Re:Mind Summary

[corpiman 26]

The idea for this is so we can piece the most comprehensive summary of the events of Re:mind, feel free to correct or comment your own ideas, first we should start by establishing what we know

(my personal thoughts will be written in italics)

Spoiler

 

After defeating Xehanort Sora goes back to the final world to ask for advice on restoring Kairi, Chirithy warns Sora about during his previous time travel he misused the power of waking, breaking a nature taboo and is now doomed to fade away, so, as Young Xehanort told Sora in KH3, he was already doomed during his first rescue mission so makes sense that he would not care about the danger and go after Kairi, though I think by the way Chirithy talks, performing this new mission for Kairi made it so it was even more likely for Sora to dissappear (maybe this was consider an even bigger abuse of the power of waking than the original rescue of the guardians' hearts)

The first hurdle we experience is that the rules for this rescue aren´t properly explained since even Chirithy himself isn't sure what will happen and his best advice is for Sora (now a heart) go through the hearts of the guardians in order to find Kairi's heart

Sora returns in time to a "tear in time" created from his previous time travel, however he arrives to the original, "Zettaflare timeline" where everyone is bodied by Terranort, and dives into Ven's heart

Here lies my first question: if the goal is to travel back to a time where Kairi still exists and find her heart, why would he need to go inside the hearts of the other guardians instead of just directly into Kairi since she is right there?  (my only explantion is that like the game shows, Sora is caught offguard since he just arrived and goes into Ven's heart by accident since Terranort's attack happened to launch him in Sora's way who tries to catch him, forgetting his is now just a heart)

Since future Sora's heart is represented as blue, every other heart shown is red  (future sora also has that blue outline) I think this line is a little confusing since that would imply that Sora "caught" Ven's heart when he flew through him and now his body is empty, which is problematic, I believe the easier explanation is that Sora is like "this feeling is Ven's heart" and THEN he dives into Ven's body and for that he goes inside his body

Inside Ven's heart we fight a heartless who raises its own set of questions: how could "darkness" as this dark inferno refers to itself be in Ven's heart since we know Xehanort extracted it all before BBS, AKA: Vanitas,(you could maybe say that since that moment Ven started to develop "new" darkness just like any other person does in their normal life, however, suddenly having darkness this powerful inside you without ever noticing it seems kinda weird) Also this heartless seems to imply something about Ven's mysterious time in the UX era since its full name is "Dark Inferno χ"

After that battle the events continue to play out, Donald Nukes terranort and Aqua runs to a knocked out Ventus, this is when Sora goes from Ven's heart into Aqua's (tho we never see Sora actually IN Ven's body but let's assume he did as I explained earlier) inside Aqua´s heart he is forced to, quite literally, Face her fears (pun intended) after Aqua freezes and is swalled by the heartless tornado

AND HERE'S WHERE IT STARTS TO GET..........COMPLICATED

After the battle in Aqua's heart we heart Ven's and Aqua's voices to Terra and we find Sora back inside his own past body since we see its his own dive to the heart design, we know this is Re:mind Sora talking since he specifically addresses the tear in time that Chirithy just explained to him

Naminé appears in Sora's heart, we can then assume that in the "outside" past Sora has already met her (as a star) in the final world since she now says she already brought terra (and in the final world she just said she would try to contact him)

At the same time we see that now we are in the lingering will timeline, with Terranort starting his speech again, however Naminé says she is "stil not able to return to Kairi's heart" which is very confusing since now that we are back to the beginning again everyone is safe, for now, there would be no reason for Naminé to be outside Kairi right now

Anyways the battle between Lingering Will and Terranort continues and now THIS IS WHERE IT STARTS TO GET..........COMPLICATED, in order to help Terra  in the battle between his possessed body and his mind, Future Sora, WHO SHOULD BE JUST A HEART, LEAPS OUT OF TERRA'S THOUGHTS AND JOINS THE BATTLE

EFFECTIVELY CONTRADICTING THE VERY FIRST THING CHIRITHY TELLS HIM

Yes, this explains why the lingering will suddenly disappears so it might not seem like a rewrite but, had Sora not joined that battle Terranort would've defeated LW and gone back to deal with the guardians again, this is one of the various loops Re:mind creates since we now know that while past Sora was busy riding a million keyblades, future Sora was keeping Terranort busy 

