621Chopsuey

Your destined partner is, lo and behold - Mod Velvet

He should have expected it, honestly - Mod Velvet

Rei and Zen, finally reunited!! They’re my personal favorite spinoff characters so I’m glad to finally have them

and this thing:

may actually be the nobody of Strelitzia, and Marluxia- who was possibly her murderer- has it under his control.  In fact the whole final boss sequence here reminds me a lot of Ansem SoD with his Guardian that seems somehow bound to him (and we have good reason to believe the Guardian is Terra’s heartless).  Here we have the inverse though- a powerful nobody guardian that seems bound to another powerful nobody (perhaps almost as powerful as Xehanort, considering Marluxia’s age).

This is what the Bird of Paradise flower looks like (aka Strelitzia):

Striking resemblance to the scythe design in both shape and color (and the overall shape of the second form).

And Strelitzia herself:

Notice the color scheme- mostly white with some black (associated with Nobodies- much like Roxas’ color scheme), the length of the tails on the black ribbon (compare to the ribbons on the final form), and her arm coverings.  And this isn’t even getting into the symbolism of Marluxia’s weapon being a scythe and the final form being designed like an angel of death- or one of Marluxia’s names being “the Graceful Assassin”.

Do I think Nomura had this planned from the beginning?  No.  Well, not specifically.  But this is exactly the sort of thing Nomura loves to do.  Take elements from past games we all assumed were just aesthetic choices or “game logic” and somehow make them part of the lore in some massive plot twist.  I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Strelitzia was named and designed as she was, and heavily hinted to have been murdered by Lauriam.

Not to mention, there’s also this anniversary artwork of the Union Leaders:

The only one we don’t know is the hooded figure (wearing the cloak we mostly associate with Nobodies), but it’s likely meant to be Strelitzia seeing as she was going to be one of the leaders.  And the flowers she is holding?  They may be a type of white Bleeding Heart: