Luxord

""I'd rather we just skip the formalities.""

- - Luxord

Luxord, the Gambler of Fate (運命を賭す者, Unmei o Tosumono?), is Rank X within Organization XIII. He possesses the power of time manipulation, and uses his ability to force his opponents to play timed games, with unfortunate consequences if they cannot learn the rules and lose. He commands the Gambler Nobodies, who force there opponents to participate in games similar to the one Luxord uses in fights.

He harassed Sora and his friends in Port Royal, playing a game with them involving the cursed Aztec treasure there. He later battles Sora alone in the World That Never Was, and is the third-to-last member of Organization XIII to fall.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days's Mission Mode features Luxord as a playable character.

Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days
Luxord plays a minor role in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. He is present when Xion joined the Organization, and would often team up with Roxas in missions in Wonderland. This association with this world is more than likely thanks to the Queen of Hearts's card army. Luxord joins Roxas on other missions and stays in the Grey Area as well. Luxord took all of his missions as a game, and would tend to comment on them as such to Roxas. He was shocked when Xemnas called the meeting to announce the truth about Xion being a Replica, and simply said, "If only the whispers from the top of the ladder carried to the bottom rung," before vanishing from Where Nothing Gathers.

Hollow Bastion
Luxord appears with all of the other Organization members in the confrontation with Sora and stands behind and to the left of Saïx. He makes no contact with Sora. In fact, he isn't even seen again until Port Royal the second time through.

Port Royal
Upon making second rounds to the worlds in search of the Organization's stronghold, Sora once again allies with Jack Sparrow in Port Royal, where he learns that Will Turner has gone missing while investigating the theft of cursed pirate gold by a man in a black hood. They seek out Will on the Black Pearl and find him on the Interceptor.

Luxord appears on the Black Pearl after they have recovered Will, with the cursed gold beside him, greeting Jack Sparrow. He reveals that he is at Port Royal to assess the value of the cursed gold to the Organization and calls up Grim Reaper, a Heartless. After the Heartless is thrown overboard, Luxord invokes the right of parley before Jack can get off a shot with his pistol. He agrees to hand over the chest, but takes four medallions from it when he does so, sending them off to his Gambler Nobodies, who escape with them. This has the effect of returning the curse on Jack and tying his curse to Grim Reaper, who becomes cursed, as well.

The Grim Reaper then knocks Sora, Donald, Goofy, and Jack onto the Interceptor, and has the cannons of the Black Pearl destroy the ship. Sora and the others survive, and track down the medallions, and defeated the Grim Reaper back at Port Royal, lifting the curse on Jack. Even with Luxord's experiments having failed, he manages to bring the heart that the Grim Reaper was holding to Kingdom Hearts, and promptly flees.

Where Nothing Gathers
During several additional scenes in Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, Luxord is featured with a prominent speaking role. Immediately after taunting Sora, the Organization returns to their meeting chamber. In response to talk about making plans, Luxord says that he'll "Pass out some cards.", meaning he intends to dabble around here and there, stirring things up to see what he can do. This inadvertently instigates a small argument between Xigbar and Demyx, and after Xaldin breaks it up, Luxord disappointedly remarks "There goes my entertainment."

He is again seen just before Sora enters The World That Never Was, discussing Axel with the remaining members. He notes that Axel may have gained something by putting his life on the line to help Sora. When Xigbar reacts that, as Nobodies, they have no life to put on the line, Luxord replies: "Yes, Axel gambled with something he didn't have - and he probably won." He then adds with a smile: "Obviously a cheater."

The World that Never Was

 * "You play the game quite well."
 * —- Luxord at the end of his "game."

Luxord appears once more in the game, in the Organization's fortress in The World that Never Was. When Sora, Kairi, Riku, Donald and Goofy enter the area where Luxord waits, Sora walks ahead of the rest. Materializing between Sora and his friends, Luxord uses his cards to remove Sora's allies from the area, and challenges Sora to a game involving time. Luxord fights against Sora, using a variety of tricks and games of luck with his playing cards, but in the end, Sora is able to wear Luxord's time down and defeat him. As Sora readies a finishing blow, Luxord raises his cards to shield himself, but Sora slices through the cards and finishes Luxord off. Before fading into darkness, Luxord utters in disbelief of his loss, and like many other Organization members, calls Sora by the name Roxas.

Powers, Skills & Weapons
Luxord's weapons are very flexible, both literally and figuratively. The gambler uses cards, called Fair Game, of varying sizes, some reaching likely more than ten feet in the air when stood on end. The back of each card has five Nobody symbols on it, while the opposite side resembles a clock (referencing Luxord's element of time) that has Nobody symbols as the minute and hour hands, and the Roman numerals for 1-12 for the clock numbers (the numeral for 13 is in the center, just under the clock hands). Luxord uses these cards the way that most members of the Organization use their element. He can turn himself into a giant card and hide among similar cards, turn his enemies into cards, throw flurries of razor-sharp cards at an enemy, create defensive barriers, and at times by will can warp reality. The Reaction Command "Flip" causes the cards to vanish, but some of them have a booby trap (represented by a symbol on the one side of the card) that "Flip" triggers. He can also use them as sleight of hand cover, or to disorient his enemies.

Oddly, most of the cards (that lack booby traps) Luxord uses in battle are blank on one side, while the ones he uses to "trap" Sora's companions bear the aforementioned clock design.

Gambler Nobodies also use cards as their weapons, and have the ability to turn an enemy into a card after winning a "game". They also use dice, and have a similar ability to turn an enemy into a die.

Trivia

 * All but four of Luxord's decks are named after the Major Arcana of tarot, and he is missing only "Wheel of Fortune" and "Judgment". They are replaced with "The Joker" and "Fair Game", terms from normal playing cards with the same basic symbolism.
 * According to the Kingdom Hearts Character Report Volume 2, Luxord is Tetsuya Nomura's favorite member of Organization XIII.
 * Ironically, despite wielding cards, Luxord was not named the Lord of Castle Oblivion. Despite this, he shares his battle theme with Castle Oblivion's Organization members.
 * Luxord's name is never actually spoken in Kingdom Hearts II. As of HD 2.5 ReMIX, he is the only member of Organization XIII to have this trait. Xigbar and Demyx also shared this trait, but their names were pronounced in Dream Drop Distance and HD 1.5 ReMIX (Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix for Japan), respectively.
 * Luxord is one of only three bosses in Kingdom Hearts II to use the theme "The 13th Struggle", the others being Axel in Twilight Town and Riku in the Land of Dragons. The theme also plays while fighting alongside Axel in Betwixt and Between. "The 13th Struggle" only plays against Organization bosses that Sora/Roxas battles alone, excluding the Roxas and Xemnas boss battles.
 * In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, Luxord remarks, "if only whispers at the top of the ladder carried to the bottom rung," upon finding out Xion's true nature. Along with Demyx and Xaldin, he was also one of the last Organization members to discover this secret. This may imply that he is one of their lower-ranked members, to not be made aware of such vital information. As further evidence, when spoken to in the Grey Room after this scene, he remarks that "It's tough being at the bottom of the food chain."
 * in the English version, he is voiced by Robin Atkin Downes, who also voices Atoq Navarro in Uncharted: Drake's Fortune.