(SPOILERS) Union X: The World's End

[Ballad of Caius]

To confirm - is what is in the Black Box probably the medium by which all the foretellers (and the memories of Luxu) were able to use to come back at the current era?

We still don't know what's inside the Black Box. We were only given a clue, but Hirokey speculates that the Foretellers utilized the Lifeboats and ended up appearing in front of Luxu when he retrieves the Box because, since he recovered No Name and that Keyblade acts as a waypoint, that's the waypoint they needed in order to appear in present time KH

 

[Keybladeguy989]

What if its some form of xehanort or xehanort himself luxu is putting into the lifeboat

 

[Sakuraba Neku]

While I'm curious to know what's inside the black box and who MoM is too, the mystery around both has lasted so many years that I'm more interested about the new revelations like what Verum Rex and Quadratum are exactly.

Spoiler Show

Also the missing upperclassmen from Dark Road.

 

[Sign]

JP subs now available! Thanks as always to the magnificent goldpanner for her hard work <3

 

[Chie]

Isn't it so perfect that the virtual Daybreak Town is glitching out and collapsing right before the game's about to be shut down?

There's a lot in this update that I love.

 

[KeybladeLordSora]

What if its some form of xehanort or xehanort himself luxu is putting into the lifeboat

He hasn't even been born yet

 

[Hirokey123]

Honestly the more I read and think about it the more I think Darkness isn't actually the bad guy here. Something that has been bothering me, why does darkness react so strongly with protection? When people want to protect others that's when we tend to see people most easily be consumed by their own darkness. When things fall into sleep the darkness tries to protect them, an entire species of creatures called the dream eaters exists in two forms one to keep sleep going forever the other to protect the sleeper. As said a couple times in this series sleep is often equated to protection, a type of safety where you are alone but shielded from the outside. Even in DDD when Ansem the Wise recounts the hearts that fell into the darkness of Sora's heart he says that some were trapped there but others were welcomed into its warmth. For such a vicious force darkness gets associated with warmth, protection, security, etc....

So now what about Darkness? Well think about the keyblade war according to legend it all began when people of the light grew greedy for kingdom hearts and began to fight over it and then darkness was born in their hearts. The MoM said the original keyblade war was fought between people of the light and beings of darkness which makes it sound like a battle of good and evil, yet according to the legend the entire fight began from greed. So what if darkness is nature's defense mechanism. What if the people of the light were the greedy and evil ones, of which MoM is the last of, and the darkness was born to stop them. What if the original events went something like this...

People of the light greedy for the light fought over kingdom hearts and in the process they shattered the X-blade, the counterpart to kingdom hearts which exists to safeguard it. The blade split into two halves, light and darkness, and further into 7 lights and 13 darknesses. Maybe that's where Darkness first truly came from. The original Darknesses might have been the 13 hearts of darkness that came from the X-blade, and they still retain their desire/purpose to protect kingdom hearts from the greedy people of light. Likewise maybe the 7 lights are also retained a desire to protect but manifested that in a different way, as long as they exist they prevent light from vanishing. In essence it's a two prong defense one keeps light from vanishes the other seeks to take out any who would claim the light for themselves.

We don't know how the war ended up but in the end I think maybe Darkness won, they stopped the light from taking Kingdom Hearts and peace was brought to the world. But the darkness is unbalanced it didn't stop with the war, it continued to infect and spread silently, swallowing and imprisoning all the light it could not for evil but to protect it. So it's a slow growing plague and yes that makes it a negative but in a sense that also means it's the security system. As long as it exists kingdom hearts is lost and the world is on a course for destruction, but at the same time kingdom hearts is out of the reach of those who would abuse it and the 7 pure lights ensure the world will never truly cease to be. It's a broken messed up balance but a balance none the less, one which protects kingdom hearts from greedy people.

Thus the MoM trying to destroy darkness may not be a beneficial thing. On one hand he be taking out this plague that has kept the world in a cycle of destruction but on the other hand if this is nature's way of protecting kingdom hearts then he's removing the obstacles that stopped the people of light from claiming kingdom hearts in the very first war. In other words he might want to destroy the security system not because it's a broken messed up system, but because its still functional enough that it blocks his way to the prize. Darkness may be an antagonistic force but the MoM is the real threat and destroying Darkness would just remove the barricade in his way.

