Marluxia

*"Spell icup ni\*\*a"*
—Marluxia to Sora

**Marluxia**, the Graceful Assassin (優雅なる凶刃 *Yūga-naru Kyōjin*, lit. Graceful Assassin's Blade), is Rank XI within the original Organization XIII, the lord of Castle Oblivion, and the main antagonist of Sora's story in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. He controls flowers, and he uses this attribute to command flower-themed minions to shoot beams of destructive energy, as well as to bombard the opponent with flurries of petals. Scythes are his weapon of choice.

Originally discovered by senior Organization member Xigbar, Marluxia is the mastermind of an internal rebellion in the Organization against Xemnas, putting him at odds with fellow members Axel and Zexion. Marluxia makes an appearance in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days and is a playable character in Mission Mode.

## Story

### Between Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

In an unknown world, Marluxia's Heartless was created, his strong will allowing his original persona to continue on as a Nobody, Marluxia. Marluxia was discovered by Xigbar and became the eleventh member of Organization XIII. When the twelfth member, Larxene, joined the ranks, she approached Marluxia and asked how he joined the Organization. Marluxia responded that it was no different from how he was first found, and they both shared their thoughts about how boring they find the castle. The discussion soon shifted to their roles in the Organization, including the importance of having hearts. When Larxene said that having a heart was painful and was comfortable as a Nobody, Marluxia concurred that they were better off not regaining their hearts.

As the two walked off together, they started formulating plans to overthrow Organization XIII.

### Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days

Like other members of the Organization, Marluxia aids Roxas in at least one mission, during which he is quite polite to Roxas. On the first, he teaches Roxas how to collect hearts and teaches him about the Heartless. He explains the differences between Pureblood Heartless and Emblem Heartless and instructs him to only attack Emblem Heartless, because only they release Hearts. He also explains to Roxas that as he releases Hearts, they will come together to form Kingdom Hearts, and that Roxas is the first member of the Organization to be able to do so. This also shows his lust for the Keyblade. On the next mission, Marluxia helps Roxas fight some Dire Plants by The Old Mansion and a Zip Slasher in Twilight Town. Later, he is assigned to Castle Oblivion with the other members.

Before Axel leaves for Castle Oblivion, it is revealed that Saïx knew about Marluxia's plans to overthrow the Organization. That is why he sent them and the other "suspicious" members to the castle in the first place along with Axel, who was given orders to eliminate any of the members that planned to overthrow the Organization.

*"You will die after a number of hits matching your level, you must either avoid damage or use my "Restore Count" reaction command liberally to attain victory over me"*
—After looking at Roxas's Keyblade.
*"I think that the KH fan art on Deviant art are all excellent pieces of art"*
— Marluxia when activating her Limit Break.
*"Look up Kingdom Hearts on tumblr. Do it."*
— Marluxia when activating his Final Limit.

*"Hey how u doin lil mama let me whisper in ya ear"*
— after completing the mission.

### *Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories*

*"Bush did harambe!"*
—Marluxia
Marluxia, working with Larxene and Axel, plots to overthrow the Organization. They formulate a plan to use a young girl named Naminé, who has a mysterious power over memory, to deceive Sora into thinking he had sworn to protect her, and then have her use Sora to help them defeat the senior Organization members. This plot stems from a rivalry between some of the younger Organization members and the original six core members. Vexen, Larxene, and Axel all do their part to feed Sora with information and lure him further into the castle. Each of them fight him on their own, although none of them use their full strength and throw the fights. They also make use of Vexen's Riku Replica to compete with Sora for Naminé's loyalty.

Marluxia and Larxene eventually learn that Vexen has been reporting back to Lexaeus and Zexion regarding their revolt. After Vexen loses control of the Riku Replica, Marluxia pronounces his project a failure. Vexen tries to put Marluxia in his place, citing the latter's lower rank, but Marluxia reminds him that Xemnas gave him the authority to do so as lord of the castle, and as such, defying him means defying the Organization. Threatening to report Vexen's failure to Xemnas, Marluxia tells the scientist to eliminate Sora to prove his worth. However, he dies to mysterious ways. As Sora nears the top floors of the castle, Axel, left alone with Naminé to keep watch over her, allows her to escape, ending her continued restructuring of Sora's memories. This prompts Larxene to attack Sora shortly after he defeats the Riku Replica for the final time, but she is eliminated in the struggle, leaving only Marluxia to carry out the plot.

Refusing to concede defeat, Marluxia recaptures Naminé while Sora is absent and returns to his lair on the castle's thirteenth floor, where he is confronted by Axel. Marluxia accuses him of treason, but is branded a traitor himself by Axel, making Marluxia realize that the Organization had anticipated his treachery. The two Nobodies fight, with Marluxia displaying an eerie speed, and they appear to be evenly matched. Marluxia gains the upper hand using Naminé as a living shield, and while Axel isn't daunted, Sora appears in the room at that very moment. Marluxia explains Axel's willingness to hurt Naminé to get to him and sets Sora on him, while he flees with Naminé in tow. Sora denies being Marluxia's puppet and defeats Axel in combat, but Axel manages to escape.

