Characters / Kingdom Hearts: Destiny Islands Trio

aka: Kingdom Hearts Kairi

Kingdom Hearts Main Character Index
Destiny Islands Trio (Sora) | Disney Castle Trio | Clock Tower Trio | Wayfinder Trio (Terra | Aqua | Ventus) | Party Members and Summons | Xehanort's Incarnations (Master Xehanort) | Organization XIII (Xigbar | Saïx | Vanitas) | Disney Villains (Maleficent's Council and Allies | Other Disney Villains) | Independent Villains | Enemy Creatures (Heartless) | Ansem and his Apprentices | Kingdom Hearts χ[chi] Characters | Supporting Original Characters | Supporting Square Enix Characters | Supporting Disney Characters

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Due to lengthy periods between releases and the prevalence of Late Arrival Spoilers, spoilers from installments before 2010 may be unmarked. Read at your own risk.

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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.

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General tropes

• Clones Are People, Too: 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.
• Color-Coded Characters: Sora's outfits always contain some amount of red and black outside of Drive Forms. Riku always includes blues to contrast Sora's red when they're a duo, but also yellow as the fourth main hero after Donald (another blue) and Goofy (green); his unique skills and HUD elements also take on purple hues in later games to acknowledge his dark powers. Kairi is marked by her purple skirt in the first game as a medium between Sora and Riku, but after KHII almost exclusively wears 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.
• Dimensional Traveler: Besides the villains, they're the only people who can jump between worlds easily.
• The Friends Who Never Hang: 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.
  • Word of God 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.
• Generation Xerox: Sora, Riku, and Kairi have the same Theme Naming, 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 Put on a Bus while Sora tried to redeem Riku.
• Heroes Prefer Swords: All of them can use Keyblades.
• Land, Sea, Sky: Riku, Kairi, and Sora by their respective names.
• Magic Knight: All of them can use both magic and weapons.
• The Not-Love Interest: Riku and Sora have such a close friendship that it often overlaps with Homoerotic Subtext.
• Only One Name: They are simply "Sora," "Riku", and "Kairi", with no indication of a family name for any of them.
• Original Generation: They're some of the original characters in this crossover between Disney and Final Fantasy.
• Power Trio: 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.
• Took a Level in Badass: They go from kids having fun in islands to saviors of the universe. Kairi in particular is a standout example, starting off as a Damsel in Distress but by Re:Mind, she's taking on Xehanort alongside Sora.

Sora

See here.

Riku

Riku

"Neither suits me. I'm taking the middle road."

^{Click here to see Riku as he appears in Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories}

^{Click here to see Riku as a child in Kingdom Hearts and Birth by Sleep}

^{Click here to see Riku as he appears in II}

^{Click here to see Riku as he appears in 358/ 2 Days}

^{Click here to see Riku as he appears in Dream Drop Distance and Melody of Memory}

Voiced by: Mamoru Miyano (Japanese), David Gallagher (English)
Young Riku Voiced by: Eiji Shima (Japanese), Ty Panitz (English)

Appearances: I | Chain of Memories | II | 358/2 Days | Birth by Sleep | coded | Dream Drop Distance | 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage- | III | Melody of Memory

"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!"

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.

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• 11th-Hour Ranger: Becomes a playable party member in the final world of KH II. He's also briefly controllable during the final boss fight.
• 24-Hour Armor: Riku's clothes in The Grid.
  Riku: My clothes. Is this world special?
• Above Good and Evil: 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.
• The Ace: 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.
• Act of True Love: Riku does several of these for Sora over the course of the series, although what kind of love it is is up for interpretation.
  • 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 stuck like that forever.^note Roxas also severely injures Riku's wrist during their fight. Ansem the Wise acknowledges this in II.
    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.
  • 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.
  • DDD:
    • 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.
    • 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 (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, "I have to be the one." A more word-for-word translation is "It won’t work. / He won’t wake unless I go." Meanwhile, "He needs me." is "I WANT to go." It's more or less a direct parallel to what Prince Phillip says about Aurora in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep.
  • III: As a game with sacrifice as a core theme— alongside, to a lesser extent, True Love— it's fitting Riku commits what is probably his ultimate act of love thus far. See the entries for Heroic Sacrifice and Inspirational Martyr below.
  • Re Mind: During the fight against 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.
• Acquired Poison Immunity: As revealed in 3D, Riku's long-time exposure to darkness has rendered him immune to its corrupting influence.
• A Day in the Limelight: He has his own campaign in Chain of Memories and 3D, the latter in which he's more of The Protagonist than Sora himself.
• Adorably Precocious Child: 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.
• Affably Evil: During his time as a villain in Kingdom Hearts I, he's at worse a Jerkass to Sora and does has some Kick the Dog moments but even then he is the Token Good Teammate 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.
• Afraid of Their Own Strength: Riku's Character Development 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 Dark Is Not Evil, he starts using the power more which allows him to Take a Level in Badass.
• Aloof Ally: 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.
• Always Someone Better:
  • Riku was hinted to have always been able to outdo Sora, something the latter admits at the end of Kingdom Hearts II. Unfortunately, this gets a brutal Deconstruction throughout the first game for several reasons. Riku is a case of I Just Want to Be Special and grows jealous that Sora is The Chosen One because of the Keyblade going to him, even though both are able to wield it. The two are also in a Love Triangle with their mutual Childhood Friend 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, The Dark Side Will Make You Forget has taken effect, leading Riku to on even more power from the darkness and allowing the Big Bad 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.
  • The later games see a Reconstruction of this trope. Riku has become The Atoner 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 Spanner in the Works 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 Kingdom Hearts II 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.
• Ambiguously Gay:
  • In the original Japanese dialogue of III, when Riku and Mickey are in the Dark World for the first time, 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 Hercules saying Megara is his own 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 KH3 Ultimania entry about Riku also uses precious 'person' instead of 'things'. It seems Riku's wish has deliberately evolved from when he was a child, but that important bit of character development got no homoed out of several different official KHIII English translations.
    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 the person who matters.
  • To top it off, he's very aloof and awkward about Shiki's obvious flirtation with him in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]:
    Shiki: You chat up a girl and then just say, "sure," and walk off?
    Riku: I'm bad at this. Sorry.

