Sora

"I've been having these weird thoughts lately...like, is any of this for real... or not?"

—Sora in the beginning of Kingdom Hearts

Sora is the hero and main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, and a wielder of the Keyblade. Sora is voiced by Haley Joel Osment in the English versions and Miyu Irino in the Japanese versions. He is an upbeat teenager who may seem simple minded at times, but is very aware of the importance of his quest. He possesses a strong sense of justice and an unrelenting heart. At times he is impulsive and quick to anger, but he is always sincere about what he says and does.

Sora is fourteen years old at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts and lives on Destiny Islands with his best friends Riku and Kairi, and others including Selphie, Tidus, and Wakka. Sora, Riku, and Kairi wish to escape from the Destiny Islands, and find out what lies beyond. On the night before they leave a huge storm comes. The storm turns out to be the Heartless destroying the heart of the world.

His name is derived from the Japanese word for sky.

Journal Entries

Kingdom Hearts

• First Entry

A spirited youth. He was cast into an unknown world when a swarm of Heartless raided his island. He battles the Heartless with a mysterious weapon called the Keyblade as he searches for his friend Kairi.

• Second Entry

The one who fights the Heartless. Upon reclaiming the Keyblade from his rival, Riku, Sora sacrificed his heart to save Kairi and became a Heartless. Kairi's deep feelings for Sora restored him. Now he must confront Ansem, the seeker of darkness.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

A bright and spirited boy chosen by the Keyblade to battle the Heartless.

It was Sora who defeated Ansem, ending his plan to shroud the world in darkness.

However, Sora continued his journey, seeking the friends he lost during the struggle.

• Reverse/Rebirth

Riku's childhood friend, and the hero of light chosen by the Keyblade to stand against the darkness.

Riku fought Sora while bridled by darkness, but their friendship proved stronger, and they ultimately worked together to close the door to darkness.

Kingdom Hearts II

• First Entry

A boy chosen by the Keyblade, a mysterious weapon.

Not long ago, Sora journeyed with Donald and Goofy in search of his longtime friend Kairi, who had been spirited away into the darkness.

In the end, they saved the world of all worlds from the darkness that was closing in.

Then, somewhere along the way, Sora fell into a deep slumber.

Now that he is awake, he can't recall why he fell asleep to begin with.

• Second Entry

A boy chosen by the Keyblade, a mysterious weapon.

Not long ago, Sora journeyed with Donald and Goofy in search of his longtime friend Kairi, who had been spirited away into the darkness.

In the end, they saved the world of all worlds from the darkness that was closing in.

After that, Sora continued journeying in search of Riku, who was trapped on the other side of the door to darkness. And somewhere along the way, Sora fell into a deep slumber.

With a new outfit and strengthened resolve, Sora has set out once more on a search for his friend Riku.

Story

Kingdom Hearts

File:Kh-sora-model.jpg

Sora from Kingdom Hearts

Journey off Destiny Islands

Sora and his friends Riku and Kairi lived in the isolated world of the Destiny Islands, and often wondered about what lay beyond their small world. They decided to build a raft to sail to other lands. However, the day before they were to set sail, a storm ravaged the island along with a strange dark force. Riku succumbed to the force, claiming he was not afraid of the darkness it so clearly embodied, while Sora tried and failed to save his friend from the evil. However, it was during the tempest Sora first unlocked his potential as a keyblade wielder, summoning the power of the Kingdom Key to battle the Heartless that now infested his home. Sora was swept off the island and thrown into the Corridors of Darkness, which landed him in a place called Traverse Town.

Quest to Find His Lost Friends

There he met Donald Duck and Goofy, the respective Royal Court Magician and Captain of the Royal Guard of Disney Castle. Under orders from King Mickey, the pair were searching for two things - a mysterious 'key' and a man called Leon. As the King has disappeared in his own quest, Donald and Goofy accompanied Sora and they started searching for their respective friends. In addition to that, Sora found that his Keyblade might perhaps be the mysterious key the King had asked them to find.

Sora discovered that Riku was also searching for Kairi, though neither of them could find her. Maleficent saw her chance and used her magic to poison Riku's mind against Sora, saying that befriending Donald and Goofy was a betrayal to Riku and Kairi. With this false knowledge, he set out to find Kairi on his own, as Sora traveled to a number of worlds to stop the Heartless. Sora from there on unlocked the doors between the worlds, and locked them out from the reach of the Darkness.

