Naminé

Naminé is the Nobody of Kairi, and wields the power to manipulate the memories of Sora and those close to him. Her first appearance is in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. The nami of her name means "ocean wave" in Japanese.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
A young witch who, under orders from Marluxia, rewrote much of Sora's memory.

Because Naminé based the false memories on Sora's feelings toward Kairi, Sora believed he and Naminé had been friends since childhood.

But truth be told, the two had never met before Castle Oblivion.


 * Reverse/Rebirth

A young witch who can manipulate memories.

''Under orders from the Organization, Naminé shadowed Kairi and altered Sora`s memory. But the forgiveness in Sora`s heart moved her to disobey those orders.''

Now she watches over Sora until the reconstruction of his memories is complete.

Kingdom Hearts II
A girl with the power to manipulate memories.

She seems to have some strong connection to Sora.

Birth
Naminé was born when Sora stabbed himself with Ansem's artificial Keyblade in order to restore Kairi near the end of Kingdom Hearts. This made Naminé a very odd Nobody, born from Kairi's heart and Sora's body and soul. Kairi's own body never became a Nobody because her heart lacked darkness (since she was one of the Princesses of Heart), so her body and soul were never able to leave the Realm of Light and thus made it seem like Kairi was in a comatose state until she regained her heart. However, this means that Naminé was also born without Kairi's memories, only furthering her status as an unusual entity, and she and Kairi are incomplete without each other. And because of the fact that Naminé is formed from Sora's body, she has the power to manipulate his memories as well as the memories of those who are connected to him, prompting several others, even herself, to call her a "witch". She came into being at Castle Oblivion, found by Organization XIII.

Ansem the Wise has stated in Report 9 of the Secret Ansem Reports that Naminé is not a true Nobody. It is unknown if this was his opinion (as Nobodies generally remember their past life) or a fact.

Castle Oblivion
Naminé, having become a captive of the Organization, resides in the upper floors of Castle Oblivion. When Sora is led into the castle, Naminé is forced by Marluxia and his partner Larxene to manipulate Sora's memories, slowly causing Sora and his companions to forget many of their friends. At the same time, he is led to believe that Naminé herself is a very important friend that he had forgotten, though in truth they had never met before. Sora undergoes this manipulation so that Marluxia can have Sora become a puppet under Naminé's control, giving him the strength to overthrow the Superior. Even Kairi is soon forgotten, being replaced by Naminé, and the promise made between Sora and Kairi and her lucky charm take on new forms to reflect the replacement. Being motivated by these false memories, Sora continues to ascend Castle Oblivion when he realizes that she is being held against her will by the Organization. In the case of Sora's memories of Kairi, Naminé became jealous of her, because Kairi had someone who cared very deeply for her while she herself was all alone in the world, and this motivated her to replace Kairi with herself in Sora's heart. Meanwhile, Naminé is also forced to implant false memories into the Riku Replica, so that he thinks he is the real Riku. However, like Sora, he believes that Naminé is his long lost friend, and that he made the same promise to Naminé that Sora did, and even has an identical lucky charm (though this one is merely a transformed card). Naminé's conscience eventually allows her to overcome her loneliness and fears, and she goes to reveal herself to Sora after being released by the two-faced Axel. She appears to Sora in the memory version of Destiny Islands as he is conversing with the memory version of Naminé. She tells him that she had never been in his heart, despite what his memories show him, and to look for a faint glimmer of light in the deepest regions of his heart, for that light is the person special to him.

Back in the halls of Castle Oblivion, Sora confronts Naminé, realizing that she is not the person special to him. Just then, the replica arrives, but is defeated. When Sora tries to help him, the replica catches Sora off-guard and strikes him, and is about to move in for the finishing blow, but Naminé quickly crushes the replica's memories in his heart, knocking him unconscious. Then, Larxene arrives to finish Sora off, but she ends up defeated when she makes the mistake of incurring Sora's wrath by harming Naminé.

After the battle, Naminé explains her actions and motivations, and expresses deep regret, thinking that Sora will not forgive her. Much to her surprise, Sora is completely forgiving, despite the severity of Naminé's doings, though he does admit that he isn't happy about what she has done. When asked if anything can be done to restore their old memories, Naminé says she can do so, but only after they defeat the lord of Castle Oblivion, Marluxia, on the 13th floor. Sora heads off to fight him, and leaves the replica under her care. However, as she is watching over him, Marluxia arrives and kidnaps her.

