Maleficent

Maleficent is a major antagonist in the Kingdom Hearts series. She is an evil sorceress who made her first appearance in Disney's Sleeping Beauty. She was first seen in Kingdom Hearts in Hollow Bastion, taking up residence there as her home world was already destroyed. Unlike the other Disney villains (with the exception of Pete), she plays a large part in the overall story rather than just in the world she came from.

Maleficent owns a raven named Diablo who also originates from Sleeping Beauty. It's also thanks to this raven's help that Maleficent managed to revive herself in Kingdom Hearts II

Kingdom Hearts
''A sorceress of awesome power. She controls the Heartless, and is said to have destroyed many worlds. No one knows what her true intentions are.''
 * First entry

She first appeared to curse Aurora in "Sleeping Beauty" (1959).

''A sorceress of awesome power. She leads the villains who seek to harness the power of the Heartless. She has also tricked Riku into joining her and is using him as part of her evil plans.''
 * Second entry

She first appeared to curse Aurora in "Sleeping Beauty" (1959).

''A sorceress of awesome power. She tried to use the Heartless for her own evil ends, but the Heartless were actually using her. She turned into a huge dragon when cornered by Sora and his friends.''
 * Third entry

She first appeared to curse Aurora in "Sleeping Beauty" (1959).

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
''A witch who commands the darkness. Sora faced Maleficent and her Heartless once before.''
 * Sora's Story

She stole Belle's heart to perfect her dark powers, though Belle had seen through her plan.

A witch who commands the darkness.
 * Reverse/Rebirth

Maleficent's charms won over Riku, and she empowered him with darkness.

In Castle Oblivion she stood before Riku again, this time as a token of the indelible darkness in his heart.

Kingdom Hearts II
Sleeping Beauty (1959)
 * Main entry

''A sorceress of frightening power. In the last adventure, she controlled the Heartless and led a group that was trying to harness the power of darkness. As part of her villainous plan, Maleficent tricked Riku into making the choice to dive into the realm of darkness.''

''In the end, Maleficent yielded to the power of darkness herself and was defeated by Sora and his friends. But by using her last bit of evil power, she was able to come back again some time later.''

Sleeping Beauty (1959)
 * Timeless River

A sorceress of frightening power who's behind the strange goings-on at Disney Castle.

Maleficent is determined to take over Disney Castle, and she's using the power of darkness in her evil scheme.

Sleeping Beauty (1959)
 * Halloween Town

''A sorceress of frightening power. She's using the Heartless as part of her scheme to bring all the worlds under her control.''

Lock, Shock, and Barrel are just what Maleficent needs to make trouble for Sora and his friends while they're in Halloween Town.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Sleeping Beauty (1959)

A terrifying evil fairy with a command of dark magic.

She attended the celebration of Aurora's birth, despite not being invited, and prophesied that 16 years later, Aurora would prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel and die.

Maleficent's gleeful account of Terra's misdeeds has left Ven troubled.

From Master Xehanort she learned about the existence of other worlds, and that she could rule them all by gathering seven hearts of pure light.

Kingdom Hearts Re:coded
''A terrifying evil fairy who commands dark magic. On one of Sora's previous adventures, Maleficent led the hordes of darkness in an attempt to conquer all worlds.''

It was her servant, Pete, who led her to this strange new world; while unaware of its true nature, she can see the potential it holds for steeping other worlds in darkness.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
"Sleeping Beauty" (1959)

''An evil fairy who wishes to see all worlds cast into darkness. She has clashed with more than one Keyblade wielder.''

This time, she tried to use Minnie as a bartering chip and claim the "data" of all worlds.

Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep
Maleficent appears in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, her role downgraded to that of a minor antagonist, only appearing in her home world of Enchanted Dominion. At some point in time, Xehanort enlisted her help in luring Terra to darkness and told her about Kingdom Hearts and the seven Princesses of Heart. From this point on, Maleficent lusted to gain complete control over all worlds. However, little did Maleficent know, Master Xehanort was only using her as part of his backup plan to create of the X-Blade should he become unable to move for some time. She was also told to not harm Ventus should he come to her world as he is needed for the X-blade.

By the time Terra arrives in the world, Maleficent had already succeeded in making sure Aurora had fallen under her curse.. She had also seen Master Xehanort come out of King Stephan's castle after imprisoning Aurora to keep her "light" safe. When Terra questions her about this, she lies about not knowing Master Xehanort and directs him to Aurora's room. Once he's inside, Maleficent lets him know she learned about the Keyblade and the seven pure hearts of light; she wants Aurora's heart in her possession in order to further her own quest for Kingdom Hearts. Thought she asks Terra nicely to extract Aurora's heart, Maleficent uses her power over sleep to awaken the Darkness within Terra's heart when he refuses. This allowed her to use him like a puppet and accomplish her goal. When Terra regains his senses, Maleficent offers him the chance to join her in her quest to rule the worlds, but he flatly refuses. She then leaves when the Wheel Master begins tearing up the throne room.

