So with the secret ending, it seems clear that Sora is now off to reunite Ven's sleeping heart with his sleeping body in the Room of Awakening. From Riku's reaction in the final scene and Kairi's seeming indication that she is the only one of the trio who will not be going on this quest, I imagine Riku will either be going with Sora or heading off on his OWN quest to fix everything that's related to HIM, namely: Terra. Ven's problem seems pretty straightforward: heart sans body means no wakey wakey. Terra's case is more complex. His body was taken over by MX and their hearts either merged to form a new heart where they fought for control of the personality or they remained separate and still fought. At the same time some aspect of Terra (piece of heart, soul, leftover feelings, what have you) comes to inhabit his old armor creating the Lingering Sentiment. This new "Apprentice" Xehanort later became a Heartless which later lodged himself inside Riku's heart and is still said to be dormant inside him to this day. The Nobody created from Apprentice Xehanort (Xemnas) is said to have been a special Nobody along the lines of Roxas and Namine by Nomura. The problem for Terra is this: where are his respective pieces now? We know from Xemnas' final fate that his body and likely his soul have "faded back into darkness" as he was a Nobody and this is the fate of all Nobodies excluding of course Roxas and Namine. Terra's heart is a different matter. If "Apprentice" Xehanort's had his own unique heart which was a product of MX and Terra's hearts than it would seem that both of them now reside somewhere inside Riku's heart. However, if MX and Terra remained separate entities within new Xehanort than it is possible that only MX's heart went on to create Ansem SoD the Heartless and is thus the only one inside Riku. What happened to Terra's heart if it remained separate? Well I propose that both Xemnas and Roxas MAY have had Terra and Ven's hearts within them thus making them "Special Nobodies" and Nomura puts it. Honestly I think that the former possibility is the likelier case. The most reliable translation (in my opinion) of the little chat between Terra's heart and MX's in the secret ending has them referring to "his" heart, which I take to mean Apprentice Xehanort whom they are fighting over. Though I suppose that even if the merging possibility is the correct one their hearts could have separated in Ansem SoD and Xemnas. Either way, if Riku is to go on his own quest then it seems he's going to have to head back into to darkness to retrieve Terra's body and soul at least. But if Xemnas is a special Nobody and special Nobodies are not doomed to fade into darkness (as Roxas and Namine did not) then how do we explain Xemans' seeming destruction? What happened to Terra's heart if that is indeed what made Xemnas special. Another question to ask is how does the Lingering Sentiment fit into all this? I'm fervently hoping that Riku gets his own scenario or atleast some kind of gameplay action in the next game because reuniting Terra seems like a much more nuanced journey with a lot more potentially interesting twists than Sora going to a bunch of Disney Worlds doing f*** all and then going to Castle Oblivion and meeting Ven. Personally I want to see the resurrection of Dark Mode under MX/Ansem SoD's influence, Riku absorbing the Lingering Sentiment thus reawakening Terra's remnant inside him and giving Riku access to armor, and finally a journey in the Dark Realm to retrieve Terra's body. Any thoughts on the Terra's heart thing? What would you like to see out of potential Riku gameplay in the next KH game?
I just saw they added a little blurb about Episode 8 in the Kingdom Hearts Wiki article about coded. Apparently it takes place in Spoiler Castle Oblivion and that Sora (er Data Sora I guess) will meet and important person. Anyone else think it's gonna be Spoiler Ventus ?
I was just thinking about the different Drive Forms from KH2 and what they're all supposed to mean and it struck me that they may have a connection to Ventus and Vanitas. At the end of BBS we know that Vanitas has more than likely been reabsorbed into Ventus' heart and that for whatever reason this has caused Ventus' heart to now sleep within Sora's heart. If Vanitas was indeed reabsorbed into Ventus and not simply destroyed, than somewhere inside Sora Vanitas still resides. In KH2 the Sleeping Beauty Fairies awaken the Drive Form ability within Sora allowing him attain new forms and powers which relate to his relationships with other characters (Valor=Goofy, Wisdom=Donald, Master=Mickey, etc.) Well Sora has two unique forms in Final and Anti. The first represents he and Roxas coming together as one being and the second is an influence from Sora's time as a Heartless. OK take the next step with me cuz it might be a bit of a leap. Roxas clearly has a strong connection with Ventus. They look and sound the same and apparently have similar taste in color schemes though beyond that we don't know the nature of their connection. Additionally we know that Vanitas is either the first Unversed or at least the reason they exist. The Unversed seem, to me anyways, to be some sort of proto-Heartless experiment by Master Xehanort. They appear in many similar or analogous forms (Shadow, Soldier, and Large Body in particular seem to have Unversed analogs), both are created due to the machinations of one Xehanort or another, and both feed of darkness/negative emotions/evilness/etc. OK ready for the theory? By tapping into Final Form, Sora interacts with the part of him that is Ven through Roxas and conversely, Anti-Form is due to, or at least related in some way to the remaining influence of Vanitas whose existence is close to a Heartless. So far, little has been said in game about Sora's time as a Heartless and what affect it has had on him and I would venture that, with the revelation of Vanitas and his connection to Ven/Sora, this is going to figure prominently in the next game. I'm personally hoping that Final Form will evolve in the next game with Sora gaining an armor similar to Ven's and that Anti-Form will become that Dark Form-esque muscle suit thing that Vanitas and Riku wear. I think that, in this way, Sora will now be tested by the Darkness that resides in his heart on his quest to restore Ven. This new Dark Form will be a significant temptation to the player to use because it's so strong but there will be some gameplay penalty for overuse and will thus be superseded in the end of the game by the armor. Thoughts? Feelings? Emotions?
Found this on the Gamefaqs forum. It's someone's summary of the Xehanort reports. Not sure if its totally real but it seems so. These are def NOT translations so take them with a grain of salt. All credit goes to Kouli of the Gamefaqs forum!
