Marluxia

Marluxia, the Graceful Assassin, is number XI in Organization XIII and the lord of Castle Oblivion. Originally discovered by senior Organization members Xigbar and Xaldin, he is the mastermind of an internal rebellion in the Organization against Xemnas, and Sora's final boss of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. In battle, he wields a large scythe and uses the power of Death. He uses the power of flowers, evidenced by his being surrounded by sakura petals, which are the Japanese symbol for Death.

Marluxia will make an appearance in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. He will be a playable character in the multiplayer mode.

Sora's Arrival
Marluxia first appears in the series at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, when Sora first enters Castle Oblivion, making him normally the first Organization member to appear in the series (although the Enigmatic Man is a secret boss in Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix). Marluxia, still cloaked and hooded, explains to Sora that the Castle has made him forget all of his spells and abilities, and instructs him in the use of cards to fight. He also enters into battle with Sora, although he makes it very easy and it is only an instructional fight. After giving Sora a set of World Cards to begin climbing the floors of the castle, Marluxia leaves Sora to fend for himself.

Dissent in the Organization
Marluxia, working with Larxene and Vexen, plots to overthrow the Organization. They formulate a plan to use a young girl named Naminé, who has a mysterious power over memory, to deceive Sora into thinking he had sworn to protect her, and then have her use Sora to help them defeat the senior Organization members. This plot stems from a rivalry between some of the younger Organization members and the original six core members. Vexen, Larxene, and another Organization member Axel all do their part to feed Sora with information and lure him further into the castle. Each of them fight him on their own, although none of them use their full strength and throw the fights. They also make use of Vexen's Riku replica to compete with Sora for Naminé's loyalty.

Marluxia and Larxene eventually learn that Vexen has been reporting back to Zexion and Lexaeus regarding their revolt. After Vexen loses control of the Riku Replica, Marluxia pronounces his project a failure, claiming that his mastery over Castle Oblivion allows him the authority to do so. Marluxia threatens to tell "the Superior" of Vexen's failure, but Vexen pleads with him not to do so. Marluxia agrees not to if Vexen eliminates Sora. Although confused by the order, Vexen agrees, and heads Sora off in the Twilight Town world. He fights Sora for the second time, but is again defeated. Before he can reveal Marluxia's plans to use Sora, however, Axel strikes him from behind on Marluxia's orders, making Vexen the first Organization member to be eliminated.

Failure of the Plot
Axel's assassination of Vexen allows him to gain the full trust of Marluxia and Larxene. As Sora nears the top floors of the castle, Axel is left alone with Naminé to keep watch over her. Instead of keeping an eye on her, Axel allows her to escape, freeing her from Marluxia's control and ending her continued restructuring of Sora's memories, effectively ruining the plot to manipulate Sora into fighting the Organization. This prompts Larxene to attack Sora shortly after he defeats the Riku replica fro the final time, but she is killed in the struggle, leaving only Marluxia to carry out the plot. Sora finds Axel and Marluxia on the top floor of the castle, squaring off to fight. Marluxia makes Naminé appear in front of him as a shield to prevent Axel from attacking him, but Axel laughs it off, saying he's willing to go through Naminé to get to Marluxia. Marluxia then tells Sora that Axel is going to hurt her and vanishes, leaving Sora and Axel alone. Axel sneers at Sora for having become Marluxia's puppet after all, but Sora resolves to eliminate Marluxia right after he finishes Axel. The two fight, and Sora comes out the victor, but Axel escapes death and vanishes.

Death
Sora pursues Marluxia into his inner chambers and attacks him. He destroys him, but finds that the real Marluxia had been hiding in an back room and that his opponent had only been a copy. Sora advances into the final room to confront Marluxia, who has combined with a large machine-like Nobody, wielding a power Sora and his friends can sense through the doorway leading into the chamber. Sora defeats him again in the storyline's final battle, making Marluxia the fourth Organization member to fall.

Battle Tactics and Abilities
Marluxia fights using the element of flower and wields a large, pink and green scythe. His element is often confused with death, since the rose is a common symbol of death.

Marluxia has two forms in the original Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and three in the Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ remake. While in basic human form, he can attack with his scythe normally, or use it to slash at an enemy from across a distance. With his control over flower, Marluxia can create a clone made of flowers, send a flurry of petals at his opponent, and create powerful energy waves. Like the other Organization members from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Marluxia moves by levitating.

In his 1st final form, Marluxia makes use of his machine-like Nobody to slash at Sora with it's arms, or fly at him and cause impact damage. He can also use flower petals to fire lasers at Sora, or to fire blasts of energy from the bottom of the contraption.

Marluxia's additional final form in the PlayStation 2 remake involves Marluxia and Sora fighting on a larger version of Marluxia's Nobody floating in a starry-night environment surrounded by circulating rings. A large angelic figure stands behind him wielding a gigantic scythe. He can create shockwaves, blow gusts of wind, use a death countdown timer, in which the counter counts down to zero, leading to death if not repelled. He also reuses the flower petals which fire lasers.

In Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix, Marluxia returns in an optional battle with new tactics,and wielding the element flower. He begins the battle by whispering in Sora's ear, which causes a countdown timer to appear above Sora's head based on his current level, similar to the hit point condition of the Titan Cup. He then spends most of the battle attacking Sora relentlessly with his scythe, which deals no damage, but instead reduces the timer's count by one for each hit. If the timer reaches zero, Sora loses the battle, but the timer can be increased by using the reaction command "Rob Count", in which Sora grabs Marluxia's scythe, knocks him into the air and hurls the scythe at him. Marluxia also can conjure up black circles which cover most of the floor and deal damage to Sora's HP, but leave the death timer unaffected.

Trivia

 * In the Japanese version, Marluxia was voiced by popular seiyuu Shuuichi Ikeda, who was famous as the voice of Char of Gundam fame. He provided the dub voice for the fox on Disney's the Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe.
 * In Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Marluxia summons his scythe by catching a single falling sakura(cherry blossom) petal in his raised, open hand. However, in the PS2 version (Re:CoM), the petal more resembles that of a rose.

Videos
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Marluxia (first battle)

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Marluxia (final battle)

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Marluxia (Re:Com final battle)

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Marluxia (KH2 Final Mix battle)