Due to lengthy periods between releases and the prevalence of Late Arrival Spoilers, spoilers from installments before 2020 may be unmarked. Read at your own risk.

Sora

"I don't need a weapon! My friends are my power!"

^{Click here to see Sora as he appears in Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories}

^{Click here to see Sora as a child in Kingdom Hearts and Birth by Sleep}

^{Click here to see Sora as he appears in Kingdom Hearts II}

^{Click here to see Sora as he appears in Dream Drop Distance}

^{Click here to see Sora as he appears in Kingdom Hearts IV}

Voiced by: Miyu Irino (Japanese), Haley Joel Osment (English), Bobby Edner (animated series pilot), Donald Reignoux (French)
Young Sora Voiced by: Takuto Yoshinaga (Japanese), Luke Manriquez (English)

Appearances: I | Chain of Memories | II | 358/2 Days | Birth by Sleep | coded | Dream Drop Distance | 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage- | III | Melody of Memory | IV

"I've been having these weird thoughts lately... like is any of this for real or not?"

The All-Loving Hero. The Keyblade's Self-Made Wielder. The Link to All. The Final Key.

The Face of Mascot RPGs.

The main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, Sora is a bright and spirited boy from the Destiny Islands who dreams of adventuring to new worlds. His peaceful life with his friends Riku and Kairi is shattered when his home is destroyed by the Heartless, and Sora finds himself in possession of a peculiar weapon called the Keyblade. As a hero chosen by the weapon to battle the forces of darkness, Sora embarks on a quest to reunite with his friends and save all other worlds from suffering the same fate as his own.

For tropes concerning Sora's appearance in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, see the DLC Pack 2 Characters Page.

