#and Null hates the fact that anything exists --including Ganon! and including Hyrule and everything in it

[rawliverandgoronspice]

do you think EoW’s plot - specifically Null’s motive of “i was already living in this void and the goddesses just showed up and created reality and tried to kick me out” being framed as a bad thing - is in the same pro-colonialism vein as your issues with TotK?

Good question! My instinct would be a tentative nnnnno? For a number of reasons, but I do want to return to the game and reread the actual text before committing to this opinion. But from memory, I think the core difference, to me, is that Null had a complete hegemony over reality, fully rejecting change and life in it's every form (so the start of the story in that context is Null being in control of everything, instead of Hyrule being in control of everything/wanting to control everything), and demanding total compliance to non-existence from everything else. I think this reading on the pantheon places the Goddesses as a force of resistance to nothingness, which I think has very interesting implications for the magic system and how, in their own attempt to maintain their creation of life, they may have ostracized everything that wanted to question the set of rules they had put into place in turn. It's not canon or anything, but I do think it's (quite honestly) a far more interesting origin story than the Hylia/Demise debacle (even if it can be understood under this lens also, which would make it more interesting to me).

But yeah, to me, Null had imagery that was very reminscent of cancer, of consumption and destruction for its own sake. I doooon't think it makes as much sense to read it in a political way? As Null is a single entity, completely disconnected from culture and community and society, and more-so as the personification of a natural phenomenon of death and stillness and negentropy in my opinion (which I think they wanted Ganondorf to be as well, but this fails imo because he starts off as a man with man-like preoccupations, and his aspirations are about gaining absolute agency --implying he doesn't start having that agency, and it's his very political and social circumstances that push him towards trying to gain that level of power in a world that is hyper-hostile to him simply... maintaining the power he started with --especially in TotK, you could argue he didn't have to swear fealty to Hyrule in OoT, we just don't know enough about the political backstory in the Myth Era to make definitive judgement, but even still he had very mortal pressures that motivated his envy and anger)

Anyway, I need to return to my Many Screenshots of the conversations in EoW that seemed relevant to make sure I am convinced by the reading of the game I tentatively argued for here (and especially reread the Goddesses' and Null's perspective on all that), but I hope this is an interesting first step at least!

[weepingtalecowboy]

Time is legend's successor (egg =chicken paradox way )

Fanfic prompt: A thing I noticed about the timeline is the fact that several entries are missing from the current version of the timeline

And with echoes of wisdom also existing

I just had a funny gruesome take on the timeline

Considering that in link to the past there are literally two endings (which already creates a different branch in the downfall timeline if we talk technicality)

Being one where link beats the hell out of the four shades of the four swords palace and snatched the four sword as an accessory (if you buy four swords adventure for the gba as well as link to the past)

And the other being the normal run of link to the past without the bonus temple

Like technically that already would break the timeline up into more branches (for the downfall timeline)

So what if echoes of wisdom and adventure of link lay on those two timelines lol

Like one where the total downfall happened being adventure of link

And one with echoes of wisdom that had an opportunity to regain its power… and also beat the shit out of null

That way both fit in while also taking the bonus temple into consideration

With that what if echo and hyrule are both legend's successors the same way that twilight , wind and legend are time's

Why, because angst is hilarious images how disappointed hyrule will be when he realizes that he isn’t just a disappointing successor but that there is a timeline where a much better successor came over and there never was a problem with fixing stuff

And legend feeling even worse because hyrule would never have to fix anything if he simply did better… like he clear did in echo's timeline

Like the possibilities were not a problem until echo came around and both noticed that legend COULD do better

That it wasn’t destiny for Legenda to fail and hyrule to fall

That there is just a timeline legend DID fail and hyrule ended up falling

Just hyrule and wind bonding over a failed timeline where everything is a mess (either over run with monsters or just straight up drowned by the goddesses)

And legend and time also bonding over failing so horrendously that it isn’t even funny

But it could get even worse seeing as it is theorized that the downfall timeline was the original timeline and the complete downfall of hyrule was destined

But what if it gets more insane and the timeline where echoes of wisdom is in was the original one

AND the other timeline was the one that annihilated the timeline into a time tree mess of a garden

The goddess hates meddling afterall

Seeing as how an entire timeline was just drowned duo to lullabies trigger happy use of the ocarina lol

Like the wish that gave the hero of time a second chance NOT being part of the original timeline

(it happening in the palace timeline because link met the hero of the four sword and realized that much more people suffered from ganon instead just reviving people close to him would also fit thematically because reviving everyone you ever knew suffered and reviving everyone including the hero of the past who ended up being some random child would be different wishes as one meddles with time )

So the mess of a timeline just happening because legend met four at some point and wanted to save the hero before him as well

Accidentally splitting the timeline into two

Just for time to dip out of another because ganon was too destructive and lullaby thought it was a good idea and that again splitting the timeline

Now there are the three anomalies and the original timeline

Making it four branches (until flora makes it into five because fruit gummy)

Two for legend and two for time leaving only flora's creative project

Like the angst of everything being legend getting creative and time being his successor in this very creativity (while flora did an entirely different job at creativity)

We need more time being legend's successor while legend also has hyrule and echo as successor’s and technically also wind and twilight fics because the potential is indeed endless and hilarious

Like legend being the first ever person to annihilate hylia's precious timeline then time following his example and then wind, twilight, hyrule and echo being the results is hilarious to think about while flora is in the background in a completely different time tree