So this is going to be a bit long, but it's something I've been thinking about for quite some time.
These theories will reference:
There will be spoilers for basically every game, so beware.
So we know that Xemnas and Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, are respectively the Nobody and Heartless of Apprentice Xehanort (Terra-Xehanort), who was, of course, the product of Master Xehanort placing his heart inside of Terra's body and taking over.
While Apprentice Xehanort is amnesiac, it becomes clear that Master Xehanort still has the greater power within, as Apprentice Xehanort's ambitions mimic that of Master Xehanort's, and he pulls out Master Xehanort's keyblade at one point and not Terra's.
We know also, however, that there's another force at play inside of Terra-Xehnaort: Master Eraqus.
It's never fully stated, to the best of my knowledge, what part of Eraqus resides inside of Terra-Xehanort, but I would think it's probably his heart, as we don't see it leave during Eraqus' death in Birth By Sleep.
So let's go with that assumption, that Eraqus' heart resides within Terra-Xehanort, which is what is keeping Xehanort from basically erasing Terra.
That means Terra-Xehanort has three hearts, a situation nearly unique to him.
So we know that Apprentice Xehanort turns his keyblade on himself, which creates Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, from Master Xehanort's heart inside of him, and Xemnas from his body.
Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, shows absolutely no existential crisis-like oddities such as Xemnas does, so it's safe to assume that he's made only from Master Xehanort's heart, and not Terra's or Eraqus'.
So that leads me to the statement of Theory #1: Xemnas has Eraqus and Terra's heart inside of him.
This make him an incredibly complicated Nobody, obviously. This would mean that not only can he use a keyblade, he could likely use two.
The evidence that leads me to believe that he has Terra's heart inside of him rather than just being Terra-Xehanort's Nobody is:
There's little evidence to support Eraqus' heart being inside of him as well, but the evidence that is there is significant:
You might ask, "How could Eraqus' potential influence on Xemnas be the thing that lets him know that, when Aqua reshaped the Land of Departure after he died?"
My response to that is a simple one: Aqua reshaped the Land of Departure using Eraqus' keyblade.Eraqus' own personal keyblade still existing, incidentally, also strengthens the idea that it's Eraqus' heart that was in Terra-Xehanort, as we know Keyblades are tied to hearts.
So Eraqus' keyblade is tied to his heart, which means his heart being in Xemnas would give him knowledge, to a degree, of what his keyblade was used to do. That's a bit of a stretch, but it makes sense to a degree.
TL;DR for Theory #1: Xemnas has Eraqus and Terra's hearts inside of him.
Theory #2
Theory #2 revolves around Ventus, Vanitas, Roxas, Sora, and Xion.
So we know that Roxas can use a keyblade, and that's because of him having Ventus' heart.
We know that having more than one heart allows for the use of more than one keyblade, as Sora could wield only one in KH1 due to Ventus' heart inside of him, and was able to use two in KH2 due to him now being a true keyblade wielder himself.
(Interesting side-note here, this means he had the capability to use two keyblades during most of KH1. Why he didn't, I touch on later.)
But Roxas can use two keyblades, too. It's assumed this is because of Xion's unification with him, but that begs the question: How can Xion use a keyblade?
It's thought that her existence drawing off Sora's memories allows her to do so, but we know that you have to have a keyblade wielder's heart to wield a keyblade, which is why the Riku-Replica didn't use a keyblade.
That means Xion has a heart of her own. But whose heart could she have inside of her? Not Sora's, obviously, because it's inside of him.
The answer is simple, and leads me to the statement of Theory #2: Xion has Vanitas' heart inside of her.This would explain several things:
The reason, in my opinion, why she wouldn't be wholesomely evil like Vanitas, is because she's given life by Sora's memories. His memories make up the basis of her body and personality, and Vanitas' heart gives her the ability to use a keyblade.
So that means that when Xion dies in Roxas' arms, he ends up with Vanitas' heart inside him, too, which allows him the usage of two keyblades.
That, in turn, means that his reunification with Sora means that Sora has three hearts inside of him, his own, Ventus', and Vanitas'.
You might ask, "Why couldn't Sora use two keyblades in KH1 then, if he had Vanitas' heart inside of him?"
