#however i think nomura has made his intentions clear inside and outside of the story

[daylighteclipsed]

I'm not sure how much of an unpopular opinion this is (if at all) but it's so tiresome when I see a good majority of people wishing the Destiny *trio* to be the very best of friends. I don't think they've ever been on the same level as the rest of the trios. Sora really was/is the glue holding the three of them together and I've always found R+K interactions surface-level at best. Drifting apart doesn't mean they don't still care for each other and you shouldn’t have to force that relationship.

Before I respond to your comment, may I interest you in a few posts I’ve already written on the subject? x ⭐️ x ⭐️ x ⭐️

I think it IS an unpopular opinion. However, most of the blogs I follow share this opinion with me, so you’re in the right place lmao

I feel like a lot of older fans know or sense the Destiny “trio” is different from the other trios — like, they pick up on something — but they don’t want to accept it.

Because it hurts, right? It hurts if you grew up with these characters, if you spent years between game releases growing attached to what this friendship could be… only to have each new game move further away from that dream.

I started this series as an adult, with everything through MoM released, so I didn’t experience that… I picked up on a sense of division right away and felt as every game and trio introduced thereafter reinforced it… I realized I’m not supposed to expect Sora, Riku, and Kairi to be like the other trios. That’s not the story being told here.

And that’s not to say I’m not interested in their dynamic. I really am, especially from Kairi’s point of view. But it’s not as tight-knit bffs. I’m interested in the conflict canon suggests, the growing distance between people who hung out every day as kids. And in the case of Kairi and Riku, friends who seem to have always had mixed feelings about each other, who don’t really know how to talk to each other without their mutual bestie (Sora) around. That’s interesting, especially in a series about the power of friendship.

Sora being so big on friendship but failing to nurture his friendship with Kairi to the point where he has to build a new path to her heart is interesting — and also arguably parallels how Sora’s relationship with Riku deteriorates earlier in the series; Riku and Kairi kinda swap places as the “neglected” friend, but they also both fail to reach out to Sora and let him know how they’re feeling. (And because I associate Kairi with childhood/the past and Riku with adulthood/the future, it’s really interesting how Sora moves away from Kairi/childhood and closer to Riku/adulthood as the series progresses.) Kairi being so afraid of change and the one consistently left out of the action so she doesn’t quite grasp or refuses to accept how much Sora and Riku have changed without her. Kairi being quietly jealous of how Riku is the center of Sora’s attention. Riku being quietly jealous of Kairi as he believes she is the object of Sora’s affections. Riku and Kairi not wanting to be close friends again, if they ever really were, but still caring about each other… There are a lot of old friends I would drop anything to help, but that doesn’t mean I want to be their best friend again.

And that’s the thing. When people talk about wanting the Destiny kids to be close outside of fanon, they ignore that the characters — at least Riku and Kairi — do not act like they want to be close. There’s really nothing in recent canon that indicates they want to be best friends beyond Kairi’s general fear of change — and even that is kind of generous. There’s no concrete proof that Riku is really part of that, that she really misses him (as opposed to a period of time he was there for), not like Kairi writing letters she doesn’t send to the Sora of her memories in KH3, for example.

The Destiny kids not all being close doesn’t spark those warm, fuzzy feelings that the other trios do, but at this point it’s much more believable than if they were to act like bffs. Fanon is fanon. People are gonna do what they want. But when it comes to canon, I’m with you, that friendship shouldn’t be forced. Without some really solid development, it would feel painfully artificial and bastardize the last two decades of writing.