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24-Hour Armor: Sora is forced to wear armor in Space Paranoids and The Grid.
Achilles' Heel: Disarming Sora of his Keyblade used to leave him unable to use physical attacks until he learned the power came from his heart all along.
Action Hero: Most of his exploits in the first game amount to "Take down huge Heartless here, beat villain there, seal keyhole, rinse and repeat". This persists throughout the series, though things get significantly more complicated as time goes on.
Action Survivor: After his world was cast away into the darkness, Sora chooses to team up with Donald and Goofy to find their friends.
Adaptational Nice Guy: Sora is more merciful and generally nicer in the manga than in the games. For instance, he spares Shan Yu, Xaldin, and Jafar and helps Demyx out in the Underworld. His Fantastic Racism against Nobodies is downplayed as well. During the final confrontation with Xemnas, Sora even thinks back to Axel and Demyx and remarks that only Xemnas seems truly emotionless.
Ain't Too Proud to Beg: In KHII, when Saïx tells him to show just how much he cares about Kairi, Sora literally gets down on his knees and begs him to take him to her. Saïx still refuses.
All-Loving Hero: Sora has a brave and heroic personality, meaning he will willingly risk his life even for people he barely knows. He is extremely loyal to his friends, and has been shown to have a remarkable capacity to forgive, even to his sworn enemies; when Maleficent loses control of the Heartless to Organization XIII and is overwhelmed by Dusks in order to allow Sora's group to escape, Sora is clearly concerned for her and is only stopped from helping her by being restrained by Donald. Another prominent example is when he forgives Naminé for rewriting the majority of his memories, despite the severity of her doings. Sora has even been shown to try and bring others to his side if he feels he can connect with them, such was the case with Vanitas after the latter explained the connection between himself, Sora, and Ventus. Sora tried to tell Vanitas that as his and Ventus's "brother" he should stand with the two of them instead of with darkness.
All Your Powers Combined: III and the Remind DLC campagin give Sora access to nearly all of the mechanics from all of the previous games as well as a few story abilities. As his Heart was connected to so many of his own other selves, clones, and "siblings", he's gained all their in-universe abilities as well and a few of his own. He can dual wield Keyblades like Roxas, copy magic like Xion, use Shotlocks like Ventus, teleport and ride a Keyblade storm like Vanitas, use darkness like his Heartless from Coded, and more.
Almighty Janitor: He's entirely self-taught and didn't get made Master in 3D, but still The Hero and one of the most powerful Keyblade wielders in-universe. By the end of III, he's defeated all thirteen incarnations of Xehanort, many of them by himself, and has been bequeathed ownership of the χ-blade, but still isn't a Master. He technically wasn't an "official" Keyblade wielder as he was never bequeathed a Keyblade until Master Xehanort did so.
Always Save the Girl: Says himself that Kairi means more to him than anything else, and even impales himself with the Keyblade of Heart and opens the Door to Darkness to save Kairi in KHI.
- He does it again in III. After the final battle, everything is wrapped up except that Kairi has not yet been restored after being killed beforehand. While Riku initially thinks they should consult with Master Yen Sid, Sora refuses to let her wait a second longer and uses the Power of Waking one last time to bring her back. Even at the cost of himself.
Always Second Best:
- Sora is implied to have always been outdone by his best friend Riku and admits at the end of the sequel that he sees Riku as the Always Someone Better to himself. This led to some problems in the first game as while the two are good natured about their rivalry at the start, several factors lead Riku to grow more and more antagonistic towards Sora in pursuit of saving their mutual Childhood Friend Kairi which eventually culminates in him taking the Keyblade from Sora because The Dark Side Will Make You Forget has corrupted him to the point that he sees Sora as unworthy and himself as the only one that can do what needs to be done. Ironically enough, it is exactly because Sora simply adventured to save the worlds and especially him and Kairi that leads to this becoming subverted as Sora grows stronger and surpasses Riku, defeating him twice even when he's super-charged.
- By Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, it's a universal fact to all but Sora himself that he's the stronger warrior now, with the villains prioritizing Sora to use and Ansem and even Riku himself making it clear Sora has already surpassed Riku, but Riku's gotten over this thanks to Character Development (and nearly helping the Big Bad destroy the universe in the first game, that's a big wake-up call). By Kingdom Hearts II, Riku admits to Sora while they're trapped in the Realm of Darkness after beating Xemnas that he considers himself to be inferior to Sora since the former doesn't worry about being the best and just follows his heart, yet that's exactly why he is now the stronger fighter, which is further increased by the fact that even after Riku was using the power of Ansem, during the brief time they fight, Sora seems perfectly capable to fight him, with the indication he would have triumphed had he not been distracted and Riku fled. By the time of Kingdom Hearts III, even Sora seems to have recognized that he has in fact grown stronger than his friend, being fully willing to take charge even around Riku.
- ZigZagged with Mickey: Early in the series, King Mickey is repeatedly shown to be far above Sora just as he is way ahead of all the other heroes, being an extremely powerful Keyblade Master with decades of experience under his belt, easily marching through armies that Sora either struggles with personally or needs Donald and Goofy backing him up to get through. Even with Sora having taken several levels in badass and being effectively at the level of a Keyblade Master, having bested Aqua and even Xehanort, Remind shows the King is still a cut above even Sora's current level, as he takes on and defeats all 13 Replica Xehanorts, whereas it took Sora, Donald, and Goofy working together to do so. However, Sora's potential and his heart's unparalleled ability to connect with everyone are aspects that leave even Mickey himself in awe, implying that Sora has the potential to surpass him in time.
Ambiguously Brown: Downplayed. While he's never as dark-skinned as Xehanort, he still tends to have a slight tan compared to fair-skinned characters like Riku. This is despite the fact that the two of them have lived on Destiny Islands for almost the entirety of their lives.
And Then John Was a Zombie: Subverted. He gets turned into a Heartless in 1, only to be brought back through his connection with Kairi.
Anime Hair: It's extremely spiky, intended to resemble a crown, and even keeps its shape underwater. And it appears that it's naturally like that. Gets lampshaded in Kingdom Hearts II:
Tifa: I'm looking for a guy with spiky hair.
(Donald and Goofy look at Sora as he tugs at his hair)
Tifa: (chuckling) Spikier.
- Gets another lampshade in III, when Olaf identifies Sora solely as being "spikey", and Sora actually takes offense.
- And then it gets averted in IV due to being in Quadratum for a while, making his hair much more realistic. (But still spiky.)
The Apprentice: To Merlin in KHI for magic, and eventually Yen Sid in the later games.
Armor and Magic Don't Mix: Averted with Wisdom Form if Sora enters it in Space Paranoids.
Art Shift: Takes on a noticeably more realistic appearance in Kingdom Hearts IV as opposed to his more cartoonish designs in previous entries, making him veer closer to looking like a Final Fantasy character. This makes sense as not only does the game mark the beginning of a new saga, Sora is also trapped in the Quadratum which is heavily implied to be the real world.
Audience Surrogate: Often understands the Jigsaw Puzzle Plot of the series about as well as the player. Maybe even less so at times considering his tendency towards confusion and having to either think things through out-loud or have things spelled out to him by others who are more in the know.
Pence: Ya see, it all makes sense!
Sora: It... does?
Awesomeness by Analysis: Sora's universe-saving feats and daring swordplay are made even more impressive when you realize that unlike his predecessors, he is completely self-taught, his fighting style developing itself over the course of the series from his sparring with wooden swords at home. This shows when you compare him to Terra, Aqua, and Ven. They all fight in their own individual styles that show they have familiarity and training with their Keyblades. Sora wields his like a club or a baseball bat, and shows little finesse. This changes in Kingdom Hearts II, where he's a bit more experienced. The year of training Roxas had that Sora absorbed probably helped.
Back from the Dead: In III, during the final showdown in the Keyblade Graveyard, Sora is actually killed by a Heartless swarm and finds himself in the Final World, essentially the limbo of the Kingdom Hearts universe. He travels through the world to find his body and return to life.
Badass Adorable: In the first game and Dream Drop Distance. And as a lion cub in the Pride Lands.
Badass Biker: When riding a lightcycle.
Badass in Distress: After having his heart fall into a sleep in 3D.
Badass Santa: In Christmas Town, he gains a black Santa hat and jumper that covers his eyepatch and clothes, respectively, while his fangs apparently disappear and his gloves become black. Though since his white skin is retained, Sora is still technically a pseudo-vampire.
Bag of Spilling: He is pretty much a poster boy for this trope by now, next to Samus Aran.
- In Chain of Memories, he and his friends immediately forget every ability they ever knew because of how Castle Oblivion works. Following his year long slumber between that game and II, Sora's a bit out of practice by the time he wakes up. In the lead up to III, Dream Drop Distance, Yen Sid tells him and his pal Riku that the way they wield the Keyblade isn't the right way and have to spend that game being taught the proper way.
- Finally, 2.8 reveals that following Sora nearly becoming a vessel of darkness for Xehanort's grand plan and subsequently failing his Mark of Mastery Exam as a consequence, our hero is back to square one yet again. He doesn't seem to be too concerned however.
  Sora: Don't worry. It happens all the time.
- III then proceeds to provide an excuse at the end for another spillage when he dies and gets sent to Quadratum, setting him up to be back at level 1 once more in the next game.
Bash Brothers: With every party member, especially from Kingdom Hearts II onwards.
- Donald and Goofy deserve special mention. They're Sora's most frequent companions and together, these three have took down anything in their way, from Eldritch Abomination to Evil Overlord.
- Riku is easily the biggest example. Not only are they two of the most powerful characters in the series but they're also Childhood Friends who've known each other for over 10 years which is shown by their teamwork in battle. To wit, their Combination Attack in II is easily the longest and most elaborated one in the game, with Sora and Riku's flawless synchronized attacks. The two have also took on some of the strongest characters in the series (Xemnas in II, Dark Riku and Xigbar in III as well as Ansem, Xemnas and Young Xehanort alongside Mickey) and won. Yeah, these two are this trope incarnate.
  Riku: Leave it to me!
  Sora: Let's do this, Riku!
Beat Them at Their Own Game: A common Reaction Command in Kingdom Hearts II. Try to count how many times he steals his opponent's weapon and/or reverses their attack back at them.
Beehive Barrier: His "Reflect" series magic in Kingdom Hearts II, which sends out bursts of lights around him after being hit proportional to the attack power of the assailant.
- Several of Sora's Formchanges give Sora a barrier instead of his regular guard.
Been There, Shaped History: Spends his days traveling through different Disney worlds and helping out the heroes he meets there, as well as helping the various Final Fantasy characters on whatever world they call home.
Benevolent Monsters: In III, Sora becomes a werecat-like monster himself while in Monstropolis, but remains kind-hearted and happy to play with Boo. He also qualifies as this in earlier games as a vampire and merman, two well-known monster types.
Berserker Tears: In III, after Master Xehanort kills Kairi by turning her body to crystal and shattering her to make the thirteenth key, Sora flies into a rage, screaming with tears running down his face as he attacks Xehanort.
Beware the Nice Ones: Sora is a sweet and cheerful kid who wants to help anyone who has problems, but God help you if you happen to be one of those problems.
BFG: Sora can transform his Keyblade into one of these in III. He holds a cannon over his shoulder that launches a barrage similar to Ragnarok.
BFS: A lot of his Keyblades such as Fenrir and Ultima Weapon look huge.
Big Brother Instinct: Sora shows shades of this whenever he is dealing with Pinocchio, as he is always trying to keep the latter from trouble and he spends the entirety of Monstro trying to save him either from Riku or The Heartless.
Bizarre Alien Reproduction: Because he happened to have two hearts of pure light in him when he lost his heart, the nobodies born from this were essentially autonomous beings instead of just copies. And Sora's the mom.
Blade Spam: Final Form in KHII allows him to telekinetically manipulate two Keyblades to rapidly strike his foes over and over. In KHIII he gets Ultimate Form, which lets him bring down a Storm of Blades with his basic combos. Doubles as a nod to both Ventus and Roxas, who used their Wingblade and Sigil Shield abilities similarly.
Blood Knight: A friendlier version than most but it's hard to deny that Sora likes a challenge. He challenges Herc ules to a one-on-one match rather than fighting him alongside Donald and Goofy. He always sports a Grin of Audacity while fighting his enemies, particularly when activating his Keyblade Formchanges, and he always jumps at any opportunity for a good challenge, which is pointed out by Goofy in Chain of Memories. One of his battle quotes in KHI even has him laughing as he finishes a combo or Limit Break. It gets to the point that Hades compares him to a Spartan in III.
Blow You Away: The "Aero" series and related spells in Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories, and several wind-related skills in Dream Drop Distance, including his ultimate magic, Tornado.
Book Dumb: Not exactly sharp when it comes to understanding some slightly complicated terms, especially when it comes to technology, as evidenced when he got stressed trying to use Ansem's computer that he banged on the keyboard (luckily for him, doing so worked). This is shown more prominently when he visits San Fransokyo, where Hiro's technology talk confuses Sora many times so that he feels like a caveman alongside Goofy and Donald, until Hiro decides to dumb things down and simply let actions speak louder than words.
Boss Remix: The theme for the Armored Ventus Nightmare, which is actually Sora's heart after falling to darkness, uses a remix of "Destati" called "The Eye of Darkness."
Bound and Gagged:
- Happens to him at one point, without a gag, in Port Royal, which causes him to lose faith in piracy.
- This happens to him again in Atlantica, when he gets restrained by Flotsam and Jetsam.
Blind Weaponmaster: While not to the same extent as Riku, it is shown in Halloween Town and Space Paranoids that Sora can still fight just as well if his vision is blocked through an eyepatch or a large helmet, respectively.
Break the Badass: His experience in 3D. He gets manipulated by Master Xehanort, who seeks to turn him into another Xehanort by breaking him... and they nearly succeeded. During 0.2, it's mentioned he's lost some of his strength from what happened to him. Sora takes it pretty casually, though.
Break the Cutie: Happens to him in 3D. Twice in III; first when it was apparent that everyone was defeated, then when Xehanort apparently kills Kairi.
Brought Down to Badass: In the prologue to III, Sora seeks help from Hercules after having lost most of his powers following the events of Dream Drop Distance. By the time he’s finished with his latest trek through Olympus, he’s managed to defeat all four Titans all while various characters repeatedly assert how comparatively weak he is.
