#some of this is problems with myself which i do work on and i work on them hard. i don't want to be like that

[dduane]

I have been trying to write fic (well, smut) set in a world where certain things are slightly different to serve the fic's plot.

However, each time I try I have run into a problem: my head insists I need to justify the changes - I need to know comprehensive details about how the world works so I can ensure everything is consistent and not too f'd up.

So I get bogged down, and don't write a word. What do?

In your position, I’d sit down and write myself a bible.

This is how I did my prep for Barbie: Fairytopia.* And how I’ve done it for various works of fic presently on AO3… and how I’m doing it right now for the new Sherlock Holmes and the Giant Rats of Sumatra III project. I was taught this art by my animation story editors at Hanna-Barbera, and it’s stood me in good stead. (Peter and I pulled down our first miniseries assignment from a company that told us “we gave great bible.” And that was true.) 😄

When I say “bible” I don’t necessarily mean something that thick! (Though some of mine have been pretty hefty, with one TV project’s bible running more than a hundred pages… because I knew I had skeptical and underinformed TV execs to convince about something historical.) For the kind of purpose we’re describing here, your prep bible could be quite short: maybe looking like a bullet-pointed “shopping list”, five or ten pages long. It can be just as long or short as it needs to be to cover all your salient points.

The idea is simply to put down, in concrete form, a list of the main “different things” you need to know and remember about your alternate universe when you’re working in it. This is where you do your justification work, in as much or as little detail as you need to convince yourself you’ve got the necessary bases covered. The virtual “stage manager” who sits at the back of the theater of the Writing Department in your mind, judging when things are right, will be your guide here, and will advise you as to when you’ve got enough and it’s time to stop. And once this stuff is down on the page, you’ll be a position to judge critically whether everything makes enough sense to work with, and slots together correctly.

This is also a bit like (for the prose part of a project) outlining, in that it’s incredibly freeing. Once you’ve got this background nailed down, you know you can safely turn your attention away from it and get down to the serious business: drama, and the character interactions that express it. (And inevitably as you’re doing the bible writing, you start getting ideas for how the substrate you’re laying down is going to affect the conflicts between and among the characters. The bible stage can be incredibly fruitful this way.)

It would be facile to describe the bibling process as “getting the easy part over with first”. Because sometimes it’s not easy! But it’s worth doing first, because having done this first relieves you of the ongoing anxiety caused by knowing you may have to keep inventing or rationalizing stuff on the fly. (Which can produce the kind of micro-blocks that a writer can generally really do without.) …Not that you’re not going to be inventing things on the fly anyway: that’s a normal part of the writing process. But the biggest and most obvious issues will have been handled already, and you’ll know they have; which is always a weight off one’s mind. And the fewer of those weights you have loading you down, when you’re in the midst of the labor of composition, the better.

Anyway, give it a shot and see how it works for you. And then you can, like the rest of us smut writers, get on to the really pressing business: making sure you haven’t lost track of where all the characters’ arms and legs (and things) are when you’re writing those hot steamy sex scenes. 😏

Hope this helps!

*ETA: My remit on this job did include creating a bible for them. But I write a rough-draft one for myself first, including various meta that I needed but they didn't.

[indexthejester]

01: meh I think. Getting better I suppose.

02: My friend, we say it when ending calls

03: far too much. Sometimes it hits me like a bullet to the chest. Feels like the metal ball in my brain pinballs into a bumper that gives negative points.

04: no definitely not <- she lied

05: single and looking for friends which may turn into queerplatonic relations. Not that I'm crossing my fingers.

06: slowly and calmly enough to analyze the way it feels to die, but not too peacefully that it's otherwise uninteresting.

07: Zaxby's chicken strips

08: tried a few. Not my thing. Except tennis, I liked that one. Not sure if snowboarding counts but I like that too.

09: Yes I do it sucks.

10: never had one, unless wrestling counts

11: I like many people. I love them too. I suppose I have a crush on people that I relate too, especially if I find them interesting. I want to know every part of them intimately. To drink it all in.

12: yes

13: I don't think so, I try not to. I don't think it's very useful for solving my or the world's problems, and it makes me feel pretty miserable in the process.

14: probably somewhat, I'm pretty lonely most of the time so yeah almost always. I work and live better when I'm with someone I like. Whether talking or just present in the same "space".

15: 2 family dogs, one day I'll move out and get a cat probably. Cats are great.

16: chill, minus the usual slight heartburn. Just got our of the shower and am lying in bed, getting messages from a new friend, living well.

17: no, very out of left field question

18: not really. I find them interesting though. They either look like insects or weirdly mammalian despite being neither. Weird that scorpions are more closely related.

19: nah there's nothing for me back there.

20: god I wish

21: talk to a friend and life planning

22: no, I mean I'm good with them and it's very fulfilling I just find it stressful. Right now I have so much I want to do I can't see myself adopting and settling down but maybe idk.

23: 2 for earrings

24: Math and English I suppose. Programming too if college counts

25: Maybe. Not at the moment. In recent past, it was fun to hang out at the lgbtq center in college. Sucks that I'm stuck at home now.

26: more social interaction. I may be anxious about how I reply or generally talk through textual messaging, but it makes me feel all comfy inside :3 also sleep because it is 2:36am for me rn.

27: idk

28: no

29: never had one

30: eye strain and heart burn and social anxiety.

31: I think so. I don't think it's for me to say, I try to love myself at least, though it's really hard.

32: magenta, or some other combo of purple and red. Hence the Melantha pfp. Also she's autistic.

33: yes, very much so

34: can't remember. The last one I remember was very sexual which is unusual for me.

35: cried on a call with a friend of mine I think. Just scared of the state the world's in.

36: I don't know, I don't know if I've had to

37: depends on the person I guess. Sometimes you can't do either. Just gotta learn to live with what happened.

38: So far absolutely not. But in the past 4 days I've had a lot of fun being alive. It is fun to make new friends and connect with people and have fun.

39: excluding my parents it hasn't happened

40: yes

51: chicken alphredo and chicken cordon bleu

52: I don't believe in fate, but I do believe in causality, to an extent.

