Who is ansem the seeker of darkness

We also find out in Dream Drop Distance that everything has happened according to Master Xehanort's plan:. They were all my doing. I used the evil fairy to find seven pure lights for me, just as I prepared thirteen vessels to fill with pure darkness.

We know that Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, and Xemnas were both carrying out Master Xehanort's plan, so how come, after Ansem travelled back in time to pass on the ability to time travel to Young Xehanort and give him the mission to find other versions of Master Xehanort from throughout time to make up the thirteen seekers of darkness, he tried to do his own thing that had seemingly nothing to do with Master Xehanort's plan?

In fact, he straight up tried to kill Kairi after the Final Keyhole was completed, saying to her, "The Keyhole is now complete. You have served your purpose.

But now it's over. My guess is that him trying to kill Kairi shouldn't be looked at too seriously because Nomura probably didn't know what he was going to do in future games yet. Otherwise, he probably wouldn't have had Ansem try to kill Kairi. Either that or Ansem thought that he could complete Master Xehanort's plan without starting another Keyblade War, which brings me to how I think Ansem's actions actually do make sense. Master Xehanort wants the World to be consumed by darkness in order to "tear down this tyranny of light".

Then, after setting foot on Kingdom Hearts, he will gain the ability to create the Next World which he will build "around the darkness which then creeps back in". What if Ansem thought that he already had the ability to do this without starting another Keyblade War? If he could do this, there would be no need for the Princesses of Heart after they opened the way to his artifical Kingdom Hearts.

He could kill Kairi if he wanted to. However, his plan failed, and so, in the end, he ended up having to go with Master Xehanort's plan to start another Keyblade War in order to fulfill Master Xehanort's wishes to create a World in which light and darkness are in perfect balance. Ansem SoD's original plan was to reach Kingdom Hearts. Later on it got retconned to him gathering the 7 lights. Same goes for Xemnas btw. Nowhere in the game does it state that he looks for vessels, he even wanted to get a Sora puppet Xion to get the Keyblade and to gather more hearts.

Cause again, original goal: reaching Kingom Hearts. Retconned to: gathering the 13 darknesses. All in all we can say, Nomura is not the best when it comes to planning ahead. I have always gotten the impression that Nomura just flies by the seat of his pants when he plans a KH game. The head canon I cling to is that, sooner or later, Ansem has more or less become his own person with his own goals.

I realize that Nomura did not have anything planned for the future. Afterward, Ansem explains his philosophy: that worlds and hearts begin and end in darkness. Thus, darkness is the heart's true essence. Sora denies this, in words and in battle, with Ansem.

During the battle, Ansem summons both his familiar, the guardian, and a Darkside Heartless to assist him. As the battle rages on, Ansem leads the trio to the endless abyss where the Door to Darkness resides.

This time, Ansem transforms into the World of Chaos , a monstrous Heartless ship, which he creates from darkness and captures Donald and Goofy, though Sora rescues them. After several more rounds of combat, Ansem, weakened, opens the Door to Darkness , imploring Kingdom Hearts to fill him with the power of darkness so that he can gain enough power to destroy Sora, Donald, and Goofy and shroud the universe in darkness. However, Ansem is horrified to see light pour out of the door.

The overwhelming light of Kingdom Hearts envelops and destroys Ansem, allowing Riku to take back his body. Because Riku served as the host for Ansem, a piece of the Heartless remains even after his destruction by the light of Kingdom Hearts.

Riku remained unaware of this until DiZ impersonated Ansem and sent Riku on a trial through Castle Oblivion to overcome his regret and fear of the darkness within him.

When Lexaeus fights Riku, the resulting battle causes Riku to lose consciousness and Ansem takes control of his body, slaying the Nobody. However, before Ansem can cement his control over Riku, King Mickey 's light seals him away for a time; this angers the Heartless to no end.

Eventually, Riku overcomes his fear of the darkness, intending to use it as well as the light. DiZ then gives Riku a card that will give Ansem form, so that Riku can finish him off once and for all. Ansem again attempts to turn Riku to the darkness completely and tries to defeat the young boy so that he can take possession of his body once more.

Though this succeeds in destroying Ansem's consciousness, his power still lingers in Riku's heart. Riku sets off with King Mickey to rid himself of the Seeker of Darkness forever.

Having been unable to find a way to rid himself of Ansem's remaining essence, it began taking over him and transforming Riku into a copy of Ansem. Riku kept it bay by blindfolding himself, and relying on his other senses to keep Ansem from completely taking over him. After learning Sora's memory cannot be completed without his Nobody Roxas , who holds the memories of Kairi in him, Riku knows that he might have to use the darkness to capture the Nobody and bring him to DiZ.

Riku catches up to Roxas at The World That Never Was , but Roxas proves to be too powerful and Riku is left with only one way to overwhelm the Nobody: unleashing his inner darkness. This allows Riku to manifest Xehanort's powerful guardian, who seizes Roxas and knocks him unconscious but also forces Riku to take on Ansem's appearance.

