#power levels aren't real especially not in KH

[keykidpilipili]

Some KH fans lured themselves into a false sense of safety, I pray KHML and KH4 match the level of sillies of Maleficent trying to turn Santa into a heartless.

And also Belle elbowing her way out of a hostage situation against a member of organization XIII.

[hollowwhisperings]

Thank you for such an in depth response, I feel honored by it and that I was able to inspire you about the concepts and I agree. I had similar thoughts about the theming of Sora’s name and him being the void of space. Even had musings of how in primordial myths the heavens (sky) and the earth are considered the couple that brings about the first forms existence. Gaia and Ouranos and on the Egyptian mythos there was a love story of Geb (earth) and Nut (sky) although interesting enough geb and nut are kept separated by Ra (the sun).

But regardless, I’d say nomura is quite interesting and impressive to consistently yet subtly equate riku to that of deity so easily. Yes, I believe in riku being a dia in some sort. Probably kingdom hearts sending out an avatar to grow, or the king to kh reincarnated, or some other thing I can’t quite grasp right now but overall with the ending of the series hopefully not too much farther in our lifespan. This is why I enjoy reading and interacting with metas and theories especially about sora and riku and soriku because I said in a comment in a YouTube video that discussed the sleeping real theory and I said it feels like we have the right answers but just not forced into the right shape (a key perhaps 🫣) to unlock the final gate.

Riku has always had all those "subtle" visual shorthands used to denote super special celestia mystery powers (etc) but, like the Subtly OP antics of the Disneytowners (e.g. Donald casually casting the Boss-level spell 'Flare', Goofy tanking hits from Literal Deities with 1 shield & no apparent magic of his own), Riku looking "anime" gets brushed off as "standard JRPG aesthetic".

Naturally silver-haired youths in anime tend to be Plot-Relevant, typically having ☆Super Special Bloodlines☆, typically being Secret Royalty &/or related to Angels or Spirits.

(and it WAS suspiciously easy for Riku to just... BECOME Sora's Dream Eater, especially given what we know of the Chirithy spirits, their abilities to act as psychopomps, & whatever the Dream Eater crafting system in DDD may imply about Dream Eaters as a whole)

From what I can recall, the only naturally silver-haired characters original to KH are:

Riku

Ephemer

Xehanort (confirmed descendant of Ephemer)

Xemnas (Terranort)

Ienzo (taken in by the Always Sus Ansem the Wise, origins unknown)

From the Final Fantasy side of the crossovers, we have Setzer (who only appears in the DATA Daybreak Town, not the "real" one) and... Sephiroth.

For being such an "anime" JRPG, Kingdom Hearts is pretty sparing in its use of Anime Hair Colours. Aqua & Isa's blue hair aside, the colour palette is fairly "natural": pale blonds & yellows, oranges & pinks amongst the reds, browns & blacks. There aren't many characters old enough to have "grey" hair but the ones that do are ALSO fairly mysterious: Merlin, Fairy Godmother, Master Yen Sid, Zeus... Kairi's Mysteriously Knowledgable Grandmother (who i am, like, 75% convinced was a retired Princess of Heart). Even the "silver/white" House of Duck are all Very Suspicious: Donald is, canonically, the most powerful Black Mage of the FF franchise; Scrooge & Donald's Nephews casually worldhop for fun & profit as if they were Moogles or something.

So, yeah, even Riku's "anime boy" aesthetic is itself pretty Telling of Riku being Plot-Relevant. He's canonically part-spirit, after DDD, but his ability to do that at all IS unprecedented (just like his ability to Balance Light & Darkness within himself, like his Light being equated with the Sun, like his easy grasp on using Darkness...). Whatever the KH-universe equivalent of an "angel" may be, Ephemer & Riku seem closest to it. That Riku met JOSHUA (himself a kind of Gay Angel) in DDD does not seem at all a coincidence.

oh! there's also that whole [terra] sigil thing! Riku's costume/keyblade designs imcorporate it (i forget how) & THAT sigil is probably the in-universe namesake for Terra, the character. Rather than [earth] or [land], the [terra] sigil seems older & is likely referencing an "[original/first] earth" or mean "[land of origin]".

It makes me wonder whether Riku's parent/s were themselves Aware of Other Worlds? If he's a relative of Xehanort, it's plausible that Xehanort's Skuld-resembling mother learned about Xehanort's ending up at the Destiny Islands & their family possibly moving to the World in hopes of a reunion. Which... would mean they weren't just AWARE of Other Worlds but ALSO capable of traveling between them. This is probably going to Come Up in Missing Link.

[eradicatetehnormal]

Thinking About Soriku

While it's no longer my OTP, SoRiku is and likely always will among my favorite KH ships. I admit that part of that is because I went in with a bias, due to a fan comic type thing that I read, prior to finishing the first KH game. After playing the games and seeing the community I shipped it more.

