Sora

Sora is the main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, as well as a Keyblade wielder. He is an upbeat teenager who may seem simple-minded at times, but is very aware of 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 when defending his friends, but he is always sincere about what he says and does. He has also been best friends with Riku and Kairi since he was a small boy.

Sora is four during Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, fourteen years old at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and fifteen during the events of Kingdom Hearts II. He lives on Destiny Islands with his best friends Kairi and Riku, and all three of them dream to venture from Destiny Islands to find out what lies beyond. Sora is also the original persona of Sora's Heartless and Roxas, the source of Xion's memories, and the carrier of Ventus's heart. Sora's 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 friends Kairi and Riku.''
 * First Entry

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

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.

Riku's childhood friend, and the hero of light chosen by the Keyblade to stand against the darkness.
 * Reverse/Rebirth

Riku fought Sora while bridled by darkness, but their friendship proved stronger, and they ultimately worked together to close the door to darkness.

Kingdom Hearts II
A boy chosen by the Keyblade, a mysterious weapon.
 * First Entry.

Not long ago, Sora journeyed with Donald and Goofy in search of his longtime friend 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.

A boy chosen by the Keyblade, a mysterious weapon.
 * Second Entry

Not long ago, Sora journeyed with Donald and Goofy in search of his longtime friend 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 friend Riku.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
A cheerful, energetic little boy.

He and his friend Riku always play together out on the island.

Development
Although Square Enix originally wanted Mickey Mouse to be the main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, and Disney wanted Donald Duck as the protagonist, the role was eventually set as Sora, because Tetsuya Nomura wanted a human protagonist. Early on, Sora was designed as a young lion/human hybrid, wielding a chainsaw-like weapon with a lion's head keychain. The merging of Sora's design with elements from Square's proposal is referenced by his original costume, which shares many elements with Mickey's.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Sora and Riku are shown as best friends and rivals as they grew up. They are often seen around the islands battling with wooden swords, racing, and doing anything else that is competitive.

Some time prior to Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Sora's newly born heart encounters the injured heart of Ventus, and mends it, offering to help him until he no longer needs the help. This allows them to form a connection with one another, and causes Vanitas's face to resemble Sora's.

By the time Sora is four years old, he encounters Terra and Aqua, two Keyblade wielders of the generation before him, on separate occasions. He never spoke with Terra, but they have seen each other on Destiny Islands. Terra shows no interest in Sora because he is unable to sense his potential and is instead attracted to Riku. Aqua recognizes their friendship as hers to Terra and Ventus and tells Sora to protect Riku if he were to fall into the hands of darkness, which he agrees. Ventus had visited the islands multiple times, but never met Sora face to face.

After the credits of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Sora and Riku rest on a beach. When they prepare to go home, Sora suddenly feels sad. Riku tells him that perhaps someone from another world connected to him is sad somewhere and tells him to try to reach him. Sora closes his eyes and reaches out, which results in him being sent to the Awakening and encountering Ventus's lost heart. It had lost its path and must return to slumber, though it is reluctant to do so and asks if it could become a part of Sora's heart. Sora accepts the request saying that as long as he can make it happy by doing so, he is willing to.

Kingdom Hearts
One year after the events of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, a mysterious little girl named Kairi came to their islands from a different place. She was adopted by the mayor and Sora and Riku quickly became friends with her. Another day, Sora and Riku found a small, hidden cave on their islands. They search the "Secret Place" while discussing Kairi and the meteor shower that had recently fallen. They find a door with no handle at the back of the cave and, because they couldn't open it, they leave, but not before Riku sees the world's Keyhole.

During their childhood, Sora, Riku, and Kairi often wonder about what lay beyond their small world. By the time they reach adolescence, they decide to build a raft, in the hopes of sailing to other worlds. The day when they start construction, Sora dozes off on the shore of the beach, and has an odd dream where he travels through an odd, dark realm and battles a massive dark creature. Sora is awakened by Kairi, and he goes to help get the provisions for the raft. However, the night before they set sail, a storm ravages the island along with a strange, dark force. Riku succumbs to the force, claiming he is not afraid of the darkness it so clearly embodied, while Sora tries and fails to save his friend from the darkness.

However, it is during the tempest Sora first unlocks his potential as a Keyblade wielder, summoning the power of the Kingdom Key to battle the Heartless that now infested his home. He battles the massive Heartless that he had fought in his dream as he makes his way to the Secret Place where he finds Kairi who disappears when their bodies meet and Sora is forced to battle the same dark creature from his dream. Sora defeats the monster, but he is swept off the island and thrown into a Corridor of Darkness, which lands him in a world called Traverse Town.

