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cloudofash · 4 years

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The Future of the Destiny Islands Trio - Part 1

There is so much to discuss in regards to all of the information we’ve received in Kingdom Hearts Re:Mind and I have so many theories conjuring up in my head that I want to share with you all. For today, I would like to discuss the status of our main trio, the Destiny Islands trio.

Nomura himself stated that Kingdom Hearts 3 depicts how each character feels about each other “in this new storyline”. Which means that their relationships going forward into the next arc have been defined. Therefore, we can analyze Kingdom Hearts 3 and get a good idea of where each character stands as of now and theorize where their relationships will be headed. However, I’ll be focusing on just the Destiny Islands Trio since I feel every other Trio has received their happy ending and their relationships are clearly defined. The Destiny Islands’ Trio future remains hazy. With that being said…

*SPOILERS AHEAD*

Sora and Kairi : Now

Let’s begin with analysis on Kairi and Sora since their relationship took center stage this time around. First, let’s look at some moments the two had together that were cute: they fed each other separate paopu fruits, they hug, Sora has a strong devotion to save Kairi’s heart, and they had a team attack “One Heart” where they shared angel wings. It is clear that in KH3 Sora and Kairi’s relationship is stronger. So where do they both stand?

I would say that Kairi does have romantic feelings for Sora. We established in KH1 she returned Sora’s crush when she drew her hand feeding him a paopu fruit. She initiates the paopu fruit scene and directly states she wants to be in Sora’s life, the fruit itself implying that she means forever. She says she wants to protect him now, which shows she wants to change the dynamic of she and Sora’s relationship where she is always being saved and protected by him. She wants to reciprocate the desire to protect him, this shows a clear attempt at advancement. She’s ready to be Sora’s equal in their relationship. At the very end in the Limit Cut episode, she chooses to sleep for a year believing traces of Sora exists in her heart which shows she believes the connection between their hearts is very strong. Kairi is taking the initiative to advance their relationship, and this leads me to believe there are romantic motives behind her actions. Of course Nomura is Nomura and there’s a chance that Kairi’s motives are completely platonic but considering Kairi’s known crush on Sora and her insistence that they remain a part of each others lives, I would mark her actions down as romantic.

But where does Sora stand?

Well….

Sora states early in the game that he has a lot to learn about love. He seems to be very clueless and is walking the line between liking and loving, friendships and romance and it shows throughout the game. His feelings are not as clear as Kairi’s so we will have to analyze all of the moments the two share to see if he either reciprocates Kairi’s feelings or initiates/participates in a moment that can unquestionably be interpreted as romantic.

As Kairi initiates the paopu fruit scene, Sora looks baffled and confused which is a reaction completely opposite of what’s expected of him considering this is the same island boy who dreamed of sharing a paopu fruit with Kairi a year earlier. She says she wants to be a part of his life and he never responds directly to the idea he only says “Kairi, I’ll keep you safe.” Protecting Kairi and saving her from trouble is something he’s been doing since the start of the series and doesn’t really demonstrate an advancement in their relationship, and doesn’t imply romance since Sora has shown that he’s extremely dedicated to keeping everyone safe. You can interpret his statement as romantic but since it can also be interpreted as platonic I wouldn’t count it as a purely romantic moment. For this scene to be truly romantic Sora should have returned Kairi’s desire to be together forever, not just with eating separate paopu fruits because there is a high level issue with their exchange that I will cover in a bit. When Kairi loses her heart, Sora tells Chirithy that he is alright with losing the power of waking and even vanishing from the world, which shows that he is incredibly devoted to saving her. He demonstrates this devotion throughout all of Re:Mind, doing all that he can to find her heart’s pieces. However, he does this for all of the Guardians and saves them all from death by abusing the Power of Waking. Sora is, again devoted to saving all of his friends and he has shown this across all games, especially with Riku in KH2 where he nearly accepted that he and Riku could possibly be lost to the Realm of Darkness forever. Therefore I wouldn’t count Sora’s devotion as romantic, else we’d have to consider Sora’s devotion to Riku (and everyone else) as romantic. If Sora was devoted to Kairi alone then I would consider it romantic devotion but for now his devotion is universal (which is why I consider Riku’s devotion romantic because he has shown that he puts Sora above all others).

Now we get to where Sora saves Kairi and gives her a big, warm tender hug. This is something you could definitely consider romantic, it’s a great improvement to the incredibly awkward hug Kairi received from him in KH2. Unfortunately it can also be considered platonic because Sora also gives Riku a big, warm yet excited hug in DDD. He also fell down on his knees, held Riku’s hands and cried that he looked everywhere for him in KH2. The hugging and touching speaks to Sora’s character rather than romance. Sora is very passionate about his friends and gets very touchy when he misses them or when he’s relieved when he reunites with them, it seems he feels he needs to touch them in some way to make sure they’re really standing in front of him. If we call this hug romantic because its tender then we can call his tender moments with Riku romantic as well….which I have nooo problem with! Jokes aside, since most consider Riku and Sora’s DDD hug as well as their entire moment in KH2 as platonic I will go ahead and mark this one down as platonic too. We can’t say one is romantic while the other isn’t when Sora clearly exudes the same energy (being relieved that he has reunited with someone dear) in both cases.

