Tropes applying to the Xehanorts as a whole

• A God Am I: Master Xehanort planned to use the χ-Blade to control Kingdom Hearts, and use its power and knowledge to remake the universe in his idea of perfect balance. His incarnations have similar aspirations and are revealed to have been working towards helping the original achieve his goal in an alternate method.
• Badass: In whatever incarnation he appears, Xehanort is always a badass.
  • Badass Baritone: All his incarnations have very deep voices.
  • Badass Longcoat/Badass Longrobe: Always one or the other.
• Big Bad: Xehanort and his incarnations are almost always the major villains of the game.
  • Hijacked By Xehanort: Aside from Marluxia and Sora's Heartless, every central villain of the franchise is either one of Xehanort's incarnations, is working for one of them, or is one of their Unwitting Pawns, and his connection to the villains of the latest game is usually The Reveal. And while Marluxia's Evil Scheme had nothing to do with Xehanort, he very likely owes his existence to him.
• Black Magic/Casting a Shadow: Darkness is his whole shtick.
• Body Surf: Master Xehanort's heart transferred to Terra, then after becoming "Ansem" transferred to Riku. According to Word Of God on Dream Drop Distance, Master Xehanort also has the power to transfer his consciousness to his alternate incarnations in his Organization and assume direct control of them.
• Drunk on the Dark Side
• Evil Sorceror: Typically a Mix And Match of this and a Mad Scientist, as the series's focus on Magitek heavily blurs the line between science and magic.
• Evil Sounds Deep
• Eyes of Gold
• For Science!: Everything Xehanort and his incarnations do is in the name of furthering their knowledge of hearts and darkness, even knowing it could cause The End of the World as We Know It.
  Eraqus: You would risk an apocalypse out of sheer curiosity?!
• Hades Shaded
• I Have Many Names: Take your pick, (Master) Xehanort, Xemnas, Ansem, Terra, No Heart...As of Dream Drop Distance you can add Xigbar, Saix, and possibly Vanitas to the list.
• Large Ham: All of them provide a variety of sumptuous flavors.
  • Evil Is Hammy
• Pointy Ears
• Powers via Possession: Master Xehanort can take direct control of any of his Seekers allowing them to wield his keyblade in the process.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Master Xehanort's black and red cloak, passed on to Ansem, and Xemnas's Black Cloak and red Etheral Blades.
• Relationship Voice Actor: Master Xehanort is voiced by Chikao Ohtsuka, while Terra-Xehanort and "Ansem" are voiced by his son, Akio Ohtsuka.
• Thirteen Is Unlucky
• White-Haired Pretty Boy: The only exception is Master Xehanort, and that's only because he's bald from age.
• X Makes Anything Cool
  • Let X Be the Unknown

Master Xehanort

An elderly Keyblade Master, he was once a noble and wise man, if somewhat shifty. However, in his quest to unravel the mysteries of the Keyblade and its role in the fate of the worlds, he delved too deep into darkness and now seeks the power of Kingdom Hearts to cause an apocalypse For Science!. He's effectively the Big Bad of the franchise, as his schemes and his various incarnations fuel the main conflicts behind almost every game.

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• Back from the Dead: As 3 of himself in 3D plus his teenage self. It's currently unknown whether Terra-Xehanort is Back from the Dead with the others as well.
• Badass: Think of how badass all the other incarnations of Xehanort are. Then think, one way or another, it all started with him.
  • Badass Grandpa
• Bald of Evil
• Batman Gambit: Most of his plans regarding Terra involve doing various things to piss him off and tempt him further into darkness, which will allow him to steal his body.
• Beard of Evil
• Big Bad: Of Birth By Sleep, and as the original Xehanort, the rest of the franchise through his incarnations.
• Cain and Abel: He mentions several times in his writings that he considers Eraqus a brother. Now remember how Cain and Abel turned out, and guess which one Xehanort turns out to be.
• The Chessmaster: Not only in Birth By Sleep, but according to Dream Drop Distance, everything Ansem and Xemnas have done was in line with his plans and was just build-up for something even bigger, and despite the interference of the various heroes he's still prepared to make it all work. Master Xehanort is clearly playing Gambit Roulette with a rigged wheel.
• Combat Tropes
  • An Ice Person: Shows a preference for ice — he freezes Ven, tosses out Blizzard attacks in battle, and ends his Keyblade combos in a blast of ice.
  • Black Magic/Casting a Shadow: Zigzagged, while he's shown using dark attacks in cutscenes, and his various incarnations use them liberally, he doesn't use any when you actually fight him (However the thunderbolts and ice he summons are black and have aura's of darkness).
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Raises pillars of earth to launch you into the air.
  • Flash Step: Not only does he Teleport Spam like his other incarnations enjoy, but as his health wears down he'll teleport in the middle of his combos to attack from multiple directions.
  • Kung-Fu Wizard: As No Heart, whose fighting style is implied to be Master Xehanort's in his younger days, Xehanort was both a potent spellcaster and a first-class Lightning Bruiser in his youth, demonstrating not only advanced magic and swordplay but also transforming his Keyblade to enhance his punches and kicks to devastating effect. No wonder he still has Super Strength as an old man.
  • Morph Weapon: During the No Heart fight, his Keyblade becomes a floating shield, body armour, and a set of wings.
  • Shock and Awe: Calls down lightning strikes.
  • Squishy Wizard: Being that he's much older than the other incarnations of him out there, he's rather slow and prefers to assault you with magic from afar while teleporting to avoid you. His basic Keyblade combo, in contrast to his Spam Attack in other forms, is a weak four-hit blitz.
  • Storm of Blades: He frequently launches barrages of keyblades at you as No Heart and his normal form.
  • Super Strength: Despite being a Squishy Wizard, he's strong enough to hold Ven in the air by his helmet, cracking it for good measure, and can hold off Terra's Keyblade strikes with one hand.
• Crazy-Prepared: See The Chessmaster above.
• Evil Counterpart: What we learn about Xehanort's past in Birth By Sleep has effectively turned him into an Evil Counterpart to Sora — both are Keyblade wielders, both were born on Destiny Islands, and both wanted to explore other worlds. While Master Xehanort's heart Body Surfs through Terra and Riku, Sora opens his heart to protect the hearts of Ventus and Kairi. Re:coded centers on Sora willingly taking on the pain and suffering of others, while Dream Drop Distance reveals Xehanort has been infecting others with his evil. While Xehanort and his incarnations betray their allies when they are of no further use, Sora relies on The Power of Friendship. Not to mention that both of them have multiple alter-egos, which have themselves clashed across the series. According to Word Of God as of Dream Drop Distance, Master Xehanort also has the ability to attach different Keychains to his Keyblade to change it's form, too.
• Evil Laugh
• Evil Makes You Monstrous: Though not directly confirmed, there's a few hints that perhaps the Guardian is actually the true form of Master Xehanort's heart, as it appears alongside Terra in the Battle in the Center of the Mind instead of Xehanort, and was passed on to "Ansem", who as his Heartless is the embodiment of his heart and relies exclusively on the Guardian to fight and protect him.
• Evil Mentor
• Evil Old Folks
• Evil Sorcerer
• Evil Weapon: While Keyblades can't actually be evil themselves, his Keyblade is nonetheless◊ just another clue to how Obviously Evil he is.
• Eyes of Gold: Revealed in 3D to be not a sign of darkness abuse, but specifically a sign of Xehanort's influence on someone.
• The Faceless: Played With. His face is seen multiple times throughout Birth by Sleep, but he is always shown from his back during the flashbacks to his teenage days at Destiny Islands. Dream Drop Distance reveals his teenage self's face, but the scene with him on Destiny Islands still show him from the back mostly. Then the secret ending for Dream Drop Distance averts this completely and repeats the Destiny Islands scene from Birth By Sleep, giving players a full look of his face at last.
• Fallen Hero
• Gambit Roulette: Everything Ansem and Xemnas did was entirely planned out in advance by him, and to various degrees Maleficent, Sora, Riku and most of Organization XIII were Unwitting Pawns to help it all along And it worked.
• Grand Theft Me: Pulls this on Terra, resulting in the present-day Xehanort.
  • And is the real reason he created Organization XIII!
• Hades Shaded
• I Need You Stronger: Tempts Terra to darkness and encourages him to continue his training in order to make sure the guy's body is powerful enough for his purposes when he commits Grand Theft Me on him. It's also implied that an abundance of Darkness is necessary for the process to work at all.
  • Hoist by His Own Petard: What he didn't count on was that Terra would fall so far into darkness and/or that he'd pissed Terra off so much that he was able to use The Power of Hate to return to life as his armor and keep fighting him afterwards.
• I Was Quite The Looker: Xehanort was a picture perfect Bishōnen in his youth.
• Japanese Pronouns: "Watashi"
• Kick the Dog: At the end of Birth By Sleep he liberally does this and then enjoys some Evil Gloating about it to keep driving Terra's hatred and anger deeper. The crowner is when he kills Eraqus and destroys the Land of Departure.
• Knight of Cerebus: Once the final battle rolled up in Birth By Sleep, it was clear Master Xehanort was far more menacing, ambitious, powerful, and just downright evil than anyone seen in the series before. Dream Drop Distance, in revealing the full extent of his plans, has made him even worse.
• Lack of Empathy: He feels no remorse for all the evil actions he's done. But he is not above petting the dog as seen below.
• Legacy Character: All subsequent incarnations of Xehanort bear similarities to this one in appearance, personality and/or goals. Of course, that's chronologically — with the games being told out of order, design-wise he's a Legacy Character to them.
• Leitmotif: Titled "Xehanort", it really contributes to how Obviously Evil he is.
• Manipulative Bastard
• Me's a Crowd: In Dream Drop Distance and beyond, this has apparently been his plan all along.
• Milking the Giant Cow: He has exactly two positions for his hands — clasping behind his back, and milking position. That picture up there? That's how either or both look for pretty much all of Birth By Sleep.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: No Heart, the Artificial Fallen Angel Kung-Fu Magic Knight.
• Obviously Evil: Even if you didn't already know who he is and what he does, simply looking at his picture up there should tip you off.
• Old Master
• Omnicidal Maniac: While it's not his actual goal, Xehanort's goals to create the χ-blade, take control of Kingdom Hearts and start a Keyblade War, would more than likely cause widespread destruction across the entire Realm of Light, possibly even destroying the realm itself.
• One Steve Limit: A rather complicated aversion, there are several "Xehanorts" throughout the series, but in various ways they're all different incarnations of this Xehanort, the original (so far).
• Pet the Dog: The Xehanort Reports. The 10th one reveals he took Ven to Destiny Islands after the creation of Vanitas to let him live out his final days peacefully before falling into an eternal coma, and the rest follow most of his life and show that while he wasn't warmhearted, he was a far cry from being an evil mastermind. At one point he laments that in spite of all he's accomplished, he's getting too old to continue his research on subjects that fascinate him, and he wonders if quietly living out his final years is all that's left for him. Then the reports go on and you can see him changing for the worse.
• Power Gives You Wings: As No Heart.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The blue to Vanitas' red.
• Rule of Symbolism: His Keyblade Armor is bright white with some feather motifs, and his Keyblade Glider is a set of wings. Alluding not just to him being a Fallen Hero, but in a way, a Fallen Angel like Satan.
• Significant Anagram: "No Heart", "Another", or "No Earth" through the same system as the Organization's anagrams. "No Heart" serves as the name of a Bonus Boss in Birth By Sleep: Final Mix that is his animated Keyblade Armor, and Another is the password used to access the chamber of awakening. "No Earth" naturally refers to his possession of Terra, but if you take "earth" as referring to worlds or planets, it's also what his plans would result in, ie the destruction of all worlds.
• Slouch of Villainy: Gets a magnificent one in Dream Drop Distance, complete with propping his hand on his fist and folding his leg up onto his knee.
• Start of Darkness: Xehanort would have been just another youth looking for an escape from his home much like Riku if not for the intervention of his Heartless Ansem who had travelled back in time to facilitate his escape. Which means Xehanort was responsible for his own Start of Darkness.
• Thanatos Gambit: Terra battering him into submission is his final Secret Test of Character to the effect that Terra is now strong enough to be a worthy vessel. Also possible, though not confirmed, he needed to be near death to transfer his heart to him. Or that he needed Terra's heart to be suffused with darkness.
• The Sociopath: He began a Well-Intentioned Extremist as described below, but suffered in-universe Motive Decay and is now only interested in power, no matter what he has to do to achieve it.
• The Unfought: Though he's the antagonist of the entire series he was never seen before Birth By Sleep and was only fought in that game by Terra. He and Sora have never met directly until 3D, and aside from Terra no one has actually faced him in battle.
• Visionary Villain: Became one after Jumping Off the Slippery Slope. See Well-Intentioned Extremist.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: He started out this way, believing the universe ought to have a balance of light and darkness, and decides a flood of darkness to push it to the bring of destruction was the only way to bring about this re-balancing. However the darkness he delved into took its toll and whatever benevolent goals he once had have long been forgotten in favor of acquiring power and knowledge even at the cost of existence.
• Worthy Opponent: As of KH 3 D, Mickey Mouse seems to be the only character he actually respects, and doesn't just see as another tool to be used.
• Would Hit a Girl: More like Would Choke A Girl While Possessing Her Best Friend's Body.
• Xanatos Gambit: "Ansem" and Xemnas were to absorb the two versions of Kingdom Hearts to gain great power. Sora killed both of them before they could, but that wasn't a problem—now Master Xehanort could just come Back from the Dead and pick up where the left off, this time with valuable intelligence concerning the enemy..

