History Characters / KingdomHeartsRiku

[[Characters/KingdomHeartsDestinyIslandsTrio Destiny Islands Trio]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsSora Sora]] | '''Riku''' | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsKairi Kairi]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsDisneyCastleTrio Disney Castle Trio]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsRoxasAxelAndXion Clock Tower Trio]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsRoxas Roxas]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsAxel Axel]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsXion Xion]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsTerraAquaAndVentus Wayfinder Trio]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsTerra Terra]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsAqua Aqua]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsVentus Ventus]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsPartyMembersAndSummons Party Members and Summons]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsXehanortsIncarnations Xehanort's Incarnations]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsMasterXehanort Master Xehanort]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsOrganizationXIII Organization XIII]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsXigbar Xigbar]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsVanitas Vanitas]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsDisneyVillains Disney Villains]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsIndependentVillains Independent Villains]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsEnemyCreatures Enemy Creatures]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsHeartless Heartless]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsAnsemAndApprentices Ansem and his Apprentices]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsXCharacters Kingdom Hearts χ[chi] Characters]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingOriginals Supporting Original Characters]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingSquareEnix Supporting Square Enix Characters]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingDisney Supporting Disney Characters]] -] ]]]]

* CloseCallHaircut: When a Demon Tide swallows Riku in ''III'' he manages to escape relatively unscathed, but much of his hair got seared off by the darkness for his trouble.
* CompetitionFreak: Riku is extremely competitive, and spent his childhood playing games, play-fighting, and racing with Sora. This competitiveness also made him easy to become jealous, especially during ''Kingdom Hearts I'', where he becomes very irked that Sora received the powers of the Keyblade while he did not, though he is not immediately vocal about it. This jealousy led him to behave aggressively to the people most important to him, and he began to act recklessly and harshly in an attempt to prove himself. He loses this childish jealousy streak entirely as he grows older.
* CoordinatedClothes: He and Mickey in ''III'' have the same outfit design only with inverted colors.

* BigGood: The closest thing ''358/2 Days'' has to one, acting as a StealthMentor to Xion.

* BlindingBangs: He has these in ''II'' as part of his LongHairedPrettyBoy appearance, no longer the case after ''3D'' though as he cuts his hair short.

* BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: In ''Chain of Memories'' when he fights off Ansem.
** Cranked UpToEleven in ''Dream Drop Distance'' where it turns out he's been fighting off the Nightmares within Sora's dream imaginings of the Sleeping Worlds. His boss fight with Ansem also takes place in the "Darkness within Darkness" of Sora's dream. Then, in the TrueFinalBoss fight, Riku fights off the Armored Ventus Nightmare within Sora's Heart.

* IfICantHaveYou: Platonic example [[HoYay/KingdomHearts (maybe)]], but this is what Maleficent uses to manipulate him to turn against him Sora by saying he replaced him and Kairi with Donald and Goofy. Riku even takes it as far as saying Sora doesn't care about Kairi anymore when asked about her by Sora.

* IfICantHaveYou: Platonic example,but this is what Maleficent uses to manipulate him to turn against him Sora by saying he replaced him and Kairi with Donald and Goofy,Riku even takes it as far as saying Sora doesn't care about Kairi anymore when asked about her by Sora.

** TheLeader: However, in many ways, he acts as the leader of the Guardians of Light during ''III''. He is the only guardian to meet the heartless swarm head on, he pulls Sora out of despair, stops Mickey from casting a spell that would drain him too much to continue the fight later on and explains the plan to defeat Xehanort to the others. He also acknowledges that Master Xehanort has a very real chance of achieving his goal, but vows that the Guardians of Light will ''not'' take it lying down and will undo his victory as they ''already'' done in the past. In ''Re:Mind'' he is the one leading the Guardians' fight against the Replica Xehanorts, as well as spearheading the search for Sora in ''Limitcut''.

* DynamicCharacter: Probably the best example the series has to offer as can be seen under CharacterDevelopment above. Just about every new game involving him showcases some new facet of his characterization making him come across as one of the more [[RoundedCharacter rounded characters in the series.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Riku as he appears in the ''358/2 Days'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cutin_31025.png[[/labelnote]]]]

[[Characters/KingdomHeartsDestinyIslandsTrio Destiny Islands Trio]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsSora Sora]] | '''Riku''' | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsKairi Kairi]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsDisneyCastleTrio Disney Castle Trio]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsRoxasAxelAndXion Clock Tower Trio]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsRoxas Roxas]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsTerraAquaAndVentus Wayfinder Trio]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsAqua Aqua]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsPartyMembersAndSummons Party Members and Summons]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsXehanortsIncarnations Xehanort's Incarnations]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsMasterXehanort Master Xehanort]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsOrganizationXIII Organization XIII]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsXigbar Xigbar]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsVanitas Vanitas]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsDisneyVillains Disney Villains]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsIndependentVillains Independent Villains]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsEnemyCreatures Enemy Creatures]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsHeartless Heartless]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsAnsemAndApprentices Ansem and his Apprentices]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsXCharacters Kingdom Hearts χ[chi] Characters]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingOriginals Supporting Original Characters]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingSquareEnix Supporting Square Enix Characters]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingDisney Supporting Disney Characters]] -] ]]]]

