I was angry, and may always be angry, that my Hermoine – after all she (and I) had been through – ended up as, well, another Disney princess.Delving into Kingdom Hearts for a newcomer is, in a word, overwhelming. It didn’t matter that Sora is seemingly bringing Kairi back with the Power of Waking, only to find himself in a strange new land that hinted at future games or DLC. I finished the game and I don’t really care. Kingdom Hearts was a beloved part of my life, but now I’m left with a sense of emptiness. And now he’s going to have to save her too. All so Sora could do the thing that he was probably going to do anyway. She became a goddamn Keyblade Wielder, who spent most of Kingdom Hearts 3 training to become a master – only to face down a few Heartless (mostly offscreen), get kidnapped, and then murdered. She brought Sora back from the Final World, showing she could finally be the one to rescue him. Kairi demonstrated how she was resourceful, clever, and brave. She started out as the damsel in distress, but the series kept promising things would be different in this latest instalment. It’s especially insulting when you look at how much of the Kingdom Hearts series, at least in the latter half, was spent showing us how Kairi was more than a Princess of Heart. It’s still fridging, which is a weak plot device. As far as we know, killing Kairi didn’t do anything for Kingdom Hearts other than take her out of the story.īut even if killing Kairi had been the only way to motivate Sora to fight Xehanort, that wouldn’t make it ok. Plus, Sora would do anything for his friends and loved ones, even risk everything. It was the only thing he could do to save the worlds from destruction. His entire journey had led to that moment. However, I’d be remiss if I didn’t note how nothing indicated Sora was giving up the fight. Threaten his friends, steal Winnie the Pooh’s book, make a shitty soufflé that Sora would feel compelled to fix.
![kingdom hearts 3 kairi kingdom hearts 3 kairi](http://images6.fanpop.com/image/photos/35000000/Kairi-3-kingdom-hearts-35066803-497-800.jpg)
Granted, Sora was hesitant about dueling blades with Xenahort, because of what it would lead to, but Xehanort could’ve enticed him in any number of ways. On the surface, it’s not only regressive, it’s unnecessary. They didn’t even try to shy away from it, it’s right there on the screen: “You require motivation.” The series had the audacity to kill off the franchise’s main female character, solely to motivate the male character to clash blades with Xehanort and create the x-blade. Kairi’s death did nothing and served no purpose, other than proving once again that female characters in Kingdom Hearts will always be secondary (don’t even get me started on how the latest game treated Aqua). Even if there’s a magic “undo” button, I won’t ever forget this story choice. And in this particular story, it is implied Sora is going to try and bring Kairi back but this still might be one of the worst examples of fridging – or the act of torturing or killing a female character to further a man’s journey-since Gail Simone came up with the term back in 1999.
![kingdom hearts 3 kairi kingdom hearts 3 kairi](https://i.pinimg.com/736x/99/c2/28/99c228d7c07ffbdf60c8677b6b9c6f81.jpg)
Now I need to preface this by saying “death” in Kingdom Hearts is a bit weird-characters tend to die and come back to life a lot. Words cannot explain how infuriated this moment made me, but I’m sure as hell going to try. That’s right: Xehanort fridges Kairi, to make Sora mad enough to fight him. There’s just one keyblade missing.Īs Sora stands at the base of the cliff, ready to battle Xehanort for the future of all worlds, this happens. Every major character Sora clashes with gets Xehanort closer to his x-blade, Kingdom Hearts, and reigniting the Keyblade War. Sora’s doing his thing, defeating enemies with the power of love and Toy Box swords, as Xehanort cackles in the background how it’s all part of his master plan. I just didn’t think the sacrifice would take the form of one of the most sexist tropes in the book.Ī majority of the final battle in the game is spent at the Keyblade Graveyard, as Sora and his friends face down Xehanort and his army of Heartless, Nobodies, and Organisation XIII members. Saving the worlds and the people he cares about was going to take a great amount of sacrifice… I also figured Sora wasn’t going to sail into his happy ending, sitting on the beach sharing a paopu fruit with Kairi-at least not easily. They had each other, and Kairi, who had embraced her destiny as a keyblade warrior. Otherwise, what would be the plot of Kingdom Hearts 3? But I did know that they were no longer alone. I knew that Sora’s struggles hadn’t ended just because he and Riku were home.