i'm going to say this because other disabled people deserve some warning, and it sure as hell wasn't given by any prerelease or review media i saw:
the new zelda game, 'tears of the kingdom' has a major trigger for medical abuse body horror front and centre from the very beginning, all throughout the game
at the very start of the game, link is injured, and then wakes up to be told that he has had someone else's dead arm grafted onto him, without consultation or consent, as a "necessity" to "save his life"
there is so much ableist subtext i could draw out from this, but importantly, if you have any triggers with forced or unwanted medical procedures done on you, go in prepared and bracing yourself
it's not a prosthesis, or gauntlets, or magitech infusion, it is literally textually a dead arm transplant done while unconscious, and the game's gaze lingers on and highlights it and its difference from his body constantly
i don't know how this was considered acceptable in a family friendly franchise, other than the sheer ignorance of the developers about disabled peoples' medical experiences
speaking of which, since i know i'm opening myself up to shit by even mentioning this is an issue, if you have to wonder why this is a trigger especially for disabled people and why i'm treating it with such gravity:
horrifying medical procedures done on us without consent that we're only told about after waking up is unfortunately routine for people with disabilities of many kinds
and forceful transplantation of an unwanted (or even unviable) limb against patient consent is absolutely a real world thing doctors actually do in the name of making a person "whole" and "fixed" and because disability is abhorrent to them. it's not a fictional or fantastical scenario, and i know this because it was done to me, and it was living hell that i will never recover from.
so if you want to argue about it with me or tell me "well actually it's ghost magic", or tell me about your headcanons, or be in denial about the horrors forced on us that you don't want to believe are real.... fucking don't.
already getting a lot of hate from people that don't seem to understand the very basic fact that real people who go outside and touch grass can still get their real medical trauma triggered by fictional depictions....
For the record, this is not a case of "check the box next time." The rating of the game and the little black and white box that tells you the contents does not mention anything about medical trauma or abuse. Here's a screencap from the ESRB website.
https://www.esrb.org/blog/what-parents-need-to-know-about-the-legend-of-zelda-tears-of-the-kingdom/#:~:text=The%20Legend%20of%20Zelda%3A%20Tears%20of%20the%20Kingdom%20is%20rated,or%20make%20in%2Dgame%20purchases.
This should have been listed, either under "medical trauma" or "medical abuse" somewhere in the warnings but it wasn't.
Sometimes trauma doesn't care that what you're looking at is pixels. My 40 hour a week day job and the fact that I refuse to stop touching grass (I hate being indoors) didn't really do much to stop an episode of House MD from giving me a severe traumatic flashback.
Game companies please tag your shit. You had room in the rating box, that little bit of extra ink would not affect your bottom line I promise you.
