Riku's fighting pose in Destiny Islands is different than the one in Hollow Bastion. My take, is that Ansem SOD trained Riku between Monstro and HB, giving him similar training to Vanitas (Ansem is essentialy Master Xehanort) which is why Riku and Vanitas have similar fighting poses.

Very good theory! Unless you skip monstro of course haha

Riku is seen using that same stance in a flashback in Chain of Memories from when they were kids though.

On 8/18/2021 at 10:43 AM, JTD95 said:

Riku is seen using that same stance in a flashback in Chain of Memories from when they were kids though.

another reason why I want a remake/alternate timeline series of the game so we can see what could have been because I like this idea very much

If one connects all the dots available it is possible that Riku was being groomed by Ansem Seeker of Darkness for much longer than just the time he knew him in KH1. He knew that Riku was Terra's choice for a successor from having the memory of Terra bequeathing Riku. We learned from Coded/Re:Coded that while the Robed Figure Ansem was new to Sora in KH1 Riku was already long familiar with him due to the memory that showed up in the journal that originated from outside the journal according to Data Riku.

This is a memory in which Riku smiles serenely while a dark portal opens up behind him to take him off Destiny Islands on the Night of Fate courtesy of Robed Figure Ansem, putting into question if Riku actually left the islands before or after Sora (and we can surmise that this is the incident being referred to when Robed Figure Ansem comments about Riku showing no fear when jumping right into the darkness, not the scene between him and Sora where Sora first gets the Keyblade, speaking of which, if Riku did leave before Sora was the Riku Sora saw during the Night of Fate in the scene he gets the Kingdom Key just an illusion?). If Riku was also using that stance as a kid while play fighting/sparring with Sora how long exactly had he been under Xehanort's thumb in some way or another before the events of KH1? It really is up in the clouds, but we can certainly surmise it had been going on for at least several years.

Edited November 20, 2024Nov 20 by FadedSparkle

That's very interesting