KINGDOM HEARTS Union X Finale

[AdrianXXII]

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.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

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.

 

[korr4k]

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.

Mom said there are 7 major Darkness plus 6 minor ones. The 7 major are supposed to be inside MoM, 5 foretellers and Luxu. Among the 6 minor, 1 was with Ventus and later becomes Vanitas I guess, 4 are trapped in the data world and one was probably the one interacting with Luxu/Maleficent? Not sure about it

Skuld is the dark-haired girl found in Radiant Garden that Luxu kidnapped, the Xehanort's mother is similar but doesn't fit Skuld's appearance 100%. Xehanort is implied to be the reincarnation of "Player". The old hooded figure taking him when he was young is yet unknown but my gut is telling me it is old Ephemer, somehow he knew about Player decision to get reincarnated and clung to life, waiting and then watching over him. The last gift to repay his sacrifice and death by his hand

 

[AdrianXXII]

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.

Yeah, I wonder what happens to them to cause such stark changes in their personalities.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

Yeah, I wonder what happens to them to cause such stark changes in their personalities.

Wouldn't it be cool if The Evil Queen influenced Lauriam and Maleficent influenced Elrena? The timeline adds up in the respective Disney world's.

 

[dropp]

There are 14 pods total for the two versions of the machine. At that point, five of them have been launched into the future, one is broken, and three are in the data world. That leaves five of them available for him. We don't know where they are, but Luxu probably did.

Brain didn't use a pod though. Because his memories are still intact.

 

[LoneFox]

Brain didn't use a pod though. Because his memories are still intact.

Same is true for Maleficent, who definitely used one.
It looks like the amnesia was caused by Luxu as he gave them their bodies back. But why would he do that?

 

[Chie]

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.

 

[AdrianXXII]

Same is true for Maleficent, who definitely used one.
It looks like the amnesia was caused by Luxu as he gave them their bodies back. But why would he do that?

Maleficent seemed to have partly forgotten the events of Union X until the events of recoded reminded her, so it could be involved.

We dont even know, if the amneisa is part of the timetraveling process or if its something done outside of it. It'd be interesting if the one that initiates the return of the person can also effect how they return and how much they recall.

Brain seems to be in a similar position to the Foretellers as he seems to remember most things. Now we just need to know if that's true for the others or if he and rhe foretellers used another methode.

 

[korr4k]

Maleficent seemed to have partly forgotten the events of Union X until the events of recoded reminded her, so it could be involved.

We dont even know, if the amneisa is part of the timetraveling process or if its something done outside of it. It'd be interesting if the one that initiates the return of the person can also effect how they return and how much they recall.

Brain seems to be in a similar position to the Foretellers as he seems to remember most things. Now we just need to know if that's true for the others or if he and rhe foretellers used another methode.

The foretellers went to Quadratum with MoM, there is no time travel involved. KH3 finale was already explicit about the fact that it wasn't time travel, they appeared with a portal and said "did you SUMMON as BACK?"

Same is true for Maleficent, who definitely used one.
It looks like the amnesia was caused by Luxu as he gave them their bodies back. But why would he do that?

If you are looking for a reason there is one very simple: for things to go accordingly to MoM's plan nobody should know about the past, especially Xehanort who ended up using Ventus, Lauriam and Skuld

 

[2 quid is good]

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

 

[Chie]

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

You only need one night.

 

[kristi-swat]

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

you need only 30 seconds for that

 

[AdrianXXII]

The foretellers went to Quadratum with MoM, there is no time travel involved. KH3 finale was already explicit about the fact that it wasn't time travel, they appeared with a portal and said "did you SUMMON as BACK?

Well obviously there is some kind of time travel involved, seeing many lifetimes have passed according to Luxu.
Even if it's just a matter of timeflow that caused the timetravel, like with Aqua while in the RoD. But at this point we dont know for certain, what happened with them.

Darkness did in a previous update imply the foretellers were to use the Arcs, but that doesnt seem to be what happened.

While they didnt return in the same way as Maleficent i wouldn't quite rule out they used some method of timetravel.

Honestly at this point they could have time traveled, gone to Unreality, gone into a deep slumber or died and been summoned back from the final world. We know too little about the whole process to know for certain of any of these

 

[NoWay]

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.

 

[korr4k]

Well obviously there is some kind of time travel involved, seeing many lifetimes have passed according to Luxu.
Even if it's just a matter of timeflow that caused the timetravel, like with Aqua while in the RoD. But at this point we dont know for certain, what happened with them.

Darkness did in a previous update imply the foretellers were to use the Arcs, but that doesnt seem to be what happened.

While they didnt return in the same way as Maleficent i wouldn't quite rule out they used some method of timetravel.

Honestly at this point they could have time traveled, gone to Unreality, gone into a deep slumber or died and been summoned back from the final world. We know too little about the whole process to know for certain of any of these

Reality and Unreality should not have the same flow of time. It is possible that Luxu's portals were connected to a certain point of existence in Quadratum and that's it. By that, I mean that for the foretellers it could have passed a couple of seconds and for Luxu centuries

 

[Alexxio M.]

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.

very much true I need clarification on ephemers condition so he can come back to the current timeline. Is he unchained? did he after building scala make a line of descendants to rule scala after he inevitably passes on? Did he get to see brain again? how did he end up giving masters defender to Eraqus and also on that note was he the one to discover the land of departure? Why and how is no name in Odin’s classroom? Who the heck is Sigurd? And how was brains arival planned for? So many questions I can hardly wait for September or better yet whatever the 20th anniversary game is going to be.

 

[KingdomShell]

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.

 

[Clue.Less]

The old hooded figure taking him when he was young is yet unknown but my gut is telling me it is old Ephemer, somehow he knew about Player decision to get reincarnated and clung to life, waiting and then watching over him. The last gift to repay his sacrifice and death by his hand

That's what I thought, too! But that would mean that Ephemer would live a veeeeeeery long time lol

EDIT: Thank you so so so so much @Sign and goldpanner! I had a blast watching those videos today and I'm so grateful for you giving us those English versions when Global failed us :/

EDIT 2: Clueless thoughts :
- Did Lauriam and Elrena wake in the Snow White and Aurora worlds right after Ven went there in BBS?
- The shadow that walks to Ven in the badlands doesn't look like Xehanort, does it?
- How does Luxu lose the box?
- Isn't it awesome that the final boss of the game are Ephemer and Skuld? That's some classic KH goodness. <3 Like fighting Xion and Riku.

 

[Squood!]

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