#taya speaks

[tayasmultimuses]

13/09/2022 Evening To Do List:

1) ANSWER INBOX (memes)

2) FINISH BLOG SETUP [UPDATE OFFICIAL MUSE LIST (SEE MUSE LIST UPDATE TAG FOR HELP), CHARACTER PAGES, VERSES, INFO, HEADCANONS, MAYBE MAKE A LINKTREE FOR ALL LINKS RELATED THE BLOG?]

3) Replies owed:

@ecliipsed

@setitallaflame

@beautifulnigtmare x3 (Edmund for Lucy, Clarice for John and Jean for Scott)

@rosydreamiing (link to the original ask response on their blog and reply in a new post)

4) Starters:

- @sebastianshaw x2 [roller skating french maid outfit shaw art penance starter (surprise muse and verse), QC!Dani verse starter]

-Open starter calls:

---character specific calls (reblog Darcy and Lorna starter calls)

--- General starter calls for muses/fandoms (reblog Marbel starter call)

5) tag clean up

[bluesidedown]

....

[dancedreamthink]

JADE CARGILL AND HER SORORS!!!

[digitalis-obscura]

sorry not sorry for wrestling blogging, men were being whores on my laptop screen, hope this helps

[bayleymania]

Taya Valkyrie vs Jade Cargill in a Last Woman Standing match. Book it, Tony.

[atxvanhalen]

@thevuhvitch tagged me to shuffle a playlist and list the first ten songs, then tag 10 people!!!!

strawberry wine by lemondrop

party till i die by kim petras

waste the night by 5 seconds of summer

backstreets by bruce springsteen

coconuts by kim petras

here to forever by death cab for cutie

nightmares by chvrches

daylight by 5 seconds of summer

play by fickle friends

enough by eloise

i tag @agonyisthetruth, @weedballs, @sinatra-fann, @rosesau @bloodystab, @dead-peaceful, @ammarantas, @dnouement, and @superhansbf!!!!!

[you-are-constance]

wait it's Brandon Delgado AND Taya Diggs's birthdays???

[ladyarrowhead]

The poetics of the Vlad the Younger vs Vlad the Older in so far the Haruspex and Bachelor Route are just keeping me up, and Vlad the Younger being a possible adherent, supposedly only removed for the sake of not accidentally auto-game-over as the Bachelor just adds to how interesting this choice is to me. Lots of musings below this, I do not know where I am going with this

Additionally, "Panacea Blackmarket" ALSO takes place on this day in which Vlad the Younger is linked to it, something that Daniil first detests ("The man won't let a single penny past his purse! It occurs to me that he is no better than Bad Grief), with a hint of Dankovsky-typical "wait maybe the worms framed Vlad for this, let me check"). The Bachelor is only to change his opinion once he finds out that Vlad is now trying to "make amends" by distributing the panacea to the people he had doomed (Yes, people do change a lot. Before, I was convinced that this man was beyond salvation. I thought that nothing less than death could make the leopard change its spots. But I see a new man before me now. His former self has died; but not before he gave the entirety of his panacea stock to Mark Immortell.)

"Subterrarean Rot", to me becomes interesting because Daniil very much likes to align himself with the truth and slowly and surely has been shown and expected to lie tooth and nail to protect himself. Finding our who is behind the Termitary's state, Daniil is originally to decide who to deliver to Taya, but his journal entry is SO interesting about this:

The whole thing proved to be a trivial affair, but no less terrifying for it. When Isidor informed the Olgimskys of the impending outbreak, it was the younger who did what the elder did not dare to. But as the consequences became known, it was the father who shielded his son from the ramifications. A double deceit. This being known, I am in a strong position to speak with the Olgimskys.

I remember my jaw dropping at this when I found out Vlad the Younger, who had seemed so reasonable, had been the one to lock up the Termitary, but Daniil describes him as doing "what the elder did not dare to." Calling Vlad the Younger out, he is more than ready to carry the consequences, while Vlad the Older decides he will take the blame for his heir. When Taya asks Daniil to bring him "who is responsible for it", he (and the game's writing in so far), identify Young Vlad for it.

So how would Daniil decide then when this is how it comes about? When the man is showing so much change? Well, he can take a third option and just not decide - he brings Taya her toybull instead.

