You are brain dead, the dictionary definition of media illiterate and incapable of decerning the messiness of morality. Do you need you heroes and villains to be ALL good and ALL bad respectively? Are you scared of being corrupted by "bad morals?"
Better make sure you're not late for Sunday School.
I think a really important point that's been missed by some people is that no one posting support for Marinette thinks that she's done the right thing by lying to Adrien. No one thinks she should be absolved of all responsibility for her choices. She messed up, plain and simple.
BUT -
She didn't do it to be malicious. She's a child - a child who has been used, abused and manipulated. She knew her decision was wrong almost as soon as she made it. She just has no idea how to make it right, now. It isn't just about Gabriel being Monarch. It's everything else attached to it. She doesn't know what to do, and she needs help.
I can already hear people saying, 'People have tried to help her!' Yeah, but not the way she needs. She needs someone she can talk to about everything. A human (not Tikki) who will hear her out and offer guidance. But there is no one she can turn to in that way. She's the Guardian. By definition, she's in a class of her own. Ever tried being the manager at work, the one responsible for fixing everyone else's problems? Let me tell you, it can be lonely at the top.
Anyway, she did try speaking to people. She tried reaching out to Luka and Alya, but their instantly emotional reactions made her draw even further into her shell. She tried to speak to Nathalie, but she only got more pressure, because god only knows what's going on over there. None of that was what Marinette needed to get clarity. She's not just a holder - she's the Guardian. Every decision is hers. Every burden is hers. And it was forced on her without a choice, without even an explanation of the consequences if she didn't want the job.
Even setting aside the magic, it's very common for abuse victims to avoid talking about what happened and what they're feeling, either because they feel shame or they feel they have to protect their abusers. This repression leads to their emotions exploding in other ways, usually through seemingly inexplicable or even dangerous behaviour. Marinette is behaving like a classic trauma-sufferer.
This doesn't mean Adrien can't be upset when he finds out the truth. Of course he can - he should - and he will be. But it also doesn't make Marinette a villain. Marinette deserves to explode for the same reasons Adrien does - because they've both been traumatised and exploited and manipulated by the same group of adults. She needs a really positive experience speaking to somebody, to help her open up. She needs a safe space to melt down as much as Adrien does, before they both pick up the pieces and move forward.
I actually think that they should break up - temporarily, while they figure themselves out separately. They're both struggling so much. When they've become whole, self-aware individuals, then they can come back together and have a mature relationship based on trust and mutual respect.
I expect this will parallel them finding out their identities, since that's always been symbolic for the fact that they're not being entirely true with each other or themselves. This is why the reveal still hasn't happened. They still have so much to learn about themselves.
So, I've been seeing a lot of hate for Marinette lately.
I'd just like to take this opportunity to remind everyone that Felix could have told Adrien the truth at any time, and unlike Marinette he's shown no guilt or conflicted feelings about Adrien's situation.
If anything, he seems content to just wait until it comes out on it's own and then act like the shoulder to cry on along with Amelie so he can keep Adrien dependent on him. Remind you of anyone?
And he's done something nobody else has even thought to do. Use Adrien's ignorance as a weapon against him.
Remember in Yakshi Gozen? When he yelled at Adrien for doing a magic trick with his ring? Ok sure, his life depends on it. But...
A: Adrien doesn't know that. Felix hasn't informed him of the truth of the matter. You can't withold information from someone, and then use their ignorance of that information as a reason they shouldn't be trusted or to lecture them. That's just textbook abuse.
B: Felix is a hypocrite. He was perfectly willing to use Adrien's ring as a bargaining chip to manipulate Gabriel into giving him the Peacock. No hesitation, no mixed feelings, no guilt. He used Adrien's life as a pawn in his plans, and saw no issues with this whatsoever.
So unless you're going to hate Felix just as much, don't dress up your Marinette hate as concern for Adrien. Because it's obviously not.
Alya was pretty calm. She hates the lie but calmly talks to Marinette about it. Marinette basically tries to reassure herself “You really think I would lie to my own boyfriend, my best friend, and the whole world?” But also like gaslighting Alya seeing if she actually knows. And she does she got it right and says yes. Alya isn't saying, “I don't trust you anymore.” She's saying, essentially. “I know you love us, and I still believe you are capable of lying to us.”
