KeybladeMasterDeadpoolio

That just raises further questions about how powerful Master Xehanort truly is if he's able to choose where and when his physical being is reborn. I think I have a solution to the memory thing: when Ansem went back to meet his younger self, he didn't immediately fade back and lose his memory but stayed and waited out the sixty odd years on Destiny Islands. It's only when the future version of Ansem, the one possessing Riku's body, is sent to the future that the memory loss happens. Sora and Riku only went into the past and only followed the natural progression of time to the present day while the Seekers all traveled to a future that existed beyond where their existences ceased to be (Young Xehanort eventually has to grow up into his older selves, Ansem, Xemnas, Xigbar, and Saix all being dead, etc.). So it's only going to the future that causes the amnesia, not going to the past.

But why would Yen Sid de-age them? What purpose did that serve? Well, aside from the animators wanting to use the old models one last time before the grand finale. I completely remember Xigbar's explanation, in fact that entire ending is the only part of the game that I remember clearly. My question is how and why: Sora and Riku were sent back one year and yet they're pushed forward again almost instantly? According to Young Xehanort, Ansem could only go back once and then had to wait out the timeline on Destiny Islands till the beginning of KH1 so why did Sora and Riku instantly go forward? By this logic they should have come out at The World That Never Was one year in the past, not the current version that somehow survived being torn apart by a giant robot dragon. Did Yen Sid put them under a delayed suspended animation spell that would only wear off once a year had passed? And for that matter, shouldn't they have faded away to their original time and forgotten everything like the Seekers did? Already the supposedly strict rules of time travel are broken to pieces.

I must have the faultiest memory ever. Fair point about Yen Sid explicitly saying that he would send them back but I do not recall it ever being stated that they explicitly left their bodies behind and took up temporary residence in their past selves. And just as I say that you're most likely going to pull up a cutscene explaining exactly that. But if that truly is the case, then how did Sora and Riku end up jumping forward to the present day with their past bodies after they entered the Sleeping Realm? Otherwise Mickey, Donald, Goofy, Lea, and the apparently genuinely reborn Master Xehanort appearing at the end in the Castle makes no damn sense.

For me it does. I'm the kind of guy who enjoys obsessively going over every itty bitty detail for explanations of how things work in fiction as proven by just about every post I make here. This is why it pisses me off when things don't get explained or happen off screen. For example, how did Sora and Riku get to Destiny Islands at the beginning of DDD and somehow become a year younger? Never explained AND happens off screen. 2.8 and 3 better give us some kind of answers.

While I agree that it's convoluted and disagree on which things are retcons, the previous games at least gave us something to work with unlike DDD which gave us either optional flashbacks with no transitions at all to just everything else off screen. That's another thing, it's implied that Sora and Riku go back in time to the destruction of Destiny Islands to get to the Sleeping Realm but once they're there, they're apparently shunted back into the present because everything at the end of the game, from The World That Never Was still being intact and in the present day real world to Micky, Donald, Goofy, and Lea appearing there without any trouble, would make no sense. Yes they faded away but we only see that at the end. By the time the game actually gets underway, the time travelling is done, the Seekers are already all in the present. We could have at least seen something in Young Xehanort's flashback to when he first met his future self's Heartless. This. This makes so much more sense than anything in the entire game.

So we all know the rules for time travel in Dream Drop Distance: you have to give up your body. you can only go to times that you already exist in, yadda yadda yadda. But how exactly does the time traveling itself happen? Does Young Xehanort just will a portal to the time stream into existence? Does he summon a door like the ones from Kingdom Hearts 2? Do the Xehanorts fly around in an evil TARDIS? This game would be so much better if they actually showed things happening on screen.

I'd say it was old age that got him. The war is over, the worlds are separate and safe, incursions by Heartless are few and far between, and he most likely retired after passing his Keyblade on.