Upon reaching Hollow Bastion, Riku confronted Sora, and took back the Keyblade. Donald and Goofy are forced to abandon Sora because of the King's orders: to stay with whoever has the Keyblade. However, when Sora was about to fight Riku, they rejoined their old friend after he has strengthened his heart. The Keyblade returned to Sora because his friendship with Donald and Goofy gave strength to his heart, stronger than Riku's. Enraged, Riku fought Sora and lost. Furious at his weakness, he opened his heart further to darkness and allowed himself to be possessed by Xehanort's Heartless.

After this, the party encountered Maleficent. She was defeated and the darkness of her heart was unlocked by Riku, possessed by Xehanort's Heartless, who was known as Ansem. She transformed into a black, fire-breathing dragon from the proliferation of darkness in her heart, but was again defeated. Further into the depths of Hollow Bastion, Sora first encountered and fought Ansem, the supreme seeker of darkness and Kingdom Hearts itself, who now spoke through and controlled Riku's body, making him mortal again. Although it was difficult fighting his best friend, Sora emerged victorious in the struggle.

Kairi was revealed to be one of the Seven Princesses of Heart, but the door to Kingdom Hearts could not open because her heart lay within Sora. In order to return her heart and wake her up, Sora used the dark Keyblade that Riku had to remove both their hearts, sacrificing his humanity and becoming a Heartless himself. When he managed to reunite with Kairi after a brief stint as a Shadow, Kairi used her light to return him to his human form.

After regrouping in Traverse Town, Kairi gave Sora her lucky charm (Oathkeeper's keychain) since he insisted that she should stay behind while he tried to reclaim Riku from Xehanort's Heartless' clutches.

Sora and his friends managed to defeat Xehanort's Heartless at End of the World, the "Heartless" of all the worlds that fell into darkness. As Sora attempted to close the door to darkness, Riku and King Mickey appeared on the other side of the door and together King Mickey and Sora sealed it from both sides; with Sora's Keyblade from the realm of light and Mickey's Keyblade from the realm of darkness. However, Mickey and Riku were trapped behind the door as it closed shut. Riku’s last words to Sora before it closed were “Take care of her”, referring to Kairi.

As the worlds began to restore themselves, Kairi and Sora were separated. Sora promised to return to her as soon as he found Riku and King Mickey.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories

Losing his Memory

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Sora in Kingdom Hearts:Chain of Memories

After being separated from his friends, Sora wandered down on a long, meandering path with Donald and Goofy searching for a way to find Riku and Mickey, encountering Pluto on the way. When they reached a crossroad and called it a night, a mysterious man in a long black hooded cloak appeared and informed Sora, "Along the road ahead lies something you need. However in order to claim it you must lose something that is dear to you." The man disappeared and only one path remains. The trio followed the path which led them to a mysterious castle known as Castle Oblivion. They entered the castle hoping to pick up some clues as to the whereabouts of their friends only to discover, as they ascended the floors of the fortress, they were beginning to lose their memories and became more and more uncertain of what they were truly after.

Little did they know, their memories were being manipulated by a mysterious organization that sought to capture and manipulate Sora. To do this, they used Naminé, a young witch who could rearrange the chains of memories in a person's mind and create new links between them. In order to make Sora forget Kairi, Naminé begins to replace his memories of her with herself. Meanwhile, a conflict between the members of the Organization led to several encounters between Sora and Riku, whose memories of Kairi had also been replaced with ones containing Naminé.

The trio's uncertainty built up to a point where they ended up in Twilight Town, a place that Sora was fairly certain that he has never been in, and thus should not exist in his memory. Organization member IV, Vexen, revealed that it is a place that exists on the other side of Sora's heart, but is eliminated by Axel, another member of the Organization, before he can explain anything.

Axel ended up betraying Marluxia, the lord of Castle Oblivion, revealing that Marluxia and Larxene, the newest members of their group, intended to use Sora to overthrow the Organization. Axel manipulated Naminé into doing what she believed was right. She revealed to Sora that she never existed in his memory and that she had been replacing the person most important to him. Riku appeared to them again and was defeated by Sora. When Sora tried to help the injured Riku, he attacked Sora. Naminé used her power to break Riku's memories, and it caused him to collapse. Larxene came forth to eliminate Sora and Riku, who was revealed to actually be a Riku Replica, created by Vexen.

