Naminé

Naminé is the Nobody of Kairi, and wields the power to change memories. Her first appearance is in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. In Japanese her name means 'sea wave'. Her voice actor in the English version is Brittany Snow, and in the Japanese version is voiced by Iku Nakahara.

Journal Entry
A girl with the power to manipulate memories.

She seems to have some strong connection to Sora.

Birth
Naminé was born when Sora released the heart of Kairi from his body (as well as his own) near the end of Kingdom Hearts, being the entity of Kairi's heart and Sora's body. This made Naminé a very odd Nobody: born from Kairi's heart and Sora's body and soul. Kairi's own body never became a Nobody because her heart lacked darkness, so her body and soul were never able to leave the realm of light and thus made it seem like Kairi was in a comatose state until she regained her heart. However, this means that Naminé was also born without Kairi's memories, only furthering her status as an unusual entity. And because of the fact that Naminé is formed from Sora's body, she has the power to manipulate his memories as well as the memories of those who are connected to him, prompting several others, even herself, to call her a "witch". She came into being at Castle Oblivion, found by the Organization.

Castle Oblivion
Naminé, having become a captive of the Organization, resides in the upper floors of Castle Oblivion. When Sora is led into the castle, Naminé is forced by Marluxia and his cohort Larxene to manipulate Sora's memories, slowly causing Sora and his companions to forget many of their friends. At the same time, he is led to believe that Naminé herself is a very important friend that he had forgotten, though in truth they had never met before. Sora undergoes this manipulation so that Marluxia can have Sora become a puppet under Naminé's control, giving him the strength to overthrow the Superior. Even Kairi is soon forgotten, being replaced by Naminé, and the promise made between Sora and Kairi and her lucky charm take on new forms to reflect the replacement. Being motivated by these false memories, Sora continues to ascend Castle Oblivion when he realizes that she is being held against her will by the Organization.

Meanwhile, Naminé is also forced to implant false memories into the Riku Replica, so that he thinks he is the real Riku. However, like Sora, he believes that Naminé is his long lost friend, and that he made the same promise to Naminé that Sora did, and even has an identical lucky charm (though this one is merely a transformed card).

Naminé's conscience eventually allows her to overcome her loneliness and fears, and goes to reveal herself to Sora after being released by the two-faced Axel. She appears to Sora in the memory version of Destiny Islands as he is conversing with the memory version of Naminé. She tells him that she had never been his heart, despite what his memories show him, and to look for a faint glimmer of light in the deepest regions of his heart, for that light is the person special to him.

Back in the halls of Castle Oblivion, Sora confronts Naminé, realizing that she is not the person special to him. Just then, the replica arrives, but is defeated. When Sora tries to help him, the replica catches Sora off-guard and strikes him, and is about to move in for the finishing blow, but Naminé quickly crushes the replica's memories in his heart, knocking him unconscious. Then, Larxene arrives to finish Sora off but she ends up defeated when she makes the mistake of incurring Sora's wrath by harming Naminé.

After the battle, Naminé explains her actions and motivations, and expresses deep regret, thinking that Sora will not forgive her. Much to her surprise, Sora is completely forgiving, despite the severity of Naminé's doings. When asked if anything can be done to restore their old memories, Naminé says she can do so, but only after they defeat the lord of Castle Oblivion, Marluxia, on the 13th floor. Sora heads off to fight him, and leaves the replica under her care. However, as she is watching over him, Marluxia arrives and kidnaps her.

Marluxia puts her to good use when Axel confronts him about his plot to overthrow the Organization. Marluxia puts up Naminé as a human shield, but Axel is not deterred, saying that he will go through her to defeat him, much to her shock. Of course, she is saved by the timely intervention of Sora, though he fails to stop Marluxia from escaping with Naminé. Nonetheless, Sora defeats Axel and moves on to Marluxia, who orders Naminé to sever the chains of memories in Sora's heart, seeing that in his current state, he is of no use to him. But even so, Marluxia can eventually restore Sora and make him his puppet. However, Naminé refuses the order, and Marluxia threatens to kill her, but in the end, she is saved by the Riku Replica's arrival. Sora, Donald, and Goofy then initiate one final battle as the replica guards Naminé.

After Marluxia is defeated and the replica departs, Naminé presents Sora with the choice of either keeping his memories of the events that took place in Castle Oblivion and abandoning his old memories, or regain those and lose the ones of Castle Oblivion. She understands his choice of the latter, and leads Sora, Donald, and Goofy to a chamber housing crystal pods. In these, they can sleep while Naminé works to restore their memories. Though it will take some time, she assures him that he will eventually become his former self. However, Sora believes that Naminé will always be in his heart, forgotten but not lost. Thus, the two promise to meet again as real friends, just before Sora falls into a deep slumber.

Reverse Rebirth
Naminé also aids Riku in his efforts to conquer the darkness within him. When Zexion overwhelms him with light, Naminé takes on Kairi's form to convince him that he should accept the darkness as well as the light. Thus, he is given the strength to move through the light and strike down Zexion, who only just barely escapes.

Naminé and Riku meet again later at the urging of DiZ and she reveals Sora to him, who has fallen into a deep slumber in order to have his memories restored. She offers Riku to seal away the darkness in his heart, though he too would have to sleep like Sora. But Riku ultimately chooses to face the darkness on his own, and Naminé sees that he has made the right choice. He also reveals his suspicion that it was Naminé who appeared to him as Kairi, which she confirms, although she is surprised. Riku notes that the two "smell the same", before going off to face his darkness.

