Sora

"I've been having these weird thoughts lately...like, is any of this for real... or not?"
 * - Sora in the beginning of Kingdom Hearts.

Sora is the hero and main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series. Sora is voiced by Haley Joel Osment in the English versions and Miyu Irino in the Japanese versions. He is an upbeat teenager who may seem simple minded at times, but realizes the importance of his quest. He possesses a strong sense of justice and an unrelenting heart. At times, he is impulsive and quick to anger, but he is always sincere about what he says and does.

Sora is fourteen years old at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts and lives on Destiny Islands with his best friends Riku and Kairi, and others including Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka. Sora, Riku, and Kairi wish to escape from the Destiny Islands, and find out what lies beyond. On the night before they leave a huge storm comes. The storm turns out to be the Heartless destroying the heart of the world.

His name is derived from the Japanese word for sky.

Kingdom Hearts
''A spirited youth. He was cast into an unknown world when a swarm of Heartless raided his island. He battles the Heartless with a mysterious weapon called the Keyblade as he searches for his friend Kairi.''
 * First

''The one who fights the Heartless. Upon reclaiming the Keyblade from his rival Riku, Sora sacrificed his heart to save Kairi and became a Heartless. Kairi's deep feelings for Sora restored him. Now he must confront Ansem, the seeker of darkness.''
 * Second

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
''A bright and spirited boy chosen by the Keyblade to battle the Heartless. It was Sora who defeated Ansem, ending his plan to shroud the world in darkness. However, Sora continued his journey, seeking the friends he lost during the struggle.''
 * Sora's story

Kingdom Hearts II
''A boy chosen by the Keyblade, a mysterious weapon. Not long ago, Sora journeyed with Donald and Goofy in search of his longtime friends, Riku and Kairi, who had been spirited away into the darkness.In the end, they saved the world of all worlds from the darkness that was closing in. Then, somewhere along the way, Sora fell into a deep slumber. Now that he is awake, he can't recall why he fell asleep to begin with.''
 * First

''A boy chosen by the Keyblade, a mysterious weapon. Not long ago, Sora journeyed with Donald and Goofy in search of his longtime friends, Riku and Kairi, who had been spirited away into the darkness. In the end, they saved the world of all worlds from the darkness that was closing in. After that, Sora continued journeying in search of Riku, who was trapped on the other side of the door to darkness. And somewhere along the way, Sora fell into a deep slumber. With a new outfit and strengthened resolve.Sora has set out once more on a search for his friends.''
 * Second

Journey off of Destiny Island
Sora and his friends lived in the isolated world of the Destiny Islands, and so often wondered about the outside world. They decided to build a raft to sail to other lands. However, the day before they were set to sail, a storm ravaged the island, along with a strange dark force. His friend Riku succumbed to the force, while Sora remained stoic. Sora was swept off the island and thrown into the Corridors of Darkness, which landed him in a place called Traverse Town.

Quest to Find His Lost Friends
There he meets Donald Duck and Goofy, the respective Royal Court Magician and Captain of the Royal Guard of Disney Castle. Under orders from King Mickey, the pair were searching for two things - a mysterious 'key' and a man called Leon. As the King has disappeared in his own quest, Donald and Goofy accompanied Sora and they started searching for their respective friends. In addition to that, Sora found himself wielding the Keyblade - perhaps the mysterious key the King had asked them to find.

Sora discovered that Riku was also searching for Kairi, though neither of them could find her. Maleficent saw her chance and used her magic to poison Riku's mind against Sora, saying that befriending Donald and Goofy was a betrayal to Riku and Kairi. With this false knowledge, he set out to find Kairi on his own, as Sora travels to a number of worlds to stop the Heartless. Sora from there on unlocks the doors between the worlds, and locks them out from the reach of the Darkness.

Upon reaching Hollow Bastion, Riku confronts Sora, and takes back the Keyblade. Donald and Goofy are forced to abandon Sora because of the King's orders, to stay with whoever has the Keyblade. However, when Sora goes to fight Riku, they rejoin their old friend after he has strengthened his heart. The Keyblade returned to Sora because his friendship with Donald and Goofy gave strength to his heart, stronger than Riku's. Enraged, Riku fought Sora and lost.

