#I'd ship it and I'm not sorry

[evilkaeya]

THIS IS HOW I FIND OUT KAITO AND SHINICHI ARE COUSINS??

[vakariaan]

ultimate ships challenge - [1/5] the power of trust scenes

[96filthpig]

My crackship of like almost 2 years now

[devils-yui]

Rewatching TFA, for the hundredth time in a row, and I've got to say. I used to think Sari was, kind of annoying, during my first initial watch and sometimes. The things she does makes me go wide-eyed and gripping at the screen going, "WHAT ARE YOU DOING!?"

But then now, as I'm rewatching it hundreds of times over. I have to physically remind myself that she is a child.

And not only that, but she was a child that was BARELY raised properly. She didn't have other children to socialize around, she had a robot teacher, a robot dog companion, and her occasionally in her life father who was busy manufacturing robots, entertaining the ideas of tours and etcetera.

So maybe, yes. I can definitely understand why she does rash things, and act the way she does. I understand why she's seen as a social outcast amongst other groups of kids (like in the show, ON HER BIRTHDAY).

And I'm not as mad as her, as anybody should be for a child who was raised/taught the wrong things or having not been taught at all.

However...

THIS GUY.

IS A WHOLE 'NOTHER CASE.

I JUST WANNA-

[stylish-fish]

okay last minute deltaposting but i don't think that i've seen many people point out yet. that rouxls' crush on queen seems very extremely fake at least for the most part (and that makes it all the more interesting to me)

to start off, i think he's set off to get into this kind of a relationship right from the start of chapter 2: when you first interact with him in castle town, he immediately asks for you to bring an "evil rulere" to the town and says that something is "lacking" without one. i don't think it's any wonder he thinks that way: i think he considers authority figures (first king in chapter 1, then the lancer fun squad, then queen in chapter 2) an absolute necessity for himself and is too spineless to function without them, so his only way of having any kind of relevance or importance is sucking up to one and hoping it'll get him a fraction of their power (while still being otherwise told what to do by them, obviously). he really doesn't give a shit about who this person with power is at all either: he was 100% willing to side with a tyrant since he got a high-ranking position out of it, and then he was 100% willing to betray said tyrant and side with people the tyrant considered the most morally corrupt beings to exist just because it seemed like he was losing to them. in the start of chapter 2, he obviously misses his time under the king, likely because he held actual (wrongly earned) power and respect back then and everything he does in the chapter is an attempt to get that life back. he's already likely made his plan about how it'll go before he's even set foot in cyber world or met queen: he'll impress the new evil ruler, they'll employ him and he gets to continue his old life without having to change anything. he'll get to be told what to do and say and think by someone else because he's too much of a coward to actually have a brain of his own. it's all set.

also, his behaviour towards queen doesn't necessarily show a lot of genuine, deeply held romantic feelings either. i think his crush kinda comes out of the blue, which was probably the intention: he doesn't interact with queen a single time in cyber world or even see her face (considering he tried to flirt with tasque manager under the assumption she's queen, i think it's safe to say he hadn't seen her up until that point, or at least didn't care about her looks enough to remember her. tasque manager does look like queen though, but he still clearly doesn't know a lot of her features. he also says he doesn't remember what queen looks like in a valentine's day card he sends for her, meaning he had probably forgotten about it by then. i think the refusal to learn about even her looks is consistent enough not to come across as simple forgetfulness, especially when he's supposedly in love with her) but he already declares he's in a relationship with her when he gets back to castle town. he hasn't gotten to know anything about queen's personality, or her ambitions or her interests, i think the only fact he knows about her at that point is the fact that she's the new "evil rulere" he's wanted to serve under ever since the king was overthrown. i think he's in it more out of obligation and the belief that "seducing" queen will get him the title he wants quicker than any actual interest in her character. she'll be the tyrant and he'll be the underling, she'll be his lady and he'll be her servant, she'll be the one commanding and he'll be the one obeying. he's more interested in them both fulfilling the "roles" he's set for them than having an actual equal, healthy relationship where they both care about each other as people.

whenever rouxls talks about the relationship he wants with queen, he also spends more time focusing on himself than ever talking about her. he's as self-centered as can be, so this is of course expected of him. when he's about to fight kris and ralsei in the acid lake, he talks about her like this:

other than calling her "beautious", which may or may not be a fake compliment considering he mistook tasque manager for her before, he absolutely doesn't mention anything about her. instead, he switches immediately to talking about himself and how he'll be rewarded for impressing her. to rouxls, the relationship he wants is clearly about himself. even though he talks more about her in the valentine's day card, it's still clear he's in it for selfish purposes:

his compliment of queen as the "faireste maidene in all of the cyber lande" is immediately revealed as meaningless when he admits he doesn't even remember what she looks like. it's exactly the same kind of empty flattery he's otherwise prone to when things look bad for him or he wants something out of someone: like how he immediately folded over and started complimenting the heroes after being easily defeated by them in chapter 1. it's clear that he's using the flattery as a way to suck up in this card as well: after complimenting queen, he immediately asks to be made her "valentine's lackeye", clearly still seeing a relationship with her as a way to get things and regain his important position rather than build an actual connection.

