cutebutalsostabby

[cutebutalsostabby]

One thing I'm wondering as an Australian looking over at the US: are direct actions for Palestine a thing over there? Are they common? Asking because I feel like I only ever see indirect actions on the news. I'm not sure if that's an issue with the news itself, with me reading it, or if it actually reflects a difference in culture or tactics. /gen

"Direct action" means disrupting the flow of supplies/capital/people in a way that directly impacts the situation on the ground - whether that's a large or small impact. It includes things like picketing weapons factories, blocking Israeli ships from docking or loading/unloading, or even sabotaging Israeli exports or imports. "Indirect actions" are instead typically focused on convincing someone else to do something, e.g. protests that call for politicians to impose sanctions or for corporations to divest from certain businesses. Boycotts could be either, depending on the details (noting the difference between primary BDS targets like Ahava and organic ones like Starbucks).

Over here at least, conventional wisdom seems to be that both forms of action are important, but that you should ideally prioritise direct action where possible - especially given mounting evidence that most politicians and corporations do NOT give anywhere near enough of a damn. Indirect actions are also used as a recruitment tool for direct actions, e.g. a speaker at a protest may mention an upcoming picket. Though if you have a low tolerance for risk or if you're unable to attend an in-person action for whatever reason, you would probably focus more on indirect actions. And to be fair: that's me most of the time, in between work commitments, disability and not wanting to get pepper sprayed or bashed by cops.

But I feel like I've never actually seen any direct actions for Palestine coming out of the US? The furthest it seems to get is extreme indirect actions, or extreme police responses to very regular and normal indirect actions (related: ACAB). And surely there's way more opportunity to directly disrupt things over in the US than there is here in Australia? Am I missing something?

#palestine #free palestine #direct action #international politics #palestinian genocide #genuine question

[cutebutalsostabby]

thank you for having legend relentlessly bully warriors for our entertainment

Please know I do this coz I love him

[cutebutalsostabby]

older botw art

[cutebutalsostabby]

I’m a day late for sickfic day of Raivoli week but simply could not pass up that prompt. Read it here or on Ao3!

△△△

Link frowned, sitting up in bed. Something was off. 

No one bustled around his tiny little single room cottage. The shutters on all the windows remained closed. No lanterns lit the dark room. Only the dim glow of last night’s embers in the hearth and morning sunlight peeking around the edges of the shutters provided any light to see by. 

Ravio wasn’t up. Strange. Most mornings he beat Link to waking. 

In the darkness, someone sniffed. 

Link turned to the lump under the covers next to him. 

They’d been sharing a bed for a few weeks now, whenever Link wasn’t stuck in the depths of some dungeon. It still felt strange, but less strange than making Ravio spread a bedroll out on the hard floor while Link himself enjoyed a lumpy but soft mattress. 

Another quiet sniffle. Crying? The thought made Link’s stomach curl uncomfortably. But no, this time it was followed by a light cough and a soft, miserable little noise.

“Mister Hero?” Ravio whispered. He sounded stuffy and about as pathetic as Link had ever heard him. The times he’d talked his way into Link’s house and then his bed both included. “Are you awake?”

Ravio still insisted on covering his face, even at night. At least he took off the hood, turning his back to Link for long enough to cover both hair and ears with a wrap and an oversized, brilliantly purple sleeping mask to dwarf most of the rest of his features. The bunny hood lay in a heap on the floor; usually he woke before Link to put it on. 

Covered eyes turned towards Link in the darkness. Was it his imagination that the very tip of the nose just barely visible under the lower edge of the mask looked a little red? 

“I’m awake,” he whispered back.

“Mister Hero, I feel terribly unwell,” Ravio moaned, laying on the drama now that he knew he had an audience. Link rolled his eyes, secure in the knowledge that it would remain unseen. “I think I need a healing potion. Maybe a fairy? I definitely need a fairy. Oh, but what if there aren’t any? You’ll take care of Sheerow, won’t you? I - what are you doing?”

Between the turban and the sleeping mask, a sliver of Ravio’s forehead remained exposed to open air. The palm of Link’s hand immediately started to feel a little sweaty, but Link knew perfectly well that wasn’t because of Ravio. 

“Checking for fever,” he said as casually as he could, pulling his hand back. The skin seemed to tingle with the remembered warmth of Ravio’s skin. It was the normal amount of warmth. “You don’t have one.” 

