Surprised No One Is Talking About Tulin

Surprised no one is talking about Tulin

Or at least not that I have seen, because just Rito village as a whole was so depressing to me, and I just feel the overwhelming urge to talk about it.

This is obviously for pre-Colgera stuff, but let me tell you, as someone who did all of the other main quests before Rito village and left it for last (cuz it's usually my favorite to do cuz I like flying and archery), going to Rito village was so horrifying at first.

It's the only place so far in TotK that I feel mimicked the feeling of desolation and abandonment as well as BotW did, because in BotW, the Rito are all so friendly to you and while they live in fear of Vah Medoh, they're not in immediate danger, which makes Rito village as a whole quite sunny and enjoyable to be around, that alongside the fact that it's a relatively easy to traverse landscape and the Rito aren't needlessly cruel to you, just rather dismissive. And then in TotK, you enter, expecting the sunniness (in attitude at least) of Rito village, only to be met with a silent, snow-capped landscape with zero life in sight.

And then you go to the market and you see it's being manned by a child. And then the only demographic you see manning the village is children. And then you realize all the adults have abandoned ship while they wait for you to come help and the children had to step up to the plate of supporting the village.

And then you meet Tulin.

In the beginning, I was slightly relieved to see Tulin be with Teba - finally, I thought, a supervised child, a child that doesn't have to take up the mantel of being an adult to survive.

And then Teba talks about the Stormwind Ark's song, a song originally sung to children, who by the way still believe in the existence of the Stormwind Ark, and how all the adults believe that the Stormwind Ark exists. And Tulin dismisses it as just a fairytale.

That crushed me. Of course Tulin has grown up, he's not the same fledgling he was in Breath of the Wild, he can hold his own. He doesn't need fairytales anymore. But even Genli, who looks to be around the same age as Tulin, believes in the Stormwind Ark. Every child and every adult believes in the Stormwind Ark, except for Tulin. This child has had to take his role as protector of the village so seriously that it has disillusioned him. Disillusionment isn't a good feeling even as an adult, but a child should not have to be disillusioned, especially when it comes to a higher protecting force like the Stormwind Ark is supposed to be. Tulin should still be allowed to believe in the existence of a Stormwind Ark. But he doesn't, and he speaks about its nonexistence with such conviction, with such confidence, that it's depressing.

Which, then, puts into context why Tulin was so dismissive of Teba's tutelage. Teba still believes that there is someone who will come save them, so the man who taught Tulin to take initiative and fight for the village's safety, isn't doing anything to help the village. Instead, Tulin's tutor sits around and waits for a saving grace that, in Tulin's eyes, is not real and will not come to save them (because why wouldn't it have come already if it were real?). So, when Teba is stressing the importance of stuff such as training and teamwork, Tulin is quick to dismiss him - Teba believes in something as fake as the Stormwind Ark, why wouldn't he believe in other fake concepts? (Yes, this mindset is extremely juvenile, but Tulin can't be more than 12.)

Link doesn't start out the BotW/TotK duology as an adult but when he joined Tulin, I was so relieved that someone more experienced would be there to take some of the burden off of Tulin. And when he got the secret stone and had to vow to help Link save Hyrule, that pained me. I didn't want to have a child accompanying me in a mission to save the world because no child should have to do that (Riju included, honestly, but Gerudo values muddle that conversation a little bit). And then I remembered it's only a ghost of Tulin that follows Link, not Tulin himself, and I felt slightly better about it.

But when you look at the wider picture, pre or post Colgera, Tulin is a child soldier, essentially, and I'm surprised I haven't seen people talk about him more as a character. When people call into question how dark TotK is, I just... immediately think of Tulin. This kid is forced to live in a dark and disillusioned reality because of the wider circumstances, and he's conditioned by those circumstances to be alright with that. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but that's quite dark on Nintendo's behalf.

And when I put it this way, there's also some parallels to draw between Tulin and Link here, but that's a different conversation for another day.