Sora defeated Larxene and forgave a regretful Naminé for her actions. She promised to restore the memories of the trio once they reached the 13th Floor of Castle Oblivion, where Marluxia was waiting for them. Axel attempted to destroy Marluxia himself, but then Marluxia used Naminé as a human shield. Sora stepped in and defeated Axel. After finally catching up to them, Marluxia ordered Naminé to completely erase Sora's memory so he could make Sora his puppet; Naminé refused, but Sora ordered her to do so in order to protect her from Marluxia's wrath. Fortunately, the Riku Replica, still retaining some of its false memories, arrived and saved Naminé before she was able to do so. Once Marluxia was defeated, Naminé asked that they step into Memory Pods that would rearrange their memories back to the way they were at the cost of breaking the links she created. She also informed him that the process will take some time, during which Sora, Donald, and Goofy would sleep as their memories were slowly restored. While they knew that they would forget Naminé, Sora promised her that while she was forgotten, she would remain in his heart, never lost.

Kingdom Hearts II

Awakening

"A scattered dream that's like a far-off memory. A far-off memory that's like a scattered dream. I want to line the pieces up... yours and mine."

—Sora in the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II

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Sora in Kingdom Hearts II

One year later, Sora, Donald and Goofy awake in Twilight Town with their former memories restored, although they cannot remember what happened in Castle Oblivion. Continuing their journey to find Riku and King Mickey, they set out traveling across new worlds, meeting old friends and enemies from the original Kingdom Hearts game. They continue the battle against the Heartless and now a new threat, the remaining members of the Organization they encountered in Chain of Memories.

Soon after exploring Twilight Town, Sora and company head off to the Tower and Sora obtains new attire—on the advice of master sorcerer Yen Sid considering Sora's first game outfit to be "too small"—from Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather. The new outfit enables Sora to transform into new forms and attain special powers for each of them. The source of the clothing's magic is linked to Sora's heart, which is connected to everyone Sora had befriended including Donald and Goofy. Sora was referred to as the "key that connects everything" by Yen Sid which is how Naminé's memory manipulation works.

Sora expresses his determination to bring Riku back home with him to Destiny Islands, where Kairi is patiently waiting for them. The quest gets more complicated when Kairi herself is kidnapped by Axel. Pete (who works for the resurrected Maleficent) and Organization XIII are causing trouble in the other worlds, and King Mickey refuses to give information regarding Riku. Sora must also discover why some of the members of Organization XIII address him as Roxas even after he clearly states his name is Sora. Also throughout the game Sora becomes rather intrigued and interested in the romances between his kidnapped friend, showing a greater level of maturity.

Ultimate War

Towards the end of the game, Sora, with the help of Hayner, Pence, Olette (three friends of Roxas in DiZ's simulated Twilight Town) and Axel, manages to find the route to The World That Never Was: which is the stronghold of the Organization, where a copy of Kingdom Hearts, created by gathering the countless hearts from the Heartless slain by Sora's Keyblade, resides. Soon after entering the world however, in the area of Memory's Skyscraper, Sora's group is ambushed by Samurai Nobodies and Sora is forced into a showdown with an Organization member, who turns out to be Roxas (disguised in his former Organization XIII cloak) on a platform of Dive to the Heart. In Kingdom Hearts Final Mix , you can fight Roxas instead of watching the fight between Sora and Roxas as a cutscene. At the start of the fight Sora asks who Roxas is, and he answers "Someone from the dark.". then asks Sora; "Tell me...Tell me why he picked you!" (Refering to Riku). As Roxas is above and Sora below, he sees the picture of Riku, Kairi, Donald and Goofy (as the platform's design). Roxas then says "I see, thats why." and continues the fight. Roxas knocks the keyblade out of Sora's grasp, and as he goes to retrieve it, Roxas pins it down with his own keyblade. It looks like defeat for Sora, but then he reaches out for his keyblade, which disappears and reappears in Sora's hands, in which Sora quickly strikes while Roxas stands amazed, not knowing how that happened. Roxas collapses, and reveals his face. As he and the scenery disappears, Roxas says to Sora "You make a good other." Sora is back with Donald and Goofy, who tells him that while he disappeared, they had to fight some Nobodies, and they continue towards the massive castle where Kairi awaits them. Afterwards, Sora, Donald, Goofy, and King Mickey storm the castle in search of their friends. Once at the castle, Sora has to fight Xigbar, Organization's number II. He finds Kairi and Riku (looking like Xehanort's heartless, which is the price he paid into which to help Sora wake up) and the mysteries of Roxas' identity and King Mickey's secrets are finally solved. Fighting their way up the winding paths of the Castle That Never Was, Sora, Riku and the others encounter King Mickey and DiZ, now revealed to be the former ruler of Hollow Bastion, now called Radiant Garden, Ansem the Wise, who was trying to absorb Kingdom Hearts into his machine and encode it as data. Kingdom Hearts proved too strong for Ansem's machine, and with his final words, "Roxas, if you can hear me, I'm sorry", the machine exploded, taking Ansem with it. The energy released in the explosion reverts Riku's appearance to the way it was. When they reach the Altar of Naught at the pinnacle of the Castle, they confront Xemnas, the leader of Organization XIII. After they seemingly defeat the Organization leader Xemnas, Roxas emerges from Sora's body to speak with Naminé before she fuses with Kairi. Before this, Naminé opens a door to lead them out of The World That Never Was. He informs Sora that whenever he and Kairi are together, Roxas and Naminé will be together as well. Naminé then joins with Kairi to complete herself, while Roxas returns to Sora's body making Sora whole.