Easy. Same reason he doesn't use two in KH1 while he's got Kairi and Ventus' hearts inside him: He doesn't know how to use more than one. Being able to use two keyblades isn't naturally possible, and I'd wager you need to have the knowledge - even if subliminally - of more than one keyblade wielder to be able to summon more than one keyblade. Makes sense, too - Sora gains the ability to use more than one keyblade in KH2, after he's reunified with Roxas, who knew how to use a keyblade. Capability =/= Ability, in my opinion.
(Fun fact, if that actually IS the way it works, then technically, Sora could use three keyblades. Xion knew how to use a keyblade, then Roxas reunified with her, gained the capability to use two with two separate hearts in him, and gained the ability to use two with Xion's knowledge of how to summon a keyblade in him. Sora then reunifies with Roxas, and gains both Ventus and Vanitas' hearts, and thus the capability to wield three, and the ability to do so due to Roxas and Xion's knowledge of how to summon a keyblade. Kind of hard though, in my opinion, to wield three keyblades unless you control a third with telekinesis or grow a third arm.)
It would also mean that Oathkeeper and Oblivion being Roxas' keyblades when he dual-wields is symbolic, too. Ventus' heart gives him the ability to use Oathkeeper, which mimics Ventus' personality, and Vanitas' heart gives him the ability to use Oblivion, which mimics Vanitas' personality.
TL;DR for Theory #2: Xion had Vanitas' heart inside of her.
So basically, we've seen two Lingering Will-type beings in Kingdom Hearts: The Lingering Will itself, and Vanitas' Remnant.
I'd wager that there's at least one more of this kind of being out there.
So before I get into that, I want to note that these two beings were created under extreme circumstances. Terra had his body forcibly taken over by Master Xehanort (thus resulting in the creation of Terra-Xehanort and the Lingering Will), and Ventus had his body forcibly taken over by Vanitas (thus resulting in the creation of Ventus-Vanitas and Vanitas' Remnant.)
Now you might ask, "Why would it be Vanitas' Remnant then, and not Ventus'?"
Well that is a bit tricky to explain, but let me do my best. Vanitas is, for all intents and purposes, Ventus. He's Dark Ventus, essentially.
That means that Vanitas' Remnant is both Vanitas and Ventus' Lingering Will.
So Ventus and Vanitas reunify, and because Vanitas was Ventus, it just happened to be that their Lingering Will took on the appearance of Vanitas' armor instead of Ventus' (though notably colored differently.)
So we've seen Ventus and Terra get possessed. But wait, there's one more significant instance of a main character being possessed: Riku.
Riku was possessed by Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. This leads me to the statement of Theory #3: Riku has a Lingering Will.
Riku opened his heart to darkness, yeah, but I don't think he that meant he direct invited Ansem to take over his body. So that gives us the same situation as Ventus and Terra: Riku has his body forcibly taken over by Ansem (thus resulting in the creation of Riku-Ansem, and likely Riku's Lingering Will.)
I can't try and say anyone we've seen/fought is a potential Riku Lingering Will, but that doesn't mean it's not possibly there. If it does exist, it'd be on Radiant Garden.
(It's interesting to note that if this turns out to be true, then Riku would have had his Lingering Will created through a forced possession of his body done by the heart of Master Xehanort, who as we all know forcibly took over Terra, who made Riku his successor. That would mean that both Terra and Riku's Lingering Wills were products of possession by Xehanort.)
TL;DR for Theory #3: Riku has a Lingering Will.
We know we fought Ventus at the end of Dream Drop Distance, right? Well, kind of.
We fought the Armored Ventus Nightmare. Ventus' heart shielded Sora's by producing it's armor, which was then taken over by the darkness in Sora's heart and forced to fight Riku.
But what if this wasn't Sora's natural darkness that took over the armor? We know Vanitas exists inside of Sora, because he appears to Sora at one point during Dream Drop Distance. Then Riku fights the Anti Black Coat at one point, which is highly suspected to be Vanitas, and then it disappears.
This is the shortest one as the evidence is already above, so my statement and TL;DR for Theory #4 is: Vanitas is the darkness controlling Ventus' armor in Dream Drop Distance.
So this draws off of Theory #4. If Theory #4 is correct, and Vanitas was the darkness controlling Ventus' armor, this means that there's been another clash between a heart of pure darkness and a heart of pure light.
This leads me to half of the statement of Theory #5: The X-Blade has already been created once more.
