#sheik’s gender is boy and/or girl

[kagoutiss]

What is your Zelda/Sheik's gender and pronouns? I'm always very curious about how people interpret Zelda/Sheik. :O

sometimes a boy sometimes a girl! sheik/zelda’s ‘boyness’ isn’t necessarily just constrained to when presenting as sheik tho, or vice versa when presenting as zelda, it doesn’t matter what he’s wearing, it just varies. my sheik refers to herself with he/she pretty interchangeably, she perceives herself in different moments as a boy or a girl.

impa generally refers to sheik as a girl with she/her pronouns because as far as she knows, zelda still identifies as a girl but just presents differently out of necessity? and they just haven’t really had That Conversation about the whole thing yet, and sheik might not necessarily feel the need to discuss it anyway. impa probably would pick up on the nuances of it on her own after a while, and she would be supportive either way.

ganondorf refers to sheik with he/him pronouns because that’s how sheik identifies himself around him. although ganondorf also does not really give a shit if sheik is a boy or a girl or both or she or him or neither or whatever, he just cares that sheik finishes the ridiculous laundry list of Minion Tasks that he gives her every other day. and that sheik will listen to him vent/infodump about whatever is currently eating his divine-steroid-induced-psychosis brain at any given time

[blackstarchanx3new]

This idea for a later part in Four Swords Returns floats around in my head and I find it hilarious:

So you get to see it. X"D

Vaati (Still being lose) is completely enamored with the lovely princess Zelda, so he kidnaps her to be his bride.

Woops. He kidnapped Vio instead...However did that happen...

So Zelda dons the Vio persona and helps the other 4 (including Shadow Link) save the real Vio before he and Vaati are married.

Hilarity ensues.

[slaingelo]

pride headcanons and boy do I have a fuckin lot so take your pic ig, (oh yea they’re all transmasc hcs ofc so I’ll just list it)

transmasc Ruto, Botw paya and Zelda, Cia

oh also Botw Zelda and Link are Transmasc for Transmasc, they are very gay and very in love

feel free to draw which one you wanna or not one at all you don’t have to answer this!

this might've made me go a bit insane ok. first thoughts upon seeing this; LACE UP BINDERS T4T BOTW ZELINK HELPING EACH OTHER LACE THEM UP PROPERLY. gotta draw that, might come back to do those other ones though bc boy do I have thoughts about those also !

second thoughts. holy Fucking shit this gives me an excuse to go off about trans masc zelda and how inherently interesting that can be to the entire narrative. and then realizing how amazingly it could mesh with botw zelda's story specifically into a queer retelling.

THANKS ANON THIS ALONE MADE ME ACTUALLY LIKE BOTW ZELINK WHAT HAVE YOU DONE TO ME

zelda's role is to take up the powers of hylia. zelda has always been a girl, a woman. of course all of them would be. hylia is a goddess. the first zelda was hylia's personal vessel.

botw zelda [ going to call him zel here on out in this post for clarity lol ] would have to come to terms with how his feelings don't align with his self-perceived role. at first, he thinks his yearning to be a boy is more to do with hating his responsibilities. i think his relationship with both his gender and his role in destiny is an incredible complicated one because of all of this.

meeting link, the other destined one, probably really fucks him up more. link being a trans boy himself, on a surface level, one might think would bring zel relief; someone like him, so close to him. but it does the opposite. link has always been a boy. this link, being assigned female at birth, is a boy as well. to zel, this reaffirms his thoughts that destiny has locked their genders into place.

in general, i don't think transphobia is a huge thing in the loz universe. it's like, a very niche kind of bigotry thankfully. it's MY childhood fantasy games and i get to mostly poof it out. i think the big exception to this would be those associated with destiny, prophecies, and of course, the reincarnation cycle.

zel is pressured to not only be a good daughter and princess, but to take on the powers that should be blessed to him by the goddess herself. everything just drives him further into hating everything, including link early on.

a big part of zel being able to actually unlock his powers would be both what i think happens in game [ desperation to protect ] as well as acceptance of himself. zel's inner turmoil over his own identity, where his duty as holder of the triforce of wisdom starts and right to be himself ends.

of course, there's no actual reason for the holder of wisdom to be a woman; as there is none for the holder of courage or power to be a man. it just so happens that it tends to be like that.

i think a retelling like this could add such a strong layer onto zel's character arc. it's so good. augh. thank yuo i hope any of this is somewhat coherent. they kiss in the end

btw i think generally trans masc zeldas go for the name sheik [ thank you OOT sheik you walked so the other tran masc zeldas could run ] but botw zelda specifically would take the scientific name of like, a small critter or plant, and alter it so it sounds kind of like a hylian name. OR just go by 'zel'. or both ! idk.

[throwingbread]

10 fic for International Fanworks Day. Here are some fics from my bookmarks that need more love, in no particular order.

Those Who Come Closest (30325 words) by dagas isa Chapters: 11/11 Fandom: Final Fantasy X Summary: How do ordinary people become Fayth? It takes a certain amount of desire, dedication and desperation. These are their stories. Propaganda: You want worldbuilding? This fic has got worldbuilding out the wazoo.

Apprentice of the Beast (1651 words) by JetBlackKobold Fandom: Final Fantasy XV Summary: On their journey to the Disk of Cauthess, five men stop to rest and, bound in each other's company, talk a little. Ardyn is a strange man with a fondness for old stories, poems, songs, and rhymes. With a little prompting, he shares a story about a Beast and a Soldier whose good intentions are corrupted by power. Propaganda: Backstory, in Ardyn’s own words.

The Endlings (664 words) by TheBrightestNight Fandom: The Sandman (TV 2022), The Sandman (Comics) Summary: end∙ling /εndlŋg/ n 1 the last known individual of a species or subspecies. Once the endling dies, the species becomes extinct. Propaganda: Extinct animal feels.

at the last trumpet (9830 words) by liesmyth Fandom: The Locked Tomb Series | Gideon the Ninth Series - Tamsyn Muir Summary: the line of the Tomb-keepers demands an heir, no matter the cost. Featuring a small-scale genocide, the breakdown of a marriage, an angry ghost of the MILF persuasion, and a normal amount of bones. Propaganda: Yes more worldbuilding. Glorious cursed necromantic worldbuilding.

freedom so liberating that we call it magic (2566 words) by EtchJetty, FlaringK Chapters: 2/2 Fandom: The Legend of Zelda: The Ocarina of Time, The Legend of Zelda & Related Fandoms, The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Summary: People don’t talk about Sheik that much. It must have been hell for Zelda, to pretend to be a gender she wasn’t. Especially if she had done it before. (or: what if zelda was a girl?

Propaganda: TRANS GIRL ZELDA

setting sail, coming home (5989 words) by beaufort12 Chapters: 2/2 Fandom: Hades (Video Game 2018) Summary: In which Zagreus escapes the underworld, keeps running, and never looks back. Propaganda: Shameless fix-it fic.

The Moonstone (21266 words) by Vriah, gisho Fandom: The Sandman (TV 2022)

Summary: Morpheus finds a way to avoid killing a vortex - he gives Rose his own heart, forcing her to take his place as Dream. The new Dream has to deal with a life she never expected and try not to repeat her predessor's mistakes. In the waking world, the people she left behind grieve and wonder. And when Roses's little brother Jed is offered the chance to switch from superhero to questing knight, with some help from an old friend, he leaps at the opportunity. Propaganda: My boy Jed!

Lampshades on Fire (5739 words) by ostreatus, stellarators Fandom: Spider-Man: Into the Spider-Verse (2018) Summary: Or, How Dr. Olivia Octavius Stopped Worrying and Learned to Love the Morally Unambiguous Nature of her Violent Actions. Summary A review of the scientist-to-supervillian pipeline, based on a longitudinal case study.

Propaganda: The villain origin story we were so cruelly deprived of in canon.

built a lot of castles (12055 words) by basketofnovas Fandom: The Old Guard (Movie 2020) Summary: In the eighties, Quynh is rescued by a marine archaeologist, and finds herself in an alien world with no easy way to contact Andromache - or even know she's alive. Propaganda: In which Quynh receives some much-needed comfort in the form of random human kindness.

