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(divine) wrath

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Day 15 - Favorite Character

I love Skyward Sword Impa with all my heart okay

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[Image: fanart for Malon from Ocarina of Time. She's drawn as a child, lying on a blanket with a cucco, looking disgruntled as she shushes someone. End description.]

Out of context Malon from almost 3 years ago. Don't wake her cucco!

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I do think the ending to ALTTP is way more interesting if you interpret it as the Triforce rewriting reality to remove things Link deemed negative than if you interpret it as the Triforce essentially turning back the clock and removing Ganon's attack from existence entirely. I'd argue this reading is supported by the fact that we see the little ball and bully monster in human form as friends; we have zero indication the ball and bully were friends before coming to the Dark Realm, and having them become friends if you remove Ganon's attack doesn't make much sense. It feels far more like a child wishing everything was okay and everyone was friends than a logical consequence of removing Ganon's influence.

And even if there was no canon backing to this reading, I think it's the more interesting one because of the implications it has for the world. A scenario where we essentially turn back the clock and remove Ganon's attack from existence mostly just affects Link, who'd be the only one to remember, while everyone else would be fine. On the other hand, if Link wished everything was okay again and in doing so revived the dead, that'd mean everyone else also remembers what happened. You'd have a whole army of knights remembering being brainwashed, people who remember losing their loved ones, an uncle and a king who remember being dead, Zelda who remembers being captured, etc. This means there'd be all the psychological effects of the attack, plus the whiplash effect of having everything suddenly be okay again. And in the middle of it all is Link, responsible for everything.

I think this is far more unique than the alternative and also helps to set the ending to ALTTP apart from that of OOT.

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for a game called "awakening" you sure do spend a lot of it asleep

alttp <- link's awakening -> oot

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I got all the dragon tear memories in TOTK before completing any of the other main quests and it makes them very funny because it makes it look like Link is just chosing not to tell people incredibly important information.

"Huh I thought I saw Zelda but she seemed.... kind of weird.... I wonder what's up with her...."

Link, remembering that time Ganondorf created an evil Zelda puppet, internally: Should I say something?

Link:

Link: Eh, they'll figure it out.

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I wanted to try out a new brush with this Impa drawing based on her design from Skyward Sword. I made her a pfp in the end 🤭

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them <3

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I AM SO OBSESSED WITH @clowns0up-felix ‘s Bunny and Marin designs!!! So I just had to doodle them :D

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Also I think it'd been cute if we'd seen Riju mimicking Urbosa's body language in Age of Calamity. Like looking at her from the corner of her eye and then subtlely adjusting her stance to look more like Urbosa's. It'd be a good, subtle way to show her childishness and also adorable.

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On that note a scene I wish we'd gotten in Age of Calamity is one of Urbosa addressing Riju's insecurities as a Chief. In both BOTW and TOTK, Riju talks in her diary about how the crises the Gerudo are facing are her fault, about how she's failing at her job, when this is patently incorrect. Riju seems to think that everything that goes wrong reflects on her ability as a Chief, that if she was just better she could prevent bad things from happening. This is not a standard she applies to anyone else, and is reflective of low self esteem.

Urbosa is in the perfect position to talk some sense into her because Urbosa failed. In Riju's world, Urbosa fell to Thunderblight Ganon in her divine beast, which allowed Vah Naboris to go rogue in Riju's time. In spite of this, Urbosa is a beloved and respected Chief, a legend even, someone everyone adores and looks up to. Including Riju. If being unable to prevent tragedy makes Riju a failure of a Chief, then that would make Urbosa one of the worst Chiefs of all time, but of course this isn't true. Having Urbosa point this out, explicitly spell out the double standard Riju holds herself to, would be uniquely impactful for her, I think.

In addition, the only reason the Urbosa if this timeline didn't fail was because Riju came to save her, and then because they were both saved by their friends. Riju bottles up a lot of her worries, and while she'll accept help if necessary, it's clear she places a lot of pressure on herself to solve issues herself. Again, having Urbosa point out that needing help does not make you weak, and that relying on others in fact makes you stronger, might help Riju become less emotionally repressed and more willing to talk to the people around her about her needs.

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Finished Age of Calamity yesterday! I hadn't actually planned on playing it, but I ended up enjoying it quite a bit. The gameplay is addictive and I am not immune to fanservice. That said I am not the biggest fan of Riju's characterization in it.

The thing about Riju is that she's a child with a lot of responsibility who doesn't just want to be taken seriously, she needs to be taken seriously. She is the Chief of the Gerudo: if other people don't respect her as a capable leader, she'll be unable to do her job properly, which will have direct consequences for her people. In BOTW, we can read in her diary that she's scared and misses her mom, that she has self esteem issues and blames herself for the problems the Gerudo are facing, but none of this emotional termoil shows when you talk to her. Riju is calm, collected, and reasonable. She needs to be. All the Gerudo rely on her: she can't afford to freak out.

Above all else, Riju wants to be a good Chief, and she wants to be taken seriously as such. At the same time, she is terrified she is doing a bad job and has self esteem issues.

So if she met Urbosa, Gerudo legend kids pretend to be in the marketplace, I just don't think she'd start panicking atop Vah Naboris and talking about how they can't possibly beat the overwhelming enemy opposing them.

First, Riju faced down a rogue Vah Naboris and (in TOTK) hordes of Gibdos overrunning Gerudo Town without flinching. In her diary, we can read that she was scared for the future and blaming herself for their current circumstances, but none of that showed in her actions. She needed to be a good leader, and for others to think of her as such. Second, this is Urbosa. If there is anyone Riju would want to impress, it'd be her. In my opinion, if Riju met Urbosa, her first priority would be learning from her, but that'd be very closely followed by her second priority: ensuring Urbosa isn't disappointed in her.

