#I wasn't completely happy with this
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The past to wash, but not absolve
#look at this sorry ass looking guy#I wasn't completely happy how he looked in the earlier image#so I decided to draw another image...#yeah#four of shards#nkos#orangesavannah#oc#izjum#terato
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when solomon has sex with you for the first time, he makes sure to absolutely worship your body. during the first kiss scene with him, he said he's been waiting for a chance to do it. so with this, he's going to make sure his patience will pay off. not an inch of your skin will be unloved by him. it may have taken so long, but the end result will be perfect as the two of you are satisfied, love growing by the second
(Ooh, thank you for the food, anon!! Solomon's first kiss scene will forever have my heart) Reader is GN! :)
Minors DNI!
"Why don't you come just a little closer?"
You shift a little closer until there's no space between you two on the bed, and his lips are back on yours. His hand comes up to cradle your jaw, softly rubbing his thumb along to solidify in his mind that you are here and that this is happening.
Somehow, miraculously, he finally got you alone...and you want him too.
Though he fears he'll get too eager and move too fast for your liking, leading to crossing a boundary or scaring you away. So, he's careful, treating you as if you were glass, slow to do anything more than kiss you like this. Truthfully, he could just do this all night and he'd still be over the moon. But he can't deny in his heart the need for more.
His hand on your jaw slowly slides down your neck, simply letting his fingertips brush against the sensitive skin. It's warm, and he can feel your pulse thrumming just beneath. He wonders how it would feel against his lips.
Solomon reluctantly pulls away from your lips, leaning down to instead kiss along the column of your neck. It elicits a soft gasp, and he feels giddy that he can get such a cute response from you. It only serves him to want to hear more. A secondary motive.
With each article of clothing he removes from your body, he falls deeper in love as he sees his person bared completely to him. It signifies the trust you've built together. And he'll do everything to never lose it - a promise he quietly makes to himself.
From your neck, he lavishes kisses along your collarbones, down both of your arms, your shallowly rising and falling chest, your soft stomach, all the way down to your naval. Any further is iffy territory and he wants explicit permission before he does anything more.
Through a husky tone, he asks, "is this okay? Can I continue?"
Your approval and reassurance are resounding. The weight of worry eases a little, but he's still tentative to continue. He wants you to feel good. He wants this first time with you to be perfect. He can't help it, he's an ancient sorcerer in love for the first time in a very long time...if ever.
So, slowly, he ventures onward to where he sees the obvious impact he's had on you tonight. His talented silver tongue makes you squirm on the bed, your hands tangling in his soft locks as his name tumbles out of your mouth like a prayer. The taste of your sweet arousal is something he fears he could get addicted to.
Solomon can feel his own arousal growing past anything he's ever experienced before. He didn't know he had the capacity to feel so needy for someone else. Good lord, just what are you doing to him?
Once he feels he's prepped and pleasured you enough with his tongue and dexterous fingers, he pulls away to finally undress and bare himself to you. His eyes shift away nervously as he feels you studying his body now. He knows his skin is marred from centuries of living; the countless pact marks, scars he doesn't remember the stories of, and burns from experiments gone wrong. He's never felt self-conscious like this before, but it's another product of what you do to him.
When you sit up on the bed, crawling to him to brush your fingers along his skin, it takes his breath away. You aren't afraid to explore him. Tracing his pact marks, kissing his imperfections, never once showing disgust like he might've thought.
No, only care.
Solomon gently chases you back down onto the bed, crawling over your excited form with smiles and giggles exchanged in the otherwise quiet room. Once again, he gets your staunch permission before continuing. And once again, you reassure him that this is what you want. Any lingering doubt subsides, and with that, he lines himself up with your entrance and slowly slides in, letting you adjust once he's fully settled within you.
"D-Deus meus..."
His forehead rests against yours as his breathing turns ragged, reveling in how goddamn good you feel around him. It takes all of him to be patient, but he waits for your signal, and once he has it, he doesn't hesitate to start moving.
His hips snap against yours in deep, measured thrusts. Passionate kisses are shared, soft moans and grunts fill your ears, and his hands never once stop exploring your body. The love he gave it earlier wasn't nearly enough.
There's no rush. It's not frantic - it's not even desperate. It's slow and intimate as he guarantees you both feel good in this one moment of solitude.
Solomon isn't even thinking about afterwards or what those brothers might say. He's fully entranced by you. He makes love to you as if it's the last time he ever will.
Soon he brings you both to a mind-shattering orgasm. His body shudders above yours as he buries his face in your neck. The way you clench around him makes him consider asking for a second round. Though, he wants to take a break more - to love and care for you as needed. As carefully as he can, he pulls out, already missing being enveloped by you and your sweet body. The second his fatigued self hits the bed, you instantly cuddle up to him, locking him in place for the foreseeable future.
To say he's a little shocked is an understatement. Sure, you both just shared a moment of passion and pleasure, but there was still some part of him that wondered if you really wanted him. For you to take the initiative to cuddle up to him in the afterglow touches his heart. Solomon wraps his arms around you, humming at the shared warmth between your sweaty bodies and shielding you from the world outside of this room.
Tonight you're his. And he knows he'll always be yours.
#it be latin: deus meus - my god#couldn't help myself hehe#i dropped some angst into this but it's find and seek where's waldo edition... i.e. meaning it's not a lot#what's a little sex scene without a little sadness am i right?#edit: this is so hypnosis by sleep token coded#edit 2: i made some very minor changes because i wasn't completely happy with it the first time so if it's a little different that's why :p#obey me#obey me smut#obey me shall we date#obey me solomon#obey me solomon smut#solomon smut#obey me solomon x reader#jo writes spice
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the thing is. juno & nureyev's relationship has been such a major guiding thread throughout the podcast and the major drive of season 5, and the fandom has built itself so much (as fandoms often do) around shipping the two of them.
and yet nureyev doesn't show up at all in the last episode! or, he does, but it's only implied (for all we know it could be like. alessandra strong)(i know it's not but it would be really funny) and we don't hear his voice.
and it's so important to me that despite the room that their romance has taken in the plot and in our hearts, his absence reinforces that the point of juno steel's story wasn't a lady getting his man, it was about learning to grow as person for himself and for his friends (and not just his love interest), and it was about finding his footing in life and being at peace with himself and his place in the world. and he did! his growth and relative serenity is so apparent and just. a balm to the soul
and the fact that his man is back is just a nice add-on, not a necessity for his happiness
#juno steel#my aro ass has been sitting still and staring at a wall thinking about this ever since listening to this episode#mannnn i'm just. so completely floored about how good this finale was#juno's been all over the place and his growth has been up and down throughout but like.#it's so nice to hear just how. serene he was this episode#he's doing alright guysss#juno steel is fine#he's accepting affection and expressing it back#i Will be reading massive amounts of fanfiction about juno and nureyev'#s reunion when it comes out but i am super happy it wasn't a part of the episode#i was a bit bummed out for sure cos like. hearing his voice is always a good time#but there's a different between what i kinda want to hear and what i actually want out of the episode#and i got allll i wanted outta this one#also i'm super into urban planning (starting a masters in urban governance in september hihi) so the new town description had me 😈 meow#🤌🤌#juno steel spoilers#tpp#tpp spoilers#the penumbra podcast#i am soo excited to find out which mildly unpleasant to outwardly despicable characters the writers will make us love next as they grow#mannnn now im thinking about caroline again#back to staring at a wall bye
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🏳️⚧️ DOUBLE HEADCANON ATTACK!!! 🏳️⚧️
Family HCs are already fun on their own but with transness added on they're even better. It's actual comedy gold. Also I've always wanted to draw some kind of Meta Knight VS Galacta Knight type thing, but I can't take anything seriously like that. So you get This.