You might ask why the armor doesn't wield it then, which I'd wager is because the clash happened from the inside only, and not from the outside and inside like it did with Ventus and Vanitas fighting in Birth By Sleep.
It doesn't show up in Yen Sid's Tower near Sora, I'd personally say, because it's connected to Kingdom Hearts - The true Kingdom Hearts - Which we've only ever seen in the Keyblade Graveyard. Sure, this could be because the X-Blade was created there, but there's more reason for Kingdom Hearts to be in one place than just anywhere, and considering the Keyblade War was fought mostly in one area, which became the Keyblade Graveyard, that suggests that's where Kingdom Hearts originally was.
So that leads me to the other half of the statement of Theory #5: The X-Blade is waiting in the Keyblade Graveyard.
TL;DR for Theory #5: The X-Blade was created again at the end of Dream Drop Distance, and it's laying in wait at the Keyblade Graveyard.
These theories will reference:
- Xemnas
- Ventus
- Eraqus
- Terra
- Xion
- Roxas
- Xehanort
- Sora
- Apprentice Xehanort / Terra-Xehanort
- Ansem, Seeker of Darkness
- Vanitas
- Vanitas' Remnant
- The Lingering Will
- Riku
- Kairi
- Aqua
- The Anti Black Coat
- The Armored Ventus Nightmare
There will be spoilers for basically every game, so beware.
Theory #1
Theory #1 revolves around Terra, Xehanort, Eraqus, Ansem (Seeker of Darkness), and Xemnas.
So we know that Xemnas and Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, are respectively the Nobody and Heartless of Apprentice Xehanort (Terra-Xehanort), who was, of course, the product of Master Xehanort placing his heart inside of Terra's body and taking over.
While Apprentice Xehanort is amnesiac, it becomes clear that Master Xehanort still has the greater power within, as Apprentice Xehanort's ambitions mimic that of Master Xehanort's, and he pulls out Master Xehanort's keyblade at one point and not Terra's.
We know also, however, that there's another force at play inside of Terra-Xehnaort: Master Eraqus.
It's never fully stated, to the best of my knowledge, what part of Eraqus resides inside of Terra-Xehanort, but I would think it's probably his heart, as we don't see it leave during Eraqus' death in Birth By Sleep.
So let's go with that assumption, that Eraqus' heart resides within Terra-Xehanort, which is what is keeping Xehanort from basically erasing Terra.
That means Terra-Xehanort has three hearts, a situation nearly unique to him.
So we know that Apprentice Xehanort turns his keyblade on himself, which creates Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, from Master Xehanort's heart inside of him, and Xemnas from his body.
Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, shows absolutely no existential crisis-like oddities such as Xemnas does, so it's safe to assume that he's made only from Master Xehanort's heart, and not Terra's or Eraqus'.
So that leads me to the statement of Theory #1: Xemnas has Eraqus and Terra's heart inside of him.
This make him an incredibly complicated Nobody, obviously. This would mean that not only can he use a keyblade, he could likely use two.
The evidence that leads me to believe that he has Terra's heart inside of him rather than just being Terra-Xehanort's Nobody is:
- We never see a potential Terra's Heartless.
- We know Xemnas felt a pull of friendship, which leads him to visit the Chamber of Repose to talk to Aqua's armor, and strongly wants to find his "other friend" in Castle Oblivion - Ventus, obviously. You need a heart to feel emotion, and friendship is an emotion, so he could definitely have Terra's heart as well as body.
There's little evidence to support Eraqus' heart being inside of him as well, but the evidence that is there is significant:
- Xemnas knows Aqua's keyblade armor. Like I said earlier, that could Terra's influence on him, but it could be because of Terra and Eraqus' influence on him.
- He speaks in the same style that Master Eraqus does - Calm at most times, commanding, strong. Terra wasn't known to speak like that.
- And the most significant piece of evidence is this: Xemnas knew, to a small degree, the layout of Castle Oblivion enough to know that the Chamber of Waking existed.
You might ask, "How could Eraqus' potential influence on Xemnas be the thing that lets him know that, when Aqua reshaped the Land of Departure after he died?"
My response to that is a simple one: Aqua reshaped the Land of Departure using Eraqus' keyblade.Eraqus' own personal keyblade still existing, incidentally, also strengthens the idea that it's Eraqus' heart that was in Terra-Xehanort, as we know Keyblades are tied to hearts.
