What's in the Black Box? - Kingdom Hearts Explanation and Theory

Today we're tackling one of Kingdom Hearts' longest running mysteries. Ever since Back Cover people have been wanting to know, just what is in the Black Box? I feel like there are a lot of clues to let us put forward a decent guess, let me know what you think!

Footage taken from various articles:

[AdmiralRamirez]

An embarrassing photo of spongebob at the Christmas party.

[robTCGZ]

"A giant X marks the spot"
Not gonna lie, that one BLEW me away!!!
So simple, and yet it's its simplicity that makes it believable.

[amadeusrex]

The "X" marks the spot gave me chills. So genius.

[Ithenna]

As usual, I'm baffled by your ability to make logical sense of this whole mess, and also grateful for your easier to understand explanations and theories. 👍🏼👍🏼

[darkenkil]

It's Walt Disney's heart. When it opens in Kingdom Hearts 4, he will rise from the dead and begin his reign over the Earth.

[davidcox]

With 4 darknesses stuck in Data Daybreak Town, could we see more of a further callback to symbolism with 4 horseman of the apocalypse when the box is opened?

[Bossu]

Luxu: Make sure to hide it very well!
Brain: YARR HARR, X MARKS THE SPOT!

[QuinSkew]

Another box. Then I will put it in another box and smash it with a hammer. It's brilliant, brilliant,

[whiteraven]

_Union X_ has convinced me that the Black Box is the “waypoint” mentioned by the Master of Masters. He plans to travel to the distant future (the present of our heroes), and arrive inside the Black Box.
^
But in order to do that, he needs Luxu (who has memories of MoM) and the No Name keyblade gifted to him (a medium containing MoM’s “gazing eye”).

And for sure, MoM’s true name will be derived from _superbia, _ Latin for “pride”.

[Hiccups]

this is the best theory i’ve heard! thanks for mapping it all out Damo, fantastic KH video essay content as usual~

[canariawing]

your conclusion gave me goosebumps omg it makes so much sense with all of the information given and the hints at what it is.

[silentfangirls]

The fact that you used a Goofy Laugh to censor "what's in the the box?!" near the beginning at 1:08 is hilarious!!

[NARUHOTEL]

Yooo, nobody is really trying to make KH theory videos anymore. Then here you come out of nowhere with an absolute juicy banger. Bro, thank you. You brought back the chills that I can only get from this beloved series.

[RaineMisery]

What if Luxu turned Brain into a nobody and immediately defeated his heartless and hop into his Nobody until he was ready to hop into another body which would destroy the Nobody and cause Brain to reform

[ajflink]

I just realized that the use specific renders, shades, and coloring for the same characters depending on what world they are on, Olympus has a more cartoonish intermediate Blender animator look, Toy Box exaggerates the plastic look of things, and Caribbean has photorealistic appearances. I now understand why the game needs to take so long loading into a new world but runs so smoothly and transitions take so little time in said world. The game needs to completely swap out nearly everything graphically per world. I am pretty sure Kingdom Hearts 3 is not the first game to do this; however, it is amazing nonetheless.

[clayb]

So, I'm not sure if anyone else has come up with this, since I haven't seen anything but according to the MOM, he is planning to move forward in time. But to move in time he needs the way point, a vessel, and someone with memories of him. He's using the book as the way point, the keyblade as the vessel, and luxu with the memories of him. What if the box actually contains a way point for every person that has died during the keyblade wars? If that's the case, when he moves in time, he would be there at the keyblade graveyard with the box and if the box is a way point for everyone that died, the keyblades would be the vessels and all the fortellers would be the people with memories of them since all the people that died were part of the unions. He might be planning to use sora to complete his plan of destroying the willful darknesses and after the battle, bring everyone back that died....

[voidjockey]

Some small additions that I've noticed:
A) When Luxu asked the Master about what was in the box, he reacted very surprised if not shocked by the answer. Now, the Digital Daybreak Town alone would not be that surprising an answer, even for Luxu who doesn't know that the memories saved there can be used by the vessels developed in the future to restore the lives of those sacrificed. But according to the plan the Master told Luxu (i.e. not his actual one since that one depends on Luxu reacting in certain ways to his fake one), one of the 13 Sentient Darkness' would be locked up in that Digital World with no apparent means of escape. Therefore, Luxu is shocked at the Master ordering him to carry around a trapped Sentient Darkness to later be opened instead of hiding or destroying it.
B) According to the Master of Masters, he does not plan on sacrificing anyone. Now, this gets a bit tricky to interpret since we do not know who he all considers a sacrifice, e.g. do the children turned Darklings which only happened because they served a Union, an institution which he created, sacrifices or does he say they would have fallen to darkness either way once it would have taken over the world?
However, assumming he considers the Children who have died in the 1. Key Blade War to be sacrifices, then while we do have Data Versions of them meaning their memories, as well as the possibility of creating replicas for them, we saw their hearts leave for Kingdom Hearts, meaning they would already have been reincarnated as someone new, instead of the Dandilions which we know are stored in the Dream Eaters due to being in a Sleeping Word.
C) You were right in that Brain or at least someone who looked like him was the last person we saw with the box. However, we saw him right above the Keyblade Graveyard, meaning it could have been moments before he buried it there, therefore clarifying if it had been opened previously and where it stayed in the mean time. Also, this would still match the description of "having been guarded by Key Blade Wielders through the ages", just in this case dead ones.

[-libertyprimev-]

No one ever seems to mention Pete's Outfit has the Recusant's Sigil, meaning they've always got tabs on Maleficent's whereabouts too.

[jaycoolfau]

I'm actually really glad I watched some of the lore videos and then it took me to this because I was always wondering what was in that box. And it was talked about for so much but it was so unclear as to where the importance was. You did a great job doing research for this and I really respect that you went over every single point thoroughly.

[NoTimeStudios]

Several thoughts:

- I have a feeling that the MoM might be who told Maleficent about the box. The use of dingbat as a descriptor would fit his demeanor and being in a black coat, hood down, it could be an easy sell as just another member of NeoOrg.

- For some reason, I can't get "I open at the close" (from Harry Potter) out of my head when thinking about the black box. Its way too convenient that it only appears at the end of the game. Possibly linking to how it 'appears' again, maybe it was tied to Xeahnort/darkness losing the prophesied battle OR light expires battle wasn't in KH3, a red herring, and the box's content will lead to the real fight. But what would that say about the masters intent? That he wants darkness to win this fight?

- What about the seven crowns mentioned in I think the first part of the KHUX finale, I kinda feel that's whats possibly in the box.

- Vibing with the idea of it being a literal black box, maybe it being left in the keyblade graveyard, it was meant to gather the light/darknerss/spirit? of those who passed in the Keyblade War. Assumable that their would have been more people fighting then Dandelion's who escaped so being able to capture them could be a big advantage for a fight against the darkness. Also, would explain how the Foretellers could be summoned back, if they died and are contained within the box, then Luxu could easily just bring them back from it since he knows at the very least what it contains.

- Regardless, I think its going to be a Pandora's box situation, theirs so much emphasis on it that from a story writing perspective, it just feels like the best pay off. Especially cause it could be opened by anyone now that its back.

- Also, low-key been thinking for a while now that Luxu and MoM aren't on the same side/fighting for the same thing. Which going with my idea earlier, it would make sense that the MoM could have told another party to look for the box and that that would be enough pressure for Luxu to spill the beans and get NeoOrg to look for it too.