#and do riku’s story

[feralcringeman]

It’s crazy cuz com has one of my fav storys in the series

But the gameplay is pure AIDS

[verathena14]

yknow i'd always had a headcanon that sora was a lot more proficient with magic than riku, but playing Re:CoM really solidified that for me with the difference between their playstyles.

when you play as sora, you have this massive variety of different sleights and spells and summons you can use, which from an in-world perspective, could read as him just... modifying the spells for his own use. I think it would be super funny if he talks to like. Aqua for example and she's like "wait how did you do that. thats not supposed to happen, that's not how magic works-?" but anyway! the point is that Sora's gameplay has a lot of variety and magic woven into it

whereas with riku, not only can he not edit his deck, but almost all of his sleights are locked behind Darkness-Murder Mode™️. So a lot of Riku's gameplay is just "hit things until they die" (also i feel like there's something to be said about the difference between Holy Spiral and Inverse Spiral, which are basically the same attack except HS is when Riku's not in Dark Mode and IS is when he is, something about HS lasting much less time than IS because riku's light magic isn't as powerful perhaps?)

ANYWAYS. i just think it's neat :)

[thefreshprinceofjunes]

people pointing to one heart as proof s/k is canon is sooooo funny when it seems to be a light only attack

bc like

its been stated consistently throughout the series that you cant just have light. light and dark need to be in balance.

like they literally say 'light!' as the attack starts.

that doesnt seem very balanced to me.

but you know what team attack is?

also, i feel like it being called one heart points even further to it being another s/k red herring.

like, compare that to hearts in tune

love is not being one with someone, or someone else 'completing' you. love is just being with someone. by their side.

and theres also the fact that the attack literally cannot function without the two of them together. they need both wings to fly. whereas the two halves of the combined keyblade can be used on their own

or at least i think they can, anyway. in nightmares end/mirage split we see them used individually to cut the chains before they merge:

plus all the emphasis on the nobodies/replicas/etc being their own people, and growing their own hearts. even tho they were 'content' with being merged with their og selves.

idk, maybe im reading too much into the name. maybe its not that deep. but it still seems kinda weird, with all the emphasis post-kh2 on everyone having their own identities

[aurorangen]

Who is this guy?

It's none other than Mrs Kobayashi's grandson Riku! Riku is the only relative who lives the closest to her, so he finds the time to visit outside his busy work. Training on the slopes can be intense and he's also a model from a popular agency, but he tries to come at least once a week. When he came today, his grandmother was so excited to introduce a girl to him! Well he's been single for a while and he loves meeting new people; of course he'd be happy to go on this blind date!

[animaxvi]

runs around in circles ✨ Here he issss, tis ballet student Wiku 🩰 to go with contemporary dance student Sora 🎉

[artlipsis]

some more misc. fanart

[keicordelle]

For all that this is very much not the point of this exchange (where Tenn's talking about how he used to hand-draw picture books with Riku as a child), I think it says even more about Tenn that it looks like it does:

Despite everything, he still assumes his parents kept his room for him. We know that Riku and Tenn had separate rooms, so it's not just a matter of "of course his room is still there because Riku was living in it until last year". Tenn assumes, despite all the years since he left, since his parents sold him off, that they still kept his room. That his stuff is still in it (this he's less sure of, that they wouldn't have gone through it -- or does he assume maybe if they're not in his room, they'd be in Riku's?) but that it's still there, waiting for his return. No matter how often he assures us that that return will never happen.

Does he assume that they kept it for him, so that he'd have somewhere to come back to if ever he needed it? Or does he assume it's kept as a shrine to him, like when your loved one dies and you can't bring yourself to ever open their door again? Is it kept through kindness, or through mourning? Through guilt? What does he assume of his parents?

That they didn't forget him, at least.

[robotsafari]

i havent even watched legacy yet but that fucking kh world did some.. unexpected things to me

[marcirose]

Sks: Ugh sorikus want Kairi out of the way for their ship how delusional of them

Also sks: Riku should've died in kh3 and Riku should fail in kh4 so Kairi can come in and save Sora so they can have their happily ever after

[always-a-joyful-note]

You know. Thinking about it, the best thing the anime did for Tsumugi was give her professional attire. Like the clothes she wears on the CGs we see her in are cute, but I really think she looks best in the formal business style

[happybunnykat]

Riku/Yozora parallels

[candyriku]

I unfortunately find myself unable to work on my current Soriku fic today due to my mental state, but I was able to make a bit of a teaser for the next big Soriku fanfiction that will be coming sometime after JTSYS is finished.

