setsugekka

Long time no see! (Man, I've been so inactive here...)
*gasps at Jack and Demyx* 👀
May I just say, that is beautiful art..... and so sad! Yeah, I can see Jack there...😭
That quote before is so MoM-esque. I can totally hear him saying that haha 
 
So I got the translated Character Files book! There were a couple things I found interesting:
First, the description for Ventus's Keyblade:
"Hinting at the future of his heart"....what?! 🤔
In Axel's, it literally says that the girl he and Isa were looking for has black hair. I already was aware of that one, but it's just weird to see it. That totally gives it away (but of course people are gonna keep speculating anyway lol)!
The description for Terra-Xehanort's Keyblade says that the animal on it could actually resemble a goat or a lion...hmmmm...:
There's several other spots where it puts "but...?" at the end of the sentence. It's annoying! lol
For Demyx's story, it translates the "old guy" part as "the old guy's bunch". And this part:
This isn't a huge thing, but in the Guardians of Light chapter, it has the section "Record of [character]'s Journey" for most of the characters, which chronologically summarizes their journey in each game they appear. For Mickey, Donald, and Goofy......it includes the part where they're in KHUX, which makes me wonder again if they really visited or not, as I've always thought they were just data simulations that the Player met in the virtual Daybreak Town projected by the Book of Prophecies... but then that shadow of someone watching Mickey and the tiny continuation of that scene in the novel makes it seem important.....
AHHH, if only they didn't put it there! It's boggling my mind.
But yeah, that's what I found! Hope I didn't miss anything.
 
Oh yeah, the new info about FFOrigins came out some time ago!
 

2.4.2022: I've collected all of the most relevant information and put it into one comprehensive doc.
It's 95 pages,  but it's an enjoyable ready if I do say so myself.
This is going to include a lot of Final Fantasy Agito and Type-0 spoilers. Probably no Melody of Memory spoilers? I'm going to dissect the MoM's identity at length. idk if you could interpret that concept as a spoiler, so... Use your discretion.
Like Final Fantasy Versus XIII which became Final Fantasy XV, Final Fantasy Agito XIII became "Final Fantasy Type-0." The game was part of the Fabula Nova Crystallis series and was meant to serve as the "ancient past" of Versus XIII. Needless to say, that never came to be the case when the Fabula Nova Crystallis was broken apart.
In 2014, a mobile game called "Final Fantasy Agito" was released. It followed the original concept of Agito XIII. It was discontinued in 2015 without reaching its proper ending and the Vita port which had been planned was cancelled for reasons unexplained. The game is now a piece of lost media, but Japanese transcriptions of the main story as well as various screenshots of character events still exist online. I've taken the liberty to translate the whole main story on my tumblr blog (nanakibh) and I've been trying to translate as many of the character events as I can find, but a lot of it is just gone and will probably never be seen again.
In a sentence, the game is about a war that continually ends the world.
This is going to take a little while, but I'm going to explain the whole thing. Because why not? You need to know this. I'm tired of seeing people not know this. Feel free to tell your local YouTube Men about this so that everybody can know. It's gonna be a while until the next game, so I wanna save you some time thinking about theories that go nowhere.
The MoM did a fairly decent job of spoiling the ending of Agito when he told Luxu about his past. I've seen people try to squint and apply it to things we've already seen in Kingdom Hearts, but... No, that was really a word-for-word description of stuff that happens in the climax of this story.
In the world of Agito, there are Agito cadets, candidates who aim to become "Agito", the name of the legendary savior of the world. Which is to say, (Phil voice) they all wanna be HEROES. The cadets attend a school on an island. The school, town, and island are collectively known as Akademeia. Akademeia is in the country of Rubrum.
Time for a little tour of the most khux-relevant places.

When you arrive at Akademeia, you'll see a fountain in front of you. It's a common meeting place for students. Many conversations are held here. At the center of the fountain is a phoenix, "the Vermilion Bird", the animal symbol of Rubrum. Each country is represented by one of the four mythical Chinese beasts. You know, like Unions. Though, I think that each cadet class is more along the lines of being what Unions are. They're all kind of competing and working towards the same goal. There are thirteen cadet classes with 0 being the most auspicious and 12 being, like, the loser bin.
When the Player joins Akademeia, they're welcomed into Class Twelfth. In the first world, Tohno and Jack are members of Class Twelfth.

When you enter the main hall, there's a prominent clock. What's it for? I don't know. But time is a very relevant symbol. I can tell you right now that time is a lie.
  
I've pointed this out before, but I'm bringing it back. It's always worth bringing this back. This is a window from the Chancellor's room, located on another floor of Akademeia that the player can't access. You can see it in cutscenes in Type-0, most notably the opening sequence. It's the same design as the Daybreak Town clock tower. If more people had taken this as the clue it's clearly meant to be, we could've all solved this a lot faster. Come on, folks, there are more games in the FNC than just Versus XIII. lol You can also find this design in the artbook.

Another variation of the design is found at the back of the classroom. The classroom is where lectures are held, but it's also where students frequently have to meet to receive mission briefings. There are also hearts on those banners. *shrugs* Because sure, why not. Kingdom Hearts.

Behind the classroom, there's a garden. That's where you'll find Deuce, tending to her flowers. She grows special white flowers that mean "the arrival of happiness" and "reuniting with someone you love." Familiar concept.

Behind the garden is the cemetery where they bury those who die in the war. That's where you'll usually find Tohno, a mysterious girl with long black hair. When the world ends and starts over, everyone forgets, but there are a few who remember, and she's one of them. Her memories are of great interest to the resident scientist, Kazusa. (She's the "Skuld" one, clearly.)

Out on the terrace, you can see the whole town down below. That's where you'll always find Jack, standing in his signature pose with his hands behind his head. This is who we're looking for! This is the boy!! Ahhh, what a cutie. If you couldn't already tell, he looks a lot like Demyx. He also has the same voice actor in Japanese.

See, conceptually, it's just... You get it? Yeah. Nomura's a funny man.
The final battle that ends the world also happens to take place on that terrace.
Final Fantasy Agito begins at the start of the first war. Type-0 takes place in the 600+ MILLIONTH world, so Agito's really goin' all the way back to the beginning.
Just when it looks like the war has come to a close, the sky suddenly turns red. Mysterious creatures appear from nowhere and begin slaughtering everyone indiscriminately. No one knows what they are. Monsters? Soldiers? Nobody knows. And they're never given any answers. Because they die. (God, I recommend reading this part the most. I cry every time, especially in the third world when Lean is with them... The hopelessness is real.)
At that time, Jack is the only one who notices that there's something wrong with Miyu, the Cadet Representative, the girl who acted as the cadets' leader.

Alas, even if he'd spoken up sooner, that wouldn't have changed anything...

Miyu had been possessed by an unknown entity. The entity (Gala) is never given a name in Agito. It's just referred to as just "???" When it isn't possessing someone, it looks like formless darkness. In Type-0, Gala has a masked form similar to Vanitas, but he has no form in Agito like Darkness.
Miyu was transformed into a type of l'Cie known as the "Judge." The Judge's Focus, also known as a "role" (seriously, it's the same word in Japanese), was to conduct trials to test whether the real Agito (the savior of the world) had been born in that world. If they hadn't, it was the Judge's job to end the world and make it start all over again in the hopes that Agito would be born the next time.
Eyes are a symbol of the Judge. They're all over the place in the final dungeon of Type-0. In Agito, the Judge's l'Cie brand appears over their eye.
The Judge is different every time. So, say, even if Jack managed to remember that Miyu was the one who became the Judge, he would've been wrong about who the traitor was in the second world. Ace was the one who got possessed instead. Tohno had her eye on Miyu, so she was totally thrown off guard when it turned out to be Ace.
I've got a lot of thoughts about Darkness here, but I'm gonna keep them to myself and continue with the story.
So just a quick recap: Miyu is the traitor of the first world. Ace is the traitor of the second world. I know that's just two worlds, but it's a lot to think about.

Corporate needs you to find the difference between these two images.
Ace shares a number of similarities with Ventus, so seeing him getting possessed by Ye Olde Unknown Entity is kind of amusing. Ace was known as "the one closest to (becoming) Agito." In a Kingdom Hearts sense, that's gonna make sense in a second and should illuminate the reason why Ventus is so special.
Anyway. Even if they defeat the Judge, it isn't enough to prove that they have the power the Judge is looking for - the "Power of Bonds", a power that connects people together. (It's Sora's version of the Power of Waking. Like, you get it, right?) Supposedly, the power can reveal the gateway between the mortal world and the Unseen Realm. The only person who has that power is the Player, but... Well, I mentioned that this game was discontinued, right? So the Player is never able to use their power.
By the way, don't get the Agito Player and khux Player confused. They're totally unrelated. I sense no connection. I'm pretty sure that Sora is supposed to be the Agito Player because, like, he changes destiny. That's why he's so Special And Important to Xehanort and the MoM.
So you see, the entity and the cadets both want Agito. For the entity, Agito's power can help them reach the Unseen Realm. For the cadets, Agito's power can free them from their destiny of war.
The war basically exists to find Agito, so........ I wonder how this info would make Sora feel.