Later, Ventus visits the world and frees Aurora's heart from within her fortress. This angers Maleficent, who tells Ventus of Terra assisting her in taking Aurora's heart. When Ventus refuses to beleive, and is prepared to attack, Maleficent sees that she will have no choice but to fight him despite Xehanort's orders. In the ensuing fight, Ventus defeats Maleficent. Ven once again protest that Terra would be unable to something so terrible, but Maleficent tells him that even through he doesn't believe her, Terra DID steal Aurora's heart. Aqua arrives and staunchly denies it, as does Ventus, although he seems unsure as what to believe and runs off.

After Aqua refuses Maleficent's offer to join her in Terra's place, Maleficent mentions Xehanort was right about Aqua being a stuborn girl and throws her into the castle dungeon with Phillip, whom she captured earlier to stop him from awakening Aurora. Aqua and Phillip break out of the dungeon with help from Flora, Fauna and Merryweather and make their way towards King Stefan's castle to wake Aurora. Maleficent gives chase and confronts them on the bridge. Aqua demands to know what Master Xehanort told her. Maleficent instead says it's a pity she isn't obediant like Terra, once again saying he embranced the Darkness within himself. However, when it seems Aqua will not listen, Maleficent decides to give a demonstation of what Darkness can do and transforms into a dragon. However, she is defeated by Phillip, who tossed his sword it her chest.

Reverting to her normal form, Maleficent tells Aqua that soon long as there is light, there will be Darkness and the many who are drawn to it will serve her. She then leaves Enchanted Dominion to seek allies. Later on in the game, she crosses paths with the imprisoned Pete, and frees him, setting the scene for their alliance.

Between Birth by Sleep and Kingdom Hearts
A year after the events of Birth by Sleep and prior to Kingdom Hearts, as Maleficent and Pete made their plans, Enchanted Dominion was attacked by a new species of darkness known as the Heartless. Rather than fight them, Maleficent saw them as a great opportunity for followers and decided to use her immense power of darkness to control the creatures and use them as her greatest asset for her schemes for power. Using this new-found force, Maleficent led a brutal assault on her own world, causing many lives to be claimed by the darkness. Maleficent was able to successfully abduct Princess Aurora once again and proceeded to completely destroy her entire world along with all its inhabitants.

After the destruction of Enchanted Dominion, Maleficent and Pete used the corridors of darkness to travel to other worlds, eventually ending up at Hollow Bastion, the former home of Ansem the Wise and the last remnants of Radiant Garden after a brutal Heartless attack, which would be the perfect fortress to serve as a new base of operations. There, Maleficent would find everything she needed for her conquest of the worlds, including a report about the Heartless by Xehanort under Ansem's name and the very Keyhole that would lead one to Kingdom Hearts once all the princesses of heart were gathered.

Once situated in her new stronghold, Maleficent sent Pete to many worlds in order recruit other villains for their cause and invite them to come to Hollow Bastion to hear her proposition; if they help her find the rest of the princesses of heart, she will give them the powers to control the Heartless to conquer their own worlds and eliminate their greatest enemies. Accepting her offer, the recruited Hades, Jafar, Ursula, Oogie Boogie, and Captain Hook receive a page each from Ansem's report to better understand and control the Heartless as they carry out Maleficent's scheme while Pete, in the meantime, was sent on another mission of building more armies of Heartless for Maleficent to increase their forces. Over the years, Maleficent and her allies would destroy hundreds of worlds in their mad search for the princesses of heart and would turn millions more into heartless.

Kingdom Hearts
After nearly a decade of searching, Maleficent only had three more princesses to capture in order to finally unlock the path to Kingdom Hearts. It would be by Xehanort's Heartless's doing that Riku, Sora's best friend, arrived at Hollow Bastion after Xehanort commanded the Heartless to wipe out his entire world. Sensing the same potential in Riku as she had in Terra years before, Maleficent decided to take Riku under her wing and slowly corrupts Riku's mind while turning him against Sora. Eventually, after he brought Jasmine to her, Maleficent told Riku of her plans to find Kingdom Hearts and convinced him that it would hold the answer of restoring the comatose Kairi's heart. While Maleficent's plans seemed to be progressing steadily, her allies were falling to Sora, though Maleficent was not concerned as only one princess was left to find.

