#I think Kairi may have had a crush on Riku in kh1 some. but that's a headcanon

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Aside from the obvious answers of Sora and Kairi, which kh characters do you think have crushes on which other characters?

Let’s see...

I think Roxas and Xion do, for sure. Don’t @ me. XD

Riku and Naminé may be developing them now.

Roxas and Naminé, maaaaaaaaaaybe. KHII pushed their narrative so hard. But I kind of get the sense that after Days, he started shipping RokuShi more than them--since we really haven’t seen RokuNami since--but at the same time... you still have things like the II.8 credits, and Naminé apparently living in Twilight Town where Roxas and Xion live now? So, IDK. Maybe it could still be a thing. Maybe we could even have a love triangle or square. Though I don’t want one.

Strelitzia canonically has a crush on Player.

And I feel like Elrena/Larxene saying she did everything, just because she was there for the ride with Lauriam/Marluxia indicates that she has a crush on him... even though I don’t want this, because I feel like it takes all of Larxene’s agency away. But it is what it is.

Yozora and Nameless Star, undoubtedly. And let’s be honest... they not only have crushes on each other, they’re in love with each other since they’re older and whatnot.

Terra and Aqua is a weird one for me. I get why everyone ships them so--and it could easily go this way; and perhaps it even is, like with things in KHIII where Terra said Aqua never stopped lighting his way back--but I feel a lot of people have shipping goggles on with them. I think the things that many people interpret as “shippy” for them, could just as easily be friendship or brother and sister type things. At this point, it could really go either way... but I’m moreso leaning towards friendship, unless we get some hard evidence that these two are in love with each other.

I’d say Gula and Ava (I feel like Gula at least has a crush on Ava, the way she always seems to have his attention and based on how he says twice that she always does the right thing), based on that one scene in Back Cover where they hold hands for a long time... but I’ll admit that I might have shipping goggles on with them. So they might just be friends... as really only that one hand holding scene makes me think there’s something more.

It’s also canon that Riku Replica had feelings for Naminé. And Nomura now seems to be trying to say that she also had them for him. Even though I don’t buy that one at all. Sorry.

And during Chain of Memories, of course, Sora and Naminé had feelings for each other. Sora because he was essentially brainwashed and thought she was Kairi. And while I think Naminé loved Sora a long time--there are times I think she loved him even when others thought she was moving on with Roxas (like, when Coded her said her promises to Sora were forever)--I think she’s probably at least over it by the end of KHIII...

Edit: Oh! And Riku had a crush on Kairi in KH1.

Edit 2: And Virtual Hayner and Olette teased Roxas about Jessie in KH, as if he had a crush on her.

#I think Kairi may have had a crush on Riku in kh1 some. but that's a headcanon #and I used to think that Skuld at least had a crush on Ephemer. but now I don't know if I see it... #you can also take invi saying she doesn't want people to get the wrong idea about her and ira out of context #but I really don't think they like each other of course

[blowingoffsteam2]

Part 1: I would like to apologize ahead of time, this might be a bit long. I can't help but feel a bit confused by Square Enix/Nomura as well. For me, it is pretty clear that Sora's feelings for Kairi were not much more than a crush, and it did not really become much more than that. As of Kingdom Hearts III, it seems that Sora's feelings are starting to change, that he possibly does not feel that way for Kairi anymore/he is getting over (or has gotten over) that crush.

Part 2: Or, at least, Sora is not sure of his feelings yet (for Riku or Kairi), and he is starting to figure it out. I hope that this may not mean anything, but I heard that at one of the Kingdom Hearts Orchestra shows recently, there was an encore performance of Don’t Think Twice. During the encore, they showed footage of Sora and Kairi from KH1 to 3, ending it with Sora fading away. I honestly do not know what Square/Nomura is trying to get at when it comes to Sora’s “relationships.”      

Part 3: There has been major development and build up involving Sora and Riku’s relationship throughout the series as whole. Sora and Kairi’s “relationship,” not so much. Riku’s character grew more (in KH3) by expressing and accepting his feeling for Sora for what they (taisetsu na hito), Sora’s heart lead him to the worlds he was visiting in KH3/he went to these world to learn things about himself and his true feelings.      

