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

In Final Fantasy X, Rikku is Tidus's first friend in Spira, and returns later in the story, becoming one of Yuna's guardians. Strong-willed, Rikku makes numerous attempts to disrupt Yuna's pilgrimage; knowing what Yuna's fate would be at the end. She eventually joins the pilgrimage in an effort to ensure it wouldn't happen. In Final Fantasy X-2, Rikku accompanies Yuna on her personal quest to reunite with Tidus.

Appearance and Personality
In her debut appearance in Final Fantasy X, Rikku is a young girl of only fifteen, with medium-length blonde hair in a ponytail and braided pigtails with orange feathers attached to them, and the Al Bhed trademark green eyes with swirled pupils. When she is first seen aboard the salvage ship, Rikku is wearing a full Al Bhed combat diving suit with reinforced materials that conceal her identity. Later in the game, she joins Yuna's pilgrimage and sheds the suit, revealing a pair of flaired green short-shorts with an orange belt, loosely held around her waist, and an orange sleeveless tank-top with side straps and two long blue ribbons hanging from the back. She wears a pair of goggles around her neck, a pair of boots, a gauntlet and arm guard for her right arm and a large protective forearm mit for her left. Around her right thigh, she keeps a pouch, in which she keeps her alchemy materials and equipment. Rikku's nails are also painted bright yellow. Despite carrying goggles around her neck and wearing them while salvaging and piloting machina, Rikku never wears her goggles again after she takes them off on the Moonflow.

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 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 towards him like a skiddish insect and grabs his leg.

Rikku is kind-hearted, spirited, happy-go-lucky, 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 level-headed nature. 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. When voicing these worries to Yuna, she is reassured that her own adventure would arrive one day.

Rikku is also known to be highly intelligent, being bilingual and skilled in chemistry. She also suffers from astraphobia, the fear of lightning, after a mishap involving Brother and a stray 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, by camping out in the Thunder Plains for a week. Rikku also reveals a fear of snakes in Final Fantasy X-2, sometimes shouting "Snake! Snake! Snaaake!" when entering battle against a snake-like enemy such as a Recoil.

Final Fantasy X-2 Dresspheres and default appearance
In the two years between Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2, Rikku's hair has grown much longer; she wears it loose and braided, tied atop her head, adorned with colorful beads, and held by a blue bandana. Rikku remains the ever upbeat and somewhat reckless individual, occasionally causing trouble for her friends. Remaining loyal to her cousin Yuna, Rikku continues to care about her welfare while encouraging her to have more fun in life.

In Final Fantasy X-2, Rikku has a separate appearance for each of the 13 dresspheres used in combat, with details that distinguish her in each dressphere from Paine and Yuna. Rikku's default look is the Thief dressphere; she wears a yellow string bikini and an olive green mini-skirt, carrying two pouches at her waist and ruffle sleeves over each arm as arm guards. A long yellow and red scarf hangs loosely around her. Wearing the Thief dressphere in combat, she wields two red dagger-like blades designed for motive attacks.

In other dresspheres, she can be seen wielding Yuna's Tiny Bee guns and summoning staves El Dorado and Spiked Rod as well as Tidus's Crystal Sword, Auron's Katana blade and his Masamune katana. Her deck theme for the Lady Luck dressphere is clubs, and her Mascot dressphere is a Cait Sith.

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 Spiran, objects when her friends think Tidus is a fiend "in human disguise" and want to kill him. Rikku stops them, but knocks Tidus unconscious with a punch to the gut to stop his protesting.

On their salvage ship, Rikku enlists Tidus to help reactivate an 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 cannot speak Al Bhed and the Psyches cannot speak Spiran - 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's not.

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 washes 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 nearly lets slip that she is an Al Bhed, but stops himself because of Wakka's strong hatred towards them. Rikku asks to become Yuna's guardian and 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. With Yuna's approval, Rikku joins the party as the last guardian.

At Guadosalam, Rikku assists Tidus with creating better weapons by fusing them with items. She 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 is suspected by fans that since the Al Bhed are considered heathens, there would be few summoners willing to send them when they die (with the exception of Lord Braska and his wife), and so they can't make their way to the Farplane).

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's 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 recoil in surprise and ask if he is serious, then giggle and hit Tidus several times before jumping down to the lower ledge and say 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.

Rikku starts to panic when the group reaches the Thunder Plains. It turns out she has severe astraphobia - a fear of thunderstorms - left over from a mishap in the past when Brother aimed a Thunder spell at an attacking fiend, except it missed and hit Rikku instead. She is left in near-hysterics over most of the journey across the plains. She becomes so frightened that halfway across, a thunderstrike scares her so much that she collapses and seizes Tidus by the leg. She pleads for the group to rest at one of Rin's Travel Agencies. Irritated by her fear, Auron threatens to leave her at the Travel Agency, as "she's worse than the storm." She decides to go outside to prove to Auron (and the storm) that she is not scared. She only calms down and brightens up once the group reaches the Macalania Woods.

