beloved

~ 🌅

His journey throughout the games largely consists on learning about love through the lens of of Disney stories, and he never quite seems to 'grasp' it (I hate using that word), because it's not something he can relate to. He can relate to loving his friends, and he seems to love seeing people in love, but he seems to lack understanding of what everyone is telling him 'love' is. How many times has he seen it play out, been filled with joy for the person involved, but not 'grasped' whatever he was supposed to from it?

The only person who seems to explain it in a way that he can grasp is Hercules in Kingdom Hearts 3, and he doesn't explain it as 'I am romantically in love with Meg and she needed me' he just says that 'Meg needed me and it helped me regain my strength.'

Donald and Goofy nudge a lot at Sora having a crush on Kairi. Roxas even says 'you're the one he likes' about Kairi. But I was once fifteen and I know that things aren't always so black and white and one can think they have a crush on someone because they adore them so much but it isn't really that.

I didn't want to just jump on the person's post, but someone made a post that mentioned the scene toward the end of KH3 with Kairi offering the paopu fruit, and how Sora was more worried about Riku isolating himself, and I also want to add that he really didn't seem to understand why Kairi was sharing the fruit at all. He knew what it meant now, but it didn't 'click', and it took her saying it was 'just in case' and implying that they were making their own meaning to share it.

Sora truly loves his friends, especially Riku and Kairi, more than anything. More than life itself. But not in the way they do him, if you go with the standard reading (that I agree with tbh) of they both are in love with Sora.

Do I see Sora ending up with one of them (either of them? Both of them?) or anyone at all? Realistically, yes. He lives in Disney Universe(tm), where Romantic Love seems to overrule all. Would he be happy? Maybe, to an extent. But he'd never truly understand what part of himself there is that is so 'broken' that keeps breaking over and over.