This is... quite possibly the most wonderful thread that I have ever stumbled into. Completely agree on the fact that she's been given less of an appearance since KH, and it pains me to see this happening. Though, I'm hoping something spectacular will happen when KH3 rolls around.

So… here are a few other things I meant to mention in the article, but ended up not doing for certain reasons. Back to the whole Kairi being written out of the series thing, it’s sort of sad that Riku says it’s Terra that made him want to see new worlds in DDD, when he said it was Kairi in KHI. “If you hadn’t come here, I probably never would have thought of any of this.”… Apparently that’s not the truth, after all:(

Also, I sort of wish that DDD had ended with Riku going to get Kairi, so she could pull Sora from the Darkness again. Or maybe they could have at least tried it, and then gone with the true ending when that didn’t work? IDK. But I would have liked to see her in 3D (especially the ending) more.

It would have been nice, too, if Sora had thought of Kairi when his heart was shattering. It would have been a nice parallel to KHI, when he was lost in the Darkness, and the memory of Kairi was what brought him back. And it also would have just been cool, since it was the ten-year anniversary, and Kairi should have been commemorated more. Personally, if Sora would have shown guilt or sadness for not being able to return to Kairi like he’d promised, I think it would have been really emotional and powerful, but I’m gonna stop talking now.

Hope you all enjoyed the article. –bows-

Great editorial lightupthesky. I too am a soraxkairi shipper and agree that kairi needs to have a larger role in the series.. Hopefully kairi will become more developed in kh3

Aww, thank you so much, Javelin434 and swooshbarnes! Your support and kind words mean more to me than you two could possibly know. And, yes. Hopefully she’ll get her chance to shine soon; she more than deserves it at this point. I just hope they develop her a bit better than they did Serah in XIII-2. –shot-

Anyway, I’m glad to know this article was somewhat decent to you guys, seeing as how it’s the first one I’ve ever “published officially”. Knowing it’s not totally terrible is certainly a load off. Hahaha. So thanks!

-Shan

P.S. SoKai ftw. –shot. shot. completely shot.-

Your points are pretty spot-on. For someone who was supposed to be such an important character, her relationships with both Sora and Riku are woefully undeveloped, no doubt because she's absent a lot of the time. They don't even bother to try and flesh her out in flashbacks. What interaction she does have with Sora (especially in KH2) is just poorly-written and scripted shipbait. With that said, I can't say I hold Kairi herself in any high regard, because I think this lack of screen time and fleshing out has made her a pretty boring character, who honestly should have been way more fleshed out and important to the series. It just seems like they don't know how to and/or don't want to incorporate her properly into the story. It's just one of the many problems the series has piled up over the years.

[FONT=Helvetica]Gonna have to respectfully disagree with a lot of the points here.

KH3D really didn't need Kairi up until that secret ending. And "Sora thinking Shiki is Kairi" is just as dumb as Ami always confusing every single Hedgehog for Sonic despite that none of the Hedgehogs look a thing like him (Silver's got different shaped spikes for crying out loud)[/FONT]
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[/FONT]
[FONT=Helvetica]"Kairi might finally get her time to shine in Kingdom Hearts III, but isn’t that just too little too late?"[/FONT]
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[FONT=Helvetica]Here's the thing. COM, Sora was away from Kairi and Namine was taking over her memories. So of course Kairi wouldn't really be there.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Helvetica]358/2 Days isn't about Kairi. It's about the organization members and Riku. Kairi wouldn't have done something in the game because she's still in the island.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Helvetica]Re:Coded doesn't have much of a plot to begin with... and what would have Kairi done there? Sora and Riku weren't even really there. I don't really think a Data Kairi would've really added much anyway. She's not really "suffering" like Namine, Roxas, Xion, Terra, Aqua, and Ventus are.[/FONT]
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[FONT=Helvetica]BBS is a 10-year prequel so it makes sense that they would have Kairi in Radiant Garden and not with Sora and Riku. So I don't see the problem there.[/FONT]
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Also the point about "Oh, it wasn't Kairi that made Riku want to go to other worlds, it was just Terra..." I would say it's both. Just because it's revealed that Terra had a big influence doens't make it the only reason. I'm sure once Kairi came to town, that was the point in which the idea would stick to Riku's head. So I'd say it's both really.

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[FONT=Helvetica]And KH3D was the mark of mastery exam for Sora and Riku. Sora still goes by the thought that Kairi "would kind of get in his way." And considering the one time she did fight in KH2, who could really blame him? And shoot, just about everyone except Riku really knew Kairi could wield a keyblade, and I'm sure Riku wanted Kairi out of the situation if at all possible. The only reason he would let Kairi fight at all would be if the situation wasn't too difficult for her to handle (they were only Shadows) and the fact that she was already there. In reality, both Sora and Riku would prefer her to just stay that "waiting" girl in the island. I'm sure the only reason they are using Kairi at all is because they're completely desperate. If they had anyone else, they would. Because they don't want to see Kairi get hurt (and considering what they're up against, who could blame them?)[/FONT]
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[FONT=Helvetica]Now granted, it was a little out of character for Kairi to simply say "See you soon" during Blank Points. But other than that, I really think it only makes sense that in KH3 would be when Kairi finally gets out. I mean, she only got action during KH2. And Re:Coded takes place immediately afterwards while Sora, Riku, and Kairi are just chilling at the island. And KH3D doesn't take much longer after that. Soooooo I really don't see the problem with having KH3 be the one in which she finally wields a keyblade properly.

The only reason it seems so long is because KH3D is really the first KH game to take place after KH2 and have major importance. The other games either took place when Kairi was still waiting in the Islands or when Kairi was in Radiant Garden. So you can't really do anything about that.[/FONT]

Kairi's back, and with a bigger role. What more do you want?

You should think of KH3 as the big debut for Kairi. I betcha KH3 is gonna fulfill a lot of fan service. You know, lovey-dovey stuff! :redface:

1. Sora and Kairi's relationship will be more flirtatious

2. Mickey Donald and Goofy will giggle every now and then when the romance is obvious

3. Riku is gonna encourage Sora to confess to Kairi (maybe some bit of guilt/jealousy)

4. Something horrible will happen that will risk Kairi's life

5. Sora heroically saves Kairi (maybe they save each other, whatever)

6. Sora and Kairi share a traditional Disney true-love kiss!

A lot can happen, you never know. Keep your fingers crossed :wink:.

Amazing article, nice stuff.

I do believe Kairi should get more screen time or that she should have gotten more screen time. She is my favorite out of all the girls.

I also believe that she has to - no - she needs to play a bigger role in the game. She needs to be able to stand up for herself like Aqua does. Hopefully that will be achieved with her training.

Nomura also needs to develop her relationship with Sora, I mean we all saw that Sora had feelings for Kairi - in this case Namine - in CoM.
Yes yes I'm going to get flamed to death for saying this but look at it this way. Sora is a hero of sorts. Kairi is a Princess, and Disney is involved with this game. See where I'm getting at? That however does not mean that Sora wouldn't look everyone else the same way he does Kairi. I mean does he look at Riku differently than the others just because he is his best friend? Let's say everyone is in danger. He will try to save them all and not the only two people he cares most about, in this case Riku and Kairi.

Anyway, I hope she gets an important role in KHIII, why else would she be in the secret ending of DDD?

I SERIOUSLY hope this happens. I wanna see them kiss before I die by a possible war conflict...

Yeah like skyfoxx was pointing out i interpreted

[FONT=Arial]“If you hadn’t come here, I probably never would have thought of any of this.”

as terra gave him the idea and kairi gave him the motivation to actually implement it. I also think khIII is a great place to bring back kairi and hopefully she's actually really tough/cool by taking out heartless that riku and sora have trouble taking out opposed to being that support character that the team will just be leaving the little shadows to. Kairi could have been in DDD but would it really have made much of a difference, i mean even Axel~Lea was really downplayed because he was just standing there (kinda awkwardly) with the Disney characters. Now imagine kairi there. Wouldn't it have seemed a little annoying/unnecessary to have Kairi there to asking is Sora and Riku alright. I feel if she was to be included in that game she would have to have been taking the mark of mastery with riku and sora.

Also I doubt there will be some sort of love triangle situation between kairi, sora, and riku because in (I think) every disney love story in kh's worlds there is never a love triangle just a linear love line, simple.

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[FONT=Arial][SPOILER=kh DDD]]Lastly, this army they're assembling of friends + multiple versions of sora and people who started their legacy, is going to have one epic battle against the army of ansems. The only thing i don't understand is they talk about bringing back the versions of sora as their own persons and then mention that there are only 7 lights to the 13 darkness. I guess either versions all count as one or they're going to bring them back after the fight(unlikely) or i missinterpreted this or they'll ignore it. Btw i kinda hated DDD with dreameaters that all look like good dreams, including the nightmares. They should've at least made them dark like pureblood heartless.[/SPOILER]

Also nice article.[/FONT]

I love your editorial LightUpTheSky452. Maybe Nomura has something really big planned for Kairi seeing how the secret ending in KH3D turned out.

@skyfoxx Yeah, Sora thinking Shiki was Kairi might have been a bit silly, but I don’t know. I think it would have been nice to see him think about her more often in this game, seeing as how it was supposed to be the anniversary one, and it just would have been nice to show the characters haven’t forgotten her completely. Maybe if he’d just seen a glimpse of Shiki? Or he could have been disoriented and thought she was Kairi, like he once thought Yuffie was (which also would have been a good tie to KHI).

My main point here is that they really haven’t handled Kairi’s character the way they should have. Her character is very, very one-dimensional, and it’s getting to a point where they’re almost rewriting her out of the series more and more. Via it be her “clones” taking up the spotlight, pre-established canon, changing certain facts (like the Terra thing), you name it. And remembering how important she was in KHI (and that she’s supposed to be the main girl in the main trio) is very disconcerting.

At least in Days and BbS, they tried to develop all the sides of the trios, but Sora/Riku/Kairi is seeming more like a duo between Sora and Riku than anything else. We don’t really see Sora/Kairi scenes anymore; there have never been many Riku/Kairi scenes... And though I know this series is a “know how to fight or go home” kind of saga, I still think they could’ve handled Kairi better. I mean look how much and influential Naminé is in the games. They could have easily split up some of that role and given it to Kairi, in my opinion, but I digress.

