Terra

Unreleased

Originally called the "Armored Youth", the "Enigmatic Soldier" or the "Enigmatic Knight", Terra is the tallest and assumed to be the oldest of the three keyblade knights. Terra also has a passing resemblence to Zack Fair of Final Fantasy VII. The three are portrayed as the protagonists against Master Xehanort and his companion, and he, like the others, wields a keyblade. He begins the battle by rushing at Master Xehanort, but the old man avoids him by separating himself from the others with a makeshift cliff. Terra is hit by a blast of lightning from the old man's guardian, but ignores him to pursue Master Xehanort. He is at first unable to reach the man because of the cyclone of keyblades, but after being aided by Aqua's magic, he is able to reach the man's cliff and attack him. The old man, wielding a keyblade of his own, is able to fend him off with a freezing spell. Once the old man gets a hold of Ven, a younger knight, Terra is thrown off the cliff by the keyblade cyclone, ending his involvement in the struggle. He is seen one last time after the appearance of Kingdom Hearts, when he pulls off his helmet to gaze up at it. His face and his reaction to the appearance of Kingdom Hearts, which turns his eyes yellow, have given rise to much speculation among fans, who have connected him to Xemnas/Xehanort, Saïx and other characters, though no concrete connection has been made by Nomura. In early promos to "KH:BBS", Terra was searching for Master Xehanort, only to have feelings of being betrayed when he finally finds him.

In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Terra will be featured as a player character. He also has been revealed to know Fire and Blizzard magic. He is thought to have the ability to fly/glide, for his position is certain screen shots show him in a stance that is similar to Sora's, when he is gliding. He is also known to have some as-yet-unknown connection with Maleficent.

Boss Secret/Trailer Summary
In the opening of the secret trailer, an unknown man in armor standing on top of an object. Terra seems to be standing triumphantly, holding his massive Keyblade behind his back. He then notices something from off screen and jumps down. As he walks away, the object he was standing on blows away like a dust. As Terra walks to the middle of the crossroads, Aqua appears from another direction, along with Ven appearing in the opposite. Three keyblades lie in the center : Kingdom Key, Way to the Dawn and Mickey's Kingdom Key. Terra picks up the Kingdom Key while Aqua picks up Mickey's Kingdom Key and Ven picks up Way to the Dawn. Then they all notice a shadowed figure off in the distance.

The three knights face down the mysterious figure off in the distance. As the figure draws closer, his face becomes visible. The man is known as Master Xehanort, who then splits himself into two beings. By doing this he creates the an alter being, bearing several similarities to Riku's muscle suit in Dark Mode. Ven starts engage towards them, only to be halted by Terra who goes after them himself. As he dashes towards them, Xehanort casts a spell that lifts a large wall of earth to block his path. He then lifts himself and the alter being, up with another wall from the ground. As Terra watches them rise up, the alter being jumps down and casts a powerful thunder spell on him. This leaves his armor badly damaged, engulfed with small flames. Ven then runs after the Master Xehanort's alter being, with Terra soon following him. Xehanort then casts another spell, where many keyblades burst from the ground and attack in waves. Ven continues his chase, while the alter being casts Blizzard spells to keep him off of his trail.

Aqua notices that Terra is plummeting. With her distracted, another wave of keyblades strike her from the ground below. The force lifts her up into the air and then she endures a hard impact as she is brought back down. Aqua's helmet is obliterated from the wave and her face is revealed. Ven runs to check on her and she is shown to be alright. She quickly casts reflect on Terra upon her harsh landing, seeing that he to is being assaulted by the wave of Keyblades. Reflect reaches him and forces the blades to stay away from his body. Yet another wave of Keyblades assault him, but Terra remains safe with reflect still casted. The blades push him up to Xehanort, then the shield protecting Terra explodes. Aqua stays behind as Ven goes after the two threats.

Terra falls, and lands, not to far from Xehanort. He stumbles trying to get on his feet, then begins to run towards the enemy. Xehanort retaliates with his own Keyblade, managing to knock Terra back and freeze his entire left arm. Ven then attempts to strike Xehanort while but no to avail, Master Xehanort instead vanishes and grips the young knight's head. Terra tries to run to help his friend, but is hit by another wave of Keyblades and blown off the cliff once more.

Terra is last seen looking at the Kingdom Hearts, where his eye colour changes from blue to yellow.

Terra did appear in Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix as a secret boss, at first mentioning Aqua and Ven and mistaking Sora as "the one he has chosen" (possibly Riku, who was originally chosen by the Keyblade), then wonders if Sora is "Xehanort" before finally attacking him. Unlike Sephiroth, another secret boss in the game, Terra fights against both Sora and his main companions, Donald and Goofy. After losing once, he can be challenged again, this time saying that he has nothing more to give to Sora except his hatred for "Xehanort". It's unclear why he actually attacks Sora. After the fight, he acknowledges Sora as a Keyblade Master.

He, like the game's other secret bosses, is difficult to defeat ; his most basic moves are attacking with his keyblade (using a combo attack almost identical to Sora's, except that at the end he turns his keyblade into a drill-like object for the foward thrust), and can fly at very high speeds. His main abilities are transforming his keyblade into various attacking forms. He can turn into a whip that does less damage then the blade form, but its greater speed and reach makes up for it (it's so fast that if Sora is hit by it he won't be able to dodge or block the other hits), or a massive cannon (which is even bigger then he is) that fires out a large, very powerful ball of energy (Sora, however, can deflect this back to Terra, which leaves him very vulnerable), a jet-ski like object that lets him fly extremely fast, a cog-like object that spins around so fast that if Sora gets hit by it once, then the rest of the hits will also hit Sora. He can also conjure a "ritual" like attack, which undergoes into a berserker-like condition (similar to Riku's transformation into Dark-mode) in this form, red auras surrounds him, which he can split his Keyblade into two weapons. This, when added with his combos, makes him extremely lethal.

In addition to his keyblade, Terra has other abilities as well. He can also create a unusual looking seal that either creates an orange or blue orb. An orange orb causes Sora to be unable to attack and a blue orb prevents him from using magic or items. He can also conjure drone-like objects which fire plasma at Sora and his party. A particularly deadly attack is trapping Sora in a triangle of objects that drain his heath at a very fast rate (similar to an attack used by Xemnas, but much more powerful), and only a "Break Free" command on Sora command list can save him from it. Finally, Terra has one last attack where he gathers energy and unleashes it in a flurry of strikes that reduce Sora to 1 hp. Interestingly, when he strikes Sora with his Keyblade(s), most of his combos resembles Sora's combos, most notably Valor and Final form combos.

Terra is the most powerful enemy in Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix and is arguably the hardest boss in the series. His level of power compared to all other bosses in the series may be a foreshadowing of sorts to something as-of-yet unrevealed.

Trivia

 * Terra is speculated to have some connection to Zack Fair of the Final Fantasy series, similar to how some speculate Axel is Reno's Nobody. Terra and Zack's similarities include blue eyes, spiky black hair, and Terra's unarmored appearance resembles Zack's SOLDIER uniform.

Terra (KH)