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.

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. This is the budding of their feelings for one another which grow throughout the game.

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 reprimand 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: "Maybe 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. This ongoing conversation is yet another hint of their possible feelings for one another; though at this point, it seems she is slowly beginning to forgo these feelings, as she cares more for her cousin: Yuna.

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. Irritated by her fear, Auron decides to leave her at the Travel Agency. She decides to go outside to prove to Auron that she's not scared. She only calms down and brightens up once the group reaches Macalania.

Wakka then discovers that she is an Al Bhed (when the rest of the group already knew) when Brother and a group of Al Bhed try to kidnap Yuna again using a tank-like machina. Wakka is deeply disgusted and blames the Al Bhed's use of forbidden machina for the reason of Sin's birth. Afterwords, Tidus either rides with Rikku, Lulu, Auron, 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 this fact.

She doesn't play a major role again until the party is on 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 triggers an emotional breakdown. She is saddened by the destruction of Home over the course of the trip to Bevelle, although Wakka – deeply upset by the Guados' attack but also moved by the Al Bhed's well-intentioned motives for kidnapping Summoners – tries to cheer her up.

At Bevelle, she helps rescue Yuna by releasing a flash bomb to blind Seymour, so that 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 and Yuna not to leave the Chamber of the Fayth, but they don't listen and the church captures them.

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 couldn't stop her cousin since the pilgrimage was so important to her, so she convinces Tidus to go talk her out of it. 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 group's ascent 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. However, she does argue with Mika over the identity of Yu Yevon, and 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 started to fade away and say goodbye to everyone. Rikku, however, would not accept any goodbyes from him 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 travels throughout Spira and encounter many old and new friends, including the three most influential Spirans: Nooj, Baralai and Gippal. Gippal, a ladies' man and an old friend of Rikku, embarrassed her with a crack about the two of them having "made quite the couple"

Some say this is obvious proof of their once having a relationship, considering that Rikku is always quick to respond. She more than likely would have quickly denied it if it had not been true. Others still say that this may not be meant in a romantic sense, given his flirtatious nature and his admission that Rikku was good for a laugh.

They also get into many scuffles with rival Sphere Hunter Group The Leblanc Syndicate. Headed by leader Leblanc and crewed by her band of goons, including her two chief henchmen Ormi and Logos, Leblanc and her team frequently seek the same treasure the Gullwings do. Ultimately as the plot advances the two groups end up putting aside their differences and working together.

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.

As more is learned about Shuyin and Lenne from Maechen, Rikku expresses her pity for Shuyin, as two years ago she too went to great lengths to try and save somebody she cared about, Yuna, from a tragic fate. 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 technically going their separate ways, they shall always be together.

Personality
In Final Fantasy X, due to their familial bond as cousins, Rikku is completely loyal to Yuna – whom she affectionately calls 'Yunie' – and the most vocal opponent against the ongoing pilgrimage that will eventually claim Yuna's 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 were biologically related. She also turns to him for comfort, as seen in the Thunder Plains, when she collapses on the ground with fright, crawls 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, however, when she is sad or upset and despite her outwardly happy exterior she seems to carry some insecurities, particularly when it comes to her own future and what she wants to be. These insecurities sometimes cause her to act jealously towards those that know their path or have obtained what they want out of life. When voicing these worries to Yuna she is reassured that her own adventure would arrive one day.

She also suffers from astraphobia, the fear of lightning, after a mishap involving Brother and a Thunder-spell in her youth. She starts to deal with this fear in Final Fantasy X, and has overcome it by Final Fantasy X-2, having overcome it by camping out in the Thunder Plains for a week. She also reveals a fear of snakes in Final Fantasy X-2, completely freaking out when confronting snake-like enemies, and sometimes shouting "Snake! Snake! Snaaake!" when entering battle against a snake like enemy such as a Recoil.

Rikku in Battle
In Final Fantasy X, Rikku's character class is a mix of Chemist and Thief. She is very agile and quick during combat and her default Strength is also the highest of the three girls. She uses Claws as her weapons, and she uses Targes as armor. She can, by default, Steal and use special items, also. Her Overdrive is called Mix, which lets her combine two special items for various effects.

In Final Fantasy X-2, before and during battle, Rikku can change her job class by changing dresspheres. She can use any of the common dresspheres.

Her Special Dressphere is the Machina Maw.

Her Mascot Dressphere is the Cait Sith.

Rikku's Claws
See: Rikku's Claws

Rikku's Targes
See: Rikku's Targes

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

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.

Trivia

 * Rikku makes a small cameo in Dissidia Final Fantasy as a tutor from the in-game manuals. Along with Wakka she explains how to use the shop system.
 * Rikku also appears in the fan-made Dead Fantasy short films by Monty Oum in her FFX-2 attire, along with Yuna, Rinoa, Kairi, Tifa, Cloud and Dead or Alive characters. Monty has stated that Rikku will be going through multiple dressphere changes in her battle against her main enemy, Ayane.
 * Rikku makes a reference to the game Metal Gear Solid by shouting: "Snake! Snake?! Snaaaaaaake!!!" (some variation of this is generally said by other characters whenever Snake dies.)
 * Rikku has a total of three phobias throughout the story. She has a fear of thunder (although she gets over it two years later due to camping in the Thunder Plains), needles, and snakes.
 * Rikku's Sphere Grid connects into Lulu's. When the party is under Macalaina Lake, she says, "I wish I was more like Lulu." Whilst the party were travelling through the Thunder Plains, Lulu advised Rikku to learn some spells to help her overcome her fear of lightning.
 * Despite being an astraphobiac, she doesn't take any additional damage or run away when hit by a lightning attack. However, she's the only one who is the most soundly hurt when she gets hit by it, resulting in a yelp.
 * Rikku is one of only three characters in Final Fantasy X (Tidus and Wakka being the other two) that can fight underwater.
 * Rikku, as well as her voice actress, 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.