Summary
- Kingdom Hearts fans have long debated the relationship between Sora and Riku and whether it’s romantic or not.
- This conversation has been made more confusing thanks to a mistranslation in Chain of Memories, which reduces Riku’s importance.
- That’s finally been fixed thanks to a mod called “Chain of Prononuns” that removes the specific use of “her” when talking about Sora’s most important person.
A talented Kingdom Hearts fan has created a mod for Chain of Memories called “Chain of Pronouns” that fixes the infamously mistranslated use of “aitsu”, putting more focus on Riku’s importance to Sora.
Alongside the meaning of Sora’s crown necklace and the usefulness of Kairi, one of the most hotly debated topics in the Kingdom Hearts community is the relationship between Sora and Riku. For years, a lot of the fanbase has shipped Sora and Riku instead of Sora and Kairi due to how close they’re portrayed to be.
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In Kingdom Hearts: Chain Of Memories, A Mistranslation Changes Everything
Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories recently had its 20th anniversary, but a key part of its story is still hidden behind a repeated mistranslation.
Although the games have always leaned more towards Sora and Riku having a brotherly relationship instead of a romantic one, that perception has been muddied due to a mistranslation in Chain of Memories. As chronicled by TheGamer’s Executive Editor Rebecca Phillips, the pronoun “aitsu” was heavily simplified in the English version of Chain of Memories, leading to Riku’s importance to Sora taking a backseat.
Chain Of Memories’ Infamous “Aitsu” Mistranslation Has Been Fixed
You can (and should!) read Rebecca’s much more detailed rundown here, but the gist of it is that the term “aitsu”, which is gender-neutral but masculine leaning”, is mistranslated to “her” in the English version of Chain of Memories instead of “them”. That change makes it seem like Sora’s talking about Kairi (or technically Namine in some instances) throughout most of the adventure when it’s actually supposed to be Riku.
While fans have clarified the issues and discussed them for a while, they still remain in both versions of Chain of Memories. Well, thanks to Twitter user akolnoix and their mod, Chain of Pronouns, that’s no longer the case. The mod changes some of the pronouns Sora uses in key scenes and makes them less explicitly about Namine or Kairi.
The mod comes in two flavours. One changes the pronoun used to “they”, making it clear that Sora isn’t necessarily calling Kairi his “most important person”, and another which outright changes the use of aitsu to “he”, confirming Sora is talking about Riku. Chain of Pronouns also changes some other small things, like removing the use of the now-rather-funny “Keyblade Master” when talking about Sora.
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