* TheChosenWannabe: Zig Zagged, at Hollow Bastion, Sora again meets Riku, the two briefly talk before he forcibly summons the Keyblade away from Sora, telling him that he was "just the delivery boy" and that Riku is the true Keyblade master, however, Sora refuses to leave without Kairi. Riku, intending to prove to Sora that he is the strongest of the two, attacks his old friend, but Donald and Goofy go to Sora's aid, finding themselves unable to betray Sora after all that they had been through together. With the strength of his friends, Sora reclaims the Keyblade, and drives Riku to fight him, he loses and manages to escape, but he is confused as to why Sora was able to regain the Keyblade. A cloaked figure appears to him from the Darkness, telling him that only one with a stronger heart can claim the Keyblade, and Riku's was weaker than Sora. However, the figure tells him that plunging himself into darkness will make his heart stronger. Riku does so, and he is possessed by the dark figure.
** At some point following his encounter with Sora in Land of Dragons, Riku gained the ability to transform his Soul Eater into a true Keyblade making him a proper ChosenOne.

* {{Bishonen}}: Sure. Especially true in ''II'' and ''Dream Drop Distance'' - and even more so as of ''III''.

* TroubledButCute: A BrokenAce with a tendency to [[IneffectualLoner try to do things alone]] that's also a {{Bishonen}} MrFanservice.

* YouGottaHaveBlueHair: Riku has silver hair. He is notable for being the only character to have this hair color without being a incarnation of Xehanort.

* IneffectualLoner: After he returns to normal in ''II'', he gets told by Sora that he doesn't has to do everything by himself as he [[PowerOfFriendship has his friends to help him.]]

* InstantExpert: He completely masters the Keyblade in an extremely short time-span. It helps that he already had access to some extremely potent dark powers and an immunity to darkness to back him up.

* LeParkour: Only in certain areas, such as The World That Never Was (which has questionable physics at best) and the Sleeping Worlds where it's Flowmotion allows Riku to traverse their surrounding environments with great ease when he interact with certain environmental elements. Using Flowmotion, Riku can jump off of walls, grind rails, leap great heights, and dynamically attack opponents.

* AwesomeButImpractical: When you play as him in ''Chain of Memories'' you actually get to use [[invoked]][[ThatOneAttack Dark Aura.]] Unfortunately, it tends to fall into this category - it's unavailable for a large percentage of the game because to use it you need to A) be in Dark Mode, and B) stock three 9-cards (the rarest and strongest cards) together, and you use a fixed deck. And if you can pull it off on bosses, you'll have to get them in just the right spot for them to not dodge it or break it. Still, though, it's very useful for clearing out trash mobs.

* KirkSummation: Subverted. In ''Dream Drop Distance'', when Riku asks Esmeralda if Claude Frollo was always an evil bigot and requests to know where he could be located so that he could speak to him, it is subtly implied that Riku intends to try to reason with Frollo, having fallen into the darkness once himself. However, when Riku sees Frollo trying to burn down a villager's home because the inhabitant was suspected of harboring gypsies, he concludes the man is [[invoked]][[MoralEventHorizon so deranged]] that [[ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer he will ultimately have to stopped by force.]]

* PowersViaPossession: The first time you fight him (which is optional), he's BadassNormal and is mostly hard because he keeps jumping around and when you knock him down, flings back at you and it ''hurts''. The second time you fight him (which is ''not'' optional), he is using the powers of darkness and puts up a fight before going down but isn't a hard opponent... partly because it's 3v1 in your favor. The ''third'' time you fight him, however, he becomes [[invoked]]ThatOneBoss because he is possessed by Ansem [=SoD=]. And it's not just because it's a DuelBoss...

* TheStoic: After ''II'', Riku is a [[DownplayedTrope downplayed]] example, his emotions are clearly shown but not nearly to the same extent as the others as he's usually straight faced and serious, he does has his NotSoStoic moments though.

* ToylessToyLineCharacter: Despite being a main character since the beginning, he's usually pressed for merch -- especially after KHII, which saw Roxas and Axel get stuff before him, often multiple times in the same line. The articulated figures take this to the extreme -- even ''[[invoked]][[ThatOneBoss Ursula]]'' got a KH-branded figure before he did!

