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turtlesaph · 9 months

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Writing Prompts/Requests/RP

REQUESTS ARE OPEN!!

Hello! Welcome to my listy! My rules are relatively simple. I don't do smut, kinks, incest, degrading matters, super sexual or sexualized content, multiverses or crossovers. I try to stick to the universe of the character personally. I will do platonic or romantic connections. I work a fulltime job so please be patient if I don't immediately respond.

I'm a story driven person so I love adventure, angst, fantasy, comedy, trauma/drama and some fluff. I do requests and/or RP (RP sticks to Discord). So feel free to ask me anything or request anything! Please share your thoughts, feelings, conspiracies, theories, head-canons and anything else related to the characters I write for!

CANON CHARACTERS I WRITE FOR::

Albert Wesker (Resident Evil)

Claire Redfield (Resident Evil)

Sesshomaru (Inuyasha/Yashahime)

Naraku (Inuyasha)

Toga (Inuyasha)

Kirinmaru (Inuyasha/Yashahime)

Slade (Teen Titans)

Jace Beleren (Magic The Gathering)

Darth Vader/Anakin (Star Wars)

Alex Mercer (Prototype)

Haytham Kenway (Assassin's Creed lll/Rogue)

Ganondorf (Legend of Zelda)

Rauru (Legend of Zelda)

Volga (Legend of Zelda)

Twinrova: Koume & Kotake (Legend of Zelda)

Lucifer (Hazbin Hotel)

Lilith (Hazbin Hotel)

Vecna/001-One/Henry Creel (Stranger Things)

Niklaus Mikaelson (Vampire Diaries/The Originals)

Caroline Forbes (Vampire Diaries)

AVAILABLE ORIGINAL CHARACTERS I WRITE FOR::

Haleru (King Rauru's brother) [Legend of Zelda]

Alanis (Overlord Sinner fox) [Hazbin Hotel]

Laviel (Slade's Apprentice/antagonist) [Teen Titans]

Locus (Teen Titan/hero) [Teen Titans]

These lists will not include everyone I write for, just the ones off the top of my head.

MY DISCORD IS:: aschrach

(Posted with half of the tags, will do another with the rest)

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batrogers · 5 months

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Kotake hummed happily and sipped her tea. “Are you one of our apprentices from... I believe you’re displaced in time or space somehow, aren’t you? Link opened his mouth and had to force himself to close it, swallowing hard. He cleared his throat and shook himself before he managed any words at all. How did she know ? How much did she know? It made him nauseous to even think of it ; nauseous, and on the edge of hysteria that she'd guess him her apprentice . What did his magic look like to her that she thought that? “I never would’ve dreamed...” he breathed; he'd rather die. “I knew of you and your sister, but that’s all. It’s an honour to meet you.”

In which Time gets help from the last people he expected when Legend gets kidnapped. (Or, the most stressful tea party he never would have imagined.)

Quote from my Linked Universe fic, Skin & Gold

#my art #Linked Universe #Ocarina of Time #Koume #Kotake #Twinrova #LU Time #LU Legend #my writing #Zelda fanart #Gerudo #Couch and tea pot based on Middle Eastern/Ottoman stuff #Attempting to make the witches look reasonable #and not like horrific caricatures #Time is having the worst time and I love it

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herooftimechronicles · 5 months

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... I don't even know what I'm doing

...

I started this over a year ago. I've always liked Twinrova's dress design, so I decided to incorporate it into a redesign for young Koume and Kotake.

I know I could have animated this better without losing so much quality in the gif making process, but I'm lazy. So, here's the different parts not in gif form, along with some color variations bc I liked them.

#twinrova #Koume and Kotake #legend of zelda #ocarina of time #loz #oot #gerudo #witches

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mundmutter · 3 months

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@urbcsa / sc

― 🜛 ― " And just what might the chosen one wish from me? Why, I am naught but a lowly outcast, remember? You might be condemning your hands if you come too close, most honored champion. "

#― red eyed witch of the desert | living in the twilight | legend of zelda #urbcsa #she's twilightprincess based for loz but #yeh she's a 'twinrova' student so she was banished from the gerudo #etc etc i dont have the verse up for this blog

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alia-l-eliatrope31 · 1 year

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I like the gerudo from Zelda. Her name is Ruda.

J'aime les gerudo dans Zelda. Son nom est Ruda

#legend of zelda #gerudo #drawing #dessin #sorciere #witch #link #ganondorf #zelda fanart

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deathleadsarc · 1 year

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i have to imagine all the poor hylian men who were nearly arranged to marry her when she's such a strange and unsettled person, despite this version of her being the Most Interactable of all her verses. partaking in dark magics as Twinrova had once done, banished from her own people regardless...

#☀ red eyed witch of the desert | living in the twilight | legend of zelda #who wanna preserve the gerudo race over here :0 u are guaranteed 100% to have a cute little girl

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rawliverandgoronspice · 1 year

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THE GERUDO POST

(aka an attempt at a critique of how gerudos were handled in BotW and before)

Oh no. TOTK being right around the corner, it might finally be time for the Gerudo Post.

(aka half of the reason why I made a Zelda sideblog in the first place)

So I want to preface all of this by saying that, as you could probably tell already, I’ve always adored the gerudos. They have fascinated my small child brain when I was 7; then the obsession made its comeback when I was 14, and now, here we are, almost 28, and I’m still thinking about the gerudos. I think they might be among my favorite fictional cultures for their potential and their understated storyline. I guess growing up in a very Arabic neighborhood, coupled with being bi-culturally latinx (?? does Brazil count?? you tell me), also always made them feel like home to me –especially when I was very young and there was not a lot of cool female representation flying around that managed to involve fiercely independent PoC women, flaws and teeth included.

This whole weird-essay-thing tries to do two things. First: analyze the place gerudos have occupied in the series, their initial problematisms and their subtextual narrative arc during the Myth Era coupled with their relationship to Ganondorf. Second: tiptoe to Breath of the Wild and poke it with a stick to see what happens –and in doing that, explain why I believe a lot of their characterization was defanged in service of smoothing their past with the hylians instead of deepening the culture on its own terms, and why I’m a little apprehensive about what that might mean for TotK even though I adore seeing the best girls at it again.

Those are the uhh terms of service??

And now, we must go back to 1998.

OCARINA OF TIME ERA

There’s so many things about the gerudos that are noteworthy and rich, and they’ve made for a complex piece of Zelda lore ever since their introduction –and when I say complex, I don’t 100% mean it as praise. The very racially charged decisions made about their inclusion have been discussed at length by the fandom, especially when it comes to orientalist and Islamophobic tropes being deployed pretty thoughtlessly in Ocarina of Time (their sigil being literally a crescent moon and star originally, the parallels are pretty obviously there).

We’re talking about a band of amazon-like, big-nosed brown women from the desert ruled by a single Scary Evil Man born once every hundred years hellbent on conquering Hyrule who they apparently worship like a god, characterized primarily as thieves, decked in jewelry and orientalist-inspired harem/belly-dancing clothing, hostile to the white good guys of Hyrule (especially men), unblessed by the Goddesses and so deprived of elongated ears (this is true for OoT –we’ll come back to that), also known as a demon tribe with their deity straight-out described as evil-looking by Navi (on my way to cancel you on twitter Navi you watch out), and secretly led by evil twin witches who can turn into a single seductress and, as two mothers, raised their Scary Evil Guy king who happens to basically be the devil.

In so few words, gerudos are the future that liberals want.

It’s worth notice, also, that Ganondorf’s characterization in this game is… kind of relentlessly uncomfortable to play through, especially before the 7 year skip. The utter assumption of depraved and evil intents from every character surrounded by dialogue that does little to hide its biases in spite of having generally very little proof to back them up –even though, in the game’s context, every character is correct to call his eyes evil and the darkness of his skin a moral judgment in on itself. The scene where Zelda demands that we believe her conclusion that the sole and only brown guy in the entire kingdom is evil and will do harm, and the game straight out refuses to progress until we concede that her dreams are prophetic and that this man must be stopped at any cost even though she has no more proof than her discomfort… hits different on replay.

