RIKU ISn'T A VILLIAN!

[SOLDIER Cloud]

He didn't get hit because Goofy jumped in front of him and blocked it with his shield.

 

[Riku's Dawn]

He didn't get hit because Goofy jumped in front of him and blocked it with his shield.

He did it BEFORE Goofy jumped in.

 

[SOLDIER Cloud]

Oh, I did not get what you were saying there, but isn't that Sora screamed irrelavent? What does that matter?

 

[Riku's Dawn]

If someone was gonna kill him, at least shield with your arms first!

 

[Cynel]

Aw...Riku's just jealous in KH1...Sora was looking for Donald and Goofy lol. But he did got angry and tried to BEAT Sora...yeah...he did become one...

 

[var1ables]

When one falls to the darkness, one gives into emotions,that was a spur of the moment thing, if you count everytime sora attacked some random guy, you'd see him as a villian, but nonone ever sees it that way.

 

[Riku's Dawn]

When one falls to the darkness, one gives into emotions,that was a spur of the moment thing, if you count everytime sora attacked some random guy, you'd see him as a villian, but nonone ever sees it that way.

There was only one time, ya know.*coughpastpetecough*

 

[SOLDIER Cloud]

If someone was gonna kill him, at least shield with your arms first!

Like he could tell if it was a fatal blast.

 

[var1ables]

There was only one time, ya know.*coughpastpetecough*

no he bust it(the keyblade) out on riku(traverse town), leon(traverse town), the queen(wonderland), i forgot his name but whoever the leader of the mongel troops, he bust out his keyblade on all these people, if not explained to first, he would have beat them up.

 

[Ultima Key_23]

But Maleficent was clouding his thoughts with nonsence talking about how he had replaced Riku and Kairi with Donald and Goofy if you play KH1 again and watch the scene where Sora comes in to the Third District in Traverse Town.

 

[Sephy-kun]

In Kingdom Hearts 1 Riku isn't a villian he is an anti-hero. There are also suspesions of Riku giving into the darkness because he was jealous of Sora

no, what happened is that Sora, Riku, and Kairi wanted to travel to different places. so, when the Heartless came to the islands, Riku found a way to travel using the Darkness, and when he found out about Kairi, he would try and get her back, even if that ment opening his heart to the darkness. and the darkness changed and Malifecent tried to perswey him that Sora had replaced him with Donald and Goofy and was only showing off the Keyblade, so Malifecent told him that he was the true Keyblade master, and when Sora eat him at Hollow Bastion, he wanted to become stronger, and thats why he got possesed by Xehanort

 

[Ivyprincesofhart]

Riku's not a villian, he was just risking everything to find Kairi and save her, even his friendship with Sora. Sora was just 'meddling' with that and getting in his way. Also, Riku and Sora always had a rivalry, so maybe Riku just thought that Sora was going to beat him and save Kairi. Or even destroying what Riku felt was the way to get Kairi back. And of course in Hollow Bastion Riku was seduced by darkness but was still 'good'.

What this wise person says. Riku might have a dark heart, but it's still a pure one, because it's not corrupted by darkness. But I have to agree with Sora on one point: Why'd Riku try to do so much on his own? I never thought of Riku as evil, but more like being manipulated just because he was trying to help a close friend of his. And that, my friends, really bites.

 

[Oberon]

In Kingdom Hearts 1 Riku isn't a villian he is an anti-hero. There are also suspesions of Riku giving into the darkness because he was jealous of Sora, but that probably is not entirely true so if you all want to expand discussion on that be my guess but thier is a difference between Anti-Hero and Villian.

Dude... Riku gave into the darkness because he wasn't neccessarily jealous, he just wanted to save kairi and go home. It's dead obvious if you think about it.

EDIT: and besides, Riku wasn't too smart then anyway, the darkness led him out of his true decision's and made him do what ansem and malificent wanted to do. And since sora never gave in to the darkness, it was like ansem and malificent were fighting to gain power over riku, which both did get there way at one point.

 

[XFinalXOmegaX]

well it's kind of obvious . riku gave into the dark. then he was being manipulated by ansem/xehanort's heartless

 

[Marluxia_Xii]

Riku isn't necessarily a "villian".He was desperate to find a way to save Kairi, and if it meant opening his heart to darkness, Riku didn't hesisitate. Okay, so he tried to, supposidly, "kill" him. How do we know the blast was even going to touch him? Off that, Sora believed in his friend Riku enough to just stand there and take it. Xenhanort and Malieficent were clouding his better judgement of Sora and his friends. So, really it wasn't his fualt that he plunged deeper into darkness.

