Animal Crossing: New Horizons has become the escape from reality of choice for many people stuck inside their homes during the current crisis. Players are spending hours and hours and hours carefully crafting their islands at a pace partly dictated by the game, meaning if something goes wrong, it might take a lot of effort to get things back to the way they were.
That’s the situation one redditor found herself in after her boyfriend destroyed her island in retaliation against her for forgetting something at the grocery store in real life.
The post, which has since been deleted, says that the boyfriend went to make dinner one night when he realized an item was missing, because the girlfriend had accidentally neglected to grab it when she went to the store. Rather than figure out alternate dinner plans, she said he got angry and refused to cook dinner at all. They fought, and both retreated to separate rooms.
When she cooled off, the poster says she found her boyfriend playing Animal Crossing, and that he called her over, asking “Do you want to see what I’ve been up to?”
“[I] was upset to find he had literally destroyed my entire island. Flowers ripped up, fences removed, random cliffs and bits of water,” she wrote. “I know this sounds really embarrassing and child-like but I lost my job recently, I’m housebound and it’s just something I was proud of. I couldn’t stop crying.”
Reddit quickly came to the conclusion that the boyfriend was fully in the wrong here.
And the fact that everyone’s in quarantine makes things worse.
The original poster shared that Animal Crossing was a source of joy for her during an otherwise difficult time in isolation, something her boyfriend was perfectly aware of.
“I admit I am really sensitive right now and definitely struggling, however, my partner just doesn’t seem to understand that my life feels really empty right now and destroying what little I have, is really upsetting me,” she wrote.
That her boyfriend doesn’t seem to be picking up on her having a rough time and instead opting to destroy something she loves over a silly spat had some commenters reminding her that’s not what being in a supportive relationship means.
And some have expressed concern that this is a form of emotional abuse, and could escalate even further.
While the OP said her boyfriend originally told her she could rebuild her island herself, she said he subsequently apologized and offered to help her rebuild. A semi-nice gesture following abhorrent behavior, at least…that is, until he decides to destroy something else.