Inferno Seized (14726 words) by MuseofWriting Fandom: Hades (Video Game 2018)Relationships: Asterius | The Minotaur/Theseus ( Hades Video Game) Summary: The monster went to Tartarus. The hero went to Elysium. Or, depending which storytellers you asked, and which songs you heard, maybe the Underworld got it backwards. Or maybe neither of them were monsters or heroes. Maybe they were just imperfect beings, tied together, messily, terribly, inescapably. This is the story of how they found each other. Propaganda: Look its the most eloquent Minotaur/Theseus fic I’ve ever seen.

[alys-gay-parade]

Some deep thoughts about Zelda before I go to sleep tonight:

I grew up with oot being my introduction to the series, and over the years, it consumed my life. Botw was exactly what I wanted from a fully open world zelda game, and totk has only built up from that. This is the franchise that taught me how to world build, write characters, and explore my identity. Looking back at my adolescence, I can safely say that Link and Zelda (as she slowly became an actually compelling character) were the opposite ends of my gender envy spectrum. I loved the effeminate twink that I could easily identify with (people who say he never had a personality before TP are wrong, my boy has always been a sassy bitch with a big heart) and the regal lady who was not opposed to getting her hands dirty to do the work she needed to do. Sheik being Zelda is still one of my favorite plot twists in the franchise, my girl rlly said "Fuck it, I'm gonna pose as a man my whole adolescence." Iconic.

I love how they imply in totk that the games in the timeline pre-botw are the legends passed down over hundreds of generations, explaining the thin and inexplicable timeline away as just cultural histories becoming warped and lost with each retelling. I bet they argue about the order of events in-universe, and you can not convince me otherwise. It makes me laugh looking back at oot seeing rauru portrayed as a pudgy old man hylian, knowing now that he's just straight up a god-like being that married a hylian woman.

This brings me to the future of the series, and a proposal: remake the old stories, but with the new lore, as they Actually Happened. Make the players figure out what parts were true and what parts were warped by time. Hell, make them with the effects of the new timeline Created by Zelda in totk. How does her presence alter history? How can we reimagine the events of pivotal games in the timeline with our new information? How can we keep improving our open world gameplay while revisiting the history that became fables?

I fell off of Zelda in my depression. But totk has renewed my love for what the franchise is and can become. They've really created so many opportunities to expand on what we know, as well as avenues to tell more new stories, possibly both in the same game if they play their cards right.

Thank you, Zelda Team and Miyamoto-san. You built a core aspect of my identity and continue to strive to improve and explore a world that means a lot to many. You honestly are a golden example of what making a compelling universe looks like.

[fable-stims]

Gender-nonconforming characters stimboard for anon!

X X X

X X X

X X X

Hange (Attack on Titan) has an ambigious gender

Hollow Knight (Hollow Knight) has no gender

Raine Whispers (The Owl House) is nonbinary

Luz Noceda (The Owl House) is a girl who likes to bend societal norms

Sheik (Ocarina of Time) is a princess disguised as a Sheikah male, widely headcanoned as transmasc

Crona (Soul Eater) has an unknown gender

Len Kagamine (Vocaloid) is a boy who frequently wears traditionally feminine clothes

Stevonnie (Steven Universe) is nonbinary

Villia (Breath of the Wild) is transfem

[This was mostly croudsourced so please let me know if any of my information is wrong]

[jacksfandomrandom]

I made a Trans Sheik oneshot. I love the legend of Zelda and Sheik/Zelda gave me trans vibes from Oot. This oneshot is an Au where Link wasn't sent back to his childhood.

A couple months after Hyrule was saved and Link had a place at the castle, Zelda looked over the balcony in her room. Even though she almost died multiple times, she couldn't help but feel like she missed those days. Running around in masculine clothes and going by ‘Sheik’ brought her serotonin. She wanted to fight and be manly, like Link. However, she couldn't do that now. She had to help the civilization by being the princess. 

Her father didn't help much either. He always reminded her how princesses didn't fight. He got her more dresses which she didn't exactly enjoy. Yeah, skirts were cool, but the long and pink dresses made her want to vomit. She'd much rather wear a blue or navy tunic.

