Yen Sid and the Mentor Problem | Kingdom Hearts Character Analysis
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- čas přidán 17. 06. 2024
- Yen Sid is a recurring mentor in the Kingdom Hearts series, but despite the writers' good intentions, his execution reveals a fundamental problem in the wise mentor trope. In this video, I'll analyze his character, his actions, the good, and the bad. My Patreon: / dorked
My Terra Analysis Video: • Terra Isn't Dumb | Kin...
Antipode, my main Kingdom Hearts fic series: archiveofourown.org/series/18376 (Remaster of fic 1 is coming later this year)
Hurricane Heartbeat, my other Kingdom Hearts fic series: archiveofourown.org/series/16...
Chapters:
0:00 - Introduction
1:09 - First Impressions
4:50 - Birth by Sleep
8:13 - The Path to the Keyblade War
12:03 - Redemption?
13:52 - Final Thoughts
My Undertale webcomic: invertedfate.com/chapters
Primary video source: kh-vids.net
#yensid #kingdomhearts #birthbysleep #kh2 #kingdomhearts3 #kingdomhearts2 #characteranalysis #fantasia #disney #kingdomheartsbirthbysleep #kingdomheartsrecoded - Hry
You asked for it, and here it is! My Yen Sid critique and analysis. This was a tricky video to make because I try not to dive purely into bashing and teardown content, so I tried to give credit to what IS likable about Yen Sid without ignoring the huge problems in his actions and writing. Wanna see more KH content? Feel free to suggest topics in the comments! Don't forget to visit my Patreon if you wanna support what I do: patreon.com/dorked If you wanna check out my Kingdom Hearts fics, I have two main projects, Antipode: archiveofourown.org/series/18376 and Hurricane Heartbeat: archiveofourown.org/series/1607731 Hurricane is on hold while I rework the plans for the sequel, and Antipode is ongoing (though the first fic will eventually be remastered). I also do an Undertale webcomic at invertedfate.com/chapters If you missed my Terra video, check it out here: czcams.com/video/Ruy5aYUijGE/video.html
I think yen sid is master odin from dark road because in bbs he say to terra "long ego eraqus xehanort and me was master of keyblade, and when i stoped to be a master they changed their road " when all students classed dead on dark road xehanord and eraqus was already master of keyblade. => odin= yen sid don't you forget that he says "i stop to be a master and i go to a peaceful place to finish my life" perhaps misterious tower is that "peacefull place" also he never go to fight => it make sense. also master odin i think he is brain because he says when he capture baldr "I finally se the truth of those words destiny can be cruel" brain read the book of the prophetie thats why he says that. whats do you think about what i said.
A lot of issues with Yen Sid seem to be a result of plot points that the writers didn't think of at the time. Why was he absent during KH1? Because they didn't think about including him. Why didn't he tell Sora about recompletion in KH2? Because they hadn't thought of recompletion yet. Why did Yen Sid not tell Riku or anyone else about Aqua in 0.2? Because they only decided that Yen Sid knew she was there in 0.2.
Yeah, I touched on that in the video, too- some of it is likely just not planning ahead, but yet Final Mix does hint to recompletion a bit, and BBS as well, which shows it was planned out SOMEWHAT, but perhaps not in as much depth during KH2, where Yen Sid was more of a fun cameo and exposition tool. His greater involvement later likely took form during BBS, and in KH1 they had a more limited roster of supporting characters to work with in some respects, and already had Merlin and the Fairygodmother.
@@Dorked Final Mix and BBS hint at recompletion? I never knew that. I do still think it was a lack of foresight since there weren't any hints in the original KH2.
@@An_Account1 There is a hint in Chain of Memories with Axel. When he helps Namine for Sora. He feels joy, which shouldn't happen unless you have regained some Heart.
@@Fragmentsinfractals488 That's because Nobodies can regrow Hearts, not because of recompletion.
Remember, to become a Nobody you must also create a Heartless. When, the Heartless gets Destroyed the Heart flows in the Void. That is how the Organization created "their" Kingdom Hearts.
So Nobodies can feel their Heart when form Memories based on Connection. But the Nobody has to be destroyed to Complete the process.
Yen Sid both being an expositionary character and his portrayal as all-knowing can create this image where he seems like he witholds important information because of new important plot relevations. Also, him basically sitting on his chair while the heartless ravage the worlds is another thing, I like how Hurrican Heartbeat touched on that.
When it comes to Yen Sid, I’ve always been neutral. Some points you brought up about Yen Sid when he was talking to Ventus is something I noticed during my recent run of BBS. Yen Sid IS an interesting character to me, but couldn’t really put how I felt about how he was handled into words. Great video as always!
Thanks for the kind words! I expected to come into this really harsh on the guy, and while I do think my criticisms still stand, I did at least appreciate that he was more respectful to Ventus than a lot of other characters.
Whether Yen Sid counts as unintentionally negligent in KH3 specifically feels like a weird case to me. You'd think with his probable awareness of Sora's history of self-sacrifice that he'd elect to mention that using the Power of Waking incorrectly can have devastating consequences for the user. Sure, maybe he couldn't have predicted that they'd get wiped out so easily, but could he have?
Kairi's combat experience was minimal, Aqua was just fished out of hell where she only fought mindless Heartless for 10 years, Ventus just woke up from a coma, and Axel was starting from square one with a new fighting style, with each of them getting thrust into war. And with their search for the New Seven Hearts, I think it's safe to say that their backs were effectively against the wall here. It'd be worth a footnote in case it comes up, I think. Maybe I'm being too hard on him and he just truly had that much faith that there wouldn't be any problems, but it strikes me as odd.
Excellent video, by the way. As for possible topics, the eventual Riku Replica video would be fantastic to have, obviously. But beyond that, building on my earlier mention of Ansem Seeker of Darkness, I think it'd be interesting to dive into his and Xemnas' motivations and characterizations to rationalize and see where the line between them and Xehanort is even taking into account their DDD characterizations. Because regarding their breadth of knowledge in previous entries, and the sometimes unreliable expositors who relay their prior motivations to us, I honestly believe that they outright can't be as Xehanort as they try to depict.