What This is, is a way too high effort shitpost. It took a combined 2 and a half? Days, though most of it was just sketching. I'm proud of it! Anything for the bit.
Textless version + unfinished doodle under the cut
#kirby#kirby series#galacta knight#galactabro#does he know? (he does not know)#meta knight#trans meta knight#trans mask even. is anyone there. whatever.#my art#my doodles#anyway. the extra doodle was originally gonna be part of the main drawing#specifically the bottom one. i think you can really tell by how much effort i put into it#But in the end it wasn't looking like i pictured it#i was also struggling trying to draw GK's lance in a way that didn't completely annoy me#so i gave up#i also gave up coloring it. sorry#i love colored lineart!#also i swear on my life i intended to shade this#i tried. thought about how it was almost 12 am. and decided against it#i do like how it looks unshaded though#i'm not very good at shading/lighting yet so it would've probably looked muddy#thank god for filters#i hope you guys like mk's wings those were also a source of eternal torment#i'm so happy with how they look though#also. obligatory baby orb. squish him and bake him into bread okay?
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#wind waker#loz#zelda#beedle#linktober#link#aquanutart#day 1: merchant#i really liked beedle in the wind waker he just always seemed so genuinely enthusiastic and happy to see you#i thought his compliment card was hilarious. i always bought a lot of bait anyway to complete my sea chart#and because i liked messing around as a bird i guess i'd buy hyoi pears; so i always racked up enough points without really trying#however i wasn't a fan of what they did with his character in games after that. he became pressuring and insincere#i understand why people would find a two-faced salesman character funny or interesting in his own right#but it's the opposite of what i originally liked about him#unfortunately this makes me question whether it was meant that way to begin with?#i don't know but i like to believe wind waker beedle actually meant his enthusiasm#back when ww beedle was the only beedle i always meant to show appreciation for him so i'm doing that now
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I hear you're taking requests, may I request Four using the roc's cape? I just really like that item lol
Also your art is really cute! <3
aww, thank you!!! you're so sweet!!<3<3<3 I hope the doodles are to your liking! :DD
also thank you so much for the request :))
edit: also I meant to say that the roc's cape is so much fun in minish cap lol, I understand why you like it haha
#lu four#linked universe four#to be completely honest this request kicked me in the butt for some reason lol#I wasn't really happy with the main drawing so I added some doodles to make up for it :)))#my artstyle is very inconsistent lol#but I'm glad you think it's cute! that makes me feel better haha#my art :)#art requests
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#ts4#ts4 simblr#magnolia#her bedroom#it came out so soft and nice#just dancing#in her room#5 coffee's in#almost completed her home#just need to add some stuff#wasn't sure how to decorate it#happy i pushed myself to stay in game and get it done#i want to live in her home#not even a lie
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"This was me last night when I got the call. Swimming thru the streets of Bangkok after a dinner with some ex-pats I've met over the last few days. My happy place. Humbled and Grateful. FALLOUT received 17 nominations. All these incredible artisans doing some of their best work. But the same can be said for every artist on all of these shows. As for me...to be included in this category with these men.... There are no words. Just wanted to say thank you to everybody on this thread for all your support over these many months. Let's have some FUN on sept 15th, want too?! "
#fallout#walton goggins#i am so happy for him#he delivered such an amazing heartfelt performance#he deserves all the flowers#his craft is important to me the attention to a scifi where people completely are rude to it#and he wasn't
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Stolas after the Full Moon episode:
"I'll fucking die alone if this goes bad!!" It went horribly bad
#i'm so happy he said everything he had to say but come on man! listen to the lizard!#stolas seems to be great at expressing his feeling but he's awwwwwfuuul at listening#when blitzø's answer wasn't a “yes i wanna be with you too” stolas took it as a “no” and refused to actually listen#he was hurting and hearing more of what blitzø had to say just worsened the pain#i'm not saying stolas was completely in the wrong but i'm not saying he was completely in the right either#plus he didn't have his medication#helluva boss#helluva boss stolas#stolas#stolas goetia#helluva boss fanart#stolas fanart#that imp butler#my art#fanart#meme redraw#sad owl guy
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the clown car arrived expecting to find the circus waiting for us, but there was nothing to be seen. however, we were given the tent and everything else you need for a good show, so we built it ourselves. maybe the structure is a little less sound and the ring is a little more off-center than it would've been, but put on a damn good show we did.
