Chapter 11: Virgin Birth (Part 3)
NOTE: The following discussions you are about to read are only assumptions and theories. Only take them with a grain of salt for the time being.
From the stories told by Kairi’s Grandmother and Yen Sid, the world in the past was filled with light. That light was a gift from the unseen world of Kingdom Hearts. Kingdom Hearts is the creator who creates everything and makes life possible. Everyone was pure light and loved the light.
As confirmed by Nomura, the Master of Masters knew about the X-Blade, and forged the first Keyblade from his heart – the No Name Keyblade. The Keyblade was forged under the image of the X-Blade. As a scientist, the Master of Masters carried out various research and wanted immense knowledge. Since Kingdom Hearts is the creator, opening the Door to Kingdom Hearts would allow the person to reborn as something greater than human – becoming Kingdom Hearts.
The Master of Masters went to search for the X-Blade, the Keyblade that acted as the protector to Kingdom Hearts. When he found it, he tried to use it to open the Door to Kingdom Hearts. However, the X-Blade was the Keyblade of Kingdom Hearts, and it could not be used against its wielder. Hence, it shattered into 20 pieces – 7 lights and 13 darknesses. More darkness was due to the prideful action of the Master of Masters.
The shattered X-Blade represented the broken relationship between Kingdom Hearts and its creations. Without the X-Blade, light and darkness became imbalance. Due to the prideful action of the Master of Masters, darkness began to spread across the world and contaminate everything. With the broken connection between Kingdom Hearts and its creations, surely the darkness would destroy everything and all creations were fated to die.
However, Kingdom Hearts refused to allow that to happen. So it gave the Master of Masters the gazing eye. This idea came from the theory made by HMK. He theorizes that the real Kingdom Hearts is green in colour since the hearts of worlds in Birth by Sleep is blue while the hearts of men in Kingdom Hearts 2 is yellow. In addition, Kingdom Hearts is depicted to glow in a faint green glow in the Kingdom Hearts Unchained X artworks. Since the gazing eye has a tint of green, along with its ability to foresee the future, it is possible that this is the eye of Kingdom Hearts.
Besides the gazing eye, Kingdom Hearts created a physical incarnation of itself – a being that had half light, half darkness in his heart – like the X-Blade. The Master of Masters brought him to Daybreak Town and took care of him. The boy was Ventus.
It is possible that Ventus is able to wield the Keyblade because of his connection with Kingdom Hearts. He wields his Keyblade backhanded, which is considered to be pretty weird. Why backhanded? Ventus is a pacifist, and he strongly objects using the Keyblade to hurt innocent people. His method of holding the Keyblade makes the blade turns inwards to his back, in the way that is not visible to whoever is in front of or at the back of Ventus. In Birth by Sleep, Ventus feels ashamed when the Old Lady (the Evil Queen in disguise) feels that he is threatening her as he holds his Keyblade in front of her. Holding his Keyblade backhanded matches his attitude as a pacifist.
Moreover, Ventus uses his Keyblade for defense purposes. He fights the Unversed because they are threats to the worlds and their inhabitants. He uses his Keyblade to assist and protect his friends or anyone in trouble. He only uses his Keyblade to attack when he is being threatened or challenged, or to defend his actions against someone who is a threat to him and his friends.
The Master of Masters feared that Ventus would be harmed if anyone knew about his true origin. Moreover, the darkness was growing, spreading across the lands. In an effort to stop the spread, the Master of Masters collected the 13 pieces of darkness from the shattered X-Blade and locked them in the Black Box. This prevented the 13 pieces in taking physical form similar to the 7 Princesses of Hearts that came from the 7 pieces of light.
Though, the darkness continued to spread. The Master of Masters resorted to protect the light. He had 6 disciples and he made 5 of them into the Foretellers. He forged Keyblades for the Foretellers from their hearts. He trained them to fight off the dark beings and gather light. Once they became Keyblade Masters, under the Master’s teachings, they created Unions. They gathered children, gave them Keyblades and Chirithies, and sent them on missions to gather light.
