~ THE Terra CRITICS CLUB ~ "If He Only Had A Brain"

[Smile]

I'm basically down with Org_42 in here. Imagine Sora ending up in Hollow Bastion either instead of Riku or alongside Riku. Sure, Maleficent would've had to play her cards a bit differently, but chances are that until someone clued Sora in about Maleficent being evil, that he'd have been fooled. This isn't like in KHII where the Org's very introduction to Sora was attacking Hollow Bastion, thus proving that Yen Sid wasn't just trust-worthy, but also right about them - the villains either weren't all that villainly when Terra ran into them thus not giving him a reason to fight them (he basically left the Evil Queen alone and went out to look more into the PoH clue she gave him, and only came back when that proved to be a dead end), or they knew how to play their cards right.

That aside, good luck with this :3 *obviously not joining*

 

[Roxas9001]

The guy fell for the ol "turn around while I do something evil" thing.

 

[Ikkin]

The guy fell for the ol "turn around while I do something evil" thing.

...no he didn't. He didn't take his attention off Xehanort until he was sure Xehanort wasn't lying (and thinking one of his best friends had just been turned into a weapon is a pretty good excuse for turning around XD; ).

I basically agree with LeeLu and Smile. Terra's what Sora would be if he had worse luck -- and remember, Sora spent his whole time in KH2 getting used by one side or the other (and wholeheartedly going along with the "all Nobodies must be eliminated" thing could have been more dangerous than anything Terra did if Yen Sid didn't have good intentions). And even Aqua ended up on the wrong side of the plot once, tracking down Stitch for the Galactic Federation.

 

[Sign]

There's not SOME stupid and idiotic moments. He literally got tricked by every disney villain he came across, excluding pete. I like Terra too, but no one can be that stupid.

He's not really stupid once you think about the circumstances.

We know they're villains. He doesn't. He's not the type of person to choose based on their appearances, and they have given him no reason not to trust them. And like Org_42 said, he just arrived at the wrong place, in the wrong time. It could happen to anybody.

 

[Smile]

And even Aqua ended up on the wrong side of the plot once, tracking down Stitch for the Galactic Federation.

Truly this. It's all about presentation. Like Org said - all Ven met was an old lady who dropped her apple.
Terra got it bad because of what Sign said - we're the all knowing player. We're familiar with the Disney movies and we know that they're bad bad people. I do believe there were some people along the line who mocked KH1 Riku for trusting Maleficent for the same exact reasons - she's a Disney villain and he's stupid for trusting those. The whole shiz-nit with MX is this same issue - WE found out MX was the villain from before we ever got into BBS, and they didn't help it any with the MX-Vanitas scene right at the start of Terra's scenario. But for Terra? MX was someone who was like a brother to Eraqus and who gave them Ven. He was to be trusted.
Egads, sans a select few individuals Terra himself seemed skeptic about, no one really presented themselves as vile and rotten. The only one I think might be excusable is Hades, because he was toying with Terra's Darkness issues - only to prove that Terra was stronger than everyone gave him credit for.

 

[Theart]

The only one I think might be excusable is Hades, because he was toying with Terra's Darkness issues - only to prove that Terra was stronger than everyone gave him credit for.

Exactly. I've said it multiple times already; I would've been perfectly fine with Terra getting duped by some of the Disney villains. Some of those dupes were justified. But the thing is that Terra never once woke up and realized "Gee, I seem to be helping the wrong people just about every place I go to. Maybe I should be more questioning and skeptical this time around..."

Aside from his utter stupidity, I love Terra. But that one fault is so utterly grating that I felt this CC was justified and necessary. Yes, Terra got the bad side of the script writing in BBS, since we're the all-knowing player. But when the game gives away from the beginning that Terra's actually helping the baddies, you can't help but want to slap Terra in the face and want him to wake up.

