Talk:High-Tech Exoskeleton/@comment-66.87.118.70-20120910061614/@comment-67.162.4.88-20121018160646

They were taught by Eraqus to use armor on their bodies as well as using a Keyblade to fight, in order to ward off the Darkness they fight, be it in Disney Worlds, or in the Lanes Between Worlds. This is manifested as a shoulder pad all three characters wear on their arms.

This isn't the only case, as of BBS: Final Mix, it shows that the Eraqus originally had a "Keyblade Exoskeleton" in the form of the Armor you fightin the mirage arena, the "Armor of the Master". Xehanort is a similar case.

Except that when you're talking about Xehanort, this the man who instead of protecting himself from the Darkness, openly EMBRACED it. So he discarded his Armor (The "No Heart" enemy).

Terra, Aqua and Ventus wear the armor when travelling in the Lanes Between, or when they visit the Mirage Arena. Outside these cases, they donned them when facing off against Xehanort for their first real time in the Keyblade Graveyard. Over the corse of their losing dogfight, their helmets are discarded. And when Terra loses his body to Xehanort, Terra inhabits the remains of his armor through sheer willpower to beat Xehanort down once and for all.

Finally, in 3DS, Sora falls into a deep sleep and becomes engulfed in Darkness. But soon enough he is protected by the Armor Ventus usually wore, implying Ventus' eventual awakening. The darkness instead corodes and corrupts Ventus' Armor, and this leads to Riku fighting against the Darkness-driven, Armor plated Sora later when he dives one last time to awaken Sora's heart. The armor also carries Ventus' fast-paced, speedy fighting style, while shooting globs of darkness like Ink spray.

"And that, as they say, is that".

- quoted from "Maechen" of Final Fantasy 10