#chimken nuggest

[gaystation4]

"interacting"

WISDOM UPDATE

[gaystation4]

it's crazy that they know what teams they're on

[j1998v]

how do i poll

im jonesluvr btw

[gaystation4]

One of these peaches... is not like the rest

[gaystation4]

[nowoyas]

I... Want McDonald's :(

[actual-corpse]

Bruh... I live in America and I'm starting to refuse that it really exists and is not, in fact, a shitty dystopian YA novel.

[lady-raziel]

Wow I am really hungey for some hot wings now

I’d just like some chimken nuggest

[chloca-cola]

have you ever craved for chimken nuggest

Yes

[gaystation4]

bts meal unboxing

[alnxzar]

chimken nuggest

muriel knits tiny sweaters for his children chickens because he DOES NOT want them to get cold. them chickens needa stay warm and happy >:^)

[ask-chef-teruteru]

Teru, c-can you make Ali and I some Chimken Nuggest TwT

“Course I can, no problem! They’ll be the best y’ever had! Any occasion, or just cause that’s the cravin’ o’ the evenin’?”

[luxheroica]

Okay, Terraqua Fandom/Kingdom Hearts fandom at large. I wasn’t going to comment on this but now I’m going to do a Discourse because I have been bugged by this all day.

This? Is bad. I don’t need to tell you why this is bad, right? Like it feels like it is bleedingly obvious why this is Not Great but I keep seeing this trope pop up in Birth By Sleep fandom and I just want to elaborate on why This Is Bad.

Kingdom Hearts fandom at large has this tendency to fall into this trope with the Wayfinder Trio. This trope where Ventus is The Kid, and Terra is the big dumbdumb dad, and Aqua is the longsuffering mom Who Is Perfect And Must Put Up With These Idiots With A Sigh, But Really She Loves them.

Does

This

Sound

Familiar

To

You?

The responses above are like two steps away from a ‘my wife is such a nag’ [laugh track] joke because hahahaha, Terra is just too stupid to cut up some fuckin chimken nuggest I guess. 

There is a persistent trope in media and in life where women are The Responsible Ones. Where Men Are Just Too Dumb to do things like cooking and cleaning and household labor. Those silly boys, if you let them do anything they’ll just put in the wrong load of laundry or they’ll burn dinner so they might as well go hang out in their mancave and watch football while we do all the work, am I right ladies??? And then this feedback loops into the world where men expect their girlfriends & wives to be their Surrogate Mom because after all, they just don’t know anything about all of this domestic stuff so Just Let Her Handle It. And sometimes this is unconsciously done and sometimes this is malicious but this is absolutely a dynamic that plays out in the Real World, between Real People. 

And I hate seeing people interpret my OTP that way. And even if you don’t interpret Aqua and Terra romantically, this is still a bad trope! 

Look, I love to joke about my dumb jock boyfriend Terra as much as the next person. (Although there is an excellent refutation of that here. Tl;dr: Terra isn’t as dumb as you think, other characters in this video game frequently also hold the Idiot Ball, and most of Terra’s “dumb decision making” can be attributed to That One Terrible Decision He Made (you know, the one with the consequences) under highly emotionally manipulated circumstances. It’s a good post and you should read it.) I adore the “take two grownups/your parents to Disney” moment with Ven, Aqua and Terra. 

But here’s the thing: Aqua isn’t Terra’s mom. Aqua isn’t Ventus’s mom. She isn’t anybody’s mom. And I hate to call out just one post when it’s just the most egregious example of a trope that I see fucking everywhere in KH fandom. 

And some of this comes from Squeenix and the fact that they are just awful at writing female characters. Their stories are so frequently subsumed into the journeys and the emotions of the male characters. While Terra’s “””””””idiocy”””””” is largely exaggerated by fandom, Aqua is frequently sidelined into that “female” narrative space in Kingdom Hearts. Most of her story in Birth By Sleep involves her chasing after Ventus and Terra and reacting to their narrative agency. Some of this is baked in as character flaw-- a personal hesitation to act and an unwillingness to act that leads to tragedy. More of it is, I suspect, because she is female in a franchise that is frequently unfair to female characters. Except this is fandom and we don't have to feed into that shit. 

Because KH fandom loves to feed into this. All of the “mom friend” jokes, all of the “Terra’s an idiot” jokes. All of them feed into this deeply sexist notion that she's the Responsible One and he's the Dumb One-- but it's all okay because Women Are Queens and Aqua Is Perfect and we looooove her and Aqua has all the brain cells so by golly she's just got to do all the work around here. 

Because here's the other thing. Even though Squeenix is the progenitor of this nonsense, none of this is even in character! 

Aqua, for all that her arc is frequently subsumed by her male counterparts, loves and believes in her friends! Aqua's entire arc is centered around loving and believing in Terra! 

Aqua starts out BBS by telling Eraqus I promise I’ll bring Terra back. Only this time, you’ll see he has what it takes to be a master. She has absolute and unshakeable faith in him. 

This changes over the course of the game-- her lowest point, right before the climax of the game, is when she expresses that loss of faith. This is the point of tragedy for Aqua-- she’s lost her faith in her best friend, who she once declared that she believed in unconditionally. The impossible has happened and it’s only down from here. 

She ends that game by giving up the Realm of Light in order to save Terra, because she believes in him so much-- even though he’s already fallen once before, she believes that he can come back to the light and she has to give him that chance.

KH3 did not do great by Aqua, but it did complete this particular narrative loop. 

Terra goes to talk to Xehanort. Aqua, worried because of her shaken faith, moves to stop Terra.

Then Terra gives Aqua a knowing glance. He’s got this, this time. Trust him.

And Aqua does. Immediately she lets him go to speak with Xehanort. The person responsible for ruining both of their lives, for driving them apart, for manipulating all of them and the world. One look from Terra, and Aqua trusts him immediately.

So talk to me again about how Aqua doesn’t trust Terra enough to cut up some fucking chicken nuggets?