Terra-Xehanort

A young man that was found in Radiant Garden in the aftermath of a great battle between several Keyblade wielders, bearing no memories but his name. Ansem nursed him back to health and took him on as an apprentice, but he quickly became obsessed with The Heartless and Kingdom Hearts, and cast Ansem into the Realm of Darkness and became a Heartless and Nobody to delve deeper into the powers of darkness than his human form would allow. His backstory was a mystery until Birth By Sleep, which explains it in full. He is a possessed Terra, being taken over by Master Xehanort's heart to use as a stronger, younger body, but when Terra and Aqua nearly broke his control he sealed his own heart so neither he nor Terra could take direct control. With no memories, the new Xehanort was taken in by Ansem and was guided by Braig to follow the contingency plans Master Xehanort left in place in case his plan failed.

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• Badass
  • Badass Armfold: As with Ansem, his pose when commanding the Guardian.
  • Badass Baritone: Same goes for his Heartless and Nobody.
• Big Bad: An interesting case, this specific incarnation of Xehanort is actually a relatively minor character and has never been the major villain of a single game. However his various incarnations, past and present, make up the main villains of the franchise. It's currently unknown if this incarnation will be Back from the Dead with the other incarnations or not.
• The Chessmaster
• Combat Tropes
  • Black Magic/Casting a Shadow: Is fond of Terra's Dark Volley shots and his Dark Impulse combo finisher.
  • BFG: He can use Terra's Ultima Cannon attack.
  • BFS: Retains Master Xehanort's Keyblade.
  • Colony Drop: Meteor
  • Dishing Out Dirt: Quake
  • Dual Boss: Sort of. While Ansem relied exclusively on the Guardian, Xehanort will still whip out his Keyblade and knock you around with it. One of his attacks even has the Guardian hold Aqua still while Xehanort closes in and uses a combo.
  • Flash Step/Teleport Spam
  • Get Back Here Boss: The main difficulty in the battles with him is that he'll dash around the arena and become immune to damage when you use a special attack like magic or a shotlock, and the only way to guarantee a special attack will hit is to hit him while he's in the middle of an attack. This is the main difficulty in facing him with Aqua, since most of her best attacks are spells.
  • Guardian Entity: The Guardian belonged to Xehanort originally, making its first appearance in the universe's chronology after he possessed Terra.
  • Lightning Bruiser: Makes perfect sense, since he has Terra's power and vitality combined with Master Xehanort's experience and training. Terra's Ars Solum, one of his best attacks, is Xehanort's standard combo.
  • Magic Knight
  • Mirror Boss: Most of his attacks are actually usable by Terra as a playable character, such as Block-Counter Hammer, Ars Arcanum, Dark Volley, and Ultima Cannon. The only attack that isn't taken from Terra is Meteor, which still counts because Terra can use variations of Meteor, they're just different from the one Xehanort has.
  • No Cure for Evil: Averted, he has Curaga.
• Deceptive Disciple: He took the name of Ansem from his former teacher and stole his research for evil purposes.
• Evilutionary Biologist: His experiments on the The Heartless helped turn them into the army of darkness they are today.
• Evil Sorcerer: Before his heart was locked, anyway; afterwards, he is more into his mad science.
• Evil Sounds Deep: In Birth By Sleep, at least. In his short scene in Kingdom Hearts II, he's much more subdued.
• Eyes of Gold: In Birth By Sleep, while in Kingdom Hearts II he has Brown Eyes. Likely symbolizes that with his memories sealed Xehanort's influence over him waned, since gold eyes is a sign of corruption by Xehanort.
• Fan Nickname: Terranort. Apprentice Xehanort (or Apprenticenort), Xehanort the Apprentice, and Ansem Seeker of Darkness are all accurate and useful when trying not to confuse him with anyone else. The latter, however, will cause very many headaches since his Heartless didn't bother to change his name.
• Hades Shaded
• Japanese Pronouns: "Watashi"
• Lack of Empathy
• Large Ham: By the time of Birth By Sleep's final battle it's been established as a requirement if you're an incarnation of Xehanort.
  "ENOUGH!"
  "You have lost!"
  "Sink into darkness!"
• Laser-Guided Amnesia: With Terra Fighting From The Inside, Master Xehanort locked their hearts away to prevent losing control of his body, resulting in Xehanort losing his memories. However, in Dream Drop Distance we learn that the amnesia was a lie. Lampshaded by Braig.
  "Please tell me the amnesia was just a sick joke. Boy, this is some cliché."
• Literal Split Personality: Ansem more strongly embodies his Master Xehanort traits while Xemnas retains more of Terra's traits. As Terra-Xehanort he was just like Master Xehanort, and it's not fully clear what type of person he was after his memories got sealed, though 3D shows it was probably still like Master Xehanort.
• Living Shadow: The Guardian.
• Mad Scientist
• The Man Behind The Monsters: Didn't create the Heartless, but is responsible for their escape into the Realm of Light.
• Meaningful Rename: The source of several headaches in-universe. He even started writing about himself as though he were Ansem, as seen in the reports you spent the first game collecting.
• Monster Sob Story: The ending of Birth By Sleep. makes his story seem like one. Sure, he became a mad scientist, betrayed the man who took him in, and became responsible for everything wrong in the series, but his origins are quite sad: he's essentially what happened when both Terra and Master Xehanort were locked out of control of Terra's body. He wound up in Radient Garden with no memories, just a name. The lost look of confusion he gives Braig when the latter chats him up is quite saddening. However, he was either totally faking it, or got his memories back fairly quickly. Master Xehanort is completely unsympathetic, though.
• My Death Is Just the Beginning: Gave into darkness to become a Heartless and Nobody on purpose so he could acquire more power.
  • Back from the Dead: Because of the way the cosmology of Kingdom Hearts works, killing Xehanort's Heartless and his Nobody in that order resulted in his heart and body reuniting into a complete person. As of Dream Drop Distance it's made clear that this Xehanort was just a stepping stone for Master Xehanort to launch an even larger scheme than before, and dying and coming back was All According to Plan.
• Mysterious Past: Explained in Birth by Sleep.
• Neck Lift: On Aqua.
• Pointy Ears: Notably lacks the Eyes of Gold after a certain point in BBS after both Terra and Xehanort's memories are locked away rendering neither of them capable of controlling his body and for most of his time under Ansem the Wise's tutelage.
• Relationship Voice Actor: In the Japanese version, Terra-Xehanort is voiced by Akio Ohtsuka. Master Xehanort is voiced by Chikao Ohtsuka, Akio's father.
• The Sociopath: After all he is Master Xehanort.
• Start of Darkness: Birth by Sleep.
• That Man Is Dead: "Terra's heart has been extinguished! Smothered by the darkness within him!"
• Villainous Breakdown: The only time he loses his cool in Birth By Sleep is when the Lingering Will forms, prompting a snarl of protest. In the subsequent battle he begins by walking towards the Will slowly, attacking with a few Dark Volley shots and blocking attacks, but as the battle wears on he begins rapidly teleporting, cranks "a few" Dark Volleys into Beam Spam, and begins using Ars Solum liberally.
• Voices Are Mental: As covered under Relationship Voice Actor, Xehanort is voiced by the son of Master Xehanort's voice actor, the intended effect presumably to be that the two characters have the same, but age-affected, voice.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy
• Would Hit a Girl

"Ansem", the Seeker of Darkness

Xehanort's Heartless

Xehanort's Heartless who kept the alias "Ansem" that Xehanort himself took. He was the driving force behind the Disney villains's search for the Princesses of Heart, and uses Riku as a vessel to try and obtain the power of Kingdom Hearts. Uniquely for a Heartless, he retains the memories, appearance, and personality of his original self, Xehanort. In Dream Drop Distance he is Back from the Dead and one of the thirteen vessels of Xehanort's heart as one of his thirteen Seekers of Darkness.