53: brush my teeth I think. Maybe watch a youtube video or masterbate, though I usually do the latter as I'm falling asleep so I'm not sure if it counts.

54: I'm sure you could invent some crazy scenario where it is, but in general I think betraying your partner's trust is just about the worst thing you can do in a relationship.

55: I try not to be.

56: 0

57: when I am vulnerable and comfortable, I am filled to bursting with love for the world and everything in it. So if "true" means "pure unfiltered" then maybe yeah. Me x The Universe. Me x All My Friends.

58: bright but not too bright, grey skies, no visavle sun, chill in the air. Can move around without sweating buckets.

59: YYYYYYYEEEEEEEEESSSSSSS

60: very much so someday. Already planning it out.

61: never had it happen to me though it seems pretty boring standard. Call me your owner, handler, mad scientist, something interesting.

62: a loving community and the ability to freely create art

63: yeah obviously

64: yeah I'm too old for that it's weird

65: what are we role-playing now? I don't know, depends on the context. (Treating "sex" as "gender" for these questions btw.)

66: no, I don't. I wouldn't call any of my friends men.

67: My father but I honestly wonder if he's not a little trans

68: like a really deep conversation? Uhh definitely @thatweirdyellowrat. Haven't felt that much mental clarity after a conversation in a long time. I would not be as happy or geared to make new friends if not for that.

69: Fuck no.

70: I think so yeah, more than one actually. Which is saying something because I value my life a lot.

70 horrible questions ... Fuck it

01: Do you have a good relationship with your parents? 02: Who did you last say “I love you” to? 03: Do you regret anything? 04: Are you insecure? 05: What is your relationship status? 06: How do you want to die? 07: What did you last eat? 08: Played any sports? 09: Do you bite your nails? 10: When was your last physical fight? 11: Do you like someone? 12: Have you ever stayed up 48 hours? 13: Do you hate anyone at the moment? 14: Do you miss someone? 15: Have any pets? 16: How exactly are you feeling at the moment? 17: Ever made out in the bathroom? 18: Are you scared of spiders? 19: Would you go back in time if you were given the chance? 20: Where was the last place you snogged someone? 21: What are your plans for this weekend? 22: Do you want to have kids? How many? 23: Do you have piercings? How many? 24: What is/are/were your best subject(s)? 25: Do you miss anyone from your past? 26: What are you craving right now? 27: Have you ever broken someone’s heart? 28: Have you ever been cheated on? 29: Have you made a boyfriend/girlfriend cry? 30: What’s irritating you right now? 31: Does somebody love you? 32: What is your favourite color? 33: Do you have trust issues? 34: Who/what was your last dream about? 35: Who was the last person you cried in front of? 36: Do you give out second chances too easily? 37: Is it easier to forgive or forget? 38: Is this year the best year of your life? 39: How old were you when you had your first kiss? 40: Have you ever walked outside completely naked? 51: Favourite food? 52: Do you believe everything happens for a reason? 53: What is the last thing you did before you went to bed last night? 54: Is cheating ever okay? 55: Are you mean? 56: How many people have you fist fought? 57: Do you believe in true love? 58: Favourite weather? 59: Do you like the snow? 60: Do you wanna get married? 61: Is it cute when a boy/girl calls you baby? 62: What makes you happy? 63: Would you change your name? 64: Would it be hard to kiss the last person you kissed? 65: Your best friend of the opposite sex likes you, what do you do? 66: Do you have a friend of the opposite sex who you can act your complete self around? 67: Who was the last person of the opposite sex you talked to? 68: Who’s the last person you had a deep conversation with? 69: Do you believe in soulmates? 70: Is there anyone you would die for?

[askviktor]

greetings, viktor (is it okay if i adress you by your name?)

i hope you are doing well. it was my lifelong dream to study physics. i managed to get in a college to fulfill that dream but apparently getting into one was way easier than finishing it. i really love physics and i think understanding how universe works is fundamental for our development as humanity but as i start studying in college i found myself losing my passion and feeling under-qualified for this major. it saddens me deeply and i lost all my confidence. i feel lazy and less than my peers.

sorry for the rant, you must be busy but as a fellow scientist (a successful and hard-working one i should add) i think you might have some advice for me. i really want to keep going but i can't seem to study because it never feels enough. have you ever felt like this? how do you keep yourself motivated and be a more disciplined person? thanks in advance and sorry again for bothering you.

anon.

(I apologize for not replying as our beloved Viktor, but as a former physics major, I very much empathize with your message. I worked very hard and eventually felt that the pace at which I needed to learn was one I could not maintain with my neurological disabilities. I did well in an accelerated private high school, but a post-graduation brain infection and other difficulties made the return to college in my thirties a rough adjustment. I have switched to my other passion, writing, for my degree. I too felt a great deal of depression as I struggled with an incredibly difficult subject, especially as I did all in my power to succeed. My husband fully believes I could have continued, but I now know I made the best choice for me. In my spare time, I teach myself math and read my physics books, without the stress of grades.

All this said, I truly believe all of us can learn whatever we wish with enough time, patience, and hard work. I highly recommend learning about how to learn; I found the information in "A Mind for Numbers" by Barbara Oakley especially encouraging and helpful. Invest in a tutor and take great care in crafting a distraction-free, but balanced study schedule. Ask the "dumb" questions that 75% of your peers are afraid to ask. Interleave different types of problems, and take breaks so your brain can alternate between diffused and focused thinking. Keep a picture of whatever goal you may have at your desk. Go to office hours.

And do not forget that learning and memorization take time. As a person accustomed to a 4.0, I had to accept that lower grades were the norm in my major. We see lone geniuses in the media and expect simplicity; real scientists struggle together. But, back to Viktor...)

Yes, Viktor is fine. Thank you for asking.

Failure is data, is it not? Perhaps you may find this surprising, but I struggled academically when I began at Piltover. While I had raw intelligence, I found many holes in my previous, primarily self-administered education as I proceeded through the Academy. Tutors and extra practice helped me to catch up. Analyze your data with fellow students, and help one another succeed.

