#Ganondorf is the guy who actually has any reason to be pissed and is. in fact. extremely pissed

[ganondoodle]

okay now, im a little pissed off- i wont be reblogging the post bc its and old shitpost and i dont want to attract more notes on it but

i am so fucking, and i mean FUCKING, tired of all the shit ass excuses some people try to make to defend ganondorf being a nothing burger character

this dumb ass comment really goes all in too, and here i painfully see how much damage skyward sword has done to him bc people cant fuking think i guess "as of skysw he doesnt have an true motivation of his own- hes evil just bc he is there nothing else to it" shut the fuck up man oh my god, you dont think thats a problem? you just accept that? no no OOT also already showed hes nothing but evil tm uwu he doesnt have a reason - AND THATS A PROBLEM YOU ABSOLUTE BUFFOON

if you think that giving ganondorf a miniscule amount of ANY sort of sensical reason to do what he does, a backstory, fucking anything 'changes him into a different character'- HOW in the FUCK do you not see the problem here

and my favorite (refernceing a different character) "If hes evil, like ganondorf, which means an absolute evil, then his backstory wouldn't matter a lick" HELLO??? HELL FUCKING O???? "absolute evil" do you know how you sound like??? also EVERYTHING MATTERS oh my god, but no no of course it wouldnt matter and make no difference if you knew more about a character, no, actually, knowing less of a character is better even! why even write anything tbh? you just give them a label of good or evil and then you dont need anythign else heehoo i cannot believe this shit is now hanging on one of my posts, im struggeling to even dismantle it bc its just so goddamn stupid what do you mean it woudnt matter???????? if i knew ganondorf had a personality (especially totk bc its the worst case), if i knew he had loved ones once upon a time, he laughed and was allowed to feel like a person, whatever made him go down a bad path to end up making you defeat him would mAKE IT ALL HAVE MORE OF AN IMPACT (this is assuming that whatever path it is leads him to oppose you but also .. it doesnt have to mean hes evil or done all bad deeds, guess what, you the player could also be playing the real "villain", wouldnt that be a change of pace .. or it wouldnt, depending on how you look at it (oh NO shift of perspective???) it already is, even if i personally prefer it ALL being a spectrum and not just a label of good and bad and just rolling with this badly definable bunch of words)

do you know why i didnt give a flying fuck about the final battle in totk?? bc its all fucking NOTHING, ganondorf is a goal post with a face that got "BAD GUY" written on it in big red letters stapled on it and nothign more, you cant care about nothing and the point of any story at all is to fucking CARE

honestly a reason why i hate both "redeemable" and the good and evil descriptor is that its so ... limiting, redeemable, what does that even mean really?? it just sounds like you are applying some weirdo christian sins to make up for with good deeds shit onto characters that are, or should be, meant to make you feel something and be a pinnacle of jesus instead, like a checkbox, a scoreboard, and now its being mainly used as a negative word to dismiss legitimate criticism of boring or shitty writing bc giving any character any depth at all now automatically means you want to redeem them and thus absolve them of their sins or some shit, make them uwu perfect little good guys which is not the point (even if there are people like that, sicne guess what, theres lots of different ideas of things all around, inlcuding this hellhole- and yes there are shitty ways to give a character depth! the problem then isnt the motivation to give them depth, its the WRITING of it)

the whole good and evil thing also is just so darn limiting, what does evil even mean, who defines it matters alot, what does good mean, the definition is also really really bendable- link kills more living things than ganondorf ever has yet he isnt evil (bc hes on the side of hyrule, the designated good gouys uwu which means anythign they do is okay), the royal family having a torture dungeon and persecuting the shiekah into submission doesnt make them evil uwu but the gerudo have to suffer for the "crime" of having birthed ganondorf at some point for all eternity i guess

(as well as the very very obviously stupid turns and things ganondorf does and doesnt do literally just bc they needed him to do soemthign you could call bad even if it makes no sense at all, why would he attack his own fucking people out of nowhere, why destroy everything, literally what for, why give himself up if he wants to rule its jsut as stupidly nonsensical as the dumb magic pebbles that just gives random powers out just to force the outcome they wanted to happen)

redeemable, saveable, whatever, giving a character depth doesnt have to mean you want them to join the good tm guys either and im so fucking tired of this way of thinking, EVEN considering that hey ... it would be cool actually to have a ganondorf as the main guy, but we all should know that would only happen if he is a servant of hyrule, which i would consider to be more out of character than ... GIVIING HIM ANY SORT OF DEPTH??? to sympthaize, be conflicted or see the guy you need to defeat has a point is like, not a bad thing?? you can make someone be the most sympathetic guy of all time and still make you fight him ??? and i will repeat again, ganondorf being a nothing burger (espeically in totk) hurts EVERYTHING, everything suffers from shitty writing and lack of writing, the thing that link and zelda are almost just as flat istn .. isnt good either?? its also bad but hes got it way worse (and the racism oh bOI)!!! (there is a reason why ww ganondorf is widely seen as the best one and itse literally bc he says ONE or two lines that may make you think omg .. he is person.... he might FEEL OoO- man the bar really is below the ground isnt it)

