What I Still Don’t Get About Young Xehanort (the Time Travelling One In Particular) Is Whether All

What I still don’t get about young Xehanort (the time travelling one in particular) is whether all the weird stuff around him is just a bunch of plot holes or it’s all a deliberate choice. 

The jackassery with his age for example? He is supposed to be Xehanort before Scala, yet that Xehanort is obviously younger than him.

Scala Xehanort is time travelling Xehanort’s age only when his training comes to an end, as we see him talk about it with Master of Masters in that one Re:Mind cutscene. 

You may say that maybe YMX left for the future after leaving the Islands and finishing his training at Scala, but no.

I can’t think of any explanation apart from this being a plot hole, but it’s apparently not a plot hole since this age difference junk continues to stubbornly appear. If it was a plot hole they would have noticed it and stopped making it worse (AT LEAST I HOPE SO). 

Either Xehanort did something to rewrite the past and leave the Islands sooner than he’s supposed to, or he magically looks 18 when he’s like 15, or he aged up while he was time travelling. The last option is the most reasonable one, if you ask me. If that’s the case his age was probably just reset when he returned.

His age shenanigans is not even the weirdest thing about him though.

He says this line in the Toy Box before he blasts Sora into Verum Rex (with a weird red attack he never used before that looks kinda similar to riskcharge from Rage Form for some reason)

It’s implying that this moment played out differently before and YMX is CHANGING IT. This should be impossible as you can’t change the events that already happened and everything you do just sets them in motion.

Impossible, unless it’s the second rendition of events after the jump to another worldline. Here everything may play out differently (strongly recommend to read the sleeping realm theory if you didn’t). Why is YMX aware of events being on their second run then? Is it because of his time powers? Is it because of something he’s done during the original timeline? 

Anyway, here’s some examples of him knowing stuff He’s Not Supposed To.

Here’s him talking about Sora being held together by Kairi and the other princesses of heart after the fall.

Here he is telling Sora to find the hearts of the fallen guardians. 

He’s essentially telling him to escape the fated fall to darkness. When all of the guardians fell, the X-Blade was forged, which means Xehanort won with no one left to stay in his way. 

And yet, when Sora brought everyone back Xehanort lost. So why did YMX tell Sora to find them? Why is he happy about Sora ceasing to exist and still believes he’s won in the end if he told him to go after the hearts of the guardians which ultimately led to Xehanort’s defeat?

There’s something wrong about all of this. YMX goes out of his way to make sure Sora bodies the old man and disappears. Which takes us to the next part of this wild ride and we are going right off a cliff. 

YMX was supposed to go back to his time after the events of DDD. Why is he in KH3?

The only answer I can give (besides Nomura being unable to write a straight story to save his life and forgetting that YMX said that he is going back to his time at the end of DDD, of course) is that YMX from KH3 is either a replica or not Xehanort at all. My guess, considering that this guy constantly contradicts himself in KH3, would be that it’s both and there’s two of him, like there’s probably two of Riku. In case you’re not familiar with the sleeping realm theory (go read it!!!!!), Riku from San Fansokyo may be not the same person as Riku Replica that’s on Xehanort’s side. He also has a very high chance of harbouring one of the original 13 Darknesses from Union X, the ones that Master of Masters wanted to trap. This Riku’s actions, just like some actions of YMX from the Toy Box, don’t line up with the Organization and Xehanort’s goals. Here’s a quote from the theory because I’m lazy: 

“It turns out, there are multiple “Darkness”, and they often refer to themselves as a group. Conveniently as does Riku in BH6.

While we’re led to assume it’s just the Organization, this is a frustratingly perfect narrative loophole. Something to point to later going “Ha HA! The “we” he mentions is actually a different group entirely! GOTCHA!” which is pretty par for the course so far as this series is concerned. Something else that lends to this is that his goals don’t really align with the Organization. His goal here is to find a way to recreate the heart, possibly using data while focusing pretty strictly on darkness. The Organization on the other hand has plenty of hearts to go around, several options at their disposal to the point multiple characters are benched or go AWOL and they still meet their quota. 

The point remains at the end, regardless of WHO it is, that the Riku in BH6 is most likely NOT the same one in the Keyblade Graveyard.

Rikunort 1 (????): Org coat, calm and smug demeanor, doesn’t get his hands dirty, calls plans into question, focused on data and uses actual Bug Blox from Re:Coded (and now frequenting KHUX), no qualms with not being “real”, has obvious ulterior motives.

Rikunort 2 (Repliku): Dark mode suit, aggressive and cocky attitude, very ready to get his hands dirty, follows orders willingly, insists he’s real til death, actually confirmed to be Repliku. Loves long walks on the beach.”

So Riku is looking for a way to recreate a heart in BH6. And what YMX does in the Toy Box? He’s looking for a way to place a heart in a vessel. Of which, by being Xehanort first and being in the Organization second, he is supposed to know plenty. 

Moreover, why would he want to remember something if he knows that he will forget everything when he returns to his time? It doesn’t add up. 

