#he talks about riku way more than kairi

[ammy246]

People always say Sora gets dumber as the games go on, but Riku was dumb on day 1. He destroyed Destiny Islands by having a gay panic because he thought Sora loved Kairi more than him.

[daylighteclipsed]

Your KH Enchanted posts are driving me INSANE! I've never thought about the connection before but like, Enchanted is literally about a cartoon character going to the real world and finding out that her designated "perfect" love interest wasn't actually the one for her despite the fact that he should be. And then cut to SORA WAKING UP IN QUADRATUM AND RIKU THERE LOOKING FOR HIM like... it's all coming together.

YES!!!! There are so many parallels. In Sora’s dreams, the way he and Riku wake up in this huge city at night with so many lights and signs and skyscrapers… it’s so much like Giselle pulling herself up into the center of Times Square. The area Sora’s in especially, Scramble Crossing, brings to mind Times Square.

Enchanted is about a fictional character becoming real. Giselle’s from a simple, “perfect,” fairytale world. She’s designed to be a stereotypical Disney princess, and she’s a trope more than a person until she ends up in the real world, where she’s quickly challenged by the real world’s imperfections and complexities, embodied especially in Robert and through her relationship with him.

I’ve talked before about how Kingdom Hearts features fictional characters waking up and coming to life, deviating from the script when they’re not really “supposed” to and becoming real. Like Giselle, Sora starts out as a pretty stereotypical trope — the hero — but over the course of his journey grows further away from that. He’s challenged and he changes, and a lot of that is embodied through his relationship with Riku, as Riku represents change and complexity, especially in the context of growing up.

There’s a lot of parallels in the dynamics between Giselle/Robert and Sora/Riku. They’re complementary opposites, and they learn from each other. Giselle inspires Robert to believe in the messages fairytales champion about kindness, the power of love, dreams coming true, and happy endings. Sora inspires Riku to follow his heart and open his heart to others. Robert helps Giselle understand that real life is not as simple as a fairytale. Riku helps Sora see and understand the nuances in their world and in each other.

Real people are complicated, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Giselle’s thrilled, for example, the first time she feels really, truly angry. Robert makes her feel things she’s never felt before, messy things that make her feel alive, that make it easier for her to understand him and grow closer to him. KH emphasizes that experiencing grief, sadness, anger, etc. allows us to connect with others deeper, whether we’re leaning on loved ones for support or trying to understand a stranger. Pain is a necessary part of having a heart, of being alive.

Also, these scenes are literally the same. Giselle and Sora even both smile in their sleep.

Giselle/Robert and Sora/Riku’s relationships develop significantly over the course of their stories. In comparison to Giselle/Edward and Sora/Kairi, which rely on trope expectations instead of character development/actual relationship building. Giselle hardly interacts with Edward. But he’s a prince, he resembles the man of her dreams, he saves her from falling, and she can finish his duet. Surely it’s true love! I’ve already compared sharing the paopu fruit with singing the duet. Kairi is also a princess. She saves Sora from falling to darkness in KH1. And it’s pretty and perfect and Disney, with him reappearing in her arms, gently pulling away, quietly thanking her with sparkles all around them. Just like how Edward catches Giselle right in his lap, perfectly in his arms, with the tree branches forming a heart behind them.

Compare that to later in DDD after Riku saves Sora from falling to darkness and Sora thanks him… and when Robert catches Giselle from falling off a billboard. It’s the same thing, but the moments are not pretty and perfect.

Giselle takes Robert to the hard ground, with a chorus of yelps and ouches as she nearly breaks his wrists. Riku is almost bowled over by Sora’s hug, and Sora holds him tightly, loudly exclaiming his relief, reluctant to let Riku go. But the lack of “Disney fairytale perfection,” I guess, in these scenes kind of makes them better, right? Robert is willing to get really hurt trying to catch Giselle. Sora is so happy to see Riku he can’t contain his emotions. Near the end of Enchanted, we see this again, except Giselle is the one catching Robert. And it’s still very clumsy and rough — he takes her down with him. It’s not perfect, but it’s real.

That’s the biggest difference between Giselle’s relationships with Edward and Robert, and Sora’s relationships with Kairi and Riku. In both surface dynamics and appearance, one is a pretty idea. A perfect, soft, simple fantasy that doesn’t exist, that can’t exist in reality beyond little boys and girls playing Prince and Princess. And the other is grounded in reality, with all the good and bad, the joy and heartbreak, laughter and tears, that entails. Being human is hard. But there is something magical about finding someone you can be human with.

Giselle mistakes Edward for the true love she’s been dreaming of. He’s got the blue eyes and the dark hair, and he catches her from falling. And it reminds me a lot of Sora mistaking Kairi for his light in the darkness in KH3.

It’s reasonable why Giselle and Sora would assume this… But Robert also catches Giselle from falling. He also has blue eyes and dark hair. Later, he dresses exactly like Giselle’s dream prince at the ball, and he even dances with her like in her dreams. In KH3, Riku sacrifices himself in an act of true love for Sora, and we see the light in the tunnel respond when Sora calls out Riku’s name. There’s a number of visual parallels from Sora’s dream and Dive to the Heart that indicate Riku is Sora’s light. While Giselle realizes the truth, it only seems to click for Sora a moment before he forgets. Giselle also gets a follow up parallel. Sora hasn’t yet.

Another little thing I want to point out — Giselle and Edward have a duet (that she stops singing), but Giselle and Robert have a waltz. They have the love song, and they dance to it. Sora and Riku don’t dance, but we see their hearts dancing to the song they create — a waltz version of Dearly Beloved.

Also Robert/Giselle still get the Disney singing element. It’s just not big and flashy like Giselle and Edward’s duet. Robert quietly sings a few words to her as they dance together… Sora and Riku still get the paopu fruit — it’s the keychain of Dearly Beloved (the Combined Keyblade) — but it’s not obvious like the cave drawing between Sora and Kairi is.

TLDR: I completely agree with you and I think, like Enchanted, KH intentionally plays with Disney tropes and audience expectations in order to subvert them. Like Giselle, Sora discovering his designated “perfect” love interest is not the one for him is part of his journey of awakening. It’s part of him becoming real, and growing up.

[rikusahoge]

"But be safe. No reckless stunts."

On Sora and Riku's respective recklessness as showcased in the series, and what it means for their relationship

Under readmore because i am going to talk a lot

As an aside: Im going to be pulling from the Japanese text, though I am not a native speaker or really any kind of speaker, so take what I say with a decent amount of scrutiny. I'm more than willing to be corrected on these conclusions!

One line that has stood out to me in kingdom hearts is the repetition of "no reckless stunts!" and similar phrases. If you examine the original text, three slightly different words have been used to mean "reckless", which I'll include below (pulled definitions from Jisho, mostly)

無謀 (mubou): reckless, foolhardy, rash, ill-advised, mad (scheme)

無茶 (mucha): reckless, absurd, unreasonable, ridiculous

無理 (muri): impossible, unreasonable, unjustifiable

Importantly for what i want to talk about is how "muri" is used in situations where a character wants to express that something is impossible (think of a character giving up all hope due to an insermountable obstacle in front of them, they may mutter something like "muri da...") keep a pin in this, it will matter toward the end.

Also note that each of these words starts with "無" (mu), which usually means nothingness or absence of something. The definition of this kanji isnt super important, it's more important that its presence ties these three phrases together in a really unique way as i hope to demonstrate.

what i propose is that both Sora and Riku are depicted as reckless characters, albeit in different ways. The established pattern I've noticed is that Sora: "mucha" & Riku: "muri". I will tentatively refer to "mucha" as "rash" and "muri" as "impossible" (despite that it does also mean other things in some cases! bare with me it'll make sense)

Dialing back a bit, we have seen countless moments of Sora acting rashly. It is one of his key character traits and it tends to get him in trouble. He has a big heart, and is quick to anger.

Sora's response to loved ones and helpless innocents that have been put in harm's way is to repetitively bash things with his keyblade (and ask questions later).

It's Sora's rashness that allows Org 13 to use him to complete kingdom hearts. The extreme end of his rashness is showcased when he stabs himself to release Kairi from his heart.

Tldr. I think it's pretty well established and easy to argue that Sora is one to leap before he looks.

Now, Riku might be a little harder to sell as reckless, because of how well he tends to hide it. He carries himself as a role model for Sora, and tries to be the responsible friend. But if we look at his patterns of behavior, despite how he carries himself, he is quite reckless!

Without thinking of the consequences, he rushes the open door when destiny islands falls to darkness, eventually succumbing to it himself. He lashes out several times at Sora, particularly dangerously when he fires off a dark firaga in Hollow Bastion. He closes the door to darkness with Sora without knowing what would happen to him if he was trapped in the realm of darkness. When Sora is asleep, he sacrifices his form to defeat Roxas, without any assurance that he would ever be able to get his old form back.