and they dont even care to try to make him actually be dislikable, he doesnt tease zelda with killing her father or soemthing, he doesnt have any sort of connection to any of them, every line he says (in totk) is like a prepackaged microwave villain line, you could apply it to anyone, even rauru and it wouldnt seem out of place tbh (which is BAD), more depth would have connected him to the story, the world the literal everything which means people care which means a better story i dont know how to explain to you that you should be able to care about characters??????? he gets the stamp of "evil guy" on his head and they expect you to be happy with that, accept any stupid thing they make him do and others say about him without question? do you NOT feel at least a little insulted???

and like, this is still written, this is a piece of fiction, they had to sit down and write all that, or .. well, NOT write it, they decided to do it like this, despite the ocean of potential in front of them, you could do so many itneresting thigns with this world and they jsut dont and then theres people like this that are so entrechned into this boring ass writing they think that its the point, liek the point is its bad hhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

"but hes not meant to be a person he jsut ev-" SHUT the hell up, nevermind the whole curse thing is an englsih trnaslation thing and also perhaps not meant to be taken literally, you think that makes it ok? that well there was a demon once (who also doesnt get any sort of depth btw!!! problem shoved one place over but still the same problem!) so that means hes not actually a person but idk a demon puppet or soemthing- doesnt change anything imo, are you not bored? are you not tired? are you happy with not thinking? not being engaged with at all? to see chaarcters to utterly flavorless you fall asleep and choke on them? i am not, i love thinking, im addicted to it even, i think every day even, right now too, they got a convenient excuse to put not even the barest fucking minimum of writing care into a character and you are jsut going with it!! where are your tastebuds buddy??

[bloobluebloo]

Got any hot 'TotK Rauru sucks and is bad' takes today? I keep seeing screenshots and art where he's looking all kindly and wise and am in the mood to see him roasted by one of Ganondorf's strongest soldiers.

Why thank you. As a professional Ganondorf spokesperson I am also a professional Rauru hater! This is true and factual as you must know.

-Rauru amputates Link's arm and replaces it with his arm without Link's consent, and then ALSO takes it away without Link's consent! What if he wanted to keep the ultrahand capabilities huh? What is up with that? Why does Rauru get to call the shots without asking?

-Rauru KNOWS about puppet Zelda and Ganondorf and does not even give Link A CLUE. "Oh, but if he tells you then there's no mystery to the game". Oh I'm sorry, it's not as if you find out very quickly who puppet Zelda is and then have to proceed spending the rest of the game pretending like you have noooooo idea why Zelda is acting so weird.

-How dare Rauru pretend he "passed on" when it is very clear that he didn't. YOU passed on YOUR problem to us and gave us your stupid arm so why not make yourself useful and be a companion! Afraid to face the guy you stuck your fingers in goatman?

-"Rauru was such a good dad to Zelda." Why, because he didn't directly berate her? When Zelda told him about her concern with Ganondorf his answer was "Oh I know he's evil so I will keep him close" and then dismissed the issue. Bitch this girl came from the FUTURE this is literally an OMEN. Do you not believe her concern to be serious???? Zelda is a ruler and respected in her own right yet in this Hyrule she was still relegated to "young naive princess who shouldn't worry about such things".

-"But isn't it kind of Rauru to remove that burden from her shoulders-" NO? She isn't a little girl who needs to be shielded! She just spent 100 years holding back the Calamity! She has gotten a golden opportunity to save her kingdom by killing its problem at the source! Treating her like a delicate tired woman who should rest when she is a leader, someone who put her own life on the line for a century and wants to save her kingdom is infantilizing and condescending actually.

-Also, why wasn't he there when Sonia and Zelda confronted Ganondorf? That either tells me he can't be bothered with this man OR that Zelda knew she had to take matters into her own hands and convinced Sonia to help her.

-The Rauru going off on hunts and needing Sonia to pull him back to his kingly duties pissed me off so bad. Dude, YOU'RE THE ONE WHO MADE UP THIS KINGDOM??? If you don't enjoy kingly duties don't make a stupid kingdom!

-People should really question why Rauru had military fortifications so close to Gerudo territory because remember, molduga can only travel through sand! People want to pretend that Ganondorf attacked completely unprovoked but if someone was building military fortifications along my borders while continuously sending me invitations to join this new kingdom I would, indeed, feel threatened. Peace? My ass Rauru it was "do it or else".

-Also, Rauru, it is actually really weird to send multiple invitations to another king, who has a kingdom, not to negotiate an alliance of equality but to demand fealty. Like that's another sovereign nation dude, you can't just have it because you are god's favorite child or whatever.

