Kingdom Hearts: Character Analysis — Kairi and Fear
Okay. I think I need to get this off my chest; I actually really deeply love Kairi's entire character and think her lack of strength and action is essential to the themes she embodies (and starting to literally break out of).
While I 100% agree there are some parts of her character that play off of the outdated archetype of "damsel in distress", I genuinely don't think it was the intention for Kairi to embody only this trope, but to embody the opposite of Riku as a character; specifically, his curiosity and lack of fear towards the unknown. To elaborate further, I believe Riku and Kairi are the two extremes that are supposed to contrast to Sora; Kairi's extreme desire for safety and Riku's extreme plunge into danger.
//Note: this will contain spoilers for the entire series, including Melody of Memory, Re:Mind, and every other game that came before it.
The Main Trio
Our initial introduction to Kairi is on dry land, safe from the wave that swallowed Riku and Sora. Sora himself arrives on shore after escaping, while Riku stays within the waves, beyond reach. While this is excellent foreshadowing, I also believe this is symbolic of each character's thematic role when compared to one another. Kairi (meaning ocean) is safely on land, meanwhile Riku (meaning land) is in the waves of the ocean, standing within danger unflinchingly. Sora is tied between the two; between the safety of land (home) and danger (exploration).
In Kingdom Hearts, land is portrayed as "worlds"; the homes of those who live within them, while "ocean" is used to describe the connections between them. From the start, the premise is to build a raft to explore. But the cast all show they have different feelings about this. Namely, Riku and Kairi. Riku is excited, unfazed and unafraid to explore. He's curious, adventurous and confident that they can handle whatever's out there. He believes the ocean beyond and between the undiscovered lands he wishes to explore to have no dangers. Kairi, on the other hand, is his polar opposite; she's unsure if they even should go at all (note: I'm not saying she's against it at all, she wants to go, but she's unsure). Her "laziness" in building the raft, her anxious laugh when Riku says it's because of her he wants to explore what's out there, her telling Sora "I was a little afraid at first, but now I'm ready!" and, most telling of all, one of her first bits of dialogue in the series: "Well, I'm happy here." While she wants to know where she came from, to see it, she has clear reservations about leaving her home behind; the safe place that holds no danger. She's shown being afraid far more than either Sora or Riku.
Sora is in the middle of the two. He wants to go and doesn't understand Kairi's hesitation, but he's also much more relaxed than Riku. Sora follows the two of them and shows both excitement and nervousness to a degree, but never enough to really sway him in the adventure he wants to have with his friends.
"Sora, don't ever change", when compared to "Riku's changed", really puts even more perspective into why she's a scared. Later, we discover Kairi's past may have led to her understanding of the world's dangers, unlike Sora and Riku who didn't have such experiences to go off. That being said, I think another aspect of this fear (perhaps a subconscious fear born from those experiences) is her desire for things to stay the same.
Strength in Change
Kairi isn't going on this journey to go on a life changing adventure, she's just a little curious and wants to stay with he friends. Of what we see of our interactions with her, as the audience, is that she wants the safety and for things to stay the same. The thing is though, as we see with Riku and Sora, change makes people stronger; it challenges our flaws and makes us face our own thoughts and feelings. Change is needed to grow and Kairi is terrified of the thing needed for that. It's not until Kingdom Hearts 2 that she realises that this way of doing things just isn't helping her or keeping anyone (including herself) safe. She's actually harming herself by trying so hard to not allow change to happen. "This world is too small", but Kairi herself wants it to stay small; discovered, known, safe.
While Kairi isn't weak of a person by any means, in fact she's very strong, she is held back. Not by others, but by her own fears and desire for simplicity. She may be strong to start with, but she's unable to become stronger. She is stuck, left behind, as Riku and Sora embrace change and move forward without her as she stays waiting for simplicity and safety to return.
I think the end of Kingdom Hearts starts to push this realisation a little as well. Whether Kairi likes it or not, change has happened already. She can't go back and undo what's been done, she can only accept it or ignore it. The problem is, she's still used to the habits she herself created; wait, don't rush in, run away, hide. She's used to allowing her fears to lead her back into safety, into light and warmth, while not allowing herself to grow as a person. She's clinging desperately to this desire to stay where it feels happy, safe and warm all the time. But the thing is, that's unrealistic. Bad things happen. Sometimes, you encounter things that challenge you and change your, for better or worse. Kairi's weakness itself stems from her resistance to any change that may actually be good for her because she's so afraid of the bad.