Jack is Very Angery that he can't become Agito. But he kind of resigns himself to that fact pretty quickly and decides that the world he'll protect is "the world within the distance his blade can reach." In the worlds to follow, he just straight-up says NAH, WE CAN'T DO IT. In Type-0, it's unclear, but in Agito, it seems pretty obvious to me that he's that resigned because he remembers what happened.
Final Fantasy Agito was supposed to "rewrite" the ending of Type-0 where Class Zero all die. But since the true Agito never arrived to save them, you can assume that they were trapped in a continuous spiral of war forever. More specifically, Tabata said that he wanted "the past to save the future." Sooo... Isn't that KH3?
Lean and Tohno put on cloaks and step outside of time in search of the one who could overwrite the world's destiny of destruction. So, now you understand why Luxu encouraged Sora to use the Power of Waking, right? Lean and Luxu had the same mission. I feel like I could write a whole post just about Lean because he's a very entertaining dude. Suffice it to say that he's the perfect combination of young Luxu and older Luxu. He's the "token evil member" of Class Zero. (Depending on how you look at it, they're all evil.)
Since they didn't have the time to reach the proper ending, Player doesn't succeed in becoming Agito, but Lean expresses his belief in them.
Luxu seems weirdly fixated on Sora and Ventus's eyes and I think this is probably why. Their eyes have the "light of hope." When Xehanort referred to Sora as their "hope" I was like THERE IT IS!
Now, back to our boy Jack.
He's interesting because he's one of the few who seem to remember the things that happened in previous worlds. I unfortunately don't have it, but by the third world, he has an event called "Say, if there were other worlds..." in which he almost assuredly talks about what he remembers and what he's probably figured out about the nature of the world.
Jack is determined to keep everything he knows to himself, though. He doesn't want anyone to worry. As a result. he ends up losing his ability to feel emotions.
This explains a lot of things, but it also makes him sound so sad........ Jack is always easygoing and cheerful, but apparently that's just an act. The reason why he acts so cartoonishy over-the-top must be because he's overcompensating.
I feel like this would explain why the MoM sounds legit morose when Young Xehanort talks about how he feels it's important to understand the emotions within hearts. (Is this why the Book of Prophecies emblem looks like a Nobody emblem...?) The fact that Jack can't understand emotions is one of the reasons why he fails as an Agito candidate and can't save the world. He can't form genuine connections. The only one who can connect with him is Player, and, as I've said..... That'd be Sora.
I don't know the context behind Player making Jack feel anger, but we sure have already seen Sora make Demyx display anger. Everybody's gotta start somewhere. They started on the wrong foot. lol
btw, the character events are known as "Kizuna events." Kizuna means "bond." So, literally, it's an event where the Player forms connections with characters. There's a little timed section where you would rapidly tap a heart to earn kizuna points, and the heart looks like THIS:

Is Kingdom Hearts Agito or is Agito Kingdom Hearts? Who can say, tbh.
Anyhow, I think that having no emotions might also be smart for the MoM. In the case of khux, Darkness can possess people and manipulate them by using their emotions against them. If the MoM doesn't have emotions, Darkness can't use him.
When they were little, Jack brought back Deuce's smile by doing a silly dance. Ever since then, she trusted his optimism. In the novels, she finds out that his smiles are fake and it makes her feel like everything she knows is a lie. Likewise, he believes in her kindness, but she secretly doesn't believe she's really as kind as people think she is because she has to kill people in the war. So, y'see, MoM and Ava both admire something fake about each other. It's disastrous. *chef kiss*
...Have I mentioned the band yet? I HAVEN'T MENTIONED THE BAND. God, I'm sorry. There's just so much going on here. It's hard for me to even tell where to start.
I don't have the full scene, but I have enough to know that it sure did exist. lol Jack enlisted Player's help to find people who would form a band with him. It seems like he really wanted to call himself "Angel Jack" as his stage name. Kinda ironic, but cute. I'm not sure what instrument he played in this world, but in the alternate ending world of Type-0, he plays drums. Theoretically, he could've played a different instrument in every world.
I'm also very amused by the fact that Jack is canonically the strongest cadet. Possibly the strongest human character. For real, it says this in his profile, and the Ultimania shows his strength stat going to the edge of the grid. lol
He mastered the blade -- Jigen-ryuu sword style in specific, a style that focuses on beheading the enemy with one powerful downward strike across the neck from the shoulder. The style teaches that one should ALWAYS keep their blade sheathed to avoid killing at all costs. It's not a style made for long, sustained battles. Jack acts like a coward, but............ Rest assured, if he wanted someone dead, they'd be dead. He just can't do anything in between. It's all or nothing.
He's most useful for taking down large enemies with a lot of HP. He does have one special move called "Transience" (JP, "Transient Crimson Blizzard", evoking the image of a shower of blood.) that can instantly wipe out a whole field of smaller enemies, but it costs him everything but 1 HP. For that move, he plunges a hand into his chest to grab his heart and forges a phantom blade in his other hand out of his SOUL. One of his profiles says that he avoids using that move in front of others because he knows how it would make them worry.

idk, I think this more than explains how the MoM forges keyblades. lol
Battle of a thousand Heartless? u are like little baby, Sora, watch THIS. *kills all the Heartless and frickin' dies*
Since he isn't built for running around, most of his other moves involve watching and predicting the enemy's movements to deliver 1HKO's. When he counters, he excitedly shouts, "I predicted that!" (The word he uses for "predicted" combines the kanji for "seeing" and "cutting." Neat.) The original Japanese names of his counter moves are "Clear Mirror, Still Water" and "All-Seeing." The localized names are incorrect. Don't trust them.
Yozora's fighting style seems really similar to Noctis's, so I'm going to guess that MoM's similar to Jack. So he's a glass cannon. But battles with him would probably be frustrating and short. I would expect to die a lot. Frequently. I hope he stays "on our side", like Demyx told Riku. lol 
He's part of the idiot trio; him, Cinque, and Nine. They're all a different type of idiot. Just by reading what I already posted, I think you can tell that Jack isn't actually stupid, though. He can erase things from his mind. Having an empty mind is actually really important for his technique. Jigen-ryuu incorporates "munen-muso" which means "no desire, no thought." The idea is that the body can move freely and react more quickly when unencumbered by the processes of conscious thinking. On the battlefield, he's an emotionless murder machine!
This is cute, so I feel like sharing it. His fear of Queen is amusingly similar to Demyx's fear of Saix in the KH manga.
Queen also happens to be a berserker... Interesting. She's also the one who seems like Invi, so now I'm just going to be waiting for Invi to go feral.
This reminds me of another very relevant similarity...
Jack is a frequent practitioner of the tactical retreat. Most of the time, if he shows up in someone else's event, he causes problems and then exits by running away.
Usually, the problems he causes lead to GOOD things happening. That's why nobody outright hates him. He's not trying to do bad things just to mess with people. In most cases, he's actually trying to do good things. It's just hard because he doesn't have real emotions and he doesn't know what's appropriate. It seems like Seven is among the few who figured out what's going on with his emotions, so even if she's strict with him, she's sympathetic.
Now, as for the rest of the Foretellers.
Consider the following...

Deuce, The Power of Kindness
Deuce is the aforementioned friend of Jack who spends her time tending flowers in the garden. Fellow lover of music. Her weapon is a flute. She's known for being kind and docile, but she can also be firm. Because of how close she is to Jack, she's one of the few people who can break through his act and really make him be serious. Jack mostly keeps a watch on her from a distance, probably because he's afraid of hurting her. He encourages Player to be her friend.

Eight, The Power of Tranquility
Eight is a discerning lad who likes to visit the garden occasionally to check on Deuce. One time, he stepped on her flowers and he was just about ready to commit seppuku to atone for it. Seeing her cry is just too much for him to handle. Nice guy, but can also be a bit of a snarky asshole, especially towards Nine. He's known for being the calm, rational one, but once he thinks he's right, his judgement gets clouded by his own prejudices.

Nine, The Power of Action
Nine is a big questioner of authority. Strong but stupid. Always acts before he thinks. If Jack has a stupid plan, he makes Nine take the fall for him. In a way, I'm totally not surprised by how things turned out for Aced. Even the way the MoM acts a little annoyed with him is so... Jack. Yeah. I feel bad for him. At one point, Nine stands up for himself and actually tells Jack that he won't let him use him, but it totally goes over Jack's head because - reminder - Jack doesn't have emotions. He can't comprehend when he's hurting someone. Aced, Nine, I'm sorry you have to deal with him.
btw, he has a move called "Primal Roar." So when Ava suggested that he "growl at them"......... That actually would work. He yells loudly and it does damage.

Queen, The Power of Wisdom
Oh, Ms. Student Council President... I guess I've come to the conclusion that Queen is the female equivalent of Saix. lol She's one of the few people who can keep Jack under control. She's good at filling the role of an authority figure, but she's bad at controlling her emotions, so if she gets heated, she'll snap at people, and that leads to some very unfortunate situations.