I’m restating all of this not to pretend I’m making a novel and thought-provoking point, but to bounce back on a tumblr post I saw a while back (that I can’t find anymore!! I’ll link it if I find it again) –and so express what it is that gripped me with the gerudos in spite of their pretty damning depiction… and actually maybe thanks to it.

There’s a surprising amount of texture to Ocarina of Time’s worldbuilding that exists folded within the things introduced and left hanging, or in its subtext –and whether on purpose or not, I believe it is why people keep coming back to this iteration of Hyrule.

What was that about the king of Hyrule unifying a war-torn country? Why did the gerudos break the bridge connecting them to the rest of the kingdom during the 7 year timeskip while still worshiping Ganondorf, and why are the carpenters trying to rebuild it against their apparent wishes? What was that about gerudos imprisoning hylian men trying to force entry into their lands? What was that about the secret death torture chambers right next to the Royal Family’s tomb and connected to the race of people who were, apparently, born to serve them?

Nothing? Oh okay… okay… okay….

The same can be said about this strange depiction of this hostile tribe, consistently described as wicked yet suddenly friendly once you prove you deserve their respect once you... defeat them, so you now have joined them? Ocarina of Time isn’t very consistent when it comes to characterizing them as their occupation (thieves) or as a proper culture, with a king and a strange system of rulership that seem to involve at least 5 people: Ganondorf, the Twinrova, Nabooru and the unnamed random woman who decides you’re now part of the gerudos because you slashed enough of them with your sword and hookshot, which, uhh ok.

They’re but a ragtag and negligible group when discussed next to gorons and zoras and hylians, but they also clearly have their own religion and at least a 400-hundred years old history (probably far longer than this) and hints of a written language of their own. I’m not sure the game itself knows what it wants them to be, beyond: intimidating and hot and cool, but also wicked and, because of Ganondorf and the way you barge in their forbidden fortress (heh) with the explicit intent to dismantle their king, in apparent need to be saved from themselves.

Speaking of rulership and the Spirit Temple, let’s have a quick tangent about Nabooru: I always found her characterization when meeting with Child Link pretty strange. I refuse to mention the promised reward, which feeds into everything orientalist mentioned above, but I always found her moral compass so extremely convoluted for someone coming from gerudo culture. Nabooru says that, despite being a cool thief herself, she resents Ganondorf for killing people as well as stealing from women and children. Stealing... from women. Nabooru. Why are you this pressed that he steals from women!!! This feels so out of place, that the only girl of that hostile culture that betrays her king and befriends you, is the one that upholds moral values that only a hylian could possibly hold.

Either way: the strange unquestioned contempt of the game for them as a culture, mixed with the occasional bouts of heart, friendliness and badassery, makes it hard not to consider their depiction as pretty biased in favor of the hylians finding them at once exotic, scary and exciting, and could hide a more complex reality you might only get one side of –especially when you know there were originally plans for Ganondorf’s character to be more gray and motivated than what the campy final version ended up being. To be blunt: even in the context of a game for children, and maybe because of that fact, it all reads like a reductionist and imperialist/colonialist reading of a more complex situation.

This might seem like A Lot coming from a game where the actual game writing can be this overall flimsy and simplistic due to the standards of the time (it’s rough, it's so rough). But I would have never dwelt on that thought about a little children’s game if not for the mainline entries that came soon after, because... ooo boy.

The sense you’re not getting the whole story was certainly not helped by the introduction of Wind Waker Ganondorf, and the chilling emptiness of Gerudo Desert in Twilight Princess.

AFTER THE TIMELINE SPLIT

(I’m skipping Majora’s Mask, not because I dislike them in the game or think they’re not worth talking about, but because it’s a parallel universe and they’re never even called gerudos and their reality seems extremely different from their sisters in Hyrule so I think it’s okay to call them tangential and not dive too deep in this particular depiction)

Here’s something I want to highlight about gerudos and how they were characterized before BotW came along: their absence. Not only their physical absence, the lack of any gerudo character that calls themselves gerudo, but their absence from the text itself.

It’s not that Wind Waker and Twilight Princess retroactively scratch them off existence: we can clearly see Nabooru’s stained glass art in WW as well as recognize them being mentioned in Ganondorf’s final boss soliloquy, and WELL there’s quite a lot to say about their imprint over the world of TP. They are there –or at least they... were there. But nobody ever talks about what happened.

In Wind Waker, there was the deluge. It’s assumed lots of people died then, and those who survived scattered across the Great Sea. Are they sealed under the waves? Have they drowned? Is Jolene, Linebeck’s ex-girlfriend in Phantom Hourglass, a distant relative of one of the rare survivors? It’s unclear, beyond the fact that Ganondorf is the only living gerudo we see in this entire branch of the Timeline split.

In Twilight Princess, the desert which bares their name is empty. The hylians never mention that it used to be the name of a tribe: they’re not even named when Ganondorf is introduced for the first time, reduced once again to a mere band of thieves. We learn his plans to steal the Triforce in OoT were foiled, and that he may have turned to war. Then he lost the war, and was executed in Arbiter’s Ground: a strange structure in the desert, a mixture between a temple, a prison and a coliseum. What looks like gerudo writing coexists with hylian symbols, which often look much fresher. This dungeon is the Shadow Temple of TP: a prison hosting the worst criminals the kingdom has ever known, now haunted and cursed. Besides the locations, the only character that vaguely look gerudo in the entire game besides Ganondorf is Telma, a character with pointed ears that never seems to identify as anything but a hylian. What happened? Who’s to say. Nobody ever says anything. Not even Ganondorf bothers to mention them the way he did in WW –and though the game’s story is quite focused on another exiled tribe seeking revenge and dominion over Hyrule as retribution, the parallel is never explicitly drawn. So who’s to say what happened there. Who’s to say.

And in A Link to the Past and the games forward? The only mention of other gerudo characters are Koume and Kotake, resurrecting their son in the Oracles games through their own sacrifice and failing to bring anything back but a monstrosity incapable of making conscious decisions. Granted, most games in that extremely weird Fallen Timeline predate OoT and therefore had yet to make gerudos up at all. Still: canonically, between the gap of OoT and ALLTP, whatever it may be, gerudos disappeared here as well.

I think there’s something subtle and a little heartbreaking about the fact that no matter what Ganondorf does, the gerudos always end up dying out. His yearning for Hyrule, its gentler wind and the Triforce blessing its lands always costs him the kingdom that he does have already.

Now, does he care? A lot of people would argue that he doesn’t, that he used them like pawns for his own ambition and saw them as servants more-so than sisters, and I wouldn’t be surprised if it was Nintendo’s official opinion, but… One very powerful thing about most of Ganondorf’s incarnations (focusing on the human ones) is that he never seems to reject his cultural heritage. They could have gone for him wearing more kingly hylian stuff given the whole underlying theme of envy and pride surrounding his character, but never once does he try to look more hylian, beyond the ear situation that seems to be tied to the Triforce of Power? Either way: he is gerudo. Several of his outfits reference his mothers, as well as general gerudo patterning and jewelry. His heritage is something he proudly displays, even hundred of years in the future when there is no one left to remember what it means but him. I think it’s a very potent piece of characterization, an arc that crosses over multiple game and says something pretty intense about this character’s fate and his inherent destructiveness over the things he touches –starting with the Triforce, all the way up to his very own body and mind. His mental breakdown by the end of Wind Waker, when the king of Hyrule himself forces him to give up on the thing he sacrificed everything for, takes a new kind of weight with the whole picture taken into account.

