Kingdom Hearts is a franchise marked by many different cornerstone events. The main heroes have made their way through a world of strife that has made many of them better characters for their struggles. That being said, one of the core trinity of characters has largely been left in the wastebin of its narrative. If Kingdom Hearts wants to truly showcase growth for the protagonists that have made their way from the Destiny Islands, it needs to treat Kairi with more respect going forward.
Kingdom Hearts has a lot going for it. The franchise started as an unlikely mix of Disney and Square Enix properties. Seeing Mickey Mouse serve as a powerful foil to Final Fantasy-style characters like the main protagonist Sora was something unique that appealed to fans of either property. Since the beginning, the story has largely focused on the adventure thrust upon the three children from Destiny Island. Unfortunately for Kairi, Kingdom Hearts has focused much more on Riku and Sora's growth throughout the series.
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Kairi in Kingdom Hearts: Plenty of Potential, Little Payoff
Focusing on an individual character is something pretty normal for an RPG title, but Kingdom Hearts goes out of its way to show both Sora and Riku's character development. That's a big part of why it feels odd that Kairi is often left out in their growth and maturing. Even her status as a Keyblade wielder was awkwardly handled.
The second game introduced the idea that there is more than one Keyblade, and that Riku mastered it. But during a critical reunion of the three islanders, Riku just produces a Keyblade for Kairi out of nowhere to hand it to Kairi. Both Sora and Riku attain their keyblades in pivotal moments for their characters, but throughout the long story of Kingdom Hearts, Kairi's ability to use the keyblade is never really addressed or rectified in any meaningful way.
Awkwardness aside, that moment does cement Kairi as one of the Keyblade warriors, and starts to imply a bigger role for her in the series. Kingdom Hearts 3 unfortunately never really brings this to fruition. Kairi (and puzzingly, Axel/Lea) is largely relegated to a scant few cutscenes about her training to use the Keyblade. But even then, players never really see the training, and Kairi only joins the fight in the very end of the game.
It's comparatively disjointed that the game would try to prop Kairi up as one of the main heroes, but she's never really given a chance to shine on her own. Ultimately Kairi is put into the role of distressed damsel again at the end, with Sora off to find her. Hopefully, before Kingdom Hearts moves on from the original heroes' story, it will give Kairi proper room to excel on her own.
While it makes sense from a branding perspective that Donald and Goofy stay as Sora's companions throughout the series, it has really missed out on what could have been a satisfying moment. Even a brief chunk of gameplay where Sora, Riku, and Kairi all traveled together would have been a cathartic experience for longtime fans, and could've helped to give Kairi agency that she never really gets in the series.
Now that Sora is off to rescue her again after Kingdom Hearts 3, it feels a lot like Kairi may never get her chance to play as important a part in the franchise as her friends. Hopefully though, Square Enix uses the next game as a way to rectify this and follow through on the potential the series has set up for Kairi.
Kingdom Hearts 4 is not yet confirmed to be in development.
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