Brought Down to Normal: This trope only applies if you rejected the wand in the beginning of the original Kingdom Hearts or its Final Mix version. When Sora first reaches Hollow Bastion, Riku reveals that he was the one truly chosen by the Keyblade and promptly takes Sora's, leaving him only a wooden sword to defend himself with. While he still retains all of his magic spells, he'll be mostly relying on Beast to pick up the slack against the Heartless until he next meets Riku and reclaims the Keyblade with his strength of heart. See The Red Mage below for the trope that applies if you accepted the wand in the beginning instead.
Captain Crash: In the manga adaptation, Sora rams the Gummi Ship into a meteor in the first game's adaptation and gets himself banned from the pilot's seat. He does not learn his lesson.
Car Fu: Sora can turn his Keyblade into an electrically-charged flying chariot pulled by Pegasus in III.
Casting a Shadow: Very limited compared to Riku, but he has some use of darkness. The use is increased in Anti-Form/Rage Form and in the Armored Ventus Nightmare.
Character Tics: Putting his hands on the back of his head. He does it because of Ventus's heart residing in his own.
Cheerful Child: He's always seen to be excited or happy.
Childhood Friend Romance: With Kairi. Granted, much of it was all Ship Tease for the most part.
Childhood Friends: With Riku and Kairi.
The Chosen One:
- Was chosen by the Keyblade to save all the worlds from darkness... or something. After the events of the first game Sora won the trust of the Hearts of the worlds, and they granted him free access to the Lanes Between in order to meet any threats that endangered the worlds.
- Dark Road strongly implies that Sora is the "Child of Destiny" mentioned in the Book of Prophecies, said to hail from the "Isles of Destiny" having the ability to feel, share, and embrace the hearts of others, as well as connecting their heart with the hearts of others. This child would have the power to defeat the Darkness and bring balance back to all worlds. Sound familiar?
The Chosen Zero: A number of people don't believe it the first time they meet him, though.
Chronic Hero Syndrome: He may be largely concerned with finding his friends, but if someone's in trouble or needs help, Sora will never hesitate to set aside his own goals to help said person in need. In KHII, Organization XIII even uses this to their advantage, knowing that despite full knowledge that he's helping their Evil Plan, Sora just cannot stop himself from saving innocents from the Heartless.
Clothes Make the Superman: Sora's drive forms in KH2 are a function of the new outfit he receives in the game, enchanted by the Good Fairies.
Combat Medic: He is quite capable with both magic and physicals attacks, but, like other Keyblade wielders he has access to healing spells (which cover an area in some games), and even gains the ability to heal status effects in certain entries.
Combat Pragmatist: Sora's not exactly an underhanded tactician, but unless he's in a sparring competition, he will never, ever hesitate to take the numbers advantage in a fight. In Kingdom Hearts II, he has further moments of this during some reaction commands in which he steals weapons, hijacks heartless to attack, or trick his foes.
- Taken further in 3D, where he uses large Dream Eaters as Flowmotion targets to fly around the stage and throw them at other enemies and through different reality shifts, again throws them at enemies, rolls them into a giant bubbles or even hacks into their code and makes them either fight on his side, or self-destruct.
- This is even done at the expense of his poor friends, one of his sleights in Chain of Memories has him siccing Donald on the enemies after Donald was lit on fire, and the other has him and Donald grab Goofy and use him as a battering ram.
Combination Attack: Fitting with his friendly and adaptable nature, Sora tends to do a lot of these.
Competition Freak: Sora possesses a rather strong competitive streak, as he often competes with Riku over numerous things, like the race at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts to share a paopu fruit with Kairi. Also, when he asks to fight Hercules alone in the Hercules Cup, Donald calls him a show-off, and Goofy says in Chain of Memories, "Whenever there's a contest, you're always rarin' to sign up".
Competitive Balance: Each of his drive forms in II has a different utility. Valor Form has great power and can use finishing moves freely, but can't use magic. Wisdom Form has great magic, but weak normal attacks. Limit Form has powerful and varied finishers, but again locks Sora's magic. Master Form is the Jack of All Stats Master of None between Valor and Wisdom, lacking the former's brute power and the latters range, but has its own Spell Blade attacks. Final Form meanwhile outdoes all of them in terms of raw power, but needs a whopping 5 Drive bars to use. Even Anti-Form, intended as a "dud" form, has surprising power, but is held back by its inabilities to heal and to land a finishing blow on a boss.
Composite Character: Sora takes on the role of Christopher Robin in the Winnie the Pooh world.
- In The Caribbean, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Gibbs take most of the role played by Bootstrap ^note.
The Conscience: To Riku, as stated in 3D. After Riku encounters his past self^spoilers while inside Monstro, Pinocchio explains to him about how Jiminy is his conscience. Jiminy then asks Riku if he has someone he can confide in, and Riku immediately thinks of Sora.
Riku: Yeah... actually, I do. That stupid grin he's always wearing— he's the best teacher I could ever have.
Cool Key: Which doubles as a Cool Sword. Kingdom Key, his weapon. A nerfed Ultima Weapon ("Edge of Ultima" according to hacked data) was considered for his weapon at some point in KHII's development, but ultimately the Kingdom Key prevailed. Said Keyblade is also powerful enough to decide the fate of entire worlds and wreak calamity if used improperly.
Cool Mask: Sora wears with a jack-o'-lantern design over one eye in Halloween Town.
Cute Kitten: In the Pride Lands, Sora takes the form of an adorable lion cub with his signature spiky hairdo.
Cute Little Fangs:
- In Halloween Town, he has a very prominent set of vampire-like fangs.
- His Monsters, Inc. form has a mouth full of them.
Cute Monster Boy: Once again, in Halloween Town. Though not so much in KHII, due to his older appearance.
- This can also be said about Sora's merman form in Atlantica, depending on whether or not the player considers merfolk to be monsters.
- Fittingly, this takes a more literal turn in the Monsters, Inc. world as he transforms into an actual monster.
The Cutie: A spirited idealistic young boy who's upbeat? He definitely qualifies.
Cutlass Between the Teeth: Wields the Keyblade like this in his lion form when in the Pride Lands. Surprisingly, it works just fine.
Cutscene Incompetence: In-game the kid is a maelstrom of Keyblade-fueled Magic Knight chaos that can rip through the hordes of darkness for days on end. In cutscenes, expect to see him regularly tossed around, knocked down, taken by surprise, etc.
Cutscene Power to the Max: Jumps hundreds of feet, throws skyscrapers at World of Nothingness and deflects millions of energy blasts during cutscenes, usually via Reaction Commands.
Dark Is Not Evil: Sora can use darkness in limited circumstances without losing his morals, sanity, or sentience. He first became a heartless in Kingdom Hearts I when he freed Kairi's heart from his own heart, and did not lose his sanity, morals, or sentience unlike most other Heartless. In Kingdom Hearts II, he sometimes fails to transform into any form other than Final Form and turns into Anti-Form when he fails, but he still does not lose his sanity, morals, or sentience. In Kingdom Hearts 3D, the Shadowbreaker deck command causes him to perform a dark attack and a light-based attack. In the same game, Xemnas damaged Sora's heart, allowing darkness to finally corrupt him. In Kingdom Hearts III, he can voluntarily use his Rage Form, a dark form, when he survives massive damage in a short amount of time, which turns him into a dark being, without losing his sanity, sentience, or morals.
- Dark Form, which is Oblivion's Formchange, allows Sora to use Darkness in an even safer fashion than Rage Form. It enables Sora to utilize moves like Dark Break.
Deader than Dead: Played straight, subverted, inverted and reverted. Misusing the Power of Waking has a steep cost, and Sora misused it something fierce by repeatedly using it for time travel. It isn't imprisonment, it isn't death, he is outright erased from existence. Then it gets weirder. Being removed from reality in the Kingdom Hearts universe places you in the realm of unreality, which bluntly refers to fiction or imaginary space. In layman's terms, Sora is little more than an idea, or a memory, now. And yet, there is an entire world that resides in such imaginary space, Quadratum, where Sora and Yozora are currently in. So technically it's still possible to rescue Sora and bring him back, provided one can....figure out just how the hell unreality actually works. Or does not work. Young Xehanort really liked rubbing it into Sora's face about how screwed he was, and he genuinely wasn't downplaying it...
Deadpan Snarker: Becomes a something of an impish, good-natured snarker as the series progresses.
Decoy Protagonist: In 3D he ends up comatose in the finale and Riku has to save him.
Deep Sleep: At the end of CoM, which lasts until the end of the prelude of II. This happened again against his will during the climax of 3D; it seems to lean closer to Big Sleep, considering Young Xehanort's last words to Sora.
Despair Speech: In III, when all the Guardians of Light but him and Riku are defeated by Terranort and The Heartless, he gives one to Riku, telling him that since his friends are his power, he is worthless without them.
Determinator: In Dream Drop Distance, he's able to fight and defeat Xemnas while being immersed in darkness and continuously corroded.
Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Sora has, to date, defeated Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, (possibly the most powerful Heartless in existence and a world in and of itself), nearly every member of Organization XIII (the strongest Nobodies in existence), including its three strongest members, Marluxia (who hit Sora with a De-power upon entering Castle Oblivion), Roxas, and Xemnas (who, as Twilight Xemnas, obtained the full power of an artificial Kingdom Hearts and became the single most powerful character in the series according to invokedWord of God). He did have help for several of these fights, but it's still notable.
Dimensional Traveler: One of Sora's duties in the first Kingdom Hearts is to seal the keyhole of every world he visits, protecting that world's heart from the Heartless.
Dishing Out Dirt: His "Quake" sleight in Chain of Memories.
Disney Death:
- He was temporarily turned into a Heartless during the first game.
- It happens again in 3D in an even more tragic way.
Divergent Character Evolution: An odd case of this happening with the same character. In Chain of Memories, he got a lot of powerful sleights that were magical in nature, while in II he was more of a physical Lightning Bruiser with magic still being useful, but less powerful and in less variety. Fastforward to 3D and Sora is a Magic Knight with an emphasis on the "Magic" side once more, but with much better defense stat-wise.
Dreaming of Things to Come: In a sense, the dream sequence from Kingdom Hearts can be considered this, albeit rather vague until one does a second playthrough. The scene where Riku offers his hand to Sora as a tidal wave comes crashing down on them, then Sora being unable to grab Riku's hand as the water current pulls him away is eerily similar to when Destiny Islands is invaded by Heartless, where Riku is teleported away by the darkness, with Sora being unable to reach his hand. Then there are the platforms with each of the Princesses of Heart that have been captured by Maleficent, who Sora meets much later on in his quest.
Dual Wielding:
- Uses two Keyblades in his "Valor", "Master", and "Final" Drive Forms.
- The Double Form Formchange allows Sora to regain the ability to dual-wield once more, albeit exclusively with Oathkeeper and Oblivion.
- Element Form allows Sora to dual-wield guns in the form of the Double Arrowguns.
Dude, Where's My Respect?: A common theme for Sora. Despite being a very competent hero who has saved countless people, Sora is often treated as a simple kid. And as of Dream Drop Distance, he's still not technically considered a Keyblade Master, even though most would argue he really deserves the title by this point, Yen Sid included.
Dying as Yourself: In II, get slaughtered in Anti Form and Sora is reverted back to normal - in contrast with every other Drive Form, which maintains during the death shot and game over screen.
Electric Torture: Sora gets an electric shock from grabbing Auron's statue in the Underworld.
- And in the manga adaptation, Sark tortures Sora to stop the teenager from attacking him.
Elemental Powers: Develops (and loses) many kinds of magical elemental powers as the series progresses.
Elemental Weapon: In II the Bond of Flame, Mysterious Abyss and Photon Debugger keyblades boost Sora's elemental damage with Fire, Ice, Lightning respectively, making them key for strategies that rely heavily on Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors.
The Empath: It's stated that Sora's most powerful weapon is the ability to "connect his heart with anyone." This is deconstructed in Dream Drop Distance as Master Xehanort, realizing that "everyone" includes himself, uses the malleable nature of Sora's heart against him to very nearly turn him into his thirteenth Soul Jar. Taken slightly further in III, where it's shown that the connection can go both ways - if someone's Sora's connected to feels pain, Sora will feel it as well.
Endearingly Dorky: Just look at the way he smiles when Donald and Goofy ask him to smile, in both the game and the manga adaptation. He's also not afraid to act a little silly on occasion.
Equivalent Exchange: Sort of, though only in one game. In the very first Kingdom Hearts, Sora could choose to specialize in either Attacking, using Magic, or his Defense; however, in exchange, he had to give one of the other two up and therefore be weak in that area. Depending on what you choose, you gain different abilities at different levels, and some level-up bonuses are exclusive to certain choices.
Even the Loving Hero Has Hated Ones: Sora rarely has genuine hate for any foe he comes across, but by the events of III, he has come to express genuine contempt and hatred for some villains.
- He develops a personal dislike of Xemnas after learning how he lied to the Organization about being able to regain their hearts. It's telling that the event that causes Sora to fall to darkness is the sheer fury he unleashes during his ensuing fight with Xemnas.
- Young Xehanort and Xigbar also earn his hate for their pivotal part in Master Xehanort's schemes, and for nearly turning him into one of their vessels. While Sora expresses sympathy for Xigbar upon his apparent demise, Sora remains spiteful towards Young Xehanort to the end.
- Prince Hans earns Sora's hate instantly as Sora can immediately sense his evil intent as well as the hidden darkness in his heart. Sora immediately concludes that if Hans must die for Elsa's sake, so be it.
- Davy Jones earns his wrath when he proves he is beyond redemption by virtue of being a Card-Carrying Villain who laughs at the idea of love, and stabs Will Turner in the chest. Sora doesn't even draw his Keyblade, he simply screams and physically assaults the undead captain.
  - Sora also once held great hate for Hector Barbossa, as he left Sora and friends for dead on the rigged to explode Interceptor. While Barbossa's Heel–Face Turn eased the hate somewhat, Sora never truly trusts or forgives him. However, it clear by the end of The Caribbean that Sora rightfully hates Jones more than he ever hated Barbossa.
- By the end of III, he develops a personal hatred against Master Xehanort for destroying Kairi's body. This is when Master Xehanort stops being just the main villain to take down and becomes a very personal enemy of his.
Everyone Can See It: Riku seemed to like teasing him about Kairi throughout the early parts of Kingdom Hearts I (though clearly out of his own jealousy at the time), usually getting a flustered reaction from Sora. Then Donald and Goofy get in on the act come II, with mostly the same results. In Halloweentown, Donald and Goofy immediately pick up that Sora is speaking about Kairi when he begins musing about a gift for someone after witnessing Jack and Sally's romantic dance.

