#'botw is such an experience' people keep telling me

[xpiester333x]

I started playing Breath of the Wild.

I'm... uhhhh... not impressed so far?

I mean graphically I've seen indie games that do a much better job in a similar style.

It's so big and that's neat but it's also about 89% directionless.

I've been retold the same story by about 4 different NPCs now. None of them added anything to it, just repeated the same thing.

And this is unrelated to the game but my god the Switch controller is going to drive me batshit insane. Tap the joystick and Link runs 2.3 miles, hurtling himself off a cliff. Tap the joystick and jump and Link will jump straight into the air and then belly flop into an abyss. Joycons are so flimsy, I have the drift, and I'm unwilling to buy a pro controller because why would I spend $80 on a controller for a system I rarely use.

Partly on the controller/system and partly on the game but I feel more frustrated than happy about playing this game. I'm still really early in (maybe like 4-5 hours of playtime?) so there's still a chance I'll pull a 180 about the game and come to really love it but atm... nah.

[imaginethezeldaverse]

Hello! I don't know if you write for the more obscure characters in Botw/Totk but I figured I'd ask just in case ☺️ Could you please write something about Tauro, Purah, Sidon and Zelda dating a Sheikah s/o who's chronically ill/disabled? It'd be great if you could make them specifically have weak bones and be really short too, and they're often upset how people keep babying them because they might fracture or break something. But if you want to keep it more open-ended that's fine too!

Thank you so so much, you're probably my favorite Zelda blog on Tumblr! Your writing and ideas are always like *chefs kiss* 😘! Have a good day and drink lots of water!

Whenever people tell me I'm their favorite anything it literally shocks me because there are SO many fantastic zelda fic blogs on here that I feel are vastly superior - but I thank you nonetheless! 🥰

I'll write for pretty much any character - I just keep romance and nsfw content for adults. So I'd be happy to!

Tauro, as well-mannered and good-natured he is, is amongst the mass where he needs to be reminded that while you are disabled, you aren't incapable of doing normal things. He tries his best to remember that, but his rambunctious and steadfast nature leads him to be righteous and helpful, even when it's not needed. Plus given his height, he always just assumes that people tend to need help to reach things in tall places if he's ever around. He does try his best to be sensitive to your needs and wants, however, tapping his hand to his chest when he catches himself doing too much. Instead, he makes an effort to remind himself to wait for you to ask him should you need anything. Very affectionate, otherwise - he enjoys making you smile and wrapping his big ol' bear arms around you (albeit, he's careful not to actually squeeze you too hard because he does NOT know his own strength) and is very attentive on the days that you specifically don't feel well and your body leaves you in a weaker state than normal.

Purah, being the research fanatic and accomplished scientist that she is, is already aware and well read on your illness. That, however, has never stopped her from being absolutely smitten with you. Where she is boisterous and outlandish, there is a careful resilience to you that she keeps close to her heart. She sees your frustration often with the townsfolk who treat you with unnecessary delicacy, and while she understands the "good-intent", she feels as you do: chronic illness should not beget differential treatment. When you express your frustrations, she's an open ear always. Purah is never one to explain why the people of your community act this way that leans in their favor, but rather why their attitudes should not portray you under a fragile light when you are anything but. She empathizes with you greatly, knowing exactly what it's like for your own people to treat you like you're something you're not (her experiences with de-aging left quite the mark), but she assures you that you've always got her on your side.

“I’ve never much like everyone else…and neither have you,” Purah muses, tapping her recorder in her hand. She lifts her glasses, her crimson eyes blazing in your direction with admiration and sincerity, “I guess that makes us a cut above the rest, now doesn’t it?”

Sidon is about as bubbly with you as you can imagine. That sharp smile completely alight when you're with him. His height difference compared to yours doesn't bother him considering he towers greatly over just about everyone he meets, so as long as you don’t care (which he secretly hopes you don’t!) then all is well. When he learns about your chronic illness, he’s at first admittedly worried, but he sees how much you value your independence and doesn’t push you to do less than anything you’re up for. Sidon, having learned his healing capabilities from Mipha, will actually offer to “bathe” with you whenever you’re not feeling especially strong, letting the softness of his magically imbued water immerse your body and take any pain or pressure off of your form for a while and bring you some ease. You don’t take him up on it often, half because you don’t feel it’s always necessary, and half because you don’t want to impose - though of course Sidon would refute you ever being an imposition upon him. He chooses his words very carefully, making sure to give you the impression that he’s willing to do whatever you need should you need something from him, but without overstepping and making you feel incapable.

“You’ll never be without, my darling,” Sidon whispers, taking your hand, those slit-pupiled eyes softening as he brushes back a lock of your silver-white hair, “But I will never claim to know you better than yourself.”

Zelda has always been a ball of curiosity, that’s one of the things you love about her. She has an awfully curious mind, so when you explain to her about your chronic illness for the first time, she of course asks you a lot of questions. You laugh thinking about back then, how she felt terrible for borderline prying into your life though she wanted to know everything about you at that time. You remember assuring her that it was fine, and it made you incredibly grateful that Impa had introduced you before she stepped down - it allowed you two to get close. The times that you’ve gone to town together, Zelda takes notice of how people tend to treat you akin to porcelain: delicate, fragile, some even giving off the impression that you’re a lost cause because of your Sheikah heritage. Combined with your stature (with Zelda herself being on the shorter side of an average Hylian’s height), it’s enough to infuriate you both. You two tend to bounce off of one another: shes sticks up for you when you feel like someone’s unnecessarily babying you, and you put your two cents in whenever someone is overly cautious and hovering due to her status, even after proving herself beyond capable. Ultimately she too understands your plight of people looking at you differently because of who are you or what they know about you. She recants the days when her father treated her as helpless and small, hyper focused on keeping her in line rather than letting her be her own person. She takes your hand, intertwining fingers with yours and lending you a genuine smile.

“But we are not weak. We are not frail or easily broken. I am not defined entirely by my title,” Zelda kisses the top of your hand before gently covering it with her other in an endearing move, “And you are not defined by your illness.”

[freya-howlett]

So, now that I finished totk, I'd like to share my insight of the game overall with y'all. Fight me or agree with me, I'd like to know other people's opinions

PROS

The soundtrack is amazing. Zelda has always been about awesome music and this is not the exception. The soundtrack plays exactly what the environment was to convey. You're exploring the sky islands? The music is then calm. You're in the depths? the music will help you shit yourself. Going even more down, looking for Ganondorf? coolest music ever, full of mystery.

World exploring. I feel like this time totk forces you to explore the world, in botw you could directly go to Ganon and beat the shit out of him with a stick, but definitely not here at all. You find yourself needing bombs so you'll have to look for caves, then you need Sundelion, so you have to go to the sky. In a certain way, I hated that for the first days because I was trying to finish the game as soon as I could, but now I appreciate it.

We have our first disabled Link! At least until the end. It was nice to see him different for once. It'd be cool if he had stayed that way.

World development. In botw, you have this whole piece of land that's mostly monsters and ruins, but in totk things have changed after the calamity disappeared. We have more people around who're in contact with each other. The places don't seem as lonely as before and even people help Link. And, did you notice there's less trees? It's a nice detail, since there's new buildings made of wood everywhere.

Fusing mechanic. Tbh, I didn't love Fuse at first, but then realized how useful it can be.

Link's clothing. There's more clothes available bc they used the botw DLC clothing, which is cool! And the new designs are... slutty.

Zelink. No one can tell me otherwise. All the signs are there, bitches!!!!

CONS

Overall, it doesn't feel like a sequel. And I hated that. Nintendo keeps giving preference towards new players and in this case, it's not worth it. I dare to declare that at least 80% of people who purchased totk played botw and knew exactly what they were getting. This especially has to do with the point below.

There's no mention of the Champions at all, the Sheikah technology is missing, and where tf are the Divine Beasts?? I get that, yeah, maybe the Champions shouldn't be thaaaaaat important anymore, yet what about everything else? Where's my Sheika Slate????????

We were promised a dark game and this isn't it, not at all. Maybe I'm tripping? But I remember clearly on the first years of development people mentioning this game would be dark like Majora's, and going back to the first two trailers I could actually see it was kinda the case. However, with the last trailer, I made a bet that they probs rejected the idea and I was right. I'd like to have something like Majora someday again.

The introduction of a new race out of nowhere. The zonai.... they weren't my piece of cake at first. It seems cheap for me, I'm not sure. I don't know if they intended to introduce something, anything, from them since botw but ended up scraping the idea, but overall the whole experience I have of them from both games is that they took the zonai out of their asses and were like "yup, we got this!"

The end was TOO happy. Like I mentioned before, I'd rather Link have his arm cut. Purah can make another one if Rauru really wanted his arm so bad. Zelda transforming back was okay, but what I didn't really get was why did Sonia and Rauru didn't turn her back before????? They instead waited until Link fought his ass hard, lol.

I hated that Zelda was thanking ME at the end instead of Link. Don't look at me, bitch, look at your boyfriend! This has to do with this other post of mine about how Nintendo can't let go of Link being an avatar despite they themselves providing depth to his character.

I may edit this longer but rn I'm out of ideas and I'm at work, lol.

[generalluxun]

My TotK experience and how it shaped my TotK shipping.

I'm writing this out because I got static on a random post for mentioning my headcanon, and I figure my own blog is a safe place to write it all down and get my experience in one place for better or worse. I'm a mutishipper by temprement, so you can and should ship what you like. Do not think by outlining my experience and thoughts I am trying to invalidate your own. Totk and BotW are both games with amazing emergent gameplay. The written narrative is only a fraction of the tale as you write your own version of events by what you choose to do and in what order you do it.

My wife is a huge Zelda fan. I enjoy the games, but she is the one who keeps them coming in. She's got a Triforce Engagement Pendant(try putting that on a ring!) we saw the Symphony of the Fates on our wedding night(and our first not-date years before) Zelda is a thing.

So I played BotW, and I played TotK. I enjoyed them both! At the end of BotW I was sure Zelink was a cute sure thing. I was happy! (My wife was frustrated Zelda didn't tell Link how she felt 😆)

Then we played TotK. Six years later, Zelda and Link are spelunking and boom the game yeets Zelda away. Couples-time, we barely knew ye. Now, both my wife and I play our own separate saves. We generally avoid spiling for each other, and we play quite differently. (In BotW I went right for the castle, found the basement, and ended up fighting the Stalnox that protected the Hylean Shield with 4 hearts. In TotK she mapped the entire underground early on)

My TotK experience began with me making a bee-line for Gerudo town after talking to Purrah/Robbie and exploring the castle a little. I liked the Gerudo plotline in BotW and wanted to see what was going down over there these days.

The Gerudo plotline is definitely fun (uh spoilers I guess?) Seeing Riju grown and trying to be a strong leader was awesome. (I have a headcanon she's still short because she met Link. She knew exactly how tall the strongest warrior in all of Hyrule was, and so why get any taller than that?)

I completed the temple, got my first sage power, and now several things converged.

1)Okay, so Riju's crush on Link in her Diary is cute. Not unique, everyone crushes on Link!

2)I decided to explore after completing this quest. Checking out the corners, completing my map, gaining some shrines, etc. This means I spent a lot of time with Riju as my only sage. We crossed Hyrule and back time and time again, checking on people, visiting old haunts, and fighting enemies way past my weapon's abilities thanks to her lighting.

3)Riju is the most interactive of the sage powers. Activate the power, and then you have to actually work with her to trigger it. It's not temperamental like Yunobo's either. Riju will hold ready for you for quite some time. It's also very versatile. Explode enemies, blow up mining points, and one of my favorites- Light the underdark. There's something deeply intimate about being surrounded by darkness with only your partner's power to light the way for you.

It made Riju one heck of a travel companion. Just having someone *anyone* along with Link, him not being alone, felt so good after being alone in BotW. The Warrior of Light and his Sage companion. Little tales wrote themselves, like an epic saga.