Openly admitting her fear and insecurity in the way Riju often did in Age of Calamity just doesn't fit her character. Age of Calamity made her act a lot more like a stereotypical kid, but it just… doesn't really work for her. She is a kid, yes, but kids with a lot of responsibility who need to be taken seriously act very different from kids who, well, don't. Riju would be hiding her vulnerability, not giving into it.

That's not to say you can't have her act like a kid, of course, or that you can't have Urbosa reassure and support her. In fact, you should. This is Fanservice: The Game and Riju deserves it. I just take issue with the way they did it. I think Riju would be a lot more subtle in her emotional turmoil, and Urbosa (who has experience with stressed kids under pressure and is very empathetic) would pick up on it and offer the support anyway. Also, I don't think Riju would need to be reassured of their ability to win a fight (something she'd be determined to do at all costs anyway) but rather in her own abilities as a Chief. I think Urbosa is in the perfect position to address Riju's self esteem issues, and it was a bit disappinting that the game didn't take advantage of this.

All in all, I feel like Age of Calamity brushed past a lot of the complexities of Riju's character and made her a more stereotypical kid. I don't think her characterization is outright awful per se, there were some moments I enjoyed, but I don't think the characterization she got in some of the major scenes (and in particular the cutscene in Every Step Like Thunder) suited her much and that was disappointing.

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This is probably the one and only time I'll talk about Gerudo gender politics (beyond pointing out how shit their writing is), because frankly it's a whole mess. But it really does drive me up the wall to see people insist the Gerudo can be trans inclusive with minimal to no deviations from canon. Because the Gerudo's whole worldbuilding is fundamentally centered around an orientalist, patriarchal idea of women and gender as a whole that simply does not allow for transgenderism.

The Gerudo are a society exclusively made of women, except for a single man born every century, who is the exception that proves the rule. In this sentence alone, you can see that Gerudo worldbuilding runs on a fundamental assumption of gender and sex as a) binary, and b) selfsame. The only way of telling which people are men or women from birth is by looking at their genitals and assigning them as such based on a binary notion of sex/gender that ignores the existence of intersex and trans people.

Furthermore: this one man is said to automatically become king of the Gerudo. This fact exposes another key aspect of the assumptions of gender Gerudo worldbuilding is based: patriarchal ones, the assumption that men are inherently superior to women. No matter how nonsensical, the assumption is that a society of exclusively women would jump at the opportunity to be ruled by a man. This is, of course, inherently intertwined with the orientalism upon which the Gerudo are built: the idea of the orientalist idea of the exotic 'harem' female sex object is the gender of the Gerudo, far more than 'woman' could ever hope to be. This orientalist caricature is fundamentally patriarchal in nature, because her whole existence centers around men, and in particular the men who dominate her and/or have sex with her or wish to do so. This, too, is the case with the Gerudo; even in BOTW/TOTK, where there is no evidence that the 'one man born a century becomes king' rule from OOT remains canon, the Gerudo are portrayed as obsessed with men and finding husbands. Whether in OOT or BOTW/TOTK, the Gerudo are orientalist, patriarchal caricatures first and women a very distant second at best.

I'm assuming most people reading this post already knew all this and agree with it. I am explaining it anyway to ask the simple question: how does making the Gerudo trans inclusive address any of this?

Okay, lets say Ganondorf is trans, not cis, and that's how the whole 'one man every century' thing works. That means the Gerudo have a society where trans men are the most powerful class of people, by virtue of being men. That's uncomfortable? Okay, lets say the Gerudo have a structure of gender that allows people to choose man or woman at a later age. That means everyone, en masse, chooses to become an orientalist caricature of womanhood, AND chooses to be governed by the singular man in the process. Nonsensical? Yeah, no shit. Why would a society with effectively one gender even have a concept of 'choosing' your gender? Gerudo gender structures make no sense without gender assigned at birth.

Lets focus specifically on BOTW/TOTK for a bit, because that's the Gerudo society most people try to make trans inclusive. Now: who gets to enter Gerudo Town? Women. How do we ensure only women enter Gerudo Town? There are guards posted, who check that you're a woman. Do the Gerudo allow trans women to enter? It hardly matters, because fundamentally, the metric by which you are allowed in town relies on being clockable as a woman. If you pass, you get in, if you don't, you don't. Even if they, in theory, considered trans women to be women, this would hardly be a 'trans inclusive' policy. But lets say they rely on personal identification more than looks, this now begs the question: what about nonbinary people? How 'woman' is woman enough to enter? Is a bigender person allowed to enter if they're both man and woman? If a genderfluid person enters while they're a woman, are they imprisoned if their gender shifts to male once they're inside? What about those thoroughly rejecting either binary gender; are we okay with them entering because they aren't men, or not okay because they aren't women?

Making the Gerudo trans inclusive does not materially challenge the orientalist, patriarchal idea of gender upon which their foundations were built, and furthermore, it's nigh impossible to do so, especially if you take nonbinary people into account. That's not to say people cannot rewrite the Gerudo to make them trans inclusive, but doing so requires addressing much more than just birth assignment or entrance into town: it requires you to rewrite their orientalist worldbuilding from the ground up. This is a task far outside the scope of what most fans are willing and able to do, but it's necessary if you don't want to end up simply putting a rainbow filter over racism. The Gerudo are caricatures far more than they ever were women, and this makes any attempt to pave over canon's cissexism doomed to fail.

Diversity win! The orientalist caricatures are trans inclusive.

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4 YEARS OF “ZELDA SCREENSHOT REDRAWS but taking a few “liberties!” echoes of wisdom zelda i love you echoes of wisdom zelda

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Impa, early in the lonely years