Maleficent

Maleficent is a major antagonist in the Kingdom Hearts series, second only to Master Xehanort. She is an evil fairy sorceress who made her first appearance in Disney's . She seeks to gain control over all worlds, spreading darkness throughout the World.

She is first seen in Kingdom Hearts in Hollow Bastion, leading a group of villians who seek the power of Kingdom Hearts in order to rule all worlds. To this end, they use the Heartless to conquer worlds, while they search for the seven Princesses of Heart. However, Maleficent's plans are thwarted due to the efforts of Sora, who defeats her villainous council, and finally, her. She later returns, seeking to gain footholds in her bid to spread darkness and conquer worlds, while dealing with interference from Sora, King Mickey, or Organization XIII.

Unlike most other Disney villains in the series, Maleficent's role heavily extends into the overall story instead of being limited to her home world.

Before Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Maleficent was already known and feared throughout Enchanted Dominion as a sorceress not to be angered. Despite not being invited to the celebration of princess Aurora's birth, she attended anyway and gave her a "gift", that on her sixteenth birthday, Aurora would prick her finger on a spinning wheel and die. Merryweather altered the curse so that, instead of dying, Aurora would fall into a deep sleep until kissed by her true love, and the three fairies raised her in the woods, out of the reach of Maleficent and her lackeys.

Sixteen years later, Maleficent discovered Aurora living under the assumed name Briar Rose and arranged for her curse to take effect. She also imprisoned Prince Phillip in her dungeon to prevent him from breaking the curse.

At some point, Maleficent met Master Xehanort, who revealed to her the existence of other worlds and the seven Princesses of Heart whose hearts could be used to conquer all worlds. He also told her of certain wielders of the Keyblade that she would encounter. After this meeting, Maleficent's ambitions would grow to domination over all worlds.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep


Terra arrives at the castle, searching for Master Xehanort, and he encounters Maleficent at the bridge leading to the gate. She claims not to know of Xehanort, but tells of a man she saw leaving the castle, speaking of "imprisoning the light". Terra enters the castle and finds Aurora asleep in her room, where Maleficent appears to him again and tells him of the seven hearts of pure light that grant the power to rule all worlds. She offers to tells Terra about Xehanort if he takes Aurora's heart for her, and when he refuses, she uses the darkness inside him to put him into a trance and takes her heart anyway. When he comes to his senses, she states that the Keyblade is necessary to retrieve the remaining hearts and asks Terra to join her. He turns her down, and she tells him that he cannot suppress his darkness by force before leaving him to deal with the Unversed.

Ventus later arrives at Maleficent's fortress with the three fairies to retrieve Aurora's heart. After successfully freeing her heart, they find Maleficent in her throne room, furious. She tells him that Terra was the one who stole the heart, and despite having been warned by Xehanort not to harm Ventus, she confronts him in battle. Ventus defeats her with the help of the three fairies, but she restates that Terra willingly took Aurora's heart. Aqua arrives in time to hear this, and she reassures Ven before he takes off in search of Terra. Maleficent drops Aqua into the dungeon when she refuses to join her, but Aqua escapes the fortress along with Phillip and the fairies. Maleficent confronts them when they reach the bridge to the castle, surrounding the castle with thorns before claiming that Terra willingly embraced the darkness and assuming her dragon form. After a fierce battle, Prince Phillip throws his enchanted sword at Maleficent, defeating her. Maleficent survives, however, and Aqua confronts her as she leaves. Maleficent tells her that as long as there is light, there will be darkness, and she disappears.

After these events, Maleficent begins plotting to take over all worlds. She uses the Corridors of Darkness to begin recruiting allies from different worlds, beginning with the banished Pete.

Between Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts
Over the next several years, the Heartless appear in the Realm of Light, and Maleficent decides to use her immense power of darkness to command the creatures. She captures Aurora and causes her own world to fall into darkess, moving to the now abandoned Hollow Bastion to make it her new base of operations. She manages to gather most of the pages of Ansem's Report, which she and her allies would use to better understand the nature of the Heartless.

