Ranking the keyblade wielders from the strongest to the weakest my honest opinion!

[SweetYetSalty]

I wish more people understood this. There is no consistent power-scaling in KH, and there likely never will be. I like engaging in a tier list as much as the next guy (trust me, I have a lot of thoughts on the comparison between Aqua and Terra), but it feels almost pointless when power and intelligence seem to fluctuate at random from title to title.

I don't even really care about power-scaling. How strong a character is doesn't equal to how good of a character they are, which is what I'm looking for. And it's impossible to tell who's strongest in a video game series because you have to take into account cutscenes, their lore, and most importantly gameplay. Playable characters are always going to be seen as stronger then party members unless they hax the party member like with Roxas.

 

[Any]

For real. And this goes for non-Keyblade fighters too. Like hardly any of the villains have any wins and yet they are suppose to be threatening. What have Luxord, Xigbar, and Larxene ever done in combat to make them scary for the Keyblade Graveyard? They are living fodder. Even Vanitas has no real wins, he's all talk and I have yet to see him win a real fight that doesn't involve Aqua looking the other way. Terranort goes from wrecking everyone to losing in a formal fight.

Kingdom Hearts characters are as strong as the plot needs them to be. It's why Kairi is going from struggling with Xion to fighting Goat Xehanort.

Edit: This is kinda why boss fights/gameplay should be taken into account for KH powerlevels. Without them more Organization members have no feats at all. Even characters like Lingering Will are famous for the KH2 'non canon' boss fight.

But the organization members did manage to beat up the heroes few times.



Xemnas wrecked Axel without touching him lmao

Sora and Kairi flew when Saix swiped his weapon with one move. They were exhausted already.

Ansem blasting Aqua.


The Terranort scene...yikes.



Dark Riku knocked down Riku.



Vanitas whiplashed Donald and Goofy with his negativity boost while crushing Sora’s heart in Monstropolis. He managed to exhaust them without touching them.

I’m sure there are more examples. You have to give them credit even though they lost some their battles.

Now with Vanitas. He won a fight during his first encounter with Ventus before Mickey came. I am counting this as a fight, Mickey got knocked by Vanitas in neverland too.

He managed to exhaust Aqua three times in a row and made her faint. With a destroyed body, he still managed to pin down Ventus with the floods. With an incomplete X-blade, he still managed to beat down Mickey & Aqua while fighting Ventus within. Xehanort spawned the storm of Keyblades but Vanitas was the one who was attacking and beating down TAV with them. Before Sora came to fight with Ventus and Aqua, Vanitas manage to knock down Ventus.



I'm trying to say that Vanitas is an undeniable pain in the ass to fight even with the losses. You can apply this to other members as well.



This is the reason I think the characters are equal to one another. You beat them gameplay wise but the cutscenes says something else. It’s pointless to argue who’s stronger or weak. Every character got their asses handed at some point.

 

[SweetYetSalty]

But the organization members did manage to beat up the heroes few times.



Xemnas wrecked Axel without touching him lmao

Sora and Kairi flew when Saix swiped his weapon with one move. They were exhausted already.

Ansem blasting Aqua.


The Terranort scene...yikes.



Dark Riku knocked down Riku.



Vanitas whiplashed Donald and Goofy with his negativity boost while crushing Sora’s heart in Monstropolis. He managed to exhaust them without touching them.

I’m sure there are more examples. You have to give them credit even though they lost some their battles.

Now with Vanitas. He won a fight during his first encounter with Ventus before Mickey came. I am counting this as a fight, Mickey got knocked by Vanitas in neverland too.

He managed to exhaust Aqua three times in a row and made her faint. With a destroyed body, he still managed to pin down Ventus with the floods. With an incomplete X-blade, he still managed to beat down Mickey & Aqua while fighting Ventus within. Xehanort spawned the storm of Keyblades but Vanitas was the one who was attacking and beating down TAV with them. Before Sora came to fight with Ventus and Aqua, Vanitas manage to knock down Ventus.



