Lol, well someone remarked earlier on that I liked to drift. And I do (to be delirious, all I have to do is say whatever going through my mind), it allows me to develop my ideas while having fun. Sorry about that, I'll try and be wrong sometimes:D
If the next game is in the past, it's very possible we will see Ansem the Wise's apprentices before they gave in to darkness. And I think Axel may indeed not have completely disappeared, and I have a solid hint to that : if you watch the KH2FM video called "The Conclusion", which pictures a reunion of the Organization after Axel's death, you will hear Xemnas say that Axel may have "awakened" by touching Sora's heart. Of course we don't what that means exactly, but there's a great chance it means Axel hasn't truly died, but that he has passed into another form of existence, maybe transcended.
When you think about it, he's kept those two characters (Sora and Riku), and developed them during two games. At the end of Kingdom Hearts 2, Riku has finally come to terms with who he is, and Sora has returned to his home with all his friends. That could be the end of their story... On the other hand, there was that scene with the king's letter, and that's a hint to another adventure for Sora and Riku (maybe even Kairi, who knows maybe this time she'll really fight). But the next game, being not named Kingdom Hearts 3, will probably not feature Riku and Sora as main characters. It will most likely have Xehanort/Larry (the tall knight) as main character, and will perhaps be set during the Keyblade war in the past. The secret ending of KH2 may be the first part of the final battle, who knows ?
Supposedly, when a person gives in to the darkness (that is to negative emotions), it fills his heart, to the point that the heart seperates from the body and becomes a Heartless, that is a mass of instincts and dark emotions, unable to think clearly, whose only purpose is to drag more hearts into darkness. When the Keyblade destroys a Heartless, the heart is released and joins Kingdom Hearts, where all hearts go after the body dies and the mind vanishes : Kingdom Hearts is a bit like paradise, when you're there the only thing that's left is a feeling of serenity and completion. The mind is gone. Once the heart becomes a Heartless, the body and mind (meaning the intellect and the memories) form a Nobody, a being with a body and a conscience, but without a heart. It has no feelings, no morality, no emotions of its own, and more importantly is plagued with the knowledge that it has no heart, and that it is incomplete, leading a void of an existence. To be a Nobody is to lead a life not worth living, since there is no joy or happiness. The only thing a Nobody can feel is the absence of feeling. Personnally I think if there is a third form of existence, it's associated with the Room of Awakening and with the fact that Axel may have "awakened" by touching Sora's heart, as Xemnas mentionned. PS : some of you may say that yes, a Nobody can feel something, since Axel shed a tear when Roxas merged with Sora. I'll tell you that either he's the single exception and it's a sign of his awakening, or that though Nobodies cannot feel anything, they can remember the feelings they had when they were complete.
Larxene. Why ? First because she was a sadistic antagonist with one hell of an evil laugh : you need that kind of enemy, it makes the hero feel good about himself (of course you also need enemies like Axel, it makes the hero feel bad about himself, and that's always good, but you also need an old-fashioned villain...nevermind). But honestly she was evil, like attractive, enjoyable evil. And you need that, because you can't just have a pseudo-shakespearian barytone drama-king and a conspiracy adept who thinks he's the Grim Reaper with pink hair and a cool voice...nevermind. And second, for the irony : 13 members, 12 guys, and who survives ? Yeah that's what you call ironic...And also because she did a hell of a good job carrying all the feminity of the Organization on her frail, agile shoulders (even thought many of these guys were bishonen, so at least could be considered part gay ; even though friendship doesn't mean gay, and by that I mean Axel and Roxas, the same way I could mean Sam and Frodo...nevermind).
Ven kinda sounds like Even (Vexen's original name), and I remember Nomura saying that Zexion's book contains essential information on many characters. Surely Organization XIII hasn't given up all its secrets just yet. As for the chronology, I believe the secret ending happens in the past : first Larry (the tall knight) awfully looks like Xehanort, and hair more often turn from brown to white than the other way around. Second, the hundred keyblades that form the crossroads could easily be related to this Keyblade war Xigbar talked about, and he clearly said it was a past event, years ago, even before Xehanort was found by Ansem. In the same way, Xaldin said Sora was 10 years too young to use the keyblade, which implies he knows much about the keyblade and its previous masters. It would take the example of several keyblade masters for him to acquire so much experience and judgment. And look at the number of keyblade masters : today 3 (4 if you count Kairi), during the keyblade war a whole bunch.