-"But Rauru was offering protection to those who joined Hyrule". Proetction from who??? If you have to make up a headcanon to justify this then it means that there is no reason given in game. I suppose the protection is from Rauru himself because you run the risk of being blasted by a laser if you don't kneel for Hyrule.

-Why is it that Ganondorf had enough ambition as a king to become so powerful with the secret stone that he could take on 7 secret stone wielders but Rauru, god's favorite child, a big fan of the power of light and friendship, and so concerned about bringing peace to Hyrule, could not do the same? I suppose he wasn't THAT committed to his vision of Hyrule. Call Ganondorf whatever you want, but he knew what he wanted and believed it deeply and the secret stone reflected that.

-WHY DID HE DOXX LINK LIKE THAT IS SUCH A NAIVE STUPID AND ASSHOLE MOVE!!!! KEEP YOUR ENEMIES IN THE DARK IDIOT!!!!

We love and stan an incompetent, quirky, naive king because those qualities are innocent! That's how this works right.

[ganymedesclock]

also i was curious, after browsing your meta MANY times (because i love your zelda meta so much!), what's your thought about Calamity Ganon? the game as a whole heavily encourages the idea that the man we knew as ganondorf is GONE and there's a tragic loss of the man he used to be, just a corrupted victim of demise's spite, but there's just as much to indicate that ganondorf is deliberately obfuscating his nature, and he simply sees no reason to be a schemer at the moment?

See my hot take on Calamity Ganon (before I get back to meme replies) is that it's an external manifestation; Calamity Ganon and the Blights are sort of puppet avatars that Ganondorf, the person, is speaking through. They always made me think of ghosts- something distorted but unmistakably recreating a form, an identity- and something is watching you through all of them.

The four blights are tailored assassins. They have prescience and calculation to them, and they use this prescience to attack you. This gets even more so when the big man Clamgan is revealed properly- there's just something about the way he swings his head around to stare at Link the first time that feels injected with almost as much personality as "Oh, it's you," from GLaDOS in Portal 2.

So if their intention was to write a Ganondorf who's completely gone and lost, barely the shambles of a person, I feel like, uh, they failed. Instead, they're giving the sense of a ghost dragging itself out from under the floorboards, especially since if you look at Rhoam's story, at the same time he starts talking about the calamity as a mindless monster, he states without pointing it out that Clamgan specifically outsmarted and manipulated all of the factors that were used to hunt him before.

The Guardians? Turned to his favor.

The Divine Beasts? Again, tailored assassins to isolate the champions.

Advancing from without met an army? He crawls out from underneath Hyrule Castle (which. okay. BotW2's trailer suggests this maybe wasn't his goal, but a coincidence of the location of his prison- but he turned it into a hell of a sneak attack)

Like... he is scheming. Both in a practical sense and in a sense that's distressingly emotionally personal. His various manifestations all have red hair- they're all these attempts at pulling himself back together. It's depersonalized, but in the way that a horror ghost is depersonalized- the self is abstracted, rotted, and yet, enduring. The creepy thing about the Malice to me isn't that it's just hunks of autonomous flesh growing all over- it's that they used eyes- one of the most ubiquitous marks in legend of zelda- and made it that for reasons that are only ever implied to you, the entire setting is watching your progress.

A friend of mine even had a disturbing take that it's possible the Guardians are running default patrol routes only because Zelda is partly sabotaging Ganondorf's control over them- because we see evidence in the past that before Zelda's seal went down, they converged on specific targets. Which, again- BotW is a game where Link literally died, and Zelda almost died- in the Age of Calamity side game they emphasize this further.

The allegedly mindless Calamity recognizes specific people and is trying to get rid of them as quickly as possible. I don't think it's obfuscation- I think it's propaganda and denial- possibly even denial of something Rhoam knows about the situation that he won't tell us- that frames Calamity Ganon as a force of nature, rather than anything that has a reason to be tied to the royal family- or any echo of a person the royal family wronged and buried.

So I'd argue he's totally scheming, he's just scheming with- implicitly- limited resources stuck in a box acting through whatever puppets he can steal and placing horrible flesh homunculi in key places.

[onesunofagun]

I shall now yell about Ingo, please stand by:

Ingo’s transformation from the underappreciated backbone of the ranch to an absolute ruff-wearing cantaloupe of a man is also pretty interesting (if you’re the kind of person who absorbs the Zelda series through your skin like a frog to live).

I’ve bolded the key points for skimmers.

Granted, the manga has it that Ingo just gets brainwashed by Twinrova into being a staunch follower of Ganondorf. That’s not canon, but it’s not informing any of this thinking, either way. 