Wakka discovers Rikku is an Al Bhed 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. Afterward, Tidus either rides with Rikku, Lulu, Auron, or Kimahri to Macalania Temple. If Tidus rides with Rikku, she reveals she is Yuna's cousin and articulates in a roundabout way that Yuna will die if she continues her pilgrimage, but Tidus does not realize this fact. At Macalania Temple, a guard, disbelieving that an Al Bhed could be a guardian to a summoner, initially denies Rikku entry until Auron comes to her defense, telling him that wanting to be Yuna's guardian by choice should be enough to enable her to enter the temple, regardless of her race. The guard relents and allows her entry. After the group kills Seymour and pursued by the Guado, everyone soon falls to the bottom of Macalania Lake, where they encounter Sin.

Everyone finds themselves on Bikanel Island, where Rikku reluctantly leads them to Home, only to find it has been attacked by the Guado, and that many of her friends have been killed. Rikku helps the group reach her father Cid, and she also reveals to Tidus that Yuna is going to die if she performs the Final Summoning, which triggers an emotional breakdown for both. They escape on the Fahrenheit, which the Al Bhed had managed to restore from their salvage operation. Rikku is saddened by the senseless destruction of Home over the course of the trip to Bevelle. Wakka - deeply upset by the Guado attack, but also moved by the Al Bhed's well-intentioned motives for kidnapping summoners - tries to cheer her up, saying, "Boom! Like happy festival fireworks, ya?", though she tearfully reprimands him to "cram your happy festival, you big meanie!"

At Bevelle, Rikku helps rescue Yuna by tossing a flash bomb to blind Seymour and the warrior monks after the wedding ceremony, so that the group can retreat into Bevelle Temple, where 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, but it is too late, and they are arrested and held on trial. Rikku is thrown into the Via Purifico with Tidus and Wakka, and they escape from the dungeon's monster. As they hide in the Macalania Woods, Rikku hopes Yuna would give up her pilgrimage now that they know the truth about Yevon and its corruption. Rikku feels she can't stop her cousin since the pilgrimage is so important to her, so she convinces Tidus to go talk her out of it. After coming back from the spring, Tidus has not been able to convince her to quit.

When arriving in the Calm Lands, Rikku and Tidus desperately try coming up with a plan on how to save Yuna from being killed, but cannot 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. Rikku is overjoyed when Yuna decides to decline the Final Summoning and put a permanent end to Sin.

After this, Rikku does not 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 starts to fade away and says goodbye to everyone. Rikku, however, does not accept any goodbyes from him, saying that they will meet again.

Eternal Calm
In the two years that have passed since the end of Yuna's pilgrimage and Sin's destruction, Rikku has been traveling all over Spira, continuing to salvage machina and is now teaching people how to use them. One day, she rushes to Besaid on an Al Bhed ship to show Yuna a sphere that Kimahri found on Mt. Gagazet, which shows a man bearing a strong resemblance to Tidus.

Rikku suggests to Yuna they go see Kimahri about the sphere and learn more about it, but Wakka continually objects to Yuna running off to look for answers since she is always having visitors, thus making her very busy. Rikku says that for once Yuna should do something that she wants to do. She says ever since defeating Sin forever, everyone else is getting their shot at a new lease on life but Yuna's dreams are always on hold. After Yuna decides to journey again, Rikku reveals that she brought new clothes for Yuna to go "incognito" because of her celebrity status. Wakka then rushes off to get Lulu. Yuna however insists to Rikku they should just leave immediately, and so they embark on a new adventure.

Final Fantasy X-2
Rikku and Brother have had a falling-out with Cid, 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. After Rikku encourages Yuna to embark on another journey, Yuna joins the motley crew on their airship, the Celsius.

The group travels throughout Spira and encounters many old and new friends, including the three most influential Spirans: Nooj, Baralai and Gippal. Gippal, a ladies' man and Rikku's old friend, calls her "Cid's girl", and embarrasses her with a crack about the two of them having "made quite the couple". The Gullwings also get into many scuffles with rival sphere hunter group, the Leblanc Syndicate. Headed by its 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 start to work together to defeat Vegnagun.

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.

When learning about Shuyin and Lenne from Maechen after Yuna's concert in the Thunder Plains, Rikku expresses her pity for Shuyin, as two years ago, she too went to great lengths to try and save 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, Rikku asks Yuna if she can have her own story. Yuna comes up with a story for her and is asked if she will get a hunky guy in her story, Yuna says if anyone could come up with a story, Rikku can.

International + Last Mission
After Yuna is reunited with Tidus at Besaid, the Gullwings go their separate ways. Three months later, each of the girls receive a letter calling them back together, to explore the recently discovered Yadonoki Tower. As they travel to the top of the tower, Rikku tells Yuna and Paine how she continued to go on missions, and the status of their other friends.

When Yuna speaks of how she enjoys her peaceful life with Tidus, Rikku expresses her jealousy towards Yuna for reaching her goal in life and settling down, something Rikku believes she is unable to do herself. The bickering between the two cousins escalates to the point where Paine raises her voice against them. Paine soon reveals she was the one who brought them back together, to show them that even though they have technically gone their separate ways, they shall always be together. She tells Rikku and Yuna that through her previous friendship with Nooj, Gippal, and Baralai, and traveling Spira alone since they split up, she wishes not to lose the friendship they shared.

