March 17, 2009
There is a flashback a few worlds into the game, wherein Sora and Riku, as little kids, go exploring around their home island. Sora convinces Riku that there’s a monster living inside a hidden cave, but when they enter, Riku points out that the noises Sora heard were just the wind blowing around the cavern; Sora, in an innocent manner, says he wishes it would have been a real monster. The picture occurs when Riku, disgruntled by the childishness of their adventures, muses on growing up and finding real adventures; Riku is seen to be, even in his youth, almost obsessed with finding real adventure, danger, and even monsters, in a way that is strikingly dissimilar to the childlike reverence for the subject Sora displays. The monster, then, that truly threatens the pair, particularly Riku, is an embodiment of an unwillingness to remain as children—too quickly does Riku want to discard his innocence. In the larger scheme, this mirrors what the overall goal of the game is: to do battle with the shadowy forces that are ruining the childish innocence of these Disney stories. The monster that Sora perceived is Riku fighting against this innocence; this is the definining antagonism that exists between the pair. The more and more time I spend looking at this game, the less I can distance its themes from those of The Little Prince…

There is a flashback a few worlds into the game, wherein Sora and Riku, as little kids, go exploring around their home island. Sora convinces Riku that there’s a monster living inside a hidden cave, but when they enter, Riku points out that the noises Sora heard were just the wind blowing around the cavern; Sora, in an innocent manner, says he wishes it would have been a real monster.

The picture occurs when Riku, disgruntled by the childishness of their adventures, muses on growing up and finding real adventures; Riku is seen to be, even in his youth, almost obsessed with finding real adventure, danger, and even monsters, in a way that is strikingly dissimilar to the childlike reverence for the subject Sora displays. The monster, then, that truly threatens the pair, particularly Riku, is an embodiment of an unwillingness to remain as children—too quickly does Riku want to discard his innocence.

In the larger scheme, this mirrors what the overall goal of the game is: to do battle with the shadowy forces that are ruining the childish innocence of these Disney stories. The monster that Sora perceived is Riku fighting against this innocence; this is the definining antagonism that exists between the pair.

The more and more time I spend looking at this game, the less I can distance its themes from those of The Little Prince…

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