Still, Zelink was still a thing, right? Then You run into Link's old home in Hateno. It's changed, definitely. You find Zelda's lab. You find her Diary. -Now, here I know the Japanese version has a very different tone, but I didn't have that version so I only got the English- reading Zelda's words painted a picture of a close bond, but also not a classical 'ship' one. Combine this with some of the other tidbits and memories collected on the journey and it just painted a very different picture for me(and my wife) There may have been dialogs we missed too, it's a vast open world game, and this is a retelling of my playthrough, not a comprehensive thesis based on all the lore available on a wiki.

This Zelda, being Aro/Ace. Or at least if not, being so immersed in her work and duty that something like a traditional relationship isn't on the radar for her. She's got her Science. She's got her Kingdom. She's got her curiosity. These things Matter to her. A romantic relationship? Just didn't feel like it did.

Link is still the most important person in the world to her. He's her Knight. He's reliable, supportive, dedicated, brave. He's as vital to her as her own two hands. A respectful Link could easily be seen accepting this role. Zelda's vital to him too. He cares for her and will always be there. It's his duty, and his passion. The two are inseparable. They're just not a *couple*

So, where does this leave us? Link and Zelda will travel together always. Riju is Queen of the Gerudo and cannot just leave her people. She's also someone who my TotK Link spent time with (in my writer's brain the sage-mirages actually sent impressions back to the Sages in their dreams, and as time went by the link between the two could be two ways, like a form of active astral projection in a crisis)

So a RiLink relationship that is built on respect and trials together, but that understands the duties placed on both just seemed cute. He's still with Zelda, she's still with her people. She'll eventually end up with a hero's child, and the one male ever allowed into Gerudo town will be able to visit his future child and maybe even pave the way for a more open Gerudo society in the long run.

Zelda and Link are still constant companions day-to-day though. She's the Queen(eventually? Still princess?) he's her Knight. Their relationship is still built on respect and shared hardships(much like RiLink) They're just not an 'item'. They're liege and retainer.

I did the 'Wait how old is Riju?' thing as this was starting to come into focus, because she was young in BotW 😅 She's 17... I think? Fantasy setting, it seemed fine to ship. I mean, everyone thinks Mipha crushing on Link is adorable, and she saw him first when he was a little tot! 🤣

So, that's it really just kind of laying out my ship and why I think it's cute. I welcome any and all comments provided they're couched politiely.

[zarvasace]

Instead of questions from the list, I want to ask you: from the AUs/LU fics/FSA fics you've written, who are your favorite characters you've written in those fics? And feel free to explain why if you'd like to do so, I am very curious and love your writing ^u^

If we're going with specific versions of the characters, I think these are some of my favorites:

• Wild in incandescently happy: I don't write Wild a lot, but I love how he's intelligent in this one, in addition to his gremlin tendencies.

• Hyrule in Loftwings Stand for Freedom: this is a heavier story, one that I haven't written more of yet didn't expand upon, but, well. I slipped in a lot of my personal philosophy about happiness and anger, in that it's a choice.

"Maybe some people who participate in the whole thing don't deserve forgiveness, but I'm happier when I forgive. I won't forget, and I want justice to take care of them, but I won't let them take up all my emotional energy by always being angry." ... "Why choose anger over happiness?"

• Wind in Marvelous Misadventures: he's optimistic, nosy, and way too observant for his own good.

• Wind in 1931 (the vampire AU): there's just something about a stupid immortal 14-year-old who can be really dang scary when he wants to be :)

• Red, Vio, Green, and Blue in Stern destiny has seal'd my doom (another vampire AU): they used to be monster-hunting knights, with all the skills that implied, until they became vampires. They moved to an abandoned castle and started bringing order to a town, all while struggling with morality questions and foreign predator instincts. It's just so yummy. (anonymity on AO3 wrote a related work about Red that I really really love. It's called Stay your hand, love, and it's a bit heavy so watch tags :)

• FS Zelda in 'tis unusual care (sequel to above): you can tell she cares so much in this one. I tend to write her as a rather feisty individual, but she understands the world around her deeply and backs up her words with actions.

• Shadow in Consciousness (in the BotW AU): he's a creation of the Yiga/Vaati in this one, so he's new to... well, personhood. He's figuring it out, and he's already a dramatic little rebel.

• Blue in Through the Wires: this is a dumb lil sci-fi AU. I don't think I write from Blue's perspective a lot, and this version of him is extra-protective and determined.

• Four in what is a stump supposed to do?: my blog title isn't Blatant Four Swords Favoritism for nothing, but Four is a fascinating character beyond being the Four Swords Link. This fic makes him a Minish by birth, which I really need to do something else with, because it's great.

• Four in Shatterproof (disability AU): he has paraparesis, which isn't what I have, but my experiences with mobility etc were closest to what Four experiences, out of all the disability AU. I often find myself going to this version of him when I'm having Feelings.

Ummm I'll stop there, I could probably keep going. I mean, I write about characters I love in situations that speak to me (we're gonna exclude most of the whump memes for now XD) so I could probably name every single instance of every single character and tell you why I love them.

[nokillbananashelter]

Trying to write my thoughts as blurbs because I have many (also spoilers)

TOTK doesn’t just have 5 temples designed like divine beasts and traditional dungeons, it has at least 7 that i’ve encountered, actually.

TOTK pulls the wool over people’s eyes on dungeon content in general. Theres not just “more than 5 dungeons”, theres more than one genre of dungeon in this game. Glyphs, Shrines, Temples, Castles, Mazes, Caves, Regions- its dungeon all the way down dudes. This is the most dungeon Zelda game has been since the original two games. It just doesn’t call everything a dungeon.

Cheesing these areas should feel exactly how it makes you feel about it. You asked the game if you could skip, then it gave you permission to skip it. Getting mad about this is understandable but also….There’s plenty of sign posts telling you how to have the most full, enriching experience in an area. it just wants you to follow the signs and paths and tunnels and there’s a LOT of different ways to traverse these content hallways. If you don’t follow them, you won’t have that experience. Simple as that. If that makes you feel good, good. If it makes you feel mad, i get it. But realize that you said “can i skip it” and then saw this game is exactly as good at saying “yes” about that as it is about everything else!! if skipping things is rewarding to you, this is going to be a good experience. If skipping things isn’t rewarding for you, it’s going to be a bad experience.

Totk and botw are some of the best GMs in videogames and I don’t think enough people are thinking about it in those terms. These games want to meet you where you are at while meeting it where it is at. I cannot express the how incredible it is to have the amount of ways to play that these games offer up. The challenges it makes you do for yourself NATURALLY is INCREDIBLE. This game is constantly getting me to challenge myself, and when I get tired of that, is more than happy to give me a power fantasy in which I am an unstoppable spank bastard.

The common thought that there is a proper “play order” for the story is ABSOLUTELY BULLSHIT. This game does not spoil itself. All it does is recontextualize your perception of what’s happening and reiterate the same beats again and again. It’s also one of the most laughably, hammy and predictable stories I’ve ever engaged in ever. Let’s get serious here- if you didn’t catch the twists from almost at the jump, I’m sorry, but you have zero media literacy!!! The foreshadowing in this is comically overcasting every single line in every single conversation. If anything, this game wants you to come to a conclusion about it’s twist extremely early, and to deny it’s inevitability. It tells you everything in it’s opening five minutes. From there, You just getting details with new information being largely context. But also…It wants you to believe that it’s not the whole story. And guess what?? it’s not!! You don’t get the whole story until you experience the whole game, no matter the order you play it!

I have more specific thoughts and why link keeps his lips locked here if you get stuff early, but in general, I think the lad finds telling people Zelda is a Dragon and will never return is not an option in his mind. so like the courageous hopepunk dummy he is, rejects that as unwinnable and forever. thematically, this mirrors Rauru’s own morality of doing the right thing even in the face of infinite defeat. When it comes to Zelda, bucking against inevitability of fate is par for the course with our characters. These games are always about this. ALWAYS!!!

This game is actually uglier than breath of the wild. It’s got more image clarity, and more stuff happening, has a really cool art direction and beautiful colors, and its own unique flavors, but BOTW had less moving parts and was able to manage them much easier and cohesively. Totk is ugly on purpose and confidently so because the ugliness serves incredible purposes.

[cubic-watermelon]

My big fat Pokemon rant:

Hey there lovelies, this is going to be a long rant about my thoughts on the state of the Pokemon games.

WARNING: Personal opinion ahead, proceed with caution!

I love Pokémon, if you can't tell, I'm basically a Poké-artist at this point. So it pains me to have to do this but I can't leave these feeling inside any longer. I feel like the last genuinely good Pokemon game was either Black and White 2 or X and Y. In gen 7 (Sun and Moon) the hand holding was absurd, I remember just wanting to play the games and was interrupted several times in the beginning of the games. But I could have excused that if not for the Ultra games... they're DLC for Sun and Moon at the full price of a new game and it bothers me that they did this...

this brings us to Scarlet and Violet, the broken, unfinished first open world games of Pokémon's history. Before this, gamefreak experimented with Legends Arceus, in my opinion the best recent pokémon experience. it has a lot of flaws, like not being able to play PVP matches, the lack of breeding and proper competitive training, the graphics, textures and, some times, lag.

It looked like a Gamecube game. People kept comparing it to TLOZ BOTW and why it couldn't look like it. Is the Switch too weak? NO! the switch showed time and time again that it can handle graphically complex and beautiful games, like monster hunter and dragon's dogma. So, is the Pokemon team this incompetent? Remember pokemon Let's go eevee and pikachu? say what you will about those games but they looked polished and beautiful!

Also, you could ride your own Pokemon. But yes, not the same type of game, so I can't compare. And hey, graphics aren't important and I had so much fun with Legends, I also never encountered any glitches besides the camera going through the floor.

Sword and shield are not amazing but at least they have some polish! no major glitches, fun game play, decent graphics... where they fail is in the areas we've learned to expect from pokemon, the character pop ins, the grass growing, the textures loading and in the animation department - If a character is going to do some "complicated" animations, the screen just fades to black, sound effects play, fades back with the character in a new place... It's 2023, those "animations" are inexcusable! Also the horrible and recycled character animations:

but that alone doesn't ruin the games, it's just that Pokemon is a BILLION dollar company! You'd think they could afford good animators. But I actually like Sword and Shield so let's talk about Scarlet and Violet. Man, where do I start with this. I mean, we've all seen the glitch compilations online, but I myself have only seen the regular going through the floor ones, but that's no excuse. the character animations are better (specially during cut scenes) but nothing to write home about. What really bugs me is the amount of lag that almost makes the game unplayable to me. if they weren't ready to make an open world game, they shouldn't have. if they needed more time, they should have delayed it.

the Pokemon and overworld characters keep popping in like in the previous games but it's somehow worse(?) you'd think Mesagoza wouldn't have lag because it´s closed off and has a loading screen but you'd be wrong. the towns and the ppl in them lost their souls, you can't go in the buildings and NPCs have nothing to say. The graphics are, somehow, worst than in sword, shield and legends! (legends had those texturing problems but was still very pretty).

Sure legends isn't a real open world game, but need I remind you BOTW runs on the same hardware?

And what other Open world and semi-open world games are there for the switch with much more complex graphics and textures that run without lag?

Meanwhile Scarlet and Violet here looking like a game from the 2000s

But one thing it did right was making the Pokemon textures better.

But if that's why the games are unfinished, I don't want them.

let's talk about the new gimmick now, the tera raid battles. they´re a mess, there´s nothing else to say.

The tera Pokemon are fine and a good addition but the raids are almost unplayable. I can't tell what's going on half the time! Sometimes my Pokemon disappears or goes through the floor. Sometimes no one moves for 5 minutes, the menu is gone, you can't input commands, everyone goes invisible, the tera mon is not there and then someone died 5 times, it's all over and I did nothing! WTF!

you know what I loved and was fun? Dynamax raids! Why not just do the same but with tera mons??? I´ll never know. who the fuck made these games? The B team? Probably the Z team!

If it sounds like I'm being too harsh, it's because I love Pokemon, but I hate this. I don't want this. I really like Scar/Vio's Story and characters but I could not enjoy this game the way I wanted. It's not a money issue! give your guys more time to make games!