And oh goodness? The potential conflict of "the truth is my shepherd" seeing a person who makes an effort to change (if genuine or not that, like so many things, another question) to deliver someone? The choice to take a third option because, in the end, what does this matter if there is a town to save?

It just says so much about what could be Daniil's priorities. It's fun! And then we have Artemy...

"A Son Will Not Be Punished For His Father's Sins" is already named in a very interesting matter - and it immediately calls back to the Haruspex's own position as a "son". This takes place on the day Artemy claims his inheritance in front of Foreman Oyun - it is the day where, unlike the Bachelor, Artemy himself CANNOT avoid making this decision - one of the Olgimsky men needs to die.

There are two fun layers to this - on the one hand it is learning that Taya does not directly care who of the guys she is getting (something I think she also mentions to the Bachelor but I cannot check right now) and learning more about the polcies of the families in the Steppe. Artemy learns it is common among the merchant families that one sacrifices himself to protect the heir at all costs - and that what matters is that someone is punished for a crime that is committed.

Artemy's journal entries for the quest are very interesting leading into this:

So, Vlad the Heavy surrendered himself to Tycheek's daughter? It's clear enough that he isn't the real culprit… I only have to decide if I should tell her the truth. I wonder how that story ends…

Once again, Day 8 offers another quest from Vlad the Younger, because we are all about parallels. This time it is "Below the Ground" where Artemy is asked to retrieve the book detailing the kin's history from the tunnels which may or may not have been a setup given that the tunnels are closed directly once Artemy has entered them . While the book itself is not succesful, it makes Artemy wonder about the parallels between him and Vlad as Vlad himself is also apparently trying to unearth something - though he speaks of him with much more distance (So, Vlad the Younger has managed to reach beneath the ground as well. Is he trying to emulate what I am doing? He has found life down below, just like I have. [...]The ancient wisdom of the Kin was concealed there, locked away until the moment I unearthed it. I'm almost amused by the coincidence.)

Surrendering Vlad the Younger to his death to Taya in also, wonderfully, framed as Artemy taking his place among the kin:

Yes. Let Vlad the Younger die. Whoever makes a decision will be held responsible for it. With every passing day, I feel that the life of the Kin is my own life. I must protect it and avenge its suffering. Whatever fate had in store for these few thousand people, Vlad the Younger is directly responsible for their death.

No. Let Big Vlad die. I should inform Georgiy of my decision. I wouldn't describe Vlad the Heavy as a sentimental man. If he chose to die, he must have had good reason to. Or could it be that he thinks he deserves the punishment?

Surrendering Vlad to Taya matches with Artemy taking his own place - and Vlad the Younger is thus not punished for his fahter's sins but his own, meanwhile Artemy is about to take his father's place and heritage, trying to finish what Isidor created.

An honourable mention goes to the entry as to letting Taya kill Vlad the Older instead:

I am excited to find out more about this, if there is more - knowing this is Pathologic there is certainly more but it will not bring more clarity. But what is it for Artemy then, to be the one choosing it is time for the father to die and thus for Young Vlad to take on his heritage? It certainly is missing the poetry of the entry when choosing Vlad the Younger - but it makes it just as interesting.

[fancifulplaguerat]

I continue to be afflicted with Victor Kain thoughts. In particular the somewhat blatant insistence that he is rather opposed to his lot in life. I mean all the characters who say that Victor hates being a leader, and when Peter says that Victor “wants to leave this place to further his education and get a degree." And when he tells Daniil, “Before you leave this place, please, save as many people as you can. I will reward you for every life you save. If only I could, I would get myself tools and medicine and walk around the town curing the infected.” Like. Amusing to me to imagine maybe he also wanted to be a doctor or get some insufferable philosophy degree. Also. While I am at it. I have always been haunted laid up in bed stricken with The Thoughts about how Daniil is Simon's heir (Taya's fairytale about the cold prince and the rose !), how when Simon first speaks to Daniil and tells him, “My boy, when Isidor described you to me… I knew that this is the way I would like my heir to be,” and Peter says “It's Victor, not Georgiy, who is Simon’s true heir.” Parallels. Intrigue.

