Gasp! Another update to the Gerudology LJ community, and it's only been a few months! :o

So, it's been quite some time since Twilight Princess was released, and I'm sure most if not all of us have managed to play through it. Just in case there are those who don't want to have stuff spoiled, though, I'm going to put the rest of this post in an LJ-cut. Read on only if you've played the game or don't care about having minutia of it revealed.

( Discussion of the Gerudo in Twilight Princess )

Author: shawnaduck
Timeline: Ocarina of Time featuring a Twilight Princess-ish Postman.
Spoilers: Nope.

( The Message )

For the first time in a long time, I finally have the time to write Gerudo fic again, and I can't help but wonder:

Would the Hylians know that the Gerudo only have one male born every 100 years? Would that be common knowledge outside of the Gerudo Valley? The Gerudo are so reclusive, that I wonder if this fact wouldn't be widely known...?

If the Gerudo women value their king so much...what motivates Nabooru to go against her King? And it seems to me that the other Gerudo women do not know about Nabooru actions against her king so it leads me to wonder what are the consequences for going up against the Gerudo King?

Hello. I just found this community, and I must say that I am a huge gerudo fan. :) They are my favorite LoZ race, and Nabooru is one of my favorite characters of all time. I hope to participate a lot in this group!

And by the way, about a year ago I remember having a MAJOR discussion about Gerudos on the official nintendo forum... I'm going to check and see if I can find that thread.

Hello, everyone!

I hope you all had an excellent holiday season! My apologies for being gone all last month--December is always an insanely busy time of the year--but there will be much posted in gerudology soon!

In the meantime, feel free to check out my article over in ZeldaBlog concerning the ending to Windwaker.

EDIT: While I'm at it, what are your thoughts on Ganondorf in Windwaker? His character design is certainly a departure from the version we saw in Ocarina of Time and Super Smash Brothers Melee. He also seems a little more thoughtful and less neanderthal. What do you think?

Hello, hello!

Our new topic is more of a general Zelda question, though it may relate to Ganondorf and his rise to power.

The topic is about the Goddesses and their nature. We touched on some of this in a previous thread concerning how the three Goddesses may be separate-but-one or how they may or may not always agree with on another.

How does this relate to the Gerudo? It depends on your interpretations of the Goddesses and their roles in creating and/or maintaining Hyrule. Did they create the world, the critters in it, then leave that plane for all time? Did they create the world then occasionally dabble in the events and lives of exceptional people (Link, Zelda, Ganondorf)? Are the events within the Legend of Zelda series pre-destined according to the Goddesses' will(s) or are they just happening?

In addition, did the Goddesses create evil? Did they create the Triforce knowing that someone like Ganondorf would eventually get his mitts on it? More importantly, did he have Din's support in obtaining the Triforce, or is he just a fluke? Or are there other, darker forces out there, such as dark deities?

This topic is largely inspired by a very similar thread over in the Nintendo.com Zelda forums. There's a lot of Hylian religious philosophy that is batted around over there, so be prepared for some lengthy (but interesting!) reading.

Though serious philosophy is welcome here, this topic mostly focuses on your interpretation of the Goddesses and their roles and stances in Ganondorf's acquisition of the Triforce (or you answers to the questions above or anything Goddess-related).

Have fun with this! Go crazy! Post whatever you have in your heads! :D

The short answer: Because the Goddesses cursed them.

The long answer: Can be found below.

Note: This was written as a report by a Scientific Advisor to the King of Hyrule (I enjoy writing from random perspectives ^_~), some time before Ganondorf got his mitts on the Triforce. I’ve also created out-of-character footnotes to identify where I got many of these ideas.

( Obligatory creation story: )

( The ancient Hylia take center stage: )

( Leaders emerge and war begins: )

( The curse and creation of the Gerudo: )

Hello, everyone!

We have a new topic: Why are the Gerudo a military society? There isn't a whole lot in the desert where they live, so why keep outsiders out? For the sake of self-protection? If so, what inspired that distrust? What else are the Gerudo protecting (if anything)?

Have fun! :D

Those of you from zelda_drabble have already seen this, but...

Here is a weird little drabble that came out of my head few months ago. It's very... informative (or something!). ^_~

A new discussion topic will be posted this weekend, but if you would like to contribute to the Revised Gerudo Survival Handbook, please feel free. :D

Greetings. I'm a fairly new arrival here. I have posted one comment before, but nobody seemed to notice, and understandably so--it was for a post pretty far back there, the one about why the Gerudo only have one male born every century. X) So I wanted to point it out real quick, in the hopes that it would stir up a little discussion. For your convenience, I provide this link back to it.

In the spirit of Halloween, I wish to recognize a few Gerudo cosplayers:

The first is this Ganondorf cosplayer--a young woman known online as Crimson Triforce. You can find more photos of her dressed as Ganondorf (harassing several young men in anime girl drag, no less!) at The Lost Woods. She has also cosplayed as other Zelda characters over the years, including Tetra, Fado, and Laruto. You can see some of those photos at Satyrnet.it.

