(SPOILERS) Union X: Cornerstone of the World's Rebirth

[Chaser]

Ava being Subject X is pretty much contrary to all the hints we've received actually, along with that Dandelion Meeting Q&A with Nomura last year April 2018.


Tbh, disregarding Skuld in the equation as to who jumped worldlines, and who's who pretty much makes this interview, the KH3 Secret Reports, as well as the motif parallels with Lea and Isa, contradictory. If she isn't Subject X, then what happened to her?

But that doesn't mean we don't have hints on what happened to Ava. Luxu hinted it by saying that she carried out her mission, and in the Japanese version, he said she totally completed her role. So that could either mean she is working in the background doing her own thing now that's she's free from her role, or she might've vanished just like Sora due to her role.

I tend to avoid theorising about Skuld. Ever since Nomura nixed her from Back Cover (including the one scene she absolutely should have been in) I have no idea what the end game is for her and thus disregard her from the equation.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

Hmm... the Dandelion Union Leaders being trapped in the Data World may be the catalyst as to how Lauriam, Elrena and Ventus were catapulted through time.

I tend to avoid theorising about Skuld. Ever since Nomura nixed her from Back Cover (including the one scene she absolutely should have been in) I have no idea what the end game is for her and thus disregard her from the equation.

Omitting Skuld from X Back Cover may have just been a personal narrative preference for Nomura in the context of that cinematic. That doesn't necesserily disregard her potential importance.

 

[Chaser]

Hmm... the Dandelion Union Leaders being trapped in the Data World may be the catalyst as to how Lauriam, Elrena and Ventus were catapulted through time.



Omitting Skuld from X Back Cover may have just been a personal narrative preference for Nomura in the context of that cinematic. That doesn't necesserily disregard her potential importance.

Of course it doesn’t disregard any potential importance but I’m still left scratching my head and wondering why that decision was made. It certainly doesn’t help with understanding where her character is going and if she’ll tie into things outside of a mobile game.

 

[qbaysan]

I tend to avoid theorising about Skuld. Ever since Nomura nixed her from Back Cover (including the one scene she absolutely should have been in) I have no idea what the end game is for her and thus disregard her from the equation.

Like what Alpha Baymax said. And also gotta remember, Skuld debuted in X just a few months prior to Back Cover's release, meanwhile Ephemera was years prior. Which kinda hints her design was most likely only finalized after Back Cover was done, thus her exclusion from the cutscene movie. Even then, at least they decided to include her in the opening countdown in Back Cover, which mean she wasn't necessarily forgotten or unimportant.

 

[Chaser]

My intention wasn’t to insult any Skuld fans or downplay her character or potential. It’s just that Nomura has made questionable choices with her character, omitting her from Back Cover being the biggest. And ever since the new Dandelion leaders were revealed, to my eyes she went further and further into the background.

For what it’s worth, I’m not shutting her out of being Subject X. Like pointed out before, the evidence suggests that. But like I mentioned earlier, this plot is painfully drip fed to us and Skuld has been thrown aside because of it. I’d say the exact same about Ventus if he wasn’t a character that we already knew about since he’s been thrust aside as well.

It’s just, to me, Ava has more relevance in the current X and post-KH3 storyline. She’s vanished away from the other Foretellers despite last being seen in the same place with them and her sudden resurgence in UX with Brain. It doesn’t matter what Luxu says in that short epilogue, she’s still not with them and that’s significant. It’s also significant that Subject X is missing as well. To me, reviewing this, I’m drawn to Ava being Subject X (especially if the wiki is right and Braig took Subject X away when AtW ordered the release of the prisoners (I’m on a bus so I can’t go in-depth with proper research.)) THAT’S suspicious.

I think all who believe in Skuld and myself who believes in Ava are being played for fools anyways. They’re both female characters in a Nomura game. They’re going to be barely relevant or utilised.

 

[The_Echo]

Like what Alpha Baymax said. And also gotta remember, Skuld debuted in X just a few months prior to Back Cover's release

That may be true for Uχ (I can't remember), but by the time 2.8 had launched in 2017, χ[chi] had already closed down four months prior. For people following that game, Skuld was a long-established character.

 

[qbaysan]

That may be true for Uχ (I can't remember), but by the time 2.8 had launched in 2017, χ[chi] had already closed down four months prior. For people following that game, Skuld was a long-established character.

I was more or less following X[chi] the moment Skuld appeared in that game, so it really hasn't been that long between her original debut and 2.8.

