Copic-Addicted Renegade

When the two myth-cycles were fused by later chroniclers to produce the combined Link-Zelda cycle which is familiar to audiences today, the figure of Link assumed the role of overall protagonist. Securing Zelda's freedom from captivity is often inserted as a secondary objective into episodes which were originally Link tales, while Link typically subsumes most or all of Zelda's role in episodes which were originally Zelda tales.

In many cases, the Link-Zelda version is the only iteration of a given episode which survives, so determining which tales were originally part of which precursor cycle is not without controversy; however, the repetitive nature of the perils which preclude Zelda's active participation in many episodes – kidnapped, possessed, sealed in enchanted crystal, etc. – may offer some clues.

For example, it's said that Link is a wanderer from afar who rescues Impa from Moblins but when he arrives in Hyrule, he has to take the place of the unarmed and inexperienced Princess Zelda. And so this allegedly experienced warrior who just killed a bunch of Moblins arrives in Hyrule without so much as a sword in hand.

Similarly, the original myth featured Zelda assembling the Triforce of Wisdom, the only force that could stand against the Triforce of Power in Ganon's possession. Because it was the first to be adapted, there were concerns about disempowering Zelda by replacing her entirely with Link. As a result, a strange compromise was struck; One in which Zelda, after assembling the Triforce, then immediately broke it back down into its component pieces and re-hid them for Link to find.

By contrast, The Adventure of Link, true to its name, is the first Link legend. The importing of Zelda into it as the sleeping princess that Link awakens from her long slumber proved to be just as clunky as the importing of Link into The Legend of Zelda. Most notably, the confusing questions raised as to whether Zelda is meant to be the princess Link rescued in his previous adventure or the one he is rescuing in this new one.

Similarly, Zelda's nemesis Ganon is roped into Adventure of Link very awkwardly. Link's nemesis is his own dark shadow, with only a scant few mentions of the idea that Link's defeat will somehow result in Ganon returning... just because.

But the largest and most consequential of adaptations made to The Adventure of Link is the revising of the magic scepter Link uses to awaken the Sleeping Princess into the Triforce of Courage, a modern invention meant to tie Link more closely to Zelda and Ganon's mythos.

And there are some distinct quirks to the Gamelon cycle that argue for the presence of syncretic merging of the Zelda in the tales we know with a similar legend from another culture. As does the difference between the Triforce of Wisdom, her sometimes status as a Sage, and the Sacred Power/Light Force/etc power that has different names in different legends.

But it's an interesting pairing of a Celestial legend (Zelda) with a Cthonic one (Link) - after all, how many of the stories that clearly are originally Link tales involve another world? I submit as evidence the presence of stories such as Link to the Past and Majora's Mask; even in the Era of Twlight cycle, we see a previous version of Link resurrected as a shade.

Current research seems to indicate that the oldest extant version of the Link tale is the one labeled Wind Waker, which clearly dates to the Hylians' Seafaring/Exploration period, before they settled in the land which they named Hyrule (the legend-within-a-legend wherein Hyrule is sunk under the sea can be attributed to a later admixture of elements from other versions of the Link cycle, or other mythologies entirely). There is of course a Zelda figure in Wind Waker, but for the first half of the tale she is identified as Tetra, a very different character indeed! There is speculation that most of the "Zeldas" in confirmed Link stories were actually Tetra, his original female companion, before she was overwritten as Zelda when the two mythologies were merged.

As previously noted, descent into a mystical Underworld – often, but not always, explicitly identified with the realm of the dead – is a common element of Link tales. This descent is frequently paired with an encounter and subsequent rivalry or alliance (often one, then the other) with that realm's queen. In particular, the motif of Link forming an early alliance with a mysterious young woman who later proves to be the Underworld realm's queen-in-exile is not found only here; consider, for example, the (admittedly divisive) Twilight saga. Indeed, if we accept the identification of the Skyward saga's desolate surface realm with such an Underworld, the revelation of Link's childhood sweetheart as a mortal incarnation of the goddess Hylia arguably fits this mould!