Be kind to yourself; the universe is ineffably complex, and you are but one person. But, never, ever sell yourself short. The mind has great plasticity.

Good luck, my friend.

[realbeefman]

stacy is sooo interesting because she's in love with house but knows that they will never ever be able to have a healthy, stable, sane relationship because they're too similar so. she finds house-lite instead and marries him and. essentially moves on with her life! and is successful in this because she's a moderately well-adjusted person!

wilson, in contrast, never manages to escape the inevitable, in spite of his best efforts to find a house-lite of his very own, because he's an absolute fucking freak and ends up glued to house to the bitter. bitter end

[autumnwhistles]

(ft synthesised voice, also this isn't quite the start of the song but it works better as an excerpt)

[suddencolds]

.(personal)

[captain-astors]

Creature. (The rendered ones are referenced from manga panels)

[dduane]

Erotica and anniversaries

...The big E, first. Here she is. Isn't she lovely?

...Right there upstairs at the Library of Congress, on the second floor. (I noted at the time we passed through some years back—and continue to smile at the memory—that her artist has included his copyright statement right there, to make sure no one misses it.)

...Anyway, where were we? ...Oh yeah: the local takes on erotic writing and smut.

This subject seems to come up every couple of years. What nudged me into revisiting it this time was the notes off a comment to a post earlier today, responding to someone working on an explicit-leaning AU, and discussing the writing of (story) bibles for projects.

Anyway, the notes:

#love that the advice was not just 'stick to porn' or 'don't write porn at all' but 'ah yes; common problem; let me explain to you how to write a series bible'

Well, disclosure here: in my case, it can't really be otherwise. :)

Let this act as everybody's sort-of-biennial reminder (if needed) that I'm not going to be caught condemning people for writing smut, as I've written it myself. (And continue to do so when the mood moves me.)

The post from very nearly two years ago, discussing the issue in more detail, is over here. As you'll see if you read it, there were some folks who experienced brief episodes of cognitive dissonance on learning I was a cheerful writer of explicit material. Some of the surprise was probably due to the fact that a lot of people see me—mostly due to the relatively-higher profile of the Young Wizards books—as primarily a writer for younger readers.

But that's not how I got started. My (1979) debut novel centers a universe where the following exchange between two of the protagonists appears—they then being wrapped up in blankets and afterglow in the wake of a prolonged and enthusiastic post-reunion shag:

A soft chuckle in the darkness. “Lorn, remember that first time we shared at your place?” “That was a long time ago.” “It seems that way.” “—and my father yelled up the stairs, ‘What are you dooooooooing?’ “—and you yelled back, ‘We’re fuckinnnnnnnnnnng!’” “—and it was quiet for so long—” “—and then he started laughing—” “Yeah.”

Nor was this a one-off. This book and its sequels contain a fair number of passages in which human (and occasionally non-human) sexualities, both in the abstract and the experientially concrete, take center stage. And the mode in which they're expressed and discussed is intended for adults. Those sequences can probably be described as at least borderline erotica. (I certainly try had to be as graceful about such passages as I can, when and where it's appropriate to be.)

With this in mind, it's worth repeating what turns up in that earlier post, which came off a query to a ficcer about "how do you feel knowing that people may be jerking off to your work?":

I'm an entertainer. Writing's a form of entertainment. (And not just for the readership: for me, too.) To be aroused by art one's experienced is (almost by definition) to be entertained, I'd say...

Other people's art in these modes certainly is entertaining for me: and I desperately hope mine is for other people. (Almost all my more explicit writing is published only pseudonymously, which from my point of view is just fine. There's a fair amount of writing work out in the world that [for contractual or other business reasons] doesn't have my name on it. This is just more of the same.)

(Per that, adding here again my own tags from that earlier post:)

#and no I'm not going to let on where the smut is#why would i deny anyone the delights of the search#and of being repeatedly mistaken#while possibly finding smut writers who're better at it than i am#:)

Anyway, finally: from that earlier post—on nearly the thirty-eighth anniversary of something happening to me that would, just a year before the event, have seemed wildly unlikely—this note, unusually apposite because of what today is, and what's coming tomorrow.

I consider erotica—and its more casually-dressed (or undressed…) cousin, smut—to be perfectly legit forms of literary expression; ones that can soar to unexpected heights if you’re willing to put in the work. The sexy-stuff-writing muscle requires periodic exercise if it’s to remain viable and/or useful. So I exercise it. And being a 70-plus-year-old person who sometimes creaks audibly when she walks has done absolutely nothing to decrease my interest in the subject—the brain being, after all, the biggest sex organ, and the one least vulnerable to the depredations of time. If anything, nearly fifty years of experience (and more than three and a half decades of marriage to @petermorwood) have added… let’s just say nuance. 😏

So, happy Valentine's Day to all those who choose to celebrate, in whatever mode.

And to the Man Upstairs:

...See you in a few, sweetie. :)

[flipocrite]

I feel like it was in the best interests of America (’s elite) to be deliberately vague about the way our country educated its younger generations about fascism. I went to a magnet high school that did in fact go off-curriculum with a whole year spent analyzing 1984 in English class, but I don’t recall too much of a description of fascism in history class besides “authoritarian”, “censorship/book burning”, and “the bad guys in WWII”. This incomplete education conveys three incomplete ideas:

Authoritarian: fascism is when someone tells me I have to obey rules I don’t like, or that I will face consequences for disregarding them.

Censorship/book-burning: fascism is when people tell me I can’t use hate speech.

The bad guys in WWII: it was a thing of the past, so don’t worry about it.

Now we were smart students, we knew there was more to it. But fascism has a long, shameful, predictable history for which we as a country could have formally prepared, but chose not to. Not, I feel, because it wasn’t important, but because too many powerful people thought “hey, we might want to use some of these authoritarian tools someday, and we won’t be able to do that if people recognized where they came from”.

