| 1 | [[WMG:[[center: [- ''Franchise/KingdomHearts'' '''[[Characters/KingdomHearts Main Character Index]]'''\ |
| 2 | '''Destiny Islands Trio''' ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsSora Sora]]) | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsDisneyCastleTrio Disney Castle Trio]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsRoxasAxelAndXion Clock Tower Trio]] | [[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/KingdomHeartsSaix Saïx]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsVanitas Vanitas]]) | Disney Villains ([[Characters/KingdomHeartsDisneyVillainsMaleficentsCouncilAndAllies Maleficent's Council and Allies]] | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsOtherDisneyVillains Other 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]] -] ]]]] |
| 3 | ---- |
| 4 | !!Due to lengthy periods between releases and the prevalence of {{Late Arrival Spoiler}}s, spoilers from installments before 2010 may be unmarked. Read at your own risk. |
| 5 | ---- |
| 6 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/524_6star_sora_&_riku_&_kairi_render.png]] |
| 7 | |
| 8 | [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSora Sora]], Riku, and Kairi are the primary characters of the ''Kingdom Hearts'' series. Raised on Destiny Islands (although Kairi was born in Radiant Garden), they dreamed of leaving their small world and exploring the other worlds. They got their wish when the Heartless consumed their world, separating them and setting them on an epic journey with the fate of all worlds hanging in the balance. |
| 9 | ----- |
| 10 | [[foldercontrol]] |
| 11 | [[folder:General tropes]] |
| 12 | * ClonesArePeopleToo: Throughout the series, Sora and Kairi end up with Nobodies who become characters in their own right. Riku and Sora also end up with clones, and Sora has a data version of himself. All in all, these three characters end up creating quite a few more of them through the rules of the ''Kingdom Hearts'' universe. |
| 13 | * ColorCodedCharacters: Sora's outfits always contain some amount of [[RedIsHeroic red]] and black outside of Drive Forms. Riku always includes [[RedOniBlueOni blues to contrast Sora's red]] when they're a duo, but also yellow as the [[ChromaticArrangement fourth main hero after Donald (another blue) and Goofy (green)]]; his unique skills and [=HUD=] elements also take on [[PurpleIsTheNewBlack purple]] hues in later games to acknowledge his dark powers. Kairi is marked by her [[GracefulLadiesLikePurple purple]] skirt in the first game as a medium between Sora and Riku, but after ''KHII'' almost exclusively wears [[PrincessesPreferPink pink]] in the context of the larger team; her Light-based skills take on a pink hue to contrast other wielders' white and yellow lights. |
| 14 | * DimensionalTraveler: [[VillainTeleportation Besides the villains]], they're the only people who can jump between worlds easily. |
| 15 | * TheFriendsWhoNeverHang: Downplayed throughout the series but Riku and Kairi don't have too many moments actually interacting or conversing with one another in a meaningful way like they do with Sora, at least rarely on-screen. They clearly care about one another since Kairi is the motivation behind much of Riku's action in the first game while Kairi is very happy to reunite with Riku again in ''II.'' Not to mention, the events of the games frequently keep the trio from being together but it's still rather noticeable. By the time of ''III,'' they don't say a single word to one another at any point in the game despite several opportunities to do so. |
| 16 | ** WordOfGod indicates that this is intentional, as Nomura has spoken in two separate interviews (one in the Ultimania for 'II' and one in the pre-release promotion for 'III') about depicting childhood friends growing apart as they get older, the former interview in particular addresses this concept in relation to Kairi. |
| 17 | * GenerationXerox: Sora, Riku, and Kairi have the same ThemeNaming, similar personalities and inherited the powers of Ven, Terra, and Aqua respectively. The connection is most apparent between Terra and Riku: both are tricked into aiding the villains, wield the power of Darkness, and are possessed by Xehanort. In contrast, the older trio had Ven out of commission while Aqua tried to redeem Terra, while the younger trio had Kairi go comatose and later be PutOnABus while Sora tried to redeem Riku. |
| 18 | * HeroesPreferSwords: All of them can use Keyblades. |
| 19 | * LandSeaSky: Riku, Kairi, and Sora by their respective names. |
| 20 | * MagicKnight: All of them can use both magic and weapons. |
| 21 | * TheNotLoveInterest: Riku and Sora have such a close friendship that it often overlaps with HomoeroticSubtext. |
| 22 | * OnlyOneName: They are simply "Sora," "Riku", and "Kairi", with no indication of a family name for any of them. |
| 23 | * OriginalGeneration: They're some of the original characters in this crossover between Creator/{{Disney}} and ''Franchise/FinalFantasy''. |
| 24 | * PowerTrio: The three of them form one, albeit that's almost always separated after the opening of the first game. Their goals throughout the series generally fall under reuniting with each other. |
| 25 | * TookALevelInBadass: They go from kids having fun in islands to saviors of the universe. Kairi in particular is a standout example, starting off as a DamselInDistress but by ''Re:Mind'', she's taking on [[BigBad Xehanort]] alongside Sora. |
| 26 | %%* TwoGuysAndAGirl: Sora, Riku and Kairi. |
| 27 | [[/folder]] |
| 28 | [[folder:Sora]] |
| 29 | ->See [[Characters/KingdomHeartsSora here]]. |
| 30 | [[/folder]] |
| 31 | [[folder:Riku]] |
| 32 | !Riku |
| 33 | |
| 34 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/riku_03_khiii_9.png]] |
| 35 | [[caption-width-right:350:''[[TakeAThirdOption "Neither suits me. I'm taking the middle road."]]'']] |
| 36 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Riku as he appears in ''Kingdom Hearts'' and ''Chain of Memories'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/91_3star_kh_riku_render.png[[/labelnote]]]] |
| 37 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Riku as a child in ''Kingdom Hearts'' and ''Birth by Sleep'']] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/612_5star_young_riku_render.png[[/labelnote]]]] |
| 38 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Riku as he appears in ''II'']] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/264_3star_kh_ii_riku_render.png[[/labelnote]]]] |
| 39 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Riku as he appears in ''358/2 Days'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/163_3star_kh_ii_black_coat_riku_a_render.png[[/labelnote]]]] |
| 40 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Riku as he appears in ''Dream Drop Distance'' and ''Melody of Memory'']] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1923_7star_sn___mom_riku_render.png[[/labelnote]]]] |
| 41 | |
| 42 | !!!'''Voiced by:''' Creator/MamoruMiyano (Japanese), Creator/DavidGallagher (English)\ |
| 43 | '''Young Riku Voiced by:''' Eiji Shima (Japanese), Ty Panitz (English) |
| 44 | !!!'''Appearances''': ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI I]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII II]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 358/2 Days]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Birth by Sleep]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsCoded coded]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance Dream Drop Distance]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts02BirthBySleepAFragmentaryPassage 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage-]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII III]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsMelodyOfMemory Melody of Memory]]'' |
| 45 | ->''"Once we step through, we might not be able to come back. We may never see our parents again. There's no turning back. But this may be our only chance. We can't let fear stop us! I'm not afraid of the darkness!"'' |
| 46 | \ |
| 47 | Sora's best friend and rival. His desire to see something greater beyond his tiny, secluded island home led to him being seduced by the forces of darkness. But once he realizes the harm he's caused, he begins working in the shadows to assist Sora in whatever way possible, eventually wielding his own Keyblade and tempering his inner darkness to channel it for the forces of light. |
| 48 | ---- |
| 49 | * EleventhHourRanger: Becomes a playable party member in the final world of ''KH II''. He's also briefly controllable during the final boss fight. |
| 50 | * TwentyFourHourArmor: Riku's clothes in The Grid. |
| 51 | -->'''Riku:''' My clothes. Is this world special? |
| 52 | * AboveGoodAndEvil: Different version of this trope. When asked by [=DiZ=] if he'd walk the road of light or darkness, Riku determinedly decided that neither roads suit him and he'd take the middle road, the road to dawn. |
| 53 | * TheAce: Sora is occasionally jealous of his friend for excelling at everything he does. This is acknowledged in ''II'' when Sora and Donald express their disbelief that Riku could be defeated by anyone. |
| 54 | * ActOfTrueLove: Riku does several of these for Sora over the course of the series, although what ''[[TheFourLoves kind]]'' of love it is is [[HoYay/KingdomHearts up for interpretation]]. |
| 55 | ** ''358/2 Days'': Riku is willing to take on the form of Ansem, Seeker of Darkness in order to defeat Roxas and force him to return to Sora, even though he could have been [[ShapeshifterModeLock stuck like that forever]].[[note]]Roxas also severely injures Riku's wrist during their fight.[[/note]] Ansem the Wise acknowledges this in ''II''. |
| 56 | --->'''Ansem the Wise''': I asked him to find a young man named Roxas from Organization XIII, and bring him to me. When I told him it would help Sora awaken from his slumber, Riku left without a word. He fought Roxas. And I can only surmise Riku lost that fight. Riku must have realized then: to fight in the realm of darkness, he would have to immerse himself in that same darkness. And when he did... you saw what became of him. When Riku brought Roxas back to me, he was introducing himself... as Ansem. If that was what it took to awaken his friend, he was ready to live in darkness. |
| 57 | ** ''II'': Riku pushes Sora out of the way of one of Xemnas' attacks during the final battle, receiving a laser hit to his back that causes him trouble walking for the rest of the game. |
| 58 | ** ''DDD'': |
| 59 | *** At the beginning of their Mark of Mastery Exam, Riku, without realizing it, sees Ansem, Seeker of Darkness on the Destiny Islands as they enter the Realm of Sleep. Sensing that something was wrong, he ''subconsiously'' dives into Sora's dreams to protect him from Nightmares as his Dream Eater, instead of traveling alongside him to the Sleeping Worlds as intended. |
| 60 | *** After returning to the Mysterious Tower with a comatose Sora, Yen Sid reveals someone must take one last dive into Sora's heart to wake him up. Mickey volunteers to do it, saying it's too dangerous for Riku. Yen Sid then states that Riku actually has the better chance of rescuing Sora, as he'd already been in his dreams as his Dream Eater. Following a moment of thought, Riku thanks Mickey for his offer, but tells him he needs to be the one to wake Sora up-- because he's the only one who can. Riku dives into Sora's heart and defeats the Armored Ventus Nightmare trapping him in darkness. Once he answers three cryptic questions from the residents of Sora's heart [[spoiler: (Roxas, Ventus, and Xion)]], Sora awakens in the real world. Yen Sid later awards Riku the title of Keyblade Master ''specifically'' because he went above and beyond the call of duty for his best friend.[[note]]There's also a slightly different meaning to some of what Riku says during his speech before he dives back into Sora's heart in Japanese; instead of "I'm doing it for me, too." he says, [[https://twitter.com/koisuru_mijinko/status/1187955188008546304 "I have to be the one."]] A more word-for-word translation is "It won’t work. / [[ThePowerofLove He won’t wake unless I go."]] Meanwhile, "He needs me." is [[https://twitter.com/koisuru_mijinko/status/1187956613463719941 "I WANT to go."]] It's more or less [[https://twitter.com/koisuru_mijinko/status/1187953532353146880 a direct parallel]] to what [[https://twitter.com/steamwhistler2/status/1187898294267191296 Prince Phillip says about Aurora]] in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep''.[[/note]] |
| 61 | ** ''III'': As a game with sacrifice as a core theme-- alongside, to a lesser extent, TrueLove-- it's fitting Riku commits what is probably his ultimate act of love thus far. See the entries for HeroicSacrifice and InspirationalMartyr below. |
| 62 | ** ''Re Mind'': During the fight against [[spoiler: the Replica Xehanorts, it's implied that part of the reason why Riku pushes Mickey out of the way of an attack is because he subconciously senses Future Sora's presence in his own heart. Future Sora then jumps from Riku into Mickey's heart and stays protected from the nearly fatal blow.]] |
| 63 | * AcquiredPoisonImmunity: As revealed in ''3D'', Riku's long-time exposure to darkness has rendered him immune to its corrupting influence. |
| 64 | * ADayInTheLimelight: He has his own campaign in ''Chain of Memories'' and ''3D'', the latter in which he's more of TheProtagonist than Sora himself. |
| 65 | * AdorablyPrecociousChild: In ''Birth By Sleep'' where he was extremely perceptive and insightful at five years old, able to immediately spot an off-worlder and give Sora outstanding advice about a complicated issue. |
| 66 | * AffablyEvil: During his time as a villain in ''Kingdom Hearts I'', he's at worse a {{Jerkass}} to Sora and does has some KickTheDog moments but even then he is the TokenGoodTeammate of Maleficent's group as his motivation is to rescue Kairi and not to take over the worlds. He also sincerely offers Sora to join him to rescue Kairi and is visibly disappointed and shocked after he refuses. |
| 67 | * AfraidOfTheirOwnStrength: Riku's CharacterDevelopment in ''Chain of Memories'' revolves around this trope, at first he'd try to avoid using darkness at all costs over regret of his actions in the last game but as he learns and accepts that DarkIsNotEvil, he starts using the power more which allows him to TakeALevelInBadass. |
| 68 | * AloofAlly: In ''II'', Riku was on Sora's side but he helped them by giving them clues to where to go and was avoiding interaction with them. This was due to him having Ansem's appearance but once Kairi and eventually Sora realize it's him, he stays with them full time. |
| 69 | * AlwaysSomeoneBetter: |
| 70 | ** Riku was 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 by this point, Sora has surpassed him, and he is able to not only reclaim the Keyblade but also beat him. While it was with the help of Sora's friends, 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, yet despite that he ''still'' loses to Sora, even with him fighting to kill while Sora isn't, proving how Sora has literately exceeded him. It's even implied that due to his competitive nature, Riku took things more seriously while Sora didn't back on the Island, which attributed to Riku's repeated victories, and while it's unclear how a real serious fight between them would have ended out back then, at the end of the first game, it's clear Sora has surpassed Riku. |
| 71 | ** 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. At this point, Riku has acknowledged his friend is now more powerful than him, stating that even if he were to use the Power of Darkness, he already lost to Sora and would just be defeated and brought back to the light again, but Riku is much more disciplined and has his fair set of abilities that allows him to help deal with threats and proves to be a SpannerInTheWorks for the plans of the villains, being an effective support to Sora and saving him whenever Sora gets into difficult situations. By the end of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' he admits to how Sora has effectively grew 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. |
| 72 | * AmbiguouslyGay: |
| 73 | ** In the original Japanese dialogue of ''III'', when Riku and Mickey are in the Dark World for the first time, [[https://blowingoffsteam2.tumblr.com/post/178486694419/blowingoffsteam2-a-slightly-different Mickey says Riku has found the strength to protect his 'precious person' (taisetsu na hito)]], very obviously implied to be Sora. This scene comes directly after one with [[OfficialCouple Hercules saying Megara]] is his own [[https://blowingoffsteam2.tumblr.com/post/182775171769/so-i-do-ship-soriku-but-i-am-also-oblivious-as precious person.]] After a flashback of receiving the Keyblade from Terra, Riku then says to himself, "(Is this) the strength to protect the person most precious to me...?" However, in the English dub, Mickey and Riku both say the 'things that matter' instead, while Hercules says 'the person I love most' about Megara, so the parallel and implication are completely lost (even if we as the audience can still deciper that Sora is the reason for Riku's growth and character development). In addition, the [[https://lilyginnyblackv2.tumblr.com/post/183142982289/kh3-ultimania-riku-page-one KH3 Ultimania]] entry about Riku also uses precious 'person' instead of 'things'. It seems Riku's wish [[https://blowingoffsteam2.tumblr.com/post/182892280944/in-regards-to-the-phrasing-used-in-reference-to has deliberately evolved]] from when he was a child, but that important bit of character development got [[https://blowingoffsteam2.tumblr.com/post/184718857614 no homoed]] out of ''several'' different official KHIII English translations. |
| 74 | --->'''Image Text:''' A young Riku stated his wish: “I want to become strong enough to protect the things that matter.” Roughly 10 years later, after many twists and turns, he has finally obtained the strength to protect [[OneTrueLove the person who matters.]] |
| 75 | ** To top it off, he's very aloof and awkward about Shiki's obvious flirtation with him in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance'': |
| 76 | --->'''Shiki:''' [[CluelessChickMagnet You chat up a girl and then just say, "sure," and walk off?]] |
| 77 | --->'''Riku:''' I'm bad at this. Sorry. |
| 78 | |
| 79 | --->'''Shiki:''' Aren't you my knight in shining armor? Well? ''[winks]'' |
| 80 | --->'''Riku:''' Kn-knight? [[SorryImGay You've got the wrong idea.]] |
| 81 | ** In a similiar vein, towards the beginning of Riku's visit to [[WesternAnimation/TheHunchbackOfNotreDameDisney La Cité des Cloches]], he asks Quasimodo if it was really Frollo keeping him from leaving the cathedral, or if it was his own self holding him back. Later, after Quasimodo thanks him for the advice, Riku admits that he was speaking from personal experience. Phoebus responds by saying he probably still keeps a lot inside, and Esmeralda reassures Riku that everyone does that sometimes. She then follows up with, [[ClosetGay "There are just some things we need to keep separate from the world at large, at least until we have time to figure them out."]] Which sounds very much like something you'd say to a queer person upset with themself for not coming out yet. And that's not even going into Esmeralda persecuted for being [[UsefulNotes/{{Romani}} Romani]], as in the source material. |
| 82 | --->'''Esmeralda:''' Judge Frollo has been hunting us for years. [[RainbowLens We [Romani] are guilty of nothing but loving our freedom, yet Frollo hates whatever he can't control.]] |
| 83 | ** We also get this conversation in ''DDD'' during Riku's first visit to Traverse Town (in which we can infer Riku must only be talking about Sora, given the game its in being focused primarily on them and their relationship): |
| 84 | --->'''Beat:''' I just... wanna protect the one person who matters. |
| 85 | --->'''Riku:''' [[{{Protectorate}} I know the feeling.]] |
| 86 | * AnimeHair: It's nowhere near as spiky as Sora's but his LongHairedPrettyBoy looks in ''II'' still qualifies for this trope. |
| 87 | ** He has another version of this trope in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' with a hairstyle that a lot of fans have compared it to [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV Noctis']]. |
| 88 | * AntiHero: When working with fellow AntiHero [=DiZ=] in ''KH II''. Riku is willing to use the power of darkness to achieve his goals, something most of his other allies would never consider doing. |
| 89 | ** Riku also has some ClassicalAntiHero traits, he repeatedly shows signs immense regret for his previous behavior and doesn't understand how Sora is so willing to forgive him and almost refused to come back to Destiny Islands because of his shame for his wrongdoings. |
| 90 | * AntiVillain: In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', where he's just doing what he feels is necessary to save Kairi. However, when Sora [[BreakTheHaughty beats him in a fight]], he [[JumpingOffTheSlipperySlope loses himself in darkness]] while trying to become stronger. |
| 91 | ** In ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'', he serves as a major antagonist, regardless of his intentions. However, he never truly wanted any harm to come to Roxas or Xion and he is upset about the fact he's carrying out a mission that will only end in both of them ceasing to exist. He does so as kindly as he can, however. He spends most of Days explaining the situation to Xion in hopes she'll make a decision on her own rather than force her outright, and he seemed willing to do the same for Roxas until Roxas forced Riku's hand. |
| 92 | * ArrogantKungFuGuy: Riku was arrogant and condescending towards others in ''Kingdom Hearts'' and would frequently taunt Sora during their matches when they we're kids. |
| 93 | * AscendedExtra: Riku plays a larger role in the ''Days'' manga than the game; at one point, he encounters Roxas in an ice cream shop, and has to restrain him to prevent a fight in public. |
| 94 | * TheAtoner: From ''Chain of Memories'' through to the end of ''II'' for his fall into darkness. Part of the reason why he wants to take the Mark of Mastery test in ''Dream Drop Distance'' is even if he's forgiven, succumbing to the darkness ultimately changed him and he needs to be sure he won't fall again. |
| 95 | ** Within the first game, [[invoked]]WordOfGod indicates that his primary motivation for save Kairi was out of guilt that he was inadvertently responsible for her condition. |
| 96 | * ApologizesALot: He couldn't really forgive himself after what transpired in the first game. At least, not without a lot of soul searching and support. By ''3D'', he appears to be over this trait. |
| 97 | * ApologeticAttacker: One of his battle grunts in ''Dream Drop Distance'' and ''III'' is "Sorry!" |
| 98 | * AwesomeButImpractical: When you play as him in ''Chain of Memories'' you actually get to use 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. |
| 99 | ** [[GameBreaker Averted]] in ''3D'' though where Dark Aura is treated as a regular command deck attack and has the speed and damage to be one of the best attacks available to him. |
| 100 | * AwesomeMomentOfCrowning: Of a sort. In ''Dream Drop Distance'', he is named a Keyblade Master. Even Sora, who failed in his exam due to Xehanort's interference, is overjoyed for him. |
| 101 | * BadPowersGoodPeople: He ends up in this dilemma after being released from Ansem's control in the first game. He assumes Ansem's form and dark powers again after 358/2 Days's events in order to capture Roxas, knowing full well he may be screwing himself by doing so. Thankfully, it's resolved by the end of ''II''. |
| 102 | * BadassBiker: When riding a [[Film/TronLegacy lightcycle]] in ''3D''. |
| 103 | * BadassBoast: In ''3D''. |
| 104 | -->'''Riku''': Quality versus quantity, huh?[[note]]Note that he says this after being faced with ''a herd of [[TemperCeratops angry Triceratops]]'' (Cera Terrors).[[/note]]\ |
| 105 | and\ |
| 106 | '''Riku''': I'm what nightmares ''fear''! |
| 107 | * BadassDriver: Of a sort, possibly coupled with InstantExpert. He seems to be extremely competent in the use of the shuttle he commandeers with Sora near the end of ''II''. |
| 108 | * BadassInDistress: Like the others, he has his heart held hostage by The Lich after being swept away by the Demon Tower and has to be rescued by Sora. |
| 109 | * BadassLongcoat: While wearing an Organization longcoat In ''Days'' and ''II''. |
| 110 | * BashBrothers: Him and Sora are two of the strongest characters in the series and while they mostly fight separately, when they fight together they show amazing teamwork as [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII Xemnas]], [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII Xigbar and Dark Riku]] can confirm. |