It just seems like they’ve written themselves into a corner with her, tbh. And though I know it would have just been pointless eye candy, I wouldn’t have minded Kairi just chilling at Yen Sid’s to give the boys moral support during the exam. Just something to show she still has relevance and connections in the series.

And I do think it would have made Sora’s state that much more real if Kairi had been there when they came back with his comatose body. I still don’t really get why she couldn’t have gone with them. Once again, it just seems out of character for her. Especially since they all three always wanted to see worlds together, Sora wants to take her to Neverland, they thought their biggest threat was gone yada, yada. I don’t think she could have gotten into much trouble on the way to Yen Sid’s with everyone else. Really, I just think it would have succeeded in making “the secret ending” happen sooner, and they could have jumpstarted her training, etc, etc.

And actually, the secret ending doesn’t sit well with me, either. It’s like Square thinks people don’t remember Kairi wielded in KHII. And the fact Mickey, Donald, Goofy, and Riku are shocked she’s going to be trained, it’s like: “Hello, you saw Kairi fight with her Keyblade during KHII.”

I just don’t understand. Though I do know they couldn’t easily fix all of this stuff, or even change a lot of it, I do wish they’d try harder with her character, and have changed things from the beginning. You don’t have to be a warrior to be a huge driving force (CoM is a good example of how important Kairi could have been in the other games, as she affected a lot without even being there!)

Anyway, I’m starting to get off topic. And I completely agree with you on the games thing, btw. If they’d just made I, II, and then III, Kairi’s development wouldn’t have been a problem at all. It was when Days, BbS, Re:Coded, and DDD happened (where Kairi wasn’t in them, or couldn’t have been in them for already established reasons), that caused issues.

Shutting up now. Good discussion, btw. And thanks:)

-Shanna

And I do think it would have made Sora’s state that much more real if Kairi had been there when they came back with his comatose body.

I definitely agree with the notion that the amount of neglect Kairi got so far is extreme, also since she has close to no meaningful interaction with other main characters beside Sora except some small tidbits with Roxas and Naminé in KH 2.

That said though, what has Sora's state being " more real" to do with the fact if Kairi was there or not? The whole set up was obviously meant to parallel and reflect the predicament Ventus was in the end of BBS, only with the difference that this time the good guys could do something about it.
And going by Mickey's, Donald's and Goofy's reactions and expressions the state was pretty much "real and grave" to begin with. Mickey even feared that Sora had suffered the same fate as Ventus until Yen Sid corrected him.

There's no reason Kairi couldn't have come with them to Mysterious Tower in 3D. Donald & Goofy didn't have anything to do there either but they still showed up. So why wouldn't she? Even seemingly little things like Sora saying Riku's name 1st when he saw their illusion-whatevers bugged me. Kairi really should've been the 3rd playable character in 3D. From TAV in BBS to SRK in DDD, would've been a perfect fit.

Plus we likely would've gotten Frollo & CLU bossfights with another character *grumblegrumble*

I've actually started to see sora as the light in the darkness here.

But all in all, these are great points you being up and I've been missing kairi dearly.

Oh God, please no... I understand they've always teased a relationship of sorts between Sora and Kairi, but... eww. Kingdom Hearts just doesn't feel like a franchise where romance is any kind of real focus. Doesn't really fit. Leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

OT: To be perfectly honest, it kind of feels like you want Kairi shoehorned into stories where she doesn't belong or have much to contribute to. Basically, everything skyfoxx said. Yes, she's a woefully underused character, but I think that's for good reason.

And if we're talking about her contributions to the franchise... well. 90% of her screentime during the first game was her lifeless body. Kairi was never a major player. More of a maguffin, really.

But they're very obviously setting her up to take on a bigger role in III, which will be cool to see.

Its true Kairi isnt in the series as much as she should be,and I reeeeeealy hope we get to see more or her in KHIII.Personaly,I hope theres a way where Kairi,Namine,and Xion can all exist at one time.

In my opinion ive always hated kairi. to me she's like monica from friends, an absolute useless character. love interests should be taken out of this game. make it more of a final fantasy and slowly get rid of the disney stuff. it puts hardcore gamers off when the game is rated 3+. she better not be playable in kingdom hearts 3.

Thank you!! A problem I've noticed myself... I think the people above me have some points, in that Kairi wasn't necessary to the stories of some of the side games... but I also think that that is in part due to awkward character development.

Kairi was set up as an extremely important character, and possibly the most important character in the series to Sora. Then promptly disappeared.

I'm not upset with CoM, as in that sense, they do make a big deal of her importance to Sora, even if she's not physically there. The other side games were simply not set up in such a way that she could have had much of a part, and shoe-horning her in probably would not have produced the result we wanted. KHII was my first disappointment when it came to Kairi— she got to be a little bit of an action-girl, but only after being a Damsel in Distress again. Not only that, but compared to the powerful and moving scenes with Kairi and Sora (and even Kairi and Riku) in the first game, her reunion with the boys was simply lackluster in II. Then, as you said, with Blank Points, she did a complete heel-face turn by merrily sending them off.

3D... hoo boy. I get the feeling that they really wanted that surprise ending with Kairi— but to do that, it meant leaving her out of the entire rest of the game. And that's where I feel they went wrong— they were too caught up on that surprise ending, when they could have much better utilized her character. She really should have been there with them— much like Mickey, Donald and Goofy were. It would have allowed for an excellent contrast between her and the characters who are used to this kind of thing. Not to mention, some Riku and Kairi interaction. They still could have gotten the twist ending, as well as some much needed character development.

I'm hopeful, but not really expecting much from III. Kairi's become more of a plot device than a character.

Considering that she's one of the Princesses, her life/heart is at risk and she needed to know how to defend herself.
Then they're gonna have to give her a bigger role in the series.

This is quite frankly the most astounding bit on kairi I've ever seen. Fantastic job.
Basically agree with pretty much all of it and I find her neglect a loss to the series. One of the reasons I felt the story has been declining since kh1 is how Sora, Kairi and Riku's trio became a Sora & Riku bromance by DDD.

Really wish this article was posted back in the days when kairi hate was at it's highest. xD

There would have been so much hate in this thread if it had been. :c This is much more pleasing!

There really isnt no way to get the hate back then any higher it was already at ridiculous highs. Dx
Besides I meant I thought it'd be positive the staff could've kept the thread on topic after all....like they had to many times then Dx

I feel the same way that Kairi has been ignored too much in recent games. Though Kairi couldn't really be in Days which I can also openly say is one of my favourite games in the series, but with Coded they could have done so much more with her there and in my opinion I feel Kairi's rise should have started in Coded. They could have easily had Data-Kairi in Destiny Islands and in Hollow Bastion and instead of Mickey saving Data-Sora from his Heartless it should have been Data-Kairi. Lastly, in DDD I was hoping for more Kairi especially during the cut seen where Sora is telling Shiki how much Neku needed her. He could have at least pulled out Kairi's charm there and thought of her through some little memory of them talking or something. Then he could get the Oathkeeper Keyblade that he gets after he remembers there promise which he never did once.

Great editorial LightUpTheSky! I admit, I'm really not all fond of Kairi either, but I definitely agree with the points you raised, albeit not the exact proposals of inserting her into every scene with Sora, Riku or both. She needs to be able to stand beside them on her own, but I don't believe it should be all or nothing when it comes to the trios. Ideally, Sora, Riku and Kairi as individuals, Sora and Kairi, Riku and Kairi, and SRK together need to be equally well developed.

In any case, it'll be really interesting to see where things go in the future.

CHALLENGE ACCEPTED 8D

In all seriousness though,

Besides I meant I thought it'd be positive the staff could've kept the thread on topic after all....like they had to many times then Dx

We try but you guys are fierce!

It's incredibly likely that they left her out of the rest of the game to keep the surprise reveal of her being a Light.


Ross is totally the useless character in FRIENDS, not Monica. But there really aren't any love interests, per say. And it seems like Nomura is going to try to implement Kairi into the plot of KH3, instead of leaving her on the side lines. So here's hoping for great things.

90% of her screen time? 3scenes on hooks ship, 4 as a llifeless body in hb. She still has way more time on screen than that. I understand you were probably just guessing but still....


Get rid of the Disney stuff? Rated 3+? I hope you're not serious!



anyway enough nitpicking. I think they could've kept kairi in yen Sid's tower and still have it be somewhat surprising when she's revealed to be a light.

You have a lot of interesting and valuable points that I may have thought of if I held Kairi in as high regard as you do: I played the games out of order, so I didn't really get the trio of Sora, Riku, and Kairi and have never really thought of Kairi as being as important as Sora and Riku. Considering the fact that she is a Princess of Heart and probably one of the Seven Lights, there's a pretty good argument for her being more important than she has been, and I can see her being prominent in KHIII, but I hardly noticed her lack of appearance in KH3D (probably because I was super excited about Riku's increasing role as an actual hero, but that's a different topic). I did enjoy seeing her as a little kid in BBS, and was actually wondering if they would show how she got to the Islands, but I wasn't particularly upset that they didn't.

You mentioned that Riku said in 3D that Terra was his inspiration for leaving the islands: when did this conversation happen? I just don't remember him ever talking about Terra explicitly, although it would make sense if he did.

Well done on the article, I enjoyed reading it!

From the beginning the writers gave her a role that would have been better suited for an important side character but made her a main character which clashed because it forced her to be passive. Sora was the "white knight", Riku was the "dark knight", and Kairi was the "princess". As such she was a main character that wasn't "allowed" to do much because SRK followed a very specific formula.

Since she was given a very specific role it made it difficult incorporating her more deeply into the overarching story without making her a plot device or symbol, hence, they've been trying to stuff her into the Action Girl position. With that, I wouldn't say that the writers were neglecting her entirely since they're making the effort to shift her role into something that'll allow her to be more prominent but they certainly did write themselves into a corner but had to gradually work themselves out of it if not it'd just cause whiplash.

I think they either should have given Kairi an (almost) entirely different role from the beginning or not have started her off as a main character and do what they did with Axel/Lea and gradually bumped up her role from important side character. Part of the disappointment that comes with her character stems from the fact that she is a main character and so more is expected of her but the writers haven't been able to deliver, disappointed that isn't completely unfounded I might add, but as I mentioned from the beginning she was given a role that just wouldn't allow her much wiggle room which was eventually realized though just a little too late.

