The following is a list of known Keyblade wielders, characters who have successfully wielded a Keyblade in battle. Not included are characters who have held a Keyblade only for it to return to the hand of its true holder, such as Leon or Jack Sparrow, as a Keyblade will refuse to be wielded by anyone without a strong enough heart.
Keyblade Wielders
Master Xehanort
Master Xehanort's Keyblade has a double-edged appearance with a separated black blade, a black hand-guard and teeth resembling a battle axe. It resembles the Oblivion somewhat, but with two shafts and different teeth. It also contains a single eye above the handle, similar to that of the Soul Eater and Way to the Dawn.
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Master Eraqus
Master Eraqus is a Keyblade master and his Keyblade has a very simple design. His keychain is the Keyblade Master emblem that appears on Ven, Terra, Aqua, and himself. After his death, his Keyblade is passed on to Master Aqua.
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Master Yen Sid
Although Master Yen Sid is not shown wielding a Keyblade, he is known to be a Keyblade master, and appears to be the original owner of Mickey's Star Seeker Keyblade. Master Eraqus himself has stated Yen Sid retired from his position, still remaining to watch over the Realm of Light and the Realm of Darkness.
After the events of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Mickey returns the Keyblade feeling that he has failed Yen Sid, but Yen Sid hands it back, encouraging him.
Ventus
Ventus is a Keyblade apprentice from before the events of the first Kingdom Hearts. His original Keyblade is named Fresh Breeze. During his final battle at the Keyblade Graveyard, Vanitas possesses his body in order to summon and wield the X-Blade.
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Vanitas
As an Unversed created from the dark half of Ventus's heart, Vanitas has the power to carry a Keyblade of his own. His Keyblade takes a strong resemblance to Riku and Master Xehanort's Keyblades. It is red with a round, gear-like shape on the end with blue eyes on it.
Aside from his own Keyblade, he is also able to wield the legendary X-Blade. It was believed to have more power than any other Keyblade in the universe, but it is destroyed by Aqua in the end.
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Terra
Terra is a Keyblade apprentice from before the events of the first Kingdom Hearts. His original Keyblade is named Earth Shaker, but it later transforms into the Gaia Bane.
After Master Xehanort possesses his body, Terra regains control of it and quickly uses Master Xehanort's Keyblade to release his heart and seal his memories.
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Master Aqua
Aqua is a Keyblade master from before the events of the first Kingdom Hearts. Her original Keyblade is named Rain Fall, but it later transforms into the Rain Storm. Near the end of the game, she begins using Master Eraqus's Keyblade after she picks it up in a corrupted Land of Departure. Her attempt to save Terra eventually causes her to lose her own Keyblade, and Master Eraqus's becomes her only weapon while she wanders in the Realm of Darkness.
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Vanitas's Sentiment
Vanitas's Sentiment is a Keyblade Wielders from Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. His Keyblade takes a strong resemblance to Vanitas, Riku, and Master Xehanort's Keyblades. It is white with a round, gear-like shape on the end with blue eyes on it.
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King Mickey Mouse
As an apprentice to Master Yen Sid, Mickey wields the Star Seeker, gifted to him from his master. At the end of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep he returns the Keyblade, feeling he has failed his master, but Yen Sid returns it reassuringly.
After the Heartless plague began and worlds began disappearing, Mickey set out to find a Keyblade from the Realm of Darkness in order to seal the Door to Darkness alongside a Keyblade from the Realm of Light, and stop the Heartless. He obtained the Kingdom Key D during that journey. The Kingdom Key D is identical to Sora's Kingdom Key, except that the colors are reversed, the hilt being silver and the blade gold. Some Square-Enix materials give this Keyblade the name "Kingdom Key DarkSide".[1]
During the events of Kingdom Hearts coded, King Mickey returned to wielding his Star Seeker.
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Xehanort
After Master Xehanort possesses Terra's body and becomes Xehanort, he retains the ability to summon his old Keyblade, though he wields it like Terra would. Xehanort used Master Xehanort's Keyblade to fight the Lingering Sentiment and Aqua. After being defeated, Terra takes momentary control of his body and stabs it with the Keyblade, sealing his and Master Xehanort's memories and thus their ability to wield a Keyblade, causing Xehanort to have amnesia.
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Lingering Sentiment
After Master Xehanort possessed Terra's body and became Xehanort, a part of Terra was left within his armor, giving it life. Being a spawn of Terra, it was able to wield his Gaia Bane keyblade.
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Sora
Sora's Keyblade is a Keyblade from the Realm of Light, and it appears before him as his home world, Destiny Islands, is consumed by the Heartless. Its default form is the Kingdom Key, which uses a Hidden Mickey as its token.
Sora's Keyblade is the only Keyblade actually shown to seal any world's Keyhole or open its Gate. However, King Mickey was able to use his Keyblade alongside Sora to seal the Door to Darkness at the end of Kingdom Hearts, and King Mickey and Riku both were able to open the Gate to Xemnas at the end of Kingdom Hearts II.