You can read it under the cut, but TW for blood, death, and uh, general misery. This has been cathartic for me to write but the whole idea of this fic is that things are impossibly doomed, so be warned - this is not the happy fun zone.

Blood. There was so much blood.

He had smelled it before even seeing it, the metallic scent thick in his nose before he had even rounded the corner. He had tried to convince himself that it was his own bleeding wound that he smelled, or maybe the blood of something else, someone else, but in his heart, he knew the truth. He picked up his pace, sprinting at top speed now, his sneakers splashing through shallow puddles on the wet pavement. 

When his eyes finally came to rest on the crumpled form at the end of the alley, the breath was knocked out of his chest as though someone had taken a baseball bat to his sternum. He knew, of course he knew, but he had hoped-

No. It didn’t matter what he hoped for. Hopes and wishes weren’t for people that walked his path. He had been denied the right to hope for anything ages ago. When he had signed that contract, signed away his soul, he forfeited all the cushy pleasures of a normal life. He had given up his chance of knowing peace.

But it had been worth it. If it was for Sora, anything was worth it.

Standing over Sora’s blood-soaked body, Riku tried to remind himself of that truth, the one thing that he had tethered his heart to all this time. It was worth it. Even if the chance of Sora making it out alive were next to none, there was still a chance. He could still fight.

One of these loops, Riku would get it right. He would figure out how to keep Sora safe, how to protect him from this accursed dimension where everything was designed to end his life. They would break out and live a normal life together, just the way they had always planned. 

There was a happy future waiting somewhere for the two of them. There had to be. Riku had gambled everything on it.

He crouched down, his shaking fingers gently brushing Sora’s tear-stained cheek. He could hardly stand to look at his face, but the sight of his broken, bleeding body was no better. The wounds were precise and lethal, and Riku was far too late.

No matter how many dozens of times he had watched Sora die, it never got easier. It never stopped feeling like his chest was a black hole caving in on itself, his heart squeezed until it was nothing more than dust. 

He couldn’t look. He couldn't look away.

Riku kneeled and placed both of Sora’s hands over his heart. He was about to speak and begin the incantation that would throw them both back to the starting point again, but Sora suddenly stirred, weakly reaching one hand up towards Riku’s face.

“Riku…” his voice was barely more than a whisper. 

“I’m here,” Riku said, the words catching in his throat. “Don’t speak. You can rest now. It’s okay.”

He hated to say it. He wanted to plead with Sora, wanted to beg him to stay. But if Riku had learned anything throughout the loops, it was that nothing came of begging. There was no one to answer his prayers; benevolent forces did not dwell here. At best, all it would accomplish would be making Sora sad in his final moments. At worst, future loops would be impacted by Riku’s words to Sora, twisting the knife further. He had seen it enough to know what to avoid now.

“I don’t want…” There was a weighted pause. “...Don’t want to leave you.” The pool of blood continued to grow. Riku knew - though he wished that he didn’t - that Sora wouldn’t be able to maintain consciousness for much longer at this rate. He could hardly believe Sora was awake even now. 

“We’ll meet again.” he assured Sora softly, trying to keep his voice steady. “Don’t worry. It'll be okay.” 

“You…” This pause was longer, much longer, and Riku was all but sure that Sora would not speak again. Finally, with a wet cough, Sora continued. “You promise?”

“I promise.” Riku lied. He leaned forward and kissed Sora’s forehead, his lips lingering there for several long moments as he took steadying breaths. 

“Mm… ‘kay.” Sora managed. “Love you… so much.” 

“I love you too.” Riku said, clenching his teeth so hard his jaw popped. He wanted to scream. After taking a moment to compose himself, he sat up and offered his best imitation of a smile to Sora. Better for him to see that than to see how broken Riku really was. 

The all-too-familiar faraway look settled on Sora’s face as the last of his breath left his body. Riku collapsed over him, the tears finally coming, the weight hitting him all at once with the force of a tidal wave. Even knowing that he would see Sora alive and well again in mere moments did nothing to comfort him. 

It didn't matter how many times Riku had seen it. It never got any easier to watch Sora die.

[clannfearrunt]

I’d meant to keep RioluHq dot com the Scizor kind of as a Side Member just as mainly my False Swiper but he’s slowly spending more and more time in my main team lineup... he’s just so... *kisses sweetly* my dubious lab grown guy...

[couldbebetterforsure]

You guys have no idea how much I enjoy that Chiaki is both a jock AND a nerd!

