#master of masters is sora theory

[ohonama]

hello, mini me.

[zackuro-justo]

what is up, I'm back

And I bring goodies to the table.....mostly Master of Masters fanart + self-insert x canon art....ahahhshibshni

Master of Masters fanart:

"Master of Masters' Gaze" ^ an experimental fanart

Deranged man whom I love ^ (feat Luxu, hi Luxu)

Too many doodles I've made of him bc I adore him a bit too much, feat; Him falling over and snapping his spine , me dealing with the hottest day in my summer (so I doubled it and transferred it to MoM...oh hey look top surgery scars!), a doodle I made bc I listened to Touch-Tone Telephone and honestly, unironically gave me MoM vibes, and finally a theory/speculation I made based on some analysis I made on his interactions with the foretellers...in short, him 🤝 Sora = HAVE TOXIC POSITIVITY IN COMMON

Master of Masters if he was Sora in my headcanon!! ^

Master of Masters if he WASN'T Sora in my headcanon!! ^

IM NOT DONE YET

[ohonama]

OH MY GOD GO REBLOG RIGHY NOW! REBLOG! LIKEL! !! PLEASE!

sora and mom based on the "sora is master of masters" theory @ohonama made. ur responsible for this

[gulava]

It was like...seeing into his heart for the first time.

[tharkflark1]

DAY 2 - FACE IT!

The ida of MoM thinking Sora stole the necklace Riku gave him and ripping it off of him and Sora being absolutely distraught cuz even if he didn't know where it came from it was basically his only physical connection to the friend he can't remember hurts me

[azurajae]

Y'know, I've been thinking a lot lately about appearances and identity in regards to both Sora, Yozora, and the Nameless Star.

Both Nameless Star and Yozora say that the person we see as Yozora isn't really what he looks like. Nameless Star specifically says his heart was replaced by another and his form had changed beyond recognition.

You know who else had their form changed "beyond recognition"?

When I first watched the trailer, I just couldn't believe my eyes that this guy was Sora. Like I knew in my heart it was him, but my eyes couldn't recognize him. Judging by the reaction videos I watched, many people seemed to feel the same (it was only when he summoned the Kingdom Key that people were affirmed that it is, Sora). Compared to the lovable spikey haired boy we've grown to love, his KH4 appearance, it's almost like night and day.

Nameless Star talks about how her identity and name had been taken from her. Yozora seemed to have lost his identity too, no longer looking like his original form. And now Sora has been changed so drastically?

I know Nomura did say that Sora looks like this because he is in Quadratum, but even if that's true, it doesn't mean that there isn't also a very delibrate reason on why Sora looks like that and not more like... Sora. I know that KH dev team and Nomura is not uncreative enough to not come up with a more faithful realistic interpretation of what Sora looks like. Just look at other modern FF characters and they were able to pull off their older designs faithfully in realistic graphics, so... why the hell does Sora look like Noctis?

Now how does connect to Sora's changed appearance? No idea honestly, but I do feel do something's up. More consequences to do with being banished from reality? Did Sora get his heart replaced by another too? Or perhaps did he lose part or all of his identity like Nameless Star or Yozora? I have like a crack theory where this could all be foreshadowing that Luxu is about to body hop into Sora, but I have no proof.

And for additional theming, there's a whole can of worms with Riku looking almost exactly like Yozora and Kairi's beta footage from the KH1 secret footage looking eeriely familiar to the girl in the Verum Rex trailer. The whole thing about MoM is that we don't know his identity. And then there's also the fact that Luxu literally replaces people's heart with his own when he body hops like what happened with Yozora.

Like, something is going on here... right?

[everyfandomsprincess]

So the reason Lloyd has green eyes in the later seasons is because it’s said he did a lot of training during the time skip between season 7 and 8 (we even see his eyes go back to the standard black when he loses his powers)

So what if it’s the same for all the others? And as the seasons progress their eye colors slowly start to change.

Like when they unlocked their True Potentials in s1, their eyes change color

Cole, Zane, and Jay all seem to have different shades of blue eyes while Kai has a more amber/red color

(If they were all the same color I’d ignore it but since Kai’s are a different color it must be their actual eye color)

But then in the later seasons, when they use a lot of their powers their eye colors change

This time Lloyd’s is green, Jay’s is still blue, Kai’s are a more defined red and Cole’s are now yellow/orange

[mythicalartistx]

How Riku is actually the Master of Masters from a different timeline

Kinda crack

But basically I had thought

What if Riku was the Master of Masters...