[herbgroom]

victoria and nina are dead, daniil speaks of an unnamed father, artemy's mother died during childbirth, we only know taya's father

katherina can't have children

there are no mothers in this game. that is SUCH a weird detail

[tayasmultimuses]

I will clear out and answer my inbox and owed replies tomorrow (sunday) night as tomorrow is a travel day for me as I have been on holiday visiting my biological dad, stepmom, and his side of the family for the last week and I need to go home this week coming up due to their schedule so Sunday is the best choice for that. Therefore Sunday evening/night, I will spend clearing out and answering my inbox and FINALLY doing my much overdue owed replies (I have NOT abandoned you guys @ecliipsed and @setitallaflame, I have just been incredibly stressed and things slipped and I REALLY needed this mental reset but now I am back and with a renewed energy so expect replies this week coming up!). As well as doing up starters and more starter calls.

[muffinrag]

me: well vlad the younger isn't one of my Bound so i guess i'll give him to Taya. i need to get into the abattoir somehow

me, approx. 20 seconds after speaking to Taya, checking the spoiler-free walkthrough to make sure i finished all the side quests: oh. ah,

fuck

[alilich]

Examining Fyodor Vitin's "Mask" post

This collects various notes written while trying to analyse the post by Vitin from May 26th, 2023, where Vitin showed us the photo of an Executor mask and shared an interesting, but untranslated phrase from the Steppe language.

I wasn't able to arrive at any conclusions that, I think, would be able to move the ARG - to get that out of the way - but I thought to share the gathered material anyways, for anyone interested. Due to its sheer length, the entire thing is under the cut.

The Doomed City

We have since found out that the ARG contains parallels to the novel The Doomed City by Arkady and Boris Strugatsky.

In the book, the main character is Andrei Voronin, an astronomer from Leningrad.

Andrei Voronin was the solution to Zimin's "riddle," where we were required to find out the only person who was authorised by Vitin to speak on his behalf. Someone "A." was the answer.

Back then, we initially assumed Katzman to be the right answer due to 1) Vitin referring to him as "my good friend and colleague" 2) Zimin's initials, A.V., were assumed to make him a parallel to Andrei Voronin, therefore Vitin's friend would be Katzman… presumably? (Turned out to be wrong..)

In the novel, Voronin lives in the titular Doomed City, which is surrounded by a swamp and a desert. Eventually, he and his sceptical friend, Izya (Izia) Katzman lead an expedition to explore the desert. The expedition ends tragically, with Katzman and Voronin being the last survivors; however, they find out that the desert contained many ruins of Earth cultures, showing that this mysterious world of the City is actually very old and was previously inhabited by humans. On the border of the world, Andrei apparently dies by trying to shoot at his double; however, he suddenly returns to Leningrad, where the person who recruited him into this mysterious world tells him that he passed the first circle, but "there are many of them ahead". The themes of a ruined world and potential timeloops seem to be ever-present in Pathologic 2.

Dosoo ba beshē tēēhēē

According to Vitin, this is the name of "a seasonal festival of the central region's steppe people".

This phrase is probably, at least partially, based on Buryat language. (If you speak Buryat, please hit me up!)

I've seen around a lot of people interpreting it as having something to do with the number seven. I wasn't able to find the source of these claims, or figure out the connection. If you know more about what was this theory, let me know!

All meanings of the words are referenced from this dictionary: Burlang.Toli

"Dosoo" might be equivalent to "досоо", which could mean: 1) Insides, internal organs; 2) Soul (metaphorical); 3) Other contextual meanings related to being inside of something

"ba" is probably "ба", which means "and"

"beshē" is used in Pathologic 2 in context of "no," "not," disagreement: 1) from Pathologic Wiki: "Ime beshe (Имэ бэшэ) — it's not that, it's not like that"; 2) From conversations with Taya Tycheek: Taya: I'll be the Mistress of Bulls. Haruspex: How about "Mistress of the Kin," instead? Taya: Beshe, beshe… And who will you be?