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• A God Am I: Wishes to access Kingdom Hearts to use as a source of ultimate knowledge and power.
• Arch-Enemy: Is treated as Riku's after the first game.
• As Long as There Is Evil: Ansem was able to remain alive due to his control of Riku, allowing him to continue to exist as long as Riku held darkness in his heart. However, he was destroyed when DiZ's machine at the end of II purified Riku's heart.
• Back from the Dead: You'd think that Riku getting purged of him at the end of II would finally do him in, but nooooo.
• Badass Arm Fold: His default posture while fighting with his Guardian.
• Badass Long Coat
  • No Shirt, Long Jacket: Well two coats undone anyway.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: He gets what he wants and obtains Kingdom Hearts's power in the end. Unfortunately for him, it turns out to be light power, not dark power like he thought it was, and he basically implodes as a result.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Maleficent, though Ansem is the bigger Bad.
• Brown Cloak: Before he found a suitable host, Ansem could only appear as a hooded figure in a brown cloak with a creepy voice.
• The Chessmaster: Masterminded the entire plot of the first game.
• Chewing the Scenery: Good Lord, once he ditches his brown cloak, every scene he's in feels like it's being torn apart between his teeth, even the ones where he doesn't have a face!
  "KINGDOM HEARTS! FILL ME... WITH THE POWER... OF DARKNESS!!!"
  • Let's put it this way. He features in the same game as a number of Disney Villains, whose hamminess is the stuff of legend, and he manages to out-ham them ALL.
• Co Dragons: He and Xemnas seem to be this in Master Xehanort's true organization, being his left and right hand men.
  • Demoted To Dragon
• Combat Tropes
  • Air Jousting: His Dark Rush Attack.
  • Attack Animal: The guardian itself is invincible and more or less a this for Ansem.
  • Black Magic/Casting a Shadow: All of his attacks.
  • Barrier Warrior
  • Double Weapon: His final form uses a lance resembling two huge Soul Eaters fused together.
  • Fusion Dance: With the Guardian for his final forms.
  • Frickin' Laser Beams: Summons Energy Balls which fire them.
  • Guardian Entity: "Come, Guardian!"
  • Power Floats
  • Size Shifter: He's absolutely enormous for his final battle.
  • Sphere of Power: In his new battle phase in 3D his Guardian becomes one.
  • Sphere of Destruction: His new attack in 3D is to trap you in one.
  • Squishy Wizard: In a sense, compared to the other Xehanort's his style of combat involves far more magic and hiding behind his wall of a Guardian.
  • Teleport Spam: Ansem does this with his Guardian for his Dark Shadow attack, sending him into a portal into the ground and rising and uppercutting the enemy.
• Creepy Monotone: Earlier in the game when he was wearing a brown cloak and wasn't wolfing down scenery.
• Dark-Skinned Blond
• Demonic Possession
• Drunk on the Dark Side
• Eldritch Abomination: Being a Heartless and all.
  • Humanoid Abomination: He's the only intelligent, fully-sentient Heartless we've seen thus far, though he only gets the "humanoid" part after possessing Riku.
• Evil Mentor: To Riku.
  • Historical/Cosmic/Dramatic Irony: Considering that Terra, who eventually became Xehanort, wanted Riku to take up his sword...
• Evil Sorcerer
• Eyes of Gold
• Gloved Fist of Doom
• Hades Shaded
• Hoist by His Own Petard: Kingdom Hearts, the so-called ultimate darkness he was searching for, turns out to be light, and ends up doing him in.
• Japanese Pronouns: "Watashi"
• Kneel Before Zod
  "You are weak. You need darkness. Surrender. Bow to darkness. Bow to me."
• Lack of Empathy
• Large Ham: Enough to get his picture on top of the Video Games section of this trope. Billy Zane's performance as him is pretty much legendary.
  Ansem: "SUBMIT!"
• Leitmotif: With the exception of the first game's final battle, any battle theme involving him opens with a series of six organ chords.
• Manipulative Bastard: Played both the villains and Riku through their darkest desires.
• The Man Behind the Man: To Maleficent
  • The Man Behind The Monsters: To the Heartless.
• Living Shadow: The Guardian.
• Nietzsche Wannabe
• No Name Given: Sort of. While there's several Ansems in the series, Xehanort and Riku were just using it as an alias while the real Ansem is of course the original. This Ansem however never got his own name, and is thus referred to as "Ansem SoD" to differentiate him from the actual Ansem, or is otherwise just "Xehanort's Heartless".
• Omnicidal Maniac
• Only Mostly Dead: Even after being destroyed by Kingdom Hearts, a small piece of himself was still alive in Riku. It got purged in the sequel.
• The Other Darrin: Billy Zane in the first game, unfortunately replaced with Richard Epcar from Kingdom Hearts II onward. This led to more Flashbacks With The Other Darrin in Kingdom Hearts II.
• Pointy Ears
• Sequential Boss
• Significant Anagram: Probably unintentional, but "nAmes" is surprisingly relevant to anyone with the name Ansem; they all have more than one name.
• Shirtless Scene: As the final boss of the first game. What a bod.
• The Sociopath: Literally heartless, not to mention it comes with the territory as an incarnation of Xehanort.
• Time Travel
• Took a Level in Badass: Most players agree that Ansem was not a terribly difficult final boss in Kingdom Hearts 1. For his return in Dream Drop Distance, on the other hand...Ansem becomes a much, much harder fight than he ever used to be, effectively using projectiles and melee attacks together to make combos, having multiple phases that both have huge amounts of health, and in a display of Cutscene Power to the Max, he subdues Riku almost effortlessly. That's quite a step up there.
• Vocal Evolution: Richard Epcar's voice acting improved a lot between KH2 and Re:COM, although it's more like the vocal director gave him some breathing room instead of forcing him to try and out-ham Billy Zane with unsuccessful results. He's also significantly better in Birth By Sleep.
  • Also, Akio Ohtsuka himself was actually over-the-top hammy to an annoying level in the original Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts, but also sounded a lot better in Re: COM.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy

Xemnas

Unknown (Young Xehanort)

An enigmatic figure who appears out of thin air in Birth By Sleep to challenge the heroes in the Land of Departure as a Bonus Boss. The Unknown's identity is completely unknown — he doesn't say a word, and even the Keyblade he drops upon defeat is simply named "No Name". Despite the seemingly random encounter, Word Of God confirms that his battle with one of the trio is canon.

He reappears in Dream Drop Distance as the main antagonist, and is described as a being travelling worlds that causes beings of darkness to manifest in his wake. He's revealed to be a younger Master Xehanort, given the power to travel through time by "Ansem" in order to create the true Organization XIII, an organization composed of Xehanort's heart in thirteen different vessels.

Another "Unknown" is a Bonus Boss in Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, and is eventually revealed to be Xemnas. This section, however, only refers to the Birth by Sleep/3D character.

• All Your Powers Combined: Has Meteor, Raging Storm, Mega Flare, Collision Magnet, Restore Barrier, Sonic Blade, Vanitas's X-shaped Sword Beam, Marluxia's Doom and Whirlwind to the Void, Laser Blades like Xemnas, and can clone himself like Xemnas. About the only attack of his that isn't taken from someone else is his Beam Spam, which in Dream Drop Distance still sort of resembles Sora's Wisdom Form shots fired in a Dark Volley-like pattern.
  • And in Dream Drop Distance he even wields a Keyblade.
• The Assimilator
• Badass Baritone: In the English version, at least compared to his very youthful Japanese voice.
• Beam Spam
• Berserk Button: In his Birth By Sleep fight, trying to attack him while he's in the middle of his Beam Spam is a bad idea. He usually stands there and lets his beams do the work, but try and attack him and he decides to start attacking you again while the beams are still firing, and this will likely get you killed.
  • And then in Dream Drop Distance, the only time he breaks his Creepy Monotone is when Riku tries to rescue Sora before he can be made the 13th Xehanort vessel.
• Bifurcated Weapon: Will combine his laser blades into a Double Weapon.
• Bishōnen
• Black Cloak
• Black Magic/Casting a Shadow: As a Xehanort its pretty much required.
• Bonus Boss
• Breaking the Fourth Wall: He can knock the commands out of your menu, when he reverses time the music goes backwards too, and he teleports to avoid your targeting sensor when you try to use a Shotlock.
• Chekhov's Gunman: First appears as a Bonus Boss in Birth by Sleep Final Mix; his next appearance in Dream Drop Distance sees him as The Heavy.
• Climax Boss
• Creepy Monotone
• Doppelgänger Attack
• Eyes of Gold: But he notably lacks the pointy and somewhat elfish ears◊ that most users of darkness have.
• Fan Nickname: Mysterious Figure, which is from the Brady Games Birth by Sleep guide. The name is unofficial, but persists in the fan community for the sake of distinction from the original Unknown.
  • A handful of fans also refer to him as Soranort. Because at this point, he's bound to be related to one of them somehow.
  • As of the release of 3D, he's been referred to as Trollanort, thanks to his affinity for playing literal mindgames and his bordering-on-unfair use of time control in his boss battle. Other variants include Clockanort and "TOKI WO TOMARE-nort".
• Flash Step
• Hades Shaded
• The Heavy: In Dream Drop Distance.
• Help Your Self In The Future: This is essentially what he's doing, helping his future self form the new Organization XIII advance his Me's a Crowd plot.
• Interface Screw: He can actually knock commands off of his opponent, who is forced to scramble to pick them up off the ground while dodging his attacks.
• Invisibility: Has a penchant for going invisible and pulling out an instant KO combo.
• Laser Blade: Dual wielding laser blades! The Keyblade you get from him, No Name, is also essentially a Laser Blade Keyblade. And then in 3D he wields it over his laser blades for the first part of the battle with him
• Legacy Character
• Leitmotif :"Xehanort -The Early Years-".
• Lightning Bruiser: Up to Eleven.
• Mind Rape: Subjects poor Sora to this.
• Morph Weapon: Combines his separate blades into one, throws them out as orbs of light to shoot out like projectiles, elongates them to stab forward, and can whirl them through the air. Also does many of the same tricks with the No Name Keyblade in 3D.
  • Double Weapon
  • Javelin Thrower
  • Whip Sword
• Mythology Gag: He's a thematic retraux of the Unknown Bonus Boss from Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, wielding similar weapons and appearing in a similar fashion, and like it foreshadowing the Big Bad of the next game.
• One-Hit KO: Most of his attacks will do this to you if you do not have the Second Chance ability equipped.
• Reverse Grip
• SNK Boss: He can clone himself, with all five clones able to attack individually, his "Colision Magnet" attack stuns you so the follow-up attack doesn't trigger Second Chance, can blow your command cards across the arena forcing you to pick them up, and any time you land a hit on him he may decide to rewind time to undo the damage and recover from the blow. This is in addition to his lightning-fast, powerful attacks. Then he gets weak, when he turns invisible, preventing you from targetting him, and begins to use multiple attacks at once, in addition to all of the previous.
• Start of Darkness: His meeting with Ansem SoD.
• Theme Song Reveal: According to Word Of God, his theme "Dark Impetus" contains a clue to his identity. It seems to take elements from Rage Awakened (Terra's Lingering Sentiment), Darkness of the Unknown (Xemnas' final battle theme in Kingdom Hearts II), and Lord of the Castle (Marluxia's final battle theme in Re: Chain of Memories). Which mostly all fits together when you learn he's a younger Xehanort that orchestrates the re-creation of Organization XIII.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Does this during one of his combos.
• Time Travel: Is a younger Master Xehanort travelled forward in time from the past.
• Time Master: He can avert No Cure for Evil by rewinding time to before you hit him. It even makes the background music go in reverse for a few seconds.
  • One of his desperation moves in 3D is to rewind time and get two health bars back. It also starts the battle intro cutscene over again to complete the illusion and it is only him who can resist Mickey's Stopgun spell.
• Turns Red: When low on health he'll turn invisible and will begin using multiple attacks at once.

