Why Riku is Probably A Light and Darkness and Re:Coded Might not be so Useless

Ahem
Consider, if you will, the commonly touted 'fact' that Re:CoM is useless to the story, and that you only need to see its ending. Now consider a cutscene from early in the game, which shows Riku meeting Ansem SoD after Sora leaves the Destiny Islands in KH1. This clashes with the timeline which has Riku disappearing into the darkness well before Sora fights Dakrside.
Now consider what we know about KH as it stands. Ansem is a time travelling heart, and Xehanort wants to find thirteen Xehanorts to fight seven not-so-Xehanorts. It stands to reason that classic Riku was taken to the future as a Xehanort and will have to battle Modern riku, in a Kingdom Hearst Generations type scenario or whatever, and that Re:Coded was our clue.
Other misc reasons I think classic Riku is a Xehanort:
-It lets Riku go through the darkness/retribution character arc again rather than doing something different
-It lets Nomura use classic Riku's outfit instead of making a new one
-It would give us anotehr explanation to a perfectly solid plto point that didn't need an explanation, much like why Roxas elft the Organization, or why the Organization was formed. Now instead of Riku becoming a good guy as the result of, I dunno, character development or something, we can have it explained as modern Riku's friendship being imprinted on classic Riku, a more fitting explanation for this series.
-Double the Riku means double the yaoi, double the yaoi means double the fangirls, double the fangirls means double the fans
-They'll probably want to explain where Riku got the Soul Eater
-Re:Coded had to have SOME purpose...right?

 

Maybe that's who Riku saw in Monstro. Hm? HMMM?!?

 

The only problem is that if Riku went to the future there would be no present Riku in our timeline, but rather 2 in the future.
I love this theory. I would love to see it in someway come to fruition, but unless I'm missing something that's a major hole in this theory.

 

Very interesting theory. It's true that some of the 13 Darknesses have not been revealed so this could be possible.

I remember one scene in RE: Chain of Memories, right after Riku defeats Lexaeus by transforming into his dark form. Lexaeus says to Riku, "You are the Superior's--" and then cuts it off with "Forgive me, Zexion." You can watch it here.

Do you think this could have anything to do with your theory? I could never quite figure out the context of that line...

Of course, I could just be overthinking it, but still...

 

While it is a nice theory, I don't think it's gonna work.

If Riku became half a Xehanort there, he'd have yellow eyes and pointy ears like the whole family, would not resist when Ansem attempted to use his body to hurt Kairi, and most importantly, MX himself wouldn't deny the fact that he WAS gonna be one of his vessels, but that he grew too resistant of the dark, making him immune to nortification and changing their target to Sora.
So, that scene only meant Xehanort's heartless was present there and that Riku also saw him, nothing else, probably.

Also, it was stated in KH1 or 2 Ultimania, that Maleficent crafted Soul Eater from the Darkness in Riku's heart.

Lexaeus noticed it wasn't Riku anymore in control, but Ansem SoD, that's it.

 

Now this is an interesting theory. Although it wouldn't happen. But who knows?

 

There's one important bit about time travel you guys are forgetting: once you go back in time everything is like it was before, adn you lose the memories you gained through the time travel, but they leave an imprint on you
Therefore, it's entirely practical that Riku was taken to the future, became a Xehanort, was saved by Modern Riku, and wnet back in time to become the hero we all know and love

 

I also happen to adore this theory, but allow me to discuss/elaborate on the time travel aspects of this.

The way Nomura has explained it, time travel only works if:

• there is a version of you waiting at your destination
• your body is left behind
• you allow predestined events to unfold
• upon arrival, you move forward as per the usual laws of time

By this logic, Riku would technically be able to travel into the future and become another darkness for Xehanort. Still, I would see this as being a stretch, especially considering Young Xehanort's dialogue in the scene with Riku. He says, and I quote, "Yes, we originally had our sights set on you [as a vessel]. But, you developed a certain... resistance to darkness."

HOWEVER, and again this might be a bit of a stretch, what if young Riku was destined to become a dark vessel? If that happened, it would make sense. I can imagine that after Riku completely accepts the darkness inside him (at Hollow Bastion in the first game, once Ansem SoD prompts him to), his body becomes a new vessel for Ansem SoD and his heart moves forward to the fight between the seven lights and thirteen darknesses. There would be a version of him fighting, and he may or may not just be able to possess the cloak like SoD possesses that robe. And once he was inevitably defeated, his heart would have no body to go back to, and he would end up in the Realm of Darkness after realizing what he, Sora and Kairi become in the future and trying to reclaim his body from SoD.

Again, this might be a stretch, but it wouldn't be the first time Nomura pulls some absurd twist like this. Only this time, it'd actually be praised by the fans.

 

That's doesn't change the fact MX himself explicitly said he's not one.
And really, if it WAS possible to have two of the same entities in the same place, Xehanort wouldn't split himself left and right, he'd just get himself from 13 different seconds.

His heart stayed there, remember how he stopped Ansem from catching Kairi when Sora was gone?

 

Maybe his heart returned to his body at that moment? I mean, it's very possible to have two hearts residing in one body (Terra and MX, Sora and Ventus, Sora and Kairi, etc).

 

That's what I'm saying that happened, that his heart stayed in his body together with Ansem SoD instead of travelling in time.

 

But that's not what I'm saying. If Riku were to travel forward in time, he would come back to the exact place and time when his heart left, which would be inside his body.

 

Because something being explicitly stated automatically makes it true in this series? It seems very easy to me to imagine that he was referring to that specific form of Riku, after all, if they already got one Riku, why not another?

 

...I'd guess so.
I'll give you that since Xehanort keeps lying, but why wouldn't they want another if they could have it?
They're just vessels for him, the more that fit, the merrier.

I see.
Well, still, I can't bring myself to agree with this, since I believe that he can only Nortify the "present" version of the person, but there's no facts set in stone I can use to support myself, so gonna stop here.

 

There is no 'present' though, and the fact that Young Xehanort had to time travel to gather the twelve vessels sort of disproves this

 

By that I meant that he put a part of his heart on the vessels without making them travel through time, that he did so when they had still had their bodies, like when he did it to Terra, Braig and almost Sora.

 

To me it doesn't matter that Master Xehanort said Riku wasn't one. He also said that Sora WAS one so....