#rayllum#this is about rayllum btw#i actually am pretty happy#cuz being real with y'all super young marriage never felt right for them#or anyone but that's a hot take for another day#so for them to have set up that this is 110% what they want and what they are going to have without needing the gigantic gesture#was very nice#also it wasn't enough to completely clownify the clownery so i appreciate that#i'm not a very good clown guys i get embarrassed very easily#tdp spoilers#tdp s7#tdp#the dragon prince#continuethesaga#giveusthesaga
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Grey's Anatomy 10.14
You’ve Got to Hide Your Love Away
#greysedit#japril#japriledit#jackson avery#april kepner#userlolo#mine#10x14#ik i already giffed this scene but it never showed up in any tags and i wasn't completely happy with the coloring so i decided to remake it#so this is not something i'll be doing regularly
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the only issue i have with the my happy marriage anime is the redesign of these three
#my happy marriage#watashi no shiawase na kekkon#kazushi tatsuishi#hazuki kudou#takaihito#i can forgive them changing/adding some scenes and dialogue because it helps understand the world + plot better#but they didn't have to steal all of kazushis flair#and that's not even takaihito thats a completely different person#also taking away their fans as if that wasn't a core part of their character???#i can give a pass to hazuki because she looks good sometimes but her tacky green dress is unforgivable#may speaks#watakon#edit: now that ive watched and read it together they removed a lot of important stuff lol#i wonder why there were so many interesting things they just skipped over
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Rank 52: The final duel!!
#I don't even know how to start in saying how much this scene hurt me. I don't even know if I can express what I'm feeling with words#because all I can think right now is how much I love Astral and how much he breaks my heart#he was born from hopes and he was given a mission that would protect the hopes and futures of his world (and all other worlds probably)#at the cost of his own existence#but that wouldn't have hurt because he wasn't created for feeling anything#He would have complete his mission with no regrets with no past with nothing to miss#just a little light of hope that would have defeated E'Rah sacrificing himself without leaving anything behind#and then he met Yuma#he started to know Yuma and his friends and adversaries and what emotions were#and the hollow hope become a person#a person who felt happiness fear love a person who now had a story and people who he would miss#and he still decided to carry on his mission because that would have protected what he now holds dear#those new emotions those connections were the key to beat E'Rah but were also what made him understand how tragic his fate was#but he didn't regret any of that#because it was Yuma and his friends and the emotions that they had made him feel that made his brief life worth living#(sometimes I forget that in the manga Astral was probably sent to Earth soon after he was created. That “brief life” is heart-breaking)#and Yuma asking him if he was okay with that and if he wasn't scared#and Astral saying that he wasn't given any means to feel such terror but he was now scared#and yet he found that fear wonderful because that means he was alive#all those emotions were what made him truly alive#not a tool not a hollow hope but a real person who still decided to sacrifice himself for protecting everyone#astral zexal#astral yu gi oh#yuma tsukumo#yu gi oh zexal#zexal#yugioh zexal#zexal manga#Zexal manga spoiler#ygo zexal
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🏳️🌈HAPPY PRIDE MONTH, Y'ALL!!! 🏳️⚧️
Just in time for this month's festivities, I've whipped up a set of seven pronoun pins drawn in the style of the North American Mega Man logo, as well as an additional eighth pin repping transgender rights! You can find them all over on my RedBubble store by clicking here!
(Pssst! If you would like to request a custom pronoun set pin in this style, feel free to DM me and I will add it to my store for you!)
