Video Game Hero Character info file 6: Sora

Sora (Japanese: ソラ^?) is a fictional character and the main protagonist of Square Enix's Kingdom Hearts video game series.^[1] Introduced in the first game of the series in 2002, Sora is portrayed as a cheerful teenager who lives on Destiny Islands and has been best friends with Riku and Kairi since childhood. When they plan to go on a journey to see other worlds, they are separated by creatures known as the Heartless. While fighting against them, Sora obtains a weapon called the Keyblade. Donald Duck and Goofy then recruit him in their journey across various worlds to aid King Mickey while Sora searches for his friends. Along the way, the trio protects the worlds they visit from various villains. Sora has also made supporting appearances in other games from the series, and reprised his role in manga and light novel adaptations of the games.

Sora was originally designed by Kingdom Hearts series director and character designer Tetsuya Nomura during a discussion between Disney and Square about who should be the protagonist of the series. Wanting an original character, Nomura made various sketches of Sora until the design met the approval of Disney. Nomura came to regard Sora as his favorite character that he had designed, and pushed for the character to have a leading role in the Kingdom Hearts story in spite of the characters youth. Throughout the series, Sora has been voiced by Academy Award-nominee Haley Joel Osment in the English version and Miyu Irino in the Japanese version. As a child, Sora was voiced by Takuto Yoshinaga and Luke Manriquez in Japanese and English, respectively.

Sora's character has received generally positive critical response due to his warm personality and adventurous spirit. His personal and martial growth in the series also received praise, especially in his appearance inKingdom Hearts II. Additionally, Sora has ranked high on various video game character popularity polls.

Sora appears as a spiky brown-haired child who, when first introduced, wears a red shirt, red pants, and a white and blue jacket covered by keychains. Upon traveling to certain worlds, Sora's appearance is altered by Donald Duck's magic to adapt to different environments; for example, he turns into a merman in the sea.^[2] After undergoing significant growth in Kingdom Hearts II, Sora is given a new outfit given by Flora, Fauna, and Merryweather similar to the previous one but mostly black. When battling, Sora's outfit can change into other designs depending on the player's choices.^[3] Sora's Keyblade's primary form is the Kingdom Key (キングダムチェーン Kingudamu Chēn^?, Kingdom Chain), resembling a classic skeleton key approximately 3.5 feet (1.1 m) long, with a long, silver keychain extending from the hilt and a Mickey Mouse token on the end of the keychain. But through using Keychains, the Kingdom Key can assume a variety of unique forms.^[4] During Kingdom Hearts II, Sora dual-wields Keyblades, but their forms depend on the player's use of Keychains.^[3]

Across the series, Sora is depicted as a cheerful teenager who cherishes his friendships and relies on them for his strength.^[5] As a result, several of Sora's enemies use his friends as bait to use the Keyblade for their purposes.^[6] Although Sora was not chosen by the Keyblade to be its owner and the protector of worlds, his actions throughout the series cause the Keyblade to choose him over its original choice, Riku.^[7]

At the beginning of Kingdom Hearts, Sora and his two best friends, Riku and Kairi, plan to leave their hometown, the Destiny Islands, to explore new worlds.^[8] However, they are separated when their world is attacked by a group of dark beings known as theHeartless^[9] with Sora drifting to a town known as Traverse Town where he learns the Keyblade chose him to eliminate the Heartless.^[10] Soon after, Sora meets Donald Duck and Goofy, who join forces in search of his friends while Sora helps Donald and Goofy look for King Mickey.^[11][12] They travel across worlds in their Gummi Ship, sealing the Keyholes of worlds along the way to protect them from being consumed by the darkness of the Heartless. They are opposed by an alliance of Disney villains led by Maleficent who seeks out the seven Princesses of Heart to unlock the Keyhole that leads to "Kingdom Hearts",^[13] a repository of knowledge and power and the source of all hearts. Maleficent sows discord into Riku, causing him to antagonize Sora on several occasions.^[14] Once arriving to Maleficent's headquarters, Hollow Bastion, and defeating her, Sora finds Riku possessed by Ansem,^[15] who reveals that Kairi's heart has been hiding within Sora's body.^[16][17] In order to return Kairi's heart, Sora impales himself with Ansem's Keyblade, briefly transforming him into a Heartless until Kairi brings him back to his human form.^[18][19] After taking Kairi to safety, Sora and company confront and defeat Ansem until his defeat in the door of Kingdom Hearts.^[20] Beyond the door are Mickey and the now recovered Riku, and Mickey and Sora use their Keyblades to lock it so that Heartless will not escape from there.^[21] Nevertheless, he, Donald and Goofy continue their search of Riku and Mickey.^[22]

In Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, Sora's group stumbles onto a fortress known as Castle Oblivion, believing they will find Mickey and Riku inside.^[23] Upon entering, Sora's memories are manipulated by a girl named Naminé who is being held captive by the group Organization XIII and forced to replace memories of Kairi with herself. However, as Sora travels upwards in the castle, he meets Naminé and learns the truth from her.^[24] Sora still wishes to protect Naminé and stop the Organization members in the castle.^[25]After the Organization members opposing him are defeated, Naminé helps him, Donald, and Goofy to restore their memories to their state prior to entering Castle Oblivion at the cost of losing their memories of the events in the castle. This requires them to sleep in the castle for the restoration of memories to be completed.^[26]

In Kingdom Hearts II, roughly one year after Chain of Memories, Sora reawakens along with Donald and Goofy in Twilight Town once his Nobody, Roxas, merges within him.^[27] They visit the King's master, Yen Sid, from whom they learn about the existence of the Nobodies and Organization XIII.^[28] Sora sets out with Donald and Goofy to find Riku and King Mickey, traversing new and unfamiliar worlds where they encounter the remaining members of the Organization. Sora later encounters their leader, Xemnas, learning that the Organization now has Kairi captive to force Sora to gather more hearts for them.^[29][30] Eventually, with Mickey joining them, Sora's group finds a way to the Organization's main base in The World That Never Was.^[31] The group soon reunites with Kairi as well as Riku, and continue fighting the Organization.^[32] Sora and Riku are separated from Mickey, Goofy, Kairi and Donald as they finish Xemnas and find a way back to Destiny Islands where they reunite with all their friends.^[33]

During the majority of events during Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Sora is in a state of sleep as his memories are being restored by Naminé,^[34] but is also playable in the game's multiplayer mode. In Kingdom Hearts Coded Sora himself does not appear until the game's final scene, in which he receives King Mickey's letter and reads it with Riku and Kairi. A computer program created from Sora's data serves as the primary protagonist of the game, finding out the truth behind a mysterious message found inside Jiminy's journal.^[35] A young Sora and Riku briefly appear in Destiny Islands in the prequel to Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep.^[36] After Ventus, one of the protagonists, has his heart damaged following a confrontation with his dark side, Vanitas, his heart finds its way into Sora, entering the boy's body.^[37] In the game's secret ending, set after the events of Kingdom Hearts II Ansem the Wise tells Aqua about Sora's adventures, and how he may help all the people connected to him. In the final scene, Sora decides to save them after reading Mickey's letter.^[38]

In Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Sora is summoned with Riku to Yen Sid to undergo a Mark of Mastery exam in response to Xehanort's coming return. The two are sent to the Dreaming Realm to awaken several worlds submerged in sleep following the defeat of Ansem, but once the task is complete, Sora's heart is damaged by Xemnas whose companions plan to turn him into the last of Xehanort's Thirteen Vessels. Riku and his comrades manage to rescue Sora from his fate and brings him back to Yen Sid's tower, where he dives into Sora's body and repairs his heart, awakening him from his coma. Once Sora wakes up, Yen Sid only names Riku as a Keyblade Master for gaining the power used to awaken Sora. Sora, undaunted by it, congratulates him and departs to continue his training elsewhere.

Sora is slated to return as the main protagonist in Kingdom Hearts III, and will have his long-awaited final showdown with Master Xehanort.

