Who Is the Mysterious Figure Talking to Maleficent?

Like last week, this week’s theory will be dealing with the recent Japanese story update for Kingdom Hearts Union X. If you don’t want KHUX spoilers, you shouldn’t read any further.

Last week, we discussed Maleficent’s conversation with the mysterious figure and what it potentially revealed about time travel.

Now, let’s focus on that mysterious figure.

The figure remains obscured by the shadows for the entire scene, and when asked for his or her name, replies, “I guess you can call me… Darkness.”

Even Maleficent comments on how vague that is.

According to KH Insider, the Japanese script uses gender-neutral pronouns, so we can’t be sure yet if this person is male or female.

Keeping the character hidden like this suggests it’s someone we would recognize. It’s most likely not Xehanort, since he shouldn’t exist in that time and because “Darkness” mentions Xehanort while talking to Maleficent. Likewise, “Darkness” references the Master of Masters, so unless he’s being intentionally misleading, this isn’t either of them.

So who is this mysterious figure talking to Maleficent in the data world? Let’s look at a few top contenders.

Luxu

Luxu has been proposed as a possibility because he would be in a position to know what the Master of Masters did, he would naturally refer to him as “the Master” as the mysterious figure does, and this could be another part of the instructions the Master of Masters gave him.

On the other hand, Luxu was the one apprentice who didn’t receive the Book of Prophecies, so he might not be able to explain it the way “Darkness” does here.

Part of the problem, of course, is that we still understand so little about Luxu and his personal motivations.

Lauriam

The next most popular contender is Lauriam, another character we know little about aside from him being the Somebody of Marluxia and one of the new Union leaders. We still don’t know for sure if he is the impostor or not.

A Union leader like Lauriam would be another character to naturally refer to “the Master,” and some players have noticed that the silhouette in the scene appears to fit him.

Lauriam is still one of the most mysterious potential antagonists in KHUX. Is he more significant than we ever thought?

Invi

Yes, the Foreteller Invi has been put forth as a possible candidate for “Darkness,” as explained by a Reddit user here. There have been suspicions about Invi having a more sinister role ever since fans discovered she is the one spying from the rooftop in one KHUX scene.

The theory I linked goes into more detail about this possibility, so be sure to take a look.

If the murderer isn’t Lauriam…

We’ve discussed the possibility that Lauriam is a red herring, because he’s so obviously implicated as Strelitzia’s murderer.

But if the false Union leader is actually one of the others (Ephemer is the only one we know for sure received instructions from Ava), they could be “Darkness” as well. The silhouette matches Lauriam, and so does the silhouette used in Strelitzia’s death scene. If her murderer isn’t really Lauriam, then this might not be either.

The cloaked figure

Remember the cloaked figure we thought might be Strelitzia? We still don’t know who that is… and whether it’s Strelitzia or not, this unknown character is important enough to be featured in the anniversary art.

Does that mean we have two mysterious figures whose identities we don’t know? Maybe they’re the same person.

Right now, these seem to be the top contenders for who “Darkness” might be.

Let’s not rule out the possibility that it’s an entirely new character hidden for different reasons, too. The KH Insider post mentions that the silhouette looks like static… and since we’re in a data world, maybe that’s significant.

Is it actually a data character?

Is it an unknown force that will play a role in the post-KH3 games?

What do you think? Who is the mysterious figure who calls him/herself “Darkness”?

Tags: darkness, invi, lauriam/marluxia, luxu, maleficent