"beshē" is also, of course, similar to the word "бэшэ" from Buryat, which means: 1) Other, different, the rest. Example: "бэшэ нүхэдшни хаанаб?" - "where are your other friends?"; 2) A grammatical particle reverting the meaning of a word or a sentence, usually in context of two things opposing each other. Example: "Мэдээжэ ба мэдээжэ бэшэ" - "Known and unknown"

"tēēhēē" is a tough one, as I haven't been able to find any transliteration that would get me anything out of the Buryat dictionary, and this word has seemingly never been spoken in Pathologic 1 or 2. Most similar I've found were "тэхэ" - a goat; "тиихэ", same as "тиигэхэ", which is a default form of a word with many meanings, related to "to do something the implied way": for example, has such forms as "тиигүүжэм" - "I will do something in this way"; "тиигэ" - "Do it, let's do it", expressing agreement; "нүхэр болохоёо тиигэнэ гүш?" - "You wish to become a friend?"

A crude translation then could either be: "inside and other tēēhēē" (meaning or related to inside and outside???); or, "Inside and not (tēēhēē)" (or non-tēēhēē, un-tēēhēē etc). The second option is closer to the usage of "бэшэ" in Pathologic, however, in the real Buryat, the grammatical particle "бэшэ" only has the "reverse the meaning of the word next to it" effect when the word it reverses is before бэшэ (ex.: "мэдээжэ" - known, "мэдээжэ бэшэ" - unknown). This could potentially (highlighting doubt in this theory) mean that in the Pathologic's Steppe Language, "бэшэ" cancels the word after it, unlike in Buryat. However, the known Steppe phrase "Ime beshe", meaning "it's not that", in my opinion contradicts this conclusion..? (Ime or имэ is not a real Buryat word, as far as I can tell.)

Interesting but unrelated example from Buryat language: "муу бэшэ" - "not bad, satisfying", бэшэ here reversing the meaning of муу, as per one of the meanings of that word listed in the paragraph above.

And now, for a smoother transition into the next part, let's also examine the Wicked Bird mentioned in the same post, Muu Shubuun: "муу" (muu) is the Buryat word for bad, evil, wicked; "шубуу(н)" means a bird or related to birds. Literally, the bad bird.

The Wicked Bird and Suok

We don't actually get a lot of information about Muu Shubuun from Patho2, the most extensive mention of it being this exchange between Mark Immortel and Artemy Burakh: Immortell: We have a ton of steppe theatre costumes in the storeroom. Especially those wicked birds, Muu Shubuun. The ones that symbolize death. Do steppe people like the play with death? Haruspex: Muu Shubuun is not a mask of death. It's actually more about life.

The meaning of that isn't clear - an executor, wearing the Muu Shubuun mask, appears in the Marble Nest frequently, trying to convince the Bachelor to accept death.

Muu Shubuun is not mentioned in Pathologic 1.

In Pathologic 2, "types" of Townsfolk are named after various birds: Crows, Nightjars, Pigeons, Doves, Finches, Geese etc.

Back to Vitin's "Mask" post: Inside was a massive bone mask in the shape of a bird's skull. This particular fétiche was probably carved in the likeness of Muu Shubuun, the Wicked Bird. The first known mention of it is associated with the dosoo ba beshē tēēhēē, a seasonal festival of the central region's steppe people. The image itself is presumed to be much older, tracing back to one of the oldest creation myths.

So the festival, the name of which we've tried to piece together, could potentially be related to the Baur Meges, the Steppe religion's world-creation legend.

Per Baur Meges, Bos Turokh has existed before the universe did, but at some point, Suok, the personifiction of evil, has appeared up from abyss, "filling the world with herself." She devoured all the stars and the light, for which Bos Turokh has devoured her. Since then, Suok remains to be inside Bos Turokh, "trying in vain to consume him from within his tight embrace." This event has also led to the creation of the Universe, Wheel (so that all be destined to return to the beginning), Law (to shut Suok to eternal imprisoment?), Fear (to exgorge his pain), and Time.

We don't really know of Muu Shubuun's place in Baur Meges and other Steppe mythology. We could assume the Shubuun, or an "older" version of it, is somehow related to one of the two characters in Baur Meges, in which case it's likely to be Suok, the evil.

Suok is also associated with the Sand Pest, and the other way around: the Sand Pest is treated as a living creature.

The Sand Pest manifests as a person in the theatre's Muu Shubuuk costume.