Part 4: Then there are Riku’s actions he has done for Sora prior to and during Kingdom Hearts III. (His sacrifice for Sora cannot be downplayed as not an act of true love, especially with that focus in KH3 itself). Sora is now close to to realizing the things (for the most part) that Riku has done for him, how Riku feels about him, that Riku is Sora’s light, and how Sora might feel for Riku. I refuse to believe that all this was for nothing. 

Part 5: I understand that KH3 was for wrapping up the Xehanort Saga, but, before Sora went to face Xehanort, he went on this journey of self-discovery for a reason. I do not want Square to pull the rug out from under our feet and say Riku recognizing his true feelings for Sora and Sora’s journey was pointless in the end.       

Part 6: Besides Xehanort’s story arc coming to a close, if Sora’s adventures and soul searching leading up to that  moment is (possibly) not going to amount to anything, then why would Square even have Sora go on this journey to realize these things about himself? To have us, the audience, pick up on non-verbal cues and a deeper meaning to what is presented to us, for it to mean nothing? Don’t get me wrong, I love the Kingdom Hearts series.  

Part 7:  I loved and enjoyed KH3 and discovering these things involving Sora and Riku on my own, through you, databoy-reekoo, and the Sleeping Realm Theory, etc., but if it possibly amounts to nothing in the end, then is KH3 only good for wrapping up Xehanort’s story and not Sora’s “self discovery” journey in between? I know you don’t have a full answer yourself (since we can’t look into Nomura’s mind), so I guess I am just wondering what you think?

Part 8: I also cannot help but be a bit concerned over how SENA will handle Sora and Riku’s possible relationship from here on out. For Riku’s true feelings getting extremely downplayed and with the romantic angle between Sora and Kairi that is still being pushed in the English version, in which these aspects were going relatively untouched in the Japanese version. Things are not quite as “romantic” for Sora and Kairi and Riku was free to express his true feelings.

——————————————————–

I understand it can be confusing when we can’t know exactly what Nomura is planning, and for so long we’ve all been under the impression that while Sora and Riku’s relationship was developing beautifully, we all expected it would never lead anywhere more explicit, while the main games continued with a mediocre,undeveloped straight romance.  After all, we have seen this pattern many times in media, haven’t we?  As I’ve said before, the bar for straight romance is so low it’s in the ground, and I honestly thought this was what we’d have to deal with in KH in the end.  But then KH3 came, and boy was I wrong.  Almost everything Nomura had been setting up thematically, primarily since the end of KH2 (but some things even from the very beginning), culminated in KH3.  The question of “what is true love”, what is light, what is the power that comes with being able to protect someone precious to you (the power of waking).  These were things Sora himself was learning in KH3, and will continue to learn.  But for Riku, KH3 was the result of having learned those things- he reached the break of dawn when he realized the strength to protect his most precious person came from love.  And the climax of this was his sacrifice.

So, Nomura knows very well how to set up themes and follow through with them even across multiple games (even through the mobile game!).  We have no reason to think that he would all of a sudden do a 180 on everything he’s been building slowly and deliberately between Sora and Riku.  If Nomura really was as bad at writing romance as people like to say he is, there’s no doubt in my mind that he would have confirmed a romance between Sora and Kairi in this game. It was what everyone was expecting anyway, and being so bad at romance, would he really care that he hadn’t properly developed their relationship, that Kairi had been virtually absent from all the games since KH2?

Yet instead what we got was very transparently uncomfortable and hesitant looks from Sora in the paopu scene, where he didn’t move to take the paopu until she essentially downplayed it as “just a lucky charm” (in jpn), and very big parallels on the themes of separation and fading connections.  Which, again I have to remind everyone that Nomura explicitly stated it was his intent to show how childhood friendship change and don’t stay the same as we grow older (And specifically with Kairi, the theme of friends growing apart has been on his mind since KH1, as shown in the KH2 Ultimania). So we can at the very least know without a shadow of a doubt that changing connections (or rather, fading connections, taking into account the Pooh parallel) was a theme of the game and 100% intentional.

