Ansem, Seeker of Darkness

**Ansem, Seeker of Darkness** is Xehanort's Heartless via Terra-Xehanort. His physical appearance closely resembles that of a youthful Master Xehanort. He serves as the main antagonist of *Kingdom Hearts*, Riku's "Reverse/Rebirth" story in *Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories*, and Rank II of the real Organization XIII in *Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance* and *Kingdom Hearts III*.

Due to him having intentionally separated his heart from his body and soul before he gave into the darkness, Ansem retained his selfhood, and intelligence after his transformation into a Heartless. Because he could think out his plans and pass for a human, he was able to destroy nearly every world in the Kingdom Hearts universe without revealing his identity, up until he confronted Sora at the Final Keyhole in Hollow Bastion.

Gaining a body after his time as the Robed Figure, he gains the Heartless Emblem, becoming an Emblem Heartless.

## Appearance

Before possessing Riku, Ansem was little more than a wandering heart and could only appear as a featureless figure in a brown hooded robe. This robe has two dark brown straps crossing over his shoulders and chest with five metal studs lining either strap. Due to his lack of a body, he appears much shorter and crippled in this form and wears the robe's hood up to hide his lack of a face.

After Ansem possessed Riku, Ansem gained the ability to formed his own body, which, like his Nobody counterpart, shares Xehanort's tan skin, yellow eyes, and long white hair. However, his hair is smoothed back into three spikes on the top and sides of his head and lacks Xehanort's bangs and messy appearance.

Ansem wears a black, high-collared, leather coat that has a red interior and yellow lining. This coat is grey from the waist down and has several buttons lining the hips, a belt around his waist, and a second one that extends from the waist and up to the collar to connect to several smaller straps. The four shorter straps are buttoned to either side of the front of the collar while the remaining ones are buttoned to the shoulders to form spaulders. A black leather pauldron is attached to each spaulder by three buttons and two straps that button the rim of the coat and two more that cross over his upper back. On his upper chest is the Heartless emblem in the form of a brooch that holds the outer coat together in place of a zipper or buttons. Underneath this coat, Ansem wears a white, thigh-length vest. This vest is also high-collared and exposes most of Ansem's chest, with three black buttons and two thin belts near his waist closing it up while the three remaining buttons below are undone.

In addition, Ansem wears wide brimmed, white gloves with three buttons lining the forearms and a grey band on either wrist. He also wears black pants and black that are tucked into knee-high boots with silver trimming and high concave indentations in the top.

Because Ansem was born from the heart of Master Xehanort, his overall appearance is nearly identical to a younger version of Master Xehanort, and his clothes are extremely similar to his original incarnation's standard attire.

When Ansem transforms into the World of Chaos, he becomes titanic in size-standing at approximately twenty five feet tall-and monstrous in appearance. His clothes are gone, save for an organic-looking material resembling black muscle tissue that covers his legs and feet. This material has thick yellow cords in it that outline glossier sections of the material and the soles of his feet. His eyes are completely orange, and he is connected to the Dark Figure by seven organic-looking cords that extend from its open torso. These cords are black in color and fade into red at the base. The Heartless emblem that was originally on Ansem's chest is now attached to the cords attached to his back which he can use to seal himself when resting in the Dark Figure's chest cavity. In addition, he wields a staff as long as he is that resembles two Soul Eater's fused at the hilt, with the blades facing opposite directions.

As a member of the real Organization XIII, Ansem wears a black coat, wearing it in all of his appearances starting after Riku's battle with him in *Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance* up until the start of the Keyblade War in *Kingdom Hearts III*.

## Personality

Ansem is, thus far, one of only two Heartless with human-level intelligence, the other being Sora's Heartless. His knowledge of the worlds and hearts shows that Xehanort's keen intellect has survived the transition into a Heartless. However, what little shreds of humanity remained in the researcher have been obliterated. Ansem is cold, calculating, and utterly ruthless. He treats people and their hearts as either tools to be manipulated and disposed of, or of nothing more than cattle for himself and his ravenous Heartless legions. He reveres power and knowledge above all things, and despises ignorance.

When possessing Riku he presents a cocky, confident and self-proud demeanour, even openly smirking at Maleficent as she departs to confront the heroes.

