#kingdom hearts theory
Riku’s new Keyblade (as seen in the official render and his Play Arts Kai figure), while resembling a blank modern key, has a handle that is similar to the Kingdom Key, and the keychain is a rounded Hidden Mickey, again, like the Kingdom Key. The Kingdom Key was originally supposed to be Riku’s Keyblade, so his new one, marking his progression of character development to becoming a Keyblade Master worthy of wielding a Keyblade, being a sleek modern variant of the Kingdom Key’s design is highly appropriate.
In addition, Way To The Dawn represemted Riku’s journey from sympathetic villain to anti hero to hero. That journey is complete. He may be in the Realm of Darkness but he’s already reached his Dawn.
Moreover, the modern design of Riku’s new Keyblade could be representative of the evolving mindset of being a Keyblade Master. Yen Sid named Riku as a Master “with a new kind of power”, referring to the fact that he easily wields both darkness and light without being corruptible to the former any longer, a far cry from Eraqus’ absolutist mindset. Therefore, not only is Riku a modern Master in terms of being the most recently-named, he’s a Master that represents a more modern perspective on the cosmology. Thus, a modern variant of the Kingdom Key for a Master of the modern times.
Also, related to Riku’s character development, his new outfit is the first to not feature full pants, but capri pants, meaning it doesn’t cover all of his legs, a fashion aesthetic only seen on Sora and Ventus (and incidentally makes him look like a white-haired Noctis). This ties to what Riku said at the end of 0.2, when he states he’s tired of trying to be the adult of the group and strives to be more like himself as Sora does, when Kairi notes he’s acting more like Sora. His new design reflects that, having clothing more similar to Sora’s than his previous looks.
Moreover, in an ironic sense, his default clothes have now gone from primarily bright color schemes, yellow, in particular, to a primarily black scheme…when he’s abandoned Ansem’s brand of darkness, has come to embody the Dark Is Not Evil mindset, and now freely uses darkness-based powers while being immune from their corruptible properties. The ironically bright shades of yellow he used to wear represented his dark phase, while his black color scheme represents his redeemed self.
In a way, Aqua falling into darkness, and worse, becoming a Xehanort vessel, puts her in complete parallel with Riku. Obviously, he was also a Xehanort vessel as well. But more importantly, Aqua’s failure to resist the darkness after almost 12 years without any form of protection other than her light is another nail in the coffin for Eraqus’ ways, which were passed onto her, and as far as we’ve seen, had not really been challenged. Aqua represents a failure of the old ways. Riku, on the other hand, symbolized by his apparent modernized Kingdom Key, represents a master of the newer and wiser ways. A Master that recognizes that darkness, while heavily corrupting, is not inherently evil nor should be totally shunned. Riku’s immunity is proof of that. Thus, the clash between Aqua(nort), the Master of the old ways, and Riku, the Master of the learned ways, is set.
Impressive. Most impressive.