And to finish things off, here's what I'dd add or fix:

- Let me mass release Pokemon in boxes! GOD!!! I do a lot of breeding! I need this! Pokemon Legends had it and it didn't had breeding WTF!!! - if your'e doing an open world RPG with a leveling system, please have level scaling! it's not hard to implement! I got lost, beat the gyms in the wrong order, the games overall was a cake walk. if your afraid it'll be too hard for the little babies just have - easy - medium - hard - difficulties! that should have been in the games by now! - Give me a reason to want to replay the league and play on the tournaments! by now I have full teams of competitive level 100 mons, but the tournaments keep the "high" levels of the late game and stops scaling them, so if I want to test out my teams, I can't. Also the prizes could be actually good! like battle items or mints or ability patches. Make the tournaments hard!!!! it's post game!!! it can be hard!!!! Also throw us a bone and add old characters participating in the tournaments like in Black and White 2! - why can't I see the meal power timer screen while camping? that's just weird! I want to know how much longer I have egg power on! why can't I see it!!! makes no sense! (also if you're making a sandwich beware of the tiny earthquakes that happen during the making of the sandwich... much polish) - for the shiny hunters: Legends did it right. There's an audible queue when a shiny spawns, a visual effect and they DO NOT despawn! Meanwhile here I am looking at a group of Flabébé like:

and if you look away for 3 seconds, it's GONE!!!

also can we talk about the random balls? yes, the ones that show up sometimes when you go inside rooms or during cut-scenes:

yeah, what's up with that???

What do I want for the future of Pokemon? Finished, polished fun games please. Also Megas, but Megas are controversial, I loved them. this is a minor thing but I'd like a proper character creator. Most of the ppl playing are adults and we can only play as 10 year olds... why cant I be a middle aged man with a full beard chasing pokemon around the world to be the very best?!

I'm done ranting! I think I said everything that was on my mind. I still love Pokemon, I'm gonna keep playing this broken ass game. Feel free to agree or disagree with me, and tell me how I cherry picked my examples XD I'd genuinely love to know your opinions on all of this.

Stop defending billion dollar corporations just because they give a product you love! sometimes they need to be called out on their bullshit.

Have a good one.

[somekindofsentience]

Tell me about yourself! :D

what do you wanna know that isn't already on the me post?? jsjsjhshjshj

i'm really not that interesting. my motivation for writing is purely "i can't draw, but must express my batshit insane levels of creativity".

i like biology and chemistry! i'm particularly interested in therapeutic gene editing, but i can speak on a lot of biology and chemistry topics because i have godlike high school notes. if i can't speak on something, i'll research it until i can. i am interested in psychology, but find the levels of uncertainty in the space unstable.

i'm currently doing a research project on S. aureus bacteria and its high salt tolerance, that's been fun. got to pour nutrient agar recently, waiting for bacteria shipment so i can swab it.

i'm australian, which is a jumpscare for some people. i say 'bah-sil'.

i have OCD, at least speculated OCD. i like to refer to my intrusive thoughts as twitch chat (stole that from a twitter meme) because it makes things even slightly more bearable, but otherwise it's a nightmare. i try my best to talk about my real experiences with OCD, because there's a lot of misinformation and public stigma about the condition. i experienced a lot of "non-stereotypical" symptoms (mental compulsions and avoidance behaviours, for example) as i was growing up, and it really felt like i was going insane a lot of the time, so if i can talk about my experiences and maybe help someone even a little, then maybe things will be a bit better. i dunno.

i was a natural at english (the subject) as a kid, which is probably why i can do analyses well. i used to be quite a bit better at being creative, because i could actually write down my little ocs and such, these days i daydream about them doing things to songs and make the very occasional picrew. (maybe i'll introduce them sometime)

i have an anatomically correct model of a heart? it's from my late grandmother.

i play a lot of switch games, so i've got zelda (botw and totk), splatoon 3, omori, pokemon violet, other stuff. i've played all the etherane games, as well. big gamer. i used to be an anime person, but i kinda ran out of steam to watch anime? i occasionally read manga - i'm trying to keep up with oshi no ko and liar satsuki can see death. i also like yoarashi ni warau. i get all my obscure lesbian psychological thriller from a close friend of mine who is very cool.

[myeolines]

still haven't finished totk bcs i keep getting busy w uni but i kinda just wanna rant about the main plot line lol

The continuity issues of this game is frustrating if you try to mince the main plot, shit just doesn't add up. As fun the open worldness is, being able to solve the puzzles any way you want, it feels as if they had to cut corners when it came to the plot 💀 Like it's some afterthought djsbdkwnkdns Having cutscenes fully voice acted has so much emotional power, like I kinda wish they made the most out of it jdjsbkwndke

I've read here in tumblr before about how it's as if the original direction of the zonai shifted, because I do remember Rauru's hand being creepy. And then the game releases and he's apparently a good boi! But it's fine, sometimes art do be like that it just takes a whole new direction. But the way they interweave things w botw is very inconsistent. Like they could have really did more with it yanno

Personally, it would have been better if we didn't start the game exploring the ruins ? the castle depths ? idk what's it called but like, we got to experience following Zelda as she puts in the effort of "restoring Hyrule". We get to see the glimpse of their life together after the calamity.

The thing is, does Hyrule need to be restored? Most specifically, the castle. Also it makes me wonder how people reacted seeing what seems to be the princess of legend come back, the princess they've heard from their grandparents. But I guess it's easy to interpret it with Zelda being vital to their worshipping of Hylia. And Hyrule Castle seems to serve as a seal for Ganon, and for more generations to come

It would have been more meaningful to see beloved characters from the series intermingle with the new characters. Though the new characters look cool, they also feel so out of place. I get that Penn replaces Kass in terms of role but it would still have been fun to see Kass just chilling at home. It would have also been fun to see Zelda and Kass interact, after all Kass' teacher is the court poet that regularly accompanied the princess. They could reminisce the stories of the past... Kass going "Ah, my teacher used to tell me stories of (this and that)" and Zelda enthusiastically recalling these stories... It would also have been cool to see how the whole Zonai Survey Team was formed. Since Tauro was a solo explorer and his passion for field research is what made Zelda choose him to be the leader of the survey team, it would have been nice to have a neat little side quest of getting to know the guy. Same goes for Yona. It would have been less surprising if Link and Sidon were penpals and they'd regularly write to each other, Sidon would recount some childhood memories with Yona. If maybe we were there to welcome Yona as she arrived, her introduction would have felt smoother? I'm not against the idea of Sidon and Yona but their relationship feels so abrupt HABSJABDKANDK Would have been fun to see how Sidon slowly realized he loved Yona, something like that.

I'm really digging the idea that totk zelda should be playable. Totk's story is more about her dilemma. It would have been more meaningful experiencing the Dragon Tears memory as Zelda, we get to move around as her. I mean, she's apparently the strongest Zelda in the series I think it would have been so monumental.

But back to the actual story, it could have been more... Though it's fun seeing that Link isn't as alone anymore, teleporting to Lookout Landing always feels nice because I know that's where Link's friends are, I just wish Zelda had more screentime.

Thankfully the fandom has people rewriting the story to fill in the gaps so that's what I'll be busy reading once I finish the game to scratch the itch that is inconsistent storytelling sjbskdnsns that's my totk rant for today 😘

[triforce-of-mischief]

Im new to the BotW fandom, how do I get more involved? This is the first time I’ve wanted to get involved with a fandom community so I don’t really know how to start :/

Hello! You've already done a great first step, which is asking for help! Fandom and platform policies can change depending on what you're into and where you are.

When I first entered the fandom, I spent a lot of time observing the active community. Notice the patterns and what people seem to expect from each other.

Take a journey through the #botw and #breath of the wild tags here on Tumblr. Find some artists, writers, analysis thinkers, and overall cool people and follow them! AO3 also has a good tagging system so you can search for the Breath of the Wild fandom if you want to read fics. Please kudos and comment if you enjoyed the author's work!

Make sure to reblog content if you like it because that's how you show your support on Tumblr. Likes don't really do anything for creative folks, they don't increase visibility and you're actually likely to be blocked if you don't reblog things. If you want to know more about reblogs vs likes, please check out my #tumblr 101 tag on my blog. I'll have it at the bottom of this post so all you have to do is click on it.

When you reblog, don't hesitate to share your thoughts! In the tags, tell the creator how much you love their work. Positive feedback keeps the community thriving!

If you want to talk to somebody or make a new friend, send them an ask! Nearly everybody on Tumblr craves interaction and would love new friends. I've made many amazing friends just by following them and/or exchanging asks.

Follow the spoken (and unspoken) rules of Tumblr fandoms. If your post is only related to Breath of the Wild, only tag #botw or #breath of the wild. Do not overload your posts with unrelated fandoms such as Linked Universe, Tears of the Kingdom (yes, they are completely different games), or characters who are not mentioned in your post. Tumblr has a very efficient tagging system, which means that people will find your post if they're looking for it. If you use too many unrelated tags, people can even report you for spam.

Most importantly, be polite! It looks like you've got that covered already but you can never be too sure. Don't send hate anons, harass people over their shipping preferences, harass people over anything, or make rude comments about how you don't like somebody's creation. Don't like = don't read = keep it to yourself.

If something or somebody is bothering you, block them. You can block people, tags, and post content to keep your fandom experience safe and happy.

I hope I covered everything! Please let me know if I missed anything, and have fun in your fandom!

[stellar-alchemist]

More Pokémon Scarlet thoughts from someone who has never played Pokémon before!

Positives:

My round team is really coming together, my main five are Clodsire, Jumpluff, Bellibot, Azumarill, and Crocalor, and I love them all (Crocalor will be less round when he evolves but I might keep him on the team anyway because I am attached to him and because there aren’t really any round fire types, these are my rules anyway, I can break them if I want)

[Image ID: a screenshot from Pokémon Scarlet of the player and a list of their team. The team consists of Clodsire, Jumpluff, Bellibolt, Azumarill, Crocalor, and Bronzor. End ID]

I have now defeated 4 gyms, 3 titans and 1 team star base! I still don’t really feel like I understand what I’m doing but I must be getting better right?

Seeing strange Pokémon in the overworld and shouting “what is that!? Who are you!?” Is very fun, there’s so many little guys, and I must catch them all

The titans are also little guys! I’m really enjoying their designs

The state of the game is pretty dire, which I’ll talk about more later, but a lot of the roughness of it is really funny and I’m enjoying the sense of community that comes from finding new ways that it’s broken

Negatives:

The game is not at all finished, the glitching, the lagging, the flat textures, the absence of inside spaces, the abundance of uniteractable npcs, and the incredibly janky movement are all really hard to look past (and often hard to look at). I don’t think this game should have been released now, and I’m sorry for all the people who worked hard on it that it was

In terms of improvements other than just finishing the game, I would really love it if there was more information for new players actually in the game, like useful hints and tips from npcs in the towns or in the loading screens, or like classes in the school that actually teach you how to Pokémon battle rather than just telling you the lore of this particular game. As a new player I feel quite lost in all the details and variables and I think it would have been easy for the game to help with that

With the above point and with the general open world aspect I think the game could have done with taking a lot more inspiration from Breath of the Wild. I also went into botw having never played a Zelda game before and knowing very little about this particular game, and it did a brilliant job of teaching me what to do and where to go. I know it’s not really a fair comparison because botw took so much longer to make, but imagine what this game could have been if it was also given that time

My partner and I have both had the game crash for no discernible reason and had to re-do hours of gameplay, which is rather demoralising

Overall it is shaping up to be a rather mixed first experience of Pokémon. I love the little creatures very much and it’s for them that I will keep playing, but I don’t think this is a good game for introducing people to the franchise as it feels to me like it requires a lot of prior knowledge to understand what’s going on. It's also its not a great first impression when the game looks like this.

Previous posts: 1, 2, 3

[keefwho]

October 24 - 2023 Tuesday

6:47pm

ICKYYYY I'm trying to get a look at myself today so I'm looking at what I texted people a year ago. Texts with Daisy were pretty saucy that day and apparently it was a day after she bought me the BOTW DLC which I was extremely grateful for. This was also the time Rousso and I were still talking, 1 year ago today was a good example of how I would avoid him and how hard he would try to spend time with me. But I wasn't comfortable around him at the time. I wish I wasn't so blind to how much he must have been hurting. I wish I also had the intuition to be able to know what my own problem was so I could just tell him. I was blind in lots of ways.

