Not that he cared, there weren’t many other ways to get a good read on most people if he didn’t really look at them. Frisk wasn’t an exception to that particular rule, but they were in almost every other, if his journal was anything to go by.
They weren’t paying attention (so he thinks), leaving him free to sketch his fixation for that week. Their hair. Specifically the way it hung around their face like a thick drapery, stopping just past a slender chin with a few brush-like ends resting on their neck. His eyes fall to the page when he’s satisfied, his hand fast at work perfecting the outline of their jaw.
Then he looks back up, and their eyes meet his. Well, one eye. The other is closed as they wink and blow him a cheesy kiss.
“Really?” Vanitas sighs. He has enough information to finish the basics, but irritation at the details he’ll miss spill out of him in the form of his tapping pencil. “Would it kill you to not be a ham for longer than a day?”
Another Vanitas. C:
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I’ve been ghost being trash and trying to be an adult and writing a book and stuff but hoooolyyy shit you guys.
These new trailers got me thinking. It got me thinking about some off the wall shit. Some shit about Vanitas. Some shit that will more than likely never happen in kh3 but I thought about it anyway because I'm garbage.
Spoilers ahead. This is long. You have been warned.
Why does Vanitas still have his helmet on? Even if you haven't played BBS, by now you know what Vanitas looks like. His face was already shown in dream drop so him looking like Sora is no longer a spoiler. Why the helmet? What are the devs hiding?
Then I got to doing more thinking. He might not even be one of the 13 vessels and that's why they're keeping his face hidden. Aquanort threw us for a loop (and I'm living for it). Most theories prior to E3 were certain Aqua would be one of the seven lights. Now there's a good chance she isn't. Is it really that much of a stretch to think that Vanitas might not be working with Xehanort anymore? Or at the very least, that one if the 13 darknesses might be posing as a double agent?
Xehanort didn't have a use for him after he failed to forge the x-blade with Vanitas and Ventus. Something that wasn't all that important to him in the grand scheme of things considering he had this whole other, bigger plan in case that one didn't work. Why bring him back as a vessel? We're not even sure if he can be used as a vessel, since he's not technically a human but we'll get to that later.
The coat doesn't mean much to me either. Org13 only wears it to protect themselves while traveling through dark corridors. But we've already seen Vanitas use them without the need of a coat. He's also a being of pure darkness so he really doesn't need it. So why is he wearing one? To mark him as one of Xehanort's team? Maybe. Probably. Definitely. Shut up let me dream. But consider an alternative reason he might be wearing that:
Time travel.
Hear me out. That coat isn't unique to org13. We see the master of masters and Luxu wearing it in Chi. We also know that they seem to know a lot about a lot of things. I think Vanitas might have time traveled to find another way to be whole again (after failing to forge the x-blade) and in the process, found a new allegiance with the master of masters and/or Luxu.
Here's where that bit about him not being human gets interesting. YX tells us in dream drop the rules of time travel. You must leave your body behind, and a version of you has to be there to meet you at your destination. But that does that mean for Vanitas? A “version of you” for Vanitas could mean Ventus, or Sora, or...
...since he's pure darkness and darkness is everywhere at any given time, those requirements are always true. He might be able to move through time as freely as he wants.
Let me go back to that scene in dream drop. One popular interpretation is that in this scene Ventus is inside Sora's heart and reacting to Xehanort, making Ventus (and the player) see Vanitas where Sora only sees Xehanort. But what if they both really did appear to Sora in this scene? Why would Vanitas be there, next to a younger version of his former master of all people?
We don't know much about Vanitas beyond 14 minutes of screentime, the novels, and fight sequences. But he's shown to be pragmatic, smart, and manipulative. And if his reach as a time traveler is essentially unlimited, he could know way more than he's letting on.
I don't know about you guys but I can see very clearly a Vanitas who wakes up after dying in BBS to the same miserable existence. His one shot at being whole again has failed. He's desperate enough to search the ends of the worlds, through time itself, to find a new way to get what he wants.
His first attempt at time traveling is an accident, landing him in the presence of a much younger Xehanort. YX, having learned about his future through his other selves knows who he is. Vanitas, realizing what's happened, and seeing an opportunity, solicits his former master's help one last time under the guise of 'loyal student’, when really he's collecting info on how to perfect movement through time.
Once he accomplishes this he meets people (master of masters and Luxu) who are powerful. They know things. Vanitas uses coercion, force, whatever underhanded tactics he learned from Xehanort, coupled with the knowledge he's gained from time traveling to at the very least get information from them on how to become compete. Maybe even enough to join their ranks. Maybe he has a change of heart in the process. Or at least he wants to sabotage Xehanort's plan. Kill two birds with one stone The devs put him in that coat to throw us off. And they kept him in the helmet to hide his eyes.
Vanitas is in the perfect spot to play double agent. He's one of very few people that's spent a lot of time with Xehanort.
He's also never been particularly loyal to the old man either (as shown). So why would he follow Xehanort after listening to his advice basically got him killed? Why would he be blindly following him a second time after Xehanort spent years promising him an escape from his existence, only to have it shatter right in front of him?
Of course, Vanitas might not need to be a vessel in order to be part of Xehanort’s plan. He just needs 13 darknesses, not 13 soul jars specifically. Vanitas definitely qualifies, norted or not. But I like the idea of him acting on his own/loyal to someone else/playing a double agent/etc way more than continuing to be a pawn.
There's also the idea that he might not look like Sora anymore and the big reveal is that he has a new face now. But you heard him. Haley is voicing them both, again. If Vanitas has a new face they could've had him be silent until the big reveal. Or have him no longer sound human but closer to the sounds the heartless make. But that's not the case. Similar voices implies similar faces. So to me that means something else has changed. Like some kind of injury maybe, or the color of his eyes.
So yeah. That's my theory/fever dream/fantasy. Love it. Hate it. Poke holes in it. Add to it. Rip it apart. Thanks for reading.
It has been months since a real interaction between them both. Versed is constantly illusive and on the move, but she decided that today, she will come home and see Vanitas. She goes inside to find him sitting at the kitchen table. They meet eyes. They say nothing. Then, Versed slowly reaches forward... and promptly knocks a cup off of the table, staring directly at Vanitas the entire time. "Hi." Versed, you fool.
@veradis-debrosse
It’s been quite some time since he and his partner were in the same room. He feels her presence the moment she enters their home, and Vanitas is...grateful...to see her. ‘Happy’ is still one of those things he’s not sure he’s able to feel, so he’ll take what he can get.
A fleeting pause accompanies her arrival. Their eyes lock as Versed extends a clawed hand to shove yet another cup off the table, but Vanitas doesn’t react. He merely takes another sip of water while he holds her gaze. She greets him, no doubt waiting for his annoyance to flare at having broken more dishes. But there’s no shatter. The dish hits the floor with a hollow thud and rolls toward the stove. Perfectly intact.
“Hi,” he says. “Made a few changes since you were gone.” Namely replacing any dishware made of porcelain or glass with a hard, tempered plastic. If his sly half smirk was anything for her to go on, she’d figure that out in time.
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