I think I have a theory in regards to how Luxu's Keyblade came to hang on that wall: Luxu and The Master are the good guys in all of this and thanks to The Master's future vision, he realizes that the apocalypse can not be stopped, but they can make it so that at least there are survivors. So Ava gathers the Dandelions and they do their thing while Luxu is sent to witness the end but to also survive. This is based on what can be observed in the Keyblade Graveyard: if a Keyblade wielder dies then so too does their Keyblade die but since Luxu's Keyblade is currently alive and in Xehanort's hands, he must have survived. What does this have to do with it hanging on the wall? Luxu found The Land Of Departure and became the first Keyblade Master of a new generation of wielders. He would then pass his Keyblade along to one of his students, much like how Yen Sid passed his Starseeker to Mickey, to carry on the legacy. Many many many years later, Eraqus and Xehanort pass their exams and the current Master selects Eraqus to be the new Master of The Land Of Departure and Xehanort becomes Master but instead inherits the ancient Keyblade. We all know the rest after that.

Fair enough, but Terra still gave in just enough for the bodyjack to happen. Actually, Palpatines clone body plan lasted for a good number of novels and he got quite a bit of evil done. He only lost because clone bodies tend to degenerate really quickly so he ran out before more could be made. You are correct in that lots of stories use a similar "fallen to evil" plot but in the wide, wide world of nerdism and geekery, how many of them are as prominent as Star Wars and Kingdom Hearts? How many follow these exact plots so closely? Yes, I could be reaching with these connections because I haven't read all that much sci-fi and fantasy literature and because these two are the most prominent in my mind but the connections are still there.

1) Yes, he was because Ansem was still half Terra. 2) No, Anakin was not possessed by Palpatine but Palpatine did have a similar plan as Xehanort in the novels (which until recently were canon and came out long before Kingdom Hearts): he commissioned empty clones of himself so that in case he died, his power over the Dark Side would allow him to transfer his soul into a new body. Sound like a certain thirteen Nobodies we know?

And you're right of course, there are plenty of stories that are similar but do they follow this close to each other?: -Anakin and Terra are idealistic young men who are part of a mystical order of defenders (Jedi and Keyblade Weilders) who only wish to do their duty and protect their loved ones. -Anakin and Terra are held back by their superiors (Eraqus and the Jedi Council) out of fear of their potential power and the fact that they have self control issues. -In comes the creepy yet entertainingly hammy old villain (Palpatine and Xehanort) who proceeds to give them the encouragement that they so desperately desire and promises of the power that they seek. -The hammy old villain then proceeds to hire other villains (Braig and Vanitas, Dooku) to test their new pet project and then the hired villains are defeated with the power of the Dark Side/Darkness. -The old villain then tricks the Anakin/Terra into attacking and turning against their loved ones and superiors in order to further corrupt them. -Eventually Anakin/Terra is corrupted fully and eventually becomes a black clad super villain who wields red laser blades. That seems a little too similar to be a coincidence.

I keeps seeing everywhere that people want to see Star Wars in Kingdom Hearts 3 because Star Wars is now owned by Disney but Star Wars has been in Kingdom Hearts from the very beginning. Heck, Terra's plot in Birth By Sleep is beat for beat almost identical to the plot Revenge Of The Sith. I even think Birth By Sleep is a complete ripoff of Revenge Of The Sith because Birth By Sleep came out five years after Revenge Of The Sith did.

If the Organization was supposed to be a clandestine group, why do they have such a massive fleet of ships? Or, if they have such a massive fleet, why do they need to be secretive? Does Xehanort now have command of the fleet? Is that how KH3 starts, a huge invasion of star ships start blowing everything up?

If that's the case then does that mean that the Master is watching Riku, Terra, Vanitus, and the Xehanorts as well?

