Kingdom Hearts Union X [Cross] 979, Ending Explained: Dream Eaters, Xehanort, Reference Mark
Ephemer blasted the protagonist and the data world's four remaining Darknesses into the cables that connect data Daybreak Town to the other digital worlds. The protagonist tricked Ephemer and Skuld into believing one of the Darknesses possessed them. They then overwhelmed the duo to the point that Ephemer ejected them to save Skuld's life. Ephemer regrettably has no idea what's become of the protagonist, but he and Skuld have made it to the real world.
Quest 979 is the final quest in the Kingdom Hearts Union Cross storyline, and its cutscenes "Locked Inside," "Nightfall," "A World of Fiction," "Ephemer and Skuld," and "Goodnight" survey the end of the protagonist's story, which heavily ties into Kingdom Hearts 3D and Kingdom Hearts Dark Road. This writing is the third entry in a four-part series covering quest 979, and it performs an interpretation of the mentioned cutscenes events to clarify the Kingdom Hearts Union Cross finale.
Ephemer and Skuld hope Brain, Lauriam, Elrena, and Ventus are okay after they arrive in the real world and see its underground lab both in shambles and with no other available pods. In hopes of assessing the world's damage, Ephemer suggests they look outside — a mistake. The two witness their world being torn apart by a dark storm, which breaks Skuld's heart.
To avoid being destroyed themselves, Ephemer leads Skuld back inside, back to her pod, so that they can escape. Strong-willed as she normally is, he seemingly manages to convince her not to give up after she breaks down, believing they're not going to make it. While he handles her, though, he struggles to cope with leaving the protagonist behind, crying over memories of their first meeting. The duo's pods then close and presumably take them into the future as the Foretellers' tower finally collapses.
Long before the Master originally disappeared, he had a conversation with Darkness about his plan to go to the future; Union Cross quest 977 touched on it during "The Purpose" cutscene. In it, the Master told Darkness of his plan to get to the future using Luxu as his waypoint and that once there, he would visit a world Darkness can't imagine. "A World of Fiction" seemingly picks up shortly after this explanation.
Darkness doesn't understand the Master of Masters at all, but it really wants to because it believes it's best to know your enemy, so the Master indulges it — at least, he tries to. Essentially, no matter how much the world expands to try and get away from darkness, darkness always finds it, and when it does, it always destroys lives, and that's just something the Master can't tolerate. He understands Darkness sees him as a frenemy, but sometimes he just wants his space, hence why he's disappearing to this new world that he found in the future.
This world exists in the future, and neither light nor darkness has control over it. It is a world beyond imagination, a world of fiction. And no — the Master is not talking about the data world. He's talking about a world of "※," a symbol otherwise known as a "Reference Mark." Said mark is a symbol used in Japanese writing to draw a reader's attention to an important sentence or idea, such as a prologue or footnote; it's similar to how English uses asterisks. Unfortunately, exactly what the mark means in the context of the Master's explanation remains a mystery.
The Darknesses think they've won. Now that they're in the cable system, they can spread to the other data worlds as planned. They commend the "Darkness" possessing the protagonist for manipulating Ephemer into opening the portal for them but warn that if it stays in the protagonist's body, it'll be deleted along with it when data Daybreak Town collapses.
At this point, instead of keeping up the ruse, the protagonist drops it, laughing at how easy tricking Darkness was. They feigned possession to force Ephemer into sending them all into the cables. Here, the protagonist can lock the cable-end that leads to other worlds, like so. And since Ephemer locked the end leading back to data Daybreak Town, the Darknesses are effectively trapped. They'll go down with the ship, but Ephemer and Skuld will be able to return to the real world and beyond, just as the protagonist planned.
Enraged over the deception, the Darknesses spazz out overhead. They likely believed a fifth Darkness arrived and made a flashy entrance by straight-up possessing the protagonist. They likely didn't know that the Darkness possessing Ven already made it to the future or that the Darkness that helped Maleficent return to the future was last seen in the real world fighting Luxu. They didn't know they were the only four left in the data world, so the protagonist nearly killing Ephemer and Skuld sold them on the idea that a Darkness possessed them.
Regardless, the protagonist, weakened from their battle with Ephemer and Skuld, rests and prepares for the inevitable. They apologize to Chirithy for involving it when it materializes to check on them, and then they hold it when it reassures them that it doesn't blame them for unavoidably sacrificing its life too.
As the world ends, Chirithy transports the protagonist to a unique place to make an ultimate decision. They wake up floating in a space where they see Chirithy taking the hearts of sleeping Keyblade wielders, storing them in their pouches, and then transforming into Kingdom Hearts 3D Dream Eaters. The protagonist specifically sees this process happen to their friends from the Party they joined after the Keyblade War. The wielders they're seeing are the Dandelions, all of whom got caught up in the data world's collapse.
All Chirithy are connected to their wielders. When a wielder's heart disappears, the Chirithy disappears as well. However, when a wielder's heart sleeps, Chirithy instead collects them and then transforms into 3D Dream Eaters to protect them. The protagonist, like the other Dandelions, is now at that crossroads. They can choose to go to sleep, or they can choose to disappear. If they disappear, their heart — their current identity — will dissolve into a new one. In other words, they'll be reincarnated.
Again, never one for self-preservation, the protagonist already has their choice in mind, and they see flashes — a glimpse of their new life. They see a woman, likely their mother, giving them up as an infant to a robed figure. They see this robed figure taking them to Destiny Islands, presumably raising them into their teen years. They see this old figure drop dead while they leave the island. They see themselves in Scala Ad Caelum, playing chess with their new best friend. They see themselves reincarnated as Xehanort.
The glimpse makes the protagonist smile. They're content with reincarnation, seeing it is as starting a new journey. Respecting their decision, Chirirthy lets them die, and their heart goes on to start the reincarnation process, bringing an end to the Union Cross protagonist's story and beginning Master Xehanort's.
Kingdom Hearts Union Cross is on IOS and Android.
Post a Comment