A Look Forward to Missing Link - State of The Heart #2

Join Water and Damo as they discuss the updated Kingdom Hearts Dark Road Cutscenes, argue over gacha gaming practices, and ponder over the plot of Kingdom Hearts Missing Link.
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[@Growmetheus]

Rather than consuming his heart, Luxu pushed out Brain’s heart and sent him to be reformed with his hat and Luxu’s memory. Luxu had taken Brain’s original body, convincing him there is a way to change the future and making a deal, his body for safe pssage to the future. He “bequeathed it” to Brain for later use since Ephemer had Brain’s Keyblade.

[@meejah6933]

i was thinking this as well! i think this explanation is much more straightforward & uses information that has already been established for the player. the theory of a data brain & real world brain could also work, but I think releasing brain's heart to the future & using the empty body as a vessel for Luxu makes more sense based on previous time travel & vessel use we've seen before

[@lyndsaybrown8471]

I love your Ux characters talking so excitedly to each other. No other expressions, just max excitement. As it should be when talking KH.

[@getroxell]

I love that damo’s older videos feature as tools to help further flesh out what possibilities we can theorize based on the gigantic amount of information to keep track of. Absolute Gems.

[@haydenyaboi546]

I think the glowing keyblade in the execution is a good change because when I first watched it I thought that saying to purge the darkness from baldr was just mortals sugarcoating death like hades said, but this makes it much clearer what what meant

[@luap911]

This talk of lineage and exploring parentage of already introduced characters has me thinking we'll get more about the family tree of Ansem the Wise and maybe deep history for Radiant Garden. Ansem seems to be royalty of a sort but adopted Ienzo rather than having his own children. Maybe he's from a lineage that he's ashamed of and doesn't want to directly continue? Also, Kairi's G-ma having stories from the era of fairy tales implies to me a connection between RG and Scala, as it makes sense for those stories to be known in Scala and not elsewhere. Where did Kairi's G-ma hear those stories? Scala appears to have been abandoned by all of its population at some point. What if they migrated to RG? It could potentially explain the architectural design similarities between Daybreak Town and Radiant Garden.

[@OldManMcLoyf]

This is the stuff, just a huge podcast of chatting lore, very nice.

[@SimplyStapha]

I really like the heads on the screen as a visual element to the video.

[@mageoflife2855]

I think the reason why they might have had the Xehanort Player red herring was to get KHUX players willing to give xehanort a second shake of the stick, since like. Its a hard sell to say “get the backstory of a character you hate” without some big recontextualization

[@MrRobot-0]

Honestly is more the issue of "getting the backstory that was retconed on the very last minute of the villain" like really we already knew that in Xeanorth's view he was doing things for the greater good, but the idea was to balance out "the tirany of light" not "drive away darkness created by false light", and changing that on the very last minute just felt cheap.

[@jexusdomel5194]

@@MrRobot-0 my thoughts exactly, i was so pissed in kh3 like dude you talked so much shit about light and now its way better? with new context, maybe he was refering to false light, a light that will always falter to darkness. but yeah, still bad in retrospect

[@tbenigma4817]

@@jexusdomel5194 I'll be honest I see the entire series a rose colored lens. I don't see it as an issue a lot of kingdom hearts didn't make sense or got a whole new meaning because of info we got at a later date. They want us to feel what sora feels and know what he knows at least that was the original idea for example kh 2 has a confusing opening without 358/2 days but that's what Nomura intended. Xehanort was viewed as sora as the villain because he's only using darkness and talking about darkness but what did you as the player even know about him outside of those interactions not really anything and I think that's part of the point it's jumping to conclusions without a full story. You can also argue that he was so consumed with darkness because if he can get the strong bodies to summon kingdom hearts and then erase all the false light and have pure light be the only thing left which the only reason he would want that is if he believed pure light was stronger then pure darkness. Last thing if false light exists it only stands to reason false darkness exists which is what xehanort could have represented which would also give reason for the possible sudden switch. With how the series is written it's hard for me to see anything as a simple last minute decision when it comes to something of this nature. Hope this changes your view if only a little.

[@jexusdomel5194]

@@tbenigma4817 i think the problem is theres nothing in vanilla kh3 to earn that moment or dialogue, in kh2 they unfold the mystery of roxas tragedy during it and it feels earned, xehanorts speech doesnt add up with what we know and theres nothing to balance out those expectations, if in that he said, oooh this false light that consumes our world is but a farse that will never let us survive or prosper or wtv id be more cool with it (the concept of false light wasnt even a thing here and it adds up so well with all of this). the cutscene with him and MoM in remind actually was exactly what i wanted, and dark road even made that happy departure with eraqus more earned (kinda), but it would be in each entries best interest to make each moment feel interesting and put together with the context you have then, i dont think nomuras intention was to make me call bullshit on this ya know? i love how kingdom hearts adds upon its story as well, im always waiting if nomura makes stuff in the past even cooler and most times i think he does, and that scene is better now, but that shouldnt be in the detriment of making it good then, i dont think nomura pulled a story for xehanort he never thought of in kh3, but i think he either wasnt able to add those ideas in kh3, or he didnt find a way to include them even if he could, probably a bit of both.

