#because any two characters with red and blue in their pallets are fair game

[master-candidate-43]

just took psychic damage from the kl@nce fandom while scrolling fgo merch on RB

will we ever escape them.....

[kingdom-falls]

Alright I didn’t want to hijack the last post I reblogged due to me wanting to talk through the context of the game about this while the last post went more into the real-world politics and reasonings behind why we’re getting this specific narrative (completely accurate btw), so I’m talking about it here.

Where did Ganondorf, and by extention the Gerudo, come from? Well, lemme tangent a bit and we’ll get there.

Working within the narrative, Demise promised that he will always fight ‘the blood of the Goddess and the soul of the hero’ (paraphrased). The fact that those two always have Wisdom and Courage seems to me like there’s some wonky shit at play, (especially in the games where Ganondorf is not the villain) because bloodlines and souls should not be so homogenous. I mean, why is the soul of the hero always a blond haired, blue eyed ambiguously male character, and the blood of the goddess the same Except A Woman? The only notable exceptions I can find to this rule is Twilight Princess (dark haired Zelda) and the Wind Waker trilogy (Link’s eyes are green-blue in the first game, I checked with an eyedropper tool, and his character art for PH and ST both depict brown eyes). So Link and Zelda almost always look the same as their original selves (Skyward Sword in this case). But Demise has no characteristics besides ‘muscular strong guy’ that can be easily connected to Ganondorf other than pallet similarities, so what gives?

I don’t think that Ganondorf’s looks came from Demise, and this holds a more despicable intention.

Now in the ‘official canon’ (which is kinda bullshit but that’s for another day), Skyward Sword only has the Humans of Skyloft. There are no mentions of the Gerudo in this game, which would imply that they are descendants of Skyloft that settled in the desert due to one reason or another. Looking at the residents of Skyloft, there’s only a handful that have darker skin (or at least, not light-skinned Japanese/white-passing); Owlan, Horwell, Gordo, Greba, and Beedle. But their skin coloring is mostly washed out or not as dark as the Gerudo we’ve seen, and a lot of their traits don’t match up. I don’t see any of them besides Beedle leaving any Surfaceworld settlements, and I don’t think that Beedle would stray far from what is effectively his only market so soon. So where did the Gerudo come from?

I don’t like the answer, but considering the most narrative sense and physical traits, it would be Groose.

Now the most obvious connection is that, like Ganondorf, both have yellow eyes and red hair. But Groose being the ancestor of the Gerudo? Not the most plausible at first, especially seeing how love-struck he is over Zelda and I doubt he would want to leave. But consider this; Why are their reincarnations of Link, Zelda, and Impa, but not Groose? Groose becomes a friend of Link and Zelda’s by the end of Skyward Sword, arguably a better returning character than Impa who is relegated to the roles of ‘stoic Sheikah’ and ‘Zelda’s nursemaid/protector’.

My theory is this: Demise wanted to really drive home to the Goddess Hylia (now Zelda) that she’ll never escape her fate, and what would hit harder than using your friend against you? I believe that Link and Zelda weren’t the only ones cursed that day, that Groose was cursed as well to become the vessel that Demise would use.

This is how I think the generations after Skywards Sword played out: Half of Groose’s line (most likely lead by a son or grandson) left due to disagreement towards the desert, where the Time Crystals could help them with the water and flora needed to start a new life. The other half (most likely lead by a daughter or granddaughter) stayed and practiced the ways of the Sheikah, continuing on Impa’s culture and people in honor of her (remember that old lady Impa and Groose got along well and he really liked her, so I believe Groose would want to preserve her memory in any way possible).

Later on, Demise would possess the patriarch of the Gerudo and continue his cycle for eternity, fighting the reincarnated Links and Zeldas with the sons of their ancestors’ friend. I think, to a goddess of the light who sent the humans to the sky just for them to be safe from Demise, one of her ‘children’ who her vessel and her champion were personally close to would be the biggest fuck you.

Of course, this is all taking from the games themselves into account and not the personal biases and rascist/majority supremacist subtext of the narrative. If this was all actually canon the above would be a disgusting boiling down of a whole entire race and their beliefs, history, and culture into ‘came from a white man’, but considering how the only common sentient life found in Skyward Sword are the Mogmas, the Kikwis, and the Gorons, it’s not likely that there were any survivors left by the time Link went down. There IS Impa, but her role as the Servant of the Goddess may have protected her more than we thought (I.e. she may have been the only Sheikah left).

Groose is the only Skyloftian to resemble the Gerudo, it would make sense for Demise to really want to hammer home how much he despises Link and Hylia/Zelda, and Groose became close to Impa by the end of the game so him wanting to preserve her memory and keep her culture alive isn’t too out of left field. But the implications of the only two non-Hylian, non-homogeneously white races in LoZ coming from, yet again, a man who is a part of a majority population of fair-skinned people (Remember; To Americans he may be white-coded, but to the Japanese audience/developers he would be Japanese-coded) are very unsettling.