F-K

Fanboy: Likely a result of his islander life, Sora has a fondness for pirates. In Kingdom Hearts, Sora has a toy ship in his room and wishes to be captain of the raft. When thinking about what to tell Kairi of his journey, Sora pinpoints flying and pirates as the best parts. In Kingdom Hearts II, Sora is awed to meet Jack Sparrow, a genuine pirate, whom respectfully calls "captain". In Kingdom Hearts III, Sora is gifted a ship by Calypso while in The Caribbean; he is ecstatic to finally have his own ship, so he can "sail free as the wind". He shows interest in learning about the Pirate Code from Jack, in order to better act as a pirate.
Fighting Your Friend: Fights Riku in I, II (without realizing) and 3D (albeit unwillingly). The first two times, Riku is the boss but the third is where Sora, as the Armored Ventus Nightmare, is the boss.
Flanderization: He has become more and more of a Keet and Idiot Hero as the series has gone on, and his status as an All-Loving Hero has gotten more and more literal. Sora can have occasional flashes of intelligence, like in Dream Drop Distance, when he figures out a major piece of setting lore that had eluded scientists and veteran Keyblade Masters alike for over a decade, and does it entirely unaided — the rest is pretty accurate, especially the All-Loving Hero part, best exemplified in III.
Fish out of Water: Considering that he comes from a rural area, Sora practically acts like a tourist whenever he visits other worlds and is fascinated with what he sees. In addition, he is also not up to date with technology or familiar with the cultural differences on other worlds or even a simple gesture like a fist bump.
Flash Step: A lot of Sora's attacks are very quick. In Kingdom Hearts II, Trinity Limit teleports you to the enemy instantly, and one of the combo finishers in Final Form is three flash steps in a row. Some reaction commands also trigger a flash step, for example Warp Snipe. In the Final Mix version, you gain Flash Step and Zantetsuken, which cross distances instantly while attacking. The Slide Roll dodge move from Dream Drop Distance also qualifies.
Flying Weapon: Three variants in Kingdom Hearts II. He has one flying Keyblade before his left hand in Master Form, two telepathically-moved ones in Final Form, and two floating alongside his one normal one when he steals Roxas' Keyblades in their Duel Boss fight.
Friendly Rivalry: As kids on Destiny Islands, as well as once they truly reunite near the end of Kingdom Hearts II. Between that, Riku was at times a Rival Turned Evil.
Friend to All Living Things: The ones that aren't inherently homicidal, anyway. At the end of Dream Drop Distance, not only does he find his Dream Eaters waiting for him back in Traverse Town, it seems likely thousands of others showed up to hang with him as well. He goes from attacking Organization members on sight (because he was told they have no hearts and thus are evil) to demanding how Xemnas could be so cruel to them once he learns they did have hearts.
Fusion Dance: Drive, a mechanic from KH2, will fuse Sora with one or both party mates. The physical attack-oriented Valor Form fuses with Goofy and the magic-focused Wisdom Form uses Donald, while the more well-rounded options will fuse with both party members. (However, these party members will still appear in cutscenes.)
The Ghost: For much of 358/2 Days, Sora is left unseen since the story is told from Roxas' perspective, although his actions ^note are all mentioned.
Glass Cannon:
- Sora's Anti-Form in KH2 maximizes his attack, but minimizes his defense and removes any way of recovering health.
- Rage Form in III works much the same way as Anti-Form from II, but it does let the player recover health. However, its strongest abilities come from using the "Riskcharge" power, which takes away a chunk of health to increase attack power. The strongest attack of Rage Form can only be used after draining Sora's health this way four times, making Rage Form Sora extremely powerful but very easy to take down.
Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: The Gleeful to Riku's Grumpy. Sora is a energetic and kindhearted hero who is always with a bright smile in his face and with a cheerful attitude, and uses light-related abilities. Riku, by contrast, is much more calm and composed as well as more troubled and brooding and doesn't smile very often.
Good Is Not Soft: Sora will absolutely fight any villains he has to. He has no problems attacking women (like Ursula or Maleficent) and children (like Lock, Stock and Barrel). He keeps his All-Loving Hero status but anyone who harms his friends is far game. Just ask Jafar, Ursula, or more recently Master Xehanort.
Go Out with a Smile:
- In the first game, he gives Donald and Goofy a big, goofy grin before performing a Heroic Sacrifice that results in his death. Which doesn't last.
- Happens again in III, where he gives Kairi a gentle smile before he mysteriously fades away.
Graceful Loser: He took his failing to pass his first Mark Of Mastery Exam extremely well, as he was content knowing that Riku succeeded.
Gravity Master: The "Gravity" series in Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories, "Magnet Spiral" in Re:Chain of Memories and Dream Drop Distance, "Magnet" series in Kingdom Hearts II, and also "Collision Magnet", "Magnet Spiral", and the "Zero Gravity" (including the powerful fourth-tier spell "Zero Graviza") series in Dream Drop Distance.
Grievous Harm with a Body: Occasionally grabs an enemy (or ally) to attack the others with, such as Demyx's water clones and some of the Spirit type Dream Eaters.
Grin of Audacity: Often has one on his face.
Guest Fighter:
- He appears in World of Final Fantasy as a playable character, wearing his outfit from Dream Drop Distance.
- He's the final DLC character for Fighters Pass 2 in Super Smash Bros. Ultimate, and the final Smash DLC character overall.
Guns Akimbo: Sora can transform his Keyblade so that he wields one pistol in each hand to fire magic blasts in III.
Hairstyle Inertia: Since Sora was a kid, he has always had the same spiky, Anime Hair. It does change very slightly from game to game, becoming spikier in II compared to I and shorter in III compared to II, but it's generally always recognizable.
Half-Dressed Cartoon Animal: In the Monsters, Inc. world, Sora becomes a furry, humanoid monster and wears only his jacket and gloves◊.
Hand Behind Head: One of his character tics, which he may or may not have inherited from Ven.
Handy Mouth: While in the Pride Lands, Sora wields the keyblade in his mouth due to taking on a lion form.
Healing Hands: He can learn the "Cure" series of spells.
Heart Is an Awesome Power: His main weapon other than the Keyblade.
Hero Protagonist: He is the primary protagonist of the series as a whole, and has taken out many of the biggest threats that the universe has ever seen, most notably Ansem, Xemnas, and Master Xehanort.
Heroic BSoD: Happens in KH3, when the other Guardians of Light apparently had fallen to the Heartless swarm. For the first time, he is pushed to tears, his will broken, breaking his usually cheerful persona. He does rebound this quite quickly.
Heroic Resolve: When Sora learns that his best friend is being possessed by an evil scientist and that his (girl)friend, who he has been searching for, has been trapped in his own heart all this time, he seems to be too shocked (and probably also too confused) to fight against the aforementioned scientist, who plans to steal Kairi's heart from Sora, by kinda killing him... until Kairi's voice calls out to him from inside his mind. As soon as Sora hears her, he jumps up and shouts that "There's no way you're taking Kairi's heart!" We get a similar scene later in the game, before the final boss battle: Sora is falling down into a dark abyss and seems to be lost, until Riku's voice tells him not to be such a wimp. He then pulls himself together and uses the power to fly by happy thoughts, which he obtained in Neverland.
Heroic Sacrifice:
- Unlocked his own heart with the Keyblade of Heart to save Kairi in KHI, turning him into a Heartless. He gets better thanks to a Cooldown Hug from Kairi.
- Implied at the end of III. Sora manages to find Kairi and revive her with the Power of Waking, but apparently at a heavy cost. It's unclear exactly what's happened to him, but Sora's either dead or unable to return to Destiny Island after the ending plays out. He's last seen with Kairi at their usual spot before he disappears. Subverted in the Secret Ending. It is revealed that Sora is "alive", in some context, but somehow transported to a world resembling Shibuya.
He Who Fights Monsters: It's lightly hinted of this in the second game, based on how much more ruthless, aggressive and rude he's toward the enemies than he was in the first game, specially towards the members of the Organization XIII. While partly half the reason is because he had been a Heartless once, half the reason why he turns into his Anti-Form is because of the dark emotions that have started to develop in him due to the constant fighting. So far it hasn't been that serious but it has been further hinted in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep with Vanitas, the embodiment of the darkness in Ventus's heart, looking almost exactly like Sora and possibly being one of the personalities that occupy his heart, and Master Xehanort, the Big Bad, revealed to be Sora's Evil Counterpart; things that might be some form of Foreshadowing of something big that will come.
- Confirmed, as Sora has actually stored up a lot of darkness; since he didn't know how to control the darkness, it winds up nearly destroying his heart and almost caused him to become a Xehanort clone.
Hidden Depths: He's goofy, and a bit of a ditz, but has a powerful heart and an innate understanding of light and darkness. Played up with his Drive Forms in KHII, which are explicitly his "hidden depths made manifest". He also knows how to sing and dance as he waltzes with Ariel in Atlantica and sings along to several of the songs and he's actually in tune.
Hijacked Destiny: The Keyblade he wields was originally supposed to be Riku’s. Riku briefly manages to regain in Kingdom Hearts but had fallen so far to the darkness by that point that the Keyblade ultimately decides to remain with Sora after he proves himself worthy.
Hope Bringer: Considering how Aqua cried a tear of joy when she learn that Sora had been protecting the worlds in her and her friends' place. Plus when Riku mentioned Sora's name to a in-training Mickey, he said it made him smile. There's even a segment in Kingdom Hearts III's opening sequence showing him literally cleaving through the darkness to let the light reach all of the victims of Xehanort's machinations throughout the series.
Hopeless with Tech: Anything related to computers goes directly over Sora's head, implying that the technology of his home world never progressed that far. Donald and Goofy at least have prior experience with computers, as there are some at Disney Castle, but aren't much better with them than Sora is.
- In Kingdom Hearts II, Sora is shown to be unable to type on a keyboard properly. When trying to find Riku and Kairi in the Radiant Garden database, he types in a few keystrokes at random, hoping that does something. When it inevitably doesn't, Sora starts smashing the keys.
- In Kingdom Hearts III, Sora flat out admits "I can't computer." When Pence and Ienzo are setting up a network between Twilight Town and Radiant Garden's computers, Sora is completely lost, unable to understand things like "logging in," or even what a computer network is. Eventually, Sora falls asleep, and when he wakes up, Pence and Ienzo have to explain in very basic terms what they just did.
- Sora has to have Jiminy explain what a phone is. When the Gummiphone first rings, Sora doesn't even know how to answer it, just managing to randomly guess right and pick up.
Hot-Blooded: Sora has a fiery personality. He's always ready to go to adventures and when in battle, he turns into a Screaming Warrior. He's not the type to strategize and often charges headfirst into danger and is always impulsively risking his own life for people he doesn't know.
Hulking Out: Rage Form is Sora's inner darkness that can be unleashed if Sora takes loads of damage in a short amount of time and manages to survive all of the damage. Rage Form bears many similarities to Anti-Form, including its Heartless-like appearance, Magic and Items being sealed, and its feral style of attack, but unlike Anti-Form, Rage Form prominently uses the Keyblade, it has to be triggered manually to activate, it doesn't block healing (and is the only Formchange that fully heals Sora on use), and it can also be manually cancelled by using any other Situation Command. During the final battle, Xehanort uses the χ-blade to rob Sora of his light, forcing him to transform into Rage Form until Sora attacks Xehanort enough to steal back his light.
I Am Not Pretty: In the earlier games Sora was cute in a boyish way, but as he got older he became an ultra-pretty Bishōnen along with all the other pretty boys in the series. There’s moments however, such as in the video game store at Galaxy Toys, where Sora sees Yozora (the character Rex thinks he's a toy of) for the first time and says, "Well, I never looked this good."
I Got Bigger: Sora ages noticeably between games after Chain of Memories, being much taller and more mature looking (to the point that he needs new clothes since he's outgrown his old ones) in the second game than the first, and looking even more mature in Kingdom Hearts III. He goes back to his original height and appearance in Dream Drop Distance, but goes back to normal once he leaves the Sleeping Worlds. Also an example of Art Evolution.
I Will Find You: He spends a lot of time in KHII asking people whether they've seen any sign of Riku. Culminates in him dropping to his knees and openly sobbing once he does.
Iconic Item: The Kingdom Key. The most iconic Keyblade in the series, as it appears within each game of the series, and frequently serves as the default Keychain for cutscenes. In Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, it is the only Keychain that Sora can visibly use. The Kingdom Key draws out the true power of Sora's Keyblade, even though it is not the strongest Keychain. As such, it is the true form of his Keyblade. He first wielded it when Riku opened the door in the Secret Place and allows the Heartless to invade Destiny Islands. Riku chooses to accept the darkness and vanish into a portal of darkness. However, Sora touches the light in Riku's heart, forging and gaining access to the Kingdom Key in the process.
- The Oathkeeper and Oblivion Keychains, which symbolize his connections to Kairi and Riku.
Ideal Hero: In contrast to Riku's Anti-Hero. Despite being more awkward than is usual for the trope, Sora fits the build as he has very few character flaws and is generally the shining example of what a Keyblade wielder of the Realm of Light should be.
Idiot Ball: In II, he actually falls for Mulan's laughably poor attempt to pass for a man.
Idiot Hero: Downplayed in that Sora's not so much an idiot as he is naïve and ignorant of the other worlds and the behind the scenes machinations but he can still be dense at points to where Goofy plays straight man to him.
I'm Crying, but I Don't Know Why: This has been happening to him since he was four years old. When he feels Ven's pain in Sleep, when part of him recognizes the Twilight Town kids from Roxas's Lotus-Eater Machine, and when he meets Xion for the first time in 3D.
I'm Taking Her Home with Me!: He begs Hiro to let him take Baymax with him. Hiro, of course refuses, despite there being two Baymaxes after the previous one, which was turned into a Heartless by Dark Riku, is restored.
In a Single Bound: As a part of Cutscene Power to the Max, he leaps dozens of meters in the air while assaulting the Nobody fortress in the World That Never Was in Kingdom Hearts II. It's quite possible that this is Justified though, as worlds that close to the darkness are known to have strange physics.
In the End, You Are on Your Own: In Kingdom Hearts, it looks like the final battle against Ansem would be a one-on-one duel to the death above the "World of Chaos" battleship. However, as soon as Sora gets some breathing room, he turns tail and raids the battleship until he frees Donald and Goofy from their prisons, and only then does he face Ansem for real. Also defied in the final battle of III, as he faces Xehanort along with Donald and Goofy.
Incorruptible Pure Pureness: Actually doesn't go evil when turned into a Heartless in Kingdom Hearts. He, Donald, and Goofy prove very resistant to Darkness in general, being able to take short dips into the Realm of Darkness without ill-effects. Kingdom Hearts II played with this to humorous effect by having Sora susceptible to various temptations (Deposing Scar and stealing his throne in the Pride Lands or becoming a Pirate with Jack Sparrow) and being on Santa's naughty list. It's fully subverted in Dream Drop Distance where Sora is overcome by Darkness when tricked into going into a very deep layer of dreams. Because he sheltered Ventus's heart within his own, he was able to get a last-ditch defense against it and avoid being annihilated altogether. Even then, his inner self was hijacked by darkness and Riku had to purify him manually.
Informed Flaw:
- Master Yen Sid throws Sora into the Dream Worlds in 3D to train under the notion that Sora's self-taught style is going to be insufficient to handle the upcoming battles, to which Sora objects. It's hard to disagree with Sora when all the amazing things he could already do in I and II were done with no formal training at all. He'd already beaten Xehanort and his forces several times by that point.
- In III, the story frequently states that Sora can't do anything without someone there by his side, and that's the reason why he failed the Mark of Mastery exam. Previous games show Sora defeating plenty of enemies and managing to survive even when his friends weren't around. And the reason why he failed the Mark of Mastery exam is because Xehanort hijacked the exam and put Sora into a deep nightmare that put his heart to sleep by the darkness, as Xehanort wanted to make Sora his final vessel for his new Organization. Also, Sora unlocked all seven sleeping keyholes (which was his and Riku's task for the exam), but Xehanort interfered and caused most of Sora's powers to be stripped away from him, including the new power he was supposed to acquire for unlocking the seven sleeping keyholes known as the Power of Waking. This all means that, by any metric, Sora passed the exam and proved to be just fine on his own, with Yen Sid even stating that he deserves to be a True Keyblade Master along with Riku. Yet the series acts like Xehanort's interference somehow invalidates Sora doing exactly what was asked of him.
Innocent Blue Eyes: Sora usually has these by default, being fun-loving and kind.
Instant Expert: Played with. He's just an islander kid, but wields the keyblade relatively well upon receiving it despite having no formal training. Justified as while the games itself don't openly acknowledge it, the manga has Sora comment on having been play swordfighting with Riku since they were little, a fact that's confirmed with numerous flashbacks over the series that shows him and Riku playing with wood swords as little kids. The skills he learns as he levels up in-game are him refining his technique.
Instant Runes: Ultimate Form produces these as part of its attacks.
Invisibility: The "Vanish" command in Chain of Memories and Dream Drop Distance.
Invisible Parents: Though clearly someone cooked dinner and took Sora out to play, you never actually see Sora's parents. Only his mom is confirmed to exist, in that she says two lines of dialogue from off-screen in the first game. They are both mentioned in some of the games.
In the Hood: Subverted. Every one of Sora's outfits to date has featured hooded jackets, but aside from some Final Mix artwork, he's never been seen with the hood up. Quite curious for a series that normally loves this trope almost as much as Assassin's Creed.
Irony: In the series as a whole Sora being a Keyblade wielder is this. Sora gets chosen as the wielder of the Keyblade from the realm of light, despite never having gone through the Inheritance Ceremony. For extra irony, Sora finally does go through the official Inheritance Ceremony, at the end of III, with Master Xehanort being the one to perform it.
It Was with You All Along:
- Sora spends the majority of the first game looking for Riku and Kairi. Later on, he learns that Kairi's heart has been separated from her body. It is eventually revealed that her heart was within him the whole time, having taken refuge in him the night the Destiny Islands were destroyed.
- It is confirmed in the Ultimania for Dream Drop Distance that Sora has had the Power of Waking at least since the ending of that game, as it says he used the power to meet the Spirits at the end. This explains why he was able to use it in III without proper training.
Jack of All Stats: Compared to Keyblade Wielders like Aqua, Ventus, and Terra, Sora has no particular specialties. He's good at melee combat, good at magic, and has a plethora of special forms and support abilities to help him out. Sora doesn't have the magical finesse and variations of Aqua, Sora's mobility and movement speed aren't quite as good as Ven's, and Terra seems to be more physically powerful. Yet Sora is still good at all of these things; he's just not the best at any of them. The one thing Sora seems to do better than anyone else is attract people to his cause very quickly.
Jerk with a Heart of Gold: In both game and manga canon, Sora has shown to be quite rude, short-tempered and mischievous at times. He grows out of the first two after the events of Chain of Memories.
Jump, I'll Catch You!: During a visit to the Hundred Acre Wood, Piglet is blown in the blustery wind and ends up on a high tree. Sora and Pooh come over and the former says this trope. Piglet gathers his courage and jumps. Sora misses him, but Pooh doesn't.
Keet: Sora is cheerful, happy-go-lucky, and always excited about something. He gushes over how cool everything in each world he visits is and is never afraid to show just how much he appreciates the people he cares about.
Killer Rabbit: Pay the Pride Lands a visit in Kingdom Hearts II and Sora turns into one of these. A cute little lion cub who is more than capable of taking on all the Heartless the world can offer, including the effing ginormous Groundshaker.
Kindhearted Simpleton: Has steadily been flanderized into this as his childlike kindness waxed while his temper and desire for justice waned. Just how much of a Kindhearted Simpleton he is varies Depending on the Writer. III rerails him into less of a Simpleton but keeps the kindness.
Knighting: Sora's Knight Erranting earns him an official knight's title in 3D as a Royal Musketeer of then-Princess Minnie, at least in the Sleeping Worlds.