And it was ALL because of Sora—

Listen.

During KH3 he sacrificed himself during the keyblade graveyard for him... (Whether Sora still remembers it or not because of some memory issues he's been having is a different deal)

Riku would do almost anything for Sora, going to the ends of earth to find and bring him back safely.

In MOM and Re:Mind he is the one basically in charge of the whole search.

In Days he was willing to do anything to wake Sora up, even sacrificing Xion and Roxas and casting away his form just for Sora (thought he wasn't in the right state of mind and took bad advice from DiZ)

But because of that state of mind he can easily get manipulated, and go into periods where he doesn't care of the cost and he must save him.

He made things plan out so Sora would eventually be saved. He made himself get manipulated and destroy the islands because it would be the way where Sora could get strong and wield a keyblade too.

In Birth by Sleep, he told Terra he wanted to get stronger to protect the things that matter (JP: Most important/precious person)

What if on one timeline Sora died? What if he couldn't come back so Riku became the MOM and went back into time?

He was willing to sacrifice people with the original Keyblade war because he wanted to save Sora and make sure he would be safe

Then at the end of Kh3 Sora arrives in the Quadratum where Riku (who is MOM) is and he can finally see him again.

And he gave Luxu a task so he'll know if he succeeded or not and based on that he'll plan for everything.

Riku unknowingly dove into Sora's heart and became his dream eater.

He is willing to sacrifice himself and others for him.

...

What if in the first timeline where Sora died, Riku first saved everyone with the Kingdom Key. And he became keyblade master.

After all In Union X darkness states how it doesn't care much for light, while Luxu mentions to Darkness that MOM doesn't care for the Darkness either. And this works because Riku is Light and in COM he was basically scared and refusing to come to terms with his darkness

In all seriousness it would be more of an interesting AU than anything.

I saw this one theory that MOM is actually light just like how Vanitas is implied to be darkness.

It adds up, MOM doesn't like Darkness and Darkness once said they didn't care too much for Light either when Luxu told them how the MOM didn't like darkness.

And because of that I thought Riku IS LIGHT this would be an interesting AU

The annoying thing about this post I originally wrote it 2 weeks ago and pressed POST but it never worked and I lost the post and had to reduce everything.

[nireey]

Master of Masters?

[mr-deblob]

The True Light in Deepest Darkness, the True Darkness in Brightest Light

Or how the Master of Master will win his war

Kingdom Hearts 3's ending has heavily implied that the main antagonists of upcoming arc will be the Lost Masters themselves. So far, the series has heavily focused on a Light vs. Darkness narrative, with the villains having all used darkness for evil, maybe amoral purposes at best. Now many people are anticipating light to take the spotlight as the driving force behind the Lost Masters' philosophy, especially since we've been told that the goal of his plan is to truly and utterly destroy darkness, to remove it from the world entirely.

Union Cross, Back Cover, and Dark Road have all given small glimpses into what exactly this plan entails, but we haven't gotten quite enough to piece together the entire picture. It's clear that Sora must be a part of this plan, that there's some reason he ended up in Quadratum where seemingly the Master of Masters is preparing for the next step in his scheme.

Though we're walking completely blind into the Lost Master Arc, I've come up with a general outline of his plan, one that'll hopefully tie all the elements we know of together. And if it's revealed to be anything close to what's written here, I expect it to be as cold, manipulative, and ruthless as the Master of Masters himself.

A Plan of Absolute Necessities

The Master of Masters has waged a long war against the true darknesses, the only known survivor of the True Darknesses' attack on his allies. He's spent the rest of his life coming up with a plan that would destroy them once and for all, stopping at absolutely nothing to achieve it. His steps so far have consisted of:

Knowing that Darkness could not be destroyed without form, he recruited six apprentices whose hearts he molded to trap the seven strongest Darknesses inside them and himself.

Manipulated his apprentices to start the Keyblade War to sow intense emotions in their hearts as bait for Darkness, causing the deaths of countless young Keyblade wielders.