Maybe things would have been different if the key takeaways had been something like:

Fascism promises good things. It begins as populism, promising a return (i.e. inherently right-wing, reactionary, and not progressive) to economic normalcy/prosperity for the working-class. It promises safety, security, and comfort, like a old friend or… “older sibling”. It might introduce itself as a nationalist (or a patriot if the audience recognizes the former as a red flag), but it will not introduce itself with a handshake and “Hi, I’m evil and I like hurting people.” Historically, however, it has introduced itself bearing a flag and a catchy slogan, “Make Germany Great Again”.

Fascism preys on emotion and exploits it. It takes not just logical, but emotionally intelligent people to recognize this as it’s happening. It justifies division, violence, and distrust by stoking one’s senses of fear, anger and disgust (the three of which combine to create hate). The first thing fascism tells you is “You are fearful and angry and you need someone to blame”, and the second is “These people are disgusting, let us give them what they deserve”. Everyone believes in human rights until someone is an alleged terrorist or pedophile, after which “I’m so fearful, angry, and disgusted that I will actively disengage the rational part of myself that would otherwise seek to verify these allegations. In fact, I won’t even pause to logically acknowledge the dangers of allowing the state to torture or execute anyone subject to unverifiable accusations”. This is where English classes have a duty to drive home the fact that propaganda works best on self-proclaimed “logical/rational/unemotional thinkers”; they have simply chosen to identify their emotions as logical reasoning (e.g. conflating facts and opinions) and that makes them dangerous. Emotions are like assholes, in that everyone has them, you won’t see your own without some self-reflection, and the people who claim they don’t have one definitely have some kind of serious unexamined problem.

Fascism preys on logical thinking and destroys it. It requires a strict control of information and the narrative, and is an enemy of art, science, and journalism (c.f. lügenpresse). Its most powerful enemy, however, is truth itself, which means all institutions dedicated to credibility must be thoroughly discredited. Without truth, there can be no basis upon which logic can stand. This will manifest of course as book-banning/burning, but more subtly (and perhaps more importantly) as flooding political discourse with conspiracy theories and lies, ranging from a constant stream of small ones to the DISTRACTINGLY BLATANT. These may either be doubled down on, serve as a foot-in-the-door, or be hand-waved/forgotten as “They didn’t really mean that”. It would take dedicated teams of experts operating 24/7 to investigate and debunk such a constant stream of lies… if not for the lies “the experts can’t be trusted” and “Everyone lies anyways so it doesn’t matter”. The most effective propaganda has a clear direction and an unverifiable amount of truth. This includes the legendary “All politicians are corrupt” – i.e. “If no one is trustworthy, a logical choice is impossible… so vote with your emotions or stay home”. When fascism appears on your doorstep, it will be selling logical fallacies, and they will be emotionally justified. So when you turn on MSNBC or FOX, ask yourself even before if it is factually true: “Are they trying to tell me what I should think happened? Or are they trying to tell me how to feel about it?”

There are other signs and symptoms of a sick democracy, of course, such as “Suppression of sexuality and deviation from traditional gender roles” or “Obsession with law and order to the extent of sacrificing all privacy to a surveillance state for the promise of security”. But I am no expert to be cited with scholarly authority. This is mostly wishful thinking on my part, since none of this would be able to happen without America also recognizing the dangers of and taking protections against wealth inequality. In that sense, a nation like this was doomed from the very beginning, like watching the life cycle of a dying star.

Dictators in History:

- Hitler – “The good of the state stands above the law.”

- Mussolini – “Everything within the state, nothing outside the state, nothing against the state.”

- Napoleon Bonaparte – “I am the revolution.”

- Francisco Franco – “I am responsible only to God and to history.”

Trump:

"He who saves his country does not violate any law"

[itspileofgoodthings]

ALSO I am learning how to teach very introverted students, something my natural skillset as a teacher does not help me with.

[al-mayriti]

btw!! there's free virtual tours of all 16 spanish state museums both in english and spanish if you are interested, you can access all through here :)

[essektheylyss]

I was personally assaulted (honorific) by this essay on ambition. It's very good.

[aikoiya]

True, there really is no way to be sure, but it also seems the most plausible answer. At least, from my perspective, anyway.

Ah! I see! Thank you for clarifying. But yes, I agree.

And no worries, I get what you mean. Though, the fact that this has been our first real misunderstanding is actually very impressive! And, I can definitely work with this. In all honesty, it’s probably my American brain clashing with your French brain. My American naming sensibilities are telling me that I want a name without a comma, but I need to get out of my American brain sometimes, is all & my solution was to just give the restaurant inside it’s own separate name. Sorry for the mix-up.

And, well… Aside from the restaurant, my thoughts are that the entire building would be expanded, though not by too much. Still want it to be modest. On the bottom floor, there's this little pool of water in EoW. I'm thinking that they'd expand into that rock wall & add a room there; that's where the kitchen would be located. Then behind that, directly beneath Kushara's throne room would be where the wine is made, which will have a large door out the back for the vignerons to bring in the harvest. Also, the room where Kushara’s throne was located is converted into an office for the manager (with a portrait on the wall of both Kushara & Dradd; like one of those old founders’ portraits). And the manager would deal with the administrative/logistics work of both the restaurant, the vineyard, & the actual winery itself.

I’m also thinking that while most of the baybed will be used to grow Tidal Grapes & Bubble Kelp, I also think that the outer edges would be used to grow other things, like the Mignames & other seaweed type crops. (Which reminds me: I just discovered something called eelgrass. It grows something called marine rice & I just thought to myself, “perfect.”)

They also have an actual wine cellar (I definitely mentioned it before; the place where the little Zora kiddo that Dradd cheers up with his music likes to go hide), but that's more so for terrestrial wines made from Refreshing Grapes or Sour Grapes. The Tidal Grapes tend to be aged in containers at the bottom of the bay.

And, I also found some super cute chairs! X3

The backs are very specifically Brown Jordan style shell back grotto chairs & the cushion is sewn with silver thread. Now, I'm not sure about much else besides that, but I like it! And, I know that the tabletops will be made from seamount. At the same time, I'm debating whether to just use big carved slabs of seamount or having them be pieces of it as part of mosaics alongside pieced together seaglass to form different wave patterns for every table.

