I remember, years ago, one of the KHInsider mods (Sign or Master Spockanort, I believe) mentioned on there how Kairi reminded them of Rinoa Heartily, and that comment has always stuck with me. Now that I've gotten back into Final Fantasy VIII again, for the first time in WAY too many years, I'd have to say that I agree. I was wondering if you feel the same at all, and if so if you think Kairi might have loosely been based off of Rinoa?
My apologies, but I haven't played enough of FFVIII to have an informed opinion about this 😅 If anyone wants to chime in via comments or reblogs though, feel free!
Ooooh buddy I could do a whole soap box on this, lol.
See, Rinoa has the advantage because she was in the hands of a capable team of writers. Nomura is a character artist who can’t handle writing women so on the surface, they seem pretty similar. Both are spunky (looking only at kh1 and 2 kairi) and both are the lead’s reason for change and love interest.
They’re the magical girls who keep their protagonist going and initiate the character growth. But honestly, the superficial similarities are where it stops. Maybe I’m biased because 8 was my first final fantasy and I don’t like kairi much as a character these days (again, leaving the writing to a character designer) because they kind of threw away the personality she had and now it’s just all she is is Sora. And I get she’s had some trauma so of course she’s gonna change. But 3 really left her a wet piece of paper in the fridge in my opinion.
And I think that’s the biggest part that’s the difference between them. Because even if you don’t use Rinoa in your party, she still is central to the story, she’s the catalyst for everything because she is the point that Ultimecia uses to compress time. She is still Squall’s focal point and she still plays an active role in what the rest of the gang is doing. Kairi gets shoved into whatever spot can’t be played so that we don’t get to see much of her growth. And Sora doesn’t really bring her up, because he’s so invested in whatever world’s shenanigans are in front of him. He might be thinking of her, but because we don’t get the introspection that Squall gives us, it’s harder to tell.
The Kingdom hearts story isn’t built around Kairi. It’s built around Sora and Riku and honestly sometimes it feels like they’re just slapping Kairi in there because a.) it’s what the fans want and b.) they set up the trios and now they have to use them. Meanwhile FF8 is a world that is rich with characters, but the central two are Squall and Rinoa and they won’t let you forget whose story it is.
Kairi reminds me of Rinoa simply for the fact that both are the main girls and they start out childlike and cutesy before being traumatized and focusing in on their man. But I would make the comparison between Aerith and Tifa with Rinoa before the comparison with Kairi.
Sorry if that’s a lot, I just adore Rinoa and I can’t wait for her to be in kingdom hearts, if Nomura is merciful enough, lol. I could see Rinoa being something of a mentor to Kairi and think they’d get along great. But if any of the final fantasy girls were used in Kairi’s creation, I’d point more to Yuna, Terra and Aerith.
TL;DR I think you would be right if this discussion happened before KH3 came out.
