#they cannot be the only one twisting themselves in a knot to repent and earn forgiveness

[rawliverandgoronspice]

Alright I think I’ve sent a ask in before and you answered it, I’m not sure if I’m just repeating myself but if I am feel free to ignore!

Alright I wanted to talk about changes in the gerudo culture, now naturally culture norms will change and fade as time goes on. But with the gerudo I can’t help but feel that they were forced to change much of their culture just to appease the other races.

Like why did they stop training Molduga? Why did they change their style to be more feminine etc.

Personally I feel like they were forced to change their culture so they wouldn’t get attacked. Why? Well example the sheikah, the sheikah are a tribe very close to the royal family. They will take out anyone who is a threat to the royal family, correct? Well who used to actively oppose the royal family, the gerudo.

I believe the sheikah still have a prejudiced against the gerudo because, you cannot find a single gerudo in kakariko village. You can find gerudo npcs outside the village thought, on the dangerous rode. Wouldn’t it be easier and safer for them to just cut through kakariko village? Unless there was still bad blood

I’m sorry to bother with my my insane ramblings I just wanted to share and I felt this place appropriate to share my thoughts.

Thank you for reading and thank you and have a nice night/morning/afternoon

Hey, thanks for the ask!

I mean, regardless of what actually did happen in canon, if anything did, I have to say that BotW, and then TotK's internal narrative regarding the gerudos feels rather worrying to me --for several reasons, some of which you do mention here.

The gerudos, by virtue of having the strongest culture that differs from hylians, is the one that is also the most dynamic in these games' shared reality (so TotK's mythical past, BotW, and then TotK modern era), the one that is the most malleable and ongoing internal change.

The first time we see the gerudos, historically, they have a certain political structure that seems to rely on kinghood, have certain skills related to war (the molduga situation), and even have fashion sensitivities that are relatively different to modern era's gerudos (the mohawk, etc, and I Will Not mention the ear situation for the inconsistent mess that it is). Then, the whole shenanigans with Rauru happen, we see the Sage of Lightning having a fashion sense that feels closer to what we know, and we get to see active collaboration happening.

Fast-forward hundreds-to-thousands of years later: not only are gerudos vassal to Hyrule pre-Calamity, but, while their town is still closed behind walls, the gerudos have a strong cultural focus on seeking (mostly) hylian husbands. We get to hear about the younger generations pushing against the strong rules keeping the city closed, and that the walls aren't as closed as they used to be.

In TotK, not only is the actual language evolving (so even if old hylian seems to have been a thing, the speed of language evolving is to be noted imo), but we see clear examples of the ancestral rules being challenged to the point of near annihilation. By the time we leave the gerudos behind, two hylian men have snuck inside the walls/forced their presence upon them, and we have heard of at least another group who have been working for years to make them bend the rules for their sake. Zelda came around and influenced their war techniques, and even their ancient legends get recontextualized as involving hylian men with the Eight Heroin, or as monstrously evil and something to seek forgiveness for in the case of Ganondorf. Subtextually, I'd argue we are assisting to a culture being assimilated in real time. It might be portrayed as a good thing, as old, useless or even arguably bigoted traditions being cast aside, but I still have to insist that while gerudos are yielding their cultural identity under (mostly) hylian pressures, hylians spend the *entire game* rediscovering and reinforcing their own culture and pushing forward a cultural heritage that is thousand of years old --even reinjecting lost elements of its roots into its prosperous future.

And, yeah. It's kind of worth noting at least.

#asks #totk #totk critical #gerudos #hyrule #botw #when will my brain return from the imprisoning war... #this is what I mean by: if I were Ganondorf (and no matter what awful shit he did do) I'd literally feel ill #ESPECIALLY in the context of the sheikahs being suddenly recontexualized as a subset of the hylians #one can't help but wonder: is this the fate that awaits gerudos as well #if there were to be a volume 3 to the Wild Era (there won't be but a hypothetical one) #would (hylians) become a part of their character profiles? #I do find this entire subtextual arc more than a little upsetting yeah #even if I appreciate the more dynamic angle to their culture #they cannot be the only one to question themselves #they cannot be the only one twisting themselves in a knot to repent and earn forgiveness #they cannot be the only one binding themselves to a child-to-bride pipeline deifying hylian men and structuring their future #around people that *do not respect them* at large #and see them as vaguely intimidating and stuck-up but kind of bumbling insecure exotic hotties #even link do not respect the gerudos' hard “no”s in totk (which I did find quite upsetting to play through) #anyway thanks for the ask and sorry for kind of using your ask to do my own thing sorryyyy