After this, the party encountered Maleficent. She was defeated and the darkness of her heart was unlocked by Riku, possessed by Xehanort's Heartless, who was known as Ansem. She transformed into a Black, fire-breathing dragon from the array of darkness in her heart, but was again defeated. Further into the depths of Hollow Bastion, Sora fought Ansem, the supreme seeker of darkness and Kingdom Hearts itself, who now spoke through and controlled Riku's body, making him mortal again. Although it was difficult fighting his best friend, Sora emerged victorious in the struggle.

Kairi is revealed to be one of the Seven Princesses of Heart, but the door to Kingdom Hearts cannot open because her heart was within Sora. In order to return her heart and wake her up, Sora used the dark Keyblade that Riku had to remove both their hearts, sacrificing his humanity and becoming a Heartless himself for a short period of time. Kairi later used her light to return him to his original body.

After regrouping in Traverse Town, Kairi gave Sora her lucky charm (Oathkeeper's keychain) since he insisted that she should stay behind while he tried to get Riku back.

Sora and his friends managed to defeat Xehanort's Heartless at End of the World, the ‘heartless’ of all the worlds that fell into darkness. As Sora attempted to close the door to darkness, Riku and King Mickey appear on the other side of the door and together King Mickey and Sora seal it from both sides; with Sora's Keyblade from the realm of light and Mickey's Keyblade from the realm of darkness. However, Mickey and Riku are trapped behind the door, and Riku’s last words before it closes are “Take care of her”, referring to Kairi.

As the worlds begin to restore themselves, Kairi and Sora are separated. Sora promises to return to her as soon as he finds Riku and King Mickey.

Losing his Memory
After being separated from his friends, Sora wandered down on a long, meandering path with Donald and Goofy searching for a way to find Riku and Mickey, encountering Pluto on the way. When they reached a crossroad and called it a night, a mysterious man in a long black hooded cloak appeared and informed Sora, "ahead lies something you need, but to claim it, you must lose something dear." The man disappears and only one path remains. The trio followed the path which lead them to a mysterious castle known as Castle Oblivion. They entered the castle hoping to pick up some clues as to the whereabouts of their friends only to discover, as they ascended the floors of the fortress, they were beginning to lose their memories and became more and more uncertain of themselves.

Little did they know, their memories were being manipulated by a mysterious organization that sought to capture and manipulate Sora. To do this, they used Naminé, a young witch who could rearrange the chains of memories and create new links. In order to make Sora forget Kairi, Naminé begins to replace his memories of her with herself. Meanwhile, a conflict between the Organization's members leads to several encounters between Sora and Riku, whose memories of Kairi had also been replaced with ones containing Naminé.

The trio's uncertainty builds to a point where they ended up in Twilight Town, a place that Sora is fairly certain that he has never been in, and thus should not exist in his memory. Organization member IV, Vexen, revealed that it is a place that exists on the other side of Sora's heart, but is eliminated by Axel, another member of the Organization, before he can explain anything.

Axel ends up betraying Marluxia, the lord of Castle Oblivion, revealing that Marluxia and Larxene, the newest members of their group, intended to use Sora to overthrow the Organization. Axel manipulated Naminé into doing what she believed was right. She revealed to Sora that she never existed in his memory and that she had been replacing the person most important to him. Riku appeared to them again and was defeated by Sora. When Sora tried to help the injured Riku, he attacked Sora. Naminé used her power to break Riku's memories, and it caused him to collapse. Larxene came forth to eliminate Sora and Riku, who was revealed to actually be a Riku Replica, created by Vexen.

Sora defeated Larxene and forgave a regretful Naminé for her actions. She promised to restore the memories of the trio once they reached the 13th Floor of Castle Oblivion, where Marluxia was waiting for them. Axel attempted to destroy Marluxia himself, but then Marluxia used Naminé as a human shield. Sora stepped in and defeated Axel. After finally catching up to them, Marluxia orders Naminé to completely erase Sora's memory so he can make Sora his puppet; Naminé refuses, but Sora orders her to do so in order to protect her from Marluxia's wrath. Fortunately, the Riku Replica, still retaining some of its false memories, arrived and saved Naminé before she can do so. Once Marluxia was defeated, Naminé asked that they step into machines that would rearrange their memories back to the way they were at the cost of breaking the links she created. She also informed him that the process will take some time, during which Sora, Donald, and Goofy would sleep as their memories were slowly restored. While they knew that they would forget Naminé, Sora promised her that while she was forgotten, she would remain in his heart, never lost.