| 111 | ** ''Chain of Memories'' turns him and Mickey into this, coupled with BackToBackBadasses and YinYangBomb. |
| 112 | * BastardUnderstudy: Towards Maleficent to a certain degree. But ultimately subverted in that Riku himself never betrays her; instead, the Heartless of Xehanort possesses him and does the job instead because [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness Maleficent Has Outlived Her Usefulness.]] |
| 113 | * BattleInTheCenterOfTheMind: |
| 114 | ** In ''Chain of Memories'' when he fights off Ansem. |
| 115 | ** In ''Dream Drop Distance'', 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. |
| 116 | * BeneathTheMask: Riku had a reputation of being TheAce in the islands and seen as [[AlwaysSomeoneBetter better in stuff than Sora]], but he admits in ''KHII'' that he was always jealous of Sora, and that he wanted to be like him, someone being capable of just following his heart. |
| 117 | * BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Riku always wished to leave Destiny Islands and explore the outside worlds so he can grow stronger. When he got that wish, however, it didn't end so well for him. |
| 118 | ** It only gets worse for him post ''I'' as not only does he have to deal with his guilt from destroying Destiny Islands but he also gets hit hard with a case of YouCantGoHomeAgain as he has to fix Sora’s memory retrieval and monitor Organization XIII and wanders the multiverse ''for a year straight''. |
| 119 | * {{BFS}}: In ''III'', instead of his signature Way to the Dawn, he wields a ''very'' large steel Keyblade shaped like an old vault security key known as Braveheart. |
| 120 | * BigBrotherInstinct: Is deeply protective of Kairi in ''KH I'', and both Kairi and Sora from ''KH II'' on. |
| 121 | ** [[DeconstructedTrope Used against him]] in ''KH I''. this trope is the only reason he joined Maleficent as she claimed that the only way to save Kairi, who has lost her heart to the darkness, is to ally himself with her and her band of villains, while abandoning Sora. After his reunion with Sora in Traverse Town, Riku begins to agree with Maleficent and officially starts his stay with her. However, he is still highly suspicious of her motives. |
| 122 | ** After Ansem reappears in his true form, stating that now that the Keyhole was complete, Kairi had no further use to him. He moves towards her but begins to struggle. An aura of Riku's true form appears, stating that Ansem won't use him to attack Kairi. |
| 123 | ** In ''II'' he allies himself with [=DiZ=], as they have a common goal: to help Sora awaken, Riku also spends most of the game countering the Organization at every chance he gets, as well as keeping a watchful eye on Sora. |
| 124 | ** In the same game, after Axel attempts to kidnap Kairi, Riku rescues Kairi by opening a Corridor of Darkness, and takes her to Twilight Town, where she meets Hayner, Pence, and Olette, but never reveals his identity. |
| 125 | ** Upon learning that the Organization had kidnapped Kairi to force Sora to slay Heartless for them, Riku heads to the Castle That Never Was and protects Naminé and Kairi from Saïx after Naminé has freed Kairi from her prison. |
| 126 | ** ''3D'' shows this trope to full effect, after discovering Sora has been kidnapped by the XIII Seekers of Darkness he instantly goes to rescue him, unfortunely Young Xehanort blocks Riku's way, but Mickey comes to Riku's aid by casting a Stopza spell. Young Xehanort, however, is unaffected by the spell and knocks Mickey aside to battle Riku. After a fierce struggle, Riku defeats Young Xehanort. However, the victory is short-lived as Master Xehanort is finally revived and joined by the rest of his Seekers, among them Young Xehanort, Ansem, and Xemnas, though this doesn't slow them down as Riku and Mickey continue attempt to save Sora from Master Xehanort but are restrained by Ansem and Xemnas before Lea arrives and saves Sora. Ansem summons his Guardian, who grabs Riku and Mickey, but the Guardian is defeated by Donald and Goofy, who arrive via Mickey's old Star Shard. Riku brings Sora's comatose body back to the Mysterious Tower and dives into Sora's body to mend his fractured heart. In the process, he is forced to battle Sora, clad in Ventus's Keyblade Armor, which has been corrupted by a Nightmare. Riku defeats the Nightmare and uses Sora's Keyblade to enter a memory of the Destiny Islands, deep inside Sora's heart. Here he meets projections of Roxas, Ventus, and Xion, who each ask a question before disappearing. After answering the three questions, Riku finds a bottle in the surf, and a data projection of Ansem the Wise approaches him. Ansem tells Riku about Ansem's Code, research data contained in the bottle that he had hid inside Sora while he was asleep. He muses about Sora's ability to connect with others' hearts, and how it may be able to bring back those that have been lost. He tells Riku that by defeating the Nightmare and answering the three questions, he has successfully awakened Sora. |
| 127 | ** In general, a postive personality trait demonstrated by Riku is a strong desire to protect his friends. Examples of this would be his sacrifice to protect Sora from Xemnas' attacks during their final battle in ''II'', his willingness to accept the darkness in order to subdue Roxas in ''Days'', and [[spoiler: his sacrifice against the Demon Tide in ''III'', [[InspirationalMartyr again for Sora's sake]]]]. |
| 128 | * BigBrotherMentor: He acts as Xion's StealthMentor in ''Days''. After Xion has a intense nightmare because of her confused memories, Riku finds her and comforts her. After Xion wakes up on Destiny Islands, she inquires about Sora and the "girl he's always with", to which Riku explains that the girl is Kairi, a special friend of Sora's, and that the reason Sora is unable to wake up is that some of his memories are held within Xion. Despite needing Xion to reunite with Roxas and Sora, Riku gives her time to decide what she wants to do, with the advice that she should choose what is best for everyone. For a while, both Riku and Xion spend time together. Another day, Riku reunites with Xion at Beast's Castle again. Riku tells Xion to visit Naminé at Twilight Town so that she can make an informed decision on what she should do with herself. |
| 129 | * BigDamnHeroes: After Kairi and Naminé are found by Saïx and two Berserkers, Riku appears out of nowhere before killing the two Berserkes by attacking them from behind and forcing Saïx to retreat. |
| 130 | * BigEgoHiddenDepths: While he does act like a jerk and condescending towards Sora in ''Kingdom Hearts'', He valued their friendship enough to feel completely betrayed at the thought of Sora abandoning him and Kairi, he also admitted being jealous of Sora for his ability to just follow his heart. |
| 131 | * BigGood: The closest thing ''358/2 Days'' has to one, acting as a StealthMentor to Xion. |
| 132 | * BigWhat: After Mickey tells him [[ThatCameOutWrong that Aqua is a lot like Sora]] in ''III''. |
| 133 | * BlackCloak: He starts wearing one in the ending of ''Chain of Memories'' to protect his heart from being worn away by the darkness. He keeps it through all of ''Days'' and the majority of ''II'', until he recovers his body. |
| 134 | * BlackKnight: In contrast with Sora's ThePaladin. Riku's unique attacks are all [[CastingAShadow Dark-based]] with some few exceptions, and his biggest advantage over Sora in terms of stats is his better offense. |
| 135 | * BlackMagic: Riku struggles with true Black Magic throughout the games. He argues that the ends justifies the means and using Dark magic for good reasons is okay, and this has different results in the different games. |
| 136 | ** It can be convincingly argued, however, that overall it was far more trouble than it was worth and he was much better off avoiding it, especially as he would have gotten [[WhiteMagic "Light Side" powers]] of comparable potency for much less grief. |
| 137 | *** Eventually he decides to use both, which changes his rather evil sword into a keyblade. The keyblade has both "evil" and "good" symbols, like a devilish wing and an angelic one. The balance between light and dark is called Twilight. |
| 138 | *** It's implied that "twilight" is closer to the dark side. At the end of Chain of Memories, [=DiZ=] asks Riku if he is taking the road to twilight and downfall, after Riku refuses to take the road to light or darkness. In reply, Riku states that he is taking the "Way to Dawn" (or road to dawn in the English translation, but it was suppoed to be Way, since it worked as a double meaning with taking the actual path as well as taking the Keyblade "Way to Dawn.") As of ''3D'', it seems to be worth it, as his resistance to Darkness enables him to save Sora ''and'' [[ToBeAMaster become a true Keyblade Master]] first. |
| 139 | * BossRemix: The theme for his boss fight in ''Days,'' [[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dH89hnW_Byk "Another Side -Battle Ver.-"]], is ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin, an arrangement of the original "Another Side" made to be a battle theme. This arrangement shortens the somber intro and loops the energetic segment. |
| 140 | * BreakHisHeartToSaveHim: Riku tries to distance himself from Sora and Kairi in ''II'' out of guilt for his actions in the past game, instead choosing to secretly help them from afar and making Mickey promise to not tell Sora about him. This doesn't last and his BigBrotherInstinct turns out to end all of this as when he went to The World That Never Was to rescue Kairi from Organization XIII it's when she recognizes him and is able to show Sora that. |
| 141 | * BreakTheHaughty: ''Kingdom Hearts'' is filled with these for him. First, he loses the Keyblade to Sora after arrogantly taunting him over being the true chosen wielder of it, then he is possessed by Ansem and ends up in the Realm of Darkness, this makes him see the error of his actions in the game and he spends the rest of the series as TheAtoner. |
| 142 | * BringIt: In the first game, he'll often try to goad Sora into striking him with taunts and these sorts of gestures to get him to strike his blocking sword so he can CounterAttack. Even his sword stance has his left hand facing up and reaching out in a somewhat beckoning manner. He generally drops this sort of behavior in later games particularly after much physical and mental growth to the point where even his sword stance changes with his left hand always facing downwards, giving him a much less cocky demeanor. He does end up reverting back to this sword stance when he's de-aged for ''Dream Drop Distance'' though. |
| 143 | * BrokenAce: To an extent, at least in the very first game. Better than Sora and the other island kids at pretty much everything; older, stronger, cooler, more attractive, and (most importantly) seemingly "closer" to Kairi, whom he and Sora—quite awkwardly for them—both have affection for. Riku, as a result, takes position as the leader of the group. While Sora is jealous of these aspects about Riku, it turns out later in the game that Riku is the one with a massive inferiority complex to Sora, becoming very jealous when Sora finds new friends in Donald and Goofy and Sora turns out to be the one chosen by the Keyblade; and last but not least, it gets even worse when it turns out that Riku feels as though Kairi likes Sora more despite the fact that Riku has "done more for her". The villains, naturally, exploit Riku's issues with Sora soon enough and draws him into the Darkness and have the two fighting against each other. |
| 144 | ** Eventually, he goes through extensive CharacterDevelopment in ''Chain of Memories'' when he confronts his insecurities head on. However, the sequel mostly abandons his {{Ace}} traits altogether; the plot no longer concentrates on that aspect of Riku as Sora finally takes over the leadership role permanently. |
| 145 | *** And THAT gets turned on its head in ''3D'', though in a positive way. Sora and Riku end up taking the Mark of Mastery Exam in order to deal with issues in the Worlds in the Realm of Sleep. While Riku still harbored some feelings of self-doubt (which lead to Sora agreeing to take the exam in the first place), things play out interestingly enough. Throughout the game, it's Sora who ends up going through MindRape via Master Xehanort's XIII Seekers of Darkness. Riku, due to said CharacterDevelopment and past experiences, actually got his body immune to any Darkness-based issues caused by Xehanort. In the end, after all hell breaks loose, it's Riku who ends up being named Keyblade Master over Sora. Good thing Sora is an all around NiceGuy and is genuinely happy for Riku, so no jealousy issues crop up again. |
| 146 | * BeehiveBarrier: Riku's [[ForceField Dark Barrier]], whether just in front of him or around his entire body. |
| 147 | * BerserkButton: His actions in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' have become this to him, so much that he goes from his usual calm and serious look to a DeathGlare and his voice has a TranquilFury tone when he sees Dark Riku in the Keyblade Graveyard in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII''. |
| 148 | * BifurcatedWeapon: He and Sora can combine their keyblades into one for their Nightmare's End/Mirage Split ability. |
| 149 | * BlessedWithSuck: How Riku views his dark abilities in ''Chain of Memories'' and he spends most of the game trying to hold it back. {{Subverted|Trope}} once he learns DarkIsNotEvil however. |
| 150 | * BlindWeaponmaster: Wears a blindfold willingly during the events of ''Days'' and most of ''II'' (the latter in his normal form). |
| 151 | * BlindfoldedVision: He wears a blindfold during ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'' and part of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' to suppress the darkness inside of him. He manages to be an excellent fighter regardless, and in some scenes acts like he can still see normally. |
| 152 | * BoringButPractical: Doubleflight initially feels like a [[UselessUsefulSpell Useless Useful Technique]], due to Flowmotion's existence. Then you find out that Riku can execute normal commands when he double jumps, allowing him to stay out of enemy range to charge up a powerful special attack, or safely heal himself. Doubleflight essentially gives Riku more offensive and defensive options, which more than makes up for not getting Glide or upgrades to it. |
| 153 | ** Dark Firaga. It's just a Firaga that's blue... but it can really hurt some enemies, especially Lexaeus. Also, it might be better to trust on its accuracy than to bet on [[AwesomeButImpractical Dark Aura]]. |
| 154 | * BridalCarry: He holds Kairi this way in [[WesternAnimation/PeterPan Neverland]], [[JustifiedTrope as she has become a]] EmptyShell [[JustifiedTrope without her heart and is unable to move on her own.]] |
| 155 | * ButNowIMustGo: Throughout ''II'', he'd help Sora, Donald and Goofy by leaving hints to them and leaving shortly after without revealing himself. He attempts this again after Sora and Kairi are reunited in The World That Never Was but the two manage to convince him to stay. |
| 156 | * ByronicHero: Has definite elements of this, though his CharacterDevelopment shows him slowly growing out of it into a straightforward hero who happens to use CastingAShadow type spells. |
| 157 | * CannotSpitItOut: Hinted at a few times over the course of the series, in regards to Sora. What exactly Riku wants to tell him is [[HoYay/KingdomHearts up for debate]]. |
| 158 | ** The KH character files state that part of why Riku gives into the darkness is because of his [[https://64.media.tumblr.com/ec65f7bcd20823a8edd696aae4b69ab5/fb1f5ccfebcebdc9-47/s540x810/5517cde9ad18fdcd6946a5575cf840ef879d46fe.pnj 'complex feelings towards Sora']]. The other part is his 'impatience to save Kairi'-- with no mention of any such feelings toward her. |
| 159 | ** Nomura [[https://www.khinsider.com/news/Kingdom-Hearts-II-Ultimania-Main-Nomura-Interview-2553 stated]] in ''II'''s Ultimania that the opening theme song, "Sanctuary" ("Passion" in Japanese), was written with the theme of Sora and Riku's reunion in mind. Which includes the (infamous) backwards lyrics, "I need more affection than you know". |
| 160 | ** And then there's [[https://blowingoffsteam2.tumblr.com/post/189047990449/gee-riku-dont-you-have-a-jiminy-like-i-do a couple lines]] from the ''II'' and ''DDD'' novels: |
| 161 | ---> '''II:''' The things that mattered the most were what he couldn’t tell Sora. It had always been that way. |
| 162 | |
| 163 | ---> '''DDD:''' Of course, Riku couldn’t tell him everything, but Sora was still a friend with a special place in his heart. |
| 164 | * CastFromHitPoints: His Sacrifice attack in ''Dream Drop Distance''. |
| 165 | * CastingAShadow: Riku has the ability to use dark attacks like Dark Firaga, Dark Aura and Dark Volley, to name a few. Riku, in fact, is the only Keyblade wielder thus far who has managed to completely tame the darkness. |
| 166 | * CatchPhrase: "I thought you were stronger than that." Downplayed since he only ever says it twice in the whole series but it's apparently a common enough phrase for Riku in-universe that it causes the Sora part of Roxas to respond to it. Not to mention his EvilKnockoff Dark Riku in ''III,'' [[HaveANiceDeath gleefully uses the phrase as well.]] |
| 167 | * TheChampion: After [[RivalTurnedEvil going rogue]] in the first game, Riku has steadily become Sora's champion over the course of the series. In fact, if some of Mickey's [[HideYourGays Japanese]] lines in ''III'' are any indication, it appears that the end goal of Riku's character arc is coming to realize ''who'' it is he wants to protect most. There already wasn't much doubt before ''III'' that said person is Sora, but [[spoiler:[[InspirationalMartyr Riku's sacrifice]] against the Demon Tide seems to solidify it once and for all]]. |
| 168 | * CharacterDevelopment: He goes through the most development of the Destiny Islands trio, going from an antagonist to a protagonist over the course of the overarching story. Kairi points it out in their scenes in ''A Fragmentary Passage''. |
| 169 | ** In ''Kingdom Hearts'', Riku is a calm, cool, collected teenager who is not afraid to go beyond his limits. He became thoroughly jealous of Sora after learning about his possession of the Keyblade and of his new friends. He even openly accused Sora of forgetting about him and Kairi since he was not also actively looking for a way to retrieve Kairi's heart. That envy eventually corrupted his perspective of their friendship into a rivalry, much to Sora's confusion, and resulted in his battles with Sora and his eventual possession by Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. While his traits weren't very heroic for most of the first game, Riku becomes much more noble by the end. Since Riku had done everything he had out of care for Kairi, when Ansem was about to use him to use her along with the other six Princesses of Heart to open the Final Keyhole, he finally broke free and held off Ansem long enough for Donald, Goofy and Kairi to escape. When Riku finds himself in the endless abyss near the Door to Darkness, he is on his knees, overwhelmed with guilt for what he has done. |
| 170 | ** In ''[=CoM=]'' Riku makes many self-realizations, one of which is that he had let his heart become weak, and some time after that, he would shy away from the darkness within it. Through his battles in Castle Oblivion, he makes another big realization: he can't get rid of the darkness in his heart, and decides to use it without turning away from the light like before, declaring his path down the "road to dawn," also signifying his effort for redemption. |
| 171 | ** Finally in ''II'', he shows a great amount of loyalty and protectiveness for his friends. He never wanted Sora and Kairi to find out about his time spent in the darkness, and did everything he could to bring Roxas to [=DiZ=] to make Sora whole again, even going as far as giving up his physical form and assuming Ansem's. As Sora journeyed through the worlds, Riku left him valuable clues, such as the sea-salt ice cream and the picture of the Twilight Town gang, and almost died to protect him from Xemnas' attacks, which left him greatly injured after the battle. When he is finally found in the World That Never Was, he repeatedly shows signs immense regret for his previous behavior. He could not understand how Sora is so willing to forgive him, telling him that he didn't actually want to be found, and almost refusing to come back to Destiny Islands because of his shame for his wrongdoings. |
| 172 | ** His view on his home world, Destiny Islands, also changed drastically throught the series. When he was young, Riku had been curious with everything that is outside of his world. Over time, his curiosity became obsession, and he eventually opened his heart up to darkness in order to escape his "prison surrounded by water," as phrased by Ansem. This obsession completely vanishes throughout the year of Sora's slumber, most likely because of all the trouble it brought into his formerly simple life and how foolish he ended up acting once his curiosity was sated. When he returns to Destiny Islands in ''II'', he still comments on how small a world it is, but agrees with Sora's remark that it is part of one much bigger. This shows that Riku has a much better view of his homeworld than before, making him all the more content. |
| 173 | * ChildProdigy: Is surprisingly perceptive and philosophical five-year-old in ''Birth by Sleep''. Even acknowledged by four-year-old Sora. |
| 174 | -->'''Sora:''' I don't know Riku, you say some weird stuff sometimes, but I'll try it! |
| 175 | ** As of ''3D'' Riku is also the youngest full-fledged Keyblade Master (that we know of) 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. |
| 176 | * ChildhoodFriends: At first it was just him and Sora but during one night, there was a meteor shower and Kairi appears on the islands from Radiant Garden, another world far off from Destiny Islands. Riku, Sora, and Kairi quickly forge a powerful friendship. They continued to live on the Destiny Islands together. The three work together to construct a raft and gather supplies so that they can set out and search for other outside worlds. While Riku and Sora continue their rivalry through duels and races, Riku takes jabs at Sora over his relationship with Kairi, telling him that if Sora does not share a paopu fruit with Kairi soon, he will. |
| 177 | * TheChosenOne: Was chosen by Terra to wield his Keyblade, but he got a bit [[JumpedAtTheCall too jumpy with the call and]] [[FaceHeelTurn jumped at the wrong one]] in ''I'', resulting in said keyblade eventually going to [[TheUnchosenOne Sora]] instead, which it [[TheChosenOne eventually accepted as its true master]]. Once Riku [[HeelFaceTurn returned to sanity]] he eventually got his own Keyblade too. |
| 178 | * ChronicSelfDeprecation: A couple of his lines towards [[spoiler: Anti-Aqua]] in ''III'' seem to imply he's still not quite over his [[RivalTurnedEvil past actions]]. |
| 179 | -->'''[[spoiler:Anti-Aqua]]''': All that's left in my heart is misery and despair... and now, you can share it! |
| 180 | -->'''Riku''': There's no need. [[ByronicHero Got my own.]] |
| 181 | * 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. |
| 182 | * 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. |
| 183 | * CombatPragmatist: Riku knew he couldn't beat Roxas in a straight fight, even getting his wrist damaged after Roxas slashed it so instead he chooses to take Ansem's form and strangle Roxas with his Guardian to win. |
| 184 | * CombinationAttack: His LimitBreak in ''II'' is a big one between him and Sora that consists of several combination attacks. The limit begins with Session, in which Sora and Riku perform a rapid flurry of attacks. Then, Last Saber, in which Sora and Riku rapidly stab an enemy with their Keyblades, and Dark Cannon, where the duo fire a barrage of dark orbs at enemies. Afterwards, Sora and Riku turn their backs toward each other, and the next phase of the Limit begins. XIII Blades has the duo summoning thirteen swords to perform a spinning slash attack. Master Hearts involves Sora and Riku coating their Keyblades in an aura and slashing opponents together. In the final phase, All's End, Sora and Riku's Keyblades float side-by-side in energy orbs that reel in enemies before exploding. |
| 185 | ** One of the Reality Shifts in ''3D'' involves him and Sora to each summon half of an enormous, filigreed Keyblade, which they combine to perform several powerful slashes. They also use it once again in ''III'' once Sora arrives in the Realm of Darkness. |
| 186 | ** He also has two with Mickey. Inverse Burst in ''Chain of Memories'', where Riku and Mickey stand back to back and start shooting orbs of darkness and light at enemies, and Double Duel in ''III'', where they team up to attack with a devastating combo. |
