Marluxia

Marluxia the Graceful Assassin (Graceful Assassin's Blade) (pronounced: Mar-lew-sha), is number XI in Organization XIII and the lord of Castle Oblivion. Originally discovered by senior Organization members Xigbar and Xaldin, he is the mastermind of an internal rebellion in the Organization against Xemnas, and Sora's final boss of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. In battle, he wields a large scythe and he uses the power of flowers, evident by him being surrounded by sakura petals and other flower themed attacks. Fans often mistake his attribute for being "Death" because of his scythe, commonly associated with the Grim Reaper. It may be that the "flower" attribute was inspired by the images of flora which appear during Cure spells, as most other Organization XIII members have attributes related to a magical element of Final Fantasy games.

Marluxia will make an appearance in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. He will be a playable character in the multiplayer mode.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
''Lord of Castle Oblivion and a member of the Organization.

In a move to bring the group under his control, Marluxia used Naminé to overrun Sora's memory and tried to claim the power of the Keyblade.''

Kingdom Hearts II
''Formerly Organization XIII's Number XI. He has been eliminated.''

He plotted an Organization rebellion and tried to seize the power of the Keyblade, but Axel's betrayal led to his destruction.

Sora's Arrival
Marluxia first appears in the series at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, when Sora first enters Castle Oblivion, making him normally the first Organization member to appear in the series (although the Enigmatic Man is a secret boss in Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix). Marluxia, still cloaked and hooded, explains to Sora that the Castle has made him forget all of his spells and abilities, and instructs him in the use of cards to fight. He also enters into battle with Sora, although he makes it very easy and it is only an instructional fight. After giving Sora a set of World Cards to begin climbing the floors of the castle, Marluxia leaves Sora to fend for himself.

Dissent in the Organization
Marluxia, working with Larxene and Axel, plots to overthrow the Organization. They formulate a plan to use a young girl named Naminé, who has a mysterious power over memory, to deceive Sora into thinking he had sworn to protect her, and then have her use Sora to help them defeat the senior Organization members. This plot stems from a rivalry between some of the younger Organization members and the original six core members. Vexen, Larxene, and another Organization member Axel all do their part to feed Sora with information and lure him further into the castle. Each of them fight him on their own, although none of them use their full strength and throw the fights. They also make use of Vexen's Riku replica to compete with Sora for Naminé's loyalty.

Marluxia and Larxene eventually learn that Vexen has been reporting back to Zexion regarding their revolt. After Vexen loses control of the Riku Replica, Marluxia pronounces his project a failure, claiming that his mastery over Castle Oblivion allows him the authority to do so. Marluxia threatens to tell "the Superior" of Vexen's failure, but Vexen pleads with him not to do so. Marluxia agrees not to if Vexen eliminates Sora. Although confused by the order, Vexen agrees, and heads Sora off in the Twilight Town world. He fights Sora for the second time, but is again defeated. Before he can reveal Marluxia's plans to use Sora, however, Axel strikes him from behind on Marluxia's orders, making Vexen the first Organization member to be eliminated.

Failure of the Plot
Axel's assassination of Vexen allows him to gain the full trust of Marluxia and Larxene. As Sora nears the top floors of the castle, Axel is left alone with Naminé to keep watch over her. Instead of keeping an eye on her, Axel allows her to escape, freeing her from Marluxia's control and ending her continued restructuring of Sora's memories, effectively ruining the plot to manipulate Sora into fighting the Organization. This prompts Larxene to attack Sora shortly after he defeats the Riku replica for the final time, but she is killed in the struggle, leaving only Marluxia to carry out the plot.

Marluxia then confronts Axel about his betrayal, to which Axel replies that Marluxia is in fact a traitor to the Organization, and that Larxene paid the price for her own disloyalty. He then threatens to kill Marluxia, but Marluxia seems unfazed by this, stating simply "You can try." The two then engage in battle, with Marluxia displaying an eerie speed. While they both attack one another powerfully, neither takes any actual damage and appear to be equally matched.

Marluxia makes Naminé appear in front of him, apparently as a shield to prevent Axel from attacking him further, but Axel laughs it off, saying he's willing to go through Naminé to get to Marluxia. Marluxia, however, tells Sora (who had just appeared in the room, much to Axel's surprise) that Axel was willing to hurt her and vanishes with a laugh, leaving Sora and Axel alone. Axel sneers at Sora for having become Marluxia's puppet after all, but Sora resolves to eliminate Marluxia right after he finishes Axel. The two fight, and Sora comes out the victor, but Axel escapes death and vanishes.

Death
Sora pursues Marluxia into his inner chambers and attacks him. He destroys him, but finds that the real Marluxia had been hiding in a back room and that his opponent had only been a copy. Sora advances into the final room to confront Marluxia, who has combined with a large machine-like Nobody, wielding a power Sora and his friends can sense through the doorway leading into the chamber. Sora defeats him again in the storyline's final battle, making Marluxia the fourth Organization member to fall.

Personality
Marluxia is quite deceptive in nature. He makes an attempt to rebel against the organization by using Sora as a puppet to accomplish his goals. Personality wise, he is often portrayed as very arrogant and vain. For example, when Axel confronted Marluxia regarding his betrayal to the organization, he only taunts Axel and leaves Sora to fight the latter. He also takes great pride in his appearance. This is evident by the sakura petals that he often has surrounding him. He also flourishes his weapon after striking with it, occasionally even leaving himself open. During battle, he uses unique tactics like a death counter to represent his devious personality.