As weird as it feels I'm doing this to try and remember that all this stuff actually happened. Things I suppressed maybe. I think I suppress a lot, even day by day. I have lots of negative feelings spawned by my brain that make every day "bad" and one I want to forget. Maybe thats why I keep losing myself, I want to forget because I've avoiding painful memories recent and old. It's beneficial for me to feel sorrow over my current circumstance and everything that was. It's how I move on, I'm literally stuck reliving things unless I experience them and let them pass.

I have a long history, 27 years of it. I've grown up, I've lived and been conscious all that time. My memories aren't made up stories, they are events that happened that I helped make happen. I've been integral in all of them. I've permanently affected people's lives in the same way they have for me. I wish I could remember this fact more often. Maybe I'm scared that I won't like who I am and the things I've done. I have a bad habit of remembering only my negative actions but I have lots of positive ones too. More importantly I want to keep doing the "right" thing and pushing myself in a better direction. "Bad" people don't want to do that or don't try.

[maskedf0x]

Newer to Tumblr, please have mercy on me…

Introduction:

Heya, I’m Zoom! I’m a 17 year old furry who draws on occasion. I go by he/him! I’ve been diagnosed with Aspergers, ADHD, and Clinical Depression. I mostly do traditional drawings because I can’t figure out how drawing programs work on my laptop. It seems complicated *sobbing*

I also might dabble in au making and writing little scenarios in general, if I can get over being self conscious about my work that is. Plus generally posting about my own ocs.

My current hyperfixation rn is basically the Daycare Attendant soooo yeah! Probably going to be reblogging stuff about the lanky mfs mostly 💕

I don’t currently have an persona reference for you guys because I very much dislike coloring my drawings and stuff, just know it’s a bipedal red fox in a fancy tux with some snakelike features that has a mask he can pull up over his snout if need be.

Even if you don’t end up following me, I hope you have a good day and remember to drink water!

I might delete this later.

Things to know about me:

I’m very shy when meeting new people and prefer them to come to me

I get overwhelmed in a chat with over 5-6 people usually

I like to lurk in chats

I’m very blunt

I get distracted a bunch, especially when playing video games, so I may not respond for hours

Sometimes I just need a day to myself and will not reply to anyone, I’ll tell you if I can, it’s just sometimes really hard for me

Is this TMI?

I don’t have a lot of people experience in general

I might stuck and go quiet when the conversation topic suddenly changes because I might still be thinking about the previous topic, it’s basically like whiplash for me

I’m not good at carrying conversations

I’m more of a listener

My love language is Words of Affirmation followed by Quality time

The love language I give is usually Quality time or Words of Affirmation, and sometimes Physical affection

I have trouble picking up sarcasm sometimes

Fandoms that I’m in that I can quickly think of off the top of my head:

FNAF

DCA fandom (specific offshoot of fnaf)

Dayshift at Freddy’s

Dialtown

Ultrakill

Over the Garden Wall

Super Mario

Pokémon

How to Train Your Dragon (Movie and Book Series)

Obey Me

Legend Of Zelda (Specifically BOTW)

Jojo’s Bizarre Adventure

Minecraft

SpongeBob (Literally have seen all the episodes, please help.)

Gravity Falls

Jurassic Park/World

Dinosaurs in general

Cats (Broadway Musical)

Beastars

Battle Cats

Cuphead

Herpetology (Dream job)

The Isle (Dinosaur game)

Probably more!

Hobbies:

Violin

Drawing

Roleplaying (I’m semi-literate!)

Watching YouTube

Snake keeping (I have a 9 month old boa constrictor as of posing this, his name is Walter and he’s my son 🥺)

Yoga

Creating ocs in my own personal universe!

Hanging out in Discord calls with friends

Gaming

Making cosplay

DNI:

Homophobes, Transphobes, anyone maliciously anti-LBTGQIA+ etc.

P3doph1les or a maker of/indulges in adult x underage ships.

Racist, Sexist, Ableist, basic DNI criteria

If you say slurs freely.

[legendofzoodles]

LU Deepest Fear Headcanons 2

Here are lu fear headcanons that I couldn’t fit in the last post. These are more like worries or less intense fears that the chain have (apart from the Wind fanfic idea at the bottom. If this has been done pls let me know in the comments). 

The link to part one is at the bottom with a few others. 

Warrior doesn’t inherently have a problem with women. He’ll show off a bit when he feels like it, chat them up and even playfully flirt. It’s the persistent ones who take the flirting too seriously and won’t take no for an answer that make him uneasy. There’s also a certain...’type’ that he’ll avoid even if they don’t even so much as look his way.

Warrior and Twilight have had bad experiences with fire. Our Captain had that fight with Volga in the first stage of HW which gave him those burn scars and Wolfie was chased out of his own village by people he knows and loves who were wielding flaming torches and pitchforks (not an in game thing, but it’s how I’ve always imagined it).

In BoTW you can’t go underwater. This may change come BoTW 2, but can I interpret this as Wild not liking to keep his head underwater for extended periods of time? Either due to something traumatic before the Calamity or as just a lighthearted quirk of his (like if for whatever reason he doesn’t open his eyes when swimming underwater).

Legend shuts out Koholint Island in his memories. It’s existence really confusing, because I myself don’t know it was real or not (tbf I haven’t finished Link’s Awakening). Therefore, I’ll headcanon that Legend doesn’t really know what the deal is with Koholint either. As a reasonable, logical and (thanks to his experiences) slightly cynical person, he’ll lean towards it all being a dream and the island not actually being real. But there’s unsureness in that conclusion, and that constant back and forth is what tears him up inside.

Time is still a little freaked out by Redeads and the undead in general. His experience exploring the Shadow Temple messed him up a little. Seeing the horrific acts the Sheikah committed under the orders of the Royal Family, would have made him realise that they are not the perfect rulers he thought they were. He’d have a distrust of the Sheikah and probably saw Sheik in a new light until they were revealed to be Zelda which just messes up thing further to him.

Wind has had to deal with Redeads too. And those terrifying zombie-like things have a less than savory habit of wrapping themselves around you and biting into your skull. That would traumatise the dickens out of anyone! I headcanon that he has scars from those encounters, maybe even bald patches from scar tissue, and since those aren’t fond memories he hides them as to not have to tell/remember that story. Not to mention that nightmare inducing awful scream! Time has had...well time, to move past this and so probably isn’t affected, but LU takes place a year or so after WW and PHG for Wind, so it’s still going to be fresh in his mind.

