and nobody seems to know why. Even if some of the islands looked different if you went really far out (which is strange, because I feel that the uniformity of its aesthetic, like multiple copies of an idea emanating out from a center point, is a big part of its whole 'deal'), something big still happened in those 15 years.

(Of course different worlds can move at different rates of time, so it could also be that.)

While the scene with babynort has the same general aesthetic as the Scala that Brain and Sigurd show up in later on, if it is indeed the same time period then this brings some very interesting developments to the table:

- Eraqus is not a descendant of Brain unlike what a lot of people believed, but he could still be related to Ephemer and the whole similar appearance was just meant to throw us off.
- Brain is still alive during the Dark Road time, and should be in his late twenties/early thirties.

Maybe a stretch, but I wonder if Nightmare Chirithy’s mention of “another dream” and Chirithy asking, “Another?” in this scene could have been in reference to Xehanort’s anagram...

Wow, that update was..........I don't know what to say!

Small interjection here: Has anyone thought about the possibility that this woman isn't actually Xehanort's biological mother but a caretaker/guardian?

We have no context or further information to this particular scene, also in regards to Brain as while it is indeed the same city it can't be ascertained that it is the exact same time where Brain appears in it.

I mean right now nothing is certain, but the easiest assumption is that she's his mom. Also calling her Xehanort's mom is easier than "Unknown woman who hands Xehanort over to a hooded figure". I'm not too attached to her being his actual mom or care taker, for all we know she kidnapped him for the hooded figure and just felt guilty for doing that.

After watching the Finale again, there are still some plot points which I do not understand.

I still don’t get the concept of the Arc. Lauriam, Elrena, Ven and Brain us the Arc in Data Daybreak Town to escape. But where did they end up after using the Arc the first time?

after that Ven, Elrena and Lauriam use the Arc a second time and end up in KG, Enchanted Dominion and Dwarf Woodlands. Are these the “real” worlds from our common KH timeline? (Possibly a couple of years before BBS)

Ephemer and Skuld also used the Arc two times. The first time after fighting against Player and the second time in the realm, in which Brain, lauriam and the others where before. Did they follow the same “route” of worldhopping like the others?
I still don’t get why they need to use the Arc two times.

For me, what I am more interested about is how they are going to fuse this story with the next phase in a coherent way. This sounds like a crazy challenge since probably 1% of the KH console user base will know about this finale.

[USER=247014]@AegisXIII[/USER] Do we really know anything significant after this finale though? lol

I fair question: how common is the technology used by the "new" character in the Kh saga? To me, it felt kind of out of place.

The ending is melancholic, yet, beautiful. Although I do admit I was taken aback by the "Player And Xehanort" reveal. However, it started to make sense after I had given it some thought. And truth to be told, I have always wondered how they are planning to incorporate player into the canon lore in the upcoming titles when they are supposedly a self insert character at best. I can see them remaking khux as a movie and making player a canon character with a name and appearance of their own ([S]and upsetting the entire khux fanbase lol[/S]).

The only thing i'm iffy about the fact we know next nothing about what happened to ava.
.

I hesitate to call Skuld Xehanort's mother because her hair cut, the hime cut, is pretty common in anime and manga. After all, it's not like Hinata Hyuga (Naruto), Enma Ai (Hell Girl), Konoka Konoe (Negima), and Aisa Himegami (A Certain Magic Index) sport the same cut. Those were just the ones I can name off the top of my head.

To be honest, Marluxia doesn't feel like he's changed too much. He was just more snobby as a nobody for sure. But he seems like a cool and collected guy with a bit of sass (like how he was teasing his sister).

Larxene is the one that had a major attitude adjustment. I think they're going to keep her new personality, but maybe she'll be a little softer. Her snarky goodbye to Sora was actually... I wouldn't say nice, but she seemed genuine in a way. I guess the classic way to describe it would be tsundere. Hard outer shell, but clearly under it all she kinda cares or doesn't actually believe the mean things she's said. If that makes sense.

