I like to think that MX's harboring of the time-travel ability is a result of him discarding his own, personal body. So long as he'd be away from it, then he'd still have the power. In that scenario, he'd still be in Terra's body during KH3, but by ejecting him out of it and putting him back into his own body, the time-traveling schemes would end. Which would be a fitting ending, too.
The discarding of his own body is one of the reasons why I've always been inclined to think that MX is still in Terra's body. It's speculative to a certain degree, but it's a sound theory.
=[ Did you not read the OP? That's the whole basis, his
original body. In the quote I provided, which is the same one you used. Nomura outright says was from MX tossing his own body in BBS. That's why it was
carried over to Ansem.
I wouldn't call it a sound theory, a possible one yes but nothing actually making it sound. There's nothing hinting he's still in Terra's body.
Sure the heart overrides the bodies appearance but at the same time Nomura always provides a visual to show this.
When Ansem stole Riku's body we seen one instance of Riku appearing all spectral, then we have the added FM scene with Riku in the dark realm were Mickey finally reaches him and confirms "it was to late for your [Riku's] body", and then we have a final moment during the final battle were Ansem switches between the bodies actual "Riku look" to his own.
Then with Xehanort's vessels we have the hint of yellow eyes and pointed ears. And even the instance MX takes over YX's mind is alluded to visually when the video vooms in on MX's shadowy figure in the chair, not yet formed, to YX suddenly attacking free of Mickey's time spell.
Nomura
always has something showing it's more than just one person in the body. He alludes to them and even points them out bluntly later in interviews.
We however don't have that here. There's nothing hinting MX is still in Terra's body nor does what we currently know of recompletion work that way:
Nomura said:
VIII. When the heartless are defeated, what becomes of the stolen hearts? Also, when members of Organization XIII and other Nobodies are defeated, do they return to their original form?
When heartless are defeated, essentially the owner's hearts are rejoined with their once extinguished body, whichever world it may be on. As for the whereabouts of hearts in KHII that turn up, this time they remarkably went to the Organization (there is a foot note here that says "In Kingdom Hearts II after heartless were defeated, the many hearts were absorbed by the Kingdom Hearts of "people's hearts"). However, in the rare case that the body changed into a Nobody and when there is no container for the heart, it resorts to a state of suspension.
In the case of a Nobody being defeated, it's a little more complicated. If the above mentioned hearts are liberated, they return to their original form. However, if the heart is still stolen by the heartless, the Nobody's body is swallowed by darkness. If somewhere in the world their hearts are taken back, perhaps they might be able to return to their original human form.
Sure this in detailed in the case of heartless/nobody but it should matter for any separated heart-body since the body itself doesn't die.
MX abandoned the body but it never died thus, going by what we learn here of heartless that lack a corresponding nobody, that would mean MX's body was in the same state any other extinguished body is in awaiting the heart's return.
The main point however is that the heart returns to it's extinguished body. Which brings up the second issue of the MX-in-Terra-still theory.
We don't know the details.
We don't know how the Apprentice was divided nor where of the three in him went. Although Xemnas is the confirmed nobody of both Terra & MX (and Eraqus) and is even confirmed to have memories of the two, Ansem is different.
Nothing about Ansem alludes to Terra or Eraqus, even Ansems youthful appearance can be attributed too Ansem's own possible self born from Xehanort's time as the Apprentice.
The way Ansem dresses, hand gestures, speech, obsession, everything about him alludes to MX. He has no outright confirmed Terra/Eraqus qualities.
What I'm getting at by showing this is that we don't even know if Terra is still present within Ansem. Nor does it make sense why Xemnas would be mostly Xehanort when he has two far more positive influences that would've, and should've, affected him more than it did.
Its this idea that spawns the theory MX left a seed of himself in the form of a norted Terra/Eraqus to control the nobody while his actual heart formed Ansem.
We don't know where Terra exactly is since the split so there's no way of knowing if MX was still piggybacking his heart as a host.
