Prince

The Prince, also known as the Beast, is a recurring character in the Kingdom Hearts series. He plays an important role in  and Kingdom Hearts II as an ally to Sora and his friends. He first appeared in Disney's .

Kingdom Hearts χ
Beast's power was channeled by the Book of Prophecies to form various s, specifically, , , , and.

Beast appears within the Book of Prophecies' hologram of Beast's Castle.

Between Kingdom Hearts χ and Birth by Sleep
The Prince lives a spoiled life in his castle. When he denies an enchantress in disguise shelter from a fierce snowstorm, the prince is transformed into a hideous beast by the enchantress, who is disgusted at the prince's lack of love in his heart. As an additional consequence, the enchantress turns all of the prince's servants into household objects, including Cogsworth, Lumière, Mrs. Potts, Chip, and Wardrobe. After this, the Prince decides to call himself the Beast.

The enchantress puts a spell on a rose she had carried, saying that it would bloom until the Beast turned twenty-one, at which point it would begin to wilt. By the time its last petal falls, the Beast would stay in his terrible form forever, as would his servants. Nearly ten years later, Belle appears at the castle, seeking her father, Maurice, who had gone missing. Belle finds her father in the Beast's dungeon, and exchanges her freedom for his. After many days of tension between Belle and the Beast, the two start to grow close to each other.

Some time after Maleficent attacks Radiant Garden, Belle is captured by the Heartless, and the Beast's world, along with all of his servants, are swallowed by the darkness.

After the destruction of his world, the Beast appears in Hollow Bastion, due to his determination to find Belle. Sora, Donald, and Goofy witness him detailing his history to Riku at Hollow Bastion's rising waterfalls; Beast claims that it was his love for Belle that had helped him travel all the way to Hollow Bastion from his castle without a craft to assist him—but in reality, it was his strong feelings of hatred that allowed him to open a corridor of darkness. He demands that Riku return Belle to him.

When his request is denied, Beast attacks Riku, but Riku manages to injure the Beast. Sora then loses control of the Keyblade to Riku, and Donald and Goofy had no choice but to follow Riku due to their king's orders to follow the Keyblade Master, leaving Sora alone with the Beast. The two briefly explain to each other that they are both looking for someone, before heading into Hollow Bastion as a team; with the Beast being a great asset to Sora, whose combat abilities are weakened without his Keyblade.

However, once inside Hollow Bastion's main entrance, the Beast witnesses a vision of Belle being turned into a Heartless, and in a fit of rage the Beast abandons Sora, chasing after the Shadow. After Sora battles Riku and regains the Keyblade, the Beast returns to his senses and continues to assist Sora, who now has Donald and Goofy back on his side.

The four encounter Maleficent, who battles them in her human and dragon forms. Once she is defeated, the Beast separates from the group while Sora, Goofy and Donald enter the chamber where the Princesses of Heart are being held; here, Sora once again faces Riku, who is now possessed by Ansem, Seeker of Darkness.

After Sora wins the battle, he uses the Keyblade of heart to release Kairi's heart from his own, as well as to return all of the other princesses' hearts, including Belle's. When Sora, Kairi, Goofy and Donald are surrounded near Hollow Bastion's exit, the Beast stays behind as Hollow Bastion becomes infested with Heartless, refusing to leave without Belle, who is still encased in glass and crystal, and also to divert the Heartless' attention from Sora and friends so they can escape safely.

When Sora returns to Hollow Bastion, he takes the Beast into the library, where Belle is researching ways to stop the darkness that has started beginning to engulf Hollow Bastion. She and the Beast lovingly embrace, happily reunited at last. Beast continues to help Sora in battle at Hollow Bastion, and then waits there with Belle following Sora's departure, anticipating Sora's victory so that he and Belle can return home. He returns to his castle with Belle after the defeat of Ansem.

The Beast is also present for battle the with an unknown challenger, who came to Hollow Bastion with the intent of testing Sora's strength.

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories
An illusion of the Beast appears in Castle Oblivion as a figment of Sora's memories of Hollow Bastion. He is shown coming to Hollow Bastion to rescue the captured Belle much like the real Beast, but is coldly refused by Belle and told to return home. The Beast becomes depressed, not knowing that Belle is merely faking her cruelty to foil Maleficent's plans to steal her heart.

When he is rejected again, however, the Beast declares he will stay and fight for her even if it is against her wishes, confessing his own feelings for her in the process and prompting Maleficent to try and steal his heart instead, but Belle is so moved that she sacrifices her own heart to save his. The Beast joins Sora and his friends in defeating Maleficent, and Belle's heart is restored. The Beast apologizes for doubting Belle's love for him, and the two lovingly embrace.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Upon returning to his home world, the Beast finds his castle under attack by the Heartless and does everything he can to fight them off, though his constant fighting strains his relationship with Belle. He is defeated while trying to keep an Infernal Engine from breaking into the castle, and finally stops fighting knowing that Belle and his servants are safe.