Awakening
"A scattered dream that's like a far-off memory. A far-off memory that's like a scattered dream. I want to line the pieces up... yours and mine."
 * - Sora in the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II



One year later, Sora, Donald and Goofy awake in Twilight Town with their memories restored, although they cannot remember what happened in Castle Oblivion. Continuing their journey to find Riku and King Mickey, they set out traveling across new worlds, meeting old friends and enemies from the original Kingdom Hearts game, battling the Heartless and a new threat, the remaining members of the Organization they encountered in Chain of Memories.

Soon after exploring Twilight Town, Sora and company head off to the Tower and Sora obtains new attire—on the advice of master sorcerer Yen Sid considering Sora's first game outfit to be "too small"—from Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. The new outfit enables Sora to transform into new forms and attain special powers for each of them. The source of the clothing's magic is linked to Sora's heart, which is connected to everyone Sora had befriended including Donald and Goofy. Sora was referred to as the "key that connects everything" by Yen Sid which is how Naminé's memory manipulation works.

Sora expresses his determination to bring Riku back home with him to Destiny Islands, where Kairi is patiently waiting for them. The quest gets more complicated when Kairi herself is kidnapped by Axel. Pete (who works for the resurrected Maleficent) and Organization XIII are causing trouble in the other worlds, and King Mickey refuses to give information regarding Riku. Sora must also discover why some of the members of Organization XIII address him as Roxas even after he clearly states his name is Sora. Also throughout the game Sora becomes rather intrigued and interested in the romances between his kidnapped friend, showing a greater level of maturity.



Eventually, Sora, with the help of Hayner, Pence, Olette (three friends of Roxas in DiZ's simulated Twilight Town) and Axel, manages to find the route to The World That Never Was: the stronghold of the Organization, where a copy of Kingdom Hearts, created by gathering many hearts from the Heartless slain by Sora's Keyblade, resides. Soon after entering the world however, in the area of Memory Skyscraper, Sora's group is ambushed by Samurai Nobodies and Sora is forced into a showdown with an Organization member, who turns out to be Roxas (disguised in his former Organization XIII cloak) on a platform of Dive to the Heart, finally awakening after witnessing Axel's death through Sora with Sora slaying the Nobody impressing Roxas who says that "You make a good other." Afterwards, Sora, Donald, Goofy and King Mickey storm the castle in search of their friends. There, Sora finds Kairi and Riku (having Xehanort's Heartless appearance) and the mysteries of Roxas' identity and King Mickey's secrets are finally solved. Fighting their way up the winding paths of the Castle That Never Was, Sora, Riku and the others later encounter King Mickey and DiZ, now revealed to be the former ruler of Radiant Garden, Ansem the Wise, who was trying to absorb Kingdom Hearts into his machine and encode it as data. Kingdom Hearts proved too strong for Ansem's machine, and with his final words, "Roxas, if you can hear me, I'm sorry.", the machine exploded, taking Ansem with it. Riku's appearance then reverts to the way it should and he and the others attempt to stop Xemnas, the leader of the Organization. After they seemingly defeat the Organization leader Xemnas, Roxas emerges from Sora's body to speak with Naminé before she fuses with Kairi to complete herself, while Roxas returns to Sora's body making Sora whole.