A 2D cartoonish avatar version of Sora wearing his original outfit in Kingdom Hearts is also present in the online community-based social gaming networking service, Kingdom Hearts Mobile. Sora also appears in the Shiro Amano's manga and Tomoko Kanemaki's novels in which he reprises his role in the video games.^[39][40]

Sora was designed by Tetsuya Nomura as the protagonist of Kingdom Hearts. However, he was not originally slated to be the protagonist as Disney wanted Donald Duck to be the protagonist of the game while Square wanted to haveMickey Mouse as the protagonist. Nomura wanted neither as the protagonist of the game and went on to design his own protagonist with the concepts of the Disney characters in mind which resulted in the creation of Sora. Sora originally wielded a weapon resembling a chainsaw; however, the weapon was not well received by Disney which led Nomura to redesign the weapon into a Keyblade. Sora's original outfit in Kingdom Hearts was also designed with Mickey Mouse in mind with Mickey Mouse's trademark white gloves, red shorts and giant yellow shoes due to Square's original preference to have Mickey as the main character of the game.^[41] The tail was removed as the staff found his design to be similar to the one of the Final Fantasy IX protagonist Zidane Tribal who also had a tail. After a talk with the Disney staff, the design was further reworked, and Nomura finished it after a night's work.^[42]

One of the main concepts of Sora's character in the series is that, according to Nomura, he is a normal boy instead of a supernatural being even though he is deeply connected with other characters from the series. With Sora, Nomura wants to give players the message that even though they are not important people, they can have the opportunity to accomplish notable actions. This was emphasized in Birth by Sleep‍ '​s secret ending, game in which he hoped players would like to see him. In early versions of development of Birth by Sleep, Nomura thought that Ventus would actually be Sora before being reborn, but due to overseas opinions, such portrayal was discarded.^[43]

Nomura has stated that Sora's name can be interpreted as "sky" as his name, sora (空^?), means sky in Japanese and was also chosen by Nomura to symbolise his role as well as personality in the story. It also shows his relation with Riku and Kairi, making their three names together "Skys, Land, and Sea."^[44][45] The writings from Jiminy Cricket's journals which are supposed to be written by Nomura in the Japanese versions joking that they have similar writings and wanted people to recognize his hand-writing.^[46] He was also described by Nomura to have a forward personality, which allows him to make friends across the series.^[47] Of all of the characters Nomura has designed, Sora is his favorite, calling him "special" after having worked to develop the character over many games.^[48]

Following the first Kingdom Hearts, Nomura was worried about how players having Sora in a high level would use him in Kingdom Hearts II starting once again with a low level due to the games' natures. Therefore, he developed the plot of Chain of Memories to explain how Sora loses his abilities in Castle Oblivion and then start anew.^[49] Additionally, with Chain of Memories a new mystery regarding Sora's memories from Twilight Town was added and while Sora did not have any memories from such town, this fact would be explained in Kingdom Hearts II.^[50] The team in charge of Kingdom Hearts II expressed difficulties in animating Sora's Drive Valor Form for having a completely different motion except in the part that Sora walks which is shared with his regular motion.^[51] After finishing Kingdom Hearts II, Nomura wanted to give Sora a rest from the series in order to focus the following games on other characters from the series.^[44] Moreover, the events from the endings of Kingdom Hearts coded and Birth by Sleep hinted a new mystery regarding Sora's character which will be revealed in Kingdom Hearts III.^[43] Although Nomura stated in March 2010 that Sora will once again be the focus of the next Kingdom Hearts, he will share it with another character with a big importance.^[52] In response to rumors saying that Sora's story would end in Kingdom Hearts III, Nomura answered that Sora is the main protagonist of the series and that his role will end once the series ends.^[43] For this game, Nomura expressed a concerned if whether Sora should wear a new outfit considering how popular his Kingdom Hearts II outfit was. In the end he decided to create a new one as Kingdom Hearts III was a new numbered title.^[53]

Video Game Hero Character info file 5: RED

Red (レッド, Red) is the name of the player character in the first generation games Pokémon Red, Green, Blue, Yellowand the male choice in their third generation remakes Pokémon FireRed and LeafGreen, where his female counterpart is Leaf.

