Ansem, Seeker of Darkness

Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, sometimes referred to as Xehanort's Heartless, is the main antagonist of Kingdom Hearts and the "Reverse/Rebirth" scenario in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, as well as a supporting antagonist in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance. He is the Heartless of Terra-Xehanort, and as such his appearance and personality are primarily derived from Master Xehanort, and he retains his original form's "shadow".

Ansem was created when Terra-Xehanort, masquerading as Ansem the Wise, reawakened his sleeping memories and split his heart from his body, creating a Heartless; this Heartless, also named Ansem, appears to have characteristics of both Emblem and Pureblood Heartless, and it is unclear exactly which category he falls under. However, because Terra-Xehanort did this of his own will, he retained his memories in his new existence, and gained the ability to control the other Heartless. With their power, Ansem attacked the Realm of Light, intending to have the Heartless consume the hearts of every world and lead him to Kingdom Hearts.

Before Kingdom Hearts
Terra-Xehanort, at the time using his king's name, "Ansem", willingly gave his heart to the darkness in the pursuit of knowledge, creating both his Heartless and his Nobody, Xemnas. His Heartless was able to retain its selfhood for uncertain reasons, though it was believed by the first Ansem that this was due to Terra-Xehanort's willing abandonment of his heart. By casting off his body, Ansem also gained the ability to travel through time.

The self-styled "Seeker of Darkness" and the legions of Heartless at his command continued Xehanort's pursuit of knowledge in the belief that it lay with darkness, and stole countless hearts from both humans and worlds in their search for their ultimate goal, a legendary repository of tremendous power and knowledge known as Kingdom Hearts. To reach this heart of all worlds, Ansem would need to open the Final Keyhole, and to do that, he would need the Princesses of Heart to complete it first. He also realized that he needed to locate and neutralize the wielder of the legendary Keyblade, to prevent them from saving the worlds from his Heartless. Believing that the Princesses and the Keyblade wielder are connected, he sent Kairi, a Princess of Heart living at Radiant Garden, to a world where two future Keyblade wielders, Sora and Riku lived.

As he waited for his theory to be validated, and to enact a back-up plan Xehanort devised due to his lack of a physical form at the time, Ansem travels through time to find Xehanort's younger self on the Destiny Islands, before he had become a Keyblade wielder. Ansem spurs Xehanort onto his path towards darkness, and passes on his ability to time travel so that Xehanort can complete his own mission: gathering twelve other incarnations of Xehanort into an organization so that, together, they could create the χ-blade and restart the legendary Keyblade War. Afterward, Ansem returns to his own time to oversee his role in the plan in arranging things with Sora and Riku.

Kingdom Hearts


After years of waiting, arriving to the Secret Place prior to the boy, the robed Ansem reveals himself to Sora as he states he came to see the Destiny Islands Keyhole before the world's fall into darkness. He insults Sora's ignorance of what was to come, and completely ignoring Sora's questions. Ansem also manipulated Riku into enabling the Heartless to manifest in his world and guided him through Corridor of Darkness to Hollow Bastion so Maleficent can hone the youth's darkness. After seeing Sora reaching Hollow Bastion, Ansem made his move to trick Riku into opening his heart to darkness so that the Heartless can possess him and convert him into a vessel of Xehanort.

Firmly in control of Riku's body, Ansem creates the artificial Keyblade of People's Hearts from hearts of the six captive Princesses of Hearts using it on Maleficent once she outlived her usefulness. Once Sora arrives in the chamber of the Final Keyhole, learning that Riku is possessed, Ansem formally introduces himself while revealing that he intends to force Kairi's heart out of Sora's body to complete the Final Hole. Through Ansem was driven off, Sora played into his hands by sacrificing himself to restore Kairi to her body. Ansem shortly returns, having altered Riku's body into one almost resembling his original human self, attempting to kill Kairi, Donald, and Goofy. However, Riku's heart restrains Ansem long enough for Kairi and the king's men to escape before Ansem expelled Riku's heart into the Realm of Darkness. With full control over his body, Ansem hen allows himself to be enveloped by the darkness flowing out of the Keyhole, and travels to the End of the World where the Kingdom Hearts produced there awaits him.

After Sora is restored to normal, he arrives to the remnants of Destiny Islands at End of the World where Ansem confronts him in Riku's form. He explains Riku's fall to darkness before assuming his actual form and explaining his original self's philosophy: that darkness is the heart's true essence. Sora denies this, in words and in battle, with Ansem. During the battle Ansem summons both his familiar, the Guardian Heartless, and a Darkside Heartless to assist him. As the battle rages on, Ansem leads the trio to the endless abyss where the Door to Darkness resides. This time, Ansem merges himself to the World of Chaos, a monstrous Heartless ship, and captures Donald and Goofy, though Sora rescues them.