Marluxia puts her to good use when Axel confronts him about his plot to overthrow the Organization. Marluxia puts up Naminé as a human shield, but Axel is not deterred, saying that he will go through her to defeat him, much to her shock. Of course, she is saved by the timely intervention of Sora, though he fails to stop Marluxia from escaping with Naminé. Nonetheless, Sora defeats Axel and moves on to Marluxia, who orders Naminé to completely erase Sora's memory and destroy his heart, seeing that in his current state, he is of no use to him. But even so, Marluxia can eventually restore Sora and make him his puppet. However, remembering Sora's kindness towards her, Naminé refuses the order, and Marluxia threatens to kill her, but in the end, she is saved by the Riku Replica's arrival. Sora, Donald Duck, and Goofy then initiate one final battle as the replica guards Naminé.

After Marluxia is defeated and the replica departs, Naminé presents Sora with the choice of either keeping his memories of the events that took place in Castle Oblivion and abandoning his old memories, or regain those and lose the ones of Castle Oblivion. She understands his choice of the latter, and leads Sora, Donald, and Goofy to a chamber housing crystal pods. In these, they can sleep while Naminé works to restore their memories. Though it will take some time, she assures him that he will eventually become his former self. However, Sora believes that Naminé will always be in his heart, forgotten but not lost. Thus, the two promise to meet again as real friends, just before Sora falls into a deep slumber.

Reverse/Rebirth
Naminé also aids Riku in his efforts to conquer the darkness within his heart. When Zexion overwhelms him with light, Naminé takes on Kairi's form to convince him that he should accept the darkness as well as the light within him. Thus, he is given the strength to move through the light and strike down Zexion, who only just barely escapes.

Naminé and Riku meet again later at the urging of DiZ and she reveals Sora to him, who has fallen into a deep slumber in order to have his memories fully restored. She offers Riku a chance to seal away the darkness in his heart, though he, too, would have to sleep like Sora. But Riku ultimately chooses to face the darkness on his own, and Naminé sees that he has made the right choice. He also reveals his suspicion that it was Naminé who appeared to him as Kairi, which she confirms, although she is surprised. Riku notes that the two "smell the same", before going off to face his darkness. DiZ, knowing that Castle Oblivion is still under the control of the Organization, convinces her to move Sora, Donald, and Goofy to his laboratory in Twilight Town for safekeeping.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
During this time period, Naminé has been freed thanks to the actions of Sora, Donald, and Goofy and is trying to restore their memories while they sleep in pods at Twilight Town's Old Mansion with the help of Riku and DiZ. However, the process is taking longer than expected due to some of his "leaked memories" gaining sentience through one of Xemnas' experiments. The individual created from these memories is later named Xion, a name from "No. I" with the addition of an "X".

Naminé is the one who reveals to DiZ that Xion's existence may halt Sora's awakening, and she is the one who tells Xion of her nature as a replica after her interaction with Riku on Destiny Islands.

A Year Later
Naminé again appears in Kingdom Hearts II, working with DiZ and Riku (who has taken on the appearance of Xehanort's Heartless in order to use the power of darkness) to restore Sora's memories. Because Sora is incomplete, Naminé is having difficulty chaining his memories back together, so his Nobody, Roxas, an ex-member of Organization XIII, is retrieved by Riku and placed into a digital Twilight Town, where he will live out his days until the time came for him to join with Sora.

However, Naminé desires to see Roxas, having developed a connection with him, as his situation is quite similar to her own in Castle Oblivion, and thus enters the digital Twilight Town herself. There, she meets him and acts as a guide towards him when he is attacked by Nobodies. After Roxas' Dive into the Heart, Naminé meets with him again, saving him from the darkness that bursts forth from the Twilight Thorn. She plans to reveal the truth of who he really is, but is stopped by Riku, who says that it's best for Roxas not to know. Even so, their encounter puts Roxas into contact with Kairi the next day, where Kairi manages to remember Sora's name.

On the day following, the two meet again, and this time, Naminé manages to reveal Roxas' status as a Nobody, his relationship with Axel, what his connection to Sora is, and that he was never supposed to exist. Upon seeing Roxas' reaction to the revelations, she apologizes and remarks that "some things really are better left unsaid".

On the final day of Roxas' time as an independent entity, they meet once more, and Naminé sheds light on Organization XIII, and their search for Kingdom Hearts. However, this Naminé is made from data, and is deleted before she can speak any further. But the true Naminé appears, telling Roxas that he will not disappear when he fuses with Sora, and will instead be whole. DiZ quickly tries to stop her, but before she is taken away, she promises him that they will meet again, even if they don't recognize each other. Despite Roxas' pleas for them to let her go, Naminé, DiZ, and Riku disappear into a Corridor to Darkness.

Capture
As punishment for her encounter with Roxas, DiZ orders Riku to kill Naminé once she manages to restore the memories of Sora, Donald, and Goofy; however, this could also be due to DiZ's open prejudices against Nobodies. But instead, Riku leaves her in the care of Axel, returning the favor for what she did for him during the Castle Oblivion incident. (This was seen in an exclusive clip that appears only in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix). Naminé then makes a speech to Axel, stating that even Nobodies have people who are dear to them, which moves Axel.

