Basically, Riku doesn't believe Maleficent's lies until he sees Sora working with Donald and Goofy, then he starts to believe that Sora's not taking it seriously to look for him and Kairi... even though Sora outright tells him "They've been helping me look for you and Kairi." and yet Riku.... immediately jumps to the wrong conclusion and believes that Sora wasn't looking for him, despite Sora clearly telling him that he was.
Yeah, Riku, let's believe that lady dressed in black and looks absolutely evil, yeah, let's do that.
I was just thinking a few days ago how pointless the Villain Alliance in KH I was since the villains gain nothing if Maleficent succeeds except the destruction of their worlds.
Hell, in the game outside of Hook the alliance only really amounts to villains telling her to fuck off so that they can do what they were originally going to do had they never met her.
She goes out of her way to appeal to his sense of ego and arrogance. It's not hard when you're dealing with a teenager who's always been used to being the best at everything out of his group of friends.
Sora's his rival. He finally manages to escape that island and ends up in some other place where this woman says that she can help him find Kairi and supplies him with a weapon. He finds one of his friends only to realize that this friend now has his own crew and is palling around with both Disney and Final Fantasy characters and has some kind of legendary weapon that makes him more important. The jealousy got to him as well as the desire to be better, and with Maleficent fueling him with dark power it only served to corrupt him further
Also they make a point to show that Riku does not trust Maleficent at all. He was only with her because she could help him get what he wanted, but he was unaware of how much she was influencing his inner evil.
I was just thinking a few days ago how pointless the Villain Alliance in KH I was since the villains gain nothing if Maleficent succeeds except the destruction of their worlds.
He's an angsty teenager that feels like his circle of friends is constantly threatened by Sora crushing on Kairi. Maleficent convinces him that Sora has moved on and made new friends (which, to be fair, is an easy sell given how much fun he's having with Donald and Goofy) and it allows the darkness that is in his heart to take control which deafens him to Sora's protests that he hasn't forgotten him and Kairi (because Riku belives he's having too much fun goofing off to get his act together and look for them).
Its not that hard to follow, and its really not that hard to believe.
To be fair here. Sora did take his sweet as time bouncing around the Disney worlds trying to find Kairi. He didn't even need to go to Atlantis but he did anyway
I was just thinking a few days ago how pointless the Villain Alliance in KH I was since the villains gain nothing if Maleficent succeeds except the destruction of their worlds.
Hell, in the game outside of Hook the alliance only really amounts to villains telling her to fuck off so that they can do what they were originally going to do had they never met her.
I was just thinking a few days ago how pointless the Villain Alliance in KH I was since the villains gain nothing if Maleficent succeeds except the destruction of their worlds.
They gain control of the darkness and by extension the heartless though which is the main appeal. By finding the keyholes they all think they get control of their own worlds. The whole worlds falling to darkness and therefore being destroyed is knowledge they're not privy to, and really neither is Maleficent
It's entirely possible that Maleficent was aware of Destiny Islands getting swallowed by darkness since Ansem Seeker of Darkness had a hand in that and she was partnered with him. She likely had it done for the express purpose of capturing Kairi but because her heart was in Sora (something that Ansem seemed to be aware of) all she had was the body, and she used that and Riku to lure Sora in so they could get the heart and finish their master plan
She goes out of her way to appeal to his sense of ego and arrogance. It's not hard when you're dealing with a teenager who's always been used to being the best at everything out of his group of friends.
Also Riku had willingly given himself to the darkness at this point. I think that has a lot to do with how impressionable he was and how inclined he was to work with Maleficent.
Not saying it wasn't cool, just always struck me as wasted potential that hollow bastion wasn't a boss gauntlet of Disney Villains like an FF end game dungeon or KHII/KHIII endgames.
Also Riku had willingly given himself to the darkness at this point. I think that has a lot to do with how impressionable he was and how inclined he was to work with Maleficent.
He hadn't quite fallen until after Monstro, really. He was mostly just being an arrogant ass for the first half of the game and it was only after he and Sora split up again at Monstro that Ansem's claws really dug in.
Yeah Riku is a child that thinks he is hot shit and when he sees Sora doing great with a new set of friends its easy enough for Maleficent to manipulate his feelings of jealousy. That coupled with him being so close to darkness makes it easy enough for Maleficent to get what she wants from him and for him to do anything to get what he wants.
