History Foil / KingdomHearts

* Xion was intentionally conceived as a further exploration of the Replica concept after the Riku replica, and while they don't meet, she and Riku's replica share some paralleling features:
** Xion is an imperfect replica of TheHero Sora, who takes on the appearance of Sora and Riku's [[TheChick mutual friend]], Kairi, while Riku's replica is a replica of TheLancer Riku.
** They both had memories that they thought belonged to them, those of Sora and Riku respectively, only to realize later what they really are, and undergo an identity crisis because of it. They also both ultimately rebel against their intended purposes.
** However, Xion eventually comes to terms with what she is and orchestrates her own destruction to prevent the Organization from getting their way. Riku's replica, on the other hand, becomes highly embittered by the truth and struggles to assert his individuality, only to have this desire manipulated against him and lead him to his downfall.
** Their relationship with Axel is the complete opposite of each other. Axel treated Riku's replica like a tool, but Xion becomes one of Axel's best friends. This causes Axel to express regret for the way he treated Riku's replica, and in stark contrast, Axel goes on to defend and affirm Xion's individuality as a person. There's further irony in knowing that Axel repeatedly used and deceived Riku's replica until he basically destroyed himself, while Axel did everything he could to try to prevent Xion from disappearing.
** Riku's replica is led to believe that if he absorbs Riku's powers he can become the 'real' Riku, and meets his end in ''Chain of Memories'' attacking Riku for this purpose. Xion on the other hand involuntarily absorbs Roxas's powers overtime, which starts to turn her physically into Sora. She meets her end in ''Days'' after attacking Roxas, ''feigning'' that she's trying to defeat him to complete the process - but it's merely a ruse so she can pull a SuicideByCop.

** Terra, Ventus, and Aqua share a number of similar characteristics with Sora--Terra's strength and warrior prowess, Ven's affinity for Light and friendship, and Aqua's magic and sense of competence and expertise. However, in terms of personality, it is the differences that are more apparent, mostly in terms of Sora's independence from formal Keyblade-wielding and especially in the sense that Sora managed to dodge the pitfalls that all three found themselves falling prey to.
** Sora and Roxas are like two sides of the same coin. Both are kindhearted teenagers who lean heavily on their friends and are at peace in peaceful times. Roxas is more analytical and introspective but has a harder time controlling his emotions, defaulting to sheer rage at the worst of times. Sora tends to go with the flow but manages to stave off despair and at least pretend to be happy when he's at his worst. Roxas was isolated and in conflict for most of his life and therefore has no guidance or focus, while Sora falls back on the experiences he's had with his friends to keep him centered.
** In general, Sora straddles the line between the ''Creator/{{Disney}}'' characters, who are fun-loving and have an indomitable will, and the ''Creator/SquareEnix'' and original characters, who are introspective and deal with personal issues.

%%* Though TheLancer and not TheHero of his ThreeAmigos, Riku was the leader by virtue of being one year older and because of his natural drive. He had very clear and strong ideas about what he wanted, and Sora and [[TheChick Kairi]] followed his lead. Sadly, he was TooCoolToLive, and so fell to TheDarkSide. He gets better only after Sora has become clearly much cooler than him.
%%** When Riku is on his own in Chain of Memories, Mickey becomes his Lancer, becoming Riku's support and balancing Riku's darkness and cynicism with his upbeat personality and light.

* Xigbar/Braig have increasingly framed as an [[EvilCounterpart antagonistic variant]] to Axel/Lea with the two making their individual debuts as snarky, relatively comedic, laid-back yet very dangerous members of the villainous Organization XIII who have [[AlmightyJanitor little authority,]] [[DualWielding Dual Wield]] their signature weapons and later on develop into MetaGuy [[BreakoutCharacter Breakout Characters.]] That's about where the similarities end though as while Axel was incredibly manipulative and FauxAffablyEvil in ''Chain of Memories,'' working towards some unknown agenda, he later turned out to only be working for the benefit of his friends and his developing friendship with Roxas and Xion would drive him to pull a HeelFaceTurn later on. Not to mention, his original persona of Lea was nothing more than a cheerful, ordinary kid prone to trying to befriend everyone he meets. By contrast, Xigbar while initially coming off as [[AffablyEvil rather friendly if definitely shady]] in ''II'' whose odd vague statements indicate he knows way more than he lets on, it's later shown that his original persona of Braig was a sinister thug willing to resort to trickery and deception to aid the ambitions of the main antagonist for the apparently [[IJustWantToBeSpecial selfish motivation of wielding a keyblade himself]] and that he's always been privy to the [[AssimilationPlot malevolent true purpose of the Organization.]] There's also the fact that while Axel was a mostly close-range fighter that eventually gains his own keyblade after being recompleted as Lea, Braig/Xigbar fights from a distance in all appearances and regains his humanity only to give it up to continue working together with Xehanort as the Nobody Xigbar and seemingly perishes one last time in ''III'' lamenting his own lack of a keyblade.