Looking at the land outside Daybreak Town, the Master of Masters foresaw the worlds that would come into existence. He wrote them down into the Book of Prophecies, and using the Book, he created holograms of the worlds, including the characters and the Heartless. Through this method, they could gather the light from the future characters (since the worlds were the homes of the Princesses of Hearts), and fought off the darkness from the future (the Heartless). Besides, the holograms concealed the consequence of taking the light from the lands for themselves.
The action of taking light for themselves caused Daybreak Town to flourish, but other lands became barren and fell to the darkness. Soon enough, the resistance of light grew weaker, and the darkness grew stronger. Due to greed and selfishness, darkness sprouted in everyone’s hearts. Those who had weak hearts disappeared into the darkness. They later became Darklings that stole Lux, a form of light that Keyblade wielders were collecting. The fear of darkness became apparent as it had the power to steal light, so the Keyblade wielders collected even more light for themselves, but that only spread the darkness further.
One day, the Master of Masters foresaw the Keyblade War, which was the end of the world. He tried everything he could to prevent it but it was inevitable. He also realized that he would soon meet his fate. Distraught, he went to Ventus. He was shocked to realize that nobody wanted to befriend with Ventus because of his weak Keyblade skills. Ventus refused to change himself as he did not want to fight to the extent of causing imbalance and hostility among unions. He also accepted the pain he had experienced and turned it into positive emotions.
Enlightened by Ventus, the Master of Masters planned a way to rebuild the world after the war. He made more copies of the Book of Prophecies, and gave them to the Foretellers for analysis. In the meantime, he handed the No Name Keyblade to Luxu, and told him that he would train an apprentice and pass down the Keyblade to him. He would succeed in his role due to the existence of the Book of Prophecies, meaning that he would only carry out his role after the war.
Besides that, the Master of Masters handed Luxu the Black Box. He told him to hide it and never open it. Fearing that someone in the future would open the Black Box and unleash the 13 darknesses, the Master of Masters planned to hide his heart inside the Box as well so he could return if the Box were to be opened. He told Luxu about the Box’s content and his plan, which shocked Luxu. This was because Luxu did not know about the future as he was not given the Book of Prophecies to avoid temporal paradox. Nevertheless, Luxu followed the Master’s orders and went outside Daybreak Town to hide the Black Box.
After sending Luxu on his way, the Master of Masters met up with each Foreteller individually to assign their roles. Due to a change of ideology, he corrected Ira that Keyblades were not for protecting Kingdom Hearts, which confused Ira. He also behaved like a jokester as he already knew that Ira, Invi, Aced and Gula would fail in their roles.
However, the Master of Masters was serious when giving Ava her role. Ava’s role was to gather Keyblade wielders of great potential to become Dandelions, who would survive the war. The Master of Masters must ensure that Ventus would become a Dandelion. Among the Foretellers, Ava was the best choice. Ira was a leader and Invi was too strict, they would be too intimidating to Ventus. Aced was too rebellious while Gula was a loner who regarded other Keyblade wielders as merely comrades rather than friends. Although Ava was a Keyblade Master, her young age and her friendly nature resulted in most Keyblade wielders to regard her as a friend. Besides that, Ava was adamant in following the Master’s teachings. These reasons made the Master of Masters to assure her that she was the only person suitable to recruit wielders to become Dandelions – because she was the only one who could convince Ventus to join the Dandelions.
It was possible that the Master of Masters came up the name “Dandelions” for the Keyblade War survivors due to Ventus. Ventus’ hair looked like a dandelion before it shaded its petals. His union cross avatar showed that his clothes were tinted slightly green like the stem of the dandelion. The dandelion brings forth the meaning of the sun due to its bright petals and that it only opens in day. The dandelion also means surviving all challenges and is associated with healing, specifically emotional healing. The dandelion may be bitter but it has plenty of healing properties. Many people see them as weeds, but no matter how they try to destroy them, they still survive and continue to thrive. This was what the Master of Masters wanted the Keyblade wielders to be – to be healed from the pain of the war and moved on. Moreover, Ventus means “wind” and dandelion seeds are carried by the wind. In addition, dandelion means “the lion’s tooth”. This may symbolize that Ventus had a crucial role in leading the Dandelions.
