let’s see what link already has in this game… an amazing appearance. this, imo, is the cutest art style of him in games to date. paya was absolutely correct about link im a lesbian and i can say hes cute
an actual personality if you look hard enough. seems to be the compassionate goofball but with a passive aggressive streak type and well you saw my post so here are some new ones
“im sorry” would be my response personally but in this game it cancels his talk. aw link
but the cutscenes. oh…the cutscenes…
now i understand one thing. we’re not playing as the link in the memories. we’re playing as link after waking up in the shrine of resurrection 100 years later. you can find this entry in zelda’s diary inside her study at hyrule castle that canonly explains why link is mute
“Bit by bit, I’ve gotten Link to open up to me. It turns out he’s quite a glutton. He can’t resist a delicious meal! 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 something we need to factor in. the memories reflect this entry about his stoicism. i don’t want to erase it because 1) it says a lot about links character and 2) this is something that happens to real people, going selectively mute from trauma and ptsd. even temporarily with autism or anxiety (i often get the forbidden third stress response, freeze). i don’t want to take away this amazing representation
the thing is, why didn’t he break? mutism is different from expressing emotions, it’s just not talking. but expressions are a completely different field. this is link’s expression when zelda yells at him for following her everywhere as her escorted knight.
actually in fact this isnt from that memory because i couldnt find that specific gif but it looks LITERALLY copy and pasted from the one it really is. im not joking
oh my god. he could have done anything but just stare. have his head down a bit, looking at her and then the ground. i don’t expect him to be doing goddamn somersaults here, but just something minor like having his chin down could have said a lot. this is the person he want sent to protect by the royal fucking family of hyrule after all. if he isnt making zelda happy by being there then what is he supposed to do? i’d expect more emotion out of him in that scenario. link DOES have feelings, ones so strong they need to be restrained so he can focus on his work. but i’d expect to see some facial expression here. or do the universal link trait thing where he scratches the back of his head in embarrassment. rhoam you fucked up a perfectly good hylian is what you did. look at him hes got anxiety
if you havent caught on get, link wasnt always like this. mipha’s diary from the second dlc, the champions ballad, says:
“At the request of Hyrule’s King, a group of outsiders came to greet us at the domain. One of them was a Hylian child of only about four years of age. His name was Link. He made quite a first impression. He was curious and full of energy, with a ready smile. Are all Hylian children that way? One thing that surely sets him apart is his swordsmanship, which I hear is exceptional. He has even bested adults. He must be somewhat reckless, however, as he was covered in bruises. Wishing to be helpful, I healed his wounds for him. It must have been his first time seeing healing magic, as he looked up at me with big, round eyes. It was…adorable.”
now this just makes me mad. i want to see this. why not have it so the dlc does what dlc may do and show us this through a memory, meeting up with mipha’s soul on vah ruta after clearing all the trials at zora’s domain? instead of link somehow gaining the psychic power to see what zelda was up to? i want to see fuckin..babby link take down adult swordsmen?? god damn it. but what happened after that was link went into the great hyrule forest at one point, the deku tree and koroks may have all been waiting for him to come and fulfill the prophecy of saving hyrule which is when he picked up the master sword. the pressures put upon him as more signs that the calamity would emerge again made him shut down. i’d expect this to happen when the great calamity is an actual, real and immediate threat but i dont see how he could be so outwardly shut down in normal situations before that
so if theres anything thats left to be desired in botw it is making the scenes and memories happen with as much expression and heart as skyward sword did. link was either smiling or frowning or stunned in every scene in ss. and yet he was still the silent protagonist with difference response choices. please all we wanted was stuff like this during the cinematic scenes. ss link was sooooo cute
like……links already like this when he cooks food or idles or reacts to the environment during normal gameplay but hes a brick wall with his expressions in the cinematic memories. i hate that. what gives nintendo. like the only exception for cutscenes is the great fairies but..ah…oh no..lmao
^ can we have like…this in the memories.. please. especially the one where zelda and link are out in the field looking at the wildlife, finding the silent princess and zelda tries to make link lick a frog.