We see Riku's recklessness too in the fight against Xemnas. He recklessly throws himself in front of Xemnas twice, hurling Sora away from danger and taking a very nasty blow to the hip. I'd count his dive to save Sora in DDD among these, mostly due to his risk taking behavior when it comes to saving Sora. Finally of course we see it in KH3, with his ultimate sacrifice. (but i think importantly, this scene isn't just recklessness, but I'll explain in a bit)

So tldr. Despite Riku's mask of level headedness and resolve, he has been shown over and over to take massive risks without caring for the consequences. Which is pretty reckless, in my opinion!

Sora and Riku's recklessness, mind you, is also called into question by Yen Sid, who tells Riku the reason he kept Aqua's fate a secret was to keep Riku and Sora from staging a "half-baked attempt at rescue"

He says similar in Japanese, but i want to just note the word he uses when he describes the rescue attempt as reckless (highlighted for ur convenience):

(the highlighted word here is "mubou", it will come back later in an Important way, so keep it in mind)

he's *basically* saying that if Riku, or worse, Sora, knew about Aqua, they would have recklessly marched into the realm of darkness to rescue her. Because he knows they are both ... Like that.

I would be remiss to not mention that Sora's impulsivity and recklessness is something Riku admires! After Yen Sid tells riku not to be rash, and Riku excitedly tells Mickey he's ready to help save Aqua, Kairi observes that Riku has changed, and he's more like Sora. Riku asks if that's a compliment, but I think it's clear that he feels it is. He says it's more Fun to just follow his heart, which is sora-esque. (;_;) This is also something he brings up to Sora when they're on the dark margin together, that he's jealous of how Sora can just follow his heart. It's clear Riku has started to embrace his more impulsive side, to follow his heart like sora does. This is important later!

So now that I have my premise Mostly set up, I'd like to highlight a handful of scenes that I thought were really telling about how Sora and Riku relate to the terms "mucha" and "muri", respectively.

Let's start with Sora and "mucha".

The first instance i have found "mucha" used is in Olympus Colliseum.

lets recall How Herc initially loses his power in KH2, and compare it to the movie.

In KH2, Herc is tricked into leaving the colliseum unguarded by capturing Meg and hiding her in the underworld so that Herc and Sora must go to her rescue. Hades sends a hydra in to destroy the colliseum while Sora and Herc are busy fighting heartless and Pete and rescuing Meg.

Upon seeing the destruction in the colliseum, Herc falls to his knees, and you can visibly see his colors fade to a more ashen complexion, similar to his appearance without his powers in the movie. He calls himself a piece of shit basically and Meg helps him up to limp to safety, leaving Sora to defeat the Hydra (ahem sora helping riku walk in twtnw after xemnas fight anyone)

(Herc even has a second journal entry for his Desaturared form.)

You leave the world after defeating the hydra and jumping up on its back a few times, and after sora d & g are named true heros. Yay. But Herc doesn't have his power back yet, which will later be addressed in the second episode.

Herc's loss of power is much different from the movie. In the movie, he agrees to let Hades take his strength for a day in order to keep Meg from harm, and release her from the contract she had entered with Hades (iirc). This was all so Herc wouldn't get the chance to save Olympus from the titans that Hades revives in order to take Zeus' throne for himself.

Herc still tries to wonderboy his way into rescuing the town, and fights a giant cyclops. While he lacks physical strength and gets pretty much Pummeled, he ends up beating the cyclops with his wit - but in doing so, a pillar is knocked over. It is about to crush Herc, but Meg pushes him out of the way, and is crushed to death.

She gives her life to save him, which in turn returns strength to Herc, because the contract was only good if Meg remained unharmed.

What I'm mostly trying to say here on this tangent is Herc's loss of power in KH2 specifically is very reminiscent of Sora losing his keyblade in Hollow Bastion, which is later echoed in the keyblade graveyard when he feels he loses his strength to fight after losing his friends. I bring up the movie to show how bizarrely different it is from the Kh2 plot, perhaps precisely to make the parallel between Sora and Herc stronger (and the parallel between Herc and Riku, by the way - Herc falling to his knees, losing his power, and giving up, only for Meg to walk him to safety, is a parallel to Riku losing his will to fight and press on after the battle with Xemnas - Sora refuses to let him and in the same Exact way he helps Riku walk on)

So Hercules, when faced with the impossible wavers, and loses his strength and will to fight. This is important so keep it in mind. Impossible/Muri isn't stated here as far as i know, but it's important that he is feeling utterly defeated and unable to win.

The second visit to the world is when we first see the term "mucha"/reckless used as far as I was able to find. Hades casts Meg into the Soul Hole and Herc dives in to save her without hesitating (mechanically to write Herc out of the boss fight, but)

We later see Herc emerge with Meg, his godly aura restored (he is Radiant!) something that *should* have killed him. and should have been impossible. But his desire to save her was so great, he recklessly dives in, without knowing that he will succeed. Luckily, all he had to do to prove he was worthy of godhood and power in both the game and the movie was to use the strength of his Heart rather than his fists, as a true hero does:

Sora scolds him and tells him not to do anymore crazy stunts after this reckless dive to save Meg (screenshot makes it look like herc is saying it sorry lol) and that is where we can see the term "mucha" being used in Japanese:

instead of crazy stunts, Sora moreso says "but don't be reckless (mucha)":

to which herc responds:

"people always do stupid things when they're in love" (note he doesn't repeat reckless, he says "baka" lol)

so here we have a direct link between herc's sacrifice when he dove in to save Meg, the restoration of his power/Godhood, and acting recklessly (mucha), without Fear or Doubt, to save someone he is In Love With. put a pin in this because it's all connected.

Now moving onto KH2.9 and KH3. From the start of the game we are told Sora has lost the Power of Waking, and his Entire goal in the game is to regain it, wake Ventus, and prepare for the battle in the KBG with Xehanort.

The Power of Waking is already a very vague, disney-esque power, essentially the power to free sleeping hearts from slumber (and first introduced to us in DDD, particularly in terms of Riku waking Sora up in a sleeping beauty retelling but I'm getting ahead of myself)

Yen Sid suggests that Sora go to Olympus for clues to regain his power, as Just Like Sora, Hercules also lost his power, but was able to regain it.

It's pretty straightforward, but in the interest of not making this post a fucking novel ill try to keep it short. Herc tells Sora he's not sure just *how* he got his powers back, just that he wanted to save Meg with all his heart when he (recklessly) dove in to save her. The game is trying to tell Sora that it's the Power of Love that brought back Herc's strength, and that Love will be key in bringing Sora's PoW back, too.

Specifically, I think that Herc's story and the other worlds Sora visits are saying that it's True Love that will bring Sora's powers back. Acts of true love in KH3 are framed as courageous, selfless, and performed unconditionally.

Despite the visit to see Hercules, Sora still doesn't gain the PoW. He has an idea of what he needs to regain it, but he has to visit multiple Disney worlds to learn more about the power of true love and sacrifice (well also separation but thats not as important to this post) before he's ready to test it out for himself.

After Arendelle (i think) we get to another important cutscene where Riku, Sora, donald, goofy, & mickey meet up with Yen Sid to discuss the progress they've made on their respective journeys. Sora wants to go to the Realm of Darkness with Riku & Mickey because he's worried, but they Won't let him because he doesn't have the PoW. Riku does the fondest laugh known to man, eliciting a bit of anger from Sora, but explains it's because of what Yen Sid had told him earlier - that had Sora or Riku known about Aqua being trapped in the RoD, they would have recklessly gone in to save her.

he's pretty much directly quoting yen sid here, just like he does in English (saying half-baked instead of reckless too). So basically saying here Sora would have marched into (the dark world) recklessly (had he known where Aqua was) - again using "mubou" like master yen sid.

Interestingly, when we get to Sora telling Riku to not be reckless in the dark world to Riku, he's not repeating the same word for Reckless that Riku is using (Now this might be just a flow of the conversation thing, which i certainly cant confirm as a non-native speaker but i think it's still notable)

Sora says something similar to what is said in English; with a few distinctions. A rough translation would be "but don't overdo it, call me if anything happens" (need I gripe one more time that english localization cuts out sora telling Riku to call him; which is why he spends the rest of the time apart from Riku wanting a call, and why its so unhinged that Riku triangles for sora and basically summons him. I DIGRESS)

This line is translated as "but be safe, no reckless stunts" in English, which serves as a callback to what Sora tells to Hercules in KH2, (further solidifying a herc/riku parallel) but IMPORTANTLY, Sora is NOT even saying the same thing he said to Hercules in the Japanese script. He's saying something else - 無理しないで (muri shinai de), which is usually translated as don't overdo it - but literally means "don't do the impossible". This will be important later when I talk more about Riku so keep this in mind.

We immediately get Donald saying "Sora's the reckless (muri) one" (abbreviating for simplicity) but Jiminy disagrees. In English he says "He's not reckless, he just doesn't think!" but in Japanese he says this:

Which i know im going to butcher any translation I do, but Jiminy is basically saying "[Sora's] not muri he's mucha". That distinction is important enough for Jiminy to make a joke about it. That Riku might actually be the one who is overdoing it/trying to do the impossible (muri), while Sora is the one who runs headfirst into danger recklessly (mucha). Which, i think, is quite fitting, given the actions theyve done through the series.

