Roxas

Roxas is Sora's Nobody (his name is an anagram of Sora with the letter X added.) and the newest, not to mention youngest member of Organization XIII, and bears the title "Key of Destiny". He is also the mysterious hooded figure in Another Side, Another Story as well as in Deep Dive.

The new game, Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Roxas will be the main character.

Ven, a character in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, has an uncanny resemblence to Roxas.

Birth
As stated in the Secret Ansem Reports, Roxas was born when Sora stabbed himself with the Keyblade forged from the hearts of six of the seven Princesses of Heart in order to free Kairi's heart at the cost of his own. But Sora's time as a Heartless was short, as Kairi's light had fetched Sora's heart from the darkness, restoring him to his former self. Thus, Sora and Roxas co-existed, but Roxas would be without his true memories, and the two were incomplete without one another. Even so, Roxas' status as Sora's Nobody granted him the ability to use the Keyblade. This, along with his emotions, make Roxas a very unusual Nobody.

Time in the Organization
Roxas, having been born in Twilight Town, is soon discovered by Xemnas, and is given his name. Having nowhere else to go, Roxas joins the Organization in hopes of finding the answers he needed. On that same day, Roxas meets Axel, and the two soon become best friends.

Even so, Roxas is growing increasingly impatient for the truth about himself, even as he uses the Keyblade (though he does not know why he can wield it) to bring the Organization closer to their goal of attaining Kingdom Hearts.

Eventually, Roxas becomes fed up with recurring dreams of Sora, the other self he didn't know, eventually deciding to leave the Organization to find Sora and know who these people he didn't know were. Axel, who knew Sora's whereabouts at the time, intercepts Roxas and tries to convince Roxas not to go through with it, warning him that the Organization would destroy him if he betrayed them. However, Roxas remains indifferent, and continues on, leaving a dejected Axel behind.

Capture
Roxas, having just left the Organization to seek out Sora and find out why he has keyblades, is attacked at Memory's Skyscraper, by countless Neoshadow Heartless, which surround him. Roxas draws out his Keyblades, ready to defend himself. But, after slaying a good few Heartless, realizes there are too many Heartless to fight alone. He looks to the skyscraper and notices Riku at the top. Roxas runs up the wall of Memory's Skyscraper, with many Neoshadows pursuing him. He tosses Riku his Oblivion Keyblade to weild, and the two fend off the Heartless together but as soon as that threat is gone, they turn on each other. As they battle, Riku questions why Roxas has the Keyblade, but Roxas only demands he "Shut up!". Though Riku managed to take him down, Roxas gets back up and slashes at Riku. Riku then realizes that he must use the power of darkness if he is to defeat Roxas. Riku clads himself in darkness and takes on the form of Ansem (Xehanort's Heartless) to use the power of darkness. With his newfound strength, Riku is able to summon the powerful guardian and knock Roxas unconscious. Ansem the Wise then opened up a portal to the old mansion in Twilight Town, where Roxas came into being and where DiZ resides. DiZ's intention is to join Sora and Roxas together, so Sora would be complete once more while he is regaining his memories. However, he knows the Organization will hunt fervently for their missing member, so DiZ places him in a digital copy of Twilight Town. There, Roxas would be kept safely away from the Organization while he himself lives unaware of his nature as a Nobody until the time is right.

Digital Twilight Town


For some time, Roxas lives a normal life in the digital Twilight Town, becoming best friends with three kids: Hayner, Pence, and Olette. It is this time in the digital Twilight Town that serves as the prologue to Kingdom Hearts II. But soon, he begins experiencing dreams of Sora through a number of scratchy videotapes, and mysterious events start to pop up around town. Strange white creatures, the Nobodies, start popping up around town, stealing photographs and attacking Roxas for no reason. However, whenever danger rears its head, the Keyblade(a single kingdom key this time) inexplicably comes to aid him, and disappears once the threat is gone.

Along with the Nobodies, Roxas comes into contact with Naminé several times, seeming to know things about Roxas that he himself doesn't. Their meeting in turn brings Roxas into contact with Kairi, who Roxas knows has a close connection with Sora. He also meets a mysterious man in a black cloak, who at one point asks a cryptic question: "Can you feel Sora"? He also meets another mysterious figure masked in red bandages, DiZ who is responsible for the videotapes of Sora's first adventure. Though these three's intentions are not known, one person named Axel, claiming that he knows Roxas, arrives, and has more clear intentions: he wants to bring Roxas back with him to the Organization's stronghold, though he's not afraid to defeat the young boy to accomplish his goal. He battles Roxas but only DiZ's timely aid spares Roxas from defeat.

In addition to these mysterious people, Roxas also begins to see strange anomalies. Time often freezes, and only he and select people seem to be unaffected. He also sees strange "glitches" around town that he cannot explain. For some time, Roxas continues to be befuddled by all these events.

