Riku (Kingdom Hearts)

Riku is one of the main characters in the Kingdom Hearts series, as well as a playable character in some of the games.

Riku is a life-long friend and rival of Sora. Riku is from Destiny Islands and is a childhood friend of Sora and Kairi. Later in the series, he becomes a Keyblade master that has the power of light and darkness, and is always ready to sacrifice himself to protect his friends. Riku is the original persona of his own replica and pseudo-Ansem.

Riku was 5-years-old during Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep, 15-years-old at the beginning of Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories, and 16-years-old during the events of Kingdom Hearts IIand Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance.

Riku's name is derived from the Japanese word for "land".

Appearance
Riku is a tall and muscular teenager with pale skin, bright blue-green eyes and silver hair. In Kingdom Hearts, his hair was shoulder-length, later in Kingdom Hearts II and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, it has grown longer, past his shoulders, reaching down to his upper back, but in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, it is cut short like when he was a child in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and certain scenes in Kingdom Hearts.

In Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep and some parts of Kingdom Hearts, he is much shorter, due to being a young child. Riku's bangs are also more side-swept than later on in his life. He wears a yellow vest with a large collar and blue trim which is zipped down below his collarbone. He has two blue bracelets, one on each wrist, with a yellow stripe in the middle. On his lower body he has black shorts reaching past his knees and white and blue slip on shoes with gray soles.

During most of Kingdom Hearts, Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories, and Kingdom Hearts Re: Chain of Memories, he wears a vest that has a yellow collar and is yellow in the front and black on the sides and back. The vest has two black crisscrossing straps that go over his chest and on his upper back that are trimmed with white and has a white stud on each end. Just above each of his wrists are tight black bracelets and on his hands are black and gray gloves that reach just to the base of his thumb. He wears a black belt with a silver rectangular buckle high on his waist which secures his dark blue-gray pants. His pants are mostly covered by blue wading pants held up by black straps almost identical to the ones on his vest, except they are each layered and have more studs, as well as not being crisscrossed. The wading pants are tightened at the ankle with small black belts. His shoes are white and blue, with some yellow strings on the inner sides, some of which crisscross each other. The shoes each have two black straps with white trim and gray soles.

In Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, he wears a Black Coat and the Organization's boots and gloves. He also wears a black cloth over his eyes tied behind his head that reaches slightly past his shoulders.

While he is in Kingdom Hearts II, he wears a sleeveless, black, double-zippered shirt under a white vest. The shirt is zippered up to just below his neck and to just above his bellybutton. The white vest is yellow at the bottom with a blue stripe separating the two other colors. The collar is folded down to reveal the color on the inside, yellow, and is decorated with four small, silver buttons. On his left arm he wears a white wrist guard. His blue baggy pants have very large, paler pockets, and are held up by a black and silver belt. His white shoes are gray on the bottom and top, with three black stripes on each side and yellow laces.

In Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, Riku wears a white vest with a large black collar, a yellow back, and a black stripe along the bottom as well as around each arm hole. It is closed with a zipper that is closed just a bit below his collarbone and slightly above his belt. The back of the vest bears the Dream Eater Spirit sigil. He also wears loose fitting jeans and a black belt with a large silver buckle. On his feet Riku wears white hightops that are black on the bottom with a yellow stripe separating the two colors. His laces are black. He also has another pair of laces wrapped around his shoes at the ankle that are tied into a bow. On his wrists he sports thick black, cloth bracelets.

In Kingdom Hearts III, Riku wears a black, hooded jacket that he keeps unzipped, with short sleeves, gold buttons, and a checkered pattern at the hem. Underneath, he wears a white shirt with a V-neck. He also wears blue cropped trousers that are hemmed with the same checkered pattern as the jacket, black glovelettes on each hand, and black high-top boots. His hair remains the same length as it was in Kingdom Hearts 3D: Dream Drop Distance, though it appears more spiked up in the back.

Personality
In Kingdom Hearts, Riku is a calm, cool, collected teenager who is not afraid to push the boundaries. This is illustrated by his lack of fear while stepping into the dark portal during Destiny Islands' demise. His exclamation of, "I'm not afraid of the darkness!", furthers illustrates this point.

During Kingdom Hearts in particular, Riku has a strong competitive streak. He shows his competitive side when he challenges Sora, saying that his heart is stronger than his friend's. Due to the influence that Maleficent has on him, Riku also becomes increasingly jealous of Sora. When he realizes that Sora has acquired new friends in the form of Donald and Goofy, Riku feels that he has been replaced. His jealousy grows when he learns that Sora owns a Keyblade. This jealousy results in numerous fights with his former friend throughout Kingdom Hearts, and opens the door for Ansem, Seeker of Darkness to possess him. He eventually snaps out of it and feels tremendous guilt and remorse for all he had done.