Red appeared in the first episode of the series, in which he was called by Professor Oak to see him in his lab. Along the way, he met up with his childhood friend and rival, Professor Oak's grandson, Blue, who was also called there. The boys raced to Professor Oak's lab, where he greeted them and explained that he was done with his new invention, the Pokédex. He explained that his lifelong goal was to make a full encyclopedia on all of the Pokémon in Kanto, but was too old to travel and collect data. He asked them to catch all 149 Pokémon to fulfill his dream, and that whenever they caught a new Pokémon, their data would automatically be input in the Pokédex. On a table, Red was given the choice of either Charmander, Squirtle, or Bulbasaur as both a starter Pokémon and a token of appreciation for willing to complete this task. He chose Charmander, and Blue went for Squirtle. Each young Trainer then began his journey.

On Route 1, he encountered a Pidgey, but was unsuccessful in catching it. However, when a Rattata came by, Red was able to catch it and add it to the Pokédex. Red's first Trainer battle was with a Youngster, but when he tried to catch his opponent's Nidoran♀ in a Poké Ball, it failed. The Youngster, now suspicious of Red, withdrew his Pokémon and ended the battle. The Youngster pointed to Viridian City as the location where he caught Nidoran♀, so Red decides to go there. On the way, he saw Blue and agreed to a battle. Both Trainers used their starter Pokémon, but Red forfeited after Charmander was pinned down by Squirtle's relentless Bite.

Brock noticed the disappointed Trainer and talked to him, cheering him up. Later, Red arrived in Pewter City and went to the Pokémon Center to video-chat with Professor Oak. After healing his Pokémon, Red visited the Pewter Museum of Science. As Red entered the Pewter Gym to challenge Brock, a Lass and her friend talked to him and said he had a million years ahead of him before he challenged the Gym Leader. Brock then appeared, and Red recognized him as the Trainer who had talked to him before. Trainer and Gym Leader didbattle, with Red becoming the victor after a long match that took out most of his team.

Eventually, he was able to defeat Misty and Lt. Surge. He also encountered a crime syndicate called Team Rocket who had stolen the TM for Dig. Eventually, Red arrived in Lavender Town, where he heard about some ghost sightings in the Pokémon Tower, the town's Pokémon cemetery. Red went to the Lavender Volunteer Pokémon House and met one of its volunteers, Reina. Reina told Red that Team Rocket was near town poaching Pokémon, and how a newborn Cubone had lost its mother to them, and Team Rocket had then taken over the Pokémon Tower as their headquarters and kidnapped the owner of the Pokémon House, Mr. Fuji. Red decided to take Team Rocket on, so he went to the overtaken Pokémon Tower, where he encountered Blue again, who had heard about it too. A ghost then appeared and Red sent out his Charmeleon to deal with it. Blue tossed him the Silph Scope, which he had stolen from a Rocket Grunt in order to identify the ghost, which was then revealed to be Cubone's deceased mother, Marowak. Reina appeared with Cubone, who had a tender reunion with its mother. Team Rocket then found the group, but were defeated in battle by Cubone and Red's Jolteon, so they retreated. Red advanced to the Tower's top floor, where he found a tied-up Mr. Fuji. Red returned to the Pokémon House, where Mr. Fuji gave Red a Poké Flute and two mysterious stones. Red then departed from Lavender Town and continued his journey.

Now a more-than-capable Trainer, Red challenged and defeated both Erika and Koga in Gym battles. He found Team Rocket's hideout under the Rocket Game Corner, where he met their leader, Giovanni. Red then went to Silph Co., which had been overtaken by Team Rocket in an attempt to get the Master Ball, where he was able to free the Pokémon they had stolen and was rewarded by a Silph scientist with a Lapras. On the top floor, Red found Giovanni and saw that he was holding the Silph Co. president hostage. Red battled Giovanni with Charizard and lost horribly.

Red left Silph Co. and challenged Sabrina to a Gym battle, which he won. Red also went to the Fighting Dojo and challenged Kiyo, proving victorious again. Red rode Lapras to Cinnabar Island and visited the Mansion first, where he found thePokémon Mansion journals. Afterward, he challenged Blaine to a Gym battle and won.

Red's Hall of Fame team

Red returned to Viridian City to challenge the final Gym, whose Leader was none other than Giovanni. Red had a rematch with him and even though Giovanni had the upper hand at first, Red was able to defeat him after a very long battle finally ended when Charizard defeated Rhydon. This defeat convinced Giovanni to disband Team Rocket, train to become a better person and Trainer, quit his job as the Viridian City Gym Leader, and respect Red as a Trainer.

