Pete

Pete is a secondary antagonist in the Kingdom Hearts series, acting as a loyal minion for Maleficent. Once a steamboat captain at Timeless River who employed a young Mickey Mouse, he used to live in Disney Town, but was cast into the Lanes Between by Queen Minnie Mouse for causing mischief. Maleficent releases Pete from his prison in return for his loyalty, and throughout Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts II, he goes on various missions for her to rebuild her power base of allied antagonists and Heartless minions after her disastrous defeat in Kingdom Hearts. However, Pete is a chronic bumbler, and as Sora puts it, "not smart enough to tie his own shoes." Despite generally acting against Sora, there are a few times when he and Maleficent have been forced to side with Sora for the sake of their own survival.

Pete also serves as a Dimension Link and Command Board opponent in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. As Captain Pete, he temporarily serves as an assistant fighter in Timeless River.

Before Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Many years ago, Pete worked as the captain of a steamboat. His deck hand was none other than the future king of Disney Castle, Mickey Mouse. This past association causes Pete to refer to Mickey as "the Boat-Boy King."

When Sora travels back in time to find the reason for the evil surrounding Disney Castle, he is quick to blame Captain Pete, unaware that he is not the Pete they are dealing with. However, when Sora, Donald Duck, and Goofy point their fingers at Captain Pete, to answer his question of if they saw any bad guys, the shipmaster is visibly offended, but instead of fighting them, he merely goes off to find his stolen steamboat. Sora, Donald and Goofy still attack him, and it is only when Captain Pete nurses his injuries and does not summon any Heartless that Sora and company realize that they have made a mistake. Sora promptly apologizes to Captain Pete for the misunderstanding and offers to help him recover the steamboat to make amends.

Later on, Sora meets Captain Pete again, this time arguing with his future self over the steamboat. Present Pete, subtly hinting that his past self's incarnation's life is at stake, wins the fight, knocks his past self away and steals the steamboat. Captain Pete aids Sora and company in the battle against Pete, and succeed in defeating him and chasing him off. To show his gratitude, Captain Pete (still completely unaware of Present Pete's true identity) allows Sora, Donald and Goofy to take a ride in the steamboat, since Mickey has not shown up.

Some time later after Sora, Donald, and Goofy left, Captain Pete rides his steamboat up the river as Mickey jumps aboard.

When Pete was the captain of the Royal Musketeers under Princess Minnie, he schemed to overthrow Minnie with help from the Beagle Boys and become King himself, but the three Musketeers, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy, put an end to his evil plans.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep


Pete appears in Disney Town as a resident and plays under disguise as the "hero" Captain Justice and the racer Captain Dark as a scheme to win the Million Dreams Award during the Million Dreams Celebration. However, despite insisting that his guises are separate people, many of the residents do not buy the ploy. After Queen Minnie announces that Terra, Aqua, and Ven won the award for their good deeds, with only Aqua able to accept the prize for her friends, Pete causes an uproar.

Though Queen Minnie says that some people do care for him and voted for him, Pete admits he just wants the prize and demands it. This forces Minnie, who lost her tolerance for him, to have Pete taken away by a squad of "security" brooms and exiled to the Lanes Between. However, Pete hears Maleficent's voice talking to him as she offers him freedom in return for his assistance in helping her conquer the worlds. Accepting the offer, Pete escapes through a Corridor of Darkness Maleficent conjured for him.

Between Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
In return for his freedom, Pete became a commander in Maleficent's Heartless army, and traveled around many worlds recruiting allies and building up more and more legions of Heartless to help her plot of universal domination (considering there is more than one world).

Pete was aware of Villain's Vale serving as Maleficent's base at one point; though he never visited. Due to being busy building the Heartless army, Pete remained largely unaware of Sora's battles against Maleficent's alliance, although he was aware that Jafar had been turned into a genie. Because he was not present at Hollow Bastion once the Princesses of Heart had been gathered, he was also unaware that Sora and his friends had slain Maleficent.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days


While searching for Jafar's Lamp in Agrabah, Pete is followed by Axel and Roxas when they come across the villain in the Marketplace as he was looking for a secret entrance out of town to the Cave of Wonders. Pete eventually escapes Organization XIII's sights, but later encounters Roxas and Xion during another mission in Agrabah in the Cave of Wonders. Assuming that they came looking for Jafar's lamp, Pete engages them in battle. However, their fighting causes a cave-in, forcing them all to flee.

