Agreed, as this "Xehanort" is so far the most underwhelming and, as far as the story is presented, most unimportant Xehanort as well. If he's really the same as Ansem SoD though, he isn't even an own "Xehanort" at all.
Him being an own "Xehanort" though would actually allow him to occupy one seat in the new Organisation (and I would expect him to wield a version of MX's Keyblade with a science/sterile-themed Keychain).
Agreed. If anything he's pretty much just a stepping stone at current as a Xehanort.
I could see him being his own Xehanort on the technicality he's the complete form of Ansem & Xemnas. (though only cause of that technicality)
True dat, although it is a bit weird to speak about Terra's "guilt" when in essence he isn't really guilty about anything that happened after BBS. Sure, Terra seems to be the type to apply self-blame, but unlike Riku in KH 1 Terra never actually embraced the Darkness and did bad things on purpose.
I know but I say guilt because Terra would feel such guilt regardless because he was used to do them. A part of him was literally right there for most moments but he couldn't do anything to stop them.
I meant it mainly as a contrast to how Sora views things as I'm sure he doesn't see Roxas or Xion as his "property", not even technically.
On that note, it would be interesting to know to which viewpoint the other characters align more. Considering the few interactions Kairi had with Roxas and Naminé (and the expanded ones with Axel in the manga), I tend to believe that Kairi tends more towards Sora's viewpoint while Ansem the Wise/DiZ tended more towards Xehanort's viewpoint at least during Days and KH 2.
Riku is a curious case, as while he often openly decried the Replica Riku and called him "fake", he also seemed to acknowledge that the Replica had a heart of his own just like he seemed to view Roxas and Xion as entities different from Sora.
I imagine Kairi would follow Sora's example. As for Riku, I think his view would be more practical. He knows these beings have hearts of their own but he also knows what they are technically and considers them that technicality as well as having their own heart. (shown when he expressed sadness/pity as Repliku died or when he finally caught Roxas and called him "poor thing")
TAV's views on those matters are a mystery though as they really hadn't to deal with that kind of issue yet except Ven to a degree with Vanitas, and there Ven also seemed to view Vanitas as something/someone of his own rather than a property/aspect of himself.
Being foreign to heartless and nobodies or anything else of branching entities I'd imagine what they see is just what those beings are. To them Roxas would just be Roxas.
Vanitas on the other hand...out of the three only Terra & Ventus knew of his origin and likely because of that origin didn't like to think of him as a part of Ventus due to how Vanitas was.
This seems to be another "weakness" of Xehanort actually, just like he underestimates the true power of the hearts, he also seems to have a knack for ignoring/dismissing people/beings not part of his plans. During KH 1 and 2, Sora was not part of his plans and thus he foiled them, in BBS, Aqua was not part of his larger scheme and in the end she foiled most of it as well (ok, she had help from Mickey and Ven, but Sora also had Donald and Goofy) while in DDD Lea was not part of the plan and ultimatively foiled MX's main goal.
There seems to be a belief in Xehanort that people insignificant to his plans and schemes are also insignificant as a whole and not worth paying attention to, which already foiled more than one of his plans.
If Xehanort wasn't so adept in expecting several different outcomes of a plan and have a backup plan for nearly every possibility, his ambitions would have been ended long ago.
This weakness in of itself is ironic as well. For a man who so meticulously plans his plots to the point of manipulating an entire decades worth of people through time travel in DDD, it's always the factors he doesn't consider that throws him off.
Basically a lack of planning for a minute detail in his planning always gets him. xD
I just notice, this would also answer Sora's question about why Xehanort "knew everything". He would not know everything, as Young Xehanort admits that isn't the case, but he would know most of what happened during the series because his consciousness could jump between all his seeds (after all, MX himself was incomplete, his body extinguished and Terra's body "inhabited" by Xemnas), taking a seat like in a viewbox in an opera with binoculars and dolby surround boxes, experiencing everything that happens from the sidelines/background possibly without the seeds/hosts of his seeds even noticing.
I'd say that is quite creepy...especially when imagining MX "sitting" there with that creepy grin and innerly laughing about such things like i.e. Saix planning to "betray" the Organisation together with Axel.
This would also explain why he was completely unconcerned with having Vanitas being in possession of the X-blade he created with Ventus. If Vanitas really had won the struggle with Ven, defeated Aqua and then tried to "rebel" against Xehanort by using the X-blade for himself, Xehanort would then have played his "directly control the seed"-card and crushed Vanitas' feeble attempt under his heels.
That is quite creepy when you word it like that. xD
It's not so much the DBZ-comparison itself that irks me but the (proposed) sin of the KH series turning into something like it when it already was like this from the very first installment.
It is not something new to the series that was introduced only in BBS or DDD, the basic premise of it was there since the beginning of the franchise.
So if KH is "ruined" by it as some fans claim it to be, it was ruined from the very beginning.