She doesn't want to grow, to be an adult, or acknowledge the scary parts of life that are a part of growing up. It's even more telling how she ends up in Neverland of all places when she's thrown off Destiny Islands. She is the most childish of the three, not because of how she acts, but because of her fear of aging into an adult. She wants things to stay simple and pleasent.
It isn't until Kingdom Hearts 3 that she really realises just how impossible it is to cling to not changing. She realises that she needs to face her own fears of change to grow; to become stronger and catch up to Sora and Riku who embraced what she couldn't until now.
Princesses of Heart
There is also another matter I need to bring up; what is a Princess of Heart? It is consistently noted that these are the purest of hearts, but it isn't really stated that this requires them to have absolutely no darkness in their heart whatsoever. I think it's easy to forget this since Maleficent said "Her heart is filled with light—not the slightest touch of darkness." But considering the implications from the rest of the series and the reinforced notion that light cannot exist without a tiny bit of darkness, I believe this was more of a mistake on Maleficent's part, perhaps born of envy for Aurora? It could also easily be a mistranslation, although I do not know Japanese well enough to know whether or not this is a translation issue. Regardless, it's important to remember that "there is darkness within every heart" is a constant theme pushed in this series. There is no person capable of not having any flaws or fears, not even a princess of a heart.
This also goes for Kairi, who we see has clear fears and flaws. Many of which have directly led to her being unable to obtain the strength she sees Sora and Riku having due to them not being held back by the idea that change is inherently a scary and dangerous thing. It's also another interesting opposite to Riku who represents the light within darkness, while Kairi is a heart of light with a lot of darkness deep down.
The Three Questions
At the beginning of the first Kingdom Hearts game, Sora is asked a question from 3 people within the starting dream, each having 3 answers. While it is true that gameplay wise it's there to effect stats based on what answers you give, I think there's a possibility of some foreshadowing as well. Though that's more just speculation on my part. Here are the questions and answers for those who don't remember what they were exactly:
Tidus: "What are you so afraid of?"
"Getting old."
"Being different."
"Being indecisive."
Wakka: "What do you want outta life?"
"To see rare sights."
"To broaden my horizons."
"To be strong."
Selphie: "What's most important to you?"
"Being number one."
"Friendship."
"My prized possessions."
"Getting old", "to be strong" and "my prized possessions" all remind me of Kairi. Her fear of change, her desire to not be helpless and gain strength and, finally, her using objects to project said fears and self doubts onto.
Memories and Objects
As noted in the above, Kairi often uses objects to cope with her fears. Primarily, her good luck charm made of thalassa shells. Although she does also use other items as well; her necklace (memento of her past in Radiant Garden), poetry, letters, etc. These are all great ways to connect and to keep memories close to her using a physical object for this, but they also could be a sign she's also afraid of losing what she has and feels more at ease making physical reminders of the people, places and things she loves.
It's also possible this stems from forgetting her memories of Reading Garden and, as a result, she may fear forgetting those she loves. This could also explain her development in Kingdom Hearts 2, perhaps "remembering" Sora pushed her past her fears upon realising that staying in her safe place (the Islands) and holding onto reminders didn't protect the memories she wanted to cling to.
The first thing she says after things calm down and she's able to talk to Sora is "this is real". It could be that she was afraid that her own memories weren't real enough and she needed that physical reassurance. It's also why she needed to hug him, to understand that it isn't false and it hadn't been taken away. Despite everything, she hadn't forgotten those important to her again.
Interestingly enough, Ventus also shares the exact same coping mechanism, which makes sense given his similarities to Kairi and his own amnesia. This likely lead to him subconsciously seeking reassurance in the same ways Kairi does. This will likely be a huge part of the two's development, or at least, I very much suspect it will be. Ventus was able to grow past it due to his journey and curiousity, but Kairi is still growing and only recently realised that change is okay. Their friendship will likely be what pushes Kairi to become the strongest version of herself and mature into herself.