 

[Gothic_Donald]

Dude... Riku gave into the darkness because he wasn't neccessarily jealous, he just wanted to save kairi and go home. It's dead obvious if you think about it.

EDIT: and besides, Riku wasn't too smart then anyway, the darkness led him out of his true decision's and made him do what ansem and malificent wanted to do. And since sora never gave in to the darkness, it was like ansem and malificent were fighting to gain power over riku, which both did get there way at one point.

PEOPLE! READ MY POST THROUGHLY THEN TYPE! I said there have been SUSPISIONS! No he is!

 

[Joey Batz]

This is why Riku's my favorite character. He has ALOT of depth to his character, and a good portion of his personality and motives are very subtlely hinted at. Some of his character development reminds me of James Sunderland's character development in Silent Hill 2. Riku's a much deeper character than I thought he would be when I first played Kingdom Hearts.

I read a thing about Riku's character somewhere and I've done my own thinking. The whole jealousy thing is true to a point. He and Sora knew each other since childhood and were always together. Sora always looked up to and tried to be like Riku (he states this at the end of Kingdom Hearts 2), and that developed a bit of a superiority/leadership complex in Riku. He needed to be looked up to and respected, and lucky for him he had Sora's undivided attention in that respect. Enter Kairi, Sora's attention is now diverted. Riku probably sees this as a bit of a threat, though many people say that Riku actually HATES Kairi (and that the feeling is mutual), I disagree about the whole Riku/Kairi hatred thing. Riku just has to compete for Sora's attention, leading to the friendly rivalry between the two boys. Riku has to constantly prove he's better than Sora in order to keep Sora's respect and admiration, without which he is nothing. Remember that, his whole life he constantly sought Sora's admiration and his whole personality has revolved around Sora looking up to him. One of the things they compete over is Kairi, and Riku probably does have some sexual interest in her, but to him she is mainly something he can have to further win Sora's admiration, as well as a best friend. He's built up a massive ego for himself which probably led to him being bored with life on Destiny Islands. That and all the philosophical questions he has, which he throws at you in the beginning of KH1, contributes to his desire to leave.

That desire is intense enough that he opens his heart to darkness, as well as opening the door to the heart of Destiny Islands. He was the true Keyblade Master, but when he chose darkness, the Keyblade (Keyblade of Light, that is) went to Sora instead (being the Keyblade Master probably would have had Sora perpetually looking up to him forever. He could have probably raped Kairi and a toddler and Sora still would have looked up to him).

Riku: "I'm not afraid of the darkness!" You should be, Riku.

So he goes off and meets a nice young lady named Malificent. We can speculate that she told him about the wonders of the darkness and gave him a nice, shiny-new Soul Eater sword, after which he probably told her to stick it and went off to Traverse Town (via his powers as an NPC) to find Sora and Kairi. Suddenly he's hit with a double-whammy that shatters his self-esteem and makes him emotionally vulnerable and open to suggestion. He sees that Sora is the Keyblade Master, and that makes him jealous since HE'S the one that's supposed to have all the cool stuff. Also, he seemed to know a little bit about the Keyblade at that point, including how to make it appear and disappear, so we can assume that Malificent told him about the Keyblade. She probably told him that HE was the Keyblade Master (“Malificent was right. You don’t have what it takes to save Kairi. It’s up to me. Only the Keyblade Master has what it takes to open the secret door… and change the world.” –Riku after being chosen by the Keyblade in Hollow Bastion) so seeing Sora with the Keyblade that HE’S supposed to have must have been quite a shock to his psyche (one hell of a wake-up call that he can’t be the best at everything). The other thing he sees in Traverse Town that makes him take a turn for the worse is Donald Duck and Goofy. Apparently, Sora’s got a couple new friends and he’s not needed anymore. We’ve already established the fact that his whole existence revolves around Sora worshipping him, and now he believes (with no help from, and probably because of, Malificent who probably planted the idea in his head when he first arrived in Hollow Bastion) that Sora has forgotten about him and Kairi and is more interested in hanging out with his new friends. He joins the only group that he believes will now accept him: Malificent and her posse (whom I’ve dubbed the “Sinister Six” after the Spider-Man villains). I think this is how most people join cults.

