This is a subject that I’ve seen many people try to figure out and put pieces together in ways that didn’t exactly make a ton of sense. Here, I’m going to be collecting what I’ve found from discussions and game clips and put my own thoughts and opinions on everything.
Ventus/Vanitas
In Birth by Sleep, many pieces were just barely touched on. Here’s what we know so far on this subject:
- Xehanort was experimenting on Ventus by forcing him to fight heartless without a keyblade.
- Ventus had issues with these tests / was not able to beat the heartless he was faced against
- Xehanort somehow separated the light side and dark side of Ventus’ heart to create another being, Vanitas. This was done to strengthen the light side of Ventus to equal the dark.
- Once Ven’s heart was separated, his heart went into a sleeping state because of the damage caused.
- Once Xehanort brought Ven’s heart to Destiny Islands, it joined with Sora’s, who was just a baby at the time.
- Ventus was Xehanort’s apprentice before the tests began
- Xehanort is originally from Destiny Island
Here’s what we do not know so far:
- Did Xehanort know that Ventus was a part of the Dandelions?
- If he did, did he know that Ventus was a Union leader?
- Did Xehanort have a separate vessel created/ready for Vanitas?
- Why do Vanitas’s outfit and Riku-Nort’s look so similar?
- Why Destiny Island? Is it because, as the name implies, it ties people to their Destiny or is it because it was Xehanort’s homeworld?
There are a couple of theories with all of this too:
- Ventus, in Union Cross, is more dark aligned then light aligned. This is gathered by the keyblade he uses. You can get that keyblade by doing the Proud Mode quests. When you get it, you find it mostly strengthens dark medals.
- Due to the dark alignment stated above, it makes fully sense as to why Ventus was so much weaker than Vanitas in the beginning and why it was so devastating for the two halves to be separated.
- When the Union Leaders found a way to leave the time they were in and go forward in time, they all seemed to be sent to different times. Ventus appears to be one of the first to be let out and seems to have amnesia from there.
- When Xehanort and Eraquis are playing chess as teenagers, it’s stated that Eraquis is from a lineage that connects to the Keyblade Masters.
Sora/Roxas/Xion
Okay, similar with before, Here’s what we know with these three:
- Roxas is Sora’s Nobody
- Roxas developed his own heart by making connections with Axel and Xion
- Sora released his heart in Kingdom Hearts 1 to create Roxas, which had them both exist together in the worlds about at the same time
- Roxas doesn’t remember the first week of him being a Nobody, which would make sense with the above statement if Sora was still active
- Xion is an artificial being created by Vexen in order to try to control Sora’s keyblade power
- As Xion does not have a somebody, her name translates into No I, as in no identity or No. I, meaning imaginary number.
- Once Xion realizes what her purpose is, she goes rogue and works with Namine to give full control back to Roxas, which in turn kills her
- As Xion had no somebody and her heart was combined with Roxas’s with her sacrifice, everyone who had a connection with her minus Roxas forgot about her instantly.
- Xion looks like Kairi because Namine was flooding the memories of Sora and Kairi into Xion as that’s where Sora’s heart had the strongest connection.
- Xion merging into Roxas is the reason he’s able to use two keyblades.
- Ventus, Xion, and Roxas were the three hearts sleeping in Sora’s heart.
- By Roxas and Xion merging back with Sora at the beginning of two, that’s why Sora became able to duel wield Keyblades as well, just like Roxas.
- Even once not merged with Xion, Roxas kept the ability to duel wield Keyblades.
- The reason Sora looks like him is because he was the second part of Ventus, he made Ven whole. Due to that connection, the heart associated the second face of Ventus (Vanitas) to Sora. The other piece of Sora is Roxas, who looks exactly like Ven. (This part is a little confusing, to be honest)
- Vexen created the vessel for Xion behind the scenes, the same way he had created the vessel for bad Riku Replica behind the scenes.
- The Replica that Roxas came back as was the one that Demyx had brought to Ienzo in the weird cutscene after Demyx and Vexen had talked about redemption. The spark during battle was the part that brought Roxas back.
- Xion was brought back by using the Organization’s data of Vexen’s experiments. When her form filled the vessel, it was a step away from an empty vessel.
- Once Xion was fighting against Sora and he stated her name did she remember her identity, the spark was made, and her heart returned to her.
Here’s what we currently are scratching out heads at:
- Why was Roxas still able to duel wield after Xion left?
- If Ven and Aqua had such a strong connection, how comes she wasn’t able to sense Ven in Sora’s heart when she met him as a kid?
So what does this all mean…
While there are still quite a few unknowns in all of this, there is one constant. Connections. That’s Sora’s specialty, always has been even before he knew what it meant. His connection with the hurting Ventus is what started this entire thing. That connection not only started Ventus down the path of strengthening his light to combat Vanitas’ darkness. Ventus’ strength was then sleeping in Sora’s heart, which made it so that when Riku was lost in the darkness, the Keyblade of Light found it’s way to Sora – from Ventus’ light.
When Sora when on his adventure, his connection to Kairi kept her safe in his heart. Kairi then saved Sora’s heart when he turned himself into a heartless to free her. This created Roxas and then Xion was created not long after Sora fell asleep to try to control the power of Sora.
The unknown of Ventus from Union Cross and how he arrived to be Xehanort’s apprentice and exactly how he lost his memories; Xehanort’s origins from Destiny Island to Scala ad Caelum and then to the Keyblade Graveyard to meet with the man in the cloak; these are pieces that while minor, may fill in a bigger chunk of story to make a whole lot more make sense.