In Traverse Town, Sora meets Donald Duck and Goofy, the respective Royal Court Magician and Captain of the Royal Guard of Disney Castle. Under orders from The King, the pair are searching for two things: a mysterious 'key' and a man called Leon. As the King has disappeared in his own quest, Donald and Goofy accompany Sora and they start searching for their respective friends. In addition to that, Sora finds that his Keyblade might perhaps be the mysterious key the King had asked them to find.

Sora discovers that Riku is also searching for Kairi, though neither of them can find her. Maleficent sees her chance and tells Riku that Sora had replaced him and Kairi for Donald, Goofy, and the Keyblade. With this false knowledge, he sets out to find Kairi on his own as Sora travels to a number of worlds to stop the Heartless. From there, Sora locks the Keyholes out from the reach of the Darkness to protect the worlds' hearts.

His quest allows him to make countless new friends while the power of his heart increases, which also improves his Keyblade's power.

Upon reaching Hollow Bastion, Riku confronts Sora and reveals to him that Riku was the true Keyblade master, explaining that Sora "was just the delivery boy". Riku then claims the Keyblade for his own. Despite their guilt at doing so, Donald and Goofy are forced to abandon Sora because of the King's orders: to stay with whoever has the Keyblade. When Beast pulls himself up to continue to the castle, Sora tells him to be careful due to his injuries. But Beast shrugs off Sora's worries, saying that he would not leave before he completed what he'd come there for: to find Belle. When asked what he came for, Sora realizes that he needs to show the same attitude as the Beast, and continues with him into the entrance hall of the castle.

There Sora meets Riku, Goofy and Donald once more. Feeling guilty, Donald and Goofy return to Sora's side. Riku then asks Sora, "How do you intend to fight without a weapon?" to which Sora answers, "I don't need the Keyblade. I've got a better weapon. My heart!". Riku taunts Sora, calling his heart pathetic and weak. Sora proceeds to tell him that his friends strengthen his heart. At this, the Keyblade realizes that Riku has turned to darkness, and Sora's heart is far stronger than Riku's, so it returns to Sora. Enraged, Riku fights Sora and loses. Furious at his weakness, he makes the mistake of listening to a mysterious man. Opening his heart fully to darkness, he allows himself to be possessed by this man.

After this, the party encounter Maleficent and defeat her. Using a Keyblade born of six of the Princesses of Hearts' hearts, Riku unlocks the darkness in her heart before stepping away through a Corridor of Darkness. She transforms into a black, fire-breathing dragon from the proliferation of darkness in her heart, but is again defeated and the Heartless swallow her heart. Further into the depths of Hollow Bastion, Sora encounters Riku once more, and he calls himself "Ansem, Seeker of Darkness", who intends to find Kingdom Hearts itself. Although it is difficult fighting his best friend, Sora emerges victorious in the struggle.

Kairi is revealed to be one of the Seven Princesses of Heart who possess the power to open the Final Keyhole that leads to Kingdom Hearts, but because her heart laid within Sora, it cannot open, as explained by "Ansem". In order to return her heart and wake her up, Sora uses the Keyblade of People's Hearts to remove both their hearts, sacrificing his humanity and becoming a Heartless, unknowingly creating Roxas and Naminé, the Nobodies of Sora and Kairi respectively. When he manages to reunite with Kairi after a brief stint as a Heartless, Kairi uses her light to restore his human form.

After regrouping in Traverse Town, Sora decides to return to Hollow Bastion to seal the Final Keyhole while he tries to reclaim Riku from the clutches of "Ansem". Kairi gives Sora her lucky charm (Oathkeeper's keychain) since he insists that she should stay behind, even joking that she would be in his way.

Sora, Donald, and Goofy set sail to Hollow Bastion and seal the Final Keyhole after a battle with a powerful Heartless. The six Princesses of Heart then inform him of a new darkness approaching, and the trio travel to End of the World, the "Heartless world" of all the worlds that fell into darkness, where they confront and defeat "Ansem" once and for all. "Ansem", defeated, calls forth to Kingdom Hearts to fill him with the power of darkness, but Sora proclaims that Kingdom Hearts is not darkness, but light, and "Ansem" is destroyed by the said light. However, Heartless begin to swarm inside of the door and Sora, Donald, and Goofy rush forward to close it. As they attempt 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 become trapped behind the door as it closed shut. Riku's last words to Sora before it closed are "Take care of her", referring to Kairi.

As the worlds begin to restore themselves, Sora sees Kairi on a platform of sand that is drifting away. Kairi and Sora are separated with Kairi going back to Destiny Islands. Sora promises to return to her as soon as he finds Riku and King Mickey.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
After being separated from his friends, Sora wanders 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 reach a crossroad and call it a night, a mysterious man in a long black hooded cloak appears and informs Sora, "Along the road ahead lies something you need. However in order to claim it you must lose something that is dear to you." The man disappears and only one path remains. The trio follow the path which leads them to a mysterious castle known as Castle Oblivion. They enter the castle hoping to pick up some clues as to the whereabouts of their friends only to discover, as they ascend the floors of the fortress, they are beginning to lose their memories and become more and more uncertain of what they are truly after. Even Jiminy's journal has been erased of its entries.

