Aqua (Kingdom Hearts Universe)

**Aqua** (アクア, *Akua*), also known as **Master Aqua** (マスター・アクア, *Masutā Akua*), is both a fictional character and one of the main protagonists from the *Kingdom Hearts* series. She is one of the Keyblade Wielders: Keyblade-wielding warriors training under Master Eraqus, along with Terra and Ventus, before Sora. Like her friends, it's her dream to become a Keyblade Master, a dream only she alone was able to accomplish from the three; at the cost of her freedom and her friends' safety.

Following the disappearance of Master Xehanort, a comrade of Eraqus, Aqua and Terra are tasked with searching for him as while protecting the worlds from creatures known as Unversed. The only connection between the two is that Aqua met Kairi in Radiant Garden and put a protective spell on her necklace, which would later brought Kairi to Destiny Islands. Kairi, by accidentally touching Aqua's Keyblade during this time as well, also inherited the Keyblade from Aqua.

"*The battle for the realm of light...is not won. Thanks to Terra and Mickey, I know what's at stake. I'm not afraid. I will face the long darkness. The next time someone wanders into the realm of darkness. I'll be here. A light to cut through all the shadows. I will be their wayfinder. And one day, I'll return to Terra and Ven. I am Master Aqua. And that's a promise.*"

—Aqua.

## Appearance & Biography

*Voice actor:* Willa Holland (English), Megumi Toyoguchi (Japanese), Not Known (French), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Dutch), Not Known (Chinese), Not Known (German), Not Known (Hebrew), Not Known (Hungarian), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (Norwegian), Not Known (Polish), Not Known (Romanian), Not Known (Russian), Not Known (Poland), Not Known (Serbian), Nit Known (Spanish), Not Known (Swedish), Not Known (Thai), Not Known (European Spanish), Not Known (Latin American Spanish), Not Known (Brazilian Portuguese), Not Known (European Portuguese), Not Known (Latin Spanish)

### Appearance

Aqua looks slightly like Kairi, but older. She has similar blue eyes, but her hair is blue and shorter. She wears a black and blue, high-collared halter top, two pink, intersecting belts over her chest, and black shorts. She wears an odd silver badge similar to badges also worn by Ven and Terra, though Terra's is gold. On Aqua's arms are white bell-sleeves and tan, fingerless gloves. She also wears a small, segmented piece of armor on each of her upper arms. She wears what appear to be black stockings or socks on her legs which reach to about halfway up her thighs, leaving a small area of bare skin on her upper thighs.

Aqua also bears two strips of blue cloth that drape over either side of her hips, along with a smaller, white strip of cloth tied around her waist, draped in the same manner. Finally, she wears pointed, armored, silver boots with a sharp "hook" on the outer side of each.

#### Keyblade Armor

By touching the piece of armor hanging on her left of right arm, Aqua will become full clad in her Keyblade Armor. Aqua's armor is mostly colored in shades of silver, black, grey and blue. Notable additions include a silver breastplate resembling an upside-down crescent moon and a dark-visored helmet. Her helmet, like Ventus and Terra's, bears two prongs on either side, with her silver ones wrapping around the sides and angling diagonally downwards. Her cape is that of a dusty-rose color.

Aqua's armor remains largely unchanged, though she loses her cape and grey becomes a more dominant color than black or blue. She also gains more armor near her upper legs and hips.

* Hair Color: Blue
* Skin Color: Not Known
* Eye Color: Blue
* Age: Not Known
* Birthday: Not Known
* Height: Not Known
* Weight: Not Known

## Personality

Aqua is the most headstrong of the trio of protagonists in *Birth by Sleep*. She displays true elegance while fighting, and will do anything to protect her friends. Aqua is also shown to be very sociable with children, quickly befriending Kairi, Sora and Riku. When relaxed she can be very friendly and comedic, but when angered, she can become aggressive.

