Ansem the Wise

Ansem the Wise is the sage-king of Radiant Garden.

In order to protect his people from the darkness, he spent much of his time studying the heart with his apprentices (Braig, Dilan, Even, Aeleus, Ienzo, and Xehanort), but was eventually exiled to the Realm of Darkness when they were corrupted by that same darkness.

He himself gained dark powers, renaming himself **DiZ** (*Darkness in Zero*) and setting out on a quest to avenge himself.

He served as a somewhat mentor to the Saviours during the Kingdom Hearts Saga.

## Appearance

Ansem the Wise originally wore a periwinkle labcoat, identical to those worn by some of his apprentices (Even, Ienzo, and Xehanort), save for the color.

Underneath this, he wore a dark grey vest, white collared shirt, and a violet ascot, as well as black pants and shoes.

He also draped a red sweater or coat of some sort over his shoulders. Ansem's hair was blond and worn long and slicked back.

He also sported a short mustache and goatee.

His eyes are bright orange.

## Personality

Originally, Ansem was a peaceful and kind scholar, who sought to learn more to help him in his reign as Radiant Garden's king. He was willing to trust his closest students with his findings and even asked for their assistance.

Upon nursing Terra-Xehanort back to health, Ansem let him live in his castle, showing compassion for people with amnesia.

He bonded with King Mickey, forming a deep friendship that helped heal his heart in times of stress.

However, he could be stern, given he yelled at Xehanort for trying to continue their taboo experiments.

After being banished by the Nobodies of his apprentices, Ansem became consumed by hatred, though still retained his dedication to protecting the worlds.

Because of his apprentices, he held a strong prejudice against Nobodies, seeing them as nothing but an empty existence taking up space.

This is shown by his use of the term "witch" to describe Naminé, and his refusal to allow Roxas to know the truth about his existence, saying that "a Nobody doesn't have a right to know. Nor does it even have a right to be".

After his encounters with the Saviours, Ansem began to see how much he had hurt others in his quest for vengeance.

An indication of how greatly he was affected, is seen by his laughing when Riku introduces himself as "Ansem", as means to mask the pain he felt for causing him to go so far to awaken Sora.

After contemplating on how ruthless he had been all just for revenge and how unfair his treatment of Roxas and Namine was, Ansem felt deep remorse and guilt for so easily succumbing to his desire for revenge and how it caused the suffering of many callously.

His desire to repent reached levels where he was more than willing to give his life to atone and he sincerely apologized to Roxas for how coldly and unceremoniously he treated him before his death.

Learning from his lessons of trying to experiment with the heart, Ansem fully acknowledged and showed no bitterness on how little he understood the workings of a heart, instead simply laughing and calling himself a fool for it.

When facing Xemnas, the very apprentice who had betrayed him, rather than angrily charging at him, Ansem focused solely on encoding Kingdom Hearts but this did not prevent him from exchanging bitter words with Xemnas.

## Skills & Abilities

Ansem the Wise has no combat abilities to speak of, but since gaining the power of darkness during his banishment, he has been shown to be able to do at least three things.

In one of his reports, Ansem stated that after he discovered his new-found powers, he gained the ability to use Corridors of Darkness for travel, though he admits that it was difficult to control initially.

This was shown after Riku defeats Roxas; Ansem arrives shortly to take Roxas with him.

To avoid being recognized, Ansem has also displayed the ability to change his outward appearance to conceal his identity.

In *Chain of Memories*, he uses this ability to become Xehanort's Heartless to guide Riku.

He also seems to be quite skilled at manipulating the darkness around himself and in other people's hearts.

Both cases were shown when Ansem, as Xehanort's Heartless, easily deflects an attack from Riku with a shield of darkness and when he unlocks the darkness within Riku's heart to allow him to wield it as a weapon.

Ansem is also a technical genius, having created a functioning digital replica of Twilight Town.

His facility in Twilight Town is a very high-tech laboratory, filled with computer screens and several suspended-animation pods.

He also was able to copy the body of his research, and himself, into the Saviours's heart whilst Naminé restored their memories.