Luxord

Luxord, the Gambler of Fate (運命を賭す者), is Rank X within the original Organization XIII. He possesses the power of time manipulation, and uses his ability to force his opponents to play timed games, with unfortunate consequences if they cannot learn the rules and lose. He commands the Gambler Nobodies.

He harassed Sora and his friends in Port Royal, playing a game with them involving the cursed Aztec treasure there. He later battles Sora alone in The World That Never Was, and is the third-to-last member of Organization XIII to fall.

Along with the rest of Organization XIII, Luxord appears in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days as a playable character in Mission Mode.

Between Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
On an unknown world, Luxord's original persona became a Heartless, his strong will allowing his body to continue on as his Nobody, Luxord. He was later found by an unknown member and became the tenth member of Organization XIII.

At a table, Luxord was beating Axel at a game of cards. Embarrassed, Axel challenged him for another game. At Axel's words, Luxord started shuffling the cards, laughing, as Xigbar arrived. Luxord asked him for a game, but he refused. The trio started to talk about Xemnas going out of the castle, as it was an important time for Organization XIII.

When Axel asked why, Xigbar replied that the world is moving. Although, this made both Axel and Luxord confused. Xigbar refused to tell more, leaving them puzzled. Luxord commented about the original six members having been companions since before Organization XIII was formed and that he did not understand what they were planning. Grinning, Axel dropped the subject and the pair started to play cards again.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Luxord is present when Xion joined Organization XIII, and often teams up with Roxas in missions in Wonderland. This association with this world is more than likely thanks to the Queen of Hearts's card army. Luxord joins Roxas on other missions and stays in the Grey Area as well. Luxord takes all of his missions as a game, and tends to comment on them as such to Roxas. He appears shocked when Xemnas announces at an Organization meeting the truth about Xion being a Replica, and remarks, "If only the whispers from the top of the ladder carried to the bottom rung," before vanishing from Where Nothing Gathers. If Roxas talks to him before leaving on his mission, he remarks that "No game is complete without pawns," seemingly resigned to his own role as a pawn in the Organization.

Kingdom Hearts II
Luxord appears with all of the other Organization members in the confrontation with Sora in Hollow Bastion and stands behind and to the left of Saïx.

Immediately after taunting Sora, the Organization returns to their meeting chamber. In response to talk about making plans for the future, Luxord states his hope for the boy and his intention to lend a hand to determine Sora's fate. This causes Demyx to suggest his own method, much Xigbar's chagrin, and after Xaldin chastises him, Luxord expresses disappointment, realizing that he needs to wait for his fun to begin.

After Saïx returns from the Battle of the 1000 Heartless, Luxord remarks how Sora is unable to stop the Organization's master plan, as events are already in motion. Xaldin tells Luxord that luck might not fall in his favor, and Luxord replies that the fun of gambling is in not knowing the outcome.

Upon making second rounds to the worlds in search of Organization XIII's stronghold, Sora and co. join Jack Sparrow in Port Royal to find William Turner, who has gone missing while investigating the theft of cursed pirate gold by a man in a black hood. They seek out Will using the Black Pearl, and find him on the Interceptor. As soon as they recover Will, Luxord appears on the Black Pearl with the cursed gold beside him, and greets Jack Sparrow. He reveals that he is at Port Royal to assess the value of the cursed gold to the Organization, and summons the Grim Reaper Heartless. After the Heartless is thrown overboard, Luxord invokes the right of before Jack can get off a shot with his pistol. He agrees to hand over the chest, but takes four medallions and gives them to his Gambler Nobodies, who vanish. This reactivates the curse on Jack, as well as placing it on the Grim Reaper.

The Grim Reaper then knocks Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack onto the Interceptor, and has the cannons of the Black Pearl destroy the ship. Sora and the others survive and track down the medallions, after which they head to Port Royal and defeat the Grim Reaper, lifting the curse on Jack. Even with Luxord's experiments having failed, he manages to bring the heart that the Grim Reaper was holding to Kingdom Hearts, and promptly flees.

Following Axel's death, Luxord attends a meeting at Where Nothing Gathers to discuss the former's fate after his sacrifice. He believes that Axel came out "a winner" in betting his existence, or lack thereof, on Sora. However, Xigbar and Saïx oppose Luxord's opinion, pointing out that his words contradict the foundation of their existence as Nobodies.

Luxord appears once more in Organization XIII's fortress in The World That Never Was. When Sora, Kairi, Riku, Donald, and Goofy enter the area where Luxord waits, Sora walks ahead of the rest. Materializing between Sora and his friends, Luxord uses his cards to remove Sora's allies from the area, and challenges Sora to a game involving time. Luxord fights against Sora, using a variety of tricks and games of luck with his playing cards, but in the end, Sora is able to wear Luxord's time down and defeat him. As Sora readies a finishing blow, Luxord raises his cards to shield himself, but Sora slices through the cards and finishes Luxord off. His last words are "How could you......Roxas?" before fading out.

Kingdom Hearts III
Luxord appears in the Keyblade Graveyard just as Xemnas is about to reveal that he, along with Demyx, Marluxia, and Larxene, were initiated into both the first and second Organizations due to their connections to an ancient Keyblade legacy.

