When it comes to commenting on the tropes and problems in the Kingdom Hearts series, Kairi often stands out as the lowest hanging fruit due to how the stories have mishandled her. However, while Kairi does deserve a win in Kingdom Hearts 4 after only ever acting as a damsel in distress in combat encounters, her strongest moments have come when fighting wasn't the way forward.
Across the Kingdom Hearts series, Kairi has mostly played a significant role in being a strong motivation for Sora's search from world to world. Beyond being one of the reasons for Sora to keep fighting, it can be easy for fans to brush off the fact that Kairi herself has saved the day in every game she's played a major role in.
Kairi Keeps Saving Sora
It can't be understated that Sora's time as the series' protagonist would have ended without Kairi in the very first Kingdom Hearts, from the start of the game all the way to the end. The circumstances where Kairi saved Sora in the beginning have since seen some retcons, originally implying that it was the combination of their hearts that summoned the keyblade when Riku fell to darkness. However, at the end of the Hollow Bastion level, the direct actions of Kairi are much clearer and lead directly to Sora being recovered from the dark and going on to defeat Ansem.
Specifically, when Sora attempts to sacrifice himself to save Kairi, he is turned into a Heartless and has to make the short trip back down to the entrance of Hollow Bastion. It's here that Kingdom Hearts shows a character revert back from being a Heartless for the first of very few instances across the series that someone is able to regain their consciousness. Sora magically changes back into his normal form, a transformation that is rarely brought up again and never fully explained, but is shown to be a result of Kairi reaching out to pull him out of the darkness.
This situation where Sora acts as the lead fighter and Kairi appears at the eleventh hour to keep him in the fight continues on to Kingdom Hearts 2 and 3. Kairi's "hero" moment in Kingdom Hearts 2 is much less pronounced, with her reunion with Namine giving Sora a path up into the castle in The World that Never Was. However, her actions at the end of Kingdom Hearts 3 not only saves Sora, but each of the other Warriors of Light, as she guides the protagonist through The Final World and to chase down the Lich.
Xehanort Would Have Won Without Kairi
The end of Kingdom Hearts 3 is easily the worst example of the misuse of Kairi, with her being kidnaped with the upper arm grab trope before being "killed" at the start of the final battle. While th finale is still worth ridicule and a great example of how women in Kingdom Hearts need better representation, what comes before this moment is one of Kairi's best triumphs. In the scenes leading up to and from The Final World, everything that happens to Sora, from being reconstructed to saving all of his friends, is entirely due to Kairi.
This whole situation at the beginning of the Keyblade Graveyard level is one of the strangest moments in Kingdom Hearts 3, as well as one of the stronger narrative moments from the series. Not only do the protagonists initially lose, which proves how much more powerful the villains are than in previous games, but the heroes have to literally break time in order to undo the damage. In the end, it's revealed that Kairi was the one who saved Sora's heart from being devoured by the Lich and leads him to save everyone else.
The result is that, without Kairi using her connection to Sora to keep him safe and guide him along the way to save everyone else, Xehanort would have easily beaten the entire group of heroes before the real fighting even started. Of course, that whole situation makes little sense, seeing that Xehanort's plan required everyone to fight him and his minions in order to clash the thirteen darknesses with the seven lights, but Kingdom Hearts 3 kinda glosses over that one. Regardless of the convoluted plotting of Xehanort in Kingdom Hearts 3, he would have succeeded in at least killing everyone right from the start of the fight if it wasn't for Kairi.
Kairi Plays Support
At this point in the series, it can be disappointing to see Kairi always being kidnaped or captured, especially when she's had access to a Keyblade since Kingdom Hearts 2. However, looking at the way that Kairi has since been used to move the story forward in moments where Sora is either out of the fight or at his lowest, this means that her role was never meant to be as a fighter. In terms of any other RPG with party mechanics, Kairi appears to take on a support role more often than a DPS one.
What Kairi does in the narrative and for the other protagonists is something that few players want to do for themselves, taking on the role of the healer, or buffing the rest of the party. It can be an underwhelming role for any character to play in a series that has so many capable fighters that each get their own chance to take the spotlight. For that reason, Kairi's development in Kingdom Hearts feels lacking when compared to the other heroes like Riku, Terra, or Ventus.
As disappointing as this characterization has been, there are ways moving forward that Kingdom Hearts 4 could make up for Kingdom Hearts 3's mistakes with Kairi. If Sora is always going to be the one who is front and center in fights, Kairi should keep her position as his guiding light. Giving her the chance to win a fight would be great, but if that's out of the question for Kingdom Hearts for whatever reason, then making it clear that she's the one pushing Sora forward and clearing the way for him could help emphasize her role as his biggest supporter.
Kingdom Hearts 3 is available now for PC, PS4, PS5, Xbox One, and Xbox Series X/S.