Yuna, Rikku, and Paine
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The Gullwings are a group of treasure-hunting fairies made up of Yuna, Rikku, and Paine. They have a minor role in Kingdom Hearts II. The name is a reference to the sphere-hunting group that the three girls are a part of in Final Fantasy X-2.
In Jiminy's Journal, the name Gullwings is not mentioned but merely the description the girls gave themselves in the middle of Final Fantasy X-2's story, though the Journal still mentions the trio's original description of the Gullwings as "friendly neighborhood". Furthermore, despite Yuna and Rikku actually making their first appearances in Final Fantasy X alongside Tidus, Wakka, and Auron, they are listed as first appearing in X-2 so as not to break the unity of the trio. However, in the cast part of the end credits, their names are grouped with Auron as both Final Fantasy X and X-2 occur in the same continuity.
Interestingly, Rikku was supposed to make a solo appearance in the original Kingdom Hearts; however, since there was already another Riku, she was replaced with Yuffie. Looking closely shows pieces of her costume in Yuffie's Kingdom Hearts outfit.
Earlier in the game, Rikku almost mentioned that they were on Maleficent's side, until her mouth was closed by Paine. Later on, Donald lies to them, telling them that Leon has treasure that he can give them in order to get them to help out during the Battle of the 1000 Heartless. They are later seen working together to take down an Armored Knight Heartless; Yuna and Rikku slap each other high-fives, and then run away when a massive legion of Armored Knights rush them. When Sora, Donald, and Goofy encounter them later, they confront them about Donald's lie, and decide to take all of their items in retribution. However, when Sora flat-out refuses and attempts to apologize for tricking them, they tell him to forget it, and that Leon had told them of their battle against Organization XIII and how rough that their journey had been. Believing it to be wrong to take all of their items after all that they had been through, they give Sora the Gullwing Keyblade as a sign of forgiveness, and then depart after performing their trademark pose.
They are last seen during the end credits, stealing a stick of sea-salt ice cream from Yuffie and provoking her into chasing them.
Journal Entries
Kingdom Hearts II
- Yuna
Final Fantasy X-2
One of a teenybopping trio or Friendly Neighborhood something-or-others.
They were looking for Leon, but...why?
- Rikku
Final Fantasy X-2
One of a teenybopping trio or Friendly Neighborhood something-or-others.
It looks like these three have been hired by someone for some kind of mission...but what?
- Paine
Final Fantasy X-2
One of a teenybopping trio or Friendly Neighborhood something-or-others.
They claim to come in peace...but, really, what ARE they?
Changes from Final Fantasy X-2
True to Final Fantasy X-2, the trio sport their trademark pose, with slight differences due to lack of their weapons (Yuna's X-2 weapon were a pair of guns which could not be used here for obvious reasons, even though guns, both fictionalized and otherwise, have already been featured wielded by Clayton, the inhabitants of Port Royal, Stitch, Xigbar, and in some way, Sora's Wisdom Form, even in the English version for the former two). Another change to the trio is their more gracious attire as opposed to their somewhat revealing ones in the original game (Yuna originally had hot pants and Rikku wore a bikini top and had no stockings. Again, Paine remains relatively unchanged). Also, the three girls each have wings that are unique to them. Yuna has bird-like wings on the band at the end of her ponytail. Rikku's wings are the long, loose ends of her scarf. Paine's wings are black, bat-like structures on her back.
In addition, Yuna is represented by the color pink while Paine is represented by the color violet. But in Kingdom Hearts II, Yuna is represented by blue and Paine is represented by red. Rikku is represented by a golden yellow in both games. The color that they are associated with in X-2 is seen in the main menu (where their name is in their theme color), their bathing suits and in their Charlie's Angels-esque "role call." In Kingdom Hearts II, their color is seen in the flashes of light that appear as they teleport in and out of scene.
As another note, none of the girls's names are mentioned, besides Yuna's name, or nickname, as Rikku whispered it to her when they confronted Sora and co. about tricking them, are said in the English dialogue outside of non-subtitled whispering between the trio, possibly to prevent confusing Rikku with Riku.
Considering their size, it takes a combined effort of all three to defeat one Armored Knight, and thus portrayed as weaker than their original selves. Yuna's weapons were a staff as a Summoner/White Mage then twin guns in the Gunner dresssphere, Rikku's were a claw as a Thief/Chemist then twin daggers as a Thief, and Paine's was a sword adorned with a spade-shaped skull on its hand guard. However, not one of their weapons were shown in Kingdom Hearts II, instead relying on hand-to-hand combat to fight.
However, personality-wise, the trio remain relatively unchanged: Yuna is unfailingly kind-hearted and polite, even bowing in respect to Sora, Donald, and Goofy and apologizing to them for bothering them; Rikku is good-natured and ditzy, the latter of which shows when she nearly reveals to Sora and friends who they were working for; and Paine is emotionally distant and anti-social.
Many fans protested because of making The Gullwings "pixie-like" beings and wanted them to have the height as Sora and the others. The reason for this is because Tetsuya Nomura wanted to have Final Fantasy characters appear in a non-human form while still looking human, and the Kingdom Hearts universe seemed to be the ideal scenario to do so. He chose their fairy forms because he felt it would make them more interesting and was also worried that the screen would be too crowded if the three showed up as normal sized characters.
