Chapter 7: Seekers Of Darkness (Part 5)

Chapter 7: Seekers of Darkness (Part 5)

NOTE: The following discussions you are about to read are only assumptions and theories. Only take them with a grain of salt for the time being.

Finally, let’s talk about Vanitas, a confirmed Seeker of Darkness. It is confirmed that he has been revived, but how is that possible when Ventus’s heart is still asleep? Perhaps being a pure being of darkness, he can be revived like the same way as Maleficent. With his heart being pure darkness, could Xehanort decide not to possess him as he is already good enough?

Many fans argue that Vanitas has already been possessed prior to the forging of the X-Blade. This is due to his yellow eyes as the Kingdom Hearts Ultimania confirms this. However, fans point out that Skuld and DiZ (or Ansem the Wise) also have yellow eyes despite not being possessed by Xehanort. Skuld is born to have yellow eyes, while Ansem the Wise gains yellow eyes after he gives in to the darkness to escape from the Realm of Darkness. To get revenge of his apprentices who turned against him, he disguised himself as DiZ. He covers himself with bandages, turns his eyes yellow, and darkens his skin. However, he reverses all of the changes in appearance after he decides to reveal himself. Some fans suggest that we will only know whether or not Vanitas is possessed by his hair color. But judging by hair colour is not a suitable method as Xigbar, Saix, Marluxia, Larxene and Luxord are all possessed yet their hair colour does not change.

In the Birth by Sleep novels, prior to Sora’s connection with Ventus, Vanitas has a doll-like face (black face with red eyes), nothing more like an Unversed. After Sora makes a connection with Ventus, Vanitas gains a face similar to Sora through his connection with Ventus. The novels only state that he gains a human face, but never specifies his looks. Moreover, it is constantly pointed out that the novels are not completely canon. We can only hope that his backstory will be revealed in Kingdom Hearts 3.

From what we know from Xehanort’s Reports, Ventus is originally going to be used as a vessel. However, he is too benign for his own good, so Xehanort then uses Ventus to forge the X-Blade. Since Ventus refuses to use the power of darkness, Xehanort has no choice but to extract his darkness out. After sending Ventus to Master Eraqus, he encounters Terra and senses that Terra has a strong darkness inside of him. Xehanort knows that he can make Terra his vessel.

Xehanort’s Report IX shows that his intention in finding a vessel is to ensure that he will be able to stay alive for his plans to come to fruition. He does not have the intention to create 13 Seekers of Darkness yet. It is only until the events closing in to Birth by Sleep that he decides to have a backup plan.

Xehanort admits that he has rushed his attempts on forging the X-Blade using Ventus and Vanitas as guinea pigs. In case that his attempts are unsuccessful, he will have to proceed using the long-term plan: use the 7 lights and 13 darkness. Certain that he can possess Terra’s body to stay young, he will have no problem in spending more time to carry out his plans. He indoctrinates about Kingdom Hearts to Maleficent, and manipulates her to gather the 7 Princesses of Heart. This explains how Maleficent knows about the Keyblade and then takes control of Terra to steal Aurora’s heart. Meanwhile, Xehanort goes to ensure that Terra will become his vessel, leaving Vanitas to deal with Ventus. Upon finding out Braig has a strong darkness as well due to his desire for power, Xehanort manipulates him and turns him into his vessel for the Seekers of Darkness.

Xehanort would not have been foolish enough to insert his heart into Vanitas. If the X-Blade is unsuccessfully forged and then shattered, the hearts of Ventus and Vanitas will shatter as well. If Xehanort’s heart was taking control of Vanitas, his heart would have suffered the same fate, and it could have been dangerous to Master Xehanort himself, even though it was just a connection.

According to the novels, Xehanort forbids Vanitas to harm Ventus as he wants both of them to be alive for his plan. Deciding that Ventus will be better off trained under Master Eraqus due to his strong opposition towards darkness, he separates Ventus from Vanitas. While the light in Ventus’s heart grows due to love and friendship, the darkness in Vanitas’s heart grows due to Xehanort’s abuse and torture. Xehanort will beat up Vanitas with his Keyblade and tell him to hate the world. He does this because he thinks Vanitas’s pain in slaying the Unversed and his loneliness are not enough to darken his heart. Throughout 4 years of abuse, Vanitas eventually loses his sanity and becomes the person we see in Birth by Sleep.

