raisedbymoogles (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
raisedbymoogles) wrote2025-08-04 10:28 am
raisedbymoogles) wrote2025-08-04 10:28 am
Entry tags:
playing in Zelda's sandbox again
So I've had this formless collection of thoughts before, I'm just going to try to write them down so I can organize them.
1) The reason Zelda doesn't claim the title of queen is because in a very real sense Hyrule is no longer a kingdom, and might never be again in the same way it was before. The bits of it with Hylians in are kind of a loosely-associated string of communities connected by a common culture and the stable system, and given how dangerous travel is (esp. pre defeating Calamity Ganon), the stable system is kinda the closest thing they've got to a functioning government if you define 'government' as 'a way to get people, goods, and messages from Point A to Point B where they're needed.' Wouldn't surprise me if Hylians get real into horses in the next hundred years.
2) The other non-Hylian... vassal states? Have pretty much been handling their business since the initial Calamity. Zora in particular seem to be doing just fine for themselves, and they'd be my pick to become the dominant power in the Hyrule lands in the future. All the different heads of state clearly have fond feelings toward Zelda, but that doesn't necessarily translate to 'here, have power over us again', and the nasty rumors floating around Zelda's activities indicate that her hold over the common Hylians isn't as tight as the narrative might want. If anything Zelda's rebuilt Hyrule might end up being a vassal to the Zora.
(Side note: was there ever an effort to marry Zelda to Sidon as a kind of political transfer of power? Is this why Dorephan pulled out Yona, because he didn't want that to happen? Might be an interesting fic written by someone other than me.)
All of this leads to my thinking that while restoring Hyrule to glory is Zelda's stated goal, she may need to adjust her thinking on what that means. (And get some therapy. Untangle the damage her dad did. Introducing herself as 'daughter of King Rhoam' just proves she's still got shit to work through.) The fact that she's throwing her energy into rebuilding infrastructure rather than the castle and taking a part-time (I assume) job as a schoolteacher is... possibly a step in the right direction? But idk. She may still be thinking of A Kingdom and maybe a grandaughter crowned queen at some point and that may not be possible without sparking yet another bullshit civil war. This may or may not be poked at in a future fic, if I ever fall off the Transformers wagon again.
All of this may well be cope after a brief round of accusations of Zelda being a Hideous Imperialist Bitch on the tumbls based on some stuff she says in the Zelda notes. As though her (at worst) trying to whitewash Hyrule's past somehow makes Ganon "my stated goal in canon is to kill literally everybody" Dorf a nice guy who's been the target of an unfair smear campaign, I guess?
this has been stated before by others but I guess this is why I tend to gravitate towards children's media with sketchy-at-best worldbuilding. If something's too well-thought-out then (while I might enjoy the experience of watching/playing it) there's no blank margins for me to play around in and that's what I'm looking for in a fandom.
1) The reason Zelda doesn't claim the title of queen is because in a very real sense Hyrule is no longer a kingdom, and might never be again in the same way it was before. The bits of it with Hylians in are kind of a loosely-associated string of communities connected by a common culture and the stable system, and given how dangerous travel is (esp. pre defeating Calamity Ganon), the stable system is kinda the closest thing they've got to a functioning government if you define 'government' as 'a way to get people, goods, and messages from Point A to Point B where they're needed.' Wouldn't surprise me if Hylians get real into horses in the next hundred years.
2) The other non-Hylian... vassal states? Have pretty much been handling their business since the initial Calamity. Zora in particular seem to be doing just fine for themselves, and they'd be my pick to become the dominant power in the Hyrule lands in the future. All the different heads of state clearly have fond feelings toward Zelda, but that doesn't necessarily translate to 'here, have power over us again', and the nasty rumors floating around Zelda's activities indicate that her hold over the common Hylians isn't as tight as the narrative might want. If anything Zelda's rebuilt Hyrule might end up being a vassal to the Zora.
(Side note: was there ever an effort to marry Zelda to Sidon as a kind of political transfer of power? Is this why Dorephan pulled out Yona, because he didn't want that to happen? Might be an interesting fic written by someone other than me.)
All of this leads to my thinking that while restoring Hyrule to glory is Zelda's stated goal, she may need to adjust her thinking on what that means. (And get some therapy. Untangle the damage her dad did. Introducing herself as 'daughter of King Rhoam' just proves she's still got shit to work through.) The fact that she's throwing her energy into rebuilding infrastructure rather than the castle and taking a part-time (I assume) job as a schoolteacher is... possibly a step in the right direction? But idk. She may still be thinking of A Kingdom and maybe a grandaughter crowned queen at some point and that may not be possible without sparking yet another bullshit civil war. This may or may not be poked at in a future fic, if I ever fall off the Transformers wagon again.
this has been stated before by others but I guess this is why I tend to gravitate towards children's media with sketchy-at-best worldbuilding. If something's too well-thought-out then (while I might enjoy the experience of watching/playing it) there's no blank margins for me to play around in and that's what I'm looking for in a fandom.