Dark Road ► Should we consider Kid Xehanort and Young Xehanort separate characters?

[RonaldPoe]

Hi, I've been playing Dark Road and noticed something. Should we consider Kid Xehanort (Xehanort's Dark Road incarnation) a seperate character from Young Xehanort (the KH villain)? They're a lot less similar than you'd think.

Kid Xehanort is shorter than Young Xehanort but also more muscular looking. YX (AKA Young Xehanort) is a lot colder, snarky, and villainous than KX (that's what I'm calling Kid Xehanort). KX seems like a decent kid and unlike the other incarnations of Xehanort, seems to believe in the power of friendship and doesn't seem to obsess over darkness. In fact Eraqus seems more rebellious than KX (it's the opposite of their adult selves).

Also has the connection between Player X (the protagonist of KH Chi/Union X) and Xehanort been debunked? There were quite a few rumors about them being one in the same. Do people still believe that? Like I said before Kid Xehanort and Player X don't look very similar (at least the latter's default look).

Finally kinda disappointed that Dark Road and Union X share a version of "Dearly Beloved". It would've been cool to have a dark and ominous version of "Dearly Beloved" play at the menu or better yet "Destati" (based on the various versions) in the style of "Dearly Beloved". Just a small nitpick and probably something to be ignored (just me obsessing over music again).

What do you guys think?

 

[Rainclouds]

Young Xehanort is from a time before he got a keyblade of his own, isn't he?

Thus, he's younger than Dark Road Xehanort. They just have differences in appearance.

 

[Sign]

Young Xehanort is from a time before he got a keyblade of his own, isn't he?

Thus, he's younger than Dark Road Xehanort. They just have differences in appearance.

I feel like they retconned it and are now refusing to acknowledge the inconsistencies after KH3 introduced an even younger iteration in Kid Xehanort lol

DR has Kid Xehanort meeting Ansem on Destiny Islands, and then Young Xehanort is shown in the 4-year flashforward at the end of Chapters 1 and 2.

Also has the connection between Player X (the protagonist of KH Chi/Union X) and Xehanort been debunked? There were quite a few rumors about them being one in the same. Do people still believe that? Like I said before Kid Xehanort and Player X don't look very similar (at least the latter's default look).

I guess there's still room for speculation, but it's no longer as simple as just two characters being connected. Chapter 2 included a scene in which Xehanort gets a vision of a conversation that Player was not even present for, so whatever ties he may have with this era are more complicated than we first thought.

 

[Zettaflare]

Before the conversation Sign mentioned I thought Xehanort might have been a reincarnation of the player. Or a direct descendant like Eraqus.

 

[Vulpes XIII]

I don’t think we should consider them different characters.Even though it feels a bit weird giving how different they are, however as of recently this seems like this is becoming a recurring situation with quite a few characters at the moment.

 

[Sign]

I don’t think we should consider them different characters.Even though it feels a bit weird giving how different they are, however as of recently this seems like this is becoming a recurring situation with quite a few characters at the moment.

I think the case for this is that Kid Xehanort has been treated rather curiously since he was introduced. Outside of DR, he's not even referred to by name, but as the "Boy in Black". Even though this is all the same person, the games seem to distance him from the rest of Xehanort's iterations.

 

[Vulpes XIII]

I think the case for this is that Kid Xehanort has been treated rather curiously since he was introduced. Outside of DR, he's not even referred to by name, but as the "Boy in Black". Even though this is all the same person, the games seem to distance him from the rest of Xehanort's iterations.

I’ll admit it is a bit weird how they are treating him with the “Boy in Black” description instead of just using his name. However in my opinion I still think It’s unnecessary to treat them as different characters as it doesn’t seem any big events have happened so far to make them different from each other unlike other characters in the series for example data, nobody and heartless version of characters.

Also the whole fact that the game concept didn’t come from Nomura but the Union x team who just kind of wanted to make the game just for fun and I think one of the more recent interview suggested that he not really planning to use any of the characters outside of Dark Road which makes me think Nomura might not even care enough to view the character as different characters and only see him as the same Xehanort who is younger and seems nicer.

I don’t mind if other people want to refer to them as two different characters, I’m just not planning to consider them different at least for now, maybe at some point in the future if the plot gives me a reason too. I’m definitely not ruling anything out though, after all Nomura wanted to tell his backstory and Union x itself was meant to have no affect on the plot, honestly who knows what Nomura planning at this point.

