Is Xehanort Evil? | The Psychology of Xehanort

Legend has it that Darkness once covered the world we know so little about the keyblade War only that it was just the beginning this world is just too small my appointed path is now etched in my heart which will first lead me to seek the outside world My Future Self gave me a task to visit the splintered versions of myself in many worlds and ensure they gathered here Today this world has been connected every light must fade every heart return to Darkness Kingdom Hearts hear me Kingdom Hearts you can no more be complete without me

me than I without [Music] you have you finally decided to call upon the darkness if ruin brings about creation what then would another keyblade War Bring when the Darkness Falls will we be found worthy of the precious light the legend speaks of Kingdom Hearts I call upon your true form open now now and show me the world to come for if I am the child of Destiny xanor a man of many faces many bodies many coats the antagonist of the Dark Seeker Saga who is first introduced at the end of Kingdom Hearts 2 from his

first introduction he is set up as the antagonist for the coming title Birth by Sleep but becomes so much larger than that as the ending of that game solidified him as the Catalyst for all of the events throughout Kingdom Hearts welcome to the psychology of [Music] Z xanor was first shown off in Kingdom Hearts 2 but chronologically his journey starts much further back before even Birth by Sleep we have xor's Journey down his dark Road xor is first introduced on the islands Of Destiny he is cared for by the player character in Union Cross who

tells him that he is the child of Destiny the one who would save the world from darkness xanor is told that he will have many interactions throughout his journey interactions that will impact his emotions and thoughts leading him on his destined path we learned that for whatever reason the destiny islands are a place where Darkness couldn't find him or at least couldn't find him until he Was strong enough to face it his knowledge here shows that he know knows he isn't from this pocket of vience and we also learn that he desperately wants to see

his mother again at such a young age he's already told that he's this child of Destiny and he's going to be led down this destined path so it makes sense why when we see him in future titles that he's kind of hotty since he believes that he is doing what is supposed to happen alongside This destined path zanor has dreams the player character and his friends from Union cross connections that he traces through his katu's heart his power is unique a power to sense what is in the hearts of others this is a power that

may feel familiar as we see in another character Sora the way it is explained is a deep empathy an ability to feel and share what others feel but on top of that to embrace what others feel in their hearts and to connect and become One with that heart this isn't just about understanding how someone feels but about connecting to them through the understanding these dreams that zonard has as well as the stories he would hear from his caretaker stoked the fire in his heart of leaving the aisles of Destiny well it also helped that he

was take into the future and the events were all ot to his heart instilling in him a desire to see the outside worlds and follow the future he had seen play out But we'll get to that later his future self finds him here and confirms that there are indeed worlds outside of the destiny islands that there's more to his life than just living on some baren Island for the rest of his days this exchange gives us yet another insight into Zeno's character his older self entices him with the chance to learn more and to gain

more knowledge he knew exactly what to say to his younger self to push him off the Des Islands he knew Deep down that he was hungry for more than what his Island had to offer and so he soaked the Flames opening a dark Corridor and cusing him in setting him down his dark Road as without the proper protection he was vulnerable to the darkness the older Zer plants his phrase in his mind but if you lack the courage and strength your dreams will remain dreams forever that the dreams of his friends could become reality that

he could truly meet them thinking about the Lengths that zard goes to throughout the series to return things to what he believes is balance this is such a powerful statement and belief to internalize here it is instilled showing up even at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3 so it's safe to say this was a motivating belief that if he had the courage and strength he could do anything xor believes his older self completely and enters the corridor of Darkness as xort walks through the Darkness it speaks to him though he can't understand what is said

it stirs up his own emotions probably utilizing that unique ability of connection hatred jealousy and doubt are all thorat it's overwhelming it's fascinating that he notes here that these were emotions that he had never experienced before also the parallels to rku are astounding here because rku goes through something similar rku was also on those islands Growing up having similar experiences to xanor they both wanted to see the outside world they both traveled through the darkness to reach other worlds but while xort turned to Darkness falling deeper and deeper into that Abyss rku had friends and

support who saved him when you also look at the idea that rku was origin orally supposed to be the child of Destiny it's kind of interesting the parallels there and the fact that Sora changed all that but We'll talk about that bug in the system at a later date during zaner's traveling through the quarter of Darkness he found comfort that even though he was experiencing foul emotions it meant he could still feel emptiness as seen at the end of this cut scene is far more terrifying to zort than the darkness and honestly at the end

of The darkseeker Saga he kind of becomes a husk of himself empty and alone [Music] Throughout dark road we see him have feelings and empathy but by the time the events of so's Journey happens xor hardly feels any remorse or really anything he's this stone wall enacting the plan to bring forth Kingdom Hearts we know that xort can connect with other hearts and it doesn't seem like he has full control of that at least when he was younger I honestly wonder if that constant empathy eventually turned him cold hardening his heart to others Distress anyways