(not to excuse genocide or general egomania-fueled madness and violence, but one thing doesn’t mean the other isn’t also relevant)

Regardless of whether this is a tragedy for Ganondorf as their uhh complete failure of a king, honestly, it is undeniably a tragedy for the gerudos themselves: a once-in-a-lifetime joyful event turned into a never-ending nightmare from which there seems to be no escape, their legacy now condemned to fade to black, leaving nothing behind but a demon boar forever laying ruin upon the world.

One may say I’m taking on the bleakest explication for the gerudos’ absence when there could be others. It’s true! Perhaps the gerudos are just chilling off-screen, completely fine, not interested in whatever is happening in the kingdom nearby and their disaster child having yet another temper tantrum about not being the Goddesses’ favorite boy. It’s possible! But regardless, what little elements we do possess as players doesn’t seem to support this, even if it remains possible –and regardless of actual gerudo lives, gerudo culture is definitively a goner in every single timeline.

Even if they did survive... Hyrule still won its unification war.

(I won’t mention Skyward Sword as they are not really a thing there, except for a butterfly that seems to suggest the Gerudo Province was a thing before the gerudo people –I don’t know what to do with this honestly– and the whole Groose situation, which, I’m not sure what to make of either beyond the fact that he may have gotten cursed by opposing Demise? And then went on to start the gerudo tribe, which ended up being an all-women group for some reason? Maybe? It’s not confirmed? I feel like it’s more of a fun tidbit than a central piece of the gerudo puzzle, so I’ll leave it there like I would a cool rock I brought back from a walk and that I don’t know where to put in my house)

Then, Breath of the Wild happened and changed things.

BREATH OF THE WILD

(Additional short note, but: while I won’t mention Four Swords Adventure, since it’s a weird one that almost nobody has played and severely messes with the Timeline, we kind of see the beginnings of what is about to happen in Breath of the Wild in this game –gerudos coming back without much explanation, then distancing themselves from Ganondorf to become friends with hylians because he was too hungry for power and now they are nice and have good reputation because they are our friendsss)

I was actually so happy to learn gerudos were making a comeback in a mainline Zelda game, and this got me more excited about Breath of the Wild than basically anything else the game involved. And getting to explore the Desert once again, meeting this new batch of impossibly tall buff girls, getting more about their language and their culture, Riju and the rest of the little girls are adorable, the grandmas are so cool, the sand seals??? sign me the fuck up??? And above it all, hanging around Gerudo Town at night and feeling as warm and cozy as little me liked to imagine how freeing it would feel, to stay there and watch the desert behind the safety of their walls in OoT… This was great. I loved it.

It was a huge compensation for the criticism I’m about to make, but did leave me with… questions regarding how their culture was going to be handled moving forward.

I’ll start with something small yet deeply revelatory, then work my way from there.

So... gerudos’ ears are pointy now.

This is pretty significant. Lore-wise, it’s been said that the elongated ears of hylians are there so they can better hear the voices of the gods. It’s considered a sign of holiness in-universe. There's a bunch of really thoughtful analysis on tumblr over that whole Ganondorf ear situation, which is a mess but also very interesting, but the short answer is: I think the absence of pointy ears was a clear design choice to originally signify them as Less Good. Even when Ganondorf gets pointier ears, they never get as long as hylians’. Worth noting: not every non-gerudo character has pointy ears: gorons, zoras and ritos (among others) do not possess this trait, and there are even some humans that have regular rounded ears in the series –though they always seem to be of lesser relevance, if not downright peasants in Twilight Princess. Pointy ears always tended to implied a strict hierarchy in the series: basically, the more pointy, the more Protagonist you become.

(also their eyes becoming green instead of the traditional yellow/golden, which looks more wicked and demonic --and cooler also tbh)

The pointy ears imply two things. From within the game, this could be interpreted in two ways: either that gerudos… converted, for a lack of a better term, and are now considered holy through their worship of the Golden Goddesses and/or Hylia, or that their mingling with hylians through tens of thousands of years had them acquiring this trait out of sheer genetic override (though they have kept their mostly-women birth rates, their big nose, darker skin –for the most part– and red hair). Probably a healthy mixture of both. Design-wise, it signifies something quite simple to the player: they are on hylians’ side now. They are good guys. We can trust them, even if they still have a little spice in them. They aligned themselves with us and against Ganon in all of its manifestations (even if he’s but an angry ghastly pig being parasitic to everything it touches in this iteration). They are on the side of Good, definitively, and will fight evil by our side.

On that note, I think it’s worth bringing out another major change from their initial iteration, which is their overt friendship with Hyrule as a whole, and with the Royal Family in particular. Despite not allowing any voe inside their walls (we’ll come back to this), their relationship with hylians is pretty neat. They have booming trade roads, travel and meet with the rest of the cultures, and are fierce enemies with the Yiga clan, who are renowned for being huge Calamity Ganon supporters. The tables certainly have turned. I want to bring out, in particular, Urbosa’s friendship with the queen and her role as the cool aunt taking care of Zelda and protecting her from evil (to be noted: I am not familiar with Age of Calamity so if I’m mischaracterizing her in any way, please let me know). The gerudo sense of sisterhood has been extended to the royals they used to fight against. I would go on and say the cultures peacefully coexist, but I think that what we’re looking at here is a case of vassal behavior, just like we used to have from zoras (in the non-Fallen Timelines) and gorons. This is a huge departure from gerudos being openly rejecting of Hylian culture in their initial iteration, and something that is worth returning to later.

Okay. Now it’s time to mention the weird obsession BotW gerudos have with romance. I didn’t take notice of my issues with their writing until I realized how prevalent of a theme that was. Now, the reason given for gerudos to refuse entry to males (of every race) has much more to do with preventing young gerudos to make mistakes than anything else, and is actively being put into question by the younger generations –which would make sense. But the amount of NPCs that either lament their lack of match, talk about their husbands (because they marry now apparently) or are invested in romance, and a very limited understanding of romance at that (heterosexual, closed, etc), makes for much more of the population that I initially expected. There’s no mention of what’s going on with their males, if there are new males being born and either exiled or abandoned, or if Ganondorf being technically still alive have have cut them off male heirs. Either way: no more kings, only girlbosses chiefs.

To have the gerudos so interconnected with Hyrule, not only through trade but through extremely coded romance where they have to make themselves palatable to a future male partner and enforce fidelity, was… a choice. The extremely brief and skippable mention of gerudos sometimes going to Castle Town in search for boyfriends in OoT became half of their personality traits in this game. We went from a race that was fiercely independent and mocking of the unworthy men who tried to mingle with them, to… this. Now I’m not saying some of the sidequests aren’t cute, or that I didn’t like the wedding, or that the grandma near the abandoned statue of Hylia (so she was worshipped at some point) clocking us and talking about her love life wasn’t one of my favorite gerudo conversations. I’m saying that the vibes have definitively changed. For the better? I’m not sure.

I once stumbled upon an article that said that Breath of the Wild gerudos were a huge improvement compared to their original introduction, because they were no longer presented as evil and hostile thieves groveling at the boot of a single man, but as a full culture allied with the protagonist and actively involved in the story, while still getting their Cool Girl Badass moment (again can’t find it anymore, I’ll link it if I stumble upon it again). I see where this comes from, but I honestly can’t help but consider it a reading that assumes something pretty major (though through no fault of their own, as the games tend to hammer this down as hard as they can), and that being hylians as the unquestioned anchor of Good.

Which, in spite of what the games want me to believe, I… feel uncomfortable taking at face value.

To me, regarding how gerudos are being incorporated in that goodie narrative, this is kind of a case of surface-level feminism trumping over colonialist/imperialist concerns. It becomes more important to perform the aesthetics of being cool and friendly and independent than scratching at any deeper problem that would risk making people uncomfortable. This is kind of Green Skin Ganon all over again: oh wait, isn’t it a little icky to have the evil bad guy being brown while faced by the most aryan-looking ass heroes of all time? Okay, then let’s take the brown guy and make his skin green so we don’t have to feel bad anymore that the conflict has racial undertones!! Solved!! There’s nothing questionable about changing a PoC's features to make it more monstrous and less human, right?

