Canonically, Did Riku Win?

Replaying KH1 since I lost my 1.5 save file and I want to fight Xemnas, and I just randomly thought of something.
Riku and Sora have a race to determine who will name the raft, which in turn derermines the name of the Gummi Ship. In KH2, the standard style of Gummi Ship is called The Highwind, Riku's choice.
So canonically, does this mean Riku beat Sora? It's weird, since pretty much every other part of KH2 (And Days) assumes Sora succeeds, with the possible exception of Sephiroth

 

But if Sora wins it will be called the Excalibur. Obviously in terms of the game itself Mickey named the ship (or Scrooge, we don't really know) but the fact that it's called The Gighwind would imply the devs think Sora lost the race

 

Well, it could be possible that after the events of KH1 Sora really misses Riku and so decides to change the name of the ship to what he wanted just as a good will gesture, you know, sentimental reasons.

I never thought about this though, I always just assumed that was the name of the ship in general, since it's not Sora's ship. Of course, how could they possibly name it the name you gave it in KH1 in KH2 since the games aren't connected via you and calling it "The Excalibur" sort of makes it related to The Sword in the Stone when it should be a neutral ship to all Disney worlds.

 

Never realized this until now. It could be that Sora still beat Riku, but decided that highwind was the better name in KH2.

 

It's probably just a general name that the Devs liked and decided to use, both for Riku's choice for the raft's name in KH1 and for the name of the default ship in KH2. I can't think of any connections, really. Probably just something thrown in by the Devs for fun.

 

That's... a good point.

I can assume that Sora lost, but...

You mentioned that, in the others KHs says Sora win the race. Can you tell me when or in what situation this information appears? I don't remember this very well.

 

This is an interesting issue. I guess that since KH was originally meant for kids, Square assumed that all the six year olds playing for the Disney characters wouldn't know the tricks to beating Riku in the race. And if they kept that mentality, it's fair that the name wouldn't change between titles.
I would say that it was a minor oversight in the games, but since they had multiple alternate cutscenes in the first game alone, it doesn't seem likely that they wouldn't consider the name change between games.

 

Is canonically even a word? wow. Learned something new today. Anyways I think at base yes Riku did win that race not just because in KH2 the name of the ship is already highwind but because even in KH2 trying to win against Riku in a pure foot race without using the zipwire is near to impossible anyways. Riku has been the one person who Sora could never beat in the first place thats why Tidus Selphie and Waka always showered him in praise all the same and even in the manga I think that I read Riku won the foot race. Though non of what I am saying provides any solid proof that Riku won the race but either way I doubt it matters much most of the point anyways was if Riku won or lost it was basically his own method of testing if giving Sora a drive to win would have Sora win against him.

 

To provide an overly simplified answer, 'Highwind' originates from Cid's surname (FF7 Cid, who of course appears in KH). He's the pilot in FF7 and names his ship Highwind in Advent Children (if I remember correctly) as well. I imagine the developers were referencing that rather than establishing canon for the race results.

 

Nope, that one in Advent Children is called Shera.

 

My bad! That makes a lot more sense, Cid isn't so egotistical to call a ship after himself... maybe, heh. It's been a while since I watched AC.

 

I checked about this ship and I figured out that the name Shera came from his wife.
And has been years since I played FF VII, start to forgot a few things.

 

To me Riku won that race. Why? Because beginning of Kingdom Hearts just wanted to show how much better Riku was than Sora. I mean there were a lot of scenes like:

• Riku was the only one working on the raft.
• Tidus said Riku defeated him, Selphie, and Wakka all at once.
• His appearance shows that he's older, a bit taller, and more muscular than Sora.
• Near the end of the game it was revealed that he was suppose to wield Sora's Keyblade.

So adding the fact that Riku won their little race wouldn't surprise me. It's just that even though Riku has all those cool factors and is just better than Sora in just about all categories, the keyblade still chose Sora because he didn't give into the darkness.

 

No, other KH assumes Sora did EVERYTHING else. Summon Mushu, win all the OC Cups. The only things it doesn't seem to assume is you getting any new keyblades, or defeating Sephiroth

 

Well, about hte Keyblades... I just figure out that Sora never got any new Keyblade. He just has one.
"But, why we receive different keyblades along the game?"
In fact, what Sora receives are the Keychains, they change the form and the power of the Kingdom Key, but the weapon is only one.

 

The only new keyblade Sora gets is the one in KH2, but the games will always assume Sora uses the default keyblade UNLESS it's the opening of Dream Drop Distance
Even in the cutscene viewer, Sora always has Kingdom Key

 

I didn't read the thread, so forgive me if someone said this already:

But yeah, I think it's possible that Riku was canonically supposed to win. If you can recall the race that they had, one of the boards on the boardwalk breaks, which makes the player go down into the water. Riku jumps right over it. If someone were to play this for the first time without a strategy book, it is more than likely that they would fall for this trap, which would more than likely make Riku win the race.

 

But it's also possible for Riku to fall for that trap, and the lower route is actually the fastest one

 

I figured it was a combination of these two. 'Highwind' has been a part of FF history for some time, either as names of airships or as part of their drivers' names (who is usually some form of Cid, as it were). And with Sora's focus shifted slightly in KH2, I can imagine him naming the ship Highwind. It makes sense; if you were Riku and you heard somebody was riding a ship named Highwind across space, you'd know it could only be so many people.