My point here being that I would be very shocked at this point if all of this was thrown down the drain in the future, as long as KH is under the direction of Nomura.  Could it happen?  Sure. But I would say it’s not a 50/50 chance if we are taking an honest look at everything.  Not even close.  But hey, that’s just my onion :)  All we can do is wait and see to be sure.

As for the orchestra encore, I’ve said this elsewhere but having watched the montage myself, it really does come across as a heartfelt farewell montage. It starts off with the ending scene, up to Sora and Kairi on the tree, then cuts to scenes of them together through KH1, KH2, and KH3, and ends with Sora fading away. Certainly doesn’t end on a happy note.  And important to know: the tunnel scene is not included.  What an odd choice this would be, if that scene were really meant to be Sora’s grand realization that she is his light and if those flashbacks to “true love” were really about her.  (and don’t forget that Sora and Riku got their own montage during the “Always on my Mind” section of the KH1 medley- which was actually just the Dearly Beloved part).  In any case, the orchestra is nothing to be concerned about.

And as far as the English translations go in the future, all we can do is hope that Nomura and team have a sit down with them and make it clear what their intent is.  And hopefully not have such a haphazard process with translating as we know they did with KH3.  Besides…if things keep progressing, there will only be so much they could do to obscure the truth.

So yeah, I guess those are my thoughts.  So much is continuing to be uncovered about kh3 and Sora and Riku’s relationship, I can’t wait to see what comes next.

#soriku asks

[happyimaginaryme]

So I played through KH1 for the first time in years. And the differances from now and then are great.

When I first played through KH1 it was after I played most of KH2. (I'll get back to that.)

Anyway.... When I first played through KH1 I was all for Kairi and Sora. Even today I still like the ship. The first game I played was actually KH2. But I only played theough most of it. And even then I mostly shipped Kairi and Sora. But had know Idea who Riku rally was.

Let me explain. Please bare with me I have points.

My friend had KH2 because another friend told her it was a good game. (He failed to mention there was a first.) Anyway. My friend Lynn though she likes Ganes isn't much of a gamer. Not like I am. So she bought KH2 to play. And then struggled with a boss fight. Saix I believe. And asked me to fight him for her. I never even heard of Kingdome Hearts let alone did I realize I was playing the second game at the time. I was just like. I will try. But firsr I neesed a trial run. So I ran around and faught heartless with Donald and Goofy. (Which I thought was odd but ok) then after a few tries I bet Saix with little problem. I kind of took over the game from there. She still played it, but I did most od it. And I really liked it. Then of course I learned of a first game and needed it.

Anyway I was sort of you know shipping Kairi and Sora but I was starting to see the appeal of Riku?

But when I finally got KH1 and 2 for myself on the ps2 and played KH2 in full it started to change. The game was litterly about Sora wanting to find Riku.

First game Riku Kairi Kairi Kairi Riku kairi

Second game: Riku Kairi Riku Kairi, Riku Riku Riku Kairi Riku Riku

And I played through KH2 like 3 times and the more I startes to really like Riku and seen the closeness. Eapecially when I got to the ending. Then the first game where I orginally thought: Riku also liked Kairi and was jealous of their closeness....

Which is true sure, but not because Riku liked Kairi but because he likes Sora. Sora may of course have a crush on Kairi. But as the games continued you can see he has stronger feelings for Riku.

In KH2 yeah Sora wanted to find Kairi. But he was more concerned for Riku. He knew Riku was in the realm of darkness. He had closed the door. So some might Argue that Sora was more worried about Riku than Kairi bc Kairi was safe or assumed safe. (He still wanted to find her) She was last seen returning to the island after all. Yet still anything could have happened. It had been a year after all. His main thought was Riku.

Then in Chain of Memories

Sora forgot about Kairi. Now Kairi may have been said to be his most important. And the thought of her made him realize that the memories fed to him were lies. Yet... If she was that important howcome he forgot her? He never once forgot about Riku. He continued to chase Riku. He continued to want and reach Riku. Yet Kairi was seen as his "most impprtant person." All he did was remember her and remembering that she was the one to give him the lucky charm. Which broke the fake memories. I don't really think it had to do with her being the most important to him. Just a key to break the spell he was under. Remember Kairi you remember that Namine's fake memories were a lie.