Some time later, the Beast is contacted by Xaldin of Organization XIII, who begins to sow seeds of distrust for Belle into the Beast, and he slowly begins to fear that he will lose everything he holds dear. By observing the Beast during his missions, Roxas begins to learn about love and the desire to protect something precious.

Kingdom Hearts II
One year after the defeat of Ansem, the peace in Beast's castle is interrupted by a high-ranking Organization XIII member, Xaldin, who enrages the Beast by telling him that Belle will leave him, and that her feelings for him are not true. In his rage, the Beast throws his servants into the dungeon and frightens Belle to the point that she will not venture beyond the East Wing of the castle.

When Sora, Donald and Goofy arrive in Beast's Castle, they are attacked by Shadow Heartless, but they are saved by the Beast. However, despite having saved them, the Beast is not the least bit interested in seeing his old friends again. He shoves them aside and reaches for his enchanted rose, which he takes back to his room in the West Wing.

After rescuing the castle's servants at Belle's request, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and the Beast's majordomo, Cogsworth, find the Beast in his room, being provoked by Xaldin. After battling the Beast to calm him down, the Beast comes to his senses and decides to apologize to Belle.

However, they do not find Belle in her room. The Beast and company discover her running from Shadow Stalker in the castle's ballroom. She retreats to the balcony as the Beast confronts Xaldin and fights the Shadow Stalker that Xaldin sends after the group. After the fight, the Beast apologizes to Belle, who accepts the apology. However, Belle is still disappointed in the Beast's lack of trust in her, and Sora leaves their world wondering if they will ever manage to work out their differences.

When Sora returns, he finds the Beast pacing in the main entrance. The Beast is dressed elegantly, and after a few reluctant grunts, he finally admits that he and Belle are on a date for the evening. Unfortunately, as the two begin to dance in the ballroom, Xaldin shows himself. The Beast charges at Xaldin, while Belle bemoans the Organization's interference with her romantic evening. Following yet another battle, Xaldin tells the Beast that something precious to him was now gone. The Beast realizes Xaldin means the enchanted rose, and abandons his friends to check if his fear is true.

Unfortunately, in his despair, the Beast lashes out at Belle and Sora, telling them to leave his castle. While Belle walks to her room to prepare for her departure, Sora stays and convinces the Beast that he needs to show Xaldin who was boss. The Beast, realizing Sora's words are true, goes to find Xaldin, who waits for them in the entrance hall. When Xaldin flees to the outside, the Beast follows.

Meanwhile, Belle stands on the balcony outside of her room, lost in thought. When she sees Beast and the others emerge from the castle, she starts to run back inside, but she spots the rose sitting beside her door. She happily holds the rose over the balcony to show it to the Beast, but she is suddenly grabbed from behind by Xaldin and whisked away to the castle's bridge. Xaldin forces the Beast to either chose to save Belle or his rose; he chooses Belle. Fortunately, Belle catches Xaldin off-guard by painfully elbowing him in the stomach, allowing her the opportunity to grab the rose and run to safety, ensuring that the Beast loses neither her or the rose.

After a fierce confrontation with Xaldin which the Organization member lost, the Beast gladly takes his rose back from Belle. However, he is ashamed of how he had yelled at Belle. With a little encouragement from his friends, he bashfully asks her to stay with him. Belle smiles and accepts, and the two dance the night away in the castle courtyard.

Some time later, the Beast transforms back into the Prince while dancing with Belle.

Personality
The Beast was originally a very spoiled, selfish, cruel, and unloving prince. However, in the Kingdom Hearts series, he is shown at a later stage in his relationship with Belle, with most of his uncomplimentary traits remedied. The Beast is still prone to lashing out in anger, especially when provoked by characters like Maleficent or Xaldin. However, beneath his rough exterior beats a true heart of gold, which Belle has worked to bring out so that everyone can see how beautiful a person the Beast really is.

Matching with his ferocious appearance is his extreme bravery, demonstrated when the Beast shows no fear in challenging opponents such as Maleficent, Shadow Stalker, and Xaldin, despite their menacing strength and appearance. Even after being wounded by Riku, the Beast still presses on, determined to save Belle from Maleficent at any cost.

Design
The Beast's appearance is a combination of physical characteristics from various wild animals, including a wild boar, wolf, buffalo, bear and lion. He often wears a torn purple cape and dark blue pants. When dressed up, he ties his hair back with a blue bow, and wears a blue and yellow jacket, an orange vest, and black pants. He is mostly shown hunched, except when he is in his formal dress.