to me, this is actually the way to think about his "crush" that makes the most canonical sense. he was comedically selfish and self-interested in chapter 1, only acting to benefit himself, and expressing any kind of concern for a single person, lancer, after what i assume was a long-ish time of knowing him (and even then, he complains about him and clearly hesitates before asking how he is). he acts exactly the same way in chapter 2 and once again doesn't offer to help anyone but lancer for reasons other than immediate self-interest (although he does immediately call it "frivolitese" and insists that fighting ralsei and kris for queen's approval is more important). he doesn't show this type of care for queen at all: after he gets defeated by the heroes and has his lower body turned to stone, he joins them to fight against giga queen, even wanting to "take credite" for it despite having been on her side not too long ago. even if he had fallen in love with her (which is dubious considering the short time and the fact he consistently doesn't remember what she looks like) he's still very much the rouxls kaard we know, he doesn't really seem to care about her at all. i don't think he would've been changed by the "power of love" that easily or quickly, especially considering he still acts like his selfish and pathetic self when declaring his supposed love for queen.

in the future, i think one possible bit for him would be him trying to go for every single evil powerful figure we meet in the next chapters and not just being happy with settling for queen. i don't think he cares about queen (or anyone for that matter) enough to dedicate his life to serving her and no one else, he's not really someone trying to follow a righteous knight code or anything and has already shown not to think of betraying her as a big deal. he also seems to have a very shallow view on romance and relationships, and be exactly the kind of guy who thinks he can benefit from trapping himself in the confines of romance and change his relationships on a whim, all that matters being that his partner has power. the way deltarune seems to deal with the more destructive and trapping side of romance is very interesting to me, and i think this guy could potentially fit in too with his view of the ideal world where he has all the power and importance he wants, where he has to care about no one other than himself but where someone, his romantic partner, is still in charge of him because due to his life as a darkner in a world that automatically expects him to fill the role of a servant he can't imagine anything else. he doesn't care who it is that fills that role of his partner because he can always switch them for a more powerful one, so he doesn't really see his evil rulerse of the week as people, at least not yet. that said, i do find his potential relationship with queen interesting too. i just don't think they'd be happy as a romantic couple, this being one of the reasons.

also i wonder what's up with the lamp thing

[burningcheese-merchant]

Alrighty. I hate saying this, but. I'm probably going to delete the ship discourse asks in my inbox. Too many in there now and my mind is too clear to want to answer them

I think we've all been harsh with each other recently. Shouldn't have had to sleep on that, shouldn't have taken me longer than a few minutes to realize that, but idk. I went to bed last night and woke up this morning and... remembered how old I am and that I have better things to care about lol. But seriously, this recent update has really gotten to people's heads, mine included unfortunately, so I think we all need to take a step back and reevaluate ourselves

To try to explain (not excuse) myself personally. I, my friends and acquaintances, and our little fan community have gotten so much harassment for so long that now that the story is sort of tipping in our favor, I felt... vindicated. TOO vindicated this time around lol. For years and years now we have all been viciously mocked, shunned, called misogynists, called abuse apologists, we've been told to kill ourselves, we've been told bad things should happen to our loved ones. I couldn't help but feel smug when episodes 7 and 8 dropped, and then episodes 9 and 10 pushed me into being legitimately petty and mean. Like, all of this harassment was already pointless, now it's even more pointless because BxA is canon. Sore winner, "they hated Jesus because he told the truth" type shit lol

But... That's dumb. All of this is dumb. They're just video game characters. I'm an adult with adult responsibilities lol. None of this is worth getting bent out of shape about, on any side. Nothing wrong with respectful conversation and debate, but it hasn't really been that this time around. It's been gloating. Teabagging. And that's not cool. So I'm sorry for that. I'm sorry if I've upset anyone with anything I've said. I'm happy about Eternalberry but I've gotten TOO happy haha. I've regained mental clarity and thus the realization that I've started becoming part of the problem. I'm genuinely sorry for that. I want to go back to regular dork levels. Being spiteful and petty sucks, even if it's "justified"

Since I feel bad for leaving those asks awaiting deletion, A) mea culpa mea maxima culpa to those who sent them, nothing against any of you I just want to put the discourse to rest, and B) they all more or less say the same things so I'll just go ahead and bullet point my responses:

TikTok is perhaps the worst social media app ever created, it is an actual blight on society to almost biblical proportions, you are a fool if you listen to anything anyone has to say on there, your first mistake was going there in the first place, Tiktok Delenda Est

Twitter is definitely the worst social media app ever created, it is a blight on society that John meant to record in the Book of Revelation but didn't know how to describe it properly because the internet didn't exist 2000-ish years ago, you are a fool if you listen to anything anyone has to say on there, your first mistake was going there in the first place, Twitter Delenda Est, let's all point and laugh at the Trump-Musk divorce instead

Hero/villain ships are as old as human civilization and fandom nerds today have gotten really uptight about them, it's dumb and honestly really bizarre considering how prevalent it is in almost every piece of media, if someone doesn't like the trope that's perfectly fine it's not for everyone it does get pretty dark but a lot of people seem to put on gestapo uniforms when they're brought up now and it's a waste of time and energy. No one is holding a gun to your heads you guys, you don't need to do it to anyone yourselves

It's nice that I've apparently managed to convince some people to be more open-minded about BxA and hero/villain shipping as a whole, welcome to the club glad to have you, I'm sorry you've had to see some of us do our "obnoxious clown" routine recently, don't worry I'm washing my makeup off rn

I'm disappointed but unsurprised that BxA fans have been getting death threats in places, unfortunately that's how it's always been and it will continue to be that way even if all 5 pairs marry and have sex onscreen. No amount of canonizing in the narrative will change some people's minds. No amount of reasoning or olive branches will make them realize how ridiculous they are. Just have to accept it and ignore them

Cookie Run Kingdom is Baby's First Fandom for a lot of people, and a lot of them are actual, literal children, so all the black and white thinking and lack of understanding and respect makes sense, sadly. This is why I put my age in my blog description haha

Rule of thumb for me personally is to just block people who post hate in ship tags tbh. Spare us both the trouble. I've only responded to one post ever, and it was because the person was asking an honest question in a reasonable way so I thought it was fine to engage. I'd rather not engage people who want to attack and not actually talk. Blocking does us both a favor, I don't have to see meaningless hate on my dash and in tags I follow and they don't have to see content about ships they don't like from me. Win-win

Now, with all that said, I want to say some things I've said before, but would like to reiterate loudly and clearly one more time:

You do not have to like Beast x Ancient. It's perfectly fine and reasonable if you don't. It's not for everyone. Whatever your reasons are, I believe and accept them. I post about them a lot because I love them a lot, and I like talking about things I like. I do my best to tag properly so my weirdo babble is easier to filter out. My posts are more or less just preaching to the choir, I think lol. It's fine if you don't like that, it's fine if you don't like BurningCheese or Eternalberry, it's fine if you don't like Beast x Ancient. I am not your mortal enemy if you don't like them. I'm happy to talk to and be friends with people who don't. I already do so often haha

Furthermore, I want you all to know that no matter what I say about ships I don't like, I don't care if you do like them. I am not out to get you for liking things I don't. Which dolls you decide you like to make kiss is not my problem. I am not your mother, I am not your dictator, I am not God. My opinions are just that, no one is obligated to listen to me or take anything I say to heart. Yes, there are ships I legitimately hate with a passion, but I do not hate the people who like them. Not at all. That's a stupid thing to dislike someone for. I talk to and am friends with lots of people who like things I don't, both on here and irl. The world gets really lonely really fast if you refuse to engage with people who don't march lockstep with you. Especially with regards to fucking Cookie Run lol

Let's all give this nonsense a rest now. This is dumb. I'm dumb. We're all dumb. Let's stop being dumb. I'm happy to coexist peacefully with others. We'll all live happier lives focusing more on things we love than things we hate

[ogachukwu-the-freak]

Can't fucking stand Black Butler antis, YES my favorite scene was the fucking asthma scene bitch AND???? I'M WEIRD? WHY DID YOU WATCH AN ANIME WITH CLEARLY SUGGESTIVE SCENES LIKE THAT HUH???

SPEAK UP.

