Kingdom Hearts Pairings {master list}

[ashkiryn]

Because already my attempts at Master List Shipping Posts are getting too big for their britches, and so I figured it would be wise to start dividing them now, while they're still manageable. Because KH is such a freaking huge fandom for me, and I just have so much to talk about within it, it'll be getting its own post, like so, whereas all my other video game shippings and such will get crammed into another post together. Sound awesome?

Alright, so I kind of feel that this level of...verbosity...deserves an explanation. Like, my other 'main fandom' is Harry Potter, but I really only have about 5 ships that I sail in that fandom, so...wtf's up with KH? Well....honestly, while I love writing for HP, and while Remus/Sirius is truly my OTP to end all OTPs....in a lot of ways, KH is really my #1 fandom, simply because I love the...fandom so much. Sure, I love the actual game series and such, but out of every online fandom I've ever been a part of...I don't know, but I've never really had friends and make friends like I do in the KH fandom (which, when you think about it, is rather ironic, given the series' focus on friendship). KH fandom is just fun for me to be in. And unlike with Harry Potter...I don't know. While it's completely possible to crack ship in HP, because Lord knows there are metric tons of characters running around, just like in KH....but I just don't crack ship in most other fandoms like I do in KH. So...there you have it. KH is just weird, my big, weird, crack-loving lovechild, in which my love for ships really knows hardly any boundaries.

So, BE WARNED. Because holy fuck, but do I ship in this fandom. I SHIP. I SHIP A LOT. AND I HAVE A LOT OF ~FEELS~ ON JUST ABOUT EVERY PAIRING TO EXIST IN THIS FANDOM. BEWAAAAAAAAAARE.

(Oh, and apparently, I have this nasty habit of converting people to sailing my ships along with me, so watch out for that as well. Ahahaha...I don't really mean to, I swear?)

I ship: Terrella, AkuRoku, AquVan, SoNami, Zemyx, Namette, KaiVenShi, VenKai, KaiXi, VenShi, SoRiku, AkuSai/LeIsa, VenNami, IenzoKai, Marxene, AerMarly, LexLarx, Cleon, Seiner, Haynette, Seiflette, DemKai, XigLux, LexTifa, SorTron, Alora, Soriel, KaiDaj, Marity, LuxYuffie, SephMal, HadesMal, Ven/young!Hercules, Sora/Joshua

I special platonic/friendship/relationship ship: Maleficent/Riku, Maleficent/Terra, AkuRokuShi(/SaiJaz), Aqua/Ven/Terra(/Vanitas), Hayner/Pence/Olette/Roxas, Ven/Hercules/Zack, Phil/Roxas, Tinker Bell/Ven, Tinker Bell/Roxas, Sora/Leon, Sora/Cloud, Sora/Donald/Goofy, Mickey/Riku, LexZex(/Vex), Aeleus/Ienzo/Even, XigDem, Sora/Pooh, XigRox, RoseRox, Axel/Alice, LuxRox, XalRox(/Axel), Sora/Beast, Aqua/Phillip, Cid/Merlin, ZekuRoku, AkuNami, ZekuNami, LarxNami, LarxShi, ZackVan, LuxShi, Sora/Vanitas, Riku/Quasimodo, Riku/Phoebus, Riku/Esmeralda, Riku/Jiminy Cricket, Sora/Roxas, Auron/Sora, Goofy/Aerith, Maleficent/Minnie, Maleficent/Namine, Tifa/Cloud/Sephiroth, Aqua/Cinderella, Aerith/Leon

I semi-ship: RikuShi, SoKai, Pencette, Namiku, XemQua, Akua, VanKai, ZekuMarly, AkuZeku, AkuMarly, Shiki/Riku, ReplikuSoNami

I sink: MarVex, RokuShi, RokuNami, Larxel, VanShi, XemSai




Well. No sense in dilly-dallying around this one. In a way, I have two OTPs in this fandom. One is an OTP in the traditional sense of the word, in that I DO NOT SHIP THE CHARACTERS INVOLVED WITH ANYBODY ELSE. Sure, I'll dabble with them a bit, because I dabble with every character in this fandom, but at the end of the day, I really just can't stand them being apart from each other. And just so you know, part of this really has nothing to do with these two characters at all, but is simply due to the relative unpopularity of my ship, versus a few more mainstream ones; as such, I stubbornly cling to them all the more. The second OTP is simply my favorite pairing in the KH fandom. And while it used to be like the aforementioned in the NO ONE ELSE department, things have now grown more complicated. These two pairings are Terra/Cinderella and Axel/Roxas, respectively.