Little do they know, their memories are being manipulated by a mysterious organization that seek to capture and manipulate Sora. To do this, they use Naminé, a young witch who could rearrange the chains of memories in a person's mind and create new links between them. In order to make Sora forget Kairi, Naminé begins to replace his memories of Kairi with herself, partly because she is Kairi's Nobody and so is unable to completely erase her from Sora's memories. Meanwhile, a conflict between the members of the Organization lead to several encounters between Sora and Riku, whose memories of Kairi have also been replaced with ones containing Naminé.

The trio's uncertainty builds up to a point where they end 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, reveals 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, intend to use Sora to overthrow the Organization. Axel manipulates Naminé into doing what she believes is right. Donald and Goofy try to reason with Sora about the whole situation later, but he is so stubborn that he separates from them to go on his own.

On Destiny Islands, Sora is touched to have finally found Naminé, who tries to make him remember who was truly important to him. After taking one look at the lucky charm, it returns to its original form and Naminé takes the temporary form of Kairi. Sora escapes the memory-based Destiny Islands and confronts Naminé, who reveals that she never existed in Sora's memory and that she has been replacing the person most important to him. Riku appears to them again and is again defeated by Sora. When Sora tries to help the injured Riku, he attacks Sora and gains the upper hand. Having left no choice, Naminé uses her power to break Riku's memories, and it causes him to collapse. Larxene comes forth to eliminate Sora and Riku, who is revealed to actually be a Riku Replica, created by Vexen.

When Larxene is about to eliminate Sora, Donald and Goofy catch up to save him. Although Sora had been a jerk to go on his own, they quickly forgive him and state how they would always stay together. Together, they defeat Larxene and Sora forgives a regretful Naminé for her actions. She promises to restore the memories of the trio once they reach the 13th Floor of Castle Oblivion, where Marluxia is waiting for them. Axel attempts to destroy Marluxia himself, but then Marluxia uses Naminé as a human shield. Sora steps in and defeats Axel. After finally catching up to them, Marluxia orders Naminé to completely erase Sora's memory so he could 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, its true memories returned after his false ones are broken, arrives and saves Naminé before she was able to do so.

Then Sora, Donald and Goofy step into the thirteenth floor's dimension where they fight Marluxia in an incredible battle.

Once Marluxia was defeated, Naminé asks that they step into Memory Pods that would rearrange their memories back to the way they were at the cost of breaking the links she created. She also informs him that the process will take some time, during which Sora, Donald, and Goofy would sleep as their memories are slowly restored. While they know that they would forget Naminé, Sora promises her that while she was forgotten, she would remain somewhere in his heart, never lost. And when he wakes up, they would become friends for real.

Right before he went to sleep, Naminé informs him that some of his memories are unreachable and asks him to remember Kairi, because his memory of her is the light that would bring them all back. Sora then uses most of the power of his memories to remember Kairi before going to sleep for real.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Naminé's powers are unable to do much to fix the problems, however, as they later discover the existence of Roxas, Sora's Nobody, and Xion, a replica of Roxas created from his leaked memories. As Roxas and Sora are connected and Xion is created from their intertwined memories, Sora's lost memory pieces found their way inside Xion through Roxas. This act causes Sora's memory restoration process to come to a complete stop.

The Organization intends to have Xion absorb Roxas, forming a "new Sora" under their control, an act that would erase Roxas and make it impossible for the real Sora to ever awaken. When Xion discovers this truth, she is willing to instead return to Sora, saving him at the cost of her existence. But before she can, Axel comes to take her back to Organization XIII, starting a fight which Xion loses. During her captivity, she is stored within machine-like devices and given new powers so she may be able to absorb Roxas when the time comes.

Eventually, Roxas and Xion meet on the Clock Tower of Twilight Town, where she removes her hood, revealing that she now completely resembles Sora through the effects of his memory flow. Although she fights with all her strength, Roxas defeats her in the end, and as she disappears and returns to her origin she asks Roxas to free Kingdom Hearts from Xemnas's control. Although Sora's lost memories are back where they should be, Roxas, Sora's body and soul, is still on the loose, preventing Sora's complete restoration. Riku hunts Roxas down and finds him just as he arrives at Memory's Skyscraper to attack the Organization. After an intense battle, Riku captures Roxas, and brings him back to DiZ and Naminé.

