Tarzan is a party member in Kingdom Hearts.
He is a wild, almost animal-like man who has been raised by gorillas since birth. He speaks little English and mostly gorilla language which is a combination of grunts and hoots. Because of his long time in Deep Jungle, he has developed rather impressive acrobatic skills similar to the movements to a monkey, and he even can "surf" down tree branches and vines, as well as using vines to swing across great distances. He fights with a spear made from a sharp rock tied to a branch.
Journal Entries
Kingdom Hearts
A young man raised from infancy by gorillas. His gorilla "mother" is Kala. Tarzan spoke only the language of the apes until he met Jane. Since then he's learning to speak English at an astonishing rate.
He swung onto the screen in "Tarzan" (1999).
Story
Kingdom Hearts
Tarzan first encounters Sora in his former treehouse home, being attacked by the leopard Sabor. Tarzan managed to chase off Sabor and became friends with Sora, through a difficult conversation due to Tarzan's limited vocabulary. Sora asks for Tarzan's help to locate Riku and Kairi, although Tarzan doesn't really understand. He leads Sora through the jungle's depths to an encampment where Sora meets Tarzan's friend, Jane, who is surprised to see Sora, and later Donald and Goofy. Clayton, a hunter whom Jane brought to the jungle, attempts yet again to persuade Tarzan to show them the location the gorillas. Tarzan, however, cannot do it as the leader of the gorillas, Kerchak, is distrustful of the humans. At this point, Clayton has his heart taken by the Heartless and he falls into darkness. Sabor attacks Sora and Tarzan again, but they kill him.
Jane and Terk are briefly kidnapped by Clayton, but are saved shortly after by the Keyblade bearer. Unfortunately, Clayton and his gang of Heartless have now captured all the gorillas so that Clayton can shoot them. Sora and Tarzan intervene and the gorillas escape. Clayton and a large Heartless named Stealth Sneak fight Sora, Tarzan, Donald and Goofy, but they are defeated (Clayton being crushed by the Heartless). Tarzan seems to be able to tell that Clayton is no longer human, and expresses his discovery immediately before the fight. Grateful for their rescue, the gorillas show Sora and the others the location of the world's Keyhole. Jane then figures out what Tarzan's continuous grunting means: Friends in the heart (the word heart is subtitled in punctuation symbols).
Personality
Tarzan is a friendly character, especially when is among his "family", the gorillas. He cares deeply about his friends. It also seems Tarzan can feel it when people want to harm his friends, because he didn't trust Clayton when he said he didn't want to harm the gorillas. Tarzan is almost always the first to save people when they're in danger: He saved Sora from Sabor, and later, along with Sora, Donald and Goofy, he saved Terk and Jane.
Appearance
Tarzan's brown hair is styled in long dreadlocks. He wears almost no clothes. The only piece of clothing he wears is a tattered, brown loincloth around his waist. His eyes are a light green-blue in color and his muscular body is tanned from living in the jungle all his life.
Fighting Style
Tarzan is a heavily physical character. His spear has long reach and high strength. He uses his spear in tandem with a variety of special techniques, attacking enemies rapidly in battles, although he runs out of MP for these special attacks quickly. He only has one equipment slot and three item slots. Tarzan's abilities are as follows:
- Raging Boar: Thrash around and attack surrounding enemies.
- Asp Bite: Increases rate of MP restoration.
- Healing Herb: Restores HP, similar to Cure.
- Wind Armor: Summons a whirl of air for protection, similar to Aero.
- Second Wind: Recovers from KO quickly.
- Second Chance: Ensures 1 HP is retained after being hit with a critical attack.
- Berserk: Boosts attack power when HP is critical.
- Critical Plus: Increases chance of landing a critical hit. Tarzan has this ability twice.
Origin
Tarzan's appearance in the Kingdom Hearts series is based on his appearance in the 1999 film, Tarzan. In the film, a baby Tarzan and his parents are shown to abandon their burning ship, escaping in a wooden row boat to the coast of Africa. The trio arrive at the mainland, apparently unharmed and seek shelter. Tarzan's parents use the remains of the ship to build a large tree house in a tree that Tarzan seems to indicate by laughing and pointing towards it.