Technically, Skuld appeared in X[chi] March of 2016, not even a year prior to KH2.8's release. In contrast, Ephemera appeared December of 2014. That's 2-2.5 years for Ephemera to be put in the movie, while Skuld probably just had a year prior to release to be thought up for a design, even if her plot points were already ironed out. Gotta remember as well that KH3 was concurrently in development. So if anything, it pretty much points to her design being finalized late already in 2.8's development, thus her exclusion. And remember that 2.8 was actually supposed to be released on the same year, on 2016, until FFXV got delayed. It was disappointing, but it really isn't a surprise if they couldn't make up a 3D model of her in time and pushed her in the movie due to time constraints, and heavy workload.

 

[Squood!]

This is all making me feel like X[chi] would've been better as a console game. That way we wouldn't be trapped in this cycle of waiting for story updates that have to share space with filler updates.

Also, the Master wants to end the war, yet in Back Cover he's fine with letting it continue since there's no use changing the future that's already written.

How can he see into the future with his eye anyway?

Spoiler Show

 

[NoWay]

This is all making me feel like X[chi] would've been better as a console game. That way we wouldn't be trapped in this cycle of waiting for story updates that have to share space with filler updates.

I actually wouldn’t mind waiting for story updates if they released monthly like many mangas do. Or every two months but please do it consistently and not with these filler gaps for like 6 months.

 

[KeybladeOrder]

Going from this and ivaannom's translation, it'd be interesting if it turned out the enemy he's referring to were actually humans, but of the dark realm. Bias against darkness (or both sides having bias against the other) starting the war and having MoM considering them non-human.


I just don't want this to turn out to be "darkness is bad and has always been bad."

I really like this idea. I think it would make sense.

Plus, I feel like the Foretellers believing that "Darkness is always bad" will be a source of conflict between them and the Keyblade Wielders of the present day (Riku, Mickey, etc.)

 

[Hirokey123]

You know I think I finally get the MoM's plan at least somewhat.

Chi was never really about gathering luxu, it was about gathering guilt. The guilt bangles were meant to be his tools of selection by arming the union wielders with the bangles they harvested darkness as they harvested lux. The darkness would taint and corrupt the wielders, going as far as to turn some of them into Darklings, but it would almost mean those particularly resistant to darkness or to the growing dark impulses in their heart would rise up. Essentially Chi was largely one big experiment to make it so Ava could find and gather up a bunch of exceptional wielders to ensure the world would be reborn.

Unchained came next after the wielders were selected they were sent to a world of dreams to restart their training, this would reorient them from the beginning now only the best of the best were training, relearning about lux gathering, reexperiencing basically everything. I imagine the idea is that this also is where the memories got overwritten, like in CoM making them experience slightly different versions of the events to essentially replace their memories bit by bit with new ones.

Union Cross is step three the wielders now siphoned down to only the best, firmly retrained, and their memories of the other worldline suppressed were transferred into at datascape to began gathering lux for real in preparation for their role of rebuilding the lost world albeit most don't know that. The downside to this is that the MoM sealed them all in cage knowing only some will ever manage to escape that cage and return. That's the real reason he wiped their memories, not just so they didn't have the sadness of the war but so they aren't aware they are in prison. They can live the rest of their lives happily and blissfully unaware in this new world...basically he Roxas'd them.

So now jumping to theory territory....

This makes me think now firmly that the black box contains the computer/server that stores the dandelion datascape. The box's purpose was to prevent the computer/server from being destroyed or damaged during the thousands of years that would pass. I also imagine as long as it's shut the datascape remains completely cut off, a prison/protection for light/hope, but once it's open you can access the computer. Meaning you could use it to enter/exit the UX datascape or you could rewrite the program to re-establish a connection so the other wielders could escape. Likewise if the set up is like Coded's computer was then I bet the core is a copy of the book of prophecies and that's why Maleficent wants the box because she wants to steal that copy.

AAAANDD now I think I get what is going on at least slightly with WiR being connected. Even though the UX datascape is programmed to be sealed off from the real world, WiR's datascape probably doesn't have the same limits. Basically using this secondary datascape as a bypass they are flooding that place with heartless because as Coded told us heartless can attack and break through the barrier between the real and digital worlds if they are strong enough. With the end goal being to create strong enough heartless to punch a hole in that barrier and thus create an exit point. But some heartless/the block noise found their way back through the link and started invading Daybreak town causing it to glitch out. Which accidentally pulled back the curtain to reveal the MoM had caged them in a data world.

 

[FudgemintGuardian]

You know I think I finally get the MoM's plan at least somewhat.