And she's right. Marinette has been lying, even if she believes she has good reasons. Marinette knows after some time that it was wrong and she keeps saying Alya is right. And she is but is sad for Marinette. Then Marinette immediately shifts to how disastrous her life is and how frightened she is of the new Butterfly holder.I feel like Marinette couldn't deal with round 2 of Alya's anger so she kept trying to change it, Marinette has also dealt with a lot so makes sense she brings it up. I think Alya understands that Marinette isn't lying because she doesn't care about her. She's lying because she's terrified. That explains why Alya stops pushing the issue.
She kinda manipulated Alya to not answer her questions.
Alya follows in the plan. Alya uses an illusion of Marinette and makes the illusion say. “My best friend lied to my face.” And then she looks directly at Ladybug. That's basically Alya communicating. “I'm not going to expose you. But I know.” And she let's Ladybug know she still mad but doesn't let anyone know but Ladybug knows what she doing and she has not forgotten even though helping her.
She doesn't embarrass Marinette. She doesn't reveal her secret. Instead, she finds a way to tell Marinette privately while they're both operating as superheroes.
Is really good of Alya, she is a good person because some people real life would never be as good as Alya has been. “If you want to remain best friends, never lie to me again. ”That's not really a threat. It's a boundary. Alya is basically saying:“ I still choose you. I'm still protecting you. I'm still your best friend. But you don't get unlimited chances to break my trust.”
And I think the fact that Alya tells Marinette she won't tell Adrien is enormously important. She's giving Marinette the responsibility to tell him herself. That is actually the opposite of what Chrysalis does.
Chrysalis uses secrets to control people. Alya uses a secret to protect someone while forcing them to confront the truth themselves. That's why I really like the idea that Alya and Chrysalis are being positioned as mirrors.
Alya isn't simply angry because Marinette lied. She's angry because Marinette made the same choice that hurt Alya in the first place: “I know what's best for you, so I'll decide what you should know.” Alya is basically rejecting that entire way of thinking.
I think Alya understands something Marinette doesn't want to face. Adrien is probably going to be angry. Maybe very angry than Alya has been.
But Alya doesn't think that anger means Marinette shouldn't tell him.
Adrien deserves to know the truth even if the truth hurts him. But Marinette believes. The truth will hurt him, therefore I should protect him from it.
can't confidently say Alya understands or accepts Marinette's reasoning.
Alya understands why Marinette made the choice, but fundamentally disagrees with the choice itself. Alya creates illusions specifically to make people believe something that isn't real.
But Alya doesn't seem to have a problem with all deception. She has a moral distinction.
Deception for a good reason acceptable.
Deception that takes someone's choice away not acceptable. Alya herself lies to Chrysalis. She creates a fake Marinette and deliberately makes Chrysalis believe something false. She is perfectly willing to deceive the villain because it's part of protecting people and stopping her.
But Marinette lies to Adrien and Alya, supposedly to protect them, and Alya still objects.
That's not hypocrisy. It actually tells us what Alya's moral line is. “I am deceiving the enemy because they are trying to hurt us.” Alya doesn't want to lie to Adrien.
But she also doesn't want to be the person who tells him herself. I think that shows she recognizes something important. The truth belongs to Marinette and Adrien's relationship. She won't become another person who decides what Adrien should know.
So she doesn't expose Marinette, but she also refuses to participate in the lie. “I'm not going to betray you by telling him myself. But I'm also not going to help you keep lying to him.” So Alya will stay out of it and not help her lie but also won't tell the truth. I feel bad for Marinette but I also understand Alya. And is realistic people do leave if lie to their face.. it depends on the lie really and also depends on the person. Alya understands Marinette's fear. She understands the reason behind the lie. But she doesn't agree with Marinette's belief that fear gives her the right to decide what other people can handle.
Why does Marinette never mention she did it because Gabriel asked her too. Because I feel like that more understandable, you felt the need to do his dying wish. The last thing he asked for since he sacrifice himself giving up his own life. I feel like this information could help a lot and maybe that's why it has not been said. Because if it was people would understand more even Alya but the writers need to keep characters hating her for the plot.
