Princesses of Heart

The Seven Princesses of Heart (セブンプリンセス) are maidens with hearts of pure light, devoid of darkness. They appear to be the only people in the universe whose hearts are born naturally free of darkness. If they are all brought together, their hearts will summon the Final Keyhole, which leads to Kingdom Hearts.

According to Yen Sid, it was the seven Princesses of Heart that restored the world to light when darkness fell. Also, the shattered remains of the X-blade rest within each of their hearts, and if brought together with the thirteen pieces of darkness, the X-blade will be recreated.

Princesses who lose their hearts do not become Heartless because they have no darkness within to trigger the process. However, it is possible for the Princesses to create Nobodies on special occasions, proven by the existence of Kairi's Nobody, Naminé.

The seven Princesses of Heart will, most likely, appear in future Kingdom Hearts games as they have the shattered remains of the X-blade within their hearts and Master Xehanort is after the X-blade. They also must be protected from the true Organization Xlll, as they seek to eliminate the princesses to render the worlds vulnerable.

Origin
The Princesses of Heart came into existence in the aftermath of the Keyblade War, a conflict so violent and horrible, that the entire universe was almost completely destroyed. Thousands of Keyblade Wielders fought and gave up their lives for ultimate control over the X-Blade, which was both the defender and essence of Kingdom Hearts and would give the wielder control over the light of Kingdom Hearts. In the end, most of the Keyblade Wielders were destroyed along with the X-Blade. As the darkness from the great war consumed Kingdom Hearts, the light within the hearts of the few survivors of the war, several children, rebuilt the universe into thousands of worlds with barriers around them to prevent another war from occurring. These fragments of light eventually became the seven hearts of pure light that envelop the Princesses, who would continue to protect the worlds for years.

Members
The seven Princesses of Heart are:
 * Kairi - Former resident of the Radiant Garden, adopted daughter of the mayor to Destiny Islands.
 * Alice (from "Alice in Wonderland") - Girl who became lost in the world of Wonderland.
 * Snow White (from "Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs") - Princess of Dwarf Woodlands.
 * Jasmine (from "Aladdin") - Princess of Agrabah.
 * Belle (from "Beauty and the Beast") - "Prisoner" at Beast's Castle.
 * Cinderella (from "Cinderella") - Maiden of her home in the Castle of Dreams.
 * Aurora (from "Sleeping Beauty") - Princess of the Enchanted Dominion.

Five of the Princesses of Heart are also a part of the Disney Princess franchise. Alice and Kairi are not officially part of the Disney Princesses, although Alice has occasionally appeared alongside them. Notably, Ariel and Mulan are Disney Princesses, but are not Princesses of Heart, instead used as Party Members, because they do not have hearts of pure light.

Disney Princesses who are not Princesses of Heart:
 * Mulan - from "Mulan"
 * Ariel - from "The Little Mermaid"

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Master Xehanort, from the game Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, searches for the Princesses of Heart. His reason for searching for the princesses remained unknown until the events of Dream Drop Distance. As a fail-safe should his plans to forge the X-Blade through Ventus and Vanitas merging fail, Xehanort orchestrated a series of events to manipulate Maleficent into starting a quest to gather the Princesses of Heart to be used in another plan to destroy their seven hearts of pure light in order to make the universe completely defenseless against the darkness. Then with thirteen hearts filled with darkness (the true reason behind Organization XIII's formation), Xehanort would combat them against the destined, seven defending Keyblade defenders of light to forge the X-Blade, complete the original Kingdom Hearts, and incite another Keyblade War to reshape the worlds into his image through the great darkness that would be unleashed from the war. Through Maleficent's manipulation and an alliance with Braig, Xehanort would be able to accomplish his goals even if he is prevented in merging Ventus and Vanitas.

In this game, only four of the seven princesses, Kairi, Snow White, Aurora and Cinderella, make their appearances: Aurora is cursed in a slumber state and placed in the highest tower of the Enchanted Dominion, her heart taken by Terra while under Maleficent's control. Eventually, her heart is freed by Ventus and soon after, the curse is lifted by Prince Phillip with the help of Aqua, allowing her to reunite with her family.

Cinderella meets a minimized Ventus when Jaq tells her of their new friend's appearance. While she goes to finish her chores, Ven and Jaq find materials needed to make a princess gown for Cinderella. Though her dress is finished, her stepsisters rip it apart to prevent her from attending the royal ball. While crying in the garden, the Fairy Godmother helps her make a new dress and a carriage to escort her to the ball, with Terra as her bodyguard. Though she meets Prince Charming, she is forced to leave the castle at midnight, by which the magic ends. When her stepmother finds out about her presence at the ball, she locks her in the tower before the Grand Duke arrives. But Jaq and Aqua come together to release her, eventually aiding her in trying the glass slipper that she'd lost when she left the ball. Lady Tremaine then summons a powerful Unversed to eliminate her, but Aqua manages to defeat it and bring the maiden to Prince Charming.