He’s athletic and was on the basketball team back in high school, and regularly talks about working out and all that, and nowadays is in his own club that does sports and all that (which makes me curious because I know he was sickly as a child. Is he still sickly nowadays? Maybe to a lesser extent than when he was little? I wonder if another story will go into more details). But he’s also a really good student who reads every night and is good at tutoring and also collects merch for all his beloved tokusatsu shows and all that.

I just find it adorably endearing! Because on paper you see Chiaki and think “oh yeah typical dumb loud lovable jock type”. But then the game is like “yeah he is a loud and lovable jock but the guy’s also a MASSIVE nerd boy, mister smarty pants bookworm over here”!

[isan0rt]

Hey crazy thought but maybe Kairi wouldn’t seem like such a ‘wasted character’ if this fandom would quit taking everything of narrative and thematic significance about her and assigning it to Riku constantly all the time.

(The evaluation of the ways in which Kairi and Riku are important and vital foils for each other got kind of long so it’s under a read more; to be clear, I love Riku so much, and it makes me super mad to see his narrative also being undermined by this trend, this is not a hate post.)

Kairi and Riku serve opposing but complementary purposes in the narrative. Kairi represents light, but she also represents the stagnation of the light. Many characters who are associated with just light are also associated with stagnation and a resistance to change. Hoder and Eraqus are particularly extreme examples, but Aqua exemplifies this as well. They want a predictable world where things stay as they ‘should’ be and they are threatened by changes to the status quo. Eraqus in particular refuses to change anything about himself for 60 years, only taking on students at the last minute because he’s running out of time. Kairi, like Eraqus and Hoder and Aqua, stands as the bold, sharp light that casts others into shadow.

However, the other side of “resistance to change” means that Kairi represents restoration. She is able to restore Sora in KH1, pull them home in KH2, and hold Sora back from death itself in KH3, because her power is one of restoration. She holds so tightly to their old way of being that she can stop death itself in the interest of not changing too drastically. But she is unable to move forward on her own, because she fears change too much. She wants to chase after the boys when they keep leaving her behind…but she isn’t able to keep up, because what she actually wants is for them not to run at all. 

She wants to go home, and restore their previous status quo. This desire is consistent in her for the entire series; this is also why she is unable to let go of her childhood crush for Sora, even though he’s obviously not the person she wants him to be anymore. For Sora, Kairi is the rock, she is the home that will always be there, he feels that she is the secure dock he can always return to after the storm. He relies on her not changing, which reinforces her fear of change. Lea is similar, and they can bond in KH3 over both their mutual desires to restore a prior, idealized status quo where their friends were reliably there and not at risk of disappearing on them or running away from them or changing.

Riku on the other hand embodies transformation. He represents change to the status quo, growth and development and a new way to be. Too much change is as much of a problem as too little; Kairi in KH1 sees Riku wants change, and it scares her, and he does in fact go too far. At the same time, she’s the catalyst for Riku’s desire to change their circumstances. Kairi’s arrival at the islands in the meteor shower incites Riku to dream of going to the outside world. This too is a tension that creates an anxiety in Kairi - in a way, she can see herself as to blame for Riku’s desire to change. But Riku was always going to change, because that’s who he is. He is radical change, the change that cuts away restrictive dogma so that the world can advance. Riku drives Sora to also want to grow and change, to excel and challenge himself. Sora wants to be like Riku, whose strength and internal drive he admires.

Ultimately Kairi and Riku are in BALANCE with each other. Ironically, while Kairi is themed as ‘the sea,’ her narrative purpose is to be steady as the earth. Riku’s name is ‘the earth,’ but he is changing and dangerous as the sea. They are one another’s reflections in the narrative. Kairi’s arc is about learning to let go and move forward, even though it scares her. Riku’s entire arc is about finding balance, not throwing away the comfort of the past, that inoculates him from falling too far the way Baldr and Xehanort do. Riku can drive Kairi to join them by giving her a Keyblade too. Kairi can pull Riku back from fleeing from them by seeing him even under Ansem’s face. He is able to be in contrast with Kairi in a healthy way, in a way that honors her fears while also refusing stagnation. They have to work TOGETHER to find Sora, because they are one another’s narrative and thematic opposites. Kairi is too stagnant on her own, and Riku too volatile. Sora is the healthy middle between them, the center-point that can bind the light and the dark TOGETHER for one purpose. 

Kairi is narratively and thematically important to Kingdom Hearts. She represents something, and trying to take the things that reinforce her narrative importance to the story (her representation of the light, her narrative purpose of ‘disruption’ in her arrival via the meteor shower, her position as the one who grounds Sora in opposition to Riku’s position as the one who drives Sora to push himself and achieve more) not only undermines her story, it undermines Riku’s.

[cinnabeat]

im having emotions abt vanitas again