Even in DDD itself, they imply that both Ansem and Xemnas got their memories back, but that outright can't align with what DDD itself presents. Terranort violently shutting down Braig's questions about his memory with "That's not my name, I'm not Xehanort" doesn't strike me as a Xehanort who's all there. Nor does Ansem's subsequent lack of awareness that Kingdom Hearts is light, which he would know if he regained his memories as Xehanort. Meanwhile, Xemnas' motivations for founding the original Organization are only told to us by Xigbar, who's been established to be capable of incorrect assumptions, with his actions and inactions in KH2 and Days not lining up with the goal that Xigbar says he has. Whereas Xemnas' disdain for the human heart as shown in Days does paint him as capable of and incentivized to lie about the ability to regrow hearts, yet his lack of eagerness to refill the Organization's ranks runs contrary to his stated goal of establishing the 13 darknesses. You could argue it's because Ansem's defeat meant failure of the "initial" plan to have the Princesses of Heart serve as the 7 lights, but it still feels off.
Maybe I'm reading too much into them that isn't there and it really just is bad writing retconning their previous individual characteristics, but I think that sort of exploration of their characters could be really interesting.
It is simple. The Child of Destiny is scripted by the Master of Masters. So Sora has to perform Singularity. And if Yen Sid could see this, he couldn't tell, less Darkness Prevail.
The "Yen Sid is what the story needs and that makes some weird decisions" you said is so true. Like, I kinda wish we knew why he stopped to use the keyblade and why it's so important that he stays on the tower. He even changes the place where the tower is according to Mickey gummiphone in KH3. Is he hiding from something? It's like he's to much in the defense, and don't want to take any risk, even when someone like Aqua needs some help.
He's "wise" because he has and puts the "common sense", the worst part of lore exposition, it makes him seems bad at making decisions and just "do what he knows". Maybe what I don't like about the character is just some writing problems that my brain associates with him. I can kinda imagine that he felt Eraqus death because they were friends, and their connection was why he felt it, and the stars only tell, again, common sense, but that's more speculation. Other problem is with him is how Disney characters are passive not only on what they do but what they think about their situation. For Donald and Goofy, that work since they are the sidekicks that wants to protect their friends, with Mickey we actually get a little, like he saying that "Aqua is like Sora", oh, I mean, strong like Sora, but Yen Sid don't talk about his supposed friends or plans, he just reacts to treats as they appear.
I always saw that as more of "he's a Disney character so they won't put layers to his actions" but now that you said about the mentor trope, I'm seeing how a lot of these problems are more present with the older, magical Disney characters, and the problem that the "shonen tropes" usually creates with their older characters.
This is the most I'm thinking about Yen Sid, so maybe not all of that made sense, but I liked that this video make me think more about it, to me a mark of a excellent video
Yeah, a lot of the problems with Yen Sid honestly can be applied to similar sage-like characters in media, especially media that's meant to empower young viewers. Often times, mentors get killed off, and Yen Sid is one of the few who's still living... but ultimately just sits around and info dumps because I imagine a combination of wanting the main characters to shine and possible red tape due to him being an important legacy character. But even if those are the out of universe reasons, in-universe it doesn't reflect particularly well on him. There are absolutely reasons to dislike him, and I have a lot of gripes myself. However, I also think a ton of the problems were not intended by the writers and they just kinda have been clumsy with the guy.
I wonder if the thing about nobodies not having hearts was because he genuinely didn't know, since even within the Organization only Xemnas was any the wiser. As for recompletion, maybe he only learned of it recently? Might've seen people popping back up from Sora defeating Heartless and Nobodies, and pieced it together.
I feel like alot of Yen Sid's shortcomings has to do with both his role in the story and the nature of the series clashing. As you stated, he's supposed to be a mentor figure and provide exposition in areas unexplored. But KH simultaneously wants to have its cake and eat it too by establishing lore with a touch of mystery and then later on adding unforeseeable loopholes in the settings' rules.
The first game treated having a keyblade as a special thing that only certain people can wield but now just about every main character has one, heck in Union X practically everyone did. You'd probably be looked at funny if you didn't have one, lol.
It was also never explained why Sora could go in Timeless River when the rules for time travel is that you can't go back to a point in time where you didn't exist.
Then there's the whole thing with KH3D and KHBBS MoM exams being different, which I also don't think was ever explained.
The series is extremely soft with its magic system so whenever Yen Sid says something I always know to never take his words for granted because they're bound to be contradicted later on. But regarding the actual writing for his character, yeah, I pretty much agree.
Yen Sid did say the exam in KH3D was unusual, at least, so that at least has some justification. Then with multiple Keyblades, apparently the original KH1 Ultimania did say other wielders did exist out there and it was never meant to be just one Keyblade, but that's info in a Japanese only book and while Mickey's Keyblade proves others existed, it was certainly a far cry from Union Cross. xD I don't mind it in BBS because they were still relatively few in number and it made it seem like the Keyblade was kind of a dying art? Makes the Keyblade Graveyard chilling. But yeah, KH definitely has a tendency to wanna establish big mysteries and then this causes issues with characters like Yen Sid.
Yen Sid's knowledge just feels weird. It's so vague because of the whole stars thing yet the specificity he shows in certain cases makes him feel really contradictory.
It seems like Union X times are the Lost civilization and therefore, very few people remember it correctly.
Also, Timeless Rver exist Timelessly in a Pocket Dimension, like a Dream. So, the Door goes in into a Pocket Dimension in the Disney Castle's Heart.
KHBBS Exam was prompted by Xehanort. Eraqus original didn't even want to do the Exam. So, Eraqus made the Exam easier so his student would be less exposed to Darkness. But Xehanort was watching.
"Deconstruction of the child hero" seems like a fun topic to go in-depth on.
Gonna leave a comment for algorithmic purposes. Great to see some much needed analysis of Yen Sid. Awesome work as always!
Thanks a bunch! :) He's a character I feel like gets talked about but like... mostly just the negatives, which I totally get, but wanted to discuss a bit more. xD
As cool as the Yen Sid parting the heartless scene was, I think it would have worked better to explain that he had somehow lost all his offensive power/practical battle ability. Thus leaving him exclusively as a mentor figure and some form of seer.
Thank you for making these Kingdom Hearts videos. They are really great to watch alongside your Undertale ones!
Saw this video after seeing the end card for your recent video, and I'm glad I did. Really cool video!
I feel like with mentor characters writers make their knowledge of things often limitless and vaguely defined, which can work in a shorter story but in a larger story with many installments that can create some issue. Like how did this character gain such knowledge? Is that ever truly explained or can it be inferred? For example, how could Yen Sid have known that Xemnas was Terranorts Nobody and the leader of Organization XII? From what KH2 built up about them the Organization seemed very secretive i can't imagine Xemnas walking one day to Yen Sid's tower and telling him this.
I know nothing about Kingdom Hearts and have no intention to learn but this is for the algorithm.
Haha, appreciate it all the same!
Great video and an under mentioned topic in the KH fandom.
