#i also think that.. vanitas might choose to stay in quadratum

[last-flight-of-fancy]

okay here we go, Vanitas theory time because I can’t stop thinking about it. As with any theory I am fully aware and prepared for this to be completely debunked, but hey, theorizing is fun and I think it’s a neat idea.

Which I’m gonna put under a cut bc I like to talk about my son and his potential a lot.

Before I jump headfirst into it I do want to say that this entire theory rests entirely on the assumption that the heart hotel isn’t quite empty yet, and that Vanitas is still quietly hiding out in Sora’s heart.

Personally, I am pretty confident in this assumption, but as it is not yet explicitely confirmed I do feel it necessary to put the disclaimer. It’s KH, there’s no telling what wild twists will throw everything we know into entirely new contexts.

In the interest of clarity I’ll do a brief overview of this idea for those who may not know. We see in KH that when a person dies goes sparkly glitter into another persons arms they tend to take up residence in that persons heart, like a safety net. We’ve seen this a bunch of times over the course of the series; Xion to Roxas, Eraqus to Terra, Kairi to Sora.

There’s even instances of it happening without any physical contact to speak of; Ven to Sora, Repliku to Riku... and i hesitate to add this one but honestly I suspect this happened with Strelitzia to Lauriam too. No confirmation on that tho, just a suspicion.

And then there’s of course the outliers, with Roxas to Sora not really fitting either category due to DiZ meddling, and the most curious one to me personally- Sora to Kairi, which should have happened but... didn’t.

(as with any hypothesis, it is important to consider points against your theory too, and this instance drives me nuts every time i think about it. WHY.)

The last we see of Vanitas in BBS is him vanishing into the glowing lights and into Ven’s heart station.

(listen I could talk about this scene all fucking day okay. Even Repliku vanished with dark whisps, but Vanitas glows just like all the other light aligned characters. when he hits the bottom the station lights up and reveals itself to be Ven’s. I have thoughts about this too but that is not this essay.)

Okay so bviously that’s all pretty straightforward, but surely he would have left with Ven too, right? When Ven was returned to his body?

Not necessarily.

The closest example to this I think would be Roxas and Xion; Xion was released first, despite being in theory two layers deep in Sora’s heart (as she was in Roxas’ heart when Roxas joined with Sora). Roxas was freed shortly thereafter, but I do think this does point to a heart within a heart within a heart is less a babushka doll of hearts and more... maybe an incomplete web, where the hearts may connect to each other, but they are far more connected to the center point (which here is Sora).

I also think it’s important that the narrative (specifically Remind) went out of it’s way to make it clear that the Vanitas in KH3 is from the past, drawn forward through time like several other members. I’ve seen people be angry about this as it’s also brought up at one point that Monsters Inc had enough negative energy to reform Vanitas all on it’s own, and well. Doesn’t that just seem sort of pointless?

So. Why point out there was an easier way to do what they did? I don’t think they would unless there was a reason they couldn’t. If current Vanitas is still hiding within Sora, he’s essentially unavailable to Xehanort. As a result he has to turn to other means by pulling a past version instead.

(there is also vaguely tangential evidence in things like Rage Form. Though I think this is equally likely to be only reflective of Sora’s declining mental state and repression, I’m noting it here anyway)

All that said I’m sure you’re wondering how this relates to my theory. It’s crucial honestly, for a couple different reasons.

Now, when it comes to KH there’s no real way to predict specifics. It is a series that adores twists and turns and red herrings, each one throwing previous revelations into whole new lights. It’s one of the reasons I love the series, so I’m going to try and keep my strokes here as broad as possible to avoid hinging everything on what could be an unfounded assumption.

Probably will still happen but hey, I’m gonna give it my best shot ;P

So my theory is this: Assuming the above is all true, Vanitas is perfectly positioned to be a critical part of how Sora and Riku get back home from Quadratum.

(and yes, I know FGM quips that if Riku runs into trouble he should come straight back home, but to me it felt like a light hearted joke, kinda as if to say ‘I know we can’t come with, but we’ve still got your back’. After the sheer amount of hoops they have to jump through to get Riku there, it would feel a little strange if he could now just jump back and forth at will. However, like with many things this is an assumption. We won’t know for sure until the next game, so for now I’m rolling with what I can see and interpret)

Kairi’s Memories, NS’s connection to the other world, Riku’s Dreams. All needed to make the jump.

Vanitas has the memories of Daybreak, even if a bit muddled and confused, he has the connection to Ven... Honestly that just leaves the dreams. (His only goal has been to feel whole, pain free. Could that be attained in the other reality? oops I’m slipping into blatant speculation again BUT STILL)

On a purely plot related level his connection to Ven, while antagonistic at best, could certainly serve the same function that the Nameless Star did in being the connection Riku needed to enter Quadratum. Whether they like it or not and even though they almost definitely can’t merge back into one person anymore, that connection remains.

But I have more than just plot reasons for this theory- Kingdom Hearts is a series that runs on emotion after all. It’s greatest strength is in it’s characters, their internal struggles, and how real those emotions feel and are felt. Even when (and perhaps especially when) those emotions are repeatedly denied by either the textual narrative or other characters.

Which is why I want to talk about how this could possibly go if indeed Vanitas is there with Sora, between their characters and what that could mean for them.