With that said I disagree with having the plot constantly reminding us that she exists and how much she means to Sora (and Riku). We already know how much they care about each other and while theoretically it would be sweet to show that Sora thinks of Kairi often, from a narrative standpoint it'd only get annoying. Sora already spent the first game hallucinating about Kairi and even sacrificed his heart for her, Re:CoM tried to develop Sora and Kairi's relationship via proxy of Namine, Dolan and Gooby kept teasing Sora and I think brought her up in nearly every world while Sora went on another "rescue the princess from the castle" escapade (no really, most of the time Kairi gets saved it's either in or near a castle just to spite me) during KH2 on top of humiliating himself for her, and Xion took the form of Kairi because of Sora's strong memories of her. Sora cares about her. I get it. I don't need it constantly rubbed in my face, I get it.

Riku mentions Terra briefly when he's speaking to Xehanort's Heartless before their battle, albeit not by name:

"You know... when I look at you... there's this memory that flashes back. A secret I said I'd keep when I was little. The main reason I kept dreaming about seeing the outside world... was 'cause of him."

I don't really agree with these two points you made. Sora relies on Riku more than anyone. You've already mentioned how Riku "keeps him on his toes". I thought it was completely appropriate that Riku was the one that took him out of the darkness and the one that Sora called out to before he fell. Plus Riku had been with him his whole journey in 3D despite never seeing each other (other than hologram form) so I'd think it would have been pointless for him to call out Kairi's name in the first place. He called out Riku's name because he knew that he'd come to the rescue just like the other times during the exam.

Kairi just seemed to play the damsel in distress in the Kingdom Hearts series. First, she got her heart stolen by the Heartless, which caused Sora to stab himself with the Keyblade, thus creating Namine and Roxas. Second, she pretty much gets kidnap throughout Kingdom Hearts 2 by first Axel then Saix. And, the only thing that she only did was somehow get a keyblade from Riku while in Ansem form to fight off the heartless. Also, I forgot to mention that she waits on the island for her friends, while not going with them to make sure they stay safe.

Plus, she forgot Sora, but that's due to Xion and Namine's influence, if I remember correctly.

Oh my god. ._. Riku should have gone back to the islands, got Kairi and she should have dove into Sora's heart and she would have been playable and stuff. Fuck man. D;

Hmm...Even though Ven was pure of light through force, he was managed as a wielder. I had previously thought that Kairi wasn't taken care of because we had to consider her PoH status. There's a limit to her development in this sense, but I don't think it should be much to hold her back.

I'm not really expecting or looking for anything playable with Kairi, but I do feel she should be more involved. At least as involved as Leon and the gang which I also wish they would be more involved, too, but they can't use Gummi Ships without a keyblade to unlock the gates to the lanes between.

Unfortunately that would have:
A) Spoilt the "surprise" from the secret ending
B) Been unwise because would Riku really have left Sora comatose while he went and got Kairi.
C) Wasn't the Mark of Mastery test ultimately teaching Sora and Riku the ability to dive into peoples hearts? How would Kairi have done this? She has very little experience with the Keyblade, and Riku had the ability.
D) Probably not have Kairi playable.
E) It made sense for it to be Riku who dove into Sora's heart. The only reason Kairi would have been used would have been just for fanservice.

I'm certain that Kairi's time will come. It's just been unfortunate due to the prequel having Kairi on a different world, Days not needing to feature Kairi, Re:Coded using journal data and Dream Drop Distance showing off Riku's progression and Master Xehanort's true plan.

Send this post to Nomura, on the double.

Thank you for writing this! Kairi is my favorite kingdom hearts character aqua's my 2nd. I can't wait for her to show sora and riku what she's made of. I have a feeling she'll be a mage like aqua. Can you imagine kairi using spellweaver or ghost drive to take out heartless and nobodies? My only worry is master xehanort finding out about her ability and trying to kill her before her training is complete. He'd most likely extract her heart to have the light he needs for the x-blade then somehow destroy her body or lock it away to never befound.

I doubt it. Plus, as he claims, he's already calculated what has and (I think) will happen. I'm sure he knows she's now a keyblade wielder. Plus, I truthfully don't think he considers her much of a threat anyway. At least not compared to Riku or Sora. Also, I don't think Nomura will risk being so repetitive with her. There's not enough time for Sora to save another person! He's already got, what, 6 to save? XD

Pretty sure Nomura already knows Kairi is an underutilized character. The secret ending of KH3D wouldn't have happened if he wasn't.

Really insightful and well-written article. Thank you for sharing!

I think that Kairi has a lot of potential as a character, and you made several excellent points concerning such. If nothing else, the ending of Dream Drop Distance is proof that Nomura hasn't forgotten the 7th Princess of Heart (and that he's been eves-dropping on the fans as well). I'm hoping for a big twist that will put Kairi more in the spotlight. As Kingdom Hearts 3 will conclude the Xehanort Saga, I believe we'll be seeing a lot of relationship development between Sora and Kairi. The endings of Kingdom Hearts 1 & 2 have certainly dropped enough hints at that. I doubt that it will expand into a full-blown romance (as Kingdom Hearts doesn't touch much on that), but there will be some warm, subtle moments between them none-the-less.

So here's to KH3's quick announcement, here's to more Kairi, and here's to a great editorial.

Cheers!

I can drink to that!*clink*

You say it's too late to recover her character in Kingdom Hearts III,but you have to remember that some people never played any of the side games like Kingdom Hearts:Birth by Sleep or Kingdom Hearts:Chain of Memories.For those people that never played these side games there would be a chance.

KH3 will be so confusing for them that Kairi will be the least of their concerns.

I strongly diagree with the editorial and agree with som of the people. Kairi hasn't been forgotten, but you can't force her into places she doesn't belong: Days, BBS, Re:Coded, and the story of DDD except the S.Ending. This is coming from a future writer, but if you want your favorite character iin the story, it's important to understand how others will feel, the non-SoKai shippers don't want any fluff in their story and it's all about waiting. If you take BBS, Days, and Re:Coded and refer them as 'side games', then Kairi has at least played at part in 1, 2, and seems to have a future in DDD.


Ask your heart, do you want Kairi forced down your throats or do you want it take it slow?

i have a feeling that for the first half of kh3, kairi will be training and for the second half, she will join sora. i really want to see their relationship develop.

Kairi wouldn't have been forced if the writers knew how to incorporate her into the plot properly. As it stands, they clearly don't.

@Ruran: I do agree with and can understand all of your posts, but at the same time… though stuffing Kairi down people’s throats, and whatnot could get annoying, at least we’d still know that Sora and Riku still cared about Kairi that way. A lot of fans are starting to feel like they don’t, seeing as how she’s not in the games anymore (sometimes for silly reasons like the one Nomura gave for Re:Coded), no one even thinks of her anymore, and we haven’t seen her in seven years. So while I don’t think they should overdue it, something of her every now and then would be nice.

@Sephiroth0812 Sorry to confusing you about what I said. I just thought that if Kairi had been there, it would have made things a lot more emotional somehow. Not only has Kairi not seen as much of “war” as the others (so she might have had fresh feelings, and had been freaking out a bit), but also it might have jumpstarted her want to get stronger and protect her friends, etc. I can get why you’d think it would have made no sense, and would have been unneeded, but do you kind of get where I’m coming from? We’ve seen Sora in bad states with MDG and Riku all the time (and seen him get better afterwards), but with Kairi… it would have been something somewhat new and other.

@TwilitSoldier It’s looking like she might be playable in III, though (she’ll at least have character development in it). And honestly, if Kairi was developed—and her relationships with people developed—it could make the emotions more real and tense at times, like you want. The fact is, Kairi’s supposed to be important (and thus she’s not going anywhere anytime soon), it’s the fact they haven’t given her more dimensions that’s the problem. When they do, she won’t be “useless” anymore, but perhaps a badass female. Actually, IN developing her, they’ll probably give you just what you actually seem to want, so…

Also, they’ll never remove Disney from KH. The crossover is what KH is. And you do know that Final Fantasy has a TON of epic, and even somewhat cheesy romances, right? They even go into it more there than in KH! Cecil/Rosa, Cloud/Tifa and/or Cloud/Aerith, Squall/Rinoa, Zidane/Dagger, Tidus/Yuna, Vaan/Penelo (in Revenant Wings), Snow/Serah, Noctis/Stella when Versus comes out, etc. If you think the Final Fantasy games are great, “dark” and where you want KH to go… shouldn’t this prove Square knows how to handle romance in games, without disrupting the feelings you want in it?

@Kenzichi – You are probably right, and it probably made more sense that way, but what can I say? I’m a sucker for parallels. I think Sora thinking of Kairi would have been a cool tieback to when he thought of Kairi as a Heartless. And since this was the ten-year anniversary game and whatnot, I thought it would have been a good way to “include” her.

And as for your other point… I suppose that when I always played KHI, it seemed to me as though they were trying to make Kairi the balance between Sora and Riku. I thought that they were hinting that since Sora and Riku’s rivalry was so strong, Kairi would be the one to make them not kill each other in their sparring sessions and stuff. And she also sort of did seem like the leader, as both boys were trying to impress her, she told them what supplies to gather, etc. But I might have been wrong. And even if it had been true once, it’s certainly changed now.

@WaveK89 – You know, Wave. I actually think Kairi’s Princess of Heart status would be a neat thing they could explore. What are the limitations of it, what can PoH do exactly? Seeing as how important the Princesses are now—and that KH is over saturated with Keyblades lately—this could be a nice change.

Personally, I’ve always liked that Kairi has so much bite to her words. They could have easily made her a “perfect princess”, but they didn’t. I think it would be cool (and even somewhat needed) to know what it means to “have a heart of Pure Light.” There are so many cool things about Kairi, and things that could be told; they just need to do it: like the time Xehanort sent her to the Islands, the fact she’s a Light and one of the Seven Pure Lights both, that she sometimes seems to have a bit of clairvoyance, etc.

@Oathkeeperriku09: I do get where you’re coming from, and I agree with you on all of your points except one: People who don’t want Kairi in it (or SoKai), because it gets in the way of “their want for KH” can suck it. I’m sorry, but that is one of my biggest pet peeves as a writer (as I am one, too). Yes, you should listen to your fans somewhat, but they shouldn’t dictate and change the story you want to write. If you let that happen, it’s not your story anymore. And it also sacrifices a lot of plans and ideas the author could have explored, but didn’t because they chose to cater towards fanservice instead.