This phrase doesn’t sit well with me too, as like with BH6 Riku, the usage of “we” could mean not the Organization, but some different collective. And this YMX’s actions (throwing Xehanort under the bus, searching for a way to put a heart into a body) do not align with the Organization at all, but align with BH6 Riku’s goals perfectly. Which could signify that YMX from the Toy Box may be one of the Darknesses too. That could explain why he knows so much - if I’m not mistaken MOM mentioned that Darknesses might have sneaked a peek at the book of prophecies. It would also stand to reason why they want Xehanort out of the picture - he wanted to restart the world and rid it of both the false light and the darkness. 

Where is YMX that’s on Xehanort’s side? He’s the one that catches up with Sora in BH6 after he recovers Lea’s heart and the one at the Keyblade Graveyard. 

This all may seem like he knows a bit much too, but it’s actually different - he just makes observations and arrives at a logical conclusion as the dangers of misuse of the power of waking is a common knowledge between keyblade wielders - Mickey knows about it, Yen Sid too. Why would he scold Sora for going after his friends’ hearts if he told him to do it himself anyway?

There’s an important divide between the way YMX-Replica (lets just assume he’s a replica, I don’t have any other answer to why is he even there) and YMX-Darkness treat this matter: the replica warns Sora about the dangers, thinks that Xehanort will win anyway and is happy that Sora will cease to exist, the Darkness just tells him to do it and it even looks like he’s helping him. And it’s not returning the hearts of the guardians that makes Sora go take a vacation in Shibuya either - it’s jumping between guardians’ hearts to reach Kairi’s. And young Xehanort would know about a backup plan to make Sora run after poor Kairi’s heart in case they somehow avoid the fall. Kairi brought the armored Xehanort with her after all, which gave him a second chance to try and press the “reset the world” button. We know that the old man pLaNs FoR EveRy eVenTualitY and YMX knowing about his plans is not knowing too much. But YMX telling Sora to actually go after the hearts is very unnecessary and actively harmful to Xehanort.

A curious weirdness can also be noticed during the very first exchange with YMX at the Toy Box.

This (like everything else) may be far fetched, but why wouldn’t Sora remember him? If we don’t take this being the second run of KH3 events as a deciding factor of the time period because Sora doesn’t realise that more time has passed since, DDD happened days ago. Though, there is one thing from the dream that Sora may not remember.

This guy.

He’s the only nightmare that’s human, he has YMX’s body model that is unique to him, he uses red blades just like the ones YMX used in BBS, uses a bunch of YMX’s attacks and a couple of Ansem’s. He’s just Xehanort all around but also isn’t. What are nightmares again? One of the forms darkness takes in the sleeping worlds?  

Him being “the first of the Xehanorts” would make sense too, as Xehanort is a reincarnation of the player character that was possessed by 4 different darknesses. This may just be one of them.

Moreover, this mister bears a striking resemblance to Sora’s Rage Form.

The eyes are the same and the patterns are very similar. I’m not saying that Sora is a Darkness too, of course not. What I’m saying here is that some Darkness or even multiple ones are helping Sora. Rage Form is there to save his life after all as it only appears when he’s low on HP. 

I already mentioned that this weird move that YMX pulled looks very similar to riskcharge.

You can use riskcharge up to 3 times. Every time you use it a little crystal appears.

The texture of these crystals is identical to that of a heart. It’s like they are shards of hearts.

Every riskcharge changes Sora’s combo finishers. One of which is the summoning of these dark pillars - one for each charge. 

Of course, let’s not forget about the stance Sora takes while in Rage Form which is similar to Vanitas, YMX and Riku’s stances.

Another similarity between these three that would further prove their status as Darknesses is that they all have Gazing Eyes in their keyblades. And what’s interesting about Riku and YMX having it is that they don’t have it in their other keyblades (I don’t count the No Name old man Xehanort has as his, it’s MOM’s keyblade). Soul Eater that later becomes Way to Dawn has it, Braveheart doesn’t; YMX’s No Name has it and Xehanort’s keyblade from Dark Road doesn’t. Vanitas is a confirmed Darkness, Riku and YMX have a potential to be Darknesses. It wouldn’t be surprising if MOM needed a way to spy on them. If he knew whose form they will take and when they will take it he could just sneak a little Gazing Eye on that person’s keyblade. It could also explain why Sora’s eyes transform in the data bossfight with YMX - that’s how MOM probably does his spying thing. It’s not like he could see anything from a keyblade that gets swung all over the place. Woudn’t it be more comfortable to see eveything through nearby person’s eyes?

So, Riku, Vanitas and YMX have similar fighting stances, Gazing Eyes in their keyblades + three shards circle Sora and he can summon three pillars of darkness while in Rage Form that looks a lot like that one Nightmare from DDD that’s probably related to YMX. Very interesting chain of coincidences. 

Also, remember Vanitas saying that?

Rage Form doesn’t cast a shadow.

Lastly, there’s this interesting detail with villains’ final conversations with Sora. Almost everyone gets their sweet little character development moment. Everyone but Vanitas, Riku Replica and YMX (Xigbar/Luxu too, but at least we know what his problem is). And even if Repliku and YMX that are defeated at the Graveyard are not the Darknesses, the fact that it’s them who get this special treatment, along with Vanitas, is still kinda telling.