Maleficent

The villain from Sleeping Beauty, Maleficent is an evil fairy hellbent on taking over all worlds in existence. She poses a major threat early on in Sora's adventure, but her plan gets Hijacked By Xehanort before the climax. Unfortunately for Sora and co., you can't keep a good villain down for long...

---

• Anti-Hero: Type V. She becomes this in the latter half of KH2. Nothing about her changes except that she's working with Sora and the others for a common goal.
• As Long as There Is Evil: Chain of Memories has the Organization commenting on how Maleficent's "death" merely banished her "somewhere else." Then, in KH2, her crow familiar shows her cloak to the Good Fairies, who try to resist acknowledging her existence, but they cannot and this brings her back.
• Badass Boast: "You poor simple fools. Thinking you could defeat me! Me, the Mistress of All Evil!"
• Back from the Dead: Not fully explained, see "As Long as There Is Evil". She's just that talented.
• Big Bad Duumvirate: With Ansem, though the lesser of the two.
  • Big Bad Ensemble: With Xemnas in the second game.
• The Chessmaster: At least until her demise.
• Combat Tropes
  • Black Magic / Casting a Shadow
  • Black Mage: In her Witch form.
  • Breath Weapon: As a dragon.
  • Colony Drop
  • Get Back Here Boss
  • Magic Staff
  • Shock and Awe
  • Shockwave Stomp: When in her dragon form.
  • Playing with Fire
  • Scaled Up: You fight her dragon form in KH1 - right before That One Boss. To some, she's That One Boss in her own right. She also uses it against Aqua.
  • Squishy Wizard: Whenever you fight her in her Witch form.
• The Dragon: Literally turned into one for Ansem, the Seeker of Darkness in the first game.
• Enemy Mine: With Sora & co. during the war against Organization XIII.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Although her not killing Sora in Kingdom Hearts II qualified more under Pragmatic Villainy, her not attacking Sora in Kingdom Hearts Coded definitely qualifies under this trope, as apparently even the (self-proclaimed) Mistress of All Evil has qualms towards attacking Sora and company after they saved her life and thus "made it even", at least not immediately (even though it was technically Data-Riku who did the actual saving).
• Evil Laugh
• Evil Mentor: To Riku.
• Evil Sorceress
• The Fair Folk: The games didn't mention it (calling her a "sorceress") until her "origin story" in Birth by Sleep, but she's an evil fairy.
• The Heavy: In Kingdom Hearts.
• Japanese Pronouns: "Watashi"
• Lady of War
• Large Ham
  Maleficent: "You think you can defeat ME?! ME, THE MISTRESS OF ALL EVIL?!"
• Manipulative Bitch: Or Magnificent, depending on your view. She played Riku like a fiddle, and even with a Villain Decay inducing lack of resources in KH2, she played events to the point that she became an asset in bringing down Organization XIII, establishing herself at the top once more.
• Our Dragons Are Different
• Talking To Herself: Maleficent shares the same English voice actress as the Evil Queen and Lady Tremaine.
• Technicolor Fire: Her green dragon fire shows up with pretty much anything she does.
• Villain Override: In the first game, she was the Big Bad until the climax where she's defeated and it's revealed that "Ansem" is the true villain behind everything.
• Wicked Witch

Pete

There is also Pete. Once a humble steamboat captain, Pete turned to mischief-making until he got out of hand and was banished. He met Maleficent during his inter-dimensional exile and acts as her loyal servant.

---

• Beard of Evil: In the Country of Musketeers.
• Boisterous Bruiser: At least his past-self, who ain't afraid to accept a fight when someone challenges him, whether it's Sora or his future-self. His future-self is to much of a coward to be this.
• Cats are Mean
• Character Development: For better or for worse, he went from a well-meaning and essentially decent authority figure to Jerkass attention seeker to cowardly villain (though he still retains some of his mettle). It's shown that he longs for the old days of steam boat captaincy.
• Combat Tropes
  • Barrier Warrior
  • Car Fu: He knows some as Captain Dark and when you use his D-Link Terra, Aqua and Ven can too.
  • Flunky Boss: In 3D where he has his henchmen the Beagle Boys.
  • I Know Madden Kombat: His battles involve explosive bowling balls.
  • Good Old Fisticuffs
  • Ground Pound
  • Recurring Boss
  • Royal Rapier: In The Land of Musketeers in 3D.
  • Shock and Awe: Can use D-Thundaga in re:coded which also is an example of Ride The Lightning.
  • Stout Strength
  • Teleport Spam: In re:coded.
  • Throw Down The Bomblet: In The Land of Musketeers in 3D.
  • Trap Master: Can summon rigged blox in re:coded.
• Dirty Coward: Made clear in the Battle of Hollow Bastion, where he left Maleficent for herself with the Nobodies. Subverted in the end when he was able to conquer his fears in order to help Sora and Mickey gets some time to defeat Xemnas by holding back the Heartless.
• The Dragon: To Maleficent.
• Fat Bastard
• Fat Cat
• Fat Idiot
• Enemy Mine: Twice. His past self put aside his (misunderstood) difficulties with Sora, Donald, and Goofy in order to help them fight his future self, so that he could get his boat back. Later, his present self helped Sora and the King against Xemnas and the Heartless.
• Evil Chancellor: He was this to Minnie in the past.
• Go Karting with Bowser: An interesting version in that despite his obvious, if only slight malevolence, he's still not a bad guy when you race him in Birth By Sleep. In fact, it's the race (or rather the fact that he lost) that causes him to pull a Face Heel Turn.
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain
• Japanese Pronouns: "Oresama".
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: "Past-Pete" before his alliance with Maleficent and the Heartless.
• Large Ham: Particularly as CAPTAIN JUSTICE!!!
• Manipulative Bastard: Not particularly good at it, but he it's how he sows Heartless throughout the World.
• Retcon: In Kingdom Hearts II, it was stated that King Mickey banished Pete to another dimension, presumably for doing something really bad, and Maleficent broke him out. In Birth By Sleep, however, Pete only throws a hissy fit, and Queen Minnie temporarily banishes him to another dimension "until he cools down". While there, Maleficent breaks him out in return for his service.
  • "Only" a hissy fit is arguable. See the pose he was in? It's the same as his fighting stance. In other words, he was going to attack Minnie. For ice cream.
  • Disproportionate Retribution: Even than, she couldn't have known that, and even if she did, she sent him to another dimension for a relatively minor offense. Do they not have jails in Disney Castle, or is the legal system just that strict? His past in The Land of Musketeers however reveals he has prior offences that went as high as treason.
• Right-Hand Cat: Technically he's this to Maleficent, being a cat.
• Sentai: In Birth by Sleep.
  • Results in a Mix And Match of Good Costume Switch and Evil Costume Switch: He's both Captain Justice and Captain Dark.
• You Shall Not Pass

Vanitas

The mysterious masked apprentice of Master Xehanort. To keep up the parallels, his outfit is nearly identical to "Dark Mode" Riku and he frequently antagonizes Ven. He's actually an artificial being created from the darkness in Ven's heart.

---

• Anime Hair: Exactly as ridiculous as Sora's. Just black.
• Artificial Human
• Ax Crazy, except with a Keyblade.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind: With Ventus.
• Bilingual Bonus/Multiple Reference Pun: "Ventus" (Latin for "wind") and "Vanitas" ("emptiness") sound similar, and both can be defined with the kanji 空, which means both "sky" and "emptiness".
  • And could also, due to one of those meanings, be read as "Sora".
• Collapsible Helmet
• Black Knight
• Combat Tropes
  • Black Magic / Casting a Shadow
  • Combat Pragmatist: His crowning moment of this is very well demonstrated in this video. Please note how he didn't yell, or otherwise warn his victim of his imminent pwnage of them while they weren't looking, at all. Also note that it was a girl. There wasn't even a Pre-Asskicking One-Liner. Just him, coming out of nowhere.
  • BFS: The χ-Blade.
  • Flash Step
  • Fire, Ice, Lightning
  • Lightning Bruiser
  • Sword Beam
• Compressed Hair: I mean, seriously.
• Cool Helmet
• The Dragon
  • Dragon with an Agenda: Early on he's not pleased with Ven's progress and tries to kill him when he decides Ven is useless for their schemes. It's also hinted he was supposed to kill Aqua in the Radiant Garden, but she proved stronger than they expected so he let her live in case they needed a back-up if Ven turned out to be a bust.
• Eerie Pale-Skinned Brunette
• Enemy Without
• Evil Counterpart: To Ventus.
• Evil Twin: And to Sora, kind of.
• Evil Is Deathly Cold: Zig Zagged. Vanitas can use both ice and fire-based attacks.
• Evil Laugh
• Eyes of Gold / Red Eyes, Take Warning: Although he has gold eyes in all of his appearances, accoridng to an interview from Nomura, Vanitas resembled a heartless-like creature with red eyes before Ven joined his heart to Sora's to give Vanitas Sora's general appearance.
  • Considering the other characters with gold eyes are either partially possessed by Xehanort or Xehanort himself it's possible Xehanort partially possessed him to ensure Vanitas loyalty to him.
• Expy: Well let's see, his outfit is similar to Riku's Dark Mode, he takes the same battle stance as Riku, and he even dons Riku's iconic pose in the opening cinematic (with Ventus running towards him just like Sora no less).
  • Yet it's Sora he has a connection to, through Ven, and he looks like Sora with black hair and gold eyes and an epic Slasher Smile. He even has Sora's voice.
  • In Japan, he is thought to be an Expy of Jagi from Fist of the North Star.
• The Faceless
• Faux Affably Evil: Like hell.
• For the Evulz: It's indicated that he doesn't really have or need a reason to restart the keyblade war; he's just excited by the idea of a universal conflict, especially now that he's the guy with an Infinity+1 Sword.
  • An alternate reason, canon to the novels, is that he wanted to rejoin with Ventus, thus not being all alone any more. However, this isn't exactly reflected in his actions; early in the story, he was perfectly willing to annihilate Ventus for being too weak, and considered Aqua a decent backup plan for forging the χ-Blade.
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes: Subverted. He has eyes as large as Ven's because he's a Sora look alike.
• Grand Theft Me: Not nearly as successful as Xehanort, though, but manages to possess Ventus.
• Hopeless Boss Fight: His first encounter with Ven.
• Humanoid Abomination: Turns out he's the source of all Unversed.
• I Need You Stronger: He's always going around telling people whom he fights to get stronger, and to show him their power...
• Japanese Pronouns: "Ore".
• Kick the Dog: Breaking Ven's toy Keyblade that Terra gave him in front of Aqua.
• Large Ham: Hoo boy, it seems Chikao Ohtsuka*
  Master Xehanort's seiyuu.
  , Miyu Irino*
  Vanitas's seiyuu. Same as Sora's.
  , and Akio Ohtsuka*
  Xehanort's seiyuu.
  decided to have a contest to see who can ham it up more.
  • Ditto for their English counterparts. You can definitely tell Haley was enjoying himself on this one.
• Laughing Mad: In Japanese and English.
• Literal Split Personality: He is the personification of the darkness that Master Xehanort ripped out of Ventus's heart.
• Made of Evil: He's quite literally made from Ven's darkness.
• Meaningful Name: His name is derived from the Latin word for emptiness, indicating his state of existence. Also, it sounds similar to Ventus, hinting at a connection between the two.
  • It's also similar to "vanity", reflecting his smug, self-absorbed nature. And, as mentioned above, the Japanese character for emptiness can also mean sky, hinting at his connection to Sora.
• Not so Different: Before the final battle with Ventus, Ven declares he's willing to risk losing his heart forever by destroying the χ-Blade and saving Terra and Aqua. In his Desperation Attack, Vanitas shatters the station they're on. Keep in mind the platforms in the Dive to the Heart are implied to be reflections of the heart, indicated here by Vanitas appearing opposite Ventus on it — in other words, Vanitas is willing to take the same risk as Ven.
• Obviously Evil
• One-Scene Wonder: Shows up with Young Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts 3D, confronting Sora. It's unknown if he's anywhere else in that game.
• Out of Focus: If that is the case, then while everyone else is Back from the Dead, Vanitas remains nowhere to be seen.
• Pragmatic Villainy: He'd like to just kill his enemies straight-off, but he's smart enough to know that this won't get him anywhere and bides his time accordingly.
• Person of Mass Destruction: Is the source of the Unversed, who inhabit and terrorize the entire World.
• Psycho Strings: During one or two notes at the beginning of his theme, "Enter the Darkness".
• Pure Is Not Good: He's made of pure darkness. This seems to be the root of the Unversed.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over
• Red Herring: At first glance, he has a lot of similarities to Riku, wearing an outfit similar to his Dark Mode ans using the same battle stance. But then the mask came off.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: The red to Master Xehanort's blue.
• Slasher Smile
• The Sociopath
• The Starscream: It's hinted he planned to take the power of Kingdom Hearts for himself once he got the χ-Blade.
• Theme Song Reveal: His battle themes borrow from Sora's leitmotif.
• Woobie, Destroyer of Worlds: Is portrayed as such in the novelization, in stark contrast to his unrepentent Complete Monster status in the actual game. He's unable to control his ability to spawn Unversed, which are created autonomously every time he feels a strong emotion, and he hates them as a sign of his lack of control and a reminder of the true nature of his existence. Furthermore Master Xehanort forced him to train by fighting the Unversed, and Vanitas felt the emotions and physical pain they did upon being killed every time, which in turn fueled his dark emotions more and spawned stronger Unversed. And while all this Training from Hell was going on, he was still connected to Ven and felt all the friendship and happiness Ven was experiencing training under Eraqus.
• Would Hit a Girl: More like Would Stab A Girl.
  • Stab Them While They Are Down
    • Why Didn't Ya Just Stab Her?

