Better Roles in Kairi in the First Place


Several of us have learned that Kingdom Hearts creator Tetsuya Nomura had originally set Sora, Riku and Kairi as the video game franchise's main original trio, starting with Kingdom Hearts 1. However, as the series progresses, Sora and Riku become more of main characters whereas Kairi only appears as a minor character (namely "Chain of Memories" "358/2 Days" and "Dream Drop Distance"). Even in "Blank Points", Nomura seemed to intent not to include her in Sora and Riku's next adventure until he figures out how to include her with a very important role in "Kingdom Hearts III". Just for the sake of Kairi's better character development, here is how Nomura should have established in the first place:

"Chain of Memories"- At the moment when Naminè tampers with the memories of Sora, Donald and Goofy, there should be a scene where Kairi starts to forget about Sora.

"358/2 Days"- In the middle of the story, there should be scenes where Kairi, in her school days, starts to see anything that looks like Sora.

"Birth by Sleep"- At the end of "Blank Points", instead of settling down at Destiny Islands for safety, Kairi should follow Sora and Riku with little reluctance, as they fully accept her determination and her sight on the importance of friendship, on their next adventure.

"Dream Drop Distance"- Instead of showing up only at the very end of the secret ending, Kairi should be with Sora and Riku at the beginning of the first flashback - the moment when Master Yensid discusses about the Mark of Mastery and its goal. While Sora and Riku take on the test, Kairi stays under safety with Yensid, who talks with her about her origins, the reason(s) behind her keyblade wielding and the truths behind the heroes' previous adventures.

So what do you think; do you have better suggestions?

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Read the Kingdom Hearts 2 manga, I think it does a great job at portraying Kairi. They have a few extra scenes with her, and I think those scenes help to develop her character.


Based on the info I've read about KH3, however, it seems like Nomura isn't going to really include her in the story that much. The info says that Sora, Donald and Goofy are going to look for the 7 guardians of light, and Riku and Mickey are going to look for past keyblade wielders.
It doesn't mention Kairi... :( i hope she wont stay on the island again

It's a shame that they always exclude her from the game.

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I don't really care for these re-imaginings of canon. The story is the story. Instead of coming up with reasons to be dissatisfied as to how they could have done it differently, why not appreciate it for what it is? The fact that she didn't show up til the end in DDD made it an AWESOME surprise. By doing that it made an incredibly impact, and indicates how important she must be to the creators that they'd think that should be handled in that way, with the camera zooming in, with the build up, with this being the secret movie. I could chalk any lack of screen time up to narrative economy; I think our imaginations ultimately add much more than seeing her in school would. If she had shown up earlier like in your recommendation, it wouldn't have meant half as much. This was about a civilian being taken into the larger war that's looming.

In general, the entire series is about narrative economy. We don't see the characters having long drawn out conversations about themselves; they deal with life and each other like normal people to an extent and we get to imagine the rest.

The games focuses on the people doing the galavanting, and that just hasn't been Kairi yet. Kairi hasn't had as much to do because they've taken this one step at a time. They've focused on Sora, then Sora and Riku, especially Riku, and Kairi will hopefully get her turn. It could just be that Riku and Sora have character arcs that are easier to develop for the writers.

Aqua is probably one of the best characters in the whole series, so I think this is just a matter of the type of character to them; Sora and Riku go galavanting and are restless and kind of crazy, and Aqua saw herself in Sora so she shares some of that and was obviously the most successful and ambitious of her friends. Kairi is content in her life and with her friends. They'll clearly need time in order to develop a situation where she'd develop a more active role organically.

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The less Kairi, the better.

I'm sick of sitting through her angsty Mary-Sueish monolouge talking about hearts, Sora, and whatnot. Her sole reason for existing in this franchise is to constraint the bormance between Sora and Riku from delving into less then preferable areas.

Maybe on the day where she can prove to be more capable then just staring blankly at the sunset discussing existentialism while her sappy, overdramatic, saccharine theme plays in the background, I may just come to be tolerant of her.

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