getting back on track it's interesting that zanot doesn't talk about how he arrived to Scala when ericus asked him how he got there this version of Z we see in dark Ro is very clever having some really profound insights and thoughts though that doesn't keep him from having a casual joking side as he trains to become a keyb master he becomes close to this cohort all keyblade Masters in training working hard to learn and become Protectors of the light but zort still isn't satisfied he notes that it's just becoming like his Island day in and

day out doing the same mundane things he starts to look inward maybe the problem isn't his environment but himself the way he engages with others is his problem and it is what shapes who he is and what he'll become he wants more than anything to see the friends from his dreams and believes that becoming a keyblade Master will help him attain That goal so he looks to dig deeper to understand more about Kingdom Hearts and his purpose all this sets his personality up for us quite well xonor is a deeply curious person who takes matters

the mind and heart very seriously as those are what he believes makes a person who they are the driving Factor when he arrives at Scala is learning more so that he can find the friends from his dreams as well as his mother he is quiet and clever having Incredible insight into the workings of how people think and feel often saying these deeply profound things as he Muses this is thanks to his unique ability to connect feel and understand people's hearts which greatly impacts him as can be seen as he wakes up crying in the destiny

Islands as well as when he fads through the corridor of Darkness due to these strong feelings though he fears one day that he will stop feeling anything being completely empty this is What drives him to continue growing and seeing new things fearing the complacency that would set in for him as Things become familiar and mundane this is the Crux of what drives zor he flees from that feeling of emptiness and in so doing drives himself toward the very thing he fears though that would not happen for many years to come in this new place he

thrives making friends and training to become a keyblade Master he often plays a strategy game with ericus Developing a strategic mind to combat every eventuality it is here one day where he talks with ericus about the keyblade War zor believes the future has already been seen and written zanor believes Darkness will prevail and light expire and he comes to believe he will be the one to bring about that faded day he would be the one to seek out the darkness that would make light expire the Seeker of Darkness this path will begin here in Dark

Road during a faithful day where everything is thrown into disar during the upper class's training for the mar Mastery they mysteriously go missing the overarching story of dark Road focuses on xanor and the lower classmen as they look for their classmates except for xanor the others had not seen any of the outside world as far as we know so it is an exciting but serious time in their lives xanor has a lot of curiosity though about the other Worlds showing that craving for knowledge to see more he's also pretty intentional about voicing that he wants

to help the upper classman though shows a cautiousness about how they should go about looking for them he wants to keep the world order when his classmates are talking about traveling to other worlds outside of Scala xort shows an uncanny understanding of how the worlds work piecing information together very quickly and hypothesizing that The Upperclassman's Disappearance might be linked with the instability of the worlds he also doesn't back down easily a characteristic we know quite well from future titles but is shown here pretty well as evidenced by this conversation between him ericus and broggi lastly

this opening shows us that he is not a follower feeling that it would be best to not report anything to their Master quite yet he wants to gather information first before making any rash decisions Even waiting to report to his master the last thing I want to note here is the armor that xor Dawns while this isn't really so much part of his psychology it is interesting how the armor here that zor Dawn is the crown keyblade armor we have seen in K2 and Birth by Sleep this armor is probably pretty familiar with it having

a pretty strong Crown Motif alongside the nobody sigil I think for zanor this implies a shift at some point seeing as his armor at the end of K3 is The scapegoat while there's not much evidence I think zort and initially was the child of Destiny the bearer of the crown roll who would control Kingdom Hearts but at some point something changed they could have been the master Masters seeing the future and shifting Zan's path to anure different outcome it could have been the nature of Darkness infecting him and making him Unworthy of the crown or

it could be something completely different all we know though Is something changed and shifted his role to that of the scapegoat taking the fall of the darkness being used as a means to an end but that kind of shifts away a bit from who zort is and ters on Theory crafting let's return back to dark this title really hammers home the idea that light and darkness are not good and evil Z thinks about how change can come from anywhere light or Darkness this becomes a core belief for zanor and is something he thinks about often

that Darkness is not necessarily evil I think this is shown pretty well with the Wonderland world where he notices the darkness hiding inside of the queen he connects with erus his heart here as he moles over the darkness he saw even speaking at the same time as his friend when they State Darkness can hide inside someone's heart he questions if it is even right to turn your keyblade on someone who doesn't even know they have Darkness within them this shows a Level-headedness that zort has he always gives everything a second to sink in before he