Most importantly though, Marluxia seems to have an obsession with his superiority over the other organization members. As the lord of Castle Oblivion, Marluxia has the ability to keep other members of the organization under his own judgment. He even manipulates Vexen into fighting Sora by using Vexen's fear of Xemnas against him. Even though most of Marluxia's personality traits are negative, he does have a few positive aspects. Some of these include his devotion and persistence to succeed in his goals. He's a very adamant member of Organization XIII, and in his eyes he probably deserves much more respect than he's given. All in all, Marluxia is a very egotistical, and manipulative member of the organization who would stop at nothing to overthrow the organization and become superior.

Fighting Style
Marluxia fights using the attribute of flower and wields a large, pink and green scythe.

Marluxia has two forms in the original Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and three in the Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories remake. While in basic human form, he can attack with his scythe normally, or use it to slash at an enemy from across a distance using energy waves. With his control over flower, Marluxia can create a clone made of flowers, send a flurry of petals at his opponent, and Re CoM, Marluxia uses a sleight in which he creates a powerful shockwave by hitting the ground with his scythe. Like the other Organization members from Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Marluxia moves by levitating. In the remake, he can also teleport freely. This is also the only form which he is limited by an actual deck, while the final forms merely have cards appear, and do not have to reload.

In his 1st final form, Marluxia makes use of his machine-like Nobody to slash at Sora with it's arms, or fly at him and cause impact damage. He can also use flower petals to fire lasers at Sora, or to fire blasts of energy from the bottom of the contraption. In the remake, the Nobody is also capable of harnessing darkness which it can shrouds the whole field with.

Marluxia's additional final form in the PlayStation 2 remake involves Marluxia and Sora fighting on a larger version of Marluxia's Nobody floating in a starry-night environment surrounded by circulating rings. A large angelic Nobody stands behind him wielding a gigantic scythe. Marluxia is held in one place surrounded by Nobody thorns. From there, he fights mainly by commanding the Nobody which can create shockwaves, shoot a sweeping laser, blow gusts of wind that prevent Sora from moving forward, and create a whirlwind that scatters all of Sora's cards, including his reload bar. Sora must pick up the cards to reclaim them, and he must pick up the reload to to be able to reload again. Marluxia's most notable sleight however, is a sleight in which he shoots Nobody thorns that triggers a death countdown timer, where the counter counts down to zero, causing death if not repelled. He also reuses the flower petals which fire lasers.

In Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix, Marluxia returns in an optional battle with new tactics,and wielding the attribute, flower. He begins the battle by whispering in Sora's ear, which causes a countdown timer to appear above Sora's head based on his current level, similar to the hit point condition of the Titan Cup. He then spends most of the battle attacking Sora relentlessly with his scythe, which deals no damage, but instead reduces the timer's count by one for each hit. If the timer reaches zero, Sora loses the battle, but the timer can be increased by using the reaction command "Rob Count", in which Sora grabs Marluxia's scythe, knocks him into the air and hurls the scythe at him. Marluxia also can conjure up black circles which cover most of the floor and deal damage to Sora's HP, but leave the death timer unaffected. Marluxia also wheels around the floor swinging his scythe, and can hover above Sora attacking him with his scythe while making pillars sprout up from the ground and deal damage to Sora.

During Battle

 * "Your heart shall be judged"
 * "Prepare."
 * "Scatter!"
 * "There."
 * "Away!"
 * "Hmph... so you are a hero."
 * "What?!"
 * "No Good!"
 * "Sink into the darkness!"
 * "You'll now know real fear."
 * "Your heart shall be judged!"
 * "Your heart will be scattered."
 * "Do you want to scream?"
 * "Prepare."
 * "The world without light!"
 * "Behold."
 * "Your heart is now in shackles!"
 * "Break the curse with your cards."
 * "The cards will determine your fate."
 * "Scatter to oblivion!"
 * "Lose everything!"
 * "Sulk in despair."
 * "The beginning of the end."
 * "This... This is the heart of hero..."

Card
Marluxia (Enemy Card)

Trivia

 * In Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Marluxia summons his scythe by catching a single falling cherry blossom petal in his raised, open hand. However, in the PS2 version (Re:CoM), the petal more resembles that of a rose petal.
 * The "Rob Count" reaction adds 13 to the timer, a reference to the 13 members in the Organization.
 * In the manga, Marluxia does not use alternate forms and is easily killed by Sora in their first battle.
 * It remains unclear what Marluxia and Larxene intended to do after they had usurped Xemnas as leader of the Organization.
 * It is also unclear as to precisely why Xemnas made Marluxia the Lord of the Castle, despite his low numbered rank. Speculation suggests that Xemnas was aware of his rebellious thoughts and was actually seeking to expose them by granting him authority. This could also suggest why three senior members were left in charge of the lower levels of the Castle.
 * Marluxia expresses a peculiar level of strength for one deemed so low in authority by normal standards. He is able to hold his own against Axel with relative ease, and is one of only five members shown to be able to make full-body copies of himself (the others being Vexen,Larxene, Zexion, and Xemnas himself). He is also capable of gaining power through fusion with another entity, a trait shared with Kingdom Hearts' Ansem, and Kingdom Hearts II's Xemnas, the former and the latter both fusing with World of Chaos and an enormous Dragon Battleship respectively.
 * Nomura has stated that Marluxia was originally intended to be a female character, which may explain his affiliation to the color pink and the element of flowers.