Vanitas: Difference between revisions

After Ventus leaves, however, Vanitas starts to miss him greatly, and he wonders why they were separated from each other. This causes him to feel miserable and immense pain. At the same time, he also begins to feel very lost and anxious about his future without Ventus, and the more he thinks about these questions, the more anxious, irritated, and lonely he feels, and the more Unversed form. In a rage, Vanitas begins to destroy the Unversed in a cycle of pain and suffering. Master Xehanort only watches this coldly. Finally, Vanitas destroys one Unversed too many and the pain becomes unbearable, and he collapses in tears in the Keyblade Graveyard. Master Xehanort comes to him, telling him the only way for him to achieve salvation is to become the χ-blade.

After Master Xehanort leaves Ventus under Master Eraqus’s care in the Land of Departure, he finds Vanitas waiting outside of the room. Master Xehanort tells Vanitas that he should have stayed behind in the [[Badlands]], and Vanitas instead answers with an inquiry into Ventus’s wellbeing. Upon the lack of response, he dismisses any concern.  

===''Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep''===

Four years later, after Master Xehanort views the battle between [[Terra]] and [[Aqua]] as part of their [[Mark of Mastery exam]], he leaves the room to find a hidden Vanitas awaiting him. The two converse about Ventus, and Vanitas claims that Ventus's performance was weak, and he still needs to "break that loser in." Master Xehanort instructs him to do so somewhere else as he needed to keep up appearances. Vanitas complies, deciding to give Ventus an "incentive" to leave home. Vanitas later appears before Ventus in his room, speaking of Terra being a different person, and that Ventus should follow and try to help him before it's too late. Ventus becomes very defensive, saying that they will always be friends. Vanitas is unimpressed and simply mocks his friendship with Terra. He then vanishes into a [[Corridor of Darkness]], claiming that unless Ventus sees it for himself and looks beyond his "tiny world," he will never know the truth.

Vanitas then travels to different worlds, spreading his Unversed across them in hopes of making Ventus strong enough to forge the χ-blade.

After his first few ventures throughout the worlds, Ventus spots Vanitas in the [[Lanes Between]] and is lured to the Keyblade Graveyard. Ventus interrogates the masked boy about his claims that Terra has changed, but Vanitas simply repeats what he said before and challenges Ventus to a duel, revealing his Keyblade. Despite Ventus's best efforts, Vanitas easily gains the upper hand and knocks Ventus to the ground. Just as Vanitas is about to execute the coup de grace, [[Mickey Mouse]] appears out of nowhere to heal Ventus, then reprimands Vanitas for using his Keyblade maliciously. Together, Mickey and Ventus defeat Vanitas, but the boy simply leaves the world after warning Ventus that he is on "probation".

While in [[Neverland]], Vanitas encounters and kidnaps Mickey on Master Xehanort's orders to use Mickey as bait to lure Ventus back to the Keyblade Graveyard. Though the fight is not shown, it is clear Vanitas won. The villain later crosses paths with Aqua again, this time with Ventus's cherished [[Wooden Keyblade]]. Vanitas cruelly mocks Aqua for playing treasure hunter with the [[Lost Boys|"kiddies"]], proceeding to tell her that, with Ventus's newfound strength, he has "outgrown" the toy, and then snaps it in half, an act that both enrages and horrifies Aqua. Throwing the pieces aside, Vanitas also claims that he has outgrown his need for Aqua as his backup plan and draws his Keyblade, intent on eliminating her. Aqua, outraged by the act of cruelty and at the thought of Ventus being in danger, calls Vanitas a freak and battles the dark enigma once again, soundly defeating him and knocking him unconscious. Aqua, believing she has finally finished Vanitas, and exhausted by the battle, passes out, as a revived Vanitas takes the opportunity to escape once again.

