Maleficent

Maleficent is a villain in all three Kingdom Hearts games, the evil sorceress from Sleeping Beauty.

In Kingdom Hearts
Maleficent masterminded behind the council of evil Disney characters seen numerous times in Kingdom Hearts such as Hades, Captain Hook, Oogie Boogie, Ursula, and Jafar. Pete, as her then unseen henchman, had helped assembly this group and was off building an army of heartless for her. Acting as a guide, Maleficent warned each of her followers that they should be wary of the darkness. She led this group in pursuit of ultimate power by controlling the heartless and unlocking the Keyhole that leads to Kingdom Hearts, the heart of all worlds.

She uses Hollow Bastion, the former home of Ansem the Wise, as a base of operations where she directs the affairs of the group. She uses Ansem's report to help her control the heartless and recruits Riku, Sora's best friend. Seeing how Riku is powerful enough to use the keyblade, Maleficent starts corrupting Riku's heart to turn him against Sora.

Maleficent eventually tells Riku her plans to find Kingdom Hearts. There are seven Princesses of pure heart who hold the key to opening up the final keyhole that leads to Kingdom Hearts. All of them must be gathered, their power controlled and neutralized, and used to open the keyhole. Kairi is one of them and Maleficent uses Riku's relationship with her to further coax him to join her and the other Disney villains. Maleficent lied to Riku though, telling him she'll help Kairi get her heart back once they find Kingdom Hearts. She had no intention of doing so and only wanted the power of Kingdom Hearts.

One by one, each of the Disney villains failed to listen to her and each met their demise at the end of Sora's Keyblade (with the exception of Pete, her loyalest co-conspirator, the immortal Hades and Captain Hook who fled). Her knowledge and control of the powers of darkness had enabled her to control the Heartless, or so it seemed. Unbeknownst to Maleficent, the Heartless were simply using her to reveal the keyhole in Hollow Bastion, and in the meantime were eating away at her heart.Maleficent eventually confronts Sora and she uses all her Dark Magic in an attempt to defeat him. Sora defeats her and Maleficent runs away.When Riku unlocked her heart, the darkness seeped into it, somewhat healing her wounds obtained when Sora battled her in the keep of Hollow Bastion.

Maleficent turned into a dragon (whether or not she could do it at will as in Sleeping Beauty is unknown), but the darkness did not see her through. When Sora defeated her for the second time, the darkness ate her heart and she faded away into darkness.

By defeating Maleficent, Sora obtains the fifth page of Ansem's Report, and Sora learns the Cheer ability. Defeating Dragon Maleficent rewards Sora with the Fireglow, which unlocks the ability to summon Mushu if taken to the Fairy Godmother.

Stats

 * Maleficent
 * HP: 900
 * Attack: 31
 * Defense: 24
 * MP Recovery: 47
 * Experience Points: 6,000
 * Ability Resistance:
 * Fire efficiency is reduced to 49%
 * Blizzard efficiency is reduced to 50%
 * Gravity efficiency is reduced to 2%
 * Stop efficiency is reduced to 20%
 * Abilities that knock out the opponent have an efficiency of 50%
 * Other Abilities have an efficiency of 50%
 * Maleficent's Platform
 * HP: 120
 * Experience Points: 0
 * Dragon Maleficent
 * HP: 1200
 * Attack: 31
 * Defense: 24
 * MP Recovery: 48
 * Experience Points: 6,000
 * Ability Resistance:
 * Fire efficiency is reduced to 49%
 * Blizzard efficiency is reduced to 50%
 * Gravity efficiency is reduced to 4%
 * Stop efficiency is reduced to 20%
 * Abilities that knock out the opponent have an efficiency of 50%
 * Other Abilities have an efficiency of 50%

In Chain of Memories'
Maleficent appears to Riku as a memory-based illusion in Castle Oblivion. She is one of only two characters, along with Aerith in Sora's game, to realize that she is not real. She mocks her old student, and how he once clung to her and the darkness, before he stands up to her and kills her.

In Kingdom Hearts II
Maleficent reappears in Kingdom Hearts II, in which she poses as a minor villain but she still plots against Sora and the others. Her raven, Diablo, brings her empty robe to Yen Sid's tower, and the memories of Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather bring her back to life. In Kingdom Hearts: Another Report, it is hinted that Organization XIII is responsible for her return.

Xemnas once sent Axel and Roxas to Hollow Bastion to wipe out heartless and release a raven from a cage suspended from the ceiling. It is heavily suggested that this crow is Diablo and was released to revive Maleficent. The Organization may have planned to use her to create more heartless for their plans. Like in Kingdom Hearts, she attempts to control the Heartless to locate Kingdom Hearts. However, she now competes with Organization XIII for supreme power and considers the group and Nobodies in general as vastly inferior to her and HER Heartless, obviously deluding herself.

Maleficent, with the help of her only loyal follower remaining, Pete, goes from world to world reviving her other followers and building an army of Heartless. Although only Oogie Boogie is witnessed being revived, it may be guessed that she is also responsible for the return of Ursula and for Scar and Shan Yu using Heartless.

Maleficent reveals herself to Sora and his friends at Disney Castle when she tries to fill the Hall of the Cornerstone with Darkness in order to take over the Castle and make her new base of operations. Maleficent is defeated however by Sora when he and his friends go back in time and stop Pete from destroying the Cornerstone of Light. Maleficent appears in Holloween Town and tries to destroy Christmas town by resurrecting Oogie Boogie but his memory loss causes him to drive her away and Sora defeats Oogie Boogie. She then appears in Hollow Bastion during its invasion by Heartless, holding off the Nobodies so that Sora may escape and devise a way to defeat Organization XIII.

She last appears in The World That Never Was, aiding Sora once more by fending off an immense wave of Heartless with the help of Pete while he defeats Xemnas, though she claims that she will take the castle for her own afterwards. Her ultimate fate is unknown.

Trivia

 * According to Jiminy Cricket, Maleficent was personally responsible for the destruction of her world and for the capture of Princess Aurora. Maleficent is probably also responsible for the capture of Belle, Snow White, and Cinderella.
 * In the English versions in the three games, Maleficent is voiced by Susan Blakeslee. Susan Blakeslee also did the voice of Lady Tremaine in Cinderella 2 and Cinderella 3.  This may or may not be coincidental, as Maleficent and Lady Tremaine were also both voiced by the same person (in this case Eleanor Audley) in Sleeping Beauty and Cinderella respectively.

Cinematics

 * "Have you ever heard of Christmas Town?"
 * "What are you prattling on about? Kingdom Hearts belongs to me! The Heart of all Kingdoms! The Heart of all that lives! Any dominion fit to be called Kingdom Hearts must by my dominion!"
 * "I do not take orders from you!"
 * "Why Pete, this castle is perfect! Perhaps we should...aquire it?"
 * "Once again, you underestimate me."

During Battle

 * "Powers of evil, unleash thy fury!"

=See Also=
 * Hollow Bastion
 * Flora
 * Fauna
 * Merryweather