#sorry for hijacking your post op but they're making the same face I could not help myself

[mozart-the-meerkitten]

*continues finding connections between characters I like* WELP

I drew the dilf from voltron bc I remembered he exists ngl. And thank GOD for that

[lastoneout]

Sorry to hijack your post OP but people in the tags were saying "well it says Zelda's house on the sign ect." and I just wanted to tackle all that because this assumption is a HUGE pet peeve of mine.

'Cuz like, from what I recall Zelda evicting Link is what most people assumed, but imo that's also the most bad-faith read on the situation imaginable, and is directly contrary to Zelda's established personality. There are so many other reasons why the house could have transferred ownership that are in line with both Zelda and Link's characterization and also how the world seems to work, jumping to the most extreme one that paints her as a selfish asshole is ridiculous.

BotW/TotK Zelda is not selfish. She is a little arrogant and rude, but she's under a hellish amount of pressure and that's only at the beginning of the story, by the end she absolutely respects and values Link as her equal, and based on subtext(that's basically text) she's clearly developed some sort of deeper feelings for him. This Zelda would never storm into anyone's house and demand they move out and give her full ownership of the building, let alone Link's house. I genuinely do not understand how anyone who is actually paying attention to the story could come to that conclusion unless they just really do not like Zelda.

Every character we talk to in TotK who has met Zelda talks about how selfless and kind she is. How she helps people with their problems, loves learning and sharing new information, sets up sanctuaries for rare animals, contracts Hudson Construction to leave free building materials around for people who need them, puts up monuments to everyone lost in the Calamity, builds a school for the children of Hateno Village, makes a new tunic for Link as a gift, and never acts like she's better than her subjects. There is nothing in the text that points to Zelda being the kind of self-important careless jerk who would steal someone's house.

My personal assumption was that Zelda has an image to uphold. She's trying to rebuild an entire country, how people view her is important, and the people in Hateno Village are clearly ALL up in her business like 24/7. Plus, from what I recall, the sensibilities of this world are still a bit old fashioned. Zelda isn't married, so I can kinda imagine that the villagers would think it a bit improper/weird that the Princess(and future Queen) of Hyrule is living with a man. Especially her sworn knight. And yes times have changed, but to the rest of the world they have a very specific kind of relationship and I figure them showing up and saying "yep we're together and living in the same one-room house completely unsupervised and we're not even married dwbi" would raise a few eyebrows. There's only one bed in the house, and based on that and the fact that in the game you can only sleep in beds Link "owns" or is renting, and you can indeed sleep in this bed, I think they're both sleeping there. Based on all that I think the most logical conclusion is that they are living together, but to save face Zelda and Link pretend it's her house, even though it technically isn't.

(And that could also account for the decorations being gone, if people come over and the place doesn't look like Zelda's house they are going to make assumptions. Even then, the most important belonging of Link's, the photo from BotW's DLC, is still up. Yes, Zelda probably has emotional attachment to that picture as well, but leaving it up could also be a sign she still values Link's having a say in how their shared living space is decorated, as he's the one who displayed it in the first place.)

The other possibility is that Link gave her the house without her asking. Link takes his job as Zelda's sworn knight VERY seriously. He's shown to be incredibly devoted to her, and she just spent 100 years trapped in a hell dimension holding back the embodiment of all evil. Wouldn't it be nice for her to have a safe place to call her own? Somewhere remote that isn't under as much scrutiny? Where she can close the doors and relax and not have to be the Princess and Reincarnated Goddess for five minutes? Somewhere with no visual reminders of violence? I can absolutely see Link giving her the house, or at least telling her she can call it her house and have some control over the way it looks, and even taking the weapon plaques down of his own volition and replacing them with peaceful pictures of Hyrule so she isn't thinking about fighting while she's resting. Like there's no way Zelda doesn't have C-PTSD from all the shit she's been through, she's seen enough violence, taking the weapons down makes sense.

It could also be a misunderstanding. I love the idea of Zelda trying to broach the topic of their relationship by talking about them living together, hint hint wink wink, only for Link, who doesn't have an off switch and would do anything for her to be like "oh you can have this house dw I'll sleep in the shed" to Zelda's immense disappointment. It could just be a miscommunication that Zelda doesn't know how to correct.

