Ansem (Xehanort's Heartless)

**"Ansem" (aka Xehanort's Heartless)** is a major antagonist of the ***Kingdom Hearts*** video game series and its following manga/novel series. He serves as the main antagonist in Kingdom Hearts and a supporting antagonist in Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts III.

He is the Heartless of **"Xehanort"**, who in reality is the possessed Keyblade Wielder Terra. Unlike his original self, Ansem seems to fully embrace his nature as a malicious being who desires to consume the universe with darkness. **"Ansem"**was responsible for causing multiple worlds to plunge into darkness with his Heartless Army.

He also manipulated the Disney Villains into collecting the Seven Princesses of Heart for him and constantly tormented Riku over being incapable of protecting anyone he cares about with hopes of seducing him to the darkness. He was ultimately destroyed at the hands of Riku during the events of Chain of Memories but vowed to return as the shadow that haunts the depths of light.

## Appearance

Ansem is a humanoid Heartless with a menacing figure, glowing yellow eyes, and dark-brown skin that reflects his nature in Darkness. Ansem also has long white hair with several spikes that point straight forward or upwards, resembling his original self Terra-Xehanort.

Ansem's main outfit consists of him wearing a blackish-gray long coat with several gray-colored straps on his shoulder pads. 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.

## Personality

Ansem is a warped, cold-hearted man filled with malicious intentions. As the heartless of "Xehanort", Ansem shows great interest in his research and believes that all worlds were born in darkness from the beginning. He possesses a calculating persona as he manipulated many Disney villains into carrying out his plans to unlock the true nature of Kingdom Hearts. Ansem expresses a no-nonsense personality when dealing with those he considers insignificant specks and treats them as objects to be used.

This is shown when he immediately slaughters Maleficent after seeing her fail to stop Sora and friends from ascending further into Hollow Bastion. He shows little regard for anyone's well-being and willingly attempts to murder both Sora and Kairi without hesitation when fully controlling Riku's body. Ansem also possesses strong intelligence, using his knowledge about the worlds and cosmos to control the Heartless to conquer many worlds for his needs.

Unlike other Heartless, Ansem retains his original self's characteristics, carrying on the heart of "Xehanort" despite the latter splitting himself apart. His apparent lack of humanity towards the universe and his will to seduce his victims into becoming pawns of darkness all originated from the twisted scientist himself.

An interesting note is that despite his 'supposed' destruction during the events of *Kingdom Hearts*, the Heartless began to develop an interest in his victim Riku. This obsession mostly involved Ansem trying in many ways to brainwash the boy back into his vessel. Riku, however, decided to reject Ansem's words and instead took his own path to dawn, infuriating Ansem in the process. Despite Riku's rebellion against his beliefs, Ansem was still determined to seduce Riku back to the darkness, no matter how many times he failed.

## Relationships

### Riku

It is notable that throughout the series, Ansem takes great interest in Riku as he constantly attempts to draw back the youth into becoming his new vessel. He even attempts to mentally break down Riku by reminding him of his past misdeeds, showing how ruthless Ansem can be in terms of character. Despite failing to possess Riku two times, Ansem remains determined to convince Riku to join him in his pursuit of darkness. This is most likely due to how Master Xehanort saw the potential in Terra's darkness as Ansem did so for Riku upon their first encounter.