theres so much you can convey about links thoughts by giving him subtle expressions in these memories. make link give revali, flexing on him, a face that basically tells him “good for you dipshit” because i wanted to CLOBBER the bird over head in that one for how he acted and treated link (and link just took it?? like the john mulaney delta airlines skit ??? not like hes disrespecting an elder or anything, shouldve made some snarky comment like how he does to npcs now)
or how about the memory at hyrule castle where zelda said “at the current rate, we’ll soon know all we need to know about the guardians and the divine beasts! should ganon ever show itself again, we’ll be well conditioned to defend ourselves” and smiles, link just stays poker faced?? thats something he should have absolutely smiled at! there would be no reason for every single person in hyrule to rely solely on him to take down ganon.
i think the one scene where link shows some expression in the memories (even then, not as much as would be in skyward sword but the bar there is set pretty high) is you know the one. the “i left them…..all to die” is i think the best scene of any memory in this game because oh fuck surprise link mr stoic looks sympathetic lmao
i can fuckin rejoice to this. cheers ill drink to this. when i saw that i was like its about DAMN TIME and the embrace is the cherry on top that holds it all together. they BOTH show emotions here…oh lawd.. i cant think of a way to make links expression look more sympathetic here at least in this art style but to lower the eyebrows a little bit more? but good job on nintendos part.
i hit my 10-picture-per-post limit here but basically botw link would have been the best link by FAR and a more complete character if he wasnt so gotdam BLAND in the memories. thats where the story comes from (though arguably lackluster through the way they presented the information). they missed out a whole lot with that the memories are so important and link is just so …..not the link you play as in this game
this all came to me just now after posting all of those npc conversations and link’s responses. the fascination i have with them started afterididbozai’smission. and seeing how you all responded made me go back and see if i had more of these kinda of funny responses saved, and thankfully i did. in fact it makes me wanna restart the game so i can catch all the ones i may have missed because link is just so fun and its so entertaining that we’re now, 2 years after this games release, talking about holy shit link has a canon personality now.
this game WAS the first one to break a lot of the conventional zelda title rules including now not being able to name link but that means link can be himself, and while youre technically controlling him and choosing his dialogue options, youre picking from the choices of things he is thinking to say. when talking to frelly to rent a sand seal you have no choice but choosing a response with a seal pun. THAT’S link. i like to imagine that link is still selectively mute until he needs to ask for something or has the opportunity to sass someone and his interactions with the npcs reflect this
hello (it’s cameron @aro-alien here, this is my viddy game sideblog), i love this post and my love for botw link is literally endless, but i do have to say something
selective mutism is totally more than “just not talking.” as someone who has it and grew up with it, even now when i’m mostly verbal, symptoms of it still affect me.
it is a HUGE misconception that the only symptom is the muteness itself – being expressionless, stoic, and having robotic/stiff expressions and movements is part of selective mutism: along with my personal word, manyothersources (+) also cite blank expressions and a reluctance to smile/express themselves as a symptom. there are many other possible symptoms to SM, but this is one that is extremely prevalent in link.
the timeframe in which the memories take place is when link’s anxiety is at its height – and with his disorder, it’s expected that he’d cover up all emotions. it’s absolutely no surprise to me that when other characters, like zelda and revali, are just being assholes to his face, he doesn’t do anything about it. he doesn’t react whatsoever because his disorder literally keeps him from expressing how he feels. no matter how much he wants to say something or express anything, he physically cannot.
link’s expressiveness in the actual gameplay, along with the bit we hear from mipha, is meant to be a stark contrast to what we see in the memories. it truly shows us how much it’s affecting him and how much he’s closed up. in the gameplay, link probably just doesn’t remember enough, for one, to be completely affected by it; he’s also alone majority of the time, allowing him to freely express himself without any social anxiety. then, the biggest factor (i’d say), is that no one fucking knows who he is. he can be stupid and express himself cuz there’s not that fear of literally everyone in the kingdom looking at him and expecting everything from him. pre-game, i personally headcanon him as having SM as a child but becoming more and more verbal as he grew up – since most links in other games tend to be shyer but talk when needed (but i also just like projecting). not only that, but it would make more sense that’d he’d revert back to being nonverbal when he became the hero. keep in mind that SM is a socialanxiety disorder. getting the sword would immediately put him in the spotlight, where in turn, he just immediately reverts and goes mute again out of fear.
i do agree that we should have seen memories of younger link, though, that would have been soo cute (and also highlight the contrast even more!), and later memories that take place after he’s opened up to zelda probably should have had him smiling a bit more. oh well.
sorry to just take apart your post like this, i just really felt the need to say something lol.