Sora, Donald, Goofy, Kairi, and King Mickey then unlock the door Xemnas created as a last barrier between himself and the Keyblade bearers. Sora and Riku are separated from King Mickey, Goofy, Kairi and Donald when the door closes abruptly behind them. They fight Xemnas again on their own and defeat him after an epic gauntlet of battles, though they remain stranded in the Realm of Darkness after he is pierced by a jet of light emanating from their Keyblades. Sora must help Riku walk, as he sustained a heavy injury from one of Xemnas's energy swords. They wander through the eternal abyss, and eventually come to a dark beach under a pale moon. Resting at the shoreline, they discuss their adventures and friendship, and come to the conclusion that they did what they set out to do, and agreed that "If worlds are made of light and darkness, we'll be the darkness." The realm of light was safe, and they could now sit and let peace envelop them.

Home At Last

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Sora, Donald and Goofy are reunited

As they listen to the waves, a bottle containing a letter that Kairi wrote washes onto the shore. Riku picks it up, and, after reading it, gives it to Sora, believing him to be the proper recipient. The letter reads;

'Thinking of you, wherever you are. We pray for our sorrows will end, And hope that our hearts will blend. Now I will step forward to realise this wish. and who knows; starting a new journey may not be so hard, or maybe it has already begun. There are many worlds, but they all share the same sky - One sky; one destiny.

From Kairi.'

After Sora reads it, the door to light appears, and both Sora and Riku use it to return to their home world: Destiny Islands.

Having brought Riku back home and reunited at last with all his friends in one piece, Sora returns Kairi's lucky charm to her, saying "We-We're back!" and Kairi corrects him saying "You're home". Kairi extends her arm to Sora, and he grasps her hand while simultaneously returning the Oathkeeper keychain he kept for her all this time.

During the credits, Sora is walking around in the Secret Place. He smiles while looking at all the pictures he and Kairi had drawn over the years. He glances down at the picture of Kairi and himself. He sees that Kairi drew the other half of a Paopu fruit, and smiles to himself.

Sora asks Riku what he thinks the door to light was. Riku replies that it was Sora's heart, "it's always closer than you think". Kairi runs up to them breathlessly and gives them a bottle she found, containing a letter from King Mickey. The trio reads the letter, its contents a mystery.

Future Games

Kingdom Hearts coded

In the recently released game, Kingdom Hearts coded, a Sora made of data has been created by King Mickey to go on a mission. In the screenshots, he was seen in gameplay jumping on red and black blocks with King Mickey. He is also seen in an alley with Pluto in Traverse Town.

It has been reported that the actual Sora does not appear, and the Sora in this game is a computer A.I. created from data that Jiminy gathered on him in the original Kingdom Hearts (however, as Jiminy's journal was cleared after their slumber between Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts II, this creates controversy).

Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep

A younger version of Sora has been seen in screenshots of Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep, training with a younger Riku on the islands.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Sora's pod is seen by Naminé, DiZ and Riku as they talk about him and what will happen when he awakens.

