Larxene
Larxene, the Savage Nymph is number XII in Organization XIII, and was originally thought to be the only female member. She is the third lowest on the Organizations numbering system, number XII, Roxas being the second lowest at XIII and Xion even lower at XIV. She plays a large role in Sora's storyline during the events of Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.
She will be a playable character in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days in Multiplayer mode.
Story
Castle Oblivion
Larxene is one of the Organization members assigned to work under Marluxia in Castle Oblivion, which Marluxia holds as a fortress for the Organization's research into memories. Marluxia and Larxene (though Axel and Vexen aid them, they are in fact working against them in secret) conspire to usurp control of the Organization and the Nobodies from its leader, who at the time is unknown to Sora. The Organization reveals themselves to Sora slowly, at first appearing to be helpful by providing him with the means to fight within the castle (Sora had lost all of his abilities due to memory loss). Marluxia fights in disguise to instruct Sora in the use of battle cards, and Axel later fights Sora to test his strength. Larxene fights him next, with the intention of antagonizing him, and is defeated. She laughs it off later, telling Axel she is winded from "throwing the fight", though Axel does not buy it.
After she loses the battle and speaks to Axel, Axel makes an off-hand comment about using a captive girl, Naminé, to aid them in taking control of Organization XIII. Larxene, believing Axel to be in on the plot, voices her support for it, but as she leaves, Axel remarks that she should have kept it quiet.
Vexen, the Replica and Axel
Soon after Vexen introduces the Riku Replica to Marluxia, it is decided that his memories will have to be replaced if he is to be of any use against Sora. When the Replica objects to this and attacks Larxene, she easily halts his effort and smacks him into a wall, coldly referring to him as nothing more than a toy. She begins to approach him and is implied to have beaten him senseless offscreen, his utterance of "NOOOO!!!" being all that is seen/heard.
Later, when Vexen battles Sora to observe him, Marluxia and Larxene begin to doubt his sincerity to their cause. They decide to compel Vexen to pursue Sora by threatening to tell "the Superior" of the failure of the Riku Replica. Vexen is confused at the orders, since Sora's death would ruin Marluxia's plans to use him against the Organization's head members. Although Vexen is number IV and Marluxia number XI, Marluxia had been given authority over the castle; this coupled with Vexen's fear of Xemnas compels him to engage Sora in a simulated Twilight Town, despite his confusion. Vexen fails, and plans to tell Sora about Roxas in order to break Marluxia's plans for controlling Sora.
Axel cuts him off by killing him just before he speaks, having been ordered to eliminate him as a traitor to the conspiracy. When Axel returns, Larxene mentions that they previously had not been sure if Axel would have done it; in this way, Axel earns the trust of both Larxene and Marluxia.
Death
- "No...no...I won't lose to a bunch of losers...."
- — Larxene, just before fading
As Sora continues to make his way toward the top of Castle Oblivion, both Larxene and Marluxia leave Naminé to be guarded by Axel. However, Axel allows her to escape. Shortly afterwards, Larxene appears before Sora after the Riku Replica had taken a potshot, weakening him. Furious over Axel's betrayal and Naminé's interference, she reveals to him the true nature of the Riku Replica as well, also elaborating on Naminé's misdeeds. Naminé tries to stop Larxene from killing Sora, but she is knocked aside. And just as she is about to move in on the Keyblade wielder, Goofy pushes her away and Donald heals him. Sora, angry at Larxene's cruelty, initiates a final battle with the female Nobody. Though she fights with powerful thunder magic and her kunai, Sora defeats her, making her the first Organization member to fall at their hands.
Personality
- "Maybe you're the one who needs to grow up, Larxene."
- —Axel, in the Chain of Memories manga
Although Larxene is normally smiling and even winking at times in-game, she has a cruel, sadistic personality and enjoys seeing others suffer hardships and anguish. In the manga, she favored a book called the "Marquis de Sade", a reference to the man from whom the term "sadism" is derived. She taunts Vexen incessantly after he is threatened with charges of treason and incompetence from Marluxia, and toys with Sora before fighting him the first time. In fact, she even leads Sora to believe that she is a nice person, just trying to help point him in the right direction: "The bad guys have her (Naminé) locked away. And you, as the hero, need to go save her!" She then smiles and attacks him, knocking him flying with a powerful kick and informs him that she is a "Bad guy", mocking his failure to remember Naminé.