Ooo! I recently learned something! (Though, my guess is that you already know about this, but I still find it very interesting for lore purposes.) The French name of the Mermaid from Link’s Awakening is Martha, right? Well, my guess is that Martha’s Landing is a reference to that. So, what if it has legends regarding merfolk sightings? Just a thought! ^_^

Well, my question is, how are you gonna deal with the boulders blocking the entrance to the Plateau & how often do Link & Zelda even go up there?

I think that the reason for why you can destroy the rocks blocking the Plateau’s entrance in TotK is specifically because of the same thing that caused all the caves to show up: the Upheaval. My guess is that it shook them loose, which allowed Link to be able to bomb it open.

If that’s not taken care of, then the only ones going up there are the Rito, whoever the Rito carry up there with them, anyone with a hot-air balloon, & chaotic lunatics like Wild & the Yiga. I may have mentioned this before, so sorry if I'm repeating myself. 😅

Like, I don’t know if you mentioned this, so I’m just wondering, is all. You may have a logistical problem to work out there or due to there not really being an easy & accessible path up there, it’s actually fairly feasible for the Yiga to at least manage to dig a secret hideout beneath the Shrine of Resurrection without Link & Zelda knowing. Though, definitely not for lack of trying. But I also very much agree that the Yiga taking over Rhoam’s little cabin is very unlikely.

As for Castle Town's reconstruction. Hmm… If it were me, I'd start with the buildings that most would consider essential & a few residential buildings first. Things like wells, food storage places, a meeting area, maybe using the cathedral as a little makeshift hostel for treating injuries & the sick before eventually building a clinic, a general store, & a simple fence. So, my suggestion would be the town square along with some of the surrounding buildings & a few other things. But, again, just a suggestion.

Yes!! It’d be super fun to have the Indigo-Gos back!! I also think that they’d play the blues or smooth jazz. X3 Typically, just fairly chill & easy to listen to music. Maybe have Lulu lounge singing.

Thank you! I can’t easily even fully explain the compulsion that I felt upon first seeing Link in the Cece Hat. It was like I needed to correct a grave error. I legitimately think that if I could go into the game, but could only do one thing… I might honestly be seriously tempted to go to Cece & absolutely roast her regarding her decision there. I mean, Link's got the rest of Hyrule handled, but Hyrule's fashion scene might never recover! Like, “What on earth were you thinking?? I understand that coming up with new styles brings with it a degree of experimentation, but how DARE you?!” With the sassy head movement & everything.

Also, I like the ideas I had for the Lynel bosses, too! Though, I changed my mind about the Stormbringer having a pegasus hindquarters, it'd make more sense for it to have a griffon or hippogriff hindquarters. I mean, how interesting would that be? And imagine how difficult they’d be to fight!! Which, btw, how ridiculous is it that there are Pegasus Boots, but no pegasi? And a Mermaid Suit in the Oracle games, but the only mermaid you see is in Link's Awakening?? That honestly upsets me. Like, there are Furnixes (which are obviously phoenixes) & Rocs & fairies & stuff like that, but none of this other stuff???

True, it is a bit weird. Though, the Hylians were also dressed in a very tribal manner.

I will say that my theory is that TotK Ganondorf was a Sheikahphile. And by that I mean that he finds them interesting & admires them as warriors. So, the haori, katana, & even his other weapons, are all Sheikah in design. You already know about the katana (technically a wakizashi in his hands, I think, as he wields it one-handed), but his spear is either a naginata or a guandao, his club is a kanabo, & his bow is a daikyū. And that's not all either. The way he wears his haori is thought to be a reference to a legend saying that disgraced samurai wear their haoris that way & I've also read somewhere that even the way he holds & fires his bow is the way a samurai would. Which I just love! To me, that's very cool!

But that's just me. (Also, the Sage of Lightning's gladiator sandals were flipping adorable!)

Oh my goodness, same! Though, I also really wish there'd been more lore & stuff related to the Bargainers! Like, I find their existence to be interesting!

I mean, who was this guy?! Because the fact that he's placed in the same spots as the Goddess Statues kind of implies that whoever he was, he may have been a similar caliber of deity to HYLIA!! Which, btw, would be HUGE!! Like, an actual male deity that is able to so much as approach the level of Hylia amongst the absolute sorority that has been Hyrule's major deities?? AND he might not be complete evil?! Do please, tell me more!!

Like, personally, I'm hoping he's like lore accurate Hades & is legitimately a chill dude. Of course, I have my own hcs, (which are really just me making up my own stuff) but if I'm wrong about most of them, but not about the Hades comparison, then I think that could live with it.

Well, true. It would be easier, but I guess that I find it interesting? Mmm… I think that the Fishmen were some sort of spirits, actually? I remember that the 1st Fishman you talk to upon leaving Dragon Roost for Forest Haven mentions that he'd owed the King of Red Lions or something & that, with whatever information he gave the king, I… think he said that they were even?

And, I also remember that when you leave… I believe either Tombstone Isle or the Isle of Winds… & there's a Fishman talking to Daphnes. They were talking about the Forsaken Fortress.

It’s been a long time. So, I dunno. Maybe the Fishmen are some sort of spirit? Not, like, a Deku Tree level spirit, but more so a low-level one. Like a fairy versus a Great Fairy or a Korok versus the Deku Tree. And I wouldn't be surprised if even the big spirits didn’t know everything. And if so, then the lower-level ones would know even less.

Oh! Upon looking, yes! You know the Nintendo Figurine Gallery! You can take a picture of one of the Fishmen & it'll tell you a little information about them! And, in the English version, it says that the Fishmen were aided long ago by the King of Red Lions & that, because of this, they draw maps for Wind & give him (slightly off) information.

At the same time, I know that they know Daphnes as the King of Red Lions rather than as King Daphnes. As such, whatever took place would've needed to happen after the flooding of Hyrule.