Personality

Sora has a typical brave and heroic personality, meaning he'll willingly risk his life for people he doesn't even know. He's extremely loyal to his friends, and has shown to be extremely forgiving to Riku (even forgiving Riku for the times he's tried to kill him). He constantly "thinks positive" and is therefore highly optimistic. Sora seems to have a remarkable capacity to forgive; when Maleficent loses control of the Heartless to Organization XIII and is overwhelmed by Dusks in order to allow Sora's group to escape, Sora is clearly concerned for her well-being despite the fact that Maleficent is his enemy, and was only stopped from going to her aid by being physically restrained by Donald. Another prominent example is when he forgives Naminé for rewriting the majority of his memories, despite the severity of her doings.

He puts Kairi and Riku above all else; when he tells Tarzan what friends he is missing, he begins to say that he is looking for Donald and Goofy, but then stops himself and says that he is looking for Kairi and Riku. However, another reason for this could be that he had an argument with Donald before crashing into the island, which is further expanded on by the fact that he refers to Donald as "the loud one". However, he and Donald at first appear to be genuinely happy to see each other after they reunite at Jane Porter's campsite, proving once more his capacity to forgive. In Kingdom Hearts II, he puts all four of them on an equal level. A prominent example of this is when Goofy is apparently fatally injured after getting hit in the head by a rock in the Battle of Hollow Bastion; Sora is clearly traumatized by Goofy's apparent death and utters, "This is not happening. It can't be happening. It can't."

Sora shows a highly competitive streak, as he often competes with Riku over numerous things. Also, when he asks to fight Hercules alone in the Hercules Cup, Donald calls him a show-off, and Goofy says in Chain of Memories, "Whenever there's a contest, you're always rarin' to sign up."

Sora has shown a large amount of gullibility. For example, he fell for Mulan's attempt at passing for a man; proceeding this, Mushu stated that Sora "could fall for anything". Ironically, he doesn't let his enemies fool him as easily. An example would be when he didn't fall for Xemnas's attempt to play on Sora's sympathetic side, which was far more convincing than Mulan's attempt to appear as a man. Despite Sora's good nature, he appears to sometimes hold grudges, since he seemed to go after Xemnas merely out of spite for him and his misdeeds. Sora is often quick to anger whenever he's confused, and is quite childish at times. He can also be seen as quite impulsive, as he tends to jump into things without thinking them through beforehand. While simple-minded at times, he has a strong sense of justice.

Sora also shows somewhat of an admiration of pirates during their first visit to Port Royal, wherein he is excited to meet Jack Sparrow and even states that he hopes that they would be able to take a pirate ship out for a spin (though he tells Donald and Goofy that he was merely joking about the latter). Of course, he likely gets over this after Barbossa double-crosses them. Strangely enough he doesn't show this admiration for Captain Hook or his pirate ship. He was also eager to meet Santa Claus during their first visit to Halloween Town in Kingdom Hearts II (showing lots of disappointment when Santa told him about the time he confessed that he didn't believe in Santa Claus). Also, Sora does not seem to keep up with technological changes, as evidenced in the episodes in Radiant Garden and Space Paranoids - he hits the computer keyboard hard while in Radiant Garden, and whilst he was in Space Paranoids, he did not understand a single word Tron said, as it all appeared to be tech jargon (although to be fair Donald and Goofy had no idea what he was saying either). However, he does at least seem to know how to use a computer, but with very little skill, as he is shown to type with only one finger each instead of using all five each.

On occasion in Kingdom Hearts II, Sora seems to (unintentionally) show somewhat of a disrespect towards people of higher authority upon meeting them. For example, when meeting Yen Sid, Donald and Goofy respectively bow to him, while Sora greets him by simply saying, "Hey there!". Goofy is clearly shocked by this, and Donald shouts at him to show some respect. When meeting Queen Minnie, Sora simply asks, "Where's the King?". This leads to Donald grabbing him by the ear and asking Minnie to excuse him. When Sora and King Mickey were disputing about Ansem's identity, Sora, thinking that he has forgotten who Ansem is, drags King Mickey by the hood of his black cloak in order to show him the portrait of Xehanort in Ansem's study. However, when meeting Princess Jasmine again in Kingdom Hearts II, he respectfully bows to her along with Donald and Goofy. He, Donald and Goofy also bow in respect to Simba as the new king during his second visit to the Pride Lands.