“I can’t possibly open the shop today,” Ravio bemoaned. He coughed again. Link listened carefully, but it sounded dry, no rattling of phlegm. He sounded stuffy, yes, but he hadn’t yet coughed himself hoarse. “I can’t talk to people like this! An entire day of lost profits!”

Link wasn’t impressed. “It’s just a cold. I’m renting your entire stock. And if I want to buy something, you don’t need to open the shop for me. I live here.” He still felt the need to remind Ravio of that from time to time. 

Ravio’s hands flailed blindly. Link jerked his head back to avoid getting smacked in the nose. “I get other customers! One of them still has the sand rod!” Ravio declared with such a loudly dramatic hiss that he set himself into a true coughing fit, the first Link had heard from him that morning. Link grabbed his hand and pulled him to sit upright, patting his back until the fit passed. 

“I’ll make you some tea,” he decided. The audible dryness in his throat did sound painful, and the steam would be good for his sinuses. 

He heard the whisper of fabric across the floor as soon as he headed towards the kitchen and kept his head politely turned away while Ravio swapped his sleeping mask for the hood he could, theoretically, see out of. 

“And breakfast?” Ravio added hopefully, clogged nose adding to the overall air of pathetic neediness. 

“Don’t push your luck.” 

But once he had the kettle on, Link pulled out a pan and some eggs. Ravio nursed him back to health a time or two, after all; that was how they met. He could afford to return the favor. 

△△△

(Brought to you by the headcanon that Ravio gets terribly dramatic over the mildest of colds and is the most demanding patient he can possibly be.)

[cutebutalsostabby]

Warning: Blood

Oops..

Hyrule is used to seeing wounds and blood but panics 1000 times more when he sees his own blood.

[cutebutalsostabby]

Any really weird or funny things in the LoZ games you think deserve attention in LU fics?

Oh, a bunch. Where to start?

Firstly: they should play more minigames. Especially dancing. Weird that the Gorons moved on to wrestling as their main sport by Twilight's era; frankly that's a downgrade. Legend and Time should remind them what tradition looks like.

And some minigames are just... ridiculously dangerous? They would make GREAT crack fics. Any myths of Sky being normal and well-adjusted would crack under the weight of that game where you get shot out of a cannon and then skydive down to slam your face into a giant roulette wheel. Or that game from Labrynna (Legend) where this Goron throws a whole heap of bombs at you to see if you can dodge them. Only slightly safer than a similar game involving cuccos.

And on the more serious side of lore that I think is under-explored: the Royal Family has a daaaark side. In a lot of ways, really, which are HINTED at in the games, but rarely actually detailed. For example, it's mentioned in Twilight Princess that the Royal Family have been exploiting the Twilight Realm since LONG before the Twilight Realm started fighting back. And in TotK's ancient Hyrule, we never did find out what happened with the rest of the Zonai, or how exactly Rauru ended up in charge of things.

Ocarina of Time has the darkest portrayal of the Royal Family - even though Zelda is the only member of that family that you ever actually see (the king is somewhere offscreen at the time you meet her). Although everything seems fine and normal at first - notwithstanding the giant war that happened before the start of the game and which left Hyrule Field SWARMING with undead - you eventually come across Bottom of the Well and the Shadow Temple, which uhh... don't paint the Royal Family or Sheikah in a particularly nice light.

And then there's Zelda II's background lore from the game booklet, which says that a king from long ago created the monsters that guard the Palaces:

Are we just going to skip past the fact that the King can create monsters?? That feels important! When and how did he learn to do that? Does that have anything to do with how Dead Hand and Bongo Bongo came into existence? Or anything to do with BotW's Guardians, WW's Tower of the Gods, SS's Lanayru facility or the transformative shadow magic in TP? Possibly not, but it's fun to think about. Teehee conspiracy brain go brr.

There should be more spooky scary horror fics, maybe. Maybe I should write this. (It's vaguely included as a plotpoint in my longfic, but I am SLOW right now.)

#asks #legend of zelda #linked universe #zelda lore

[cutebutalsostabby]

2 & 20 for the ask game, please.

2.

Fighting style, huh? Well, real-world me would probably focus on stealth and disguise, but when I play video games it tends to be a lot of hack and slash lol. Tactics take way more patience than I actually possess. But muddlebuds were a fun addition in TotK. Heck yeah make em fight.

20.

Hmm every time I'm asked to pick a favourite thing, I tend to start rambling about a whole bunch of things I like, but I'll pick just one author to rec today: CluelessMoose.