[@tbenigma4817]

@@jexusdomel5194 Now I have to ask because there's so much lore that I don't remember exactly when we learn certain information did they start hinting at light and darkness isn't as clear cut prior to 3 in any significant way or was that all after 3 was released? Also I can't remember if I said it before or not but I view the series through rose colored lens so I really can't argue with you about any of that if things don't make sense I am perfectly happy when it's explained later with little build up to it prior. It also could be that the ending was acted so well in my opinion that I can't see any negative. With that all said I can understand why randomly switching ones reason for doing what they are doing would be looked down on. The only real argument I do have and it's not really a good one to be fair is that personally playing Kingdom hearts whenever anyone mentioned resetting all worlds back to darkness they started in not really xehanort saying that everything needs to stay that way but that basically another shot a balance. His basic idea never seemed exactly evil but the way he went about it was the wrong way. I could be misremembering at this point my initial thoughts but I know I don't remember the kh3 reveal feel out of nowhere to me though I will say that could have been just young me no fully understanding what was being said I'd have to replay and see how direct or indirect they are about the goal.

[@fwfw861]

I do think the dialogue updates that were made with regards to mentions of the "child of destiny" were simply done to align the ENG script with the JP script. The JP script uses "child of destiny" in those places where "vessel of darkness" or just a vague mention were used in the old ENG script. I noticed this a while before the update came out, when I was looking for differences between the JP and ENG finale. FWIW the only JP dialogue change I've seen anyone find is that they also changed "great great grandfather" or whatever to just descendant.

[@amberwalsh8451]

Maybe both endings with Yazora are cannon. Riku is in quadratum as a dream eater it seems inferring it’s as a part of Sora’a dream. We see soras heart station shift to the 104 building so maybe sora and yazora are continually fighting sometimes winning sometimes losing but not all dreams are remembered. We don’t know when sora physically gets to quadratum in my mind since he is in the final world at the end of remind. I have no clue where this could go but it’s an interesting thought. Reality seems to be a big part coming up.

[@Brittanyknuckles1427]

I’m loving these podcasts!! There’s nothing better than hearing two fellow mega fans discuss a game they both enjoy, I swear you get the best content out of videos like this. Thank you!!!!

[@BatuqueOnda]

LOL! I’m totally getting MST3K vibes with the UX characters talking at the bottom of the screen! 🤓Love it! 😍

[@Growmetheus]

Are you gonna post an “official time line”? It wouldn’t be complete, but now we have some good basis :)

[@andrewwolff7592]

It seems that Luxu's apprentice and the body that Luxu takes over are two different people? Luxu gives his Keyblade and a black coat to an apprentice (the bequeathing mentioned in the Report) then takes over a different body to be able to live on to watch the line of apprentices until his Keyblade makes into Xehanort's hands. So Brain (probably Data Brain?) is the first apprentice while Luxu goes. Odin ends up with the Keyblade in Dark Road and Luxu is now in Bragi's body watching over the whole thing. Perhaps he chose Data Brain to be the first apprentice because there was no one else in all the chaos of Data Daybreak falling apart and actual Brain had to be taken to the future for some unknown purpose.

[@Derek-iw3je]

Thank you for this podcast, I feel like I'm having the conversation with you two since I have nobody to talk about all of this with 💖

[@insomniousluci2931]

Could you consider putting time stamps of different discussions in the description? Not that I’m not interested in what you guys have to say, but sometimes podcasts are easier to digest in sections.

[@tbenigma4817]

I would agree completely that they originally wanted the player to be xehanort because of the whole naming thing except when you name the character you are just looking at a blank screen you could be naming anyone at that point but no matter what your name is xehanort is always called xehanort the only the we were really missing was the blue robed figure which we named at the start. If it showed xehanort while you were doing the naming it would have just been a bad misdirection. In union x it does seem to imply more that the player reincarnated into xehanort by showing scenes after the player dies but you can definitely argue the reason he was able to see past his death was because of xehanort. Xehanorts heart is like Sora's they connect at a very deep level that connection is possibly why the player saw that.

