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Not a no-body
This is a tangent to a ramble I've wanted to make for a long time regarding the Nobodies (it's always about Nobodies!) and OXIII in particular.
I've seen a lot of people who seem to think that they're sort of this immortal surreal existence. They don't need to eat. They don't need to sleep. They don't age. They just sort of exist.
Which is fair enough, but canon suggests (of course there's no hard facts) otherwise. We see them eating and drinking and taking turns making dinner in the CoM manga, for example. I think something to consider is that they may not be human and they may even be, for all intents and purposes, dead -- but they're still bodies. That's actually all they are. And bodies, as coma patients teach us, require food and drink, and age even without written consent from the people who operate them.
And, the closest thing to canon evidence we have to support this theory: Nobodies have to age, because Sora was fourteen when Roxas was created, and Roxas is definitely not fourteen now. He is clearly fifteen. Namine is even more visibly older: we see her at fourteen and fifteen in the KH manga. (Between the pair of them and Sora, in Nomura and Amano's minds, 15 is the year when you suddenly become less of a cartoon and more of a sex object!)
This is when I look at Ansem's research assistants. We know they're nine years old as Nobodies -- so are they nine years older physically? The telling ones are Xehanort and Ienzo.
I. Xehanort-Xemnas
He's telling because he's the ONLY Nobody we've seen as a Somebody. Now, Xemnas does not look old. But on the other hand, Xehanort looks quite young -- I would place him between 20-22. He definitely looks younger than his Heartless, who I could easily place as nine years older than how he looked then; maybe around 30. And Xemnas, although quite youthful looking, could pull off 30.
VI. Ienzo-Zexion
We don't know what Zexion looked like as a Somebody, but we do know that he's very young-looking, and he was old enough to be a scientist eight years ago. Now, Zexion could be anywhere from 16 up. But on comparing him to the others, specifically Axel and Demyx, I don't think he looks younger than they are -- he's at least their age and probably more. He's very short, very slender, and drowning in his clothes and his hair, but I think his appearance is deceptive.
And, furthermore. We know that he was young as a research assistant -- whenever Ansem mentions him, it's always "young Ienzo..." or "my youngest research assistant..." That isn't so odd in English, really, but in Japanese it stands out a bit. It suggests to me that Ienzo is young enough that it's noticeable... unique.
Ienzo, the cleverest and most cunning of them, the one who convinced Ansem to research into the dark, shows some signs of being a child prodigy. (Tell me you can't see him as a little boy with that Rubix cube.) It doesn't seem like a stretch to think that Ansem used "my young assistant Ienzo" the same way he would use "my young friend Sora" -- to talk to someone considerably younger, for whom "my assistant" or "my friend" would give the wrong impression.
If Ienzo was 17, then he'd be 25 in CoM.
II-V
Help me pin down ages!!
Xigbar seems to be in the mid-late 40s to me. Xaldin is tricky, but I sort of see him in his mid 30s, and Lexaeus is tricky, but I put him the same age. Vexen I see as being late 30s to mid 40s. Stabbing Xemnas at 30 and Zexion at 25 rounds out the original lot.
Thoughts? ♥
I've seen a lot of people who seem to think that they're sort of this immortal surreal existence. They don't need to eat. They don't need to sleep. They don't age. They just sort of exist.
Which is fair enough, but canon suggests (of course there's no hard facts) otherwise. We see them eating and drinking and taking turns making dinner in the CoM manga, for example. I think something to consider is that they may not be human and they may even be, for all intents and purposes, dead -- but they're still bodies. That's actually all they are. And bodies, as coma patients teach us, require food and drink, and age even without written consent from the people who operate them.
And, the closest thing to canon evidence we have to support this theory: Nobodies have to age, because Sora was fourteen when Roxas was created, and Roxas is definitely not fourteen now. He is clearly fifteen. Namine is even more visibly older: we see her at fourteen and fifteen in the KH manga. (Between the pair of them and Sora, in Nomura and Amano's minds, 15 is the year when you suddenly become less of a cartoon and more of a sex object!)
This is when I look at Ansem's research assistants. We know they're nine years old as Nobodies -- so are they nine years older physically? The telling ones are Xehanort and Ienzo.
I. Xehanort-Xemnas
He's telling because he's the ONLY Nobody we've seen as a Somebody. Now, Xemnas does not look old. But on the other hand, Xehanort looks quite young -- I would place him between 20-22. He definitely looks younger than his Heartless, who I could easily place as nine years older than how he looked then; maybe around 30. And Xemnas, although quite youthful looking, could pull off 30.
VI. Ienzo-Zexion
We don't know what Zexion looked like as a Somebody, but we do know that he's very young-looking, and he was old enough to be a scientist eight years ago. Now, Zexion could be anywhere from 16 up. But on comparing him to the others, specifically Axel and Demyx, I don't think he looks younger than they are -- he's at least their age and probably more. He's very short, very slender, and drowning in his clothes and his hair, but I think his appearance is deceptive.
And, furthermore. We know that he was young as a research assistant -- whenever Ansem mentions him, it's always "young Ienzo..." or "my youngest research assistant..." That isn't so odd in English, really, but in Japanese it stands out a bit. It suggests to me that Ienzo is young enough that it's noticeable... unique.
Ienzo, the cleverest and most cunning of them, the one who convinced Ansem to research into the dark, shows some signs of being a child prodigy. (Tell me you can't see him as a little boy with that Rubix cube.) It doesn't seem like a stretch to think that Ansem used "my young assistant Ienzo" the same way he would use "my young friend Sora" -- to talk to someone considerably younger, for whom "my assistant" or "my friend" would give the wrong impression.
If Ienzo was 17, then he'd be 25 in CoM.
II-V
Help me pin down ages!!
Xigbar seems to be in the mid-late 40s to me. Xaldin is tricky, but I sort of see him in his mid 30s, and Lexaeus is tricky, but I put him the same age. Vexen I see as being late 30s to mid 40s. Stabbing Xemnas at 30 and Zexion at 25 rounds out the original lot.
Thoughts? ♥
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