ANYWAYS

Terranort's Guardian captures Future Sora and...I guess he sends him into....darkness? We then go through the battles with the True Organization once again, with the possibility of now controlling Riku vs Repliku and Xigbar (yay? we already controlled him during the Aqua battle, don't get the hype over this but ok) and Mickey vs Larxene, Marluxia & Luxord (I believe this battle stays exactly the same, but please let me know if anything changed from the original)

After that we go to Ven & Aqua vs Vanitas & Terranort with new dialogue that implies that Vanitas was always his own person separate from Ventus or at least existed well before BBS (maybe they will finally reveal that Ventus killed Strelitzia but in that time "Vanitas" was a more powerfull personality inside Ven or maybe he was a completely different person who Ven imprisoned inside him and forgot along with his other UX era memories)

After the battle & while past Sora does "ye olde Terra heart switcheroo" we see future Sora sinking underwater (like when Aqua fell into the dark margin) he eventually finds Terra's heart  (no Eraqus tho!), after that everything plays out as normal and we can asume Future Sora goes back into past Sora in order to go the battle between Leak & Kairi vs Xemnas, Saix and Xion.

Again we get new pre battle dialogue hinting about Saix true desire to atone (helping Xion's memory to start to return), we see the inner details of Xion's memories returning (we just had to get the memories that were inside roxas heart, that was inside Soras heart, easy), after that we get Roxas' return

and.....HERE'S WHERE IT STARTS TO GET..........COMPLICATED

We go inside past Sora and find Roxas' heart  but before past Sora can free it we see 3 hearts around him 1 blue one which as established before should be future Sora (makes sense future Sora is inside his past self right now) but 2 other hearts as well which however you see it makes no goddamn sense 

Previously we knew there were 3 hearts inside Sora that Ansem the wise discovered:

1.- Roxas

2.- Xion (a heart that has been with Sora almost as long as Roxas)

3.- Ventus (and another that had been with him much longer than that)

This has been confirmed by Nomura already please don't tell me something like "it is actually Roxas, Ventus & Ephemer somehow", it is Roxas, Xion, Ventus, OK? OK

By this point we can all agree Ventus is no longer inside Sora, Xion had jut regained her identity a couple seconds ago and Roxas had not been freed yet (that happens 30 seconds after this)

The other option is that these are actually the hearts that future Sora has connected with so far, since they appear next to him (blue heart) but if that is the case, there should be 1 blue and 3 red hearts not 1 and 2, since by now Sora has passed through the complete BBS trio ( since future Sora is caught in his first battle with terranort and that is how he finds terra, it would be impossible for him to save Roxas AND THEN go save terra

The only other explanation is that those 2 hearts are actually Lea and Xion who are resonating with Roxas from the outside, that COULD work but again would be something that happens offscreen, and it literally ocurred to me as I wrote that previous paragraph

So, we continue, Roxas returns the Sea Salts recover their recusant Sigil....which other than sentimental value seems likea pretty bad a idea to try to steal the tracking device the bad guys had previouse put on you but whatevs, everyone Kairi attacks Xemnas in order to try to appease the internet, she is inmediately captured, but Sora is as well so that Kairi doesn't look so bad being the only one stuck, and to prepare the stage for an "original organization 13 all out brawl"

Everything proceeds normally up to the point where Xehanort 'splodes Kairi,now in the morning and with a bad music change (the song obviously is not bad, but this was supposed to be a sad somber moment, not an epic battle one, sorry Destati, still love you)

and.....HERE'S WHERE IT STARTS TO GET..................WEIRD

while everyone regroups Mickey (who is stopza'd) talks directly to either past Sora (a conversation we never got in the original, which mean that past Sora is awkwardly having a spoken conversation with the guardians and a different mental one with mickey at the exact same time) or with Future Sora (which I'm sure I don't need to explain why would that be confusing), either way he tells Sora that Kairi is not dead (silly billy!) but she was "crystalized" by Xehanort to be used as insurance (ok I believe you)

Future Sora goes into Scala a little earlier than Past Sora, we go around and find 5 Kairi pieces (1 for each guardian Sora dived into, including himself, a neat way to tell use who are the official 7 guardians of light, sorry Lea & Xion)

He realizes he needs 2 more, so he remembers what Riku and everyone did after the battle with Xehanort and follows their hearts back to the keyblade graveyard where now they are fighting the Seekers of darkness, dives into Riku and eventually gets bumped into mickey, where he gets the final piece and Mickey recreates that scene in MGS4 with Snake in he microwave corridor