In the beginning of OoT we meet Talon by waking him up from a nap, and we learn pretty quickly that he’s lazy and often yelled at by his daughter for slacking off like this. Ingo at the ranch confirms again that Talon doesn’t pull his weight around there, and since Malon’s still a child, it’s pretty obvious that Ingo’s settled with the bulk of the work.

Ingo is grumpy, he’s resentful, and he complains a lot. But he does do the work, and you can find him (presumably) in the process of mucking out the stables. 

Let’s examine what he does at the ranch:

Epona really liked that song... Only I could tame that horse... Even Mr. Ingo had a hard time...

Now, Epona is established in game to be a real winner of a horse. She’s fast, she’s smart, she’s got a lovely sorrel coat and white mane that seems to be quite rare or highly prized coloring. The catch is, she is notoriously wild. The only people she tolerates are Malon and Link, due in large part to being soothed by the song Malon’s mother taught her.

Ingo had to really try to crack this horse, which Malon’s observation suggests is unusual. 

Epona is very young when we first see her, so it’s never really revealed if she was caught wild, or bred at the ranch with a very headstrong temperament.

Ingo’s clearly the guy that’s breaking them in, though. The most Talon is doing is... sleeping in with the cuccos. We never see any organisation of the cuccos, in terms of egg collection or poultry farming, but nevertheless, Talon has the much less physical jobs even if he was doing them. His focus seems to be cuccos, deliveries to the castle and book keeping between naps (and to be fair it’s probably a little depression related, given the dead wife).

Malon gives us a cow later on, and she’s got the egg for the crowing cucco that wakes up Talon, so I’d like to assume for simplicity’s sake that even as a kid, Malon was up at dawn most days helping Ingo with the cows and milking them. It’s never really implied that she has amazing skill in dealing with horses, just that Epona has a special connection with her specifically. Other than that, Malon is simply kind and respectful of her animals (though I’ve got no idea how she got that cow to Link’s treehouse and that’s worth investigating). 

Later on, Ingo is also shown to be a competent rider. Enough that he has absolutely no qualms in challenging Link to races for wagers, and was quite confident of his ability to win.

The takeaway is, Ingo is usually VERY GOOD with both caring for and training horses, if not breeding them for the ranch.

That kind of lends to his grumbling, when he is referring to himself as ‘the Great Ingo’ and comparing himself to Talon, who is a ‘bum’. His claim to greatness may not be undeserved, at least in horse circles, and especially if he’s not getting particular credit for it, his bitterness and frustration (alongside envy, exhaustion, and dreams of recognition) would be quite deeply run.

So it seems that his friend and employer is clearly taking some advantage of him, especially after the death of Malon’s mother.

So now, let’s examine his feelings, and how he changes.

The feelings Ingo has about that are pretty textbook for the sort of thing ‘evil takes hold of and twists’, in the Zeldaverse.

Focussing on the game itself, Malon says this as an adult:

Since Ganondorf came, people in the Castle Town have gone, places have been ruined, and monsters are wandering everywhere. Mr. Ingo is just using the ranch to gain Ganondorf's favor... Everyone seems to be turning evil...

We do see other characters in Hyrule become influenced by the ‘darkness in their hearts’ as byproduct of Ganondorf’s reign. 

A prominent example of a character who was visibly dissatisfied with their lot, and then notably changes (while praising Ganondorf for what he’d done), is the Castle Guard who is heavily implied to have become the Poe Dealer. Even if by some slim means it’s not the same person, the Poe Dealer does still express that they could not do the work they do without Ganon as King, and that they now benefit from him being in that position and are grateful to him.

The Kakariko Carpenters seem to have given into their fantasies about living among the Gerudo women, and gone out to the Valley and gotten themselves taken prisoner. Following work near the fortress, the team chooses to act on their selfish desires and go for broke, chasing their dreams. They weren’t previously prepared to act upon these fantasies when Link was young, admittedly much milder in their still very prominent obsession, but seven years later, they’re quite happy to risk it all and piss away the stability of their careers (and nearly their lives) at the first opportunity.

Anyway, the trend is, those across Hyrule who are unhappy with their lot before Ganondorf’s coup tend to be ‘corrupted’ by seven years later, and appear to have given in to a twisted version of whatever they most wanted. 

This is noteworthy especially because the language in the game revolves around the Sacred Realm being opened and corrupted, too, by Ganondorf’s unbalanced heart and selfish goals. It is unable to be ‘sealed’ again while Link has the Master Sword. In aLttP, we know there is a mirror like effect to do with the sacred turned dark realm, in which it reflects the hearts of men. 

So it is very reasonable to say, that for OoT in particular, much of this evil influence plaguing the land and preying on the darkness an people’s hearts is a result of the corruption of the Sacred Realm. It is an indirect byproduct of Ganondorf’s acquiring of the Triforce, but not necessarily something he himself does to people on purpose, unlike the brainwashing of Nabooru.

