Axel

Axel, the Flurry of Dancing Flames (おどる火の風), is the Nobody of Lea, and is Rank VIII within the original Organization XIII. He wields fire and enhances his weapons, twin chakrams, with his pyrokinesis to unleash powerful rapid attacks. He controls the Assassin Nobodies.

In Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, Axel is the trump card for the rest of the organization, acting as a double agent in Castle Oblivion to keep track of Marluxia's plans. In Kingdom Hearts II, Axel betrays the Organization due to his friendship with Roxas, and acts of his own accord to aid Sora, though he had originally desired to turn Sora into a Heartless and restore Roxas. Axel appears in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days as a playable character in Mission Mode and serves as the game's tritagonist.

Axel's human form, Lea, had been friends with Saïx's original persona, Isa.

Development
Axel bears a great number of similarities with from , even sharing his voice actor with Reno over a variety of languages. stated that this is done intentionally as an experiment. He wanted to place a familiar character in a new environment and role. He also stated in an interview that the two are "different people, but subconsciously alike."

Axel was popular among members of the Kingdom Hearts staff and though he was initially supposed to die at the end of Roxas's prologue, his popularity caused him to be continued into the main game of Kingdom Hearts II.

In the Japanese version of Kingdom Hearts II, flames consumed Axel's body at his death. The flames were removed for the English version. In Kingdom Hearts II Final Mix, despite keeping many changes made to the English version, Axel's death scene uses the flames. In Kingdom Hearts HD 2.5 ReMIX, the flames are once again removed.