Ever wondered what Tetsuya Nomura was thinking when during the production of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II, and why he made the twist to the character of Ansem, making it so that he was just an imposter? Ever wondered what he originally intended?
Well, wonder no more, because I think I have the answer!
We knew the main villain from Kingdom Hearts was Ansem, the Head of State and the director of various scientific research programs of Hollow Bastion. He became concerned about and curious about the Darkness, and in the process, he accidentally created the Heartless, and when he studied them and the Darkness, this Darkness began to influence his mind to the point in which he was driven to sacrifice his body in order to learn more.
As a matter of fact, back in those days, I think the only real areas for debate for him was what his plan was, and whether or not he actually properly turned himself into a Heartless in the process of losing his body. He was surely, soundly defeated by Sora, but fans were surprised to learn that he was coming back when CoM and KHII were announced, and fans welcomed his return.
...And the fans were surprised that "Ansem" was, basically, not. That it wasn't his real name, that the Ansem we fought was some imposter named Xehanort all along!
But was this what Tetsuya Normura originally intended while developing KH: CoM? Yes, it was definitely not the intention of the very first Kingdom Hearts game, but just how last minute was this decision?
My research has led me to conclude that this was a far later decision than almost anybody could have ever guessed, and that Tetsuya Nomura intended something simpler and different for Ansem as late as CoM, and that this was only changed at the very last minute for KHII.
To understand what Nomura most probably intended, it must first be understood that Tetsuya Nomura has confessed to making twists for the sake of making twists, so while it's obvious that Ansem wasn't always meant to be Xehanort, he probably had a story intended that few could have imagined, and might have made the change even closer to the eleventh hour than we could have guessed.
For those of you not in the loop, in Kingdom Hearts cosmology, when somebody gives up their heart
to Darkness, sometimes, if the Heart and/or will is strong enough, a Nobody is created as well.
Now it must be remembered that the first KH established that being turned into a Heartless is a very reversible state, not only for Sora, but quite possibly for other characters as well. It seems very likely that all of the residents of Destiny Islands besides Sora, Riku, and Kairi turned into Heartless, but at the end of the game credits, Tidus, Wakka, and Sephie are playing on the beach happily, completely non-Heartless. Perhaps in the canon of the first game before later games retconned it, when you first strike down a Heartless with a Keyblade, and then open and close the Door to Darkness (essentially pushing the reset button), Heartless that have been struck down by the Keyblade are also "reset", turning back into normal people (the surviging Heartless of KHII were not reset by shutting the Door to Darkness because they were not struck down by the Keyblade, and as for Nobodies, all you need is for a person to lose a heart to Darkness to make a Nobody, turning back to normal doesn't make the Nobody go away, one thinks of Roxas).
Now Ansem was not exactly struck down by the Keyblade, but he was exposed to pure light from Kingdom Hearts, which is essentially perishing in the same way, as Keyblades are composed of Light. So assuming he was a Heartless even without the subsequent retcons, then surely the same rules must apply to him, that being "killed" by Light and then having the Door to Darkness that leads to Kingdom hearts "reset" wouls surely "reset" Ansem as it does to other Heartless who have faced similar circumstances.
Some of the readers have probably already figured out where I'm going with this by now, but I might as well explain the rest, to further verify my hypothesis.
Now we go to Chain of Memories, and of course, the mysterious DiZ, who was introduced in Riku's storyline there. I noticed an interesting pattern in how DiZ looked in the sprites.
We knew the main villain from Kingdom Hearts was Ansem, the Head of State and the director of various scientific research programs of Hollow Bastion. He became concerned about and curious about the Darkness, and in the process, he accidentally created the Heartless, and when he studied them and the Darkness, this Darkness began to influence his mind to the point in which he was driven to sacrifice his body in order to learn more.
As a matter of fact, back in those days, I think the only real areas for debate for him was what his plan was, and whether or not he actually properly turned himself into a Heartless in the process of losing his body. He was surely, soundly defeated by Sora, but fans were surprised to learn that he was coming back when CoM and KHII were announced, and fans welcomed his return.
...And the fans were surprised that "Ansem" was, basically, not. That it wasn't his real name, that the Ansem we fought was some imposter named Xehanort all along!