So Eraqus' keyblade is tied to his heart, which means his heart being in Xemnas would give him knowledge, to a degree, of what his keyblade was used to do. That's a bit of a stretch, but it makes sense to a degree.
TL;DR for Theory #1: Xemnas has Eraqus and Terra's hearts inside of him.
Theory #2
So we know that Roxas can use a keyblade, and that's because of him having Ventus' heart.
We know that having more than one heart allows for the use of more than one keyblade, as Sora could wield only one in KH1 due to Ventus' heart inside of him, and was able to use two in KH2 due to him now being a true keyblade wielder himself.
(Interesting side-note here, this means he had the capability to use two keyblades during most of KH1. Why he didn't, I touch on later.)
But Roxas can use two keyblades, too. It's assumed this is because of Xion's unification with him, but that begs the question: How can Xion use a keyblade?
It's thought that her existence drawing off Sora's memories allows her to do so, but we know that you have to have a keyblade wielder's heart to wield a keyblade, which is why the Riku-Replica didn't use a keyblade.
That means Xion has a heart of her own. But whose heart could she have inside of her? Not Sora's, obviously, because it's inside of him.
The answer is simple, and leads me to the statement of Theory #2: Xion has Vanitas' heart inside of her.This would explain several things:
- Her ability to use a keyblade.
- Her having black hair when seen by Roxas (Vanitas had black hair, and Roxas has Ventus' heart in him, so it'd probably be the influence of Ventus' heart in Roxas that gives her similar looks to Vanitas.)
- Her monster appearances at the end of 358/2 Days looking similar to an Unversed.
The reason, in my opinion, why she wouldn't be wholesomely evil like Vanitas, is because she's given life by Sora's memories. His memories make up the basis of her body and personality, and Vanitas' heart gives her the ability to use a keyblade.
So that means that when Xion dies in Roxas' arms, he ends up with Vanitas' heart inside him, too, which allows him the usage of two keyblades.
That, in turn, means that his reunification with Sora means that Sora has three hearts inside of him, his own, Ventus', and Vanitas'.
You might ask, "Why couldn't Sora use two keyblades in KH1 then, if he had Vanitas' heart inside of him?"
Easy. Same reason he doesn't use two in KH1 while he's got Kairi and Ventus' hearts inside him: He doesn't know how to use more than one. Being able to use two keyblades isn't naturally possible, and I'd wager you need to have the knowledge - even if subliminally - of more than one keyblade wielder to be able to summon more than one keyblade. Makes sense, too - Sora gains the ability to use more than one keyblade in KH2, after he's reunified with Roxas, who knew how to use a keyblade. Capability =/= Ability, in my opinion.
(Fun fact, if that actually IS the way it works, then technically, Sora could use three keyblades. Xion knew how to use a keyblade, then Roxas reunified with her, gained the capability to use two with two separate hearts in him, and gained the ability to use two with Xion's knowledge of how to summon a keyblade in him. Sora then reunifies with Roxas, and gains both Ventus and Vanitas' hearts, and thus the capability to wield three, and the ability to do so due to Roxas and Xion's knowledge of how to summon a keyblade. Kind of hard though, in my opinion, to wield three keyblades unless you control a third with telekinesis or grow a third arm.)
It would also mean that Oathkeeper and Oblivion being Roxas' keyblades when he dual-wields is symbolic, too. Ventus' heart gives him the ability to use Oathkeeper, which mimics Ventus' personality, and Vanitas' heart gives him the ability to use Oblivion, which mimics Vanitas' personality.
TL;DR for Theory #2: Xion had Vanitas' heart inside of her.
Theory #3
This theory revolves around a bunch of people, it'd be a long list.
So basically, we've seen two Lingering Will-type beings in Kingdom Hearts: The Lingering Will itself, and Vanitas' Remnant.
I'd wager that there's at least one more of this kind of being out there.
So before I get into that, I want to note that these two beings were created under extreme circumstances. Terra had his body forcibly taken over by Master Xehanort (thus resulting in the creation of Terra-Xehanort and the Lingering Will), and Ventus had his body forcibly taken over by Vanitas (thus resulting in the creation of Ventus-Vanitas and Vanitas' Remnant.)