When in his human form, the Prince has shoulder-length red hair. He dons the same formal suit he wore as the Beast, tailored to fit him; he also wears brown boots. The only striking similarity between the Prince and his beastly alter ego is his blue eyes.

Kingdom Hearts
Beast's stats are very high, which is fortunate, as he is Sora's only ally in the early portion of Hollow Bastion, the final world, when Sora is forced to fight at greatly reduced strength. His attack and defense tend to be higher than Sora's, and he has decent MP and high HP. Beast's abilities increase his physical prowess, attacking with tackles, charges, and claws. He has one equipment slot and eight item slots.

Beast is a supremely offensive party member with powerful combat abilities. He has two special attacks, Ferocious Lunge and Furious Bellow, which are both heavily aggressive attacks. Beast also has access to a number of support abilities, including Berserk, MP Rage, Second Wind, Second Chance, and Critical Plus.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
While the Beast is not used in-game for fighting, he still displays high strength, slaying two Neoshadow Heartless with a single strike. It is also implied that he was able to hold his own against the Infernal Engine long enough for Roxas to reach the entrance to the castle, though he is sent over the outer walls just as Roxas nears the door.

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories
Beast appears as a friend card in Hollow Bastion. His attacks and sleights differ greatly between Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories.

In the original game, activating a Beast card causes him to charge in a straight line. Stocking two or three Beast cards creates the Ferocious Lunge Lv2 or Ferocious Lunge Lv3 sleight, which increases the effectiveness of Beast's charge.

In the remake, a Beast card initiates an attack where Beast knocks an enemy towards Sora. Then, is pressed for Sora to knock the enemy back to Beast. Stocking multiple cards creates Furious Volley Lv2 and Furious Volley Lv3, which increases the number of times the enemy is knocked back and forth.

Kingdom Hearts II
As one would expect, Beast is a physical attacker with few abilities, relying on his brute strength to fight with a series of tackling and charging attacks. He has no armor slots, one accessory slot, and four item slots.

Beast's action abilities include Furious Shout and Ferocious Rush, which are powerful, rage-induced attacks. His limit, Howling Moon, involves Beast unleashing shockwaves and howling aggressively while he and Sora attack enemies from all sides.

He also has a number of support abilities, including Item Boost, Defender, Second Chance, and Hyper Healing.

Origin
The Beast is based on his appearance in Walt Disney's 1991 film, ', which was in turn inspired by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's ', published in 1756. However, the Beast's character has made various appearances in hundreds of incarnations of the Beauty and the Beast story. In this adaptation of the story, the Beast starts out as arguably an evil villain, callously imprisoning Belle's father, Maurice, in his dungeon solely for wandering into the castle for help.

Belle offers to replace Maurice with herself and the Beast accepts. The Beast treats Belle with nothing but contempt at first, and at one point frightens her so much that she attempts to flee the castle, but he realizes his mistake and follows her into the woods to save her from a pack of hungry wolves. After Belle thanks him for saving her by treating his wounds, he returns her kindness by giving her his library as a gift. Following this major change in his behavior, the Beast's inner goodness begins to surface and he also heals his strained friendships with Lumière and Cogsworth. Eventually, the two fall in love, but as they are on the verge of admitting it, Belle discovers Maurice dying in the woods, having lost his way while searching for the Beast's castle, and the Beast, regretting his previous behavior with the old man, allows Belle to leave to find him, and he admits to Cogsworth that he loves her. Unfortunately, this leads to the simple-minded villagers discovering the Beast's existence, since until then he had been considered a rumor at best, and a rival suitor for Belle, Gaston, leads the villagers to attack the castle and kill the Beast. Gaston finds the Beast, depressed since Belle's departure, and starts to beat him, but the Beast fights back upon seeing Belle return and defeats Gaston, but shows him mercy. Gaston manages to stab the Beast in the back before falling to his own death, and the Beast dies in Belle's arms as she admits she loves him. However, the spell breaks and the Beast is reverted to his human form, the Prince, as well as revived. He embraces Belle and his servants and they hold a ball to celebrate.

Trivia

 * Beast's Japanese voice actor, Kôichi Yamadera, also provides the voices of Donald Duck, Mushu, and Sebastian in . He voiced the same roles, in addition to Genie and Stitch in Kingdom Hearts II, and Jaq in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.
 * He is the only party member who has been a temporary party member in more than one world throughout the series. He was a temporary party member in Hollow Bastion in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, and was a party member in Beast's Castle in Kingdom Hearts II.
 * Beast is the only Disney party member besides Donald and Goofy who has the distinction of having participated in direct battles against Organization XIII (and even helping destroy one). The first is against Xemnas in Kingdom Hearts Final Mix, and the second is against Xaldin in Kingdom Hearts II.
 * One of Beast's abilities, Howling Moon, shares its name with one of 's Limit Breaks from .

Notes and references
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