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About the Character

Xehanort was a charming and cunning man in life, whose only desire as a Nobody and Heartless was to gain Kingdom Hearts as his own. He will stop at nothing to acquire it, no one will stand in his way, and he will manipulate anyone and everyone he can to bring him closer to that goal. Xehanort is the main antagonist of the Kingdom Hearts series to date, and a former apprentice of Ansem the Wise. Xehanort is directly responsible for the creation of the Nobodies, Heartless, and Organization XIII. Ansem the Wise found Xehanort with, who had lost his memory, and took him on as an apprentice. Xehanort was all too ambitions though, and steadily tried to persuade Ansem to let him do dangerous experiments on the human heart. By using himself in one of those experiments, Xehanort gave Ansem the hope that the tests to his heart would help him retrieve his memory. Behind Ansem’s back though, Xehanort, along with five other apprentices, captured countless people and conducted other horrible experiments on them, eventually leading to the collapse of their heart, which transformed them into horrible creatures of darkness called Heartless, which were stimulated only by the need to take other people's hearts. By this time, Xehanort had taken his mentor’s name and research as his own, writing his own reports as “Ansem”. He became obsessed with the Heartless and eventually made himself into one, becoming consumed with the Darkness.

Kingdom Hearts

Main Antagonist

When Xehanort became a Heartless, he gained control over all Heartless, and decided to use their instincts to lead him to the heart of all worlds: Kingdom Hearts. He hoped to gain ultimate power, knowledge and control from the Heart of All Worlds. In order to get to Kingdom Hearts, he needed the 7 Princesses of Heart and the Keyblade.
Xehanort abducted Kairi because he believed she paved the way to the Keyblade Master’s heart; Sora’s heart. Using Kairi and Riku, Xehanort manipulated Sora, and with him, the Keyblade, to open Kingdom Hearts, and unintentionally destroy himself by its over-whelming light in the end.

Kingdom Hearts II

Minor Character

When Xehanort became a Heartless, he left the shell of his former being behind that had no heart, so it did not truly exist. These non-existent beings are later known as Nobodies. Xehanort had a special Nobody though; since it retained all the memories from his human life, it also retained his human appearance. Xehanort created an organization known as Organization XIII, based on thirteen special Nobodies that retained their human forms and were able to control the lesser nobodies.

Using Organization XIII, Xehanort, or now known as Xemnas (an anagram of “Ansem”, his Heartless’ name including the letter X, like all other Organization members) wished to use the Keyblade to destroy Heartless. For each Heartless destroyed by the Keyblade, a heart would return to Kingdom Hearts, which would then grow in size and strength.

Xehanort wished to take not only power from Kingdom Hearts, but to return that which he lost: his heart. As Kingdom Hearts grew, it became available for Xehanort and the other Organization members to enter and take from it.

At first, Xehanort used Roxas to collect hearts. He then manipulated Sora to also do the same, and made the other Organization members send countless Heartless to attack Sora so that their hearts can be released by his Keyblade.
Eventually, Sora and Riku team up and finally confront Xehanort within Kingdom Hearts and defeat him, leaving him with the last word of “Keyblade”, showing his newfound fascination in the very weapon that destroyed him.