| 187 | * CompositeCharacter: In terms of moveset - in ''3D'', Riku's fighting style becomes a hybrid of Terra's and Aqua's. He gains some of Terra's attack options (Meteor, Zantetsuken) but also some of Aqua's defensive and movement options (Doubleflight, Barrier, a FlashStep). Two of his Dual Link styles are also taken from Aqua's Command Styles, and one of them is shared by Terra as well. However, Riku often puts his own spin on Aqua's moves and styles, and his latest version of Dark Firaga is notably different from Terra's version, acting a lot more like one of Vanitas's attacks. |
| 188 | * CoolSword: Soul Eater from ''Kingdom Hearts'' through most of ''II'', though he's still able to summon it in ''Dream Drop Distance''. This sword grows more powerful with use of [[BlackMagic darkness]]. Also the Way to the Dawn Keyblade, which evolves from [[CoolSword Soul Eater]], is his weapon toward the end of ''II'' and doubles as a CoolKey. |
| 189 | * CoordinatedClothes: He and Mickey in ''III'' have the same outfit design only with inverted colors. |
| 190 | * TheCorruptible: Especially the first game, he had a lot of problems revolving around corruption by darkness. Ironically, he eventually manages to master the Darkness that corrupted him, so he can no longer be corrupted by it. |
| 191 | * CurbStompBattle: Whether in the games or the manga, Riku delivers these quite frequently. Showing his reputation as TheAce back in the Islands was well earned. |
| 192 | ** He easily defeats and wounds Beast during their short fight in ''I'' and Sora has to intervene to stop Riku from killing Beast. |
| 193 | ** He also easily defeats Xion in ''Days'', by the end of their fight she's on her knees holding her stomach in pain while he's calmly walking away. |
| 194 | ** In the manga from the same game, he absolutely thrashes Axel who is preventing Xion from finding out the truth in Castle Oblivion (though he used the power of darkness inside him). |
| 195 | ** While it's [[OffScreenMomentOfAwesome not shown]], his battle with Demyx in the manga doesn't end well for the latter as he's left all bandaged up in the face. |
| 196 | ** A more light-hearted example happens off-screen in the first game, Tidus remarked that he, Wakka, and Selphie were easily defeated by him even after they triple-teamed him. |
| 197 | ** While in Mulan's world, Sora, Donald, and Goofy are looking for traces of either Riku or Organization XIII. When they speak to the Emperor to see if he's heard anything about either concern, only for the Emperor to mention a rude young man who, in short order, kicked Shang's ass. Sora and co. immediately realize it's Riku. |
| 198 | * CursedWithAwesome: Became insanely powerful by tapping into the fragment of [[EnemyWithin Ansem]] inside himself during ''Days'' and ''KH II'', at the expense of [[ShapeshifterModeLock being unable to change his physical form back to that of his own body]]. |
| 199 | * CutscenePowerToTheMax: Riku accomplishes amazing feats in ''II'' during the [[ActionCommands Reaction Commands]] of the FinalBattle against [[BigBad Xemnas]] which include easily slashing skyscrapers in half and then throwing them and eflect millions of energy blasts. |
| 200 | * DangerousForbiddenTechnique: Channeling the power of darkness was this for him and he pays a heavy price for its uncontrolled usage which gets him possessed by the BigBad of the first game, thankfully, he manages to tame its power by the sequels. |
| 201 | * DarkIsNotEvil: After his HeelFaceTurn. He was purified of Xehanort's darkness, but he keeps his own darkness-based abilities because they're part of who he is. In fact, he comes to embody it by ''3D'', in which he not only recovers most of the dark powers he'd lost, but Riku has also by that time become totally immune to corruption by darkness due to constant and repeated use and is the only character in the series that we know this has happened with. In other words, Riku is the only character to have ''actually ''mastered darkness. |
| 202 | * TheDarkSide: He gains a Dark Mode from Maleficent in ''Kingdom Hearts'', he loses said mode after having his body taken by Ansem but is given it back by him in ''Chain of Memories'' after he manipulates the darkness in Riku's heart, the form gives Riku the ability to use darkness without the worry of being taken over by Ansem as well as a boost in speed and feeds Soul Eater's abilities, he hasn't used this mode after ''Chain of Memories''. |
| 203 | * TheDarkSideWillMakeYouForget: He goes through this in the first game. Riku starts out using the darkness because he wants to retrieve Kairi's heart. This eventually takes second place to his jealousy of Sora -- after taking the Keyblade, losing the Keyblade and getting his ass kicked, he's willing to open himself completely to the darkness if it means he can be stronger than Sora. [[GrandTheftMe Big mistake.]] |
| 204 | * DeadpanSnarker: He has his moments, especially in ''Dream Drop Distance''. |
| 205 | -->'''Ansem''': So sad. The cost of yielding to the darkness.\ |
| 206 | '''Riku''': You could write a book about that! |
| 207 | * DealWithTheDevil: His deal with Ansem, Seeker of Darkness for enough power to beat Sora in ''Kingdom Hearts''. |
| 208 | * DeclarationOfProtection: As of ''3D'', his primary motive seems to be to protect Sora (and to a lesser extent Kairi), aside from protecting the worlds. It appears that Riku's wish to 'protect the things that matter' in ''Birth by Sleep'' has [[https://blowingoffsteam2.tumblr.com/post/182892280944/in-regards-to-the-phrasing-used-in-reference-to deliberately]] [[https://lilyginnyblackv2.tumblr.com/post/183142982289/kh3-ultimania-riku-page-one evolved]] from when he was a child-- at least in the [[LostIntranslation original Japanese dialogue]], anyway. In fact, it is his concern for Sora that leads to him subconsciously diving into his dreams in ''3D'', rather than traveling the worlds alongside him. |
| 209 | -->'''Beat:''' I just... wanna protect the one person who matters.\ |
| 210 | '''Riku:''' [[{{Protectorate}} I know the feeling.]] |
| 211 | * DemonicPossession: By Ansem, Seeker of Darkness in the latter parts of ''Kingdom Hearts'' and once to destroy Lexaeus in ''Re:Chain of Memories''. In fact, as of ''Dream Drop Distance'', this was revealed to be an attempt to turn Riku into one of ''thirteen'' vessels for Xehanort's heart; after Riku gained the ability to reject the darkness in his heart, Xehanort turned his sights to Roxas and then Sora to take his place. |
| 212 | * {{Deuteragonist}}: Of the series as a whole; he serves as the protagonist along with Sora in ''Chain of Memories'' and ''Dream Drop Distance''. |
| 213 | * DiagonalCut: He gains Zantetsuken, which is basically this trope, in ''Dream Drop Distance''. |
| 214 | * DisproportionateRetribution: During the Country of the Musketeers world in ''Dream Drop Distance'', he gets tripped, then is victim to the "tapping someone on the shoulder and disappearing" trick. When it is revealed that the Holey Moley was the one doing it, Riku responds by killing it. More blatant when you realize that this is one of the easiest bosses in the game. |
| 215 | * DontLookAtMe: Riku spends most of KHII avoiding coming into contact with Sora and Kairi because he doesn't want them to see him with Ansem's face after he was [[ShapeShifterModeLock forced into assuming Ansem's appearance]]. He even tries to run away after he helps them directly. Neither Kairi nor Sora care about it when they find out, as they are just happy to have been reunited with him. |
| 216 | * DoubleJump: His "Doubleflight" skill, which uses a burst of darkness under him as a platform for a new jump. |
| 217 | * TheDragon: To Maleficent in the first game. He plays an anti-heroic version of this to [=Diz=] throughout ''Days'' and the beginning of ''II''. |
| 218 | * DreamWalker: Unknowingly travels into Sora's dreams when he sees a robed Ansem for the majority of ''3D''. |
| 219 | * DueToTheDead: After Riku Replica sacrifices himself by removing his past self's heart from the Replica anchoring him to the present, leaving the vessel behind so Naminé can have it, Riku allows Demyx to take it back to Radiant Garden while asking him to be careful with it. Not just because the vessel will be used to provide Naminé a body, but also because it holds important memories of Riku Replica. |
| 220 | * DyingMomentOfAwesome: After the Demon Tower appears and transforms into a powerful tornado. Though Riku, Sora, and Aqua attempt to make a stand against it, Aqua hesitates and the Demon Tower sweeps her, Ventus, Lea, Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Kairi up. Losing them sends Sora into a devastated state, unable to fight back, believing that without them, Master Xehanort has already won. Riku attempts to convince Sora if he truly believes that, before making a defiant last stand against the Demon Tower, managing to hold it off for several seconds before he is consumed by it as well and it goes for Sora. |
| 221 | * EasilyForgiven: During the first game, he does such things as ally with Maleficent, kidnap Alice, Jasmine, and Kairi, try to kidnap Pinocchio, steal Sora's Keyblade, and try to ''murder'' Sora outright, all of which was done of his own free will, ''before'' Ansem possessed him... and both Sora and Kairi are quick to TurnTheOtherCheek and accept him back immediately after Ansem is defeated; in the end, the only person who really takes any issue with Riku's heinous actions is [[TheAtoner Riku himself]]. |
| 222 | * ElementalPowers: He has access to every element in some form or another. |
| 223 | * EmpoweredBadassNormal: At first, Riku had no powers whatsoever, although he was a rather strong individual. After arriving in Hollow Bastion he gets his weapon, Soul Eater. It gave him a slight increase in power, but as seen in the battle versus the Parasite Cage, he was only slightly more powerful than on the islands. Sometime after Monstro, Riku made a pact with Maleficent. This gave him three new abilities: The ability to summon and control Heartless, the power to traverse the worlds using Corridors of Darkness, and finally the ability to craft Anti forms. He demonstrated the first two abilities several times, and the third he used on Sora to create many [=AntiSoras=] and one complex one wielding a shadowy Keyblade. After Sora left Neverland, Riku returned to Maleficent who gave him a large increase in his dark abilities. This allowed him to draw on dark energies to increase his physical power and clothe himself in an organic-looking suit of darkness. While in this Dark Mode he could zip around the battle field at an incredible speed and each blow from his Soul Eater dealt large damage. However, this form was taxing on his heart as seen after his battle with Sora in Hollow Bastion. Riku's Soul Eater changes into Way to the Dawn sometime between the second visit to Land of Dragons and The World That Never Was. When he turned into his "true form" in the end of ''II'', his powers of light increased dramatically while his powers of darkness decreased. Riku possesses various abilities that combine his dark powers with Sora's light powers. Riku can use a new Dark Aura that fires Dark Firaga orbs that inflict a Stop effect whenever Sora completes a combo, Dark Shield to project a barrier of darkness, as well as to numerous other powers. |
| 224 | * EnemySummoner: Through Maleficent, Riku possessed the ability to control and create Heartless. This was demonstrated when Riku made a Heartless replica of Sora in Neverland. |
| 225 | * EnemyWithin: The remnants of Ansem [=SoD=] from ''[=CoM=]'' until the explosion of the Kingdom Hearts Encoder near the end of ''II''. It acts more like an EnemyWithout by ''3D''. |
| 226 | * EntitledBastard: One of his biggest character flaws in the original game, as he was aware that he was meant to have the Keyblade and became insanely jealous when it went to Sora instead, ultimately leading to a DealWithTheDevil. It didn't go so well for him, and his sense of entitlement is naturally absent afterward. |
| 227 | * EvilCostumeSwitch: His [[SuperMode Dark Mode]] armor in ''KH I'', though he still uses it after his HeelFaceTurn in ''Chain of Memories''. |
| 228 | * EvilCounterpart: To Sora in the first game, the two came from Destiny Islands and wished to leave and explore other worlds but while Sora was motivated by a love of adventures, Riku hated the islands and saw it as a prison, once they left the islands, Sora teamed up with Donald and Goofy to find King Mickey and save the worlds while Riku joined Maleficent and helped her with her plans to kidnap the princesses just so he could save Kairi. This is the reason why Riku's Keyblade went to Sora in the first place as Riku had given into the darkness which in turn made him unworthy to wield one. |
| 229 | * EvilFormerFriend: Although more of a AntiVillain, he's this to Sora in ''KH I'' after Maleficent manipulates him into thinking he abandoned him and Kairi. |
| 230 | * EvilIsNotAToy: He gives himself over to the Darkness at the very beginning of the game, thinking it's an easy way off his world and [[JumpedAtTheCall into the adventure he craves]]. It ends up separating him from his [[TrueCompanions friends]], [[DoomedHometown destroying his homeworld]], and apparently devouring the heart of [[TwoGuysAndAGirl the girl he and his best friend like]]. Oh, and it also denies him a glorious destiny as the wielder of the Keyblade, but he doesn't learn that until later. He only blunders worse from there on. Having not yet learned his lesson, he makes a [[DealWithTheDevil deal with Maleficent]] so he can try and find his friends, and he actively dives into the power of darkness to try and find Kairi's missing heart. When that doesn't work, he makes another deal with some figure he can't even ''see'' for more power, which winds up [[DemonicPossession costing him possession of his own body]]. He finally starts saying "No to Drugs," but it takes him the rest of the first game, all of the next, and most of the third to deal with the consequences. |
| 231 | * EvilSmellsBad: Tracks Ansem and The Organization by the stench of their darkness, and notes that Naminé completely lacks that stench which is why he can tell that Naminé is related somehow to his friend Kairi. |
| 232 | * EvolvingWeapon: By the time he came to The World That Never Was in ''II'', it had evolved into his Keyblade, Way to the Dawn, though he still calls it Soul Eater nonetheless, and, as shown in ''Dream Drop Distance'', can summon either weapon. |
| 233 | * ExpositoryHairstyleChange: The length of Riku's hair is ''directly'' proportional to his angst level. It's at its longest during his phase as a wandering, blindfolded [[TheAtoner Atoner]]. After ''II'', he gets an off-screen haircut to reflect him being more comfortable in his own skin and it gets even shorter again after the Demon Tide swallows him in ''III''. |
| 234 | * {{Expy}}: The protagonist's rival both in battle and for the affections of his love interest, turned evil and was controlled by the villain in part due to his love for her, broke free and fought alongside the hero to redeem himself, and eventually renounced his inner darkness and returned to the light. We're talking about Riku, not [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV Kain Highwind]]. Likely a case of AuthorAppeal, as Tetsuya Nomura is a big fan of Kain. And in an amusing recursive instance of the trope, when ''Final Fantasy IV'' got a sequel, Kain got an EnemyWithout called Dark Kain that is himself an Expy of the Riku Replica. |
| 235 | * EyepatchOfPower: Riku spends a long period with a blindfold on so as "not to deceive himself". It is never made clear whether he can see through it, although the fact that he has lifted it on occasion suggests that he can't. Some of his more badass moments involve the blindfold. As Roxas found out the hard way, if he takes it off, you're on for a major beatdown courtesy of Xehanort's Heartless. |
| 236 | * FightingFromTheInside: He does this against Ansem when he decides to go after [[MoralityPet Kairi,]] leaving his body as a spirit to physically block Ansem's way. |
| 237 | --> '''Riku:''' No! You won't use me for this! |
| 238 | * FightingYourFriend: He fights against Sora twice in ''I'', the first time was by his own will, but in the second time it was Ansem [[DemonicPossession using his body to fight against him.]] |
| 239 | ** Their fight in ''II'' is a subversion, Sora attacks Riku thinking he's a Organization member, but Riku directs his attacks towards the Heartless around them rather than towards Sora. |
| 240 | ** Once again in ''3D'' where Riku is forced to fight against Sora as the Armored Ventus Nightmare, so he can save Sora from the darkness Xehanort placed in his heart. |
| 241 | * FirstNameBasis: Is one of the few characters in the series to be on this with Mickey Mouse. |
| 242 | * FlashStep: The Ghost Drive [[FusionDance Link Style]] allows Riku to move fast enough that he leaves after images of himself. |
| 243 | * {{Foil}}: He and Sora contrast each other very well, Riku is calm and collected while Sora is impulsive and extroverted, they both share a zest for adventures but Riku is due to a sense of ambition while Sora's is driven by a sense of wonder, Sora has more natural charisma to interact with others but Riku is more focused and goal-oriented, how they handle with their emotional problems also contrast, they'll both get the job done regardless but Riku is more prone to showing {{Angst}} while Sora will [[StepfordSmiler put up a brave face and a smile.]] |
| 244 | ** This contrast also extends to their fighting styles. In comparison to Sora's two-handed style, Riku attacks with a fast one-handed style with his Soul Eater/Way to the Dawn and he attacks very quickly with either weapon in combat in one-handed strikes ranging from thrusts to wide strikes focusing on more on slashing motions as opposed to Sora's clubbing/pummeling style. In the end, both are just as adept with their weapons as the other. |
| 245 | * {{Foreshadowing}}: His outfit in ''Dream Drop Distance'' has the Dream Eater symbol on its back which foreshadows him becoming a Dream Eater himself so he can save Sora from the nightmares. |
| 246 | * FriendlyRivalry: With Sora as kids on Destiny Islands, as well as once they truly reunite near the end of ''II''. |
| 247 | * FusionDance: He has the ability to [[FusionDance Link Style]] with [[{{Mons}} Dream Eaters]] in ''3D'' which can give him a variety of {{Power Up}}s and {{Super Mode}}s. This incidentally serves as {{Foreshadowing}} for TheReveal that, in this game, Riku ''is'' a Dream Eater. |
| 248 | ** [[LightEmUp Shining Hammer]]: Riku finally shows the light in the [[YinYangBomb twilight]] assailing the enemies with hammering blows creating powerful [[ShockwaveStomp shockwaves]] of light magic. |
| 249 | ** [[CastingAShadow Darkest Fears]]: Riku rushes the enemy with darkness based blows manifesting as WolverineClaws on his hands and feet. |
| 250 | ** [[PlayingWithFire Fire Raid]]: Riku's Keyblade becomes a FlamingSword which he uses [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks hurls at the enemy]] for mid-ranged attacks. |
| 251 | ** [[ShockAndAwe Thunderstorm]]: Electricity crackles on Riku's Keyblade giving him fast thunder based attacks that easily [[SplashDamage attack in all directions]]. |
| 252 | ** [[MakingASplash Wave Surfer]]: Defying the tradition of FireIceLightning, Riku uses water elemental attacks instead of [[AnIcePerson ice]], [[ImplausibleBoardingSkills surfing]] to assault enemy's with columns of water. |
| 253 | ** [[TeleportSpam Ghost Drive]]: Riku uses darkness to teleport to attack enemies automatically, making gratuitous use of {{Flash Step}}s to avoid being hit. Attacks an enemy from all sides as a finisher. |
| 254 | ** [[{{BFS}} Blade Charge]]: Keyblade becomes [[LaserBlade engulfed in light]], giving a huge boost to the range of attacks. |
| 255 | ** [[PowerGivesYouWings Rising Wing]]: Riku gains [[GoodWingsEvilWings batlike wings]] and unleashes powerful [[HighAltitudeBattle midair strikes]] and [[DeathFromAbove dive bombs]], Uses a [[BlowYouAway tornado]] attack for a combo finisher. |
| 256 | * GlassCannon: Riku has no reliable source of healing in ''Chain of Memories'', just a few enemy cards and the Mickey Friend Card, and his reliance on Sleights in Dark Mode makes him liable to wear his deck out fast. However, he can quickly rack up a lot of damage and his Dark Mode attacks are devastating. |
| 257 | * 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]]. |
| 258 | * GodlikeGamer: A downplayed example in that he's the one controlling Data-Sora in the Limitcut scenario, meaning he's able to beat all of the bonus bosses without having played ''Kingdom Hearts III'' before. |
| 259 | * GodzillaThreshold: He hits it during his fight with Roxas in ''Days'', to the extent that he unleashes the dark powers he had been trying to hold back because it was the only way to beat him; he ends up trapped in Ansem's form for most of ''II'' as a result, but he was willing to pay that price to ensure Sora's restoration. |
| 260 | * GoneHorriblyRight: Xehanort wanted Riku to embrace darkness in order to turn the boy into a SoulJar. Instead, when Riku fully embraces darkness [[IncorruptiblePurePureness he becomes immune to Xehanort's influence]]. |
| 261 | * GoodArmorEvilArmor: When Riku tries controlling the darkness (and in-turn allowing Ansem, Seeker of Darkness to possess him), he gains a suit that would later be labeled his "Dark Mode" form. In this form, his torso, arms, and legs are covered in black and purple material that resembles muscle tissue. On his chest is a symbol of the Heartless, except that the cross is not there, and he has a white cloth around his waist. |
| 262 | * GoodWeaponEvilWeapon: From its look to its characteristics, Soul Eater is most definitely an EvilWeapon. It helps that it was implied to have first been given to him by [[TheHeavy Maleficent]]. However, Way to the Dawn, with its angelic wing toward the end, is more of a Good Weapon. Then it's subverted horribly with certain revelations about the eyeball motif it carries, thanks to the release of [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsX Kingdom Hearts X]]. |
| 263 | * GoodWingsEvilWings: Soul Eater featured demon wings, signifying a closer alignment with [[DarkIsEvil the corruptive nature of darkness]]. On the other hand, Way to the Dawn features both a large demon wing and a smaller angel wing, signifying [[DarkIsNotEvil his redemption]]. |
| 264 | * GreenEyedMonster: Riku (partly thanks to Maleficent) became thoroughly jealous of Sora after learning about his possession of the Keyblade and of his new friends. He even openly accused Sora of forgetting about him and Kairi since he was not also actively looking for a way to retrieve Kairi's heart. That envy eventually corrupted his perspective of their friendship into a rivalry, much to Sora's confusion, and resulted in his battles with Sora and his eventual possession by Ansem, Seeker of Darkness. |
| 265 | * GuardianEntity: Riku unknowingly becomes Sora's guardian Dream Eater during the events of ''3D''. |
| 266 | * GuileHero: When Riku is surrounded by six members of Organization XIII in the ''Days'' manga, instead of fighting them all, he tricks them into attacking each other so he can escape. |
| 267 | * HadesShaded: While on Castle Oblivion's Halloween Town floor, Riku's skin takes on an ashen and slightly decayed look. Unlike Sora, Donald, and Goofy's drastic costume changes, Riku's outfit remains otherwise the same as normal. These changes also apply to his Soul Eater and Dark Mode as well. |
| 268 | * HandicappedBadass: Roxas slashed his left wrist during their fight in ''Days''. In ''KH II'' he wears a bandage around it for support and doesn't move his left arm much unless casting dark magic. As shown in his brief time in the waking world with Sora in ''DDD'', he is still wearing the cast, meaning he never got it set properly. The injury is even indicated in the opening of ''DDD'', when in the recap of the final fight with Xemnas in ''II'' after the laser spam attack, Riku is shown very gingerly flexing his left hand, as the flipping and deflecting the lasers apparently agitated it (and jamming it into Xemnas' hand to stop the latter's AgonyBeam from ripping Sora's heart out probably didn't help, either). As of the DDD and 0.2 secret endings which lead into the scenario for KHIII, Riku is still wearing the brace on his wrist. By Kingdom Hearts III, he's moving his left arm normally, implying that it has, finally, been fixed. |
| 269 | * HeelFaceRevolvingDoor: Starts off as a heel when Riku is a RivalTurnedEvil to Sora in ''Kingdom Hearts I''. In ''Chain of Memories'', Riku turns semi-face as an AntiHero, and slowly comes around to a full face by the time of ''Dream Drop Distance'', even though he still has a harder edge than Sora does. |
| 270 | * HeroOfAnotherStory: Has an entirely unique story campaign all to himself in ''Chain of Memories'', exploring his own experiences in Castle Oblivion. |