What started off and was meant to be naivety turned into total stupidity. It was routine by the end of the game; Terra goes to a new world and meets someone who asks him for his help. He sees no reason not to help, and tries to do so. However, he realizes that this person is a bad guy and he's been duped. He swears to himself that he'll never give into the darkness again. Rinse and repeat. -_-

I'm not mad about him being duped by MX. That one was done brilliantly, aside from the giving it away in the beginning of the game. But what irritates me about Terra is that he never once actually seriously attempted to check out the people he was helping out, aside from the Evil Queen who gave herself away from the beginning by asking him to MURDER a girl. The first few times are understandable, but by the second half of the game, Terra should've begun to be more skeptical of whomever he came across.

 

[Jelai]

You guys sure are tempting me to join every critics club that pops up, haha.

Sure, I love Terra and all, but he can be so freaking dense at times that you just want to hit his head with a mallet.

So yeah, I'll join plz.

 

[LeeLu]

I think by the time he got to Deep Space he was a little bit better, not believing everything he was told, especially about Stitch. I really like his development in that world. Ironically it's Deep Space that highlight's Aqua's most annoying feature: Terra and to a lesser extent, Ven, are generally greeted with a certain amount of suspicion, if not hostility in new worlds. This never happens to Aqua.

 

[Ikkin]

Ironically it's Deep Space that highlight's Aqua's most annoying feature: Terra and to a lesser extent, Ven, are generally greeted with a certain amount of suspicion, if not hostility in new worlds. This never happens to Aqua.

Aqua was treated with suspicion at first in Deep Space, though -- Gantu tried to arrest her. Tinkerbell didn't like her, either (because she's a girl, as far as I can tell XD).

And, honestly, other people's lack of suspicion about Aqua is a lot like Terra constantly running into villains -- she never really meets anyone who has a reason to distrust her because of where she jumps into the plot and who she meets*.

It's not like Ven really runs into that many people who distrust him, either. Apart from the dwarves, is there even anyone else who doesn't trust him who's not a villain?

*The dwarves should distrust Ven, because they're distrustful in general when he shows up; they don't distrust Aqua because Snow White's cured them of that and they have more important things to worry about. She meets the Fairy Godmothers and Prince Philip in the other princess worlds, none of whom have any reason to distrust anyone. Merlin doesn't distrust anyone, Kairi's in no position to pass up help, and Mickey runs in on her helping Kairi. She's got a ticket to Disney Town, so there's no reason for distrust there. Hercules meets her fighting Unversed, Phil has ulterior motives, and Zack is introduced by Phil. The Grand Councilwoman doesn't have much of a choice but to trust her since she just said their weapons won't work against the Unversed. Peter Pan and the Lost Boys are, well, Peter Pan and the Lost Boys.

 

[Relix]

I don't think Terra is stupid but I strongly believe that he was given the worst circumstances of all KH characters. His personality is not someone who'd question others off the bat. He's insecure about the darkness in him and his powers in general. I mean, the dude failed a test that he's been training his entire life for because of the darkness. Of course if he's given a task by his master to prove himself he's going to go in doing work and asking questions later. When he arrives in a world, if he sees an opportunity to lend a hand or further his goal he doesn't really give a crap about anything else. I mean when he arrived in Disney Town he disregarded the race that was going on and was about to hop on the track just because he saw a couple of Unversed, not giving a crap about what the rules of the world was. He's task-oriented. Hence the reason why he's agreed to assist people he comes across in worlds. Of course these people are villains of their respective worlds, but he doesn't know that and he doesn't even care to find out because, quite frankly he's not there to help out the locals. He's there for the Unversed and info on MX.

Then MX comes into the picture. Hell MX played Terra like extreme Tetris. But he played him in the right places. His task-oriented attitude, his insecurity after just failing a test that he prepared his entire life for. Not to mention that Eraqus was a pretty biased mentor when it came to Darkness. Imagine failing a test conducted by your father figure because of the very thing he hates. Of course Terra was going to do whatever the hell it took to make it up to Eraqus. He swore to Eraqus he wouldn't fail him again. He tried to damn hard. Then when Terra decides to use the power that his master hated against him (when protecting Ven) this is pretty much where Terra grew into his own person per se, because if you really look at it, he was trying to please Eraqus and Eraqus's expectations, because that's all Terra really knew. It's not like he grew up on Destiny Islands. He grew up with a man who frowned upon the darkness and having people like Ven (a boy of PURE LIGHT for Christ's sake) and Aqua (the goody goody) surrounding him would only push Terra to try even harder to "do the right thing" hence why he would help EVERYONE who asked for it.