With Pete's assistance, she recruits Hades, Jafar, Ursula, Oogie Boogie, and Captain Hook to her cause, and they use the Heartless to further their own ambitions while searching for their worlds' Keyholes and the Princesses of Heart. In the meantime, Maleficent dispatches Pete to assemble an army of powerful Heartless for her.

Kingdom Hearts
When Riku wakes up alone in Hollow Bastion after the destruction of Destiny Islands, Maleficent approaches him and gives him a room in the castle.

She and her allies witness Sora, Donald, and Goofy defeating the Guard Armor via Maleficent's magic, and they discuss the young Keyblade wielder. They continue to monitor their progress even as they continue with their own plans. As her allies implement their own schemes in their respective worlds, Maleficent occassionally comes to advise or observe them, as well as making sure they continue searching for the Keyholes and the Princesses. When the villains observe Sora sealing the Deep Jungle Keyhole, Maleficent assures them that it will take Sora ages to find the rest and notes that he is unaware of their plan regarding the Princesses of Heart.

Maleficent begins coaxing Riku to assist her in her plans, and she grants him the ability to travel between worlds. When Riku encounters Sora in Traverse Town and sees him with Donald and Goofy, Maleficent convinces him that Sora has forgotten about him and Kairi. In exchange for her help in finding Kairi, Riku agrees to help her gather the Princesses.

In Agrabah, Maleficent checks on Jafar's progress towards finding the Keyhole and capturing Jasmine. She reminds him of the importance of the Princesses and warns him against being careless with the darkness. Maleficent appears again in the Lamp Chamber after Jafar uses Genie's powers to reveal the Keyhole, and she learns that Sora has continued to interfere. Sora and company arrive on the scene, and Sora realizes who she is before she disappears. She returns to Hollow Bastion and has Riku capture Jasmine and take her there as well. She tells Hades that Jafar was overcome by his hatred and warns again against letting the darkness overpower oneself. To honor her deal with Riku, she sends him to sail with Captain Hook to find Kairi.

While Riku is trying to torment Sora inside Monstro, Maleficent comes to check on him. She warns Riku to beware the darkness in his heart, as the Heartless prey on it, but he tells her to mind her own business even as she steps in a Corridor of Darkness. She meets him later at Hook's ship, where Kairi's comatose body is resting, and she tells him that the power and wisdom of Kingdom Hearts will let him recover Kairi's heart once they gather the seven Princesses. She then gives him the power to control the Heartless.

After Riku takes Kairi to Hollow Bastion via Dark Corridor, straining himself in the process, Maleficent tells him that relying too much on darkness puts his heart at risk. She also tells him about the Beast, who had traveled from his world by sheer force of will. She amplifies his dark powers, allowing him to enter Dark Mode.

As Sora and the Beast enter the castle, Maleficent uses the power of the gathered Princesses to reveal the Final Keyhole in the Grand Hall. She is joined soon after by Riku, now possessed by Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, and armed with the Keyblade of People's Hearts. Maleficent realizes with shock that the Keyhole and Keyblade are both incomplete, due to Kairi missing her heart. She leaves to take care of Sora's group herself, but she is defeated, and she retreats to the Chapel's tower with the group in pursuit. The possessed Riku arrives, and he stabs her with his Keyblade, unlocking the darkness in her heart. Overwhelmed by the dark power, she transforms into her dragon form and attacks Sora again, only to be destroyed.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
A memory-based illusion of Maleficent appears to Riku in the twelfth basement of Castle Oblivion, in a projection of Hollow Bastion. Although she is aware that she is only a figment of Riku's memory, she taunts him, reminding him of how he used to embrace darkness and telling him that the only people he will find from his memory are the ones with the same darkness. When Riku declares that he will take out each person of darkness he encountered, she fights him in her dragon form, only to lose. Zexion is able to smell this Maleficent's presence, and he informs Vexen and Lexaeus. Vexen remarks that the real Maleficent cannot return from the Realm of Darkness on her own.