Impa walked into the room and saw the princess looking over hyrule from her balcony. She could tell something was up. The girl had been through a lot of trauma after being kidnapped.

“Good afternoon, princess Zelda,” She greeted her. Zelda winced at that title and name.

“Is something wrong?” Impa asked, leaning her elbows on the concrete bars. She was a fairly chill assistant/bodyguard. When Zelda was younger, she was sort of a parental figure towards her too. 

“Have you ever wanted to be someone different?” Zelda asked.

Impa was a bit shocked at this. I mean, she was a literal princess. Almost everyone would want that. But she answered a bit truthfully.

“Sure, sometimes I want to be a knight but I'm here, and I gotta deal with it,” she replied.

“No, I mean, have you ever wanted to be… a boy?” Zelda nervously said.

“Well yeah, being a boy has perks,” 

“No! You don't get it. I want to be sheik again…” Zelda admitted. Impa then realized what she was talking about.

“Oh,” she said in shock. She knew Zelda enjoyed doing that but always thought she was just a tomboy. 

“I- I don't know why I feel like this…” Zelda covered their face with their hands, tears slowly falling.

“Hon, I think I know what's going on,” Impa explained. 

“Y-you do?”

“Yeah, I think you might be trans.” She said.

Zelda uncovered her face and looked at her confused.

“Trans?”

Impa was a bit weirded out that they didn't know about that. They were 16. She then remembered how sheltered they were. The king wanted them to be perfect and normal and sheltered them from many things.

“So basically, Transgender means that your gender is different from what you were assigned at birth. Like, if you feel like you were born in the wrong body, it's a big possibility you're trans. But don't fully trust me in this stuff. I'm just a lesbian,” Impa told them

“So am I a boy?” 

“Do you want to be one?”

“Yes!” they said with enthusiasm.

“Then I guess you are, Sheik,” Impa smiled over to them. Sheik beamed at that name. They liked it a lot.

“What kind of pronouns do you want to use?” Impa asked. This started a new explanation. But after Sheik finally understood, he answered.

“He and They, please” 

“Alright. Welp, that's good to know. I'm glad I can help you out. I should get back to work though. I’ll give ya a haircut later. See ya, Prince Sheik,” Impa waved as she left. Sheik felt a massive amount of serotonin. It felt so good to be called ‘prince’. Hopefully, that haircut would be soon. Nonetheless, Sheik felt extremely good that he now knew what he was.

[lunarsilkscreen]

Queer Zelda

Miyamoto designed the hero of the game to be androgynous so that anygenderbody could imagine themselves as the Hero. (Well. Bi-gender continuum Hylian people anyway. That's why Ganon's the bad guy, he's neither Hylian nor on the bi-gender spectrum. #joking #orAmI)

There's a lot of topical things that can be said about the Zelda series, so I try to limit my scope when I write posts like these. I could fit so many tangents into this baby otherwise.

Everybody knows about Sheik and Girl-Link--Not to be Confused with Linkle, who is also a girl-link, but not Link in girl clothes. Even though she happens to also be wearing Girl clothes. I have theories about her, how she might be a maiden, or Zelda in Green clothes instead of her standard Hylian Blue. (And sometimes Pink. [Trans Zelda?]) And she's not to be confused with Tingle (or Twink-le, which is either how you describe starlight, or a whole NSFW section of the internet.)

Speaking of tangents...

Let me point out the scene where Link meets Zelda in Z64. "I hope he didn't see me/us." This could be interpreted as queer representation young children. Peter Pan is often played by young women in school plays, and then there's the whole interpretation of *only* queer kids enjoying theater in any aspect. AND then there's the whole spectrum of interpretations you can give to Peter Pan as a whole.

And then there's the hair-cutting ceremony in Japan. This started with Samurai who would cut their hair to depict the end of an era. Or end of their old life.

Life is measured in how long your hair is allowed to grow. And cutting it symbolized stepping into a new era.

But this is also depicted in a lot of Japanese Fiction as women growing out of their innocence. Because women with children also cut their hair to symbolize the *new life*.