So, to get this one out of the way, because doesn't really have many complicated feelings around it, let's start with Terra/Cinderella, aka Terrella. This is probably my second favorite KH pairing of all time. My heart may burst from the epic amount of love I nurture for these two. Ever since this pairing made its glorious way into my life, I haven’t been able to pair them with anyone else again. Like, screw both Terra/Aqua and Terra/Ven or any other pairing with these two characters that isn’t Terra/Cinderella. This is the only Terra pairing that has my allegiance. And it’s funny, because before I played BBS, I never really thought much about the Disney pairings, in terms of asking myself whether I thought they worked as a couple. Sure, I’ve always thought that Cinderella’s Prince Charming was like a useless dishrag, but they’re Disney couples. In my mind, that made them like an ultimate canon law. Not To Be Questioned. They Just Are. But then I played BBS, and I saw the amazing scenes in the Castle of Dreams between Terra and Cinderella that gushed with epic amounts of adorableness, and my Shipping Sensors came screeching into life. Literally. And apparently I’m not the only one. But anyway, they’re just so…cute. Terra meets Cinderella at one of the lowest points in her life, when she thought that all her hopes and dreams were going to come true, only to watch her stepfamily crush them into dust. He comes along and gives her strength, and protects her and through his help she’s able to attend her dream ball. Cinderella also meets Terra at a dark time in his life, when he’s doubting his ability to sustain any light amidst the darkness in his heart, and she gives him hope. She teaches him about strength of heart, and it doesn’t always have to mean the physical kind. Cinderella teaches him through example that sometimes, there’s nothing else you can do but to simply believe. That to believe like that takes a special kind of strength that he’d never thought of before, thus broadening his horizons. That some things in life are just as simple as wishing. Cinderella is his hope, and Terra is her strength. They balance each other, Cinderella keeping Terra from sinking too far into the darkness, and Terra keeping her grounded and not letting her get out of touch with reality. I also find it interesting that Cinderella's world, the Castle of Dreams, is the only world Terra goes to where he doesn't end up allying with the villains. SUSPECT, I SAY.

And seriously, I hardly know what to say to that conversation between Terra and the Fairy Godmother. The whole thing where she advises him to go to the ball and see Cinderella dancing, and see how she believes, and that will help him believe too? Like, really Fairy Godmother, why don't you just come out and say what you really mean, which is go fall in love with Cinderella, you clueless fuck. And then when he sees Aqua, his supposed love interest, what does he do? He gushes about Cinderella. Just...I don't even know what to say. You horrible, horrible tease, Square.

Now, regarding the BBS trio, Terra, Aqua, and Ven...I just can't romantically ship these three with each other, I just can't do it. Part of my blockage with Terra/Aqua and Terra/Ven has to do, like I said earlier, with my stubborn loyalty to the more unpopular Terrella, but along with Aqua/Ven...I just don't see any romantic chemistry between any of them. Their entire bond with each other feels just too familial for me. And I honestly tried REALLY HARD to ship Terra/Aqua when I was playing through BBS the first time, I really, really did, but for some reason, I just can't see what's so apparently obvious to everyone else. And then of course, Terrella came and blew everything else out of the water.

Now, onto Axel/Roxas. By themselves, the two easily rank amongst my top favorite characters in the series. Their relationship is also easily one of my favorite things in KH, period. And I don’t care how you interpret this relationship—whether you see them as friends or as romantic interests or anything else—no matter what, it’s still fucking beautiful. Their canon relationship easily ranks into my top 3 favorite things about KH, and so thus it’s one of the things that I most want to read about.

I have nothing against Naminé. Nor do I have that great of an issue with the existence of Roxas/Naminé (though it does peeve me that people insist that this is canon when it isn’t). Really, whoever you want to ship Roxas with, go ahead, though a few will make my brain itch. But I won’t read it. Why? Because I have zero interest in reading about a Roxas that is without an Axel that plays some significant role in his life. And see, the thing about most non-AkuRoku Roxas pairings is that they, somewhat understandably, focus on those characters in the pairing only, and completely ignore Axel’s existence (and vice versa). And I get that, I really do, but that’s not what I want to read. I wouldn’t want to hear about Roxas and Naminé—I don’t have any interest in her in that kind of setting. I want to read about Roxas and whatever relationship he may have with Axel, and most of the stories that do an awesome job of that are, wouldn’t you know it, AkuRoku stories. For the record, I do choose to interpret their canon relationship to be of the more romantic persuasion, but, once again, what I love most about them is just their relationship, period. And, you know, there are so many different levels of ‘love’. And there is no denying that Axel and Roxas, but especially Axel, loved each other. Roxas made Axel feel like he had a heart, and Nomura himself has stated that their friendship is the closest thing that the Nobodies could get to love.

Over the years that I've been shipping this pairing, for me, it's really Roxas that does not want to be shipped with anyone other than Axel. A little bit of Hayner/Roxas or Roxas/Olette is cute, but ultimately my Roxas just doesn't do romance with anyone other than Axel. And up until about a year ago, Axel was the same.

Then Raberba Girl came along, with her ridiculously amazing AkuSai bromance. *headdesk*

I just...here's the thing. There are...Certain Things that I lovelovelovelovelove to death when it comes to couples. Tragic couples are one, but another variety that will almost immediately throw me down a fangirl slope are what I term to be 'Mom/Dad ships'. This is what AkuSai (and Akua, but we're getting there) are for me.