I believe Oblivion's keychain is a crown. Anyway the symbol may just stand for normal people, or for the realm of light. Or maybe it stands for the Chasers, in which case one should wonder why they have this specific symbol. What does the crown represent ?
I noticed something when watching the KH2FM cutscenes : after Axel's death, we have a reunion with the remaining members of the Organization. And Xemnas says something very interesting, about the fact that Axel may have "awakened" because he touched Sora's heart. When you look at another cutscene, Xigbar talks to Zexion about the Room of Sleep, where Xemnas goes very often to speak with his "friend", and also mentions a "Room of Awakening", where the other friend might be. If the friend in the Room of Sleep is the girl knight, and if the tall knight is the ES Sora fights, then the other friend in the Room of Awakening is probably the boy knight that gets frozen in the secret ending. This is probably related to the whole "Birth by Sleep" mystery, this "Awakening" being the birth. It is only possible through the sleep, since you can't awaken if you're not asleep. Apparently it has to do with the nature of existence and thus the secrets of the heart : the way Xemnas said it, it looks like this awakening is a way of passing from a form of existence into another, maybe higher one. It could also mean Axel's not gone for good : if he has awakened, he probably still exists somehow.
The whole Kairi business is strange anyway. We're told that when the heart is seperated from the mind and body, they go to Twilight Town to form a Nobody. However, when Kairi's heart left her body to seek shelter in Sora's body, her body did not go to Twilight Town, we see it after in Hollow Bastion, and it's unchanged. And when she retrieves her heart, her mind returns as well. So what happened, were Namine's body and mind created from scratch ? Same goes for Sora ; I understand Namine and Roxas are unusual Nobodies, but it's not logical, since Sora's and Kairi's body and mind returned to their original state, yet Namine and Roxas continued to exist. As for Riku, are you sure his heart was seperated from his body ? The way I saw it, his heart was still in his body, along with Xehanort's, slowly drowning in the darkness. If he's supposed to have a Nobody, the same problem goes for him.
Since we're talking about links between characters (namingly Baldy and Larry), I'll post my wonderings here : so I wonder, what does it mean that Saïx and Xigbar have yellow eyes and pointy ears, just like Baldy, just like Xehanort's Heartless, and like Larry and Xemnas (at least for the eyes) ? My general idea for the secret ending, stemming from this excellent theory, is that it happens in the past, just after the Keyblade War (which according to Xigbar, who seems to know much about Xemnas, happened before Xehanort was found by Ansem), which would explain the hundreds of Keyblades, maybe weapons that belonged to now fallen Keyblade masters. The only survivors to this war would be the three Knights and Baldy. Baldy kills the two other Knights and takes Larry's body ; shadowjak pointed out the fact that Xehanort's Heartless was able to posess Riku's body only because he gave in to darkness. But when you think about it, he could have used Kingdom Heart's power and the hate in Larry's heart to take over (hate being a feeling that feeds the heart's darkness, and Larry said to Sora all he had left was hate). It could mean that Baldy was already a Heartless at the time, needing a (new ?) host body. But like others say, something goes wrong and he loses his memory, maybe because Larry's heart resisted. Xehanort is found by Ansem and what we know about him happens. We know that Xemnas is talking to someone in the "Room of Sleep", this someone being apparently the girl knight's armor, empty. But even though it's empty, Xigbar says he heard Xemnas talking to someone and this someone responding. Now comes the problem : if Baldy took Larry's body, how could Larry have fought Sora in KH2FM ? Maybe because what you fight is only an empty armor animated by Larry's heart ; after all, a Keyblade master's heart is supposed to be particularly powerful. If Larry can do this, maybe the girl knight can as well, which would explain why she supposedly talks with Xemnas. Well, those are mostly theories, not very structured or backed-up by formal evidence.
If the secret ending happens in the past (which is what I think), it's very possible Mickey already has the DR keyblade : it was never said (or I've never heard of it) that he got the DR keyblade during KH1. After all, he supposedly visited Ansem the Wise in Radiant Garden years, if not decades before KH1 (I seem to remember about 20 years), at which time he already had a keyblade (it's all in a Secret Ansem Report). This keyblade he had at the time was most probably the DR keyblade, which he could have obtained by travelling through the DR (like Riku or the Organization members, who use Corridors of Darkness). As for Star Seeker, I agree with Keyblader : he used this keychain at the time, then gave it to Yen Sid for some reason, and then Yen Sid gave it to Sora.