The villagers could have also assumed it's Zelda's house, and that misunderstanding also blew up to the point that it's just impossible to correct. We don't even know if Zelda is the one that put up the sign saying it's her house. The villagers could have done that without talking to her about it. Maybe they made the sign to make her feel more welcome and just didn't think that adding Link's name was important. She's not gonna turn down or complain about a thoughtful gift from her subjects.

Link also isn't a glory hound. He specifically has talked about how being in the spotlight stresses him out to the point that he can't even speak most of the time, and the people in Hyrule continuously assume he isn't the Hero because he's short or weird or whatever. I can think of multiple interactions in BotW and TotK where people just refuse to believe Link is who he says he is even when he's bluntly telling them exactly who he is and HOLDING THE DAMN MASTER SWORD TO BOOT. Maybe he just doesn't care if people think it's Zelda's house, or he even prefers it that way because it means people aren't paying as much attention to him.

Also, while it's obvious that Zelda doesn't feel that way, he is her knight. Sharing her spotlight isn't really...appropriate based on the etiquette of the royalty. He is important, but still below her. He's her shadow, not her equal, and he's meant to sacrifice his own comfort for hers. If there's one bed, Zelda gets it. If they're camping and Zelda is sleeping, Link is keeping watch. If there's only enough food for one person, Zelda gets it. Link is a hero and a knight, but Zelda is royalty and a goddess. If Zelda is in danger, Link saves her, even at the cost of his own life. He literally dies for her in BotW. That's how this works. Even if Zelda herself would disagree, WHICH SHE WOULD, bcs she clearly loves Link and views him as her equal, if not her better.

There are tons of reasons why the house could be thought of as Zelda's that don't involve willfully and blatantly mischaracterizing her as a selfish asshole who kicked Link out of his own home and makes him sleep in the damn shed just because she wants a house. Zelda is the opposite of selfish, she gives up everything multiple times just to save Hyrule. She weeps over her fallen friends because she couldn't protect them from Gannon. She hates herself for not being able to communicate with the Goddess, spending hours and hours praying on cold hard stone or in freezing water wearing a dress she hates because she knows what's on the line. She writes in her diary about how she was unfair to Link because she was jealous and how she just wants to get to know him and apologize for treating him so poorly when he didn't do anything wrong. Urbosa literally talks about how Zelda is essentially killing herself to try to save everyone and how unfair that is to her, like Urbosa is one of the few people who actually treats Zelda like the scared, abused, miserable teenager she is who desperately needs time to just exist without people worshiping the ground she walks on or expecting her to nearly kill herself to awaken her powers. The other Champions also recognize how much she's doing and how awful it is that this is all on her shoulders.

Even Zelda's father recognizes how badly he fucked up by treating her the way he did when all she ever did was try to help.

Hell, in TotK she essentially commits a sin to save Hyrule, one she believes will permanently separate her from everyone she knows and loves, and lives for thousands of years as a dragon. You literally BREAK PIECES OF HER SCALES AND TEETH AND CLAWS OFF OF HER to upgrade your armor. She is legit sacrificing her life, mind, her soul, her entire body to help Link and the people of Hyrule.

Say what you want about BotW/TotK Zelda, but she is the opposite of selfish. She would never walk into Link's home, claim it for herself, and kick him out. If you think she would, again, you must already dislike her/aren't paying attention because her doing this would be contrary to every single piece of characterization we are shown in both games. There are DOZENS of reasons the house could have transferred ownership, or appear to have transferred ownership, and the fact that people immediately assume that Zelda was an asshole about it is sus as hell. Legit blaming a female character for something she never did that goes against everything we know about her. If you don't like Zelda that's fine, I won't tell you you're wrong, but at least hate her in an accurate way. This is like a level 4 headcanon moment. You just made that shit up. It isn't supported by the text or world-building or characterization.

Anyway end rant, sorry again OP but I love Zelda and BotW/TotK and this shit just pisses me off SO bad.

remember when totk came out and people realized that zelda was living in link’s house but instead of her moving in with him, which is the obvious answer that nintendo handed to us on a silver platter, they legitimately believed that she just evicted him