To me, it’s kind of the coward option: instead of accepting the messy reality those initial choices created (and their interesting nuances if taken at face value), let’s just… rewrite the PoC culture’s history to make it feel less uncomfortable for the white heroes. In many ways, it is an extension of what hylians have always done: scrubbing the weird and messy things about the past and shoving them deep down into the spooky well and far into the desert prison and away in alternate hellish dimensions, and then make up a very simple story where they get to feel good about themselves –except this time, it’s the fabric of the games, the literal reality, bending backward to make it happen. Which, in my opinion, makes it much worse than before. Now, there’s no conversation. The fabric of reality is changing their own history so that there is nothing to discuss anymore. Ganondorf was always evil incarnate. He never had any point. It was always 100% his own fault, his own hubris, his own fated wickedness. He was always demonic (and green, very important –having a flashback to people on twitter accusing artists restoring the TotK green skin to the original brown of wanting to make Ganondorf black, and like….. how do I put it gently…..)

And, above all else: gerudo are to distance themselves from his legacy so they can stay in the club of the Good and Just and Holy.

Because here’s the messy thing: as much as I love seeing the gerudos again in Breath of the Wild and as much I love for them to have survived the Era of Myth (??? somehow ???), this… kind of changes Ganondorf’s character arc. No longer do we have the story of a king who wanted more, either for his people, for himself or both, and led his culture to its destruction in his search for absolute Power, while remaining ironically incapable of maintaining what little he already had. This starts from him kneeling to the king of Hyrule in OoT and leads to the deluge, Arbiter’s Ground, his own mothers dying for the sake of his failed resurrection. Breath of the Wild changes this: now, the gerudo were apparently fine without him? They apparently did their own thing and became suddenly and inexplicably disconnected from his actions? I know it’s kind of implied they side with hylians at the end of OoT, but it’s honestly never really explored why they would cheer for the death of their king while never seeming to resent him before except for Nabooru –there are mentions of brainwashing for those who resist him (as well as “other groups in the desert”, tho they are never mentioned again), but it’s hardly a proper plot point for the majority of the tribe, aaaand they still die by Wind Waker in the Adult Timeline, in spite of their potential alliegance…

(again, this shift towards submitting to Hyrule actually started with Four Swords Adventure, getting crisper with each iteration)

There used to be this polite blur regarding Ganondorf’s relationship to them, how much he used them and how much he acted in their name (with arguments for both sides), and I think this messy and debatable question mark was one of the most compelling aspects of his character. Gerudos rejecting their relationship at a near-cosmic, reality-bending level, removes a huge layer of complexity to both parties… all for the benefit of making hylians come out cleaner out of this whole exchange, their moral grayness barely a whisper in the distance.

I’ll kind of go on the record and say that I suspect the addition of Demise to the canon to serve a similar purpose (at least in part): if Ganondorf becomes but the manifestation of a demonic curse, and is no longer an extremely messy character brimming with agency and drive, forcing the heavens to reckon with said agency in a way he was never meant to access, born from a complex set of circumstances from which we clearly get only a limited and biased perspective, then it becomes extremely clear that he’s a Bad in a way that isn’t worth exploring further. Even if he does have some points, he is a Bad. It’s what matters most. Not to say I even hate what this angle can bring to the table or that I want him to become Good (I don’t –I’ll talk more about why I dislike most takes on him being a helpless victim to the curse), but once again, who benefits from adding another Unquestionned Baddie to the equation to rest upon? Not him, and not the gerudos, that’s for sure.

So. Why did I, me, personally, like the gerudos in the first place?

Beyond the inherent coolness factor of their culture and the fascinating mysteries of what is merely suggested, I think… I think I loved gerudos because we were obvious outsiders. Because their rejection of Hylian culture was so sharp and extreme, their value system so different, and their writing, their religion, their relationship to power and hierarchy and worth wanted nothing to do with hylians. They didn’t need hylians, beyond them having potential resources to steal. In fact, the threat of hylians influencing their culture was such that the entry to the Fortress was forbidden to everyone (I don’t think men were ever singled out, by the way, even though they are mocked relentlessly). I think there was something inherently hopeful about this semi-matriarchy resisting the outside world, and especially its notions of what girls were meant to be –it was 1998, and every other girl character in OoT, besides Impa and Sheik that?? is another can of worms entirely, is either helpless or someone to save. For them to reject this narrow vision of femininity was, in my opinion, much more radical than what we got in BotW. Less nuanced, more problematic perhaps? But also much more powerful. Gerudo Valley is home, not to a town, but a Fortress.

Hylians were worth being resisted.

In Breath of the Wild, their refusal to let men enter their town is kind of boiled down to a fading tradition over-focused on romance, a meek little game of chase. Their entire goal seems to be finding a hylian to settle down with. Say what you will about the single man and the many girls (never explored and completely open-ended in its implications, btw), but at least it wasn’t… that. At least it opened the way for different ways for people to exist and imagine culture and civilization, outside of the heterosexual couple, the christian-infused patriarchy and its trickling down implications. What I want to say is: let my girls tell hylians they ain’t shit!! That they aren’t the end all be all of reality! This is what made gerudos so compelling in the first place! Where is that bite now? Where is that self-definition?

It’s gone, because hylians need to be Good. So we tee-hee at the creep running laps around the town, we disguise ourselves to breach their trust and infiltrate their town (though there is nuance to be had there, gender be complicated etc), we watch them pine after shitty dudes and take classes to become the perfect approachable woman and make love soups with ?? strange ingredients honestly, and we witness them get very friendly with the Royal Family they used to conspire against, dying to protect the princess against the manifestation of their ancient king reduced to a raving puddle of Bad Boar.

Hyrule, unified against him.

TEARS OF THE KINGDOM

For posterity’s sake: this post was made before the game was released. I’ll probably update my thoughts on a separate thing later on.

I don’t think gerudos allying with the hylians and burying their own legends about Ganondorf as deeply underground as they can until it blows up in their face is a bad setup at all. It’s actually pretty juicy, and there’s a ton of fascinating stuff that could happen here –even some involving gerudos taking a firm stand against him while still reconnecting with their past and the choices they made once. This is my hope with the title of the game: Tears of the Kingdoms. Let’s examine them all, account for the damage, and decide how we move forward from there with the full knowledge of where we come from.

What I am afraid of (and I already made posts about that) is the scenario where gerudos rallying against Ganondorf, which I expect will forcefully try to take back his place as their king, is used for cheap feminist points that completely fail to examine, well. Everything mentioned above. Where reality bends itself out of the way of the Goddesses, and hylians’ responsibility in any of this mess, so that everything bad is 100% Ganon’s fault and so he must be cast aside and torn away from the Cool Gerudo Girls and this is 100% justified and deserved because we are Independent Women Who Take No Shit from No Men (unless they are the king of Hyrule or any random hylian they wish to marry apparently).

I’ll say this here because it’s been burning my mouth every time I see discourse about Ganondorf and the gerudo: gerudos declared him as their king. To make a really bad comparison that I dislike: he didn’t run around to assemble girls and make a cult around himself, he was born with the cult already formed around him (and it’s not a cult, it’s just a different mode of governance –hylians also revere the Royal Family like gods, don’t they?). This heavily changes the dynamics at play. Not to remove any agency from him to do a little invasion about it, but chances are the ancestors to BotW’s gerudos fully expected him to behave in this way, at least to a degree –in OoT you see very plainly that they value physical prowess, feats of thievery, witchcraft and general violence. It’s more complicated than him being a Bad and making the poor helpless women go along with the plan uwu –even taking the brainwashing into account, AND Koume and Kotake counting as gerudos too, even if they might not be not fully innocent in shaping the culture and the man himself. If manipulation and forced servitude is the explanation given, I’ll be genuinely mad –because, once more, all the nuance and messiness would be flattened for the sake of making Ganondorf Bad and the gerudo Good (= on hylians’ side).