Although the specifics of the Steppe mythology on the topic aren't known, either way, we can conclude there is a rather strong connection between Muu Shubuuk and Suok.

Tying everything together

Per Baur Meges, Suok is now entrapped inside the World Bull. I suspect the name of the festival includes the word with the meaning of or related to "inside": "dosoo".

Muu Shubuun(?) / Executor / Beakhead speaks to the Bachelor at the conclusion of each day in The Marble Nest. The Bachelor is famously trapped in a loop, potentially not unlikely Andrei Voronin from The Doomed City.

At the same time, one Mr. Katzman has recently returned from an expedition, drawing an another parallel to the events of The Doomed City. This might imply that Pathologic's Katzman has avoided entering any sort of a time/narrative loop?, but an another character might've moved on to the next "circle".

A., in reference to Andrei Voronin, is the "correct" ARG player's name, to which Zimin had responded in ways that advanced the plot. What does this mean that the player is associated with someone entering time loops, while also playing through time loops in The Marble Nest?

Further research can be done into:

Connections of bird-named Townsfolk, Muu Shubuun, Suok, the Plague;

The role of the "Mentor", the person who has recruited Andrei Voronin into the mysterious world of The Doomed City, and parallels with Muu Shubuun? (Have not read the full text of the book tbh.)

Examining Suok's role, looking for potential meanings of "Dosoo ba beshē tēēhēē" festival in Herb Bribes' actions and dialogue due to their connection to Suok.

"Muu Shubuun is not a mask of death. It's actually more about life." Why?

Feedback greatly appreciated. It doesn't seem like we're getting a lot of actual progress from the ARG now, but at least the crumbs of lore still seem to be there. :]

[runawaymun]

Top 10 Songs (according to Spotify)

I was tagged by @creativity-of-death to share what I'm listening to. So here's my top 10 on spotify.

Inkpot Gods (The Amazing Devil)

Elrond Halfelven (Bear McCreary - Rings of Power Soundtrack)

The Rules for Lovers (Richard Walters)

Shattered (Trading Yesterday)

The Lion's Roar (First Aid Kit)

Times (Tenth Avenue North)

Blood on My Name (The Brothers Bright)

Hearing (Sleeping At Last)

Crushing Snakes (Crowder, TAYA)

Out of My League (Steven Speaks)

tagging: @metatomatoes @stompandhollar @arrowpunk @ramyun-monster @jaz-the-bard @ellrond @eldritchteletubbie and anybody who wants to give me music recs. If you don't use spotify just list some favs. I'm always looking for new stuff to listen to and I've been in a rut lately <3

[arysthaeniru]

Hi !! For the ask game, breath of the wild for fandom and zelink for ship 🧐

Breath of the Wild!

Favourite character

I love Riju! I can't help it, I see a child forced to be a leader of her people, left with the burden of the dead on her shoulders and unable to do her task without help, but it too proud to admit it to her people, so she has to rely on an outsider....and I adopt them. It's the same reason Taya and Capella are my faves in Pathologic, haha. But also Riju's remarkably good-spirited about her whole deal, her oracle sand-seal Patricia who only speaks in puns, and a town of adult women who are entirely reliant on her.

Least Favourite Character

Revali. I wish there was a little more going on with this bird to justify his attitude beyond simple jealousy/rivalry, and I've seen some great fanon elaborations on him that I've really enjoyed (esp. regarding his friendship with Zelda, which I've fully accepted into my wheelhouse), but if we're going strictly off canon, he's not got a lot going on, and I wish there was a little more!

OH, but also Purah. Not in terms of her characterization necessarily, but how much she's coded to appeal to the worst types of gamers. First she's my beloathed trope of immortal loli, and then she's THE main fanservice in ToTK as aged up basic sexy girl, and everything about her design and everything squicks me out terribly. She and Robbie are so much fun in Hyrule Warriors, but I hate interacting with her within the BOTW/TOTK timeline, because you always have to deal with all that nonsense.

5 Favourite Ships

This is hard! I don't really ship too many people in Breath of the Wild? I find the world so much more interesting, but like.

