Back when Ocarina of Time came out I was very young and it was my favorite game, so I created a self-insert character named August.

My head-canon was this: Since Koume and Kotake had influenced the creation and birth of Ganondorf he might not be the actual destined male, born every 100 years. Another Gerudo named Ra’Hel had gone out, met a nice Hylian and gave birth to August, the centennial Male. But as this was a threat to Ganondorf, he was disguised and raised among the women and girls. He also had a twin sister and best friend named Havah who knew his secret. (Why didn’t Ra’Hel just take August and Havah and leave? I dunno I was a kid.)

Years later, Link comes and befriends the Gerudo and August in particular. This began the adventures I would write about where Link, Sheik and August quested across Hyrule to stop Ganondorf’s evil plans.

August had the unique weapons of a whip named Sirocco, which he could use for various purposes like Indiana Jones, a beautifully bejeweled Gerudo Scimitar, and a golden, clawed glove of his own making on his right hand that helped him scale/slide down walls as well as fight.

Character wise he was a soft spoken and deeply sensitive, but very confident young man with strong convictions who was very excited to see the outside world and be himself without having to hide. In one story, I wrote that he found out Sheik was Zelda in disguise but kept her precious secret as he deeply understood her predicament, having lived it himself for years. In later stories, he was confused because he found both Sheik (Zelda) and Link attractive! He ultimately fell deeply in love with Link but never told him… although the fact that Link seemed attracted to the male-presenting Sheik gave him hope… Yup, slow-burn/unrequited romance! (Young pre-out bisexual me was pretty spicy don’t you think? Haha)

In the end, he helped Link and Zelda retake the kingdom and while he was supposed to become King, as per tradition, having seen the Gerudo culture from a different POV, he was a strong proponent of abandoning this tradition and passed the crown to his twin sister, Havah. August continued his adventures and friendship with Zelda, but now, sadly, without Link. He journeyed far and wide helping rebuild, looking to rehabilitate the image of the Gerudo across Hyrule. The last story I wrote was a short one where Zelda and August reminisce and share how much they miss Link.

I kept this character locked away for years. Then when Breath of the Wild came out and Link was disguised as a Vai, I remembered August and eagerly found and touched up an old drawing of him. I was so excited! I thought “This old story still works and he fits even better in the BOtW world!” (I didn’t get my own skin tone quite right, as I am a little darker than August in this picture.)

Now that Tears of the Kingdom is out, I am sharing this for the first time. Seeing Link’s arm and the art style of everything as well as the story of ToTK, which is all about finding yourself and finding a family of friends, I felt August fit better than ever! Like it or not The Legend of Zelda has long been a safe, inviting, exciting world for people like me (Jewish, Spanish, Cis-Bi Male) as well as for many others. I hope it continues to be for years to come. Hyrule is big enough for everyone.

I know many folks hate that they aged up Jon. But for those of us who grew up LGBTQ+ THIS is a real lived experience. We didn’t get to have all the fun teenage/High School experiences. We missed an important gap of time and it IS sad and not fair. Time is a theft you can NEVER recover. It’s cruel. And While it’s getting better some places, its getting worse others.

So reading stories like this help us know we are not alone; Not trapped alone in a volcanic environment by a tyrant. The metaphor works all the way around and it’s important to someone, if not to you.

The battle in this world isn’t between good and evil, it’s between hope and despair.

#superman fans are compassion fans

#a hug is his greatest superpower

Nightwing #103 - “Night at the Circus” (2023)

written by C.S. Pacat art by Eduardo Pansica, Julio Ferreira, & Adriano Lucas

Rains

A quick story, with major spoilers for the ending of Tron: Identity.

As Query and Cass walked away, side by side, from the Repository, the rain became less intense, a soft, gentle drizzle, almost a mist, though still cold. Query pulled his coat closer, trying to shield and warm himself as best as he could. Cass, however, leaned their head back and let the gentle raindrops caress their face. They smiled, and spoke.

“I just remembered something else.”