At the top of the tower, the girls find nothing but a large broken machina. Paine tells Rikku and Yuna to look around but Rikku says that aside from the machina, she only sees them. The group then realizes the machina symbolizes them: broken. As they vow to be more than just strangers who met by chance, becoming friends once again, the machina begins to work, and their adventures continue...

Final Fantasy X
In Final Fantasy X, Rikku's character class is a mix of Chemist and Thief. She is agile and quick during combat and her default Strength is also the highest of the three girls, although still not particularly high. She also has good HP, uses claws as her weapons, and targes as armor.

She can, by default, steal and use special items. As an added bonus, Rikku can instantly kill any machina-type fiend with the Steal command. When counterattacking a fiend regardless of whether they are on the ground or in the air Rikku does a spinning backhand. When countering underwater Rikku punches the fiend if they are close, but if they move faster Rikku will perform a regular underwater attack as a counter.

Her Overdrive is Mix, which lets her combine two special items for various effects.

Rikku is one of only three characters in Final Fantasy X (Tidus and Wakka being the other two) who can fight underwater, and the only female who can do so.

Equipment
Rikku uses claws for weapons and targes for armor. It is never explained why Rikku uses claws rather than a machina weapon like other Al Bhed. One reason may be that she is the one who salvages machina from the deep sea, as demonstrated when she and Tidus salvaged the Fahrenheit, and machina cannot be used in those situations.

She starts out with 360 HP, 85 MP, 10 points in Strength and Magic, 8 points in Defense and Magic Defense, 5 points in Evasion and Accuracy, 16 points in Agility and 18 points in Luck.

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: * PAL/International versions only.

Final Fantasy X-2
In Final Fantasy X-2, before and during battle, Rikku can change her job class by changing dresspheres. Her special dressphere is the Machina Maw and her Mascot dressphere is the Cait Sith.

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

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

Musical Themes
Rikku's theme in Final Fantasy X, aptly named "Rikku's Theme," 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 Moonflow. "Rikku's Theme" is arranged for piano on the Piano Collections: Final Fantasy X album.

Her themes in Final Fantasy X-2 are two fast, upbeat pop themes that have been vocalized on the Final Fantasy X-2: Vocal Collection - Rikku album. The vocal versions of the themes are sung by Rikku's voice actor,.

Final Fantasy Brigade
Rikku appears as a Legend in this Final Fantasy social video game in her Final Fantasy X-2 Thief attire and can use the Shock Storm ability.

Final Fantasy Trading Card Game
Rikku appears in the Trading Card Game representing the element of wind. The four cards she appears on uses her official arts for Final Fantasy X and Final Fantasy X-2, along with the artworks for her from the aforementioned games.

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

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. Rikku, Yuna and Paine are originally allied with Maleficent and spy on Sora, but do not 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 Gullwing Keychain for his Keyblade. 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 attire, as a playable character in this special edition of the Monopoly-like video game available only in Japan alongside Yuna and Paine.

Dead Fantasy

 * For more information, see Dead Fantasy Wiki: Rikku.

Rikku appears in the fan-made Dead Fantasy short films by Monty Oum in her Final Fantasy X-2 attire, along with Yuna, Rinoa, Kairi, Tifa, Cloud, and Dead or Alive characters. Monty has stated Rikku will be going through multiple dressphere changes in her battle against her main enemy, Ayane.

Rikku also appears in the Dead Fantasy - Gee music video in her Final Fantasy X attire.

Etymology
The name 'Riku', with only one 'K' means "land" in japanese, and is a male, shortened form of the name Richard in Finnish.

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. She uses her Final Fantasy X artwork.
 * Rikku makes a reference to the Metal Gear Solid series 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 two games: She has a fear of thunder (although she gets over it two years later due to camping in the Thunder Plains), needles, and snakes.
 * Despite being astraphobic (fear of thunder), Rikku does not take additional damage or run away when hit by a lightning attack. However, she is the only one who is the most soundly hurt when she gets hit by it, resulting in a yelp - ''"AAH!"'
 * During the events of "Final Fantasy X", she never demonstrates any fear of snakes.
 * Rikku's Sphere Grid crosses into Lulu's. This could be a reference to the storyline, when the party is under Macalania Lake and Rikku expresses her wish to be more like Lulu. While the party travels through the Thunder Plains, Lulu advises Rikku to learn some spells to help her overcome her fear of lightning.
 * Rikku, as well as her voice actress;, has received several awards for her 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, and 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.
 * Rikku was used in the production of Final Fantasy XIII to stand in for characters who hadn't been finished yet.
 * One of Rikku's battle quotes, "Booyaka!", is the catchphrase of Selphie Tilmitt from Final Fantasy VIII.
 * In her original outfit and her Thief dressphere, Rikku has a gradient on her scarf. The gradient is reversed, however.