Journey of Agency
Kairi's hesitation to take control of her own situation and return to the safety of what she knows has unquestionably left her hindered in her desire to stay by the side of Riku and Sora. However, since her memory of Sora being lost and returned, her realisation in Kingdom Hearts 2 and then at the end of Dream Drop Distance and in Kingdom Hearts 3 with her introduction into the same dangers and change she's actively avoided, Kairi has grown. She's realised that waiting and allowing herself to just be led around because it's what been safe before now doesn't mean it'll work when she's being left behind and others are getting hurt trying to protect that self imposed safety. She has to run into danger herself and learn what it means to be independent if she wants to stand by the side of those she loves.
And finally, at the end of her journey in Melody of Memory and reclaiming her lost memories of Radiant Garden, she finally faces exactly that which scares her most; her memories of "Ansem" or Apprentice Xehanort who used her, forced he to lose everything once before and most importantly caused the fear that began everything for her. She's no longer just taking steps now, she's facing what caused it directly. This is probably the most powerful of any development for Kairi, it's what may define if she is able to break free of that fear or become defined by it.
It's also a stark reminder that she's still not where she wants to be, she's still defined by the weakness of being left behind due to her own fears. That's why, at the very end when she chooses to start training with Aqua, it's shown that Kairi finally chooses to change. She finally wants to become more than what she's limited herself to; she's finally ready to face her own weaknesses and grow.
Kairi's development could very well lead her to being the one to really push the narrative with the coming arc. While Sora and Riku are struggling with their own flaws (which I'll explain in a different post), Kairi will start to move forward. That being said, I think it's only because of the slow development of learning that what she was doing was harming her and ultimately leaving her behind and alone. I think this will also be a vital theme in the current arc where the main villains goal is to destroy darkness; Kairi's realisation that her own pain and fear were part of her growth may very well be the key in stopping him. Though that's just my own suspicions, not what canon has presented us with at this stage.
Conclusion.
Regardless, I for one am excited to see where Kairi's development goes. Her self discovery is fascinating and her arc is very different to the character arcs I've seen. Her entire story is compelling and I think Kairi's depth is something easily overlooked because of its starting atypical themes and structure (running from change and thus being weaker, rather than growing in strength after adversities). I think her journey of how to even start growing stronger when you're stuck frozen in fear is an important and powerful message, it's also just extremely interesting. I love Kairi so much and I hope this helps people look more closely at her characterisation.
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Kairi and Riku spend their last night together before Melody of Memory.
inspired by the song Marble Floors by Vian Izak
rated G, 2.5k words
Kairi/Riku, background Sora/Riku/Kairi
includes re:mind spoilers and MoM foreshadowing
Radiant Garden, even at night, lives up to its name. From her high window in the castle, Kairi can see the gardens, the walking paths that meander through the wondrous growing plants, lit with strings of tiny fairy lights. She still doesn’t know the names for half of the plants there. Ienzo gave her a book on botany when she arrived a week ago, and she’s been going through it slowly when she has a few free minutes between keyblade training with Riku and all the tests the apprentices want to run before they finally do this thing. She’s going to leave the book for Riku, hoping it will help him take a break once in a while when she’s asleep.
She presses her face against the glass, like that will help her see into the town just past the high wall of the garden. There are street lamps on, and every so often she can see the passing shadow of someone out late. Are they awake from nerves like her, or are they content with their situations, moving about because they simply want to and not because they have to?
At least Riku is asleep, soft breaths in the bed behind her. They’d gone to bed together a few hours ago, curled on their sides facing each other, hands entwined between them, bookending a space that should not still be empty. Maybe they should have figured out a new sleeping arrangement, but neither of them can bear the idea of acting like Sora might not come back.
Kairi rests a hand against her heart, closing her eyes. If she breathes softly, she can feel her pulse fluttering beneath her skin. Her heart kicks stronger for a second before settling down again, and Kairi bows her head. What did it feel like when Sora carried her in his heart? He hadn’t even known she was there until it was pointed out to him. Would she be able to tell if he was inside hers?