Importantly we get one more instance of "mucha" which I think really ties Sora's trait "recklessness" together nicely, and puts into perspective what the repetition of these phrases is doing from a story telling perspective.

After Sora finishes up the remaining Disney world visits, S, D, & G find out that Chip & Dale have lost contact with Riku & Mickey. Sora is very upset at this, and is Determined to save them (Riku) (with all his heart). Sora has NOT GAINED THE POW at this point, and they don't know how to even get into the RoD, so Sora opts to "let his heart be his guiding key" to find his way to Riku and the RoD. (Recklessly I might add, he hasn't called or talked to Yen Sid or consulted anyone about it lol)

He arrives at Destiny Islands and mysteriously finds Master's Defender which happens to be the key to getting him into the RoD. Right? Well. We know from the glossary that the established method of reaching the RoD is with a keyblade of darkness, through dark corridors, or with the Power of Waking.

Others have argued this (see SRT) but it's heavily implied that Sora regained the PoW on his way to rescue Riku. That he used it explicitly to get into the RoD is where people tend to be a little caught up in the details, because it *does* seem like Master's Defender plays a role, which begs the questions - is it a keyblade of darkness? What the fuck was it doing there? etc. (literally saw on a kh wiki that sora got into the RoD because Masters defender was a keyblade of darkness, which is unconfirmed currently lol) It's also not traditionally what the PoW looks like. There's a huge door that appears, Sora isn't using the kingdom key, he doesn't burst out of Riku's chest. Etc.

HOWEVER. I think with the context of the narrative arc Sora is going through, the foreshadowing present in the game, and The Reckless Rescue angle can at least prove that he DID regain his power here, regardless of whether or not he explicitly used it to get into the RoD. I'll try to briefly summarize the points I've seen made before I add my own.

After the visit to Olympus, Sora explains to Yen sid that he didn't regain his power but he still learned a lot. Yen sid stresses again that sora needs the PoW, Sora gets pouty, and Goofy cheers him up by saying "maybe something will trigger it real soon". Shortly after a bit of banter, there is a knock at the door, and Riku and Mickey walk in. The camera kmakes a point to show Mickey off to the side, then pan up to Riku as he walks in to close the door, who is centered in the view (almost as if we are watching from Sora's POV, who is anticipating Riku's appearance in the door).

Putting this side by side is a little unfair, since it's not an immediate jump from Goofy saying this to Riku's entrance, but it's pretty in your face about just what (or who) might be key to reawakening sora's PoW.

We also get some heavy handed foreshadowing in the next visit to Yen Sid's tower, right before Sora tells Riku to not overdo it:

Yeah. and he does, importantly, get the power of waking, not BEFORE he comes to the rescue, but BECAUSE he comes to the rescue.

Now for my contribution since I stole the last two/three points from other posts. Just before Sora enters the RoD, he tells D & G to stay behind and that he has to go alone. (Sigh, yes, this scene is a parallel to Riku using the PoW to save Sora in DDD - it *has* to be him, and him alone) D& G protest, but eventually relent. But Donald doesn't let Sora go without saying this:

(In English, Donald says "you promise to be good?" inexplicably) but in Japanese he tells sora (basically) "Don't be reckless" - aka. No Reckless Stunts, complete with the use of "mucha" (recall Donald in the previous scene was the one to call Sora "muri" before being corrected by Jiminy). This is similar to what Sora tells to herc, so we are pretty much full circle on this scene being a callback to Herc rescuing Meg in KH2.

Like Herc, Sora does the reckless thing. Like Herc, he heroically dives into the abyss to rescue his loved one with all his heart.

Like Herc, Sora regains his power the moment he resolves to rescue Riku, even if it is not made explicitly clear to Sora OR the audience (perhaps the fact that he regained the PoW is why he is able to save aqua, too)

I could probably go on about this and what it means for Sora for a long time, but I think it's high time I actually wrote about "muri" and Riku's recklessness, so let's rewind a little.

I've already brought up how Riku relates to Herc in terms of his recklessness and heroics, but theres a few more things to add. of course. I'll recap with pictures of one of the parallels i've already discussed:

So here i think at least metaphorically, we can argue that Riku has lost a bit of his "power"- or rather, his drive. After everything is over, he just collapses, ready to die or be left behind. Sora WONT let that happen. So Riku asks Sora to lead. He confesses to some of the jealousy and superiority he'd been feeling over Sora for the past few years, and seems to be trying to find a new direction in his life, having now repented Quite a bit for the sins he committed in KH1.

Riku's entire purpose for fighting after KH CoM and KH2 was to wake Sora up, keep him safe while he does his keyblade weilder duties, reunite him with Kairi, and send him on his merry way. Sora refuses to let him leave, and demands that he comes home with him. So he does. but without his jealousy over his feelings toward Sora, or without his feelings of guilt and feeling he needs to make it up to Sora, what is left to drive him to keep fighting?

DDD gives him a pretty strong answer - it's where he both rediscovers his sense of purpose and gains the Power of Waking in the process. And his dream eater powers too. btw

Riku's journey in DDD is, simply put, not really about passing the mark of mastery exam and becoming a keyblade master. it's about remembering What he lives for. remembering his promise to Terra, and how those feelings have evolved - from wanting strength to protect the Stuff that matters as a child, to, in DDD, discovering that the "stuff that matters, like his friends" was Sora the Whole time, and that Sora is actually a "precious best friend" that he wants to protect. It's About recovering his strength, like Herc needs to do in KH2.

So how does Riku regain his "strength"? By Sora-style taking a reckless dive into the deep abyss of Sora's heart to wake him using the PoW.

(Not once was I able to find any mention of "recklessness" here, or any particular language that ties this moment together cleanly with what happens in Olympus Colliseum in KH2, but the repetition of diving down into an abyss to rescue someone (with all your heart. etc) is Enough of a parallel to make the connection between this scene and Herc's dive to save Meg)

It is within the deepest depth of Sora's heart where Riku is interrogated by three pieces of Sora's heart about what he's afraid of, what he cares about more than anything else, and what he wishes - All canon answers involve the mention of "precious" - "taisetsu" (sorry im not explaining this one im going to just assume you know what im talking about if you are a soriku that reads meta you should know.) - to lose something precious, my precious best friend (fuck da english localization for this one), to recover something precious that I lost. It is here that we see Riku's simple "protecting important stuff" become "protecting something precious/my precious best friend" (note that this hasn't quite become "taisetsu na hito"/precious person but hes getting there)

Ansem the wise is there i guess and he tells Riku that his 3 answers are what were the key to waking sora up, and I think, importantly, are what give Riku his "strength" back. He has rediscovered his purpose, which is, to him, protecting Sora (with all his heart)

Continuing into KH2.9 we have another couple scenes that will both complete Riku's development from protecting stuff that matters to protecting a precious person and also continue to make a strong connection between him and Hercules.

It's been pretty well established that these two scenes are deceptively mistranslated, but i'll go over it again

Herc here is saying "taisetsu na hito" which is translated to "person I love most"

The EXACT phrase Mickey uses to tell Riku why he's feeling more powerful and fearless in the RoD, in the literal next scene in 2.9. They were supposed to be VERY CLEAR hit you over the head parallels but, well. SENA said fuck gay people i guess.

Riku repeats what Mickey says into his hand ("strength to protect my precious person") and recalls his promise to Terra, to protect the things that matter. (again it's implied it's always been about protecting sora, he just didn't have the language or understanding of himself yet to know how to say it)

There is absolutely no room for nuance here. This is explicitly framing Riku's feelings for Sora on par with Herc's feelings for Meg eg. explicitly romantic. And that it's his ROMANTIC LOVE for Sora that is what gives him his strength - not just to protect Sora, but also to do THE IMPOSSIBLE

phase ??? of my argument will now commence hang on to your butts. (i wrote this all in one night im tired)

Now that ive Exhaustively set that up. lets actually get back into discussing what I initially set up - riku doing the impossible "muri" thing.

As a reminder, Sora tells Riku to not "attempt the impossible/overdo it" in the RoD. And to call him if he needs him.

So Riku, instead of attempting the impossible in the RoD by facing the demon tide, does call Sora, which ends up being what saves the day! Yay!

I have bad news though! Riku is terrible at listening to advice when Sora is in trouble.

Now recall what I mentioned earlier about the fall of the guardians in the KBG and Sora's subsequent breakdown being a parallel to Herc losing his power in KH2. Sora *fails* everyone here, and he explicitly states he is worthless, without strength, when he loses them. It's very in line with Herc losing his powers in KH2.

(just putting these in here to hurt you and myself)

So, we get the Herc parallel, but it stops here for Sora. He doesn't do some grand self sacrifice for Riku to prove his heroism and regain his "power", but i think theres a reason for that beyond it just being Riku's time for the spotlight but I am getting there.