Trey, The Power of Knowledge
This is Trey. He knows a lot. He probably knows more than anyone. But Jack knows things I'm sure Trey doesn't know. And that's scary.
On Jack's behalf, I would like to apologize to everyone. Are you getting the theme here yet? Jack lowkey treats everyone like shit and they're just like "Well, that's Jack. He means well, I think."
But anyway, you can usually find Trey in the Crystarium, aka the library. He loves books. It drives him nuts if there's something he doesn't know. Ira's whole reaction to the Book of Prophecies is textbook Trey behavior. If there's someone who knows something he doesn't know, that's the most frustrating thing in the world to him.

Lean Joker, The Power of Suffering
I don't have conveniently matching images of Luxu and Lean because Lean got horribly shafted in the transition to Type-0 and he barely even appears in that game. He didn't even HAVE a face until Agito... ("Mother!" lmao do you get it? I'm gonna launch Nomura into the sun.)

(edit) I feel like my description wasn't sufficient before, amusing as it was... So here you go. I've rewritten it. This is the most elaborate description you'll find of Lean Joker anywhere.
Originally known as Lean Hampelmann, Lean is the adopted son of Marshal Cid Aulstyne. He's known to be the greatest engineering genius Milites has ever seen. Members of the military seem to think of Cid like their own father, so some members, such as Qun'mi, resent Lean and feel jealous of his close relationship with him. She's willing to do everything for Cid, including sacrificing her own life. Despite her resentment of him, Lean thinks of her as a sister and is terribly distraught when she does go off to sacrifice herself for the sake of fulfilling Cid's will. That's a concept that Lean also seems to be obsessed with - fulfilling Cid's will, to unify all of Orience under the banner of the White Tiger. Essentially, to eliminate war and bring peace. But, like, by force.
He creates the Ultima Bomb, a nuke so powerful, it wipes out the entire massive country of Lorica. In nearly every cycle. Out of all of the millions of cycles. He's also the one responsible for most of the Empire's Magitek Armor units. Even in the cycles where he doesn't take part in the war, his creations still somehow come into existence which seems to suggest that they were part of the world's destiny... And it makes his existence seem futile. Even if he isn't the one doing evil, the evil finds a way to bring itself into existence.
In front of Cid and the rest of the military, Lean acts like a dutiful, respectful son. He's usually very softspoken, anxious, and timid. But when he's out in the field, he discards that side of himself and becomes like a totally different person. He taunts the Rubrum cadets with a cocky attitude and seems to take pleasure in causing them distress. Like the cadets, Lean also aims to become Agito. Of course, the cadets don't understand how a sadistic person like him could ever become the savior of the world. Lean thinks of them as his rivals and displays a certain level of respect for them as a result.
In the Agito gaiden chapter which was meant to serve as an abridgment of the game's third cycle, Lean comes to Akademeia as a goodwill ambassador from Milites. Most of students seem to like him because he's friendly enough, but his timid side lets him get pushed around a little. When Tempus Finis comes, he goes to Milites with Machina, Rem, and Player. Even though there were too many Rursan soldiers for them to fight, Lean refused to leave his Militesi comrades behind... Rem and Machina had to tear him away because he was so distraught, he was unable to even realize that the Militesi soldiers were already dead. This goes to prove that he isn't as cut out for fighting as he pretends to be -- he's actually a weak, emotional person at heart.
After that cycle, Arecia decides to "discard" him, ordering him and Tohno to wander forward to find the true Agito in one of the future cycles. As a result, Class Zero forget who they are and their identities remain a secret forever after. His Power of Suffering seems to represent the pain he feels as he watches the war repeat every cycle. The Nameless Tome declares the Power of Suffering unnecessary because "the divine spirits did not desire to ascend." In the cycle of reincarnation, suffering brings one closer to enlightenment, whereas ignorance distances one from enlightenment. Although he has a lot in common with Jack, this is one area where they're very different. Jack feels nothing, but Lean seems to feel EVERYTHING. He was probably able to understand why Class Zero were incapable of saving the world, seeing their flaws, watching them fight each other, but he and Tohno were powerless to change destiny.
Because Lean is just a scientist, he doesn't do a lot of fighting. But when he does, he pilots a Magitek Armor unit he built himself called "Leraje." (It shares its name with a demon. It's pronounced leh-RAH-jay.) He's shown to have a katana in artwork, but he never seems to actually use it. In Type-0, he only uses projectile magic. As long as you have the "Tiz's Prayer" key item, he'll randomly come to Class Zero's aid as an SP unit. His stats show that his blade is named "Unknown." (Yes, that's literally the name. It's written in katakana as アンノウン.) He's a master of disguise, choosing the appropriate attire to hide his identity wherever he goes. When he appears before Machina in Milites, he wears the masked Militesi uniform. In Rubrum, he wears one of their long, hooded cloaks. When he joins you in battle, he's equipped with an Invisibility Cloak that always makes him totally invisible besides a faint outline. Even if you have Tiz's Prayer, the odds of having him join you are VERY, VERY RARE.

Here's a clip of him in battle. It took me hours to get this. lol When he joins, he says "Jeez, you're hopeless." It's a little hard to see him due to his invisibility status, so look for his outline. He really ran in and completed the mission for me...

Jack, The Power of Ignorance
We already talked about this guy. Total cryptid. Definitely Demyx. lol I think that everyone who's into Type-0 would agree that Jack is a genius. He doesn't have conventional intelligence like Lean. He doesn't have a lot of textbook knowledge like Trey. He doesn't have Queen's mature wisdom. But he's crafty and manipulative af. Serious cult leader vibes. Very lovable, but also...... The scariest character due to sheer deadly potential and unpredictability. Nevertheless, I would trust him.
Despite his laziness, Jack has a heroic side. It's complicated because even that is just an act. He WANTS to be a hero, but he has no choice but to pretend to be one because he can't really BE anything. He's just constantly swapping masks and one happens to be "hero." There's another scene I unfortunately don't have, but apparently he admits to having no strong sense of self. He has to ask Player what they think he's like because he doesn't know. And then he tells them something along the lines of "I guess I'm whatever each person thinks I am." *gestures at the MoM's convo with YMX*
In Agito, he has a persona he refers to as "the gallant, unknown swordsman" who's like a mysterious hero who randomly jumps to the rescue of others. In Opera Omnia, he expresses a similar interest; "Being the cool leader type is good, but being a nameless hero who rescues people from the shadows ain't so bad, either!" The characters from other games encourage him to try, even though the ones who know him doubt whether he could pull it off.
The characters from other games also actually admire his laziness and recognize his brilliance because of how cleverly he bends people to his will to get what he wants while avoiding trouble.

Speaking of Opera Omnia, when Jack was first introduced, the others only saw the large slash marks left in the ground from his sword along with the dead bodies of dozens of giant monsters. They consult Cloud at first, thinking it was a sign that they were going to run into Sephiroth. Cloud can tell that it wasn't the work of Sephiroth because Sephiroth would never create so much carnage without a reason. ...Jack was just bored, so he slaughtered the local monster population.
Here's a small Jack compilation from Type-0 if you wanna hear what he sounds like. Considering the overall serious tone of the game, his silliness is a hilarious tone-breaker.
I feel like I should give King an honorable mention. I'm preeetty sure King was one of Nomura's favorites because when Nomura appears as an SP Unit (Random NPC units that can assist you in battle. Most are named after staff members.) he's represented by King's model. King and the MoM share the same Japanese voice. The MoM and King aren't alike in any other way, though.
Oh, want another fun Jack fact? Deuce is associated with white flowers, but Jack is associated with clover.

Like Deuce's flowers, white clover means "happiness" and "think of me" in hanakotoba. I guess that makes it an honorary reunion flower. It's drawn a bit abstractly, but I'm preeetty sure the MoM is holding a white clover on the KH2.8 boxart, too. Could be a dandelion, but... Placing my bets on clover, seeing as how there's that whole scene in Back Cover where he picks one.
Sice finds a four-leaf clover and gives it to Player because she heard from Jack that it's good luck. She also picked a flower by the road on her way back from a mission to give to Player after asking Deuce what the flower meant. It's just cute to see them spreading this flower-related superstition around the school. lol
Strangely, besides Ace, Jack is also the only cadet to be mentioned in an Agito chapter title; "The Carefree Cadet's Departure For the Frontlines." The chapter is about how his fake smiles fail to keep everyone calm as the war begins to turn against them in the second world. More MoM behavior.
Ugh, I love him.
Okay, this post is huge. I didn't even get to talking about Ven and Lauriam. And Strelitzia... But if I keep going, I'll be here all day. If somebody wants me to explain that connection, let me know.
So what's the conclusion?
Demyx is the young version of the MoM from the first world. Probably. That's the vibe I get from this.
I have no idea what the MoM plans to do in the future. Maybe we'll finally find out how Agito XIII and Versus XIII were supposed to be related. The shot of the MoM standing in the city is very similar to concept art from the cancelled Type-0 sequel, Type-Next. So, whatever's going on, I think that was always meant to be the next stage in a way. iirc, the city in the Type-Next art is Hong Kong, so, like Shibuya in KH, it was based on a real place.