I just think this part of the story is depressing, and Tulin is my favorite character. And just to reiterate the title of the post - I'm surprised I'm the first person I've seen bring it up. I don't know if this is a bigger conversation, but if anyone has anything to add, I'd love to hear it because, owch :")

maybe this is problematic but idk i think reclaiming slurs for urself is fine and good but i think when u start using them for other people without asking. especially strangers. that's not okay actually. like it's totally fine to use them for urself but i think keeping in mind that they are slurs. is important. like maybe we shouldnt be just throwing them around

yeah but what would the number mean tho?

Oh look, a victim!

So. This wonderful specimen of a person is someone who I consider to be one of my best friends.

They are my co conspirator when it comes to all things tumblr. We're in not a LOT of the same fandoms, but enough that is kinda friendship defining. They also proved to me that neither of us are immune to propaganda. They got me into the owl house (thank you forever carter that is quite possibly one of the biggest favors you have done me thus far) and I got them into critical role as a whole (you're WELCOME). I think the biggest "offender" fandom that we were both in together at the same time was Sk8 the infinity? Maybe? Idk, but tumblr had a big ass play in that.

Also do you know that meme of "writers, make sure you have a doctor friend"? Carter is the doctor friend. The amount of medical questions I have asked this man (gender neutral) in order to torture my ocs is enough to get them a medical degree. And they answer! So if any of you get mad at me for hurting my ocs, they're giving me the ammo :)

Also both of us share the emo/punk experience (tm) which... shows. Irl.

Also we are both so gay and mentally ill that neither of us understand the few straight people we converse with, so now our conversations have divulged into different flavors of "straight people are weird".

I won't get into a lot of the personal stuff but I fucking miss talking at the stairs of our highschool with this guy about ocs, that shit was super fun. We still talk about ocs and fandoms, just not at the staircase of our highschool. We do it irl at a park or sth or dms.

I think that's all I have to say? Anywho I love my friends vol 1.

... The number means nothing btw.

SUCH AN EXTREMELY IMPORTANT EDIT BTW: I would take a bullet for this guy. This is like true for all of my friends but I need all of you to know that we live 5 hours away from each other and if anything happened to them I would spend absurd amounts of money to be there ASAP. Also I'm currently trying to get them to play Deltarune with me and they're trying to get me to watch OFMD and Good Omens. Both of us are failing.

Ante, 9

You call my takes questionable, but you are one of the biggest degenerates (pos) I know irl.

Everyone, meet mom. She'll shower you with alcohol and dotes on you like a sweet heart and every experience she joins in will immediately become 10 times worse but in the most fun way.

I'll start with the sappy shit for her and her only: when I first moved I was very unsure of whether I was gonna have any friends at all. But then I met her and from the first 10-20 minutes of us talking, I immediately knew that it was gonna be okay, and that I was worried for nothing. And that has proven to be true. Her house is the one Cass, Lilibet and I all meet up at, and the one I laugh the hardest at. And that is a thing to treasure.

Also she's like "uwu Noel says he'd kill for me and that is so sweet" BITCH!! THERE'S A REASON FOR THAT!!

Anyway if Cass is extremely fun to see get passionate, Rei is 10 times that. She is also extremely passionate and extremely stressed, but she has so many thought and she WILL express all of them, and that is always fun. It is never not fun.

Back to the thing I said about experiences with her automatically becoming worse: I don't know if we're like a chemical reaction waiting to happen, but if she's either a) on her own or b) with me, whatever is happening will become a wattpad story draft, like I shit you know. So many story times of us together are comedy slice of life worthy. We almost missed our flight cuz she shoved her... personal possessions in my bag to be allowed through TSA. We stayed up until 4 am watching yaoi. We watched creepy pasta AMVs together. We made it a family tradition to watch bad soap operas together. There is never a quiet moment.

Anyway, bullying her is extremely fun. But only when I do it. If I catch any of you bitches bullying her, it is on sight.

Also her biggest red flag is that she likes Neon Genesis Evangelion and trap music. Pick a struggle.

This is very important research so I can figure out how to arrange my books

Mutuals send me a number, and I'll make a post talking about you.