In the english localization, Sora says "we've lost, it's over". It's a subtle change from the Japanese, where instead of "it's over", Sora simply utters "muri da--" ("its impossible") (in the wettest saddest voice you can imagine)

It's at this moment where I do truly think we're meant to make the connection between Sora saying "its impossible" and Sora telling Riku to not attempt the impossible. It fits in nicely with Sora telling Herc to not do reckless stunts, with the slight change in language from "reckless" to "impossible", and with the impending self sacrifice. Riku knows that beating back the demon tide is impossible. But he does it anyway (compare to how, when faced with a much smaller demon tide, and he was losing, he listened to Sora's advice and called Sora for help instead of attempting the impossible)

So we have Riku's ultimate true love sacrifice for Sora, which both takes his life and grants him a spot upon an alter in Olympus, perhaps symbolically giving him some sort of ascension for his heroic deed. And again tying his sacrifice intimately to Herc's.

Because Sora and Riku are both "herc" and "meg" here I am going to make a little bit of a reach. Recall that I went through the effort of recapping the climax of the hercules movie. for no reason. There is a connection though even if it's loose, and i would kick myself for not including it.

In the movie, Meg, like Riku, protects a powerless Hercules from impending danger in her own act of true loves sacrifice. Her death gives Hercules his strength back (partly due to contract BS but it's still a romantic moment). And her death is what drives Hercules to dive into the Soul Hole to rescue her soul at a potentially great cost, which is what ultimately restores his godhood (showing his strength of heart). Riku sacrificing himself for Sora can be seen to be more like the events of the Hercules movie, Riku standing in for Meg - Sora does have to restore Riku's heart after it's been taken by the Lich, after all, much like Hercules brings Meg's soul out from the Hole. And Riku's sacrifice is what gives Sora the resolve to keep fighting. (not arguing with anyone who thinks it was only kairi because it wasnt lol)

So Riku attempts the impossible here, and ultimately he is rewarded. An interesting nuance is that the phrase "attempting the impossible" isn't meant to be taken as a challenge. From what ive read from native speakers, the phrase Sora uses really is better translated as "don't overdo it" as it is less about proving yourself to be able to overcome crazy obstacles and more about keeping your expectations in check. But Riku is reckless, and following his heart, which he learned from Sora.

I hope I've properly illustrated how Sora and Riku are both painted as reckless in different ways, and how the language used in KH3 is making direct references to Herc's reckless heroics in KH2 and in the actual Disney movie. And how these reckless acts are showcasing how much these two love each other, because I still have one more point to make. Namely, how this ties into Cinderella, and ultimately KH4.

In Terra's route of Birth By Sleep, he happens upon a distraught Cinderella, who has had her dress torn up by her step sisters. She was planning to go to the ball, but cannot, because it is "impossible" (muri)

Terra tries to console her. It's all very reminiscent of the scenes of Herc's, Sora's, and Riku's defeats.

After Terra fights off the unversed summoned by Cinderella's negativity (toxic much..), Out of the blue, the fairy godmother appears and makes everything better. She fixes up Cinderella with a dress and a ride to the ball, and sends her on her merry way.

She explains to Terra that she appeared to Cinderella to show her that her dreams *can* come true and that she typically appears only to people that have a strong belief in their dreams. Terra says he believes in dreams but you have to work for them, to which FGM responds that simply believing in dreams is already a difficult thing on its own. (Ventus also compares Terra to Cinderella. btw. because of his strong dreams)

Now. Sigh. Im not the only person that has pointed this out. The FGM quite literally appears to Riku, but only after a year has passed and they have no leads on Sora, and after it's implied that Riku is starting to lose hope.

In the limit cut, you can see Riku's sad wet puppy dog face as he talks about how hard everyone is working, and how they haven't found anything at all. He says "if Sora is really out there, don't you think we would have found something by now?" - Again, he's losing faith in his dreams of Sora's return. This is important.

I do not have the strength to go through and find all the times Riku told everyone to believe in Sora in KH3. It's a lot. And the last thing we hear him say Near Sora, is to let him go on his suicide mission to save Kairi - to BELIEVE in Sora (#wish).

So one, we know the dream Riku believes in is Sora, and two, we know he is starting to lose his belief in his dreams, like Cinderella before the ball, when he dress is destroyed.

Right after it's clear their is no lead through the data from Org 13, FGM appears, just like she did for Cinderella. And she tells Riku that His Dreams Are Literally A Key To Find Sora (that hes quite literally been #dream drop distancing into sora's dreams while hes in unreality is already so much without the FGM being there to explain this to him but KH is crazy!)

One last thing to really drive this home. The FGM brings Riku and Kairi to the nameless star to bring the three keys together.

And what does she tell Riku, before he leaves?

"Be careful. Do not attempt to do the impossible."

---------

if you read this whole thing... well... im proud of you. I know i definitely missed stuff, because it would be so hard to go through all the games and really dig for the use of this term especially when I dont speak japanese at all. and because i wrote this all in one night. But dont hesitate to comment or reblog if you have anything to add. I freaking love kingdom hearts

[matenr0u]

Riku: Island Breeze

I was going to put this in my combat analysis, but it absolutely deserves its own post.

In 358/2 days, Riku wields Oblivion/Bygone Memories for the final encounter he has with Roxas. Having called out to him and realized that Roxas really is Sora’s nobody, Riku goes all out to bring him to Castle Oblivion where his best friend is sound asleep, having his memories pieced back together. 

During this iconic battle, Riku is specifically vulnerable to Aero: the power of wind. 

Why is this relevant, you might wonder. Riku is associated with a fair handful of things: bat wings, darkness, fleur-de-lis, but not wind.

On the contrary, Riku has a little known fondness for the wind. You could even say, it makes him feel nostalgic.

Fair enough, Roxas can hurt Riku with the wind because he misses the island breeze. Neat gameplay detail, no big deal. But if I can compel you to peer just a little closer… Because this is Riku— the guy who spent his days gazing enviously at the sea and the sky and brooding over his dark angsty feelings. This time, it actually is that deep. 

In other words Riku is weak to Roxas’ Aero attack because it reminds him of Sora.

Sounds like a reach, right? Allow me to demonstrate.

This passage alone is insane, but there’s more.

While Riku is elsewhere in Castle Oblivion reminiscing, Sora battles Repliku for the first time. This is before they have both been consumed with false memories.

Everything about this exchange is so Riku. It’s all of the real Riku’s messy, complicated feelings dialled up to 100 and Repliku doesn’t even understand why he’s having these thoughts. Sora is clueless of course.

So he runs away, and as he leaves, Sora picks up this…

After defeating Repliku, Sora finds the Aero card. The island breeze. Riku’s memories of chasing each other, rolling in the sand together, of jealously watching from afar as Sora and Kairi grew closer.

The way poor Repliku’s dramatic ass just drops it and runs away lmao

Some time later, following the second battle against Repliku, Sora obtains his lost Oblivion/Bygone Memories keyblade after talking to Namine. Wonder why Namine had that keyblade. Probably just a coincidence…

I’ll close this post with a few more of Riku’s thoughts.

Other Diamonds:

Chain of Memories:

“The wind brushed through Riku’s hair.

I wonder if I really will meet someone from my memories in this castle… I want to meet— Sora. More than Kairi, more than anything, I want to see Sora. I want to see him— and apologize.”

Translation credit: goldpanner, keijitranslates

[thetrashthatsmilesback]

So building off the "Sora is now fictional" idea, Roxas is more of a person than Sora is.

Lower your pitchforks and hear me out. This isn't a "Roxas is just Sora but actually interesting" post. I find those fucking annoying as well, and I prefer Roxas to Sora (though you wouldn't be able to tell based on my posts - sue me, the concept of hearts living inside each other and how that would effect the og person is too fascinating to ignore... which actually leads me into the main point of this post)

Roxas fought tooth and nail to be seen as an individual. He carved his identity out of rock while everyone around him acted like a demolition team trying to destroy it at every moment.

Sora willingly gives up his identity. While Roxas is firm in who he is, even in the moments where he doubts his humanity, Sora is a chameleon. From the obvious things such as hiding his darkness to the more subtle way his actual design changes across even individual games. Im going to actually split this up into two parts - Sora loaing his identity to those he interacts with and Sora losing his identity to those within his own heart.

- Sora when it comes to those outside of Sora's heart, Sora is whatever the person at that moment needs. He's the light for Riku, he's a confidante for various Disney characters, he's the unchanging (stable, steady) knight in armor for Kairi, he's the joyful companion to Goofy and Donald, but simultaneously the avenging angel of the side of light towards the nobodies. Sora is what he needs to be at any given moment because his driving force is his loyalty to his friends. Sora doesn't have an identity he clings to outside of his loyalty. It's his strongest unchanging trait. "Sora is light!" Except for when he admits to Riku he struggles with darkness and agrees to be the darkness. Except for when overuse of his drive forms (overuse of reliance on his friends) turns him into a pseudoheartless. Except for when rage over takes him and he transforms infront of everybody into a dark form to attack Xehanort after Kairi dies. Sora is a light for those who need him to be, but Sora himself is not pure light. Which actually brings me to my next section.