My whole thing is, if she was his most important why would he forget her? Was it because Namine replaced her with herself? Why not just have him forget Riku?

Yet he didn't. Riku was on his mind the whole time. Riku was why he kept going further. He had to find Riku. His whole goal was to find Riku. They could have easily switched why he went into the casltle from finding Riku to saving Naminé. Yet that didn't happen. Sure Sora made that part of his mission after learning the truth. Yet his primary goal was to get to Riku. He never forgot.

Then of course we have Re cubed and Riku is there helping Sora. Which I wont get much into because I only played a little bit of it. But thats what I got from the bit I played.

Also in DDD the whole game was all ablout Riku and Sora. It had "we're in love' all over it.

And finally in KH3 sora was all about Riku. With the gummy phone always getting exciting to see him. He never really talked avout Kairi. The most we hear him talk about her is in the end. Like "Oh yeah Kairi" and sometimes I think about it when he js thinking of love I wonder if its really meant to be for Kairi? And not Riku.

Now Riku without a doubt loves Sora. That I have no doubt for. Sora may be in denial. But Riku 100% loves Sora.

My inbox is opeb for Discussion.

#SoRiku #kingdome hearts #my thought #discuss with me #Ask open

[pmiller1]

Mahahahahahahahahahaha!

AHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAHAH!!!

AH! AH! AH!

Oh where to start?

No one said that Kairi isn’t Kairi.

Yeah, tell me is Kairi herself as Darkside, Or as Chirithy? IS Chirithy Kairi still Kairi?! I don’t know, you tell me? You already removed most of her action by claiming that there are Xehanort and Riku. As if she really is a Puppet. A Pawn. That those action are not her own.

Isn’t is hard to tell what Kairi had done in the Game, over all. Do you really think that she useless girl?

Yes. Riku is indeed Sora’s light :) Just like Kairi was Sora’s light in kh1.

Oh? Then tell me, when did Kairi lost being Sora’s light? Come on, tell me. When did she lost it?! From what I can tell, Kairi is still Sora light.

I know it’s a hard thing to wrap your tiny mind around, but people change, characters develop, teenager puppy crushes fade.

Oh don’t you dare tell me about characters develop, I have OCs that had change from where there use to be and I may even changed then even still.

But I do love that you call me tiny minded. As if I am really am dumb. Sure I have trouble spelling and there are some that I’m still learning for a 30 year old.

But I could just call you tiny mind that unable to wrap around that your theory, Your theory is just that, a theory.

Just say it! You want SoRiku to be canon that made a theory around it! And you use the idea of the sleeping realm. A Fanon idea to make it happen.

Me, Liz and another persona had already debunked it and still is debunking it and Re:Mind will debunk the hell out of it!

Just admit that your theory is flaw. Okay. Just admit it!

#Anti Sleeping Realm Theory #rant #blowingoffsteam2 #Psi Debunk part

[interstellix]

OwO which one is your favorite game?? and favorite character?

oof this is tbh a hard question to answer :((

first one first, i really really liked birth by sleep. i love the trio and the whole story line and oh my gosh the connections it had to the other games :(( tHe freaKinG bOarDgAmES pISSED ME OFF so hard fjidjfdk but other than that i really like most of the other game features and combat styles :’) and?? i actually came to like all the melding too haha??

second, i also loved kh3 a bunch. ngl i have a bunch of issues with this game. i kinda disliked how they put all of the org13 boss fights towards the very very end of the game. the caribbean was fun, i’ll admit that but it was ridiculously huge with all islands to visits aNd tHE BATTLESHIP FIGHTS pls end me. arendelle... had me crying in frustration through the world : ) they also degraded twilight town and its map to absolute nothing and rly, we all expected 100 acre word to be all mini-game but honestly i just kinda felt it was like playing candy crush fjdfld. and. and. kairi’s character development is still non-existent and i’m still questioning if all the training with axel even paid off hhhh. also there’s donald

idgi why is he saying that like he’d do any good he healed me liked three times

oooon the other hand, as harsh and petty as i may sound lol, kh3 is still among the top games. i loved the story line and i don’t think it’s that complex as many others make it sound to be (let’s be real a whole bunch of them have only played kh1 and 2). monstropolis and toy box were really fun to play and they included my favorite worlds - kingdom of corona and san fransokyo - and tbh did pretty much nothing wrong with it. i loved the new additional features too and the soundtrack is amazing oh my :((( also?? can we just?? talk about the whole game design like

bitcH???

