Kingdom Hearts is a much beloved video game franchise that allows players to take control of main character Sora and interact with their favorite Disney/Pixar characters, as well as Square Enix characters from the Final Fantasy franchise. With all of these universes coming together, the Kingdom Hearts plot gets quite convoluted.

Here is a detailed explanation of the main story, with a timeline.

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Keyblade War

In the beginning, there was one world that bathed in the blue light of Kingdom Hearts, a sort of heaven for hearts as well as a source of unimaginable power. In order to access it, the original keyblade was needed. Its power allowed the original keyblade Masters to forge their blades by pulling them from their own hearts.

A Keyblade War broke out as light and dark battled for control of the weapon. The conflict caused the original keyblade to shatter into 20 pieces -- seven of pure light and 13 of pure darkness. Along with the keyblade, the world also shattered into pieces. Kingdom Hearts: Backcover expanded on the lead-up to the Keyblade War and was a complementary piece to Kingdom Hearts X.

Master Xehanort

Xehanort Sitting on Throne in Kingdom Hearts

Birth by Sleep takes place 10 years before Kingdom Hearts. It explains the origins of the series' infamous villain, Master Xehanort. Xehanort wishes to reforge the original keyblade and restart the Keyblade War in order to access Kingdom Hearts. He wishes to use its power to create a world that is equally light and dark, because the current world is unbalanced in favor of light.

Xehanort takes on young Ventus as an apprentice to use him as a vessel. However, Ventus refuses to use darkness to fight, which prompts Xehanort to use his keyblade and create Vanitas, the Heartless counterpart to Ventus. The unconscious Ventus is then taken to Destiny Island with a broken heart to die, but his heart is healed by young Sora, whose voice reaches through to him.

Following Ventus' brush with death, he loses his memories. Xehanort takes him to the Land of Departure to train as a Keyblade Master, alongside Terra and Aqua, under Master Eriqus. When Ventus, Terra and Aqua go on separate journeys to stop a new threat called the Unversed, Xehanort slowly manipulates Terra to make him a new vessel. After Xehanort kills Master Eriqus, the trio fights him in the Keyblade Graveyard. Vanitas manages to fuse with Ventus to reforge the original keyblade and Terra gets tricked into darkness, which allows Xehanort to transfer his heart into him.

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Ventus overcomes Vanitas' control with the help of Aqua and King Mickey, causing the original keyblade to explode. Ventus goes into a deep, healing sleep and Aqua locks him away in the Land of Departure, now called Castle Oblivion. Ventus' heart later finds young Sora and merges with him to heal.

Aqua still senses Terra in the new version of Xehanort and defeats him at Radiant Garden to save her friend. The unconscious Terra-Xehanort falls into a portal to the Dark Realm and Aqua dives in after. She sacrifices herself to fly Terra's body back out of the portal.

Then, Ansem the Wise finds the unconscious body of Terra-Xehanort, who now calls himself Xehanort. The new Xehanort still has an obsession with darkness and unlocking Kingdom Hearts; he also discovers how to create Heartless and Nobodies to help serve his goal.

Sora, Riku & Kairi

Riku, Sora and Kairi in Kingdom Hearts II

Some time later, Xehanort betrays Ansem by banishing him to the realm of darkness, then creates more Heartless and Nobodies out of Ansem's other apprentices and himself. New Xehanort's Heartless is called Ansem, Seeker of Darkness and his Nobody is called Xemnas. This sets up the beginning of Organization XIII, led by Xemnas in Chain of Memories. It also begins Sora's story. 

Best friends Sora, Riku and Kairi spend their days together on Destiny Island. One night, the island is attacked by darkness and the three get separated. Sora manages to wield a keyblade through the chaos and ends up in Traverse Town, where he meets Goofy and Donald searching for a key for King Mickey. Because of Sora's keyblade, the three form an alliance to search for Riku, Kairi and King Mickey while defending the worlds.

The trio has to fight Maleficent, who plans to use the Seven Princesses of Heart -- each protected by a pure light fragment from the original keyblade -- to access Kingdom Hearts. Sora, Donald and Mickey discover Maleficent is working with Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, in Hollow Bastion to accomplish her goal.