Ganon/Link/Zelda - The beating heart of the series and their fascinating/godly destiny/duty ties them altogether, and although BOTW/TOTK outright refuse to give Ganon anything even vaguely resembling a character, I still think it's intriguing! I have so many ideas swirling in my head about how you could only have to tweak a few memories to make Ganon a more justified villain in TOTK that would actually make this compelling.

Cece/Lasli - Fashion lesbians! I think Lasli's practicality would clash interestingly with Cece being a diva, it would be a disaster, but also quite cute, I think! There's of course, the tragedy of Lasli's dead ex inbetween them, that's always fun to explore.

Riju/Yunobo - This is my weird crackship that I really developed while playing the spinoff, Hyrule Warriors, Age of Calamity. Their relationship to their mentors is very similar, their hangups about leadership and their place in their community is very similar, and they both love zooming across the game map. They are also very similar in age! If you play the games in Japanese, where we don't have the weird surfer dub for Yunobo, Yunobo and Riju are both 13 years old, and they're both very endearing.

Paya/Tauro - I love how genuinely positive and cute they are in ToTK! I'm so glad that Paya moved on from her crush on Link and instantly found somebody who actually validates her scholarly and leadership skills everyday, and encourages her to be her best self. They have a fun banter.

Koltin/Loone - Another fun little crackship! The girl who's obsessed with leviathans and guardians, and Koltin, THE monster guy. He knows everything about monsters and thinks they're misunderstood! I feel like they would get along. It's a shame we can't hook them up in-game.

Character I find Attractive

Ganondorf. Duh. He's a handsome man.

Character I would Marry

Teba seems like a good husband and dad. Also he's just very cool, haha. Or maybe Purah? I feel like we'd probably get along.

Character I would be Best Friends With

Gosh, probably Sidon! He's very supportive and nice. I feel like I would thrive with that sort of energy in my life. And I could help him be a better leader. Or Purah and/or Robbie, they're very hectic and manic but real dedicated to their work, and I am nothing at heart, if no a workaholic myself, lol.

Unpopular Opinion

I've seen more consensus agree with me lately, as the hype around ToTK has started to fade away, but I'm very frustrated by the Zonai and the way they handled that! It's so frustrating to see Zelda, whose lesson in BoTW was that her Father was wrong, the kingdom and its tenets were wrong, blind faith was wrong and that it was her love for her friends that saved her in he end--then learn the lesson in ToTK that monarchy is fine, everybody should just attempt to emulate the past, and that everything in the past was good.

I think constantly about the fact that Rauru's four sages, the people who swore fealty to him--have no identities. No names, no faces, no real agency or personality beyond their duty to the sacred stone, and their species. There's something very unsettling about that, and something very unsettling coupled with the Depths, this creepy, hollow, empty place that the Zonai mined out and left nothing in return. The Doylist explanation is, of course, that there are no writing credits on ToTK and they just didn't have the time to flesh out the Sages or the Depths, because they had to move on to making the new Zelda game for Switch 2. But the Watsonian explanation could have been really fascinating, it could make the Zonai more morally ambiguous. These aliens who came to Earth to mine the Earth for power and pulled people into their thrall for that power--which they saw as ultimately a tool to progress everybody's society, but also can be seen from Ganondorf's perspective as something horrifying. What is the worth of progress if it comes at the expense of identity?

But that would involve the writers having to grapple with the colonialism inherent to the premise they are creating here. And they want Rauru to be good, Hyrule to be good and Ganondorf to be straightforwardly evil. And that's sad to me, because Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, to an extent, are about the failures of the old rulers and their approaches, and how our heroes have to do better. And the fact Nintendo refused to do that here thematically makes me sad!

Most badass character

Urbosa! I LOVE fighting as her in Hyrule Warriors, and she's also just such a fun design and cool and supportive at the same time.

Pairing I am Not Fond Of

Sidon/Link. Not that I hate it or anything! I can see it, it's a very plausible pairing, but often a lot of people sideline Zelda entirely when they write it, and that's annoying to me. I don't like when yaoi shippers discard the most important women to a man's life to make it gay.

Characters I feel the Writers screwed up

Ganondorf! Evil brown guy is just evil because he's brown. Very annoying to not even try to make that feel more nuanced in the year 2023, but whatever.