When Riku managed to bring Kairi back to Hollow Bastion, Maleficent unlocks Riku's full potential to have him eliminate the Beast, who survived the destruction of his world and traveled to save Belle from Maleficent. As Riku manages to fend off the Beast, briefly taking Sora's Keyblade as his own, Maleficent decides to use the Princesses she already has to reveal Hollow Bastion's Keyhole. When Riku arrives, possessed by Xehanort's Heartless, Maleficent learns that Kairi is the seventh Princess of Heart yet cannot be used until her heart is restored to her body. Deciding to battle Sora's group herself, Maleficent finds herself outmatched and forced to fall back.

However, the possessed Riku uses the artificial Keyblade made from the captive princesses hearts to unlock the darkness in Maleficent's heart, causing her to transform into a far more powerful version of her dragon form. Although she proved a far more dangerous enemy as an empowered dragon, Sora still defeated her for the second time and all that remained of Maleficent was her robes as Riku reveals that Maleficent was nothing more than an unknowing pawn of the Heartless.

By defeating Maleficent, Sora obtains the fifth page of Ansem's Report, and Donald learns the Cheer ability. Defeating Dragon Maleficent rewards Sora with the Fireglow Gem, which unlocks the ability to summon Mushu if taken to the Fairy Godmother.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
Maleficent appears to Riku as a memory-based illusion in Castle Oblivion. She is one of only two characters, along with Aerith in Sora's story, to realize that she is not real. She mocks her old student, and how he once clung to her to sate his thrist for darkness. However, Riku rejects her, saying that if he's forced to only see her and those who embrace the darkness like her, he'll take them out, one-by-one. However, she quips that Riku should kill himself last as he is one of the dark as well. Okay with it, Riku fights her in her dragon form and slays her.

Also, in Sora's story, she is the boss of Hollow Bastion and is revealed to need to steal hearts in order to practice her magic and attempts to use the love found in Belle and Beast's hearts to make herself invincible. When Sora and company attempt to stop her, she turns herself into a dragon and attacks, shooting flames from her mouth, causing earthquakes by stomping, and trying to bite Sora, but she fails and is defeated.

The true Maleficent is mentioned during the Organization's coversation about the events with Riku's first visit to a world from his past. Following her defeat by Sora and the others, she ended up in the Realm of Darkness and, according to Vexen, she cannot return from there of her own will.

Kingdom Hearts II
Maleficent is revived in Kingdom Hearts II, in which she poses as a secondary villain but still plots against Sora and the others. Her raven, Diablo, brings her empty robe to Yen Sid's tower, and the memories of Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather accidentally bring her back to life.

In Kingdom Hearts Another Report, it is hinted that Organization XIII is inadvertently responsible for her return. Xemnas once sent Axel and Roxas to Hollow Bastion to wipe out Heartless and release a raven from a cage suspended from the ceiling. It is heavily suggested that this raven is Diablo and was released to revive Maleficent. The Organization may have planned to use her to create more Heartless for their plans. Like in Kingdom Hearts, she attempts to control the Heartless to locate Kingdom Hearts. However, she now competes with Organization XIII for supreme power and considers the group and Nobodies in general as vastly inferior to her and her Heartless, even as far as calling them "white husks".

Maleficent, with the help of her only loyal follower remaining, Pete, goes from world to world reviving her other followers and building an army of Heartless. Although only Oogie Boogie is witnessed being revived, it may be guessed that she is also responsible for the return of Ursula and for Barbossa, Scar, Hades, and Jafar using Heartless. Indeed, when she first meets up with Pete again, she asks about "the others", suggesting she was supposed to be holding a meeting with "them" like she did in the original game. Pete, however claims that "they must have had something better to do", perhaps meaning he was busy with his own endeavors. This infuriated her, and she demanded from Pete what could be more important than her return.

Maleficent reveals herself to Sora and his friends at Disney Castle when she tries to fill the Hall of the Cornerstone with Darkness in order to take over the Castle and make her new base of operations, worrying Queen Minnie. Maleficent is defeated however by Sora when he and his friends go back in time and stop Pete from destroying the Cornerstone of Light. Maleficent appears in Halloween Town and tries to destroy Christmas town by resurrecting Oogie Boogie but his memory loss causes him to drive her away and Sora defeats Oogie Boogie. Maleficent also tricked the Gullwings into spying on the Hollow Bastion's Restoration Committee its invasion by Heartless.

Confronting Saïx as he reveals to Sora that Organization's plans for him, Maleficent refuses to allow Kingdom Hearts to fall into no one's control but her own, holding off the Nobodies so that Sora may escape and devise a way to defeat Organization XIII. Although she hated Sora, she realized that she couldn't defeat them herself, since they easily defeated her Heartless, and even took control of them from her. But when Sora refuses to run off as she commanded, Maleficent is forced to bring Sora to the Realm of Darkness.