I need a short story where the chain encounters Redeads again. Wild acts all confident, telling them what to do- with Time and Warrior watching him proudly- and gets all hyped to fight them. However, upon hearing their scream he freezes up in terror and completely breaks down mentally while the others go ahead with the plan and protect him. Only for for him to spring into action when it looks like one of the chain are gonna get their heads chomped on. Then they talk it over and he shows them his scars (maybe Time has scars like that too and shows those), allowing him to start moving past it. -someone please write it or I will myself

~~~

As always, thank you for reading! Might add more to this in the future.

Age headcanons Height headcanons (and more) Deepest fear 1

[cinnamonest]

Yandere Profile - Link (Legend of Zelda)

ABSOLUTELY YES. MY BOY. LOVE OF MY LIFE.

As some of you may know, today is the release date of Skyward Sword HD for Switch!! So I decided to release this one now in honor of that :3

NOTES:

I went towards the idea of a Princess!reader because that just opens the gate for sooooo much potential. I'm leaning heavily towards the ZeLink interactions in BoTW and Skyward Sword just because those games have the most interaction between the two.

Also! This is great bc it gives me the opportunity to explore an idea I've actually had a long time! I've always thought about how many opportunities there have been across the games for Link and Zelda to be kinda like "haha well seeya later" and just... bolt, run away from everything, abandon their roles and responsibilities and all that. Like, if OoT kid Link got her before Ganon did and ran, if SS Link just decided to get her on the bird and bolt before everything went down, if botw Link was just like haha what if we ran away from everything together... jk... unless...?

And final note, Link is a great pick for the very traditional yandere -- sweet and : ) but can snap into darker personas. I really liked writing this bc I tend to have more self centered yans and less of the "worships the ground you walk on" type of yans like I think Link would be, so it's a nice change.

As usual now the nsfw section is divided by a ---- line.

TWs: fem reader, heavily implied Zelda!reader, stalking, murder, very brief mentions of gore/dismemberment of rivals, manipulation, very brief suicide mention, themes of reincarnation (I’ve been told this can be triggering to some people so just in case)

TWs (nsfw section): noncon, somnophilia

--------------------------------

Severity Scale

Intelligence/Perceptiveness: 4 Brutality: 8.5 Physical capability: 8 Mental/emotional instability: 7 Restrictiveness: 6 Sexual sadism: 5 Stubbornness: 8

What are they generally like? Lucid, aware? Obsessive? How do they behave?

The primary trait of Link that any darling -- any person, really -- would notice is that he is, well, quiet. He has always been a man of few words, and really, he often doesn't know exactly what to say. On his own, at a first glance, he really does seem like a gentle, humble spirit, someone who blends into the background pretty well, who isn't particularly prideful or reckless or aggressive.

Which is why, to be honest, he might sort of evade the gaze of most people -- he doesn't stand out. You remember him as the boy that smiled at you now and then, it's a soft, gentle sort of smile, one that you feel conveys nothing but the utmost innocence and contentment with the world. You know he's pretty good at fighting, but doesn't get into fights needlessly, he's accomplished and respected, but has never been the guy everyone is talking about -- he's in the background, against the wall. Never speaking, always looking out, sometimes at the sky, sometimes carefully watching people. Sometimes you see him, gaze blank and tranquil, and wonder what he's thinking about. Whether he's the village boy in the time of Twilight, the trained and honored warrior that slept for many years, the boy that came down from the sky -- you can't help but feel at ease around him, safe, you can't help but find him endearing and pleasant.

Yet, you always seem to notice him. Other people... forget he exists, sometimes, he's so quiet. You never do, for whatever reason.

When he needs to get something across, he prefers to express himself through actions, not words. If you lived in Skyloft, or Ordon village, you might find problems mysteriously solved, work suddenly done that you don't remember doing. That fencepost outside your home that broke has been replaced overnight. A village child went missing and he comes back a few hours later with them in tow. Always humble, never demanding or expecting thanks, he tells you in his quiet voice that he's happy to help you.

And should you ever ask him for anything, he'll drop whatever he's doing to help. Anything for you, he says with a smile, which makes you feel a bit guilty when, honestly, you're not even sure you're remembering his name right.

And yet, sometimes, you feel so at ease around him it seems unnatural. He seems so easy to trust. You feel like you've known him forever. And sometimes you feel... for just a split second, less at ease. You find yourself randomly stiffening at his calm, sweet voice. You find yourself looking around when you're alone, as if you feel someone is there, and for some reason, his face flashes through your mind. Sometimes when he looks at you, you feel sort of cold. It's almost like invoking a memory you don't have, like some kind of learned instinct you can't recall a reason for. But those moments are fleeting, they come and go before you can even process them, replaced by warmth and comfort.

If you do spend time with him, if you find yourself gazing out your window when he's training, the next thing you notice besides him being quiet and sweet is that he's strong. It's almost ironic, how all the other knights or village boys are so aggressive and rowdy all the time, many of them taller or bulkier, and yet, none of them could ever dream of defeating Link. Not one can match his agility, speed, prowess. Such a pleasant, calm person, with so much skill, strength, and power, but that power is so rarely seen exerted. People marvel at his talent, they say it's as if he has the experience of lifetimes and lifetimes of battle in his blood.

And it's why you feel at ease when he's assigned the task of guarding you. His capabilities are unmatched, and yet you'd never fear any harm to you from him. Both of those traits put together make him the best candidate to protect you.

Of course, you do find yourself doing most of the talking. Sometimes you find yourself rambling to fill the silence, and you fear you're annoying him, but when you stop he raises an eyebrow and asks why you got so quiet. Did he do something wrong? He seems to worry about that a lot -- has he done something bad? Has he made you upset? Are you mad? At first you think he's worried about his position security, but after a while you realize he genuinely worries about it.

And when you do continue your ramblings, you're surprised to find he remembers your words -- every little thing you say. Things you don't even remember telling him. He asks you about that relative you mentioned one time, his eyes light up and he walks a bit to the side because look, it's your favorite flower over there, he'll get it for you. It's impressive, really, how he manages to remember such things. He must take his job very seriously.

He does enjoy giving you such things -- he loves giving you gifts. It's usually things he finds, wholesome little things -- makes a crown out of the flowers you like so much, finds something interesting here or there, while he was off-duty he saw something in the markets he thought you'd like and got it for you. You almost feel guilty, it's so constant that he's giving you things.

Sometimes you ask him about himself, you realize he knows so much about you and you so little about him. He blushes, he rubs the back of his head, he insists there's nothing interesting about him, he wouldn't waste your time like that. It takes time to get him out of his shell, but eventually, he tells you this or that, little stories from his life.

Sometimes you take long walks, you like to get out of the stuffy walls and have fun outside, he accompanies you across Hyrule. Sometimes it feels familiar, you pass places you've never been that give you a feeling of nostalgia, deja vu, a sense that you've been here before.

He’s protectiveness incarnated. Insanely so. He can spring to his feet at a moment's notice and deals with anything that comes for you before they can even get close.

It makes you feel safe, but there's something else there. It's a ferocity that is so contrasting to his normal self, different even from the times you've seen him fight as he trains. It's a glint in the eyes, an aggression in his expression, that almost makes him seem like a different person. And it lingers for a moment, once the creature is dead and his sword hand falls to his side, he turns and glances at you to his side, a hand raised to wipe the blood off his face, and for that lingering second, it's still there, his blank expression and wide eyes -- a ferocity so intense it starts to look like bloodlust, chaos, destruction. And then, it's as if you imagined it. Smiling and telling you it's gone now, you're ok. You're glad he's so truly devoted.

In fact, he's so dedicated to his job that he starts... doing it... outside of his job hours...? Well, today he was given the day off, and you were told to stay inside because you didn't have to go out. He comes knocking on your door, says not to be startled if you hear someone outside your door move or shift or anything, but he just wanted to let you know in case. He'll be right here. Keeping watch. So don't worry. You're safe.

And likewise, he was supposed to have a day off when you were supposed to enter the town. You were assigned two other guards to watch you, since it's a special trip, so you're surprised to find just Link waiting for you. He took care of it, he says, he didn't feel right leaving your safety up to someone else, he doesn't trust them. So they agreed to let him take over for today.

All of this said, he doesn't have to grow alongside you, he doesn't have to be the childhood friend, the knight who guards you. He doesn't even have to have met you. Fate works in odd ways like that. There's a sort of inexplicable instant attachment he takes to you, almost as though it's some kind of destined, divinely inspired sort of thing. He would describe it as saying you feel familiar to him.

He's also, notably, prone to a more traditional trope of what you might call humility whiplash. For the most part, he's got that overly humble, worshipping, "I don't deserve to even stand in your presence" sort of mentality. However, although it's rare and requires a lot of wearing down his mental state, if pushed far enough, he can have brief moments where he snaps into more or less the complete opposite -- entitlement, arrogance, aggression, getting mad at you for the behavior he'd normally take with a smile on his face. Thankfully, unlike some yanderes that have a whole snapping episode towards their darling, his are very very brief, usually only a matter of seconds or a single snarled sentence before he snaps back to normal, wide-eyed and apologetic and telling you I don't know what came over me. It’s... a little frightening to say the least, but you blow it off, tell yourself that hey, everyone has moments like that... Right?

How likely are they to kidnap their darling? How quickly will they do so?

For the most part, he doesn't need it, he can pretty easily cling to your side well enough to be assured of your safety, and he manages to scare off the undesirables not with a glare, but a smile that's just a little too sweet and far too persistent -- it unnerves people. You hear a lot of people say that something about that guy rubs me the wrong way. Or that he gives me goosebumps for some reason. Even the people he scares away themselves can't pinpoint exactly what it is, all they know is that, despite being reputed as kind and quiet (and maybe a little dense), somehow a lot of people agree that something about him puts people at unease, and that's all he needs. Because they stay away from him, and if he’s by your side all the time, that means they stay away from you too. Why keep you trapped when you can just be isolated?

An aware Link is a a unique scenario. One scenario that's rather... interesting to imagine is a Link that defies fate itself, a Link that decides to be selfish in one of those rare snapping moments of his. Perhaps he makes a decision when everything starts going down, when the chaos is beginning, or perhaps he has somehow managed to gain knowledge of the bigger picture at work, the reality of the nature of your existence and his.

Perhaps he begins to think it's unfair. To suffer again and again. To prove himself again and again, and not always even to reap any benefits, to work so hard and yet still -- still -- you slip out of his grasp. He longs for a life with no tribulations, no struggle, no fights to be fought. He begins to feel like it's what he wants the most. He begins to feel like maybe it's what he deserves. So many lifetimes of struggles, if the higher powers won't give him a reward, he'll take it himself.

And perhaps, for all their higher power, not even the great goddesses themselves would have ever predicted it -- humans are ultimately creatures of will. To defy fate and to run away from destiny -- it wouldn't be the first time a human has tried such a thing. Sure, Hyrule may be destroyed. The people may all die. There may be nothing left. But you know what? He's stopped caring. If you're alive and he's alive, tucked away in your little corner of the world where you've found respite, well, that's all he needs. Even if you're on the run from forces that would want to find you, even if the threat of the final third of the triforce owner looms over your head. He'll ignore it, he'll look away.

You'll live a quiet little life together, a happy life without suffering, without quests and enemies, without strife, without worry. That's what he tells you when he steals you away, lifts you out of your bed one night. Says to be quiet, there's danger outside your door, he's rescuing you. You have no reason to not believe him. He waits until things go down, a castle under siege, but rather than taking you to where you're supposed to go, he climbs onto the horse and starts... riding away. It gets further and further into the distance, and you might ask why, what's going on? You have a job to do, he has a battle to be fought. But he says you're going far, far away, someplace you'll be safe.

But what about the divine beasts, the seals, the Twilight, whatever threat runs in this world in this time, what about the threat of Ganon, you ask? He says it doesn't matter anymore. You were doomed to fail, he thinks, it's either stay here and die, or run away. All that matters is you. And he'd like you to feel the same way for him. You will with enough time, don't worry.

He just wants this happy, quiet life with you that he’s been denied time and time again. It’s all he wants. If fate won’t give it to him, he’ll make it happen himself, and carve out the life he is determined to have, defying even the will of higher power.

How difficult is it to escape from them? How do they keep you restrained? How do they deal with attempted escape? 

He gets it. Really, he does. "Stop following me!" You yell. Well, he understands why you might feel that way, but this is kinda his job. He thinks you're naive. Not that he would ever, ever have a thought that you're imperfect, of course! It's because you're so perfect and pure that you're... less aware of the dangers all around.

He'll let you think you're free, perhaps. He's more than capable of being quiet, quiet is kind of his thing. Watching you from a short distance is easy. Of course, his horse might make a noise, he can't really help that, or he might misstep on a branch or something. And then you turn around and get all mad again. Now you're even more angry. Well, he can also tell your guardians/father, who will encourage you to accept it. You can't help but feel a little bad -- he's just doing his job.

Now, our aware, runaway Link, well, does he really need to keep you restrained? What would you go back to? Certain death, a land destroyed? Sometimes you mention home, and he's quick to remind you that home doesn't exist anymore. His home is where you are. Can't you feel the same way? You found peace here in this little place -- a village far far away. Travelers, you call yourselves. What's the point in going elsewhere? How would you ever survive without him? He's not very good at being subtle or skillful about the psychological manipulation, it's obvious he's trying to scare you into not leaving, but... it still works, because really, he has a point.