| 271 | * TheHero: Finally takes a main role in ''Dream Drop Distance'' alongside Sora, though as noted above he was earlier the hero of ''Reverse/Rebirth'' in ''Chain of Memories.'' |
| 272 | * HeroAntagonist: Despite being a good guy by that point in the story, he is still Roxas's primary obstacle throughout ''358/2 Days'', repeatedly hounding him. The game culminates with him being the FinalBoss. |
| 273 | * 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/TheHunchbackOfNotreDameDisney Quasimodo]] about not letting his fear of the outside world hold him back, he quietly adds "Wish I could take my own advice." |
| 274 | * HeroicWillpower: After Sora stabs himself with the dark Keyblade and turns into a Heartless to save Kairi, all hope seems lost for his companions, as Ansem is likely going to kick their asses and kill them anyway... until Riku's spirit leaps out of Ansem's body, holding him off for just long enough that Kairi and the others can escape to Traverse Town. |
| 275 | * HeroicSacrifice: [[spoiler: After all of the other Guardians have been defeated by a Demon Tide in the Keyblade Graveyard, Sora breaks down completely. In order to motivate him to keep going and save their friends from certain doom, Riku faces against the Demon Tide in a LastStand, [[SelfDestructiveCharge defending Sora from the darkness for a few more moments]] before both of them are swallowed up by it as well.]] |
| 276 | * HeterosexualLifePartners: |
| 277 | ** His best friend Sora is the primary example as ''Birth by Sleep'' shows the two have been friends for ''at least'' a decade by the time ''KH I'' happens, long before Kairi ended up on Destiny Islands, and ''Dream Drop Distance'' really highlights how close the two are. However, as seen in the AmbiguouslyGay entry above, exactly ''how'' heterosexual their bond is [[HoYay/KingdomHearts becomes more and more questionable]] with each new game, to say the least. |
| 278 | ** He also developed a similar bond with Mickey after he helped Riku deal with his problem over his inner darkness, to the point he trusted him enough to reveal who he was after being stuck as Ansem and trusted him not to tell Sora and Kairi. |
| 279 | * HorribleJudgeOfCharacter: In the first game, he trusts the ObviouslyEvil Maleficent, believing her words that Sora has abandoned him and Kairi for Donald, Goofy, and the Keyblade, and believing that Maleficent would let him rescue Kairi and leave. |
| 280 | * HumanAliens: Like all human protagonists, Riku can be considered one. Though it's played completely straight in The Grid, as he's a program there. |
| 281 | * {{Hunk}}: Riku is a tall, muscular and handsome young man with more masculine body features than other of the male heroes in the series such as Sora, Roxas and Ventus. Out of the heroes, he only loses to Terra in this department. |
| 282 | * HypocriticalHumor: |
| 283 | ** In the KHII manga, after reuniting with Sora, he tells Sora that [[MenDontCry he shouldn't cry because it's pathetic]]. Cue the shot panning to Riku (while he looks like ''Ansem'') who is a wibbling snotty mess. |
| 284 | ** ''II'' also has him saying (in regards to Donald and Goofy), "Sora never did pick the brightest friends." Depending on who initiated his and Sora's friendship in the first place, [[SelfDeprecation Riku could also be calling himself dumb]]. |
| 285 | * IAmWhatIAm: Riku spends most of [[AnotherSideAnotherStory Reverse/Rebirth]] trying to fight his inner darkness. When he finally decides to use it to save himself, he's called out on it by one of the antagonists--and responds with a reworded version of this trope: |
| 286 | --->'''Zexion''': Heh... After all your protests you're still just another darkling.\ |
| 287 | '''Riku''': I know who I am. |
| 288 | * IDidWhatIHadToDo: In ''Days'', Riku spends the entirety of the scenario chasing after Xion and Roxas and essentially trying to either convince them or force them to destroy themselves because they're made up of pieces of Sora that are needed for Sora to be conscious. Riku does so without hesitation, although it's also clear he's not happy with the situation. |
| 289 | * 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. |
| 290 | * IHatePastMe: Riku has nothing but regret and contempt for his actions in ''KH 1'', to the point that he avoided Sora and Kairi throught the entirety of ''KH 2'' because he felt he didn't deserved to be their friend anymore after his horrible actions and he didn't want to go back to the Islands as he couldn't bring himself to face the others due to being responsible for the world destruction. |
| 291 | ** Seeing Dark Riku in ''KH 3'' makes Riku go from [[BerserkButton calm to angry in a second]]. |
| 292 | -->'''Dark Riku''': I'd say that was our finest hour!\ |
| 293 | '''Riku''': No, my hour of weakness! |
| 294 | * IJustWantToBeBadass: Riku swung this way in his younger days. He just wanted to be strong enough to protect his friends. Ten years later, growing dreams of glory and adventure made him swing more towards IJustWantToBeSpecial. |
| 295 | * IJustWantToBeSpecial: Spent his entire life -- literally ever since he was a toddler -- dreaming of adventure and power, utterly convinced his destiny absolutely ''must'' lie beyond his little island town. When his best friend, Sora, turns out to be the hero instead, it gives Riku his StartOfDarkness. |
| 296 | ** He actually ''was'' intended to get the Keyblade first instead of Sora; rather, he was rejected because he unwittingly made a DealWithTheDevil with Xehanort, so he lost out on his chance just because he leapt at the call too soon. |
| 297 | * IJustWantToBeYou: Riku was always the cool one, the strong one, the popular one, and the special one, but, in a little twist, he's spent his life intensely jealous of his best friend, Sora, for his simple mind and easy-going personality. And when it becomes clear that Sora, not Riku, is the hero of the story, Riku's envy finally [[StartOfDarkness drives him off the deep end]]. |
| 298 | * InspirationalMartyr: [[spoiler: Sora's conversation with the Nameless Star in the Final World more or less confirms that while Kairi is the reason Sora retains his body, Riku's HeroicSacrifice against the Demon Tide is the reason his heart survived and kept him from losing all hope (a point that is made clearer in the [[LostinTranslation original Japanese dialogue]]).]] |
| 299 | * InTheHood: Spends most of ''II'' like this, [[JustifiedTrope as he didn't want Sora and Kairi to see what he has become after using the power of darkness.]] |
| 300 | * IneffectualLoner: After he returns to normal in ''II'', he gets told by Sora that he doesn't have to do everything by himself as he [[PowerOfFriendship has his friends to help him.]] |
| 301 | * IncorruptiblePurePureness: As of ''3D'', he can't be corrupted by the darkness anymore, as he's mastered it. Unusually, this is not due to being without darkness, but rather being able to control it due to repeated use. |
| 302 | * 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 immunity to darkness to back him up. |
| 303 | * {{Irony}}: He wore bright shades of yellow during his struggles with the darkness and his more brooding phases. Come ''III'', representing overcoming those and representing the good aspects of darkness and overall CharacterDevelopment, he wears...black. |
| 304 | * InvisibleParents: Probably the most egregious example of this trope amongst the Destiny Islands trio. Sora has a mom we hear speak offscreen, and in ''Birth by Sleep'', Riku mentions to Terra that Sora's dad rowed them out to the play island. Kairi has her grandma shown in a few cutscenes, and it's stated she's adopted by the mayor of the islands after she arrives during the meteor shower. Riku, however, has next to nothing regarding any mentions of familial relations. The only evidence indicating he has parents is when he tells Sora in the beginning of ''KHI'' that they may never see theirs again. |
| 305 | * IWantMyBelovedToBeHappy: "Take care of her." |
| 306 | * JekyllAndHyde: In an interesting inversion, with "Ansem" in ''II''. Riku took on the appearance of Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, in order to more freely travel between the worlds and keep himself beneath suspicion. |
| 307 | * JerkWithAHeartOfGold: He's not exactly "nice" to people who aren't named Sora, Kairi or Mickey, and even teases Sora a little bit in the first game. However, when the chips are down, he's willing to give up everything just to save his friends. |
| 308 | * JumpedAtTheCall: Wanted more than anything to leave Destiny Islands in the first game, however , Riku's [[DealWithTheDevil attempt to do so]] are what ended up making him [[MissedTheCall miss it]] in the first place. |
| 309 | * KickTheDog: He does lots of these in the Monstro world of ''Kingdom Hearts'', from taking Pinocchio from Gepetto to even accusing Sora of not caring about Kairi twice. |
| 310 | * 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 so deranged that [[ViolenceReallyIsTheAnswer he will ultimately have to stopped by force.]] |
| 311 | * TheLancer: To [[TheHero Sora]]. |
| 312 | ** 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, 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 had ''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''. |
| 313 | * LaserGuidedKarma: Riku suffers for [[DealWithTheDevil his deal with Ansem]] with a TraumaCongaLine that lasts up till the end of ''II''. |
| 314 | * LeaveYourQuestTest: Subjected to a brief one at the beginning of ''Reverse/Rebirth''. He awakens in an empty void described by an unseen voice as being between Light and Dark. He's told that he may remain in safety and security of eternal sleep in the void forever, but is then offered a card depicting Hollow Bastion. By taking the card, he will end the sleep and "take the first step towards the truth", but it will bring him pain. |
| 315 | -->'''Riku''': This seemed like a boring place to take a nap anyway. |
| 316 | -->'''???''': That was very well said, Riku. |
| 317 | * {{Leitmotif}}: "Riku" in ''II''. |
| 318 | * LeParkour: Only in certain areas, such as The World That Never Was (which has questionable physics at best) and the Sleeping Worlds where its Flowmotion allows Riku to traverse their surrounding environments with great ease when he interacts with certain environmental elements. Using Flowmotion, Riku can jump off of walls, grind rails, leap great heights, and dynamically attack opponents. |
| 319 | * LetXBeTheUnknown: In ''KH I'', the straps on Riku's chest form an X. ''[=KH3D=]'' suggests that this was a Recusant's Sigil, considering how Riku got turned into a Xehanort vessel in the first game and how Sora almost became one himself in ''3D''. |
| 320 | * LightLiegeDarkDefender: He and Sora eventually develop this sort of relationship, with Riku as The Dark Defender to Sora's Light Liege. Multiple characters compare them to [[https://i.imgur.com/smXaoww.png light and dark]] over the course of the series, usually stating afterward that you can't have one without the other. As for protectiveness, Riku is more or less Sora's [[TheChampion champion]] at this point. |
| 321 | * LightningBruiser: Fast, strong, and has great offensive and defensive options, both as a boss and a playable character. |
| 322 | * LimitBreak: Riku has "Darkstrom" on the debatably canonical [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 Mission Mode-only]]. It allows him to perform a dash within strands of darkness to attack enemies in the way. In the Final Limit, Riku's weapon is enveloped in light, which he uses to swing at enemies, similar to Roxas's and Xion's Event Horizon Limit Break, although Riku's swings are noticeably slower. |
| 323 | ** We also have Limit Storm in ''Dream Drop Distance'', which allows Riku to perform a spinning attack that deals additional damage if he is low on HP. |
| 324 | * LongHairedPrettyBoy. In all games till ''Dream Drop Distance'', when he cuts it short. This includes his almost-HidingBehindYourBangs, meaning his eyes are now always clearly seen. |
| 325 | * LoveMakesYouEvil: An [[HoYay/KingdomHearts arguably]] platonic example, Riku's protective love of Sora and Kairi in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' ended up what lead to him to turn evil. He desired to save Kairi after she lost his heart and felt betrayed by Sora after being tricked into thinking that he "abandoned" him and Kairi for new friends. |
| 326 | * LoveRedeems: However, it is when Ansem is poised to finish Kairi who had [[YouHaveOutlivedYourUsefulness served her purpose]] that Riku sees the error of his ways. |
| 327 | * MagicallyIneptFighter: Riku rarely ever uses magic outside his unique Dark Firaga spell, this is averted in his playable appearance in ''3D'' and in his playable appearance in ''III'' he can use Thundaga and Curaga but as a party member will go back to only using Dark Firaga as usual. This is also his stat distribution in ''358/2 Days'' being above average in most stats but with poor magic. |
| 328 | * ManlyTears: During his reunion with Sora in the KHII manga, he's crying and snotting, [[BlatantLies he says that he just has a runny nose.]] |
| 329 | * MasterOfUnlocking: His [[SkeletonKey Keyblade]] lets him open pretty much anything. |
| 330 | * MasterSwordsman: Is extremely skilled with both a sword and a Keyblade. Even in his youth on Destiny Island he could easily trounce the other kids wielding a wooden sword one-handed. For more, see AwesomeMomentOfCrowning above. |
| 331 | * MeaningfulEcho: [[RuleOfThree Three times]] in ''Dream Drop Distance''. |
| 332 | ** In Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Riku tells Terra that he's searching for strength to protect the things that matter. After defeating Ansem in ''DDD'', he says "Strength, to protect what matters". This doubles as {{foreshadowing}} to TheReveal in ''III'' of the Dark Figure being [[spoiler:the vessel for Terra's heart, as the guardian [[https://www.khwiki.com/images/c/c9/Strength%2C_to_Protect_What_Matters_01_KH3D.png briefly strikes the same pose Terra once did when summoning his Keyblade]], before Riku reinterates what he'd said to him a decade earlier]]. |
| 333 | ** During his conversation with the digitized Ansem the Wise, this one was intentional on the part of Ansem the Wise, and acknowledged with a grin by Riku. Compare the lines below. |
| 334 | --->'''Ansem the Wise (as [=DiZ=]) in VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII:''' But first, perhaps you could tell me your true name?\ |
| 335 | '''Riku, in the form of Ansem, Seeker of Darkness''': It's Ansem. |
| 336 | --->'''Data-Ansem the Wise, in VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance:''' Young man! I do not believe you told me your name.\ |
| 337 | '''Riku''': [[CharacterDevelopment It's Riku.]] |
| 338 | ** He also repeats his "road to the dawn" line from ''Chain of Memories'' to Ansem SOD and Young Xehanort. |
| 339 | * MeaningfulName: "Riku" is Japanese for "land" and his personality is as strong as it. He is very strong-willed and confident, at times being arrogant. He values his friends deeply and puts protecting them above all else. |
| 340 | * MikeNelsonDestroyerOfWorlds: Riku sort of accidentally-on-purpose doing this to his own world triggered the plot of Kingdom Hearts I. Apparently all he was trying to do was get out and see the universe, and while destroying his world wasn't his intent, calling the darkness forth that did destroy it was a deliberate action so that he could escape his world, which he viewed as a prison. |
| 341 | * MirrorCharacter: Xehanort is also Riku's EvilCounterpart, as they share very similar backgrounds being dissatisfied with life on their tiny world and wanting to see the outside, even if it means delving into darkness. Both lose themselves in darkness in pursuit of his ambitions. Riku however pulled himself back and reformed, while Xehanort kept going deeper into the darkness and was lost for it. |
| 342 | * MissedTheCall: Riku was so eager to [[JumpedAtTheCall rush into adventure]] that he jumped too soon, and at [[DealWithTheDevil the wrong opportunity.]] How soon? The ''second'' after Riku disappears into darkness, Sora gets the Keyblade that Terra had promised for Riku in ''Birth By Sleep''. |
| 343 | * MoreThanMindControl: Embraces the trope wholeheartedly. Supplemented with plenty of scenes detailing his friend Sora's apparent betrayal. Also an example of NotWhatItLooksLike. |
| 344 | ** He also continues this in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'' by fully embracing the dark control in order to put Sora's mind back together. So not only does he stay under the mind control, but ends up reversing it and using it for his and Sora's benefit. Without the other occupant of his mind knowing that. Nice job man. |
| 345 | * MrFanservice: Riku is well-built, never wears a shirt with sleeves, and his ''KHII'' outfit gives the viewer a peek at his naval while his ''3D'' outfit leaves a very noticeable gap between his top and his trousers. When it comes to ''Kingdom Hearts III'', well... just ''try'' not to drool when looking at him! |
| 346 | * MurderTheHypotenuse: Clashes with Sora in the first game, largely because of his obsession with saving Kairi. |
| 347 | * MutualEnvy: At the end of ''II'', he and Sora have a heart to heart and come to the understanding that they were both always jealous of each other, each wishing to be like the other.[[note]]Riku jealous of Sora being better than him[[/note]] When they both realize that they're fine the way they are, this conversation ultimately repairs their friendship for good. |
| 348 | * MyGodWhatHaveIDone: Ever since ''[=CoM=]'', Riku lives with immense regret over his actions in the first game and believes he doesn't deserve to be forgiven by Sora and Kairi, going to the point he was hesitant to return to Destiny Islands because he couldn't face everyone after what he did. |
| 349 | * MyGreatestFailure: He is so ashamed of allowing his heart to be consumed by darkness that he spends an entire game avoiding Sora and reluctant to return home even after Xehanort's shadow is removed and his form returned. Then, in a journey through dreams, he notes that the results of his failure (namely, having his body stolen by Ansem) just keeps coming back to haunt him. |
| 350 | --> '''Riku:''' I gave in to the darkness once. And ever since, it's haunted me in some form or another. The Heartless of the man who stole my body, a puppet replica of the shadows within my heart, and now I'm facing myself. |
| 351 | %% * MysteriousProtector: In ''II'' for both Roxas and Sora. |
| 352 | * NewFriendEnvy: |
| 353 | ** Towards Donald and Goofy in regards to Sora in the first game, which Maleficient [[RivalTurnedEvil gleefully exploits]]. |
| 354 | ** Hinted at in the [[https://imgur.com/a/RPb9Fls exclusive bonus chapter]] of the ''Kingdom Hearts Final Mix'' manga, towards Kairi (as Sora's new friend). It shows Sora and Riku as little kids discovering the Secret Place together, with Sora declaring it their own personal hideout and swearing Riku not to tell anyone about it. A couple pages later, we see a young Riku back in the Secret Place, forlornly staring at the portraits Sora and Kairi have now drawn of each other. |
| 355 | * TheNoseKnows: He has the ability to smell darkness and light, and can differentiate between the light or darkness of different individuals, to the point of being able to distinguish Kairi from Naminé, or to sense Ansem, Seeker of Darkness at a distance. However, this only comes up in ''Chain of Memories''. |
| 356 | * TheNotLoveInterest: Sora's devotion to Riku and determination to find him is one that you would normally expect to see an RPG hero express towards a DamselInDistress LoveInterest. |
| 357 | --> '''Sora:''' Riku... It's Riku. Riku's here! I looked for you. I looked everywhere for you!! |
| 358 | * NotQuiteFlight: When in his [[PowerGivesYouWings Rising Wing]] Link Style in Dream Drop Distance, Riku descends slowly towards the ground, allowing him to glide through the air for a limited time. |
| 359 | * NotSoAboveItAll: Though Riku humbles significantly over the course of the series, he still retains a lighthearted and jokingly arrogant side, referring to Sora, Donald and Goofy as "wise guys" to the Emperor, cracking a joke about Donald and Goofy's intelligence, and calling Sora a "total sap" before joining forces to confront Xemnas. |
| 360 | * NowItsMyTurn: This is Riku's specialty in the first game when you challenge him during the prologue. If you land too many combo hits on him without thinking, he'll rebound with a spring attack and take off a nice bit of your HP in the process. He even says "my turn!" before countering. |
| 361 | ** Makes a reappearance in 358/2 Days in the final boss fight against him. In this case it can happen any time, at random, and the only warning you get is a slightly different sound effect and a flash, before any further hit trips the counter. God help you if you habitually mash the buttons from trying to pull off long combos... |
| 362 | * OhCrap: His reaction when he finds himself surrounded by six members of Organization XIII in the ''Days'' manga, four of whom just pulled a BigDamnHeroes moment. |
| 363 | * OneHandedZweihander: Braveheart, Riku's new keyblade in ''III'' is a fair bit larger and heftier double edged blade compared to his earlier light one handed swords. He still wields it in one hand at all times. |
| 364 | * OneHeadTaller: Platonic example. He's always around a head taller than both Sora and Kairi. |
| 365 | * OlderThanTheyLook: In ''[=KH3D=]'', Riku is 16-17, but spends most of the game in his 15-year-old body. |
| 366 | * PerpetualFrowner: Riku is almost always with a serious expression and he rarely smiles, the scenes where he does though [[WhenSheSmiles are quite heartwarming.]] |
| 367 | * PersonalityPowers: A ByronicHero who primarily wields [[CastingAShadow darkness]]. |
| 368 | * PlayingWithFire: Every Keyblade wielder has fire magic and Riku is no exception,however,he also has a different variation of said magic by mixing it with his control over darkness, creating Dark Firaga. |
| 369 | * ThePoorlyChosenOne: It is revealed that Riku was to be the original recipient of the Keyblade, but when he opened the Door to Darkness in Destiny Islands, plunging that world into Darkness, it instead chose Sora. However, in Hollow Bastion, Riku took the Keyblade from Sora by using the sheer strength of his heart, though when he uses the darkness within himself, his power over the Keyblade weakens and it returns to Sora who had proven the strength of his own heart. |
| 370 | * PostFinalBoss: In ''Days'' for Roxas to Xion's more traditional FinalBoss. |
| 371 | * PowerLimiter: Throughout ''Days'', he wears a blindfold to suppress his dark powers and Ansem's influence. When fighting Roxas and losing, however, he was forced to remove the blindfold; doing so [[ShapeshifterModeLock traps him in Ansem's form]], but he nonetheless manages to one-shot Roxas. |
| 372 | * ThePowerOfLove: In ''DDD'', Yen Sid admits that Riku, having (unwittingly) been in Sora's dreams for nearly their entire Mark of Mastery exam to protect him from Nightmares, is the one with the best chance to wake up Sora at the end of the game. See the second example for ''DDD'' under ActOfTrueLove above for further elaboration. |
| 373 | * 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 much more powerful because he is possessed by Ansem [=SoD=]. And it's not just because it's a DuelBoss... |
| 374 | ** Averted in the later games; however--he later learns to use these powers without being controlled. |
| 375 | * PrideBeforeAFall: His attitude in the first game indicates that growing up he saw himself as TheReliableOne, feeling that he [[{{Protectorate}} was responsible for Sora and Kairi's protection]]. Sora having a Keyblade suddenly leaves Riku without anyone to protect, in addition to his jealousy over Sora's status as TheChosenOne. He does not handle it well. |
| 376 | %% theres a LOT of speculation here, and sora being a heartless after kh1 has pretty much been debunked -> * ProHumanTranshuman: ''Kingdom Hearts: Final Mix'' reveals that his heart was sent to the Realm of Darkness after Sora defeats Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, who was [[GrandTheftMe possessing Riku's body]], in Hollow Bastion. Sora's defeat of Ansem [=SoD=] allowed Riku to prevent Ansem [=SoD=] from corrupting his heart, but that heart was expelled from his body because Ansem fully controlled Riku's body. Therefore, Riku essentially became a benign sentient heartless like Sora did after Kairi restored the latter's heart until Sora reunited with Roxas. He later unwittingly became a Spirit Dream Eater in ''3D''. |
| 377 | * PromotedToPlayable: He had an entire campaign to himself in ''Chain of Memories'', and later in ''Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance'', there are also three sections in ''III'' where you play as him. He is also temporarily playable in ''II'' during a certain stage of the FinalBoss, though with a limited moveset. |