I'm also hoping Larxene and Marluxia avoid Namine. Like they actually feel bad about it and don't want to open old wounds. Lol. (after an apology maybe. ESPECIALLY from Marluxia. Namine and Strelitzia have so many similarities, surely he'll feel awful.)

I don't really get why people keep bringing up Marluxia/Larxene's personality development as if that's a plot point. They're people, they grow and change. You know, like you and me? I think Larxene ending up the way she does is particularly clear to me after the finale's part 1. "The only reason a young girl would end up feeling negative emotions is due to being corrupted by DARKNESS" would be, like, the worst.

One thought I had as I was watching Cynical, is that I have a feeling on who's Eraqus's descendant. I feel that Emphermer is his descendant, not Brain. It would make sense because how buddy he was with player and I would make more sense as the ending of KH3, where the two friends go on together.

One thing that appears to be missing is the ancient masters who went to the fictional world. The Master of Masters told to one of the Darknesses that it is his version of the Christian heaven, and it is well possible that he disappeared by going in there, but no-one else seems to have gotten any information about it.

One possible solution is that the Wreck-It Ralph arcade is somehow part of the fictional world. After all, when it was first introduced in quest 871, Brain told us that "Somehow, it's connected to a place that doesn't exist in this world or time." It also makes sense that Master Ephemer and his new friends from the newly-built Scala would go there to look for the Player. But if this is the case, then didn't the four Darknesses end up in exactly the last place where the MoM would have wanted them?

Any ideas, am I missing something?

Now it makes so much sense that [SPOILER]Skuld/Likely Subject X[/SPOILER] spoke very few words.

[SPOILER]She was not only just exhausted from the battle with the Player, but she was traumatized from the destruction of Daybreak, even worse is that she lost both of her best friends.[/SPOILER]

The whole thing with Saïx had more to do with him omiting things from Axel while pretending to follow along to Xemnas plans than anything, really. He was a major asshole and still has a part in what happened, but if go over the actual events of Days, the one who actually pushes Xion to almost death is Riku.
Of course he had his reasons to do that and he was gentle in a way, but only because she actually agreed with him. Otherwise he probably would have fought against her just like with Roxas.

Forget the Saïx thing for a while; the guy had abandonment issues, and hurled a lot of verbal abuse, yes, yes, we know.

What matters now is wrapping up any loose ends now that it’s all over, but we just got more questions instead. What is it that MoM is referring to? We know it’s Quadratum, but we hardly know what Quadratum actually is. It isn’t a data world, because then that would constitute it as still a part of “Reality.” We know it’s the opposite of that, a “fantasy.” But what constitutes a fantasy? The translation here, while unofficial, describes it as some sort of afterlife destination, and while I’m doubtful if that’s what it actually means due to the existence of the Underworld, the underlying question remains:

What is the unreality/fantasy that MoM talked about?

What are the components of its existence if even the primary forces of reality and their “parts” (i.e. dreams, data, and that one other thing I forgot) have no dominion over it?

How did MoM get there? Has he been going back and forth or did he just enter recently?

Characters cant be focused on in this chibi drip feed style. Lets weight until our next real KH game comes out before we judge phase two writing, character, and world building.

Becoz introducing new world concepts was X/UX/XBC/MoM primary job and I'd say they did that very well.

•unreality (basically another dimension - not a "realm" but an entirely different dimension with different properties and physics and constitutions)
•death is not THE end necessarily
•how is dram eeter formed?
•Darkness the entities vs Darkness the force
•arks and time travel
•body hopping and heart ejection

Even mobile drip feeds can have decent character work. They certainly run for long enough. Dissidia Opera Omnia has even done a few interesting things with some FF characters over the years, and that's got a cast of 100+ to juggle.

Also, UX didn't really introduce most of those concepts. Hell, as far as time travel goes, what are we on now, like, the 3rd set of rules?

I'm glad that Demyx and Luxord had nothing to do with The Age of Fairy Tales, let them be important in Quadratum.