About

Handling A Man's Turtle is a quote said by the character Zeke in Xenoblade Chronicles 2. In the cutscene before the battle against Zeke, Zeke tries to dramatically introduce his pet turtle, who wanders over to Pyra. Pyra picks up the turtle, and Zeke takes the turtle back, incredulously saying "Handling a man's turtle!" as if Pyra had violated some social norm. The quote has become a catchphrase among the Xenoblade Chronicles fandom.

Origin

In a Xenoblade Chronicles 2 cutscene before the player fights Zeke, Zeke tries to dramatically introduce his pet turtle as a sidekick. The turtle wanders over to Pyra, who picks him up. Zeke dramatically takes the turtle back, crying, "Handling a man's turtle!" as if Pyra had committed a social faux pas. The scene was uploaded to YouTube^[3] on December 8th, 2017, by YouTuber Frederick Vandoren (shown below).

Spread

The line quickly became a catchphrase among the Xenoblade Chronicles fandom, as fans regularly quoted it in discussions about the game. On July 3rd, 2018, YouTuber Donn posted a clip featuring only the line (shown below, left). On December 22nd, 2020, YouTuber Chase Away 2 posted a video demonstrating how every comment in the video was from a user typing "handling a man's turtle" (shown below, right).

After Pyra and Myrthra were added as a fighter in Super Smash Brothers Ultimate, users created parodies of the moment using Pyra and the turtle Pokémon Squirtle. On February 18th, 2021, Twitter user @kiravera8^[1] drew the scene playing out between Pyra, Squirtle and Pokémon Trainer, gaining over 1,800 retweets and 9,000 likes in nine months (shown below, left). On February 17th, Redditor PkMnTrainerLuke6 posted to /r/Xenoblade_Chronicles^[2] a still of Pyra, Squirtle and Chrom recreating the scene, gaining over 2,800 points in six months (shown below, right).