Vanitas

Vanitas (ヴァニタス, Vanitasu), also known as The Masked Boy (仮面の少年, Kamen no Shōnen), is a Keyblade wielder, the creation and second apprentice of Master Xehanort, the embodiment of the extracted darkness from Ventus' heart and the progenitor of the Unverseds.

Vanitas's name is derived from the Latin word for "Vanity" or "Emptiness", and was chosen for its meaning, that it sounded similar to "Ventus" and that it was a written pun on "Sora" in Japanese.

"He has no control over the darkness in his heart. The Keyblade is not his to bear. He's an abomination beyond hope of salvation."
 * —Master Xehanort to Terra, regarding Vanitas.

Appearance & Biography

 * Voice Actor: Haley Osment (English), Miyu Irino (Japanese), Not Known (Italian), Not Known (Spanish), Not Known (German), Not Known (Finnish), Not Known (Korean), Not Known (French), Not Known (Latin American Spanish)

Biography
Vanitas, a mysterious boy figure who hides his face behind a mask. He has ties to Master Xehanort.

He warned Ventus that Terra was in some kind of danger, but disappeared before explaining any further.

Appearance
Vanitas wears a black and red organic-looking bodysuit, which is quite similar to Riku's Dark Mode. He wears a silver helmet covered with dark glass, hiding his face from view. Behind his mask, he looks identical to Sora, although he possesses golden-yellow eyes, jet-black hair, paler skin and a taller, more muscular build.

In an interview with Tetsuya Nomura as well as various novelizations of the game, it is revealed that this similarity is due to Sora's heart connecting with Ventus near the beginning of the game, and had anyone else connected with Ventus's heart, Vanitas would look like that person. His appearance prior to Ventus's connection with Sora was that of a humanoid creature similar to a Heartless but with red eyes.

He normally wields his personal Keyblade, the Void Gear, that is colored primarily in red and black, with two blue eyes like Riku's Soul Eater and Way to the Dawn, Terra's Chaos Ripper, Master Xehanort's personal Keyblade and the alternate reality Xehanort's Keyblade. However, near the end of Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, he gains the χ-blade, and when he fuses with Ventus, he also alters Ventus's body to accommodate his yellow eyes and bodysuit.


 * Hair Color: Jet-Black
 * Skin Color: Not Known
 * Eye Color: Golden-Yellow
 * Height: Not Known
 * Weight: Not Known

Personality
"There, you're gonna see me choke the life out of Terra and Aqua. Then we'll just see how long you play the pacifist."
 * —Vanitas to Ventus.

As the "dark" half of Ventus's Heart, Vanitas was at first much like him. However, due to the suffering he endured by the hands of Master Xehanort, and his desperate desire for salvation, he became proud, cunning, and cruel in order to achieve enough strength to forge the χ-Blade with Ventus, believing that to be the salvation he desires. As such, the lives of others, including that of even Master Xehanort, hold absolutely no value to him, and he shows zero remorse for his actions. As a pragmatist, he will strike without a moment's thought, warning, or hesitation, as seen when he ambushes Aqua in the Keyblade Graveyard and attempts to eliminate her.

Despite his loyalty to Master Xehanort, he has no qualms with disregarding his orders if he feels the need arises; for example, he attempts to eliminate Ventus after defeating him in their first battle despite full knowledge that Master Xehanort needed Ventus alive for his plans, all while openly acknowledging that he would be going against Xehanort's plans by doing so.

He is also shown to be an uncaring, cold, and ruthless individual, having not the slightest sympathy for anyone but himself. Vanitas holds everything and everyone in contempt, and holds a great resentment against Ventus and the friends he has. The envy he feels against them is seen in his frequent criticizing of Ventus's friendships with Terra and Aqua, when he callously breaks Ventus's wooden Keyblade while cruelly antagonizing Aqua for playing with the Lost Boys, his constantly calling Ventus "idiot", and forcing Ventus to fight him by threatening to kill Terra and Aqua after Ventus refused to.