 

[Chie]

Isn't it so perfect that the virtual Daybreak Town is glitching out and collapsing right before the game's about to be shut down?

To elaborate on this a bit, this seems to not just be good timing/themeing but a reflection of the truth of the plot.

It has been said before, and now it has been said again in clearer terms: the entire story of Daybreak Town has been a constructed scenario by the Master of Masters for the characters to follow. A scenario in three parts, named in-universe and out as χ, Union χ and Unchained χ. And now it's time for it to come to a close, inside and out. There is no barrier of separation between the events of the game as written by developers and the events of the game as written by the Master. The mobile game ends. The virtual world ends. Nomura's scenario ends. The Master's scenario ends.

 

[Zettaflare]

He hasn't even been born yet

Not unless it's revealed he was actually from the Chi era who was sent from the past to Destiny Islands. Which I hope isn't the case

 

[Keybladeguy989]

Not unless it's revealed he was actually from the Chi era who was sent from the past to Destiny Islands. Which I hope isn't the case

Yea not sure yet if its been confirmed when or exactly where xehanort was born. If dark road story ends when khux story ends the stories are probably gonna line up at that point

 

[ZeVaine]

I mean I get why the MoM keyblade is HIS medium - but why would it be the medium for any of the other foretellers? I don't imagine they had contact with or any meaningful connection to the MoM's keyblade? Just seems weird.

There should be something in that box that is relevant to each of those foretellers, based on how this has worked so far. Maleficent's coat + someone who remembered her.

 

[LoneFox]

So, there is a lot of speculation in this thread about who goes into which pod. It seems nonsensical to me, because I'm convinced that no one will use any of the pods, other than perhaps the Darkness going to the future in one. Here is why:

First, we have the problem of getting from the data world into the real one. One of the secret reports says about this, "We're talking about the same trick that allowed the Dandelions to transfer to other worldlines after the Keyblade War." This trick cannot be the pods, because the union leaders didn't know what they are for until Maleficent told it to Lauriam. Also, would they leave the regular Dandelions at the mercy of darkness? That's not how these kids work! And then there is Elrena, whose existence in the modern timeline tells us that at least some of the regular Dandelions survived.

How about the time travel? The Master of Masters did explain away one of the problems with using the pods, namely how the time travellers get their bodies back. But the amnesia they are suffering from is still unexplained. Also, there are a lot of clues that Quadratum is somehow involved in this. We know from Melody of Memory that the leaders went there at some point. We know that the Master of Masters travelled to the future in some other way than using the pods (because no pods were missing), the description of his disappearance is quite similar to what happened to Sora, and at the end he is in Quadratum. Luxord being there also suggests a connection between it and the Dandelions, as does the stuff about dreams or visions (the ones seen in DR connect to the leaders, and Riku's ones to Quadratum). I have posted a lot about the evidence of Yozora being Ephemer before. In his character file, Luxu rambles about time going slowly or even stopping. Finally, Sora has been missing for a full year, but it doesn't look like he himself has experienced that much time. The explanation for all this is that time goes very slowly in Quadratum, therefore simply being in there is a way to go to the future of the more normal worlds, and it is also the method the union leaders used.

Then there is this chain of connections, which requires that the pods were not used in UX timeline:
The clock tower is a symbol of determinism and therefore the Master's plan. It being upside down under water means things didn't go as planned. Brain is the virus who derailed the plan, therefore it makes sense that he is also responsible for what happened to the clockwork (and this is something I should have seen much earlier than I did). Brain also has the Book and therefore the power to do such a thing on his own. And now we know his motive: the last pod being used would cause the world to fall into darkness. If the pods are under water, no-one can use them, and the fall doesn't happen.