He hadn't quite fallen until after Monstro, really. He was mostly just being an arrogant ass for the first half of the game and it was only after he and Sora split up again at Monstro that Ansem's claws really dug in.
Yeah he wasn't fully gone but I definitely think the fact that Riku allowed himself (or basically welcomed) to be taken by the darkness in Destiny Islands corrupted him. Even the first time you run into Riku in Traverse Town, there's something off about him compared to in the Destiny Islands.
Riku's turn to darkness in KH1 is probably the weakest part of the story. It kind of happens because he's the Edgy Shonen Rival and he has to be evil for a fight at some point, so Maleficient tells him Sora replaced him and that's all it takes.
I still think it works though. Riku at the start of KH1 is obsessed with new experiences and blindly jumps into a dark portal so he can leave the island. Then Maleficient demonstrably gets things done in finding Kairi and tells him he's the true Keyblade Master. Riku's ego is stoked to the point where he believes he can take on the world, and eventually he falls into darkness. It's not perfect but I think other than the initial push from Maleficient it sells his character.
Okay, as an absolute expert on Kingdom Hearts, let me explain what REALLY happened.
When Riku embraces the darkness to escape from Destiny Islands, he arrives in Hollow Bastion and meets Maleficent. She appraises the darkness in him and finds him to be a worthy tool for her to use to gain more power and infest the keyholes of the worlds to strengthen the heartless.
Why does Riku trust her? He Doesn't. The whole time he's working with her, he's playing along without fully commiting to her bull honkey, because he's trying to use Her to find his friends. She holds up her end of the bargain and locates Sora, trying to manipulate him into thinking Sora already has new friends.
He's a little put off, sure, but he clearly knows she's manipulating his feelings, and decides to focus on playing along until she helps him find kairi, which she does so. He then spends the latter portion of the game looking for ways to revive her since she's gone completely comatose.
By this point he's way more motivated by reviving Kairi and more full of himself considering the heartless don't give him a hard time, so he starts doing way more questionable things, falling into Maleficents plot as he tries to kidnap Pinnochio to see if his growth of a heart could be studied or something to end up helping Kairi get hers back, and later flaunts his success relative to Sora at Captain Hooks ship as they travel.
By the time he's back at hollow bastion, he's totally given up on Sora being anything other then a delivery boy for the keyblade, and takes it back. How he finds out that he was chosen to wield it, it's not clear, although it's possible he realized it way back when he held it and gave it back to Sora when they met back up at Traverse Town.
When Sora catches up, he chides him for being a loser who couldn't help Kairi, and lost his friends, but Sora's strength of heart wills the Keyblade back to him, having been chosen over Riku's pompous jerkness, and they do battle. When defeated, he retreats to Kairi next to the Keyhole of Hollow Bastion, meaning to figure out a plan of action, when Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, who had waited there and manipulated his fall and eventual growth of darkness in his heart, possesses his body and takes the reins from there.
Having been ultimately tricked by his hubris and reliance on the darkness to accomplish his goals (which, to be fair, worked out pretty good until he got greedy), he had time to feel super bad about it and repent while he was possessed, and eventually became the awesome boy we all know and love in Chain of Memories' Reverse, Rebirth Story.
All in all, Riku is a pretty good cautionary tale. Being the coolest guy on his island, he felt he was owed success in life, and that he alone could accomplish what he needed, but without emotional support like Sora got, he lost his way and became a pawn for others. He later repents and learns to work with others, and lean on them for support, and becaome one of the best Wingmen in videogame history.
I still say his playful spars on the island is one of the hardest fights in the games, and that's on purpose. You overcome him later, and for good reason. I'm glad he got even cooler, and I hope his voice acting direction improves after Kh3.
I do like that Riku managed to walk it back from being a douche to being an actually likeable character. After everything that goes down in KH1 and CoM he basically learns to tone down his ego and resolves to work in the background to the benefit of Sora and the others. It's an extremely important point because up until then he felt like he needed to be the main hero, so him letting someone else take the spotlight shows growth. In 2 and DDD it shows that he did that because he doesn't feel like he's worthy of being in the main spotlight as a hero due to his ties to the darkness, even though everyone else is cool with it by now. The story may have forgiven him but he still thinks that there's work to do. It isn't until waaaaay later that he officially accepts the role as a primary protagonist again.
