Bit By Bit, I've Gotten Link To Open Up To Me. When I Finally Got Around To Asking Why He's So Quiet

“Bit by bit, I've gotten Link to open up to me. When I finally got around to asking why he's so quiet all the time, I could tell it was difficult for him to say. But he did. With so much at stake, and so many eyes upon him, he feels it necessary to stay strong and to silently bear any burden. A feeling I know all too well... For him, it has caused him to stop outwardly expressing his thoughts and feelings. I always believed him to be simply a gifted person who had never faced a day of hardship. How wrong I was... Everyone has struggles that go unseen by the world... I was so absorbed with my own problems, I failed to see his. I wish to talk with him more and to see what lies beneath those calm waters, to hear him speak freely and openly... And perhaps I, too, will be able to bare my soul to him and share the demons that have plagued me all these years."

This is probably the most important passage of text in the entire BotW and TotK games.

It’s the starting point of Link and Zelda’s connection. It’s why she stopped hating him and started to appreciate him. It shows that she’s compassionate. And it’s also really important towards her growing connection with him in Tears of the Kingdom.

It’s also just really nice that Nintendo included a passage about how everybody has hidden struggles and to not pass preemptive judgement on people and assume they’re okay when they’re not! Thats really progressive and awesome to hear in a game for kids and teens!

So in finally getting into LoZ, I've been trying to play all the games in chronological story order. But I got stuck on the last Imprisoned fight in SS and decided to take a break and skip to the next game (until one of my siblings who are better at videogames than me can help me) So one of the last cutscenes I watched in SS is Zelda crying that it's all her fault for dragging Link into this life of constant danger and apologizing for not being able to protect him. And then the first scene in Minish is a tiny 9yo Zelda winning a festival game and immediately insisting that her reward has to be a new shield for Link. And then I also watched all the AoC cutscenes, and my siblings have all been rambling about BotW & TotK (and most of the internet fandom seems to be for those games anyway so it's hard to avoid) and in those her powers manifest in an attempt to protect Link. And now I'm super emotional because for all that most of the entire series is quest after quest after quest to save Zelda, in every lifetime she is trying just as hard and fighting just as desperately to protect Link too, because no matter how young/old they are and no matter if it's still purely platonic or had the chance to bloom into romance, she loves him with her entire soul (and still possibly harbors guilt at not being able to save him the first time around when she had her full goddess powers...)

How I explain dysphoria when people don't understand.

i know hearing people on this website love to pass around those posts with links to free sign language lessons but you know you need to actually put effort into learning about Deaf culture, too, right?

The blood of the goddess and the spirit of the hero are forever wound in an endless cycle with a incarnation of Demise’s hatred.

You never chose this fate but it will forever follow you.