Naminé

Naminé is the Nobody of Kairi, and wields the power to manipulate the memories of Sora and those close to him. Her first appearance is in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Her name means "sea wave" in Japanese and "name" in Latin. She is voiced by Brittany Snow in the English version of Kingdom Hearts II, Meaghan Jette Martin in the English version of Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, and by Iku Nakahara in the Japanese versions of both games.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
A young witch who, under orders from Marluxia, rewrote much of Sora's memory. Because Naminé based the false memories on Sora's feelings toward Kairi, Sora believed he and Naminé had been friends since childhood. But truth be told, the two had never met before Castle Oblivion.

Kingdom Hearts II
"Thank Naminé."

A girl with the power to manipulate memories. She seems to have some strong connection to Sora.

Birth
Naminé was born when Sora stabbed himself with Ansem's artificial Keyblade in order to restore Kairi near the end of Kingdom Hearts. This made Naminé a very odd Nobody, born from Kairi's heart and Sora's body and soul. Kairi's own body never became a Nobody because her heart lacked darkness (since she was one of the Princesses of Heart), so her body and soul were never able to leave the Realm of Light and thus made it seem like Kairi was in a comatose state until she regained her heart. However, this means that Naminé was also born without Kairi's memories, only furthering her status as an unusual entity, and she and Kairi are incomplete without each other. And because of the fact that Naminé is formed from Sora's body, she has the power to manipulate his memories as well as the memories of those who are connected to him, prompting several others, even herself, to call her a "witch". She came into being at Castle Oblivion, found by the Organization XIII.

Ansem the Wise has stated in Report 9 of the Secret Ansem Reports that Naminé is not a true Nobody. It is unknown if this was his opinion (as Nobodies generally remember their past life) or a fact.

Castle Oblivion
Naminé, having become a captive of the Organization, resides in the upper floors of Castle Oblivion. When Sora is led into the castle, Naminé is forced by Marluxia and his cohort Larxene to manipulate Sora's memories, slowly causing Sora and his companions to forget many of their friends. At the same time, he is led to believe that Naminé herself is a very important friend that he had forgotten, though in truth they had never met before. Sora undergoes this manipulation so that Marluxia can have Sora become a puppet under Naminé's control, giving him the strength to overthrow the Superior. Even Kairi is soon forgotten, being replaced by Naminé, and the promise made between Sora and Kairi and her lucky charm take on new forms to reflect the replacement. Being motivated by these false memories, Sora continues to ascend Castle Oblivion when he realizes that she is being held against her will by the Organization. In the case of Sora's memories of Kairi, Naminé became jealous of her, because Kairi had someone who cared very deeply for her while she herself was all alone in the world, and this motivated her to replace Kairi with herself in Sora's heart.

Meanwhile, Naminé is also forced to implant false memories into the Riku Replica, so that he thinks he is the real Riku. However, like Sora, he believes that Naminé is his long lost friend, and that he made the same promise to Naminé that Sora did, and even has an identical lucky charm (though this one is merely a transformed card).

Naminé's conscience eventually allows her to overcome her loneliness and fears, and she goes to reveal herself to Sora after being released by the two-faced Axel. She appears to Sora in the memory version of Destiny Islands as he is conversing with the memory version of Naminé. She tells him that she had never been in his heart, despite what his memories show him, and to look for a faint glimmer of light in the deepest regions of his heart, for that light is the person special to him.

Back in the halls of Castle Oblivion, Sora confronts Naminé, realizing that she is not the person special to him. Just then, the replica arrives, but is defeated. When Sora tries to help him, the replica catches Sora off-guard and strikes him, and is about to move in for the finishing blow, but Naminé quickly crushes the replica's memories in his heart, knocking him unconscious. Then, Larxene arrives to finish Sora off, but she ends up defeated when she makes the mistake of incurring Sora's wrath by harming Naminé.