Personally, I think the all knowing mentor works best in characters that are distinctly non-human. For example, in the Persona series, there’s a character named Igor who acts like a guide to the protagonist, but provides them with no usable information. He clearly knows a lot, but you wouldn’t look at him and think he’s human. As a result, the player can assume he’s bound by some rules where he can’t say everything. They could’ve gone that route with Yen Sid. He lives in a distinctly different world from the various points of origin of each of the keyblade wielders. Consequently, he could have a very different idea of what is necessary information based on culture clash. Or in exchange for power, he could’ve been bound by some sort of rules. Something to that effect. Maybe he could get his information from the stars and that’s why it doesn’t all come in at the same time! He lives in a huge tower after all. There are ways to tweak him to make his fumbles work.
Good on him for respecting Ven’s agency but he does get points off for joining in on the KH3 Sora bashing.
Ultimately, the inconsistencies with him aren’t the worst in the world, but it is frustrating to see when replaying.
For a future idea, how about an analysis of the Organization member’s weapon choices? Like how they relate to things like their story, personality, element, and Nobodies the represent each member. Some of the weapons are so off the wall that it might make for a fun topic.
I'm commenting so the algorithm recommends it more, you deserve way more than 22k subs
The way he withholds information and how it's unclear how much information he knows, he kind of reminds me a Dungeon Master from Dungeons and Dragons; whether or not if that means anything, I dunno. Anyhow, I don't remember if I commented on one of your videos yet, but I just wanted to mention that the Terra video was the video that allowed me to find this channel. It transformed how I regarded Terra as a character and helped me warm up to his story more. Later when I got into Undertale this January, I didn't realize you were the same channel until I checked your page and found the Terra video, lol. Thanks for making such great content, and for making both Undertale and Kingdom Hearts videos!
Neat analysis video! Thanks for uploading!
I do hope they can do better with Yen Sid's roll in the future....
I think in general they should rethink how they handle the wise, sage-like characters to avoid things being so jank. xD
I've only been following you on CZcams for a short while (had a recent Deltarune kick and loved your theories on it and Undertale) but to hear you mention Hurricane Heartbeat at the end of this video sent my heart SOARING, I read it a few years back and it had me hooked! It's still one of my favorite KH fics.
Been waiting for this video, I'm sure it'll be good.
Eyy! Thanks a bunch. c: Hope you will enjoy.
Such a neat analysis, thank you so much for sharing!
Oh yeah, the Data kids are really slept on. Coded in general, tbh. It may not be a big plot mover or shaker, but I do still think there's a lot to like.
finally getting around to watching this! some thoughts before I get into the actual video; I think Yen Sid is an example of a larger problem this series has with negligent or otherwise bad mentor/parental figures. I'm not entirely sure what that means for the series as a whole, and it may just be a result of the writing working out that way because our protagonists are all fairly young, but it's... interesting, by lack of a better word. it's one of many topics I'd like to analyze for myself when I can find the time, and it's something I love seeing people discuss as well.
okay now on with the video
things I thought of while watching (aka I get distracted and need to ramble);
re;Nobodies, side tangent alert, I don't think we as the audience know enough about how Nobodies work to really understand them, and we have information the characters don't have. for the characters it makes perfect sense to describe them the way they do in early kh2 as that's all they know from the information they have at that point in time! I'm also wondering where Yen Sid gets his information about the Nobodies anyway... if he gets his information from DiZ, then we also have to factor in bias against the Nobodies. either way, personally I really don't mind Yen Sid being wrong about the Nobodies initially because it sets up a nice bit of unreliable narration, which is a very important thing in this series (one day I will write my unreliable narration meta... one day...)
to continue on the point you are actually making, I have to again ask where Yen Sid gets his information, and I'm going to play devil's advocate for a second. yes, he does seem to know more about the situation as time goes on, but is it possible that he is learning more as Sora is out adventuring? of course, he is negligent in not calling Sora back to tell him what he has learned as soon as new information comes up, but that may be chalked up to him not wanting to be wrong again and not wanting to distract Sora from his task. after all, Sora, Donald and Goofy are smart enough to figure things out for themselves... right?
(I'm not even five minutes in. help.)
moving on to BBS; here we see what I think is a very awkward character bit that does not work out. Yen Sid, like Eraqus, wants to believe Xehanort isn't fully gone yet, he wants to believe there is a way to stop him. he holds on to hope that he shouldn't be holding on to, and I think he intentionally attempts to misread the stars and ignores the signs telling him that no, there is no turning back, Xehanort is the bad guy now and there's no changing that. that is arguably worse than genuinely not knowing, but it makes much more sense from a character perspective and I think this is what was intended but very poorly handled (probably because Disney was like "noooo he can't explicitly be bad at this on purpose we have to keep it subtle" /j)
I have no idea where his mistakes regarding Xehanort's plans later on come from, though. maybe a belief that Xehanort would try to just manipulate others into doing his bidding, rather than go through with the vessels thing? yeah... I really got nothing here. to be fair to Yen Sid, though, Xehanort's plan, especially as it is presented in Dream Drop Distance, doesn't make a whole lot of sense either way, and neither do his methods. this feels like more of a DDD problem than a Yen Sid problem.
brief side tangent about the Mark of Mastery while we're on the topic; the DDD Mark of Mastery also feels like an excuse. it's not actually an exam. that's just a formality. the title itself is just a formality anyway - see, Dark Road. it's more like a mission... and that draws a parallel with the upperclassmen from DR, hang on a second, I'm going to need to save that thought. not sure what to do with it, I feel like we're short on information to really work with here, but it's something to note.
(back to the video again)
I'm inclined to agree on your point on 0.2. from a story perspective, it makes sense to withhold the information, even if it makes Mickey and Yen Sid seem negligent at best. I can't really think of a way to address that without completely changing some other character and story arcs, honestly. Aqua's situation is the prime example of a tragedy that cannot be resolved because there are more pressing issues to address, but I really do wish it had been at least acknowledged.
as for being too hard on Sora... yeah. I got absolutely nothing on that. Sora did not deserve to be lectured and teased like he is. are we really surprised that Rage Form is a thing? (side note, someone on tumblr pointed out that Sora may have endured parental neglect or abuse during his childhood, based in part on how Sora responds to authority figures, and I'm inclined to agree... it sure puts this whole thing in perspective).
to conclude, mentor characters are hard to write, Kingdom Hearts loves its unreliable narration and character-driven arcs, and the story doesn't like adult characters as a whole. personally, I think a lot of problems I have with Yen Sid and Mickey could be resolved by leaning more into the Mickey-ex-machina angle. Mickey would have to be busy in other worlds most of the time and show up to help Sora and Riku (like he does in kh1 and parts of kh2) when he is needed, and Yen Sid is mostly busy supervising Mickey but will occasionally call the other Guardians of Light in to discuss what has been found so far, which also resolves the information inconsistency if done well. this could even serve as a way to set up the whole Sleeping Worlds thing; Mickey might be unable to save those worlds since they're too deep in the Realm of Sleep, so he maps out which worlds are asleep and then goes off to save other worlds, while Yen Sid relays the information to Sora and Riku and gives them the task to finish what Mickey started.
apologies for the wall of text, haha. I'd love to hear what you think about my random thoughts.