Now you might ask, "Why would it be Vanitas' Remnant then, and not Ventus'?"
Well that is a bit tricky to explain, but let me do my best. Vanitas is, for all intents and purposes, Ventus. He's Dark Ventus, essentially.
That means that Vanitas' Remnant is both Vanitas and Ventus' Lingering Will.
So Ventus and Vanitas reunify, and because Vanitas was Ventus, it just happened to be that their Lingering Will took on the appearance of Vanitas' armor instead of Ventus' (though notably colored differently.)
So we've seen Ventus and Terra get possessed. But wait, there's one more significant instance of a main character being possessed: Riku.
Riku was possessed by Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. This leads me to the statement of Theory #3: Riku has a Lingering Will.
Riku opened his heart to darkness, yeah, but I don't think he that meant he direct invited Ansem to take over his body. So that gives us the same situation as Ventus and Terra: Riku has his body forcibly taken over by Ansem (thus resulting in the creation of Riku-Ansem, and likely Riku's Lingering Will.)
I can't try and say anyone we've seen/fought is a potential Riku Lingering Will, but that doesn't mean it's not possibly there. If it does exist, it'd be on Radiant Garden.
(It's interesting to note that if this turns out to be true, then Riku would have had his Lingering Will created through a forced possession of his body done by the heart of Master Xehanort, who as we all know forcibly took over Terra, who made Riku his successor. That would mean that both Terra and Riku's Lingering Wills were products of possession by Xehanort.)
TL;DR for Theory #3: Riku has a Lingering Will.
Theory #4
Theory #4 revolves around Ventus, Sora, and Vanitas.
We know we fought Ventus at the end of Dream Drop Distance, right? Well, kind of.
We fought the Armored Ventus Nightmare. Ventus' heart shielded Sora's by producing it's armor, which was then taken over by the darkness in Sora's heart and forced to fight Riku.
But what if this wasn't Sora's natural darkness that took over the armor? We know Vanitas exists inside of Sora, because he appears to Sora at one point during Dream Drop Distance. Then Riku fights the Anti Black Coat at one point, which is highly suspected to be Vanitas, and then it disappears.
This is the shortest one as the evidence is already above, so my statement and TL;DR for Theory #4 is: Vanitas is the darkness controlling Ventus' armor in Dream Drop Distance.
Theory #5
Theory #5 revolves around Ventus, Sora, and Vanitas again.
So this draws off of Theory #4. If Theory #4 is correct, and Vanitas was the darkness controlling Ventus' armor, this means that there's been another clash between a heart of pure darkness and a heart of pure light.
This leads me to half of the statement of Theory #5: The X-Blade has already been created once more.
You might ask why the armor doesn't wield it then, which I'd wager is because the clash happened from the inside only, and not from the outside and inside like it did with Ventus and Vanitas fighting in Birth By Sleep.
It doesn't show up in Yen Sid's Tower near Sora, I'd personally say, because it's connected to Kingdom Hearts - The true Kingdom Hearts - Which we've only ever seen in the Keyblade Graveyard. Sure, this could be because the X-Blade was created there, but there's more reason for Kingdom Hearts to be in one place than just anywhere, and considering the Keyblade War was fought mostly in one area, which became the Keyblade Graveyard, that suggests that's where Kingdom Hearts originally was.
So that leads me to the other half of the statement of Theory #5: The X-Blade is waiting in the Keyblade Graveyard.
TL;DR for Theory #5: The X-Blade was created again at the end of Dream Drop Distance, and it's laying in wait at the Keyblade Graveyard.
Closing Notes
This is all my opinion. Some of this could be true, all of it could be true, or none of it could be true. #5 is the most unlikely in my personal opinion, due to Master Xehanort's reasons for gathering 13 Darknesses to fight 7 Lights.
I say One (or several) Theories because in my opinion, most of these are directly connected.
We'll find out the last major bits of information about Xehanort-related stuff next year, though!
This is all my opinion. Some of this could be true, all of it could be true, or none of it could be true. #5 is the most unlikely in my personal opinion, due to Master Xehanort's reasons for gathering 13 Darknesses to fight 7 Lights.
I say One (or several) Theories because in my opinion, most of these are directly connected.
We'll find out the last major bits of information about Xehanort-related stuff next year, though!
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