The answer to Kairi being a useless character

[Iscreamer1 100]

After seeing this: http://www.khinsider.com/editorials/Kairi-The-True-Forgotten-Girl-in-Kingdom-Hearts-3275 I pretty much thought that none of you were getting it, Nomura is not sexist, he's simply following the customs of his native Japan, this quote and article should help.

 

For simplified users: "In Japan, men come first and women come second." -Alotta Fagina, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) Audio link: http://www.hark.com/clips/kcfgpwcsmb-in-japan-men-come-first-and-women-come-second

 

For detailed users: http://justanotherjapaneseblowupdoll.tumblr.com/post/27805703382/survey-is-japan-a-sexist-country and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Japan

 

 

So, does this solve ANYTHING to you about Kairi being a "useless" character?

[Dracozombie 4,554]

So according to you, Nomura isn't sexist, he's just following sexist customs.  'Kay.  And if he designed Kairi in such a way that she follows these customs, then yes, by definition she's getting the short end of the stick.

[Vortex_Nite 118]

IMO i think kairi is not to be considered a "useless" character. she is a character that plays a BIG role in Kingdom hearts games. Without kairi, Kingdom Hearts story isnt as good as it is now. Please correct me if im wrong...

[VisitJoan 2,713]

I haven't read the article but now I have a question - Not that I think Kairi is useless.  Wasn't Aqua the only main character who made it through Birth by Sleep conscious?

[Weiss 8,279]

*stretches*

let's do this

After seeing this: http://www.khinsider.com/editorials/Kairi-The-True-Forgotten-Girl-in-Kingdom-Hearts-3275 I pretty much thought that none of you were getting it

That is a different forum. So odds are only a couple of kh13 members if any commented there

 

 

Nomura is not sexist, he's simply following the customs of his native Japan, this quote and article should help.

Well he IS Japanese soooo

 

 

 

For simplified users: "In Japan, men come first and women come second." -Alotta Fagina, Austin Powers: International Man of Mystery (1997) Audio link: http://www.hark.com/clips/kcfgpwcsmb-in-japan-men-come-first-and-women-come-second

 

For detailed users: http://justanotherjapaneseblowupdoll.tumblr.com/post/27805703382/survey-is-japan-a-sexist-country and en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Women_in_Japan

 

 

So, does this solve ANYTHING to you about Kairi being a "useless" character?

Thing is it's very likely for her to be useful in kh3. Give it time

I haven't read the article but now I have a question - Not that I think Kairi is useless.  Wasn't Aqua the only main character who made it through Birth by Sleep conscious?

Terra was concious mentally within Terranort but Aqua's the only one who was still concious with control over her body still.

["Photos"GIM? 72]

shes good for upskirts

[Velvet Scarlatina 607]

I hope you realized you're calling Nomura sexist regardless of your wording.

[Reyn 1,755]

I haven't read the article but now I have a question - Not that I think Kairi is useless.  Wasn't Aqua the only main character who made it through Birth by Sleep conscious?

Dude, you got it all wrong.

 

Ventus is the only one who managed to stop Xehanort to a certain degree(By Destroying Vanitas, he destroyed the X-Blade that their battle forged). Terra became a host for Xehanort and made things worse, and Aqua saved Xehanort-Terra and made things EVEN WORSE. They were more useless than Ventus. But at least they tried, Kairi really hasn't done anything though.

[Dave 5,715]

I don't find Kairi to be useless at all.

 

Sure, she can't fight, and she gets lost in the glare of the exploits of Sora and Riku, but, well, that's what makes her identifiable. Kairi is totally us. Unless you can fly, wield a weapon with lightning speed, and tackle every obstacle you run into physically. All Kairi has to offer is good will and perseverance of the mind, and that's what most of us would be offering in her situation.

 

Kairi is one of the primary sources of humanity in the story, and one of the things that the audience can relate to. 

[Javelin434 3,164]

IMO i think kairi is not to be considered a "useless" character. she is a character that plays a BIG role in Kingdom hearts games. Without kairi, Kingdom Hearts story isnt as good as it is now. Please correct me if im wrong...

No. this is right. Nothing wrong here.

[Dracozombie 4,554]

I don't find Kairi to be useless at all.

 

Sure, she can't fight, and she gets lost in the glare of the exploits of Sora and Riku, but, well, that's what makes her identifiable. Kairi is totally us. Unless you can fly, wield a weapon with lightning speed, and tackle every obstacle you run into physically. All Kairi has to offer is good will and perseverance of the mind, and that's what most of us would be offering in her situation.

 

Kairi is one of the primary sources of humanity in the story, and one of the things that the audience can relate to. 

 

I understand the sentiment, but it's precisely because she's us and gets overshadowed that a lot of people don't like her.  She's not useless in the sense of being worthless, that you can take her out of the picture and nothing changes.  She's "useless" because the way the plot has functioned in regards to her character means it's hard for her to be proactive and engaging like the other protagonists--her being overshadowed hurts her character.  The story holds her as this major person but she doesn't really deliver outside of what she is--a Princess of Heart, which is given more focus as a plot device than something to do with who she is as a person.  For someone who's supposed to be the most important person in Sora's life, we don't really see nearly enough of that closeness for it to feel like it has substance.  I mean, it's there, but when you compare it to Sora's dynamic with Riku, Kairi kinda falls into the background.  There's a reason the yaoi fangirls run this fandom.  KH is not kind to its female characters.

