Friends in my Heart

FRIENDS IN MY HEART

Sora and Kairi’s connection in Kingdom Hearts 1 is of pivotal importance. Not only is their connection what motivates the two of them, but it is also significant to the overarching plot of the game.

Kairi’s heart both literally and figuratively resides with Sora throughout most of the game. Kairi passes through Sora just as Destiny Island is being claimed by the darkness. Her heart takes literal refuge in Sora’s. This is a key point of the plot and can be documented in the timeline on the right.

Yet their connection already runs much deeper. In the beginning scenes of the game, Riku explains the mythology of the paopu fruit. When two people share one, their destinies become intertwined and they form a lifelong connection. Sora does not actually share the fruit with Kairi but instead draws himself sharing one with her on the walls of the secret cave. This metaphorically forges a connection between the two. Kairi later solidifies this connection by giving Sora the Oathkeeper keychain as a symbol of her always being with him. In addition, in the closing cinematics of the game, Kairi sees Sora’s drawings and is so touched that it brings tears to her eyes.

The game goes out of its way to cement the connection between Sora and Kairi, literally throughout the plot of the game and metaphorically with the two friends sharing a part of themselves through the paopu fruit and the Oathkeeper keychain.

TIMELINE

- Destiny Island: Kairi passes through Sora, where her heart takes refuge.

- Traverse Town: Sora awakes from fighting Leon and believes he is talking to Kairi, soon later learning it is actually Yuffie.

- Deep Jungle: Sora sees Kairi walking behind Tarzan for a brief moment.

- Deep Jungle: Jane shows the trio and Tarzan slides with photographs. One of them looks familiar to Sora, though Sora has never been off his island.

- Traverse Town: At Merlin’s hut, Sora sees Kairi. When he calls her name, Donald and Goofy become concerned, and she disappears.

- Neverland: Sora reaches out to Kairi’s comatose body when he can’t reach her. Her hand moves toward his.

- Traverse Town: Sora has a vision of Kairi and an old woman, her grandmother, in a library. Her grandmother tells the history of why the worlds are separate from one another.

- Hollow Bastion: After landing, Sora says, “I know this place.” It was Kairi’s home.

- Hollow Bastion: Sora learns that Kairi’s heart resides in his heart. He stabs his heart in order to set Kairi’s free.

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