Gullwings

The Gullwings are a group of treasure-hunting fairies made up of Yuna, Rikku, and Paine. They have minor roles 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 Final Fantasy 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 Final Fantasy X-2 occur in the same continuity.

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?

Kingdom Hearts II
Sora, Donald, and Goofy first encounter the Gullwings in their second visit to Hollow Bastion, where they inquire on the recent activities of Leon's group. Sora tells them that they are busy at the castle, and they decide to their report. Rikku nearly reveals that they are working for Maleficent, but Paine quickly stops her from doing so, and assures Sora that they come in peace; Yuna asks her if she's kidding, and Paine replies, "Okay, fine. You do the talking", and teleports away. Yuna and Rikku follow, but not before Yuna apologizes to Sora and company for bothering them.

They reappear during the Battle of the 1000 Heartless, shortly after Sora, Donald, and Goofy defeat a massive amount of both Heartless and Nobodies, and ask what happened to Maleficent. Sora informs them that Maleficent ran away, and they call her lame, revealing that they had indeed been working for her and noting that they picked the wrong side. Sora asks them to help out the Restoration Committee; accepting, Yuna asks if Leon has any treasure, and Donald, knowing that the Committee needs all the help it can get, lies and tells them that he does (proving it by chuckling to himself after they leave). Sora asks who they are, but Yuna tells him that they are nothing worth mentioning, just "three treasure fanatics", and teleport away.

During the war, Paine lures an Armored Knight Heartless into a trap, and Yuna and Rikku double-team it and knock it off the edge with two simultaneous jump-kicks. Shortly afterwards, a massive legion of Armored Knights chases them off.

The Gullwings escape, however, and discover that they had been tricked, confronting Sora and friends after the war. After a brief discussion with each other on how to work it out, they decide to take their treasure in retribution; when Sora declares that they have nothing, Rikku searches them, and Yuna declares that they are taking all of their items. However, Sora downright refuses, much to their frustration. Sora begins to apologize for the deception, but Paine stops him and reveals that Leon had informed them of their fight against Organization XIII and their search for their friends, and how rough their journey had been. They decide that it wouldn't be right to take their items after all that they had been through, assure him that they will root for them, give Sora the Gullwing Keyblade as a sign of forgiveness, and 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.

Personalities
While the Gullwings' physical appearances have changed, their personalities have not: 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. However, it would seem that they are more like mercenaries in this game, working for Maleficent in exchange for treasure, and agreeing to work for Leon only if he pays them to do so; when confronting Sora, Donald, and Goofy, Rikku complains about Leon not having any treasure and Paine says, "And we fought for you guys", almost as if it was a crime to help someone out without receiving payment. Nonetheless, they do seem to have a strong moral compass, as they decide to let Sora and co. off without consequence upon hearing of his fight with Organization XIII and search for his missing friends, as they believe that punishing them for doing the right thing is just not right.

Appearances
True to Final Fantasy X-2, the trio sport their trademark pose, with slight differences due to lack of their weapons (Yuna's Final Fantasy 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. Paine remains relatively unchanged). Also, the three girls each have wings that are unique to them. Yuna has a hair clip resembling bird wings, Rikku's wings are the long, loose ends of her scarf, and Paine has black, bat-like wings.

In addition, Yuna is represented by the color pink while Paine is represented by the color violet in Final Fantasy X-2. 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 Final Fantasy X-2 is seen in the first cutscene of Final Fantasy X-2, their bathing suits and, if one looks closely, their names in the main menu. 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 girl'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. Paine also mentions Rikku's name is a text box if the player talks to her before talking to Yuna after the battle.

Abilities
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 in her Warrior dressphere. However, not one of their weapons were shown in Kingdom Hearts II, instead relying on hand-to-hand combat to fight. They have only demonstrated the abilities to teleport and to conjure up objects, as they did when they gave Sora the Gullwing Keyblade.

Trivia
Albatros (Personnages)
 * Interestingly, Rikku was supposed to make a solo appearance in the original Kingdom Hearts as a member of Leon's group; however, because of the similarly-named Riku's presence, she was replaced with Yuffie, who was also given the outfit planned for Rikku.
 * Many fans protested making the Gullwings "pixie-like" beings and wanted them to have the same 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 that still appeared human, and the Kingdom Hearts series seemed to be the ideal scenario to do so. He chose their fairy forms, as he believed that they would look interesting and because he believed that the screen would be too crowded if the camera focused on all three of them at once if they were in their normal human forms.
 * The phrase in their journal entry, "Friendly neighborhood something or other" is a reference to a line in Final Fantasy X-2 where the Gullwings were referred to as "Friendly neighborhood Gullwings", which is a parody of Marvel Comic's "Friendly Neighborhood Spider-Man". This seems ironic since Marvel is now owned by Disney.
 * One theory about why the weapons have been removed is because of the "Dressphere" system in Final Fantasy X-2. As each of the dresspheres focus on a different aspect of power, and as such, different weapons, making the theory of each character having a weapon of their own being more difficult because each Dressphere uses a different weapon. However, this is not likely for two reasons: 1. MOST weapons were removed from the Kingdom Hearts series in the first place to make it more kid-friendly, with exceptions for a few enemies (Clayton, Port Royal enemies, Sephiroth and Organization XIII) and a couple of allies (Cloud, Leon, Yuffie, Donald and Goofy, though the latter two seem to not have weapons, but rather magic and defense, respectively), and 2. The Gullwings are in their original Dressphere outfits, meaning that Paine WOULD have the sword, Rikku WOULD have the twin daggers and Yuna WOULD have the guns.