Hi Liz have you seen the new addition to SR theory where they say that Kairi is a Chirity I would like to hear your thoughts on that because as soon as I saw the post it just gave me a migraine, tbh I think the whole SR theory is nothing more than a bunch of crap. I love hearing your opinion, anyway the whole theory is just trying to push parallels that I think are nothing more than just that. How Kairi became a chirity to help them cross the world line. I'm sorry it probably makes no sense.
I sure have! I know exactly what you’re getting at, don’t worry. I’ve got a few people who alert me of this kind of stuff when it happens so I’ve got stuff prepared already
The whole update is just full of cherry-picked moments, misrepresented facts, and conclusion jumping. And it’s short. So let’s get into why, exactly, it’s a terrible argument
The new post starts off with a recap of something covered in the theory document itself, namely how the KH3 Dive uses imagery from the KH1 intro, which they use in the document to claim that the light is Riku. Now, I already covered this in my debunk posts, but since making those, @qazawsxs2 has brought to my attention a little parallel that the theory writers conveniently leave out. Corroborating what I claimed about the Darksides near-universally representing Sora’s darkness, it turn out that the way the Darkside is introduced in KH3 is framed exactly the same way that it’s introduced in KH1 Dive, where it was unquestionably related to Sora’s darkness. They keep trying to push that the Darkside is related to Kairi through a non-perfect parallel to the KH1 opening, while ignoring what the Darkside is a perfect parallel to. Post proving this: here.
The writer of that post goes on to claim that they’re not saying that Kairi is the Darkside and like… I’m sorry, can you really blame anyone for thinking that’s what you were saying when all they did was apply the same logic you used to prove that the Light was Riku to the Darkside argument? The theory, in no uncertain terms, states that because that Light is where Riku was in the KH3 opening that it is Riku’s light guiding Sora. It’s not a stretch to come to the conclusion that you’re implying that the Darkside is Kairi when the document itself brings up the Riku = Light argument and the only transition to Kairi is:
“And who is it that greets Sora when he breaches the water? In KH3, we get [the Darkside]. In KH1 we get… Kairi.” (pg. 93)
Either the Light is Riku and the Darkside is Kairi, or the Light is only kind of related to Riku and the Darkside is only kind of related to Kairi. You cannot say that your argument applies to only one of those scenarios when you use the same argument to frame both
And again, all of the proposed explanations in the document for the Darkside/Kairi connection state that the Darkside is Kairi in some way:
“So, is this Kairi’s heart? Trapped in The Final World, the brink of death where they all were but a hop skip moment ago? Is she within a pseudo Heartless, like a guise? Is it a possible Xion situation by means of a forced fight to pay a supposed “price” for world hopping in an attempt to save her friends?” (pg. 97)
So, yes, they absolutely did claim that the Darkside was Kairi and now saying that all they were claiming is that there was a connection reeks of backpedaling. And that’s just the start of how disingenuous this post is
The post then goes on to point out the similarity between Sora waking up in The Final World and Sora waking up at the start of KH1. And, sure, I’ll give them that it might be an intentional parallel. It’s not as similar as the callbacks to the KH1 Intro and Darkside are since none of the camera angles are the same, but that absolutely could be an intentional animation parallel
Aaaaaand that’s about as far as the parallel actually goes! Here’s where the pretty blatant cherry-picking starts.