[necrotic-nephilim]

I’m gonna be honest I didn’t realize the new 52 messed with Kon that much till I read your post and now I can’t get over the potential. I’m a Tim/Kon girly at heart so I would devour anything you write exploring the 52 vs typical Kon. Also Time being in a clone sandwich is 👌.

the new-52 messed Kon up SO bad it's ridiculous. like, to the point i would personally argue he's a completely unrelated character to pre-Flashpoint/Rebirth Kon. his personality, his suit, his origin, all different. the only real similarities are the name and powerset. and even New-52!Kon's powers are slightly different from pre-Flashpoint!Kon. New-52!Kon is a clone of a future version of Jon Lane Kent, cloned by N.O.W.H.E.R.E. to provide genetic material to Jon Lane Kent, whose body was not handling being half human/half Kryptonian well, it was a whole thing. New-52!Kon is also where we get the infamous "Kon-El means 'abomination of the house of El' and Kara basically named him a slur in Kryptonian culture" tidbit, because that is the only time that's canon. (originally Kon-El was a name gifted by Clark to accept Kon as his family way back in the 90s) he also never went by Conner Kent. New-52!Kon just straight up didn't have any real human identity or connections, outside of being very close to Tim and some Titans.

the very TLDR of Kon's history is: during post-Crisis/pre-Flashpoint, a clone called Superboy is created by CADMUS. at first, he's considered to be a clone of a dude named Paul Westfield and is not Kryptonian whatsoever, he was simply made to look like Superman and only has Tactile Telekinesis as a power. then, it was made canon that actually he was a clone of Lex Luthor and Clark Kent, but Lex hid this fact and slowly, Kon developed more Kryptonian powers. he's given the name Kon-El by Clark, and is taken in by the Kents, getting the name Conner Kent. then Flashpoint happens, we get the New-52, and we're given the above version of Kon-El, who is a clone of Jon Lane Kent, created by N.O.W.H.E.R.E. who has mostly very strong telekinesis powers and some Kryptonian powers. he's with the Titans for a bit, then at the end of the New-52, he kills some aliens and feels bad about it so he decides to fuck off and is never seen again, it's presumed he's dead but never confirmed. then Rebirth happens and DC makes Jon Kent the current Superboy, we get Supersons and all that, and it's assumed that no version of Kon-El exists. just at all. he's not around whatsoever, Jon is our only Superboy. *but* in 2019, we get a new Young Justice run and the pre-Flashpoint Kon-El is back, and we're given the explanation of: Kon got accidentally teleported to this alternate realm called Gemworld and then Flashpoint happened, and since that was a Crisis Event that changed the timeline, the poor lad got *erased* from the timeline, causing most people to *not fucking remember him* and for him to remember a timeline that no longer exists. some of the Young Justice team vaguely remember him, Ma and Pa Kent remember him, but notably, Clark *does not remember him*. it's not an issue of "Clark ignored Kon in favor of Jon" it's an issue of "Kon was erased from the timeline and didn't exist for years bc he was stuck in Gemworld and Clark just doesn't remember Kon or Kon's timeline" which to me, is far more tragic but i digress. since then, Kon has been back and is present in most significant Superfamily runs, with his own recent mini-series, Superboy: Man of Tomorrow. (which was very good btw)

so basically: the New-52 fucked Kon up so bad they wrote him out of comics for years and then brought back the pre-Flashpoint version, but never *explicitly* killed the New-52 version off. so hypothetically, it's possible that there are currently two characters existing in the DC universe named Kon-El who have been Superboy. and like i said above, one of New-52!Kon's only real significant relationships was with Tim, it was the only thing the New-52 managed to get right about Superboy, his closeness to Tim. they have a *lot* of moments that read incredibly queer. and ofc, it's just outright confirmed in Dark Crisis: Young Justice that Tim had a crush on pre-Flashpoint!Kon at some point. so while comics are intent on pretending New-52!Kon doesn't exist, i am intent on putting Tim in a clone sandwich.

because i do think it's fun to play with Tim having genuine feelings and potentially a relationship with both of them. and the fucked up nature of him not fully *remembering* his relationship with pre-Flashpoint!Kon (which is a canon thing, in YJ(2019) Tim has vague memories of Kon he's struggling to piece together and understand why he cares about this guy he doesn't recognize so much) and how frustrating that is for Tim. he knows he loves Kon, but it's all foggy besides that. and so it's even *more* fucked up if Tim dated New-52!Kon before he got emo and ran off into the unknown. obviously in canon no one has told current Kon about New-52!Kon bc comics are doing the good ol' tried and true of "sweep that shit under the rug" but for fanfic, i think it's fun to ask the question of: would anyone *tell* Kon? especially Tim? who now remembers dating both versions of them? would he admit to Kon that briefly, he had another Kon? how would Tim cope with that and move on? personality wise, they could not be more different. they dress and act and look different. they're not the same person, but there's certainly a questionable factor of Tim's dating history including two Kon-Els.