reacts like when their friends are in trouble xehanort though scared for their friends doesn't rush in without thinking about plan he acts as an anchor as well keeping ericus from overreacting while xor is in Wonderland there's an odd little exchange where he just kind of turns and leaves midc conversation with these people so while xort has this deep innate curiosity it's Not for everything he notes later that he doesn't think he will find his friends here so it leaves the only interesting thing here being the queen so it takes a somewhat sizable mystery to engage

him otherwise he just completely disengages it's not even done out of malice it seems he just disconnects and moves on I think there's just this fundamental disconnect from people he doesn't seem to think are on his level he enlists the help of ericus Who figures him out but leaves the other party member out of the Loop while trying to find out more about the darkness in the Queen's heart the decision is made trying to keep that party member's safety in mind but it still comes across as zor feeling better than them zor and ericus have

this almost nonchalant nature when they're talking to the queen being respectful of course but it's quite clear they don't view her as anything more than it means To an end more so focus on the darkness in her rather than her as a person at all zor has a theory that because they of the light they may be creating more darkness in their wake as they travel to the different worlds again even this early zanar questions whether light and darkness are truly good and evil that maybe it is more a matter of perspective than simply right

and wrong he believes that no one can truly know right and wrong even if They have the title of Keyblade Master to him it's just a title and nothing more this might be why he's wary of the upper classmen when they finally find them though he hides and listens to them talk to one of his friends instead of running in to see what happened zenor has a very flexible Viewpoint thinking that change is inevitable he believes it should be embraced and even if the classmates grew apart they should learn to build new Relationships we know

that Zar became isolated and alone so I think he took the death of his classmates a lot more to Heart than he realized it fundamentally shifted how he viewed connections xor picks up on the darkness in Jafar identifying it as greed While others were not able to see it that clearly zenor goes along with what Jafar asked though pretending to help so that he can see more of the world this comment by the upper classman where they Are found seems to stick with zor why they choose to upset the balance is because they are looking

for True light one that shines even in the face of confusion and uncertainty you can see xor pondering the words of his upper classman as he almost contradicts himself saying he would rather World fold of Darkness if it means that they can defeat it to truly beat the darkness they believe they need to gather seven lights and This is the turning point when he mentions their friends the ones of light that were lost this is where zaner learns about Kingdom Hearts the power to save his friends and banish Darkness at the cost of potentially purging

the world of everything and these are the seeds planted for zaner's role The Secret Of Darkness to purge the world into to birth a new one pure and bright badar is trying to use Kingdom Hearts to take revenge on the darkness that took his friends to purge it all this is also where xart learns about the final world the world with a never- ending sky and ocean where those who have lost their bodies but not their hearts end up at during their fight with Hades they get sucked into a dark Corridor they quickly put their

armor on to fend off the darkness and zart warns ericus of The Whispers of darkness and how easily can bur in if they listen Herad and SS to come and it seems that xort and ericus are about to perish as well before Odin finds them and FES them back to Scala xort and erus are the only ones to return from the underworld xer tells Odin about their running with balder to which Odin responds with surprise after the building shakes and Odin leaves erus questions and wonders if xar already knows what's happening X had put together

that something was wrong with Balder and assumes he did something to the other classmates balder fell a Darkness after he lost his sister and xart figured this out he's still willing to help ericus take care of Baler and try to save him though as xehanort faces balder he grabs at his heart probably because he connected with bal's heart and F the overflowing emotions we see the care he has for arus and he visibly sheds tears when he loses [Music] Be zart moves to strike Baler down even though he told erus he help him drive out

the darkness during the battle against balder he speaks to zor's Inner Battle of his heart between light and darkness finding an unsure Xeno which we don't see too often balder tries to push in that insecurity here balder shares about two different kinds of people those of light and those who be left behind it seems to resonate with xor Baler speaks to xor about how they will Be blamed for Falling Into Darkness while they chase their goals while in the end xor ends up striking Baler down I think this conversation days of them for a very

long time the crisis was averted but ericus and X would be forever [Music] changed the rest of the story of dark road is these brief drop-ins as xor grows up one month later zort stands before the Graves of his friends laying down flowers for each one he cared deeply for them all enough to bring flowers to the graves and speak words of comfort to balder's grave after zort n has banned her a bit and idly chat at the gravite erus challenges xor to her chest game you can see here that erus inspires xor with his

dreams of light the loss of his classmates though will Echo throughout xo's life a reason to get rid of the darkness it's interesting in a note here That he would not create new relationships even though previously he would state that change is inevitable and that things would not stay the same of course he wouldn't realize how much things would change or the impact loosen the people closest to him would have one year later Zer gets sent on a journey to prepare for the mark of Mastery usually this exam is when the wielders would get their

