Sora

"I don't need a weapon! My friends are my power!"

—Sora

Sora is the hero and main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series, as well as 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 Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and fifteen during the events of Kingdom Hearts II. He 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. Sora is also the complete being of Roxas.

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 friends Kairi and Riku.

• 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

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Sora in Kingdom Hearts

lade.

Future Games

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep

A younger version of Sora appears in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, playing with wooden swords with a younger Riku on the islands. Terra is seen to be watching them.

Personality

Sora has a typical brave and heroic personality, meaning he'll willingly risk his life, even for people he doesn't even know yet. 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.

File:Kh2intro sora kairi riku.jpg

Sora, Riku and Kairi

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 before turning their backs on each other, 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."

Though he is far from stupid, Sora has often seen to be highly gullible and oblivious to what should be obvious. 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 long 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 Captain 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, possibly since he was willing to tell Kairi about this, making him likely to meet pirates again. 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 did not 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 Hollow Bastion. 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 their 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 (in chronological order):

• Riku tosses him a paopu fruit and says "C'mon, I know you wanna try it", after explaining the legend.

File:K KingdomHeartsSora&Kairi3.jpg

Sora tenderly embraces a spent Kairi after she protects and saves him from being a Heartless

• 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.
• He draws himself giving her a Paopu fruit in their Secret Cave, which is a symbol between lovers on their world.
• He willingly stabbed himself with the Keyblade of People's Hearts to release Kairi's heart, knowing what would happen to him in the process.
• Upon being restored by Kairi from his Heartless form, Sora tenderly embraces and thanks her.
• After sealing Kingdom Hearts, Sora tells Kairi "I'm always with you too. I'll come back to you, I promise!"
• In Riku's story of Kingdom Hearts: 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.
• 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.
• During Kairi's telepathic meeting with Roxas, he tells her "I know you. You're that girl he (Sora) likes."
• 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.
• He becomes deeply saddened when he hears of Kairi's kidnapping by Axel and blames himself for allowing it to happen.
• 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."
• He imagines himself dancing with her after the second visit to Halloween Town.
• 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.
• 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.
• In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Xion takes Kairi's form because of Sora's strong feelings for her.
• She is frequently identified as his most important person, and his light.

Appearance

Sora first starts off appearing tanner and somewhat more lanky than his rival Riku. He seems to portray more of a typical teenage boy's looks. Sora has spiky brown hair ( although in Kingdom Hearts II his hair does change from a dark brown to a lighter brown) along with blue eyes. Sora's appearance does not change that much throughout the series besides growing taller. Surprisingly with all the Heartless fought by Sora he does not appear any more muscular than he did in the original game and still seems less muscular than Riku. Sora goes through many costume changes throughout the series though. His original outfit consisted of a Mickey Mouse style outfit, containing large yellow shoes a white and black overjacket as well as a red jumpsuit and a pair of white with yellow gloves with his signiture crown necklace and crown chain. This outfit is the main outfit in Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. His forms he changes into are Vampire Form, Merman Form, and Shadow Form. His outfit considerably changes in Kingdom Hearts II as it turns into a black and silver outfit that while remaining baggy. Like his original outfit, it contains a darker style using many zippers and extra leggings but still contains his crown chain and crown necklace. Though for a short while in Twilight Town does still wear his first outfit. With the institution of Drive Forms his outfit can turn into different apperances for Valor Form, Limit Form, Anti Form, Wisdom Form, Master Form, and Final Form. Other apperance changes are his Data Form, Lion Form, Santa Form, and Retro Form. It is unknown how his apperance will be in future installments.

Relationships with other characters

• Riku: Sora and Riku have been long time rivals, yet have stayed best friends all the same, and can almost be considered brothers. While in the first Kingdom Hearts their relationship was strained by Maleficent and Xehanort's Heartless, in the end they showed their friendship was strong.
• Kairi: Sora and Kairi seem to have romantic feelings for each other, this is shown numerous times in examples.
• Donald: In the first game, Donald and Sora have a love/hate relationship, initially because Donald only saw Sora as a means of tracking down the king. Often times they will fight, due to contrasting decisions and petty arguments, but in the end will make up and join forces.
• Goofy: Goofy seems to be very close to Sora and often times boosts Sora up. He also is the one that picks Sora up whenever he is sad, and when he and Goofy followed Riku, who revealed he was the real keyblade master, Goofy chose to stand by Sora instead, which moved Donald enough to do the same.
• King Mickey: King Mickey seems to respect Sora. Queen Minnie has often said how the king spoke highly of him. Sora also respects the king, addressing him as the king he is.

Fighting Style and Abilities

See also: Kingdom Hearts Abilities
See also: Kingdom Hearts II Abilities
See also: Trinity Limit
See also: Sora/Abilities

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 during his initial strikes, although he often finishes with one handed swings. He is also known to use the 'teeth' of his Keyblade in some attacks, an example is when using the Sliding Dash ability in Kingdom Hearts II. 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 to his blows. But, this is not to say Sora isn't fast. He is able to quickly dash through enemies, and his mobility increases with various upgrades in both games. Like his Nobody, Sora also wields the element of Light as a weapon, but not to the extent and level that Roxas can. He can use light to augment his Keyblade swings during combos, and can finish combos with bursts, balls, and waves of light that encircle him.

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The Kingdom Key

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 a few members, who Riku or Axel 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 villains that have faced him (even gods like Hades and Chernabog). In the manga, Sora defeats Guard Armor and Cerberus in a single blow. (Even though the latter had already been worn down by Hercules before Sora entered the fight.) 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 The 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 his 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 Ansem.
• He is capable of leaping incredible distances, such as jumping up to the ceiling of the ballroom in Beast's Castle and between buildings and Xemnas' two cannons in the final battle with him in Kingdom Hearts II.
• He can cut through solid concrete and other durable forms of matter, even whole buildings.
• In Kingdom Hearts II, he can teleport or moving in high speed when using the warp snipe reaction command.

Quotes

"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..."
"Okay, why not? I'll go with you guys."
"The darkness may destroy my body, but it can't touch my heart."
"I dont need a weapon, my friends are my power!"
"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!"
"Roxas... I wish I could meet him too..."
"I don`t get it, why is everyone been calling me Roxas."
"C'mon, Riku! You've been hanging out in darkness too long. You gotta try and think positive!"

Changes in Worlds

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-lis 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 blue 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.

• 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 (this may be explained since Naminé might not have started altering Sora's memories before he entered the castle). 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 Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, he steals Roxas' Keyblades, making him the first character to wield three Keyblades at once.

• Ventus, one of the three 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. This is strongly proven when Xion, Sora's memory-based replica takes the form of Ven in front of Xigbar. Also, Ven is Latin for "wind" and Sora is Japanese for "sky". The same goes for Riku, Terra ("land" and "earth") and Kairi, Aqua ("sea" and "water").

• In Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II, during every cutscene involving a Keyblade, Sora wields the Keyblade the player has equipped. The only cutscenes where this doesn't apply are the scenes when Sora and King Mickey seal away Kingdom Hearts and before the Battle of 1000 Heartless, in which he has the Kingdom Key.

• There is a clear reference to Sora in the 20th Anniversary Edition of Final Fantasy for the PSP, a child in the randomized dungeon Whisperwind Cove says "I've been having these weird thoughts lately... like... how did I get to this place!?"

See Also

• Sora (TCG)