This is a willful stepping out of the *girl roll* into the *man roll*.

In this context, Girl *is* childhood, and there is no difference between man and woman as older being. Which is a stark contrast to more western beliefs that suggests a clear separation of boy to man and girl to woman.

For women, this has a deeper context, that they (being women) have the option to stay in *girl hood* as a benefit given by biology and sociology (or the divine, depending on interpretation)

This is arguably why Peter Pan, is the boy who never grew up. He refused to take that *man hood* role in order to be a provider. To be a caretaker for the other *lost boys*.

(War is a terrible things that kills parents and leaves children without them)

That was a lot more than I thought I would have to explain to get to the next point:

Trans Ganon.

The Gerudo are depicted as a community of women led by a single ruler. And that one ruler is *allowed* to be the *only* man. Because only a Man can rule in a Patriarchy. And there isn't a benefit to multiple rulers *except* to cause infighting. So everybody else *must* be women.

This is why Girl-Link is allowed in the Gerudo city despite not technically being a Girl, and the Gerudo *already* know what's going on with him. Because dressing as a women, being a women, denotes subservience to the ruler. Who is the only Man allowed.

This is the masculine/feminine depiction in the yinyang and in the Bible. Why tribes were depicted as being *one man* the leader. And why tribeless "men" were remembered, despite being put through tortuous situations.

Because they didn't submit like the women did. (Note, women in this context is the negative use by masculine leaders who had their own way of thinking, not how I think the world should be. )

They didn't need to be taken care of by the systems in place, and like Moses, instead provided care and salvation.

(If I ever get any sort of notoriety, I'm going to be so cancelled.)

Speaking of Tangents...

So the Gerudo have a forced gender caste system. Where only the one ruler is allowed to be a Man. Zelda doesn't have any specific Gender, and can be either Man, Woman, or Shiek. Because all maidens, princes, or Princesses are Zelda.

This has a more complicated history that, from the perspective of the common people, all royalty are really men trying to be women (You know; "Liberals") But in all honesty, it's the stupidest thing based entirely on clothing and make-up.

But that also mirrors what the Gerudo do. All Gerudo are Ganon. All Hylians are Zelda. But there's always one who is neither Man, Nor Woman, Nor Shieka. (Not Ganon, not Zelda, Not Shiek)

And that is Link.

Despite being given he/him pronouns, Link is never given a gender. Because he is inherently Genderless. He is the *anybody* a stranger who hears the call to action and acts. The one who takes sword to the powerful, shields the weak, and cares for those who need it most.

The balance between both the Feminine that Hyrule depicts, and Masculine Ganon depicts.

(oh there's more)

[stonerzelda]

The way id get into genuine arguments with my childhood best friend and the girl that ended up replacing me abt sheiks gender 😐 that girls a boy ok. Im jost sayin

[kagoutiss]

Hi, I have come and seen the undercover sheik au, and I must ask if Sheik owns a gender or not. Also someone let Sheik sleep in, they clearly need it.

hi thank u so much for this question!!! so at this point i tend to think of Sheik’s gender as just being sometimes a girl and sometimes a boy? and sometimes both? not necessarily in the sense that he’s a girl as zelda and a boy as sheik, but rather she sometimes perceives herself as a girl and sometimes as a boy, regardless of whether he’s disguised at the time or not. so maybe she would be bigender if i had to pick a word for it, but i don’t think Sheik really tries to put a name to it, with all the other stuff he has on his mind :’-)

for pronoun stuff, i think sheik mostly would use he/she, since that’s what she’s used to hearing. impa generally refers to sheik with she/her, and ganondorf refers to sheik with he/him. sheik tends to refer to himself with he/she somewhat interchangeably in his head, but in conversation, she will generally stick with one or the other depending on who she’s with. if that makes sense lol

and yeah he deserves to sleep past noon…….unfortunately Impa and Ganondorf are both early birds, so almost every day is tired grumpy teenager day for poor Sheik :’-D

[eleta]

Hijab is not a choice

Imagine being a four year old girl. Your life revolves around playing and spending time with your family. You look up to your parents and like to mimic their behaviour. When dad walks around with his hands behind his back, you do the same thing. When mum puts on a headscarf every time she goes outside, you want to do the same thing. You play with the scarf and every time you put it on, you get showered with compliments by the adults. Mum gives you a kiss, dad gives you a kiss and tells you how proud he is, aunties and uncles give you pets, and so do your grandparents. Everyone is smiling seeing how cute you are in that little headscarf that was specially made for your small head.