** Lastly, he is one to Aqua. They are both loyal students of their masters and seek to uphold their legacy, but [[OrderVersusChaos Vanitas relishes in chaos while Aqua pursues order]]. Also, despite Vanitas sharing a physical connection with Ventus, it's Aqua whom he ends up having to fight over and over again throughout ''Birth by Sleep'' and ''III'', to the point that they can be considered [[ArchEnemy archenemies]].

* Saïx's one to Riku. Just like Riku, he had a male ChildhoodFriend (Lea). One day, he and Lea found and befriended a girl who wasn't from their homeworld. Just like Kairi, the girl didn't remember anything from her past and was experimented by Terra-Xehanort. When she's gone missing, the duo resolve to find her at all costs, to the point that when they lost their hearts, their strong will and resolve to find the girl allow them to live on as Nobodies. Just like how Riku became jealous when Sora made new friends (Donald and Goofy) and came to believe that Sora abandoned him and Kairi, Saïx became jealous when Axel made new friends (Roxas and Xion) and came to believe that Axel abandoned him and their missing girl. However, Riku's resolve for Kairi remains strong enough that he never truly lost his heart, made a new friend himself (Mickey), overcomes Xehanort's Heartless possession of him, and did everything to make up for his mistakes to Sora and his friends. On the other hand, Saïx never recovers from his feeling of abandonment from Axel that [[TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget he seemingly forgot about the missing girl]], never makes any new friends and only saw the other Organization members as tools, and continues hurting Axel's friends and being corrupted by Xehanort through his Nobody Xemnas. While Riku admits his mistake to Sora and apologizes to him and his friends and pretty much gets a second chance in his life, Saïx only admits everything and apologizes to Lea/Axel in his dying breath before his recompletion as Isa.

** After the finale of ''Union Cross'', he can be considered one to Kairi, [[spoiler: both of them were born on different worlds before getting sent to Destiny Islands]], they both wanted to leave Destiny Islands to explore more worlds, and both are wielders of the Keyblade, but while Kairi uses the power of light, Xehanort uses the power of Darkness. Kairi is also an inexperienced Keyblade Wielder, while Xehanort is a expert Keyblade Master.

* At the end of the day - Xehanort basically a male Maleficent, right down to the DarkIsEvil and the multiple comebacks. However - he excuses his actions as ForScience, NecessarilyEvil, etc., while she's a CardCarryingVillain who [[AtLeastIAdmitIt At Least Admits It]].

** Ansem has shades of a NobleDemon, which is ironic considering the nature of the Heartless: all of his actions are motivated by his desire to accomplish his goals, and he only once in the entire series acts out of malice, when he brainwashes Aqua in ''III''. Even his possession of Riku was done more out of necessity than out of any evil intent, and he displays none of the antagonism that most other Xehanort incarnations share for Sora and Riku. He also shows restraint and does not unleash his dark powers against Hayner and his friends in ''III'' when he could easily wipe the floor with them, and even [[EvenEvilHasStandards chatises Ansem the Wise for the way he treated subject X]], seemingly indicating that he takes the most after Terra in that regard. Xemnas, by contrast, takes a lot more after Master Xehanort: he's a smug {{Jerkass}} who routinely tries to have his own minions [[LetsYouAndHimFight kill each other]] (and is [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness more than willing to do the deed himself]] if necessary), a {{Troll}} who takes delight in making Sora doubt himself at every opportunity and fakes his death ''three times'' over the course of the Dark Seeker saga just to mess with Sora and Riku, and who indulges in KickTheDog moments whenever he can. There's also that one time in ''III'' when he subjected Lea to ColdBloodedTorture for his betrayal of the Organization.

* Xemnas the Nobody to his Heartless, Ansem.

** Like Riku, Xehanort is a Keyblade wielder who lost himself in darkness in pursuit of his ambitions. Riku however pulled himself back and reformed, while Xehanort kept going deeper into the darkness and was lost for it. Ansem shifting to being Riku's ArchEnemy[=/=]EnemyWithin exemplifies this.