Then we got Aqua his best friend and Eraqus his father figure and Master spying on him, as if he was destined to mess up. Two of the people he trusted the most in the entire universe thinking that he would fail from the start is enough to throw any guy's way of thinking, planning, and allegiance out of whack. I mean, he was trying to please these people.

The guy is afraid of being weak, afraid of losing, afraid of failing his 'father' (which he had already done at the beginning of the game and was given a second chance) when Aqua passed and Ven didn't even have to take the test. Adding even more pressure on the guy. Plus his dream was to be a Keyblade Master, so everything he was doing up until the part where he protects Ven was to further that goal of his, until he realized all he really had to do was protect the ones he loved. (Thank you Riku for teaching a grown man this lesson).

tl;dr
Terra was given an insecure personality, a strict mentor/parent, stressful events (failing the test that would have realized his dream), and was trusting (which could be argued to be a trait that Eraqus could have passed down for him, being a lover of light and all that is good and what not). I don't blame the guy. He was duped because people preyed on his weaknesses in his weakest and most desperate moments. He was given a splinter on the shortest end of the stick. The circumstances just sucked for him. From the beginning it was made to be that way, it was a person who was destined to be a villain of the universe. Of course many unfortunate things would be thrown his way. and no I'm not joining lol I just needed to rant and rep my boy Terra :3

 

[Theart]

/just gonna ignore the defenders for now, sorry.

You guys sure are tempting me to join every critics club that pops up, haha.

Sure, I love Terra and all, but he can be so freaking dense at times that you just want to hit his head with a mallet.

So yeah, I'll join plz.

Welcome aboard! And AGAIN, I love Terra just as much as everyone else, but his stupidity just gets in the way~

I'm hopeful for some awesome character development for Terra in the future.

 

[Smile]

Would you be interested in affiliating with the Aqua CC? X3

 

[Theart]

Would you be interested in affiliating with the Aqua CC? X3

Sure.

I might even make a Ven CC for the whole package.

 

[Smile]

Now just to get someone to Critic MX- (laughs)

 

[Theart]

Mayhap I will, Smile. Mayhap I will...

In other news, until the next game to feature Terra in it comes out, Terra is still guillible to the point of stupidity. Lovable, hot, and awesome, but still guillible to the point of stupidity. <3

 

[Smile]

And thus, I'm off. Now just don't forget to put up the affiliations links in the topic post, Virgil

 

[rokudamia2]

Be sure to put up the bbs critics club link too.

 

[Theart]

Be sure to put up the bbs critics club link too.

Did that.

*sigh* I suspect that Terra will end sacrificing himself to bring down MX in KH3. Any thoughts from the rest of the group and how they would want it done, and how it shouldn't be done?

 

[Ikkin]

Did that.

*sigh* I suspect that Terra will end sacrificing himself to bring down MX in KH3. Any thoughts from the rest of the group and how they would want it done, and how it shouldn't be done?

A sacrifice on Terra's part would inevitably seem cheap, because he's got a perfectly good selfish reason to do it -- continuing to live under Xehanort's control is significantly worse than death in the KH universe. Besides, it's too easy. One big sacrificial flash of light, and it's over. Much easier than trying to figure out how to live after everything Xehanort did, and what to do about his darkness.

 

[Theart]

A sacrifice on Terra's part would inevitably seem cheap, because he's got a perfectly good selfish reason to do it -- continuing to live under Xehanort's control is significantly worse than death in the KH universe. Besides, it's too easy. One big sacrificial flash of light, and it's over. Much easier than trying to figure out how to live after everything Xehanort did, and what to do about his darkness.

Meh. IDK about that; Darth Vader's sacrifice in Return of The Jedi was actually rather moving, not cheap. And I was actually referring to Terra making a sacrifice after regaining control. xD

But it could still be done cheaply, I suppose. Nomura loves being cheap at times. :c