Profile

Character: Vanitas
Series: Kingdom Hearts
Version: Point of death.
Age: Assumed 15 physically. Maybe 4, technically?
Gender: Male
Sexuality: He doesn’t want your sex, but he’ll gladly make sure you can’t and laugh while you writhe. >:3


Appearance:

Whether Vanitas is actually muscular for his size or his bodysuit makes it appear that way is debatable. (While the intensity of his training likely makes for a more muscular body, the fact the bodysuit appeared over Ven’s body with the same physique would lend one to think that’s simply the power of darkness.) The bodysuit appears as bands of corded muscle that wrap around various muscle groups of his body. The suit is black with red marking areas like the hands and kneecaps, and also delineating the chest muscles. A thick burgandy belt and straps hold up a tattered black and red “waist-cape,” and his thick ribbed boots come more than halfway up his shin. His face is always hidden behind a mask/helmet made of reflective tinted glass and edged at the bottom with sharp-looking chrome designs. Vanitas never takes this dark armor off, and is thus always ready for a fight.

Assuming this ever even happens in-game, behind the mask Vanitas is the spitting image of Sora. His face is youthful, but usually contorted by hatred and pride. He sports the same impossibly-spiky hair (that somehow he can see through when shoved into his helmet) though it’s black instead of brown. As a being of darkness, his eyes are bright yellow. Although deeper than Sora’s, Vanitas’s voice is at times similar and a few voice mannerisms show through on rare occasion. However, Vanitas’s manner of speaking is the most casual of any Kingdom-Hearts-specific character.


Personality:

Despite the shades of gray in much of the Kingdom Hearts series, Vanitas is one of the few who’d be considered completely black. With a personality consisting of many of the least-desirable of human emotions, he fits the classification of “evil” pretty well.

The name “Vanitas” is naturally derived from the Latin word for “vanity,” quite suiting considering the character’s immense pride. He’s quick to insult any person he feels is inferior, namely everyone. Only at the point of impending annihilation does he show fear. Even as his body died, he still taunted Ven, his heart too arrogant and willful to be snuffed out. The only character he shows ANY respect for is Master Xehanort, but even then, once out of his Master’s sight, he does as he pleases, ready to kill Ven against orders! Perhaps, then, the respect he shows Master Xehanort is because he understands how much more powerful his Master is.

It’s likely that this drive for power in his Master is attractive to Vanitas, or else he would have vanished from his Master’s sight years ago so he’d be free to do as he pleases. Why stick around? Considering that it was Vanitas who would first hold the X-blade, that terrible power, one might suspect he’d be keen to keep the weapon rather than surrendering it to his Master. Afterall, obsession over power does beckon the darkness, and Vanitas certainly is darkness. In his readiness to disobey his Master by wanting to destroy Ven, the idea of betrayal to claim power from his Master isn’t an unlikely concept. Vanitas never does say he plans on handing it over.

Considering the look on his face when he spoke of the Keyblade War happening again, he seems to delight in chaos. After all, what would he want with the light of Kingdom Hearts when he could try to take it right there and then, no competition (in his mind at least)?

Vanitas would be considered sadistic, but not in the typical sense. Larxene is more physical than he is, though he certainly isn’t above it. Vanitas prefers provocation and belittlement. He seems to take pleasure most in “pulling others down even further than they already are below him.” He often pulls people down a notch rather than taking them out... Though if the latter happened, he wouldn’t mind that, either.

Friends are useless to Vanitas. If he finds someone useful, he might make them an ally, but he’d be in it to gain more power. He comments after Aqua first defeats him that he’d keep her around as a backup (perhaps to user her as a heart of light, not caring that it isn’t pure light). Vanitas planned to kill Ven as soon as he felt Ven had served his purpose. Given these comments, Vanitas would only keep someone around if he found them useful.

Vanitas will take what he knows/learns about a person and uses it to his advantage, trying to taunt, catch them off-guard or outright provoke them. Knowing how much Ven loves Terra, he uses that fact to make him leave home. Warnings that Terra was going to leave him behind and that he’d change (for the worse) frightened Ven into pursuing his role model. There Vanitas could do what he wanted to make Ven stronger. Seeing that the wooden Keyblade was Terra’s, he knows it has an attachment to someone. He’s able to provoke Aqua by breaking it. Knowing how strong Aqua was, he was smart enough to ambush her in the Keyblade Graveyard later.