    Shiki: Aren't you my knight in shining armor? Well? [winks]
    Riku: Kn-knight? You've got the wrong idea.
  • In a similiar vein, towards the beginning of Riku's visit to 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, "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 Romani, as in the source material.
    Esmeralda: Judge Frollo has been hunting us for years. We [Romani] are guilty of nothing but loving our freedom, yet Frollo hates whatever he can't control.
  • 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):
    Beat: I just... wanna protect the one person who matters.
    Riku: I know the feeling.
• Anime Hair: It's nowhere near as spiky as Sora's but his Long-Haired Pretty Boy looks in II still qualifies for this trope.
  • He has another version of this trope in Kingdom Hearts III with a hairstyle that a lot of fans have compared it to Noctis'.
• Anti-Hero: When working with fellow Anti-Hero 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.
  • Riku also has some Classical Anti-Hero 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.
• Anti-Villain: In Kingdom Hearts, where he's just doing what he feels is necessary to save Kairi. However, when Sora beats him in a fight, he loses himself in darkness while trying to become stronger.
  • In Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days, 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.
• Arrogant Kung-Fu Guy: Riku was arrogant and condescending towards others in Kingdom Hearts and would frequently taunt Sora during their matches when they we're kids.
• Ascended Extra: 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.
• The Atoner: 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.
  • Within the first game, invokedWord of God indicates that his primary motivation for save Kairi was out of guilt that he was inadvertently responsible for her condition.
• Apologizes a Lot: 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.
• Apologetic Attacker: One of his battle grunts in Dream Drop Distance and III is "Sorry!"
• Awesome, but Impractical: 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.
  • 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.
• Awesome Moment of Crowning: 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.
• Bad Powers, Good People: 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.
• Badass Biker: When riding a lightcycle in 3D.
• Badass Boast: In 3D.
  Riku: Quality versus quantity, huh?^note Note that he says this after being faced with a herd of angry Triceratops (Cera Terrors).
  and
  Riku: I'm what nightmares fear!
• Badass Driver: Of a sort, possibly coupled with Instant Expert. He seems to be extremely competent in the use of the shuttle he commandeers with Sora near the end of II.
• Badass in Distress: 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.
• Badass Longcoat: While wearing an Organization longcoat In Days and II.
• Bash Brothers: 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 Xemnas, Xigbar and Dark Riku can confirm.
  • Chain of Memories turns him and Mickey into this, coupled with Back-to-Back Badasses and Yin-Yang Bomb.
• Bastard Understudy: 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 Maleficent Has Outlived Her Usefulness.
• Battle in the Center of the Mind:
  • In Chain of Memories when he fights off Ansem.
  • 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 True Final Boss fight, Riku fights off the Armored Ventus Nightmare within Sora's Heart.
• Beneath the Mask: Riku had a reputation of being The Ace in the islands and seen as 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.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: 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.
  • 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 You Can't Go Home Again as he has to fix Sora’s memory retrieval and monitor Organization XIII and wanders the multiverse for a year straight.
• 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.
• Big Brother Instinct: Is deeply protective of Kairi in KH I, and both Kairi and Sora from KH II on.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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 his sacrifice against the Demon Tide in III, again for Sora's sake.
• Big Brother Mentor: He acts as Xion's Stealth Mentor 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.
• Big Damn Heroes: 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.
• Big Ego, Hidden Depths: 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.
• Big Good: The closest thing 358/2 Days has to one, acting as a Stealth Mentor to Xion.
• Big "WHAT?!": After Mickey tells him that Aqua is a lot like Sora in III.
• Black Cloak: 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.
• Black Knight: In contrast with Sora's The Paladin. Riku's unique attacks are all Dark-based with some few exceptions, and his biggest advantage over Sora in terms of stats is his better offense.
• Black Magic: 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.
  • 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 "Light Side" powers of comparable potency for much less grief.
    • 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.
    • 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 become a true Keyblade Master first.
• Boss Remix: The theme for his boss fight in Days, "Another Side -Battle Ver.-", is Exactly What It Says on the Tin, an arrangement of the original "Another Side" made to be a battle theme. This arrangement shortens the somber intro and loops the energetic segment.
• Break His Heart to Save Him: 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 Big Brother Instinct 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.
• Break the Haughty: 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 The Atoner.
• Bring It: 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 Counter-Attack. 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.
• Broken Ace: 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.
  • Eventually, he goes through extensive Character Development 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.
    • 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 Mind Rape via Master Xehanort's XIII Seekers of Darkness. Riku, due to said Character Development 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 Nice Guy and is genuinely happy for Riku, so no jealousy issues crop up again.
• Beehive Barrier: Riku's Dark Barrier, whether just in front of him or around his entire body.
• Berserk Button: His actions in Kingdom Hearts have become this to him, so much that he goes from his usual calm and serious look to a Death Glare and his voice has a Tranquil Fury tone when he sees Dark Riku in the Keyblade Graveyard in Kingdom Hearts III.
• Bifurcated Weapon: He and Sora can combine their keyblades into one for their Nightmare's End/Mirage Split ability.
• Blessed with Suck: How Riku views his dark abilities in Chain of Memories and he spends most of the game trying to hold it back. Subverted once he learns Dark Is Not Evil however.
• Blind Weaponmaster: Wears a blindfold willingly during the events of Days and most of II (the latter in his normal form).
• Blindfolded Vision: He wears a blindfold during Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days and part of Kingdom Hearts II 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.
• Boring, but Practical: Doubleflight initially feels like a 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.
  • 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 Dark Aura.
• Bridal Carry: He holds Kairi this way in Neverland, as she has become a Empty Shell without her heart and is unable to move on her own.
• But Now I Must Go: 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.
• Byronic Hero: Has definite elements of this, though his Character Development shows him slowly growing out of it into a straightforward hero who happens to use Casting a Shadow type spells.
• Cannot Spit It Out: Hinted at a few times over the course of the series, in regards to Sora. What exactly Riku wants to tell him is up for debate.
  • The KH character files state that part of why Riku gives into the darkness is because of his 'complex feelings towards Sora'. The other part is his 'impatience to save Kairi'— with no mention of any such feelings toward her.
  • Nomura 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".
  • And then there's a couple lines from the II and DDD novels:
    II: The things that mattered the most were what he couldn’t tell Sora. It had always been that way.

