Per wiki policy, Spoilers Off applies here and all spoilers are unmarked. You Have Been Warned.
You know what makes this even better? These are all happening at the same time!
- Because of his random bopping around the universe with a Star Shard, the King eventually discovers Gummi Blocks and a use for them as travelling between the world.
- The entirety of Aqua's journey through the Enchanted Dominion. Captured and thrown in a dungeon with Prince Phillip, the two fight their way out of the castle room by room, taking down hordes of Maleficent's goons, to confront Maleficent herself on the bridge to Aurora's castle. Then Maleficent turns into a dragon and Aqua and Philip work together to bring her down.
- Ventus gets a minor one for the Enchanted Dominion: Ventus fights Maleficent - not the dragon, but pure Mistress-of-all-Evil Maleficent - in a one-on-one battle and wins. In the following cutscene, Maleficent, while not down, is actually worn out. note .
- Even Cinderella gets her moment of awesome. She's not an Action Girl in this continuity, but her desire to reach the ball is strong enough for her to willingly march through corridors full of Unversed. Unlike Snow White, she shows a lot of guts when it comes to them. Even Terra notes how calm and composed she is through this ordeal.Cinderella: Didn't you tell me the importance of being strong?
- The Fairy Godmother stopping Aqua from presumably murdering Lady Tremaine and her daughters by telling the young Keyblade Master that light and darkness go hand & hand, and cannot exist without each other. Thus, she must guard the light instead of smiting the darkness.
- If what King Triton said in the original game is true, it takes guts for even a fairy to stop a potentially dangerous and untrustworthy Keybearer from disrupting the world order, even if the targets of assassination deserved death.
- Terra gets a short but effective "The Reason You Suck" Speech against the Evil Queen.The Queen: I ordered you to bring me Snow White's heart!
Terra: A request I chose to ignore. You know, you claim to be radiant, but all I see are shadows of jealousy, hanging thick on your heart. - Mickey declares that the Keyblade is "not something you use to just bully people around". This is the mouse who stole a Star Shard from Yen Sid and ran away. Reckless he may be, an immature idiot he is not; Yen Sid even says so himself - Mickey is a good, if impetuous, King.
- Scrooge McDuck talked back to an Unversed. Sure, he's badass in his canon, but that still takes balls to do that while unarmed. All because he thought the Unversed may have been after his munny, of course. That's right, when faced with possible death, Scrooge only cares for the safety of his well-earned munny. Now that is Badass.
- Making it better, it's repeatedly implied throughout the various games that Scrooge does not have magic. So, he's ready to fight the unversed with only his walking stick. Considering what it's capable of in the NES DuckTales game and its remake, and the reboot of the original show, it's likely he very well would have fought and won.
- Another Cool Old Guy from Disney has a great moment in Ven's story...Ven: Mister, get inside! It's not safe out here!
Merlin: Oh, ordering me about—now that's unsafe!.- To make that line better - Merlin taught Donald magic. Donald can be deadly if you set him up right and his Duck Flare and Fantasia limits are incredibly dangerous to the enemy. And Donald can pull off Zettaflare.
- Aqua states that she's sure she didn't meet Kairi by accident. She's right. What is actually happening is that fate itself is deciding that Xehanort is wrong and is playing a game of World Chess with everyone, shoving and sliding them into the positions they need to be for Xehanort to eventually be defeated.
- A villainous example has to be when Braig, pissed that he got scarred from a fight that Xehanort set up, starts shooting at him. How does Xehanort take this? He just sits back and lets the bullets hit his shield. And then, when Braig gets in close range, Xehanort just summons his Keyblade right to his throat, causing Braig to back down his aggressiveness.
- Xehanort's face during all this. It looks like he's just laughing off all his pitiful attempts to do any damage.
- Aqua has to fight Hades during her visit to Olympus Coliseum and he uses the rules to his advantage to summon a fake Ice Titan as backup (Rule #2: Combatants may call for backup) and Zack tries to be Aqua's backup and she declines and takes them both on alone and wins. She took on a fake Ice Titan and a god and won.
