Baldr
| Baldr | ||
|---|---|---|
|
| ||
| Japanese | バルドル | |
| Rōmaji | Barudoru | |
| Homeworld | Scala ad Caelum | |
| Game | Kingdom Hearts Dark Road | |
- "But the more darkness I felt, the deeper my heart sank into the abyss. It started to consume me, until one day, I realized that the darkness I thought was theirs was in truth mine."
- —Baldr
Baldr is the main antagonist of Kingdom Hearts Dark Road. He is the younger brother of Hoder and a Keyblade wielder training under Odin, and one of Xehanort's and Eraqus's classmates.
Story[edit]
Before Kingdom Hearts Dark Road[edit]
As a child in Scala ad Caelum, Baldr discovers that he has the ability to sense the contents of people's hearts. When he grows into his youth, he becomes a Keyblade wielder under Odin, as part of the lower class alongside Xehanort, Eraqus, Vor, Hermod, Urd, and Bragi. Baldr is comforted by the light he senses in Hoder's heart. As Baldr senses the darkness in other's hearts, and their single-minded devotion to light, the darkness grows and becomes Baldr's own darkness. As he meets more people with light-filled hearts, such as Eraqus, he comes to believe that there are only people full of light like them, and people destined to darkness like himself. This frightens Baldr, and he tries to stay close to Hoder.
After the upper classmen, including Hoder, are sent on their Mark of Mastery exam, Baldr grows anxious for Hoder's safety. Initially he confides in Eraqus about his worry, before secretly venturing out after her. Baldr finds Hoder fighting Maleficent in Enchanted Dominion. Although Baldr attempts to help her, he succumbs to the darkness in his heart, which instead attacks her and strikes her down, as part of a plan to cause her friend Vidar to summon Kingdom Hearts. Baldr also strikes down Heimdall, Helgi, and Sigrun when they come to save Hoder.
Kingdom Hearts Dark Road[edit]
Baldr is found unconscious and confined to the infirmary to heal. Over the next week, Baldr's darkness grows as he grieves Hoder's death, which he feels responsible for, along with the deaths of her classmates. Eventually, the darkness convinces Baldr the world is hopeless and its light should be purged. Meanwhile, Odin disguises Baldr's absence from his classmates and sends them to track down the upper classmen, who have been deemed missing.
As planned, Vidar seeks to summon Kingdom Hearts, but he eventually realizes the potential consequences of this plan, and stops pursuing Kingdom Hearts. The darkness-possessed Baldr is forced to change course, and instead plans to kill thirteen lights in order to summon Kingdom Hearts. With this in mind, Baldr suddenly returns to the other lower classmen, who have been told to give up their mission after learning of the upper classmen's plan and having Vor leave them. Baldr suggests they can continue their mission by speaking to Hoder's spirit in the Underworld. Xehanort, sensing the darkness in Baldr's heart, grows suspicious of Baldr. After Hades transports them to the Underworld, the lower classmen are separated. Baldr intervenes while Xehanort, Eraqus, and Bragi are fighting Cerberus, and encourages Xehanort and Eraqus to continue without them. While they're alone, Baldr defeats Cerberus and prepares to take down Bragi, but Bragi points out that Xehanort will know if Baldr kills him. As Baldr attempts to attack Bragi anyway, Bragi easily disarms him, and attempts to leave rather than get involved. Baldr runs after Bragi and attacks him, and believes to have killed him, though in actuality Bragi escapes.
As Xehanort, Eraqus, Hermod, and Urd are about to confront Hades, they are sucked into a portal leading to a Corridor of Darkness. While Hermod and Urd struggle against the overwhelming darkness inside the corridor, Baldr arrives to finish them off.
After Xehanort and Eraqus are rescued by Odin, Baldr begins a rampage across Scala ad Caelum. Eventually he appears, wreathed in darkness, to Xehanort, Eraqus, Vidar, Vala, and Vali, and summons Heartless to fight them while he looks for Vor. In the central tower, he finds Vor, but she is soon joined by Vidar, Vala, and Vali, who fight him. Baldr summons the Hringhorn, which quickly eliminates the four of them, leaving Baldr only needing two more lights to sacrifice.
Baldr invites Xehanort and Eraqus to a final battle atop the central tower. After defeating the Hringhorn, Xehanort prepares to finish off Baldr, but Baldr surrounds them with darkness and attempts to convince Xehanort that they are the same, always in the shadow of a greater light. As Baldr taunts Xehanort, Hoder's spirit appears from within Xehanort's heart to quell Baldr. Baldr explains his fears to Hoder, and she tries to comfort him, but as they reach out to each other, both draw their Keyblades instead. As Xehanort tells them to stop, darkness consumes Baldr once again, but Odin suddenly restrains with chains and dispels the darkness. When Xehanort hesitates, Hoder attempts to strike Baldr down, but he retaliates and she fades away, while both of them collapse. Baldr once again tells Xehanort they are different from the others, and in the end Xehanort kills Baldr, though Baldr's words leave Xehanort with a deeper desire for answers.
Baldr and Hoder are later enshrined in the same grave in Scala ad Caelum's graveyard.
Design[edit]
Baldr is a youth with pale skin, silver eyes, and long, feathery white hair that reaches his shoulders in the back and is shorter in the front and frames his face. He wears a white jacket with a very large hood with a gold Terra's Mark clasp, a thin black band around his upper left arm, and large gold-embroidered lapels bridged by an orange cord that ends in a tassel on the left side. Under this, he wears a black vest over a white undershirt, with loose, criss-crossing blue straps around the waist, a silver chain at his left hip, black fingerless gloves, dark grey pants, and tall black boots with gold buckles.
In Norse mythology, Baldr was the god of light, joy, purity, and the summer sun. Baldr's death at the hands of his brother signals the beginning of Ragnarök, a series of events filled with death and tragedy leading to the end of the world.
Abilities[edit]
Like his classmates, Baldr wields the Keyblade. During his time as a vessel of Darkness, he can manipulate a dark aura surrounding him to great effect. He can also manifest his darkness as the powerful Hringhorn.
