The Riku Replica

Compilation of the Re:Chain of Memories / Kingdom hearts 2 Final Mix + videos that I've managed to find.

What the hell, Real Thing?! Take these handcuffs off right now! Do you wanna fight?!

The Replica and his Oedipal Complex

Okay, let's face it. The replica's inherently Oedipal. Loves his mother -- too much? Wants to kill his father? Yes okay.

Riku as the replica's father is a pretty obvious jump here; whether or not it was something he knew at the time or wanted, he had his 'data' -- something of his essence -- taken and used to create a new creature who shared physical features and abilities with him. (By this logic, Vexen was the original mother, which is kind of disturbing, but we're not going there.) Riku's father to replica twice over; first with the base blueprints he unintentionally provides; and second, for the replica's 'second birth', through the pattern of his memories as assumed via the Destiny Islands card, which "contains memories of Sora and Riku's home), and then shaped and reformed by Namine.

The first-birth replica's father-hate is Oedipal in the Freudian sense -- ie, there's a sense of competition with. He's embarrassed to be compared to a "coward" who's "afraid of the dark". He doesn't think of himself in relation to Riku at that point, per se, but he struggles against Riku nevertheless as a point of competition. The Freudian-Oedipal implications of this only grow with the replica after the falseness of his memories have been returned; Freud's Oedipal complex is often misinterpreted, but is essentially a response to authority and fear of loss of love in that the 'child' struggles against the 'father' (any authority/disciplinary figure) to try to acheive independance without receiving punishment and without losing the love of the nurturing figure. By the time the replica returns to face Riku again, broken and terrified of being swallowed by the overwhelming Riku 'shadow' in him, he's fighting both against the physical Riku and against the Riku inside him he can't get rid of, trying to achieve a separate identity again.

Perhaps the most interesting in regards to Oedipus's relationship to his father in the myth, too, is the middle stage -- the one where the replica has been made to believe he is Riku. Just as Oedipus came to Thebes and became King, marrying the Queen and performing the duties of the King identity, only to find that the original King had been his father who he had killed at the crossroads on the way to Thebes, the replica 'becomes' Riku, protecting and loving 'the girl from Destiny Islands' with all the sense of rightness of a past between them that had never happened, only to find that he was playing his originator's role without any knowledge of that assumption of identity. And the Queen here, Jocasta-Namine, had known it before he did.

Namine as the mother to the replica, Jocasta-Namine, is an interesting figure. I mean, I don't think we can deny that she was definitely the mother of the replica's second birth (taking over from Vexen AGAIN, NOT GOING THERE); even if it is implied to be coerced in some sense, it's her power that shapes the replica and creates him anew as 'Riku'. It's her power which makes him fall in love with her through the role he's been put into as his own father -- ie, she writes memories to support the fact that he is Riku, his own originator, by making him remember loving her, and by doing this both achieves satisfaction and makes him become more his own father. He performs this falsely-based love with both intensity and passion, like the original Oedipus, unaware of the reason for the discord around him (with Oedipus, the plague on Thebes; with the replica, the identical memories she had also written into Sora). As mentioned before, Jocasta and Namine both knew who Oedipus/the replica really is before they do; Jocasta realizes it along the way and doesn't vocalize her fears until it's too late, while Namine knows from the start and doesn't explain to anyone until it's too late to save the replica. And while Jocasta cannot bear her own sin and hangs herself, Namine can't bear her own sin -- ie, the replica trying to fight Sora to protect her from what he THINKS is the fake -- and kills him.

Interesting that these are both -- for Jocasta and Namine -- results of guilt and the awareness of their own role; Namine cares genuinely for Sora, and perhaps what makes the confrontation between him and the replica worst for her, I would assume, is that she knows the replica wouldn't be confronting him in this manner if she hadn't affected him. We see her guilt-attachment after; she stays by his body. Like Jocasta, the twisted/abomination love is far overshadowed by guilt.