L-P

Lazy Bum: invokedSeries creator Tetsuya Nomura has compared him to a humble country bumpkin, and Kairi actually calls him this after Sora wakes up from the prologue dream. Of course, he appears mostly physically active in the story, but perhaps that's only from his current circumstances.
Leitmotif: "Sora", which can be heard in Kingdom Hearts II when he first wakes up. His theme is notable for being pretty much the only character theme to have a cheerful tone; the rest of them are either soothing, mournful, or brooding.
Le Parkour: Flowmotion, the over-the-top nature of it isn't just pure athleticism however but as observed by Gogo in San Fransokyo to have gravity magic to thank for it.
Leeroy Jenkins: Sora can be quite impulsive when it comes to helping people, as he tends to jump into things without thinking them through beforehand. This is actually the reason why Master Yen Sid chose to not tell Sora about Aqua's whereabouts in the Realm of Darkness as he knew Sora would just try to jump in to rescue her with or without the proper means, which is later proven true by Sora's comments (partly influenced by Ven's heart) in KH3.
Let X Be the Unknown: The X on his clothes in 3D. It's known as the Recusant's Sigil, which marks the target as a possible vessel for Xehanort and allows the villain to track his victims; Ansem the Seeker of Darkness was able to sneak it onto the costume at the beginning of the game without anyone noticing.
Light 'em Up: Most of Sora's special attacks are light powered, like Ragnarok, Ars Arcanum, Faith/Holy, Salvation, the "Spark" series, and Trinity Limit.
Light Liege, Dark Defender: He and Riku eventually develop this sort of relationship, with Sora as the Light Liege to Riku's Dark Defender. Multiple characters compare them to light and dark◊ over the course of the series, usually stating afterward that you can't have one without the other. As for protectiveness, Riku is more or less Sora's champion at this point.
Lightning Bruiser: In Kingdom Hearts II, Sora is faster and stronger than any other playable protagonist in the series (barring King Mickey from the same game). Sora is basically the embodiment of this in III, much faster than Aqua was in 2.8.
Living Toy: Gets turned into one in the Toy Story world.
Locked Out of the Fight: In III, Sora, Donald, Goofy and Aqua head to Land of Departure to rescue Ven. Vanitas then shows up to take him. Despite Sora's concern for her as she was only recently freed from the Realm of Darkness, Aqua feels she's been seen as weak too often and decides to face Vanitas herself, erecting a barrier around her and Vanitas. This trope backfires on her, as not only does it stop Sora from interfering with the fight, but it also stops him from saving Aqua when Vanitas knocks her down with a cheap shot. Sora helps Ven wake up in time for Ven to shatter the barrier and save her.
Locked Out of the Loop: Yen Sid and Mickey keep Sora out of the loop on where they think Aqua had gotten to on the grounds that if they told Sora, he'd probably rush into the Realm of Darkness with no plan on how to find her or get out.
- In II he has no idea what the full story behind Roxas is until the very end of the game.
Magically Inept Fighter: Sora can become one if he accepts the sword and rejects the wand in his Dive to the Heart.
Magic Knight: Sora is equally skilled in both swordplay and sorcery, a Jack of All Stats in that respect compared to some other Keyblade wielders. In 3D though, he leans more on the "Magic" side of this in terms of stats, having worse strength than Riku, but only slightly better magic.
Magnetic Hero: He is explicitly stated to have the power to connect with anyone. Doing so ties into his Power Copying mechanics
Making a Splash: The Aqua Splash spell in Chain of Memories and Water series of spells in III.
Many Spirits Inside of One: As of Dream Drop Distance, Sora is confirmed to host three additional hearts in addition to his own. The oldest, Ventus, has been taking refuge within him since he was 4 years old. The second, Xion, goes to him after her defeat in Days. The last one to enter is Roxas during the prologue of II. Not to mention the major twist in I that Kairi's heart has been residing inside him since the destruction of Destiny Islands, forcing him to sacrifice himself so the final keyhole can be opened. By the end of III, everyone has gotten out.
Master of All: A prodigy Keyblade wielder, nearly as good a mage as specialized mages, except he has a wider spell pool, being able to use several of the other characters' character-exclusive spells, and a Lightning Bruiser who can take more damage than the party tank. He was Unskilled, but Strong, except he matured out of that. The punchline being that he even stops to wonder for a moment if he even needs to get official training, since he'd already saved the universe a few times when it's offered to him.
Master of Unlocking: His Keyblade lets him open almost anything.
Master Swordsman: Gets very good with using a Keyblade.
Meaningful Name: Sora means "sky" in Japanese, and fittingly, he's a connecting element between all the characters in the story.
Kairi's Letter: "There are many worlds, but they all share the same sky—one sky, one destiny."
Microbot Swarm: The Keychain that Sora gets from San Fransokyo is the Nano Gear, whose Formchange turns into a conglomerate of microbots for combo attacks taken from almost every other Formchange in the game, plus a Baymax rocket fist and a set of Kreitech portals.
Mind Hive: Through various events during the course of his life, he has become a Soul Jar for Roxas, Xion, Ventus, Vanitas, a digital copy of Ansem the Wise, and temporarily Kairi. Master Xehanort even tries to exploit this in 3D by questioning where they end and he begins.
Mirror Character:
- Master Xehanort, the Big Bad, and Sora, The Hero, both grew up on Destiny Islands and became Keyblade wielders. Both became a sort of composite being (Xehanort steals the bodies and hearts of others to extend his life, while Sora lets others share his body and heart to extend their lives), and both became a Heartless and a Nobody.
- For all his talk of how he and Roxas are two completely different individuals, Sora can be just as aggressive, short-tempered and blunt as Roxas is. Insisting that he's nobody else but himself just like the former does, he can also be cocky, arrogant and confident during fights again just like Roxas does.
Morphic Resonance: No matter the form he takes, Sora always retains his spiky hair.
Morph Weapon: Sora gains the Formchange system in III, allowing him to transform his Keyblade into various weapons like the Lingering Will and No Heart could. Each Keyblade has its own unique transformation, sometimes with a second transformation attached:
- The Kingdom Key doesn't transform, but instead grants Sora the Second Form transformation, giving him many of his iconic moves from the first two games. Starlight has the same transformation, but with a new custom finishing move called Ancient Light.
- Hero's Origin transforms into Counter Shield, which can absorb enemy attacks by blocking and then return them as a powerful flurry. Grand Chef transforms into Frying Pan, which is identical aside from having fire effects instead of lightning ones.
- Shooting Star transforms into Double Arrowguns, which function almost exactly like Xigbar's signature weapons, including the ability to rapid-fire them by holding down R2. They they transform again into Magic Launcher, with slower but stronger explosive projectiles. Hunny Spout transforms into Hunny Blasters and Hunny Launcher, which use Edible Ammunition.
- Favorite Deputy transforms first into Hyper Hammer, a weapon focused on wide sweeping attacks, then again into Drill Punch, a single target-oriented Power Fist. Classic Tone transforms into an identical set of weapons called Boom Hammer and Clock Drill.
- Ever After transforms into Mirage Staff, which leaves behind holograms of Sora whenever he dashes that can attack together with him.
- Happy Gear transforms into Quick Claws, then again into Twin Yo-Yos.
- Crystal Snow transforms into Blizzard Claws, which work identically to Quick Claws, but then gain a unique second transformation called Blizzard Blades, giving Sora ice blades on all four limbs.
- Wheel of Fate transforms into High Wind, a spear that can then transform further into Storm Flag, a telekinetically-enhanced staff.
- Nano Gear transforms into Nano Arms, an Infinity -1 Sword that takes the strongest attacks and abilities from each of the other transformations.
- Ultima Weapon transforms into a BFS that grants Sora the Ultimate Form transformation, producing a Storm of Blades with every attack.
- Oathkeeper and Oblivion don't transform, but instead grant Sora the Light Form and Dark Form transformations, giving him moves based off Riku's as well as Roxas & Xion. Each can transform again into Double Form, in which Sora wields both Keyblades and uses the moves that Roxas used during his boss fight in Kingdom Hearts II.
Motif: Crowns. In every appearance, Sora wears a necklace with a crown emblem on it. In Kingdom Hearts 1, he wore a belt on his side made of linked crowns. In Kingdom Hearts 2 Final Mix, completing objectives would reward Sora with different colored crowns to wear. His weapon, the Kingdom Key, has teeth that create the outline of his crown emblem. Official artwork also likes to have Sora wear crowns, such as the box art for Kingdom Hearts HD 1.5
Multi-Melee Master: As of III, both in that Sora can now transform his Keyblade into many different types of weapons and is equally proficient in all of them, and in that he can now equip three different Keyblades at once and swap between them on the fly.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Look at this kid. Beneath the baggy clothes and ridiculously huge shoes, he's... pretty scrawny. You wouldn't think he'd be strong enough to slice skyscrapers in half, take down monsters the size of spaceships, and many of his other feats of strength and power... then you see him do it.
Mutual Envy: At the end of Kingdom Hearts II, he and Riku come to the understanding that they were both always jealous of each other — Sora was jealous that Riku was always better than him at swordplay, whereas Riku was jealous that Sora was able to make a friend with somebody at the drop of a hat. They also both admit that they'll each have something the other can never have — having the other as a friend. When both Sora and Riku realize that they're fine the way they are, this conversation ultimately repairs their friendship.
My Nayme Is: Sora's name is pronounced similar to other names such as Zora, Zola, Sola etc. He even gets called Zola at one point; he didn't take that well.
Neural Implanting: A Data version of Ansem the Wise implanted all of his knowledge into Sora to make sure he can recover should the real Ansem ever suffer from amnesia.
Nice Guy: He's a friendly, upbeat, and outgoing guy who gets on well with a lot of people he encounters throughout his adventures, and will often go out of his way to help others stuck in dangerous situations.
Night and Day Duo: He is the Day to Yozora's Night. Whereas Sora means "sky" in Japanese, "Yozora" translates to "Night Sky". Sora's initial visits to the Final World take place in the daytime, whereas before encountering Yozora it's at night. Sora's home world is the bright, sunny and clear as day Destiny Islands while every scene that takes place in the world of Verum Rex, including the boss fight with Yozora, takes place at night. Finally, this is evident in the names of the relevant musical tracks as well; the music that plays during the FMV where Sora winds up in Quadratum with Yozora looking over is called "Secrets of the Night", and, the theme that plays when fighting him is called "Nacht flügel", which translates to "Night Wing".
Non-Mammalian Hair: His monster form in Monstropolis has fins on his head styled to look like his spiky hairstyle, much like certain characters that debuted in Monsters University.
Not Quite Flight: He has achieved various versions of a "Glide" technique, where he can spread his arms and legs spread eagle to allow himself to float down toward the ground slower than usual, allowing for faster travel while not actually touching the ground. Using this technique is also possible while stationary in the air, allowing for him to simply have a slower descent. Averted as long as he has direct contact with Tinker Bell's magic, however, allowing him to achieve true flight like Peter Pan.
Older Than They Look: In the first game, Sora is already 14, but can pass as a 12-year-old quite easily. And in KH3D, he's back in his 14-year-old body while in the dream worlds, despite now being 15. His appearance in KHII seems to match his age of 15 - 16, though and as well as his KHIII appearance matching that of 15-18.
One-Man Army: Definitely is one in Kingdom Hearts II. While Donald, Goofy and the rest of the Hollow Bastion crew are allegedly dealing with their own foes, Sora takes down literally a thousand Heartless.
Only One Name: Although we know he has parents, we never hear their surname, if they have one. This lack of a last name is lampshaded in 3D.
Sora: "Neku Sakuraba." That's a mouthful!
Neku: No. It's really not.
O.O.C. Is Serious Business: Sora is normally a highly optimistic individual. So much so that absolutely everything possible would have to be going horribly, horribly wrong for him to come even close to crossing the Despair Event Horizon.
- In Kingdom Hearts III, that is exactly what happens at the Keyblade Graveyard. Terra-Xehanort cuts down Ventus and Lea, and then the biggest storm of Heartless ever consumes all his friends, one by one, ending with a Futile Hand Reach when they take Kairi. Sora drops to his knees and screams, proclaiming that everything is over. He helps them all get better (well, most of them; Kairi was serving as the lifeline), but it takes a brief dip into the Final World to even get him to try. Then, at the conclusion of the Skein of Severance, Xehanort puts Kairi in the same situation with a swing of his Key. Even after Xion confirms that Kairi can still be saved, Sora barely even cracks a smile for the rest of the game.
- Sora also gets a few out of character moments in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, occasionally harshly snapping at Donald and Goofy and even at one point telling them to just go home. This is a side-effect of Naminé altering his memories.
- He also has one in Kingdom Hearts II. Sora is normally indignant toward his enemies, but he begs Saïx, on his hands and knees, to let him see Kairi.
Original Generation: Created specifically for the Kingdom Hearts series.
Our Hero Is Dead: Happens To Sora twice so far in the series, both invoked in attempts to save Kairi
- The first time happens in the first game when he stabs himself and turns into a heartless in order to get Kairi’s heart back into her body as well as save the six other princesses of heart. He regains his human form moments later as a result of Kairi’s compassion and light.
- The second time apparently happens in III when he uses the power of waking to restore Kairi after she is struck down by Master Xehanort. He succeeds in saving her but unexpectedly vanishes into thin air. He later winds up alive in the city of Quadratum as shown in the secret movie.
Our Mermaids Are Different: While normally human, in Atlantica, Sora takes the form of a merman with a blue dolphin's tail rather than the local merfolk's standard fish-like tail, thanks to Donald's magic. The difference is purely cosmetic though, as his transformed body otherwise functions exactly the same as Ariel and Triton's.
Our Vampires Are Different: Sora's attire in Halloween Town resembles a vampire, but apart from his white skin, gloves, fangs and eyepatch, Sora is still the same as he is in his normal form. His personality even remains the same, though a bit more childish during the first trip in KHII.
Our Werebeasts Are Different: Sora takes on the appearance of a werecat in Monstropolis.
The Paladin: In 3D, to contrast with Riku's Black Knight. Most of his unique skills are Light -based (and the only skill he has that uses dark powers is "Shadowbreaker"). In addition, he gets a unique block called "Link Block", which lets Sora shield his Dream Eater partners in a way similar to the Paladin class of the Final Fantasy series, and his biggest advantage over Riku in terms of stats is his better defense.
Perky Goth: Takes on a gothic appearance in Halloween Town, but retains his cheerful personality.
Personality Powers: Fittingly for a Messianic Archetype, his powers are Light, Heart, and Friendship.
Plucky Comic Relief: The Destiny Island segment from I creates a dynamic where Riku is far more powerful, confident and serious than Sora, whilst Sora was often the subject of visual gags and taken less seriously in his group of friends. In any other game, Riku would have been the protagonist, but the trope is subverted as Sora takes the role of the hero as Riku is swallowed by darkness.
Poisonous Person: Has the Poison command and Poison Dive in Dream Drop Distance.
The Pollyanna: Is exceptionally positive, no matter how bad the situation looks. In the rare cases where this is subverted, it goes to show just how bad the situation really is.
Post-Final Boss: In 3D as Armored Ventus Nightmare to Young Xehanort's more traditional Final Boss.
Power at a Price: In III, Young Xehanort warns Sora that the Power of Waking, not to mention his jumping through the various parts of The Final World to save his friends, will come with a bill, a warning that turns out to be true once Xehanort is defeated.
Power Copying: While it's not one of his defining powers the way it is for Mega Man or Musashi, Sora has been known to copy moves and powers from some opponents—the special moves from the first game in particular. For example, Strike Raid, which has become one of the series' defining attacks, was originally learned by copying Yuffie's shuriken throwing.
Power Incontinence: In 3D Master Xehanort managed to caused Sora to fall into Darkness by causing his heart's power and connection to others to spiral out of control to the point that it overwhelms him.
The Power of Friendship: His mantra. Sora always believes that people can do anything if they work together, and regularly attributes his power to his friends and connections with them.
- Invoked in 3D. Xigbar states that Sora is probably the weakest Guardian of Light on his own, relying on the strength of his friends and allies to help him. Sora basically cops to this, then throws it back in Xigbar's face by saying that even if what Xigbar says is true, he's fine with it, because it means he can be a part of something greather than himself.
- Deconstructed in III. Xigbar points out that Sora attributes too much of his strength to his friends, and during the climax, he's proven right; when the other Guardians of Light are ensnared by a Heartless swarm and apparently killed, Sora breaks down hard, declaring that since all his strength came from his friends, he's worthless on his own. It reconstructs this later, as Sora's connections allow him to use the Power of Waking, revive them and actually defeat Xehanort empowered by Kingdom Hearts itself.
Prehensile Tail: Sora's lion form normally holds his Keyblade in his mouth, but at one point, he briefly holds it with his tail while opening a new pathway between the worlds.
Pride: Sora can show signs of this, especially in the manga adaptation, much to the constant frustrations of Donald and Goofy. In fact, one of them is even warns Tron to not compliment Sora, otherwise his head will "swell up like a balloon".
Pride Before a Fall: Once lost a battle in the manga adaptation as a result of his overconfidence. He claimed that he would've won if it was a Heartless.
Primary-Color Champion: His outfits all incorporate red, yellow, black and dark blue. They've grown progressively darker over the series to reflect him growing older and more experienced.
Pro-Human Transhuman: He becomes a Heartless after unlocking his heart in Hollow Bastion to let Kairi's heart go to her then-comatose body. Kairi then helps him regain sentience and a form similar to his body, but he remains essentially a Heartless because his body is now running around as Roxas. This trope ends for Sora when he and Roxas finally reunite in II.
Protectorate: To Kairi, twice.
Putting On My Thinking Cap: Whenever he's thinking, he has a tendency to fold his arms across his chest and look upwards.

