Is the Master of Masters the Traitor?

Is the Master of Masters the Traitor?

Today, let’s take a step back from the immediate events leading into Kingdom Hearts 3 so we can look at the events leading up to the Keyblade War.

During the time of Kingdom Hearts χ and χ Back Cover, the world is protected by the Master of Masters and his six apprentices. Five of these apprentices are known as the Foretellers, who manage the unions of Keyblade wielders.

χ Back Cover in particular emphasizes how the Foretellers eventually turn on each other once they discover evidence of a traitor in their midst. It’s actually a great look at how suspicion and paranoia can drive people apart, and it led many fans to believe there was no actual traitor.

But the missing page from the Book of Prophecies said there was a traitor… and both of these things together make it pretty clear who that traitor is.

The Master of Masters is the traitor.

He gave the Foretellers perfect roles to ensure they’d destroy each other. Their positions and the rules they had to follow all but guaranteed it would end up that way.

Was it a self-fulfilling prophecy, something that couldn’t be avoided? It seems unlikely, especially when the Master’s manipulation is so apparent. He set them up to seem suspicious to one another and let them believe lies to hasten the approaching darkness, even if he also took steps to make sure the light survived.

(That scene with Ava is one of the Master’s most sympathetic moments, but let’s not forget that even Xehanort doesn’t want complete destruction.)

Now, the “there is no traitor” theory fits in perfectly with this. The Master just let them believe in a traitor as part of his manipulation? But would he outright lie in the Book of Prophecies?

To me, it comes down to the same thing if he is the traitor. He could have written accurately in the Book of Prophecies that there would be a traitor among them, because there was: himself. If he manipulated them to intentionally cause their destruction, he is a traitor.

The Book of Prophecies also says the traitor bears the Recusant’s Sigil, that is, the χ or X. This could refer to an X placed physically on the person somewhere, or it could be an X in their name, like the members of Organization XIII. This definitely contributed to the belief that Luxu (the sixth apprentice) was the traitor, but we see no sign of intentional treachery from him in Back Cover. If anything, he’s being manipulated just like the Foretellers.

But we’ve seen Recusant’s Sigil in connection with the Master of Masters already.

All of his apprentices have names derived from the Latin words for the seven deadly sins. The only one missing is pride, or Superbia. Since the Master is the seventh, it’s logical that his name comes from the word Superbia.

In χ Back Cover, the Master of Masters gives Luxu a box he isn’t supposed to open.

And when you look closely, the box has something written on the central emblem: either “X Super” or “χ Super.”

So there it is, a name based on the final deadly sin (Super, Superbia) along with the Recusant’s Sigil, written on a box previously owned by the Master of Masters.

For me, that settles it. The Master of Masters is the traitor written about in the Book of Prophecies, and he betrayed his apprentices for unknown reasons.

What do you think? Who is the traitor?

Tags: luxu, master of masters
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