Inciting Xehanort to pursue his idea of remaking the world in balance, ultimately causing countless worlds to be plunged into darkness and upturning many more lives in the process.

Ultimately plans to end all those trapping True Darkness within their hearts to defeat it once and for all. Given Baldr's fate, it's almost certain that they will die.

He's already consigned himself and many others to the fate he foretold for the sake of his war. Although the effects of some of these were undone or allayed, his absolute lack of remorse is unnerving.

Following that cold train of logic as far as I can follow and looking at the current state of things, I've made certain hypotheses about his next steps:

The Master of Masters will attempt to have any remaining members of True Darkness bound into vessels.

He will gather these vessels in Quadratum, the unreality of the Kingdom Hearts universe, and have them all struck down.

Sora is going to try and be turned into a vessel for True Darkness by manipulating his care for his friends and his low self-worth.

When a being from another reality dies in one that isn't theirs, their heart completely disappears alongside anything within it.

I can't say for certain exactly how he plans to carry these steps out, but I'm going to theorize about the details of each step and the implications that has for the already-existing cast.

Vessels of True Darkness

While formless, Darkness cannot be destroyed, but without form, Darkness begins to lose their sense of being and individual will. They've likely survived by possessing different people and particularly target hearts experiencing intense emotions to feed on, especially negative emotions. It's also likely that they prefer the brightest hearts that don't easily give into darkness, wanting to inhabit a form as long as they can.

Given the reemergence of the Lost Masters in the Realm of Light, it's very possible that the Master of Masters will charge them with finding suitable vessels and locking True Darkness away in their heart.

Of the six remaining Darknesses, four are currently trapped in the Realm Between within a data-gate, one is/was locked away in Ventus' heart, and one remains missing. I'd assume that defeating Darkness would require gathering them all in one place- something akin to the Princesses of Heart opening the Final Keyhole in KH1.

The Master of Masters told us that a Darkness can be held within a heart strong enough to resist its influence and one that experiences extremely intense and painful emotions to draw the Darkness in. One way to do this would be to set up the whole Union Cross/Back Cover saga, but he probably doesn't have time for that now.

So it's likely that the Lost Masters will be scouring the Realm of Light looking for/inducing the perfect candidates to seal Darkness, alongside locating the Darknesses unaccounted for.

This can be the reason to introduce more of the New Seven Hearts, as there's still three unaccounted for. Their hearts are naturally unable to be touched by darkness, and if they're put into extremely trying or traumatic circumstances, that would make them into the perfect cages for Darkness.

Plus, the newer movies have presented a number of potential candidates that could check those boxes. I have two guesses for which of the New Hearts could be targeted.

Anna going through Frozen 2 definitely goes through some Moments, literally sings a whole song about feeling trapped in the darkness of despair and trying to seek the light of hope nonetheless.

And Encanto, if it gets in, will most likely have one of the Hearts. Though I don't think it'd be Mirabel, but Alma who holds the pure light. In her darkest hour, her love and pain was powerful enough to fuel a light that saved her people, making her strive to keep that miracle (light) burning. Would also lend itself well to metaphors about how too much fixation on light can blind you and cause those around you to hide their shadows. Plus, it'd be neat to see an elderly woman be part of one of the metaphysical concepts keeping the universe together.

Disney worlds not directly involved with finding vessels could be turned into securing the Darknesses as well. And if there's truth to Vanitas coming from true Darkness, that'll spell trouble for the Wayfinder Trio. Though maybe it'll show that these supposedly incomprehensible beings still have hearts themselves, that deep within the darkness, there's a light that still hasn't gone out.

Speaking of, it's possible that the inverse of that is true. Perhaps that's what the MoM is counting on regarding Sora.

A Perfect Light of Self-Sacrifice

It's no secret that Sora's got a lot of problems he's been pushing down for a while. KH3 just showed us how little he cares about his own existence compared to the value he sees in his friends. He's always trying to be their light, make sure that they're fine, that they know they deserve to exist and live their own lives. There's no way he could burden them with his own shadows, not when their issues are already so hard for them to deal with.

So he keeps on shining and pushes that darkness down where it won't be seen. It's impossible for him to completely contain, though, as Anti-Form and Rage Form are small glimpses into the depth of that darkness- anger, pain, destroying himself for the greater good. until he locks it away once more.

