#Idk I'm sick of tags

[galaxyofhair]

There is no Zelda Timeline

So, first of all--I get it, sort of a spicy way to start off the post but give me some time to explain what I mean:

I recently started seeing some lore videos pop up for TOTK, and I am enjoying them so far as they concern the events specific to TOTK and BOTW--but inevitably there are more and more videos beginning to theorize how TOTK impacts and fits into the larger Zelda Timeline published in the Hyrule Historia

So I used to write articles about Legend of Zelda that explored all of the different important themes and the philosophy behind it’s design in preparation for what was essentially a super-powered fanfiction sequel idea that I had. I had planned to write out my idea and then present it to the world on this gaming journalism site I was writing for.

Without getting too far into the details of that great hubris which has cursed my life--one of the things that I learned from researching the development of LoZ is this: 

So like, you know how every game in the Zelda series, with a few exceptions, feels largely disconnected from every other game? I assume we all do because it’s like, one of the main struggles of the series for the fans is the collective cognitive dissonance we all share as we try to cobble these games together into a single continuity. We WANT--and I do mean WE, myself included--to believe that these stories can all exist together to create a larger, more interesting connective narrative.

The alternative sucks too, but it’s been a long time since I’ve heard somebody put actual words to this rather than dancing around it: The alternative is that every new game of a new style is disconnected, and we really just let Nintendo reboot this series like 10 different times like it’s fucking Final Fantasy.

Aonuma has said a bunch of similar, but somewhat contradictory things on the subject. In an interview in 2017 he said,

“We published a book with the timeline, but we definitely got comments from users saying, ‘Is this really accurate? I think this should be this way. It’s different.’ And history is always kind of imaginative. It’s left to the person who writes the book. So that’s how we approach it as well. It’s not necessarily that we come up with a game and think, ‘Oh, this is where it fits in the timeline.’ Honestly, lately, we’re kind of scared to say exactly where things are in the timeline for that reason. But we like to leave things to the imagination most of the time.”

http://nintendoeverything.com/nintendo-on-its-approach-to-the-zelda-timeline-understands-fans-appreciation-for-it/

This interview would clearly indicate that they just don’t think about the timeline because these games are designed with the gameplay first, the immediate story second, and the larger timeline doesn’t even make onto the list of concerns until the game is already out.

However, to throw some cold water on that thought train, Aonuma later gave a slightly different answer: “When we start to work on a new Zelda, we of course think about all this timeline stuff. Nintendo has a lot of IPs today. And Shigeru Miyamoto asks that we do our best to keep the timeline coherent. So we do it. But honestly, when we start to think of a new Zelda, respecting the timeline is a constraint for us. We would like to be free to imagine whatever we want without having to worry about the timeline. Being able to create while still keeping Zelda's essence, and bring new things to the table. Except now when we think of a new idea, we have to wonder "OK, but where does it fit in the timeline ?" and it instantly becomes very complicated ! And sometimes, we can't do these new ideas because it wouldn't fit in the timeline ! So, for the creative teams, it's an hindrance. Yeah, we published a timeline in a book but among our staff, we would like to be able to stop thinking about it...”

Keep in mind, this quote was translated from French by this Reddit post:

https://www.reddit.com/r/truezelda/comments/6rtbh7/aonuma_on_how_they_view_the_timeline_when_making/

While Aonuma is definitely expressing some frustration and even a hint of disdain for the timeline, it does clearly indicate that they’re thinking about it. This was also in 2017.

On the one hand, it is clear that the Timeline was a subject of debate inside Nintendo for a time: They published the Hyrule Historia and gave the timeline an official stamp, they published Skyward Sword and attempted to give the series an origin story, they made BOTW and filled it with references and items from older games.

But is this really a studio thinking about their series as a large interconnected universe, or is it just fan service and another rebooted game? I’ll admit, this is the part of the post where the proof ends and my opinion begins: I don’t think they actually think about the timeline when they make these games. TOTK is filled with plenty of details that seem to prove they could barely stand having to design around BOTW’s story.

While Skyward Sword proved to be a... semi-effective prequel to the series, making it plausible that games like OoT, MM, WW, and TP might all be connected--but it too suffered from some odd inconsistencies. Are we ever going to acknowledge the mirror Hyrule? Lorule? The Twilight Realm? Are Zora and Rito still related?

But TOTK then turns around and retells most of that story--retelling Ganondorf’s origin story, the origin of the sky islands--it just doesn’t fit. TOTK literally cannot exist in the same timeline as SS because it would imply the Ganondorf existed as the demon king before Demise started the cycle of reincarnation (for Ganon and Ganondorf).

