Roxas Fractured Riku's Left Wrist During Their Fight In Days, When Riku Sought To Capture Him And Wake

Roxas fractured Riku's left wrist during their fight in Days, when Riku sought to capture him and wake Sora from his sleep. This is why in KH2 and DDD he wears the wrap around it. Roxas fractures it with Oblivion, which is ironic, since Oblivion represents Sora's forgotten memories of Riku. [I'm pretty convinced it represents the forgotten memory of his death, and a promise they made as children, specifically]

During the DDD intro rendition of Riku and Sora's fight with Xemnas, you can see it is clearly bothering him. He looks at it and flexes it, before Xemnas punts him. This blow appears to be across the face/left shoulder, but it's not really clear. Probably also hurt super bad.

After this, when Xemnas is about to finish off Sora, Riku deflects the blow and pushes Sora to safety, leaving him open to this blow from Xemnas.

Which I believe also fractured the left side of his hip. This is why he had so much trouble walking after the battle, and had to be helped by Sora.

I find Riku's walk very stiff, especially compared to other characters. And I might be imagining it, but I feel like he has an ever so slight limp, barely there at all. Fractures around joints can cause stiffness and arthritis when they don't set properly.

When Riku stands to protect Sora, he presents the left side of his body foremost. His most damaged side.

When the darkness begins consuming his body, the camera again intentionally focuses on his left leg and left hand, and you can see them falter slightly. Especially his hand, you can see it contort. Riku is actually in a shit ton of pain here. That's why Sora gasped and reached out to him, he could see it hurting him.

Riku has physical handicaps, his left wrist and left hip, that both originated from him protecting Sora. Not to mention how he stood there and literally let the darkness eat him alive trying to protect him.

So I want to point out the significance of this scene at the end of KH2.

Upon seeing Kairi, in his joy Sora immediately seems to forget about Riku's injuries, which came from... Riku protecting him. Riku is shown growing distant in the background, walking slowly, struggling, being left behind by Sora. But he's happy that Sora is happy, and safe, because that's what's most important to him. I imagine however, that he was also incredibly sad watching Sora run to Kairi, knowing that Sora wanted to be next to her at that moment rather than him, even though Riku had suffered so much for his sake.

The way the shot is framed, as Sora runs toward Kairi, he blocks out the sun completely.

If he had stopped, turned around, and looked at Riku, he would have been looking directly at the light.

~~wonk uoy naht noitceffa erom deen I