Oh I wasn't expecting you to analyze yen sid through the common literary mentor figure role lense, but this is very cool! It's definitely much more clear how it's quite the tough element to juggle for a series, especially with KH being as long as it is.
I can definitely see the hands of the writers especially in him, it's not too bad however since he is still just a Disney character, but I very much enjoy and appreciate Nomura owning up to these hiccups and actually use them in the story, the biggest example being that mickey and yen sid DID know about aqua after 0.2, but instead of handwaving this as just a lore retconny addition, they actually used it to paint both of them in a gray light and have aqua actively call them out on their bullshit, it's a pretty ballsy move.
These hiccups aside, I do feel a pretty clear way on how the series is starting to handle him to put him in line with all the other mentors as a well intentioned, flawed and ultimately figure who fails the youngs he should have protected instead, yen sid of course being on the lighter side of the group in KH (MoM and Diz are the big ones), but very much important because of his connections to Sora directly. The biggest example of this is in kh3, how he (just like Ddd with his exam that goes to shit especially because he didn't feel the need to warn sora and Riku about xehanort being back) he does not tell sora a lick of what the power of waking is, is supposed to do, and what are the risks tied to it. This coupled with Sora's continual dwindling self-esteem from having lost the mark of mastery, learning he isn't worthy of the keyblade, and all the (well-meaning/joking technically) teasing and correction that stings all the more because of it and that he has to endure with the toxic positivity he has internalized from the first games, it's what leads to sora breaking down in the graveyard, and then proceed to curse himself to disappear to fix that situation because he had no clue about how the power of waking works.
That aside, I had NO IDEA that yen sid parting the sea was actually a call back!! That's wild ahahaha!!
Great comment! :) I definitely agree with a lot of what you're saying. Your comments about toxic positivity are great additions, too- I feel like it's not something people really factor in when it comes to Sora. Donald and Goofy pushing the "no frowning, no sad face" bit. It actually only came to me recently when discussing the subject with a friend, but when it did, it really hit me like... wow. That's actually kinda messed up? I doubt Donald and Goofy meant to leave Sora with that kinda baggage, but it did feel like in KH3 especially, people just weren't reading the room when it came to Sora's feelings and the teasing went from well meaning to kinda passive aggressive? And yeah, I like that Yen Sid at least owns up to his mistakes, even if the writing behind him is kind of messy. It at least shows that he is a pretty self-aware and well-meaning character, and I appreciate that when Donald and Goofy were roasting him, he was like "magic happens" with Sora to try and make him feel better.
@@Dorked yeah definitely. And the toxic positivity is something I'm kinda obsessed with because it's essentially Sora's big journey to parallel riku's. It's much harder to grasp or notice it because it has to stretch for the entire series until it ends, but it's such a neat way to go about with Sora. Him doing a big smile to Donald and goofy right as he's about to stab himself, and up to kh3 where any times he is reflecting and trying to get some order on his feelings he keeps burying away, he always deflects the situation with jokes if Donald and goofy hear him and are actually concerned about him. I've recently noticed how when in remind ghost naminé is worried about him, sora just goes "I got this" and tries to smile, but it comes off as a really weak fake smile, so he doubles down and makes a huge one.
All of this forced positivity, forced light, forced "care about others and neglect yourself", it's no wonder a major factor that the series has slowly been building up is how Sora's darkness keeps getting brought up in cool ways, anti form, recoded, rage form especially in kh3 finale, since it must be pretty strong for being shoved down deep inside all this time. If the series is truly going through the heroine's journey, with sora reaching the "underworld" phase of it, aka quadratum, we should expect finally some self reflection on his part and breakthrough, especially now that he doesn't technically have friends or other stakes to worry about directly so he can focus a bit more on himself.
@@Fannintendociccio1 YEAH. Rage form is REALLY interesting because it can absolutely be read as a lot of his repressed negative emotions. Sora has his angry and heated outbursts, of course- even as far back as KH1 and definitely during CoM and KH2- but it definitely seems like his fears, sadness, etc are emotions he doesn't like to show and he likes to keep a cheery disposition and lift others up.
@@Dorked even just the fact Vanitas is a thing, and Darksides have been specifically tied to Sora's darkness since the first game...
*Looks at kh4's Darkside*
I'm excited ahahah, especially for the heroine's journey, we are almost at the end of it...!
Good vid once again! Admittedly I tend to see some of the older characters such as yen sid and Ansem the Wise much more negatively due to foresight from other games such as Days and DDD (and in YS's case also due to the aforementioned passivity), so it's nice to hear some of the actual positive aspects while hearing some of the issues with them acknowledged at the same time. I'm pretty excited that the Ven analysis is soon to come, and I really need to start watching more of the Deltarune vids you have, prob gonna do that rn actually lol.
Yeah, I didn't want to ignore his positive traits and make the whole video a teardown because that's just not my style, haha. I prefer to give more nuanced discussions even to topics I don't like because while outrage culture can perform well, it's just not as genuine to the kinda creator I wanna be. xD
@@Dorked Fair enough, def respect you for that.
Very fascinating character overall
Yeah, Yen Sid sits in a weird place where they're trying to give respect to Disney history but also the writing has a lot of holes and inconsistencies that make him look worse than they probably intended.
I've watched both this video and your video about Terra and loved them both! If you do more Kingdom Hearts content after your Ventus analysis, I'd love to see you analyze Kairi somehow. Maybe a discussion of where and how she fell short in her writing? Or maybe, similar to what you did with Yen Sid here, show how Kairi's handling is also an example of how damsels in distress or love interests are mishandled?
I like the kingdom heart characters analysis is interesint and amazing talk for the characters analysis and the theory of deltarune, i enjoy and happy see your videos
Thanks. :) It's nice to take a break from UT/DR on occasion so I don't become a one-trick pony, haha.
