I know the title sounds crazy but hear me out. The Keyblade wielders in Union Cross are actually inside a fake world. Now, I'm not referring to something like the Digital Twilight Town from KH2 but more like the world of Xchi is actually in a dream-like setting. Meaning every Keyblade wielder is actually sleeping inside a pod, very similar to the Maxtrix to make it simpler. Now where would all these keyblade wielders be sleeping at? The Old Mansion at Twilight Town. Remember, these pods were used to keep Sora asleep. It also said they were used once before. Not only that, there are 7 total pods that are visible. 7 pods. 5 Foretellers. 2 hooded figures. Could these be the Foretellers, Luxu, and the MoM? Now hear Master Ava's speech again: "Weilders will flock from here and fly into the *Outside World*" The master of Masters says something like this too saying "Im going to disappear" which probably meant he's gonna leave the dream-like realm and into the "outside world". Now this doesn't necessarily mean the Keyblade War that happened inside Xchi and UC is actually fake. Remember from DDD that it was explained the worlds inside the Sleeping Realm are trapped in time. Pranksters Paradise for example. The events from that world actually already happened and it was going through an endless time loop. Could the same apply for Daybreak Town? The Keyblade War is being repeated over and over for specific players in an endless time loop. Some are just part of the dream while characters like Ventus, and Lauriam are real. So in reality, the Keyblade War already happened centuries ago. This explains why Ventus and Marluxia/Lauriam are alive here. These 2 (along with Brain) are actually inside those pods interacting with the dream. Now what about Skuld and Ephemer? Well, i personally believe these 2 are related to Xehanort in some way. Now if that is the case, this means Xehanort is existing around this time (cuz if Ventus and Lauriam really are the same age, it means Xehanort is still an old man.) So if this is like 4 years before the events of BBS, it doesn't make any sense unless Skuld and Ephemer are actually "part of the dream" just like MoM, Luxu, and The Foretellers. Now i can assume Ephemer and Ava are already aware of that fact due to their attitudes within certain cutscenes. This dream-like setting also explains the appearance of Dream Eaters which can only access the realm of sleep. Now how does Streltzia's death come into play here? Only 1 thing makes sense: Lauriam hijacked the program. With the help of Brain he went inside the Dream-like realm, killed Strelitzia, and took her place as the Union Leader (or vise versa. Brain could have killed her instead and allowed Lauriam to get in). This is why Strelitzia was killed. Lauriam wanted to take her place (or her pod) and do something within the Union Leaders. What that is exactly, who knows. But my guess is maybe he wanted to learn more about the Keyblade. So Maybe this where Marluxia created that obsession with the Keyblade and drove down the path of getting his own. Now one last thing, what about Malicifent? The current Malifcifent was seen at the end of Xchi. How did she get there? Simple. She found the "Data" Ansem the Wise hid within Sora. This is the exact Data Malicifent wanted in DDD which allowed her to access the dream-like world of Xchi within the old mansion. She put herself to sleep inside a pod in order to access the realm. What do you think though? Do you believe the world of Xchi is actually a Maxtrix like dream setting?

Edited May 12, 20187 yr by Finn and vigor

Holy crud...I had never thought about it this way! What if this is indeed the case? That everything that has happened in the game is a result of the player character sleeping in a pod? But then, what would be the purpose of doing such a thing? Would the person who put them in these pods have conducted experiments to analyze their psyche and what makes their hearts tick? Was it an animus-like attempt to revisit the past in order to find a vital clue towards something? These are questions that lead to interesting theories and speculation, and thinking about this really puts things into perspective! What we may know about the characters in the timeline of X may be radically different! You may be onto something!

 

Just imagine if that is true, though! The question would be why these people subjected themselves to being put into a fake world at all?

Holy crud...I had never thought about it this way! What if this is indeed the case? That everything that has happened in the game is a result of the player character sleeping in a pod? But then, what would be the purpose of doing such a thing? Would the person who put them in these pods have conducted experiments to analyze their psyche and what makes their hearts tick? Was it an animus-like attempt to revisit the past in order to find a vital clue towards something? These are questions that lead to interesting theories and speculation, and thinking about this really puts things into perspective! What we may know about the characters in the timeline of X may be radically different! You may be onto something!

 

Just imagine if that is true, though! The question would be why these people subjected themselves to being put into a fake world at all?

Personally i really hope its true or something close to it. Cuz the only thing i can think of that explains Ventus's situation which doesn't involve time travel is that he was a Replica that Vexen made or something along those lines. Cuz Vexen did look at Ventus with curiosity in BBS. That being said, this "replica" twist would be pretty stupid in my opinion. So saying that Xehanort found Ventus inside a pod within the Old Mansion would be a much better twist.

Edited May 13, 20187 yr by Finn and vigor

Personally i really hope its true or something close to it. Cuz the only thing i can think of that explains Ventus's situation which doesn't involve time travel is that he was a Replica that Vexen made or something along those lines. Cuz Vexen did look at Ventus with curiosity in BBS. That being said, this "replica" twist would be pretty stupid in my opinion. So saying that Xehanort found Ventus inside a pod within the Old Mansion would be a much better twist.

 

Yeah, it's a pretty dang neat concept! But you've ruled out one thing. I noticed you said that the only other way to explain what happened to Ventus is time travel. But that doesn't necessarily have to be the case! We've got the Realm Of Darkness! Maybe something happens, a far worse conflict than the Keyblade War of X, one that involves the new Foretellers heavily, and Ventus and Lauriam somehow end up being cast into the Realm Of Darkness, and there they wander, trying to survive until somehow, someway, they'd find themselves back into the Realm Of Light! Remember that Aqua stayed the equivalent of ten years inside the Realm Of Darkness, so what's 100 or so years for Ventus and Lauriam, when the Realm Of Darkness runs differently than the Realm Of Light?

I have a theory of my own, it's said that the book of prophecy can pull objects and people from the future. I think that the names MoM gave ava had ventus' and larium's name on it so she pulled them from the future. Ventus still being in the pod, and laraium being at the mansion with the other apprentices.

I agree with the union cross world being in the sleeping realm though, and as for maleficent I'm not sure where she comes in, maybe the book can pull things in on it's own accord, remember MoM knows damn near everything and he could have set it up that way.