Kingdom Hearts II
One year later, Sora, Donald and Goofy awake in the basement of the Old Mansion located in Twilight Town with their former memories restored, although they cannot remember what happened in Castle Oblivion. But before they awake in Twilight Town, Roxas comes to see Sora and eventually fuses with him. 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 while also making new friends. They continue the battle against the Heartless and now 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 Mysterious 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 his Drive Form 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 waiting for them. The quest gets more complicated when Kairi herself gets 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. One example is this conversation at Port Royal: Goofy: Uhh... hey Sora, why're you blushing? Your face is all red. Sora: huh? I-I'm not blushing! [watching Elizabeth and Will get cozy with one another] Donald: [sing song voice] I know who you're thinking of! He travels to other worlds to find Riku and the King, help the worlds and stop Organization XIII. His new journey brings him to meet up with some old friends and make new ones.

At one point in the storyline, Donald and Goofy's homeworld becomes infested with Heartless, which is rather unusual considering their world's protection, and Sora visits their castle for the first time. While Donald and Goofy set out to warn the castle's residents about the danger, Sora escorts Queen Minnie to the audience chamber where the Cornerstone of Light is hidden under. He finds out that Pete and Maleficent have found a doorway to Timeless River, a past timeline of their world before the castle was built. With some help from Merlin, Sora, Donald and Goofy travel through time and manage to stop Pete from destroying the Cornerstone of Light in the past, which also saves the castle for good.

Sora, with the help of the Hayner, Pence, Olette (three friends of Roxas in DiZ's simulated Twilight Town) and Axel (who sacrifices his existence), manages to find the route to the World That Never Was: which is the stronghold of the Organization, where Kingdom Hearts, created by gathering the countless hearts from the Heartless slain by Sora's Keyblade, resides. Soon after entering the world however, in the area of Memory's 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 Awakening. In Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, you can fight Roxas instead of watching the fight between Sora and Roxas as a cutscene. At the start of the fight Sora asks who Roxas is, and he answers "Someone from the dark.", then asks Sora; "Tell me...Tell me why he picked you!".

As Roxas is above and Sora below, he sees the picture of Riku, Kairi, Donald and Goofy (as the platform's design). Roxas then says, "I see, that's why.", and continues the fight. Roxas knocks the Keyblade out of Sora's grasp, and as he goes to retrieve it, Roxas pins it down with his own Keyblade. It looks like defeat for Sora, but then he reaches out for his Keyblade, which disappears and reappears in Sora's hands, after which Sora quickly strikes while Roxas stands amazed, not knowing how that happened. Ultimately, Sora's control over his Keyblade gave him the edge over Roxas, who collapses and reveals his face. As he and the scenery disappear, Roxas says to Sora "You make a good other." Sora reappears next to Donald and Goofy, who tell him that while he disappeared, they had to fight some Nobodies, and they continue towards the massive Castle where Kairi awaits them.

Afterwards, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey storm the Castle in search of their friends. They meet Saïx at the Hall of Empty Melodies, who tells that Kingdom Hearts is near completion, and it only needed "one more dose from the Keyblade Bearer." He summons hordes of Shadows and disappears to go after Maleficent and Pete who were also in the castle. The Heartless overpower Sora, but are destroyed by a rain of laser bullets. Sora has to fight Xigbar, the Freeshooter and Organization's number II, and defeats him. He finds Kairi and Riku (looking like Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, which is the price he paid to help Sora wake up).

Sora, Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy make it to the Proof of Existence of the Organization, in which there are only two places to go. They enter one of the odd pathways only to encounter Luxord, Organization XIII's Number X. Although Luxord traps everyone but Sora in cards, he is still defeated by the Keyblade master. Next they enter Addled Impasse where they find Saïx staring up at the moon. Saïx points out that only Roxas could have made it this far in one piece and Sora gets angry and prepares to attack him. Saïx blows Riku and Kairi away and uses the power of the moon to fight. After one of Sora's most difficult battles, Saïx is defeated and Riku finally reveals to Sora that Roxas is his Nobody.

With the mysteries of Roxas's identity finally solved, they continue on. Fighting their way up the winding paths of the Castle That Never Was, Sora, Riku and the others encounter King Mickey and DiZ, now revealed to be the former ruler of Hollow Bastion, now called Radiant Garden, Ansem the Wise, who was trying to absorb Kingdom Hearts into his machine and encode it as data. Xemnas appears to see who is tampering with Kingdom Hearts and finds his old teacher. Then Xemnas finally tells Sora and the others of his true plan, to make a Kingdom out of hearts. One that he would rule.

Unfortunately, Kingdom Hearts proved too strong for Ansem's machine, and with his final words, he tells Sora the rest is up to him and tells Roxas, "Roxas, I doubt you can hear me but, I am sorry", before the machine explodes, taking Ansem with it. The energy released in the explosion destroys a good deal of Kingdom Hearts and reverts Riku's appearance to the way it was.