Why does Marinette never mention she did it because Gabriel asked her too. Because I feel like that more understandable, you felt the need to do his dying wish. The last thing he asked for since he sacrifice himself giving up his own life. I feel like this information could help a lot and maybe that's why it has not been said. Because if it was people would understand more even Alya but the writers need to keep characters hating her for the plot. It doesn't make the lie automatically right, but it makes Marinette's decision much more understandable.
“I'll hide the truth because I think Adrien can't handle it"
She's also carrying the final request of someone who sacrificed his own life to save Nathile. From Marinette's perspective, that could feel almost like an obligation. “He gave up everything. This was his final request. How can I refuse him?” And Marinette is exactly the kind of person who would take that responsibility incredibly seriously.
Alya knowing this could change her reaction. She might be more understanding and less annoyed.
Is nice Alya is still someone she can count on for help. Just not for lies. I hope Alya goes a bit more easier on season 7 I hope their relationship gets better soon, is sad how the relationship has been. Should have never followed Gabriel wish but same time it feels understandable to me that the reason is because Gabriel said too. Not because want to protect feelings. But Marinette having this secret shows to kids to never hide a big secret like this. Also is entertaining to the show wondering what will happen, is why this all happens in the show.
Thanks for reading, I know it was a lot. 🐞🦊
People who think marinetes wrong for lying I feel like need to remember the superpowered circumstances
Marinette was going to tell Adrien about the letter until she saw that Adrien’s Heartbreak is enough to get her Akumatized, as the holder of the Ladybug Miraculous that’s not a risk she can take, she can’t gamble that seeing Adrien suffer from this realization won’t get her akumatized again which would jeopardize her handing the ladybug miraculous right to Chrysalis
And at this point she can’t just hand off her miraculous to someone else, last time she did that Monarch got his hands on the miraculous and they had to be taken back, plus who’d she hand them too? She can’t give them to Alya she’d know that and easily take them from her, she can’t have Tikki hand them to a rando, Marinette would fold any inexperienced holder
Marinette also knows the identities of every holder but cat noir, if she got Akumatized, it also jeopardizes all of the miraculouses
Now there’s the risk of Adrien getting Akumatized, and while Marinette doesn’t know hes cat noir there’s still major consequences that happen if he gets akumatized
In the 2 timelines where Adrien get Akumatized Marinette dies, (I’ve heard that they made it cannon she dies in the one where hawkmoth throws her)
If Adrien gets akumatized that jeopardizes the cat miraculous
the chance of chrysalis thrashing them is way too high for Marinette to be risking it
I can’t say this enough, but I think that given the circumstances, neither choice—lying or telling the truth—was a “right” choice.
Let’s imagine for a moment that Marinette had chosen to tell the truth to Adrien and the entire world; it is easier than one might think to envision the consequences—different, certainly, but which, as Bunnix confirmed, would have entailed their own share of ups and downs.
If the burden of the lie is taking a toll on Marinette’s mental health during Season 6, we can surely all agree that the truth would have equally damaged Adrien’s mental health for a time. He would have had to come to terms with the fact that he had been living under the same roof as Monarch all along—that he had used his Cataclysm on his own father, and that his father’s goal was to bring back the wife whose life had been lost precisely because she had given birth to Adrien using the broken Peacock Miraculous.
Add to that the compounded guilt of not having assisted Ladybug in the confrontation against his father—knowing she had faced him alone, that he had managed to seize her Miraculous, and that had she not managed to awaken the last traces of humanity in his heart, he would have sacrificed Ladybug’s life to bring his wife back.
We all saw how easily things escalated for Marinette in Revelator, for simply being the girlfriend of someone as famous as Adrien—combined with a random person badmouthing her on social media—which was enough for her to face near-harassment from Parisians with negative IQs. Do we really think Adrien would have been spared the Parisians’s resentment, given the reputation of his criminal father hanging over his head ?
Would Kagami and Felix have been spared, too? One for being the daughter of Monarch’s accomplice, and the other for being Monarch’s nephew ?
Who knows if Marinette wouldn’t have faced scorn from Parisians upon seeing her date the “son of Monarch”? Such circumstances might have led Adrien to want to break up with her to spare her trouble—much like how Marinette is currently considering breaking up with him because she feels she cannot offer him the sincerity he deserves.