After the battle, Naminé explains her actions and motivations, and expresses deep regret, thinking that Sora will not forgive her. Much to her surprise, Sora is completely forgiving, despite the severity of Naminé's doings, though he does admit that he isn't happy about what she has done. When asked if anything can be done to restore their old memories, Naminé says she can do so, but only after they defeat the lord of Castle Oblivion, Marluxia, on the 13th floor. Sora heads off to fight him, and leaves the replica under her care. However, as she is watching over him, Marluxia arrives and kidnaps her.

Marluxia puts her to good use when Axel confronts him about his plot to overthrow the Organization. Marluxia puts up Naminé as a human shield, but Axel is not deterred, saying that he will go through her to defeat him, much to her shock. Of course, she is saved by the timely intervention of Sora, though he fails to stop Marluxia from escaping with Naminé. Nonetheless, Sora defeats Axel and moves on to Marluxia, who orders Naminé to completely erase Sora's memory and destroy his heart, seeing that in his current state, he is of no use to him. But even so, Marluxia can eventually restore Sora and make him his puppet. However, remembering Sora's kindness towards her, Naminé refuses the order, and Marluxia threatens to kill her, but in the end, she is saved by the Riku Replica's arrival. Sora, Donald, and Goofy then initiate one final battle as the replica guards Naminé.

After Marluxia is defeated and the replica departs, Naminé presents Sora with the choice of either keeping his memories of the events that took place in Castle Oblivion and abandoning his old memories, or regain those and lose the ones of Castle Oblivion. She understands his choice of the latter, and leads Sora, Donald, and Goofy to a chamber housing crystal pods. In these, they can sleep while Naminé works to restore their memories. Though it will take some time, she assures him that he will eventually become his former self. However, Sora believes that Naminé will always be in his heart, forgotten but not lost. Thus, the two promise to meet again as real friends, just before Sora falls into a deep slumber.

Reverse/Rebirth
Naminé also aids Riku in his efforts to conquer the darkness within his heart. When Zexion overwhelms him with light, Naminé takes on Kairi's form to convince him that he should accept the darkness as well as the light within him. Thus, he is given the strength to move through the light and strike down Zexion, who only just barely escapes.

Naminé and Riku meet again later at the urging of DiZ and she reveals Sora to him, who has fallen into a deep slumber in order to have his memories fully restored. She offers Riku a chance to seal away the darkness in his heart, though he, too, would have to sleep like Sora. But Riku ultimately chooses to face the darkness on his own, and Naminé sees that he has made the right choice. He also reveals his suspicion that it was Naminé who appeared to him as Kairi, which she confirms, although she is surprised. Riku notes that the two "smell the same", before going off to face his darkness. DiZ, knowing that Castle Oblivion is still under the control of the Organization, convinces her to move Sora, Donald, and Goofy to his laboratory in Twilight Town for safekeeping.

A Year Later
Naminé again appears in Kingdom Hearts II, working with DiZ and Riku (who has taken on the appearance of Xehanort's Heartless in order to use the power of darkness) to restore Sora's memories. Because Sora is incomplete, Naminé is having difficulty chaining his memories back together, so his Nobody, Roxas, an ex-member of Organization XIII, is retrieved by Riku and placed into a digital Twilight Town, where he will live out his days until the time came for him to join with Sora.

However, Naminé desires to see Roxas, having developed a connection with him, and thus enters the digital Twilight Town herself. There, she meets him and acts as a guide towards him when he is attacked by Nobodies. After Roxas' Dive into the Heart, Naminé meets with him again, saving him from the darkness that bursts forth from the Twilight Thorn. She plans to reveal the truth of who he really is, but is stopped by Riku, who says that it's best for Roxas not to know. Even so, their encounter puts Roxas into contact with Kairi the next day, where Kairi manages to remember Sora's name.

On the day following, the two meet again, and this time, Naminé manages to reveal Roxas' status as a Nobody, his relationship with Axel, what his connection to Sora is, and that he was never supposed to exist. Upon seeing Roxas' reaction to the revelations, she apologizes and remarks that "some things really are better left unsaid".

