To further expand on the title:
To make what could be a long-winded story short, for a class of mine I was reading an excerpt of an article written by Miura Atsushi about the general..."boxification" of society (best way I thought of to translate 箱化). Where we are gradually becoming less and less aware of where the products we buy come from or the process of making them because simply going to a large industrial shopping mall is simply more convenient. As a result people end up spending most of their time traveling from box to box without ever having to leave established infrastructure. (Get on the subway, shop in the underground shopping malls, take the elevator up to the upstairs mall, shop, then leave back the same way, never having to actually take a foot outside).
Our class ended up discussing how certain modern train stations were prime examples of this, and Shibuya came up multiple times. It was used as an example of an area that was full of contained boxes that people are content living in because its easy to get everything you need. Now, in his article, Miura specifically mentioned the concept of a "ブラックボックス”(Black Box), defined as a box that performs some kind of function, but its actual inner workings are unknown. The idea being, I suppose, that society is becoming more and more full of these boxes and it is almost suffocating our ability to understand the truth behind things. It works, and we don't care to look inside further.
Obviously this got me thinking a little bit and while not exactly the same as what Miura was speaking of in his article, it made me wonder about the function of the Black Box in KH. Now, to be fair, in Japanese it isn't called "ブラックボックス” but instead 黒い箱 so I'm not sure if it really is meant to represent the same concept, but a Black Box at least, in science and other experiments (and according to Wikipedia) is used as a stand in for something where the content inside is a mystery and that is, actually, irrelevant for the most part. The important thing is seeing what outputs it provides with given inputs. So...I actually have a very weird proposition about the contents and function about our Black Box.
...I think it's empty. Or, at least for a time, it was.
From what little we have seen of the Master, he is somewhat of a scientist so I wouldn't put it past him to set things up for experimentation. Now, we know that the box was meant to be taken to the KBGY to be used in conjunction with the Eye (BUT NEVER OPENED) and then it just...disappeared for a while.
My thoughts on this: The Master's Eye, and what it observed were the initial INPUTS to the box. Whatever is actually inside the box doesn't actually matter because it is, quite literally, a "Black Box" and what matters is its OUTPUT.
So the real question I'm now asking myself is, what did the Black Box DO?
This is an incredibly rough theory, but...
I think, somehow, the Black Box is responsible for forming the KH universe that we know. Or, to put it into terms similar to Miura's article, everyone in the Kingdom Hearts universe has been living in boxed in worlds, within a boxed in universe created by a box and have been completely ignorant of that fact because they can't see past all the boxes.
It was around during the Keyblade War which, according to the legends, caused the world to be "destroyed" until the light and hope of the children reformed parts of it. So..."light and hope" were what rebuilt the world from the brink of nothing. And what did Luxord say was in the box? Hope.
Maybe it's like a giant projector or digitizer or something, but I think it somehow "re-created" the world, using whatever input it had from the Eye. That's why it was so valuable to never, ever open it. Because if you open it and learn how it works, the simulation or whatever the Box is providing will abruptly crash and end. Thus, crashing the universe. This could maybe explain how it is even possible to have things like a data world and a dream world-- because this entire thing is just humming along at the mercy of our black box CPU which allows such insane reality-bending things to happen. Because it isn't reality.
The one thing this doesn't explain is why the box disappeared in the first place, or how it, as Maleficent put it, didn't exist until a certain point in time. As far as we know, that "point in time" seems to be tied to either the appearance of Kingdom Hearts, a Keyblade War, or the forming of a X-blade. That made me think that well, if it really is a box that can literally shape the universe it is in, maybe all of that is actually just a red herring it doesn't appear until it needs an input. Maybe it appeared because it might need new data to run off of.
The Master's Eye saw up to the current Keyblade War which is what spawned the Book of Prophesies, but as far as we know it wouldn't have seen past that point because Sora ended up averting that and splitting reality into a different timeline. I think all of what Sora did to save everyone and doom himself was taboo not because of "rules" but because it is literally hacking into the Black Box. So, Sora altered the Box's initial desired outcome (as it was attempting to create according to its previous input from the Eye) and thus caused it to reappear in order to get new input. Basically, Sora did soft reset on the system and now its sitting there blinking back, waiting for the next command prompt.
This made me consider, well...maybe the reason why Sora disappeared, then, is because he caused himself to become an input into the Black Box itself. He forced it to change the universe, maybe sacrificed his own being as an input command, and in the end, maybe that's actually where he ended up.
It's also interesting to note that in Psychology at least, a "Black Box" can refer to the human brain. It makes me wonder if maybe the Master somehow built the box with his...brain in a similar way to how he literally built his eye into a Keyblade? Maybe that's why he acts so strangely (I kid...)
