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I was reminiscing about last year's E3 trailer and was thinking about interesting topics to talk about ( I did consider a post about the different geographical areas of the game- yet I don't think many would care about a post about mountains; rivers and fields etc) and decided to argue my case on why we should play as Young Xehanort in the introduction; from a plot perspective and necessity. Starting with the most important and obvious reason: 1) we actually don't know a lot about his backstory- we know he got off the Islands ( somehow), we know he becomes a keyblade wielder ( somehow), we know he is trained by a master who loves the story about the lost masters ( cough foretellers) ( also someone). Yet whilst we know about Old Man Xehanort and his current ambitions. We do not know: how Xehanort became a keyblade wielders; how he later obtains the keyblade we are accustomed to him wearing; how and why he became obsessed with the keyblade war ( by this I mean was it his master's charisma/Xehanort being power hungry/Altruistic intentions etc); what worlds he attended to in his youth; the list actually goes on. Whilst we could learn this from playing as Eraqus; I'd argue playing as Xehanort will allow us to explore the character on a much needed personal level. If we fully understand the character then we can either have more intentions to defeat him or feel for him when he is defeated. 2) playing as the ' good guy's' is getting dull- yes; I know we will take control of Sora who is undoubtedly a hero; but I mean for a change; albeit a small one . It would be fun to play as a bad guy for once; who knows we might even be able to dab into darker areas from a gameplay perspective too? 3) gives us a valid reason to return to Dive To The Heart- I'd be willing to wager this section of the game returns; I mean it enables us to choose between the Sword/Shield/Staff ( always the shield) which determines the abilities we gain through levelling up; however Sora; Roxas and Ven have been there and yes I'm aware there are multiple other characters who could go there; enabling the player to essentially choose Young Xehanort's path is way too tempting. Not only does it allow us a legit reason to return: but also helps us connect to Xehanort too. If we choose his path; then technically we have set the course for what will eventually play in the KH games thus far; which I feel would be a neat touch. 4) playing as young Eraqus wouldn't answer all the questions- this links to my first point; yes it would be cool to play as Eraqus; however we'd still be none the wiser to a lot of answers; which wouldn't help the plot. Therefore I'd have nothing against having cutscenes exclusive to Eraqus; but I feel as mentioned above; playing as Young Xehanort would be excellent to providing needed answers. 5) the chess scene is the start of the game- I'm anticipating the response that people will want either exclusive Sora Intro/ Kairi in training etc. However we know for a fact this is the start: so it wouldn't make sense to show this then have someone else such as Kairi playable in the intro. I fully support the concept for having the Intro during this timeline rather than currently as I feel we'll gain more out of it story wise. Also how random would it be to have inevitable sentences which only Nomura fully understands; a funky song followed by the chess scene then bam here's Kairi to play as. I know I for one would be seriously puzzled. So; that's a few reasons. For me the perfect Intro would be the inevitable sentences which make no sense; a funky song followed by the chess scene; then allowing us to fully explore the secrets and backstory of our main antagonist; perhaps even swaying a few people to his side?, neatly setting the scene for the game; before switching back to the Mysterious Tower and cue the game as Sora.

What do you think of this idea? I think it would definitely be very interesting and would be a major plot twist. From what we've seen and heard about Xehanort when he was younger with Eraqus, he wasn't exactly an evil person or a villain, he was just simply very interested in the darkness and having perfect balance between light and darkness. This seems to have spiraled over the years into complete obsession with that idea, so maybe it's possible that Young Xehanort realizes how insane he becomes in the future and decides to turn on his future self? If this *does* happen, do you think he would join the same team as the Guardians of Light, or would be on sort of his own separate side? I saw someone mention this whole concept on the KH13 forums and it immediately intrigued me. Ever since we first ran into Young Xehanort in Dream Drop Distance and eventually learned who he was, I instantly thought he was an interesting character. Having something like this happen would make him be an even more interesting character. Another thing that's worth noting is that Young Xehanort used to have friends, such as Eraqus. We don't quite know all the details and facts yet, but from what the little we've seen and heard, it sort of appears as if Young Xehanort used to care for Eraqus and have compassion for him, like any friend would. Maybe this care and compassion slowly left him over the years as he spiraled into complete insanity, which of course ended up with him killing Eraqus. It very much reminds me of Riku and Sora's relationship and how Riku turned on Sora. Except with Xehanort, he never turns good again, but maybe just maybe, Young Xehanort seeing his future self go insane and maybe he realizes how much destruction his future self could really cause if he got his hands on Kingdom Hearts, he changes his mind and turns against him. This is a far fetched idea and most likely won't happen, but I definitely think it's an interesting idea that I think would work very well if it was done right. What are your thoughts on this?

I'll provide more details here later... Young Xehanort: As he was in the beginning of the game, and, it is the end of his saga, it's a fitting finale for his final debut as the villain. Young Eraqus: As he was in the beginning of the game and Xehanort's bestie, it would be fitting to add further sympathy and exposition to Eraqus. Kairi: As he was in the secret ending for Dream Drop Distance, her tutorial could be a condensed mark of mastery examination and the first playable Princess of Heart. Lea: As he unintentionally realised that he is able to wield a Keyblade: he would need to understand the responsibilities of being a Keyblade wielder, and, we can get more backstory to Lea's bestie: Isa.

This may seem like another out of the blue fan-fiction but by the time that I'm done with this, you may actually consider this canon... let me explain a couple points to consider. [1] Sora is the primary character for Kingdom Hearts and Eraqus is a tribute to Square Enix (just like Yen Sid is a tribute to Disney), surely, there can be a strong connection with that coincidence alone. [2] They're both residents of Destiny Island. That may seem like nothing at first until you realise that Young Eraqus is just as careless and optimistic as Sora proven with his conversation with Xehanort when he seemed like he didn't know what Xehanort was on about. [3] Why did Sora have Eraqus Keyblade stranded on Destiny Islands? It was originally given to Aqua. Aqua wouldn't just drop the keyblade of her master let alone leave it at Destiny Islands. That seems illogical especially when you consider that she's currently trapped in the realm of darkness. Of course, I can state more reasons as to why I believe Eraqus is Sora's grandfather but there's not really much else to pull form at the moment until more information about the plot regarding Eraqus comes by...