Aqua bears some similarities to Kairi and Sora, primarily in her sisterly affection and devotion for her closest friends. This is displayed by when she makes lucky charms for them, does everything in her power to protect Ventus (despite his apparent discouragement whenever she tells him to go home), her confidence that Terra will overcome the darkness, and when she sacrificed herself by stranding herself in the Realm of Darkness in order to save him.

Aqua is acting very respectful toward elders and authorities such as Master Eraqus, Queen Minnie and the Grand Councilwoman. However, like Eraqus, Aqua is also strict, stubborn, and overprotective, which sometimes makes her seem condescending. She always worries about Ventus because of his age and lack of experience, ordering him to go home whenever she finds him without giving him a chance to prove himself.

She is always worrying about Terra and Ventus, who are two of her closest friends. Although, like Sora, Aqua is comedically insecure in a romantic sense, so when Zack asks her out on a date, she shakes her head, wildly waves her arms, avoids eye contact, stutters, blushes, and embarrassed, desperately trying to compose herself. She also quickly changes the subject when Hercules asks why her face is red.

She typically seems rather modest, as despite becoming a master already, she still referred to herself as a trainee. The only time she referred to herself as "Master Aqua" was toward the end, when she fights the possessed Terra (only even then only as an intimidation tactic). Aqua is remarkably calm and dead-set on her goals, and only threats on her loved ones seem to make her lose her composure.

Aqua may debatably be the true hero. She was the only one officially dubbed a Keyblade master, and unlike Ventus and Terra, she never strayed from the path of light and her actions were all selfless and intended to help her friends, and to free the worlds from sinister forces. Despite this, her bluntness in talking with Terra and Ventus unintentionally pushed them further down their paths and into Master Xehanort's trap, indicating a "react" personality, rather than an "act" personality.

However, despite her flaws, when the situation demands it, Aqua's kindness, overall skill, serious, determination, strong willed, intelligence, and responsible make her the most reliable and competent out of Eraqus' three apprentices, and unquestionably worthy to be a Keyblade Master. She is also similar to Sora in that she holds a strong sense of justice and desire to do what is right. Her judgments between what is right and wrong are never misplaced, although Ventus and Terra sometimes lose sight of the right thing to do.

## Relationships

### Friends/Allies

* Terra
* Ventus
* Master Eraqus
* Kairi
* Sora
* Riku
* Ansem the Wise
* Final Fantasy
	+ Zack Fair
* numerous Disney characters
	+ King Mickey
	+ Yen Sid
	+ Donald Duck
	+ Goofy
	+ Prince Charming
	+ Cinderella
	+ Jaq
	+ Fairy Godmother
	+ Grand Duke
	+ The Prince
	+ Snow White
	+ Doc
	+ Bashful
	+ Happy
	+ Sleepy
	+ Sneezy
	+ Grumpy
	+ Dopey
	+ Magic Mirror
	+ Prince Phillip
	+ Princess Aurora
	+ Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather
	+ Scrooge McDuck
	+ Merlin
	+ Horace Horsecollar
	+ Queen Minnie
	+ Pluto
	+ Daisy Duck
	+ Hercules
	+ Philoctetes
	+ Stitch
	+ Peter Pan
	+ Lost Boys
	+ Tinker Bell

### Enemies

* Xehanort
	+ Xehanort (Young)
* Unversed
	+ Vanitas
* Braig
* Organization XIII
	+ Xemnas
	+ Xigbar
* Heartless
	+ Ansem, Seeker of Darkness
* numerous Disney villains
	+ Lady Tremaine
	+ Anastasia Tremaine
	+ Drizella Tremaine
	+ Maleficent
	+ Goons
	+ Diablo
	+ Pete
	+ The Evil Queen
	+ Hades
	+ Captain Gantu
	+ Jumba Jookiba
	+ Captain Hook
	+ Mr. Smee
	+ Monstro

## Powers and Abilities

Aqua is a skilled magic user and is a Keyblade user who has proven herself to be a formidable combatant while in battle. The Keyblades she uses all focus on magical strength. Out of the trio, she is the most balanced in terms of strength and speed, making her a capable physical fighter.