One line in the game is of particular interest. “His [Ventus’s] heart has become a part of mine now.” Considering it wasn’t Vanitas’s to begin with, it underscores his possessiveness, selfish nature, and utter arrogance.

Since Xehanort had to tell Vanitas, “Not here you won’t,” as far as breaking in Ven, he also probably doesn’t care much for appearances, either. Then again, he also had someone to do it for him, should he desire.


Abilities/Weaponry/Strengths:

Dark Corridors are a common method of travel for Vanitas. However, if he should try to go anywhere he’s never ventured before within the castle, the corridor leads into unending darkness, forcing him to go back. The same goes if he tries to leave the castle.

The masked boy is extremely agile, able to kick and do a handstand from lying on his back, or even surf on Keyblades.

Vanitas is shown in a cutscene that he’s able to summon a giant ball of flame that glows blue purple and white-hot before blasting it forward. (This may be a form of Dark Cannon.) He also has the ability to shoot dark lightning and a giant orange ball of energy that can break up and home in on targets. He can also leave an after-image of himself, meanwhile teleporting above them to strike. He can strike the ground, shooting up massive shards of ice. Vanitas can also plunge into the ground, falling into a ground-cloud of dark energy that can be used to attack opponents from below.

All Unversed come from Vanitas, as they are a dark manifestation of his negativity. When defeated, the negativity flows right back into him, which leaves him with an army at his command. Unversed come in many different shapes and sizes and seem to vary slightly based on the environment, lending to the notion that more types than seen in the game could potentially exist. (For instance, Wild Bruisers only appear in the jungle and Sonic Blasters appear in space.)

Vanitas wields Void Gear, a dark Keyblade that looks like it’s made of red and black gears and chains. Two teal slitted eyes, one at the hilt and one at the key’s “teeth” stare blankly. It’s his weapon of choice unless the X-blade were available.

Regarding personality strength, Vanitas is unflappable and unbreakable. Short of imminent annihilation, he remains calm and proud. Even if defeated, the best an opponent will likely receive is that they might have impressed Vanitas. This will allows him to get up quickly after battles.


Weaknesses:

Vanitas is amazingly human in regards to physical weakness, despite his strange origins. Except under special circumstances (which won’t come into play since he won’t be a final boss here!!!) he can be stunned, poisoned, frozen (despite his own ice-like attack), or even set on fire. He has to sleep just like everyone else (and can be put to sleep by spells). Certain spells that can pull him into the air he’s also vulnerable to (like Zero Gravity and Magnet in Square-terms).

Vanitas’s extreme pride can be his downfall. Vanitas makes allies, not friends, and even then, his own pride will keep him from making any but maybe one or two. He may possibly fail to see something due to his pride, though we never see this in canon.


History:

Vanitas was created by Xehanort when he stripped the darkness from Ven’s heart. However, since a heart is made up of light and darkness, Vanitas took a gaping chunk from Ven’s heart, leaving his other half near death. Vanitas was apparently faceless at first, and at first, near mindless, knowing at least that Xehanort was his Master. (This may denote that he had a few of Ven’s memories.) However, when Ven’s heart was exposed to and healed by Sora’s newborn heart, Vanitas was also affected, taking on much of the infant’s future visage. Vanitas was Xehanort’s tool, something the boy was surely aware of. He had to know from early on that Xehanort needed a heart of pure darkness and one of pure light to forge the ultimate weapon: the X-blade. While Ven is brought to Eraqus to hopefully recover, Master Xehanort keeps Vanitas as his apprentice. As an apprentice of someone who supports darkness, he strengthens in both body and mind, developing a personality appropriate for one raised only in the pursuit of power.

We first see Vanitas in the game giving his opinion of Ventus, claiming he’s a loser.

In order to make Ven stronger to create the X-blade, Vanitas had to lure Ventus away from home so as not to destroy his Master’s reputation. What better way is there than to make him think he was being left behind and that he might lose a friend? He claims Ven doesn’t know anything since he’s stuck in this “tiny world.”

When he leaves he quickly begins releasing Unversed into worlds, traveling in a cloud of darkness in the Lanes Between.