I think some fans need to remember that they’re exactly that: fans. And at the end of the day, the author is going to write the story they picture. If you prefer something else, then you can write your own epic. Harry/Hermione fans were forced to take in Ron/Hermione and Harry/Ginny. KH fans can take in SoKai and more of Kairi, if that’s Nomura’s intent.

I mean, I think a lot of Square’s problem lately is that they’re not sticking to their guns, and are trying too hard to cater to fans. XIII-2 was made specifically to fans’ wants, and look how well that turned out. Anyway, sorry for going on a rant. Though I agree with your other points, I think Nomura should be able to tell his story. (And of, course, if this means he doesn’t want SoKai, or Kairi, then I’ll accept that, the way others should accept the reverse should it happen.)

In my opinion, I hope they develop Kairi soon. It’s a loss that they haven’t yet. And I actually think they need to stay away from Riku for a while (I think his story’s done for this saga, at least, and too much focus on him might ruin his resolution from DDD), and finally give Kairi the time she deserves.

I do think Square has some cool ideas for her (the original beta trailer made it seem like she might save Sora at least once, and that Riku was main antagonist at that point of development). And who knows? Maybe the fact there was a Kairi model found within BbSFM’s coding for the “KH3D demo” means something. For all we know, they might have her totally Aqua it in KHIII (god I hope so). At this point, I guess we’ll just have to wait and see:)

Thanks for all the replies, and making my first editorial such a success, guys. I had a blast talking with you all! See you all soon! Who knows? Maybe I’ll even write something else soon ^_^

There's been more than enough throughout the series to show that Sora and Riku care a lot for Kairi. As been mentioned the games that ignored Kairi the most did so with good reason. The only game where it was out of place was 3D and that was only because they wanted that "stinger" in the secret ending. Really, if the fans feel like Sora and Riku's feelings for Kairi are waning because they don't mention her every chance they get it sounds more like the fans' problem than anything. There's no reason that they should stop caring about each other nor for the audience to be reminded all the time. We do get something on her every now and then but for the most part Kairi didn't have a role in the overarching plot so there's really no reason to show or mention her more than they have to.



If they were develop her character I'd prefer if they'd wait until the next saga tbh. We're at the ass end of this one and giving her proper development now would mean either focusing too much on her, thus, disrupting the pacing or her development will be really rushed. Can't really say if it's a loss or not until it actually happens and then it depends on how it all goes down. Having character development won't automatically fix her character, having good character development will (...maybe). She can have the biggest role in KH3, they can even make her the main character who we play as from beginning to end, but she has just as good a chance of her handling being really shitty.



Didn't she save Sora when she di-heartlessafied him?

God I hope not! The last thing Kairi needs is to made a "little Aqua". Let her grow into her own thing rather than take after a "cooler" other person. But like before if they want Kairi to step up her game it's something I'd rather they leave her abeyant for until the next saga where she can have a fresh start, and maybe even have a game that's centric on her. She'd have way more chance to have her character focused as the story unfolds. All of a sudden trying to make her kick-ass now would be rushed.

@Ruran Once again, I do get all of your points. And I thank you for discussing with me:) It's nice to understand different side of things. I just hope they start treating her character better from now on.

And tbh, I think it'd be best to save her character development for the next saga, too. But with what Square did with the 3D secret ending, it'd make them look like they didn't know what they were doing if they didn't implement her in some way. This game doesn't have to be where they make up for all the past sins, but it should be the start of something, what with her being important in two respects in this game. And since is the end of the Xehanort Saga, I want her to have some semblance of importance by the end of it.

Hahaha. I didn't completely what I meant about Kairi being Aqua-esque (it was just the best and most concise way to explain my hopes for her). I don't want to have a double dose "of warrior girl" in the series, either. And I do want them to hold onto who Kairi is as a character, and explore that instead of molding her into something new entirely.

Though, I wouldn't mind if her destiny tied with Aqua's just a tiny bit, seeing as how Sora and Riku's did with Ven and Terra. But I still want Kairi to have her own story, and way of going about things that are central to her character. Mainly what I meant about her being more "Aqua" like was that: I want to see her stand on her own, her fighting for her boys somewhat, and seeing that just because she has a heart full of Light doesn't mean she's incapable of certain things (and yes, I know Aqua's heart wasn't full of Light, but that's beside the point). Am I making sense at all?

You are not making things any easy, you knaw that? I am going to say this once, and only one:

The writers of a series (Not just KH) aren't going to force characters into something becuase you think and you quote: "They don't know what they're doing". They have plans for these characters, and they'll follow through it. But it's important thet we wait and see. You like Kairi I understand, but you're no better than another series I follow with a character who came back after a big arc. And while I like Aqua, Kairi needs her own style, her self and if she has to be shape to a new girl, it needs to be done without derailing her unlike all the stories I see of Kairi.

True. I just hope it's not a case of too little, too late. Aside from Namine, Kairi might be the only main character who has never been playable--which makes sense, since she could never fight--but now she will be able to, assuming Nomura doesn't fumble that, so I really think she should be for a significant portion of some upcoming game, whether KH3 or otherwise. I'd especially love to see her get scenes with some of the other characters, particularly Aqua.

@oathkeeperriku09 I suppose you're right, but it really is starting to seem like they just don't know what to do with her, or have way too many characters to juggle: something I've seen other series struggle with in the past.

And once again, like I said in the article, I do get some of the issues with including Kairi in the games, and don't completely begrudge Square-Enix that. Also, I do think Nomura has some big plan for Kairi in the future (I hope), but this article was mostly about how Kairi's character could have been handled better, so she wouldn't have seemed like a last minute thought in all of the games before III.

Anyway, for the most part we seem to agree on a lot of things, so I guess we'll leave it at this. And hopefully Kairi's inclusion in KHIII will be handled with care, and done in the best way possible for her character, and all the interested/concerned parties.

And, yes. I, too, want her to be her own person. Personally, I'd love it if they delved into Kairi's feisty side more. That was something I always liked about her, and so was a bit sad she was so somber in KHII. Her bluntness could be a cool thing to set her apart from the other characters, maybe. But that's a discussion for another time.

Thanks for discussing things so civilly with me! :)

-Shanna

Excuse me, the link in the OP is broken. Could someone kindly elaborate on the guidelines for this editorial business? I'd be very much interested in participating. :D

Hand to Hand - A series of editorials written by you! - Community - Kingdom Hearts Insider

Try that

Here you go, sugar :3 :



Edit: ninja'd.

You are still are not getting it, which is why I don't agree with your editorial. Of course they know what to do with her, or Kairi would be being put on the bus a long time ago, it's like I am trying to tell you, you can't rush these things. I never thought these words would come from me but, there are more imprtant characters to learn and flesh out than just Kairi, there I said it. Everyone else is more imprtant, Riku, TAV, RAXN, and Sora. And while juggling many character is omething everyone can't do, it's important to take it slow, one step at a time with each character. And while your article says that Kairi should be handled better, but no one wants to be forced with Kairi in every games, including ones she doesn't have to be there.

A thousand gratitudes upon you, sir....Em, on second thought, make that just one gratitude. It's far too late in the night for me to come up a thousand different ways of thanking you. :P

ive noticed this happening too. the reason is that she is voice by hayden penettiere who since the first kingdom hearts has become more and more famous. its hard for game producers to keep big stars interested in game series like this so they just give her small parts because its either that or find another voice for her.

That's not really the case.

The game is japanese, so they write their own story and don't consider the "stars" of the American voices.
They have a replacement if Hayden is unavailable, which they've used a few times now.
Unless her contract says she has to stay until III, she could leave whenever just like Billy Zane did.

Do we even know what Kairi has been doing all along? "Waiting" on destiny island sounds boring. She must have been doing SOMETHING relevant in regards to this series!

Perhaps KH3 will include a segment in which we play as Kairi during COM, KH2, and 3D?

Kairi didn't remember Sora for almost a year. We know she spent her days going to school, wondering where Riku was and not really remembering the other boy but hoping he'd come home too, sends a letter out to sea, and it wasn't until Axel arrives to kidnap her in KH2 that she actually starts doing anything actively.

She spent all that time pretty much just living her life normally. She even complains about it at one point in KH2 because she was doing nothing of interest. Had she been doing something relevant in that time I'm sure we would have heard about it by now, there would have plenty of time to bring something like that up.

Kairi's school life mini game? :P

Would provide a canon setting for thousands of Highschool-FanFic, lolz.

The fact of the matter is that Kairi isn't becoming useless but that she IS useless. Her coming in at the end of DDD so shamelessly was enough to make me vomit. Although I don't think that Kairi being snuffed out of the plot wasn't what made DDD so wretched, although I'm sure that's part of it. But the reality is that Kingdom Hearts no longer has to work hard in order to get sales. It's already popular enough and they know that. The die hard fan-boys will buy it no matter what kind of content is in it, so they don't care what they put in the game just as long as they can brand it and sell it.

She went through puberty that was relevant

and that would make a great cellphone gameit could be all the world end with yu in appeaarance and we could finally see the entire mainland. With a sectre ending taking place in the secret place

Kairi should definitely be incorporated into kingdom hearts III seeing as she doesn't do much in the first two games or any of them for that matter. Shes like princess peach and sora and riku are mario and luigi. I would like to see kairi use her keyblade in kingdom hearts III and actually have a lead role with more impact, maybe even be a playable character! but all in all, i think whatever does happen with the next chapter, i will be happy. :smile:

Not gonna lie, I would enjoy playing Kairi. So much.
Don't know why though.

I hope she can be a playable character in KH3.

Predictions of Kairi in KH3: At the start

Sora, Riku, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy are gonna be like, "WHA-- Kairi this is too dangerous. Yen Sid, what were you thinking?!"

But you know what Kairi's gonna do? She's going to say something like: "I almost missed out on the adventure again, no way I'm staying in the island this time."

Kingdom Hearts cellphone game with story relevance = would not ever buy. (If coded had ever came to the states in its cellphone form I would have refused; Mobile...it was cute so I probably would have) It dilutes the brand name, and Kingdom Hearts already has a problem with console accessibility.