Red went to Indigo Plateau and managed to get through the Elite Four. He discovered that Blue had become the Champion and challenged him still. The titanic battle was only decided when Charizard defeated Blastoise despite a type disadvantage. Soon afterward, Professor Oak came by to congratulate both Trainers and had Red follow him into the Hall of Fame, where he registered his data as one of the Trainers who defeated the Elite Four and Champion.

He continued his quest to fill up the Pokédex and caught almost every Pokémon, including the legendary birds. Red returned to Professor Oak's lab and saw that Blue had been injured by a powerful being in Cerulean Cave. Red asked Blue to show him, in Red's Pokédex, what Pokémon it was. Professor Oak then realized that Red had caught all 149 Pokémon in Kanto. Professor Oak asked what the stones Red had were for, which Red didn't actually know. He explained that he had gotten them from Mr. Fuji in Lavender Town. He also mentioned that the Pokémon that attacked Blue may have been a then-newly-discovered Pokémon called Mew, which he had read about in the journal in the mansion on Cinnabar Island. Red also remembered reading about Mew being cloned into a Pokémon called Mewtwo, which then escaped from and destroyed the mansion. Professor Oak said that this must have been the work of Dr. Fuji. Red then realized that Dr. Fuji and Mr. Fuji were the same people. Professor Oak, meanwhile, remembered reading about the stones and told Red to hold onto the smaller of the two stones and let Charizard hold the other.

Red then went all the way to Cerulean Cave to find Mewtwo. Upon finding the Genetic Pokémon, a battle commenced immediately. Mewtwo's incredible power overwhelmed Red's entire team, save for one: Charizard. With Red and Charizard almost drowning in the water surrounding the island they were fighting on, Red's Mega Ring reacted with Charizard's Charizardite X, which was revealed to be a Mega Stone from the Kalos region. The reaction allowed Charizard to Mega Evolve into Mega Charizard X. Its newfound power allowed Charizard to weaken Mewtwo enough for Red to attempt capture. After a failed capture attempt, Red threw an Ultra Ball at Mewtwo and successfully caught it. He then returned home to a dinner with his mother, Blue, and Professor Oak. Realizing his work on the Pokédex was not done yet, Red ventured off to catch the most elusive of all Pokémon, Mew.

Character

Red starts out as a well-meaning polite klutz with a heart of gold. His father named him to be warm-hearted with a strong sense of adventure like a powerful fire. However, he's not without faults as he tends to forget type-match ups and towards the beginning of his journey saw Pokemon as tool for battle rather than partners. Despite this, he has a strong sense of morality, and will quickly stand up for what he believes is right, even if others disagree.

Special Video game character file 1:Vault-Boy

Vault Boy is the mascot character of the Vault-Tec corporation within the Fallout universe, appearing in their adverts, manuals, products and training films. He was also to appear in some issues of the Hell's Chain Gang comic of Hubris Comics, but because of the Great War, the series was never produced.

In the Fallout games, Vault Boy is used to provide an iconic representation of almost all stats (perks, traits, skills etc.) and items in later games available to the player character, being a generic representation of one's actions and survival, and also appearing in achievements and trophies forFallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas as well as the mascot of the Fallout series itself. In appearance, he is a young male cartoon character with wavy blond hair wearing a vault jumpsuit. He most commonly expresses a wide grin, but has been shown to make other facial expressions as well.

His female counterpart is Vault Girl, who strangely appears rarely, contrary to Vault Boy.

Vault Boy should not be confused with Pip-Boy which is the name of the personal information processor used as the game interface in Fallout, Fallout 2, Fallout 3, Fallout: New Vegas,Fallout Tactics and Fallout 4.

Made by RobCo, this device has its own advertising mascot shown on the plate of the Pip-Boy 2000 in Fallout and Fallout 2 (with pointy ears, red and yellow jumpsuit, red hair). The 3000 model, created under a Vault-Tec/RobCo joint-venture, does not feature RobCo's own mascot.

While the name of the Vault-Tec mascot (round ears, blond hair, blue and yellow vault jumpsuit) is not present in the original games themselves, he was called Vault Man in the Fallout instruction manual. However, for some reason this name was forgotten - it was never used in any of the following Fallout content including games nor by any developers, only Vault Boy was used and became his real name.

