Wakka

Wakka is a minor character in the Kingdom Hearts series, originally from Final Fantasy X. Wakka is fifteen years old at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories.

Kingdom Hearts
''A boy who lived on the Destiny Islands. He looks out for Tidus and Selphie like a big brother. Nobody knows what happened to him after his island disappeared.''

"Final Fantasy X"

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
A boy from Sora's islands.

Despite being the oldest, Wakka is modest and takes good care of his friends.

Kingdom Hearts
Wakka is a resident of the Destiny Islands and a friend of Sora, Kairi, and Riku. He spends a lot of time with Tidus and Selphie, and treats them just as a big brother would. He and Tidus expressed their curiosity over the Secret Place, and were thinking of exploring it.

Like Selphie and Tidus, Wakka appears in Sora's Dive to the Heart on the Destiny Islands area. His question, "What do you want outta life?" also helps determine the leveling pace throughout the rest of the game. Sora can answer with either A) to see rare sights, B) to broaden my horizons, or C) to be strong.

He can be fought while on Destiny Islands. He uses his Blitzball to attack as he did in Final Fantasy X (thus requiring the player to deflect Wakka's Blitzball back at him), but this one lacking the bumps and Spiran script for the word "blitzball" of the original Blitzball. Nevertheless, this makes him, out of all the Destiny Islands and Twilight Town Final Fantasy characters, the only one to use the exact same weapon as his original incarnation.

After Destiny Islands is destroyed, it is unknown what happened to him.

Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories
A memory-based version of Wakka appears in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories inside the Destiny Islands simulation in Castle Oblivion. In the ending credits of Kingdom Hearts Re:Chain of Memories, the real Wakka is shown playing with Selphie and Tidus on a beach while Kairi is facing the Small Island.

Kingdom Hearts II
Wakka makes no appearance in Kingdom Hearts II, just as Tidus doesn't. The two are only briefly mentioned by Selphie when she is talking to Kairi early on in the game, described as being "wrapped up in their ball game." (a reference to Blitzball from Final Fantasy X)

Kingdom Hearts coded
Wakka makes his third appearance in Kingdom Hearts coded, this time as a data version of himself, appearing on the data version of Destiny Islands, alongside Tidus and Selphie. He appears on Destiny Islands talking to Sora.

Appearance
Wakka in Kingdom Hearts resembles his Final Fantasy X incarnation, but is younger and sports a simpler outfit. Wakka retains his orange hair and enormous coif, as well as his baggy yellow pants that close up halfway down his lower legs. Each leg of these pants has a large, grey, "X"-shaped strap with blue tips, possibly referencing Wakka's game of origin. In Final Fantasy X, these "X"s were located on Wakka's jacket, while his pant legs sported three straps on each leg shaped like thinner "X"s. Wakka wears a tank top resembling his original jacket, though the jacket was mostly orange and black, as opposed to this tank top's pale yellow color with black lining. Like in his original game, he wears sandals, though this Wakka's sandals are green. He wears blue wristbands on each wrist, has brown eyes, and has small stud earrings not present in his original design. Wakka lacks the fish necklace he wore in Final Fantasy X, and wields a simpler version of his Blitzball as a weapon.

Battle Skills
Like in Final Fantasy X, Wakka fights by throwing blitzball.

On Destiny Islands, he practices fighting skills with Sora as a way for the player to improve his level. During this battle, if Sora can manage to block one of Wakka's attacks via hitting the ball back at him, it earns him one to two tech points. After defeating Tidus, Selphie and Wakka as individuals, Sora is able to fight against them all at the same time.

Like Selphie and Tidus, Wakka's battle stance and basic attack are based off his Final Fantasy X appearance. Also, his attack where he yells "Take this!" is based off of his Overdrive: Status Reel.

Origin
Wakka is a twenty-three-year-old professional blitzball player, characterized by a long reddish-orange quiff, being tall and muscular in appearance, and a Besaid Island accent. As such, he uses such speech-mannerisms as saying "brudda" for "brother" and sometimes finishing sentences with "ya?" His name means "water" in Ainu. In addition to being one of Summoner Yuna's guardians and childhood friends, he is captain of the Besaid Aurochs, a blitzball team that – as of the beginning of Final Fantasy X – went twenty-three years without winning a single game. He uses blitzballs as his weapons in battle, making him the only character who can reliably hit flying enemies, as well as making him and Lulu the only characters who can attack physically at range. Wakka is also one of the three players that can fight underwater, along with Tidus and Rikku.

Wakka seems somewhat socially conservative, dependent on others and on the rules (such as Yevon's teachings) for his decisions. He lost his younger brother Chappu to Sin, an event he never fully recovered from. He forms a close brotherly relationship with Tidus, partially fueled by his resemblance to Chappu, though Lulu constantly has to remind him that Tidus isn't Chappu. Nevertheless, Wakka gives Tidus his signature weapon which he previously gave Chappu.

As a devout follower of Yevon's teachings, Wakka believes that anyone who doesn't believe in Yevon, like the Al Bhed, are evil heathens, and is staunchly against the use of Machina, though he also develops a more personal grudge against both for the roles they played in Yuna's kidnappings during the pilgrimage. Also, Chappu had used a Machina weapon when he was killed by Sin, which compounded his hatred (Yevonite children are taught that people who don't follow Yevon are evil, and are killed by Sin as punishment). Due to this, Lulu and the others try to keep Yuna's mixed Al Bhed heritage a secret from him. He was disgusted when he found out that Rikku was an Al Bhed (ironically, he did not immediately notice her heritage upon first meeting her). However, he begins to question both his faith and his grudge when he discovers Yuna's heritage, and that the Al Bhed kidnapped her to prevent her from inevitably dying upon her defeating Sin. By the time Yevon's true colors are exposed to the world, Wakka denounces his prior beliefs entirely.

Six months after the events of Final Fantasy X, he marries Lulu. In Final Fantasy X-2, he becomes a father to her baby, Vidina, a name thought up by Wakka. "Vidina" translates as "future" in the Al Bhed language, and is Wakka's declaration that he has let go of Yevon's teachings, which were biased against Al Bhed, and even part Al Bhed such as Yuna.

Trivia

 * Originally, Wakka was not intended to be in Kingdom Hearts; his role was supposed to be filled by Irvine Kinneas from Final Fantasy VIII, who would strangely be more out of place in the Destiny Islands than Wakka, but probably because of his relationship with Selphie.

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Wakka