While I am not a fan of Kairi's character or how the writers have portrayed her in this series, I wouldn't say she has always been useless. In Kingdom Hearts she was a major driving force for Sora as he spent most of the game looking for her, and in Kingdom Hearts II she essentially was the reason her friends even made it home. If she hadn't gone looking for them they probably would have spent the rest of forever dancing around each other (Sora looking for Riku, Riku trying to hide himself from Sora while keeping an eye on him; or with the ending they would have been stuck in the Realm of Darkness for lord knows how long)

Her coming in at the end of DDD so shamelessly was enough to make me vomit.

Eh, she's a Princess of Heart, she can wield. It was bound to happen. I'm glad it wasn't worse where she just appeared out of nowhere in KH3 ready to fight as if she wasn't new to the whole "wielding" business. At least we know she'll be trained and maybe have a bit of character development because of it, which is ultimately what this entire editorial is about : making Kairi have a more prominent role to make her less useless.

Although I don't think that Kairi being snuffed out of the plot wasn't what made DDD so wretched, although I'm sure that's part of it.

LightUpTheSky isn't really saying that it made KH3D a terrible game, but the fact that Kairi was absolutely forgotten for the entirety of the game was quite ridiculous when the writers say Kairi is important to Sora and Riku.

But the reality is that Kingdom Hearts no longer has to work hard in order to get sales.

I beg to differ. The sales of KH3D weren't fantastic in Japan. As a 3rd party title on a Nintendo device it sold wonderfully, but it sold about half of what Birth By Sleep did, and on a console with a very solid install base. It is proof enough that Square Enix does need to put work into the games (which they always do which is why stuff like BBS and KH3D are my favorite titles because of the effort put into them), or at least deliver the game fans have been pandering for since 2005/2006 (I do not believe this, but this is an observation made.) And KH3D was not a bad game by far. It was a fun, innovative title with amazing graphics and, for the dedicated fans who have been paying attention, it was a rather interesting story with a lot of charm

The die hard fan-boys will buy it no matter what kind of content is in it, so they don't care what they put in the game just as long as they can brand it and sell it.

I also don't believe that. Again sales of KH3D, while good, didn't seem to reach Square Enix's expectations. And there are a number of fans out there who didn't even give a crap about this game, even the die-hard ones. I think it is a mistake on their part for not wanting to play a fun game with a lot of plot relevance, but that's just a matter of my opinion.

i know this is extremely unlikely, but i hope that in kh3, we get to see some of kairi's training

Well I am a "die-hard fan" of Kingdom Hearts, but there is no way I can buy anything that doesn't come to a main console simply because I can't afford to buy every handheld that KH gets released for. So instead I watch walkthroughs of the games on YouTube.

Sigh... If only I knew they were going to make collections for the games.

I didn't mean people who were financially unable to buy the games. I mean people who love the series, are fully able to access the systems and even own them/plan to own them but refuse to play the handheld titles like KH3D because they don't think it has any importance or think Square Enix is milking the series.

When you are not in a place to buy the games it is completely understandable and nobody can blame you or anybody else, but there are people who are and just don't even bother watching walkthroughs or reading up on the games. Those are the people I think are making a mistake. xD

But can those people actually be called die-hard fans?

They call themselves that. You don't know how many people I've run in to that say "I'm a diehard Kingdom Hearts fan but I hate the side games." :\

Yeah, I dsee that too plus the so called "Side games" added more to the story.

BBS: We learned of the past, how it all happened, what's going to happened and Sora's big mission for KH3

Days: We learned of Roxas' life with the OrgXIII, Xion's creation and how Roxas ended up in the Fake TT

RE:Coded: We learned of the suffering that Sora must mend

DDD: We leanred about the true role of the OrgXIII, MX's plans that transpires time, and seven quardians waiting to be revealed who they are.

I might be missing something, but I'm basing it on memory.

LOL, how can you call yourself a die hard fan when you refuse to play the games outside of kh1 and kh2? that makes no sense

Re:coded also taught about how hearts could grow even in non-human beings like computer data, which further cemented the idea of Roxas, Axel, and Xion all growing hearts despite being Nobodies/a clone during Days and Xemnas & Braig's revelation that Nobodies can grow new hearts in KH3D.

(And then Tron but nobody ever points at that bit of KH2 or KH3D and says "Hey proof that a heart can grow!")

Thank you. Usually I am always reserching, but I'm busy with a project.

This. Is so true. I feel like the series has gotten kind of cheesy.. lately. I'm emailing thus to Square Enix.

Kingdom Hearts has always been cheesy, though...And I don't think the lack of Kairi in the series is the cause.

My point wasn't that Kairi was always useless but that she has become useless. In the past few games she has nothing to do. Oh and I love how she fights in KHII once and never does again. It just shows how they don't really have anything for her to do.




I would argue that the sales of DDD weren't what they were hoping for was because a massive chunk of the fan base want KHIII already. While I liked BBS I would still argue the effort was significantly less than some of the main games. Even though I still hold to my opinion of DDD being even less than that. And I would say that the story to DDD having any charm or depth for that matter is highly debatable. I have been a huge fan of the game from the very beginning. Story and all. But DDD kind of ruined if for me. While I will say that the expanse of the worlds in that game were spectacular (probably haven't been so good since 1 or 2) but anything significant about the game ends there. So in short, I disagree. I think DDD is probably the worst in the series. Even under Coded.





I suppose thats what it all comes down to. Opinion. In my view this game was infuriating for a lot of reasons yet there are still people who like It. And thats fine. I guess to me, I just have higher standards of a game that was once really good.

That makes sense then. Yeah, that bit was quite odd and a bit pointless. It got the point that she wanted to stand by her friend's side and protect Sora, but it didn't have much effect when she only used the Keyblade to swing at two Heartless in a weak-handed manner and miss.

I would argue that the sales of DDD weren't what they were hoping for was because a massive chunk of the fan base want KHIII already. While I liked BBS I would still argue the effort was significantly less than some of the main games. Even though I still hold to my opinion of DDD being even less than that. And I would say that the story to DDD having any charm or depth for that matter is highly debatable. I have been a huge fan of the game from the very beginning. Story and all. But DDD kind of ruined if for me. While I will say that the expanse of the worlds in that game were spectacular (probably haven't been so good since 1 or 2) but anything significant about the game ends there. So in short, I disagree. I think DDD is probably the worst in the series. Even under Coded.

What was it about Kh3D that ruined it? I just want to understand because you're one of the first people who has said they hated it more than coded.

I suppose thats what it all comes down to. Opinion. In my view this game was infuriating for a lot of reasons yet there are still people who like It. And thats fine. I guess to me, I just have higher standards of a game that was once really good.

I used to be really picky about the game and I gave that up just to be able to enjoy the games for what they are. But yeah we all can't enjoy it, and we all have different expectations from the series.

did kairi really need to become a keyblade wielder to have an important role? sometimes i get the impression that nomura only gave her a keyblade in an atempt to make her an important character. she was a princess of heart, there was so much nomura could have done with that without resorting to giving her a keyblade

Any good chracter who want an important role has to have a keyblade which explaiin the induction of axel

That may actually have to do with Nomura really not knowing what exactly to do with her.
If I recall correctly in the very first draft of KH Kairi didn't even exist because Nomura wanted to include only Sora and Riku and make the seven Princesses of Heart all established Disney Princesses, with their respective Princes aiding Sora in the final battle alongside Donald and Goofy.
It was Disney who insisted on an original female main character.



Axel/Lea was already an important character way before he gained a Keyblade. He also didn't gain the Keyblade just because of the rule of cool but for plot reasons.

@Comoman, the other games (Days/RE:Coded/BBS/DDD) those weer either about Roxas/Xion, Data Sora, TAV, and the MoM of Sora and Riku, there is no way she can be involved without beinf forced. And when Kairi got her keyblade, she was at that time, a rookie. She's not at Sora and Riku's level and if she started doing things after just getting the keyblade, Kairi would be called a Mary Sue. And of course they know what they way to do with her, you can't just force it.

As a writer myself, you need to think real. When someone has a new power, it doesn't make them badasses off the bat. It takes time and and that's what she'll need if wants to help anyone. But say she joined in TT, would she getting to Sora's level from KH1? Who knows.

hearing you say that seph makes me wonder how kh would have turned out if they had stuck with the original draft. it actually sounds really interesting, having sora and riku without kairi, plus having the princes fight alongside you in the final battle

as i said in my previous post, kairi being a princess of heart should have been a gateway for nomura do do so many things with her. its a shame that she has been so underused, when she has the potential to be a great female character. hopefully she gets her moment to shine in kh3

My memory on that whole issue is fuzzy, but I believe that was really the very first draft which had actually Chernabog as the very final boss with Ansem SoD/Xehanort not existing as well.
Ansem and Kairi were only thought of in the second draft or so.

ah. well if thats the case, then im glad they didnt stick with that first draft. though having chernabog as the main villain would have been interesting

What we should keep in mind though is that KH was once intended as a stand-alone title since no one knew if it would be successful.
Chernabog was originally intended to be the source/father of the Heartless, with Maleficent just being the executor for his plans.

While the often thrown around accusation that Nomura makes everything up as he goes is ultimatively overblown and false, exaggerated by haters, it is partly true for the time during KH 1 and between KH 1 and CoM.
With Chain of Memories Nomura began setting up the whole framework of the overall story (and Birth by Sleep for example was already planned when he still worked on KH 2) so he does have a rough overall frame since CoM/KH2 and is truly not making everything up as he goes.

You being a writer doesn't really have a lot to do with what Nomura chooses to do with his story. Just look at Lea, who totally bypasses what you're trying to say, because they used a cheap way of training him with a Keyblade off screen.

chernabog being the source of the heartless actually is a pretty cool idea. i hope he makes a comeback at some point in the series

Exactly, not to mention that there isn't a general way how a writer does things. Every writer or any other person who thinks of a story does so differently.
Some people may pay attention to things others do not even waste one thought upon.
As for "writers" in terms of KH, wasn't it so that it isn't even Nomura himself who writes the stuff like dialogue but Kanemaki, Watanabe and Kojima?



Well, he already did make a reappearance in DDD and he certainly does look like a giant, demonic Heartless so the allusion would fit.
Who knows, maybe Chernabog is secretly the ruler of the Realm of Darkness.