Query tensed up. Cass’ memories had been a source of many painful, powerful and frightening revelations this night. Was there even more of them yet to come? Noticing his tension, Cass stopped walking and put their hand on his shoulder, their smile reassuring.

“Don’t worry, it’s nothing like… like that. I just remembered a poem.”

“A… poem?”

“Yes. Someone told me it, a long time ago, before… before all this. It’s a poem written by a User in times past. It must have been in one of Flynn’s books, someone must have read it, and passed it on to others.”

Cass wiped some of the moisture from their face, looked down at their hands, and continued.

“The rain just now, the soft rain, it reminded me of it. Would you like to hear it?”

Query smiled, relaxing. “I’d love to.”

Cass began walking again while reciting the poem. There was no hesitation, apparently they remembered it clearly.

“There will come soft rains and the smell of the ground, And swallows circling with their shimmering sound; And frogs in the pools singing at night, And wild plum-trees in tremulous white; Robins will wear their feathery fire Whistling their whims on a low fence-wire; And not one will know of the war, not one Will care at last when it is done. Not one would mind, neither bird nor tree If mankind perished utterly; And Spring herself, when she woke at dawn, Would scarcely know that we were gone.”

Query felt some of the tension returning. True, it wasn’t as bad as the other things Cass had told him, but it still disturbed him on some level. Still, he tried to put on a brave face as he spoke, feeling the cold raindrops despite his best efforts.

“I can see why you would remember it now.”

Cass only nodded. The two of them kept walking, side by side.

---

Poem by Sara Teasdale, 1918.

Unruly 🌱 twitter

The French really don’t fuck around.

I get so emotional baby 🍷🍷🍷

I keep thinking about the sentiment, “Tell him ‘I love him more than anything he could ever do wrong.’”

This one sentence gets to the basest human desire. I would that everyone could feel that kind of love.

I would that more people could GIVE that kind of love.

#Lgbtqpeopleknow #savingwhatwelove #notfightingwhatwehate #brassoisahumanhug

the common misconception of what Shakespeare's sonnets are (heterosexual love poetry, which is just... patently false unless you bend your mind into shapes you could open wine bottles with lol) vs. what Shakespeare's sonnets actually are (prime queer love poetry, we stan a messy bisexual king) vs. what Shakespeare's sonnets REALLY actually are (the most hilariously overwrought reaction to entering your thirties I've ever seen)

listen I know people often aged more quickly in the past but Shakespeare seems to have been in his early thirties while he was writing most of this, and every time he describes himself looking in the mirror he's lamenting like a white lady in an anti-aging cream commercial. every other line reads like "confessions of an aged withered former twink (32), I perfectly understand why someone as young and gorgeous as you could never love such a testament to time's ravages as me😔". maybe stop hanging out with teen boys for a while and see how you feel after that, william! you would slay in the age of the dilf and you've got most of Western literature on its knees, please get over yourself

This evening’s not terribly burning question

So @petermorwood and I have been sitting down in the living room, soaking up warmth from the fire and watching YouTube vblogs about Star Wars: mostly about Andor. (Disclosure: Which I like very much.)

And I have to say: everything that’s turned up so far has been fanGuys (some of whom plainly think really, really well of themselves and the quality of their analysis and opinions, with only the most meager evidence visible to an outside observer as why this realistically should be…).

(For example: not a single one of the vbloggers who made it to the question “What makes this show work so much differently than other Star Wars shows?” got anywhere near the surely very basic question: “Where do the production team come from previously, and what else have they done?” …It’s almost as if, for these guys, no one has a work history worth investigating outside of Star Wars. Honestly, do these lads imagine that someone walks into series work at Lucasfilms out of podcasts? Or fansites…?)

Anyway, all this caused me to turn to Peter and mutter, “Are there any women / femmefans doing analysis on this?” He had no ready answer for me. But I’m telling you, the vastly overwhelming number of deeply-assured laddies uttering their opinions on the general subject of “WTF, how are people saying this is any good?” … is giving me reflux.