the idea i've had for a while is Tim slowly starting to date pre-Flashpoint!Kon again. it feels familiar and like home. and Tim has grieved and accepted that wherever New-52!Kon is, he doesn't want to come home, he didn't love TIm enough to stay and try. so Tim takes the Kon he has, and genuinely has a happy relationship. like for once, life is good and things almost make sense for Tim. but then, of course, New-52!Kon comes back. he decides he wants to try again and he finds Tim. only to find well. he's been replaced. and technically, he's been replaced with the *original* that he didn't even know *existed*. and if being a clone is bad enough, that just makes it a hundred times worse. because imagine knowing you're actually the second Kon-El your boyfriend who you never *technically* broke up with fell in love with. that's gotta give you some kind of complex.

so i think it's fun if both Kons try to step back and let the other Kon date Tim. both of them have reasons to feel like the "replacement" or "fake" Kon, and it makes them incredibly awkward with each other. do they count as the same person? bc they definitely don't *feel* like the same person to each other, but with weird timeline stuff, who can really say. them settling on an awkward throuple that's really meant to be Tim just dating them both but somehow they end up dating each other too is so fun for me. they both feel like imposters to the Superboy name but are so deeply in love with Tim Drake, it's the one thing truly connecting them. and then of course, Tim feels bad in that somehow, he's betraying both of them for having feelings for the other. but they make it work, with a lot of awkward angst and miscommunication. i just think it'd be fun. very difficult to write to get all the weird timeline nuances down in a way that's understandable in a fanfic (bc you can't just. infodump like i did on this post) but doable. also difficult to tag, because even though i argue these are two different characters, i'm pretty sure Ao3 groups them under the same character tag. so it'd be difficult to convey it's not *really* as selfcest-y as it would imply. comics, man. DC will never acknowledge New-52!Kon again, and he's admittedly a terrible adaptation of Kon-El, but. i think he was sort of neat in his own right and i'd *love* for DC to just inexplicably bring him back and make the current Kon deal with the consequences of all that. and them make Tim kiss them both. obviously.

[hejihra]

print by @tbgkaru-woh

other goodies also by @tbgkaru-woh

[moonlightflower-queen]

Listener bf with his info dumping gf and info dumping bf

[multiocular-mushroom-art]

francis madoka magica crozier

(the witch designs are here and also posted separately with some lore under the tag 'the soul gem passage')

[sage-nebula]

I've felt myself driving slowly to insanity ever since I realized that all three of Cap's offensive moves are electric type. I get that this is an anime and so it doesn't play by the game rules exactly, but the fact that Cap has NO way to deal with types that have resistance or immunity to electricity is insane to me. Friede is supposed to be a genius professor, so how and why did he drop the ball THIS badly? (Especially since he didn't drop so badly with Char, albeit Steel Wing or Thunder Punch would be better fits than Dragon Claw given that Char doesn't get STAB with Dragon Claw either, and Steel Wing or Thunder Punch would both cover weaknesses.)

Having said that, I've tried to put together a better moveset for Cap. It is a bit challenging, considering his ability boosts his Special Attack, despite his signature move (Volt Tackle -> Rising Volt Tackle) requiring him to have a high Attack stat. Considering that the increase to his SpA would only matter when he tanks electric hits, I'm going to focus on a more physical build for him giving the necessity of keeping Volt Tackle, while also trying to give him better type coverage.

With that, my idea for a better Cap moveset is:

Volt Tackle — As mentioned, it's his signature move and he's required to keep it, because without it he can't use Rising Volt Tackle, and then what are we even doing here. So this one is a mandatory keep from his canon moveset.

Double Team — I'm also keeping Double Team, because he has used it to great effect in canon. Not to mention that increasing his evasion is also very helpful considering that I also want to give him . . .

Focus Punch — Focus Punch has a very high damage output (150) with the caveat that it will not work at all if the user is hit beforehand. But this works well for Cap, who has naturally high speed and knows Double Team to increase evasion. Using Double Team to throw off opponents before unleashing Focus Punch would work spectacularly. Additionally, Focus Punch would allow him to deal SE damage to Normal, Dark, Rock, Ice, and Steel, greatly increasing the number of opponents he's able to deal SE damage against. And while it doesn't do SE damage, it DOES hit Ground, which would give him a way to attack against a type he currently can't do any damage to at all.

Quick Attack — I know, I know, it's a basic choice. And to be honest, I'm torn between this and Feint, which is a little weaker but can get through Protect / Detect. Feint is a very special situation type of attack, however, while Quick Attack is more reliable, being both a little stronger and a priority move. Normal type moves are good for coverage as well (and this gives Cap something to use before the big finishers of Focus Punch or Volt Tackle), so I still think that it fits well here.

Obviously, Lightning Rod won't boost any of these attacks. If we wanted at least one attack that would be boosted, we could keep Thunderbolt instead of adding Quick Attack. But I really think that since Cap's signature move, the one we absolutely cannot get rid of, is a physical move, then we should focus on building his stats around that. In which case, Lightning Rod's utility is mainly going to be in doubles to draw electricity away from its partner (as seen when Friede and Spinel double battled).