Sora and Riku are separated from King Mickey, Goofy, Kairi and Donald. They fight Xemnas again on their own and defeat him, though they remain stranded in the Realm of Darkness, and as they wonder through the eternal abyss, they discuss their adventures and friendship, they come to the conclusion that "if worlds were made of light and darkness, they'll be the darkness" since the light realm is safe. As they listen to the waves, a bottle containing Kairi’s letter washes onto the shore. The door to light appears, and both Sora and Riku use it to return to their home world: Destiny Islands. Having brought Riku back home and reunited at last with all his friends in one piece, Sora returns Kairi's lucky charm to her, saying "We-We´re back!" and Kairi corrects him saying "You´re home". Kairi extends her arm to Sora, as he holds her hand while returning the Oathkeeper keychain to her at the same time. During the credits, Sora is walking around in the Secret Place. He smiles while looking at all the pictures he and Kairi had drawn over the years. He glances down at the picture of Kairi and himself. He sees that Kairi drew the other half of a Paopu fruit, and smiles to himself.

Sora asks Riku what he thinks the door to light was. Riku replies that it was Sora's heart, "it's always closer than you think". Kairi runs up to them and give them a bottle she found, containing a letter from King Mickey. The trio reads the letter, its contents a mystery.

Kingdom Hearts coded
In the recently released game, Kingdom Hearts coded, a Sora made of data has been created by King Mickey to go on a mission. In the screenshots, he was seen in gameplay jumping on red and black blocks with King Mickey. He is also seen in an alley with Pluto in Traverse Town.

It has been reported that the actual Sora does not appear, and the Sora in this game is a computer A.I. created from data that Jiminy gathered on him in the original Kingdom Hearts.

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep
A younger version of Sora has been seen in screenshots of Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, training with a younger Riku on the islands.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Sora's pod is seen by Naminé, DiZ & Riku as they talk about him and what will happen when he awakens.

Spoilers end here.

Personality


Sora has a typical brave and heroic personality, meaning he'll willingly risk his life for people he doesn't even know. He's extremely loyal to his friends, and has shown to be extremely forgiving to Riku (even forgiving Riku for the times he's tried to kill him). He constantly "thinks positive" and is therefore highly optimistic. He puts Kairi and Riku above all else; when he tells Tarzan what friends he is missing, he begins to say that he is looking for Donald and Goofy, but then stops himself and says that he is looking for Kairi and Riku. In Kingdom Hearts II, he puts all four of them on an equal level. A prominent example of this is when Goofy is apparently fatally injured by a rock to the head in the Battle of Hollow Bastion; Sora is clearly traumatized by Goofy's apparent death and utters, "This is not happening. It can't be happening. It can't."

Sora has shown a large amount of gullibility. For example, he fell for Mulan's attempt at passing for a man. Ironically, he doesn't let his enemies fool him as easily, since he didn't fall for Xemnas's attempt to play on Sora's sympathetic side, which was far more convincing. Despite Sora's good nature, he appears to sometimes hold grudges, since he seemed to go after Xemnas merely out of spite for him. Sora is often quick to anger whenever he's confused, and is quite childish at times. He can also be seen as quite impulsive, and he tends to jump into things without thinking them through beforehand. While simple-minded at times, he has a strong sense of justice.

Sora seems to be in love with Kairi, which is to be pointed out a few times throughout the series. At the end of their first visit to Port Royal, when Elizabeth and William hug each other, Sora blushes, thinking of Kairi. Donald and Goofy bust him and Sora covers his face with his hands, denying. Donald says, "I know who you´re thinking about!" and they laugh as Sora covers even more of his face. More examples are when he imagined himself dancing with her in Halloween Town, and at the end of their second visit to the Land of Dragons, where he begins to cry after seeing Mulan and Shang's happiness after the emperor offers Mulan a job as a guard and is comforted by Goofy. He also draws himself giving Kairi a paopu fruit, which is stated to be a symbol of love between two people. The biggest evidence, however, was in Chain of Memories, when Naminé admits that she was never Sora's friend, and he sadly says: "We were never anything... more than that either."; since Sora's memories of Kairi were essentially replaced with memories of Naminé, his feelings toward Naminé are a clear sign of feelings toward Kairi. More prominent examples are in Kingdom Hearts II; during Roxas and Kairi's telepathic conversation which leads to Kairi finally remembering Sora's name, Roxas says, "I know you. You're that girl he (Sora) likes."; and after the Battle of Hollow Bastion, where he actually gets down on his knees and desperately begs Saïx to take him to Kairi. More examples are when Hercules saves Meg he says that people do crazy things when there in love. An example of this is shown when he stabs himself with the Dark Keyblade in order to awaken Kairi from her coma, and when he became flustered when Riku stated that the winner of their race would share the paopu fruit with Kairi. It is often hinted that Sora's feelings for Kairi are entirely mutual.

