Is Data the Key?

I can't remember if I've put this here buuuttt since tumblr is dying and I refuse to be there much longer I figured I'd preserve it here.

Spoiler: My old data theory

So three years back, when I still did my theory and debates, I made a theory revolving around how exactly they could revive Roxas, Xion, and Namine. I was reminded of it today while finishing the Tron levels in KH2 and since it was popular then, I decided to take a new look at it now.

However, I don’t keep track of quotes and lore anymore. When I did…well I consider that version of myself a less than favorable person. Another reason is because that very lore is beginning to turn on itself. What didn’t conflict before is beginning too now and thus I saw no reason to keep track of contradictory lore anymore.

So with that said, I’m gonna redo this old theory, I still believe it’s likely but I’m interested to see if you more hardcore fans have anything new to add. So you ready? Here we go~

Explainations (Roxas, Xion, and Namine)




Before I explain the theory, which is honestly simple in premise (you’ll see), I first have to explain what isn’t so simple, these three. ^^^^

You’re likely wondering “what’s to explain?”
Well ya see, the situation for them ISN’T as clear cut as it appears. We have to keep in mind that Roxas, Namine and Xion aren’t truly people. Now I don’t mean that in a bad way, they very much have their own personalities but they also weren’t born naturally. Let me explain.


• Roxas
Despite his separate personality and face, he is Sora’s nobody. He always has been. What makes Roxas unique is a combination of factors we won’t delve into here. What’s important is that Roxas, as Sora’s nobody, was born as one.

Meaning, Roxas was born from Sora’s body+soul he lost when he became a heartless in KH1.


• Xion
Xion, who also developed a separate personality, is a replica. Vexen made her in a lab and data of Sora’s memories were used to animate her. It’s was Sora’s memories of Kairi that made her…well a “her” to begin with as Xemnas and Namine commented on. What makes Xion’s case hard is that her body was not only destroyed but that the core of her being, Sora’s memories, returned to him.

Meaning she’s not only dead in the physical sense but that she is interwoven into Sora’s heart.


• Namine
This one…okay I’ll be blunt, Namine’s case is by far the hardest. Namine’s existence is so rare, so absolutely unique, that no one in the story really understands how she exists in the first place.

-Secret Ansem Report #9

Kairi, a resident of the Radiant Garden over which I had ruled, was one of the Seven Princesses that uphold the realm of light. With no darkness in her heart, Kairi produced no Heartless, and instead of vanishing, her body remained in the realm of light.

In other words, both the Nobody called Namine and the Heartless – proof of a lost heart – are extremely unstable beings who lack the bodies needed to produce a Nobody. Therefore, they also lack Kairi’s memories. One reason for this may be that Kairi’s heart did not return to the darkness when separated from her body, but rather migrated to another vessel… deep within Sora’s heart.

For unknown reasons, Namine returned to Kairi in KH2. It’s hinted her existence was unstable.


Hearts, Bodies, and Souls




There is a reason I’m telling you all of this. Each of these beings basically have no body to return too. It’s not as simple as waking up Ventus.

That makes the process of how they will come back quite hard. Roxas and Namine only existed before due to unique circumstance and you can’t just remake Xion.

The trick here is freeing their hearts and allowing them to exist, in physical bodies, as their own people. You can’t just redo the heartless event either, there’s no telling what will happen. For all we know Sora will just make a new nobody and leave these three lost forever.

“You keep talking about bodies and souls, what do you mean?”
Ah yes, sorry. You see, life in the series has three major components. As recorded by Ansem the Wise;

-Secret Ansem Reports #4

Three elements combine to create life: a heart, a soul, and a body.

But what of the soul and the body left behind when the heart is lost? When the soul leaves the body, its vessel, life gives way to death. But what about if the heart leaves? A being does not perish when its heart leaves its body. The heart alone disappears into the darkness.

In this series the heart is basically our real world equivalent of soul, so you can think of the KH soul as lifeforce. All it does is power the body. This trinity is what let’s life exist. It’s also what lets nobodies exist.

When a heart is lost the body is still alive because it’s souls in-tact. So when strong hearts are lost, that strong will causes that living but vacant body to turn into a nobody.

That’s all a nobody is, a body+soul that is running around with sentience.

That’s what makes Roxas Sora’s nobody, because he had Sora’s original body+soul. That’s what makes Namine odd, because she exists despite Kairi keeping her body.

That’s why we can’t just simply repeat the incident in KH1. We have no way of knowing what Sora’s body will turn into this time. Since Kairi’s heart is in her own body now, Namine also can’t be reborn this way.
And as mentioned, Xion’s was made from Sora’s memories, you can’t just remake her either.

“Okay, okay. This is uh….complicated. Also depressing, how can we bring them back if it’s that complicated?”
Oh ho ho my dear reader, I’m glad you kinda-but-not-really ask~


Kingdom Hearts, Tron and Data




I wanna say that there is hope. Despite the situation, there is a way to bring them back.

Within Kingdom Hearts, things can manifest, we see it all the time-
• Kairi somehow returned Sora to human form
• Namine somehow manifested from literal nothing
• Riku manifested out of sheer will power within the Dark Realm in KH1
• Vanitas manifested a body from darkness, etc.

