Rikku

Rikku is a lively and kind-hearted Al Bhed girl who is a playable character in both Final Fantasy X and its direct sequel Final Fantasy X-2.

Rikku's father, Cid, is the leader of the Al Bhed, and she has a brother who is aptly named Brother. Her mother died before the events of Final Fantasy X, having been killed by a faulty machina. Cid's sister married High Summoner Braska, Yuna's father, and so Rikku and Brother are Yuna's biological maternal cousins.

In the English localization of Final Fantasy X, Rikku is.

Personality
Because of their bond being cousins, Rikku is completely loyal to Yuna – whom she affectionately calls 'Yunie' – and the most vocal opponent to her ongoing pilgrimage that will eventually claim her life. Over the course of the game, she also forms a close bond with Tidus and looks up to him as a brother (and treats him rather better than her own), perhaps because of their similar personalities and devotion to Yuna; their friendship is so close that Tidus is the first one of Yuna's guardians to whom Rikku reveals that she and Yuna are biologically related. She also turns to him for comfort, as seen in the Thunder Plains, when she collapses on the ground with fright, crawls directly towards him, and grabs him by the leg.

Personality-wise, Rikku is kind-hearted, very spirited and energetic, which sometimes clashes with the more stoic group members. She looks up to Lulu as something of a role model, being impressed with her calm levelheaded-ness – Tidus and Kimahri would share their views on this, the former saying that Rikku should work hard to become like Lulu, and the latter saying that "Rikku should stay Rikku". Child-like and playful in many ways, Rikku tries to maintain a positive outlook and often refers to gloomy or annoying people as "big meanies". Her cheerful outlook often makes a stark contrast when she is sad or upset. She also suffers from astraphobia after a mishap involving Brother and a Thunder-spell in her youth, although she starts to deal with this in the first game, and has overcome it in the second game, explained in the first visit the Thunder Plains when Yuna's voice over states that Rikku overcame her fear by camping out in the Thunder Plains for a week; however, she also reveals a fear of snakes in Final Fantasy X-2, completely freaking out when confronting snake-like enemies. By the game's end, she wonders about her own life, but is reassured by Yuna that her own adventure will arrive one day.

Final Fantasy X
Early in the game, after Tidus gets trapped in the Underwater Ruins, he is 'rescued' by a group of Al Bhed. Rikku, as the only member who can speak both Al Bhed and English, objects when her fellows think Tidus is a fiend in human disguise and wanted to kill him. Rikku stops them but knocks Tidus unconscious with a punch to the gut to stop his protesting.

She then enlists Tidus to help reactivate a underwater power plant – doing a much better job than her brother's rather comical pantomiming – in which the Al Bhed then find a sunken airship and salvage it. Striking up a friendship with Tidus (although rather surprised by his claims of hailing from Zanarkand) she promises to take him to Luca so that he can try and find someone he knows. However, the two are separated when Tidus is washed overboard by a surprise encounter with Sin.

In Luca, Tidus tries to ask the Al Bhed Psyches blitzball team about Rikku, but because of the language barrier – Tidus can't speak Al Bhed and the Psyches can't speak English – he receives no answer. When the Psyches kidnap Yuna and hold her for ransom, Tidus initially suspects their ship, on which Yuna is being held, is the same as the one which rescued him, but it turns out that it wasn't.

Rikku herself is later encountered when the group is crossing the Moonflow, piloting an underwater machina in hopes of kidnapping Yuna and stopping her pilgrimage. However, her machina is beaten by Tidus and Wakka, and she is washed ashore. Tidus finds her collapsed on the beach, and is happy to see her alive and well after Sin's attack. When the others come along, Tidus almost lets slip that she's an Al Bhed, but stops himself because of Wakka's strong hatred towards them. She then asks to become Yuna's guardian so she can continue to defend her cousin (although she doesn't reveal this at the time). Auron forces her to look him in the eye, revealing herself to be an Al Bhed to him, but he, like everyone else, keeps it secret from Wakka.

At Guadosalam, she then teaches Tidus about creating better weapons by fusing them with items. She then spends time enjoying the Guado's hospitality until the group reaches the Farplane, where she stays outside with Auron, saying that she prefers to keep her memories inside, quoting an Al Bhed saying, "memories are nice, but that's all they are". It's suspected by fans that since the Al Bhed are considered heathens, there would be few Summoners willing to send them when they die, and so she would have no one to see there.