People have talked at length about Sora being less intelligent in later games than he was in kh1 and kh2, with the worst being in 3D, but I think to an extent this is also Sora molding himself (on top of flanderization by the writers). Sora is goofy and silly to those who need it. Think about who he acts "dumb" around. Its the newly reformed scientists, or those who need a confidence boost (he allows people to overexplain to him). We see in re:mind that kh3 Sora never once lost his intelligence from the previous games, but he allows others to call him forgetful/silly/behind (which he literally is, his memories are objectively fucked why are they mocking him for memories they never worked to help him restore agh *rips hair out). Sora knows they need someone to lighten things, or to explain to in order to think things through, and so there he is. "I don't computer, so you do that," he says while piloting a ship. He's talking to the newly reformed scientists, he knows that this is their chance to solidify themselves on the side of light, and so he sends them off to do their work without his help.

- for those inside his heart, there's a ton to talk about but I'm going to begin with the bridge I used from the first part. Every light has a balancing darkness. The closer you are to the light, the greater your darkness grows. Darkness is a shadow (which is why Sora losing his shadow when in anti form is not only a cool as fuck animation detail but important in terms of lore) so what does that mean for Sora who housed Ventus's heart of pure light within his own? People have commented that sora's darkness has grown since the first game, and others have pointed out that the hollow in the space of the heart in the Darkseid is obviously related to Sora's capacity to hide others within his own heart, and the fact that Sora's name doesn't only translate to "sky" but can be translated as "void"... thats all relevant but im at work so I'm not going to get too much into that at this moment. instead I'm going to point out that if his heart was holding a heart of pure light (two at one point with kairi), and all hearts except for those which either belong to princesses of light OR which are artificially split from their darkness must have darkness inside of their hearts. Riku shows that this darkness is about balance for light (I'm not getting into the "Riku actually has more light in his heart than Sora" meta arguments, though I do agree that the text is open to that interpretation and I enjoy the theory). If Sora had a heart of pure light within him, then he would have to artificially darken his own heart to keep balance.

It's also further than taking on the pain of Roxas and Xion. We see the way he gives himself up for those in his heart with his actual actions and looks. Sora (and Roxas, God i wish they'd explore more what it means to be the nobody of two hearts rather than one or if roxas is actually Ven's nobody instead of Sora's but Roxas's arc is over sadly) walks with his arms behind his head the way Ventus does. Many people have pointed out that Sora's hair is decidedly a lighter color after the KH2 prologue than at any other point in series (including in official art and posters), leading many to theorize that he actually changed appearance in response to Roxas's blond hair.

Even at the times when Roxas gives into the idea that he himself is not an individual, or implies that he and sora truly are one ("I know he'll do it, because he's me,") there's still the fight within him that he *is* a person with a distinct personality and way of being.

Sora doesnt have a distinct way of existing. Sora is what others require at that moment. This almost ties into the whole "Sora went to the realm of fiction" thing. "Sora the Concept" has become an ideal of whatever those around him invision him being at that moment while "Sora the Person" has slowly dissipated behind layers of acting.

So yeah, Roxas is more of a person than Sora is. Sora has become a concept, the idealized version of himself that others came up with, and which he molded himself to fit, losing his personhood in the process.

Sorry if this is incomprehensible. I'm at work and didn't take my meds 🤙

[razorblade180]

Kairi:Roxas! Let’s have a good and honest sparring match.

Roxas:Have you beaten Axel in a fight?

Kairi:Yes.

Roxas:Saix?

Kairi:…

Roxas:I recommend clearing that hurdle next.

Kairi:Really?

Roxas:I love Axel but y’know…there’s higher bars. If you want an honest fight against me then I think you should work your way up to it.

Kairi:Now I’m curious about the others.

Roxas:After Saix then I guess Riku. He’s not that tough.

Kairi:That feels biased.

Roxas:I can count on my hand the amount of times he won a fight all by himself and it didn’t end with him nearly done for. He’s scrappy and clever but there’s scarier obstacles. It’s not like he can transform anymore either.

Kairi:Hmm…continue.

Roxas:Aqua, and then tackle Terra.

Kairi:You think Terra is more of a match than Master Aqua?

Roxas:I think he’s 6’1 and will leave bigger ramifications to anyone he lands a hit on. Like let’s be honest, Xehanort made a good choice when he picked the guy who can split the ground and summon meteors. Can we also talk about he’s faster than he looks which is stupid.

Kairi:You make a convincing argument. Honestly I probably have to be as nimble as Aqua to guarantee avoiding Terra.

Roxas:That’s a good way to look at it. After that…..pick your poison. I guess I’ll fight you.

Kairi:What?

Roxas:Well I want to go for Ven or maybe Xion, but the more I think about it, the more that feels like a dangerous accusation in regard to where I stand. Like…I learned I resemble Ventus and not the other way around and something about that warrants my personal concern.

Kairi:You beat Xion in a fight.

Roxas:Yeah but when she wants to fight, I actively sigh. I’m not pulling off consistent wins with confidence. I don’t even know if she can still transform. Knowing Vexen it’s possible! You know what? Fight me before them. I won’t surprise you with hidden powers.

Kairi:And then there’s Sora.

Roxas:Honestly against you I think he might be rock bottom.

Kairi:When we find him I’m telling him you said that.

Roxas:I’ll say it to his face. He knows I’m right. That’s the order I would go in if I were you.

Kairi:You never said the King.

Roxas:He obliterated thirteen darknesses. Hate to say it, but I don’t think one simply beats Mickey Mouse in a fight without consequences.

[holleighgram]

Hold onto your keyboards, cause I'm about to get ✨️controversial ✨️

I'd like to preface this by saying all interpretations/ headcanons/ readings/ etc. Are valid and I'm in no way discouraging anyone to change their ways.

I watched (and enjoyed) Baloney's "The Truth About Kingdom Hearts!" And I absolutely adored their take on the series, but one line stuck out to me that I really want to expand on because I don't see it being talked about as often as it should.

Kairi doesn't like Riku.

And I think this is a very RICH and IMPORTANT aspect of the Destiny Trio dynamic. It adds to the complexity of these characters, but especially Kairi.

(Another shout out to @violethowler and their INCREDIBLE Constructing Kingdoms series. The video on"The Girl Who Never Grew Up" made me like and understand Kairi so much more. Highly recommend checking it out.)

Kairi doesn't like Riku, and with some pretty valid reasons, but I'll get to that after I compile all the evidence towards this:

In KH:

Kairi likes her life the way it is. She doesn't desire change, but Riku wants nothing but change. He wants to grow up and move on and see the outside world.

And because Sora looks up to him, Sora has jumped on the bandwagon too. Kairi is going along because Sora is. But it is clear that for Kairi, change =/= good. So what does she say?

"You know, Riku's changed."

Sora asks her how, and she kinda bites her tongue. Clearly she had opinions, but doesn't want to badmouth Soras best friend to him. Later she says, "Sora, don't ever change."

Later, after everything, when Kairi is restored and in Travers Town, she doubts that Riku can be saved, despite the fact that she LITERALLY saved Sora from being a heartless. She almost seems like she's trying to convince Sora not to go, or to at least let her come with-- not to save Riku but because she wants to be there with Sora.

At the end of the game, she obviously return to destiny islands and draws the paopu.

During Chain of Memories, everyone forgets about Sora, but the memories of Riku stay intact. For a year. Kairi is well aware that her "friend" is missing. In fact, last she knew of him, he was still taken by Ansem and presumably dead or at least suffering. She doesn't know.

She knows she's a Princess of Heart and has powers thay can help (as she restored Sora after being a heartless). But the most we get is "he's far away, but I know we'll see him again." Like, do you?

I mean, SELPHIE is the one that says "I sure miss him." That's way more than we EVER get from Kairi.

So for a YEAR, she doesn't spare Riku a single thought. But the SECOND she remembers Sora, she is willing to do anything to see him again.

Here's a little bit of speculation for WHY she doesn't like Riku:

1) Perhaps when she first met them as kids, he reminder her of Xehenort, who kidnapped her and yeeted her into space.

2) Kairi wanted to be best friends with SORA, but not Riku. She's afraid that Sora will follow Riku to the outside worlds (where she doesn't want to go) and leave her behind. If it wasn't for Riku, Sora wouldn't want to leave at all.

3) He (as far as we know) opened the door and damned their home into Darkness. That's probably a point of contention for her. Even though Sora so forgiving.

4) He hurt Sora in KH1, but Sora is still loyal to him. She probably sees that as him taking advantage of Sora-- the person she cares most about.

5) He's the reason Sora never came home. If it wasn't for him, they would have gone home at the end of KH1 together.

I can't say for sure how Riku feels about Kairi. He DID drag her corpse around and give into the darkness to save her, but that can be interpreted as solely wanting to "beat " Sora at being the hero. Even still, we get moment in COM where he reflects on missing her. We even see Namine come to his rescue in her form. I definitely feel like there is less animosity there, but who knows.

That's all.

