Kingdom Hearts Dark Road May Finally Answer Big Question
As the first details of Kingdom Hearts Dark Road are revealed, fans are ready for Xehanort's swan song. Since the Dark Seeker Saga wraps up with the defeat of the series' main antagonist, Xehanort's schemes end with Kingdom Hearts 3's finale.
Despite the franchise looking to the future, Kingdom Hearts Dark Road will focus on Xehanort's coming-of-age as a youth and his training as a Keyblade Master. Most importantly, Dark Road presents an interesting question that's never truly been answered, at least cohesively, by the franchise thus far: what made Xehanort succumb to the darkness and become the villain of Kingdom Hearts?
While the future of Kingdom Hearts seems a bit up in the air for now, Xehanort's past is just as vague. Details on Xehanort's upbringing are very hazy from what's known in Kingdom Hearts so far.
Xehanort and Eraqus were both Keyblade wielders in training at Scala Ad Caelum, the mysterious city players visited at the ending of Kingdom Hearts 3. Similar to Aqua and Terra from Birth By Sleep, the two go on world-spanning adventures as part of their Mark of Mastery exams. Somewhere during Xehanort's journey, he decides to take the titular road to darkness instead of light. Other than that, not much is officially known about that journey in between.
At one point, though, when Xehanort visits his home world of Destiny Islands, he's visited by the Heartless version of himself (Ansem, Seeker of Darkness) from the future. Ansem gives young Xehanort the power of time travel, and in exchange for using this power, he was tasked with collecting the 13 Seekers of Darkness to summon the X-Blade and unlock Kingdom Hearts itself. This pivotal moment was what set into motion the events of Dream Drop Distance and Kingdom Hearts 3. It's unknown if this was during or after Xehanort's turn to darkness, but it does set in motion the events of the entire series and how Xehanort intends to unlock Kingdom Hearts.
Aside from these details, there's a huge time jump between Xehanort's youth and the events of Birth By Sleep that hasn't been explored. At the beginning of Birth By Sleep, Xehanort and Eraqus are veteran Keyblade Masters and are much older. What happens on Xehanort and Eraqus' journey to become Keyblade Masters, why they leave Scala Ad Caelum, and how does Eraqus come to terms with Xehanort's use of the darkness remains a mystery, but fans should expect these aspects to be explored in Kingdom Hearts Dark Road.
While there may be other additional Kingdom Hearts games incoming, Dark Road will likely be the last story involving Xehanort. Kingdom Hearts Dark Road should tell the story of Xehanort's upbringing and training and what specifically sent him on his proverbial turn to darkness. Xehanort's youth, aside from his time-travelling version of himself which is technically a different Xehanort, falls in a peculiar spot in the Kingdom Hearts timeline. Dark Road takes place after the events of Kingdom Hearts Union X(Cross) and the Keyblade War, but before the main events of Birth By Sleep.
Along with that, there will likely by characters from both Union X and the Foreteller's Era that will bridge the gap between the events of the Keyblade War and Xehanort's youth. Xehanort has come into contact with characters all over the Kingdom Hearts timeline, as learned most recently from the Kingdom Hearts 3 ReMind DLC when he met with the Master of Masters. The Kingdom Hearts Union X official Twitter also teased that there are new and unknown characters coming to Dark Road as well, meaning it's possible many of those characters could be from varying parts of the timeline or entirely new.
Perhaps most important is Dark Road should go into further detail of Eraqus and Xehanort's bond. The two of them consider each other brothers, and it's learned in Birth By Sleep that at one point the two of them clashed both ideals and Keyblades. Eraqus scars came from an encounter with Xehanort that resulted in a fight between them, shortly after Xehanort loosely revealed his plans of ending all the worlds in darkness. Eventually, the two of them made amends prior to Birth By Sleep, and Xehanort returned just in time for Aqua and Terra's Mark of Mastery exams.
Dark Road will likely explore Eraqus' point of view as well and whether he knew Xehanort's plans to explore darkness and why he didn't consider him a sworn enemy by the time Birth By Sleep begins.
There have been subtle hints dropped throughout the series, and while Dark Road will likely tell fans definitively how Xehanort turned to darkness, it's been largely hinted at all along. From the tidbits seen of Xehanort's youth, he's very inquisitive about the Keyblade War and the Lost Masters (the Foretellers). This is exemplified in the chess game scenes from Kingdom Hearts 3, where Eraqus and Xehanort discuss the Keyblade War and the different sides of darkness and light.
Xehanort seeks to know why a war could've been fought over Kingdom Hearts and what was the purpose of summoning the entity itself. His research notes, collectible items found throughout the Kingdom Hearts games, seek the answers of these same questions. Often heard rehearsing the line "On that land shall darkness prevail and light expire," Xehanort believes that the future is already pre-determined. ReMind's beginning shows that after Xehanort's journey through the worlds, he believes he discovered that darkness was often held back by ideas of morality or virtue, and that everyone had an amount of darkness within them at all times.
In the end, Xehanort believed light far outshone darkness, and that darkness was not a negative entity and should be allowed to thrive alongside light. The whole reason he wished to summon Kingdom Hearts and blanket the worlds in darkness was because he believed "ruin brings about creation," and Xehanort became the most powerful Keyblade wielder for this reason. He wanted to start another Keyblade War to destroy the overwhelming light across all worlds, in service of creating a new universe, one where light and darkness exist in equilibrium.
Xehanort has this epiphany somewhere along his journey to become a Keyblade Master, resulting in the events of the Kingdom Hearts series so far. Kingdom Hearts Dark Road should shine a light (or rather, cast a shadow) on why he made this pivotal decision.
Kingdom Hearts Dark Road will be available on Android and iOS devices in Spring 2020.
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