The way that R-girl writes Axel/Saix in particular is completely amazing, and really, I think 'Mom/Dad' is the best way to describe them. Her Axel is the mommy to all those big, puppy dog, blue-eyed children that he is forever running into, and Saix counterbalances this by being the exasperated-yet-indulgent, stern-but-a-softy-on-the-inside daddy figure. And it is utterly precious. Honestly, her AkuSai bromance is my favorite kind of AkuSai, but I don't necessarily mind the yaoi/romantic version either (...so long as I can ignore my Roxas hitting me XD). But still, bromance is my fav, because then my Roxas can be happy too. ;)

In canon, AkuSai (and Lea/Isa) is one of the most fascinating and heartbreaking relationships in the game, and I love it with all of my heart. Even as my heart breaks for both of them and their broken friendship, but perhaps especially I feel for Saix. Axel seems to be the only friend he’s ever had, and to lose that, and not be able to really understand why…how brutal is that? And I don’t think it’s too much of a stretch of the imagination to imagine that Saix resented Roxas for taking Axel away from him.

My great fondess for Mom/Dad pairings probably explains why I've been growing ever fonder of Axel/Aqua. Damn it, but Axel just makes such a great mommy. Anyway, Aqua is the only girl that I could ever imagine Axel with. They fit nicely together, being the Team Mom of their respecitve trios. Plus, I think they can both really understand each other: all they both want is to keep their friends safe, with said friends gung-ho and determined to run off in opposite directions, and never bothering to stop and try to understand Axel/Aqua's perspectives. And even though Axel and Aqua had good intentions, they both fucked up when it came to trying to handle their friends. So, they could get each other. And they would also be able to understand that, in both of their cases, taking care of their friends comes first, before any romance. So, this is ending up as my third favorite Axel pairing, and my second favorite Aqua pairing. I'm ultimately fine with these two just having a platonic understanding of each other, with Axel being with Roxas and having his bromance with Saix, and Aqua being with Vanitas, and then everything is all good. :D

And speaking of all-time favorite KH pairings, let's talk about Aqua/Vanitas (and jsyk, you will never hear me refer to them as 'VanQua'. I don't know why, but I really, really dislike it. So, 'AquVan', please and thank you!). This is another pairing that I hardly ship with anyone else. Apart from Axel/Aqua, I've come to the conclusion that if I had to pair Vanitas with someone else, Kairi would be my choice for him (you'll see the pattern behind this eventually). But AquVan will always and forever be my favorite. I think there’s pretty much only one person in canon that Vanitas genuinely respects in any way, and that’s Aqua. The canon Vanitas is arrogant and, I think, believes everyone around him to be inferior, but especially Ven and Terra. Aqua is the only person who challenges him consistently, and is the only one to really beat him completely on her own. In Aqua, I think Vanitas sees an equal. There are many times he could have killed her (after the battle in Neverland, for instance, seeing as he left before Aqua was conscious, and he could have done much worse when he jumped her from the cliff in the Keyblade Graveyard), but he never did. I think the only time he could have wanted to kill her would be after he possessed Ven, and she was, in his mind, threatening the only way he had to save himself and become whole. Also, it’s really only when Aqua is nearby that Vanitas seems to express emotion. Most of the time, and to everyone else, he talks in a deadpan monotone. Around Aqua, he has fits of mad laughter, and he expresses his excitement over the X-blade, amongst other things. As for Aqua herself, if Vanitas wasn’t hurting her friends, I think she would be the one most willing to help him. Her light would balance against his darkness. Aqua is always so mature and responsible, and spends most of her time around Terra and Ven, who are both honest, straight-forward people, with the former being very down-to-earth (no pun intended) and the latter being slightly flighty. Vanitas has a mysterious glitter to him, is someone who’s traveled farther and wider than she has, who is cynical and doesn’t care for authority, and would, I think, be the kind of person to bluntly tell Aqua that sometimes she’s too much of a doormat and needs to stand up for herself, with Aqua firing back that kindness gets you farther in life than death threats and completely shunning all authority. They challenge each other, you see? Or maybe you don’t. Anyway, in my head, I like to imagine them bonding and becoming friends in the Realm of Darkness during the 11 yrs that Aqua’s been trapped there, and that when Sora busts Aqua out, Vanitas will join the Light side in the ensuing battle against Master Xehanort…I don’t think that will really happen in a future game, but shush and let me have my hope.

Also, Aqua and Vanitas are just so much fun for me to write as an AU couple, particularly in my AEM 'verse, so...I've really become rather biased. :P

*takes a deep breath* This next section, for the record, is going to be LONG. And then it segues directly into the next section. Next in your program shall be SoNami/SoRiku/SoKai and Olette/Namine, and then it'll branch off into a discussion of Kairi pairings. Joy joy.