Roast me, Kairi stans, but I love the depth this reading gives to the story and the potential for arcs and character growth for her and she is forced to face who she is without Sora.

[strayheartless]

its been a hot minute since I wrote any Soriku so here have some cute headcanons about my boys:

Riku is silently obsessed with the fact that Sora is smaller than him. if there is an opportunity to put his chin on Sora's head he will do it.

Sora starts struggling with insomnia after Ven, Roxas and Xion vacate his heart, but he is always more than happy to cuddle up with Riku while the other sleeps. A sure fire way to get Sora to relax enough to sleep however is for Riku to play with his hair.

Riku and Sora are the PDA couple. They have boundries obviously, but little kisses; hugs from behind, cuddling, hand holding, pet names; if its cute in a nausiating kind of vau (Roxas' and Kairis words) they will do it.

Sora cooks, Riku... doe not. you'd think Riku is the one to be trusted more in the kitchen but you'd be wrong. Riku has one speciality dish and that is frozen waffles. Sora could cook before meeting Remy but since cooking and baking at the Bistro, he has become pretty damn good.

Riku is the one that deals with technology and machinary. Sora looks at a computer wrong and it brakes. Riku is pretty good with things like coding, and trouble shooting etc. this is because he asked Leon to show him. He didn't really need Cid to teach him how to Fix the gummy ship because he grew up helping his grandad fix motor boats, but he does enjoy talking shop with Cid when they visit Radiant Gardens.

Date nights are usually somewhere fun where they can goof around and not have to worry about fighting. Riku's favorite date however, was when Sora took him to Corona during the festival of lights and they danced the day away and then sent their lanterns flying from the top of a building.

Sora's favorite date was taking Riku to the pride lands and tumbled around the paradice falls for hours just play fighting and curling up to snooze in the sun.

When they do fall asleep together -because of Riku's dream eater power- they usually share a dream scape. most of the time dreams are pretty chill, but sometimes Sora has really weird dreams that Riku would actually think were drug induced had he not spent the entire day with his boyfriend.

Speaking of dream eater Riku, he has a creature form (fight me) that sometimes gets triggered while he's awake and Sora's not. There has been quite a few times Terra has nearly shit himself after hearing a scuttling noise and looked up only to find dream eater Riku scurrying across the cieling like Stitch.

Sora knows exactly the spot under Riku's jaw (both in dream eater form and a s a human) to scritch that has Riku melting into a puddle of Keyblade master.

there! some nice fluffy stuff!

[briry18]

OFF TOPIC! I NEED TO TALK ABOUT THIS! SORA (Kingdom Hearts) SHOULD HAVE BEEN FEMALE!

Not sure if this is a hot take or just my opinion but I feel like Sora should have been made a female protagonist. Nomura and Disney really missed a golden opportunity to make a fun loving, cute, and diverse female protagonist to offset the gender stereotype we've come to expect from video game females. In terms of video game protagonists we have only a few legit female protags, and the ones we do have are usually intensely violent, compute smart, and sexy **COUGHboobsCOUGH** (Examples: Bayonetta, Lara Croft, Jill Valentine, Samus Aran etc.) Sora could have broken the mold by being the first teenage girl to take the protagonist role in a video game. A spunky, sometimes lazy tom boy who wants to prove she's as good as her best friend Riku who's good at anything he tries; Sora could be the kind of role model girls needed. She could show you don't necessarily need to be objectively beautiful, smart, or physically intimidating to stand strong against adversity and take leadership in times of crisis. Not to mention pairing her with Disney Princesses which are known to be reliant on their men, and garnering her reaction on that would be funny as hell.

This approach would have also saved Kairi's character. Kairi is given this cliché damsel in distress role throughout the series, and having Sora as a role model could have been a great character dynamic to offset that. Allowing both girls to learn and grow from each other; Sora learning to express herself in a more feminine and graceful manner, and Kairi learning to be stronger and take action, would have been a much smarter way to go than this Peach and Mario relationship they have now.

Speaking of Romantic interests though, this could have also given Sora and Riku's relationship an extra boost, or even added some will they/won't they dynamics. Sora clearly feels closer to Riku, despite Kairi being the supposed love interest. And while Sora doesn't need to be a female for this relationship to blossom, let's be realistic, we are dealing with Disney and same-sex relationships is still relatively new territory for them. That being said, they could have also played Sora off as this sort of androgynous female, turning her into a possible LGBTQA icon with her alignment being questioned from having both Kairi and Riku vie for her affections.

There's more I'd like to say on the matter, but I'll leave here, ending with that I love Kingdom Hearts as it is. It is my favorite video game of all time. This was just my opinion on how they could have added dynamic and growth to an already beloved series of characters. Thank you for listening!

[braveheartstoryteller]

It all begins and ends, with Neku Sakuraba. Or at least that is my theory.

"Who needs friends! They just laugh and talk like idiots, and pretend to agree with you... So you end up caring about them... exposing yourself... getting HURT... Screw it! We're better off without them! You want people getting in your way? Dragging you down? I don't. And I never said we were friends. You did!""

Neku's story arc in the original game is one full of hurt, as KH often calls it. As the above dialog shows (said to Shiki) Neku has been hurt in the past, and resists any form of connection to someone else. However, upon finding himself in the Reaper's Game, Neku is forced to connect and open up to Shiki. All because if he doesn't he won't "win" the Reaper's Game. Neku's whole story arc, is learning how to connect with and rely on others again, after closing himself off. Awhile back I talked about some of the connections between the scene where Sora wakes up in a version of Scramble Crossing, and how it mirror's Neku's in TWEWY (link here). This makes me ask a question. Is Sora being set up for the same arc? In the very beginning of DDD Sora encounters Neku. You get bits and pieces of Neku's original story, in KH. Such as Neku's clear resistance to Sora's desire to be friends with him.

"Now we're friends? It's not that easy." "Not saying it is, but... you could make it easier."

Heh, the simple mind of a kid. Seriously, Sora looks at Neku and wants to help, for him it really is that simple. Earlier in the same conversation Neku calls Sora out on this:

"What? Time out. Do you trust every total stranger you meet?"

In fact, this trust is actually betrayed by Neku, by leading Sora to Young Xehanort. Sora, of course, brushes it off later, by saying that at the last minute Neku changed his mind and defended him. Sora never once thinks of Neku any less than a friend. But Sora's story doesn't end there. It is only the beginning. The beginning of Traverse Town seems there to serve as a reminder of Sora's simple child-like heart, to further highlight how he changes over the course of the story, especially the end. I've talked about how that in meeting Roxas, Sora's childhood ends (link). And I've talked about Sora's arc in KH3 in various places. (I could lay it out some time, and I might one day.) But in the end where does everything lead? To Scramble Crossing. On the surface, it seems like just a veneer. Sora just ends up in the same place (of a sort) is all. But if you look closer at Sora's arc, it seems to paint a different picture. This is where my theory comes in. The ending of KH3 seems to be both right and wrong to me all at once. It has given me loads of grief for that reason. There is plenty of dialog and framing to support both sides strongly, so which one is right? Or if it is that clear on both sides, are both true? I think it is the latter. Sora saves Kairi, a very special thing. But seemingly, Sora also choses a darker path in the process. And the fact that he wakes up in Scramble Crossing, seems to point to that. If we look at the story in KH3, it all seems to be put together to apply pressure on Sora, and to make him, well, flee. Now that the others (especially Kairi) is safe, he can now run away from the hurt in his heart and go off and have new adventures. This is my theory. That the whole story is designed to set Sora up on a path like Neku's. I do think that if this is the case, we need more framing to make it stronger. Sora has to continue to further cut himself off from others, to further align himself with Neku's choices. Still, even if Sora doesn't quite go there, I think one fact remains; Sora's heart is hurting. And because of that, Sora is overwhelmed, and needs space to figure it out. Sometimes we got to do that. It is like what Esmeralda says in DDD to Riku:

"We all do that sometimes. There are just some things we need to keep separate from the world at large, at least until we have time to figure them out."

Perhaps that is why Riku lets Sora go. If anyone would know how sometimes you need to walk a lonely path, it would be him.

[superdorkcat]

I've been dealing with KH brainrot lately and, lacking for other things to do, decided to make a masterpost of all potential evidence pointing to Vanitas (who's one of my favorite characters) making a comeback in KH4.

The first indication that Vanitas could reappear in the future comes in Dream Drop Distance, which implies that he found his way into Sora's heart at the end of Birth by Sleep, much like Ven did. Let me explain.

Xehanort's entire plan in DDD is based on Sora having the whole Heart Hotel thing going on. During his encounter with Sora in La Cité des Cloches, Young Xehanort outright proclaims:

"You are the one who has made your heart a prison. [...] Even if you are not the prisoner."

While it may seem that he's just talking about Ven, Xion, and Roxas here, that notion is contradicted at the end of the game when Riku meets with Data-Ansem the Wise, who says this:

"And some of those hearts never left him- whether they fell into darkness or were trapped there- whether they sleep in the darkness of Sora's heart, or were welcomed into its warmth- they can be saved."