As Sora and company fight their way through The World That Never Was, Maleficent considers making Xemnas's fortress her own despite Pete mentioning that the world is too close to the darkness for them to properly control the Heartless. As the Heartless swarm, created from the explosion that ruined the Organization's Kingdom Hearts, storms into the Castle that Never Was, Maleficent aids Sora by fending off the immense wave of Heartless with the help of Pete so Sora and his friends can defeat Xemnas so she can take the castle for her own afterwards.

Kingdom Hearts coded
Having apparently survived the destruction of The Castle that Never Was, Maleficent decides to send Pete to Disney Castle to spy on Mickey and bring her up to date on events. When Pete is unintentionally sucked into the Datascape, he manages to summon Maleficent. Though she is ignorant of the nature of the Datascape, Maleficent decides to use the Journal's data Heartless to resume her plans on conquering the worlds within the Journal.

She reappears in person in the data version of Agrabah. At the entrance to the Cave of Wonders, she strikes down the data version of Sora and destroys his data Keyblade. After, she gloats and summons Shadows before Mickey and Data-Riku arrive to fend them off before Pete kidnaps the latter as Maleficent takes herself and them to the data version of Hollow Bastion. There, Data-Sora later fights and defeats her in her Dragon form. Though this restores the Journal, it also awakens the data-based Sora's Heartless, who Maleficent attempts to fight off before it seeming crushes her and Pete as Data-Sora attempts to save them. However, after the battle, Data-Sora and King Mickey learn from Data-Riku that he managed to save Maleficent and Pete via a "rift in the data". Maleficent points out that this makes them even, referring to her saving Sora at Hollow Bastion in Kingdom Hearts II, before she and Pete are escorted out of the Datascape by Data-Riku. A digital version of Maleficent later appears when Data-Sora goes to Castle Oblivion.

Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance
Not long after being forced out of the digital worlds, Maleficent and Pete invade Disney Castle while Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are overseeing Sora and Riku's Mark of Mastery Exam with Yen Sid. Yen Sid surmises that due to the increasing darkness throughout the worlds as a result of Master Xehanort's impending return and growing power, Maleficent benefits from it and gains enough strength to withstand the energies of the Cornerstone of Light. Once inside the castle, Maleficent abducts Queen Minnie and gives her raven, Diablo, Minnie's crown as well as a letter to be delivered to Mickey to lure him back to the castle.

Mickey soon receives the items and immediately returns to the castle with Donald and Goofy, where Maleficent reveals to Mickey about her meeting with Master Xehanort years ago and how she learned of seven purest lights that would enable her to rule all worlds as well as how to tame the darkness. However, after her plans failed throughout the years, she decides to go in a different direction by using the world's data. With Pete holding Minnie hostage, Maleficent demands that Mickey hand over the digital worlds, still set on using them to further her plans.

When Mickey refuses to do so she attempts to attack him, but is blocked by Lea with his Eternal Flame chakrams, which then hit Pete and allow Minnie safe passage back to Mickey. Mickey draws his Keyblade on the pair and ushers them to leave or he will be forced to defend his castle and friends. Maleficent realizes that they are both outnumbered and overpowered and flees yet again through a Corridor of Darkness along with Pete.

Kingdom Hearts V CAST
Maleficent appears in the non-canonical Kingdom Hearts game, Kingdom Hearts V CAST. She is yet again a villain and serves as the main antagonist, her lair being the game's final level and featuring the toughest Heartless in the game.

Personality
Maleficent is a scheming, manipulative and highly cunning sorceress, who seems utterly determined to take over the dominion of Kingdom Hearts. She is mostly seen in a cool, calculated manner, easily manipulating Riku into helping her aims, whilst she pretends to care for helping him find Kairi. In Kingdom Hearts II, she is highly vengeful towards Sora, because of him having destroyed her in Kingdom Hearts. She doesn't tolerate failure, as shown when she berates Pete for his attempt to take over Kingdom Hearts without her, saying to him "Mark my words, there'll be no place for you when our time comes. Useless imbecile!".

Despite this, she seems to tolerate the incompetent Pete as her helper. She is not without scruples, however, and has aided Sora on some occasions, yet, for her own evil reasons, saying to him at one point "Do not misunderstand me, I shall have revenge on you yet": indeed, by the time of Kingdom Hearts coded, she appears to have reverted to her evil self and is once again attempting to destroy Sora, albeit a digital version of him, but after she is rescued by Data-Riku, she stops her attempts to kill him (at least for the time being), telling Sora that they are "now even".

