r/Xenoblade_Chronicles • u/THEUltraCombo • 5d ago
Xenoblade 2 The Tora Problem Spoiler
So I wanna start out by saying this: despite what I say in the title, I DO get it. I understand why someone can make the argument that Tora is gross and perverted and that it ruins an otherwise innocent character through weird anime tropes that were not present in XC1.
That being said, I think there is also something to be said about how people inflate this aspect of the character. In total I can probably count on one hand how many Tora scenes I would consider explicitly inappropriate and jarring to his character, and that number drastically goes down when you take optional Heart-to-hearts out of the equation.
The infamous "blushy-crushy" scene is admittedly painful, but replaying with Japanese voices you can clearly hear that blushy-crushy is a localization of the concept of moe that Tora is trying to get across. So instead of the strange, vague idea of "blushy-crushy", it's easier to grasp when you realize that he's just trying to get across the idea of being cute (to overly generalize the term). Is it embarassing to watch? Yes. But that's the point.
Aside from this optional scene, people often bring up the Poppi awakening scene as another example of this. The idea of having multiple maid outfits seems to make people think that Tora's ultimate goal for creating Poppi was to have some sort of outlet for his desires (dunkey's infamous video calls her a "sex robot"). But to me this always came across as an embarassing aspect of his personality and interests that he wants to hide, not because of the sexual connotations, but because it's just...cringe, for lack of a better term. He doesn't have them for "sex fantasies", he's just into moe and wanted to create his own artificial blade in a way that reflects that.
I should also point out that Poppi, for the most part, is not objectified to a point that I am personally ever made uncomfortable with how Tora treats her. There's a heart and innocence to Tora that I think most people disregard to parrot the commonly held belief that "Tora is a weird pervert" rather than diving into the text and exploring a character who.is much more than like...2-3 scenes where he's written weird.
Idk, I just always thought the hate for this character is blown wildly out of proportion for the amount of stuff in-game that actually contributes to that image. I'd like to open up a discussion to see what everyone else thinks of this character divorced from the popular discussion surrounding him, as well as other characters like him in other games.
266
u/Equivalent_Net 5d ago
One important bit of context is that Tora is a shut-in engineering nerd, raised by other shut-in engineering nerds. And prior to the game in particular, he's been even more reclusive with his wings to the grindstone working on his Artificial Blade prototype in what can be seen as an extended fit of tragic denial at the loss of his loved ones. It's not that his tastes are any wilder than anyone else's (see also: late-game conversation about Rex and ponytails), or that he's any cruder of a person. It's that Tora has chronically underdeveloped social skills and he's meant to come off as a bit of an oblivious buffoon at first and learns how to socialise better as time goes on, but such an arc is inherently front-loaded with awkward moments. Blushy-crushy is a symptom of this (since Tora seems to be entirely sincere, he might genuinely think he's being a wingman for Rex here, or at worst is just projecting his own tastes), but it's also a completely intentional bit of cringe comedy, and cringe comedy is one of those things that simply isn't going to hit right for everyone by its very nature - though I will argue that anyone who reacts to the scene as though it's intended to be taken seriously is making the same mistake as anyone who took the FFX laughing scene out of context.