Mr. Ingo is just using the ranch to gain Ganondorf's favor... But Dad... He was kicked out of the ranch by Mr. Ingo... If I disobey Mr. Ingo, he will treat the horses so badly...

This explains a lot of the more callous and greedy behaviour that Ingo shows later on, and why it seems to disappear when he is truly humbled by Link. 

Link’s win serves as a reminder of Ingo’s stagnating skill with horses, the very thing that made him feel so deserving of praise and recognition in the first place, in that for everything he now has control of at the ranch, he still cannot control that horse. He has become as much of a bum as Talon ever was, relegating Malon to do all the hard work while Ingo struts around uselessly. He’s even lost his touch with the Horses so much, in his arrogance, that now he has taken up mistreating them and using harsh and abusive methods (according to Malon’s concerns).

The humiliation and shame takes hold, his pride shattering with the loss of Epona-- not only as a valuable asset, but also as the horse he could never truly tame.

The dark feelings he was holding onto are let go of, as he regains a sense of humility, and the corruptive influence upon him dissipates. He even seeks out Talon to bury the hatchet and invite him back to the ranch.

Oh, I have to tell you about Mr. Ingo... He was afraid that the Evil King might find out that Epona had been taken away... It really upset him! But one day, all of a sudden, he went back to being a normal, nice person! Now my dad is coming back...I can't believe it, but peace is returning to this ranch!

But what about his obsession with Ganondorf in particular?

When the coup happened, Ingo watched the King of the Gerudo unwittingly play out a sort of grand parallel to what Ingo felt should happen on the ranch. To Ingo’s perception, I think Ganondorf was representing an ideal version of Ingo himself. 

A man of the desert, where hard work and grit are as second nature to survive the harsh conditions. A man frustrated with the King of Hyrule’s shit, and forced to swear fealty to him despite being a King himself. A man resplendent with wealth, with fine and flashy clothes and plentiful jewelry.

And perhaps the most important note of all, the Gerudo in OoT? 

They’re horse people. 

They love horses. Ganondorf’s horse is reputed to be a purebred Black Gerudo Stallion, which is obviously a specialty breed, that is fully armoured and as flashy as he is. When the Gerudo cut the bridge leading to the valley, the only way in and out is to have a skilled horse jump the gap. 

They also have a huge horseback archery range, and prowess in the sport is an incredible source of respect amongst the Gerudo, and many of the guards possess bladed polearms suitable for mounted use. From this, it can be assumed that during the recent civil war, Gerudo weapons, war tack and military tactics were probably built around mounted cavalry archers foremost, with a lesser focus on light and heavy cavalry aside (iron knuckle armour springs to mind).

Anyway, Horses are very important to the Gerudo in the era of Ocarina of Time.

So Ganondorf is also unique in the sense that he is the King of a people who value what it is that Ingo does very highly. He, of all people, stands to immediately recognise the knowledge and skill that Ingo possesses in rearing horses.

So this is a man who successfully stages a coup of Hyrule, who clearly inspires Ingo to do much the same of the ranch, and who Ingo also feels is very likely to take his side should he appeal the matter.

And Ganondorf does.

And if that’s not a great compliment to Ingo’s actual skill, I don’t know what is, because Ganondorf is not a man that suffers fools. He’s got a limited patience when it comes to shit that is beneath his notice. Clearly, he recognises that Ingo is indeed the backbone of that ranch-- and the main reason for the quality of its Horses-- and rewards this accordingly.

And for Ingo, being on decent terms with the big scary goth King is a very, very good place to be. But it’s more than that!

What a guy! Not only did he deliver on Ingo’s long due validation, he gave Ingo everything he’d ever dreamed of having to his name, and the authority to kick Talon to the curb. He gets it! Ganondorf, this great eight foot beacon of freshly sought divine power and topaz-encrusted glory, this absolute unit of a man, this great underdog horse-lover after Ingo’s own heart; he really understands how great Ingo is. Ganondorf is paving the way for people like them! Oh, to rub shoulders wiht such greatness when the rest of Hyrule is scorned. 

Ingo feels seen. The Great Ganondorf made all that thankless time spent shovelling horse shit while Talon slept mean something. The Gerudo appreciate Ingo’s talents.

And all Ingo has to do is keep turning out really good horses, and promise to present the King with his finest.

So Ingo knows he’s in deep shit when he gets cocky and loses Epona to a wager, who at this point, he’s prepared pretty well and sunk a lot of money into on the idea that she’s going to Ganondorf. 

Who he’s probably bragged to about how fast she is.

He lost her to some jerk in tights who’d barely ridden before, too. And then when Ingo tried to cheat him out of the win, the kid jumped the damned fence an in ass-bustingly cool move that really just drove home how excellent and rare Epona was.

One does not promise the King of the Gerudo a fast horse and then fail to deliver, let alone for such a stupid reason.