    DDD: Of course, Riku couldn’t tell him everything, but Sora was still a friend with a special place in his heart.
• Cast from Hit Points: His Sacrifice attack in Dream Drop Distance.
• Casting a Shadow: 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.
• 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 Evil Knockoff Dark Riku in III, gleefully uses the phrase as well.
• The Champion: After 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 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 Riku's sacrifice against the Demon Tide seems to solidify it once and for all.
• Character Development: 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
• Child Prodigy: Is surprisingly perceptive and philosophical five-year-old in Birth by Sleep. Even acknowledged by four-year-old Sora.
  Sora: I don't know Riku, you say some weird stuff sometimes, but I'll try it!
  • 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.
• Childhood Friends: 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.
• The Chosen One: Was chosen by Terra to wield his Keyblade, but he got a bit too jumpy with the call and jumped at the wrong one in I, resulting in said keyblade eventually going to Sora instead, which it eventually accepted as its true master. Once Riku returned to sanity he eventually got his own Keyblade too.
• Chronic Self-Deprecation: A couple of his lines towards Anti-Aqua in III seem to imply he's still not quite over his past actions.
  Anti-Aqua: All that's left in my heart is misery and despair... and now, you can share it!
  Riku: There's no need. Got my own.
• Close-Call Haircut: 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.
• Competition Freak: 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.
• Combat Pragmatist: 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.
• Combination Attack: His Limit Break 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
• Composite Character: 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 Flash Step). 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.
• Cool Sword: 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 darkness. Also the Way to the Dawn Keyblade, which evolves from Soul Eater, is his weapon toward the end of II and doubles as a Cool Key.
• Coordinated Clothes: He and Mickey in III have the same outfit design only with inverted colors.
• The Corruptible: 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.
• Curb-Stomp Battle: Whether in the games or the manga, Riku delivers these quite frequently. Showing his reputation as The Ace back in the Islands was well earned.
  • He easily defeats and wounds Beast during their short fight in I and Sora has to intervene to stop Riku from killing Beast.
  • 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.
  • 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).
  • While it's 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.
  • 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.
  • 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.
• Cursed with Awesome: Became insanely powerful by tapping into the fragment of Ansem inside himself during Days and KH II, at the expense of being unable to change his physical form back to that of his own body.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: Riku accomplishes amazing feats in II during the Reaction Commands of the Final Battle against Xemnas which include easily slashing skyscrapers in half and then throwing them and eflect millions of energy blasts.
• Dangerous Forbidden Technique: 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 Big Bad of the first game, thankfully, he manages to tame its power by the sequels.
• Dark Is Not Evil: After his Heel–Face Turn. 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.
• The Dark Side: 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.
• The Dark Side Will Make You Forget: 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. Big mistake.
• Deadpan Snarker: He has his moments, especially in Dream Drop Distance.
  Ansem: So sad. The cost of yielding to the darkness.
  Riku: You could write a book about that!
• Deal with the Devil: His deal with Ansem, Seeker of Darkness for enough power to beat Sora in Kingdom Hearts.
• Declaration of Protection: 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 deliberately evolved from when he was a child— at least in the 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.
  Beat: I just... wanna protect the one person who matters.
  Riku: I know the feeling.
• Demonic Possession: 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.
• Deuteragonist: Of the series as a whole; he serves as the protagonist along with Sora in Chain of Memories and Dream Drop Distance.
• Diagonal Cut: He gains Zantetsuken, which is basically this trope, in Dream Drop Distance.
• Disproportionate Retribution: 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.
• Don't Look At Me: 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 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.
• Double Jump: His "Doubleflight" skill, which uses a burst of darkness under him as a platform for a new jump.
• The Dragon: To Maleficent in the first game. He plays an anti-heroic version of this to Diz throughout Days and the beginning of II.
• Dream Walker: Unknowingly travels into Sora's dreams when he sees a robed Ansem for the majority of 3D.
• Due to the Dead: 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.
• Dying Moment of Awesome: 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.
• Easily Forgiven: 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 Turn the Other Cheek 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 Riku himself.
• Elemental Powers: He has access to every element in some form or another.
• Empowered Badass Normal: 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.
• Enemy Summoner: Through Maleficent, Riku possessed the ability to control and create Heartless. This was demonstrated when Riku made a Heartless replica of Sora in Neverland.
• Enemy Within: 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 Enemy Without by 3D.
• Entitled Bastard: 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 Deal with the Devil. It didn't go so well for him, and his sense of entitlement is naturally absent afterward.
• Evil Costume Switch: His Dark Mode armor in KH I, though he still uses it after his Heel–Face Turn in Chain of Memories.
• Evil Counterpart: 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.
• Evil Former Friend: Although more of a Anti-Villain, he's this to Sora in KH I after Maleficent manipulates him into thinking he abandoned him and Kairi.
• Evil Is Not a Toy: He gives himself over to the Darkness at the very beginning of the game, thinking it's an easy way off his world and into the adventure he craves. It ends up separating him from his friends, destroying his homeworld, and apparently devouring the heart of 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 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 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.
• Evil Smells Bad: 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.
• Evolving Weapon: 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.
• Expository Hairstyle Change: 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 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.
• 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 Kain Highwind. Likely a case of Author Appeal, 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 Enemy Without called Dark Kain that is himself an Expy of the Riku Replica.
• Eyepatch of Power: 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.
• Fighting from the Inside: He does this against Ansem when he decides to go after Kairi, leaving his body as a spirit to physically block Ansem's way.
  Riku: No! You won't use me for this!
• Fighting Your Friend: He fights against Sora twice in I, the first time was by his own will, but in the second time it was Ansem using his body to fight against him.
  • 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.
  • 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.
• First-Name Basis: Is one of the few characters in the series to be on this with Mickey Mouse.
• Flash Step: The Ghost Drive Link Style allows Riku to move fast enough that he leaves after images of himself.
• 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 put up a brave face and a smile.
  • 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.
• 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.
• Friendly Rivalry: With Sora as kids on Destiny Islands, as well as once they truly reunite near the end of II.
• Fusion Dance: He has the ability to Link Style with Dream Eaters in 3D which can give him a variety of Power Ups and Super Modes. This incidentally serves as Foreshadowing for The Reveal that, in this game, Riku is a Dream Eater.
  • Shining Hammer: Riku finally shows the light in the twilight assailing the enemies with hammering blows creating powerful shockwaves of light magic.
  • Darkest Fears: Riku rushes the enemy with darkness based blows manifesting as Wolverine Claws on his hands and feet.
  • Fire Raid: Riku's Keyblade becomes a Flaming Sword which he uses hurls at the enemy for mid-ranged attacks.
  • Thunderstorm: Electricity crackles on Riku's Keyblade giving him fast thunder based attacks that easily attack in all directions.
  • Wave Surfer: Defying the tradition of Fire, Ice, Lightning, Riku uses water elemental attacks instead of ice, surfing to assault enemy's with columns of water.
  • Ghost Drive: Riku uses darkness to teleport to attack enemies automatically, making gratuitous use of Flash Steps to avoid being hit. Attacks an enemy from all sides as a finisher.
  • Blade Charge: Keyblade becomes engulfed in light, giving a huge boost to the range of attacks.
  • Rising Wing: Riku gains batlike wings and unleashes powerful midair strikes and dive bombs, Uses a tornado attack for a combo finisher.
• Glass Cannon: 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.
• Gleeful and Grumpy Pairing: The Grumpy to Sora's Gleeful. Riku is calm and composed, but also very troubled and brooding due to his past experiences, as such he doesn't smile very often and uses dark-related abilities. Sora, on the other hand, is energetic and more kindhearted and caring when it comes to his heroics and is always with a bright smile.
• Godlike Gamer: 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.
• Godzilla Threshold: 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.
• Gone Horribly Right: Xehanort wanted Riku to embrace darkness in order to turn the boy into a Soul Jar. Instead, when Riku fully embraces darkness he becomes immune to Xehanort's influence.
• Good Armor, Evil Armor: 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.
• Good Weapon, Evil Weapon: From its look to its characteristics, Soul Eater is most definitely an Evil Weapon. It helps that it was implied to have first been given to him by 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 Kingdom Hearts χ.
• Good Wings, Evil Wings: Soul Eater featured demon wings, signifying a closer alignment with 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 his redemption.
• Green-Eyed Monster: 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.
• Guardian Entity: Riku unknowingly becomes Sora's guardian Dream Eater during the events of 3D.
• Guile Hero: 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.
• Hades Shaded: 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.
• Handicapped Badass: 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 Agony Beam 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.
• Heel–Face Revolving Door: Starts off as a heel when Riku is a Rival Turned Evil to Sora in Kingdom Hearts I. In Chain of Memories, Riku turns semi-face as an Anti-Hero, 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.
• Hero of Another Story: Has an entirely unique story campaign all to himself in Chain of Memories, exploring his own experiences in Castle Oblivion.
• The Hero: 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.
• Hero Antagonist: 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 Final Boss.
• Heroic Self-Deprecation: Is prone to this in Dream Drop Distance even long after he earned his Heel–Face Turn. For instance, after giving a pep talk to Quasimodo about not letting his fear of the outside world hold him back, he quietly adds "Wish I could take my own advice."
• Heroic Willpower: 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.
• Heroic Sacrifice: 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 Last Stand, defending Sora from the darkness for a few more moments before both of them are swallowed up by it as well.
• Heterosexual Life-Partners:
  • 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 Ambiguously Gay entry above, exactly how heterosexual their bond is becomes more and more questionable with each new game, to say the least.
  • 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.
• Horrible Judge of Character: In the first game, he trusts the Obviously Evil 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.
• Human Aliens: Like all human protagonists, Riku can be considered one. Though it's played completely straight in The Grid, as he's a program there.
• 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.
• Hypocritical Humor:
  • In the KHII manga, after reuniting with Sora, he tells Sora that 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.
  • 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, Riku could also be calling himself dumb.
• I Am What I Am: Riku spends most of 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:

  Zexion: Heh... After all your protests you're still just another darkling.
  Riku: I know who I am.

