What is Kairi!?

Julia Rose here!

I will be completely honest, I never found Kairi a very interesting character in the Kingdom Hearts series. But I don't dislike her in anyway, I just think she could have been so much more. She really just filled the role of a damsel in distress for the games, with the exception of Kingdom Hearts 2 however I don't find it very relevant because she just gets a keyblade handed to her and suddenly she can fight. That seemed more than a little contrived for my taste, and a character inconsistency.

There is also the issue of plot holes with her position in Hollow Bastion/Radiant Garden, she lived in the castle with her Grandma (who we never really know what happened to) and that's really the only explanation. Was she royalty? Was her Grandma a servant of the castle? Did Ansem know her? Are they related? Why does she seem to not care about what may have happened to her Grandma? Did she die? What about her biological parents? Well I guess that's just typical Disney, there's enough dead Disney parents to fill a good sized graveyard. Oh Disney, you're so cruel!

What is Kairi!!??

 

What got me aggitated about Kairi's sudden ability to fight was just that there had been no prior example of her having any skills to do so. Even Sora at the very beginning of the first game is shown that he and Riku seem to have both trained themselves from fairly early ages, with Riku being the better of the two. Not to mention Kairi seemed pretty helpless throughout the games right up until the very moment Riku gave her the Keyblade.

Side note, does anyone else picture Riku saying, "Here I made this for you" before he hands her the most girly kayblade I've ever seen. It cracks me up when I picture it.

You're right, a backstory isn't always necessary to make someone interesting or fleshed out. I nevered learned much about Riku's home life but he's my favorite character of the main three cast because I believe he developed and grew the most out of them.

 

Why must Kairi get so many negative outputs? Man.

1. I really do not care of Kairi filling that Damsel in Distress but she was only in that role for Kingdom Hearts 1 and a little bit of Kingdom Hearts 2. However, to show that Kairi is not like: Princess Peach (MARIOOOOO!) or any other damsels is a good change for once because it shows that she can actually do something to protect herself. As much as I love Princess Peach, I do not want to see Kairi end up in that perspective going (SORA! SORA?! SORAAAAA!). Will be the Kingdom Hearts version of Princess Peach.

2. I do not know why in the world you guys just dislike the fact that she obtains a keyblade? So what if she was able to fight? With Sora and Riku, they train to fight on the islands. Who knows! Kairi may have did two fights against Selphie, Tidus and/or Wakka when she came there. It's like you are saying that if someone gives you a weapon to protect yourself, you should just sit there and act dumb. Would be different if you are in a situation for your life and someone gives you a gun. What? Are you going to sit there and try to act all helpless or are you going to get in there and fight?

This is my BIGGEST annoyance. Sora and Riku were SELF-TAUGHT on the islands with some toy swords. Kairi has less experience but unlike Sora and Riku, she will get some training like Mickey did (And may actually blow your minds for once). And who freakin' cares about how Tidus or Kairi fights. For one, both of them have a fighting stance that shows that they are a little bit behind. For Tidus, he gets better during Yuna's journey. For Kairi, she will get training from Yen Sid so that she can be better equip with anything that may happen to her.

And it makes me mad because you guys believe that fighting is just there to be learned or that you need to be an expert to fight? Heck no. If you ask me, fighting is mostly born with. You have instincts and you will try to use anything to fight with and will try to fight in order to survive. What? Since Kairi is using her best instincts to try to fight to the best of her ability, it is now all so wrong? Let me go and bash on Tifa then. I bet she was not as much of a fighter and she was trained up by someone before she is where she is now and last time I remember, she try to stab Sephiroth with a sword at her village when she was angry and failed. Don't make any freakin' sense. You are born with the instincts to fight and then you try to train to sharpen those fighting skills. Tifa did the same, Sora and Riku self-taught themselves on the islands (But with Sora, he was acting like he was an automatic pro with his keyblade), Tidus learn how to get better in fighting during Yuna's journey, Yuna DEFINITELY prepared her heart, mind, body and soul in order to fight how she is fighting in the Final Fantasy games that she appeared in starting off in X, why is it so wrong for Kairi to start off only knowing a little bit of the basics and then improve? To me, that is just hypocritical to start and dislike Kairi and then go in the other direction and go "YAAY SORA, TIFA AND THAT OTHER SEXY SOLDIER" when they went through the same freakin' thing!