And I don’t have a source for this but Aonuma’s answer to where BOTW lies on the timeline has changed once or two from “YOU decide!” to “IDK, on all of them I guess?”

I do love these games, but I’m at the point where I feel like Nintendo has won, just wearing us down--there is no Zelda timeline, the timeline published in the Hyrule Historia was just a bit of fan service--and then the immediate next game that they did rebooted the series AGAIN. Right now the timeline, loosely, is BOTW ---> TOTK.

I don’t want to come out here trying to assassinate the Legend of Zelda series---but I do want folks to give it a hard look and ask yourselves: How long can Nintendo keep rebooting this series before it finally dies? How long before they accept that they need a continuity to keep fans interested? Do fans of the series even want continuity?

I eventually abandoned my fanfiction project after coming to the realization that Zelda is a mirrored puddle, the width of a lake. It can fool you into believing that great beasts must swim in the depths below--but dip your finger in and an inch down you touch concrete.

I think about the story I wanted to write once in a while---and lately I’ve been working on adapting it into an original project. I think I’m still a fan of the Zelda series, even if it does frustrate me. I think eventually, something will have to give---though for the moment I won’t bother speculating what.

[dollopheadsandclotpoles]

Scenes From A Romantic Comedy BBC Merlin [Ep 4x05]

[weinzapfel]

🤫

[luna-loveboop]

I love Legend sick fics because they all boil down to: "no amount of emotional stress will make him crack so let's give him a fever and see how that works"

[amywritesthings]

okay, i have to address something that i've seen float around a bunch on tumblr, reddit, and tiktok lately when it comes to readers who are angry at fanfiction authors for not writing the content they wish to see in their fandom spaces.

...did you ever think to try and write it yourself?

this weekend i saw someone comment on the bg3 sub about how they're sick of seeing astarion fics with 'special/edgy female-centric tieflings or durges' and not much else. they were angry that 'they scroll for hours on ao3 and tumblr but only find all this oc and reader insert garbage, when it's plaguing their fandom space'.

so write the damn story you keep searching for. write what you find the fandom lacks. you take it upon yourself to curate the content you want out there.

if a writer wants to make 50 stories of the same 'special/edgy' original character smutting up a canon, they can? it's their labor of love. their passion project. a hobby. they choose to share it online for free. we are so very lucky to live in a digital age where fanfiction is so readily available, and there are millions if not billions of stories (for free!!) at your fingertips to scroll and enjoy.

i'm getting very tired of finding posts/videos of entitled readers who vocally complain about not being catered to when they themselves are not trying to contribute with the content, pairings, or topics they wish to see.

[skylie-spiderlillis]

Edwin Payne's flag be like:

(sorry the quality is not so great Tumblr is being shit for some reason)

(this is my personal design, if other people want to use it for other stuff they're more than welcome just with credit for the design!)

[queenlucythevaliant]

Just to clarify my thoughts (since I've had a number of people ask me about it) re: Job and cursing God. There's a big difference between cursing God as used in Scripture and how we generally would think of cursing at God today.

Cursing someone, in the Bible, has a lot of depth to it. It's not just saying "screw you " in anger, it's got a sense of forsakenness to it. It's the opposite of a blessing, a removal of blessing. If the blessing is presence, your face shining on the person you're blessing, then a curse is absence. In some translations, Job's wife tells him to "renounce God and die," which I honestly think makes a lot more sense to modern ears.

Job says a lot of unpleasant things to and about God in his anger and grief. So do the Psalmists. A number of the Prophets. So can we. God can take it if we come to him with honest expressions of our emotion, including those not-so-nice ones directed at him. I don't think there's anything wrong with getting mad at God and saying, "How dare you, you bastard" when you suffer unjustly. You can say much worse, I think, without sinning, though I don't feel particularly inclined to give examples. But as long as it's an honest expression of your heart, I think you're doing exactly what prayer is for. You're presenting him your heart with an open hand. He can use that. Opposite of love is not hate but indifference, etc.

Job doesn't renounce God. Neither should we. But I think when you're truly suffering, you're gonna have those feelings toward God either way. He'd rather you address them with him directly than try to avoid them. Cursing at God in the modern sense is actually a great way to keep the relationship strong and not end up cursing/renouncing him in the Biblical sense.

