#there's also sora and kairi having the same battle stance and mirrored animations in remind

[psychopomp-namine]

still chewing on this but I do think there's a lot to be said about sora and kairi mirroring each other (it's more in your face in remind but I think it's something the series has been doing in small doses over multiple games)

[psychopomp-namine]

thinking again about sora and kairi mirroring each other (see my previous posts and tags 1, 2)

currently thinking about it in the context of their "others" though. initially I was thinking about how the wayfinder trio did a bait-switch where you think ventus is the sora (because he's part of the heart hotel, and he looks like roxas who is a sora, and his name literally means wind) and aqua is the kairi (she says the same line kairi does when waking sora/ventus up, her name means "water" while kairi means "sea," and she's the "girl" — gender neutral — of the trio). but in actuality ventus is the kairi parallel and aqua is the sora parallel.

this happens a lot too with the others. namine is kairi + sora (+ ven, who is essentially also a bait-and-switch sora and kairi). xion is sora + kairi. ventus is a sora-but-actually-kairi parallel. aqua is the kairi-but-actually-sora parallel.

they have the same battle stance and animation in remind. the final world is literally the sea-floor mirroring the sky until it's just one huge world of clouds. even the paopu exchange is them mirroring each other's pose. like, I really do wonder if this meshing together is deliberate, you know? I think often we see their relationship as "sora coming home to kairi" with kairi being the lighthouse or the guiding light, which isn't incorrect per se, but I just want to explore an extra layer to it I suppose, by looking at the one parallel where they both differ and become foils of one another: the year-long sleep.

kairi slept for a year and woke up having already confronted the memories she had to sift through, accepting the reality that the present truly is different now from the past and she can't just change things back to how they were before. they can't undo sora's death; they'll find him and bring him back to the present. as much as I hate that she's still in her training arc, at least she gets to choose who trains her and which direction she'll be taking (aqua makes sense imo, and maybe kairi and ventus and lea would be then ones bringing the mobile games lore to the present)

which is the opposite of sora's arc in com. sora slept for a year and woke up "unchanged" without really confronting any of the memories that he had to sift through, with all his ideas about his friendships and trauma going pretty much unchallenged

I'm also thinking of that jp translation of the tunnel scene which has sora remarking that kairi is (herself) strong, as opposed to the en localization of him saying he's strong when he's with her. a subtle difference. it's a shift from kh1 sora asking kairi to stay so she'd be safe and kind of implying that she'd be in the way

idk, I think there's something to be said about sora and kairi mirroring each other for most of the series and kh3/remind being their physical divergence point (with sora literally going to kingdom hearts purgatory) and melmem being their metaphorical divergence point (with the difference in the way they confront their year long sleep).

now they both have to figure out who they are outside of the pair they make (or trio they make, with riku). they're peter pan and wendy when wendy still wanted to stay as a child, but it begs the question: who's the wendy in this situation who wants to "grow up" between them? I used to think it's sora (since he's the one who goes on adventures while kairi stays in destiny islands) but after watching the melmem cutscene and thinking about how sora has shown over and over that he can't process his hurts/trauma... maybe it's the other way around this time. kairi is, in her own way, moving forward (although I wish nomura wrote it better but this is what I believe her character arc is going) while sora is just constantly repressing his own shit, preventing himself from growing. hence why he never learns the lessons data sora did, he keeps resetting to level 1, his anti/rage form just goes unacknowledged, he breaks down in the keyblade graveyard, etc. and now he's truly alone in quadratum. he's never been alone since he was four years old.

in any case, kairi and sora mirror(ed) each other and I'd like to see them develop more as characters when they're apart. kairi making new friends and learning to lead like a princess of heart maybe? just exercising a lot agency, it's all I ask. meanwhile sora learns to heal and believe in his own strength (e.g. learning the second part of ventus's line: "my friends are my powers and I am theirs"). and I think their separation might be necessary for both of them to move forward and "grow up"

kh being about the growing pains of three best friends who drift apart, and they have to intentionally try to keep that friendship together even if it means that friendship isn't going the be the same as it was before. perhaps keeping that friendship together requires accepting that it has changed and it will continue to change. in fact, it must change, eventually