Picking this author since they're probably the one I'm most often going back to read. They have some tasty whump fics, including a Wild-centric series and a mer Legend fic. Also I don't know if this is egotistical but some of their writing style and characterisations reminds me of my own (not identical of course, just a few little quirks I notice/imagine) so either my work had some sort of impact or we're both just natural geniuses with impeccable taste? In any case: read their stuff.

#ask game #asks #legend of zelda #linked universe

[cutebutalsostabby]

Ravioli ship week day 2 tender care/sick here I am !

Thanks to my lucky star, I somehow managed to finish those pages last night !! I had this vision in my head and couldn't help myself-- so have a three page comic of the sillies for today !!

Closeup of my two favourite panels of the boys-- Ravio going through it.. rip his beautiful eyeliner

[cutebutalsostabby]

So how is Tingle’s Rosy Rupeeland going?

It's, uhh. Going. Yes. It sure is a game.

Initial thoughts:

There is a target demographic for this game and it is NOT me. The target demographic is cishet men in their thirties. I am only one of those things.

The plot is that a little man in a pond demands monetary tribute in exchange for transporting our deeply unlikeable protagonist to a mystical paradise full of beautiful women. I have the distinct impression that the man in the pond might actually have hidden motives.

The man in the pond changed my name to Tingle. C-can he do that?? I mean, I guess??

The main gimmick is guessing how much to pay or be paid for things. The game doesn't give you much of a guide here. Is this how the free market usually operates?

You die if you run out of rupees. This is absolutely how the free market usually operates.

Dubious Zelda spin-off media has this weird habit of giving the protagonist a horny female fairy companion. This game continues that trend, except that I'm pretty sure Pinkle is evil and frankly that makes her the best one yet. Can she be the protagonist instead? It seems like she knows what she's doing. Far more than Tingle does. I support her.

Our protagonist is basically just not good at anything. Especially fighting. You pay people to fight for you. He should not be on this adventure and it's kinda funny that he is. I would work for him.

Overall it absolutely does NOT look or feel like a Zelda game AT ALL, but it is vaguely charming(?) in its own right, I guess? Lol

#legend of zelda #tingle's rosy rupeeland

[cutebutalsostabby]

Before tears of the kingdom came out, I was watching a video on youtube that talked about volcanic signs around hyrule. As they pointed out what different structures around death mountain and akkala could've been, I started seeing those kinds of structures and shapes everywhere and I realized..

Hyrule is on top of a very large volcanic area

I started looking for signs. I realized there were hot springs in tabantha, and hot springs is not just something that cold regions have, no, it's something volcanic regions have.

When tears of the kingdom came out one of my top priotities was to get to the depths and see if there's lava underneath these hot springs, and sure enough there they were! Not only that, I found volcanic shapes in the depths themselves, as well as lava in other places I didn't know about.

Why am I talking about this?

Because they're not just there as decorations, at least not to me.

Look at Hyrule great forest. It obviously used to be a big forest spanning from above hyrule castle all the way to the top of the map, covering the west part of death mountains foot. Now the trees are all burned down from a volcanic eruption, except for in two regions that have strangely moat-looking "rivers" around them.

I'm not going to pretend I believe these are rivers. I'm 100% sure they are man made. These moats were dug in order to protect important land marks, because the people knew that they live on a volcanic region. It's no coincidence that the castle has a huge moat around it as well. They are trying to be safe from their inevitable doom.

But it's not just this. Moats don't always save you, and volcanoes eventually go dormant.

I imagine if you're the least interested in zelda lore and the zelda timeline, you've asked yourself the question, "Why does the map change so drastically?". Well, here's your answer.

Death mountain isn't just any mountain, it's always the most recently active volcano and the place where the gorons live! The gorons move around, when there's a new volcano they move there!

Towns safety become threatened, and so they move. Look at the ruins on the sides of death mountain, they're not burned, they're abandoned. So the people move around, they literally have no choice but to do so, unless they take to drastic measures, like raising your town high above the ground and building a wall around it, like the great plateau.

Why are the sheikah towers buried under ground and designed to shoot up with incredible force? Why not just build them in place and why do they need to be so tall? Maybe they were preparing them to be able to function even after lava has covered the ground.

The extremely mountainous nature of all of hyrule is honestly the best sign we have of this. By looking at the mountains we can conclude where the latest volcano was, and I think it was in Hebra.