On the final day of Roxas' time as an independent entity, they meet once more, and Naminé sheds light on Organization XIII, and their search for Kingdom Hearts. However, this Naminé is made from data, and is deleted before she can speak any further. But the true Naminé appears, telling Roxas that he will not disappear when he fuses with Sora, and will instead be whole. DiZ quickly tries to stop her, but before she is taken away, she promises him that they will meet again, even if they don't recognize each other. Despite Roxas's pleas for them to let her go, Naminé, DiZ, and Riku disappear into a Corridor of Darkness.

Capture
As punishment for her encounter with Roxas, DiZ orders Riku to kill Naminé once she manages to restore the memories of Sora, Donald, and Goofy; however, this could also be due to DiZ's open prejudices against Nobodies. But instead, Riku leaves her in the care of Axel, returning the favor for what she did for him during the Castle Oblivion incident. (This was seen in an exclusive clip that appears only in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix+.) Naminé then makes a speech to Axel, stating that even Nobodies have people who are dear to them, which moves Axel.

The World That Never Was
Naminé makes her final appearance in the game's last world, The World That Never Was. She breaks into the Organization's stronghold, rescuing Pluto and Kairi from their cell in the Organization's dungeon. They then proceed to find Sora, though Naminé's close proximity to her counterpart causes her to blink in and out of existence as they apparently begin to join together again.

While searching for Sora, they are intercepted by Saïx. However, Riku arrives on the scene, and manages to drive off Saïx. Naminé then tells Riku that he can take over from this point, and vanishes.

After the first battle with the Kingdom Hearts-powered Xemnas, Naminé appears another time, projecting herself from Kairi, and opens up a pathway to Destiny Islands; apparently, only Sora, Riku, and Kairi can see her, as Mickey, Donald, and Goofy have no idea where the pathway came from. Kairi thanks her for the help. Naminé then tells Sora that they meet again, though he does not understand what she means (due to his memory loss of Castle Oblivion). At that moment, Roxas projects himself from Sora, and the two Nobodies are glad to meet once more, just as Naminé promised. The two realize that not all Nobodies are doomed to fade into the darkness, as they were able to meet their original selves, and though they are no longer independent, they will still live on through Sora and Kairi. Sora and Kairi promise their counterparts that they will be together every day, and without regret, Naminé finally joins with Kairi, completing her.

The two are last seen in the ending FMV, when Sora and Riku return home to a waiting Kairi. As Sora looks up to smile at Kairi, he takes on the appearance of Roxas. Kairi then takes on the appearance of Naminé, smiling back.

Memory Manipulation
Unlike other humanoid Nobodies, Naminé's talents do not lie in battle, but in the ability to control memories, making her a "witch". The ability comes from the fact that she is formed from Sora's soul and body, rather than Kairi's. Because of this connection, Naminé can move around the "links" of his memories that are located within his heart to her liking, as well as the ones of those who are connected to Sora. She can even sever them completely, turning the victim into little more than an empty shell. She can even create objects affected by the new memories, evidenced by turning a card into a good luck charm for the Riku Replica and altering the appearance of the Oathkeeper keychain to resemble a Paopu fruit. It is noted in Kingdom Hearts II that everybody who Sora, Donald, and Goofy met and worked with in the original Kingdom Hearts had mostly forgotten about them until recently; this could mean that the Castle Oblivion incident also somehow caused the other characters to lose their memories of Sora, and they regained all of them when Sora awakened from the artificial coma he was placed in while Naminé repaired the damage she had caused; this is further expanded on by the fact that Roxas began to recall the life of Sora while he was in stasis.

However, as she is Kairi's Nobody, it is impossible for Naminé to completely snuff out Kairi from anyone's memories. Conversely, those with the greatest connections to Sora cannot ever completely forget him, as evidenced by Kairi, who still slightly remembered Sora, but not his name, his face, or the sound of his voice, while all other denizens of the Destiny Islands had completely forgotten about Sora's existence.