first glimpse of the worlds this second Journey though Hits his emotions differently he first thinks that maybe it was the first journey that changed his feelings but then he wondered as if they were born when he first left his Island noting that the emotions here would be too turbulent for anyone to bear and that Darkness here would devour anyone that would walk through even with his armor he can feel the darkness seeping through he wonders if he could find it though if his heart Were strong enough he believes it's his Destiny to stand to the

darkness and so he takes off his armor it becomes too much for him and he falls with the master Masters finding him and noting he is the singularity we then get to see an exchange between xort and this mysterious figure xort keeps his guard up with him but the master Masters gets into his head aligning with similar ideas about how light and darkness Aren't straight good or evil he ask zort a question is he a strong person or weak person to which Zeno responds that he doesn't agree with such extreme characterizations the master master Masters

also mentions a false light something that would ring familiar to xanor his upper classman talked of the True Light coming back if Kingdom Hearts was brought forth and everything was destroyed xort learns his purpose during the World Tour stating that he believes Darkness is lurking in every heart and that the light they think they hold in their heart is a total farce rather than Let Them Fall to Darkness themselves though and create chaos zart still holds to his teaching that there needs to be order xor is not sure what he needs to do but he

knows that he needs to act because what comes next is too important zenor is getting closer to solidifying his role as the Seeker of darkness and the master and Masters is there to Ensure it it seems the xar we see here is the one that has already gone forward in time and experienced the events of Dream Drop Distance in cage 3 he makes a statement during those games that what happens here is Ed into his heart that he knows what must be done and he will return back to that time doing what must be done

even if he doesn't remember it the master master plants in his head that Sunni won't need the cat that if he Really is strong that he will control the darkness instead of it controlling him 2 years later xanor and ericus discuss their world tours over a chess game xor Ponders how it made him think about a lot of things but the past and what's to come xero laments that one lifetime isn't enough and he wouldn't want someone else to carry on his legacy he wishes he could have 13 lifetimes which he believes is what he

needs to rebuild The world but then he scratches that saying he needs one more to explore with the new world that is built it's very on the nose seeing how he created 13 vessels for himself and also how an interview from Nur with an accompanying artwork of young xanor in an area of Shibuya seems to imply that he did indeed get his wish a couple years later zor is still visibly upset as he lays down flowers for his comrades zor is leaving once Again to see more of the world before the mar Mastery but he

is searching for something in particular Zena returns to Wonderland asking for the queen remembers him and confirms that there is still a Darkness hiding out inside the queen jumping forward a couple more years zenor becomes a keyblade Master seemingly successful on his Mark and master exam he has Beed a no-name keyblade that was used by the Lost Masters Zar has often thought about how Best to protect the world and seems to come to the conclusion that the best way is by summoning Kingdom Hearts he then spends the next 47 years laying out plans carefully 54

years later after the events of dark Road zanor fights with ericus about bringing forth the darkness once again he wonders if a keyo war happens again and darkness covers the land would they be found worthy still of the precious Light he is driven by these questions he needs to know he believes that darkness is not the end but the beginning these questions are more important than even his friendship with ericus and he uses the darkness or lets it in in order to get the answers to them it's clear as dreams of his friends and ending

the darkness are his only driving motivation at this point the people still alive in the future Generations are simply pawns people that don't interest him and we've Seen how zor acts towards people that don't interest him 10 years later xen reveals why he shaved his head somehow showing to himself his resolve he still thinks about those he has lost both those who are gone and those who have gone a different path however there's a special place in his heart for those he only saw in his dreams he never found them in all his years but

he never gave up hope he learns from the magic mirror that the Key to them lies in a boy who holds both light and darkness in him at the keyo graveyard a year later is the beginning of the events of Birth by Sleep he forces vent to embrace the darkness believing that he could form the keyblade from a heart of pure light fall to Darkness he extracts the darkness hiding within ventas creating venitas almost destroying ven's heart in the process he goes to lay ven down in the destiny Island but ven wakes up showing His

heart is still there and thus zort decides to entrust him to arus zort reiterates that Travers in the corridors as a human is not safe because of the spirits and emotions if one tries to embrace the emotions here their heart is cored by Darkness he notes though that because ven has closed his heart off that it doesn't matter for him he then noted that his first Mentor taught him that the one inscribed in the book The One chosen to be a dark vessel Can connect their heart to others and feel what they feel believing himself

to be that chosen vessel he opens himself up to those emotions as he arrives to drop off ven with Master ericus the letter he sent ahead of his arrival is brought up it seems that he immediately traveled to the keyblade graveyard a year ago and found then there and took him under his wing ever since he tells ericus he believes Ventus is the one as zort Leaves he comes across venitas and says that he left Ben here to save him not for venitas he also seems to hold some disdain for venas stting that he may

