Kingdom Hearts II Twilight Cloud

Ok, before, I used this same concept as subject for speculation... but as it was short lived... and the idea is still an appealing one... I'm going to go with it. Ok, mostly everyone knows how Sephiroth has introduced himself as in Kingdom Hearts 2... Sephiroth has time and again pointed it out that he is Cloud's dark side... meaning.. he is somewhat of an incarnation of the darkness in Cloud's heart... LIKE a Heartless, but not there yet, as Cloud and his heart stay struggling.. As a figure of darkness, an avatar of darkness itself (that of Cloud anyway) he must have some desires for dominance over Cloud's heart, the intention to throw Cloud's heart over the edge and lose to the darkness within... and become a Heartless. So, Sephiroth is very similar to Xehanort's Heartless then. Sephiroth already has the tendency to appear from nowhere, (but none can be sure if this mode of travel can be read back to the dark corridors) and attack with Graviga-like orbs of darkness... But can he call Heartless to his aid, or disguise himself to deceive others (most likely Cloud)??

My main point is that according to Sephiroth's conversations with Cloud... That because Cloud plagues himselfs with unpleasant memories of his past... he is choosing to sooth himself with what MOST represents the darkness about him, instead of moving along with his life and looking to the future with his head held high, a personal decision attributed to the light... So... Does that not mean Cloud has no more or less than 4 choices? 1. Lose to Sephiroth in battle, and become a Heartless, and with a likelihood of spawning a Nobody, or instead small likelihood of spawning a humanoid Nobody. 2. Surrender to Sephiroth, and become a sentient Heartless. 3. Defeat Sephiroth, and choose to move on with his life and leave all contempt for unpleasant memories of the past behind, and become a stronger person. or 4. Find a compromise between them and maybe or maybe not adopt the XIII coat, and characteristics of Sephiroth (wings, Masamune, Graviga techs, Sin-Harvest...etc) and walk the same path as Riku... the road of twilight.

 

Riku walks road to dawn.

 

It's STILL twilight... There's light... there's darkness, and while neither light NOR darkness, there's twilight... Two sides of that = Dusk.... and Dawn.

 

It's just semantic convention.

Twilight instigates that the end result will be darkness (ex. the sun setting).

Dawn implies the opposite (ex. the sun rising).

That is why Riku corrects the Organization XIII member who appeared before him before he left, saying "The Road to Dawn".

Riku is basically saying that his ultimate goal is to become a denizen of light.

As for Cloud, I think he's pretty much the same as Riku, except his darkness is outside his body, manifested in form of Sephiroth. Sephiroth is tempting Cloud the same way "Ansem" did in Riku's Rebirth story in CoM. Riku overcame his already and subdued his own darkness. I believe Cloud was trying to do the same since the first Showdown of Fate.

 

Yes... Ok, ok, but by conquering his darkness, he joined it together with the light in his heart, but when he needed to use the powers of darkness unlawlessly, because the remnant darkness in his heart was actually a severely weakened and supposedly "sleeping" Heartless, and as a Heartless, you haven't a heart to LOSE and BECOME a Heartless... So Riku tapped into Xehanort's Heartless form so as to allow himself to freely use the power of darkness but without the danger of losing his heart...

As for Cloud, so... if he defeats Sephiroth, or accepts him without turning away from the light, he could end up as Riku did... an in-between existence... Of light AND darkness held equally in one heart...(I myself would like to see a Cloud in a ORG.XIII coat with multiple black angel wings who from time to time whips out Masamune.. LOL)

 

It's actually not that complicated. Xehanort's Heartlesss is merely a representation of Riku's darkness. It's *not actually Xehanort's Heartless*. It's a manifestation. A symbol.

You mean a hybrid. He's not an in-between existence, because that would be calling him something like a Nobody, which he isn't. He's human, and real, just a little different.

 

But he would indeed exist inbetween light and darkness though, that's what I'm getting at... Well, wait, how can you say that that's not Xehanort's Heartless? He changed into Xehanort's Heartless so he could use the power of the darkness in his heart... that HAS to mean SOMETHING...

 

Riku is using *his* darkness, not Xehanort's Heartless' darkness. Riku might unconsciously associate himself with Xehanort's Heartless because he was possessed by him once before. Thus, whenever he uses his darkness, he takes on the form of Xehanort's Heartless as a representation of his darkness. It's a symbol, like I said.

 

Okay, that makes better sense the way you put it. But once again, the point at hand is that Cloud & Sephiroth have a very similar relationship... (except Sephiroth is actually a part of Cloud from the beginning, or atleast as far as one can read into Sephiroth's words...) And that Cloud adopting Sephiroth (as in, accepting him, while still respecting his light at the same time to realize that he is who he is... past or present, good or bad.) and therefore gaining new-found power... Whether it be Sephiroth's, or Cloud's own brand of strength... is an interesting prospect, OR Cloud's other possible fates... such as becoming a Heartless, maybe even giving birth to a Nobody, whether it be a Dusk, Creeper, or its own Cloud-esque humanoid Nobody.