It has been hinted many times in the games that Sora harbors romantic feelings for Kairi, which is entirely mutual. Numerous hints of this are as follows:

• He draws himself giving her a paopu fruit in their Secret Cave, which is a symbol between lovers on their world.
• He became visibly flustered and embarrassed when Riku said that the winner of their race would share a paopu fruit with Kairi, and gave Riku a dirty look afterwards.
• When they reunite in the World That Never Was, Kairi quickly runs over and hugs Sora, who hugs her back after recovering from his shock.
• During the Heartless Invasion of Hollow Bastion, Sora gets down on his knees and begs Saïx to take him to Kairi. Beforehand, Saïx asked "Is she that important to you?" and Sora replied "Yeah, more than anything."
• In The World That Never Was, as Ansem sacrifices himself, Sora attempts to protect Kairi from the bright light by wrapping his arm around her.
• He willingly stabbed himself with the Dark Keyblade to release Kairi's heart, knowing what would happen to him in the process.
• During Kairi's telepathic meeting with Roxas, he tells her "I know you. You're that girl he (Sora) likes."
• He imagines himself dancing with her after the second visit to Halloween Town.
• He blushes after seeing Will and Elizabeth hug in Port Royal, thinking of Kairi. Donald and Goofy notice this and tease him, and he covers his face in embarrassment.
• In Riku's story of Chain of Memories, a cutscene shows Larxene telling Naminé that her work will eventually make Sora forget about Kairi. Naminé states, however, that his feelings for her will only grow stronger.
• After sealing Kingdom Hearts, Sora tells Kairi "I'm always with you too. I'll come back to you, I promise!"
• He becomes deeply saddened when he hears of Kairi's kidnapping by Axel and blames himself for allowing it to happen.
• When Naminé admits that she and Sora were never friends, Sora sadly replies, "We were never anything... more than that, either"; as Sora's memories of Kairi had been replaced with false ones of Naminé, his feelings for Kairi had effectively transferred to Naminé.
• She is frequently identified as his most important person and light.
• During a lot of cutsences, it is clearly shown that he is thinking about Kairi.

Fighting Style and Abilities

See also: Kingdom Hearts Abilities
See also: Trinity Limit

Sora appears to be a natural swordsman, most likely due to all his training against his friends on Destiny Islands. His skill with the Keyblade increased greatly over his journey, and he has become a Keyblade Master.

Sora wields his Keyblade with a two-handed style, with both of his hands on the handle during his initial strikes, although he often finishes with one handed swings. While Roxas and Riku rely on speed and slash and retreat tactics, Sora is more of a "heavy hitter". He uses strong swings and slashes and powerful finishes to damage his enemies, and repeatedly attacks until his opponent succumbs. But, this is not to say Sora isn't fast. He is able to quickly dash through enemies. Like his Nobody, Sora also wields the element of Light as a weapon, but not the extent and level that Roxas can. He can use light to augment his keyblade swings during combos, and can finish attacks with bursts of light that encircle him.

Sora is also well-versed in various magic spells, even more so after training with Merlin. In Kingdom Hearts II, his basic combo is much stronger and he gains the Drive Form ability after obtaining new clothes, which give him even more mastery over his strengths. In addition to the abilities that each form grants him, Sora's speed and strength are also increased. However, some aspects of Sora's abilities are ambiguous because of the reaction commands in Kingdom Hearts II. The most notable of these abilities is cutting through a large building. Yet, in both games, it takes him several hits just to break a wooden barrel. Again, this is probably due to the developers making the reaction commands epic for the final battles. (Note: this could also be due to Sora "pulling his punches" when striking objects, as opposed to putting his full strength into a life-or-death fight.)

Sora has become very powerful over the length of the series, being able to slay over a thousand Heartless without rest but slightly tiring after, fight and defeat all but two members, which Riku defeated, of the powerful Organization XIII (all thirteen if Absent Silhouettes are counted), go head-to-head against legendary swordsmen such as Cloud, Leon, and even Sephiroth (although, in their encounter in the second game, Sephiroth seems uninjured after the battle, even though he supposedly lost and admits that Sora is "very skilled"), and fight and defeat the countless Disney villians that have faced him (even gods like Hades and Chernabog). In the manga, Sora defeats Guard Armour and Cerberus in a single blow. The Trick Master also faces the same fate in Wonderland.