@@Dorked your welcome haha
Subscribed for UnderTale analysis, but this is also pretty good! Never actually played KH, but this was still interesting to hear about :)
This is awesomesauce
Eyy, thanks a bunch! :) Hope you enjoy.
my head was on fire whenever you tlaked any lore related stuff because god that's just kingdom hearts
I remember seeing someone absolutely hating on Yen Sid in a discord server a while back so I had been looking forward to this video. And honestly I kind of understand it now. Thanks :D
Haha, no problem. I wanted to avoid being purely a hate video by at least giving him some credit. I think sometimes people lean wayyyy to hard into scathing teardowns and I like to at least give a thoughtful look at these topics. xD
@@Dorked yeah, before this I didn't understand the reasons to hate him, but now I understand why he's not so great in some aspects. This was another great essay by the way! I forgot to say that in my comment
Kingdom hearts was honestly unknown to me until this video (Kind of ashamed of myself for that, lmao.) So this was a nice Introduction, thanks dorked.
Glad you enjoyed! It's a series near and dear to me but definitely is... a lot. xD
I barely know anything about Kingdom Hearts and Yen Sid, but I do know the trope of old and wise mentor characters... and yeah, deciding how much they should and shouldn't know can be a problem.
i really enjoyed this video, it was really interesting
Thanks! I think mentors are a huge writer's trap if you don't hash out the ins and outs of their knowledge for yourself ahead of time. It's good to have rules and restrictions defined for yourself to maintain internal consistency.
Yoo, this is so good! Also, CZcams cut off the notification and unsubbed me. But that won’t be enough to stop me!
Holy crap you actually did it.
Great video I'm not sure what else to say.
Pretty cool.
By the way, to be accurate, there apparently were also some Unversed amongst that big crowd Heartless in Kingdom Hearts 3,
but that doesn’t really change that what you said about that scene were pretty valid.
Yeah, I forgot about the Unversed, but it was almost entirely Shadows, which was just an odd choice? Demon Tides really would be a lot scarier if they had other Heartless, too.
@@Dorked hm, well, it isn’t the first time Kingdom Hearts has used as swarm of weaker Enemies as if they are a threat,
Personally, I don’t really mind, but still i guess it would be interesting to see them mix things up a bit once in awhile, especially for a Finale.
I don’t know anything about Kingdom Hearts but these videos are interesting regardless ngl
Sounds like Kingdom hearts needs a bit of help justifying the inactivity of the adults.
Ehh, at least for the Nobody bit... there doesn't seem to be any indication that he knew the truth about them growing new hearts... and it's not like he met with either Roxas or Naminie to allow them to show why his stance on Nobodies was imperfect.
It's just odd because he knew about recompletion and then in KH3 the gang's trying to get Roxas and Naminé back anyway. So it's like "my dude, how much are you actually supposed to be aware of?"
@@Dorked Yeah, best guess is that he was told about Roxas and Namine sometime offscreen after KH2, and learned about them growing new hearts off screen as well (maybe told that info from Sora right after DDD... if there was time for that).....
Kinda sucks that I have to guess that.
Hm, fair and valid points and opinions, personally i didn’t think much about Yen Sid’s legitimacy about his knowledge in the grand scheme of things, but I can see where you’re coming, hopefully he’s better handled in this Next Saga of Kingdom Hearts, honestly from what I understand, based on what I’ve heard about the X Saga, it seems like the Series has done some growing, so I guess we’ll see if that will carry over to the Main Series.
Anyway, i will look forward to what else you’ll have in store, it will be interesting to see.
God, the X saga REALLY deserved to be on a better platform than mobile. There are so many great story ideas and concepts and characters, but because they're all tucked away on mobile gacha games, it means that while the games are freely accessible, they also are probably often passed over due to their format and presentation. It doesn't help that the best way to experience X/Union X's story is through fan edited compilations like Everglow's timeline series, where everything's presented with more coherency.
@@Dorked hm, yeah, so have you been watching EverGlow’s New Timeline Series?
This is so late, but you can definitely analyze Mickey to the moon and back anytime you like--and all the many, many instances where he abandons those he's meant to care for and defend and it makes things worse.
Could you do more KH videos? I'd love videos like discussing Ventus not being as bland as people say, or Sora having an actual arc, or Kairi and if she's really useless or not, from a narrative standpoint
I actually do have a Ventus script. I've just had to juggle a few other video topics, too
@@Dorked ooh cool! I'm hyped to see more KH vids from you!
i always figured they didnt do much with yen sid cause disney said 'no hes special' i hope he does more cool shit later.
maybe he was pulling a dr strange. "how many worlds did we win in?" "1"
i would love to see you deep dive into mickey. LOTS of hate for the rat.
Oh, I could totally see Disney interference being a part of it when you consider that Yen Sid is meant to symbolize Walt himself. That's why I think he was left out of Dark Road, for instance.
I honestly think quite a few of Yen Sid's problems could be explained by him formerly being overconfident and making poor use of his abilities, resulting in a great tragedy that led him to give up his Keyblade and live a life in isolation, his ability to help forevermore crippled by his self-doubt getting in the way.
(...alternatively, I may just be _way_ too much of a sucker for the tragic KH stories, to the point that I start reading too much into situations that don't actually exist. xD )
THIS IS WHY HE SHOULDA BEEN IN DARK ROAD. If he had been involved in Dark Road and the tragedy that happened there, it would explain so much about him. Alas!
I do think Yen sid is witholding informaton and being passive because he's in leauge with Luxu and the MoM, and pushing the heroes towards the intended end for the MoM's plan.
Huh, would be an interesting twist if they went that route. I'm not sure if I buy it myself just yet since he does seem at least somewhat remorseful, but we'll just have to wait and see! It's not impossible.
Yen Sid is a Seer.
I feel like Yen Sid not telling about recompletion during KH2 can be chalked up to how it would affect Sora's ability to fight them. It would be a lot harder to off something if you're thinking of it as a person, rather than a person-shaped object. Especially given Sora's sympathetic tendencies.
Additionally, Nobodies didn't seem to be all that prominent prior to KH2, perhaps because they have enough sense to hide in the shadows for the most part even when they don't have an active organization (they are, after all, the body, and therefore the mind, so they're probably more innately smart than a Heartless), so there may have been very few instances of people coming back from being turned into a Heartless at the time. Sora offed a lot of Nobodies during KH2, and combined with all the Heartless he'd been killing for three games already, probably caused a lot of people to suddenly pop back into existence. Someone *had* to have noticed the influx of missing people being 'found', and this prompted Yen Sid to take a second look at the link between the two threats.
He could have also withheld that bit of info because it simply wasn't relevant at the time. 'Nobodies bad' is enough motivation for Sora to fight, and it's not like the people would reform immediately anyway, given that Kingdom Hearts was vacuuming up any hearts that were released anyway, so Sora likely wouldn't see the effects of his efforts until after the game was over.
