Master of Masters Observations

The Master of Masters is... Odd, to say the least. It is rather difficult to get a good lock on him. The biggest issue comes from him seeing into the future. In stories where the plot kicks off from some prediction of the future and trying to prevent said future, it is usually the attempt to prevent the future that causes the future to happen. Oedipus was predicted to kill his father and sleep with his mother. My memory is fuzzy on this, but in an attempt to prevent this future from happening he was to be killed. That didn't work out and he ended up being raised by adoptive parents and ultimately ended up killing his birth father and sleeping with his birth mother. Personally I have always believed that, had this prophecy not been fought against, it wouldn't have come true.

Anyways, my point is that with the MoM, there isn't much information given about his feelings towards seeing the future. Either he saw the future and gave up, believing that it could not be changed, or he did try to change it and this resulted in different, worse, outcomes or the future could not be changed. Either way, this does draw parallels to Xehanort, who is a staunch believer in destiny and that everything is preordained. Which does bring to question as to how Sora will manage to stop him. A bit more on that later.

It seems like the MoM created the Book of Prophecies for the 5 apprentices in order to keep the future going down the path he saw. Which is also why he gave them secret roles that the others did not know about. Interestingly the apprentices managed to fulfill their roles, but they did it in such a way that tore them apart. Aced did spur the group into action, but that action was ultimately them fighting each other. Anyways, my claim of the MoM setting events to go the way he saw is only further accomplished through him not explaining things properly to the 5 apprentices. After all, why bother telling Gula there will be a traitor and give him an incredibly vague passage detailing who the traitor is instead of simply telling Gula who the traitor is? It is clear that the MoM knows who the traitor is.

Thinking on it now, I can't help but feel that a decent chunk (Or at the very least the last bit) of the Book of Prophecies is all about events after the Keyblade War. The final page, the one that basically was the end of the world passage, could apply to the Keyblade War or it could apply to Sora and Xehanort's battle in KH3. "On that land shall darkness prevail and light expire" or whatever the passage was. Xehanort could be misunderstanding it and believe it to apply to his goals, or it could be the end result of his and Sora's fight. Assuming the latter is the case, then either Xehanort wins or the MoM left out some details to further spur Xehanort into his role in destiny. Or Sora somehow destroys Xehanort's keyblade (Or the eye in the keyblade) and that passage was the last bit of the future the MoM was able to see.

Additionally, the passage about the traitor is more likely to point to Xehanort than it is anybody during the time of Back Cover. I do know that for the English version there was a bit missing in translation. In the English version the passage says something like "The traitor has the sigil" or something like that whereas the Japanese version says Recursant's sigil. That one word makes it much more likely that Xehanort is the traitor (Which makes sense that he betrays Eraqus and essentially everything he has been taught for the darkness). Or it could mean (Somehow, but incredibly unlikely) that Sora is somehow the traitor since, after all, he had the Recursant's sigil throughout all of DDD. Which then ties into a theory I once read that Lea (Or Axel, whatever you wanna call him) didn't actually stop Xehanort's heart from going into Sora, evidenced by Xehanort's grin when Lea stepped in to save Sora. I do have to say that I doubt this would be the case.

If the traitor is someone around the events of Back Cover, then the part of the Recursant's sigil would hint towards it being Luxu since he's the only one with an X in his name. In a way I suppose he could be the traitor, though not deliberately. With Back Cover I feel that they left too much out (The least they could've done was show the Keyblade War). There is one scene I know of that should have been in Back Cover that wasn't, but it is in the actual cellphone/internet game. Ava finds Luxu and questions him as to where he's been and whatnot. He explains his role is to watch events unfold. The way he talks to Ava though is weird and makes him seem like the traitor. Anyways, in the Book of Prophecies there is a passage saying something like the start of the Keyblade War will be signaled with the clash of keyblades as a bell rings for noon (Or something along those lines). Ava attacks Luxu and the clock strikes noon as it happens, signaling the beginning of the Keyblade War. So in that sense, Luxu could be viewed as the traitor.

Focusing back on the MoM, I also feel that it is also possible he will pull a Xehanort and reveal himself as the ultimate villain and basically orchestrated all the events leading up to KH3. So ultimately I think that he's either someone who resigned themselves to fate after seeing the future or he has some big plan he's been setting up for the longest time. I do find it suspicious that he was afraid he would vanish one day and was completely unsure if he would or wouldn't, even though him seeing the future should have let him know he would disappear one day.

It makes sense that he started to see the future after creating his keyblade, or inserting his eye in it if he didn't make it. I think the general belief right now is that he made that and other keyblades. I am curious as to why that keyblade appears with a flash of darkness instead of a flash of light. Even though Mickey's Kingdom Key is from the dark realm and appears with a flash of light. So strange. Also I wonder if the other keyblades with eyes in them (Vanitas' Void Gear, Riku's Way to Dawn, Riku's Soul Eater even though it isn't a keyblade, two of Terra's keyblades) are connected to the MoM like Xehanort's keyblade is, or if those eyes don't actually do anything.