The World That Never Was
Naminé makes her final appearance in the game's last world, the World That Never Was. She breaks into the Organization's stronghold, rescuing Pluto and Kairi from their cell in the Organization's dungeon. They then proceed to find Sora, though Naminé's close proximity to her true counterpart causes her to blink in and out of existence as they apparently begin to join together again.

While searching for Sora, they are intercepted by Saïx. However, Riku arrives on the scene, and manages to drive off Saïx. Naminé then tells Riku that he can take over from this point, and vanishes. After the first battle with the Kingdom Hearts-powered Xemnas, Naminé appears another time, though in a transparent state, and opens up a pathway to Destiny Islands; apparently, only Sora, Riku, and Kairi can see her, as Mickey, Donald, and Goofy have no idea where the pathway came from (however, the French version alters this; when the Corridor to Destiny Islands is opened, Donald asks, "Who was that girl?" to which Mickey replies, "I'll explain to you some other time." Having said thus, Mickey, Donald and Goofy enter the corridor, leaving Sora, Riku and Kairi behind to speak to Roxas and Naminé). Kairi thanks her for the help. Naminé then tells Sora that they meet again, though he does not understand what she means (due to his memory loss of Castle Oblivion). At that moment, Roxas projects himself from Sora, and the two Nobodies are glad to meet once more, just as Naminé promised. The two realize that not all Nobodies are doomed to fade into the darkness, as they were able to meet their original selves, and though they are no longer independent, they will still live on through Sora and Kairi. Sora and Kairi promise their counterparts that they will be together every day, and without regret, Naminé finally joins with Kairi, completing her.

The two are last seen in the ending FMV, when Sora and Riku return home to a waiting Kairi. As Sora looks up to smile at Kairi, he takes on the appearance of Roxas. Kairi then takes on the appearance of Naminé, smiling back.

Personality
Naminé was born without memories and without the knowledge that she had emotions, due to the unusual nature of her birth. Because of this, she had no basis of any acting upon her birth. She simply followed the orders of whoever was close to her because it was the only obvious guidance she had, effectively making her very quiet and fragile in personality. This lead to her discovery of her ability to feel, as often times she found that blindly following her captors hurt others, something that made Naminé feel responsible and guilty. Naminé often rebelled against her captors because of this guilt in favor of trying to redeem herself by helping someone, sometimes leading to her being a damsel in distress. Rebelling and constantly switching sides caused Naminé's determination and drive to grow significantly from her first appearance. Her more driven personality was put to good use, often sneaking around in the Corridors of Darkness to help the games' other protagonists.

Like Roxas, Naminé seems to possess true emotions, being a special Nobody. While most Nobodies pretend to have emotions by acting on the memories of their past lives in order to react to a specific situation, Roxas and Naminé had no memories of their past lives, and thus had no basis for any acting; presumably, this is because their original selves (a Keyblade Master of the Realm of Light and a Princess of Heart, respectively) still exist due to the unusual nature of their births. Axel is also suspected of having true emotions as well.

Examples of Naminé's emotional capacity are as follows:


 * She feared for Sora's life when he was about to be killed by the Riku Replica, even going so far as to completely shatter the replica's false memories and render him unconscious.
 * She willingly threw herself between Sora and Larxene to keep Larxene from killing Sora.
 * She showed genuine remorse and guilt for what she had done to Sora, Donald, and Goofy.
 * She laughed in amusement at Donald and Goofy's teasing comments about how Sora acts around girls.
 * She was frozen in fear when Axel said he would kill her to get to Marluxia.
 * She angrily refused to destroy Sora's heart even with the penalty of death from Marluxia.
 * She began to cry after she put Sora into stasis.
 * She was willing to go against DiZ's orders to assist Roxas.
 * She happily smiled at Roxas through Kairi in the FMV ending of the second game.

Memory Manipulation
Unlike other humanoid Nobodies, Naminé's talents do not lie in battle, but in the ability to control memories, making her a "witch". The ability comes from the fact that she is formed from Sora's soul and body, rather than Kairi's. Because of this connection, Naminé can move around the "links" of his memories that are located within his heart to her liking, as well as the ones of those who are connected to Sora. She can even sever them completely, turning the victim into little more than an empty shell. She can even create objects affected by the new memories, evidenced by turning a card into a good luck charm for the Riku Replica and altering the appearance of Kairi's Lucky Charm to resemble that of a Paopu fruit. It is noted in Kingdom Hearts II that everybody who Sora, Donald, and Goofy met and worked with in the original Kingdom Hearts had mostly forgotten about them until recently; this could mean that the Castle Oblivion incident also somehow caused the other characters to lose their memories of Sora, and they regained all of them when Sora awakened.