He now commits himself to finding Kairi for two reasons, one obvious one that his conscious mind accepts, one subtle one that his subconscious mind accepts (he himself is not even aware of this). The first reason he wants to find Kairi is actually kind of broad. Kairi is his friend, he may or may not like her “like that”, and most importantly, he believes that Sora has given up on her so he can be with his new friends (Donald and Goofy). That would mean that Riku is all she has left. The more subtle reason that motivates him is his competition with Sora. He still desperately needs, now more than ever, Sora to look up to him. Sora would HAVE to respect him if he was the one who found and saved Kairi. To prove he is better than Sora, he will go to any length, even accepting more darkness into his heart than he can handle (in his defense though, he would have probably gone to that length to save Kairi even if the “contest” with Sora wasn’t an issue. In KH2, we see what lengths he goes to in order to wake Sora up (collaborating with DiZ, allowing the darkness to change his physical form, acting as a mercenary for hire in order to kidnap Roxas), so he is genuinely devoted to BOTH his friends). He is not evil though and obviously does not share the same enthusiasm with the power of darkness that Malificent has, not at first at least. We could see that Riku probably knew that she was up to no good (probably something to do with enslaving humanity and Disneydom or wiping out existence or whatever evil Disney villains dream of doing with ultimate power) and was probably planning to double-cross her in the end and coincidentally save the world in the process. But he would cross that bridge when he came to it, because before he did any backstabbing in the name of good, he had to save Kairi.

By the time Sora reaches Monstro, the darkness is starting to eat away at Riku’s heart. Whereas he used to seem genuinely concerned about Kairi’s welfare, he now seems to view saving her as a race against Sora, and once again, now more than ever, his competition with Sora dominates every action he takes (“What’s the matter? I thought you liked games? Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the Keyblade?”—Riku in Monstro). By the time Sora reaches Captain Hook’s ship, Riku has gone from being jealous of Sora to downright hating him, explaining the fireball Riku launched at him in Hollow Bastion as well as him locking Sora, Donald, and Goofy down in the holds. All the while though, he still seeks Sora’s respect and admiration. Whether he likes Sora or hates him, it must be remembered that Riku needs Sora’s admiration more than anything. Without that, he is nothing, and all his actions are motivated out of fear of becoming just that.

Now we know that the Keyblade didn’t choose Riku because he had a heart filled with light, so we know that Riku’s heart was STRONGER, though still much darker, than Sora’s when they both met up in Hollow Bastion. Why? Maybe he saw himself as so near to awaking Kairi (though I wouldn’t know why, since when Sora arrives he is no closer to finding Kairi than when Sora was swimming around Atlantica. Maybe they had JUST found the 7th Princess of Heart? Beast seems to have just arrived at Hollow Bastion, so maybe Belle hasn’t been there as long as we thought), maybe he saw himself as closer than Sora in awaking Kairi, maybe he saw himself as better than Sora once again, maybe he just had a confidence boost. Whatever the case, wielding the Keyblade gave him the edge over Sora that he needed. It proved he was better than Sora, it was tangible proof of his superiority, and Sora HAD to respect him for that. Little did he know that that would lead to Sora respecting him less than ever, since he knew Riku had degenerated to the point where he would gladly end the world just to get more power and anything else he wanted. Damn Sora and his morality. Sora no longer looked up to Riku, and what’s worse, he managed to get back the Keyblade AND defeat him in battle.

So let’s look at Riku’s current situation. He is no longer respected by Sora, he lost the Keyblade which was the only proof he had that he was better than Sora, Sora no longer needed him as he had other friends he could rely on and whose hearts were connected to his (most notably Donald and Goofy. “My friends are my power!”—Sora says this Riku, indicating that THEY, not he, are his friends now), and with the Keyblade went the only chance he had to save Kairi which would have been more proof of his dominance which Sora would have had to respected. Riku’s world had been turned upside down in one tragic cutscene (and boss fight). Sora was better than him, Sora looked DOWN on him rather than up to him. Riku had lost the only thing that made him who he was, which was Sora’s admiration. He needed to be needed, and in his mind he now had no reason to even exist. When Xehanort promised him power, Riku saw this as his LAST chance to restore things to the way they were before and regain Sora’s admiration. Allowing Xehanort to possess him led to a whole crapload of other problems, most of which are dealt with in Chain of Memories (this game REALLY develops Riku’s character and is a must-have for any Riku fans out there).

Long story short, it wasn’t something as simple as jealousy. His entire personality, character, and purpose in life revolved around being looked up to by those he deemed inferior to himself. Sora, his best friend since probably before he could walk, was most important to him in this respect than anyone else. His opinion mattered more than anyone’s. So when Sora’s opinion of him shot to the ground, Riku resorted to any means necessary to regain Sora’s respect. He also has a superiority complex and needed to regain his superiority.

