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THEORY: Blood Bonds: The End of the World (and Union χ)



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The_Echo

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The recent story update's got my noggin joggin' and late last night I think I hit the jackpot.
I want to answer just a few questions in this theory:

Who is Darkness?
Who killed Strelitzia?
Why does Ventus harbor such a strong darkness as Vanitas?
Where is the χ-blade?
What do the Union Leaders' names really mean?

Let's tackle that last one first:
Ventus, as we're all aware, means "wind" in Latin.
Ephemera is an English word meaning "things that exist or are used or enjoyed for only a short time."
Skuld is Old Norse for "debt" or "future," coming from one of the three Norn who are said to decide the fates of people.
Lauriam is of course the anagram of Marluxia without the X.
And Blaine traces back to the Gaelic word blá, meaning "yellow."
This theory will incorporate all of the above, save for Lauriam which kind of has no real narrative purpose.

Next, I want to bring us all back a ways to the Rebirth theory. The idea was that the matching color schemes between the Foretellers and our main heroes in the present signified a link between the two, interpreted as a cycle of reincarnation.
I'm going to use the same color scheme starting point, but steer in a very different direction.

And it's all about Gula.
Since Ventus originates in the age of fairytales, Rebirth is well and truly out of the question. But, that doesn't mean there can't be a connection between these characters.
I posit that Gula is Ven's older brother. There isn't any hard evidence, but I'm going somewhere with this, trust.

Gula at the end of χ[chi] becomes disenfranchised, but upon meeting him in the War, seems much more high-spirited, while also being careful not to get "sketchy." After fighting him, he bids the Player farewell, specifically saying "Well, maybe we'll meet again somewhere." Gula implies here that he intends to survive the War.
What could have brought this change in him?
Well, perhaps a certain newly-appointed Union Leader stumbled into his dark storehouse, and he saw an opportunity.

Oh yes. Gula killed Strelitzia, and took her rulebook to pose as a Union Leader. But who?
Blaine. Yellow. SENA will never take this name from me.
One of the first things Blaine does is produce his rulebook, an attempt to establish his legitimacy before anything else. Then, he follows up by likening Skuld to Ava, something Gula had said once before.
These are big hints, especially the thing about Ava. She was the easiest Foreteller to talk to as she told Ephemera, but how many wielders would actually know her that well? Ventus says earlier, "I never really spoke with Lady Ava much either. I don't actually know what she was like."

But why is he doing this?
What did Gula want in χ Back Cover, a goal he wanted to meet regardless of the means?
To summon Kingdom Hearts. To force the Master to come back.
Upon returning to the Foretellers' study, Blaine(Gula) makes a beeline for the Book of Prophecies, presumably the Master's copy which contained information not found in the others'.
From this, he quickly discovers and recommends the use of Dream Eaters, to snuff out the tragedies of before (conveniently erasing his crime in the process).
But what else can Blaine find in the Book?
Let's run it back to this interview shortly after 2.8 came out. "The Master is aware about [the χ-blade's] existence."
It stands to reason that somewhere inside the Master's Book is a passage describing the χ-blade.

I imagine Blaine found this passage, and subsequently endeavors to forge the χ-blade to summon Kingdom Hearts.
Do you remember how Xehanort thought he could forge the χ-blade using two components (equal halves light and darkness)? Well that certainly didn't come from nowhere, and it would have worked had Ventus and Aqua not fought so hard to stop it.
I think Gula will attempt the same recipe, and poor Ventus is once again the requisite Light.
Which makes Gula... the Darkness.

I believe the union will be completed this time, and it will be up to Ephemera, Skuld, Lauriam, Elrena and Player to put a stop to Gula's madness.
This clash with shatter the χ-blade, tear the World asunder, likely kill both Player and Ephemera, and leave Lauriam and Elrena heavily injured and their memories wiped.
(This is why Ven is "scared to death" by just the thought of the χ-blade in BbS, despite not even knowing what it is.)
Skuld and Ventus will take on the responsibility of repairing as much of the World as they can, but as the future becomes unclear, Ventus will volunteer to enter the Realm of Sleep with the Dandelions to protect them for the future, though this will ultimately lead to Ven's own memories disappearing (likely because of Dream Eaters).
Gula, meanwhile, is stuck inside of Ventus, a festering and terrifyingly strong darkness that an old Master will eventually recognize and release.
In Kingdom Hearts III he'll regain his memories and once again call Ventus his "brother."