With that, the Master of Masters wanted Ava to make him a Union Leader and hand him the Book of Prophecies. Since Ventus has a different ideology than the Foretellers and other Keyblade wielders, he would interpret the content of the Book differently and prevent another Keyblade War from erupting in the new world. The Master of Masters also told Ava that only the child circled in red could read the Book, and chaos would ensue if others were to read it. This was to prevent conflict among Union Leaders due to different ideologies.
After assigning all of their roles, the Master of Masters vanished. His body faded away and his heart was released. Luxu returned to Daybreak Town just before his disappearance. Using the No Name Keyblade, Luxu guided the Master’s heart to the Black Box. After that, Luxu went to observe the events while keeping out of sight from everyone else.
Ava went to carry out her role. She possibly tested Ventus the same way she tested the Player and Skuld. However, Ventus reacted differently, much to her disappointment and confusion as to why the Master would choose him. Nevertheless, she invited Ventus to join the Dandelions. Perceiving as a new opportunity to make friends, Ventus accepted, but he still ended up without friends until the war happened.
Ava wanted to follow the Master’s teachings but she did feel uncertain about it as well. She ended up not giving the Book of Prophecies to Ventus or anyone else. As a result, none of the Union Leaders knew how the Book looked like and the content. Due to Ava’s action, the future was changed – becoming the one we currently see in this series.
The Keyblade War then happened. It was inevitable because there were too many Keyblade wielders who used their Keyblades for selfish purposes that led to fighting between unions. A war was needed to destroy all that was evil and cleanse the world. With that, the Keyblade War is similar to the Great Flood. Only the righteous ones are chosen to live and escaped from God’s wrath. The righteous ones were the Dandelions, who would not fight in the Keyblade War. They were the only ones who believed that the war was coming. Even when they tried to warn the others, they did not believe in it. During the Keyblade War, rain poured down onto the world. The rain cleansed the world, taking away all the evil. The Dandelions were sent into the Unchained Realm to restart their lives without the memories of the war. The Unchained Realm was similar to the Ark.
Data Worlds had existed during the Age of Fairy Tales. When the world fell into darkness, they too fell as well. Since the Realm of Unchained may have connections with the Realm of Sleep, it was possible that the Data Worlds ended up there as well. As darkness took over the world, the Keyhole of the world could be found and used it to assess to the Unchained Realm. This was where the Dandelions lost the painful memories.
When assigning Ava’s role, the Master of Masters told her that he intended to erase the memories of the war from the Dandelions. When Ava asked if he could do that, he replied “Apparently so.” This may imply that the Master of Masters was not absolutely sure if it would be successful. After all, memories are not really gone even if they have been removed. If the Master was unsure of its success, then why would he do it anyway?
Perhaps he did it to buy some time for Ventus. For a boy who had nothing to suddenly become a Union Leader was a drastic change for Ventus. He had no experience of being a leader. By erasing the memories of the war from the Dandelions, the Union Leaders would need not concern about it and would be more focused in guiding Ventus to be more confident of leading his own union.
Unfortunately, with Strelitzia, one of the Union Leaders, being murdered and replaced, things would not go well. To make things worse, none of the Union Leaders (except Ephemer and Skuld) knew about each other before the war. This was because Ava elected each of them privately. With Lauriam and Erlena on their quest to search for Sterlitzia, everyone, including the Player was dragged into this matter. Soon enough, Erlena might find out about Sterlitzia’s fate, and felt immense pain. Moreover, the Player was suffering from nightmares regarding the Keyblade War, and since the Nightmare Chirithy was not completely gone, it could be its doing.
From Re:coded, bugs appeared in Jiminy’s Journal because Namine had inserted painful memories into his journal. Once the Dandelions began to feel pain, bugs would probably appear in the Data Worlds, causing mayhem to the system. This might result in the Dandelions to be brought out of the Data Worlds for safety. Though, they might eventually find out that the Keyblade War did happen.