Sora's Heartless

Originally, when Sora sacrificed his Heart in the first Kingdom Hearts, he was able to retain his sense of self even when turned into a Heartless. However, the digital recording in Jiminy's Journal gained sentience and began corrupting the journal with bug blocks.

---

• Big Bad: Of Coded.
• Bishonen Line: His Anti-Sora form.
• Bold Inflation: As one can tell by his all caps quotes.
• Combat Tropes
  • Blade Lock
  • Doppelgänger Attack
  • Holy Hand Grenade/Light 'Em Up: Surprisingly, instead of Dark attacks, it fights almost exclusively with light magic attacks, even having an attack that resembles Roxas's Magic Hour and Sora's Faith.
  • Megaton Punch
  • Playing with Fire/An Ice Person: In its first form, he casts Debug Blizzard with his left hand and Debug Fire with his right.
  • Storm of Blades: Launches light Keyblades at you for its desperation attacks.
  • Sword Beam
• The Corruption
• Doppelgänger Attack
• Eldritch Abomination
• Eyes of Gold
• Glowing Eyes of Doom
• Heads I Win, Tails You Lose
• Light is Not Good
• Living Shadow
• Not So Harmless: In the first game, it was just a little shadow. It takes quite a few levels in badass in Coded.
• This Was His True Form: He is only defeated when Mickey separates him from the power he got from corrupting the journal and reduces him back to the form of a lowly Shadow.
• Took A Level In Bad Ass and Jerk Ass
• Tron Lines
• The Virus
• You Will Be Assimilated

---

A group of classic Disney Villains. In the first game, a group of them conspire under Maleficent's leadership. They are trying to use The Heartless for their own evil means. After that, however, they're far more independent.

Maleficent's original group includes Hades, Jafar, Ursula, Captain Hook, and Oogie Boogie. The second game introduces Captain Hector Barbossa, Shan-Yu, Scar, and the MCP, who aren't aligned with Maleficent, although she attempts to recruit/manipulate a couple.

• Evil Versus Evil: They got into a hard competition with Organization XIII during the second game. Organization XIII was for quite a time one step ahead, but after Maleficent and Pete joined forces with Sora, King Mickey, and their friends, the Disney villains eventually became the winning side.
• Large Ham: Noted in each applicable entry, but it should be noted that the group from the original game (Maleficent, Captain Hook, Jafar, Oogie Boogie, Hades, and Ursula, plus the unaffiliated Clayton) might as well be called The Large Hams Band.
• Legion of Doom
• Leitmotif: "Villains of a Sort".
• Unwitting Pawn: They believe they use the Heartless without knowing it's actually the Heartless who use them (or, to be exact, that the Heartless are only complying with them because their REAL leader instructed them to.)

Captain Hector Barbossa

Captain of the Black Pearl and leader of the undead pirates. The medallions' curse keeps Captain Barbossa and his men in a kind of limbo between life and death. Their true form is revealed in the moonlight, and it's a terrifying sight to see.

• Affably Evil
• Evil Laugh
• Japanese Pronouns: "Ore".
• Large Ham
• Master Swordsman
• Nice Hat
• The Other Darrin: Played straight and averted. Barbossa was voiced by Brian George for the initial English release of the game, but was replaced with Geoffrey Rush (his original actor) for the Australian release.
• Pirate: How did you miss this one?
  • Ghost Pirate: Dem Bones included.
  • Talk Like a Pirate
• Sneak Attack: He fights alongside an Illuminator heartless which makes the area pitch black, allowing Barbossa to attack from the dark.
• Stepping Stone Sword: Sora can step on Barbossa's blade as a reaction command then show him that against him Guns Are Worthless.
• Sword and Gun

Chernabog

Chernabog is a gigantic, muscular, humanoid demon. His skin is entirely colored black, and he is so large that Sora is roughly the size of his head. His head sports two curved horns, he has four fangs in his mouth, and his eyes are a glowing yellow. He has enormous, black, bat-like wings, and his wingspan is larger than he is tall. Chernabog is always seen trapped from the knees-down in a volcano.

• Animate Dead: Sends ghosts and souls of the dead after Riku to weaken him in Dream Drop Distance.
• Breath Weapon
• Demon Lords And Arch Devils
• Evil Overlord
• Eyes of Gold
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere
• Glowing Eyes of Doom
• Playing with Fire
• Satan
• Stationary Boss
• Villain Song/Leitmotif: Night On Bald Mountain. Notable for being the only Disney boss to get his own theme in the series. He did not have it in the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts though. But, he does have it in Dream Drop Distance.
• What Could Have Been: Chernabog was to be the original Final Boss and embodiment of all darkness of the first game, the endgame originally being a climb up the slopes of Bald Mountain to fight him, with the light inside Kingdom Hearts taking the place of the dawn. Executive Meddling and console limitations put a kibosh in the plan, but the model was kept around to be used as the surprise boss.

Claude Frollo

A ruthless and self-righteous justice minister who is Quasimodo's reluctant guardian, seeing the evil he commits to be for the greater good.

• Abusive Parent: Or at least an abusive version of The Caretaker for Quasimodo.
• Cool Sword: Brandishes one in cutscenes but is unfortunately The Unfought.
• Disney Villain Death: Falls off Notre Dame into the fire below while Laughing Mad in Riku's scenario but gets the implied smiting by God himself that he did in the movie in Sora's.
• Evil Old Folks
• If I Can\'t Have You
• Knight Templar
• Hanging Judge
• Politically Incorrect Villain
• Summon Magic: The darkness in his heart allows him to call Dream Eaters which he believes is a divine power granted by God.
• The Unfought

Clayton

A veteran hunter. He acts as Jane's guide on her expedition to the jungle. He thinks of animals only as prey, and dreams of the money to be made selling gorillas to zoos back at home.

• Badass Mustache
• Dual Boss: He fights side by side with a Stealth Sneak Heartless in his battle which proves to be his undoing as it crushes him when it dies.
  • Horse of a Different Color
• Egomaniac Hunter: Even moreso than in the movie, where his plan was to capture and sell the animals — here, he just wants to kill them.
• Japanese Pronouns: "Ore".
• Large Ham: Just look at who voices him.
• No Cure for Evil: Averted, he uses Healing Potions to heal himself if you leave him alone too long.
• Shotguns Are Just Better
• Starter Villain: He's the first Disney villain you ever fight in the series.
• Why Don't Ya Just Shoot Him?

CLU 2

CLU 2 is a program created by Kevin Flynn in his likeness to oversee the development of the Grid. However, following his programming to create a "perfect system", CLU betrayed Flynn and took the Grid under his undisputed control, while also issuing the complete annihilation of the IS Os, leaving Quorra as the sole survivor

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot
• Rings Of Death
• Sadistic Choice: Clu foists one of these on Sora: the Keyblade in exchange for turning Rinzler back into Tron.
• The Unfought

Evil Queen

A vain woman who is convinced she is the fairest of all. When the Spirit of the Magic Mirror revealed Snow White to be fairer, the Queen decided to take the maiden's life.

• Fairest of Them All
• God Save Us from the Queen!
• High Collar of Doom
• Japanese Pronouns: "Watashi"
• No Name Given
• The Unfought
• Talking To Herself: The Queen, Lady Tremaine, and Maleficent share the same English voice actress.
• Vain Sorceress
• What Happened to the Mouse?: She's last seen giving Snow White the poisoned apple. After that, the Magic Mirror simply states that she is "gone." Her fate from the film is only subtly alluded to in Aqua's journal entry of the character, which says she was "chased down" by the dwarfs.
• Wicked Stepmother
• Wicked Witch

Experiment 221/Sparky

Voiced by: Wataru Takagi (Japanese), Frank Welker(English)

He is one of Dr. Jumba's genetic experiments. His "primary function" is to short out electrical devices.

• Axe Crazy: Due to his programming
• Lightning Gun: Can posses one.
• Psycho Electro
• Satellite Character: The only reason he comes up in the game is because Jumba takes offense to Terra not being sure if Stitch is evil. Aside from this Sparky isn't that relevant to the story.
• Ride The Lightning
• Shock and Awe
• What Happened to the Mouse?

Gantu

A captain in the Galactic Federation's army. He takes his responsibilities seriously, but his hotheaded attitude results in frequent failures.