The main difference between him and someone like Sasuke is that he improves personality-wise from not being a full-on edgelord and that you believe that the rest of the cast would be able to forgive him because he didn't go fully overboard.
I also like the dynamic between him and Ansem Seeker of Darkness and wish that we'd gotten more of that beyond just in Chain of Memories.
That little "It is time to move on, boy. There is more to seek, so go forth now and seek it," line was interesting.
Well, to be fair, Riku wasn't doing anything to help stop the worlds from being destroyed by the heartless.
If anything, Riku palling around with Maleficent led to Sora's main goal getting achieved. Sora couldn't really do Jack until he finally realized how to revive Kairi, but even then he was saving a ton of worlds from being destroyed by the heartless.
It's a mixed bag, but it sorta worked out for everyone eventually. Even though like, the one thing Sora did to revive Kairi sent a huge shockwave throughout the entire series, but again, it all worked out eventually.
Okay, as an absolute expert on Kingdom Hearts, let me explain what REALLY happened.
When Riku embraces the darkness to escape from Destiny Islands, he arrives in Hollow Bastion and meets Maleficent. She appraises the darkness in him and finds him to be a worthy tool for her to use to gain more power and infest the keyholes of the worlds to strengthen the heartless.
Why does Riku trust her? He Doesn't. The whole time he's working with her, he's playing along without fully commiting to her bull honkey, because he's trying to use Her to find his friends. She holds up her end of the bargain and locates Sora, trying to manipulate him into thinking Sora already has new friends.
He's a little put off, sure, but he clearly knows she's manipulating his feelings, and decides to focus on playing along until she helps him find kairi, which she does so. He then spends the latter portion of the game looking for ways to revive her since she's gone completely comatose.
By this point he's way more motivated by reviving Kairi and more full of himself considering the heartless don't give him a hard time, so he starts doing way more questionable things, falling into Maleficents plot as he tries to kidnap Pinnochio to see if his growth of a heart could be studied or something to end up helping Kairi get hers back, and later flaunts his success relative to Sora at Captain Hooks ship as they travel.
By the time he's back at hollow bastion, he's totally given up on Sora being anything other then a delivery boy for the keyblade, and takes it back. How he finds out that he was chosen to wield it, it's not clear, although it's possible he realized it way back when he held it and gave it back to Sora when they met back up at Traverse Town.
When Sora catches up, he chides him for being a loser who couldn't help Kairi, and lost his friends, but Sora's strength of heart wills the Keyblade back to him, having been chosen over Riku's pompous jerkness, and they do battle. When defeated, he retreats to Kairi next to the Keyhole of Hollow Bastion, meaning to figure out a plan of action, when Ansem, Seeker of Darkness, who had waited there and manipulated his fall and eventual growth of darkness in his heart, possesses his body and takes the reins from there.
Having been ultimately tricked by his hubris and reliance on the darkness to accomplish his goals (which, to be fair, worked out pretty good until he got greedy), he had time to feel super bad about it and repent while he was possessed, and eventually became the awesome boy we all know and love in Chain of Memories' Reverse, Rebirth Story.
All in all, Riku is a pretty good cautionary tale. Being the coolest guy on his island, he felt he was owed success in life, and that he alone could accomplish what he needed, but without emotional support like Sora got, he lost his way and became a pawn for others. He later repents and learns to work with others, and lean on them for support, and becaome one of the best Wingmen in videogame history.
I still say his playful spars on the island is one of the hardest fights in the games, and that's on purpose. You overcome him later, and for good reason. I'm glad he got even cooler, and I hope his voice acting direction improves after Kh3.
To be fair, most people on this forum played games when they were a kid, and for one reason or another think that whatever they played was either terrible garbage or the best thing ever.
These games are still a ton of fun today, but too many people lose focus on the individual stories by trying to remember things that don't happen yet, or over complicate the dense plot by trying to confirm stuff in their head without looking at what's in front of them.
That's the big reason I see people get confused about Kingdom Hearts. It's a story you follow with your heart, not your brain. Because if you try too hard to follow with your brain, you stop paying attention to what's actually happening and get massively confused.