As for the Union Leaders, they would try to find Sterlitzia and rebuild the worlds. I have a theory that Destiny Islands was created from the light of Ventus’ heart. His heart was a balance of light and darkness: the heart of the world was behind the door located in the Secret Place, and everything outside the Secret Place was bright. Land was surrounded by water that represented creation, and the water reflects the sky, similar to the world seen in the Winnie the Pooh trailer. Moreover, the Paopu Fruit that binds people together through sharing was created – a potential connection with the power of Kingdom Hearts.
However, this Union Cross business would meet its end. With the “X” on their Union and on their clothing (except Ventus), bad things would happen to them. Ventus, being the insecure one, was probably the easiest to be exploited. He might be wrongly accused to be the traitor and the Union Leaders turned against him. To protect Ventus, Kingdom Hearts brought Ventus to the Realm of Darkness. The Realm of Darkness was the safest place as it was difficult to enter there and even more difficult to escape from there. Nobody with the right mind would go there. Since time flows very differently in the Realm of Darkness, Ventus remained young. He was not swallowed by darkness because of his strong light.
Soon, Union Cross met its end, and the Dandelions ended up having to leave Daybreak Town. It was uncertain what happened to Daybreak Town and the Union Leaders, but we do know that Lauriam and Erlena ended up becoming Nobodies and lost their ability to wield Keyblades.
The Dandelions might have encountered Luxu in the Keyblade Graveyard. Together they built up a city to reach the heavens – hence the name Scala ad Caelum. The city served as a seat of power for all Keyblade wielders. Scala ad Caelum, based on its name and design, was similar to the Tower of Babel. The city probably represented their pride of wanting to reach Kingdom Hearts and become like Kingdom Hearts. This unification of Keyblade wielders certainly would bring chaos. With that, Kingdom Hearts made them to have different ideologies, and scattered them across the world, leaving Luxu there.
Using the light in their hearts, the Dandelions rebuilt and repopulated the world. The worlds were scattered and separated from one another. Each world had its own rules and order. Since each of them had different ideologies, the events of the past became muddled up, or just regarded as fairy tales. Some chose to pass down the stories in a positive tone, like how Kairi’s Grandmother told Kairi about it. Some shared the knowledge of outside worlds and the Keyblade with good intentions, which explained how some characters like the Genie, King Triton and Merlin had such knowledge. Some refused to pass down the knowledge of outside worlds and the Keyblade in fear of destruction, which explained how Maleficent did not know about it until Xehanort told her.
Xehanort was born in Destiny Islands and might have the knowledge of outside worlds and the Keyblade through the stories of the past. That could be why he perceived the world was too small and wanted to explore. He ended up in Scala ad Caelum and alongside Eraqus, they were trained by Luxu. Xehanort wanted to know more about the Keyblade, and he ended up descended into the darkness. He eventually became a powerful Keyblade Master and received the No Name Keyblade. His desire to create a new world with light and darkness in balance led him to cut ties with Eraqus and went on to search for the X-Blade.
Kingdom Hearts knew that Xehanort would succeed if he was not stopped. After all, he intended to turn against Kingdom Hearts. To save its creations from his dark desire, Kingdom Hearts led Xehanort to the Realm of Darkness and made him encounter Ventus. Seeing Ventus having great potential to become his vessel, he brought him to the Realm of Light. Unfortunately, Ventus was too benign for his own good, so he used him to forge the X-Blade. Kingdom Hearts already foresaw that and chose Sora to save Ventus from dying, even before Sora was born.
Why Sora, “the dull, ordinary boy”? Kingdom Hearts chose Sora not because he had any special qualities or abilities, but out of love. Moreover, Sora mirrors Ventus a lot, making him a great candidate. Besides, Sora greatly contradicts with Xehanort. Xehanort always wants to know whether he will be worthy of the light he seeks, which is Kingdom Hearts. Even though Xehanort is the most powerful Keyblade wielder with a great ability of foresight, he will fall short to the person who is perceived the least capable to be a Keyblade wielder – Sora.