A Year Later
Naminé again appears in Kingdom Hearts II, working with DiZ and Riku (who has taken on the appearance of Xehanort's Heartless in order to use the power of darkness) to restore Sora's memories. Because Sora is incomplete, Naminé is having difficulty chaining back Sora's memories, so his Nobody, Roxas, is retrieved by Riku and placed into a digital Twilight Town, where he will live out his days until the time came for him to join with Sora.

However, Naminé desires to see Roxas, having developed a connection with him, and thus enters herself into the digital Twilight Town. There, she meets Roxas, and acts as a guide toward Roxas when he is attacked by Nobodies. After Roxas' Dive into the Heart, Naminé meets with Roxas again, saving him from the darkness that bursts forth from the Twilight Thorn. She plans to reveal the truth of who Roxas is to him, but is stopped by Riku before she can do so. Even so, their encounter puts Roxas into contact with Kairi the next day.

On the day following, the two meet again, and this time, Naminé manages to reveals Roxas' status as a Nobody, his relationship with Axel, and what his connection to Sora is. Upon seeing Roxas' reaction to the revelations, she apologizes and remarks that "some things really are better left unsaid".

On the final day of Roxas' time as an independent entity, they meet once more, and Naminé sheds light on Organization XIII, and their search for Kingdom Hearts. However, this Naminé is made from data, and is deleted before she can speak any further. But the true Naminé appears, telling Roxas that he will not disappear when he fuses with Sora, and will instead be whole. DiZ quickly tries to stop her, but before she is taken away, she promises him that they will meet again, even if they don't recognize each other.

Capture
As punishment for her encounter with Roxas, Diz orders Riku to kill her. Instead, Riku hands her over to Axel and says "I owe you guys for back at Castle Oblivion.". This was seen in a clip exclusive to Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+.

The World That Never Was
Naminé makes her final appearance in the game's last world, The World That Never Was. She breaks into the Organization's stronghold, rescuing Pluto and Kairi from their cell in the Organization's dungeon. They then proceed to find Sora, though Naminé's close proximity to her counterpart causes her to blink in and out of existence.

While searching for Sora, they are intercepted by Saïx. However, Riku arrives on the scene, and manages to drive off Saïx. Naminé then tells Kairi that he can take over from this point, and vanishes.

After the first battle with the Kingdom Hearts powered Xemnas, Naminé appears another time, projecting herself from Kairi, and opens up a pathway to Destiny Islands. Kairi thanks her for the help. Naminé then tells Sora that they meet again, though he does not understand what she means. At that moment, Roxas projects himself from Sora, and the two Nobodies are glad to meet once more, just as Naminé promised. The two realize that not all Nobodies are doomed to fade into the darkness, as they were able to meet their original selves, and though they are no longer independent, they will still live on through Sora and Kairi. And without regret, Naminé finally joins with Kairi.

The two are last seen in the ending FMV, when Sora and Riku return home to a waiting Kairi. As Sora looks up to smile at Kairi, he takes the appearance of Roxas. Kairi then takes on the appearance of Naminé, smiling back.

Memory Manipulation
Unlike other humanoid Nobodies, Naminé's talents do not lie in battle, but in the ability to control memories, making her a "witch". The ability comes from the fact that she is formed from Sora's soul and body, rather than Kairi's. Because of this connection, Naminé can move around the "links" his memories that are located within his heart to her liking, as well as the ones of those who are connected to Sora. She can even sever them completely, turning the victim into little more than an empty shell. She can even create objects affected by the new memories, evidenced by turning a card into a good luck charm for the Riku Replica.

However, as she is Kairi's Nobody, it is impossible for Naminé to completely snuff out Kairi from anyone's memories. Conversely, those with the greatest connections to Sora cannot ever completely forget him, as evidenced by Kairi.

Naminé also has another limitation to her power. When Naminé took on the task of re-chaining Sora's memories so that he will remember everything he had forgotten, but lose his memories of Castle Oblivion, she was unable to make much progress. DiZ reasons that it must be because Sora's other half, Roxas, is missing, and in order to restore Sora, Roxas must become one with Sora. Thus, linking memories back together is a far more difficult and elaborate task than breaking them.

How Naminé actually manipulates memories is something to be noted. As she is always drawing pictures on her sketchpad, DiZ believes that she draws in order to capture the memories she needs to chain together. Because of this, the walls of her room are covered by pictures of events, places, and people that are in Sora's memory. Several of them are also of Roxas, implying her ability to fiddle with Roxas' memories as well. She also might be able to cause things in her drawings to affect people in real-life, as shown in the opening AMV of Kingdom Hearts II, when she captures Sora inside of his pod by drawing a picture of him inside of one.

Emotion
As Nobodies, the members of the Organization do not have hearts. They therefore have no real emotions and, consequently, cannot feel guilt. How they act out their "feelings" based on memories, that they should probably feel and react in a certain way in certain situations. However, Naminé did NOT have any memories of the past. She had no basis for any acting.

Although she may have acted based on the memories of Sora, this still doesn't account for her feelings of guilt or fear. This leads some to speculate that she, like Roxas, may have true emotions, since Naminé and Roxas are the Nobodies of a still living Princess of Heart and the Keyblade Master, respectively.

Theme
Naminé's theme is named after her. It is very similar to Kairi's theme, which is to be expected because she is Kairi's nobody. It also shares some characteristics rythymicaly with the Crystal's Theme from the Final Fantasy series.

Namine