Randomly Rambling

Riku

And then, in the most twisted of ways,  it was.

Xehanort’s Heartless arrives at Destiny Islands because of Terra’s promise to Riku.   We can only surmise what he must have told Riku that night that Destiny Islands disappeared, but, based on Riku’s conversation to Sora and his scene with XH as shown in Re:Coded, I think we can make a safe bet as to what went down.   XH showed up and instantly Riku must have thought that his promise was being fulfilled, that XH had returned to show him the world beyond.   It’s because of their promise and Riku’s desperation for it to have been real that Riku trusts XH when he tells him to open the door.   He tells Riku to let Destiny Islands to  succumb to darkness, and for Riku to accept the darkness in his heart.   Only then would he get his freedom.   By opening his heart to darkness, XH would tell him, he could finally be free of his prison.

And Riku believes him.   He trusts him, because when he sees XH, whether subconscious or not, he sees Terra.   He sees the promise.   He sees the hope that he had.   He sees confirmation once again that it was possible to break out of the cage he was in.   And then when XH’s word proves true—when the world and Riku begin to fall to darkness, yet bestowing freedom upon him at the same time—Riku truly trusts XH.   Imagine, “if you let the darkness in, you’ll get the freedom you’ve been wanting.”

And then he does.   And forever since that point, Riku directly associates darkness with freedom.   The darkness was his freedom from his prison.   It was the freedom he would need to be able to protect those that mattered, but in the process of his desperation he lost sight of why he was desperate to begin with.   His obsession with freedom that had led to darkness being born in his heart had taken a new form where he directly correlated freedom to darkness.   And this tragedy becomes his story in Kingdom Hearts.

But all the freedom in the world didn’t matter if he didn’t have someone to spend it with. In his mind, I’m sure Riku believed he was doing this for the good of everyone—that this is what they all wanted, no matter how it happened.   He craved the freedom from the islands so much, how could Kairi and Sora not be craving the exact same thing?   He made sure that they would be with him on the other side, and while he didn’t anticipate being separated, he knew that he would find them again.

Unfortunately for him, Xehanort’s Heartless had different intentions.   He knowingly sent Riku to Hollow Bastion to fall under Maleficent’s scheme and push Riku’s desperation onto a steady path that would eventually cause the darkness within him to grow exponentially.   It was there that Maleficent whispered malice in Riku’s ear, telling him of the Keyblade and Sora’s new friends that had replaced him.   While Riku had put everything on the line for Sora and Kairi, Sora was  gallivanting, going on the adventures that they were supposed to go on  together.   But Riku didn’t believe it at first.   He didn’t think Sora would do that to him, so Maleficent took him to Sora directly.   And it was in that meeting that Riku grew desperate for a new kind of freedom.

While Riku had toiled away trying to find Sora, Sora had been off having adventures with brand new companions.   When Riku finally found Sora again his entire being was shaken for so many reasons.   The moment they find each other again is a happy one, but it becomes clear to Riku quickly that things have changed.   While Riku is talking about Sora not having to worry now that they were together and that they’d find Kairi, Sora quickly destroys a Heartless that had been creeping up to them.   He says to Riku, “Take care of who?”   While to Sora this is just meant as a boyish rivalry “I can do it just as well as you can” kind of statement, to Riku this is perhaps one of his worst nightmares.   Everything he had done to get them off the island, for their freedom, suddenly felt void.   Riku wanted to leave the islands so he could grow stronger to protect Sora, and yet here Sora was, off the islands, free, without him, with new friends, and strong enough to take care of himself.   To Riku, this simple moment was validation of everything Maleficent had been whispering into his ear: Sora didn’t need him as a friend;   Sora didn’t need him as protection;   Sora just simply didn’t need himat all.