This also wouldn't explain everything to do with Yozora, but...
Maybe the Box thing is too completely off the wall, I dunno. I just think it would be just like Nomura to have that scene from Back Cover actually be the Master leaning in to Luxu's ear and whispering. "That Black Box? It's actually empty!" I mean heck, if I was Luxu and heard that I would be pretty dang confused by that as well. But what the Master didn't tell him was that the contents aren't what make the box special. So perhaps all the postulating we have been doing this entire time about what the box contains is just meaningless because that's not the part that matters.
...Thoughts?
Spoiler ShowThe black box is a "black box" and Yozora is a Gundam. (hear me out)
To make what could be a long-winded story short, for a class of mine I was reading an excerpt of an article written by Miura Atsushi about the general..."boxification" of society (best way I thought of to translate 箱化). Where we are gradually becoming less and less aware of where the products we buy come from or the process of making them because simply going to a large industrial shopping mall is simply more convenient. As a result people end up spending most of their time traveling from box to box without ever having to leave established infrastructure. (Get on the subway, shop in the underground shopping malls, take the elevator up to the upstairs mall, shop, then leave back the same way, never having to actually take a foot outside).
Our class ended up discussing how certain modern train stations were prime examples of this, and Shibuya came up multiple times. It was used as an example of an area that was full of contained boxes that people are content living in because its easy to get everything you need. Now, in his article, Miura specifically mentioned the concept of a "ブラックボックス”(Black Box), defined as a box that performs some kind of function, but its actual inner workings are unknown. The idea being, I suppose, that society is becoming more and more full of these boxes and it is almost suffocating our ability to understand the truth behind things. It works, and we don't care to look inside further.
Obviously this got me thinking a little bit and while not exactly the same as what Miura was speaking of in his article, it made me wonder about the function of the Black Box in KH. Now, to be fair, in Japanese it isn't called "ブラックボックス” but instead 黒い箱 so I'm not sure if it really is meant to represent the same concept, but a Black Box at least, in science and other experiments (and according to Wikipedia) is used as a stand in for something where the content inside is a mystery and that is, actually, irrelevant for the most part. The important thing is seeing what outputs it provides with given inputs. So...I actually have a very weird proposition about the contents and function about our Black Box.
...I think it's empty. Or, at least for a time, it was.
From what little we have seen of the Master, he is somewhat of a scientist so I wouldn't put it past him to set things up for experimentation. Now, we know that the box was meant to be taken to the KBGY to be used in conjunction with the Eye (BUT NEVER OPENED) and then it just...disappeared for a while.
My thoughts on this: The Master's Eye, and what it observed were the initial INPUTS to the box. Whatever is actually inside the box doesn't actually matter because it is, quite literally, a "Black Box" and what matters is its OUTPUT.
So the real question I'm now asking myself is, what did the Black Box DO?
This is an incredibly rough theory, but...
I think, somehow, the Black Box is responsible for forming the KH universe that we know. Or, to put it into terms similar to Miura's article, everyone in the Kingdom Hearts universe has been living in boxed in worlds, within a boxed in universe created by a box and have been completely ignorant of that fact because they can't see past all the boxes.
It was around during the Keyblade War which, according to the legends, caused the world to be "destroyed" until the light and hope of the children reformed parts of it. So..."light and hope" were what rebuilt the world from the brink of nothing. And what did Luxord say was in the box? Hope.
Maybe it's like a giant projector or digitizer or something, but I think it somehow "re-created" the world, using whatever input it had from the Eye. That's why it was so valuable to never, ever open it. Because if you open it and learn how it works, the simulation or whatever the Box is providing will abruptly crash and end. Thus, crashing the universe. This could maybe explain how it is even possible to have things like a data world and a dream world-- because this entire thing is just humming along at the mercy of our black box CPU which allows such insane reality-bending things to happen. Because it isn't reality.
The one thing this doesn't explain is why the box disappeared in the first place, or how it, as Maleficent put it, didn't exist until a certain point in time. As far as we know, that "point in time" seems to be tied to either the appearance of Kingdom Hearts, a Keyblade War, or the forming of a X-blade. That made me think that well, if it really is a box that can literally shape the universe it is in, maybe all of that is actually just a red herring it doesn't appear until it needs an input. Maybe it appeared because it might need new data to run off of.
The Master's Eye saw up to the current Keyblade War which is what spawned the Book of Prophesies, but as far as we know it wouldn't have seen past that point because Sora ended up averting that and splitting reality into a different timeline. I think all of what Sora did to save everyone and doom himself was taboo not because of "rules" but because it is literally hacking into the Black Box. So, Sora altered the Box's initial desired outcome (as it was attempting to create according to its previous input from the Eye) and thus caused it to reappear in order to get new input. Basically, Sora did soft reset on the system and now its sitting there blinking back, waiting for the next command prompt.