• Fantastic Racism: Toward Stitch.
• Hero Antagonist
• Good Old Fisticuffs
• Japanese Pronouns: "Ore".
• I Am Big Boned: When he comes to get the prisoners, Stitch makes a remark in his gibberish language, prompting Gantu to yell "I'M JUST BIG-BONED!".
• Kick the Dog: Breaking Stitch's Wayfinder.
• Ray Gun
• Sapient Cetaceans
• Villainous Breakdown: A minor example, in his fight he can be come angry, shooting lasers wildly in a circle at a fast rate.

Hades

Hot-headed literally and emotionally, he will stop at nothing to see the end of Hercules.

• Batman Gambit: How he used Sora's concern for Meg in order to fool him to open the Underworld Tournament Cups.
• The Berserker: During combat or if someone pisses him off.
  • In Chain of Memories, his enemy card effect is even called Berserk.
• Boisterous Bruiser: "Oh, yeah. This is gonna be good".
• The Chessmaster: Even has a chessboard in his place, with Hercules, Zeus, Cerberus, and himself as pawns.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Faux Affably Evil
• Getting Crap Past the Radar: When he meets Aqua for the first time he calls her "bluejay" walks up close to her leans in and examines her. if you notice his eyes move down from her face, then to her chest, and then back to her face.
• I Have Your Girlfriend: Megara. "Now, we're gonna play by my rules."
• Japanese Pronouns: "Ore".
• Karma Houdini: Even when put through similar events to the Hercules movie, Hades escapes the Well of Souls immediately. A combination of Punchclock Villain and As Long as There Is Evil; he never quite goes over the Moral Event Horizon.
• Large Ham
• Laughably Evil
• Manipulative Bastard
• Offhand Backhand: Does this to Sora in II. And it's more like an Offhand Pluck.
• Playing with Fire: What did you expect?
  • Fire Balls
• This Cannot Be!/This Is Sparta: His defeat quote. "This. Isn't. Happening!" You'd think he'd stop saying it when you keep defeating him.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor: He gradually pretty much abandons the rest of the villains. Surely enough, he's the only one not to need to be revived/released come II, and does his own thing in Olympus to no ill reprecussions, though he does still respect Maleficent a little, as he accepts assistance from Pete on her behalf.
• Villainous Breakdown: He usually calms down fairly quickly, but in his final showdown against Sora & co, he had a completely epic one before trying to fry them alive.
  • "What is so funny you imbeciles?! How dare you get a happy ending?! HOW DARE YOU?!!"
• Would Hit a Girl: More like "Would set a girl on fire" (or try to, anyway).

Captain Hook

Captain Hook is the leader of the pirates who sail the waters of Neverland, and Peter Pan's arch nemesis.

• Badass Normal: He doesn't use magic or any supernatural powers like the rest of the Disney villains, and yet he's considered one of the hardest Disney villain bosses ever.
• Bling of War: He wears an expensive red pirate coat with a big hat to fit his captain status.
• Cool Boat: In the first game Riku hitches a ride on it to cross into other worlds.
• Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass: Yes he's a bumbling, cowardly fool who can't even beat a kid, but when pushed enough...oh boy, he sure knows how to slit people apart with that sword and hook.
• Dirty Coward
• The Dragon: He seemed to be this to Maleficent in the first game, only out-ranked by her and Jafar and, later, Riku.
• False Reassurance
• Hook Hand
• Japanese Pronouns: "Ore".
• Large Ham
• Master Swordsman
• Manipulative Bastard
• Not So Harmless: Just because he wimps out when the Croc visits, it doesn't mean he can't fight with a sword.
• The Other Darrin: In the Japanese version of the first game, he was voiced by Chikao Ohtsuka. In Birth by Sleep he was voiced by Naoya Uchida.
• Pirate
  • Talk Like a Pirate
• Throw Down The Bomblet: Disguised as presents just like in the movie.
• Unstoppable Rage: After he has his ass handed to him by Sora long enough, he'll snap, turn berserk during the middle part of the boss fight, and then chase after Sora like a madman, ignoring his own swordsman professionalism in exchange for wild, brutal swings in an attempt to kill him.

Jafar

He is the royal vizier of Agrabah. Two-faced and cunning, Jafar seeks the demise of Aladdin and to rule as sultan of Agrabah.

• A God Am I
• An Ice Person: Has an ice spell.
• Animal Motifs: Cobras.
• Beard of Evil
• Dirty Coward: He was portrayed as this in the manga. While something of a second-in-command for Maleficent during the games, the manga makes him nothing more than a snivelling, bootlicking wimp who's just waiting for his chance to stab Maleficent in the back. The manga version of Maleficent is aware of his cowardly nature, and only keeps him around because of his knowledge of Agrabah.
• The Dragon: Replaced with Hook and Riku after his defeat.
• Evil Chancellor
• Evil Sorcerer
• The Evil Genius
• Frickin' Laser Beams: Launches one from his staff as his primary attack.
• Get Back Here Boss: Spends his entire pre-genie boss fight just moving around the cave.
• Good Colors, Evil Colors
• Hoist by His Own Petard
  • Be Careful What You Wish For
• Jackass Genie: In the sequel.
• Japanese Pronouns: "Washi"
• Large Ham
• Lean and Mean
• Magic Staff: His signature Cobra headed staff.
• Mythology Gag: Most battles with his genie form have him floating over a pit of lava attacking you while you have to attack and destroy his lamp that Iago is flying around with to keep it away from you. This is a direct reversal of the climax of Return of Jafar, where Jafar trapped the heroes in a lava pit and Iago performed a Heel Face Turn to try and get the lamp to them so they could destroy it.
• Playing with Fire: As a genie.
• One-Winged Angel
• Scaled Up: Averted - he never uses his cobra transformation from the movie.
• Shoulders of Doom
• Slasher Smile: In the manga.
• Smug Snake
• The Starscream: Also in the manga; he wants to use his genie powers to overthrow Maleficent.

Iago

Voiced by: Akira Kamiya (Japanese), Gilbert Gottfried (English)

Jafar's boisterous and cunning parrot. He's Jafar's eyes and ears for everything going on in Agrabah

• The Atoner: In the second game.
• Butt Monkey
• Celebrity Voice Actor: Gilbert Gottfried, as usual. Notable, in that he's one of the few actors from the Disney movies to revoice his character.
• Deadpan Snarker
• Dirty Coward: Until his...
• Heel Face Turn: Though he's still proves to be a Dirty Coward in the sequel despite being the heroes' friends.
• Heroic Sacrifice: Luckily, he survived.
  "You'd be surprised what you can live through."
• The Imp
• Japanese Pronouns: "Ore".
• Misplaced Wildlife: He's a South American parrot in Saudi Arabia.
• Polly Wants A Microphone
• Stationary Wings
• Toothy Bird
• Wild Card

Ice Titan

One of the Titans from Hercules, fought in the Coliseum.

• An Ice Person: Duh.
• Beam Spam: It fires icicle shards as its main attack, and fires a lot of them.
• Breath Weapon: Which can turn you into a Human Popsicle.
• Dem Bones
• Expy: Hades employs the "Ice Colossus", a weaker clone of the Ice Titan, in Birth By Sleep (the genuine article is still under lock and key at that point).
• Level Grinding: A famous use for it, as each time you deflect an icicle you get 24 exp. You're likely to get more exp from the icicles than you do for killing the Ice Titan itself.
• Sleep Mode Size: After Sora beats it, it loses so much mass it has to run away before he steps on it.
• Tennis Boss: Ice Titan is out of range of Sora's normal attacks, so you have to deflect its icicles at its head to knock it down.

Julius

A gigantic monstrous version of Pete created by Dr. Frankenollie that Sora and Riku encounter in Traverse Town.

• Elemental Punch: Electric version.
• Expy: Of Pete
• Frankenstein's Monster
• Handicapped Badass: Has a peg leg.
• Lightning Bruiser
• Shock and Awe
• Unskilled, but Strong
• Wrestler in All of Us

Jumba Jookiba

A self-proclaimed "evil genius," he is arrested for illegal genetic experimentation and now serves time in a cell within the Turo Prison Block.

• Evil Genius
• For the Evulz
• Ineffectual Sympathetic Villain: While not quite as pathetic as Pete, he's still arguably the least evil and menacing of the Disney villains thus far. The fact that he ends up pulling a Heel Face Turn in his original continuity may have something to do with this.
• Japanese Pronouns: "Watashi"
• Large Ham
• Laughably Evil
• Mad Scientist

The Magic Mirror

A spirit who appears within the magic mirror at the queen's behest and answers all questions with the truth.

• Breath Weapon / Playing with Fire
• Doppelgänger Spin: The trick is to spot the one that's smiling.
• Graceful Loser: His only reaction to defeat is a rather bored "How unfortunate."
• Japanese Pronouns: "Watashi"
• Magic Mirror
• Rhymes on a Dime
• Took a Level in Badass: Forced upon him by the Evil Queen, making his spirit quite the boss fight inside the mirror.

Master Control Program

Instead of working for the users, the MCP is planning to take over the system for himself. By refusing to follow the users' orders and trying to enact his evil plan, he's causing chaos among the other programs

• A.I. Is a Crapshoot
• Boss Banter: He doesn't attack on his own (he kinda can't), so rather than fight, he taunts you during the battle. And he never. Shuts. Up!
  "Insignificant user!"
  "Is that the best a user can do?"
  "I can repair that data..."
  "Eliminate all threats!"
• Japanese Pronouns: "Watashi"
• Pivotal Boss
• Talking to Himself: The MCP and Sark are both voiced by Corey Burton.
• We Can Rule Together: He attempted this on Tron. It didn't work; instead Tron takes over.

Oogie Boogie

An evil bag of bugs who loves gambling with dice and dreams of causing trouble for Jack in Halloween Town.

• Back from the Dead: Maleficent brings him back; he's an Ungrateful Bastard.
• Bond Villain Stupidity: He always uses traps in his attempts to kill Sora, Jack, Donald, and Goofy, since he doesn't quite have the guts to take care of them directly. Justified in that he's a pretty bad fighter in close combat.
• The Brute
• Dirty Coward
• Evil Laugh
• Faux Affably Evil
• For the Evulz
• The Gambler: But he sucks at gambling.
• Japanese Pronouns: "Ore".
• Large Ham
• One-Winged Angel
• Puzzle Boss
• Scary Black Man: His voice actor, anyway.
• Ungrateful Bastard: Justified, in that he doesn't remember Maleficent, let alone her resurrecting him, due to the side-effects of said resurrection; however, that doesn't change the fact that he was a bastard already.
• Villainous Breakdown: "Nobody disrespects me! NOBODY!!"

The Queen of Hearts

A queen of Wonderland who lives in a castle with decks and decks of card soldiers. Selfish and short-tempered, she beheads anyone who crosses her. She thinks Alice tried to steal her heart.

• Adipose Rex
• Flunky Boss: She's no threat, its her card soldiers you have to look out for.
• God Save Us from the Queen!
• Japanese Pronouns: "Watashi"
• Large Ham
• Pimped Out Dress
• Staff of Authority

Sark

A powerful program who doesn't serve any user — just the MCP. Commander Sark is pretty harsh to any program that tries to resist his master's power.