I'm trying to say that Vanitas is an undeniable pain in the ass to fight even with the losses. You can apply this to other members as well.



This is the reason I think the characters are equal to one another. You beat them gameplay wise but the cutscenes says something else. It’s pointless to argue who’s stronger or weak. Every character got their asses handed at some point.

Hey I named Luxord, Xigbar, and Larxene, lol. I'm not dumb enough to question Xemnas and Ansem as powerhouses due to being Xehanorts.

Also I wasn't trying to Vanitas is weak. He's not, in addition to all the feats you just named he's one of the most intense bosses in the series. I was saying he has no onscreen wins and he doesn't. You can push your opponent to the limit all the way but if you don't win then your just a really powerful runner-up. Xemnas, Ansem, Terranort, and even Saix have been shown to be able to win fights in cutscene mode, and they don't have a in-game boss fight to contradict it. In the Saix boss fight he has a moment where you can't hurt him and he automatically ends it with the Kairi and Axel portion. Vanitas needed that where he wins both in cutscene and gameplay to really sell him as a top threat of the Organization, not lose gameplay wise and win for the cutscene. A lot of characters have pushed their opponents to exhaustion and still lose and it counts as a loss.

But all my points funnily enough don't compare to this one. KH characters are as powerful as the plot needs them to be. There is no real set power level. It's why Roxas can lose to a fake Ansem in Riku butis still believable in that he can defeat Xemnas. And again we have Kairi going up against Xehanort in ReMind. All bets are off.

 

[Twilight Lumiair]

Sora and Kairi flew when Saix swiped his weapon with one move. They were exhausted already.

Ansem blasting Aqua.


The Terranort scene...yikes.

And this is an excellent example of what I'm talking about.

Siax wrecked Sora, Kairi, AND Lea (Xion automatically starts keeling over in exhaustion just before that cutscene no matter what, so the implication is they wore her down without issue), with Sora and Kairi being so exhausted they couldn't stop Xemnas from nearly killing Axel and Xion in the same scene. Yet Sora, Donald, and Goofy beat this guy in KH2? Roxas literally embarrassed him at half his power and one Keyblade, and after regaining that power, he loses to Sora, who loses to Siax (with help)... How?

Ansem SoD manages to land his highly, HIGHLY telegraphed blast on Aqua, who doesn't even attempt to dodge or use barrier (which we see her use without a Keyblade later on in the very same game), why?

Terranort goes from one-shotting Ven and Lea, knocking Sora on his ass, with Aqua standing there doing fuck all, to losing to Sora, Ventus, and Aqua despite having Vanitas by his side??????? Is Aqua just that big a factor? Because that just makes her inaction earlier all worse. She knows all this guy's abilities, and he couldn't beat her in their last fight. So why didn't she step in immediately and take him down (or spend all his stamina) right then? It doesn't make sense. Everyone's strength and intelligence is purely determined by the freaking plot, lol.

 

[*TwilightNight*]

Or...or...get this, guys.




KHIII is just badly handled in plenty of fronts. Most of the complaints here are from that game. It's a mess. Whatever fucks Nomura gave left with this entry.

To be fair, however, the Organization members this time felt like they've been juiced up (Larxene was able to built an ice maze) for whatever reason that we haven't been given any explanation for, so there might something else at work here. And Aqua was suffering from "PTSD". Make of that what you will.

Also, we don't know how the Kairi battle ends up. Just because we can play as her doesn't mean she's able to defeat him (i.e. Leon, Sephiroth, Cloud). And if she does, well, that's KHIII for you.

It's why Roxas can lose to a fake Ansem in Riku butis still believable in that he can defeat Xemnas.

Technically, Roxas was throwing an emotional tantrum at the time and was thinking less with his head and more with his anger. In any other fight, this is a grave disadvantage because your opponent can outsmart you while you're simply raging.

 

[SweetYetSalty]

And this is an excellent example of what I'm talking about.