Of course, the face-value explanation of Riku’s heel turn, which was saving Kairi because they are friends, cannot be overlooked as Riku has shown more dedication to his friends than one would imagine from a character who spends more time working with Malificent than with the player. But many players (especially younger players or Disney fans) believe simply that Riku was in love with Kairi and that’s why he worked against Sora to save her. I doubt that since it is too simple for such a character. If this were a Disney game, yeah maybe that would be it, but this is a Square game. Square’s characters are always deeper than average, and Riku definitely seems more like a Final Fantasy character than a Disney one (so don’t let his outlandishly colorful Disney-ish outfit fool you. I thinking making Sora, Riku, and Kairi look like they popped out of a Disney movie was an ingenious move on Nomura’s part). As for whether this makes him a villain or an anti-hero, remember that a villain does evil for evil’s sake, like Malificent. An anti-hero does evil for the sake of good, or acts whichever way due to enormous character flaws and defects in their personality (Cloud Strife, Shadow the Hedgehog) rather than having a perfect well-adjusted hero attitude and fighting on the side of justice because it’s right. Riku’s a very dark character and definitely falls under the category of anti-hero. I think he’s as well developed (and broken) of a character as Cloud from Final Fantasy 7.

Sorry for the incredibly long post, but this is what I think Riku’s motivations are, so take that and decide whether you think he is a good guy or bad guy.

 

[SH_Brat]

I don't know if any is ever going to read this, but here it goes.

Frist, iI would like to say Riku is in a sense is a villian, although not completely. Personally, I blame Kairi for starting the whole thing. No, Riku wasn't competeing for Sora's attention. He was competeing for Kairi's love. Also, I'm pretty sure that Xenhanort convinced Riku that darkness was the only way off the island. Therefore, he used the dark portal. From there, he probably went straight to the Hollow Bastion where he met Maleficent. She was the one who probably told him about Kairi and that's where the blackmail began. Meanwhile, Sora landed in Traverse Town. After that, Maleficent started filling Riku's heart with hate by telling him lies which he, unfortunatly believed. Xenhanort by then, putting his plan into motion, told Riku he was the true keyblade bearer, so in his and Sora's first encounter at Hollow Bastion he took back what was supposed to be his. In their second encounter, Riku probably did try to kill Sora, I'm neither comfirming nor denying this statment. As i've said before, however, it was ,in fact, Xenhanort who fought Sora the third time Riku and him saw each other.

 

[hellfirebg]

This is why Riku's my favorite character. He has ALOT of depth to his character, and a good portion of his personality and motives are very subtlely hinted at. Some of his character development reminds me of James Sunderland's character development in Silent Hill 2. Riku's a much deeper character than I thought he would be when I first played Kingdom Hearts.

I read a thing about Riku's character somewhere and I've done my own thinking. The whole jealousy thing is true to a point. He and Sora knew each other since childhood and were always together. Sora always looked up to and tried to be like Riku (he states this at the end of Kingdom Hearts 2), and that developed a bit of a superiority/leadership complex in Riku. He needed to be looked up to and respected, and lucky for him he had Sora's undivided attention in that respect. Enter Kairi, Sora's attention is now diverted. Riku probably sees this as a bit of a threat, though many people say that Riku actually HATES Kairi (and that the feeling is mutual), I disagree about the whole Riku/Kairi hatred thing. Riku just has to compete for Sora's attention, leading to the friendly rivalry between the two boys. Riku has to constantly prove he's better than Sora in order to keep Sora's respect and admiration, without which he is nothing. Remember that, his whole life he constantly sought Sora's admiration and his whole personality has revolved around Sora looking up to him. One of the things they compete over is Kairi, and Riku probably does have some sexual interest in her, but to him she is mainly something he can have to further win Sora's admiration, as well as a best friend. He's built up a massive ego for himself which probably led to him being bored with life on Destiny Islands. That and all the philosophical questions he has, which he throws at you in the beginning of KH1, contributes to his desire to leave.

That desire is intense enough that he opens his heart to darkness, as well as opening the door to the heart of Destiny Islands. He was the true Keyblade Master, but when he chose darkness, the Keyblade (Keyblade of Light, that is) went to Sora instead (being the Keyblade Master probably would have had Sora perpetually looking up to him forever. He could have probably raped Kairi and a toddler and Sora still would have looked up to him).

Riku: "I'm not afraid of the darkness!" You should be, Riku.

