How Much Free Will Does a Norted Person Have?

[Dagesh Lene 366]

I have been thinking for a while now that one of the seekers of darkness is going to betray Master Xehanort.  The reason for this thinking is that Gula told Ava in Back Cover that the traitor is "the one who bears the sigil", as it says on the Lost Page of the Book of Prophecies.  We didn't find out who the traitor was in Back Cover, and the only sigil I know of in the Kingdom Hearts series is the Recusant's Sigil, which is associated with Organization XIII.  That made me think that what the Lost Page was actually predicting was a betrayal within the real Organization XIII in Kingdom Hearts III.  However, I recently started thinking if that would even be possible.  After all, if someone in the real Organization XIII is able to betray the man who is possessing them, then why would characters like Terra and Aqua appear to be completely under Xehanort's control?  In fact, if everyone who is Norted still has some free will, why would someone like Aqua go along with Xehanort's plans?  What else makes this strange is that everyone who has been Norted so far seems to have some level of free will except for Terra and Aqua.  Why would that be?  I really don't have any answers, so what do you guys think?  How much free will, if any at all, do you think Norted people have?

Edited June 30, 2018 by Dagesh Lene

[Crossχ 32]

hm. the only correlation i can think of is how much that those under xehanort's influence accept their own darkness and/or believe in xehanort's cause.

actually, now that i think about it, there might be a possibility of a betrayal in the new organization: vanitas. we haven't seen any signs of him being norted yet due to him always having his mask on, his heart is already pure darkness so he wouldn't need to be norted at all, and while he did almost disobey some of xehanort's orders in bbs, it was nothing that xehanort would have seen, so xehanort already thinks that vanitas is completely loyal to him. i don't think that there will be a betrayal in the organization, but if there is someone who might do it it could be vanitas.

[HarLea Quinn 26,501]

Nomura's words:

 

• By the way, Braig’s dealings with Master Xehanort in Birth by Sleep make sense now, as he was to become a vessel.

There is a certain reason for Braig to proudly exclaim, “I’m already half Xehanort.” Isa (Saïx) is included too. I think you’ll understand the details about their circumstances eventually.
 

• What happens to the hearts of those who have had Master Xehanort’s heart planted within them?

They’ll gradually be swallowed by it. As for Master Xehanort, he plans to control them completely. The planted parts of the heart are captured rather than disappear.

 

 

I think it depends. Terra had MX's whole heart transfered. Even then, MX was surpised Terra's heart was still there fighting for control. Then we have others who were implanted ( knowing and unknowingly.) Braig willing did it. The rest of the Org 13 were lied to so they could be tricked and used as vessels. He also needed them to be consumed by darkness. Xemnas purposely lied to them about being able to grow hearts so they wouldn't try to regrow their own real ones since he wanted his heart pieces to take over their bodies. He also didn't want them to accidentally regrow one so he had them RTC after every mission instead of them using friendships and bonds to regrow hearts. He told them they can't feel and any feelings they exhibited were them faking. In other words he sabotaged them from regrowing hearts for a reason. Over time their hearts/bodies would be consumed. In early stages it might be possible to resist in the right conditions.

[Seyin95 175]

Coming from it from someone who studies political theory, I'll spare you the exact details, I do like this notion a lot and there are a few ways to approach this question. 

 

1) What is free will? If we take the Aristotelian approach, then this would include being free to pursue the good life. Seeing as we don't have a natural 'man' to political 'man' state in Kingdom Hearts, free will for me in this series would be defined as being able to do what your heart commands you. Basically take the 'May your heart be your guiding key' as a starting point. It has to be your heart and your decisions. 

 

2) Have we seen examples of this? Yes, multiple times where the characters decide their own actions, an example would be Ansem the Wise not retreating when his experiment to digitalise Kingdom Hearts failed.

 

3) What does it take not to have free will? Basically when your action is dictated by another, unless you have the freedom from others interference, for positive reasons or negative- you are not displaying free will.

 

4) What about the Organisation XIII members? I believe that due to the fact that nobodies can regrow lost hearts, this enabled the members to display an element of free will, they were able to plot betrayal ( CO lot) and were able to make decisions- manner of Xion and Roxas. 

 

5) How does this relate to Xehanort? I believe that the full Norts and not the half norts will not have free will. Their hearts will belong to Xehanort and thus their wills and actions will not be there own.

 

6) Is Xehanort's will his own? That begs the question due to the fact that his keyblade has a will of it's own and thus perhaps has clouded Xehanort. Is he pursuing his own will or that of the keyblade? Let's pursue the latter

 

7) If the keyblade is influencing Xehanort, then he himself is not free and is thus a slave to keyblade and the aims of that keyblade, now can keyblades have free will or not?

 

8) Keyblades choose someone due to their strength of heart and I thus believe that has a connection to free will. The keyblade wielders we know have a strong will and desire for the keyblade. Sora voluntarily allowed Ventus into his heart, Mickey has a desire for protection of others and Lea had a desire to save his best friends, this desire and ambition I believe relates to that persons specific keyblade. However, I think it goes both ways and the wielder can influence their will on their keyblade and that explains why Xehanort's keyblade's will belongs to a specific person.

 

9) The Master of Masters- As of current knowledge, he is the oldest known occupier of that specific keyblade and when he passed it to Luxu with the aim of allowing him to see into the future, I believe the Master's will was transferred as well and this has continued down to Xehanort.

 

10) Far fetched? Look at the other fore tellers, they were so fixated with obeying the master they soon lost track of maintaining peace and became skeptical of each other, the Master's role for each member caused their downfall and Aced can be seen as the only one who kind of displayed free will by trying to go against the Master's will. However he too was a pawn. Luxu by obeying the master transferred the will on. Thus all 6 apprentices were not free.

 

11) Linking this back to Xehanort, if Xehanort is influenced by his Keyblade's will and that is in turn another person's will then he himself is not free. Ergo, none of the consequent Norts are free, in fact they in more shackles as they are obeying another's will they do not know.

 

12) What if they choose this fate? Then they are obeying their hearts command and are thus displaying free will. Whilst using a real life philosopher like Locke would argue you cannot sell yourself into slavery. The Hobbesian approach would be yes you can, those like Braig chose to be norted and whilst not a rational choice, did have the choice to either remain as Somebodies or become Nobodies, this is especially highlighted with the information that people like Braig deliberately became nobodies again in order to be noted. They had that choice

 

13) To conclude, to have free will is to have the ability to execute your hearts demands, from choosing to eat ice cream on the tower, to choosing to be noted. Once someone else influences that, free will is lost and your heart is cast in shackles.

Edited June 30, 2018 by Seyin95