3. So what about Kairi's backstory? She is not royalty but we do know that she was very young when she encountered Aqua and Mickey and that she is a Princess of Heart. Her Grandma is dead and gone; deceased. Her will and heart only wants to stay on Destiny Island and not on Radiant Garden. Xehanort threw Kairi in the Lanes of Between as an experiment to see where she will end up (Especially since her heart, light and the protection from Aqua keeps her safe from the darkness). As for Ansem, he knows her to the point to where he knows that she is a part of Sora's motivation. The rest of her story is just with Kairi living on the islands with the mayor as her adopted father. That and she said that she has no memories of her past anymore (Whether she was lying or not, I do not know and I really do not care).

And so what about her biological parents? Is her mother a princess? What is important about the parents anyways? We saw that Sora's parents is not important and we never heard anything about Riku's parents so why should she be any different?

This is why I like Kairi. She has to suffer from all of the negative comments made on her and yet, she still shows that she is strong-will.

 

@Kitty Are you serious? It seems that you are missing the point. There have been certain points in the game as to where Kairi is really determined. Wanting to go with Sora in Kingdom Hearts to fight Ansem when he really don't want that (Although I can debate that it would have been a good time to have Kairi as a fighter but since SE didn't, I say that this is the source as to why it makes pple don't like pple letting her be capable of fighting), Kairi putting her life at risk for Sora when he was a heartless, Kairi deciding to leave the islands and escaping with Pluto, jumping off a high balcony, Kairi has a lot of determination even though she is weaponless.

Not only that, I do not know why it is so scary or frightening for Kairi to have a keyblade. SE was hinting that there will be more people having keyblades when they started with Riku and Roxas. And so what if Kairi was given a weapon out of nowhere? SE explained why in the next game installment as to how Kairi was capable of using a keyblade. Last time I remember, a girl with a large role in the franchise was Larxene but it was only for Chain of Memories. And besides, I like surprises (Some of them anyways.)

And I completely disagree with you that Kairi lacks characterization. We hear from other characters background-wise about her but we can already see with her personality as to what she can do. In the scenes where she is not afraid, she shows that she is not just sweet-and-dandy (Excluding her 4 year old self that is). Didn't see her yelling and screaming for someone to help her when Axel grabbed her.

And to clear up your misunderstanding, I was bashing on Tifa about fighting, not about being a damsel. But other than that, I doubt that SE will show why Kairi deserves the keyblade (As long as the company do not make a lie out of me that is). Seems that now that those like me who have said that Kairi should be playable and it now looks like it will come true with more information about Kairi and what will happen next, the hatred for her grows.

 

It is not that she obtains a keyblade, it's how she obtained it. I didn't care for the storytelling aspect of her character, because it felt rushed and last minute. I don't believe any of us actually said we dislike specifically we disliked her having a keyblade. Please don't misunderstand me, I don't dislike Kairi I just thought she could have been more.

To be honest I don't like that so many more characters have keyblades in the games now, I would have prefered it just be Riku and Sora, maybe Kairi if it'd been handled better. But that is a discussion for another thread.

I already acknowledged that a backstory isn't always necessary.

Actually it always bothered me that all three of them seem to not even have their families come across their minds during the whole games, especially the first. Then there is the whole planning to runaway from home, doubt their parents knew about that. One of my reviewers of my fanfiction who wasn't familar with the games was appalled by this too, I had to explain to her.

You have every right to love Kairi and I'll respect that, it isn't necessary to get riled up.

 

I'm sorry , I tend to misunderstand people. Forgive me!!!!!