So when trying to piece together how the maps work together, you can't look at things like a town, a castle or a volcano, because those things are constantly moving. I'd say maybe the desert could be the way to go, but we've seen very clearly that deserts used to be oceans. If you look to the horizon in gerudo desert in botw, you'll see water.

I think that the gorons migrate when their volcano gets too cold. If we look at majoras mask and assume that termina is in fact a real place, this is the first time we see gorons living in a cold place, and they don't seem to be thriving. Gorons like the warmth that the volcano provides.

So why does death mountain switch places?? Because it's not the same mountain! Death mountain is always the volcano! So one volcano goes dormant, another one pops up and the gorons move there. And this also explains a loooooot of other geographical questions. The people of hyrule are living under a constant threat of destruction by volcano, and that's why they need to move their castles and everything. If we were to assume the temple of time from ocarina of time is the same as in breath of the wild, we clearly see they moved/abandoned the castle and castle town because of the close proximity of death mountain in ocarina of time. It all makes a lot of sense and makes me feel like the map changing isn't such a big problem to me anymore.

[cutebutalsostabby]

Okay shoutout out to @cutebutalsostabby ‘s fic “In which Wild avoids meeting the gang” (truly such a fun read!) for giving me a very silly idea.

Cw: alcohol mention

Its a very messy sketch but I’ve been thinking about this for actual months and had to get it out of my system.

#yesss #what is soup if not illicit pirate liquor am I right #granny knows what she did

[cutebutalsostabby]

About the AO3 "No Guest Comments for a while" warning

If you're not following any of AO3's social media accounts you might be in the dark as to what kind of "spam comments" have engendered this banner at the top of the site:

These spam comments have been posted about a great deal on the AO3 subreddit for the past couple of days. Initially they comprised a bunch of guest (logged out users) bot comments that insulted authors by suggesting they were using AI and not writing their own fics. Some examples, from the subreddit:

But it then escalated to outright graphic porn images and gifs being posted in comments, again by logged out 'Guest' accounts. Obviously, I'm not going to give examples of those, but between these two bot infestations, AO3 has clearly decided to act and has temporarily closed the ability to post comments for users who are not logged in with an AO3 account.

Unfortunately, this means that genuine readers who don't have an AO3 account won't be able to leave comments on fics that they enjoy.

If you are a genuine reader who doesn't yet have an AO3 account, I strongly suggest getting yourself on the waiting list for one. More and more AO3 authors are now locking their fics down to registered users only - either due to these bot comments or concerns about AI scraping their work - which means you're probably missing out on a lot of great stuff.

Hopefully guest commenting will be enabled again at some point soon, but I suggest not waiting until then. Get yourself on that list.

Wait times are going to be longer than usual at the moment, due to the current Wattpad purge [info on Fanlore | Wattpad subreddit thread], but if you're in line, then your invite will come through eventually.

Update: There's now a Megathread about this on the AO3 subreddit.

[cutebutalsostabby]

1, 28, 30 for the ask game!

1.

Favourite soup?? What do you mean I have to pick a favourite child??? Uhh

Maybe miso soup? Couldn't eat it in large quantities but it's amazing as a side dish. Meanwhile a soup I CAN eat in large quantites would be minestrone. Yum! And when I'm sick, my go-to is this super easy to make egg and lemon soup, full of rice. I think you can put chicken in it too if you want, but I'm vegetarian so I just use meat-free chicken flavoured stock.

(Favourite Legend of Zelda soup would be the elixir soup from Wind Waker. Looks tasty. Kind of overpowered. Thanks granny.)

28.

Useful skills, useful skills... well, I've at least done a few introductory blacksmithing courses, so while I couldn't singlehandedly forge a sword, I do have enough knowledge to help out, or at least to not waste a real blacksmith's time with questions like "hey, can you glue the two halves of this sword back together please?" Sometimes you need a wizard and/or priest more than you need several whacks of a hammer. Just imagine how much smoother Minish Cap would've gone if someone looked at that busted blade and gave an honest, "Nah, sorry mate, shit's fucked". That's my offering to the team dynamic.

30.

Several years back I went to Aotearoa/New Zealand for an anime convention, and I went for a bit of a wander through the nearby countryside while cosplaying as Peatrice (from Skyward Sword). A bunch of American tourists saw me and wanted photos, so those exist somewhere lol. They were so excited to meet "an elf" and I didn't have the heart to explain the difference between the Tolkein and Nintendo extended universes. But yeah, classic New Zealand that there was this mountainous hiking track and a whole bunch of sheep right near the venue of an anime convention. This was in Auckland btw.