- Sure, it may be because he's been possessed by dark power from Hades, but still — Zack in his battle with Terra will start the fight with his own version of Omnislash, rapidly teleporting around and slashing Terra before slamming him into the ground. You'll be in awe of the sight, assuming he didn't kill you instantly with it.
- "You may be my master but, I will not let you hurt my friend!" was an epic one for Terra, even if it turned out pretty badly for him.
- The scene where Terra is watching his home world being destroyed was pretty freakin' sweet. Not because the world itself was being destroyed (that's sad), but with the way the camera shook while he was just watching made the scene look intense.
- Vanitas has some impressive Crowning Dialogue of Awesome, though some of it may also count as Nightmare Fuel. Among the greatest examples for him is this: "In that case, I'll choke the life out of your friends. Then let's see how long you play the pacifist."
- Terra does an amazing powerup and then delivers a brutal beatdown on Master Xehanort, just as the old man wanted. Relying so much on hate and vengeance and darkness left him vulnerable to Grand Theft Me. Even after he realized that Master Xehanort manipulated him, he still danced to the villain's lute.Only now have I truly won...
- After Ventus is frozen solid by Xehanort, he is dropped down to where Aqua is, who then has to fight Braig, and all he can do is watch. Then Aqua gets hit by Vanitas' sneak attack, and Ventus DEFROSTS HIMSELF WITH HIS ANGER to fight him.
- We're not sure how it is physically possible, but Richard Epcar manages to out ham the past version of himself! He's obviously having one hell of a time when it comes to recording the words! Thought he was hammy in Kingdom Hearts II and the other games? Yeah, no. This game is Richard Epcar, at his hammiest... and probably on something, and we're not sure what said thing he's on is... but we want some because it is absolutely fucking glorious.
- The moment Terranort realizes he's fucked.
- The original Japanese was even hammier.
- A villainous example: When Vanitas explains how he creates the Unversed, he casually creates a whole bunch of Unversed, including Floods, Tank Topplers, and a Trinity Armor, and then just as casually dismisses and reabsorbs all of them. The first time through, those guys could beat you right up, but he doesn't even acknowledge it as even a thing.
- Vanitas forging the X-Blade, after some great gloating too.
- All three final bosses.
- Terra stands face-to-face with Xehanort, with the former ready to tear apart the latter for murdering his mentor/father-figure.Terra: You will pay, Xehanort! (begins to emanate darkness) Was my Master- no, my father, Eraqus not enough for you? Leave my friends alone!
- Hell even before Terra's final boss, he screams awesome. While Master Xehanort is telling him to give into the darkness, Terra curls in, and lets out an enormous roar that just screams 'I'm pissed as hell and not gonna take it anymore.' Shivers up the spine, man...
- When Master Xehanort commits Grand Theft Me on Terra and emerges as the young Xehanort, he begins to walk away when Terra's armor reforms and conjures a barrier of light around the arena. First, Theme Music Power-Up because the battle theme is "Rage Awakened", the theme when fighting the Lingering Will. Second, Terra uses the Power Of Hate to become Animated Armor and battle Xehanort, who is now controlling in his own body. Third, you get to control That One Boss and deal a beatdown on the main antagonist of the series who up until now has been The Unfought. Fourth, for once the barrier around the arena isn't the boss's, it's Terra's — he's making sure Xehanort has nowhere to run. Fifth and finally, it's Xehanort. Not Ansem, not Xemnas, not Master Xehanort. After dealing with his alter-egos for five games before, you finally face Xehanort himself, and he's a Lightning Bruiser Magic Knight with access to every single attack you've come to rely on during the game.
- Ventus uses Heroic Willpower to unfreeze himself to protect Aqua from Vanitas. Then Vanitas unmasks himself and merges with Ventus, leading to a Battle in the Center of the Mind on a corrupted Dive to the Heart showing Vanitas opposite Ventus. Ventus fights knowing full well that if he destroys the χ-Blade, both of them will lose their hearts. But as he says, "anything to save Terra and Aqua". And the fight ends with the two using their Keyblades to fire a giant Beam-O-War, Ventus overpowering Vanitas to charge up his Finishing Move and deal the final blow.