So, to summarize: In the context of the games, Groose being the ancestor of the Gerudo (and possibly the modern Sheikah) would make narrative, character, and plot sense. However, in the context of this being the intent or ‘canonical’, it reflects badly on the writers that a white or pale skinned-passing man is the progenitor of at least one non-white race in LoZ.

[storylocke]

Much Ado about Blue: The Challenge

Blue sighed as he hung up the phone to Oak’s computer and sunk back in the office chair. Still no answer. Not at the League, not after the day or so it took to make his way back to Pallet Town. His grandfather had said he’d call when he had some news but that was before Abe had won. Blue hadn't thought of what would happen if he lost before then… Well, he had, but he assumed the game would be over and he and Abe would have exited the simulation to face the anger and triumph that awaited them outside. Abe never returned from the Hall of Fame chamber after his victory, and Blue could only imagine he’d made it out. But what about him now?

As the teen spun a bit uncomfortably in the chair to gaze at the back half of the replicated lab, he tried to think of where else he could go to try to get through. Anything else he could do so long as he could push back the dread that threatened at the back of his mind. Surely those back home couldn't be angry enough to leave him in this place!

Fortunately the thought vanished as Blue heard the slamming of the door and he immediately sat up to wonder if he heard it right. He rose from his seat to get a better look as the hurried sound of footsteps grew louder. “Abe! What are you doing here?”

“That should be MY question!” The boy squeaked as he failed to control the rising panic in his voice. He looked quite disheveled and out of breath, almost as if he’d immediately hopped of bed to go there. Abe glared up at him as he blurted out, “How did you- When did- … This is MY file!”

“Yeah?” Blue simply crossed his arms as tried to keep a level tone with the kid. “Which should’ve been over when ya won. I don't know why you're getting mad at me when you already kicked my ass.”

“Because you shouldn't be here!” Abe stared him down as he waited for some kind of comeback, but the pause gave him a moment to collect himself. He was being irrational, even if it was possible Blue had somehow caused him to remain trapped within the simulation, seeing the teen’s confusion gave him the impression it wasn’t done on purpose. He took off his glasses and ran a hand across his face. Between the Voices and… not sleeping well, if the strange nightmare or vision of Red he’d had was any indication of how stressed this “game” was making him, there was no reason to get hasty. He slipped his glasses back on and peered at his rival again with a tired air as he tried to explain more clearly. “Blue, you’re a great trainer, no question about that. But I don’t think you know a lot about programming. When I say you’re not supposed to be here, I mean you can’t just…. bring in foreign data, it’ll mess with the game’s system. I don’t need to tell you that glitches are bad, but in here? It’s bad. Pulling this kind of stunt is just asking for one of us to get hurt!”

“Tch, yeah I get all that. I’ve got nothing to do with the programming, but they gave me a real earful of all that techno-babble before I got sent in.” Blue gave a nonchalant shrug as he could see the boy’s disbelief, “It’s why I had to be the one to come after you. You named your ‘rival’ after me, which was made to look and act like me, and all I had to do was make sure my team for our match was the same as in the game. As far as the system is concerned, there’s nothing ‘foreign’ about me, since you already gave me a place here. Bill made sure of that before I went in. How d’ya think I got in here?”

Abe eased in his suspicions as that actually all made sense. Of course the only way Blue could have gotten in was through the same way he did, through the same people even. They wouldn’t have done anything that would have endangered the system with someone still in it. He heaved a bit of a sigh as he tugged the bridge of his cap to cover his face with the slight embarrassment, “I guess I was taking so long, the professor got worried about me…” Blue shifted a little uncomfortably, but decided not to say anything on the matter. Abe looked up as a thought struck him. “How long have you been here?”

Blue blinked down at him in surprise at the darkened tone, “Maybe a week? I’ve been noticing that time is hard to keep track of in this place. I only got here after we learned you’d made it to Victory Road though, if that helps?”

The Champion just shook his head as he let down his defenses again. “Then you can’t be responsible for the Glitches then…” He crossed an arm across his chest and rested his chin on his fist as he thought it over more carefully. “There’s not anyone else in here I should know about, is there?” Again, Blue didn’t seem to know. Heaving a sigh, Abe stepped passed him to make his way over to the computer, “I guess we’ll just have to ask Bill then. It’s so weird, but every time I try to reach him, I end up speaking with the professor instead. You’d think if all this was for Alice’s sake, Bill would have been very keen on-”

“Calling out has been a no-go.” Abe glanced up from desk at Blue’s somewhat serious tone as the teen continued, “After you won back at the League, you just disappeared or something. I couldn’t reach anyone there, so I had to walk all the way back through Victory Road to try the one here, and that’s when you finally decided to show up.” Blue gave an awkward rub at the back of his neck as he glanced away, a soft, short chuckle at how silly it sounded now. “Honestly, I was starting to think you all forgot about me. You're the first one I've talked to in, like, two days. You didn’t hit some kind of ‘New Game Plus’ or something, did you?”