Siax wrecked Sora, Kairi, AND Lea (Xion automatically starts keeling over in exhaustion just before that cutscene no matter what, so the implication is they wore her down without issue),

This is one of my favorites because in all my KH3 playthroughs so far Xion has destroyed Kairi in Berserk but as soon as Saix's bar fills up she drops defeated because of plot. Good ole plot.

Technically, Roxas was throwing an emotional tantrum at the time and was thinking less with his head and more with his anger. In any other fight, this is a grave disadvantage because your opponent can outsmart you while you're simply raging.

But Roxas wasn't outsmarted, he was outclassed by a power greater then his at the current time. In that situation there was nothing Roxas could have done, except not get grabbed. Riku was faster and boosted more power as Ansem, used his speed to catch him off guard, squeezed him till he passed out and the rest is history. Being smart would not have saved Roxas here.

 

[Keyblade07]

Or...or...get this, guys.




KHIII is just badly handled in plenty of fronts. Most of the complaints here are from that game. It's a mess. Whatever fucks Nomura gave left with this entry.

To be fair, however, the Organization members this time felt like they've been juiced up (Larxene was able to built an ice maze) for whatever reason that we haven't been given any explanation for, so there might something else at work here. And Aqua was suffering from "PTSD". Make of that what you will.

Also, we don't know how the Kairi battle ends up. Just because we can play as her doesn't mean she's able to defeat him (i.e. Leon, Sephiroth, Cloud). And if she does, well, that's KHIII for you.





Technically, Roxas was throwing an emotional tantrum at the time and was thinking less with his head and more with his anger. In any other fight, this is a grave disadvantage because your opponent can outsmart you while you're simply raging.

I probably should have put this in general cause I wasn’t really ranking them from the point of Kh3 view but instead from all the games included, either way was a bad idea to post this in kh3 instead of general, since I’m aware kh3 power scaling is messy.

 

[Foxycian]

If I had to rank them it would be mostly the same, but switching Terra for Roxas. Terra is in the same tier than Keyblade Masters when he is driven by anger, but most of the time he's just average. Roxas is overpowered since he wields Oblivion and Oathkeeper, I don't think he should be included in the same tier Sora and Ven are.

Not really even when he is calm his still strong, his anger isn’t the reason he is powerful it’s his strong will what makes him the strongest among the bbs trio.

 

[okhi12]

Not really even when he is calm his still strong, his anger isn’t the reason he is powerful it’s his strong will what makes him the strongest among the bbs trio.

As much as I like Terra as a character I don't think his will is stronger than Aqua's or Ven's. Quite the opposite.

 

[Foxycian]

As much as I like Terra as a character I don't think his will is stronger than Aqua's or Ven's. Quite the opposite.

umm what feat did Aqua and Ventus exactly show that puts them above terra? Not only was it said many times that terra had a strong will which what tether him to the realm of light but his will is soo strong that it started moving by itself, how is ventus and aqua have will as strong as terra?

 

[Noivern]

umm what feat did Aqua and Ventus exactly show that puts them above terra? Not only was it said many times that terra had a strong will which what tether him to the realm of light but his will is soo strong that it started moving by itself, how is ventus and aqua have will as strong as terra?

1. Aqua will is strong enough to survive in the Dark Realm for 10+ years before getting corrupted, and even then it was only because Mickey is a dumbass.
2. Ventus literally broke his heart in two out of his own will to stop Vanitas.

But really, can we please stop with this shitshow of trying to rank powerlevels or decide who is the main character of BBS and any kind of discussion on this matter? It's already been proven multiple times that power scaling doesn't exist and characters can and will do feats above what we take them from if plot demands. We also have stablished characters be weaker for plot convenience.

All this amounts to is the same discussions with the same arguments because people will get heated when they see something they disagree about their favorite characters.

I mean, we just got Re:Mind. Anyone who has played or watched its cutscenes know how much it made like most of the comments in this thread irrelevant. lol

 

[Foxycian]

1. Aqua will is strong enough to survive in the Dark Realm for 10+ years before getting corrupted, and even then it was only because Mickey is a dumbass.
2. Ventus literally broke his heart in two out of his own will to stop Vanitas.