He also possesses a high degree of arrogance, believing his skills surpass all others; in his first fight with Aqua, he claims that he will be the only one that will walk away alive, even bursting into a fit of laughter upon defeat. When fighting her for the final time, Vanitas taunts her by sarcastically asking if she has given up, and boasts that Aqua was just "wasting her energy" trying to stop him. Right before possessing Ventus, he remarks that Ventus never stood a chance against him and Master Xehanort.

When fighting Ventus for the final time, he laughs when Ventus declared he would defeat him and destroy the χ-blade. During this same battle, Vanitas directly states his belief that he is the superior half of Ventus's heart. This extreme overconfidence in his abilities usually leads to his downfall as he underestimates his opponents when fighting.

The only time in the entire game when Vanitas expresses genuine concern and fear is when he has been defeated by Ventus for the final time. He begins to panic and makes a desperate attempt to grab the floating χ-blade in a hopeless flurry to hold onto his only way of salvation before dying. Despite his villainous and fearsome persona, however, Vanitas was actually a tragic and sympathetic character, having become the way he was due to Xehanort's ambitions and manipulations.

Powers
Vanitas is, to say the least, a skilled and extremely aggressive opponent, showing a mastery in both dark magic and wielding the Keyblade. He is swift and agile, able to perform complicated and nearly impossible acrobatic feats such as jumping off of a high cliff while landing squarely on his feet, and even riding a cloud of flying Keyblades. He can teleport behind opponents at high speeds to launch attacks while leaving after-images of himself to confuse them.

He is also able to combine physical combos with magic such as attacking from above and causing a large pillar of ice to shoot out of the ground, or attacking opponents from below while bombarding them with fireballs. He can also leap into the air and fire multiple dark lightning bolts from his own Keyblade, as well as energize the Keyblade with darkness. Vanitas can also fire dark energy blasts from his own Keyblade, and even has his own personal Shotlock dubbed the "Dark Cannon", wherein he creates three large crystals which focus together and fire a large beam of dark energy.

He appears to have superhuman endurance, surviving most of his battles while taking little to no bodily damage, able to make instant recoveries. Vanitas also seems to possess superhuman strength; while possessing Ventus, he is able to shatter Ventus's metaphysical Dive to the Heart pillar with a single strike, break Terra's wooden Keyblade in half with little effort, and create a gust of wind powerful enough to send Aqua and Mickey flying with a single swing of his arm. It is most likely that these actions were made possible only through the χ-blade, which Vanitas wielded on both occasions.

Vanitas is also a difficult opponent to fight in close combat, as he can quickly counterattack if struck multiple times, making him very dangerous. He also demonstrates the ability to levitate. Though he typically uses the Corridors of Darkness to travel, it is shown that Vanitas is freely capable of surviving in and navigating the Lanes Between unaided by surrounding himself in an aura of dark energy.

While Vanitas acts based on his own desires, it appears that Master Xehanort can summon him at will. Vanitas's arguably most dangerous and destructive ability, however, is the power to create and control the Unverseds. As he was born from the purest form of darkness, Vanitas can manipulate negative emotions and spawn them as Unverseds. Vanitas can also absorb the negativity of any defeated Unverseds, able to summon them if needed. According to the novels, the destruction of each Unverseds actually causes Vanitas physical pain.

Weapons
Vanitas wields a Keyblade known as the Void Gear, and has a battle pose that is very similar to Riku's and Master Xehanort's stance. The Keyblade can be summoned at will, appearing in Vanitas's hand in a flash of purple flame. Vanitas can energize the weapon with dark energy, increasing his attack strength. The Vanitas Remnant also wields a monochrome version of this Keyblade.

When fused with Ventus, Vanitas gains the ability to wield the most powerful Keyblade of all, the χ-blade. This weapon multiplies his initial strength and attack range a great deal. Vanitas shows great skill in wielding both the incomplete and finalized versions of the χ-blade, able to perform strong combos and powerful desperation moves.