Original RIKU is original + Background Riku

Road to Dawn | Monochrome Field | Keyblade behind text | Brush (I know I use this brush A LOT. BUT it's so shiny. *O*)

Edited in Photoshops

This is my second entry for Misa's "Be My Bad Boy/Girl" wallpaper challenge. For my second Badass character I chose Riku from Kingdom Hearts.

The reason I chose Riku from Kingdom Hearts is because during the course of the series from Kingdom Hearts and Kingdom Hearts 2, he has to deal with the consequences of using dark magic and energy. So that has been one of his continuing character arcs is dealing with his darkness. The reason why he is badass is because he is trying to be a better person and in KH2 he has done a lot of growing up. He felt really bad for the trouble he caused Sora and Kairi, so he makes up for it by helping Sora off and on in the shadows of KH2 and in Chain of Memories, he deals with the Organization, namely Zexion encouraging him to give into his inner darkness, he refuses, instead he helps Sora wake up and keeps him safe while he is in stasis.

I have a lot of respect for Riku because I can kind of relate to him. He goes through hardships, tries to make things better, that's the same thing I'm trying to do at the moment. So I really have a lot of admiration for his character.

For the wallpaper, I tried to give it a road to the dawn feeling with primarily a monochrome theme. The reason for this is the monochrome is supposed to represent Riku's inner darkness and the colors of light is his desire to make things better and to take the road to dawn to find himself again and protect Sora. It was an interesting process. I even ended up using a couple quotes one of Diz asking Riku what kind of road he was going to take. And he answers, "No. I'm taking the road to dawn." I could have used angsty song lyrics like in other wallpapers but the quote fit the theme I was going for better.

This wallpaper took me about an hour or so to complete, given I was kind of trying something a bit new. That being said I hope everybody enjoys the wallpaper...

Dedicated to KyraChan because a lot of your wallpapers inspire me.
~Judai