We don't know Cap's nature for sure (do we ever learn the canonical natures of pokémon in the animated shows?), but if we look at his personality and try to decide on a nature from there, I would say that he does seem to have an Adamant nature, with the way he never gives up on things. This, too, would boost his Attack while actually lowering his Special Attack, which means that a physical build really is a better fit for him.

Lastly, I think it would behoove Cap to keep a Light Ball under his hat. Although the hat does get knocked off / thrown off a lot, so maybe he could wear it as a necklace instead. (Who am I kidding though, they don't even do mega stone accessories anymore . . . 😒 no way is Cap getting a necklace.) The Light Ball would increase his Attack further, truly making Cap into the sweeper that I feel he's destined to be.

Now, let me into the writers room so I can fix him, Horizons staff. I will do it for free, just please let me fix him.

[garaks-gay-garderobe]

ok but like. how high are the chances that Skulduggery and China had something? like. at least once. c'mon be real with me.

[maylovesalot]

Sigh yeah guess who also did the thing >:)

Original post

[marinsawakening]

LOZ Fic Recs

Deciding to use my hobby of autistically crawling through AO3 tags for good. I'm prioritizing fics with less than 50 kudos. None of these are ship fics, most don't have any romance. All of these are completed one shots, most under 10k words.

Skies, Surfaces, and the Hero Chef That Can't Actually Cook by greatduwangs

Summary: Link's cooking sidequest in Skyward Sword, which goes about as well as you'd expect. Or, the missing ingredient was a home all along, or whatever.

Why I recommend it: 4.5k of Link eating things he shouldn't. Very funny and very cute!

Big Dark by phlyarologist

Summary: Character study of Mido as the events of Ocarina of Time change him, worldbuilding the Kokiri and examining what it means to grow up.

Why I recommend it: Contender for the best LOZ fic I've ever read. Brilliant worldbuilding and characterization, and a fantastic understanding of childhood and its nuances that you rarely see outside of fiction aimed at children.

loop - synonyms: coil, noose, ring, circle by MidnightBunnyy

Summary: Fi gets stuck in a timeloop and is very... well, Fi about it.

Why I recommend it: Excellent Fi characterization that leads to a very funny take on a time loop scenario while still being a serious story.

Notes: Restricted work, only available to AO3 users.

A Legacy Cast in Stone by sagittamoth

Summary: Pre-Skyward Sword Sheikah worldbuilding following an OC who works with the robots and timeshift stones in the last days before the war.

Why I recommend it: Does a great job with worldbuilding, creating a vibrant world that slots neatly into the greater Skyward Sword canon.

missing by fandomsandshit

Summary: Drabble exploring Zelda's time in the dungeon.

Why I recommend it: Does a brilliant job painting fear and an oppressive atmosphere, with stellar Zelda characterization.

Growth by herohelio

Summary: Two connected snippets of Malon in the adult timeline, meeting Link again.

Why I recommend it: Adorable Link and Malon friendship and great Malon characterization, with very effective hints at what living under Ingo had been like.

Because each time we live by grainjew

Summary: Follows Link through ALTTP, written through the lens of the reincarnation theory with a focus on connection to the wider LOZ series.

Why I recommend it: Author described it as a 'mood piece', which it absolutely is and is very good at. I like the surreal and blurry way reincarnation is portrayed in this fic, and it has a great take on the maidens.

Blind and the Bunny by justAPassingThought

Summary: A character study of Blind the Thief through his defeat in the Thieves’ Hideout Dungeon.

Why I recommend it: Excellent exploration of the Dark World and the way its transformations work, and I really like Blind's view on Link's Dark World form.

Litany of Betrayal by RawLiverAndCigarettes

Summary: A foreign warlord swears fielty to the king of Hyrule. Impa knows what the stranger truly wants. She has seen it before. She can still taste the ash.

Why I recommend it: Fantastic character study of Ganondorf and Impa in Ocarina of Time. Everyone is horrible and I'm thriving. Incorporates Hylia into the OOT canon in a way I find actually interesting. Fascinating worldbuilding in general.

Notes: Prequel to a novel-length fic I have not read (I'm terrible at reading long fics rip).

that gentle hubris by cassiopeian

Summary: Zelda bares her soul at the Spring of Wisdom, but the answers she seeks do not come from a goddess.

Why I recommend it: Mipha and Zelda friendship, a fun take on Zora mythology and I always love mortals forging their own paths in worlds where gods are objectively real.