So he goes off and meets a nice young lady named Malificent. We can speculate that she told him about the wonders of the darkness and gave him a nice, shiny-new Soul Eater sword, after which he probably told her to stick it and went off to Traverse Town (via his powers as an NPC) to find Sora and Kairi. Suddenly he's hit with a double-whammy that shatters his self-esteem and makes him emotionally vulnerable and open to suggestion. He sees that Sora is the Keyblade Master, and that makes him jealous since HE'S the one that's supposed to have all the cool stuff. Also, he seemed to know a little bit about the Keyblade at that point, including how to make it appear and disappear, so we can assume that Malificent told him about the Keyblade. She probably told him that HE was the Keyblade Master (“Malificent was right. You don’t have what it takes to save Kairi. It’s up to me. Only the Keyblade Master has what it takes to open the secret door… and change the world.” –Riku after being chosen by the Keyblade in Hollow Bastion) so seeing Sora with the Keyblade that HE’S supposed to have must have been quite a shock to his psyche (one hell of a wake-up call that he can’t be the best at everything). The other thing he sees in Traverse Town that makes him take a turn for the worse is Donald Duck and Goofy. Apparently, Sora’s got a couple new friends and he’s not needed anymore. We’ve already established the fact that his whole existence revolves around Sora worshipping him, and now he believes (with no help from, and probably because of, Malificent who probably planted the idea in his head when he first arrived in Hollow Bastion) that Sora has forgotten about him and Kairi and is more interested in hanging out with his new friends. He joins the only group that he believes will now accept him: Malificent and her posse (whom I’ve dubbed the “Sinister Six” after the Spider-Man villains). I think this is how most people join cults.

He now commits himself to finding Kairi for two reasons, one obvious one that his conscious mind accepts, one subtle one that his subconscious mind accepts (he himself is not even aware of this). The first reason he wants to find Kairi is actually kind of broad. Kairi is his friend, he may or may not like her “like that”, and most importantly, he believes that Sora has given up on her so he can be with his new friends (Donald and Goofy). That would mean that Riku is all she has left. The more subtle reason that motivates him is his competition with Sora. He still desperately needs, now more than ever, Sora to look up to him. Sora would HAVE to respect him if he was the one who found and saved Kairi. To prove he is better than Sora, he will go to any length, even accepting more darkness into his heart than he can handle (in his defense though, he would have probably gone to that length to save Kairi even if the “contest” with Sora wasn’t an issue. In KH2, we see what lengths he goes to in order to wake Sora up (collaborating with DiZ, allowing the darkness to change his physical form, acting as a mercenary for hire in order to kidnap Roxas), so he is genuinely devoted to BOTH his friends). He is not evil though and obviously does not share the same enthusiasm with the power of darkness that Malificent has, not at first at least. We could see that Riku probably knew that she was up to no good (probably something to do with enslaving humanity and Disneydom or wiping out existence or whatever evil Disney villains dream of doing with ultimate power) and was probably planning to double-cross her in the end and coincidentally save the world in the process. But he would cross that bridge when he came to it, because before he did any backstabbing in the name of good, he had to save Kairi.

By the time Sora reaches Monstro, the darkness is starting to eat away at Riku’s heart. Whereas he used to seem genuinely concerned about Kairi’s welfare, he now seems to view saving her as a race against Sora, and once again, now more than ever, his competition with Sora dominates every action he takes (“What’s the matter? I thought you liked games? Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the Keyblade?”—Riku in Monstro). By the time Sora reaches Captain Hook’s ship, Riku has gone from being jealous of Sora to downright hating him, explaining the fireball Riku launched at him in Hollow Bastion as well as him locking Sora, Donald, and Goofy down in the holds. All the while though, he still seeks Sora’s respect and admiration. Whether he likes Sora or hates him, it must be remembered that Riku needs Sora’s admiration more than anything. Without that, he is nothing, and all his actions are motivated out of fear of becoming just that.