Sora/Namine is my favorite ship for both of those characters, especially in canon. Because I honestly LOVE EVERYTHING ABOUT CHAIN OF MEMORIES FOREVER, AND THIS RELATIONSHIP IS DEFINITELY INCLUDED AMONGST THAT LOVE. lovelovelovelovelove. A pattern you may notice about me is that I am the hugest sucker for tragic pairings, the ones that hardly seem to have any hope of working out, in which one or both of the characters involved wring my heart out like a sponge and make me ache in absolute sympathy for them, and even though I know it won’t work out, I still hope that it does. The pattern is absolutely everywhere: Remus/Sirius. Grindelwald/Dumbledore. Axel/Roxas. And on it continues with Sora/Naminé.

Dear Jesus God, my heart hurts so much for Naminé in CoM. She and Sora are so sweet and goddamned perfect together, and their relationship is actually reciprocal and despite all the lies their relationship really only grows stronger. And FOR ONCE, someone sticks up and protects Sora for a change, and they make each other grow as people. Seriously, Sora teaches Naminé how to take the right path versus the easy one, and he gives her hope and helps her learn her own self-worth. And then Naminé is instrumental in the amazing character growth Sora undergoes in CoM, and how he learns to truly value the friendship and loyalty of Donald and Goofy, and she’s the one that makes this spectacular line of Sora’s possible: “Who cares if someone created you? You have your own heart inside you. Those memories and feelings, they’re yours, and no one else’s. They’re special.” (said to the Riku Replica). (And incidentally, god damn it, but why couldn’t Sora have held on to this attitude in KH2??!!) The Namora pairing is just so goddamned amazing, and it rivals the AkuRoku relationship in terms of beauty.

Dear Square Enix: Sora had better fucking remember Naminé in a future game, or I will be VERY, VERY DISPLEASED. I’m sorry Kairi, honey, but kindly give Sora and Naminé your blessing kthxbai.

And I mean the real Sora, by the way, and not have you guys cop out with just having Data Sora do it (I did greatly adore the scenes between Data Sora and Data Naminé, but I need to see this come out between their ‘real’ selves, damn it).

So. Sora/Namine is my favorite Sora ship. But my favorite Riku ship is Sora/Riku. *repeated headdesking* This is a source of great conflict in my heart, I assure you. I just...apart from maybe Shiki, there really just isn't anyone else that I can ship Riku with, apart from Sora. Riku honestly does it to himself, because he just doesn't have the bond and connection with anyone else that he does with Sora. For me, everything is always about Sora for Riku. And yes, I do believe that if Riku had to really choose between Sora and Kairi, he would choose Sora. This isn't to say that Kairi isn't important to Riku, because she is, but...she's not Sora. No one is, with Riku. Sora is like...the sun that Riku's entire universe revolves around. KH1 was about being better than Sora, and then everything else after that is about earning redemption and forgiveness in Sora's eyes, or about saving Sora from his coma or whatever. Sora, Sora, Sora. Once you distill everything down to the essentials, this is what you’re left with: Sora and Riku love each other. Plain and simple. I mean, with all the shit they go through, and with how their relationship is stretched to the breaking point, and yet how Sora refuses to give up on Riku and never lets himself be pushed away, and always forgives Riku…and then how Riku is willing to sacrifice everything for Sora, and to do whatever it takes to wake him up, even if it means losing his own body and being possessed by the darkness, and doomed to be forever alone in the shadows and forgotten. Goddamn, but there has to be something special here. They were each other’s constants throughout the entire series, and I think it’s an amazing moment for Sora’s character, when he falls to his knees and cries when he finally found Riku. Really, after everything…how could he not? And I think it speaks volumes about how much Riku really matters to Sora. He is always so strong and optimistic, never letting anything beat him down…and this is one of the only times in the entire series that Sora has ever cried. (And all Kairi gets is an awkward hug that Sora didn’t even initiate.) It’s love, guys, plain and simple.

One might think that, well, since I love both of these ships so much...hell, why not just make into a threesome, and then everyone could be happy? Well, I would really like to. After all, I'm great with both SoNami and SoRiku. But it's Namiku that's the problem. Now, I can kind of see them happening a bit in canon, but in my own headcanon? Namine and Riku just do not want to share Sora. Seriously. At the moment, I've just sort of thrown my hands up into the air in exasperation, but they just...Do Not Want. Sora's perfectly fine with anything, but Namine and Riku just keep side-eyeing each other, and while they can co-exist, it's just not...happily. Thus my ever-lasting despair. :/

Riku/Namine is just....it's harbored only by the circumstances canon gives us. And what I mean by that is that if Riku and Naminé had not met under the very specific circumstances that they did, I don’t think they would have been paired together. To explain this further, I imagine that Naminé, while fixing Sora’s memory, is desperately lonely again, especially because she’s continuously breaking her heart while she works. Riku has also been alone for a long time, and despite Mickey’s (seemingly brief) company, he hasn’t seen the two people that he misses the most in that length of time, and now he has Sora, but he’s pretty much in a coma. I would think that Riku would like to get to know Naminé better, this mysterious person who helped him suppress his darkness and who is currently his only hope to get his best friend back to normal. And to Riku, I think that Naminé would…feel like a combination of Sora and Kairi, because she was born from them both. I think Riku would be drawn to her out of homesickness, and because I think he could easily see himself in her: lost in the darkness, and then how he, like her, later pretty much breaks his own heart to help Sora recover. As for Naminé, she’s surrounded by three people most of the time: the source of her heartbreak (Sora), the guy who hates her and wants to eliminate her and hers (DiZ), and then Riku. If I was her, I’d choose to hang around Riku, when I could. Also, if you’re a believer in the Riku/Kairi pairing, it certainly doesn’t hurt this pairing.