Anyway that was me piecing together a lot of admittedly disparate elements and clues.
But I think it checks out for the most part.

Hopefully I don't look dumb a month from now.
 

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You’re saying that Vanitas is Gula? I’m slightly confused ;-;
 

The_Echo

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You’re saying that Vanitas is Gula? I’m slightly confused ;-;
Yeah, basically.
Which means the people who think Ventus is the killer would be half-right, I guess.
 

Hirokey123

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This is an interesting theory but I think the story may already be moving away from it. It feels like it's a huge coincidence we have a bunch of characters from modern day in the past, and then a random person working for the MoM comes and tells Maleficent there IS a way to travel forward in time. So I propose a semi-counter theory...

The MoM didn't care if Maleficent changed time, or rather he knew she couldn't because he already had plans for her. He set up the trap for her because he wanted her to come back into the past, he needs her here for a critical reason. So that she will utilize the method to move forward in time and in the process Ventus, Lauriam, and Elrena are will get dragged with her. Maleficent is a pawn to move these three into the present day, Gula/Brain also figures into this.

In fact I think with the latest update we may start to piece together the MoM's plan. Strelitzia was sadly chosen for the list because he needed her to "die" and he needed the book to be put into place. Strelitzia was connected to the player, Lauriam, and Elrena so she is the perfect piece to move them all into position. His sister missing Lauriam would begin asking for help searching and that's how Elrena gets involved, beginning their very long relationship together. Elrena had the knowledge of the meeting between Skuld, Player, and Gula thanks to her Chirithy and that's what prompts Lauriam to go talk to Skuld, which in turn is why now all the leaders are now involved thanks to Ephemer realizing the player is the mystery person. Meanwhile Elrena is off searching and is almost guaranteed by narrative law to find some overlooked clue which will prompt her to seek out Lauriam in order to report what she has learned. In short all the pieces are about to converge with the player at the epicenter of this, and once they are all in place that's when Maleficent will get involved. She'll use the method to move forward in time but Ventus, Lauriam, and Elrena will be caught up in all this and thrust forward in time.

Brain is probably Gula and it's easy to see how he has sort of played into all this. He murders Strelitzia setting all the events in motion, he is the one who puts the clues together that enables Ephemera to figure out the player is involved in this, he likely left a clue to his identity that Elrena finds and causes her to seek out Lauriam, he's the one who got them to create Dream Eaters as a suggestion for their first task, and I'd bet anything he's also the one the MoM intended to have the book of prophecies. It make perfect sense why there is only one among the new leaders who can be trusted with the book, because only one of them was trained its use and understands its dangers, Gula. Strelitzia was probably the one MoM circled to have the book be given to, so that's when Gula killed her and took his place HE be the one who end up in possession of the book. Which you know explains why Brain beelined for book in the first place and has been all over the thing.

I think Maleficent is basically intended to cause a tragedy. Elrena, Lauriam, and Ventus are all going to be cast into the future before they can solve the mystery leaving the player, Ephemer, and Skuld to handle Brain in Chi's story which will continue to get updates after KH3. Ventus's darkness, which actually according to the visible split was only a quarter of his heart, was actually from his past. He had memory of the tragedy of the keyblade war AND he was separated from what appears to be his first actual group of friends. Even if he ends up forgetting all this the dark pain of it won't go away, it instead sows the seeds for the darkness that gets Xehanort interested in him to begin with. In essence Ventus was added to the group just so he could be made miserable and be delivered to the future, setting the stage for his whole thing with him and Vanitas that is part of the destined events of BBS and KH3.
 

Hirokey123

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No if anything I believe Darkness is the Data Riku of this datascape the MoM created, not to say he's literally data Riku just that he's a living sentient Core A.I. of whatever system these dataworlds are all stored in. Essentially a program to monitor and manipulate the people inside the dataworlds to ensure the MoM's intended outcome happens.

The MoM wants the keyblade war to happen for any number of reasons we could speculate over. To ensure that happens and that everything goes according to plan he has to make sure all the pieces are in the right places. He's already seen the future, he knows Lauriam and Elrena become Nobodies. That they will be critical to the timeline for their actions in various games such as their stuff in CoM so he's trying to move them to their proper places to fulfill the prophecy he saw.
 