 

I assume that's a side effect of being able to see into the future. After all, his future sight is shown off more as "This will happen" and not "This might happen."

It might not be. Things have gone in Xehanort's favor because he's a good enough schemer that he's able to force things to go the way he wants them to. In fact, based on one of the older trailers of KH3 it is quite possible that is the case. You know, the trailer where a younger Xehanort and Eraqus are playing some kind of chess and Xehanort talks about the prophecy and Eraqus essentially says that the light will have some trick to utterly screw with that prophecy.

Like I said, it is either that or the future is totally set in stone and the MoM either left out what happened after this final prophecy or something happened to prevent him from seeing beyond that final prophecy.

Here's the question though. If someone is there to make sure the prophecy is consistent, did they do it because they knew of the prophecy? Or did they do it without knowing the prophecy and did it because destiny said so? Until KH3 comes out (Or the often joked about KH 2.9), we can't really tell.

Yes, the MoM's coat has a different zipper than normal. Maybe Luxu's coat does as well, but I can't get a close enough look at it. Can't quite tell if the zipper has an X or it is some other symbol. It almost looks like the Unversed symbol. Anyways, while I do feel that the end of the book is focused more towards the events of KH3, I do find it odd that none of the MoM's pupils realized this. Something like "Oh hey, there's this prophecy that the darkness will prevail against the light, but this won't occur until we are remembered only as fairy tales."

I wouldn't say he's apathetic. Like you pointed out with his fixation on "after," he did say that it was futile to try and stop the darkness from consuming the light and that it was more important to focus on what happens after.

I don't know how accurate this is since there isn't any form of citation, but here's a quote from the character page on TVTropes on the matter: Spontaneous Weapon Creation/Ultimate Blacksmith: Word of God for Back Cover is that he created his own Keyblades, using his knowledge of the X-Blade to draw them out from hearts, rather than forging or tempering them. Presumably this makes him the ultimate source of all Keyblades in the series thus far, with the exception of the X-Blade itself.

True, but you would thing, logically, that a keyblade from the realm of darkness would appear in a shroud of darkness just like a keyblade from the realm of light appearing in a flash of light. Also on the subject of keyblades appearing, I found it odd that Terra is literally the only keyblade wielder who has their keyblade appear in a way similar to the data keyblade appears for Roxas in his prologue in KH2. Even Ven, who's more of a trainee than Terra is, had his keyblade appear in his hands normally.

I assume this part was directed at the last part of my reply. If that's the case, well then let me try again. I wasn't referring to the keychains when I brought up those keyblades. Like Xehanort's keyblade, Void Gear and other keyblades have the Gazing Eye. As the MoM said, the Gazing Eye is what lets him see into the future. So that makes me wonder if every keyblade that has an eye has it cosmetically or if those keyblades also let the MoM see into the future like Xehanort's keyblade does.

 

I meant from an in-game perspective. After all, if everybody took a moment to sit down and talk in BBS the outcome of the game could've been completely different.

Why not both. Xehanort is destined to be that way and he actively works to make it happen. I suppose at this point it becomes nuance as to whether that is truly destiny or not though.

Those are good points. I must say though that the Pete example feels more like a bad example of altering history, at least from an ontological standpoint. Assuming Pete had succeeded, then the Cornerstone of Light would have been gone for a long time and darkness may or may not have taken hold prior to the events of the games. With Pete failing, there never should have been darkness at Disney Castle to begin with.. I know KH isn't the only story to do time travel shenanigans like that, but it doesn't make sense unless you stop viewing time as a linear path. Which then leads to paradoxes and whatnot.

True. I can't help but feel though that with how the MoM seems to see into the future that there is some detail about this destiny that is being left out.

To answer your first and final questions, I feel that the X-blade and (At least) the Kingdom Key and Kingdom Key D are special keyblades. The X-blade exists because Kingdom Hearts exists. The Kingdom Key exists because the keyblade chose Sora instead of somebody else choosing Sora to wield a keyblade. Admittedly that part is harder to prove since the Kingdom Key was supposed to go to Riku instead. Perhaps he would've had a different looking keyblade, but since he had chosen darkness the keyblade then chose Sora and as such appeared in a more "true form" of a keyblade? I dunno. Anyways, assuming I am even somewhat correct, then the Kingdom Key D exists because it is the dark realm's version of the Kingdom Key and therefore is automatically special. I can't really answer your second or third questions without thinking over it and coming up with pure speculation.

Fair enough. If anything is brought up about it it will all be a retcon at this point anyways.