be pure Darkness but that zor could make quick work of him if he wished he shows his knowledge of the ancient darknesses believing that the seven most powerful will housed inside the bodies of the Lost Masters but the remaining six four of them were trapped in the world comprised of data the data version of The world of Union Cross two were supposedly destroyed when the world collapsed but he states that one of those survived and disguised itself as an ally of light inside a event zenor connects the Dos pointing at vendidas as the one ancient

darkness that has survived he wonders what the reason could be to conceal its existence though anyways here zort States something fascinating he knows that ven's heart was not split into two one of light and One of Darkness he also shows that he does indeed recognize Ventus as being from his dreams their meeting was not by chance but orchestrated by xort Venus Ponders what he knows but xort plays Dumb and they continue onwards we knew at a young age that zort was cunning and smart but he's had 64 years to harness and build upon those abilities

ities and it shows [Music] [Music] [Music] here xort in Birth by Sleep is set up as the main antagonist manipulating the Warriors of light from the Shadows the secret reports of this game are all written by xehanort and give us more insight into his motivations throughout the game so I'll try to cover those first since a lot of them lead up to the beginning of the game it is honestly fascinating how closely these line up with the zoric portrayed in dark Road I mean the first two reports talk about a myriad of things such as

him thinking about how much his life has changed when he arrived at that place and his questions over the true purpose of the keyblade Masters and the keyblades they wielded it even pinpoints the time where Zan it would forgo his protection letting darkness in the third and fourth reports lay out Zano's main motivation and fixation that has kept his attention since he was young Kingdom Hearts it's not clear where Zeno gets his information from and the way to go about creating Kingdom Hearts seems opusc on purpose with some believing it is the hearts of Worlds

or the hearts of people that are needed to bring forth this moon and the subsequent door while the Clashing of light and darkness are needed to create a key to open it zor also believes here in this moment that the one who opens the door will be reborn as something far greater than Human whoever brought about the first keyblade war and subsequently created the new world made it so that everything is separated by gates to make sure Another War does not come about now I couldn't make a whole video about the Kingdom Hearts and the

nuances of the different types and ways to bring about an artificial or real Kingdom Hearts but I think if I want to put it succinctly zanor believes that the current world is under the tyranny of The light a false light and so zanor looks to fight back against that light and subsequently against arus now with everything we know it kind of makes sense why ericus is so trusting of him what with all the history that they have in dark Road they've constantly bickered and after his initial letter he sends explaining about ven it seems like

things are patched up after their short altercation some years ago at this age Zar has almost Completely given into to the darkness all with the goal now of summoning Kingdom Hearts zor even makes sure that Tera does not pass the exam as seen by ericus stating that they have deliberated together to make a decision about who would become a ke blade Master also that he can swoop down and become his new Mentor xanor consistently creates these moments putting himself in a place where he can nudge things ever so slightly into his favor but not Enough

that it ruins his appearance he plays with Tera confusing him about the true nature of Darkness making it sound like something that he can easily control it's also interesting to see that comment from the master Masters earlier ringing true as we see xano go through a dark Corridor with no coat or armor I touched on the scene between Tera and XO in my psychology of Terra video but xano is a master at manipulating the truth he uses kernels Of Truth to obscure and misdirect he admits that he was the cause of anitus but twists it

in a way that makes it seem like he was saving Ventus who was falling to darkness which even with the information that we know from dark Road that's honestly kind of true but we know that he wanted venitas to come out it wasn't an accident xanor gives Tera just enough of the truth to get what he needs having been a part of the light and walking a similar path he knows the Words to say the way to act to draw Tera to his side he orchestrates everything from the Shadows using brag to convince Tera to

fight and move closer to the darkness it's similar to his attitude in dark Road seeing everyone around him is simply pawns a means to an end that he is moving on a chessboard zenor Echoes similar things that he heard on his path to Darkness he States Darkness can be channeled that it can be controlled while we don't know if that's exactly True he left out the part of Darkness eating away at anyone who comes near it he lets his inner thoughts bleed through at times though he wants to rebalance the world as he believes the