Depending on the number of Affection Points Rikku has accumulated with Tidus, Rikku follows Tidus to the ledge overlooking Guadosalam's plaza and strikes up a conversation. She asks Tidus if Yuna will be getting married, and when he replies no, gives him a playful elbowing and points out that this could be his big chance at a relationship with Yuna. The player can either deny or confirm Tidus' feelings for Yuna, in which case Rikku will either repremand Tidus for being cruel, or encourage him to run away and live a quiet life with Yuna. The conversation will end the same way in either case. However, if the player chooses the third option "I'd rather have you, Rikku." Rikku will ask if he's serious, then giggle and hit Tidus several times before jumping down to the lower ledge and saying in Al Bhed: "Mabye someday!" If the player pursues Rikku, she will reveal that people get married as early as fifteen to seventeen in Spira, due to the threat of fiends and Sin. Furthermore, Rikku reveals how her mother was killed, and that she has an older brother. If the player speaks to Rikku a third time, she expresses a wish to have lots of children due to her not having any younger brothers or sisters.

Rikku starts to panic when the group reaches the Thunder Plains. It turns out she has severe astraphobia – or fear of thunderstorms – left over from a mishap in the past when Brother aimed a thunder spell at an attacking fiend, only to miss and hit Rikku instead. She is left in near-hysterics over most of the journey across the plains. She becomes so frightened that she collapses and seizes Tidus by the leg, and pleads for the group to stay longer at one of Rin's Travel Agencies. She only calms down and brightens up once the group reaches Macalania.

She is then discovered by Wakka to be Al Bhed (the rest of the group already knew) when Brother and a group of Al Bhed again try to kidnap Yuna using a tank-like machina. Tidus would then either ride with her, Lulu or Kimahri to Macalania Temple. If Tidus rides with Rikku, she reveals that she is Yuna's cousin and articulates in a roundabout way that Yuna will die if she continues her pilgrimage, but Tidus doesn't realize.

She doesn't make much of an appearance again until Bikanel Island, where she reluctantly leads the party to Home, only to find that it has been attacked by the Guado, and that many of her friends have been killed. She then helps the group reach her father Cid, and they escape on the airship she helped salvage earlier. She also reveals to Tidus that Yuna is going to die if she goes ahead with the Final Summoning, which causes him to suffer an emotional meltdown. She is saddened by the destruction of Home over the course of the trip to Bevelle, although Wakka – who was deeply disturbed by the Guado's attack, and moved when he learned of the Al Bhed's motives for kidnapping Summoners – tries to cheer her up.

At Bevelle, she helps in Yuna's rescue by unleashing a flash bomb to blind Seymour, so the group can retreat into Bevelle Temple. There she shows little surprise that the Yevon clergy is ignoring its own teachings regarding machina. After Kinoc holds them up, Rikku tries to warn Tidus not to leave the Chamber of the Fayth with Yuna and Auron, but he doesn't listen and is captured.

She is then thrown into Via Purifico with Tidus and Wakka and helps them escape from Bevelle. As they hid in the Macalania Woods, she was hoping that Yuna would give up her pilgrimage now that they knew the truth about Yevon and its corruption. She felt like she shouldn't stop her since it means so much to Yuna and convinces Tidus to go talk to her. After coming back from the spring, Tidus couldn't convince her to quit. When arriving in the Calm Lands, she and Tidus desperately try coming up with a plan on how to save Yuna from being killed but can't think of anything. During the groups decent to the Zanarkand Ruins, she becomes increasingly distraught over Yuna's fate and argues repeatedly with Tidus over other possible courses of action. She is then overjoyed when Yuna decides to decline the Final Summoning and put a permanent end to Sin.

After this she doesn't play a great role in the story, although she does argue with Mika over the identity of Yu Yevon, tells Shelinda to spread word of the plan to pacify Sin using the Hymn of the Fayth and makes peace with Wakka before the final confrontation with Sin.

After Sin's defeat, Tidus began to fade away and says goodbye to everyone. Rikku however doesn't accept any goodbyes and says that they'll meet again.

Final Fantasy X-2


Two years have passed since the end of Yuna's pilgrimage and the destruction of Sin. Rikku and Brother had a falling out with Cid in that time, and have since founded the Gullwings, a Sphere Hunting group, with the help of Brother's friends Buddy and Shinra. They are soon joined by a young woman named Paine, who has a mysterious past known only to her. During one of their hunts, Kimahri tells them of a sphere he found on Mt. Gagazet which shows a man bearing a strong resemblance to Tidus. Rikku rushes to Besaid and shows the sphere to Yuna who immediately leaves her island home and joins the motley crew on their airship, the Celsius.



The group travel throughout Spira and encounter many old and new friends, including the three most influential Spirans: Nooj, Baralai and Gippal. Gippal – an old friend of Rikku's and quite a ladies' man – made a crack about the two of them having "made quite the couple" at one time, but it is unclear whether or not they actually romanced, especially given Gippal's flirtatious nature and his comment that Rikku is "always good for a laugh" after Rikku's embarrassed reaction. They also get into many scuffles with rival Sphere Hunter Leblanc and her band of goons, including her two chief henchmen Ormi and Logos.