But was this what Tetsuya Normura originally intended while developing KH: CoM? Yes, it was definitely not the intention of the very first Kingdom Hearts game, but just how last minute was this decision?
My research has led me to conclude that this was a far later decision than almost anybody could have ever guessed, and that Tetsuya Nomura intended something simpler and different for Ansem as late as CoM, and that this was only changed at the very last minute for KHII.
To understand what Nomura most probably intended, it must first be understood that Tetsuya Nomura has confessed to making twists for the sake of making twists, so while it's obvious that Ansem wasn't always meant to be Xehanort, he probably had a story intended that few could have imagined, and might have made the change even closer to the eleventh hour than we could have guessed.
For those of you not in the loop, in Kingdom Hearts cosmology, when somebody gives up their heart
to Darkness, sometimes, if the Heart and/or will is strong enough, a Nobody is created as well.
Now it must be remembered that the first KH established that being turned into a Heartless is a very reversible state, not only for Sora, but quite possibly for other characters as well. It seems very likely that all of the residents of Destiny Islands besides Sora, Riku, and Kairi turned into Heartless, but at the end of the game credits, Tidus, Wakka, and Sephie are playing on the beach happily, completely non-Heartless. Perhaps in the canon of the first game before later games retconned it, when you first strike down a Heartless with a Keyblade, and then open and close the Door to Darkness (essentially pushing the reset button), Heartless that have been struck down by the Keyblade are also "reset", turning back into normal people (the surviging Heartless of KHII were not reset by shutting the Door to Darkness because they were not struck down by the Keyblade, and as for Nobodies, all you need is for a person to lose a heart to Darkness to make a Nobody, turning back to normal doesn't make the Nobody go away, one thinks of Roxas).
Now Ansem was not exactly struck down by the Keyblade, but he was exposed to pure light from Kingdom Hearts, which is essentially perishing in the same way, as Keyblades are composed of Light. So assuming he was a Heartless even without the subsequent retcons, then surely the same rules must apply to him, that being "killed" by Light and then having the Door to Darkness that leads to Kingdom hearts "reset" wouls surely "reset" Ansem as it does to other Heartless who have faced similar circumstances.
Some of the readers have probably already figured out where I'm going with this by now, but I might as well explain the rest, to further verify my hypothesis.
Now we go to Chain of Memories, and of course, the mysterious DiZ, who was introduced in Riku's storyline there. I noticed an interesting pattern in how DiZ looked in the sprites.
I kept flipping through the image and saw that they had the exact same head shape, the same eye color, and the same similar skin color. Even in KHII, their appearances align very well, meaning that their character models might have been made before the twist was made.
This is hard to gauge now, because many of his features were changed to match those of the other Xehanort incarnations in the HD ReMixes. As a result, ironically, it seems that now DiZ more closely resembles the original Ansem model than Ansem does now as a result of changing Ansem to look like the other Xehanort incarnations. Anyway, you can see the similarities between the original Ansem model, and DiZ. Aside from the same head-shape, and dark skin and orange eyes, as I have I pointed out before, they have the same eye-shape, like sideways diamonds.
It seems like what what Nomura intended after the events of KH, Ansem turned into a complete person again, and realizing that all of what he believed was disproved by failing against a kid with a Keyblade, and that therefore what he did was wrong, Ansem decided to atone for his sins by trying to undermine Organization XIII, which was being led by his own Nobody, under a new name, DiZ, disguising his features.
Then KHII came out and Tetsuya Nomura further retconned things, changing this simpler story into a more complicated one, making things so that not only was DiZ the real Ansem, but that the Heartless and Nobody never belonged to the real Ansem as he must have originally intended, but now belonged to a completely separate guy named Xehanort, and the real Ansem didn't look like the Heartless and Nobody at all.
That’s my theory, and those are my thoughts!
Now my question now is, let’s say that Tetsuya Nomura stuck this plot twist before he changed it: DiZ is the complete Ansem, and the Seeker of Darkness was his Heartless, and Xemnas was his Nobody. So if this particular plot twist was kept, how then, would that have changed post-KHII games like Birth by Sleep and Dream Drop Distance?
Tell me your thoughts in the comments below!
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