Justice for Kairi in Kingdom Hearts 3 Remind DLC!

Kairi is widely considered the main heroine of the Kingdom Hearts series. This is clearly indicated by the fact she’s part of the main trio with Sora and Riku. Not to mention, Kairi is a princess of light which means that darkness is unable to overtake her. Sadly for Kairi, the abilities and writing of fellow heroine protagonist Aqua do tend to overtake her. Aqua was playable in the game that introduced her (Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep) and has become one of the staple main playable characters. She’s also a Keyblade Master, which is a title Kairi isn’t even close to being compared to. Overall, Kairi’s weak character feats really do bring the character down. She is a simple nice, brave, and charismatic character but she simply lacks any distinguishable feats whatsoever. Let’s break down into what Kairi HAS accomplished.

In Kingdom Hearts I the trio’s World Destiny Islands is overtaken by heartless and Kairi is quickly thrown out of the main story until the end. However, Kairi is one of Sora’s main motives through out the game. In every world Sora is looking for her more than anyone. At the end of the game it’s revealed that Kairi has been with Sora the whole time and that her heart was inside of his body. Through a confusing realization Sora frees her by stabbing himself with the artificial keyblade. It’s pretty clear that Kairi is a plot device in this game. Her character has more games to go off of though because of all the Kingdom Hearts “spinoffs” (none of them are spin offs but re:coded so whatever). The next game in the series Kingdom Hearts Chain of Memories has Kairi delegated to a side character role. However, her nobody Namine’s tinkering with the memories of Sora and his friends causes Kairi to completely forget Sora. The next time Kairi has a significant role in the story is in Kingdom Hearts 2.

In Kingdom Hearts 2 Kairi has forgotten about Sora but she feels like something in her life is still missing. Through her conversation with Selphie from Final Fantasy 8 she then has a conversation with Roxxas that reminds her that she’s forgotten her memories of Sora. Kairi then proceeds to do what she can to find Sora. This is when Axel finds Kairi and offers to bring her to Sora. Kairi declines the offer due to Axel being suspicious and her getting straight out warned by Pluto the dog not to. However, later on in the story Kairi is kidnapped by Axel and taken to the World that Never Was. Kairi is locked in a prison but is freed by Namine. On the way out of the world they are put up against Saix but thankfully Riku comes in to save the day. Riku saves Kairi and trusts her with a Keyblade.

From this point you’d expect general RPG cliches to kick in and Kairi starts kicking ass with the rest of her friends. Unfortunately, this is not the case. Kairi is only showcased killing heartless. The heartless that Sora fights at level one. While it’s annoying that Kairi started off at level 1 at least the story makes that abundantly clear. In Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance Kairi is shown in the secret ending with a reveal stating she will be training under Yen Sid to be a Keyblade Master.

Now then, it’s been about a year since Kingdom Hearts 3 came out, and I still believe Kairi did not receive the justice she deserves. Throughout the story Kairi is delegated to “training” status. She’s shown in a few cut scenes where she claims to be training, but the training is never on screen. Just like Kingdom Hearts 2, Kairi is shafted from the main story until the end. Kairi does indeed end up fighting alongside Sora and friends, but… it feels like an afterthought. Kairi’s involvement in Kingdom Hearts 3 was publicized heavily by Square Enix. So why did she receive the short end of the stick? I think the answer is simple. Kairi his underrepresented heavily by the story. Even if she is capable of fighting the strongest people it doesn’t matter because we never saw how she got there since we’re always with Sora, Donald, and Goofy. But wait…

Kingdom Hearts 3 Remind DLC contains important story cut scenes with Kairi along with making her playable! I really do hope they can give justice for Kairi. Feels like a shame for a Final Fantasy game to have poorly done female protagonists. Tune into my blog for an update after the DLC hits where I give my final opinion on the character.

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