How Canon is Final Mix

Final Mix changes a lot of stuff. They add new scenes that are referenced in later games.
So you'd assume it's the definitive version of each respective game, right?
But what about the heartless?
They change back every time
There are other details , but that seems the most pressing

 

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Content added to the story must be canon because it's been built upon in future games in some cases.
I like to think that the Heartless color changes are also canon, while the previous versions are canon as well. If that makes any sense.
I mean, Final Mix is an enhanced version of the original release, what reason is there for it not to be canon?

 

It's not like there can't be multiple colors of a single Heartless. They undergo slight changes from world to world, and there are already a few definitive palette swaps in the form of Colosseum enemies. I guess you could say those are different Heartless entirely, but when even the journal admits they're basically the same, I figure it's just splitting hairs past that point. As for the new content, I would definitely call that canon. I just wonder if there are any contradictions.

 

The Final Mix coloration of the Guard Armor better not be the canon one, let's just leave it at that.

 

I think the only thing Nomura has taken a non-canon stance on are bonus boss fights like the Lingering Sentiment in KH2FM. In my opinion it's safe to assume everything else is canon, unless retconned, even if you have to make some fudging for it (like the explanation that the differently colored Heartless are just different varieties of the same kind).

 

But isn't the "Unknown" boss fight from KH1 Final Mix Canon?
Actually, now that I think about it, I think that is the only final mix boss to be considered canon.

 

I'm actually not sure on it. It was shown in Kingdom Hearts II, which imo does give it credibility as canon, but Sora neither recognizes Xemnas's weapon nor the hooded coats of the Organization when he later sees them, so that might need some 'fudging' (like other points brought up here) to be considered canon.

I remember him specifically stating that the Lingering Sentiment was a 'teaser' and not canon, though.

 

Sora may not recognize these things due to castle oblivion. The Castle was able to make him forget every ability he had ever learned, why not make him forget his encounter with Xemnas as well? Seems reasonable enough given the nature of the castle.

 

Pretty sure it's canon. During that one scene where Xemnas is talking to Roxas and says "I went to see him, he looks a lot like you", wasn't he talking about when they fought? Or am I forgetting about some other scene?

 

He's definitely talking about his encounter with Sora. Unless Nomura is planning something else, but I highly doubt it.

Maybe some of Sora's memories were removed unintendedly? But who knows? You're right about one thing though, maybe Nomura might retcon it in KHIII.

As for the color swaps, I'm sure it's just a gameplay element, since not all of the Heartless have their color schemes changed (Usually the Emblem Heartless.)

 

That's not the nature of the castle at all. The Castle has absolutely nothing to do with memories. The only reason Sora lost his memories was because of Namine, and furthermore:

Considering the big deal made about Namine getting all of Sora's memories back in Days and KH2, I HIGHLY doubt she would miss something like that

 

If anything, I'd imagine Sora probably forgot about that fight with Xemnas. Considering he still had to seal the Keyhole, then defeat Ansem, then deal with losing Riku and being separated from Kairi, it wouldn't be that far of a jump to say it just got pushed to the back of his mind.

 

My mistake. I'm not too keen on CoM (wasn't a fan of the card system). I was under the impression that Namine was the main cause of Sora's memory loss, but to a lesser extent, the castle also has this ability. I thought that this was one of the reasons it was impossible to navigate, in addition to its ever changing nature.

 

"What? I never turned into a heartless!"
Yeah, not much of a stretch XD

 

I like to think that most of it is canon, even the palette swaps because, as others have said, it's very possible for there to be multiple varieties of the same Heartless. I'd actually like to see that used in KH3 in a way similar to Shiny Pokemon. Have a few alternate palette versions of each Heartless that appear very rarely but aren't any different from the others.

Anyway, the biggest thing that I'm curious about is the Cavern of Remembrance and Absent Silhouettes. I really want to believe that those are canon, but they don't seem to be referenced anywhere else in the series. Vanitas Remnant is clearly an Absent Silhouette of Vanitas, so it's not that far-fetched to say that the ones in KH2 are canon, but the Cavern of Remembrance remains a mystery. The end part with the Data Battles kind of resembles the arena for the battle with Young Xehanort in DDD, but that's a pretty big stretch. As for the Cavern itself, the doors are clearly taken directly from Castle Oblivion, but why they're there isn't very clear either. My personal theory is that Xemnas was trying to create an artificial Chamber of Awakening, but even I highly doubt that because the CoR is such a self-contained part of the game.

She wasn't talking about all of them, just the ones that Nomura has stated aren't canon like, for example, Lingering Sentiment. "Unknown" is clearly canon because Xemnas is clearly referring to Sora when he says, "I've been to see him. He looks a lot like you," to Roxas.