Now in Quadratum, this strange world that he and Strelitzia aren't really meant to be in as Fictional relative to the world. The MoM described it as a place not ruled by neither Light nor Darkness. And yet we see a Darkside landing in Shibuya, something the people of Quadratum likely have never experienced before. So where did it come from?

Perhaps Sora's darkness is leaking out into this world now, and without the natural light inherent in the Realm of Light, the Heartless(?) it manifests are powerful, potent, anguished. It's mere presence is enough to start destroying the surrounding area.

It's very unlikely that the darkness stems from either Strelitzia or the Masters. She's seemingly lived in Quadratum for a while since she got sent out over 100 years ago during Union Cross and the people don't look used to Heartless at all. As for the Masters, since they have Darkness locked in their hearts, it's doubtful they could release darkness themselves without risking their prisoners escaping.

If true, then it'd make him the perfect person to manipulate for containing and destroying Darkness. Imagine the Master of Masters, snarky and serious, telling Sora that he's the reason the people of Quadratum are in danger. Tells Sora about his plan to have the vessels all destroyed to defeat darkness, tells him that there's a way to do it where only one person has to sacrifice themself, that solves every issue.

He proposes that Sora act to contain all the True Darknesses inside his own heart, the shining beacon filled with irresistible pain, capable of holding so many hearts without losing himself to them. The brightest light where the True Darkness can sleep. This might even draw the missing 13th Darkness to him and complete the plan.

Pass the Darkness from each vessel to him, make sure that no one else has to suffer the whims of darkness ever again, free the people of both the Realm of Light and Quadratum from this immortal enemy. If he takes them with him in this world where he isn't real, not meant to exist, then there's no way for his heart to return to Kingdom Hearts and pass along. He'll destroy them forever alongside himself.

And Strelitzia might be the MoM's insurance to make sure Sora goes through with it. After all, she's an innocent who was in the wrong place at the wrong time, living alone in this world for so long. Her brother's waiting for her on the other side of reality, and Sora can be the portal that can get her back to where she belongs, where people who love her wait for her return.

Just let the Master of Masters open his heart, open the door, and everything will be solved. He can refuse, but how many more people will get hurt the longer he puts this off? Is it fair for him to deny Strelitzia the life she deserves just so he can live? Is Sora really that selfish that he'd place himself over the fate of two realities?

"You're the key, the kindling for the fire that burns away all shadows. Everyone will have you to thank for giving them a life of peace, of light. You'll be the morning star, the light that rises every day to tell the world 'you don't need to fear the dark.' It'll be simple. Barely even hurt. So? What's your answer?"

Tl;dr: MoM is gonna try and make Sora die for everyone's sins, and the boy's not that far from agreeing to it.

[yoroshiu]

The Master of Masters is Sora (but he’s actually not) theory. 

What if MoM reveals himself to be Sora but he’s only pretending for a plethora of reasons? In this essay I—

[ohonama]

guess who was able to dig up their MoM design and quickly sketch it before i go to honk shoo… and also say hi to me trying to draw kh1 sora’s hair in my artstyle (was struggling.. i’m better at drawing kh4’s in nomura’s style lol)

[ghostabocky]

ok that poll got me Thinking again and i wanted to archive this in some way, so. repost of a comment i left on youtube brainrotting over sora Not being the master of masters 

Sora being the Master of Masters just does not make any logical, emotional, or thematic sense. If anything, the MoM and Sora have been—and are continuing to be—set up as thematical opposites to one another, the MoM a jaded person who has lost so much to the forces of darkness, to the point where he will manipulate anyone around him in order to reach his end goal of living in a world without it, and Sora a positive optimist who, despite also enduring multiple hardships and losses due to darkness, also goes through many trials that prove that balance between the two forces is important, and that darkness is not an all-encompassing terror meant to be destroyed. 

Sora's whole Thing™ is about relying on connections and friendship despite physical distance, the idea that no matter where you are or what happens to you, those connections mattered and will always matter. He believes in individuality, the idea that characters like Roxas, Xion, Namine and even Vanitas are their own people, despite what other people may try and proclaim. Meanwhile, the MoM lives to avenge people who are long gone, forgetting the value of those relationships as they were simply because the people he cared for are no longer physically here. He strips his pupils of their individuality, giving them masks and names at his own discretion, and directing them like pawns on a chess board. 