Honestly, by the end, the man’s just happy to be alive.

Also I’d like to think he and Talon had a much fairer delegation of work and forgave each other, each really learning to appreciate what they have and what’s really important.

how the fuck did the Kokiri leave the forest for this scene anyway, they don’t even have their faries???

[theheroesguild]

A certain exhausted young Time Guardian trudged out of the half-wrecked Divine Order castle, eyes stinging from the fact that he was dripping wet from a tsunami wave from earlier, trying to wring out his shirt of excess saltwater as he did so. Slowly he surveyed the damage, the number of heroes requiring medical attention, and the sight of a couple of Pokemon trainers sending out their water types to help fish out Kaneki (as well as Akira) out of the shriveling ‘Kraken’ remains sinking beneath the tide.

Spade couldn’t help but groan. “ What a mess.” He muttered more to himself than for anyone else in his vicinity. Considering that his magic reserves were already running as fumes earlier, he needed some form of a fast recharge as soon as possible if he wanted to sort it all out before-

“Yes... It is.”

A pair of figures had appeared just beside the grumbling apprentice, apparently just in time to overhear; for better or worse, the Seer had finally made her return to the Order with Oko in tow. Admittedly, Spade startled in fright at her abrupt reappearance and then dread sank into his bones as she leveled what was clearly a disappointed gaze at the scene unfolded before her.

Oko was the only one who had a completely different reaction to everything from everybody else, his frown also looked disappointed, but for the wrong reasons. “You guys had a water balloon fight without us?”

The Seer shifted her focus toward Spade before she finally continued, her expression holding that same air of ambiguity that was no doubt quite familiar by now. “...I should have left better, more thorough countermeasures for you to use, making sure you were more prepared.” Then the goddess bowed her head, a solemn and often heard sorrow falling into her tone. “It was foolish and unjust of me to leave the potential for such an immense catastrophe on your shoulders. I should have known it would be too much.”

Considering what his expectations were, the words left her very first apprentice stunned for a moment. “What?” he blurted out after a moment of waiting for the Seer to continue speaking and getting none else. “You think this is all just… your own fault?”

“There is a reason why my work here requires constant, personal attention.” A hint of tired bitterness entered her tone, eyes narrowed. “Even after training for eons, I still make errors, sometimes quite grievous ones. I should not have expected such a short time of apprenticeship to prepare you for this level of… Volatility.” 

“But!” And with a conviction that surprised even himself- “...You wanna know what did at least happen thanks to Kaneki? Catching the bad guy who started this whole mess! So I made a mistake and he went a bit berserk because of it, but that’s my bad, not yours!” Spade went, his tone on the verge of shouting. 

Then the young Guardian hastily pulled his arms back down at his side, realizing way too late that he was wildly gesturing with them during the heated spiel.

Fortunately, the Seer seemed unphased by the outburst and maintained her calm demeanor. "And what did this victory cost?" she simply asked, the straightforward inquiry cutting deep into the tension.

Which was more than enough to defuse and deflate Spade, since even he didn’t think there was any sense of pride to be had about his performance as acting leader. “I’ll… gather up and get a count on who’s hurt.”

“Actually,” the goddess cut in before turning her attention to her other apprentice, “Oko, I would like for you to put your training into good use and tend to the injured. Spade will be showing me what has become of Kaneki; on the way, we can discuss the details of that ‘bad guy’ he mentioned. I suspect there is quite a bit to catch me up on.”

"Okay, Ms. Seer," Oko replied, tilting his head curiously at the request before wandering off to attempt his very best at completing the task given to him. (But luckily, he wouldn’t be unsupervised while doing so.)

---

“Attention everyone!” called out the Seer once each member of the Order had been attended to and Kaneki both stabilized and properly secured. “I do have a bit of an announcement, so please gather around!” Under normal circumstances, just shouting that out would never have been enough to garner attention-- but without any walls or, in fact, any manner of standing structure to obstruct the sound, her voice carried quite well across the flooded ruins. Gradually the weary lot grouped around her, some more reluctantly than others.

“Due to the current… Circumstances,” she explained with a vague gesture at the castle’s remains, “There will need to be substantial repairs-- physical and magical-- before the base here is safe and habitable again. In the meantime, our residence will be temporarily shifted to our alternate headquarters in Raeth. This is not expected to be an especially long process, but due to the risk of attack while the area is… Compromised… It will be safer to take refuge elsewhere until we can deem the structure suitable and secure.”

Some grumbling and whispering could be heard; clearly this was not a usual course of action. Someone even used the term ‘unprecedented.’ Clearly this was about a bit more than just making sure the castle was architecturally sound.

“Rooms, belongings, mission boards, and all other necessities will be available over there as well, along with the usual dining arrangements, training rooms, and lounges. I doubt it will be much different, in the long run,” she quietly assured the group. Some didn’t seem so easily convinced.

