Ansem the Wise

Ansem the Wise, also known by his alias DiZ (Darkness in Zero), is the former ruler of Radiant Garden who spent much of his time in his study examining the mysteries of the heart.

As DiZ
"the entity shrouded in mystery."

As Ansem The Wise
"this man who called himself "DiZ" dressed his face in bandages to conceal, now to be revealed to be none other than Ansem The Wise.

''Ansem once studied Hearts and the Heartless, but soon ceased his research for fear of disrupting the order of the Worlds. But his apprentice Xehanort betrayed him robbing Ansem of his discovered revenge.''

Ansem was driven by vengeance-but when he saw Riku go so far as to give up his physical form to help his friend Sora, he had a change of heart."

A Grave Mistake
A decade before the main games, Ansem the Wise was the ruler of the Radiant Garden, as well as a prominent scientist. He was also the master of apprentice scientists Xehanort, Braig, Dilan, Even, Aeleus, and Ienzo before they became Nobodies.

The sage was also the one who found the young Xehanort, on the brink of death, in the aftermath of a great battle by those who used Keyblades to fight, and nursed him back to health. Though the man had no memory of what happened to him before arriving at Radiant Garden, he still possessed a remarkable intellect and an insatiable curiosity. Thus, he became Ansem the Wise's apprentice, joining the five others.

However, as the years grew, Ansem the Wise became worried that the darkness of people's hearts would one day swallow his beloved home. In order to understand and counter it, Ansem began conducting tests on Xehanort's heart. Ansem also hoped to unlock Xehanort's hidden memories, with his apprentice also showing interest. However, the more he probed, the more he became worried about Xehanort's well being and his possibly superhuman abilities.

Still, Ansem eventually constructed a large laboratory in the basement of his castle, encouraged by Ienzo. However, Ansem's six apprentices used the laboratory in order to conduct inhumane experiments on the human heart and the darkness within it. Ansem immediately ordered his apprentices to cease their experiments and sealed the chamber. Still, Ansem sank into despair over his error in experimenting on Xehanort. Gummi Ship travel was now possible, thanks to Xehanort opening the door in Ansem's basement, and a king of another world, King Mickey arrived. The two rulers became great friends, conversing over many subjects, and their companionship began to heal Ansem's heart. King Mickey eventually advised Ansem the Wise to review the research data; Ansem discovered the Ansem Reports, penned under his name, but written by Xehanort. Ansem began to see that the damage he had done had become irreversible.

Eventually and unfortunately, the six apprentices dabbled too deep into the darkness behind his back. They were consumed by it, with Xehanort producing his Heartless as well as his Nobody, Xemnas, the founder and leader of Organization XIII. The five other apprentices also produced powerful Nobodies, making the elder members of the Organization. Ansem, his mistakes catching up to him, was also plunged into a Realm of Nothingness, and became embittered by the betrayal of his apprentices.

A New Identity
For some time, Ansem remained in the empty realm, constantly writing in order to maintain his sanity. Here, he also discarded his old, stolen name, and became DiZ, Meaning "Darkness in Zero". Eventually, he found a way to escape when he gained the power of darkness, though he did not intend to let himself be consumed by it like his apprentices. With his newfound powers, DiZ also garbed himself in red robes and a mask made of red bandages in order to fully conceal his identity.

Using the corridors of darkness, DiZ found Twilight Town, and took refuge in an abandoned mansion on the outskirts of the town. There, he began researching the Nobodies and the Heartless, as well as watching Sora and King Mickey's efforts to defeat the Heartless from the sidelines.

Castle Oblivion
DiZ, hoping to gain revenge on Organization XIII, infiltrates the Organization's second base, Castle Oblivion. There, he monitors Sora and encounters Naminé. He also aids Riku in his quest to defeat his darkness, though not revealing his true identity for some time (instead, he took on the form of Xehanort's Heartless). DiZ also re-encounters King Mickey, but is privately saddened that he cannot talk to him like in the old days. Still, King Mickey begins to suspect DiZ's identity. Regardless of that, DiZ provides Riku and the King with Organization cloaks as well as the card that will draw out Xehanort's Heartless. Using it, Riku defeats Xehanort's Heartless, though a part of him still lingers in Riku's heart. He and King Mickey then set off, though DiZ appears to them at the crossroads in the grassy plain, asking which path they will take. Riku chooses the middle road, which DiZ refers to as the "twilight road to nightfall". However, Riku calls it the "road to dawn".

The Beginning of the End
DiZ soon returned to Naminé to aid her in the task to restore Sora's memories after they were broken apart in Castle Oblivion. Since the castle was still under control of the Organization, DiZ convinced Naminé to move Sora, Donald, and Goofy to his facility in Twilight Town. However, Sora was taking too long to awaken, and DiZ was soon noticed that Riku arrived with blindfold on, offering his aid to wake Sora. DiZ convinces a lone Riku to retrieve Roxas, Sora's Nobody. However, Riku had no choice but to take on the form of Xehanort's Heartless in order to fully utilize the power of darkness and defeat Roxas. DiZ, seeing Riku's (taking on the name Ansem) devotion to Sora, slowly began to lose his lust for revenge, hiding it behind laughter. Still, DiZ continued with the plan, placing Roxas into a digital facsimile of Twilight Town where he could live out his days until it was time for him to reunite with Sora.