Hunger by Anonymous

Summary: Sequel to Grace, where Zelda struggles to reckon with perceptions out of her control. Link is there to help point out what she's missed. Can be read as standalone.

Why I recommend it: Autistic Zelda, queerplatonic zelink, and a great portrayal of the hunger that comes with trauma.

Notes: Sequel to a fic that is also very good.

As Above, So Below by Mothlight_Witch

Summary: An exploration of the Depths and Hyrule's cosmology.

Why I recommend it: The other contender for 'best LOZ fic I've read'. Astounding atmosphere and worldbuilding, incredibly unique and all-around breathtaking. Lives in my head rent free.

What is your wish? by AdeptArcanist

Summary: Character study of Vaati connecting him to Link's Awakening and Majora's Mask.

Why I recommend it: Very weird and unique take on LOZ lore and I'm so incredibly here for that.

Linner (Link Dinner) by waterglider

Summary: An adaptation of one of Zelda's diary entries set after the "Blades of the Yiga" memory. After a very irritating person saves her life, Zelda has developed a theory-- one she plans to test.

Why I recommend it: Zelda is kinda mean and Link is a monarchist bootlicker. I adore this take on pre-Calamity Link, he's genuinely insufferable and I love that. If I ever end up writing pre-Calamity Link I'm so stealing this characterization.

Notes: Sequel to another stellar fic, prequel to an in progress novel-length fanfic that I have not read (again, terrible at reading longer fic).

[burningcheese-merchant]

honestly, i am very much with you about not really liking hollyt/aya.

it feels like. im a hollyberry fan and i rarely if ever see people analyze her character or say something about her, even in the context of that ship. and same thing with pitaya. even on ao3, most of the fics tagged as ho.llytaya just have them as background characters while the main ship is what the story is actually about.

i completely understand your distaste, and my distaste comes from the fact that people treat that ship like it's their obligatory ship to have to prove that they think about characters that don't use he/him pronouns in english.

I'm feeling kind of unhappy today and I let that influence me to ramble semi-coherently. TL;DR is Hollytaya is dumb, boring slop that further perpetuates Pitaya's ongoing character assassination in Kingdom and I deeply resent its popularity, especially when its fans often mock and malign Beast x Ancient when they are literally the exact same shit, but Hollytaya is good and acceptable because (insert lame excuse here). But whatever, I don't really care at the end of the day, I know and like plenty of people who ship it and it's no skin off my nose. My opinions are just that, opinions. You do you, friends. Have fun without me

Man I sound like a grinch beneath this cut don't I lol. Please feel free to skip it if you don't want to deal with that, it's understandable

I just don't really understand Hollytaya. I felt like I was in the Twilight Zone when I first went online after finishing the Red Dragon arc and got bombarded with ship art. I don't see anything and never have. Do I need new glasses or something

You'd think I would like Hollytaya, since it pretty much is just BurningCheese in a different costume. But I don't. In fact, Hollytaya sickens me. It was the first tag I ever blocked on this site lol. I hate even remembering it's a ship that exists at all. It just rubs me in the worst way possible and I struggle to even put how or why into words. It's as though it's simply a trait passed down from my distant ancestors and whatever the reason for it existing was was lost to time eons ago. Some primal repulsion. Fighting a centuries old blood feud when you hardly even remember why anymore.

Pitaya acts like a child. Hollyberry treats him like a child. I do not see how romance could bloom in a dynamic like that. All Pitaya ever does is act like a spoiled brat. A whiny dimwit. And Hollyberry behaves accordingly, in my eyes. Why would you want to date the person you basically have to mother every time you meet. "If you won't stop terrorizing my kingdom I'll never spar with you again" the tone with which she said that to him was like a schoolteacher scolding a tantruming 5 year old. Maybe I have different ears than everyone else idk. (You really don't understand how frustrated I am with how Pitaya is characterized in Kingdom. Look at Ovenbreak, it's like night and day. What the fuck did they do to them. Look how they massacred my boy. And as far as I'm concerned, Hollytaya only serves to further ruin Pitaya's character, because it and every depiction I've ever seen only leans into that character ruination. And I can't even blame people too much for that, because the game itself makes it seem like Pitaya's entire fucking existence revolves around Holly and wanting to fight Holly. There is literally nothing else to him as a person, and Holly honestly isn't even all that much better tbh. Holly is a jolly drunkard who takes nothing seriously and has a happy dandy life while everyone else around her suffers tremendously (I know that's not true, I know there's so much more to Holly, but Holly's development has been massively neglected to the point that she almost seems one-dimensional compared to the other Ancients) and Pitaya is her pet dog. It's a fucking disgrace)