Snow White talks to Terra while picking flowers, but flees into the forest in fear when Terra summons his Keyblade by the appearance of the Unversed. While frightened in the woods, she meets Ventus who takes her to the Seven Dwarfs's cottage for safety. After she bit the poison apple given by the Queen, she is cursed into a deep slumber until The Prince kisses her on the lips and breaks the spell. Snow White then says her goodbyes to her friends and goes on a journey with her true love.

A four-year old Kairi, who is still living in the Radiant Garden with her grandmother at the time, gets chased by a group of Unversed until King Mickey and Aqua come to her rescue. After Mickey's leave, Kairi gives her flowers to Aqua as a token of gratitude, and Aqua in return puts a protective charm on her necklace. When she returns to her grandma, she asks her to tell her the story about the light and the darkness.

Kingdom Hearts
The Seven Princesses of Heart make their first appearance in the very beginning of the game, during Sora's Dive to the Heart. There are four stained glass windows representing the four princesses who have been captured before the game's start, Belle, Cinderella, Aurora, and Snow White. There is also a fifth window with three stylized princess silhouettes on it representing the three free princesses, Alice, Jasmine, and Kairi.

In order to open the Final Keyhole, Maleficent, the Heartless and Riku kidnapped each of the princesses from their respective worlds throughout Kingdom Hearts. During this kidnapping spree, Riku went to Neverland with Captain Hook under the belief that Wendy was the final Princess of Heart. Upon meeting her, Maleficent determined that Wendy was a false lead and Kairi was actually the final princess. But because Kairi had given her heart to Sora in the chaos of Destiny Island's destruction, the power of the princesses' hearts could not be fully utilized.

Changing his plans, Ansem, Seeker of Darkness used the hearts of the remaining six princesses to create the Keyblade of People's Hearts, which could release Kairi's heart from inside Sora. When confronted later, Ansem told Sora about Kairi's heartless state. When Sora realized the truth, he stabbed himself with the Keyblade to free Kairi's Heart, an action that also revived the other six princesses and subsequently opened the Final Keyhole. The Princesses (minus Kairi) remained in Hollow Bastion to stop the flow of darkness that had begun to seep from the still-open Keyhole until Sora could return. Once the Keyhole was sealed, the princesses patiently awaited his victory against Ansem so that they could return home, which finally happened when Kingdom Hearts was sealed and the worlds restored.

If you finish the story of Deep Jungle before Wonderland, during the cutscene discussing Maleficent's plans for the Princesses, Snow White will appear as the victim instead of Alice, as Alice has not been captured yet.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Alice, Jasmine, Belle, and Kairi all appeared in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories as figments of Sora's memories from the events in Kingdom Hearts.

Alice is once again captured by the Queen of Hearts, accused of memory theft, but Sora manages to exonerate her.

Belle reappears in Hollow Bastion where the witch Maleficent forces her to turn the Beast into a Heartless, but Belle refuses and eventually sacrifices herself to protect the Beast. She is later restored by the defeat of Maleficent.

Jasmine is once again captured by the evil vizier Jafar, but Aladdin and Sora come to her rescue in time. Aladdin is hoping to become a prince to become her equal, but later decides to be himself as to let Jasmine appreciate him for who he really is.

Kairi does not appear in person, though she still plays the biggest role out of all Princesses. As Sora, Donald, Goofy and Jiminy descend to Castle Oblivion, Sora's memories of her begin to alter and eventually replaced by her Nobody, Naminé. But, by remembering Kairi again, Sora started regaining his lost memories that had been torn away by Naminé. In Riku's story, Naminé appears as Kairi to tell Riku not to hide from the darkness in his heart.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Jasmine and Belle appear in their worlds with minor roles in this game. Kairi is mentioned various times by Xion and Naminé, as well as reflected in Xion's appearance to Roxas.

Although Wonderland appears, Alice does not.

Kingdom Hearts II
Belle and Jasmine once again play prominent roles in their respective worlds, but not as Princesses of Heart. They are both worried about their loved ones.

Belle is locked in the east wing by the Beast, who is affected by Xaldin's influence. She meets Sora and co. when they arrive and asks them to free the Beast's servants, who are all locked in the castle dungeon and later goes off to follow Xaldin, only to be chased by a gigantic Heartless into the ballroom. The restored Beast runs into the rescue and manages to defeat the monster with Sora, Donald and Goofy.