If anything Ansem & Xemnas' dominant Xehanort traits would imply Terra either isn't there or was finally "swallowed" and imprisoned (rendered dormant) by MX. (which is how Nomura described MX possession)
Then there's recompletion itself. It returns the heart to it's
extinguished body. Ansem & Xemnas were a mix of things yes but the body+soul Xemnas used wasn't Xehanorts.
Xemnas would've been Terra's technical extinguished body while MX's old one would be his. And I know you've argued it before but there's no way to spin that MX's heart had claim to Terra's body, he was a forced invader clinging to Terra's heart to control him.
Yes Ansem and Xemnas were born from this mess but as many have pointed out before they aren't MX himself and may even have hearts of their own born from seeds of MX's. So while they would have ties to Terra, MX himself still doesn't. Mx's heart, his main heart, will always be bound to the body he abandoned.
Then there's this:
DDD Ultimania said:
Q: What happened to Terra's heart and body?
A: In this game, Master Xehanort does not appear in the form of Terra-Xehanort when he transferred his heart, but as the old man he was before he took control of Terra's body. During the revival, what happened to Terra's body, and Terra's heart that was in opposition to Xehanort's control? In Kingdom Hearts, Birth by Sleep, it is to be considered that it was thought the whereabouts of the heart of Terra's master, Eraqus rested within his body.
Look at the wording of this interview. The MX that returned is specified as the form he had
before taking Terra's body. Then it mentions the unknown whereabouts of said body, Terra, and Eraqus during the revival.
It's all worded in the past tense as what happened to them after MX came back as his old self.
As mentioned waaaay earlier at this point (lol it got long xD) Nomura always leaves hints or visually alludes to Xehanort using or being in another body however we have no such allusions here.
Although he likes twists and turns Nomura has never once showed us a character that wasn't as they appear. Ansem showed he was in Riku's body, then later it was confirmed he took it by Nomura then again twice by YX and Riku in DDD.
And Nomura gave the hint of yellow eyes in an interview as a sign of possession.
He always leaves us something to hint toward body possession and we have no such hints in the theory MX is still using Terra's.
You could argue he's gonna surprise us but that's a hollow argument because MX confirms Terra is still under his control in some way so it'd be nowhere near a twist that Terra is on his side as one of his many puppets or his host still.
Then there's the law of the time travel as well that Xehanort's method requires discarding of a body. If it could be used so freely why did Xehanort wait till he had discarded Terras?
Sure theres the amnesia but the opening of DDD and Ansem/Xemnas' obvious remembrance showing that this supposed amnesia, if he actually had it, wasn't permanent. So why wait till he's discarded yet another body?
I know YX and the others were in their body but keep in mind the first chain in that link of time travelers was Ansem himself, the disembodied heart. He went to YX and then transferred/used that power to send YX off.
Ansem was the one allowing them to travel and MX was the source of Ansems power to do so.
It almost alludes to that Xehanort couldn't enact the time travel backup plan till he had once again ditched a body.
Plus what your proposed only makes YX's words make no real sense. How is time returning to normal for him and the other Xehanorts? Why does Xigbar point out that they are suddenly on a fixed time when the didn't have one before? Why does MX himself mention they are out of time and must "return whence they came"?
Plus the biggest red light for me is your own theories point. If MX was returned to Terra upon recompletion as you claim then he'd be as he said himself in DDD "complete". Your own theory states recompletion would've returned MX to Terra as a whole being normally would which would make the requirement for a discarded body null as MX's new body would be Terra still making the notion of him keeping his time power after his return impossible.
Nothing makes sense on your MX using Terra body theory or hints at it to me. Don't get me wrong, I'd definitely never rule it out completely but before I entertain the idea I'll need something actually hinting it in the game like all the other instances of possession.