| 378 | * Protectorate: Riku has this for Kairi hard in the first game, and it leads him down the path to the [[RivalTurnedEvil dark side and puts him in conflict]] with Sora. Riku eventually pulls a HeelFaceTurn and adds him to his protectorate, as seen several times throughout most games after ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''— but especially in ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance''. By the time the latter game rolls around, it's more or less confirmed that, while Riku obviously still has a desire to protect all of his friends, the one he's dedicated to protecting the most is [[HoYay/KingdomHearts Sora.]] During their first visit to the Dark World in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', Mickey even directly tells Riku he's finally found the strength to protect [[https://blowingoffsteam2.tumblr.com/post/178486694419/blowingoffsteam2-a-slightly-different the person that matters most]] to him [[LostinTranslation (in Japanese, anyway)]], which is ''very'' strongly implied to be Sora. |
| 379 | * RedOniBlueOni: He's the ByronicHero, calm and thoughtful Blue Oni to Sora's AllLovingHero, impulsive and extroverted Red Oni. Sora is also much more of a straightforward ActionHero that directly takes on any threat to the worlds and his friends while Riku is more of a AloofAlly that works behind the scenes, leaving clues to his allies and protecting them from afar. this is reflected in their clothing. |
| 380 | * RefusedByTheCall: Seems like he refused the Keyblade, which caused it to choose Sora as its wielder instead. |
| 381 | * RequiredPartyMember: During the final battle against Xemnas in ''II'', Riku will be Sora's only remaining party member after the first stage. Like with Jack Sparrow before against Barbossa, [[HeroMustSurvive it's game over if Riku's HP hits zero]]. |
| 382 | * RevengeByProxy: When Sora rejects his WeCanRuleTogether offer in Monstro, he dedicates himself to saving Kairi first to prove his superiority. |
| 383 | * ReverseGrip: In ''II'', he wields Way to the Dawn this way when chasing after [[OurDragonsAreDifferent Xemnas's dragon]] in The World That Never Was in an emergency shuttle and driving, and also wields the Keyblade this way in ''Dream Drop Distance'' when he attempts to strike Ansem, Seeker of Darkness when Riku's pinned down by him. It is unknown if he can actually fight this way, however. |
| 384 | * TheRival: To Sora. They're friendly rivals throughout the whole series. The two would actually keep score of how many wins they had in their competition. But for most of the first game, Riku's jealousy of Sora and his own ambition for strength serves at the catalyst of him falling to the Dark Side, becoming distrusting of Sora and fighting against him due to succumbing to the darkness, being manipulated by [[BigBad Maleficent]] and eventually possessed by [[TheManBehindTheMan Ansem]]. He spends the majority of the next few games atoning for it. After Riku's HeelFaceTurn, the rivalry in general started to die down and the two were more BashBrothers. |
| 385 | * RivalTurnedEvil: He was Sora's rival in Destiny Islands, both in fighting and when it comes to Kairi's affections but after the Islands fell to darkness, he joined Maleficent and became a enemy to him, taken even further after he's possessed by [[BigBad Ansem.]] Being freed from the possession at the end of the game makes him deal with the consequences throughout ''[=CoM=]'' and ''II''. |
| 386 | * TheSacredDarkness: While usually DarkIsEvil and LightIsGood, some parts of the story regarding Riku have felt like this, especially in ''Chain of Memories'', where he's told to accept his darkness and uses it to beat Zexion. |
| 387 | ** By ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance Dream Drop Distance]]'', while the corruptive aspects of darkness are still in full play here, Riku himself has become the living proof of this trope, having become [[AcquiredPoisonImmunity immune to said corruption from so much exposure to it]], thus freely able to wield dark powers while being more of a good guy than he has ever been, showing where [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Terra]] and Sora have failed to conquer, and making Xehanort's use of darkness rightfully look worse by comparison. |
| 388 | * SanitySlippage: Even from the start, there are signs Riku has darkness in his heart, with him sometimes acting like a jerk for no real reason, and even Kairi mentions he's changed as of late. However, after joining with Maleficent and letting darkness into his heart, the influence of darkness starts to warp his mind more and more, making him delusional and violent, and ultimately leading up to his attempts to kill Sora. |
| 389 | * SatelliteCharacter: As "Ansem" in ''[=KHII's=]'' prologue, presumably to hide [[TheUnreveal the obvious twist that it is Riku.]] All he does is repeatedly ask questions of [=DiZ=] in a monotonous voice, allowing [=DiZ=] to [[MrExposition exposit at him.]] |
| 390 | * SaveTheVillain: While there is no instance of this applying to the real Riku in the series, Data-Riku from ''coded'', who currently does not have his own entry on this character page, saves Maleficent and Pete from getting killed by Data-Sora's Heartless. |
| 391 | * SelectiveObliviousness: Through out the first game, he repeatedly ignores all of the obvious evidence that Sora ''didn't'' abandon him and Kairi for the Keyblade, Donald, and Goofy, and is spending every waking moment trying to find them. It isn't until he's [[DemonicPossession possessed by Ansem]], as well as Sora's HeroicSacrifice to save Kairi, that he finally realizes the truth. It seems to be the influence of the darkness, for the most part, that's twisting his mind and making him delusional. |
| 392 | * SelfDeprecatingHumour: |
| 393 | -->''"Sora never did pick the brightest friends."'' '''-Riku, Sora's best friend.'''[[note]]Assuming Sora befriended Riku and not the other way around, anyway.[[/note]] |
| 394 | * ShadowWalker: In ''3D'' Riku gets the unique Dark Roll dodge which has him transform into a shadow to dodge, for his brief playable appearance in ''III'' he retains this ability. |
| 395 | * ShockAndAwe: In his playable segments in ''III'', the only offensive spell he has access to is Thundaga.[[note]]While he can still use Dark Firaga, it's limited to a situation command that acts as a combo finisher.[[/note]] |
| 396 | * SelfDestructiveCharge: Darkness is [[spoiler: visibly erroding Riku's body when he perfoms his HeroicSacrifice at the Keyblade Graveyard]]. He doesn't even flinch. |
| 397 | * ShoutOut: Riku's design in VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII is literally one big shout out to [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV Noctis]]. |
| 398 | * ShutUpHannibal: Just before the final boss when Ansem tries to tell to him that he's irrational for accepting the Darkness in his heart but not Ansem... His response? (Foreshadowed by the fact that Riku has constantly shown an ability to actually smell people's auras). |
| 399 | --->'''Riku:''' Wrong. The truth is... you just really stink. |
| 400 | *** In ''Re:Chain of Memories'', courtesy of voice acting cutscene and Riku drawing his blade halfway through. |
| 401 | ---->'''Riku:''' That's not it. The truth is... ''*[[SummonToHand summons Soul Eater]]*'' I just can't stand your foul stench! |
| 402 | *** Riku delivers another ShutUpHannibal in that scene when Xemnas asks the heroes why they considered Organization XIII to be an enemy: "That's simple. It's because you mess up our worlds." |
| 403 | * SignatureMove: Dark Aura, It allows him to rush enemies repeatedly from all directions in TeleportSpam fashion, finishing by plunging their weapon into the ground, releasing columns of energy radially. |
| 404 | ** ''II'' has a different version of the attack where Riku launches spheres of dark flame at the opponent, a technique similar to [[PlayingWithFire Dark Firaga.]] |
| 405 | * SingleStrokeBattle: Dispatches Rinzler this way in ''3D''. |
| 406 | * SixthRangerTraitor: To Maleficent's group in ''Kingdom Hearts'', after he's possessed by Ansem. |
| 407 | * SleevesAreForWimps: He only wears them when he's in Dark Mode or an Organization cloak. The jacket he wears in ''III'' does have sleeves, but just barely. |
| 408 | * SmugSmiler: Practically all of Riku's smiles in ''Kingdom Hearts'' are done in a smug and condescending manner, it's not until the end of the game where we see a [[WhenSheSmiles genuine smile from him,]] this does not apply to the later games though. |
| 409 | * SmugSuper: After Riku takes Sora's Keyblade for himself, he's quick to taunt Sora over it and rub salt in the wound by giving him his wooden sword, when Sora confronts him later, he taunts him once again over not having a weapon and after Sora says his heart is his weapon, he scoffs it as weak, [[LaserGuidedKarma the Keyblade goes back to Sora shortly after.]] |
| 410 | * TheSnarkKnight: In ''Dream Drop Distance'' where nearly all of Riku's interactions with the Organization members have him being painfully sarcastic with them. |
| 411 | -->'''Young Xehanort''': Once again you performed predictably, although on a grander scale than I imagined.\ |
| 412 | '''Riku''': If you're feeling so chatty, let's skip to where you reveal what this is all about. |
| 413 | * SociallyAwkwardHero: He can talk down to villains any day of the week, but when a cute girl like [[VideoGame/TheWorldEndsWithYou Shiki Misaki]] starts flirting with him, he's at a loss for words. |
| 414 | -->'''Shiki:''' Aren't you my knight in shining armor? Well? (winks)\ |
| 415 | '''Riku:''' K-knight? You've got the wrong idea.\ |
| 416 | '''Shiki:''' (exasperated) Ohmigosh, I was ''so'' just kidding. [[LampshadeHanging You get out much?]] |
| 417 | * SpinAttack: The Maelstrom attack in ''Chain of Memories'', and various attacks in ''Dream Drop Distance''. He can use the vertical variant too, like [[YinYangBomb "Shadowbreaker"]]. |
| 418 | * StealthMentor: He acts as one to Xion in ''Days''. After Xion wakes upon Destiny Islands, she expresses her curiosity about "Sora and that girl he's always with", in which Riku tells her that Kairi is someone very special to Sora. He tells her that she is the reason Sora is unable to wake up because part of his memories are inside of her. Even though Xion is unsure of where she truly belongs and what the right choice is, Riku gives her some time to think about it. |
| 419 | * StockShonenRival: He fits the archetype in the first game. At the beginning of the game he's the stronger, prettier, aloof best friend who competes with Sora constantly and ends up pulling a FaceHeelTurn out of resentment. He mellows out considerably in later installments of the franchise, but remains Sora's angstier foil. |
| 420 | * TheStoic: After ''II'', Riku is a {{downplayed|Trope}} 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. |
| 421 | * StormOfBlades: Riku demonstrates this by shooting copies of his sword Soul Eater at the enemy with his Dark Impulse sleight in ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Re:Chain of Memories]]''. |
| 422 | ** One move in Sora and Riku's [[LimitBreak Eternal Session]] is XIII Blades, where swords revolve around them. |
| 423 | * StrongAndSkilled: Riku attacks very quickly with either weapon in combat in one-handed strikes ranging from thrusts to wide strikes focusing on more on slashing motions. His strength and agility are best demonstrated on Destiny Island, where he is known as the strongest child on the island (Tidus remarked that he, Wakka, and Selphie were defeated by him even after they triple-teamed him), and possesses an athletic springing kick if knocked down. Riku is also shown to be skilled in hand-to-hand combat, as shown in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, in which he easily knocks down a charging Xion with a single punch after dismissing his Soul Eater weapon. Riku showed another glimpse of his strength in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days by defeating Xion with ease and holding his own against Roxas. Riku's strength is acknowledged in ''II'' when Sora and Donald express their disbelief that Riku could be defeated by anyone. |
| 424 | * SummonToHand: Like all Keyblade wielders, he can summon his Keyblades at will. |
| 425 | * SuperpoweredEvilSide: Plays this trope straight in four of the games[[note]](in chronological order: [=KH1=], Chain of Memories, [=358/2 Days=], and [=KH2=])[[/note]], but primarily in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories'' when you can play as him and "Dark Mode" is one of his key abilities. Interestingly, he no longer has one as of ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance Dream Drop Distance]]'', but only because his control over his dark powers has improved to the point where he can use them freely without transforming. |
| 426 | * SuperMode: In ''Chain of Memories''. Once Riku gets 30 Dark Points (obtained by taking damage or breaking enemy cards), he enters Dark Mode, where he is faster, stronger and capable of using an array of special abilities. His regular combo is heavily upgraded as the finishing attack has the opportunity to stun enemies. A quick, clean dash takes the place of his tumble. Additionally, the Holy Burst sleight is replaced with a more powerful Inverse Burst that has a longer duration. Most importantly, Riku has the ability to use three new sleights in Dark Mode by stocking together three attack cards. |
| 427 | ** Riku loses access to Dark Mode by the end of Kingdom Hearts II, due to Ansem the Wise's attempts to convert Xemnas' fake Kingdom Hearts into data failing as the machine explodes which purifies Riku of any of Ansem, Seeker of Darkness's presence. |
| 428 | * SurroundedByIdiots: Literally in Volume Four of the ''Days'' manga, Riku is ambushed by six members of the Organization, and winds up surrounded. His way of escaping? [[Funny/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 Tricking four of them into attacking each other.]] |
| 429 | * SympathyForTheDevil: Even after everything Ansem put him through, Riku shows sympathy for him in his last moments, going as far as saying he thinks he'll miss him, as strange as it sounds. |
| 430 | ** [[SubvertedTrope He's not so forgiving towards Xigbar though.]] |
| 431 | * TakeAThirdOption: Chose "The road to dawn" between darkness and light, instead of wielding just one. |
| 432 | -->'''[=DiZ=]:''' Will you take the road to light — or the road to darkness?\ |
| 433 | '''Riku:''' Neither. I'm taking the middle road.\ |
| 434 | '''[=DiZ=]:''' You mean the twilight road to nightfall?\ |
| 435 | '''Riku:''' No...[[InsistentTerminology it's the road to dawn]]. |
| 436 | ** This statement is pretty much Riku's character arc in a nutshell. |
| 437 | * TakeMyHand: Does this a lot, he makes it his pose in the opening cinematics of both ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'' and ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII''. Also, during ''I'' proper, Riku reaches his hand out for Sora, but Sora and Riku are both swallowed by darkness, and Sora can't reach Riku's hand before he vanishes. |
| 438 | * TakeUpMySword: After Terra meets him and sees his determination to leave the islands so he can grow strong enough to protect his friends and everything he holds dear, Terra chooses to perform the Bequeathing ceremonies with Riku having effectively passed on their roles in the story to them. |
| 439 | * TeleportSpam: In ''Dream Drop Distance'', his Dark Splicer attack and Shadow Slide/Shadow Strike abilities let him do this. His Dark Aura attack is also this as well as his Darkstrom in ''Days''. |
| 440 | * ThinkingUpPortals: From [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI his siding with Maleficent]] to [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII the destruction of the Kingdom Hearts encoder]], he had the ability to form [[OurWormholesAreDifferent Corridors of Darkness]]. He is no longer able to do this due to not being that in tune with darkness. |
| 441 | * ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: Barrage in ''Chain of Memories'' with the Soul Eater, and Strike Raid and some variants in ''Dream Drop Distance''. It works because of the SummonToHand characteristic. |
| 442 | * TokenGoodTeammate: To Maleficent's group in the original ''Kingdom Hearts'', as he only joined her group in order to help Kairi regain her heart, not to take over any of the worlds like the rest of group. |
| 443 | * TookALevelInCynic: Riku was a very arrogant SmugSmiler in the original game, his experiences after though it left him as a BrokenAce that lives in guilt over his past actions. the only reason he even accepted the Mark of Mastery in ''Dream Drop Distance'' was to see whether or not he is worthy of wielding the Keyblade after his past with the darkness. Sora even Lampshades Riku's cynical attitude in ''II''. |
| 444 | -->'''Sora:''' Aw, c'mon, Riku. You've been hanging around darkness for too long. You gotta try and think positive. |
| 445 | * TookALevelInJerkass: In the original ''Kingdom Hearts'', until the LaserGuidedKarma he receives brings him back to his senses. |
| 446 | * TookALevelInKindness: After much CharacterDevelopment Riku is a pretty nice guy to the people he cares about. Especially apparent in ''3D''. |
| 447 | * TooSlow: In ''Re:Chain Of Memories'' where an Ansem-possessed Riku [[FlashStep flash-step]] kills Lexaeus after the latter sent the former flying into the ceiling. |
| 448 | ** Riku sometimes says the quote while using his Shadow Slide counter ability in ''Dream Drop Distance'', which teleports him behind an attacking enemy. |
| 449 | * 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 ''Ursula'' got a KH-branded figure before he did! |
| 450 | * TrashTalk: He used to do this a lot when he and Sora were younger, he'd constantly taunt him when they're competing on race or swordfighting. |
| 451 | -->'''Riku:''' Giving up already? C'mon Sora, I thought you we're stronger than that! |
| 452 | * TroubledButCute: A BrokenAce with a tendency to [[IneffectualLoner try to do things alone]] that's also a MrFanservice. |
| 453 | * TrueCompanions: Riku may not be Sora but he also has made similar bonds throughout the series. |
| 454 | ** The most obvious examples are Sora and Kairi, his two best friends since childhood and this was shown when they we're both capable of seeing him even after he was stuck in Ansem's appearance. |
| 455 | ** He also has this relationship with Mickey, he's the only one he entrusted with telling who he was after he took Ansem's form, Mickey was also the one that helped Riku with his struggle over his inner darkness in ''Chain of Memories''. |
| 456 | * TurnsRed: During the battle against Riku-Ansem, he shows three examples. |
| 457 | ** After Riku's first life bar has been drained, he will start using a new attack; he'll spin around while swinging his Keyblade, similar to Sora's Vortex. He uses this attack very often, mostly to break Sora's combos. |
| 458 | ** 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 Dark Aura. |
| 459 | ** When Riku's health bar drops to his final one, he'll become more aggressive and uses Dark Aura very often, telegraphed by him announcing, "Behold the power of darkness!" or "Open your heart to darkness!". |
| 460 | * TwoRoadsBeforeYou: At the end of ''Chain of Memories,'' this is asked to him by [=DiZ=]. He says that he'll TakeAThirdOption and [[HeelFaceTurn walk the road to dawn]]. |
| 461 | -->'''Ansem:''' Will you take the road to light, or the road to darkness?\ |
| 462 | '''Riku:''' Neither. I'm taking the middle road.\ |
| 463 | '''Ansem:''' You mean the twilight road to nightfall?\ |
| 464 | '''Riku:''' No... The road to dawn. |
| 465 | * TheUnchosenOne: [[EarnYourHappyEnding Had to go through a]] ''[[TraumaCongaLine lot]]'' to become a Keyblade wielder again. |
| 466 | * UnderestimatingBadassery: Scoffs Sora's heart as a weak little thing and taunts him before their fight in Hollow Bastion because of him having taken the Keyblade from him, he ends up both losing the Keyblade to him and is defeated in their fight. |
| 467 | * TheUnfettered: A tragic example, but Riku was this in ''Kingdom Hearts'', when he had a goal in mind, he'd do anything to reach it; He called upon the darkness to leave Destiny Islands, destroying it in the process, he joined Maleficent to rescue Kairi's heart and when he wanted to become stronger than Sora after losing to him, he opened his heart to darkness allowing Ansem to possess him. Thanks to his CharacterDevelopment, this is no longer the case in the later games. |
| 468 | --> '''Hook:''' What is Maleficent planning, anyway?\ |
| 469 | '''Riku:''' Who knows? As long as it means getting Kairi's heart back, I couldn't care less. |
| 470 | * UnskilledButStrong: This trope is the reason why Yen Sid puts Riku, as well as Sora, through the Mark of Mastery Test in the first place. While their self-taught styles have served them well to this point, the Keyblade has further secrets they haven't discovered and need to know to prepare for Master Xehanort's return, finishing the exam allows Riku to become StrongAndSkilled. |
| 471 | * UnwittingPawn: All of his actions in ''KH 1'' were due to manipulation from either [[DiscOneFinalBoss Maleficent]] or [[BigBad Ansem]]. |
| 472 | ** Maleficent turns Riku against Sora, telling him that Sora has abandoned him and Kairi for traveling with Donald and Goofy. However, Riku is still highly suspicious of her motives. During Sora and Aladdin's fight with Jafar in Agrabah, Riku takes Jasmine to Hollow Bastion under Maleficent's orders. Maleficent reveals the whereabouts of Kairi's body. She claims that the only way to save Kairi, who appears to have lost her heart to the darkness, is to gain access to Kingdom Hearts. |
| 473 | ** After Riku is defeated by Sora, Donald and Goofy, he 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. |
| 474 | * VitriolicBestBuds: He and Sora have [[https://i.imgur.com/m71qbnE.jpg a bit]] [[https://pa1.narvii.com/6692/9f154dd5b6161836de9d3d85a5485a8548704cfc_hq.gif of this]] together. |
| 475 | * VillainTeleportation: Riku significantly loses the ability to summon Corridors of Darkness once he completes his journey back to being a good guy. ''3D'' shows he still has all his old darkness-based attacks, plus some ''new'' ones, but this ability is still off-limits. |
| 476 | * VillainRespect: After Ansem's death in ''III'', Riku admits he'll miss him and Ansem acknowledges Riku and Sora as being stronger than the darkness, and encourages them to move on and find something new to seek after. |
| 477 | * VocalEvolution: His voice changes subtly over the course of the series. |
| 478 | * WeCanRuleTogether: A variant, he offers to join forces with Sora and find Kairi, being confident they can find and save her together, [[ShutUpHannibal Sora is having none of it and chooses to fight him while blatantly saying Riku is on the wrong side.]] |
| 479 | * WeUsedToBeFriends: Sora and Riku we're best friends and rivals as kids for 10 years or probably more but after Riku is tricked by Maleficent into thinking Sora abandoned him and Kairi, the two become enemies, thankfully they manage to set things straight by the end of the game. |
| 480 | * WeaponSpecialization: Once he gets the Soul Eater, he only ever changes weapons once, when he manages to steal Kingdom Key from Sora. Otherwise, he has always used some permutation of Soul Eater. Eventually, he winds up with a new keyblade called Braveheart. |
| 481 | * WellIntentionedExtremist: In the first game, Riku just wants to save Kairi, despite committing evil deeds to do so. |
| 482 | * WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: Subverted, he seems to have this opinion in ''I'', scoffing it as a "weak little thing" when Sora refers to it as his weapon but in ''II'' he reveals that he was always jealous of Sora's ability to just follow his heart. |
| 483 | * WhatMeasureIsANonHuman: Riku is baffled at Sora choosing to fight him over Pinocchio, coldly referring to him as a puppet with no heart. |
| 484 | ** This is averted in ''[=CoM=]'' after he defeats his replica as Riku tries to comfort the dying Replica, even promising that his soul will go to the afterlife just like his own's eventually will. |
| 485 | * WhatTheHellHero: After Mickey reveals to Riku that Aqua was with him back when they sealed the Door to Darkness, but she stayed behind to stop a swarm of Heartless which were chasing Riku, he is outraged by the story and demands to know why Mickey kept this secret. He calms down after Yen Sid explains why he didn't told them though. |
