Sora is the main protagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series and one of the principal characters in The Interference. He is a Keyblade Wielder who hails from the Destiny Islands. When his world was destroyed by the Heartless, Sora took it upon himself to defeat Ansem, Seeker of Darkness and search for his friends Riku and Kairi.
History[]
Kingdom Hearts: Birth By Sleep[]
When Sora was a small child, his father would row him and Riku to a small islet off the main islands. One day, a man came to the island and spoke to Riku while Sora watched, not understanding. Later, a young woman with blue hair appeared as well and made Sora promise to protect Riku and guide him onto the correct path if he began to falter. Though a little confused, Sora agreed to this. The woman disappeared.
That night, Sora was struck by a sudden sadness, and a strange glow found itself inside his heart, explaining that it must return to sleep, and request to stay within him. He welcomed it with open hands.
Kingdom Hearts[]
About a year later, a little girl named Kairi washed up on the beach. She was taken in by the town, and Sora and Riku became good friends with her. As they grew up, Riku started becoming curious about Kairi's origins and started suggesting making a journey to the world 'outside' the Destiny Islands. Sora wanted just as vehemently to make this quest, and the trio made preparations to set out on a raft and cross the sea to the other world.
However, sometime before they would make their journey, Sora had an unusual dream, showing him battling through a dark world and fighting strange creatures, before being attacked by a much bigger monster than the others. He sank into darkness just as Kairi woke him up, picking on him for his laziness, and tried to forget it.
The next evening, the night before their departure, the islands were attacked by mysterious black creatures called the Heartless. Sora went to fetch his friends, but Riku willingly stepped into the darkness, and a weapon called the Keyblade fell into Sora's hands. Using it to attack the Heartless, he explored the island, and found Kairi in the cave - but she phased through him while speaking his name, and he was suddenly knocked out of the cave, meeting up with the monster from his dream.
Despite defeating the monster, he was swept away from the islands and cast onto a world called Traverse Town, waking up in an alley. He walked around, watching in horror as the black creatures from before took a man's heart and transformed him into one of them, before being challenged to a fight by Leon. Sora fainted and was brought to a room, in which Leon and Yuffie explained the Keyblade to him, before being cut off by a Heartless attack.
While heading out to fend off the Heartless, Sora bumped into Donald and Goofy, who exclaimed wildly at the Keyblade. Before anything else could be said, a huge Heartless attacked them and Traverse Town, and they worked together to defeat it. As Donald and Goofy were searching for him, he went with them on their quest, adding his own - to find Riku and Kairi, and to use his Keyblade to save other worlds, as it turned out that the weapon could be used to seal the hearts of worlds away and thus protect them from all-out destruction, while being also sent by Leon, Yuffie and Aerith to gather the pages of a report written by their world's leader, Ansem the Wise.
Their journey dragged them across many worlds and crossed their path with that of Riku, who was also searching for Kairi. Riku slowly became more and more antagonistic to Sora as time went on, although Sora couldn't understand what was happening to his friend. After a while he found that Riku was assisting some of the villains on each world, becoming involved in kidnappings of young girls.
Eventually, at Hollow Bastion, Riku stole the Keyblade from Sora, claiming Sora to only be the delivery boy. Bound to their King's request, Donald and Goofy were, unfortunately, separated from Sora, and Sora was left with a wooden sword.
Though temporarily lost, the Beast revitalized Sora's courage and resolve, and they traveled to the castle together, where Sora faced down Riku down once more.
Riku attempted to attack Sora, but Donald and Goofy returned to Riku's side. Sora explained to Riku that even though he no longer has the Keyblade, he can rely on the power of his friends and his own heart in order to see him through. This declaration returned the Keyblade to Sora. He and Riku fought, but Sora won, and he and his friends progressed through the castle. They made their way to the Chapel and defeated Maleficent in a battle, then continued to the Grand Hall, where they found Kairi unconscious, as well as the Princesses of Heart, the girls the villains had been capturing. Riku reappeared, claiming to be Ansem, and explained that Kairi's heart was within Sora. They fought, and Sora took the Keyblade Riku was wielding to unlock his heart, turning him into a Heartless and freeing Kairi at the same time. The Heartless Sora tracked down the others as they ran, and reunited with Kairi, returning to a human form, and took her to Traverse Town (where Kairi gave Sora her lucky charm), then returning and locking the Hollow Bastion Keyhole.
After this, it was revealed that the figure calling himself Ansem had traveled elsewhere, so Sora, Donald, and Goofy traveled to the End of the World, and faced Ansem for the final time. The battle ended in Ansem opening Kingdom Hearts out of desperation, but behind the door was actually light, which defeated him. With Riku and King Mickey on the other side, Sora, Donald, and Goofy shut the door to hold back the Heartless and, after saying goodbye to Kairi, found themselves on a grassy world, chasing the king's dog Pluto.
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories[]
The chase after Pluto led them into the night, and they camped at a crossroads. In the middle of the night, however, Sora was met by a man in a black coat whom he recognized from Hollow Bastion albeit it was a different person, and started another chase, down the path to a large castle - Castle Oblivion. Inside, Marluxia greeted him and informed him that he could potentially find something in the halls, but that he would also have to lose something, with Sora understanding this as meaning Riku and the King.
