Young Xehanort is strange

[xXFALORXx]

I don't know, but something about him really bugs me.

I mean he's acting like he knows things that not even Master Xehanort knows and isn't acting Xehanort-like at all in my opinion. Like they are completely different persons. I mean yes Xehanort might have changed over the time, but MX is never disrespectfull to Sora and doesn't ever speak about sora falling to darkness in KH3 like YX does.

Are there any theories floating around about him?
What is your opinion on Young Xehanort?

 

[Zettaflare]

Master Xehanort was disrespectful to Sora on a few occasions though. He referred to him as "dull" and "ordinary" in DDD.

All of the Xehanorts are unique and different in character so I dont think the younger version not acting like the old man is anything out of the ordinary. That said I found him kind of bland and monotone in DDD. He got better in KH3 and was able to show off a bit more personality though.

 

[DarkosOverlord]

I mean, I guess it's better than him having no personality whatsoever in DDD but yeah, he always feels kind of odd.
What I think happened it's that they tried to make YX the "Anti-Sora", meaning that he's the complete opposite: he doesn't know love, he laughs at bonds and friendship, he's arrogant, he's rude, and so on.
And at the end he "loses" and returns to his time period while having lost basically nothing (but he'll still go ahead and lead a relatively friendless life), meanwhile Sora "wins" but also has to sacrifice himself for his friends.

And yes, we can chalk many differences with Old Xehanort due to the gap in age and experiences.
The only thing that bugs me is that with KH III we have ANOTHER Young Xehanort who is yet another different character with his own mannerism and beliefs. Not to mention he still looks younger than Young Xehanort, go figure.
It's hard to merge the three personas, unless we go with the theory that YX was made the way he was by being forcibly taken from his time frame and thrown into a colossal ordeal, thus altering his personality.

 

[Twilight Lumiair]

YX, though he is cold and drops some pretty intense opinions, is never really disrespectful to Sora if I'm being honest. It's almost always, if not always, the other way around first. In terms of acting like he knows more than he let's on (and he likely does), that's just his personality. He's always been criptic and nonchalant, probably the most out of any Xehanort incarnation. He does this while at the same time coming off as intimidating when he finally does lash out, which needless to say left a pretty big impression on me during my first playthrough of DDD. Personally, next to Xemnas, he's easily my favorite antagonist from the series. His performance in DDD really gave off this air of mystery and intrigue in addition to his stoic attitude that genuinely felt like he was covering up a softer, more emotional side (can't really explain it, but he always gave off that vibe to me). In Kh3, he became a bit more openly antagonistic and more regularly displayed some emotion, though it never really gave you much insight into the kind of person that he was in my opinion. His future chessmaster self was described as "innocent" by Nomura, yet his DI self was, in Sora's mind at least, looking for the shadows. But why? Even up until the very end, he remained an enigma, and that was one of the things about the ending that dissapointed me. Especially since Xemnas and SoD get their proper moments of closure.

 

[Elysium]

As far as the villains go, Young Xehanort was the most disappointing. 3D seemed to be setting him up to play a big role in KH3, then.... Nothing. He even comes across deranged as he fades away. Not what I would've thought would be the direction of the character after 3D.

 

[Oracle Spockanort]

As far as the villains go, Young Xehanort was the most disappointing. 3D seemed to be setting him up to play a big role in KH3, then.... Nothing. He even comes across deranged as he fades away. Not what I would've thought would be the direction of the character after 3D.

Agreed. Regardless of what I thought would actually happen to Young Xehanort, it feels like Nomura gave up on that specific iteration of Xehanort because he had to cut the saga short and that is why we have the Boy in Black instead. He probably figured it was easier to make Young Xehanort fully psychopathic and weird af and have the Xehanort he wanted to eventually build to with the Boy in Black.

Ughhhhh Nomura, give us a Xehanort game.

 

[Hirokey123]

The active Young Xehanort in DDD/KH3 is a Xehanort who has been tutored by his other Xehanort counterparts. Young Xehanort recites AnsemSoD's views towards darkness, Xemnas's views towards the power of a heart's loneliness, and Master Xehanort's views on time/destiny. He is Xehanort surrounded by nothing but bad/negative influences and without any of the age or maturity of his later selves. So what you get is this truly nasty little boy who can't even admit when he's lost. But that's not who Young Xehanort really is, hell that's not who Xehanort really is, that's just his negative components magnified by nurture. The Boy in Black is Young Xehanort but raised in largely positive environment, with seemingly more healthy teachers/friends to keep him on a better path. Again this isn't Young Xehanort this is just a component of his personality, present YX is magnified negative and chess YX pretty deliberately the positive.

