Updated Opinions on Riku

I wouldn't call myself a Riku-hater. but I would and do say that I hate Riku. Here's my attempt to unravel that thread...
Spoilers for All KH games!!

In KHI it is entirely understandable and widely accepted to .. . not be a fan of riku.
Even then though, as a child (maybe cuz I don't know that I ever got past the floorlevel of hollow bastion, and i don't  think i paid ANY attention to any story cutscenes past traverse town) I liked riku well enough! He was Sora and Kairi's friend, and i liked sora and kairi. especially kairi. and so riku was Cool In My Book.

i don't know when I began despising Riku. But it happened.

He starts off as this cute lil kidling in bbs.
g'awwww look at him
anyway. in this game he does pretty much nothing except A) get a keyblade, B) say he "wants to protect his friends", C) tease sora, and D) talk to sora about mushy stuff that is not in caharacter at  a ll i would say

then we all know what happens in kingdom hearts. (I)

In chain of memories, idk, bc i haven't finished it, but he says he's choosing neither the light path or the dark path he's choosing "the road to dawwnnnnnn"
   in Dream Drop he's pranking the organization and telling kids that they have to die so his friend can wake up. Also he now has ansem's body, but not if he wears a blindfold(???). at the end, he attacks a kid and when he gets beaten, he takese off his blindfold to turn into ansem, and he strangles the kid until he's unconscious so that his "friend" can put him into a data-world (read: faketown) with data-friends until they're ready to kill him to wake up Sora. Also now he apparently can't put the blindfold back on to look like himself again..











In Kingdom Hearts II, what does he do?

1. he's a jerk to Roxas
2. then he disappears for THE REST OF THE GAME almost
3. what's he doing in that time?
4. apparently he's leaving HINTS for Sora and crew to find to help them??????????
5. idiot??????????
6. ugfff so once they FINALLY. FIND HIM. sora just starts sobbing...

1. and i gotta say when i first saw this scene, my sister was playing, and if not for that I would have for sure broken down too
2. but only out of empathy cry-responses. i do not care about riku, ansem! or otherwise.
7. so they go around with ansem!Riku for about. . . 4 minutes while sora defeats some organization members (ON HIS OWN, NO THANKS TO RIKU, THANKS FOR YOUR HELP BUD.)
8. then they find DiZ and stuff and he's like oh no this things gonna blow i'm so stupid man shoot "anything could happen" 
9. and it blows and
10. it tURNS ANSEM!RIKU BACK INTO RIKU?
11. THAt's deus ex machina if i ever saw it
12. anyway.
13. from then on, you get to play with. . . . . . . . 
14. get ready for him . . . . . . 
15. . . . . . . . . 
16. Slouchyboy!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
17.  LITERALLY THO. I THINK THIS IS UTTERLY HALF OF MY HATRED.
18. bc looking at him in this form
19. literally makes my cringe inside
20. like my insides cringe
21. and that's not even mentioning hiS RUN- AND WALKCYCLES. I cannot find a video or gif or anything for you rn but if i ever think to take one i'll put it here. maybe. bc it is HORRID.

In Re:Coded I LOVE him, patrtly because he's adorable (<<), and partly for the sole reason that him typing on a computer with a focused look on his face, saying things about databases and whatnot, makes me beyond happy.
He's an island boy. He should be as bad at computers as Sora.

also it's a great plot twist. the guy in the black coat you're chasing through the first few worlds of the game. you think maybe it's Roxas. Maybe it's a xehanort. maybe zexion, what with illusions and such..
Nope, it's Riku. loOk aT hIM.











oh?

what's this?

..

your Riku is evolving!!!!

.  .   .  !!!

oh my and he doesn't look COMPLETELY STUPID

He isn't INHERENTLY HATEABLE.

(unlike certain other things in dream drop coughcoughmecoughowwowcough)

Also he's actually competent, whereas sora in this game is basically. . . dreaming. ah lackadaisical moron. (i just really needed to call him lackadaisical. i needed a way to insert the word lackadAISICAL). anyway. actually i didn't really have an issue with how sora acted in ddd? like, when people didn't recognize him. . . he reacted exactly the same way to leon and co. not remembering him in re:com (also in the manga he's literally sobbing about this)

ANYWAY

in 0.2, he looks SLICK AS HECK. ALKHGSDLKH LKHAEFDS HISD OIO I COULD JUST BE IN LOVE WITH THE HD GRAPHICS BUT LOOOOOOKK

AND NOW I CAN MENTION KHIII SORA. we dont know anything about what he DOES in khiii, but:

 he looks bangin! 

also his keyblade is like sophisticated fenrir

So why do I still hate riku?

Well, one of my pet peeves is characters resolving something but later having it flare up again.

EVEN IF IT'S REALISTICALLY DONE, Riku claiming the darkness and working to control it and walk the path to dawn and all that, for like 1-2 years, and then in ddd bein like "am i weawwy worthy of the keybwade??? :(?"? sure anxiety and like . . trauma i guess i mean he was 15 and maleficent manipulated him into turning on, then beating up his best friend and also becoming the hostbody for an ancient EXTREMELY EVIL.. anyway sure but like it booothers meeeeeee.

sidenote this is part of my problem with Cars 3, too; that's actually how I realized that it was a pet peeve and not just riku's thing was badly done.
Also, while working on this, I've realized that Riku seems to prefer his hair short-- thus, i don't think his haircut for dream drop is purely symbolic. cuz as a baby kid he has short hair, in khi he's got about almost shoulderlength hair, data riku (i tried to write reco as riku. can u believe. like the beginning of re:coded.) has short hair, ddd riku has real short hair. KHII riku probably has such long hair because he's been busy for a year

What the heck why didn't I post this? I last worked on it on January 18th??
ohhhh yeah I wanted a pic of his 0.2 model. oh! And now I get to add his khiii!!