On a final Oedipal note, on Freud's interpretation of the maternal side of the equation -- while the replica is more than willing to overthrow his father's authority out of an impulse to survive and prove himself a separate being (the paternal side of the Oedipal complex to a T), the replica also doesn't want to lose the love/protection relationship with Namine. Even when denying and struggling against the false identities as a part of himself and a part of Riku, the replica holds to the only thing he says he has: his promise to protect Namine. Freud's Oedipal complex is about maneuvering the complicated path of an individual trying to prove their individuality without being crushed by the father, and yet maintaining the original child-mother bond in revised form.

So in short: Uh killin' his father, lovin' his mother: Oedipus Replica. Lulz?

The replica's almost normal when he's not thinking about Riku all the time. But -- when Riku comes up he destabalizes. And this is partly because he's by necessity of two minds of the issue of what to do about Riku.

See, the original part of him, the part that was its unique person doesn't want to be compared to Riku. It's never liked Riku; it mostly planned to overcome him to prove a point. It never really planned to kill him, so much as make an example of him; it only fought Riku for the first time because Vexen told him to, but during the course of the fight it became personal when Riku implied he was better than the replica by virtue of not being fake. That side wanted to prove Riku wasn't. Riku HAS to live just long enough to realize that, at least.

The part of him they fucked with and convinced to believe he WAS Riku, down to a completely formed past and childhood -- it needs to eliminate Riku entirely. While Riku is there it can't exist, because it casts discord. Two versions of the same person can't both be real, after all. And even if the Replica knows this side of itself is faked, it responds to it still, as we see through its responses to Namine.

Annnd the replica after the fact is a burdened, deeply wounded mish mash of tattered remains of both and doesn't know why it's feeling any of its feelings, what side it comes from, it just knows it all comes down to Riku.

And it wants to make the pain stop.


Half Jack - the Dresden Dolls

Half underwater
I'm half my mother's daughter
a fraction's left up to dispute
the whole collection
half off the price they're asking
in the halfway house of ill repute

Half accidental
Half pain, full instrumental
I have a lot to think about
You think they're joking?
You have to go provoke him...
I guess it's high time you found out

It's half biology and half corrective surgery gone wrong
you'll notice something funny if you hang around here for too
long ago in some black hole before they had these pills to take it back
I'm half jill
and half jack

Two halves are equal
a cross between two evils
It's not an enviable lot
but if you listen
you'll learn to hear the difference
between the halfs and the half ...nots

And when I let him in I feel my stitches getting slicker
I try to wash him out but like she said: the blood is thicker
I see my mother in my face
but only when I travel
I run as fast as I can run
but
Jack comes tumbling after....

And when I'm brave enough and find a clever way to kick him out
and I'm so high not even you and all your love could bring me down
on 83rd he never found the magic words to change this fact:
I'm half jill
and half jack

I'm halfway home now
Half hoping for a showdown
Cause I'm not big enough to house this crowd

It might destroy me
but I'd sacrifice my body
if it meant i'd get the jack part
out

see
jack
run
jack
see
jack
run
jack

see
jack
run

When the Replica sleeps he dreams of Destiny Islands; the sun beaming down and him and Sora shoving at each other, competing. The sound of his own laughter hard in the air as Namine picks him, draws, smiling, her face hidden as she bends over her sketchbook. It's a hot day and he's stripped down to his shorts and on top of the world, the sound of the waves beside him, the wind blowing salt on his skin, the sand hot beneath his feet and shifting, getting in between his toes, coarse and real--

When he wakes, though, he's cold.

Riku Replica canon description:

Sora's Game

Jiminy's Journal

Characters I: Riku Replica

A replica of Riku created by Vexen from the real Riku's data.
Through Namine's power he was infused with false memories and made to believe he was the real Riku.
The truth has wounded him deeply.