You grow up and cannot wait to continue making your parents proud. Never letting their smile fade away because you'll always do as they say. When they ask you, 'are you ready to put on the headscarf full-time'? You eagerly say 'yes!'

Now you're ten noticing differences in your class. Not every girl wears the hijab. Sometimes you wonder why that is. Do they not want to make their parents proud? Dad told you that God loves girls that cover their hair. He will take good care of them. What happens to those that don't wear it? You wonder very briefly, because most of the time, you're not occupied with the why's and how's. You just want to play with your friends and siblings.

You're thirteen in your first year of middle school. It seems like differences are becoming more obvious now, and you're more occupied with it. You have a group of female friends but only a few wear the headscarf. You don't mind it most of the time, but sometimes you do wonder how life would be like if you didn't wear a headscarf. Could you then wear the cute crop top you saw last time with your favourite band on it? Could you go to the pool parties your friends are always talking about? You know that you can't ask these questions at home. Mum and dad have been very clear about the rules: no bare arms, no bare legs, except to other girls or family members.

With every year, it becomes more difficult to keep up with the rules. Once you go through puberty, your parents start policing your behaviour even more. You can't have break days during ramadan anymore, you can't hang out with boys in your class anymore and your parents start telling you to be wary of irreligious friends that could lead you astray, like your homosexual friend. These behaviours are all very normal things, so you start to wonder what the reasonings are. The only way you can find this out is to become more religious, so you start going to religious sermons.

Imams and sheiks are telling you that the core of a muslim is one that fulfils religious obligations without doubt. Of course seeking knowledge in order to understand God's divine decrees is permissible, encouraged even because islam is the religion of knowledge. But if you don't understand a particular reasoning for an obligation, then it's way beyond what your fickle, human brain is capable of processing. For God almighty has infinite wisdom from which we can obtain knowledge only if he allows so.

So, you wear the hijab, because God told you to wear it. That's it. That's the message. Something in you is not satisfied with this. Why did God not tell your brother to wear the hijab? Why must you be the one to bear this burden simply because you're born female? After all, you didn't choose your gender. If only you were a boy. You could feel the summer breeze in your hair and neck while biking to school. You could wear what you want and blend in with your age mates. You could even marry christians and jews because you're male.

You cast away all of these thoughts and doubts and try to cope with the situation at hand. After all, doubts are from the devil. And what is it going to change anyways? Your parents would be very disappointed in you if you put off the hijab. You have seen how they talked about your older female cousins who have done exactly that. They have been cast away and turned into black sheep. Their parents are now begging family members to pray for their daughters. They're now constantly sinning every time a non-related male sees their hair. All that trouble for what?

You're now sixteen and your friends keep asking you to go shopping with them. You hate doing that because the local shops don't sell modest clothes for teenagers. Your favourite band is coming to a neighbouring city for a concert and your friends are all going there. Except for you of course, because your parents aren't willing to drive you to a music festival, which is filled with sin, for a boy band that's constantly singing about sex and drugs. In fact, you shouldn't even be listening to them, but it's a guilty pleasure. You'll repent after it, you tell yourself. But mum and dad can't find out.

There's a growing distance between you and your friends. Their curfew is getting later as they're aging but yours has stayed stagnant since you were 12. They're forming memories together you're not apart of. You become bitter and tell yourself it's for the better. They were always tempting you to sin in order to fit in anyways. It's better that you don't have them in your life. Maybe if you spent more time with your family and religion, your doubts would go away.

Except they don't go away. Now you're 18 about to graduate high school and even more determined to take off the hijab. A lot of muslims don't wear it, why can't you? You know it's a sin to not follow religious obligations, but you still can't let it go. You tried to find loopholes for the hijab but couldn't find any. That hasn't made it any less difficult.