For example, Tingale of Limpa might by now have been known only for his contributions to cartography, were it not for the comic character based on him (and on a general caricature of the aristocratic unemployed of the time) becoming so popular among theatre-goers that he became a stock character in plays decades after his death, and that The Masks of Majora coincidentally became so iconic a retelling as to preserve the character as a vestigial piece of reference humor far beyond its original context. Of course it's not a coincidence that this version of the character manages to be tied well to the themes of the play and the Mask myth before it, so we must give credit to the playwright. Still, the fact that a noted writer could include such a character at all speaks to the general tensions the nobility had with the lower orders of society at the time, and their growing displacement by the rising merchant class.

Bonus below cut:

Ríhanna Kelver, a bartender and trans rights advocate in Laramie, has been charged with aggravated assault and possession of a deadly weapon with unlawful intent after a 13 September 2025 confrontation outside the Crowbar & Grill, whereshe worked. Kelver could be sentenced to up to 15 years in prison if convicted on both charges.

Despite Wyoming’s “Stand Your Ground” statute, which allows people to use reasonable force in moments of self defense, Kelver faces up to 15 years in prison for both charges, as well as up to $11,000 in fines, per Cowboy State Daily. Kelver faces an additional year and $1,000 fine for a charge of interference with a peace officer. [...]

“At least he died free” apparently also applies to whales that strand now.

These people will tout whales as these incredibly intelligent beings and then think that they’re stupid enough to strand while being healthy.

Sure, some healthy whales and dolphins strand due to storm surges, hunting techniques and misadventure. Or for social reasons, like mass strandings of pilot whales.

But it’s far more likely that a whale that strands is a whale that was either too weak to swim against the currents pushing them ashore or they chose to swim into shallow water. Because it is much safer to be in shallow, calmer waters than in the deep sea.

People have this idea of the deep ocean as this idyllic place. The sun beats down mercilessly out there - if you’re too weak to swim you’re too weak to dive. Depending on the ocean, it can be extremely choppy and hard to keep afloat in if you have no energy.

It’s also a very vulnerable place to be as a sick animal. Easy prey for pelagic sharks and killer whales. They might even start getting picked at by seabirds if they’re logging at the surface.

Not to mention this was a lone juvenile humpback without a social group, competition pod or nursery pod to keep him safe in numbers.

The ocean is beautiful but it is indifferent to you. It doesn’t care if you live or die, it won’t protect you if you’re out there.

Timmy didn’t care about the human concept of “freedom”. We can only assume that he was sick and dying and looking for a peaceful place to die. His vocalisations and rapid rasping exhales showed us he was stressed and sick. But the people who painted themselves as his saviours decided it meant he was happy. Because they were Saving him.

Because apparently he was too stupid to get himself stranded but somehow intelligent enough to be able to know what humans were and that their hands all over him and their loud and noisy barge and their cheers and laughter were good actually!

And I have no doubt that these people will keep telling themselves they did the Right Thing and that the experts and scientists were still wrong.

There’s this bizarre crossover between anti cap speak happening here. This idea that a stranded whale is “captive” and that they must be “freed.”

As if the whale themselves didn’t move to shallow waters to die. Or as if it wasn’t simply the natural ocean currents that pushed the weakened whale ashore.

Timmy had remnants of a gill net in her mouth, which would have made it very difficult for her to feed. The only forces that are to blame here are the dumping of fishing gear in our oceans that entangle and kill marine life.

The same force of nature that killed Timmy is ultimately the same that brought her to that sandbar. Yet these detractors of marine mammal science speak as if she was forced to strand by some intangible means.

That they had to “free” Timmy by dragging her back out into the open ocean, quite literally, because she didn’t know what was best for her. And the heroic humans saved her from what she had likely chosen to do.