Oh man I love Ashe but Rikku is just the heart and soul of X. She's the ambassador of the less repressed, more technologically advanced Spira that the Yevonites seek to discriminate against. Her people are victims of genocide and she's constantly surrounded by oppression and cultural mores that clearly make her uncomfortable and she handles it like a total badass and has empathy and enthusiasm to spare, all as a young teen. She's much less nuanced in X-2 but is still loads of fun. Ashe is great, truly, but Rikku is probably the best part of FFX and is one of the best example of member of an oppressed fictional race in the medium.