• I Did What I Had to Do: 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.
• If I Can't Have You…: 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.
• I Hate Past Me: 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.
  • Seeing Dark Riku in KH 3 makes Riku go from calm to angry in a second.
  Dark Riku: I'd say that was our finest hour!
  Riku: No, my hour of weakness!
• I Just Want to Be Badass: 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 I Just Want to Be Special.
• I Just Want to Be Special: 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 Start of Darkness.
  • He actually was intended to get the Keyblade first instead of Sora; rather, he was rejected because he unwittingly made a Deal with the Devil with Xehanort, so he lost out on his chance just because he leapt at the call too soon.
• I Just Want to Be You: 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 drives him off the deep end.
• Inspirational Martyr: 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 Heroic Sacrifice 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 original Japanese dialogue).
• In the Hood: Spends most of II like this, as he didn't want Sora and Kairi to see what he has become after using the power of darkness.
• Ineffectual Loner: After he returns to normal in II, he gets told by Sora that he doesn't have to do everything by himself as he has his friends to help him.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: 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.
• Instant Expert: 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.
• 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 Character Development, he wears...black.
• Invisible Parents: 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.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: "Take care of her."
• Jekyll & Hyde: 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.
• Jerk with a Heart of Gold: 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.
• Jumped at the Call: Wanted more than anything to leave Destiny Islands in the first game, however , Riku's attempt to do so are what ended up making him miss it in the first place.
• Kick the Dog: 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.
• Kirk Summation: 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 he will ultimately have to stopped by force.
• The Lancer: To Sora.
  • The Leader: 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.
• Laser-Guided Karma: Riku suffers for his deal with Ansem with a Trauma Conga Line that lasts up till the end of II.
• "Leave Your Quest" Test: 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.
  Riku: This seemed like a boring place to take a nap anyway.
  ???: That was very well said, Riku.
• Leitmotif: "Riku" in II.
• Le Parkour: 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.
• Let X Be the Unknown: 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.
• Light Liege, Dark Defender: 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 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 champion at this point.
• Lightning Bruiser: Fast, strong, and has great offensive and defensive options, both as a boss and a playable character.
• Limit Break: Riku has "Darkstrom" on the debatably canonical 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.
  • 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.
• Long-Haired Pretty Boy. In all games till Dream Drop Distance, when he cuts it short. This includes his almost-Hiding Behind Your Bangs, meaning his eyes are now always clearly seen.
• Love Makes You Evil: An arguably platonic example, Riku's protective love of Sora and Kairi in Kingdom Hearts 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.
• Love Redeems: However, it is when Ansem is poised to finish Kairi who had served her purpose that Riku sees the error of his ways.
• Magically Inept Fighter: 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.
• Manly Tears: During his reunion with Sora in the KHII manga, he's crying and snotting, he says that he just has a runny nose.
• Master of Unlocking: His Keyblade lets him open pretty much anything.
• Master Swordsman: 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 Awesome Moment of Crowning above.
• Meaningful Echo: Three times in Dream Drop Distance.
  • 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 The Reveal in III of the Dark Figure being the vessel for Terra's heart, as the guardian briefly strikes the same pose Terra once did when summoning his Keyblade◊, before Riku reinterates what he'd said to him a decade earlier.
  • 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.
    Ansem the Wise (as DiZ) in Kingdom Hearts II: But first, perhaps you could tell me your true name?
    Riku, in the form of Ansem, Seeker of Darkness: It's Ansem.
    Data-Ansem the Wise, in Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]: Young man! I do not believe you told me your name.
    Riku: It's Riku.
  • He also repeats his "road to the dawn" line from Chain of Memories to Ansem SOD and Young Xehanort.
• Meaningful Name: "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.
• Mike Nelson, Destroyer of Worlds: 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.
• Mirror Character: Xehanort is also Riku's Evil Counterpart, 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.
• Missed the Call: Riku was so eager to rush into adventure that he jumped too soon, and at 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.
• More than Mind Control: Embraces the trope wholeheartedly. Supplemented with plenty of scenes detailing his friend Sora's apparent betrayal. Also an example of Not What It Looks Like.
  • He also continues this in Kingdom Hearts II 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.
• Mr. Fanservice: 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!
• Murder the Hypotenuse: Clashes with Sora in the first game, largely because of his obsession with saving Kairi.
• Mutual Envy: 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 When they both realize that they're fine the way they are, this conversation ultimately repairs their friendship for good.
• My God, What Have I Done?: 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.
• My Greatest Failure: 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.
  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.
• New Friend Envy:
  • Towards Donald and Goofy in regards to Sora in the first game, which Maleficient gleefully exploits.
  • Hinted at in the 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.
• The Nose Knows: 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.
• The Not-Love Interest: 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 Damsel in Distress Love Interest.
  Sora: Riku... It's Riku. Riku's here! I looked for you. I looked everywhere for you!!
• Not Quite Flight: When in his 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.
• Not So Above It All: 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.
• Now It's My Turn: 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.
  • 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...
• Oh, Crap!: His reaction when he finds himself surrounded by six members of Organization XIII in the Days manga, four of whom just pulled a Big Damn Heroes moment.
• One-Handed Zweihänder: 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.
• One Head Taller: Platonic example. He's always around a head taller than both Sora and Kairi.
• Older Than They Look: In KH3D, Riku is 16-17, but spends most of the game in his 15-year-old body.
• Perpetual Frowner: Riku is almost always with a serious expression and he rarely smiles, the scenes where he does though are quite heartwarming.
• Personality Powers: A Byronic Hero who primarily wields darkness.
• Playing with Fire: 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.
• The Poorly Chosen One: 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.
• Post-Final Boss: In Days for Roxas to Xion's more traditional Final Boss.
• Power Limiter: 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 traps him in Ansem's form, but he nonetheless manages to one-shot Roxas.
• The Power of Love: 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 Act of True Love above for further elaboration.
• Powers via Possession: The first time you fight him (which is optional), he's Badass Normal 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 Duel Boss...
  • Averted in the later games; however—he later learns to use these powers without being controlled.
• Pride Before a Fall: His attitude in the first game indicates that growing up he saw himself as The Reliable One, feeling that he 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 The Chosen One. He does not handle it well.
• Promoted to Playable: 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 Final Boss, though with a limited moveset.
• Protectorate: Riku has this for Kairi hard in the first game, and it leads him down the path to the dark side and puts him in conflict with Sora. Riku eventually pulls a Heel–Face Turn and adds him to his protectorate, as seen several times throughout most games after Kingdom Hearts II— but especially in Kingdom Hearts: 358/2 Days and Kingdom Hearts 3D [Dream Drop Distance]. 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 Sora. During their first visit to the Dark World in Kingdom Hearts III, Mickey even directly tells Riku he's finally found the strength to protect the person that matters most to him (in Japanese, anyway), which is very strongly implied to be Sora.
• Red Oni, Blue Oni: He's the Byronic Hero, calm and thoughtful Blue Oni to Sora's All-Loving Hero, impulsive and extroverted Red Oni. Sora is also much more of a straightforward Action Hero that directly takes on any threat to the worlds and his friends while Riku is more of a Aloof Ally that works behind the scenes, leaving clues to his allies and protecting them from afar. this is reflected in their clothing.
• Refused by the Call: Seems like he refused the Keyblade, which caused it to choose Sora as its wielder instead.
• Required Party Member: 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, it's game over if Riku's HP hits zero.
• Revenge by Proxy: When Sora rejects his We Can Rule Together offer in Monstro, he dedicates himself to saving Kairi first to prove his superiority.
• Reverse Grip: In II, he wields Way to the Dawn this way when chasing after 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.
• The Rival: 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 Maleficent and eventually possessed by Ansem. He spends the majority of the next few games atoning for it. After Riku's Heel–Face Turn, the rivalry in general started to die down and the two were more Bash Brothers.
• Rival Turned Evil: 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 Ansem. Being freed from the possession at the end of the game makes him deal with the consequences throughout CoM and II.
• The Sacred Darkness: While usually Dark Is Evil and Light Is Good, 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.
  • By 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 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 Terra and Sora have failed to conquer, and making Xehanort's use of darkness rightfully look worse by comparison.
• Sanity Slippage: 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.
• Satellite Character: As "Ansem" in KHII's prologue, presumably to hide the obvious twist that it is Riku. All he does is repeatedly ask questions of DiZ in a monotonous voice, allowing DiZ to exposit at him.
• Save the Villain: 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.
• Selective Obliviousness: 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 possessed by Ansem, as well as Sora's Heroic Sacrifice 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.
• Self Deprecating Humour:
  "Sora never did pick the brightest friends." -Riku, Sora's best friend.^note Assuming Sora befriended Riku and not the other way around, anyway.
• Shadow Walker: 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.
• Shock and Awe: 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.
• Self-Destructive Charge: Darkness is visibly erroding Riku's body when he perfoms his Heroic Sacrifice at the Keyblade Graveyard. He doesn't even flinch.
• Shout-Out: Riku's design in Kingdom Hearts III is literally one big shout out to Noctis.
• Shut Up, Hannibal!: 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).