The person in the Type-Next stuff looks like Ace, but he's wearing samurai gear. tbh, it makes more sense for Jaaack to be in samurai gear, but... Whatever. We don't even know if that was really Ace. It might've been a different Ace, like an Ace from the past or future or another world. So on that note, Demyx and the MoM could be the same guy, but from two different times or worlds, existing separately in the same space. But I think it's way simpler to assume that Demyx is just the MoM now. I don't wanna complicate it in my mind more than I have to. lol
Also, obviously, I'm not saying that the MoM IS Jack 100%, just like how Yozora probably isn't 100% like Noctis. But he SURE IS SIMILAR SO FAR.
Needless to say, I recommend reading FF Agito on my blog. I also recommend playing Type-0, but it's not the same game AT ALL. Part of me wonders if Agito and khux ran concurrently because Nomura wanted people to figure this out. But OH WELL. IT'S GONE NOW.
I could probably keep going, but omg... I'm done, I swear. I'm forcing this post to end now.

*crawls out of the earth*
Hello. Look at this.

For a longass time, I was worried that they were just going to rip off Type-0 without acknowledging how similar these two are, but here we go.
Why did it take me so long to notice this one? idk, I'm blind. I'm glad I noticed, though.

I've probably shared it before, but Ava's is my favorite. And it's relevant, because...

These are the renders they used for Jack & Deuce's chapter in the novel, Change the World -The Answer-. I got my own copy! Jack's characterization in this is so MoM-like...
I am TORMENTED. This is a direct ASSAULT on my sanity.


There's some very faint text in the bottom right corner of that image... See it? Final Fantasy Agito XIII. This was the concept art for the ending of Agito XIII. I got this from the Type-0 artbook.
In the pic, it looks like Cater is holding one of the other girls as the light is leaving her and floating away. You can faintly see Akademeia in the distance, toward the rising sun. Meanwhile, the members of Class Zero are trapped in the foreground with the darkness as they await their fate. You can see Jack in his signature pose, standing with his hands behind his head. This is a moment of tragedy and he's still pretending to be relaxed... I can't handle this, man. 😭 
There might be more that I'm forgetting, but those are the two new things that Actually feel like something to me at the moment.

Sorry for disappearing for a long time again. lol I didn't have many new thoughts.
HMM... I'm pretty sure Pete also met the person... So it couldn't have happened in the age of fairytales, right?
I still think Xigbar is probably the most likely answer right now.
I think that the worlds in Re:Coded were probably looping like that. I can't remember if they mentioned it in the game, but I would assume that's the case. They were based on what was in the journal, so they would probably only encompass the time the journal recorded.
It is kinda funny how the journal makes Jiminy sound like he has so much unexplainable knowledge. lol Jiminy is the MoM.
 
I did some more translating. Just the tail end of Vexen's character file where he talks about Demyx. Cherrim's was pretty different here.
Gotta wonder how much of this is going to be relevant to anything going forward. I'm not even sure how to take this since I don't think Demyx knows anything about who he really is. khfsjddfjh LIKE. AM I WRONG??? LMAO
idk, maybe it'll become ironic later on, like he was more like "himself" when he didn't know about himself. That'd be interesting.
Actually. Sudden thought. If this is suggesting that Demyx never loses sight of himself, doesn't that sound like how the Foretellers are able to resist the Darkness...? Huh.......... Now I'm wondering what would've happened if Xehanort had tried to use Demyx as one of his 13. Maybe it's not that deep. But now I wanna know. lol
It also sort of reminds me of how Jack told the Agito Player that they wouldn't change, even if they lost their memories.
 
I just played NEO: TWEWY! Before it came out, there were some people who had theories that it was connected to Kingdom Hearts. Nomura came out and said that it was unrelated. Nevertheless, people continued to craft theories anyway because they think that Nomura's playing 4D chess 24/7 and they refuse to take anything he says at face value.
The question is... Was Nomura telling the truth? Does it REALLY have nothing to do with KH?
Only some very minor spoilers here, but I'm going to hide it anyway.
There's also something I want to talk about in regards to Square-Enix's marketing and the things they show in trailers. If you intend to play ntwewy and haven't watched the trailers yet... Don't watch them. They had the same problem as KH3's trailers where they gave away too much - which is why I didn't pay much attention to them before playing.
However, there is something I found interesting, and it has to do with a particular reveal. This one is a definite spoiler.
I fear what the next KH game trailers will be like.

Oh, I did hear about it! The fact that they're related to FFXV and Type-0...HMMMM.....yes, perhaps Tabata is doing that lol
Interesting! Yeah that definitely does not sound like Demyx 
That's awesome!! 

I was looking through Jiminy's Journal (*ahem* I-I mean, watching a Youtube video going through its entirety) in hopes of finding more mysterious stuff, and I found this section that triggered a "?" in me:
"Time can be made to loop infinitely" reminds me of Agito and Type-0......wait, when in KH was time looped infinitely in a datascape...?? And this is Jiminy's Journal after all, so it'd have to be an event Jiminy knows about, I assume. Hmm...I pretty much skimmed over Coded so maybe something happened there that I'm not aware...? Hrrmm, guess that means I need to watch Re:Coded again.
Okay....I'm starting to doubt that Jiminy is writing his own journal LOL. Yes, in one section, it's written, "...at the time of this writing...", and also Jiminy says "I" multiple times. BUT. 
Uhhhh...yeah, how would Jiminy Cricket acquire this knowledge??? kek
Hmm.....but how did Maleficent know that it was hidden since that time? It's gotta be that 'dingbat in black' who told her. *SIGH* I wanna know who exactly that is!

Don't worry about it. Real life has been kinda stressful lately, so I haven't even been thinking about KH stuff as much as usual.
Nice catch. I think I saw that before but I brushed it off because I didn't understand. It probably wasn't a dream so much as him accidentally visiting the Final World in his sleep... Or being pulled toward it, possibly by someone. Hm... Hmmmmmm...
 
I don't know if you heard about this, but we got some pretty big news recently. Apparently Tabata has been working on two big titles with his new company. And apparently they're working together with another "major company." Here's an article about it. One has already finished pre-production, and he described it as being like Type-0. The other is a "nomadic" game like FFXV. Naturally, everyone in the Type-0 discord were losing their minds. We're hoping that Tabata's trying to beat Nomura at his own game. It'd be awesome if these new games are basically sequels or spin-offs but with all the names changed for copyright reasons. lol
Oh, here's a fun lil thing I did recently. KH2FM added this scene where Demyx comes right back to tell Sora about the Absent Silhouettes.
I retranslated it.
I just love the characterization here. The reason I retranslated it was because I thought something about the localization sounded weird. There are some differences, but... Surprisingly, he really sounded like that. Very un-Demyx-ish. If I didn't know who was talking, I would've thought this was someone else.
Someone from the Type-0 community shared her collection of miscellaneous Agito screenshots with me. There were a couple interesting tidbits in there. I'm thinking about making a tumblr post with those. The really exciting thing she gave me... Was the Agito novel!!! Finally, I get to read it!! I've been totally blown away by how much its descriptions of Lean sound like Luxu. It's so good... I love that creepy, sneaky little guy.

I'm so sorry for the incredibly late reply! Gosh, I didn't notice how much time had passed by already...
Hmmm....that's interesting. So Demyx could be referring to not just Xigbar then.
The author of the novels (Tomoco Kanemaki) wrote these lol

I haven't found anything interesting lately , except this one weird Xemnas line I found while watching 358/2 Days the other day:
....Kingdom Hearts (at least the artificial one) is the crystallization of all hearts?? Wonder what that's supposed to mean....
edit: Wait....I just found out that the tutorial where Sora is in the final world and meets that watery Darkside was....his dream:
This is from Jiminy's Journal. 
If he saw that Darkside in his dream....hmmm...since the Final World and dreams are like bridges between reality and unreality...and the MoM is in unreality at some point in time....wait....I feel like there's something here but....hmmm...