Even disregarding the mass revival of worlds at the end of KH 1, the issue was stated and foreshadowed earlier during the game:
What I ask myself is more "if they do not like this kind of idealistic series, why do they even follow it then?"
Spinning the ball back to DBZ, the issue of "everyone returning from death several times" apparently did not really hamper its vast popularity at all.
Interesting thing is, as far as I know, that DBZ (or rather Dragonball, the first incarnation of the series) was, alongside Sailor Moon, the first true success of japanese animated media in the west in the early 90's.
Funnily, Sailor Moon itself is as ridden with this death=>revival cycle as DBZ is as well, since Sailor Moon consists of five "sagas" and in each saga (most often during the beginning of the finale) at least two or three if not all of the Sailor Scouts except Moon herself die in some fashion.
Notable is that (at least in the manga), the author Naoko Takeuchi manages to make each instance equally heartwrenching despite the in the background looming "insurance" of the great silver crystal having the powers to revive.
It's not so much one reviving that's the hitch I think but the fear that it'll happen on a regular basis. So far anything that's revived has had established causes as to why.
In DBZ however it got to the point were Goku or someone else could go all hail mary one minute and not worry because they'll come back two chapters later.
It is indeed true. DBZ & Sailor Moon were the first big major successes outside Japan but also keep in mind that was nearly 20yrs ago. It's not the same fanbase as before and the ones that grew up on them don't hold the same tastes as their 5yr old selves did.
And most important of all just because it worked for one series doesn't mean it should be used for others. Such a thing could even hurt one story while it flourishes in another. That however is another matter.
I myself don't think KH has reached DBZ territory yet as each time something returned there was reason however at the same time I don't want that to become as common place as it did in DBZ. If someone or something is destroyed and there's no preestablished concepts to save them then they definitely shouldn't just throw one in to rectify it.
Even the infamous cases of Roxas, Namine and Xion among such fans you mention have reason for return because their hearts never passed on like traditional KH death.
Hehe, looks like I managed again to give incentives for more theories...*ggg*.
This is indeed something to take note of, as while we see hearts in the series as these glowing "orbs", they aren't really true physical objects or organs at all. That "orb" is (I think) also only a sphere/corona that surrounds the "true" heart that is actually formed like a heart.
It is said that MX "cuts" Ven's heart to extract the Darkness from it and create Vanitas, yet the sphere that is ripped out of Ven's chest in BBS from the Keyblade beam that is supposed to be a "part" of his heart looks exactly the same as the other hearts we have seen so far in terms of visual style.
Even the "seed" MX blasts towards Sora in the DDD Finale looks the same.
Keyblades however can directly affect hearts so I think it depends on what one defines as a "literal" piece. It certainly isn't literal in the sense in that something physical (that you can touch) is cut off and removed from the body, but it may be literal on the plane of existence the heart in general exists as Ven's awakening station clearly shows nearly a quarter "ripped out of it".
Thoughts and memories are important parts of a heart, so it is certainly possible that the "parts" Xehanort shoots out as "seeds" are actually thoughts/memories or something similar.
The heart is a metaphysical object in KH, but it certainly has some tangible effects on a being as the above examples show.
It's true the keyblade can affect hearts but I find the differences in MX and Ven to different. Mainly because how can MX recomplete in DDD, regardless of what body he may or may not be in, if his heart itself is no longer "whole".
It's possible MX himself truly isn't whole but just now a splintered existence spread over 13 bodies but why is one such body looking more MX than the rest? If he's just spread seeds then you'd think that like Xigbar or Saix each vessel had a mixed appearance.
The connection thingy could actually be the case as I now realize, as in Xehanort just "attaching" his heart to his victims, just like "baby" Sora attached his heart to Ven's in the prologue of BBS. Unlike Xehanort, Sora had no ill intent at all, but the "appearance"-influence like Sora and Ven sharing the exact same eyes still happened.
In Xehanort's case, this would equal the "attaching the strings" to the puppet.
So instead of a WLAN (MX spreading Heart-seeds that grow into Hotspots he can access) it would be just a normal LAN (no literal seeds but connected by cables(the heart-connection) to the main server (MX's heart)).
Another good point. This would explain why MX cannot just pull MX one year before BBS, MX two years before BBS etc. as members for his Organisation but needs to resort to seeding potential vessels..
Exactly! Just look how much Sora & Ven's connection affected not only them but their others Roxas and Vanitas. There was no splintered heart seeds or mergers, just one connection between people.
Perhaps MX has elaborated on this type of connection.
Yep. This means that each vessel has to be different from MX in some way or fashion, although I doubt the difference itself has to be big.
YX for example truly is MX but he's the Xehanort that hasn't left the islands yet. There's decades of experience, training and research between them and YX says himself that MX is who he will become. To become something means that's not what you are at current after all~