The three girls utilize Garment Grids and Dresspheres in battle to gain strength and hone their abilities. Continuing her style from Final Fantasy X, Rikku takes the Thief dressphere as her preferred default job. Also, the Alchemist dressphere, which can be obtained by helping Clasko set up his Chocobo ranch in the Calm Lands, has the Mix ability, which was Rikku's overdrive in the previous game.

There is a cutscene where Rikku feels that people are always leaving her behind. Yuna eventually thanks her for "kidnapping" her and letting her join the Gullwings. Concerned about her future, she asks Yuna if she can have her own story. Yuna comes up with a story for her and is asked if she'll get a hunky boy in her story (pretty much referencing Tidus). Yuna says if anyone could come up with a story, Rikku can.

Three months after the events of Final Fantasy X-2, the Gullwings are called back together, to Yadonoki Tower. Here, they travel to the top of the tower, where they find a broken machina. Paine reveals she was the one who brought them back together, to show them that even though they are now apart, they shall always be together.

Rikku in Battle


Rikku's character class is a mix of the Chemist and the Thief. As such, she is very agile and quick during combat. Oddly enough for an astraphobiac, she doesn't take any additional damage or run away when hit by a lightning attack, but she's the only one who is the most soundly hurt whenever she got hit by it ("Aaaaaah!!"). Her Strength is by default the highest of the three girls, but it's not too high anyway, so she's better off Using items. Her weapons are Claws, and she uses Targes as armor. She can, by default, Steal and use special items. Her Overdrive is called Mix, which lets her combine two special items for various effects. Rikku is also one of three characters (Tidus and Wakka being the other two) who can fight underwater.

Rikku's Sphere Grid
Rikku's Sphere Grid area runs near Yuna's, and Lulu's. The unique abilities that are in Rikku's default position on the sphere grid include the following:


 * Steal: Steal items from enemies.
 * Use: Use special items.
 * Luck: Raise party's luck.
 * Spare Change: Attack by throwing gil.
 * Copycat: Mimic an ally's previous action.
 * Bribe: Pay an enemy to make it go away.
 * Mug: Attack and steal items at the same time.

Rikku's Claws
See: Rikku's Claws

Rikku's Targes
See: Rikku's Targes

Den of Woe
Upon entering the Den of Woe the Gullwings encounter fragments of Paine's memories, brought to life by the Pyreflies, and is soon attacked by Shuyin himself.

Revealing that it was he who had turned the Crimson Squad against each other Shuyin proceeded to do the same with the Gullwings. First turning Rikku, and then Paine soon after.

Musical Themes
Though the actual songs are different, Rikku's themes in Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2 are simply called Rikku's Theme. Her theme in Final Fantasy X is a variant of the theme of the Al Bhed, Oui are Al Bhed, and plays when Tidus reunites with her on the northern bank of the Moonflow after he and Wakka rescue Yuna from a machina she had been piloting. Her theme in Final Fantasy X-2 is a fast, upbeat pop theme.

Kingdom Hearts
Rikku was originally going to be featured in Kingdom Hearts at Traverse Town along with Aerith, Leon and Cid. However, since there was already a main character with the name Riku, Yuffie took her place. As such, Yuffie's appearance has some leftover elements from Rikku's design.

Kingdom Hearts II
Rikku appears in Kingdom Hearts II alongside her fellow Gullwings Yuna and Paine wearing a slightly modified version of her Final Fantasy X-2 costume, due to censorship. The Gullwings are all diminutive in stature and depicted as pixies.

They originally are allied with Maleficent and spy on Sora, but don't seem particularly keen on being loyal to her; Rikku calls her "pret-ty lame", and they seem rather out of the loop regarding her plans. After Donald mentions Leon has treasure, the Gullwings agree to change sides and help Leon defend Hollow Bastion. They later confront Sora and company in his lie, but having been told of his battle with Organization XIII, they let it slide and give him the Gullwings keychain. They do not seem to be as powerful as they are in Final Fantasy X-2, as it takes all three of them to defeat one Heartless that would otherwise be easily defeated by Sora.

Dragon Quest & Final Fantasy in Itadaki Street Special
Rikku appears in her Final Fantasy X-2 version, joined by Yuna and Paine.

Reception
Rikku, as well as her voice actor, Tara Strong, have received several awards for their portrayal. In 2004, Tara Strong was the co-winner of the Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences award for "Outstanding Achievement in Character Performance - Female" for her portrayal of Rikku in Final Fantasy X-2 (she tied with Jada Pinkett Smith for her portrayal of Niobe in Enter the Matrix).

In 2005, Rikku won the award for "Hottest Character" in G4's 2004 G-Phoria awards show

Also in 2005, Rikku won the "Viewers' Choice: Baddest Good Girl" on G4's Video Game Vixens.

Trivia

 * Rikku makes a small cameo in Dissidia Final Fantasy as a tutor from the in-game manuals.
 * Rikku also appears in the fan-made Dead Fantasy short films by Monty Oum.