Kingdom Hearts’ Most Heartbreaking Moments
Underneath its bright and bubbly veneer, Kingdom Hearts is quite often anything but. Beyond the platter of delightful Disney distractions lie moments that range from bittersweet to downright miserable, endings very rarely simple or clean.
An often maudlin cast, all with bright, wistful eyes rub shoulders with the likes of Donald Duck and Mulan’s Mushu, enough quirky delight to balance out the aching core of the series.
As we prepare for the long-awaited finale of the series that’s sure to sucker punch us right in the feels (just look at the Final Battle trailer), let’s drink in some of Kingdom Hearts’ most heart-wrenching moments. Obvious spoilers ahead, now is your chance to turn away if you want! We’ll start with a “fun” one to get started, but after this you’ve been warned!
10. The Many Deaths of Donald Duck
Ah yes, truly our most tragic hero. Our magical sidekick, taken too early from this world…again, and again, and again.
He joins Sora and Goofy in battle as a lifeless pile, as a spellcaster who refuses to help in any way. Are you low on health? Here, a nice, needless Blizzaga will patch that right up. Oh, you’ve just healed Sora? Let me help you out there. No, I insist.
Donald is everything you don’t want in battle. A tragic mage and a tragic accomplice, whenever you need him you know exactly where he is – unconscious on the floor.
Whilst we’re starting this list comically, there’s nothing funny about having your chief healer dead in a key moment, like a particularly arduous boss battle. That’s a Greek tragedy in itself.
Kingdom Hearts’ Most Heartbreaking Moments
9. The Life of Roxas
Poor, poor Roxas, even in his own dreams he’s not the star.
We’re introduced to Roxas at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts II, living out the last days of summer vacation hanging with his friends, solving mysteries and chowing down on the apparently delicious sea salt ice cream.
But things aren’t quite right, his dreams are filled with someone else and their friends, his waking days disjointed and weird, no one seems to notice or care.
In truth, Roxas is Sora’s Nobody, half a human being born when Sora became a Heartless.
Living in a digital world, contained so he can one day be thrown back into Sora, consciousness and all, he was a member of Organisation XIII and had his own life and friends, sitting atop the clock tower with Axel and Xion between missions. A trio that was quickly torn apart.
Roxas, unlike most Nobodies, has the capacity to feel real emotion as one linked to Sora’s heart and lived his own life whilst Sora slumbered.
He wants nothing more than to be his own person and live a normal life, something he got the illusion of, but never the reality. Battling one last time for dominance in Sora’s mind, he’s beaten and later willingly merges with Sora.
Watching his friend die, having to turn on his allies, later stripped of his happy little life, all to serve as a data transplant for the main protagonist. All the guy wanted was some ice cream.
Kingdom Hearts’ Most Heartbreaking Moments
8. Sora Splits From Kairi
The ending of the original Kingdom Hearts is as bittersweet as they come. After an entire journey hunting for his friends, Sora reunites with Riku and Kairi, only to wave goodbye.
With the door to darkness open, Riku and King Mickey stay on one side with Sora on the other to lock the door for good, perhaps to never see them again.
Seeing Kairi, he sprints over, only for the islands to split apart as the worlds taken by darkness are reconstructed.
Holding hands for as long as they can, the island parts as light from above showers down restoring the Destiny Islands, leaving Kairi entirely alone.
She traipses around the island, returning to the Secret Cave scrawled with drawings, shedding a tear for the one Sora drew of him feeding her a Paopu Fruit.
Legend says any who share the fruit have their destinies entwined, tearfully Kairi adds to the drawing, feeding Sora in return as we fade to credits.
Kingdom Hearts’ Most Heartbreaking Moments
7. Axel’s Last Words
Axel is up there as one of the most beloved characters in the sweeping saga that is Kingdom Hearts, just check our ranking of Organization XIII.
A chakram aficionado and a bit of a renegade, the lanky pyromancer quickly takes to Roxas when the two meet, forming an ultimate bromance (or far more if you want to take it there).
Doing everything he can to protect Roxas, to take him out of the digital world and jog his memories, he attempts to turn Sora back into a Heartless, birthing Roxas anew.
After kidnapping Kairi, he later helps Sora fight an army of Nobodies, sacrificing his life with an all-powerful explosion. As he lies fading, still cracking jokes, he apologizes to Sora. He tells him:
“I wanted to see Roxas. He…was the only one I liked. He made me feel…like I had a Heart. It’s kind of funny, you make me feel…the same…”
With the last of his energy, he opens a portal for Sora to use to get to Kairi, before fading completely.
Kingdom Hearts’ Most Heartbreaking Moments
6. Ventus Returns to Sora’s Heart
If there’s a Kingdom Hearts character to get emo about it has gotta be Ventus. Bright and cheery, a member of the OG keyblade squad from Birth by Sleep, he’s the spitting image of Roxas and suffers a similar amount of misery.
At the beginning we see Xehanort dump the boy’s comatose body to the side, his heart fractured as his heart’s darkness was removed, turned into the being Vanitas. Forming a bond with a very young Sora, he borrows the boys’ light and draws strength anew.
It’s when he fights Vanitas inside his heart, destroying him, the X-blade and his self that things take a much darker turn. His body remains, protected and locked away by Aqua in Castle Oblivion, but his heart, about to disappear, wearily finds its way back to young Sora.
All but destroyed, he pleads to stay with Sora, whose heart is all but a hotel for lost travelers at this point. Leading him out of the darkness and happy to oblige, Sora innocently asks the tiny remains of Ventus if he’s sad, happy to keep him if it’ll make him feel better.