I agree with almost everything you said, but there is one point of contention. In regards to Sora and Riku losing all of their power to gain power befitting the keyblade, I can understand it. Think about all the battles you face, while Sora may come out on top in terms of shear power he's on the back end. It takes final form thundaga to even match Larxene's lightning, and he can't even come close when it comes to Vexen's ice or Axel's fire. Then we compare to BBS where TAV have ultimate commands, end-game finish commands, command styles, and shotlocks, all (presumably) without relying on magic clothes. We already have a measure of a "true" keyblade wielder's power, and it's reasonable to see why Yen Sid would want the two on that level.
The real problem comes in when Sora learns exactly one of those features (uktimate commands) and Riku one (ultimate commands) and a lesser version of another (link styles) while both learn something completely unrelated (flowmotion). And the worst part is all of this comes about from them going around slaying monsters like they always have been instead of anything that should actually result in a better foundation for them to build upon.
honestly don't have a lotta feelings torwards yen sid either way, but this video does remind me how much the wise mentor character can piss me off when they keep on omitting details that directly cause the events of the plot and don't have any reflection on this when things are solved
Yeah, to Yen Sid's credit, the writing at least had him try and reflect a little bit later on, but it's still a really easy archetype to mess up. x_x
I actually do have a theory about Yen Sid. Which I think explains most of what is going on with him.
I think Yen Sid was greatly injured in the past. To the point he still struggles to use his hands or even move very fast. He it the only person who uses magic to move a book from one side of the table to the other. This injury is likely why he is no longer a wielder. He simply could not do it anymore. And I get the feeling that it happened fairly early in his time as a Master, and it likely depressed him for a very long time.
However I think it goes a bit deeper then that. It is possible in my mind that the Fairy Godmother and Merlin where also once wielder, and a trio of friends. Most trios in the KH setting have a magic user, a physical attacker, and a speed person. Fairy Godmother with her teleporting habit is clearly the speed person, Merlin is clearly the magic person, which means Yen Sid would have been the physical attacker. When you see how bigger he is then the other two this also makes a lot of sense.
Yen Sid in my mind is a physical attacker that got hurt both physically and emotionally sometime in the past and has never completely recovered from this. He was not never the smart one. However in order to be a help, to prove himself useful in any way he tried to become the smart one. The one people come to for answers. His desire to be seen as useful, to be the one people come to for answers colors his actions and words. He tries to appear like he knows more then he does, so that the people that still look up to him will continue to do so. Because he never wants to go back to being useless. However the fact is that he doesn't know everything, and although time has taught him how to do research it was never his natural calling.
In KH2 I really think he had been researching. He told Sora what DiZ had written about Nobodies because Yen Sid had only had time to just start his research and he didn't yet have all the answers. However because of his desire to be looked up to he can't appear to not know what is going on to this child(Sora) or to these two people that already look up to him. So he speaks with confidence that he really doesn't have. Then he goes back to his research not even noticing that Maleficent has regained her body in his side room.
you know bout epic mickey? that game is so good it needs a third game tryna 100% both 1 and 2 is an actual challenge cuz if you do smth wrong you need to retry it all and some options that will lock some things in epic mickey 1 also yen sid there only created the world for the "forgotten" disney characters and in the end lets us see oswald and ortensia one last time
Epic Mickey was an interesting game! It definitely has some flaws, like how fetch questy it was and how they had to cut the scrapper/dark ending and route, making the thinner playthrough kind of weird in that it has basically the same ending as the normal route with a few minor changes. Still a cool game that could definitely warrant a remaster or remake, tbh.
@@Dorked wait there was another ending for epic 1? i never actually searched the files since i was only able to play it in the wii and never really used yt to know how to do certain levels like the rocket crashing oneand the game needs without a doubt a remaster but mickey oswald yen sid and other characters can only be used under disney's permission and the quests are kinda easy except for oracio's quest for me atleast i keep screwing it up cuz i forget the locations
@@the_hero3566 There was originally gonna be a slit between neutral, hero, and scrapper, with Mickey's appearance changing depending on how heavily you lean into paint vs thinner. There was also allegedly gonna be a different ending if you went into the full thinner path, but it seems they scrapped all that in the end, so the only things that change are the clips of all the bosses.
@@Dorked maybe they deleted that ending for epic 2 since we do see 2 endings for that one and maybe thats a reason why there isnt any third game like kid icarus after uprising medusa was freed from hades control and hades defeated by pit and yen sid prob hid the magic pencil somewhere else the last i remember of epic 2 was the toons rebuilding their world either way is up to disney if there will be a sequel or a remaster and the only thing we will ever get close to playing as mickey again is kh 2 with a chance of mickey apearing to revive sora
HEY DORKED!! NOW THAT THE [[final chapter chance: 80%]] IS ALMOST OUT, IM STARTING TO WONDER: WHAT WOULD A [[kill everyone, leave no-one behind]] VERSION OF INVERTED FATE LOOK LIKE?
There wouldn't be one, nor do I want one. It doesn't fit the AU or the characterization. I'd rather IF's canon story stand on its own, as it already is able to handle stakes and dark themes in its current arc just fine. (Final chapter is a ways off, though- the next part of the finale is longer than null, chapterwise.)
@@Dorked AH, MAKES SENSE, AND BESIDES, A [[kill everyone, leave no-one behind]] VERSION WOULD TAKE *ALOT* OF STORY SHIFTING AND CHANGES, SO I CANT BLAME YOU. BUT WHO KNOWS, SOMEONE MIGHT DO IT THEM-SELF, OR THE FANDOM WOULD MAKE A 20 PARAGRAPH ESSAY ON THE ENTIRE WAY IT WOULD LOOK.
@@spamtong.spamton235 Eh, I'd rather someone else not do that. I can't stop them, but it's really not what I want for Inverted Fate. :(
@@Dorked FAIR, I MEAN, NOW THAT I THINK ABOUT IT... YOU KNOW HOW THE FIGHTS DO A NEUTRAL BEFORE THE TRUE PACIFIST? I WONDER HOW THE STORY WOULD BE EFFECTED IF IT CONTINUED FROM THE NEUTRAL VERSION (I MEAN, EVERYTHING IS (NOT) FINE IS KIND OF LIKE THAT, TOO BE HONEST)
I didn't like everyone teasing Sora either
comment for algorithm yada yada
idk kingdom hearts but old mentor all knowing characters are generally hard to handle, you've gotta define their knowledge or else they come off weird. or you lean into the fact they could be witholding information, and make them either knowledgeable but incompetent or evil/uncaring. in any case, a character who exists solely to fill an exposition role is bound to have issues in a longer series unless you actively countermeasure it. make him so old he can't wield his power for fear of a heart attack or something, expand on why he wouldn't/couldn't tell relevant info before, idk.
anyways!! good content as always!!
