My thoughts on Kairi and her characterization
So, a very popular opinion among the fandom is that Kairi is a flat character with just about no personality, and completely useless except for a random plot device... And I strongly disagree on the first item.
For starters, let's go into personality. Over the two games we don't see much screentime with her, but we do see quite a bit of her personality. Let's see:
When we first see her, she immediatly starts making a crack at Sora's lazyness, and then proceeding to make a joke with Riku about her own lazyness. So, we can see that she's generaly a cheerful person, which, last time I checked, is a personality trait.
Now, skip to when she, Donald and Goofy are trying to escape Hollow Bastion, and heartless!Sora appears, and Kairi recognises him. She's immediatly ready to put herself in the line of fire to protect Sora, even though she probably isn't all that sure that it really is Sora. So she obviously values her friends and is willing to at least try and protect them. Another personality trait.
Onto the second game. She's been waiting for Riku and Sora (altough not remembering him most of the time) for a full year. She could have just moved on and completely forgotten about Riku (Namine took care of her forgetting Sora for her), but she still waited for them, and when the chance to meet them arised, she jumped to it head on. So, she has enough patience to wait for things untill the right time comes along (or at least untill she's forced to go). More personality traits
Cue to The World that Never Was. She's willing to fight Saïx even thought she's more than likely to lose and then grabs a keyblade and fights, while stlll making a joke about Sora. So, she's not willing to go down that easly if she can help it, and is willing to fight if need be. Would you like this personality trait in a paper or a plastic bag?
So, seeing this, I think it is fair to say that while Kairi could certainly use some more fleshing out of her, she certainly offers writers something to work with, and for people to like or dislike her. Hell, you can even go beyond the obvious stuff, and try and work some quirks into her based on canon scenes. Jumping into a portal of darkness without having any idea where she'd up, only to end up being kidnapped? Jumping down a buiding only to be mobbed by heartless? I dunno, but I personally think this could very well be used to argue that sometimes she doesn't really thinks things trough. So seriously people, at least IMHO, it's not that Nomura didn't give us anything to work with when it comes to Kairi, you just have to look for it.
Huh? And about the Kairi as a plot device thing? heh, I'll leave it for another time. Like, when it's not 2 AM. Maybe.
For starters, let's go into personality. Over the two games we don't see much screentime with her, but we do see quite a bit of her personality. Let's see:
When we first see her, she immediatly starts making a crack at Sora's lazyness, and then proceeding to make a joke with Riku about her own lazyness. So, we can see that she's generaly a cheerful person, which, last time I checked, is a personality trait.
Now, skip to when she, Donald and Goofy are trying to escape Hollow Bastion, and heartless!Sora appears, and Kairi recognises him. She's immediatly ready to put herself in the line of fire to protect Sora, even though she probably isn't all that sure that it really is Sora. So she obviously values her friends and is willing to at least try and protect them. Another personality trait.
Onto the second game. She's been waiting for Riku and Sora (altough not remembering him most of the time) for a full year. She could have just moved on and completely forgotten about Riku (Namine took care of her forgetting Sora for her), but she still waited for them, and when the chance to meet them arised, she jumped to it head on. So, she has enough patience to wait for things untill the right time comes along (or at least untill she's forced to go). More personality traits
Cue to The World that Never Was. She's willing to fight Saïx even thought she's more than likely to lose and then grabs a keyblade and fights, while stlll making a joke about Sora. So, she's not willing to go down that easly if she can help it, and is willing to fight if need be. Would you like this personality trait in a paper or a plastic bag?
So, seeing this, I think it is fair to say that while Kairi could certainly use some more fleshing out of her, she certainly offers writers something to work with, and for people to like or dislike her. Hell, you can even go beyond the obvious stuff, and try and work some quirks into her based on canon scenes. Jumping into a portal of darkness without having any idea where she'd up, only to end up being kidnapped? Jumping down a buiding only to be mobbed by heartless? I dunno, but I personally think this could very well be used to argue that sometimes she doesn't really thinks things trough. So seriously people, at least IMHO, it's not that Nomura didn't give us anything to work with when it comes to Kairi, you just have to look for it.
Huh? And about the Kairi as a plot device thing? heh, I'll leave it for another time. Like, when it's not 2 AM. Maybe.