This makes me think Xehanort might trick Riku and Sora to revive Ansem and Xemnas from their slumber in some way. How, I got nothing. But Terra's heart might be sleeping, so Xehanort could insert Xemnas and Ansem's hearts into his, so when Sora or Riku wake Terra, they'd unknowingly wake those two as well.
That's certainly possible. MX already tricked pretty much everyone in DDD rather effortlessly.
As usual you notice the tiniest scraps of possible foreshadowing that are available.
Good point.
If the power of time travel is with the Norts only when MX himself is incomplete, that would mean he has no access to it in KH III itself.
Now that leaves two possible scenarios I can immediately think of in order to answer the question as to "how can the XIII darknesses then be gathered for the ploy of forging the X-blade?"
The first one would be that Xehanort simply resorts to Yen Sids/Merlins time travel method which includes sending others through time without travelling yourself, as that was what Yen Sid did with Sora and Riku in DDD.
In this case, the present MX would use time travel powers to pull those that really come from the past (Young Xehanort and possibly Xemnas and Ansem) to the present without them themselves doing anything and without he himself moving through time.
For the second scenario, there is to keep in mind that Nomura not only pointed out that not all members of the new Org are time travelers, he also says something about that Xemnas and Ansem exist somewhere "outside of/beyond time":
This may indicate that, wherever Xemnas and Ansem are right now, it is a timeless (and thus static) place/realm, if Master Xehanort can access that place/dimension/plane of existence or whatever it is, he may be able to summon Xemnas and Ansem to his side just like he can summon the Guardian.
Going a tad further, if this ominous place is/would be in fact inside Xehanort's heart (another parallel to Sora and it would fit with the whole "recompletion process"), then the most likely answer to the whole riddle would be the equally ominuous "Key to Return Hearts".
If this "construct" (be it a Keyblade, a process, an ability or even a person) can be used to supposedly return hearts to where they belong and allow someone like Sora to "recreate people who were thought lost forever" like Xion, Naminé and Roxas, then I suppose that the same possibility would be available to Xehanort.
"Key to return Hearts" can also have (as so often in KH) several meanings. It can mean the obvious "returning a heart where it belongs" aka back to it's own body but it can also mean "returning" as in a heart returning to the physical world/awakening again from the "eternal" sleep, meaning the actual titular "Birth by Sleep" itself.
What gives this entire thing a dent however is Yen Sid's explanation that, in order to be able to awaken a sleeping heart from slumber, you need the corresponding power which can only be gained by unlocking seven sleeping keyholes as well.
Sora and Riku both gained this power during the course of DDD, so they can do it, but as far as we know Xehanort does not have that power in his arsenal.
(Of course it's possible that he does have it and we just don't know it yet...)
Hmm I had forgotten about Yen Sids method when making this...though wouldn't that raise a problem? Though it varies in how one travels it still seems to follow the third rule that "upon arrival you can only move forward as per the laws of time".
Meaning once you reach your destination you can only go forward from there. So wouldn't sending someone back to get them halt that up? Or do you think he has a way of pulling them directly to the present?
That's a good point there. Out of all the norts Ansem and Xemnas are specifically described as being outside time.
Perhaps this ties into their unique make up. They were born from three hearts but lacked any actual body to call their own.
If they, like Roxas or Xion, formed a heart from MX's then upon recompletion they wouldn't really have anywhere to go. These two arent' the same as typical cases such as Axel/Lea which was nearly identical and seemingly merged upon return.
Rather they had a mixed nature of three hearts which perhaps made it impossible for them to return anywhere since they both lacked a body or a singular heart to be born from.
If this is the case they maybe the Ansem/Xemnas we saw in DDD wasn't traveling time but stuck outside it, maybe in the Dream Realm itself. Naturally YX using MX's time traveling powers would be able to reach them in such a state.
However if this thread is right and that power was lost upon MX coming back then he'd need an alternate retrieval method.
Perhaps MX doesn't need the power, as Fudgement pointed out he could exploit Sora or Riku in some way that do have it.