#riku parallels

[whyarewecalledtheshipname]

rambled this before but MAN that riku is paralleled to terra who's dad was so extremely aligned with Light that he basically nearly fell to darkness/evil out of his /extreme/ intolerance of it??? Eraqus who totally doesn't remind me of MoM??? GUH RRAHH

[whyarewecalledtheshipname]

wwwwwwwh 😭😭😭📉📈📉📈📉📈📉

Cannot make a comprehensible comment, this is the most amazing thing ive ever seen 😭💜💜

im not gonna cry im n-

[imminent-danger-came]

RIGHT. AM I RIGHT.

[cloudofash]

"With All My Heart" Comparison between Hercules in KH2 and Riku in KH3

This is a parallel that is often mentioned but I haven't seen anyone do a deep dive into the actual scenes in KH2 and compare them to Riku in KH3. I would like to take time to do this now.

Hercules saves Meg, his God powers awaken and he realizes that his powers have returned due to sacrificing himself for Meg and fighting for her with all his heart. Then laughs and says in response to Sora "People do crazy things when they're in love".

------

Riku realizes he has found the strength to protect "his precious person" (per OG Japanese dialogue). Sora yet again says "No crazy stunts" this time to Riku. Riku pulls a crazy stunt, sacrificing his own life, to protect Sora even if he knows it's to no avail. Riku perishes and his body floats in the Realm of the Gods, the same way Hercules awakened as a God when he saved Meg.

It's nearly a 1:1 parallel, the only exception is that Hercules' sacrifice, realization and admittance of his love happens in one cutscene while Riku's sacrifice and realization are stretched across KH3 and we have yet to see his admittance. Despite this, it's extremely on the nose, especially where Sora repeats the phrase "No reckless stunts" to Riku after saying such to Hercules in Kh2. Even more pointed with Riku's body winding up in the Realm of the Gods, floating above The Sun God's, Apollo's, Delphic Tripod. The only thing we're missing from this Hercules / Riku comparison is Riku admitting to pulling this crazy stunt because he's in love. Pending KH4 hopefully.

It's so direct that there isn't even much for me to analyze or add, I'll just let the screenshots do the talking.

[matenr0u]

Very normal about this Belle/Beast parallel in particular:

I came to fight for Belle.

And though I am on my own, I will fight.

I won’t leave without her.

That’s why I’m here.

[thefreshprinceofjunes]

Do you remember before? We stood facing each other on opposite sides of that door. Now we stand side-by-side. Let's go home together this time.

[yoroshiu]

I adore that KH has characters that parallel each other in multiple ways. It's not just Ventus = Sora = Roxas, Terra = Riku = Axel/Lea, Aqua = Kairi = Xion, but you can mix and match and it'd make sense.

Sora = Terra: Both couldn't overcome the darkness and nearly or fully get Norted. They fail their Mark of Mastery and pretty much go missing. Both tend to be associated with rage in one way or another.

Riku = Aqua: Made to be the Masters in their respective trios, the Responsible One^tm, struggled with darkness and were in the Realm of Darkness for a while

Kairi = Ventus: Pure heart of light, had to go to Sora to recover/hide, struggled with being left behind

Sora = Xion: It's interesting how alike these two can be (though of course, you'd assume so naturally), but sometimes even more so than Sora and Roxas at times, specifically their sacrificial behavior

And I could go on and on, but that's the basic gist of it. It makes for interesting analysis and imagery. On the even more fun end, it makes for potentially fascinating potential team-ups!

[hitinmiss]

The soriku and the Hercules/Meg parallels ALWAYS hit huh

[dizzybevvie]

Riku finding Sora in Quadratum and dropping to his knees and saying "I looked everywhere for you". you could be revolutionary

[glitterynebulas]

soriku kh4 reunion angst thoughts

[princesselemm]

The kids who left the Islands.

Ephemer's bloodline.

[blowingoffsteam2]

A strong will and a very precious dream…

[daily-rikukingdomhearts]

Broke: The Atlantica world in kh sucks

Woke: The Atlantica world in kh sucks HOWEVER. It's a really good Riku parallel

[imminent-danger-came]

My toxic trait is that I don't think Nomura hates Kairi, the kh fandom at large just wanted their version of the character over what the writers decided

[cloudofash]

The Ariel / Riku Parallel and the future of Sora and Riku

This is a parallel I see covered a lot of the time but when it's mentioned the comparison usually involves Naminé in place of Ursula.

The parallel typically follows:

Ariel is Riku. They both wanted to see the outside world.

Sora is Prince Eric.

Naminé is/was Ursula (Vanessa).

Naminé (Ursula) used witch like powers to place Sora (Eric) in a trance and blind him from his true light/the one, Riku (Ariel).

It's a direct parallel that needs little analysis or explanation.

I have also seen fellow Sorikus touch on this parallel with the Final World tunnel scene where Sora notices that the Light is Riku much like Eric notices "the one" who sang to him and saved him in the storm is Ariel.

My theory is that this parallel goes beyond just the tunnel scene. In fact, I believe that Nomura is following the KH2 Atlantica storyline for Sora and Riku's eventual romance later in the games. Walk with me here.

-

The KH2 Atlantica story begins with Ariel saving Eric after a storm. She immediately falls in love, and sings to him. He wakes up just enough to hear her singing, she goes back to Atlantica and her father breaks her statue of him, her heart breaks and Ursula makes her contract with her...you know the tale.

In the KH2 version of this tale however, Ariel falls into a deep depression because she knows she can't be with a human up on land as a mermaid. Not to mention her father's hatred of humans casted fear and doubt into her. When Ariel and Eric defeat Ursula, Ariel reveals to Eric that she is actually a mermaid. However in this scene, Ariel hangs her head in shame and tells him "goodbye" anticipating that he would not accept her as she was. To her surprise, he does accept her.