Chi was never really about gathering luxu, it was about gathering guilt. The guilt bangles were meant to be his tools of selection by arming the union wielders with the bangles they harvested darkness as they harvested lux. The darkness would taint and corrupt the wielders, going as far as to turn some of them into Darklings, but it would almost mean those particularly resistant to darkness or to the growing dark impulses in their heart would rise up. Essentially Chi was largely one big experiment to make it so Ava could find and gather up a bunch of exceptional wielders to ensure the world would be reborn.

Unchained came next after the wielders were selected they were sent to a world of dreams to restart their training, this would reorient them from the beginning now only the best of the best were training, relearning about lux gathering, reexperiencing basically everything. I imagine the idea is that this also is where the memories got overwritten, like in CoM making them experience slightly different versions of the events to essentially replace their memories bit by bit with new ones.

Union Cross is step three the wielders now siphoned down to only the best, firmly retrained, and their memories of the other worldline suppressed were transferred into at datascape to began gathering lux for real in preparation for their role of rebuilding the lost world albeit most don't know that. The downside to this is that the MoM sealed them all in cage knowing only some will ever manage to escape that cage and return. That's the real reason he wiped their memories, not just so they didn't have the sadness of the war but so they aren't aware they are in prison. They can live the rest of their lives happily and blissfully unaware in this new world...basically he Roxas'd them.

So now jumping to theory territory....

This makes me think now firmly that the black box contains the computer/server that stores the dandelion datascape. The box's purpose was to prevent the computer/server from being destroyed or damaged during the thousands of years that would pass. I also imagine as long as it's shut the datascape remains completely cut off, a prison/protection for light/hope, but once it's open you can access the computer. Meaning you could use it to enter/exit the UX datascape or you could rewrite the program to re-establish a connection so the other wielders could escape. Likewise if the set up is like Coded's computer was then I bet the core is a copy of the book of prophecies and that's why Maleficent wants the box because she wants to steal that copy.

AAAANDD now I think I get what is going on at least slightly with WiR being connected. Even though the UX datascape is programmed to be sealed off from the real world, WiR's datascape probably doesn't have the same limits. Basically using this secondary datascape as a bypass they are flooding that place with heartless because as Coded told us heartless can attack and break through the barrier between the real and digital worlds if they are strong enough. With the end goal being to create strong enough heartless to punch a hole in that barrier and thus create an exit point. But some heartless/the block noise found their way back through the link and started invading Daybreak town causing it to glitch out. Which accidentally pulled back the curtain to reveal the MoM had caged them in a data world.

You did it, man. You figured it out!
Like seriously, I'm 100% positive you hit the nail on the head.

Now Nomura will completely rewrite the plot out of spite. lol

 

[darknessofheart]

You know I think I finally get the MoM's plan at least somewhat.

Chi was never really about gathering luxu, it was about gathering guilt. The guilt bangles were meant to be his tools of selection by arming the union wielders with the bangles they harvested darkness as they harvested lux. The darkness would taint and corrupt the wielders, going as far as to turn some of them into Darklings, but it would almost mean those particularly resistant to darkness or to the growing dark impulses in their heart would rise up. Essentially Chi was largely one big experiment to make it so Ava could find and gather up a bunch of exceptional wielders to ensure the world would be reborn.

Unchained came next after the wielders were selected they were sent to a world of dreams to restart their training, this would reorient them from the beginning now only the best of the best were training, relearning about lux gathering, reexperiencing basically everything. I imagine the idea is that this also is where the memories got overwritten, like in CoM making them experience slightly different versions of the events to essentially replace their memories bit by bit with new ones.

Union Cross is step three the wielders now siphoned down to only the best, firmly retrained, and their memories of the other worldline suppressed were transferred into at datascape to began gathering lux for real in preparation for their role of rebuilding the lost world albeit most don't know that. The downside to this is that the MoM sealed them all in cage knowing only some will ever manage to escape that cage and return. That's the real reason he wiped their memories, not just so they didn't have the sadness of the war but so they aren't aware they are in prison. They can live the rest of their lives happily and blissfully unaware in this new world...basically he Roxas'd them.

So now jumping to theory territory....

This makes me think now firmly that the black box contains the computer/server that stores the dandelion datascape. The box's purpose was to prevent the computer/server from being destroyed or damaged during the thousands of years that would pass. I also imagine as long as it's shut the datascape remains completely cut off, a prison/protection for light/hope, but once it's open you can access the computer. Meaning you could use it to enter/exit the UX datascape or you could rewrite the program to re-establish a connection so the other wielders could escape. Likewise if the set up is like Coded's computer was then I bet the core is a copy of the book of prophecies and that's why Maleficent wants the box because she wants to steal that copy.