Now we know that the Keyblade didn’t choose Riku because he had a heart filled with light, so we know that Riku’s heart was STRONGER, though still much darker, than Sora’s when they both met up in Hollow Bastion. Why? Maybe he saw himself as so near to awaking Kairi (though I wouldn’t know why, since when Sora arrives he is no closer to finding Kairi than when Sora was swimming around Atlantica. Maybe they had JUST found the 7th Princess of Heart? Beast seems to have just arrived at Hollow Bastion, so maybe Belle hasn’t been there as long as we thought), maybe he saw himself as closer than Sora in awaking Kairi, maybe he saw himself as better than Sora once again, maybe he just had a confidence boost. Whatever the case, wielding the Keyblade gave him the edge over Sora that he needed. It proved he was better than Sora, it was tangible proof of his superiority, and Sora HAD to respect him for that. Little did he know that that would lead to Sora respecting him less than ever, since he knew Riku had degenerated to the point where he would gladly end the world just to get more power and anything else he wanted. Damn Sora and his morality. Sora no longer looked up to Riku, and what’s worse, he managed to get back the Keyblade AND defeat him in battle.

So let’s look at Riku’s current situation. He is no longer respected by Sora, he lost the Keyblade which was the only proof he had that he was better than Sora, Sora no longer needed him as he had other friends he could rely on and whose hearts were connected to his (most notably Donald and Goofy. “My friends are my power!”—Sora says this Riku, indicating that THEY, not he, are his friends now), and with the Keyblade went the only chance he had to save Kairi which would have been more proof of his dominance which Sora would have had to respected. Riku’s world had been turned upside down in one tragic cutscene (and boss fight). Sora was better than him, Sora looked DOWN on him rather than up to him. Riku had lost the only thing that made him who he was, which was Sora’s admiration. He needed to be needed, and in his mind he now had no reason to even exist. When Xehanort promised him power, Riku saw this as his LAST chance to restore things to the way they were before and regain Sora’s admiration. Allowing Xehanort to possess him led to a whole crapload of other problems, most of which are dealt with in Chain of Memories (this game REALLY develops Riku’s character and is a must-have for any Riku fans out there).

Long story short, it wasn’t something as simple as jealousy. His entire personality, character, and purpose in life revolved around being looked up to by those he deemed inferior to himself. Sora, his best friend since probably before he could walk, was most important to him in this respect than anyone else. His opinion mattered more than anyone’s. So when Sora’s opinion of him shot to the ground, Riku resorted to any means necessary to regain Sora’s respect. He also has a superiority complex and needed to regain his superiority.

Of course, the face-value explanation of Riku’s heel turn, which was saving Kairi because they are friends, cannot be overlooked as Riku has shown more dedication to his friends than one would imagine from a character who spends more time working with Malificent than with the player. But many players (especially younger players or Disney fans) believe simply that Riku was in love with Kairi and that’s why he worked against Sora to save her. I doubt that since it is too simple for such a character. If this were a Disney game, yeah maybe that would be it, but this is a Square game. Square’s characters are always deeper than average, and Riku definitely seems more like a Final Fantasy character than a Disney one (so don’t let his outlandishly colorful Disney-ish outfit fool you. I thinking making Sora, Riku, and Kairi look like they popped out of a Disney movie was an ingenious move on Nomura’s part). As for whether this makes him a villain or an anti-hero, remember that a villain does evil for evil’s sake, like Malificent. An anti-hero does evil for the sake of good, or acts whichever way due to enormous character flaws and defects in their personality (Cloud Strife, Shadow the Hedgehog) rather than having a perfect well-adjusted hero attitude and fighting on the side of justice because it’s right. Riku’s a very dark character and definitely falls under the category of anti-hero. I think he’s as well developed (and broken) of a character as Cloud from Final Fantasy 7.

Sorry for the incredibly long post, but this is what I think Riku’s motivations are, so take that and decide whether you think he is a good guy or bad guy.

Wow...That was so well said...And so true...I'm glad there are still smart guys like you in the forums

 

[Ivyprincesofhart]

This is why Riku's my favorite character. He has ALOT of depth to his character, and a good portion of his personality and motives are very subtlely hinted at. Some of his character development reminds me of James Sunderland's character development in Silent Hill 2. Riku's a much deeper character than I thought he would be when I first played Kingdom Hearts.

I read a thing about Riku's character somewhere and I've done my own thinking. The whole jealousy thing is true to a point. He and Sora knew each other since childhood and were always together. Sora always looked up to and tried to be like Riku (he states this at the end of Kingdom Hearts 2), and that developed a bit of a superiority/leadership complex in Riku. He needed to be looked up to and respected, and lucky for him he had Sora's undivided attention in that respect. Enter Kairi, Sora's attention is now diverted. Riku probably sees this as a bit of a threat, though many people say that Riku actually HATES Kairi (and that the feeling is mutual), I disagree about the whole Riku/Kairi hatred thing. Riku just has to compete for Sora's attention, leading to the friendly rivalry between the two boys. Riku has to constantly prove he's better than Sora in order to keep Sora's respect and admiration, without which he is nothing. Remember that, his whole life he constantly sought Sora's admiration and his whole personality has revolved around Sora looking up to him. One of the things they compete over is Kairi, and Riku probably does have some sexual interest in her, but to him she is mainly something he can have to further win Sora's admiration, as well as a best friend. He's built up a massive ego for himself which probably led to him being bored with life on Destiny Islands. That and all the philosophical questions he has, which he throws at you in the beginning of KH1, contributes to his desire to leave.