Shame you thought this didn't perform well enough. But don't be discouraged. Many enjoy these KH analyses. You should keep doing it. Myself included.
I'd still like to do KH content, but yeah, this video is my worst performing video in a long, long time. The algorithm just wasn't kind to it, so I'm having to do some additional UT/DR videos as financial cushion. I do plan to do more Kingdom Hearts videos. I just think it'll need to be a slow build of content so I can juggle both demographics.
@@Dorked A "slow build"?
@@Nai-qk4vp Basically, I gotta balance doing UT/DR stuff which is successful on my channel with branching out to other fandoms like Kingdom Hearts. Gotta make sure I still do put out the KH stuff for people who are only here for that demographic, but also making sure I don't alienate the older audience and also keep the algorithm fed. +_+ That's the tricky part when doing this sort of thing as a paid thing.
For the part with the Shadows and that they are not really a thread. I would disagree on this point. As far as we know we have to seperate Gameplay and Cutscenes entirely. If a Heartless attacks you even if its just a shadow....then you are probably done for. I mean the Demon Wave is just a Bunch of shadows combined and onehittet the entire cast.
And i don't know. I find Yen Sid just as wise as other Characters are. Ansem the wise literally is thinking Nobodys have no Heart and so does Yen Sid. Maybe he got info through the stars of the countless times the Nobody said they can't feel and took it for a fact. He is not all knowing and uses his star gazing to get information and of course information from persons who visit him.
And to the Question why he does nothing in KH1: We have still a world order to protect. Not anyone is as careless as Sora and technically the King is still aroung and he is not a keyblade wielder anymore.
My issue is that even in cutscenes, Shadows get taken out in one hit. I get that a high number of them could be seen as dangerous, but it just feels underwhelming after the 1000 Heartless battle that had a TON of more threatening and imposing Heartless on top of just oversaturation of the demon tide. It just felt really weird to me that after everything else the cast had faced, those Shadows were the big threat. That and the fight choreography in cutscenes in KH3 generally being weird? A lot of standing around and talking. Long pauses that beg the question why the heroes aren't doing more. The first Terranort cutscene where everyone gets wiped is a big offender to me.
The thing is, Yen Sid seems to know a ton of specific information when it's convenient for the story and because this information isn't introduced until later, it feels like he's deliberately withholding information in-universe. He knew about recompletion, but kept quiet about it. Suspected Xehanort, but kept his warnings vague to avoid assumptions. A big problem to me is like... the stars providing vague information feels like a really loosely defined excuse, y'know? Since in many cases he knows a ton of hyper specific things.
@@Dorked I know the Manga is not Canon to the most part but it shows at some point how fast and cruel people die from a oneshot of a not so imposing heartless. So as long as you don't mix gameplay and cutscenes i can see that even shadows are extremly dangerous. Sure they are not attacking the entire time but it looks also so that the characters are pretty much on guard which makes it less possible. But still it comes to programming so much choreography that its basically impossible to do so.
Well even if Yen Sid know about recompletion (which could also be just a thing he learned after seeing the first people getting recompletet. As far as we know the nobodys are in fact a new thread which wasnt there before) then there would no reason to tell Sora directly just to worry him like: "Yes there should be a Nobody of Ansem....you have to kill him....oh and btw if you do so you restore a even bigger thread." And maybe he suspects Xehanort...but he can't read his mind. He just knows he will not give up because he didn't give up before. So of course he suspects him.
Remember how Master Xehanort says the things he did to Terra, Ventus, and Aqua was just "guiding them to their proper places" and Destiny is never left to Chance". Well, because Yen Sid is a Seer, and might have some Foresight, he cannot alter Destiny lest the Child of Destiny not exist the way they should, and "Darkness Prevail."
Apprentice Xehanort mentions this when he put Kairi in the Ark, that if Kairi ended up in Fiction, *We* have failed. If Ansem SOD cannot use Kairi to find Riku, KH1 doesn't happen, and Chain of Chosen to be Dark Vessels breaks.
I just am not a fan of predestination and I feel like letting destiny or whatever unfold rather than doing what he can to help people in the present isn't great. It really robs characters of their agency.
@@Dorked And that is what The Master of Master is doing. Forcing Predestination by scripting it so. That is how he manipulates Darkness's moves. And if you don't follow the Script, well, Darkness will "throw you out of Reality."
Take Luxu, for instance. Luxu doesn't like the Master's plan. He decide to betray it. But The Master had the Traitor Role all set out right for him, and he fell right into it, because he must. His "character" was written that way.
I just wish Yen Sid was a bit more grateful and verbally praised Sora and Riku for DIY-ing saving the literal galaxy twice as baby boys... While Yen Sid sat in his tower knitting or whatever.
Sure they boys are essentislly Keyblade hicks *from nowhere... But they did phenominally against overwhelming odds and that should be lauded.
If you want a neglectful yensid, theres always epic Mickey
11:08 you know with someone with that much power you think that maybe he would have done something useful aside from exposition like have him participate in the fights or something
Lore of Yen Sid and the Mentor Problem | Kingdom Hearts Character Analysis momentum 100
Yen Sid is a very neutral character to me. He's not one of the characters I think of first when thinking about KH, even within the Disney charcters. The only times I really felt anything from his appearances/actions was feeling frustrated with the way he treated the conclusion to the mark of mastery exam. (He's not the only one to assign fault to Sora when he didn't really do anything wrong, but he was the catalyst) in the areas where it's unclear how much he knows I always felt more ambivalent or confused so it was pretty difficult to think 'he is incompetent here' or 'he is being manipulative or leaving things out in a malicious way' because every time he would do exposition dumps it's just really neutral. You can't really tell what he's thinking, how he's connected to past events, what his motives are, or how he's feeling when he says it most of the time. He just.. sits there and gives the cast/player info. I think this video really brought up a lot of the uncertainty around who he is and how he's connected to the world, what he doesn't/does know... these are the main changes I would make though.
-make Sora failing the mark of mastery exam more about him not obtaining the power of waking. This would allow Riku to become a master, (because he absolutely deserves it, especially after DDD) but not treat Sora like he failed because he wasn't master material or that him passing the MoM was really the point. The focus should be on Xehanort corrupting the exam and that resulting in Sora not getting the power of waking, but it being out of his control, and Riku rising to the occasion. Honestly, I felt pretty mixed about Terra not passing his, but at least you could argue he had some input (maybe?) into his test.