Who knows if Adrien would have met his grandparents under the same circumstances as in canon and forged family ties with them ? Gabrielle and Johnny would have known their son had become a monster, while Millie and Emile would have discovered that their daughter’s husband—whom they never approved of in the first place—turned out to be a criminal.
Before Lady Chaos, Adrien at least had the opportunity to explore his own identity without his father’s shadow looming over him.
Not to mention that without Nathalie acting as his guardian, who knows if Adrien could have even stayed in Paris before his aunt decided to move there.
Given all these circumstances, it is entirely possible that Adrien might have even temporarily given up his Miraculous. And as Chrysalis herself pointed out in “Mister Agreste,” Ladybug is vulnerable without her partner.
Not to mention that the Kingdom seemed caught off guard at the end of “El Toro de Piedra” by the fact that Ladybug had lied about Gabriel’s true nature. Perhaps they had hoped Noé could reclaim the Agreste brand more easily with Gabriel’s reputatuon in shamble. It is also quite possible that they would have tried to ruin Ladybug and Cat Noir’s reputations anyway, even in this alternate reality. Because While it is easy to convince people that Gabriel Agreste and Monarch died because one sacrificed his life to eliminate the other, would Ladybug have found it just as easy to get them to accept the truth—that Monarch ultimately chose to abandon his original goal and sacrifice his life to save his dying partner ?
Who knows if the Kingdom wouldn’t have tried to convince Parisians that Ladybug had killed the supervillain Gabriel Agreste with her own hands ? And some Parisians might not have praised her for it, given that Season 5—specifically the episode “Reunion"—showed us that Monarch had sympathizers. Who knows if some wouldn’t have empathized with Gabriel Agreste’s desire to bring his wife back to life, remaining indifferent to the fact that the price for doing so would have been the death of an innocent person?
Admittedly, the lie isn’t a more enviable option; when the truth eventually comes to light, Ladybug risks losing her allies’s trust and seeing all of Paris turn against her… yet the existence of Fury proves that a superhero can act in the shadows for the sake of good and justice, even while bearing a tarnished reputation and questionable methods
To preserve her team’s cohesion and avoid the infamous "Civil War” fans seem to be anticipating, I think it would suffice for Ladybug to hand over leadership to Rena Rouge and Cat Noir. This would help soothe tensions among her teammates; most of them would likely understand her decision to shield Adrien Agreste and Kagami Tsurugi from the stigma of being the children of criminals—a situation that could have forced the pair to leave Paris for London, which would have devastated their friends.
While the eventual exposure of the lie will inevitably spark conflict, it won’t necessarily spell the end for the heroes.
Of course, the lie does have a negative impact on Adrien, who struggles to come to terms with an abusive father whom the public hails as a hero.
He would have found it just as difficult to grieve even if he had known the truth—though he would have managed it with time. But will Adrien be able to go through a second grieving process once he realizes his initial mourning was based on a lie? I believe he will.
Things will have to get worse before they get better.
Other than the “goddess of justice and divine vengeance” aspect that Marinette’s illusion akumatized form clearly embodies, as the goddess Nemesis is described in Greek mythology, the term Nemesis can also means one ultimate rival and sworn ennemy.
So Marinette as Ladybug having to fight the Marinette illusion akumatized into Nemesis might actually mean that Ladybug’s great adversary is herself
Maybe Rena didn’t just chose the name Nemesis as a way to embody the specific power the team needed for Ladybug’s plan to work, but also to warn Ladybug that more than Chrysalis, Marinette herself has become her own enemy that she must defeat and overcome.
People who think marinetes wrong for lying I feel like need to remember the superpowered circumstances
Marinette was going to tell Adrien about the letter until she saw that Adrien’s Heartbreak is enough to get her Akumatized, as the holder of the Ladybug Miraculous that’s not a risk she can take, she can’t gamble that seeing Adrien suffer from this realization won’t get her akumatized again which would jeopardize her handing the ladybug miraculous right to Chrysalis
And at this point she can’t just hand off her miraculous to someone else, last time she did that Monarch got his hands on the miraculous and they had to be taken back, plus who’d she hand them too? She can’t give them to Alya she’d know that and easily take them from her, she can’t have Tikki hand them to a rando, Marinette would fold any inexperienced holder
Marinette also knows the identities of every holder but cat noir, if she got Akumatized, it also jeopardizes all of the miraculouses
Now there’s the risk of Adrien getting Akumatized, and while Marinette doesn’t know hes cat noir there’s still major consequences that happen if he gets akumatized
In the 2 timelines where Adrien get Akumatized Marinette dies, (I’ve heard that they made it cannon she dies in the one where hawkmoth throws her)
If Adrien gets akumatized that jeopardizes the cat miraculous
the chance of chrysalis thrashing them is way too high for Marinette to be risking it
Fear can push people to make irrational decisions, and Marinette is absolutely terrified of the consequences of revealing the truth to Adrien.