“No?” To be honest, Abe wasn’t sure what had happened exactly since he won as everything seemed to stop making sense after that. At least he knew he didn’t just dream of winning only to wake up and find he still had to challenge the League after all. He turned his sights back to the screen as he booted up the connection again, though he glanced back at the teen when he realized something. “You walked back through Victory Road? Why didn't you just Fly?”

“Fly doesn't work here. My team can still Surf and Cut and-”

“I was afraid of that. In here you can only Fly to places you’ve already been, so it might take a while for us to get back to the gate.” Abe tried the phone regardless as he thought the information over, but Blue seemed to be right. No one was picking up. It was possible they just didn’t hear it, but if Blue had tried multiple times hours, or even days, apart, they could only hope nothing bad had happened on the outside. Still, supposing Blue might have been right and the Voices decided the game should continue while he was so disoriented, they just might have set some kind of new objective in motion. “Actually… You said you entered the game after I’d gotten into Victory Road, right? So your starting point would have been at the League?”

Blue crossed his arms again, more defensively than out of force of habit, and eyed the boy with suspicion. “Yeah? The big computer you were supposed to leave through at the Hall of Fame was where I came in at. I mean, the data showed I was supposed to be in the Champion’s Room-”

“But you’re not actually a Champion, are you?”

“That shouldn’t matter if the game says I am.” Blue countered hotly. “And I was a Champion in the real world too, you know, even if no one seems to acknowledge that!”

Abe held up his hands to show he meant no harm in stating the fact, “I know, but- How do I explain this? You said you were able to insert yourself into the game because the Rival character is basically you. But… You’re not actually him, you just replaced him in a way the game would believe you belong here. But if you just replaced him, I don’t know if you would have got all of his stuff since you said you had to bring your own teammates to keep the system from noticing the switch, right?”

Blue closed his eyes for a moment as he could feel the headache sinking in, “So you’re saying there should be another version of me running around that you need to beat the snot out of for us to leave?”

“I’m saying if you only came in at the League, then as far as the game is concerned you never got any badges or even fought the Elite Four to get in there. If the game only ends when I beat the Champion, then it might not have registered that beating you counted as a real victory.”

The teen looked down at him, contemplating his words before giving a soft huff in wry amusement. “I don't think that's how that works, but should be easy enough to fix.”

“Then you know what to do?” Abe lit up with excitement to hear it.

Blue just shrugged it off as if it were obvious. “We just need to run the League route again.” Abe immediately deflated. “Ah, come on. We still have our teams, all the H.M.s, you already made a map of the whole area, so all we need are the badges to make sure we do it right.”

“Hmm… I guess…” Blue was right to say they wouldn't be entirely starting over, and already the clamoring of Voices within him started to exclaim who they wanted to challenge first. Abe may not have been looking forward to it, but the plan was already in motion. “But don't get too cocky. This place is way more dangerous than it is back home!”

“You just never got to see Kanto before Red cleaned it out. Trust me, I can handle myself just fine.” Blue flashed him a smug grin as he puffed up with pride, “I bet I could even do it in half the time it took you to get to Victory Road.”

“That's not fair, though. I have an obvious disadvantage with the Voices, and you’ll be starting with a team already fully trained.” Now it was Abe’s turn to get in a huff as he glared up at his rival. It was hard to keep himself so serious though as he could see how unimpressed Blue was to hear that. “A-and it took you and Red a few years to run the route. Even if the game condensed a lot of things, you’re first try wasn't all that quick either.”

Almost as if to mock him all the more, Blue placed his hands to his knees and leaned down to the Champion’s height. “Look, I know you wanted to get home, like, yesterday, but if you're worried about just hanging around while wondering how far I've gotten, maybe you should just come with me. Or,” he straightened back up, “we could make it a race. You re-challenge the leaders, I'll challenge the leaders, and when we meet back at the Indigo Plateau, there’ll be no question about the match’s legitimacy.”

Abe knew the Voices were eager to go, regardless if he wanted to go through it all again or not. But! A bit of incentive might do them both some good to help speed up their escape. “Deal. I'll see you there, then.”

The boy smiled up at him as he went to shake on it, though there was a genuine worry behind it. Painfully naive, Blue thought to himself as they both took their leave from the lab. Maybe because Abe was so much younger than them, Blue had just never noticed. Or maybe dealing with Red just put him off from dealing with the family if he could help it. Only six years of age separated the two, but it felt as though Abe had grown up in a different world from them. Blue tried to shake the thought as he made his way to the edge of town and was stopped by the world's version of his grandfather trying to warn him of the tall grass. A subtle pain hit him him in his stomach as he thought about the real one. Abe still thought the professor was worried about him. As Blue followed the copy back to the lab to fulfill the event, he couldn’t help but wonder if Bill and his grandfather had found a way to keep Abe in the game despite his victory after all.

~~~~~~~~~~

A/N: And thus, we’re off to the gym leader rematches! While most of the series is still planned to be a collection of shorts, this one has a lot of establishing / info dumping it had quite a bit of length. Not to mention, AnniRed was a loooong run to begin with, so there's still quite a bit to go over with these two.