Honestly, Namiku works just fine...until you talk about sharing Sora, and then they're like cats in a sack. *headdesk* And then Namine's perfectly well and dandy with Repliku/Sora/Namine...so it's not really that she has a problem with sharing Sora. She just has a problem sharing Sora with Riku. *headdesk* Honestly, I really like ReplikuSoNami, partly because I just love the way they bond in CoM, and a tiny part of me kind of just wants Sora to stay with them, because Repliku also makes my heart hurt so bad...and I'd probably have no problem giving Sora to him and Namine if I didn't love Riku himself so much. *sigh* whhhhhhhhy do you guys make this so difficult. *cries*

It also doesn't help, in Namine's case, that in addition to Sora, she's also insistent on being shipped with Olette now. Olette/Namine is easily my favorite yuri pairing ever, and it's definitely in my top ten favorite KH ships of all time. Holy crap, but do I love this pairing. It just started off as a cute crack ship in AEM, but then it grew and grew and grew into the adorable, cuddly monster that it is today. Just...take a moment to picture it. Aren't they just the sweetest together? And it honestly makes a surprising amount of canon sense, really. Naminé would at least know something about Olette, watching Roxas as she does, living in the real Twilight Town, possibly seeing the real Olette running around with Hayner and Pence. I think if they met, Olette would provide Naminé with a blessed sense of normalcy. She has to deal with so many complicated issues and feelings, that I think hanging around Olette would be a relief, a breath of fresh air. Someone Naminé could simply enjoy being with, no strings attached. Olette is just such a warm, loving, gentle soul, and seems easily accepting of people, and is really just the thing that Namine truly needs. If you wanted to explore the flip side, Namine gives Olette the chance to exercise those nurturing skills that Hayner, especially, and Pence are rejecting, and Namine would be happy with the attention, and so it's a win for everybody. Plus, for Olette, I think Namine would be fascinating, something otherworldly, and yet who wouldn't force her to get out into the adventure for herself, because Namine would probably prefer to settle down, so Olette could have that spice without having to leave Twilight Town. These two just...work. And so even if I give Sora to Namine, she still wants Olette as well.

Sora/Kairi is a cliché at its finest, which is saying something in a game that’s half Disney. At least as far as its canon portrayal goes, it is perhaps one of the most shallow pairings in the entire series. Let me explain. To me, Sora/Kairi is very…childish. And I kind of mean that in a good way, actually, because really it’d be out of character for it to be any other way. They are children, for Christ’s sake…it’s puppy love. And really, that kind of thing is sort of adorable. But the thing about puppy love is that it’s never meant to last. You grow up, and you discover that the world isn’t a magical land of puppies and rainbows and cuteness…it can be a terrible, dark, and ugly place, and yet for all of that, the true beauty of everything is enhanced. The brightest light is in the deepest darkness, you know? And you discover who you really are, and who matters the most to you when the chips are down. I think Sora and Kairi are both more in love with the idea of each other: they each represent to the other the idyllic past that they both miss. They were in puppy love with each other once, but not really anymore…they grew up, and became different people.

And I don’t think a mature Kairi and Sora are right for each other. And really, I especially think that Sora isn’t right for Kairi. The thing about Kairi, which I hope I managed to convey in my story Meant to Forge, is that I think she’s very strong spiritually, and certainly far more grounded and level-headed than Sora or Riku. She is the Believer in the group, their Heart. I think she’s a lot more mature and strong than a lot of people would give her credit for (admittedly, part of this is very much the fault of Square Enix). Therefore, I much prefer pairing her with decidedly more dark people than Sora, because he doesn’t need her the way other people might. He doesn’t challenge her, doesn’t make her grow as a person. Sora and Kairi aren’t compliments: Kairi is pure light, and Sora is one of the closest things to. And Kairi doesn’t need Sora the way that Naminé and Riku do either. (It also doesn't help this pairing that I draw tons of parallels between it and Aqua/Ven....)

Now, let me make one thing clear: I am not advocating that Sora and Kairi don't have a strong bond, or that it deserves to be ignored or anything like that. I think that Sora and Kairi have a very strong and important bond. I just don't think that this bond is of the TWU WUV FOREVS variety, and would prefer their relationship to remain platonic. I ship it the way it is in canon; it's just that my interpretation of canon is different than most other people's.

So, instead of allowing herself to be shipped in default pairings, my headcanon Kairi goes off and frolicks in crack pairings. Like....she is really a character that just ships ridiculously easy with so many different people. So, really, if someone were to contact me and wondering if I would like such-and-such crack pairing, and it features Kairi....odds are that you are right and that I would like to ship it. The point of this little bit is to just....be warned.