-have Yen Sid connected to the world of KH more. His regulations and guidance would feel a lot more important if we saw how he learned those things, or what happens if you break rules like 'protecting the world order' which seemed to matter less and less as time went on. It's very odd how he is supposed to know KH characters like Eraqus and Xehanort but it doesn't feel like he is connected to KH or disconnected.
-maybe some more justifications for the adults not being involved in big events as much? An easy way would be enforcing more of the 'Keyblade Wielders Only' rules like travelling between worlds or fighting heartless being more impossible, which we do know. We could also make Yen Sid no longer powerful, which could tie him into the past more (he lost his powers, and keyblade, because of something that happened with Eraqus and Xehanort, for example. Heck, even incolving him in the BBS conflict and having him lose his abilities then could help) honestly, if he can't be tied into BBS more, I almost wonder if he should have been cut from that game (at least in terms of Mickey and him knowing really anything about what was happening, especially knowing what happened to Aqua) as that by itself could help explain why he doesn't know certain things or why Aqua was left alone.
-make the tower not the only hub for the cast. Maybe they could meet up at Twilight Town, Traverse Town, Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden, or others depending on the timeline. I think seeing Yen Sid and everyone else elsewhere could help connect to the Worlds and people in them, as well as showing Yen doing anything besides sitting in his desk haha.
I will give some of my opinions regarding certain aspect which differ on this point, i think that one of the things the franchise tries to make clear it's that no one knows everything, this is seen in KH1 with the lack of knowledge of the group of Squall just going with what they manage to gather which is quite small knowledge, in KH2FM we see Roxas as a whole being a contradiction to what Yen Sid said and him and Axel outright questioning this. Heck even on interviews/ultimanias, we know that certain stuff that it's introduce later on, it was on Nomura's mind like what happens if the Heartless and the Nobody are destroy/defeated, he implies recompletion is possible on KH2 Ultimania if i remember correctly. But if he is implying this in outside content, why not doing through the all knowing speaking mouths in the games? Unless that's the point, knowledge not being belonging to just one person to not always knowing everything regarding any topic.
Next is did Yen Sid told Riku and Sora to forget what they can do with the Keyblade? Not really he said, to forget what they "KNOW ABOUT THE KEYBLADE," not what you can do, not your skills, what you know. Because this knowledge comes from just their experience, now this comes from my experience, usually this more "proper knowledge" more helps to use the skills you knew before more mixed and not depend on just this one ability you learn early on for everything. So im not against, but the wording can lead to people thinking that, he believe everything they learn in the past is wrong. When the idea is that before the test and what new stuff we learn through the skippable exposition, Yen Sid explain to then that the Keyblade is not a weapon to protect the light but to control the light, this can be seen as when Sora in DDD said that he won't give in the Keyblade because it's a way bring the light to make everyone happy. It shows that Sora listen to that kind of stuff, and probably to the Bequeathing ceremony, and knows he can just give the keyblade to anyone because that's a possibility unless he thinks they are worthy of it.
To be honest this are all the points i wanted to make nothing else, especially the DDD point, it's just a common misconception that unless, you are selftaught in something and go to college or school at some point regarding that topic, you don't notice and are not able to appreciate, but it also shows the point of needing knowledge from both proper education and experience not just one or the other. Because after the proper lectures and stuff like that Sora begins wondering if Roxas truly had a heart and the rest of the Nobodies as we see through DDD. Thanks to his present and past experience with Pinocchio.
What do you mean by "yen sid knew where aqua was the whole time"? He could've only known after kh1
Yeah, that was a bit hyperbolic on my part- when I meant "the whole time," I was talking about the general focus on the fandom of that topic. How people are really hard on Mickey and Aqua for not mentioning this during CoM or KH2.
algorithm comment!!!!!!!
Comment for the algo
I dont know what a Sora is, I don't enven know how I got here.
I think Yen Sid *is* Odin and is also Luxu. Odin’s role in the story has far too much overlap and the dialogue heavily implies it. Odin knows things only Luxu should know. Yen Sid knows ancient history and speaks the “May your Heart be your guiding key” line- which they make a point to zoom in on his lips. There’s a really good chance he is from the age of fairytales. His Gandalf-like scene further lends to the comparison to Odin.
Luxu didn’t read the Book of Prophecies, and despite being able to read the stars, Yen Sid does not have clairvoyant foresight.
Someone set the World Order in motion, created Mickey Mouse, and trained literally every keyblade apprentice, and it’s this guy. The image of Walt Disney himself.
Odin can't be Luxu because Bragi is Luxu. I also don't believe Yen Sid is Odin because Yen Sid in BBS describes himself as walking the path of the Keyblade *alongside* Eraqus and Xehanort. What I suspect is Yen Sid was kept out of Dark Road because Disney didn't want them redesigning a younger version of one of their marketable characters who is meant to represent Walt. There are parallels, but I think him being Odin contradicts too much of what's been established with Yen Sid and his relationship to Eraqus and Xehanort.
@@Dorked To clear confusion, it believe Xigbar is Brain, pretending to be Luxu. I don’t think Luxu possessed Brain, and rather came to the conclusion that Brain traveled back in time after being Luxu’s apprentice to use the last lifeboat. I’m not going to get into the specifics of this now, but for all intents and purposes, Brain -> Bragi -> Braig makes a lot of sense. It gets even better when you understand why his hair is grey striped.
Now, alongside doesn’t mean classmates. It means they once were wielders at the same time. That checks out. He can still be their Master in that name. They don’t call him Master out of respect, because he stepped down from the title.
Keyblade Masters are capable of transferring their Heart into a new vessel. Meaning you can be a new person without sacrificing your memories. But a vessel isn’t limited to other people. A vessel can be a crafted body like a replica or a toy. So yeah, Yen Sid can be both Odin and Luxu, but they never have to go out of the way to specifically say it’s them. Nomura has always been big on leaving it up to the viewer- but don’t expect that we’re somehow going to see Yen Sid crop up in Missing Link or make corrections to Dark Road. Yen Sid has the same Heart as these characters- the whole premise of the series is being able to see the Hearts of original characters from within the Disney characters.
The Luxu as Yen Sid theory also makes interesting use of Philoctes as a device for foreshadowing. Phil being a half goat who trained every hero before Hercules. Yen Sid didn’t just come along and train Sora and Riku- he has trained literally everyone before and everyone perished in some unfortunate way because of their connections to the keyblade.
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