No but seriously I don’t think we talk enough about how absolutely devoted to Riku Sora is despite everything after kh1
thinking about how they use the fact that soras deepest nightmare is riku falling to darkness & he literally killed himself but they really portray the fact that losing riku is his worst fear it just HITS ME kh2 was ridiculous in the longing sora had to just have riku back again no matter what & no matter what he was now
Yeah, I mean it was never explicitly confirmed but it’s so heavily implied I think we can pretty confidently assume that was the intent. For one thing, it is the memory of Riku during the fall of Destiny Islands that sends Sora deep into the nightmare. Riku falling to darkness/losing him IS Sora’s nightmare:
Another very blatant clue is the way the camera focuses on Riku’s Dream Eater sigil (before we are even told by Ansem that Riku is literally a Dream Eater) before shifting to Anti Black Coat Nightmare’s back and showing the nightmare sigil appearing- visually linking the two of them together.
Not only does ABCN have kh1 Riku’s exact build, he also uses Riku’s battle stance. It’s easy to miss because it happens so fast but you can see the stance when he materializes a sword:
There are other things too, like the fact that all other Dream Eaters have Nightmare counterparts as well- so why wouldn’t Riku. And according to Nomura they had originally planned for this fight to be against a super nightmare version of Meow Wow, since Meow Wow was Sora’s first Dream Eater. He doesn’t explain exactly why they changed it but well....Riku was technically Sora’s actual first Dream Eater.
This is more speculation but I also strongly believe that the dark Riku we see in Monstro is this same Nightmare before it fully formed-
Remember ABCN didn’t even have a Nightmare sigil or the red eyes at first. We are also shown with Chirithy in khux how a Nightmare Chirithy counterpart (who is also tied with Player’s heart much like Riku is to Sora’s here as specifically HIS Dream Eater) slowly forms over time until it becomes a true Nightmare. The place and circumstance where this Dark Riku appears is also an important clue, because Monstro in kh1 was the real breaking point of Sora and Riku’s bond. Up until that point, as much as Riku had been in denial about it, he still wanted Sora by his side- but it’s here where Sora outright rejects Riku. In ddd’s version of Monstro, this is actually a dream world created by Sora’s heart and memories- Monstro at that point in time wasn’t part of Prankster’s Paradise that had fallen into darkness. So it makes sense that a nightmare version of Riku would appear here, albeit not fully formed yet into a true nightmare (hence why it doesn’t put up a fight over Pinocchio)
There's so many good comments in the tags, I can't saved them all.