[@sunnyysss]

Love the podcast but audio is a little low. I have to put it on max volume for it to sound normal

[@erich.fischer]

Would Xehanort remember Ven from his childhood dreams? He said he wanted to meet the friends from his dreams. I assumed that was part of his interest in Ventus.

[@ultimateshadeofwar]

43:12 That could also be so that if at any point they want to bring back KH1 age Sora for a game, they already have the model, so less work to do that. Future proofing usually pays off, not always but usually.

[@toddlemmon01]

Wonderful discussion and theory. Subscribed.

[@soraxis9285]

What a giant Podcast Thx

[@Growmetheus]

2:43:00 thanks for the image lol

[@Sketch89]

I’d have to disagree with the player was actually written to be Xehanort. There’s been several red herrings in KH and I don’t think this is any different

[@davesinsanestudio8072]

Damo I'm not sure about them changing your Xehanort to your player thing because these things are decisions made months in advance. For example do you remember the FF7 first soldier? It got revealed soon after integrade and beta was later that same year, but during one of the SE livestreams one of the guys said that it looks way different then the version they played a whole year ago. Meaning it was being developed at the same time as 7 Remake. Or take MoM for example, wasn't that in development since 2017? In any case I don't believe missing link is something they didn't know they were doing, because even with Union X final cutscene the camera always has the player in focus more then Xehanort so I don't think it was a change.

[@Fragmentsinfractals488]

Remember if you will that the Disney Worlds are made from the Memories and Imaginations of the Heart of the Dandelions. So, the timing of the Plot is how and when the Children remember it. The World are Remembered Fairytales engraved by the Master of Masters indirectly by pulling the Projections from the Future. The Master wanted them to get it Memorized. However, the Hearts' Memories isn't perfect and isn't objective.

[@kdg7277]

Bro I wish I had the time to listen to this because I love your vids and theories I’ll probably get hate for this but, is there a way you could condense this into a video within an hour? 3+ is a bit excessive for those that can’t have 3 hours to listen.

[@drdca8263]

Yeah I’m kinda wishing the mobile app allowed playback at faster than 2x speed. If I could listen at 3x speed on phone I might listen to whole thing. Oh! I could maybe run it through a speech to text tool and skim a transcript? Idk

[@guyoncouch8796]

You know as far as Gacha go I always felt KHUx was much more generous. I mean just going by another Square game Nier: Reincarnation the level of free stuff is night and day.

[@Fragmentsinfractals488]

Well, Sora's Re Coded journey is literally his Dream Drop Distance Journey trial. Data Namine used the Darkness (Hurt) to weight down the Book with the Vyrus (Bugs) to see if the Real Sora would be able handle it. Xehanort becomes that Darkness in DDD. It also reveals that like Jimmy's Journal, the Book of Prophecies might be Alive. (Have a Heart)

[@Fragmentsinfractals488]

Well, remember Luxu is intentionally not following the Master of Master's orders perfectly because he is the Traitor. It is part of the plan that will not obey exactly. Further, because Luxu gave the No Name to Brain's possessed body, he did bequeathed it to Brain by the "Letter of Law" but not the Spirit. Also, Brain, Bragi, Braig, Xigbar. "The Truth is what you See." LuXu, Then different versions of the name Brain with one letter change, then Braig with the sigil of Traitors (X). Luxu likes to give himself away, but in way you can only See if you are looking for it. Also when you unpossess a body in KH, the two individuals revert back to the age they were when they fused. That is why Terra and Master Xehanort didn't get older when they recompleted in KH3. Also, if Luxu possessed Brain, "Brain" would gain the power to used Dark Corridors, and he would also be wearing the Black Coat to protect themselves. And this way Luxu wouldn't have to give up the Black Coat, and therefore could keep using Dark Corridors to traverse the Realms. And Finally, Darkness affects Memories. Darkness made Ventus forget, both in Union Cross and in the Future (BBS) so if Luxu used Darkness as a medium to possess Brain, of course he wouldn't remember. And if you take into account Luxu was fighting a Darkness in that room earlier, and he may have absorbed Them, well...

[@monsieurdorito]

2:51:56 I'm pretty sure Large Bodies always take damage from magic, regardless of where you're hitting them from.

[@Fragmentsinfractals488]

I just thought about it, and another reason Luxu might have fudged the Secret Reports is because the Darkness in him might be watching. And Darkness thinks the Path the Master of Masters foretold is inevitable. (Darkness prevail, Light expire) In Fact, Darkness watched the Book of Prophecies being written but They only care about Darkness things. Things that help expansion. So Luxu might have been trying to obscure what the deviations/ Traitor things he was doing meant. Therefore , Luxu states in the reports he "followed the Master's orders exactly" so the Darkness in him will believe they are on the right track. Further, this might be why the Black Coat in Missing Link is obscuring the Eye, so Darkness cannot see whatever will bring about the Child of Destiny. If the Master cannot See this part, Darkness will not be able to, either.