When Sora enters the memory-based Hollow Bastion, he finds that Maleficent has kidnapped Belle and is trying to trap the Beast in an effort to steal Belle's heart. Belle sacrifices herself to save the Beast, and Maleficent disappears with her heart, with Sora, Donald, Goofy and the Beast in pursuit. When they catch up with her, she tells them that her magic requires hearts of utmost beauty, and that the love in Belle and the Beast's hearts makes them ideal. However, the group defeat her in her dragon form, freeing Belle's heart.

Kingdom Hearts II
After Sora leaves the Mysterious Tower, Maleficent's raven brings Maleficent's empty robe to where Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather are, and their memories of her bring her back to life.

Maleficent regroups with Pete at Villain's Vale, where she learns that her former allies are off dealing with their own matters. Maleficent has Pete catch her up on what has happened since her defeat, including the actions of Organization XIII and Sora. She is disgusted by his constant failures, however, and breaks ties with him. When Pete somehow summons a door to the past, she decides to give him another chance and has him interfere with the Cornerstone of Light in the past, so that she can take over Disney Castle in the present. With the power of the Cornerstone weakened, Maleficent begins sending her dark influence into the castle, allowing the Heartless to invade and filling the Hall of the Cornerstone with thorns. When Sora, Donald, and Goofy arrive with Queen Minnie, Maleficent projects her image before them and taunts them. Even though Sora and company successfully stop Pete and save the Cornerstone, Maleficent has Pete return to searching for new allies and powerful Heartless to place under their control.

Maleficent appears in Halloween Town, where she recruits Lock, Shock, and Barrel for her plan to destroy Christmas Town. After spying on Sora, Jack, and the others at Santa Claus's house, she decides to resurrect Oogie Boogie in order to take revenge on Sora, and she gives the three pranksters use of the Prison Keeper while she has Oogie recover. Although Maleficent has him kidnap Santa so that he can destroy Christmas Town while she turns Santa into a Heartless, Oogie's faulty memory and uncooperative attitude drives Maleficent to leave him to his own devices.

At some point, she hires the Gullwings as spies to keep tabs on the Hollow Bastion Restoration Committee's activities. They continue working for her until they discover she retreated from a battle.

During the the Heartless invasion of Hollow Bastion, Maleficent tries to fight the Nobody forces with her own Heartless, but they are easily outmatched, and she sets them on Sora, Donald, and Goofy instead. Later, when Saïx reveals the Organization's goal to be Kingdom Hearts, she appears and stakes her own claim on Kingdom Hearts. She has her Heartless attack Saïx, only for them to be readily defeated by Dusks, then she attempts to hold off the Nobodies herself to let Sora and the others escape, demanding that they find a way to defeat the Organization for good. She is forced to retreat, but she opens a Corridor of Darkness underneath them, dropping them into the Realm of Darkness.

Maleficent and Pete inflitrate the Castle That Never Was while the Organization is dealing with Sora and the others, and Maleficent decides to take the castle for herself, despite Pete's misgivings. Later, as Sora and company are heading towards the final fight with Xemnas, Maleficent and Pete hold off an immense wave of Heartless to buy them time, although Maleficent points out that she will take the castle for her own afterwards.

Kingdom Hearts coded
Maleficent and Pete survive the destruction of the Castle that Never Was, and Maleficent returns to plotting her conquest of the worlds. She sends Pete to Disney Castle to spy on King Mickey, and when Data-Riku transports Mickey, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy Cricket into the datascape, Pete gets pulled in as well, appearing in a hub between the data worlds. He calls Maleficent, who uses her magic to enter as well. Despite her unfamiliarity with the concept of computers and computer data, she and Pete decide to conquer the data worlds, immersing them in darkness, and then use the link to the castle to overrun it with Heartless. She tasks Pete with interfering with the data worlds, and he cuts the link to the real world, trapping Mickey and the others.