While you are correct, their battle took place inside their shared Heart so the usual rules don't apply. Otherwise (and this is just hypothesis) they're only able to use them while one or the other is active, not both at the same time. Once they're separated into their own selves in 3 (along with Ventus and Xion), Roxas and Sora will lose the ability to dual wield. While it's possible for one person to have multiple Keyblades, you can only use one at a time unless you have more than one Heart inside of you, otherwise we'd be seeing Mickey dual wielding his Starseeker and Kingdom Key D all the time. This should apply to Xehanort and Xemnas as well: When Xehanort was still in pieces, Xemnas could have used his Keyblade but now that they are two distinct entities existing simultaneously, Xehanort will be the one who has the Keyblade. The only way for Xemnas to use a Keyblade now is if he get's one for himself or if Xehanort overwrites Xemnas's mind like he did with his younger self.

I'll give you the point on Young Xehanort's possession but that raises the question of if Master Xehanort has been poking into the minds of his other selves to make sure that The Plan(s) were on track. Which explains how he knows so much about everything already. Which also raises the question of if he can do that across time as well. My theory for why Xemnas never used his Keyblade was as a way to keep most of his minions from questioning why they had to wait to have thirteen members and why Number 13 had to be a Keyblader. Now that that plan is shot, he has no reason to hide anymore but still leaves the question of if it's Xehanort's Keyblade, Terra's Keyblade, or a completely new one that he wields. The reason I assume that the Seekers are all going to have Keyblades is that all throughout Xehanort's plans, he always targeted Keybladers. Terra, Aqua, Ventus, Vanitus, Riku, Sora, Roxas, Xion, even his own self. Not to mention that Braig joined up in the first place because he wanted a Keyblade. Why go to the trouble of trying to possess these targets whether in full or through Heart fragments if not to have an army of Xehanort aligned Keybladers?

Here's my thought process on that: when you fight Young Xehanort at the end of Dream Drop Distance, he has a time themed version of the old man's Keyblade and from what I've read, that's because the old man took control of his younger self's Heart which is why he's able to use it despite not having left Destiny Islands yet. This to me says that the only way for Xemnas or any of the other Seekers to use that Keyblade in their current time displaced situation is if Master Xehanort takes control of them. Which says to me that they're collecting Keyblades because why have thirteen potentially powerful Keyblade wielders if there's only one Keyblade to go around? And even if they're all just fodder to be killed off to form the X-Blade, it would still seem like a good idea to even the odds when almost all of the heroes have Keyblades.

That's what I said but if Master Xehanort and Xemnas are going to be running around at the same time, how can Xemnas use their Keyblade if Master Xehanort has called dibs by virtue of being the big boss? Which is why I suggested that they're collecting Keyblades for all of the Seekers. That seems unlikely to me because out of those twelve Somebodies, three of them seem genuinely remorseful for what they did, six of them are a complete mystery so it could go either way, and three are definitely confirmed to be Seekers. As for Luxu and the Master, that would be a stretch even for this series. They seem like the types to allow themselves to be wiped away by the apocalypse.

Yes, Sora did retain himself as a Shadow but only barely as we saw him slowly sinking into the Darkness. Xehanort is an old and extremely powerful Keyblade Master who can do things with his Heart that are absolutely absurd. Sora got lucky because his Heart was just strong enough to not give out completely. Xemnas may have been able to use his Keyblade if he so chose during any point between the end of BBS and his defeat in KH2 but since that Keyblade was more than likely Xehanort's then he won't be able to use it because his original self has dibs. Unless of course Xehanort has stockpiled multiple Keyblades like Mickey has in which case it's fair game. As for why I don't think the rest of the members on the above lists won't be Seekers: the only way I can see Vanitas coming back is if he's ripped out of Sora's Heart, Repliku I can't see because he can't be one of the hooded Seekers because none of them were short teenagers (same applies to Vanitas) and also because he's already dead, and if Demyx, Luxord, Marluxia, and Larxene weren't good enough to be Seekers as Nobodies, why would they be good enough as Somebodies? Edit: Another reason why Repliku can't be a Seeker: When Riku fought both Lexaeus and Zexion, they seemed genuinely surprised when Ansem took over when Riku was getting his ass kicked. Does this mean that the Castle Oblivion team didn't know that Ansem possessed Riku and still technically was? If so, how could they program the possession into Repliku and subsequently make him a Xehanort if they were unaware of the possession?

