I see you have put a lot of effort into this, which does deserve respect. There are some good ideas in it. However, you have also missed a few important things.
Thanks. My mind was running crazy all day yesterday, and I didn't have the ability to put thoughts on paper until much later, and I'm sure I missed ideas I had collected over the day as my mind jumped to conclusions.
I should have noticed myself the possibility of Brain escaping though the same portal as Luxu. I don't think it is what actually happened, but it definitely deserves to be investigated. One problem I see immediately is that Brain seems to have no motive for time travel if he doesn't need to do it to save his own life. Wouldn't he go to check what is left of Daybreak Town (in his current time, using a portal), meet Ephemer and see what he has done to it, and then implement whatever his plan is from there. Also, when he arrived, he clearly didn't know where and when he is, which means his destination was not under his own control.
My thoughts here are this... Luxu obviously told Brain SOMETHING to convince him to become his apprentice. Maybe it was something as simple as, "If you die here, you will never be able to save them" or perhaps it was deeper "We have both read at least some of the BoP and we both know things are not salvagable in this time. You need to travel to the future when technology is more advanced, and then you can save them all. I can show you the way..." Given people find the fact Sigurd is using some communicator as a weird 'leap forward' in technology, this point might not be so far fetched...
It's true Brain didn't know exactly when or where he was. But "May my heart be my guiding key" might be Nomura's way of helping the characters understand that they may not always know (in their mind) where they need to go and when, but their heart does know. So let your heart lead. Perhaps Brains heart can control the destination and make sure he appears exactly when and where he lands, to give him the best chance of accomplishing his goal? Even if he himself doesn't exactly know when/where that should be?
Are there any other means for time travel than the pods? Ignoring Merlin's door, which was considered an anomaly in-universe, I believe the only other known instances of anyone going into the future in the whole series are Young Xehanort and a few other org. XIII members summoned there by older version of Xehanort. We know that Xehanort had access to a similar machine, and was familiar with it, so it's likely that he also used this method. Only difference I see is the use of replica bodies instead of remembering + a medium.
Speaking of a medium, Brain's hat seems to be the medium used to give him his body back. My understanding is that for the others, the Eye was used (which BTW could be another explanation for that stupid amnesia), but here it wouldn't be available if No Name was given to Brain himself. So this, while not a true proof, is a clue that Brain indeed did get No Name. Now, the secret report 13 has this:
My money is on their being another method. One that the true Masters know of, and likely this is one of the things the MoM taught Young Xehanort when they met. We know Time Travel has become too central to this series, and whether we want it to or not, the rules and realities of it are going to evolve. My guess is Brain experienced a previously unseen method of Time Travel. Heck, maybe even he discovered it himself considering his penchant for leaping to correct conclusions from very limited information, and seemingly always being right.
which debunks the idea that Brain went so far into the future that he could be Eraqus's grandfather, assuming the Eye went with him. And if it didn't, then why the hat is needed?
I assume the hat is still the medium for reformation. regardless of how far forward Brain actually jumped. I suppose an alternate explanation is possible here... What if Brain is actually in FUTURE Scala. Not Future compared to Brain, but past for Xehanort. Like FUTURE Scala, as in future of KH Scala, and he actually jumped THAT far in the future. People posited that the Scala that Brain and BabyNort appear in looks very different than the Scala of Dark Road. I know Damo, amongst others has speculated there is a "Ragnarok" type event that occurs in Scala, due to all the Norse connections. But his assumptions are predicated on Brain getting there first, then BabyNort is taken away from there, 'Ragnarok' happens and then TeenNort returns for Dark Road. What if BabyNort is taken from the future Scala, and taken to Destiny Islands to protect him while he grows, and then he is taken to the past Scala, before 'Ragnarok' actually happens? In that instance, Brain exists in 'future post-apocalypse Scala' and obviously can't be related to Eraqus. It also means my idea of him taking No-Name to Scala and hanging it up to observe the most critical city in the world for all time (or until Xehanort takes it down) as completely fried.
Stepping out of that 'crazy' (is there such a thing in KH theorizing?) line of thinking, if Brain carries the eye with him directly, it wouldn't be there at his destination to help him reform, so to me that would explain the need for the hat to be his medium for return.
Your assumption that there are only seven pods is wrong, simply because there are more than that already in the story. Five were launched into the future, two used by Ephemer and Skuld, one broken in the fight between Lauriam and Maleficent, and one left in the data world. Isn't it safe to assume that since #8 and #9 exists, #10-14 also do, to fill both versions of the machine? And Luxu would know where they are and how to bring them in.
I think that the data pods seem to disappear once used to reach the real world, otherwise where are they? 7 data pods, Maleficent took 1, 1 destroyed, and 4 used by the UX leaders to escape, 1 remains. When we see Ven, Elrena and Laurium in the future, they aren't in pods. Did they get out and leave them behind? Or did the pods simply get sacrificed as a means of travel?