Now, this doesn't confirm anything, but it's something. (And, if you happen to find the figurine in your version of the game, I'd very much like to know what it says.) And, I guess that I just think it's possible that the reason might be because the Fishmen have a purpose. Specifically, helping the Hero of Winds. Something else, they all say “Can't catch evil on an empty stomach.” And, I just read that a treasure hunter (salvage boat, I think) also mentions that there's no fish.

But, I get you. It can be a bit confusing.

It's also possible that the reason that monsters can survive in magic water is simply because they’re made of black magic. And, if that's the case, then maybe the Fishmen are also beings of magic? Further, Jabun swims in the water just fine & he's specifically known as a Water Spirit. I also just read someone noting that the words on Wind's map are written in Hylian. As in, not the alphabet of the Great Sea. So, I dunno. If it was the Fishmen who wrote those words on the map, then that plus these other little tidbits of things. Then, it's possible that maybe they know more than what we suspect? Maybe they're even related in some way to Jabun himself?

Now, I don't know. I'm just sort of throwing paint at the canvas to see if I can get a vague silhouette. But it's possible that the reason why they can swim in the Great Sea, but the Zora & other fish couldn't, is truly as simple as monsters & Fishmen are made of magic, therefore they can swim in magic water. Meanwhile, I believe that it's noted somewhere that the Zora originally evolved from fish &, if so, that indicates that they're organic in nature? As such, there might not be any oxygen in the magic water &, if so, then that may be why the Zora couldn't live there. Because that's how gills function: they pull oxygen from water, but if there IS no oxygen in the water, then their gills wouldn't work & they couldn't breath. It certainly wouldn't have been the oddest thing for the Zelda series to pull.

Ooo! That's true! That’d be interesting! And I remember now that you did say that the Sheikah Slate breaks. (So, that nixes that idea.) However, maybe… Well, the rune for Stasis had to come from somewhere, right? And you still have Sonia, who is also the Priestess of Time. So, that might be a way around it. If I know Flora, I bet she had Wild show her everything on the Slate. For example, we know that she knew about the camera feature, but I can't remember if she knew about the other runes. If not, then I bet she demanded that Wild show them to her. And you know that she'd document them in her journal. Most likely, I see her wishing to figure out a way to replicate the effect. Also, remember the Rune that Purah made to turn her back into a toddler?

A bit more information, so long as the seeds are completely dry, frozen, & stored in a cold, dark area, they can remain viable for up to several decades. And, if she were to do research on those runes & figure out how they work, possibly by searching Sheikah archives in the distant past or some such, then add onto that meeting Sonia, who's the Sage of Time, maybe make it so that being Sages actually does give them some sort of power.

Maybe, Sonia could use her magic to trigger the runes themselves? In fact, you could even use Zelda appearing in the past & getting help from Sonia to recreate the Stasis Rune as what eventually lead to the Sheikah developing the Sheikah Slate to begin with. Again, just suggestions.

Ah! I just remembered something! The Champions' abilities from BotW may be references to the spells from the OG Legend of Zelda! Daruk's Protection seems to correlate to an upgraded Shield Spell, Revali's Gale to an upgraded Jump Spell, Mipha's Grace to an upgraded Life Spell, & Urbosa's Fury to an upgraded Thunder Spell! What's interesting is that, if so, then there are 4 other spells left that could be played with. The Fire Spell, the Reflect Spell, the Fairy Spell, & the Spell... Spell. Yes, I'm aware how silly the last one sounds, but still. Anyway, I just found that interesting because I believe that you learn them from Wisemen.

Hmm… That's true… Then again. If you think about it, that in & of itself could be the reason why we just don't really get any mention of the Triforce in the Wild Era. At least, in your version of events. I mean, like you said, it's caused nothing but problems. So, if the Triforce of your timeline were to have been sealed in the place where Sky found it & it caused so much strife, then why wouldn't people just, ya know? Leave it there & even just let it fade into obscurity?

Because, remember, they wouldn't have needed to use it here due to Sky coming back & killing Demise. Or maybe, after Zelda finds it, Sonia seals it inside of herself & that's actually the Sealing Magic that Zelda uses in BotW? You remember that the Triforce appeared on her hand, right? That could be why there's zero mention of it. Because they wanted to keep it entirely concealed so as to prevent all the mayhem that was caused by people knowing of its existence before.

Consider this, if its very existence is forgotten, then by the time of BotW, any records of it might even be little more than dust.

And while we know that Impa said that Hylia lifted Skyloft into the air “recently;” in historical terms, “recent” can range from anywhere between a few decades to a few centuries. How much time could have passed between Skyloft's accent & Hylia's death?

Similarly, as we've both noted, the Master Sword would still be the Goddess Blade & Fi would not be sleeping. In a way, she'd still have some sort of mission to accomplish, but no way to do so.

But even more than that, the spirit of the hero would not have been tested & wouldn't have undergone spiritual growth via the Trials of the Silent Realms. Not only that, but who would Sonia even be in the grand scheme of things? Because due to Hylia only just recently dying, there wouldn't have been a Sun in this timeline. Not yet, anyway. Possibly not at all. As such, there'd also be no blood of the goddess because Hylia wouldn't have been reborn as a mortal, yet.

I don't remember if you have something in mind for that, but I can't help but wonder if Sky & Sun will eventually still be born, just with a different life. Because, if not, wouldn't that mean that there isn't a Spirit of the Hero in this timeline &, thus, no Chosen Hero? Not only that, but no Bloodline of the Goddess? I mean, it'd certainly be a different direction, I admit, but it kinda destroys the entire formula that was put into place by Skyward Sword.

Sorry, I don't mean to be a negative Nelly. I guess that I'm just invested & I tend to really dig into things that I'm invested in. 😅

But, I will say that I can't wait to read it! BTW, have you posted the 1st chapter anywhere yet? If so, I'd very much like to read it! 😁

Okay, yeah, fair. That makes perfect sense. There would most definitely be a huge stigma against an entire race outright cursed by the Golden Goddesses.

