Morning all,

 

I hope everyone enjoyed the mini trailer the other day, it had a lot of details in such a short period of time. However, after some contemplation I think I have gained an understanding of the board a little better. 

 

I will divide this down into sections for connivence. Let's start with Sora alone. For me this is symbolic for two reasons. Firstly, it indicates the SoDs that we know Sora will encounter in the Disney Worlds ( I know Saix hasn't been revealed in a specific world thus far, but we have seen the other 'henchmen' and I do not believe Saix has a higher rank than this). Secondly, this could act as a resolution to Sora being the playable character during the Keyblade War. For awhile now, we have speculated how the final battle will play out- will we play as all the GoLs or only Sora- if we are to trust the board then we could see a case where Sora is the last light standing and thus has to prevail alone. Basically imagine KHII's rush, but in the Keyblade Graveyard. 

 

The captured whites- pay attention to the positioning of the whites, 2 lying flat and 3 standing up. I believe this signifies the defeated lights, however in slightly more detail. I believe that the lights lying flat will symbolise lights we will lose ( Riku/Lea etc take your pick) and the ones standing up are 'worn out' members. What is interesting is we only have 6 visible lights- if we trust the trailers, I believe that the missing light symbolises Roxas. One of the more repeating aspects of the trailers from 2017 emphasises bringing back Roxas. I believe he is the missing light piece, which is important for two reasons. Firstly, does Sora fail to bring him back? Or secondly, will we see Roxas come to the frontline? If we take Vanitas' lines about wearing Sora down battle by battle, could we see Roxas awaken to help Sora? Imagine a wavering Sora, alone and in need and from the depths of his heart, Roxas comes to help- it wouldn't be a full revival, but it would explain how he would be crucial to the story for a short period of time. 

 

Darkness Hierarchy- We can see 10 SoDs and we seem to have a level of hierarchy. I believe this is significant as it seems to indicate the importance of the SoDs, with the likes of Marluxia, Luxord and YX having a 'henchmen' role and thus being lower ranked. Also, the SoD in the far corner seems to be Xigbar- I believe this is important because throughout the series Xigbar/Braig has acted as Xehanort's right hand man- a role I think we will see again in KHIII, thus making him a different rank from the 'henchmen'. Finally, we have 3 higher pieces. The obvious one is MX being the highest rank SoD, this does not need expanding. Likewise, the two pieces next to him are likely Ansem SoD and Xemnas. Not only are they 'pure Xehanorts', but as previous final game bosses, it explains why they have a higher rank. 

 

10 pieces of Darkness- I believe this aspect is important because it could symbolise that Xehanort will lose 3 members. I believe these members are our fallen friends,  we know he has Aqua and as of 0.2 he still had Terra and if the hooded figure is Xion, that's our three friends ( it's possible Ven could fill this role still.) If this is correct, and we believe Nomura that Aqua is not fully lost, then perhaps we can save our other two friends too? Hence why on the Board we only see 10 facing Sora. This could symbolise that we will save our friends from Xehanort. 

 

Overall, this was my favourite aspect of the mini trailer and I'm hoping the expanded trailer shows us more of the Chessboard to either debunk my theory or reinforce it. 

That kinda makes sense and a good way of looking at it. Plus, Nomura did said in his last interview that Aqua can still be saved but it depends on the players effort.

That kinda makes sense and a good way of looking at it. Plus, Nomura did said in his last interview that Aqua can still be saved but it depends on the players effort.

 

I am still curious to find out what that means. Will there be multible endings? that would be the biggest surprise ever to see a Bad ending in kingdom hearts! Of course it would not be non canon since kh4 will come out eventually but still.

Edited September 12, 20187 yr by Dustin Lübbers

The Roxas part seems quite plausible and in a way it made me quite excited just to imagine it! Great Theory!

Well see the chessboard may be a red herring. There's 10 visible, but we know there are more to be seen. In the beginning of the match, Eraqus has already taken one, and during that same cut there are 2 (of the same) pieces not accounted for in the above screenshot. Also, at the beginning of the match, Eraqus has at least 10 pieces, so we can't full on say this is the 7v13 when we clearly have like 10v13(or more). The chessboard can mean a lot of things. Take the positioning as you said. Three Seeker pieces are standing on white tiles. When we first see that match we assumed each piece would stand on a corresponding color piece, but it seems the pieces...well dont matter. We need to know the rules of the chess match!

This could be the last battle of the game, where Sora has to fight against almost all the members of the Organization alone, one by one. it would be like the final battles from previous games, where we van several intense battles without a stop.