[lux 13]

I agree that Kairi lost space in the story in the last games, but she's a princess of heart, keyblade wilder and a possible candidate for the 7 guardians of light, shares a connection with Aqua that might be helpful to save her and the old plot device to fuel Sora/Riku's journey and maybe an eventual fight between those two. Long story short, she have a huge set of possibilities to be a major character in KH3.

[VisitJoan 2,713]

Dude, you got it all wrong.

 

Ventus is the only one who managed to stop Xehanort to a certain degree(By Destroying Vanitas, he destroyed the X-Blade that their battle forged). Terra became a host for Xehanort and made things worse, and Aqua saved Xehanort-Terra and made things EVEN WORSE. They were more useless than Ventus. But at least they tried, Kairi really hasn't done anything though.

OK.  Hold on.  First of all I would not go blaming Aqua.  Yes, her actions did makes things bad, but that was not her intention.  She saw that Terra was still inside there and saved him with the hope that he would take his body back.  How would she know that he wouldn't win?  Yes, it was an option to save herself and let XT stay in the ROD, but she wasn't going to do that to her friend.  That makes her a good person.

[Koko 3,944]

cultural customs does not excuse sexism. as well, i love kairi. she has so much potential, but nomura handles her character (and the rest lf the female characters, with the exception of aqua) very poorly.

although i really love dave's interpretation of her character

Edited April 26, 2013 by Koko

[Iscreamer1 100]

Didn't anyone get my answer? Kairi's limited actions might have something to do with Japanese tradition. (In case you have not forgotten, Kingdom Hearts is a J-A-P-A-N-E-S-E game.)

[Koko 3,944]

Didn't anyone get my answer? Kairi's limited actions might have something to do with Japanese tradition. (In case you have not forgotten, Kingdom Hearts is a J-A-P-A-N-E-S-E game.)

that doesnt make it any less ~sexist~most societies are patriarchal, including japan so kh being a japanese game isnt any excusefiretruck the patriarchy

[4Everbee 1,365]

I want to take a knife and just stab everybody.

"OMG HE LIVES IN JAPAN HELLO! LIKE HE HAS TO DO IT!" Like hahaha, no he does not. 

[Reyn 1,755]

OK.  Hold on.  First of all I would not go blaming Aqua.  Yes, her actions did makes things bad, but that was not her intention.  She saw that Terra was still inside there and saved him with the hope that he would take his body back.  How would she know that he wouldn't win?  Yes, it was an option to save herself and let XT stay in the ROD, but she wasn't going to do that to her friend.  That makes her a good person.

True. But my point is, Ventus was the only one who managed to Achieve the goal of stopping Xehanort, to a certain Degree. As good as Aqua is, She's a Keyblade Master and she failed her most important jobs: to Save Terra from the Darkness, Bring Ventus home and Stop Xehanort. In the end, her good intentions ultimately helped Xehanort. Because she wasn't strong enough to complete her missions. Ventus running away was kinda her and Terra's fault too, since they never thought he was strong enough to hold his own. But i guess, if it wasn't for that, Ventus wouldn't have destroyed the X-Blade.

[khoathkeeper13 429]

Japanese customs. Right.  Now explain Lightning.  And Fang.  And Aqua.

Don't get me started on the "Kairi's useless" topic, I'll go on a rant.  Actually I would if it wasn't nearly midnight and I have to get up in about 5 hours.  Just because she's caught in certain positions doesn't make her useless.  She isn't useless.  She'll be kicking butt in KH3.

[Ruran 481]

I'd sooner relate Kairi's treatment in the series due to Disney rather than Nomura being Japanese. When you look at Kairi's character, especially in the first game, she's very much a "classic Disney princess", even down to the fight with Maleficent in Dragon form right before you find her and wake her up as a nice call back to Sleeping Beauty. Ultimately it was still Nomura's call but I always got the impression with Kairi's character that since she was a PoH Nomura wanted to make her like the other princesses on some level so the ickey result was making her a DiD/designated "love interest"/McGuffin girl and even the Smurfette. Combine what we got in the game with the concept art of Kairi doing all the domestic things like reading, gardening, cooking, balancing the large portions of food she cooked, and feeding Sora and Riku the large portions of food she cooked while she stands by them waiting with a platter aaaaaaaand...the only thing missing is to have her sing while cute island animals help her in her womanly tasks. 

 

Regardless, is it still sexiest? I'd say so. Is there an excuse for it? Or at least a good enough reason? Eeeeehhhhhh.........If you wanna look on the brighter side of things and give Nomura the benefit of the doubt we can say he was just following classic story and Disney conventions because of KH having a certain "fairy tale" like quality to it. Although looking at the other female characters and how KH is a sausage fest there's not a lot of leeway there even if you can find some (some) excuse for Kairi.

[Rob 5,571]

If Nomura wanted her to be useful, it would happen.

[Kaiso 2,764]

Heaven forbid that a character's story isn't fully developed yet.

[PublicLibraryx 55]

In the end, Nomura never reads or looks at fan content, so he'll do whatever he wants with Kairi.

[Britipinojeff 95]

IMO i think kairi is not to be considered a "useless" character. she is a character that plays a BIG role in Kingdom hearts games. Without kairi, Kingdom Hearts story isnt as good as it is now. Please correct me if im wrong...

youre not wrong actually lol cuz if kairi wasnt there then sora would have no motivation to go around and find her. he also wouldnt have killed himself and made roxas and namine.