 

[Sign]

I’ll admit it is a bit weird how they are treating him with the “Boy in Black” description instead of just using his name. However in my opinion I still think It’s unnecessary to treat them as different characters as it doesn’t seem any big events have happened so far to make them different from each other unlike other characters in the series for example data, nobody and heartless version of characters.

Also the whole fact that the game concept didn’t come from Nomura but the Union x team who just kind of wanted to make the game just for fun and I think one of the more recent interview suggested that he not really planning to use any of the characters outside of Dark Road which makes me think Nomura might not even care enough to view the character as different characters and only see him as the same Xehanort who is younger and seems nicer.

I don’t mind if other people want to refer to them as two different characters, I’m just not planning to consider them different at least for now, maybe at some point in the future if the plot gives me a reason too. I’m definitely not ruling anything out though, after all Nomura wanted to tell his backstory and Union x itself was meant to have no affect on the plot, honestly who knows what Nomura planning at this point.

I think you're too fixated on him being officially regarded as two separate people. Or at least, that's not the takeaway I got from OP's proposal.

This is one person whose youngest iteration is being utilized in a noticeably different role from his other counterparts. The exact purpose for that would certainly warrant some discussion imo.

 

[Vulpes XIII]

I think you're too fixated on him being officially regarded as two separate people. Or at least, that's not the takeaway I got from OP's proposal.

This is one person whose youngest iteration is being utilized in a noticeably different role from his other counterparts. The exact purpose for that would certainly warrant some discussion imo.

Honestly the way I perceived the question when I first read it was simply that the OP was saying that although there both Xehanort at two different stages of their life there personality are drastically different especially since one viewpoint of the world seems to be more focusing on the light while the other one is evil and is more aligned with the darkness,as well as looking slightly different from each other and one with a strange connection to the chi era, do people think there a different or not? Whether my mind understood the question in the way it was intended or not is debatable and it seems we both perceived the question in different ways from each other and I technically don’t believe we’re going to agree on this which is fine. As at this moment of time given the information we have story wise I’m still not planning to treat them as different characters, it still possible my opinion may change in the future though. I look at this situation with these two versions of Xehanort similar to KH2 and Chain of memories Axel. Both are the same character but have different goals and appear to be quite different personality wise one being a assassin who has no problem betraying people and will do anything to achieve his goals no matter how horrible. The other being a guy who just wants to keep his friends together as there the only thing he cares about even if he might not of dealt with the situation in the best way possible.

Honestly I think it probably best to agree to disagree on this subject as I think our opinion on what the question is actually asking is way too different from each other.

 

[ChaosStark]

This is an interesting question. For me, I think about how change occurs in people over time- not just to characters, but to real people. As an example, I'm still technically the same person I was years ago- same body, same name, and I've got the memories from my past. At the same time, I'm not the same person I was 10 years ago, or even one year ago- I've learned and grown a lot since then. If the younger versions of me came face-to-face with the current version of me, we'd all be different people. Still, those younger versions are still a part of me- what happened to them is what helped to shape who I am today.

That said, I do consider kid (DR) Xehanort to be a different character from Young Xehanort in this regard. They're technically the same character, yes- Young Xehanort would have memories from his time as DR Xehanort, they have the same name, and (probably) the same body. In terms of growth, experience, and mindset, though, they are completely different people. Eventually we will see how DR Xehanort becomes Young Xehanort, as that seems to be what Dark Road is about. Whatever he experiences during the time that the game takes place in is what will set him on the course to becoming his future self. DR Xehanort still exists in Young Xehanort, but he's not all of YX. He's missing some pieces that Young Xehanort has acquired and holds some extra ones- viewpoints and connections- that YX has abandoned.

In conclusion... DR Xehanort and Young Xehanort are the same character as much as any of us are the same people as we were in the past. I suppose whether you decided to differentiate them would depend on what you think is most important in defining separate characters- the physical and technical aspects, or their experiences, personalities, and mindsets.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

Depends, if you see KH1 Sora/Riku and KH2 Sora/Riku as different characters then I suppose you could make a similar argument for Kid Xehanort and Young Xehanort.