According to Fallout developers Leonard Boyarsky^[1] (creator of the character) and Tim Cain,^[2] he was always referred to as Vault Boy or Fallout Boy, not Pip-Boy. The misconception stems from the fact that the developers of Fallout Tactics(Micro Forté) confused the two and called the Vault Boy - "Pip-Boy" (which even ended up being used also by Chris Avellone when he wrote the Fallout Bible).

The makers of Fallout 3 returned to the real name "Vault Boy" in the game itself, although confusingly enough he is still called "Pip-Boy" in the trademark legal documents.

Comic Hero Character info file 4: Captain America

Captain America is a fictional superhero appearing in American comic books published by Marvel Comics. Created by cartoonists Joe Simon and Jack Kirby, the character first appeared in Captain America Comics #1 (cover dated March 1941) from Timely Comics, a predecessor of Marvel Comics. Captain America was designed as a patriotic supersoldier who often fought the Axis powers of World War II and was Timely Comics' most popular character during the wartime period. The popularity of superheroes waned following the war and the Captain America comic book was discontinued in 1950, with a short-lived revival in 1953. Since Marvel Comics revived the character in 1964, Captain America has remained in publication.

Captain America wears a costume that bears an American flag motif, and is armed with a nearly indestructible shield that he throws at foes. The character is usually depicted as the alter ego of Steve Rogers, a frail young man enhanced to the peak of human perfection by an experimental serum to aid the United States government's imminent efforts in World War II. Near the end of the war, he was trapped in ice and survived insuspended animation until he was revived in the present day. Although Captain America often struggles to maintain his ideals as a man out of his time with its modern realities, he remains a highly respected figure in his community which includes becoming the long-time leader of the Avengers.

Captain America was the first Marvel Comics character to have appeared in media outside comics with the release of the 1944 movie serial, Captain America. Since then, the character has been featured in other films and television series, more recently in the Marvel Cinematic Universe (MCU) portrayed by Chris Evans in Captain America: The First Avenger, The Avengers, Captain America: The Winter Soldier, Avengers: Age of Ultron, and the upcoming film Captain America: Civil War.

Captain America is ranked 6th on IGN's "Top 100 Comic Book Heroes of All Time" in 2011,^[1] and second in their list of "The Top 50 Avengers" in 2012.^[2]

In 1940, writer Joe Simon conceived the idea for Captain America and made a sketch of the character in costume.^[3] "I wrote the name 'Super American' at the bottom of the page," Simon said in his autobiography, and then considered:

No, it didn't work. There were too many "Supers" around. "Captain America" had a good sound to it. There weren't a lot of captains in comics. It was as easy as that. The boy companion was simply named Bucky, after my friend Bucky Pierson, a star on our high school basketball team.^[4]

Simon recalled in his autobiography that Timely Comics publisher Martin Goodman gave him the go-ahead and directed that a Captain America solo comic book series be published as soon as possible. Needing to fill a full comic with primarily one character's stories, Simon did not believe that his regular creative partner, artist Jack Kirby, could handle the workload alone:

I didn't have a lot of objections to putting a crew on the first issue ... There were two young artists from Connecticut that had made a strong impression on me. Al Avison and Al Gabriele often worked together and were quite successful in adapting their individual styles to each other. Actually, their work was not too far from [that of] Kirby's. If they worked on it, and if one inker tied the three styles together, I believed the final product would emerge as quite uniform. The two Als were eager to join in on the new Captain America book, but Jack Kirby was visibly upset. "You're still number one, Jack," I assured him. "It's just a matter of a quick deadline for the first issue."

"I'll make the deadline," Jack promised. "I'll pencil it [all] myself and make the deadline." I hadn't expected this kind of reaction ... but I acceded to Kirby's wishes and, it turned out, was lucky that I did. There might have been two Als, but there was only one Jack Kirby ... I wrote the first Captain America book with penciled lettering right on the drawing boards, with very rough sketches for figures and backgrounds. Kirby did his thing, building the muscular anatomy, adding ideas and pepping up the action as only he could. Then he tightened up the penciled drawings, adding detailed backgrounds, faces and figures.^[4]