Mmm… Okay, maybe “all men are evil” was a bit much. However, it would imply that all Gerudo voe are evil or, at the very least, were created to do Kōme & Kotake's evil bidding &... I just find that entirely uninteresting. Plus, there's the thing about how one is born every hundred years. Like, do you mean that every hundred years, the Twinrova would create another Ganondorf? Or that they somehow used magic to alter the Gerudo's genetic makeup, thus allowing them to have 1 male every century?

Like, I'm guessing that you mean they changed the Gerudo's genetic makeup, because them just outright making a new Ganondorf every century really wouldn't make sense as such would require that the Twinrova (or anyone else who could do so) always be alive to bring the next one into being. And if they weren't, then Rhondson wouldn’t simply claim that male Gerudo were “incredibly rare,” but rather that they simply don't exist. The fact that she stated that they were incredibly rare implies a degree of currentness to them. And 10,000 years is a long time for a culture to continue to believe in something. You'd think that after so long without another, the existence of male Gerudo would become relegated to myth. The fact that they aren't indicates that they're still being born. We just haven't seen them or we have & it was never expliyeah,

And, yeah, I definitely agree that the Kōme & Kotake option could easily be very interesting, I also think that whoever took it on would need to be careful how they handled it. Because, if not, they’d risk reducing Ganondorf to a mindless attack dog for them, which though interesting & would function as a way to turn them into the true masterminds behind Ganondorf's continued presence, it would also reduce Ganondorf as not only a villain, but a person.

Now, if I were to take on this particular, titanic task, I'd go the route of Pinocchio. And, yes. I realize the hilarity in that suggestion, but all I mean is, Ganondorf rebelling against his creators & choosing his own destiny to “become a real boy.” Not literally, but in a metaphorical sense… I think that's the correct term, anyway…

And, I don't even mean redemption. Just… let him be a person. Like, a return to WW Ganondorf's level of depth, but as a new Ganondorf.

And, I will say that I really think it'd be important to have this possible homunculus Ganondorf be created as a child that is capable of growth & maturation. Otherwise, I just don't see the rest of the Gerudo… buying that he's Gerudo... Or human… Or alive…

Another question is whether he'd be aware of the fact that he isn't exactly natural. If not, that could work as a means to cause him to falter in his plans & possibly show a glimpse of something other than Mr. Villain Man.

Mmm… I dunno. I think that my big issue with the idea that their reason for keeping men out being to preserve their culture is that it makes zero sense. Like, why would men be any more a danger to preserving their culture than foreign women?

To me, that’s like saying that women don’t carry their cultures. No matter what they do, there will always be a degree of acculturation unless they literally ban foreign women from entering & Gerudo from traveling.

Remember how Maddison was teaching the nice old lady in Terrey Town the Gerudo language? That’s a very small example of acceleration.

And, yes, I understand that this is a very tiny example that wouldn’t make much impact on its own. But, as you’ve likely heard before, repeatedly, a lot of small problems, when not dealt with, will add together & will eventually create a big one.

Besides, in America, the reasoning for it that we were given had to do with superstition, which is more in-line with what I think the reasoning is. “For a young vai, speaking with a voe will only invite misfortune.” At least for the Wild Era. Then there's how the purchasing of the Vai Set from Vilia & the Voe Set from the Secret Shop were framed in BotW. It was like they were elicit. Which was very weird.

Mmm… True, but I guess that the reason that I don't recognize them as being in quite as bad a situation as the Gerudo has to do with the fact that the Gerudo are the only ones we really get any real knowledge on how they reproduce.

I do recognize that the Kokiri were actively more screwed before their transition to Koroks, but I think that that specific issue was fixed by the Deku Tree turning them into Koroks. Also, I'm pretty sure that the Koroks are spirits, so that's something to account for as I don't think it was ever specified how they come into being.

And, was it stated that the WW Rito couldn't mature into adulthood without Valoo's scales? I thought it was just that they wouldn't develop their wings? 🤔

But, yeah. I tend to be of the opinion that the Gorons just bud. Like, they get growths & when those growths fall off, they sink into the ground & “incubate” until it's time to pop out. Like the Gems from Steven Universe, but more natural & no need for machinery.

True. But in the case of the Triforce, they also left someone who was supposed to look after it: Hylia. So, in a situation where Hylia was the Goddess of Time, they at least were aware of such a possibility & created someone who was a good planner.

And, I guess that I just wouldn’t really consider the ability to recognize the fact that if the patron goddess they created to allow the all-female race, which they intentionally made, to reproduce were to be killed, that it might cause a problem, to be the sort of thing that would take that much cognitive ability.

Especially for a Goddess of Wisdom because wisdom very much does require some degree of forethought & discernment.

Eeeh… I dunno. I mean, I’m not the Goddess of Time & I still had the foresight to realize that there’d, realistically, be issues that would inevitably crop up with an all-female race that still relies on men.

I’m just saying that I’d expect a goddess to at least have enough of an understanding of cause & effect to recognize that such problems would most likely show themselves.

… True. Maybe I'm being too biased? To be fair, like you said, they have to travel in order to find men & I think that I don't see that as ideal because of the monsters. Gleeoks & Lynels are very real threats. To me, that causes travel to become a huge risk/reward game with a high probability of death. Admittedly, the Gerudo all seem to be trained & that likely lessens the risk to a degree, but still.

I actually remembered a realistic possibility. Calicos.

… Like, the vast majority of calico cats are female, but it's entirely possible for male calicos to be born. Yet, even though the likelihood of a mother having male calico kittens is extremely low, it doesn’t stop them from having male kittens. It’s simply that those male kittens generally aren’t calicos.

It could be interesting to have the Gerudo work similarly. In that the Gerudo can bear males, but only one of them per century winds up being predominantly Gerudo. All the others mostly take after their non-Gerudo parent. In such a case, it could be possible that the Gerudo simply leave the non-Gerudo boys with the father.

And, I think that this shows potential because it would result in something far more sustainable for them as a people, would allow for them to keep their unique lore, but would also leave room for issues that need to be fixed, but they’d be more social in nature than biological.

And while there is basically no evidence of such, I think that it’d make for a very interesting angle to explore & could be a fun hc to play with.