Near the pinnacle of the castle, Heartless appear in vast hordes. Maleficent and Pete show up and stall them while the party heads toward their final battle. When they reach the Altar of Naught at the pinnacle of the castle, they confront Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII. After a short conversation with the Nobody, Sora is taken by Xemnas to the front of Memory's Skyscraper for a one-on-one battle. After an intense fight, Sora defeats Xemnas and is transported back to his friends. However, Xemnas appears again and, despite the protests of the group, enters and absorbs Kingdom Hearts. The party was in luck though, and by the will of the worlds a door to Kingdom Hearts is made. Sora, Riku and the King open the door with their Keyblades, breaking the barrier separating them from Xemnas. The party enters but Sora, Riku, Donald and Goofy become separated from King Mickey and Kairi because of Xemnas.

Inside, they discover that Kingdom Hearts was made by the Superior to look like the World That Never Was. They charge through and quickly get to Xemnas and battle him, with Xemnas in armor using the tactics of the rest of the Organization. After they seemingly defeat the Organization leader and return to the Altar of Naught, Roxas emerges from Sora's body to speak with Naminé before she fuses with Kairi. Before this, Naminé opens a door to lead them out of the World That Never Was. He informs Sora that whenever he and Kairi are together, Roxas and Naminé will be together as well. Naminé then joins with Kairi to complete herself, while Roxas returns to Sora's body making Sora whole.

Unfortunately, before Sora and Riku can enter the Corridor, Xemnas attacks once again on the Captain's Seat of an enormous Dragon Nobody. In an epic air battle they manage to defeat this form of Xemnas as well. Riku is injured by Xemnas, who strikes at both with his Ethereal Blades. Falling through the air on the brink of defeat, Sora grabs Riku's Keyblade and batters Xemnas with both. Returning it to Riku, they use a bolt of light and dark energy to finish off Xemnas. Afterwards, Sora must help Riku walk, as he sustained a heavy injury from one of Xemnas's Ethereal Blades. They wander through the eternal abyss, and eventually come to a dark beach under a pale moon, the Dark Margin. Resting at the shoreline, they discuss their adventures and friendship, and come to the conclusion that they did what they set out to do, and agreed that "If worlds are made of light and darkness, we'll be the darkness." The Realm of Light was safe, and they could now sit and let peace envelop them.

As they listen to the waves, a bottle containing a letter that Kairi wrote washes onto the shore. Riku picks it up, and, after reading it, gives it to Sora, believing him to be the proper recipient. The letter reads;

"Thinking of you, wherever you are. We pray for our sorrows to end, and hope that our hearts will blend. Now I will step forward to realize this wish. And who knows: Starting a new journey may not be so hard, Or maybe it has already begun. There are many worlds, but they share the same sky. One sky, One destiny.

-Kairi."

After Sora reads it, 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, and he grasps her hand while simultaneously returning the Oathkeeper keychain he kept for her all this time.

Some time later, 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, mimicking Kairi's actions from a year ago. 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 breathlessly and gives them a bottle she found, containing a letter from King Mickey. The trio reads the letter.

Kingdom Hearts coded
At the same time, King Mickey digitizes Jiminy's Journal and creates a Sora made of data in order to investigate the a strange message Jiminy found within it. The digital journal is corrupted by computer bugs in the form of data blocks, and the Data Sora goes through and eliminates them all, eventually discovering that it was Sora's own Heartless that had been corrupting the journal. After defeating the Heartless, the Data Sora goes even deeper and discovers that Naminé and Ansem had hidden data about those who were in suffering (Roxas, Naminé, Xion, Axel, Terra, Aqua, and Ventus) within the real Sora's memories. With this knowledge, King Mickey writes a letter to Sora asking for him to go on a mission to save them. Later, Mickey meets with his old Master, Yen Sid, who reveals that with Ansem and Xemnas's defeat, Master Xehanort will likely return, and that Sora and Riku must undergo the Mark of Mastery exam to properly combat the threat.

Blank Points
Later, after Sora has received Mickey's newest letter, he sits on the Paopu tree while holding the message from King Mickey, staring off into the sunset. It is revealed that he has now read the contents of the message and must venture out on a new quest to find Terra, Aqua and Ven, as well as the others connected to him, and save them from their suffering. As he says goodbye to Kairi, she gives Sora her Wayfinder again, telling him, "See you soon."

Kingdom Hearts 3D
Sora appears in the recently revealed Kingdom Hearts 3D, wearing his attire from the first Kingdom Hearts game. He is seen in the trailer for the game sitting with Riku near the Paopu Tree. Several unconscious Soras are then seen raining down from the sky in Traverse Town, one landing and summoning the Keyblade. This Sora fights off several Heartless. After this, Sora suddenly snaps awake to find himself sitting next to Kairi near the Paopu Tree.

In two of the few screenshots of the game revealed, Sora is seen with Riku on the beach at Destiny Islands, and is also seen in the Second District of Traverse Town fighting a Twilight Thorn.

