Square Enix Releases Screenshots from Kingdom Hearts HD 2.8

[VoidGear.]

Don't they look somewhat similar to the crystal in the chess scene of Young Eraqus and Xehanort?

I'm lost.
What crystal do you mean?

 

[h.e.hassanein]

It would at least fit with the "greed" theme if she wants all the best to herself.

One has to recall that she's "scouting" people across all five unions for her Dandelion-plan.
Heck, it could even be that she deliberately recruits all those away who have enough diplomatic skills to possibly foster a more peaceful resolution, leaving only the most egoistic, bloodthirsty and power hungry wielders in the unions of all Foretellers in order to ensure that even if they wanted to the other Foretellers can't keep order and control.

Agreed- what Ava's up to is kind of revolutionary. If the other Foreteller's found out about this plan they'd probably be furious and may even try to put an end to it. And if Ava tells every single one of us players willy nilly, of course the Foretellers would find out (assuming every Player other than you is an actual character like Skuld and Ephemer and not avatars but you know what I mean).

So really even if Ava's deadly sin is greed, trying to get everyone to become a Dandelion would ruin the plan for her.

I actually think this way is a lot greedier of her- she doesn't want every Keyblade wielder out there, but she does want all the best, brightest wielders whose hearts are most immune to the darkness, despite whatever Union they're in. She's literally taking some of the wielders most likely to help a Union fight well in the Keyblade War and making sure they're never actually there to experience it? She's not taking them into her own Union per se, but she's taking them into a totally different one that the other Foreteller's have no knowledge of, and therefore no control over.

 

[BlackOsprey]

Furthermore, on the image of Gula raising his Keyblade I noticed something wet on his left cheek, although I'm not sure of he's sweating or actually crying.

Ah, I thought I was the only one who noticed that.
I'm betting that it's sweat. Tears tend to be depicted less as beads of moisture and more like small streaks of em. Though honestly I can't say I'd be surprised if it were either, because Gula's getting faced down by a guy who's twice as tall as he is and is characterized by his desire for pure power.

 

[FudgemintGuardian]

I'm lost.
What crystal do you mean?

 

[Squood!]

What is that crystal anyway?

 

[Hirokey123]

Ah, I thought I was the only one who noticed that.
I'm betting that it's sweat. Tears tend to be depicted less as beads of moisture and more like small streaks of em. Though honestly I can't say I'd be surprised if it were either, because Gula's getting faced down by a guy who's twice as tall as he is and is characterized by his desire for pure power.

I sorta hope it's tears, like if Gula is Ventus and Aced is Terra I can only imagine how heart breaking it must be for him to fight Terra and I kinda want to feast on that delicious Ventus drama that is his kind heart breaking. I mean it be a neat addition to his character because Venuts is characterized as being very kind, that's his main trait but it doesn't really come through all that much in BBS any dif from Sora or roxas.

But if he was crying while fighting his best friend that would be different. Because Sora gets or stone faced while fighting Riku, and sad afterwards. Roxas meanwhile gets a grim smile on his face with axel and a frown when fighting Xion, but he sheds no tears for Axel and only shed tears when he realized Xion was gone. But if Gula is Ventus and crying that mean he be the first to shed tears while fighting, and that would really capture Ventus's kindness trait well.

 

[VoidGear.]

Oh...that's a crystal?
But..if that's part of those things the foretellers wear, the crystal would be quite large, right? It looks kinda...symmetric in this picture.

 

[Sephiroth0812]

Agreed- what Ava's up to is kind of revolutionary. If the other Foreteller's found out about this plan they'd probably be furious and may even try to put an end to it. And if Ava tells every single one of us players willy nilly, of course the Foretellers would find out (assuming every Player other than you is an actual character like Skuld and Ephemer and not avatars but you know what I mean).

So really even if Ava's deadly sin is greed, trying to get everyone to become a Dandelion would ruin the plan for her.

I actually think this way is a lot greedier of her- she doesn't want every Keyblade wielder out there, but she does want all the best, brightest wielders whose hearts are most immune to the darkness, despite whatever Union they're in. She's literally taking some of the wielders most likely to help a Union fight well in the Keyblade War and making sure they're never actually there to experience it? She's not taking them into her own Union per se, but she's taking them into a totally different one that the other Foreteller's have no knowledge of, and therefore no control over.

That's a good point actually, Ava has to keep a certain secrecy to it in order to not doom the plan from the beginning by other factions finding out.
On one hand, I'm wondering if each Foreteller has a secret plan/agenda of his/her own apart from the unions themselves with Ava's "Dandelion"-plan being just the only one that's shown to the audience so far.