Hahaha, I was thinking the same thing! XD

I feel Sora should have been a little more traumatized by watching his entire world being consumed by darkness. Also, does anyone else wonder how that conversation with their parents went when they finally got home in KH II?

 

No.

No man knows how to fight without proper training. We haven't seen Kairi getting any training during the series, so she would not be using her weapon effectively, or at least effective enough to beat an army of Nobodies by herself (or even one, ha). If you gave a sword to man, who never had used one before, he wouldn't know how to use it and ends up swinging the sword around like a doofus. Or even if he happens to really try to swing it properly, he would still look like a doofus and getting beat up. Your instincts guide you in fights and your reactions to your opponents moves, but without actually knowing or having the experience you end up only beaten up.

And about the gun thing you were talking about, I'd say that 9/10 people would only be in a shock not knowing what to do or ponder whether they should kill a man themselves. When getting into a life and death situation, panic makes people do unexpected things or just make them freeze to their places. Also one thing to remember is that we have a high sense of morale - we pity and forgive easily. You would have to be in a maniac kind of rage to pull the trigger without having second thoughts (leaving behind the facts that if you have mental illness... but that's drifting too much from the topic already).

This isn't a video game where someone gives you a gun and you use it without any second thoughts. (inb4 more of this instincts bs)


Kairi is just a poorly written character, IMO. I never, ever expected that she would have a Keyblade in the end, and especially not gaining her own the way she did. It always seemed that that part of the story was rushed way too much... I personally don't like the fact that she got her own Keyblade, not the way that she gained it and I dislike Kairi's character anyway beginning from KHII.

tl;dr Kairi is a bad and rushed character. Her character was interesting in the first game, but after that, it has been going straight downhill.

 

<_< Oh shut it Kitty, lol. I do love her actually in contrast to all of you guys.

But anyway, if the rushing to give the person a weapon or to show that they are important and tell why later on in the story is bad, then I wonder how many movies or video games I can think of (Xenosaga with Shion is one I that I know) that does something similar as to what Square Enix did to Kairi. Now, if her having a weapon is not the problem, then I am at least satisfied with that. They show why Kairi is able to use a keyblade in Birth by Sleep because of Aqua (Although, I do admit, that I actually laugh. Kairi was scared and just grabbed Aqua's keyblade and Aqua goes "OH! Kairi has pure light." and we saw no ceremony going on or anything. The keyblade just gave Kairi that ability without Aqua's knowledge.

If there was a chance to explain more on Kairi, then yes, I will say that somewhere in Kingdom Hearts 1 or a little bit in Kingdom Hearts 2 would be more appropriate. I am satisfied as to why Kairi was able to wield a keyblade because of Birth by Sleep (However, it differs with you guys). They can explain even more on Kairi in the next game (Although I do not know from the way the company will do this. Either they will do a spin-off where Kairi is the main character or we do something Birth by Sleep related where we have different characters to play as and we just have a super big story to finish).

As for the parents, no offense but puh-lease. If you ask me, if family is bothering you, then let me give you a super big happy ending:

The team whoop Master Xehanort and the X-Blade was destroyed. All of a sudden, Kingdom Hearts brightens up and speaks to Sora, telling him that he finally achieved what he wanted to do, explore new worlds. However, Sora woke up and heard his momma calling him. Enjoying his dream, he really want to go out into the big ocean blue. The next day, Sora, Riku and Kairi try to sail out in their new raft and the kids parents looking like Terra, Ventus and Aqua, smiles and have their arms around each other with their keyblade laying in a chest. THE END!

XD *Sings* IT WAS ALL A DREAM! But seriously, since we were all kids, all of us think up of some fantasy or imagine about what our big ol' journey is going to be or who is going to be the hero and all of that gushy stuff. If possible, my theory may be like what I had made up. Sora had a dream of how his journey is going to be all in his mind but did not realize that he was sleeping. Kids are kids. They think on their own levels that is different from adults (And to me with all of the dreamy and wonderful worlds seen, it is highly possible).