R-Z

Red Baron: The Keyblade's Chosen One and The Hero of Light.
Red and Black and Evil All Over: Inverted, due to his protagonist status. In each outfit he wears throughout the series (excluding costumes), Sora will wear either red or black. Both colors are used for his outfit in 3D which foreshadows Xehanort's plans for him.
Red Is Heroic: He's The Hero of the series, and almost always wears some degree of red.
The Red Mage: Has access to both elemental and recovery magic. In the first time he arrives at Hollow Bastion in the first Kingdom Hearts game, he is forced into this role because he loses his keyblade which makes his physical attacks against heartless worthless, but his magic still works. He has to use black magic to directly damage any heartless, and he has to use white magic or items to heal Beast when he gets injured. His magic is either great or worthless depending on whether he accepted, rejected, or did neither to his magic during his Dive to the Heart.
Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Riku's blue, being the more emotional, outgoing, and fun-loving of the pair. After Riku's Heel–Face Turn, he works behind the scenes to protect and help his friends, while Sora is much more of a straightforward Action Hero who takes on whatever is causing trouble throughout the many worlds. This seems to be emphasized by his choice of clothing, as there is always some red in all of his outfits.
Reverse Grip: Uses this occasionally, most notably for his Zantetsuken combo finisher. When fighting as the Armoured Ventus Nightmare in 3D, he uses this as a result of the Nightmare utilizing Ventus' style.
Save the Villain: In II, Sora shows genuine concern for and tries to rescue Maleficent when she attempts to hold off the Nobody hordes to allow Sora to escape. Maleficent, having been Sora's enemy up until that point, only did so for Sora to formulate a plan to defeat her other enemies, the Organization, and reassures Sora on the spot as she does it that she still intends full well to kill him and seize Kingdom Hearts once they are dealt with. Nevertheless, Sora is only stopped from jumping in to help her by Donald. Ironically, Maleficent ultimately saves Sora, her allies, and herself using darkness. Although it technically doesn't count, Data-Sora tries and fails to save Maleficent and Pete from getting killed in coded, but as he is a Data-Replica of the real Sora, it holds true that Sora would probably have done the same thing if placed in the same situation.
- In the manga, Sora helped Demyx who was agonizing in the Underworld due to its life-draining effects by sharing with him his Olympus Stone that protects the user from it. This heroic act almost turned into a No Good Deed Goes Unpunished when Demyx attacked them by orders and left Sora unprotected from the curse of the place. Fortunately, Demyx lacked malice enough and gave Sora back the stone.
Screw the Rules, I'm Doing What's Right!: In the first game, Donald and Goofy tell him that they can't meddle in the affairs of other worlds before they leave Traverse Town, but he promptly chooses to ignore it when they see Alice being subjected to a Kangaroo Court; in any event, the sheer scope of the villains' plans eventually makes it impossible not to meddle.
Sealed Inside a Person-Shaped Can: He is the can for the hearts of Roxas, his Nobody; Xion, who was created from his memories; and Ventus, who ended up there because his own heart was put into a decade long coma. He also temporarily held Kairi's heart during the first game.
She Is Not My Girlfriend: In the Chain of Memories manga, Jiminy asked him if he "promised his girlfriend" that he'd return home and Sora immediately said Kairi wasn't his girlfriend.
Shipper on Deck: Tries to hook up some of the canon Disney couples, such as Mulan and Shang. However, he doesn't seem to understand his impact on less up front couples, such as Neku and Shiki.
Ship Tease: Mostly with Kairi and even Riku, but he has a few moments with Ariel and Rapunzel.
Shonen Hair: He even acknowledged himself as one with it when Tifa asked her about Cloud's whereabouts.
Shut Up, Hannibal!: Doesn't buy into Maleficent's nothing can stop me now speech, Ansem's power of darkness rant, or Xemnas' victim card play. Most notably, he completely shoots down Master Xehanort's Motive Rant at the end of III, telling him he's not fit to lead his New World.
Signature Move: Trinity Limit, it's even the attack used to take out Xehanort once and for all.
Sleepyhead: Has a habit of wandering off from his friends to sleep on the beach. Both Riku and Kairi have teased Sora on this more than once.
Smarter Than You Look: Despite being forthright and naturally child-like, Sora is extremely perceptive in matters of empathy and emotions. He's an independent thinker, which other protagonists in the series can't necessarily claim (and have suffered for as a result). Sora's understanding and knowledge of the heart is contrasted heavily with the multiple scientists who've futzed things up in their research. Sora is the only person to go against the grain and figure out that Nobodies have hearts, and the only person to question the wisdom of the Split-Personality Merge that Roxas, Xion, and Naminé went through.
Smug Super: Deconstructed. Sora appears to have confidence in his abilities to the point of slight arrogance; in Dream Drop Distance, Sora initially objects to taking the Mark of Mastery exam under Yen Sid, claiming that he is already unbeatable even after the threat of Master Xehanort has been explained to him. It is only after Master Xehanort damages Sora's heart and almost turns him into a vessel for his own heart when Sora realizes his shortcomings when compared to a Keyblade Master, and humbly accepts his failure of the exam, even after Riku saves him and becomes a Master himself.
Space Cop: Sora is a Keyblade wielder, which automatically fits him in this category. He fights The Heartless, Organization XIII, Master Xehanort, and other threats. He also goes from world to world to restore balance to such worlds and protect them from the forces of evil and darkness. He even fights a lot of Disney villains whenever he finds out about their wicked plans.
Spanner in the Works: Sora ends up derailing every single plan involving him. In II DiZ even makes note of how all plans he had for Sora fell apart once Sora awakened. Also lampshaded by Riku and Master Xehanort in Dream Drop Distance.
Riku: Sora stopped you in your tracks on both counts.
Master Xehanort: Yes, he did. That dull, ordinary boy. A Keyblade wielder so unlike any I have ever seen.
Split-Personality Merge: With Roxas and Xion, while he was in a coma.
Spectacular Spinning: Once you progress in the games and get him some abilities that lengthen his combos, you'll notice that Sora's fighting style involves a lot of spinning, whether it's the Keyblade or himself in midair. And, of course, there's the signature Strike Raid technique.
Squishy Wizard: Sora can become one if he chooses to accept the wand and reject the shield in his Dive to the Heart.
Star-Crossed Lovers: With Kairi. Maybe. Come III, Sora's realized that whenever it seems like they'll be together in some capacity, they end up separated again soon after.
Sora: My whole journey began the day I lost her. And every time I find her... she slips away again.
Status Effects: A part of his arsenal in Chain of Memories and Dream Drop Distance.
- In Chain of Memories, he has "Paralyzed", "Confused", "Frozen", "Stop", and "Fear".
- In Dream Drop Distance, he has "Paralyzed", "Confused", "Stop", "Sleep", "Blindness", "Confused", "Frozen", "Burn", "Poison", and "Slow", along with unconventional effects such as "Mini" and various gravity related effects. However, the focus is most heavily on "Sleep", which has three forms for its spell alone.
Stepford Smiler: It's been implied throughout the series that Sora isn't nearly as bright and cheerful as he projects, but he usually brushes his pain off with a quick laugh and a smile. A notable example from the DLC in III occurs when he notices his hand starting to fade in the Final World, but acts like nothing's wrong in front of Kairi.
Stepford Snarker: Sora uses his dry wit to cope with his hardships, and it’s implied he's well aware of it. The best example of this is him claiming “only one me!” after Xigbar and he have their first encounter in Hollow Bastian.
Stock Shōnen Hero: Sora is an All-Loving Hero who often gets into trouble because of his naivete. He's got the spiky hair, red color scheme, and a strong sense of justice. He's constantly going out of his way and derailing missions to help everyone he comes across, and only grows stronger because of it. Despite being The Un Chosen One, he ends up as one of the most reliable and powerful Keyblade wielders.
Storm of Blades: One move in Sora and Riku's Eternal Session is XIII Blades, where swords revolve around them.
Strong and Skilled: He's evolved into this by KHIII. In addition to his massive natural strength, he can use the Keyblade's full strength, allowing him to do things like turn it into a large variety of different things such as drills, claws, and a giant tower raining down death on everything around him.
Suicide is Shameful: Sora and Riku are willing to kill their evilest foes without much hesitation or remorse (even when not particularly aiming to kill, it almost always ends this way), but seeing Xigbar (one of their worst enemies) "killing himself" by jumping the wall off, was enough to shock them to the core and make Sora raise his hand as if trying to prevent it.
Super Mode: His Drive Forms in Kingdom Hearts II serve as this. Each have their own strengths and weaknesses for the most part, all while granting Sora better mobility with a Growth ability.
- Valor Form: With the help of Goofy, Sora gains heightened power and speed and the ability to wield two Keyblades at once. This form grants the High Jump ability, letting Sora jump even higher. However, he is locked out of magic, which can put him at peril if he can't use his Cure magic.
- Wisdom Form: With the help of Donald, Sora's magic power is heightened. Rather than swing his Keyblade, Sora instead fires energy bullets from his weapon instead. This form grants the Quick Run ability, which allows Sora to perform a quick dash.
- Limit Form: Exclusive to the Final Mix version, this form allows Sora to fight similarly to his past self in the first game. This form grants the Dodge Roll ability, which allows Sora to roll forward to dodge attacks. His moveset is altered, and while he's locked out of magic again, he instead has access to powerful Limits which are powerful abilities he had in the first game.
- Master Form: With the help of both of his friends, Sora's power and magic are both heightened, while giving him more of a focus on aerial attacks. He wields two Keyblades at once again, and his attacks cover a wide area around him. This form grants the Aerial Dodge ability to Sora, which allows him to basically perform a Double Jump which can either be used for mobility or for dodging attacks.
- Final Form: Sora's ultimate Drive Form once again requires the help of both of his friends. Sora's power and magic are heightened even further, and he wields two Keyblades at once yet again. Both Keyblades act automatically and can either attack enemies or protect Sora without his input, adding extra damage to when he's casting spells, or he can still injure his enemies even when he's on the defensive. His attacks are stronger, more relentless, and can cover an even wider area. This form grants the Glide ability to Sora, allowing him to fly around the maps at high speed, which is perfect for getting away from enemies or simply moving from one map to another.
- Anti-Form: This form isn't so much a real form but more of a penalty that occurs when Sora uses his Drive Forms too much, with the exception of Final Form. While this form is powerful, it's also very fragile. Sora has no access to his Keyblade, his magic, his items, or his friends, and instead has to wait out the Form Gauge to return to normal unless he has defeated all enemies in the area, allowing him to cancel this form. His movement speed is impressive and able to outrun most enemies/attacks while attacks are very fast and can incapacitate/juggle most enemies when comboed, but individually the strikes don't do much damage and without any magic or items to heal him, any hits he takes may spell the end of him. He can't even perform any Reaction Commands that could help him in combat. This form also doesn't have any Growth abilities to grant to base Sora, but does have an "Anti-Glide" ability that allows Sora to home in on the nearest target. Also, none of his hits can land the final hit that defeats a boss, forcing him to wait until his Anti-Form wears off before he can defeat a boss. Noticeably, none of Sora's moves deal physical damage in this form but are instead considered a mixture of Neutral and Dark Element, meaning they can't be blocked by foes with resistance/immunity to physical blows.
Superpowered Evil Side: Anti-Form. It takes the form of the Anti Black Coat in 3D.
Super-Toughness: The keyblade magically enhances his durability over time, and as a result, he's tough as nails and not much is able to put him down for any significant amount of time. Even early on in his adventures though, he could survive being Blown Across the Room by Sabor and could tank gunshots from Clayton's rifle.
Supreme Chef: He can become in KHIII with the cooking mini-game from that game.
Symbolic Hero Rebirth: He's subject to two symbolic hero rebirths. Once in the sub-journey that is the first game, when he separates his heart from his body, and again and more fitting of the trope in his series-long character arc when his heart is shattered entirely and he has to put it back together and heal before he gets another chance to pass the official Hero's Test Yen Sid was giving.
Sympathy for the Devil: To Xemnas, as Sora tries to make Xemnas remember of what was it feels like when he still have a heart.
- Unfortunately, this sympathy was useless since in 3D it was then revealed that Nobodies can grow hearts.
- Sora is aghast when Axel kills Vexen after gleefully watching him squirm and beg for mercy. After a few seconds though, this horror turns into disgust and anger at Axel. Sora got over it entirely before long, owing to the fact that Sora really, really hated Vexen.
- While he may hardly be the Devil, Rinzler, due to having once been a version of Sora's friend Tron, receives his sympathy and pity.
- In the manga, he is more prone to sympathize with his enemies. The strongest example was when after defeating Demyx the latter was fading away with tears in his eyes saying he doesn't want to die, which shocked Sora enough to vaporize the Fantastic Racism against No Bodies that everyone implanted in him.
Taken for Granite: In Re:Mind, should Sora lose the Superboss battle against Yozora, there's a Non-Standard Game Over where Sora turns into a crystal statue.
Taught by Experience: Unlike keyblade wielders of the past, Sora is entirely self-taught; learning how to use his keyblade (as a weapon, a Skeleton Key, a Magic Staff and an Ancient Artifact) by wandering into fights in various worlds and learning about its nature one person at a time from people who only knew of it in passing. This is acknowledged in Dream Drop Distance, as Yen Sid compliments him (and Riku) for how much he's accomplished without a master.
Teleportation with Drawbacks: The "Teleport" sleight in Chain of Memories, which is card-dependent.
Teleport Spam: Sora uses this as part of his Ultimate Form in KHIII, closing the distance on his foes before barraging them with a Storm of Blades.
Tender Tears: He cries after he reunites with Riku in KHII.
Throwing Your Sword Always Works: "Strike Raid" and variants. Granted, it's justified in that Summon to Hand is in effect for Keyblades.
Time Stands Still: "Stop" series in Kingdom Hearts, Chain of Memories, and Dream Drop Distance, and "Slow" in the latter.
