But when Kingdom Hearts II rolled around, things became more confusing. Nobodies were introduced, apparently the side product of something becoming a Heartless. If their will was strong enough, the Nobody takes more of a human form, instead of a distorted oddity. Organization XIII is a bunch of humanoid Nobodies, headed by Manse- I mean Xemnas, who is, you guessed it, Ansem's Nobody. But wait?!
...
There's another Ansem.
So the original Ansem is a fraud, being the Heartless of someone who stole Ansem the Wises name. Xehanort or something, just Another with No Heart. -badumpssh-
Speaking of Nobodies, Sora has a Nobody, Roxas. All of these X's. Bleh. Sora has a Nobody simply because when he unlocked his heart to save Hollow Bastion or something, he became a Heartless. But Roxas looks nothing like Sora. Hmm...Lucy, you've got some 'splaining to do!
So Birth by Sleep rolled around, and while just as confusing, actually makes a bunch of sense outta this mess.
Xehanort is a Keyblade wielder who believes darkness is good, and
MYSTERY SOLVED.
Why are there so many Ansems?
Xehanort was successful in taking over Terra, who was succeeded by Riku (lastly Aqua who was succeeded by Kairi) and as a result of taking Terra over, became young again after tossing Terra into a suit of armor which is dubbed Lingering Will. Terranort, now just a young Xehanort (Instead of "Master Xehanort") became the apprentice of Ansem the Wise, (The good one) who studied the heart. Note, he cannot perform cardiology.
Eventually, Xehanort steals Ansem's name, becomes a Heartless, Ansem the Seeker of Darkness, and brings out the Nobody Xemnas. Xehanort is presumed to be the Unknown, has the suit of armor No Heart.
MYSTERY SOLVED.
So what of everything in between?
