#except if the wolves were forest spirits that could bury you under the brambles without a sound. you know.

[thefinalwitness]

seriously though i think padjal and kokiri are basically the only kind of "eternally youthful" concepts i can take seriously. because of COURSE weirdo lil forest fairies look like children. is that not the nature of the woods, to be deceptively harmless? look how the trees rustle, how the children laugh. you're not afraid of that, are you?

i think it's because it Specifically Strikes as something that isn't JUST done to keep characters 'conventionally beautiful', y'know? like. no shade to anyone who follows the lore about how viera don't really age, i just think it's like. kinda boring? it's just. people grow ALLLLLL the way up and then stay in their 20s forever! i can't help but not see much of a compelling reason?

like. again. forest fairies disguising themselves (or basically simply Evolving That Way™) has fun story implications to me. children are smaller and seem less dangerous both to trespassers in the forest and its normal denizens like critters. also, frankly, if someone SAW a kid all by themself in the woods, they'd usually be compelled to let their guard down and try to help. are they lost? where are their parents? etc etc.

and yeah this works best for Fey That Wanna Eat You but i still like the subtle possibility that there's a Reason padjal look like this, (and i should also stress i don't blame anyone for making physically older padjal because FJKHJKDJKD can of worms ass topic sometimes,) whether it's to deceive and do harm or just to deceive and ward off threats. like. who's going to attack a kid. who's going to take them seriously if they're not local or wise to the ways of the woods?

i like to think the kokiri look the way they do because it's easier to protect their forest that way. i mean. nobody's gonna bring a whole fuckin' brigade to confront some kids. and if they DO happen upon the woods, and continue to trespass, then well. they sure won't expect to be ambushed by the cute little bastards.

and while padjal clearly have an inherently noble position within their society, i can't help but wonder how this concept came to be. they're powerful, but deceptively harmless—could they have been the foremost protectors of gelmorra once, able to push back threats even the hyur and elezen couldn't? because the combination of crazy forest magic and looking like the worst they could do is call you a butthead leads to a LOT of unfortunate ends for anyone who tries to mess with them? how did we get here. compels me.

anyway i love weird little forest nymphs and the weird little implications of their existence. why are they so small. why are they so RESPECTED. COMPELS ME.