AAAANDD now I think I get what is going on at least slightly with WiR being connected. Even though the UX datascape is programmed to be sealed off from the real world, WiR's datascape probably doesn't have the same limits. Basically using this secondary datascape as a bypass they are flooding that place with heartless because as Coded told us heartless can attack and break through the barrier between the real and digital worlds if they are strong enough. With the end goal being to create strong enough heartless to punch a hole in that barrier and thus create an exit point. But some heartless/the block noise found their way back through the link and started invading Daybreak town causing it to glitch out. Which accidentally pulled back the curtain to reveal the MoM had caged them in a data world.

This makes a lot of sense.

I think the MoM's true personality is finally coming to light. If he has truly been part of a past war that has yet to conclude, it would make sense that he has become desensitized to everything, but still wants to fight against the darkness and preserve the world. He's not a bad guy, just something who is willing to manipulate others for a greater good, just not as maliciously as Xehanort.

It seemed at first that he would be the next villain, but now I think he is actually going to be standing against the next villain, which seems to be the primal darkness that has taken different shapes throughout history. He was tired of the fighting and decided to finally place some type of control and peace over things through manipulating the final courses of the war.

I also think there was a reason why we never saw where Sora's chess piece fell on the board in the final scene. It may have been for a cool closing shot, but I think Sora might actually be standing with the foretellers and the MoM, not against them. I think the MoM wanted to recruit others of true strength to stand against the next evil and many of these warriors end up in that realm in the secret ending for the final test.

The real questions I have is 1: How much went according to his plan (the virus and Maleficent all seemed to be hinderances but who knows). 2: And how does Xehanort factor into this? Perhaps the MoM wanted him to succeed because it would mean the world would be reset with a ruler to monitor things, but once that failed, he had to go in another direction. Luxu's reports did make it seem that he wanted Xehanort to succeed.

 

[kingofgame981]

Finally, an update worth waiting for, but still the same confusing like before.

I'm quite excited to hear Master of Masters confirmed the 3 titles of X (X[chi], Unchained, Union Cross) are actual different timeline events in this whole mess, and that it's my first time to see a game title is being used as an in-game timeline.

And then his explanation of the origin of the Keyblade War before his time, very interesting indeed.

Edit: Ah! So his mentioned about the Keyblade War during his own time make sense with what we knew about Keyblade War since KHI. The thousand years past since KHI between Light and Darkness, instead of what we have seen in X[chi] with just over a hundred years-ish. Love this.

 

[Sign]

Edit: Ah! So his mentioned about the Keyblade War during his own time make sense with what we knew about Keyblade War since KHI. The thousand years past since KHI between Light and Darkness, instead of what we have seen in X[chi] with just over a hundred years-ish. Love this.

They actually said chi took place hundreds of years prior to KH1, not one hundred years.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

This is all making me feel like X[chi] would've been better as a console game. That way we wouldn't be trapped in this cycle of waiting for story updates that have to share space with filler updates.

I feel like a console version of X is going to be the next Kingdom Hearts game we recieve. It's cost effective for Square Enix and this entry has far too much narrative importance to be exclusive to a browser/app.

 

[The_Echo]

They actually said chi took place hundreds of years prior to KH1, not one hundred years.

Granted, this is from a Famitsu feature if I remember right, but it says that χ is "100 years or more" before the time Sora obtains the Keyblade.
Far as I know there haven't been any other explicit mentions of the time gap between the age of fairytales and the modern era.

I feel like a console version of X is going to be the next Kingdom Hearts game we recieve. It's cost effective for Square Enix and this entry has far too much narrative importance to be exclusive to a browser/app.

Re:χ is definitely an inevitability, but I don't think it's going to happen until after Uχ's story is finished.

 

[Xagzan]

Could someone please clarify for me, what exactly is the narrative distinction between X, Unchained and Union Cross?

I feel like a console version of X is going to be the next Kingdom Hearts game we recieve. It's cost effective for Square Enix and this entry has far too much narrative importance to be exclusive to a browser/app.

Wonder if the playable characters would be Ephemer and Skuld.

 

[Sakuraba Neku]

I'm not liking how important the data world stuff is becoming, but I'm enjoying everything else.
Gladly surprised the first story update wasn't just MoM and Luxu talking and I'm ready for the other three updates.

 

[NoWay]

I wonder how a console game would be like and how they would implement the whole story from X to Union X. I mean, from a gameplay perspective, it would be really cool because after the first Keyblade War in X, they could implement second visits to the Disney worlds until the second climax from Unchained X before the last story parts from Union X start.

They also already have all the Daybreak Town assets. And imagine experiencing Agrabah in PS4/5 graphics. Oh boy, I want them to release this on current/next gen consoles