These two are textbook foils to one another. The idea that the Master of Masters is somehow a grown up version of Sora who lost his friends to darkness and became a cynical, jaded mastermind trying to escape the concept of it altogether not only contradicts the existing lore about things like time travel (and specifically how the MoM does it), but is just a complete slap in the face to both of these characters as individuals. 

[felikatze]

hello my fellow kh fans, it's today that i realized sora thinks kh3's dark riku is kh1 ansem-riku instead of repliku because he literally just forgot repliku ever existed

[gulava]

The question is: Who are you, Luxord?

[hollowwhisperings]

What's In The Box? (KH Spec)

in KH3 & KHUX, the Master of Masters (MoM) tasks Luxu with lugging around a big, fancy black box.

MoM never tells Luxu (or ANYONE) what's actually IN this box... but Maleficent decided it (& its Assumed Connection to MoM's Book Of Prophecies?) was worth the effort of... stalking Sora & his enemies for multiple games, spectating on the latest Keyblade War, and, presumably, tricking some Keyblade Wielder (Kairi, maybe?) into Opening The Box for her.

KH3 namedrops Pandora's Box & the Chest of Davy Jones outright: Pandora's Box has two variant contents, Davy Jones' Chest holds his heart (& his heartbreak).

KH3 also, indirectly, reminds players of IRL 'Black Boxes' by using datacubes in the BH6 World, referencing memory chips, backups & data throughout the level. Datacubes & the corruption thereof first appeared in KH re:Coded, a game featuring a Data Riku (bearing KH1 Riku's likeness) being preyed upon by Maleficent (she & her connections to Riku are Important to this theory).

There is an IRL kind of Black Box which, like the Baymax memory chip, acts as the protective case of a Backup Copy of a plane's movements & data entries so that, in the event of disaster, the Black Box will survive & serve as a record of everything that happened.

THAT kind of 'Black Box' is invoked in KHUX with its 'Data Daybreak Town'. It's also likely that the Lost Masters Luxu summoned at KH3's end were retrieved from a similar data backup.

The MoM's Black Box, however, predates KHUX entirely: so what's in HIS box?

I suspect that the Box contains something that is all these boxes COMBINED (remember that Pandora's Box has 2 variants):

a black box built to Survive Disaster, Containing Records & Data Thereof.

the Chest of Davy Jones, a box holding the Human Heart of an Immortal... and his heartbreak with it.

a Pandora's Box that kept all of Humanity's Innate Goodness, the opening of which doomed humanity to corruption & sin. One 'Good' remained in the Box & with Humanity: 'Hope'.

a Pandora's Box that kept all Evils from the world, the opening of which doomed humanity to mortality, war, famine, etc. The only 'Evil' left in the box? Hope.

Yes, depending on the version of the Pandora Myth you're reading, 'Hope' is seen as a remaining virtue OR as a cruel 'gift'.

The MoM named each of his six pupils for one of the Seven Deadly Sins ('Evils', if you will). These pupils became known as the 'Lost Masters'. None of these pupils are named for 'Pride', generally understood to be the 'worst/heaviest' Sin: the absence implies that MoM himself is 'Pride'.

Incidentally, there is one readable word engraved on MoM's Box: 'super'. Following the naming conventions of the Lost Masters ('Luxu' = 'Lust', in latin) this translates to that missing sin, 'Pride'.

Considering that the Black Box is the MoM's, I speculate that it contains HIS heart: this makes Additional Sense for KH because Disney's Snow White features this 'heart in a box' concept... and, in BBS, the role of Huntsman was assigned to TERRA (which he, obvs, did not do). Terra DID, however, end up 'stealing' a heart later on... the heart of Aurora, as in Disney's Sleeping Beauty, and as tricked by MALEFICENT (oh look, here she is again, how INTERESTING).

What's Inside The MoM's Heart?

Well, following the premise of Davy Jones, MoM's mortality... and his capacity for love. Given that the MoM lead his pupils toward CIVIL WAR, standing by as this war repeated itself not only in KHUX but in Dark Road and in BBS AND IN KH3-

yeah, it makes sense that this guy has survived his immortality via being incapable of genuine compassion.

