Add onto this, Xehanort’s ALWAYS had a bit more of a nuanced view of Light and Darkness as more than just extremes than his classmates, likely because he wasn’t raised in Scala. Most of Xehanort’s training life is him reconciling the Scala extremism with his own observations and opinions.
“Everyone has darkness, which must mean that it is an intrinsic part of existence. However keyblades were made to destroy darkness, and darkness is the root of evil, but it is also powerful, yet it is weak enough that it cannot stand against light so it must resort to trickery and underhanded tactics. But what about those who are full of light but are also still weak? They must have darkness which is pretending to be light! It’s a false light”. In Xehanort’s mind, it is the weak that use darkness, and yet, it was strong enough to kill most of his friends and the upperclassmen.
It’s a paradox. The light must be the greatest power in existence, but it requires keyblades to defend it. It is the source of all goodness, but it can still be cruel (Eraqus attempting to murder Ven to prevent the χ-blade from forming), the light can be overtaken by darkness if not defended.
The darkness is somehow both this overwhelming force of destruction and weak enough to be vanquished by children, it needs to resort to using vessels/puppets yet anyone with sufficient willpower can outright refuse to succumb to it, like Xehanort himself but also Riku. It is the source of evil supposedly but time and time again it is used for good, even the original Chirithies were made from darkness BY THE MOM HIMSELF
Xehanort’s philosophy ultimately becomes that the weakness of the light is simply “not real, true light”, that somehow darkness pretends to be light. The weak who harbours this “false light” supplant and steal the power of those who have “true light” and make it all more fragile. Yet Xehanort himself eventually succumbs to his philosophy, he controls the darkness (which again, must supposedly corrupt and subvert people for its own intentions, to destroy light) yet still acts in what he assumes is the best path for the future of the world, to reset it. Perhaps he could rationalize it by saying that he’s “self-aware” so the darkness doesn’t consume him.
He becomes that “false light” that he was concerned about. He disguises himself as light (with Eraqus and Terra), oppresses those weaker than him (Ven and Vanitas), and deludes himself into thinking that he is righteous, disregarding others in the process (how many times was he foiled by Sora and Riku?)
The most ironic part is that Riku’s development COMPLETELY contradicts Xehanort’s philosophy, the path was kicked off by Xehanort, and Riku’s own actions was the spanner.
Riku succumbs to Ansem, sure, but Riku does not ACCEPT Ansem, he fights his way out of the dark and becomes strong not in spite of the darkness but because of it. According to Xehanort’s philosophy, none of Riku’s strength should be real because he was weak enough to succumb in the first place, because darkness supposedly shouldn’t have any real, non hollow strength of its own. If he were one of those “true lights” capable of genuine strength, then he wouldn’t have had the flaws to succumb. Yet Riku’s strength is real enough that Xehanort no longer has any hold over the Riku who has developed, who has embraced himself in his entirely, light and darkness. Xehanort tellingly can’t actually use KH1 Riku as a vessel. There’s a REASON that red herring in KH3 exists, why Repliku was given an expanded role, because Repliku was the next best thing since Riku flied in the face of Xehanort’s conclusions.
In conclusion, Xehanort became a villain because of grief mixed with EXTREME cognitive dissonance and the need for answers.
baratheonpilled
titsay
