Been struggling with my brain. Stressed cuz I can’t move soon and it’s gonna take A lot of time to get it all squared away. I can’t relax cuz I don’t know how.
My entire worth is tied up in competitive victory and it’s something I have to unlearn.
“Why don’t people recognize Link in TOTK” bc everyone imagines the legendary swordsman to be built like Ganondorf and Link doesn’t bother correcting anyone bc being hailed as a hero is like on the bottom of his priorities, which are topped by things like “Bake one of every pie”
Rando farmer: They say that once the noble hero of legend passed by this very village! Isn’t that wonderful to imagine, genderfluid stranger?
Link, 5'6" with 2" heels and wearing a backless dress suspiciously stained with blood: no yeah that’s wild
“Wouldn’t they recognize him bc he’s with Zelda” Everyone interacting with Zelda was like “Wow, the princess!! The princess who saved Hyrule is here, talking to us! Plus some guy with three sets of pronouns who’s building a bomb but more importantly The Princess!! Wow!!”
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Zelda keeps coming across spare genders she doesn’t need and Link follows behind scooping them all up off the ground like a starving trash possum
Someone uses an unfamiliar pronoun around Zelda, and she hears the item pickup sound come from Link
Every time this comes across my dash it’s gotten better.
THIS
Link loaned Zelda a set of he/him at one point and he called himself Sheik for about half a game.
also absolutely hate when people say “this is set a million years from now and there’s still racism and homophobia? #problematic” and then you read it and it’s a scathing and concise yet meticulous examination of our current views on race and gender and sexuality. you don’t understand what the point of science fiction is. escapism is not the pinnacle of the written form that all genre fiction should aspire to. you’re annoying me
the fantastical setting allows for the writer to make our current day issues larger than life and therefore more easily examined and deconstructed. in genre fiction fantasy is often used as a microscope and through it we can try to better understand what’s gone so wrong with us in the modern day, we can try to point to the cancer in the cells. it’s natural to want to escape sometimes (i love a good romcom for example) but you do need to confront a mirror every once in a while. the solution to your pain is not to bury your head in squeecore. sorry i said squeecore
You know, it’s kinda funny how much of high fantasy centers around kings and nobility and courtly intrigue considering that the archetypal high fantasy, Lord of the Rings, had the rather explicit moral of “saving the world is up to this backwater hick and his gardener because no politician, least of all inherited nobility, would have the ability to see past their own ambition and throw away a weapon”. Oh sure, Aragorn is a great king and all, but there’s a reason he’s over there running a distraction ring while the hobbits do the real work. Sauron loses because he gets distracted by kings and armies and great battles (i.e. typical high fantasy stuff) letting Frodo and Sam sneak through his back door and blow it all to hell.
Just saying, maybe old Jirt knew what he was saying when he said that the small folk doing their best and holding to each other was more powerful than a dozen alliances and superweapons and we should respect him for it.
chronic fatigue from mental illness and neurodivergency isn’t something you can just will your way out of. your nervous system is part of your body. your brain is an organ. the fatigue is real. you’re not lazy. so be gentler with your bodymind.
Call me Jolly. 32. Queer, transbian. novelist, putting queer protags into genre fiction, one story at a time. Currently writing AETHER STATION ONE, a story about magical people living on a space station trying to prevent fascism spreading to the stars, updating monthly on patreon.com/1thejollywriter ! And I can't believe I gotta say it but: if you're conservative/centrist, you are going to have a bad fucking time here.
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