Darkness and Light have become imbalanced it's actually really fascinating how he orchestrated The Birth by Sleep trip to go on essentially a similar W tour that he and ericus went on he encourages ter to continue traveling the worlds and seek out the Darkness that upsets the balance again very striking similarity to what zor and ericus went through of course zanor believes a false light actually is the balance but he doesn't share that with terara again telling him exactly what he wants to hear his coldness to brag after they work together once again shows the indifference

he holds about the people around him they're not people to him just a means to an end it doesn't matter To him what connections are broken rest strains as long as he can attain the keyblade in the end near the climax of Birth by Sleep zort no longer needs to keep up appearances as all the pieces have come together he gets ahead of himself as Kingdom Hearts is so near to his grasp is Z continues to stoke the flame of tera's heart as Kingdom Hearts is formed with the keyblade being formed successfully or so he

believes zort Jumps through his next lifetime using the power of the keyblade to move into a Terra as a vessel zort talks about the heart's true nature mirroring the iconic quote from Kingdom Hearts 1 all worlds begin in darkness and also end the heart is no different Darkness Sprouts within it it grows consumes it such as its nature in the end every heart returns to the darkness whence it came you see darkness is the heart's True Essence he believes that all Hearts came from darkness and all shall return to it he miscalculated them tera's lingering

will stands up to him seeking author his plans but the unformed key blade shatters at this point sending everyone kening out of the keyblade graveyard Tera continues to fight back for his heart throughout all of this despite xut having foreseen so much he hasn't been able to account for everything as they Fight for control of terra's heart xut makes a comment of the fact that Tera is just one of the many roads that he might choose to take already implying that he has set up the 13 vessels he needs for his plan to come to

fruition sometime later Aqua finds xanor in the radiant Gardens he seems to have forgotten who was for a second but returns quickly we see that zor is not able to fully take over tera's heart and so he thrust Tera out of his body with His keyblade as Zer falls into the pit of Darkness that he created he is saved by aqua and ends up being found unconscious by the researchers in radiant Garden as shown by a secret report in Kingdom Hearts 3 there was a point where zard had actually lost his memory but the experiments

into his heart brought his Memories Back at some point though he could continue to play the part of a fool while working under ansom the wives During his time here he pens the ansom reports experimenting on the effects of Darkness on Hearts as he continues to experiment heartless are birthed and xor also creates the emblem heartless which are artificially created heartless the heartless move towards a door which xanor discovers leads to the heart of the world this triggers their world to be connected allowing travel and Mickey appears revealing even more of xor's pass to him

and teaching him of the Keyblades connected to Kingdom Hearts eventually he remembers everything opening up the door to the heart of their world and allowing it to fall Darkness he captures Kyrie as the radiant Gardens are falling into that Darkness believing that by sending her out in a Lifeboat that she will find another world where keyblade rer resides he says that it will save their world that it isn't an experiment but hope the world he is talking about here is not The world of radiant Garden but the entire world as the world Falls to Darkness

he releases the hearts of the researchers around him Dawning the name and some it's so interesting that even at this point where it feels like he's fallen completely to Darkness he still has this whole plan to make sure that everything ends up the way that he needs it to if he didn't need that keyblade Wielder that child of Destiny then why send Kyrie out why tell her that it's not an experiment but hope xanor for whatever reason Dawn The Dark Secret Ro and while he may seem evil throughout it all I think there's almost an

irony in the way that he plays his W [Music] [Music] out that's essentially the end of birth by sleep and before I get into the events of Kingdom Hearts 3 I want to Take a second to cover these other parts of xanor so let's start with anom secret of Darkness as anom was reduced to a heart he was no longer Shackled by the bounds of time this process also birthed the nobody Zenus who started to gather the other vessels to create the 13 that could be used to fight against the seven guardians of light and

create the keyblade the heartless of Zer becomes this robe figure using this opportunity To set his other plans into motion he travels to the time of dark Road coaxing his younger self to seek out other worlds ensuring that he would follow the same path and create the version of zanard that would allow him to become a heartless to time travel in the first place he then Waits or travels forward to the time of Kingdom Hearts 1 where he's able to be there when the world F the darkness ensuring that when so and rku traveled here

in Dream Drop Distance That he and his other selves would be able to use him as a waypoint to follow s and rku into the sleeping Realm the heartless of xanor handsome seeker of Darkness would follow rku eventually using him as a vessel to return to a physical form there's some really interesting parallels uh that I've pointed out before about rku and how similar he is to xananort I love how this recontextualizes the speech that anom gives when he's looking at over the Islands right cuz it could be about rku but it also could be

about his younger self anyways anom is a quiet antagonist for the most part silently working from the Shadows when he does speak he sort of implies that he has this knowledge that's much vaster than others can understand kind of again showing that potty attitude that we've seen in the younger zor much like with terara anom Stokes the Flames of ru's heart seeking to use Him as a vessel when darkness is fully crept in there's this really interesting moment when he takes a jab at Maleficent calling her a simple puppet used by the darkness the way

that zor has been written and kind of built up as a character once again it shows that view of xort seeing others as simply pawns for him in the darkness I mentioned this before but this iconic line of his when he's looking out over the destiny Islands Becomes a double meaning talking about rku of course and his need to seek freedom but also hinting at Young xor's Journey as well the ending of Kingdom Hearts I imagine was not really taking into account how much zort knows because anom here forgets that light and darkness are two