Ven, Xion, and Roxas are all shown to be in a recreation of Destiny Islands - the light of Sora's heart. They can't be who Data-Ansem is talking about here. The only person who can be inside the darkness of Sora's heart is Vanitas.

Vanitas's final scene in KH3 adds to this, where he has this exchange with Sora after being defeated.

Sora: Then why won't you stand by our side? Instead of with darkness? Vanitas: Because I am darkness. And I do stand by your side. I'm the shadow that you cast. How much closer could I be?

This exchange takes on a whole new level once you take Rage Form into account, where Sora becomes consumed with anger (remember that the Unversed are basically Vanitas's negative emotions given physical form), uses darkness-based attacks and the same fighting stance as Vanitas, and doesn't cast a shadow.

Neither does KH2's Anti Form, for that matter. Although Nomura said in an interview that Rage Form and Anti Form are based on separate concepts (Anti is Sora "being completely stained in darkness" while Rage is him "going into a rampage state, controlled by feelings of anger"), I still find the connection notable. Mainly because KH2's Drive Forms are symbolic of a bond Sora has (Valor = Goofy, Wisdom = Donald, Limit = Kairi, and Master = Mickey) but have to be activated manually. That is, except for the two that activate randomly - Final (which is a reward for beating Roxas and thus represents him) and Anti, which Sora has from the very beginning.

Also from KH3 is the chess match between Eraqus and Xehanort. Looking at the board, you can see two versions of the piece that represents Vanitas - one that's still on the board and another that has been captured by Eraqus. Take a look.

Even though it's not strictly canon, there's a passage from BBS's light novel that I want to include. In it, Vanitas is enveloped in the same light that Ven is, the light that brings him to Sora's heart.

"Light arose from the spot where Vanitas had disappeared. It flared, then blanketed Ven's body as well. It was soft and tender. Radiant and whole. Is it over...? Wrapped in this strong, benevolent light, Ven descended into the darkness. I know this place - it's so familiar. This...is your heart."

I know, I know - the light novels aren't canon. However, the BBS novel depicts Vanitas in a far more sympathetic and tragic light than in the original game, which his latest appearance in the games, Dark Road, leans slightly more towards. In it, he disobeys Xehanort's order to stay in the Keyblade Graveyard out of concern for/curiosity regarding Ven's condition post-split and becomes scared after Xehanort threatens him.

The scene also reveals that Xehanort suspected that Vanitas is one of the Willful Darknesses and was never part of Ven, instead being a separate entity that was merely hiding inside him. That being said, this goes against a previous reveal in the game, which establishes that, if someone keeps foreign darkness inside them long enough, it will become a permanent part of them. As Baldr's darkness puts it:

"Are you sure you want to do that? We're one now. If I disappear, he will too."

While Ven's own heart and the Willful Darkness inside him may have been separate, they likely weren't by the time of Vanitas's birth - explaining both Vanitas's ability to feel some of Ven's emotions and how the whole thing almost killed Ven. It wasn't the surgical removal of a parasite, it was a limb being ripped off.

Of course, the connection is still an important one that, given KH's explorations of personhood, individuality, and identity, will likely be explored further. (Especially since Strelitzia is most likely going to be a major character in KH4.) Also, while Vanitas says that he was never a part of Ven in Re Mind, he only does so after Ven shot down them being brothers in favor of them being the "same"... which he doesn't take well.

There's a few more things I want to go over before ending. First, "Heroes and Heroines: Characters' Medley" is a medley combining the leitmotifs for the main protagonists of the series before ending with, of all songs, Vanitas's boss theme.

As part of the celebrations for the franchise's 20th anniversary, a special artwork was released. In it, characters that are connected are grouped together. At the bottom left, we have reformed antagonists. The Seekers of Darkness's traitor trio (Isa, Even, and Demyx) is there, as is Ienzo. However, there's one outlier:

[themattress]

Clips from the videos I recently linked to.

Out of all the main characters, Nomura and Oka's writing in Kingdom Hearts III (and the preceding Dream Drop Distance + 0.2 Birth by Sleep for that matter) significantly derailed five of them, four of whom the video above discusses and the other whom I'll bring up myself.

Axel then: A deeply selfish guy whose pursuit of his own agenda above all else puts him into conflict with others, even his own friends. Has a fiery (heh) side but is usually cool and collected, with a dry, sarcastic sense of humor, and is very smart and calculating.

Axel now: Honestly still selfish but in a bratty petulant way rather than a mature interesting way, and the narrative pretends like this isn't the case and portrays him as this great guy and wonderful friend. He's also hot-headed dumbass whose style of humor is more "wacky", based in catchphrases and self-aware jokes. Yes, I'm aware he has a heart now, but that explaining the difference doesn't work when the series is now claiming he had a heart all along as a Nobody anyway! If Lea's gonna call himself "Axel", he oughta resemble him more!

Kairi then: Spunky and sassy. Prone to reckless actions due to following her heart without thinking. Will fight to the teeth against any enemy trying to chain her down and will always use her agency every chance she gets, even if it's simply sending a letter. While she obviously loves Sora, she cares deeply for others too and does all she can to help them.

Kairi now: Meek and polite, a "Yamato nadeshiko" type. Frantic and self-doubting, to the point of freezing up in combat. Greatest contribution is "believing really hard" rather than doing anything, and who will write a flowery love letter for the sake of it but never send it. Her care for others is de-emphasized in favor of her love for Sora, even though he barely if ever thinks or talks about her when she isn't right in front of him, making her look pathetic.

Riku then: Starts out as a rude, arrogant jerk who uses darkness and falls prey to it, ends up a still rude but humbled and considerate guy who overcomes his darkness and turns it into a unique power of twilight. At peace with following his heart more ("which is Sora-esque").

Riku now: Totally polite, nigh-infallible hero who just uses plain darkness, not twilight, without consequence. Acts like a dull stick in the mud who barely shows emotion from the heart.

Sora then: Just a regular kid/teenager. Could be kind of a dumbass but not to the point of chronic idiocy that's always being made fun of. Reacted proportionately to events around him and was prone to bouts of depression that he covers up with his usual cheerful attitude.

Sora now: More childish than he should be at his age. Stereotypical shonen Idiot Hero, to the point of everyone making fun of him for it. Reacts over-the-top and excited to everything, is seldom if ever depressed about anything short of people dying. "Weak" yet OP all at once.

Ansem, Seeker of Darkness then: Profoundly arrogant in order to cover for his insecurities. Feels as though everything he does is justified. Cares for no-one but himself + darkness.

Ansem, Seeker of Darkness now: Will openly admit to his insecurities and stow his pride. Knows and acknowledges what he does as evil. Apparently cares for "Subject X", and Riku to a degree, plus chides Ansem the Wise for his cold treatment of others. Seems on board with Xehanort's plan which evidently is meant to safeguard the worlds against darkness.

[mythicalartistx]

The Reason Destiny Trio friendship Fails...

There are some things that are so much better in fanon than canon

This doesn't mean the canon source is bad it just means it's not elaborated on enough

An example would be the relationship or friendship of the destiny trio. In canon the three of them are barely seem to be friends, usually it's two sided. And it's not like Riku and Kairi aren't friends either. They both care for each other such as how he spent his time trying to find her in KH1 (though I personally believe he did that to prove something to Sora)

Still in the second game he goes to make sure Kairi is alright and tries to help her. If you read the KH2 novel it's done so well. He Axel and Naminé team up to try and help her.

Even in the first game prologue it seems to show that Riku Kairi and Sora are friends and you can tell. But after this prologue the three of them NEVER talk amongst themselves really again. It's not shown. The only other time is when Kairi shows Sora and Riku the bottle from Mickey at the end of 2.

And they probably could have been close then but it's not shown.

Even between Kairi and Sora it gotten awkward between them for being far apart for so long. During their reunion in kh2 their conversation and hug is awkward way more than it should be. By the time KH3 comes around it's less awkward but they're still trying to redo their friendship.

Sora and Riku have the best friendship amongst the trio. Through out the games it shows their relationship and how it grows. In BBS it shows how they've been friends for so long and Riku would even want to get strong to protect his friends which shape the way for him.

In kh1 they're at opposite ends but at the ending where they are separated Sora rekindles Riku and how he misses his friend. In COM Sora goes to look for Riku and in 358/2 days Riku makes his way to wake his friend up. In 2 Sora is still searching for him and he really misses him that he doesn't care what he looks like and their reunion is honestly touching. He just missed him that much that he's crying.

At the end of 2 they work together to fight Xemnas even to the point where Riku take hits to protect Sora. They even stay amongst themselves and are okay because their friends are okay and are fine being with each other as friends.

Sora and Riku's friendship is honestly the best between the three. Nomura and several others have stated Kingdom Hearts is about them growing up and the friends they drift from. It's probably why Sora and Riku are shown to grow closer and Kairi is often left to the side.

Now I'm not saying this is right and honestly she deserves better that what is shown of her.