That desire is intense enough that he opens his heart to darkness, as well as opening the door to the heart of Destiny Islands. He was the true Keyblade Master, but when he chose darkness, the Keyblade (Keyblade of Light, that is) went to Sora instead (being the Keyblade Master probably would have had Sora perpetually looking up to him forever. He could have probably raped Kairi and a toddler and Sora still would have looked up to him).

Riku: "I'm not afraid of the darkness!" You should be, Riku.

So he goes off and meets a nice young lady named Malificent. We can speculate that she told him about the wonders of the darkness and gave him a nice, shiny-new Soul Eater sword, after which he probably told her to stick it and went off to Traverse Town (via his powers as an NPC) to find Sora and Kairi. Suddenly he's hit with a double-whammy that shatters his self-esteem and makes him emotionally vulnerable and open to suggestion. He sees that Sora is the Keyblade Master, and that makes him jealous since HE'S the one that's supposed to have all the cool stuff. Also, he seemed to know a little bit about the Keyblade at that point, including how to make it appear and disappear, so we can assume that Malificent told him about the Keyblade. She probably told him that HE was the Keyblade Master (“Malificent was right. You don’t have what it takes to save Kairi. It’s up to me. Only the Keyblade Master has what it takes to open the secret door… and change the world.” –Riku after being chosen by the Keyblade in Hollow Bastion) so seeing Sora with the Keyblade that HE’S supposed to have must have been quite a shock to his psyche (one hell of a wake-up call that he can’t be the best at everything). The other thing he sees in Traverse Town that makes him take a turn for the worse is Donald Duck and Goofy. Apparently, Sora’s got a couple new friends and he’s not needed anymore. We’ve already established the fact that his whole existence revolves around Sora worshipping him, and now he believes (with no help from, and probably because of, Malificent who probably planted the idea in his head when he first arrived in Hollow Bastion) that Sora has forgotten about him and Kairi and is more interested in hanging out with his new friends. He joins the only group that he believes will now accept him: Malificent and her posse (whom I’ve dubbed the “Sinister Six” after the Spider-Man villains). I think this is how most people join cults.

He now commits himself to finding Kairi for two reasons, one obvious one that his conscious mind accepts, one subtle one that his subconscious mind accepts (he himself is not even aware of this). The first reason he wants to find Kairi is actually kind of broad. Kairi is his friend, he may or may not like her “like that”, and most importantly, he believes that Sora has given up on her so he can be with his new friends (Donald and Goofy). That would mean that Riku is all she has left. The more subtle reason that motivates him is his competition with Sora. He still desperately needs, now more than ever, Sora to look up to him. Sora would HAVE to respect him if he was the one who found and saved Kairi. To prove he is better than Sora, he will go to any length, even accepting more darkness into his heart than he can handle (in his defense though, he would have probably gone to that length to save Kairi even if the “contest” with Sora wasn’t an issue. In KH2, we see what lengths he goes to in order to wake Sora up (collaborating with DiZ, allowing the darkness to change his physical form, acting as a mercenary for hire in order to kidnap Roxas), so he is genuinely devoted to BOTH his friends). He is not evil though and obviously does not share the same enthusiasm with the power of darkness that Malificent has, not at first at least. We could see that Riku probably knew that she was up to no good (probably something to do with enslaving humanity and Disneydom or wiping out existence or whatever evil Disney villains dream of doing with ultimate power) and was probably planning to double-cross her in the end and coincidentally save the world in the process. But he would cross that bridge when he came to it, because before he did any backstabbing in the name of good, he had to save Kairi.

By the time Sora reaches Monstro, the darkness is starting to eat away at Riku’s heart. Whereas he used to seem genuinely concerned about Kairi’s welfare, he now seems to view saving her as a race against Sora, and once again, now more than ever, his competition with Sora dominates every action he takes (“What’s the matter? I thought you liked games? Or are you too cool to play them now that you have the Keyblade?”—Riku in Monstro). By the time Sora reaches Captain Hook’s ship, Riku has gone from being jealous of Sora to downright hating him, explaining the fireball Riku launched at him in Hollow Bastion as well as him locking Sora, Donald, and Goofy down in the holds. All the while though, he still seeks Sora’s respect and admiration. Whether he likes Sora or hates him, it must be remembered that Riku needs Sora’s admiration more than anything. Without that, he is nothing, and all his actions are motivated out of fear of becoming just that.