Later, Pete appears in Neverland, making fake treasure maps for Captain Hook to follow, relying on the pirate's greed to conjure up tons of Heartless in his mad quest for riches. Roxas winds up destroying these Heartless anyway, and Pete's manipulation of Hook eventually leads to the creation of the Ruler of the Sky, Pete's "Prize Heartless", yet that too is defeated by Roxas.

Pete notes that the Organization is getting in the way of him trying to create powerful Heartless for Maleficent's plans.

Kingdom Hearts II
Hearing rumors of the powerful sorcerer Yen Sid, Pete heads to the Mysterious Tower, hoping to turn him into a Heartless to serve as his bodyguard. After sending his Heartless inside, Pete giddily awaits for his new Heartless to be born. To his surprise, Donald, and Goofy arrive at the tower with Sora. After the duo tell Sora about Pete's past, he gloats that the worlds will soon be his thanks to Maleficent; however, they inform him that Maleficent is dead. Angered by this news, Pete calls an army of Heartless to attack. After Pete tells them who lives in the tower, Sora, Donald, and Goofy run inside in excitement, leaving Pete to lose his temper and leave.

Hoping that the trio were lying about the demise of his mistress, Pete returns to Hollow Bastion and checks on Maleficent's old fortress. Seeing no one around, Pete believes Maleficent is dead and worries about what will happen to their plans. To his surprise, her pet raven, Diablo, appears and caws at him. Taking this as a sign that Maleficent has returned, Pete runs off in glee to continue building up the army of Heartless.

Pete then appears in Olympus Coliseum to help Hades defeat Hercules, planning to turn the great hero into another one of his Heartless when he falls. As part of Hades' plan to trick Sora into unlocking the Underdrome, Pete kidnaps Megara and imprisons her inside it. He fights Hercules and Sora long enough for the Hydra to attack the Coliseum, fleeing the Underworld and returning to Hollow Bastion.

Arriving, he is questioned by Maleficent as to why none of their allies have come for a meeting. Pete suspects they all had better things to do than attend a meeting, infuriating Maleficent. He then explains that Organization XIII has been giving him nothing but trouble with carrying out their agenda while she was away. Though Maleficent ignores this, Pete manages to get her attention by mentioning Sora's interference as well. After informing her of all that happened in the previous year, Pete is scolded for trying to take her place and failing constantly; he is no longer needed.

Saddened, Pete begins pining for his early days as a steamboat captain, causing a portal to Timeless River to open up. Showing Maleficent the portal, Pete is tasked with going back in time to destroy Disney Castle's treasured Cornerstone of Light to allow them to take over the castle to replace their crumbling fortress. However, Pete is stopped from fulfilling their plan by Sora, along with his past self. His portal is sealed behind him by the Keyblade, preventing him from ever going back.

He next appears in Port Royal, where he teams up with Captain Barbossa to lend a hand in removing the curse of the gold medallions. He warns them of the Keyblade's magic being effective on their skeletal forms. Pete also helps double-cross Will by leaving Heartless and rigging gunpowder barrels on the Interceptor while taking him hostage. After "the tide has changed" during Barbossa's battle with Jack Sparrow, Pete summons the Illuminator Heartless to absorb moonlight to assist. However, once both the Illuminator and Barbossa are defeated, Pete flees.

Deciding to resume his quest to find Jafar's lamp and turn him into a Heartless, Pete returns to Agrabah to search the Cave of Wonders. While searching, he overhears Sora's group mention the Peddler had Jafar's lamp. Leaving a squad of Heartless to keep them busy, Pete tracks the Peddler down and chases him to the palace gates. However, just when he is about to acquire the lamp, interference from Iago and Genie causes him to lose it. After the Blizzard Lord and Volcanic Lord that he summons are defeated, he runs off in a fury.

Traveling to the Pride Lands, Pete lends Scar control of the Heartless to secure his reign as king. When it seems that Sora, Donald and Goofy would be done in by Scar's hyena minions, Pete seemingly flees the scene. However, upon Scar's defeat by Simba, Pete uses the anger and jealousy in Scar's heart to turn him into a Heartless to establish his and Maleficent's control over the Pride Lands. However, Scar is defeated by Sora and Simba, forcing him to once again flee.

During the invasion of Hollow Bastion, Pete commands the Heartless alongside Maleficent. However, once seeing that their troops were no match for the Organization's Nobodies, he departs.

Later on, he and Maleficent invade Castle That Never Was, seeking to take it for their own. However, Pete points out that it would be next to impossible to control the Heartless in a world so close to the Realm of Darkness. However, Maleficent assured him that he underestimated her.