However, Sora is nearly helpless without his Keyblade. Even Shadow Heartless take a huge number of hits for him to kill without it. However, before he left the Destiny Islands, he could not even damage the Heartless. His supposed weakness may be caused by the weapon he wields. When Sora is not in possession of his Keyblade, his only available weapons are the sparring weapons, Wooden Sword and Struggle Bat. If he is given proper "normal" weapons (for example, a normal sword made of steel), he can probably still fight well, although he might not be able to fight as well as when he uses the Keyblade. However, he is not utterly useless in real combat without it; he is still able to cast magic with no major decrease in power, whether he has the Keyblade or not (as long as he knows how).

While not a necessary talent for battle, Sora, as seen during the Kingdom Hearts II visit to Atlantica, is shown to be a talented singer, as he is frequently paired up with Ariel, who is widely renowned in Atlantica for her singing voice, in Sebastian's musical numbers. However, Sora is only heard singing in two songs, namely "Under the Sea" and "A New Day is Dawning", and even then, he only has a few lines for both. He also sings a few lines with Donald and Goofy after opening the pathway in Atlantica.

On many occasions, Sora demonstrates physical abilities that could be considered superhuman (although this could be a result of possessing the Keyblade), a few examples of which are listed here:

• In Deep Jungle, he falls a great distance and crashes headfirst through the roof of the treehouse, emerging alive and uninjured, but slightly dazed. Similarly, when Sabor slashes him with its claws and knocks him back into a wall, he quickly gets up and fights back.
• He can either glide or actually fly, the latter of which only in Never Land, the End of the World, and the final battle with Xemnas.
• He is capable of leaping incredible distances, such as jumping up to the ceiling of the ballroom in Beast's Castle.
• He can cut through solid concrete and other durable forms of matter.

Quotes

"Gimme a break, Kairi."
"No! This huge, black THING swallowed me up! I couldn't breathe, I couldn't... ow!"
"It wasn't a dream! Or was it? I don't know. What was that place... so bizarre..."
"So, you were looking for me?"
"Okay, why not? I'll go with you guys."
"That's not true! The heart may be weak, and sometimes it may even give in. But I've learned that deep down, there's a light that never goes out."
"You're wrong. I know now, without a doubt, Kingdom Hearts is light!"
"This is the other Twilight Town... Roxas's Twilight Town..."
"C'mon, Riku! You've been hanging out in darkness too long. You gotta try and think positive!"

Appearance

• Normal Outfits and Drive Forms: In Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts:Chain of Memories , Sora's normal outfit is a short red, white, blue, and black zip-up shirt with gloves of the same color, a white wristband, a crown necklace, red baggy shorts, and yellow shoes. His hair is also a dark brown and his face is more childish, along with an almost high-pitched voice.Later, the three good fairies give him a change in dressing in Kingdom Hearts II. It consists of a black, white, and silver jacket with a red, yellow, black, and dark blue shirt. These colors are consistent with his fingerless gloves, baggy shorts, and shoes. Sora wears the same crown chain necklace from the first two games. His physical features have become more mature and his voice deeper, plus his hair has gone from dark brown to a sort of dirty blonde and light brown. In Kingdom Hearts II, Sora also has Drive Forms: Valor Form, Wisdom Form, Master Form, Final Form, and Limit Form (Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+ only). In each form, the colour scheme of his clothing changes accordingly.

While he retains his typical appearance in most worlds, in certain worlds Sora's appearance is altered, either by Donald's magic or his magical Kingdom Hearts II outfit, in order to allow himself to blend in with the inhabitants of those worlds. His appearance alterations are listed here:

• In Halloween Town, Sora takes on the appearance of a vampire with a pumpkin-like mask over one side of his face, complete with fangs and bat-like wings. This form has no special abilities. When in Drive Form, his mask changes rather than his clothes (a devilish Onion Knight-like Heartless for Valor Form, a Black Mage-like Heartless hat for Wisdom Form, a splicing of both for Master Form, a gold-and-silver crown for Final Form, a heart for Limit Form, and a Shadow Heartless for Anti Form). In this form, the appearance of Sora's Keyblade also changes to grey-ish tones to match the surroundings of Halloween Town.