Nevermind, I guess everyone is right and I'm wrong about being a writer.

having chernabog be the ruler of the realm of darkness would actually be awesome and believable. too bad his homeworld was revealed in ddd, symphony of sorcery.

Nomura writes the base story and helps with the scenario planning and oversees the writing. In KH1 Kazushige Nojima, Jun Akiyama, and Daisuke Watanabe did the scenario writing and planning. KH2 it was just Nojima. Days it was Tomoco Kanemaki and Watanabe. CoM, BBS, and coded was Watanabe. Masaru Oka helped with BBS and also did KH3D by himself.

He's the man with the plan~

(Also Kojima is MGS lol)

I don't think you truly get what Taochan meant to convey.



The place you rule does not necessarily need to be your homeworld you know. ;)



Ah, thanks for the reminder.
If Nomura oversees the writing though he should probably do some more checks on stuff. Especially in KH 2 the writing was underwhelming so to say, lol.
Watanabe seems to be, at least for me, the most talented one out of the bunch though when it comes to writing. Is Oka entirely new to the stuff or did he do things in FF or Dragon Quest before?
Wasn't he also the one in charge to write the memoirs/chronicles?

Yep, at least Nomura has a plan, although the implementation of the plan sometimes leaves something to be desired.

(Yeah, if I remember correctly he's a close friend of Nomura and his main Series MGS is even more complicated and loaded with Mysteries than KH is).
I guess I mixed up Nojima and Kojima here, lol.

It definitely was not meant as an attack on you or your writing, it's just that one writer can't presume to be an authority on another writer simply because they share a passion or profession.

We simply don't know what Nomura will choose to to do with Kairi in the future, but if how he treated Lea is any indication (i.e. having Lea learn off screen so he didn't take up time from the story) then Kairi might receive similar treatment which will not benefit her character development.

No, it seems I don't know much about writing than I thought I did from what I said.

I feel like that is a common sentiment shared within the Kingdom Hearts community! His character-driven scenarios are a fan favorite~

(Yeah, if I remember correctly he's a close friend of Nomura and his main Series MGS is even more complicated and loaded with Mysteries than KH is). I guess I mixed up Nojima and Kojima here, lol.

They meet often for dinner meetings lol



I think you're still misunderstanding. Your writing is completely irrelevant to this discussion. It has no bearing whatsoever on the choices the scenario writers make or what happens in the series. Nothing that has been said has been made as an attack towards you.

I would say with the case of Kingdom Hearts II they were under a lot of time constraints, and also Nojima's expertise isn't really in lighthearted storytelling and I think without people like Akiyama or Watanabe working on the planning it left Nojima having to write a weakness of his.

I'd say considering most of the games Akiyama has worked on have had a solid story due to his planning, he's definitely one of the best planning assets at Square Enix (which is why I thank all of the stars in the sky that Akiyama is the scenario planner for Versus XIII xD)

Watanabe seems to be, at least for me, the most talented one out of the bunch though when it comes to writing. Is Oka entirely new to the stuff or did he do things in FF or Dragon Quest before?

Oka is like a long time Squaresoft/Square Enix staff member. He worked on VII, VIII, and XIII as the map planner, and X, KH1, KH2 as event planner (and in KH2 he was also base story writer) He's one of the few remnants of old Squaresoft.

Wasn't he also the one in charge to write the memoirs/chronicles?

I believe so.

Yep, at least Nomura has a plan, although the implementation of the plan sometimes leaves something to be desired.

The strongest the series has been was KH1 when there were three dedicated people working on the story, but the best writing was in BBS (and coded and really any game Watanabe had a hand in).

(Yeah, if I remember correctly he's a close friend of Nomura and his main Series MGS is even more complicated and loaded with Mysteries than KH is). I guess I mixed up Nojima and Kojima here, lol.

Yeah, he is. I swear they plan this stuff with each other xD

There are a lot of reasons I really hate DDD but if I had to condense it to the central issue it would be that the story just wasn't up to snuff. They have been piling on one metaphysical thing after another to the point that it came crashing down at DDD. Basically what I am saying is that they are making things up as they go. They don't have a definite standard of rules to go by and keep changing what already are the rules. By the look of the game it looks like (from my perspective) that they basically regretted making Sora the main character. Since BBS they have been betting it all on Riku. I wouldn't mind that so much other than the fact that Sora was our hero from the beginning, not Riku. And I know you could make the argument that in the original game Riku got the keyblade for a little while but I still hold to Sora being our correct protagonist. But now that Riku is on the side of good again they want to give him all the power and authority of the protagonist. That may not seem so bad but when you look at it like this: Sora has been the one going through all of the worlds, beating all the bad guys, sealing all the keyholes, saving all the people. All the while Riku is moping and doping about how he "submitted to the darkness" and not do a dang thing. Then all the sudden he is done moping and they are ready to give him endless reward. I nearly threw my 3DS in rage when I was at the end and they made Riku master and not Sora. I also nearly threw it when Axel got a keyblade. That pisses me off for entirely different reasons. At first the keyblade was special and something to behold. It wasn't common for people to see it. That's what they created the Keyblade to be. That's what they built it up as. Now everyone and their grandmother has a keyblade. When Terra told Braig that "they are picky about their owners" I'm thinking in my head "Since when? It's not so special anymore especially now since anyone have a keyblade just by touching someone else'." Its frustrating how they take the good qualities of the first game and just run them to death. Well that was my big rant on DDD. In a way I found it more frustrating than Coded because as senseless as Coded was it didn't feel like a pandering mess. Which, in my opinion, DDD was. "HEY, EVERYONE LIKES AXEL! GIVE HIM A KEYBLADE!"

Oh, so I'm not alone with that sentiment, huh? Although I do have to admit that I felt his work on BBS fell a bit "short" not in terms of quality, but in terms of content. There was much more that could have been done with BBS' story, and seeing his work on CoM and Coded (which all had wonderful character interactions) I bet BBS would have turned out even better if they had let him put in some more details. ^__^

And then compete who can make their game series more complicated? Betting on who gets to pay the next dinner? *ggg*



Considering the discrepancies between content on the Final Mix to the original I guess that's a very valid claim.

And I guess Versus XIII is also the reason Akiyama isn't available to help with storyplanning for KH-entries. <__<

Lol, I almost feel ashamed that I didn't know that, but at least I do know some people working on all those games beside Nomura and Yoko Shimomura.

Indeed, having more than one or two people working on it surely helps quality, too bad that isn't always the case. I agree that the writing in BBS was good, although like I said above, I feel it was a bit cut short on the content side, not on actual writing quality (but I guess that's then Nomura's fault, lol).

The dinner-conspiracies to make game series more complex, lead roles: Kojima and Nomura. *ggg*



To be honest without any ill intent, just by reading, your entire rant feels more like narrow-minded KH 1/Sora fanboyism than actually legitimately criticizing Dream Drop Distance.

Yen Sid explicitly states beforehand that their past endeavors do not matter in this test as their ability is to be tested without any preset score points, meaning Sora saving the worlds twice in Kh 1 and 2 does not mean squat (for the purpose of the test, not in general, mind you) neither does Riku get initial negative points for falling to the Darkness once.
They both get a clean slate also in their abilities, that's why they are put back into their younger forms.
Yen Sid also states that they both did well and Riku only gets the Master title first because he did an extra mile of work (and technically Sora failed the third and last part of the test, which was to return to the Mysterious Tower safely).

On to the Keyblade, it was already firmly established in KH 1 that there isn't only one Keyblade but that several exist, not to mention that going by the ratio of people with Keyblades to the general population of the universe the weapon itself is still incredibly rare.


As for Lea getting the Keyblade, that has story reasons due to his determination and will to get back Roxas and Isa (Xion too, although he doesn't remember her) he needs additional powers, powers his chakrams aren't going to deliver for him.

And this exactly why MGS is my second most favorite franchise after KH.

I swear the series is one big minddiddly.

But IMO overall I think KH has a better story.

OT:

I really wonder if Kairi can dual weild. I mean Namine is inside her now and since Namine is kinda from Sora she should be able to weild a Keyblade. And even if she wasn't from Sora and she was from Kairi she still should be able to weild one since Kairi can, which means that Kairi can possibly dual weild cause Namine is inside her....

That all depends if Namine even has (or can wield) a Keyblade which is an entire other can of worms, lol. Then there's the issue that Kairi technically doesn't have her own Keyblade yet. If Namine can wield/gets chosen by a Keyblade I don't think we'll see it anytime soon though. She'd probably get brought back way before that would even happen.

well her bith was of two weilders
so it wouldnt suprise me

Maybe it is fanboyism but it just feels like they are shoving Sora (the one we spent over 3 games playing as) to the side. But trust me there are a lot of reasons why I hate DDD. It's odd though I seem to be the only one thinking that Nomura's story telling is getting to be a bit too much.

Honestly though, I get that they had a clean slate for the test. I understand that. But the circumstances to make Sora "fail" the final part of the exam was some of the most contrived storytelling ever. And therefore I don't buy it. Then again I don't buy the entire scenario for this game anyhow. I think its a complete load that Sora gets pushed aside for the significantly less interesting Riku because of said contrived crap. It just irks me. And nothing can be said to allow me to accept Axel getting a keyblade.

Although I will admit I don't remember the first game ever stating there were more keyblades though I don't doubt it. Probably in the dozens of ansem reports. None the less, I think they still could have met somewhere in the middle by having a keyblade be rare and still saying many exist. The point I am trying to make is that the game wants to pass off the Keyblade as this rare super weapon. But by this time every single main character has one for the sake of them having one (not to mention the millions in the graveyard) it becomes significantly less legendary as a result.

Basically what I was trying to get across is that I hate DDD for the reason that it basically made something that was good and very enjoyable into a confused, contrived, never-ending mess. I know I probably sound like a sentimentalist who only likes the old stuff. But the reason I liked the older stuff more is because that was the very beginning. They had set their rules and followed them. After that they kept on making more and more to the point you don't even know what is possible in this world. Seriously sleeping worlds? I suppose I could get behind that idea more if it made more sense within the context of the world that the game created, but it doesn't. It just keeps going on and on and on. But I suppose that's the weakness of having a franchise continue for over ten years. When you want to go back and make changes the overall experience suffers for it.