(sigh) So if somebody would kindly advise me, I’d appreciate it. Please & thank you.

#igetchokedupjustthinkingaboutthis

can i just say, as a former band geek, how much i love that the marching band on ferrix isn't particularly. good? they're a little out of a tune and maybe a bit rusty, but together, they still make music. we saw bix humming along to the melody. it's recognizable, and they made it together. and i love how that's paralleled with this week's opening theme. all these different instruments, mirroring the different factions of the rebellion. discordant, not quite matching up. separately, they're all just noise. but together?

The funniest part about Andor (and Rogue One) being objectively some of the best made Star Wars media is how Tony Gilroy has said he's not as interested in the Star Wars of it all. He's using an incredibly popular medium to tell a story he finds intriguing. It's hilarious on the Star Wars end (that someone less concerned with the lore of it all makes something this good), but it's also funny because the Andor team, in many ways, has created the most Star Wars content ever.

At its core, Star Wars is a political space adventure. Yes, there's lightsabers, cool battles, cheesy lines, and love stories, but the politics/philosophy/worldview has always provided the substance. The original trilogy is about overthrowing a fascist imperial government. It's about a scrappy group of people who shouldn't even know each other banding together to rebel. The prequels, love them or hate them, are mired in the politics of executive overreach, starting a war for more-than-usual questionable reasons, and the failure of institutions that corrode from within (the Jedi Order and the Galactic Senate). The sequels, again, love them or hate them, are about how history rhymes. In the wake of victory over imperialism, former rebels fail to stop a new fascistic power from forming in the decades after the war. It's about the repetition of mistakes. It's the US invading the Middle East decades after failed, horrofic interference in Vietnam and Korea. It's the current rise of fascism and anti-Semitism in Europe, decades after World War II and the Holocaust.

Maybe sometimes it takes people who have less reverence for a Thing to truly flesh out the best parts of that. Because Andor has gone deeper into the politics than we've ever seen (some themes it's touched on: police brutality, the prison industrial complex, fractured political movements, who suffers the most under a tyrannical system, immigration and displacement, exploitation of people and resources). It's the also most human and grounded Star Wars has ever been, probably because it doesn't have to worry so much about the flashy stuff. Andor has a fully realized message and complicated characters, and it's incredibly captivating.

it's literally like. i'm sorry but how am i supposed to be content with watching the mandalorian or totj or anything else after this. andor gave us a taste of what star wars could be without the made-to-sell-merch corporate hollowness of so much of the recent content and now i just want more. like between the unapologetically antifascist storytelling, dialogue that rips your heart to shreds, complex and contradictory characters, the gritty and brutal and unfair reality of fighting for a better world... it's such a breath of fresh air.

Yep. Gonna do this with my mom too. Believe me. She will fu*<¥ing love it.

Keep fucking around, we got a whole wall of dead people over here.

I am begging on my hands and knees for Star Wars fans to stop trying to make Andor about the Jedi or Sith. The show is literally not about them.

Quoting one of my brothers from the group chat because he summed up why Cassian is so important to me better than I could:

"God damn it I love seeing a Mexican in such a great role. Not cast to play a Mexican, no stereotypical Mexican cliches just this man playing such a great character with that beautiful accent. It makes me want to cry."

Indeed. And yet it is an immigrant story at its heart, but without needing to constantly remind us of it through cheap storytelling and stereotypes. And knowing that Cassian is the spark who lit Kino's flame, that he will later lead the team who gives the Rebels the upper hand against the Empire? How often do you get to see a minority actor in a role like that?

Representation matters.

The Banality of Evil is a real thing. Everyday people create conditions of suffering for many others, not out of cartoon evil but for love of money or a desire for meaning.

But remember the Banality of Good works exactly the same way. We choose. We can climb! #Andor  #RememberKino

A better path is paved in kindness, yes, but also resolve. Humans have survived because we adapt to negative stimuli. We are clever but often not wise. How long we have is up to us. We will never have a better chance than this. Get up. Climb. @GretaThunberg #1wayout