The Princess and her Shadow

[divineduckling]

Ironically, this is merely an Introduction of a sort to what will come next. Think of this as the "Index" Post for a rather long and tedius essay which will be divided into separate posts according to Topic due to its massive length.
If you still don't want to read everything down here, remember it's spoilerish to heck and back.
At least read the Thesis before clicking on ahead.
Thank you.

• Introduction (You are here)
  
• Kairi
• Namine
• Sora/Kairi
• Sora/Namine
• The Promises (Because these deserve their own sub-topic)
  
• What She Made Him Promise (Sora/Kairi)
  
• What He Promised to Her (Sora/Namine)
• Riku, Sora, and the Girls
• SoRiKai
• SoRiNami

Relevant series:
    Kingdom Hearts video game series, manga (C) Square Enix, Disney, not me, nope nope.

Subject:
    A deep and as comprehensive a comparison as I could possibly make between Kairi and Namine, the two female leads in the game.

Thesis:
    The first is the official leading female, the glamorous Disney Princess amongst the Square characters in the game.
The other - a witch, a shadow character which came from Darkness and to Darkness she did return, forgotten by all.
I must ask you though - is it fair? Is that the way the roles truly were to be handed out?
I shall now bring before you the characters involved, an analysis of the plot events concerning our two lovelies, and a break down of the relevant relationships on the way to a conclusion.

A little about this essay:
    This, I'm very proud to say, first saw light as a lecture in the recent anime convention we had here (March '08). However, due to demand I am now translating it and slightly extending it for the greater good.
Now, while this is indeed an essay about Kingdom Hearts, I am not here to tell you the story of Kingdom Hearts. I'm here to analyze the living hell out of the poor game.
Onward to the point.
    On one hand, we have Kairi - part of the main threesome, she is all but guaranteed a life of glamour, filled with screen-time, and action figures featuring her in her school-girl outfit.
    On the other hand we have Namine, the Princess's Shadow, destined to disappear and never to appear again with Sora not even remembering her.
What's my point? My point is rather simple -

Starting from the character concept, through the plot relevance, up to relationships - I will show that no, that role division is not fair.

Why? Well that's what I'm here for, aren't I? ;) To explain.

Intentions:

• I'll begin by saying I'm not here to mock Kairi. I'd like to differentiate between "Ew, that Kairi is coming in between my wonderful SoRiku ship, she must DIE!!!" - Which besides being not true because nothing comes between Sora and Riku - is simply bashing. I don't do that (or at least try my hardest not to, you were warned in advance should my frustrations take the better of me).
  What I am here to do, however, is present as objective a character analysis of Kairi as I can - and while it might not be the most positive way in which the character can be seen, that is my opinion of her created by the mere facts and happenings in the game.
• That said, I'll stress - what I'm dealing with are facts. You might not agree with how I view those facts, but I tried my very hardest to stick to the facts. I don't make up things, just offer a possible explanation.
• It is quite possible I over-thought these explanations. Most likely. But then again, that's what I do. It's up to you to agree\disagree with me after you thought it over. Be your decision what it may, if I got you thinking over it seriously for a while before you decided - I did my job. Be it with you agreeing with me or deeming me a complete and utter loon. That one's up to you ;)

Warnings:

Ah yes, warnings, because no good essay is complete without them :)

• This one goes without saying but SPOILERS!!!
  Yup. How unexpected
  This essay contains spoilers to all three games (yes, I'm counting Chain of Memories in because hey - how can you properly, honestly, fairly talk about Namine if you don't talk about CoM?)
  Also, there will be references to Final Mix additions, but I'll be subtle about those. Either you won't notice I slid it in, or I'll be a bit unprofessional and say "don't believe me? Go look it up" - because there's a limit to how much I can spoil in an environment in which not everyone understands Japanese enough to play those games. So, bear with me? *puppy eyes*
• Now I know a few people who don't take the manga into consideration. I do. Because when Sora meets Riku in KH1 and Riku disappears and Sora seems fine with it, I yelled at him for being a brat. In the manga, however, they showed him poking the wall of the Gummi Ship wondering if Riku's mad at him. Now it's possible this came from the novels - but seeing how the novels are the true Bible of Kingdom Hearts, all the more reason for me to accept and acknowledge the manga.
• I said it before, I'll say it again, and hopefully this time people who're bothered by this will understand - I am not Kairi-friendly. I present quite a non-flattering character analysis for her and quite a frustration from an obvious lack of investment in both time and quality in such a seemingly important and main character.
• Other side of that exact coin - I'm showing why Kairi shouldn't be such a main character. As such, I must bring an alternative - namely, why I think Namine should be more important than she is or at least - recognized as such. Don't like her? I'm sorry, I do, and I'm showing exactly why.
• Sora/Riku. Ok let's face it - you don't see this happening be it romantic or simply friendship - you didn't pay attention to a single piece of plot or happening in the game. Now I'm not coming here to talk about them specifically - you got the game doing the talking for me to prove them being the most amazing BFFs ever. I do, however, use this for two things -
  
• One is comparing other relationships to this one - since this is an officially based, well created and developed relationship. This is how relationships should be, thus what I compare Kairi and Namine's relationships to when dealing with Sora's relationships with the girls. Still nose-wrinkled? Bear with me, it sounds worse than it actually is.
• Humor. Because really, as much as I might like them as a couple, SoRiku is so painfully obvious and existence and based it's one of those things you have to be able to jest about, at least a little. So yeah :)

Now that this is out of the way, I can let myself start off with the juicy parts ;)
I suggest these be read by order since I'm referring back from them to what I talked about before, but it's up to you to choose your poison (Links will be put up as the Parts are Posted) -

• Introduction (You are here)
  
• Kairi
• Namine
• Sora/Kairi
• Sora/Namine
• The Promises (Because these deserve their own sub-topic)
  
• What She Made Him Promise (Sora/Kairi)
  
• What He Promised to Her (Sora/Namine)
• Riku, Sora, and the Girls
• SoRiKai
• SoRiNami