Some time after that, Luxord arrives in The Caribbean to be briefed by Vexen on the importance of chest located somewhere in the world. Vexen wants it for scientific research, while Luxord only goes after it to fulfill his orders to collect any black box he discovers. To that end, Luxord parleys with Jack Sparrow to offer him whatever he wishes so long as he beats him in a race to Port Royal. Sora and Jack not only wins the race, but also manages to destroy Luxord's fleet of Heartless and board his ship. Reveling in his victory, Jack asks Luxord to bring him the chest on the Flying Dutchman, unwittingly revealing where the black box is. Luxord then casts the pirates off his vessel and goes after the ship of Davy Jones. Sora, Donald, and Goofy pursue with him, prompting him to summon a fleet of Heartless ship to combat them. Luxord manages to identify the Flying Dutchman when he sees Sora going into battle with it. In the hope that he board the Flying Dutchman with less chaos, Luxord summons the Kraken to distract Sora and the pirates from their battle with Davy Jones. However, when Jack retrieves the chest first, Luxord tries to initiate parley, but is interrupted by Jack, who knocks him off the ship with his bad breath and into the whirlpool below.

Luxord is among the members of the real Organization XIII who stand beside Xehanort as he summons a labyrinth spanning the Keyblade Graveyard. He joins Xemnas, Marluxia, and Larxene in battling King Mickey until Sora intervenes. Shortly into the battle, Xemnas empowers Luxord and departs, allowing Luxord to trap Mickey in a card. He challenges Sora to one final game: to free Mickey, the hero must find Luxord hidden amongst a circle of cards. Sora finds and defeats Luxord, who gives Sora a wild card that could "turn the tables". Sora asks to play with him again when they are normal humans, to which Luxord agrees. He fades away and leaves behind a card, which explodes to free the King.

Design
Luxord wears the usual all-black attire of Organization members, but his cloak is somewhat different than normal, sporting slightly pointed shoulders and very loose sleeves. Luxord's platinum blond hair is very short and worn in a Caesar cut, and he has blue eyes. He is also the only member of Organization XIII to have facial hair, a goatee with the same blond color as his hair. Luxord wears five silver piercings on his ears; four s in the form of two hoops on each ear and one piercing shaped like the Nobody symbol dangling from one earlobe. The latter piercing hangs from his left ear in-game and his right in some artwork, indicating that both earlobes are pierced.

Personality
Luxord is a man of games and luck; his challenge to Sora and Jack to find the medallions has an element of chance to it and the Heartless he summons cannot be attacked unless all the coins are in the chest, giving a side-objective to the battle. He also uses games of chance in his own battle with Sora. However, his enjoyment for games can backfire on him, both in and out of battle. His enjoyment of games is further portrayed in his additional scenes in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, which show him in an almost uncaring light—he seems to not be bothered as long as he can continue to gamble and see interesting things. In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, much of Luxord's dialogue makes references to cards, games, and luck.

Luxord is also portrayed as a master of rhetoric, with an advanced vocabulary (for example, describing the Grim Reaper Heartless as "a veritable maelstrom of avarice", meaning endlessly greedy, using it to taunt his opponents). Like Xaldin, he also possesses a notable English Received Pronunciation accent in the English translation, furthering his air of sophistication. Another interesting note is that, unlike most other members of Organization XIII, who banter with Sora in some fashion before fighting, when Luxord appears to him he calmly smiles and says "I'd rather we just skip the formalities", and begins the battle right away. This somewhat contrasts his appearance in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, where he talks a good deal to Roxas on their missions and other members of the Organization.

Abilities
Luxord uses his attribute, time, in unorthodox methods when compared to other Organization XIII members. He shortens the odds originally by dispatching of Sora's companions before attacking Sora himself. Luxord does not have a HP bar; during the battle, Luxord and Sora each have a "time" bar that depletes over time and when they are damaged. The first to have theirs depleted loses the battle. This means that the player must watch Sora's HP and time gauges to make sure neither are emptied. He can blast his enemies with magic presumably of his element when they are far away, but he mainly uses his cards to fight them.

In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Luxord has a Limit Break called, which causes him to summon cards that constantly change symbols. momentarily pauses the cards to unleash an effect based on the visible symbols.

Weapon
Luxord's weapons uses Cards, called Fair Game, of varying sizes, some reaching likely more than ten feet in the air when stood on end. The back of each Card has five Nobody symbols on it, while the opposite side resembles a clock (referencing Luxord's element of time) that has Nobody symbols as the minute and hour hands, and the Roman numerals for 1-12 for the clock numbers (the numeral for 13 is in the center, just under the clock hands). Luxord uses these Cards the way that most members of Organization XIII use their element. He can turn himself into a giant Card and hide among similar Cards, turn his enemies into Cards, throw flurries of razor-sharp cards at an enemy, create defensive barriers, and at times by will can warp reality. The Reaction Command "Flip" causes the Cards to vanish, but some of them have a booby trap (represented by a symbol on the one side of the Card) that "Flip" triggers. He can also use them as sleight of hand cover, or to disorient his enemies.

Oddly, most of the Cards (that lack booby traps) Luxord uses in battle are blank on one side, while the ones he uses to "trap" Sora's companions bear the aforementioned clock design.

Gambler Nobodies also use Cards as their weapons, and have the ability to turn an enemy into a Card after winning a "game". They also use Dice, and have a similar ability to turn an enemy into a Die.

Luxord Luxord