If the most rational decision seemed to be to tell Adrien the truth about his father as soon as she could after discovering that letter, when it’s not Nathalie stopping her from doing it, or the sight of a nostalgic Adrien remembering only the good memories he has of his father, It’s the fear of seeing herself akumatized again by Adrien’s potential reaction that terrifies Marinette.
And after the choices Marinette made during Lady Chaos in a panic, and maybe also because a part of her wants to believe that Gabriel’s wish was genuinely motivated by a father’s love for his son, going back has become much harder than before. If Marinette had decided to reveal the truth to Adrien… …If Marinette had decided to tell Adrien the truth after the events of Tristanansi, seeing that cursed plush toy stopped her. She managed to sell him this version of a Gabriel who made bad choices but had a good heart, and taking that away from him would seem not only crueler than ever, but Adrien’s anger would be even greater than it would have been if the truth had been revealed to him before the events of Lady Chaos.
Understanding that you’ve made the wrong choice is one thing, knowing how to get through it with the least damage possible in a world where the slightest negative emotion can be exploited by a supervillain even more dangerous than their predecessor is another.
That’s why I’m kinda mad at the Bunnix in the London special for not even trying to convince Marinette to at least tell Adrien the truth, even though lying to all of Paris at least protected Adrien from being slandered by his villainous father’s shadow.
Of course, this lack of initiative from Bunnix is purely for plot reasons, the writter need painfully dramatic stuff to keep the audience hooked, but I would really like them to at least come up with a reason that could have convinced Bunnix not to intervene to prevent a situation that in the long run will have devastating effects on Adrien and Marinette.
The weight of the lie causes Marinette immense distress that could lead to her burn out as a hero, and the truth revealed too late will cause Adrien tremendous pain, which could lead to a new Chat Blanc scenario. So I really want seasons 7 or 8 to give us a good excuse for why Bunnix couldn’t convince Marinette to make a different choice when we know there’s a timeline where she actually chooses to reveal the truth to Adrien during the London special events.
Season 6 of Miraculous officially ended … And we haven’t seen those rumored leaks used in scenes of season 6 finale
I believed this image of Marinette crying with her mascara having run down would be seen by the end of Nemesis … And the image of Lila in her Iris Verdi disguise in Marinette’s room would be for Secret Protocol.
None of it came to be in the season 6 finale, although Marinette did end up crying under the rain in the last seconds of Nemesis
So maybe those were leaks for season 7 instead ?
Or maybe it was just fake images made with IA helps
So as usual one of my favorite Miraculous Youtuber feeded me on good Miraculous analysis. And while the end of Nemesis may have seemed like the show was back at square one against Chrysalis, the truth is … Lila was truly caught off guard by Ladybug’s trap.
Not only was she genuinely surprised that the ladybug earings she got her hands on were the real ones, probably because part of her was still suspecting Marinette to be Ladybug (since she could never get the confirmation in Secret Protocol if the Ladybug who confronted her was an illusion or not), so to have an akumatized Marinette giving her the real Ladybug earings when Heartfixer refused to answer her “Are you Ladybug” question must truly have been a shock to Lila.
But she’s also shown to be really taken aback by the trick with fetch to get back the earings, and we clearly hear her panicking and screaming “ NO NO NO” when the miraculers come to get her in her secret lair.
Her panic was real, and for Lila to panic this way means that she felt she completly lost control over the situation, which in itself is already a small victory.