Abilities
See also: Kingdom Hearts Abilities See also: Trinity Limit Sora appears to be a natural swordsman, most likely due to all his training against his friends on Destiny Islands. His skill with the Keyblade increased greatly over his journey, and he has become a keyblade master. Sora's skill is so great that he has even be able to go head-to-head against legendary swordsmen such as Cloud, Leon, and even Sephiroth (although in their encounter in the second game, Sephiroth seems uninjured after the battle, even though he supposedly lost and admits that Sora is "very skilled").

Sora is also well-versed in various magic spells, even more so after training with Merlin. In Kingdom Hearts II, his basic combo is much stronger and he gains the Drive Form ability after obtaining new clothes, which give him even more mastery over his strengths. In addition to the abilities that each form grants him, Sora's speed and strength are also increased. However, some aspects of Sora's abilities are ambiguous because of the reaction commands in Kingdom Hearts II. The most notable of these is during one of the reaction commands he cuts through a large building, yet in both games it takes him several hits just to break a wooden barrel. Again, this is probably due to the developers making the reaction commands epic for most of them.

Sora has become very powerful over the length of the series, being able to slay over a thousand Heartless without rest but slightly tiring after, fight and defeat all but two members, which Riku defeated, of the powerful Organization XIII, all thirteen if Absent Silhouettes are counted, go toe-to-toe with exceptionally skilled Final Fantasy combatants, and fight and defeat the countless Disney villians that have faced him.

However, Sora is nearly helpless without his Keyblade. Even Shadow Heartless take a huge number of hits for him to kill without it, and that's only after he had gotten stronger on all his adventures before he reached Hollow Bastion (when he first encountered them on the Destiny Islands, Sora couldn't even damage the heartless without the Keyblade) but this may be caused by the weapon he wields. When Sora is not in possession of his Keyblade, all he have access to are the sparring weapons Wooden Sword and Struggle Bat, so if he is given proper "normal" weapons ( swords that are non-magical, but are not toys, for example a normal sword made of steel ) probably he can still fight well, although maybe still not as well as when he uses the Keyblade. However, he is not utterly useless in real combat without it; he is still able to cast magic with no major decrease in power, Keyblade or not (as long as he knows how).

World Forms
While he retains his typical appearance in most worlds, in certain worlds Sora's appearance is altered, either by Donald's magic or his magical Kingdom Hearts II outfit, in order to allow himself to blend in with the inhabitants of those worlds. His appearance alterations are listed here:
 * In Halloween Town, Sora takes on the appearance of a vampire with a pumpkin-like mask over one side of his face, complete with fangs and bat-like wings. This form has no special abilities. When in Drive Form, his mask changes rather than his clothes (a devil-like Heartless for Valor Form, a Black Mage-like Heartless hat for Wisdom Form, a splicing of both for Master Form, a gold-and-silver crown for Final Form, a heart for Limit Form, and a Shadow Heartless for Anti Form). In this form, the appearance of Sora's Keyblade also changes to grey-ish tones to match the surroundings of Halloween Town.
 * Whenever Sora appears in Christmas Town in Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+, his attire changes from a vampire to a black Santa Claus outfit. When in Drive Form, aside from his aura, movement and manner of Keyblade wielding, the color of the hat will slightly tint to match the corresponding Form. Additionally, the symbols of the corresponding Form will appear on the hat: a red fleur-de-lys for Valor, a blue flame for Wisdom, a gold cross for Master, a silver N-shaped rune for Final, a whitish crown for Limit, and a Heartless emblem for Anti Form.
 * In Atlantica, Sora takes on the appearance of a merman with a dolphin tail rather than a fish tail. While in this form, Sora can breathe underwater and swim much faster than he can in his human form. Sora cannot Drive in this form; in Kingdom Hearts II, he is unable to attack at all, seeing as the world has been altered to progressing the story through musical numbers.
 * In the Timeless River, Sora's appearance changes to mirror the style of 1920s-era Disney cartoons. His skin and clothing are black-and-white, his arms and legs are long and scrawny, and he, like all other characters in this world, has taken on his very first appearance design (from the original Kingdom Hearts). He has no special abilities in this form, and when Driving, the icon of Sora by the HP Bar tints color slightly on the outline to reflect the Form transformed into, apart from the aura, manner of movement and Keyblade wielding that each Form displays; red for Valor, blue for Wisdom, yellow for Master, and white for Final. For Anti Form, however, he merely turns into a black cartoonish shadow of himself.
 * In Space Paranoids, Sora is converted into a data form, wearing robot-like armor with blue circuit patterns all over his body. In this form, the appearance of Sora's Keyblade also is changed to have glowing blue circuit lines as well. Sora has no special abilities in this form, and when Driving, Sora's circuit lines change color to reflect the Form transformed into (i.e. red for Valor Form, blue for Wisdom Form, yellow for Master form, white for Final Form and black with dark purple circuits for Anti Form. For Limit form, the circuits use Limit Form's colors and, unlike the other forms, are arranged as such, i.e. silver torso, red pants and yellow shoes).
 * In the Pride Lands, Sora is transformed into a brown-furred lion cub. His spiky hairdo is now present as a mane, though he retains his crown-shaped necklace. He wields the Keyblade in his mouth. While Sora is unable to Drive or perform Summons in this form, he can move with greatly increased speed and agility. The Dash ability in this form is identical to the Mermaid Kick in Atlantica.