There he reveals himself to Ven again, looking back to urge him to follow. Soon after we see them both in the Keyblade Graveyard, where Vanitas again taunts Ven about Terra and shocks Ven with his Keyblade. There he tests Ven’s power. Unimpressed, he decides to simply finish him off, but Ven is saved by King Mickey. The two defeat him, but he simply gets up (in an impressive fashion) and leaves, telling Ven he’s “on probation.”

Not long after, he travels to Radiant Garden, likely sensing Ven is there. However, Aqua finds Vanitas instead. He asks her if he can put up a fight yet, then demands only he’ll be asking questions. Clear that he’s bored already, he then boasts he’s the only one who’ll walk away alive. Though defeated after the close battle, he simply laughs when she tries to de-mask him. He actually acts impressed, congratulating her and claims he’ll keep her as a backup.

In Neverland, he finds Aqua, antagonizing her for playing with children. Having found Terra’s wooden Keyblade, he breaks it right in front of her, calling it nothing but a toy. He claims Ven’s outgrown it as much as he’s outgrown his need for Aqua. His cruelty provokes Aqua. The battle was fierce, but the mage won, leaving Vanitas flattened, but her own body was too battered and exhausted to stand. She passed out, leaving Vanitas to escape.

When Ven finds himself tossed into the Destiny Islands, Vanitas is there to “greet” him. He tells Ven to join with him there, but Ventus refuses to fight him. Vanitas threatens Ven that he’ll kill his friends if he doesn’t come fight him in the Keyblade Graveyard. (Or rather, he says for Ven to come watch.)

In the Keyblade Graveyard, Vanitas seems to appear right out of Xehanort (somehow...) and after his Master’s monologue, proceeds to fight the trio of friends, particularly Ven. As Aqua tends to a frozen Ven, he and his master clash with Terra until ordered by his master to take over Ven and take Aqua’s life.

Braig had bought time. Vanitas was able to wear Terra down before ambushing Aqua, literally landing on his feet after jumping off a cliff. As she lay there unconscious, Vanitas poises to plunge his Keyblade through her, stopped only by a thawed-Ventus.

Ventus manages to defeat Vanitas, but Vanitas is too mean to die. As his body is dying, Vanitas has the will to call forth Unversed to restrain Ven, and after revealing to him how this plot came to pass, he joins with Ventus. But given Vanitas’s will, he takes control of Ven’s body in the meantime. With the two together, the X-blade was forged, and Aqua, not realizing Ven was possessed, was nearly run through by Ventus-Vanitas. Mickey came to the rescue, noticing things weren’t right. Vanitas boasts that the X-blade will open a door to all worlds and that warriors will fight for the light of Kingdom Hearts. A new Keyblade War would begin! Aqua demands he give Ven his heart back, but Vanitas instead gives her a fight.

Meanwhile, the union was not complete and the two boys vie for power inside Ven’s heart. Because the hearts are joined, the power of the heart was split between the two entities, leaving a complete X-blade outside, but leaving Vanitas with a partial, broken X-blade within. Vanitas demanded Ven join with him, but Ventus refused, not caring he’d be destroyed with the X-blade and Vanitas. He teased Ven about his friends, not caring that he had none of his own.

Outside Ven’s heart, Ventus-Vanitas nearly strikes his opponents down, a mere swing of the X-blade able to create a shock wave to send Mickey and Aqua flying. Aqua is exhausted, but when the bond between her and her friends is channeled through her Wayfinder, her Keyblade glows with its strength. She clashes with Vanitas, her own power now nearing her opponent’s. Her sheer love for her friends helps her push against the X-blade, and as Ven defeats Vanitas inside, Aqua is able to break the X-blade. Vanitas loses control over Ven, leaving his body lying on the ground.

As an empowered Aqua clashes with Ventus-Vanitas, Ven connects hard with Vanitas inside his own heart. Vanitas is defeated both inside and out simultaneously. Vanitas loses his grip on the X-blade. With everything floating weightless, a weakened Vantias grasps for the X-blade, only to find it out of reach. As his strength slips away, he begins to flail for it desperately, and dare say, pathetically. Vanitas’s eyes close and he begins to sink as the X-blade shatters into golden shards. Slowly he falls towards a dark platform, absorbed by light just before he touches it.

He dares open his eyes amid the light, only to find himself laying on the ground.