Favourite Friendship

Robbie and Purah! I love their dumb banter and bickering in all of the games. Inventor duo, they hate each other and would die for each other, and when they work together, they can make the impossible happen. I love how much they both fight for credit on petty things, but they do always say the other was instrumental to their success. Their fighting style in Hyrule Warriors, where Robbie is the one piloting their mech-suit, while Purah just perches on the shoulder and shows off when they do their special attack--everything to me!

Zelink beneath the readmore!

When I Started Shipping It

Probably as SOON as I got to that memory in BOTW, where they're in the rain, and Zelda asks him if he had a chance to be anything else other than a knight, would he have taken it? And the look he gives her as he turns back, and the way the scene is framed when he's jolted out of the memory...argh, that's when the brainworms really started. But also I really did like that moment where she tries to get him to eat a frog, after complimenting his ability to tame horses. It's just cute, idk! They're the thematic core of the story. It's about the inevitable destiny of it, and how Zelda bucks against their fated destiny, but Link embraces it, because he is a man guided by devotion and courage, and her wisdom means she knows it's a bad idea--but how can she do anything but love it/him? There's something just a bit doomed to all of their interactions, and it makes me go insane!

My Thoughts (Good/Bad)

I find it bad for worldbuilding as a whole, but fascinating for their dynamic, that Skyward Sword makes Zelda the living incarnation of Hylia, because then you're constantly left with the question: is Link simply extending his devotion towards the Goddesses by loving Zelda, or does he love Zelda and the Goddess separately? Is that even possible to separate Zelda from the Goddess? What does it mean for your temple of devotion to be a person? And in BOTW/ToTK where they are haunted by failure and loss, where there's unspoken resentment towards each other they both have to let go of, Zelda in the past, and Link in the present, that infuses their dynamic with such fun tension, even when they do wholeheartedly love each other and do just get along. I find it tragic, and fun, and sweet and sad all at once. I love a good destined lovers, where neither is entirely sure if that's a good idea, or there's a certain exhaustion to it, because it's inevitable anyway...

Things Done in Fanfic That Annoy Me

When in post-botw fics they have kids, rule the restored kingdom of Hyrule together, and don't seem to have any trauma. They're both feral, they're of the Wild now, and if Link actually loved Zelda and Hyrule, he'd never support her remaking Hyrule Kingdom ever again. They're just not capable of having a happy nuclear family in that way, sorry!

People also make Link SO masculine in such a weird way sometimes in fanfic--no??? Even if you don't headcanon him trans, he's like...so distanced from the kind of daddy dom masculinity that so many fanfic writers seem to default onto a lot of sex?? He's very gender-fluid and I just can't ever see him in that kind of aggressive way. It's always very jarring and unpleasant. I also think people really overplay the enemies-to-lovers of pre-canon BOTW, which sometimes leads to fics where they're like...doing petty revenge on each other or like having dramatic blowouts--which always feels a bit unrealistic to me? I'm very picky about the zelinks I like ^^;;;

I also just hate modern AU in general. They don't make sense outside of the feudal system and those external pressures/divine pressures!! Bodyguard/celebrity will NEVER hit in the same way as knight/princess.

Who I'd be Comfortable With Them Ending Up With, if Not Each Other

Link has vibes with a lot of people! Honestly, in Windwaker, I don't ship Link/Tetra at all! Link and Medli is far more compelling to me. And TP, Midna and Zelda are so in love, and Link's just kind of there, he doesn't even know Zelda xD In BOTW, I feel like Impa/Zelda makes a lot of sense, and Link has chemistry with all sorts: Sidon, Paya, Beedle, all the random NPCs that flirt with him. I'm so rarely a single shipper, haha.

My Happily Ever After For Them

Wandering through the world as travelling diplomats/adventurers, with their home in Hateno whenever they're taking a break, and vacationing everywhere, as Zelda slowly writes her scientific 1000 page dissertation about the nature of the world, and Link writes the ultimate cookbook. The Triforce calls them to duty, but they mostly ignore those urges. They're done with divine duty--they only have duty towards each other and the world now.

[atxvanhalen]

tagged by the lovely taya @thevuhvitch to post my nine favorite movies <3. i'm tagging @agonyisthetruth @weedballs @teatrodellavita @rosesau and @bravestworriers and anyone else who is interested in participating :)