And if Chrysalis did manage to escape without revealing her true face, it couldn’t have happened without her erasing absolutely all incriminating evidence that could allow her adversaries to track her down. The problem is … that this evidence probably also contained valuable information about the Miraculous team and their weaknesses (as well as likely numerous plans) that Lila had carefully gathered throughout the season, as So You Think You Know share in her video
All this intel Lila spend days to build and collect ….
…. all this work gone in flames
Not only that … but now the Miraculers know of the biggest advantage Chrysalis had over them … her shapeshifting powers
“I’m nowhere … I’m everywhere … I’m a chameleon” Those very words Lila said in the post-endcard scene of Illustrater were literally straightforward.
Notice how the last place where shapeshifted Lila picked the candy wrapped ladybug earings is the same Café where she spied on Adrien and Marinette. I guess it’s convenient that this place is apparently close to an entrance to the catacombs.
But now that the heroes know they’re dealing with a chameleon… they can better prepare, notably by planning passwords or strategies to recognize members of their group.
On the other hand, I imagine these poor kids starting to regularly ask questions to their friends and family members every time they interact with them… just to make sure it’s not the new butterfly trying to trick them.
So You think you know also pointed out Alya being an MVP again in this episode, and I must agree.
But by taking command of the operation once Ladybug was petrified, she was perfect in that role, which reinforces my belief that if Ladybug were ever to choose to relinquish her leadership in order to ease the future tensions that would inevitably result from the revelation of her lie, Rena Rouge would be quite willing to assume leadership in her place while Ladybug regained the trust of the Parisians and her comrades.
Also this shot of Rena Screeming “Miraculers attack !!!” is one of my favorite XD
So focusing on Ladybug, Lila neglected the possibility that her rival’s allies might also prove to be very qualified adversaries. And she also underestimated their teamwork.
Even though the episode clearly nerfed the plan by ruling out the use of Venom or the second chance precisely so that Lila’s arc wouldn’t end in its first season
I must said that this sixth season has actually reconciled me with Marinette’s classmates because, despite not being good friends to Marinette in previous seasons in my humble opinion (the disconcerting ease with which they were ready to believe the worst things Lila said about her), I’m glad to see that they’ve proven this season that Ladybug made the right choice in entrusting them with their Miraculous. And personally, I also find their friendship with Marinette stronger than it appeared in previous seasons.
I also think it’s really interesting to note that Chrysalis, who is surely very proud and confident of her exceptional manipulative abilities, was in this episode deceived and manipulated by the wielder of the Miraculous of Illusion, which Lila once tried to emulate as Volpina.
There are still many things I want to discuss about this episode, but I’ll save them for future posts. So I’ll end on this note : now that Lila has been cornered, will she use her trump card to try and divide the team that has proven to be a real threat to her ? Namely, the revelation of Ladybug’s lie, which could shatter the trust her allies have in her or create tension if some more easily understand the choice she made ?
But I think Lila won’t use this trump card so quickly, and especially not without careful planning, because now more than ever after losing her favorite secret lair, she’s going to need Tomoe Tsurugi’s resources. And revealing Ladybug’s lie risks putting Tomoe in prison. We’ll see if Lila decides that sacrificing her new mother (or her biological mother?) will be worth it.
Max has been MVP of the team this entire season. No drama, no sass, he clocks in, does his job, and goes home!
This might be the reason why Lila seems to have established a strategy to manipulate Max during A Fairy Goodnight.
Pegasus is among the heroes whose she knows the secret identity thanks to the intel Nathalie unknowingly sent her during Revelation.
So Perhaps she’s trying to bring him down or seize his Miraculous, knowing how much Pegasus is one of Ladybug’s key members and without whom many of her plans wouldn’t be possible.
Now that we know of Lila’s chameleon power, some have already theorize that Lila might try to create a scenario where Aglae would be Max’s secret admirer, so that she would be able to get closer to him as Aglae, since so Max he’s the only among Marinette and Adrien classmates who doesn’t have any girlfriend or boyfriend.
The reason behind this strategy so far is still unknown, like I said it might be a manipulative tactic to steal Max’s miraculous, or maybe she’s playing the long game in order to create a situation where she would be able to akumatize a miraculous team member.
Or ….
Knowing that Max is scheduled to temporarily stay with Marinette and her family when his mother will go on a space mission for weeks, Lila may be hoping to use him to continue infiltrating Marinette’s life and spying on her.