Now, I’m not about to tell you to do anything, but I just thought I’d bring it up to see if you thought you could use anything there.

Thank you. Sorry, I can sometimes get frustrated. 😅

@aikoiya The post was getting long again so here's a new one!

I knew you were going to answer that saying "this is unfair" isn't real life logic haha (and I agree that life hasn't been fair to Sky and Sun anyway). It's just that such an ending would probably leave me feeling unsatisfied and even a bit robbed, and I think it would require a lot of other changes to be made to the story in order for it to work properly. But anyway you're right, as things are now this would just be happening behind the scenes so what I'm saying doesn't really make sense. But just thinking about it changes my perception of SS in a way I don't really enjoy, so it's not a theory I favor.

Yes in that setting I'm pretty sure that the other Sun would not make herself known to Link and Zelda and would let them have their happy ending. But I think Zelda would likely suspect her existence and know that something is wrong. I guess even Link could notice that the Temple's doors are suddenly open and would ask Impa a few questions.

I had no idea Tingle called Farore the Goddess of Wind in WW, so I went on a little quest to see if I could find the same quote in the French version of the game. Apparently it's in Tingle's description of Outset Island and I never had the chance to play with the Tingle Tuner mode. I can't find the same quote in French anywhere and I don't even know if this was included in the HD remake (I guess I'll have to wait for a Switch version to find out… if they ever release one). This has me wondering if this quote isn't something exclusive to the English version, but I can't be sure and I'd like to know what the original Japanese text says. The French wikis mention that Farore is the Goddess of Wind in WW but don't provide any quote, it just looks like the pages were translated from English but that they couldn't find the same quote in French. It's really frustrating!!

Anyway that's a bit weird because WW already establishes Zephos as the God of Wind, and he seems to be a minor deity compared to Farore. The way I see it, wind is just the element that Farore tends to be associated with, and since a lot of myths might have been lost with Hyrule in WW this could just be a mistake on Tingle's part. I mean this is the game that gave us the Golden Triumph Forks haha.

I'm not limiting Nayru/the Golden Goddesses to a singular domain, quite the opposite ^^ To me Nayru being the Goddess of Wisdom includes different concepts such as order, law, science, magic, etc., and even time (since she's introduced as the creator of the world's fondamental laws), while calling her the Goddess of Time doesn't include all of that. That's why I wrote that I found it a bit restrictive. But sure she could have both titles, the same way Farore could be known most commonly as the Goddess of Courage and also called the Goddess of Wind in some situations.

Oh I didn't think of the blocks from OoT! I would say though that they don't really use any time powers, they're just random blocks that appear or disappear for some reason when Link plays the Song of Time (it's just as absurd as playing the Song of Storms to open holes in the ground haha). But yes they were blue and associated with time, and of course Nayru is too. The difference with Hylia in my theory is that Nayru created the rules of time (if that makes sense) among other fundamental laws, while Hylia's power specifically allows her to manipulate time and foresee the future. In a way I see Hylia as Nayru's spiritual daughter who inherited some of her powers over time (and that's why the color purple she's represented with is very close to blue).

The Master Sword has also been depicted as either blue or purple though, so that asks the question of the true color of all of these things! Nayru is definitely linked to time so it makes sense that the timeshift stones are in Lanayru (and Hylia also doesn't have a province named after her).

"From the edge of time" could definitely just be a poetic way to say that Hylia kind of recorded a message for Link before dying haha. But I find it interesting that she would phrase it like that, I like to see it as a clue.

Well if Zelda simply sent Link to a point further back in time, wouldn't there be two Links existing at the same time in the Child Timeline? But sure Zelda creating a brand new timeline also raises a few questions that kind of... make my head hurt. I'm not sure what happens exactly, I've always wondered! All we know is that Link finds himself in the Master Sword's chamber with the Door of Time already open, which hints at things happening in a different way this time (because he definitely doesn't have the three spiritual stones and the Ocarina of Time yet since this is before Ganon's coup, and the ending seems to imply that this timeline's Zelda doesn't know him yet). That's why I believe Zelda might have done something a bit more complex than sending him to a point further back in time, but there's no way to be sure. The Triforce of Courage is also visible on Link's hand during the ending, and we also know thanks to TP that the Triforce is still separated in the Child Timeline despite Link and Zelda preventing Ganon from entering the Sacred Realm this time. So maybe Zelda isn't able to change everything? It's complicated haha.

Anyway, whether OoT Zelda creates a new timeline or just sends Link further back in time, that's still huge time powers and that's not something Link is able to do by playing Zelda's Lullaby.

I also believe it is more likely that Talon inherited the ranch. True, Talon might not always have been so lazy, but maybe if that was the case the game could have hinted at hit. All we know is that he leaves his daughter alone with Ingo and only comes back after Link deals with the situation, which does not make him look so great. And he only promises to work harder after that.

I'm kind of bad with names so I'm impressed you're going through all of that trouble to rename the settlements!!

I haven't gotten to developping the technology that much yet, but I'm really interested in seeing what the different races could do with it! I love the idea of using the Sheikah to infiltrate the Yiga bases. I wish TotK had done something like that and shown the Sheikah helping Link that way.

Same, I was so excited when I heard about these pirates… and then so disappointed to find nothing more than a bunch of bokos with no backstory.

Vignoble is not related to noble (though I kind of make the association in my mind, especially since vignobles are sometimes called châteaux).

Yes I thought you could maybe use clos! Aquaticlos is funny, it can work! Though maybe you could use the same logic as for the raisins (I love this Raisins de Terre idea by the way, it makes sense!) and say that what the Zoras call a clos already refers to something that's underwater, since that's probably the case for most of what they cultivate.

I don't mind helping you with French, I'm glad to do so! You put so much effort and thought into this, it's really interesting.

[petrow1tch]

They weren't lying, this psychological recovery journey got hands

[sysig]

Coding woes (Patreon)

[californiaquail]

anyone else feeling fundamentally incapable of adjusting to society. also just discovered there's a 30 tag limit which i can't believe i've never hit before