Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust!
Faith, Trust and Pixie Dust:
The Relationship Between Tinker Bell and Terence in the Tinkerbell Movies
Written for disney_uberland 's mini-shipping manifesto.
This ship is a little tricky to talk about and justify when one considers that the nature of Disney couples is to live Happily Ever After coupled with the fact that we are to assume that at some stage Tinkerbell will leave Pixie Hollow to join Peter Pan on his adventures. Add to that, the fact that the Tinkerbell movies are very much G-rated, and as a result, not much happens in the relationship department, and you may be wondering exactly how far I actually plan on getting with this essay, to which I simply reply, Ah, but isn't that what fandom is all about?
At the outset, one note I would like to make. Though Tinker Bell, in the first movie at least, is technically only a few days old, and while Terence's age is never actually stated, I'm going to assume they're somewhere in early teenagehood or the equivalent fairy age-group, since they are obviously a little older than the children at whom the movies are aimed, but just as obviously not yet adults.
First of all, a look at the two characters in question:
Tinker Bell
Just like the Tink in the original Peter Pan story, this fairy is cute but feisty, determined but the owner of a quick temper, which she often loses, at which point she needs someone to come and calm her down and make her realise she's not seeing the bigger picture. She is a very talented Tinker, but she needs to be shown that just because she may not have the glamorous life of one of the Nature Talent Fairies, it doesn't mean she isn't important. Terence is one of the fairies who proves this to her and encourages her to be proud of her talent, regardless of what it is, and proud of what she can do, even if things don't always go right on the first go.
Terence
Terence is a Dust Fairy - he provides all the fairies in Pixie Hollow with the pixie dust they need. He is also Tinker Bell's best friend and her complement: where she is head-strong and quick to be angry or frustrated, he is calm, cool and collected and knows exactly what he needs to say to calm Tink down when she's having one of her outbursts.
And now to the ship itself.
Tink and Terence do not interact a whole lot in the first movie, though there are a couple of key moments that are important to viewing their relationship on a romantic level and not one of “just good friends”. First, there is the scene where a humiliated Tinker Bell is sitting on the edge of the pool of pixie dust, waiting to get a "refill" so she can leave Pixie Hollow. All of Terence's lines at the beginning of this scene are spoken with a false bravado, the kind a young teenager might use when talking to the girl he likes, but doesn't want her to suspect anything. This bravado is dropped, however, when Tink says "Thanks, Terence" and he is momentarily taken aback by the use of his name; he was unaware she knew it. The dialogue that follows, while used by Terence to some extent to make Tink realise that she should be proud of her talents, suggests that perhaps Terence had been watching and admiring Tink's adventures from afar, but didn't think she had noticed him at all in return.
Cut to the second movie, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure and Terence and Tinker Bell are now best friends. But is that all? The other Dust Fairies don't seem to think so. In the first scene, with Terence fare-welling them at the end of his shift, they are teasing him about his supposed plan to "run some errands and stuff". When Tink is mentioned, Terence is distracted enough to run into a shelf, and the other Dust Keeper Fairies laugh at him. He laughs everything off, before finding a rubber band and taking it with him.
We get the impression that Terence is in the habit of finding odds and ends for Tink to use, and the rubber band (I mean, the "stretchy thingy") turns out to be perfect for the motor Tink is trying to build to help the Dust Fairies with their deliveries. They take the boat for a test run, and, like many of Tink's inventions, the first time is not perfect and it breaks. When she becomes upset, her exclamation of dismay is, "I made it to help you, Terence. It should have worked!" Her concern is more for Terence's loss than the Dust Fairies in general. Terence responds that it just needs a little more tinkering, and wonders aloud who he knows who's a good tinker, causing a grin to creep onto Tink's face. As he lists all the other Tinker Fairies apart from Tinker Bell, she bats him playfully and laughs. Despite crushes that may or may not lie beneath the surface, their relationship is obviously a comfortable one in which they can tease and joke with each other.
In the following scenes, we watch Tink and Terence finish each other's sentence as they prepare what is obviously a traditional cup of tea for them, and then Terence oh-so-eagerly volunteers to help Tink build the Fall Sceptre, after all, "the best Dust Keeper and the best Tinker, this will be a revelry to remember!" Terence tries to help, but as the month they have before the Blue Moon dwindles, his eagerness to help becomes more of a hindrance, and despite trying to keep calm around him, she eventually cracks, leading to the breaking of her almost-finished sceptre and then the shattering of the Moon Stone. As with so many teenage relationships , they then both blame each other for the accident and stop speaking to one another.
The next time they meet, it is clear that Terence has missed Tinkerbell and is hoping that this meeting might bring about an apology and some reconciliation. His face lights up when he sees her (though he hides it quickly) and then visibly falls when he realises she only came to find him to ask for pixie dust.
It is only when she is lost, hungry, out of pixie dust and separated from her best friend that Tink begins realising just how much she misses him. At the same time, Terence decides that Tink is just as deserving of an apology as he is, and makes up his mind to go and make one. Not long after, the trolls make Tink realise that apology is the key to a strong friendship as well, making her miss Terence even more. When they are reunited, in the words of my friend the first time she saw the movie, "If this were rated PG, that hug would have been a kiss." Terence has broken the rules to find Tink and help her, and during their escape from the rats, acts very much the dashing hero.
While Disney was obviously aiming for a “true power of friendship” message in the Tinker Bell films, the romantic subtext between Terence and Tinker Bell is clear. And after everything else we're bombarded with these days, something sweet and innocent might be just what we all need.
