prev, i'm sure you mean my guy Leonid Pasternak

However, lets not pretend that the characters that often are more broadly headcanoned as ace are not also characters that are broadly viewed by their fandoms as childish, innocent, naive etc. etc. The asexuality isn't what is infantilizing, it is the "omg this character is so sweet and innocent! They *have* to be ace!" whether that is being explicitly said, or present more implicitly in the general conversation surrounding the character.

That is, intentionally or not, making the connection between asexuality and childishness. The implication then being that the character doesn't have sex because they, despite being old enough to definitely know what sex is, somehow do not. And often times, these characters aren't even childish/immature, or even innocent. They are just happier, more optimistic than the other characters that surround them. But even if they were, plenty of immature, childish people have sex. Just look at the average college student, for gods sake.

I would be far less put off by this if the badass grizzled action hero was more commonly headcanoned as ace. (Yes, I know that people do this, I am one of them, but broader fandom in general does not - from what I have noticed at least) Yes, he has been hardened by the world he lives in. He has lived through the horrors. He spends hours brooding in a bar with a glass of whiskey in one hand, a cigarette in the other. And no, he does not want to fuck you, or anyone for that matter, he wants to blast zombies heads off with his big fuck-off gun. But often times this character is portrayed as the sexually confident dom. Why? Because he is more serious and brooding? How does that translate to wanting to be sexually dominant in bed? Answer is that it doesn't.

Personality does not dictate whether or not a person has sex or not, or the way in which they want to have sex. So when we assign certain personality traits to specific sexualities - often unconsciously - we create false narratives, like that all aces are sweet and innocent and would never hurt a fly. Which is. Not how that works. And I don't even mean this in the "ace people actually make the most raunchy jokes, write the best smut etc." way (which is just stereotyping in the opposite direction). I mean it in the, asexual adults are still adults. And them not having sex is simply because they don't experience sexual attraction to some degree. That's it, that is the only requirement. So it becomes deeply weird when the majority of characters that are broadly viewed as ace by the fandom, are also the same characters that are viewed as "childish."

(I could also get in to how adults liking more "childish" things does not equate to being actually *like* a child, and how hobbies also cannot dictate sexuality, but that is another conversation that I do not want to get into right now.)

And of course this isn't to say no one should headcanon a character that is more "innocent/childish" (however that is being defined) as ace, or the serious, world weary badass as being a dom. It's fandom, people can do whatever the fuck they want at the end of the day. This is more about recognizing patterns, and learning to question those patterns.

How the FUCK did the "Gerudo kidnap men and rape them" headcannon become so popular? This shit actually pisses me off so god damn much. Actually, I don't even need to ask why this FUCKING BULLSHIT HEADCANNON got accepted as canon. I know why. It's because this fandom is just fucking littered with sexists and racists and shit.

The people who genuinely believe this headcannon make me so mad because they act like it's an 100% unarguable part of the actual canon, and say shit like "Yeah the only reason Nintendo doesn't make them rape men is because they need to keep their E for everyone age rating", when literally NOTHING we know about how the Gerudo operate suggests this even slightly.

The Gerudo's whole system of how they get men to reproduce has always, ALWAYS, been going to their neighboring regions to find boyfriends. BOYFRIENDS. Aka LONG TERM PARTNERS. Aka the exact fucking OPPOSITE OF A HOOKUP! And in later iterations in BOTW/TOTK the Gerudo don't even let men inside their town. The kids aren't even aloud to look at men out fear of LITERALLY BEING CURSED WITH BAD LUCK. The Gerudo don't even let their kids be around their fathers that much when they're born outside of Gerudo town before they get sent their for the rest of their life until adulthood, for what is likely this exact reason. They don't even let Link in town without a disguise until he fights off Thunderblight Ganon and Queen Gibdo. So again, why the FUCK would the Gerudo be kidnapping men and taking them anywhere near their city?

And people try to counter this with "Oh but what about the carpenters? The Gerudo kidnapped them so they could rape them" and then act like it's such a fucking gotcha moment and like... no??? That isn't the reason??? Did you play the game??? The Gerudo in OOT didn't kidnap those carpenters to rape them. They kidnapped those carpenters because they tried to fix the bridge in Gerudo Valley, their OWN VALLEY, that the Gerudo themselves broke to avoid intruders. Read that again. THE GERUDO BROKE THEIR OWN BRIDGE TO AVOID INTRUDERS!!! So obviously they kidnapped those carpenters, they were intentionally breaking into their fortress when the Gerudo were ACTIVELY TRYING TO GET THEM OUT. I don't even know why I'm saying the Gerudo kidnapped the carpenters, because they literally didn't. The carpenters came into Gerudo Valley on their own accord, the Gerudo just imprisoned them because they didn't even want them there in the first place.