“But what about the BEACH?” demanded Selia furiously. “The Raeth HQ is so… Grungy, and in the mainland, too! No water for miles and the forest is filled with, you know… Werewolves and stuff!” There was some murmur of agreement.

“Man I sure hope I can bring my lab over there,” Sylvia muttered. “They’re really weird about science over there, and magic. And especially about magic and science together. How’m I supposed to work on an anti-gravity grenade in peace with folks claiming it’s witchcraft?”

“I know the move won’t be ideal, but I assure you it is very, very temporary,” the Seer insisted. “The HQ is quite secure there, we will not have to worry about any… Unexpected visitors.” So that was what this was about… The leak. The arrival, the troublemaker who had somehow slipped through the barrier… The group quieted a bit, perhaps not everyone was happy about it, but they’d just have to make do.

“In the meantime,” she added, “Please feel free to let me know if you would like to help with the repairs here as well; while the area will not be fully secure, we can use as many sets of hands as we can get. There is a great deal to be done, and the more sets of eyes we have, the less likely anything crucial will be missed. Perhaps we can even make it better than it was before.”

“Everyone else…” The Seer’s strain was showing slightly, though she brushed it away swiftly. “Just try to keep calm, and stay at ease. The Raeth HQ has many allies of ours, and I’m certain if everyone comes together, there will be plenty of ways to pass the time. We’ll be back to our normal operations before you know it.”

---

With a quick snap of his fingers after his magic was back to full capacity, Spade presented to the goddess a jar as they walked through the halls of the much more Victorian-styled castle, though its contents were impossible to examine through the glass with the naked eye.

“And here it is, our culprit,” said Spade. “I know it’s not much to look at like this, but as I’m sure you already know- keeping something that’s physically like the Ether involves blocking out everything from light, sound, air… Not a single atom of anything goes in or out.”

The Seer examined the jar contemplatively, giving a nod of understanding; it was hard to believe that there was such a small version of the Ether that it could be trapped within just this small jar, but she could tell her apprentice’s words were quite sincere. “The Ether itself was a shock when I first learned of it, and now there are even more branches of this being. This... For all that I can see, this was not something I was able to anticipate, as though blocked from my vision somehow.” Two fingers rubbed at her temples in frustration. “I cannot fathom what this means. It could be multiplying, or growing to such immense size that portions break off, or perhaps they are small enough fragments to slip under our radar all this time…”

She sighed. “I suppose there is no use in overthinking it for the time being. We will have to worry about that after more pressing matters are settled.” The pair had reached a staircase leading deep underneath the castle, lit by flickering torches. The whole area felt incredibly eerie; it was just what one would expect from some creepy dungeon.

“You’re right, but I think you might be interested in a couple of other details that Erwick can confirm.” her apprentice added. “Attacks like from his flames worked perfectly fine as usual, but there was also this shiny weak spot on it. Literally. Some kind of scar maybe?”

“A… scar?”

“Yeah. White and glowing. Like… Ganondorf’s, all the way back in Twilight Princess. And then they were hamming it up about trying to prove their worth to the rest of the Ether.”

If not for how serious the entire situation was, the sight would’ve been almost comedic. Spade continued on, “Honestly with how its plan went horribly right on trying to piss off Kaneki, I could see why this thing might actually be a bit of a bumbling idiot in the Ether’s view.”

“Interesting.” The Seer made a mental note of this; perhaps there was a bit more to her initial impression than she’d thought. “That behavior is rather unusual as well, the Ether does not seem to have much ambition aside from its… Destructive nature. Hm. I suppose we will have to keep on the lookout for other, similar phenomena.”

It was about then that the cell came into view… The bars looked like exactly the sort of solid steel that one would expect in some classic old dungeon, though they were nothing compared to the unseen energy field that would block any unsanctioned passage in or out. Inside, however, it was at least clean and tidy; there was also a bed and a bathroom for now. The Seer would have to check its occupant’s mental condition before deciding if any other furniture was safe to place inside…

“It seems he’s still out cold,” she commented quietly. “With the RC suppressants administered, at least his awakening won’t shake the foundations. I imagine I will still know nonetheless.” Considering the effect his aura had on her, there was no question of what she meant there.

“With luck… Hopefully, Kaneki will recover soon.”

The Seer wasn’t sure she believed her own words.

---

The sea breeze was so much stronger with most of the island demolished, rushing across the debris with a ragged howl. There was nothing to hold it back now, just like any of the countless fiendish creatures that could have launched their attacks on the rubble. But aside from that wind, it was quiet, most of those who’d come to make repairs working in relative silence. The atmosphere was heavy indeed, and none seemed daring enough to try and cut through it.

The Seer meanwhile was occupied by her own thoughts, and they were no gentler than the roaring tides.