Personality
Sora has a typical brave and heroic personality, meaning he'll willingly risk his life, even for people he doesn't even know yet. He's extremely loyal to his friends, and has been shown to be extremely forgiving to Riku (even forgiving Riku for the times he has tried to kill him), and is highly protective of Kairi. He constantly thinks positive and is therefore highly optimistic.

Sora is an upbeat person, and although he is simple minded at times, he has a strong sense of justice. Sora has matured over a year's time, for instance, when battling enemies in the game, he seems to have a more serious expression on his face. Sora is more confident than before and takes charge of his group. He is also quite caring and reassuring to his other-world friends, such as when Beast quits after Xaldin steals his rose. Sora reassured him that they would get it back.

Sora seems to have a remarkable capacity to forgive, even to his sworn enemies; when Maleficent loses control of the Heartless to Organization XIII and is overwhelmed by Dusks in order to allow Sora's group to escape, Sora is clearly concerned for her and is only stopped from helping her by being restrained by Donald. Another prominent example is when he forgives Naminé for rewriting the majority of his memories, despite the severity of her doings. More examples would be when he shows gratefulness towards Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, despite all the harm he had caused, for saving Kairi's life, unaware that he is actually a disguised Riku, and when he forgives Axel for kidnapping Kairi and even remains by his side as he fades from existence.

In Kingdom Hearts, he puts Riku and Kairi above all else; when telling Tarzan which friends he is missing, he starts to mention Donald and Goofy, but stops himself and instead says he is looking for Kairi and Riku. However, another reason for this could be that he had an argument with Donald before crashing into the tree house in Deep Jungle, which is further expanded on by the fact that he refers to Donald as "the loud one". However, he and Donald at first appear to be genuinely happy to see each other after they reunite at Jane Porter's campsite before turning their backs on each other, proving once more his capacity to forgive. 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 after getting hit in the head by a rock during 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."

On the other hand, Sora shows little tolerance for cowardice and selfishness, criticizing both Hades and Iago for being cowardly and selfish, though ultimately forgiving the latter when he proved genuinely sorry for his actions.

Like most children his age, Sora shows a highly competitive streak, as he often competes with Riku over numerous things, mostly for Kairi's affection and attention. Also, when he asks to fight Hercules alone in the Hercules Cup, Donald calls him a show-off, and Goofy says in Chain of Memories, "Whenever there's a contest, you're always rarin' to sign up." He doesn't like to be called a kid but prefers to be called Sora.

Though he is far from stupid, Sora has often seen to be highly gullible and oblivious to what should be obvious. For example, he fell for Mulan's attempt at passing for a man; proceeding this, Mushu stated that Sora "could fall for anything". Ironically, he doesn't let his enemies fool him as easily. An example would be when he didn't fall for Xemnas's attempt to play on Sora's sympathetic side, which was far more convincing than Mulan's attempt to appear as a man. Despite Sora's good nature, he appears to sometimes hold long grudges, since he seemed to go after Xemnas merely out of spite for him and his misdeeds. Sora is often quick to anger whenever he's confused, and is quite childish at times. He can also be seen as quite impulsive, as he tends to jump into things without thinking them through beforehand. While simple-minded and naive at times, he has a strong sense of justice, like when he proves Alice's innocence by finding pieces of evidence around Wonderland.

Sora also shows somewhat of an admiration of sea pirates during their first visit to Port Royal, wherein he is excited to meet Captain Jack Sparrow and even states that he hopes that they would be able to "take a pirate ship out for a spin" (though he tells Donald and Goofy that he was merely joking about it). Of course, he likely gets over this after Barbossa double-crosses them. Strangely enough, he doesn't show this admiration for Captain Hook or his pirate ship, probably due to the fact that Hook was holding both Kairi and Wendy captive on the ship. He was also eager to meet Santa Claus during their first visit to Halloween Town in Kingdom Hearts II (and he also shows lots of disappointment when Santa told him about the time he announced to everybody that he did not believe in Santa Claus).

Also, Sora does not seem to have experience with computers, as evidenced in the episodes in Radiant Garden and Space Paranoids - he hits the computer keyboard hard while in Radiant Garden, and whilst he was in Space Paranoids, he did not understand a single word Tron said, as it all appeared to be tech jargon. However, he does at least seem to know how to use a computer, but with very little skill, as he is shown to type with only one finger each instead of using all five each, and a Journal page of the story calls him "hardly computer-savvy", and bangs the keyboard with his fists expecting it to do what he wants. This is most likely because he lived on Destiny Islands all his life and probably didn't have access to computers there.

