Application @ aefenglom

[shadowsthedawn]

Player Information
Name: Rea
Age: 26
Contact: NearTheHeart
Other Characters: N/A

Character Information
Name: Riku
Canon: Kingdom Hearts
Canon Point: Kingdom Hearts 3, after rescuing Aqua from the Darkness.
Age: 17
History: Here

Personality: Riku is a character who undergoes some pretty significant development over the course of the games. When we are first introduced to him he’s very much the cool, level-headed de-facto leader of his friends. He’s smart, good looking, and naturally athletic. He gains a reputation on Destiny Islands for being unbeatable and immensely popular. All of which are things you would think would make the average teenager happy, but not Riku. No, Riku has a need for adventure at the beginning, he wants desperately to get off the Islands and travel, and it’s a need so strong that he ends up opening a door to darkness on his home without a second thought. He’s also highly competitive, especially when it comes to his best friend, Sora. A fact that drives Riku further and further into the darkness because he sees Sora gaining new abilities with his Keyblade, and sees that he’s making new friends with Donald and Goofy. It’s his jealousy, competitiveness, and fear of losing Sora—a fear of him and Kairi being replaced—that drives him through much of the first game. But even at this point Riku isn’t entirely selfish, in fact part of the reason why he agrees to work with Maleficent is because she agrees to help him find Kairi and restore her heart. He might feel betrayed by Sora at this point, but Kairi is still his friend and he’s willing to do whatever it takes to save her.

Kingdo Hearts basically shows what Riku can be like at his absolute lowest. What would normally be harmless, affectionate teasing directed at Sora becomes spiteful barbs about Sora not being strong enough to wield a Keyblade. What would normally have been a friendly competitive streak becomes a refusal to lose or to listen to reason. Riku is tempted by and pulled into the darkness because it promises to grant him what he wants; an escape from the Island, strength to protect those he cares about, and power.

But Riku isn’t all darkness, and neither is he all light. After he is saved by Sora from Ansem’s possession, Riku is sent on a journey to find himself again. Being trapped in the darkness actually does him a lot of good because he learns how dangerous the darkness can be and he accepts that he has made mistakes. In fact, much of Chain of Memories is Riku dealing with his guilt over the fact that he betrayed Sora and Destiny Islands, and his fear of being consumed by his darkness. This guilt never completely goes away, as he is still remorseful about his actions in KHII. But he does learn to accept that his darkness is a part of him and it can be used to benefit him and his friends, just as his light can. And he does use it to benefit his friends when he allows himself to sink deeper and deeper into the darkness to gain the power that he needs to help awaken Sora in KHII.

Riku’s experiences away from Destiny Island have overall made him much humbler. He’s still smart and strong, but he no longer has a competitive drive to be the best. In fact, Dream Drop Distance explores the doubts that Riku has about being worthy of the Keyblade after falling into Darkness. While his trust in Sora and their connection has grown to the point where he’s openly complimentary about Sora’s strength to others throughout the game, he doubts himself and his ability to follow his own heart. Even when Yen Sid declares him the Keyblade Master at the end of the game his shock is so overwhelming that all he can do is stand there and stare. He’s also grown much fonder of his home than he had been before. Now that he knows what the other worlds hold in store he’s far more content to see the positives that the Islands have to offer.

As of KH3 Riku has begun reclaiming his lost confidence, as he tells Mickey during their search for Aqua that his fears and doubts are gone. While he will never forget the mistakes he’s made in the past, he’s letting go of his guilt in order to move forward. He also displays this newfound confidence in his fight with a darkness claimed Aqua. While he is able to relate to and sympathize with her misery, he shows no hesitation in facing her, telling her that he has his own misery and despair to face and doesn’t need hers as well.

Now that we’ve had a run-through on how he changes through the games, let’s focus in on his core personality. Riku is, in a word, charismatic. He carries himself like a leader and he’s very outspoken, and willing to take on the leadership role whenever necessary. In their motely trio it is Riku who has the idea to build a raft to leave Destiny Island and Sora and Kairi agree to go along with it. And he can be funny and charming, but this is usually reserved for people Riku knows and likes. Sora is his best friend and thus is treated to great amounts of teasing, especially regarding his crush on Kairi. Riku tends to be a little more aloof with strangers or people he’s just met until he becomes more comfortable with them. In Dream Drop Distance when Joshua first tries to engage with Riku, the teen is completely uninterested and walks away, only to make the quickest about face once Joshua namedrops Sora. He has a very take charge attitude, especially when it comes to helping people. He outright refuses to finish off Namine when DiZ orders him to and instead helps her escape with Axel.

Riku is also very intelligent and cautious. During his time working with Maleficent he shows his shrewdness by never completely trusting her even though she is able to manipulate him against Sora. And he shows the same amount of caution towards DiZ, even eventually turning on him and his plans in order to save Namine. Riku’s loyalty lies primarily in his friends and so he has no trouble using others for a time to get what he needs before renegading, especially if he comes to disagree with who he is working for.

Despite the events of the first game, Riku is incredibly loyal and willing to risk himself for his friends. During the year that Sora is asleep Riku allows his darkness to grow so that he can be strong enough to do what he needs to in order to wake his friend; which includes fighting Xion and Roxas, as well as monitoring the Nobodies and their actions. He protects and rescues Kairi on multiple occasions. He saves Namine. And during the fight against Xemnas, Riku takes a blow meant for Sora. And in Dream Drop Distance he attempts to use his abilities to mend Sora’s heart. All of this also shows how tremendously brave he is; not only does he willing put himself at risk for his friends, but he continues to battle against the darkness within himself, trying to find a balance between the light and the dark. A weaker spirit would have given up and been consumed already, but Riku refuses to give up his hold, particularly the one on his body, which Ansem repeatedly fights him for. He’s learned to accept the darkness as a part of him, but he refuses to let it define who he is.

Abilities & Skills:
•Keyblade: primarily used as a sword in combat and to open gateways between worlds. Also used to perform magic attacks such as Thundaga, Curaga, and Dark Firaga. He’s also able to borrow other people’s Keyblades.
•Flowmotion: it basically allows him to run up the side of buildings, objects, and everything else in his environment in order to pull off cool tricks.
•Hand-to-hand combat: he’s been shown to be handy with some hand-to-hand maneuvers, but he favors his Keyblade for combat situations.
•Darkness: he can smell darkness within people and also has a built up immunity against being corrupted by darkness.

Inventory/Companions: He'll have his his Keyblade Braveheart minus all of its magical abilities, as well as his Gummiphone.

Choice: Witch
Reason: Riku is able to do magic in his canon, but only with the help of the Keyblade. Even with his Keyblade's powers dampened he's going to remain very reliant on it at first because he sees it as an extension of his power. I want to explore the shift he's going to have to go through from relying on a weapon for support to instead relying solely on himself as he begins studying and practicing the magic of this world.

Sample: thread 1, thread 2