Now we know that the Keyblade didn’t choose Riku because he had a heart filled with light, so we know that Riku’s heart was STRONGER, though still much darker, than Sora’s when they both met up in Hollow Bastion. Why? Maybe he saw himself as so near to awaking Kairi (though I wouldn’t know why, since when Sora arrives he is no closer to finding Kairi than when Sora was swimming around Atlantica. Maybe they had JUST found the 7th Princess of Heart? Beast seems to have just arrived at Hollow Bastion, so maybe Belle hasn’t been there as long as we thought), maybe he saw himself as closer than Sora in awaking Kairi, maybe he saw himself as better than Sora once again, maybe he just had a confidence boost. Whatever the case, wielding the Keyblade gave him the edge over Sora that he needed. It proved he was better than Sora, it was tangible proof of his superiority, and Sora HAD to respect him for that. Little did he know that that would lead to Sora respecting him less than ever, since he knew Riku had degenerated to the point where he would gladly end the world just to get more power and anything else he wanted. Damn Sora and his morality. Sora no longer looked up to Riku, and what’s worse, he managed to get back the Keyblade AND defeat him in battle.

So let’s look at Riku’s current situation. He is no longer respected by Sora, he lost the Keyblade which was the only proof he had that he was better than Sora, Sora no longer needed him as he had other friends he could rely on and whose hearts were connected to his (most notably Donald and Goofy. “My friends are my power!”—Sora says this Riku, indicating that THEY, not he, are his friends now), and with the Keyblade went the only chance he had to save Kairi which would have been more proof of his dominance which Sora would have had to respected. Riku’s world had been turned upside down in one tragic cutscene (and boss fight). Sora was better than him, Sora looked DOWN on him rather than up to him. Riku had lost the only thing that made him who he was, which was Sora’s admiration. He needed to be needed, and in his mind he now had no reason to even exist. When Xehanort promised him power, Riku saw this as his LAST chance to restore things to the way they were before and regain Sora’s admiration. Allowing Xehanort to possess him led to a whole crapload of other problems, most of which are dealt with in Chain of Memories (this game REALLY develops Riku’s character and is a must-have for any Riku fans out there).

Long story short, it wasn’t something as simple as jealousy. His entire personality, character, and purpose in life revolved around being looked up to by those he deemed inferior to himself. Sora, his best friend since probably before he could walk, was most important to him in this respect than anyone else. His opinion mattered more than anyone’s. So when Sora’s opinion of him shot to the ground, Riku resorted to any means necessary to regain Sora’s respect. He also has a superiority complex and needed to regain his superiority.

Of course, the face-value explanation of Riku’s heel turn, which was saving Kairi because they are friends, cannot be overlooked as Riku has shown more dedication to his friends than one would imagine from a character who spends more time working with Malificent than with the player. But many players (especially younger players or Disney fans) believe simply that Riku was in love with Kairi and that’s why he worked against Sora to save her. I doubt that since it is too simple for such a character. If this were a Disney game, yeah maybe that would be it, but this is a Square game. Square’s characters are always deeper than average, and Riku definitely seems more like a Final Fantasy character than a Disney one (so don’t let his outlandishly colorful Disney-ish outfit fool you. I thinking making Sora, Riku, and Kairi look like they popped out of a Disney movie was an ingenious move on Nomura’s part). As for whether this makes him a villain or an anti-hero, remember that a villain does evil for evil’s sake, like Malificent. An anti-hero does evil for the sake of good, or acts whichever way due to enormous character flaws and defects in their personality (Cloud Strife, Shadow the Hedgehog) rather than having a perfect well-adjusted hero attitude and fighting on the side of justice because it’s right. Riku’s a very dark character and definitely falls under the category of anti-hero. I think he’s as well developed (and broken) of a character as Cloud from Final Fantasy 7.

Sorry for the incredibly long post, but this is what I think Riku’s motivations are, so take that and decide whether you think he is a good guy or bad guy.

All right, I love you! This was so running along with what I was thinking about Riku; cause he seems kinda like the needy type, just in the sense that he needs to be looked up to and needs to be admired.