Some time later, the presence of the family is noticed by the female leopard, Sabor, who attacks them aggressively. Both Tarzan's mother and father are killed by the leopard, but succeed in ensuring that he is safe.
In the jungle, a few days later, Kala, a female gorilla who's baby was killed by Sabor, hears a distant crying sound, and thinking that it is her child, runs to investigate. To her surprise, she finds that the crying is coming from the tree house, and cautiously enters, only to find Tarzan lying in his cot, crying. She comforts him, but Sabor is lurking in the shadows. She and Tarzan escape the savage leopard, leaving her entangled in one of the tree house's pulley mechanisms.
Kala brings Tarzan back to the other gorillas, and indicates that she wishes to adopt the defenseless child. Her mate, and the alpha male, Kerchak rejects the idea, but Kala insists on protecting Tarzan, Kerchak eventually accepts Tarzan, but thinks that he will never have what it takes to be part of his family.
Tarzan grows up in the jungle, befriending Terk, a female gorilla, and Tantor, a cautious elephant. He learns the ways of the jungle and it's inhabitants, but often annoys Kerchak by accident, such as throwing his spear, narrowly missing the alpha male's head.
One day, Jane Porter and her father, Professor Porter land on the shore of Africa, and set up camp in a clearing close to where Tarzan and his family live. Tarzan, now a grown man, is lead by his own curiousness to the camp, wondering what all of the equipment is. His presence is detected by Clayton, the Porter family's guide, and he fires his shotgun, narrowly avoiding Tarzan, who is hiding in the bamboo thickets.
Sometime later, Jane attempts to sketch a baby baboon, only to upset it and being angrily chased by his family. She is saved by Tarzan and learns his name. With great difficulty, she explains that her name is Jane, and to Tarzan's surprise, he notices that she is not a gorilla, but a human, like him. Tarzan befriends Jane and the professor, and begins to learn the English language, along with basic manners and etiquette. He is very distrusting of Clayton, however, and when Jane asks him to lead them to the gorillas, he seems very reluctant to take Clayton with them.
Clayton's evil motives are revealed, he and his goons attempt to capture as many gorillas as possible and take them back to England. Tarzan, along with Jane and the Professor are held captive on Clayton's ship, but are rescued by Terk and Tantor. Clayton chases them back to the mainland and battles with the gorillas, Jane, Professor Porter, and Tarzan, only leading to his own demise. Kerchak is killed, trying to protect his family, and his last wish is for Tarzan to take his place, and lead the family.
At a later date, the camp gets packed away and taken back to the ship that brought Jane to Africa, and was supposed to take her and the Professor back to England. Jane protests, and chooses to stay with Tarzan. The Professor agrees and the two are accepted into the gorilla's family by Tarzan. They are accepted by the gorillas; the Professor immediately begins his research, while Jane and Tarzan romantically tour the jungle's beauty. Jane and Tarzan live happily together, using the tree house built by his parents as a home.
Quotes
- "X&&/X (heart). Friends here."
- "Not Clayton;! X&&/X (Heart)! Not Clayton!"
- "Kerchak, please listen to me! I know the nesting grounds are secret, but I trust them."
- "You see, I want to help them because... because... well, they need us."
- "Sabor, danger."
- "Tarzan, home."
- "Friends, same heart. Clayton, lose heart. No heart, no see friends. No heart, no friends."
Trivia
- Although Tarzan speaks to his adopted father Kerchak and the rest of the gorillas in Gorilla language, his lines are in English - mainly for the players to understand what he is saying.
- Tarzan's world did not appear in any other games because of copyright issues.
- Despite Donald and Goofy being the very first party members in the game, Tarzan has been known to be the very first in-world party member to join Sora's group in the entire series. He is also the very first party member to team up with Sora alone.