Maleficent

Maleficent is a major antagonist in the Kingdom Hearts series. She is the evil sorceress from Sleeping Beauty. She is very manipulative and was first seen in Kingdom Hearts in Hollow Bastion.

She is the leader of a team of Disney Villains called the Hellfire Club. So far, she has been shown to have three different versions of this team.

Kingdom Hearts
Maleficent was the mastermind behind the council of Disney villains seen in Kingdom Hearts such as Hades, Captain Hook, Oogie Boogie, Ursula, and Jafar. Pete, as her then-unseen henchman, had helped assembly this group and was off building an army of Heartless for her. Acting as a guide, Maleficent warned each of her followers that they should be wary of the darkness. She led this group in pursuit of ultimate power by controlling the Heartless and unlocking the Keyhole that leads to Kingdom Hearts, the heart of all worlds.

She used Hollow Bastion, the former home of Ansem the Wise, as a base of operations where she directed the affairs of the group. She used Ansem's report to help her control the Heartless and recruited Riku, Sora's best friend, to her side. Once she saw that Riku could wield a Keyblade, she used the darkness in Riku's heart to corrupt him and turn him against his friends.

Maleficent eventually told Riku her plans to find Kingdom Hearts, involving the Princesses of Heart. Maleficent persuaded Riku to go after Kairi, as she is also a Princess. Maleficent lied to Riku and told him that she'd help Kairi regain her heart once she had control of the Kingdom Hearts.

One by one, each of the Disney villains failed to resist the darkness in their hearts and each met their demise at the end of Sora's Keyblade, with the following exceptions: Pete, (whom Sora did not encounter at this time), Hades (who is immortal and merely gave into his anger), and Captain Hook (who merely fled and was never seen or heard from again). Her knowledge and control of the powers of darkness had enabled her to control the Heartless, or so it seemed. Unbeknownst to Maleficent, the Heartless were simply using her to reveal the Keyhole in Hollow Bastion, and in the meantime were eating away at her heart. Maleficent eventually confronted Sora and used all her Dark Magic in an attempt to defeat him, but she was overpowered and fled.

When Riku unlocked her heart, the darkness seeped into it, and Maleficent turned into a dragon (whether or not she could do it at will as in Sleeping Beauty is unknown), but the darkness did not see her through. Although she proved a far more dangerous enemy as a dragon, Sora still defeated her for the second time, the darkness ate her heart and she faded away into darkness.

By defeating Maleficent, Sora obtains the fifth page of Ansem's Report, and Donald learns the Cheer ability. Defeating Dragon Maleficent rewards Sora with the Fireglow, which unlocks the ability to summon Mushu if taken to the Fairy Godmother.

Stats

 * Maleficent
 * HP: 900
 * Attack: 31
 * Defense: 24
 * MP Recovery: 47
 * Experience Points: 6,000
 * Ability Resistance:
 * Fire efficiency is reduced to 49%
 * Blizzard efficiency is reduced to 50%
 * Gravity efficiency is reduced to 2%
 * Stop efficiency is reduced to 20%
 * Abilities that knock out the opponent have an efficiency of 50%
 * Other Abilities have an efficiency of 50%
 * Maleficent's Platform
 * HP: 120
 * Experience Points: 0
 * It is good to note that using Gravity/Gravira/Graviga on the platform will automatically make it drop.
 * Dragon Maleficent
 * HP: 1200
 * Attack: 31
 * Defense: 24
 * MP Recovery: 48
 * Experience Points: 6,000
 * Ability Resistance:
 * Fire efficiency is reduced to 49%
 * Blizzard efficiency is reduced to 50%
 * Gravity efficiency is reduced to 4%
 * Stop efficiency is reduced to 20%
 * Abilities that knock out the opponent have an efficiency of 50%
 * Other Abilities have an efficiency of 50%

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Maleficent appears to Riku as a memory-based illusion in Castle Oblivion. She is one of only two characters, along with Aerith in Sora's story, to realize that she is not real. She mocks her old student, and how he once clung to her and the darkness, before he stands up to her and destroys her. Also, in Sora's game, she is the boss of Hollow Bastion and is revealed to need to steal hearts in order to practice her magic and attempts to use the love found in Belle and Beast's hearts to make herself invincible. When Sora and company attempt to stop her, she turns herself into a dragon and attacks, shooting flames from her mouth, causing earthquakes by stomping, and trying to eat Sora. But she fails and is defeated.