Trivia

 * Although none of the parents of the characters on the Destiny Islands are shown on screen, Sora's mother can be heard calling him for dinner during the calamity in the first game; however, it is debatable whether or not this was Sora's biological mother or just his legal guardian. Also in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Sora mentions both his mother and father while reminiscing about Naminé. It is unknown if Sora's mom is dead or not. It is believed that she will make a reappearance in a future Kingdom Hearts game, but this is yet to be confirmed. The parents are highly speculated to have either died or were brought back along with Selphie and Kairi.
 * Roxas' battle with Riku, as seen in Another Side, Another Story, involves him running up the side of Memory Skyscraper and passing by Riku as he leaps off. A similar scene happens during Sora's battle against Xemnas in the same place.
 * Sora's hairstyle is similar to that of Cloud's hair. This is poked fun at in Kingdom Hearts II when Tifa asks if he had seen a "guy with spiky hair" at which Sora, thinking that she is referring to him, starts stroking one of the spikes of his hair. As for his hair color, Sora's hair color of dark brown in Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories is, for apparently no reason at all, more blonde-colored in Kingdom Hearts II (though in the beta trailer of Kingdom Hearts, his hair color is the same as in Kingdom Hearts II). The change in color may be because of Roxas. However, if this is the case, then one has to wonder why Kairi's hair color was not altered as well in order to reflect Naminé.
 * Mickey was supposed to be the main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, but later the position was given to Sora because Square-Enix wanted a human protagonist. This was referenced in the first Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories, where Sora wore clothes that are similar in Mickey's style (a black jacket, white gloves, red pants, and yellow shoes). However, Donald and Goofy were to be the sidekicks of Mickey in the early stages of the project, and they kept this when Sora was designed.
 * In the end credits where Sora is in the Secret Place, glancing at the pictures and falling to his knees in front of his and Kairi's, he is actually mimicking Kairi's actions from the end of the first game.
 * It seems apparent that the game designers had wanted to model Sora like a Disney character in his own right. This seems more true as many gamers posed questions concerning Sora's huge feet and hands. It was also recognized that Sora wore a pair of white gloves, a trademark for many early Disney characters. It seems now that his personality was modeled after many Disney characters as well.
 * Strangely, although all of Sora's memories of Castle Oblivion were erased, his first encounter with Marluxia and arrival at Castle Oblivion are clearly shown in the memories that Naminé was struggling to restore in the cutscene after the fifth day of Roxas's time in the digital Twilight Town, though Sora, Donald, and Goofy make no mention of it.

Sora