To be fair, I wouldn't classify XH's ears as pointy, since there's a distinct difference between his ears and all of the other Xehanort's; nor would I classify AtW's ears as the "regular round ears that everyone else coincidentally has." I also notice similiarities between XH's and AtW's hair styles, particularly the straight cutting line for the back of their hair and the "jagged border in between their hair and their foreheads" (for lack of better wording, since I'm clearly no hair expert).
If their eyes are the same, I think it's plausible that they may end up sharing other traits as well (maybe XH even inherited the scholarly instinct side of AtW?).
Nomura pointed out a while back that pointy ears are an indicator of Xehanortification, alongside yellow eyes.
The only difference I can make out there is that Ansem SoD's ears are a little less sharply pointed than the rest, but nonetheless pointed and AtW's ears maybe a bit more sleek than the others, but the top is definitely rounded and not angular.
Their eyes aren't the same, Ansem the Wise has orange/amber eyes while Ansem SoD has a darker version of the Xehanort-gold, and frankly it also often depends on the lighting in the scene they are in. Ansem SoD stole Ansem's name, but nothing more since Ansem the Wise did not only already have his eye color before he even found Terra-Xehanort, nor has he ever shown any signs of Xehanort-influence since he was always working against him.
Master Xehanort himself, as well as Eraqus to a degree, were pretty scholaric themselves, heck, Eraqus even
was a teacher, so anything like this could also easily come from either MX or Eraqus. This would make sense as well when we take into consideration that Apprentice Xehanort (the later Ansem SoD since it was Apprentice Nort who originally started to call himself Ansem) apparently regained part of his old memories as seen in DDD.
If we want to be nitpicky it was the interviewer in the Ultimania who spoke about eyes and ears, while Nomura, as typical for him, spoke only vaguely of "appearance" in his answer.
Do we have a good picture of Braig before he gained his golden Xehanort-eyes where his ears are clearly visible? If original Braig has rounded ears (and Isa obviously) it's probably a sure-fire issue that it is Xehanort-stuff, regardless of what Young Xehanort's ears look like.
The way it's worded in the Report sounds similar to the rebellious curiosity of a teenager. And of course, arrogance and ignorance are not necessarily mutually exclusive.
Well, Xehanort is the only known character to travel the Lanes without protection, and he did so for the majority of his (very long) life. It's probably dependent on the strength of one's heart, but it seems corruption via travel would be a much more gradual process.
Frankly, I know very little about Star Wars, so I've never gotten the parallels between the two series. However, thematic character design is nothing new to KH.
As others have pointed out, Xaldin also has pointed ears (though in a different fashion to Xehanort's). This might just be due to Nobodies having minor physical differences to their Somebodies (like Axel's teardrop things), but it's interesting to note Xehanort and his posse aren't the only ones.
Indeed, and Xehanort's general behaviour indicates that he cannot take anything at face value, he has to ascertain things by himself or he wouldn't be satisfied. That's true as well, although in terms of Ignorance Xehanort seems to despise this stance since he always belittles the other characters when they show ignorance to a topic.
That would indicate though that this only comes from travelling the lanes between, yet if it is a sign of darkness corruption it should start to show with any prolonged exposure to darkness.
The main gist is that in Star Wars, yellow eyes (and ashen/white skin) are a visual clue for beings (not just humans) that have fallen totally to the dark side of the force, hence why Emperor Palpatine, Darth Maul and even Darth Vader (when he had not yet his armor) showed them in the films, or other Characters like Malak, Exar Kun etc do this in the expanded universe. In Star Wars video games, it also shows when your own player character falls completely dark, the eyes change to a sunken yellow and the skin to pale white.
True as well, and the theme with the golden Xehanort-eyes is truly driven home even by the games themselves, yet I can't help but wonder when looking at this whole mess that Xehanort already is and that needs to be unraveled in KH III really needs another layer of complication thrown on top.
Xaldin is also connected to Xehanort, not only because of the pointed ears, but also because his behaviour and personality resembles partly Xehanort's but also partly Saix'. So if we go by the interview snippets that pointed ears are, just like the eyes, also a sign of Xehanort, Xaldin might have been a vessel on a level of Xehanortification somewhere between the successes (Xigbar and Saix) and the total failures (like Axel, Roxas or Zexion).
!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I know you didn't mean it this way, but this gave me an idea. Maybe YX isn't actually Xehanort. Maybe it's all part of MX's plan, and YX is just some kid from DI in the past who was norted earlier in his life than has been shown in the Kingdom Hearts series, and believes he's Xehanort, and this could somehow play into MX's master plan. There is literally no evidence to support this, aside from the round ears, but I think it's an interesting thought.
To be frank, that is actually a twist I could see being pulled, also since it would technically not invalidate all the build up for Master Xehanort being the main villain.
The main things going against it however would of course be all the instances in-game and in-interview which call him Young Xehanort and the foreshadowing scenes from BBS and DDD as well with him standing on the shore of the islands.
It's not a theory I would personally follow, but one that may be worth to keep in the back of the head as distant possibility.
Between having/inheriting a sadistic personality to match Xehanort's and the fact that Dilan was experiencing problems in DDD, he's actually on my list of SoD's with the most potential.
Except one of them is a keyblade master, which can indicate certain traits of someone, and differentiate him from others. For instance, perhaps YX is more susceptible to darkness, whereas MX has learned to overcome it (or at least tame it).
Yep, right now I am inclined to believe that Xaldin/Dilan might have been a semi-successful vessel, less successful than Braig and Isa, but more "norty" than the other old Org members who lack the pointed ears and Xehanort-like jerkass-personality.
Not only that, Young Xehanort is not even a simple Keyblade
wielder yet since he comes from a time where Xehanort was still living on Destiny Islands, where no Keyblade had yet choosen him. Considering Young Xehanort's ambitions, curiosity and as we learn from his reports in BBS his rebellious attitude, I would say he was a prime candidate for darkness from the beginning. It seems to be also no coincidence that he started to get interested in it so early.
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