Vanitas encounters Ventus again in [[Destiny Islands]], after the latter is thrown through a portal summoned by Terra. Ventus initially tells Vanitas that he is through with him. Vanitas simply tells him that since he is strong enough, Ventus can join with him to forge the χ-blade. Ventus refuses, claiming that the χ-blade cannot be forged if he does not fight. Vanitas, though slightly angered, remains unfazed, responding only by coldly stating that Ventus was once "too broken to talk back." Then, in the ensuing flashback, Vanitas explains his birth from the darkness in Ventus's heart, and how he took his place as Master Xehanort's apprentice. This causes Ventus great pain in regaining his memories. Vanitas then gives Ventus a reason to fight, challenging the boy to come find him in the Keyblade Graveyard, the one and only place where the χ-blade can be forged, where he threatens Terra and Aqua's lives to see how long Ventus will "play the pacifist." He then disappears into a Corridor of Darkness. Ventus, haunted by Vanitas's deranged threats, and determined to end this once and for all, goes to the Keyblade Graveyard.

When Terra, Ventus, and Aqua approach their final battle with Vanitas and Master Xehanort at the Keyblade Graveyard, intense battles ensue. The two villains meet up with the trio, with Master Xehanort explaining his ultimate goal for the χ-blade. The trio armors up and Terra quickly charges towards them. Master Xehanort intervenes, however, blocking Terra's path with massive rock formations. As Terra continues to pursue Master Xehanort, Vanitas goes after Aqua and Ventus, riding on a cloud of Keyblades Master Xehanort created. The two fight valiantly against the dark apprentice, but not before Vanitas returns to Master Xehanort's side before the latter freezes Ventus. He battles Terra alongside Master Xehanort, who later commands Vanitas to go after Ventus and Aqua again.

Vanitas attacks Aqua from above, knocking her unconscious with a devastating blow, and prepares to impale her through the chest while Ventus lies helpless and frozen. Ventus summons all of his willpower, however, and thaws out of the ice to face Vanitas in battle, defeating him once again. Vanitas compliments Ventus on his skill and finally reveals his face, explaining himself to be the source of all Unversed. Glowing with dark energy, Vanitas then summons several [[Flood]] Unversed to restrain Ventus as he proudly explains his plan: to spread the Unversed across the worlds, in hopes of luring Ventus from home and making him strong enough to forge the χ-blade. He then forcefully integrates into him. In a burst of light, Vanitas and Ventus are transported to the [[Dive to the Heart]]. Ventus's pillar now hosts a picture of Vanitas alongside his own. Vanitas wields an incomplete version of the [[χ-blade]].  

Vanitas claims their union was incomplete, and they only managed to make a fraction of the χ-blade. He then tries to join with Ventus once again, but Ventus refuses, vowing to defeat Vanitas and destroy the χ-blade. The dark apprentice simply laughs, confident in the fact that they both know that if the χ-blade is destroyed, Ventus's heart would vanish forever. However, Ventus rebukes him, saying he will fight for his friends and destroy both him and the χ-blade no matter what, even if the price is his heart, despite Vanitas's mocking of his reason to fight. The two Keyblade wielders then begin a final showdown in the Dive to the Heart.

While Ventus battles Vanitas in their shared mind, Aqua and Mickey in the Keyblade Graveyard are attacked by [[Ventus-Vanitas]] using the completed χ-blade, and tries to attack Aqua, only for her to be saved by Mickey. He then goes on to explain that he plans to unlock Kingdom Hearts so the worlds can be connected and the legendary [[Keyblade War]] can begin again.  Aqua, sick of Vanitas's nonsense, confronts him in battle one last time. Ventus finally lays a finishing blow on Vanitas, who loses his grip on the incomplete χ-blade and helplessly gropes for it as it shatters. Vanitas is apparently destroyed, taking all Unversed in existence with him and relinquishing his control over Ventus. At the same time in the real world, the destruction of Vanitas and the incomplete χ-blade in Ven's Dive caused the completed χ-blade in the real world to revert to its incomplete form and become unstable. This momentarily shocks Ventus-Vanitas, allowing Aqua to overpower him while the χ-blade self-destructs. Unfortunately, it is a pyrrhic victory, as Ventus loses his heart and falls into a coma in the process.