  Riku: Wrong. The truth is... you just really stink.

  • In Re:Chain of Memories, courtesy of voice acting cutscene and Riku drawing his blade halfway through.
    Riku: That's not it. The truth is... *summons Soul Eater* I just can't stand your foul stench!
  • Riku delivers another Shut Up, Hannibal! 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."

• Signature Move: Dark Aura, It allows him to rush enemies repeatedly from all directions in Teleport Spam fashion, finishing by plunging their weapon into the ground, releasing columns of energy radially.
  • II has a different version of the attack where Riku launches spheres of dark flame at the opponent, a technique similar to Dark Firaga.
• Single-Stroke Battle: Dispatches Rinzler this way in 3D.
• Sixth Ranger Traitor: To Maleficent's group in Kingdom Hearts, after he's possessed by Ansem.
• Sleeves Are for Wimps: 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.
• Smug Smiler: 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 genuine smile from him, this does not apply to the later games though.
• Smug Super: 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, the Keyblade goes back to Sora shortly after.
• The Snark Knight: In Dream Drop Distance where nearly all of Riku's interactions with the Organization members have him being painfully sarcastic with them.
  Young Xehanort: Once again you performed predictably, although on a grander scale than I imagined.
  Riku: If you're feeling so chatty, let's skip to where you reveal what this is all about.
• Socially Awkward Hero: He can talk down to villains any day of the week, but when a cute girl like Shiki Misaki starts flirting with him, he's at a loss for words.
  Shiki: Aren't you my knight in shining armor? Well? (winks)
  Riku: K-knight? You've got the wrong idea.
  Shiki: (exasperated) Ohmigosh, I was so just kidding. You get out much?
• Spin Attack: The Maelstrom attack in Chain of Memories, and various attacks in Dream Drop Distance. He can use the vertical variant too, like "Shadowbreaker".
• Stealth Mentor: 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.
• Stock Shōnen Rival: 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 Face–Heel Turn out of resentment. He mellows out considerably in later installments of the franchise, but remains Sora's angstier foil.
• The Stoic: After II, Riku is a downplayed example, his emotions are clearly shown but not nearly to the same extent as the others as he's usually straight faced and serious, he does has his Not So Stoic moments though.
• Storm of Blades: Riku demonstrates this by shooting copies of his sword Soul Eater at the enemy with his Dark Impulse sleight in Re:Chain of Memories.
  • One move in Sora and Riku's Eternal Session is XIII Blades, where swords revolve around them.
• Strong and Skilled: 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.
• Summon to Hand: Like all Keyblade wielders, he can summon his Keyblades at will.
• Superpowered Evil Side: Plays this trope straight in four of the games^note (in chronological order: KH1, Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days, and KH2), but primarily in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories when you can play as him and "Dark Mode" is one of his key abilities. Interestingly, he no longer has one as of 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.
• Super Mode: 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.
  • 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.
• Surrounded by Idiots: 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? Tricking four of them into attacking each other.
• Sympathy for the Devil: 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.
  • He's not so forgiving towards Xigbar though.
• Take a Third Option: Chose "The road to dawn" between darkness and light, instead of wielding just one.
  DiZ: Will you take the road to light — or the road to darkness?
  Riku: Neither. I'm taking the middle road.
  DiZ: You mean the twilight road to nightfall?
  Riku: No...it's the road to dawn.
  • This statement is pretty much Riku's character arc in a nutshell.
• Take My Hand!: Does this a lot, he makes it his pose in the opening cinematics of both Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts II. 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.
• Take Up My Sword: 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.
• Teleport Spam: 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.
• Thinking Up Portals: From his siding with Maleficent to the destruction of the Kingdom Hearts encoder, he had the ability to form Corridors of Darkness. He is no longer able to do this due to not being that in tune with darkness.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: Barrage in Chain of Memories with the Soul Eater, and Strike Raid and some variants in Dream Drop Distance. It works because of the Summon to Hand characteristic.
• Token Good Teammate: 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.
• Took a Level in Cynic: Riku was a very arrogant Smug Smiler in the original game, his experiences after though it left him as a Broken Ace 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.
  Sora: Aw, c'mon, Riku. You've been hanging around darkness for too long. You gotta try and think positive.
• Took a Level in Jerkass: In the original Kingdom Hearts, until the Laser-Guided Karma he receives brings him back to his senses.
• Took a Level in Kindness: After much Character Development Riku is a pretty nice guy to the people he cares about. Especially apparent in 3D.
• Too Slow: In Re:Chain Of Memories where an Ansem-possessed Riku flash-step kills Lexaeus after the latter sent the former flying into the ceiling.
  • Riku sometimes says the quote while using his Shadow Slide counter ability in Dream Drop Distance, which teleports him behind an attacking enemy.
• Toyless Toy Line Character: 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!
• Trash Talk: 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.
  Riku: Giving up already? C'mon Sora, I thought you we're stronger than that!
• Troubled, but Cute: A Broken Ace with a tendency to try to do things alone that's also a Mr. Fanservice.
• True Companions: Riku may not be Sora but he also has made similar bonds throughout the series.
  • 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.
  • 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.
• Turns Red: During the battle against Riku-Ansem, he shows three examples.
  • 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.
  • 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.
  • 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!".
• Two Roads Before You: At the end of Chain of Memories, this is asked to him by DiZ. He says that he'll Take a Third Option and walk the road to dawn.
  Ansem: Will you take the road to light, or the road to darkness?
  Riku: Neither. I'm taking the middle road.
  Ansem: You mean the twilight road to nightfall?
  Riku: No... The road to dawn.
• The Unchosen One: Had to go through a lot to become a Keyblade wielder again.
• Underestimating Badassery: 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.
• The Unfettered: 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 Character Development, this is no longer the case in the later games.
  Hook: What is Maleficent planning, anyway?
  Riku: Who knows? As long as it means getting Kairi's heart back, I couldn't care less.
• Unskilled, but Strong: 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 Strong and Skilled.
• Unwitting Pawn: All of his actions in KH 1 were due to manipulation from either Maleficent or Ansem.
  • 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.
  • 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.
• Vitriolic Best Buds: He and Sora have a bit◊ of this◊ together.
• Villain Teleportation: 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.
• Villain Respect: 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.
• Vocal Evolution: His voice changes subtly over the course of the series.
• We Can Rule Together: A variant, he offers to join forces with Sora and find Kairi, being confident they can find and save her together, Sora is having none of it and chooses to fight him while blatantly saying Riku is on the wrong side.
• We Used to Be Friends: 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.
• Weapon Specialization: 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.
• Well-Intentioned Extremist: In the first game, Riku just wants to save Kairi, despite committing evil deeds to do so.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: 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.
• What Measure Is a Non-Human?: Riku is baffled at Sora choosing to fight him over Pinocchio, coldly referring to him as a puppet with no heart.
  • 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.
• What the Hell, Hero?: 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.
  • He also delivers these to Sora in KH1, however, Riku's WTH's to Sora, in contrast, show how selfish, twisted, and 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.
  • After working closely with Ansem to restore Sora's memories, Riku is disgusted when he orders him to "dispose of" Naminé simply because she is no longer useful to them.
• Where I Was Born and Razed: 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.
• White Hair, Black Heart: A villainous version in Kingdom Hearts, but an Anti-Hero one from Chain of Memories through Dream Drop Distance.
• Wrecked Weapon: In Kingdom Hearts III, 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.
• Yin-Yang Bomb: 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 Attacks combining their prowess with the light with his with the dark.
• You Are Better Than You Think You Are: He receives a lot of this from Sora and Mickey to help him deal with his struggles over his past actions and his inner darkness.
  • III turns it around, having Riku give one to Sora after his breakdown about him being nothing without his friends after everyone besides the two are dragged by the Heartless in the Keyblade Graveyard.
• You Are Worth Hell: 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.
  Riku: If the world is made of light and darkness...we'll be the darkness.
• Younger Than They Look: After embracing the power of darkness to defeat Roxas at the end of 358/2 Days, he gets 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.
• You Remind Me of X: 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.