Kingdom Hearts also foresaw Ventus’ friendship with Terra and Aqua. Hence, the events of Birth by Sleep were destined to happen. “As your flesh bears the sigil, so your name shall be known as that… of a recusant.” The X-Blade was the origin of the X sigil – the one that brought the meaning of death and the letter that spelt endings. The X-Blade was like the Forbidden Fruit, causing everyone to stumble and become the “recusant” because they refused to submit to Kingdom Hearts and complied with its teachings. In addition, the games that took place before Birth by Sleep all have the sigil in their titles, hinting that nothing would ever go right in those games.
Ventus and Vanitas must forge the X-Blade to fulfill their roles. Vanitas represented darkness, evil and negativity – the ones that caused people to stumble. Ventus represented light and all that was good, but that did not mean that he could not feel negativity. Ventus’ victory over Vanitas represented that light prevails forevermore and he had overcome darkness, evil and negativity – from the past, present and future. It was worth noting that Ventus successfully fought Lucifer, Cinderella’s Stepmother’s cat, which was named after the fallen angel. This could have foreshadowed his victory. Besides that, Ventus survived even after the X-Blade was shattered, which meant that his heart was shattered as well. It was believed that in this stage his heart would vanish forever, but it did not. Instead, Ventus’ heart ended up in Sora’s heart for healing. This could mean that Ventus also had overcome potential death.
Ventus’ sacrifice paved way to new beginnings to everyone – their “birth by sleep”. This might be the reason why the game was titled in such a way – it signified a new era. Though, this did not put an end to Xehanort’s plans. Xehanort continued to find other ways to bring his plans into fruition, which in turn brought suffering to many people. He created Organization XIII in the way by manipulating people to join him. Once he managed to secure his 13 vessels, he would clash with the 7 lights and summon Kingdom Hearts. He will merge with it and create his own kingdom. This is similar to “The Greatest War” when Lucifer manipulated one third of the angels to rebel God.
To ensure that Xehanort’s plan will be foiled, Sora will have to carry out many wonderful things. To do that, he must follow his heart, like he always does. As the result, Sora can find light in the deepest darkness and pull off miracles as if it is nothing. His heart is close to the light and is connected to Ventus. Sora even ensures that his friends will not stumble to the wrong path, like a shepherd with his sheep. The most notable example is his relationship with Riku. When Riku falls into the darkness, Sora is determined to save him, not wanting him to perish. He leaves Kairi at Destiny Islands so she will be safe, and he goes to look for Riku. When he finally finds Riku in Kingdom Hearts 2, he is happier about him than his reunion with Kairi. This is similar to the parable being told by Jesus in Matthew 18:12-14.
Sora heard Mickey’s voice in the beginning of Kingdom Hearts 1, but how would Mickey know that Sora would be the chosen one? Perhaps Mickey was guided by the light, Kingdom Hearts, or Ventus to Sora? What about Namine, the Nobody created from Kairi’s heart and Sora’s body and soul? How did she possess the ability to manipulate Sora’s memories and those connected to him? Perhaps it was a gift from Kingdom Hearts so she could remind Sora about the people he must save? After all, Sora would never know that he has memories that do not belong to him and the people were hurting if Namine did not mess up his memories and then fixed them.
As for the Princesses of Heart that comes to existence from the 7 lights of the X-Blade, their roles are apparently to maintain the stability of the worlds. Without them, the worlds will fall into darkness. However, in Kingdom Hearts 3, there are the New Seven Princesses of Hearts, and unlike the original ones, the new candidates are susceptible to darkness. Why does this happen? It is possible that the role played by the Princesses of Heart is an old law. That law may have become obsolete due to Ventus’ sacrifice. As the six Princesses use their light to hold back the darkness pouring out from the Keyhole in Hallow Bastion, they lose their status and these roles are handed down to new ones. Since the role is no longer of much importance, the new Princesses are more susceptible to darkness. The light in their hearts can become dim when being plagued by negativity and insecurities. They have the tendency to descend into darkness as well.
No matter what, Sora is not alone in this fight. He has many friends and those who are connected to him, who also ends up having some form of connection with Ventus. The notable ones are Roxas, Xion, Namine and Vanitas. However, the Keyblade War in Kingdom Hearts 3 will only begin after Ventus awakens. He is the first and the last, and with the possibility that other characters connected to him will return earlier, Ventus will be the last to return – marking the beginning of the end.