[@Fragmentsinfractals488]

Remember the Child of Destiny has the power to make their Heart become One with another Heart. And if you remember the Secret Reports, Master Xehanort originally wanted to make Ventus a Vessel for himself. So, they would become Chosen, a Child of Destiny as One Being.

[@anawkwardkaylee]

Oh I loved the last one! Can’t wait to listen to this one too. Thanks for the great Kingdom Hearts content!!

[@chrisburns658]

If Sora does end up being a bloodline character, I really hope that it is player. The best way that I could accept player as Sora while remaining with the Canon that Sora is "just an ordinary boy" would be that we ourselves are just ordinary people who are capable or extraordinary things. With that being said, it would still be kind of upsetting that Player got reincarnated into someone with such a concrete look, which feels kind of odd if Missing Link allows you to also make a character. I've personally been wondering if Yozora could be the Player instead, because we don't exactly have to explore what they looked like before or what their name was before to get who we know as Yozora. Also, I really like how tantalizing the idea of Xehanort figuring out that he isn't the child of destiny and instead is now searching to create that child by becoming the ultimate evil to bring them out. This aligns with his line "I never lose" against the chess game with Eraquis. The way he smirks when defeated seems like it was his idea the entire time to find someone like Sora who will defy Xehanort's ideals while not succumbing to darkness. The final scene, even when Eraquis comes up, just feels like Xehanort is still playing his role to make sure that Sora won't give in the same way that Xehanort did against Baldur. This would truly show that Sora is in fact the child of destiny no matter how hard he is pushed. This idea of Xehanort having/playing a role would line up pretty well with how MoM gave the ancient keyblade wielders their role to play, and he came to do the same thing with Xehanort as well.

[@drdca8263]

Couldn’t Sora be of Player’s bloodline (or, rather, Player’s second life’s bloodline) without being a reincarnation of Player? Like, when Blue Robe is raising Xehanort, they seemingly die of old age while Xehanort is kinda young (Idr if a specific age is specified, but young enough that Eraqus thinks a year or 2 makes a difference), so presumably Blue Robe was already fairly old when beginning to raise Xehanort, So maybe Blue Robe had a child much before that, and that child might be one of Sora’s parents? Not saying I believe this is true. I don’t think so? But it would both have Sora be descended from Player while not having the “But Player can look however we chose” problem? Well, I guess if there are like, appearances that it is implausible that 2 generations later could result in Sora? Like, uh, if Blue Robe had very dark skin, then, even if both Blue Robe’s spouse and Blue Robe’s Child’s Spouse had only light-skin genes, maybe it could be implausible to produce Sora’s skin tone? (I wish I had a better example than skin tone. Whatever. (Does UX and such even have options for particularly dark skin tone? I never played it.)) Also, if this were true, what would the term be for the familial relationship between Xehanort and Sora? Like, if Blue Robe is Sora’s grandparent and Xehanort’s adopted parent, then, Would they be, sorta adoptive (nth) cousins (m times removed), or would the term be like, something in terms of “uncle” or the like? A parent’s sibling is an uncle/aunt, so I guess if Sora’s parent were sorta an adoptive sibling of Xehanort, that would be like Xehanort being sorta adoptively an uncle I guess???

[@philgaimz9847]

I forgot to comment this on the last episode, but I 100% agree with Damo that Dark Road should come before KH3! But I have a follow-up question for Damo about that: do you now also think that all of Ux should come before 3? I know that in your cutscene compilation you recommended for people to stop halfway through, but I think Dark Road heavily expects you to have watched all of Ux already, so to put DR before 3 would also mean putting all of Ux before 3. I personally think that nothing in Ux spoils anything from 3 or MoM, and similar to what you said about the Bragi reveal from DR, none of the Ux scenes that reference things from 3 or MoM would be seen as spoilers without the context of those games (especially if, like you've theorized, Luxu actually doesn't take Brain's body at the end).

[@Fragmentsinfractals488]

Xehanort is not the Player, because he is the Unchosen Chosen. Basically he is like Riku. Riku was supposed to have the Kingdom Key, but was destined to fall to Darkness, so we played Sora instead. But then, Sora rubs off on Riku, so we play as Riku, too But because Xehanort became One with our Hearts, we rubbed off on him, and We place our Memory in his subconscious. Therefore, we play as him until he falls to Darkness. Think of Memory Xehanort in Kairi's Heart.