No one will argue that the convolution from DDD probably hurts the plot of KH overall, but DDD in terms of character development for Sora and Riku was actually pretty great. Yes, Riku became the hero of the game but after skulking around in his shame for the past few entries it was entirely welcome (at least for most of the fans).

Sora in no way has to be the sole playable character, or even the hero of every title to remain the focus of the series. This entire saga revolves around him and Xehanort, as everyone ties back to them in some way or another by either being literal copies of them or by being tied to their hearts.

Honestly though, I get that they had a clean slate for the test. I understand that. But the circumstances to make Sora "fail" the final part of the exam was some of the most contrived storytelling ever. And therefore I don't buy it. Then again I don't buy the entire scenario for this game anyhow. I think its a complete load that Sora gets pushed aside for the significantly less interesting Riku because of said contrived crap. It just irks me. And nothing can be said to allow me to accept Axel getting a keyblade.

Really disagree about Sora being a more interesting character as he had some shitty as hell character development (really it was more like backwards development, as he regressed to a more immature character than he was in KH1) in KH2 and DDD was actually a step in the right direction by regaining some of the development he had from CoM. While Sora can be charming, he's hardly more interesting than a character like Riku who has a rich arc where he has many ups and downs and goes on a path of redemption. Maybe if KH2 didn't exist, I could see Sora being more interesting but unfortunately that entry really killed him.

Also, Sora failed because he was cocky at the beginning of DDD and allowed himself to be tricked and goaded throughout the rest of the game by YMX, whereas Riku had gotten to a point in his arc where he recognized darkness and knew how to deal with it. Sora NEEDED to fail in order to become a stronger character and now I'm excited to see where his arc goes in KH3. DDD may not have helped the plot of the overall series (by adding confusion with time travel, etc) but it definitely helped Sora and Riku as characters.

I'm sorry but I really disagree with that statement. I don't remember any character development at all besides them making Sora more stupid for the sake of making Riku more cool. And I do agree with Riku being better for not sulking but thats kind of his whole character. After the first game anyway. Riku in the first game was much more interesting than his KHII counterpart.




Well I will say this about the games. The story arcs in the games are minimal. The only arcs they have are how they are slightly different from game to game. I would argue Sora is more interesting because he is the wide-eyed innocent who can have fun where ever he goes never losing to much insight into his overall goal. I will agree with you that, while they kept the innocence to him, it was at the cost of making him really really stupid in KHII, but if they had played their cards right it wouldn't have happened like that. And in another way Sora is kind of the avatar for the player. He is the person we want to take the place of because he has that child like innocence we had when we were kids watching these Disney movies, which is why I think it works for the most part. I completely understand why people think he is dull, but lets face it in comparison to Riku there is not much competition at all.

Riku on the other hand is a pretty bunch of nothing moping around and being all emo. I wouldn't say his arc was "rich" per se. In the first games he was much much more interesting. I think we can all agree on that. But even in CoM he turned into a moping crybaby and therefore the inferior character. Maybe there is a market for that sort of character, as there certainly seemed to be back when KHII came out but now its just old and annoying. At least Sora is more optimistic which you have to admit is a little bit refreshing.

And I'm sorry I just don't buy the exam part. Even Sora's character was incredibly contrived and didn't feel like Sora at all. His stupid "make everyone happy" speech can attest to that. And correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Riku figure out his whole darkness thing and how to deal with it in CoM and so on? What I'm basically saying is, is that they have done the same thing with Riku for years and he isn't getting any better. Honestly if they didn't make such a big deal about DDD being integral to the plot, you could probably drop it and lose nothing. The whole thing has just become so complex and convoluted that its hard to take any of it seriously anymore. But then again I seem to be a much harsher critic.

How can you miss character development? When we left Riku in KH2 he was still clearly really unsure of himself and if he was even worthy of going back to DI or wielding the Keyblade. But through the duration of DDD, Riku is able to find his strength of self and becomes able to overcome obstacles that Sora couldn't. Without Riku's entire arc, this wouldn't have been possible. They didn't make "Sora more stupid". In DDD they frankly they fixed most of the issues with Sora's stupidity from KH2.

Well I will say this about the games. The story arcs in the games are minimal. The only arcs they have are how they are slightly different from game to game. I would argue Sora is more interesting because he is the wide-eyed innocent who can have fun where ever he goes never losing to much insight into his overall goal. I will agree with you that, while they kept the innocence to him, it was at the cost of making him really really stupid in KHII, but if they had played their cards right it wouldn't have happened like that. And in another way Sora is kind of the avatar for the player. He is the person we want to take the place of because he has that child like innocence we had when we were kids watching these Disney movies, which is why I think it works for the most part. I completely understand why people think he is dull, but lets face it in comparison to Riku there is not much competition at all.

The character story arcs aren't minimal though? In the case of Kairi, they are but she (as proved in this editorial) is a very forgotten character that needs a lot of work and focus. It's honestly a crime that they didn't showcase her more in DDD just to keep the shock value of her being a Light.

Riku on the other hand is a pretty bunch of nothing moping around and being all emo. I wouldn't say his arc was "rich" per se. In the first games he was much much more interesting. I think we can all agree on that. But even in CoM he turned into a moping crybaby and therefore the inferior character. Maybe there is a market for that sort of character, as there certainly seemed to be back when KHII came out but now its just old and annoying. At least Sora is more optimistic which you have to admit is a little bit refreshing.

No he's not? He felt like an asshole for how he treated Sora and what he did in KH1 so he spent CoM trying to snuff out any bit of Ansem left in his heart. Then he spent Days trying to protect Sora while he slept and make sure he would wake up. In KH2 Riku did feel ashamed of himself when Sora was finally awake, mostly because of what he had allowed himself to turn into in order to protect him (changing his appearance to Ansem SoD) and for being such a fool in KH1.

Feeling regret/shame and attempting to fix what your mistakes is hardly being "emo". Riku never cried over anything; he found strength to continue moving on in order to set things right. I'll grant you that Sora's positive nature and sunny disposition in KH1 was charming and refreshing and his development in CoM was wonderful, but that all fell to pieces in KH2 when he backpedaled into a biased, gullible and prejudice individual. If it weren't for DDD, he would still be that way.

And I'm sorry I just don't buy the exam part. Even Sora's character was incredibly contrived and didn't feel like Sora at all. His stupid "make everyone happy" speech can attest to that. And correct me if I'm wrong but didn't Riku figure out his whole darkness thing and how to deal with it in CoM and so on? What I'm basically saying is, is that they have done the same thing with Riku for years and he isn't getting any better. Honestly if they didn't make such a big deal about DDD being integral to the plot, you could probably drop it and lose nothing. The whole thing has just become so complex and convoluted that its hard to take any of it seriously anymore. But then again I seem to be a much harsher critic.

The exam itself isn't even what I'm discussing here.

What does Sora FEEL like, then? We can't reboot him to his KH1 persona because that isn't how a story or character development work. His "make everyone happy speech" was rooted in him FINALLY realizing that these Nobodies that he held such disdain for in KH2 are actually capable of emotions (due to their own hearts) and that they were wronged by Xehanort. Sora's speech is true to his nature, by believing in his friends and believing the best in a bad situation.

If you dropped DDD, you would lose a lot of development for the characters and the stepping stones for KH3. DDD is as integral as CoM was, because these bridge games set up the entire foundation that the next main entries will be laid on.
I have agreed with you that the plot for DDD was convoluted but that's mainly due to me believing time travel was never necessary to add in the series. You're entitled to dislike the game but I very much disagree with your premise.

Shoving Sora to the side? SORA, the one which everything revolves around? Sorry, but we must play a different game series, Sora gets way enough coverage and focus throughout the series, not to mention all the characters who have to depend on him and basically stand in his shadow, as it fits for a protagonist. But having everything revolving even more around him just because he's the protagonist would make for actual bad storytelling. The Kingdom Hearts series has not one, but many main characters who deserve some focus too. Riku is the deuteragonist, meaning the second most important character after Sora, so it's not that surprising he gets some more coverage. In fact, out of all the main characters alongside Lea and main villain Xehanort, only Riku has truly extensive and good character development.

If you understand the clean slate for the test you have also to understand that Sora FAILED. He failed to act worthy as a true Keyblade Master and let his overconfidence get the better of him, failing to realize that something was very wrong. His aim to help Roxas and the others is admirable and true to his character, but he did so at the wrong time and also failed to understand that Young Xehanort and Xemnas were preying on him. Young Xehanort himself was astounded in Symphony of Sorcery that Sora still had not caught on.
Besides, did you even follow Sora's stance on the whole matter? In the very beginning Sora told Yen Sid that he considers the title of Keyblade Master only a formality, Sora in fact doesn't care if he has the Master title or not, that's also why he wasn't disappointed in the slightest. He only agreed to to the test anyways because Riku wanted to in order to see if his redemption was truly accepted and he being worthy to wield the Keyblade.
If Riku is "significantly less interesting" is a subjective point through and through, don't bring favoritism into this, that only invites flame wars. There are tons of fans who prefer Riku, Roxas, Ventus, Aqua or Terra over Sora, so that isn't really going to help an argument for any character.
As for Lea's Keyblade, of course that's all a matter of opinion, yet that too has been foreshadowed through the series as a whole just like the growing hearts ability and the ominous "true goal" of the Organisation.

Please what? In the first game there were already shown at least three Keyblades and I gave you the quote from the Ultimania of KH 1, where Nomura flat out states it. Even the reason Kairi got to Destiny Islands (back then for mystery issues dubbed "coincidental") gets mentioned which gets finally cleared up in BBS.
You are arguing solely from the standpoint of the very first game with a certain interpretation of the things said there. It has been said before that KH originally was intended as a stand-alone entry, so there are obviously some discrepancies in wording, but one has also to keep in mind that by the time of KH 1 the Keyblade became exceedingly rare in that particular part of the universe because Ansem SoD/Xehanort lost the ability to wield his while Eraqus, Terra, Aqua and Ventus are out of commission. That nonetheless does not change the fact that the Keyblade as a weapon isn't as unique/super-rare (and never was) as you make it out to be.
If it becomes less legendary as a result is entirely a question of viewpoint, as many fans also like the notion of the all destroying war (which ironically ties in with the first Ansem reports about the Keyblade bringing ruin) and the revealed background lore of the Keyblade gives way to many more mysteries and interpretations.