True but Sora still became a Shadow and was slowly losing his mind and would have gone full Heartless completely if not for being purified by Kairi while Ansem retained a humanoid body (both cloaked and while possessing Riku) and kept all his mental faculties even though they were slightly influenced by his Heartless instincts. As for why Ansem and Xemnas can't be Seekers, a Keyblade War kind of requires Keyblades and Ansem can't use one (or at least one of his own, the Keyblade of Peoples Hearts was kind of a different situation) because he's a Heartless while the jury is still out on whether Xemnas can or can't use one. Plus, as far as we're aware, the Seekers only have one Keyblade to go around (Master Xehanort's) and I don't think MX would be able to simultaneously assume direct control over all of them like he did with his younger self in DDD. Yes, Master Fartinort is already OP but that would be ridiculous even by his standards. I realize that I'm being an annoying and pedantic little sh!t by bring this up constantly but I just want some internal consistency with this story. I know retcons abound in Kingdom Hearts but this would be the most blatant one ever.

Fair enough, except for one problem: Out of all the present day Seekers, Master Xehanort is the only one with a heart and will strong enough to not turn into a mindless Heartless when he splits himself which means that there will be two versions of Ansem and Xemnas running around during 3 which would bork things up even more because there's already an Ansem bopping around the timeline and I doubt the two of them will be able to share Riku's body. Plus, I don't think Ansem and Xemnas can even be two of the Darknesses because neither of them are complete beings.

Except none of them will remember the time travel. Once Young Xehanort goes back to his own time with his memories wiped, he'll grow up to be the wrinkly old fart we all know, possess Terra, split himself, Ansem goes back to send YX forward to collect himself and bring him/them to the end of Dream Drop Distance and then it all starts over. They can't come back in 3 because it was explicitly stated that they can't change anything with time travel. They all have to go back to their times so that they can either grow up or die in order for Oldfartinort to even exist in the present. In fact, the entirety of Xehanort's plan in DDD was completely pointless and stupid because it contradicts itself: why gather your other selves through an incredibly inconvenient method if you know it will amount to nothing anyway because you can't start and end a war in only five minutes and when all of your components fade away almost instantly? Nomura better come up with really good explanation for this.

WARNING: INCOMING NAG Can someone please explain to me how everyone keeps ignoring an important scene from the end of Dream Drop Distance? The one where it is explicitly stated that the Seekers, including Young Xehanort who instigated the whole mess, went back to their own times to live out their destinies with no memories of time travel meaning that there is no way for any of them to return except for Master Xehanort, Braig, and Isa who already exist in the present?

Wait wait wait wait wait. X was explicitly stated to be 100 years before KH1? I find that to be highly implausible. The average human life expectancy (at least in the real world) is approximately 70 to 80 years so there's bound to be at least one person who had actual first hand or at least second hand knowledge of those events, otherwise everything about the Keyblade War wouldn't be such a mystery. Now if it were 1000 or 5000 years then I can see knowledge of the War being lost to the sands of time.

So we all know that Darkness of one's Heart grows through experiencing intense negative emotions, doing evil deeds, or using the Darkness if one knows how until they eventually go insane or become a Heartless. But is it possible to diminish the Darkness in one's Heart? I know that it's impossible to completely get rid of the Darkness but can it's effects be reversed? Let's use Terra and Riku as an example: the Darkness in their Hearts continued to grow as they used it but they became strong enough to not be corrupted by it (not counting possession by Xehanort) but it's never stated the Darkness goes down, it just stays there. Meanwhile, those who have come back from being Heartless seem to have the Darkness of their Hearts reset to what it was before it started growing. Is coming back from being a Heartless the only method of diminishing the Darkness in one's Heart or are there other ways that are not mentioned in game, only in those damn books and interviews that are never published outside of Japan?