** Ansem has shades of a NobleDemon, which is ironic considering the nature of the Heartless: all of his actions are motivated by his desire to accomplish his goals, and he only once in the entire series acts out of malice, when he brainwashes Aqua in ''III''. Even his possession of Riku was done more out of necessity than out of any evil intent, and he displays none of the antagonism that most other Xehanort incarnations share for Sora and Riku. He also shows restraint and does not unleash his dark powers against Hayner and his friends in ''III'' when he could easily wipe the floor with them, and even [[EvenEvilHasStandards chatises Ansem the Wise for the way he treated subject X]], seemingly indicating that he takes the most after Terra in that regard. Xemnas, by contrast, takes a lot more after Master Xehanort: he's a smug {{Jerkass}} who routinely tries to have his own minions [[LetsYouAndHimFight kill each other]] (and is [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness more than willing to do the deed himself]] if necessary), a {{Troll}} who takes delight in making Sora doubt himself at every opportunity and fakes his death ''three times'' over the course of the Dark Seeker saga just to mess with Sora and Riku, and who indulges in KickTheDog moments whenever he can. There's also that one time in ''III'' when he subjected Lea to ColdBloodedTorture for his betrayal of the Organization.

* Evil Queen to Maleficent. One is an AmbiguouslyHuman woman with full command of Dark Magic who is hinted to be of demonic heritage, while the other is an ordinary human who irresponsibly dabbles in Dark Magic far beyond her comprehension. And one is a consummate schemer who's one of the most ambitious and powerful villains in the mythos, while the other is a textbook example of EvilIsPetty who has long since faded into irrelevance by the time of Sora's battle with Xehanort.

* Sephiroth can be considered one to Tifa. They are both the physical embodiment of Cloud, with Tifa being Cloud’s light, while Sephiroth is Cloud’s darkness.

* To Maleficent. They're both powerful Magic-users who ''don't'' wield Keyblades [[note]] Yen Sid used to wield Star Seeker, but voluntarily gave it up[[/note]], they’re both known for their stern personalities, and they’re both drawn from the classic imagery of European fairy tales (with Maleficent's [[OneWingedAngel dragon form]] being a dark inversion of Yen Sid's WizardClassic gimmick). Appropriately enough, Yen Sid was originally King Mickey's mentor, while Maleficent takes Mickey's old nemesis WesternAnimation/{{Pete}} under her wing in the second game.

** In general, Sora straddles the line between the Disney characters, who are fun-loving and have an indomitable will, and the Creator/SquareEnix and original characters, who are introspective and deal with personal issues.

* Implicitly serves as one to Yen Sid. They're both {{Wizard Classic}}s, but Yen Sid is stern, laconic and introverted, and holds a powerful position as King Mickey's mentor; by contrast, Merlin is playful, talkative and sociable, and happily lives among the common people in Traverse Town and Hollow Bastion. To Merlin, the other major {{Wizard Classic}}s in the cast. While Merlin is playful, talkative and sociable, and casually lives among the common people of Traverse Town and Hollow Bastion, Yen Sid is stern, laconic and introverted, he lives in isolation in a tower, and he holds a powerful position as King Mickey's mentor.

* Implicitly serves as one to Yen Sid. They're both {{Wizard Classic}}s, but Yen Sid is stern, laconic and introverted, and holds a powerful position as King Mickey's mentor; by contrast, Merlin is playful, talkative and sociable, and happily lives among the common people in Traverse Town and Hollow Bastion.

** For Joshua and Riku, Both of them are TheLancer towards TheHero above. But while Riku is Sora's ChildhoodFriend, have a calm and calculated, and is much more serious and cautious about the situation at hand; Joshua on the other hand is Neku's friend he met at the Reaper's Game, have a flirty and playful personality, and is much more flippant and casual about the situation at hand. They are TheLancer which means they have contrasting personalities toward TheHero from their respective games.

** For Neku and Sora, Both of them are TheHero of their respective games. But while Sora is cheerful, extrovert, and a NiceGuy who is obsessed with making friends; Neku on the other hand is [[emo EmoTeen]], introvert and a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who preferred to keep his thoughts to himself.

** For Joshua and Riku, Both of them are TheLancer towards {{TheHero}}es above. But while Riku is Sora's ChildhoodFriend, have a calm and calculated, and is much more serious and cautious about the situation at hand; Joshua on the other hand is Neku's friend he met at the Reaper's Game, have a flirty and playful personality, and is much more flippant and casual about the situation at hand. They are TheLancer which means they have contrasting personalities toward {{TheHero}}es from their respective games.