Future Sora again decides to forget he is supposed to be just a heart and catches mickey and goes to play connect the locks, and finally recovers Kairi (yay) but immediately they have to face an Armored Xehanort replica who by all means, should not exist (from what future did he come from? past Sora is going to beat Xehanort in like 2 minutes) But whatever, Kairi fights him along Sora who again IS A HEART, HAS NO REPLICA TO USE, SO HE SHOULD HAVE NO PHYSICAL FROM TO FIGHT WITH BUT OK

together they beat Xehanort, save the guardians, EVERYONE SEES KAIRI IS SAFE AND SORA IS THERE, Future sora and.....past/present Kairi?... vanish to future Sora's time, the guardians decide to disregard what they just saw and go into Scala just like in the original ending

and.....HERE'S WHERE IT STARTS TO GET..........COMPLICATED

I'll just say, for a timeline where Sora could not rewrite history, Sora just rewrote a lot of history, since we are now left with 2 options

1.- the guardians decide to play dumb and pretend Kairi is dead so that past Sora goes into his own Re:mind journey (Mickey specially would be a great actor considering he would need to try and convince Sora NOT to do it) so that past Sora can eventually steal another Kairi from another pastPAST Sora (creating another loop)

2.- Everyone tells Sora that Kairi is fine with only Mickey (presumably) knowing about the 2 Soras but Sora never sees her again, there's no re:mind in this timeline

Either way Future Sora gets the girl, they insert themselves into every ending sequence and Sora vanishes

 

boy that was a handful... first time KH has truly made my head hurt

 

if you reached this part let me know what you think (unless you still think ephemer's heart is inside Sora) or if you have a different idea or interpretation

and thanks for you time

 

 

 

 

Edited January 25, 2020 by corpiman
spellcheck

[Dagesh Lene 366]

 

I think the reason why Sora had to pass through the hearts of the guardians and not just jump straight into Kairi's heart is that he needed the guardians to restore Kairi.  Even if Sora jumped into Kairi's heart, he wouldn't be able to save her because her heart was split into seven fragments and hidden by Master Xehanort.  However, by tracing the hearts of seven of the guardians, including himself, he found all seven fragments of Kairi's heart.

I don't think that Sora contradicted what Chirithy told him.  I think that the times that Sora interfered were moments that were destined to happen.  After all, without Sora being there, Lingering Will being destroyed, Roxas' heart leaving Sora's heart, and the guardians of light being saved after their battle with the Replica Xehanorts would not have happened.  So, I think that Sora was destined to travel back in time and interfere when he did.

I also don't think that this story confirmed who the official seven guardians of light are.  When Sora came up with the idea to trace the hearts of two more guardians in order to find the remaining two fragments of Kairi's heart, he didn't say, "What if I can trace the hearts of the remaining two guardians..."  He said, "What if I can trace the hearts of two more guardians..."  Meaning that there are more than seven guardians.  They started with seven, but as the final battle progressed, more guardians were added to their ranks, and two of these guardians are still considered to have been official members of the seekers of darkness even after they became guardians (Terra and Xion).

As for Armored Xehanort, I noticed something.  After Sora, Donald, and Goofy originally defeated the Replica Xehanorts, Master Xehanort absorbed them.  When he did, the Replica Xehanorts turned into pure darkness and entered him, turning him into Armored Xehanort.  Then, after Kairi is finally saved, we see more darkness that looks just like the darkness that entered Master Xehanort combine to create Armored Xehanort.  So, I think that these were the Replica Xehanorts that the guardians were just fighting and that they once again combined to create Armored Xehanort, which is why Armored Xehanort can exist at the same time as Master Xehanort.

Edited January 25, 2020 by Dagesh Lene

[Iamkingdomhearts1000 1,170]

This is the beauty of Fanfiction. To knead our very own answers. :] 

 

I think however though that someone whom is aware of all these contradictions at SE should point them out to Nomura himself. That way, he could find ways to explain them in-game for the future. 

[PrinceNoctis 1,011]

Spoiler

From what I understand, Sora needed to pass through the hearts of guardians to "not stray too far" from the true power of waking since, as we've come to learn, that is dangerous and forbidden. The power of waking, as Xehanort said, is meant to "traverse hearts to reach worlds" so that's exactly what Sora does in Re:Mind. He traverses the guardians hearts to navigate the past and also to find Kairi's heart. As for how Sora can physically exist in the past...they were kind of inconsistent about that, but we know that Sora was previously able to maintain a physical form without his body because of Kairi (in Chain of Memories and the Final World). So maybe Kairi's heart was doing something again. We also know, that Sora isn't time traveling properly. So he didn't discard his body to travel to the past...I don't know where I'm going with this, but it might have something to do with that.