First off, the scenes of Sora waking up aren’t actually as similar as they claim. In KH1, it’s exactly as it is in that post: we see the sun shining, then we cut directly to Sora’s eyes fluttering open… he sits up, looks around, and then lays right back down, but jolts up when Kairi leans over him
In KH3, though, we see then sun shining (which is more zoomed-in than in KH1), and then we get a wide shot of The Final World with Sora’s spectral body. The camera does a closer pan of Sora’s spectral body so that we can see how messed up he is. Then his eyes flutter open when it reaches his face (more zoomed-out than in KH1). He sits up and looks around, using absolutely none of the same camera angles as in KH1 and with the camera using first-person shots way less (if at all, the only one I spotted might not have even been first-person given how The Final World is). Sora then struggles to his feet on his own, world title card appears, and then you get an entire damn walking around gameplay segment before Chirithy even shows up, descending from the sky
So you can already see that a certain theory writer just blatantly cherry-picked the three seconds that you could claim are even mildly similar while cutting out basically 95% of both scenes to try and force a parallel
They then go on to try and make a name parallel. Kairi contains the character “kai,” which is one of the alternate pronunciations for χ that Xehanort references, and they state that, yes, he uses the same character for the alternate pronunciation in Japanese as Kairi’s name does (while the English version subtitles it as “kye”). This could be intentional, yes. Kairi is one of the Seven Princesses of Heart, stated to hold the power necessary to forge the χ-Blade. But you know what they didn’t prove?
That the “chi” in “Chirithy” is related to the same symbol. Because while, yes, Chirithy does contain “chi,” which is how they subtitled the χ in Kingdom Hearts χ [chi], that’s a parallel that only exists in English, just like how the Kairi parallel only exists in Japanese. The “chi” in Chirithy is never pronounced like either of the given pronunciations of χ in either Japanese or English, and it doesn’t use the same characters as the KHχ title does in Japanese
They don’t even give any proof that the “chi” in Chirithy is supposed to stand for the χ. They can’t because if they did they’d have to acknowledge that it isn’t. The claim that both Kairi and Chirithy have the χ in their names only works if you’re relying on “common knowledge” that Chirithy’s name is derived from it, which there is absolutely no evidence of
Hyperbole has no place in an argument, so they shoot their own foot by stating that “THIS IS NOT NOTHING” in all caps about Kairi’s hood
And then they claim that Chirithy and Kairi share a symbol: the star. Technically false. Stars are a symbol of Light in KH. They have been since KH1 where the literal stars represented the light of the worlds. The past Keyblade wielders tasked with defending the Light were given Starlight Keyblades in KHχ, the BBS trio chats about it in the opening when they’re stargazing (which, btw, contains a more obvious parallel to Sora waking up in KH1 with Ven and Aqua than the Final World ever does), and most importantly:
A star-like symbol represents particles of Light in KHχ, called Lux
Which, by the way, is what Chirithy’s symbol actually is. It’s just an all-white Lux sigil. Which makes sense, since they’re supposed to help their wielders collect it
Kairi and Chirithy both have star-based sigils, but only because they’re both derived from Light. Kairi’s being because she’s a Princess with a heart of pure light, Chirithy because they’re intended to help their wielders collect fragments of it. Their symbols aren’t the same, but are simply derived from the same series-wide symbol. A symbol that specifically represents light
Also, they don’t even put any proof that Kairi’s symbol even is a star in that post. If you’re trying to prove a parallel, you’ve gotta put both versions in there. This is the second time it’s happened in that one post alone
And then they end on Sora telling Kairi in KH1 that he dreamed about a “huge, black THING” swallowing him up and then dying via Demon Tornado. Which, like… okay? What are you even trying to say? That because Sora dreamed about dying in the Darkness and saw Kairi, then actually died in the Darkness and saw Chirithy that it’s an intentional parallel? No. Those aren’t even the same Heartless, the scenes aren’t staged the same way, that’s not… that’s not even a parallel unless you stretch your definition of “parallel” like a taffy puller makes candy. It’s not even the first or only time Sora has been swallowed up by Darkness! If this is an intentional parallel, then they all are. Yes, even that time it happened because Maleficent was saving them in KH2. Kairi was secretly a box of ice cream all along. Good job, you figured out Kingdom Hearts
The only connection that Kairi and Chirithy have is that he tells Sora that Kairi’s holding him together, and even then he doesn’t say her name
You say that the theory is trying to push parallels as something more than parallels, and while I agree, it’s way more than that. They’re misrepresenting canon to try and make parallels that fit their interpretation, parallels that don’t actually exist, and then use them as evidence while conveniently forgetting that while a parallel can hint towards something, it is not always proof in and of itself. That’s their big failing here. There’s a reason I called their evidence “forged” at one point