Naminé also has another limitation to her power. When Naminé took on the task of re-chaining Sora's memories together so that he will remember everything he had forgotten, but lose his memories of Castle Oblivion, she was unable to make much progress. DiZ reasons that it must be because Sora's other half, Roxas, is missing, and in order to completely restore Sora, Roxas and Sora must join with one another. Thus, linking memories back together is a far more difficult and elaborate task than breaking them, though she made noticeable progress while Roxas was in the digital Twilight Town.

How Naminé actually manipulates memories is something to be noted. As she is always drawing pictures on her sketchpad, DiZ believes that she draws in order to capture the memories she needs to chain together. Because of this, the walls of her room are covered by pictures of events, places, and people that are in Sora's memory. Several of them are also of Roxas, implying her ability to fiddle with Roxas' memories as well. She also might be able to cause things in her drawings to affect people in real-life, as shown in the opening AMV of Kingdom Hearts II, when she places Sora inside of a stasis pod by drawing a picture of him inside of one.

Keyblade
Naminé may also be able to wield a Keyblade since she is Kairi's Nobody and Kairi is able to (rarely) wield a Keyblade, just like in the case of Sora and Roxas. This has yet to be confirmed by Square-Enix, however. If she can it may actually be dual wielding similar to Roxas.

Other
Naminé, being a Nobody, can also access the Corridors of Darkness, but she only does so three times; once to talk with Roxas and inform him that he will not cease to exist when he joins with Sora, once to break Kairi and Pluto out of their cell, and then to return Sora and co. to Destiny Islands.

Trivia

 * In Japanese, while Kai means "Sea", Nami means "Wave".


 * It is worth noting that Naminé is the only humanoid Nobody in the series who's name does not have an "X" in it. This is made even more unusual due to the fact that Organization XIII found her. This may be because she is a very unusual Nobody. Tetsuya Nomura may also have done this to emphasize the fact that, although she is a Nobody, she is not part of the Organization. It might also be because she doesn't possess any abilities that could be used in combat.


 * Like Roxas, Naminé seems to possess true emotions, being a special Nobody. While most Nobodies pretend to have emotions by acting on the memories of their past lives in order to react to a specific situation, Roxas and Naminé had no memories of their past lives, and thus had no basis for any acting; presumably, this is because their original selves (the Keyblade Master of the Realm of Light and a Princess of Heart, respectively) still exist due to the unusual nature of their births. Xion and Axel are also suspected of having true emotions as well.


 * Examples of Naminé's emotional capacity are as follows; she feared for Sora's life when he was about to be killed by the Riku Replica, even going so far as to completely erase the latter's false memories and render him unconscious, willingly put herself in harm's way in order to protect Sora from Larxene, showed genuine remorse and guilt for what she had done to Sora's mind, angrily refuses to hurt Sora any more than she already had even after being threatened by Marluxia, and began to cry after Sora was placed in stasis. Also, she and Roxas appeared to be very close despite the short time they knew each other, possibly to the point of romantic attachments, which is ironic, seeing as Sora and Kairi seem to have romantic feelings for one another.


 * Upon their second meeting, Naminé says to Sora, "We meet again, like we promised." It is uncertain whether or not she meant Sora's promise to her during the Castle Oblivion incident, her promise to Roxas before he rejoins with Sora, or some combination of the two.


 * Naminé is the only humanoid Nobody shown in the series so far that is seen to go through an aging process. In the time period between Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II, she physically ages at the same rate as Kairi. This may be because of her unusual birth, which makes her more human than other Nobodies; however, if this is the case, then one has to wonder if Roxas could age as well (in the flashback shown after Sora defeats him in Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+, Roxas appears as old as he does in Kingdom Hearts II, even though this happens right after Sora's sacrifice in Hollow Bastion during the first game).

Namine