 

[corpiman 26]

Spoiler

 

On 1/25/2020 at 5:41 AM, Dagesh Lene said:

I think the reason why Sora had to pass through the hearts of the guardians and not just jump straight into Kairi's heart is that he needed the guardians to restore Kairi.  Even if Sora jumped into Kairi's heart, he wouldn't be able to save her because her heart was split into seven fragments and hidden by Master Xehanort.  However, by tracing the hearts of seven of the guardians, including himself, he found all seven fragments of Kairi's heart.

Yeah I think that could work, Sora needs more than his own connection to Kairi in order to restore it (tho I don't know if, for example, Ventus managed to form that deep of a bond with her, would've made more sense for Sora to dive into Lea then, but I'll take it, Sora needed some guardian energy)

 

On 1/25/2020 at 5:41 AM, Dagesh Lene said:

I don't think that Sora contradicted what Chirithy told him.  I think that the times that Sora interfered were moments that were destined to happen.  After all, without Sora being there, Lingering Will being destroyed, Roxas' heart leaving Sora's heart, and the guardians of light being saved after their battle with the Replica Xehanorts would not have happened.  So, I think that Sora was destined to travel back in time and interfere when he did.

I also agree here, those changes were destined to happen, that is why I addressed the creation of time loop, but until they happened, Sora didn't know he was there fighting along LW or helping Mickey against the replicas (kinda like the scene where Harry does the patronus when he time traveled in the prisoner of azkaban), so, to us, he isn't "interfering" because we, like Nomura says, experience the story from a higher perspective, even from Future Sora, but to him it would count as inteference since he himself choses to go help LW when he is talking with Naminé, but I guess at this point he has nothing more to lose so OK, I guess my issue with this was the fact that Chirithy explicitly touched that subject, I think if he had just said something like "you will now experience the past from another perspective" then it would've been simpler

 

On 1/25/2020 at 5:41 AM, Dagesh Lene said:

I also don't think that this story confirmed who the official seven guardians of light are.  When Sora came up with the idea to trace the hearts of two more guardians in order to find the remaining two fragments of Kairi's heart, he didn't say, "What if I can trace the hearts of the remaining two guardians..."  He said, "What if I can trace the hearts of two more guardians..."  Meaning that there are more than seven guardians.  They started with seven, but as the final battle progressed, more guardians were added to their ranks, and two of these guardians are still considered to have been official members of the seekers of darkness even after they became guardians (Terra and Xion).

Yeah my comment about that was more in the joking side, at the end all the good guys end up being guardians but if we were to be specific, we would have 2 sets:

The guardians of light during the keyblade war, and the post war guardians.

The first set of guardians who fight against Xehanort in the war 

Sora, Riku, Ven, Aqua, Lea, Kairi, mickey, and roxas being the last adition so 8 (without Roxas we would have the original 7)

at this point in time, Terra and Xion are part of the 13 darknesses and even tho they are saved, they do clash with the guardians before that helping Xehanort forge his 13 keys

The second, formed by the time Sora faces YX, Ansem & Xemnas set is pretty much everyone:

Sora, Riku, Ven, Aqua, Lea, Kairi, Mickey, Roxas, Terra, Xion. 10 with the 7 we use to restore Kairi marked in bold. poor Xion she didn't help in any of the 2 main groups  (even tho she does have an important connection to Kairi, and I've just realized we have never seen her dive to the heart but I'm just glad my girl is back)

 

On 1/25/2020 at 5:41 AM, Dagesh Lene said:

I think the reason why Sora had to pass through the hearts of the guardians and not just jump straight into Kairi's heart is that he needed the guardians to restore Kairi.  Even if Sora jumped into Kairi's heart, he wouldn't be able to save her because her heart was split into seven fragments and hidden by Master Xehanort.  However, by tracing the hearts of seven of the guardians, including himself, he found all seven fragments of Kairi's heart.

I see your point, my main issue with this was that I interpreted it as if Xehanot had basically created another replica thus making it like the Xehanort we fight at the end of Base KH3 would've been now "half" since he split his power in 2, and we have basically 2 "different" Soras a pair of 50% Xehanort and thus making that victory kinda feel unearned but I think I was totally off mark on this point, the 12 replicas combining into the final boss is a much better interpretation! (I finished writing the orinal post at 3am so by the end I was kind of slipping ha-ha!)

 

 

 

Edited January 27, 2020 by corpiman