His voice rarely rises above a cold, monotonous drone, but occasionally he displays near human like emotions. such as when he is berating Sorafor his honesty and foolishness, or gleefully reveling in his latest triumph. He is smug and boastful at times, and sports a near feral grin when confronting Sora at the Destiny Islands. Ansem is prone to self-indulgent, bombastic, and flowery speeches about the nature of darkness and the status of all worlds. However, the scientific genius of Ansem was blinded by obsession with the darkness. His arrogance ultimately led to his destruction when the door to Kingdom Hearts opened, and his greatest thesis was, in the end, proved wrong.

Because Ansem was born from the heart of Master Xehanort, he appears to share most of his personality traits with the elderly Keyblade Master, demonstrated by his choice of words when facing Sora, Donald, and Goofy, and his desire to find, open, and become one with Kingdom Hearts itself.

In *Kingdom Hearts III*, Ansem shows a level of respect for Ansem the Wise lacked by Xemnas, referring to him "master". After being defeated, Ansem display emotions that he never had prior. He seemed to show a level of a bond with Riku, fondly addressing the journey they had together and acknowledging his strength as being greater than the Darkness. Ansem also revealed his disdain for his ultimate fate, revealing that he tried to circumvent it, only to find he did not care after the others betrayed him. Showing no hostility at those who defeated him, Ansem even comforts them when they show sympathy at him, asking them to move on and seek out what is left to seek.

## Powers and Abilities

Ansem, as Xehanort's Heartless, remains the most powerful Heartless in the whole series. Due to his surpassing power, Ansem is easily capable of controlling all other lesser Heartless, able to summon and command them to do his bidding at whim. Wielding tremendous powers over darkness, Ansem is easily capable of opening a Corridor of Darkness and he makes use of his dark powers liberally to great effect, which he can do with or without the Dark Figure. Capable of performing numerous formidable maneuvers, such as firing a series of energy disks and blasts of darkness, unleashing a shock wave of dark energy, creating a shield of darkness and cloaking himself in an aura of darkness capable of protecting him from any attack, unleashing large amounts of dark tentacles in a burst of energy, creating spheres able to project dark energy at foe, manifesting a pool of darkness that homes on targets, projecting exploding crests of darkness, generating a large damaging cage of darkness and summoning violet orbs of energy capable of firing lasers, as shown in *Kingdom Hearts* and *Kingdom Hearts III*. He is even able to manipulate light to an extent, generating violet light around himself while moving to damage those he touches and also manifesting violet orbs of light. His Limitcut Replica expands on his moves, being able to use stronger versions such as conjuring more violet orbs and lasers, even raining down omnidirectional barrages of them, projecting homing crests, firing homing arrows and shields of darkness and can cloak the entire arena in darkness as he manipulates two spheres capable of firing dark elemental projectiles that deal elemental status effects and trapping Sora before exploding as well as merging them to unleash multiple blobs of darkness.

While lacking a body, he can travel through time and bestow others with the same power, doing so to entrust Young Xehanort with the task of gathering thirteen vessels of darkness. With darkness, he can remove the heart of a person and is even able to use the hearts of the Princesses of Heart to forge the Keyblade of People's Hearts. He is capable of possessing others, as he possessed Riku and greatly enhanced his dark powers, allowing him to become even faster and stronger than he was in his Dark Mode and giving him the power to fire a blast of dark energy in the form of Dark Firaga as well as further power himself in darkness. Ansem was also able to use Darkness to resurrect Ursula to use as a phantom for Sora and Riku to face. His possession can leave strong impacts of himself, as shown by how Ansem, after being destroyed, is still able to maintain consciousness due to still having part of himself inside Riku, which remains even after Riku had defeated him.

He can summon the Dark Figure which originally belonged to Terra-Xehanort; in conjunction with the Dark Figure, he is able to transform into a huge and powerful Heartless called World of Chaos. From which he can summon Bit Snipersand create large whirlwinds, his mouth can emit energy capable of taking MP and summon a black hole. He can merge with it to form an organic sphere of darkness where he resides and has the Dark Figure fire dark-charged shots and numerous Dark Firaga, unleashing shock waves. Ansem himself can cloud the entire arena in darkness and summon gravitational torrents of darkness.

Ansem can also disguise himself, and has shown to be able to teleport and open Keyholes, as well as being able to enter the world of Sleep.

Although scarcely displayed, Ansem displays considerable fighting skill in *Kingdom Hearts*when fighting as Riku, where he showcases great swordsmanship, capable of performing many powerful maneuvers and unleashing devastating counterattacks, and being capable of throwing the Keyblade he wields accurately. He also displays proficiency in using the dual-ended Soul Eater staff he manifested in his World of Chaos form, able to perform powerful swinging attacks.