After Data-Sora corners Pete in the digital version of Agrabah, Maleficent appears before him. Although she cannot differentiate between him and his real-world counterpart, she destroys his digital Keyblade, recognizing it as a fake. When Data-Riku tries to attack her, she subdues him and takes him along, saying he will be "useful". She and Pete corrupt Riku with Bug Blox, forcing him to fight Sora in the data Hollow Bastion. After Sora debugs Riku's data from within, Maleficent attempts to trap him by closing the connection to the outside. Sora escapes, however, and he defeats Maleficent in her dragon form. She disappears, vowing to conquer all worlds.

When the datascape begins to collapse, Jiminy remembers that Maleficent and Pete are still inside and are in danger of being deleted. Data-Sora goes after them, and he finds them in battle against the source of the bugs, Sora's Heartless. The Heartless's attack casts them into a rift in the data, but they are rescued by Data-Riku, who escorts them from the datascape.

When Data-Sora uses the Hollow Bastion World Card in the data version of Castle Oblivion, he encounters an illusion of Pete who summons a likewise-illusory Maleficent once he is defeated. She transports them to a room where Data-Sora must traverse a gauntlet of Bug Blox across bottomless gaps. They taunt Sora and disappear after he reaches them on the far side of the room.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
While Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are overseeing Sora and Riku's Mark of Mastery exam with Yen Sid, Maleficent and Pete invade Disney Castle and take Minnie hostage. Maleficent has her raven deliver a letter and Minnie's crown to Mickey at the Mysterious Tower, and he returns to the castle with Donald and Goofy to stop her. Yen Sid surmises that Maleficent's actions are prompted by the growing darkness throughout the worlds and considers it a sign of Master Xehanort's impending return.

At the castle, Maleficent reveals to Mickey about her meeting Master Xehanort years before and how he told her of other worlds and of seven hearts pure light that would enable her to rule all worlds. She then states her intentions to conquer the worlds her own way and demands the world data that comprises the datascape. When Mickey doesn't comply, she launches an attack, but it is blocked by Lea's chakrams, which emerge from a Corridor of Darkness. Minnie escapes from Pete in the confusion, and Maleficent retreats with him, stating that she will return, now that she know where to find what she wants.

Later, when Master Xehanort is revived as part of the true Organization XIII, he reveals that he manipulated her to get her to gather the seven hearts of pure light while he set about gathering thirteen of darkness, as part of his plan to create the χ-blade.

Kingdom Hearts V CAST
Maleficent appears in the non-canonical Kingdom Hearts V CAST. She is yet again a villain and serves as the main antagonist, her lair being the game's final level and featuring the toughest Heartless in the game.

Appearance
Fair and green-skinned, Maleficent's shining, yellow eyes are heavily shadowed with violet make-up, and her lips are painted red. Her head is topped with a black-horned headdress. Maleficent wears a long, tattered black robe with a purple trim and maroon edges which flare out. She carries a staff with a glowing green orb at the tip through which she casts her spells. In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Maleficent wears a golden ring with a circular black stone in it. This was in her original design in Sleeping Beauty, but was absent in Kingdom Hearts. In Dream Drop Distance it appears once again.

Personality
Maleficent is a scheming, manipulative and highly cunning sorceress, who seems utterly determined to take over the dominion of Kingdom Hearts. She is mostly seen in a cool, calculated manner, easily manipulating Riku into helping her aims, whilst she pretends to care for helping him find Kairi. In Kingdom Hearts II, she is highly vengeful towards Sora, because of him having destroyed her in Kingdom Hearts. She doesn't tolerate failure, as shown when she berates Pete for his attempt to take over Kingdom Hearts without her, saying to him "Mark my words, there'll be no place for you when our time comes. Useless imbecile!"