He doesn't want to have to use physical restraint, in any case. And for the most part, it's not needed, because one important aspect of your relation is that his job kinda revolves around you (in some incarnations), or, perhaps you live in the same little village, but either way the thing is that his presence does the job well enough -- he's always there, perhaps more so than almost any other yandere. Even when you think you've managed to get away from him for a moment, somehow his face pops up out of nowhere. How he manages to pull it off is a mystery, you swear he manages to find you so well and predict your movements it's inhuman.

But if you really, really pose a problem, a smarter and sneakier darling that somehow manages to keep slipping out of his grasp and running off (you never get away for more than about 20 minutes or so, but nonetheless), you keep trying to run off when he's sleeping (he wakes up in approximately 25 seconds if your presence is absent from the bed, but that's still enough time to run out the front door), every time he turns his head (which isn't often) you're trying to disappear... well, in that case, he can reach a point of deciding more straightforward measures are necessary. He hates to do it, really, at least when he's not yet at a snapping point. But it's for your own good. And he says so, quite apologetically.

But it's not so bad, it's not like you're being chained to a wall or anything. For one, he got leather ties so you'd be more comfortable, but more importantly, as your guardian, he figured the best thing for you to be tied to would be... himself. Think of it like friendship bracelets! It's just... got a 5-foot chain connecting them. This way you can't sneak off at night, and you won't get too far when he's distracted. It's a safety measure.

How easy are they to trick, deceive, or manipulate?

He's a learner. At first, it's easy. Honestly, he is a rather naive, gullible boy, sometimes he reminds you of a happy dog with his bright eyes. He likes to believe the best of people, give them the benefit of the doubt in all circumstances, and that goes double for you, who he believes can do no wrong.

And even when you do lie to him, it's still not wrong. You didn't do anything bad. Clearly there has simply been a misunderstanding, and you thought you had to lie. Or perhaps you simply forgot a detail or were confusing something with something else. It wasn't malicious on your end, he knows that.

He's actually significantly smarter than he lets on in practical knowledge, though. Those dungeon puzzles pay off, you know? He's got pattern recognition down. So over time he learns how to distinguish when you're lying to him or attempting to deceive him, and sees through it increasingly well.

And yet, he doesn't really... get mad over it, most of the time. Again, he's just capable of deluding himself into believing there's a reason. He believes so strongly in your goodness that he finds a way to interpret everything you do as out of benevolence. So you snuck out the window and didn't tell him you were going for a walk because you just wanted to get away from his suffocating presence for once? You were just thinking of him. You didn't want to burden him and wanted to give him a break. Well, that's thoughtful, but don't worry, he doesn't need a break. He thinks it's precious you're so considerate of him though!

You don't tell him you were talking to that person, and you lie and say no when he asks, because you don't want him to worry, and because you underestimate how dangerous others can be. He's told you a million times and you don't listen, but that's ok, it's because you're just so pure you see the best in everyone. Everything you do is good.

Because he perceives your lies, he will still work against and around it. He won't confront you on your lies, he'll just make sure to deal with the situation -- you lied about sneaking out, well, he'll just keep watch and be ready to meet you outside next time. You lied about talking to a person, well, he'll just have to make sure they stay away from you instead.

If you're trying to trick him, he just plays along until necessary. Smiles and nods. He gets the suspicion you're planning a break-out when he told you he was leaving to go get something from town... rather than saying so, he just decides, you know what? Why don't you come with him? Oh, you're feeling sick, you tell him it's ok, go without you? Well, he can't leave you alone then! Because you're clearly not and just trying to get him to leave... or, as he says, he can't just leave you alone. He'll go another day.

He's fairly manipulable when it comes to praise and affection. You can easily Pavlov him into certain behaviors or patterns with just the slightest words of praise and affection. He's not a very outwardly expressive person, tends to stay quiet, but you can tell how he feels inside when you give the slightest praise, a hug, a kiss on the cheek -- you can see that soft hint of a smile and tell that inside, he's basically melting, even if it's not obvious to most people. And, much like the lying, he’s honestly often aware of it, but he just can’t help it.

How lenient are they? What privileges can you have, and what will you be denied?

He tries to get you the things that he feels will make you happy. Your happiness is incredibly important to him, and he usually thinks about how any action he plans to take might affect you, spends a lot of time debating choices of things to do or say and try to determine how each one will affect you and choose accordingly.

As such, he goes out of his way to support the things you want to do. Have a hobby? He'll find the best materials available. Want a book or a food? He'll obtain it through some means. Even if procuring it involves a side-quest-y set of mundane tasks or scouring the world for 70 of this and 50 of that to exchange it for the item from an obscure specialist, it's all worth it.

The only thing he just doesn't give up on is the constant vigilance and insistence on being by your side more or less every waking second. And every sleeping second. And just every single moment you're alive. It's for your safety.

This is actually one of the things he can get a little nasty about when it comes to how he deals with it, because he quickly has the bright idea that if you don't get it, he'll make you understand. Of course, he can't actually risk you getting hurt, so he stages it. Allows you to sneak off, or at least think you have, and walk right into the path of those monsters he lured, or the people he hired to intimidate you. Of course, it's only natural that he shows up at the last possible second, right on time to save you. You should expect that, after all, it's his responsibility to protect you, of course fate works out perfectly like this. See, he was right, it's so dangerous, and without him you'd be dead. Hopefully you grasp that now.

What kind of rules do they have? What kind of punishment would they use?

His is mostly related to vigilance. Where are you? Who have you been talking to? Who was that person you were talking with just now? What did they say? He's not nosy. He just cares about you. It’s in the job description. You ought to understand just how much certain bad people would love to find you and hurt you. That's why he has to know.

This isn't our modern world, so there's no phones or tracking devices to speak of, just himself, which, well, might as well be a tracking device since he never seems to have difficulty finding you. Sometimes you're not sure how he does it.

He tells you that you don't have to be with him 24/7, but you will be, even if you don't realize it. He's aware enough to know that you'll feel suffocated and get mad if you're aware of his presence all the time, so he gives you your "alone" time, aka, the "follow her quietly from a 20+ foot distance" time. It all feels the same to you. Well, sometimes you feel eyes on you, but you shake the feeling off as paranoia.

So it's not so much that he sets rules and reacts when they're broken, but rather, he works his way around anything you might do so well that he doesn't need you to follow his rules, or really, you take them more as suggestions. But honestly, that's kind of worse. It's enough to drive a darling to the brink of a mental breakdown very quickly. With Link you will inevitably become paranoid, nervous, you feel like you're going insane because he manages to pop up everywhere, he always knows what you did when you did it and you have no idea how it is even conceivably possible for him to know some of the things that he knows. He confronts you very plainly and quietly, often sweetly, asking why you did this or that or telling you it's ok, you don't have to hide anything, surely there’s a good reason, and if not, he forgives you anyway. In a way, it's worse than an angry confrontation. You begin to feel like he's omnipresent, like he can read your mind, and it truly takes a mental toll and affect you worse than any normal yandere's concept of punishment.

This ultimately works out well in his favor. The more you just do what he wants, the less it feels like a violation or intrusion that he knows these things, since he was there with you, it makes sense, and you continuously get bent to his will.

How do they deal with rivals, or perceived rivals? Will they get rid of them? Will they kill them themselves, or find another way?

Ah, and thus we get to that brutality rating.

It would be unthinkable to think that any sort of scum would even dare. Even he isn't worthy of being with you, and someone else thinks they could be? So, he more or less views "rivals" as an offense. When they're threats, well, he's allowed to deal with them. When they're not, well... he has a wonderful reputation. If he says he overheard that person planning usurpation or assassination, that they realized he was listening in and wildly attacked him, everyone will believe him. Even if the death seems a little... non-immediate. And uh... frankly... overkill. How exactly... did those limbs get perfectly severed during equally armed combat? And was it... really necessary... to kinda spill entrails all over like that? He'll apologize, of course, he was just so outraged by the thought of someone hurting you or your family, you know? You notice his eye twitches a bit as he says it.

He has a lot of... bottled up frustrations, which we'll touch on in the nsfw section as well, but it tends to manifest in those two ways: sex and violence. Rather than exerting stress and anger and frustration as it comes, he lets it fester. He tries to maintain being the noble, humble, self-sacrificing person he feels he should be. That is... difficult to do for a long time. People expect a lot from him, even in timelines where he's not necessarily realized as the hero quite yet, he usually has a lot of responsibilities. But then you tack on the whole hero thing? The weight of the world is sometimes, quite literally, on his shoulders. Do you have any idea the kind of stress that comes with that knowledge? It's not pleasant. And it quickly bottles up, a very very fragile bottle set to eventually shatter in a matter of time.

On a longer sort of quest, he just kinda... leaves a trail of destruction in his wake. Enemies don't actually just poof out of existence the way they do on-screen, you know. Anyone coming across an area he's just been through is met with literal piles upon piles of corpses, sometimes monsters, but sometimes people. He takes a very scorched earth sort of policy when it comes to dealing with things.

He's able to easily get close to people, with that sweet face and puppy eyes and lithe body, people don't really feel on guard around him nor intimidated. That makes it significantly easier to infiltrate enemy hideouts, earn favors, and work his way in to be able to commit mass murder more easily. Granted, no one thinks too much of it because they *are* truly enemies, after all, they *did* need to be taken out and well, if the rulers can choose to either send a group of ten soldiers or just one guy and get the job done equally well either way, they'll go with the latter option. No one thinks anything of it, except the occasional person who laughs and says something to the effect of remind me to never get on your bad side, haha! He gives that sheepish, sweet little smile, and jokingly tells them that yeah, better not.

How easy is it to make them mad? What does their anger look like?

For you, nearly impossible. For others, at a hair trigger.

For the most part, he conceals anger well until, as aforementioned, it bottles up and bursts. The truth is he gets irritated virtually all the time by other people. People who talk to you. Look at you. Smile at you. He’s actually rather easily annoyed even when you’re not involved, but again, he’s good at hiding it until it builds.

His rage has a commonality with his calm -- it's quiet. At least, at first. When it's directed at others, his eyes narrow. It's the telltale sign that someone has ignited his rage. It burns on the inside, it starts off as a spark that builds and builds and grows larger and larger until it's a blazing fire that consumes everything in his path. It's a loss of composure, a rare moment of complete loss of self-control. From his own perspective, it feels like he's not in control of his own body, it's all a blur happening in front of him and when it's over he's looking down at his own hands, unable to process his own actions, sometimes unable to remember them.

But it's violent, merciless, unforgiving. It does not yield to begging, it does not leave anything alive unless forced to. You remember the first time you realized how unnatural it was, how shocked you were at how he did something that certainly went against the code he was sworn to follow, the very first time you felt truly afraid of Link. It was a walk in town -- someone called out to you, spitting obscenities about you and your family, your lineage, threw something at you -- he caught it in his hand and crushed it, and quickly, without a word, advanced on the offender. And, to make a long story short, you had to prevent him from beating a man to death in public in broad daylight. He was forgiven by his superiors, but even they seemed shocked. You had to pull him off, and when he jerked his head around to look at whatever was stopping him -- before his face softened as he recognized your own face -- the split second you saw the burn of hatred and fury in eyes that were normally so soft and loving, was nothing short of unsettling, you still recall the chill that ran down your spine.

And honestly? It's terrifying. And the first time, it's shocking. Sure, you knew he could fight. You've seen him fight off monsters, bokoblins and lizalfos and the like. But something is different about seeing the blood of a human being run down his sword, dripping onto the ground, to see the bodies and the blank, numb gaze on his features he always has after it's over. The absolute lack of hesitancy he has to run human enemies through before they even have a chance to explain themselves, how unbothered he seems by the carnage left in his wake. The way he turns back to you, drenched in red and smiles, tells you it's ok, you're safe now. There's no need to look so scared.

And it changes how you view him, in the long run. Less of a guardian angel, more of a guardian dog, one that defends your name when you never asked him to. Pleads to tell him not to fall on deaf ears -- you just don't understand why it has to be this way, he says, you can't comprehend the threat they posed. From the sweet boy that leaves you flowers and repairs and instead leaves a wave of destruction in his path you would not have thought possible.

Directed towards you, though, it's entirely different. He tries his best to have patience with you, no matter what. He smiles, he tries to make excuses as to why you'd say this or do that, why you'd feel a certain way, and he's rather good at deluding himself to give you the benefit of the doubt.

But when it reaches an end, when he can no longer lie to himself, when you push it to a point that you truly make him mad, it's more of a snap. The times he'll lay hands on you in a truly violent way are rare, and as aforementioned, very brief. It's usually not so much of actually a blow, so much as a grab. He just can't get what he's trying to tell you through your thick head, so he stresses it, trying to make you understand as he grabs you by the upper arms, shaking you with each word, and he only stops when he sees the pain and fear in your eyes, drawing his hands back at lightning speed. He saves you from some danger very narrowly, one of the few times he lost track of you for a moment and had to frantically search before coming across you being attacked. What would I have done if something happened to you? Don't you understand that? He's so lost in the relief it takes him a moment to feel you beating on his arms in the embrace, choking and wheezing that you can't breathe, that his grip is so tight it feels like he'll snap you in half. He draws back again, and he apologizes, but it will certainly happen more than once.

So they see you as above them, beneath them, or equal to them?