What KH3 does is show us two different sides of Young Xehanort and then makes it plainly clear at the end that Master Xehanort and YX ARE the same person by having him take that form in his final moments. Not truly different iterations like Ansem and Xemnas but just literally the same person at heart much like how Sora gets older but in his heart he's just the same boy he always was. MX is the reconciliation of the cold cruel heartless child and the bright eyed boy who wants to defend the world. His goal reflects the latter and his methods the former and to truly understand Master Xehanort as a character you have to see both sides of Young Xehanort the story shows. The mistake is viewing Young Xehanort as different character and not just Master Xehanort but younger, he's not his own true iteration he's an exploration of Master Xehanort. The same way Harry Potter handled Voldemort by showing us various windows into his younger self in order to break down his personality and show us who he really is as a person and how he became that way. In this case KH3 makes it abundantly clear the biggest cause for Xehanort's personality changes is Eraqus. He started diving into the power of darkness in order to keep up with Eraqus, he put his faith into Eraqus to become the defender the world needed and when he let him down disillusioned he tried to force himself into that role starting on the path of evil, and in the end it's not Sora alone that reaches Xehanort to get him to finally accept it's over it was Eraqus.

Of course also we know for a fact that we are missing a piece but the piece we are missing is the piece we've been missing the entire series, and that's whatever it is Xehanort knows that we don't in regards to the mysteries of the keyblade war. Because it's pretty clear that Xehanort was either trying to screw with whatever the MoM had planned or at the very least trying to figure out the MoM's plans. Xehanort knew the truth behind the gazing eye, he had figured out that the keyblade war wasn't started by the lost masters but rather it was started for them, he's been trying to gather ancient keyblade wielders in order to probe their memories, and he's been hiding all of this from Xigbar. Who has actively been trying to figure out what Xehanort is up to and has been taking steps in the shadows to hinder Xehanort's investigations.

This was likely going to be tied into the Xehanort prequel we never got but I imagine this information will still be told to us somehow.

 

[Raz]

I think young Xehanort would have been a more effective villain had we gotten that prequel and experienced his descent into darkness. As it stands, he comes across as a bit monotone and bleh.

Xemnas is still my favorite iteration of Xehanort. He has great aesthetics (thorns and lasers, yas!) and the extent to which he manipulated the Organization members is truly diabolical.

SoD was great in KHI but quickly overstayed his welcome and you can only scream "DARKNESS" so many times before it gets old.

And as far as generic evil old men go, baldy got the job done and I enjoyed watching him pull the strings behind the scenes in BBS.

 

[xXFALORXx]

After seeing the Re:Mind trailer im sure there is something going in with YX. Seems like my feeling was right

 

[Veevee]

Did anyone else feel that the KH3 chess Young Xehanort is fundamentally different than DDD / KH3 Seeker Young Xehanort? To me, they feel hardly alike, neither of their personality nor their behavior, so much that I consider them to be two entirely different people - yes, technically they are, but they shouldn't have that much of an age difference so they should be similar in character.

It also bothered me that Young Xehanort is the only Nort without actual agenda. He was mostly sittin on his island, then old coot came around, told him what to do and YX just did it. Because of reasons. Hardly exciting.

 

[Face My Fears]

Did anyone else feel that the KH3 chess Young Xehanort is fundamentally different than DDD / KH3 Seeker Young Xehanort? To me, they feel hardly alike, neither of their personality nor their behavior, so much that I consider them to be two entirely different people - yes, technically they are, but they shouldn't have that much of an age difference so they should be similar in character.

It also bothered me that Young Xehanort is the only Nort without actual agenda. He was mostly sittin on his island, then old coot came around, told him what to do and YX just did it. Because of reasons. Hardly exciting.

I was reading the reports in KH3 and they indicate that Xehanort and Eraqus were trying to pass the Mark of Mastery. Part of the training for that was a "tour of the worlds" for Xehanort. The report also explained that Xehanort was going to do anything possible to be better than Eraqus. With that information, plus the ReMIND trailer, it would seem that Young Xehanort was basically inspired to cleanse the world by what he saw in those worlds and maybe a little push by MoM. It kinda makes sense to think about how Xehanort even obtained the knowledge to time travel and relate it back to MoM. He possibly only told Xehanort about moving through one worldline and not being able to change events, but that would be enough for Xehanort to get his 13 darknesses and summon Kingdom Hearts.