She has the most expertise in magic compared to Terra and Ventus, utilizing a barrage of spells as her style, and can use Barrier to completely protect herself. Aqua's magic also gives her access to elemental spells, including special variations of Fire, Ice, and Thunder. Aqua's mastery of magic is comparable to Donald Duck and Master Xehanort in the *Kingdom Hearts* series.

### Abilities

Aqua is described by Tetsuya Nomura as being "tricky". A magic-based fighter with agility to boot, she's capable of doing cartwheels while attacking with her Keyblade. While she's more than capable physically, her prowess lies with a more magic-oriented fighting style, being versed in all forms of it.

Aqua is second only to Master Xehanort in terms of magic amongst Keyblade Users, displaying superior skill to both Terra and Ven as well as later Keyblade users such as Sora and Riku. She has her own special variations of the Fire, Ice, and Thunder spells, and can cast the Reflect spell indefinitely without tiring, effectively giving Aqua a 360 degree defensive zone. She can also augment her jumping abilities with magic. She is slower than Ventus, but is faster than Terra, with her slender frame making her a difficult target. Small petals also appear when she summons her Keyblade. Her well known Command Styles are:

* Spell Weaver: Her own exclusive Command Style; it utilizes the power of light to hover her Keyblade in midair, swiftly attacking enemies while enhancing her magic capabilities as well. Activated by filling the Command Gauge with a variety of multiple magic-based commands. The finisher consists of Aqua performing a magical spin attack that can be controlled with the analog stick. This was called **"Magic Wish"** in the Japanese release.

* Ghost Drive: Aqua's high speed Command Style and exclusive to her; it allows her to attack enemies at high speeds while using after-image illusions and tricky movements to her advantage. Activated by filling the Style Gauge with Thunder, Reprisal, and Magnet-based commands. The finisher consists of Aqua circling a certain area to impale magical pikes into the ground before creating an explosion.

### Weapons

Aqua's exclusive Keychains generally share a water-theme and are primarily focused on magical strength; in fact, her "Brightcrest" is the most magically-powerful Keyblade form in the game. Her Keyblade and its forms are of medium length, between those of Ventus and Terra.

Aqua starts off with her personal "Rainfell", but after visiting the Destiny Islands, she obtains a more powerful version of it named "Stormfall". However, after falling into the Realm of Darkness, she sacrifices her Keyblade and Keyblade Armor to save Terra, and is forced to use the Master Keeper, which she had retrieved earlier while visiting the Land of Departure and converting it into Castle Oblivion.

## Translation and Dub Issues

Her name is Latin for "water", while Kairi's name in Japanese means "sea". The official Japanese website refers to Aqua as the "**Dancing Waters Forming Bonds**" (絆繋ぐ舞水, *Kizuna Tsunagu Busui*).

## Etymology

Sora's name is Japanese for "sky" (空), as part of the name theme he shares with Riku and Kairi. Together, their names make up "Land, Sea, Sky".

## External links

* Aqua *Wikipedia*
* Aqua *Kingdom Hearts Wiki*
* Aqua *Kingdom Hearts Wiki, the Kingdom Hearts encyclopedia*
* Aqua *Disney Wiki*

## Notes & Trivia

* Aqua's outfit was changed during production, because it was thought to be too revealing to show her exposed back.
* Aqua, Ven, and Terra all complete different tasks (mini-games) in the DisneyTown world, which results in all three of them winning the Million Dreams Award. A cutscene is shown in each story where they all receive it, but just missed each other. Logically, this doesn't make sense to hold the Award ceremony 3 times to equate for them all missing each other. However, the cutscene only plays the first time after playing as two of the other characters first, meaning if Terra and Ventus are played first, the cutscene would first play during Aqua's story. However, because it does not force the player to play as Terra, then Ventus, and finally Aqua (as suggested by Nomura), it will unlock whoever's story the player finished last. Subsequent replays, however, play the scene no matter what, due to it being unlocked already.