Come on, Sora, she thinks, just give me a sign.
Her heart continues to beat steadily, and she sighs. Of course it wouldn’t be that easy. She doesn’t expect much of anything to be easy these days, but that doesn’t mean she can’t wish for it anyway.
Riku shifts in the bed and she freezes, determined to let him keep sleeping for as long as possible. Kairi knows Riku doesn’t sleep well very often; it had taken her fifteen minutes to sneak out of bed after she’d woken up so she’d be sure she wouldn’t disturb him. Most of their friends have fraught relationships with sleep, one more thing that ties them all together. The kitchen here in the castle has a coffee pot enchanted to keep the liquid within it warm for hours, but they hardly ever need it: between Kairi, Riku, and the apprentices, new pots are made constantly. Kairi bets there would be one down there now if she went to check.
Behind her, she can hear muffled sounds of distress and then the sharp exhalation of breath that she associates with Riku waking himself up from a dream. She frowns, saddened that he couldn’t sleep longer, though she’s not upset at the idea of having company.
“Hey,” he says, his voice thick with sleep. “What are you doing? It’s the middle of the night.”
Kairi can hear him moving around, shuffling off the inordinate amount of blankets they sleep with as island kids, so she doesn’t turn from the window. He’ll join her soon enough. She’s trying to memorize what this place looks like, at night and during the day. If she visits Radiant Garden in her dreams, she wants it to be accurate. It’s an odd compulsion, this feeling that she needs to soak everything in before she leaves. But she’s always followed her heart, and this, though strange, is no exception.
“I’m going to sleep for who knows how long once I get down there,” she says, looking up at what few stars she can see over the glow from the city. “I don’t need to sleep now too.”
Riku’s response to that is an inarticulate grunt as he wraps his arms around her waist, resting his chin on top of her head.
“You should go back to sleep,” Kairi says, but she leans back anyway, getting comfortable against his chest. He tightens his hold on her once she’s done adjusting.
“Nah. I’m not going to leave you alone.”
Kairi hums and rests her arms on top of his, and they stand there for a quiet few minutes. It’s easy to fall into the same breathing rhythm like this, the way they used to when they were kids. The first time Sora and Riku had shown her the secret place, they’d been at a loss for what to do next, having never shared their spot with anyone else. So they just sat on the cold floor in a circle, silent and breathing together, until Sora’s dad started calling for them from the docks.
Normally it’s soothing for her, hearing and feeling the breath from each of her boys, the physical evidence that they’re present and not far away again. Except only Riku’s here now, and the air around them feels empty without Sora’s breathing to fill it too. Kairi grips onto Riku’s arm, and he kisses the top of her head, sharing the feeling.
“Which one of them is the Islands?” Riku asks. He must be staring up at the stars too.
Kairi looks at them more intently, as though she’d be able to figure it out from this far away. Still, as she looks, calling out with her heart for the heart of the Islands, she thinks it works.
“That one,” she says, surprised at her own confidence, but it feels right. She raises one of her arms and points into the sky at a tiny dot, just one of so many. Riku bends down to rest his cheek on her shoulder and sight along the line of her arm. He stays there for a while, longer than she’d expected, until her arm starts to get tired. Then he pulls away with a quiet, “thanks,” and settles back behind her again.
“Do you miss it?” Kairi asks.
She feels Riku’s arms tense around her before he shrugs and relaxes them again.
“You’re my home,” he says, which is absolutely not an answer and she’s about to call him out on it when he continues. “So is he. So get him back…and maybe then it’ll feel like home again.”
“I will,” Kairi promises. All she’s wanted to do since Sora disappeared is to go find him, and the anticipation of being on the eve of doing so is almost too much to bear alone. But she’s not alone.
She grabs Riku’s arms and spins out from between them. Slipping her hands into his, she looks up at him seriously, struck with a sudden, wild inspiration.
“Dance with me,” she says.
Sora would have immediately pulled her close and started galloping off around the room, uncoordinated but somehow still graceful, his enthusiasm and heart making up for any technical lacking. Riku blinks at her from arms length, caught off guard.