We can continue this into the modern timeline as well. There, Xehanort has a similar machine, and there is evidence of time travel, such as Eraqus having jumped forward by something like 30-35 years between DR and BBS. Also, Scala ad Caelum got abandoned at some point. So, what if the people there found the machine (perhaps with some help from a black-coated figure) and experimented with it, not knowing about the danger associated with it. Scala fell into darkness, and its inhabitants fled to Radiant Garden. Then Scala got restored with other worlds in the aftermath of KH1, empty like we see it in KH3. This would solve so many mysteries at once!

 

[Xblade13]

I mean I get why the MoM keyblade is HIS medium - but why would it be the medium for any of the other foretellers? I don't imagine they had contact with or any meaningful connection to the MoM's keyblade? Just seems weird.

There should be something in that box that is relevant to each of those foretellers, based on how this has worked so far. Maleficent's coat + someone who remembered her.

Hmm... No Name having one of MoM's literal eyes in it might be the reason. They all received their own keyblades from him and he was their Master. And it would mean the contents of the box could be more exciting still than random effects of the Foretellers. Besides, what would those objects be?

Their clothes/masks? Possibly, but it seems they don't need to retrieve them from the box itself to wear them. Their keyblades? Maybe. Sadly we don't have much else to go with as possibilities besides that...

Unless...

If No Name is not the medium that allows the Foretellers to return, and the box contains said medium(s) needed, it is possible that something else important to the Foretellers could be in the box. Something we know every keyblade wielder in Daybreak Town had, and was unique for each of them, but that we haven't seen from any of the Foretellers themselves.

Their Chirithies.

 

[Alpha Baymax]

Isn't it so perfect that the virtual Daybreak Town is glitching out and collapsing right before the game's about to be shut down?

There's a lot in this update that I love.

Now that you phrase it like that, I suppose it makes the abrupt end of Union Cross all the more intentional.

 

[jacklak]

Honestly the more I read and think about it the more I think Darkness isn't actually the bad guy here. Something that has been bothering me, why does darkness react so strongly with protection? When people want to protect others that's when we tend to see people most easily be consumed by their own darkness. When things fall into sleep the darkness tries to protect them, an entire species of creatures called the dream eaters exists in two forms one to keep sleep going forever the other to protect the sleeper. As said a couple times in this series sleep is often equated to protection, a type of safety where you are alone but shielded from the outside. Even in DDD when Ansem the Wise recounts the hearts that fell into the darkness of Sora's heart he says that some were trapped there but others were welcomed into its warmth. For such a vicious force darkness gets associated with warmth, protection, security, etc....

So now what about Darkness? Well think about the keyblade war according to legend it all began when people of the light grew greedy for kingdom hearts and began to fight over it and then darkness was born in their hearts. The MoM said the original keyblade war was fought between people of the light and beings of darkness which makes it sound like a battle of good and evil, yet according to the legend the entire fight began from greed. So what if darkness is nature's defense mechanism. What if the people of the light were the greedy and evil ones, of which MoM is the last of, and the darkness was born to stop them. What if the original events went something like this...

People of the light greedy for the light fought over kingdom hearts and in the process they shattered the X-blade, the counterpart to kingdom hearts which exists to safeguard it. The blade split into two halves, light and darkness, and further into 7 lights and 13 darknesses. Maybe that's where Darkness first truly came from. The original Darknesses might have been the 13 hearts of darkness that came from the X-blade, and they still retain their desire/purpose to protect kingdom hearts from the greedy people of light. Likewise maybe the 7 lights are also retained a desire to protect but manifested that in a different way, as long as they exist they prevent light from vanishing. In essence it's a two prong defense one keeps light from vanishes the other seeks to take out any who would claim the light for themselves.

We don't know how the war ended up but in the end I think maybe Darkness won, they stopped the light from taking Kingdom Hearts and peace was brought to the world. But the darkness is unbalanced it didn't stop with the war, it continued to infect and spread silently, swallowing and imprisoning all the light it could not for evil but to protect it. So it's a slow growing plague and yes that makes it a negative but in a sense that also means it's the security system. As long as it exists kingdom hearts is lost and the world is on a course for destruction, but at the same time kingdom hearts is out of the reach of those who would abuse it and the 7 pure lights ensure the world will never truly cease to be. It's a broken messed up balance but a balance none the less, one which protects kingdom hearts from greedy people.