Of course, you can't tell your family about it. They would freak out. It's better that you try to convince them to let you move out for college and take off the hijab there secretly. You've been a good daughter and a good muslim and that's enough to let them trust you. They reluctantly agree to let you go, but on the condition that you don't move out too far so your parents can regularly check up on you.

You're 20 years old in your second year of college. You take off the hijab on campus and put it on when going home. You've been doing it for about two years and by the day, you're becoming less and less nervous that your family might find out. The only thing that has been growing is frustration that you have to live like this. Your friends have religious families that accept them despite living an irreligious life, why can't your family do the same? Why can't you just be less religious and still have a bond with them? It's like their love is conditional. That piece of fabric on your head is the weak foundation of their parental love. They're afraid that you'll foresake islam once you take off the hijab, like it's a warning sign for the unthinkable (becoming an infidel).

They're so wrong, you think to yourself. You're still the religious you, just without the headscarf. You still pray, read the Quran, don't go drinking or having sex despite being surrounded by students who's lifes only revolve around these things. In fact, you can say with full confidence that taking off the hijab has made you even more of a practicing believer than before. It's just that now you're practicing your faith more privately as to not get singled out by outsiders.

It doesn't help, you realise. Every time you go back home to eat and laugh with your family, you wonder how fast their smiles would fade away if you told them the truth. Your mum is talking about how she put her islamophobic colleges in their place by telling them that putting on the hijab was HER choice. You laugh, like everybody else, at the dumb non-believers, but you wonder, has it really been your choice? I mean, technically you said 'yes' when your parents asked you, but you were also eight years old. You didn't know any better and just wanted to give the acceptable answer so that your parents would be proud of you. If that's a choice, then it's a choice you heavily regret.

You see, the truth is that, hijab is not a choice. It has never been a choice. The only choice a muslim woman has in regards to the hijab, is the choice to sin. And that's called a religious obligation, not a choice.

[aquilamage]

no one:

me: *comes up with headcanons for fic I haven’t worked on in over two years*

[science-lings]

LU Queer Headcanons: Zelda Edition

Sun: She/They, Pansexual, used to be cis but when Hylia was awakened her gender was transed a little and she now identifies closer to Agender/ nonbinary. Turns out divinity itself has no gender at all so her gender is like female but watered down. 

Dot: She/Her, Questioning/Queer, still experimenting with gender presentation, sometimes she asks Four to refer to her as different pronouns for the day to see if she vibes with them. Likes some neoprounouns but generally has no idea what to identify as so she generally considers herself queer. 

Dusk: She/Her, bisexual, butch vibes, aro/ace spectrum, mostly attracted to women but has had a few men catch her eye, she thought she was a lesbian for a while and totally had a thing for Midna (don’t we all) but then realized that she was attracted to Twilight (take this as you will.) I mean he is a man for the sapphics. 

Flora: They/She, Bisexual, Enby, Ace spectrum, is generally annoyed with gender and rejects a bunch of female stereotypes because they’re stupid. Hylia also may have transed their gender a bit but maybe now that their entire existence isn’t centered around stopping the end of the world, they have the time to discover themselves. 

Tetra: They/Them, Demisexual Enby, fairly androgynous and very much not into presenting femininely. Was absolutely Pissed when they were magically put in a dress and jewelry. Has since donated those items to Wind who likes them a whole lot. Takes literal years to realize that they like Wind in that way, though to be fair, he was just as oblivious. Ah yes, normal friend things, holding hands at the wheel of the ship that they co-captain. The crew witnesses it all. 

Lullaby: She/He, Genderfluid, Aro, no matter what timeline, she uses magic to sheik herself on boy days. When she’s coronated, she tends to go by King Zelda and easily scares people into referring to her correctly. Pretty buff, that doesn’t have to do with her queerness, I just wanted to mention it. 

Athena: She/Her, Trans Woman, Heterosexual, even in her sheik form she’s a girl and that is on purpose. The pretty pink armor is also on purpose. you can’t go to war if you ain’t cute. Is almost aggressively feminine to drown out her dysphoria. Is it practical to wear fake nails into battle? No but that’s a woman thing and the more woman she looks the more woman she is right? It takes her quite a while to deconstruct that mindset and Impa is a really good support for her. 