It's strange... In the regular world of Toy Story, all of the toys can move and talk on their own. That's normal in their world. But in the "copy" world, Buzz is able to use his blaster and the Gigas are also able to shoot their laser cannons as if they were real. So even though the world is a copy, it seems to be making them all more "real" somehow... I'm sure it's supposed to mean something, but I don't know what. lol Maybe that there's no difference? Something like that? Or the whole "It's a matter of perception" thing again.
Well... It seems like too much of a coincidence to believe that the video game version of Verum Rex has nothing to do with the "real" world of Verum Rex. Reminds me of that idea I had about "Kingdom Hearts" (the world) actually being a video game. (Because it really is a video game irl. lol We're playing it.) If that's not where Nomura goes with it, then that seems like a missed opportunity to me. If he doesn't use this opportunity to make a point about the game itself, then what IS the point?? (Not that there ever HAS to be a point... But it's always satisfying when there is one, especially if it's delivered well.)
Xion's death is also still really strange and interesting, too... Watching it again, it looks like an early PS2-era imagining of the crystallizations seen in the FNC.
I just rambled about it for like two paragraphs, but none of it was helpful or interesting. lol I dunno! I just dunno! All I can say is that I feel like we will get an explanation for that at some point.
EDIT:
So I just need to meeeention something... I spent a long time yesterday staring at Demyx's character file in Japanese. I basically retranslated the whole second paragraph.
Originally, Cherrim and I both read the last line of this paragraph the same way, assuming that it was "In the end, I hung out with the old guy a lot." But the grammar on it is very........... *squints* I think it's very understandable how we both came to that conclusion, but I think we were wrong. idk if you want me to explain the grammar. lol It truly bended my brain for hours.
So, this is a painful blow to me because it means he probably wasn't referring to Xigbar... But it's not like I'm totally disappointed with the new interpretation this gives me. I'm still intrigued by the fact that he isn't mentioning any of these "old guys" by name. It feels like he's totally overlooking them. Since it seems like this is about the original Organization, the old guys would be Xigbar, Luxord, and Xemnas - the three older guys who didn't seem to be friends with anyone else. My original point still stands; the fact that Demyx noticed that there were already a lot of friend pairs in the Organization lends to the question, "Well, who's supposed to be the friend HE'S paired up with?"
(softly) I don't trust the person who wrote these...
The bright side is that nothing has changed about my impression of the last paragraph. Unless there's some other guy he knew who was always saying "May your heart be your guiding key", that part's still about the MoM.
idk, maybe Cherrim and I were right to begin with and I'm overthinking it. The official English copy is still a ways away... We'll have to see what they think. (If they change something about that last paragraph, I'd lose my mind since I'm 100% sure on that part. lmao)
Edit #2: Actually..... Technically... Since "yatsu" is such a flexible word, he could be saying "That 'may your heart be your guiding whatever' THING" instead of "guy." BUT, he does say "aitsu" which is definitely "he", a specific guy. I'm looking at twitter again and I'm happy to see that Japanese fans were also going "Wait, who would Demyx know who says that all the time??" God bless. lmao But seriously, the person who wrote these wrote his voice in the most casual way possible and it's infuriating. He doesn't sound like this in the game.

Hmm, I never noticed that. Wait, I actually never noticed that! HMMMM.....
That would make much more sense if Game Central Station led to all the video game worlds.
Oh my gosh that line....everything YMX is so confusing.....
Why DID Sora come from the Verum Rex video game?? How come Donald's magic made their clothes match the Verum Rex video game???? Why was it Verum Rex specifically??? Ah me confused. 
Wait....the Toy Box that Sora, Donald, and Goofy was the fake one, right? Sora is from a fictional video game in a fake world.....what's that supposed to mean, if it even is supposed to mean anything.
HRRMMMM.....there definitely is a connection. But exactly what it is I have no clue. My head......
.....Nomura said that Quadratum is the world of Verum Rex.....but, the video game Verum Rex and the fictional world of Quadratum can't be one and the same, right??? Because then......'cause then...... 
My mind can't process any of this
👀👀
Wait what the heck??!! Whoa.......Demyx's death though! I guess I didn't pay attention when I was playing KH2 lol
Yeah, Luxord's death definitely has...more darkness. .....Maybe he is very evil 
But seriously, that's very interesting. 

Hmm... I'm not sure if it's meant to be taken that literally. When I watched Wreck-It Ralph, I assumed that their world encompassed ALL games. I'm not sure if it's just arcade games, since there also seemed to be some references to games that were on home console systems.
Remember, even though Yozora is from a fictional world, Verum Rex is ALSO definitely a video game, at least within the world of Toy Box. iirc, when YMX sends Sora into Beat of Lead, he tells him something like "In this world, you come from a video game." I feel like that must MEAN something, but ugh... My brain hurts... It's like... There's gotta be a connection between fictional worlds and "video game" worlds, right??
Well, I'm definitely still considering the possibility that he isn't from the fictional world. I'm not sure how Xehanort knew about it, but there's nothing that suggests that he ever personally went there. Everything we've seen so far seems to suggest that the members of Organization XIII were recruited, so even though I like the idea of Demyx and/or Luxord showing up and asking to join, I'm not sure if that's in the cards, as Luxord would say...
Nevertheless, here are my baseless guesses for both of them...
Demyx:
Knocked on the door of the Castle That Never Was and asked if anyone would like to play. Randomly materialized in The Hall of Empty Melodies. Found wandering the dark shore in the realm of darkness. Discovered by Xemnas on a nostalgic trip to Destiny Islands. Luxord:
Potentially also knocked on the door, looking for someone to play cards with him. "Just happened to be" at the right place at the right time. (HE'S A SPY FROM THE FUTURE.) Was a natural resident of Port Royal who liked to gamble in one of the local bars. Lost a bet against Xigbar and had to join the Organization. Something really severe happened to him in the fictional world, launching him straight into a different world as a Nobody. (idk, don't ask me. This is my brain attempting to connect the dots. lol) btw, I made a post on tumblr comparing a number of the Nobody death sequences from KH2. I totally see what people were talking about when they said that Demyx's death looks different from the others.
I never realized that you could see light in Xigbar's darkness, so that's neat.
Everything about Demyx's death is strange compared to the others. The only thing they have in common is the fact that his body itself is disintegrating with flecks of darkness, but then the rest of his sequence is made up of light and water. Even the sound effects for it are noticeably different. It sort of reminds me of the light sfx when Sora seals a keyhole. You can hear some bubble sfx, too. ...But we know he's MoM, amirite? Nothing surprising here. Except for the fact that this is from KH2. That's the really surprising part.
But I'm also kinda curious about the way Luxord dies... Without me even mentioning it, I saw someone else comment about how Luxord's seems so much darker than anyone else's. It makes me think of FFO Jack again... Is Luxord actually, like, someone super evil...? Uuugh, he's so suspicious!!

Hmm.....that sounds the most likely......
But then.......why would Darkness do that.....??? Darkness would only get the teeniest benefit out of that:
Uhhh, how would the portal cables lead them to countless worlds? Game Central Station only has this many worlds (looks like about 25 cords):

This is LITERALLY Game Central Station, from the movie. That's not countless worlds! Would Darkness really go through all that trouble just for that??? Hrmmm.....or am I missing something here?
I have a feeling this will never get an explanation in the future and will just be ignored....but it still bugs me. 
Ahhhh I keep forgetting his attribute is time! 
That's got to be explained someday, and I'm pretty sure it will. Hmm....yeah, I wonder what world Xemnas (or whoever) found him in........
Now when I really think about it, we know pretty much nothing about Luxord...and now I want to know everything! 
I just...I just read a summary of it lol
Oh yeah, there was time travel....hmmmm........man, I'm super curious about FFO. I wanna know more!

Yeah, I always wondered about that... The thought I always had was that it was the darknesses who did that themselves, but after that last update, I'm not sure if they'd be capable of doing something like that without the help of someone else. The fact that they don't have bodies is a bit of a problem for them. Hm... I'm really not sure. I don't believe the MoM would've helped them out. It seems like he knew that they were going to find a way in without him. So then, who...?
......Ava?? The darkness in her could've made her do that as well.
 
So, I've been watching Demyx Time again. (I can't help it. I love this show. lol) There's an episode where Luxord uses his power to travel back in time to stop Larxene from sleeping with everyone so she won't become pregnant. (Again, I love this show.) The fact that this homemade cosplay show actually used Luxord's time powers more than the games is so funny... After he changes the past, he comes back to find that Demyx is a genius now. It's great.
Anyway, this made me think about Luxord's time powers... (Or maybe I should say "attribute of time", since it's totally unclear what his powers actually ARE.)
Do you think that's ever going to be explained? I thought it was funny how the end of khux showed Lauriam waking up in a bed of flowers and Larxene waking up during a lightning storm, as if that explains where their affinities came from.
If Demyx can control those new Heartless, then his water affinity seems like it'll be justified. idk if it's a longshot, but I'm also hoping that he's another character from Destiny Islands. Alternatively, I still love the idea of him coming into existence on the shore of the realm of darkness which was opposite the shore of Destiny Islands.
But back to Luxord. Are you familiar with the original story of FF1 at all? I played it ages ago, so I just had to watch a recap. lol I kinda forgot that there was time travel... The four warriors of light fight Garland in the beginning and defeat him, but it turns out he was actually sent back to the past by his minions when he was on the brink of death, allowing him to live forever by repeating the loop. The four heroes are eventually able to go back in time to defeat him. I just keep wondering why the MC of FF Origin looks like Luxord... Is this it? Is it the time travel? lol

Have I not mentioned this? lol I had a whole collection of Demyxes going until I finally decided that Jack was The One. I think Nomura must like this design and this type of character more than people realize. The collection includes: Jack, Zell, Gippal, Roche, and Ray Jack. Jack and Gippal get a special gold star next to them for even having the same JP voice as Demyx. lol
I feel like you figured it out for a second and then made yourself confused. lol I don't think there's any distinction between fictional worlds and unreality. I'm pretty sure they're the same thing. Correct me if I'm wrong. What you said about Game Central Station sounded right to me.
Quadratum is a fictional world. I think Nomura's using fictional in the same sense as "false". It's not real. It's not even imagined. That's why I keep comparing it to the Unseen Realm. It's an oxymoronic idea when you actually SHOW the place, though - because then it IS real. It CAN be imagined. So the whole concept is kinda stupid, but... I think I understand the idea. It's like trying to imagine "nothing." Even if you try to imagine it, you'll still probably be picturing something like a black void. It's impossible to imagine what "nothing" really is. This is why they NEVER show the Unseen Realm in any of the games. They had to come up with Valhalla so that there could be a place like the Unseen Realm that could be perceived.
*DEEP BREATH*
I think he's making it more complicated than it actually is..............
If we could compare it to anything, it might be like Tokimeki Akademeia which was labeled as fictional. Even if it exists as a concept, it's not a real game. You can't play it.
You also can't play Versus XIII or Agito XIII. They don't exist.
There. I solved the mystery.