Feeling that he has sacrificed his identity, Riku takes on Ansem's name. While the trio is shocked and dismayed to learn this, Mickey pacifies them by telling them that Ansem was still a powerful enemy that needed to be stopped. Following the destruction of the Kingdom Hearts Encoder Ansem the Wise was using, the resulting explosion of light restores Riku to his normal form, implying that "Ansem" has finally been destroyed and his hold on Riku broken once and for all.

Yen Sid later explains to Mickey that the destruction of both Ansem and Xemnas has revived Xehanort and will lead to the restoration of Master Xehanort. Ansem appears along with Xemnas as one of Mickey's mental images. Undaunted, Ansem merely takes his leave. Ansem reveals that Riku had been traveling within Sora's dreams like a Dream Eater , and asks Riku to join him now that the boy has accepted his darkness. As they fight, Riku counters by asking Ansem to become part of his light, but Ansem ignores him and is eventually forced to retreat.

During Sora's memory of meeting Aqua , the latter fades at the end of the scene, and Ansem is shown at the shore just before Sora is sent flying out of the memory by Riku. Master Xehanort proceeds to reveal that Ansem's possession of Riku's body, along with overseeing Maleficent's gathering of the Princesses, was all part of his master plan with Riku meant to become the vessel to complete the Organization.

Ansem restrains Riku from trying to save Sora from becoming Master Xehanort's final vessel, but Lea 's unexpected intervention distracts Ansem long enough for Riku to break free. As the heroes advance, the Organization's allotted time expires and its members, including Ansem, retreat to their rightful points in time. Ansem first appears alongside his Nobody counterpart, Xemnas, outside of the Old Mansion, waiting for Sora.

They don't humor Sora's plan to recreate Roxas in the virtual Twilight Town created by Ansem the Wise , saying it's just data. After breaking Sora with their words, both leave through a Corridor of Darkness , after summoning a swarm of Neoshadows and Dusks for Sora, Donald, and Goofy.

After this, they watch Sora leave Twilight Town from a rooftop, just as Xigbar arrives to berate them. Ansem defends needing to be direct with guiding Sora, due to the boy being slow with hints. Later, Ansem goes to the Dark World to retrieve his old master, as he wishes to know of the whereabouts of Subject X , a mysterious amnesiac girl that who had become his favorite test subject before her disappearance.

Assuming she was taken away by Ansem the Wise, this brings him into conflict with Aqua , who kept Ansem company. Despite her resistance, Aqua could do nothing without her Keyblade, and was cast into the ocean by the Dark Figure , which causes her transformation into Anti-Aqua.

Bringing Ansem the Wise back to his old HQ at the Old Mansion, Ansem begs his treacherous apprentice to cease, as he doesn't wish for more victims. Suddenly, Hayner , Pence and Olette , who had been watching all along, enter into action. The group is able to evade pursuit by Ansem thanks to a small troop of Dusks sent by Vexen , whose true loyalties lie with Ansem the Wise. Much later, he drops into the Skein of Severance for the final battle.

Once Sora joins the fight, it doesn't take too long for Ansem to leave. Ansem appears for the last time alongside Xemnas and Young Xehanort, as the last line of defense before Sora can reach the elderly Master Xehanort. Defeated by Sora, Riku and Mickey in a battle alongside his aforementioned incarnations, Ansem voices his final thoughts on his relationship with Riku, stating that Riku's might is "vaster than darkness" and showing he is proud the boy he chose as his vessel has grown into such a powerful Keyblade Master.

Riku even states he is going to miss his nemesis. After their parting words, Ansem's replica body fades away into darkness and his heart returns to its proper place in time. Ansem is shown as the first transformation and the second incarnation after a young Master Xehanort but before Xemnas. In Super Smash Bros. Before possessing Riku, Ansem was little more than a wandering heart and could only appear as a figure in a brown hooded robe.

This robe has two dark brown straps crossing over his shoulders and chest with five metal studs lining either strap. Due to his lack of a body, he appears much shorter and crippled in this form and wears the robe's hood up that hides his face. Ansem gains a body by possessing Riku, though at first, his presence is only evident from the change to Riku's voice. In his physical form, like his Nobody counterpart Xemnas, Ansem's skin color varies by being depicted as tan in the game to quite dark in official artwork.

He shares Terra-Xehanort's long white hair, as well as the three spikes on the top and sides of his head, but he lacks Terra-Xehanort's bangs.

He wears silver-white gloves on his hands, each with a grey band on the wrist, while the rest of the glove, which has three black buttons lining one side, bells outwards. There is a black pauldron on both of his shoulders, each attached to his coat by two straps. He also wears black pants and black, silver-lined, knee-high boots identical to the ones worn by Organization XIII members. Ansem and Ienzo transfer Roxas's data into the replica.

Through Demyx, Riku later provides Ansem with the now-blank replica that once held Dark Riku 's heart. With both her and Roxas revived, Ansem succeeds in atoning for his past misdeeds towards them. Ansem the Wise originally wore a periwinkle labcoat, identical to those worn by some of his apprentices Even, Ienzo, and Xehanort , save for the color. Underneath this, he wore a dark grey vest, white collared shirt, and a violet ascot, as well as black pants and shoes.