on top of that, they really nailed building up sooo much tension and excitement and all the connections to all the other games?? holy shit. and the fact that there’s gonna be dlc in barely three months? hell yes.

aaaall that said, i thinkkkk my favorite must be kh2. i’m not even gonna explain myself here, the game is just :’) close to top notch :’)

as for my favorite characters?? ooh boy. ngl i pretty much hated riku during kh1 with him being the pissy bitch he was. but the more i played the more i loved him like?? he loves sora sm, he only wants the best for him and i’m all here for it. for some reason i also love his relation with mickey lmao and his character development was pretty damn great. also cAn we pLEaSe talk about his character design in kh3?? i still don’t understand just how the hell the heartless gave him a new haircut but i’m legit grateful for it i mean look at him pls

sis idk he’s just the real mvp here

and. ventus. listen the only thing i can say about my reason for this is that he’s an absolute cinnamon roll and you can’t convince me otherwise.

my third is probaby aqua. come on. like 99.9% of the fandom stans her and i totally get why.

speaking of ventus, we might as well put vanitas to the list as well uwu big bad guy or not idc i just love his character at this point and after his fight with sora and ventus?? end me pls.

theeen there’s namine. i just love her. period.

AND LUXU??? LUXU?????? FREAKING LUXU I HATE HIM BUT I ALSO LOVE HIM holy shit. he just?? went from a normal org13 member to one of the most important characters and in the most epic way ever : ))

also i just have to mention that sora isn’t among my absolute favorites but i still love him with my whole heart oh my god and like, he has way more character and traits now than before and we stan this ok. other than that i also love his relation with rapunzel it’s so cute fjdjfdfk

i’m sorry i didn’t mean to write a whole essay on this but here we are lol

#anon #kingdom hearts #time to shut up i cried while writing this

[cherrypocky]

sora memories; com to ddd

this is the second part of my sora memory compilation, this will cover chain of memories, kh2, days, and ddd. my memories thru here are a little sparse and random so bear with me. 

chain of memories

COM was fucking wack as shit but i dont remember actually ever being angry with anyone. i kept losing memories, so i don’t actually remember... much of what happened in castle oblivion. but i do remember namine, and i remember caring for her, as well as repliku. i also remember not hating but just wanting to help most if not all of the nobodies, because they all seemed like. off to me. 

when i was in the memory bubble thing and sleeping (during days) i remember getting. flashes? of what roxas was doing. but it was literally like. being nostalgic for twilight town even tho i didn’t remember it. knowing what sea salt ice cream tasted like. that kind of stuff. 

days/the year asleep

xion is defined in the game as “kairi as sora remembers her”. but i think when xion returned to me some of my memories just got a little, fucked up? where xion was there instead of kairi. it didn’t affect me much, they weren’t like plot relevant memories. but it was enough that when i woke up, i chalked it up to dreaming of a mysterious girl. when i saw her in ddd, i recognized her from my “dreams”. i really wanted to find out who she was.

xion is and never was cis she was always kinda like. flip floppin around. even though she was okay with us using she/her. she also didnt, age like we did?? like roxas and i looked older than her, even tho realistically she was sort of our same “age”.

if roxas gave you residual feelings of having a crush on axel clap ur hands! *clap clap* 

kh2

finding out that everyone forgot me kind of sucked and actually made me feel really gross for a while, even though i knew people couldn’t control it. 

this journey felt like it took a lot longer than kh1′s did; kh1 felt like a couple of months, whereas this one felt like several. maybe almost a whole year (i.e., i was probably almost 17 by the time riku and i got back home). 

i DISTINCTLY remember my fight with roxas. i had a lot of emotions i didn’t understand; i didn’t understand why this kid was so angry with me, but i still felt guilt? and i remember figuring it out somehow, through the fight. and i remember we both disarmed each other, and roxas just, tackled me and it turned into a fistfight. he broke my nose, but i think i may have hurt one of his ribs. we were both.... crying, a lot. it was a hot mess. 