I was literally having dreams about FF Origin last night. lmao
Did you see the edit I made to my comment? I think Nomura's really good at taking something that isn't THAT mysterious and making it sound more mysterious than it really is. So if their names are all real names that you'd hear in the REAL WORLD, I think that's probably the "secret meaning", even if it seems plainly obvious. lol
...Did you know that mechs are a big deal in Type-0? I might've mentioned it, but I don't think I talked about it much. Milites, the main antagonists of Type-0 and Agito, have a crystal that allows them to make lots of powerful machinery. (Rubrum's crystal gives them the power of magic. Concordia's gives them the power to control dragons and other beasts. And Lorica's grants them tough crystal armor.)
Lean is the Empire's top engineer. Instead of fighting you with his katana, he pilots a Magitek Armor unit called Leraje. It's named after an obscure demon, but apparently it's well known enough to also be a demon in the Shin Megami Tensei series. Their wiki says this: "He causes great battles and disputes, can cause arrow wounds to develop gangrene and has the power of driving away mobs. He is depicted as a gallant and handsome archer wearing green clothes and carrying a bow and arrows." Feels fitting for Lean and Luxu. lol

It's similar to Qator's Gabriel unit. *coughs* I just wanted to talk about the Leraje. Look at it. Wow. Lean's so cool.
But Magitek Armor units are ALSO in FFXV. I remember seeing some early trailers where Noctis would be able to hijack a small unit to ride around the city while it was under attack. That sure never happened in the final game.
I am very curious about WHO the Verum Rex guys were fighting. The fact that the Gigas had that symbol on them is interesting... There's so much we don't know. But when I think about it, it feels totally possible that there could be a bunch of characters we haven't seen yet who are involved with the Gigas. The MoM basically left to go take a vacation, so I kiiind of doubt that he was ever personally in conflict with Yozora & The Boys unless THEY decided to pick a fight with him for some reason. So I think the Gigas are related to a different enemy Yozora was fighting. Possibly related to the darkness/chaos? Possibly. There's a lot that could be possible when we know so little about Verum Rex.
If they're like the ones in Toy Box, they might be controlled with the darkness/chaos instead of having real pilots inside them. But, again, I don't think the MoM was there to do any fighting, so... (When I put it like that, he really does come out sounding like Demyx. lol) If some of the "chaos" was seeping out from Quadratum, then maybe I'm overestimating how much control he has over it -- assuming that it's related to him in the first place, of course.
Hm...

They do have some similarities. On the right is Colonel Faith's Blackburn model. The feet and hands stand out the most to me. I was just thinking about how all of Milites' units have the Empire's emblem on them. It's kinda hard to see from this angle.

There, you can see it really clearly on Nimbus's outfit. I'm not sure what it's supposed to be. Maybe a very abstract M? You can also see Nimbus's take on the white tiger mask here~ Point is, that symbol is on all of their mechs, armor, etc.
I'm still not sure the symbol on the Gigas is supposed to be the Unversed emblem, but it is similar. Reminds me of how the zipper pull on the Organization's coats all soooort of look like the Unversed emblem... That one's closer, but it's also not exact. You might be onto something, though. It could be a new emblem related to the new type of Heartless. It definitely feels like it's supposed to be something, even if it's something we haven't seen until now.

Speaking of killing Chaos, there's an interview with Nomura from Famitsu...
First of all, it confirms that this IS some kind of isekai. Jack and the others aren't from this world. In fact, based on what Nomura says here, this isn't even really the world of FF1. It's just using FF1 as a "motif." So it's not a sequel or a remake or anything like that. imo, that makes me feel like it's not even really a reimagining.
What does THIS mean???
Needless to say, I'm VERY familiar with the meaning of the name "Jack." I've thought about that one a little bit TOO much, even. But I can't say I know how it's connected to "Ash" and "Jed." At first, I thought he meant that they mean the same thing, but that doesn't make sense. I looked around to see if there are any other FF characters with those names, but... Nope. There are a few characters with names that can be shortened to "Ash", but there aren't any other Jeds. I'm really stumped...
I have one friend who seemed really insistent that they figured out the meaning behind the name Jack and how it connects to the MoM's real name, but they said they couldn't explain right now, so... Alright. lol I'm skeptical, but curious to see what they think.
edit: Is it just that they're "real names"? They aren't things like Xemnas, Xigbar, Vexen, Zexion, etc. He didn't come out and say that they're from the REAL world, but I think that's what he's suggesting.
Prepare your butt for more people who look like other people, I guess. I just hope there are some girls.
I'm still skeptical that this has anything to do with Kingdom Hearts, but Nomura's definitely pulling his usual mysterious nonsense. I really wish he'd just come straight out and tell us if it's related or not, like how he did with NEO TWEWY. lol Apparently this game is coming out next year, so at least we know we won't be waiting indefinitely to find out what this is all about.
 
Anyway, I've been thinking about FFXIII. There's this one scene in Lightning Returns which is probably one of my favorite pieces of dialog ever. idk, I could just keep watching this forever. I love Caius/Yeul. lol Strong stuff.


Corporate wants you to find the difference between these images. (They're the same image.)
Lightning was dragged into Valhalla (the step before the Unseen Realm) by some of Yeul's chaos which had seeped out from the Unseen Realm.
I mentioned the Darkside again before, but this is really what's selling me on the Darkside being from the MoM's darkness in Quadratum.
I also had another thought that my friends seemed to enjoy. Remember this part of Demyx's character file?
The MoM's phrase is a little different in Japanese, but I'm not sure if that should change how I interpret this... Like, what do YOU think would be guiding him? His key or his heart? The Japanese phrase sounds more like "May your key guide you as your heart desires." So it really goes either way, imo. But he DID forget the word, "key"... And we do have keyblades like the Master's Defender which are referred to as "guiding keys'...
It also occurred to me that Demyx never really said that he wanted "friends" PLURAL. He may have been happy with just one. A friend. "Nakama ga hoshiikatta" could just be "I wanted a friend." *stares into the camera* We Are All Stupid. LOL (I can't help it. Personally, when I hear "nakama", I think of the crew from One Piece, so it's just naturally a plural-sounding word to me. But apparently I wasn't the only person who interpreted it that way. Can't wait to see what the Dark Horse translation will say.)
After Luxu leaves with the box, the MoM says "You will become the key to everything." (Which the English version translated as "key to the future"... Uuughghghh... Please, someone stop them...)
*puts on my shipping goggles and turns the focus to 200%*
Luxu is the key? IS LUXU THE KEY DEMYX WAS FORGETTING???? THE ONE THAT WAS GUIDING HIM?????
This series is so dang confusing, but when I focus on one thing at a time, it feels like I can see things really clearly. AM I RIGHT? THIS SOUNDS RIGHT TO ME. LOL I know that there are other ways to look at this. Like, maybe Demyx just forgot that he has a keyblade? But then I remember the fact that he knows the MoM's phrase and that sends me back in a loop. This would certainly be one way to unify every idea in Demyx's character file story. (If the No Name is the MoM's keyblade and not just Luxu's, then that could be two birds with one stone.)
If I'm right about this, I simply want it to be on the record. lol I'm willing to sound like an obsessed shipper for one second if it means I'm going to be right later down the line. ?

No, I don't think you're being stupid at all! That's a GREAT example of how their characterization is similar. I think I just never looked at Brain that way. It's sort of like how I never thought about Ephemer as being like Sora, but once I considered it, I started to notice similarities everywhere. I'll have take another look at some of Brain's scenes with that in mind.
But seriously, that's a great find. I think that line felt familiar to me for some reason, but I couldn't figure out who it reminded me of. Someone also pointed out how Ephemer says something like "It's not over until it's over" which sounds like one of Luxord's lines, BUT that's only in the English version. For some reason, the localization person added that on their own. Just had to mention that one since it's already caused quite a bit of confusion on twitter. To make things even more confusing, that line was also in one of the fake Instagram posts in KH3, one of the ones from "???" (probably Eraqus?), but apparently that was ALSO a line that wasn't there in Japanese. imo, it feels like somebody on the localization team THINKS they know what's going on and they're trying to make their own references and callbacks. ?
Yeah....... That never became clear in the game. lol So, I wonder what he meant by that...
Every time there was an update, I had my fingers crossed, hoping that we wouldn't see them. If we didn't see Demyx, that made it more likely that he was the MoM and not some unrelated keykid from the past. It just would've made it more difficult to believe that they were the same person if we saw the two of them in the same place at the same time, y'know?
At the same time, whenever people would say "We haven't seen Demyx", I'd think "Yeah we have" because I was assuming that he was the MoM somehow. lol
If I apply the same thinking to Luxord, then... Yeah.
The alternative would be that neither of them are from khux and aren't from the past. But I don't think he would've answered the question that way if that were the case. He didn't deny that they were connected to the past, that's for sure. I don't know why/how Luxord is in Yozora's world, but reincarnation would definitely explain how someone in that world could be one of the ancient keyblade wielders.
Moreover, I feel like they must have a connection to Xehanort, since it seems like he was making it his mission to find all of the people he knew in his past life. That's one thing about Luxord which always stood out as strange to me. If he wasn't someone Xehanort knew in the past, then why was he even there? As a guy from Yozora's world, I rationalized it by assuming that Xehanort just had an interest in the fictional world.
Hm........ Maybe... Maybe Luxord isn't FROM the fictional world. Maybe he just regained his memories and then went there. *stares into space* wtf.
(Luxord voice) I WILL KILL CHAOS!!! *FLIES TO QUADRATUM*
FORREAL. WHAT IF WE'VE BEEN MISLED BY THAT SCENE OF HIM IN THE CAR THIS WHOLE TIME???
WAIT, NO, SERIOUSLY. HE ISN'T EVEN IN THE VERUM REX TRAILER.