===''Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance''===

Vanitas's fractured heart was collected by [[Young Xehanort]] so he could be made a member of the [[real Organization XIII]]. When Young Xehanort appears before Sora within the cathedral at [[La Cité des Cloches]], Ventus's heart reacts within Sora and allows him to see an image of Vanitas. In unison, the youth and Vanitas claim that Sora has made his heart into a prison, then vanish.

Vanitas begins to once more seek out Ventus's heart to merge back into one being, but with him in control. At some point, Vanitas encountered the monster [[Randall]] and manipulated his desire for revenge, aided him in returning to [[Monstropolis]] by repairing the doorway he had been banished through so that he could harness the technology of Monsters Inc. to collect negative energy.

In Monstropolis, Vanitas gives Randall control over the [[Unversed]]. Vanitas's heart is reconstructed by the Unversed using the collected screams and sadness of children. Randall and Vanitas also create a secret weapon: an Unversed made of scream energy called the [[Lump of Horror]], which Randall sends after [[Sora]], [[Donald Duck]], [[Goofy]], [[Mike Wazowski]], and [[Sulley]]. Detecting Ventus's heart sleeping within Sora, Vanitas confronts him after the defeat of his minions. However, before he could attempt to extract Ventus's heart, Vanitas was restrained by Sulley, who throws him through a series of doorways to get rid of him.

In hopes of finding Ventus, Vanitas follows [[Aqua]], Sora, Donald, and Goofy to the [[Land of Departure]], where Sora's group is there to awaken Ventus. He commends Aqua for being able to keep Ventus's body hidden away for so long. Aqua engaged in battle with him, but he manages to gravely injure her. Before he can finish her off, Vanitas is halted by Ventus after Sora uses the [[power of waking]] to reawaken the latter's heart within his body. Seeing himself heavily outnumbered, Vanitas withdraws to update the Organization on Ventus's status.

Vanitas later reappears at the [[Keyblade Graveyard]] with [[Master Xehanort]], [[Young Xehanort]], [[Xemnas]] and [[Ansem, Seeker of Darkness|Ansem]]; together, they summon a swarm of Heartless, [[Nobodies]] and Unversed to wear down the [[Guardians of Light]].

==Design==

{{Q|I'm the piece of Ventus that was taken away. And you're the piece that Ventus needed to be whole again. So...why shouldn't you and I look exactly the same?|Vanitas to Sora.}}

Vanitas wears a black and red organic-looking bodysuit, which is quite similar to [[Riku]]'s [[Dark Mode]]. He wears a silver helmet covered with dark glass, hiding his face from view. Just before he possesses Ventus, he unmasks himself, revealing that he looks identical to Sora, although he possesses Xehanort's golden-yellow eyes, jet-black hair, paler skin, and a more muscular build. This similarity is due to Sora's heart connecting with Ventus after his heart was fractured, and had anyone else connected with Ventus's heart, Vanitas would have looked like that person.<ref>'''[[Kingdom Hearts Ultimania#Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Ultimania|''Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep'' Ultimania]]''', '''Interviewer:''' "How did you decide on the design for their faces?" / '''Tetsuya Nomura:''' "[...] I knew that Ventus should look either like Sora or Roxas, and I wasn't sure which one to go with, but I thought Vanitas looking like Sora would have a bigger impact, so I had Ventus look like Roxas instead. And there is a reason that Vanitas looks like Sora. As Sora filled in Ventus's fractured heart, the fractured part (Vanitas) was effected by Sora and ended up with Sora's face. So if it had been Riku who had filled in Ventus's heart, Vanitas would have looked like Riku." [https://www.khinsider.com/news/Full-Nomura-Interview-20-KH-Mysteries-Solved-1366 Translation vis Lissar].</ref> According to the ''Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep'' novels, his appearance prior to Ventus's connection with Sora was that of a humanoid creature similar to a Heartless but with red eyes.<ref name=" KHBbS Novel"/> When he fuses with Ventus, he alters Ventus's body with his yellow eyes and bodysuit.