Infinitely grateful, a weak “thank you” are his last words as he finds sanctuary in Sora.
Kingdom Hearts’ Most Heartbreaking Moments
5. Sora Becomes a Heartless
Speaking of Sora’s heart, he all but bores it out of his chest with a smile towards the end of the first game. To resuscitate a living but unmoving Kairi, he removes his heart that’s been keeping her safe, reducing him to a Heartless.
In true Romeo and Juliet fashion, she wakes as Sora disappears, the last princess of heart reunited with her own as she watches her friend’s glimmering remains float away.
As she flees with Donald and Goofy, the trio is followed by a weak Shadow Heartless, Donald immediately whacking its noggin.
Kairi recognizes the hunched creature as more Shadows appear ready to pounce, Kairi shields the small Heartless with a hug, restoring Sora to his true form with the power of her heart.
It’s only for a moment but in that most dramatic of twists, we’re led to believe Sora is very much dead. Luckily he bounces back quite quick, creating Roxas and subsequent sequels in that moment.
Kingdom Hearts’ Most Heartbreaking Moments
4. Aqua’s Sacrifice
The trio of Birth By Sleep protagonists all meet rather dour fates, with Ventus split body from soul, the stoic Terra is manipulated by Xehanort and used as his new vessel, his heart transfused into Terra’s.
Aqua battles a Vanitas-fused Ventus who in turn is battling the same in his heart, collecting his body and storing him in Castle Oblivion. She returns to battle “Terranort” to shake him back to his senses and free him from his vile possession.
Close to beating the living ‘Nort out of Terra, Terranort takes his keyblade to try and expunge Terra, falling into the darkness in the process with Terra’s body.
Aqua shoots in after them, choosing to give up her battle armor and keyblade to save the monster that was once her friend, as she’s left to drift in the darkness.
Her story there is told in A Fragmentary Passage, a playable secret ending in Birth by Sleep Final Mix. Aqua will also be returning in Kingdom Hearts III, yet it seems the shadows have warped her.
Kingdom Hearts’ Most Heartbreaking Moments
3. Terra VS Master Eraqus
Another tear-jerker from the game that just won’t let us be happy, Birth By Sleep is a prequel hellbent on hurting you and all the characters you hold dear.
Master Eraqus is a mentor and father figure to Terra, Aqua, and Ventus. Training them all in the ways of the keyblade, there comes a time where Eraqus must do the unthinkable.
Trying to keep Ventus at his side, for fear of his growth and what he might one day become due to Xehanort’s plot with the X-blade, Eraqus chooses to undo Ventus entirely.
Wanting to kill off his pupil, almost his son, for what he sees as the greater good, Terra swoops in to save Ven and battle his own master.
Little did they know this was all part of Xehanort’s plan to spur the darkness within Terra that would soon be his nesting ground. As Terra realizes what he’s done, so too does Eraqus, all pawns of a much larger plan.
Xehanort suddenly delivers a final deathblow from behind, extinguishing the trio’s patriarch forever. As he collapses and melts away in the arms of Terra, he can do nothing but sob for his master.
Kingdom Hearts’ Most Heartbreaking Moments
2. Right Back At Ya Buddy
A game full of meetings and partings, one of the saddest being an extra scene added in Kingdom Hearts Final Mix where after his defeat, Roxas gets to sit with Axel one last time in their usual hangout spot, overlooking Twilight Town at sunset.
The two share a pair of sea salt ice cream sticks, Axel knowing that this is the last time he’ll ever get to see his best friend before he reunites with Sora. They talk of old friends, the nature of being hollow and if they do, really, lack hearts.
Roxas puts his trust in Sora, knowing they’re an extension of each other. They enjoy their final fraternal moments together, talking about how they met, Axel comforting Roxas with false hope of seeing his old Twilight Town buds, his face drooping.
As Roxas declares that he should rejoin with Sora, Axel turns away, holding back tears as he scarfs his ice cream.
With that, Roxas begins to dissolve into light bidding Axel farewell, who sheds a visible tear as he fades away with the reply – “right back at you…buddy.”
Kingdom Hearts’ Most Heartbreaking Moments
1. Xion’s Death
Whilst Nobodies aren’t meant to exist, Xion was a failed experiment, a backup plan of a backup plan.
Not a true Nobody but a replica of Roxas, she’s made of Sora’s fractured memories, closely resembling Kairi, developed to catch these memories and serve as another keyblade wielder for Organization XIII.
Xion became aware of her purpose as a puppet for their leader Xemnas, knowing that she’d cause Roxas to disappear if she lingered too long.
She shared a strong bond with him and Axel, the trio inseparable, bonded by the sacred oath of friendship – ice cream.
At the finale of 358/2 Days, she fights Roxas, so full of Sora’s memories that she has his face. She forces Roxas to battle her, needing to absorb Roxas to be complete.
The pair battle across the many worlds of Sora’s memories, Xion eventually felled and absorbed by Roxas, her plan all along.
All memories of Xion begin to fade as she flows back into Sora, Roxas somehow able to recall her as she lies dying in his arms. She did this to protect her friend, giving her life to save his, choosing to die by Roxas’ hand instead of following the fate that was laid out for the pair.
She asks Roxas to free the hearts she captured during their missions from Kingdom Hearts, holding her hand to her best friend’s face, she crystalizes and fades away, never to truly return.
Kingdom Hearts III launches in less than a week, in the meantime, you can check our list of Kingdom Hearts spinoffs ranked from most to least crucial, check out the game’s voice actors, take a tour of the Kingdom Hearts exhibition at the Tokyo Skytree or test your knowledge with our quiz.
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