She was certain the barrier had to be compromised in some way. That thing had gotten in somehow, after all; normally the field was able to protect against even the full might of the Ether pounding on its walls. It had rebuffed countless beasts, many much stronger than the little spectral scoundrel now in their custody.

So how had it gotten inside when so many others couldn’t?

Checking the magic was bearing no fruit, nor were the wards or, in fact, any of the other enchantments of varying types that were supposed to keep this place safe.

None of it made any sense.

Her initial guess was that Spade had accidentally changed a setting or altered the composition of the energy, or… Something. But whatever had caused the breach, it seemed to be back in place now-- even if the field itself was still temporarily down. The whole thing was making the Seer’s head spin… She was a being with visions of the future, knowledge of the unknown, all the multiverse crammed into what was once a mortal skull.

So why couldn’t she understand what was happening here?

Why hadn’t she been able to predict any of this?

How had she not even known about that tiny Ether’s existence?

There were too many questions and not enough answers. So, for the time being, she set herself back to the task of repairing the castle-- rebuilding walls, fixing tapestries, and retrieving broken tech. It wasn’t perfect, but at least keeping her mind busy would prevent any further over-thinking.

Everything would be back to normal soon. It had to be.

[thecottageinthedark]

#Legend of Zelda#Breath of the Wild#Calamity Ganon#long post#also hot take but even if we accept the conclusion Ganondorf and Demise are connected#Ganondorf is the one bringing the spite#Demise shows very little imagination in the game and basically just goes 'here's how I win anyway even though you beat me'#Ganondorf is the guy who actually has any reason to be pissed and is. in fact. extremely pissed#and it's extremely useful to frame his anger which is partly justified and all a thing that hyrule has to deal with#as 'merely' the malign influence of a demon because no person would have a Genuine Reason to hate hyrule!

also i was curious, after browsing your meta MANY times (because i love your zelda meta so much!), what's your thought about Calamity Ganon? the game as a whole heavily encourages the idea that the man we knew as ganondorf is GONE and there's a tragic loss of the man he used to be, just a corrupted victim of demise's spite, but there's just as much to indicate that ganondorf is deliberately obfuscating his nature, and he simply sees no reason to be a schemer at the moment?

See my hot take on Calamity Ganon (before I get back to meme replies) is that it's an external manifestation; Calamity Ganon and the Blights are sort of puppet avatars that Ganondorf, the person, is speaking through. They always made me think of ghosts- something distorted but unmistakably recreating a form, an identity- and something is watching you through all of them.

The four blights are tailored assassins. They have prescience and calculation to them, and they use this prescience to attack you. This gets even more so when the big man Clamgan is revealed properly- there's just something about the way he swings his head around to stare at Link the first time that feels injected with almost as much personality as "Oh, it's you," from GLaDOS in Portal 2.

So if their intention was to write a Ganondorf who's completely gone and lost, barely the shambles of a person, I feel like, uh, they failed. Instead, they're giving the sense of a ghost dragging itself out from under the floorboards, especially since if you look at Rhoam's story, at the same time he starts talking about the calamity as a mindless monster, he states without pointing it out that Clamgan specifically outsmarted and manipulated all of the factors that were used to hunt him before.

The Guardians? Turned to his favor.

The Divine Beasts? Again, tailored assassins to isolate the champions.

Advancing from without met an army? He crawls out from underneath Hyrule Castle (which. okay. BotW2's trailer suggests this maybe wasn't his goal, but a coincidence of the location of his prison- but he turned it into a hell of a sneak attack)

Like... he is scheming. Both in a practical sense and in a sense that's distressingly emotionally personal. His various manifestations all have red hair- they're all these attempts at pulling himself back together. It's depersonalized, but in the way that a horror ghost is depersonalized- the self is abstracted, rotted, and yet, enduring. The creepy thing about the Malice to me isn't that it's just hunks of autonomous flesh growing all over- it's that they used eyes- one of the most ubiquitous marks in legend of zelda- and made it that for reasons that are only ever implied to you, the entire setting is watching your progress.

A friend of mine even had a disturbing take that it's possible the Guardians are running default patrol routes only because Zelda is partly sabotaging Ganondorf's control over them- because we see evidence in the past that before Zelda's seal went down, they converged on specific targets. Which, again- BotW is a game where Link literally died, and Zelda almost died- in the Age of Calamity side game they emphasize this further.

The allegedly mindless Calamity recognizes specific people and is trying to get rid of them as quickly as possible. I don't think it's obfuscation- I think it's propaganda and denial- possibly even denial of something Rhoam knows about the situation that he won't tell us- that frames Calamity Ganon as a force of nature, rather than anything that has a reason to be tied to the royal family- or any echo of a person the royal family wronged and buried.

So I'd argue he's totally scheming, he's just scheming with- implicitly- limited resources stuck in a box acting through whatever puppets he can steal and placing horrible flesh homunculi in key places.