Kingdom Hearts II
Maleficent reappears in Kingdom Hearts II, in which she poses as a secondary villain but she still plots against Sora and the others. Her raven, Diablo, brings her empty robe to Yen Sid's tower, and the memories of Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather accidentally bring her back to life. In Kingdom Hearts: Another Report, it is hinted that Organization XIII is responsible for her return.

Xemnas once sent Axel and Roxas to Hollow Bastion to wipe out Heartless and release a raven from a cage suspended from the ceiling. It is heavily suggested that this raven is Diablo and was released to revive Maleficent. The Organization may have planned to use her to create more Heartless for their plans. Like in Kingdom Hearts, she attempts to control the Heartless to locate Kingdom Hearts. However, she now competes with Organization XIII for supreme power and considers the group and Nobodies in general as vastly inferior to her and her Heartless, obviously deluding herself, never realizing that they were responsible for her resurrection in the first place to be nothing more than an unwitting pawn for them. Organization XIII always maintains the upperhand over her.

Maleficent, with the help of her only loyal follower remaining, Pete, goes from world to world reviving her other followers and building an army of Heartless. Although only Oogie Boogie is witnessed being revived, it may be guessed that she is also responsible for the return of Ursula and for Barbossa, Shan-Yu, Scar, and Hades using Heartless. Indeed, when she first meets up with Pete again, she asks about "the others", suggesting she was supposed to be holding a meeting with them like she did in the original game. Pete, however claims that they "must have had something better to do", perhaps meaning they were busy with their own endeavors.

Maleficent reveals herself to Sora and his friends at Disney Castle when she tries to fill the Hall of the Cornerstone with Darkness in order to take over the Castle and make her new base of operations. Maleficent is defeated however by Sora when he and his friends go back in time and stop Pete from destroying the Cornerstone of Light. Maleficent appears in Halloween Town and tries to destroy Christmas town by resurrecting Oogie Boogie but his memory loss causes him to drive her away and Sora defeats Oogie Boogie. She then appears in Hollow Bastion during its invasion by Heartless. This is the turning point in the game, where she and the Disney Villians finally lose control of the Heartless to Organization XIII except for Jafar since he used Heartless in the game. At the climax of the battle she holds off the Nobodies so that Sora may escape and devise a way to defeat Organization XIII. Although she hated Sora, she realized that she couldn't defeat them herself, since they easily defeated her Heartless, and even took control of them from her.

She last appears in The World That Never Was in one more attempt to acquire a suitable headquarters, aiding Sora once more by fending off an immense wave of Heartless with the help of Pete while Sora defeats Xemnas, though she claims that she will take the castle for her own afterwards.

===Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep===

Maleficent will make an appearance in Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, not much information is given about her role, as she is shown to be conversing with Terra. Her fate is still unknown seeing as this is set in the past. It is believed that she is the main antagonist as she caused a great disaster involving the heartless that results in the disappearance of Master Xehanort and his apprentice.

Card
See: Dragon Maleficent (Enemy Card)

Trivia

 * According to Jiminy Cricket, Maleficent was personally responsible for the destruction of her world and for the capture of Aurora. Maleficent is probably also responsible for the capture of Belle, Snow White, and Cinderella.
 * In the English versions in the three games, Maleficent is voiced by Susan Blakeslee. Susan Blakeslee also did the voice of Lady Tremaine in Cinderella 2 and Cinderella 3.  This may or may not be coincidental, as Maleficent and Lady Tremaine were also both voiced by the same person (in this case Eleanor Audley) in Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella respectively.

Cinematics

 * "Have you ever heard of Christmas Town?"
 * "What in the world do you think you're prattling on about? Kingdom Hearts belongs to me! The Heart of all Kingdoms! The Heart of all that lives! Any dominion fit to be called Kingdom Hearts must by my dominion!"
 * "Do not misunderstand me, I shall have my revenge on you yet."
 * "Why Pete, this castle is perfect! Perhaps we should...acquire it?"
 * "Once again, you underestimate me."
 * "Poor, simple fools! Did you really think you could defeat me?! ME, the mistress of all evil!?"

During Battle

 * "Meteors of heaven, unleash thy fury!"
 * "Now you'll know the meaning of fear!
 * "Bolts of lightning, strike them down!"