So then we have the team attack, One Heart. Well that certainly has to be romantic, it literally says they share one heart and they share angel wings. This has got to mean something right? I absolutely agree, the attack was super cute and I would definitely give a point to the romance team! Except….if you pay close attention to the feathers of the angel wings you can actually see memories on them. The memories aren’t just of Sora and Kairi, they’re of all of the Guardians. This means that One Heart isn’t just a Sora and Kairi attack, it’s a unified Guardians attack where they draw power from all of their friends. See some of the confirmed memories that appear on their angel wings below:

I give YoSora rights on Twitter full credit for noting this discovery!

There is also the fact that Sora and Riku their own unified team attack with the Combined Keyblade, commonly called “The Gayblade” because it is literally rainbow colored, where each half of the boys’ Keyblades create a unified winged heart which holds Sora’s crown at the top and has a paopu fruit attached to the keychain. They share a single heart with a single paopu fruit. Every piece of “romantic” symbolism is there and yet Sora and Riku are still referred to as friends or brothers. Unlike Sora and Kairi’s attack which includes the other Guardians, their combined keyblade is strictly theirs alone. If the Combined Keyblade is not romantic, then One Heart certainly isn’t.

With each new shared moment Sora has with Kairi, there is a near-identical moment Sora shared with Riku. From the energy Sora himself exudes down to the symbolism. Sora’s demeanor doesn’t change between Riku and Kairi, so we can not say “He is friendly with Riku but lovey-dovey with Kairi”. If there was a clear difference in Sora’s behavior towards them trust me I could admit to it, but there isn’t. The nail in the coffin is when Sora and Kairi get to the Final World and he directly states that he and Kairi looking around the Final World was a moment with a friend.

The bottom line is that Sora still views Kairi as a friend despite having a crush on her. He hasn’t reciprocated her feelings of wanting to be together forever, he’s made no advancement in their relationship. I honestly believe there was more advancement in KH2 where he imagined himself dancing with Kairi after watching Jack and Sally, that was an unquestionably romantic moment. The only other moment in KH3 would be when he held Kairi’s hand on the way out of the tunnel and imagined Rapunzel and Flynn together who are definitely a romantic couple, however he immediately thought of Elsa and Anna afterwards which is an example of sisterly love, not romantic. Sora was thinking of love as a whole, platonic and familial love included not just romantic love.

Sora and Kairi : Future

So where does Sora and Kairi’s relationship go from here? As of now Sora is lost in the void somewhere between the Final World and an alternate universe with Yozora, and Kairi is in a self-induced coma with no sign of coming out of it yet. It will probably be a long while before the see each other in person again. I must also note that Kairi believed that her heart would lead them all to clues on Sora’s whereabouts but after a year of searching her heart nothing came up. This is concerning, since we’re at a point where we’re being led to believe that their hearts’ bond is growing stronger, they share all these moments together and now we’re being told Kairi’s heart has no traces or clues of Sora found for an entire year, yet Riku has a recurring dream and Fairy Godmother suspects his dream will lead everyone to Sora. Does this mean that Kairi’s bond with Sora is weaker than Riku’s? Or is her connection to Sora weakening overall? How can that be when the two shared a paopu fruit, their connection should be stronger than ever right?

This is where Sora and Kairi’s relationship may take a turn for the worst. The paopu fruit scene has been widely considered the moment that Sora and Kairi’s relationship became canon and means they’re dating (some even said married??) but as I said earlier there is an immense issue with it. They did not actually share a single paopu fruit like the legend described, instead they ate two separate fruits and fed them to each other crossing their arms in the process. As many have theorized, most notably the Sleeping Realm Theorists, this may have doomed Sora and Kairi to be star-crossed lovers, where all the forces of nature will actively work to tear them apart. There is evidence behind this theory because Sora makes several statements where he shows that he is okay with not always being with those he cares about, most likely in reference to Kairi.

Sora and Kairi may end up having a relationship where they accept that they can never be together. Or perhaps, Sora and Kairi won’t accept that and will always fight to stay at each other’s sides. Only time will tell, but I believe the overall theme of Kingdom Hearts 3 is learning to accept that you’re not always going to be with those you care about, and to enjoy the time you do get to spend together.

I’m sure this analysis may have annoyed some but I ask that you please hear me out. Sora viewing Kairi as a friend is not bad, it means there is room for change. For growth. Sora may view her as a friend now, this doesn’t mean he will in future titles. Or maybe he will. We’re at the end of the Dark Seeker Saga and Sora is just now learning about love, I’m sure Sora will learn what love means to him in later titles. He’ll fall in love eventually….When he gets swept away by Riku’s heroism and learns that he’s the light, bwahaha! >:)

Sorry, had to be a tad biased. Naturally I want Soriku to win. ;-P

I am going to stop here because this is getting waaaaay longer than I initially anticipated (like usual) and I want to make sure I have enough space for the other two relationships: Kairi and Riku and Sora and Riku. Thank you all once again so so much for reading!

Please see Part 2 here.

#kingdom hearts #KH #KH3 #Re:Mind #destiny islands #destiny islands trio #sora #kairi #riku #relationship

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