Indeed, the greedy part might be that she wants the best out of all unions, but without any of the union-stuff attached at all. To allow these wielders to "fly to the outside world" and spare them from participating in the actual war does indeed sound like a noble and "good" cause at first, but there might be more sinister subintentions towards that one.
That Ava states she might not join the Dandelions though rings some bells as that would mean the Dandelions would need a different person to guide them and provide them with information. Maybe this person will actually be the ominuous 6th Apprentice who conspired with Ava from the start because they either a) distrusted the Master of Masters and/or the prophecy book from the start or b) the Dandelions are deliberately gathered as material for an attempt to forge the X-blade if the first attempt (the actual Keyblade War) fails.

Ah, I thought I was the only one who noticed that.
I'm betting that it's sweat. Tears tend to be depicted less as beads of moisture and more like small streaks of em. Though honestly I can't say I'd be surprised if it were either, because Gula's getting faced down by a guy who's twice as tall as he is and is characterized by his desire for pure power.

Noticed it actually when I looked at the bigger screenshots. In the actual trailer things move too fast to actually notice it directly.
True dat, we also do not know the whole context between their facedown, however if it is indeed sweat then it could hint at extreme exhaustion and instead of Aced actually striking him down Gula could probably also just collapse from exhaustion and that's the moment Ava enters.
On the other hand, tears could indicate several other predicaments, including i.e. Gula stubbornly refusing to believe that Aced is the traitor, or desperately trying to deflect/deny suspicions that he's the traitor right up to simply sadness over the fact that the Foretellers are indeed turning against each other.
Regardless of the story implications though

I sorta hope it's tears, like if Gula is Ventus and Aced is Terra I can only imagine how heart breaking it must be for him to fight Terra and I kinda want to feast on that delicious Ventus drama that is his kind heart breaking. I mean it be a neat addition to his character because Venuts is characterized as being very kind, that's his main trait but it doesn't really come through all that much in BBS any dif from Sora or roxas.

But if he was crying while fighting his best friend that would be different. Because Sora gets or stone faced while fighting Riku, and sad afterwards. Roxas meanwhile gets a grim smile on his face with axel and a frown when fighting Xion, but he sheds no tears for Axel and only shed tears when he realized Xion was gone. But if Gula is Ventus and crying that mean he be the first to shed tears while fighting, and that would really capture Ventus's kindness trait well.

Even if it are indeed tears, why the heck would that in any case point towards Gula = Ventus though? There isn't any true hint pointing towards that at all so I wonder where you get that notion from.
So Gula should be Ventus in order to get some cheap drama out of it? Is that it? I'm a little at a loss as to why this would be such a great scenario as at least to me it comes over only as cheap and degrading to both Ventus and Gula as characters.
Maybe Gula has his own reasons for tears in that situation we just don't know of yet? Without any clone/reincarnation shenanigans?

---
The above is a good example though for something general I have been tapping my hands on the table for quite some time by now, as I'm seriously getting somewhat annoyed of the apparent need to frantically twist every little tidbit of information that is revealed about these new characters to turn them into already established characters or clones of these in order to construct more credence for the Rebirth theory, as if we do not have enough of that already.
There are literally tons of complaints about characters just being "derived" and/or clones of already established characters in the fandom, and yet people go head over heels to do the exact same thing for the Foretellers again when there's indeed a decent chance that they might finally be truly new characters.
Like nope, they have different voice actors and lived in a completely different era and sometimes theories, no matter how well thought out, do not turn out to be correct.
Like if you want additions and insight to a certain character or "capture their traits" do it with the actual character, not yet another dirty cheap clone!!!

I apologize if that comes over as overly harsh in written form, yet I did feel compelled to spell it out pretty bluntly.

Oh...that's a crystal?
But..if that's part of those things the foretellers wear, the crystal would be quite large, right? It looks kinda...symmetric in this picture.

Lol, I didn't actually attempt to hint that this crystal is actually one of those originally worn by the Foretellers, but that the form and color holds some similarities.

 

[ShardofTruth]

What is that crystal anyway?

Maybe another cornerstone of light?

 

[Sally-boiii]

What is that crystal anyway?

Or it might be something used to monitor LoD as a whole. Like some "disturbance in the force" type stuff. Or better still, like the thing the Allied shinobi force used to monitor battlefields in Shippuden during the war.