Why Aqua Is The Best Keyblade Wielder
Kingdom Hearts 02
Kingdom Hearts’ most iconic weapon is the keyblade, a special key-shaped weapon that can fight against the forces of darkness and unlock chests, worlds, and even hearts. Over the course of the series, dozens, maybe even thousands, of keyblade wielders have come and gone, with about a dozen keyblade wielders being playable through just as many games.
While Sora is the main playable keyblade wielder, a dozen more appear throughout the series, so we thought we’d go through the whole list and rank every playable keyblade wielder, from worst to best. This only includes keyblade wielders that are actually playable for some or all of a game, and not those that appear in the background or are playable before or after they wield a keyblade.
Xehanort
Xehanort is only playable in the mobile-only Kingdom Hearts UX spinoff game, Kingdom Hearts Dark Road, and honestly, despite making up an interesting part of the series’ lore, Xehanort himself just kind of sucks. He’s a power-hungry madman who quite literally tears the universe in two so he can be the strongest keyblade wielder. He’s not solely responsible for all the wrong in the world, but he’s certainly the reason for a lot of it. Plus there’s like 16 of him, which is just confusing and annoying.
Ventus
I like Ventus a lot, honestly, but there are a couple of reasons he’s so low down the list. The first is that, in his primary playable game (Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep), he spends most of the game moaning and whining that he’s being left out. That’s kind of fair, because he definitely is, and people do treat him like a child for a lot of it, but at the end of the day it’s just exhausting to sit through. It’s made worse by his backstory, which is a confusing mess hidden behind two now-defunct online games, which makes him far more complicated a character than he ever needed to be.
Kairi
Kairi deserves a lot better than she got and continues to get. She only becomes a keyblade wielder in Kingdom Hearts 3 – despite having inherited a keyblade years before the series starts – and even in that game barely uses it. She ultimately becomes the primary protagonist in Kingdom Hearts Melody of Memory, but Square Enix couldn’t even let her do that — in the closing moments of the game, she gets swapped out for the spirit of Sora to fight the final battle. I think Kairi could be a really fantastic character, but Square Enix is insistent on shoving her to the side time and time again.
Sora
This is basically the middle of the list (almost) and that’s pretty much where Sora belongs. There’s nothing overtly wrong with him, he’s a great player stand-in and has an enjoyable enough personality and skill set available to him. He’s also just intensely boring, prone to cringeworthy monologues about his friends and his heart, and spends most of his time chasing after the most ridiculous things. I hoped that the end of Kingdom Hearts 3 would signal space for a new main character, but if Kingdom Hearts 4 teasers are anything to go by, it looks like Sora will be back in the leading role once more.
Mickey
Mickey hasn’t had too much of a presence in Kingdom Hearts as a playable character, but where he has been playable have been some of the series’ strongest moments. Falling to a boss in Kingdom Hearts 2 only to have Mickey leap in and cause havoc is a wildly exciting idea, especially since Mickey was only the second playable keyblade wielder ever. His status as a bonus character in 358/2 Days and as a DLC character in Re:Mind means he never really gets to play a full game by himself, but man, with moments like he’s had, who can complain?
Terra
Riku
Riku’s story echoes Terra’s in a lot of ways. Like Terra, Riku was born with great darkness in his heart, and like Terra, Riku gave into that darkness. That’s where their paths diverge, though, as Riku’s love for his friends let him wield that darkness for the power of light. Eventually, through his service to the light, Riku became a full fledged keyblade master, something that only a handful of other characters ever achieve. Riku’s story is nuanced, interesting, and shows that there’s more than one way to fight against evil, and for that, he’s one of the best keyblade wielders in the series.
Roxas
I’ll be honest, if not for 358/2 Days, Roxas would not be anywhere near close to the top of this list. As mentioned when I ranked every Kingdom Hearts game from worst to best, Roxas’ playable intro in Kingdom Hearts 2 is slow, frustrating, and the main reason I don’t replay that game. But in 358/2 Days, we see a boy whose past is unclear, whose future is doomed, and whose friends are all conspiring against him and using him. It’s a devastating backstory, and the loss of Xion sending Roxas over the edge is not only understandable, but the most genuinely moving moment in the entire series. I feel for Roxas, and I want to give him a big hug.
Xion
And the other side of Roxas’ coin is Xion, a character who technically doesn’t exist. Xion is a puppet, a vessel for Sora’s memories whose sole purpose is to keep Sora from resurrecting before the Organization can summon Kingdom Hearts. Through her connection with Roxas, she starts to become real — she gains a personality, an appearance, hopes and dreams and feelings. And then it’s all snatched away from her, forcing her to make a devastating choice and sacrifice herself to give Roxas and Sora a fighting chance. Even typing this makes me tear up a little bit. She’s a wonderful character, perfectly executed.
Lea
Formerly a Nobody by the name of Axel, I am 100% certain that Lea only became a keyblade wielder due to the fan response. Axel was deeply cool, a hot-headed anti-hero with flame powers and unknown motives, but when he finally moved to the side of the light, he absolutely shone. Lea is a character about second chances, about how it’s never too late to start fighting for good. Over the course of Kingdom Hearts 2, 358/2 Days, Dream Drop Distance, and 3, we see Axel/Lea grow and change into one of the most respectable characters in the series. It’s a fantastic journey, but it’s not the sole reason Lea is here — Lea is just super cool. That’s enough, really.
Aqua
Aqua is like the anti-Kairi in terms of well-written women protagonists in the Kingdom Hearts series. In Birth By Sleep, we see her as a newly-minted keyblade master, bound by duty and honor to do the right thing and restore peace to the world. It’s never that easy, though, and Aqua is forced to make dreadful decisions, including banishing herself to the world of darkness, just to keep her friends safe. We see a little of Aqua’s adventures in the world of darkness, where she teams up with Mickey to help close the door to Kingdom Hearts, but after that she’s lost, left wandering the realm for all of eternity.
Her return in Kingdom Hearts 3 is one of the most hyped moments in all of gaming, something that made me shout “HELL YEAH” at 2am and probably wake up my neighbors, but she deserved the win. Aqua’s arc through light and dark has just about everything you’d want from a character story, and it might even be better than Sora’s. And that’s without even mentioning her incredibly cool fencing-inspired, magic-focused combat style. Aqua is easily the best Kingdom Hearts keyblade wielder, and in my mind, it’s not even close.