• In Christmas Town in Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix+, his attire changes from a vampire to a black Santa Claus outfit. When in Drive Form, aside from his aura, movement and manner of Keyblade wielding, the color of the hat will slightly tint to match the corresponding Form. Additionally, the symbols of the corresponding Form will appear on the hat: a red fleur-de-lys for Valor, a blue flame for Wisdom, a gold cross for Master, a silver N-shaped rune for Final, a whitish crown for Limit, and a Heartless emblem for Anti Form.

• In Atlantica, Sora takes on the appearance of a merman with a dolphin tail rather than a fish tail. While in this form, Sora can breathe underwater and swim much faster than he can in his human form. Sora cannot Drive in this form; in Kingdom Hearts II, he is unable to attack at all, seeing as the world has been altered to progressing the story through musical numbers.

• In the Timeless River, Sora's appearance changes to mirror the style of 1920s-era Disney cartoons. His skin and clothing are black-and-white, his arms and legs are long and scrawny, and he, like all other characters in this world, has taken on his very first appearance design (from the original Kingdom Hearts). He has no special abilities in this form, and when Driving, the icon of Sora by the HP Bar tints color slightly on the outline to reflect the Form transformed into, apart from the aura, manner of movement and Keyblade wielding that each Form displays; red for Valor, blue for Wisdom, yellow for Master, and white for Final. For Anti Form, however, he merely turns into a black cartoonish shadow of himself.

• In Space Paranoids, Sora is converted into a data form, wearing robot-like armor with blue circuit patterns all over his body. In this form, the appearance of Sora's Keyblade also is changed to have glowing blue circuit lines as well. Sora has no special abilities in this form, and when Driving, Sora's circuit lines change color to reflect the Form transformed into (i.e. red for Valor Form, blue for Wisdom Form, yellow for Master form, white for Final Form and black with dark purple circuits for Anti Form. For Limit form, the circuits use Limit Form's colors and, unlike the other forms, are arranged as such, i.e. silver torso, red pants and yellow shoes).

• In the Pride Lands, Sora is transformed into a brown-furred lion cub. His spiky hairdo is now present as a mane, though he retains his crown-shaped necklace. He wields the Keyblade in his mouth. While Sora is unable to Drive or perform Summons in this form, he can move with greatly increased speed and agility. The Dash ability in this form is identical to the Mermaid Kick in Atlantica.

Trivia

• Although none of the parents of the characters on the Destiny Islands are shown on screen, Sora's mother can be heard calling him for dinner during the calamity in the first game. And in Kingdom Hearts Riku says "We may never see our parents again" while just before fading into the darkness in Destiny Islands. Also, in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Sora mentions both his mother and father while reminiscing about Naminé.

• King Mickey was supposed to be the main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, but later the position was given to Sora because Square-Enix wanted a human protagonist. This was referenced in the first Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories, where Sora wore clothes that are similar in Mickey's style.

• In the end credits where Sora is in the Secret Place, glancing at the pictures and falling to his knees in front of his and Kairi's, he is actually mimicking Kairi's actions from the end of the first game.

• Strangely, although all of Sora's memories of Castle Oblivion were erased, his first encounter with Marluxia and arrival at Castle Oblivion are clearly shown in the memories that Naminé was struggling to restore in the cutscene after the fifth day of Roxas's time in the digital Twilight Town, though Sora, Donald, and Goofy make no mention of it. Also, when Xemnas appears to Sora in Hollow Bastion, Sora doesn't remember him or recognize the black cloak.

• If Sora successfully completes the "Duel Stance" Reaction Command when fighting Roxas in Final Mix+, he steals Roxas' Keyblades, making him the first character to wield three Keyblades at once.

• Ven, one of the 3 Keyblade knights that appear in Birth by Sleep, bears an unmistakable resemblance to Sora's nobody, Roxas. This strongly indicates a connection between the three characters.

• In Kingdom Hearts II, during every cutscene envolving a keyblade, Sora wields the keyblade you have equiped. The only cutscene where this doesn't apply is the scene before the battle of 1000 heartless, in which he has the Kingdom Key.

• For the time that Sora was at Castle Oblivion, he was without his Body (as it is Roxas at the time), potentially making him a light-type Heartless with a humanoid form. This would explain why he is oddly more emotional when the Organization members stationed there bait him.