Why did Xehanort Wait so Long to try to Summon Kingdom Hearts?

[Veritas7]

He waited until he was an old man to try to summon Kingdom Hearts. Young Xehanort, however, started to form plans to do this though. Why did he wait?

 

[okhi12]

He waited until he was creepy enough.

 

[AR829038]

He waited until he was an old man to try to summon Kingdom Hearts. Young Xehanort, however, started to form plans to do this though. Why did he wait?

Well, we have to remember that Young Xehanort never actually planned to go after Kingdom Hearts. He just had vague ambitions about wanting to change the world, but didn't really know what to do about it or where to start. We can assume that Xehanort had to spend his entire life studying and searching out clues about how to achieve that goal. Along the way, he must have gradually learned about the X-Blade and Kingdom Hearts, as it doesn't seem like the knowledge he acquired regarding it was common knowledge to other Keyblade wielders like Eraqus. He probably had to spend years and years tracking down rare, ancient, or otherwise forbidden texts in order to gain the information that he needed. There's also the possibility that, even though Xehanort may have formulated his ambitions at a young age, and even if he may have acquired a lot of the knowledge relating to forging the X-Blade at some point in his tenure as a master, he probably wasn't willing to go through with his plans at first, given how much suffering he would have to cause. Remember, Xehanort only started falling to darkness during his time as a master. When he started traversing the Lanes Between without his armor, that was when the darkness started seeping into his heart, as indicated in the Xehanort Reports in Birth by Sleep. Before then, he was still a decent, if morally misguided human being. After that, all qualms about what he had to do were wiped away. He probably only got really bad later in his life, at which point he was willing to do whatever he had to do, and hurt whomever he had to hurt, in order to achieve his ambitions.

 

[Veritas7]

Well, we have to remember that Young Xehanort never actually planned to go after Kingdom Hearts. He just had vague ambitions about wanting to change the world, but didn't really know what to do about it or where to start. We can assume that Xehanort had to spend his entire life studying and searching out clues about how to achieve that goal. Along the way, he must have gradually learned about the X-Blade and Kingdom Hearts, as it doesn't seem like the knowledge he acquired regarding it was common knowledge to other Keyblade wielders like Eraqus. He probably had to spend years and years tracking down rare, ancient, or otherwise forbidden texts in order to gain the information that he needed. There's also the possibility that, even though Xehanort may have formulated his ambitions at a young age, and even if he may have acquired a lot of the knowledge relating to forging the X-Blade at some point in his tenure as a master, he probably wasn't willing to go through with his plans at first, given how much suffering he would have to cause. Remember, Xehanort only started falling to darkness during his time as a master. When he started traversing the Lanes Between without his armor, that was when the darkness started seeping into his heart, as indicated in the Xehanort Reports in Birth by Sleep. Before then, he was still a decent, if morally misguided human being. After that, all qualms about what he had to do were wiped away. He probably only got really bad later in his life, at which point he was willing to do whatever he had to do, and hurt whomever he had to hurt, in order to achieve his ambitions.

I see what you're saying. Nonetheless, when Young Xehanort was playing chess with Young Eraqus, he said the future was already written, that darkness would prevail and light expire. It seems like he at least knew something about Kingdom Hearts

 

[Deleted member 252753]

From what we know I think @AR829038 is right. The best information we get is from Xehanort's reports in BBS. There's a lot of lore in there but Xehanort say he has uncovered the 'Keyblade's ultimate mystery', the existence of the X-blade and how to summon the 'real' Kingdom Hearts (as opposed to ones constructed by gathering hearts). So he could have known about Kingdom Hearts as a boy but not known about the X-blade. Plus there's line in report IX which implies that he only made his plan as an old man.

So there I stood, with vast knowledge in one gnarled, dying hand, and newfound purpose in the other. The next step was clear: I needed a new vessel.