On occasion in Kingdom Hearts II, Sora seems to unintentionally show somewhat of a disrespect towards people of higher authority than himself upon meeting them. For example, when meeting Yen Sid, Donald and Goofy respectfully bow to him, while Sora greets him by simply saying, "Hey there!". Goofy is clearly shocked by this, and Donald shouts at him to show some respect. When meeting Queen Minnie, Sora simply asks, "Where's the King?". This leads to Donald grabbing him by the ear and asking Minnie to excuse him. When Sora and King Mickey were disputing about Ansem's identity, Sora, thinking that he has forgotten who Ansem is, drags King Mickey by the arm in order to show him the portrait of Xehanort in Ansem's study. However, when meeting Princess Jasmine again in Kingdom Hearts II, he actually does bow to her, along with Donald and Goofy. He, Donald, and Goofy also bow in respect to Simba as the new king during their second visit to the Pride Lands.

Appearance
Sora first starts off appearing tanner and somewhat lankier than his rival Riku. He seems to portray more of a typical teenage boy's looks. Sora has spiky brown hair (although in Kingdom Hearts II his hair does change from a dark brown to a more caramel color) along with blue eyes. Sora's appearance does not change that much throughout the series besides growing taller, a slightly different hair style, tanner skin, a slightly deeper voice, and having more matured looks. Sora goes through many costume changes throughout the series.

His original outfit consisted of a Mickey Mouse style outfit, containing large yellow shoes, a white and black overjacket as well as a red jumpsuit and a pair of white with yellow gloves with his signature crown necklace and crown chain. This outfit is the main outfit in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. Interestingly, after Sora uses the Keyblade of People's Hearts to free Kairi's heart, his hair appears to be lighter. Using Donald's magic, his appearance is changed to that of Vampire Form and Merman Form in certain worlds.

His outfit considerably changes in Kingdom Hearts II as it turns into a black and silver outfit that, while remaining baggy, is like his original outfit. It contains a darker style using many zippers and extra leggings but still retains his crown necklace. For a short while in Twilight Town, he does wear his first outfit. With the institution of Drive Forms, his outfit can turn into different appearances for Valor Form, Limit Form, Anti Form, Wisdom Form, Master Form, and Final Form. As he travels to certain worlds, his appearance changes to that of Data Form, Lion Form, Santa Form, Vampire Form, Merman Form, and Retro Form.

In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and certain scenes in Kingdom Hearts, a younger version of Sora appears. As a child, Sora's hair was lighter than it was in Kingdom Hearts, more closely resembling his hair color in Kingdom Hearts II, and it was not as spiky. Clothing-wise, Sora wore what looks like a white polo shirt with blue lining, albeit without the collar present on most polo shirts. He also wore red shorts with a maroon pocket on each leg, as well as brown sandals with yellow straps.

Keyblade
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.

Sora wields his Keyblade with a two-handed low guard during his initial strikes, although he often finishes with one handed swings. He is also known to use the 'teeth' of his Keyblade in some attacks, an example is when using the Sliding Dash ability in Kingdom Hearts II. While Roxas and Riku rely on speed and hit-and-run tactics, Sora is more of a "heavy hitter", which is somewhat strange, given that his thin build would make him unsuited for such a style. He uses strong swings and slashes and powerful finishes to damage his enemies, and repeatedly attacks until his opponent succumbs to his blows. Sora is still fairly fast, however. He is able to quickly dash through enemies, and his mobility increases with various upgrades in both games. Like Roxas, Sora also wields the element of Light as a weapon, but not to the extent and level that Roxas can. He can use light to augment his Keyblade swings during combos, and can finish combos with bursts, balls, and waves of light that encircle him. He can also use the Keyblade's power to unlock any passage or solid object, as well as seal Keyholes and open Gates.

With his Synch Blade ability, Sora can also wield two Keyblades at once, though he has yet to do so outside of his Drive Forms. Sora's Synch Blade ability stems from his possession of Ventus's heart within his own. As Sora's Nobody, Roxas also possesses Synch Blade.

Magic
Sora is also very skilled in various basic magic spells (such as Fire, Blizzard, or Thunder), even more so after training with Merlin. These spells allow him to weaken Heartless that are more vulnerable to certain elements. He can also use Cure to heal himself and his allies from injuries as well as restore HP and revive a fallen party member. In Kingdom Hearts II, his basic combo is much stronger and he gains the Drive Form ability after obtaining new clothes, which give him more mastery over his strengths, speed, magic, and Keyblade. In addition to the abilities that each form grants him, Sora's speed and strength are also increased.

In Kingdom Hearts II, he learns to use Limits with party members to form a strong, special type of attack.

With a summon gem, card or charm in hand, Sora learns to the ability to summon a specific character and temporarily aid him in combat. Each character has a special power that makes them helpful. He first learns summon in Kingdom Hearts when he finds Simba's gem after his world was destroyed and brings it to the Fairy Godmother, who helps restore his spirit form; and then, he gathers five other summons, two of which did not start as summon gems. He loses all of the summon gems when their true forms are restored. In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, he learns to summon using cards instead of gems. In this game, he can use all previous summons, with one addition: Cloud. In Kingdom Hearts II, Merlin gives him a summon charm that allows him to call for a specific character to aid him. Then, he locates three other summon charms that allow him to summon more powerful characters.