What has risen to become my favorite Kairi pairing, and is honestly probably my OT3 in this fandom, is Kairi/Ven/Xion, or KaiVenShi. This is because I love all of the permutations by themselves (VenKai, VenShi, and KaiXi), and then not only are they actually fine with being shipped altogether (*glares at Riku and Namine*), but they also work even better in a threesome. But to simplify things a bit, let me break them down.

So, let's start with Ven/Kairi. I came to ship this pairing through AEM, and it's another one (like Olette/Namine) that, the more I wrote it, the more I came to realize how much they worked really, really well together. Taken in a canon setting, it even makes a surprising amount of sense. Typically I prefer more balance in my pairings, to have some sort of yin/yang thing going on...like, pairing Kairi with Kadaj, Ienzo, Demyx, Xion, Vanitas, it's all sort of Light/Dark pairings. But VenKai is Light/Light, so it's not my usual faire, but I think it works really well. Unlike with, for example, SoKai, in which I feel that they have nothing to offer each other to help each other grow as people, I think that VenKai have that. Ven's gone through so much trauma, that he needs somebody to be his safe harbor for a change, somebody that he doesn't have to be the light for all of the time. And Ven would understand Kairi's frustration with always being left behind, with being seen as the weakest member of the group, and the thirst for independence and to get out in the world and given a chance to prove yourself.

Kairi/Xion is a pairing I was introduced to by my friend Fruity. And to me, KaiXi is a pairing that's all about support. They're each not the strongest characters, but through each other's help, they could improve. Xion may not be the absolute best fighter around, but she's still miles ahead of Kairi, and so she could teach Kairi a bit about fighting with a keyblade, and hone her own skills at the same time. And then, Xion's weakness is in her lack of understanding of the world around her and her own depression, and Kairi could be her emotional support, which is really what her character seems to be truly crafted for. Kairi could get Xion to open up and talk to her about her problems (sadly, I've noticed that girls have a tendency of being conditioned to do that better than boys....and Roxas, Axel, and Riku are really no good for that sort of thing), and could more patiently explain the world. Plus, Kairi's a Princess of Heart, which I think should really grant her the ability to have empathy and sympathy for just about everything that most people wouldn't be able to, plus she's got an overabundance of light to counteract Xion's darkness and depression.

Ven/Xion, in my opinion, follows along a theme of comfort. Ven and Xion both essentially reside in the forgotten depths of Sora’s heart. Xion has a tendency to brood, and with her problems (being forced to either kill Roxas or herself, and then having everyone forget her existence, not to mention the stress of having to figure out what the right thing to do would be on her own) I think she also suffers from depression. I think she would benefit from Ven’s company, his light chasing away the darkness in her mind. For Ven, even if they were just friends, Xion is someone who would understand him, for she would know what it’s like, endangering her friends just by living, knowing that doing the right thing meant ending her own life. They could give each other their shoulders to cry on. Together, they wouldn’t have to be alone in the darkness, waiting for Sora to ‘save them’.

So, with KaiVenShi, you get all of the above rolled into one package of awesomeness. They each understand things about each other better than anyone else would, and they each in turn can give shoulders to lean on for support...I just love all three couples individually, and then they don't tear apart my heart, because unlike CERTAIN OTHER PEOPLE, they're happier to be teamed up together. So, yeah...OT3 for the win. :3

But, as I said before. Crack shipping Kairi is fun, and probably my second pasttime after crack shipping Disney characters all over the place. ;) After KaiVenShi above, my second favorite Kairi pairing is DemKai; this is also my second favorite Demyx pairing. :)

Demyx/Kairi is just a pairing that I saw in a fanfic one day, and I favorited the story thinking of how much I liked the concept, and then it SNEAKED. It sneaked up higher and higher into my esteem, until it's gotten into the position that it's in today. (Lots of pairings seem to do this to me, I've noticed.) Demyx will always be my first choice if Kairi had to be paired with a member of the Organization (excluding Xion, obviously). Again, I hope Meant to Forge can pass muster on being a good demonstration of this pairing for me. Out of our main trio, Kairi, Sora, and Riku, I think Kairi would be in the best position, forced into spending a large quantity of time with them as she is, to really see the Nobodies for what they are: lost creatures forced into finding their own answers. I think she would (or should) feel sympathy for them. And logically, being a person of pure heart, I think she should want to help them in some way, even if she doesn’t know the right way to go about it. Demyx, then, is a person who is always searching for hope, or the validation of the hope he so tenuously holds on to. And I think he could find what he’s looking for in Kairi. These two challenge each other, and even without the romance, they’re forced into shifting their pre-conceived notions of each other. They grow. And I think Kairi needs someone like Demyx, who, when he looks at her, wouldn’t see a young girl who needed Sora and Riku to save her, wouldn’t see her as a symbol of the rosy, now out-of-reach past. Instead, Demyx could look at her with hardly any biases and see her for who she is now, who she has grown to be.

