who is riku?
Riku is the antagonist and rival to Sora in the game Kingdom Hearts. While his role in the game seems easily summarized, he is truly a complex and interesting character.
When you first meet Riku on the islands, he comes off as a little bit arrogant, sarcastic, and competitive. Full of laughter and smug grins, he can constantly be found challengning Sora to prove that he is stronger. This friendly rivarly is what makes him stand out. He almost seems to be the catalyst for many of Sora's actions. Despite all this, he is really caring towards his friends, and is always watching over them. Wanting to discover new worlds, he and his friends construct a raft to assist them in their travels. On the night of the Destiny Islands' destruction, he used the darkness to take him to new places, leaving his friends behind.
His boldness and willingness to take chances got him into trouble. Finding himself working for Maleficent, he does odd errands here and there to help the witch out in order to gain powers and to find his friends. His main goal was to reunite his group of friends. Maleficent manipulated him into believing that Sora was working against him, so he set off to find Kairi alone. With each chore he completes for Maleficent, he gains powers and comes closer to finding his missing female companion. The powers he had were getting to his head, and when he and Sora finally reunite, he finds himself feeling abandoned by his former friend when the younger boy declines Riku's offer to join him.
Having found Kairi in a comatose state, he continued to build upon his dark powers using Maleficent. His overconfidence made him overlook the fact that the more powerful he became, the less of a grip on reality he had. The manipulations to his mind and body were changing him into a power-hungry fool. By the time Sora reached Hollow Bastion, Riku was close to his breaking point. His heart and body weren't made to handle the Heartless magic he weilded. Taking the keyblade and Sora's companions, he felt he had finally defeated his former friend. However, he underestimated Sora, and was quickly defeated.
This defeat is what broke him. Unable to understand how someone he had so easily beaten in the past had now surpassed him, he allowed a foreign entity to enter his body. This entity, Ansem, took control of the boy and used his powers and body in the hopes of defeating the keyblade master. After a rough battle in Hollow Bastion, Riku showed that he was still aware and present by stopping Ansem from attacking the freshly revived Kairi. This small act showed that through terrible consequences, Riku realized his mistakes and was trying desperately to fix them, even if he lacked control of his body.
No longer needing Riku, Ansem cast him off and set about his plans to spread heartless into the hearts of all worlds. Sora, however, was not to be underestimated. Many long battles occured which lead to the defeat of Ansem. The light within Kingdom Hearts destroyed him, and Sora set about sealing the doors. On the other side of the ivory entranceway, he found Riku. Wanting to make up for his mistakes and wrong-doing, Riku remained inside Kingdom Hearts, and assisted Sora in sealing the doorway. With a small smile and kind words, the doors were sealed, leaving the humbled boy with King Mickey inside the realm of hearts.