| 486 | ** He also delivers these to Sora in [=KH1=], however, Riku's WTH's to Sora, in contrast, show how selfish, twisted, and [[SanitySlippage downright mad]] he was becoming, accusing Sora of not caring about Kairi even though the very first thing he did upon reuniting with Riku was to ask him where she was, and trying to guilt-trip Sora for choosing to fight him over a little boy ''he's'' holding hostage. |
| 487 | ** After working closely with Ansem to restore Sora's memories, [[EveryoneHasStandards Riku is disgusted when he orders him to "dispose of" Naminé simply because she is no longer useful to them.]] |
| 488 | * WhereIWasBornAndRazed: Riku saw Destiny Islands as a prison surrounded by water and wanted more than anything to leave it and explore other worlds, this ends up calling the Heartless at the beginning of the series, causing Destiny Islands to get destroyed. |
| 489 | * WhiteHairBlackHeart: A villainous version in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI'', but an AntiHero one from ''Chain of Memories'' through ''Dream Drop Distance''. |
| 490 | * WreckedWeapon: In ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', Way to Dawn is broken from the top portion of the blade when facing a Demon Tower, requiring Riku get a new blade. Riku plants the ruined Keyblade in the sand of the Dark Ocean. |
| 491 | * YinYangBomb: On his own he doesn't typically use much light oriented abilities with his darkness ones, but teamed with Mickey or Sora he can do {{Combination Attack}}s combining their prowess with the light with his with the dark. |
| 492 | * YouAreBetterThanYouThinkYouAre: He receives a lot of this from [[AllLovingHero Sora]] and [[TheGoodKing Mickey]] to help him deal with his struggles over his past actions and his inner darkness. |
| 493 | ** ''III'' turns it around, having Riku give one to Sora after his [[HeroicBSOD breakdown]] about him being nothing without his friends after everyone besides the two are dragged by the Heartless in the Keyblade Graveyard. |
| 494 | * YouAreWorthHell: Feels this way about both Kairi and Sora. He's perfectly content to walk the path of darkness if it means keeping them safe, and at the end of ''II'' he seems to accept dwelling in the Realm of Darkness with relative ease, seeing as how Sora is there with him. |
| 495 | -->'''Riku:''' If the world is made of light and darkness...we'll be the darkness. |
| 496 | * YoungerThanTheyLook: After embracing the power of darkness to defeat Roxas at the end of ''358/2 Days'', he gets [[ShapeshifterModeLock Shapeshifter Mode-Locked]] in the form of "Ansem", Seeker of Darkness and ends up looking like a ~30-year old man when he's actually a 16-year old boy. |
| 497 | * YouRemindMeOfX: He gets this with both Xion and Roxas, which especially hurts his conscience given that he's trying to wake Sora, and they can't exist if Sora's to be woken. Xion is a double whammy for him since not only is she ''part'' of Sora, she physically resembles Kairi, and they are both people Riku holds dear. Roxas only resembles Sora facially, but Roxas's fight with Riku gets more personally charged when Roxas ends up quoting something only Sora would say. |
| 498 | [[/folder]] |
| 499 | [[folder:Kairi]] |
| 500 | !Kairi |
| 501 | |
| 502 | [[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/dybtzvyuyaadcm_tv.png]] |
| 503 | [[caption-width-right:350:''[[TookALevelInBadass "This time, I'll fight!"]]'']] |
| 504 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Kairi as she appears in ''Kingdom Hearts'' and ''Chain of Memories'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/406_6star_kh_kairi_render.png[[/labelnote]]]] |
| 505 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Kairi as a child in ''Kingdom Hearts'' and ''Birth by Sleep'']]https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/614_5star_young_kairi_render.png[[/labelnote]]]] |
| 506 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Kairi as she appears in ''II'']] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/316_6star_kh_ii_kairi_render.png[[/labelnote]]]] |
| 507 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Kairi in her school uniform]] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/497_5star_uniform_kairi_render.png[[/labelnote]]]] |
| 508 | [[caption-width-right:350:[[labelnote:Click here to see Kairi as she appears in ''Melody of Memory'']] https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/1922_7star_sn___mom_kairi_b_render.png[[/labelnote]]]] |
| 509 | |
| 510 | !!!'''Voiced by:''' Risa Uchida (Japanese), Creator/HaydenPanettiere (English, ''KHI'', ''KHII'', ''Birth by Sleep''), Creator/AlysonStoner (English, ''Re: Chain of Memories'', ''358/2 Days'', ''0.2 Birth by Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage-'', ''KHIII'', ''Melody of Memory'')\ |
| 511 | '''Young Kairi voiced by:''' Creator/SumireMorohoshi (Japanese), Creator/ArielWinter (English) |
| 512 | !!!'''Appearances''': ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsI I]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsChainOfMemories Chain of Memories]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII II]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts358DaysOver2 358/2 Days]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Birth by Sleep]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsCoded coded]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts3DDreamDropDistance Dream Drop Distance]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHearts02BirthBySleepAFragmentaryPassage 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage-]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII III]] | [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsMelodyOfMemory Melody of Memory]]'' |
| 513 | ->''"Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you."'' |
| 514 | \ |
| 515 | A close friend of Sora and Riku who came to Destiny Islands from Radiant Garden, which sparked their interest in other worlds. She's one of the Seven Princesses of Heart, meaning she bears no darkness in her heart. Though she mostly remains out of the fighting, she's plucky, determined and courageous in her own right, and eventually acquires her own Keyblade. |
| 516 | |
| 517 | ->''For more information on Princesses of Heart, see Characters/KingdomHeartsSupportingDisney.'' |
| 518 | ---- |
| 519 | * ActionGirl: The games teased she had the potential to be one for a looong time before she earned it [[TookALevelInBadass and then some]]. |
| 520 | ** In ''II'', Kairi is willing to fight Saïx with her bare hands before Riku intervenes on her behalf, and when she sees Sora get dogpiled by several Shadow Heartless, [[ViolentlyProtectiveGirlfriend Kairi]] tells them to "Leave Sora alone!" and jumps off the castle balcony. Her rashness does get her overwhelmed by a group of Shadows, but the instant Riku hands Kairi a Keyblade, she cuts down at least two Shadow Heartless despite having no known prior fighting experience. She doesn't get to join Sora as a party member like Riku does, but this is forgivable since they are facing endgame bosses and Kairi's green as grass. |
| 521 | ** She spends most of ''III'' training with Lea under Merlin, and sparring against Lea, who was once Organization XIII's assassin. Even though she comes off as a FauxActionGirl in the vanilla game, she still does join Sora's party fighting Saïx, her former kidnapper and TheDragon to ''II's'' FinalBoss, and Xion, a Keyblade-wielder who was the FinalBoss of ''Days'' and is currently [[PowerCopying copying]] Saïx's [[TheBerserker berserker]] abilities. After [[BladeLock locking blades]] with her, Kairi even manages to physically SHOVE Xion away from her. During the time Kairi is a member of Sora's party, she is shown to be a MagicKnight with [[PlayingWithFire Flower]] [[LightEmUp Shot]], [[SpinAttack Spiral Blossom]] and [[HealingHands Cura]]. Unfortunately, she gets to participate in only one fight (aside from killing a few Heartless in a cutscene); see FauxActionGirl below for details. |
| 522 | ** Solidified at last in ''Re:Mind'', which shows she is able to put former FinalBoss Xemnas on the defensive prior to him having to drain her energy in order to kidnap her, and later takes on Armored Xehanort as either a party member or a playable character as a full-fledged BattleCouple with Sora. |
| 523 | * AdaptationalBadass: In the ''II'' manga, less from any real changes to her and more because she gets more screen, er, panel time to show her stuff. |
| 524 | ** The most notable instance is her imprisonment in The Castle That Never Was. Like the game, she still has to be rescued by Naminé Unlike the game, however, she actually got HERSELF and Pluto out first on her own, with a little improvised and near-perfect trickery of the Dusks that Demyx (who actually survives up to this point in the manga) left to guard her. She only blew her cover that very instant because she vocally thanked them, tipping the Dusks off that despite her wiggling, she wasn't one of them. She DOES get cornered by Demyx just as she’s about to reach THE CASTLE’S EXIT… and then Demyx sends his Dusks away and pathetically pleads her to just come back with him (out of fear of being punished by Saïx). She physically refuses at first, but then, out of (disgusted) pity, relents. THAT is the only reason why she needed Naminé to save her. |
| 525 | ** In addition, she openly pulls an EyelidPullTaunt on Axel on Destiny Islands, and is active alongside Riku-Ansem and Sora against Xigbar. |
| 526 | * AdaptationalPersonalityChange: Her personality is changed to that of a type-B {{Tsundere}} in the ''Kingdom Hearts II'' manga adaptation, where she is more prone to anger even toward the people she cares about. |
| 527 | * AdvertisedExtra: She appears on the main art of ''Coded'', but there is no Data version of her at all, and the real one's only appearances are in a flashback and the ending, and she doesn't have any lines in either scene. |
| 528 | * AllLovingHeroine: Kairi is caring, kindhearted, and courageous, as she repeatedly puts herself in harm's way to help Sora when he's in trouble despite her minimal combat experience and immediately accepts Riku even with his actions in ''Kingdom Hearts'' and him being stuck in the form of the man who tore out her heart. Kairi's heart is one of the few filled only with pure light and goodness, despite darkness and evil residing in almost every heart, even most Keyblade-wielders like Sora and Riku. Kairi is also very charismatic, quickly befriending Hayner, Pence, and Olette in Twilight Town before being kidnapped by Axel. The closest we get to her disliking somone is her being shocked to hear her partner in Keyblade training will be Lea, Axel's original form, she is a little scared of him because he kidnapped her when he was Axel. However, Kairi warms up to Lea as their training progresses and they start getting to know each other, seeing him as someone she can't bring herself to hate when she learns that he also has a friend that he is trying to save. |
| 529 | * AlwaysWithYou: ''"Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you."'' |
| 530 | * AmnesiacHero: Kairi remembers nothing about her time spent as a child growing up in Radiant Garden under the custody of her grandmother, by her own admission. Due to Radiant Garden being overcome with and corrupted by Heartless. |
| 531 | * TheArtifact: Since the Princesses of Heart stop becoming important after ''I'', so does Kairi. She is by far the least important member of the Destiny Islands trio. ''III'' does reinstate her as a major character again, but in a different role. |
| 532 | * BackFromTheDead: She's shattered by Xehanort in order to motivate Sora into attacking him but she is saved by Sora and brought back to life. This, however, results in Sora vanishing. |
| 533 | * BadassAdorable: Kairi has always been a very cute and brave girl, but it's only as of ''Re:Mind'' that she has become an undeniable '''''badass,''''' able to go toe-to-toe with Xion, Xemnas, and Armored Xehanort and even overpower them (hell, Xemnas has to go out of his way to trap her and drain her energy before he can risk trying to grab her!). All while armed with a flowery Keyblade named Destiny's Embrace that makes jingly sounds when she uses it. |
| 534 | * BarrierMaiden: As a Princess of Heart, her heart is one of the seven needed to open the Final Keyhole and get to Kingdom Hearts. In ''III'', she is the only one out of the seven from ''I'' who stays a Princess while the other six are replaced by new ones, and is one of the Seven Guardians of Light to boot. This means Xehanort needs Kairi for Plan A and Plan B... though it doesn't stop him from killing her in front of Sora to upset him, since he can just [[BackFromTheDead bring her back]] if needed. |
| 535 | * BattleCouple: With Sora in ''Re:Mind''. The two of them fight Armored Xehanort together as the FinalBoss of the DLC's story campaign. |
| 536 | * BeautyEqualsGoodness: A cute redheaded teen who's a [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Princess of Heart]]-turned-[[ActionGirl Guardian of Light]]. |
| 537 | * BeehiveBarrier: Like Aqua and Riku, Kairi guards with a barrier rather then using her Keyblade to deflect. |
| 538 | * BeCarefulWhatYouWishFor: Kairi was eager to finally be a Keyblade wielder and help them in the fight, though come the second Keyblade War she's completely overwhelmed by the powerful XIII Seekers of Darkness and she can only stare in fear as Terra-Xehanort prepares to kill her, requiring her to be saved by Donald and Goofy. Later on she helps Sora and Lea against Saïx and Xion but is easily knocked away by the former before being held hostage by Xemnas and later shattered by Master Xehanort to enrage Sora. Although she gets better, it comes at [[HeroicSacrifice a cost]] that she will probably regret for the rest of her life. [[DownplayedTrope This becomes heavily downplayed]] in ''Re:Mind'', in which only the part about Terra-Xehanort still applies. Afterward, she is shown not to be overwhelmed by the Seekers of Darkness to the point where she goes toe to toe with Xemnas ''after'' the point of being knocked down by Saïx, and it takes him draining her energy before he can kidnap her. Once Sora restores her, she also helps to defeat Master Xehanort, and even the cost Sora pays lacks the punch it had before because Kairi is made aware of it in advance, Sora spends as much time with her as possible before it happens, and she already has a plan in mind for bringing him back once he finally fades away. |
| 539 | * BigWhat: When Kairi's told she'll be training alongside Lea, clarified to her that it's Axel, she's shocked and offended considering that her last interaction with Axel was him ''kidnapping'' her. |
| 540 | * BlondeBrunetteRedhead: The Redhead to Naminé’s Blonde and Xion’s Brunette. She is also the redhead to Sora (brunet) and Riku (blond, through his silver-white hair). |
| 541 | * BoyishShortHair: In the first game, she has long bangs with a short haircut that barely grazes the back of her neck, and is shown to be OneOfTheBoys with her friends Sora and Riku. A year later in ''II'', it's [[LongHairIsFeminine grown out to her shoulders]], not unlike [[LiteralSplitPersonality Naminé's]], and accompanies an outfit change to a {{minidress|OfPower}} in {{pink|MeansFeminine}}. In ''III'', she splits the difference by getting a new haircut which is longer than her original one but shorter than her previous one. |
| 542 | * ButtMonkey: Poor Kairi suffers a lot. She gets kidnapped in ''I'', ''II'', and ''III'' and never actually fights alongside Sora [[IJustWantToBeBadass and just wants to be strong and help her friends]]. In the third game, she trains to become a keyblade wielder, only to get kidnapped ''the third time'', [[spoiler:[[KillTheCutie and gets turned into crystal and shattered by Xehanort to motivate Sora into fighting]]]]. |
| 543 | * CantCatchUp: It becomes apparent from ''Re:Mind'' on that, while Kairi does have skills, it's still not quite enough to come close to defeating a years old Keyblade Master like Master Xehanort on her own. [[spoiler:At the end of ''Melody of Memory'' she decides it's best she stay behind to focus on her training while Riku goes off in search of Sora. In the Secret Ending she tells Yen Sid that she'd like to train under Aqua, so you know she's in good hands.]] |
| 544 | * CatEaredHood: Kairi has a pair of black cats ears sewn to the hood of her dress in ''III'' just for cuteness sake. |
| 545 | * CharacterDeath: Xehanort shatters her at the climax of ''III''. Though not literally dead, she is in a state between life and death and can only be retrieved by the Power of Waking, which ends up being the subject of the ''Re:Mind'' DLC scenario. |
| 546 | * CharacterDevelopment: [[DownplayedTrope Not as much as some other characters]] but still present. In ''Kingdom Hearts II'', she becomes more mature and is saddened by Sora's absence, but obtains wisdom beyond her age, notably different from the girl who was so anxious about her life changing back in the first game. She is not as brash and bold as she was in the first game, but is still sociable, as she quickly befriends Hayner, Pence, and Olette in Twilight Town. And in the ''Re:Mind'' DLC of ''Kingdom Hearts III'', she comes into her own as a Keyblade wielder and equal partner to Sora ([[ShipTease in all meanings of the word.]]) |
| 547 | * CheerfulChild: As seen in ''Birth by Sleep'' when she still lived in Radiant Garden, she was a sweet and friendly little girl who thanked Aqua for saving her by giving her flowers, and very happily introduced herself. |
| 548 | * ChekhovsGun: Her necklace seems to be just an accessory she wears, but ''Birth by Sleep'' reveals it's actually much more important than it appears: Aqua placed a protective charm on it, which is what caused her arrival on Destiny Islands and meeting Sora and Riku. |
| 549 | * {{Chickification}}: While she was always feminine, Kairi had a boldness to her that is largely lacking in ''Kingdom Hearts III''. That is, until ''Re:Mind'' [[{{Xenafication}} brought it back and then some.]] |
| 550 | * ChildhoodFriendRomance: With Sora. [[ImpliedLoveInterest Granted]], much of it was all ShipTease for the most part. |
| 551 | * ChildhoodFriends: She's been best friends with Sora and Riku since coming to Destiny Islands as a four-year-old and years later, they're as close as ever. |
| 552 | * CooldownHug: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] when she gives one to Sora when he has been reduced to a Heartless. Although Sora himself isn't rampaging and poses no threat to Kairi, the situation is still dangerous [[TuckAndCover due to the other Heartless]] and it does fulfill the spirit of the trope with Kairi's embrace bringing Sora back to himself at a tense moment. |
| 553 | * CoolSword: The [[FlowerMotif Destiny's Embrace]] [[GirlyBruiser Keyblade]], which doubles as a CoolKey, obviously. It even chimes when she swings it in ''Re:Mind''. Destiny's Embrace seems to be, well, destined for Kairi specifically -- chronologically, Aqua is the first who gets it in ''Birth by Sleep'', but it's Kairi giving her flowers that unlocks it. Eleven years later, it's Destiny's Embrace that Riku just so happens to have to hand Kairi in ''II'' without Riku or Kairi having the slightest idea about Kairi's connection to Aqua or Destiny's Embrace. |
| 554 | * CrissCrossAttack: Kairi's finishing command, Seven Wishes, lets her attack Xehanort from multiple angles in this fashion with a maximum of seven hits. |
| 555 | * CurbStompCushion: [[spoiler:Her fight with Xehanort in ''Melody of Memory''. While she's able to hold her own and manages to trip him up a few times, she's unable to land a single hit on him, and it takes some intervention from Sora to help Kairi defeat him.]] |
| 556 | * CombatPragmatist: [[spoiler:During her fight with Xehanort in ''Melody of Memory'', she manages to trip him up a few times by letting go of her Keyblade and summoning it again whenever he manages to get ahold of her.]] |
| 557 | * DamselInDistress: Three times, one in a numbered game each. |
| 558 | ** In ''I'' she loses her heart when Destiny Islands is destroyed, leaving her body an EmptyShell. The degree of distress is debatable, as both heart and body stay safe with Sora and Riku respectively for the most part. |
| 559 | ** In ''II'' Axel and Organization XIII kidnap her to use as leverage against Sora. This time around, the distress is not debatable... but [[DamselOutOfDistress Sora doesn't play a part in her getting out of it.]] |
| 560 | ** In ''III'', the trope is mostly PlayedStraight, veering into FauxActionGirl territory, and ends up resulting in Kairi being temporarily killed off. Mitigated in the ''Re:Mind'' DLC, where she is showcased as a capable ActionGirl, her kidnapping has a more satisfying setup to it (she actually puts up a good fight against Xemnas and he has to play dirty to pull it off), and she [[PromotedToPlayable becomes a playable character]] upon getting ''un-fridged'' by Sora. |
| 561 | * DamselOutOfDistress: Sora never saves her in ''II''. First, she gets away from Axel by herself, then she gets away from the Organization with help from Naminé... who technically IS her. Better in the manga version, where she got HERSELF and Pluto out on her own, but her jailer (re: Demyx) was so pathetic that she begrudgingly relented to return to her cell. |
| 562 | * DarkAndTroubledPast: Nine years prior to the series, Kairi's hometown of Radiant Garden was consumed by darkness, seperating her from her grandmother. [[spoiler:Kairi herself was experimented by Xehanort before she was sent to the Destiny Islands]]. |
| 563 | * DeathFromAbove: Her Shotlock, Heart of a Princess in ''Re:Mind'', has her conjure motes of light that carpet bomb the area and generate light pillars. |
| 564 | * DeclarationOfProtection: |
| 565 | ** In ''Kingdom Hearts'' when Sora becomes a Shadow Heartless, she protects him from the harmful ones and [[TuckAndCover hugs him close to shield him]], restoring him to human form in the process. |
| 566 | ** Just before the final confrontation in ''III'', she sits on the paopu tree with Sora and [[FriendshipTrinket exchanges vows of protection with him]]. It's even to the extent that, if she's defeated in ''Re Mind'', one of her defeat quotes is "Our promise..." |
| 567 | * DeliveryNotDesired: Kairi writes letters to Sora that she never intends to send to him in ''III''; when Axel points out that Merlin would send them for her, she replies that she writes them more for herself than she does for him. |
| 568 | * DemotedToExtra: Kairi has very little to do the spin-off games released between ''II'' and ''III''. She isn't in ''Days'', barely appears in ''Birth by Sleep'', doesn't have a data version in ''Coded'', and only makes two short non-speaking appearances in ''Dream Drop Distance'' as an apparition, as well as a third in TheStinger as her real self. A joke in the fanbase is how she appears much less than the people considered to be her copies, i.e. Naminé and Xion, with [[BreakoutCharacter Aqua]] basically supplanting her as the series' female lead. |
| 569 | * DesignatedGirlFight: Against Xion in the Keyblade Graveyard. Their movesets are somewhat similar too, but the enemy is capable of mimicking Saïx's weapon and moves as well. |
| 570 | * DesignatedVictim: Xehanort always targets Kairi because, as Saïx puts it, she is the fire that feeds Sora's anger. Even after becoming a full fledged ActionGirl, she still gets kidnapped by Xemnas and then shattered by Xehanort to forge the thirteenth key he needs to complete the χ-blade. Sora even [[LampshadeHanging lampshades]] it afterwards. |
| 571 | * DeepSleep: She voluntarily [[spoiler:allows herself to be put into sleep while Ansem the Wise probes her heart to look for clues to find Sora after ''III'', and has spent over a year in slumber]]. |
| 572 | * DoesNotLikeSpam: Kairi is not fond of mushrooms. |
| 573 | * DudeMagnet: Sora and Riku both want her... as does [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVIII Seifer]] in the ''KHII'' manga. |
| 574 | * EagerRookie: In ''III'' where she is [[JumpedAtTheCall quite enthusiastic]] about being able to finally wield her own Keyblade. Which makes sense; she's had to keep relying on her friends for protection and she's been ripped away from her home and her friends twice (three times, counting ''II''). No doubt Kairi's looking forward to finally being able to stay at Sora and Riku's side as a fellow Keyblade-wielder, and to finally be able to protect herself and everything she holds dear. |
| 575 | * EnergyBall: Her Flower Shot spell in ''III'' is more or less identical to Mickey's Pearl spell, since there is no proper Light element it does [[PlayingWithFire Fire]] damage instead. |