Another important aspect of her character, like most Disney villains, but exceptionally notable in her case, is her superiority complex. This is readily apparent in nearly every instance in Kingdom Hearts II whenever the subject of Nobodies and Organization XIII are brought up and when facing them personally, and this view of herself extends to any Heartless she commands, despite the all-too obvious difference in power and capabilities of Nobodies in general over the Heartless.

However her superiority complex is not entirely unfounded as she is easily one of the most powerful characters in the series, her magic rivaled only by Master Xehanort's. Thus, her views of the Organization as insignificant could be, to her, quite true. Ironically, the Organization seems to view her the same way that she views them; as a relatively insignificant threat, shown when Saïx calmly summons some Nobodies to destroy Maleficent's Heartless and smugly calls her a fool. In contrast to Pete, she possesses extreme and completely legitimate confidence, while her minion is a coward and doubts of their chances of winning.

Appearance
Fair and green-skinned, Maleficent's shining, yellow eyes are heavily shadowed with violet make-up and her lips are painted red. This dark witch's head is topped with a black-horned headdress and she wears a long, tattered black robe with a purple trim and maroon flare edges. Along with these other physical descriptions and the fin-like spikes on the sides of her neck further hint towards her dragon-transformation powers.

The spikes along with the collar of her robe create an upside-down pentagram. She carries a staff with a glowing green orb at the tip through which she casts her spells. In screens and trailers for Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Maleficent wears her golden ring with a circular black stone in it. This was in her original design in Sleeping Beauty, but was absent from Kingdom Hearts.

Origin
Maleficent made her film debut in Disney's Sleeping Beauty. Appearing unexpectedly at Princess Aurora's birth ceremony, she was greatly angered upon not receiving an invitation to the occasion. Hiding this behind a calm demeanor, she then proceeds to give the infant a "gift" in the form of a curse, saying that she will prick her finger on the spindle of a spinning wheel before the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday and die. King Stefan attempting to seize her at that moment, she escapes through her mastery over dark magic.

Fearful for his daughter's life despite the fact that Merryweather's gift for the child will cause Aurora not to die but sleep should she prick her finger, King Stefan then issues a decree that all spinning wheels in the kingdom are to be burned. In a last attempt to delay Maleficent's curse and prevent Aurora from pricking her finger, the Three Good Fairies decide to take her into the woods to live and be raised as a peasant in an abandoned cottage once belonging to a woodcutter until after the sun sets on her sixteenth birthday. The fairies succeed in keeping the girl's location and identity a secret, and an enraged Maleficent sends her loyal raven Diablo to search for the girl, after her Goon minions fail her.

Diablo discovers Aurora's whereabouts, and Maleficent then lures the girl to a spinning wheel upon her return to King Stefan's castle. Aurora pricks her finger, and then Maleficent departs for the old woodcutter's cottage, aiming to capture the princess's betrothed, Prince Phillip, who intends to meet the peasant girl that was Aurora there. Capturing the prince, Maleficent then places him in her dungeon, intending to keep him there for 100 years.

However, Prince Phillip escapes Maleficent's clutches with the help of Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather, while the witch attempts to stop him from reaching Aurora's sleeping form and King Stefan's castle with a forest of thorns. As Phillip cuts through them, a desperate Maleficent appears before him. Transforming into a mighty dragon, she then engages the prince in a climatic battle. In the end, Maleficent is stabbed in the heart by the Sword of Truth, with Prince Phillip going on to awaken and marry Aurora.

Abilities
One of the most powerful Disney Villains, Maleficent is known to avoid physical attacks, using sorcery instead. She may wish for others to fight under her command instead, taking on the form of a monstrous dragon when situations look bleakest. It is her great rage and lust for power that grants her this ability.

Under Master Xehanort, she is one of the more powerful characters seen in the series as she can manipulate the darkness in the hearts of others to have them do her bidding. Some of her other natural powers include creating thorns, turning into a will-o'-the-wisp, creating lightning, and teleportation. She has also been shown to be able to create walls of green flame and orbs of the same flame to seek and attack opponents, She is shown to be able to levitate objects and summon 'meteors' of dark energy, and transform herself into a pinwheel like vortex similar in appearence to her will-o'-the-wisp that damages with dark magic. Maleficent also tends to hit opponents with her staff, when close enough.

D-Link
In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, Maleficent becomes a Dimension Link for Terra. While using her, Terra can use powerful dark magic attacks similar to Maleficent's. Maleficent's finishing attacks allow Terra to summon powerful lightning and fire magic to attack his enemies.