Sora pursues Marluxia into his inner chambers. Marluxia orders Naminé to completely erase Sora's memory and destroy his heart, hoping to rebuild him into something more to his liking afterward. However, Naminé, remembering Sora's kindness towards her, flat-out refuses the order, even when faced with elimination. Marluxia is perplexed when Sora orders Naminé to do so for her own safety, and even more so when the revived Riku Replica attacks. Confused and irritated that Sora and the replica would accept their memories of Naminé with the full knowledge that they are lies, Marluxia attacks them.

Sora destroys Marluxia, but he finds that the real Marluxia has been hiding in a back room and that his opponent had only been an imitation. Sora advances into the final room to confront the true Marluxia and defeats him in the final battle. Marluxia reaches out to Sora as he begins to fade back into darkness, but he soon vanishes in a flurry of flower petals, effectively making him the fourth member of Organization XIII to fall.

*"Nothing personnel kid."*
——  First floor of castle Oblivion,
*"Prepare for a new experience...."*
——  In Traverse Town.
*"All hail the king."*
—— before fighting Sora.
*"TWO?!"*
— starting the second battle.

"Dude, BUFF RIKU, LMAO."
— upon being defeated in the second battle.

*"Snape kills dumbledore"*
— when killed.

### *Kingdom Hearts II*

Marluxia is seen guiding Sora towards Castle Oblivion in the last of Roxas's dreams.

Sora also unlocks Marluxia's Journal entry after accessing Ansem's computer.

Marluxia's Absent Silhouette appears in Beast's Room after Sora returns to Beast's Castle, and after he is defeated, his data is added to that contained in the computer at the Garden of Assemblage, activating his Replica Data.

## Powers

Marluxia fights using the attribute of *Flower* and wields a large, rose pink and dark green scythe. The petals he commands have the appearance of cherry blossoms in *Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories*, but they have been changed to resemble rose petals in the remake.

Marluxia has two forms in the original *Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories*, and three in *Re:Chain of Memories*. While in basic Nobody form, he can attack normally with his scythe or use it to slash at an enemy from a distance using energy waves.

Despite his arrogant nature, Marluxia has proven to be quite powerful. With his command over flowers, he can create a full-body replica of himself made of petals, send a flurry of blossoms at his opponent, and in *Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories*, create a powerful shockwave by hitting the ground with his scythe. Like most Organization members from *Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories*, Marluxia moves by levitating. In the remake, he can also teleport freely. This is also the only form which he is constrained to the use of an actual deck.

In his first final form, Marluxia makes use of a mechsuit-like Nobody called the Specter to slash at Sora with its scythe-arms or charge him and cause massive damage upon impact. He can also summon three petals to fire pink beams of energy at Sora and send blasts of energy from the bottom of the contraption. In the remake, the Nobody is also capable of harnessing darkness, with which it can shroud the entire battlefield.

Marluxia's additional final form in *Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories* brings Marluxia and Sora into combat upon a larger version of the Specter from the previous battle floating in a starry-night environment surrounded by circulating rings. A large angelic Nobody stands behind Marluxia wielding a gigantic version of his Graceful Dahlia. Marluxia is held immobile during this fight by thornbeams and is, therefore, unable to dodge most attacks.

From his stationary position, Marluxia fights mainly by issuing commands to the angelic Nobody, who can create shockwaves, shoot a sweeping laser, blow gusts of wind that prevent Sora from moving forward, and create a whirlwind that scatters all of Sora's cards, including his reload card. Sora must then pick up the cards in order to reclaim them, including the reload card. During Marluxia's potentially most devastating sleight, he shoots thornbeams at Sora that trigger a countdown timer similar to the recurring *Final Fantasy* spell "Doom", in which, if the counter reaches zero, the fight is instantly lost. He can also trigger the one rotating ring around the battlefield, causing it to fire lasers from all directions in addition to reusing the ray-shooting rose petals.

In *Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix*, Marluxia returns in an optional battle with new tactics. He begins the battle by whispering in Sora's ear, which causes a countdown timer to appear above Sora's head based on his current level, similar to the hit point condition of the Titan Cup, and then spends most of the battle attacking Sora relentlessly with his scythe, with each hit depleting the timer by one, though causing no additional damage.

If the timer reaches zero, Sora loses the battle, but the timer can be increased by using the Reaction Command "Rob Count", in which Sora grabs Marluxia's scythe, knocks him into the air, and hurls the weapon at him, adding thirteen points to the counter. Marluxia also can conjure dark pools of energy which cover a majority of the battlefield and deal damage to Sora's HP, leaving the death timer unaffected. Marluxia can wheel around the battlefield swinging his scythe, and he also can hover above Sora, attacking him with his scythe while summoning pillars of energy from under the ground to damage to Sora.

In the original *Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories*, the real Marluxia is only fought once, unlike most of the main antagonists, such as Ansem and Xemnas, who must be fought and defeated multiple times before they are finally eliminated.

In *Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days*, Marluxia's Limit Break, Bloom-Out causes him to swing his scythe radially around himself.

## Weapon

True to his title, the Graceful Assassin, Marluxia wields a large, elegant-looking Scythe called the **Graceful Dahlia** in battle. The handle of the Scythe is pastel green in coloration, and the blade is a rose pink. This evokes the appearance of a plucked flower. The connection between the blade and handle is yellow and resembles pieces of the Nobody insignia. Marluxia attacks with wide slashes and spins. He can also turn himself and his Scythe into a lethal pinwheel and fly around the battlefield, causing heavy damage to anyone who cannot dodge the attack.