That all changed when summer vacation came to a close, and the truth was revealed: Roxas learned that he is a Nobody from Naminé, and that he is supposed to meet with Sora, the one from his dreams, in order to complete him. Along with that, Roxas discovered that he was living in a digital Twilight Town, and that his friends weren't real, just data. He encounteds Axel once again, who had been ordered to eliminate Roxas if he refused to return, but DiZ managed to freeze Axel in his tracks, along with the rest of the world, thus saving Roxas; then DiZ told him to go to the haunted mansion. He does so, and there he encounters Naminé, who reveals information on Organization XIII. However, she is interrupted by DiZ, but before she is taken away, she promises him that they will meet again, even if they do not recognize each other. Desiring to see Sora, Roxas makes his way through the mansion and begins to recall his former life. In doing so he realizes that he had been captured and placed into the digital world by DiZ and the mysterious cloaked man. Roxas then destroyes DiZ's computer in anger, even though it was just a digital copy.

Roxas then meets Axel one last time, but his best friend only has the intention of following out on his orders. The two battle once more, but this time Roxas is able to call on all of his dormant abilities, including summoning his two weapons: Oathkeeper and Oblivion, and soundly defeats his old friend, though with great regret. Roxas hopes that they will meet again, though Axel chuckles and responds that only Roxas has a next life, and then retreats into the darkness. Roxas then enters the pod room where Sora is kept, but not before seeing Donald Duck and Goofy slumbering in their own pods but there is no time to free them. DiZ is there to greet him, revealing his intentions and fueling Roxas' rage with cutting remarks about Roxas' purpose and nature.

Roxas, in his anger, tries to cut down DiZ, but sees that this DiZ is only a hologram. It vanishes, and the pod in the center of the room opens. All his anger drains away when he frees Sora slumbering in the pod. With a sad smile, he remarks that his "summer vacation...is over". At this point, the prologue ends.

Resting and Hints
Roxas, though he does not truly appear to Sora throughout most of the game, is frequently mentioned. Most of the Organization members call Sora "Roxas", confusing and frustrating him. Roxas himself manages to maintain a presence within Sora despite "resting". The first time this is hinted is when Sora departs from Twilight Town for the first time, saying goodbye to Hayner, Pence, and Olette. To his surprise, a tear rolls down his eye, expressing Roxas' own sadness in separating from his friends. And even they feel a certain connection to Sora, though they had never met before.

During the second visit to Twilight Town, Roxas' presence within Sora is again apparent. As Sora looks through the crystal orb and at the orange sun, he can subconsciously feel Roxas within him. Then while Sora, Donald, and Goofy's brief stay in a realm of nothingness, Riku leaves two clues for them, one of which is a picture from the digital Twilight Town, which shows Roxas, Hayner, Pence, and Olette standing in front of the abandoned mansion. Despite Sora having never seen Roxas before, he immediately knows that the name of the boy in the picture is Roxas.

Finally, a dying Axel reveals his intent to Sora and his relation to Roxas before fading into nothingness. His death, as Xenmas said, was strong enough to finally awaken Roxas at last.

Encounter
The hints of Roxas' presence within Sora come to a climax in the World That Never Was. At Memory's Skyscraper, two Samurai Nobodies arrive and block Sora from Donald and Goofy. Then, Roxas, shrouded in an Organization cloak, confronts Sora, summoning a Keyblade (much to Sora's surprise). The two are transported to the Station of Serenity, and they share an intense battle. During their fight, Roxas says that he is someone from the dark, and Sora wonders if he is Riku. His guess is incorrect, and Roxas says that he had defeated a Riku once. He also asks a strange question: "Tell me...Tell me why he picked you!", and attacks Sora in a rage. At one point, Roxas floats from above, and sees the images of Riku, Kairi, Donald, and Goofy next to Sora, and finally understands. Still, Roxas continues to attack, and is able to knock the keyblade out of Sora's hands. But Sora defeats him in the end, after he surprises Roxas when the keyblade comes back to him. A wounded Roxas drops his weapons, remembers the events after his "birth", and drops his hood, revealing his face. He turns to Sora with a smile and says "You make a good other".

Sora returns to the World That Never Was, asking his companions about the mysterious Keyblade wielding Nobody, but Donald and Goofy say that they saw no one other than themselves, and Sora had just disappeared, leaving them to fight some Nobodies. Sora is confused, but continues on.

As Sora makes his way up the Organization's stronghold, the Organization members, before being cut down one by one, make more and more confusing remarks about Roxas. After Saïx is defeated, Sora asks why the Organization calls him "Roxas", and Riku reveals that Roxas is his Nobody, which gives him the power to use the Keyblade. He also explains that Roxas left the Organization, and Riku tried to bring him to DiZ, but was defeated. But the next time, Riku had taken on the form of Xehanort's Heartless and used the darkness as a weapon, and managed to bring Roxas back so that he may join with Sora in order to awaken him from his sleep. However, Riku realizes that Roxas had left in the first place because he wanted to meet Sora in the first place, and thus didn't have to fight him. Sora sadly expresses that he wants to meet Roxas as well, but Riku points out that Roxas rests within him. On their way to fight Xemnas, DiZ(Ansem) apologizes to Roxas for his treatment, though he didn't know whether or not he could hear him.