Took a Level in Badass: The entire series is the story of Sora going from a naive kid with a wooden sword to a hero. Between each game, his Keyblade skills are further refined as evidence of this. In the first game he simply swings it two-handed around like a club, but come II and going into 3D he has much more finesse and technique.
Took a Level in Dumbass: For unknown reasons, Dream Drop Distance dumbed him down into an Idiot Hero rather than his previous characterization as a normal teenager with attitude who knows when to have fun, but can also take things seriously when needed. III returns him to his previous characterization, however.
Took a Level in Jerkass: In Chain of Memories, thanks to his Mind Manipulation, he becomes so obsessed with finding Naminé that he starts acting abrasive to his allies, going so far as to abandon them to explore the twelfth floor. Luckily, they forgive him, he realizes his mistake, and goes back to being a Nice Guy.
- Some of the trauma from the events in Castle Oblivion does subconsciously stick, keeping Sora as far more of a suspicious jerk towards Organization XIII. Which can manifest towards even Nobodies who have seemingly turned to his side as haughty snark such as Axel.
Took a Level in Kindness: In III, Sora has a much better and kinder attitude towards his enemies than in the second game. It's likely that the Tomato in the Mirror reveal in II and finding out the truth about the Nobodies in 3D has made him realize that the members of the Organization aren't just evil monsters like he was led to believe for most of II.
Trapped in Another World: Late in III, Sora's warned that he runs the risk of this or worse happening to him when he misuses the Power of Waking to resurrect the dead. It's a price that he ultimately does pay when he uses it this way one too many times, and the place he finds himself trapped in is Quadratum, a city on the opposite side of reality - fiction.
Trauma Conga Line: By the time Kingdom Hearts III rolls around, it's safe to say that Sora has gone through one in the span of what couldn't be more than a few days at most, which has to be some kind of record. He goes to fight only to watch half his friends get curb-stomped and is nearly swallowed by darkness himself. He decides to use his power to bring his friends hearts back and he goes on to fight the Organization XIII, but halfway through his kind-of-girlfriend gets kidnapped and he has to fight knowing she could be in serious danger. Then he watches her die. Then he goes to fight the Big Bad and manages to defeat him, but it doesn't bring Kairi back. So he sets out on a quest to use his power and bring her back from the dead essentially, and he has to go through everything mentioned above all over again — except this time, he sees everything from the eyes of his friends and feels the pain in their hearts, and can't do anything different this time. He fights his way through a bunch of enemies, manages to piece Kairi's heart back together, and at least manages to earn his happy ending... except he has to face the consequences of abusing the power of waking and fades away from existence. And judging by his reaction when he sees that his hand is fading away, he spends a few days with Kairi knowing that he will die very soon. That's not even getting into all the crap he went through during the previous games. It's a wonder he manages to stay so positive, or even sane.
True Companions: Sora being who he is, it can be a bit of a list.
- Donald, Goofy, Mickey, Riku, and Kairi are essentially one big family, with Ventus, Terra, Aqua, Roxas, Lea, Xion, Naminé, Isa, Hayner, Pence and Olette also being added to the family in KHIII.
- Sora's central party of Donald, Goofy, Stitch, Chicken Little, and Tinkerbell are a very tight knit group and constant companions throughout II (Genie will appear on command, but doesn't appear to be a constant companion), and Sora is very affectionate with Stitch and Chicken Little in particular. Likewise, he is very close to his summoned companions in KHI, especially Mushu and Simba, since he mostly interacts with their bare souls.
- Individually, Sora has formed extremely strong bonds with The Beast ^*, Ariel ^*, Mulan^*, Aladdin and Jasmine ^*, Hercules and Megara^*, Tron^*, and Mushu and Simba as mentioned above.
- In Dream Drop Distance, he obviously cares very much for his Dream Eaters, who in turn have Undying Loyalty to him, waiting faithfully for him in Traverse Town.
- In KHIII, all of the summoning links except for Wreck-It Ralph has been folks that Sora befriended including the aforementioned Ariel and Simba as well as a dream eater. He also forms a good bond with Remy with the cooking mini-game. Finally, Donald and Goofy refuse to let Sora go into the final battle alone, fighting Master Xehanort alongside him.
Turn the Other Cheek: Sora has great capacity of forgiving others, including the villains. Might not be shouted loudly, but his actions proves it.
- He doesn't hate Riku for almost killing him. Instead Sora keeps on looking for Riku, just to make sure he's safe. Upon learning that Riku is walking around in a Black Cloak (until then, with no knowledge that it meant anything other Organization XIII), all he cares about is that Riku is safe.
- He also forgives Naminé for what she has done to his memories of Kairi, though he nevertheless admits that he isn't happy about it either way.
- Surprisingly in the second visit to Hollow Bastion (in KHII), he still has a will to help Maleficent instead of remembering her evil deeds back then; Donald has to physically restrain him to stop him from jumping in to help.
- He also forgives Axel for kidnapping Kairi, and even stays at his side so he doesn't have to die alone.
- He is willing to forgive, or at least thank Ansem for helping Kairi out despite admitting that he is still uncomfortable with his actions before he realizes that he is actually Riku taking his form.
- By the end of III, even after Master Xehanort kills Kairi in front of his eyes, Sora first approach is to try and reason with him. Even after the battle, Sora calmly dismantles Xehanort's philosophy instead of going for the kill.
The Unchosen One: Sora somehow manages to Zig Zag this with The Chosen One.
- A running theme through the games is that apparently Sora was never actually chosen by any Keyblade Master to be a Keyblade wielder. Riku was first in line for the Keyblade, due to Terra's ceremony. Despite this, the Keyblade itself eventually accepted Sora as its true master. Or, as Young Xehanort puts it, it "moved down the list" because everyone else who was fit to use one either already had one or was otherwise indisposed. How much of that is true and how much of it is him just messing with Sora's head is left ambiguous.
  - Aqua (Not aware of Kairi accidentally touching her Keyblade) initially identified Sora as a suitable wielder to pass her Keyblade onto, but she refrained herself from doing so when she noticed that Riku had already partaken in a Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony (and correctly guessing who did) instead tasking Sora to keep Riku safe noting that "one Keyblade is enough for any friendship" as she reels from her own experinces and setting up the right conditions for the events of the first game.
- This is pointed out by Yen Sid during the ending cinematic of A Fragmentary Passage. Even thought Sora failed his Mark of Mastery exam and had his powers all but taken away, the good guys still consider him an invaluable part of their team, their best chance in fact to stopping Xehanort, which is why it was imperative that he seen out a way to regain his strength, even in new ways.
Undeathly Pallor: Sora's skin becomes white in Halloween Town (and Christmas Town) as a result of becoming pseudo-undead. He also takes on a similar tone in Space Paranoids, but for different reasons.
Unnecessary Combat Roll: The "Dodge Roll", whether by Reaction Command or standard command, in all of his games. The tactic allows him to remain invulnerable for a short time (shorter in Dream Drop Distance). The manga for Chain of Memories even lampshades the tactical uselessness of a dodge roll when Marluxia takes all of his skills away.
Sora: So Dodge Roll is just a somersault now?
Marluxia: Like I care.
Unskilled, but Strong: Has no formal training with the Keyblade until 3D, but makes up for it with the strength of his heart, managing to thwart many a villain's plot as a result.
- It's really important to stress this trope with Sora because of how much he lags behind the other Keyblade wielders in many areas. In I, Sora uses the Keyblade awkwardly and clumsily, using it more like a club than a sword. While he slowly gets more skilled with it over time (culminating in some impressive displays of technique and power in CoM and II), Birth by Sleep reveals that Keyblades can transform into a bunch of different unique forms, including gifting their users a set of powerful protective armor, a world-crossing motorcycle, a Wave-Motion Gun, and more. This means that despite absolutely thrashing Ansem, Xemnas, and the entirety of Organization XIII, Sora wasn't even using the full power of the Keyblade. Sora finally figures out how to transform his Keyblade in III and starts using its myriad forms to his advantage, and even then he's unable to pull off a number of the more complicated techniques that Terra, Aqua and Ventus do constantly. And he still defeats Xehanort in the end.
Unwitting Pawn: Spends about as much time enabling the Big Bads' plans as he does derailing them. In essence, he's hard to predict and impossible to kill, but easily manipulated. Things tend to cancel out in the long run.
Upsetting the Balance: In III, Sora is told that using the Power of Waking too many times breaks the natural rules because he's creating something from nothing. He uses it to revive Kairi anyway and is soon erased from the world.
Vader Breath: Sora's breathing starts to become irregular as he goes deeper into The World That Never Was, due to the darkness eating away at his heart. When it finally snaps, Sora is clearly struggling to breathe during his last moments.
Vitriolic Best Buds: To Donald (and, to a lesser extent, Goofy).
- He also has this with Riku have a bit◊ of it◊ together, too.
Vocal Evolution: Haley Joel Osment and Miyu Irino were a few weeks shy of 14 when the first Kingdom Hearts came out in 2002, and were almost 18 when Kingdom Hearts II was released in 2006, leading to a vast difference between Sora's original and current voice. This was reflected in the games as well, with Sora going through puberty. By Kingdom Hearts III, Sora's voice is almost unrecognizable from previous installments.
The Voiceless: In World of Final Fantasy. ^note
Voluntary Shapeshifting: In Kingdom Hearts II, Sora's magical outfit is what caused the party to take on animal forms in the Pride Lands.
Weapon Twirling: Has a habit of twirling his Keyblade a lot in battle.
What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: Lampshaded by Riku (possessed by Ansem) in manga episode 38 "The Other Key" when he asks how a heart can protect anything.
What's Up, King Dude?: He is inexperienced in courtly etiquette, and, although unintentional, Sora initially does not know how to act towards people of higher authority than him, often coming off quite forward, casual and direct to people for whom Donald and Goofy rush to show obeisance such as Yen Sid and Queen Minnie, greeting the former with a casual "Hey there!" and ignoring the latter simply asking "Where's the King?".
What the Hell, Hero?: Sora actually scolds Donald and Goofy for getting themselves captured by some weak Heartless in the manga, whereas in the same scene in the game, he just tells them to "show 'em who's boss" in an annoyed, but encouraging tone.
- Sora calls out Yozora for drawing his sword and crossbow on him while stating that he's there to save him.
  Sora: Huh! Then what's with the weapon!?
Wide-Eyed Idealist: At first. He loses some of the "wide-eyed" as the games go on, but keeps the idealism. Even then, Sora has his moments of cynicism, such as showing some doubt that Beast and Belle will fall in love and break the curse (compared to Goofy, who thinks they will).
World's Best Warrior: Compared to King Mickey's World's Strongest Man. While Mickey's raw power still eclipses Sora (as seen when he takes on and defeats all 13 Replica Xehanorts at the same time), in KH III Sora shows that he's a cut above the rest of the heroes not named Mickey, being a One-Man Army even by Keyblade Master standards and being all around the map during the Final Battle, helping all the heroes with their respective battles. It's made clear that his several universe-saving adventures and the caliber of enemies he has faced as the Hero Protagonist of the series has shaped him into one of the most experienced fighter among the heroes. Noticeably, he's one of the only two Keyblade wielders that Master Xehanort treats as a Worthy Opponent (alongside King Mickey). Add the fact that unlike most users of the Keyblade he's completely self-taught and everything he knows about being a Keyblade wielder before finally receiving training comes from his experiences in combat and saving the universe and this becomes even more impressive as stated by Yen Sid himself. With a little more experience and refining, he could be more than a match for Mickey one day (something the King seems to be good-naturally aware of).
Worthy Opponent: Xehanort, in the same breath, calls Sora a "dull, ordinary boy" while also calling him a Keyblade wielder unlike any he'd ever seen before.
Would Hurt a Child: Well, only evil children/those who work for villains of course, because he's still The Hero after all. As proven whenever he fights Lock, Shock, and Barrel, he doesn't pull his swings against kids even when they're quite a bit younger than himself. In his defense they typically attack him first and he never actually kills them.
Wrong Context Magic: With relation to the individual worlds, Sora as a Keyblade user does things established as impossible in the canons the worlds represent, with some very notable examples in KHII specifically. He's able to kill the Hydra by chopping of all its heads, which should be impossible by the very nature of the beast. He kills Jafar's Genie form directly in combat, despite Jafar's immortality — in his home series, he was actually killed by the destruction of his lamp while he was still bound to it. Finally, and this one's mentioned in the game, he can kill undead pirates in Port Royal, again despite them being immortal.
Yin-Yang Bomb: During the last hit of the Eternal Session Combination Attack, Sora and Riku charge their Keyblades with Light and Darkness, respectively, and crash them into each other for a superpowerful attack combining the two elements.
You Are Not Alone: "Riku, why do you do so many things on your own? You got friends, like us!"
You Can't Go Home Again: Mickey warns Sora about the consequences of misusing the power of waking to restore hearts that have been erased from existence. He pays the price with his existence after he restores Kairi's heart a final time.
Mickey: Sora, listen. The power of waking isn't to go chase hearts around! Even if you do locate Kairi, you might never come home to us again.
You Remind Me of X: After the final battle in III, Xehanort admits that Sora reminds him of Eraqus.
Master Xehanort: You...make me think of an old friend.
"You Used to Be Better" Speech: In II, after Xaldin takes the rose from the Beast and causes him to approach the Despair Event Horizon, Sora tells Beast on how he once bent time and space itself to save Belle from Maleficent and helped Sora motivate his own desire to save Kairi. He then reminds Beast on how much the rose means to everyone in the castle, and how Belle's presence renewed their hope on breaking their curse. This causes Beast to snap out of his despair