#⭐ Star's Art ⭐#Pride Month#Pronoun Pins#Pronouns#Pride Pins#LGBTQ+#Gay Rights#Trans Rights#Mega Man#Megaman#Rockman#Aseprite#Sprite Art#Pixel Art#RedBubble#RedBubble Artist#Coolness#It is my professional opinion... that now is the time to C E L E B R A T E !#I've been wanting to make pronoun pins in this style for quite some time now...#... and while at first I wasn't sure if I'd have them all ready for the first... I completed them all in one sitting!#An admirable feat when you take into consideration the herculean task that is spriting in the USA Mega Man logo style#There are so many factors to keep in check. The slanted text... outlining... the gradient... the drop shadow...#Yet I was able to draw all eight of these with relative ease. And— as mentioned above— would love to make more!#I decided to stick with the usual six pronoun sets you would find on pronoun pins... but if you don't see yours... just ask!#I would be more than happy to whip up a few more of these for anyone who wants them 💙🏳️⚧️✨
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yay a week until my 29th bday ✨🔥😎🔥✨
#about myself#heldig life stories#birthday#it's hard to believe that a year ago in that same period of time i wrote my last will haha#the only reason i didn't make an attempt on myself was my hyper responsibility 'cause i wanted a notary to approve my last will#so my beloved ones would have no problems with my property and my corpse after i die#but i had no time to do so and then my husband led me to psychiatrist and she confirmed i'm having a suicidal depression all my life#after i described my habitual living she was shocked that i managed to go so long without any medication just on my inner will itself#just because i constantly pushed myself forward from 'you need to go everyone counts on you'#but then it was awfully worsened by my long term burnout due to constant work crunches to the point when my inner will became not enough#and i stopped functioning like a normal person completely: not eating not getting up from the bed not wanting anything except disappearing#now i'm on antidepressants and it feels like i'm awake from a living time nightmare#it would have been so much easier if someone gave me antidepressants back then when i was 14 and tried to take my own life for the 1st time#fortunately unsuccessfully#so it will be another happy birthday to me that i wasn't supposed to live haha#don't be like me pls don't ignore yourselves and your condition and instead take care of yourselves dudes <3#go to the doctor if you need to it's neither scary nor shameful - it can literally save your life#hug you all tightly
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any thoughts on how once again zelda was robbed of her agency because her "father figure" didn't listen to her? even if rauru was kinder to her than her father. and that she had sonia who was patient and loving for a little while before she died (just like her mother). i know rauru apologizes for his hubris but still, i wish we saw zelda be upset about it. and even if zelda was such a big part of the quest she still literally sacrificed her humanity once again because of someone else's mistake- because rauru literally didn't listen to the girl from the future that warned you that shit was going to go down. o know nintendo just loves putting zelda inside crystals and stones but i wish we got something better. even if it was her decision to become a dragon... did she have any other choice? it really just feels like they robbed her of agency again just like botw and the games before
i've been trying to figure out how to answer this one. because there are two ways i could analyze this plot point, either from a writer's perspective or an in-story perspective, but neither of those lead to me fully agreeing with your interpretation? I think there's definitely something to be said about zelda consistently being pushed aside in these games, but. well. ok let's get into it ig
from a writer's perspective, I do honestly have quite a bit of sympathy for the zelda devs as they attempt to navigate the modern political landscape with these games. The cyclical lore, though canonized relatively recently, holds them to a standard of consistency in their games in terms of certain key elements. one of those key elements is that there has to be a princess, and that princess must somehow be the main macguffin of the game. The player must chase her, and the end goal of the game must be to reunite the player and the princess. In 1986 this was an incredibly easy sell. women didn't need to be characters. players were content with saving a 2-dimensional princess whose only purpose was to tell them "good job!" at the end. but as society advances, that princess becomes a much more difficult character to write while adhering to the established overarching canon. (as a side note: i don't necessarily believe that the writers SHOULD be held to the standards of that canon. I think deviating from it in certain areas would be a good change of pace. but i also recognize that deviations from the formula are widely hated by the loz playerbase and that they're trying to make money off these games, so we're working under the established rule that the formula must be at least loosely adhered to.) Modern fans want a princess who is a person, who has agency and makes decisions and struggles in the same way the hero does. but modern fans ALSO want a game that follows the established rules of the canon. so we need a princess who is a real character but who can ALSO serve as a macguffin within the narrative, something that is inherently somewhat objectifying.