[@philgaimz9847]

I totally think that Xehanort is lying to Eraqus about thinking that Ven is the child of destiny, probably as an extra precaution to ensure that he takes him in. I still think that Xehanort's reason for choosing Ven is the same as it's always been: because he has such strong light and darkness that he is the perfect way to summon the X-blade, and therefore summon Kingdom Hearts. Nothing I've seen in Ux or DR has suggested otherwise to me.

[@Captainkrieger7]

I really think that you guys have no idea how gacha works, because your experience with gacha is the 2 KH games, which are some of the most poorly implemented gacha systems I have ever seen. Both KH games tied the gacha mechanic to your character doing bigger damage numbers without any real connection between what you are buying and actual gameplay. In order for gacha to work, there has to be a direct connection between what you are buying and the gameplay on the screen (skins, characters, weapons, mounts etc). If Dark Road had given you the characters on the cards as your 3 playable characters instead of Xehanort + classmates, this game would have made significantly more money. I think if Missing Link ties the gacha mechanic to power the same way Union Cross and Dark Road did without any additional value proposition (e.g. buy this card and you can play as or with that character) it will fall short yet again. This will be even worse if they do NFTs of any type, as they will draw the ire of the wider gaming community. Don't misunderstand, I really like this and the previous podcast, it's just that the part where you guys talked about gacha games felt like you are just really uninformed as to why these games work and are as popular as they are.

[@Growmetheus]

Lol i love how the heads bounce up when each of you talk

[@Fragmentsinfractals488]

I theorized that like Darkness hides in Ventus, that Light from the Past hides somewhere, too. And that Light may be the Dream Eater Hearts that Sora knows. Perhaps Ephemer became one after he passed away.

[@frankhunter8703]

I may not always agree with your views on certain aspects of the series or theory crafting but I appreciate these long form discussions on the series proper and respect your work ethic and intimate knowledge of the lore

[@justincarlbrown1]

When is the release date ?

[@GhostShinigami]

So about 100 years (by average not anything set in stone, could be longer if each generation was older before having a kid) between Ephmer & Xehanort

[@InfiniteGamesDenderotto]

I think the disney worlds in Missing Link will only be enviroments for battles, with no disney story or disney characters; I guess because people from the worlds didn't came back yet, like it was said in Dark Road

[@shaeshae1355]

I feel that Xehanort when he tells Eraques Ven is the child of destiny is just him lieing to him to further his plan. Cuz when he found Ven he had darkness in him so he wouldn't think he's the actual child of destiny. Also hes been told his whole life that he is. He just saw Ven as a way to get Kingdom hearts with having one person made of full light and darkness. So the scene when Eraques forgives Xehanort is sadder and stupider on Eraqus for beliving in him because thier bestfriends.

[@drdca8263]

But what about when he told Vanitas that he did it for Ventus not for Vanitas? Was he also lying to Vanitas?

[@shaeshae1355]

@@drdca8263 My first answer was going to be because Xehanort has a hard on for the balance but that weak so I think its because He needed Ven to be stronger to fight Vanitas that's what he meant when he said he did it for Ven. Cause when Xehanort is still Vens Master he puts him against heartless and Ven can't do it. So Xehanort seeing that Ven has darkness in him (Vanitas) thinks if I take it out he will be of pure light and that will make him stronger and since Xehanort is messing with darkness and he has to get Vanitas pure darkness to be with his plan he sends Ven to Eraques so Ven wont be tainted by darkness.

[@KingPractice]

21:15 To be fair those bosses were absolutely unkillable without that method. 49:47 Melody of Memory was the first KH game I didn't buy. Looked like pure shit (yes I LOVE KH music but not that much to pay 60 bucks) compared to what I'm looking for as a player. Saved myself 60 bones by watching a 1 hours youtube video.

[@Billy193]

What a pleasant surprise to wake up to this morning

[@davidsaylors24]

@damo279 I think its simple. The person u see in the graveyard with the box and keyblade is...just luxu. Not his next vessel. Litteraly just how original luxu looks Yes. Luxu is future brain. My person theory that would be funny is. Brains future future self is also. The master of masters. Brain is the smart one afterall. I imagine he has the plans

[@mrtheorist2102]

Crazy idea what if brain arriving in scala happened first and him doing the mission going with the box after being in scala

[@lazlo_bananas8285]

(This is gonna be completely unrelated probably) I'm playing through FFXV at the momen for the first time and I can't help but feel like Demyx and Luxord are almost 1-1 the same personality wise as Prompto and Ignis. I have the feeling that since Verum Rex is the "True FFXV" as Nomura wanted, that maybe the backstories of Demyx and Luxord might actually be that they are from Yozora's world and might be part of the key (hah) to getting Sora back as well. But honestly I'm not sure at this point because a lot of the KH lore isn't as fresh in my mind right now

[@coltdeedede]

Great discussion again - something I love that Damo brought up is the shrinking of the venn diagram of folks enjoying the KH series. I find myself pondering theoretically (without any data to back this up until the launch of KH4) how many people bought KH3 thinking it was a continuation of the KH2 from their childhood, playing it for a couple hours then immediately dropping it. My biggest fear with the franchise is Square Enix thinking the sales numbers of KH3 will be reflected in future installments. Meanwhile, I feel like personally I know a lot of people that feel ostracized from the series for not keeping up with all these lore-essential spinoffs and probably wont be picking up Missing Link or KH4. Again who knows how many new generations have picked up these games and are enjoying them/ if that balances out the scales, but it's an interesting point nonetheless.