It bears to be said: I think feminism stances that require, not to criticize (which is fair), but to fully dehumanize and bestialize men of color to make any sense are uhhh bad, and it's worth questionning who they end up serving in the end.

The flip side of this would be to make Ganondorf a poor little meow meow that was secretly controlled by the evil Demise all along, and... I’ll be real. I really don’t think it solves our problem at all. It might even make it worse.

My problem with how gerudos have been handled thus far, being mostly connected to how they behave in relation to hylians Good, is that they’ve been systematically defanged not to threaten the status quo as much as they used to. I think it’s pretty clear why I’m not a fan of Ganondorf being a mere victim of cosmic circumstances; I have a post that goes more in depth about this, but to simplify: my man has legitimate grievances. To make him a mere puppet to Evil Incarnate would, to me, be just another attempt to erase the despotism of the Goddesses, the unjust hierarchy of the world, what hylians have historically done to the races they were in conflict with (looking at the Yiga for the most recent example…)

I’m not saying his fight is clean or even legitimate, that he isn't driven by his own sense of self-importance above anything else, or that he should win (he has no plan beyond domination and victory, that's not a future). But I think there’s something really important about having someone being willing to fully consume himself and everything around him for the simple fact that someone should resist the order of the world. Even if that makes him a heartless, cruel, and egomaniac demon-pig. Even if there’s no Hyrule left to rule. Even if his own people despise him, or are long gone and forgotten.

Is it a little heart-wrenching? Uhh yes to me yes most definitively. This is why Wind Waker Ganondorf hits so hard, and remains (I think) his favorite entry in the series so far. But… I still find this fate of eternal resistance more resonant and empowered, and far less grim, than if Hyrule’s lore absorbs his hatred and rage, gives it to another entity that would be Badder (= more opposed to hylians and the goddesses), and scrubs it off anything icky and uncomfortable, rendering it completely domesticated and non-threatening to hylian domination; rubbed of his skin color, of his complexity, of his own emotions, even made... kind of sexy now, in the same way his sisters have been made before him? I am very, very afraid of him being turned from furious and an unapologetic subject in his own legend to a "redeemed" (according to whom??) and palatable object in somebody else’s, that you now end up having to… save from himself.

Again, I want to trust that Tears of the Kingdom can walk that line and preserve everything sharp and contrasting and profound and thrilling about this fascinating setup. I don’t expect a philosophy course, this is a game for children –but it doesn’t mean Nintendo didn’t do an astounding job with similar setups in the past. Again, I’ll invoke the Wind Waker conflict, but Twilight Princess did a lot of great things as well (Zant’s speech, if you can get past the weird stretches and stumping and NNHYAAAs, is pretty fantastic) –and the subtle writing of Majora’s Mask is also proof enough this series can be complex without being impermeable.

So this is where my hope lies. Not really with BotW’s writing, which, I’m sorry to say, but I found to be below what the series has done in the past (I have no problem with the setup and how the story is explored, I think it was a great idea, but wasn’t ever sold on the actual writing the way I may have been with previous titles –it felt… very tropey to me overall, with a couple of highlights). But Nintendo has shown to know how to write compelling stories for children that know where to sprinkle its darkness and how to preserve its hope, and this is this side I’m relying on for this delicate storyline moving forward.

And now? Now… I suppose we wait and see.

(thank you for reading my impossibly long essay what the actual hell, at least I got it all out of my system, see you in part 2 for when TotK comes out I suppose aaa)

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gav-san · 1 year

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THE QUEEN OF THE KING 15/15

Previous / ...

It starts with Phantom’s warning neighs.

One moment you are asleep, wrapped in your white shift and Ganondorf's arms, and the next you are being flung over his shoulder as he twists to plant you in between his hot back and the freezing rock of the shrine. Even when you try to wriggle, to help, he won’t let you, defending you with his body, his golden sword in one hand.

You are very discombobulated, but after a moment of gaining your bearings, you realize that you are not alone.

There are at least fifty people in black and red uniforms of a sort surrounding you, placed in circles, trapping you. They do not look particularly menacing, the tight clothing and tall hairdo are more funny than anything else.

If you knew you’d be having visitors, you would have dressed in more than a thin slip of silk last night. Though much else had seemed silly at the time, considering your, uh, activities, and how eager you had been.

One glance at Ganondorfs face makes you realize that he is making a face you have yet to see. It causes your stomach to drop in fear, but also a bevy of butterflies to erupt in a misplaced twist of lust. The way his skin sketches taught, the scrub of an unshaven beard shadowing the sharp jaw as it contorts is downright vicious.

“Molduga Pits.” He says, clearly a curse, but not one you are familiar with, sounding exasperated and annoyed. “You bastards again .” You place a hand on his bare back, glancing at the people furtively. We’re these enemies of the Gerudo? Perhaps from an ally of Hylia? Maybe she could help.

You go to move forward, thinking that perhaps you can reason with them, but Ganondorfs stance is steel, not letting you move an inch out of his protection.

“Greetings, Emperor of Calamity,” Someone says, moving up front, from inside the crowd.

The number of men scared you, but this man was far too dramatic to be serious. You look around, trying to see Ganondorf’s horse, Phantom, but he is nowhere to be found. He probably rushed off, as a good desert horse was trained to do, you think wryly.

There go the quickest means of escape, and now you’d have to face the weird cult head-on.

The foremost ring parts, and a thick-bellied male in a ridiculous golden girdle step over the red suit steps forward, taking a deep bow. “I, my esteemed liege, am the third Master Koga-” He drawls, his voice surprisingly whiny for such a rotund man.

“I know who you are,” Ganondorf growls, rising to his full height and moving to better shield you, and you can’t help compare how intimidating his figure is, in comparison. “You think coming yourself will change my answer? Time and time again you Yiga have been told that the Gerudo do not hold to your foolish beliefs!”

Yiga? You thought that sounded familiar. You swear you knew it, but it was hard to concentrate when thick muscles were just centimeters from crushing your head in.

The Yiga’s footsteps pause, clearly considering a new plan. Or just watching you turn into a princess sandwich.

“Well,” The man begins again, voice less methodical but much darker. “We figured we needed a more direct conversation… since you’ve already found the dread witch who threatens your reign with her brainwashing,” There is a shift, and you realize, that there to hurt you.

You go white.

And the Yiga’s admission, Ganondorf’s entire demeanor changes from cautious hesitance to tense anger.

“Keep your filthy mouths away from my queen’s good name!” Ganondorf says, and you’re surprised to see him come to your defense so rapidly. “She has nothing to do with your nonsense, and neither will I!” You cling to him as if only to remember he is not mad at you but for you.

How long had it been since someone defended you half so passionately? Your heart beat like it was going to bounce out of your chest.

Master Koga, the third, or whoever he was sighed deeply, like he had expected this.

“ A shame, really. That we have to step in.” And then he had the gall to sound offended! “I can tell this vain creature has enraptured you with her magic, and she should be dealt with by us underlings!”

Ganondorf made a growling sound, deep in the back of his throat. “If you come even a step closer, or make any moves to hurt my wife, I swear I will hunt every last Yiga fool down and leave you in the sand for the Moldugas to feed their young on! ” That small growl became a roar as he finished, leaving you far more wary of the man before you. He had never once come close to forfeiting his calmness, but it seems the thought of losing you was more than enough to unleash his fury.

You can’t help but become warm at the sight of him roaring for you, his wife.

And, you think, you could spend the rest of your life listening to him say it.

But the Yiga, for all their talk about being subjects to their prospective king, had no wisdom in their loyalty, and they did not concede to his warnings. Instead, each and every last one of them turned to their weapons, from the glimpse you could see.