After Xemnas' seeming defeat, Roxas and Naminé reunite, with Roxas projecting himself through Sora before Naminé joins with Kairi. They are happy that they met again, and say that unlike other Nobodies, they got to meet their original selves and become whole. Finally, Roxas and Naminé believe that as long as Sora and Kairi are together, so will they, and accept their place within Sora and Kairi.

Roxas and Naminé are seen one last time, when Sora and Riku return to Destiny Islands. As Sora and Kairi reunite, they smile at each other, while Roxas and Naminé do the same.

Personality
Roxas, unlike other Nobodies, seems to possess real emotions, stemming from the fact that he is a special Nobody. He is far more prone to anger than Sora, whom he expressed some hatred for being compared to him early due to their relation, which DiZ notes with amusement in their encounter. On the other hand, Roxas tends to be ironically melancholy and stoic, especially as he comes to realize the truth about himself. In other words, while Sora represents the balance of his own personality, his Nobody represents the extremes of it.



Battle technique and weaponry
In battle Roxas wields two Keyblades, the Oathkeeper and Oblivion. He controls the element of light and the Samurai Nobodies. Although it would normally be impossible for a Nobody to wield a Keyblade, Roxas, as the Nobody of the chosen wielder, Sora, can wield them. Of course, as the Heartless use the Keyblades as a homing signal, he is constantly under attack by them when not under the protection of Organization XIII, though they do not seek out his heart, unlike Sora. However, as the Organization's goal is to gather as many hearts as possible by the Keyblade extracting them from Heartless, Roxas's inclusion to the Organization is actually the group's saving grace and thus harassing Sora was no longer necessary. At least not until Roxas deserted the Organzation.

When he attacks with his full power and the element of Light, Roxas becomes a much more dangerous foe. He can glide at fast speeds, so fast in fact that he leaves behind a lens flare, and control thirteen sword-shaped shields of light energy which can connect to form a laser array. He can levitate the keyblades in the air and whirl and spin them rapidly, showing a great deal of proficiency and skill with the blades, and can also counter any extended combo a more powerful one of his own, even creating a ring of damage just by twirling them in a circle. His special attack involves him floating in the air and shooting his thirteen light shields around the arena, which then light it up in a thick twilight mist as Roxas begins shooting blue spheres of light at his opponent from energy gathered in his hands. He'll often attack rapidly from side-to-side, confusing the opponent, leaving a trail of light behind him. He can also perform the Duel Bout technique (similar to his Samurai Nobodies) where he rushes at his opponent and slashes at them quicker than the blink of an eye, causing intense damage if not repelled, the twist is that Sora can utilize Roxas' keyblades if he does repel the attack. However, when Sora steals Roxas' keyblades, Roxas resorts to utilizing his light sheilds to full effect, before moving in to steal his keyblades back from Sora.

In comparison to Sora, Roxas seems to have a far more aggressive style: he is constantly on the offensive, and abandons any defensive moves he had previously used, such as the Guard technique, in favour of speed and strength. Roxas' power is relatively the same as Sora's was during his first time in Hollow Bastion; superior to Axel but below Xemnas. When he fuses with Sora, his power skyrockets (as well as Sora as they benefit from each other) and they become equal. This gives birth to Sora's ultimate Drive Form, the Final Form.

In essence, Roxas' techniques are his own unique versions of certain moves of the five Drive Forms of Sora.

In Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+, after you defeat Roxas, you obtain a special keyblade modeled after himself, Two Across Keyblade.

Battle Quotes

 * "Take that!"
 * "Come on!"

Trivia

 * Roxas's theme is simply named "Roxas", however, when you fight him, a slightly fast-paced, version called "The Other Promise" is played.
 * In the Japanese version, Roxas was voiced by Kōki Uchiyama in his debut role as a seiyuu, later voicing Neku Sakuraba in "It's A Wonderful World" and Jake Long in the japanese dub of American Dragon Jake Long. He will voice Roxas's lookalike, Ven, as well as reprise his role as Roxas in two of the three new Kingdom Hearts games, Birth by Sleep and 358/2 Days, respectively. In the English and Final Mix+ versions, Roxas is voiced by popular teen singer Jesse McCartney.
 * Roxas wields Oathkeeper and Oblivion even before Sora does. Why this is so remains unknown, though some assume that the two are a representation of Sora's friends; Oathkeeper symbolising Kairi, and Oblivion standing for Riku.

Video
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Roxas: Birth & Naming Ceremony (Final Mix+)