Of all the cases I listed, each was unique. Kairi has special powers, Riku was in a foreign realm after Ansem took over his body, Vanitas was artificially created, etc. Each case was unique, the trick is bringing back people to the Realm of Light. The “normal world”.

There is one thing, one singular thing, that we’ve seen manifest without special circumstance. Yes we’ve SEEN something that can manifest itself in the physical world known as the Realm of Light, data.

“WHAT!?”
You heard me, DATA! D.a.t.a, DA-TA! We’ve seen it several times, namely in KH2 itself! I can even show you examples taken from my KH2 run-



Example #1, Roxas money pouch.

This pouch and the money inside actually came from Diz’s digital Twilight Town. When Riku tripped Roxas on Day 2 (or was it 3?) he kept Roxas pouch.

We see he took this pouch with him back to the real world where Diz was watching on his computer monitor. Later, Mickey gives this pouch to Sora so he can buy train tickets.

This pouch is later made a plot point by Olette. In the real world, she made this pouch herself and still has it. Her observation lead to the clue and Dizs computer.



Example #2, the MCP’s invasion.

Within Kh2, Tron was adapted into Ansem the Wise’s personal computer which was later used by Ansem the seeker of darkness (Xehanort).
This computer had the machine, albeit redesigned, from the original Tron movie from the 1980s. This machine digitizes physical matter and translates it into code.

Basically a machine that turns your atoms into 1′s and 0′s, data.

In Tron Legacy, the sequel to Tron, it was shown this device actually works two ways. Data can become physical matter.
Heck, Kh2 used this years before even Tron Legacy did. As you see in the image above, the MCP uses the machine to sent heartless unique to his digital world into the physical world.

The MCP proves sent data into the physical space. DATA CAN BE MADE REAL!


Diz’s Data and Hope




Now, why is this important? Simple. Remember, at the end of KHDDD, Riku is given a special kind of data that had been compiled by Ansem the Wise, aka Diz.

He left a digital copy of himself within Sora in hopes he could pass it on to someone as a form of atonement. He succeeded. Riku got that data, that data was then given to be analyzed as Yen Sid stated in Fragmentary Passage.

This data is very important, nigh impossible to ignore. In interviews, Nomura made mention of two key things that could bring back those lost. In KHDD itself, Yen Sid mentioned the third thing that is important, the power of waking.

#1) The Key to Return Hearts
#2) DiZ’s Data
#3) The power of waking

Sora’s group is now in possession of two of these three key elements. Sora and Riku gained the power of waking from the keyholes in KHDDD and Riku gained the data.

“Wait…so then…do you mean?”
YES! That is exactly what I mean! It could very well be possible to revive Roxas, Xion and Namine with data!

They lack bodies? Well then just create a new one for them out of data then sent it into a physical plane!

“Seems to easy”
Of course there’s more too it than this. If it was this simple, death would be even more of a joke than it is in the series. You can’t just have a simple means to resurrect the dead. That’s where I believe the other two elements come into play.

Remember what I showed you above? Death in the series is normally defined as a soul leaving the body, basically it’s damaged or grown to old to live and the body dies. Once the body is dead, the heart goes….well to wherever hearts go when you die in this universe.

However our dear cast aren’t entirely gone. Roxas and Xion became a part of Sora once again while Namine returned to Kairi. We saw them in KHDDD, we know they are still there. Just sleeping or lost within Sora/Kairi’s being.

Their hearts are in a area of reach and now Sora&Riku both posses the power to reach and wake sleeping hearts. We seen Riku do this for Sora in KHDDD’s ending.


Summary




With all this explanation, I feel the theory is self evident.

My theory, what I’m detailing in great length, is a three step process.

#1) Sora uses the power of waking to bring the hearts of Roxas, Namine and Xion to the surface

#2) DiZ’s data is used to give them form

#3) And finally, this mysterious “Key to return Hearts” is used to revive them fully.

It is possible to bring these people back without being entirely lazy, data can be made into a physical thing and the hearts of these three young people are in a place that is neither dead nor living. They can be reached and they can be given form once again.

Thanks for reading


Update Edits


So in this clip from the trailer we have Xemnas being all cryptic as he is. That whole spill of bringing Roxas back when he wasn’t meant to exist in the first place.

What I noticed however is that while Xemnas is trying to (I presume) turn into a heartless again, these guys are standing in front of the twilight town mansion.

Guess what’s in that mansion, ANSEM THE WISES COMPUTER! Roxas broke the one in the digital Twilight Town but the REAL one is still there. Perhaps Sora went there to explore more data or look into DiZ’s ideas for bringing Roxas back.


EDIT (E3 2018)
So, reread it a bit to do minor edits and I realized something. The important data Diz gave Riku in KHDDD is probably Roxas’ data. The one Ienzo mentions here:



Diz took the time to literally back up Roxas like a file on a fucking flash drive....
This may be even simpler than I thought. Wake Roxas up, load the data, put him inside and you have your boi back! Perhaps Namine even hid code of herself and Xion in there!

 

I wasn’t yet since Maleficent and the UX stuff didn’t add much to Roxas.

The fact UX is data worlds does make you wonder if UX and BBS Ven are the same.

It also breaks time travel more because she apparently time traveled to her digital self?