Even though the season 6 finale may have temporarily allayed Lila’s suspicions about Marinette being Ladybug, I believe Marinette still remains a target that Chrysalis will keep her eyes on if only because we saw the extent of her obsession with the girl when she doesn’t wear her ladybug mask.
nebuvoid
I’ve been thinking about what Riku must’ve felt like shortly prior to when the story begins, which lead to a bit of a condensed analysis of him throughout the series, his role, and how he is breaking out of it.
In KH1 the three FF islander kids act both as additional exposition and as a direct reflection of the Destiny Trio. Wakka the big brother type, Selphie the outspoken dreamer and Tidus the carefree one. They even wear similar outfits to the Destiny Trio.
Wakka tells us about Riku’s role within the trio - the reliable and self-sufficient big brother (as an archetype), someone to lean on or go to when you need something done, but also someone that is always a bit outside the group exactly because of those characteristics.
And honestly? The moment I read that I felt a bit lonely. Leave everything to Riku, he’s good at everything. (Also imagining Sora constantly hearing this and always feeling lesser than Riku, like he can never catch up with him. But that’s another tale.)
Riku always wanted to be stronger to protect the people he cares about. But the more he became that, the more the others took it for granted or didn’t think about what a burden being The Reliable One is. How lonely it is. It’s those little things that feed into your doubts and fears. What might’ve been something that just occasionally bothered him for a moment and he then shrugged off, gradually grew into a feeling of entrapment on the island - where nothing changes, your role is set and your future is predetermined.
But while he grew resentful and wanted to escape this role he felt railroaded into (even though he himself worked towards this since childhood), he also still identified by it. The moment Sora shows that he might not need him anymore, that he can fend for himself now, Riku felt abandoned. If he doesn’t have his place as the caretaker within the group, who is he? Alone. And that feels scary and sad, so instead he lashes out in anger (eventually).
The plot of KH1 happens and Riku does a big fucky wucky. He finally sees the hurt he has caused. He tries to do what he can to mend it and we see the character he presumably was before all this. The protector, the one that does what needs to be done at the detriment of himself. He also acknowledges Sora as someone equal to him. This is a task neither can do alone, but together they can.
Then CoM, Days and 2 happen. And the conclusion Riku drew from his behaviour and the consequences is that he must fall even more rigidly back into his role as a caretaker - this time from the shadows, as he feels he doesn’t deserve being in the presence of the friends he hurt in his resentment.
He tries his best to be reliable again. He redeems himself by putting his all into serving his friends with no care for himself. After all, he doesn’t deserve it right? The last time he tried to be selfish he did terrible things. He will do anything to make things right, even if he’s hurting others in the process again. The pain of it is part of his atonement to him.
However the ‘damage’ to his role has been done and is irreversible. He is no longer just the big brother - that particular flavor of protector sizzled away throughout KH1 and died a fiery death when he tossed Sora his wooden sword. Sora and Kairi now know that he isn’t infallible - and they welcome it. KH2 really did a great job showing that. He never needed to be perfect. Showing weakness or that you do want help sometimes isn’t something you need to hide with snark.
By DDD/3 Riku has elevated himself into the position of knight (I’m what nightmares fear! Dork). But he still doesn’t allow himself to reach for what he truly wants. He does what he thinks his loved ones want and has accepted his background supporter role (Man that KH3 Paopu scene. The letting Sora go scene…) He broke free from his role but also not. He sees himself fondly looking at Sora and Kairi - from the sideline. I know people claim 'Riku’s arc is over, we’ve had enough of him, god’ but I disagree.
And hey, so does the Fairy Godmother. She explicitly tells Riku, and us, that he needs to allow himself to reach for his dreams. Of course, it was also meant in a literal way, what with his Quadratum dreams. But he is told that he should allow himself to be a bit selfish again. No one can be completely selfless, we all have desires and it’s not wrong to pursue them.
'Strength to protect what/who matters’ is ultimately a means to an end. It doesn’t actually include himself in being with who matters - he protects, but he’s still an onlooker. He jumps in when he’s needed and then steps back again - where he thinks he should be.
What is it exactly that Riku wants (besides bringing Sora back)? Will he allow himself to want it? Guess we will see in KH4.