Miscellaneous
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 a few members, who Riku or Axel defeated, of the powerful Organization XIII (all thirteen if Absent Silhouettes are counted), 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"), and fight and defeat the countless Disney villains that have faced him (even gods like Hades and Chernabog). In the manga, Sora defeats Guard Armor and Cerberus in a single blow (though the latter had already been worn down by Hercules before Sora entered the fight). The Trick Master also faces the same fate in Wonderland. He becomes even more powerful if he uses his Drive Forms, which unlock some of his hidden power, though he requires the power of his party members to do this. After he defeats Roxas, he unlocks Final Form, gaining his full power as the Keyblade master of the Realm of Light, also Roxas's awakening from his slumber inside Sora, which also awakens the other half of his power.

However, Sora is nearly helpless without his Keyblade. Even Shadow Heartless take a huge number of hits for him to kill without it. However, before he left Destiny Islands, he could not even damage the Heartless without the Keyblade. His supposed weakness may be caused by the weapon he wields. When Sora is not in possession of his Keyblade, his only available weapons are the sparring weapons, Wooden Sword and Struggle Bat. If he is given proper "normal" weapons (for example, a normal sword made of steel), he can probably still fight well, although he might not be able to fight 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, whether he has the Keyblade or not (as long as he knows how).

While not a necessary talent for battle, Sora, as seen during the Kingdom Hearts II visit to Atlantica, is shown to be a talented singer, as he is frequently paired up with Ariel, who is widely renowned in Atlantica for her singing voice, in Sebastian's musical numbers. However, Sora is only heard singing in two songs, namely "Under the Sea" and "A New Day is Dawning", and even then, he only has a few lines for both. He also sings a few lines with Donald and Goofy after opening the Gate in Atlantica.

On many occasions, Sora demonstrates physical abilities that could be considered superhuman. This is probably the result of possessing the Keyblade. A few examples of of his superhuman abilities are listed here:
 * In the Deep Jungle, he has shown great durability when he falls a great distance and crashes headfirst through the roof of the treehouse, emerging alive and uninjured, but slightly dazed. Similarly, when Sabor slashes him with her claws and knocks him back into a wall, he quickly gets up and fights back.
 * In the Olympus Coliseum, he has shown to have incredible strength when he is able to lift up crates and boulders without showing any limits due to the possession of the Keyblade.
 * He can either glide or actually fly, the latter of which only in Never Land, the End of the World, and the final battle with Ansem.
 * He is capable of leaping incredible distances, such as jumping up to the ceiling of the ballroom in Beast's Castle and between buildings and Xemnas's two cannons in the final battle with him in Kingdom Hearts II.
 * He can cut through solid concrete and other durable forms of matter, even whole buildings.
 * He can either teleport or move too fast to be seen that he when using the "Warp Snipe" reaction command, the Teleport Sleight, or Final Form's Final Arts.

Sora also seems to be capable of bending the universe's laws of nature to an extent:


 * After coming into contact with Axel, the Nobody appears to have more emotion.
 * His memories seem to bind every character in the story; connecting them to himself in some way.
 * He is able to pour almost all of his power into Roxas's imperfect Replica, Xion, and his Nobody, Roxas, at the same time.

Quotes

 * "No! This huge, black THING swallowed me up! I couldn't breathe, I couldn't... ow!"
 * "It wasn't a dream! Or was it? I don't know. What was that place... so bizarre..."
 * "Okay, why not? I'll go with you, guys."
 * "The darkness may destroy my body, but it can't touch my heart."
 * "Although my heart may be weak, it's not alone."
 * "That's not true! The heart may be weak, and sometimes it may even give in. But I've learned that deep down, there's a light that never goes out!"
 * "You're wrong. I know now, without a doubt, Kingdom Hearts is light!"
 * "Roxas... I wish I could meet him too..."
 * "I don't get it, why has everyone been calling me Roxas?"
 * "C'mon, Riku! You've been hanging out in darkness too long. You gotta try and think positive!"

Changes in worlds
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 devilish Onion Knight-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.


 * 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-lis 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 blue 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. For Limit Form in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, his icon is tinted purple.


 * 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 hairstyle 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. Also, in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Sora mentions both his mother and father while reminiscing about Naminé, and Riku mentions Sora's father to Terra in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.
 * In Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, during every cutscene involving a Keyblade, Sora wields the Keyblade the player has equipped. The only cutscenes where this doesn't apply are the scenes when Sora and King Mickey seal away Kingdom Hearts, when Riku temporarily takes the Keyblade from Sora in Hollow Bastion, and before the Battle of 1000 Heartless in which he has the Kingdom Key.