The prince approached nervously, the stack of books he was carrying shaking along with him.
"Father, I must tell you I- I do not feel like a boy" The kings face paled in response, the prince quickly rushed to reply, "i-its not bad! I did all this research about it, see? I-"
"Slience! I am afraid there is something I haven't told you about our family, come child"
With the newfound pleasure of not being called a son for once, the child obliged.
"As you know, there are three beings reincarnate together: one of evil and two who fight back that evil--"
"Yes, I've heard that story since I was in a cradle, but what does this have to do with me"
Sighing, the king continues, "in order to be better identified, these people have something different to them, and the one who holds the power of the Goddess is always a Hylian princess, one who was born a prince"
"So you're saying I-"
"Yes, that you may very well be Zelda, the princess of Legend fated to seal Ganon"
At this revalation, the ch- Zelda- felt sick and quickly ran to her room.
Not only was she a girl, but she has powers and a destiny and-
It was all too much. Nothing in all her reading said that being transgender meant that you were like this, it said it was normal and natural, that it could happen to Hylians, or Gorons, or Gerudians, or anyone else.
She'd rather be uncomfortable in her body as a boy than have to shoulder all this responsibility as a girl-
She imagined it.
No, she'd rather be a girl, thank you very much.
She wondered what her Link was like, even her Ganondorf, if they had to go through this as well. The discovery of your true self and what comes with it.
A knock.
"Zelda? Are you ok in there?"
"Yes, father, I guess I have a lot to get used to..." She paused, considering her options, "can you come in? I want..."
Somehow understanding, her father entered and wrapped his strong arms around her, "you know, I always wanted a little girl, prayed to the Goddesses every night during your mothers pregnancy for the privilege, I guess that wish came true"
She laughed. It was going to be OK.
The knight had finally proved themself worthy of going to the best training academy, but what they didn’t know is that the worst was yet to come.
In fact, it had just arrived.
Enter your name
Such a seemingly easy question, and yet it left the knight stumped.
See, they identified as non-binary for a long while, however their name was never changed. Their primary method of communication, Hylian Sign Language, did not incorporate gender into names, but their written and spoken name does.
They raised this question to the person overseeing enrollments
“Let’s see here…” that person said, “by the Goddesses! Excuse me, I must take this with me”
The knight was fine with this, as a silent, genderless, talented fighter, they were always seen as an enigma among their people.
“Link, put your name as Link”
“Pardon? I thought that was a name reserved for only the fated hero” The Hylian that was certainly not Link replied, “I have yet to show myself worth anything like that”
“That’s a question for the higher ups, I was just told that if someone who is non-verbal, not male or female, and Hylian comes in they are likely the hero”
This was… surprising information, the knight grew up in a town that repeated the story of Ganon, Zelda, and Link over and over again and yet this detail had not come to pass. They posed just that question.
“I had to swear on my life to not let the information slip in order to even get this job, this is the only way we can guarantee that the right warrior is chosen”
Link…
That was a name whose owner has much to live up to…
If they were deemed the new holder of this legendary name, they must get onto training at once.
The voe thought that coming out as a male in Gerudo town, that his mothers would help him move out and everything would be ok. After all, the voe knew many vai that were transgender, including Goron’s, who like Gerudo’s are a single sex species. It was explained that far into their evolutionary histories, there were more than one sex, but eventually they lost the other sex, leading to the goddesses gifting them with the ability to reproduce asexually.
However, for voes born within the walls of Gerudo town, they could never be so lucky…
“Be gone! Filth! Ganon!”
Ganon… Ganon…
The voe still questioned the use of this word, just because he was a male Gerudo did not mean that he was- was-
He had been living on his own for awhile now, the only beings giving him kindness were the Bokoblins. They saw he was small, not a threat, and adopted the lost voe as one of their own.
Living with the Bokoblins taught the voe that they could also be kind and complex, unlike how they were portrayed to him. He would create a world where they could be free from tyranny, whether the world saw him as evil or not.
He couldn’t use his old name, too feminine for the image he wanted to portray.
So he guessed, out of irony, there was one choice.
Ganon.