This scene always struck me because at no point in the original film is Ariel ever ashamed of being a mermaid, she simply knew as a mermaid she couldn't live on land with the one she loved. Why would shame and fear of not being accepted for who you are be added to this tale?

And it doesn't stop there. All throughout the Atlantica storyline, we're told that Ariel and Eric's love is a "forbidden love". A love that shouldn't happen between mermaid and human, sea and land. We're told how a "love struck" mermaid in the sea felt she could only love her human soulmate from afar, that they could never be together despite her wanting them to be.

Who, in the entire Kingdom Hearts cast, does this sound like? Who else, if confirmed that he truly is in love with Sora, would have a forbidden love?

There is no one else other than Riku. Kai*ri, as a cishet female, would not have a forbidden love with Sora. Riku, as a demi/gay male, would have the forbidden love.

Riku has spent a good portion of this series loving and protecting Sora from afar, most often than not, without Sora even being aware.

Who would be more likely to be "ashamed" for loving Sora, and fearful of rejection? Kai*ri, or Riku? In fact, just as Ariel was ashamed that she was originally a mermaid and had to transform into a human, Riku was ashamed that he had to borrow the powers of Ansem and transformed into Ansem.

--

Now why do I say this parallel is going to dictate the future of Sora and Riku's relationship? Because KH3 pretty much follows half of this parallel already.

We already know that Sora discovered that Riku was his true light in the tunnel. He then forgets all of this ever happened and forgets that he ever saved Riku.

And not only that, but Riku's light is blocked out and Sora ends up thinking that the light belongs to another character.

That's right. Sora (Prince Eric) has yet another haze over his eyes. And instead of Naminé, this time Kairi is Ursula.

This is an exact parallel of not only Atlantica, but of what happened in Chain of Memories with Naminé.

Naminé describes herself as a witch who controls the memories of Sora and everyone surrounding him.

Naminé is Ka*iri's Nobody, also described as her "alter ego". Vanessa is in a way Ursula's human alter ego, they're one in the same.

Ka*iri, most likely, has a similar power. She may not use it consciously, but whenever Sora turns his focus on Ka*iri, he forgets all about Riku. This has happened since KH1.

Ursula used her power to make Eric forget about Ariel, the girl who saved him and sang to him. Let's also not forget that Ursula made an appearance in Dream Drop Distance when Sora and Riku were building their dream raft.

We're following the Ariel parallel, just a bit out of order. We're past the point of Ariel's (Riku's) depression. We're past the point of Ariel makes a contract with Ursula to transform into a human / Riku making a contract with Ansem to transform into Ansem. We're at the point where Prince Eric is tricked by Ursula / Sora realized who his light is but forgot and is currently under the false impression that Kai*ri is his true light.

Memory of Melody aside, KH3 is the most recent major title in the series. KH2 happened way back in 2005 and Nomura is STILL referencing it. This tells me this parallel is not concluded nor going away, rather, it's building up. Which means, we will eventually reach the conclusion of this parallel.

Prince Eric finding the one. Sora finding his light.

Every Disney parallel thus far has either reached a conclusion, or is still ongoing (such as the Riku / Hercules and self sacrifice for love). I highly doubt this parallel will be dropped before its conclusion, unless Disney or some Square execs drop the hammer on it and either force Prince Sora to be with Kai*ri instead of Riku or force Sora into some "power of friendship" spiel. Or if Nomura's hands get sweaty and he remembers the pressures of homophobia in society and ends up fearing the anger of the fanbase for pushing an LGBTQ romance. So although I genuinely believe it's Nomura's intention to pair Sora and Riku given the buildup of their relationship over the longevity of this series, and the Disney couple parallels between the two, he may end up cracking and decide against pursuing it.

Given that Riku in the Novels all but confirmed Sora is his light and love and Nomura approved it, I'm hoping that he has the confidence in his tale to propel this love into the mainline titles. Nomura DID say that the series has taken a directional shift, this may be the shift he's referring to all along.

----

So what would a Soriku love look like in future titles? Well let's look at the portion of the Atlantica parallel not explored yet.

Ariel returned Prince Eric's pendant. The Crown Necklace theory and Shooting Star Memory has yet to be addressed. Perhaps at some point in Quadratum Sora loses his crown necklace, Riku finds it and returns it to him triggering the both of them to finally address the Crown Necklace with Sora remembering that Riku is the one who gave it to him in the first place. Sora remembering that Riku was the light in the darkness and not Kai*ri is now a new plot point needing to be addressed. Just as Eric realized Ariel was the one he was looking for all along, he declared his love for her. Sora will eventually realize Riku was the one he's been searching for all his life and will probably apologize for not realizing it sooner.

Not to mention the Hercules parallel of self sacrifice for true love has also yet to be addressed on Sora's end. He's still figuring out what love is and what love means. Both the Ariel-Eric and Hercules-Meg parallels end with a confession of love. That confession may just be how Kingdom Hearts ends.

Additional Note: Do I think there will be a Soriku kiss? Maybe, but it most likely won't happen in-game.

I instead believe that Soriku will be confirmed with a koibito tsunagi - an interlocking hand hold that roughly translates to "lover's connection". Nomura and other Square Enix devs have used this before, especially in FF7 Remake when Aerith takes Cloud's hand and interlocks his fingers with hers (on their date towards the end of the game), further confirming her feelings for him. It's a subtle way of showing a character's affection and I think it will be fitting for both Sora and Riku.

[daylighteclipsed]

Y’all ever think about if Sora falls to darkness that inside his heart will look like the Destiny Islands falling again