"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!!"
ALTZelda 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
"Mending my brain again, please don't give up on me."
MAJOR HEAVEN'S FEEL SPRING SONG SPOILERS DON'T WATCH IF YOU DID NOT SEE THE MOVIE YET!
Hey. This is my possibly favorite Noble Phantasm line in FGO.
But you can’t appreciate it if you don’t get the Buddhist reference, so come over here and let’s learn some Buddhism with the sexy nun:
What, you might ask, is an abhisecana (or abhisheka) rite?
As I understand it, it’s an initiation rite for a practitioner who is advancing in their study of the Dharma. In some Buddhist schools, including Shingon—the school from which Tachikawa-ryu, Kiara’s school, branches off (which we don’t know much about, because it’s long-dead IRL and was subject to political book burnings, but that’s another story—this rite involves a student being assigned to a bodhisattva, whose teachings and/or qualities they will study to guide their development and give them direction.
Rather than let a student choose a bodhisattva based on their preconceptions at the time of the ritual, they are blindfolded and cast a flower onto a mandala—like the womb realm mandala, shown below—and whoever it lands on, that’s who they go with.
But Kiara is, as always, encouraging living beings to give up their heavenly aspirations—to cast their flower instead on the mandala of the realm of desire. Let it fall where it may—chase whatever vice or illusion your whims take you to.
But make no mistake.
However it falls, there’s only one bodhisattva that will watch over you as you dance in the palm of her hand.
It kind of fucks me up to see some people come out of watching RGU having absorbed absolutely nothing of what the show has to say about patriarchy, misogyny, & queerphobia, outside of "men bad, lesbian good." Which like.....sure, I guess? in the absolute barest sense, I suppose RGU is partially about that.
But if this show's thesis were really as simple as "lesbian good," then Juri & her role as an antagonist on the mini patriarchy that is the Student Council would simply not exist at all. Juri would've won all the duels, kicked Akio in the nuts, freed Anthy, & ridden away into the sunset with Shiori in her arms before Utena even showed up if that were the case. But she obviously didn't do any of that despite being a lesbian, so there must be something more complicated at work here.
A lot of RGU's narrative is dedicated to deconstructing binary social systems & the ways in which they harm those trying to and/or being forced to fit within one of two narrow boxes; man vs woman, adult vs child, princess vs witch, prince vs devil, special vs not special, romantic vs platonic, etc. So for someone to watch all of that beautiful complexity, only to filter it through yet another essentialist binary...sucks, to say the least.
I was so half expecting that they were going to give Dread a redemption arc and Sonic was going to convince him to care about his crew like how he got Thorn to reconcile with the scavengers, BUT THEY DIDN’T! He actually got worse! And I am so happy about that.
His immediate want after getting the shard was to pretty much conquer the No place. He wasn’t bothered that sonic vanished into nothingness.
And Like he went full manipulative bastard! He turned his entire crew on Sonic on purpose! And he was scarily good at it. He really did look like someone mad about a betrayal! He sounded apologetic when say they never should have trusted him, he conveniently cut off Sonic at the right moments in a rage of someone hurt by betrayal, alikening sonic to a clear enemy. Dread can be a really good manipulator when he’s not 100% off his rocker.
And him leaving behind his crew when it benefits him, not caring about their safety.
Even the subtitles called him out for evil laughing.
Every now and again I used to question ‘are we playing up Dreads awefulness a little bit higher than it actually is?’ Turns out nope! He is that awful and self centered maybe even more! Dread is a terrible person and I love him for it.