@Cameron Great. Now to debate with you.

If you ask me, I strongly believe that people do know how to fight. I have already said before that people do need training in order to improve but people usually do have some strength in them to fight. However, what you are talking about with doubts and second thoughts is emotion interference: disrupting them from carrying out their fighting capacity to think or what is right and wrong. As for that 9/10 estimate, I say that you are a little bit off in my opinion. I say 7/10 right now as the average with people swinging their guns around with no aim and shooting trying to get their target and pussy teenagers in high school wanting to bully and pick fights on others). Their mind is set for them to fight at the time. However, if they start having doubts or whatever, I say they are emotional or is thinking on a conscious/sub-conscious level on right and wrong.

Also, sorry to say but Kingdom Hearts IS the game where you swing a gun (Keyblade that is) without second thoughts and it all began with Kingdom Hearts 1. Sora and Riku were fighting with kiddy toy swords with no second thoughts at all and they had no training (Proper training at that too!). Sora, Riku and Kairi contradicts about thinking with second thoughts or having proper training (Kairi is going to be an exception because unlike Sora and Riku, she will have training and may be better than Sora and Riku. She will be like Terra, Aqua and Ventus, having proper training in order to fight unlike her friends). As for weapons, Sora was swinging around like a doofus (And still have that nasty battle pose! UGH! How can you crouch like that!) but no one is complaining about that. He's the scrawny kid who will save everyone!

And as we are getting back on Kairi, then what to say about Kairi before Kingdom Hearts II? We all know that she had something going on and she was being used again in Chain of Memories and then SE created Namine to share similarities. As for me, i still did not lose any interest because there is more to talk about with her.

 

I get what you mean Kitty, I felt the same way. The more characters that got keyblades made the one less special, it makes sense to me that Riku and Mickey would have keyblades. The first game implies that Riku would have been the only kayblade weilder beside Mickey if he hadn't fallen into darkness so it choose Sora as second best. Which I guess is a combination of being lucky normal boy and specialy choosen. But then Birth By Sleep threw that away, one of the reasons why I don't like it. When it comes to sequels or prequels that personally ruin what I liked about the orginal material I pretend they don't exist when I play/watch/read the original.

You're so cruel!

I understand what you mean though, the game is essentially an escapest fantasy for 10 and up, so I get why the parents aren't present or hardly mentioned. It's just something I realized now that I'm an adult, the lack of parents didn't even occur to me at the age of twelve. Hell, I believed in Santa Claus until I was thirteen. Escaping into fantasy worlds had an sweome hold on me for much longer than most children.

 

Well you could say, but rarely in today's society anyone has that "fighting capacity" you speak of. Most likely in a situation about life and death our senses tell us to run or people freeze to their places.

I don't really know about the mental state and overall mental health of people living in America, but I stick to what I said about earlier - around here, where guns are prohibited and only allowed by the army, policemen and people who hunt as a hobby, so "average" citizens have never handled a gun and to top of that have never killed a living thing other than bugs, so their sense of morality is based on modern beliefs - if you gave a gun to a person like that in order to defend him-/herself, their sense of morality and everyday ethics would begin a struggle inside their heads.

I've studied psychology and ethics, so my mind is pretty set on what I say. I respect your output as well, but it just doesn't seem reasonable to me. (this is getting soooo off-topic)

Well, what'd you expect, it is a video game after all. Me and my brother played around with toy swords when we were little, but both of us didn't know anything about how to fight, probably still don't.

He didn't look like dumb to me when I first played the games, he swung the keyblade in good straight lines and poked the enemy - it didn't look dumb at all to me. :I

 

@Cameron I studied Psychology too and too classes on that so I am merely accepting both sides but mainly mine. But I still find Sora's battle pose just uncomfortable. Will end up becoming the next Hunchback.

@Kitty But don't you ladies would like to be the perfect love interest and to be pretty to the man of your dreams, hee hee hee? Kairi sure is filling that role pretty good to be the role model for women.