** For Joshua and Riku, Both of them are TheLancer towards {{TheHero}}es above. But while Riku is Sora's ChildhoodFriend, , and much more serious and cautious about the situation at hand; Joshua on the other hand is Neku's friend he met at the Reaper's game, , and much more flippant and casual about the situation at hand.

** For Neku and Sora, Both of them are TheHero of their respective games. But while Sora is cheerful, extrovert, and a NiceGuy who is obsessed with making friends, Neku on the other hand is [[emo EmoTeen]], introvert and a JerkWithAHeartOfGold who preferred to keep his thoughts to himself.
** For Joshua and Riku, Both of them are TheLancer towards {{TheHero}}s above
**

* His similarities appearance-wise to Sora makes the differences between the two all of the more striking and noticeable. As implied by the parallel between the meanings of their names - Night Sky for Yozora and Sky for Sora - his taciturn and borderline cold personality along with his mysterious and unclear intentions in his first, proper introduction to the audience heavily clashes against the more gung-ho, energetic, and open-hearted Sora. In regards to fighting, Yozora's technology-based weaponry and fighting style itself heavily contrasts Sora's own magically supported arsenal and approach to battle. Rather than going for wild, fast combos like Sora, Yozora goes for methodical, brief sword attacks; he doesn't use his wilder, faster sword combos until later in his combos and his second phase's drone laser-barrage slashes when he is more likely to have stunlocked Sora from his previous strikes.

* To Ava. Both of them are ancient keyblade masters who lived long ago before Sora and his friends were even born, both of them are apprentices of the Master of Masters who were each given a secret role that their fellow Foretellers aren’t aware of, both of them share similar [[TheChessmaster chessmaster tendencies]] like their Master, both of them constantly question the Master’s motives and both of them miss their friends (the other Foretellers) and don’t want them to fight. However, the differences there are that unlike Luxu, who still blindly follows the Master of Masters’s orders despite knowing that he’s not being entirely honest with his students, Ava instead decided to bend the rules and eventually starts [[ScrewDestiny defying both the Master’s orders and his prophecy]]. Also, unlike Luxu, who only acts FauxAffablyEvil towards his enemies, Ava’s niceness is genuine and she even tries to act kind towards her enemies if she can. Plus, the roles that the Master of Masters gave them are polar opposites: Ava’s role is to ensure that other keyblade wielders survive the upcoming keyblade war to rebuild anew, while Luxu’s role is to ensure only his own survival ahead of everything else and to not try to intervene in the war to save anyone. To Luxu. Both of them are ancient keyblade masters who lived long ago before Sora and his friends were even born, both of them are apprentices of the Master of Masters who were each given a secret role that their fellow Foretellers aren’t aware of, both of them share similar [[TheChessmaster chessmaster tendencies]] like their Master, both of them constantly question the Master’s motives and both of them miss their friends (the other Foretellers) and don’t want them to fight. However, the differences there are that unlike Luxu, who still blindly follows the Master of Masters’s orders despite knowing that he’s not being entirely honest with his students, Ava instead decided to bend the rules and eventually starts [[ScrewDestiny defying both the Master’s orders and his prophecy]]. Also, unlike Luxu, who only acts FauxAffablyEvil towards his enemies, Ava’s niceness is genuine and she even tries to act kind towards her enemies if she can. Plus, the roles that the Master of Masters gave them are polar opposites: Ava’s role is to ensure that other keyblade wielders survive the upcoming keyblade war to rebuild anew, while Luxu’s role is to ensure only his own survival ahead of everything else and to not try to intervene in the war to save anyone.

** Riku's replica is led to believe that if he absorbs Riku's powers he can become the 'real' Riku, and meets his end in ''Chain of Memories'' attacking Riku for this purpose. Xion on the other hand involuntarily absorbs Roxas's powers overtime, which starts to turn her physically into Sora. She meets her end in ''Days'' after attacking Roxas, ''feigning'' that she's trying to defeat him to complete the process - but it's merely a ruse so she can pull a SuicideByCop.

* ion was intentionally conceived as a further exploration of the Replica concept after the Riku replica, and while they don't meet, she and Riku's replica share some paralleling features:

** This contrast also extends to their fighting styles. In comparison to Sora's two-handed style, Riku attacks with a fast one-handed style with his Soul Eater/Way to the Dawn and he attacks very quickly with either weapon in combat in one-handed strikes ranging from thrusts to wide strikes focusing on more on slashing motions as opposed to Sora's clubbing/pummeling style. In the end, both are just as adept with their weapons as the other.

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