• Attack of the 50-Foot Whatever: Thanks to the MCP.
• Deadly Disc
• The Dragon: To the MCP.
• Japanese Pronouns: "Watashi"
• Never Say "Die": See the above quote. Justified, seeing as they're computer programs.
• Power-Up Letdown: Despite growing to gigantic proportions, Sark is actually quite laughable in his second form. He loses most of his mobility, his "Initiating data transfer!", and his attacks are easily telegraphed. In fact, by simply running away from him, Sora can knock him out effortlessly via Reaction Commands.
• Size Shifter
• Talking to Himself: Has the same voice actor as the MCP, his master.
• Teleport Spam

Scar

Scar is Simba's evil uncle. Scar was always jealous of his older brother Mufasa, and killed him so that he could become king of the Pride Lands.

• Back from the Dead: His darkness was so strong, it helped him to come back as a Heartless after Simba killed him. When he died a second time, he came back again, first as a ghost and later as a giant-sized Heartless again, showing just how much darkness Scar had lodged in that callous heart of his.
• The Caligula
• Casting a Shadow
• Elemental Punch: Lots of them as a Heartless.
• Eldritch Abomination: His true Heartless form. Damn, that thing is even bigger than Godzilla himself.
• Evil Gloating: Which ultimately gets him in trouble...
• Evil Prince
• Evil Uncle
• Faux Affably Evil
• Fisher King
• Japanese Pronouns: "Ore".
• Large Ham
• Made of Evil: Once he became a Heartless. Put it this way — the only other person who retained their original appearance after turning into a Heartless was Ansem (and even then, Ansem needed Demonic Possession to retain his original appearance, Scar didn't even need to possess anyone to retain it)! Scar had even more darkness in his heart than even Xehanort did !
• Manipulative Bastard
• Panthera Awesome
• Shockwave Stomp
• Smug Snake

Shan Yu

Shan-Yu is the leader of the Hun army, and plans to attack and take over China (The Land of Dragons in game). He is large and burly, and wields a blade with zigzag shaped edges. His eyes and ears over China is his pet falcon, Hayabusa. Hayabusa appears as an ominous warning to others that Shan-Yu and his army are approaching.

• Battle Aura
• Black Eyes of Crazy
• Cool Sword
  • Blade Lock: A reaction command you can do with him.
  • Good Weapon, Evil Weapon: Definitely an evil weapon.
• Evil Laugh
• Four Star Badass
• Good Eyes, Evil Eyes
• Japanese Pronouns: "Ore".
• Kneel Before Zod
• Shockwave Stomp
• Spin Attack

Lady Tremaine

Lady Tremaine is mother by blood of Anastasia and Drizella. Using Cinderella as a maid, she will do anything to ensure her two daughters' own success.

• Cats are Mean: Lucifer.
• Japanese Pronouns: "Watashi"
• Karma Houdini: Her famous status of this in the original movies is actually avoided here, as her last scene features her, Anastasia, and Druzella presumably killed by an Unversed. Seeing as that same Unversed was attacking Cinderella while the three of them stood by laughing, this is a VERY satisfying fate for them.
• Manipulative Bitch
• Never Say "Die": The final fate of Tremaine and her daughters is, according to Aqua, "The Darkness in their hearts overtook them."
  • Please note that Aqua is actually saying that Tremaine pretty much brought it on herself, as the Unversed that may have killed her was created from her hatred.
• Parental Favoritism: If it were possible, Birth by Sleep actually pushes this trope even further.
• Right-Hand Cat: Who's even a boss battle!
• Smug Snake
• Talking To Herself: Lady Tremaine is voiced by Susanne Blakeslee, the same voice actress who voiced Maleficent and the Evil Queen.
• Wicked Stepmother

Ursula

A sea witch, Ursula was once a senior member of King Triton's court. However, she was banished for her love of Black Magic. Ursula has two pet eels, Flotsam and Jetsam, whom she refers to as her "poopsies".

• Back from the Dead
  • The sequel doesn't even try to explain why Ursula comes back in the sequel; in fact, it seems nobody remembers fighting her in the first game at all, since Ariel goes for a Deal with the Devil... again.
    • Sora seems to remember her, and Ursula's Villain Song does make a big deal out of her being back. There's no real excuse for Ariel, though.
  • Done again in Kingdom Hearts 3D, where she is brought back as the tutorial boss. Apparently she can enter her enemies mind/memoeries/dreams, as she clearly remembers Sora, and says that she wants revenge.
• Berserk Button: Ursula grows to giant size after Sora kills her Mooks Flotsam and Jetsam.
• Breath Weapon
• Combat Tentacles: Of course!
• Impaled with Extreme Prejudice: Only this time, it was by having the trident being hurled into her. Incidentally, this was originally how Ursula was going to be defeated in an early draft of the original film.
• Japanese Pronouns: "Atashi".
• Large Ham
• Making a Splash
• Mama Bear: To Flotsam and Jetsam.
• Manipulative Bitch
• One-Winged Angel: In all the games she is in, she turns into a giant form of herself. Trying to defeat her in the first game when she's in that form is pretty hard.
• Power Hair
• Prongs of Poseidon: When she has king Triton's trident anyway.
• Shock and Awe
• Size Shifter
• Slasher Smile: In the manga.
• Villainous Glutton
• Villain Song
• Wicked Witch

Heartless

Creatures created by the darkness in people's hearts and the real villains in the story. They want to conquer the entire universe by using the darkness that exist in both people's and the worlds' inner hearts.

Ironically enough, Emblem Heartless do have hearts. Stolen ones, but still.

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• Adorable Evil Minions: Albeit with a few genuinely scary exceptions.
• Always Chaotic Evil
• As Long as There Is Evil: They're born from the darkness, and so long even a single heart has a bit of darkness in it, they'll always exist. However, it was only due to Xehanort's experiments that they were able to invade the Realm of Light, their inactivity in Birth By Sleep suggests perhaps they could be marginalized in the Realm of Darkness again.
• Bigger Bad: As the very embodiments of darkness and the main reason so many people and worlds are destroyed, they're the most significant evil force in the game universe. However as creatures of instinct with infinite numbers they aren't actual "villains" in terms of plot, thus the actual villain roles go to human characters.
• Bishonen Line: Zigzagged. Several of the strongest Heartless (Invisible, Neo Shadow, Darkside, etc) look more humanoid than their lesser counterparts, and Xehanort's Heartless, the most powerful Heartless of all, looks entirely human. On the other hand most Heartless including bosses look like monsters.
• Cute Bruiser: Most of them look too cute to be an army of bloodthirsty creatures.
• Eldritch Abomination
  • Lovecraft Lite: No one actually freaks out when they show up, and even the most powerful of them can still be defeated.
• Elite Mook: Invisibles are universally the strongest pureblood Heartless short of Darksides and other bosses. The strongest Emblem Heartless varies, but the Angel Star and Defender are commonly among the toughest.
• Eyes of Gold
• Enemy Mine: They stop fighting against the Nobodies during the Battle of Hollow Bastion any time Sora shows up, but also ally with Organization XIII at one point.
• Fisher Kingdom: Inverted, aside from a few generic breeds Heartless change their appearance to reflect the world they're in. As a result they can appear as almost anything, from cars to sorcerers to ghosts to plants.
• Giant Mook: At least one a game, such as the Large Body or Fat Bandit. They also No Sell against front attacks.
• The Heartless: The Trope Namer.
• The Legions of Hell
• Light is Not Good: The Angel Stars.
• Made of Evil
• Manipulative Bastard: They've no problems taking advantages of people's inner greed and anger; even Maleficent, a Manipulative Bastard herself, was manipulated by them.
• Metal Slime: Various mushroom-type Heartless, usually rare and/or hard to kill, but yield great rewards.
• Our Monsters Are Weird
• Palette Swap: Many of them have recolored stronger forms. The music-themed spellcasters all share the same appearance aside from color.
• Red and Black and Evil All Over: Their sigil is a black heart with jagged red lines. Many stronger Heartless add red, purple and blue to their color scheme.
• Slasher Smile: Some of them have those.
  • Jagged Mouth : Goes with the Slasher Smile
• Sigil Spam: Emblem Heartless, who the apprentices branded to further distinguish them from the naturally-occuring "Pureblood" ones; presumably either the apprentices or Maleficent are responsible for the enormous emblem on the Hollow Bastion castle.
• Theme Naming: The mushroom type Heartless are called "Color Fungus-type" (Blue Truffle, Gold Tricholoma), while the floating spellcaster Heartless are "Color Music-type" (Emerald Blues, Crimson Jazz).
• The Usual Adversaries
• You Have Outlived Your Usefulness: They always ally with the strongest villains to further their goals of conquest. Those villains who are too weak are abandoned or brought into their ranks.
• You Have Failed Me: See above trope.
• Zerg Rush: Their main "strategy". Since Sora is basically a One-Man Army, it usually fails.

The Nobodies

What's left behind when a heart is lost. Don't take "Nobody" literally: they are the body (and ill-defined "soul") of the person, though usually warped to something unrecognizable as human. Those who had the strongest will before losing their heart, however, can retain human form: see Organization XIII. We're told they lack emotion, but the fandom disagrees on this issue. They're half-right; 3D reveals that Nobodies start out with no hearts, but can regain them over time. Xehanort kept this fact secret from the entire Organization as part of his overall scheme to collect thirteen empty vessels to house his own heart.

They come in far fewer 'types' than the Heartless; Dusks and Creepers fill the 'generic mook' role, with every other breed of Nobody corresponding to an Organization member in some way.

---

• Elite Mooks: To the Heartless. Nobodies are only born when particularly strong hearts are lost, so they're not as common as Heartless but are more powerful and have some minor form of intelligence instead of just going on instinct.
• Empty Shell
• The Faceless: Most varieties, but look closely at the Dragoons...
• Humanoid Abomination: In direct opposition to The Heartless (who take on more monstrous forms as they become stronger), the strongest Nobodies are human-like in appearance. They also move and walk in ways that highlight how un-human they are, such as "swimming" through solid matter or walking on air.
• Power of the Void: Sorcerers attack with Hard Light cubes of Pure Energy. Also technically, all Nobodies are beings born of nothingness.
• Shapeshifter Weapon: Creepers shapeshift into various forms freely, including swords and spears.
• Sigil Spam: An inverted Heartless / Mark of Mastery logo based on Master Xehanort's armor. You could make a drinking game out of how many Nobody symbols there are decorating the Organization's castle, but you'd probably keel over before reaching the top.
• Theme Naming: Except for Dusks and Creepers, all the "lower" Nobody types are named after Final Fantasy job classes.
• The Usual Adversaries
• Weapon of Choice:
  • BFS: Berserkers
  • Blade on a Stick: Dragoons
  • Death Dealer: Gamblers
  • Dual Wielding: Samurai
  • Sniper Rifle: Snipers

The Unversed

The Unversed are a horde of fledgling emotions that feed on negativity and have taken monster form. When Yen Sid informs him of their appearance, Eraqus charges Terra and Aqua with wiping them out. They came into being when Ventus and Vanitas were split in two and are really extensions of what Vanitas feels. When Vanitas is destroyed, they cease to exist.