Despite this, she seems to tolerate the incompetent Pete as her helper. She is not without scruples, however, and has aided Sora on some occasions, yet, for her own evil reasons, saying to him at one point "Do not misunderstand me, I shall have revenge on you yet": indeed, by the time of Kingdom Hearts coded, she appears to have reverted to her evil self and is once again attempting to destroy Sora, albeit a digital version of him, but after she is rescued by Data-Riku, she stops her attempts to kill him (at least for the time being), telling Sora that they are "now even". In Dream Drop Distance, even though she does not encounter Sora, she again reverts to her evil ways and tries to take over the data world, but she is foiled by Mickey and Lea.

Another important aspect of her character, like most Disney villains, but exceptionally notable in her case, is her superiority complex. This is readily apparent in nearly every instance in Kingdom Hearts II whenever the subject of Nobodies and Organization XIII are brought up and when facing them personally, and this view of herself extends to any Heartless she commands, despite the all-too obvious difference in power and capabilities of Nobodies in general over the Heartless.

However her superiority complex is not entirely unfounded as she is easily one of the most powerful characters in the series, her magic rivaled only by Master Xehanort's. Thus, her views of the Organization as insignificant could be, to her, quite true. Ironically, the Organization seems to view her the same way that she views them; as a relatively insignificant threat, shown when Saïx calmly summons some Nobodies to destroy Maleficent's Heartless and smugly calls her a fool. In contrast to Pete, she possesses extreme and completely legitimate confidence, while her minion is a coward and doubts of their chances of winning.

Origin
Maleficent made her film debut in Disney's Sleeping Beauty. Appearing unexpectedly at Princess Aurora's birth ceremony, she was greatly angered upon not receiving an invitation to the occasion. Hiding this behind a calm demeanor, she then proceeds to give the infant a "gift" in the form of a curse, saying that she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday and die. King Stefan attempting to seize her at that moment, she escapes through her mastery over dark magic. Fearful for his daughter's life despite the fact that Merryweather's gift for the child will cause Aurora not to die but sleep should she prick her finger, King Stefan then issues a decree that all spinning wheels in the kingdom are to be burned. In a last attempt to delay Maleficent's curse and prevent Aurora from pricking her finger, the Three Good Fairies decide to take her into the woods to live and be raised as a peasant in an abandoned cottage once belonging to a woodcutter until after the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday. The fairies succeed in keeping the girl's location and identity a secret, and an enraged Maleficent sends her loyal raven Diablo to search for the girl, after her Goon minions fail her.

Diablo discovers Aurora's whereabouts, and Maleficent then lures the girl to a spinning wheel upon her return to King Stefan's castle. Aurora pricks her finger, and then Maleficent departs for the old woodcutter's cottage, aiming to capture the princess's betrothed, Prince Phillip, who intends to meet the peasant girl that was Aurora there. Capturing the prince, Maleficent then places him in her dungeon, intending to keep him there for 100 years. However, Prince Phillip escapes Maleficent's clutches with the help of Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, while the witch attempts to stop him from reaching Aurora's sleeping form and King Stefan's castle with a forest of thorns. As Phillip cuts through them, a desperate Maleficent appears before him. Transforming into a mighty dragon, she then engages the prince in a climatic battle. In the end, Maleficent is stabbed in the heart by the Sword of Truth, with Prince Phillip going on to awaken and marry Aurora.

Abilities


The most powerful of the Disney Villains, Maleficent is known to avoid physical attacks, using sorcery instead. She may wish for others to fight under her command instead, taking on the form of a monstrous dragon when situations look bleakest. It is her great rage and lust for power that grants her this ability.

D-Link
In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Maleficent becomes a Dimension Link for Terra. While using her Terra can use powerful dark magic attacks similar to Maleficent's. Maleficent's finishing attacks allow Terra to summon powerful lightning and fire magic to attack his enemies.

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