This made me consider, well...maybe the reason why Sora disappeared, then, is because he caused himself to become an input into the Black Box itself. He forced it to change the universe, maybe sacrificed his own being as an input command, and in the end, maybe that's actually where he ended up.
It's also interesting to note that in Psychology at least, a "Black Box" can refer to the human brain. It makes me wonder if maybe the Master somehow built the box with his...brain in a similar way to how he literally built his eye into a Keyblade? Maybe that's why he acts so strangely (I kid...)
This also wouldn't explain everything to do with Yozora, but...
Spoiler ShowIf after KH3 Sora is inside the Black Box, it could certainly give some context to their fight, and how Yozora seems able to hack the space around them so easily. It would probably be pretty easy to manipulate space/time when you are literally INSIDE a device that can create universes. It's also clear that whatever avatar he is using to fight Sora isn't his real body. His real body is being driven around in a car somewhere. I have no idea how Yozora is able to reach the place Sora is (get inside the box?) in his dreams nor am I convinced of the idea that the realm NoTctis is from is "reality". If anything, it is just another universe that the Black Box is creating that has been running parallel to Sora and Co's universe this whole time.
Now, as far as my previous statement about "Yozora being a Gundam"...
I have this weird notion that in the universe Yozora is from it might actually be quite common to open your body up to foreign influence for some sort of seemingly necessary battle power-up. Chauffeur Luxord calls him "Commander" so there is obviously some type of military (and if the video game is anything to go by, they are fighting some sort of invading alien robot things).
What if "Yozora" and "Commander" are actually two separate people? The "Commander" might be the heart that is occupying the body of "Yozora" (the name of the person the body belongs to), because maybe the commander is someone invaluable to fighting the...robot things. The idea being that if his body/host dies then the "Commander" can then be put inside of a fresh new body to keep fighting while keeping all of his previous battle knowledge intact. And maybe each time this happens, whoevers body it is changes to look like the "Commander". It would explain why Yozora says he doesn't look like himself. It would also explain the heterochromia (the blue one is Yozora).
Either way, if any of this is true at all, I'd be willing to bet that the reason the "Yozora" we see doesn't look like Sora exactly (yet Rex seems to identify Sora as him) is because at some point during the video game, Rex is able to see the real Yozora before he gets...occupied/turned into a gundam. And that character looks like Sora. It's also more than likely that after Yozora gets taken over, everyone refers to him as the occupants name instead (for the sake of example, something like Commander Lucis). This would explain his obvious confusion when Sora sees him in the form of "Commander Lucis" but instead calls him Yozora.
I got this idea when I was mucking around in Toy Box thinking it was weird that when we play Verum Rex we are literally just jumping around piloting mecha suits around when in the trailer it looked more like a FF style RPG. That's when I realized well...what if that is actually what the "Commander" is doing this whole time? Jumping from body to body (but people) and commandeering them to fight. It also kind of fits in with the text on the back of the box for Verum Rex:
That's the story of the king of truth RECLAIM YOUR HEART.
After a long fight, weapons have brought great benefits for humanity. But the 'KARMA' that sleeps in humans will accelerate further. In the light of the warhead in the night sky they chose to fight while feeling the pain of their hearts...
The world is to all humans
A journey without a place to return
It specifically mentions Reclaim your heart and Karma in bold (amid a lot of weird English). Karma, of course has the connotation of rebirth tied into it. Granted, the sentence doesn't really make sense, but the fact that it brings attention to an idea of cyclic rebirth makes me question things a bit. Also, presumably if you are literally giving up control of your own body in order to let some other person occupy it to fight off these weapons attacking your home I'd imagine that would create quite a bit of "pain in the heart". I also don't know if "a journey without a place to return" is referring to Yozora or the...person piloting him around, but presumably if both of them are trying to occupy the same place then one of them is going to be body-less.
Granted, even if all the above stuff is true to some extent, it still leaves quite a few questions unanswered. It doesn't explain why Yozora wants to save Sora, or the whole...freezing, thing but...
Maybe the Box thing is too completely off the wall, I dunno. I just think it would be just like Nomura to have that scene from Back Cover actually be the Master leaning in to Luxu's ear and whispering. "That Black Box? It's actually empty!" I mean heck, if I was Luxu and heard that I would be pretty dang confused by that as well. But what the Master didn't tell him was that the contents aren't what make the box special. So perhaps all the postulating we have been doing this entire time about what the box contains is just meaningless because that's not the part that matters.
...Thoughts?