Riku can't love Kairi...him and Mickey are totes getting together in KH3
Oh you...*ggg*
Honestly, I never saw any romantic feelings towards Kairi in KH1 either like Sephy didn't. I mean, sure he joked with Sora about the papou fruit but in the end, I think that was just them being 2 really good friends and one making fun of the other for his crush. It happens between friends in school, kind of like this:
Just friends making each other uncomfortable haha
Yep, it's all a question of interpretation.
Well there was that whole Halloweentown moment in KH2 where Sora saw him and Kairi dancing together and wanted to get her a gift. However, because it is never explicitly stated that it is romantic, both the drawing and the dance segment can be interpreted as friendship but are the 2 harder moments of the series to deny romance.
Objectively spoken these are of course some of the situations that can be more easily interpreted as romantic interest or at least a form of crush, but that's again all about it. The paopu fruit itself is actually not a token of romance, that's only one interpretation of it (which comes mostly from Selphie in a typical teen swooning interpretation), as the general saying is only that sharing one intertwines the destinies of people who do so and makes them a part of each others lives. It is nowhere said that "sharing a paopu" has to happen
only between two people, and TAV arguably even represent the other side of it, it's certainly
not a marriage proposal or "I want to have babies with you"-type of ritual.
Yes I know. But I mean, I can picture me and my friend/friends dancing and I want to give my friends gifts all the time.
Like you said, those segments can be interpreted as friendship. I think out of all the moments the drawing would be the hardest to deny because of the fruits rumored meaning.
However, it still remains the fact that it could simply just be a friendly act between the two friends. For example, I would want to be with my friends forever.
Who knows... maybe if there were a Riku drawing Sora would have drawn another star for him.
Yeah, that's exactly why all these scenes are kept ambigious. As for the drawing I already said my two cents about the paopu fruit above.
Given Sora's tendency to not pick favorites but love everyone equally (it's even somewhat lampshaded by Ansem the Wise in DDD) this interpretation isn't that farfetched.
If there were drawings of Naminé, Donald, Goofy or any of the other main characters deeply connected to Sora I guess they would also receive a paopu share.
I can just see more evidence and hints for Riku/Sora then Sora/Kairi to begin with.
I mean some of those proof videos, written out proofs and essays out there for the pair. It's just, WOW!
Sorry to be slightly off of topic again. My thoughts on Riku/Kairi remain the same. Nothing more than friends...
they barely even have interact in the games to have there be anything else. lol
See again, ambigiousity and up to interpretation.
All those "proof"-videos, essays and stuff for that pairing are also only interpretations and have no more and also no less credibility than any Sora/Kairi-videos/essays and stuff that is out there.
Also, the "nothing more than friends"-statement is something that irks me in general, as the "more than" implies that love between friends is worth less than romanic love and romance being the "ultimate pinnacle" of love.
Love doesn't come in general tiers like "Romance > family love > friends > acquaintances" for everyone, it is entirely possible for people to give one form of love more preference over the others.