Kairi

Kairi

"This time, I'll fight!"

^{Click here to see Kairi as she appears in Kingdom Hearts and Chain of Memories}

^{Click here to see Kairi as a child in Kingdom Hearts and Birth by Sleep}

^{Click here to see Kairi as she appears in II}

^{Click here to see Kairi in her school uniform}

^{Click here to see Kairi as she appears in Melody of Memory}

Voiced by: Risa Uchida (Japanese), Hayden Panettiere (English, KHI, KHII, Birth by Sleep), Alyson Stoner (English, Re: Chain of Memories, 358/2 Days, 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage-, KHIII, Melody of Memory)
Young Kairi voiced by: Sumire Morohoshi (Japanese), Ariel Winter (English)

Appearances: I | Chain of Memories | II | 358/2 Days | Birth by Sleep | coded | Dream Drop Distance | 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A Fragmentary Passage- | III | Melody of Memory

"Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you."

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.

For more information on Princesses of Heart, see Kingdom Hearts: Supporting Disney.

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• Action Girl: The games teased she had the potential to be one for a looong time before she earned it and then some.
  • 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, 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.
  • 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 Faux Action Girl in the vanilla game, she still does join Sora's party fighting Saïx, her former kidnapper and The Dragon to II's Final Boss, and Xion, a Keyblade-wielder who was the Final Boss of Days and is currently copying Saïx's berserker abilities. After 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 Magic Knight with Flower Shot, Spiral Blossom and Cura. Unfortunately, she gets to participate in only one fight (aside from killing a few Heartless in a cutscene); see Faux Action Girl below for details.
  • Solidified at last in Re:Mind, which shows she is able to put former Final Boss 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 Battle Couple with Sora.
• Adaptational Badass: 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.
  • 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.
  • In addition, she openly pulls an Eyelid Pull Taunt on Axel on Destiny Islands, and is active alongside Riku-Ansem and Sora against Xigbar.
• Adaptational Personality Change: 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.
• Advertised Extra: 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.
• All-Loving Heroine: 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.
• Always with You: "Don't ever forget. Wherever you go, I'm always with you."
• Amnesiac Hero: 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.
• The Artifact: 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.
• Back from the Dead: 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.
• Badass Adorable: 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.
• Barrier Maiden: 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 bring her back if needed.
• Battle Couple: With Sora in Re:Mind. The two of them fight Armored Xehanort together as the Final Boss of the DLC's story campaign.
• Beauty Equals Goodness: A cute redheaded teen who's a Princess of Heart-turned-Guardian of Light.
• Beehive Barrier: Like Aqua and Riku, Kairi guards with a barrier rather then using her Keyblade to deflect.
• Be Careful What You Wish For: 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 a cost that she will probably regret for the rest of her life. 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.
• Big "WHAT?!": 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.
• Blonde, Brunette, Redhead: 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).
• Boyish Short Hair: 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 One of the Boys with her friends Sora and Riku. A year later in II, it's grown out to her shoulders, not unlike Naminé's, and accompanies an outfit change to a minidress in pink. In III, she splits the difference by getting a new haircut which is longer than her original one but shorter than her previous one.
• Butt-Monkey: Poor Kairi suffers a lot. She gets kidnapped in I, II, and III and never actually fights alongside Sora 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, and gets turned into crystal and shattered by Xehanort to motivate Sora into fighting.
• Can't Catch Up: 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. 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.
• Cat Eared Hood: Kairi has a pair of black cats ears sewn to the hood of her dress in III just for cuteness sake.
• Character Death: 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.
• Character Development: 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 (in all meanings of the word.)
• Cheerful Child: 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.
• Chekhov's Gun: 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.
• 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 brought it back and then some.
• Childhood Friend Romance: With Sora. Granted, much of it was all Ship Tease for the most part.
• Childhood Friends: 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.
• Cooldown Hug: 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 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.
• Cool Sword: The Destiny's Embrace Keyblade, which doubles as a Cool Key, 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.
• Criss-Cross Attack: Kairi's finishing command, Seven Wishes, lets her attack Xehanort from multiple angles in this fashion with a maximum of seven hits.
• Curb Stomp Cushion: 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.
• Combat Pragmatist: 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.
• Damsel in Distress: Three times, one in a numbered game each.
  • In I she loses her heart when Destiny Islands is destroyed, leaving her body an Empty Shell. The degree of distress is debatable, as both heart and body stay safe with Sora and Riku respectively for the most part.
  • In II Axel and Organization XIII kidnap her to use as leverage against Sora. This time around, the distress is not debatable... but Sora doesn't play a part in her getting out of it.
  • In III, the trope is mostly Played Straight, veering into Faux Action Girl territory, and ends up resulting in Kairi being temporarily killed off. Mitigated in the Re:Mind DLC, where she is showcased as a capable Action Girl, 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 becomes a playable character upon getting un-fridged by Sora.
• Damsel out of Distress: 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.
• Dark and Troubled Past: Nine years prior to the series, Kairi's hometown of Radiant Garden was consumed by darkness, seperating her from her grandmother. Kairi herself was experimented by Xehanort before she was sent to the Destiny Islands.
• Death from Above: Her Shotlock, Heart of a Princess in Re:Mind, has her conjure motes of light that carpet bomb the area and generate light pillars.
• Declaration of Protection:
  • In Kingdom Hearts when Sora becomes a Shadow Heartless, she protects him from the harmful ones and hugs him close to shield him, restoring him to human form in the process.
  • Just before the final confrontation in III, she sits on the paopu tree with Sora and 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..."
• Delivery Not Desired: 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.
• Demoted to Extra: 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 The Stinger 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 Aqua basically supplanting her as the series' female lead.
• Designated Girl Fight: 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.
• Designated Victim: Xehanort always targets Kairi because, as Saïx puts it, she is the fire that feeds Sora's anger. Even after becoming a full fledged Action Girl, 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 lampshades it afterwards.
• Deep Sleep: She voluntarily 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.
• Does Not Like Spam: Kairi is not fond of mushrooms.
• Dude Magnet: Sora and Riku both want her... as does Seifer in the KHII manga.
• Eager Rookie: In III where she is 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.
• Energy Ball: 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 Fire damage instead.
• Empty Shell: Her body after losing her heart at the start of Kingdom Hearts. Sora temporarily 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 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 light as his element and has a brief Psychic Link with her in II's prologue).
• Elemental Powers: 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.