Above. Like, so, so, so far above. He feels like he doesn't even deserve to look at you. Of course, neither does anyone else, so he's just, you know, stepping up to bear the burden of wrongdoing to keep people even worse than him away from you.

So it's less that you're just above him so much as you're above everyone. He's actually, perhaps surprisingly, a little bit of a pessimist about the world. The world is full of so many terrible people and so many horrible things happen that he's borne witness to. It's a "world cold and hard, (y/n) soft and warm" sort of thing. You're the one good thing, the thing that makes him happy, the ultimate source of comfort he has, and he has to prevent you from being defiled by the evil of the world, keep you innocent and sweet (even if he's just deluding himself to think you are those things in the first place).

This ties into, again, how he interprets every action you take as good and benevolent -- he has the "you can do no wrong" mentality. Even very blatantly malicious things, he'll interpret in a way that makes you somehow still come out a perfect, innocent angel. If you do harm to others, well, they simply deserved it. You did something technically wrong, but you knew no better, or you were desperate. You can't be held responsible for any of it. And if you're mean to him, well, he probably did something to make you upset.

How determined are they for you to love them? How hard will they try to make it happen? Or are they content just having you?

Sort of a duality. Yes, he's very persistent. He thinks about it all the time. Every time you yell and try to run and hurl nasty insults at him, it hurts far more than you realize. He doesn't let it show on his face or in his voice, but it really does, and it gets to him sometimes. He's hyper observant of every little thing you do, your body language, your tone, the way you look at him, and the slightest of differences can change his mood internally, although it tends to look the same outwardly.

He makes little mental notes of it -- today she didn't flinch when I touched her shoulder. Today she didn't frown when she saw me coming. Little things like that will make his entire day. Likewise, the inverse kills him inside. He aims to make every day one of the former days, where the littlest signs of acceptance or even kindness and affection give him a sort of high that makes him feel like he's floating.

He tries his best to do things that he thinks will, well, earn love. Every opportunity to do something for you, he takes it. Everything he sees he'd think you'd like, he buys (or steals, or... loots from a dead body) for you. On and on that idea goes. And although he doesn't say too much, when he does speak to you, he usually has something nice to say. He views it in a formulaic way -- ironically, think about it like those collectibles in overworlds. You get enough of this or that thing, and once you have enough, you can go talk to this or that person and donate them all and get a reward, right? He's accustomed to viewing things that way. Love should be the same way. If he just completes enough tasks and gathers enough items, eventually he'll unlock your love.

That being said, even if it doesn't happen, much to your despair, he just... doesn't. Give. Up. He doesn't quit. No matter how many times you tell him, it doesn't make a difference. You can tell him you'll never love him, and it's like it goes in one ear and out the other. He keeps trying. And he never, ever, ever stops trying. What did you expect? The boy's been fighting the same enemy over and over across lifetimes, needless to say his spirit has build up some persistence.

Bonus: Is there anything that makes them unique, in comparison to other yanderes?

Bonus: Zelda/Triforce of Wisdom Darling

And don't worry. If it all goes wrong, when he fails, those divergences in time where the hero is vanquished and evil wins out -- it's not the end. Somehow, that's the feeling he gets, holding your little lifeless body up, running hands across your cold skin. Somehow, he feels oddly calm. Like it hurts, but it's ok. Like he'll see you again. Maybe not soon, but one day. This time didn't work out. But the next one will.

And that's the feeling you'll always have. Every time you meet him and you feel like you've met before, the lingering memories when you wake from your dreams -- flying through skies and sailing on oceans, a child, an adult, a boy you've never met, or one you've known all your life, but it's always the same face, the same voice, the one right beside you in the waking world. You sometimes wonder if he has the same feelings, the same dreams, the same sense of something greater than yourselves at work, the sense of being just smaller pieces in a much bigger picture.

The sense of permanency, that each other is all there will ever be -- regardless of how it makes you feel, regardless of how that scares you, sometimes you feel like you can never be free. Sometimes, when you think of running away, those dark moments when you think of even escaping from life itself, it feels futile. It's as if you know it would never hold him away forever. As if death is insignificant. Perhaps in this lifetime, you'll become aware of why that is, or perhaps not.

With other obsessive lovers, just the idea of til death do us part is a terrifying thought. But, for Link, not even death can keep him away from you. Your suffering is already determined by the will of higher power, for the sake of a greater good. 

In truth, it’s the goddesses who made him this way intentionally -- it’s designed to ensure your safety, even at the cost of your suffering. Again, for a greater good. Sure, you may live one lifetime to the next desperately locked in the same cycle in which your freedom and will is stripped from you, but in the end, it serves a purpose. 

Nor will he change -- perhaps this one this time is a bit more spirited, more calm, more pessimistic, more optimistic... but in the end, at their core, they're the same soul, with the same will deep, deep down. The same drive to find you and protect you. The same love for you, an all-consuming love that destroys everything in its path to you and leaves ruin in its wake.

And if fate should one day keep you apart, should things change, for whatever reason, it’s unable to change him. There's another force even more powerful than fate determined to keep you together. The only thing more unavoidable, inevitable, and unescapable than fate, is Link himself.

------------------------------------

General perverseness: how sexual of a person are they? What’s their drive like? How touchy do they get? Do they have any reservations about sexuality?

In moments of passion, he changes a bit, unlike other more submissive yans who stay consistent in their reverence and desire to please.

You see, after a while, being as lenient and tolerant and flexible and completely devoted as he is... constantly self-sacrificing in so many ways, to you, to Hyrule, to the world... some frustrations build up. It's a big, big bottle of emotion, all tucked away and festering, getting greater and greater and eventually it has to explode somehow.

His reservations and inhibitions fall away. Perhaps a darker, more selfish side comes out. Perhaps that's why he's so rough. He knows he'll regret it later, the bruises from how hard he grips, the marks from the bites, but the hormones and the heat takes over. He'll feel bad for defiling you. He'll apologize. And he'll do it again. And again. And again.

But once the resolve crumbles, it topples. That is, he can't partially maintain it -- if it's partially gone, it falls apart completely. He lets go, so to speak. And when he lets go, you find that underneath that carefully constructed resolve and willpower that holds him back, he can be a very, very rough and possessive lover. In his normal state, he wouldn't dare think of you as a possession, or as something he's even worthy of. He would like so, so much to think that, to feel like he's allowed to -- but he doesn't. He chastises himself for even having such a desire. But in those moments, when his resolve is gone and his brain isn't thinking quite too clearly, he might even have to audacity to say "mine." Even if it's not true, not now, maybe it will be. He would like that so much. His and his alone.

And in a moment of clarity, he might even throw away the inhibition on purpose. The more selfish side, the same Link that drags you away from your destiny -- he's already forsaken his responsibilities, hasn't he? Why care anymore about the structures that no longer exist, your status and his, if there's no kingdom left? He likes that it happened, even. This way, this time, you can throw off those titles, those roles. Without your status, your title, there's nothing stopping him from making you his. And you will be his, and nothing more. It's all you need to be. So he doesn't have to care anymore about any of that, he doesn't have to stop himself from going wild. Biting into every little spare patch of skin, covering your body with marks that make him feel comforted to see.

As far as drive it's a bit of a two-sided duality. Outwardly he's not a very sexual person at all, blushes and stutters and averts his gaze at the slightest mention of suggestive topics, tries his best to be Respectful(tm) by always looking away when you're in a compromising position, or your skirt flies up, etc etc. Given how constant his vigilance is, he has a tendency to accidentally walk in on your changing or bathing, except unlike with many yanderes, it's genuinely an accident. Not that the image doesn't stick in his mind, nor does he wish he hadn't gotten to see, but he does feel guilty, and it was genuinely unintentional. He kinda freezes up, so it takes a moment for him to actually snap out of it and run out.

That being said, he quickly develops something of a masturbation addiction when he's younger, it starts as more of a stress reliever than anything, He's so sweet and always feels bad about talking about his problems and feelings, so that and, well, violence are the only ways he can get it out. Thus he learns to channel stress and nerves into sexuality, and once he has a real living body and not just his hand, that dependency on cumming to relieve it doesn't change.

How forceful are they? Do they care about your willingness?

Particularly so, yes, cares quite a bit. And it takes a while for him to feel comfortable. Even consensually, the first few times he touches you for several months, he's got trembling hands and stays quieter than ever, constantly freezes up every time you move or make a noise because he thinks he's done something wrong. He has to be coaxed into feeling more comfortable before he gets used to it, but he will build confidence over time.

As addressed before, though, if he's pushed and pushed and pushed long enough, you can get a darker side to come out. This is most likely something that would only occur post-kidnapping in a distant time, once he's far away from any possibility of consequence and destruction has set in to the world around you. He starts to get a little bitter, if you've been mean to him. It all builds up. Don't you get that he's literally saved your life? That he devoted every waking second to you? Isn't he kinda entitled to some thanks? The cycle of time never rewards him. Even the figures he helps over time rarely give him more than a verbal praise and thanks, maybe an item here or there, and then disappear. His role feels thankless. He starts to feel like he deserves something, something tangible, in return.

Surprisingly, though, he actually does not take the route of guilt-tripping or emotional manipulation or gaslighting his way into it like a lot of the sweeter yanderes when he does have that snap. His snaps/breakdowns are rather extreme in terms of how much of a polar opposite they are to his normal state, rather than just a slight bend of his normal personality. Rather than taking the route of most yanderes like himself, he just gets directly physically forceful. Still somewhat sweet, though, reminds you he loves you, he'd die for you, you're his entire world. You'd argue that doesn't really change the actions, but considering how frightening he is in that state, you're not dumb enough to vocalize that.

The guilt consumes him alive afterwards. Like, immediately afterwards. He's still panting and twitching and buried inside when it sets in. That being said, he doesn't get to stuttering and profusely apologizing, like he does over smaller offenses. It's all done and he can't take it back, so he just kinda collapses and says nothing. He's not the best with words, you know. It's an odd mixture of guilt and, honestly, a bit of satisfaction and relief. It feels like letting go of some self-imposed burden, that feeling of finally surrendering to some deep want, even if it comes with a lot of remorse, the relief of finally letting go does have a good feeling as well... and because of that, it’s another one of those barriers that, once broken, can’t be built up again.

What sort of kinks or fetishes do they have, or would they fill?

In all honesty the boy is, for the most part, a fairly gentle and vanilla lover. He doesn't really need anything special to get off -- he's easily excited and cums very very easily too. Just the prospect of getting to stick his dick in you in any capacity is enough to make him nearly burst at the thought honestly.

In general, as aforementioned, he's very very cautious and gentle to a point, but has a tendency to get actually kinda rough once he gets into it. The thing is, the roughness aspect is actually unintentional. He's one of those boys that is a little bit unaware of his own strength, doesn't process exactly how hard and fast he's going. He just gets lost in the feeling, kinda enters a dazed lusty haze where he's less aware of his actions. Doesn't realize he's literally got an iron grip pressing your head down on his dick or into the bed until you start flailing your hands because you can't breathe. Doesn't realize how hard he was gripping until he sees the bruises on your arms and hips later. That sort of deal -- poor thing is just unaware and doesn't have enough blood in his brain to think straight.

Biting

Surprisingly a really big one for him. (Remnants of a past life cycle with some lupine experiences perhaps?) In all seriousness, he could not explain exactly why if asked, it's one of those "I just like it" sort of things. It feels like yet another way to conjoin the two bodies, pulls you close. The marking aspect is also nice. Granted, he feels guilty afterwards, tries to help it heal. He has that same duality where moments ago he was this intimidating beast of a human being, rough and growly and jerking you like you were weightless, and now he's back to this bright eyed softie stuttering while he apologizes.

The guilt is mixed with a bit of enjoyment, though. It's constantly conflicting -- sure, part of him understands it's embarrassing and will help you cover up, but part of him doesn't want to, he wants people to see. Part of him looks at the marks and tells himself internally to never do that again, and part of him sees them and just wants to give you even more. It's a constant internal conflict, poor thing.

As far as a place, he likes the neck and shoulders best, simply because it's the most visible and it's the most passionate ones to create, when your bodies are tightly locked together. That being said, though, he also has a thing for biting at the insides of your thighs. It's another one of those I just like it sort of things.

Sometimes, when you're asleep, or pretending to be, you can feel him trace the bite marks with his fingers, softly running them over the circular pattern, just enough to barely ghost over your flesh.

Somnophilia

It puts him at ease. This one is particularly prevalent towards the beginning of your relationship, before you really know... how he is. He has this image of you as so pure and he couldn't bear the thought of defiling you with his horrible horrible thoughts. The guilt eats away at him for a while, but eventually he just can't hold back, but how could he ever do anything to you and risk consequence? So... the solution he comes up with is waiting until you sleep.

He tests the waters to see how heavy of a sleeper you are. Calls your name at increasing volume, lightly runs his fingers over your hair, pokes your face, whispers in your ear, runs his hands over your arms. Just to see what makes you rustle, if anything, so he knows the limits. If it turns out you're an incredibly light sleeper, well, unfortunately that means he's limited to just jerking off to your sleeping form, but that's ok. Just seeing your soft face and the cute way you breathe, the slightest way your lips open, that's enough for him.

