Belle

Belle is one of the Princesses of Heart who appeared in , Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, and Kingdom Hearts II. She is originally from the Disney animated film .

Kingdom Hearts χ
Belle appears in the Book of Prophecies.

When her father Maurice falls ill, the Beast allows Belle to leave the castle so she can help him. They are ambushed by Rabid Dog Heartless, but Player rescues them. Belle asks Player to return to Beast as she accompanies Maurice home.

After Belle and Maurice learn that Gaston seeks to slay the Beast, they return to the castle to aid the latter. However, Gaston notices them while attacking Beast, who is refusing to fight back, and summons the Enraged Elk Heartless to attack them. Player has Belle and Maurice proceed forward, staying behind to defeat the Heartless. After the death of Gaston and the Beast has regained his human appearance, he and Belle dance in the ballroom as Maurice watches.

Kingdom Hearts
When Sora is in his Dive to the Heart, he sees a stained-glass likeness of her depicted on top of a yellow-colored pillar. She is asleep, with the Beast standing awake behind her.

Belle has been living somewhat happily at the Beast's Castle, becoming closer to the Beast everyday, despite his hideous form and uneven temperament. One day, however, Belle is kidnapped by Maleficent as part of the plot to obtain Kingdom Hearts. The Heartless consume her world, causing all of its enchanted inhabitants to disappear into darkness. The Beast manages to survive the destruction of his world and pursues Belle, using a Corridors of Darkness to reach her at Hollow Bastion.

Maleficent puts Belle into an enchanted sleep and places her in an upstanding glass case alongside the other Princesses of Heart in the Great Hall of the castle. She then uses all of the Princesses' hearts to open the Final Keyhole. At the same time, the Beast witnesses a vision of Belle transforming into a Heartless, although this is not what actually occurred, as the princesses lack darkness in their hearts, and cannot become Heartless.

Belle's heart is later restored by the bravery of Sora, and she is released from her captivity. She separates from her fellow princesses and, due to her passion for books, goes to Hollow Bastion's library in search of ways to stop the darkness. Happily reunited with the Beast at last, she explains as best she could to Sora what has occurred in Hollow Bastion during his brief departure, and then gives him the Divine Rose Keychain. When Sora finally seals Kingdom Hearts, Belle and the Beast return home together after their world is restored.

Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories
Sora, Donald, and Goofy enter Sora's memories of Hollow Bastion through Castle Oblivion only to find Belle and the Beast in a heated argument near Hollow Bastion's entrance. The Beast attempts to explain to Belle that he has come from very far to rescue her from Maleficent, but Belle insists that the Beast leave as she has no interest in talking to him. She eventually retreats to Hollow Bastion's library, leaving the Beast in depressed confusion.

Sora and his friends later find Belle in the library, and attempt to understand her oddly cold attitude towards the Beast. However, before she could explain, Maleficent enters and demands that Belle call the Beast. When she refuses to do so, Maleficent transports herself and Belle to a different area of the castle.

Belle continues to refuse Maleficent's demands, even under the threat of torture. Sora arrives just in time, as does the Beast. Belle continues her increasingly rude attitude towards the Beast upon seeing him, prompting the Beast to pour out his true feelings for her. Maleficent then threatens to steal the Beast's heart, which he has shown to be rich and vulnerable when explaining his love for Belle. As Maleficent attempts to take the Beast's heart, Belle sacrifices herself to save him.

Maleficent later reveals to the Beast, Sora, Donald, and Goofy that Belle had been purposefully shunning the Beast in an attempt to prevent herself from exposing his heart for Maleficent to use for dark magic. After Sora defeats Maleficent, Belle is returned to her physical state with her heart intact. She quickly apologizes for her actions, and the Beast forgives her, knowing that they were not her true feelings.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
After Sora restores the worlds taken by the Heartless, Belle and the Beast return to Beast's Castle safe and sound and are trying to forget everything that happened. However, the Heartless keep appearing, to the Beast's annoyance and anger. When Xaldin from Organization XIII takes interest in the Beast's heart, their peaceful days are troubled. Xaldin begins to investigate the world and its residents, formulating plans to be carried out at a later time.

Around this time, Belle released her pure light, passing on her position as a Princess of Heart to one of the New Seven Hearts.

Kingdom Hearts II
A year after Sora seals the Door to Darkness, Belle and the Beast attempt to return to their normal lives at the Beast's Castle. However, the peace is soon disrupted by Xaldin. Xaldin begins playing on the Beast's anger, attempting to enrage him to the point that his heart would be drenched in darkness, thus spawning an extremely powerful Heartless and Nobody variation of the Beast for the Organization to use. In an attempt to keep them safe, the Beast forces the majority of his servants into the castle's dungeon. Belle, not knowing what to do and fearing the Beast's sudden surge of rage, hides in her room in fear. She is overjoyed when Sora, Donald and Goofy happen to drop by, to the point that she pulls Donald into a hug.