• Eyelid Pull Taunt: In Kingdom Hearts II, she does this to Axel when she escapes with Pluto into the Dark Realm, leading them both to Twilight Town.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Her outfit in Kingdom Hearts III gives her a skirt that is pleated on one side and ruffled on the other.
• Faux Action Girl: Infamously in Kingdom Hearts III and much to fans disapproval after the wasted setup for her 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 Year Inside, Hour Outside 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 Designated Victim. 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 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 laughable weakling and a perpetually unsurprising Damsel in Distress, to a genuine badass and got much more respect from the fanbase as a result.
• Flash Step: She can teleport to her thrown Keyblade in a very Noctis-esque fashion as a playable character and her Finish Command, Seven Wishes, has her teleport to different angles to assault Xehanort.
• Flower Motifs: 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 floral-themed. When Sora goes to look for pieces of her heart in Re:Mind, it's found as five petal-shaped pieces.
• Flying Weapon: The mid portion of her combo has her spin her keyblade rapidly around herself with magic.
• Forgiven, but Not Forgotten: 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.
• Friendship Trinket: 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. The Stinger 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.
• Genki Girl: She's a giggly, playful girl at the start of the first game. It doesn't last.
• Girliness Upgrade: 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.
• Girl Next Door: 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.
• Girly Bruiser: 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 Sora, Roxas, and 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.
• Girly Girl with a Tomboy Streak: She's a very giggly and social girl, makes her affection for Sora obvious, 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 One of the Boys planning on sailing out the world on a raft with her friends, and sports Boyish Short Hair. Even after her Girliness Upgrade 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.
• Girly Run: In I and at one point in II. Bonus points for Holding Hands with Naminé at the same time. Strangely, she has a normal run in the rest of the game.
• Glass Cannon: Simply put, she can’t take many hits and can’t move fast enough to qualify as a Fragile Speedster. 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.
• Good Is Not Nice: Played for Laughs in the KHII 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 complaining about how long it took him. Beware the Nice Ones indeed.
• Good Luck Charm: 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 Incorruptible Pure Pureness 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).
• Hair Flip: 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.
• Healing Hands: As a party member she can cast Cura and as a playable character has Curaga.
• The Heart: 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.
• Heart Is an Awesome Power: 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.
• Heartwarming Orphan: 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.
• Heroes Love Dogs: 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.
• 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.
• Honorary Princess: Like Alice, Kairi is called a Princess (of Heart), thereby putting her in the same category as many of the Disney Princesses 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.
• Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Platonic version; Lea, Kairi's partner in training during Kingdom Hearts III, is much taller than she is.
• Iconic Item: 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.
• I Just Want to Be Badass: 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.
  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!
• Implied Love Interest: To Sora. Plenty of Ship Tease, but nothing concrete that ever confirms it. By the end of Kingdom Hearts III, 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.
• Improbably Quick Coma Recovery: 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.
• Incorruptible Pure Pureness: 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.
• The Ingenue: Although, while very sweet, she can also be quite snarky and headstrong.
• Innocent Blue Eyes: Depending on the game, her exact eye color shifts, although it is always some shade of blue and she is an Incorruptible Pure Pureness.
• Innocent Flower Girl: 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.
• I Will Find You: After a year has passed since she parted ways with Sora and she's found that she (and everyone else on Destiny Islands) mysteriously 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 Damsel in Distress role. Still, her Message in a Bottle makes it clear that she was gearing up to go find Sora and Riku to bring them back home.
  Kairi's Letter: Thinking of you, wherever you are
  We pray for our sorrows to end.
  and hope that our hearts will blend.
  Now I will step forward to realize this wish.
  And who knows.
  starting a new journey may not be so hard
  or maybe it has already begun.
  There are many worlds.
  but they share the same sky
  one sky, one destiny.
  • 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.
  • Re:Mind reveals that 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.
• I Will Wait for You: 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.
• Joshikousei: Sports a white-and-blue school uniform in the opening of the second game.
• Kill the Cutie: 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, sending Sora to tears. She gets revived later on when Sora retrieved the fragments.
• The Lady's Favour: 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 pretty decent weapon. He does finally return it at the end of the second game. In the secret ending of 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.
• Legacy Character: 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.
• Leg Focus: Especially noticeable with her II and III outfits and their short skirts.
• Leitmotif: "Kairi". She's also the only character to have one in the first game.
• Light Is Good: She is a Princess of Heart, one of the seven pure lights in all the worlds who can't fall to 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.
• Light 'em Up: 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.
• Literally Shattered Lives: Xehanort turns her into crystal and shatters her into pieces in the climax of III.
• Little Miss Snarker: 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:
  Kairi: Who's this new Riku and where's the old one?
• The Load: Poor Kairi's been saddled with the Damsel in Distress 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 Message in a Bottle 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.
• MacGuffin Super-Person: 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 Hostage MacGuffin in II, being the hot potato between Axel and Organization XIII as both parties try to use her to manipulate Sora.
• Magic Missile Storm: Her Shotlock in Re:Mind a large cluster of lightspheres that rain down on enemies.
• Magic Knight: Kairi has a very effective sword-arm and and equal aptitude for spells.
• Magic Skirt: It manages to stay down even during major battles and cut-scenes, but can be subverted in the original release of KHII.
• Meaningful Name: The kai in Kairi's name means "sea", which 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 Good Luck Charm 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.
• Mini Dress Of Power: 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 Damsel in Distress. She's promoted to a straight example in Kingdom Hearts III, where she openly training with the Keyblade and has a new pink-and-black outfit that has a miniskirt.
• Modesty Shorts: Due to being in an action-oriented role in III Kairi has taken to wearing shorts under her skirt.
• Morality Pet: For Riku in the first game, as his primary reason (besides jealousy of Sora) for becoming an Anti-Villain 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 Fighting from the Inside.
• Mysterious Waif: 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).
• Never a Self-Made Woman: 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 Morality Chain for both Sora and Riku, and an Implied Love Interest for the former. Even her growth into an Action Girl 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.
• Nice Girl: 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 Demyx will get punished if she escapes that she willingly (though begrudgingly) returns to her cell to help him out.