Also, have any of you ever done a Google image search for "Gerudo cosplay?" Do you know what you get? Four pages of this. In case you haven't seen her before, this cosplayer is known online as Elena [the] Ganondorf's Wife, and I am altogether scared, amused, and impressed by her Gerudo costumes. That takes a lot of guts to dress like that and she can totally pull off the Gerudo look.

Thumbs up to both cosplayers. I just wish there were more Gerudo enthusiasts out there, though I imagine the costumes are pretty cold to run around in this time of year. ^_~

I hope everyone had a great Halloween! ^_^

I couldn't get this to work last night. It seems to be for the moment, so here is my portrait of Ganondorf.

http://photobucket.com/albums/b140/ladydragmire/?action=view¤t=ganondorfd.jpg

Oh, and as a random musical aside, go here and listen to the various remixed samples of "Pistolero" by Juno Reactor. Maybe it's the flamenco guitar, or perhaps it's the voices of the women, but this song screams, "Amazon bandits" to me. Call me crazy, but this is a very Gerudo-feeling song, which helps inspire a mental picture complete with horses, gritty sand, glinting swords, and fistfuls of stolen rupees.

I hope I'm not the only one who has mental music videos triggered in their head whenever they listen to specific songs. What are some non-Zelda songs that always make you think of the Gerudo, or heck, The Legend of Zelda in general?

Hello, everyone!

I've been meaning to post my origin theories all week, but I've been mightily distracted. I'll get around to it soon, but in the meantime, here is a new topic for you to consider (and hopefully post about ^_~): How is the Gerudo King viewed by his people? Is he a blessing? A gift from the Goddesses? A divine ruler, or perhaps a royal pain? Is he someone to be flocked to out of devotion, or someone to be tolerated out of duty? This is a pretty open theme, so feel free to explore general Gerudo history, or maybe elaborate on how the Gerudo felt about dealing with Ganondorf.

I'll switch topics sometime by the end of the month. Have fun and please remember post. ^_~

The "Gerudo man-eaters?" post got me thinking about one non-magical explanation for the gerudo's women only society. They might just kill any male born to a gerudo woman, unless the leaders of the tribe say that the signs are right (every 100 years). Perhaps they feel that any male child who won't be king isn't worth having, or even worthy of being Gerudo.

In many societies today, similar things happen when women are born to agricultural cultures. The warlike culture of the Gerudo, combined with a strong tradition, small society, and easily accessible hylian males, could combine to allow a women only culture to survive out in the desert.

Hi, all! *waves*

I'll have to post my theory on why the Gerudo have only one male per generation soon (I'm thinking about switching over to a new topic this weekend), but in the meantime...

How many of you have visited Mesa Verde National Park in Colorado? I haven't been there in ten years, but I highly recommend it. Why would I be posting this in gerudology? Because as Gerudo fans, you may find that Mesa Verde looks vaguely familiar. Looking at the architecture of the buildings and how they are set into the sandstone hollows, the Anasazi cliff dwellings must have been used as inspiration for the Gerudo Valley in Ocarina of Time. I'm a bit of an archeology nerd and absolutely adore Mesa Verde, but since Ocarina of Time made me a Gerudo fan, I can't wait to return to the national park and wander through the ancient structures again, as a person interested in the history of the mysterious Anasazi, as well as a shameless fangirl. ^_~

Another great park that captures the beauty of the Southwest is Arches National Park in Utah. Sandstone may be a bit desolate, but it sure is pretty.

For more info on these parks, visit the official websites for Mesa Verde and Arches.

First off, sorry I haven't been here recently to promote the academy. It's been, there's been a few issues "back home in Kakariko" that's been keeping me from being here more often to moderate discussion. Hopefully, this will be a temporary thing and not a permanent thing.

We didn't get many opinions on our last topic, which was why the Gerudo only had one male born per century, so I'm going to remind everyone that that is still the topic of discussion, and hopefully we can get that one going by next week.

I once heard a fellow scholar-friend of mine propose a very interesting theory to me. He said something to the effect that the Gerudo were not always this way, that when the Goddesses created them, they had both male and female children just like ordinary Hylians. However, at one point, the Gerudos and Hylians were brought into a war with one another, which is a good possibility since we don't have many records from that time era. The Gerudos ended up losing this war, and the King of Hyrule decided that, as punishment for the war, that he would curse the Gerudo civilisation so that only one male would be born every century, destined to be king. This way, so he thought, being without many males in their society with which to wage war, the Gerudo would be incapable of waging war ever again. Of course, the Hylians would've been wrong to think this, for not only were corrupt monarchs like Ganondorf a possibility, but the women of the Gerudo race would strengthen themselves so as to defend themselves against would-be thieves and intruders.

What do you think? Your own ideas?

hm..i know this is an odd question, but would we consider the geruods man eaters? i mean i know they hate mean, but just look at them....showing thier stomach, wearing nothing but a bra and pants. a bit slutty you know...but anyway would they go sleeping around with hylian men or what? also if you read a gossip stone near the temple of time(i think) it says they come looking for boyfriends. but i thought they hated men. are they just acting like whores or what?! i dont know im confused...-_-'