Sora's Tale III

Sora pressed on in his search for Namine, and can you believe it? He found Riku, his best friend whom we thought was lost.
Sora was so happy, but Riku attacked him just like that, saying, "I'll protect Namine!"
What could he mean? Will something happen if Sora finds Namine?
Sora is chasing after Riku... and the answers.


Enemy Card: Riku

* Sleight Lock
Keep cards in sleights available for reloading.
Duration: 5 sleights
* Resistant to fire, ice, and lightning.

(My interpretation in a world without cards: Past the point he should have the resources to act, he keeps going.)



Riku's Game

D Report

Characters I: Riku Replica

A replica of Riku created by Vexen from the real Riku's data.
Unlike the real Riku, he wields darkness freely, but is burdened by the fact he is an imitation.


Riku's Tale III

Embattled with the darkness in his heart, Riku met someone who looked just like him, a replica crafted by Vexen, a member of the Organization.
The replica commanded darkness freely, and called Riku cowardly for neglecting the dark.


Riku's Tale IV

Vexen took his replica of Riku and headed for the surface, but finally fell at Sora's hands.


Riku's Tale VI

Guided by the enigmatic DiZ, Riku made his way through Twilight Town, defeating his copy and locating Namine.

The Riku Replica and Fighting

At some point, the Riku Replica might want to fight with you. It's -- sort of what he does in the game: Have emotional declarations and moments of speshul ("That's just like you, Sora! You've always tried to worm your way into my heart!" "Whoa, whoa, whoa. I don't remember doing something like that!" "YOU NEVER CARED ABOUT MY FEELINGS" <-- canon lolz)... and fight people. A lot.

Like, the Riku Replica wins the prize for Most Number of Boss Fights In a Single Game, at 6. Now, of course, in order for the plot to progress, you have to win -- otherwise you're dead and get the continue/game over screen. So in terms of storyline, the Riku Replica has always lost every fight he's set out to do. The only possible exception is if you consider his 'eating' Zexion to have been a fight. (I don't. XD)

...That doesn't mean he's a pushover. In both games he is, quite simply, one of the hardest fights you'll face. In Sora's game, the only enemy I found harder than him was Axel, and THAT was only because my deck wasn't made for facing an element-strong/weak enemy (it was mostly physical). Compared to the Replica, the final fight was really a piece of cake. Likewise, in Riku's game, there were only two bosses I died fighting. The Replica and Ansem. I died five times before I ended up running around enough to level up Riku to the point where he could beat the Replica. Ansem? Died once, due to carelessness.

So yeah. Be warned that the Replica might want to fight with you, and he's a tough battle. He might want to fight for a number of reasons -- to get stronger, to try to absorb your darkness, to make a statement of his identity. But he DOES do a lot of fighting, and is no stranger to challenging people to fights.

That said, I am perfectly willing to lose. I am willing to lose EVERY TIME. All I want out of the battle is for it to be a tough one for your character's level. Like, so his level is directly proportional to yours, except in the cases where someone is noticably stronger or weaker than 'most' characters. Have him just be slightly stronger, so that you can overcome but it takes effort -- if you're not at the end of your healthbar and kind of "oh god wait how did I DO that" in game, it's not a fight with the Replica. XD I think it would be lots of fun to replicate that in CFUD and have him lose, but only have you win by the skin of your teeth!

Tell me if you're okay with this.

His main attacks are physical (attack with his sword, Soul Eater), or of the power of darkness: an unnamed blast of energy that throws Riku down at one point, and Dark Firaga (a darkly glowing energy ball he flings at you), Dark Break (he leaps into the air and pogosticks on your head using his sword), and Dark Aura (he glows, floats into the air, zips around smacking you with his weapon a lot, then darkness explodes from the ground to do damage).

Let me know if you're NOT okay with fighting him ever, and I'll find excuses, of course. Nobody should ever be bullied into a fight, etc etc etc. :3

( App goes here )

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