[@baladox3215]

I have a possible theory that goes along with your thoughts on what is in the black box and why Luxu/xigbar didn’t know where it was in KH3. First it was an unpossessed brain or data brain that planted the box in the keyblade graveyard so Luxu doesn’t know where it is. Second the black box contains the data backups of the dandelions. Third the fight in KH3 was the trigger for the box to reappear. That explains why ephamer and the dandelions appeared to sora. then. Possibly through his ability to connect to others. He connected to the hearts of the data dandelions. Luxu/xigbar saw this and realized the box must be back and went to get it after the battle.

[@EdgardoJCruz-dk5kv]

To be fair it was stated by Darkness in KH Union x that Ven destined to be chosen to harbor Darkness. When asked why it replied that it was written in the Book of Prophecies. This always stuck out to me, besides the whole Darkness/Vanitas reasoning, as it felt there was more to it. Dark Road only highlights further. The Child of Destiny angle just cements it to me.

[@BishopTDE]

before Luxu was given no name what was his keyblade. We know you can summon more than one. So what was Luxu's keyblade prior to the case of luxu in backcover?

[@jexusdomel5194]

i actually really liked this theory of sora being the third incarnation of the player, i dont want sora to be part of a great lineage since it would break the whole, hes just a normal boy doing good things, i still think nomura is writting with that in mind. This seems like a way to keep that more intact, if you must make him have an origin, id prefer this. i mean, the player is also just a guy who isnt particularly important at the beginning, much like sora. and yeah, the prospect of that cutscene of ephemer in kh3 being more emotionally interesting is making me really like this as well (also we thought the player was xehanort, the fake child of destiny, but it was actually sora, the true child of destiny, food for thought lol)

[@musubi8885]

Anyone else think that one of Yozora's partners in the Verum Rex commercial looks a lot like Brain, just with red hair and no feather in his hat? Besides the color, the hairstyle looks exactly the same.

[@treyparker2989]

i thought luxu was to keep the box with him and not pass it on?... if brain has the box in the keyblade graveyard, luxu is taking a risk of it being opened. I believe that since the box is with brain that is luxu after taking his body.

[@MrRobot-0]

The main problem i think people had with sark road is that they where using the sistem based on union X that is in fact a very bad gatcha games if you don't sink money on it with a horrid pacing issue and load times. Most people where eiter checked out or fallen to the cost investimet fallacy and where there just for the end of union X.

[@elbraymundo]

I had a fridge thought that Turning Red could be in a game now and I can't wait for Sora to run around Toronto, Canada.

[@smgofdvld]

I comeplety forgot about this game we got the trailer for kh4 dark road and this just didn't get talked about from square really maybe it got delayed?

[@KnightGamer724]

It's meant to come out next year, with only a beta for end of this year. That's why it wasn't talked about yet.

[@games4you485]

Guys I just realized!!! Look at brain's eyes from union x and brain from the trailer of Missing link Probably the one who has the no name is a relative of brain just like with skuld

[@lucariomew365]

Considering how long game development takes, even for mobile games. Missing Link had to have already been well past the story drafting segment before UX was completed. So I don't think Xehanort was a last second swap up. Like everyone is saying it's an I intentional red herring, which seems so obvious in hindsight. As for the player's vision of the future Xehanort in UX's closing, technically the same thing happened in Dark Road too. The Blue Robe/Player's reincarnation dies while monologues to a sleeping kid Xehanort, the Player's speech text is shown over future events that he isn't a part of, including scenes of Xehanort in Scala, mirroring what happened in UX.