the two games that i think do the best job writing a princess with agency are skyward sword and botw (based on your ask, our opinions differ there lol. hear me out) in both games, we have a framing event which seperates zelda and link, but in both games, that separation was ZELDA'S CHOICE. skyward sword zelda runs away from link out of fear of hurting him. botw zelda chooses to return to the castle alone to allow link the time he needs to heal. sksw kinda fumbled later on by having ghirahim kidnap her anyway, but. i said BEST not PERFECT. botw zelda I think is the better example because, with the context of the memories, she's arguably MORE of a character than link is. we see her struggles, her breakdowns, her imperfection, specifically we see her struggle with her lack of agency within the context of the game itself. when she steps in front of link in the final memory, and when she chooses to return to the castle, those are some of the first choices we see her make almost completely free of outside influence; a RECLAMATION of her agency (within the narrative) after years of having it stripped from her. from an objective viewer's standpoint, this writing decision still means she is absent from 90% of the game and that she has little control over her actions for the duration of the player's journey. however I think this is just about the best they could have done to create a princess with agency and a real character arc while still keeping the macguffin formula intact--you're not really SAVING zelda in botw. SHE is the one that is saving YOU; when you wake up on the plateau with no memories, too weak to fight bokoblins, let alone calamity ganon. the reason you are allowed to train and heal in early-game botw is because SHE is in the castle holding ganon back, protecting YOU. When you enter the final fight, you're not rescuing zelda, you're relieving her of her duty. taking over the work she's been doing for the past hundred years. in the final hour, you both work in tandem to defeat ganon. while this isn't a PERFECT example of a female character with agency and narrative weight, i think it's a pretty good one, especially in the context of save-the-princess games like loz.
as for totk, you put a lot of emphasis on rauru not believing zelda and taking action immediately, which, again, from an objective standpoint, i understand. but even when we're writing characters with social implications in mind, those character's actions still need to... make sense. Rauru was a king ruling over what he believed to be a perfectly peaceful kingdom. zelda literally fell out of the sky, landed in front of him, claimed to be his long-lost granddaughter, and then told him that some random ruler of a fringe faction in the desert was going to murder him and he had to get the jump on it by killing him first. the ruler which this girl is trying to convince rauru to wage an unprompted war on has the power to disguise himself as other people. no one in their right mind would immediately take the girl at her word. war is not something any leader should jump into without proper research and consideration, and to rauru's credit, he DIDN'T ever outright dismiss zelda. he believed her when she said she was from the future, he allowed her to work with him and he took her warnings as seriously as he could without any further proof. but he could not wage an unprompted war on ganondorf. that's just genuinely not practical, especially for a king who values peace among his people as much as rauru seems to. as soon as ganondorf DID attack, giving rauru confirmation that zelda's accounts of the future were real, he began making preparations to confront him. remember that zelda didn't KNOW that rauru and sonia were going to be casualties of the war--she didn't make the connection between rauru's arm in the future and rauru the king until AFTER sonia's death, when rauru made the decision to attack ganondorf directly. I think the imprisoning war and the casualties of it were less an issue of zelda being denied agency and more an issue of no one, including zelda, having full context for the events as they were unfolding. if zelda had KNOWN that sonia and rauru were going to die from the beginning and was still unable to prevent it that would be a different issue, but she didn't. none of them did.