TL;DR: there’s a shit ton more to selective mutism than not talking, and link’s behavior in the game (re: lack of expression in memories) is for the most part accurate to the disorder. as someone who has SM and relates to link a shit ton, seeing this portrayal of him made me so so happy
im sorry i wasnt aware of that… i also have terrible anxiety but its the general type so i freak out about small things because im kinda always 90% ways to a breakdown. my teachers and parents thought used to have social anxiety since id never play with the kids but turns out im just a big introvert. i also hate being in the spotlight but i can still present myself, only..uh. extremely awkwardly. i may go temporarily selectively mute when im overwhelmed and dont wanna talk about anything..actually CANT talk about anything, and i usually hide and lock myself in a dark room. im not a big talker if stuff doesnt involve me and ill usually be quiet in a big crowd or around a lotta people and im much better one-on-one… its definitely not the same. but thanks for the info, i learned a lot. now im gonna cringe when i read my post again bc im a dumb ass that didnt know this
i completely hear what your saying and i wish there was a way to like. balance the reality of the disorder and make it so it doesnt look like the animators got hells of lazy. because links expressions in skyward sword are really like a professional animation studio and as the previous big home console zelda title it set the bar so high it flew up away to the sun like a fucknig piece of garbage
also lets not forget the holy trinity:
so when botw comes out probably with a bigger budget than all the other games combined and i see link has a specific shot thats literally been copied and pasted into two separare memories (memories 3 and 5) like no difference at all except for maybe his eyes are the slighest bit wider i die a little. aaaaahhhhhhhh my god skyward swords gameplay may have sucked ass but MAN if this isnt good
thats my main gripe honestly is it feels like the animators couldve done more but keep the reality of the disorder by just slightly altering things so it still feels….like they put some effort into it i guess? theres no doubt it feels bland. even in the motion of the other characters honestly. the memories we’re given in the dlc showcases zelda, not link, which is SO FRUSTRATING and BULLSHIT because theyre not even links memories?? he wasnt even there. youd wonder maybe they couldve showed something new with link like him as a kid visiting zoras domain or smiling more after opening up to zelda but nah. hes the cutest designed link and we cant even see what he has to offer up close beautifully rendered. whatever i still love him either way
like i game alone sometimes, and i’ll put up with anything.
i’ll buy a game from some garbage company –
you know, i don’t wanna name an actual company so let’s just make one up; let’s call it “bethesda.”
so i’ll buy a game from bethesda and I’ll show up at the store and i’ll go, “can i get a functioning game and a bag now, please?”
and they go, “no. it’s a shitty game and bag.”
and i go, “okaaay!”
and then i go to the bathroom.
and then i come out of the bathroom and i go, “any updates?” and they go “yeah, the game crashed while you were in the bathroom because we hate you! now take this refund that doesn’t work, go, fetch!”
and i go “ookaaaay!” and i go over to the refund site and go “can i have a refund please?” and they go “NO!” and i go “okaaaaay!”
and they go “you’re a dumbass gamer aren’t you?” and i go “noooo!” and they go “SAY IT” and i go “i’m a dumbass gamer!”
and then i go over to the bethesda help site which is a oxymoron and i go “can i please get a game and bag?” and they go “NO! in fact, we’re gonna release all your personal information and you’re gonna have your identity stolen!” and i go “why are you doing this to me?” and they go “because we’re bethesda, and life is a fucking nightmare!”
the satin edges are there as a cruel joke to really emphasize just how coarse and scratchy and weirdly dry the rest of the blanket is
Those blankets are fine if they aren’t old. You just don’t know how to properly use a blanket I guess
Yeah, I was under the impression that “using a blanket” involved putting it on a bed, sleeping under it, and occasionally coming into physical contact with it. After encountering many instances of this specific blanket, I have come to the conclusion that the proper way to use a blanket is to:
1.) put on thick rubber gloves to minimize contact with coarse fibers 2.) pick up blanket (carefully!!!) 3.) place blanket into wood chipper
Honestly I think these particular blankets are woven from the utricating hairs of a tarantula.
Gotta agree with Glumshoe on this one.
I am offended that y’all don’t love these blankets, my baby blanket was this type of blanket like honestly if a baby can live with this type of blanket so can you
Babies cannot eloquently express their displeasure. If babies could write irritated posts on the internet about their least favorite textures, I’m sure they would.
Shineheart26 