Then your "hate" at DDD is misplaced though as the expansion of the simple (and flat, in my opinion) universe of KH started already with Chain of Memories.
You are entitled to your own preferences, but liking the older stuff more "because it was the beginning" is a sort of shallow reason. If you always stay at the beginning without evolving everything becomes stale and boring. KH 1 in fact had barely any set "rules" at all as much was left open to interpretation.
What exactly does bother you about the sleeping worlds? Or the context? I don't get what your problem is with these. At the end of KH 1 when Sora and Mickey closed the Door to Darkness millions of worlds and their inhabitants were revived (as seen with all the stars returning while Kairi watches), but some didn't make it and remained asleep. It's really not that complicated.



Exactly, Sora needs to be this pure and innocent heart in order to accomplish the feats he's destinied to do, but in order to watch his back Riku is needed.
Sora also was always more on the goofy side who had trouble to get more complicated things, but being simple isn't necessarily a bad trait.

Well, you can make a point about most main characters besides Lea/Axel, Riku and Xehanort being not as good developed as they could be, Kairi surely being the most extreme example.

Lol, yeah, well, in KH 1 Riku was an asshole, cocky and inconsiderate of others paired with an unhealthy complex of having to be superior over Sora. But that's actually the big appeal and true reason his character arc is indeed rich. I don't know why people fail to realize it, but Riku is actually the only character in the series so far who did feel remorse for wrong stuff he has done and who actively pursued an arc of redemption and works to make amends. Ansem the Wise may feel remorse for his crap and try to redeem himself as well with the research data, but his redemption arc is not by far as detailed as Riku's (which is somewhat reasonable since Ansem is a major support and not a main character).

The "make everyone happy"-speech was in The Grid I think, there he didn't have Xemnas' explanation or his encounter with Roxas yet, but he knew from Mickey's letter and Yen Sid's explanations that there are people out there who count on him to save them. But the rest is spot on, it totally fits into Sora's general mindset and attitude.
This attitude even gets admired by characters like Neku ("it wasn't easy, but you made it easier") or Joshua, although of course Joshua also immediately sees the dangers of it.

The time travel stuff is what irks me somewhat as well and it also took me a while to accept the "new" variant of how the X-blade is formed.

Except that there ARE plenty who would argue that the plot of DDD HASN'T hurt the plot or dare I say *gasp* improve the plot and tie in loose ends that weren't tied in properly before *cough*Organization XIII*cough*

And SORA being shoved to the side? lol wut? He's becoming Jesus at this point!
Also, I really don't understand why people say Sora is very stupid. He's childlike and innocent, but he's never been stupid. At all.

And as far as character development goes, I personally think most of the characters are developed fine. Really, the only characters that I can think of that haven't been developed well are Kairi, Namine, and Xion. Then it's just Demyx, Lexaeus, and Luxord really. All the other characters have been/are being, pretty well-developed.

By the way, am I the only one who absolutely loved Sora's dialogue in DDD? Every word he said was just spot-on. Shoot, I think DDD had the best dialogue and overall vocal performance in the entire series to be totally honest.

And as far as character development goes, I personally think most of the characters are developed fine. Really, the only characters that I can think of that haven't been developed well are Kairi, Namine, and Xion. Then it's just Demyx, Lexaeus, and Luxord really. All the other characters have been/are being, pretty well-developed.

Generally speaking when people say "character development" they don't necessarily mean just characters changing, but characters being fleshed out and interesting in general. I'd argue that Namine and Xion are much much more interesting than Kairi is, although I don't like Xion as a plot device. I don't think Kairi has much personality to her, if at all.

@ Sephiroth0812

You entirely missed the point of what I was saying. I'm done talking about it though, I said what I wanted to and thats it. Peace out.

I enjoy these featured musings from the community, and I think LightUpTheSky had some interesting things to say.

Even though I like Kairi as it stands, and I see her for the potential she has to offer the series, there is plenty of evidence to validate why the fanbase could repel her character. If not because of her sheer absence alone, how does she hope to grow on you? Kairi was presented as an enigma in KH, almost instantly raptured from Destiny Islands, and only has a handful of key scenes in, ironically, one of the titles where she has most screen time. We've had to claw for bits and pieces of her since and during almost the entire relationship of the KH saga.

I definitely feel that she was slighted in a cheap attempt to amplify the shock value of the secret ending in DDD. "We normally don't talk about Kairi anyways, so they definitely won't be expecting THIS."

:/

to be fair in there debut games we spen alot time with them concious. We saw them feel act and explore. Kair got to do little of that in all of her apperances combined

Aghhh....:tongue:

I'm really torn on your thread. On one hand, I completely agree with you. The dwindling occurrences of Kairi break my heart and I think the more recent games do stray away, little by little.

But at the same time, I feel like Kairi's presence (or lack thereof) i somewhat intentional whether situational or for dramatic gameplay. Take DDD for example. You noted that Sora did not even reflect back at Kairi's charm and only makes vague comments referring to her. However, remember the main drive of Sora between KHI and KH2 had the sole purpose of saving Kairi (along with saving the world from darkness or the evils of Org XIII). Like you said now that she's safe, most of the worry kind of gotten extinguished. As far as the charm, they're in the sleeping worlds so maybe he didnt have it with him?

Basically though, the main reason I feel for Kairi's lack of spotlight is for the big SHABANG KH3 is supposed to be. So we wont know until then.

I'll be honest, when I was younger, I wasn't a huge Kairi fan. Then I got a little older, starting making up fan fics that i sometimes wrote down with a friend of mine. We combined KH characters with characters of my own, long story. Anyways, as I've gotten older, I've liked her a tad more, enjoying the whole, "Female character seems weak but is actually really powerful" And that's how I've always interpreted Kairi's character. From that interpretation, I've developed similar characters, seemingly weak and ordinary but secretly magically skilled. I would kinda like to see Kairi get her due, perhaps see her kicking butt a little more like my fan fic version, (even though in my version the entire trio has their own guardian of sorts helping them out in battles and sharing their small bits of wisdom. Kairi's guardian is more knowledgeable then the others, and the best fighter out of the other two.) Ummm I think it's best I stop talking cuz i feel i'm getting off topic. Either way, let Kairi have her due, I mean, she technically got cheated in the first game and got to see no worlds, while Sora and Riku were allowed to.

This is all so true! Kairi used to be such a strong character, and all of a sudden they've started to treat her like a wimpy damsel in distress. I know she was unconscious for most of KH1, but as soon as she woke up she was ready to fight for her friends. I wish that they would remember that Sora, Riku, and Kairi were supposed to be a trio, not a duo (and that's hard for me to say because I ship SoKai and sometimes hate Riku and his sense of superiority for ruining it). I always loved the trio aspect of all the Kingdom Hearts games, and sadly, I feel that the BBS trio has become my new favorite, simply because Kairi has been all but dropped from the original.

Oh well, sorry for my rant, but I loved your article, keep up the good work!

Reading this brought old feelings for Kairi that had slowly diminished over the coarse of the games that had come after kingdom hearts 2. after experiencing the lives of TAV (in BBS) and RAX (in Days) kairi's role seemed to become less important. Re:Coded came and she wasn't featured in that and then DDD were she pops outta no where at the end.

I think that KHIII is going to reclaim its former glory and really focus on reuniting everyone and i mean EVERYONE. Just looking at DDD symbiotic opening they are going back to the roots of the series. planting roots for different characters in different games and then uprooting everything and putting it into KHIII with sora as your main protagonist to finally close this saga. As the Kingdom hearts franchise get older the more we are going to recognize our love for the series when the third games is announced. Seriously, I want to see the day on these forums when they announce that game.

So, I'd just like to thank everyone that took the time to reply to my editorial. Words can't describe how happy I was to spark up such an amazing debate on this subject. I am in complete awe and gratitude about all of this, and I-

Just thank you all so much! This has been an amazing experience, and you guys have made me feel so loved and welcomed here. My only wish is that I could have replied to some of you more, but after this hit a hundred posts, I just became completely overwhelmed and couldn't even process anything. LOL.

Thanks again, guys. And I hope to see you around in the future. Perhaps with another editorial of mine, even!

Also, I deeply appreciate the award you nominated me for, King Chaser. I shall wear it proudly always. Thank you. KHI ftw!

I completely agree. Although I don't think KHIII is too late. They can do a lot in one game. Especially if it is as long or longer thank KHI and KHII. Seeing her in the secret ending made me so happy! I really missed her in the series. It felt like something was missing when she wasn't there. If they make her playable in the third (Which is a good possibility) They'll have to develop her more right? Any ways, I'm just excited that Kairi is back and is hopefully going to have a bigger role in the finale.

I actually hope Kairi gets her own game were she is the only playable character taking place after KHIII.

That would actually be pretty cool.
Imagine Kairi being the one to go around and save all the worlds from darkness.

....I can't tell if I like this idea or hate it. *o* Maybe a bit of both cause of curiosity on if they could pull it off.

I feel the same. Kairi as a character is such a delicate subject and the writers themselves aren't the most competent, so a game centered on her may very well be a make or break deal.

Given how the current writers have handled her so far, perhaps a new writer(s) would be able to pull off such a story. People who seem to know how to handle a female character. (since nomura, and the writers, doesn't really seem all the comfortable on them)

They could get the writer of Final Fantasy VI to be involved with Kairi's game since Terra from FFVI was a popular character.

You are 100% correct about all of this.
Kairi is a fantastic character and it always makes my Heart ache when people call her names. I love Xion and Naminé (among several other characters), but that does not diminish my love for the cheeky, happy-go-lucky, determined redhead whom (along with Riku) gave the player of K.H. 1 someone to fight for. I adore Ven & Vanitas and like the addition of Terra & Aqua, but wish K.H.: 'Dream Drop Distance' (wish I've never played, b.t.w.; but have watched videos of) had not basically abandoned Kairi.
I hope Nomura does her the justice she deserves in K.H. 3...

YEAH!!!!! *pumps fist*
It could be like a milder version of K.H. 1, in that Kairi travels the Multiverse sealing Keyholes but there is no massive danger beyond normal-ish life.








[This is in answer to the comment about someone wishing for a K.H. game where Kairi is the playable protagonist].