[@hillaryslack2884]

I have a theory that might work to explain some of "who is the unknown characters" that is going on KH right now. I am not sure if I actually like this theory, or if I believe it but I do think it might work. First I agree with you that there are two Brains. One that becomes Luxu's student and the other that goes into the future. That the Black Coat in the ML trailer is Brain's student or somewhere down the line of students. Anyway what would be Brain's first action in coming into the future? It would be to try and save the Dandelions who are in the sleeping data. Which would also likely free the four Darknesses and the Emblem Heartless.(I do think ML is going to need a flash forward cutscene about how the Emblem Heartless disappear after DR) I think that a lot of ML is going to be about Brain trying to fix this accident. It is very possible that when Brain accidentally releases at lest the Emblem Heartless that he also gets the Data of some of the Dandelions. And copies it into a computer that doesn't need to a trap for the Darknesses. I do think that they at least try to trap the Darknesses again and that is why most of Scala is abandoned because a cities worth of people where sacrificed to try to trap the Darknesses again after Brain releases them. Somehow the new computer with the Data of a few of the Dandelions, will end up in Luxu's hands by the end of ML. Where so long as he has a spare body(without a heart or mind) he can put the Data in and have a copy of said Dandelion. As many times as he wants. Just let the Data copy interact with someone and soon they will grow a new Heart. They would be a lot closer to the Dandelion's twin, or as Roxas is to Sora rather then the same person as the Dandelion but... In this way Skuld can both be the Mother of Scala, and her Data twin can be Subject X. Ephemer can be the long dead founder of Scala and a Data program in the Keyblade Graveyard that talks to Sora has the spirits of the Dandelions come to Sora's aid. I do agree with you. I think that they only planed to have Dark Road as the game. And have some flash back to the mistake that Brain made with the computer. However with how badly DR was received they changed their minds. For this reason I think ML is going to have to have a lot of flash forwards at some point. And explain things like, why does Eraqus move to the Land of Departure, and why do the Emblem Heartless leave and not come back until after BBS. As well as several other questions that DR didn't have time to answer. In a lot of ways flash backs done in DR would have been easier to do then flash forwards in ML. However I can understand why they felt the need to do it this way.

[@EdgardoJCruz-dk5kv]

Honestly a better comparison with Xehanort & Holder feeling mutual emotions because of the latter being inside them is Sora & Kairi in KH1. All throughout KH1 Sora feels emotions at odd opportunities. He feels nostalgic with slide picture of the castle in Deep Jungle, he sees her image over Yuffie after losing to Leon, he sees phantoms of Kairi in both Deep Jungle and Merlin's House in Traverse Town, he literally dives into in his own heart to Kairi's Heart to see the childhood memory of her and Grandmother retelling the KHx Fairytale, her body responded to his outreach towards in Neverland on Hook's ship, she visibly responded to being called out by Riku/Ansem leading the reveal of her being inside Sora & causing him to clutch in pain, and she warned Sora of the attacking Riku/Ansem. That is the strongest examples.

[@sablen1319]

Let’s go

[@lyndsaybrown8471]

Can't hearts travel to whenever they existed? Like Maleficent goes from KH2 back to KHUx? So, could Brain time travel to whenever he existed or when someone has something of his and thinks of him?

[@Croftyhere]

With my adhd I have such poor impulse control. I just don't bother with gacha games. I tried union x, started spending, deleted it. I'm don't know what I'm going to do with missing link, but I'm over gacha games as a whole.

[@JoelBurger]

Really going to keep riding "Xehanort not being the Player is a retcon" huh? Hope this doesn't lead to a bunch of misunderstandings in the community because you don't want to accept that a pet idea turned out to be wrong.

[@damo]

My theory is a fun little thought that I can argue with my friend about in our podcast, but I don't really see it affecting my other content or especially the larger community. Like I said, I much prefer this outcome anyway, I'm way happier that Player gets to live on as their own person, rather than melding into Xehanort, even if I personally don't think it was originally what was being set up. Theory or no theory, I'm always going to present whatever information the series clarifies as canon as the 'facts', and whenever I speculate I always try to let people know that I am no longer talking purely about canon information.

[@JoelBurger]

@@damo I'm sure "Nobodies being able to grow hearts was a retcon" also started as a fun little thought. But it led to a bunch of confusion in the community, where people still bring it up (and still disparage the writers for it). All because they couldn't handle the idea that red herrings and purposeful misdirections exist, in KH of all things.

[@ojanis10]

358/2 days game and manga are both so good. I don’t understand the hate for it. It’s also funny to think I’m watching two chibi guys talk about KH for 3 hours

[@uberfreak2]

When it comes to the keyblades in the graveyard. It could make sense that more than one keyblade war has occured there. We already know of two, being the one in KHX and the one in KH3

[@ATCQ94]

😊 👍

[@Toxin__0]

The time scale in the Disney worlds is still absolutely absurd. At this rate the Disney characters have aged like a day between KH1 and 2

[@venus_retro2231]

I still think it can be Brain that we see during the "secret" ending for union cross, remember we don't know the scenes chronological order and I wouldn't put it past Nomura to actually give us the ending scene for missing link in union cross.