** Eventually, Riku will cloak himself with darkness and a purple aura will surround him. During this period, his speed and agility increase and he gains two new attacks; one involves throwing his Keyblade at Sora, similar to Strike Raid and his infamous [[invoked]][[ThatOneAttack Dark Aura.]]

* AlwaysSomeoneBetter: Riku is hinted to have always been able to outdo Sora, something the latter admits at the end of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. Unfortunately, this gets a brutal {{Deconstruction}} throughout the first game for several reasons. Riku is a case of IJustWantToBeSpecial and grows jealous that Sora is TheChosenOne because of the Keyblade going to him, even though both are able to wield it. The two are also in a LoveTriangle with their mutual {{Childhood Friend|s}} Kairi, who loses her heart for most of the first game but only Riku is working to save her and he believes that Sora has abandoned them for his new friends. These factors lead to him embracing the powers of darkness and taking the Keyblade from Sora to achieve all of his goals but Sora is able to reclaim the Keyblade and fight him off. By this point TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget has taken effect, leading Riku to on even more power from the darkness and allowing the BigBad to take over his body while his heart is lost to darkness.
** The later games see a {{Reconstruction}} of this trope. Riku has become TheAtoner for all the damage he caused to his friends and is frequently working separately form the other heroes. His ability to outdo Sora as a warrior means he can deal with threats the former isn't ready for yet and proves to be a SpannerInTheWorks for the plans of the villains. By the end of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' he admits to how he sees Sora in this way compared to himself and goes on in the later games to acknowledge that Sora is the one they need while his capabilities are devoted to supporting him.

** [[PlayingWithFire Fire Raid]]: Riku's Keyblade becomes a FlamingSword which he uses [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks hurls at the enemy]] for mid ranged attacks.

!!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MamoruMiyano (Japanese), David Gallagher (English)\\

* HeroicSelfDeprecation: Is prone to this in ''Dream Drop Distance'' even long after he earned his HeelFaceTurn. For instance, after giving a pep talk to [[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDame Quasimodo]] about not letting his fear of the outside world hold him back, he quietly adds "Wish I could take my own advice."

[[Characters/KingdomHeartsDestinyIslandsTrio Destiny Islands Trio]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsSora Sora]] | '''Riku''' | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsKairi Kairi]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsDisneyCastleTrio Disney Castle Trio]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsRoxasAxelAndXion Clock Tower Trio]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsRoxas Roxas]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsTerraAquaAndVentus Wayfinder Trio]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsAqua Aqua]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsPartyMembersAndSummons Party Members and Summons]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsXehanortsIncarnations Xehanort's Incarnations]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsMasterXehanort Master Xehanort]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsOrganizationXIII Organization XIII]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsXigbar Xigbar]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsVanitas Vanitas]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsDisneyVillains Disney Villains]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsIndependentVillains Independent Villains]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsEnemyCreatures Enemy Creatures]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsHeartless Heartless]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsAnsemAndApprentices Ansem and his Apprentices]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsXCharacters Kingdom Hearts χ[chi] Characters]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsTheMasterOfMasters The Master of Masters]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingOriginals Supporting Original Characters]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingSquareEnix Supporting Square Enix Characters]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingDisney Supporting Disney Characters]] -] ]]]]

[[Characters/KingdomHeartsDestinyIslandsTrio Destiny Islands Trio]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsSora Sora]] | '''Riku''' | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsKairi Kairi]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsDisneyCastleTrio Disney Castle Trio]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsRoxasAxelAndXion Clock Tower Trio]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsRoxas Roxas]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsTerraAquaAndVentus Wayfinder Trio]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsAqua Aqua]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsPartyMembersAndSummons Party Members and Summons]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsXehanortsIncarnations Xehanort's Incarnations]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsMasterXehanort Master Xehanort]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsOrganizationXIII Organization XIII]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsXigbar Xigbar]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsVanitas Vanitas]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsDisneyVillains Disney Villains]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsIndependentVillains Independent Villains]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsEnemyCreatures Enemy Creatures]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsHeartless Heartless]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsAnsemAndApprentices Ansem and his Apprentices]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsXCharacters Kingdom Hearts χ[chi] Characters]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsTheMasterOfMasters The Master of Masters]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingOriginals Supporting Original Characters]] ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsYozora Yozora]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingSquareEnix Supporting Square Enix Characters]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingDisney Supporting Disney Characters]] -] ]]]]

** Within the first game, WordOfGod indicates that his primary motivation for save Kairi was out of guilt that he was inadvertently responsible for her condition.

* AwesomeButImpractical: When you play as him in ''Chain of Memories'' you actually get to use [[ThatOneAttack Dark Aura.]] Unfortunately, it tends to fall into this category - it's unavailable for a large percentage of the game because to use it you need to A) be in Dark Mode, and B) stock three 9-cards (the rarest and strongest cards) together, and you use a fixed deck. And if you can pull it off on bosses, you'll have to get them in just the right spot for them to not dodge it or break it. Still, though, it's very useful for clearing out trash mobs.