All the fanart is the same. Just the same shit every time. All anyone ever does is make Pitaya a dumb simp and Holly the big strong woman in charge (and always taller than Pitaya for some reason. Why are you all afraid of Tall Pitaya. What's this unconscious need to drag Pitaya as far down beneath Holly as possible in any way possible. They're a fucking dragon, just let them be tall. Holly doesn't lose her worth if she's shorter than Pitaya lol). Never seen a single person ever actually address that Pitaya has committed actual crimes against Holly, her family and her kingdom, and has never said or done anything to apologize or atone. Never seen anyone acknowledge that Holly should have to morally and psychologically struggle with wanting to be with someone that personally threatened to kill her son and granddaughter. Never seen anyone acknowledge that Holly would be shunned by her people for basically romancing their dictator and would-be killer, and her friends would question her sanity and integrity. I can do that shit with GC and BS (and Holly and Eternal Sugar, for that matter), why can't anyone do it for Holly and Pitaya? Hollytaya is the not-yaoi equivalent of yaoi slop to me. It's fucking dumb and boring. I see Hollytaya randomly appear before my eyes somewhere and I remember what was done to ShadowVanilla. Except Shadowvanilla wasn't always slop, it got turned into it by new fans. Meanwhile that is what Hollytaya always was from day 1 and you can't convince me otherwise

Holly and Pitaya have nothing to offer each other romantically. Nothing that a simple friendship can't also provide. I just like them as friends. Brother from another mother. Sister from another mister. I think of them and I remember Mona-Lisa and Jean-Ralphio from Parks and Rec or some funny friend/sibling relationship like that. That's enough for me and I don't understand why it isn't enough for anyone else. (They've repeatedly referred to each other as "friend" anyway. They've already friendzoned each other lol. Sorry to burst everyone's bubble.)

It's one thing to have to endure its unfortunate popularity, and like there's nowhere I can go to escape it and no one to talk to who doesn't like it either. Hollytaya almost feels mandatory to some extent. I feel the phantom sensation of the barrel of a gun burrowing into the back of my head whenever I'm forced to see it again because a mutual or someone I follow reblogged something (and I can't just click "not interested" like I usually do, you can't do that with reblogs). Triply so not only because I ship them both with other characters, but also because I ship Pitaya with Fire Spirit, when the fandom just randomly declared them parent and child and routinely attacks anyone that interprets them differently. This ship makes me feel so alone. Like the one black sheep in a sea of white.

It's another thing to see so many fans be so hypocritical about it. Huge chunk of Hollytaya fans I've seen will turn around and decry Beast x Ancient when that is literally what Hollytaya is. Zero irony or self-awareness. And I mean, fine. Whatever. Be that way. Lord knows I'm not all that different. Just don't be a dick about it. Which a lot of them are lol. A lot of them are the same ones that will actively harass Beast x Ancient fans, because you know. BurningCheese is toxic but Hollytaya isn't. Somehow. For some reason. (I've genuinely tried so hard to understand that and I can't lol. By all accounts, the fandom should hate Hollytaya because it fits the criteria for "toxic" and "abusive". But they don't. It's one of the most popular ships. Because? Because. Just because. No actual reason listed. I get the impression that a lot of people in this fandom don't think things through often lol)

Idk man. PitayaFire is vastly superior to me. Pitaya's and Fire Spirit's deep flaws and hidden virtues mesh so much better together. They have more to give and more to take from each other. The foundation of their relationship is already so fascinating. The fact that this ship is slept on the way it is is so wild to me. Where have any of you been. What's going on with you guys. PitayaFire is peak real estate for angst and tension and character exploration. Why y'all gotta leave me hanging like this. I'm not crazy I swear

But... whatever. I say all of this and end it with "ship what you want it's not my problem". Because it honestly isn't. As annoyed as I sound, I really don't pay ships I don't like much thought unless prompted, like with asks like this one. I blocked the tags forever ago and just click "not interested" if they show up on my dash. I don't go looking for content because it's not for me. And I don't go out of my way to bother anyone who likes Hollytaya or whatever else I don't because that's shitty and a waste of time. They're talking cookies who honestly gives a fuck. Do whatever so long as it isn't adult x minor or something equally inexcusable. I have plenty of friends and mutuals and followers that like Hollytaya and I don't think any less of them for it. I still like and cherish them. I'd be an awfully lonely person if I turned away everyone who liked something I don't. That's a terrible way to live, nobody should do that.

And of course, everyone is welcome to disgree and/or ignore me. I'm just a random weirdo on Tumblr, my opinions aren't the law lol. Doesn't actually mean anything to me if someone doesn't like BurningCheese or PitayaFire, so it shouldn't mean anything to anyone if I don't like Hollytaya. We all have more important things to care about than that