- Something particular to note about the whole Ven-Van clash: only when fighting Vanitas is Ventus well and truly pissed off. Recall Aqua's line: "What else is darkness but hate and rage?" Ven has a heart of pure light. Being in such close proximity with his former darkness, Ven manages to become empathically enraged.
- As Aqua and Mickey encounter a spacey Ven, the former approaches him to ask what is going on. Mickey instantly realizes there's something fishy about the situation, so when "Ven" reveals himself to be Vanitas possessing the poor kid and immediately tries to stab Aqua with the χ-Blade, the King jumps in, blocking in with his Star Seeker when the χ-Blade was millimeters from Aqua's heart! It's right there you know King Mickey took one of his many levels in badass.
- Also a crowning moment for Vanitas, in which he shows that he is not a stupid villain. This is the second time that he's attacked Aqua without warning, because he's faced her twice in the past and she won. He's the only villain smart enough to use sneak attacks.
- And of course, there's the True Final Boss. You get to fight Xehanort again as Aqua, and he's just as powerful as when you fought him with Terra. Then he busts out the Guardian. And Aqua still kicks his ass.
- Terra stands face-to-face with Xehanort, with the former ready to tear apart the latter for murdering his mentor/father-figure.
- Aqua creates Castle Oblivion. This place was the whole mysterious setting of Chain of Memories and it's a mindfuck when you learn that it was Aqua who created it. She modified a whole world! note .
- For those of you who hate Chain of Memories - she's why it exists.
- Aqua proving she is by far the biggest badass amongst the main characters:
- Aqua, gameplay-wise, gets kudos because she canonically beats both of the other main character's final bosses. Hell, she took on Ventus's twice! And she beat the Memetic Badass, Vanitas, three times, with the last one being when he is in possession of the ultimate weapon!
- Final Mix adds a substantial amount of Pureblood Heartless, including a Heartless apex predator, all of which are fought on their own turf in the Realm of Darkness to Aqua's kill count.
- If you count the secret bosses, Aqua also fights: the Lingering Spirits of Vanitas, Eraqus, and Xehanort; a younger version of Master Xehanort possessing Time Master powers; an Unversed monster that loses more of its restraints after every fight, becoming stronger; and a whale. All of these are non-canon, of course, but it's an impressive feat for someone who just obtained her Mark of Mastery.
- The fact that Xehanort wins on this occasion and sets up a very far-ranging plan that takes over a decade for it all to come to fruition and leaves the worlds splintered and plunged into darkness and the lights down several people - one of which is owned by the evil one!
- Blank Points gives Eraqus a posthumous one: Before dying, he preemptively gave his Light 'em Up Heart to Terra to later counter Master Xehanort's Casting a Shadow one — proving why MX can't touch Terra's Heart despite having his Body. Even MX's impressed:MX: "Oh? So that's how it is, is it? Someone else has set foot in your Heart. Eraqus, you sly fox..."
- It's implied that Xehanort considers Eraqus a worthy foe because of it. He tricks and manipulates everyone else, but Eraqus? Eraqus gets a quick death, worthy of a Master.
- Blank Points also implies that Aqua has been aimlessly wandering the realm of Darkness of years nonstop. It is made even more awesome in the Final Mix version which shows she's been constantly attacked by heartless that can very easily kill the player this ENTIRE TIME and she has somehow survived this. Aqua defines the word Determinator.
- One for Aqua that's not even in the story. When the Optional Boss Mysterious Figure appears before Ventus and Terra and summons his laser blades, the two of them summon their Keyblades with a surprised look on their faces. When the same thing happens to Aqua, she just calmly summons her Keyblade like it's no big thing with a "let's do this!" look on her face.
- The Mysterious Figure himself is nothing short of awesome. How does he begin the battle? Does he say few lines like Xemnas and Lingering Will did? Hell no! He remains completely silent, simply draws his weapons, wields them in Reverse Grip, and strikes a badass battle stance. The badass battle music also plays as soon as he draws his weapons as if telling you, "Hell yeah, let's do this!"
- Like two of the final bosses in KHII, the No Heart boss starts out sitting on his throne. Unlike II, he gets his ass out of that chair midway through! If you're not prepared for this he will wreck your shit.