It's also really annoying that people who like to headcannon the Gerudo as rapists bring up OOT as proof, because the whole "Gerudo looking for boyfriends in other regions" thing was something that was introduced in that same game by talking to a gossip stone. So not only are they NOT rapists, it was set in literal stone from the Gerudo's first appearance that the Gerudo generally prefer long term relationships over simple hookups. So AGAIN, why the FUCK would the Gerudo be kidnapping men and taking them anywhere near their city?

These people are the same people who will headcannon the Gerudo as rapists with no evidence other than they're all women, and then get mad at people who headcannon the Gerudo as mostly lesbians for the same exact reason. Because as I said before, this fandom is littered with sexists and racists, and if the Gerudo aren't making babies, then why would they be in a relationship?

The funniest thing (I say funny lightly, it's more annoying really) about these kinds of people trying to justify their shitty rape headcannons is that any kind of evidence they do bring up can be shut down by the fact that this just... doesn't happen. Ever. No Gerudo in the entirety of the Zelda franchise has ever raped anyone. So not only do they treat their headcannon like canon, it's also completely fabricated and not hinted at once.

"Oh but I just want a darker Zelda stop being mean🥺" Okay. Then what about the Hylians? Because if you want to talk about a race with rapist potential let's talk about the Hylians. The creepy men outside Gerudo Town in BOTW/TOTK being the biggest piece of evidence. But also like... the Shadow Temple was a torture chamber for enemies of Hyrule during the Hyrulean Civil war you guys. The Gerudo were enemies of Hyrule during the Hyrulean Civil war. It's also implied that the Gerudo are a very looked down upon race in OOT, considering that when wearing the Gerudo mask, people are suddenly scared of you, and Darunia outright says, "I hate Gerudos!" with his full chest. This is all in OOT by the way. You seriously don't think that the torture the Gerudo would be subjected to in the Shadow Temple would include rape in any way, given the fact Hyrule literally hates them?

There's also the fact that in TP there are no Gerudo in the desert, and no explanation is given so anything could have happened to them. But no. The Gerudo are rapists simply for being a group of mostly women who live in the desert. Because why do we need evidence for anything when we could go off of harem tropes instead? Also, if you think some of the Hylians could be rapists even if you do have all the canonical proof in the world, then you're racist actually.

Imo hyrule is arguably worse for the shadow temple. Also correct me if I’m wrong but I believe that Arbiters Grounds also belongs to Hyrule? And I know there’s the argument that it’s a prison, but prisons are always inherently abusive in some way. I would know actually cus my bf worked in one!!!! And prisons in a more medieval setting WILL be abusive

I love gerudo and rito so I was just scrolling down the tag and I'm sad to say it makes sense people would say that because people fucking suck.

But as prev said it's a mix of sexism and racism (like how they try and make them uncivilised because they're from the desert but also how they can't fathom a society made of just women could work well, I'm not going to talk about all male societies as i'd have to talk about how real life societies and just real life in general and how it has in game impacts which I don't wanna do at the moment), but also like how people do those weird as deku as only male with quirk X everyone shit (I'm fine with polyamorous things but there's a difference between well written polyamorous relationship (even a toxic one) and straight up harem fetish)

My point was going to be that we see almost every other race (don't think gorons but they might have the same with rito) but definitely hylians and Zora make sexist remarks or hierarchy so why the fuck would they let men into their safe haven as a society that's almost entirety consisting of vai.

Like yes it is definitely controversial but it's not like they act negatively about men in general (they're open to long relationships that aren't portrayed as toxic, they don't attack them (even when being creeps) etc) just when they try and enter their town which has SPECIFIC rules about voe entering, and they don't go straight to violence either, just stop and turn them around and state the rules.

If anything they think that men tend to be a bit odd due to a lack of exposure growing up, but that's one of the only ways they act differently around men (there are a couple more but in general it's more of the sex version of culture shock with culture shock too)