During the final battle with Xemnas, Sora is also able to temporarily wield Riku's Way to the Dawn.
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Riku
Riku was the one originally chosen to wield Sora's Keyblade, but he was denied that when he chose to submit to darkness, weakening his heart and causing the Keyblade to choose Sora. Instead, Riku uses the Soul Eater, a sword which grows more powerful when used with darkness. When Sora first arrives at Hollow Bastion, Riku is able to temporarily take the Keyblade as well, but Sora's heart proves to be the strongest, and he reclaims the Keyblade from Riku.
After being possessed by Xehanort's Heartless, he is used as a wielder for the incomplete Keyblade of People's Hearts, which Xehanort had forged from the hearts of six of the seven Princesses of Heart. However, this Keyblade is destroyed after Riku is defeated by Sora, who uses the Keyblade to free Kairi's heart from his body.
When Riku encounters Roxas in The World That Never Was, he is again able to temporarily wield a Keyblade, Roxas's Oblivion. However, while as a Keyblade Wielder he is able to fight with the weapon, it was not his, and Roxas soon reclaims it.
In Kingdom Hearts II, Riku's Soul Eater is somehow used as an intermediary for the manifestation of the Way to the Dawn, Riku's true Keyblade. This Keyblade represents Riku's nature as a being of light and darkness in both name and form.
Riku is also somehow able to copy and transform his Keyblade into the Destiny Place, which he allows Kairi to temporarily use.[2]
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Roxas
As the Nobody of Sora, Roxas is also able to wield the Kingdom Key. In fact, Roxas was able to wield the Keyblade at the same time as Sora because his Keyblade was "lost" by Sora in Castle Oblivion. As the "Key of Destiny" of Organization XIII, Roxas is the only member able to actually collect hearts. Like the other Organization members, Roxas is able to modify the form of his weapon using Gears.
In order to duplicate this ability, and to replace Roxas with an even more malleable puppet, the Organization created the Replica, Xion. Xion gradually leeches Roxas's powers over the Keyblade, but when the two are forced into mortal combat, Roxas eventually defeats her and reabsorbs his lost powers. This awakens his latent Synch Blade ability, in which he is able to wield both the Oathkeeper and Oblivion, which represent Sora's memories of Kairi and Riku. As Roxas essentially is Sora, Sora is also able to use Synch Blade.
Due to the constant lies the Organization had been feeding him about Xion and himself, Roxas resigns from the group and eventually returns to Sora, leading them to attempt to use Sora's Keyblade for their own goals.
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Xion
Xion, the fourteenth member of Organization XIII, can wield a Keyblade due to the fact that she is a Replica of Roxas, and thus an indirect Replica of Sora. She is created from the memories belonging to Sora that Roxas holds. As a being created out of memories, she was able to use the Kingdom Key to manipulate the power of light in the same way that Sora and Roxas can.
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Kairi
Riku hands his Destiny Place to Kairi at The World That Never Was in order to protect Sora. Kairi uses this Keyblade to fight against the Heartless for one battle in The World That Never Was. The complete reason Kairi was able to wield a Keyblade is because that she touched Aqua's Keyblade in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, which initiated a Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony.
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Data Sora
Similar to its real-world counterpart, the Data Sora wields a data version of the Kingdom Key. It utilizes this mighty blade to fend off Heartless and Bug Blocks. Data Sora gains the Keyblade in the data Awakening, but loses it to real the Maleficent in data Agrabah. Eventually he gets a new Keyblade in data Hollow Bastion. The new Keyblade he gets is tightly connected to the Power of the Hearts as said by King Mickey, so it is possible that Data Sora obtained the Keyblade in Sora's possesion.
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Trivia
- Despite the fact that Ansem, Seeker of Darkness wielded the Keyblade of People's Hearts for a short time, he cannot be considered a Keyblade master because he was using Riku (an actual Keyblade Master) as a medium for handling the weapon.
- Genie uses a fake Keyblade when he is summoned in Kingdom Hearts II as it is part of his tail formed into a Keyblade.
Notes and References
- ^ KINGDOM HEARTS MASTER ARMS KINGDOM KEY DarkSide
- ^ Director's Secret Report XIII, p. 28; Tetsuya Nomura: "There isn't necessarily one Keyblade for the dark side and one for the light side, just as many as there exist people with qualified hearts. Concerning the conditions to wield one, at this stage, 'those with strong hearts' is the only obvious one. However, less obvious conditions still exist and there are still plans for an opportunity to reveal those. Riku's 'Way to the Dawn' and Kairi's Keyblade are naturally the same type of Keyblade as Sora's. However there is no particular explanation for the Soul Eater's transfer and occurrence, as well as Riku's handing it to Kairi. When there isn't a normal process of acquisition, I think it's okay to think there is some deeper meaning there."