After several more rounds of combat, Ansem, weakened, opens the Door to Darkness, imploring Kingdom Hearts to fill him with the power of darkness so that he can gain enough power to destroy Sora, Donald, and Goofy and shroud the universe in darkness. However, Ansem is horrified to see light pour out of the door. The overwhelming light of Kingdom Hearts envelops and destroys Ansem, allowing Riku to regain his body.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
However, because Riku served as the host for Ansem, a piece remains even after his destruction by the light of Kingdom Hearts. This bothers Riku greatly, who ends up in Castle Oblivion thanks to his heart resonating with Sora's, who is also in the castle.

Guided by a mysterious voice, Riku climbs through the basements of Castle Oblivion, trying to rid himself of his darkness. However, Ansem appears early on, intending to overcome Riku, but fails. Still, Ansem remains, and even stirs the darkness in Riku's heart so that he may use it in battle, if he so chooses. The dark being remains confident that Riku will eventually give into the darkness.

At times, Riku almost becomes overwhelmed by the darkness, but King Mickey's light continually comes to the rescue, frustrating Ansem. Eventually, Riku overcomes his fear of the darkness, intending to use it as well as the light. He also additionally receives some guidance from the enigmatic DiZ, the true owner of the mysterious voice, who in turn leads Riku to Naminé. Naminé offers to seal away Riku's darkness and Ansem, but he instead chooses to face the Heartless on his own. DiZ then gives Riku a card that will give Ansem form, so that Riku can finish him off once and for all.

Ansem again tries to turn Riku to the darkness completely, and tries to defeat the young boy so that he can take over again. However, though he is defeated, Riku realizes that Ansem still lingers in his heart, and sets off with King Mickey in order to rid himself of the Seeker of Darkness forever.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Within Riku's heart, Ansem's darkness starts to eat away at him, forcing the boy to wear a blindfold to put a stop to Ansem's false visions. This comes to a head when DiZ sends Riku to capture Sora's Nobody, Roxas, so that the two can join and Sora can awaken from his slumber. Riku catches up to Roxas at The World That Never Was, but Roxas proves to be too powerful and Riku is left with only one way to overwhelm the Nobody: unleashing his inner darkness. This allows Riku to manifest Xehanort's powerful guardian, who seizes Roxas and knocks him unconscious, but also forces Riku to take on Ansem's appearance. Feeling that he has sacrificed his identity, Riku takes on Ansem's name.

Kingdom Hearts II
During the Battle of the 1000 Heartless at Hollow Bastion, King Mickey reveals the truth about "Ansem" to Sora, Donald, and Goofy—the Heartless wasn't the real king of Radiant Garden, but the Heartless of an impostor. While the trio are shocked and dismayed to learn this, Mickey pacifies them by telling them that Ansem still needed to be stopped.

Following the destruction of the Kingdom Hearts Encoder Ansem the Wise was using, the resulting explosion of light restores Riku to his normal form, implying that "Ansem" has finally been destroyed and his hold on Riku broken once and for all.

Kingdom Hearts coded
Ansem appears in a memory from Jiminy's Journal in Destiny Islands, opening a Corridor of Darkness for Riku to Hollow Bastion.

Yen Sid later explains to Mickey that the destruction of both Ansem and Xemnas has revived Xehanort and will lead to the restoration of Master Xehanort. Ansem appears along with Xemnas as one of Mickey's mental images.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Ansem returns to become part of Master Xehanort's new Organization XIII, thanks to Young Xehanort's doings while time travelling. Accompanied by Young Xehanort, Ansem appears before Riku in La Cité des Cloches, stunning the young Keybearer, and offers him to become part of the darkness again, but Riku protests, reminding Ansem that he now walks the road to dawn. Undaunted, Ansem merely takes his leave.

When Sora is captured in the World That Never Was while learning of Ansem's role in arranging the events that occurred in the Destiny Islands' history, Riku rushes to his rescue and runs into Ansem again. Ansem reveals that Riku had been traveling within Sora's dreams like a Dream Eater, and asks Riku to join him now that the boy has accepted his darkness. As they fight, Riku counters by asking Ansem to become part of his light, but Ansem ignores him and is eventually forced to retreat.