[hotteststar]

HELPP I WAS TALKING TO A FRIEND OF MINE AND I SAID "OMG THATS SO ROSEKILLER CODED" AND I DON'T EVEN REMEMBER WHYYYYYY BUT I FORGOT THEY R NOT INTO MARAUDERS STUFF SO THEY WERE LIKE "MAN WHY WOULD YOU KILL A ROSE WTF" AND THEY WERE SO CONFUSED I COULDN'T HELP BUT DIE BCS LIKE HOWWWWWWWWW CAN YOU LIVE WITHOUT THEMMMMMMM SO I WAS LIKE "UMMMMMM" AND THEY WERE THERE WITH THE DUMBEST LOOK ON THEIR FACE I WAS FEELING SICK MAN I WANTED TO START TALKING ABOUT ROSEKILLER SO BAD BUT I WAS LIKE NO THAT'S NOT WHAT YOU HAVE TO DO RN OKAY???

[shithowdy]

realized a drawing i'm doing rn is almost identically posed to one i did 8.5 years ago of a different oc, except the old drawing was instantly tainted by one of the players featured messaging me asking if i could take it down because their abusive, possessive rp partner saw it and got jealous of them "roleplaying behind their back" and i said "nah" and it became a whole Thing that i should have walked away from at that exact moment but didn't and the 6 months that followed contained some of the most truly condensed batshit i have ever witnessed in an rp community already well-known for its batshittery.

... anyway i love my friends. so happy to accidentally redeem the pose.

[dragondawdles]

capm

[philtatosbuck]

the thing about the thing is that any klaus ship makes more sense than kl*roline and those people have to act like that to compensate. and i do mean literally any klaus ship.

the originals edition? klaurora ate. would've done great things if not for elijah. klamille? ain't everyone's cup of tea but it still makes more sense for klaus to have an interest in her than that other blonde girl at the very LEAST from a psychology aspect and to get at marcel and kieran. klayley? even if the only thing they Ever did was hate fuck, it still would've been more in character. klaus and lucien, klaus and genevieve, all of them make at least some sense from a narrative point of view.

tvd? klaus and elena? would've been a dark and twisty ass romance, but would've been great to witness. klaus and bonnie? not only would it have been eagerly accepted, but it was WANTED by the actors too. klaus and katherine? c'mon. (if you come to me about 'he killed her family!!' i'm sorry but i do not care they would've been so fucking funny). klaus and stefan.

even in the fucking BOOKS, klaus and vivianne were so, so much better. it's just.

like i'm SORRY but no matter what other ship it is kl*roline falls flat. he liked her because why? he has a weird complex about his sister and he wanted to assert dominance over tyler. there was literally no other reason for that man to give a shit about her.

[little-pup-pip]

could you make a moodboard that smells like cloves, and old books?

i feel like that’s a really weird way to ask that but also the only way i can explain it? Masc, please!

Please and thank you!

Definitely!!

[heaveniowa]

we thought we had it all, thought we had it all, thought we had it all, thought we had it all, thought we had it all

[breakbeatbun]

y'all have gotta learn to act normal about other people's characters

just bc you think they're hot doesn't mean the person who made them wants to know if, or how, you'd fuck them. i feel like that's common sense. it doesn't make it OK now just because it's not a real person you're sexualizing. you don't know what they mean to the person who made them, and if you do, well what the fuck, then.

[sleep-deprived-corvid]

Star fly

[sokovianfortune]

some gentle fucking reminders

that is not wanda's real body that agatha finds in the woods. we have to remember that the mind control spell that wanda cast on agatha is altering her perception of reality. rio says it herself - agatha is trapped in a distorted spell and therefore it's highly likely that nothing that she's seeing is real. later on in the trailer, we see a shot of agatha, naked and trying to use her magic. by all accounts this is because when the spell breaks, she's not in the morgue anymore but rather, she's in her home or rio's in westview. there is no real morgue. there is no real body. it's not wanda.

the card with wanda's name on it is a library card -- the kind that used to be stuck in the back of a book and that you'd sign your name on when you checked it out. this may or may not be some allusion to the darkhold, but the point stands that it has absolutely nothing to with her death.

i'm sorry but if you still think wanda is perma-dead when it could not be more obvious that they're setting up her own little corner of the mcu by giving her mentor, her husband and her son their own shows in preparation for her return, i genuinely don't know what to tell you. get well soon, i guess.

this also goes for people who think that they're """giving everyone except wanda their own projects."""" marvel clearly wants wanda's return to be a Big Deal when it happens, so if there really is a solo movie, it's probably not going to be announced until she's back in action.

so let's all take some deep breaths and stop with the histrionics for five minutes, please.