“We’d rather not fight our future king, but I can see we have no choice!” Koga said, moving from his pathetic position to unleash a wicked-looking, curved sword, one that indicated he was much more serious now. Gandorf copied his hand on the giant sword he had tucked at his hip, the other moving around your waist in an awkward, backward tango, as if he is going to jump over all the men. All the Yiga men grasp their weapons, nervously, like he is a giant water buffalo ready to charge them. But he doesn’t do so, instead, tucking something small into your waistband. He inches even closer, if possible, keeping his voice low.

“I love you.” He says, and you press into him, ready for whatever, “And I’m sorry I have put you in danger. I swear I will protect you with my life.”

You know he does. And you finally know that you do too. Probably since the first glimpse of him you had, he had taken your heart.

“I love you too.” You say, and he pauses like he is relishing it for the last time.

Then he raises his sword, pointing it at the men, pivoting to the shrine. Magic, you think, swells at his fingertips, and the same golden presence wraps around your bands of gold.

“I will find you again, my moon. ” He swears.

Your heart dropped, the words far too fatalistic for comfort. You furrow your brows, confused as you place a hand on his own before it retreats.

He gives a thin smile, though you only guess that, as he is still focused on the people before him, save for the intimate brush of a finger to loosen your grip. You think he must be ready to toss you over his shoulder or something.

But it seemed Ganondorf was risking no threat to you.

He immediately moves, and in one swift motion, you are pushed inside the shrine his magic has reopened. It’s as gentle as he can, but you still sprawl, as he moves so swiftly that you had no time to react. No time to disagree or do anything.

“Stop!” You lift out a hand, but he is too quick, moving to protect you, to leave you safe in the quiet, space, lit only but the eerily blue of the ever-glowing magic there.

You stumble to the ornate stone-clad floor, and can barely catch the moment that a giant stone slab seals over the entrance, cutting you off from the outside, as well as one another. You flail, running to the rock, pounding your fists.

But there was no handle, nor even a seam that you could attempt to pry. The rock face was so smooth it was as if one had never been chipped away. Magic, you think in a manic frenzy, trying to will yourself to pound it to dust.

There are no sounds of battle, nothing but the thud of your hands, which eventually stop, once they have turned bruised and bloody from your fallen endeavors. You sink to the ground, to your knees, fat, ugly tears pouring from your chin as you cry. They make your face itch, but you don’t wipe them away, instead letting them sink into the dust-less floor.

You aren’t sure how long that lasts, because, at some point, you fall asleep, only to wake in what seemed like moments later. You had not the ability to even forget a moment of your sorrow but were so drained, tired and your hands hurt so fiercely that you drug yourself to the cool edge of the pool.

It is unsurprising to see what a mess you are. Ganondorf had proudly braided your hair last night, proclaiming it to be an honor to do so, and it had held reasonably well, and you can comb it into place. But your face is drawn, with dark circles, and red eyes. Nearer to the lights, you can see that you have injured your hands, enough that not even the blister gel would work.

You slap away the image, that cold water engulfing your hand. The coolness engulfs it, bringing relief and peace. You think it’s probably hypothermia, but after a few moments, you realize that it’s not it, bringing your hand up to the surface, breaking the smooth surface again.

It’s healed.

You stare in astonishment at the flesh that has mended back together, blood and bruises completely gone.

Your other hand goes in right after and you give a huge sigh of alleviation.

It makes much more sense how you had not been sore the previous night, though your husband is quite big and very eager.

And that thought cuts short your wonder over the healing pool in the shrine, and back to your misery over your husband. Just what in Demise’s name was he thinking, sealing you away in here? Surely there was something you could have done! Even be a distraction! Your head pounds and you lean down, taking giant gulps of water, but misjudge in your haziness.

Slipping forward, you plunge entirely into the freezing pool.

-X-

You aren’t sure how long you stay underwater. You think you may be dead at some point, but the cold never abates. But you don’t end up finding the side. Instead, you’re pulled out, by a pair of very brawny, bronze arms. You think someone is carrying you. Sand whips by your face from a strong breeze.

At some point, bright sunlight hits your face, and you wince. It’s not long after that the sunlight drops, and the steps turn smoother. Then you’re finally placed down on what seems to be a bed. Voices fade in and out, some you think you may recognize.

Gerudo, you think.

Hands press against your chest, shoving forcefully in. You give a sharp gasp, coughing on nothing as they push again and again. And just when you think you’ll die, someone turns you, and you throw up.

You can process the voices better now, that air has gone back to your brain.

“We found her in the shrine outside of town-”

“In?”

“Yeah, the door opened and she was in a pool there!”

“The shrine water- It was still in her lungs!”

“In a shrine pool?”

“Yes, she has the seal of the King!”

It’s mostly water that comes out, but you can’t tell, with your head banging. But you can breathe again even if it hurts, and so you immediately fall asleep. Or unconscious.

But there are more hands now, pushing you to stay awake.

-X-

The heat in the desert is very reasonable, under the thick woven hanging. You look out to the sand, towards the distance where a large mountain range juts like a knife standing straight up. The glint of sand makes it difficult to look straight on, but the Gerudo mask does a good job of deflecting any lasting harm.

You try and stay out of the sun as much as possible. The Gerudo clothes do little to offer protection, as they have little need to do so, and are meant to be breezy and comfortable. And it is indeed breezy, wearing only thin silk with gold edging.

You think it shows off far too much of your chest and belly, but Queen Dramiria had insisted seeing you in traditional clothing was good for Gerudo's morale, with Ganondorf still missing. And since the regent queen was your mother-in-law, you couldn’t find it in your heart to refuse.

She was the one you had first met.

“You have been missing for a month.” She said within the first hour of your recovery. She had more or less been waiting there since you had been brought in, and subsequently, the seal Ganondorf had slipped to you had been recognized. “Of course, I knew right away, with that hair. My son wrote almost endlessly of your moon-like beauty.”

You hold that same seal now. You don’t think you could relinquish it if they asked, which surprisingly, they hadn’t.

You want to turn back to look at the sand, but you also want your mother-in-law to like you. You flush, throat too sore to say much, and not knowing what to say anyhow. Thankfully, others catch onto this quickly, especially Commander Urbosa.

“Time passes differently in the shrines,” Commander Urbosa says, arms crossed as she stares you down like a puzzle. “The magic is difficult to harness, and only the King knows how to handle it to a full extent. I suspect that’s why you ended up here. Even without air, the water continually heals, so it puts you in a stasis of sorts.”

The one thing you do manage to say is Ganondorf .

And the thing about the Gerudo is that they don’t sugarcoat the truth.

“Damn brat let himself be caught by the Yiga.” Queen Dramiria said sharply, making you draw back in alarm. But she merely pats you, crossing a long leg over the other as she leans back on her cushioned chair. “He’s never listened to reason, that boy.”

“Nabooru is already tracking them down, but they are tricky, hiding away in the mountains where we Gerudo have a hard time going. I am a bit surprised Ganondorf hasn’t just beaten a guard down and escaped.” Commander Urbosa stepped in, a bit kinder as she urged you to take a bite of the sweet-looking melon in a gold cup before you. You don’t want to eat, but tenderly you let yourself nibble the fruit.

“He knew that they had started using that ancient, dangerous magic and he let his guard down.” The queen retorted, moving to her fruit bowl to polish off the decadent treat.

You put your head down, eyes closed as tears pricked at them. A hand came to rest on your knee, and you look up at the Queen, who looks very distraught. She has the same hook to her nose as Ganondorf and the same shade of red hair, and it makes the tears come quicker.

“Be kind, my queen. You forget that our new Queen-consort has been through much as of late.” Commander Urbosa advises softly.

“Oh no, don’t take my words too seriously,” Dramiria said, looking a bit uncomfortable. “Ganondorf always comes back from his adventures. And I have no doubt he is eager to have his bride back in his arms again.” He ends with a smile, and you do your best to stop sobbing but it just makes it worse.