After she discovers Axel's betrayal and sees that Marluxia's and her plans have fallen apart, her friendly manner vanishes and she attacks Sora in a rage.
She seems to be on good terms with Axel, often seen touching and even flirting with him in the new Re:CoM cutscenes. This has led some fans to believe there is more to their relationship. However, it is shown that both she and Axel put their own goals before each other. They also cannot be truly affectionate due to their lack of hearts, however this can be contradicted due to the fact that they do feel emotion, yet do not possess the ability to correctly display it.
Fighting Style
Larxene is shown to be an exceptionally capable fighter. In both her offensive encounters with Sora, she sends him flying with the force of a kick, the second encounter supposedly damaging his ribs to the point that he requires healing from Donald in order to continue fighting. She also appears to be physically strong, as she is able to easily toss the Riku Replica's body across the room with one hand as well as slap Naminé to the same effect. In the manga, Sora even comments to himself that she is "too strong" for him to fight alone.
Larxene's general fighting skills resemble that of a ninja. She uses kunai set between her fingers that form a pair of claws. She can also fling them at Sora as lightning infused projectiles. While she can levitate and teleport, she also possesses very formidable agility that is a step up above the other Organization members, which combined with her sadist methods gives her good reason to be called the "Savage Nymph".
Along with her physical skills, her use of magic is deadly as well. She can summon powerful bolts of lightning to rain down from the sky, in a focused form as well as one that strikes a large area. In addition, she can also bind a person in place with tendrils of lightning, allowing her to deal a great amount of damage without the possibility of retaliation.
In Kingdom Hearts II: Final Mix, she can be battled again, complete with new fighting tactics. She can create copies of herself that can swarm Sora independently or attack simultaneously, and her attacks are more heavily oriented toward physical strikes rather than lightning spells. Sora can use a reaction command to throw one of Larxene's copies bodily at her, resulting in a stunning collision that leaves her vulnerable to attack.
Quotes
During Battle
- "Thunder!"
- "Sooo sorry..."
- "It's over!"
- "You won't escape!"
- "Trash!"
- "I'm done with you...You're an eyesore!"
- "Even though you're just a toy..."
- "What!? It can't be!"
Card
Trivia
- In the Japanese version, Larxene was voiced by popular seiyuu Yuko Miyamura, who was famous as the voice of Asuka Langley Soryu of the Neon Genesis Evangelion franchise. This marked as her first role with Square Enix.
- Larxene was one of two characters that additional voice acting was done for in the original Chain of Memories (the other character being Vexen).
- Larxene is one of the only Nobodies whose name can be rearranged into a few common English names, such as Arlene, but still has no official real name. However, numerous fan-made ones will exist until the official name is revealed, if it is released.
- In the Manga, Larxene explodes after getting wet. Strangely, she gives Sora a much harder time than Marluxia before she dies.
- Larxene is one of only five organization members shown to be able to make full-body copies of themselves, the other four being Marluxia, Vexen, Zexion, and Xemnas.
- Before the second battle with Larxene, Donald cures Sora. However, Sora's health remains exactly the same as before, meaning that if you trigger the cutscene with critical health, you start the battle with critical health.
- For some time, Larxene was thought to be the only female member of Organization XIII. However, this is proven false with the inclusion of Xion. Also, Nomura has stated that Marluxia, Larxene's "best friend," was originally planned to be a female Organization member as well.
Video
| Larxene (CoM battle) | Larxene (RE:CoM battle) |
| <youtube width="320" height="240">2to_Y9O0d58</youtube> | <youtube width="320" height="240">0tfJlbZL0PU</youtube> |
| Larxene (Final Mix+ battle) | Larxene Data (Final Mix+ battle) |
| <youtube width="320" height="240">jf1y6tj3j1c</youtube> | <youtube width="320" height="240">5BwxvOVkpSc</youtube> |