The Relationship Between Tinker Bell and Terence in the Tinkerbell Movies
Written for disney_uberland 's mini-shipping manifesto.
This ship is a little tricky to talk about and justify when one considers that the nature of Disney couples is to live Happily Ever After coupled with the fact that we are to assume that at some stage Tinkerbell will leave Pixie Hollow to join Peter Pan on his adventures. Add to that, the fact that the Tinkerbell movies are very much G-rated, and as a result, not much happens in the relationship department, and you may be wondering exactly how far I actually plan on getting with this essay, to which I simply reply, Ah, but isn't that what fandom is all about?
At the outset, one note I would like to make. Though Tinker Bell, in the first movie at least, is technically only a few days old, and while Terence's age is never actually stated, I'm going to assume they're somewhere in early teenagehood or the equivalent fairy age-group, since they are obviously a little older than the children at whom the movies are aimed, but just as obviously not yet adults.
First of all, a look at the two characters in question:
Tinker Bell
Just like the Tink in the original Peter Pan story, this fairy is cute but feisty, determined but the owner of a quick temper, which she often loses, at which point she needs someone to come and calm her down and make her realise she's not seeing the bigger picture. She is a very talented Tinker, but she needs to be shown that just because she may not have the glamorous life of one of the Nature Talent Fairies, it doesn't mean she isn't important. Terence is one of the fairies who proves this to her and encourages her to be proud of her talent, regardless of what it is, and proud of what she can do, even if things don't always go right on the first go.
Terence
Terence is a Dust Fairy - he provides all the fairies in Pixie Hollow with the pixie dust they need. He is also Tinker Bell's best friend and her complement: where she is head-strong and quick to be angry or frustrated, he is calm, cool and collected and knows exactly what he needs to say to calm Tink down when she's having one of her outbursts.
And now to the ship itself.
Tink and Terence do not interact a whole lot in the first movie, though there are a couple of key moments that are important to viewing their relationship on a romantic level and not one of “just good friends”. First, there is the scene where a humiliated Tinker Bell is sitting on the edge of the pool of pixie dust, waiting to get a "refill" so she can leave Pixie Hollow. All of Terence's lines at the beginning of this scene are spoken with a false bravado, the kind a young teenager might use when talking to the girl he likes, but doesn't want her to suspect anything. This bravado is dropped, however, when Tink says "Thanks, Terence" and he is momentarily taken aback by the use of his name; he was unaware she knew it. The dialogue that follows, while used by Terence to some extent to make Tink realise that she should be proud of her talents, suggests that perhaps Terence had been watching and admiring Tink's adventures from afar, but didn't think she had noticed him at all in return.
Cut to the second movie, Tinker Bell and the Lost Treasure and Terence and Tinker Bell are now best friends. But is that all? The other Dust Fairies don't seem to think so. In the first scene, with Terence fare-welling them at the end of his shift, they are teasing him about his supposed plan to "run some errands and stuff". When Tink is mentioned, Terence is distracted enough to run into a shelf, and the other Dust Keeper Fairies laugh at him. He laughs everything off, before finding a rubber band and taking it with him.
We get the impression that Terence is in the habit of finding odds and ends for Tink to use, and the rubber band (I mean, the "stretchy thingy") turns out to be perfect for the motor Tink is trying to build to help the Dust Fairies with their deliveries. They take the boat for a test run, and, like many of Tink's inventions, the first time is not perfect and it breaks. When she becomes upset, her exclamation of dismay is, "I made it to help you, Terence. It should have worked!" Her concern is more for Terence's loss than the Dust Fairies in general. Terence responds that it just needs a little more tinkering, and wonders aloud who he knows who's a good tinker, causing a grin to creep onto Tink's face. As he lists all the other Tinker Fairies apart from Tinker Bell, she bats him playfully and laughs. Despite crushes that may or may not lie beneath the surface, their relationship is obviously a comfortable one in which they can tease and joke with each other.
In the following scenes, we watch Tink and Terence finish each other's sentence as they prepare what is obviously a traditional cup of tea for them, and then Terence oh-so-eagerly volunteers to help Tink build the Fall Sceptre, after all, "the best Dust Keeper and the best Tinker, this will be a revelry to remember!" Terence tries to help, but as the month they have before the Blue Moon dwindles, his eagerness to help becomes more of a hindrance, and despite trying to keep calm around him, she eventually cracks, leading to the breaking of her almost-finished sceptre and then the shattering of the Moon Stone. As with so many teenage relationships , they then both blame each other for the accident and stop speaking to one another.
The next time they meet, it is clear that Terence has missed Tinkerbell and is hoping that this meeting might bring about an apology and some reconciliation. His face lights up when he sees her (though he hides it quickly) and then visibly falls when he realises she only came to find him to ask for pixie dust.
It is only when she is lost, hungry, out of pixie dust and separated from her best friend that Tink begins realising just how much she misses him. At the same time, Terence decides that Tink is just as deserving of an apology as he is, and makes up his mind to go and make one. Not long after, the trolls make Tink realise that apology is the key to a strong friendship as well, making her miss Terence even more. When they are reunited, in the words of my friend the first time she saw the movie, "If this were rated PG, that hug would have been a kiss." Terence has broken the rules to find Tink and help her, and during their escape from the rats, acts very much the dashing hero.
While Disney was obviously aiming for a “true power of friendship” message in the Tinker Bell films, the romantic subtext between Terence and Tinker Bell is clear. And after everything else we're bombarded with these days, something sweet and innocent might be just what we all need.