In the game, Vanitas is proud, cunning, cruel and ruthless. He holds everything and everyone in contempt, and has great resentment against Ventus and his friends. Despite being a student to Xehanort, he is not entirely loyal towards him. The novels state that Vanitas never likes Xehanort and does not like to be used as a tool. In the game, Vanitas is willing to destroy Ventus despite knowing clearly that he is going against Xehanort’s orders.

Vanitas has many traits associated with negativity and darkness. Initially, he was a lot like the original Ventus, albeit darker in personality, but 4 years of abuse have darkened his heart further, turning him insane. Xehanort always says that Vanitas is a being of pure darkness – an abomination beyond hope of salvation. He sees Vanitas has a heart of pure darkness, which could hint that Vanitas does not need to be possessed by Xehanort as he is already a good candidate to be a Seeker of Darkness.

Even though Vanitas is pure darkness, the novels state otherwise as nothing in this world can be pure light or pure darkness (if artificially made). As a being of darkness, Vanitas fuels himself with negative emotions to make him stronger. To do that, he will constantly slay Unversed that are physical incarnations of his negative emotions. After they are slain, the negative emotions and pain will return to Vanitas. However, Vanitas also feels immense pain from their deaths, and sometimes the pain gets so unbearable that he will collapse and cry.

Through his connection with Ventus, Vanitas can feel the positive emotions that Ventus experiences such as love and friendship. These positive emotions warm his heart, briefly relieving his loneliness and pain. Once the warmth fades away, he will feel sad and wants more. Vanitas clearly knows how it feels to be surrounded by positive emotions, but he does not know how to reach them and escape from his pain. Taking advantage to Vanitas’s desperation and pain, Xehanort manipulates Vanitas to think that forging the X-Blade would help him gain salvation. With that, Vanitas undergoes training to ensure that he will be strong enough to forge the X-Blade. He also hopes that Ventus will become as strong as him as well, so he can achieve his dreams.

Every time I think about Vanitas’s abusive life, I find it fascinating that he still holds the will to live. Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep: A Fragmentary Passage shows that Aqua is still able to resist the darkness because of her hope in returning to wake Ventus up. This is evident by her words after seeing an illusion of Ventus in the glass coffin.

If hope, a form of light, drives a person to keep on living, what is Vanitas’s hope then? His hope is to be free from pain by forging the X-Blade. You will suggest that Vanitas should run away since he never likes Xehanort from the beginning. However, it will not be wise for Vanitas to run away from his abuser. Xehanort, being a Keyblade Master will be able to track him down. Moreover, nobody will save and protect Vanitas because they will perceive him as a monster due to his ability in creating Unversed. He also cannot go to Ventus because Ventus is under the care of Terra, Aqua and Eraqus, who all oppose the darkness. Ventus probably won’t know about Vanitas and he would probably hate him due to Eraqus’s teachings.

Vanitas can only hope from afar, enduring the pain from his abuser and keeping those times he feels positive emotions from Ventus for warmth, which then drives him to fulfill his purpose: to become the X-Blade. Four years later, Xehanort receives Eraqus’s invitation to be present at the Mark of Mastery. Xehanort thinks that it is time to carry out his plan as he can sabotage the test to lure Terra into the darkness. Thinking that he has bred loyalty on Vanitas through abuse, Xehanort leaves Vanitas to take care of Ventus.

When Vanitas defeats Ventus in their first fight, he realizes that Ventus is not strong enough to forge the X-Blade. Desperate to be free from pain as soon as possible, he attempts to destroy Ventus, but Mickey comes in just in time to save Ventus. After being defeated by them, Vanitas decides to let Ventus live, believing that he can still grow stronger as he travels to other worlds to take down more Unversed. As a backup plan, Vanitas targets Aqua due to her strong light. He challenges her to fight and is defeated twice, which strengthens his belief that Aqua can be a substitute.