[@LOZA-DM]

lovin these Damo! please keep em coming

[@chiri-theoden4264]

Commented this on one of your Dark Road videos just kind of brain dumping, but if there's a chance to have y'all break down my dumb theory and tell me why I'm wrong, I feel like it's worth cleaning up a bit and dropping into the comments here. TL;DR: Could Strelitzia be Subject X? Thoughts on Strelitzia as Subject X? She would have definitely remembered watching those "4 friends and a key" and also would've been steeped in the art of "May your heart be your guiding key." Could also line up with her disappearance from the Radiant Garden Castle as well, since we now know she's in Quadratum. Perhaps Luxu/Braig somehow had knowledge of (or accidentally discovered) a way to send people to the "fictional world," and he sent Strelitzia there as part of her calling as the True Dandelion? We already know Luxu sent a body away in one of the pods back in Daybreak Town, and we also know Braig took Subject X from her cell -- maybe he's finishing the job of getting Strelitzia where she needs to go? Also, her unwittingly being the reason Isa and Lea join the Organization could be another extension of her "true dandelion" role (since Lea/Axel are driving forces in making so much of Sora and Roxas's journeys possible in CoM, 2, & Days, thus keeping the Sacred Book of Prophecies Timeline in tact). Maybe she's been fated to be sent around to different times and places to keep things on the rails? Floating through time and space like a Dandelion in the wind. Which is why she ends up in Quadratum to help Sora. I'm sure there are other details about Subject X that I'm forgetting that totally invalidate this theory, but I saw someone hint at this idea a while back, and have been slowly cherry picking details to convince myself it's the truth lol.

[@willsmith2942]

Subject X explicitly has black hair =)

[@chiri-theoden4264]

@@willsmith2942 Oof, forgot about that. I'm choosing to hope that was an erroneous detail from before they figured out the ending of UX lol. I mean, the player was also pretty clearly Xehanort for a few months, so I'm holding out hope haha.

[@chiri-theoden4264]

@@willsmith2942 Also, I admittedly worked this theory backwards from the two questions of "How is Strelitzia in Quadratum?" and "How can Skuld be related to Xehanort's mom and also be Subject X?" and from there, keyed in on Luxu/Braig shipping people off into the unknown, and the rest is the jumble of thoughts that stands before you today

[@willsmith2942]

@@chiri-theoden4264 If you want a bit of further fuel to your fire don't forget that Xigbar confesses to recruiting Marluxia in a KH2 FM cutscene, si your theory would add to how he found him. I'm thoroughly in the Subject X is Skuld camp though

[@chiri-theoden4264]

@@willsmith2942 I think Skuld is definitely still the most likely candidate, for sure. Plus, to be honest, idk that it would necessarily gel with KH to have a character hurtling through time & space to keep the timeline on track (feels more like a LOST plotline lol). I do like the idea of someone accidentally setting so many things in motion just by disappearing multiple times, but alas, it can't be 4D chess all the time lol.

[@ultimateshadeofwar]

I 100% agree that Xehanort not being the player is a retcon, we had a lot of these in KH and Nomura at certain points has admitted to this, it just makes too much sense from the initial cutscenes to what the end game answer ends up being. We don't have Sora suddenly connecting with someones heart and seen the future of him and then his grandson. I think it was a complicated way to make the people that played both games to want to keep playing Missing Link, which i get it. But out of all the retcons Nomura did, and i defend a lot of then, because the guy smartly leaves stuff there unanswer where he can fit answers as he see's fit, or uses unreliable narrators to explain certain stuff, just so when he decides something more concrete introduce a more experience narrator to fill the holes. Nobodies are a perfect example of this, they use an unexperience narrator on the topic, Yensid, someone who hasn't been on the role of master for a while and as such, he has not keep up with the information we obtain, and this information comes from Riku, who gets it from DiZ who is totally unreliable because of his hatred for Nobodies. This means that any information we got about then, that the story contradicts in their portray of Nobodies, which in KH2 vanilla, Demyx, Saix, Xemnas and Luxord all show signs of contradict this. Should be call into question, because what better way to make sure the objective of your hatred disappears then de-humanize then. Compare that level of leaving stuff open ended through an unreliable narrator, to your player having flashes foreward of *HIS FUTURE,* to that being retcon into, you just see the last of your days and then into the life of the child you raised... 'Cause reasons... It feels more of an arsepull then anything... Which is disappointing, he could have made blue coat work as a hook for Missing Link in a different way, of this im a 100% sure.

[@TheBossVongola27]

I think young xehanort is there also, he said he wanted 14 lives. So the last life could be in quadtradum watching things unfold and possibly meeting sora there.