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Theory: Sora was supposed to use the Power of Waking on Xehanort at the end of KH3

I am pretty certain that the final battle from the Keyblade Graveyard onward in KH3 was altered late into development. The whole sequence feels off and at times even confusing. Nomura also described having difficulty writing this part of the story:

—The story's endgame where all your friends and foes gather at the Keyblade Graveyard was a masterpiece. Nomura: I know each fan has their own different beloved character, so I wanted to give each one an appropriate moment. But in the end there was too much story that had to be told then, and I ended up being restricted to the minimum necessary to move Sora forward. The truth is, the Keyblade Graveyard was the toughest part I faced when writing the scenario. [...] At the end of deep worry and thought, I narrowed my aim and ended up with the way it is now, which prioritizes rhythm.

No shade to Nomura for dealing with creative restrictions imposed on him... but yeah, it shows. I think the very end was also a casualty of these sorts of restrictions. One of the most nonsensical scenes to me in KH3 was this:

Riku: It's Xehanort. During the Mark of Mastery exam, we learned that he can transcend space and time. He's a portal. And we can use that to trap him. (Mickey nods)

Followed by this when Sora does a little Keyblade zippy zap:

I know we learned a little about portals in 3D but there was no foreshadowing that it was a way to trap someone like this. And the idea of portals was totally absent for KH3, but suddenly it's the way to beat the Big Bad?

And then we are magically in... Scala ad Caelum? Not sure how that would trap him because he can just Keyblade Scooter back...

Xehanort says this about it:

Master Xehanort: Of all the places to be sent.

Master Xehanort: Here, I and my other selves can be one. United…in Scala ad Caelum.

Okay? Why can he be one with his other selves? Why does he even care? He was about to win, he was opening Kingdom Hearts!

Everything that follows remains almost entirely unexplained. Like, I am bewildered that they kept any of this in because it's so bizarre. We aren't told who these creepy dudes are, we don't know why they merged, we don't know what Xehanort being a portal means or how that can be used to trap him.

But what if Riku's explanation was retroactively applied over a different, original intention? What if Sora--who believes in the light in every heart--decided to use the Power of Waking on Xehanort and rescue him as well?

Consider how Riku uses the Power of Waking in Dream Drop Distance:

He opens up a portal which is visually identical to the one Sora opened for Xehanort to dive into Sora's heart

2. He collects Soras

3. He fights the nightmare imprisoning Sora, which takes the form of armor of darkness surrounding him

4. He is suddenly in Sora's heart's Destiny Islands and gets a pop quiz on the meaning of the Power of Waking from Sora's heart & co.

Then Sora's heart wakes up.

The entire sequence is really similar to the Xehanort battle:

Sora uses a portal to trap Xehanort somehow, which ends up being in Scala ad Caelum

2. Sora sees several Xehanorts wandering around, which Xehanort identifies as his "other selves"; they morph into the creepy darkness things, which Sora defeats

3. Sora then defeats this Xehanort, whose armor shatters

4. Sora talks to Xehanort in Scala ad Caelum

Basically, all the ingredients for the Power of Waking are there. But in KH3, it's not explained that is what's happening. The whole thing makes far more sense if Sora was opening a portal to Xehanort's heart, not trapping him in the real Scala ad Caelum. That's his home world--the world that would be in his heart, just like Destiny Islands is the world in Sora's heart. It also explains how he is able to bend the physical space--it's not real. And it explains why he could be his "other selves" all together.

Okay, but WHY would he need the Power of Waking used on him? Well... what if everyone realized he was possessed by Darkness--namely, Superbia?

Sora first sees the heart-Xehanorts normally, but then they morph into the creepy darkness things: the twelve Darknesses that were released from the other just-defeated Organization XIII members. (You see the streams of darkness leaving their bodies as each is defeated.) Darknesses as in, Darknesses whose desire is to possess bodies with strong hearts, of which there are thirteen in total.

Reconsider what Xehanort says after all the Darknesses merge into him:

Master Xehanort: Here, I and my other selves can be one. United…in Scala ad Caelum.

It is somewhat weird for Master Xehanort to say (he never cared about uniting himself into one--he was about to achieve his goal after he opened Kingdom Hearts). But it's not weird for Darkness, which can act separately or as a hive mind, to say at all. And of course Xehanort would be Superbia since he actually believes he is entitled to direct everyone's fates. Sora would have learned about this if Scala hadn't been cut as a world.

So, the reason that the Xehanorts would "glitch" and turn into Darkness is because of his possession. More speculatively, it was probably a willing possession like Xigbar's which allowed him to keep his sense of self, but become half Darkness. It just got removed from the story.

With Xehanort's heart freed from the clutches of Darkness, he would now be free to converse with Sora in his heart. Sora would reawaken his heart by reminding him of his old friend Eraqus, his light and what matters most to him. Then back in the real world, he would voluntarily give Sora the χ-blade and more understandably live happily ever after with his boyfriend Eraqus.

It really sends the message that you can light the way back for any heart in the darkness out of love. It's why Xehanort has that happy ending--it was necessary for the meaning of the whole story. But with this part stripped, it ends up uncomfortable because it was unearned.