"A scattered dream that's like a far off memory...A far off memory that's like a scattered dream...I wanna line the pieces up...yours, and mine."

Characters / Kingdom Hearts: Sora

Due to lengthy periods between releases and the prevalence of Late Arrival Spoilers, spoilers from installments before 2020 may be unmarked. Read at your own risk.

Sora

Voiced by: Miyu Irino (Japanese), Haley Joel Osment (English), Bobby Edner (animated series pilot), Donald Reignoux (French)
Young Sora Voiced by: Takuto Yoshinaga (Japanese), Luke Manriquez (English)

Appearances: I | Chain of Memories | II | 358/2 Days | Birth by Sleep | coded | Dream Drop Distance | 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage- | III | Melody of Memory | IV

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Characters / Kingdom Hearts: Sora

Edit Locked

Due to lengthy periods between releases and the prevalence of Late Arrival Spoilers, spoilers from installments before 2020 may be unmarked. Read at your own risk.

Sora

Voiced by: Miyu Irino (Japanese), Haley Joel Osment (English), Bobby Edner (animated series pilot), Donald Reignoux (French)Young Sora Voiced by: Takuto Yoshinaga (Japanese), Luke Manriquez (English)

Appearances: I | Chain of Memories | II | 358/2 Days | Birth by Sleep | coded | Dream Drop Distance | 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage- | III | Melody of Memory | IV

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Voiced by: Miyu Irino (Japanese), Haley Joel Osment (English), Bobby Edner (animated series pilot), Donald Reignoux (French)
Young Sora Voiced by: Takuto Yoshinaga (Japanese), Luke Manriquez (English)