Journeying up the floors, exploring illusions of the worlds of their past, they encountered other black coats - members of Organisation XIII by the names of Larxene, Axel, and Vexen - and learned that as they climbed, their memories and written records were disappearing. Yet at the same time, Sora began to remember Naminé, apparently another girl on his island whom he shared a connection with. Larxene claimed that Naminé was being held captive in the castle, and Sora jumped at the chance to rescue her.
However, roughly halfway up the castle, Sora bumped into what Riku trying to save Naminé for himself, and fighting Sora off. Sora became even more obsessed with Naminé, Kairi fading from his memory in the process, and began to cause doubt in Donald and Goofy. Although Vexen tried to warn Sora about his memories, and also inform him about something else, Axel destroyed him before Sora's eyes and disappeared. Meeting with Riku again, they discovered their memories of and lucky charms from Naminé were identical, and fought again, Riku fleeing afterward and claiming to have the true charm.
When called out by Donald and Goofy, Sora instead ran off alone, running into a facsimile of Destiny Islands, and finally met Naminé at the end. Riku attempted to stop their meeting, but Naminé in defense broke the memories of his heart and revealed that he was merely a Replica. In reality, Naminé had been manipulating Sora's memories - Marluxia was planning a coup of the Organization and intended to use Sora as his weapon. After defeating Larxene, with Donald and Goofy returning to help, Naminé explained further about manipulating all of their memories, but Sora forgave her, as his feelings were real.
The three of them headed upstairs, only to find Axel and Marluxia fighting, and Marluxia using Naminé as a living shield. Sora fought Axel as Marluxia flees, then runs to find him. Malurxia ordered Naminé to break Sora, and Sora asked her to as well, but Naminé refused. The Riku Replica then separated Naminé and Marluxia for Sora to battle, but Marluxia was a copy. Sora, Donald, and Goofy defeated Marluxia in one final battle, and then returned to Naminé.
Naminé took them to a strange room with three large glass pods and told them that they could rest in them while she rearranged their memories back to the way they were. Sora promised that she would remain in his heart even after she was forgotten. Naminé then told Sora to think of Kairi, and he fell asleep.
Later, Namine and DIZ had Sora and his friends transferred to the mansion in Twilight Town to prevent the Organization from locating them.
The Interference[]
A year later, Sora awakens from the Memory Pod to meet Donald and Goofy again and to first meet Alexander Karsath.
Personality[]
Sora is a very kind person with a strong sense of loyalty and friendship. He is always searching for a way to make sure his friends are safe from harm and are happy, and will willingly subject himself to a lot of pain and suffering in order to help others.
While not very perceptive in general (he is completely taken in by Mulan's disguise of Ping until Goofy points out the reality), Sora's emotional connections do gift him a certain sense of understanding when it comes to others making mistakes, and he is always willing to offer forgiveness. However, he does have his limits as to how much he can take and will react in defense of his friends if he is wronged with no visible signs of remorse. His sword skills and single-minded determination back him up in these situations.
His adventures have left him with a sense of duty towards others, like his friends and King Mickey, as well as the residents of each world he visits, but he is usually very carefree when things are calmer. He maintains a positive attitude as much as he can, and is highly optimistic as to how situations will turn out.
Appearance[]
Sora is a short but thin teenage boy with tan skin, light brown spiky hair, and blue eyes. He is usually seen in the adventuring gear given to him by Flora, Fauna and Merryweather - a blue tank top with red patterns on the front, blue shorts and long black over shorts with red strapped pockets, and a black jacket with gunmetal grey shoulder armor. He wears black gloves with knuckledusters and large black-and-yellow sneakers with bulbous toe boxes. Around his neck is a silver crown necklace.
Powers and Weapons[]
Sora is a talented swordsman, having trained for most of his life with Riku, and having amassed several weeks of real-life experience. Sora carries with him a Keyblade and is considered an extremely powerful force, having defeated multiple bosses both with the help of Donald and Goofy and on his own. Sora is also a burgeoning spellcaster, possessing both simple and more powerful spells in his arsenal. Physically, Sora is an apt explorer, able to jump decent heights, being a fast climber of both ladders and tree trunks, and a decent swimmer. A harpoon prop in Sora's room and the task of collecting the fish for the raft journey indicates that Sora is also either a learning or experienced fisherman.
Sora's default Keyblade is the Kingdom Key, a silver-and-gold skeleton key, but unlike his friends, is easily able to switch the designs of the Keyblade he carries using Keychains. The Kingdom Key was initially obtained on his island after Riku and is also the base form of the Keyblades possessed by anybody derived from him. King Mickey wields a similar blade named the Kingdom Key D, implying that the two Keyblades are directly related to one another.
During The Interference, Sora learns to implement Drive Forms along with Alex, allowing him to combine with another party member in order to gain improvements in a particular area of combat. Sora learns four forms - Wisdom, Valour, Master and Final, the last of which is only gained upon an agreement between Joumae and Roxas. Sora is also able to quickly come up with quick attacks to perform with every party member he comes across that don't require a Drive Form to execute.
Source games[]
- Kingdom Hearts, 2002
- Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, 2004
- Kingdom Hearts II, 2005
- Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, 2009
- Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, 2010