If it turns out you're a heavier sleeper though, well, he tries to fight the temptation, but ends up going further. Slowly climbs onto your bed, careful to make the weight shift as gently as possible. Slowly pulls the covers back. Runs his hands up and down. It's a lot better when he can actually see your body as he jerks off, honestly. If he's feeling particularly risky, he might press your thighs together, feel how soft your skin is to his cock, how nice the squeezing pressure between them is.

He gets easily lost in a haze, though, so he inevitably ends up accidentally cumming on you and has to frantically find a way to lightly dab it up without waking you. He panics quite a bit, but that doesn't stop him from doing it again the very next night.

Overstimulation/Forced Orgasm

It just means he's doing a good job, really. Sure, you squeal and kick your feet back and forth and tug at his hair, but that's just because it feels good. Orgasms equate to love and feel good, right? Sure there's a little bit of pain when you go overboard, but then it just leads to feeling even better, right?

It's kind of an irrational compulsion rather than a logical goal, though. He just has an impulsive need to feel you quiver and spasm and clench, it basically gives him a chemical high hit and a wave of reassurance, makes him feel good in both the physical sense and the emotional sense. The first one sends him into this compulsive need to feel it over and over and over again, as many times as he can. It's another one of his internal conflict things -- sure, he knows it's hurting, but he just has to get one more. Just one more. But of course, every time turns into "just one more" when he's been saying that for half an hour now.

And, to be honest, it kind of gives him a pride boost to think he can make you cum against your will. How many people struggle to achieve that even when both parties are trying? It makes him feel good in an adequacy sort of way, he feels needed.

Size Kink/Distension

You know, there's a well-known thing among the male-lovers in this world when it comes to size. It's never the arrogant, loud guys, it's never the social butterflies, it's never the tall guys, it's never the beefy muscly guys. No, they're not the ones that end up somehow bestowed with absolute monster cocks. It's always the soft, lean boys who don't talk much. And they're always painfully unaware of it, too.

He's no exception. Not to the size or the complete lack of awareness. He hasn't spent a lot of time around guys his age too much, he's always been the one sent for some special task and ends up out in the wilderness by himself on journeys, or, in some lifetimes, accompanying you most of the time. He doesn't know what the average dick looks like, so he has no idea he's far above average.

This might sound like a plus, and of course in some ways it is, but also he doesn't think about the fact that the average body isn't properly equipped to handle it. You're supposed to just kinda put it in, that's how the sex works, right? Poor thing, especially if it's entirely consensual sex, he's just kinda ???? because why are you in pain? What is he doing wrong? You have to eventually explain it's literally just his body, not something he's doing.

That being said, naturally, he's a humble person, but hearing you say that does kinda... make him feel good inside. A little bit proud. He's not a person who takes a lot of pride in many things, so he likes having this one thing, and quickly notices you can visibly see it through the bulge it makes in your stomach. Especially if it's in a position where your back is pressed to his front, every little movement creates the bulge, so expect to get a lot of that.

He doesn't really bring it up much or talk about it when he's actually fucking you, it's more like, as with many things, something he's quietly aware of and silently enjoys a lot internally, even if it's not voiced.

How do they feel about pregnancy or babies? Do they want them?

Yes and no. It has to do with his overactive protection instinct. What if something happened or went wrong? He couldn't take that. He couldn't lose you.

At the same time, he likes kids, and he's very good with them, very patient. And over time, realizes that a kid would be the perfect tool of manipulation, and besides that, isn't it a beautiful thing, an ultimate manifestation of love?

So how to work around that... Ultimately, what he decides to do is have a kid... Just not by blood. There are plenty of orphans in Hyrule, wandering the streets and the wilderness, picking one up is easy. ...You wouldn't leave this poor child to suffer out there, to fend for themselves, would you? Nor would you leave him to take care of it by himself... Right?

What kind of (nsfw) punishments would they use?

Oh, it's not like he thinks of it that way. He would call it... a reminder. You put yourself in danger again? You tried to go back again? You were gone and for ten whole minutes he didn't know where you were? What could the solution to this issue be? The only thing his brain can really come up with is making sure you need him. Making sure you're content and satisfied here with him so you don't go running off.

Thus we return to the forced orgasm thing -- see, you do need him. It feels good, right? You say it hurts, and maybe it does a little, but ultimately you wouldn't be cumming if it wasn't good. No one else can ever do that. No one else knows you like this. No one else was made for you like this. You can't replace him. You need him. And he can keep going as many times as it takes until you see that, too. Even if he gets milked dry, he has a mouth and hands for a reason.

And by "until you see that," I mean until you say it. In his more... emotionally intense moments, he gets a bit insistent. He needs to hear you say it. Admit it to yourself. And to him. That you need him, that you depend on him, that you'll never leave again. And don't think your patience and tolerance can stand a chance of outlasting his -- it will keep going until you say it.

What body parts of their darling do they like the most?

He's one of those wholesome type of boys who goes with something sweet. He says maybe your hair, your face, your skin, your eyes. It's all so comforting. So familiar. Of course, not to say that he doesn't like your less wholesome mentionable parts, but he wants to be chivalric about such a question, and feels answering that way would be too disrespectful.

In his unspoken thoughts, though, he likes the hips. It's a part of you he can grab onto and hold you close with. He puts his hands there a lot and holds tight, like he feels like at any moment you could slip out of his grasp. And, I mean, it's nice to look at, can't forget that.

[aawesomepenguin]

SONIC RANGERS, EVERYTHING WE KNOW ABOUT IT, LINK FOR ALL SOURCES AT THE END

Ok, the time has come. I spent my entire day doing some searches on the 4chan website, picking and trying to find every nugget of information I could find that I was 100% sure it was connected to Sonic Rangers.

I’ll get this right out of the gate: I’m 95% sure the next main Sonic game will be open world, and what will follow is all my evidence towards it. It’ll be uncharted territory for the Sonic franchise, and we’ll need to see how it pays off.

Also, spoilers for Sonic Rangers, but kind of broad ones, so in my opinion, your experience wouldn’t be ruined if you read all of this. But if you’re one of those that want to go 100% blind, then I think the time to jump off this ship is now.

Here we go.

As it turns out, as I did some digging of my own, and thanks to other observant people, I can confirm that the “Sonic Rangers” name has been circulating on the Internet way, WAY before the accidental leak revealed on May 27th. I will show an entire timeline of these discoveries, and how they connect.

But okay, before we dive in, a general vision of Sonic Rangers: the game will take a brand new approach with the character, placing Sonic in an open world for him to explore. Where through his speed, he’ll do platforming challenges, do puzzles, fight against badniks, etc. When fighting against enemies, the player gains XP, that can be used to give Sonic different abilities. Spread through this world are bosses, where after you defeat them, Sonic obtains orbs, and when enough of them are gathered, Sonic can enter Special Stages, that are structured like a Sonic Generations/Sonic Unleashed boost level. When you complete them, you get a Chaos Emerald.

Ok, now let’s go to the 4chan leaks. From what I can tell, SEGA has been inviting different test groups to testplay their next main Sonic game, under a strict NDA. After it, SEGA collects feedback from the testers. I can’t exactly pinpoint when SEGA began to do these tests, but if I had to guess, it has been around as early as March 2020.

1st Occurrence

In July 2020, another fake leak claiming to be the 30th anniversary game showed up on 4chan, but then, as an answer to it, a person that has really played a test version of the next main Sonic game called the fake leaker out. The person that has put their hands on the next main Sonic game had the following to say:

“I playtested the game back in march and played it for an hour. There were no levels just an overworld. You’re full of s***.”

In another post, the person that got their hands on the testing version of the next main Sonic game, had the following to say:

“It was called Sonic Rangers when I played it.”

1st Occurrence analysis

I believe that the person that played the test version of Sonic Rangers has erroneously interpreted the open world as an overworld, which makes sense. Sonic Rangers name gets dropped for the first time.

2nd Occurrence

In August of 2020, another person that played a test version of Sonic Rangers, stated the following about the next title on the Sonic series:

“It’s not an adventure remake. I playtested it. They ARE working on something, but if they take feedback me and the other panelists gave them, SEGA might change quite a bit from what I ended up playing.

Open World

Set on a gloomy, grassy, uninhabited island dotted with ruins.

Big BOTW influence, little korok-like puzzles scattered everywhere.

Robot/alien bosses scattered throughout the island, defeat them and you get a Chaos Emerald.

Get all Chaos Emeralds and you gain entrance to the final boss area, a foggy forest you couldn’t enter before.

No major characters appeared aside from Sonic.

No story, just dumped in.

Turn Super Sonic to fight the boss, he’s a giant colossus-like entity that you climb, hit his weak points.

These could all be changed because I played a couple of months ago and there still hasn’t been any reveal, so I assume they might be reworking a lot.”

2nd Occurrence analysis

As you can see, in this version, some of the elements that were talked about in the most famous leak aren’t present, some missing elements were added later, but the basic was already present and in place. Sonic can travel through an open world, doing puzzles, defeating badniks and fighting against bosses, to then fight against a final boss as Super Sonic. 

The most interesting thing is how the person that leaked these details claimed that they played it “a couple of months ago”, meaning that this version could take place after the build shown in the first occurrence. Some things have changed since then.

Another cool thing that I wanted to point out was that this build uses placeholder from previous Sonic games. During the final boss, the theme for the first boss fight against Infinite from Sonic Forces is used.

3rd Occurrence

In January of 2021, another anonymous 4chan user talked about Sonic rangers, once again mentioning the name “Sonic Rangers.” As their version is pretty edgy, and negative because Sonic Negativism gets clicks, I’m going to present it in a unbiased manner, and be direct to the point on what they said.

Sonic Rangers, around the end of 2020, was presented once more to a select group of people, two demos were shown. The first one allows exploration of the open world under a time limit of twenty minutes, and another demo that has an apparent Final Boss battle.

Open world is filled with small enemies, puzzles, and platforming challenges.

Completing puzzles, challenges and defeating badniks gives XP to the player as a reward, that can be used to unlock abilities for Sonic.

Among the abilities that Sonic can unlock, there is the “spincycle”, where after pressing the Y button, Sonic begins to create a line behind him, and if the player creates a circle-ish shape around the enemy or a group of enemies, Sonic attacks all the enemies that were “marked” within the spincycle line.

Homing Attack that can target multiple enemies at once, from Sonic Lost World, is back.

There are lots of bosses spread through the open world, when they are defeated, Sonic gets some “orbs”.

If the player gets enough orbs, he can access the “Cyberspace”, essentially this game’s special stage.

The cyberspace levels are like the boost levels in Sonic Generations.

When beating a cyberspace level within a certain amount of time, the player obtains a Chaos Emerald.

New voice clips for Roger Craig Smith were used.

Some new music was made for this build.

In regards to the demo where the player faces the final boss:

After reuniting all the Chaos Emeralds, Sonic can go through a dense fog that the player couldn’t access before in the open world.

A Giant Tree Robot is the apparent final boss.

Fly as Super Sonic using the spincycle and other abilities that were unlocked throughout the game to help defeat the final boss.

Can’t take damage, on a timer of rings. A Ghost girl refills the player’s ring count multiple times.

Demo ended after defeating the boss.

3rd Occurrence analysis

As you can see, this version polished even further the concepts that were talked about in the second occurrence. Instead of getting Chaos Emeralds after defeating a boss, Sonic gains orbs, where after this Sonic has to go after EVEN more bosses to get more orbs. With these orbs, the player can access a Special Stage, named Cyberspace, where you’ll be able to play a more traditional like Sonic game, to get the Chaos Emeralds.

This certainly helps the game longer, which is a plus for me. We’ll probably have seven boost levels, with them being treated like a Special Stage. They also added a XP system, and the main gimmick of this game, the spincycle, was shown in the trailer for Sonic Central.

Sonic will keep building up abilities, which is something I believe the player will be able to use them as different strategies on how to beat different types of bosses.

4th Occurrence

Sonic Central takes place, with a trailer for a new Sonic game at the end. Sonic is running through a forest, and then he begins to glow blue, creating a pixel effect, with a line following him. Sonic then runs in a circle with this new ability that makes him glow blue, and then exits screen.

4th Occurrence analysis

With the context we’ve piled up from previous occurrences, you can put some pieces together. Sonic is clearly activating a spincycle, the main gimmick for this new game, just like how it was said in the January 2021 leak. And just like how the leaker said, Sonic formed a circle-ish shape with this ability in the teaser trailer. Sonic creates a blue energy, creating a line behind him, allowing him to make patterns with it, maybe creating a shape that could surround his enemies?

5th Occurrence

Dataminers and modders are able to get their hands on the 4K trailer for the new Sonic game, finding out that the name of the game is, Sonic Rangers.

5th Occurrence analysis

It perfectly fits with what was stated previously in 4chan threads, specifically, the one from July 2020 and the one from January 2021. Helping give the 4Chan leaks even more credit.

6th Occurrence

SEGA, while sending out press kits to news websites, ends up slipping out the name for their next main Sonic game, Sonic Rangers.

"Announcing new console experiences, Sonic Colors: Ultimate and Sonic Rangers, further details on Netflix's Sonic Prime, mobile news, musical events and much more!"

-SEGA

It was an accident, and SEGA stated they sent an erroneous version, and when pressed about the Sonic Rangers name, it didn’t dwell into it any further.

6th Occurrence analysis

Coming straight from SEGA’s mouth, the name for the next main Sonic game is gonna be Sonic Rangers. This fits a lot with the rumours that came from 4chan from July 2020 and January 2021, making it EVEN MORE likely that the next main Sonic game is gonna be an open world game.

Conclusion

And that’s where we’re at now in terms of Sonic Rangers news. In my opinion, I’m 95% certain that these leaks are legit. Keep in mind that after the Sonic Rangers name came to light, 1001 other rumours were created, but these I have my doubts, since they now have a sturdy base, they can make up more stuff to go along with it.

My opinion: I’m particularly excited for this next main game. Sonic Rangers deals with uncharted territory for the Sonic series, and I feel like it could be very fun. But of course, I’m a guy that’s mostly chill and cool with most Sonic media out there, so form your own opinions.

Anyway...

HYPE FOR SONIC RANGERS!

Source 1, Source 2, Source 3, Source 4, Source 5 and Source 6.