But really, can we please stop with this shitshow of trying to rank powerlevels or decide who is the main character of BBS and any kind of discussion on this matter? It's already been proven multiple times that power scaling doesn't exist and characters can and will do feats above what we take them from if plot demands. We also have stablished characters be weaker for plot convenience.

All this amounts to is the same discussions with the same arguments because people will get heated when they see something they disagree about their favorite characters.

I mean, we just got Re:Mind. Anyone who has played or watched its cutscenes know how much it made like most of the comments in this thread irrelevant. lol

Hmm Again how does that put them above terra? According to Nomura, terra never stopped fighting xehanort to reign his body for the past 10 years while being split into god knows how many entities, if that isn’t an amazing feat I don’t what is, what ventus and aqua did is no easy feat but the truth is Aqua didn’t spend 10 years in the realm of darkness she spend there for long while yes but, time moves different in the realm of darkness. So 10 years moved fast for her, point was terra is the strongest among the 3 in birth by sleep
(not talking about messed up power scale remind) at least feats support this, also I see what you mean about ending this topic but literally this is a ranking list we are free to post:/ but yea... I guess I said everything on my mind for now so I will stop here but if anyone wants to continue then so will i

Peace for now.

 

[Absent]

S Tier:
The Plot Armor
A Tier:
The MCs
B Tier:
Narrative

 

[Foxycian]

S Tier:
The Plot Armor
A Tier:
The MCs
B Tier:
Narrative

lol can’t argue with that.

 

[Genocide]

I would put Ven in C tier with Xion (and Axel), because Ven stay getting his ass beat.

Plus he holds his Keyblade wrong.

 

[Foxycian]

I would put Ven in C tier with Xion (and Axel), because Ven stay getting his ass beat.

Plus he holds his Keyblade wrong.

last time I checked he defeated vanitas (in the keyblade graveyard) the same vanitas Aqua struggles with and always ends up in a draw or can barely stand after the battle, many sleep on my boy ventus power, also his a pure light, despite being split in two he is still strong, the reason I think his in B cause he is younger and less experienced then terra and aqua not cause his weaker.

 

[Zettaflare]

So(spoilers from Re:MIND)

Spoiler Show

Should we rank Yozora? While not technically a Keyblade wielder he did steal Sora's during their the boss fight. Plus the symbol of two keyblades crossing on his clothes could hint at him being a wielder

 

[pssst]

A question, were formchanges or drive forms a result of Sora’s ability? Or a result of the keyblades themselves? I’m unfamiliar with the lore behind this.

 

[Noivern]

A question, were formchanges or drive forms a result of Sora’s ability? Or a result of the keyblades themselves? I’m unfamiliar with the lore behind this.

The Drive Forms are a result of his new outfit made by the 3 Fairies which has the ability to channel his connections to his friends. I suppose it works similarly to Dimension Links, except he's projecting the power directly into himself. Not sure if him actually absorbing (lol) one of his party members is canon or just a balance-thing in the gameplay side of things, though.

The form changes weren't explained, but If I had to guess it's probably a form of dimension link with the keychain which countains the memories of the world the Keyblade is from?

 

[Genocide]

last time I checked he defeated vanitas (in the keyblade graveyard)

Last I checked (which was research for this comment aka 30 seconds ago) Vanitas was manipulating Ven. He needed to lose in order to gain control of the X-Blade. That L was a part of his plan. You could say that it still counts, but let's not fotget the one who was in charged when they fused. It wasn't Ven. That means that Vanitas' heart is stronger than Ven's.

Ven got played like a Winne the Pooh minigame - it was mandatory and disrespectful.

The second battle, they fought to a standstill.

the same vanitas Aqua struggles with and always ends up in a draw or can barely stand after the battle

You mean, with 10+ years of PTSD, in a symbolism match with 3 of the 5 Soras?

many sleep on my boy ventus power, also his a pure light

Having a pure light isn't that special. All the Disney princesses (except Ariel) have one. Hell, Kairi has a pure heart too, and she is almost completely useless.