#ask game #asks #legend of zelda

[cutebutalsostabby]

Pretty Sword Siblings ✨⚔️✨

[cutebutalsostabby]

12, 13, 14?

---

12.

Mmm don't think I've shared this HC here before: Zelda I Zelda is about the same age as Link, but Zelda II Zelda is 10-20 years older (and for the avoidance of doubt: NOT romantically involved with Link). This comes down to the fact that of all the things AoL!Link (or Hyrule) could have used his wish on, Impa told him to awaken Zelda. Not to save the land, not to stop the Cult of Ganon, just to wake a legendary princess from long, long ago from her magical slumber. And maybe I'm reading into a simplistic Sleeping Beauty-ish plot a bit too much, but there must have been a reason for that, right? Preferably a reason beyond "16-year-old Link marries the 16-year old Zelda who literally just woke up, thus becoming King of Hyrule and fixing everything somehow".

So no: let's instead say that sleeping beauty Zelda, as the rightful successor of the king before her (which is I think canon? Or at least implied?) is the last great ruler of Hyrule who happens to be a tactical genius and received the power/knowledge to control the Palace Guardians that the king before her created. Or something along those lines. Give her some agency. And some life experience. Also that ending scene can be a totally platonic hug if you want it to be. There, I said it.

(Obvious disclaimer: ship and let ship, it's ok if your HC is different to mine.)

13.

ZORA. They're the coolest Zelda race imo. Especially the N64 Majora's Mask version. Swimming would be so much more fun if you could do graceful dolphin dives and also produce magical electricity, then pause to play underwater bone guitar while laying eggs and presumably not having periods. Fish life for me.

14.

Gonna be honest: I'm a fake fan who loves LU fanon (and LoZ canon) way more than the actual comic. But from what I recall, I don't think they've actually fought anything that's talked back yet? That'd be fun.

Not that fights with unintelligent monsters are bad per se, but the Zelda series has a lot of talkative baddies. Ganondorf, obviously, but also Ghirahim, Master Kohga, Veran, Onox, Vaati, Vire, Yuga, Blind, Zant, King Bulblin, Twinrova and more. Volga, Wizzro and Cia from Hyrule Warriors. Sohga from Age of Calamity. And all the sassy Nightmares from Link's Awakening, of course. Hell, wheel out the Moblin King and his cronies.

Idk. If the queer-coded monster isn't snapping out clever quips while they transform into a giant blobby turtle and/or bumblebee, what is even the point?

Thanks for the ask!! 💜

#ask game #asks #legend of zelda

[cutebutalsostabby]

LoZ/LU Ask Game

What’s your favorite kind of soup?

What’s your fighting style? Or do you avoid fights?

What kind of animal would you prefer to ride if you could?

Do you enjoy riddles and puzzles?

Which Link is your favorite?

Which grouping of Links/characters is your favorite?

Do you like hiking and camping?

What is your role in the fandom? (Cosplayer, meme-maker, analysis post writer, supporter, etc.)

What Legend of Zelda games have you played?

Have you read any LoZ mangas or books like Hyrule Historia?

What is your weapon of choice? (Sword, bow, elemental rod, etc)

Tell me a random LoZ/LU headcanon you have.

If you couldn’t be a human/Hylian, what LoZ creature or species would you want to be?

Which LoZ/LU character/creature do you hope to see more of in the LU comic?

Do you know first aid or have magical healing skills?

Do you have an LoZ or LU AU?

Have you ever cosplayed as an LoZ/LU character or do you plan to someday?

Which LoZ dungeon is your favorite?

Are you someone who does pranks or are you the one getting pranked?

What is your favorite LoZ/LU fanfic or artwork? (Or artist/writer?)

Do you have any scars with cool stories behind them?

What’s the hardest LoZ enemy to fight?

Can you cook (in general)? Do you know how to cook with a campfire?

Do you ever watch LoZ/LU analysis/lore videos on youtube?

Would you join the Chain if you had the opportunity to?

What are your thoughts on the most recent LU comic?

What do you think will happen next in the LU comic?

What special skill do you have that would be useful on a quest?

Who in the fandom deserves more attention/recognition/praise/an award?

Tell me a story about an adventure you went on!

[cutebutalsostabby]

May I ask for something about how Loft Zelda and Groose got together?

dramatic reenactment