To be completely honest though, I didn't really see the ship outside of THE scenes in KH2 and through that symphony of sorcery scene in DDD. It was when I interacted with the community more that I realized how much there was to the ship. How they pointed out details like Riku technically sharing the paopu with Sora and that being the keychain on the combined keyblade dubbed "the gayblade" by the community. How jealous Riku acted in KH1 while suspiciously being more focused on one-upping sora than actually saving Kairi. How Riku did everything in his power to make sure Sora can come back safely in KH2 and 179 days, and of course the entirety of how their relationship is portrayed in DDD, with how Sora is disappointed with having to be separated from Riku and Riku always talking about Sora with almost nothing but positive things to say. All the other pieces of evidence that could point to hints of romantic attraction. From what I hear, people having a better understanding of the ship after interacting with the community is actually kinda common.

Soriku is one of those ships where the implications are subtle. If you're not looking for it, it's blink and you miss it, outside of a couple of stand-out scenes. If you ARE looking for it, it's extremely obvious to the point of almost coming off as intentional, especially post KH2 if you're looking at it from Riku's pov. I bet it's the work of the event planner:

Here's like, the thing with the community though. It's been at odds with a certain other group of shippers and they go at it A LOT, and it can make the community unbearable to be in sometimes. Not to mention how oversensitive some members of the community can be and how unwilling some of them are to live up to their past. The past of Sorikus being yaoi-obsessed fangirls who wrote and drew smut is real is very real and is a legacy that still lives on, even if it's not as bad as it used to be. There were consequently, children who saw that content. I understand Sorikus not wanting to acknowledge that past because

A. a lot of them consider it something that was a part of their cringy teen years and don't want to acknowledge it

and

B. Many Soriku shippers are genuinely queer and either aren't responsible for that content or fit into the prior category

And to be fair, a lot of the times when Kaisos bring this up, they do tend to have bad intentions and try to dismiss their own homophobic behavior, but at the same time if the yaoi side goes unacknowledged, especially when it comes to the older fan content, then it does seem like we aren't owning up to the fact that some of us are fetishy and it can leave and unwanted mark on the community. Also, yeah, going back to what I said earlier. Some of us are over-sensitive and do have a habit of calling people homophobic for saying that Kairi is Sora's most important person on their own platforms, and that's an issue too.

That being said, despite the community I still like the ship and it is still an S-tier pair for me, not GOD-TIER, but S-tier. When I actually remember how good their relationship is in the series, and good some of the fan content is, I can't bring myself to hate it.

Here's the other thing though. What if it actually happened? What if the series ended with Sora and Riku in an embrace saying that they'll always love and be there for each other, and then a strongly implied off-screen kiss? Regardless of how people feel about it, or what the intentions on Square and Disney's part, Sora and Riku ACTUALLY getting together would be a huge fucking deal. Not just for the KH community but for JRPGs and gaming in general. Hell, it'd be a huge mark in Disney history, as they would be among the few confirmed MAIN LGBTQ+ characters in a Disney property. Because of that people. will. riot. There will be many calling it the product of an agenda. There will be idiots saying that this ruined their childhood (which honestly if THAT's their argument, they didn't have a childhood worth ruining) and there will be people angry at Disney and ALL OF JAPAN for "forcing" children to see homosexual content. Probably giving prejudiced conservatives who like to be controversial, leeway to the yaoi argument as means of racism and homophobia. There's also the question of narrative meaning in Kingdom Hearts. First off there's the obvious, which is the writers will have to address Sora's relationship with Kairi else it feels disingenuous, and that can get messy rather quickly, especially because a lot of Kairi's relevancy is linked to her relationship with Sora. Pairing him with Riku can risk undermining his relationship with Kairi and if she doesn't do anything with Aqua and the other characters, can reduce her down to nothing but wasted potential, nostalgia, a cute design, and a cool backstory. As sad as it is, a big part of her appeal is her romantically coded relationship with Sora.

The series has always been about friendship first and foremost before everything else, even if it does value other types of relationships. Sora and Riku are considered by the creators, to be what the series is all about. What does it say about the power of friendship if the two leading characters were in love the entire time? This is less of a narrative issue with Kairi because she was never portrayed to be Sora's friend. She was always written to be a love interest to him in some way. Whereas with Riku, he was always written to either be Sora's rival, or embarrassingly close "friend", at least on a surface level. Sora and Riku getting together romantically could work to undermine the theme of friendship being the most powerful form of magic. Both Kaisos and Soriku's would probably just say "WELL IT CAN BE ABOUT BOTH", but part of what makes it so special in the eyes of many people is that it's NOT about both. That it consistently keeps its friendship theme and never safely comes out of it by making overly big moments with the love interest (except for Kairi single-handedly being the most important person to Sora. Why wouldn't it be Kairi AND Riku). So that initial message getting underplayed can risk taking the series down a peg for a lot of people.