Kairi/Kadaj is yet another crack pairing that I came across one day, and I just fell in love with it. Obviously, this is a Kairi pairing that I see around the least, and it was brought to my attention courtesy of Lady Karai’s “Come Home”. In that particular AU universe, this couple had epic amounts of adorableness, but the thing that I loved most about Kadaj in “Come Home” is that, in a way, he was just as insane and yet terrifyingly rational as he was in Advent Children. The only thing that changed were his reasons for being that way. But Kairi, I feel, isn’t the kind of person who would put up with his bullshit, and who would relentlessly tear down all of his walls and defenses, and make him show his more vulnerable side to her, and she’d show him that it’s okay to trust, and to be scared, to let someone else be strong for you. And I think Kadaj, like most beings of darkness, would be attracted to that light. It’s a human masochism thing…we’re always doing things that we know has the potential to hurt us in some way, and yet we can’t stop ourselves from doing it. Anyway, Kadaj would test her, try to break her at first, I think, and then as she refuses to yield or back down, he keeps getting more and more caught up in her. To use my good friend Ip's turn of phrase, Kairi would be Kadaj's Morality Girlfriend. This is one of my top favorite crossover pairings....probably behind only Meg/Ariel and Marluxia/Rarity. :3

Ienzo/Kairi really follows along in a similar theme to Kairi/Kadaj, but I mostly ship them because in canon you get ‘tragedy’ tacked on to this. And I am ridiculously fond of tragedy in canon, most of the time. But this one is definitely not a pairing in which I would say that they were meant to be, or that it was meant to be a true love forever kind of thing. I think for Ienzo, Kairi would be a somewhat important memory, a person to remember fondly who left her mark on him in some way, but one that he would eventually move on from. A piece of the past, rather than the future. And if I'm really being honest, it's also because the image of young!Kairi and young!Ienzo (as I suppose, after KH3D, I must identify him now) is just so friggin' adorable. Annnnnd once I've jumped onto the KH3D bandwagon, I'll see how it goes with these two. But mostly, this is all just for the mental picture of the little ones with cute grade school crushes on each other. ^^

Phew. So, those are my main Kairi pairings. Now, let's move on to a handful of other pairings involving the characters mentioned above, but that don't really fit elsewhere onto this profile.

I suppose I'm going to start with RikuShi. This pairing is just odd for me, but Riku/Xion is kinda sorta my second favorite Riku pairing. Kind of. Part of the reason for that is because this pairing, at least in canon, inevitably leaks over into the Riku/Sora pairing, as Xion is slowly taking on Sora’s identity. A friend of mine has even hypothesized that it was the Xion part of Sora that made him fall to his knees and cry over Riku. Anyway, the point is that Xion is very much a part of Sora, and is kind of like his reflection, in a way. Even if he wouldn’t quite understand it, I think Riku would be able to feel that in her, feel some sense of connection. And then you have the fact that Xion also looks like Kairi, which could play a factor if you believe in the Riku/Kairi or Sora/Riku/Kairi pairings (I’m not sure if I do). That’s kind of unfair, I know, to believe that Riku in canon would only want to be with Xion because she reminded him of Sora and/or Kairi, but...well, Riku is only human, and he’s hurting and during the time of his life that he knew Xion, he’s settling himself into the “I don’t want Sora to find me” state of mind that he’s in for most of KH2. As for Xion’s side of the matter, I think she really leaned on Riku during Days and depended on his opinion and his answers to her questions. And I think, the closer Xion comes to fully absorbing Sora, the more Sora’s feelings towards Riku, whatever they happen to be, would influence and mingle with hers. As might be obvious, this pairing resonates with me because it features yet another couple who were never meant to be. Riku, despite whatever love there may have been, still loved Sora more than Xion, still chose his best friend above everything else.

Ultimately, I can only semi-ship Riku/Xion because I just don't think they'd be healthy for each other in the long term, especially not in canon. Both Riku and Xion need bright people to help keep their heads above water, so to speak, and they can't really give that to each other.

Comments

[raberbagirl.livejournal.com]

I need so much to catch up with your LJ! *determined face* Now for probably my favorite post of yours! XD

Lol, KH needed an entire post to itself for me, too. XD

And I know what you mean. KH isn't one of my favorite stories of all time, and my favorite character of all time and my favorite romance pairings are from different fandoms, but...there's just something about KH, I don't know what it is. ^^; Like, literally, I've felt for a while that I'd be indefinitely happy with KH and don't need any new fandoms ever; the shipping is, like, infinite (and I, too, tend to crack-ship in KH way more than in other fandoms where I'm pretty happy with canon/accepted pairings), I'm just not interested in any other fandom even though I like some canons better...there's just something about KH. XD And yes, most of my online social life is thanks to the KH fandom. :)

It is incredible how much interest I've lost in Zemyx.... Now that my need to prioritize has become more urgent than ever, I'm considering giving up Undistorted altogether. I have tons of plunnies for it, but just no interest in actually writing them. I don't know what it is about it, since I'm sure that Zexion & Demyx know each other fairly well and must have hung out together sometimes, or at least been paired on missions together, but they're like Sora/Xion in that they just refuse to click for me even though I've tried them, I dunno. My Demyx has more fun with Xigbar, and my Zexy keeps fleeing to the Nerd Herd. ^^;

I like Sora/Riku in canon, but almost zero interest in fandom.

