Riku

**Riku** is the deuteragonist of the *Kingdom Hearts* series. He is a Keyblade master that has the power of light and darkness, and is always ready to sacrifice himself to protect his friends. Riku is usually depicted as being stronger than Sora in Kingdom Hearts fanart, and is the second most popular character for cosplay, after Sora. Riku's name is derived from the Japanese word for "land" (陸 *Riku*?).

## Personality

"*I've always wondered why we're here on this island. If there are other worlds out there, why did we end up on this one? And... suppose there are other worlds... then that means ours is just a little piece of something much greater.*"
—Riku, to Sora and Kairi
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 realises 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.

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.

## 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 seperating 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.

## Abilities

Like Sora and Roxas, Riku can wield the Keyblade, though he can wield both his own and others since Terra chose Riku to inherit the Keyblade during his visit in *Kingdom Hearts Birth by Sleep*. In comparison to Sora's two-handed style and Roxas's dual-weaponry, Riku attacks with a fast one-handed style with his Soul Eater/Way to the Dawn. Riku attacks very quickly with either weapon in combat, and is just as able with his weapons as Sora is with his.

His strength and agility are best demonstrated on the Destiny Islands, where he is known as the strongest child on the island (Tidus remarked that he, Wakka, and Selphie were defeated by him even after they triple-teamed him), and possesses an athletic springing kick if knocked down. Though Sora has bested Riku on several occasions, it is still unclear who is stronger. 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.

## TMNT X Pokemon

Under the control of Shredder, he was forced to destroy the Turtles. But when he was snapped out of it, he decided to join them with Sora in order to stop Shredder and the Foot.