Kingdom Hearts 3: Plot - Part I (Aquanort + Other)

Alright, friends, as promised (somewhat), starting today I'll begin letting you in on Kingdom Hearts 3's plot as far as this timeline's amount of information revealed so far ultimately happens to allow - you know, following most recent explanations on why doing so fully now could have disastrous consequences otherwise - aka

and, following that, we "can't have [us] causing any temporal paradoxes", after all.

Well, since seemingly only little amount of people showed actual interest in me doing this (seriously would've wished at least a few more voting on my poll telling of this, but nope not going down that path, again ), I'm gonna do this in a more restraint summarized manner now than what I originally had in mind (though considering my still not overcome overblowing-tendencies grinding much on people's nerves, I guess that's for the better ).

Also, to at least ease things a bit and prevent having to read through too much text in one sitting, I'm gonna split this overall topic into 2 parts, the 2nd to be released either later on or tomorrow depending on mood among other - with the first part establishing some general explanations mainly evolving around the true circumstances behind the possession of Aqua and drop some other significant plot-related elements in advance, before ultimately lining them up towards the true plot-summarization of KH3 in Part II, then.

So, with that out of the way, let's start here:

1. Aqua's Possession

So, everyone having closely followed most recent KH3 developements now happen to definitely now this 'twist' of sorts - that Aqua's ultimately fallen to darkness, though with minds remaining greatly divided whenever Aqua truly ended up becoming another 'Xehanort' or 'merely' succumbed to darkness within her heart or, ultimately, the Realm of Darkness simply playing up the 'illusion card' on Riku and Mickey.

So, while undoubtedly many great theories by themselves, close looks at happenstances leave little room for any other outcomes than the fact that Aqua truly became another member of the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness - not the 13th as I'm gonna clarify here now in spite of what I said in the previous journal to supposedly lead you astray, no that spot happens to be reserved for the one it was originally meant to be, if not the same person, ultimately (yeah, I also can channel my 'inner Nomura' you guys ), but still a member.

First of, let's take a look at how she looks like

So far, no one that'd dabble too much within the darkness would ultimately gain those yellow/golden eyes alone or any other 'features' for that matter aside of pointy ears - (Master) Xehanort already possessed them long before giving himself to darkness, subsequently gaining said pointy ears after doing as well as Ansem the Wise (if more going in the red section, but still). Everyone else sporting yellow/golden eyes ever since would ultimately be revealed to be part of Xehanort's gang at any point (safe for Maleficent, but her being a different case).

And if that in itself is not enough, the fact that Aqua's hair would turn more silver-like should latestely give it away that she ended up in his clutches after all.

Also, regarding the overall 'Realm of Darkness' playing the 'illusion card' on Riku and Mickey, all of their locations would place them within the Dark Margins, a beach like end station at the end of the world where - at any point - never came any 'illusionary' event to pass following its admittably eerie, but still tranquil nature (no the bottle Sora and Riku would receive in KH2 not counting here for being real among other), so that, too, ultimately happens to be jossable.

So that leaves, but only one conclusion - that Aqua ultimately ended up as another pawn for Xehanort. And that is no accident either as this was a calculated move on Xehanort's part long beforehand from Birth by Sleep's end onward.

Why, through Xemnas of course.

A relatively subtle hint for this happens to be in the way the Realm of Darkness in itself happens to work - supposedly as a Bizzarro Realm where the laws of physics have no meaning and reality can be bend at any time without warning - all for the sake to ultimately break the wills of those unfortunate to end up within same one as Aqua had.

Yes, Xemnas. Granted, the overall 'bizzarro realm shifting' thing was not of his sole doing, but that doesn't mean he at least didn't have had a hand in same one - especially concering those illusions of Ventus and Terra Aqua continously would come to encounter throughout her journey throughout the destroyed realms.