In the events of Kingdom Hearts II, DiZ, Riku, and Naminé still co-operate with each other to restore Sora. However, Naminé begins reaching out towards Roxas, to DiZ's annoyance, while Riku only intends to stick around until Sora awakens. Nonetheless, Roxas fuses with Sora eventually, though Riku does not dispose of Naminé as DiZ had wanted. The three go on their separate paths, while Sora goes off on his journey. Unfortunately, Sora does not function the way DiZ wanted, and all of his plans fall apart. It becomes increasingly obvious to the former ruler that the heart is something he cannot truly understand.

At this point in the story, DiZ has clearly established prejudices against Nobodies. He, unlike Riku, has no pity for Roxas when they abduct him ("It's the fate of a Nobody"). Later, when Roxas demands answers to his questions, stating that he has a right to know, DiZ coldly says, "A Nobody doesn't have a right to know, nor does it even have a right to be", and tells Riku that he doesn't care what happens to Roxas as long as Naminé succeeds in restoring Sora, Donald, and Goofy. Similarly, he does not care what becomes of Naminé, and only keeps her around due to her usefulness, telling Riku that he can dispose of her once Sora's memories are completely restored. This prejudice is likely due to his hatred of his former apprentices and the Nobodies that they have become. Apparently, he disregards the fact that Roxas and Naminé are special Nobodies who are truly capable of feeling human emotions. However, as the storyline progresses, he begins to regret having mistreated Roxas and Naminé, realizing that they are different from the other Nobodies.

The World That Never Was
DiZ eventually infiltrates the Organization's home world, The World That Never Was. With Sora's strength of heart having obliterated DiZ's plans, he takes it upon himself to stop Xemnas by using a machine to digitally encode Kingdom Hearts, which Xemnas had been feeding human hearts in order to eventually extract its power to become whole. However, as he climbs the Nobody's headquarters, he is attacked by Nobodies, though he is saved by his old friend King Mickey. Seeing no more reason to hide his identity, DiZ unmasks himself. King Mickey asks Ansem why he didn't come to him before, but Ansem feels that the task of defeating Organization XIII was his. He also explains to King Mickey his part in causing Riku to take on his dark form, and the regrets he had concealed with his true identity. He and King Mickey then set off to seal away Kingdom Hearts.

Ansem the Wise, finding a good spot, begins encoding Kingdom Hearts, but sees that the power of Kingdom Hearts is too great to be controlled, adding insult to his realization of the heart's unpredictable true nature. The machine begins to overload, and Ansem does his best to contain it, but to little avail. Sora, Riku, and their companions, as well as Xemnas, all arrive at Ansem's location. Ansem throws bitter words and accusations at Xemnas, though Xemnas simply retorts that Ansem himself was the reason for the destruction wrought on the worlds. Ansem, though he knows his errors, says that both he and his former apprentices know as little about the heart as they did ten years ago. The machine then goes critical, only moments away from exploding. Ansem takes the time to give King Mickey and Riku final words, tells Sora that the rest is up to him, and then sincerely apologizes to Roxas for all that he had put him through (though he does not know if Roxas could hear him). It is at this point that his prejudice against Nobodies has excluded Roxas and, possibly, Naminé. The machine then explodes, killing Ansem. But his death is not in vain, as the explosion completely purifies Riku of the presence of Xehanort's Heartless and undoes the majority of the Organization's work on Kingdom Hearts,

Trivia

 * Genzo Wakayama, Ansem's Japanese seiyuu, also voiced another Disney owned character: Zeus, from the 1997 film Hercules.


 * Christopher Lee, Ansem's English voice actor, is a veteran actor with a reputation gained over many decades, and famous for dozens of roles, the most-well known are of his incarnation of Dracula, the Sith Lord Darth Tyranus from the Star Wars Prequel trilogy and Saruman from the Lord of the Rings trilogy, to name a few. This is one of the few roles in which he did not portray a villain.


 * Christopher Lee previously worked for Disney, playing the villain Dr. Victor Gannon in Return from Witch Mountain (1978).


 * It is interesting to note that Ansem is DiZ and has a thick blonde beard that reaches his bottom lip. However in the close ups of DiZ in Kingdom Hearts 2, he has his mouth and part of his chin exposed and there is no sign of a beard (even though Ansem's beard touches his bottom lip), and he has dark skin and red eyes, much like Xehanort's Heartless, that are visible through the gaps in the bandages.  This may be a small error to throw off speculation that Ansem the Wise is DiZ.


 * Ansem is one of the only friendly human character in the series to die on-screen.


 * Before Ansem's identity was revealed, fans speculated that DiZ was Xehanort's Heartless or Xehanort's Nobody


 * Ansem the Wise's name is also an anagram. When the letters are rearranged, you get the word "names," perhaps hinting towards his connection with DiZ and Xehanort's heartless.


 * Prior to Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories's American release, Derek Stephen Prince confirmed on his blog that Christopher Lee would reprise his role as DiZ, but Corey Burton replaced him on the release date. The reasons why Lee couldn't return are still unexplained.


 * Since Ansem is the ruler of Radiant Garden, the world that Kairi hailed from, he could very well be Kairi's grandfather, effectively making her a princess.


 * Ansem could reappear in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep''.