I think another thing worth pointing out with rauru and his death irt zelda is that rauru is clearly written specifically as a foil to rhoam. this is evident in how he treats both zelda and link, with a constant kindness and understanding which is clearly opposite to rhoam's dismissiveness and disappointment. consider rhoam's death and the circumstances surrounding it. He died because, in zelda's eyes, she was unable to do her duty; the one thing he constantly berated her for. Rhoam's death solidified zelda's belief that she was a failure, a belief which she KNEW rhoam held as well. his death was doubly traumatic to her because she knew he died believing it was her fault. Now contrast that to the circumstances surrounding rauru's death. Rauru CHOSE to die despite zelda's warnings, because he wanted zelda and his kingdom to live. rauru's death was not agency-stripping for zelda; in fact, it functioned almost as an admission that he believed her capable of continuing to live in his place. With him gone, the fate of the kingdom fell to her and the sages. he KNEW that he would die and still went into that battle confidently, trusting zelda to make the right decisions once he was gone. where rhoam believed zelda incapable of doing ANYTHING without link, rauru trusted zelda COMPLETELY with the fate of his kingdom. several details in totk confirm that when rauru died there was no plan for zelda to draconify, that all happened after rauru was gone. it was HER plan, the plan which rauru trusted her to come up with once he was gone. and I think it's also worth noting that zelda's sacrifice with the draconification parallels rauru's!! Rauru gives up his life trusting the sages and his people to be able to continue his work in his place. Zelda gives up her physical form trusting link and the sages in the future to be able to figure out what to do and find her. these games in general have this recurring theme but totk specifically is all about love and trust and reliance on others. zelda relies on link, link relies on zelda, they both rely on the champions and the sages and rauru and sonia and they all rely each other. reliance on others isn't lack of agency, it's a constant choice they make, and that choice is the thing which allows them to triumph.
The draconification itself is something i view similarly to zelda's sacrifice in botw--a choice she makes which, symbolically & within the confines of the narrative, is a demonstration of her reclaimed agency and places her at the center of the narrative, but which ALSO removes her from much of the player's experience and robs her of any overt presence or decisionmaking within the gameplay. again, I think this is a solution to the macguffin-with-agency dilemma, and it's probably one of the better solutions they could have come up with. Would I have liked to see a game where zelda is more present within the actual gameplay? yes, but I also understand that at this point the writers aren't quite willing to deviate that much from their formula. the alternative within the confines of this story would be to let zelda DIE in the past, removing her from gameplay ENTIRELY, which is an infinitely worse option in my opinion. draconification allowed her to be present, centered the narrative around her, and allowed the writers to reiterate the game's theme of trust and teamwork when she assists the player in the final battle, which i think was a REALLY great choice, narratively speaking.
In any case, I don't think it's right to say that zelda was completely robbed of her agency in botw and totk. Agency doesn't always mean that she's unburdened and constantly present, it means she's given the freedom to make her own choices and that her choices are realistically written with HER in mind, not just the male characters around her, and I think botw/totk do a pretty good job of writing her and her choices realistically and with nuance.
#as a note i do think that loz still has a LONG way to go in terms of defining female characters by their relationships with men#and i acknowledge that a lot of zelda's choices within these games are STILL made irt male characters like her father link rauru etc#BUT i still don't think it's fair to act like shes been completely stripped and reduced to a damsel because.. she hasn't.#she's a very nuanced depiction of a girl who is used to being dismissed and ignored and powerless#her initial response to that powerlessness in botw was to reject everyone. she got loud and mean and she tried to do everything alone#and she discovered that that wasn't the right way to get what she wanted. it didnt make her happy and it didn't win her anyones approval#what DID work for her was learning to rely on the people around her and work with them. she found solace in teamwork and family#which is why in the final battle she and link fight TOGETHER against ganon. neither of them can do it alone but they can together#the same thing applies to totk. she continues her own journey by finding others like her who understand her powers and can teach her#so by the time she DOES end up alone she has been given the confidence and skillset to figure out what she has to do#you get it. you understand what im saying#asks#totk spoilers#zelda analysis
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