I find that threesomes in general, while often tasty, are very difficult to write in roundness -- almost every time I see it, it focuses on one person, or on one pair of the three, or the writing's more sincere with only two of the group, and so the third member feels tacked-on. So it's not solely with this pairing, but in most threesome writing, although it's partly what affects my interest in finding good OT3 fic.
The Kairi-centric dynamic for me is kind of bland -- not because they don't both care about her, because they do. Because A) it feels to me like people assuming that the girl must be the emotional center between the two boys because lol boys and their emotions? or perhaps because they're competing over her, and B) because I don't think Riku would do well in that relationship in general. Even assuming this is a situation where Kairi means more to him than Sora, which is a little weird for me to wrap my head around, it seems to me like he needs more attention than that -- more affirmation. I can see it being about Sora, or about Riku, but being about Kairi feels like... Riku's in the way, Sora cares for her. If left to themselves they'd be happy. They don't need him. Insert emotardness here.
But Riku-centric I think would be very interesting. I think both Kairi and Sora, knowing him to need that extra attention, could (and would!) make it about him when he needed it, even if he isn't the "central" focus. I CAN see it and it IS kind of shiny, honestly... Although as far as I know I've only seen anyone take this angle on it once, and the others are all "Sora or Kairi are the center figure!"
So in this case I think my problem goes back to being with Riku/Kairi. Even in the first game, Riku seemed less like he was competing with Sora for Kairi and more like he was trying to goad Sora into chasing Kairi, because Sora is at this point established as quietly crushing on her. And at the same point Kairi seems less interested in Riku than in Sora -- I mean, she tried to get Sora to run away with her, ditching Riku. I think that a lot of the distance she felt in him is amended by the end of the second game, but it still doesn't sit well with me. I think they make fantastic friends, but less so lovers.
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The Kairi-centric dynamic for me is kind of bland -- not because they don't both care about her, because they do. Because A) it feels to me like people assuming that the girl must be the emotional center between the two boys because lol boys and their emotions? or perhaps because they're competing over her, and B) because I don't think Riku would do well in that relationship in general. Even assuming this is a situation where Kairi means more to him than Sora, which is a little weird for me to wrap my head around, it seems to me like he needs more attention than that -- more affirmation. I can see it being about Sora, or about Riku, but being about Kairi feels like... Riku's in the way, Sora cares for her. If left to themselves they'd be happy. They don't need him. Insert emotardness here.
But Riku-centric I think would be very interesting. I think both Kairi and Sora, knowing him to need that extra attention, could (and would!) make it about him when he needed it, even if he isn't the "central" focus. I CAN see it and it IS kind of shiny, honestly...
Although as far as I know I've only seen anyone take this angle on it once, and the others are all "Sora or Kairi are the center figure!"So in this case I think my problem goes back to being with Riku/Kairi. Even in the first game, Riku seemed less like he was competing with Sora for Kairi and more like he was trying to goad Sora into chasing Kairi, because Sora is at this point established as quietly crushing on her. And at the same point Kairi seems less interested in Riku than in Sora -- I mean, she tried to get Sora to run away with her, ditching Riku. I think that a lot of the distance she felt in him is amended by the end of the second game, but it still doesn't sit well with me. I think they make fantastic friends, but less so lovers.