* KirkSummation: Subverted. In ''Dream Drop Distance'', when Riku asks Esmeralda if Claude Frollo was always an evil bigot and requests to know where he could be located so that he could speak to him, it is subtly implied that Riku intends to try to reason with Frollo, having fallen into the darkness once himself. However, when Riku sees Frollo trying to burn down a villager's home because the inhabitant was suspected of harboring gypsies, he concludes the man is [[MoralEventHorizon so deranged]] that [[ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer he will ultimately have to stopped by force.]]

* PowersViaPossession: The first time you fight him (which is optional), he's BadassNormal and is mostly hard because he keeps jumping around and when you knock him down, flings back at you and it ''hurts''. The second time you fight him (which is ''not'' optional), he is using the powers of darkness and puts up a fight before going down but isn't a hard opponent... partly because it's 3v1 in your favor. The ''third'' time you fight him, however, he becomes ThatOneBoss because he is possessed by Ansem [=SoD=]. And it's not just because it's a DuelBoss...

* StormOfBlades: Riku demonstrates this by shooting copies of his sword Soul Eater at the enemy with his Dark Impulse sleight in ''[[KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Re:Chain of Memories]]''.

* ToylessToyLineCharacter: Despite being a main character since the beginning, he's usually pressed for merch -- especially after KHII, which saw Roxas and Axel get stuff before him, often multiple times in the same line. The articulated figures take this to the extreme -- even ''[[ThatOneBoss Ursula]]'' got a KH-branded figure before he did!

** Eventually, Riku will cloak himself with darkness and a purple aura will surround him. During this period, his speed and agility increase and he gains two new attacks; one involves throwing his Keyblade at Sora, similar to Strike Raid and his infamous [[ThatOneAttack Dark Aura.]]

[[caption-width-right:350:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cutin_31265.png[[/labelnote]] to see Riku as he appears in ''Kingdom Hearts'' and ''Chain of Memories'']]
[[caption-width-right:350:Click [[labelnote:here]]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cutin_31025.png[[/labelnote]] to see Riku as he appears in the ''358/2 Days'']]
[[caption-width-right:350:Click [[labelnote:here]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cutin_21086.png[[/labelnote]] to see Riku as he appears in ''Dream Drop Distance'']]
[[caption-width-right:350:Click [[labelnote:here]] :https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cutin_32035.png[[/labelnote]] to see Riku as he appears in ''II'']]
[[caption-width-right:350:Click [[labelnote:here]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/cutin_21175.png[[/labelnote]] to see Riku as a child in ''Birth by Sleep'']]

** As of ''3D'' Riku is also the youngest full-fledged Keyblade Master in the series. At around 16 (according to the Ultimania Guide), he's near Ven's age (16), and younger than Aqua (18) and Terra (20), or Xehanort when they had the opportunity to become masters. And he's self-taught to boot.

[[center:[- [[Characters/KingdomHearts Main Character Index]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsDestinyIslandsTrio Destiny Islands Trio]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSora Sora]] | '''Riku''' | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsKairi Kairi]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsDisneyCastleTrio Disney Castle Trio]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsRoxasAxelAndXion Clock Tower Trio]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsRoxas Roxas]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsTerraAquaAndVentus Wayfinder Trio]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsAqua Aqua]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsPartyMembersAndSummons Party Members and Summons]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsXehanortsIncarnations Xehanort's Incarnations]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsMasterXehanort Master Xehanort]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsOrganizationXIII Organization XIII]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsXigbar Xigbar]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsVanitas Vanitas]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsDisneyVillains Disney Villains]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsIndependentVillains Independent Villains]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsEnemyCreatures Enemy Creatures]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsHeartless Heartless]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsAnsemAndApprentices Ansem and his Apprentices]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsXCharacters Kingdom Hearts χ[chi] Characters]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsTheMasterOfMasters The Master of Masters]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingOriginals Supporting Original Characters]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsYozora Yozora]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingSquareEnix Supporting Square Enix Characters]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingDisney Supporting Disney Characters]]-]]]

* GleefulAndGrumpyPairing: The Grumpy to Sora's Gleeful. Riku is [[TheStoic calm and composed]], but also very [[ByronicHero troubled and brooding]] due to his [[TheCorruption past experiences]], as such [[PerpetualFrowner he doesn't smile very often]] and uses [[BlackKnight dark-related abilities]]. Sora, on the other hand, is [[{{Keet}} energetic]] and more [[AllLovingHero kindhearted and caring when it comes to his heroics and is [[PerpetualSmiler always with a bright smile]].