There've been other people wondering if FFO is an isekai but I couldn't understand what they meant because I had no idea what an isekai was lol
I can totally see that being an isekai, mainly because, yeah, they...look like ordinary people from the real world. 
I've seen that ramen shop translation! lol that'd be pretty hilarious if it's true
Ah okie! *ahem* I better look at all the FF games for once to stop thinking KH whenever I see something like that kek
It's SUPER suspicious. Like why Nomura??? Why'd you make the main character look like Luxord???? WHYYY?????
HMMMMMMMMM very interesting. Now I'm hoping that that ramen shop post is true. It'd be hilarious lol
It doesn't.....well, it doesn't.....I mean....watching someone do the demo....it's...yeah, is that it?? It doesn't seem....hrrmm, I'm not sure how to put it.....is the demo showing us what the whole game is going to be like?? or just a segment of something else??? 'Cause if it's showing us what the whole game is going to be like then......ummm.....really??? That's the game???
EHHH??
H-HUH. 
That's....very intereStInG. 
This connection between KH and FNC is very......I don't know how to describe it. Well, FOR SURE it has captured my complete attention
Speaking of.....
I just noticed that Nomura said this:
But uhhh....
It hasn't become clear, Nomura. At least, to me.
UMMMMM
Hmmmm.....
Well, they have similar personalities, kind of.....
I was looking at their quotes and stuff if there was anything and.....there's lines that sound a little similar and get me thinking, but then....my mind goes blank. 
This for instance. I'm not sure if I'm just being stupid, but they kinda.....well, I dunno. Maybe I'm being stupid here lol.
Dunno. I'm gonna go look deeper into this.....
Hmmmmm.....I can't think of anything. Is there??

So, the main thing I've been thinking about is reincarnation. Xehanort can't be the only one. I wouldn't expect a concept like reincarnation to be introduced if it was only going to apply to one character.
I cannot stress how much I've been thinking about this. I nearly drove myself insane, twisting my brain into a pretzel to consider possibilities that I had written off before.
My conclusions...
Xehanort is Player (confirmed) Demyx is MoM Sora is Ephemer Luxord is Brain (Maybe.) Sora shares so many similarities with Ephemer. I've talked about it before. Unless the intention is for them to simply be parallels of each other, it seems to me like Sora IS Ephemer's new self. Xehanort (Player) took up the role of darkness so that Sora could be light. Not just any light! He's THE light - the hero Daybreak Town was lacking. There's just... There's just SO MUCH. There's an OVERWHELMING AMOUNT of evidence to suggest that Sora is Ephemer. If you just go through KH3 while thinking "Sora is Ephemer" it's like... Wow.
Now that we're sure of reincarnation, I've also been able to reanalyze Demyx's scenes. I'm positive that Demyx is suffering from the effects of bad karma brought upon him by the MoM's actions. (As the Verum Rex box states: ”But the “KARMA” that sleeps in humans will accelerate further.”)
When Vexen asks for his help, he tells Demyx that he could receive forgiveness, but Demyx can’t think of anything he would require forgiveness for. To make him understand, Vexen describes the personal mistakes he made as a scientist. However, because Demyx isn’t a scientist (any longer), he thinks the subject is irrelevant to him and uses that as an excuse to dismiss the conversation.
Later, Ienzo apologizes for not having trusted Ansem the the Wise, misled by the circumstances that caused him to doubt his intentions, but Ansem says that he’s the one who should apologize instead for having failed him as his mentor. It’s extremely easy to read Ansem and his apprentices as parallels of the MoM and the Foretellers, especially when Ansem is standing there in the black coat with his hands behind his back. Demyx interrupts their reconciliation, again, because he thinks it isn't relevant to him.
Even the scene where he meets Riku becomes more interesting. He tries to prove to Riku that he isn't a threat, but Riku remains distrustful of him, almost like he can sense something about him. I adore this scene... So much... By this point, Demyx thinks he's one of the good guys, but he hasn't acknowledged that there's anything he's done wrong. Imagine for a second that it's been confirmed that Demyx is MoM. Now think about how this scene would look. Riku's reactions would feel totally justified, right? lol Being a good guy isn't that easy, Demyx. You won't be forgiven for anything just because you carried one replica, especially if you haven't apologized for WHAT YOU DID WRONG. It's embarrassing. This scene is pure secondhand embarrassment and I love it.
How does he know of the MoM, though? Is it dreams like Xehanort's? Visions like Sora's vision of Ephemer? Either way, I can think of reasons for why Demyx would assume that the MoM must be a separate guy.
Now, Luxord.......
Is he the reincarnation of Brain? I'm just feeling a vibe here. I know that other people have definitely thought about this one before, but I think most people dropped it once they saw him in Yozora's world. I think that could be intentionally misleading, though.
Although Xemnas's line about the "keyblade legacy" wasn't well translated, the original line still DID leave the possibility that all four of them WERE somehow "ancient keyblade wielders." If that IS true, then......... Well, which ancient keyblade wielder would Luxord be? We may not have SEEN Demyx in khux, but if he's MoM's reincarnation, then he's technically covered.
"How did Xehanort know who they were?" An important question. But I think it's in reverse. I think that they came to him, guided by... y'know, destiny or whatever. Type-0 would attribute a coincidence like this to the Spiral. (If it wasn't obvious, the Spiral represents the cycle of samsara. Even if they're reborn, they'll still tend to perform the same actions and follow the same course in life.)
So, here are some things of interest...
He might be an "ancient keyblade wielder." His strong drive to find the box and discover what's inside. He cares about it more than anyone else. His suspicion of Xigbar and his curiosity about his true identity and motives. His friendliness towards Sora and his willingness to help him. (Giving him the card.) The fact that you fight Luxord, Marluxia, and Larxene together. I don't know... Am I missing something? It feels like it could fit, but it feels like I'm missing something. Or maybe the whole gambling thing is obscuring my focus. Though, to be honest, that might also be another point of interest. In his character file story, the way he talks about gambling and challenging opponents reminds me of the game played between Xehanort and Eraqus. If Eraqus IS a descendent of Brain, then it might make sense for Luxord, his reincarnation, to also have a preoccupation with games where he carefully studies his opponent's moves.
Rereading his character file story made me feel exhausted. I think I hate gambling metaphors. lol
In any case, it doesn't feel as obvious to me as Sora and Demyx, so I'm not as confident.  Maybe there's something else that you've noticed.
When I think about this and then I think about FF Origin Jack, I feel... Something. That Jack (Not My Jack) is SO obsessed with killing Chaos. It reminds me of how Eraqus and his family basically held "Darkness = Evil" as a prime principle. As BBS showed us, having such an intense fear and hatred of darkness just leads to BAD THINGS. I would be unsurprised if Brain (Luxord, perhaps) accidentally slips into darkness without even realizing.
 
Speaking of chaos, I'm feeling even more confident that Demyx's water power IS chaos. I don't know if they'll call it that in KH, but I don't see why not. lol That would explain the light/dark Darkside that looks like a water clone. MoM has one of the darknesses in him. Like he told Luxu, they're the source of the Heartless. If he was in a place devoid of light or darkness, then... Look, I can't put these pieces together perfectly without all the details, but I feel like I'm really on the right track here. lol
Like, idk, did his soul recycling turn the darkness into something ELSE?? Cuz if Demyx can use it, then that means that chaos is chaos even outside of Quadratum (or wherever.) Like, it didn't turn back into just plain darkness in the real world.
Chaos itself isn't always "evil." In the Fabula Nova Crystallis, it's a force that has no will of its own. It creates and it destroys. It sounds like the type of force you'd find in the place the MoM described. In the secret ending, everything in Quadratum looks wet. *leans close to the mic* It's CHAOS..... As I've noted before, Valhalla was surrounded by a sea of chaos - which also happened to have the power to make people reincarnate.