| 576 | * EmptyShell: Her body after losing her heart at the start of ''Kingdom Hearts''. Sora temporarily [[HeroicSacrifice turns himself into a Heartless]] to restore her to normal, and she (recognizing him despite him being a Shadow Heartless) risks her life shortly afterwards when Heartless attack them thereby restoring him to normal because of being a Princess of Heart. Interestingly, all this means Kairi's [[LiteralSplitPersonality Nobody]] Naminé is not born until ''Sora'' loses his heart to darkness; because Kairi's heart is made of pure light and therefore has no darkness it can fall into, her body and soul are not reborn as a Nobody but remain simply empty while her heart stays with Sora. When Sora becomes a Heartless, his body and soul produce ''two'' Nobodies that are born of his heart and Kairi's: Kairi's Nobody (Naminé, who has the power to manipulate Sora's memories and those related to him because of her unusual birth) as well as his own (Roxas, who may have a similar link with Kairi given that he inherited [[LightEmUp light]] as his element and has a brief PsychicLink with her in ''II's'' prologue). |
| 577 | * ElementalPowers: She is the only playable character other then Sora in ''III'' to have every third level spell available, fitting for a girl who trained primarily with fairies and wizards. |
| 578 | * EyelidPullTaunt: In ''Manga/KingdomHeartsII'', she does this to Axel when she escapes with Pluto into the Dark Realm, leading them both to Twilight Town. |
| 579 | * FashionableAsymmetry: Her outfit in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'' gives her a skirt that is pleated on one side and ruffled on the other. |
| 580 | * FauxActionGirl: Infamously in ''Kingdom Hearts III'' and much to fans disapproval after the wasted setup for her [[TookALevelInBadass taking a level in badass]]. Yen Sid decides she will be one of the Guardians of Light and she receives offscreen training to become a professional Keyblade-wielder under Merlin's tutelage and with Lea as a sparring partner, in a place where she can take all the time she needs because of its magic YearInsideHourOutside nature. She emerges only to succeed in defeating basic enemies, showing that for all her training, she doesn't have a lot of experience in life-or-death situations, unlike Sora or the others. Otherwise, she freezes up in fear against Terra-Xehanort and requires protecting, and is only a party member for one fight before being promptly defeated and then kidnapped ''again'', this time leading to the most tragic consequence of being the DesignatedVictim. Luckily, the widespread negative reaction to this led to ''Re:Mind'' subverting this trope, rewriting the depiction of her described above and culminating in the player choosing between her as [[BattleCouple Sora's sole party member]] in a battle with Armored Xehanort... or ''playing as Kairi herself,'' where she gets to show off just how powerful she has become. Once the DLC dropped, Kairi went from being seen as a [[TheLoad laughable]] [[FauxActionGirl weakling]] and a perpetually unsurprising DamselInDistress, to a ''genuine badass'' and got much more respect from the fanbase as a result. |
| 581 | * FlashStep: She can teleport to her thrown Keyblade in a very [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV Noctis]]-esque fashion as a playable character and her Finish Command, Seven Wishes, has her teleport to different angles to assault Xehanort. |
| 582 | * FlowerMotifs: Her Keyblade, Destiny's Embrace, uses one, and she's seen picking flowers as a child in ''Birth by Sleep'' -- in fact, the flowers she gives Aqua unlock the Destiny's Embrace Keyblade for Aqua to use. This carries over to Kairi's abilities in ''III'', where all three of her abilities as a party member are [[PetalPower floral-themed]]. When Sora goes to look for pieces of her heart in ''Re:Mind'', it's found as five petal-shaped pieces. |
| 583 | * FlyingWeapon: The mid portion of her combo has her spin her keyblade rapidly around herself with magic. |
| 584 | * ForgivenButNotForgotten: Her reaction speaks this when told by Mickey that her partner in Keyblade training will be Lea, who she knows as Axel. She needs some reassuring by Riku and Mickey that Lea is no longer the same guy who tried to kidnap her after a long chase through worlds (and inadvertently got her captured by the Organization), and is on their side now. By the time of ''III'', she's warmed up to him enough that she tells him to stop apologizing. |
| 585 | * FriendshipTrinket: Kairi makes a star-shaped charm out of Thalassa shells due to a legend that sailors who carry them will have a safe voyage. She gives it to Sora near the end of the game, and he carries it with him until they reunite at the end of ''Kingdom Hearts II'', the charm acts as the Keychain for the Oathkeeper Keyblade that symbolizes their bond. TheStinger for ''Birth by Sleep'' has her hand it back to him when he heads out on another adventure. The image of the Paopu Fruit acts as one as well, as its legend says that two people who share one are destined to forever have their lives entwined, and Kairi's charm is star-shaped like the fruit. |
| 586 | * GenkiGirl: She's a giggly, playful girl at the start of the first game. [[BreakTheCutie It doesn't last.]] |
| 587 | * GirlinessUpgrade: At 14, Kairi was somewhat brash and bold, but by ''Kingdom Hearts II'', she has become more mature, responsible and wise, although she still retains her tomboyishness and bravery. This is symbolized by her overall appearance; in ''I'', she sports a bob cut and tank top, while in ''II'', her hair has grown to her shoulders and she now wears a dress. This upgrade carries over into ''III'', despite getting her hair cut shorter again. |
| 588 | * GirlNextDoor: On Destiny Islands. She's the third member of the Destiny Trio with Sora and Riku, is their playful and kind childhood friend, and both of them have crushes on her. |
| 589 | * GirlyBruiser: In ''III'' the headstrong Kairi is at her most action oriented (particularly in ''Re:Mind''), and is decked out in a frilly pink dress with a feminine bobbed haircut and a Keyblade with the teeth made from a bouquet of flowers. She also has the most offense-oriented combat style of the trio, capable of performing a corkscrew-spinning ground-to-air combo effective for stunning foes, chaining heavy hits, and being strong enough to completely ''disperse'' Xemnas's Ethereal Blades (which had just blocked and deflected [[TheHero Sora]], [[PurposefullyOverpowered Roxas]], and [[ActionGirl Xion]] moments before he tried to do the same to Kairi) and put him on the defensive for several seconds before he is able to trap her with Nothingness and drain her energy. And later on we have her joining Sora in fighting Master Xehanort, a battle in which she can be the playable character. |
| 590 | * GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak: She's a [[GenkiGirl very giggly]] and social girl, makes her affection for Sora obvious, [[PinkMeansFeminine wears pink]] and her outfits always include a skirt or mini dress, liked picking flowers as a child and her Keyblade has a very flowery and colorful design, and she has a penchant for making jewelry out of seashells. But, in ''Kingdom Hearts'', she's also OneOfTheBoys planning on sailing out the world on a raft with her friends, and sports BoyishShortHair. Even after her GirlinessUpgrade in ''II'' she still wears sneakers with her minidress rather than more girly shoes, and in ''III'' her hair is shorter again and she's upgraded to what look like combat boots. |
| 591 | * GirlyRun: In ''I'' and at one point in ''II''. Bonus points for HoldingHands with Naminé at the same time. Strangely, she has a normal run in the rest of the game. |
| 592 | * GlassCannon: Simply put, she can’t take many hits and can’t move fast enough to qualify as a FragileSpeedster. What she can do is hit things very, very hard, with her moveset being a more balanced version of what Sora uses in ''Ultimate Form''. Story-wise, her offensive power is so high that she can actually break Xemnas's Ethereal Blades, but she lacks the stamina to recover quickly from his draining field. Even as a party member, she's this. She's extremely aggressive with her attacks, and attacks from far away or up close with very little downtime. However, she often runs out of HP in one or two hits, and takes her sweet time getting back up. |
| 593 | * GoodIsNotNice: PlayedForLaughs in the ''KHII'' [[AdaptationalPersonalityChange manga]], where she bites Axel's arm for kidnapping her, and even pulls an akanbe on him. In a later scene, she intimidates Demyx while he's offering her food in her jail cell, which she's only still in since she took pity on him. Axel then shows up to rescue her, after having abandoned her before… something she immediately begins kicking at him for in anger while [[ComplainingAboutRescuesTheyDontLike complaining about how long it took him.]] BewareTheNiceOnes indeed. |
| 594 | * GoodLuckCharm: After they met, Aqua put a protective charm on Kairi's necklace and tells her, "One day when you're in trouble, the light within you will lead you to the light of another, someone to keep you safe". This proves to be very helpful to Kairi as her arrival on Destiny Islands after Radiant Garden became shrouded by darkness was actually due to the protection spell Aqua had cast on her. The spell brought her there either because Ven's heart was there inside Sora (Ven being an IncorruptiblePurePureness and already a Keyblade-wielder) and/or Sora himself (Sora already having a very strong heart able to reach out to others to help them at that age). |
| 595 | * HairFlip: In sense of "Thanks" when Donald praises her for her bravery against the Heartless. It can also be argued she did it to seem cute in front of Sora, given her intake of breath after seeing him. |
| 596 | * HealingHands: As a party member she can cast Cura and as a playable character has Curaga. |
| 597 | * TheHeart: She'd almost have to be, given her status as a Princess of Heart. Sora and Riku's friendship unfortunately unravels in the original game in her absence, in large part because Riku thinks Sora's abandoned them and Kairi isn't conscious to appeal to his better nature, and in ''II'' she is the one who gets Sora to recognize Riku in his transformed state and has them all hold hands with their eyes closed so Sora can "see" Riku's true face. |
| 598 | * HeartIsAnAwesomePower: It lets her bring back Sora after he becomes a Heartless, as well as makes her immune to the corroding effects of the Dark Corridor and is implied to be how her message in a bottle reaches Sora and inspires him to open the Door to Light. Although Kairi hasn't made use of it, six of the Princesses of Heart working together were able to hold back a tide of Heartless that included a ''Behemoth'' using their abilities. There is potential for use, which happens in ''III'', as Kairi prevents Sora from fully dying and she uses light-based magic attacks as part of her Keyblading style. |
| 599 | * HeartwarmingOrphan: She was adopted by the mayor of Destiny Islands after her original world was swallowed by darkness, and her original family along with it. Ouch. Good thing Kairi doesn't remember much about her life before Destiny Islands. |
| 600 | * HeroesLoveDogs: In ''II'', she spends a lot of time befriending Pluto, to the point he willingly chased after Axel after he kidnapped Kairi and comforted her when she was feeling down after both were imprisoned in a cell in the Castle That Never Was, which she responded by smiling and petting him. |
| 601 | * {{Homage}}: Kairi's hairstyle is deliberately styled the same way as singer Utada Hikaru's at the time of each main games release as a secret homage. |
| 602 | * HonoraryPrincess: Like [[WesternAnimation/AliceInWonderland Alice]], Kairi is called a Princess (of Heart), thereby putting her in the same category as many of the Franchise/{{Disney Princess}}es in-game. This is despite her not being royal by birth or marriage. However, she is the daughter of the mayor of Destiny Islands and since Destiny Islands is its own world, it could be argued that Kairi is its "princess" for however long he's in charge. |
| 603 | * HugeGuyTinyGirl: Platonic version; Lea, Kairi's partner in training during ''Kingdom Hearts III'', is much taller than she is. |
| 604 | * IconicItem: Her silver bead-shaped necklace, which she's only seen without when in her school uniform in ''II''. It's to the extent that in ''III'', Aqua is able to recognize Kairi after over ten years by her necklace. |
| 605 | * IJustWantToBeBadass: She dislikes feeling useless, such as when she asked Sora "I can't help?" when she wanted to journey with Sora, making her determined to help fight against the Heartless as a Keyblade wielder. |
| 606 | --> '''Kairi:''' So all of you were out adventuring while I was living a normal life. Why do I always get left out!? You're going to tell me about it later! |
| 607 | * ImpliedLoveInterest: To Sora. Plenty of ShipTease, but nothing concrete that ever confirms it. By the end of ''Videogame/KingdomHeartsIII'', [[spoiler:Sora and Kairi may be taken past implied, as they not only exchange paopu fruits, but are depicted holding hands in public more than once.]] |
| 608 | * ImprobablyQuickComaRecovery: Kairi spends most of the first game in a catatonic state, but upon coming out of it, she is totally fine. Justified in that her heart is what holds her consciousness, and since her heart was inside Sora she was kept safe and made aware of the whole situation going on around her so that she doesn't need to be brought up to speed once back in her body. |
| 609 | * IncorruptiblePurePureness: As one of the Seven Princesses, she has absolutely no darkness inside her heart and can never have any. This means, according to ''Kingdom Hearts'' and ''II'' respectively, she can ward off darkness and cross the Corridors of Darkness as many times as she wishes, because they will never corrupt her. |
| 610 | * TheIngenue: Although, while very sweet, she can also be quite [[LittleMissSnarker snarky]] and headstrong. |
| 611 | * InnocentBlueEyes: Depending on the game, her exact eye color shifts, although it is always some shade of blue and she is an IncorruptiblePurePureness. |
| 612 | * InnocentFlowerGirl: As a child in ''Kingdom Heart Birth by Sleep'', she is shown to have some affection for flowers, as she appears with flowers in her hand and is picking more during the final credits. But she won't hesitate to give them away in gratitude, like giving them to Aqua as thanks for saving her from the Unversed. Also, her Keyblade, Destiny's Embrace, has a floral design. |
| 613 | * IWillFindYou: After a year has passed since she parted ways with Sora and she's found that she (and everyone else on Destiny Islands) mysteriously [[LaserGuidedAmnesia forgot Sora]] in ''II'', she's become concerned enough that she decides she can't just keep waiting for Sora and Riku to come home and decides to go looking for them. Unfortunately she doesn't get to act on it directly before Axel shows up to force her back into the DamselInDistress role. Still, her MessageInABottle makes it clear that she was gearing up to go find Sora and Riku to bring them back home. |
| 614 | -->'''Kairi's Letter:''' ''Thinking of you, wherever you are\ |
| 615 | We pray for our sorrows to end.\ |
| 616 | and hope that our hearts will blend.\ |
| 617 | Now I will step forward to realize this wish.\ |
| 618 | And who knows.\ |
| 619 | starting a new journey may not be so hard\ |
| 620 | or maybe it has already begun.\ |
| 621 | There are many worlds.\ |
| 622 | but they share the same sky\ |
| 623 | one sky, one destiny.'' |
| 624 | ** And in a way, Kairi succeeds -- even though she's already back at Destiny Islands, her letter somehow finds its way to Sora and Riku at the end of the game, even though they're trapped in the Realm of Darkness and don't expect to get out. Sora reading the letter causes the Door to Light to manifest and bring them back to Destiny Islands, meaning in a way, Kairi ''did'' find her boys and bring them home. |
| 625 | ** ''Re:Mind'' reveals that [[spoiler:Kairi is trying to find Sora after he vanished in the end of ''III'', even consenting to be put in a year-long magic coma on the off chance there's a clue in her heart as to where he disappeared to]]. |
| 626 | * IWillWaitForYou: At the end of ''Kingdom Hearts'', she holds Sora to his promise and stays in Destiny Islands, waiting to welcome him and Riku back. She gets her chance at the end of ''II''. |
| 627 | * {{Joshikousei}}: Sports a white-and-blue school uniform in the opening of the second game. |
| 628 | * KillTheCutie: In the near end, she is seen near the cliff unconscious and Master Xehanort puts her up against the cliff and slashes her with his Keyblade, crystallizing her body and shattering her to pieces, [[BreakTheCutie sending Sora to tears]]. [[spoiler:[[BackFromTheDead She gets revived later on when Sora retrieved the fragments]]]]. |
| 629 | * TheLadysFavour: In the first game, Kairi gives Sora her "lucky charm" before he goes off to fight Ansem, with the promise that he'll bring it back one day. Implying, of course, a promise to live through the final battle. Thanks to the way Keyblades work, it also gives him a [[InfinityMinusOneSword pretty decent]] weapon. He does finally return it at the end of the second game. In the secret ending of ''[[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsBirthBySleep Birth by Sleep]]'', Kairi gives her lucky charm to Sora again when he decides to leave Destiny Island after reading Mickey's letter, with the same implicit promise. |
| 630 | * LegacyCharacter: As shown in ''Birth by Sleep'', Aqua accidentally passes her mantle as a Keyblade wielder to Kairi, though she later realizes that fate probably led them together. Like Riku, Kairi's powers do not awaken until more than a decade later. |
| 631 | * LegFocus: Especially noticeable with her ''II'' and ''III'' outfits and their short skirts. |
| 632 | * {{Leitmotif}}: "Kairi". She's also the only character to have one in the first game. |
| 633 | * LightIsGood: She is a Princess of Heart, one of the seven pure lights in all the worlds who can't fall to [[DarkIsEvil darkness]], and is unquestionably a good and heroic person. She aids Sora and Riku in ''I'' and ''II'' even without a Keyblade, restoring Sora's humanity in the first game and her words rescuing them from an eternity stranded in the Realm of Darkness in the second. |
| 634 | * LightEmUp: As a Princess of Heart, Kairi is one of seven girls with a heart of pure light, and after learning to harness her powers as a Keyblade wielder, this light is used in every one of her attacks. |
| 635 | * LiterallyShatteredLives: Xehanort turns her into crystal and shatters her into pieces in the climax of ''III''. |
| 636 | * LittleMissSnarker: She's pretty mischievous and tends to join Riku in cracking a lot of jokes at Sora's expense, especially in ''Kingdom Hearts''. She gets another pretty big moment like this in ''II.8'': |
| 637 | --> '''Kairi:''' Who's this new Riku and where's the old one? |
| 638 | * TheLoad: Poor Kairi's been saddled with the DamselInDistress role in ''I'' and ''II'' through no fault of her own -- she's brave and willing to take action and fight, but was unlucky enough that her special powers just happen to be less combat-oriented than her friends and she kept getting sidelined, making her look unimpressive compared to all the characters in the story who ''did'' get magic weapons and ''can'' fight (though it's worth mentioning that Kairi does end up saving the day in both numbered titles -- she turns Shadow Heartless Sora back into a human, and her MessageInABottle brings Sora and Riku back to the Realm of Light after they'd been trapped in the Realm of Darkness). It hits critical mass in the base game for ''III'' where, despite having trained in a place beyond time so she can grow strong at her leisure, Kairi doesn't make any significant contributions the final battle aside from fighting Xion once, and it becomes outright baffling when she is kidnapped and brought to near-death by Xehanort in order to provoke the final clash needed to forge the χ-blade. This is reversed in ''Re:Mind'', where she not only fights Xion but ''Xemnas'', holding her own against him until he drains her energy prior to kidnapping her. And once Sora brings her back, she plays a pivotal role in defeating Xehanort, and it is Sora going back through time to bring her back that caused many other positive events during the climax. |
| 639 | * MacGuffinSuperPerson: In ''I'', her heart is sought after to unlock the Final Keyhole and access Kingdom Hearts itself due to her status as one of the Seven Princesses of Heart. She gets downgraded to HostageMacGuffin in ''II'', being the hot potato between Axel and Organization XIII as both parties try to use her to manipulate Sora. |
| 640 | * MagicMissileStorm: Her Shotlock in ''Re:Mind'' a large cluster of lightspheres that rain down on enemies. |
| 641 | * MagicKnight: Kairi has a very effective sword-arm and and equal aptitude for spells. |
| 642 | * MagicSkirt: It manages to stay down even during major battles and cut-scenes, but can be [[PantyShot subverted]] in the original release of ''KHII''. |
| 643 | * MeaningfulName: The ''kai'' in Kairi's name means "sea", which [[ThemeNaming connects her to]] Sora ("sky") and Riku ("land"). Incidentally, it can also mean "seashell," and the entire name can mean "nautical mile." Suits a girl who lives on an island surrounded by ocean and makes Sora's GoodLuckCharm out of seashells. It also has relevance to her situation, with Kairi having to endure first being separated from her original home and family and stranded alone on Destiny Islands in her backstory, and now often being separated from her new home and friends. |
| 644 | * MiniDressOfPower: [[DownplayedTrope Downplayed]] at the end of ''KHII'', which sees the pink minidress-clad Kairi getting her own Keyblade and fighting some Heartless in a cutscene, but she doesn't get to fight outside of cutscenes and her main role in the game before that was as a DamselInDistress. She's promoted to a straight example in ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsIII'', where she openly training with the Keyblade and has a new pink-and-black outfit that has a miniskirt. |
| 645 | * ModestyShorts: Due to being in an action-oriented role in ''III'' Kairi has taken to wearing shorts under her skirt. |
| 646 | * MoralityPet: For Riku in the first game, as his primary reason (besides [[GreenEyedMonster jealousy of Sora]]) for becoming an AntiVillain in ''Kingdom Hearts'' is in a misguided attempt to save her. Realizing that Ansem is trying to take Kairi's heart is what enables him to start FightingFromTheInside. |
| 647 | * MysteriousWaif: In the first game, despite her outgoing personality and being the main protagonist's childhood friend. She arrived as an amnesiac refugee from another world, then she loses her new home and is taken by the villains. We later learn that she is one of the Princesses of Heart, seven maidens who are needed to open the final keyhole and the titular Kingdom Hearts, and that she came from the lost world of Hollow Bastion (which was called Radiant Garden by the time she lived there). |
| 648 | * NeverASelfMadeWoman: With the exception of the first game, where she has her own backstory and her own importance to the plot (beyond her friendship with the boys), Kairi's entire role and personality is to be the MoralityChain for both Sora and Riku, and an ImpliedLoveInterest for the former. Even her growth into an ActionGirl still qualifies, because she only gains the skills because of Yen Sid and Merlin, although to be fair this is also the case for Lea. Also, Sora and Riku were self made not out of choice and didn't have a Keyblade Master to guide them full time until ''DDD'', and once she gets her Keyblade in ''II'', she fairs as well as Sora did when he first got a Keyblade. |
| 649 | * NiceGirl: She's a friendly and accepting person, and ''Birth by Sleep'' shows she's been a total sweetheart since she was a child. She doesn't hold Riku's actions in ''I'' against him and not only forgives and befriends Lea despite him kidnapping her as Axel, like Sora with Roxas she recognizes Naminé as her own person and is determined to give her her life back in ''III''. Hilariously turned against her in the manga adaptation of ''Kingdom Hearts II'', where she ALMOST escapes confinement on her own... but against her will feels so bad at the idea that [[IneffectualSympatheticVillain Demyx]] will get punished if she escapes that she willingly (though begrudgingly) returns to her cell to help him out. |
| 650 | * NinjaPirateZombieRobot: A [[EmpathicWeapon Keyblade]]-[[TheChosenOne wielding]] [[IncorruptiblePurePureness Princess]] [[BarrierMaiden of Heart]]. By ''III'', she is both one of the New Seven Hearts ''and'' one of the Seven Guardians of Light. |
| 651 | * NoInfantileAmnesia: Averted. Kairi has little to no recollection of anything before she crash-landed in Destiny Islands at the age of four, including her memories living in Radiant Garden with her grandmother and her brief acquaintance with Aqua and Mickey. Although in the first game, she does end up remembering her grandmother telling her a story, a memory which she shares with Sora. |
