Kairi - Sora's Most Important Person?
I seriously think not. Here're some tidbits I came to realize about Kairi and wouldn't really mind a good debate about it - speficially the point raised in the topic.
Let this be named - The Essay, Appendix A, if only because it deals with Kairi and Namine both and what I believe to be misconceptions about it.
Today we shall discuss the following issues:
- How Namine canonically is nothing like Kairi in attitude.
- How Namine changed Sora's Memories so they'd be more "Kairi friendly".
- How Namine herself doesn't really believe that Kairi is Sora's Most Important Person (here on after called 'MIP').
Namine =\= Kairi behavior wise
Oddly enough, this was based in the games themselves (at least until Days comes around in two months and kicks me in the shin).
Think about it - even after several months in which he was around Namine, several months in which his Memories of his life were very much intact - Riku didn't know whose Nobody Namine was. He was next to her constantly, talked to her, interacted with her, but still, even as far as KH2, he still came to Diz and asked - whose Nobody was she.
Why am I bringing this up? Because, while Riku knew Roxas was Sora's Nobody, he didn't just accept it as a fact. He teased Roxas, dared Roxas, pushed all of Sora's buttons in Roxas, and in no time at all, Riku reached the conclusion - "You really are his Nobody...". As different as they might be, Roxas and Sora are still very much the same person in their core.
With Namine, however, it's different.
I'd think that over the duration of several months that Riku just might have gotten Namine to react in a Kairi-like manner, at least enough for it to connect with her face being identical to the pink girl's... but alas, up to the very end, despite having known Kairi for years and Namine for months, Riku had no idea whose Nobody Namine was. I guess just sharing a face (which still doesn't help too many people realize the relation when dealing with Namine and Kairi, as well as Roxas and Sora) doesn't really help if aside from the different hair, the attitudes are completely unlike each other too.
And if Riku didn't piece it together until the very end, I think that comes to show something about Namine and Kairi.
Now before you tell me that's something that might've changed from Somebody to Nobody, keep in mind that Sora and Roxas are similar, and if you want more - Xehanort and Xemnas. Tell me those two are not alike. I dare you.
Basis that Namine messed with Riku and Sora's Memories of her and Kairi, thus somehow meshing the two
Riku hadn't the slightest idea about whose Nobody Namine was, yet in the novels, he "suddenly" realized it when the mansion was being overrun by Nobodies and Namine was trying to stop them, however she could, shouting at them to leave Sora and Roxas alone.
Now, unless you wanna tell me that was the first Kairi-like moment Namine had during those months, in which case lol, Riku only recognizes Kairi when she's Sora-obsessed, one has to wonder what made Riku suddenly connect the two dots which are Kairi and Namine.
My conspiracy theory says that Namine messed with Sora's Memories (and apparently not only his) to make him believe she really did replace Kairi in his Memories - by doing the opposite and having Kairi replace her in the fake Memories.
That's exactly what Namine would have to do to Riku in order for him to think that Namine was Kairi's Nobody all out of the blue.
Sora's Memories of Kairi and some Memories of Namine would involve Riku. Hence, when those would be delinked, Riku was to forget them too. At this point, Namine modified Sora's Memories more than she should've - making Kairi appear a more favorable presence in Sora's mind in Namine's absence. Hence a lot of things that happened in KH2 until Sora met Kairi for what she is.
Now, since at least some of those are Sora's real Memories, Namine'd have to re-link them, if not a couple of extra Memories she slapped Kairi on. Some of those Memories would no doubt have Riku in them. The re-linked Memories, being Memories shared by both Sora and Riku, would be "recalled" by Riku as well. Therefore, Riku was affected too and saw Kairi in Namine because Namine made them both see herself in Kairi.
Hence why when Sora's Memories were finally restored, just before he woke up - Riku suddenly realized whose Nobody Namine was - because she for the first time, she really turned Kairi into herself in their Memories, while letting her keep her presence as Kairi.
I'm highly amused.
Will repeat explanation if necessary.
Namine asking Sora to choose
It dawned on me now that Namine herself admitted to not really believing what she told Sora about Kairi being his most important person.
I mean, if Kairi really was Sora's most important person, why make him choose?
- I'd think that, had Kairi truly been the most important person to Sora, at the point in time in which Sora was aware of everything that happened, that she wouldn't have asked him to choose. Even if Sora himself didn't quite remember Kairi, Namine would've known what she was keeping from Sora and with her belief that she could never truly bury his past, she'd have known that his 'love' for Kairi would one day surface and burst their bubble.
She wouldn't have offered it to him had she truly believed it to be true, despite everything she told Larxene. What would've been the point of offering Sora a life-time of fake Memories if his Memories of Kairi were to resurface eventually one day because he loved her? (This, of course, also proves my long time point, that Sora's Memories of Kairi didn't resurface "on their own" after the Destiny Islands Memory Floor - otherwise again, what's the point of offering Sora to keep the fake ones if his true Memories only needed time to resurface? And what was the point of the Org's plan then, to begin with?!)
- Her reaction to his decision.
When Sora chose his true Memories, it wasn't "oh, you chose her over me", though some might understand it as such. However, that is not necesarilly the case. It's "you chose the truth over the lie", what was compared to what isn't. She wasn't depressed Sora chose Kairi, so much as he didn't choose Namine. The thing is that she also accepted that what he chose over her had so much more to offer than just Kairi (as shown by all the people Sora saw at the end before falling asleep), to the point Kairi being part of what he chose is redundant (aside of course from being the means to an end through which Namine hoped to keep Sora's attention away from she herself).
And then of course we have Sora's promise at the end, that he'll make it all real, to which Namine replies with - you won't remember me.
It's not "you'll have Kairi now"; it's not "you won't love me anymore because you'll love her", it's - "you won't remember." He won't remember he had someone more important than Kairi in his life - mostly because as it seems, Namine made sure he won't remember, as is presented in the above paragraphs.