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• Emotion Eater: They apparently feed on negative emotions, though this is largely an Informed Ability.
• Eldritch Abomination
• Expy/Suspiciously Similar Substitute: In terms of appearance and behaviour, there really isn't much that separates the Unversed from the Heartless. Of course, Birth by Sleep takes place before the Heartless were a world-spanning threat, so the Heartless themselves couldn't be used.
  • One could argue that they are extremely similar to The Noise, after all; both of them are extensions of negative emotions and appear to be very similar in design.
• The Heartless
• Made of Evil
• No Ontological Inertia: Once Vanitas is destroyed, barring Gameplay and Story Segregation in the Final Episode, the Unversed vanish from the worlds.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• The Usual Adversaries

The Dream Eaters

The Dream Eaters are the Heartless to the worlds in sleep. Sleeping worlds can't be invaded by the Heartless, so when a Heartless would normally be born in such worlds, a Dream Eater is created instead. They come in two varieties — Spirits, who are friendly, and Nightmares, who are malicious.

• A Boy and His X: Not only are Spirit-Type Dream Eater recruitable and can be raised like pets, Sora and Riku also develope quite adorable relationships with their starter Dream Eaters, Wonder-Nyan and Komouri-Bat, the first of which Sora ends up lovingly nicknnaming "Iita". Sora ends up keeping all his Dream Eaters for companionship in the end, when he decides to embark on a journey on his own.
• Dark Is Not Evil: They're expressions of darkness, just like the Heartless, but many are perfectly non-antagonistic.
• Dem Bones: Bone To Be Wild and Hone Fish.
• Eldritch Abomination
  • Lovecraft Lite: See Dark Is Not Evil above.
• Exactly What It Says on the Tin/You Are The Translated Foreign Word: The names of the different species tend to be very cut-and-dried or bilingually redundant.
• Expy: Even in-universe; it's mentioned that they're the equivalent of Heartless in places where the Heartless can't spawn.
• Eyes of Gold: Spirits apparently have golden eyes when in a neutral mood but can change to turquoise or green in other circumstances.
• Frogs and Toads: The Kaeru series of Dream Eaters. The Kaeru Prince is a Bonus Boss.
• The Heartless
• Monster Clown: The Obake Pierrot Dream Eater species.
• Our Dragons Are Different: The Ryuu Dragon and Dragon Modoki Dream Eaters.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: The Obake Ghost Dream Eater.
• Palette Swap: The Spirits and Nightmares are this to each other. They're both brightly colored, but Spirits tend to be pink, turquoise, and white while Nightmares tend to be purple, yellow, and black. There are also special Nightmare variants that use paler colors than regular Nightmares.
• Panthera Awesome: The Aura Lion Dream Eater.
• Pegasus: The Handsome Pegasus Dream Eater.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning: Nightmares.
• Sigil Spam: Interesting in that they have two different ones. Spirits have their own Sigil and so do the Nightmares.
• Stock Dinosaurs: Two Dinosaur ones have been seen so far. The Rex Tyrant and the Tsunokeratops that is based on the Triceratops.
  • The Bone To Be Wild is a skeletal version of the Tyrant Rex.
• The Usual Adversaries
• Unicorn: The Elec Unicorn Dream Eater.

Riku Replica

Created by Vexen and used as a tool by Vexen, Marluxia, and Larxene, and ultimately Axel. Once he finds out that his memories are a fake created by Naminé, he becomes determined to defeat the real Riku and become real himself. You can guess how well that ends.

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• Always Someone Better: His motivation for defeating Riku.
• Artificial Human
• Berserk Button: He has two — getting anywhere near Naminé (Sora's storyline) and being called a "fake" (Reverse/Rebirth).
• Beta Test Baddie
• Chekhov's Gunman: After finishing Chain of Memories, he dies and is literally forgotten until 358/2 Days came out, and it turns out Xion is a Replica just like him.
• Cloning Blues
• Fake Memories
• Fan Nickname: Repliku.
  • Which is actually his name in the German version. Go figure.
• Go Out with a Smile
• Green Eyes
• Heel Face Turn: At least during Sora's storyline.
• Hot Blooded: Maybe even moreso than Riku in KH, and that's saying something.
• I Will Protect Her: To Naminé.
• Japanese Pronouns: "Ore".
• Killed Off for Real: In a series where several recurring characters suffer from losing their hearts, which Word Of God states is different from death since they can regain their hearts, the Replica is one of the few characters confirmed to be dead.
• Obi-Wan Moment: See his quote above.
• The Rival
• Spared by the Adaptation: In the manga.
• Talking to Himself: Quite literally happens any time he and the real Riku face each other.
• Teleport Spam: If you hated Riku's Dark Aura back in the first game, you will loathe this guy.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy: Duh.
• Yandere: For Naminé. The scary thing is that the Organization's plan basically amounted to Sora becoming just as crazy as him concerning protecting Naminé.

Anti Black Cloak

A mysterious entity shrouded in a black cloak, it manifests from Sora in Dream Drop Distance and attacks Riku when he tries to awaken Sora from his nightmare. It wears a black cloak but has magenta patterns on the edges and never shows its face. It is a Nightmare that spawned from the darkness in Sora's sleep to combat Riku, a counterpart Spirit that has been protecting Sora since the exam began.

• Beam Spam
• Black Cloak
• Casting a Shadow
• Dual Wielding
• Enemy Without: Manifests from within Sora and is a Nightmare type Dream Eater.
• Evil Counterpart: To Riku.
• Laser Blade: Like Xemnas and the Unknown it wields two, but its are purple and black.
• Life Drain: Can drain Riku's HP into health orbs it absorbs for itself.
• No Cure for Evil: Averted hard.
• No Name Given
• Nothing Is Scarier: Considering that previously such things have only been featured on the Mooks of the series, that all you see of it is a pair of bright red eyes glowing in its hood is actually creepier than seeing nothing at all.
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• Sigil Spam: A Nightmare emblem appears on its back when it notices the Spirit on on Riku's clothing, and the emblem appears in several of its attacks.
• Sword Beam
• Teleport Spam
• Theme Song Reveal: Averted. Its battle theme takes cues from "Hunter of the Dark", the battle theme for the giant red-eyed Heartless Aqua foughts in the Realm of Darkness, but they have no connection.
• The Voiceless

Sephiroth

The famous Final Fantasy VII villain appears as a fiendishly hard optional boss in both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. In the latter, there's a bit of a subplot with him and Cloud — in the former, Cloud mentions that he's "looking for someone", but the two only interact in a cut-scene added to the Final Mix.

See also his Final Fantasy VII traits.

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• Bonus Boss: Though his That One Boss status is diminished in Final Mix+ by the introduction of Terra, Roxas, and the Data Organization XIII.
• Bishounen: When he was voiced by Lace Bass his combat dialogue showed hints of it.
• Colony Drop: His most powerful attacks involve meteors, naturally, though they're on a Dissidia scale rather than the planet-crushing one from VII.
• Enemy Without: It is heavily implied, if not outright stated, that he's the physical embodiment of Cloud's own darkness rather than the "real" Sephiroth.
• Mr. Fanservice: Come on, it's Sephiroth.
• Hey, It's That Voice!: It's jarring hearing Superman taunt you in battle.
  • It's less jarring when you take into account that in his previous appearance, it was Lance Bass taunting you in battle.
• Japanese Pronouns: "Watashi"
• Never Say "Die": Pseudo-example, his declaration in the first game of "I will lead you to the Promised Land" becomes more threatening when you remember that most interpreations of the "Promised Land" in VII were that it was The Lifestream.
• One-Hit Kill: Or more like a One Hit Combo Kill, if you don't know what you're doing.
  • Can happen literally in the first game if you're underleveled/unprepared, seeing as Sephiroth uses no combo attacks sans a Limit Break very similar to Cloud's Omnislash.
• One-Winged Angel: Notably averted, despite being the Trope Namer. This seems to be a trend in recent years (with the exception of the hip wings). If you're being literal, he has one wing in the first game and three in KHII - on the other hand, the hip-wings do make an interesting callback to his actual One-Winged Angel form.
• Only Cloud Can Kill Me
• Perpetual Molt
• Playing with Fire: Just because.
• The Other Darrin: Lance Bass — yes, that Lance Bass — in the first game, George Newbern in the second.
  • And with it, came the realization that the words for his HP To One deathmove were "Descend Heartless Angel", not "Sin Harvest".
• Rapunzel Hair
• Red and Black and Evil All Over
• Simultaneous Blade Spam: The move Flash, where he dashes past Sora, and if you don't use the Reaction Command, Sora eats about 7-9 slashes.
• White-Haired Pretty Boy

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The Phantom

A shrouded entity appearing in Neverland around the clock tower.

• Attack Its Weak Point
• Barrier Change Boss
• Black Cloak
• Casting a Shadow
• The Faceless: The only Heartless we've seen with no glowing yellow eyes.
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Its energy orb must be attacked with physical blows or one of these three spell types.
• Shout Out: Appears similar to Lord Ombra from the Peter Pan novel Peter and the Shadow Thieves.
• Time Master: Uses the clock tower to inflict Doom on your party members one by one, and then eventually on Sora.
• The Voiceless

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Kurt Ziza

A large Heartless appearing in the Agrabah desert.

• Anti-Magic: Can disable Sora's ability to cast magic.
• Casting a Shadow
• Contest Winner Cameo: Named after a contest winner.
• Dual Wielding
• Sinister Scimitar
• Spin Attack

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Mimic Master

An Unversed fought in the Mirage Arena.

• Doppelgänger Attack: Manifests clones of the party members from its pages.
• Playing with Fire
• Throw the Book at Them
• Yin Yang Bomb: Sends out beams of light and darkness

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Iron Prisoner

A Unversed fought in the Mirage Arena

• Chained by Fashion
• Drop the Hammer
• Playing with Fire
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• Sealed Evil in a Can
• Took a Level in Badass: Each incarnation gradually frees itself from its bindings, becoming stronger and faster.

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Vanitas Remnant

A shade of Vanitas spawned in the Keyblade Graveyard after his destruction.

• Casting a Shadow
• Glass Cannon: Only one health bar, but insane power.
• No Cure for Evil: Famous for it, he heals himself to full HP if the player heals themselves.
  • Loophole Abuse: But only with Cure commands, items and attack commands that also heal get no reaction.
• Playing with Fire
• Sword Beam
• Teleport Spam

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The Red-Eyed Heartless

A massive bestial pureblood Heartless fought in the Realm of Darkness in Birth By Sleep Final Mix

• Casting a Shadow
• Chained by Fashion
• Doppelgänger Attack
• Fan Nickname: "Red Eye" or "Hunter of the Dark", the latter after its boss theme.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: While all the Bonus Bosses appear with little backstory, this one's existence is canon. Justified in that it appears in the Realm of Darkness where of course anything could attack you at any time without warning or reason.
• Large and in Charge: Rivals the Darkside as one of the largest Heartless ever seen.
• Playing with Fire
• Red Eyes, Take Warning
• True Final Boss: Actually the last enemy of the Secret Episode, replacing Terra-Xehanort in this regard.

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