Fable: She/They, Aro/Ace, Gender is kinda weird and she’s not completely sure where she fits in so she just does whatever she’s feeling at the moment. Likes a lot of pretty girly things so sometimes doesn’t feel very trans but she has some very not-cis thoughts that remind her of the truth. 

Aurora: She/Her, Cis, Queer, GNC but mostly because gender presentation things have changed over her involuntary coma. Like there are things that used to be associated with women that have evolved to be associated with men. She thinks more men should be wearing heels and corsets and wigs and is very confused when they think that’s “unmanly”. 

Dawn: She/Her, Trans Woman, Sapphic, got kind of sick of having to portray delicate femininity and became kind of butch and if she’s not doing some formal princess thing, will wear pants. If she has to wear her puffy pink dress, she’s definitely wearing comfortable boots underneath instead of high heels. 

I’m also working on Part 3 with other loz characters, so if you want me to share some queer hcs for any of your favs, just let me know who i should include in the next instalment!

[disorentedfae]

For Fable-Sheik’s gender what do you think of bigenderflux as in fluid between girl and boy but those genders fluctuate? Idk we could also just go with genderfluid or bigender? If you don’t know what it is you can look it up. I’m not sure….what do you think?

bigenderflix sounds like it would fit.

[wizzardhat]

Why do people keep sending me zelink posts. When have i ever given the impression that i like zelink. Do people just assume that because i like loz i also like zelink. Look. Some zeldas and some links make a valid zelink. Others, no. Like, skyward sword? You know they fuckin. But wind waker? Best bros. Tetra is a mega lesbian and link is in love with medli anyway. Twilight princess, they barely know each other and link has a goth gf. Botw link is oblivious to all romantic gestures he just wants to be a twink with godlike strength and an incomprehensible gender he has no time for fish girls or princesses, or even fish boys sorry sidlink hoes. Oot zelink is valid only when he gets the shang from mulan experience with sheik and hes like, well guess im gay, and then zelda is like surprise and link is like welp guess im bi. Unless you hc oot zelda as trans anyway so its still gay, which is also valid. What were we talking about.

[crispyjenkins]

I get what you mean, when I was younger, I shipped link with Malon, while adoring the idea of Link and Zelda as platonic soulmates.

If you don’t mind, I’d love to hear some of your headcanons about Link! (Also if you do ship him with anyone else? If you don’t mind of course :)

oh anon, you are after my heart with these asks

my first zelda game was twilight princess (also first game i ever finished) and i think having midna as my first companion really affected the way i saw and still see zelda as a character and romantic interest. i'm all about childhood friends to lovers, it makes my demiromantic heart sing, so it’s easier for me to like ZeLink together in games like skyward sword and minish cap

NOW FOR SHIPS prefacing this with i think the only link to be full-on cis is minish and link's adventure? (i know nothing about the mobile games) soooo here we go

Link/Midna | Link/Sidon | Link/Revali | Link/Sheik (esp if Sheik is a separate entity from Zelda, but I’ve also read some fantastic poly takes) | i do like Link/Marin in a puppy love sort of way | Link/Fado (oh my fuck this is so niche and very recent for me but @sabertoothwalrus got me feeling some type of way)

I can’t think of any more off the top of my head, but i really only look at fandom content for Sidon, Revali, and Sheik.

for some headcanons, i see Link as selectively mute in every single game except link between worlds. i dunno, the way they handled his dialogue in that one just made him seem more vocal to me? i think he’s fully mute in twilight princess, and hard of hearing in wind waker.

this boy is gnc as FUCK

i think breath of the wild actually handled his selective mutism quite well, with the implication of him speaking more after losing his memories, and the way zelda writes about him in her journals. but also like. give me sign language. stop being cowards. just do it. (i have an unfinished work for botw just rotting on my old ao3 where i explore sign in hyrule quite a lot)

skull kid absolutely had a puppy crush/gender-envy thing goin on with majora's mask link and nobody will convince me otherwise

link is the weird horse girl in absolutely every iteration