“F-Forgive me-” You say, turning back to the sand, shoulders sloped as you twisted the seal in your hands. “I… I would like some alone time, if p-p-possible.”

You don’t recognize yourself as you turn towards the bed in the healing room you had all been sitting in.

“Of course.” The Queen says, letting Urbosa help her up. “When you feel refreshed, just let the healer know. We’ll then give you a tour of your new rooms.”

You nod your head, shoulders shaking.

“Thank you, my queen, you are very generous.” She sighs, knowing she’s already told you to abandon such formal language but doesn’t press the matter. The thick red curtain swishes behind them as they leave, muffling their voices but not entirely concealing them.

“Ensure the Queen-Consort is settled into the King’s quarters swiftly. Knowing my son, he’d want her to feel comfortable as soon as possible. And I have a feeling that we’ll have a new little princess soon!”

You go red, head to toe.

What on earth would prompt that reaction?

Your toes curl, trying to escape back into your body.

“Queen Dramiria!” Urbosa chides, voices further away. “Don’t go making our queen-consort feeling uncomfortable.”

“I know my son, Urbosa. If he’s managed not to make a fool of himself, then I ensure that we’ll be having a royal baby. Though the princess is quite small, she seems very strong-hearted, enough to please the gods of the shrines. I approve!”

You wondered what part of crying made you ‘strong-hearted’ but you supposed you shouldn’t complain. With one last look out to the sand you crawl back to the safety of your woven bed, and its many warm blankets, all woven with bright colors. It seemed to be very Gerudo to be in bright colors, though they didn’t help a pale complexion much.

Not that many Hylians had the skin tone that compliments it, you thought, brows furrowing. Do you think that Zelda would look nice in the rich blue though-

You blinked.

“Zelda?” You said, and the face peaked over the window again. She said your name, very softly in return, and clearly, great relief.

She glanced around before your cousin soars into the room. This is quickly explained as you hear a quick ‘hyah’, followed by another familiar face, this time jettisoning himself in.

“Link?”

Zelda launches herself at you, pulling you into a tight hug that reminds you of choking again, and you have to peel her off.

“I’m SO sorry!” She cried in a soft voice, clearly heartbroken, “I can’t believe Father let that evil man take you!”

“Oh Zelda,” You say brows pulling together. “What are you doing here? Link would be in a great deal of trouble if he was found.”

“We’re here to save you!” She sniffs, holding you tighter. “I came as soon as I heard! I knew what everyone was saying was a lie!” You give a strained look, knowing that of course there were rumors, but irritated at them, nonetheless.

Link shrugs, giving a small look of sass before turning to a vase at the side of the room and looking at it.

You give a long sigh, and she pulls back.

“We are… aren’t we?” She looks into your face, gazing intently at your eyes, turning to glance at Link, who is intently staring at your hands. Her eyes fall to the crest in your hands as well.

“Married.” Link says, shortly, but meaningfully. He never did like expressing himself much with them.

You nod, softly.

“So…” Zelda pauses, throat thick, “You… left willingly.” You can see the hurt she has, the thought that you would so quickly leave without even giving her a goodbye.”

“It’s a long story.” You say quickly, “And I didn’t leave you willingly… But things have changed and I would not be welcomed back to Hyrule, even if you returned with me. But only if you’re willing to do a great favor for me.” You say, holding her arms.

Zelda nods, pulling your hands together as Link raises his brow.

“Yes, what is it?”

“I need help entering a cult.”

-X- To be continued -X-

#romance #gosh dangit rehydrated ganon thirst art #hot desert daddy ganon #rehydrated ganondorf #ganondorf x reader #ganondorf thirst #fanfic #botw x reader #totk ganondorf #theend????

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ladyrijus · 4 months

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Lately, I have been thinking about Kotake and Koume, and, out of interest, have read through a lot of interesting takes on their involvement in Ganondorf's upbringing during Ocarina of Time. However, I've noticed that some of these discussions tend to depict them as emotionally distant, exploitative, manipulative, and even borderline cruel.

Which, granted, isn't entirely out of line for their characters. What other personality traits could we expect out of witches who brainwashed their people into doing the bidding of their king, who were born nearly 400 years before the events of Ocarina of Time and therefore hold a vastly different worldview than the rest of their tribe?

But as always, I like to carry a bit of sensible skepticism when it comes to the narrative that is being pushed in the game. And I find it almost imperative to do so for Ocarina of Time, given that it is played through the eyes of Link, a child soldier who fails to question the orders that he believes he is meant to follow, and the kingdom of Hyrule, which had recently come out as the victor and dominant power after a "civil" war.

The question still remains, however. What, in Ocarina of Time, would "redeem" Twinrova? Where can we see evidence of their "goodness"?

In my opinion? Their powers.

Their powers, I argue, were not chosen randomly by the creators of Ocarina of Time. It was absolutely intentional to show their association with the Gerudo Tribe and more importantly, the Gerudo Valley/Desert. Just think about it, the climate there is scorching hot during the day, yet biting cold during the night.

Wouldn't you, with powers of ice, try to cool down your people after they return from a tiring yet successful hunt?

Wouldn't you, with powers of fire, try to warm your people up when there is not enough hides and furs to pass around?

And given that no one (aside from maybe Ganondorf) has these powers, it is safe to assume that the Gerudo regarded Twinrova as blessed beings; divine guardians sent by the Goddess of the Sands as a reward for their endurance in such harsh climates.

Again, this isn't to condone their actions that take place during the game. We see they are more than happy to kill in the name of their king, willing to coerce others into killing by ways of dark magic.

However, we should also acknowledge the fact that we're encouraged to see just that: two antagonistic witches who revel in brainwashing, killing, cheating death, and being unapologetically evil.

Boring. If we wanted absolutely evil, death seeking creatures, we can look to literally any other magical creature in Ocarina of Time.

Rather, it's important that Twinrova are humans (or humanoid, though either way their sentience still stands), as it forces players to 1) look at the bigger picture and question why the twins behave the way they do and 2) recognize that they have motives that go beyond simply helping a king assert control over an entire world.

Perhaps, Twinrova might have been prolonging their lives to look out for their people, as they had no one with magical affinity to mentor until Ganondorf had demonstrated his own prowess in the mystical arts.

Perhaps, over the centuries, they realized the chiefs and chieftesses before Ganondorf were not cutthroat enough like their Hylian counterparts to fend off territorial expansion/colonization.

Perhaps, after seeing their era of prosperity being snatched away from them, they grew hateful of the kingdom that lives in splendor, and wanted to see it burn and freeze the way they do.

Perhaps, after seeing the complacency of the new generation, how some of their best warriors seek out lovers in that damned Castle Town, they realized this boy was their only hope of restoring their honor and dignity.

#i am the gerudo people's number one defender! move!#also i would like to point out that it's unlikely for ww ganondorf to etch their names to his dual swords if he held no affection for them #tloz #loz #the legend of zelda #legend of zelda #gerudo #twinrova #kotake #koume #ganondorf #link #ocarina of time #oot

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kagoutiss · 2 months

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So I am having SO MANY thoughts about the twinrova and how they’re a couple centuries old and so would’ve lived through multiple rulers before “serving” ganondorf.

Like they raised him, what was their agenda? Did they have plans spanning multiple sovereigns to secure their power over the gerudo? Did they have the Omni man “what’s another century we’ll just raise the next one” kind of feelings towards him if he didn’t become their puppet or weapon?

