Xigbar and Braig Are Both Seekers of Darkness

One of my favorite Kingdom Hearts theories about the Seekers of Darkness is that both Xigbar and Braig are counted among the thirteen.

Let’s start by looking at the new scene added to the end of Re:coded in the remixes. This new ending shows Braig talking to Young Xehanort in the laboratory.

The key thing here is Braig’s appearance. Braig, re-formed as a human after the events of Kingdom Hearts II, looks exactly like he did in Birth By Sleep.

This itself could be unusual, since Ienzo (and possibly Lea and Isa, although we don’t know how old they were when they became Nobodies) seems to have aged as a Nobody and kept these changes when he reverted. Nobodies aging is a whole discussion for another time.

But let’s suppose the differences between Braig’s appearance and Xigbar’s were the results of him becoming a Nobody, not natural aging. In that case, it makes sense. He’s human again, so he has his old appearance back.

However, in Dream Drop Distance, which occurs directly after the events of Re:coded, he appears as Xigbar.

If this is the same character who spoke to Young Xehanort at the end of Re:coded, why does he look different? There are a few theories.

1. Xehanort changed him back into a Nobody.

I’ve seen this theory brought up several times as an explanation for Braig/Xigbar’s changing appearance: he re-formed as Braig, but Xehanort decided he’d be more effective as a Nobody and changed him back to Xigbar.

Aside from the question of why he’d be more useful as a Nobody, especially since he’s already a vessel, the problem with this is that the only Xehanort we know Braig interacted with between the two games is Young Xehanort. Young Xehanort can’t even wield a Keyblade yet, so it can’t have been him.

Sure, it’s possible Master Xehanort or another incarnation showed up just to stab Braig off-screen, but it seems unnecessarily complicated.

2. They didn’t want to create a new character model.

This is the most common answer. In Dream Drop Distance, Braig/Xigbar wears his Organization XIII coat. For the Re:coded scene, however, he re-formed in his old uniform from Birth By Sleep. Rather than create a new model with his Xigbar appearance in that uniform for a single scene, they used his Braig appearance.

The problem here is that the Re:coded scene was created after Dream Drop Distance. They would have known going into it that this would be a problem. Instead of causing this conflict, they could have included a line about Young Xehanort giving Braig the coat (since everyone in the true Organization XIII wears them except Master Xehanort)–or even done another first-person scene like in the flashback at the start of Dream Drop Distance.

Instead, they used his Birth By Sleep appearance, even though this would conflict with the character’s next chronological appearance.

3. They are not the same character.

As I said, this is one of my favorite Kingdom Hearts theories. Braig (Re:coded) and Xigbar (Dream Drop Distance) look different because they are not the same person.

One of them is Braig re-formed as a human. The other is a time traveler, brought to the present just like Young Xehanort, Ansem, and Xemnas.

Both of them are among the Seekers of Darkness. Although Xigbar was the only one we saw in Dream Drop Distance, Braig was one of the hooded figures.

What do you think? Will two versions of Braig (or Xigbar) be counted among the thirteen?

Tags: braig/xigbar, seekers of darkness