the same coin though maybe he just didn't assume that there would be such vast powerful light in the depths of Darkness there's not too much more we Can pull from these events though it is interesting to see his last conversation with rku he sees at the end that he never stood a chance that riku's strength was so much vaster than the darkness he even admits that he wanted to defy his fate his appointed path so that nothing seemed to matter at that point in the pursuit of the dreams the Union Cross members anom or or

xonor rather lost his way he was empty Zenus appears in the final mixed Version of Kingdom Hearts stating that he had met roxus and one of the tests for his strength Zenus throughout the events of days uses Kingdom Hearts as a guide for the others telling them all that they lack hearts and their goal is to create Kingdom Hearts to become whole again of course as the player we soon discovered this is all false and Zenus was using the vessels all his puppets to create the 13 vessels for Darkness to clash against the Light this

Kingdom Hearts they were creating of the hearts of men was a backup plan that Zenus was working on just like anom seeker of Darkness was looking for his own way to bring back Kingdom Hearts which he found in the abyss while also Gathering the seven pure hearts of light for the real Kingdom Hearts Zenus also sees the people around him as pawns even using the term puppet when referring to Shion though I believe he sees all the vessels As his puppets Zenus also uses the terminology of Pawn when overpowering the lead zeus' goal just like

xort is to become one with Kingdom Hearts to use it to bring about a new world in Dream Drop Distance Zeno kind of calls back to the world order he learned about in dark Road when he's talking about the world of Tron how every world has a set of rules that they follow and Obey even if they don't make sense like in Wonderland How the queen ruled in fear but that fear kept everyone in order in tron's world he uses the rules around data for his own needs twisting tron's code to manip it is also

revealed in Kingdom Hearts 3 that he chose larine marusia luk sword and demic because of the keyblade Legacy that slumbered within them the final thing I want to talk about with Zenus is that he has an emotion when he is defeated in Kingdom Hearts 3 that surge Of emotion is lonel which he translates as pain it is so interesting seeing this mirrored through young zanard who sees the loneliness as a source of power but a later version of xanar bemoans the feeling as it reminds him of everything he has lost lost finally I wanted the

young zort who travels through time to have his own spot since he's kind of different than the original young zart this young zart seems to take his journey before the Events of dark Road even begin if we listen to what he says throughout the events of Kingdom Hearts he mentions that he would forget his time in the future but that it would be etched into his heart and guide him the events that play out with this time traveling young xanor make sure that everything else false in the Place young xenor is tasked with Gathering The

Vessel of Darkness throughout time and keeps tabs and sword Through his Mark Mastery exam drawing him deeper into the dream we've seen zor connect with ericus and dark Road and see his memories which is probably how zanor can appear to know so much about Sora in his journey zor also notes how he followed his destined path even at this young of an age zor is completely allowing his heart to be his guiding key in Kingdom Hearts 3 zort speaks to the power of dark Darkness coming from being alone how this is more powerful Because darkness

is the heart's true nature these experiences and beliefs are imprinted onto his heart impacting him greatly but also creating a bias towards the darkness and that's really all I wanted to cover with these other selves it's really interesting to see these pieces of xort kind of scattered throughout his other selves I think it was built up perfectly to kind of give this feeling of familiarity when we finally did meet The original xananort [Music] zaner reforms as his old self in dream jop distance he admits he was too eager and acted rashly leading to a stay

in his plans as he stated before he had multiple plans trying to find his way to Kingdom Hearts Kingdom Hearts 3 is his final plan coming to fruition 13 darknesses against seven lights a battle waged to finally bring forth the full keyblade the keyblade reveals the true Form of Kingdom Hearts raining Darkness down soord channels the light though creating a portal from xort and diving into his dream of a world he had once known scalled kylo as his 13 vessels appear and are defeated they rejoin with zard and we see his new keyblade armor it's

significant that he has completely shifted over to the role of the scapegoat and while we don't know exactly when this happened we know that The young xort that travels through time as well as the older xort who has the known name keyblade both have goat motifs laid out in their design while in the events of dark road before it seems that he is changed by Darkness he has a normal keyblade Zano's keyblade armor in the events of dark road is that of the crown throughout this entire Journey Z has believed he was on a set

path he always noted that Destiny has never left a Chance he believed that he alone had the power to return the world back to a balance the end of Kingdom Hearts 3 is when we finally see all of zor's beliefs laid out plainly he believes the world needs someone strong to stand up and Lead it to stop the weak from polluting the world with darkness zanor is not so much misguided but was playing the long game thinking that it was okay to Snuff out what he believed to be a fake light which he Learned of