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ASOD has been manipulating everything and took control of Riku to battle Sora. Sora also discovers Kairi's body, which has been separated from her heart; it merged with Sora alongside Ventus' heart. To seal the keyhole to Hollow Bastion, Sora uses ASOD's nearby keyblade to extract Kairi's heart from his body. Kairi's heart is restored and eventually, so is Sora's, but he accidentally creates two new Nobodies in the process: Roxas and Namine, who are key characters in Chain of Memories and 358/2.

After Sora defeats ASOD at the edge of the world, ASOD attempts to prove to the others that Kingdom Hearts is filled with darkness. Unfortunately, when he opens the Dark Realm's door, light shoots out and kills him. King Mickey and a restored Riku close the door to darkness to prevent Heartless from entering other worlds, which traps them in the Dark Realm.

While King Mickey has been locking keyholes in the Realm of Darkness to prevent Heartless from escaping, he also meets Aqua, who's been wandering the realm for many years. She teams up with Mickey and eventually meets the original Ansem the Wise.

Organization XIII

Roxas and Axel

In Chain of Memories, Namine is manipulated by Organization XIII to erase Sora's memories. These erased memories are shared by his Heartless, Roxas, and a character named Xion. This traps Sora in a sleep until his memories are restored. After Xion dies, Roxas later discovers his true purpose is to merge with Sora so he can awaken.

In Kingdom Hearts II, Sora has no memories of the events from Chain of Memories and he gets tasked by Yen Sid to defend the worlds from Heartless, Nobodies and remaining Organization XIII members.

Organization XIII wishes to use Sora's keyblade to form a new Kingdom Hearts where its members, as Nobodies, can be whole again. Their leader, Xemnas, had been lying to them for his own ambitions. One member, Axel, starts working as a double agent for Sora after growing suspicious of the organization and sacrifices himself. At the same time, Maleficent returns and wants to control all the worlds.

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Return of Xehanort

Video Games Kingdom-Hearts-3-7-Keyblade-Masters-Of-Light (1)

In Dream Drop Distance, Sora, Riku and Kairi finally get together again on their home island after beating everyone in Kingdom Hearts II. However, because of Sora defeating ASOD and Xemnas, the original Master Xehanort has returned. Similarly, the members of Organization XIII had been revived, including Axel.

Riku and Sora train to become Keyblade Masters with Yen Sid's help. To do so, they enter previously destroyed worlds that are in a deep sleep -- to return them from the dream world, Sora and Riku must unlock their keyholes.

The boys get separated and Riku enters Sora's dreams, while Sora continues seeking keyholes. Meanwhile, Master Xehanort has time traveled to instruct his younger self to recruit other Xehanort versions. He believes that by having 13 dark Keyblade Masters fight seven light Keyblade Masters, he can reforge the original keyblade and unlock Kingdom Hearts.

He also had been eyeing Sora to be his 13th recruit in the form of a vessel. Ventus' heart protects Sora's from Xehanort's attack, but not before Sora's heart is weakened. This leaves Sora unconscious while Riku completes Yen Sid's quest, granting him the title of Keyblade Master.

Xehanort and Organization XIII

In Kingdom Hearts III, Xehanort's plans to recruit 13 Keyblade Masters of darkness is still in motion, so Yen Sid believes seven Keyblade Masters of light will be needed for the eventual battle. With Sora still weakened, he trains to learn The Power of Awakening to help free Ventus, Roxas and Xion from inside his body. King Mickey and Riku are sent to the Dark Realm to save Aqua. Meanwhile, Axel and Kairi decide to train as Keyblade Masters.

Once Sora, Riku, King Mickey, Aqua, Ventus, Axel and Kairi come together as the seven light Keyblade Masters, they travel to the Keyblade Graveyard to battle with Xehanort and his 13 dark Keyblade Masters. Terra-Xehanort is one of the members.

After Sora turns Terra-Xehanort back into Terra, Xehanort manages to reforge the original keyblade by killing Kairi to force Sora to fight. As Xehanort starts to corrupt Kingdom Hearts, Sora and friends decide to use Xehanort's time powers to transport them and Xehanort to Scala Ad Caelum in the past.

There they finally manage to defeat Xehanort and all of his other versions to restore Kingdom Hearts. Sora sacrifices himself using The Power of Awakening to revive Kairi. This makes Sora fade away as everyone celebrates their victory.

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