(there is also the possibility that he's outlived all these generations of keyblade wielders due to getting trapped/hopping over to UnReality, blissfully helpless to Those Wars He Instigated... buuut this theory assumes his Conveniebnt Absence & his Prophecies of [Ragnarok] were Deliberate)

I am Assuming A Lot about MoM's abilities: that he is immortal, that he can conceal his presence, that he is a He, that he is a form of Nobody, that he not only COULD but DID witness every iteration of the Keyblade War in the KH series. That seeing that war & its tragedies repeat is WHY that war keeps happening.

My theory is that MoM's Heart, safe in its Box (until Maleficent manages to open it/use it as blackmail), is MoM's "backup": his memories and love and despair from an Even Earlier Keyblade War, one where Darkness and the person who became MoM were the ONLY survivors.

No Dandelions. No MoM "and his best friend". No "lost, separated but not forever". No "True Love's Sacrifice" and DEFINITELY no "time-travel fix-it where No One Dies (except Xehanort & Sora, kind of)".

Just MoM. And Darkness.

...and THAT'S why MoM keeps setting generation after generation up for Ragnarok. THAT'S why MoM showed himself to Xehanort (who helped avert HIS generation's War, if not its Tragedy), why MoM was so DELIGHTED to discover Sora (& Riku): SORA ESCAPED HIS TRAGIC FATE.

MoM's Plan(s)

Sora (& Riku & Kairi) have proven that it is POSSIBLE to Change Destiny, to have Everyone Live.

So, naturally, MoM needs to test Sora (& Riku) AGAIN, in a controlled experiment, to figure out "How" KH3's ending was possible... and if it can be REPLICATED.

The x-blade is an additional factor in MoM's efforts to recreate the Keyblade War as he lived it, changing players & adding variables to figure out how (& 'where') Things Go Wrong.

If MoM hails from the FIRST Keyblade War, where Kingdom Hearts itself summoned the x-blade to protect itself yet ultimately cut its losses to prevent Darkness triumphing entirely... then Sora's 'Ultima' keyblades, his Nobody's ability to dual-wield, his 'Combined Keyblade' with Riku? These are all VERY INTERESTING to MoM!

Look at the previous attempts to summon or artificially forge the x-blade:

collecting 'Lux' (Unions, failure)

posession by Darkness (Baldr, failure)

Xehanort (experiment ongoing)

cutting a heart into 'Light' and 'Darkness' then having them Fight (Ventus, partial success)

the keyblade war in BBS (failure)

Whatever That Original Nobody Experiment with Ansem Was (..?)

multiple layers of possession of a Chosen Host, collecting the Hearts of Worlds & the Seven Lights, etc (MoM's Note to Future Self: "That Fairy Might Be Onto Something")

Roxas dual-wielding (???)

Xion dual-wielding (!!!)

Whatever The Heck Xemnas Was Up To in KH2 (fai-)

Sora & Riku's Boss Fight with Xemnas (-PARTIAL SUCCESS!)

Data Hearts..? (MoM's Underlined Note to Self: "KEEP EYE ON MALEFICENT")

Sora & Riku's Hijacked Mark of Mastery Exam (PROOF OF CONCEPT! req. further testing)

KH3 (...failure WAIT WHAT'S HAP-)

KH 2.9 (???)

Sora's Hijacking of the Aqua Rescue Mission (success??)

KH3's 2nd/3rd Keyblade War (SUCCESS: ISOLATING VARIABLES FOR FOCUSED TESTING)

quadratum (experiment ongoing)

MoM's Goal?

replicate results of Sora (& Riku?) testing of 99% survival rate & successful x-blade utilization in 1st KBW. save everyone. win.

Or, in Other Words...

learn method of summoning x-blade & replicate method for personal use via proxie (Yozora)

return to the origin story of KH's universe, the First Keyblade War (memories preserved in MoM's heart, a touchstone between Then & Now)

change what was destined to be a tragedy: unchain fate (overwrite ancient history)

everyone survives to build a new, brighter world (return heart to body)

...and the future, that Sora & his friends are from? Erased from Ever Existing in the first place. (pandora's box: saving the past at the cost of the future)