She can even cover up Sora's memory of Kairi with her own image, but as she is Kairi's Nobody, it is impossible for Naminé to completely snuff out Kairi from anyone's memories, as shown when he regained a small memory of her even though he couldn't think of her name. Conversely, those with the greatest connections to Sora cannot ever completely forget him, as evidenced by Kairi, who still slightly remembered Sora, but not his name, his face, or the sound of his voice, while all other denizens of the Destiny Islands (along with all the people in other worlds) had completely forgotten about Sora's existence.

Naminé also has another limitation to her power. When Naminé took on the task of re-chaining Sora's memories together so that he will remember everything he had forgotten, but lose his memories of Castle Oblivion, she was unable to make much progress. DiZ reasons that it must be because Sora's other half, Roxas, is missing, and in order to completely restore Sora, Roxas and Sora must join with one another. This is half-true; the main reason behind this is because of Xion, a memory-based clone of Sora created by Xemnas.

How Naminé actually manipulates memories is something to be noted. As she is always drawing pictures on her sketchpad, DiZ believes that she draws in order to capture the memories she needs to chain together. Because of this, the walls of her room are covered by pictures of events, places, and people that are in Sora's memory. Several of them are also of Roxas, implying her ability to fiddle with Roxas' memories as well; in fact, it is highly likely that Naminé is the one who erased Roxas' memory of his time in Organization XIII and replaced it with the fake one he had of Twilight Town. She also might be able to cause things in her drawings to affect people in real-life, as shown in the opening FMV of Kingdom Hearts II, when she places Sora inside of a stasis pod by drawing a picture of him inside of one. This is, however, a dramatic license, taken to shorten the plot for quick recap in the brief FMV.

Darkness
Naminé, being a Nobody, can also access the Corridors of Darkness, but she only does so three times; once to talk with Roxas and inform him that he will not cease to exist when he joins with Sora, once to break Kairi and Pluto out of their cell, and then to return Sora and co. to Destiny Islands. She also seems to be able to use the power of darkness to change her physical appearance, as seen when she uses Kairi's form to help Riku; however, this could be because of her connection to Kairi.

Quotes

 * "I was lonely for so long...I just couldn’t bear it anymore. So I called out to your heart and had you come all the way out to this place. You came for me and I’m so...So happy, but...But to your heart I had to..."


 * "That’s true...That isn’t me. I’m not there. I don’t really exist in your heart. I don’t exist in anyone’s heart. I never have existed anywhere..."


 * "No...The girl you really care for...The one who was always with you...It’s not me. It’s her..."


 * "No. Sora forgave me even when I deceived him. So, how could I destroy his heart? There's no way! I don't care what happens to me. I won't hurt Sora! I won't do it!"


 * "When you remember one thing, that leads to remembering another and then another and then another. Our memories are connected. Many pieces are linked together like they’re in a chain that makes up each of us. I don’t actually erase any memories-just take apart the links and rearrange them. You still have all your memories."


 * "Yes, but first, I have to undo the chains of memories I made on my own. After I’ve done that, I have to gather up the memories scattered across each of your hearts, and then reconnect them. It might take some time. But I think it might work. No. It will work. I’m sure. It’s my turn to look after you."


 * "A promise, huh...Sora, some of your memories’ links are deep in the shadows of your heart and I won’t be able to find them. But don’t worry. You made another promise to someone who you can never replace. She is your light. The light within the darkness. Remember her, and all the memories lost in the shadows of your heart will come into that light."


 * "I keep trying to piece his memory back together, but what if some of the pieces got lost? There would be no way for me to finish. If that happened - and they found their way into somebody else - he'd never get them back.


 * "But what if he needs those memories in order to wake up? What if they're the key?"


 * "If his memories become her memories... she will never survive it."

Trivia

 * In Japanese, while Kai means "Sea", Nami means "Wave".
 * Her name can also be translated to Born from the Wave, because of the French "né" at the end of her name ("né" is the past participle of the verb "naître", which means "to be born"). This could be a reference to her birth from Kairi and Sora, as a wave would come from air and sea. However, this may have just been added in the English releases to ensure that her name was pronounced the same way it was intended in the Japanese original.
 * It is worth noting that Naminé is the only humanoid Nobody in the series who's name does not have an "X" in it. She is also the only Nobody whose name is not an anagram of her original self. This is made even more unusual due to the fact that Organization XIII found her. This may be because she is a very unusual Nobody. Tetsuya Nomura may also have done this to emphasize the fact that, although she is a Nobody, she is not part of the Organization. It might also be because she doesn't possess any abilities that could be used in combat. Yet another speculation is that Kairi had no darkness in her heart, and thus, Naminé has no "X" in her name.
 * Upon their second meeting, Naminé says to Sora, "We meet again, like we promised." It is uncertain whether or not she meant Sora's promise to her during the Castle Oblivion incident, her promise to Roxas before he rejoins with Sora, or some combination of the two.

Naminé