So much thot not enough brain space this rot is taking over me

ooooooogh twinrova brainrot is strong in me too…..yeah because if they’re ~400 years old and OoT ganondorf was still just in his twenties at the time, and a male gerudo child is born every century, then presumably they could’ve been in the position of raising said children multiple times? i think i remember seeing a take somewhere that considered the idea of twinrova’s role in the gerudo being similar to that of impa serving as an attendant/mentor to zelda, and i think that’s a really cool idea. there’s probably also a lot of potential angst to be found in these little old witches who may have cared for previous gerudo princes, and would have had the incredible responsibility of keeping them safe in childhood, while also training them in witchcraft and war strategy, and advising them in their kingship as adults. because if that’s the case, they would’ve seen those princes live and die multiple times too

it kinda makes you wonder if their love for ganondorf is so obsessive in part because they know firsthand how painful it is to lose a child, to live long enough to outlive to your children multiple times. tbh, i feel like them using ganondorf as their proxy for everything, and trying to make him an all-powerful being at any cost, is more a product of their love for him, than it is a litmus test of whether they‘ll love him or not? and by this i don’t mean they’re like,,, a healthy family by any means, like you can still easily apply terms like abuse and trauma-bonding to parts of their dynamic, imo. i think kotake & koume love ganondorf genuinely, and always have, and that the sentiment is mutual. it’s just that they’re willing to go to very extreme lengths to protect/empower ganon in the ways they believe are necessary, because they are very aware of how important he is, to them and the gerudo as a whole. and ironically, a lot of the time, this desperation ends up being not at all conducive to his safety, or sanity, or happiness

like…raising him with expectations and standards that are completely unreasonable for any human being, that turn him into an ambition-driven nutjob who invents lightning magic & masters all types of weaponry & plays a pipe organ, while also having virtually no ability to form genuine relationships with people other than his mothers. or them trying to make him into an impervious, all-powerful being by trying to take divine power, which sometimes inadvertently turns the rational parts of his brain into soup and sets them on fire. or them trying to revive him after death in the downfall timeline by sacrificing themselves, inadvertently bringing him back wrong, and sentencing him to an existence he never would’ve originally wanted

idk. they’re really fun and also heartbreaking to think about. he engraves their names into his weapons, they willfully die just for the possibility of allowing him to live again. their familial relationship seems to be the most important bond in the lives of everyone involved in it, at the expense of any other kind of connections in their lives. he’s their figurative puppet in a few ways, and will break himself over and over if it means meeting their expectations, but i doubt any of them see it that way. everyone involved gets extremely hurt in one way or another, no matter what, often in an attempt to do the opposite, out of love and fear. little fucked up witch fambly……it’s so much

#ask #twinrova #koume #kotake #ganondorf #thank u anon i got thinking about them again……..aauuugh (wails)

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shadow-is-now-sinning · 1 year

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As a Ganon fan for some time (started with twilight princess he looked so fine man) it surprises me the low quantity of fics for him (same with Bowser) at the same time there isn't a doc where thxs to magic Ganon mom's come back. Like imagine meeting twinrova and them being super excited because FINALLY their son got a s/o who doesn't care if he's victorious or not. Or even they don't care if he's in his human form or not. Please could you write a fanfic where Ganon is embarrassed by his mom's being excited over his s/o? Like it would be so fluffy

Ganondorf and Bowser seem popular but it doesn't seem like it considering you have to traverse the entire internet for mere crumbs. Took so long cause I really struggled with ideas plus writing on your phone kills your fingies.

Content: Third person pov. Gerudo Ganondorf leaning towards Twilight Prince per mention in request, Ganon calls s/o dear and beloved. Mentions of marriage. Pretty short around 500 words.

S/o: s/o is written gender neutral with they/them pronouns. No physical descriptions

As feared as Ganondorf Dragmire was, it was an immensely amusing sight to see his surrogate mothers baby the giant man. Kotake and Koume were on him the microsecond he stepped into the dwelling.

“My handsome young man,” the twin with red accents holds up her hands to the large man’s face. Similar to a grandparent squeezing their grandchild’s face to ‘see them better’

“Mother Kotake, we have a guest,” Ganondorf says, seemingly unbothered by what’s happening, moving the twins’ attention to his partner. The twins zoned in on them before looking at each other.

"Sister, I think our son has finally grown up," Kotake says, earning a huff from her son. Koume nods enthusiastically.

"Come in, Come in!" Koume guides the two further inside. The building was old, obviously just some place they chose just out of necessity. It looked well loved with rustic-worn furniture filling the space. Mystical objects and potions also filled the shelves. Along with miscellaneous creatures and substances. Ganondorf promptly guided his partner away from them, pressing lightly on their back.

Kotake waves Koume away, getting a pout from the glacial witch as she goes back to what they were doing before their son's arrival. Without prompting Ganondorf settled down, the chair creaked with protest but held up nonetheless. Sitting next to him they didn't have much time to get comfortable before Kotake offers a teacup containing something. Decidedly it wasn't tea. Ganondorf had received his own cup, miniscule in his armored hands. Looks like he's using a child's tea set Feeling his partner's eyes he looked at them with a slight tilt on his head.

"Is something the matter my dear. Are my mothers making you uncomfortable?" Ganondorf's voice carried a slight worry of the thought.

Shaking their head, Ganondorf releases a sigh of relief. Placing the now empty cup down. Kotake lingered nearby not wanting to interrupt the couple.

A few moments of silence filled the room before Koume spoke from across the room.

"So Dear, are you going to introduce your partner to your mothers?" Kotake nodded eagerly at her sister's words.

"Yes, yes, introduce them to their in-laws."

Ganondorf sighed, "We aren't yet engaged." This is why he waited so long to introduce his mothers. Koume took this time to hurry over grabbing his partner's face between her hands before her son could stop her.

"Yet, so you plan on it?" Koume says. They try to remove themselves from her grasp but she has a mean grip for an elderly woman.

"I've thought about it, Mother Koume. We haven't discussed the concept of marriage." Ganondorf relents.

"It's been ages since another monarch sat on the throne. Such a dashing pair you two would be." Kotake says with a pensive tone. The knuckle of her index finger resting on her chin.

"Come Koume we have plans to discuss," Kotake starts walking away before pausing to talk over her shoulder, "as the elder sister I will be handling wedding planning."

Koume had moved to follow a sputter in her walk at Kotake's words.

"Why I never. Lying to our son's partner. I'm the eldest by 5 minutes." Koume resta her hands on her hips and Kotake turns to give her sister a glare. Ganondorf stands holding his hand out for his partner to take.

"They are going to be a while, beloved." he says, guiding them out of the house. The twin witches squabbling louding as they did.

"So, about our marriage," they looked up at Ganondorf who refused to make eye contact.

Rest assured more Ganondorf content is coming. Headcanons and fics alike.

#legend of zelda #twilight princess #ganondorf #ganondorf dragmire #ganondorf x reader

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doomed-jester · 1 year

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I like to think about what childhood was like for Ganondorf. He's born to the Gerudo, the first male in 100 years, born with a crown and a title. Born with a responsibility to his people.

The Boy King of the Gerudo, sitting in his desert fortress. He sees the plight of his people, sees them hungry, slaving away in the desert sun. He sees them shiver in the night as the cold wind brings icy death. Crops refuse to grow in the harsh desert. His people steal to survive, it's the only way. He sees them suffer, contemplates the unbearable weight of the crown.

He travels, for the first time, to Hyrule Castle. Still a boy, still in the care of Kotake and Koume, flanked by horseback warrior women. He sees the fear in the people's eyes as he rides through Castle Town. Hears their whispers, "thieves," they say, "and witches."

He meets the king, looming large over him despite their presumed status as equals. The king does not feel the Gerudo. The King of Hyrule looks down on the King of Thieves and his eyes are filled with nothing but contempt. The prince is not so poisoned with hatred, closer in age to the Boy King. Perhaps some day he will take the throne, and an alliance can be struck between the Gerudo and the people of Hyrule. Some day, but not today. The Boy King rides back to his home, to his desert, and a cool wind blows through the window of his carriage. It smells of flowers, of life. Some day, he thinks, all his people will know that wind. Some day.

#zelda #legend of zelda #loz #oot #ocarina of time #ganon #ganondorf #Gerudo #microfic maybe? idk

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