Xehanort is not aware of Vanitas’s plan. He assumes that Vanitas will follow his plan accordingly – he only focuses on Ventus for the pure light. He sees Aqua as an obstacle and decides that she must be out of his way to victory. With that, Xehanort orders Vanitas to kill her and then merge with Ventus to forge the X-Blade. Vanitas does knock her unconscious, but he does not intend to kill her. Through close observation, he is actually aiming at her legs, not her chest. Vanitas probably still needs her as a backup and decides that he will just injured her, allowing him to merge with her easier. But since Ventus is able to defeat him at last, Vanitas decides to proceed with the original plan.

What shatters the X-Blade is not because Ventus destroys Vanitas. After all, Ventus only disarms Vanitas, forcing him to drop the X-Blade from his grasp. When Vanitas loses the X-Blade, he frantically tries to retrieve it, seeing that his only hope for salvation is slipping away. Realizing that his efforts are in vain, he gives up and the last bit of hope inside his heart dies. His heart becomes weak due to hopelessness, which destabilizes the X-Blade, shattering it.

In Kingdom Hearts 3, Vanitas has been resurrected by unknown means and is recruited to become a Seeker of Darkness. Vanitas is probably tired of being used again for Xehanort’s plans. He is still hurting as he still creates Unversed, which he sees them as his weakness.

From what we know from the trailers and interviews, each member of the Organization will be present in a world. They are probably sent there by orders. Xigbar is in Olympus Coliseum, telling Sora to follow the breadcrumbs (a series of connected pieces of information or evidence) and what destiny has in stored for him, probably to prompt Sora to save those who are connected to him through Ansem the Wise’s data.

Young Xehanort is in Toy Box, stating that there is a missing darkness that they must reclaim, and to understand how hearts work, he splits the world into two. Since Young Xehanort is associating his experiment with toys, the “missing darkness” could be someone that Xehanort sees it as a toy – perhaps a Nobody, a Replica or anyone gullible. Ansem, Seeker of Darkness and Xemnas are in Twilight Town, attempting to manipulate Sora to call upon the darkness, set his heart free or try any method to bring Roxas back. They know that Sora is determined to bring his Nobody back, hinting Roxas to be a potential vessel.

Larxene is in Arendelle, following Elsa as she believes that she is one of the Seven Pure Lights that the Organization is after. Marluxia may have the same intention as he is in the Kingdom of Corona, where Rapunzel, another Seven Pure Light resides. Luxord is in The Caribbean, looking for a box. Many fans speculate that the Organization is after the Black Box, possibly as a backup plan. In case the Seekers of Darkness do not have enough darkness to forge the X-Blade, the Black Box may contain darkness that could serve as a substitute.

What about Vanitas? He is in Monstropolis and straight up tells Sora that he needs the half of him that sleeps inside of Sora. He is obviously trying to find Ventus and is desperate to reunite with him. He seems to be going off by his own rather for the Organization.

It is true that Xehanort has tried to find Ventus after knowing that he is in the Chamber of Waking. This explains why Xemnas sends the old Organization members to track him down. However, they come out empty-handed. It is unknown whether Xehanort knows that Ventus is currently just an empty vessel for him to complete the 13 Seekers of Darkness. However, now that he already has 12 vessels and seems firm in choosing his target for his last vessel, he may not need Ventus anymore. Besides that, Xehanort is focusing more on the Princesses of Heart rather than the incomplete Guardians of Light. He may only need Ventus’s pure light as a backup.

The biggest question is: if Vanitas was the only Seeker of Darkness that does not carry a piece of Xehanort’s heart, could he end up betraying Xehanort and the Organization? With his character theme being arranged in the Heroes and Heroines: Characters’ Medley, and the story of Monsters, Inc that teaches us that positive emotions are stronger than negative emotions, Vanitas may actually have a redemption arc in Kingdom Hearts 3, prompting him to betray Xehanort and the Organization, in which it would be something that Xehanort would not be able to predict. But what if he was possessed by Xehanort, could he still receive a redemption arc like other characters? Judging from Riku’s case, I think it is possible.