Personality
Since Serenity is divided up into sections based on the two games, this personality page is only focusing on the traits that shine through in Kingdom Hearts. Therefore, only Kingdom Hearts examples that support points made will appear here. Though some traits may be the same in the second game, I tried to base this page on just the first.To me, Kairi’s most prominent personality trait in Kingdom Hearts is her strong, unyielding will. Not only does her profile point this out, but also it is the most evident in her personality from the beginning. Kairi has confidence in what she believes to be right, and therefore is not willing to give up to defend that. After regaining her heart, Kairi refuses to believe that Sora is gone. Even though he turned into balls of light that disappeared in front of her eyes, she would not accept he was gone. She loved him, believed in him and knew that he would come back to her. If Kairi, Donald and Goofy had not run into Sora before they left, I am almost positive that she would refuse to leave without getting him back. Not only is her will displayed through this, but also how much she cares for other people, which gives her the strength for her will. It would not matter what happened to her as long as Sora could be okay. This is also evident when they become surrounded by Heartless and she shields Sora in Heartless form from getting hurt. Sora was able to return to his human form because Kairi refused to just give up and forget about him. Her voice reached him in the depths of the darkness not only because of their connection, but also because of her will to reach him and protect him from being hurt.
Part of the reason Kairi is so strong-willed is because she has a tendency to be rather stubborn, but I think those two tend to fall hand in hand. You cannot have a strong will without being somewhat stubborn. Once Kairi and Sora return to Traverse Town, she acts like the two of them will go together to get Riku back. Sora thinks that is a bad idea because it is too dangerous, but she would not give up there. Riku is important to her, and her heart made her feel she should help in rescuing her other best friend. Sora “argues” with her for a few more seconds before she pauses and finally says, “okay, you win”. Again, her concern for someone that she cared about motivated and empowered her will. Even though she knew deep down that there was probably nothing she could do to help since she could not fight at this point, she did not worry. Her desire to save Riku overpowered her concern for herself, if she had any at all.
This same scene leads me to one of her most important character traits in my opinion. I believe that Kairi has a general acceptance of humanity, particularly her own. Throughout literature and history, the hardest task for man to overcome was acceptance of their own humanity because they did not want to admit their imperfections and immortality. They want to believe they can do whatever they dream and that if you try hard enough, nothing is impossible. It is evident to me that Kairi does eventually come to understand that she is not on the same level as Sora and Riku. Even in the beginning, she knows she is not on the same athletic level as her two best friends. But she seems to be fine with that, as she runs behind the two racing boys, laughing. Kairi often is the judge of their competitions, rather than taking part of them. Accepting being on a different level than her two best friends was probably a hard task, but it was the first step in accepting her own humanity. Once she obtains her heart, Kairi then has to accept that she is once again separated from Sora and Riku in the fact that they have powers that enable them to fight against the darkness. Yes, Kairi has the powers of light and a pure heart on her side, but she does not have the same fighting capabilities as her two friends. When trying to convince Sora to let her come with him to find Riku, she pauses before agreeing. I have a feeling she had to take a step back and accept that in her current condition, she would not be of any use and would just be in the way. That is probably the real reason why she finally gave in, which also displays more courage than her wanting to go. Sometimes it takes more courage to accept that you cannot do anything and retreat than going out in the front lines and fighting. Kairi is a strong girl, and her acceptance of only being a somewhat normal, human girl only empowers her more. It also gives her wisdom and intelligence because she is not blinded by her emotions and she has the ability to step back and analyze whether or not she truly can do anything at all.
Though Kairi can be mature in Kingdom Hearts at times, I would probably argue that in comparison to the second game, she is actually pretty childish. At least before losing her heart. Kairi was naïve in the beginning and based on how she did not believe Sora’s “experience” and on Sora’s words in Neverland about how she probably would not believe his adventures, was not very open minded about things. She appeared to only see things on one level, and was on a very different thinking level than Riku, who brought up the idea of traveling to other worlds and seeing what is out there. Kairi appeared to me as enjoying her life on Destiny Islands without any other cares for what may be out there and also pretty simple-minded. She also tended to joke around a lot, giving her the outside appearance of not taking much seriously, as she was always giggling after saying things. Even when she randomly tells Sora they should take the raft and go themselves shows her to be outgoing, but she says “just kidding” afterwards. Kairi tells him to never change after mentioning how Riku seems to have changed, also giving me the opinion that she may have been scared of change. She did not want her carefree life to turn into something else. She may have had a sense of foreboding as to what is to come, or maybe she was concerned because she did not know what would happen on their journey. Either way, I believe this all changes once she wakes up in Hollow Bastion, because she has gone through so much and it has opened her eyes to what she had been blind to before. Kairi was thrown out into the world and forced to grow up. This is why her character in Kingdom Hearts II was much more mature, wise and most likely why she is more appealing to fans in the second game.
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