from the master Masters for the True Light that would be birthed from the darkness that came from Kingdom Hearts ericus proved to him though that there was more to light that meets the eye or that maybe this false light that X believed was there was not actually a false light at all but just needed a strong Darkness to burn against I think this is why he bequeathed the keyblade to Sora realizing that even though Darkness had won and light should have Expired it wasn't extinguished Sora showed him that there was a stronger person to take

the helm Zano's only motivation throughout all of this was to meet the friends he had from his dreams and to rebalance the light and darkness no matter the cost thinking he was still Destiny's Child he became the Seeker of darkness and inadvertently became the scape goat through which either Darkness or the master Masters used Him and so seeing light and darkness be balanced or at least seeing that someone was stronger than him that could make that happen he was able to move forward in the hopes that he would meet the friends from his dreams since

he saw that they too passed away and this is a stretch but maybe that's what Zeno had planned all along maybe in some Twisted way he thought he could sacrifice himself balancing the light in the darkness and also moving on To be with his friends [Music] [Music] and that is the psychology of xanor we see when he is younger that he has a very curious mind and a Caring Heart though after the huge loss of his friends he changes well not so much changes but focuses in on the one thing that was etched into his

heart to follow his destined path I think it shows the pitfalls of being so focused on what we Think think we need to be happy or fulfilled often people will think if I just have this one thing or if I can just accomplish this one thing then I'll finally be happy and zart followed that if he could just call forth Kingdom Hearts then maybe just maybe he could write the wrong and unbalanced nature of the world and finally find the people he had only dreamed about it consumed him taking over his whole nature isolating him

from the one friend he had left and Leading him down a path that left him empty I think that's one of the scariest things about zor's story his biggest fear was emptiness and in the end that's exactly what he had become I think back to Zenus and anoms dying words and how both seem to feel empty near the end it's a sobering story when you put it into perspective an entire lifetime spent in pursuit of one thing at the sacrifice of everything else ending in Nothing what I hope for is that xort does indeed get

to return in quadram despite how controversial that might be I think I'd like to see a Zer who didn't have himself swallowed whole by the dark secer role a curious wise boy who finds some were in the streets of shabuya and learns that maybe the power of being alone really isn't all there is that true connection can be a power far greater and I think that's it for the video I hope you found this interesting It was a labor of love truly trying to track down zor's Journey Through Time and all the different characters it

was um it was a lot I really appreciate people's patience as I was put putting this together it took a really long time um I know I got comments all the time saying like I I can't wait for the Zan art video um and that that was really really heartwarming to read and and to see that encouragement I really hope um one that this was enjoyable but also That you came away with a better appreciation of xor I don't think that zor's some like phenomenal guy right like he did terrible things that's I I hope

that people don't take that message away that like I'm rationalizing everything that zort did right because it's it's not that it was rationalized it was that zanor didn't see the people that he was hurting as people which in and of its own self is like terrifying but that was how far his ambition led Him and how much it made him empty in the end so hopefully that that comes across in the video but uh if you made it this far comment keyblade I always like to leave a little like comment at the end of these

because it's really funny to see how people work that into their comment uh if you enjoyed this you might like my other videos diving into the psychology of different characters I've done videos on psychology of Sora psychology of Aqua Even done some that are not Kingdom Hearts like the psychology of cloud um so check those out if that sounds interesting I also do kind of on like the complete opposite Spectrum uh is combat analysis videos so check those out if you want a closer look at some of the animations in Kingdom Hearts also right at

the end just want to plug myself if you enjoy my content it greatly helps me out if you become Pat Pon or member there links in the Description you can pledge as little as $1 a month or you can set a custom amount um every little bit helps and the support means the world to me I seriously cannot thank the patrons members who kept supporting me through the development of this longer project know this was months in the making so anyways I I super appreciate it I apologize for this taking so long um but I

genuinely genuinely appreciate the support I'd also be remiss if I didn't Mention and give a huge thank you to Sunny novas who did all the visuals for the transitions of this video this pushed back the video a little bit but I feel like it brought this cohesion to the whole narrative and I love how it tied into the video and I would not want it any other way I'll leave a link down in the description below to his channel he does some incredible work his next project is actually on recu and he uses a lot

of blender to get across his Visuals I've seen a little bit of it and I'm Blown Away by the amount of care and detail and work that he puts into um the things that he makes and lastly I know I quickly went through the events of dark Road this is never supposed to be a synopsis video so if you're looking for a video about dark Road and what it all is about Deo has been working to the bone on a dark Road explain video he is finishing up production on it he is so close so

I will leave either a link to His video on screen if it's done already or there will be a link to his channel so you can subscribe and not miss it uh I think that's everything I wanted to say if you're still here thank you for sticking around I'll see you in the next video which will be on the psychology of N I think [Music]