| 652 | * NowLetMeCarryYou: When she discovers Sora has turned into a Heartless to recover Kairi's heart and they are about to be attacked by Heartless. |
| 653 | -->'''Kairi:''' [[TuckAndCover This time I'll protect you.]] |
| 654 | * OddFriendship: She ultimately develops one with Lea, the complete Somebody of her former kidnapper, Axel. |
| 655 | * OffscreenMomentOfAwesome: |
| 656 | ** Two potential cool moments for her in [=KHII=] are sadly left offscreen: escaping Axel all by herself, and getting back through the door to Kingdom Hearts to help fight the Nobodies.[[note]]She and Mickey are locked out of it at the start of the battle, but Mickey can come and save Sora and his party if they are defeated by Xemnas on his throne, plus he and Kairi are in combat stances in front of Xemnas after the battle, meaning they got back through. Mickey even addresses her as part of his "you ''all'' did great" line. Although like after her battle with the Shadow Heartless, Kairi's Keyblade is not in her hand, suggesting that she's still too weak to hold it for too long at this point in time.[[/note]] |
| 657 | ** This happens to an almost comical degree in ''III''. Her Keyblade training is entirely off-screen, her fighting a horde of enemies alongside Lea is entirely off-screen, her keeping Sora alive and aiding him in rescuing the others' hearts is entirely off-screen to the point where it's almost an InformedAttribute, and we only see her in action as a party member for one fight, Kairi doing well against Xion before she's overpowered by Saïx, kidnapped by Xemnas, and shattered by Xehanort. Thankfully, the fan backlash against this helped it be reversed in the ''Re:Mind'' DLC scenario, where you can actually play as Kairi in full-on ActionGirl mode. |
| 658 | * PetalPower: Her attacks with Destiny's Embrace emit blue and pink blossoms, as well as gold-glowing flower petals; her SpinAttack lets off a flurry of them so thick it can make it difficult to see her. Her projectile attack is even named "Flower Shot"! |
| 659 | * PinkHeroine: Starting in ''II'', which is also the start of Kairi getting a Keyblade and being set up to take a bigger role in future games as an ActionGirl. |
| 660 | * PinkMeansFeminine: Switches from a tank top and skirt over pants to pink minidresses to coincide with her GirlinessUpgrade. May also be a case of PrincessesPreferPink since Kairi is a Princess of Heart, although it isn't as big a plot point by the time Kairi switches from her original outfit of primarily white-and-purple to her later pink ones. |
| 661 | * PintsizedPowerhouse: This petite teenage girl is a full-fledged Guardian of Light and goes all ActionGirl in ''Re:Mind'' where she hits like a truck. |
| 662 | * PityTheKidnapper: Well, the jailer, rather, in the manga, but she found Demyx's groveling so pitiful that, even after socking him in the face in refusal, she just couldn't stand it and willingly let herself be recaptured. |
| 663 | * PlayingWithFire: Her Flower Shoot ability deals Fire damage instead of Neutral damage like Mickey's Pearl Spell, and she casts Firaga against Xehanort in ''Melody of Memory.'' |
| 664 | * PluckyGirl: As Axel points out, the girl's got a lot of guts. She was even prepared to fight [[TheBerserker Saïx]] unarmed! Her bravery can also be somewhat reckless. Examples of that are when she embraced Sora as a Heartless even though it could be dangerous, when she offered to journey with Sora despite not having a Keyblade, when she jumped into a Corridor of Darkness despite not knowing where it could lead, and so on. |
| 665 | * ThePollyanna: She tries to be positive as often as possible, even though sometimes her inner worries slip out anyway, especially in the original game where an early scene shows that she's near StepfordSmiler territory. |
| 666 | * ThePowerOfLove: |
| 667 | ** After winning a fight and driving Ansem from Hollow Bastion, Sora sacrifices himself using the Keyblade of heart to free Kairi's heart, and is turned into a [[TheHeartless Shadow Heartless]]. Awakened as her heart is finally restored, Kairi runs towards him, but as soon as her fingers touch him, he vanishes. Refusing to believe that Sora is gone, Kairi prepares to fight the Shadow Heartless that surround her, along with Donald and Goofy. However, once Ansem reappears and Riku's spirit stops him from attacking Kairi, she flees. Devastated, she, along with Donald and Goofy, attempt to escape from Hollow Bastion. But just as they are cornered by the Heartless, she recognizes Sora's Heartless from the crowd and manages to bring Sora back from the darkness by embracing him and promising to protect him. |
| 668 | ** Again in ''III'', as Sora gets taken away, he is sent to The Final World, a world of limbo where a heart goes when it dies but is clinging on to something from life. When Sora encounters Naminé, she states that Kairi is the one clinging onto him, preventing his death. After Sora encounters Kairi, they happily join hands upon their reunion. Kairi then tells Sora that she believed he wouldn't fade away, and that saved him. |
| 669 | ** In ''Re:Mind'', Sora and Kairi's CombinationAttack ''One Heart'' has this vibe, the two of them Formchange their keyblade into a wing each and then assault Xehanort while holding hands. |
| 670 | * PrincessProtagonist: Kairi is the main female lead due to her importance to [[TheHero Sora]] and at long last becomes one of the few playable female characters in ''Re:Mind''. The first ''Kingdom Hearts'' also establishes that she is one of what's called the [[BarrierMaiden Seven Princesses of Heart]], making her an HonoraryPrincess. |
| 671 | * PromotedToPlayable: After 18 years of being a FauxActionGirl at best and an outright DamselInDistress at worst, ''KHIII: Re:Mind'' made her not only finally playable, but playable in a fight against ''Xehanort himself!'' (Albeit with [[BattleCouple Sora by her side]], but still.) |
| 672 | * ProtectiveCharm: Aqua placed one on her necklace that brought her to Destiny Islands when Xehanort cast her into the darkness between worlds as a child. |
| 673 | * {{Protectorate}}: Sora puts everyone he's close to high on the list of things to protect, but none morose than Kairi. Also, Riku has this for Kairi hard in the first game, and it leads him down the path to the [[RivalTurnedEvil dark side and puts him in conflict]] with his childhood friend Sora. Riku eventually pulls a HeelFaceTurn and adds him to his protectorate, while still looking out for Kairi. |
| 674 | * PowerGivesYouWings: ''One Heart'', Kairi's team-attack with Sora have them each formshift their keyblade into a wing with which they fly together and [[RazorWings attack with]]. |
| 675 | * RaisedByGrandparents: Implied. The only parental figure she is seen with back in Radiant Garden is her grandmother, in both the original ''Kingdom Hearts'' and ''Birth by Sleep''. |
| 676 | * ShipTease: |
| 677 | ** While sharing a deep friendship with Sora and Riku, Kairi seems to be particularly important to Sora. Kairi's feelings for Sora have been hinted at several times. She jokes about her and Sora taking the raft, just the two of them. She embraces Sora's Heartless as the other Shadows jump on them. She gives him her Wayfinder in hopes it will bring him back to her. The face sketch on said Wayfinder resembles Sora. She sheds a tear when she sees that Sora added a paopu fruit to their drawings of each other they did as kids, and even adds another. Kairi was the only person on the Islands to have any recollection of Sora, and felt guilty that she couldn't remember his voice, face, or even his name. When Kairi tells the Twilight Trio about how she was looking for Sora, Olette says that it was "a romantic story". When Saïx asks her if she wanted to see Sora, she answers "I do, more than anything." After reuniting with Sora, she hugs him, confirming it's really him, while Donald and Goofy looked on as if they were intruding, with pleased smiles on their faces. When Sora tells her that he has to leave again, she just smiles and, once again, gives him her Wayfinder. |
| 678 | ** It's at it's strongest in ''III'' where, while training with Lea, she states while writing a letter to Sora that she likes to talk with him even if its on paper. Her feelings for Sora were hinted at the day before their final battle. While Sora and Kairi are sitting on the paopu fruit tree, she hands him a paopu fruit. She states that she wants to be a part of Sora's life no matter what. After both of them promise to keep each other safe, they exchange paopu fruit. When Sora finds himself near death in Limbo, it was revealed by Naminé that Kairi was the person keeping his body from completely fading away into the afterlife. When Sora finds her, they happily join hands. Kairi states that she believed that he wouldn't give up. When Sora states he feels strong with her, she looks away and holds his hand to proceed with their final battle. And that's to say nothing of ''Re:Mind'', where their relationship becomes the primary focus. |
| 679 | * ShootTheShaggyDog: Kairi spends the majority of ''KHIII'' training with Lea be the remaining Guardians of Light, wanting to join Sora to take on Organization XIII. She also wants to bring back Naminé. When Kairi finally fights with Sora against Saïx and Xion, Xemnas intervenes by kidnapping her claiming that they don't need her as one of the Guardians anymore once Xion snaps out of it. At the end of it all, Kairi gets shattered by Xehanort for the purpose of enraging Sora and Kairi isn't the one to rescue Naminé, leaving her resolve completely pointless. This is undone in ''Re:Mind'', where her training has the anticipated pay-off ''and'' she plays an active part in restoring Naminé at the end. |
| 680 | * ShortTeensTallAdults: She's about the same height as Sora in ''II'', making her just around 5'2" and therefore dwarfed by practically every adult character in the game. |
| 681 | * SingleTear: At the end of ''I'', after seeing Sora's addition to the paopu drawing. |
| 682 | ** In the ending of ''III'', she sheds a single tear when she realizes that Sora's time is due and he will disappear right before her eyes. |
| 683 | * SkilledButNaive: In ''III''' Kairi's training with the three good fairies and Merlin has imparted her with great skill in both swordplay and sorcery but her callowness in battle is her downfall to many of her more experienced opponents. True to form, many of her battle quotes are psyching herself when facing enemies. |
| 684 | * SpinAttack: One of her special attacks as a party member is Spiral Bloom which lets her pirouette at an enemy or in an upward angle with her Keyblade. When playable this becomes one of her combo finishers. |
| 685 | * SpectacularSpinning: One of her favorite attacks in ''III'' is a jump forward while performing a corkscrew attack in the air for multiple hits, which is incredibly effective at juggling enemies in the air. |
| 686 | * StandardFemaleGrabArea: Axel easily kidnaps a struggling Kairi in ''KHII'' by grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her away. |
| 687 | ** Justified in ''III''. Though Kairi is now a Keyblade wielder, there's not much that she can do when [[VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII Xemnas]] (a person much larger and taller than she is) restrain her by ''painfully TWISTING HER ARM'' upwards so that her elbow juts out at an awkward angle, and he promptly disappears through darkness, ''especially'' once ''Re:Mind'' [[{{Retcon}} changes things around]] so that he had drained her energy beforehand with a Nothingness attack. |
| 688 | * StarCrossedLovers: Or at least what amounts to this trope for a [[NoHuggingNoKissing series like this]]. Since the first game, whenever it seems like Kairi and Sora will be together, something happens to keep them apart. An upset Sora [[LampshadeHanging Lampshades]] is at the end of ''III''. Sure enough, by the end of that game, Kairi and Sora are not together. |
| 689 | -->'''Sora''': My whole journey began the day I lost her. And every time I find her... she slips away again. |
| 690 | * StayInTheKitchen: She tends to suffer from this. |
| 691 | ** In the first game, Sora does this with her, claiming that coming with him to the final world was "too dangerous" and that she "would kinda be in his way". |
| 692 | ** Thankfully, in ''II'', Kairi gets to participate in the final world and fight the Heartless with a keyblade given to her by Riku. Justified in the first game in that Kairi was unarmed, had no combat experience, and no way of defending herself. At worst, the scene was misplaced, as it would have fit better in regards to going to End of the World than Hollow Bastion (where all the other unarmed, lacking in combat experience Princesses of Heart are just fine hanging out at). By the second game, Kairi has a year to become more athletic... plus access to a weapon of her own. |
| 693 | ** Despite the ending of ''II'', in the secret ending for ''BBS'', Kairi has to stay behind while Sora and Riku leave again for the Mark of Mastery exam, which seems fine until you remember that in the main story, the similarly novice Keyblade wielder Ventus was able to attend ''his'' friends' exam as a spectator, so it's bizarre that Kairi can't do the same for hers. At least there's still the justification that someone has to stay behind and keep the island safe. |
| 694 | * StrangerInAFamiliarLand: Possibly the reason why she decides to stay in Destiny Islands as opposed to moving back to Radiant Garden. When she became a castaway in the former, she lost all of her memories and recognizes none of the latter. Radiant Garden might be her birthplace, but Destiny Islands is the only place she can call home. |
| 695 | * SummonToHand: Played straight and [[InvertedTrope Inverted]]. Kairi can summon her Keyblade just like any other wielder. In addition, her version of [[ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks Strike Raid]] has Kairi summoning ''herself'' to her Keyblade to chain into combos. |
| 696 | * SwordOverHead: A very unique and weaponless instance in the ''KHII'' manga. An entire issue is dedicated to telling the story of Kairi's attempt to escape captivity in the World That Never Was. She almost succeeds, but Demyx, who was instructed to guard her on the pain of death, begs her to return to her cell after multiple bites to the face of Pluto. She is initially incredulous that Demyx would be executed for failure, but in the end, she complies out of pity after he falls to his knees and starts bawling. |
| 697 | * TargetedToHurtTheHero: Xehanort offs her (somewhat) in ''III'' in order to better "motivate" Sora into giving it his all in fighting him (although ''Re:Mind'' confirms that he also did so because he had the power to restore her in case things went south for him and he had to rely on gathering the seven Princesses of Heart to open Kingdom Hearts). Sora is able to brought her back into the Realm of Light, but at a great cost to himself. |
| 698 | * ThrowingYourSwordAlwaysWorks: As a gap closer she throws her Keyblade at enemies and teleports to it instead of doing a dash attack. [[note]]Likely a ShoutOut to ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV'' where Prince Noctis and his Kingsguard could do the same thing.[[/note]] |
| 699 | * TravelToProjectile: Her gap-closer rather then a DashAttack will have her throw her keyblade at the Xehanort and teleport to it, which greatly resembles the Warp Strike from ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyXV''. |
| 700 | * TomboyAndGirlyGirl: |
| 701 | ** In ''II'', Kairi is the tomboy to [[CrouchingMoronHiddenBadass Selphie's]] [[BewareTheNiceOnes girly-girl]] tendencies on Destiny Islands. While Kairi's not as much of a tomboy as she was in the original (as [[invoked]]WordOfGod Nomura states it in the "KH Character Report" book), the duo of her and Selphie still seems to fit the trope simply because Selphie is so [[GenkiGirl gleefully]] girly that the more reserved Kairi seems less so by comparison. The fact that Selphie has a pink handbag covered with plushies while Kairi has a simple brown satchel also helps. |
| 702 | ** Kairi is also considered the tomboy to Naminé's girly-girl. Naminé has the more consistently feminine appearance with long hair and a simple dress, while Kairi just as often cuts her hair short and mixes up her attire with things like hoodies, shorts, sneakers, and sweatbands. While both help out the heroes, Kairi is also more reckless and willing to plunge headfirst into danger than Naminé as seen in ''II''. Also, Naminé tends to speak more softly than Kairi, who's never afraid to speak her mind. |
| 703 | * TomboynessUpgrade: After receiving a GirlinessUpgrade in ''II'', Kairi is at her most action oriented in ''III'', where her hair is shorter again and she's upgraded to what look like combat boots. |
| 704 | * TomboyPrincess: She has some strong [[GirlyGirlWithATomboyStreak tomboyish tendencies]] and turns out to be a princess (well, [[HonoraryPrincess Princess of Heart]]). |
| 705 | * TookALevelInBadass: |
| 706 | ** Becomes a Keyblade wielder at the end of ''Kingdom Hearts II''. This makes her the only Princess of Heart who fights at all. While all she fights are Shadows, it's impressive that she is able to kill them in one hit as just a rookie, as when Sora was just starting out it would take several hits to do the job. |
| 707 | --->'''Kairi:''' This time, ''I'll'' fight. |
| 708 | ** Even before this, she shows increased athleticism compared to the first game. According to Nomura, this is something she worked on during the year she spent on Destiny Islands apart from Sora and Riku, saying that in his character notes for the game it says Kairi is the strongest person on the islands in Sora and Riku's absence. |
| 709 | ** As of TheStinger in ''3D'', she and Lea undertake professional Keyblade training from Merlin in Radiant Garden, and by the time of ''Kingdom Hearts III'' she has completed her training and is officially a Keyblade wielder, and acquits herself relatively well in a two on two battle with Lea against Saïx and Xion, particularly the latter whom she is on a relatively even playing field with. |
| 710 | ** ''Re:Mind'' not only has her go toe to toe with Xemnas in a cutscene but also [[PromotedToPlayable promotes her to playable]] and gives her a cinematic shotlock attack and has her take the lead in the battle with the BigBad himself. [[spoiler:Carries over into ''Melody of Memory'' where she faces off against an illusion of Master Xehanort by herself and manages to hold her own against him. Xehanort himself even acknowledges that Kairi has become quite the Keyblade wielder. After meeting with Yen Sid, she decides to train under Aqua to become even stronger.]] |
| 711 | * TravelToProjectile: Kairi's gap closing ability rather then a standard DashAttack involves throwing her keyblade in a Strike Raid-esque fashion and then teleporting to it to bring herself closer. |
| 712 | * TrueSight: She can see Riku's true appearance even when he has Ansem's face, and helps Sora to see it too when all three stand still and hold hands with their eyes closed. |
| 713 | * UnderratedAndOverleveled: ''KHII'' has Kairi get her own Keyblade and start fending off some mid-level Nobodies towards the end of the game. She's doing this alongside Riku, who has not only trained with a sword for years, but is locked in a powerful body at the time. Kairi herself has never been shown as even practicing with a toy sword like Riku and PlayerCharacter Sora, let alone using a real sword with the same skill they do. Though, it could just be because [[CutscenePowerToTheMax it's a cutscene]]. |
| 714 | * UnskilledButStrong: Nomura is on record that with Sora and Riku gone, Kairi became the strongest person on Destiny Islands, and it shows when she manages to physically overpower Xemnas. However, her lines in the Armored Xehanort fight suggest she only has half an idea of what she’s doing. Her goal at the end of Melody of Memory is to avert this by training to become StrongAndSkilled. |
| 715 | * UnwittingInstigatorOfDoom: A small, odd example: she unwittingly instigates the doom of a villain, Xigbar, in [=KHII=]. By taking the attention of all the Heartless summoned to kill Sora away from Sora and onto her, she forces Xigbar to step in to finish Sora off instead, which leads to Xigbar's demise at Sora's hands. |
| 716 | * VideoGameSliding: Her Dodge Roll equivalent is a quick slide along the ground. |
| 717 | * WaterIsWomanly: The ''kai'' in her name can be translated to ocean, and she is a kind and lovely young girl pure-hearted enough to be one of the Seven Princesses of Heart. |
| 718 | * WeakButSkilled: As demonstrated in ''Melody of Memory'', [[spoiler:Kairi employs very creative fighting techniques to make up for her lack of experience, with even Xehanort, a Master who has wielded a Keyblade for decades, complimenting her on her progress and skill. Unfortunately, this still isn't enough to defeat Xehanort, which results in Sora's memory coming to her aid in the final battle.]] |
| 719 | * WeaponizedTeleportation: Kairi's most practical move is throwing her keyblade at an enemy as an attack and then teleporting to the keyblade, which lets her instantly close the distance between her and an opponent and catch them in a combo. |
| 720 | * WellTrainedButInexperienced: She spends most of ''III'' being trained to use her Keyblade under Yen Sid's supervision in preparation for the upcoming battle against the Thirteen Seekers of Darkness. When the battle occurs, she proves to be the weakest of the Seven Guardians of Light, having no actual combat experience. Worse still, Merlin is the one to supervise her, and while he is very intelligent, he has no Keyblade or combat experience of his own and thus lacks certain qualities that would make a proper teacher for her. When brought into the final showdown, she's quickly overpowered and kidnapped by Xemnas. |
| 721 | * WhatHappenedToTheMouse: In the secret ending of ''Birth by Sleep'', she gives Sora her lucky charm again before he and Riku head out to see Yen Sid. It's never been brought up again since. Possibly justified as it would have been a blatant retread, but it's still a bit jarring after how important it was earlier in the series. |
| 722 | * WhatKindOfLamePowerIsHeartAnyway: While she has unmatched and incorruptible light inside herself as a Princess of Heart, she still ends up losing her heart when Destiny Islands gets destroyed, and appears unable to actively utilize this power at all until ''III'', where a common attack she uses in battle is shooting light magic out of her Keyblade. |
| 723 | * WistfulAmnesia: |
| 724 | ** Kairi doesn't remember a lot about her home before Destiny Islands, not because of what Xehanort did to her but because she was very young when she was cast out. What memories she recollects are a few wistful moments with her grandmother. |
| 725 | ** At the start of ''VideoGame/KingdomHeartsII'', Kairi still has a very vague recollection of Sora during the prologue, even though she isn’t supposed to remember him yet due to Naminé’s memory tampering. |
| 726 | * WorfHadTheFlu: ''[=Re:Mind=]'' [[RetCon retroactively]] attributes her easy kidnapping by Xemnas to this, showing her putting him on the ropes in battle before he resorts to weakening and incapacitating her and Sora with a powerful Nothingness attack. And unlike Sora who is reinvigorated by the return of his future self’s heart, Kairi is left vulnerable after the trap dissipates, letting Xemnas abduct her soon after. |
| 727 | * {{Xenafication}}: Kairi in the first game spent 80% of the story inside of Sora's heart, with her body an empty shell. In the second game she acquires a Keyblade and is able to kick plenty of ass to save Sora, Donald and Goofy from an abnormally large swarm of Heartless, with the [[Manga/KingdomHeartsII manga adaptation]] taking it further (Kairi saves Sora from Xigbar!). ''Dream Drop Distance's'' secret ending reveals Kairi is going to receive formal Keyblade training to be able to hold her own alongside her friends, which fully comes to fruition in ''Kingdom Hearts III'' or in a straighter example, ''Re:Mind''. |
| 728 | * YamatoNadeshiko: In ''Kingdom Hearts III'', her personality has mellowed into this. |
| 729 | * {{Zipperiffic}}: Oh, boy, her ''KHII'' dress has a vertical zipper down the front that's partially unzipped to show the top of the white top/dress underneath, plus two more vertical zippers on either side of the main one, a hood attached to the back of the dress, sneakers, ''and'' some random [[TooManyBelts belts]] thrown in for flavor. Yep, Nomura's [[AuthorAppeal fingerprints]] are all over it. |
| 730 | [[/folder]] |
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FollowingContext Characters / KingdomHeartsDestinyIslandsTrio
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