• Ninja Pirate Zombie Robot: A Keyblade-wielding Princess of Heart. By III, she is both one of the New Seven Hearts and one of the Seven Guardians of Light.
• No Infantile Amnesia: 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.
• Now, Let Me Carry You: When she discovers Sora has turned into a Heartless to recover Kairi's heart and they are about to be attacked by Heartless.
  Kairi: This time I'll protect you.
• Odd Friendship: She ultimately develops one with Lea, the complete Somebody of her former kidnapper, Axel.
• Offscreen Moment of Awesome:
  • 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.
  • 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 Informed Attribute, 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 Action Girl mode.
• Petal Power: Her attacks with Destiny's Embrace emit blue and pink blossoms, as well as gold-glowing flower petals; her Spin Attack lets off a flurry of them so thick it can make it difficult to see her. Her projectile attack is even named "Flower Shot"!
• Pink Heroine: 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 Action Girl.
• Pink Means Feminine: Switches from a tank top and skirt over pants to pink minidresses to coincide with her Girliness Upgrade. May also be a case of Princesses Prefer Pink 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.
• Pintsized Powerhouse: This petite teenage girl is a full-fledged Guardian of Light and goes all Action Girl in Re:Mind where she hits like a truck.
• Pity the Kidnapper: 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.
• Playing with Fire: 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.
• Plucky Girl: As Axel points out, the girl's got a lot of guts. She was even prepared to fight 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.
• The Pollyanna: 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 Stepford Smiler territory.
• The Power of Love:
  • 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 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.
  • 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.
  • In Re:Mind, Sora and Kairi's Combination Attack One Heart has this vibe, the two of them Formchange their keyblade into a wing each and then assault Xehanort while holding hands.
• Princess Protagonist: Kairi is the main female lead due to her importance to 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 Seven Princesses of Heart, making her an Honorary Princess.
• Promoted to Playable: After 18 years of being a Faux Action Girl at best and an outright Damsel in Distress at worst, KHIII: Re:Mind made her not only finally playable, but playable in a fight against Xehanort himself! (Albeit with Sora by her side, but still.)
• Protective Charm: Aqua placed one on her necklace that brought her to Destiny Islands when Xehanort cast her into the darkness between worlds as a child.
• 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 dark side and puts him in conflict with his childhood friend Sora. Riku eventually pulls a Heel–Face Turn and adds him to his protectorate, while still looking out for Kairi.
• Power Gives You Wings: One Heart, Kairi's team-attack with Sora have them each formshift their keyblade into a wing with which they fly together and attack with.
• Raised by Grandparents: 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.
• Ship Tease:
  • 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.
  • 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.
• Shoot the Shaggy Dog: 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.
• Short Teens, Tall Adults: 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.
• Single Tear: At the end of I, after seeing Sora's addition to the paopu drawing.
  • 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.
• Skilled, but Naive: 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.
• Spin Attack: 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.
• Spectacular Spinning: 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.
• Standard Female Grab Area: Axel easily kidnaps a struggling Kairi in KHII by grabbing her by the wrist and pulling her away.
  • Justified in III. Though Kairi is now a Keyblade wielder, there's not much that she can do when 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 changes things around so that he had drained her energy beforehand with a Nothingness attack.
• Star-Crossed Lovers: Or at least what amounts to this trope for a 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 Lampshades is at the end of III. Sure enough, by the end of that game, Kairi and Sora are not together.
  Sora: My whole journey began the day I lost her. And every time I find her... she slips away again.
• Stay in the Kitchen: She tends to suffer from this.
  • 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".
  • 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.
  • 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.
• Stranger in a Familiar Land: 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.
• Summon to Hand: Played straight and Inverted. Kairi can summon her Keyblade just like any other wielder. In addition, her version of Strike Raid has Kairi summoning herself to her Keyblade to chain into combos.
• Sword over Head: 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.
• Targeted to Hurt the Hero: 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.
• Throwing Your Sword Always Works: As a gap closer she throws her Keyblade at enemies and teleports to it instead of doing a dash attack. ^note Likely a Shout-Out to Final Fantasy XV where Prince Noctis and his Kingsguard could do the same thing.
• Travel to Projectile: Her gap-closer rather then a Dash Attack will have her throw her keyblade at the Xehanort and teleport to it, which greatly resembles the Warp Strike from Final Fantasy XV.
• Tomboy and Girly Girl:
  • In II, Kairi is the tomboy to Selphie's girly-girl tendencies on Destiny Islands. While Kairi's not as much of a tomboy as she was in the original (as invokedWord of God 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 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.
  • 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.
• Tomboyness Upgrade: After receiving a Girliness Upgrade 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.
• Tomboy Princess: She has some strong tomboyish tendencies and turns out to be a princess (well, Princess of Heart).
• Took a Level in Badass:
  • 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.
    Kairi: This time, I'll fight.
  • 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.
  • As of The Stinger 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.
  • Re:Mind not only has her go toe to toe with Xemnas in a cutscene but also promotes her to playable and gives her a cinematic shotlock attack and has her take the lead in the battle with the Big Bad himself. 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.
• Travel to Projectile: Kairi's gap closing ability rather then a standard Dash Attack involves throwing her keyblade in a Strike Raid-esque fashion and then teleporting to it to bring herself closer.
• True Sight: 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.
• Underrated and Overleveled: 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 Player Character Sora, let alone using a real sword with the same skill they do. Though, it could just be because it's a cutscene.
• Unskilled, but Strong: 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 Strong and Skilled.
• Unwitting Instigator of Doom: 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.
• Video Game Sliding: Her Dodge Roll equivalent is a quick slide along the ground.
• Water Is Womanly: 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.
• Weak, but Skilled: As demonstrated in Melody of Memory, 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.
• Weaponized Teleportation: 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.
• Well-Trained, but Inexperienced: 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.
• What Happened to the Mouse?: 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.
• What Kind of Lame Power Is Heart, Anyway?: 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.
• Wistful Amnesia:
  • 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.
  • At the start of Kingdom Hearts II, 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.
• Worf Had the Flu: Re:Mind 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.
• 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 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.
• Yamato Nadeshiko: In Kingdom Hearts III, her personality has mellowed into this.
• 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 belts thrown in for flavor. Yep, Nomura's fingerprints are all over it.

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