But it seems this is the story Nomura wants to tell and honestly it is relatable people move on with their friendships and unintentionally leave others behind or they just grow apart.

And Sora still wants to rekindle that friendship and doesn't want to leave her behind in KH3 as she is still one of his close friends along with Riku.

But I kinda hope they will have more interactions with the three of them or even Riku and Kairi since they're both not shown interacting as well....

[yoroshiu]

Things About JPN Sora (Kingdom Hearts)

When it comes to referring to others Sora has a few ways going about it. He often refers to others by their names.. You can only imagine the many more amount of times he’s said Riku or Kairi’s name in JPN lol

Or even just the amount of times Donald and Goofy is said by him 

Sora’s a very boyish kind of guy, like very casual but not intentionally rude, and also kind of impressionable which is reflected in his speech

Uses ‘ore’ when referring to himself normally but used ‘boku’ once in KH1 while talking to Kairi

He’s the king of comedic timing and deadpan (courtesy of Miyu Irino), his tone and inflection are on point. (i.e. in KH3 when the gang get flung off the mountain in Arendelle once again and Sora’s tired of it. Both Miyu Irino and Haley Joel Osment’s deliveries for Sora’s frustration are amazing)

I think a lot of the awkward pauses found in ENG KH dialogue stems from the fact that we don’t usually make the same noises for affirmations, reactions, and the like. This is more of a general note rather than Sora-specific but JPN Sora does tend to do this

In Re:Coded, Data Sora refers to Data Roxas as ‘omae’ but in 3D, Sora refers to Roxas by name and ‘kimi’. For Re:Coded, my guess is that it’s because Sora didn’t know who he was and Roxas was antagonizing him

Less of a fun fact and more of a fangirl point but, have you heard him asking for one Baymax in JPN??? The way he just says “Just 1, just 1″ in the softest and excited voice!! He’s my precious son frfr ToT

AND HE DOES STUFF LIKE THAT SO OFTEN!! HE’S VERY CUTE YOUR HONOR

When Sora gets excited and happy, his voice tends to get higher pitched (Miyu Irino’s range is actually wild) and...not sure if this is the word I’m looking for, but squishy? I feel like Miyu Irino makes Sora squishy in a very endearing way lol

[matenr0u]

Riku: “Taisetsu na hito - Cherished person”

Throughout the series we’ve seen an escalation of Riku’s enduring journey to find the “strength to protect what matters”. It appears to peak in KHIII with “strength to protect someone precious”, but I’m gonna propose that they could some day take it a step further than that. 

I am once again slamming my tiny fistful of evidence and wish fulfilment on the KH meta table.

So as we know this line first appears in BBS when Baby Riku meets Terra and says he wants to protect his “daiji na mono”:

強くなりたいんだ

I want to become strong.

(…)

どうして強くなりたい?

Why do you want to be strong?

大事なものを守れるでしょ

So that I can protect important stuff

友達や みんなを

Like my friend, everyone…

He repeats this in DDD as he fights to save Sora, recalling twice the secret promise he made that day:

大事なものを守れる力

Power to protect important stuff

Finally this culminates in Riku’s KHIII sacrifice, following up from Mickey suggesting that he’s found the strength to protect someone he cherishes.

大切な人を守る強さか—

Strength to protect someone precious—

Which is cool. But there’s room for more, if Squisney decide it won’t hurt their profits to go down that path. Or even if they just feel like addressing at any point the absolute non reaction everyone had to being obliterated on the spot and then Riku dying for Sora. With that in mind, I began to wonder if we’ll see just one more callback later down the line. 

I think there are two possible options. First:

一番大切な人

Ichiban taisetsu na hito / Most precious person

In CoM for example Namine urged Sora to remember his “ichiban taisetsu na hito” — number one most precious person. This one has more of an obvious romantic air I feel. I choose to think Namine was talking about Kairi when she said that but I respect that other SR fans think it’s Riku so I’m including it. If we’re going to hear this one again and in reference to Sora & Riku, we’ll surely get it around the time the necklace theory is inevitably revealed. Either way, it’s already been used in the series, so it’s not a crazy implausible love declaration or anything. It can happen.

I mean, in DDD Riku all but says it when Ven asks:

“Kimi ni totte ichiban taisetsu na mono tte nani?”

“What’s the number one most important thing to you?”

And of course Riku replies:

“Taisetsu na shinyuu”

“My precious best friend”

As far as I’ve noticed, Riku only calls Sora his shinyuu. It’s cute.

Another possible route they could take is:

愛するもの

Aisuru mono / Beloved person

Which sounds far fetched at a glance, but it is what Terra says to Riku during the bequeathing, in response to Riku’s “daiji na mono”.

いずれ選ばれし者として この小さな世界を出て——

Some day, you will leave this tiny world as the chosen one—

俺のもとへたどり着くだろう

You will find me.

その時こそ――

That’s the time—

本当の広い世界——

The real wide world—

愛する者を守る力を教えよう

Will teach you the power to protect the people you love.

“Love” being such a diluted word in EN means it doesn’t convey the gravity of it well at all, but “aisuru mono” is one of the strongest ways you can say you love someone in JP. It can be singular or plural, platonic or romantic, and I’ve seen KH’s fandom war cousins cloti/clerith argue over the use of this term— so it highkey wouldn’t surprise me to see this one used by Riku or someone else in reference to his feelings for Sora. Like, in a ‘vague enough to not offend the unwashed dudebros but can also be read as incredibly romantic’ kind of way.

(By the way, I’ve seen “aisuru mono” or “aisuru hito” translated as “dearly beloved” in some places before, too. So naturally I’m gunning hard for this one. Shoot that probably unintentional symbolic double meaning shit straight into my veins.)

For the reasons above, I personally can envision a realistic pipeline of:

Daiji na mono / Important stuff ->

Taisetsu na mono / Precious thing ->

Taisetsu na shinyuu / Precious best friend ->

Taisetsu na hito / Precious person ->

Aisuru mono, Aisuru hito / Beloved person

or

Ichiban taisetsu na hito / Most precious person

Not to say it will happen in any capacity, but there’s space for it. A ton of weird stuff happened around That Moment, and even if that’s just down to KHIII bunk….. the whole ass Fairy Godmother herself has come to set Riku on a solo mission to make his dreams come true.

The setup is right there if they ever want to take that opportunity to clarify the depth and nature of Riku’s feelings for Sora specifically. 

Riku already promised Terra he’d find the strength to protect someone he loves, which he has now found, and in the case of ‘Aisuru’, I think it would round off that callback to the bequeathing perfectly.

[thetrashthatsmilesback]

i cannot wait for the next form of anti-form and rage form in the kh4 art style.

i keep having this idea of a scene where Riku finally finds Sora and is trying to get him to listen but just.

"I'm dead Riku."

"What do you mean? You can come back, come with me Sora."

"No Riku, I died. I'm here as punishment. I'm dead, Strelitzia's dead, you can't be here after everything I went through to save you, you can't!"

"Sora, what are you talking about? I'm not dead, Sora. I'm alive."

"If you're here, then you're dead. After everything I did..."

"I'm alive. Sora listen to me, I'm alive!"

Sora looked up at him, a different look in his eyes than Riku had ever seen before.

"Strelitzia and I had a theory. We were going to test it on her - neither of us thought it would work on me because I'm here on punishment, but if it works..."

"Sora, what are you talking about?"

"It makes sense, truly, I wanted to experiment more before trying it but if you're here... you need to go back..."

"Sora, stop, we're both going back, just calm down and listen to me."

"If you die to get here, it only stands to reason that dying in this reality will send someone back to ours."

"What?"

"You'll be sent to the final world, and then you can pass through to ours."

"Sora... what are you doing?" Sora had started walking closer to Riku, splaying his arms out slightly while darkness began to swirl around his feet with each step.

"I'm sorry Riku, but you can't be here. Your heart will be sent to the final world, but then you'll be able to navigate to back through to our reality. From what Strelitzia's contact has learned, the final world acts as the bridge."

"Sora, stop, you're not making any sense, and there's darkness all around you just-"

Sora's eyes flashed gold for just a moment and the darkness began to envelope him the way it did when Xehanort killed Kairi.

"Riku, forgive me." The transformation completed, the dark Sora raising his arms above his head and summoning what looked like the X-Blade but cloaked in the same darkness as the rest of him. His eyes were a brilliant blue. The X-Blade he held split in two as he brought his hands down, the shape of the two shadowy keyblades changing to be reminiscent to Riku and Kairi's new ones.

also yes dual wielding Sora should come back again. I do find Re:Mind's implication that he and Roxas can both still summon Oathkeeper and Oblivion very funny because I'm just imagining them fighting to summon them. Like there's only one copy.

Roxas, in the middle of sparring: take this! *hands suddenly empty* Roxas: ... DAMN IT SORA

Sora, fighting a wave of heartless and nobodies: I need two hands for this *keyblades won't come to him* Sora: what? shit! *finally summons them just for them to be pulled back again* Sora: SHIT SHIT SHIT Roxas, fighting some nobodies: why does Sora keep pulling these!