Though his traits are not akin to those of a protagonist in Kingdom Hearts, he becomes more heroic in Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories. During his time spent in Castle Oblivion, Riku begins to confront the darkness which lingers within his heart. At first, he rejects it. However, as the story progresses, Riku realises that it is possible to use the darkness to achieve his goals. He matures immensely during this period, and leaves behind some of his more unlikable personality traits.

Riku had been curious about what lay outside of his world ever since his early youth in Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep. Over time, his curiosity turned to obsession, and he began to think of his world as a prison surrounded by water. This obsession appears to diminished throughout the year of Sora's slumber, most likely because he had by then travelled to a number of worlds. When he returns to Destiny Islands in Kingdom Hearts II, he still comments that it is a small world, but agrees with Sora's remark that it is only a part of one that's much bigger. Riku later stated that the real reason he wanted to explore outside of his home world was because of Terra.

A postive personality trait demonstrated by Riku is a strong desire to protect his friends. Examples of this would be his sacrifice to protect Sora from Xemnas' attacks during their final battle in Kingdom Hearts II, and his willingness to accept the darkness in order to subdue Roxas in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days.

Though Riku matures significantly over the course of the series, he retains some of his more youthful personality from Kingdom Hearts, particularly his sense of humor; he refers to Sora, Donald, and Goofy as "wise guys" when talking to the Emperor, cracks a joke about Donald and Goofy's intelligence at their expense ("Sora never did pick the brightest friends"), and calls Sora a "total sap" when going to confront Xemnas.

Abilities
Already a strong and skillful individual as a child, Riku was always the strongest child in the Destiny Island even before awakening his ability to wield a Keyblade. Tidus remarked that he, Wakka, and Selphie were defeated by him even after they triple-teamed him and it seemed even at that time only Sora could challenge and surpass him. He is already an excellent swordsman and able hand-to-hand combatant, performing quite fast and athletic-related combos, with an athletic springing kick if knocked down. Over the years, as he acquires and continues to develop his skill with the Keyblade and gains the powers of both darkness and light, Riku's level of strength has increased greatly. What first started from him only being slightly stronger than he was with Soul Eater soon grew to levels where he became among the most powerful bosses in the first game and in Chain of Memories, his increase steadily becomes greater, at first fighting the weak Organization XIII member Vexen to a standstill before quickly becoming able to fight and exhaust Lexaeus, although he lost the fight due to his eagerness, defeat Zexion and even overpower Ansem. In 358/2 Days, he trounces Xion rather easily and even holds his own against the full-power Roxas, even eventually briefly knocking him out, but was quickly overpowered once he allowed Roxas to regain his extra blade, forcing him to use the powers of Ansem, at which point he easily dispatched Roxas, although due to him catching Roxas off-guard, and overpowered Saix and forced him to flee quickly. Although he lost the boost after the explosion of Kingdom Hearts stripped him of the darkness, Riku is still easily the strongest ally Sora can have and aids him effectively in defeating Xemnas powered by Kingdom Hearts. Riku is also shown to be skilled in hand to hand combat, as shown in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, in which he knocks down a charging Xion with a single punch after dismissing his Soul Eater weapon and while using the powers of Ansem, easily blind-sides and pins Saix bare-handed.

Trivia

 * Roxas's battle with Riku, as seen in Another Side, Another Story, involves him running up the side of Memory Skyscraper and passing by Riku as he leaps off. A similar scene occurs when Sora and Xemnas later battle in the same area.
 * Riku is the first non-party assistance character to appear in the Kingdom Hearts universe as he helps Sora, Donald, and Goofy fight the Parasite Cage in Monstro the first battle.
 * It is stated in The Director's Secret Report XIII that one of the four untold stories is "the period of Riku's absence" though that has not been further delved into. The other three were about "the period of the King's absence" (Kingdom Hearts 0.2 Birth by Sleep -A fragmentary passage-), Roxas's time with the Organization (Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days), and Xehanort's past (Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep).
 * An interesting note is that Riku wields Soul Eater, the Kingdom Key, and the Keyblade of heart on the opposite side of the handle, with the blade facing down when he is in his battle stance, except as a playable character in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days. Even in Kingdom Hearts II and when he is playable in Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days, he holds Way to the Dawn on the opposite side, though the blade faces a bit to the side.