Like here, when Caius lowered Yeul into the water, her soul was returned to the mortal world as a new Yeul.
It's the perfect power for the MoM to have, imo. It represents a force that is neither light nor darkness, and it also symbolizes destruction and rebirth. ...But it's still dangerous, especially in the hands of someone as careless as Demyx.
...Is there a word for someone who does bad things but doesn't realize their own guilt? (Hey, another khux keyword.) I guess you could call it ignorance (hello again, Jack Type-0), but I think I'm looking for another word. lol MoMyx is a special type of frustrating. HE'S NOT EVIL, but you just want him to stop DOING STUFF because you know it might not be GOOD. Truly chaotic. lmao

I've been following every bit of this since it was announced, and I shall give you my take...
First of all, I don't think you're crazy. lol I think there's DEFINITELY something weird going on with it, but I'm not sure if it bears any relevance to Kingdom Hearts.
I think it's an isekai. I might've mentioned that term before...? But if you aren't familiar, it's where people from the real world are transported into a fantasy world. I saw a translation on twitter which maaay or may nooot have been real. I don't know if this person was just meme'ing, but here it is:

I don't know where this came from, but I would believe it. lol It's not that far from what I think the story or "twist" could actually be.
The renders of the characters make them all look like regular people from the real world. Details about the story are very sparse. It's like they want you to believe that these characters are part of this universe, but I think everybody's already figured out the twist - that they're from the real world.
However, I think there's another twist. There's a female voice over right before Jack (yeah, nice name) faces off with Garland. She describes Garland as being a warrior like Jack who set out on the same journey. Yet now, for some reason, Garland is becoming Chaos. This gives me a few impressions... Most importantly, it seems to me like the "Warrior of Light" in this world isn't set in stone. More than one person has tread this path. Jack is just the latest. (This could be similar to other depictions of the WoL, like in FFXIV where every player can be a WoL, or in DFFOO where the position of WoL is transferred to another character, Onion Knight, when the original WoL vanishes from the world.) Secondly... I'm very uncertain about this, but something tells me that Jack will actually become Chaos himself. Like, maybe that's the true destiny of all WoLs or something.
The words from Daisuke Inoue, the director, stand out to me...
I think the suggestion is that he looks more like Chaos than a Warrior of Light.
Once again... INTERESTING NAME YOU HAVE, JACK... (I'm having flashbacks of FFT0 Jack slashing apart enemies and spraying their blood everywhere.)
All the stuff about hearts and light and chaos and the crystals and all of that... If those things weren't in a game related to FF1, I would've been disappointed. That's not just a KH thing. That's classic Final Fantasy. Nothing about that is suspicious to me. All Final Fantasy games sound like that.
The thing that IS suspicious is the fact that the main character looks so much like Luxord. lol People have also compared him to Cor Leonis, which is a very apt comparison. I'm pretty sure Luxord IS supposed to be like Cor in Verum Rex. Jed also reeeally looks like a pink version of Prompto. As people have pointed out, if you took off Magia's hat, he might look like Jed. SPEAKING OF JED... I translated Yusuke Suda's description of him:
...? Hm? ??????????
If that post about the ramen shop is true, then this could be funny. Maybe they all woke up in this fantasy world and now they're suffering from amnesia. Whatever the case is, it definitely piques my interest. Very mysterious.
NOW LET ME GET TO THE MOST IMPORTANT THING...
I'm not sure if this is a real game.
I watched someone play the demo for about four hours today. It just... Is that really it? Is that the game? ARE WE SURE? Maybe my expectations are just too high. lol Maybe Nomura has warped my brain to make me doubt everything I see. But I kiiind of feel like this game is actually a front for something ELSE. ........I'm not saying it's actually Verum Rex. Seriously, that's not what I'm saying. lol I'm just not 100% convinced that Stranger in Paradise is a real game.
On that note, did you know that there was a fake Final Fantasy Type-0 game? I only just found out about this recently and it blew my mind. It's a 100% fake game set in the same universe as Type-0. And to make it even better, the story from this "game" actually makes an appearance in Agito as the book series "Tokimeki★Akademeia." This is wild... This "fake game" inception thing has been going on for so long. I don't know what's real anymore. LOL Tokimeki★Akademeia has the same relation to Type-0 that Verum Rex (the game) has to the universe of Kingdom Hearts. WHAT'S GOING ON???????
The thing about Tokimeki★Akademeia that stands out the most is the fact that the MC's mission is TO KILL CLASS ZERO. They're the VILLAINS of this universe. LMAO
 
I've been having Many Thoughts since khux ended, but I'll just have to make another comment for those things. This was a lot.
edit: Another thing worthy of note... Nomura actually said that he came up with this type of idea around the type of Dissidia Duodecim. That's exactly when I think he started putting together the whole "Kingdom Hearts, but now it's also the Fabula Nova Crystallis" thing. So........ I can't feel confident saying that this is a totally new, unrelated game. Nomura has instilled the fear of god in me.

This new Final Fantasy Origins is uhhhhh........
Very. Fishy.
First, you hear 'Chaos' almost every second of the trailer, and Chaos is important in the FNC:
And, of course, hearts are important in KH. 
Then the first line in the trailer......:
.......which screams KH, reminds me of this line on the back of the Verum Rex video game:
Well, they are different, but for some reason was the first thing that popped into my head pretty much.
THEN, almost every single attack has to end in crystallizing the enemy, shattering it.
THEN the main character, Jack (AHEM WHO NAMED HIM), has to look like Luxord. And his Japanese VA is the same VA for Luxu (that probably doesn't mean anything though.....right???)
AND THEN THE CHARACTER DESIGNER IS NOMURA. AND HE HAS TO SAY THIS:
I'm going crazy.
Very crazy.
Right?????

Hm... That is some curious wording. I didn't take that too literally at first, but you might be right. It might be just those few flashes from Player's life on repeat.
Oh, drat, you're right. I read "But darkness did cover the world once, in legend" and it made me think of the old, old, OLD war for some reason. Regardless, that's something that everybody's going to have to find out about eventually. It seems like Xehanort had keyblade war related questions. So what was he going to uncover with the help of Subject X and the others??? Xehanort, rise from the grave and EXPLAIN yourself!!

That was...............
okay, I have no clue where to start. Umm......let's see......well, I'll start from the beginning and jump around lol.
 

These questions are all so valid...
I think the biggest thing we NEED to see is who Luxu gives the No Name to. I thought it had to be Brain, but Brain already left. So unless Luxu handed it to him at an earlier time off-screen, then... Does he give it to him in the next world? The secret reports seemed to imply that he handed it off before the world ended, though. At least, that was my impression. So........ Was everyone mistaken about who received the No Name? idk, that one's really confusing to me...
I'd like to know what happened with Ephemer and Player - and perhaps find out why Xehanort was having dreams of Player's life. Maybe khdr will explain.
YEAH. THE GEAR UNDER THE TABLE. WHAT'S UP WITH THAT??????????
MoM implied that he was going to use a pod for himself, but I'd like to actually SEE what he does... I really need something that will help explain how he goes from that body to Demyx. I need something to connect A and B here. lol I know these pieces go together somehow!!
I've been thinking about Demyx's character file and how funny it is... They really didn't have to mention the MoM at all, but they did. I'm astounded. I'm sure that the intention was to make people think that MoM and Demyx are separate people. But by mentioning him, it also tells us that they ARE connected which is something we didn't even know for sure before. I get a kick out of it because it reminds me of criminals who talk to the police and media because they think that being so forthright will make them look innocent. Meanwhile, they weren't on anyone's radar until they made themselves known. Incredible.
Everybody on twitter keeps going "WHERE'S DEMYX!" but I don't expect to see him at all. (I'd like to, though.) On that note, I've also seen people saying "WHERE'S LUXORD!" but I don't think we'll see him, either. I explained how the "keyblade legacy" line was a mess. I think he's just always been a Verum Rex guy.
Man, I don't know what I'm going to do with myself when we finally know everything. I've been thinking about this stuff for so long. ?

Hmm interesting.....seems like it's there because the world is meeting its 'death'? i dunno lol
Yeah.......seriously though, how long is this update going to be?? It might be just me, but it seems like there's still a lot that needs resolving in UX. For instance........:
What happened to Ava?! What happened to the Foretellers?! What happened to the black box and Maleficent thinking a Book is in it?! What happened to the Master's Defender and how'd it get back to the real world?!?! WHAT'S THE MASTER OF MASTERS HIDING UNDER THAT GEAR UNDER THE TABLE?!?! 
I......have.......so.......many.........QUESTIONS
lol

I've seen that comparison. If it's the same, that sounds like an appropriate place to see it, so it sounds possible to me. It looks more like a sky inside the orb to me, though.
However... THAT orb also reminds me of something else.


When you reach Pandaemonium, you see this thing looming in the sky right behind/over the place. I actually have no idea what it's supposed to be... All I know is that it has the Eye of Etro inside it, which is never a good sign. lol That usually means death of some sort.
I'm too excited, too. There are all kinds of things I want to happen, but I'm trying not to get ahead of myself. I really hope Zero plays in the end over some credits or something. But I know that copyright would probably never allow it...
edit: I asked the Type-0 chat what they think it is. Walking into it is what takes you to the final boss, so it acts like a portal gameplay-wise. So far, theories range from "it's a superior being" to "it's just a portal." To me, it looks like something that was supposed to have a meaning, but then it received no explanation.