In terms of real pods, Maleficent took 1, 'true dandelion' took one, Ven, Elrena and Laurium took 1. That's 5 pods. Which leaves Brain with the two 'real pods' he sends to the data world. Brain knowing there are 3 left behind, sends 2 pods back (because apparently a data to real world transfer doesn't affect their existence?) because those 2 pods, plus the one there, gets all 3 of them out in theory. We know the Darkness' arrived and ruined those plans. My flaw in the 'Pods disappear' thought of course is that the 2 Brain sends back, both transport Skuld/Ephemer from data town to real world, and then to the future, or in Brain's case, as a vessel for surviving the destruction of Day Break Town. Perhaps a 'real' pod moving from data world to real world isn't destroyed as it doesn't actually travel through time? Maybe this is a plot hole that will never be resolved and we just aren't supposed to think that hard about?
I agree with your explanation for the non-existence of the box, and while I have myself suggested time travel as one possibility for its disappearance (I even tried to turn it into a meme by calling it "the Date Escape Theory"), the idea that it might have been in the fictional world is both new and good. However, I believe it disappeared much later. I think Luxu sent it away to protect it either from whatever crisis caused Scala to be abandoned, or from Xehanort when he took over Radiant Garden. The main reason for this is, the original version of Xigbar's character file has something like "the box that has been protected by Keyblade wielders ever since long, long ago" in it. The line has been left out of the official translation, but it is in various unofficial ones made before the official one was released.
I like the idea of Luxu needing to hide the box and asking Brain to do it for him, to further distance Luxu's ability to find it, in case he ever does fall to Darkness. Which seems to be a distinct possibility he needs to be concerned about considering he is harboring one of the strongest darknesses, and eventually needs to become MX's vessel for darkness and a nobody. He would know better than anyone that Darkness simply cannot be allowed to get hands upon the box. So if he is 'taken' and has any real knowledge of the Box's whereabouts that could be bad.
As to that line that was removed, first off I love it. Second, given that it says 'keyblade wielders....' perhaps it wasn't just one protector? If it was one person standing vigil forever, that would be Luxu, and Xigbar of course would know that. But multiple wielders could be an implication that Luxu's apprentice (assuming it is Brain) would also have protected the box as well.
For secret report 11, there are some questions:
- Who is the virus?
- How does Ven represent the virus?
- What is "the same trick"?
Well the self-described Virus is Brain...
Secret Report 11 - KH3
Observations, Excerpt 1—
I have seen it through; the Keyblade War unfolded exactly as written on the Lost Page. Now, the
Keyblade the
Master entrusted to me must be bequeathed to another. Five Union leaders have been chosen from the surviving Dandelions. I will pass the Keyblade to one of them, and then continue watching the future unfold.
Yet it seems that someone has pulled the old switcheroo.
One of the Five is an imposter, someone the Master did not choose. They represent a virus in the program he so carefully wrote.
The virus has begun a strange undertaking: a reckless plot to allow the
Five to escape into another worldline. Surely such a thing can't be possible? We're talking about the same trick that allowed the Dandelions to transfer to other worldlines after the Keyblade War. But these children are no Masters. They haven't the means...unless, of course, a certain
lady of magic summoned here from the future knows more than I do.
The whole Union leader thing was supposed to be by the books. Are these new events just another phase in the Master's grand plan?
—
Unknown
One of the FIVE is an imposter. Which Five? the original foretellers or the new Union Leaders? Why not both? We always assumed it was the UX leaders. But why can't Luxu be implying the imposter is part of the original 5? MoM calls him a traitor at the end. Perhaps this is because he knows he will ultimately give one of his tasks to someone else, to Brain? That task being protect the box?
Secret Report 12
Observations, Excerpt 2—Even on a worldline with no Keyblade War, peace is but a dream. In the absence of us and our Master, a "darkness" arrived—one that shall surely lead the World to yet another demise.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.But I will continue gazing upon each passing era, one unto the next. In time, be it years or decades, centuries or millennia, I will meet the Five once more.Somewhere in this cyclical history of bequeathings, a chosen one will appear and reenact the Keyblade War. When this scapegoat arrives and takes my Keyblade in hand, that will be the time to take the stage and finish my role.The Lost Masters will awaken.—
Unknown
I say this, because in report 12, Luxu calls them the Five and that the Lost Masters will Awaken. Isn't it possible that he considers the foretellers the Five?
Even re-reading this it seems a stretch for sure. But I do think there is some double talk about which 5 Luxu is referring to in these reports. I just might not have the right angle on it just yet.
I think Ven is simply an imposter, but Brain is the virus that upends the whole thing, by devising the plan to get them out, and by becoming Luxu's apprentice and not following through with the initial idea of passing the blade down person to person for millennia. Simply because he took the blade and time traveled and jumped the line quite a bit....
As for the trick, I don't know that we know what that is yet. The MoM did something to send everyone to Data Daybreak town. I suppose it could have been Ark's en masse. But I'd consider that fairly unlikely. Then again, who knows with Nomura if we will ever get that context....
These are not directly related to the subject, but it seems that some theories can answer them much better than others. I'd like to see your answers before posting my own (and of course others are welcome to contribute as well).
Let's take this as a challenge, can we crack the code?
Agreed. Let's crack this thing.
!!", which then lead to her looking for the Player and going into that building. Now, we have assumed that Ephemer was sent away by Ava to stop him from snooping around, mostly because Ava seemed to know where he was, but this was never confirmed. So, it is in theory possible that Luxu caused his disappearance and therefore the switcheroo.