Once Riku finds Sora in the throne room with Mickey's help, Ansem appears before them along with Master Xehanort, Young Xehanort, Xemnas, Xigbar, Saïx and the rest of the new Organization. Master Xehanort proceeds to reveal that Ansem's possession of Riku's body, along with overseeing Maleficent's gathering of the Princesses, was all part of his master plan with Riku meant to become the vessel to complete the Organization. Ansem physically restrains Riku from trying to save Sora from becoming Master Xehanort's final vessel, but Lea's unexpected intervention distracts Ansem long enough for Riku to break free. Ansem summons his Guardian and has it grab Riku and Mickey, but the Guardian is defeated by Donald and Goofy. As the heroes advance, Ansem retreats with the rest of the Organization, returning to his rightful point in time.

A fragmentary passage


Ansem is shown as the first transformation and the second incarnation after a young Master Xehanort but before Xemnas.

Appearance
Before possessing Riku, Ansem was little more than a wandering heart and could only appear as a figure in a brown hooded robe. This robe has two dark brown straps crossing over his shoulders and chest with five metal studs lining either strap. Due to his lack of a body, he appears much shorter and crippled in this form and wears the robe's hood up to hide his lack of a face.

Like his Nobody counterpart, Ansem's skin color varies by being depicted as tan in the game to quite dark in official artwork. He shares Xehanort's amber-orange eyes and long white hair, as well as the three spikes on the top and sides of his head, but he lacks Xehanort's bangs.

He wears silver-white gloves on his hands, each with a grey band on the wrist, while the rest of the glove, which has three black buttons lining one side, bells outwards. There is a black pauldron on both of his shoulders, each attached to his coat by two straps. He also wears black pants and black, silver-lined, knee-high boots identical to the ones worn by Organization XIII members. On the Heartless's chest is the Heartless emblem, but it seems that it is not part of him, as when Ansem creates the World of Chaos, he loses both of his jackets and his gloves, and the emblem transfers to the World of Chaos. He also grows to a tremendous size and his eyes become completely orange in this form.

Ansem's black leather coat is red on the inside and lined with yellow, and also has a large grey section that covers the lower half and shoulders of the coat. Upon closer inspection, this grey section seems to be attached by several small pins or buttons around the hip and neck sections of the coat, as well as by a belt that wraps around the Heartless's back and attaches to the rim of the coat. This coat is high-collared and completely unzipped, showing the second, shorter jacket the Heartless wears underneath. Ansem's second jacket is white and high-collared much like the outer coat. It is mostly unbuttoned and exposes Ansem's chest before being closed up by three buttons and two belts near the Heartless's waist, only to flare outward again, leaving three buttons undone. When seen cloaked, Ansem appears to be shorter and more crippled.

As Ansem is essentially the Heartless of Master Xehanort, his overall appearance is nearly identical to a younger version of Master Xehanort, wearing the elderly Xehanort's attire.

Personality
Ansem is, thus far, one of only three Heartless with human-level intelligence, the others being Sora's Heartless and Scar. His knowledge of the worlds and hearts shows that Xehanort's keen intellect has survived the transition into a Heartless. However, what little shreds of humanity remained in the researcher have been obliterated. Ansem is cold, calculating, and utterly ruthless. He treats people and their hearts as either tools to be manipulated and disposed of, or as simply cattle for his ravenous Heartless legions. He reveres power and knowledge above all things, and despises ignorance.

The only times when his voice rises above a cold, monotonous drone is when he is berating Sora for his foolishness, or reveling in his latest triumph. However, the scientific genius of Ansem was blinded by obsession with the darkness. His arrogance ultimately led to his destruction when the door to Kingdom Hearts opened, and his greatest thesis was, in the end, proved wrong.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep reveals that Ansem is essentially the Heartless of Master Xehanort. This is why he appears to share most of his personality traits with the elderly Keyblade Master, demonstrated by his choice of words when facing Sora, Donald and Goofy, and his desire to find, open and become one with Kingdom Hearts itself.

Abilities
As a Heartless, Ansem has control over darkness, which he can use to attack others, steal hearts, and create Corridors of Darkness. He can also possess other beings, and has command over the Guardian.

Weapons
Ansem uses no single exclusive weapon.

When possessing Riku, taking on his first seen physical form, he uses the Keyblade of People's Hearts created from the six captured hearts of the Princesses of Heart. Later, in his World of Chaos form, he wields a weapon as massive as he is, created from two Soul Eaters combined at the handle, facing opposite directions.

When fought on his own, he simply uses the power of darkness and his Guardian, using no physical weapon. When Riku takes on his form, he uses his Soul Eater and Way to the Dawn, just as he does normally.

Notes and references
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