Thus the MoM trying to destroy darkness may not be a beneficial thing. On one hand he be taking out this plague that has kept the world in a cycle of destruction but on the other hand if this is nature's way of protecting kingdom hearts then he's removing the obstacles that stopped the people of light from claiming kingdom hearts in the very first war. In other words he might want to destroy the security system not because it's a broken messed up system, but because its still functional enough that it blocks his way to the prize. Darkness may be an antagonistic force but the MoM is the real threat and destroying Darkness would just remove the barricade in his way.

This makes alot of sense and goes along with this other theory i saw somewhere that i really like. So the foretellers are named after the 7 deadly sins, and the one not accounted for is pride...which easily could be the Master. Going along with that idea. Lucifer in the bible had an issue with pride. He believed that he was better than God, and so that led to his rebellion. There are obviously arguments that can be made that MOM is a warrior of light..but so was lucifer. I think the most damaging thing to the MOM of being a good guy is the end of the secret video where he makes the heart hands. In that moment I think it's very clear the MOM has plans that involve Kingdom Hearts. If Kingdom Hearts is "God" in this situation, you could make the argument that the Master wants to surpass that role believing that he is better than KH. So if darkness is a security force, it would need to go to make the path to the prize easier. I just don't see a good guy making the heart hands like that who had good intentions in mind. Side note maybe in order to really harness whatever power the MOM is after HE can't be the one to summon it?

 

[Chie]

The Master is definitely prideful in other ways too: he misleadingly presents himself as the origin of the Keyblades and the beginning of this whole story, and when he does acknowledge the fact that there were other Keyblade wielders before him, he says that he was the only one that matters.

More than Lucifer, I wonder if the Master might be considered a demiurgic figure... that's a pretty huge rabbit hole, actually.

 

[SuperSaiyanSora]

The Master is definitely prideful in other ways too: he misleadingly presents himself as the origin of the Keyblades and the beginning of this whole story, and when he does acknowledge the fact that there were other Keyblade wielders before him, he says that he was the only one that matters.

More than Lucifer, I wonder if the Master might be considered a demiurgic figure... that's a pretty huge rabbit hole, actually.

Yeah, we're sorta lead to believe that the Master of Masters was the original guy who forged Keyblades into existence, until the update where he's talking to Luxu about his past -- where he was fighting with other Keyblade wielders as well. Plus in Back Cover, we clearly see him instigating the Foretellers having a falling out with each other. Then there's him talking with Young Xehanort about the eventual path he's going to take. So it's clear that he's not a purely good guy in all of this. He's taking the "ends justify the means" road, which we all know can absolutely end up destructive. "The road to hell is paved with good intentions", after all.

And if No Name really does have his actual eye, then he's clearly not human, because in no way does that look like a typical human eye.

 

[Violet Pluto]

And if No Name really does have his actual eye, then he's clearly not human, because in no way does that look like a typical human eye.

Newest update sure implies that it's his actual eye, and Darkness says that he "came to this world just to destroy it?" implying that he's also alien to Daybreak Town. He seems to have a friendly (?) relationship with Darkness despite always wearing his darkness warding (leather) cloak. Thinking about KH always leads me back to FF3 for some reason, in which Darkness is not actually evil, and neither is Light but both have caused destruction in each other's realm. MoM seems to want to stave off Darkness in the Realm of Light, but has a very outside perspective of the world where even though he's intimately connected with everything he's also very detached from people and matters in general. He's almost too cool about everything, and it goes beyond just being able to tell some of the future; He says multiple times that he's bored and I can believe him.

Also don't let this distract anyone from the fact that Ven (Pure Light) is striking Pure Darkness right at the end there. It means the chronological first time the X-Blade was forged (to our knowledge) was Ven, meaning not only will he go through this again, but now I have to wonder if Xehanort knew his past.

 

[KeybladeLordSora]

https://twitter.com/i/web/status/1376196622309154817

I love this man

 

[kirabook]

The definition of mad lad?