*AkuSai squee*

Kairi/Ienzo has been growing on me - not as romance, but I think all those pictures of them as kids together in Radiant Garden are so cute. X3

I wish I could figure out why I like Marly/Larxene. XD Like, seriously, that pairing is all "click" for me, I have no explanation. *sweatdrop*

Lol, I like the idea of Marly trying to be a creeper to Aeris or Aqua, and then getting taken aback when they prove to be more than a match for him. XD

You have to read Eletric feel, K! She wrote it for you, and it's a good LexLarx story! 8D

Haynette.... X(
Seiflette?! D:<
Though I do kind of like Roxas/Fuu. XD

I really need to write at least one DemKai story.... It's just hard to think of plot bunnies that you didn't already use in Meant to Forge. XD Her imprisonment is pretty much the only time they could have had interaction in canon.... Though, come to think of it, I just got an idea. Not how to turn it into an interesting story, but a scenario, at least. *ponders*

I wish I knew Luxord well enough for me to appreciate XigLux bromance the way I probably would if I knew Luxord like I know the other characters. ^^;

It's amazing how adorable Tron is. 8D You wouldn't expect someone like him to be so cute, but he is. X3

Larxene/Aladdin is difficult to write. X( But that may just be because I have difficulty writing Larxene anyway. :/

Kairi/Kadaj~! <3

You need to write a Marity fic! I wanna see you flesh out your interpretation of it! 8D

[ashkiryn.livejournal.com]

Wait, what, Mirae wrote a fic for me?!?!?! Waaaaaaaaaaah, I didn't know! D: I'll definitely be reading that ASAP!!!

[ashkiryn.livejournal.com]

Yeah, KH is pretty weird for me too like that. I don't know...maybe it's precisely because of its canon nature and concept that just translates super well into fandom. I don't know. But I'm the same as you---my very favorite characters and pairings belong to different fandoms, but...dunno, KH just has a special place in my heart, and its fandom is indeed my favorite that I've been a part of (well, the only fandom I've ever been truly active in, actually XD). *fist bump* ^^

Hahahaha, I feel you a bit on the Zemyx front as well. I mean, I still like them and ship them, but they've slid quite a bit down my personal totem pole, with others rising above them (Terrella, Namette, KaiVenShi...). And, well, I have trouble getting myself to write much of anything these days, so I dunno about writing them either. We'll see, I suppose. (Currently, I've decided to spend my strength and energy on answering messages from my inbox instead of writing, because I've been procrastinating far too long on that as well, and actually making headway on reducing my inbox is proving to be a lovely de-stressor. Because for me, it was starting to reach crisis point. So, yeah. Hopefully, within the next couple weeks or so, I'll be able to start really cracking on my writing. *sweatdrop*

I don't like a lot of fics with the focus specifically on SoRiku above all else, or at least I can't mow through a lot of them at one time like I can with, say, AkuRoku, but I still do like spending a bit of quality time with them occasionally in fandom. But yes, they are super precious in canon. *huggles them*

Totally, super cute. I also think they'd be really fun siblings. I remember an AU that I really liked where they were awesome siblings (I would recommend the story to you, but it's got the usual fandom faire slash pairings in it, so...yeah, don't think you'd be interested in that. XD Hmm...unless if maybe I just gave you the links to the chapters focusing solely on their sibling relationship? Of course, all that's without factoring in how little you read fanfic these days. Please don't mind my rambling, I'm gonna stop now. XD XD XD).

I have read fics. That is all. (In regards to Seiflette, at least. As far as Haynette goes...I like Hayner better than Pence, though I don't mind Pencette. I just don't like Pence. Unreasonable character biases, ya know? :P Besides, Namette trumps them all anyway, So There. XD)

Roxas/Fuu just sounds funny to me. On one hand, Roxas could be an unrelenting total zombie with her doing nothing to discourage that, and on the other, they'd be a total metal couple or something. XD

Hey, the imprisonment scenes in "Meant to Forge" were in turn inspired by another fic (that I mentioned in the disclaimer), so I say go for it! Honestly, I wouldn't mind at all, if that's your hang up. :)

Poor Luxord. Don't worry, I shall love him in your stead. XP

I KNOW, RIGHT? TRON, YOU ARE NO FAIR, BEING THAT CUTE. Also, useful. Tron's limit break is one of my very favorites to use ever. It, like, totally wipes the field, it's fantastic.

Yeah, I feel you. Larxene's a pretty difficult and complex character to write.

FUCK, I KNOWWWWWWWWWWWWW, I NEEEEEEEED TO, STUPID WRITER'S BLOCK. DX Maybe I should put a Marity fic onto my top priority or something....*headdesk*