Sephiroth0812

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I think Maleficent is basically intended to cause a tragedy. Elrena, Lauriam, and Ventus are all going to be cast into the future before they can solve the mystery leaving the player, Ephemer, and Skuld to handle Brain in Chi's story which will continue to get updates after KH3. Ventus's darkness, which actually according to the visible split was only a quarter of his heart, was actually from his past. He had memory of the tragedy of the keyblade war AND he was separated from what appears to be his first actual group of friends. Even if he ends up forgetting all this the dark pain of it won't go away, it instead sows the seeds for the darkness that gets Xehanort interested in him to begin with. In essence Ventus was added to the group just so he could be made miserable and be delivered to the future, setting the stage for his whole thing with him and Vanitas that is part of the destined events of BBS and KH3.

I've also thought about Maleficent going back to the "future", which in this case means at least five or more years before BBS, and by doing so somehow dragging Ven and the others with her either accidentally (on her part at least) or deliberately because she needs a catalyst or something to start the process.
Since she doesn't seem to remember Ven in BBS though
Maleficent said:
A Keyblade... You must be Ventus.
it looks like she'll lose at least part of her memory of it.

I didn't even think about the possible pain (and thus increase in darkness) resulting from Ven being forcibly separated from what he considers his first real friends yet but the more I think about it now the more it makes sense, even more so since there are three things that work directly into it:
1st Ven is really clingy about Aqua and Terra during BBS and can't handle at all when they're arguing plus his wish to make more friends seems to stem from a need of affection.
2nd as the current update shows where he's standing close with Ephemer and Skuld with the hands-behind-head posture he seems to feel comfortable and accepted by them and
3rd him being painfully separated from them would mirror what Sora apparently is going to go through in KH III according to the trailers.

Still, I wouldn't rule out Ven having some role in another attempt to forge (or summon) the X-blade like the OP's theory says since he is outright terrified of the thought of it in BBS. So terrified that he asks Terra and Aqua to erase him instead of having to endure it.
Then there's Vanitas' spech about "only when all your hopes are broken" during the KH III trailers, which one may easily attribute as something he's parroting from Xehanort, but what if it isn't? What if it is a speech Ventus had to hear while he was still with his Dandelion friends before he was ripped away from them and cast to the future?
Vanitas has his own heart no doubt, but the small part of Ven's heart that was used as a basis for his might still have a few buried memories lying around (which would not contradict Xehanort's claims of "empty creature") which he can access glimpses of. When Roxas had some loose memories of Sora inside him he too could access some scraps of them via dreams or visions.

No if anything I believe Darkness is the Data Riku of this datascape the MoM created, not to say he's literally data Riku just that he's a living sentient Core A.I. of whatever system these dataworlds are all stored in. Essentially a program to monitor and manipulate the people inside the dataworlds to ensure the MoM's intended outcome happens.

The MoM wants the keyblade war to happen for any number of reasons we could speculate over. To ensure that happens and that everything goes according to plan he has to make sure all the pieces are in the right places. He's already seen the future, he knows Lauriam and Elrena become Nobodies. That they will be critical to the timeline for their actions in various games such as their stuff in CoM so he's trying to move them to their proper places to fulfill the prophecy he saw.

I've said it already somewhere else but what if that Master A.I. is actually modeled after Luxu and has a "copy" of the No Name at hand?
Would certainly help with the whole "monitor" things.

Or rather he wants multiple Keyblade Wars to happen as one has already happened when the whole Dandelion plot starts.
What exactly the MoM wants and how far his schemes reach may be the subject of the next saga though, making Xehanort just a stepping stone/arc villain in the grand scheme of things.
 

Ballad of Caius

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I've also thought about Maleficent going back to the "future", which in this case means at least five or more years before BBS, and by doing so somehow dragging Ven and the others with her either accidentally (on her part at least) or deliberately because she needs a catalyst or something to start the process.
Since she doesn't seem to remember Ven in BBS though

it looks like she'll lose at least part of her memory of it.

I didn't even think about the possible pain (and thus increase in darkness) resulting from Ven being forcibly separated from what he considers his first real friends yet but the more I think about it now the more it makes sense, even more so since there are three things that work directly into it:
1st Ven is really clingy about Aqua and Terra during BBS and can't handle at all when they're arguing plus his wish to make more friends seems to stem from a need of affection.
2nd as the current update shows where he's standing close with Ephemer and Skuld with the hands-behind-head posture he seems to feel comfortable and accepted by them and
3rd him being painfully separated from them would mirror what Sora apparently is going to go through in KH III according to the trailers.