Vanitas's name is derived from the Latin word for "vanity" or "emptiness", and was chosen for its meaning, that it sounded similar to "Ventus", and that it was a written pun on {{nihongo|"Sora"|空||lit. "emptiness"}} in Japanese.<ref>'''[[Kingdom Hearts Ultimania#Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep Ultimania|''Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep'' Ultimania]]''', '''Interviewer:''' "How did you think of Vanitas's name?" / '''Tetsuya Nomura:''' "I wanted to give him a name that meant "empty", and so I looked for something that would be appropriate. When I was searching I found a word that meant "emptiness" in Latin, "Vanitas". It looked a lot like Ventus's name, and in Japanese it has the kanji for "sora" in it, so I thought it was perfect. Of course in Vanitas's case it doesn't mean "sora [sky]" but 'kara [empty]'." (These two words are written with the same kanji, but are said differently and have different meanings.) [https://www.khinsider.com/news/Full-Nomura-Interview-20-KH-Mysteries-Solved-1366 Translation via Lissar].</ref>

The songs associated with Vanitas—"Enter the Darkness", "Enter the Void" and "Unbreakable Chains"—were all composed by Takeharu Ishimoto.<ref>'''''{{w|Weekly Famitsu}}'' Vol. 1104''' (02/18/2010); '''Tetsuya Nomura:''' "We asked for quite a few songs this time. Not only did we have Shimomura (Yoko) working on the soundtrack, but Ishimoto (Takeharu) and Kawamori (Keiji) helped as well, each giving about five songs. Ishimoto took care of the songs having to do with Vanitas." [https://www.khinsider.com/news/Full-Famitsu-Interview-1338 Translation via Lissar].</ref>

==Personality==

Despite his loyalty to Master Xehanort, he has no qualms with disregarding his orders if he feels the need arises; for example, he attempts to eliminate Ventus after defeating him in their first battle despite full knowledge that Master Xehanort needed Ventus alive for his plans, even openly stating that he is well aware he is going against Xehanort's orders but does not care. Later, during the Keyblade War, he is willing to interfere with the Organization's plan to use the Seven Guardians of Light in order to retrieve Ventus's heart and restore himself, even though this will force the Organization to rely on the New Seven Hearts.

He is also shown to be an uncaring, cold, and ruthless individual, having not the slightest sympathy for anyone but himself. Vanitas holds everything and everyone in contempt and holds a great resentment against Ventus and the friends he has. The envy he feels against them is seen in his frequent criticizing of Ventus's friendships with Terra and Aqua, when he callously breaks Ventus's wooden Keyblade while cruelly antagonizing Aqua for playing with the Lost Boys, his constantly calling Ventus "idiot", and forcing Ventus to fight him by threatening to eliminate Terra and Aqua after Ventus refused to.

==Abilities==

{{Main|Game:Vanitas}}

{{Main|Ventus-Vanitas}}

Vanitas is a skilled and extremely aggressive opponent, showing mastery in both dark magic and wielding the Keyblade. He is swift and agile, able to perform complicated and nearly impossible acrobatic feats such as jumping off of a high cliff while landing squarely on his feet and even riding a tornado of flying Keyblades. He can teleport behind opponents at high speeds to launch attacks while leaving after-images of himself to confuse them. Vanitas is an extremely powerful and ruthlessly pragmatic fighter, easily punishing an opponent's opening or dodging out of the way at the last second. When the tide of battle turns against him, Vanitas will not hesitate to resort to underhanded tactics to defeat his opponent.

==Notes and references==

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