In fact, let's briefly talk about the scene where Aqua supposedly meets Terra in Enchanted Dominion:

The whole truth behind same encounter happens to be that, once Terra supposedly would be overcome by 'Xehanort', Aqua hadn't been talking with same 'Xehanort' all along, but actually with Xemnas appearing in the shape of Terranort. It's actually brought up within same scene beforehand where Terra explains to her that he supposedly appears to her the way she in turn happens to remember him while he himself happens to be 'changed' now. Since Xemnas essentially happens to be Terra's body formed into a Nobody + former possession of Xehanort, what Aqua would've otherwise encountered there and then would've actually been Terra in appearance of Xemnas (just with his normal eyes and Xemnas hairstyle).

Also this is supposedly the true reason why the dev-team made a point interrupting 'Terranort' revealing his name to Aqua as he'd have ultimately given it away as Xemnas there and then. The later instance where 'Terranort' Xemnas would proclaim that "[Terra] would become one with darkness now" in turn was the doings of Master Xehanort himself then hijacking same one's body for a brief moment the same way he had done with his younger incarnation in Dream Drop Distance during his boss fight with Riku.

By this point, while all nice and fine so far, you may still remain unconvinced as of yet, since there still happen to remain 2 main questions unanswered as of yet (or, at least not fully explained as of yet) - the main one here now surely being:

Well, sure, he wasn't there in the Realm of Darkness himself directly (even though he could as 358/2 Days gave away at one point) as in the Dream Worlds and yet both times he had a common element he could 'link' himself towards his 'target of choice'.

The Recusant's Sigil, aka the 'X' on his clothes.

Even when having been forced to sacrifice same one alongside her Keyblade doesn't mean Aqua's still not connected to them, just unable in calling back on them.

And it's that very link Xemnas hacked himself on and exploited to ultimately serve his own ends (not so unlike Vanitas had done towards Ventus during their final battle when the former would force himself as a D-Link onto Ventus; now guess what Xemnas and Aqua also have in common when it comes to such things? ).

All those supposed 'conversations' he's held with 'her' during his more or less regular trips towards the Chamber of Repose? Those where not (or, rather, not 'merely') attempts figuring out how to find/access the Chamber of Waking, but also to slowly and subtly plant seeds of dark into Aqua's heart especially over the course of 358/2 Days up to KH2, stepping up on his game in especially those later stages then out of sensing his eventual end at the hands of the heroes of light, ultimately. That's what he's mostly been going after behind the scenes in 358/2 Days and why he wouldn't been shown largely involving himself with the rest of the old Organization for the most part and what he had been up to alongside less time-consuming projects. And that's also the reason Aqua would still appear rather 'ok' (= uncorrupted) towards the secret ending of BBS taking place shortly after KH2, if rather, again, outwardly, her state of heart/mind being an entire different manner then out of Xemnas having subtly filled her heart with seeds of doubt and darkness over the span those 1-2 years give or take (though since also especially Xigbar would note that not even great corrupters like Xehanort could supposedly 'put stuff in [one's] head', those seeds of doubt rather happen to be mere 'suggestions' to the likes of how Xemnas would try to plans similiar seeds of doubt into Sora and Riku during the penultimate stage of his final battle, covering this loose end as well now) (and finally, this is also the full true reason among many other why Master Xehanort wasn't disappointed, even unphased, actually, when Lea and the rest of the heroes of light thwarted his plans turning Sora into the supposed final member of his Organization as he already had Aqua as 'back up'; but more to that in the 2nd Part)

And that happens to be the full true extend of how 'Xehanort'/Xemnas ultimately managed in corrupting Aqua over time alongside the Realm of Darkness to the point they eventually had easy game taking that very last measure that'd ultimately result in her newfound state of possession now.

Now then, this only leaves, but one final question regarding her - and that happens to be:

Well, this will remain the one thing I'm not going to answer here now as that'll supposedly mark part of the plot-summarization found within the next part ultimately.

And since this journal managed turning much longer, again, than anticipated, many of those 'other elements' I ultimately wanted to more thoroughly bring up/explain will instead be done within same next Part now, though I'm at least going to drop some hints in advance now what further elements and twists may be found uncovered within same one then:

(Yes that edit I did a few days ago btw.)

Only to name up 2 of those very twists and plot-developements in advance now, with their eventual uncovering to follow soon from here...

So, happy chewing on in the meantime, I guess...