He also draped a red sweater or coat of some sort over his shoulders. Ansem's hair was blond and worn long and slicked back. He also sported a short mustache and goatee. His eyes are bright orange. As DiZ, Ansem dons a much more complex outfit. His face is covered in red bandages, save for his right eye and mouth, and he tied two intersecting belts around his head, one passing over where his left eye should be. He wears a long, red cape with a quadrate cross cut taken out at the chest, the edges of which are yellow.

This cut exposes a similarly oblong white symbol on a pitch-black shirt. Over-top this shirt, DiZ wears what seems to be grey, segmented armor over his sides and abdomen. His legs are covered by a long, black cloth lined with yellow, which itself has several brown straps pinned onto the front, seemingly for no purpose other than to create yet another angular pattern.

On a yellow sash that hangs around DiZ's waist are three brown pouches, descending downward diagonally on his left hip. These pouches are all identical, all sporting the same design on the top flap, and all closed by a darker brown strap that attaches to a silver button on the right ride, a grey tassel hanging from each button. Like Ansem and his coat, DiZ wears a dark colored scarf around his neck.

He also has light colored sleeves. Notably, Ansem's skin is darker when in his "DiZ" disguise, and his beard is not present, despite his chin being mostly visible. When he removes the bandages, however, these changes disappear in a dark vapor, suggesting that Ansem used his dark magic to artificially change his appearance. His eyes appear to be a much darker shade of amber orange before the DiZ persona, but this is likely an optical illusion caused by the difference in skin color of Ansem and DiZ.

In fact, his skin and eye color while disguised as DiZ are very similar to those of "Ansem, Seeker of Darkness". Interestingly, Ansem retained the amber eyes after discarding his DiZ disguise, and his ears were shown to have developed slight pointy, similar to Master Xehanort. Once he reveals himself as DiZ, he becomes much less sinister, and appears to be genuinely interested in helping Riku and Sora. As himself, Ansem the Wise, true to his name, is a wise sage-king, even though he has been overthrown.

It is revealed that his betrayal by Xehanort was what turned him from a selfless man to a lonely, bitter and rather self-serving individual bent on revenge on Xehanort and apparently caring nothing for the fate of the universe.

One notable personality trait that he exhibits in Kingdom Hearts II is his clear dislike of Nobodies in general, likely due to his rage at his former apprentices and the Nobodies which they have become. His attitude, however, begins to change when he witnesses Riku's transformation into "Ansem" in order to wake Sora up: he first laughs at Riku and mocks him for using the name "Ansem", but later confides to Mickey that his heart was aching greatly at the mere sight of Riku and he began to lose his desire for revenge.

By the end of Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep , Ansem seems to have reverted to his selfless ways and willingly sacrifices himself to stop Xemnas from succeeding with his artificial Kingdom Hearts. He apologizes to Roxas via Sora, and expresses to Aqua his remorse for everything he put Sora, Roxas, and Riku through while they are in the Dark Margin, openly hoping that Sora will ultimately open the Door to Light and right all of his own wrongdoings during his quest for revenge.

In Kingdom Hearts III , Ansem remains deeply remorseful over the sacrifices that were made for his research, such as the numerous children who became his victims, and remains determined to atone for his mistakes. Ansem shows he was unwilling to let others suffer in his defense as he complied with Xehanort's Heartless to come quietly if he spared Aqua.

Ansem was further able to put his past grievances with his apprentices behind and make peace with them, rekindling the bond they once shared. Ansem the Wise has no combat abilities to speak of, but since gaining the power of darkness during his banishment, he has been shown to be able to do at least three things. In one of his reports, Ansem stated that after he discovered his new-found powers, he gained the ability to use Corridors of Darkness for travel, though he admits that it was difficult to control initially.

This was shown after Riku defeats Roxas; Ansem arrives shortly to take Roxas with him. To avoid being recognized, Ansem has also displayed the ability to change his outward appearance to conceal his identity. Ansem also shows the ability to use darkness to repel would-be attackers; while testing Riku in his disguise as Xehanort's Heartless, he merely had to raise a hand to create a small force to push back Riku.

He also demonstrated the ability to craft World Cards from Riku's memory, although altered to only show the Villains and Heartless i. After his Encoder explosion sent him to the Dark Margin, Ansem lost his dark powers, or at least the memory of how to use them. Ansem is also a technical genius, having created a functioning digital replica of Twilight Town, as well as a facility there. His facility in Twilight Town is a very high-tech laboratory, filled with computer screens and several suspended-animation pods.

Oh no! The water! I'm in big trouble if I don't fetch it! DiZ appeared before Riku in the guise of Ansem, presenting him with choices regarding the darkness within his heart.

It is said he and the king have met. Ansem the Wise The man who called himself "DiZ" and dressed his face in bandages to conceal it, now revealed to be none other than Ansem the Wise. The true Ansem once studied hearts and the Heartless, but soon ceased his research for fear of disrupting the order of the worlds. But his apprentice Xehanort betrayed him, robbing Ansem of his discoveries and pride.