i knew from that point i wanted him to have his own body. i felt so lied to, fighting the nobodies this whole time and then learning they were people. it really upset me. 

roxas broke riku’s wrist; it was accidental, but riku told me as much when we were in the darkness, on the beach. i think this was around the time when i started getting feelings for him; i mean i literally cried when i realized we found him. 

ddd

dream drop distance was... oof! lol. much of it was what happened canonically. but i remember it being a lot longer than just a night. like maybe we were asleep for a few days.

i remember the constant feeling of falling deeper into my dreams very vividly. it wasn’t a good feeling. it was very... sleep paralysis-y. and when i was saved by riku, i was very anxious about sleeping and dreams for then on.

there were several nights between ddd and kh3 that existed (that dont in the game order, the only thing i can think of is that this was during mickey telling the gang about aqua) where i was just. trying to rest and heal from the mastery exam and it was just... feels bad. i woke up with nightmares and riku sitting on the edge of my bed a lot.

speaking of riku! he kept a lot of his dream eater stuff. in the pitch black of night, if i was having a nightmare, his eyes would glow the various dream eater colors, depending on the disposition. they were (most of the time) pink. he, along with meow wow, could sense when i was having a nightmare, and even show up in my dreams. 

#sora.txt

[oveliagirlhaditright]

Do you think Namine may have gotten her attractions to Sora, Sora's Nobody Roxas, and potentially Riku, from Kairi? At least at first? Or do you think she developed all of her feelings independently from the start? On the chance that Namiku ever becomes canon, I do wonder if the part of Kairi that might have had feelings for Riku may have remained with Namine, while Kairi's romantic love for Sora grew in its place and displaced any mild crushes she might have had on anyone else.

Short answer? Yes.

So, the Chain of Memories novel--and I know people argue about how canon the novels are. But this was a feeling I even got from her in the game--has Naminé largely thinking she’s Kairi in Chain of Memories... for the longest time it, she doesn’t really separate herself from Kairi and see herself as a new identity. Like, she’ll think things like “and this is when Sora, Riku, and I did this thing on the island”, like she was Kairi herself instead of being Naminé. So I definitely think her feelings for Sora came from Kairi. I also think Naminé was jealous of Kairi some... like (though this might be more headcanon territory, but I think it checks out) I think this is why she erases Kairi from Sora’s memory entirely, instead of just changing his memory so that Kairi isn’t a person she has feelings for at all but she is (though, then again... maybe she couldn’t have done this, since “Sora would never forget (his feelings for) Kairi”, and all that). I feel like Naminé, who was being abused, looked at Kairi having her knight-in-shining-armor, Sora, and was like, “Wow, I wish I had that... especially since I maybe should have that, since I’m her.”

And I’ve definitely headcanoned before that Naminé might be the part of Kairi that loved Riku. Because (more headcanon territory here) I do think Kairi probably had a bit of a crush on Riku in KH1. And... as much as I hate to say this, I think we get better scenes with Naminé and Riku--and more scenes where we see Naminé cares about Riku than Kairi. And KHIII!Riku seemed to care more about Naminé than Kairi some?--and the Nobodies aren’t exactly 1 to 1 with their original selves at all. Rather, Roxas and Naminé seem to be the other side of the coin to Sora and Kairi.

And as for Roxas... to be fair, I do think the narrative in KHII tries to show that Roxas and Naminé are somewhat falling for each other outside of Sora and Kairi (since they both know what it’s like to be a Nobody, when Sora and Kairi don’t, based off of Roxas’ cute “I can’t help you there” response--that makes Naminé smile--when she explains to Roxas she doesn’t know a right way to use her power, etc.), but I don’t think they do the best job at it? But I still think they somewhat tried? But even with that... I still think there’s a “we’re in love with each other because Sora and Kairi are” thing with them, yeah.

Like, I think a lot of these relationships did and of course could develop past how they started... but I do think they started with Naminé feeling these ways, because Kairi felt these ways.

Edit: And to be clear, I think there is more to Riku and Naminé than just Kairi’s feelings, even if it did start out that way. And probably even more to what could’ve been Sora and Naminé’s, too (from her side), once she developed more of a sense of self.