“What?” He’s stalling, trying to buy time for his brain to catch up, but Kairi doesn’t want him to think his way out of this. She reels him in and wraps her arms around his waist, settling her cheek against his chest.
“Dance with me,” she says again.
It takes a minute, but he finally puts his arms back around her too.
“...This is just a hug,” he says after fifteen seconds of dead silence.
Kairi laughs. “Then start moving, dummy. Then it’ll be a dance.”
Riku mumbles something, and Kairi pulls back a little to stare at him. He averts his eyes but says, a little louder, “I don’t know how to dance.” Kairi stares harder until he continues, “I skipped a year of school, remember? My mom was gonna make me take a dance class that year, but I—”
“Was too busy saving the world,” Kairi finishes for him so he can’t tag on something self-deprecating.
“…Right.”
Undeterred, Kairi sets her jaw and nods. “That’s fine. It’s not that hard anyway. Come on: I’ll lead, you follow.”
She nudges his arms into place gently but firmly, and he lets it happen, faint bemusement creasing his eyebrows. She’s glad for his cooperation, since she knows she couldn’t move him by herself if it came down to raw strength. Their training together has taught her that. It’s also taught her that powerful hits aren’t always the most effective tools, and that several lighter, better aimed swings can accomplish the same or more. Her strengths are in mobility and in finding new ways to surprise her opponent.
Mobility she puts to use now, sliding her left leg forward and forcing Riku’s right leg back. He compensates well for the change in balance, and Kairi beams at him. She shifts her torso, leaning slightly to the right into Riku’s arm, before stepping her right leg to the side. Riku falters for a second, his combat instincts telling him to move the other way, but he follows after a moment, and Kairi rewards him with another smile. He smiles back, a little bashful, jerking forward and to the side to follow Kairi when she moves again.
“Congratulations,” she says, when they’re back where they started, “you can waltz.”
Riku barks a laugh and says, “I really don’t think—” before Kairi is moving again. Her strides are longer this time, carrying them into the rest of the room.
Like many of the other rooms in the castle of Radiant Garden, their room is huge, the designer of the place having been a fan of large, open spaces. Their bed and dresser are on one end of the room and a sitting area with a couch, a couple chairs, and some end tables is on the other, leaving them with quite enough empty area in the middle to dance around.
Riku had protested at the size of the room when Aeleus brought them to it initially, but after being shown several nearly identical rooms in the guest quarters wing, he’d sighed and accepted it. Kairi wonders if it’s because most houses on the Islands aren’t this big, and all the open places he had growing up were outside. She remembers rooms kind of like this from her childhood before the Islands, and the mayor’s house on the Island had doubled as the town hall, so it was by necessity quite large. The castle’s size doesn’t faze her in the least.
Kairi leads Riku slowly through the steps of the dance over and over, moving to some hidden beat in her head, until his enviously quick-learning muscle memory kicks in. They dance all over that room, from the bank of windows to the door and across from their bed to the chairs, twirling together and smiling. Content, for now at least, to just exist with each other like this. Neither of them wants to say that it may be the last chance they get for a long time, but they both know it: Sora had slept for a year while Naminé put his memories back together, and Riku and Sora’s own dream dive for their Mark of Mastery exam had quickly turned complicated and could have lasted a lot longer if Riku hadn’t pulled them through it. There’s a lot that can go wrong, but so much to be gained if it goes right.
Riku pulls Kairi closer to him, putting a stop to their dancing in favor of just holding her. She wraps her arms around his waist and holds him in return.
“I’m still here,” she murmurs, feeling Riku’s arms tighten around her at the words. “And I won’t be alone when I’m down there either: Even or Ienzo will be with me all the time to make sure nothing happens.”
“Yeah, I guess,” Riku says, speaking into her hair. He doesn’t sound convinced.
Kairi can’t figure out if Riku’s just being protective, wishing he could be there for her, or if he still hasn’t fully forgiven Ansem’s apprentices for the actions of their Nobodies in Castle Oblivion and thus does not trust them to take care of her while she’s asleep. Well, either way, he’s going to have to get over it because she’s doing this whether he approves or not. She’s told him as much already and he knows he can’t stop her.