Once Sora freed the servants from the dungeon and utilized their aid to make the Beast calm down, the Beast realizes he had been rude to Belle in his blind rage. Hoping to apologize, he heads off with Sora to find her, only to hear her muffled voice in the castle's ballroom. Belle has taken it upon herself to confront Xaldin on her own, warning him to leave the Beast alone. Xaldin uses his influence of the darkness to set a Shadow Stalker on Belle. She manages to evade it, escaping to the ballroom's balcony. After the creature was defeated, the Beast apologizes to Belle, who accepts his kind words but reprimands him for not trusting her.

The DTD dataspace in Space Paranoids is sealed with a password composed of the seven Princesses' names: "Belle, Snow White, Aurora, Alice, Jasmine, Cinderella, Kairi".

Sora later returns to Beast's Castle to find Belle and the Beast in the middle of a date. As the couple begin a romantic dance in the ballroom, Xaldin interrupts the celebration, much to Belle's displeasure. She is forced to briefly retreat as Xaldin sent a horde of Nobodies after Sora and the Beast. When the enemies are defeated, Belle returns only to find the Beast in great distress about his enchanted rose. Following him upstairs, she pleads with the Beast to explain what was wrong, but the Beast's frustration simply leads him to order Belle and Sora to leave the castle.

Belle retreats to her room in despair, eventually going out to the balcony to mull things over. When she later spots the Beast, Sora, Goofy, and Donald emerging into the castle courtyard, she heads back inside, but then spots the rose sitting near the door. Happily showing off the rose to her companions below, she soon realizes the whole thing was a setup as Xaldin grabs her from behind and flies her to the bridge outside the Beast's Castle. As Xaldin offers the Beast a choice between Belle or the rose, Belle elbows the Organization XIII member hard in the stomach and, smiling to herself, runs back to the castle clutching the rose in its bell jar.

Once the Beast and Sora defeat Xaldin, Belle gladly returns the rose to the Beast. He then nervously asks her to stay with him in his castle, to which she happily agrees, and they dance.

After Sora and Riku return to Destiny Islands, Belle dances with the Beast, who has transformed back into a human.

Design
In Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Belle only appears in her yellow ball gown, which is her famous attire that she wore during her dance with the Beast in the film. When in this dress, Belle styles her hair slightly differently, pulling it further up on her head.

In Kingdom Hearts II, she wears her common clothes most of the time. Belle lets her hair down, but ties it back with a blue bow that matches her dress. She also wears a white shirt, a white apron and black shoes. She can often be spotted with a book in hand. Her everyday look was inspired by Julie Andrews' appearance in The Sound of Music.

Oddly, in her stained-glass likeness, her hair has much more red coloring than her normal hair color.

Personality
Belle is a strong-willed and independent woman. This independent nature, drawing close to rebelliousness, is her defining trait. It is also prone to lead her into trouble, such as being captured upon confronting Xaldin. Belle has an innate sense of caring and compassion, constantly holding the well-being of others over herself. It is this genuine compassion which leads to her falling in love with the Beast. Belle also has a great affinity for books, which allows her to soak up knowledge quickly.

Abilities
Because Belle is a Princess of Heart, she has many special abilities that are heightened or activated when she is joined with the other princesses:
 * Her main power is to use her heart to open the Final Keyhole to Kingdom Hearts, which can only be opened when she is gathered with the other six princesses.
 * In this exclusive group, her heart can also be used to create the Keyblade of heart and enable the bearer to unlock anyone's heart.
 * Also, as her heart only contains pure light, she can fight back the darkness (she can perform this task alone, but it has stronger effects when she is with the other princesses).
 * When Jasmine, Alice, Snow White, Cinderella and Aurora upgraded Sora's Fire spell, she was absent; however, it is assumed that she has the power to upgrade people's powers as well, as Princesses of Heart possess the same powers.
 * She and her fellow princesses also have a sixth sense to locate darkness, as shown when Alice, Aurora, Jasmine, Snow White and Cinderella tell Sora of a great darkness approaching.

Origin
Belle first appears in Walt Disney's film. Belle's character has appeared in various incarnations of the Beauty and the Beast story throughout history, but her Disney counterpart is mainly based on the character of Beauty in Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont's La Belle et la Bête, which was published in 1756.

In the film, she gives up her freedom to the Beast so that he will release her father, Maurice. Initially, things are bleak between Belle and the Beast, although the servants, particularly Lumière, attempt to make her feel at home. Belle and the Beast begin to develop a friendship after the Beast saves her from a pack of wolves in the woods outside the castle, and eventually they fall in love, but Belle briefly leaves to find Maurice, who was searching for her. When Gaston, a rival suitor, orders an attack on the castle to kill the Beast (out of jealousy), Belle rushes to save her love and at the crucial moment, chooses to save the Beast rather than Gaston, who falls to his death. Belle's love for the Beast transforms him back into the Prince and they hold a ball to celebrate.

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