Still, I wouldn't rule out Ven having some role in another attempt to forge (or summon) the X-blade like the OP's theory says since he is outright terrified of the thought of it in BBS. So terrified that he asks Terra and Aqua to erase him instead of having to endure it.
Then there's Vanitas' spech about "only when all your hopes are broken" during the KH III trailers, which one may easily attribute as something he's parroting from Xehanort, but what if it isn't? What if it is a speech Ventus had to hear while he was still with his Dandelion friends before he was ripped away from them and cast to the future?
Vanitas has his own heart no doubt, but the small part of Ven's heart that was used as a basis for his might still have a few buried memories lying around (which would not contradict Xehanort's claims of "empty creature") which he can access glimpses of. When Roxas had some loose memories of Sora inside him he too could access some scraps of them via dreams or visions.



I've said it already somewhere else but what if that Master A.I. is actually modeled after Luxu and has a "copy" of the No Name at hand?
Would certainly help with the whole "monitor" things.

Or rather he wants multiple Keyblade Wars to happen as one has already happened when the whole Dandelion plot starts.
What exactly the MoM wants and how far his schemes reach may be the subject of the next saga though, making Xehanort just a stepping stone/arc villain in the grand scheme of things.

So in the end, Xehanort was really just a small piece in the bigger game of the grand scheme of things that the Master of Masters is pulling for the sake of... knowing what happens after a Keyblade War?
 

Sephiroth0812

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So in the end, Xehanort was really just a small piece in the bigger game of the grand scheme of things that the Master of Masters is pulling for the sake of... knowing what happens after a Keyblade War?

We don't know what the MoM's actual goals and reasons are.
Knowing what happens after the/a Keyblade War is one of Xehanort's goals though and won't have anymore relevance after KH III, but the MoM's plans probably will.
 

Hirokey123

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I've also thought about Maleficent going back to the "future", which in this case means at least five or more years before BBS, and by doing so somehow dragging Ven and the others with her either accidentally (on her part at least) or deliberately because she needs a catalyst or something to start the process.
Since she doesn't seem to remember Ven in BBS though

it looks like she'll lose at least part of her memory of it.

I didn't even think about the possible pain (and thus increase in darkness) resulting from Ven being forcibly separated from what he considers his first real friends yet but the more I think about it now the more it makes sense, even more so since there are three things that work directly into it:
1st Ven is really clingy about Aqua and Terra during BBS and can't handle at all when they're arguing plus his wish to make more friends seems to stem from a need of affection.
2nd as the current update shows where he's standing close with Ephemer and Skuld with the hands-behind-head posture he seems to feel comfortable and accepted by them and
3rd him being painfully separated from them would mirror what Sora apparently is going to go through in KH III according to the trailers.

Still, I wouldn't rule out Ven having some role in another attempt to forge (or summon) the X-blade like the OP's theory says since he is outright terrified of the thought of it in BBS. So terrified that he asks Terra and Aqua to erase him instead of having to endure it.
Then there's Vanitas' spech about "only when all your hopes are broken" during the KH III trailers, which one may easily attribute as something he's parroting from Xehanort, but what if it isn't? What if it is a speech Ventus had to hear while he was still with his Dandelion friends before he was ripped away from them and cast to the future?
Vanitas has his own heart no doubt, but the small part of Ven's heart that was used as a basis for his might still have a few buried memories lying around (which would not contradict Xehanort's claims of "empty creature") which he can access glimpses of. When Roxas had some loose memories of Sora inside him he too could access some scraps of them via dreams or visions.



I've said it already somewhere else but what if that Master A.I. is actually modeled after Luxu and has a "copy" of the No Name at hand?
Would certainly help with the whole "monitor" things.

Or rather he wants multiple Keyblade Wars to happen as one has already happened when the whole Dandelion plot starts.
What exactly the MoM wants and how far his schemes reach may be the subject of the next saga though, making Xehanort just a stepping stone/arc villain in the grand scheme of things.
Honestly making Darkness an A.I. modeled after Luxu would just make a lot of sense. It continues the parallels and also it gives us a chance to see Luxu's face since it seems Luxu likely just died a natural death. He never really disappeared the others did, he went on to live his life and start the keyblade order that began passing down No Name.
 
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