“I’m going to miss you,” he says, so softly she nearly misses it. She’s not sure if she was meant to hear it or not, so she doesn’t acknowledge it in words, just squeezes him tighter for a moment before peering up at him.
“Alright, your turn to lead now,” she says, grinning like it’s some evil plot of hers. “Think you’re up for the challenge, Master Riku?”
Bless that competitive streak in him that allows her to distract him like this, Kairi thinks, because Riku immediately moves back to a dancing position, mimicking the posture she’d had as leader. He takes her hand softly in one of his, resting his other at the small of her back. She sets her arms lightly on top of his, allowing her hand at his shoulder to creep toward the base of his neck. She rubs her thumb in slow circles there, waiting for him to start moving. He does, eventually, after staring at her for a long moment, as if memorizing her the same way she’d been memorizing the city.
Riku dances slowly, not because he’s unsure of himself in this, but because that’s the way he does a lot of things now. Kairi can see the results of his training with Terra in his movements, deep and deliberate. He’s nearly flawless in his execution of the dance steps too, faltering only near the beginning when he overthinks a turn. Kairi’s so proud of him: proud of the growth he made during the year he was away from her, but especially proud of the growth he’s made since she’s been there to watch and encourage him. It hasn’t been that long, but Kairi thinks they’ve made more progress together in that time than they would have apart.
They’ve always been each other’s strength, ever since Kairi came to the Islands and Riku and Sora welcomed her into their hearts. The three of them against all the invisible monsters they dreamed up, only now the monsters are real and don’t disappear when they leave the play island and the stakes are much higher than who gets to captain the boat on their way back home. Kairi’s experiences with the worlds beyond the Islands have been terrifying so far, if she’s honest, but fear hasn’t kept Sora and Riku from finding her when she was lost and she won’t let it keep her from finding Sora now.
She can do it. She’ll find him and bring him home, and then the three of them will protect the worlds, together, the way they were meant to. But that process will start in a few hours. Until then, she’ll stay with Riku, dancing through their room, and if, at one point, she hugs him close and steps up onto his feet, neither of them mentions it. Riku just kisses the top of her head and doesn’t let her go, only adjusting to hold her better so she doesn’t fall.
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SoKai Dates: or how they choose to spend their limited time together
(Hint: it’s very, very selflessly).
Watching fireworks with Chirithy:
Helping Chirithy return to Ven:
Which, when you think about it, is one of the most selfless things they can do with their time. Sora is fading away and he at least knows they have limited time left together (and I would imagine Kairi suspects/knows as well), but the first thing they do is help Chirithy make happy memories with them, and then make sure Chirithy reunites with Ven. They’re good, selfless people, through and through, and it shows in everything they do.
Bonus: this moment was too cute not to include:
Eating sea-salt ice cream together on the Twilight Town clocktower, like they’re watching over their friends and making sure they’re happy, even as they take a moment to themselves:
It’s interesting to me that in these moments we see of them together, it doesn’t show their faces. It’s like they’re keeping that private, just between the two of them, and creates this sense of intimacy.
Anyway, moving on:
Unlocking Kairi’s heart to bring Naminé back:
Again, they’re spending the limited time they have left together helping other people. And as @angel-with-a-pipette pointed out to me, there’s something very tender and intimate about how Kairi trusts Sora completely to do this. And they’re not drawing attention to themselves with a bunch of fanfare, they’re not doing it for the credit, they’re doing it because they want to, because it’s the right thing to do, and they’re in agreement about this because their hearts are one. I also love how gently Kairi cradles Naminé’s heart here, it’s so sweet.
And, of course, sitting on the paopu tree together again for the first time since they shared the paopu fruit:
I love how Sora says something to her here, and oh how I wish we knew what exactly it was, haha. My guess is it’s some sort of promise to return to her, telling her she’s home like @teganberry suggested, or if I let my imagination run wild... that he loves her. Of course, in a way, the words themselves may not matter so much because the intent behind them is clear. He loves her with all his heart:
Notice again how we can’t see their faces too clearly. They are also completely focused on each other. This is their final moment together, and they want to spend it just the two of them, now that their work is done and they can rest:
I’m so happy Nomura added these moments together, they really enhanced the ending.
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