When Ansem the Wise's Kingdom Hearts Encoder explodes, it causes the creation of thousands of Heartless. Knowing that the Sora and his friends are the only ones who can stop Xemnas, Maleficent volunteers to hold off the Heartless, on the condition that when they've destroyed them all, the castle would be hers. Pete suggests fleeing, causing Maleficent to dismiss him. However, Pete meets Mickey face to face for the first time in a decade, and a brief conversation encourages Pete to stand and fight. He and Maleficent charge the Heartless army while Sora and company go on to defeat Xemnas. After the castle is destroyed, the two of them are forced to retreat.

Kingdom Hearts coded
Some time later, Pete appears in Disney Castle while King Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy were trying to uncover the secrets of the Journal. The moment they were taken to the data world, Pete was taken with them, but to a different location. He calls Maleficent to him, and the two decide that the data world could be used for their plans to plunge the world in darkness.

Pete makes his first reappearance in the data version of Olympus Coliseum, where he mistakes Data-Sora for his counterpart. He then travels to Data Agrabah, where he gives the data version of Jafar a lamp created from glitches, which gives him power over his world. Maleficent and Pete then appear together, and Maleficent destroys Data-Sora's Keyblade. They then take Data-Riku hostage, infected him with bugs. In the digital Hollow Bastion, Pete fights Data-Sora, and then forces him to fight Riku. After Sora defeats them and debugs Riku's data, the Journal begins erasing itself. Maleficent and Pete attempt to fight Sora's Heartless, but are quickly defeated. Before they can be erased, however, Data-Riku retrieves them, and they return to the real world shortly before Mickey.

Some time afterwards, in Betwixt and Between, Maleficent realizes that Jiminy's Journal is possibly linked to the Book of Prophecies, a book capable of rendering worlds and powers from the future. While Pete believes that all this is just a fairy tale, Maleficent decides to use this to recapture the Datascape.

When Data-Sora uses the Hollow Bastion World Card in the data version of Castle Oblivion, he encounters an illusion of Pete, who summons an illusory Maleficent once he is defeated. She transports them to a room where Data-Sora must traverse a gauntlet of Bug Blox across bottomless gaps. They taunt Data-Sora and disappear after he reaches them on the far side of the room.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Pete returns to Disney Castle with Maleficent and aids her in taking Queen Minnie hostage to force Mickey to give them access to the Data Worlds again, but Mickey refuses and Lea appears, throwing a chakram at Pete. Pete narrowly dodges, but loses his grip on Minnie and she escapes to safety. All but defeated, Pete leaves with Maleficent.

Sora and Riku also come into conflict with a past incarnation of Pete in Country of the Musketeers, set in the past when Pete was the captain of the Royal Musketeers under Princess Minnie. However, Pete schemes to overthrow Minnie with help from the Beagle Boys and become King himself, but the three Musketeers, Mickey, Donald and Goofy, aided by Sora and Riku, put an end to his evil plans.

Kingdom Hearts III
Having been foiled in their attempt to take the Datascape, Maleficent redirected their search for the genuine Book of Prophecies; according to her, it is contained within an ancient Black Box.

Maleficent and Pete travel to Mount Olympus to meet with Hades, who is planning his conquest of that world along with the titans. Maleficent assures him that she is not going to interfere with his plans and asks Hades if there is a distinctive black box on Mount Olympus and where she could find it. Hades then thinks that they might be searching for the box that Zeus hid in the ground and reveal its location to them. Later, while Sora, Donald, and Goofy are fighting the Heartless in Thebes, Maleficent and Pete appear in front of them, prompting Sora to accuse them of being responsible for the Heartless attack, but Maleficent strongly denies it. Pete observes at Sora seems weaker than the last time they faced him and suggests to Maleficent to destroy him, but the witch tells him to leave Sora as he is inconsequential to them and that they have more important affairs to attend, but not before telling them they will meet again. While digging up for the box in Thebes, Pete asks if the Box with the Book of Prophecies is real, to which Maleficent silences her minion. He later find's Pandora's box in the ground, but Maleficent orders Pete to throw it away since it is not the box they are searching for. They then leave that world, unaware that Xigbar is observing them from far.

Later, in Kingdom of Corona, Maleficent and Pete are disappointed for not being able to find the black box. Pete is skeptical about the existence of the box, but Maleficent assures him that it exists since it has been "etched". Maleficent then decides to follow the new Organization around the worlds, since they are also looking for the box.