Obviously like I said earlier I can’t make any hard assumptions, and there’s no telling how exactly Vanitas will be reintroduced; an internal voice to Sora like Ven was in most of KH3? Something Sora can see and feel? Are they both within Yozora’s heart (as is the current theory) the whole time or do they transition elsewhere at some point? Something else entirely?

Regardless of the specifics it IS the perfect time for us to get that Vanitas Redemption Arc we’ve been begging for and that he’s deserved for so long.

(if you are somehow not on the Vanitas; Future Good Boy train and made it this far, I encourage you to read all the Vanitas centered excerpts from the novels and also check out the Hero’s and Heroine’s Medley from the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra, composed by the series musical genius Yoko Shimomura (who frequently places musical nods and hints in the soundtrack), which at the very tail end features Vanitas’ theme. The former highlights how Vanitas is a victim shaped by pain, circumstance, and lies, the latter hinting quite strongly at his potentional to be a force for good as far as I’m concerned)

https://remember-kingdom-hearts.tumblr.com/post/28798364782/bonus-translation-of-the-novel-chapter-dark no seriously if this bit of the novel doesn’t make you feel for Vanitas I dont know what will.

https://keijitranslates.tumblr.com/post/186619714655/vanitas-monologue-kh3-novel Vanitas’ kh3 monologue, which imo highlights how even he doesn’t really know what’s going on with him. His knowledge is both more than everyone else while also at the same time warped by manipulation and lies, making it confused and uncertain at best.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l9VZ6XPFTlA The medley. Also it’s KH music and thus amazing. You all know this.

Not only that but he’s also in a perfect position to challenge Sora as well, assuming they get to talk to each other. If you know Violet Howler’s essays on KH and the Heroine’s journey (which I ADORE please watch them or read the doc if you have the time, they’re phenomenal), you may now be thinking about how he’s pointed out that Yozora is likely in the position of psychopomp to Sora’s descent. And I’m not disagreeing with this! We don’t really know yet what exactly Yozora’s deal is, but I do think Vanitas could serve as auxillery to this, forcing Sora to confront both his own Darkness and Darkness as not being wholly evil in general.

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1h5l2II-JvkNE5en3B7emErk5O8QKB5p-LVDlmZFS_qw/ Violet Howler’s essay doc on the Heroine’s Journey

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPOVJTNgLjMz9Y0NBfFkSZQ The ongoing Video Essay’s on the same subject

(and if you would like some pure fantasy speculation here, I like to imagine this being done through poking at Sora’s own natural empathy. “You still hate the darkness. You can say you don’t but I’m not stupid. You reject the dark, you shrink away from your own shadows. You say I can be more than just bad, but I am always going to be made of darkness, so which is it, Sora? Because it can’t be both.”)

(also also, and i’m sorry for all these asides, but given all this I kind of think Yozora is going to be integral to making Sora realise his big fat gay Riku Feelings, while Vanitas is going to be more about making him realise that he still holds a number of unacknowledged biases)

Okay, so this is about as far as I got on my first brainstorm session on this theory, but when I came back to it later I realised there’s another part to this that I hadn’t considered yet, which handily solved the one thing I felt was missing from all this.

The past.

And it really did bug me until I figured out what it was, bc if you’re not considering all the pieces then you’ve probably missed something. Sure we (probably) get those delicious character arcs, but it left a lot of history sort of dangling in the wind, unresolved and unacknowledged. Stuff like Ven/Vani’s history in Daybreak, as Union leaders, their lost friends and just fucktons of trauma. Especially when it is implied in the novels that unlike Ven, Vanitas does remember at least a little bit of those Union days, it doesn’t feel right to never get any resolution on that.

And then I remembered that we’ve got a couple of other plots I’d forgotten about; namely with MoM in Qaudratum and the Foretellers in the regular verse. Both with their own ties to Daybreak, even if not directly to Ven, and both possibly heralding long awaited answers and resolutions to the khux storyline.

How exactly? Who knows, but the ties are certainly there and available. I fully expect either a series of cutscene’s or (hey I can dream) a whole game centered around the foreteller business, which I can only assume will involve Ven and the other former khux kids eventually. Something similar could happen with MoM and Vanitas. Granted this is drifting into speculation again, but hey, I see what I see.

All of this and then when all is said and done, the day is won and Sora and Riku have finally talked properly and done a big kiss of true love, Nameless Star is returned to her proper place... There’s our boys still trapped in Quadratum. I kind of expect this to be a sort of... bigger version of the Dark Margin scene at the end of KH2 honestly. The sentiment that they’ll be okay as long as they’re together, and happy at least for that, even if it means not being able to go home.

Am I saying Vanitas could be that letter in a bottle that bumped into their feet on the sands of the dark shore after an undisclosed amount of time? Yes, yes I am. Him and Ven both, with the full possibility that Kairi herself may end up involved as well, considering she has her own yet unexplored mysteries and is now apprenticing under Aqua, thus in close proximity to Ven for the foreseeable future.

But as always with KH, we’ll see how it goes. It’s always possible it will do something else entirely and I’ll be just as satisfied. I just needed to show you all my brain worms XD

#i also think that.. vanitas might choose to stay in quadratum #where he's not just a broken piece of ven. he's not just darkness. the rules are different there #where no one has ever heard the name or seen the face of Sora Kingdom Hearts #idk i just been thinking about it #ANYWAY THATS MY SILLY LITTLE THEORY THANK YOU FOR READING IT #stop talking to yourself flight #kingdom hearts #long post #am i completely off base? Probably! #i just think it's neat