Sometime later, Belle and Beast open a party, only to be interrupted by Xaldin once more who steals the Beast's precious rose, thus depresses him to the point that he decides to push Belle and Sora out from the castle. Belle manages to take back the rose when she gets captured by Xaldin and runs to safety, allowing Sora and the Beast to defeat him. The Beast then asks Belle to stay with him, which she happily agrees.

Jasmine greets Sora, Donald, and Goofy when they first arrive at Agrabah and tells them of her worry for Aladdin, who has been going to town to look for action. She asks them to find him and ask him about the problem. Jasmine is one of the first to be persuaded by Iago's worth to join them. Sometime later, Jafar is released from his lamp and Agrabah is once again in chaos. While Iago leads Sora and the others to a trap, Jafar captures Jasmine and prepares to reign over the kingdom. The four warriors, however, escape his trap and manage to return on time to stop Jafar's malice one last time.

In Tron's world, Space Paranoids, the password to access the DTD in the dataspace, was the names of the seven princesses. But once the MCP attempts to hack into it, Tron changes the password to the names Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

Kairi is the princess with the largest role; she indirectly connects with Roxas and in turn remembers Sora, whom she almost completely forgot about due to Naminé's magic. She later gets captured by Organization XIII in their attempt to raise Sora's anger, causing him to defeat more Heartless and release more hearts to fuel the construction of Kingdom Hearts. In the World That Never Was, she is rescued by her Nobody, Naminé, and meets up with Riku, and later Sora. As they no longer have any place to go back to, they head toward the tower of the Castle That Never Was together to confront Xemnas and end the war once and for all. Once the war is over, she returns home with her friends; with Naminé and Roxas joined with her and Sora, respectively.

Kingdom Hearts coded
The data versions of Alice and Jasmine appear in their respective worlds, also data created from Jiminy's Journal. In this story, Alice has lost her memory and needs to remember her name; while Jasmine is simply captured by Data Jafar, waiting to be rescued.

A data-based Kairi was shown in Neverland on the Clock Tower with Riku in a lost memory flashback. At the end of the game, the real Kairi appears alongside the real Sora and Riku where they read a letter from Mickey.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Kairi is the only princess to appear in this game, physically or in memory form.

In the secret ending, Yen Sid reveals that when the worlds were covered in darkness, it was the seven Princesses of Heart that restored the world to light. Also, the shattered remains of the X-blade rest within each of their hearts. Yen Sid reveals that this is most likely what Master Xehanort is after, as he needs the X-blade to unlock Kingdom Hearts, and cause a Keyblade War. After this discussion, Riku arrives with Kairi, whom Yen Sid intends to train after hearing that she has the power to wield the Keyblade, which can help her in the upcoming battle and complete the collective guardians.

Joint powers
The seven Princesses possess only light within their hearts. These hearts of pure light allow them to open the Final Keyhole in Hollow Bastion, which is supposed to hold absolute power over the universe. However, it can only be opened when they are all gathered, and their hearts are used in some form of ritual. Once the Keyhole is opened, the hearts return to the Princesses' bodies.

The purity of their hearts also grants them abilities to keep darkness away or hold it back temporarily, something that comes natural to the Princesses merely by being in presence. The greater the number of Princesses gathered, the more effective this skill is. In addition, they can sense darkness, as shown when five of the princesses tell Sora of a great darkness nearby.

They have also shown to have an ability to manipulate other people's powers; for instance, five of the Princesses grant Sora the power of fire, upgrading his Fire magic.

According to the manga, the Princesses of Heart are able to travel through the Corridors of Darkness without any negative effects, as without darkness in their hearts, they cannot be corrupted. Also, in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Maleficent explains that she cannot obtain Aurora's heart, because it is of pure light.

D-Links
Cinderella becomes a D-Link for Terra, Ventus, and Aqua in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, as well as Snow White for Ventus and Aqua, after the events of their respective worlds transpire. As D-Links, they can project their powers to the three Keyblade wielders while remaining in their home worlds.

Keyblade
Kairi encountered Keyblade Master Aqua as a young child, and when she touched her Keyblade, the Keyblade Inheritance Ceremony was accidentally performed, allowing Kairi to be able to wield a Keyblade and use it in battle during adolescent years.

Trivia

 * The Bradygames official strategy guide for Kingdom Hearts II mistakenly lists Jasmine as a "Princess of Light", rather than a "Princess of Heart".

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Princesses de cœur