In San Fransokyo, Maleficent and Pete encounter Dark Riku. He asks why they are snooping around and Maleficent answers that it is none of his concern. After some curt words are exchanged between them, Dark Riku leaves. When Pete asks Maleficent if he was a friend of hers, she confirms he was but she cannot tell from "when".

In Twilight Town, Pete argues with her that the hunt for the black box has been fruitless, to which she agrees, but claims that the hunt for the box ends today since the box does not exist in their time period. When Pete asks where to search, she decides that they need to wait for the box to be revealed after the Keyblade War.

In the Keyblade Graveyard, Maleficent and Pete observe from afar when Luxu summons four of the five foretellers (Ira, Aced, Invi and Gula) to his presence while carrying the Black Box with him.

Design
Pete is a portly, black furred, anthropomorphized cat (often confused for a dog). Like Mickey, he wears a heavily modified version of his usual outfit in the modern cartoons; in Pete's case, suspenders and a shirt.

Personality
Pete is very mean, selfish and, shown at various points, cowardly, with Sora describing him as a bully yet not "smart enough to tie his own shoes". He tends to get scared in the presence of characters with overwhelming power, or in situations of being outnumbered. Pete is quite loyal to Maleficent, although his cowardice interferes from time to time. He has the tendency to run at the mouth, bragging and insulting, even with people such as Hades. Whenever he is defeated, he runs off in a huff, swearing revenge. Though Pete appears incompetent, his heart has strangely been strong enough to resist the darkness.

Despite his cowardly demeanor, Pete is one of the sneakier antagonists in the series. This is shown first in the Underworld where he tricks Sora into opening the Underdrome by losing a fight to Sora. Next at Agrabah, he uses Sora and his friends to find Jafar's lamp so he can steal it and turn him into a Heartless. Later, during his fight with Sora at Timeless River, he continuously changes the scene to give himself an edge.

When he was a captain, Pete had many of the same personality traits he would later be known for, such as his gruff demeanor and generally rude behavior. However, Captain Pete is shown to be much more benevolent than Pete, though Sora stated he had an attitude, and appears to have no intention whatsoever of harming other people for any reason.

Abilities
Pete is capable of throwing explosive bowling balls at his opponents. He can also use fireworks to immobilize his opponents.

Another attack involves throwing a close-range "temper tantrum", in which he shouts "Get outta my way!" and slams the ground with both fists generating a small shockwave.

Lastly, he can generate a shield with regenerating and protective properties. He has been shown to be able to conjure items and telekinetically throw them, as he did while trying to make off with the Cornerstone of Light.

Besides that, he does have some magical talent, as shown when he somehow conjured a portal to the Past while reminiscing, a surprising feat for Pete, and he evidently has a strong Heart as he is likely able to use the Corridors of Darkness to travel the worlds to gather Heartless without being stained by darkness. He also seems to have some power of teleportation as when he appeared alongside Maleficent to stop the Heartless and allow Sora and his friends to continue on to battle Xemnas. He obviously has above-average strength, and unlike Maleficent, was strong enough to resist the darkness. He has also shown some decent swordsmanship as the captain of Queen Minnie's royal guard.

D-Link
In the international release of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, and Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Final Mix, Pete becomes a D-Link for Terra, Ventus, and Aqua after witnessing a "Captain Justice" or "Captain Dark" event from a special panel on a Command Board played from the menu. When in link with Pete, they can perform spin attacks that cause status effects.

Origin
Although Peg-Leg Pete's debut dates back to 1925 in ' in which he was portrayed as a bear-like creature, it was not until ' in 1928 that he made his first full-fledged appearance as Mickey Mouse's feline antagonist. Despite this, he holds the distinction of being the oldest surviving Disney character. Coincidentally, Pete's role in Steamboat Willie is relatively minor compared to Mickey and Minnie, appearing only at the beginning to throw Mickey back onto the deck to work, and at the very end when he stops Mickey and Minnie from their mischief and punishes Mickey by ordering him to peel potatoes.

While most portrayals of Pete give him an antagonistic role, in some cartoons, he was shown to have a somewhat caring side, including to his children in the show Goof Troop, his son in the Goofy Movies, and in the children's show . His design in the Country of the Musketeers is based on his look from the film Mickey, Donald, Goofy: The Three Musketeers, in which he is the main antagonist.

Notes and references
Pat (Rétro) Käptn Karlo